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West Mississippi Avenue bar wars
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The building at 1733 W. Mississippi Avenue used to be the Athmar Bowl. For years it was a fun place to go to bowl and have a beer until it closed in the early 1990s. It has housed several businesses since then and is now the home of Molina's Lavanteria (laundromat), a Western Union check cashing place, offices for a couple of small businesses, a rental hall for special events such as weddings and quinceaneras called Salon Ocampo and the El Forajido bar and restaurant.
The owner of El Forajido, Ester Diaz, is looking to increase business. Nearly 200 people can legally fit into the establishment, but on a typical Friday or Saturday night only 30 to 40 folks patronize it. Mrs. Diaz has a plan to add live music and dancing to fill the place. Her problem is that she will need to upgrade her liquor license from tavern to dance cabaret and overcome neighborhood resistance.
Ana Ordonez, Mrs. Diaz's sister-in-law, gave me a tour of El Forajido. The bar and restaurant looked like how I remember where I would go for beer and burgers while taking bowling breaks years ago. The bowling lanes have been replaced by pool tables, a stage, a dance floor and tables for prospective patrons. The place looked good and smelled like it had been cleaned recently.
Mrs. Ordonez made the news four years ago. While working the concession stand at the Salon Ocampo on May 8, 2005, she was the first person to respond to Detective Donald Young who was working security at the salon for a baptismal party and was shot by a disgruntled patron. Mrs. Ordonez, who had worked as a nurse in her native Chihuahua, tried to help the fallen officer, but the wounds were too severe. Her teen-aged daughter made the first 911 call.
A year after Detective Young's murder the then-owners of El Forajido, then called The Papillon Club, applied for a dance cabaret license. There was no community support for the application and nearby residents readily signed petitions in opposition. The dance cabaret license was not granted. This year, there has been no outcry from close-by residents and the neighborhood association entered into a good-neighbor agreement with Mrs. Diaz concerning hours of operation, security, noise and appearance of the property.
The opposition is coming from the establishment across the street. El Sinaloense, 1740 W. Mississippi Avenue, has a dance cabaret license and the owner organized a petition drive in opposition to El Forajido's application. I asked Mrs. Ordonez if there was any hostility between northern Mexicans from Chihuahua and west-coast Mexicans from Sinaloa like between Coloradoans and Texans during ski season. She said no, it is all about competition and her nephew, Raul Martinez, agreed.
El Sinaloense will be pulling out the big guns for the June 17 hearing before the Denver Department of Excise and License. They hired the law firm of Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings, who specialize in liquor licensing issues, to represent them at the hearing.
It should be a good show.
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