Great Birthday Spots

We recently celebrated HB’s Birthday and went numerous places for different dinners with different groups. But the tops of the list in terms of service on birthdays are Lala’s and Bistro One.

Lala’s was fantasatic! We had a dinner with about 12 people (had reservations for 14 but they didn’t mind the two didn’t show). It’s not the type of place where your party has to be there to sit down, we sat and were served wine and drinks and apps while we waited for the whole group to show. Try the fried artichoke (yum) or something off the specials menu. The highlights of the night were definitely the service, though. Our waitress was thorough. Plus, the manager checked in with us a couple times, once bringing a card that the staff had all signed happy birthday along with a gift card to come back to Lala’s at a later date. And to top it off, a dessert that wasn’t included in the final tab. Pretty darn good.

Bistro One takes a second. The food was DELICIOUS but more pricey. The service wasn’t quite as great as at Lala’s but it was still better than most places, and we were served a nice round of birthday shots on the house (just what we looked like we needed)!

Derby Sells Out

Welp, if you didn’t hear, the Denver Derby tix went on sale to the general public today and were all gone within 1/2 hour. Early tickets were available to twitter subscribers and those that went to the pre-sale event and didn’t get tickets that night (you gotta get on the email list)!

But if you’re looking for tickets don’t fret! You can still get them via Craigslist or contact us because we have a couple we can hook you up with.

Summer Markets

We wrote about Denver’s Farmer’s Markets last year, but wanted to remind everyone these are back in action, tis the season!

The Ballpark Market starts this weekend, 8 am – 2pm on Larimar & 21st. Other markets will follow in May and June.

Summer Music Festivals are coming!

But that doesn’t mean we’re very excited about all that’s going on this year. Specifically, Mile High Music Festival’s line up feels like a miss. Tool and Widespread Panic may be cool to see in concert, but they don’t seem like great headliners in comparison to last year’s big names. And while the Fray is great, they play in Denver rather often and are great as a one band show. But, if you still think you might want to go for $90 a day or $165 for two days, the other bands you can see on July 18 & 19th include:
Incubus
Ben Harper & Relentless7
G. Love & Special Sauce
Ani DiFranco
The Black Keys
Galactic
Paolo Nutini
Gomez
The Greyboy Allstars
Railroad Earth
India.Arie
Lyrics Born
Rocco DeLuca & The Burden
Needtobreathe
The Band of Heathens
Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam
Set Forth
Early Pearl
Gov’t Mule
3OH!3
Buddy Guy
John Butler
Gogol Bordello
Galactic
Guster
The Wailers
Matisyahu
Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Mat Kearney
Dead Confederate
Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons
Erin McCarley
Paper Bird
honeyhoney
Joe Pug
Electric Touch

Then there’s the Monolith. Coming back September 13 &14th, 09 are quite a few bands we saw last year. We liked them, but we don’t know if we want to see the same show two years in a row. Although last year was a really great time. Tickets are $110 for both days, ($85 with the “green package) or $59.50 per day.

Here’s the partial line up:
justice
tv on the radio
silversun pickups
the flaming lips
band of horses
vampire weekend
atmosphere
cake
devotchka
cut copy
the decemberists
editors
kings of leon
the avett brothers
spoon
del the funky homosapien
css
the kills
clap your hands say yeah
art brut
superdrag
kid sister
ghostland observatory
3oh!3
the presets
white denim
matt & kim
cloud cult
blitzen trapper
snowden
does it offend you, yeah?
the whigs
tilly and the wall
akron/family
margot and the nuclear so and so’s
mickey avalon
sharon jones and the dap kings
a place to bury strangers
reverend peyton’s big damn band
airborne toxic event

Denver Mags

Denver now had 4 magazines in town, exclusively about Denver. Some, not so great and will probably flounder within a couple issues. Some (5280) are great and have been around the block.

The general info on each is:

5280 – This is a staple of ours, we can’t help picking it up at the Tattered Cover stand and should probably just subscribe to save some money from the $ stand price. Quite a running history in comparison to the other mags in town now, it’s a grown up in comparison with professional staff, photography and advice. Their online info is also coming along nicely in comparison to even a year ago.

Denver Magazine – Newer to the scene, this magazine has had a bit of a bumpy ride. Only currently selling ads that I would actually place in the magazine (online doesn’t have enough traffic to make it worth it yet), it’s “up and coming.” And after their Summer 08 issue, which wasn’t exactly family friendly since it was a bathing suit cover, I noticed a small difference in advertisers. But if you are into Denver’s bar/club scene, this “lifestyle” type mag may be for you. They do have some pretty good release parties that I recommend checking out.

Denver Life – I haven’t personally checked out this mag except to flip through it and put it back, but, as it sounds, it’s a lifestyle magazine. Mainly featuring dining, shopping and real estate, it’s more like a sales pitch in my opinion. Light on content.

1 Magazine – New to the scene, it’s a fashion in Denver mag. This is it’s first issue so check it out. We’ll keep our eye on it to see if it makes it past a couple of issues in this tough industry.

Laser Tag!

Yesterday as part of our weekly Monday Night Fun Nights (we get together with friends and do dinner + something fun every Monday) we went to Laser Quest. As it turns out, Laser Quest pretty much has a corner on the laser tag market in Denver. Luckily, they do a pretty good job. If you’re looking for a fun activity that involves some action, this is a good one for you.

We took 6 people to play and had the place to ourselves for the first two games. Despite being a small group and arriving pretty late in the night the two girls holding the place down did a great job and stayed enthused for our group. The last game we had a group of about 7 other people show up and played against them. Of course I got killed by the little kids running around, but it was still fun.

The details: $8 pp or $18 for a “triple play” which means 3 games. Located @ Hampden & Yosemite. Be ready with code names for each game. Wear sneakers, because regardless of the “laser quest code,” you will run! And last, don’t be disappointed when you arrive… it’s bigger than it looks from outside!

More Derby News

So, if you can’t tell, we’re getting pretty excited for the Derby Party 09.  In preperation, you should check out the Derby’s facebook group (and associated Spire event for pre-sale tix)!! Consider yourself informed.