It's difficult for Sean Sorenson to pick out his favorite memory of the old Tom's Diner on East Colfax. That's because a lot of them blur together.
"We used to come so many times after the bars closed," he said. "My friends and I would eat some food, talk trash about the night and try to sober up at four in the morning."
One time that does stick out to the Capitol Hill resident is when he and his friends decided to pull an all-nighter. After enjoying a late dinner (or early breakfast?) of scrambled eggs at 3 a.m., he went to work at his job at the time, which was the opening shift at Einstein Bro.'s Bagels.
He was sleep deprived and hungover, but at least he had a meal in him.
"It was the most miserable day of work," Sorenson said. "But it was an amazing night and Tom's Diner was fantastic."
The memories came flooding back to him as he ordered a drink inside Tom's Starlight, the new bar and lounge replacing the beloved 24-7 diner. Residents are slowly getting reacquainted with the building at 601 E. Colfax Ave. after a two-year closure that started with the pandemic and culminated in a flashy update.
The space, which has served as a neighborhood landmark for decades, officially reopened in early October. Longtime residents will remember the old diner had dozens of menu offerings. Instead, the new lounge serves up a smaller -- pricier -- menu than before with a handful of entrees and appetizers along with a full bar.
Sorenson stopped by after work on a recent Thursday to try it out for the first time. He got the "Bend and Snap," a cucumber-apple vodka soda named after a catchphrase in the movie Legally Blonde.
"I love it so much," he said. "It's awesome to see this place alive again after being boarded up for two or three years."
A few seats down the bar from him, a group of three friends grabbed a drink before heading to work nearby at Charlie's Nightclub.
"I'm ordering a shot of Rumple Minze," said Johan Rosa.
"Might as well, it's our first time here," said Luis Martinez.
The group mainly remembers coming to the old diner together after their club closed at 2 a.m. The seats would be packed with people who were still wide awake, mostly laughing and having a good time after a night out.
"This is a special place for a lot of people. You feel accepted here," Martinez said. "We'll make new stories here-no doubt."
It was a rocky road to reopening.
The relaunch of Tom's is a far cry from what owner Tom Messina planned for the building three years ago. In 2019, he was in talks to sell the property to a housing developer.
In response, fans of the diner launched a petition to get historical designation status for the building, which was built in 1967.
Its futuristic vibe and spaceship-style roof is considered one of the country's best examples of Googie-style architecture. The style draws influences from the car culture and space race of the 1950s and 60s.
The effort to save the building initially rubbed Messina the wrong way. He was ready to let the business go after running it for two decades, he said.
"I was thinking, 'What the hell? Leave me alone,'" Messina said. "But life's funny."
After meeting with activists and staffers at Historic Denver, he changed his mind and successfully got the restaurant added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. He also got historic preservation easement from the city, which offers tax credits to owners and protects the building from demolition in perpetuity.
Messina planned to move forward with a remodel. But then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The public health emergency upended the entire restaurant industry. Tom's shut down on March 15, 2020, and restoration efforts were nipped in the bud.
Over the past two years, the industry has gone through what Messina describes as a "reckoning."
Hiring has been slow. Wages are higher. Supply chains are more unreliable. All of those factors have made the business model for a round-the-clock diner unsustainable.
"It's been exhausting," he said. "One applicant for every three jobs."
All of those pressures inspired Messina to pivot to a less demanding bar and lounge concept.
Messina and his co-developers at GBX Group, a Cleveland-based firm that specializes in restoring historic buildings, renovated the entire interior and exterior of the building to better complement its architecture. The new design is an homage to "Palm Springs 70's," Messina said.
A massive walnut-paneled bar dominates the interior space, with seating for more than a dozen people. Booths stretch along the front windows.
Clusters of orange velvet chairs and a giant purple booth along the back wall make up the lounge where the old dining room used to be. Wood wall paneling and art deco style light fixtures help give the space a mid-century feel.
The biggest transformation, though, is the diner's old parking lot. The development team redesigned the lot as an outdoor bar and dining area for nearly 250 people.
The patio has cabanas, fire pits and a faux grass lawn surrounded by waterfalls and a few tiki-inspired statues. The space will remain open year-round, depending on the weather.
"I think the neighborhood is ready for this and it will be embraced," Messina said. "We want people to end their day here."
Business hours have changed. Gone are the days of dropping in 24-7 for some grub. Labor shortages and higher prices for food made that impossible, Messina said.
Rather, the bar and lounge will open from 4 p.m. to midnight every day except Monday. Messina hopes to offer brunch service at some point in the future.
The food menu is significantly scaled back from the seemingly endless selections the old diner had. Appetizers range from cheese boards to sliders between $10-20. Entrees include salmon and filet plates at around $30.
Sandwiches, flatbreads and salads are priced under $20.
Cocktails cost between $10-20. The bar also has a small selection of wine, draft beer and non-alcoholic drink options.
It was also a win for historic preservation.
Denver's historic preservation community considers the reopening a landmark achievement.
Around 100 supporters of the effort, including local politicians and community members recently gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony on the bar's new back patio. Many speakers grew emotional as they recounted the yearslong effort to save the diner from demolition.
"This is one of those examples of how things can start in a really hard place but end with new ideas," said Annie Levinsky, former executive director of Historic Denver.
Levinsky, alongside community activists, led many of the initial conversations with Messina about the building's historic designation.
"Places like this are an essential part of our city," she said. "We need these gathering places where everybody can come and be themselves and enjoy life together."
Prior to the ribbon cutting, representatives from Mayor Michael Hancock's office presented Messina with a proclamation making Oct. 13 Tom's Starlight Day. Messina addressed the crowd.
"I have tears in my eyes," he said. "I don't know how I got here, but I got here."
At a table in the crowd, a group of neighborhood residents who started the petition to save the diner cheered.
Tom's Diner was the first meal Sam Dorrance had in Denver when he moved to town 10 years ago, he said. When he heard it might be torn down back in 2018, he decided to become an activist and try to save it.
"It's always been a place that was very welcoming," Dorrance said. "So many different walks of life have met here."
He and others gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition in 2018 that eventually kickstarted the conversations about saving the building. Dorrance said he wants people to take away lessons from their efforts and apply it to places they care about.
"Our city is changing, it's becoming a more metropolitan place," he said. "But over the course of that process, I think we need to identify things that are special- that make Denver, Denver-and protect them."
It's not a diner, but something different.
Messina understands some customers might be disappointed that the space isn't a 24-7 diner anymore. But he's proud of the revamp and hopes the neighborhood gives it a chance.
"This is definitely a new chapter," he said.
Many longtime customers revisiting the space on a recent evening said they had solid first impressions.
Couple Diana and Richard Smith propped their walking sticks against the window of the lounge and sat down for dinner. The husband and wife are both lifelong Denver residents who live within walking distance of the building.
Before the diner closed, they used to stop by regularly after running errands or for an easy breakfast on weekend mornings.
"I'm sad it's not a diner anymore," Diana said before taking a bite of shrimp cocktail. "But the food's pretty good."
The couple, both 77, have been eating out less since the pandemic, they said. They've watched in dismay as their other favorite diners, like the Denver Diner, Racine's and Breakfast King, have closed and been torn down.
But not Tom's.
"It feels good that there's at least one place we can come back to," Diana said.
