Pinkberry Comes to Denver
Yes, Pinkberry, the tart premium frozen yogurt franchise that got its start in Southern California (and home to Swirly Goodness) is coming to Denver’s 16th Street Mall this July. Looks like they’re taking over the old Peet’s Coffee & Tea at 1600 Glenarm Place. And while I was seriously bummed to see Peet’s go, I’m happy that Pinkberry is taking its place just in time for summer. I’m even happier that it’s not going to be another Starbucks or Subway. Seriously… how many Fourbucks do we need along the 16th Street Mall, people?
While Pinkberry is located mostly in Southern California, with roughly a dozen stores in New York City, there are many competitors out there, including Red Mango which, according to my best gal pal Leona, has an outpost in Seattle. I’m most looking forward to the sleek green-and-blue striped facade, carefully crafted interior, and Philippe Starck plastic furniture that all help compliment the product, while hopefully injecting some good design sense to Denver’s 16th Street Mall.
Be sure to listen to The Lady Tigra’s incredibly catchy jingle “Sorry Ice Cream,” Pinkberry’s signature song, below.
“Sorry Ice Cream” by Rachel de Rougemont aka The Lady Tigra:
Ladies Fancywork Society: Cow and Calf
Looks like the LFS struck again… This time upon the Denver Art Museum’s pair of bronze sculptures Scottish Angus Cow and Calf. DOD caught glimpse of the crochet street art group’s handiwork along 12th Avenue early Friday morning. These cows never looked cuter. Go Ladies!
Sarah’s House
Yes, it’s been some time since Blake last wrote a HGTV related post… one may say he’s participating in a HGTV episode of his own. In the meantime, I’ve taken the opportunity to share a little HGTV favorite of my own. While Blake may prefer the Real Estate shows, I lean more towards the Makeover shows and, occasionally, I’m fortunate enough to catch Sarah’s House—currently one of my favorite HGTV series. This has do mostly with host Sarah Richardson and her aptly named “design sidekick” Tommy Smythe.
Sarah Richardson
The series follows Canadian interior designer Sarah Richardson (left) through the entire process of purchasing a swinging 60s back-split in dire need of an update and renovating it room by room. Each episode is devoted entirely to a particular room—Master Bedroom, Kitchen and Dining Room, Living Room and Front Entry—or other projects like modernizing the exterior by replacing landscaping and color tinting brick. We see her do it all—budgeting, conceptualizing, choosing materials, managing sometimes messy renovations, and often learning something new through the process—while creating, in my mind, some spectacular and highly function spaces. It’s an interesting look into the reality of renovating when timelines are tight, dollars are limited, and style is the mandate. I find myself unable to walk away from the television once it comes on.
Tommy Smythe
Tommy Smythe (right) may be slight in stature, but he is clearly the show’s sleeper… I just want to pick him up and put him in my pocket! He’s equal parts drama, high style, and super-organized site manager. His reactive personality and Sarah’s unwavering focus combine into a magnetic chemistry.
Sarah’s House airs on HGTV Saturdays at 8:30 p.m./7:30 central.
See more photos of the makeover here.
Tomte. Modern Craft
Last weekend a good gal pal and I went for a little bike ride… I know. Truth be told, it was more of a booze cruise on two wheels. Wine is not a great substitute for water by the way and it has the opposite effect of Gatorade. However, it tastes a hell of a lot better. Before things got boozy we dropped by an adorable little shop called Tomte, located at 1644 Platte Street. It was an unexpected surprise… and an amazing find.
Tomte: small, but strong.
I did a little research. A tomte is a mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore. It’s believed that they watched over a farmer’s home, as well as his children, protecting them from misfortune, especially at night, when everyone was asleep. Cute little guy.
Tomte features lots of great handmade products, many of them made locally: sewn goods, tea towels, shirts, and glassware. Some of the products that stood out to us were some amazing little terrariums incorporating tiny, beautiful ceramic deer. I can’t recall that last time I saw a terrarium, let alone one that I would want to display in my own home. Other highlights included a collection of rather uniquely hand crafted mushroom-shaped birdhouses that hung from a tree branch suspended from the ceiling; graphic tees printed on what has to be one of the best made shirts out there these days; a noteworthy selection of screen-printed tea towels, coasters, and placemats; and a collection of buttons employing recycled security envelope patterns.
Birdhouses by Denver’s own Michael McDowell
I could have easily dropped more than the ten-spot on the handmade tote bag I picked up for myself. And, before we headed off to grape filled pastures, I quickly made a few notes to myself for my gal pal’s upcoming birthday. If you have the chance to stop by Tomte. Modern Craft, I highly suggest it… not only are you supporting locally made products, but showing Denver that talented local designers are worth investing in.
Deluxe Burger: Love in a Bun
Last night Blake and I joined a few of our best gal pals to try out Deluxe Burger, the newly opened joint venture between chef Dylan Moore (of the restaurant Deluxe and neighboring bar Delite) and mid-century furniture outlet Mod Livin’ on East Colfax Avenue. The place was jumping!
With their use of bold color, large-scale George Nelson bubble lamps, and customized furniture they’ve transformed a dreary former liquor store into a gourmet, chef-driven burger joint were everything on the menu is made in-house, including the ketchup, mustard, pickles, and fries.
In addition to standard burgers, made with Angus beef, ground free-range chicken, and ground ahi tuna, the concise menu offers up a number of “signature burgers” without being over-whelming. These include a BBQ Burger, the Spicy Tuna Burger, and a Truffle Burger. Nothing knocked the seven of us off of our chairs (well, perhaps the Diet Coke that Blake ordered in a bottle he had never seen before…. and Blake’s had a lot of Diet Coke), but we were all very pleased with our choices… enough so that most of us will return to try out more of the menu.
The Denver Burger
I had the Denver Burger, which came with sautéed Anaheim chilies, onions, pico, cheddar cheese, and smoked jalapeno aioli. It was a great tasting burger. I personally wanted to experience a little more spice or smoke considering all the ingredients the burger was topped with. Blake enjoyed his Basil BLT Chicken Burger, and the Truffle Burger with shiitake mushrooms and truffled swiss cheese was a hit.
One thing that we all generally agreed upon was that the fries could use some fine-tuning. Now, you’re not going to be able to please everyone. For instance, Blake likes his fries thinner (shocking!) and crispy. In fact, I think he was so upset that he ate most if not all of the accompanying ketchup… and Blake don’t eat ketchup! Is it ketchup if it doesn’t come out of a bottle? That’s another discussion… I like the crispy thin fries, but I also really enjoy a thicker cut steak fry like my mother made in the Fry Daddy. Let’s face it… I love my potatoes. It’s the Irish blood in me body.
Deluxe Tuna Burger and Truffle & Parm Fries
Deluxe offers “Fat Fries” (do fries make you fat?) that fall closer to my personal preference. We all felt that the hand cut fries with fresh thyme and garlic could have been crispier… it wasn’t that they were underdone, but maybe they needed another toss in the oil. Oddly enough the truffle and parm fries had more of the crisp everyone was after. Perhaps it was the addition of the parmesan?
One member of our team had the homemade tomato soup topped with fresh basil…. I think he enjoyed it! Another had the Orangecicle Shake which I now wish I had ordered.
Home Made Tomato Soup w/ Fresh Basil
When ordering I asked the cashier whether the Denver Burger was messy, she told me that “all of our burgers are messy” and when it came to eating them, it was recommended that we leave the burger inside the half-wrapper that they serve it in. This did make it easier to eat, but some of those juices still escaped from our clutches. That said, we were all very impressed by how well the Kaiser buns held up and tasted!
All I know is that my meal got me through the rest of the evening which involved some heavy drinking… I woke up this morning feeling great and looking fabulous. Thanks Deluxe Burger!
Burger Juice!
Next on our list of burger joints, H-Burger in the Sugar Cube building on the 16th Street Mall. Stay tuned.
Doors Open Denver 2010
Doors Open Denver is a free two-day event that celebrates architecture and design. The event is designed to create access, awareness, and excitement about good design in Denver. It’s also a great opportunity to go behind the scenes of the city’s many historic and modern architectural sites, as well as lesser-known treasures typically inaccessible to the general public. This year’s program is being held Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
CultureHaus Saturday Night at DAM
On Saturday night the DOD boys (and a very good lady friend of ours) attended CultureHaus’s big event at the Denver Art Museum: a celebration of the current DAM exhibit, Embrace, a multi-media show in which 17 artists have taken over the Libeskind-designed Hamilton Wing with their installations.
CultureHaus bills itself as the DAM-affiliated educational and social organization for the “young at heart” to appreciate art. They sponsor talks and social functions for their members, and for anyone else willing to buy a ticket. This particular event was probably attended by between 200 and 300 people and it was a relatively young crowd. It was also a badly dressed crowd. Or, at the very least, it was a crowd that had taken this opportunity – oh so rare in Denver – to dress up! Now in many ways we applaud this as there is far too little dressing up done in the relentlessly casual Mile High City, but sometimes people get a little carried away. There were a number of young and not-so-young women who had worn skin-tight or skin-baring clothing that seemed more appropriate to wearing out to “the club.” It was just a little too well lit at the DAM for this sort of attire: lots of strappy, slinky dresses and what one friend of mine calls “novelty tops”: minimalist blouses of somewhat complicated construction that do not really resemble blouses in the traditional sense. The men tended toward a uniform of jeans, blazer, and button-down shirt, the DOD boys among them. Some paired this with ties; most did not. One intrepid fashion innovator even paired his with a small mink stole (more on this below). One trend I have been noting of late is the blazer with deconstructed or unfinished edges that almost look fringe-like with threads hanging from every edge. I’m not yet sure what I think about this. On the other hand, I do know what I think about blazers with all kinds of graphics all over the back, including words and phrases and images (eagles and falcons tend to predominate). I saw one last weekend in SF with the word “Arrogant” in huge letters across the shoulders. Horrible. Unsightly. Unfortunate.
I could go on about the art – and indeed we took a stroll through the exhibits, one of which, “The Bathers” by John McEnroe, is featured above – but I’m just not very good at talking about art. That’s Alastair’s department but he seems to be silent of late. Instead let me discuss the food. The passed appetizers (how I love a passed appetizer!) were quite tasty: mini crabcakes, barely seared tuna with wasabi on salty chips, and mini cheeseburgers. Very nice. But the stationary appetizer stations were a disappointment: the customary vegetable and cheese plates, pita and hummus (really!?), and great big chafing dishes of meatballs in sauce. Snore. My great complaint of the evening, however, has to be the fact that while the event ended at 10, the bars closed at 9:30. Employees were literally packing up even as the party continued on, and some of us wanted a refill!
Post party many headed over to the Living Room, a spacious bar on Broadway, for cocktails. It was crowded and sometimes difficult to get the bartenders’ attention, but otherwise quite fun. The highlight, however, occurred at the end of the evening. Mink-stole boy (MSB) had also migrated to the Living Room and ‘round about midnight seemed to have gotten into something of a scuffle with another patron who had either made fun of – or actually interfered with; I wasn’t sure – the stole. MSB was not going to take this lying down. I had a front row seat as he got up in the face of the mink anti-fan: “You don’t mess with the mink stole! This was my grandmother’s mink stole! You want to take this outside? Come on buddy, let’s take this outside.” A puffy-haired, white-loafer-sporting, mink-stole-wearing aesthete screaming about his grandmother’s fur and threatening to take out another bar patron is not something I expect to see again soon. In short, it was fantastic. Who knew this was possible in Denver?
Design After Dark
So much fun did Alastair and I have on Friday night at Design After Dark that it’s taken us till today to report on it. DAD is the big fundraiser for the Denver Art Museum’s Department of Architecture, Design, and Graphics, and this is the third year in a row that Alastair and I have attended. And aren’t we glad we did!
The event was packed, filled with the art and design crowd of Denver (yes, such a thing exists! we promise): architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, furniture designers, artists, and all kinds of admirers and fans. One of the things this means is that some of the people were actually well dressed! I know, I know, difficult to believe; this is Denver, after all. But when you get this many design-conscious people in a room you actually get some decent outfits as well. People’s clothes fit! (Including men’s pants and jeans; on this issue, see Alastair’s recent post here.) And some might even be called fashion forward. Alastair and I don’t flatter ourselves that we necessarily fit into that category — we dress ourselves in the well-fitted grays and blacks of the sophisticated urban homo; tasteful and understated without pushing the envelope too much — but we recognize interesting fashion when we see it. And it was there to be seen this past Friday! Of course because there are so few chances to dress up in Denver, some people took this as an opportunity to go a little overboard. Word to the wise, ladies: prom dresses are for one occasion only. And some of the boys suffered from the opposite problem, natch: jeans and sloppy shirts untucked. This is Denver.
DAD winner by Semple Brown Design and Cataform
But enough of dress. This years’s DAD theme was SKIN and so all contributing designers fashioned a composition with skin as its theme. These pieces were offered up in a silent auction, as were many other items (at least twice as many as last year) donated by local businesses and individuals: artwork, furniture, gift certificates, accessories, you name it. The auction process could have been a little more streamlined, it must be said. There was some confusion about when it actually closed, meaning that some people bid within the allotted time but had their bids discounted by overzealous auction-closers with red markers. Yours truly lost out on a truly bizarre looking lamp that I thought was a lock. Alas…
The drink — wine, beer, and vodka cocktails — was included in the price of entrance, doing away with the complicated drink-ticket system of years past. Wise move, planners! And while the food was just as tasty as last year, there was definitely less of it. Some of us need to buffer that open bar with a little sustenance! That said, it was all tasty, especially the Asian-themed table complete with any number of dumplings, won tons, crab rangoon, and spring rolls. All in all, the DOD boys had a fantastic evening.
We wish all DOD readers a great weekend as we jet off to opposite coasts for some more fun and excitement away from the surprisingly design-conscious state of Colorado!
Friday Night Lights
Happy Sunday readers and greetings from Hi*Rise. I am happy to report that I have finally recovered from my Friday night out… which quickly became Saturday morning. And it was well worth the loss of my entire Saturday.
Looking to escape our mid-winter blues, Blake and I started the evening off crashing a Denver Art Museum event at SPIRE—a recently completed forty-one-story condominium building at 14th and Champa streets in downtown Denver. (If you have any interest in high-rise living stop by their sales room across the street at the Convention Center.) The event was an intimate gathering of just over two hundred well-heeled architects, designers, artists, and design enthusiasts of every age and background. The evening was a sort of pre-party celebration for the department of architecture and design’s annual fundraiser, Design After Dark. If you haven’t been to Design After Dark, I highly suggest dropping by RedLine Gallery this Friday, January 22. The event is a “a dynamic and diverse celebration of design.” Funds raised through ticket sales and a silent auction are used to support programming for the department. The centerpiece of the event is some “30 one-of-a-kind objects created by Colorado’s most recognized architects, artists, and designers.” Blake and I are attending for our third year in a row and the event never disappoints. It feels like something we’ve seen in New York, San Francisco, or Chicago and who can pass up the great food and an open bar! This year’s theme is SKIN.
Design After Dark 2010
After hob-nobbing with Denver’s design community and taking in the sights from SPIRE’s ninth floor: modern furnishings, rooftop terrace, pool, fire pit and most importantly, the open bar, Blake and I headed over to the legendary Cruise Room with some of our gal pals. Somewhat difficult to find, the Cruise Room is located just off the main lobby of The Oxford Hotel. It’s one of those places with an atmosphere that immediately transports you to another time and place. They are known for their martinis, but I often choose the Manhattan or Old Fashioned. The Art Deco décor and dim red lighting is a must-see. Original chrome and neon reflect onto the wall panels depicting “toasts” from around the world.
Here’s to a successful Friday night in Denver. Kompai!
The Cruise Room
Cultivating Sameness on HGTV
Greetings readers! I’ve now returned to D-Town, but only for a day before both Alastair and I head out to the city by the Bay for some New Years celebrating! But I’ve been lax about posting, so I give you this, my first installation on my obsession with HGTV.
HGTV, to which I was introduced only about a year ago, is the acronym for Home and Garden Television and features shows about … you guessed it, homes and gardens. The shows can be divided into two genres: the Makeover shows and the Real Estate shows. Occasionally, as in “Designed to Sell,” they overlap: make over house so that it can sell. But most stick to one format or another. I far prefer the latter (many of which seem to be filmed in Denver and environs, including one with DaOiD’s own moniker — which we have finally managed to supplant in a Google search). It’s like real estate pornography: so many homes, so little time! And there is something completely voyeuristic about watching other people search for homes. On the good ones, like “My First Place” or “Property Virgins,” you even get to hear the conversations about their budgets and mortgages and on all of them you get a sense of how these people (families, couples [gay and straight], single people, and occasionally friends) operate together. The shows are on all the time and they’re completely addictive. This post, in other words, cannot possibly do justice to all I have to say about HGTV.
So let me begin by discussing one of the things that, despite my love for them, bothers me about the people on the real estate shows. Almost all of the house-hunters make a list of what they’re looking for and almost all of them – despite lots of variations in terms of size, house vs. apartment, city vs. country, number of bedrooms – demand five features. And, you guessed it, dear readers, it’s those features with which I have a problem. Before I tell you why, let’s review the wish list, shall we?
1. Open floor plan. Especially for the kitchen in its relationship to the dining room and living room (or, absurdly, “great room”). No one wants walls these days, it would seem. And many people say this is because they want to be able to converse with their guests when they entertain. How often do these people entertain?
A particularly hideous granite-countertopped island in a kitchen that appears open to the rest of the house
2. Granite countertops in the kitchen. I’m not a huge fan of granite myself, and while I do recognize that Formica is pretty ugly, let’s think outside the box just a little bit people. What about limestone or tile or slate or stainless steel or poured concrete or butcher block? There are ways to make one’s kitchen look new or updated or attractive without the shiny and sparkly veined granite.
3. Stainless steel appliances. Nothing else will do. Don’t even try to cross these people.
4. A master suite with ensuite bath. Even in houses built before such things were customary, people demand that their master bedroom be enormous (the word “sanctuary” is thrown around far too frequently) and that it have a separate private bathroom. Even when these people do not plan to live with anyone other than themselves; from whom do they seek privacy?
The Requisite Double Vanity
5. Double vanities/sinks in the ensuite bath. So convinced seem these people that they will be fighting over sink time that I have actually seen a house rejected, despite having everything else on the list, because the bathroom only had – gasp – one sink.
So what’s my beef? The first is that, with the possible exception of the stainless steel appliances, I think these things are silly. They are status symbols foisted upon would-be home-buyers by the makeover shows on networks like HGTV, and in turn by their corporate sponsors who manufacture many of them. I’m not fully persuaded that all of these people really want these things for any particular reason but they definitely know they are supposed to want them. And request them they do. It is how they plan to prove to their friends and family that they got a nice house. This is conspicuous consumption, in other words.
The second is that I’m disturbed by the fact that everyone seems to want exactly the same house. Whether this is also the influence of home and makeover shows or the overwhelming preference that many of these buyers seem to have for newly constructed houses, I dread the homogenization of the American home. Although many of these people claim a desire to find a home that “expresses who we are as a couple/family,” what that means in practice is apparently that they are exactly the same as all other home-buying couples and families of the early twenty-first century (if HGTV can be taken to be at all representative).
And that’s just sad. To get a real sense of the differences between the U.S. and home-buyers in other countries, check out “House Hunters International,” but that’s the subject of another post.
leave a comment