Iconic Denver dive bar Carioca Cafe and Bar — better known in the DIY music scene as Bar Bar — has been closed in recent weeks due to a broken pipe that flooded the bar during January’s deep freeze. However, the bar is returning to business despite an online profile listing it as permanently closed.
Its doors have been locked and its lights turned off during otherwise normal business hours in recent days. The Google profile of the cash-only bar, at 2060 Champa St., lists Carioca Cafe as “permanently closed.”
However, bartender, booker and manager Rich Granville said he didn’t know why Google lists as such. He speculated that “trimming a lot of hours this winter” may have contributed to the online closure designation. He said he submitted an update to Google and is hoping to see it corrected soon.
Carioca Cafe is one of central Denver’s last historic, free-standing bars, following the demolition of the 114-year-old building housing Shelby’s Bar and Grill in downtown Denver. Haunts slightly further afield, such as East Colfax Avenue’s Knob Hill, and the nearby Ballpark neighborhood’s Herb’s, have never carried the same punk-rock reputation as Carioca Cafe.
The bar had been experiencing troubles and battling with the city over licensing for the last two years. In March 2022, a Denver Police Department sting netted a violation for underage alcohol sales at the bar. Two months later, and citing new licensing requirements, the bar’s staff launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at shoring up finances.
“We’ve scraped by through COVID shutdowns without a fundraiser, but now we really need your help,” wrote Richard Granville, organizer of the $10,000 GoFundMe campaign, at the time. However, that drive fell short, only raising $7,060 of its goal.
Despite being a touring stop for underground acts and a safe space for local punks, the bar never carried a cabaret license up until recently, which the city requires for bars that also feature live performances, according to the Department of Excise and Licenses.
The bar at one point late last year was also been surrounded by unhoused people in tents, which were moved during a city clearing and replaced with high chain-link fences. The aging, one-story bar sits in a building that was erected in 1890. It started as a saloon and brothel in downtown Denver, according to Bar Bar’s website.
“While appreciated by its community, it did little to stop the police from raiding the establishment in 1903 for the grave crime of selling alcohol to women (which was illegal at the time),” owners wrote. “Shortly after (the owner) renamed his club to the ‘Carioca Cafe’ to help change his bar’s image. However he wasn’t given much time before prohibition kicked in forcing him to close his saloon once more.”
The bar then converted into a union meeting center, and reopened as a watering hole after prohibition was repealed in 1933. Since then, it’s technically been named New Carioca Cafe and over the last couple of decades become “the bonafide landmark of all things punk, sunk, or drunk,” owners wrote.
A Donate page on Carioca Cafe’s website, denverbarbar.com, still says “Coming soon.”
