Reader: The Overland Fails? Go Figure, Another Overpriced Hipster Bar!

Denver is losing some of its best bars, both old and new. For example, last month The Overland closed at 1967 South Broadway less than a year after Nathaniel Rateliff and a couple of members of his band, the Night Sweats, teamed up with the owners of the hi-dive to take over the former Bushwacker's Saloon space, and three months after we named the Overland the Best New Bar of 2017. But many readers weren't fans — not of the Overland, and not of Westword itself. Says Tony:

 Go figure, another overpriced hipster restaurant fails. I, for one, would love to see more neighborhood bars and fewer fancy tapping rooms and pretentious eateries.

Adds Nikki: 

This does not surprise me at all. We have been there a total of three times and they NEVER HAD ANY BEER! They were always out of all the beer. I think they did it so you had to order one of their $10 cocktails. Was not by any means impressed with this place. I should have known after the first time we went and they ran out of all the beer...

Suggests Ted: 

Everyone i ever talked to about The Overland wanted to LOVE it — but in every case they'd say how it just seemed "off." I know the owners wanted it to be a basic "neighborhood bar," but It needed some inspired low-key events, or at least an eclectic jukebox to give it some character and set it apart. As it was, the staff always looked bored or worse, acted "put upon" when people ordered drinks.

Great space, though. Probably a goldmine for the the right owner.

Adds Clay: 

Cool place but well over-priced, which is why myself and friends stopped going. Hope it's a lesson to any incoming bars or restaurants.

And maybe a lesson for more than bars and restaurants. Because then there's this from Lexi: 

Maybe if Westword remembers its roots and started rating on quality opposed to ass-kissing, they could have seen this coming instead of calling this bar one of the best in 2017.... "Plenty of character and very little pretentiousness" — how about lacking identity and extremely arrogant?! That statement applies to the magazine and the bar! No surprise here!

What did you think of the Overland? Bushwacker's, which had occupied the space for decades? And what roots do you think Westword has forgotten?