There was a march on the capital the day I reviewed the Vine St. Pub & Brewery. The blitz of media coverage that raged on the days prior informed me that the Woman’s Day march befallen the city. As I sat in my Uber I watched excited and anxious women and men of all ages heading towards the Denver Capital building. I watched them with pink hats and large signs moving in one general direction. Good for them, I thought. I was there in spirit if nothing else.
Vine St. Pub & Brewery was bustling with activity when I walked in. Families and people of all ages were chatting away, living life, and sinking headlong into a fine Saturday. I wandered up to the bar, sat down to save a seat for my friend. The atmosphere was inviting and comforting and earthy with dominate wood tones and hand-painted vines crawling all over the pipes and beams. This is a type of bar you might expect to find in Boulder, CO or another hippie enclave. And you seriously would since they own several other bars (under different names) in the Boulder area.
After the protest, the Vine St. Pub began to fill up with pink hats and other protesters. A crowd grew behind the bar. I ordered my flight of beers consisting of a Hooligan Oatmeal Porter, Temperance Pale Ale, Blackberry Wheat, Illusion Dweller and beer combo devised of their Java Porter and Smokescreen Porter called Coffee and Cigarettes.
The Coffee and Cigarettes beer-combo reminded me of a younger cross-section of my life consisting of hangovers in college – early mornings with half-drunk conversations and endless weekends where time seemed to stop. Coffee and Cigarettes was a ferocious Saturday morning delight. But you will have to hurry. The Smokescreen Porter is only available for a limited time.
I enjoyed all the beers on my flight. The Temperance Pale Ale spoke of my own failures in that I could drink a six-pack of them and stormed the Capital all alone. I ordered a whole pint of Coffee & Cigarettes along with a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon. The gooey cheese and crisp bacon-enhanced the scene tremendously.
The tired and hungry crowd grew, nearly swallowing me whole and I knew that once my friend came I would need to leave. You could see their desire for refuge after protesting and they crowded in at alarming numbers. The staff at Vine St. Pub handled it splendidly. Tip these (and all) servers. They are good folks with a clearly high bandwidth. And they dealt with the post-rally rage in a fine manner.
My friend finally showed up and we decided it best to leave since there wasn’t any room at the bar and there was a two-hour wait for a table. As I drank the last of my beer I noticed a small sign above the beer taps that said, “This makes me happy”. I thought to myself, “Good” because we need more of that in this world. We need people to find what makes them happy.
We live in a world that is safer and more accessible than ever before, statistically speaking, but people are more afraid and connected to their fears than in the past. Maybe what we all need to do is embrace what makes us happy, like the sign says. And remember that we have Coffee and Cigarettes at our disposal — and in America, we have the right to protest what we believe is injustice or drink good beer at fine establishments like Vine St. Pub & Brewery.
Vine St. Pub & Brewery
Website: mountainsunpub.com
Address: 1700 Vine St, Denver, CO 80206