The building that houses the beloved Denver dive Carioca Cafe, unofficially known as Bar Bar, was damaged by a fire set outside the 134-year-old structure on Monday morning.
Denver dive Carioca Cafe suffered fire damage on Monday, although owners don’t know yet how much it will cost to repair. (Provided by Rich Granville)
Denver Fire Department responded on Monday to a report of a fire outside the south side building, which moved inside the bar before firefighters could put it out. Firefighters are still investigating the cause and have not made a ruling, according to Captain JD Chism.
The fire began along an exterior wall, but damage revealed a long-hidden brick doorway, said bartender and manager Rich Granville, who did not know it existed until he arrived on the scene Monday. A quick response prevented the fire from spreading too much inside the structure, he said.
A photo posted on Facebook by Granville shows a blackened hole with brick and other debris piled at its foot.
“Somebody burned her. They burned our bar,” Granville wrote in the post. He added that he didn’t know “if or when it can be fixed.” He said firefighters on the scene told an employee that it looked like arson, although Captain Chism said he would not use that term, as it’s too early to tell what the cause was.
“It’s a complicated thing to prove (the cause) with a bunch of burnt-up evidence, so it does take a lot of steps and due diligence,” said Chism, a firefighter for the last 17 years.
The bar has an interior security camera but not an outside camera, Granville told The Denver Post, so any footage will likely not be helpful to investigators. He said he was not aware of any threats made against the bar or its staff.
Firefighters used forced entry on the doors, leading to some structural damage. Granville, who plays in the bands Poison Politics and Drink Drink Punk, spent Monday and part of Tuesday retrieving undamaged amplifiers, microphones, cables and other music gear out of a storage room. He said all alcohol stock had been removed from the bar, and that firefighters had boarded up the windows.
Once he gets a repair estimate, Granville said he’s going to launch a crowdfunding page that will raise the money to fix the structure.
“I don’t know what will have to be fixed up, what will have to get back up to code, based on the age of building, and how we’re going to go about those repairs,” he said. “It don’t know if it’ll be $2,500 or $25,000 or more. We really don’t have the capital for this.”
However, Granville said social media responses and news coverage have helped draw attention to the fire, and he’s confident that if there’s any way he and his employees can reopen, they will.
“We’ll rely on community support, and run some benefit shows at other locations,” said Granville, whose Poison Politics band last week released a new single and had been considering an international tour. “There’s no quit in our crew.”
The Denver Post in February reported that Bar Bar had apparently closed, following damage from a broken pipe that flooded the bar during January’s deep freeze. The Post corrected that information after Granville confirmed the closure was only temporary, and that Google’s business listing showing it as “permanently closed” was inaccurate.
Granville said at the time he didn’t know why Google listed the bar as permanently closed and speculated that “trimming a lot of hours this winter” may have contributed to the error. (The listing has since been updated.)
Long known in the DIY art and music scene as Bar Bar, Carioca Cafe is one of central Denver’s last historic, free-standing bars, following the demolition of the 114-year-old building housing Shelby’s Bar and Grill in downtown Denver. Haunts slightly further afield, such as East Colfax Avenue’s Knob Hill, and the nearby Ballpark neighborhood’s Herb’s, have never carried the same punk-rock reputation as Carioca Cafe.
The bar had been experiencing troubles and battling with the city over licensing for the last two years. In March 2022, a Denver Police Department sting netted a violation for underage alcohol sales at the bar. Two months later, and citing new licensing requirements, the bar’s staff launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at shoring up finances.
“We’ve scraped by through COVID shutdowns without a fundraiser, but now we really need your help,” wrote Granville, the organizer of the $10,000 GoFundMe campaign, at the time. However, that drive fell short, only raising $7,080 of its goal.
Denver dive-bar Carioca Cafe and Bar, a.k.a. Bar Bar. (Illustration courtesy of Karl Christian Krumpholz)
Despite being an infamous touring stop for underground acts and a safe space for local punks, the bar never carried a cabaret license up until recently. The city requires cabaret licenses for businesses that sell alcohol for on-site consumption but also feature live performances, according to the Department of Excise and Licenses.
Carioca Cafe at one point late last year was also surrounded by unhoused people in tents, which were moved during a city clearing and replaced with high chain-link fences — which have also since been removed. The aging, one-story bar sits in a building erected in 1890. It started as a saloon and brothel in downtown Denver, according to Bar Bar’s website.
“While appreciated by its community, it did little to stop the police from raiding the establishment in 1903 for the grave crime of selling alcohol to women (which was illegal at the time),” owners wrote. “Shortly after (the owner) renamed his club to the ‘Carioca Cafe’ to help change his bar’s image. However he wasn’t given much time before prohibition kicked in forcing him to close his saloon once more.”
The bar then converted into a union meeting center, and reopened as a watering hole after prohibition was repealed in 1933. Since then, it’s technically been named New Carioca Cafe.