Denver Nightlife

Singers, musicians and comics hold forth in an underground room in the D&F Tower, Denver’s first skyscraper. Typical fare includes jazz, burlesque, or “Demented Divas,” a Las Vegas-style drag show.

A cast of sharp-edged actors picks a topic – Shakespeare, Broadway musicals, dime store novels – and mines its comic depths in improvised scenes; downstairs at the Wynkoop Brewery.

A regular lineup of well-known performers makes this Denver’s hottest spot for cool jazz. Enjoy over cocktails, dinner, or Sunday brunch. A supper menu serves solid fare – grilled steaks and salmon – and there’s dancing in the Art Deco lounge.

Everyone from Sinatra to the Marsalis Brothers has swung in this smoky dive bar that’s packed in audiences since the ’50s (Jack Kerouac even brooded here when he was “on the road”). Snacks like green chilies and burritos add heat to the cool vibe.

Give an old cathedral an “Industrial Retro” room, book big-name DJs and hip hop bands, hold a Goth night, and the young crowd will come. Cigars? Sushi? Wine? You find all that here, too.

This LoDo venue is the rare place that succeeds with both food and entertainment. Easy-going jazz enhances the pleasures of Northern Italian cuisine (spring pea and asparagus risotto; chicken scaloppini).

A mixed, mostly gay and lesbian, crowd shows up here for Broadway sing-a-longs, “twisted” bingo, and retro ’80s nights. On warm evenings the crowd spills onto an outdoor patio.