Solera (above) and other Colfax eateries and watering holes east of Colorado Boulevard are often overlooked by the downtown crowd — but they shouldn’t be.

For all those bar-loving folks who live in Capitol Hill because of its proximity to good eating and drinking, Colorado Boulevard is a boundary rarely crossed.

It’s easy to get spoiled in Capitol Hill. Almost everything is walkable, from lunch at the Spicy Pickle to shows at the Fillmore Auditorium. When you don’t have to leave your neighborhood to get everything you need — you don’t.

Though the Capitol Hill stretches of East Colfax Avenue are familiar, the world east of Colorado is a strange and mysterious place to many Capitol Hill denizens. And with East Colfax’s sketchy reputation, venturing even farther east is considered a strange idea.

It’s ridiculous, though.

(more…)

Tracy Morgan began our interview by yelling “take your shirt off!” You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

Boisterous and cartoonish, Tracy Jordan is a conceited, absurd, unpredictable clown. He’s also one of the funniest things about NBC’s Emmy-winning sitcom “30 Rock,” which returns for its fourth season on Thursday.

Just don’t confuse Tracy Jordan with Tracy Morgan. “Tracy Jordan is a part of me, but Tracy Jordan is a character,” Morgan said over the phone from New York during a break in taping the new season. “When I’m acting, I like to put the same amount of energy that I have into being myself, so it’s easy to play.”

That energy will course through Denver when Morgan plays three shows at Comedy Works South on Saturday and Sunday.

(more…)

Snooze is known for its hip environs, filling, unique breakfast food and long waits.

Snooze, the 3-year-old Ballpark neighborhood eatery, has exported its happy hipness to Colorado Boulevard, with a new spot on the corner of East Seventh Avenue.

Word is the wait is up to two hours on the weekends, and even weekdays draw a crowd. Why is Snooze so popular? Some come for the vibe. Others crave a morning cocktail. Some need a huge pancake.

The interior of this location is a little more crisp than the exposed brick of its big brother, although it’s by the same design team, Xan Creative. Mod starbursts tumble through the orange and pale blue interior like toy jacks from “The Jetsons.” Booths line the plate-glass windows along Colorado Boulevard, giving diners a view of the poor souls on the sidewalk, still waiting to get in.

(more…)

Long ago, in a college town far away, a sacred union was created. Some drunken genius was watching a game of pingpong from the sidelines, perhaps in the basement of a frat house, maybe at a beer-soaked bar. This bold thinker must have looked at the plastic cup of Busch Light in his (or her) hand and made the connection: Beer plus pong equals beer pong.

Cue the singing angels.

Also known as “beirut,” beer pong is now a classic college drinking game. On campuses all over this great nation, young men and women waste hours of precious study time flinging pingpong balls into cups of beer. A real pingpong table isn’t required, just a close-enough approximation.

Suddenly, however, beer pong is no longer confined to sticky college parties. It’s entering the mainstream drinking scene, and long-graduated adults are keeping their pong arm in at bars and house parties around Denver.

(more…)

Looking for schnitzel? In Pueblo? Improbably enough, you’re in luck.

A restaurant with a Spanish-French name that serves American and German food, run by a retired ship’s captain and a Swiss culinary school graduate. . . . in Pueblo.

An improbable combination in an unlikely setting, Rio Bistro offers contemporary standards such as steak, salmon and lamb, and German standbys sauerbraten and wiener schnitzel.

Elisabeth and Jurgen Millenet bought the restaurant five years ago, and she took over the kitchen while he manned the bar. “I was a sea captain all my life. I know about drinking,” says Jurgen, who pours a generous glass of riesling.

(more…)