Beer taps, as far as the eye can see.
That is what students will find upon entering World of Beer (WOB) at its location at 660 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale. The Colorado Blvd. WOB location has made a special effort to get involved with DU students and offers a bus to shuttle students (or whoever wants to go) back and forth from campus every Wednesday night. Last Wednesday saw over 35 DU students enjoying themselves at WOB.
World of Beer is a bar that focuses on maintaining a wide selection of quality beers from all over, and educating customers with their passion and knowledge for craft beers and small breweries. World of Beer can boast carrying more than 500 different beers from over 40 different countries, according to the WOB website. WOB also serves wine, spirits and tavern fare.
The cost to take the bus from DU over to WOB is five dollars but it includes your first drink as well, according to the Colorado Blvd. WOB’s managing partner and marketing director, Ricardo Cabrera. The bus usually picks students up outside of the Shwayder Art Building.
“We wanted to alleviate any issues that would arise from students driving and make it easy as possible for them to come and have a good time but be safe,” said Cabrera.
Each Wednesday night, deemed “World of Beer University” or “WOB-U” for short, WOB offers half-off deals on select drafts from 9 p.m. until close. The WOB-U half-off deal will typically bring the cost of the beer down from around six or seven dollars a beer, to three or four. The drafts that are selected as half-off will vary from week to week.
“It’s understandable that students can’t afford to pay full price on craft beers all night so we look at a different variety every week to discount so that students can taste a wide-range and sample what we are all about,” said Cabrera. “We really want to make it cost-worthy.”
The idea for WOB-U actually came about around 2009 from Cabrera himself, while in college at University of Tampa.
“The first [WOB] franchisee in that market area put a location close to our university in Tampa. He always said their worst night was Wednesdays, so I came up with the idea to do a university night. It went so well that it became a program-wide event, and now every store has a WOB-U on Wednesday,” said Cabrera.
WOB also employs some DU students and alumni. 2013 alumnus Taylor Cedarholm, who found her job at WOB through searching on Craigslist, enjoys seeing some of the DU community come in while she is working behind the bar.
“Working on WOB-U nights is really fun for me because of the many familiar faces I get to see. I don’t live by DU anymore so it’s cool to see all those people that are still going to DU,” said Taylor.
In addition, every Wednesday night one can find a DU alumni band playing both original songs and funky covers on the WOB balcony.
It seems that DU students have taken the bait on WOB-U. WOB-U has seen steady student interest since the shuttle program was implemented in the spring of last year, according to Cabrera. DU fraternity Sigma Chi hosted one of their Derby Days events at WOB last spring. Derby Days is a long standing Sigma Chi philanthropic tradition held for a week each spring.
“WOB on Wednesdays is my go-to,” said Ann-Britt Hakansson, a Daniels graduate student from Truckee, Calif., who noted that she makes it a point to try and go every week.
World of Beer initially opened in Tampa, Fla. WOB then expanded to the east coast, Midwest and now westward, with the Colorado Boulevard location being the first in Denver.
WOB always has events on the calendar that students will enjoy. Coming up next is WOBoween, where they will be tapping a wide variety of pumpkin beers for consumers to try.
