At the Start of Daylight Saving, It's Time for Another Tequila Sunrise at Lakeview Lounge

With neighborhood watering holes drying up all over town, it's important that some traditions remain fluid. Traditions like drinking at the Lakeview Lounge, one of the ten best dive bars in metro Denver, and watching the sun rise over Sloan's Lake on the first day of Daylight Saving Time.

Yesterday, the sun was already up when the Lakeview unlocked its doors at 2375 Sheridan Boulevard. But thanks to clocks springing forward an hour, today's sunrise won't be until 7:20 a.m.

While Donald Trump once suggested eliminating Daylight Saving Time, during an Oval Office conversation on March 6, the president now said that “it’s a 50-50 issue, and if something’s a 50-50 issue it’s hard to get excited about it.”

So even though we've just lost an hour of sleep, we can still get excited about hitting the Lakeview Lounge at 7 a.m. today, March 9, for an annual sunrise service observed by dozens of regulars (some may be tailgating in the parking lot right now).

The stand-alone building dates back to the ’40s, when it got its start as a creamery. In the early ’50s, it became the Circle Drive-In, a hamburger joint, and then in 1957 the building achieved its highest use as a bar. It started out as the High Skipper, turned into Sloopy's in the early ’60s, then became Cindy's, and finally was dubbed the Lakeview Lounge in 1975 under new owner Jerry Golden, who in turn sold it to Jack Simon.

Somewhere along the line, the sunrise service tradition began.

In 2020, the Lakeview changed hands again when neighbors Eugene "Geno" and Jill Martinez took over the place on a five year least that they just renewed for another five years. Geno started frequenting the bar about thirty years ago, when he was teaching up the road; his grandfather lived in the neighborhood. A school counselor, Jill started working as a part-time bartender at the Lakeview about a dozen years ago.

While they took over the Lakeview just a month or so before the pandemic hit, they managed to keep it going.

And so once again, the doors will open at exactly 7 a.m. today. While the skies will still be dark, the Lakeview remains a bright spot in the rapidly changing landscape of Sloan's Lake, where you can count the cranes over the downtown skyline. By the way, the Colorado Legislature actually approved a bill in 2022 that would move the state to Daylight Saving Time permanently, but "the change takes effect only if a federal law is enacted to allow states to remain on daylight saving time year round and at least 4 states in the MST zone, in addition to Colorado, enact legislation making daylight saving time the state's standard time throughout the year," according to the language of the law.

So drink up! And if you missed this sunrise service, mark a note that there will be another on the last day of Daylight Saving Time this year: Saturday, November 2 (unless Trump abolishes it in the meantime).

What's your favorite dive bar in Denver? The Lakeview Lounge is a frequent Best of Denver winner; you can vote in the Best of Denver 2025 Readers' Choice poll until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 10. Find the ballot here.