Jordan’s Bistro & Pub, an Old World-style Irish pub with a collegiate accent, will open mid-March with bangers, rashers and shepherd’s pie and plenty of Harp and Guinness to go with it.
The pub is the final piece of the University Lofts project at the northeast corner of Evans Avenue and University Boulevard. It joins TCF Bank and Jamba Juice as the Lofts’ street-level retail businesses, above which are rental apartments for students.
The name Jordan’s is loosely reminiscent of a bar in Tipperary, Ireland, says co-investor Rob Dawe, but more fully reflective of William “Willy” Jordan, another co-owner who earned two degrees from DU, a BSBA in 1968 and a JD in 1972.
“I always wanted to open a pub at DU and the University and Evans location is perfect,” Jordan says. “It was grueling back in the ’60s having to go back and forth to the Campus Lounge, which is where we hung out.”
Jordan’s is the fifth project of Colorado Pub Co., which operates similar Irish-theme restaurants in Stapleton, Denver Tech Center, Aurora and Highlands Ranch, operating as Casey’s Pub, Darcy’s, McCabe’s and Lansdowne Arms.
The version near campus will sport DU colors, photos and sports memorabilia blended with the rich, hand-crafted accoutrements of a traditional pub, Dawe says.
“Willy keeps saying DU’s the Harvard of the West,” says Dawe, “so it’ll be like an old East Coast college pub.”
The bar was made by hand, and the 4,300-square-foot interior is a welcoming mix of fireplaces and comfortable seating, he said. The pub will offer a “full European tap,” plus Bud, Coors and assorted Colorado microbrews.
The menu is a blend of traditional burgers, salads, sandwiches and brick-oven pizza mixed with “traditional Irish specialties” and a few Old World wrinkles. You can top your burger with beets, for example, or savor brown bread ice cream for dessert.
Irish specialties include corned beef and cabbage; cod fish and chips; a fisherman’s pie of salmon, cod, shrimp and sherry cream sauce in a puff pastry; and steak boxty, a potato pancake stuffed with steak cooked in Worchester peppercorn sauce.
On weekends, there is an Irish breakfast of eggs, rashers (bacon), bangers (sausage), black pudding, white pudding, roasted tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms and Irish brown bread.
“We’re a meeting place,” Dawe says. “We want to take that role.”
The grand opening is set for St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. Until then, Jordan’s will be working out the kinks and getting to know the neighborhood.
“We will not be a sports bar, though we hope to attract sports enthusiasts,” Jordan says. “Our pubs are more like an authentic Irish pub geared to American tastes.”
[Editor’s note: Earlier versions of the story had opening dates of March 3 and March 12, but the opening was postponed.]