Eat, Sip and Spin in....Denver
Making some of the best music players on earth isn’t the only thing we do at Victrola. Our staff loves to travel, loves record stores, loves to eat, loves a fine cocktail, and loves to hunt for the best places to do all those things in every metropolis in the United States. We want to share our favorite places with you, so we invented Eat, Sip, and Spin in…to tell you about our favorite places to do those things.
For this second edition, we are featuring the home to Victrola’s HQ, Denver, Colorado. The Victrola offices are in RiNo, the art district of the city, which is also home to some of our favorite bars, restaurants, and concert venues. We’ll get to that in a minute, though. First, we would be remiss to leave out that Denver boasts somewhere around 300 days of sun every year, so as we lay out our favorites for you, know that it’s with a backdrop of sunshine, mountain air, and maybe even a little Colorado buzz.
Eat:
The perfect Denver day starts with coffee, a sweet treat, and maybe a spin through a local record store. One of our favorites is Leven Deli Co., which serves the most delicious breakfast burritos (green chilies included, a Denver must) and locally-roasted Huckleberry coffee. Don’t skip their pastries, either.
Denver is famously a very neighborhood-y city, similar to NYC in that every section comes complete with its own vibe. If you are looking for an afternoon of bar and brewery hopping complete with some seriously stunning street murals and a 100% chance of seeing a bachelorette party, RiNo is your play. Welcome to our hood. Cart Driver and Mister Oso are some of our favorite lunch stops.
If you’re looking for a more low-key option, we recommend shopping and eating along Tennyson Street, 15 minutes North of the city in the Highlands. Here we recommend Blackbelly and Eloise.
For dinner, you can’t miss our neighbors Hop Alley, where the duck confit fried rice will haunt you (in a good way) for the rest of your days. Also, it might seem counterintuitive to have raw fish in a landlocked state, but actually, fresh catches are flown in daily on overnight flights and often arrive in Denver before they even reach cities on the coasts. That’s why we recommend Sushi Den, a Denver institution with its own dedicated fish buyers in Japan. If you can’t snag a reservation there, we also love it’s very hip sister, Temaki Den.
One of the most hip (and Michelin-decorated) restaurants in Denver right now is Alma Fonda Fina, a contemporary Mexican concept that books out months in advance. If you’re lucky enough to get seated, don’t miss the dish that put them on the map, camote asada, and their strangely delicious avocado margarita.
Sip:
Similar to the Twin Cities, which we featured in our last email, Denver is a massive hub for all things craft beer. If hop-based drinks are on your agenda, don’t miss Our Mutual Friend, Cerebral, and Zuni Street Brewing.
For cocktails, speakeasy Williams & Graham should be at the top of your list. Legend has it that Mick Jagger always stops there for a drink before his shows when he’s in town. Stop by Occidental for a more dive-y experience next door. For an extra swanky, extra spendy cocktail experience, try Death & Co inside the Ramble Hotel. Walk-ins are welcome, but we recommend grabbing a reservation here just to be safe.
Next up on our list is Wax Trax, Denver’s oldest independent record store. They got their start as the first record store in the state importing Punk and New Wave from England in the 70s, and while their selection has expanded, you can feel its history when you walk through the doors.
If you have a car and the time for one of the most easy and beautiful day trips of your life, head 35 minutes north to Boulder and visit our friends at Paradise Found Records. They’ve been in the biz for over 30 years now, and there’s nothing better than scoring a rare record with the Boulder Flatirons as your backdrop.
