A Fond Farewell to Barry's on Broadway, Which Will Pour Its Last Drink on September 30

We're going to have to learn to live without one of our 100 favorite bars in Denver.

"I've been coming here for like sixteen years. I'm sad," says a man who stopped by Barry's on Broadway last Friday, after Denverite broke the news that the bar at 58 Broadway will close at the end of the month after twenty years in business.

Like so many places that have shuttered recently, unsuccessful lease negotiations with a landlord ultimately led to owner Barry Zadikoff's decision to shut the doors for good, news that he broke to the small staff on September 5.

"I love this place," says bartender Sean Paul Michael, who has been pouring drinks at the Baker staple for eight years. While he'd planned to take September 30 off before learning the news, now he wants to be at Barry's for the final night. "It's like holding your grandmother's hand when she's dying," he adds.

I don't remember the first time I bellied up to this bar. In fact, it's hard to remember the details of any one night at Barry's at all — the drinks are indeed cheap, and strong, but that's not the only reason it became a regular pit stop during the time that a close friend of mine lived within stumbling distance.

Though it's divey, Barry's also always felt safe — thanks in large part to the fact that in the evenings, Zadikoff himself is almost always manning the door, chatting with people as they flow in and out like the good-natured mayor of First and Broadway.
On some nights, we'd play games of skee-ball — if you score over 35,000 points, you get a free shot. There was that one afternoon when some kind of board game materialized at the bar and my friend and I began playing until, for reasons neither of us can remember, the bartender took it away from us but assured us we could still hang out and drink.

There was only one other person at the bar when I arrived late last Friday afternoon to meet that friend and reminisce about our adventures at Barry's, and talk about how much the place will be missed. It wasn't long before the bar began to fill with more and more people who echoed that sentiment.

Barry's is Westword copy editor Jane Le's favorite place to get a drink during the Underground Music Showcase. For six years, contributing photographer Evan Semón lived in a giant red brick home split into seven units at the corner of Irving and Acoma streets. "I lived on the ground floor and if you stood on the corner, I could see the inviting lights of Barry's," he recalls. "Cheap drinks and skee-ball became a regular thing for me. On April 21, 2016, the news broke that legendary musician Prince was found dead in his Paisley Park estate. That night, I went to Barry's and fed the jukebox full of twenties and played his music and got really drunk. I also scored my best game of skee-ball ever — 35,000 points with nine balls. That is six fifty-point balls. I've never done it again. I will miss Barry's."
Contributor Teague Bohlen offers his own favorite Barry's memory. "It was about twelve years ago when my lady-friend and I were first dating; it was her birthday, and she wanted to hang at Barry's with a bunch of her friends — no muss, no fuss, no cake; just music and drinks on Broadway. That's her style, and still is," he says.

"There were a good number of people there, and many of them were guys she'd dated to one extent or another in the previous years. Four of us found ourselves squeezed into one of the booths later in the night making small talk. Two of us were more or less sober, one was fairly high but not drunk, and the fourth was well into his cups and fucked up on pretty much all the drugs," Bohlen continues.

"We talked around our histories a bit until the conversation lagged. We pretended to listen to the jukebox. We scratched at the wet labels of our beers. And then the one of us that was blotto blurted out, 'I like mountains,' as though it pertained to something we'd been talking about. Maybe it matched up with a conversation in his head? It was unclear. The one of us that was high looked askance. The other semi-sober one of us grinned and shook his head. I just said, 'That's good,' because what else do you say to something like that? I like mountains. Maybe it was the perfect thing to say in that moment. It was definitely, perfectly Barry's."

On Friday, the bar was pretty full by the time we decided to head over to Karma for some much-needed food. As we made our way back down Broadway, night had fallen and Zadikoff was manning his post outside the front door, talking to a patron who was heading inside, as he's done countless times over the years.

While that's a sight I'll miss, Zadikoff is certainly overdue for some real time off. Until then, though, you can stop by to celebrate this friendly neighborhood dive — and help drink up the booze behind the bar before its final farewell.