A year and a week after the legendary Carioca Cafe dive bar caught fire, a sizable section of the 135-year-old Denver building’s graffiti-strewn back wall collapsed Monday.
Rich Granville, manager and operator of what locals affectionately call Bar Bar, said he was only a couple of weeks away from reopening the bar for the first time since the June 24, 2024, fire. He just received his electric meter release permit from the city last week, allowing Xcel Energy to bring juice back to the building at 2060 Champa St.
Now, he’ll have to reset and give it another go — if he can.
“Anything I can do to preserve it — if there’s a way to move forward — I will,” said Granville, 39. “As a Denver dive staple, it holds a place in a lot of people’s hearts — both in historic relevance and in the music community.”
In a Denver Post article published 20 years ago, the 80-year-old Carioca Cafe was described as “no cafe.”
“This is a watering hole,” the story said.
“Although the area around it is made up of mostly upscale lofts, the Carioca is drenched with a working-class, beer-stained hipster vibe,” the newspaper reported. “The booths are smoothed and used, and the mural on the wall is faded.”
Granville first stepped into the bar about seven years ago as a trombone player in the now-defunct band People Corrupting People. He was hooked. Now frontman for the band Poison Politix, Granville still plays at the Carioca Cafe — or did until the fire a year ago.
Whether he can get to the cusp of another reopening of Bar Bar after coming so close this month will depend on the overall integrity of the building, Granville said.
“We’re going to cross our fingers and see what the structural engineer says,” he said. “If the building is too compromised there might be nothing we can do.”
It was a year ago that Granville was uttering similar words after the fire that destroyed part of the building.
“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 told The Denver Post a few days after the blaze. “I don’t know if it’ll be $2,500 or $25,000 or more. We really don’t have the capital for this.”
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Collapsed wall at former Bar Bar closes Champa Street in downtown Denver Beloved Denver dive bar damaged by fire: “We really don’t have the capital for this” Carioca bucks tide, trendsThe cost to shore up the building after Monday’s collapse, which Granville said happened about 7:15 a.m., is unknown at this point — once again. Granville doesn’t think the building was insured because of its vacant status.
The cause of the collapse remains unknown as well, he said, with a fire investigator telling him he thought perhaps a car had hit the building. But Granville heard other theories from other officials. About half a dozen vehicles parked next to the building sustained various amounts of damage from falling debris.
Whatever the cause of the collapse, Granville said he will do what he has to do to collect the money to put the Carioca Cafe back together, be it crowdfunding or calling in more favors.
“Despite a bunch of tragic events, I’m still here,” he said. “I love the place.”
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