Fortissimo Denver — Restaurant in Denver

I’ve been to this place four times during two different Denver trips in the past eight months. I’m a musician, and I swear, these players are LEGIT. Ignore all the negative reviews*. The quality of the entertainment and the service depends a lot on the patrons in the audience. I can’t lie. Each night that I went with my friends (work colleagues), and once with my wife, we were having so much fun, and stayed after closing time to chat with the entertainers and staff.

My first experience was a Wednesday night Broadway Jukebox Karaoke. Musical genius Joshua Steven Kartes and co-host Chocolatina “Queen of Pies” bantered about the musical theatre landscape with a bunch of singer friends who were talented enough to play on Broadway—actually, that night, Max Chernin dazzled us with a couple of numbers. He was visiting Denver while on vacation after his latest Broadway show closed.

The next night I brought my wife and the crowd was smaller and more reserved. Jon Sherman, Riley O’Toole, and John Tuck wowed us with hits from multiple decades. I was blown away by Jon’s keytar prowess on Sweet Child of Mine and Separate Ways (World’s Apart).

Eight months later, the Wednesday night was a more reserved general purpose karaoke show where several party people got up to “sing”, a vocal instructor got up to SING, Chocolatina’s pastry chef alter ego Martin Howard truly entertained with the voice teacher AND Joshua Steven Kartes, and I muddled through renditions of Waving Through A Window (video) and Scenes From An Italian Restaurant.

The next night, eight of my work colleagues joined a handful of private party-goers and the place was electric! Jon and Riley were joined by the soulfully smoky voice of Jami McNeill, whose rendition of Janis Joplin’s Bobby McGee sent chills down my spine! Jon again keytared through Hotel California (ending on video). Although, the most impressive moment was when Riley ripped through Eminem’s Slim Shady (video).

I didn’t talk about the food because we mostly drank pitchers of beer, fancy cocktails, and mocktails. When I brought my wife last year, we made a dinner from a selection of appetizers. But you don’t go here just to eat. With the right crowd, the atmosphere is such a fun place to be!

What a treat! I make a point to visit this place whenever I’m in Denver!

Notes: Okay the bar’s paid reservation policy is a little ridiculous, at $5/each for Wednesday, $10/each for general, and $15/each for reserved seating. It would make sense if the cost gets credited off your food and beverage tab, but there isn’t anything in the website...

I’ve never left a review before for poor service but I’m sorry this was pretty awful.

Came for valentines dinner. They locked the doors and made everyone wait outside (it was pretty cold) and told us we had to wait until 8:30 to be seated. The first round of drinks took over 20 minutes to come out. We got a 3 course meal, the first course came out after about an hour, when other tables were starting to get their dessert already. The food was super not great, I got an artichoke dip that was super watery with ‘crostini’ that was actually just stale bread. My girlfriend got a charcuterie board that could have been assembled better in 5 minutes from a king soopers.

We got our dinner an hour and forty minutes into the service. We asked to get our dessert to go, couldn’t wait another hour. Our server apologized for the poor service and gave us two free drinks, which is the only reason I wouldn’t give this place one star overall. Bartenders were hitting vapes and joking around with eachother instead of getting drinks out.

As for the music, two of the musicians were great, one was ok… not really professional especially with his sideways hat, just a super different vibe than the other two. The back of house for sound has to get it together also, the music was frequently changing volumes, either way too loud, or basically off.

I know we weren’t the only ones that were disappointed in the overall experience, multiple other tables got their food to go and left early.

If you’re looking for a nice date night, go to Nocturne, a place that’s got it together and you’ll leave with a couple less dollars in your pocket, but a much better experience.

Fortissimo, you gotta get...

I came to Denver for a weekend trip. Looked for something in the area to do for a Saturday evening. I reserved for general admission. I should have done a bit more research. I could hear the music but it was impossible to see the players as the bar is completely not designed to be a dueling piano bar. The section for GA is on the opposite side of the bar behind a couple walls on either side of the bar. You can look through the bar to try to get a view but even then, they had it all covered with silly decorations that made it impossible. The bartending staff were not friendly at all. I ordered sliders and pretzel bites. The sliders came out and were less than warm. The pretzel bites never showed up. Once we got the tab it was discovered that the bites had never been put in. The bartender rang them in and told us to wait about 5 min. 20 min later we still had no pretzel bites and no view. We decided not to let it ruin the rest of our evening in Denver and we left. We will be traveling a lot to Denver over the next year but will never return to this place. Not worth the reservation fee. If you are looking for something fun to do I would recommend finding another establishment to spend...