Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i 5280 Magazine

If you’re looking to excite kids, aerial wrecks are not a bad place to start. U.S. Drone Soccer, Colorado’s newest youth league, checks that box—and more. “It looks a lot like Quidditch,” says Kyle Sanders, vice president of education and development for U.S. Drone Soccer. “I would have called it drone hockey, because it’s a fun, physical game.” The rules are simple: Two teams of three to five drones apiece enter a caged arena, while pilots are just outside the field of play. Each squad’s designated “striker” tries to pilot her drone through the opponent’s goal (a hoop suspended at the opposite end of the “field”) while the rival side’s drones try to stop it—that is, smash it into oblivion. But the game’s technicalities are, well, technical, and part of…

Landing your dream backpacking trip in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) isn’t quite as unlikely as winning Mega Millions—but it’s always been difficult. Peak-season permits go on sale March 1 at 8 a.m. sharp, and in a normal year, dozens of diehards would be lined up outside the park’s permit office near the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center for the in-person lottery, hoping to gain a needed edge (one the National Park Service says doesn’t exist) over the thousands of would-be adventurers booking online. But 2021 isn’t a normal year. Not only has COVID-19 forced RMNP to suspend in-person reservations, parts of the park were devastated by the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires, meaning dozens of Rocky’s 270-plus backcountry campsites are closed due to fire damage. With that in mind,…

In a year when it felt as though an avalanche of information overcame us every day, December 14, 2020, managed to stand apart. News alerts announced the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were being administered locally and across the country. Within the same 24-hour period, phones everywhere pinged with the heartbreaking news that the United States had surpassed 300,000 coronavirus-related deaths, more than any other nation. While many will remember that winter Monday for delivering a small dose of hope in a deeply unsettling year, the maiden COVID-19 vaccine wasn’t ever going to be a solution in and of itself. Politicized in the runup to the November election, developed on a breakneck timeline, and made available through an emergency use authorization, the prophylactic still had to face public opinion. Surveys in November…

SOUTHERN SOUL Chef Cool Dre DeAndre Smith, who cooks and competes professionally under the name Chef Cool Dre, grew up in Denver but learned to appreciate his family’s Texas and Arkansas roots and cuisine from his grandparents. As a child, Smith’s grandfather would patiently let him go through a dozen eggs until he’d learned how to crack and fry them properly, and his grandmother would prepare soul food specialties such as red beans and rice, neck bones, black-eyed peas, and hot-water cornbread. These days, when Smith isn’t working on finishing degrees in communications and nutrition from the University of Northern Colorado (after prestigious invitations to cook at the James Beard Awards reception in 2019 and on ABC’s The Chew in 2018), Smith can be found preparing à la carte Sunday…

34 DEGREES If 34 Degrees’ Crisps are the cracker darlings of Denver, then the brand’s new Snaps are its highly snackable sibling. The airy, baked chickpea thins, sold in sea salt, everything, and onion-dip-ready umami flavors, are also produced at the company’s Louisville facility, founded in 2003 by Craig Lieberman, a co-owner of Beckon in RiNo. 34-degrees.com BITS & PIECES CON CERVEZA Only order delivery of Orlando Benavidez’s green- and red-chile corn tortillas if you’re comfortable forming a new habit. Made by the New Mexico native and longtime Denver chef using puréed chiles (never dyes), each street-taco-size round is wonderfully supple and fragrant. Bits & Pieces’ spice blends, especially the sweet-and-savory Mexican jerk seasoning featured on its food truck menu, are flavor bombs, too. bitsnpiecescc.com BUBBY GOOBER’S BAKED GOODS When…

How does the magazine create this list? In June 2020, 5280 posted its Top Real Estate Producers survey online. We sent the link to the questionnaire (available at submit.5280.com/top-producers) to dozens of real estate brokerages in the seven metro-area counties; it was also shared widely via social media. Any brokerage with agents who sell homes in the Denver metro area could submit nominations. The survey asked brokerage administrators to provide the names of both individual agents and teams of agents who, based on their sales volumes for 2019, qualified for our list. Nominees in hand, our research department reached out to each real estate agent to confirm the sales numbers and to gather and/or verify their basic contact information. What qualifies someone to be a 5280 Top Real Estate Producer?…

A Quick Escape Indian Peaks Wilderness This 73,391-acre wilderness is basically Denver’s collective backyard, so you likely know that backcountry camping permits have been mandatory since the mid-1980s. What you might not know is that no permits are needed for groups of seven or less between September 16 and May 31. Better yet, autumn sees far fewer crowds. We love the eight-mile, waterfall- and wildflower-lined climb to Upper Diamond Lake for a speedy overnight trip. A Thrill Flat Tops Wilderness Just three feet wide at its narrowest, with 80-foot-tall cliffs falling away on either side, Flat Tops’ Devils Causeway gives RMNP’s Keyhole Route a run for its money in terms of sheer pucker factor. The reward for those brave enough? Views of Little Causeway Lake, stunted basalt domes, and alpine…

DUMPLINGS The three cooks at Seoul Mandoo in Aurora make about 1,500 Korean mandu every day, from softball-size wang mandu stuffed with the likes of galbi, veggies, or shrimp to smaller, Seoul-style meat-and-kimchi mandu. Their labor translates into plenty of frozen dumplings for you to steam or microwave at home. Eat them immediately after cooking, while the thin rice-flour wrappers are still fluffy. $20 for 25; seoulmandoo.com RAVIOLI Kelly and Mario Crobu—he a native of Sardinia, Italy—began delivering their homestyle Casa Crobu frozen pastas and sauces across the Denver metro area in May 2020; we’ve been carb-loading their potato-, pecorino-, and mint-stuffed culurgiones, a Sardinian specialty, ever since. $18 for 12; casacrobu.com MEAT Clint and MaryKay Buckner have raised free-range pigs, lambs, and cows the responsible way on their Longmont…

Ashley Beirne can’t recall one time during her teenage years when the tampons she used weren’t donated. Back then, she didn’t have stable housing and lacked the money to buy her own menstrual products, a problem two-thirds of low-income women in the United States experience. “Not being able to afford products for something that you have absolutely no control over—it feels inhumane,” says Beirne, now 30. Determined that others shouldn’t feel that shame, in 2019 Beirne and her friend Geoff Davis started Period Kits, a Denver nonprofit that supplies free period products for Coloradans experiencing poverty. Before the pandemic, the organization hosted events at local spots like Copper Door Coffee Roasters, where volunteers packed three months’ worth of tampons, pads, liners, and underwear (worth roughly $27) into bags, which Period…

PREP COOK → Los Dos Potrillos barbacoa box Family-owned Los Dos is beloved across metro Denver (with locations in Centennial, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, and Parker), but we say that its ready-to-eat dinner packages are worthy of a drive from wherever you may be. Place a timed order to pick up a curbside carryout box of tamales, enchiladas, carnitas, or, our favorite, beef barbacoa. Available Monday through Thursday only, the barbacoa kit feeds four generously with juicy, chile-marinated beef, a cup of the consommé that captured the drippings as the meat cooked, refried beans, rice, tomatillo salsa, onion and cilantro, and freshly made, consommé-dipped corn tortillas. The only skills required are calling in your order (you won’t see the kits online; follow Los Dos’ social media for new options), competent driving,…

For Sab? Parsa, preserving the flavors, textures, and colors of Centennial State produce is an art form. Through her Boulder-based Sab? Jam, the Iranian-American artisan aims to bring attention to the splendor of our bounty as well as her homeland’s custom of treasuring the harvest. “In Iran, fruit is the thing,” says Parsa, who came to the United States in 2000 to attend college. “When you go to somebody’s house, you take them a bag of fruit, which are like jewels that people cherish and love.” Parsa’s jam-packed journey began in San Francisco more than a decade ago, when she began making preserves for her partner, who was living on the East Coast during its seasonal-fruit-scarce wintertime. An appreciation for the craft and the Golden State’s produce inspired Parsa, a…

There’s no denying that the mile-high residential real estate market has been one of the hottest in the nation for the past decade. It even remained on fire through much of the pandemic. Depending on your situation, that can be a wildly lucrative or bank-account-emptying prospect. Either way, the market’s nuances as well as the legal and financial processes involved are almost always confusing, if not downright mystifying. That’s where our directory of real estate agents—all of whom produced among the highest sales volumes in Denver in 2019 (the most current data available at press time)—comes in handy. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell in Denver’s high-stakes market, harnessing the expertise of one of these professionals may help deliver you quickly and (hopefully) painlessly to the ultimate goal: closing…

PRICE KEY (Average Entrée) $ UNDER $10 $$ $11 TO $15 $$$ $16 TO $25 $$$$ $6 AND HIGHER. SYMBOL KEY NEW Indicates a restaurant featured in 5280 for the first time (though not necessarily a restaurant that has just opened). 25 BEST Indicates inclusion in 5280’s 2019 list of Denver’s best restaurants; we did not release a 2020 list due to COVID-19 disruptions and closures. These selections are at the discretion of 5280 editors and are subject to change. A Acreage by Stem Ciders $$ Lafayette / Seasonal Stem Cider’s ciderhouse and eatery pairs its drinks with house-grown produce and sustainable sourcing by chef Eric Lee. Reservations accepted. 1380 Horizon Ave., Lafayette, Unit A, 720-443-3007. Lunch, Dinner Acova $$$ Highland / American A diverse gluten-free menu of American classics…

ANN TORGERSON 303.522.5922 | ann4homes@gmail.com Ann has been successfully selling Denver real estate full-time since 1998 with a honed toolbox to surpass your real estate needs. She is also in the TOP 1% OF HER COMPANY, and focused on success. She holds the Certified Negotiation Expert(CNE) designation and negotiating is one of her key strengths. CHRISTOPHER NAIRN 303.229.4585 | chris@mymovematters.com As a Colorado real estate agent since 2008, Chris is more than qualified to guide you through the buying or selling process. Having seen downturns and upswings in the market has helped shape his experience. Chris’ background in remodeling and design gives his clients peace of mind while negotiating transactions. He expertly advises buyers and sellers and is in the top 1% of the brokerage. CAROLYN KENNEY 720.466.3799 | carolyn@cksellshomes.com…