Photo by: Michael Furman
Tuesday at 3 p.m. the Border will reopen, after being shut down last fall for a liquor-licensing violation fraction.
The new owners are Brian Haddad, 34 and David Weiss, 30, who operate two poolside bars in metro Denver.
“We definitely knew about the Border and we know that it’s had a long history here,” Haddad said. “We’d like to continue that history as the Border.”
The previous owners, REM Capital Corp., had to sell the Border after their liquor license was suspended for 30 days. The suspension resulted from an undercover police operation last summer where the bar was accused of selling liquor to an underage person, according to a stipulation released by the Denver Police Department.
This was the bar’s fourth violation of the Colorado Liquor Code since Feb. 12, 2006, according to City Attorney John Poley.
“The reason that led to the sale is four underage liquor violations in two years. Denver PD is out here all the time, to all of these different bars,” said Haddad. “We obviously want to be here for a long time and our goal, of course, is 21 and up.”
According to Haddad, all the systems are in place to prevent underage drinking.
The stipulation also stated that the former owners had to sell the business by Dec. 1, 2010, which is when their liquor license would have come up for renewal. With so many anxious buyers, REM Capital Corp. was able to sell much sooner than that.
Haddad and Weiss finalized the purchase of the Border on last Friday. The listing price was $195,000 and included the bar and kitchen equipment of the 3,866-square-foot establishment at 2014 South University Boulevard.
Shawn Sanborn of Sanborn & Co. brokered the deal and it all happened pretty quickly.
“We learned about the opportunity in December and we were very excited about the opportunity and within a couple weeks we were negotiating the process,” Haddad said.
With new owners also come a completely new management and staff.
“We had more than 700 applications from Craigslist in five days. We conducted about 125 interviews and from that we picked 25 people,” said Haddad.
However, owning a bar is nothing new for Haddad and Weiss. They own the Breakers Café inside the Breakers Resort in Denver and the Parkside Café inside Palomino Park Resort in Highlands Ranch, both of which are poolside bars within apartment complexes.
One of the goals they have for The Border is for it to be a place for more than just late-night college drinking.
“We are really trying to appeal to faculty, staff, the local community and of course all the students at DU,” Haddad said. “Our goal is to really build that whole lunch component here.”
Menu items include nothing costing more than $9, except for the Pioneer Challenge. The Pioneer Challenge is a $20 burger that comes with nine patties, nine pieces of cheese, toppings, coleslaw and fries. The challenge is that if someone can eat the burger in 20 minutes, they get their picture framed on the Burger Wall of Fame. A variety of menu items is available, but most of the options are comfort bar food, such as burgers, wings and sandwiches. There also are several Mexican food options.
Happy hour will be Monday to Thursday from 3 – 7 p.m. and Saturday from 1 – 8 p.m. Happy hour includes $2 domestic drafts, wells and wines; and $3 long islands, microbrews and imports.
There will be a $3 menu available during happy hour, which consists of fries, chips and salsa, chicken fingers, vegetable with hummus and more. There also will be an emphasis on trying to have live music and get some big name musicians to come play at The Border on weekends.
“We’d love to host DU bands here all the time. We’d love to see if we could get The Flobots or Kinetix,” he said.
So far only minor changes have been made to the interior, such as painting and removing the wall between the bar and the booths. This summer, they plan on making some bigger renovations.
“We’ll probably make some more renovations, like making the rest rooms better and we’re looking at a rooftop patio,” said Haddad.
The Border will be open Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
“You’ll see Dave and I here a lot. We are looking forward to meeting the students and turning this into an awesome hotspot,” said Haddad.
