What started out as an Instagram community highlighting Denver's foo culture is now a barber shop in Ruby Hill.
A black and white vinyl Denver Foos banner hangs on the back wall of the Federal Boulevard shop, marking the start of a new phase for brothers Ben and Abe Gallegos, who founded Denver Foos, an Instagram account that highlights urban culture in Denver.
Denver Foos' popularity bloomed in 2020 after posting a viral fight video that Ben recorded outside of Aurora's In-n-Out.
The brand has since come a long way and their new barbershop is the brothers' way of making sure that BIPOC-owned businesses are recognized in the city. The shop shares a space with long time business Angel's Beauty Salon, and celebrated its soft opening on June 29. The brothers are hoping to host a grand opening soon.
"It just goes back to trying to preserve our community," said Ben Gallegos. "The south side of Denver [played] a big role in my life growing up. I could go into any of the new development areas and open up a barbershop or Denver Foos headquarters, but this made sense. This is right on Feds."
But wait. What is "foo culture"?
Imagine Denver nostalgia, sports commentary, comedy and the occasional chaos of public disputes and skatepark shenanigans through the lens of urban Latinidad and you essentially get what Denver Foos is all about. You just never know what you're going to see on the Instagram page.
Denver Foos has gained its faithful online community by following the blueprint of Foos Gone Wild, a similar page with a national scope.
"Of course we were inspired by Foos Gone Wild, we love their content and it's flattering to even be compared to them but I think we have so much different style and a different culture," Gallegos said. "Even though it is very similar, I still feel like the Denver urban community is a little different than LA."
Alongside posts of Nuggets championship celebrations that make one proud to be a Denver sports fan, there are also fight videos, crude humor, strong language and instances of people in the metro acting a foo(l).
Still, something about the account has connected with many Denver area Latinos and communities beyond. Denver Foos has built a following of almost 48,000 Instagram followers, producing original and follower-submitted content dedicated to highlighting a part of Denver's urban culture.
"Everybody's a Denver Foo," Gallegos said. "It's not just, 'you got to be from the Hispanic community to be a Denver Foo.' There's the Transplant Foos, there's the Subaru Foos, there's the Boulder Foos. When I'm saying this, you can just imagine that Denver Foo in your mind, right?"
Users submit so much content that Gallegos now owns a second phone strictly for Denver Foos.
"We get over 20 submissions a day of just different stuff," Gallegos said. "It becomes quite overwhelming. It's crazy, but it's fun. I love it. I can't really put it into words how this whole thing has taken on a life of its own."
Gallegos edits all the videos on his iPhone.
"We don't have a team, it's just a family thing and a couple homies and close friends that contribute when they can," Gallegos said. "As far as the content, it's really guerilla-style, grassroots stuff."
Powered through culture and social media, the brothers hoped to make an in-person space for community.
Maria Gutierrez, owner of Angel's Beauty Salon and who has known Gallegos' mother since high school, presented the brothers with the idea for the barbershop in March.
We reached out to Gutierrez for comment but were unable to connect.
"I see it as an opportunity to not only preserve the community and a business opportunity, it's also a place where we could have a physical place for Denver Foos where they could come meet us, greet us, get a haircut," Gallegos said.
Gallegos jumped at the opportunity to open a barbershop in this neighborhood because, like many Denverites, he's noticed just how fast everything is changing around the city. This felt like an opportunity to stake ownership in a neighborhood he knew growing up.
"There are businesses in our city that are just gone," Gallegos said. "It was their livelihood and for that to just be gone? We can't forget certain things. That's what we're trying to do, give a voice to real Denver Foos."
The barbershop has rented out chairs to three licensed barbers and is still looking to fill three more chairs.
Aside from their only sponsor, Breckenridge Distillery, Gallegos does not make any money off of Denver Foos and instead operates an auto transport business, A&B Auto Transport LLC, with his older brother.
"I've always been very entrepreneurial and had lots of passion for where I come from, the city of Denver," Gallegos said. "I'm not a barber, but I've had a dream of owning a barbershop. People can come to just enjoy each other's company. I hope to start doing a podcast in here real soon."
Gallegos created Denver Foos as a platform to showcase the unique "Foo" culture of Denver after a few years working in entertainment.
For Gallegos, spending much of his early career in cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles taught him a lot about what made the Mile High Foo so unique from everyone else.
Gallegos and his brother pursued a career in entertainment, forming music duo Xpensive Taste, touring with Lowrider Magazine and opening for artists like Ice Cube, The Game, Too Short, Lil Rob, Baby Bash and MC Magic to name a few.
During their time touring, Gallegos said he noticed just how misunderstood the Denver culture was.
"Everywhere we'd go on tour people couldn't figure out where we were from," Gallegos said. "They would think California or Texas. Even wearing a Broncos jersey was crazy to a lot of Hispanic people outside of Colorado. Or they'd ask why we liked the Nuggets and not the Lakers."
Gallegos' family has deep Colorado roots, six to seven generations his mom said, but they go back even further to generations in northern New Mexico. Gallegos mentioned a story about a Spanish dialect unique to Colorado and New Mexico, and how that really represents where his family comes from.
"It's the same dialect that both of my families speak," Gallegos said. "It really resonated with our family because that's us! We really felt connected with that."
Backgrounds like his is what he believes often sets apart the Denver Foo from the West Coast Foo. For Gallegos, his ties to Mexico are much less apparent and more intertwined with the Indigenous roots of the region.
"A lot of us come from the Hispanic community and a lot of us don't speak Spanish so we're looked down upon from people in California or Texas as like sellouts but there's reasons for it," Gallegos said. "We want to give a voice to the voiceless and create a platform and show that not all of the Foos are Raider fans."
For Gallegos, curating the narrative around who a Denver Foo is or isn't comes with a little bit of pressure. But his belief in memes, community discourse and online representation is what he hopes will ultimately preserve the Foo culture that he cares deeply about.
"That's one thing I don't want to be, is political or feel like I have any bias or push forward any agenda," Gallegos said. "In comedy we're always bending and pushing the limits. I'm not here trying to offend people. I'm just going off of what I know and being authentic to that. We can't ignore what's going on out in the streets. If people are acting like Foos out here, someone is going to record it and send it to Denver Foos!"
