Explore LoDo Denver Fall Events and New Restaurants

As the Denver Gazette reported, chef Frank Bonanno said, "We're all about embracing past and future Denver," while announcing that his next restaurant, Rōmyō, would take over a slice of the historic Miller Building at 1401 Larimer Street. It is a Japanese-Italian concept with an 80-seat dining room, a kaiseki-inspired bar, and a patio on one of the oldest blocks in the city. Bonanno Concepts already runs Osteria Marco, Green Russell, and Russell's Smokehouse on that same stretch of Larimer, so this isn't a company testing the neighborhood. The new restaurant will join Bonanno Concepts' existing Larimer Street lineup.

The opening is one part of a broader look at LoDo's evening options.

Recent LoDo Nightlife Closures

Three LoDo nightlife spots shut down within a few months of each other this year. Riot House Denver, the nightclub that had taken over the old Real World house, closed after two years, citing what its operators called ongoing market challenges. Church & Union and 1UP Arcade Bar LoDo both went dark in late June, part of a broader wave of closures that hit Denver that month.

None of these were quiet, sit-down places. A nightclub, an arcade bar, a restaurant-bar hybrid built for groups and late hours. Different concepts, same basic promise: come as you are, no reservation required, the night will find its own shape once you're inside.

Those venues offered a different kind of evening from the dining options described below.

New Dining Options

Le Do Thai opened at 1550 Blake Street with a menu built around Tom Yum, papaya salad, and a lineup of curries that lean into duck and lobster rather than the fast, familiar version of Thai food. It's the kind of place built for a table, not a bar rail.

Rōmyō, when it opens at 1401 Larimer, will operate the same way. A curated bar program, a patio meant for lingering, a room sized for 80 people rather than a crowd that spills onto the sidewalk. Larimer Square has always run on that kind of pacing. Jennifer Jasinski's Rioja has anchored the block since 2004 with the same unhurried, reservation-driven approach, and it's still one of the harder tables to get on a Friday.

The closures and openings show a mix of nightlife venues and table-focused dining options in LoDo.

LoDo's September Calendar

LoDo's September calendar adds a range of cultural and architectural events to the neighborhood's evening options.

Doors Open Denver returns September 24 through 27 with the theme Destination Downtown, timed to Colorado's 150th anniversary. One of the stops on this year's tour is the Alliance Center, a building that started in 1908 as a freight warehouse serving Denver's rail and cargo trade before Tattered Cover Bookstore later used it to ship and store stock. The event is built around walking into rooms most people only pass on the sidewalk and learning what they used to be.

A week earlier, the Denver Jazz Festival runs September 16 through 20, five days of jazz, blues, and swing across downtown venues, with tickets starting at $35. It's a ticketed, scheduled festival running across the week.

Meanwhile, Union Station's Terminal Bar has free live music on its patio every Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. through September, offering a no-reservation option this month.

Together, the closures, openings, and calendar show a range of ways to spend an evening in LoDo, from drop-in venues to ticketed and table-focused options.

Friday Night Options in LoDo

LoDo's September calendar includes ticketed events as well as free live music.

If you're planning the next few weeks here, a few things are worth knowing before you head out the door:

• Jazz Festival tickets for September 16 through 20 are already on sale, and the festival is underway.
• Doors Open Denver's LoDo stops, including the Alliance Center tour, are part of a members-first ticket window, so anyone wanting a spot should look at the schedule sooner rather than later.
• The Terminal Bar's free Friday sets on the Union Station patio run through September, offering a seasonal no-plan option.
• If Rōmyō's opening runs anything like Bonanno's other Larimer Square restaurants, a same-week table will be hard to find. Osteria Marco and Green Russell both built reputations on being worth the wait, and Rōmyō is stepping into that same lineage on the same block.

The closures, openings, and civic and cultural calendar offer a snapshot of LoDo this month.

A Changing Mix of LoDo Evening Options

I've spent more than three decades in this city, and neighborhoods change restaurant by restaurant, closure by closure. LoDo this September is a good example. The bricks are the same. Larimer Square still closes to traffic on warm evenings. Union Station's Great Hall still fills up every night of the week. LoDo's mix of dining, nightlife, and scheduled events offers different ways to spend an evening.

If you live here, you've probably felt this without putting words to it. If you're watching this neighborhood from the outside and wondering what its rhythm actually feels like day to day, this is one perspective on it.

I write about these shifts because I notice them the same way any longtime resident does, and because they tend to matter more than people expect once a property conversation eventually comes up. If you ever want to talk about what a changing block means for a home here, or anywhere else across Denver and Boulder, I'm easy to find.

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