ARGONAUT OWNER DIES
Argonaut Wine and Liquor owner Hank Robinson died last week at the age of 96.
When he and his father bought the business in 1965, Hank Robinson was an insurance agent who didn’t know anything about running a liquor store. In the decades that followed, the younger Robinson, with the help of his brother, Jack, and other family members, would build Argonaut Wine & Liquor into one of the most recognizable liquor stores in the state, shaping Colfax Avenue and the Colorado alcohol industry in the process.
Robinson died Wednesday. He was 96.
A fixture at the family store at 760 E. Colfax even after age confined him to a scooter, friends and loved ones remembered Robinson this week as a studious business owner and a strong believer in customer service and innovator.
“He would give things a try. He would support new brands,” Martin Chambers, a friend and wine distributor who worked with Robinson for years, said Sunday. “And now Argonaut is one of the iconic places in Denver. I think people equate it with if you want to find a unique spirit or a wine or beer in Denver, you go to Argonaut.”
Born in 1921 and raised in Denver’s Jewish community — later one of the beneficiaries of his many philanthropic efforts — Robinson had one year of college and an officer’s commission in the Merchant Marine under his belt when he and his father, Lazar, bought Argonaut from an insurance client. He had worked at a bar before but had no experience in retail.
At the time, the American appetite for wine was growing, and Robinson got to work learning all about it.
“He took wine courses. He went to wine seminars and wine tastings. He made him-
self learn that,” Barry Helfand, another distributor and friend, said. “He had an investment there and he was determined to protect it.”
Years later, Robinson would embrace the rise of craft brewing in much the same way. Distributors remember he was willing to put beers from unproven, small breweries on his shelves before anyone else.
Robinson also modernized Argonaut’s physical format. When he first took over, the store had a long service counter with a warehouse in the back from which staff would fetch items customer asked for. Robinson saw the value in opening the space, letting customers mingle with knowledgeable staff members and select items from shelves themselves. In 1972, the Robinsons tore down their first store at the corner of Colfax and Washington Street and opened the 20,000-square-foot Argonaut, where that customerfocused model was embraced. Thirty-six years later, Robinson would be there when Argonaut, now run by son-in-law Ron Vaughn, doubled down, opening a 40,000-square-foot store on the same lot.
“Anybody can sell a bottle of whiskey, but the service and education that goes with it is why you want to go a store that is locally owned, locally operated,” daughter Patti Jo Robinson said. “He really taught us all that you have to take care of your customers.”
The Robinson family’s investment in property along Colfax would shape its future too. Beyond the store, the family owns land that is now home to the Natural Gorcers and Office Depot.
“They had enough vision to buy up what at the time was slum-like property and it gave them the opportunity to re-create Argonaut as time changed,” Patti Jo Robinson said. “It’s become a customer-friendly shopping environment.”
The liquor store landscape is changing in Colorado. The adoption of Senate Bill 197 in 2016 means that by 2032, major grocery chains such as King Soopers and Walmart could sell full-strength beer and wine at up to 20 locations throughout the state, with license limits going away entirely in 2037. The bill made concessions to private liquor store owners. Previously restricted to a single location, they can now expand to as many as four locations, something Ron Vaughn said Argonaut is “keeping in its back pocket.”
The bill was a compromise. Liquor store owners joined others in supporting a gradual roll-out of sales at grocery stores instead of opening up the industry to them all at once. Vaughn credited his father-in-law — who he said treated distributorships like partnerships and helped build bridges with other liquor store owners — for helping set the tone for that kind of advocacy .
“He truly was the face of Argonaut,” Vaughn said.