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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Best of Denver
To outsiders, Denver may be just the gateway to the Rocky Mountains and their legendary ski resorts. But over the past few decades, the Mile High City has become a destination in its own right. Once a rustic mining camp, it is now a sprawling metropolis of 2.6 million people. And with an arid climate ideal for exploring the great outdoors, a lively arts scene, and innovative restaurants to rival those in many larger cities, this friendly, unpretentious Western town keeps visitors coming&3151;and coming back.
Attractions & Activities Touring Denver’s outlying areas requires a car, but leave the wheels behind when you go to LoDo, Denver’s compact and walkable lower downtown area and its hippest hood. Here, historic buildings and once-vacant warehouses have found new life as upscale lofts, apartments, and hotels. Larimer Square, with its shops, art galleries, cafés, and restaurants, is LoDo’s heart. Toward the north end of 16th Street, the new Millennium Bridge (designed by the international engineering firm Arup), with a soaring 200-foot mast, has a great view of the area. From there, the nearby free shuttle travels the length of the mile-long 16th Street Mall, an outdoor shopping area that’s great for people-watching. The biggest player in the city’s art scene, the Denver Performing Arts Complex covers four blocks and includes ten separate venues, making it the world’s largest performing arts center. One of the newest halls in the complex, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, is home to Opera Colorado and has a space-age chandelier that folds up and retracts into the ceiling before performances (720-865-4220; artscomplex.com). In the newly minted arts district—nicknamed the Golden Triangle, for the 24-karat-gold-plated dome of the Capitol on its periphery—the Denver Art Museum has an outstanding collection of Native American art that encompasses more than 55,000 works, including pottery, woven textiles, and massive Northwest Coast woodcarvings. Now undergoing an expansion conceived by Daniel Libeskind, the planner of the future World Trade Center site in New York, the museum is mostly closed until October 2006 but should put the city on the map, architecturally speaking, when it reopens with a mix of angular forms jutting skyward like shards of glass (720-865-5000; denverartmuseum.org). Just east of downtown, the 370-acre City Park has a public golf course, tennis courts, and a lake for paddleboats (denvergov.org). It’s also home to the 4,000 animals in the Denver Zoo, including 144 endangered species and Mshindi, the world’s only rhinoceros who paints (303-376-4800; denverzoo.org). On the east side of the park, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is one of the largest natural history museums in the United States and has a planetarium and an IMAX theater. You can admire the Rocky Mountain views on a clear day, or study the night sky through a telescope on the terrace (303-322-7009; dmns.org). A lush escape from downtown’s pavement and skyscrapers, the Denver Botanic Gardens comprises various gardens, each named for a region or for whatever inspired it. The late-1960s-era Conservatory is one of the city’s most distinctive structures, and the Monet Garden mimics the artist’s Giverny plot, complete with a pond filled with—what else?—water lilies (720-865-3500; botanicgardens.org). Lodging For more than a century, Denver’s Victorian Brown Palace Hotel has been the top choice for visiting dignitaries, U.S. presidents, and celebrities, who can be spotted sipping afternoon tea and evening cocktails in the soaring atrium lobby. Another classic dating back to the late 1800s, LoDo’s Oxford Hotel is popular for its spa and fitness center as well as its Art Deco bar, the Cruise Room. Like the city itself, hotels have been booming in the past decade, and there are a few noteworthy newcomers. The rooms at the Hotel Teatro have luxe touches such as Frette linens, huge glass-enclosed showers, and cherrywood accents. Take advantage of the hotel’s complimentary Cadillac Escalade taxi service in the downtown area. The newly opened Hyatt Regency Denver, at the Colorado Convention Center, has a lap pool, an outdoor hot tub, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and excellent downtown and Rockies views. The Kimpton hotel group renovated two landmark buildings to create the Hotel Monaco, near lively 16th Street. Amenities include down comforters, spacious rooms with high-speed Internet access, and an evening wine hour. At the Jet Hotel, in LoDo, the 19 rooms are decorated in a stark contemporary style, and some have balconies. Dining A slab of beef was the dish of the day when this was a sleepy cow town. Not anymore. Over the past decade, the Mile High City has been elevating its culinary profile with an incredibly broad mix of restaurants. At the upscale Mizuna, local star chef Frank Bonanno and his team churn out innovative dishes using only the freshest ingredients for their ever-changing menu. The fare is French-inspired contemporary American, although Asian influences increasingly find their way onto the plate. The crowds come for dishes like the legendary (and buttery) lobster mac and cheese, miso roasted diver scallops with ginger caramelized shallots, and veal sweetbreads saltimbocca with lemon-thyme tagliatelle (225 E. Seventh Ave.; 303-832-4778; entrées, $27–$36). Chef Frank Bonanno brings his passion for freshness and taste to his rustic Italian kitchen at Luca d’Italia, where most of the cheeses, sausages, hand-cured meats, and pastas are made in-house (711 Grant St.; 303-832-6600; entrées, $18–$28). Local celebs and hotshots flock to Barolo Grill for the extensive wine list and the slow-roasted duck braised in red wine and finished with oil-cured olives—a specialty of this northern Italian eatery (3030 E. Sixth Ave.; 303-393-1040; entrées, $16–$30). Pick a spot on the sunny patio at comfortable Rioja, where chef Jennifer Jasinski uses her homemade pastas in dishes such as grilled quail with spinach ravioli and a port wine glaze, and the ever-popular goat cheese–stuffed artichoke tortelloni (1431 Larimer St.; 303-820-2282; entrées, $18–$29). Chef Kevin Taylor, a Colorado native, raised the bar on fine dining in a city stubbornly averse to the white tablecloth when he opened his swanky Restaurant Kevin Taylor in 1998 at the Hotel Teatro. With its French-inspired contemporary American menu and signature dishes such as Maine lobster ravioli and smoked sweet corn soup with barbecued shrimp, the place draws raves. Taylor’s latest venture, Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House, satisfies the palates of music fans in the à la carte dining room at the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House (1106 14th St.; 303-820-2600; entrées, $28–$38). Some of Denver’s most interesting restaurants happen to be Asian. At Sushi Sasa, chef Wayne Conwell gives Denver’s longtime fave, Sushi Den, stiff competition by improvising on Japanese recipes using French and Italian influences (2401 15th St.; 303-433-7272; entrées, $7–$18). Hipsters slide into booths at the Vesta Dipping Grill to plunge skewered meat, seafood, and veggies into bowls of homemade sauces such as cilantro pesto, black pepper aioli, and smoked habanero salsa (1822 Blake St.; 303-296-1970; entrées, $15–$32). In a peaceful setting reminiscent of a Japanese country house, Domo serves simple recipes. The house specialty is nabemono, a brothy traditional soup with fresh fish or meat (1365 Osage St.; 303-595-3666; entrées, $14–$23). It’s easy to forget you’re in a city at Cuba Cuba Café & Bar, in the Golden Triangle. A welcome addition to the scene since its 2001 opening, it has blue-painted walls, drums for tables, and a back patio. The ambience is like the Caribbean itself—fun and colorful—and mojitos are served by the glass or the pitcher and come in seasonal flavors. The menu is small and strictly Cuban, with dishes such as pan-roasted black tiger shrimp, fried plantains, and coconut-crusted tuna. At lunch, go for the Miami-style steak or the pressed pork sandwich (1173 Delaware St.; 303-605-2822; entrées, $15–$21). The Wild West lives on at the Buckhorn Exchange, Denver’s oldest restaurant. Founded by one of Buffalo Bill’s frontiersmen, it has walls lined with animal trophies and historic memorabilia. While rattlesnake, alligator, and elk wander onto the menu, the best bet is the Big Steak, which weighs in at about two pounds (1000 Osage St.; 303-534-9505; entrées, $18–$48). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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