Velvet Lasso’s LoHi lounge is finally open

When Velvet Lasso debuted on Valentine’s Day earlier this year, the LoHi cafe quickly became one of Denver’s most talked-about coffee shops thanks to its “femme spaghetti western” aesthetic, inventive espresso drinks and Italian-inspired pastries and sandwiches. It even earned a spot on our recent list of the best coffee shops in Denver.

Now, owner Bree Licata and chef-partner Cole Sinatra are expanding that vision into the evening. On June 5, the kitschy cafe officially opened the Velvet Lasso Lounge next door, a sultry, nostalgia-driven gathering spot for cocktails, comfort food and community.

“She’s meant to feel like the legal older sister who can hang out and party,” Licata says.

The lounge is open Thursday through Sunday from 3 p.m. to midnight, overlapping with the cafe’s 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. service hours so guests can seamlessly transition from coffee to cocktails. While food and drinks don’t begin until 3 p.m., cafe patrons are welcome to settle into the lounge throughout the day to work or just relax. Happy hour runs from 3 to 5 p.m., followed by dinner service until 11 p.m. and drinks until midnight. 

“The goal was always to create a third space,” says Sinatra. “Somewhere people can work from home, hang out here and just kick back where the experience doesn’t feel rushed.”

Like the cafe, the lounge is filled almost entirely with vintage finds Licata spent months hunting down. Plush sofas, secondhand knickknacks, retro artwork and quirky antiques from paintings of nude women to a sculptural black panther coffee table, and even a lending library of old Playboy magazines.

“It’s like if you were to look at a menu and pick your vintage for wine, but it’s picking your vintage for your Playboy,” Sinatra explains of the Playboy selection listed on the back of the menu.

“If they take it home, we do charge them. They are vintage,” Licata quips.

A towering stack of old big box TVs continuously loops infomercial-style videos the Velvet Lasso team produced themselves, which Licata describes an art installation, while nostalgic touches like a 1980s Sony projector TV table and a retro photo booth reinforce the feeling of stepping into your eccentric great aunt’s living room.

“Over the past five or six months, we’ve had a storage unit that we’ve just been ramming things into. I was stalking Facebook Marketplace, Colorado Antique Gallery, Heirlooms and Brass Armadillo sourcing really unique, one-of-a-kind pieces,” Licata says. “We tried to make it like a time capsule. I took pieces anywhere from 1950 to 1990. It makes me happy to be able to give a second life to things that may not have had that.”

That creative spirit extends to the menu, which is presented as an old-school TV Guide dubbed the “VL Pleasure Guide.” Offerings are divided into cheeky sections like “Pillow Talk” (appetizers), “Foreplay” (small plates and salads), “Main Events” (entrees), and “Spooning” (desserts).

Diners can order tongue-in-cheek items like the $25 Girl Dinner, which comes with a Caesar salad, fries and a dirty martini, alongside adult SpaghettiOs dubbed Spaghett About It, steak frites, wings, Cannoli Bumps (which come with chocolate, pistachio, and lemon raspberry white chocolate cannolis), and specials like the Disco Fries, an East Coast staple made with crinkle cut fries topped with gravy and mozzarella.

“Sundays, I always grew up with my dad making wings, so I wanted to make sure that I worked those in,” says Sinatra. “A lot of this food is coming from those memories.”

Behind the bar, beverage director Morgan “Mo” Weeber has created an equally cheeky cocktail list featuring specials like the MSG Spot, Cuntry Club, Bad Decisions and The “XXX.” They’re all riffs on beverages popularized in the ‘70s, ’80s and ’90s with bright flavors and unexpected ingredients, incorporating everything from shiso and koji to Calabrian chile and Aleppo pepper, while four zero-proof “Thirst Traps” round out the menu.

“We had a lot of conversations about flavors on the food menu so I could tie it all together, and then a little bit of science and nerdom whenever it comes to a couple of the cocktails,” Weeber says. 

That bit of “nerdom,” as Weeber puts it, shines through in drinks like the Golden Hour, which takes roughly 36 hours to make. Berries are macerated before the cocktail is clarified with Japanese strawberry milk and coconut cream and topped off with bourbon and Angostura bitters.

“I like being able to create something that whenever you put it into your mouth, you go, ‘Yeah,’” Weeber adds with a laugh.

The team ultimately hopes Velvet Lasso Lounge earns a permanent place in LoHi’s social rotation – somewhere to get work done in the afternoons, grab happy hour after slamming your laptop shut, a stop for bar hoppers in between High Lonesome and Happy Camper, or a spot to meet likeminded individuals at community events. Plans are already underway for drag brunches, drag bingo, poetry nights, book clubs, craft nights, DJ residencies, karaoke and Sunday supper clubs.

“It’s not intended to just be a restaurant or a cafe or just a bar,” Licata says of the queer- and woman-owned space. “We love building our community and making connections with people who want the same vision as we do.”

Velvet Lasso Lounge is open from 3 p.m. to midnight from Thursday to Sunday, while the cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Visit their website thevelvetlasso.com and follow them on Instagram at @velvet.lasso for updates.