Goosetown Tavern's Kitchen Reopens, and It's Smoking!

What's old is new again.

In 1873, a group of Germans built a tavern in the heart of Golden's "Goosetown" community, a neighborhood of immigrants who worked at what was then the Golden Brewery — later to become Coors Brewing Company — and spent their wages each night at the Goosetown Tavern. Even after the Goosetown was sold and renamed Sam's Land, it remained a popular local hangout until the last owner, Sam Whelan, died in 1997 and his son sold the place to Coors.

Which planned to replace it with a parking lot.

But first, John Hickenlooper, one of the founders of the then-ten-year-old Wynkoop Brewing Company, bought most of the interior — including a worn wooden bar and oversized wooden booths — and transported them to a new place he was opening at 3242 East Colfax Avenue, in the former home of Across the Street Cafe, across from the Bluebird Theater. He wound up naming that new bar the Goosetown Tavern.
Hickenlooper left the bar business behind when he became mayor of Denver, and the Goosetown wound up in the hands of promoter Chris Swank, who emphasized live music in the space. Earlier this year, Swank sold the business — but not the building — to Gwen Campbell, who, along with her husband, Scott, is a partner in Globe Hall as well as other ventures.

The couple had spent a lot of time in the Goosetown years ago. With Globe Hall turning seven and after making it into "what we want it to be," Gwen thought it might be time to take on another venue, she says. After talking with Swank, she and Scott stopped by the Goosetown again.

"When you're looking for a new place, you have a feeling," Gwen recalls. "I went back after not going for years and felt, 'Oh, I love this place. I'm in love.'"

So she took it on as a new, woman-owned project. She also reached out to a female chef, Avery Christiansen, who'd studied at the Culinary Institute of America's New York campus, then worked in D.C. and Honolulu. Christiansen moved to Denver and started working at Globe Hall so she could get a feel for how the food there — including post-oak-smoked barbecue and vegan barbecue — could be transported to the Goosetown.

In the meantime, while its bar continued to operate, the kitchen at Goosetown — which had been closed for fifteen months — went through a major overhaul. "We replaced every single thing," Gwen says.

That project was finally finished three weeks ago, and the Goosetown kitchen started cooking again. Since then, Gwen says, "the neighborhood has given us feedback, and we hear what the neighborhood wants." The neighborhood wants chicken wings, for example, which will be introduced next week.
Christiansen says her version of a smashburger is already a hit. So is the brisket and other smoked meats, as well as the Nashville hot chicken, the fried okra and the housemade sauces.

The neighborhood also wanted Goosetown to keep its entertainment, including live music on weekends, the open-mic night on Tuesdays, bingo with concert-ticket giveaways on Wednesdays, and blues and brews on Sundays. Gwen's still working on the schedule, even as she makes a few tweaks to the interior — but the vintage Goosetown Tavern pieces will stay.

"It's fun, because we've had music venues, and one music venue has food, but this is a neighborhood tavern with music," Gwen says. "It is just a really comfortable place. The Goosetown has a lot of neighborhood attendance already. I think it will just grow with our kitchen and our branding."

The Goosetown Tavern is open at 3242 East Colfax Avenue from 4 p.m. until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday (kitchen until 10 p.m.) and 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday (kitchen until midnight); there's a daily happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m. Learn more here.