Union Station

Ask five residents to describe Denver, and at least four of them will use the phrase “laid-back.” Perhaps it’s the proximity of the rugged Rockies, perhaps it’s the city’s cow-town roots, or both, but there’s not generally a lot of pomp and circumstance here. Although bars can be crowded from Thursday through Sunday, brewpubs, wine bars, or dives seem to be a more Denver-esque choice than the club scene.

Union Station, better known as LoDo (Lower Downtown) is where you go in Denver when you want urban glitz. The 16th Street Mall runs through the neighborhood (see my review of the CBD for more information), but savvy travelers and locals pass on the Mall for the western or southern portions of the neighborhood. Streets on the western side bristle with steakhouses, dance clubs in old warehouses, and large sports bars/brewpubs. Larimer Square is glamorously festive, draped with a curtain of lights all year round. Coors Field, home of Colorado Rockies baseball, is also located here, and the surrounding blocks are full of bars tailor made for pre-game pumping up and post-game celebration or consolation.

At its best, LoDo offers an enormous variety of urban fun. You can get a salad topped with quail’s eggs, drink swanky cocktails made with organic booze, take in some live music, or sing along to Irish pub tunes or dueling pianos. You can’t swing a sparkly purse in LoDo without hitting some restaurant, bar, or club, and many of them are among Denver’s most notable.

If you’re lucky, the crowd around you will stay classy. But at its worst, LoDo can feel crowded and exhausting as you fight your way through mobs of the young, pretty, and loud, or of frenzied sports fans, who have all converged on LoDo with the singular goal of getting as wasted as possible.

LoDo also has a more sober, daytime identity as part of the downtown business district. Like the Central Business District to the southeast, LoDo is home to more office workers and nighttime revelers than full-time residents, though there is more residential housing here than in the CBD. And that housing is definitively upscale: lofts and luxury condos with drop-dead gorgeous views of the mountains or the bright lights of the city.

The heart of the neighborhood, and what gives it its name, is its historic train station. Union Station is currently undergoing redevelopment as Denver expands its rail network. In addition to more tracks, however, the plans call for a huge amount of retail, residential, office, and hotel construction in areas around the station that were once parking lots or weedy fields. This already desirable neighborhood is going to become more so when this project is completed.