Denver is an active city with a popular bar scene. Microbrews and Martinis are big here, found in the redeveloped areas around Coors Field on Blake Street and in the 16th Street Mall area. But on the outskirts of downtown in a little transition area is a rather nondescript bar that has stood for nearly 60 years.
“I think it is called Dan’s Drinks,” my bartender friend recommended when I told him I was heading to Denver. “I’ll look for it,” I said. A search of the Denver phone book came up with nothing. A look through Westword, the New Times weekly entertainment tabloid, was also futile. Time to take it to the people.
“You mean Don’s Mixed Drinks,” the bartender at the highly acclaimed Sports Column sports bar informs me. “I used to live over there. Every bartender knows that place. It is something else.” For Denver, it is something else, indeed.
New ownership promised not to change a thing after Don died recently. For almost 60 years this little local hangout has served customers young and old with cold beer and solid cocktails.
Don’s Mixed Drinks and Club Tavern – as the decade’s old neon out front proudly, if not a bit weakly, states – looks like your Uncle’s basement bar. Formica is king, both on the bar top and the back bar cooler doors. A single pool table – full of stories people say – on the left is surrounded by years of trophies that pool players representing Don’s have won. Also flanking the table are four pictures of the famous watercolor dogs playing pool. And I thought they only played poker.
A veteran crowd of regulars entertain during the day. The nighttime gets significantly younger. The oldsters return the next day to hear what happened the night before. Drinks are cheap and from what I have seen the staff is an interesting mix of characters.
The back bar itself is an etched translucent mirror featuring the Rocky Mountains. Humor is prevalent throughout the bar, by evidence the sign on the back door of this little hole that opens up to a dirt alley. “Pool” the sign states with a drawing of a swimmer.
One reason that I couldn’t find the bar in the phone book is that it has not been listed for years. But if you want to find a little place that seems so out of place in up-to-date Denver, try Don’s Mixed Drinks. (303) 832-9904. Just don’t tell them how you got the number. – D. M.