So Many Roads Brewery, the subject of repeated police stings, will close permanently
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Denver bar and music venue So Many Roads Brewery, the site of protests and police investigations over the last two years, will close in mid-January 2024, co-founder Jay Bianchi wrote on Facebook.
“As we say goodbye to 2023 and hello to 2024, it pains me to say that after 28 years we will not be back for long,” Bianchi wrote on Nov. 29, adding that the bar would host its final concerts Jan. 12-14. “And now its (sic) time to say goodbye to all good company…”
The Grateful Dead-themed bar, owned by Tyler Bishop, has been the source of Denver Police Department stings for underage alcohol sales and cocaine dealing. In summer 2021, the bar was picketed by musicians and members of the Colorado Musicians Union over the alleged misdeeds of former co-owner Jay Bianchi, including complaints of assault and underpaying bands.
Bianchi declined to comment when reached by phone on Friday, saying he would talk more about the closure on Monday. Bishop did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Two women alleged in a 2021 Denver Post investigation that Bianchi sexually assaulted them at his former, shuttered bar, Sancho’s Broken Arrow, in October 2020. Sancho’s closed in late 2022 after an undercover sting and city violations of mandated pandemic closures.
Bianchi has repeatedly denied all allegations and no charges have been brought against him.
Bianchi also formerly ran the bar Be on Key Psychedelic Ripple which, like Sancho’s, was the subject of a public nuisance case for opening during city-mandated pandemic shutdowns.
Bianchi said he was retiring in 2021 amid mounting controversies, but has remained a vocal and visible employee of So Many Roads, both online and behind the bar.
So Many Roads ran into legal problems in the fall of 2022 when a Denver police sting resulted in four counts of providing alcohol to a minor, one count of distribution of a controlled substance (cocaine), and one count of disorderly behavior. That year, the City Attorney’s Office and bar came to an agreement on Oct. 12, 2022, that closed So Many Roads for 30 days.
In the latest action, So Many Roads was ordered to close for 90 days in September 2023 as part of its updated settlement with the city. Earlier that month, the city’s liquor licensing department had taken the highly unusual step of rejecting a settlement with So Many Roads owner Bishop that was brokered with the City Attorney’s Office.
The rejected settlement — as well as the one reached in September — covered a new round of violations, including serving alcohol to an underage Denver police cadet, city documents say.
Bianchi wrote on Facebook that the bar’s final shows will happen Jan. 12-14 as the Dead tribute band Forgotten Space with Stu Allen plays the stage. The bar itself is a tribute to the Grateful Dead and features much of Bianchi’s private collection of band memorabilia.
“This will be your last chance to see this magnificent place,” Bianchi wrote in his since-deleted Facebook post, “so let’s come together one last time and revel in our triumphs, as well as celebrate the doors that will be opening as this particular chapter of our history draws to a close.”
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