Volume 2, Issue 14 June 22 - July 5, 2000

The Hornet is located at the corner of 1st and Broadway. It is rather unassuming in its appearance although one gets the feeling this restaurant and bar would fit nicely in most corners of downtown ... a cosmopolitan feel with out the $10 parking charge. There is an eclectic collection of artwork scattered through out the establishment, such as a steel statue of what one would guess is the Egyptian sun god Ra with an African-looking mask hanging above it. It gives the place an interesting upscale feel. Most of the people there are professional looking and, although there were all kinds of dress, it was a little more of a dress pants and Dockers place than jeans and a t-shirt. Most looked as though they were in their late 20's or early 30's and had just got off work from various sales jobs, not necessarily suits but more a collared shirt style of attire.

Happy hour at The Hornet runs Monday through Friday from 5-7 with $1 Coors Light and Killians' draws and $2 wine and wells. There is also a late night happy hour on Wednesdays from 11-1. No food specials during happy hour, but looking over the menu it was just slightly off-center enough to be interesting, not simply ordinary burgers and fries but not raw seafood either.

The Hornet also offers free pool during happy hour. There are two pool tables in the back room as well as a table hockey game and jukebox to round out the entertainment corner. Two televisions are located in the bar area for those who need to keep up on sporting events. The Hornet does not have outside seating but it does host large windows looking out on to both Broadway and 1st Ave. which gives the feeling of open space with a lot of light and the chance to people watch.

Approximately 20 people can sit up at the main bar area and there is a more secondary bar facing the windows out on to the street. There are also about 25 tables scattered throughout the bar room seating anywhere from a cozy two to a gathering of six to eight. The poolroom will seat approximately 50 and the restaurant area has maximum seating of 150. I would suggest the corner table to maximize people watching on both streets until I heard it was called the suicide table. Why? Apparently a couple of drivers have missed the turn and instead of rounding the corner have found themselves creating an unnecessary drive thru. Choose that table at your own risk!

On Monday nights after happy hour the entertainment continues at 7:30 with live interactive trivia and all of the prizes associated with that. The Mayan Theater is a half a block down the street and offers another close entertainment option for later in the evening. Overall The Hornet is good place to spend happy hour. The patrons were young attractive professional types who were friendly not snobbish. It was not overbearingly crowded but busy enough to make it necessary to raise your voice in conversation. The one obvious down side was the appearance of being understaffed. This was not an opportunity to rush in for a quick happy hour drink and it did not appear to be lack of effort on the part of the servers É simply that there weren't very many of them. Barring that the staffing was light our server was as friendly and attentive as possible giving us the opportunity to take a moment to gaze at the interesting art and decor. B+

For more information call The Hornet at 303-777-7676.

In mulling over the most paramount places in Denver to have a beer and take in some quality nightlife, the Santa Fe corridor just doesn't jump to the front of my mind. It never gets the necessary props in the "Places To See, Things To Do" section of your favorite local entertainment paper. But right when you think there is nothing to link this forgotten expanse to the rest of this city's melange of diversionary amusement, up pops the Heavenly Daze Brewery É again. It seems bankruptcy has not spelled the end for this Steamboat Springs offshoot. Rather, it has risen once more to try and jam another foothold deep into the beer belly of Denver's burgeoning brew market.

It's hard to miss this brewery, as the broadside of what was once the Lowry's meat packing warehouse faces I-25 at Alameda, and fashions a huge eye-catching mural of brew kettles and pool tables. This colorful addition to a predominantly gritty part of town was produced by Bob Steeler, former drummer of Hot Tuna, who now demonstrates outside and in Heavenly Daze that he is pretty handy with the paintbrush as well.

Book-ending the front door are two massive grain bins, one of which is utilized, the other is merely for appearance. Once inside the foyer, another mural of beer drinking cherubs sitting atop Greek pillars welcomes you inside, fully exemplifying the "heavenly" theme. I failed to notice the contrary fresco of damnation on the opposite wall until I was leaving, taking this conceptual duality to either mean, "Don't leave, stay a little longer, it's Hell out there," or, "Yeah, go ahead, get behind the wheel after those five pints you just drank."

The thought of hanging out in a converted warehouse doesn't impart a very pretty mental picture, yet the inside is nicely done, even stylish. A large bar dissects the room into a well-ventilated smoking section on the left and non- to the right, which can also be considered the dining side. Black tables and chairs blend well with a bar finished in what looks to be cherrywood. Faux stone carvings of more classic Ionian architecture rise over the bartenders where a minimum of house lights keep the room in a pleasantly dim state.

This feeling, unfortunately, is quickly eradicated once you open your ears to the house music supplied by 103.5 The Fox. It wasn't the choice of station that was the problem; in fact I rather enjoyed the junior-high nostalgia Yes and Pink Floyd conjured up. My big difficulty lied within the string of loud radio commercials that came on every 20 minutes, creating a barroom buzzkill to nearly rival the words "last call." Mark Sloan, the operations manager who sat with me through much of the night, explained they would soon be switching over to music via satellite. The Fox is just a temporary surrogate sound to get the brewery up and running. I trust this transition will go high on the priority list.

Being weaned on Genesee as a youngster in upstate New York, I was anxious to first try the Colorado Cream Ale. Now my opinion of cream ale is simply this: it's rot gut, ahead of only any Japanese beer ever produced and most cervezas. I drink this mediocre style only to put my tastebuds in a sequential reminiscence of fond times past, much like a cerveza can send one back to those special Kerouacian roadtrips through Baja, Tiajuana or Mexico City. By the way Heavenly Daze also makes El Rey Cerveza, and to sum up these two is to simply say, weighed against Genesee or Little Kings, the Colorado Cream Ale was excellent, and in putting El Rey up against Corona, consider Corona urine in comparison. Take that for what it's worth.

The Steamboat Scottish Ale has real potential. The caramel malt and roasted barley blend well with the hop content. The big problem was that I couldn't wake this beer up. No matter how much I sloshed my glass, I couldn't get a sputter of foam out of it. This could be one production problem of a brewery in its first month of operation and chances are this ale will improve É I hope.

I followed the Scotch Ale with Backpacker IPA. Much like the fire-eater in search of the hottest chili pepper in town, the hophead will find the bitterest brew around right here off Alameda. So much so that it was more than I could handle. There wasn't nearly enough malt to slow down this hop locomotive, making me feel like I was chewing green resiny buds right of the vine. I guess if the intention was to create the hoppiest beer on the planet, they may have very well succeeded.

As I grope for more compliments to even this column out, I can say the unfiltered Raspberry Wheat Ale was very tasty. They define this brew on the menu as having a raspberry background, but in my opinion, this fruit jumps out of the glass up your nose, into your mouth and down your throat. Not being much of a fruity beer drinker, one pint was plenty. But I was glad I ordered it and put this brew at the top of the list, well worth pulling off the highway to try a two-dollar pint.

The other beers on or soon to be on the tap-line full-time are Sunrise Rye, Derailer ESB, Mineshaft Lager, Crop Circle Red Ale, Dog's Breath Brown Ale, Paramount Porter and South Platte Stout.

I asked Mark what kind of people he was trying to draw into the brewery and he answered by saying he wants Heavenly Daze to be "everything for everybody." In looking around at the 14 televisions and one giant screen harboring various sporting events, the four pool tables, shuffleboard, video games and honored athletes under glass along the walls, I couldn't help but feel the theme had been chosen. However, they are looking to book all styles of live music in the near future.

Pros: I can't help but root for a brewery in an area of Denver that desperately needs some identifiable characteristics.

Cons: The usual glitches that can come along with a grand opening. In all fairness, give them time.