Mile High Eats

If you're wondering if all we did in Denver was eat, the answer is a resounding yes.

...I mean, the last season of Top Chef was based there for a reason.

True to form, we closed out the last day of our whirlwind trip with a downtown food tour. I'd never done one before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was an absolute blast. It was our guide's first solo tour, but we never would have known that had he not told us. For roughly four hours, we walked all over the downtown area, learning about the food scene, listening to the city's history, and stopping at seven different places to try a diverse range of dishes.

• Blue Agave Grill, our meeting point and starting location, offered fish tacos. In lieu of that, I was given a fried avocado taco and it was probably my favorite item of the tour.
• EVOO Marketplace is a locally-owned olive oil/balsamic vinegar shop, where we learned about the oil-making process and sampled any flavor combinations that we wanted. Blueberry balsamic, anyone?

• Avelina, an American spot that offers seasonal dishes, gave us tuna tartare, but I opted for carrot soup. 
• Zoe Ma Ma, a fast casual Chinese restaurant, provided large portions of a noodle dish that we enhanced with whatever sauces we wanted.

• Wynkoop Brewing Company, Denver's first brewpub (Fun fact: It was started by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper), was next on the tour and we tried some bizarre things. First up was bison chili, which was delicious and tasted like normal chili. Then, because it's a brewery, came the beer. We tried Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, which is actually brewed with roasted bull testicles. Yikes.
• Mercantile, a farm-to-table restaurant/artisanal market located in Union Station, gave us some cheese and crackers to help wash down our beer. Side note: The owner of Mercantile, Alex Seidel, was featured on Top Chef last season!
• Milkbox, which is also located inside Union Station, was an ice cream shop that served Little Man ice cream. The sea salt caramel was the perfect way to end the tour.

Not only was the food delicious, but the tour company was incredibly accommodating with personal taste preferences. I told them in advance that I don't like seafood and they were able to offer me alternatives at the two stops where fish was on the tasting menu. I was also amazed that, thanks to all the walking and talking, we weren't stuffed by the end of the tour.

We had a little time to kill before heading to the airport, so we decided to check out the Brown Palace, a historic hotel nearby. Then, because we clearly hadn't eaten enough already, we made our way to Voodoo Doughnut to say a proper goodbye to the city. For the record, I highly recommend Voodoo if you're ever near one. SO DELICIOUS. It was tough to pick, but we had enough time to decide as the line stretched outside the door and onto the street. We settled on Dirt (Oreos), Oh Captain, My Captain (Captain Crunch), and the Homer (yeast doughnut with strawberry frosting). My personal favorite, though, was the massive doughnut decorated in honor of Stephen Hawking.

So yeah, we probably gained ten pounds on our quick weekend trip to a city that's known for outdoor, physical activities. Oops. I'm already plotting our return to Denver, but this time, we'll make sure to rent a car.

Where the Titanic and South Park meet...

Our second day in Denver happened to fall on St. Patrick's Day, so we decided to check out the local festivities. Denver celebrates the holiday with a massive parade that winds its way through the downtown area. We knew we wanted to eat at Snooze, an extremely popular brunch spot with a location in Union Station, but also knew there would be a long wait. So, we put our name in for a table, then ventured outside to people-watch.

The holy grail of people-watching.

The area outside of Union Station was so crowded that we couldn't get a good vantage point for the parade. Instead, we weaved our way between raucous people clad in green to Tattered Cover Book Store, where we spent about an hour perusing the shelves and resting our feet. When our table was ready, we made our way back to Union Station and settled in for a breakfast that was actually an early-day dessert.

Wheat ordered s'mores pancakes with creamy hot chocolate that he drizzled on top, while I settled on the pancake flight with pineapple upside down, sweet potato, and blueberry danish pancakes. If I could only recommend one place for you to check out on your next visit to Denver, I'd choose Snooze. If you're okay with leaving in a sugar coma, of course...

Again, my face does not accurately represent my mood.

After brunch, we desperately needed to move around, so we made our way down 16th Street to the state capitol building. Although the building was closed, we were able to scope out the exterior and pose with the MILE HIGH marker on the stairs.

Unsure of what to do next, we googled what was in the area and found that the Molly Brown house was a short walk away. We made our way over to the beautiful Victorian-era home and signed up for the next available tour. Aside from the fact that she survived the sinking of the Titanic (and was played by Kathy Bates in the movie), I knew very little about Margaret "Molly" Brown, so the tour was fascinating. It provided a glimpse into the history of Denver, as well as an in-depth look at Molly Brown's work as a suffragette and workers' rights activist. The home was gorgeous (and even included indoor plumbing - a rarity for the time) and I left feeling super inspired by Molly and everything she accomplished in a time when women were discouraged from speaking out.

Capitol Building from Molly Brown's front porch.

On the way back to our hotel, we ran into the famous blue bear at the Colorado Convention Center.

For dinner, we decided to check out Casa Bonita, the most absurd Mexican restaurant on the face of the planet. Although it took a 20-minute Uber ride to get there (and we waited at least an hour in the long line to get a table), it was totally worth it to experience this place. It almost defies explanation - Casa Bonita is like a miniature Mexican theme park with unlimited (subpar) food. Seriously, it's all-you-can-eat Mexican food that you wash down with warm, doughy sopapillas and honey for dessert.

However, the draw for Casa Bonita isn't the food - it's the atmosphere. The building itself is enormous, large enough to be an indoor Mexican village complete with a 30-foot waterfall. There are cliff divers, a pirate's cave (Beware of Black Bart), mariachi bands, gunfight shows, an arcade, etc. Somehow, we nabbed a table near the waterfall and were able to watch the diving and gunfight shows, which occur every 15 minutes. Mostly, we sat there in utter disbelief that such a strange place exists. Just to put this into perspective - there is an entire episode of South Park dedicated to Casa Bonita and the restaurant has a Cartman doll tucked into the foliage in honor of his deep-seated love for the place. You have to see it to believe it.

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll to check out more floors of our hotel and see Larimer Square, the historic district where Denver was founded, lit up at night. Gorgeous.

Denver gave us lots of death, good food, and some hockey.

I'm the worst. I know.

I'm not sure why or how I always let so much time pass between blogging bouts, but SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. Like what, you ask? Well...

• My brother and Elizabeth got married.
• I went on my first cruise (with my sister and parents).
• Wheat and I went to Denver for a long weekend.
• I got a horrific case of bronchitis that I'm still slowly recovering from.
• I got a bizarre fingernail infection (paronychia). Immune system, where are you?
• Scarlett turned two somehow.
• Wheat and I went to the 102nd running of the Indy 500.
• Wheat surprised me with tickets to see Wicked (again!). We also saw Anthony Jeselnik and Lea Michele and Darren Criss.
• The Pacers made the playoffs, but were knocked out by LeBron and the Cavaliers in the first round.

So, yeah. Where do I even start?

I'm going to tackle our Denver trip first since it was the longest ago. Let's roll.

In mid-March, Wheat and I took a glorious weekend trip to Denver, a city I've never visited before outside of long airport layovers. We flew out on Friday afternoon, took the airport train to Union Station downtown (which took about 40 minutes), then rode the free 16th Street mall shuttle as close as we could to our hotel.

Airport train views.

Speaking of our hotel, Wheat absolutely SLAYED his research and chose the most Instagrammable hotel in all of Denver, the Curtis. This downtown boutique hotel has different themes on every floor (chick flicks, sports, TV shows, etc.) and we were lucky enough to get a room on the 13th floor - HORROR MOVIES. No big deal - just my personal heaven. Before checking out on Sunday, we visited every single floor to see the amazing themed decorations and little touches. Also, the elevator said theme-related things when stopping on specific floors. Fittingly, ours said, "HERE'S JOHNNY!"

One end of our floor had a floor-to-ceiling picture of the REDRUM twins from The Shining, a perfect choice given that the Stanley Hotel (the one in the movie) is in Estes Park, Colorado. The opposite end of the floor had a picture from Poltergeist while the elevator area was decorated with tons of birds as an homage to the Alfred Hitchcock classic. We had a mountain view room and since The Curtis is a DoubleTree hotel, we also got some warm, gooey cookies upon check-in. Score.

Once we'd settled into our room, we decided to walk along 16th Street, a mile-long, pedestrian-only street lined with restaurants and shops, on our way to dinner. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we took our time passing through Commons Park and crossing the South Platte River along the way.

For dinner, we settled on Linger, a hip bar/restaurant inside a former mortuary...because I'm morbid, I guess. We arrived when they first opened for dinner service, but there was a power outage in the entire area, so we were asked to wait. Minutes later, however, the power was back on and we were given complimentary drink coupons for our "inconvenience." Since we arrived early (and thank goodness we did - the place got packed), we chose a prime spot near the open windows with a great view of downtown.

The restaurant, which takes its name from Olinger Mortuaries, is still filled with several nods to its eerie past. Metal conveyor belts have been turned into tables, water is served in formaldehyde bottles, a church pew serves as the host stand. You get the picture. The mortuary actually held the remains of Buffalo Bill Cody for six months in 1917 while Colorado and Wyoming argued over his final resting place. And though the eatery's haunting past could easily become hokey, the food was anything but.

We were there during happy hour, so we decided to order several small plates. We went with the Mongolian BBQ duck bun, Devils on Horseback (bacon-wrapped dates), sweet potato waffle fries, wagyu slider, and lemongrass pork potstickers. So. Freaking. Good. With the breeze blowing, delicious food, and my handsome date, I honestly could have stayed there for hours.

Unsurprisingly, it was the promise of ice cream that finally tempted me away. We spent all of dinner staring down at Little Man Ice Cream, a popular dessert spot that looks like a giant milk can situated right in front of Linger, so we had to stop on our way back. With cones in-hand, we wandered across the street to a tiny park where we sat on swings while enjoying our ice cream.

Our big event for the evening was actually a hockey game, so we waddled over to the Pepsi Center to see the Colorado Avalanche take on the Nashville Predators. I'm slowly trying to cross every NHL, NFL, and MLB stadium/arena off my list, so it was nice to hit another one. The Predators won, 4-2, and, with the win, became the first team to clinch a berth in the playoffs. We saw a couple goals each from Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg, while captain Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan Mackinnon scored for the Avalanche. Wheat was happy with the outcome and we had fun checking out the hidden treasures in the arena.

Our trip happened to coincide with the first weekend of the March Madness tournament, so we diligently tracked the games. This also happened to be the night that history was made when UMBC became the first 16 seed to defeat a top seed, my beloved Virginia Cavaliers. So, I was furious a little frustrated for the majority of the hockey game. My face here says it all, but - trust me - does not sum up my feelings on the day.