Itap a party on South Broadway and everyone is invited.
Englewood small business owners have been banding together in recent months to put on Final Fridays. The loosely organized events are the Arapahoe County’s city’s version of , only — you guessed it — the events are on the last Friday of each month instead of the first.
With live music, artists who create pieces in real-time and/or food and drink specials or sales on merchandise, the handful of participating shops, bars and restaurants located in the 3200, 3300 and 3400 blocks of South Broadway are building momentum, and residents and local officials are taking notice.
“I think that up until now we’ve been a value destination — a place thatap cheaper than Denver — but now I think we’re creating that sense of place here on Broadway,” Mayor Joe Jefferson said. “And I think maybe we’re turning the corner to being cool.”
On Friday, May 26, Jefferson shared a personal Final Friday itinerary on Facebook, with stops at each of the nine businesses that participated in May’s event on the agenda. He also . Jefferson, who owns a Broadway business — Jefferson Legal Group, P.C. — said he feels hip businesses like Moe’s Original BBQ and The Whiskey Biscuit that have opened in the “Old Town” portion of the city in recent years has Englewood on the precipice of something big.
Hosting arts-centric special events is nothing new to the owners of . Co-owner and founder Richard Langdon said the shop has hosted street artists, DJs and more on the last Friday of each month on and off for five years but other Broadway businesses were reluctant to get on board. That is until in December. Staff members there are kindred spirits who embraced the idea enthusiastically, helping spark increasingly popular Final Fridays every month since February.
“We’ve been trying to get the neighborhood involved for a long time but a lot of them are older shops that didn’t really feel Final Friday fit them,” said Langdon, whose shop gave away beer from Zephyr Brewing Company, and hosted street artists who painted new murals on the store’s back wall and a semi-trailer parked outside last week. “When Positive Vibes moved in we were kind of able to get some of the bars and restaurants involved.”
At Positive Vibes last week, a pair of DJs provided the soundtrack, popup kitchen Harold for Hire served free kabobs and a trio of artists displayed their work. Manager Nathan Beste, sporting a shirt that read “Support Your Local Anything,” beamed when talking about the growth of Final Fridays this spring. He said he helped organize similar events in Wichita, Kan. and they became a driving force for the small business community there. He pointed to Neighborhood Treasures Thrift Shop, which offered 50 percent off everything for Final Friday, jumping on board as a sign of the eventap roots taking hold. He said staff at the thrift shop reached out to a local hot rod club, a subculture with a history in Englewood, to see if some of them would cruise Broadway on Final Fridays and add to the excitement.
“That alone is huge,” Beste said. “Thatap a little thing alone that is contributing.”
Paul Webster owns that is nearing four years at 3445 S. Broadway. His business hosted a live band and offered $1 off craft beer all night for Final Friday. A 33-year resident of Englewood, Webster said he is pleased to see South Broadway re-emerging as the city’s beating heart and knows there are more businesses set to open there soon. Webster said he is on the organizing committee for a possible special event that the city, under the direction of Communications Director Alison Carney, is seeking to establish sometime later this summer to bring even more people to the area.
“Right now itap still very young,” Webster said of Final Fridays. “Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon and itap a grassroots effort to wake up Englewood.”
C.J. Nicolai was among the patrons at the on Final Friday. The Grand was offering $5 old fashioneds and $4 Locavore Beer Works beers for the occasion. Nicolai has lived in the Englewood area on and off for 20 years and said South Broadway is more inviting now than itap ever been in that time.
“It used to be the place you went through on the way to a nicer place,” she said. “Now itap a destination on its own.”