The nearly 100-year-old establishment at 420 E. Colfax Ave. gained attention earlier this month after new operator Christy Simonsen watched the community rally around a GoFundMe campaign created by supporter Brittani Trujillo.

The fundraiser picked up steam with local news media coverage and an impromptu, Saturday rally at the bar that invited ideas from supporters and regulars on how to sustain it in the face of the Colfax Avenue BRT project. That ongoing construction, which will add a bus lane in the center of East Colfax Avenue, “tore up the sidewalk right up to the front door,” Simonsen told The Denver Post.

Within a week or so the fundraiser hit its initial, $15,000 goal, and now is headed toward a $20,000 benchmark with 174 donations, ranging from $15 to $1,000 each. About 82%, or $16,255, had been raised as of this writing (see more at ).

“Your support has done wonders!” Trujillo wrote Thursday. “The current owner is also going to maintain the loan and allow Christy to pay it monthly! That is HUGE. With the current donations, Christy is able to cover lawyer fees for the lease and loan negotiation, the bar floor repairs, and replacing the beer cooler.”

Simonsen had just assumed control of the bar from longtime owner John Plessinger this month when she determined the bar would need to close on Sept. 30 due to unsustainable costs. Construction from the East Colfax Avenue BRT project, which will add a dedicated bus lane on Colfax Avenue, has snarled people trying to access the bar, leading to a significant drop in business, according to Simonsen.

She said that Nob Hill Inn needed about $79,000 to take care of a loan it owes, as well as existing repairs to the building intended to preserve its current look and feel. The current fundraising campaign, in-kind repairs and other support has now re-cemented its place in the city, Trujillo said. But it’s not quite over.

“There are still a few more needs, but the new amount needed in total is $20,000,” she wrote. “Keep sharing the fundraiser to help Christy keep our beloved Nob open!”

Falafel, hummus, pita and saffron rice; Makloubeh, a layered rice dish cooked in a large pot and flipped upside down; and Manakeesh, a flatbread spread with dried za’atar and olive oil.

All these recipes and more form the basis of two Mediterranean restaurants in Denver. As Palestinians live under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, their owners use food to spread their culture abroad and bring awareness to a decades-long conflict in the Middle East.

For the most part, they’ve found support from their neighbors and customers. After decades living in Denver, they’ve also found a place to call home.

“To me, presenting the food that I grew up with was essential,” said Ibrahim Dahleh, the 67-year-old owner of Phoenician Kabob on East Colfax Avenue, who as a child lived in the West Bank as a refugee. “Especially in recent years with the attempt going on to erase the Palestinian culture and the Palestinian people.”

Countries in the Fertile Crescent — Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel — share many foods, including hummus, falafel and fattoush, a salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. But Palestinian cuisine has its own unique creations, Dahleh said.

He has turned Phoenician Kabob away from purely Lebanese food over the last decade to include several Palestinian dishes, such as Makloubeh and lamb shoulder over basmati rice spiced with saffron. He hired Amera Yousef, a chef from Egypt whose father is Palestinian, to make the specials. Her tender lamb shoulder falls off the bone.

Symbols expressing Dahleh’s heritage decorate the restaurant. They include a large Palestinian flag, a plaque that reads “No Appetite for Apartheid” and paintings dedicated to��Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was killed while protecting Palestinian property from demolition by Israeli forces.

Advocating for Palestinian recognition “has been extremely difficult” in the U.S. historically, he said. The war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023 — when Hamas mounted a deadly attack on Israel — led to an uptick of support for his restaurant, he said.

Dahleh moved to the United States to finish his studies in civil engineering, met his wife and settled in Denver. He keeps the flag and plaque up to remind himself and his customers that the Palestinian struggle is a humanitarian issue with international implications.

“We are here. We are not going anywhere as Palestinians,” he said.

Phoenician Kabob is located at 5709 E. Colfax Ave., Denver

‘A hippie at heart’

Saj Fresh Grill doesn’t describe itself as explicitly serving Palestinian food. The counter service restaurant offers a spread of Mediterranean classics: fresh-baked pita and tahini, chicken and lamb skewers, tabbouleh salad, hummus and saj, a circular flatbread.

But its owner, 56-year-old Najwa Khalaf, has made a conscious decision to share her own Palestinian background. Her parents lived in the West Bank before they fled to Canada, where she was born. They moved to Denver to join other family members when Khalaf was 2 years old, and it’s where they have lived ever since.

“We grew up with Palestinian food even though there was not that market here in Colorado,” Khalaf said from Saj Fresh Grill, which she has run since 2018. Many of the recipes she uses are her mother’s own, such as for falafel.

Some foods have deep ties to the old country, Khalaf said, like olive oil, chamomile, stuffed grape leaves and za’atar, a blend of sumac, oregano and other spices. At Saj Fresh Grill, the za’atar tops the Manakeesh.

Other Arabic words are written in script on a wall-length mural in the dining room. Khalaf translated them. “Love.” “Peace.” “Harmony.” “Community.”

“I’m kind of a hippie at heart,” she said.

The last couple of years of fighting and devastation have left her “tired,” though not without action. When famine hit Gaza as a result of an Israeli blockade last year, Khalaf organized a fundraising dinner at Saj Fresh Grill to raise awareness.

She restricted her $10 meal to the 250 calories or so that many Palestinians in northern Gaza were living on at the time, according to humanitarian groups. It resulted in a tiny serving of Mujaddara, a dish consisting of lentils, beans and rice, along with some chives.

The idea was bolstered in part by her other career in welfare and social services. But it’s food that played the central role, as it does for Palestinians who traditionally cook elaborate meals meant to be shared as a group.

“At the end of the day, people want to raise their families, live in harmony and peace and be able to break bread with their neighbors, whatever their neighbors look like,” Khalaf said. “People want to live in a safe space, raise their families, just like we do here.”

Located at 2300 S. Parker Rd., Denver

“We’ve had some pretty big hits in the last year,” said Christy Simonsen, who this week assumed control of the bar from longtime owner John Plessinger. “The Colfax BRT project tore up the sidewalk right up to the front door, so people had to go through the alley. And that’s when things started breaking.”

However, bar regular Brittani Trujillo launched a new GoFundMe campaign on Tuesday with the goal of raising $15,000 for Simonsen. As of this writing, the page had raised about 15% of its goal, or more than $2,000, with nearly 40 donations ranging from $15 to $200 each.

“I’m a Colorado native who found joy and a community at the Nob Hill Inn,” Trujillo wrote. “A part of Denver and the Colfax journey, the Nob has been around for nearly 100 years.”

The bar first opened in the 1930s, according to historical images provided by Simonsen.

“They are a Colfax staple,” Trujillo continued. “Great bartenders, great patrons, and that old-school dive bar feel. No matter the time of day, we’ve been welcome at the Nob.”

Construction from the East Colfax Avenue BRT project, which will add a dedicated bus lane on Colfax Avenue, has snarled people trying to access the bar, leading to a significant drop in business, according to the page. Now Nob Hill Inn needs about $79,000 to take care of a loan they owe, as well as existing repairs to the building intended to preserve its current look and feel.

“We’ve had plumbing problems, the floor of the bar is about to fall through, and our roof has been hit in the alley — twice now — and they don’t even make the tiles for it anymore,” Simonsen said. “It’s an old building and it seems like everything just hit us as we were already losing money.”

Various businesses along East Colfax Avenue have blamed the Colfax Bus Rapid Transit construction for the loss of revenue or their own closure, with chain-link fences, a lack of parking, and shifting detours disrupting the normal flow of car and pedestrian traffic. Closures include the original Enzo’s End pizzeria, Misfit Snack Bar, Colfax and Cream, and Middleman.

“John (Plessinger) had owned the bar since 1969, and I told him, ‘Let’s sell it. People want to buy this bar,’ ” said Simonsen, who has been a bartender and manager at Nob Hill for 15 years. “But he doesn’t want anyone to have the bar but me. He thinks somebody’s going to come in, change it, turn it into a nightclub or sports bar and take all the life out of it.”

Simonsen is inviting supporters and people with ideas for saving Nob Hill to a public forum on Saturday starting around 4 or 5 p.m., she said. With liquor delivery prices up and repeated requests for city loans denied (the bar makes just enough money to be disqualified from it, Simonsen said), she’s open to any suggestions or feedback.

“Costs are outrageous right now, and I’ve never done any of that back-end stuff for a bar, so that terrifies me,” she said. “We’re just breaking even every month, and now there’s a Sept. 30 deadline. I’ve found pictures showing the bar was here under the name Nob Hill Inn from he 1930s. We can’t afford to lose this important part of Denver’s history.”

Nob Hill Inn is located at 420 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver. See more details about the GoFundMe campaign at .

On Saturday, Squire co-owner Sudhir Kudva posted photos of the water-filled basement at the bar, located at 1800 E. Colfax Ave., and said flooding destroyed the water heater, walk-in cooler, liquor and anything else that happened to be on the lower level.

The bar is no stranger to flooding issues but typically sees 2 or 3 inches, not feet, of water, Kudva wrote on social media. He blamed the city for covering up storm drains and removing hard clay soil around the building and replacing it with soil cells during BRT construction.

“It’s never been that bad before,” co-owner Steven Alix said Wednesday.

The business complains to the city every time it rains and floods the bar, Alix said, and even built a special gate to try to keep some of the water at bay.

“This has been happening for a long time, but to a much less degree,” he said. “It’s been a real bummer, but this one was a nightmare. I don’t know how that much water got in when it only rained for 10 or 15 minutes.”

The flooding also damaged basements in the rest of the building, which includes two shuttered restaurants and a liquor store, Alix said.

Workers at those businesses could not be reached for comment on the flooding.

Nearby business owners unconnected to the Squire said their buildings were not flooded during last week’s rainstorm, though one noted that the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and North Williams Street — where the Squire resides — often forms a lake during storms.

The Regional Transportation District, Colorado Department of Transportation and Denver Department of Community Planning and Development referred questions about the flooding to the city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Denver transportation spokesperson Nancy Kuhn said on Wednesday that several state permits require crews to try to stop sediment from entering the storm sewer system during construction, and barriers or filters around storm drains are standard practice because they allow for the flow of water but not sediment.

“On this project, these erosion-control measures are reviewed monthly and after every storm event,” Kuhn said in a statement. “We have no confirmation that sediment control caused the flooding at Squire Lounge.”

Kuhn added that the building is at a natural low spot that’s at increased risk for flooding, and that the storm drainage system in east Denver is undersized, but the city is working on upgrading it with “significant, annual investments.”

“Existing storm systems constructed decades ago are no longer adequate, and although we are actively working to upgrade stormwater systems on the east side of town, reaching this part of East Colfax will take many more years at current annual funding levels,” Kuhn said.

For the city, next steps include looking at the effects of Friday’s storm and working to make sure stormwater pipes are working as well as possible, she said.

The next steps for the Squire Lounge are a little more murky, as it’s still unclear how much repairs will cost, Alix said. But because damage is confined to the basement, the bar is still open for business and ready to serve thirsty customers.

“At this point we’re going to power through,” Alix said. “We’re wide open, and everything is good to go and safe.”

Officers responded to reports of a body in the 1400 block of North Idalia Court at about 10:49 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from the police department. The block sits south of East Colfax Avenue, in northern Aurora’s Laredo Highline .

When they arrived, officers found a 36-year-old man lying face down in a field, dead with no apparent injuries, police said.

“There is no suspect information at this time, and an investigation into the suspicious death is ongoing,” police said on Tuesday.

Further investigation revelead no evidence of homicide or suspicious circumstances, the department said in a news release Friday. Investigators are awaiting the results of a toxicology test, which take about six weeks to complete.

The man will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.

The Denver Police Department first posted about the crash near at 6:25 p.m. Tuesday. That intersection is in eastern Denver’s East Colfax .

Colfax was closed in both directions between Verbena and Valentina streets for the crash cleanup and investigation, police said.

Additional information about the crash was not available Wednesday morning.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

My heart sank as I clicked through online photos of a flood at Denver’s Squire Lounge on July 31: kegs of beer submerged in frothy muck; a drum and paint cans and cardboard boxes piled haphazardly; a pond of brown water submerging the corner of East Colfax Avenue and Williams Street.

It wasn’t the first flood prompted by heavy rains, but it was the worst Sudhir Kudva has seen in his 22 years of co-owning it, he said . He and longtime bartender Cam Omlid blamed the ongoing Bus Rapid Transit construction project for the severity, joining a chorus of business owners and citizens who have bemoaned the BRT’s effects since it started more than two years ago.

“What they did by covering up the storm drains and pulling out the hard clay soil around the building and replacing it with soil cells, has made the building uninhabitable during a rainstorm,” he wrote. “We, at worst, used to get about 2-3 inches of water in the basement.

“Last night’s storm wasn’t even in the top 50 worst rain events we have had, but we had over THREE FEET of water in the basement,” he continued. “Took out our water heater, walk-in cooler, liquor and anything else we had in the basement.”

For now, The Squire’s owners and employees must figure out how to clean up (note: it reopened for business this week). But whatever they do, Denver can scarcely afford to lose any more Colfax history. The Squire has, for better and worse, been a bastion of that gritty culture for decades, serving cheap beer and shots to diverse and often hard-luck clientele while hosting punk-rock comedy and music that has helped birth some of Denver’s best entertainers.

Maybe it’s not as gritty as it used to be: it opened around 1950, but enjoyed a handsome renovation as recently as the late 2010s. And yet, stepping into the Squire Lounge still feels like doing a shot (or two) of concentrated Colfax, no chaser. The white-walled exterior and people-watching patio conceal a brick cavern of humid mischief, and an unvarnished gateway into Denver’s rapidly disappearing past. There are no $20 cocktails here, no VIP booths, and no trendy theme that will look embarrassingly stale in five years.

Rather, it’s a cheap and fascinating night out, provided you don’t mind Colfax being Colfax. It was the perfect place to hold an open-mic comedy night — my first occasion to go in the mid-to-late 2000s — and a unique spot to mingle with the DIY artists and hipsters and weirdos who percolated up from it. Packed, hazy late nights that had the smack of legend to them in hindsight. It’s easy to imagine Jack Kerouac hanging out there — had he visited 70 or so years after “On the Road” was published.

True, any city has its churn, and Denver’s boom-and-bust culture seems frustratingly unshakeable at times. But culture hounds can still feel the instability of our dive-bar pillars. Carioca Cafe (a.k.a. Bar Bar) was demolished in July. Every new bar that opens seems more niche and less casual than the last. Mocktails? CBD drinks? Quiet reflection? Yawn.

The Squire welcomes all, however light their wallets. It’s not a tourist magnet or a noisy sports hall or pretentious coastal concept. It’s a dive, and one that needs as much fresh air as any other to stay afloat. I’m past my days of dropping by there regularly, as when I lived a couple of blocks away and regularly wrote about the place. But I’m tempted now to rouse a sandbag brigade.

How else to protect this island of realness amid the rising tide of construction, gentrification and high costs for small business owners? I don’t have solutions, but I do know that Denver needs the Squire as much as it needs us.

The Squire Lounge is located at 1800 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, and open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Friday, and 2 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Visit for more details.

Facing an estimated $200 million budget shortfall, RTD’s Board of Directors last week voted to pursue $20 million in bus and light-rail service cuts in 2027, and while the directors did not vote on specific cuts, a list of hypothetical route reductions compiled by agency staffers sparked widespread concern earlier this month.

But has one very large safety net, transportation officials said — a $150 million federal grant for the East Colfax bus rapid transit project that RTD would be required to give back if the agency cuts service along the route within a certain timeframe.

The , which is funding most of the project, makes it “highly unlikely” the transit agency will cut service on the 15, RTD spokesperson Pauline Haberman said.

“The commitments RTD has made ties us to that for the next five years at least, and more importantly, it is our largest service as far as boardings go,” she said. “I don’t see that being a priority for these service cuts.”

Denver city officials have discussed the possibility of RTD service cuts affecting the but are not worried because of that grant, said Jon Stewart, project director with Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

“We have this hammer, but there’s also this carrot that motivates RTD to want to do it, because this is their biggest ridership bus line in the region, so this makes some revenue for them,” he said.

Notably, when RTD staffers put together five hypothetical service cut scenarios to show the Board of Directors how different sums of money could be saved, route 15 was not among any of those suggestions.

Meanwhile, Denverites can expect fewer construction headaches as work wraps up on the East Colfax corridor between Broadway and Colorado Boulevard, with the entire project a little over halfway done and ahead of schedule, Stewart said. Construction is now ramping up along the Aurora section of the future BRT line.

East Colfax commuters will see buses running in the dedicated BRT lanes between Broadway and Colorado Boulevard starting this fall, but it will be regular route 15 service, not the new rapid service, because the BRT buses aren’t ready yet, Stewart said.

“The big thing is all the construction barrels and fencing will be gone from Broadway to Colorado and I think that����ap going to have a really big impact on people wanting to come down and see what the hubbub is about and see what is coming at the end of 2027,” he said.

Construction work hasn’t hit many roadblocks, Stewart said, so one of the city’s biggest tasks has been helping businesses whose customers don’t want to deal with the maze of cones and blockades.

“It’s been a challenge, honestly, to address the narrative that’s existed that everything’s ruined on Colfax,” Stewart said. “There’s still some really great things about it, even though I understand construction is painful.”

The construction is a factor in some recent business closings, but usually not the only one, said Frank Locantore, executive director of the Colfax Ave Business Improvement District.

The business district, which spans East Colfax and surrounding blocks from the state Capitol to Josephine Street, saw 25 businesses close and 18 open since October 2024, Locantore said. Another three are opening soon.

Several businesses that closed shortly after construction began already had one foot out the door, he said. A few were seized for failing to pay taxes or experienced problems with landlords. Others rebranded. For example, Okinawa Japanese Cuisine��is now Ma’s Kitchen.

“Have businesses taken a hit on their revenue because of the construction? Oh my God yes, and that’s a real challenge that we’re trying to work with businesses and help them however we can,” Locantore said.

Denver set aside $2.5 million to distribute as grants to small businesses affected by construction and has used nearly $2 million on 152 grants so far, according to the city’s . Construction is slated to last through 2027, and Stewart said the city aims to give out all of the remaining funds.

At RTD, operators will start training on bus rapid transit lines at the Pennsylvania, Downing and Franklin stations next week to get ready to run that section of the 15 and 15L this fall, Haberman said. Customers will also switch to boarding buses at the center stations between Broadway and Colorado Boulevard.

The agency is not hiring any new transit police officers just for the BRT, but officials are planning to increase officer presence along the service’s route, Haberman said. RTD is also working with the Denver Police Department on police presence and visibility.

Aurora officers responded to the crash near East Colfax Avenue and North Powhaton Road at about 6:45 p.m. on June 29, according to a news release from the police department.

Paramedics took a 23-year-old man, who was riding a minibike at the time of the crash, to the hospital, police said. The man died one week later. He will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.

Investigators believe the minibike rider was headed west on Colfax when he swerved into the eastbound lanes and collided head-on with a Subaru SUV, according to the release. The man was not wearing a helmet, police said.

The Subaru driver stayed on scene and cooperated with the investigation, police said. No other injuries were reported, and the release did not state whether the driver would face charges.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Re Tre (stylized Rễ Tre) is the follow-up to Dan Da and Banh & Butter Bakery Cafe for An, Thao and Thoa Nguyen, sisters and part of a large family of Denver restaurateurs. They’ll be serving brunch through dinner every day but Monday, starting Friday, July 3.

The restaurant will dive further into classic Vietnamese cuisine, said An Nguyen, co-owner and executive chef at Dan Da and Re Tre. A section of the new spot, 630 S. Federal Blvd., is devoted to a daytime cafe and bakery run by her sister, Thoa, who fuses Vietnamese and French influences at Banh & Butter next door to Dan Da.

The sisters — they total five — are familiar with the Re Tre property: It’s where their parents, Thai Nguyen and Ha Pham, ran New Saigon Restaurant for 30 years, from 1987 to 2017. The couple remained owners of the property after they sold New Saigon to new operators. It closed for good in 2024.

An said her parents asked if she was interested in opening a new restaurant in the space, but she declined initially so she could concentrate on Dan Da, which opened in 2024, and because she was disheartened by what she felt was an aging food scene on Federal. Thao, her co-owner at Dan Da, proposed another collaboration.

“We were able to revitalize East Colfax by opening up Dan Da next to Banh & Butter,” An, 42, said. “I have no doubts that we can also revitalize the Federal area in some way or form.”

Re Tre translates to “bamboo root” in Vietnamese, and their roots are where the Nguyens are headed. The restaurant will share some similarities with the “Vietnamese comfort food” of Dan Da, but An said she expects to dive further into traditional cuisine. For brunch, that means “what Vietnamese people eat when they wake up in the morning,” including a steak-and-eggs dish, she said. For dinner, there’s an emphasis on seafood and fishy flavors. One dish has two fermented fish sauces in it, she said.

The new restaurant is located next to New Saigon Bakery and Deli, which is run by another Nguyen sister, Thu. Thu’s shop sells Vietnamese pastries and treats, while Thoa’s cafe inside of Re Tre will focus on French pastries (the croissant kind), espressos and coffee flights.

Starting a new restaurant is a risky endeavor, An said, considering how much the cost of food and labor have risen in Denver.

“I think it’s going to be difficult. Times are not like when my mom and dad were running the business,” she said. “We’re taking a risk, but we’re putting it aside. At this point, that doesn’t matter to us. We want to see that area come alive again.”

Re Tre opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m. most days and 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.