Winding, finding places to go
And then one day, hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Oomray
Oomray
The Gnome, Pink Floyd
It was hard to ignore the Grateful Gnome brew-pub after including a photo of it in my Gnome Confessions post, so I managed to slip a quick visit into my agenda for the trip, and made it there on the last day. It is located in West Denver, near a park I used to play tennis at (Berkeley Park), in a building that used to be an auto shop in another life. The gnomes did a great job converting into a restaurant and brewery. Busy little devils they are.
When we first entered (human sized, not the usual gnome cave entry), I asked what the story was about gnomes. The waitperson did not know, and pointed me over to the bar where the owner was sitting. About an hour later, we had learned the entire history of the bar, a bit of his family history, got to see a few of his gnome tattoo’s (picture below….really, I’m not making this up), and even got a tour of the small but incredible brewery in the back. The owner is a great person, fun to talk to and obviously really enjoys owning and managing the establishment – and a true gnome aficionado.
As for the gnome collection, mine pales in comparison. There are small gnomes, large gnomes, happy gnomes, beer can holder gnomes, gnomes on the walls, gnomes swinging from the ceiling, signage gnomes, gnomes on the beer taps – pretty much every kind of gnome that exists in the world.
And there are gnome t-shirts of course – I almost gave in and bought one, but I was still depressed about not getting a Manitou Incline shirt or the popsicle…sigh. My glass is always half-empty.
OK, I did not intend to make this an advertisement for the place, but I really enjoyed the time we spent there. The food is great – not really gnome themed, just a lot of deli and comfort food type sandwiches with a wide variety of sides. Good stuff. And as I mentioned, they also have a brewery in the rear of the building, making 12 custom brews. They have a small area packed with a lot of modern brewery equipment….and a really cool brew master.
And you do not have to worry about safety in that place – they have their own gnome-managed security service!
This was the last entry on my Colorado trip agenda, and a fun and non-destructive one at that. No hiking or climbing involved, and I even got a tour of a part of Denver I’ve not seen in decades. Once upon a time, when we first moved to Denver (1979), there was an amusement park in that area (Elitch Gardens). It was torn down after closing in 1994, and the area is now housing and a ton of restaurants. But they left the original carousel dome and theater. A nice memory. There are so many of them in Colorado for me.
So I managed to hit everything I wanted to do, spent 10 days with friends instead of by myself (I had forgotten what it was like to talk to someone other than myself all day), bought what I needed for my Antarctica trip, ate too much and drank too much and maybe re-wired my brain a bit. Perfect trip.
And if you are in Denver and want to commune with gnomes:
The Traveling Widower 