A self-serve beer hall in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood has closed after a decade following “a steady decline since COVID,” according to its owner.
First Draft Taproom & Kitchen ceased operations at 1309 26th St. over the weekend.
California transplant Mark Slattery opened the business in 2015, taking advantage of technology from a company called iPourIt.
Customers could fill their glasses from some 40 taps of beer, cider, wine and other beverages on the perimeter of the establishment. An RFID chip in their wristband monitored their pours and charged them by the ounce. An on-site kitchen dished up burgers, wings, pizza and sandwiches.
“You can be waiting for 15 minutes at a bar before the bartender comes over to take your order,” Slattery told BusinessDen in 2015. “Here, you don’t have to wait for the bartender.”
On Tuesday, Slattery said his lease for the 2,500-square-foot spot with a sizable patio was up at the end of this month. His landlord, the national retail landlord Edens, wanted more in rent and was “not super flexible.” Had he renewed, Slattery said, his all-in monthly cost — which includes things like property taxes in addition to base rent — would have been about triple what it was when First Draft opened.
“It just didn’t make sense for us,” he said.
Edens, which spent about $100 million on RiNo real estate in the immediate area, declined to comment on the plan for First Draft’s space.
Slattery said the demographic coming to RiNo seems to have changed. When First Draft opened, he said, the neighborhood known for its breweries attracted customers in their upper 20s or early 30s.
“Once COVID came and left, it mainly became a 26-and-under kind of crowd,” he said, adding that the pandemic also nixed First Draft’s corporate happy hours and events business.
After opening in Denver, Slattery expanded First Draft to Los Angeles and Minneapolis. The latter closed in early 2024. L.A. also has challenges but remains open in part because it still has time left on its lease.
“We’re trying to stick it out and turn it around,” Slattery said of L.A. “But it’s tough.”
Other developments in the RiNo booze scene this year include the closure of the Blue Moon brewpub and Great Divide’s taproom along Brighton Boulevard. An investor in the shuttered Infinite Monkey Theorem winery, meanwhile, is feuding with the business’s former landlord.
