Hard Rock Cafe Denver Is Closing, and That's a Good Thing

News broke this week that the Hard Rock Cafe's Denver location will close on July 29, after 25 years on the 16th Street Mall. While some are lamenting this development as another loss for the struggling stretch that was once a draw for tourists and locals alike, isn't it really what we all want? For the mall to change? When was the last time you actually went to the Hard Rock Cafe, anyway?

In 1998, when both the Hard Rock and its home, Denver Pavilions, opened, malls were still cool. At the time, I'd spend hours killing time with friends at our local mall in Florida, hitting up Wet Seal and Hot Topic, and being intimidated by the model-like staff at Abercrombie while noshing on gooey Cinnabons.

When I moved to Denver in 2004, the 16th Street Mall was still cool, too. Even more so to me, because it was an outdoor version of that classic escape. But until recently, hardly anything about the 16th Street Mall had changed over the past two decades. It was like a dated, stale time capsule of late-’90s ideas — and brands, like the Hard Rock and even Cinnabon, which is also in the Denver Pavilions.

"Revitalize the mall" is a battle cry I've heard for years. And now a plan is in progress to do just that. Sure, the construction sucks (and a lot of trees are being replaced), but it's also temporary — and it's a necessary part of the revitalization that so many want to see in the area.
Last year, ahead of the opening of Dragonfly Noodle at 16th and Larimer streets, its James Beard- nominated owner, Edwin Zoe, told Westword, "It's really important that we have businesses come back to downtown." And they are. Since Dragonfly's October debut, Roman pizza spot Sofia's and all-day cafe Little Finch, from Mary Nguyen, the owner of Olive & Finch, have also upped the dining game on the 16th Street Mall.

But will the Hard Rock's 11,736-square-foot space just sit empty? In the last two years, other notable closures along the mall include McDonald's, Chili's and T.J. Maxx. There are still vacancies where Tokyo Joe’s and PokeCity once were, too. And that's a definite problem.

It's good for the old chain dinosaurs to go, but what, if anything, will replace them?

While I talked with Culinary Creative owner Juan Padró in April about Ay Papi, the Puerto Rican cocktail bar he and his team are opening in Cherry Creek, he mentioned a recent trip to Mexico City. "What they've been able to do in terms of fostering their creative economy has allowed the city to leapfrog many American cities in terms of culinary innovation, architecture, art, music, museums," he explained. "They've invested heavily in that, and they realize the value of that. We're not particularly awesome at that in America, and we're even less awesome at that in Denver."

Padró offered one possible solution: "We have a refugee and immigrant city next to us, with wildly creative people. Some of these people are engineers and doctors and just can't get their certification in America. So you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna open restaurants. That's what they should be doing on the 16th Street Mall. They should bring all of them to the 16th Street Mall and have a whole cultural center down the middle of Denver with music and art and food and diversity and what a big city should be — what we all want it to be."

Now, that's the kind of plan I'd get behind. So farewell, Hard Rock, you had a good run. But it's time to bring some new energy downtown — and better eats than what's found on the boring, completely typical menu at this rock-and-roll relic.