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Native Kentuckian Sheena Ferguson opened the Bluegrass Coffee & Bourbon Lounge in Olde Town Arvada over the weekend, bringing a taste of her home state to the Denver suburb. The Bluegrass opens early for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and keeps the Southern charm flowing into the evening with a well-stocked bourbon selection and a handful of Colorado beers.
Ferguson chose the Grandview Avenue location because it’s close to their Arvada home and — more important — because it’s across the street from the new light-rail Gold Line station that will connect the neighborhood to downtown Denver beginning next spring. “We’re local, and we just really like Olde Town,” she explains.
Converting the 120-year-old space, which was most recently a toy store, proved challenging, but the couple got the job done in six months, adding a full kitchen, rough-hewn woods from Kentucky whiskey barrels, barns and telegraph poles, horse-themed art, and coffee tables in the shape of the Bluegrass State (that’s Kentucky, for you Westerners).
The new owner hopes to capitalize on the coming light-rail traffic by offering made-to-order breakfast sandwiches and Novo coffee in the morning, as well as beer, wine and bourbon cocktails in the evening to go with a selection of racehorse-named pizzas and panini. Ferguson stresses that the vast majority of spirits available are bourbons from Kentucky, but she also stocks a couple of Colorado brands, and all of the beers are from Colorado. While the house specialty cocktails — a list of ten or so — are all bourbon-based, the bartenders will be happy to mix classic cocktails based on other spirits, she notes.
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Live bluegrass, blues and folk music three or four nights a week will be coming; Ferguson says she’s already booked one weekly artist. In fact, you can catch solo musician David Booker tonight at 7 p.m. Front and back patios will also soon be completed, adding an additional thirty seats to the existing forty-seat space.
