Highland Coffee and Arepas: Plan a Day to Evening Drinks

Quiero Arepas Café opens at 11 a.m. Monday to Saturday and at 10 a.m. on Sunday. That hour sets the middle of a Highland day: coffee first on Navajo Street or Tennyson Street, arepas next on South Pearl Street, and a beer or glass of wine before the 8 p.m. close. The first pick is the arepa stop, because its hours are the fixed point the rest of the day bends around. Everything else slots in before it or after it.

Navajo Street and Tennyson Street are the two coffee stretches for the first half of the day, and the morning belongs to them. Quiero does not open until 11 a.m. Monday to Saturday, so any cup before that hour comes from one of these two streets. Pick one and stay on it. They do the same job, so the choice comes down to which direction the morning is heading. The Highland guide on this site runs them coffee first, then breakfast, and this plan follows the same order.

Two kinds of morning fit. An early start suits a single cup before anything else. A later start leaves room for breakfast after the coffee. Settle which kind of day it is before leaving, because that decides how long the first stop runs.

Order one drink and finish it at the counter or the window seat before choosing the second stop. That keeps the morning short and leaves midday open for the plate that anchors the day. For background on the wider neighborhood, the Trip.com Highland Village guide covers the area around these streets.

For other coffee stretches around town, Denver Coffee Guides by Neighborhood sorts the options by area.

The same counter serves breakfast, brunch and coffee, so a late breakfast, a coffee and an arepa can share one stop. The price is moderate. It is open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those hours make it a midday and early-evening stop, not a first-cup stop. Arrive from Navajo Street or Tennyson Street once the morning cup is done, and the doors will be open.

One arepa keeps the afternoon open. A longer sit-down meal makes South Pearl Street the center of the day, and the later stops shift to match.

Parking is free on the street. The entrance is wheelchair accessible, and so is the seating.

A late riser can start here instead. Coffee is on the menu alongside the arepas, so the day can begin at 11 a.m. and still reach the evening in order.

The day closes with a drink, and it is the part that gets squeezed, because coffee, breakfast and arepas use up the hours before it. Quiero serves beer and wine, and both are available until closing at 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday. An early evening drink can happen at the same table as the arepas, and the car stays parked on the street while it does. Order the plate first and the glass after, and the evening stays short and unhurried.

Sunday works differently. The doors close at 2 p.m., so a Sunday drink has to fit alongside the arepas in the early afternoon. Anything later in the day means a different stop. Highland Bars Plus Nearby Beer, by the Day Open is the place to look for those later hours.

Work backward from the evening. A route that began with espresso on Tennyson Street or Navajo Street ends well at a table on South Pearl Street before 8 p.m. Keeping the end of the route loose also lets the earlier stops run long without cutting the night short.

The order is morning coffee, breakfast, arepas, then an evening drink. Keep the first stop on one street, Navajo or Tennyson, and give South Pearl Street the middle of the day.

• Morning: a coffee on Navajo Street or Tennyson Street.
• Late morning: breakfast, at the same stop or the next one along.
• Midday: arepas, with coffee alongside, at Quiero Arepas Café.
• Early evening: beer or wine at Quiero before it closes at 8 p.m.

Sunday changes the plan. Quiero opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 2 p.m., so the arepas come first and the drink goes with them before the doors shut. Sunday is the one day the café opens an hour earlier, which gives a slow start more room than the 11 a.m. weekday opening. The later hours go to other stops. Monday to Saturday the arepas can wait until the day is well along, since the doors stay open until evening.

If only one stop fits, make it the first cup. If two fit, add the arepas and let the rest of the day stay open. With free street parking at Quiero, the car can stay in one place while the day moves between the coffee streets and South Pearl Street.

For another neighborhood planned the same way, Stout St Coffee and a Dog Park in LoDo covers its own stretch.