Edgewater Bar Providence at 5280 Closed Permanently

As readers drank up the latest edition of our Top 100 Bars list over the weekend, one beloved watering hole said goodbye.

Before 2009, the building at 5280 West 25th Avenue in Edgewater had been home to several short-lived concepts, including Johnie's Bar-B-Que, Tiki Torch and Okoboji Inn. That year, partners Michael Brockhoff and Sam Roots completely gutted the place and debuted Providence Tavern, a spot they hoped would have staying power in the neighborhood.

And it did. Over the next decade, Providence Tavern became a go-to, the kind of community gathering place that's filled with regulars. But in 2019 it shut its doors; for a few months, the place was quiet, until a new owner stepped in to revive it.

Cody Ford reopened the bar as Providence at 5280 in June 2019, but the place has had a tough run since then. Less than a year later, the pandemic hit. In 2022, a water main break flooded the tavern, causing significant damage to the building, which is over a century old.
This year, the City of Edgewater began work on a Traffic Calming and Mobility Plan that was approved in 2019 and identified much-needed changes to the West 25th Avenue corridor to better support pedestrians and bicycle users. “They call it historic 25th Avenue, and prior to this update, that couldn’t have been more true, because it was just old-town Edgewater, where it was older [with] older infrastructure, and it was kind of beat down,” Ford told Westword in April, as the street in front of Providence at 5280 was under construction. “Now we’re putting that new look on it. ... It’ll look like the 16th Street Mall, Tennyson Street, Olde Town Arvada.”

Despite the ongoing construction, Ford noted that his bar had not seen a significant dip in business. But now, Providence at 5280 is closed for good. A note posted on social media reads simply, "We are permanently closed. We are very sad to say goodbye. I want to thank everyone who has made this our favorite place to be!!"

An Edgewater Echo editorial about the closure concludes, "We hope another business can come into the space soon and continue offering delicious food, drinks, and community in the space." Cheers to that sentiment.