Colorado’s Rock Bottom Brewery closes two more locations, only one remains

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery was pouring house-brewed ambers on the 16th Street Mall before most of Denver’s 300-plus breweries even existed. Now, the chain that started it all is almost gone.

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, the chain that was literally born on Denver’s 16th Street Mall 35 years ago, has closed two more Colorado locations in recent weeks, leaving just a single outpost standing in the state where it all started.

The Centennial location, which had been open for nearly 30 years since 1997, and the Highlands Ranch location, which opened in the late 2010s, have both shuttered. The closures follow the earlier loss of Rock Bottom’s original downtown Denver brewpub and its Colorado Springs location, which both closed earlier this year. That means the Loveland location is now the last Rock Bottom left in Colorado, the final holdout for a brand that once defined the Denver brewery scene before the craft beer boom made it a crowded market.

Rock Bottom was founded in 1991 by the late Boulder restaurateur Frank Day, and for a generation of Denverites, it was the introduction to the idea that a restaurant could brew its own beer. The original 16th Street Mall location was a downtown institution. But after years of ownership changes, most recently a 2024 acquisition by California-based Kelly Cos., the chain has been steadily shrinking. Kelly Cos. and its CEO Michael Kelly did not respond to requests for comment from BusinessDen.

The chain’s website still lists a handful of locations outside Colorado, including spots in Loveland, Boston and a Chicago suburb, but the Colorado story is the one that stings. A brand born in Denver, built in Boulder, and beloved across the Front Range is now down to Loveland. Just Loveland.