Odell Brewing Co. in RiNo is tapping into something new.
Its outpost at 2945 Larimer St. is down 11% in sales this year. So, the legacy Colorado brewery is adding wine and a hot pocket-esque pizza option.
“Every third group coming in, the first question they ask is if we just have beer,” said Bella De La Torre, Odell’s director of taproom operations. She oversees taprooms in RiNo, Sloan’s Lake and Fort Collins, where Doug, Wynne and Corkie Odell started brewing in 1989.
“We end up seeing a lot of folks walk out the door,” De La Torre continued. “Itap just where the industry is going and the expectations that guests have.”
The RiNo brewhouse, as Odell calls it because it makes beer on-site, opened in 2018 and had strong prepandemic years. But outside of 2022 and 2023, revenue has dwindled.
Along with changing consumer preferences, De La Torre attributed the change to a thinning out of the neighborhood.
“Five years ago, that area of RiNo and Five Points used to be one of the most heavily concentrated residential areas,” she said. “But a lot of these buildings are only around 45% to 60% occupied now. Itap a lot of folks leaving downtown Denver and moving to Westminster, Broomfield and Arvada and away from downtown.”
The Sloan’s Lake location, which opened five years ago at 1625 Perry St., is up 5% this year and gets consistent neighborhood traffic, De La Torre said. That outpost also has a full-service kitchen, which slings wings, salads and pizzas.
Thatap where the new hand pie will be made and distributed to RiNo and to Odell’s biggest location in Fort Collins. That taproom is performing the best, up 22% this year, and itap also where the company makes its wine.
All three outposts are getting new license types, which is the only barrier before they can start expanding their offerings.
“Only having beer has become a bit of a stale experience in Denver,” De La Torre said. “Food and beverage has reinvented itself over the last five or six years and I think folks are cautious where they spend dollars now. Itap less bopping around and more where can we hang out for a bite and get all the things that we want.”
Odell’s wine arm has been growing since 2020, when the brewery began making the drink and also opened up a separate winery on its Fort Collins campus. But since then patrons haven’t been able to move between there and the taproom with the opposite drink in hand.
Under the new license structure, they’ll be able to serve wine and beer in both spots. De La Torre said the reason Odell got into the wine game was to shed the “pretentious feel” the industry has and help turn on craft beer drinkers to reds and whites.
Itap not the only business struggling on the street, which reopened to cars in early 2025 after being a pedestrian-only strip beginning in 2020.
Two Moons Music Hall closed at the end of June at 2944 Larimer St. after two years in business. The Block Distilling Co. is also set to close in the coming months after 10 years at 2990 Larimer.
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