tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73793131858908217612024-02-07T02:09:48.054-07:00Denver DivesUncomfortable yet comfortable.
Seedy yet quaint.
Dirty yet respectable.
All things dive in Denver.Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-67770111936992243252015-07-06T19:05:00.000-06:002015-07-06T19:05:16.804-06:00Art Becomes Life Becomes Art
Returning to a familiar place after being away for a long time is a bit like an out of body experience. There's a feeling of deja vu, that everything you are seeing seems right, feels right and more or less fits that map of the world you've made in your head, but there are holes in your memory that you struggle to fill in - you've forgotten this place or the name of that street, and some things Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-8278900396736984112012-12-17T06:09:00.001-07:002012-12-17T06:16:20.958-07:00Lion's Lair
Colfax. It's embedded in the Denver psyche as a relic of its past as a watering hole on the way west, a destination for trouble, the dirty bits. Like a junky in a halfway house, though, it's pulling itself up and dusting off the 70's. You can now go there to find a juxtaposition of trendy hipster joints and coffee houses down the block from used car lots, dirt cheapLuke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-24011486430166331292012-10-22T05:11:00.000-06:002012-10-22T05:11:17.588-06:00Dreaming of Dives
Ever wonder what 4 years of writing about dives looks like? It looks like a cloud of neon graffiti, shining brightly through blackness of a seldom travelled back street, somewhere off Colfax.
Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-8993477657905450432011-11-26T22:50:00.001-07:002011-11-27T03:09:01.463-07:00The Lakewood Grill
Some dives are so altogether confused and dismal that they simply throw the kitchen sink at you in the hopes of getting something right. Such is the case with one little west Colfax beauty, The Lakewood Grill, and its dizzying array of amenities that include a couple of shabby (no doubt) apartments. To follow is my buddy and dive-kick Matt's investigation.
The Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com1Lakewood, CO, USA39.7047095 -105.081373439.606981 -105.2393019 39.802438 -104.9234449tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-46617247113217268012011-11-26T15:40:00.001-07:002011-11-26T16:01:27.037-07:00Win Stuff! No One Did
In my world, free stuff is fantastic. Unfortunately last month a big pile of really nice free stuff went the way of lost socks and Nigerian millions, as the free tickets I had to the tasty food and drink event put on by 5280 magazine went unclaimed. For my next contest, I am setting the bar higher, and aiming to actually give something away to the winner.
Thank you to Dr. Faustus Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-85922259985896760372011-10-07T18:23:00.000-06:002011-10-07T18:23:43.155-06:00Win Stuff! The First Ever Denver Dives Reader Dive-Off
So I've been offered two tickets to 5280 Dines, an event intended to celebrate the recent publication of 5280's annual 25 Best Restaurants issue. It looks to be quite fancy - free fancy food, a few drinks (or several), and maybe even be a chance to cuddle with some of Denver's favorite wannabe cheflebrities. Maybe it's because of my heavy rep in the world of dives that I don't Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-86482231759218991802011-07-31T21:37:00.000-06:002011-07-31T21:37:50.666-06:00The Mozart Lounge
Ahhh, Mozart. Is there a more well known classical composer in the world than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? With the possible exception of that guy Beethoven or Charlie Brown's buddy Schroeder, probably not. Just saying the name Mozart induces seductive thoughts back to my days spent wandering the streets of Vienna and Salzburg, places where you can almost hear classical music Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-20888154035154333592011-04-30T08:00:00.001-06:002011-04-30T08:00:06.273-06:00The Dive Manifesto
Recently I had the unfortunate opportunity to drive across Nebraska with my family. No disrespect to Nebraska, of course. Between the country and western on the radio we heard an advertisement for a local bar that proudly listed a $3.50 beer bong as one of its Wednesday night specials. My wife turned to me and said 'Wow, that place sounds like quite the dive'. Initially ILuke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-193221496785415482011-04-24T15:49:00.000-06:002011-04-24T15:49:00.907-06:00The Best Dive Bar in Denver, According to Someone ElseWhat does it mean to be the best dive bar? Does that mean it didn't suck as bad as it could have? Or maybe that it is so seedy that the bums are looking uncomfortable? Its like saying 'yeah, that was the best hernia I ever got'. Even though I was a bit confused, I did take a moment to read the recent online article from Westword, proclaiming the Denver's best dive barLuke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-8819929499061047812011-02-19T08:00:00.006-07:002011-02-19T08:00:00.966-07:00Club 404 Lounge
Club 404 Restaurant and Lounge has been shuffling Denver south siders through its doors on South Broadway for ages. It was SOBO before there was a SOBO. The sign outside is one of those classic roadside antiquities that you might find in a museum somewhere or in a sign graveyard in the desert outside Las Vegas. It acts as a perfect dive bar marker: decrepit enough to Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-6594650144878140152011-02-11T19:45:00.000-07:002011-02-11T19:45:51.184-07:00The Sports Station ReduxMy relationship with dives is kind of like the relationship I have with my kids. Having that first breakfast burrito at Charlie's Silver Fox is not entirely unlike the joy of watching my boy ride his bike for the first time. Sometimes they both can be a source of happy surprises (like getting a free beer at Mr. A's). Sometimes they give you indigestion (a $1.10 scoop from LittleLuke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-6101312585643451262011-01-08T18:10:00.003-07:002011-01-08T18:40:11.214-07:00Bar BarOne of the best dive bars in Denver is happy enough without you. It can be found surrounded by parking lots on a desolate spit of no mans land, in an area bungled by Broadway shooting straight southward across the jacked up diagonal grid of downtown Denver's streets. It's not exactly right around the corner from anything, or super convenient to anyone. The sign hanging over the Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-75588482923329087692010-08-22T10:06:00.002-06:002010-08-22T10:06:00.385-06:00Denver Snubbed: Playboy Proves It's Not Even Worth It For the ArticlesAnd now, a very special Denver Dives editorial report.
No one likes being snubbed. And no one likes one of their beloved getting snubbed. So you can imagine my salt when The City of Dives got a finger in the eye recently. Playboy just came out with its Guide to America's Greatest Bars, which included a list of their 15 all-time favorite dive bars. Denver, with its well Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-31490436202167546062010-08-16T20:05:00.000-06:002010-08-16T20:05:29.500-06:00Taco Dive-Off Part 2: Los Trompitos
I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid. What better way to keep a bored kid from Iowa engaged than to give him a book that allowed navigating choices like A) Dive into the toilet, or B) Escape out the door to avoid catching something from the flies buzzing around the stool. Yes, I did once read a Choose Your Own Adventure book that gave the option of jumping Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-20210715859712847682010-07-16T23:14:00.000-06:002010-07-16T23:14:09.230-06:00Taco-Off! El Taco de Mexico vs. Los TrompitosI've been away for a bit. Of course there has been time spent on some of the more mundane and painful aspects of life, a couple heroic garage sales to be exact. Garage sales, especially ones like ours that featured vast boxes of random junk selling for pennies, a guy on a bike hauling away every last item in the Free box (including a grill) and all sorts of miscellany strewn across Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-22414243004276552952010-04-30T13:16:00.000-06:002010-04-30T13:16:19.836-06:00Fleabag of the Week: Motel 9Before I-70 came steaming through Denver in the 60's, Colfax was the main east-west thoroughfare through town, and as such many ancient road side motels can be found along the route. I find these relics of Colfax's past life to be extremely interesting, with their unique neon signs that - when working - light up the blackness of Colfax, and with names like the Sand and Sage and Circle-K, Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-56115728329372456772010-04-23T20:49:00.000-06:002010-04-23T20:49:28.609-06:00Hangar Bar
Several years back, I was on a European vacation that included 12 hours in Paris. We attempted to go to the Louvre, but the line to get in was too long so we waffled and moved on to score a croissant filled with horse meat. Like most people, we were going to the Louvre for one reason, other than to be able to say that we'd been to the Louvre: to see Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-20228209771074697422010-04-15T20:46:00.002-06:002010-04-19T07:56:05.206-06:00Little Panda Chinese Food
There is something not right about food by the scoop. Food by the pound like you’d get at some salad bar joints doesn’t bother me, but food by the scoop is odd. I feed my dog a couple scoops of food each day and she doesn’t seem to mind it, so maybe I shouldn’t either. On the other hand, I once caught her getting after one of my son’s pooped up diapers, so using her as anLuke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-4289196161525521032010-03-20T22:06:00.000-06:002010-03-20T22:06:19.566-06:00#17
Damn it feels good to be #17. For fun one day I linked up some of my posts with the website urbanspoon, which basically offers restaurant information in the form of formal reviews from reputable sources like the Denver Post or Westword, and then from blogs by less reputable sources like myself. Decent enough stuff on there, but you have to sift through the bullshit. Come Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-55403782452507744632010-02-24T11:02:00.003-07:002010-03-19T14:10:55.913-06:00Wolf's Motor Inn
'I've driven past this little cafe before that we can hit,' I told Matt, cranking a U-turn to head east on Colfax. We were in Aurora, returning from a night out and looking for a quick bite. After a couple blocks, to the point where we were in danger of getting out in the sticks, the sign for Wolf's Motor Inn glowed on the left, happily adjacent to a seedy motel. The parking Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-25519751637009765262010-02-08T15:55:00.000-07:002010-02-08T15:55:35.211-07:00The Denver DishI was chatting with a friend Mike over beer and chicken wings one afternoon, and discovered that he, like me, is a closet blogger. His choice of topic? Denver food. Who knew? Maybe everyone is doing it. So I checked out his blog, The Denver Dish. My overall verdict is that it is good stuff. The pictures on The Dish are better than mine, no doubt (my Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-26442448555974853332010-01-09T15:23:00.000-07:002010-01-09T15:23:38.668-07:00The Beer WarehouseI once knew a place where dreams would come true. Where the impossible would often be possible. Where you would walk in the door sure to be a loser, but emerge a winner. Where a guy with a 6-pack budget could give himself a taste of the 18-pack life. As of today, however, that place is no more. I speak, sadly, of the The Beer Warehouse.
Behind That Door: The Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-68658830801730589432009-12-19T21:00:00.015-07:002010-02-25T09:00:40.138-07:00Crown Burgers
It struck me the other day that there was a major omission in my investigation of Denver dives - the greasy burger joint. What list of dives can call itself complete without the inclusion of a fast food hamburger stop? The hamburger is a widely interpreted dish, from the 99 cent variety, to the 15 dollar posh version with fancy meat all sorts of shiny gear on top, even to those that Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-33436389100156482472009-10-04T11:06:00.004-06:002009-10-04T11:12:34.761-06:00An Especially Dirty MartiniI just had an interesting thought about the bacon-tini. The good folks at The Berk certainly did a good job filtering out the bacon from their infused vodka. Maybe as a special some night, they should offer the Extra Dirty Bacon-tini, one that still has little chunks of bacon floating around in it. A cocktail you can chew! Then maybe garnish it with a nice slice, fried up crispy. Delicious.Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7379313185890821761.post-75987927971018933402009-10-03T09:03:00.001-06:002010-02-25T09:03:54.362-07:00The Bacon-Tini
'Pigs sleep and root in shit. That's a filthy animal.' - Jules
The last couple of years I have noticed an abundance of praise and love being expressed for pigs. Celebrity chefs like Anthony Bourdain gush about its deliciousness. Great book titles like The 2007 Report on Pork Rind Pellets and Pork Cracklings Made in Slaughtering Plants: World Market Segmentation by City (available Luke Naughtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661767592565655780noreply@blogger.com0