(Photographer Kim Allen captured that time in the above photographer that will be part of his retrospective show opening September 9.)
Twenty years after Waits wrote that song, Coors Field opened a few blocks away from the Terminal, and LoDo's transformation went into overdrive. Terminal owner Nancy Archer had gotten many offers to sell her place, but had repelled all comers. And then one day, Dave Query of Big Red F came in with some friends who'd been watching a hockey game. He'd recently opened the first Jax Fish House in Boulder, and he hit it off immediately with Archer; they struck a deal for him to buy the building. Just a few months later, he opened the second Jax in LoDo -- to immediate acclaim. "I paid her off in five years," he remembers.
But in the meantime, there were many surprises during those early days: bones in the basement (turns out there had been a butcher in the space at one point), folks who kept trying to return to the flophouse that had once been upstairs. Query cleaned up the place, refurbished the bathrooms, added windows. But he kept the horseshoe bar -- and even expanded it during last year's renovation of Jax.
The Terminal Bar has been gone almost twenty years -- but last month, its name was resurrected for the new watering hole in the former ticketing area at Union Station. It's an ideal spot for toasting some great memories -- and making new ones."LoDo has changed quite a bit since we opened up down there," says Query, who says in touch with Archer. "Retail dwarfed entertainment back in the day. First Thursday art walks were a big thing because there were so many galleries and funky shops. Coors Field was not here. The 87 sports bars that service Coors Field were not there. Nuggets and the Avs were still playing across I-25. There were parking lots everywhere -- like, empty lots people parked in.
"But the changes have been great," he continues. "LoDo has a national reputation as a destination fun center. We're entirely honored to be a part of it. The Union Station operators have a huge responsibility to the whole city to make this an enormous success. Done correctly, this can be a major regional tourist destination. It is a fantastic property, an unbelievable treasure for Denver, and what promises to be a really intelligent and significant transportation center for the entire Front Range."
All nighthawks welcome.
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