Want a hunk of a historical hoax?
Aurora store owner Michael Fruitman, who famously won the infamously balloon boy’s mylar saucer in auction, made a deal with the Topps company to plaster pieces of the balloon onto trading cards. The balloon boy swatch cards are randomly inserted into packs of trading cards sold at Mike’s Stadium Sportscards, 4022 S. Parker Road.
The balloon boy hoax took flight in 2009 when Fort Collins father Richard Heene purported that his 6-year-old son accidentally set sail in the saucer. The child, however, free run 3.0 v3 femmes was found hiding on solid ground. Heene and his wife, Mayumi, were ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution.
Fruitman paid $2,502 for the balloon, which he displayed in his store until he decided to take it to a new level.
“I never thought I had bought the Mona Lisa here,” Fruitman told me. “It is an interesting piece of Colorado history and rather than keeping it intact, I thought it would be more fun to let people get a piece of it out of a pack of cards the same way they can pull a card with a piece of John Elway’s or Todd Helton’s jersey on it.”
Packs of Topps Allen & Ginter trading cards are $4 to $5 at Fruitman’s store.
Ritz is a hit
For the third year in a row, The Ritz-Carlton has been named the top-ranking hotel company for guest satisfaction in the luxury segment of the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index.
The company achieved its highest score ever with an overall score of 864 on a scale of 1,000 – a six-point increase from 2011. The Ritz was the leader in every category with a perfect five out of five ranking in overall satisfaction as well as in subcategories such as reservations, check-in and check-out, guest room, food and beverage and hotel facilities.
In “opinion of staff,” a new segment introduced this year, The Ritz-Carlton had the highest rating with 80 percent of customers saying they had a “high opinion of the staff.”
Art for Angel Heart
Project Angel Heart’s 11th annual Art for Life, an event with food, cocktails, wine and fine art, takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday at Abend Gallery, 2260 E. Colfax.
Guests will have the opportunity to view and bid on the works of more than 80 local and internationally recognized artists who have donated work in support of Project Angel Heart, a charity that delivers free meals to people with life-threatening illnesses.
To view some of the pieces available at this year’s auction, go to www.projectangelheart.org. For tickets, go to www.blacktie-colorado.com/calendar/event-detail.cfm?id=23771.
Top chef
Rich Byers has been promoted from sous chef to executive chef at The Corner Office Restaurant + Martini Bar inside the Curtis Hotel on the corner of 14th and Curtis streets.
Byers’ background includes stints at Olives Restaurant in Aspen, Oskar Blues in Lyons, St. Julien Hotel in Boulder and in the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
A native of Long Island, N.Y., Byers studied at The Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N.Y. When he’s not cooking, Byers enjoys Colorado’s Rocky Mountains by skiing, mountain biking and camping. More Corner Office info at www.facebook.com/TheCornerOfficeDenver.
Curtis continued
In more Curtis Hotel news, JoAnn Elston, otherwise known as “Leading Lady,” has been promoted to general manager of The Curtis – a Doubletree by Hilton, Denver’s only pop culture-themed hotel.
With more than 18 years of hospitality experience, Elston was most recently the area director of sales and marketing for Sage Hospitality’s Premier & Lifestyle Division overseeing the Curtis, free run 3.0 v4 the JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek and The Oxford Hotel.
Elston’s resume includes positions at The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, The Paramount Hotel in New York and the Wyndham Bristol Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Eavesdropping on two women: “I finally started going back to the gym.”
“What motivated you?”
“My spare tire would fit an 18-wheeler.”
Did you hear that I have a new column, “Mile High Life,” in Colorado Community Media’s 17 weekly newspapers circling Denver? Be sure to like my Facebook page! Also, here’s where you go to get my column emailed to you Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I’m now the social-media liaison for the Mile High Chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association, so read my latest restaurant news there. My email: penny@blacktie-llc.com.
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