Entries by Dick Kreck

Beyond Great Beer

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There’s nothing else like it. The Great American Beer Festival, celebrating its 40th year October 6-8 next door at the Colorado Convention Center, expects 40,000 beer aficionados at the festival, the largest ticketed beer event in the country. My, how you’ve grown. Charlie Papazian, regarded as “the father of craft beer” in America and retired […]

The Mob in Denver

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The Smaldone family, Denver’s version of the Mafia, was low key, unlike their more high-profile brethren in New York, Chicago and New Jersey. They wore big hats and spiffy suits, but they didn’t race around town in big cars, mowing down rivals. In fact, they weren’t in the Mafia. Isolated far out in Denver, they […]