The Terminal Bar, Old And New

I walked through Denver's remodeled Union Station on the way to the light rail train home a while back, and took the photograph on the left of the Terminal Bar, which is named after the original Terminal Bar, located a few blocks away down 17th Street. There are a number of upscale shops and restaurants, as well as an upscale hotel, inside Union Station now, and the original waiting room has been transformed into a living room style open space to sit and enjoy your food and drinks. And you can order your drinks at the Terminal Bar through what was once the ticket counter for the station, and then sit wherever you like.

The original Terminal Bar, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, was located in what was then a very sketchy area. Jack Kerouac used to drink there, and is said to have rented a room on the second floor. The building is now the home of Jax Fish House and Oyster Bar, specializes in sushi, and can be seen in the photograph on the right. I am pretty sure that Jack Kerouac was not a sushi kind of guy, and I suspect if he was still around today, he would ditch the room on the second floor and move somewhere else. And I also suspect he wasn't very picky. He once bought a house in Lakewood, Colorado, a suburb just west of Denver, and convinced his family to move there, which they briefly did before realizing what Lakewood was really like. Once they left, Kerouac sold the place and moved to San Francisco. A very wise choice indeed.