Talking Shoppe

Tran and Josh Wills are on an arts-and-crafts mission.

Comments (0) By Sean Cronin Thursday, Jan 24 2008

In its December issue, Men's Health magazine named Denver the "Most Dangerously Drunk City" in America. It makes sense: Denverites can count on one shaking hand the social spaces that are sober and open late in this town.

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Tran and Josh Wills (the married couple behind the Fabric Lab) hope The Shoppe, 3103 East Colfax Avenue, will change that. It's not that they have anything against bars and clubs; it's just that the Wills family is banking on the desire of designing Denverites to have a space where art and community are created daily -- and where the cupcakes are as abundant as the craft supplies.

The Shoppe offers a mix-and-match cereal bar and pastries, plus all the tools you need for making those buttons you want to distribute or that dress you've been designing in your head. From noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, the Shoppe will host movie nights, cupcake-decorating classes, Project Runway viewing confabs, live music and more free, kids-of-all-ages-friendly DIY madness than you can shake your knitting needles at.

They've tested the coffee, the cereal and the cupcakes, and they're ready to invite the city inside. "Josh had one rule about opening: 'We won't open if the coffee tastes like shit,'" says Tran. So, barring a burdensome bean blunder, the place opens today from 1 to 7 p.m. with a party featuring works by Denver artists Rick Griffith and Hyland Mather (whose works will be permanently on display here; they were donated in exchange for an undisclosed number of cupcakes. Seriously.), along with the music of DJ DSRN, a story time and a screening of typography doc Helvetica. There will even be PBR. For information, call 303-322-3969 or visit www.myspace.com/cerealcupcakebar.
Sat., Jan. 26, 1-7 p.m., 2008