The demise of the Dark Horse, Boulder’s world-famous bar and burger joint just off U.S. 36 on Baseline Road, had him riled up as he hung near the entryway with a friend on a Wednesday night last month. The line to get in earlier had snaked around the parking lot, and it was nearly standing-room only inside before half the crowd headed to campus for the men’s basketball game.

“This place is part of Boulder’s soul,” said Brown, who first discovered the World Famous Dark Horse in 1992 after enrolling at the University of Colorado to pursue his doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. “It����ap what makes Boulder unique. There’s no place else like this place. How do you (expletive) tear this place down? I just don’t get it.”

For nearly two years now, patrons of all ages — Boulderites, barflies, and CU students and alums — have shown up here asking the same question ahead of Saturday’s closing. They’ve come to scratch a nostalgia itch and say their goodbyes to an old friend, a dark, dusty institution that has remained largely unchanged over five decades as the college town around it has undergone repeated facelifts.

Cheap beer. Killer burgers, wings and onion rings. And so much weird crap hanging from the walls and ceilings, it����ap a wonder how it all got crammed in here in the first place.

It’s been a helluva run, for sure.

A unicorn. A time capsule of Boulder from a different era. Everyone who grew up here, or went to college here, has Dark Horse memories, some more debauched than others. Rowdy Friday Afternoon Clubs. Drunken tricycle races. Male strippers on ladies’ nights. Costume parties. Trivia nights, karaoke nights and live music. Dancing on Friday and Saturday nights. And the last call crowd singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” at closing.

Ever since developers of presented their plans to the city in early 2024, over the objections of many community members, the slow march to the Dark Horse’s closure has been a living wake for longtime patrons.

Jeremy Martin is one of those Dark Horse lifers. On this Wednesday, he was celebrating his 71st birthday with friends in the pit of the main bar room that served as a dance floor back in the day.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 21, when they opened up,” said Martin, a third-generation local who graduated from Boulder High and CU’s Leeds School of Business. “I’ll always remember having good times with friends and partying and not remembering what we did and playing foosball and pool. And some people getting thrown out.”

Many had held out hope that maybe, just maybe, the weirdest place in a town that relishes its eccentricity would be saved from the bulldozer in the new development that will deliver .

Locals packed the initial Boulder Planning Board hearing in January 2024 to voice strong opposition to the plan that would raze the building. There’s been an outcry ever since. Comments on social media posts have run into the hundreds.

But, after a few reprieves from the developers of Williams Village II, the Dark Horse’s ownership announced in early February that it will officially close on Saturday night, its 51st anniversary.

“While this is not the path we would have chosen for this historic location or our business, we are deeply grateful to have been part of Boulder’s culture for more than half a century,” read an announcement posted to the Dark Horse’s Facebook page. “As sad as we are, we plan to honor the Dark Horse by closing with as much joy, energy and fun as possible. We invite you to utilize this final month, especially March 14th, to come make some final memories, enjoy the history, and honor the legacy that we have built together as a business and a community.”

Two years ago, after that initial presentation to the Boulder Planning Board, the property owner, Petur Williams, and business owner, Dave Tobin, wrote in that they planned to save the Dark Horse. Working together, they wrote that the next iteration of the restaurant would emerge in the new development.

“The building is over 50 years old, leaches energy, lacks many features required in today’s restaurants and could never meet today’s code,” they wrote. “It����ap not worthy of landmarking or preservation status.”

Repeated attempts to contact Tobin about the future of the business after Saturday’s closing were unsuccessful.

While it may not be worthy of historic designation, Brown, Martin and many others would disagree that the old Dark Horse isn’t worthy of saving.

“Trey (Parker) and Matt (Stone) stepped in and saved Casa Bonita because they understood that that was such a touchstone for Denver,” Brown said. “This is a touchstone for Boulder. How do you tear this place down? Build a bubble over it in the new development. This is the destination.”

Boulder’s ‘pleasure palace’

Indeed, the Dark Horse has been a bucket-list stop in Boulder since it opened its doors nearly 51 years ago.

It boasted three bars on two floors, a beer wagon, a giant TV that screened live sports, “Star Trek” reruns and classic movies like “The Wizard of Oz,” as well as pinball, ping-pong, foosball, chess, darts, free popcorn from a pot-bellied stove and a dance floor.

More importantly, for cash-strapped college students, it offered some of the cheapest booze and grub in town — 69-cent drinks, 39-cent beers and a half-pound burger for $1.59. The Daily Camera reported in early 1977 that as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people passed through the bar on Friday nights during its popular happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. 

Launched by Grand American Fare Inc., a Santa Monica-based company started by a group of Western Airlines pilots, the Dark Horse was among a chain of restaurants stuffed with odd memorabilia culled from both ends of the country.

The company’s principal owner owned warehouses full of junk in Maine and Santa Monica. More than $500,000 of decor — worth more than $3 million today — was housed in the chain’s 11 restaurants in California, Arizona and Colorado when the Dark Horse opened, according to the Daily Camera archives.

More restaurants followed in Colorado college towns — Washington’s in Old Town Fort Collins and the State Armory in Greeley.

Hanging above the old dance floor are some 40 carriages and sleighs, including a picture-windowed hearse from the 1940s, turn-of-the-century, hand-carved merry-go-round horses. Magazine collages on the walls of the upstairs section include faded Playboy centerfolds, retro posters, cartoon characters and other ephemera. There’s also assorted animal heads, an old cash register, old books that haven’t been cracked open in half a century, and assorted portraits.

The former manager of the bar boasted that Grand American Fare Inc. had the largest collection of Playboys in America. There are also license plates from all over the country, as well as cryptic messages carved into the tables and benches from patrons of eras past.

Pat Ranney, a St. Louis transplant who graduated from CU in 1976, said she used to religiously come to the Dark Horse on Friday afternoons at 4 to catch reruns of the original “Star Trek.”

“It hasn’t changed,” she said. “A little dustier.”

On a weekday afternoon earlier this month, she was enjoying a burger and a glass of wine with her older sister, Alice Ranney, also a CU grad.

“We just started coming back when we heard they were going to close,” Pat Ranney said. “We went to the holiday concert at CU and then we came over here. Then we went to a women’s basketball game a couple weeks ago. And we came here. And we thought, well, one more time.”

Alice Ranney said there are so few places left in Boulder that connect generations of residents and alums. The only other college hangout with as much local history is , which opened in 1923.

“My concern is, where are all these old people going to go now?” Alice Ranney said. “Like us. It����ap multi-generational. It����ap just a real hometown place. This has character. So many places in Boulder don’t have character anymore.”

Finding love at the ‘Shady Pony’

John Reilly, 74, said he shared his first kiss with his wife, Lisa, in the hallway of the Dark Horse back in 1977.

They’d danced earlier that night at another popular singles spot, Anthony’s Garden at the former Hilton Harvest House Hotel, and later wound up at the Dark Horse, where they were both regulars. He loved the foosball. She loved the dancing.

“I didn’t even know they had food,” Reilly said with a laugh. “I just went there for the beer. And to chase girls.”

The couple has been married for 45 years. They took their last trip to the Dark Horse on Valentine’s Day last month.

“I’m really sad to see it go, but when we went there for Valentine’s Day, you could tell they’ve neglected the maintenance for quite a while,” said Reilly, who said his Boulder High senior class would gather every year at the Dark Horse on the second Friday in December. “It was my go-to place for a long time. Two or three times a week.”

Scroll through the hundreds of comments underneath posts about the Dark Horse’s closing, and there are too many stories like Reilly’s. Women who met their husbands there. A man who wrote that he entered the wrong bathroom — a Dark Horse rite of passage — and bumped into his future wife. A woman who wrote her husband proposed to her by the fireplace. Another wrote she dated a bouncer, and another wrote that she dated one of the male dancers from the popular ladies nights who went by “Ponyboy.”

Back in its heyday, the Dark Horse was the place to go to meet other young people in Boulder. And it attracted a diverse crowd — bikers, hippies and disco fans, all under one roof — for some wild times.

“My buddy, BJ, they have a saddle mounted on the ceiling upside down,” Reilly said. “He could get up on that thing and ride it. Hanging upside down. He only weighed like 100 pounds.”

‘An unknown sports bar’

in Stillwater, Oklahoma. or Bullwinkle’s in Columbia, Missouri. P.O. Pear’s in Lincoln, Nebraska. The World Famous Dark Horse in Boulder.

Back in the Big 8 era, traveling sportswriters knew the circuit, said Dave Plati, CU’s legendary sports information director who now serves in an emeritus role with the athletic department.

“Kind of, in a way, you can pass it off as an unknown sports bar,” Plati said. “Because it had plenty of TVs where you could watch sports, but they never presented themselves as a sports bar. Being a sports guy in Boulder, the choices were so limited, that����ap where we always went.”

Plati said he always recommended the Dark Horse to visiting scribes when they came to town.

“If they didn’t want to go out for a fancy steak or something, we’d tell them, go to the Dark Horse,” he said. “You can watch whatever games are on tonight, get a great burger. It����ap a fun environment.”

A fun environment for everyone, really — not just students or alums or regular joes.

“It was one of the few places in Boulder that wasn’t limited to either one or the other,” Plati said. “A lot of those other places, it seemed to me, you were either going where the students went, or after your student days, you were going where the students weren’t.”

‘This is one of the last anchors’

with a blowout two-day party after 38 years in business. More than , including a mini submarine and an old howitzer. The building in Old Town, the last and largest restaurant that Grand American Fare opened, has since been repurposed into a .

The State Armory in Greeley, housed in a historic 1920s National Guard Center, closed on New Year’s Eve in 2006. The real estate investors who bought it eventually — everything from the urinals to the Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrels.

A popular hangout of the Broncos during training camps in Greeley, the building has since been added to the Greeley Historic Registry and with a coffee shop, bookstore, plant store and a stage for community events.

As to the fate of the carriages and sleighs, the Big Boy Burger mascot, the bathroom doors and all the other old memorabilia in Boulder’s World Famous Dark Horse? Dave Tobin, who got a job working the door when the bar opened, and eventually worked his way up to waiter, bartender and regional manager, before purchasing the restaurant in 1993 after Grand American Fare went under, hasn’t said.

A staffer at the Dark Horse, who asked not to be named, said she had heard that some items would be auctioned off and others would be repurposed for the new restaurant that plans to open in the new development.

Since the announcement of its closure, business couldn’t be better. Local history groups have been coming for informal happy hours, and alums and students have been savoring their last bites and sips, especially on game days for the CU men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Saturday promises to be a blowout to rival all the other legendary Dark Horse parties of years past.

“It����ap like everything in Boulder, it����ap changed so much,” Martin lamented. “And this is one of the last anchors here of that kind of place. It����ap sad, but change happens.”

“There’s no place else like this place,” Brown said. “It just tears my heart out that they’re tearing this thing down.”

Some guys have bachelor parties that are X-rated. My son’s best man had a better idea: Dinner at family-friendly Casa Bonita, which is as G-rated as you can get.

It was an ingenious choice, and I’m still enjoying the fruits of that night last December: the iconic restaurant’s delicious house salsa, which they call Salsa Casa. I liked it so much that I currently have two jars in my refrigerator.

And when they’re gone, I will order more. I love this salsa with chips, but I also use it on tacos. No more grocery store salsa for me.

I hadn’t been to Casa Bonita since my daughter worked there 17 years ago, fresh out of high school. Before we explored Black Bart’s Cave, crammed into the puppet show and admired the cliff divers, we had an excellent dinner. I was shocked at how much I liked the salsa.

Obviously, salsa preferences are very subjective and personal. I’m sure some would say the Salsa Casa isn’t hot enough. Some, no doubt, would find it too hot. I thought it was just right, with lots of flavor.

According to the jar, ingredients include diced tomatoes (blended to a fine texture), jalapeños, onions, salt, garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, black pepper, coriander and cumin.

I knew better than to ask Casa Bonita’s PR team for the actual recipe — they are very secretive, after all — but I did want to know if it was developed in-house. They informed me that it is an “improved version of the original Salsa Casa recipe,” and was developed by celebrated Denver chef Dana Rodriguez when the kitchen was revamping the menu. I wanted to interview her, but Casa Bonita didn’t want that, either.

I hope someone there will tell her how much I like her salsa.

Jars have depictions of the famous pink tower and a “daring” cliff diver making a splash. The owners, Matt Stone and Trey Parker of “South Park,” have also reclaimed the restaurant’s old motto, “The Greatest Restaurant In The World,” which is also written on the jar. With a declaration like that, the salsa had better be good.

Salsa Casa is sold ($9.95 for a 16-ounce jar) in the restaurant’s gift shop, El Mercado, and is . They also sell Green Chile and “Muy Hot Sauce.” They can be bought in a three-pack with Salsa Casa for $16.95.

I knew our Casa Bonita bachelor party would be unforgettable. I’m glad I’ll be reminded of that night every time I hit the couch to watch a game with chips and salsa.

Founded in 2017 on the ground floor of the Ramble Hotel, 1260 25th St., Denver, Super Mega Bien is known for its “dim sum” service in which servers roam the floor with roller carts full of Latin American dishes, in a similar style to Chinese dim sum restaurants. In late 2022, Victor Mena and his wife, Jenn Mena-Wenstrom, bought the restaurant from its founders: prolific restaurateur Dana Rodriguez, Anthony Maciag and Tabatha Knop. Victor had worked there since its opening as the chef de cuisine, Mena-Wenstrom said.

But the rising costs of labor took a toll on its finances, she told The Denver Post on Monday. So did an lawsuit, filed last December by Maciag and Knop, alleging that Mena-Wenstrom, who is listed as owner, still owes each of them $49,000 plus interest as part of the original $400,000 purchase price, as . Victor Mena isn’t named in the suit.

“All of the extenuating circumstances have brought us to a point where it’s not joyful, and it’s not fun, and it’s not healthy,” to run the restaurant, Mena-Wenstrom said.

An attorney representing Maciag and Knop in the proceedings, Jeffrey Lippa, declined to comment when reached Monday.

The restaurant’s last day of business is Saturday, March 14, coinciding with the end of Denver Restaurant Week. For the promotional campaign, Super Mega Bien is running a with two dishes from the cart and a dessert.

Rodriguez, who leads Carne and two Work & Class locations, is not mentioned in the suit, according to BusinessDen.

Here are 8 moments that helped define Denver’s pop culture profile this year.

Andrea Gibson, memorialized

Former Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson finally received some of the mainstream acclaim they deserved thanks to the documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” a nuanced look at terminal illness produced in part by former Denver resident, comedian and actor Tig Notaro. While Gibson collaborated on the award-winning doc, they died on July 14 — exactly four months before the film hit streaming services. It stands as a testament to hope and love in the face of staggering suffering and loss. — John Wenzel

‘South Park’ redux owns the airwaves

After more than 25 years on the air, comedy cartoon “South Park” debuted its latest season in July, generating headlines and increased viewership in the U.S. and beyond for its skewering of the Trump administration — which even responded to some of the show’s barbs. Created by Colorado natives Trey Parker and Matt Stone (owners of Casa Bonita and creators of “The Book of Mormon”), the Colorado-set “South Park” also featured Denver as the backdrop for some of the federal government’s recent actions, including immigration enforcement and deportations. — Tiney Ricciardi

Denver’s ‘Love is Blind’ makes history — in a bad way

The Mile High City got its moment on Netflix’s national stage when the popular reality dating show “Love is Blind” came to town, although it wasn’t all sunshine and wedding bells. Denver made history as the series’ first franchise to produce zero successful marriages. —����.��.

Colorado-shot movies

This year included the family drama with a $15 million budget, “The Man Who Changed the World” (which was shot along the Front Range), and the already-released “Rebuilding,” a drama starring in-demand actor Josh O’Connor that was shot in the San Luis Valley, and which examines the complicated aftermath of a wildfire. That follows late 2024’s “Elevation,” shot in Boulder and Golden and starring Anthony Mackie (the MCU’s new Captain America), plus several other titles that bode well for the future of Colorado’s still-developing film industry. —����.��.

The Oscars, and Colorado creatives

Colorado-reared filmmakers and subjects helped fuel some of 2025’s most visible titles, including Scott Derrickson’s sci-fi-romance hybrid “The Gorge,” Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” screenwriter Nora Garrett’s “After the Hunt,” and the John Elway documentary which just premiered on Netflix. At the Academy Awards, the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Animated Feature nominees were led by Colorado natives, with former Glenwood Springs native Brady Corbet and partner Mona Fastvold winning for Best Original Screenplay for “The Brutalist,” and even more acclaimed, Oscar-nominated titles making a splash at festivals and on streaming (such as “Porcelain War,” “The Wild Robot,” and “Anjua” — all of which were also Oscar nominated but didn’t win). —����.��.

Sundance Film Fest chooses Boulder

A gaggle of grinning politicians and Sundance Film Fest officials in March said the tastemaking industry event would relocate from Park City, Utah, to Boulder starting in 2027. That’s led to lots of preparation and private/public fundraising on Boulder’s part, but also global attention and projected spending that will lift the Front Range city in the lean months of January. —����.��.

Farewell, Bowen Yang

Aurora comedian Bowen Yang’s run on “Saturday Night Live” ended this year on a Dec. 20 episode hosted by Ariana Grande, Yang’s pal and the co-star of the “Wicked” film series in which Yang has a supporting role. The 35-year-old had broken ground in 2019 when he became SNL’s first-ever Chinese-American cast member, and the first-ever Chinese-American nominated for an acting Emmy. His sharp yet malleable presence will be sorely missed on a show that’s going through a major cast transition. —����.��.

Concerts writ large

The Front Range has long been a top concert market, and it only got bigger during this up-and-down year for the industry. As ticket prices and fees continued to rile fans, Empower Field at Mile High hosted massive events such as a two-night run from Metallica, and Denver’s own The Lumineers with Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. In Boulder, Folsom Field welcomed its first July 4 run from Phish, and Paul McCartney played a shockingly great set at Coors Field. With Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s calendar already filling up and new venues such as Project 70 debuting in Denver, there’s plenty to look forward to in 2026. —����.��.

The strike ended after both the actors union and the restaurant����ap management agreed to enter mediation and hash out the details of the union’s first contract, according to a statement by the Actors’ Equity Association, which represents the actors. The bargaining unit includes 57 performers who serve as roving actors, puppeteers, cliff divers, magicians and more at the pink palace.

“Casa Bonita is pleased that Actors Equity members will be returning to work as scheduled,” the restaurant����ap management said in a statement to The Denver Post.

Casa Bonita workers voted to unionize in November 2024 as they sought better pay and to establish workplace protections. Casa Bonita serves thousands of diners each week and actors previously detailed several incidents involving guests that had staff concerned for their safety. In September, the union filed an unfair labor practices charge after performers’ hours were cut to accommodate a Halloween pop-up event.

“We never wanted to strike to begin with, but Casa Bonita management forced our hand,” said Sam Bishop, a puppeteer at Casa Bonita who serves on the negotiating team, in a statement. “We can’t wait to return to work so we can resume bringing our guests the unique experience they expect and deserve from their visits.”

Casa Bonita is a beloved Lakewood restaurant and entertainment venue, as well as a historic landmark. It originally opened in 1974, but ownership filed for bankruptcy in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. The venue was later purchased by “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who were both raised on the Front Range. The duo spent a reported $40 million to renovate the restaurant, which reopened to much fanfare in 2023.

There will be no cliff divers entertaining guests at Casa Bonita on Halloween as the restaurant����ap cast of performers initiates a three-day strike.

On Wednesday, the Actors’ Equity Association announced that Casa Bonita’s divers, magicians, roving actors and other unionized performers would picket outside the pink palace, at 6715 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood, following unsuccessful efforts to bargain their first contract. The strike is scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 30 through Nov. 1.

Casa Bonita workers voted to unionize in November 2024 as they sought better pay and to establish workplace protections. The restaurant and entertainment venue is a beloved historic landmark and in 2023, reopened under the ownership of locally raised celebrities Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The creators of the “South Park” TV show reportedly spent $40 million reviving the restaurant after purchasing it out of bankruptcy.

Casa Bonita serves thousands of diners each week and actors previously told The Denver Post there have been numerous incidents involving guests that had staff concerned for their safety.

The bargaining unit of 57 people has been engaged in negotiations since April, according to the Actors’ Equity Association, and last month, it filed an unfair labor practices charge after performers’ hours were cut to accommodate a Halloween pop-up event.

Now, the union says management failed to deliver responses to key proposals that would move toward a contract. In a statement, Casa Bonita management said, “We value all of our team members and their well-being. As a policy we do not comment on ongoing labor negotiations.”

“Casa management came to the table today offering an additional 11 cents over their last unfair wage offer, and very little for future layoff protections,” said lead negotiator Andrea Hoeschen, assistant executive director and general counsel for Actors’ Equity Association, in a statement. “Despite that insult, the negotiating team responded with major compromises to try to get a deal. And then Casa Bonita walked away from the table without responding.”

Casa Bonita addressed the dispute in an email to people with reservations, confirming the restaurant would remain open and offering a free drink or arcade credit to guests.

CORRECTION at 6:57 p.m. on Oct. 29: An earlier version of this story misstated the dates for the proposed strike.

History Colorado, the state’s largest historical institution, confirmed this week that Barber has donated his massive collection of neon signs, matchbooks and menus, photographs, letters, and other ephemera from Colfax Avenue’s long, diverse history.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be getting this into the collection,” said Rachael Storm, head of curatorial services and curator of Business & Industry at History Colorado. “It’s something I’ve had my eye on for a long time.”

Stretching from the open spaces east of Aurora to the foothills of Golden, Colfax has hosted presidents and addicts, celebrities and prostitutes — occasionally in the same venues — at its hotels, bars, restaurants, clubs, theaters, retail shops and residences, Barber said. But he fears its history has been forgotten, so he decided to turn his passion project into a solution to the problem.

Barber, a musician, writer and former Elvis impersonator, has been building his collection — which consists of thousands of items — since 2004 and in the past eight years has attempted to exhibit it independently at various locations. Those efforts have often failed as Barber’s spots fell through due to rising rents and emergencies, such as a fire at the first location that nearly burned down the building, and several floods at a location in Lakewood it occupied just before the pandemic.

“It’s just been one biblical calamity after the next,” Barber said. “It’s like, ‘What’s next? Where’s the locust?’

Lately, storage of the collection, which Barber at one point tried to sell for $150,000, has become a burden, he said. “If something happens to me, it just goes away. “So it makes sense to house it at an institution that’s going to outlive me. Trying to do my own museum would take millions of dollars, and if I had a million dollars, I don’t know if I’d spend it on a museum.”

History Colorado Center currently honors Barber’s collection in its temporary exhibit, and Barber has exhibited other pieces at Denver International Airport, where he curated a Colfax history show on Concourse A. The exhibits underline how Colfax has influenced the entire city, and not just the east-west corridor that takes it through the heart of downtown Denver.

“In the history of Colfax, we can see changes in the way we move, the way we socialize, the way we communicate with each other, and the means by which technology, foodways, commerce, and statehood flex, grow, and adapt to each other,” Storm said via email. “I live one block off Colfax and, with the new rapid transit going in, we are seeing how transportation and ways in which people want to and need to move are affecting the ways we build communities (through bars and restaurants), engage in commerce (banking, shopping for pleasure, picking up prescriptions), and move through the city.”

Barber will be happy to move his floor-to-ceiling bins out of his house and into the trucks History Colorado plans to send on Nov. 14 — which also happens to be the day Barber turns 57. Until then, he’s furiously cataloging every item, from the branded ashtrays and art deco fixtures of nightclubs past to a prototype for a Chuck E. Cheese-style animatronic band at Casa Bonita, which he calls “the holy grail” of the collection.

At 22.5 inches tall, the toy-sized Item was driven out to Colorado from its Kansas-based owner, who didn’t trust shipping companies to handle it delicately, Barber said. The Casa Bonita Quintet, as they’re called on the face of the kick drum, consists of forest animals playing piano and strumming a banjo and other instruments. The half-circle curtains around the stage still open, and it’s even wired for sound.

Barber is also giving away his latest book, “Colfax Avenue: East to West,” as a PDF at . The 216-page , photo-packed tome, which he hopes to give away physical copies of at the official opening of any upcoming History Colorado exhibit, is written coffee table-style, with readers flipping to any page and reading a self-contained narrative.

His book also covers Schuyler Colfax, the street’s namesake who served as vice president under Ulysses S. Grant from 1869 to 1873.

Barber said it’s the perfect time to look back, given not only the BRT Transit project that’s currently disrupting blocks-long stretches of Colfax, but the upcoming anniversaries of the legendary roadways that brought travelers, tourists and hopeful residents into the west during the early and mid-20th century, such as Route 40 (a.k.a. Colfax) and Route 66. Barber even has a replica dinosaur footprint from a Colfax Avenue discovery, as well as a major dig that turned up Indigenous artifacts.

“What eventually became Colfax Avenue has been used since before recorded history,” he said. “My narrative is mostly a pop-culture one, although it’s important to note the street is named after a staunch abolitionist who voted to ratify the 13th Amendment (which ended slavery) in 1865.”

Colfax used to be a dusty western stretch, too, with Barber researching stories of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterton and Doc Holiday congregating at Colfax Avenue and Broadway, and Masterson getting run out of a town by a rival. Land owners, including Brown Palace namesake Henry C. Brown, benefited from Colfax’s development because it increased the value of surrounding properties.

“Colfax is undergoing surgery again and it’s really causing a lot of business problems and woes,” said Barber, citing closures that have been attributed to decreased traffic as part of BRT lane and sidewalk closures. “This is one way to change that narrative.”

But co-creator Matt Stone insists that is not the case, even as other shows like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are being pulled off the air.

“No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we’d say so if true,” Stone said in an interview with The Denver Post. “We just didn’t get it done. When you always cut it close, sometimes you mess up. That����ap the price of being a procrastinator.”

After two years off air, “South Park” is in the midst of its highly anticipated 27th season, which has generated buzz for satirical representations of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, among other political figures.

Casa Bonita will host Halloween-themed pop-up in October

In one episode, entitled “Got A Nut,” character Eric Cartman impersonates MAGA activist Charlie Kirk as he “master debates” college students on women’s rights and other issues. That episode was pulled from the show’s cable rotation after Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10, though it is still available to stream on Paramount+.

Because “South Park” often reflects events from politics and pop culture, fans on social media suspected Kirk’s death played a role in the delay. (“It was definitely finished. Just not allowed to air,” one commenter said on .) The decision Wednesday by Disney and ABC to suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show because of comments he made about the incident only added to the speculation.

However, Stone and show co-creator Trey Parker have a famously hasty and chaotic process for developing each episode, chronicled in the aptly named 2011 documentary “6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park.” The newest episode is slated to air on Wednesday, Sept. 24. “It����ap gonna be great,” Stone said.

Stone and Parker, who are both Colorado natives, also own the famous Casa Bonita restaurant. Stone additionally shared details about an upcoming Halloween- and Dia de los Muertos-themed pop-up -- called Casa BOOnita -- that will take over the restaurant in October.

Starting Sept. 30, the iconic Lakewood restaurant will be known as Casa BOOnita, with festive decor and other surprises, co-owner Matt Stone told The Denver Post in an exclusive interview. Its spooky aesthetic is expected to stay up through Nov. 2 and guests don’t need to pay for anything extra beyond their meal to enjoy it.

While most of the changes are related to decor, certain roving performers will also be removed from the floor during the length of the pop-up, a move that’s triggered a dispute with the restaurant’s union.

Stone and Trey Parker, both creators of the TV series “South Park,” purchased the pink palace in 2021 and always envisioned doing something special to keep the experience fresh for guests. But as the two learned in reopening Casa Bonita — which ended up requiring two years and $40 million in renovations — executing the vision can be a massive undertaking.

‘No one censored us,’ says ‘South Park’ creator Matt Stone of episode delay

This pop-up is something of a test to see how they can activate the restaurant for future holidays and special occasions. The idea, Stone added, is to “do something fun so Casa Bonita doesn’t become stodgy and stale.”

"It's a really good example of what we've always wanted to do with Casa Bonita -- is have it change and evolve and be a live place and vibrant and full of new surprises," he said. “We've always believed in the possibility of what could be there, you know? That����ap always fun to talk about, but to pull it off takes a lot of planning and a lot of production."

Fans who snag a reservation are encouraged to get into the spirit by dressing up as their favorite characters. That����ap part of the reason why guests who visit won’t see roving entertainers playing Black Bart, the Sheriff, Amazon Ani and Captain Isabella during the pop-up. (Casa Bonita doesn't typically allow customers to wear costumes.)

“It would be confusing for patrons,” Stone said. “So we decided to do something different, right? And this is going to be something that goes on with Casa Bonita from now on. We always want it to be an evolving canvas of performers and patrons.”

That means possibly special activations for the Fourth of July or Christmas, he added.

On Thursday, the Actors’ Equity Association, which represents Casa Bonita’s unionized performers, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board due to changes with the cast. Andrea Hoeschen, general counsel for the association, said the communication those workers received was open-ended and suggested that those characters may be sidelined again in the future.

"We were under the impression that positions were being eliminated at least through Nov. 2 and that there would be an evaluation of what happens next," she said. “By eliminating those positions, Casa Bonita is eliminating at least 1,000 hours of work for the performers we represent just in the month of October."

The people in those positions have had shifts cut already, Hoeschen added. "We do not understand what makes Casa think patrons don’t want to see these characters. We’re confused.”

Stone disputed the characterization that these roving performers would be nixed completely from the experience, calling it a "falsehood."

"Of course, we're not going to do that. Why would we do that?" he said. "We're going to change them, we're going to go with what works, eliminate what doesn't work, we're going to change it seasonally. We hope to program this place so Casa Bonita is this vibrant place. That's always been our intention."

"But obviously, Trey Parker is not going to eliminate Black Bart," Stone added.

Casa Bonita currently has reservations available in October. Book one at .

“I’m going to be cooking in the kitchen screaming at George upstairs in the greenhouse: ‘I need more lettuce!’” the chef said.

The executive chef at Casa Bonita and owner of Denver dining spots Carne is planning to open the second location of her RiNo restaurant in George Gastis’ urban farm and eatery building at 900 E. Hampden Ave. in Englewood.

Work & Class will replace , a breakfast and lunch spot open five days a week, and the adjacent market, where people could purchase coffee and wine while perusing the produce Gastis grows on-site. Both spaces combined are about 3,500 square feet. Existing employees will have the opportunity to work at the new venture.

The entire space, Grow & Gather, sits on a little more than a quarter acre and was formerly an auto shop before Gastis bought it in 2017 for $1.1 million. He’s invested millions into the property, adding a greenhouse on its roof and building out restaurant and retail space surrounded by sunflowers and shrubbery.

Since opening in mid-December 2019, Gastis has run The Feedery. But the Englewood resident acknowledged he has kept the doors open on days where “it didn’t make sense.”

“The restaurant business can be hard, and I recognized that it wasn’t my greatest strength,” Gastis said. “That����ap when we started looking at finding a partner like this, about a year, year and a half ago, and kind of slowly, with conversations. When I met Dana, we stopped looking.”

John Livaditis and David Schneider of local shop Axio Commercial Real Estate brokered the deal between the urban farmer and well-known Denver chef.

“This was a real task in matchmaking that helped us demonstrate our skills because it wasn’t just about mass marketing, it was about finding the right fit for the situation,” Livaditis said.

The broker noted the influx of restaurateurs leaving Denver for the suburbs.

“When Dana was pretty close to finalizing the deal, George was very close with a lot of city officials in Englewood, and they all went and had lunch and it just sort of solidified the deal,” Livaditis said.

“I just don’t know that you’re gonna get that kind of message out of Denver.”

Rodriguez said the spot will be a “copy and paste” of Work & Class, which offers a New American menu with Latin influences, from plantain empanadas to pork loin and lamb available by the 1/4 pound.

Unlike the existing RiNo location, which opened in 2014, this one will serve breakfast and lunch.

On Gastis’ end, he will shift into full-time farmer mode. In addition to his rooftop greenhouse, the property has a separate hydroponic operation, a system that grows plants without using soil. He also has additional crops growing in his backyard a quarter mile down the road.

“My goal is that George doesn’t need to keep working to try to sell his product, because I take it all,” Rodriguez said.

Gastis hails from Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Denver 30 years ago. He came to Englewood from Platt Park in 2015 after selling a web design firm, looking to start his second career with Grow & Gather.

“We align in so many ways, culturally a little bit, too. My background … is Greek, Dana’s is Mexican, but there’s a lot of overlap there. We share a lot of the same values with local food and community.”

This story was originally published by .