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Current Issue

Posted 01.01.2010

Best bets: behind the specialty shop doors, marvelous Marvin and chocolate for vets

Great stuff to choose from this weekend

By Lisa Ryckman

Friday

See the best of MOMIX, the experimental dance company that uses amazing movement, music and costumes to take the audience to another place. Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. Tickets: $15 to $60 More info at www.mosespendleton.com.

Saturday

Grab your cross-country skis and head for Devil's Thumb Ranch in Tabernash for the Governor's Cup, one of the largest cross-country ski races in the state. And not just for the snow and the scenery -- food, music and cash prizes await you. Cost: $50. More info at www.devilsthumbranch.com or call 800-933-4339.

Go behind the scenes for a four-hour tour of five top gourmet specialty shops, and chat with the owners about what makes the best the best: How do ingredients and handling procedures contribute to the taste, texture and mouth-feel of artisan cheeses? What makes a chocolate stand out? Tickets: $89. Go here for details.

Think you've been brewing up the world's greatest beer in your basement? Bring it to Ska Brewing for its 2nd Annual Homebrewing Competition. The top winner goes to this fall's Great American Beer Festival in the Pro-Am category.

Marvelous Marvin Hamlisch brings the music of Lerner and Loewe -- stuff like My Fair Lady, Gigi and Brigadoon -- to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the CSO Chorus at 7:30 p.m. Go here for tickets.

All weekend long

The World's Largest Apres Ski and Ride Party rocks restaurants, bars and clubs all over downtown Denver, with many of the top ski resorts pairing up with their favorite hot spots. Dining deals, parties and prizes aplenty.

Chocolate really does make everything better, and no better way to find that out than the United Voluntary Service's chocolate festival benefitting veterans in Colorado's Veterans Affairs Hospital. Dance Friday night away with the Manhattan Swing Band, then spend the weekend sampling chocolates and watching chef demonstrations while activities for kids keep the whole family happy. Festivities kick off at 6:30 tonight and run through 5 p.m. Sunday. Visit www.chocolateforvets.org for more details.

Lisa Ryckman is the online editor at cobizmag.com.

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