The Buckhorn Exchange

I took the light rail train to Denver's Santa Fe Arts District a few Fridays ago, on the way to the First Friday Art Walk.  The train stops at 10th and Osage, which is where the Buckhorn Exchange is located, as seen in the photograph on the left.  The Buckhorn was opened by "Shorty Scout" Zietz, who rode as a scout with Buffalo Bill Cody, on November 17th, 1893.  And none other than Theodore Roosevelt visited there in 1905 and asked Zietz to be his guide and hunting partner during his trip to Colorado's western slope.  I had dinner at the Buckhorn only once, when Susie and Joe, two former employees of mine at the Walden Bookstore I managed at Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard, Illinois came out to Colorado to visit. They treated my then wife Lisa and and I to dinner there, which was really nice, since this is a very expensive steakhouse.  The only other times I have been to the Buckhorn were to have drinks in the Victorian lounge on the second floor, which features a bar made in Essen, Germany back in 1857.  One warning, however - if you don't like to see stuffed animals, or thousands of antlers hanging upside down from the ceiling, or a very large collection of antique guns, you might want to avoid the place. I'm just sayin.'