Appaloosa Grill

 Friends,

  Welcome to our final entry for downtown Denver and the 16th Street Mall district. Thank you so much for hanging in there with us as we will begin focusing on other parts of Colorado as well as other assorted reviews coming up.

  This adventure brings us to Appaloosa Grill. This restaurant was in a smaller, cozy corner that we passed by a few times before we made time to visit. We were there in the middle of the day and in the middle of the week so we can not fairly comment on the night life and the live music that was advertised. We can only comment on the quality of food and service that we experienced which we will now do in detail. 

  Starting off, we noticed a different style of tipping system that we did not agree with at all. If we remember correctly, they automatically add 20% to the bill which is shared amongst employees. We do not agree with this because...what if the service is not good and you are forced to tip anyway??? Please keep in mind, this is coming from a couple that is known to double a bill if the service is exceptional. We can assure you, this service was far from exceptional. 

  Our host/waiter seemed to be the manager or person in charge at the time, we could not tell. He stayed occupied with different things around the restaurant/bar and when he did decide to carry on a dialogue with us, he seemed a little condescending which is uncalled for when you have paying customers...especially ones that do blogs! Ahnah had the Tempura Avocado Chicken Burger:this should have been a rather easy chicken burger to accomplish but instead, for $15, we got no real flavor behind it as well as burnt and dried out chicken. Brad had the Flat Top Elk Burger:this was the best part of the whole visit as it turned out to be quite a yummy burger with excellent ingredients.

Final Thoughts: This establishment needs to make some adjustments or they will lose some money, if they haven't already. Unless we are in the area and have an appetite for a good elk burger that we can't get somewhere else, we will NOT be going back. 

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

 Ok guys, trying to wrap up our 16th Street Mall adventure with a few last posts that we cannot neglect to mention, one of those being the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. After walking past and smelling the enticing aromas that floated out of their several locations we passed by....Ahnah couldn't take it anymore and stopped in. 

Think of a smaller scale Willy Wonka's and you would be close to what you experience when you walk in the door, (minus the Oompa-Loompa's of course.) there is literally candy everywhere. To be honest, it's actually overwhelming to the senses. It was almost a little stressful! Too many options, which isn't a bad thing when it comes to chocolate. Now, Ahnah will tell you she isn't a huge chocolate person, which is true....unless there is also fruit involved. Her eyes immediately fell upon the lemon and orange rind dipped in dark chocolate and it was over. Purchases were being made. Brad......Brad on the other hand is a recovering chocoholic. We say recovering since he has cutback due to an increase of kidney stones. Do we still keep chocolate on hand? Of course! It's just not eaten at the pace it used to be around here. 😢

While the shop itself was VERY nice...the employee...not so much. She had seemed friendly enough to the previous customer but seemed very rushed with us. She was polite but not what I would call "friendly". In fact, we would have purchased a few more items if she hadn't made Ahnah feel like she didn't have enough time. We're willing to chalk it up to the fact that we went slightly after they had opened and she did have some decadent delights to whip up before they got busy. 

We purchased a small amount of fudge, as well as an assortment of truffles. Ahnah wanted to purchase her chocolate covered peels and the cashier said she would throw some in for free as we spent a pretty penny....BUT we don't consider one being thrown in the box as "some". Oh well, chalk one up for experience. 

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory= ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The chocolate was very high quality and you could tell it was made fresh in house and not shipped in. Brad really liked the Bailey's Irish Cream truffle he had as well as the fudge. Honestly, every truffle we bought was excellent. The reason they are being given 4 stars is the customer service. I don't think we expect too much but a little niceness goes a long way for us. 

Sock Em' Sock Emporium

 Friends,

  Welcome back as we get ready to wrap up our journey in downtown Denver. We do hope we have not bored you by now with focusing on the downtown Denver part of Colorado so much, there was just a lot to explore there. Our promises to you that we are getting ready to explore much more soon.  

  As for now, allow us to focus on an establishment by the name of: Sock Em' Sock Emporium located in the 16th Street Mall district. Being fair, Ahnah is not much of a sock girl but Brad had already started wearing "weird socks"(Pink Floyd socks to be exact) before we ever got on the plane headed to Colorado. So with that being said, once we stumbled across this store, it was as if the rays of light shined down from Heaven upon this store for Brad and a new addiction was about to be born. It also did not help matters any that Brad's birthday was approaching soon so Ahnah was a total sweetheart and indulged with unique socks as a birthday wish. 

  There was only one employee and we had the store to ourselves at that particular time. The young gentleman was very friendly and helpful; he engaged in intelligent dialogue with us and made us feel like real people, not just another customer. He also made sure we were aware of the certain sales going on and where the "dirty socks" were located out of plain site from customers that may get offended. Needless to say, this place got our business and we took great advantage of the sales going on with Brad's sock drawer now overflowing. To give a couple of examples of some favorites purchased: "Live your life as if they will ban your book" and "The universe is made up of protons, neutrons, electrons and morons". 

Final Thoughts: Another rarity=this establishment gets 100% good reviews from us. Staff is friendly and the prices are right for the quality of product. This place is a MUST for "weird sock" lovers. 

Brooklyn's Finest Pizza

   Howdy, friends! We have a couple of more mentions on downtown Denver, if ya'll care to explore with us some more. We have so many wonderful things to share with you that we hope you will be forgiving if we get a couple of things out of order. We find it exciting to carry you along with our journeys, if you will allow us. 

  So, while walking the streets of downtown Denver, got to have something to eat with all those footsteps, right? A little background, we LOVE pizza! Blame it all on our love for Italian food(amongst other cuisines, of course) or the fact that we both grew up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, pizza is not something we go without for very long. It is true that we have leaned towards the Chicago style pizza many times but, we really are not too picky when it comes to a nice slice of pie. 

  This brings our journey to Brooklyn's Finest Pizza. Although this means more of the New York style pizza, these guys have a wide variety of dishes to choose from. Unfortunately, Brad could not pass up the variety of single slices to choose from so much that he stopped at this establishment 3 times before leaving Colorado...addiction, perhaps? However, Ahnah decided to be more open to try different dishes and really enjoyed the Gabilla's Knish. For those of us that are curious...this dish is a seasoned mashed potato with some good spicy brown mustard on it. 

  This place stayed busy and was a rather small establishment so we chose to eat out on the patio. The food was yummy and the staff was very friendly. The employees seemed to enjoy working there and were laid back but, maybe a little too laid back. Being that we consider ourselves friendly and laid back, we welcome this behavior but this will bring us to the 1 negative thing to comment about on this restaurant: employees were cursing in front of customers. Now, we curse ourselves at times but the problem is children were in and out of here and they do not need to be hearing that. We have both worked in jobs where we are expected to be very professional and represent our companies in front of clients so we expect the same when visiting other establishments...profanity in front of customers is not a professional practice. 

Final Thoughts: If you are a pizza/Italian fan, please try this place out and get ready for some great food and friendly service...just try to tune your ears out of things you hear in case the staff is a little too laid back again. We definitely plan to go back on our next visit to Denver. 

16th Street Mall

 The following day we had to go it alone as our amazing tour guides had to return to work until the following weekend. So we planned to explore the 16th Street Mall. We had the train schedule,(more to come on the train later in the week!) a few directions, digital guidance from afar thanks to one of our tech guru tour guides, comfy shoes and a spirit of adventure. So off we went!

Upon our arrival, it was a little bit overwhelming. Memphis is big but Denver is HUGE, or so it felt. Upon exiting the station we looked around for a few blocks and ended up going left. After walking a few more blocks it became necessary to find a bathroom. Interesting note about Downtown Denver, there are no easily accessible public bathrooms. You have to be a customer and have a code in the malls and be a paying customer in other places. Heck, the Target doesn't even have a public one. So the search began.

Now we feel the need to mention that Ahnah is a coffee addict. Might not want to engage her in serious conversation until after a cup of God's gift to mankind. Or two. At this point she hadn't had any...at all...and so whipping out her phone she decided to Google the nearest coffee shop. Great idea, except that having no familiarity at all with the area, we were led further away from where we wanted to go. The closest one was a few blocks down and as we made our way there we did pass one site of interest. Coors Field, now neither of us are baseball fans but it was still a very cool stadium to behold. Knowing now what we didn't know then would have made us realize that we were heading in the wrong direction. Oops.

Shortly after we passed the stadium we found the coffee shop, with the Hallelujah chorus ringing in our heads we went to walk up the stairs just to discover......it wasn't open yet!!!! 😭

Nearing panic mode at this point, we ventured on to the next spot on the map with prayers in our hearts that it was open. Thankfully it was! 

Snooze's A.M. Eatery was our lifesaver!! Taking care of the call of nature and seating ourselves at the bar, the barista/bartender assisted us in ordering our drinks. At that point in time, Ahnah was in zombie mode and ordered a mocha espresso, while a custom made chai tea latte was what Brad was after. Ahnah loved her drink, almost ordering another to go-but decided it was in her best interest to not have her heart explode. Brad was highly impressed with his beverage, actually saying it was one of the best of he's ever had. Which he does not say lightly. So that being said:

Snooze's A.M. Eatery= ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our only regret was that we weren't hungry enough to eat just yet. Their menu looks scrumptious. With a few extra directions from the barista/bartender we headed back out. And finally found our destination! 

The 16th Street Mall was in complete chaos and disarray with all the construction going on, but we aren't going to hold it against them. While our minds were thinking mall, and there actually is a brick and mortar mall, it has the feel of a strip mall with all the little stores along the way. We actually found signs of relics of days gone by:

(Referring to the sign, not the tourists.) We were so worn out by this point that we decided to look at few places and make a plan to come back with final choices on purchases the next day. While we did see the mall and a few of the stores, we didn't make any stops in there that day. The tourists shops were EVERYWHERE!! Stopping at a few of them, we decided that Where The Buffalo Roam was probably our top choice. (Might or might not be because it reminded us of Hunter S. Thompson, if you are familiar with him, you will get the reference.) 

Where The Buffalo Roam was a very cool little shop with something new to see in almost every square inch of space they have available. With everything to t-shirts, and all the usual touristy stuff to localized fossils, it is definitely worth looking at if you are touring the  mall. Most of the other gift shops felt very "cookie cutter" but this one stood out. Only real downfall was it seemed over-crowded with stuff and was very hot!

Where The Buffalo Roam = ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We then stopped at the Target because Ahnah had to see with her own eyes that a 3-Story Target actually existed in this world. Very cool to see but had a very poor selection compared to the local targets. 

We then stopped for lunch at a cool little place for lunch...but that deserves a post all of it's own. After lunch we decided it was time to return to "home" with a much better plan for the next day. Most important lesson of the day: When coming out of the Union Station in downtown Denver....turn RIGHT instead of left and you'll be just fine. Till next time....stay weird.