Denver News Blog

Unless I've been sadly misinformed, air bags are considered to be safety equipment -- but that doesn't seem to be the case in the clip above, captured for an upcoming commercial touting Metal Movers, 48 E. 56th Avenue in Denver (find them online at DenverJunkCars.com). About midway through the video, the car at the center of the screen projectile vomits its inflatable cushion, sending the hood flying. The results are unsafe at any speed -- or even sitting still.

Westword's annual Best of Denver issue hits streets (and online) on Wednesday afternoon -- a monument to our (and your) favorite things, places, people and burritos in Denver.

This morning's Denver Post offered a little sneak preview, so we will too. After the jump, find out which TV personalities earned our annual nod for Best Hair. To see previous winners, cruise to westword.com/bestof.

This March, Westword will publish its 26th Best of Denver issue, a celebration of all the things, people, places and burritos that make Denver the city it is.

What does this mean? A few things. First, it means we need your help: Our 2009 Best of Denver poll is now online, and we'd like you to take it -- to vote for your favorite things about this town of yours. It's a write-in deal, so don't worry; you won't be constrained by our sometimes-shitty tastes.

This also means that last year's was our 25th issue, and 25, as you know, is a pretty round number. So last year, we took the time to gather the previous 24 Best Of issues and stick them in one place. So if you're interested in what used to qualify as Best in, say, 1986 or 1992 or 2001, you should go there. It's like a time-capsule, only they didn't build a SuperTarget in the field where you buried it. -- Joe Tone

In 2007, when Westword published its twenty-fourth Best Of Awards, things were looking up for the Rockies: Matt Holliday, our winner for "Best Rocky," was a rising star, and he and the rest of the team's young players were -- who knew? -- just months away from an improbable World Series run.

Now the Rockies are back to rebuilding. And Holiday is gone.

What else has changed? Read our Best of Denver 2007 winners here.

Our favorite winner from Westword's twenty-third Best of Denver Awards has to be that for "Best (Very) Late-Night People Watching," the Ramada Inn on Colfax:

The Ramada Inn Downtown Denver is like a rock-and-roll RV park on weekend nights, when tour buses crowd the parking lot and bleary-eyed musicians trickle through the lobby at all hours. The crash pad for artists and crews in town for shows at the Fillmore, Ogden and Bluebird theaters -- as well as an actual hotel for normal people in town for things like vacations and conventions -- the Ramada is a totally entertaining culture clash. On a single floor, you might find a cluster of cattlemen, a sweet family of four from Omaha, the Insane Clown Posse and a bunch of college kids tripping on acid after a killer String Cheese Incident show. This human mishmash creates some amusingly weird scenes inside the elevator, and the Ramada's rock-star element also makes for fun rounds of Who's Who in the Lobby: Is that Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, or just a Capitol Hill hipster look-alike? Only the front-desk clerk knows for sure.

Read the rest of the winners from our Best of Denver 2006 awards.

How does a city change in four years? A look at Westword's twenty-second Best Of Denver awards, bestowed in 2005, give a sense. We called Devil's Food Bakery the Best Waffle joint, "a dangerous place firmly dedicated to helping those with a weakness for the venal wrongs of gluttony to pave their way to hell with waffles." Best Hangover Breakfast went to El Taco de México, for its menudo, that "hearty, spicy, slow-cooked stew made from hominy, chiles and stock, plus tripe, feet, knuckles, trotters or any other unattractive leftover cut of a cow." Mirepoix earned Best Expense-Account Breakfast, while the Best Power Breakfast went to Racines.

Do these and our other picks hold up? Cruise our Best of Denver 2005 selections and decide for yourself.

Westword published its twenty-first Best Of Denver issue and 2004, with nods to John Hickenlooper (Best Political Upset), the Denver Public Library's web site (Best Free Service), Jeff Bzdelik (Best Pro Coach) and High Street Speakeasy (Best New Bar).

See Best of Denver 2004 here.

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:

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

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:

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:

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:

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:

Ah, 1995: a time when entire Best Of categories were devoted to the O.J. Simpson trial, Bernie Bickerstaff and Dikembe Mutombo were still dominating the sports pages, and Mel's Bar and Grill was still new.

Check out the winners from our 1995 Best Of issue after the jump.

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:

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:

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:

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:

In 1990, Westword published its seventh Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Bumpersticker (“I Sold a Townhome in Aurora,” an amazing feat in this town’s still depressed economy) to Best C&W Bar (the just-opened Grizzly Rose) to Best Name for a New Baseball Stadium — not that Denver had a team, but a new stadium was part of its pitch to Major League Baseball. Denver was all about the future (largely because its present was pretty bleak), and no plan was more ambitious than the one proposed by a frequent Best of Denver winner, back as the unlikely Best Classical Godfather: Barry Fey (pictured above).

“I saved the symphony,” the veteran concert promoter remembers. Back in the fall of 1989, the Denver Symphony Orchestra was bankrupt and its board ready to disband. Reading the bad news, Fey thought he had a possible solution and laid it out in front of the whole orchestra, promising to advance money for the payroll and then move to a weekly pay-as-you-go basis, “like the concert business,” he says. “The musicians finally voted to take a chance with me on September 13th. That was three days before Fey’s wedding at Red Rocks, which meant the honeymoon was postponed while he rallied the city behind his plan, organizing a gala at McNichols Arena to help put the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on solid footing. As thanks, the new CSO put a plaque honoring Fey in Boettcher Concert Hall — the facility that voters just authorized replacing. But Fey’s good work lives on.

Here are the rest of the winners from 1990:

In 1989, Westword published its sixth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from perennial favorites Pirate, El Chapultepec and John Elway to the Best New Screen (the just-renovated Esquire), the Best Place to Get on Track (Caboose Hobbies, where pint-sized star Gary Coleman had just climbed on board) and the Best Renovation: the Denver Permit Center. That building now stands empty, but the big office next door in City Hall is occupied by a man who made his first appearance in the 1989 Best of Denver: John Hickenlooper.

In the fall of 1988, a geeky, unemployed geologist and a handful of partners with just a smidge more experience opened the town’s first brewpub, the Wynkoop Brewing Company, set in a ramshackle part of the city that had just been dubbed the Lower Downtown Denver Historic District. And the rest is, indeed, history. The brewpub industry exploded in Denver; Colorado now produces more beer than any other state; today LoDo is the hottest spot in the city; and the accolades keep coming for the Wynkoop. As for Hickenlooper, he left the restaurant business to make a dark-horse run for mayor. Five years later, he continues to enjoy unprecedented popularity with Denver voters. Cheers. Here are the rest of the winners from 1989:

In 1988, Westword published its fifth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Band (the Subdudes, just going national) to the Best Hungry Young Band (Big Head Todd and the Monsters, long before they started singing Hillary Clinton’s song) to the Best Happy Hour (the first appearance by McCormick’s in a category it would soon own) to Best Comeback for Tiny Town, saved by a brave band of realtors. Not winning Best Comeback was Best Bronco John Elway, who’d just lost his second Super Bowl, making Denver “a town that’s never been No. 1 in anything but carbon monoxide level,” according to a CBS reporter.

But like Elway, other 1988 winners have kept making headlines – and earning accolades. In 1988, Chuck Morris Entertainment was honored as Best Music-Biz Manager on a Roll, and now, after thirty years in the promotions business, you’d think that Morris would have nothing left to prove – except, perhaps, to himself. He’s opened such storied clubs as Tulagi and Ebbett’s Field and turned ramshackle Mammoth Gardens into Fillmore Auditorium. But after leaving Live Nation last year for Anschutz Entertainment Group, Morris is ready to roll the dice on another grand plan: the Mile High Music and Arts Festival, planned for next summer in City Park. “I’m as excited about this as anything I’ve ever done,” says Morris. Sounds like another winner to us. Here are the winners from 1988:

In 1987, Westword published its fourth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Place to Park Downtown (with the office-building vacancy rate at 30 percent, one lot had slashed its prices to ten cents a day!) to the Best Place to People-Watch (the Paramount Cafe, which offered a good view of the few folks who frequented the five-year-old 16th Street Mall) to the Best After-Hours Club (the just-opened Paris on the Platte). Other winners, such as the Rattlesnake Club, are long gone, like most memories of those very depressed days.

But other 1987 winners are better than ever. That year, Benny Armas, a veteran of numerous kitchens around town, finally opened the first place he could call his own: Benny’s Cantina. In the twenty years since that first spot opened, Benny has expanded Benny’s numerous times, finally moving to the location at 301 East Seventh Avenue where Benny’s Restaurant & Tequila Bar still packs them in today. Although the menu and bar selections have expanded, Benny’s still specializes in a sense-singeing green chile that has defined this uniquely Colorado creation for two
generations of Denverites.

Here are the other winners from 1987:

In 1986, Westword published its third Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Local Comic Made Good (Roseanne Barr, who’d been living in a trailer just a few years earlier and was now starring in her own sitcom) to the Best Bronco (Karl Mecklenburg displaced two-time winner John Elway) to the Best Local Celebrity: Dick Lamm, about to finish his twelve-year stint as governor of Colorado, but definitely not going out quietly. Other winners are long gone, and the Best Candidate for Renovation, the Gates Rubber plant, is disappearing by the day.

But other 1986 winners are better than ever. Just up the street from Gates is that year’s Best Building Saved in the Nick of Time: the Mayan Theatre. Just when demolition seemed imminent for the then-53-year-old movie palace, the feisty Friends of the Mayan stepped in and saved the structure. That fall, the renovation was completed, with the facade preserved and three movie theaters carved out inside. More than twenty years later, the Mayan remains a true treasure, a piece of art that shows art (and also serves cocktails!). Here are the rest of the winners from 1986:

In 1985, Westword published its second Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Cheeseburger at My Brother’s Bar to the Best Bronco (John Elway, now in his second year with the team), to another future landmark, the Best Addition to the Skyline (Herbert Bayer’s bright-yellow “Articulated Wall,” which still stands beside I-25). Many of the other winners are long gone, and the Best Drive-In, the Cinderella Twin, finally went dark just last month.

But other 1985 winners are still bright lights in this much bigger city, including Herman’s Hideaway, the Best Neighborhood Club. “In November, we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary,” says Allan Roth. “Twenty-five years of Herman’s! I think the vision was really a place for me — I was an ex-booking agent, and I was going to put a club together that I was excited about, and it just came to be. It surprises the heck out of me that we’re still doing it. But I love it now more than I ever did.”

In 1984, Westword published its first Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that touted everything from the Best Radio Station (KBCO, then six years old) to the Best Gallery Openings (Pirate Contemporary Art Oasis, still going strong on Navajo Street despite plenty of competition from other now-booming arts districts). Many of the other winners are long gone, along with leg warmers, the mobile hot-tub business and our Best Restaurant, Cafe Giovanni.

But no honor was more farsighted than the one given the Denver Broncos’ brand-spanking-new quarterback, who’d had a very discouraging season after gracing the cover of Westword during his first days at training camp. Even so, our Best of Denver team called a winning play and gave John Elway the Best Future award. “A Hall of Famer, for sure,” we succinctly predicted.

Here are the rest of the winner from that first issue (look for the 25th on March 28, 2008):