PANDEMIC EDITION: How Local Nightlife is Rising to Meet Challenges

Denver may be exciting and beautiful during the day, but it does not shut down with the mountain sunset. The LGBTQ nightlife is lively and offers a variety of different bars and clubs that are fun and welcoming to all.

The Mile High City’s queer community has always been known for its unique charm, and its bars are hot spots for like-minded and eccentric people. Unfortunately, several of these businesses have taken a major hit due to COVID-19.

OUT FRONT reached out to a couple to see how they have been adapting and what they are doing to move forward.  

Boyztown: 117 Broadway, (303) 722-7373

Boyztown will soon be entering its 16th year of operation, and the business is best known for its strip shows and being open and welcoming to everyone in the community.

COVID-19 has greatly impacted the bar, but according to owner Randy Long, he and his staff are adjusting.

“We have installed medical-grade UV lights at each entrance,” he says. “We also use a medical fog machine and hospital-grade virus cleaners to sanitize every day. We also take everyone’s temperature, name, and phone number for tracing purposes. Plus, everyone is required to wear a mask.”

Boyztown was closed for almost three months, but since reopening, all their customers have been very appreciative. There have not been many complaints about the new COVID safety regulations.

“We encourage everyone to be safe and to get the vaccination as soon as it is available,” Long says. “We hope to get back to normal soon, and if everything goes well, I hope to expand the business to a few other locations.”  

Charlie’s Denver: 900 E. Colfax Ave., (303) 839-8890

Established in 1981, Charlie’s Denver is an LGBTQ bar that is half country-western saloon, half dance club. Although the cowboy style has diminished over the years, General Manager Brendan Sullivan wanted to keep the legacy in some fashion.

When the pandemic started, Sullivan was not ready for the kind of impact it would have on the business.

“We are used to having 900 people in here,” he says. “When they said we can only have 50, you can only imagine the impact. Charlie’s is busy and fun-loving. We are the kind of bar you end up at. We are just that kind of place.”

However, when Charlie’s closed its doors, Sullivan considered it a blessing in disguise.

“It is very hard to close down for any amount of time to upgrade or remodel,” he says. “So, after March 15, we took some hard-earned investment money and invested it back into the building. We remodeled the bathrooms, built a brand-new bar, and cleaned everything from top to bottom.

“We weren’t going to reopen until they said we could reopen as a nightclub again because we don’t do food,” Sullivan continues. “But, I was thinking, we can open back up, and I will run it as a restaurant. We ran for about three months under our next door neighbor’s restaurant license, and we did as much as we could with drag shows, bingo, and live music.”

Unfortunately, Governor Polis recently came out with new stipulations on how to reopen, and Sullivan did not see how Charlie’s could operate without losing more money.

“We decided for the best of the community, us, and our employees, we are going to shut down until a vaccine comes out,” Sullivan says. “I don’t know if I see us reopening back up under restrictions. There is no way we can abide by them. We cannot shut down at 8 p.m. People don’t start coming until 10. We are not going anywhere, and we are very blessed to have our loyal customers and guests help get us through these hard times.”  

Hamburger Mary’s: 1336 E 17th Ave., (303) 993-5812

Hamburger Mary’s is a bar and restaurant known for its family-oriented environment and drag entertainment. With several locations throughout the country, it is considered a home base for the queer community.

“When people come in from out of town, they start here,” General Manager Matt Wagner says. “The main goal is to create a home that is a safe place for everybody, and Hamburger Mary’s tends to be that home base for people all over the country.”

Thanks to the pandemic, Hamburger Mary’s sales went down over 50 percent. The business had to close its doors, but reopened the third week in June.

“We took our time to reopen and make sure that we are doing everything safely,” Wagner says. “I think the public saw that we didn’t jump into reopening to make money right away, but we took our time and made sure we were prepared to create a safe environment for our customers. We were trying to do what was morally right and find the balance between keeping our business open and being safe and responsible.”

Some of the biggest safety measures Hamburger Mary’s have implemented include contact tracing and taking everyone’s contact information. Throughout the summer, three large swamp coolers were put in to replace the air in the building every three minutes. Now that winter is coming, the filters were put in the air filtration system air furnaces to filter the air that is going back into the building. All dishes and glasses are single use products; customers are required to wear masks, and one-way traffic patterns are in place.    

Denver Sweet: 776 N Lincoln St., (720) 598-5648

Denver Sweet is the Mile High City’s premier “bear-inspired” bar that is known its wonderful cocktails, tasty bites, and its amazing rooftop area for customers to socialize.

Owned by Randy Minten and Ken Maglasang, the bar closed its doors on March 16 and reopened over Pride weekend. They both worked hard behind the scenes to ensure that they would be compliant and follow social distance guidelines.

“The CDC guidelines were pretty clear as far as social distancing,” Minten says. “We placed tables six feet apart, made sure people understood the rules, and required masks. Once you were seated, you could take it off, but if you walked around the bar, you must have it on. We also sanitized all areas where customers sat, restrooms, common areas, the stairwell, and handrail. Denver Sweet is more of a social bar, not a sit-down bar. So, we had to increase our seating and utilize our space, which we could because our rooftop is one of our advantages.

“In order to reopen, we also had to serve food,” Maglasang says. “That was kind of a big hurdle for us. We had a goal of having small appetizers, but we had to accelerate our plans. When the ruling came down that you can only be open if you offered food, we kicked into high gear to figure out what we could do to get our kitchen running.”

Minten and Maglasang will continue to do their part to ensure a healthy environment, and they expect customers to do the same.