The Jake Plummer who left Colorado after the 2006 football season hardly carried the trappings of a guy who lived in the lap of luxury.
When last seen in these parts, the former Broncos QB sported a Grizzly Adams beard and mountain-man hairdo, drove a Honda Element and loathed discussing his private life.
But behind that simple-life, mountain-man veneer lurked a multimillion-dollar professional football player who liked living large.
How large? Try a Cherry Hills mansion roughly 10,000 square feet on 2.81 acres. The 1980s-era swanky spread has been even more swankified and brought into 2009 with a just-completed $1 million makeover engineered by Plummer’s real estate agent Lisa Lopez of The Re/Max Collection, HRi Design and contractors Terri Gallmeier, Todd Pierce and Alan Schlessman. Asking price: $4.6 million.
When the house first hit the market more than a year ago, the asking price was $3.85 million, and dropped to $2.8 million. Jake bought the house in 2005 for $2.8 million and “didn’t touch it,” according to Lopez.
That was the sticking point in the stagnant movement on the market. “He loved the house in its original style — funky and eclectic; that’s just Jake.”
Lopez insisted the house had to be pushed into 2009, even if it took “blowing up ceilings, moving kitchens and walls. It was one of the coolest transformations I’ve ever seen.”
You can see it too during an open house from 10 to 11:30 a.m. today at 6 Sunrise Drive in The Reserve subdivision. More info: Lopez, 303-667-8760.
GQ QB.
Jay Cutler, another former Broncos quarterback who now dons a Chicago Bears jersey, seems to be doing better off the field than on.
He may have led his team to a trouncing by the Green Bay Packers in the season’s opening game, but he’s got game elsewhere.
The Cutler we never knew graces the cover of the slick Michigan Avenue magazine this month looking like he’s had a million-dollar makeover.
The cover shot shows him in a preppie plaid jacket, tie, starched white shirt and a neat and trim haircut any mother could love.
The cover story, “A new Jay” shows his casual side in a $285 green-and-gray-striped polo, a $275 cardigan, $225 jeans and $235 sunglasses.
Other glamour shots include street-strolling guy in a $4,195 raincoat, $3,495 sportcoat and $595 shoes.
The “CEO running a board meeting” shot decks the pretty boy out in a $5,295 suit and $345 shirt with a $24,375 Cartier watch.
Foodie fodder.
Bet on Brio. When a gal pal suggested we go to dinner at the new Cherry Creek eatery in the old Macaroni Grill space, I cringed. Sorry, not known to be a member of the chain gang, so I made all kinds of negative assumptions about the Italian eatery.
Wrong! Not only is the space fashioned after a Tuscan village, but the bar is bountiful and the patio pulsing. The menu offers plenty of choices from pastas to steaks, and a killer happy hour with $2.95 appetizers from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to close on weekdays. No reservations, and parking can be tight.
• Celebrated chef Kevin Taylor has signed an exclusive catering agreement at the Denver Art Museum starting Oct. 1. The catering operation — which will include corporate parties, weddings, meetings and special occasions — will run out of Palettes kitchen, the restaurant Taylor has run inside the DAM for 10 years.
• Cilantro Fusion, an eatery that blends Spanish and Mexican cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner, opened Wednesday at 1531 Stout St.
• Tambien, the Mexican spot below the street at 250 Steele, starts a weekly Sunday brunch today serving an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Eavesdropping
on two men standing outside the Castlewood Library in Englewood: “I’ve got to get in there and get some business done.”
“I’ve got to get in there and look for a job and play a little poker.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com
