BaRed: The naked truth about a bar's name change

What's in a name? Plenty, if you're trying to plan a new bar -- and find that another bar project has claimed the same name. Cliff and Zachary Young, the father/son team opening a new watering hole at 437 West Colfax Avenue, right around the corner from CY Steak, which...

By Patricia Calhoun

May 30, 2013

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What's in a name? Plenty, if you're trying to plan a new bar -- and find that another bar project has claimed the same name. Cliff and Zachary Young, the father/son team opening a new watering hole at 437 West Colfax Avenue, right around the corner from CY Steak, which Cliff has run since October 2009, wanted to call their new place O Bar. But then they learned that Charlie Huang, owner of Little Ollie's in Cherry Creek, was also opening a new bar right next door to his Chinese restaurant, in the first home of Noodles & Co. The name? Obar.

Uh-oh.

Rather than risk confusion -- or worse -- the Youngs decided to rename their new place baRed, pronounced "Bar Red," a name they've just registered in all the proper places. The new moniker "references the beautiful red stone of the building and its many hues," explains Cliff Young. And it also references some of their plans for the spot.

Chef de cuisine Doug Mace, who's already created a new, "grassroots" menu for CY Steak featuring lighter fare and more local produce, is working up a small-plates menu for baRed, which by day will offer grab-and-go service for employees of nearby government and office buildings. And at night? It will have a "hot and sexy" environment, Cliff promises. "A couples' bar."

Both baRed and Obar are on track to open in September. (Initially, the Youngs planned to have their new bar open this spring -- as evidenced by the banner above that sports the old name.)

And the moniker mash-up could have been worse. Dave Query had plans to call Jax Fish House in LoDo "O-Bar" after its recent renovation was completed, but decided against it when he heard that another downtown O Bar was in the works.

Other restaurateurs just have to deal with double trouble. The area has two dueling Hideaway restaurants, one in Genesee, one in Westminster -- and both are forever fielding phone calls for the other.

Mark Dym opened his first Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria at 2129 Larimer Street long before Marco's Pizza, an Ohio-based chain, opened its first link in metro Denver. Today Dym has a second Marco's in Englewood, and there are now six Marco's Pizza stores in the area (including the Marco's Pizza at 2207 East Colfax Avenue that Jenn Wohletz reviewed last week for Jenn in Chains). None of the Marco's Pizza outposts serve pies that come close to matching the pizza Dym makes at his original location, which won our Best Pizza award in the Best of Denver 2013 -- but people still get confused...and wind up with far from the best pie in town. A version of this story originally appeared in Cafe Bites, our weekly newsletter dedicated to the Denver drinking and dining scene that arrives in electronic in-boxes every Wednesday afternoon. Find out how to sign up for Cafe Bites here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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