Lori Midson

Tonight, at 6 p.m., Fooducopia's Corner Store and Cafe, a charming market that sells a huge array of local products -- and serves many of those products in its adjoining little restaurant, will appear in front of a hearings officer at 6 p.m. in the Wellington Webb building to plead its case for a liquor license.

In the majority of cases, obtaining a liquor license goes relatively smoothly...unless you're a restaurant or bar in west Washington Park, in which case, there's bound to be opposition.

See also:
- First look: Fooducopia's Corner Store and Cafe opens in the heart of Washington Park
- Brown Dog Pizza loses its battle to get a liquor license on South Gaylord Street
- Brown Dog Pizza applies for a liquor license

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Broadway has seen plenty of Mex-and-match action this year, from the closing of 3 Monkeys Cantina to the opening of a second Zocalo and the imminent transformation of Delite into Juanita's.

And now Illegal Pete's is Broadway-bound, too.

See also:
-Photos: Zocalo is now open on South Broadway
-3 Monkeys Cantina closes on South Broadway
-Dylan Moore closing Delite and reopening as Juanita's
-Illegal Pete's: Best Glass Act 2012

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Lori Midson

Remember all the snarling and snapping that surrounded Brown Dog Pizza, the Telluride-based pizzeria that attempted to open a second outpost on South Gaylord Street, but laid down. rolled over and eventually limped away whimpering when its liquor license was denied, thanks to the pit bull tactics of the South Gaylord Neighborhood Association?

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Earlier this year, Michael Olsen tried to open another version of Hush, the nightclub he used to have in the Larimer Square spot now occupied by Wicked Garden, but Cherry Creek residents lined up in opposition to his plans to put a club in the basement of 250 Steele Street.

But Olsen isn't giving up on the club, or the neighborhood: Today, he was at the Department of Excise and Licenses for a hearing on his tavern and dance cabaret license application for Cherry, which he hopes to put in the space at 231 Milwaukee Street.

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Regulars did some moaning when the popular Perk Hill coffee shop abruptly closed last spring, after a celebrated tiff with the landlord over its funky outdoor seating. But in a few weeks, the place will reopen as a tapas bar. Permits are in and construction has begun on Park Hill Neighbors, according to this Facebook page.

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Lori Midson

"Get ready for the fight of your lives." That was the advice barked at Jeff Smokevitch and Giles Flanigan, the owners of Brown Dog Pizza, a Telluride-based pizzeria that had inked a lease on a vacant, build-out space on South Gaylord Street where they wanted to open a second Brown Dog Pizza that would have poured beer, wine and spirits.

And since I live on South Gaylord Street -- just three blocks away from where Brown Dog would have tied its leash -- and I enjoy a beer with my pizza, when a man with a petition came knocking at my door asking for my signature in support of the liquor license, I had no qualms signing it. And judging from the chats I had with my neighbors, neither did they.

But the South Gaylord Neighborhood Association, of which I'm not a part, fought Brown Dog's liquor-license application like pit bulls, and on Monday, July 11, its liquor license was flatly denied.

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Williams & Graham, a new speakeasy that's the vision of Todd Colehour, a former head honcho at Kona Grill, was slated to open in June with cocktail-tender Sean Kenyon.

Until recently, Kenyon had been the star-tender at the now-closed Squeaky Bean, spearheading the beverage program. He was set to oversee the cocktail syllabus at the Occidental, which Squeaky Bean owner Johnny Ballen had intended to plant in the Squeaky Bean space -- but that plan is now dead in the water. So he's slinging drinks at Euclid Hall until the Squeaky Bean finds a new place to grow -- and until Williams & Graham can get its liquor license squared away.

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Lori Midson

At first glance, we nearly peed our pants. The sign plastered on the front door of the former Walk-in Burgers, which shuttered in late April in Edgewater, announced that Nobu -- NOBU! -- was applying for a liquor license, which, if true, would have meant that Nobu Matsuhisa, the genius behind his namesake New York restaurant (his family also owns Matsuhisa in Aspen) had lost his fucking mind, because, while Edgewater is a fine town, it's not exactly Tribeca or Aspen, or Milan, Tokyo or London -- all cities where there are Nobu outposts -- and call it a hunch, but something tells me that Matsuhisa doesn't open restaurants in strip malls.

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Vietnam Grill has been slinging pho and spring rolls from its Federal Boulevard strip mall spot for a few years, but now the eatery is hoping to add alcoholic pairings to the menu. The restaurant just applied for its liquor license, and if all goes according to plan, it'll add beer, wine and spirits to its repertoire.

And that's good news, since there's no better pairing for a big bowl of broth and noodles than a crisp, cold light beer.

The restaurant goes before the city's Department of Excise and Licenses on July 15.

Lori Midson

A year ago this month, when I first spoke with Dennis Krieger, the owner of Zingers, a small-mall joint near the University of Denver that pushes chicken wings in a gazillion guises, along with chicken nuggets in a bag, chicken salad and a whole coop of other college-appropriate grub, he told me, flat-out, that the majority of the students on the DU campus were too young to drink, an observation that dissuaded him from getting a liquor license. "We analyzed it, and it came down to the fact that students shouldn't be drinking under the age of 21, so we're not serving any alcohol, at least not in this location," Krieger told me last June.

But here's the real zinger: There's now a liquor-license application sign hanging directly in front of the very same location where Krieger insisted he wouldn't pour liquid assets. Clearly, he had a change of beverage, which is good news for all those of-age studious types who ace their exams and want to celebrate with chicken nuggets and a Crown and Coke. Krieger has a date with the Department of Excise and Licenses on Thursday, July 14, at 9 a.m. to learn whether or not he'll need to start checking IDs.