Overview:
We spoke with the owner and patrons of Broken Bow Bar and Dance Hall two months after it opened near Coors Field.
On a hot Saturday afternoon, dozens of people filtered into Broken Bow Western Bar and Dance Hall on Lawrence Street in Denver, where a former distillery building has been remade into something closer to a downtown honky-tonk.
The bar, located at 2201 Lawrence St., opened April 3 in the former Mile High Spirits space, just blocks from Coors Field. Inside, Broken Bow has a dance floor, stage, full bar, retail shop, merchandise, old Western images, neon beer signs, saddle blankets and skulls. Outside, a patio adds more seating, a garage door extends the bar outdoors, and a food truck serves customers.
“It would not have been opened if it was not something we were deeply proud of,” said 19-year-old co-founder Colton Patterson, whose stepfather offered him the chance to open a physical space based on his social media brand. “It’s been a really surreal thing to be able to see everybody in public and meet them and shake hands after this whole thing’s been going on for a while.”
Patterson is still too young to legally buy a drink, but he said he has experienced Broken Bow as more than a founder.
“It’s a really great and beautiful time,” Patterson said. “Once it’s night and the old exposed wood roof gets lit up and people start walking about and dancing, it’s one amazing thing to see.”
Broken Bow began as an online Western lifestyle brand, sharing images, quotes and drawings by Patterson. His stepfather, Brandon Jundt, an HB Hospitality executive, suggested opening a physical space for the brand last year, turning what had existed online into a bar, dance hall, music venue and retail shop.
Patterson said his interest in Western culture goes back to his family.
“My grandpa dressed as a cowboy long before he actually rode a horse,” Patterson said. “My great grandpa was from Mexico, so my grandpa’s family did not practice that lifestyle. He loved John Wayne when he was a little kid, so he dressed like a cowboy. Eventually he got around to it though.”
Broken Bow’s interior leans into that world, but Patterson said the goal was not to build a theme park version of the West.
“It’s not meant to be something like an amusement park or nostalgia place,” he said. “It’s a rendition of the stuff that you’d see ten or twenty years ago where you could have a good time downtown in Colorado or any rural place in America and feel like you’re at home somewhere, and you weren’t just out somewhere to lose money or be in a high-tension environment like most of the clubs and the culture that’s gotten out in the city.”
Although the bar has only recently opened, Patterson says it has exceeded his expectations. Still, he stated, “I think it’s an ever-growing thing.”
Broken Bow is busiest on weekend nights, when artists perform. On Saturday afternoons, barhoppers and casual shoppers come in to join line dancers and pool players. On Thursdays, the bar is packed with couples learning to swing dance. During Rockies home games, it turns purple and silver.
“I thought it was really cool,” said Anthony Conti, a CU Boulder student. “The things on the wall were really interesting, different symbols from Western culture like Johnny Cash and the Marlboro Man; it’s the type of thing I’d usually go for.”
He thought the demographic was surprising.
“There were so many different people there. There were boots and cowboy hats, and people who looked like they’d never tried a line dance before. And they were all interacting and being together,” he said. “It’s busy for a Saturday during the day. People want to spend their time here.”
Conti said the bar also seemed to reflect a value he associates with Western culture.
“One of the most important values in Western culture is respect,” he said. “And I saw a lot of that.”
Patterson said Broken Bow takes inspiration from places such as the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, the historic Jackson, Wyoming, bar and music venue that has been open since 1937. He said Broken Bow borrows from that tradition while trying to build its own identity in Denver.
“We have the deepest, deepest admiration for them, and we copy a lot of stuff off them because there’s such a cool history behind that place,” Patterson said, “but hopefully we come off as authentic and not at all parodying them.”
Broken Bow isn’t Denver’s first Western music and dance bar. The venue joins a long list of country nightlife establishments in the Denver metro area, including The Grizzly Rose, which opened in 1989, Belles & Boots and Stampede in Aurora, Urban Cowboy in uptown Denver, and American Lore in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood. Patterson believes that Broken Bow is distinguished by its authentic Western experience, downtown location and appeal to a younger audience, particularly through its associated online brand.
“I think we really needed a place like this in town because there’s nothing like it, and there used to be more stuff like it,” Patterson said. “People are just kind of yearning for something real and not as flashy and produced.”
Conti agreed with Patterson’s sentiments.
“I think this is something that’s needed here,” he said. “It’s not only a place people can gather and be together, but it’s also a place where people of different groups and backgrounds and ideals can come together and just simply enjoy going to a good bar. I haven’t found that anywhere else.”
Music and dancing are central to that identity. Broken Bow hosts live artists and swing-dancing lessons, giving visitors a reason to do more than stand around with a drink. Musician Aaron Kanter said the space immediately felt familiar.
“I like it here,” Kanter said. “It’s exactly what I’m used to down in Texas. It’s perfect … This was on my radar instantly. When they opened, I knew I had to go, so I’m glad I got in so early.”
“Dancing is one of the oldest forms of a night out you can have in America,” Patterson said. “It’s a great time. And it’s kind of couple-oriented, so it’s a beautiful scene once people get out there.”
Although some may bristle at the idea of a Western bar in the heart of Denver’s downtown Ballpark District, Patterson claims that locating Broken Bow in an urban area was intentional.
“There are a lot of places you could have put this,” Patterson said. “In Texas, where it’s the honky-tonk capital of the world. You could have chosen some place in Evergreen, where it’s a lot more rural and more people would be keen to it, but if you’re really trying to bring it to the people that need it, it’s a good area.”
“I don’t think I’d have it any other way,” he added. “It’s a funny juxtaposition, and it brings it to people that don’t necessarily know about it, so it’s a gift.”
Two months in, Patterson is pleased with the way business is going and says he has no major changes planned, except for one.
“It’ll be an incremental build of new things and stuff we can collect over the years from artists that come through and things we find,” he said. “But we need a new sign out front. Ours is a stand-in, and we have a neon one to replace it.”
The challenge now is making that feeling last after the novelty of a new bar fades. Patterson said Broken Bow will grow through small additions — a better sign, more music, more regulars, more objects gathered over time — rather than a full reinvention. If the first two months taught him anything, it’s that the bar has successfully brought Western culture to downtown Denver.
“It’s really just Americana,” Patterson said. “And anywhere you go, whether it’s a Western state or not, where these places used to exist, Americana is what defined them. It’s not just cowboy or Western mythology.”
