Tucked around a corner behind Starbucks, just off of the main strip of Washington Avenue, is perhaps Golden's most contemporary restaurant, the Blue Canyon Bar & Grill. I saw advertisements for this bar in lots of places, and on prior visits to town I had seen a steady stream of people coming and going from the small doorway on the side of the building. One day after work, I made a special point of going there during happy hour.

I opened the door and could only take about three steps inside before getting caught up in the thick of the crowd that had packed this

place like sardines in a can. I couldn't even see the far walls of the room to tell how big the place was or why there was an abnormally high concentration of people jammed into one corner that appeared to be serving as a makeshift stage. I could only assume that since the time of day was happy hour, the stage corner must be doubling as some sort of free food buffet area.

The people and the music were extremely loud, and this was not the type of environment that I was in the mood for at the time. As quickly as I had taken three steps in, I