Denver, the mile high city
Que faire, que voir, que déguster dans la capitale du Colorado.
La ville de Denver, nichée au pied des montagnes Rocheuses, est assez peu visitée par nos compatriotes, qui lui préfèrent les grandes villes américaines bien connues. Mais cela risque de changer ! Depuis avril dernier, un vol direct Paris-Denver rend accessible en un rien de temps cette ville à taille humaine incroyablement accueillante. Que vous soyez amateur de bière ou de bonne cuisine, féru d’art ou accro au shopping, Denver saura vous séduire !
The silhouette of a massive construction crane loomed against the brilliant reds and purples of a Colorado sunset sky. “This is the classic view of Denver right now,” my friend Rachel Fleming said. Fleming is an anthropologist who’s lived in Denver for a decade and works in the area’s booming tech industry. We played violin together as teenagers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and like many of my high school buddies, she left the West only to wind her way back there because she missed the mountains — because once they’re in your blood, you always do.
NEW FANCY NEIGHBOURHOODS
2. The construction crane was looming over The Source, one of the many gourmet food halls that have popped up around the city in the last five years. It’s in the River North Arts District (RiNo), an epicenter for microbreweries, fancy restaurants, new apartment buildings and abundant street art a 10-minute walk from Lower Downtown (LoDo).
3. “Downtown, I think, has added at least twice as many skyscrapers as it had 10 years ago,” said Fleming. “Most of that area used to be abandoned train yards and industrial buildings and now you go by and see people jogging. It’s like, ‘Oh wow, people actually live here.'”
4. My mom grew up in Colorado Springs, an hour’s drive south of here. I’ve spent the past 22 years visiting the state regularly to see friends or to go snowboarding. I hadn’t spent much time in Denver’s urban center, but of my 52 Places destinations, I was sure it would feel the most familiar. I didn’t know, though, that it would remind of another home of mine: New York City. Here’s a starter guide to the city’s rich art, food and outdoors scenes. Bring good walking shoes.
FOOD HALL FEVER
5. The Source, an “artisan” market housed in a reclaimed 1880s iron foundry with a new skyscraper hotel attached, was one of three food halls I went to in six days. Industrial in design, its centerpiece is a fresh and tasty sit-down restaurant, Acorn.
6. My favorite was the more casual Central Market, set in an airy, refurbished 14,000-squarefoot building in RiNo. It offers take-home butchery and seafood — as well as gourmet pizza, salads and ice cream. Also enticing, particularly for the younger set, is Avanti F&B in the hip Lower Highlands (LoHi) neighborhood across the river from downtown. A collective test kitchen for local chefs, it has a terrific view, outdoor fire pits and a lively bar scene that rages till 1 a.m. on weekends.
GATHERING SPOT
7. The $54 million renovation of Union Station, a 1914-vintage train depot, has turned it into something like New York’s Ace Hotel — a hip gathering spot — only with transportation
schedules. The station’s lobby is filled with library-like long tables and comfy leather chairs where a diverse cross-section of the city types away on their laptops. I loved the farm-to-table sandwiches at light-filled Mercantile Dining & Provision so much I went twice.
MUSEUM OR LIVING ROOM?
8. Tired of seeing art displayed in plain white rooms? Make a special trip to the vastly expanded and newly reopened Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art. Named after the late abstract painter and Denver resident Vance Kirkland, it features the work of some 1,500 artists and designers, laid out in a unique salon style. Diamond-shaped chairs by Frank Lloyd Wright and an undulating cardboard ottoman from Frank Gehry might be next to a painting from an obscure Colorado surrealist. All the paintings are from Colorado artists, and the collection of mid-century modern decorative pottery is particularly charming. Organizing principles are loosely chronological, and never boring.
A SINGULAR COLLECTION
9. The will of the pioneering Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still (1904-1980) stipulated that his collection be awarded to a U.S.
schedule horaire / lobby hall (d'entrée) / comfy confortable / leather (en) cuir / diverse ici, multiculturel / cross-section échantillon (représentatif) / laptop ordinateur portable / farm-to-table du producteur au consommateur / light-filled lumineux, baigné de lumière. 8. to display exposer, présenter / plain quelconque, ordinaire / expanded agrandi / late disparu, décédé / to feature présenter / to lay, laid, laid out présenter, exposer / undulating cardboard carton ondulé / ottoman repose-pied qui peut aussi servir de siège d'appoint ou de table basse / loosely vaguement. 9. will testament / to award attribuer / city that presented the best plan for a museum solely dedicated to showing it in its entirety. Denver won, and the result is the Clyfford Still Museum, an impressive concrete structure with huge walls for displaying the artist’s immense canvases, and textured ceilings that let in daylight in fractured patterns.
ON THE STREET AND ON TAP
10. The best way to see Denver’s booming art scene is to simply walk around RiNo, where many businesses commission murals to draw in customers, and an art event literally puts a fresh coat of paint on the neighborhood each year — resulting in something amazing to see on nearly every public wall. I toured with Alex Roth, a Colorado native who works for the luxury travel club, Inspirato, and offered to be my guide. He also introduced me to the art of wandering into Denver’s many microbreweries, such as Our Mutual Friend, which itself had a mural storefront of neon-colored camouflage.
11. It’s important to note that RiNo is as much a story of gentrification as it is of growth. In 2005, artists who’d moved into the area’s abandoned industrial buildings came up with the name as a way to sell more art. Commercial and residential real estate followed, and have pushed into the historically black parts of town — particularly the Five Points neighborhood — to significant controversy.
GAINING ALTITUDE
12. You don’t have to go far for a more immersive natural experience. Red Rocks Amphitheater — 30 minutes away by shuttle or car on concert nights — is also a great place for hiking and watching the moon rise over the plains. And Chautauqua Park in Boulder,
an introduction to the vast array of hiking and rock climbing in the Flatiron Mountains, is accessible from Denver by a 50-minute Regional Transportation Denver bus plus a short taxi or ride share to the trailhead. The evening I went, we happened upon dozens of juniors and seniors from Silver Creek High School in nearby Longmont taking their prom pictures. Trudging through spring snow in a ballgown and heels seems to be a particularly Coloradan rite of passage.