Retrograde

Retrograde is entered through the walk-in freezer door at the back of Sweet Action Ice Cream at 530 East 19th Avenue in Uptown. There is no sign and no reservation system: guests walk past the ice cream counter, flip a light switch beside the freezer door and wait for a member of staff to open it. Behind it is a small, dim lounge furnished in mid-century pieces with cosmic detailing, cult and B-movie films projected on the walls, and a soundtrack to match. The bar is 21+, first-come first-served, and caps parties at five, which means a wait is normal on weekend nights. The full-proof menu is organised as a set of film-titled drinks, among them Bubba Ho-tep, Robo Vampire, Operazione Luna, Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space, The Apple, Moon Ghost, Tale of an Onion Witch and Up from the Depths, and the room was named in Westword's Best of Denver 2026 awards.

The bar keeps a standing N/A Cocktails section on its own site, and it is a genuine parallel menu rather than a substitution list. The current board is presented as a mock film poster titled "Invasion of the Pod People" and carries four built drinks. Forbidden Texture is the most technical of them: apple custard, toasted sugar, aromatic bitters and aqua faba, shaken for a foam that reads like a sour. Low Orbit is the lightest, apple, orange and marshmallow. The Thing on the Rocks, subtitled "It Opens Up", is a stirred, spirit-forward analogue built from American oak tea, pear core and aromatic bitters, and is the one to order if the point of the evening is to drink something that behaves like whiskey. The Day the Juice Stood Still is the long drink, clarified orange juice with cold pear, lemon, sobacha and soda water. Bartenders will also build off-menu on request. An earlier bartender's-choice item called A Virgin Among the Living Dead, cited in Do303's Denver non-alcoholic guide, has been replaced by this four-drink board. The bar opens at 6pm Sunday through Thursday and 5pm on Fridays and Saturdays, running to 1am every night, and cocktails start around $17; the non-alcoholic board is priced into the same list rather than discounted, which is consistent with how much work goes into it.