Denver, COSports Bars

Stoney's Bar & Grill is a sprawling Capitol Hill room built to hold a crowd on game day, with two bars to belly up to and Colorado beers on tap alongside solid bar food. A ski lift chair from Keystone sits up front, a nod to everything Colorado about the place. University of Kansas fans pack it out for the Rock Chalk chant on football Saturdays, filling the room for each weekend matchup. Order a Colorado beer and find a spot at one of the two bars to settle in.

Chopper's Sports Grill is named for Bob Chopper Travaglini, the late Denver Nuggets trainer, and still holds onto Cherry Creek's older, less polished days. Sports memorabilia and televisions cover every nook of the room, bathrooms included, and the kitchen turns out bites a step above standard bar food. Alumni of visiting teams gather here too, filling the room for their own school's matchups alongside the regulars rooting for Denver's teams. Order the Chopper's burger and find a seat among the memorabilia to watch.

Tight End is Denver's only gay sports bar, built around nine televisions tuned to the Avs and Nuggets and a patio meant for settling in between innings or periods. The kitchen runs as the End Zone Pizzeria, turning out pies alongside an extensive cocktail and beer list. It exists as a safe space for sports watchers rather than a dance floor or a drag stage, with a neighborhood bar feel built in from the start. Order a pizza from the End Zone kitchen and take a patio seat for whatever game is on.

The 99ers is Colorado's first bar built entirely around women's sports, named for the U.S. Women's National Team that won the 1999 World Cup. Its screens, eight upstairs and one more in the basement pool room, run women's sports well past the fifty percent mark most bars fall short of, from college softball to the WNBA. A mural by local artist Lindsay Martin covers a wall downstairs near the pool table. The room reads as small and welcoming rather than a typical sports bar, built for a crowd that wants the games actually on.

Origins Sports Bar & Grill sits below street level in Wash Park, reached through a door off the alley and down a flight of stairs, with a print of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow greeting people at the bottom. It has become a gathering place for Bengals fans on game day, though the room works for any game with a full lineup of TVs and local brews on tap. Locally owned since 2023, the bar keeps a hidden feel despite its game-day crowd. Order a local draft and settle in near the Burrow print for kickoff.