Rosa Scintillante at Ernie’s Bar & Pizza

I have fond memories of the holiday season up at 44th and Federal. The space that was then 3 Sons always featured the most over-the-top, tacky Christmas decorations in town; as a kid, I liked counting all the different decor items, especially the red bows and cherubs. The owners sold 3 Sons years ago, and it’s since moved to 14805 West 64th Avenue in Arvada. But there’s new reason to return to its former home: Those Santa’s helpers from Larimer Associates, the same partners who brought us Billy’s Inn and LoHi SteakBar, have renovated the space and reopened it as Ernie’s, in a nod to the original tenant back in 1943. The Italian-grandma’s-living-room-sans-plastic-slipcovers interior is gone, but somehow the room still feels as comfortable as your favorite old leather chair. One where you can now order fantastic, New York-style pizza and enjoy such unreal drink specials as $4 pitchers of Miller High Life and PBR until 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, $8 pitchers of white sangria all day on Sunday, and $1 Budweiser drafts from 3:30-6:30 p.m. and again from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. daily. The forty-seat bar boasts thirty American beers on tap and more than twenty by the bottle, as well as specialty cocktails. I was scared to try the Rosa Scintillante ($7) because I hate Crème de Cassis, but somehow the mixture of pinot noir and Prosecco created what was almost an Italian sangria that could stand up to the usually disgusting black-currant essence of that liqueur. Even better was the Limonatta Rosa ($7), with homemade Limoncello and Aperol, a splash of cranberry and more Prosecco. While I missed laughing at the tacky decorations of the past, I could envision many future evenings at Ernie’s, laughing with my friends.