The Lure

Jayson Marrs is bringing sexy back. Again and again and again. The club owner uses that tongue-slithering adjective to describe just about every corner of The Lure (1434 Blake Street), the latest late-night club/restaurant combo to come to LoDo, now set to open on September 22. The lounge? "We have a sexy den," he affirms. The tunes? "It's funky, sexy, chill music." And the atmosphere? "All our lighting is indirect," he says. "It's a very sexy feeling."

Sexy it is, then, and that's not all that's hot about the Lure. The kitchen will be headed by chef Eric Roeder, formerly of Bistro Vendomeover in Larimer Square (find more details on that in the August 24 Bite Me), and upscale eats from the contemporary American menu will be served until 1 a.m. The Lure will also feature in-house DJs, which should seal the space's sexy transformation from its previous identities as Bender's Sausage Haus, Andrew's Puband, in the beginning, City Spirit Cafe.

"You don't have to go to the Denver Diner anymore," Marrs assures me. "We're trying to bridge the gap between the place you go to eat and the place you go to party." The good food/drunk fun concept certainly isn't new to this town (think Sputnik and Strelka) but Marrs and partners Jetmir Zymeriand Johnny Coasthope that their particular take on it will help nitro-boost D-town's reputation on the big-city scale.

"Denver's definitely up-and-coming," Marrs says, "but we want to make it a more cultured, more fundamental nightlife scene. It's more real. It's more vibrational." Hmm. Vibrational. Sounds sexy.

The Lure is still booking DJs for nightly gigs, and a full website will soon be available at www.thelurelounge.com. In the meantime, call 303-446-2222 for information.

Across town, another old haunt is coming back to life: The Deadbeat Club -- a longtime haven for the young college-dropout set at 4040 East Evans Avenue -- will reopen this month as Midtown Beat. Owners Bob Zimmerman, Russ Berget and Susanne Kerzner took over the building earlier this year (it was once part of the Regas Christouempire) and have been busy ever since remodeling the space. When Midtown finally opens, it will cater to that oh-so-sought-after Top 40 dance crowd, with Saturdays tentatively planned as live-music nights.

Sorry, kids, the new Beat will be 21-and-over only.