On my own in Denver!!!
 

I will be in Denver next week on my own (a female)on business. This is my first trip there, and I don't plan on spending it in my hotel room just because I am traveling alone -

Which brings me to ask....what restaurants could I go to in the city, or slightly outside the city (won't have a car), that I would feel comfortable in eating alone? I am very open as to types of food, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, American (steaks/chicken), etc. (Two places that appealed to me were Avenue Grill or Vesta Dipping Grill.)

Pricewise, it can be a little more expensive, but not off the wall crazy.

Also, I would also love some suggestions about where I might be able to go to have a nice quiet martini or see some live jazz, again, in an environment where I'd feel comfortable solo.

Thanks for any and all advice. Much appreciated. (Hopefully I will make some new friends while I am there...since I am considering relocation to Denver as well!)

Hi Elizabeth,
Tell me where you are staying and I will give you suggestions. Have not been to Avenue Grill but Vesta Dipping Grill is great.

If you are downtown, go to LoDo(Lower Downtown). All kinds of cafe's, bars, bistros, etc. Near Coors Field. Also, 16th Street Mall. 4 blocks of stores & shops! Have a great time. Denver is awesome!!

I recommend Denver Chophouse in LoDo...it's a brewery/steakhouse with a very social atmosphere (eat at the bar!). When I was in Denver on business I had a very fun night here where I met tons of locals and other people there on business. The Wynkoop Brewery a couple blocks away is also very good.

for eating alone, i always suggest Jax fish house, 17th and Wazee. near union station. great seafood and a nice, oval bar area where you won't feel uncomfortable eating by your lonesome.
If you want to combine both eating alone and a great martini, sit at the bar at the Cruise Room, in the Oxford Hotel down by Union Station (17th & Wazee). If it?s not too crowded you can have a meal off the menu of McCormick?s Fish House, which is also in the Oxford ? great selection of oysters, market priced fish and steak. My wife?s personal favorite martini is the Lemon Drop, but she?s favoring cosmopolitans lately. After dinner, head round the corner, on Wyncoop Street about ? of the block to Trios Enoteca, a wine bar which has some good acts during the week. For other Jazz, I always suggest Vartan jazz or El Chaputapec but from the Cruise room take a cab. IMHO the food at Vesta is only so, so. it's really more of a scene. You might also try, for truly great sushi, Mori Sushi next to Coors field. Have fun!

I moved from the Denver area in 1982 which, in restaurant years, is eons ago. However, if they are still there and still of the same quality, there were 4 or 5 outlets of a restaurant called "The Broker". My favorite of them was downtown and the dining room was in a huge old bank vault.

The steaks were superb and the appetizer, included with every meal, was a bottomless tray of succulent shrimp on a platform of ice.

Maybe someone with more current experience in Denver can tell us whether they still operate and, if so, on the same basis.

dude, the Broker restaurants are pretty much bottom end in denver. with steakhouses like Ruth's Chris, DelFrisco, Morton's (2), and the Palm, you cant in good conscience refer someone to the Broker for steak based on a 20 year old experience!! Back in the day, baby.

Several of us on this board must think alike. I would suggest Vesta Dipping Grille for dinner and the Cruise Room at the Oxford Hotel for a drink. Tea at the Brown Palace is just a fun fun thing. If nothing else, go to the Brown just to soak up the atmosphere.

Elizabeth, you have gotten very good suggestions here, though agree with Flopmeister about the Broker, only if you have blue hair would I go there. :)

I just wanted to say that you will feel pretty comfortable at most places in Denver. We are used to business/solo travellers. Downtown is very safe and easy to get around without a car. The 16th st pedestrian mall has a free shuttle that takes you to LoDo and Larmier square. I like the suggestion of Jax's to eat and hang out at the bar, same with Vesta's we often just eat at the bar, the staff at both are friendly, willing to chat and make you feel welcome. Tons of places to get a martini. Have fun while your here.

Have spent several weeks alone in Denver. Vesta is great. I ate at the gorgeous bar and had a lovely dinner. I will say that I find the streets emptier in Denver than I do in other cities, like NY and Chicago.

Just FYI Elizabeth, the city of Denver is far behind the rest of the state and the country in regard to allowing smoking in restaurants and bars. If this bothers you, you may want to reconsider the suggestions of the bars at Oxford Hotel, Brown's Palace and other places. We found them to be so intolerably smoky that we just entered, turned around, then left before hour clothes and hair were permeated with that foul reek.

The Luna Hotel Flow Room is the only nonsmoking bar that I know of in Denver. Great place too, good for a martini in a smoke-free environment. Seem to recall that Vesta was also a smoke-free environment, although we personally did not care for the food there.

Have fun in Denver.

You might also try the Adam's Mark Hotel for a drink it is on the lower end of the 16th street Mall which you can get to via the free mall ride. Although I like Mori I probably wouldn't walk there alone at night because its a little on the fringes. Areas West of there are more populated and very well light.

questionmotives - "far behind"? there's no smoking in restaurants in denver. if you're talking about the cruise room yes it's smoky, but here's a news flash, it's a ... BAR.

Flopmeister. You are wrong. There are certain restaurants who have elected to be non-smoking. However, much to my chagrin the no-smoking ban did not prevail in the city council. Some felt the ban should be statewide if at all because it would cause Denver smokers to eat elsewhere. Ft. Collins and Pueblo have banned smoking in restaurants.

Speaking as an allergy sufferer and the mom of a child with asthma, I wouldn't let the smoking thing deter me from missing a possible fun experience in Denver. If the smoke gets too bad, just leave, but I've never had trouble in any of the places that were mentioned. Would I love restaurants and bars to be non-smoking, though? YOU BET!

Many restaurants and bars are already smoke-free. Until a smoking ban is put in place, you can find a full list of smoke-free restaurants in the state of Colorado by zip code at: www.gaspforair.org/gasp/dining/resaurants.php

For Denver restaurants check out:
The Denver Guide to Smoke-Free Restaurants at www.smokefreedenver.org

Sorry flop, Denver restaurants have no such smoking regulations. Even those that claim to have smoke-free dining areas will often have an open bar area full of smokers, and naturally the smoke pays no attention to those invisible barriers between smoking and non-smoking. The entire place reeks. You have to learn to ask for smoke-free PREMISES, and good luck finding many of those in Denver.

Kudos to California, Utah, New York City and all the other progressive areas of this country where people can go to eat, and yes even have a martini without the stench of tobacco.

Yes Millie, still a lot of tobacco lobby influence within the Denver city council, to the detriment of everyone's health.

To my knowledge, no proposed smoking ban has yet been turned down by Colorado voters. It's only when city councils and tobacco lobbies have the final say so that smoking remains.

The latest two Colorado communities which voted to ban smoking are Greeley and Summit County, just this past November. Other cities with voter-approved smoking bans are Boulder, Fort Collins, Louisville, Montrose, Pueblo, Aspen and Snowmass.

funny, we havent heard back from Elizabeth (who by the way made no mention of smoking versus non) but you are all going on and on ad nauseum about smoking in colorado. gimme a break! I take my family to resaurants in downtown and all over the metro area several days a week. Smoking is NEVER an issue. Talk about making a moutain out of a mole hill -- no pun intended. How bout positing something that's responsive to the original question!!!!!

You first, flop, lol. How 'bout walkin your talk instead of hypocritically pointing fingers? It's O.K. for YOU to rant off topic, but not everyone else, right? ohhh, ok. :)

If it's not an issue for you, well hurrah. It is for many of the state residents, the majority of whom have expressed their displeasure with smoking by voting to ban it whenever it is on their local ballot.

It was quite a shock for us to move here from smoke-free California and encounter all these backward attitudes about this preventable public health threat. If Elizabeth is visiting from one of the many states or locales which have banned smoking, she may be in for a shock when she arrives. Merely trying to give her a heads up.

You sound a tad defensive about this smoking issue, flop, just IMO. ;)

I have to add a comment about the Cruise Room. A very good friend of mine (White male, gay and preppy) raved about the cruise room so we went to check it out. If you are looking for something that resembles LA trendy, this is the place to go. It's a very narrow bar, lit in neon orange, crammed full of predominantly white guys and few girls mostly wearing collared button down shirts. We walked in, turned around and walked right back out. If you want McCormicks, just eat in the restaurant. You can go to denver.citysearch (link is below) and they have info about restaurants, bars and nightlife and I think they now have reviews. Another place to check out is Westword.com, which is a local entertainment review newspaper. They have reviews on their website and every year they do an edition called "The Best of...". Denver (especially the lodo area) has been changing a lot lately and I think for the better. What I do like (and pardon me because I have never lived back east but have visited) is more of a boston type feel with the new architecture and old buildings. To me, bars like LoDo's are Denver bars/nightclubs. After visiting the Cruise Room and walking past the new Luna Hotel it just reminded me of a wanna be LA which is far from it. It's fine to have stuff like that, because everyone has different tastes but after living in the Denver area since 89' it just doesn't feel like denver. As for restaurants, I have heard The Rio is excellent for the margaritas, Morton's and Ruth Chris are good but wouldn't be really comfortable for someone dining alone. I have been wanting to check out Vesta Dipping Grill but have only seen the outside.Also, walking around Denver is not like walking around San Francisco. If you are staying downtown, you can usually walk to the 16th Street mall and at least take the free bus to the end (closer to union station area) and then walk some more blocks from there, I wouldn't see a need for a cab which I am sure are overpriced for as far as you would have to go.

http://denver.citysearch.com/section...ar_restaurants

http://www.westword.com/

Lenleigh--as a Denver resident you probably know a lot more about restaurants, etc. than I do but we get to Denver every couple of months and think the Cruise Room is nifty as can be (as a 41 year old Mom from Nebraska I'm anything but LA-trendy, much to my chagrin--ha!). Anyhow, just saying that Elizabeth might like the atmosphere anyway. McCormick's (in the same building) bar for happy hour is a happy place to be--they have an amazing selection of low-low-priced munchies, including mussels and oysters.

Firstly Lenleigh-how have you NOT been to Rio for a marg when you've lived in Denver for so long? I think that's illegal! ;)

Tess-did we ever get Elizabeth's age? Its quite possible (as a 30 year old myself) that a place that you would like would not be her cup of tea? The whole conservative thing wouldn't do it for me at ALL....

The idea of the Cruise Room is to be an art deco bar--it isn't trying to be LA trendy at all and the martinis are great. Ruth's Chris leaves a LOT to be desired. When we were there the menus were filthy and the service terrible--for 'way too much money. Go to the Chop House for your steak. For a fun/delicious Sunday brunch try La Fornaio in LoDo. There 's also a PF Chang's if you "need" a lettuce wrap fix. For a good deli lunch try the Market in LoDo. OH--for a Japanese dining experience go to Domo. You'll need to cab it although it is near downtown. It is a Japanese country restaurant--it may be only open Thursday-Sunday and you'll need a reservation. For pretty good and very inexpensive French go to Le Centrale--wonderful mussels fixed all ways.

Original poster here, sorry took so long to get back. Thanks for all the great advice and the warning about the smoking in bars/restaurants.

For the poster who asked my age, I am 32. That may help in recommendations.

As for what kind of places I like to go to, I am usually very much into trendy modern type lounges/bars. Not as much into the nightclub/danceclub scene - and certainly not alone - ha ha.

Not into the velvet rope scene either.

So, I guess you could say I am looking for an upscale, trendy kind of place, with a great martini menu, but without the snobbery or attitude that may make me feel uncomfortable there alone.

My guess is Saturday night may be the biggest challenge for me, being "party night" and all. But hopefully Sunday/Monday night will prove to be a bit more laid-back when I head out to find a good drink and hopefully some good conversation.

Thanks again.. I don't leave until Saturday, so keep those ideas coming.

Oops..totally forgot to answer milliebz's question...I am staying at the Hotel Monaco.

Thanks again to all...if I meet people half as nice and helpful as you all have been, then my trip will be fabuolous indeed!

Ani- I know it's sad and I love margaritas too. Might have to try it next weekend! How is the food though, haven't really heard a lot about the food.

Elizabeth- Knowing that you are staying at Hotel Monaco says a lot right there since it is a funky, hip hotel. You might like the Cruise Room then but it is closer to the train station so if you don't want a cab, take the 16th street mall bus all the way west and then walk the rest of the way. Sounds like a lot of the places you would most be interested in would be harder to enjoy alone though. You might like Sambuca's atmosphere but I have heard they are a little snobby and not so great service. Since you're staying close to 16th street I would walk around a little and check out that area.

Elizabeth,
You'll love Denver's Monaco! The lobby wine/happy hour is great--they'll often have complimentary chair massages during happy hour. Speaking of which, there is a nice Aveda spa connected to the Monaco if you have some extra time.

LenLeigh: The Rio has food? ;)
The food is OK (I'm actually in Fort Collins-home of the original Rio-woohoo-so can only speak for the one here). Its not the BEST destination for food for sure-but I usually am unable to read the menu after one marg anyway! Steak nachos are FAB.

thanks for the insight, questionmotives. you're from california. that explains everything.

Elizabeth
Hotel Monaco was just rated Denver's 2nd most luxurious hotel by citsearch.com It is very nice and the rooms are quite pretty. Wanted to mention that the restaurant Panzano's is excellent. Make sure you check out the menu before you go elsewhere.