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News
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Still in the spirit
www.HighTimberTimes.com
Aspen Park Wines & Spirits still mixing it up after 15 years
By Barbara Ford Staff Writer
Aspen Park Wine & Spirits has provided libations for all sorts of occasions for 15 years, and it’s marking that milestone this month. The store, at 25937 Conifer Road, opened Nov. 1, 1996, and it’s still going strong, store owner Mike Schoniger said. “Turns out the liquor store has been a good business to be in,” he said. The store carries several hundred beers from breweries across the United States, including 10 in Colorado, and more than 800 wines from Colorado, the West Coast, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Schoniger is proud of the store and of the quality service offered to customers. “Being in the same business for 15 years is an accomplishment,” he said. “But it didn’t happen without a lot of work and great employees.” Schoniger credits his staff with making the business a success, along with hundreds of loyal customers, some new and some he’s known since the business opened. Schoniger originally didn’t
Photo by Barbara Ford | The Times
From left, Aspen Park Wine & Spirits employees Cyena Barnes and Melanie Breeden, owner Mike Schoniger and employee Megan Troutfetter work to provide quality service to customers at the store at 25937 Conifer Road. want to own a liquor store. But he wanted to live in the mountains and wanted to find a local business to run. When the store opened, U.S. 285 was a two-lane road, and after the highway expanded to four lanes, the store experienced
changes. “Along with growth come growing pains,” he said. Those changes included more competition and, within the last few years, challenges in the economy that kept customers from
spending money on celebratory spirits. Schoniger said the key during trying economic times is to provide excellent service, and his small staff offers one-on-one help. “Shop small, shop Conifer,” is his motto.
The store is still in its original location: a small dwelling built somewhere around 1930 that once was a restaurant. In 1950, the frontage road was added, and other improvements were made in subsequent years. Schoniger said the best part about the building is its high visibility, since it sits just yards from U.S. 285. A down side is the lack of space to bring in all the stock he wants to offer Conifer’s spirit connoisseurs. Schoniger said the changing trends in liquor that include microbreweries and smaller wineries have made balancing inventory with customers’ wants a bit tricky. “There are people who still just want to come in and get a case of Bud or Coors, and aren’t interested in trying something new,” he said. Schoniger said he has no big plans to change the store, although more space would be nice. In the meantime, he plans to continue to offer reasonable prices, quality products and outstanding service for his customers for another 15 years. Contact Barbara Ford at barbara@evergreenco.com or 303350-1043. Check www.High TimberTimes.com for updates.
Fund-raising for CHS basketball team not a trivial pursuit By Barbara Ford Staff Writer
About 50 people pitted their encyclopedic knowledge of all things ’80s on Saturday night in an effort to raise money for new basketballs and practice jerseys for the Conifer High School basketball team. The Back to the Future ’80s Trivia Night was held at Conifer Community Church, and Pastor Lance Swearingen hosted the
At the Back
evening’s fact-and-fanciful trip back through time. “I’ve seen trivia nights before, but not like this,” Swearingen said. “This worked out really well.” A friend of Swearingen’s repairs old video games and has a passion for culturally historic items. He created the trivia presentations with ’80s music, cartoons and TV programs, including theme songs and characters. Also included were commercials, faces from the
to the Future ’80s Trivia Night on Saturday, the team in the lead after each round was given colorful balloons, and the team in last place was given black balloons. Photo by Barbara Ford | The Times
‘80s including some pretty wild hairstyles, arcade games, news, a who’s who of the day, and a totally unrelated category — sink or float. Some of the questions asked included: What ’80s arcade game blasted rocks from space? Who was the coach of the Cardinals from 1980 to 1990? On Aug. 1, 1981, MTV started airing videos 24 hours a day. What was the first video it played? In 1986, Diego Maradona played on the team that beat West Germany to become the FIFA World Cup champions. What team did he play for? Tables with teams of up to 10 people watched clips of commercials, looked at photos of
famous people and listened to pop tunes, and tried to answer the trivia questions as quickly and as correctly as possible. Competition was fierce since the winning team would receive its entry fee of $10 per person back. As the competition progressed, tables with the best score after each round were given a bunch of colorful balloons, and the lastplace team got a bouquet of black balloons. Tami Danks said the idea for the trivia night was genius. “I thought this was a phenomenal idea,” she said. “I didn’t know it would be this much fun.” Danks is also the CHS Lobos basketball team coordinator and chairwoman of the Boosters. She
came with people from the Conifer Jazzercise group. “We did really well with all the music trivia,” she said. “We’ve been dancing to those songs for years.” The contestants at one table brought the ’80s with them through old cassette tapes, a Jenga game, VHS tapes, Post-it Notes, floppy disks and a well-loved Care Bear. Contestant Jacquie Nervick of Conifer said she looked up ’80s snacks on the Internet and brought what was popular then: baby carrots, Cool Ranch Doritos, raisins and Reese’s Pieces. Nervick, a special education teacher at the high school, said she’s not surprised a sports team
Please see trivia, Page 5