Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Tom's Urban 24

Smashburger founder Tom Ryan's new 24-hour diner in Larimer Square is open! 



It's at 15th and Larimer in the spot once occupied by Samba Room. The space has been redesigned, with the staircase to the second floor moved from the door to the back wall behind the U-shaped bar and with windows stretching from the top of the second floor to the ground. There's an aqua and orange color scheme going on to reinforce the diner feel.

The prices are slightly pricier than your dive diner but far lower than other dining options in Larimer Square. The diner serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and it's late-night menu has breakfast/lunch/dinner type options. As Ryan describes it, the menu has nouns that may sound familiar, but the adjectives are different. He also describes it as modern comfort food with an urban edge. So there's pho on the menu, but it's not at all Asian pho. In fact, it makes use of the same meats that go into the tacos.

Our table tried the trio of snack tacos (top); fig jam and grilled cheese with sweet potato waffle fries (perfectly cooked, crispy to bite into but soft inside) and nice mix of sweet and salt (bottom left) and the pizza with hoisin duck (bottom right).























The drink menu is creative, with fun cocktail names like 50 Shades of Grey Goose. I tried a Utah mule (non alcoholic moscow mule).

We also tried a bit of the large shrimp salad and Colorado Hot Brown, which could be good for the drunkards (warm pot of house-roasted turkey, smoked ham, sourdough, bacon, cheese, cilantro, roasted tomato and a kick from green chile) except it might only be on the dinner menu not late night....

This place also makes its own pop tarts in the morning and donuts. Go to the side door if you just want takeout.

Another dining option for people who get out of work after 10 p.m. or 2 a.m. and want something hot to eat

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Raveonettes

Can't condone the actions in this video, but the music in The Raveonettes' "Curse the Night" is pretty fantastic. I didn't pay attention to the lyrics either, so I have no idea if it's wildly offensive. But here's the video:


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Wallflowers ... w/Jakob&Rami playing free at anti-fracking rally today

The Wallflowers play in Denver tomorrow night (10/24), but Jakob Dylan and Rami Jaffee are playing one day early, TODAY, at the Frack Free Colorado Rally at Civic Center Park. The rally is 3 p.m. - 7 p.m., and Daryl Hannah is supposed to be there too. eTown and others are among the supporters/organizers.

The Wallflowers' entire new album "Glad All Over" is available for free streaming at their website. Watch the lyrics for each song scroll by.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

"Becoming Van Gogh" ...tips

We got to see "Becoming Van Gogh" at the Denver Art Museum the other day...You must buy reserved tickets for a specific date and time. The best times to go right now will probably be afternoons because school groups have taken up lots of  morning times during the week. The museum has been quiet on recent Sunday mornings too. The first 2 weeks are expected to be busy (the exhibit opens Sunday and runs for about 12 weeks)

There are audio guides available for a nominal fee (free for members). If you choose to use it and listen to all the audio, give yourself about 90 minutes to 2 hours to get through the exhibit and look at all the pieces.

Scroll down for our previous post on the exhibit. And here's more on the exhibit

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Matisyahu

Mr. T went to see Matisyahu at the Boulder Theater last night. He says Matisyahu cut his hair and beard and now looks like Jimmy Fallon. Here's a cellphone pic, but looks like we'll have to take his word for it.



For the encore, the bouncers gathered a bunch of people in the first few rows, and they all got to dance on stage.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

"Becoming Van Gogh" ... becomes an exhibit

Timothy Standring, Denver Art Museum


The Denver Art Museum is getting ready for the opening of "Becoming Van Gogh," a one-of-a kind exhibit exploring how the self-taught artist developed his signature style.

We stopped in last week as one painting from a private collection was unpacked from its box ...




... inspected ...




and hung on the wall.



At that point, several paintings had yet to arrive. Brown paper the same size as the frame of each piece was placed on the wall as placeholders for each piece that hadn't arrived yet. A color snapshot of each painting was taped below that brown paper as a reference.

The 12-week exhibit, which opens Oct. 21 for the general public, was curated by Timothy Standring. He has spent about seven years working on the exhibit, which means a lot of traveling for him to secure each piece for the show. (The Denver Art Museum doesn't own any Van Goghs.)