HERE ARE PEAK’S PICKS FOR 16 MUST-SEE DESTINATIONS, CULLED FROM A COLORFUL NEW GUIDEBOOK TO THE FRONT RANGE.
I’VE LONG FELT THE DRAW OF DENVER, a city hemmed in by the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. This former mining depot and crossroads town, founded on the banks of the South Platte in 1858—back when the buffalo actually roamed—is steeped in Western history. It’s grown into a hip place for artists, athletes, breweries and startups. Read on for excerpts of a handful of entries cherrypicked from my new book, 111 Places in Denver That You Must Not Miss (111places.com, Emons Verlag, 2022), with fabulous photography from Susie Inverso. You’ll find a diverse selection of places to explore, from car museums to elevated cocktail joints to purveyors of heritage Western wear.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
1. GHOST RIDER BOOTS
Mickey Mussett found his calling in making cowboy boots in fine leather. Visits to his garage-based Ghost Rider Boots (ghostriderboots.com) are by appointment only, and Mussett lavishes attention on his customers. “Senator John Hickenlooper sat right there under the cow,” he says. Everything in the shop feels well-worn and ancient. The dusty sewing machines and heel grinder are pushing 100 years old. Mussett works on each pair of boots for approximately 80 hours, hand-tooling custom designs into the leather and inlaying exotic patterns—in elephant, ostrich, lizard, alligator and cow.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
2. NOVO COFFEE
You know a coffee shop means business when it buys a handbuilt MVP Hydra espresso machine from Synesso in Seattle. Heavy as a stack of lead ingots and complicated as a nuclear submarine, Synesso espresso machines are known for operating at precise, stable temperatures and even pressure—ensuring the creamy, rich flavor that espresso pulls are known for. Novo Coffee (novocoffee.com) air-roasts its own beans purchased directly from coffee producers and farms from around the world. The Novo coffee shop at Glenarm Place is all concrete and steel with sharp lines and bright colors. The company also has a roastery in RiNo, offering tours and coffee-making classes.
THE CRUISE ROOM OPENED IN 1933, THE DAY AFTER PROHIBITION ENDED
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
3. THE CRUISE ROOM
Modeled after the HMS Queen Mary, this Denver treasure is softly bathed in trippy, pink lighting. The high ceilings, art deco wall panels and large leather booths put you in the mood for a fabulous cocktail, preferably a martini. Located off the lobby of The Oxford (theoxfordhotel.com), which opened in 1891, The Cruise Room is intimate and boozy and the kind of place that calls for dressing up. The bar opened in 1933, the day after Prohibition ended, after already having operated as a clandestine speakeasy throughout the ban. It’s been in continuous operation since.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
4. ACTOR’S ALLEY
Denver Center for the Performing Arts (denvercenter.org) has been a valued stop, or tour debut, for hundreds of touring Broadway shows—everything from Book of Mormon to Little Shop of Horrors. Located in the bowels of the DCPA complex, Actor’s Alley honors every Broadway show that’s ever played here. Its hallways are covered by hundreds of painted show bills, each mural signed by the cast. The public can only see this unique art form by signing up for a venue tour.
A ROCKMOUNT SHIRT CAN EVEN BE FOUND ON DISPLAY AT THE SMITHSONIAN.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
5. ROCKMOUNT RANCH WEAR
Denver’s Jack Weil designed the Western shirt in the 1940s, pulling from cowboy culture. The button snaps, shoulder yokes and stiff collar are all designed for ranch work. Weil started Rockmount Ranch Wear (rockmount.com) in 1946 and worked daily until he was 107. His family runs the business to this day out of a century-old brick building in the heart of LoDo. Rockmount shirts are distinctive, living artifacts of Americana. The Rockmount website has a gallery devoted to celebrities who wear (or wore) the brand, from Elvis Presley and Macklemore to Jack Black and Salvador Dali. A Rockmount shirt can even be found on display at the Smithsonian.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
6. STRANAHAN’S WHISKEY
Founded in 2004 by George Stranahan, a physicist, rancher and heir to the Champion Spark plug fortune, Stranahan’s Whiskey (stranahans.com) is Denver’s first commercial distillery since Prohibition. Using just four ingredients—malted barley, yeast, water and charred oak barrels—the whiskeys are distilled, aged and bottled at the Denver location, a former printing press and brewery. The distillery is filled with shimmering copper stills, strange, bulbous works of art with pipes emanating at every angle. Every week, 60,000 pounds of mostly Colorado-grown barley are delivered. The barley is toasted in batches at different temperatures and rates, then blended. The final mixture of toasted barleys is integral to the brand’s distinct flavor profile. Stranahan’s Whiskey is distilled twice to achieve the perfect flavor, then blended with fresh spring water from nearby Eldorado Springs to achieve the desired proof.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
7. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART
Housing the American Museum of Western Art (anschutzcollection.org), the Navarre Building is a faithfully restored brick Victorian built in 1880. The collection, displayed salon style, crowds every square inch of wall space in roughly chronological order. Walking the four floors is a revealing immersion into Western mythmaking. The 300-plus works burst with color and nostalgic pathos. Look down the wrought iron spiral staircase to see remnants of the subterranean service tunnel that once connected the Navarre Building to The Brown Palace hotel. Wealthy hotel patrons once used this tunnel to frequent the prostitutes back when the Navarre Building was a jazz club and brothel.
WALKING THE FOUR FLOORS IS A REVEALING IMMERSION INTO WESTERN MYTHMAKING.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
8. ASHTANGA YOGA DENVER
Serious yogi or just yoga curious? Go to The Cube. All skylights and soaring ceilings, this square building is a former art gallery that now hosts Ashtanga Yoga Denver (denverashtangayoga.com). To enter the practice room, students step across beautifully carved wooden thresholds, tactile talismans sourced in southern India to remind all that yoga’s intentional movement and breathing are deliberate formulas for change.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
9. ERICO MOTORSPORTS
Owner John Beldock turned his passion for wrenching and racing into a business 25 years ago and has made it a priority to root the culture of his shop in motorcycle history. The meticulously restored, candy-apple red 1956 Moto Guzzi Lodola on display at Erico Motorsports (ericomotorsports.com) would hold its own in any museum. Housed in a 1930s brick warehouse and former metal fabrication plant, the shop carries Italian-made Moto Guzzi and Ducati motorcycles as well as Vespa, Piaggio and Aprilia scooters. Erico custom-designs bikes too. Think stripped-down cafe racers, ferocious Grand Prix-inspired street racers and cute Roman Holiday scooters.
THINK STRIPPED-DOWN CAFE RACERS, FEROCIOUS GRAND PRIX-INSPIRED STREET RACERS AND CUTE ROMAN HOLIDAY SCOOTERS.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
10. BLAIR-CALDWELL RESEARCH LIBRARY
Massive and stark, the African American Spirit of the West bas-reliefs by Denver artist Jay Warren adorn the front of the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library (denverlibrary.org). The 40,000-square-foot building in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood opened in 2003 after years of dogged lobbying for an educational institution that accurately reflected the Black experience in Denver. One wing celebrates the achievements of prominent Black Denverites, including the Tuskegee Airmen, the military pilots and airmen of WWII who fought with deadly efficiency, despite being excluded from training and serving with white service members and, in some cases, despite being provided with outdated airplanes and equipment.The library is slated to reopen this summer after a significant renovation.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
11. CLYFFORD STILL MUSEUM
The Clyfford Still Museum (clyffordstillmuseum.org) is a jaw-dropping tour de force of modern architecture by Brad Cloepfil. It’s an intimidating cement square that squats next to the soaring exuberance of the Denver Art Museum. Still’s art is a joyful juxtaposition to the building’s mass. Light and color burst from Still’s paintings and from select use of windows throughout the structure. The effect is a meditative masterpiece. But you cannot miss the second-floor terraces. These graceful, semi-outdoor spaces are covered by delicate latticework and lush lawns underfoot. In the perpetual bustle of the city, their quiet peace hides in plain sight.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
12. SACRED THISTLE
Sydney and Cornelia Peterson, the mother-daughter duo that runs Sacred Thistle (sacredthistle.com), both went to art school, and it shows. The thoughtfully curated space has the quiet feel of an art gallery, as the store’s displays take on an almost sculptural aspect in aggregate. Take your time to wander the creaky wood floors, ogle the glass case of sea shells or caress the colorful wall of impossibly soft Pendleton blankets. The cut flower arrangements are a tableaux of strange shapes and colors. If the Japanese art of ikebana is your thing, Sacred Thistle is the place to go.
THIS YELLOW THREE-SPEED CONVERTIBLE WAS SAID TO BE AMELIA EARHART’S FAVORITE FOR HAVING SET HER FREE IN A MALE-DOMINATED SOCIETY.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
13. FORNEY MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION
Amelia Earhart was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Her aviation skill and bravery made her a worldwide celebrity. Earhart purchased the 1923 Kissel Model 45 “Gold Bug” Speedster on display at the Forney Museum of Transportation (forneymuseum.org) for $1,895 ($31,000 in today’s dollars). This yellow three-speed convertible was said to be her favorite for having set her free in a male-dominated society. She reportedly drove it like a demon. Most of the museum’s more than 600 vehicles—electric-powered drag racing motorcycles, wooden bicycles, trolley cars, helicopters, trains, cars and snowmobiles—didn’t have famous owners, but their unique places in transportation history make them just as fascinating.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
14. THE SOURCE HOTEL & MARKET HALL
The Source (thesourcehotel.com), a design-forward hotel in RiNo, is pleasingly modern—all glass and cement. The view from the rooftop deck of Woods restaurant is spectacular. In contrast, The Source Market Hall next door is housed in a brick and timber building that originally served as the Colorado Iron Works plant, which bellowed steam and belched steel from the 1870s through the mid-1900s. The Source incorporated old pieces from the foundry into the building’s modern redesign, retaining the cavernous space, vaulted ceiling and skylights. There’s a total of 45,000 square feet of space and about 25 vendors, including restaurants, a butcher, a florist and a liquor store. The focus is artisanal. The Reunion Bread Co., for one, creates the finest bread crust and pastries imaginable.
THE COLORADO IRON WORKS PLANT BELLOWED STEAM AND BELCHED STEEL FROM THE 1870S THROUGH THE MID-1900S.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
15. HISTORY MARKERS
Hollywood may have its sidewalk stars, but Denver has historical plaques commemorating the people and history unique to the Centennial State. Small and inconspicuously placed in the sidewalk on California street between 15th and 16th, these twelve square bronze plaques honor historical figures like Jack Kerouac, Oscar Wilde, Butch Cassidy, Glenn Miller and Jack Dempsey. A local favorite is the plaque for the Denver omelet. The plaque claims the recipe was concocted “to mask the stale flavor of eggs shipped by wagon freight.” Culinary historians speculate the dish was originally created for cowboys on cattle drives. A more plausible theory is that Chinese railroad cooks developed the meal as transportable egg foo young.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSIE INVERSO
16. TWIST AND SHOUT
Founded in 1988, Twist & Shout Records (twistandshout.com) never abandoned vinyl. Rummage through the shop’s 11,000 square feet, and you’ll find a meticulously curated collection of rare, out-of-print and imported vinyl from every artist and genre under the sun. The walls are covered in album art and historic memorabilia. There’s a remnant of the original sign for the Rainbow Ballroom, a hopping local dance hall from 1933 to 1961, where touring big bands were guaranteed to play—everyone from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Lawrence Welk and Chuck Berry.
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