Laws Whiskey House this weekend will unveil the pièce de résistance of the two-story addition to its Denver distillery: A sprawling upstairs bar and lounge with a twilight view of the mountains.
Distillery co-founder Al Laws spent seven years overseeing the construction of the 4,000-square-foot Whiskey Sanctuary, located at 80 W. Arkansas Ave. between South Broadway and the light-rail line. The upstairs lounge is the last section to open in the new space, which includes a tour room, a small bar and sectionals downstairs.
A spiral staircase with tall white balusters leads to the new floor. (There is also an elevator.) Upstairs, the bar wraps around in a sleek oval with plenty of seating, while larger parties can settle down in the mid-century style sofas and chairs.
The tasting room serves ten signature cocktails using Laws liquors, such as a whiskey sour ($12) made with its Four Grain Bourbon. The bar incorporates the house-made Blanco agave spirit into the Siesta ($13), along with Campari, lime, grapefruit and organic agave nectar. There is also the Jungle Bird ($14), a boozy cocktail made with Aperol, pineapple, lime and an 85-proof rum named after Laws’ wife and distillery co-founder, Marianne.
Cocktail glasses sparkled in the dimly lit space during a soft opening last week. The sun had long set. Bordered by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lounge, the backlit mountains dissolved into the night. Peyton Mason, the CFO of Laws, called it “the best seat in the house.”
A Laws packaging facility is visible from the lounge’s overlook. The company, which initially hoped to open the Whiskey Sanctuary by August or September, recently cut hours for two of its packaging employees due to the changing tides of the industry, Mason said. Laws employs fewer than 40 people, he said.
Flights and single pours are also available upstairs. Bar snacks include chorizo ($6) and veggie ($5) cones, almonds and olives ($5) and tinned fish at market price.
The ground floor opened a couple of months ago for distillery tours starting at $20 a person. Participants enter a room meant to resemble a chapel (Laws himself hand-carved the pews), walk into the distillery and exit through a small bar where they can order pours of bourbon and rye whiskey varieties.
