City Tour of Denver!

One of the things Hubby and I joke about is one day owning a city tours company. You know the ones you sign up for and then they take you to the best 5 bars in downtown or on a progressive dinner to four different restaurants. Or perhaps a donut crawl.

For research purposes we figured we should take some tours sometimes and Denver happens to have a free one! You know how I feel about free things! So when we were there in March, we got up somewhat early on a Sunday and met at the state capital building for our free tour.

There were about 25 of us on the tour and the guide had some of the best voice projection I'd ever heard. Hubby will have to work on that a bit. We walked around for about 2 hours going almost 2 miles in that time and learned the history of the buildings and parks and areas we went by. It was super informative and a great way to get to know the city. Our friend who lives there even came with us and learned some things she didn't know! And for future reference, it's dog friendly.

Laramie Square, lots of historical buildings that didn't get torn down because someone fought to save them.

US Mint which had two somewhat successful robberies.

Public art at the convention center. Denver has a rule about public art in any large construction projects so there is a lot of public art in Denver.

Not actually on our walking tour, but a cool sign for the latest up and coming neighborhood.

Also not on the tour, but pancake flight at Snooze! Best place for brunch in Denver!

Walton Donuts

What: Raised Chocolate, Red Velvet

Where: Denver, CO

When: Monday, March 13th 2017

On our last day in Denver we got to try a new donut place but we weren't quite prepared for it. Our first choice was closed, so I picked Walton's off a list without too much thought because it also said it had breakfast sandwiches, but they did not. They did have really good classic donuts. I had the red velvet and hubby had the raised chocolate and I definitely thought that the raised chocolate was better (4.5/5). Excellent frosting flavor and perfect donut. The red velvet was good too (3/5), very moist just not as classically good as the raised donut. Denver BFF had a filled donut and as you can see from the picture it was FILLED. 

Bottles & Barrels Brewery

Hubby wants to start reviewing breweries and beer, so I'm gonna leave this one for him! Let's see if I can get him using my computer, he's a little old fashioned.

The Habit

What: Plain Jane, The Habit, Carbon

Where: Denver, CO
When: Saturday, March 11th 2017

Website: The Habit, Denver

You guys, I haven't done a donut review in FOREVER. Sorry! I dropped the ball this spring for sure. We've been super busy, news of what's in the works to come.

Donuts first! We went to Denver for spring break and to see some very old friends from middle school, one of which lives in Denver and one of which was coming to see her in-laws in Denver. Hubby did some research and found The Habit, a donut and whiskey place. I love donut/bars because they are open much nicer hours! In fact, we went there quite late after a full day of touristy stuff.

Hubby and I split the Carbon, described as "Dark chocolate espresso cremeux filling, espresso glaze, white chocolate drizzle" on their website. It was super decadent and rich, if not a little dry at the end (I mean, we did buy it around 9:30pm). BFF #1 got the Habit and had it finished before we got back in the car. The Habit is obviously their flagship donut and is a raspberry and blueberry concoction. BFF #2 got the Plain Jane, a simple cinnamon and sugar donut that was probably my favorite. Super moist and perfect flavor. I say 3.5/5 for Carbon, ?/5 for the Habit and 4/5 for Plain Jane.

Plain Jane

Carbon

Habit

Glazed and Confused

What: Confuzed Somoa, G&C Plain Glazed, G&C Chocolate Glazed
Where: 5301 Leetsdale Dr, Denver CO 80246
When: Tuesday, July 28th 2015
website

While in Denver for maybe 12 hours, including sleeping, we asked some locals (and by locals, I mean the friends we had lunch with) their favorite donut place and were immediately told of the wonder that is Glazed and Confused. We got over there around 1pm, which isn't really prime donut time and their selection showed it. But I wanted everything in the case regardless. We settled on three to try and my husband chatted up the clerk while I used their facilities (thank you for actually having decent bathrooms btw, very much appreciated).


First, the Confuzed Somoa. Just look at this thing. It was massive and covered in toasted coconut. As the name suggests, it was a take on one of my favorite Girl Scout cookies. The caramel frosting was well hidden under all the coconut. I prefer more caramel than coconut, but it was still delicious. The donut batter for all three was fairly dense and almost like a sweet bread. Moist and springy, but not very airy like some donuts. 4/5

The plain glazed was not very plain as the glaze was vanilla bean with a brown butter reduction in it. I thought it was really good, very rich and complex flavor. 4.5/5

The chocolate was definitely more of a chocolate glaze than a chocolate frosting, which the husband did not care for (but he still helped me eat it!). The flavor was also more natural and therefore subdued than some as well. 4/5

The donuts themselves shone a lot brighter than their toppings. I would like to try some of their other offerings, including their grilled donuts and the Elvis Has Left (Nutter Butter fluff with chocolate covered bananas). I feel my sister may want to try their Root Beer Float donuts, which was recommended by our friends but they were out of when we got to the store. I will definitely be going back here.

Jelly Cafe

Where: 600 East 13th Ave, Denver CO
What: Assorted donut holes
When: June 2012
website

Last year I got an email from Jetblue about a secret offer. It was $20-$500 off the cost of a roundtrip flight and there was about a month window to take it during. I get these emails often. Always get the least amount off. Not this time. $500 off in one email account. $250 off in another. And for some reason my mom, who doesn't ever fly, got a $500 off email in her account.

$1250 to spend on a trip anywhere Jetblue flies. Amazing!

So my sisters and I took a weekend trip to Denver. Because we could. We stayed in an apartment we found on Airbnb. We rented bikes daily from B-Cycle. And we ate and played and hung out. There was a lot of food. And Jelly Cafe was one of our stops!

We're big brunch fans in my family so one of my sisters had figured out the three best places for brunch for us, and Jelly was the third one.

Despite no mention of donuts on their website, they have these little jelly filled donut holes that you can order with your breakfast and of course, we ordered them. There was slight confusion about the order, we wanted one order of each of the flavors they had that day, but we only got one donut hole of each flavor. Thankfully we're good at sharing and that just left more room for the actual breakfast we had ordered. The donuts were ok, nothing to write home about (but apparently enough to write a review about...I mean I do need to get a donut review in every state eventually!) 2/5

Also, despite having pictures of practically every other meal we ate that weekend, I have none from Jelly. Sadness. You'll have to go visit their website!