Cheap Drinks and Local Music Live On at Lion's Lair Under New Ownership Team

"I've got two good partners. We're an awesome team," says Tony Meggit, who has been the co-owner of the Lion's Lair, a local institution at 2022 East Colfax Avenue, for over three decades. Now he's got two new co-owners helping him to continue its legacy as one of the city's best dive bars and independent music venues.

Earlier this year, longtime co-owner Doug Kauffman, "opted to concentrate on my other real estate assets," he says, which include the Ogden Theatre and the building next door, where Bad Axe Throwing and Crazy Mountain Brewing are located, as well as his independent concert promoting company Nobody in Particular Presents.   

Now, Meggit has brought on Demi Merritt, who has been working at the Lair for about six years, and Thorne ("That's what people call me; there are too many Michaels," he quips), a longtime loyal customer and friend of Meggit's.

The address has long housed an independent venue — first as the Aladdin Tavern in the '30s, then as the Playboy Lounge. In 1967, the club was purchased by Jim Lyons and transformed into the Lion's Lair. Former co-owner Michelle McManus along with Meggit and Kauffman bought the bar from Lyons in the ’90s and have kept it pretty much the same. "We try not to change anything here," Meggit notes.

But things almost did change in a huge way in 2020, when the bar was forced to close for eight months because of COVID-19, putting its future at risk. Over 780 donations were made to a GoFundMe that raised more than $34,000 to keep the doors open. While Meggit says that he only saw a portion of that after taxes and fees, "it got us through the pandemic."

At the time, bars were required to sell food in order to reopen, so the Lair brought in a pizza oven from Rocky Mountain Pizza — an addition that remains today.
Another key to the club's survival was its landlord, Mark Lampert. "He loves us," Meggit notes. "During COVID, he didn't make us pay rent for five months. Then when we reopened, he charged us half the rent. He was definitely part of the reason we stayed open" — and he's also the reason that the bar's new ownership is feeling good about the future. "We just re-signed a ten-year lease," Meggit adds.

While Thorne is mostly working behind the scenes — "He takes care of all the paperwork," Meggit says — Merritt is excited to focus on booking and going hard on the entertainment programming at the Lion's Lair. "We want to make it a reliable place to see live music," she explains. "It's always been that, but we're trying to go all out on it now. We want people to know that they can come in any Thursday, Friday or Saturday and support local music and a local business."

The venue also hosts open mic nights, and now has comedy on both Mondays and Tuesdays. "It's called the Gong Show," Merritt says. "Every comic gets up to seven minutes, and after two minutes, anyone in the bar can gong you off the stage."

On Friday, November 10, the Lion's Lair will host a big bash dubbed Lairapalooza. "Basically every person that works here has a band that they're in or does comedy or bingo," Merritt says. "So this will be everyone's bands performing, with drag king bingo in between sets and the Gong Show." All of the proceeds from the night will go to Demi's Animal Rescue, a no-kill rescue that Merritt started when she was still in high school.

"I came in just because every bar that I have been going to over the last few years has closed," Thorne says, name-checking venues such as Streets of London, Barracuda's and 3 Kings Tavern. "The main ones I went to aren't there anymore, and I didn't want the Lair to go away. It's been my home for decades."

"This place is a lot different than anywhere else," Merritt adds. "Especially the live music and entertainment aspect. It's just such an important thing. Most venues around aren't privately owned anymore. There's not many of us left."

But the Lion's Lair isn't going anywhere..."for at least ten years," Meggitt concludes.

Lion's Lair is located at 2022 East Colfax Avenue and is open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. For more information, visit lionslairlounge.squarespace.com.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Michelle McManus was also part of the ownership group that purchased the Lion's Lair from Jim Lyons.