Reader: If I wanted cosplay with my drinks, I wouldn't go to the Cruise Room

The Cruise Room is a Colorado classic. Modeled after a lounge on the Queen Mary, the bar opened the day after Prohibition ended in December 1933. By which point the jazz age had given way to the Depression -- but that didn't stop Landry's, the new owner of McCormick and...

By Patricia Calhoun

March 12, 2013

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The Cruise Room is a Colorado classic. Modeled after a lounge on the Queen Mary, the bar opened the day after Prohibition ended in December 1933.

By which point the jazz age had given way to the Depression -- but that didn't stop Landry's, the new owner of McCormick and Schmick's, which has the food/drink concession at the Oxford Hotel, from dressing its Cruise Room cocktail servers as flappers after it completed a renovation of the bar. The costumes are not only historically inaccurate -- but chilly. See also: - Man overboard! Cruise Room looks great, but those flapper outfits have to go. - Photos: McCormick's Fish House & Bar makeover is complete - Cruise Room gets a facelift -- but the history remains

Says denverhbc:

Come on. The whole bartenders dressing in what they believe to be Prohibition-era garb thing is stupid. If I wanted cosplay with my drinks I would hunt down a bar that caters to Final Fantasy nerds.

Have you been to the renovated Cruise Room? If so, what do you think of the outfits?

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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