Meow Wolf Denver Will Add a Cocktail Lounge This Fall

After exploring a grocery store filled with tattoo-covered chickens, cubed peas, canned mammoth chunks and Corn PM ("soothing night time corn for adults"), as well as the many rooms hidden beyond the bright entry to Omega Mart in Las Vegas, I needed a drink.

This immersive art installation is one of three locations of Meow Wolf, which began with its DIY-style flagship in Santa Fe before adding the ultra-trippy Vegas outpost and, in September 2021, Denver's sprawling Convergence Station. It also plans to open a new space dubbed The Real Unreal in Dallas next month.

I've now visited all three of the currently open Meow Wolf worlds, but it was only in Vegas that I stumbled upon exactly what I wanted, at just the right moment: Hidden nearly in plain sight inside the otherworldly grocery store that acts as the jumping-off point to the Sin City experience is Datamosh, a full-on cocktail bar.

As I snagged a vacant stool and sipped on vodka-spiked Happle Juice from a squishy plastic cup, I wondered why the Meow Wolf in Denver doesn't have a bar. Its food court, HELLOFOOD, offers a variety of mostly locally sourced eats for snacking, and it does serve booze inside the installation on its 21+ nights. But at a place as large and stimulating as Convergence Station, a place to grab a cocktail and a moment of respite would be welcome.
As if reading my mind (which, if you've been to any Meow Wolf location, seems totally possible), the Denver location announced on June 13, the day I visited Omega Mart, that it would indeed be opening a "sanctuary of chill amidst the hubbub of quantum travel," called Sips (with a Z).

While Datamosh in Vegas is relatively small, the Denver bar will be 3,262 square feet; it will also be available for private parties.

But as at Casa Bonita, which still hasn't announced its ticket prices, the only way to get into Sips (with a Z) will be by paying the full cost of admission to Convergence Station — which makes sense, because otherwise it would be overrun by curious people hoping to get only a taste of the full experience.

Even though the Vegas location was busy when I visited, I didn't have to wait for a seat or a drink for long. People stumbled upon the speakeasy at a totally manageable pace and generally only stayed for one cocktail before heading back out to explore more rooms filled with giant glowing flowers and strobe lights and hidden staircases.

Sips (with a Z) is set to open this fall during Convergence Station's month-long two-year anniversary celebration. Meow Wolf describes the bar and lounge as "melding the super-luxe ambiance of an executive travel lounge with the boldness of graffiti art," complete with "mirrored walls, vintage furniture, neon signs, classical sculpture and street art accents."

We'll drink to that.