When 3 Kings Tavern died in the first pandemic summer, two owners of the Oriental Theater signed a lease within weeks - Denver's South Broadway strip was not going to lose the room. HQ, at 60 South Broadway in the Baker neighbourhood, opened in August 2020 in the former 3 Kings space and has since stacked up Westword Best of Denver awards, from Best New Club to Best Metal Venue. The inheritance mattered: 3 Kings Tavern spent 14 years as a pillar of Denver rock, and Scott Happel and Peter Ore - whose Oriental Theater anchors the Berkeley neighbourhood's live scene - had tried to buy the club years earlier. When COVID finished it, they took the keys, stripped the room and rebuilt it as a deliberately broader church than its predecessor. The programming shows that intent: metal and punk still anchor the calendar - the club won Best Metal Venue in 2023 - but burlesque Saturdays, goth DJ Sundays, karaoke, an 80s-themed brunch deejayed by the Mystery Sisters, air-guitar championships and the roving Mile High Soul Club all share the stage, alongside touring legends like Agent Orange and Eyehategod. The room keeps the dive-bar bones: a long bar, pinball and free-play arcade machines, and a capacity in the couple-hundreds that keeps every show close-range. A 2023 water-main break flooded the basement and forced a repair closure, but the club reopened and Westword handed it Best Community Support for a Venue in 2024. Practical notes: shows run most nights with modest covers and 21-plus policies as standard; the 0 and 52 buses serve Broadway and the Hi-Dive, Mutiny Information Cafe and the rest of the South Broadway crawl sit within two blocks - Denver's best small-venue density, with HQ now a fixed point in it. The timing made the launch a small act of faith: the owners signed the lease in June 2020 with venues shuttered statewide, opened under capacity caps of 75 people, and programmed COVID-safe karaoke and distanced burlesque until touring resumed - booking their first national act, Agent Orange, for September 2021. That the room not only survived the era that killed its predecessor but collected five Westword awards in four years is the neighbourhood's favourite redemption arc.

Type: Bar / Pub

Address: 60 South Broadway, Denver, CO, United States, 80209

Website: https://www.hq-denver.com

Minimum Age: 21

Cover Charge: 1

DJ: 1

Capacity: 250

Opening Date: 01/08/2020