Curt and Pam Sims will open Cantina in the former Hive space

The building at 1109 Lincoln Street has gone through many incarnations since its days as the Denver Buffalo Company: Cielo, the Donkey Den, Left on Lincoln, Sutra and, most recently, the Hive. That dance club opened just last May, but it closed after a fatal shooting outside the bar last...

By Patricia Calhoun

February 8, 2013

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The building at 1109 Lincoln Street has gone through many incarnations since its days as the Denver Buffalo Company: Cielo, the Donkey Den, Left on Lincoln, Sutra and, most recently, the Hive. That dance club opened just last May, but it closed after a fatal shooting outside the bar last fall...and never reopened.

For a while, the owners of Stoney's Bar and Grill right next door were going to pick up the place and open a New Orleans-themed sports bar, Krewe, but that fell through. And now Curt Sims -- who's owned the building since its Buffalo Company Days -- has taken back the space, which is being renovated into Cantina, a Tex-Mex joint.

Sims and his wife, singer Pam Savage Sims, also own Lime on Sixth Avenue, and will open another Lime in the Denver Pavilions -- so they didn't want to open another Lime between the two, Pam says.

Instead, they decided to focus on Tex-Mex, because while Denver has plenty of Mexican restaurants, "We don't have true Tex-Mex here," she says.

Although originally the downtown Lime was slated to open in late 2012, the build-out of the raw space is taking longer than anticipated, Pam says; they're now estimating it will open in May. But Cantina is on the fast track: Watch for it to start pouring in March.

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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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