BAR: MARLOWE’S
Marlowe’s has been sitting on the 16th Street Mall at Glenarm Place since 1982 — the same year the mall opened. It rests on the ground floor of the historic Kittredge Building, the city’s version of a skyscraper when it was built in 1891. So this bar has some bones. It’s always been a stop for drinks after work and business lunches, and tourists seem drawn to the two-story restaurant, though it never makes the “hot” lists. It’s a traditional stop before a movie across the street at Denver Pavilions or a concert at the Paramount next door.
GRILLED: TAMI DOOR
Tami Door is a 43-year-old powerhouse from Flint, Mich. At 4 feet 10 1/2 inches, she’s president of the Downtown Denver Partnership, a nonprofit that promotes, manages and develops our urban center. She is celebrating her fifth year living in Denver the night we meet at Marlowe’s; her offices are just upstairs. She lives in east Denver with her husband, Rick, and the two sons they adopted from Romania and Ukraine. She has a master’s degree in business, and she acts like it. There’s not much nonsense with this woman. In a throaty voice she inherited from her family (maiden name: Goodenough), she orders a vodka tonic, two limes.
BH: Can you sing “Downtown”?
Door: Yes, but you do not want to hear me sing.
BH: How did you end up in Denver?
Door: Very deliberately. We actually spent a year thinking about where we wanted to move or if we wanted to stay where we were living, outside of Detroit. We narrowed it down to Denver, and then things aligned.
BH: You seem very organized.
Door: I don’t know if that’s the word. But I do think that the more strategic you are, the more you set a framework for what you’re trying to do, the more you’re going to get done. You have to know where you’re going, or you could end up anywhere. And maybe not where you want to be.
BH: Would you live downtown?
Door: When we first moved here, we did live downtown. But we wanted to be closer to our kids’ school and we wanted a yard and a single-family home. Right now, that is good for us. But all our social activities are downtown; it’s where we dine and go to the theater and go to baseball.
BH: Do you think some people are scared to move downtown?
Door: No. It’s just the opposite. People are comfortable about living downtown. People want to live in an urban environment.
BH: What was high school like?
Door: It was a bubble.
BH: Were you a jock?
Door: Yes, I ran track and cross country, and I was a cheerleader. That probably shocks you.
BH: Did you date the captain of the football team?
Door: I don’t know if he was the captain.
BH: Do you give money to panhandlers?
Door: No. And I would advise people not to give money to panhandlers. Give it to an organization that helps people in need. Giving panhandlers money isn’t helping them get off the street.
BH: What kind of phone is that?
Door: It’s a Droid. The thing about this thing is for every function that you do, there are probably 10 ways to do it and you have to find the path you like best. And it takes a while to figure that out.
BH: Like life.
Door: I have pictures of my kids skiing on my Droid. We ski a lot. And we water-ski on a lake in Commerce City.
BH: Are you a strict mom?
Door: Probably not as strict as I should be. When you work a lot, you don’t want to spend too much of your family time being the disciplinarian.
BH: Are you happy?
Door: Right now, actually, yes.
BH: What do you fear?
Door: Anything that could happen to my family, to anyone I am really close to. I don’t fear making big decisions.
BH: Do you make a lot of big decisions at the partnership?
Door: We have a 20-year plan for downtown, and we have a clear vision. The partnership includes a 3-mile radius, much bigger than you might think. It takes in the adjacent neighborhoods, the Central Platte Valley and the 16th Street Mall. About 40,000 people a day ride the shuttle. We look at the center city every day from a very holistic viewpoint. If it happens in downtown, we are involved with it.
BH: Is your name from the “Tammy” movies?
Door: Yes. My mom liked those movies.
BH: What don’t you like in other people?
Door: People who don’t put their cards on the table. People who don’t share their agenda.
BH: On what occasion would you lie?
Door: I am not a good liar. I can’t lie.
BH: Magazines?
Door: I love Scientific American, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker.
BH: Books?
Door: I have a Kindle. I always have a wide range of books. I’m reading “The Universe in a Nutshell.” I just read “1491.” I’m a very fast reader, and I read every night when I go to bed. I read a couple of books a week.
BH: Do you have an iPod?
Door: Yes, but I use it to listen to podcasts. I listen to author interviews.
BH: What talent do you wish you had?
Door: I always thought it would be cool to play the banjo.
BH: What’s your morning like?
Door: I get ready very quickly in the morning. I usually have a meeting downtown at 7:30. I get up at 10 before 7, and I am out of the house in 20 minutes.
BH: Are you stressed out?
Door: Absolutely.
BH: Can you recite a poem?
Door: “The dislefink is a lovely bird
His song not loud — nor is it heard
But he’s our friend, a voice or not,
His presence here, a happy lot.”
It was printed on the placemats at the Dutch Pantry, and if kids could recite it, they got a free breakfast, so our dad made us all memorize it.
BH: Motto?
Door: Always be kind, have a good attitude, and never give up.
BH: So you live by that?
Door: I try to.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Bill Husted: 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com
