 "Photo: Alicia Schuster / UCD Advocate")
Compared to a bigger city, Denver might sometimes seem a little plain, especially where its nightlife is concerned. UC Denver’s Drew Bixby couldn’t disagree more.
With a regular column in the Westword, “Drunk of the Week,” and a new book, Denver’s Best Dive Bars, Drinking And Diving In The Mile High City, Bixby may well be the most reliable source of alcohol-related information in the metro area.
Bixby, however, is not your typical drunk. He is also the assistant director of the Writing Center and an instructor of writing for the English department at UCD. In fact, according to Bixby, writing about booze was more a random occurrence than a conscious choice.
“When I moved to Denver in 2005, I immediately started freelancing for Westword...and then Patty Calhoun, the editor of Westword, asked if I wanted to write the ‘Drunk of the Week’ column,” said Bixby. “And so from there I guess the rest is history.”
He’s not even sure how long it will last.
“To be honest, I don’t know how long I can sustain it, you know?” he said. “I can’t decide whether I want to be typecast into writing about booze or whether I need to write about other things.”
along, Bixby couldn’t turn it down.
“[The publisher] got in touch with me and I said I wanted to do it. They found me,” said Bixby.
Denver’s Best Dive Bars catalogs nearly a hundred of Denver’s seediest, least affluent drinking establishments. Although he staunchly refuses to rank any of these saloons from best to worst, Bixby does begrudgingly provide a list of his 10 favorite spots to drink with the local color.
“The publisher made me put a top 10 in the book,” said Bixby. “I didn’t want to, and I managed to win the rights not to rank them in order of one to 10, so they’re just alphabetical.”
According to Bixby, the definition of a dive bar is hard to pin down.
“It’s everything from carpet and wood paneling to wooden nickels to liquor bottles with prices written on them to trophies,” said Bixby. “A definition of a dive bar, it’s the best question to dodge. It’s some picture painted with most of those elements.”
Despite his role as Denver’s premiere dive bar journalist, when it comes to his academic life, Bixby is all-pro.
According to Christy Boerckel, a consultant at the Writing Center, “Drew is all business. He’s all business except when he’s cracking us up.”
But Bixby thinks he’s headed in the right direction.
“I would love to continue to do exactly what I’m doing now, which is teaching, and writing, and responsibly enjoying alcohol—responsibly enjoying alcohol irresponsibly,” said Bixby.
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