Doing the Mile High City on the cheap!

Since moving to Denver I've been able to sample quite a few places to eat, drink and generally have some fun. Not anything fancy, since we are living on one income at the moment and that one income isn't anything too awesome. That being said I am all about cheap thrills. Well, I've always been a bargain hunter/junkie that enjoys something even more if it was a "good deal". I've found quite a few super awesome, but wallet friendly things to do in the city since I arrived two months ago. Here are my faves:

The Alley Bar: I basically should start paying rent at this place because I pretty much live here. I usually find myself here at least twice a week because the happy hour is that amazing. From 5-5:30 they sell 10 cent slices of pizza, meatball sliders & PBR's. I don't think I have to explain further. Except that from 5:30-6:00 they are 50 cents. They also have an array of other happy hour apps/beers/wine/wells that are from $3-$6. Basically if you come here at 5:00 and order an XL cheese pizza and 4 beers your tab is a grand total of: $1.20 So this is the main reason I frequent this place when I'm too lazy to cook anything at home or when a baseball game is on that Nick wants to watch since we are too cheap to pay for cable. They also have trivia night there on Thursdays and other fun little deals everyday of the week. I LOVE this place.

Elvis Movie Theater It's your standard bargain theater with $2.50 matinees and $3.50 movies after 6, but for some reason it's so much more. I like the funky vintage interior and cheap popcorn and soda. They also carry a variety of toppings. Yes, flavored popcorn toppings that take popcorn to a whole new sodium/msg level that I can't get enough of. Come here on a rainy/snowy day and you will not be disappointed.

Colorado Rockies Rockpile tickets Every game has $4 tickets available in the notorious "Rockpile". It's known for it's rowdy, mostly drunk crowd (who use the savings from the tickets to buy booze) and I think I will feel right at home! For a while I was incorrectly referring to these seats as the "rockpit" (hey it's pretty close), but whatever you call it, I plan on being a regular fixture this summer.

Free Museum/Zoo days. I kinda missed the boat for the time being on this, but at the end of summer I plan on hitting up most of these. I really want to see Egyptian mummy stuff and the cool looking pirate exhibit. Plus the botanic gardens and zoo seem pretty cool too.

With a little planning and some online research you can have a LOT of fun for just a few bucks. For a cheapo like me, a city is a goldmine of bargains just waiting to be discovered and so far the little gems I have found so far are just a taste of what is out there.

More Brunch

I've been on a brunch kick (hey, ya can't ever go wrong with brunch, it's two meals in one so it's ok to over indulge) and after some consideration we thought we would give Lola a whirl. Everyday I bike past this restaurant on my way home from work and envy the patrons sitting on the patio enjoying the happy hour. It always looks so inviting and lively! Immediately after Lola is the local ice cream shop, Little Man and people are usually spilling out onto the sidewalk staring at me huff and puff up the hill as they eat their delicious looking ice cream while I look longingly at their waffle cones. My bike ride home is an exercise in self control that I often fail. Miserably.

So I really, really wanted to be one of those happy shiny people laughing on the patio fo Lola and I decided brunch was where it was at. I saved up an especially mighty appetite for Lola's one saturday morning recently. But it ended in sadness because after an order of home made donuts, bloodies and a bennie I was still hungry. Real hungry. Everything tasted awesome, but there was just so little of it. I thought the cheesy grit cake underneath my poached egg was going to be a little more generous in size, instead it was dwarfed by the egg (which is hard to do). I wanted it to be so much more and there just wasn't.

I guess I'll just have to stick to their happy hour and amazing dinners. Although the bloody mary bar sounds pretty tempting on Sundays...maybe after I make breakfast at home a nice bloody mary can be enjoyed on the sunny patio of Lola's.