A building at the edge of downtown Denver that once housed a dive bar is no more.
The 2060 Champa St. building previously housed Carioca Cafe, which opened in 1913. The establishment was best known as Bar Bar thanks to the two-direction sign above its front door.
The bar has been closed since a fire damaged the building in June 2024. “We really don’t have the capital for this,” owner Rich Granville told The Denver Post at the time.
Granville made steps to repair and reopen the bar. But a year later, in June 2025, a wall collapsed.
The bar had been trying to raise money on GoFundMe even before the blaze and collapse.
The Champa Street property is owned by Juan and Jovita Bonilla. Denver issued them a demolition permit July 9 and the work began last week.
The Bonillas also own the adjacent parking lots, which run along the rest of the block.
“We’re going to add it to the other parking lots,” Juan Bonilla told BusinessDen.
