For over a decade, Grandma’s House slung brews in a sprawling space near South Broadway’s Antique Row.
Customers found comfort playing Nintendo 64 on a ratty couch and spotting a life-sized blue Gonzo (the Muppet) above the bar.
But after Fuerst closed the space last April, citing burnout and a dispute with his landlord, that all went away, leaving many to wonder what would take its place.
Enter Alex Novick.
Novick is taking a bunch of common Denver businesses and combining them under one roof
Bars. Cafes. Doggy daycares. Coworking spaces.
Denver has plenty of all those. But what about a space with all four?
That’s Novick’s vision for HomeDog, an upcoming “membership-focused community created for dog people” that will rent the former site of Grandma’s House.
“We know that Denver is a top three dog city in the country and top five remote work city in the country,” Novick said. “So if you take that rich market, there's plenty of people that are going to be looking for a place to work with their dogs and in general.”
The doggy daycare and coworking space will be open only to members, who will spend $95 a month for a standard membership. The front-facing bar and cafe will be open to the public.
If Grandma’s House was a bastion of maximalist decor, HomeDog’s concept art is moving in the opposite direction. Renderings show people — and their dogs — gathering around modern furniture. Images of dogs skateboarding and listening to music, plaster the walls.
Novick, who is moving from Boulder to Platt Park in the coming months, described the neighborhood as one of the “up and coming neighborhoods” in Denver. He said he didn’t feel intimidated by the legacy of Grandma’s House and hopes to win over its old customer base.
“Grandma's House was a pretty iconic place that people love, and we want to kind of capture that sort of same vibe as far as having this be an iconic place that people love to go to,” Novick said. “Not like a corporate type of coworking space, but just like a place that people know they're going to go and see familiar faces and be comfortable and have a really good time.”
HomeDog is slated to open in early spring.
