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Nicholas Chavez plays tour guide for his hometown

Your Guide To: Denver, CO

Carmine’s On Penn “The most amazing Italian food! It’s really cute. It’s one of those places where they put the paper down and you can draw using crayons while you wait for your food. The food is undeniable! The baked ziti is really amazing, and so is the carbonara — you want to make sure that they’re using the snap peas, because sometimes they use asparagus … but the snap peas are so good.”

92 South Pennsylvania Street; (303) 777-6443; carminescolorado.com

Pizza Express “This place is more notorious than good, but it’s nostalgic to me. It’s right across from where I went to high school and the pizza was so bad, but you could get, like, three pieces for a dollar and we all went there because none of us had any money!”

2700 East Colfax Avenue; (970) 509-5443; pizzaexpressdenverco.com

Steve’s Snappin Dogs “This is a really famous hot dog stand in Denver. It’s just such a super-iconic place!”

3525 East Colfax Avenue; (303) 333-7627; stevessnappindogs.com

Cherry Creek Grill “This place is slightly more upscale and they have a really good French dip with the au jus on the side. My dad would take me there all the time.”

184 Steele Street; (303) 322-3524; cherrycreekgrill.com

Pete’s Kitchen “I have to recommend this diner because it’s where I would go with all my castmates in high school after we finished a play or a musical.”

1962 East Colfax Avenue; (303) 321-3139; petesrestaurants.com

The Museum of Nature and Science “I lived right next to this museum and would go all there all the time. They have a really cool mummy exhibit in there with an actual mummy. I was intrigued by that and also terrified by it!”

2001 Colorado Boulevard; (303) 370-6000; dmns.org

Denver Art Museum “Another amazing museum. The architecture of it is incredible! It looks like a big spaceship.”

100 West 14th Avenue Parkway; (720) 865-5000; denverartmuseum.org

Denver Center for the Performing Arts “The Denver Center is where you can go see national tours [of Broadway shows] that are in town, and also they have some smaller theaters that do some pretty cool work.”

1101 13th Street; (303) 893-4100; denvercenter.org

Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre “In terms of concert venues, I would definitely recommend going and seeing a show at Red Rocks. It’s just beautiful. Seeing a show there is one of the coolest things ever. I saw Atmosphere perform there and he has a song called ‘Yesterday’, which is about his relationship with his father. I actually saw that concert with my dad, and it was such a bonding experience.”

18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison, CO; (720) 865-2494; redrocksonline.com

The 16th Street Mall “This is a big mall that stretches pretty much through the entirety of downtown Denver. There’s lots of shops, and there are cool places to buy souvenirs in addition to clothes and everything else, and you can also see movies there.”

1001 16th Street Mall; (303) 534-6161; the16thstmalldenver.com

A51 Terrain Park at Keystone Resort “If you’re looking to do outdoorsy stuff, you can go to City Park and play Frisbee and tennis and things like that, but where everything really happens is in the mountains — you’re going skiing or snowboarding, so you’re going to Loveland or Aspen or Breckenridge. My family actually has a home in Breckenridge, so that’s where we would go a lot; it’s about a 90-minute drive from Denver. I’m a complete daredevil when it comes to snowboarding, and the Area 51 Terrain Park is where you go if you want like, really intense, crazy jumps. They also have medium- and small-sized jumps, but they have some enormous jumps that are just so fun.”

Jackstraw Road, Keystone, CO; (970) 496- 2316; keystoneresort.com

Denver East High School “I would be remiss if I didn’t just mention Denver East High School [his alma mater]. If nothing else, it’s worth going to because it is the most beautiful high school building that I’ve ever seen!”

1600 City Park Esplanade; (720) 423-8300; east.dpsk12.org

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