Death & Co Denver
Foreshadowed by chaos, my first visit to Death & Co was unsurprisingly delicious and surprisingly unpretentious
Last weekend, my boyfriend and I flew to Denver, Colorado to surprise our friend at her 40th birthday party. We also tacked on some extra days to explore the city, which allowed us time to visit one of my must-try bucket-list bars, Death & Co. For those who don’t already know, Death & Co is a lavish, craft-cocktail institution that originated in New York in 2008, but has since expanded to four other locations, including Denver. (Embarrassingly, one of their locations is in Los Angeles, but we’ve never been.)
I made a reservation for 6:30pm on Friday. Our flight was scheduled to land by 3:00pm. Seemed like plenty of time…
Instead, before we took off, the United Airlines ground team decided to change the plane’s tires while we were all on the plane. (Not the worst type of jacking that can happen to a plane, but inconvenient nonetheless.) That delayed us an hour. After take-off, I tried logging on to the plane’s Wi-Fi to change our reservation in case we’d arrive too late, but the Wi-Fi was broken. Then, as we approached Denver, inclement weather closed the airport. The guy next to me was raw-dogging the flight, glued to the live flight map on his in-seat entertainment screen, so I watched along with him as our plane circled round and round the little red icon labeled “Denver” for roughly 30 minutes.
By the time we landed, we had approximately 70 minutes left to deplane, navigate the Denver airport (which is the largest airport in the Unites States), get our bags, order an Uber, get to our hotel (about 40 minutes away), check in, dump our stuff, get another Uber, and get to Death & Co by 6:30pm. By some miracle, our second Uber dropped us on Death & Co’s doorstep at 6:28pm. We were frazzled. As the host walked us to our table, he asked about our day and I breathlessly relayed all this information to him through sporadic jolts of laughter.
He sat us in a far corner, away from other guests (I couldn’t blame him), against a tall, curtained window adjacent to the emergency exit and a staff station. Not the most immersive seats in the house, but we had a backs-to-the-wall view of the entire velvet-drenched space. Five minutes later, a chipper blonde waiter delivered mini Aviation cocktails to “help us unwind” from what he’d heard was an arduous trip. A little “surprise and delight” moment? I nearly cried.
Here’s what you need to know about Death & Co: Death & Co is technically a chain that somehow defies what a chain should feel like. Each location is uniquely planned to fit seamlessly into the surrounding community while maintaining the brand’s lavish, vintage interior design and upscale cocktail wizardry that made them famous to begin with. All the menus are seasonal and specific to each location, so what we ordered probably won’t be on the Los Angeles menu, or even in season should we make it back to Denver one day. On one hand, it makes each visit a unique and special experience, but on the other it bums me out because I may never have these cocktails again—and they were all fantastic.
Here’s what we ordered:
The Gordian Knot: Roku gin, pandan-infused navy-strength gin, coconut, dry vermouth.
Late Checkout: Probitas white rum, Appleton Estate Jamaican rum, Empirical Spirits soka, POG, allspice.
Map Change: Transcontinental x Death & Co Jamaican rum, Campari, sweet vermouth, cacao, orange bitters.
Sweepstakes: Denizen white rum, Novo Fogo cachaca, mango, apricot, falernum, orgeat.
Hero’s Death: Highland Park 12yr scotch, Russell’s Reserve 10yr bourbon, banana, PX sherry, cinnamon.
We also crushed a cheeseburger, the gnocchi with grilled chicken, and a basket of their chocolate chip cookies, which came so highly recommended by the staff that one waitress admitted to hoping a bunch break in the kitchen each night so she can eat the unserviceable pieces during her shift.
The praise was warranted; it was one of the best cookie recipes I’ve ever tried. Apparently, they add banana liqueur to the dough, which keeps the cookies crispy on the outside, but moist and chewy on the inside, yet only imparts a hint of flavor. I could have eaten six(teen) of them.
The service at Denver’s Death & Co was impeccable. Our waiter, Eli, generously offered to write down the specs of my favorite cocktail from the meal. I chose the “Gordian Knot,” but translating his handwriting might take a PhD in decipherment.
Seriously though, what are ingredients 4 & 5? I need to know!
Update: Thanks to some eagle-eyed friends I can confirm that Kalani coconut liquor and arak are the hard-to-read ingredients!
Final thoughts:
If I’m being honest, I expected Death & Co to be pretentious as hell. The flagship location opened on New Years Eve in 2007/2008 in Manhattan's East Village and as a Californian, I assume anything fancy from New York will have a “you’re lucky we let you drink here” attitude. Instead, everyone was warm, welcoming, funny, and genuinely attentive.
They saw us take out our cameras and immediately offered to open the curtain by our table for more light. They saw our travel exhaustion and gave us free mini cocktails themed to match the source of our exhaustion. Eli saw Jason raise his eyebrows at the words “chocolate chip cookie” and suddenly they were on our table. We never officially ordered them, Eli just knew we needed them. Our whole experience was perfect and I’d highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.
Just make sure they type out any cocktail specs for you—I reckon it’ll take some serious crowdsourcing before I can figure out mine.
