Art & music

[eat & drink] Pagosa Springs’ Aqua Sol combines the best bits of a bar and a juice bar

The eatery’s cocktails remind us a lot of more healthful beverages

What do you get if you combine a most like an homage to the bar’s previjuice bar with a real bar and then add in ous life. The margarita is a combination some Mediterranean food? The answer, of cold-pressed juice and tequila, with it turns out, is Aqua Sol, one of Pagosa lime, jalapeño, cucumber, pineapple, Springs’ newest eateries. cilantro, and ginger, garnished with Tajin

Pagosa beverage connoisseurs might and a lime. be familiar with The Juice Goddess, a The juice ingredients were delicious juice bar that served smoothies, acai and seemed very much like something bowls, matcha green tea, vegan snacks, you’d get at a healthful juice bar, and and the like. Well, it’s gone now. Sorta. surprisingly, the addition of the tequila

The Green Goddess has evolved into certainly didn’t alter that much. The Aqua Sol Waterfront Eatery + Bar, which cucumber and cilantro were the two opened on Labor Day on the far eastern most prominent flavors, which, assuming end of town. In addition to the interior you’re one of the people who perceive and the bar, the restaurant has two tiers cilantro positively (rather than as soapy of outdoor seating: a patio immediately and rotten), is quite refreshing. The jalaadjacent to the building and overlooking the San Juan River, and a lower area next to the river itself. We dropped by on a warm but partly peño-ginger combo carries a bit of a bite, and if you combine that with the agave holding the Tajin to the rim as you sip it, it adds an interesting secondary flavor. Nick Gonzales/DGO » The Juice*d Goddess Margarita at Aqua Sol Waterfront Eatery + Bar showcases the restaurant’s previous existence as a juice bar. cloudy day in late September to check After that, we tried “The PB-OB” — out the part of the restaurant that pineapple juice, orange juice, coconut they’re drinking whiskey that tastes like intrigued us the most: the booze-in- milk, dark rum, and Skrewball Peanut peanut butter.) fused juice-based cocktails. (We weren’t Butter Whiskey. (If you’re looking for a Anyway, the cocktail had an unusual hungry at the time, but the savory and quick chuckle, head to Skrewball’s web- but pleasant taste — our server insisted spicy smell we got as a gyro passed by site, where the marketing photos feature on sticking around to watch our faces as our table pretty much ensured that we’ll a bunch of young Californians having we took our first sip. It reminded us of a head back for food sometime soon.) the time of their lives sitting on roofs smoothie you’d order at a spa. The only

We started with the “Juice*d Goddess and cliff diving on a hot summer day. You reminder that you’re drinking a cocktail Margarita,” the drink that seemed the know, like everyone totally does when is the flavor of the rum.

As our final cocktail, we decided to get a frozen drink — The White Walker Slush (“because winter is always coming” says the menu) — a frozen piña colada. It intrigued us largely because of the “A Song of Ice and Fire”/”Game of Thrones” connection. The White Walkers and House Stark, from whom the motto is lifted, are both from the cold, northern part of Westeros, whereas a piña colada seems like something you’d drink somewhere tropical, such as Dorne.

It turned out, though, that Aqua Sol didn’t have all the White Walker ingredients quite yet, so we ordered the “Daydream Slush,” the frozen margarita. Made with lemon, lime, and orange juice, it tasted a bit fresher than your average frozen margarita — but not as fresh as the Juice*d Goddess. After a few sips, we began to notice that it does that thing where the liquid part of the beverage was easy to sip away from the drink, leaving a bunch of ice behind. We had to wait a while for the ice to melt and become drinkable again, but we enjoyed both the margarita and the bar where we were drinking it. — Nick Gonzales

Looking for new movies? The American Indian Film Fest is online this November The virtual festival features 102 films

It’s getting cold outside again, and ago) back in March. the number of outdoor events we can Access to each program and feature of participate in while safely socially dis- the festival is selling at $10, but there’s tancing ourselves is drying up. As such, also a sliding scale that drops it down to we’re back to looking for things we can $8. do indoors. The only problem is, thanks Of particular interest to us are the to the COVID-19 pandemic, there aren’t three narrative features the festival has a ton of those either. nominated for best film:

After struggling for a while to stay • “Monkey Beach,” directed by Loretta open playing old movies and whatever Todd, follows a woman, Lisa, who returns dreck Hollywood was willing to part with to her home village from Vancouver during the summer, most, if not all, of the when visions warn her that her younger local theaters have closed until further brother is going to be in danger. This sets notice. And as of Halloween, the last of Lisa on a quest to rescue her brother as the temporary drive-ins has gone away. she journeys by boat to the Land of the So ... we’re back on the couch. Dead. But that doesn’t mean we can’t watch new movies. There may not be theaters Courtesy of Mama-oo Productions » “Monkey Beach” is one of the three features nominated for Best Film in this year’s American Indian Film Festival. • “Parallel Minds,” directed by Benjamin Ross Hayden, is a sci-fi flick in which to watch them in, but film festivals may be able to carry us through the winter. in San Francisco but has gone virtual. It far as we can tell, only one film overlaps a researcher and an old-fashioned police detective have to team up to stop an

The 45th Annual American Indian Film will last from Nov. 6 to 14 and has 102 with the Durango Independent Film artificial intelligence as it uses Red-Eye, a Festival, for instance, usually takes place films, 55 of which are world premiers. As Festival that happened (a thousand years Continued on page 10

[art & music] Local country-rocker Dave Mensch spreads humor and music around the region You may also have seen him in a musical or two

Courtesy of Dave Mensch » Dave Mensch is often on the road touring Colorado and the Four Corners with his brand Courtesy of Dave Mensch of country rock. » Dave Mensch, front, plays with Scott Wilson, bass player for Saving Abel.

For as long as we can remember, Dave Mensch’s repertoire of covers and fact, over the last five years, you may “I drive that road probably more often Mensch has shown up in regional events originals largely grew out of the music he have caught him as Roger Davis in “Rent” than any other road, going back and calendars, playing his brand of rock/ listened to growing up — John Denver, or Stacee Jaxx in “Rock of Ages” at the forth to Durango and the Front Range country fusion in bars and other venues across the Four Corners and Colorado. We figured it was time to sit down with him and find out what makes him tick. AC/DC, Def Leppard — but his musical career began in, well ... musicals. Up until the age of 17, he performed in shows like “Grease,” “Fame,” and “Aladdin.” In Durango Arts Center. Upon first arriving in Durango at the age of 19, his dorm friends invited him to join a band and he bought his first guitar. He quit his last job and stuff. So I might be on that road a lot, or that road just tends to be where I write a ton,” he said.

DURANGO’S LARGEST PREMIUM to play music full-time on June 5, 2006. If you ask us, his experience treading Speaking of being on the road, you can catch Mensch at 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at No

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WANA is on discount all month long We are open! 9am - 9pm everyday his theatricality on any stage he’s on. “In I’d say the last three years, I added more comedy stuff and improvisation and things like that to my shows. And it Room in Pagosa Springs. If you can’t make it to either of those, just wait – he’ll be back at a gig in the area sooner rather than later. Even during the onset of the special deals on special days - seems to be that those comedy songs pandemic, he found opportunities to play come on in to find out! We Respect tend to 1) be more attractive and fun to listen to in a bar setting, and 2) they also outside eateries serving to-go orders and online (a place he said he’s ready Social Distancing are a little bit more adult as far as the content that are in them,” he said. to return if need be, as we head back into winter with no end to COVID-19 in Save time and order Two of his more recent hits, at least sight). For the time being, though, he’s DISPENSARY 970-375-BUDS Look for November Savings online with DUTCHIE in the right setting where the humor is appreciated, are “Leia,” a Star Wars reference-infused story about a woman who has had enough, and “Motorboatin’ My Sunshine (Boobs).” That latter one is still lining up shows with conscious and careful coronavirus protocols around the region. You can also find his albums on 742 1/2 Main Ave, Durango IN THE ALLEY When shopping online, all “obviously about what you think it is,” he said, in case you thought he was trying to Spotify, iTunes ... basically wherever you get your music. He released both advertised prices include tax. slip something especially profound past his fifth album, “Solo Chronicles, Vol. 1” you. (in his first five albums he’s got a band) 970-375-BUDS santecolorado.com • All advertised prices include taxes • Best selection of THC • Veteran specials • Pet friendly •The only wheelchair-accessible dispensary in historic downtown THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR BEST OF DURANGO 800+ products including Mensch was previously a member of Durango-based bands Prima Facia and Formula 151, but now tours solo. He writes many of his songs while he’s driving around the state, and as any decent country-rocker should, he’s got one particular highway where everything just comes together — in his case, U.S. and a remastered version of his second album, “Yesterday’s Tomorrow” (originally released in 2007) this year. And he’s in pre-production on his sixth album, though details on it are somewhat up in the air at the moment thanks to that whole pathogen thing going around. Route 285. — Nick Gonzales