The Sink

Hill Eats

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Hill Eats Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/01/2020 - 00:00

Look: Eateries

The restaurant lineup on The Hill changes nearly as fast as the Colorado seasons. While several well-known chains have come and gone in recent years (Qdoba, Five Guys, Del Taco), many Boulder icons (The Sink) and newer staples (The Corner) serve on. Whether it’s a Cosmo’s cheese slice dunked in spicy ranch, a Half Fast Godfather sub or the early-bird breakfast at Dot’s Diner, the grub on The Hill plays a part in many CU stories. What was your Hill go-to? Write us at editor@colorado.edu.

Photos by Matt Tyrie

The restaurant lineup on The Hill changes nearly as fast as the Colorado seasons.

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How Tulagi Got Its Start

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

How Tulagi Got Its Start Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

The Tule

During winter break 1971, around Christmas, a disheveled band took the Tulagi’s stage on The Hill. The heater was broken, the club was frigid, the crowd was small. One of the musicians strummed a banjo in gloves.

G. Brown (Jour’79), then a CU freshman, (legally) served 3.2 Coors beer from the bar and listened skeptically.

“I remember them saying, ‘We’re going to be the biggest band in the world,’” said Brown, now executive director of the nonprofit Colorado Music Experience. “I was thinking, ‘What are you talking about? There’s 30 people here.’”

Less than a year later, the band toured the country with “Take It Easy.”

“The Eagles were off to the races to become the biggest American band of the 1970s,” said Brown.

In its 1970s heyday, Tulagi, located at 1129 13th St., hosted star acts, including the Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt and ZZ Top.

“Bonnie Raitt was the only artist to help me clean up,” said Brown. “She picked up a broom.”

Founded in the 1940s, it was first located in what is now the Fox Theater, according to Boulder’s Daily Camera. In 1948, the owners changed the name to Tulagi, after one of the Solomon Islands. (A tropical painted mural served as the stage backdrop for the venue’s entirety.) The club moved next door in 1951.

“We did quite a bit of dancing at the Tule, ’cause it had a nice dance floor,” said Larry Knadle (Bus’60).

In 1969, Sink owner Herb Kauvar took over Tulagi, said his son Rick Kauvar (EPOBio’75). Music promoter Chuck Morris brought in the famed 1970s performers.

After Morris left to open his own nightclub, Tulagi struggled, Rick Kauvar said. In 1973, Herb sold it to three men who defaulted on the lease, and the club changed hands again.

And again.

Still, Tulagi endured into the early 2000s, hosting acts like Big Head Todd & the Monsters and The Samples.

Anne Thurman (Mktg’87) met her husband of more than 30 years there.

“It was April 1987 … Bahama-Mama Tuesday,” she said, recalling that David Thurman (Fin’87) called her by the wrong name after their initial introduction. “He was calling me a couple days later asking for a date. Luckily, he then remembered my name is ‘Anne.’”

The end came in 2003, when state tax agents seized Tulagi, according to the Camera. The Fox Theater bought the business. The building’s owners converted it into commercial rental space. Today it’s occupied by a yoga studio and a pizza parlor.

The Tulagi sign, in its slanting script, remains — a reminder of good times past.

Photo courtesy William Wardwell

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10 Boulder Restaurants Featured on TV

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 22:24:43 +0000

10 Boulder Restaurants Featured on TV Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/23/2018 - 16:24

Aimee Anderson

The Sink

The Sink (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)
Aloy Thai Cuisine (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)
Foolish Craig’s Café (Diner’s Drive-Ins, and Dives)
Frasca Food and Wine (The Best Thing I Ever Ate)
The Buff Restaurant (Man v. Food)
West End Tavern (Man v. Food)
Zoe Ma Ma (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)
Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)
Village Coffee Shop (Cheap Eats)
Shamane’s Bake Shoppe (Cheap Eats)

Boulderites love their local restaurants. Here are a few that also have grabbed national attention.

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Letters — Summer 2018

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 20:09:00 +0000

Letters — Summer 2018 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2018 - 14:09

CU’s Indiana Jones

I was very pleased to see the article on Earl Morris in the spring 2018 edition of the Coloradan [pp. 13-14]. He was a superb scholar and superb human being. I attended the same schools at the same time as did his daughters Sarah and Elizabeth. Their mother, Ann Axtell Morris, wrote another very interesting and well-received book called Digging in Yucatan. After she died, Earl married Lucille Bowman — the principal of Highland School, my first-grade teacher and life-long friend. They continued to live and entertain in his charming artifact-filled home in Boulder’s Geneva Park until his death from a stroke in 1956. Many thanks for the article!

Orin Dale Seright (Engl’55)
Spring Valley, CA

Earl Morris (Psych1914; MA1916) was a great American archaeologist who inspired a generation and more of Southwesterners to get out there to see the remains of prehistory, breathe it in, and then study, research and pass it on [“Our Own Indiana Jones,” pp. 13-14]. I was one of them, and especially lucky to be set in motion by an experience at CU with Earl Morris himself.

In 1952 I was an untraveled sophomore with a science scholarship, but not a clue as to what field to use it in. My boyfriend, however, had already visited Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly, and was excited to discover that their excavator, Morris, was teaching a rare class. He jumped to take it.

At a time when professors were generally more formal and detached, Morris invited his class to come to his home on The Hill for a look at his tools and collections (which later formed important holdings at the CU Museum of Natural History). I went, too, and listened and looked as the great man showed us ancient woven sandals, pots containing small desiccated corncobs and field notebooks. With evident enjoyment, he told stories and discussed meanings of each piece and answered our questions. In that two hours I became truly caught in the spell and the content of Southwestern archaeology!

I majored in anthropology, published on Mesa Verde archaeology, specialized in material culture and for 30 years curated American Indian collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. My long-ago “boyfriend” became my husband, Laurance Herold (MGeog’56), a University of Denver professor who made discoveries about prehistoric people’s adaptations to environment.

Thank you — profoundly — Earl Morris!

Joyce Herold (Anth’55; MA’59)
Denver

Riot on The Hill

Love the Coloradan and its articles, but this one [“Riot of ’71,” p. 8] by Paul Danish needs a little more info. My boyfriend then/husband now was on The Hill the first night of the riots. The reason for the large crowds on the street to begin with was that bomb threats were called into The Sink and Tulagi’s, so they made everyone leave those busy hangouts. A lot of people milling on the street were not sure what was going on. It was a scary time for sure!

Linda Bowes (Ger’70)
Longmont, Colo.

Balloons

I received my alum mag this week and I was disappointed to read about the space minor balloon release experiment [“CU Around,” pp. 45-46]. I know it is not always easy to avoid generating trash and litter, but I wonder if (and hope that) another activity could be persued to engage students? That would be my challenge to the program, especially since part of the goal is to “find pathways to address the significant issues our planet faces.” Thanks for listening!

Dakota-Rae Westveer (Comm’13)
Boulder

CWA’s 70th

My wife, Alice Higman Reich, and I were glad to see that the Conference on World Affairs and its 70th anniversary were acknowledged [“Infographic,” pp. 23-24], but I was disappointed not to see at least a mention of Alice’s father, the conference founder and director for 45 years, Howard Higman. Among many others, he and long-time CWA participant Roger Ebert were the best of friends. Granted, Howard could be controversial at times, but, suffice it to say, if it had not been for him, there would be no CWA. This was his most important legacy to CU, the institution he loved, and I would hate to see it forgotten.

Lee Shannon (MEdu’72)
Denver

Getting Social

Spring issue comments spotted on Facebook.

Of past speakers at the annual Conference on World Affairs [“Infographic”], Sarah Russell wrote: “Eleanor Roosevelt?? Oh, wow, that ’55 audience was so lucky.”

The Coloradan’s story and photo with CU’s Earl Morris (Psych1914; MA1916) prompted Myron Rosenberg to write: “When I moved to Boulder with my parents in 1949, my father drove a 1941 Buick. It had running boards, upon which I would ride home from Lincoln Elementary School at lunch. Note the water can next to the driver. And those are bed rolls on the running board. We, too, slept in parks, or in fields along the way. On the front of our car dad hung a two-gallon canvas water bag. The wetted fabric, exposed to the air current, caused evaporative cooling, maybe my first recollection of physics...followed by a pickup tailgate hitting me in the mouth as it fell into my tiptoed face. (Dad told me I was minding someone else’s business...a trait I’ve only enhanced, I fear.) I remember we had a whole bunch of crap tied on to the roof. This cross-country trip, prior to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, was slow, two-lane and memorably scenic. This type of travel was fun, and a veritable thrill I have never forgotten.”

Regarding CU Boulder’s new marijuana research methods, described in “Research on the Road,” several readers weighed in. Mindy Grinold Bicknell (Rec’84) wrote: “Proud of my alma mater’s creative approach to much needed research.”

Photos courtesy the CWA

Thoughts and reactions to the Coloradan's Spring issue.

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Boulder Beat: Paul Danish – Fall 2016

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:28:30 +0000

Boulder Beat: Paul Danish – Fall 2016 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/01/2016 - 11:28

Paul Danish

The Michelangelo of The Sink

It was a hot, ethereal summer night, July 4, 1989.

I was heading home from the Folsom fireworks show. I crossed Broadway at Pennsylvania and there he was: Michelangelo. Standing in front of the Sistine Chapel smoking a cigarette.

OK, it wasn’t the Sistine Chapel. It was The Sink. And it wasn’t Michelangelo. It was Llloyd Kavich, the beatnik artist who in 1952 painted the murals on the walls. The Sink was his Sistine Chapel.

He was in town to restore his masterpieces.

In 1974, Sink proprietor Herb Kauvar decided to rebrand The Sink as a delicatessen — Herbie’s Deli — as a way of breaking with 1960s bad karma that still hung over The Hill like a miasma. So Llloyd’s murals were covered over with rough pine paneling.

Fifteen years went by. Herb’s kids, now in the family business, convinced him that the time had come to “de-model” the deli back into The Sink.

So Llloyd (he spelled it with three Ls “just for the l of it”) wa s summoned back to Boulder by his patrons in the House of Kauvar.

And there he stood before me taking a cigarette break.

So I introduced myself and we started to talk. When he was ready to resume painting I followed him back inside. I watched the Master throw himself into his work, gleefully laughing at the old jokes — “the floggings will continue until morale improves” — as he refreshed the great works and added new ones.

Naturally we talked until sunup. By then he had painted a picture of me on a wall in the back; it’s still there. We’d been talking about guns — I was working for Soldier of Fortune back then — so I invited him to go shooting the next weekend. We had a great time, and within a few days he had painted caricatures of everyone in the shooting party.

A couple of weeks later, I ran into him in Doozy Duds.

“What’s up?” I said.

“I’m gonna get a dog,” he said.

A week later he turned up with Streamline, the world’s smallest, smartest adult dog (a Russian toy terrier, I think).

She was so small Llloyd could hide her under his shirt and smuggle her onto airplanes.

They were inseparable.

A couple years after the Kauvars sold The Sink to the Brothers Heinritz (Mark, Chris and James), Llloyd was brought back for one last gig.

Llloyd Kavich died in October 2013 in Santa Barbara. He was thought to be in his 80s. He was preceded in death by Streamline. Hardly a trace of his life remains. Except for the glorious murals in The Sink.

Photo by Peter Burke

The Michelangelo of The Sink

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Letters – Winter 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Letters – Winter 2013 Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/01/2013 - 00:00

History Repeats

I always enjoy Paul Danish’s (Hist’65) columns, especially since we were students at the same time and remember the same things. Paul wrote about this year’s Sink party, noting, “No bouncer came through the revelers [at The Sink] with a nightstick in hand and a keg on a dolly shouting, ‘Watch your feet.’”

Actually, I remember they came through shouting, “Make a hole. Lady with a baby.” I marveled that, as a freshman in 1959, I could go to The Sink and legally order a beer. I was on a budget of $10 a week, which had to cover snacks, laundry and Sunday dinner, so I could only afford one beer and never a famous Sinkburger. Several years later, I did have one, and it was as good as it looked and smelled.

James Mulholland (Geol’64)
Denver

I’m John and Paulie Pudlik’s daughter, and I grew up on The Hill during the idyllic 1950s. The Sink was my home away from home. Paul Danish’s (Hist’65) article was lovely but not quite accurate. I’d like to make some corrections.

My parents didn’t buy The Sink until 1949 at the age of 31. The 3.2 beer license was obtained in ’51 or ’52 and was almost as hard to get as finding diamonds in Boulder Creek. Boulder politicians were always comparing 3.2 beer with the downfall of morality in Boulder. OMG women were drinking after the war! And then bang... we were in Korea.

Students then tended to be older by a few years and mature. The fountain wasn’t “sunken” but raised about 8 inches in the middle of the long dining room. I loved playing in it, turning it on and off and reaching through the beautiful wrought iron grill that surrounded it to pick coins out of the bottom of the small pool.

Mark Heinritz and his group have done an outstanding job of restoring The Sink and are to be thanked. I look forward to dropping in and saying aloha every time I am in Boulder. Know what I miss most? Shredded cheddar on those Sinkburgers.

When the Coors distributor cut a deal with Tulagi not to sell 3.2 beer to my dad, The Sink outsold Tulagi in barrels (kegs) per week while serving Carlings Red Cap Ale. That turned more than a few heads. It made my folks pretty happy, I can tell you that.

Herb and his group took over The Sink when they purchased it in 1957. Know why my dad sold? We went to Los Angeles one summer because he had heard about a McDonald’s drive-in that sold 10 cent hamburgers and nickel coffee. He knew he couldn’t compete with that so he got out of the business. He went on to be elected a city councilman, developed Olympic Lanes and of course built Pudlik’s Liquor. He died suddenly of sleep apnea at the age of 49.

So many wonderful students worked for my parents during that time. I remember many and as I get older, I realize what a lucky young girl I was to grow up in that era on The Hill and at The Sink.

Carolyn Pudlik Segawa (A&S’67)
Honolulu

Thank you for the history of The Sink. I worked there as a waitress my freshman year, 1948-49.

It’s fun to remember my other part-time jobs! My sophomore year I was a switchboard operator in the dorm and during my senior year I was a typist in the social studies department. I recall the early days of the Conference on World Affairs. In that Cold War era, the ambassador from Yugoslavia was introduced very briefly: “All I’ll say about this man is that he’s a Communist.”

In those times of jukebox music, a philosophy professor protested the sound at the student union by arranging to be able to put in a dime for a few minutes of silence.

I can remember babysitting for humanities professor James Sandoe. From him I learned about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. He often performed there during the summer. Later in life I moved to Redding, Calif., 150 miles south of Ashland. I immediately made plans to see the plays there. We saw Hamlet, directed by Robert Loper (Jour’48, MA’51), my speech teacher from CU-Boulder.

When I retired from teaching, I moved from California to northern Colorado. The Boulder campus and Chautauqua Park were on my list of sights to show out-of-state visitors. A photo opp with the Flatirons in the background was a standard feature of the tour.

All those memories warm my heart. Sorry I will miss my 60th class reunion in October.

Jacqueline Huskey Hanford (DistSt’53)
Sebastopol, Calif.

A Boulder Legend

Thank you for your tribute to Virginia Wheeler Patterson (Jour’46) [March 2013 edition]. It brought back great memories of my associations with “Gingy.” We entered CU as freshmen in the fall of 1942 — the War Years — and we both graduated in the spring of 1946.

During those four years, our paths crossed many times, but the most memorable time came when we were part of a group who accomplished a “first” at the university. Virginia was the editor of the Silver & Gold newspaper in 1945, my best friend Betty Rich (Jour’46) was her assistant editor and I was vice president of Panhellenic. The three of us were enthusiastic and active members of a coalition to elect the first woman president of the ASCU [the student government organization]. And we did! Marcia Strong Golladay (Geog’44) was our candidate and she won in a hard-fought race. Gingy was always a mover and even though we were in different sororities and different schools (she was in journalism and I was in music), our paths crossed several times. Her enthusiasm and creative thinking made her a leader in our class, and she went on to share her many talents with the city of Boulder. Lucky for Boulder!

Anna Mae Strain Everett (Mus’46)
Fort Collins, Colo.

Tulagi Memories

I just received my alumni magazine and I love how my picture of Tulagi turned out! Many thanks for using it!

Major mojo to all of you in Boulder with the awful flooding going on. Nothing like that ever happened when I was there, and I hope nothing like it ever happens again.

Do you know if the Red Lion in Boulder Canyon survived? It was one of my favorite places to eat, but I doubt it survived the flood waters.

Bill Wardwell (A&S ‘68)
San Mateo, Calif.

[Editor’s Note: The Red Lion survived! Read Paul Danish’s (Hist’65) column on page 8.]

Great memories from “The Tule!” Loved the cheesy South Seas mural. Did “the Dog” there a lot as I recall (for shame) to Louie Louie. Full disclosure: I had one of their small glasses (real glass!) that came with the pitchers for years in our kitchen glass collection. I should have saved it instead of using it to the breaking point.

Dick Field (Fren’72,MPubAd’74)
Aurora, Colo.

Thank you for the Tulagi picture [September Coloradan pg. 66-67]. Those of us who were young then remember that the place was named by the owner who was a father of a soldier killed on the Pacific island of Tulagi during World War II. I always felt there should be a plaque commemorating the loss.

Janine Calmettes Brittin (A&S’65)
Boulder, Colo.

Sense of Place

I live in Lyons and just got my issue of the Coloradan. Others might have already pointed this out to you, but your Editor’s Note was eerily timed and extremely emotional for me right now. I think this disaster has shown people just how important a community — the town and the neighbors — is in their lives.

Anyway, I just thought I’d say something! Thanks for putting out a great publication for alumni.

Deb Cain Melani (Jour’89)
Lyons, Colo.

Photos by The Sink

Thoughts and reactions from our readers.

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The Sink Turns 90

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 06:00:00 +0000

The Sink Turns 90 Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 09/01/2013 - 00:00

Paul Danish

Members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity in the early 1960s enjoy an evening at The Sink.

The Sink turned 90 years old this year, and owners Chris and Mark Heinritz threw a bash to celebrate the event on the evening of July 20. More than 175 old Sink Rats, former waiters and bouncers gathered to get reacquainted, reminisce, toss back a few cool ones and attend a rock concert at the Fox Theatre.

Ninety years — wow. It turns out The Sink is Boulder’s oldest restaurant.

It is a sobering thought, so to speak, but when The Sink opened in 1923 as Summer’s Sunken Gardens, named after its founder, Mr. Summers, it didn’t serve beer or anything else alcoholic. (Something about Prohibition.) It featured European cuisine, and it had a sunken fountain in the floor, which prompted students to start calling it The Sink.

Happily, in July we did not party like it was 1923. Guests at the event were greeted with mini-Sinkburgers and beers.

OK, we didn’t party like it was 1963, either. That was the year The Sink sold more 3.2 beer than any other bar in the country. (Morey’s at Yale was No. 2.) No bouncer came through the revelers with a nightstick in hand and a keg on a dolly shouting, “Watch your feet.” Ninetieth birthdays tend to be mellower affairs.

“When we bought it, we were a bar with a restaurant; now we’re a restaurant with a bar,” says Mark Heinritz who has owned The Sink with his brother Chris since 1992.

Speaking of Sink bouncers, Tony Capozzola, who flew in from Los Angeles for the occasion (he has his own jet), shared how he was hired as a bouncer. He was fresh out of the Marine Corps when he first walked into The Sink and found then proprietor Herb Kauvar on the floor with some guy striking him. So he grabbed the guy by the hair and tossed him out of the place. Herb dusted himself off and offered Tony a job.

“At the time, jobs at The Sink were so prestigious that they didn’t pay you for the first year,” Tony says. “But they started paying me after six months.”

Amazingly, The Sink didn’t serve beer until 1940 when it was bought by John Pudlik (A&S’41), and it was 3.2 beer. Boulder didn’t allow any other alcohol to be sold in the city until 1967.

Pudlik named the restaurant The Sink. In 1974 Herb Kauvar changed the name to Herbie’s Deli, which lasted until 1989 when the space was remodeled and The Sink name was resurrected.

Speaking of sobering thoughts, here’s another. There is no living CU alumnus who was a student at the university before there was The Sink in its many incarnations. (OK, I’m guessing here. But if you enrolled at CU in 1923 at age 18, you would be 108 today.) Lost, Greatest, Boomers, Xers and Millennials, The Sink has been a shared experience for five generations of Buffs.

In a series of trail-blazing experiments conducted at The Sink in September 1960, Paul Danish (Hist’65) proved 3.2 beer, despite its reputation, could have potent effects.

Photo courtesy Coloradan archive

The Sink turned 90 years old this year, and owners Chris and Mark Heinritz threw a bash to celebrate the event on the evening of July 20.

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The Sink

Hill Eats

Look: Eateries

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