South Broadway runs south from downtown through Baker, and the first stop for LGBTQ+ nightlife in Baker is Li'l Devils, which Westword profiles as the neighborhood's prominent LGBTQ+ bar. It sits among restaurants, shops and a newly approved improvement district. The route is easy to follow because the commercial blocks line up along one street, with residential blocks running alongside.
Baker neighborhood history
Baker sits south of downtown Denver. The Denver Public Library traces its history in the Baker Neighborhood History page, which records residential housing growing up alongside the commercial frontage on South Broadway. That pairing explains the layout today: houses on the side streets, bars, restaurants and shops facing the main street.
The pairing also shaped who found the corridor. Queer residents and businesses looked for a walkable stretch of Denver, and South Broadway's mix of homes and storefronts gave them one. Start at the downtown end of South Broadway and work south, and the commercial blocks and the housing behind them are both within view. Cross streets meet the main street at every turn, so a walker can step off South Broadway onto the residential blocks and back again without losing the route.
For the wider story of queer Denver, two other pages on the site go further back. Denver LGBTQ+ History Before Stonewall: Early Queer Venues covers the earliest queer places in the city. Colfax Avenue: Queer History of Denver's Most Notorious Street follows the other major street in that history. Read after both, the South Broadway corridor shows up as a newer chapter beside those older centres.
Bars and restaurants on South Broadway
Li'l Devils is the pick to make first. Westword describes it in its look at the neighborhood's bars as Baker's prominent LGBTQ+ bar. It anchors the corridor and gives the area a profile of its own among Denver's nightlife areas.
Postino Broadway is also on the corridor, and its location page places it on South Broadway. It is a sit-down stop on the same stretch of street, so a night out can move from the bar to a restaurant without leaving the corridor. The Denver tourism site keeps a list of South Broadway restaurants and bars for anyone who wants to see what else sits along the same blocks.
For more on the street, two pages on the site cover it from other angles. South Broadway in Baker: 5 Stops From Sputnik to Urban Prairie walks through five stops along the corridor. Pub Trivia at The Irish Rover on South Broadway covers a trivia night on the same street.
South Broadway is a long corridor, so plan around the street itself: pick the bar first, then choose where to eat on the same blocks.
The South Broadway improvement district
Voters approved a property tax hike to support a new improvement district for South Broadway, Denver7 reports under the headline "A better South Broadway? Voters approve new improvement district." That vote is the newest piece of the corridor's story, and it is why the street reads as changing as well as old.
The vote and the tax hike behind the district both concern South Broadway as a whole. A walker following the street from the downtown end toward the bars and restaurants is following the same street the district is meant to support.
South Broadway also closes for its Halloween parade, and the road closures are collected on Denver road closures: South Broadway Halloween parade. If a night out on the corridor falls near the parade, read that page before choosing how to arrive.
More Denver queer history and neighborhoods
The neighborhood is one part of a larger map, and these pages on the site cover the rest.
- Cheesman Park: Denver's Queer Gathering Place covers the park as a long-running gathering place.
- Denver LGBTQ+ Archives: Where to Research Queer History points to where the records are kept.
- Colfax Avenue follows that street through its queer history.
- Early queer places before Stonewall looks at the first queer spots in the city.
Sources
Updated 2026-10-21: the opening now carries the LGBTQ+ in Baker keywords, links to related queer history and South Broadway pages were added, and unsourced claims about streetscape, upkeep and the district's boundaries were removed.
