Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:52:00

The bar itself - the physical wooden bar - is older than the state of Colorado's telephone system: it was salvaged from an 1873 tavern in Golden that was the oldest continuously licensed drinking spot in the state. The Goosetown Tavern, at 3242 East Colfax Avenue across from the Bluebird Theater in Denver's Congress Park area, opened in September 1998 as a living museum of Colorado bar history that still books bands most nights. The backstory is a genuine rescue. The original Goosetown, built by German immigrant Julius Shultz, served the brewery workers of Golden's "Goosetown" district - named for the geese those immigrants lured to local ponds - and was the first account the Coors family ever sold beer to. When Coors demolished it for a parking lot in 1998, John Hickenlooper - Wynkoop Brewing founder, later Denver mayor, Colorado governor and US senator - bought the front and back bars and the oversized wooden booths and rebuilt them on Colfax. The tavern has since passed through fittingly musical hands: Bluebird Theater owner Chris Swank added the stage and sound system that turned the back room into a proper band space, and current owners Gwen and Scott Campbell - partners in Globe Hall, the Larimer Lounge and Lost Lake - added a barbecue kitchen. The calendar is neighbourhood-Denver in full: local and up-and-coming acts in the band room, free jazz-funk nights, open mics, karaoke Thursdays, concert-ticket bingo, and official pre- and after-parties for shows across the street at the Bluebird. Happy hour runs daily from 4 to 7. Its stretch of East Colfax is one of the city's best music blocks - the Bluebird opposite, the Atomic Cowboy strip nearby - with street parking and the 15 bus outside. Come for the history in the woodwork; stay because the room still does exactly what it was built for in 1873.