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Whereas other ski resorts may have frowned on people camping out in their parking lot, throwing parties until all hours and sleeping in their cars to ensure fresh tracks in the morning, Arapahoe Basin's The Beach has become a high-altitude landmark. And when we named the place where the snow meets the parking lot at A-Basin Best Beach in our Best of Denver 2008, we mentioned rumors we've heard of beach bums coming up with inventive ways to enjoy the beach, like sliding down the hill on couches. Westword reader provided us with these pictures that prove the rumors to be true. In an era where fun on the slopes is often offset by steep ticket prices and I-70 traffic headaches, we are glad to see that some traditions seem to be in no danger of disappearing from our state. Long live The Beach and the bums who've made it what it is.
-- Sean Cronin

We were so amazed by the Clover brewing system, a sleek, automated coffee machine that uses an elaborate extraction method to brew one cup at a time (not to mention blown away by the machine’s $11,000 price tag) that we gave the machine, found at a handful of local coffee shops serving coffee roasted by Denver-based Novo Coffee, a 2007 Best of Denver award. It turns out we weren’t the only ones eyeing the space-aged coffee contraption.

Two weeks ago, Starbucks Coffee Company announced it was going to acquire Coffee Equipment Company, Clover’s manufacturer. The news caused barely a ripple among the hoi polloi, but among caffeinistas, this was a startling development, akin to U-Haul buying out Rolls-Royce and using the vehicles to haul around compost.

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When South Park debuted more than a decade ago, Coloradans Matt Stone and Trey Parker offered the most innovative cartoon show in a generation. And they're still leading the way -- now by allowing fans to watch episodes for free at www.southparkstudios.com. "We got really sick of having
to download our own show illegally all the time, so we gave ourselves a legal alternative," Stone and Parker said in a statement announcing the deal with Comedy Central, which started just ten days ago.

Owing to contractual obligations, new episodes are available on the site for seven days -- then are blacked out until thirty days after the initial airing. Which means that the Best of Denver-winning "Britney's New Look," the episode in which Britney Spears hides out in Colorado and loses her head that initially aired on March 19, won't be back until April 18.

Still, that 23 day gap is a small price to pay for free access to some of the most free speech in any medium. -- Patricia Calhoun

In 2003, Westword published its twentieth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Goofy Sports Gizmo (the humidor and hyperbaric chamber introduced by Rockies manager Clint Hurdle to combat Denver’s thin air) to Best Blues Musician (Otis Taylor — finally a national star, after thirty years of making music locally) to Best Must-See Local TV: JohnsTV, the city’s new show on Channel 8 featuring guys busted in prostitute stings. But the real must-see TV was over at Channel 4, where Jim Benemann won the award for Best News Anchor.

“Winning the Best Anchor award was a special honor, since it came the year I made the switch to CBS4,” Benemann says. “The award threw my mom for a loop, though; she thought I was still a sophomore at CSU.”

Benemann’s been in the big chair at Channel 4 for five years now, and his steady presence and wry delivery at ten o’clock has helped the station make steady inroads on Channel 9, the longtime ratings leader that’s an NBC affiliate. This is one anchor that won’t get dropped anytime soon.

Click here to see the rest of the 2003 Best of Denver Winners.

In 2002, Westword published its nineteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best New Festival (Frozen Dead Guy Days took the chill off March in Nederland) to Best Start for a New Neighborhood (the Millennium Bridge was beginning to rise above Riverfront Park) to the Best Taco (the editorial pick was Jack-n-Grill, and for the first time ever, readers gave the nod to a local outfit rather than Taco Bell!). But the real winner that year was the Best Place to Dress Like a Cowboy: Rockmount Ranch Wear.

For decades — and we mean decades — the Weil family had been running its wholesale business out of an old warehouse on Wazee Street, specializing in Western shirts with the snap buttons invented by Jack A. Weil, pictured, the company’s founder who’d just marked his hundredth birthday. And to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks, the Weil family — Jack A., son Jack B. and grandson Steve — celebrated by opening a retail store in their building, letting the whole town in on the party. Six years later, Jack B. has passed on, but Jack A. still goes to work every day — and thanks to a renovation supervised by Steve, Rockmount’s now the Best-Looking Place to Dress Like a Cowboy, too. Yee-haw!

To see the rest of the Best of Denver Winners from 2002, click here.

In 2001, Westword published its eighteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Performance by an East High Graduate (Don Cheadle scored in Traffic) to the Best Appearance by Coloradans in an Inaugural Parade (the Precision Lawn Chair Demonstration Team marched for new president George W. Bush) to the Best Room With a View — the Capitol Dome, a great place to see the city, and one that would soon be shut off from the public by the events of 9/11. But one dome just keeps getting more polished: that of the Best Media Manipulator, Jon Caldara.

Caldara, the former chairman of the RTD board, had big zapatos to fill when he became president of the Independence Institute, taking over for Tom Tancredo, who’d moved on to Congress. But Caldara didn’t miss a beat. He quickly gained a reputation as the mouth that roared, the go-to guy when a reporter needed a politically incorrect quote — or a radio station needed a host with the gift of gab. And he hasn’t mellowed a bit in the past seven years, as the recent dust-up over his language regarding a Hillary/Obama encounter proves. Coming soon: an Independence Institute T-shirt with the slogan “I got bitch-slapped by Jon Caldara — and I loved it.”

Here are the rest of the 2001 Best of Denver winners:

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In 2000, Westword published its seventeenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Name for the New Football Stadium (brewmeister John Hickenlooper’s campaign to keep the Mile High Stadium brand inspired customers to suggest he run for mayor), to Best Performance by a Coloradan (local girl Jessica Biel was making good – very good – in movies and national magazines) to Best Political Resurrection (twelve years as governor would be enough to send most people into retirement – but Roy Romer moved on to a job as superintendent of the Los Angeles school system).

But the biggest resurrection of all involved the transformation of a dilapidated building at Clarkson and Colfax that had gone through numerous incarnations – from roller rink to wrestling ring to recreational sports center. By 1999, bombed-out buildings in Beirut seemed to have more concert-venue potential than the Mammoth Events Center – but a few million dollars and a name change later, it had been transformed into Denver’s Best New Old Music Hall: the Fillmore Auditorium. With acts ranging from Dylan to the Cult to Flogging Molly, the Fillmore continues to rock this town.

Here are the rest of the Best of Denver winners from 2000

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In 1999, Westword published its sixteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best New Public Art (Donald Lipski’s still-beloved “Yearling”) to Best Brunch Served by Drag Queens (Bump and Grind) to Best Hair on a TV Personality (Adele Arakawa, as serious as her coiffure). But one award is still looking particularly good: Best Place to Suit Up, given to Suavecito, a small, almost unknown store on Santa Fe. “It was awesome,” remembers Craig Peña, who started the place with his pal Jay Salas. “It was fun to be part of that tradition in Denver — Westword and the Best Of. We were honored and privileged to be part of the cool-people club.”

Over the past nine years, Suavecito has expanded its line — it now offers business suits, and dresses Mayor John Hickenlooper as well as some of his staffers — and its reputation, collecting media stories from across the country. But that 1999 award in Westword was its first official recognition, and it was a clothes call. “We had barely broken the news to our family at the time,” Peña recalls. “How do you tell your family that you opened a zoot suit shop? For this, you went to Columbia?”

Here are the rest of the 1999 winners:

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In 1998, Westword published its fifteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Local Girl Made Good (Pam Grier, an East High grad and ’70s star suddenly back in fashion with Jackie Brown) to Best Game: Super Bowl XXXII, that day in January 1998 when the Denver Broncos beat Green Bay to win their first Super Bowl. Our Best Guess for When the Broncos Will Win Another Super Bowl — 2525 — was way off the mark (the Broncos actually took the title again the next year), but we scored big with our Best TV News Anchor: Jim Benemann, back in Denver after a stint in Portland and being groomed for the big guy’s chair at Channel 9.

Benemann never got that chair, and we’ll bet Channel 9 is sorry about that now. Because instead, he moved over to Channel 4, where his steady presence and wry delivery has helped the CBS newscast make steady inroads at ten o’clock on longtime ratings leader KUSA. This is one anchor that won’t get dropped anytime soon.

Here are the rest of the winners from 1998:

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In 1997, Westword published its fourteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Place to Put the New Broncos Stadium (Los Angeles!) to the Best Sneak Preview of an Art Project (the Robischon Gallery’s show on the proposed Christo project on the Arkansas — still in the works more than a decade later) to the Best Free Service: The Denver Public Library was offering lessons in that newfangled invention, the Internet. But the Internet had yet to really affect bookstores, and the Tattered Cover was going so strong that it inspired a special award that year: Best Tattered Cover.

The LoDo store won the honor, one of dozens of Best of Denver awards given to the Tattered Cover over the years. It’s impossible to imagine this town without the Tattered, but owner Joyce Meskis wants to give credit where it’s due. “The Tattered Cover would be nothing without the readers behind it — that’s the untold story,” she says. “Denver is a terrific book town, and we have been very fortunate.” Ten years after this particular award, Denver now has a choice of three Tattered Covers — one at the Lowenstein, one in Highlands Ranch and the LoDo store — which collectively put on close to 600 literary events a year. More than just bookstores, these are the heart of an active, engaged community, Internet or not. “People are definitely still reading,” Meskis says, “and we are grateful to those who’ve supported us for so long.”

Here are the rest of the winners from 1997:

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In 1996, Westword published its thirteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Yuppie on a Harley (then-senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who posed for a Banana Republic ad) to the Best New Public Art (Mark di Suvero’s still-controversial “Lao Tzu”) to the Best Place to Put the Pepsi Center and the Best Place to Put the New Broncos Stadium — since plans were in the works to create not one, but two new sports palaces. But the city wasn’t all about the shlock of the new: 1996 was also a vintage year for the Best Place for Clothes That Won’t Make Him Look Like a Middle-Aged Yuppie. No, not Banana Republic, but American Aces.

American Aces was brought to us by two ace thrifters: Russell Enloe and Ronnie Crawford, who’d opened his first new/old shop, Bertha’s (which later turned into Rudely Decadent) on Broadway back in 1978. With American Aces, Crawford and Enloe took cool to a new level, not only stuffing the store with incredible fashion finds, but also sponsoring rockabilly weekends where Denverites could dress the part. The partners eventually parted ways, with Crawford going on to open All American Vogue a block to the south (Enlow died in 2006). Now, after thirty years on the Miracle Mile, Crawford is finally calling it quits — and after one last sale, All American Vogue will close its doors for good. But Crawford will still be around: He plans to continue selling online and will keep his bartender gig at the Skylark Lounge. “It’s the only place I get to shmooze now,” he says. Another round, Ronnie!

Here are the rest of the winners from 1996:

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In 1994, Westword published its eleventh Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Italian Restaurant (the brand-new Carmine’s on Penn) to Best Makeover (the renovated Herb’s Hideout) to Best New Arts Venue (the Bug, on Navajo Street) to Best News for Blues (the reopened Bluebird Theater). But 1994 wasn’t all about things that had opened: By then, Denver International Airport had already missed one opening date, and it would also blow through our Best Guess When Denver International Airport Will Open. But one DIA feature was right on time, and right on target: Gary Sweeney’s “America, Why I Love Her,” the Best New Public Art.

DIA’s budget included $7.5 million for art, and although a few pieces flopped and one — Luis Jimenez’s horse — is now thirteen years late, Sweeney’s “America: Why I Love Her” is legendary. To create the large wooden map, Sweeney (a longtime fixture on the local art scene, and also a Continental baggage handler) traveled the country snapping pictures of odd tourist attractions. More than 200 of them — everything from Dan Blocker Memorial Head to the Steven Canyon statue in Idaho Springs — are featured on DIA’s most beloved feature. Sadly, when Continental pulled its planned hub from the finally open airport, Sweeney wound up relocating to San Antonio, where he continues to work for the airline — and continues to make art. But he left behind yet another reason to love Denver.

Here are the rest of the winners from 1994:

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In 1993, Westword published its tenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Place to Take the Pope When He Comes to Town to Best Explosion (the old Montgomery Ward building on Broadway) to Best Radio Talk-Show Host (Peter Boyles, whose ratings continue to explode) to Best Local Film (American History, the work of 22-year-old University of Colorado student Trey Parker, who went on to make American TV history as the co-creator of South Park). Many winners were repeats, particularly in the Food & Drink section, where restaurants like Mexico City, RosaLinda Mexican Cafe, La Fiesta, Benny’s and El Taco de Mexico demonstrated the explosive power of Mexican food in this city. But only one rated a category all its own: Best Chubby’s.

Back in 1967, Stella Cordova, pictured above in a photo taken recently, was working as a cook at the Chubby Burger Drive-In at 1231 West 38th Avenue when the owner said he wanted to get out of the business and cut Stella — who was making just 85 cents an hour — a great deal so that she could buy it. She kept the name but changed the menu to feature the Mexican food she’d grown up with in Walsenburg, and Chubby’s, profiled recently in this feature, quickly became known for its hot, hot green chile. Soon, assorted offspring — Stella had ten children — and their offspring began opening their own Chubby’s restaurants, with or without Stella’s blessing. But today, forty years after Stella opened her own place, the original Chubby’s remains the best. And Stella Cordova, still working at the age of 98, remains a true Denver original.

Here are the rest of the winners from 1993:

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In 1992, Westword published its ninth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Last Stand (the Denver Zephyrs, about to be supplanted by the Colorado Rockies) to Best Bail Bondsman (Duane Chapman, before he became known as “Dog”) to Best — and Sometimes Only — Reason to Read to the Rocky Mountain News: Greg Lopez, a fine writer and great colleague we still miss every day. While much of what we loved that year is long gone, a then-new industry went on to literally move mountains, although Colorado gambling is still best exemplifed by our Best Casino: Dostal Alley.

When Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek joined together to push a statewide vote to legalize “limited stakes gaming” as a way to save the old mining towns — and also pour huge amounts of money into the State Historical Fund, now the largest historic-preservation program in the country — voters envisioned streets lined with mom-and-pop establishments, not the behemoths of present-day Black Hawk. But mom-and-pop is exactly what Dostal Alley was, and what it remains today. “We’ve decided that’s how we’re going to stay — a small, family-run operation,” explains Buddy Schmalz, the son who started a brewpub in the back of his parents’ Central City casino six years ago. A year later, Schmalz was elected mayor of Central City, making him the first brewpub-owning mayor in Colorado. And a good one, who’s worked with the council to haul Central City out of a financial mess. “With a lot of common-sense stuff, we were able to pull it off,” he says. Ka-ching!

Here are the rest of the winners from 1992:

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In 1991, Westword published its eighth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Television Prop (very strong chairs made for Raymond Burr, who was filming his revived Perry Mason series here) to Best Bulletin Board (not cork, but one of those newfangled computer message boards) to Best Public Phone Booths — in the brand-spanking-new Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Denver also had a new mayor, Wellington Webb, and was not only building a new airport northeast of Stapleton, but deciding where to put a major-league ballpark. But while the city was reinventing itself, several old favorites also made the edition, including eternal award winners John Elway, Pirate and El Chapultepec. And as Best Club That’s Returned From the Dead: the Mercury Cafe.

Marilyn Megenity has kept Denver cooking since back in the ’70s, when she opened her first spot in Indian Hills. The next fifteen years were a veritable movable feast as she moved her restaurant/club from 13th Avenue (where it was initially known as Elrond’s) to Broadway, back to 13th, then downtown and points in between, picking up a new name, the Mercury Cafe, before the entire enterprise went into limbo. But finally, in 1990, Marilyn bought a place she could call her own, a Victorian building at 2199 California Street that today remains the center for an incredibly lively, entertaining and, most important, enlightened cultural scene. From the car that runs on recycled cooking oil to the windmill on the roof to the political debates in the upstairs meeting room to the good organic eats and even better theatrical and musical entertainment, Marilyn keeps giving Denver reason to celebrate. And the Mercury Cafe keeps rising to every occasion.

Here are the rest of the winners:

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