Popination Continuation
A new series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today: DV8 Distillery
A Continuation of the Popination Sensation
It’s Monday again, readers, and that means a new series! Remember the above vocab word, that took up two whole Vocab Word Fridays out of my Stack? Well it was suggested to me from various fronts that this nutritious stew of part unhinged memoir and part pub review would be a really fun series to follow. Like: one pub a week, lace my impressions of same into some personal essay style bits, and I’ve BEEN TOLD (ahem) that it would be super fun to regularly read. So.
Here I am. Mainly because of two things: 1) I’m quite pliable when it comes to praise; 2) I was wondering what I could do next for Mondays and this sounds like not only a lot of fun to write, but potentially a nearly infinite source of writing prompts. Could be a lot of Mondays to come.
But, seriously, do tell me if you ever get bored and I’ll do something else. Or, yanno, I won’t because I’ll be too busy visiting the next pub. Anyway,
The man was tall, very. Much taller than me, even (though I was wearing flat Converse that night as opposed to my customary platform heels, so understandable). A high undercut accented his samurai-like ponytail caught tight up top (was it actually a mohawk? Not sure). The show was going great. I’d been drinking gin & tonics all night, because I usually do for goth nights elsewhere and thought I could take more of them than the excellent whiskey I’d done here last time we had a show. The drinks were herbalicious, delicious, refreshing. I’d already performed and so I was in a different costume, celebrating the rest of the performers, making sure everything was going well, and that everyone was happy.
Now, soused and high on stage presence and authority, I turned to him and thumbsed him up. “What a great show, right?!” I shouted through the crowd noise, up toward his face. He’d better agree, or we’d have to find another venue. And I didn’t want to. I liked it here.
Grinning, he placed his drink onto the bar, embraced me into his big hug, my face surely not higher than his pecs, and said tipsily, “Welcome to the family.”
DV8 Distillery
DV8 Distillery (aka Deviant distillery) is Boulder’s only LGBTQ bar. It’s also Colorado’s only queer-owned distillery, or, as it says on the back of their shiny pink unicorn bottled cocktail, “…a queer, kinky & diverse distillery dedicated to making this world a little freakier.” Word.
I discovered this wonderful place recently, though I’d heard of them vaguely before. I found them through my co-production duties for my variety show, Blue Dime Cabaret, where we first performed there in alignment with a big event called Boulder Arts Week. What a lovely space. What toothsome whiskey! How beautiful and queer and punk and vibrant and open-hearted everyone is! It was strange, to find a space that actually felt…dare I say, safe?
DV8 lives in a well-known warehouse area of Boulder, farther east than can be called in town, but not far enough to be Gunbarrel. There’s a few different boozy type emporia in this neighborhood (if you can call it a neighborhood), including another distillery that never opened back up after the pandemic, a meadery, and a brewery or two closer to town, past the dog and bike park and ultimate frisbee course. It’s a little crammed in there, amid the car repair shops and body shops and manufacturing warehouses, so Uber drivers might take a wrong turn getting you there but it’s not far from most mistakes. It’s got a crunchy wooden sign and usually has its big garage door rolled open.
Inside, the beautiful wood bar is off to the left and the stage is straight (er, I guess not so straight, amirite) as you enter. There’s all kinds of fairy lights and lit-up clouds festooning the ceiling and a human sized cage in the corner. Not only is it a queer friendly place, it’s a kink friendly place too. There’s signs on each bathroom wall listing the rules of consent. The tiny hallway that serves as a green room has a wobbly ladder that leads to an upper level, where the view is lovely and the aerial dance equipment is kept. For our shows, they seat an audience. For their dance parties, they clear the dance floor and keep the big door rolled up.
But. It’s a distillery, Jenn! How are its spirits?! (Besides high and happy, that is?) In a word: DELICIOUS. My favorites? Man they’re all good, and then there’s all the mixed drinks they have, I mean I haven’t gotten even close to sampling everything...
I am a whiskey guy and I do love their bourbon and their mead-barrel-aged whiskey too—rich and caramel-toned and excellent neat. They also have this incredibly inky dark and sweet and coffee-y espresso vodka which I only first tried the other week and I am IN LOVE. And it’s caffeinated—real coffee in there. I feel like I want to just add a dash of cream to that (or just ice) and happily drink it all night on show nights.*
Oh, and that pink shimmery thing I mentioned? It’s ridiculous and lovely—too sweet for me, but it is actually a nice candy-strawberry flavor, in small doses. For a visual, check the Blue Dime Cabaret Instagram—I took a little vid of the amazing bottle of it after having been given a sample. It’s so very gay. Deliciously, fabulously strawberry-gay.
Oh, but! One thing to keep in mind. They don’t have any food available except once in a while you can find a food truck outside. So, yanno. Know this and be prepared when you go there—it’s not in a real central part of town and so public transportation isn’t really out there. Definitely use an Uber (or stick with their equally delicious ginger beer that they have on tap).
*Blue Dime Cabaret shows are the only time I get down to DV8, unfortunately, as it’s not only all the way in Boulder which is far from where I live these days, but it’s kind of remote Boulder too. I drank so many gin & tonics during our last show, and my ride was in a hurry to leave once she was, that I forgot my debit card behind their bar. So I took an extra trip down there to relax, chat with the staff, and more calmly sample some stuff in a non-insane-show-night scenario. I was so comfy, and I wished it wasn’t so out of the way for me normally. But it is a nice problem, isn’t it, that our shows make the place so busy?
Blue Dime Cabaret has now scheduled all our shows at DV8, from now till the end of the year. I imagine we’ll be scheduling our 2024 there too (we do one show a month, about, normally). Our upcoming show is on June 9th for Pride, and I canNOT wait to see what the incredible beautiful young strange and queer crowd will be like at Boulder’s only queer bar, one of the only really truly safe queer spaces left in Colorado, during our rainbow-festooned burlesque, drag, comedy, and other zany shenanigans-laden night. I want standing room only, out that big door. I want the chainmail artist who’s always posted outside to sell out of all her wares. I want so many of those shimmery pink bottles of gay strawberry concoction to fly off the shelves. And I can’t wait to sport my Battleaxe Bi tshirt.
DV8 is, indeed, like a family, just as Adam said—go there immediately and see what I mean, if you’re in the area. Obviously I want many many butts in our Blue Dime seats, but really it’s just a lovely comforting place to be, at any time. I’m so glad I discovered these weird queer deviants and I’m not only glad but honored to be a part of their scene and family.
Go West, Young People. Tell me how their other cocktails are that I haven’t tried yet. And if you come to a show, say hello.