The Park Tavern & Restaurant, a Capitol Hill institution at 931 East 11th Avenue, has been slowly getting an overhaul both inside and out. After completing as much of the renovation as possible while keeping at least part of the twenty-year-old restaurant and bar open, owner Louie Belegratis closed the place for most of April to complete the bar side. And while there's still work to be done, the Park reopens at 8 a.m. this morning to greet regulars with a new look and new menu items.
General Manager Robbie Secrist says the bar side alone seats forty to fifty customers at booths, tables and a new steel-framed bar. Sliding floor-to-ceiling windows at the front open onto a sidewalk patio, while stairs and an elevator stand ready to take guests up to a new rooftop bar and patio, which will open in two or three weeks. "It's an entirely new side of the building," Secrist says of the bar side of the Park, which represents only about half of the total square footage of the remodel.
Still to come is a brand-new dining room where the old bar once stood. That space is walled off for now to contain construction noise and dust while the renovation continues.
While the Park has long welcomed the morning crowd, there will be something new for them come Monday, May 1: breakfast. The menu is short, but will include Louie's Breakfast — Greek yogurt, granola and fresh fruit — for the health-conscious, as well as the Hangover Skillet, a stack of two fried eggs, a hamburger patty, green chile, breakfast potatoes and a layer of cheese, which seems a fitting meal for the Capitol Hill morning set. The dinner menu has also been updated with new sandwiches, burgers, flatbreads and pizzas, but old favorites like the Irish nachos built on waffle-cut fries will still be served.
One thing that hasn't changed: the Park's longstanding two-for-one deal on all domestic drafts, wells and house wine. But Secrist says the tokens redeemable for your second drink are new, so if you've got any of the old ones floating around, they're now part of Denver drinking history. For fans of the free billiards that has been a draw for years, the pool tables will be returned once the dining room reconstruction is complete.
The bar will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., with brunch beginning this weekend.