BEZEL Bar — Restaurant in Denver

It's a bar in a hotel but NOTHING about it is a "hotel bar." I'm not often blindsighted by a place but if you read nothing else, know there aren't enough stars to give Bezel. More embellishment below.

My wife, father in law and I are all fans of mixology. We were in town staying at the Sheraton for a convention and stopped in June 9 and June 10. In our advanced ages we prefer quality over quantity, It's also become a passion/hobby for my father in law to make amazing mixed drinks at home so we seek out good cocktails bars wherever we go for inspiration.

Bezel hit the mark on every single level. On our way back into the hotel I had side-eyed Bezel and noticed it had an exceptional selection so we all met up to hang out. Now, compared to some other cocktails specific places I've been to that can be funky, off the cuff and loud; Bezel is relaxing, the mixes are razor sharp, precise, honed, masterful, elegant, sexy and smooth. We are not much for places that get so loud that you're constantly screaming to talk, Bezel was chill without feeling dead, a great place to sit and enjoy an evening.

We had the fortune to be hosted by Ravin, someone we learned had a resume of being one of the great mixologists in California and was brought in to make Bezel what it clearly is: exceptional.

Bezel is one of those places you just name a spirit, name some desired flavors and Ravin is going to make it right. I had a rum drink earlier so he made me my first rum old fashioned. My father in law had probably one of the best smoked rye drinks of his life and my wife's mezcal drink was amongst the best she's ever tasted. Truly of all the cocktails bars we've experienced, this one was on a different level. The 3 or 4 drinks I had there over the two nights we went were the smoothest best most precise versions they could be. Ravin and presumably the whole staff were martial artists. Like most things of true quality, there's a quick ramp up from commodity level to "hey this is pretty good" BUT after that, the chase is that last 5 to 10% where small details make big differences. Greatness in whatever form it takes isn't about money, it's about passion and the money is the side affect. Right there, right now exists greatness, go experience it for...

My wife picked this place for her birthday and we were really excited. First I wasn't expecting a lounge, I thought it was a sit down restaurant. No problem, we were still excited. There was no one to greet us at the door and we had reservations. So we sat at one of the corner areas. The waiter tells us that they are very short staffed, it's just him and the bartender. As someone who's worked in hospitality, I understood. However, As a consumer/customer, no ones cares that people called in or that you are short staffed. Sounds like the Sheraton or restaurant owner should re-evaluate the staff they have. It took the waiter 20 minutes to take our drink order and we didn't get it until 30 minutes after we got there. We told the waiter we wanted to get food and he simply ignored us, which was disappointing because he had food runners, so if he would've taken our whole order from the jump we would have been fine. We had been there for 45 minutes before we decided to just pay and leave. I walked up to the waiter at the kiosk and he asked me if I was with the big party. No man, just want to pay and leave because it's after 8pm and we're hungry. We went to a place down the street and had great service and food. Real disappointment because the food looked amazing and the drinks we had were out of this world. It was a big disappointment.

UPDATE- the amazing team at Bezel reached out and treated us to drinks and food. It was fantastic! The experience we were hoping for happened. Jamie our waitress killed it and the bartender Bobby was on point like he was last time. Emily who reached out was very accommodating to us. We are very happy with everything and plan to come back for the winter menu. I left my previous review to show that this place really cares about it's service and the customers experience. Thank you...

I can’t begin to describe how cool, trendy, and fun this bar is. Everyone knows that the bar staff make or break your experience and Tyler and Ravin broke the mold for great service.

We came in on our first night in town when my back was killing me from helping to set up an event and we’re just going to have one happy hour drink and then move on to find a place for dinner, instead we just never left!

I started with a glass of Pinot Grigio, and my friend got an Old Fashioned. I said ‘ugh, whiskey is so gross. I can’t stand it!’ Ravin said “I can make you like whiskey” to which I scoffed because, no. But I said ‘go ahead and show me what you got.’ Guess what? He made me an amazing Old Fashioned with Rye, Cardamom bitters and applewood smoke. I loved it. He won!

We spent a piece of every night in Bezel, meeting cool new people, trying tasty cocktails and they even made some gorgeous impressive MOCKtails so no one felt left out.

We got the sliders and fries for dinner one night and were not disappointed. The sliders were slightly larger than a traditional slider and the fries were salty and crispy and delicious.

There was also an outdoor seating area with fire pits but we were happy right where we were. I will definitely come back to Denver and FOR SURE...