The Legendary Hole-in-the-Wall Bar Bar Has a Real Hole in the Wall

A wall of Carioca Cafe, the celebrated dive known as Bar Bar at 2060 Champa Street, collapsed early on Monday, June 30. The Denver Fire Department attributes the collapse to the century-old building's age and structural weakness.

Bar Bar, which got its nickname from the repetitive red sign over its entry, closed last June after suffering an arson fire. Bar Bar has survived rough times before, including a shutdown during the pandemic, a city crackdown on liquor licenses, burst pipes, inaccurate reports that it had closed for good, and being right next to the largest homeless encampment in Denver before that was cleared in 2023.

And before last summer's closure, it somehow carried on. Bar Bar was a frequent winner of the Best Dive Bar award in Westword's Best of Denver; it holds a special place in the hearts of locals and tourists alike, who appreciate its live punk rock bands and legendary status as a watering hole.

But now it faces another challenge: a gaping hole on its western side that's twice as tall as the firefighters and Denver Police officers examining it. Firefighters at the scene say that no one was injured by the collapse, but a few cars parked nearby were hit with debris. The wall fell around 11 a.m., firefighters say.

The owner of Bar Bar, Rich Granville, says that he's scrambling to deal with this latest catastrophe. Speaking for the owner of the building, Granville told Westword last year that a wall in the bar was the only part of the building that was definitely damaged structurally by the June 2024 fire, though it's unclear if that's the same wall that just collapsed. Denver Fire doesn't mention the fire as a case for the wall's collapse.

Just before the fire, Bar Bar had secured its cabaret license, retrofitted the building to pass the city inspection and raised money to fix a burst pipe. According to Granville, the building didn't have insurance at the time; it still has an active GoFundMe to help recovery efforts from the 2024 fire, and was pushing to reopen.

But now, with one wall almost entirely missing, might this be last call for Denver's legendary hole-in-the-wall Bar Bar?