Best Denver Nightlife

Denver is known for its brewpubs, and the Wynkoop Brewing Co. holds a special place in brewpub history. This is the brewpub that helped transform LoDo from waste town to cool town and it remains one of the best Denver bars around. This place is a local favorite, and for good reason. Try their beer sampler with your burger, and you'll understand this city's love affair with beer. They make stuff you definitely won’t find in your supermarket’s cooler: chile beer (with Anaheim chiles and smoked ancho) and year-round cask-conditioned India pale ale and ESB. The brewery is located in a 19th century department store that retains its impressive pillars and pressed-tin ceiling. Excellent pub-style foods with a Southwestern twist are on the menu and upstairs, there’s an expansive billiards area with 22 regulation tables, dart lanes and two private billiards rooms. The place is so popular that one of the founders, John Hickenlooper, is now mayor of Denver. 

Serious clubbers flock to Club Vinyl’s four floors of pleasure. Each floor is different with DJs spinning their favorites from rap to reggaeton to R&B. Vinyl is one of the best Denver clubs for a late night dance party. The partially enclosed roof patio features 21-and-over Reggae on the Roof on Thursdays and the main floor has a sprawling dance floor while the basement is lined with flat-screen TVs.

Complete with Gothic arches and stained glass, this venerable dance club is housed in an actual 1865 church. It’s now given over to DJs and dancing. The music can vary depending on when you go—techno groove has been a mainstay—but it’s all about seeing and being seen as clubbers crowd up to the bars for refills on energy drinks infused with various kinds of alcohol. When you need to cool off, check the rooftop deck of The Church and scope the city’s sea of lights washing up against the eastern slope. 

If you love salsa, then you'll want to shake it down at La Rumba. This place draws big crowds every week, and you can rumba, cha cha or merengue on a big dance floor inside. La Rumba is one of the best Denver clubs for salsa. Can't salsa? Well, join the crowd. There are free dance lessons on Thursday and Saturday nights.