Only One of the 100 Most Lucrative Bars in America Is in Colorado

Denver's nightlife scene is booming: On any given weekend, you can find bars and clubs of every possibly variety with lines out the door. Still, apparently only one of the city's bars is among the 100 most lucrative in the country.

Nightclub and Bar Magazine, a trade publication for the industry, just released its list of the 2015 Top 100 Revenue Generating Nightclubs, Bars & Lounges in the U.S. The top is dominated by Las Vegas, with a few Miami clubs peppered in — the number one spot goes to XS Nighclub in Las Vegas, which pulled in between $103 and $105 million last year, according to the list. 

You have to go all the way down to number 70 to find Colorado's lone entrant. And it is not a mega-bar or nightclub in LoDo. It is the venerable Grizzly Rose, our finest hometown honky-tonk. It earned somewhere between $5 million and $10 million last year. 

In some ways, it makes sense that the Grizzly Rose would take the top spot in our state. It has a loyal fan-base even when it isn't bringing in the best of the touring (and local) country circuit. 

And Colorado's relative absence doesn't say much about the number of people actually going to bars and clubs here — after all, the Ogden Theatre on Colfax is routinely among the busiest venues in America. So it's possible that the revenue list reveals something else about our nightlife scene: That cover charges and drinks are less expensive, for example. 

You can see the whole list here.