The Whiskey Rose — Local services in Colorado Springs

Really took a nice small town bar and turned it into a Denver bar. You get LOVLEY invasive pat down before even getting into the bar. This isn’t the air port, this is the springs for god sakes. There is a $10 cover fee for EVERYONE on ladies night. They also up-charged the drinks by $5-$10, again this is the springs… And you listen to a live bands for more than half the time. Spent and hour there just to hear the band two different times and the DJ only played once. The new rose also thought it would bee a great idea to hire completely new staff, which in my opinion was a horrible idea. The Barron staff was well know and loved by so many people of Colorado Springs. I am not saying the staff was unfriendly, it was a bad call to not hire the old staff they had a connection with everyone who frequented this bar and they brought in a ton on customers. This building was already small, but since they wanted live bands almost every night they made the space even smaller, good thing this place is pretty much dead on the busiest night of the week it doesn’t make a difference. Don’t even think about taking laps around the bar because you have to make U turns. LETS SHINE some light on the lighting situation, they have green, red, and blue strobe lights over the dance floor, and while you’re out there spinning its impossible to see and so disorienting. The temperature in that place is like 100 degrees I haven’t been sweating sitting down since I tried out the rose. AND if you want to go outside you have to LEAVE your drink with a staff member, and when there is 20+ drinks there how are you supposed to know which one is yours?? You don’t, go buy another over priced watered down beverage. Me and the girls love taking pictures in the bathroom, they took away this table where we could set our stuff down so we had to put out stuff on the bathroom floor! And the soap dispensers… half of them are broken??? Y’all just opened. The vibes of this new whiskey are hostile and unwelcoming. The people who are attending the rose (from what I saw) was an older crowd, all the line and swing dancers of the younger age have disappeared. Unless you LOVE living music, dripping in sweat like a sinner in church from just sitting, leaving your beverage unattended, feel like your about to stroke out on the dance, and break the bank to get two drinks. DONT GO. Everyone who has spent years making memories at whiskey, don’t go. It’s sad and a complete...

The jury’s still out. On the plus side, the security team is more professional and friendly than before—definitely an improvement. That said, the use of pat-downs at the door feels excessive, especially given the clientele. Many Friday night regulars work in highly secure environments like NORAD and Space Command. To them, and especially to their guests, pat-downs come across as intrusive and unnecessary. A better solution? Handheld metal-detecting wands. They’re inexpensive, less invasive, more efficient, and often more effective. No other country venues in the area seem to use pat-downs—places like The Chicken Coop, Copperhead, Boot Barn, and Cowboys don’t, in my experience.

This is Colorado Springs, not North Denver. The military presence here is massive—it’s called “Pentagon West” for a reason.

Also worth mentioning: removing the free first beer, no-cover nights, and military appreciation perks on Friday nights all at once may have made sense financially, but to many loyal patrons, it felt like a slap in the face. Even if those were just “extras,” they mattered. Phasing out one at a time might have softened the blow.

Back to the good: security now shows more professionalism and customer service skills. But again, wands would be a smarter way to ensure safety while keeping the vibe respectful.

Lastly, a quick note on accessibility: the venue only has one disabled parking space, which doesn’t meet ADA minimum requirements. The city relies on private citizens to enforce ADA compliance through lawsuits—which is costly and unnecessary. I really hope WR will be proactive and add a few more accessible spaces rather than wait to be forced into it.

This place has potential and a loyal following—just a few smarter decisions could make a...

We thought maybe they’d be coming in excited about starting a new thing in COS and could have some creative ideas and we would give them a totally fair try. We were very loyal WB patrons, but Thursday night is also our date/dancing night. So knowing TWR wasn’t trying to replicate anything, we knew it would be different, but hoped it could be cool.

We went on a family night, which we did love that they have a night that kids can come and do dance lessons. (That’s the reason for two stars). The situation at the door is ridiculous. This isn’t a bad area. Even downtown they ask my husband to just show his waistband. The frisk session was wild. Then they take the biggest Sharpie known to man and draw huge Xs across both my kids hands that literally didn’t come off completely for a week. Then you get to pay $10 for everyone.

We always pay for their top shelf liquor drinks, and these drinks were seriously trash. Small & super weak, but expensive. Soda, you get a tiny cup full of ice and some soda & pay for every refill. My husband asked the bartender about the soda refill charges and she just shrugged and goes “yeah well I’m not the manager!”. A pizza is as much as you’d pay for a large in a restaurant. Want to play pool? Yep, you’re going to pay for that too.

We had always said that WB felt like (country) Cheers.. just that place where everyone knew your name. People can feel authenticity or lack of, and it felt like the heart got sucked out of this place. It feels very unfriendly from employees, like they want to get as much money out of each customer, and honestly a little boring now. 💔 Such a bummer. We were...