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Best place to eat off campus:
The Market 1445 Larimer Square (303) 534-5140 http://www.themarketatlarimer.com Hours: Mon. - Thurs. 6 a.m. - 11 p.m., Fri./Sat. 6 a.m. - midnight, Sun. 6 a.m. - 10 p.m
(Reader's Choice: Domo)
If you're looking for an affordable and healthy alternative to corporate, on-campus food vendors and off-campus grease pits, The Market should be your preferred in-between-classes destination.
Opened 24 years ago, this European-style restaurant boasts the Best Yankee Pot Roast, the Best Barbecue Brisket Sandwich, the Best Apple Strudel, the Best House Vinaigrette Salad Dressing, and customers go bonkers for the Milk Chocolate Cashew and Pecan Myrtles ($3 each).
The average price for entrees ranges from $7 to $10 and serving sizes are overabundant, so don't be afraid to ask for a to-go container. Desserts tend to be pricey ($3.75 to $5), but they're worth every penny. There is seldom a wait to be served, there are plenty of places to sit/to talk/to WiFi and the ambient noise is well within acceptable levels.
"We're not your typical sit-down restaurant because we have such a huge variety of offerings, which brings people in for different reasons," says Supervising Manager Jennifer Marti. "We really care about our customers - we make everything from scratch every day. We strive to make our customers happy and to ensure that every menu item tastes good so that they enjoy their experience."
- Tom Rockman, Jr.
Cheapest place to eat off campus:
Croc's Mexican Grill 1630 Market St. Denver, CO 80202 (303) 436-1144 www.crocsmexicangrill.com Hours: Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sat./Sun. noon - 2 a.m.
(Reader's Choice: McDonald's)
For this category, our pick is a restaurant that serves reasonably priced grub in a fashionable setting. Everybody knows you can always rely on fast-food restaurants with their dollar menus and garishly colored dining rooms to fill you up, but where can you find affordable food and a little atmosphere? Croc's Mexican Grill, located on Market St. between 16th and 17th St., fits the bill perfectly. Along with big-screen TVs, a fully-stocked bar and a giant crocodile named Hal, you'll find a mix of delicious Mexican and American dishes. The portions are large and there are several entrees that run between $5 and $8 dollars, including a garden burger for you vegheads.
And yes, you can still get your cheap on with some super weekly specials. On Tuesdays, snag a burrito for just $5.50 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., but don't neglect to return on Wednesday for the best deal of all: 99-cent tacos and $1.99 margaritas from 4 p.m. until closing. You can even get in a little exercise, as Croc's is just a few minutes' stroll from campus. Viva el Croc!
- Debra Goldyn
Best vegetarian option off campus:
City, O' City 206 E. 13th Ave. (303) 831-6443 Hours: Mon. - Fri. 7 a.m. - 2 a.m., Sat./Sun. 8 a.m. - 2 a.m. http://www.watercoursefoods.com/
(Reader's Choice: Snack Shack outside the library)
Who loves vegetarian food? Who loves pizza? Well, there is one place where you can get them both together. City, O' City (206 E. 13th Ave.) has pizza for those of you who eat meat and cheese, but they also have the most amazing (and I do mean amazing) vegan pizzas. They have some typical pizzas, but they also have more unique pies. They have one made with a fig sauce that I particularly recommend. And I promise you vegans out there that the people at this restaurant will not look at you funny when you walk in and tell them that you want a pizza without (gasp!) cow cheese. Go check it out.
- Carrie Gebel
Best place to grab coffee off campus:
Metropolitan Mudd Coffee Company 1516 Wazee St. (303) 534-5887 Hours: Mon. - Fri. 7 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
After countless visits to Denver-area coffee houses in the last five years, I have discovered the ambrosia or nectar of the coffee gods - the Metro Muddslide and the White Washed - at Metropolitan Mudd Coffee Company.
The secret ingredients: Start with Vail Mountain Coffee as a base. Then add chocolate sauce, vanilla extract, and two shots of espresso to the first; and white chocolate, macadamia nut and two shots of espresso to the second. Yum!
"My sister and I were tired of tasting bad coffee, so we decided to start our own business chain," says coffee entrepreneur Lonny Brewer. "The master vision was to create some place with a nostalgic atmosphere and décor where customers could relax and be more comfortable while providing good service and the best coffee that we could find."
The coffee house is filled with incongruent themes and eclectic finds. It's as if Brewer went to a middle-class rummage sale and strategically placed a bunch of mismatched objects around the shop. Even the red-burgundy/burnt-orange wall paint with missed splotches seems strange, yet purposeful.
Skye, a longtime customer and newly hired employee, says that Metropolitan Mudd is always quality testing their products and continuously searching for the best specialty coffees to add to their menu. "Let me just say that there's a lot of love that goes into making every drink," she says. "We grind our own coffee to order and we guarantee the fresh taste."
If that doesn't convince you, this should help: UCD students and faculty get 15 percent off with a valid ID.
- Tom Rockman, Jr.
Greasiest place to eat off campus:
The Park Tavern and Restaurant 931 E. 11th Ave. (303) 832-7667 Hours: 8 a.m. - 2 a.m. (Kitchen closes at 1 a.m.) www.theparktavern.com
There's a place, Potager, nestled in the cozy Capitol Hill confines on 11th and Ogden, that serves food like the gods themselves were coming for dinner. The fish is flaky, the stews are steamy and the fowl is anything but. It is a restaurant not unlike heaven itself.
But just one Frisbee throw around the corner lies food hell. A saloon of the illest repute, The Park isn't so much a restaurant as it is a pit of grease where, if you're unlucky, a restaurant will occasionally break out. It is the greasiest place to eat off campus.
I'm thinking their strategy is to work off the meat-market value of the place. To say that sex is easy to come by at The Park is to say that the ocean is easy to find at the shore. It's so loose that the crabs have their own restroom.
So you can see management's plan working, right? Get 'em liquored up, get 'em slathered up and let the games begin. So you can forget slouching towards Gomorrah, once you've had a serving or two of the 40 weight at the Park you'll be slip-n-sliding your way to losing your virginity all over again. Be sure to bring some wet wipes. Bring a case.
- R. K. Liggin
Grossest place to eat off campus:
David Long's apartment
David Long is a good, good friend of mine; but he's not a very clean friend of mine. In fact, he's quite the slob.
Take, for example, his apartment: books, papers, dirty clothes strewn about; skateboards in various states of disrepair clogging the doorways; a handful of waxen, half-eaten candy bars slowly decomposing in the corner; beer cans everywhere - some crushed, some newly half empty, some rusting away after years of lying in the same position, incubating new life forms within. The place is a federal disaster area - real code red. (There're rumors of a cat, but scientists are unable to agree on just how mammals would survive in this environment.)
Now imagine dining in this, the grossest place to eat off campus. One needs a titanium stomach and the will of the gods just to think about it.
I did eat there once. Barely. Let's see...there was something resembling a mystery meat pudding. And there were vegetables, too, served over month-old underwear. (Skid marks make choice food!) The Soylent Green I fed to the roaches.
All in all it was an experiment I'll not soon repeat. Think I'd rather suck on spent nuclear fuel. Still, if that cat ever turns up, I might invite myself back over for some puddy tat barbeque.
- R. K. Liggin
Best happy hour off campus: Bender's @ 13th and Grant
The best happy hour is at Bender's, a bar located off of 13th and Grant. They've done some remodeling recently and the place really shows it. It has lots of seating and boasts an outside area in the back for smokers, cloud-watchers and stargazers.
They have live music on the weekends and two stage areas, complete with two loaded bars. From 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., Bender's serves $1.50 domestic drafts, $2 domestic bottles, $2.50 micro drafts and $2.50 wells. What's more, Bender's is far enough from LoDo to avoid the tide of meat-market pretenders that get in the way of a thirsty throat and the bartender. Bender's: love it and leave it, just be safe getting home.
- Justin Breuer
Cheapest drink deal off campus:
Player's @ the Adam's Mark Hotel
Located in the Adam's Mark Hotel is a small bar that resembles a generic version of an airport bar. There're no bells or whistles other than two TVs. There's no jukebox or typical bar games like pool or foosball, but they do have occasional popcorn.
Player's sets itself apart from other local bars by offering a two-for-one deal. At $2 drinks, it's quite the night and day inside Player's. It is recommended that you go with friends; then you can share drinks, trading off rounds. And it's in the heart of Denver, a quick bounce from most places downtown. It has the location, it has the drink deal and you don't have to dress up: the best cheapest drink deal in Denver.
The Adam's Mark Hotel is located between 15th and 16th on Court Place.
- Justin Breuer
Biggest dive bar:
The Larimer Lounge 2721 Larimer St. (303) 291-1007 www.larimerlounge.com
It's late and you're uptown with a hankerin' for tunes; you need a 10-cent beer and a place where you can puke without criticism. Maybe, just maybe, you need a grilled frank, too. Go figure. What you need, then, is some of the L squared, Denver's biggest dive of a bar: The Larimer Lounge.
The Larimer is a special place - special, that is, if you're a fan of armpits. I'm not saying it's unreasonably grotty, but you wouldn't want to take a dump in this thing if it were the last toilet on earth - which at times it is.
Still, for what it lacks, the Larimer shines. It is, after all, the only place in Denver committed to staging live music 365 days a year. And its three-section, shotgun hall remains locally famous for drawing the best of the worst, the greatest freak show on earth. Besides, hot dogs on the back deck on a cool summer night? Even the rats can't complain.
- R. K. Liggin
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