Lion's Lair — Restaurant in Denver

This person's 1 star review explains why I gave Lion's Lair 5 stars better than I can:

ShaneandDanielle Shaffer

1 review 4 years ago My 5 girlfriends and I went here based on a friend referral. It was a Friday night and they were having live music. It wasn't in the best of neighborhoods, but we did see a bouncer watching the door. We walked in and noticed there were a few regulars at the bar, but our party of all women was about it in there. When a few of my girlfriends and I walked out to have a smoke, we decided to let the bouncer aware of the concerns of the neighborhood we had. Then a few moments later, a homeless man approached me and my friends...trying to sell us poetry and bugging us for money. I looked at the bouncer and he just turned around and walked inside the bar. It was pretty uncomfortable. Finally a nice, random gentleman stopped to help move the man along. The bouncer returned outside saying, "I know that guy, he is harmless..". I looked at him and said, " The least you could have done was communicated that to us!" He immediately got upset and told me, "that's it, your 86! You can't come back in!" My girlfriends where shocked how he escalated it so fast. They went in to get the rest of my party. The bouncer would not let me back in the doorway and he decided to stay inside the bar the rest of the time. So here I was outside, alone and on Colfax. He could have at least stood outside with me, knowing my fears until my friends came out. I have never had such rude door behavior in all of Denver. He said he was from Utah....so he obviously doesn't have any friendly, out going qualities of a true Colorado individual! If this bar wants to succeed, they should make female clients feel more comfortable in coming to this bar. Definitely will NEVER go...

My 5 girlfriends and I went here based on a friend referral. It was a Friday night and they were having live music. It wasn't in the best of neighborhoods, but we did see a bouncer watching the door. We walked in and noticed there were a few regulars at the bar, but our party of all women was about it in there. When a few of my girlfriends and I walked out to have a smoke, we decided to let the bouncer aware of the concerns of the neighborhood we had. Then a few moments later, a homeless man approached me and my friends...trying to sell us poetry and bugging us for money. I looked at the bouncer and he just turned around and walked inside the bar. It was pretty uncomfortable. Finally a nice, random gentleman stopped to help move the man along. The bouncer returned outside saying, "I know that guy, he is harmless..". I looked at him and said, " The least you could have done was communicated that to us!" He immediately got upset and told me, "that's it, your 86! You can't come back in!" My girlfriends where shocked how he escalated it so fast. They went in to get the rest of my party. The bouncer would not let me back in the doorway and he decided to stay inside the bar the rest of the time. So here I was outside, alone and on Colfax. He could have at least stood outside with me, knowing my fears until my friends came out. I have never had such rude door behavior in all of Denver. He said he was from Utah....so he obviously doesn't have any friendly, out going qualities of a true Colorado individual! If this bar wants to succeed, they should make female clients feel more comfortable in coming to this bar. Definitely will NEVER go...

From a musicians perspective: I only played there once-- last week after calling multiple times (cause of no response) to find out when open mic starts and finally ended up going-- it was almost completely empty and I now know why: this week (tonight) I called to double check when open mic starts FOUR seperate times during the day, multiple times and kept getting the voicemail. (ive worked at bars before, they're dead during the day--no excuse) Finally, I got someone at 6:30 and I got "same time I told you it was last week--9pm" (at least the bartender remembered me?) and he gave me a lesson in being patient(how about you do your job and answer the phone?). I told him I was actually playing at another place so I was wanting to know the time to be sure and I'm sorry and hung up. I called an hour after the time I was told by the bartender and lone behold, it was cancelled and the open mic guy never showed. And I don't blame him. Pick up the phone--put up a schedule on Facebook and be consistent. I understand it's a 'punk bar' but it's not cool being a consumer and being ignored. Local artists can bring you a lot of business if you don't...