Natalya Miss Colfax July 2010 Photos by Anistacia Barber Featured Music: The Asteroids See them July 23rd at the: Donald's Computer Outlet 3421 E Colfax (303) 355-2626 Holiday Chalet B&B To place an ad, write: info@colfaxavenue.com

ColfaxAvenue.com is the definitive guide to the heart and soul of Colfax Avenue, dedicated with love to Colorado's greatest and most notorious strip! Shop, eat, be entertained and revel in the color and majesty of the longest commercial street in the U.S.A., running through Strasburg, Bennett, Watkins, Aurora, Denver, Lakewood, and Golden, Colorado.

If you attend only one food-centric soiree this summer, make it Sunday's Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation event, where 30 of Denver's top restaurants, including Vesta Dipping Grill, TAG, Argyll, Black Pearl, Elway's Cherry Creek, Duo, Solera, Table 6, Venue, Opus and Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria, will dish out delicious foodstuffs to benefit Share Our Strength, a non-profit that raises funds to to end childhood hunger in Denver and across the country.

"It's hard to argue with Share Our Strength's tag line - No Kid Hungry - and I've always believed that so many of our nation's troubles could easily be solved by feeding our hungry children, letting them know that someone is thinking of them and committing to the hard work it takes to make it happen," says Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben's executive chef Matt Selby, who's also the local chef chair for Share Our Strength.

The culinary bash kicks off at 5 p.m. at Mile High Station, 2027 West Lower Colfax Avenue, and includes glorious food gluttony from the participating restaurants, plus beer, wine, a muddle-and-shake cocktail competition led by Steuben's mixologist Sean Kenyon, live music from The Informants and a kick-ass silent auction trumpeting everything from gift certificates to local restaurants and vacation getaways to wine baskets and a Shaquille O'Neal jersey that Selby is already eying.

Tickets are $75 per person, every cent of which is donated to Share Our Strength. To purchase yours, go to www.strength.org/denver/. Bonus: Save $10 off the ticket price by using the code TONCOM10.

Best entertainment for under $1: The 3 a.m. #15 bus eastbound on Colfax

WESTWORD---Steve Ballas doesn't believe that the fact his birthday coincides with the beginning of National Hot Dog Month is a coincidence. "I believe in fate and everything happening for a reason."

Ballas, who owns Steve's Snappin' Dogs, 3535 East Colfax Avenue, is hoping diners will bank on their own fate to push their stomachs to the precipice of overconsumption in an effort to qualify for the restaurant's third annual hot dog eating contest later this month.

It'll cost you $25 to be a contender in the July 25 battle -- that and you've gotta pound five of Steve's Thumann's pork and beef dogs (bun included) in three minutes. You can wander into Steve's any time during opening hours if they'd like to try to qualify.

The top eight contenders will compete for $150 and the "Top Dog" honor during an eight-minute all-you-can-eat eat-off. The contest, proceeds of which go to Project Angel Heart, will go down at 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 25 at the restaurant.

The "you gotta eat the bun" rule sets Steve's contest apart from Nathan's annual hot dog contest, which allows contestants to commit all sorts of crimes against their hot dogs, including separating wiener from bun and soaking the buns in water. "I think hot dogs need to be eaten the way God made them -- in the bun," Ballas declares.

Ballas admits -- and anyone who has watched Nathan's hot dog eating contest knows -- it can get pretty gross "with mustard on their lips and what not." Still, he has a vision of making the contest as notorious as Nathan's, eventually shifting the contest to City Park or Infinity Park.

"There's all the Nathan's hype over the Fourth of July," -- the annual contest is slated for this Sunday, July 4 at 11 a.m. -- "so I wanted to close down the month," he says.

Steve's Snappin' Dogs is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call 303-333-7627.

Rotbart's Business Picks-n-Pans: Nostaligic Pick of the Week -- Davies' Chuck Wagon Diner

For $4.75, Dwayne Clark and his crew at Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner on West Colfax in Lakewood will serve you a made-to-order top sirloin steak and eggs, along with hash browns, toast or hot cakes, and a big slice of Colorado nostalgia. Clark and his wife own the landmark diner, whose unmistakable 36-foot tall neon Cowboy cook sign, complete with Stetson, white apron, brown boots and spurs, has ruled the skyline at the corner of West Colfax and Hoyt Street since June 1957, when the original owner opened the stainless steel diner.

In 1962, when 47-year-old Clark was still only a baby, the diner added the monstrous fiberglass brown palomino that still sits atop its entrance to this day. With the help of his father, who operated the Clark’s Coffee Shops that once dotted greater Denver, Dwayne Clark purchased Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner in 1984 when he was only 21 years old. Two years later, Clark, a graduate of Alameda High School, married Tammy Pippinger, one of his waitresses, and the two have co-managed the diner ever since.

Besides its famous design and signage, what makes Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner particularly noteworthy is its survival in the fast-food, fast-profit generations that have come since its opening 52 years ago. How does a restaurant not only survive more than a half century, but prosper? Indeed, the Clarks opened and operate two other area Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diners. The secret of success Dwayne tells me is “good food at a reasonable price.”

It also helps to have the work ethic of a mule. “That’s pretty much how you do it,” he agrees. And what does ‘work’ consist of for him? “You take care of your customers,” he says. Dwayne visits all three of his restaurants daily, getting to work by 4:45 a.m. and often staying on the job into the early evening. In addition to prioritizing customer service – the kind that small business proprietors must offer if they are to succeed, Dwayne has been very savvy in keeping his prices affordable. While sales have slumped at most major fast food chains and especially high-end restaurants, Dwayne says cash register receipts at Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner have consistently “been very, very good.”

Among his loyal customers at Colfax and Hoyt are neighbors who’ve stopped by the diner regularly since the 1970s, and a few who tell Dwayne they’ve been coming since the 1960s. Others who’ve feasted on Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner’s atmosphere include former Colorado Senator Ben ‘Nighthorse” Campell; former Congressman Bob Schaffer, and ex-Governor Roy Romer. The diner has also served as a set for numerous movies, television shows and commercials, alongside actors such as Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker.

In addition to the diner’s most popular steak and eggs meal, Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner was honored by The Denver Westword for offering the area’s best chicken fried steak.

Between opening day and today, Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner has had only three owners. The first, William Lyman Davies, constructed the restaurant after purchasing the 46-ton pre-fab materials from Mount View Diners, Inc. of Signac, New Jersey and having it shipped to Denver by rail. Davies’ diner, #516, was one of the last models offered by Mount View, which began operations in 1939, provided the contruction materials and plans for hundreds of diners across the country, and went out business in 1957.

Davies, born in 1916, had worked as a restaurant supervisor for Walgreens Drug stores and traveled frequently around the country, according to a Davies family history. After more than two decades at Walgreens, “Lyman Davies” – as he was known, decided to strike out on his own, selecting the Lakewood corner because of its strategic location along Colfax Avenue (Highway U.S. 40), which back then was the dominate east-west route through Denver and the mountains to the West.

Lyman and his family, who actually were living in Peoria when he bought the diner, relocated to Jefferson County just ahead of the restaurant’s opening in June 1957. His son, Dennis, who is now 69 and lives in Ft. Collins, told me he recalls being drafted at age 18 to cook the graveyard shift for the diner, which for many years was open 24-hours a day. His mother, Helen, and siblings Judy, Nancy and Brent, also chipped in.

In 1977, Lyman sold the diner to Clayton Lee, who already operated several other area restaurants. Lyman was in poor health at the time and none of his children wanted to assume the business. Lee ran the diner until 1984, making some changes to the menu and the inside fixtures, but essentially leaving the nostalgic atmosphere and value menu unchanged.

At first Dwayne Clark and his father bought only the historic diner building from Lee, who Dwayne believes eventually relocated to Alabama and died there at age 56. In 1993, Clark also acquired the land on which the diner sits.

"I see taking on more down the road," Dwayne says. Just like the good old days.

Submitted anonymously by e-mail--"My dad loved Colfax Ave., so much so that he left me and the rest of his family in the 80s to live there, party there and try to make a new life for himself. He died there, April 21st, 1986. His body was found in a drainage ditch on the corner of 72nd and Colorado Blvd., riddled w/bullets and stab wounds. His murder is still unsolved. I always wondered what drew him to Colorado and Colfax Ave (he lived on Colfax) now I know, what a cool place, I can almost bet he loved every minute of it. I hope someday to make it there and walk the same roads he did, until then, thanks for the add, I can see all the great people and places my dad loved."

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