Pub on Pearl poured its last round on August 10, 2025, after 35 years at 1101 S. Pearl St. Its goodbye thanked the regulars and gave no reason for closing. The Denver Post had reported that the building was listed for sale a few months earlier. The bar's owner didn't answer BusinessDen's questions, though, so nobody has publicly linked the listing to the closing.
Then the space sat empty. Westword described the neighborhood as having "waited since last August" for someone new to take over what it called a beloved dive bar. That wait ended on May 27, 2026, when Dry Dock Pub opened in the same spot. Most of Wash Park's food news this year followed that same pattern. Operators who had already proven themselves somewhere else took over storefronts the neighborhood already knew. Very little of the change involved new corners.
The Address Book, Updated
Look at it address by address and the pattern is easy to see. The most recent entry is a rebrand Westword reported on October 2.
| Address | What was there | What's there now | How long it took |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1101 S. Pearl St. | Pub on Pearl, 35 years | Dry Dock Pub | Closed Aug. 10, 2025; reopened May 27, 2026 |
| 1096 S. Gaylord St. | Wash Park Grille | Wash Park Social | Grille closed Feb. 2025; Social open by Aug. 14, 2026 |
| 712½ S. Pearl St. | Colfax and Cream, about a year | Milly's Bagels | Closed early 2026; Milly's listed open by mid-June |
| 1207 E. Alameda Ave. | Goudy's Deli and Market | Le Cochon Chic | Rebrand expected in the coming weeks |
| 1240 S. Pearl St. | Newly partitioned space | Reunion Bakery | Opened early May 2026 |
The two outliers bracket everything else. Pub on Pearl lasted 35 years at 1101 S. Pearl. Colfax and Cream lasted about a year at 712½ S. Pearl. The ice cream and soda shop opened at the corner of Pearl and Exposition Avenue on March 3, 2025, and BusinessDen reported it closed in the weeks before March 5, 2026. Both storefronts found new tenants within months. The rest of this post looks at who those tenants are and where they came from.
Old South Gaylord: A Neighbor Bought the Block's Biggest Room
Wash Park Grille closed for good in February 2025. Its replacement came from people who already worked on South Gaylord. Aaron Grant lives in Wash Park and owns Park Coworking on the same block. His partner Kris Johnson has an office on South Gaylord. The Denver Post reported that the two bought the property at 1096 S. Gaylord St. for $6 million the previous October, and that the interior build-out cost another $1 million to $1.5 million. Bart Hickey runs the kitchen, and he and Justin Martinez round out the ownership group.
"A lot of our investment went into the things you see right when you walk in the door." Bart Hickey, Wash Park Social, to the Denver Post
The room has more booths than the Grille's mostly-table layout, and a horseshoe bar faces you as you walk in. The March preview predicted an end-of-April opening. Westword's April roundup listed Social among that month's openings, and CBS Colorado's "Your Local Dish" segment had lunch there in a piece dated August 14.
The same owners announced a second project next door. Provecho's, a street-taco and margarita spot, was planned for the former Agave Taco Bar space and scheduled for about two months after Social opened. We haven't found any local coverage confirming it has opened, so treat it as a plan for now.
South Pearl: Three Arrivals, Three Back Stories
Dry Dock Pub is a brewery's taproom, not a new bar concept. Dry Dock Brewing lost its Aurora taproom in January after merging with Left Hand Brewery. Co-founder Michelle Reding promised a new location in the first half of 2026, and the brewery opened at 1101 S. Pearl with about a month of that window to spare. "Having a physical location allows us to stay connected to our community even as we grow our presence nationwide," co-founder Kevin DeLange said in the opening announcement. The menu covers pub food and games, and live music is planned.
Milly's Bagels took a different route to its first storefront at 712½ S. Pearl. Milly Lorden started baking bagels at home after moving to Colorado from Chicago. She built a customer base through catering and the occasional farmers market, and told the Denver Post in May that she had delivered 2,500 bagels in the previous several months. Altitude forced changes too. She said she had reworked the recipe more than 100 times and makes "micro-adjustments" depending on whether it rains. She lives about ten minutes south of the shop.
Reunion Bakery is the one entry on the list without a previous tenant at its address, and it shows what a blank space costs in time. Founder Ismael De Sousa announced the move from the Source Hotel's market hall in RiNo more than a year before it happened. When he got the keys, 1240 S. Pearl St. was a newly partitioned property with no plumbing and no electricity. Construction and city permitting pushed his hoped-for May 2025 opening back by a year and added thousands of dollars in renovations. The new space is more than twice the size of his old stall. De Sousa was nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker at the 2023 James Beard Awards, and the bakery's Portuguese and Venezuelan roots show in items like the Nata egg custard tart and the Golfeado sticky bun. Axios reported that Reunion opened in early May with a bigger menu that now includes brunch, cream puffs and tarts, plus bread service Wednesday through Sunday. Food Lab, a cooking school, also moved into the building.
Put the three side by side and the difference is time. Dry Dock and Milly's moved into rooms that were already set up for food, and both opened within months of the previous tenant leaving. Reunion started from bare walls and waited about a year longer than its founder planned.
East Alameda: Same Cheese Cave, New Name Coming
The latest turnover isn't finished yet. Goudy's Deli and Market at 1207 E. Alameda Ave. opened about a year ago with a European approach to cheese, cured meats and sandwiches. Westword reported on October 2 that the shop will become Le Cochon Chic, French for "the stylish pig," in the coming weeks. Original co-owners Christophe and Celine Goudy sold their stake to partner Yvan Lehuerou, who runs Le Frigo in Boulder, and manager Loren Medina. Medina called the reason for the split "complicated." The product lineup is expected to stay, including the 200-square-foot refrigerated cheese and meat "cave."
This is the year's pattern in its quietest form. The address and the cheese case stay the same. The sign and the ownership change, and the new owner already runs a shop like this in Boulder.
October on the Blocks That Changed
Several of the year's newcomers get their first fall on streets with long-running traditions. Trick or Treat Street takes over the 1000 block of South Gaylord, the same block as Wash Park Social. Final Friday wraps up on the South Pearl blocks south of Reunion. The dates:
- Sunday, Oct. 11, 5–8 p.m. West Washington Park Neighborhood Association hosts a Halloween prop and costume workshop at 552 S. Pennsylvania St.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 6–9 p.m. The association's South Broadway Halloween Parade.
- Sunday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Market in the Park-et closes its season in Washington Park with a Halloween Spook-tacular of vendors and Halloween activities.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to dark. The last Final Friday art walk of 2026 on the 1400 to 1600 blocks of South Pearl.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, 3–6 p.m. Trick or Treat Street on the 1000 block of Historic South Gaylord, with a costume contest, red-carpet photos and local businesses handing out treats.
- Sundays through Nov. 8, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. The South Pearl Street Farmers Market at 1500 S. Pearl St. has six Sundays left in its season, counting today.
These are live schedules from the organizers, so check each event's page before you head out. The farmers market's final Sunday, November 8, falls a few blocks from Reunion's door. Milly Lorden built her bagel business partly at markets like it before she opened her first storefront on the same street.
Dillon grew up in Colorado and follows these handoffs closely, both the corners that change hands and the operators who move in. If you own a home near South Pearl or South Gaylord and wonder how this year's turnover affects your block, or you're thinking about renovating somewhere close to the action, Camp Fire Real Estate would be glad to sit down with you, maybe over coffee and a Nata at Reunion. Let's Connect.
