The Wynkoop

I passed the Wynkoop Brewing Company the other day while walking around Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo), and took the above photograph. I just loved to have a beer or two on that patio, especially after an afternoon baseball game at nearby Coors Field. This was the first brewpub in Denver, started by John Hickenlooper and 3 partners back in 1988, after he was laid off from his job as a geologist. This was before Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, was built, and long before LoDo became a hipster hangout. Hickenlooper, by the way, later became mayor of Denver, then governor, and is now running for the senate. Once Hickenlooper became mayor, he sold his interest in the Wynkoop and a number of other bars that the company later acquired. If Hickenlooper doesn't win the senate race, will he wind up back here as a waiter? Hopefully his old partners will at least make him the maitre d.