Lowry’s Soiled Dove has a new name and a renewed underground vibe

The dove is a symbol of peace. But in Denver, dueling Doves could ruffle a few feathers.

Frank Schultz opened the original Soiled Dove in 1997 in LoDo, as a dueling-pianos spot; he turned it into a live music venue in 1999, when you could see Bruce Hornsby for $50. “Today it costs $50 to park there,” Schultz remembered last year. “It was a cool place in the wrong spot.”

So in 2006, he turned that spot at 1949 Market St. into the Tavern Downtown, the signature offering of the growing Tavern Hospitality Group empire, and built an ambitious new venue at 7401 E. First Ave., in the up-and-coming Lowry area. The first floor became the Lowry Tavern, with the Soiled Dove Underground hosting live music in a 300-seat space below. “It’s been my baby since the ’90s,” Schultz told Westword when that Soiled Dove debuted twenty years ago. “We built this from the ground up, and I made it exactly how I wanted it to be. One of the biggest complaints I heard about the downtown location was the lack of parking, and now we have that problem solved.”

But other problems emerged in the partnership between Schultz and his mother, and THG started closing and selling off properties, including the building housing the Tavern Downtown in 2019. The Soiled Dove Underground shuttered in May 2024, and that property was purchased last year for $3.5 million by Jackie Glenn, a bass-playing dentist.

Glenn’s goal was to bring back music, resurrecting the space below as The Dove Underground and opening a new restaurant, Rising Phoenix, on the first floor. “The Dove Underground has always held a special place in my heart because I performed here long before I ever imagined owning it,” says Glenn in a statement. “When it closed, the loss was felt deeply by the entire community. This project has never been about reopening a venue; it has been about restoring a place where people connect, celebrate, and belong. As we listened to our neighbors, it became clear they weren’t just missing the music; they were missing the experience. That’s why we expanded our vision to include Rising Phoenix and a broader range of programming. Today, The Dove Underground is designed to serve artists, audiences, and the community in a much bigger way.”

Rising Phoenix is already serving the community in soft-opening mode, with longtime Denver mainstay Daniel “Chef D” Young offering an American menu from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. And after two music previews, The Dove Underground will host a grand opening on August 15, with Hazel Miller headlining. “We’re going to make it a full-day event,” says general manager Joseph Augusto. “We’re bringing her back, keeping up that tradition.”

While the setup downstairs is largely the same, it has a brand-new sound system from Listen Up, a new lighting setup, a new bathroom off the green room, and new upholstery. While Glenn plans to honor the musical tradition that featured not just Miller but the Avett Brothers, Big Head Todd & The Monsters and B.B. King, the plan is to feature all genres, Augusto says, including comedy, karaoke and even poetry. Talent buyers Jesse Wehling and Patricia Duncan are curating the calendar of local, regional and national touring artists, while comedian Terry Barton Gregg will book comedy acts. And Rising Phoenix will expand to daily service once the downstairs venue opens; it will add a breakfast buffet this weekend.

“We’ve had nothing but love from the Lowry community,” says Augusto of the response to the restaurant. “They want us to be open more.

But in the meantime, the Soiled Dove is rising again in Cherry Creek. While THG sold most of its locations, Schultz hung on to Choppers, the sports bar at 80 S. Madison that he’d purchased in 2015. And this year, he added a sound system and made a few other changes that would allow him to turn it into an occasional music venue, Soiled Dove Live at Choppers, which debuted in May with the Railbenders.

More music will come after the World Cup ends, including the Samples on July 31, and Paizley Park on August 8.

The Soiled Dove name was not included in the sale of the Lowry property, Schultz says, and even though he let the trademark lapse, he believes his longtime use prevents a second Dove from landing at Lowry. Meanwhile, Glenn has registered the name federally, and while Schultz is making noise about a cease-and-desist order, her crew thinks everything is aboveboard with The Dove Underground name. “We want to keep the history with the Dove name,” says Augusto, “and highlight the underground.”

Is Denver big enough for two Doves?