Sometimes it’s necessary to write not about what is but what could be. That’s the subject of my post today: the 16th Street Mall’s inadequacies and how they might be amended.
I was standing outside Only in Colorado, taking some notes, when a man with a thick accent (Italian, perhaps) approached me. At first I didn’t get what he wanted, but he pulled at the sleeve of his coat and said “shirts,” and I understood he needed to find a men’s clothing store. I was stumped. I thought, I don’t know much about Denver after all. Then I looked in my downtown Denver directory and found two stores for men, Homer Reed on Tremont and Players on Wazee. They’re at opposite ends of the mall.
I suppose I could have sent him to T. J. Maxx or Ross Dress for Less—I think both those stores have men’s departments. But instead I sent him to the Pavilions.
Once department stores (like Cottrell’s) 
vied for customers on 16th Street, before it became an outdoor mall* in the late 1970s. For upscale shopping these days, you have to go to Cherry Creek. And there are a few shops in Larimer Square in lower downtown Denver. Almost everything else is in a suburban mall.
In May I explored upper downtown, which reaches northwest to Welton, and in June and July I’ll be continuing northwest through downtown. The two blocks from Welton to California and Stout reach the apogee of chainification. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Arby’s, Einstein Brothers Bagels. Then Walgreen’s, a 7-Eleven, some banks, a Starbucks every two blocks.
The center strip on the 16th Street Mall, which is dotted with benches and chess tables
and hot dog and shave ice carts, is a nice place to rest and watch the flow. But the wide sidewalks on either side of this two-block strip don’t lead past interesting shops.
People in Denver love to blame the poor shopping downtown on Cherry Creek Mall and the surrounding boutiques in Cherry Creek North, but let’s face it, department stores have been fading away for years. They were some of the first chain stores, and my personal opinion is that most chains will have to shrink to survive, both the number of stores and their size, or break themselves into regional shopping companies. If we want good shopping downtown, we’ll have to get smaller stores, which will require innovation and dedication from the citizens and government of Denver.
Denver Infill wants a grocery store downtown, which would certainly be convenient. (Right now Cook’s Fresh Market and Vitamin Cottage are the only options, and the latter isn’t really in downtown.) I prefer Lisa Rogers’s idea of greenhouses connected to markets, a more interesting concept than a Safeway or King Soopers, but unlikely to be developed as soon.
But what if Denver produced a hybrid? A combination of a big grocery store that contracted out its produce section to Rogers and its supplement section to Vitamin Cottage and its meat and seafood section to Whole Foods (hey, I can dream). If it were housed in one of the old buildings on the mall, which are several stories tall, it might need extra space for lots of escalators and elevators. The lack of parking in the area would be addressed by providing superior delivery services.
What do you think?
Cloudy with shreds of crab and slices of white asparagus, it tasted of the latter with a hint of crab. There was too much brown rice for me in the Asian portion, and the chicken tasted precooked and warmed over.
I recommend it for visitors and residents alike; I had never heard of the Purple Martini bar in the Tabor Center, for example. You can buy tickets to events in Denver at the center, and there are several people there ready to help you find entertainment.
but that was the name of a former department store, possibly a locally owned one. The contemporary store, Only in Colorado, is one of three on the mall owned by two brothers (and another works for them) named Young Chung. According to the clerk at the Welcome to Denver Store down the mall a few blocks, the three brothers have different middle names.
The other stores have similar merchandise but are much smaller. One or more of these stores has been in business on the mall for 40 years. They sell sand paintings and moccasins, small Western sculptures (some of the Mill Creek Studios creations were appealing), leather hats (“USA” on the top label, “Made in China” on the one underneath), and “genuine Indian handcrafted jewelry,” though I didn’t see any certificates of authentication.
Appaloosa Grill
The Horse was originally owned by Mayor John Hickenlooper’s company, Wynkoop Brewing, but was sold to Johnny James Qualley and Adam Hill, members of the local roots rock band Oakhurst, and a couple of other investors.
I thought, brunch in downtown Denver, we’ll have to wait for half an hour, right? But I guess the hot places for brunch in Denver are Dixon’s (in LoDo) and Snooze on Park Avenue.
It was barely warm when it came out, but I liked the cheesy egg flavor. What I noticed most was the mixture of textures: egg and bean and soft sweet pepper and juicy corn. The sourdough toast was light and crisp, and when I asked the waitress for jelly, she brought grape because that was all they had.
There’s a list of all their products on the website, including such things as “summer meat bundles,” if you’re the kind of person who likes to get off work in downtown Denver and purchase 29 pounds of meat. And I did notice, 
Saturday I made my way to the 
on my way to the mall shuttle, I passed a wedding party swank enough to afford two photographers. Everyone but the bride wore black; I liked the bridesmaids’ sleek black satin dresses better than her elaborately appliquéd froth of a dress.
The art started this way for me: large landscapes, which you’d expect from an art fair in Colorado; metal wall hangings like sheaves of wheat; and photographs of horses, taken all over the United States but mostly in Colorado and back East, where 
it seems like more of an organic whole.
Denver Firefighters Museum
though I think young children would like it best. After I saw a little girl calling 9-1-1 on the plastic phone and saying, “My house is on fire” in a serious voice, I just had to do that myself. It made me feel all emotional. Then I turned around to face a pair of teenage girls. I was mortified.
In 1909 it replaced the first Station 1, and once Denverites’ safety from fires was ensured by the brand-spanking-new station, the city tore down the old one and built the Pioneer Monument at Colfax and Broadway in 1910. So the next time you’re standing by the Denver Post building and looking at that statue, remember that was the location of the first fire station in Denver.
purchased in 1867, which required 15 men to pull it and 15 men at a time to pump it. The DFM has several different fire wagons, from ladder wagons to the steam engines used from the 1880s to the 1920s to more modern engines.
designed by Robert Roeschlaub, held its first service at Christmastime in 1888.
I have never stayed at the Brown Palace, but my husband and I did consider it as a wedding location in 2002. In the interview (and who was interviewing whom was anyone’s guess), Todd was put off by the revelation that we would not be tasting the food in advance.
Cinco de Mayo in downtown Denver was the third festival I attended last Saturday, after International Migratory Bird Day in Boulder and the Colorado Chocolate Festival at the Merchandise Mart on 58th. True to my intentions, I had several donuts in Boulder, multiple samples of ganache at the Chocolate Festival, and two tacos midafternoon.
The second thing I noticed was the large number of families. At times, the crowd came to a complete stop, strollers paused, and there seemed to be nowhere to go but straight up. Then the dam burst and we all pushed on through.
looked promising and stepped up to order two tacos for $3, which is pretty cheap for festival food. I got to use some of my limited Spanish while asking for 1 barbacoa and 1 adobaba. The green chile and pico de gallo weren’t as hot as I’d feared—in fact, a great deal less—and the tacos lasted me until dinner time.
and several hundred knock-off Coach bags and a girl playing tennis in between booths and mobiles and Mexican flags
and more food booths
and an entire section of nonprofits until I found this woman with the sombrero traipsing along in front of the Capitol. It was quite a feat to keep up with her; she navigated the crowd as if she were water and it was a streambed.
Bayou Bob’s Restaurant and Bar
which was suitable spicy and gooey and loaded with sausage and chicken. Amazingly enough, the portion was just right.
and I thought, That sounds like something I should read for Restoration Nation.
I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I’d expected. All the information and products presented at the festival seemed like a bunch of loose threads, and what I really wanted was to gather them together somehow into Restoration Nation.
équipement de vin