Colorado legislators and lobbyists have one fewer watering hole to frequent following the closing last week of the Red Room.
Brian Sommatino, owner of the bar and restaurant at 320 E. Colfax Ave., said he shut it down because he couldn’t devote enough time “to make it work financially.”
The tavern opened in 2002 as part of John Hickenlooper’s Wynkoop Holdings Inc., a group of bars and restaurants including the Wynkoop Brewing Co. Sommatino bought the Red Room in 2005.
Rich Director, a restaurant consultant and former partner in Wynkoop Holdings, said the Red Room’s Colfax location and proximity to the state Capitol was a mixed blessing.
“In the same five-minute period when the governor walks by and the mayor’s wife comes in for lunch, you have to turn away a seedy bum at the door,” Director said.
Sommatino said the tavern’s closing won’t put much of a dent into efforts to revitalize East Colfax. “I think the space will get taken over fairly quickly. I already know there are several restaurateurs looking at that space.”
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
