I enjoy Osteria Marco, but don't go there expecting to get chicken parm or anything, it is mostly non-pasta itallian stuff.

100%, Odyssey House is traditional Sicilian if you're looking for that. If you go to Osteria, get the in-store made ricotta as one of your appetizers. It's amazing.

Grizzly Rose was open the past 3 weekends, but Jenny Orin, 2021 Karen of the Year, got it shut down.

The Grizzly Rose hosts crowd inside their venue with very limited social distancing Saturday (thedenverchannel.com)

These people will never allow groups again if they have it their way. Next flu season the public shaming for large groups is going to be intolerable.

That's freaking nuts. She feels "disregarded" - but **** she wasn't even there. Had to have her sister show her videos?

Unreal, people acting normal was somehow "a step backwards in our timeline to getting to normalcy again" according to her.

Posted this on the travel board as well but maybe you could help. A friend in Texas just sent this to my wife but it'd be the first I'd heard of it. Have you heard it's mandatory to have a negative test prior to entry into Colorado? I went to the State tourism website and couldn't even find this.

I had not heard of this. I don't think this is accurate.

Sam Moss said:

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I had not heard of this. I don't think this is accurate.

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I've looked everywhere to verify it. Complete crap if it's a company trying to convince people to get tested if they don't have to.

Green2Maroon said:

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I don't get why people rip on the Mexican food here so much. I've had a lot of damn fine Mexican food here that I would rank equal or above most of what you'll find in Texas. Holy crap. I've been pretty delighted since I moved here in 2018. Not the be all, end all, and probably not as good as actual Mexican food in Mexico is, but damn. There are some freaking outstanding Mexican restaurants here.

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I agree. I grew up in the Valley, so I'm spoiled when it comes to Mexican food. I crave Mexican food when I visit down there, but I don't go out of my way to seek it out when I visit other parts of Texas. There are good spots in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio (and I guess there's some a few spots in DFW)... but they're generally overrated and good-but-not-great.

I can find just as good Mexican food here as I could in Houston (where I lived for 5 years before moving to Denver).... though not as many options. I live in Lone Tree, so most of the places I eat at are down south: Los Dos Potrillos, Yolanda's, El Sabor, Tamale Kitchen, Costa Vida, Rio Grande, and El Karajo.

For places in/near downtown, I like D'Corazon, Tamayo, El Taco de Mexico, and La Loma (they also have a new Castle Rock location with awesome views). I'll put the pork carnitas plate at D'Corazon up against just about any plate in Texas outside of the Valley. Also, you can get as authentic as you want at several spots in/near Federal. I'm not a fan of Hacienda Colorado, but I can find decent items on the menu.

agdaddy04 said:

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Sam Moss said:

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I had not heard of this. I don't think this is accurate.

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I've looked everywhere to verify it. Complete crap if it's a company trying to convince people to get tested if they don't have to.

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I had a Dallas buddy say the same thing last week. My guess is they're saying this because I believe Aspen is/was requiring it.

Never seen that anywhere. Some cities and counties are doing stupid things, but that's because their elected officials prefer virtue signaling over helping small businesses.

Fort Collins requires all restaurants and bars to close at 8pm.

Cheyenne is 30min away, with dance clubs open until 2am and no masks.

There's no logic, science or reason behind any of this.

We were at great wolf lodge last Friday night/ Saturday.

No masks required in the large indoor water park. Apparently if your hair or body is wet you can't get covid?

Ridiculous that a restaurant can't be open.

Yep we felt the same when we went last August. Did you have to wait awhile to get into the water park?

agdaddy04 said:

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Yep we felt the same when we went last August. Did you have to wait awhile to get into the water park?

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No, there was never a wait to get in while we where there.

Either they were only selling a fraction of the rooms, or they were just slow. The hotel was pretty empty. The main water park had easily 1/4 of the chairs compared to our precovid trip in 2019, and even then, those weren't all full.

When we were there they were only selling a very small portion of the rooms but still a wait to get in park. Maybe they increased that capacity. When you got in though the park was still very empty. They gave us free things to do while we waited. It was just a surprise.

We've found the food in Denver generally sucks, especially compared to Dallas where we previously lived. I'd be interested in hearing people's top 5 places.

My top 5 probably are:
Sushi Den
Mercantile Provision
Annette
Safta
Sunday Vinyl

Just went to Front Range Inn for the first time tonight. That was a cool little dive bar with decent food.

In no particular order the top 3 that come to mind:

Tavernetta
Post Oak BBQ (its excellent)
ChoLon

Mercantile Provision is excellent.

I had post oak and I thought it was ok. My favorite bbq is barbosas, also an Ag.

Barbosas is excellent. I didn't even think of including food trucks though. We need to get him into a brick and mortar.

Top 5 restaurants for us are:

Beckon
Barolo Grill
Matsuhisa
Santo (Boulder)
Restaurant Olivia

Might be moving to Denver. Married with two young kids... where should I be looking if I want good schools? And trees would be a nice bonus... so far I've mainly focused on the area between den and col springs.

lots of nice homes with big trees in castle pines if you can swing it.
Also just east of franktown.

Budget?

600

where will you be working?

I'll be working from home and doing inspections at construction sites throughout the city.wife is in healthcare and we haven't started looking at whats there for her.

Any neighborhoods on the NW side of town that ya'll would recommend? Rocky Mountain National Park is a big draw for the family, so just trying to see if the communities in that direction are as good (schools, crime, etc) as they are south to southwest of Denver.

Here good things about Lafayette and Louisville. But nothing beats Cherry Creek Schools.

We love it in Erie and we're on the Boulder County side right next to Lafayette. Our daughter is in Aspen Ridge. I don't know it'll fit your budget though. Things have blown up and Covid has affected inventory.

We love the Golden area. Easy access to everything and great people.

Definitely like Golden but it was going to be too inconvenient for my office unfortunately. You think he'd find something in Golden still for his budget?

Any thoughts on loveland or fort collins? A bit of a commute obviously but I'm fine with that.

COSCAG67 said:

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Any thoughts on loveland or fort collins? A bit of a commute obviously but I'm fine with that.

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I like Longmont a lot.

COSCAG67 said:

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Any thoughts on loveland or fort collins? A bit of a commute obviously but I'm fine with that.

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Fort Collins is a nice college town, moved from denver up while my wife finishes her PHD.

A pain to get down for skiing, but great access to hiking and solid trail system. I've really only lived here during covid so limited other knowledge other than good breweries.

agdaddy04 said:

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Definitely like Golden but it was going to be too inconvenient for my office unfortunately. You think he'd find something in Golden still for his budget?

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When we were looking at buying last fall if I recall correctly not much in Golden for under $700K. We ended up in Lone Tree for quite a bit under our budget.