Great American Bites: Food for beer lovers at Amato's

— -- The scene: The Ale House at Amato's is the logical conclusion of Denver's quarter-century love affair with all things beer. In 1988, citizen John Hickenlooper fought to change state law and succeeded in opening Colorado's very first brewpub here, the Wynkoop brewery. Denver has been obsessed with beer ever since. Hickenlooper's resulting popularity helped propel him into public office, first as Denver's mayor, and currently as Colorado's governor - the first brewer turned governor since Samuel Adams in 1793. Today Denver is chock full of breweries and beer pubs, and more than 200 new taps were added last year alone. There are over 60 breweries in the hopped-up triangle of Denver, Boulder and Ft. Collins, including Coors, the world's largest. More than 200 different varieties are brewed here, the city is home to the Great American Beer Festival, listed in the Guinness World Records as the world's largest, and the greater Denver metro area brews more than any other U.S. city.

So visitors seeking a taste of Colorado have plenty of choices, but few better than The Ale House at Amato's. A cooperative venture between the Wynkoop and Breckenridge breweries, two of Colorado's most popular, the offerings are far from limited to their products. Amato's occupies a large modern building in the Lower Highlands neighborhoods with stunning views of the downtown Denver skyline. It also sports a cozy open-air rooftop bar, complete with fireplaces, which is jammed in warm weather and open on mild weekends even in winter. The main floor includes a large central bar surrounded by tables and a separate large dining room, and there is a third bar upstairs.

The setting is simple and a bit corporate, not unlike a Chili's or Applebee's, but the food and drink offerings are anything but. In celebration of all things beer, they have 42 small producer varieties on tap daily, including around 30 craft beers made in Colorado, plus rotating out-of-state "guest" versions. They have Colorado-made hard cider on draught, even local wine from Denver's favorite urban winery, along with two true hand-pulled cask-conditioned ales, an old English tradition that is becoming hard to find even in England. But since no beer is actually made on the premises, the focus is on food - and lots of it.

Reason to visit: Wild boar sliders, ½ pound burgers, fried brownies, flights of Colorado beers.