You can get a free beer at Chase Phillips’ upcoming bar. Just as long as you drink it out of a dog bowl.
Two Lazy Dogs, his canine-themed watering hole, will open in 2,500 square feet at 1531 Champa St. in the next few months, the first-time restaurant owner said. Phillips, who is an executive adviser to Mayor Mike Johnston, said the spot will provide a dive for a neighborhood that desperately needs one.
“I think that’s one of the things that’s really missing and people are looking for,” Phillips said of Upper Downtown. “It’ll be a modern take on your comfortable neighborhood dive bar.”
The menu will include burgers, an onion-topped hot dog and street tacos. Phillips, a Westminster native, will also use his father’s recipes for smoked wings, brisket and the like. His dad, who hails from Texas, used to run a Vietnamese barbecue joint in town in the early 2000s.
The drink menu at Two Lazy Dogs will highlight its namesakes with pup-themed provisions. The Ahsokatini, a martini named after Phillips’ dog Ahsoka, and the Rubyloma, a paloma named after Ruby, the second lazy dog his friend and former roommate owns, will be the stars. Taps will pour beers and a red and white wine, and shots and mocktails will also be available.
Phillips wants Two Lazy Dogs to be an affordable place for residents, tourists and visitors to the nearby Denver Performing Arts Complex and Colorado Convention Center.
“There’s so many places that are down here that, yes, they have good food, but the price points are so high. I can’t go out to lunch every single day and spend $30, $40, $50,” he said. “So our price points will be much lower than that. We’re aiming to have most things at or around the $10 range.”
Two Lazy Dogs will also have free pool, foosball, darts and arcade games, Phillips said, alongside TVs and a TouchTunes box. It’ll host classic bar events like Taco Tuesday, Wing Wednesday and trivia nights.
And on Thursdays, patrons can get a cold one on the house, as long as they sip it out of one of the spot’s custom-made dog bowls.
The place will open at 11 a.m. daily, closing at midnight Sunday through Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
“We want to be that late-night spot down here, because that’s another thing since the pandemic that’s really missing down here,” said Phillips, who went to school at Metropolitan State. “When I used to come and hang out on 16th and do things … that just don’t exist anymore.”
Phillips has been working in restaurants most of his life, starting in his family’s catering company and most recently at My Neighbor Felix, the LoHi Mexican spot where he met one of his business partners and co-owners, Michael Alvarado. The third partner is Steven Sen, whose family had a joint in Winter Park that Phillips worked at during the ski season.
The group will be leaning into the dog theme, with canine decor and wallpaper around the space. There will also be a cork board toward the front of the building to showcase dogs up for adoption and fostering.
Patrons will be encouraged to bring their fluffy friends, but they’ll be limited to the patio. Phillips said he’s trying to work out a deal with the Little India restaurant next door to expand his patio space, though that’s in the early stages.
Phillips signed a five-year lease for the space, formerly home to a Cheba Hut that closed in early 2024. He said the build-out will cost an estimated $500,000. He tried to get half of that amount covered by Denver’s Downtown Development Authority, which has $570 million in bond money to spend on revitalizing downtown. But he said he was told early last month that he wouldn’t be getting funds.
Most of that money would’ve been for kitchen equipment such as a grease trap, he said, so he was able to roll that into Two Lazy Dogs’ equipment loans and keep the project alive.
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