Last month Kim, Lucas and I headed to Colorado Springs so that I could attend BAcon aka Boarding Area Conference.
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We flew from NYC to Denver and then rented a car to drive to Colorado Springs. We could’ve flown directly to Colorado Springs but one of our favorite airlines for domestic flights, Southwest does not fly there.
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We arrived in Denver a few hours before we needed to get to Colorado Springs and wanted to visit some sights or do something fun. However, we were all exhausted from our  4 am wake up for our flight so we opted to go for lunch.
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I knew from before we left that we wouldn’t want to first start looking up where to eat when we got to Denver so I had done my research beforehand .
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The Buckhorn Exchange, Denver’s oldest restaurant (founded in 1893) is where I wanted to go.

Landmark & Oldest Restaurant Plaques

I had first heard of The Buckhorn Exchange from food- related television shows like Bizarre Foods and Man vs Food. I was reminded of it by using the extremely useful website TV Food Maps.
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When we arrived the restaurant wasn’t too busy but it started to fill up soon after.

The Buckhorn Exchange is worthy of a visit even if you don’t plan to eat a full meal. It feels like a museum due to all of the historical items displayed on the walls. Colorado Liquor License #1 was issued to the restaurant and is still on display. I had planned to try to find it but forgot to ask about it before leaving. I also enjoyed checking out some of the old guns that were on display..

Smoked Buffalo Sausage with Red Chile Polenta

Sirloin Game Tips

The Buckhorn Exchange is a steakhouse that is also known for serving various exotic meats. The house specialty is Rocky Mountain Oysters (bulls testicles) which we did not order.

I wasn’t too hungry so I passed on ordering a big steak. Instead we opted for a couple of interesting appetizers. We shared the Smoked Buffalo Sausage with Red Chile Polenta and Sirloin Game Tips. I wanted to sample some exotic game meat and both appetizers I picked fit the bill. Kim also wanted to try their famous bean soup and got a salad.

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The buffalo sausage was a bit on the spicy side but very tasty. The red chile polenta that came with it was also really good. The sirloin game tips were even better than the sausage. It was made with pieces of beef, buffalo and elk sauteed with mushrooms (I pushed the mushrooms to the side for Kim) in a different sauce each day. I don’t remember which sauce we had but it was very tasty. I wish I knew which animal each piece of meat was. It would’ve been nice to compare them and pick a favorite.

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Some more photos of taxidermy:

Two-Headed Calf

If you visit the Denver area, I’d definitely recommend stopping by The Buckhorn Exchange. Be sure to take your time checking out the artifacts on display and enjoy the interesting and tasty offerings from the menu.
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Just a reminder:
Enter to win 2 United Club Passes & A United Luggage Handle Cover HERE.