The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch opened in 2024 at 1842 South Broadway, set back behind Upswell Studios in South Denver, from hospitality veteran Iain Chisholm, who previously worked on Americatus and DADA Art Bar and lives a few blocks away. The bar runs two shifts out of one room, a model the team says it took from Thai drinking establishments: it opens at 6:30am as a coffee shop, light and sun-filled, and turns over in the evening into something the owners describe as darker, moodier and a little electric. The design is a Hollywood Regency and ski lodge fusion, leather couches and velvet chairs against black-and-white checkered floors, with hanging chandeliers, gilded mirrors, framed digital art, a VIP booth and a planted patio. Rotating DJs play downtempo house through evening service, which makes weekend brunch a livelier event than the hour suggests.

For a non-drinker the honest picture is that the daytime programme is the stronger half. The coffee and tea list is properly built: a Blueberry Matcha of premium Japanese matcha shaken with house-made blueberry syrup and the milk of choice, a Honey Nut Cheerio Latte on house brown sugar and honey syrups, a White Chocolate Strawberry Latte, a Honey Chamomile Tea Latte, a matcha lemonade shaken with grapefruit, pineapple or lemon juice, plus chai, London Fog and loose-leaf tea. On the alcohol side the current menu carries a smaller zero-proof selection than the bar's press coverage implies: the Greenhouse Rickey N/A ($10) of Seedlip Garden 108, agave, fresh lime, cucumber and soda, and a Sober Carpenter alcohol-free craft blonde ale on the happy hour list, plus an N/A Mimosa ($12) built on Lunetta Zero sparkling wine with fresh pressed orange juice at brunch. Westword's January 1, 2026 Dry January round-up described a robust mocktail selection and named an orange dreamsicle and the Goldwing, a zero-proof version of the house signature with pineapple, lime, bell pepper habanero syrup and egg white; neither appears on the menu as published now. The practical read for a non-drinker is that the morning and afternoon shift is the reliable one: the room opens at 6:30am on weekdays and 9am at weekends, the coffee programme is genuinely built rather than bought in, and the evening zero-proof list is currently short.