Bizarre journey to open Enigma Bazaar bar finally ends

Three years aft purchasing the existent property for their caller bar, the owners of Enigma Bazaar are relieved to yet person the doors open.

“We were expected to unfastened past May, but past COVID hit,” co-owner Carly Howard said. “It gave america an other twelvemonth to cleanable the space, but it was besides disappointing. We’ve been moving connected this truthful agelong that we had a occurrence lit astatine this point.”

Howard opened Enigma Bazaar, an creation and show bar, astatine 4923 W. 38th Ave. successful Berkeley past period with her ex-husband Chad Howard and friends Autumn Eggleton and Christine Samar.

Chad, aft uncovering occurrence with Bitcoin, purchased the 5,000-square-foot gathering successful 2018 for $1 million, according to spot records.

Lily O'Neil, BusinessDen

The barroom is designed aft the histrion of life, and the “Moon Room” volition beryllium utilized for tarot readings.

The erstwhile mates met successful precocious schoolhouse and got joined astatine a young property earlier moving to New York, wherever they started a theatre institution unneurotic called Sparrowtree Arts. They broke up retired there, and Chad aboriginal moved to Denver successful 2013 and Carly did the aforesaid 2 years later. Both are remarried present with kids, and Carly is successful the process of changing her name.

“We remained friends done everything, and we’ve been specified bully collaborative partners,” Carly said. “We enactment truthful good unneurotic — astir apt amended than being joined — truthful it made consciousness to bash different task together.”

Enigma Bazaar, which was antecedently location to blues barroom Ziggies, hosts unrecorded music, show art, tarot readings, and dance, film, theatre, circus and magic performances successful 2,500 quadrate feet of the building. The different fractional of the gathering is reserved for events and impermanent rentals, specified arsenic tango classes.

The owners gutted and renovated the full gathering aft Chad purchased it successful 2018. Samar, a section artist, painted the bar, made airy fixtures retired of zip ties, and did her ain partition treatments, including gluing hundreds of oyster shells to a wall. It besides took a portion to get permits, and past the pandemic ruined opening plans, Howard said.

“It wouldn’t beryllium the spot that it is if we opened past twelvemonth due to the fact that we were capable to adhd truthful galore unsocial finishes,” she added.

The Howards primitively wanted to conscionable unfastened a theater, akin to what they did successful New York, since they had nary erstwhile acquisition successful hospitality.

“We loved producing and penning shows successful New York. But each amusement we were breaking even, putting each of the wealth into the adjacent show,” Howard said. “We similar doing theater, we similar doing events, but we needed to marque money. So that’s erstwhile we came up with the thought for a bar.”

Enigma Bazaar’s portion paper includes cocktails that correspond nature’s basal elements: earth, water, fire, aerial and ether. The world cocktail features Palo Santo Infused Woods Tenderfoot whiskey and beet syrup among different ingredients.

Lily O'Neil, BusinessDen

Co-owner Carly Howard successful the blacklight bath hallway.

The barroom besides serves a Latin-inspired paper made from scratch by Chef Edwin Sandoval-Cruz with items specified arsenic mezcal-cured fish, homemade pasta, handpies, oregon pastelitos, with bluish maize from Mexico, brisket, rice, a cabbage crockery and cheese.

Sandoval-Cruz, a Honduras native, spent the past 13 years moving his mode up done Denver’s edifice manufacture astatine places similar Spuntino and Beatrice & Woodsley. He besides launched his ain backstage cook concern called Xatrucho.

“I wanted to make a paper that you can’t find astatine immoderate different Mexican, Colombian oregon Cuban restaurants,” Sandoval-Cruz said. “It’s quirky and whimsical and besides thing you can’t instrumentality location with you. I privation radical to archer their friends, ‘You person to travel to Enigma due to the fact that I cannot picture it to you.’”

Enigma Bazaar is unfastened Thursday done Sunday from 4 p.m. until midnight but plans to grow hours to Tuesday and Wednesday aft a expansive opening this weekend.

The “Cosmic Circus” opening volition beryllium hosted by Denver magicians and psychics Anthem & Aria with performances by Community-Minded Dance, question creator A.L. Crego, The Steven Sellers Jazz Quartet and Rainbow Militia circus performers.

“It’s surreal to yet beryllium open,” Howard said. “I thought it would ne'er happen. There were moments erstwhile I thought it wouldn’t enactment out, and to spot it the mode it is present is simply a literal imagination travel true. It was hard, and we didn’t ever get along, but it’s been a travel that we’re each arrogant of.”

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