The Best Neighborhoods in America:
Central
The
Men's Journal
Wed, May 27, 2009
Urban Perks, Outdoor Access
EAST HIGHLAND / DENVER, CO
Denver has long struggled with a cow town inferiority
complex. Upscale restaurants feel out of place alongside
taquerias, and it’s tough to tell if neon beer
signs signify dive-bar irony or square-state interior
design. But in burgeoning East Highland, Colorado’s
capital finally has its own Brooklyn.
Overlooking the downtown skyline, E-Hi’s brick
brownstones, row houses, and modern condominium complexes
are bringing in single professionals who party like
grown-ups, couples who aren’t quite ready to
settle down, and young families who are looking for
a little more color than they might find in the increasingly
beige neighborhoods of Cherry Creek or Washington
Park. Up the 15th Street hill is the neighborhood’s
core, where unique restaurants and bars are multiplying
at such a clip that the area has already established
itself as the destination district for the rest of
the city. While Mexican grocery stores and cheap,
tasty taquerias flourish, Vita’s
rooftop terrace is usually packed with the city’s
smart set (but without the attitude), and high-end
Mexican place Lola offers up a new
twist on tacos, with an excellent view of the downtown
skyline. Locals know oddly shaped Little Man
Ice Cream as “the giant milk can,”
and Root Down, the city’s most
interesting new restaurant, is a rehabbed gas station
with a mod-retro vibe. Some would argue that it has
taken Denver this long to find its city sensibility
because the Rockies are all about Eddie Bauer and
not Hugo Boss; but even if you ask the city’s
outdoor obsessives where they¹d most like to
spend their downtime, they’ll say it doesn¹t
get much more convenient than this neighborhood notched
between I-25 and I-70. A-Basin is
about 90 minutes away, door-to-door, and the South
Platte River Greenway, a five-minute downhill
spin from the center of East Highland, offers the
best urban biking in town. For a midweek fix, check
out the 45-foot-high climbing wall at REI’s
massive flagship store, housed in an impressive century-old
brick building. Or, for those who prefer escaping
farther into the city, a new pedestrian footbridge
handily links East Highland to LoDo (Lower Downtown)
high-rises and nightclubs, along with Coors
Field, the city’s beautiful retro ballpark.
- Luc Hatlestad
Median Home Price: $270,470
Cost of Living: 2% higher
Sunny Days: 245 |
