100 APRIL 6-12, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC & VENUES | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | SHOPPING & SERVICES | CONTENTS | verde and salsa Mexicana made with roasted tomatoes — this starter is no af- terthought. Best Liver and Onions El Tejado 2651 South Broadway 303-722-3987 eltejadodenver.com Order this dish and you may not be the most popular person at this longtime Mexi- can joint with a huge menu, but you’ll be so pleased with the Higado Encebollado ($14.95) that you can afford to lose a few friends. Here a big slab of liver is fried with not just onions, but jalapeños, which cut nicely through the iron-rich meat when chopped up and served alongside beans and rice. Mix in some sense-searing green chile, and you’ve got an indulgent meal that just has to be good for you. Best Meal Under $5 Taco House Multiple metro locations tacohouse.org Taco House is a Colorado institution that has specialized in old-school Tex-Mex since 1958. Its three remaining locations, in Denver, Littleton and Lakewood, haven’t changed their recipes for six decades, so the appeal is partly nostalgia-based. But Taco House is also a straight-up good deal, where a good meal can still be had for just a few bucks. Our favorite: two cheese en- chiladas, which ring up at $4.80. At that price, you can afford to splurge, so add a lettuce-and-cheese topping for $1.50 or a blanket of red or green chile for just $1.25. Best Happy Hour Annette 2501 Dallas Street, Aurora 720-710-9975 annettescratchtotable.com In 2022, chef Caroline Glover took home the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mountain for her six-year-old Stanley Marketplace eatery. While dinner at An- nette can get pricey, depending on how many of the shareable plates you pick, its happy hour is designed to offer indulgence on a budget. Available from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday (yes, you can get these deals on weekends, too) and all day on Tuesday, the specials include $25 bottles of wine, $10 classic cocktails — including a stellar martini — and food deals like $1 off oysters, excellent egg salad on toast for $10, and the real star: steak frites with grilled onion butter, peas and pickled shallots for $26. That makes us very happy, indeed. Best Dive Bar Carioca Cafe 2060 Champa Street 303-296-1250 Drink gritty, not pretty. Dive bars are dry- ing up in Denver, swept away by tides of development. That makes the survival of Carioca Cafe — better known as Bar Bar, thanks to the neon sign outside — some- thing to celebrate, if perhaps with a peni- cillin chaser. For more than a century, this spot has held down the corner of Champa and 21st streets, serving drinks to an assort- ment of regulars, would-be great American novelists, hipsters, transients and rockers (during the Eisenhower era, it reportedly served something else in the game room, then a whorehouse); today the entertain- ment focuses more on endless inebriated conversations, though the illicit live music could make a fully licensed comeback. The drinks are stiff, the bathrooms awful, and the atmosphere beyond compare. Leave the credit cards at home; this place is strictly cash and carry on. Best Dive Bar With a View Lake View Lounge 2375 Sheridan Boulevard, Edgewater 303-238-2149 For close to fi fty years, tipplers have gath- ered at the Lakeview Lounge on the last day of Daylight Saving Time to toast the sun as it rises over Sloan’s Lake shortly after the place opens at 7 a.m. From the well-worn bar, they have a great view of Denver — and just how much Denver is changing. Cranes mark the Food and Drink continued from page 98 continued on page 102 GETT Y IMAGES