Drink gritty, not pretty. Dive bars are drying up in Denver, swept away by tides of development. That makes the survival of Carioca Cafe — better known as Bar Bar, thanks to the neon sign outside — something to celebrate, if perhaps with a penicillin chaser. For more than a century, this spot has held down the corner of Champa and 21st streets, serving drinks to an assortment of regulars, would-be great American novelists, hipsters, transients and rockers (during the Eisenhower era, it reportedly served something else in the game room, then a whorehouse); today the entertainment focuses more on endless inebriated conversations, though the illicit live music could make a fully licensed comeback. The drinks are stiff, the bathrooms awful, and the atmosphere beyond compare. Leave the credit cards at home; this place is strictly cash and carry on.