PARKER: Argonaut celebrates new digs with style

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 4, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

People watch ceremonies at Argonaut Liquor & Wine during the grand opening of its new store on East Colfax Avenue in Denver on Wednesday.

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The cork on top of the giant champagne bottle sign hanging on the side of the new home of Argonaut Liquor & Wine figuratively popped at 10 a.m. Wednesday when the new liquor lair officially opened.

Argonaut, a business owned and operated by the Robinson family for roughly 40 years, moved a few paces east of the old store, now closed, on East Colfax Avenue. The new 40,000-square- foot store on East Colfax and Clarkson, built from the ground up, is nearly twice the size of the old digs.

"I'm told that the old store would fit into those coolers," Mayor John Hickenlooper said, gesturing toward the glass doors where the beer hibernates. Hizzoner was invited to cut the ceremonial red ribbon signifying the official grand opening. "Twenty years ago when I opened Wynkoop Brewing Co. I came in here and asked them how many imported or craft beers did they have at the time. They had two refrigerated beer doors. Today I counted and there are 24 doors holding craft beers. It's a testament."

Co-owner and co-founder Hank Robinson's son-in-law Ron Vaughn flew around the store like a mother bird tending her nest. "I think business will be up significantly," Vaughn said. "The reviews are 100 percent positive. We were in the planning stage for a year with an 11-month construction. We took a lot of time planning it, and I think it shows."

Was that Budweiser Clydesdale shivering? Outside the toasty store, temperatures dipped below 30, which prompted a move inside.

"This seems a little nuts," said architect and general contractor Brad Buchanan of Buchanan Yonushewski Group. "This much going on for the opening of a liquor store? Isn't this crazy? Argonaut is an icon on Colfax. This is a big day for (the Robinsons) and a big day for our city."

BOYLES' BREAKUP: I dreaded making the phone call because I've been down this path myself, but radio talk-show host Peter Boyles was forthcoming about the breakup of his 20-year marriage to his wife, Kathleen.

"It's true because I don't lie," he said to me about the couple being separated since Halloween. "It really, really hurts. I'm destroyed. My hope is that everything comes together, and we're back together. Like Win- ston Churchill said, 'When you're walking through hell, keep walking.' "

GENTLE DENTAL: Slate magazine associate editor Josh Levin clearly has too much time on his hands. He's been tracking the number of times Denver-based sports columnist Rick Reilly has written "dental one-liners" starting back in 1990.

"Bicuspids and toothpaste are just the beginning of Rick Reilly's oral fixation," Levin writes. "Dental floss is a particular passion. The sportswriter has cracked at least 116 dental jokes in his career - 95 in his newspaper and magazine writing and 21 in his books. Reilly and his editors need to start giving his copy more attention. He's far too talented a writer to succumb to something as treatable as tooth decay."

Reilly's reaction? "I think the dude needs to stop searching for my dental references and start searching for a life."

EAVESDROPPING on a man watching the mayor wield giant scissors for the Argonaut ribbon-cutting: "The mayor carries them wherever he goes."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.

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