Popination Scintillation

a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: Mile High Spirits. And DUWF.

Looks almost dive-bar-rough out front.

I first found my way trepidatiously creaking open the door to Mile High Spirits back in the Before Times. I had been hired on as a runway model for the Denver Unique Week of Fashion, and was to go there to take (what turned out to be) a strange seminar about how to walk.

See, unlike the other theatrical movement arts I knew so well, runway models really don’t get to express themselves very much at all, if at all, and each model’s walk needs to be the same, even if their bodies look different. Now usually, runway models’ bodies don’t look different—even in today’s enlightened time, they’re still a bunch of coat hangers for the most part. But DUWF was different.

Created as a revolutionary way to showcase the talents of local fashion designers, Unique Week was indeed that. Bodies of all ages (from little kids to gray haired elders), sizes (the range of angles to curves), and genders (fluid, cis, and trans in abundance) took that walking course so that we all looked professional and elegant in all our varied ways. Their motto? ‘Beauty is for every body.’ Ain’t it the truth.

Since the fashion shows took place through the whole week, they’d pop a runway up in a few different venues across Denver. For a couple of the Unique Weeks, they’d put up one or two of these shows at Mile Hi Spirits. 

(Is it Mile Hi or Mile High? I don’t know—I’ve seen it as both and I refuse to do research, remember?)

Today’s visit was for a different reason altogether—I simply wanted to come up here again and see about reflecting on it for a Popination. I continue to love their spirits, after all, sipping on their Fireside whiskey almost every day I’m at I.C. Brewhouse. So I splurged on an Uber to take me just a bit east of downtown to this sprawling distillery that I had such nice memories of.

Just a bit east of downtown means another pretty rough area of the city—it’s trying very hard to become a cool Bohemian arts district, and some blocks do succeed in almost doing that, but as a whole, it’s still quite crunchy—as you walk into Mile High’s front door, you look one way and see down one of the slightly rougher blocks that spills out from the area of downtown that backs the stadium (see first pic above), but turn the other way and you’ll gaze upon two hordes of rough looking people milling about both sides of the street surrounding the Community Center. I hear that during the pandemic especially, each day bartender who opened would have to dismiss several people sleeping in the patio area out back. 

Inside, though, the place is huge, well-appointed, with cement floors and exposed ceilings from which interestingly steampunk light fixtures dangle. Chairs and couches and giant board games make it very akin to what I always call ‘classic brewery decor’ including the fact that they don’t have food, only a popcorn machine when the food trucks aren’t in season. But it’s also got lots of floor space, and places to pose for a selfie, along with a small stage, which indicates Mile High’s transformation into something of a dance club come nighttime. 

As such, how the runway here for DUWF used to go was: all the models would flock outside in the big patio area, then line up and we’d enter through that side door, up onto the stage for our first pose, then down to the floor where they’d put a dividing aisle between the two facing banks of seats for the spectators. It was a little much to navigate but I was lucky enough to wear heels that my designers loved and that were relatively easy to walk in.

Everyone say hi to Dale! 

I’ve done DUWF 4 times in total and twice at Mile High. The first time I walked for a designer here was a funky streetwear design org called 80 Generations. He tells me that the name has to do with his ‘80s pop culture influences and that he’s Gen X. So. Generation ‘80s. Kinda. For that show for 80 Generations, I was honored to don a gorgeous satin baseball-style jacket that was an homage to DMX—it had ‘True Hustler’ emblazoned across the back and the designer was thrilled that I happened to have worn my very high chunky industrial style Converse to the event—they matched the jacket and the whole look perfectly. 

The second time DUWF used Mile Hi when I was there, I actually got meticulously measured and fitted for an outfit that the designer created from scratch, for my body. We met at Mile Hi for the initial measurements, and then in my apartment for the follow up fitting. The dress with an uneven train and the sparkly tulle stole looked amazing on me, and I was so thrilled not only that I got to wear a design specifically designed for me, but that after the event she let me keep it. The kicker? This designer was 12 years old. (Her dad helped her take measurements but she did all the designs and construction.)

The other super fun part about her design (gah I can’t remember her name and I feel like an ass), is that for each of the 4 models she designed for, we each were required to carry a teddy bear down the runway, clad identically in a teddy bear version of our exact outfit. So cool, what a great fun idea, and the spectators loved it! She kept the bears, though, because they were all from her own plushy collection at home. And who am I to steal teddies from babies? 

Side Note: I’ve worn her dress with an added roseate crown gifted to me by my MiL for an emcee gig at Blue Dime Cabaret, and it’s just such a privilege and pleasure to do so.

The True Hustler himself passed away mere days after I was honored to wear this jacket honoring him.

See the identically clad teddy bear I’m holding?

But this time visiting Mile High, I had a long and lovely chat with Dale, the bartender, who was enduring his one day-shift of the week (normally he works at night), and was obviously glad to have some interesting chat on a slow afternoon. Mile Hi is more of a nightlife type place, so I understood his ennui, and he made me feel like a regular right away. 

And then when two regulars did indeed come in and sit near, we all had a continuing lovely chat, about the merits of bourbon vs. whiskey vs. scotch, tasted a tiny taste of the most horrifically peaty nonsense I’ve ever imbibed, and talked a little about what’s a dive bar and what are the good ones around. I asked them if they’d been to Nob Hill. We talked for a bit about what pub life was like during the pandemic, and how traumatizing it was for an extrovert (and bartender) like Dale to be cut off from the world, and how healing it was to all of us when we could come back together in all the pubs and 3rd Places we missed. 

And then? Dale brought out the Hazmat! Again, only a very tiny sample, but I was given one basically because I was so incredulous, seeing the regulars taste it and comment about it. Apparently, to be called Hazmat, this whiskey has to be at least 140 proof—this particular batch is 155. No, that’s not a typo. And so when one of the regulars commented that this one was remarkably drinkable, I had to be proven so. I mean…? How on earth could anything at 155 proof be *drinkable*?? But you know what? He wasn’t wrong. I mean, I don’t know that I’d say ‘drinkable’—I’d admit it’s definitely sippable, though. It tastes like caramel and a deep suntan. You can taste the strength of it, for sure, no denying that alcoholic heat, but it’s so yummy withal. I sat corrected. And surprised.

See the little selfie area on the side there? And the popcorn machine in the distance? Very clubby and divey at the same time.

Obviously because Mile High’s neighborhood is what it is, and is also about a $20 Uber each way, and also since I don’t have an establishment in Boulder anymore and therefore never pass through downtown anymore, I don’t go there often and I don’t think I can justify doing so. But I still drink their product frequently at my ‘local,’ so that’s a nice thing. As much as I enjoyed being down there again, I’ll have to make special trips up here more often. And I’m glad to hear they’re super busy still. Long may they reign (by the Fireside).