Vine Street Pub will finally reopen — with a major change
Four years of waiting. Four years of questions.
Denver’s Vine Street Pub & Brewery, which closed because of the pandemic in March 2020 — a few days before every other restaurant, bar and brewery in Colorado was forced to go on hiatus — said Thursday that it had made plans to finally reopen on May 15.
“A lot of other restaurants were able to reopen quickly,” acknowledged Kevin Daly, who founded the Mountain Sun Pub group, which owns Vine Street along with the Mountain Sun and Southern Sun pubs in Boulder and the Longs Peak Pub in Longmont. “But the last three years, between the economy, shootings, the fires and COVID relapses, it has been one thing after another.
“I didn’t want to have five crises going on at the same time,” he added, speaking about the five different pubs. “And Denver is the farthest from my home and office, so it had to wait.”
Three of those restaurants reopened in 2021, while the fourth returned in 2022. Vine Street stayed closed, however, even as it began brewing beer again there in 2021.
Daly said he now has a strong leadership team in place in Boulder, which means some of those people can begin working in Denver. “Restaurant management is hard, and the pandemic changed the workforce so much. A lot of people, it wasn’t right for them anymore.”
There will be some changes to the menu, which will be simplified, Daly said. But the burgers and wings are coming back, and woodfired pizzas will be added. The bathrooms and kitchens have also been remodeled, and the interior has been repainted and touched up.
Perhaps the biggest change, however, is that Vine Street will begin accepting credit cards, something it hasn’t done in its 30year existence — much to the dismay of customers who had to use the onsite ATM to pay their tabs. “It’s time to start using computers,” Daly joked.
As for the beer, Daly is hoping to host a mini Stout Month — the company’s signature event, which usually takes place in February — since Denver hasn’t had one. But when Vine Street returns, it will have a wider selection of other beverages, including cocktails, cider, seltzer and kombucha.
Founded in 1993, the Mountain Sun group has carved out a niche over the decades as one of Colorado’s oldest continuouslyexisting breweries. Vine Street Pub opened in 2008 in Denver and has been a favorite ever since.
“We are going to make it. And we are really excited,” Daly said. “I would love to see us around for another 30 years.”