Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).
If you love history and beautiful old buildings, vibrant restaurants, cozy independent coffee shops and bars, delightfully quaint storefront shops and a strong sense of community, you’ll find all that and more in Olde Town Arvada.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Olde Town is one of my favorite places to linger. Parking is never a problem because RTD’s Gold rail line stops there with a multilevel parking garage just across the tracks. If you park there, you’ll walk past a flour mill built in 1926 — one of 26 historic buildings in Olde Town — which you can tour by appointment.
Walk a few steps further and you’ll come to the intersection of Grandview Avenue and Olde Wadsworth Boulevard, where Jefferson County’s first electric traffic signal was installed in 1941. That’s near the town’s iconic water tower, which went into operation in 1910 when Arvada was a farming community with a population of 840.
Strolling east along Grandview — so named because it overlooks the wide Clear Creek valley and affords mountain views — you’ll find all sorts of fun places to explore. Carly’s Boutique is located in a building that was the home of Arvada’s first mayor in the early 1900s. Upstairs is a healing arts center.
There’s a paint-your-own pottery studio called Into the Fire. By day, the Bluegrass Lounge is one of Olde Town’s three coffee shops (all of which do their own roasting), but it doubles as a bourbon lounge. That building is 130 years old.
There’s a music store with an amazing assortment of guitars and other stringed instruments, called the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor. The Silver Vines Winery has gypsy jam nights on Mondays. There is a gourmet spice shop, Penzeys, that is worth a walk through just to savor its sublime aromas.
Back at the traffic light, you’ll find two excellent restaurants. One is Smokin Fins, a seafood restaurant where a friend of mine swears she had the best fish tacos ever. Across the street is the Homegrown Tap and Dough, which serves wood-fired pizza that makes it my favorite pizza place in the metro area.
Heading north on Olde Wadsworth, you’ll find more restaurants and bars, along with a venerable Army Navy Surplus store. It sells all sorts of outdoor gear, of course, but you can also pick up a gold-panning kit there if you want to try your hand in Clear Creek. The history of the Arvada area began in 1850 when Lewis Ralston discovered gold a few miles to the east in Clear Creek. The town was established 20 years later.
As you walk, listen for the church bells of St. Anne’s, a beautiful church built in 1922. Check out the Electric Cherry thrift store, especially if you like vintage record albums. Stop at Rhinelander Bakery, its display cases filled with a mind-boggling array of fresh sweets. Insider tip: It’s all good, but the fruit streusels are amazing. That building dates back to 1910.
Perhaps Olde Town’s best-known restaurant is the School House Kitchen and Libations, located in an 1882 building that was Arvada’s first schoolhouse and later became its first movie house. The bar top has more than 4,000 yellow pencils arranged in squares underneath a clear epoxy surface. Joe Hengstler, executive director of Olde Town’s business improvement district, calls it one of the town’s flagship businesses.
Andy Busold, general manager of the School House, says it’s all about community.
“There’s not much not to love about Olde Town Arvada,” Busold said. “I stumbled across this neighborhood 10 years ago and it’s amazing. We’re just one business; there are so many businesses and so many different options. We’re not competing against everyone else. The ultimate goal is to work together and give people reasons to want to come to Olde Town.”
I love to stop in Olde Town and park in the RTD structure before hopping on the train downtown for games at Coors Field and Ball Arena. It’s a great way to beat the traffic, not to mention the cost and hassle of parking down there, while getting to enjoy Olde Town’s unique vibe.
Go visit, and stroll the streets that date back to horse-and-buggy days with historical markers that tell Olde Town’s fascinating story.