View Full Version : Downtown Denver



catch22
04-22-2013, 03:34 PM
Got word I'm flying to Denver in a week or two for the day for a company event. I may decide to stay an extra day....

I can figure out the transit part, their system seems pretty straight forward. Does anyone know of anything fun to do around downtown?

Suggestions please.

thanks

Urbanized
04-22-2013, 05:06 PM
I was just there a few weeks ago for a Thunder game. Highly recommend Falling Rock Tap House in LoDo if you are a beer lover. Great Divide brews their beer close by and you can do a brewery tour with a nice tasting room at the end. For that matter I recommend running up to Fort Collins if you have time and doing brewery tours up there like New Belgium, O'Dells and even tiny Equinox, or go to Longmont for Left Hand, but I digress.

I would spend more time in LoDo than Larimer Square, personally, and would avoid 16th Street Mall entirely. It's a nice idea and lovely setting, but life is too short for chain bars restaurants and stores when traveling.

There is a great tiny little baseball museum right across the street from Falling Rock. Seats, turnstiles and equipment from historic ballparks all over the country. They have an outfield drain grate from Yankee Stadium that is likely the one that took out Mickey Mantle's knee in the 1951 World Series.

Also while you're there I highly recommend Steuben's in Uptown for breakfast/brunch. Top shelf.

catch22
04-23-2013, 07:05 AM
Thanks for the advice and recommendations.

OkieHornet
04-23-2013, 08:05 AM
also for breakfast/brunch is a place called snooze. i think they have a few locations around. buckhorn exchange is a really good steakhouse with all kinds of meat/game. it's also adorned with hundreds of animals heads on the walls. cool/creepy at the same time. if you were there long enough, a colorado rockies baseball game is fun, and wynkoop brewery is close by.

RadicalModerate
04-23-2013, 08:19 AM
Denver Mint . . . Denver Historical Museum . . . Denver Zoo . . . Denver Natural History Museum . . . One or more of the huge classic movie theaters . . . Elitich Gardens . . . Lakeside Amusement Park (oh. wait. those were fun things to do in Denver fifty years ago. I'm not sure that any of them are still there.=)

Have fun anyways.

(the burlesque bars on Colfax . . . watching the planes land at the end of the runway at Stapleton Airport . . . touring the Coors plant . . . Red Rocks Amphitheater . . . )

Lord Helmet
04-23-2013, 02:33 PM
also for breakfast/brunch is a place called snooze.

Snooze is GREAT...but get there early or be prepared to wait an hour for a table. The location down by Coors Field is the best of the two IMHO.

Also a second vote for Steubens. Lots of good eats on 17th....lots of good eats on Colfax between York and Colorado Blvd....and our favorite Italian place, Shells and Sauce is on 12th and Elizabeth.

RadicalModerate
04-23-2013, 03:32 PM
Just watched a show on Create TV involving the owner of some World Music Record Company meeting Bela Fleck during a visit to Denver. He, the record company guy, not the musician, also mentioned the Buckhorn Exchange as a go-to place, along with a really, really old pawn shop and some downtown music store. BTW: The old Paramount Theater (indirectly referred to, above) is now the music venue at which Bela Fleck and The Flecktones were going to be appearing. =)

Note to Lord Helmet: Has Pagliaci's (The Sid King's of Italian Restaurants, just west of I-25, not far from where The Denver Bears used to play) really gone downhill to the point that it isn't any more worth visiting than Colacci's out there in Louisville? =)

Bellaboo
04-23-2013, 08:46 PM
Red Rocks and Dinosaur Ridge are about a mile from each other and worth the trip to the West side of town. Red Rocks recently opened a free museum on location with lots of archives and artifacts from bands that have played there...et The Beatles, etc. Dinosaur Ridge has all kinds of dino foot prints and other interesting points of interest.

Go to the Denver Chop House for a steak......not to far from Coors Field on the North side of downtown.

bluedogok
04-23-2013, 10:26 PM
Denver Mint . . . Denver Historical Museum . . . Denver Zoo . . . Denver Natural History Museum . . . One or more of the huge classic movie theaters . . . Elitich Gardens . . . Lakeside Amusement Park (oh. wait. those were fun things to do in Denver fifty years ago. I'm not sure that any of them are still there.=)

Have fun anyways.

(the burlesque bars on Colfax . . . watching the planes land at the end of the runway at Stapleton Airport . . . touring the Coors plant . . . Red Rocks Amphitheater . . . )
Denver Mint - still there, the history museum opened up a new building on Broadway called History Colorado Center (http://www.historycolorado.org/museums/history-colorado-center), the zoo and natural history museum have expanded. Elitch moved downtown, Lakeside is still there. Colfax still has its sketchy parts but is trying to improve.


Note to Lord Helmet: Has Pagliaci's (The Sid King's of Italian Restaurants, just west of I-25, not far from where The Denver Bears used to play) really gone downhill to the point that it isn't any more worth visiting than Colacci's out there in Louisville? =)
Pagliaci's closed last August, Gaetano's closed for a remodel but has since reopened.

Denver Post - Pagliacci's restaurant to close in north Denver after 66 years (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21089893/pagliaccis-restaurant-close-north-denver-after-66-years)

As far as breakfast, our favorite place is Breakfast on Broadway on South Broadway in Englewood. Snooze is good but the dance club music that early in the morning is a bit annoying to me.