Walk into Denver Central Market on a Saturday and the noise pulls you past the cheese counter toward a low marble bar at the back. Curio is the room that turns a grocery run into a cocktail.
Published Dec 3, 2025 · By Daniel Okafor
Curio sits inside Denver Central Market at 2669 Larimer Street, on the RiNo edge of Five Points where the food hall opened in 2016. The bar arrived with the market and has held its back corner ever since. 303 Magazine framed it early on as the place to drink while you shop, and the description still fits. It earns a clear spot in the Denver cocktail scene.
The setup is unusual and it works. A marble counter and a wall of bottles stand a few steps from produce stalls, a bakery, and a fishmonger, so a drink here comes with the hum of a working market rather than the hush of a lounge. Order at the bar, then carry the glass anywhere in the hall.
The list keeps prices honest and the spirits local. The Bourbon on the Rose runs ten dollars, built on Buffalo Trace, Cappelletti, fresh lemon, and root beer bitters, while the Jamaican Sour pairs Curio's own rum blend with lime, vanilla, and orange flower water in a tiki glass, per 303 Magazine. Both land under the price of a single craft cocktail two blocks east.
Timing changes the room completely. Curio keeps market hours, open from 10am to 9pm Sunday through Wednesday and until 10pm Thursday through Saturday, so it works as a midday spritz stop as easily as a late one. Weekend afternoons fill with shoppers and stroller traffic, then the bar quiets and turns adult once the food stalls slow.
The crowd is RiNo without the velvet rope. Gallery-goers, market regulars, and couples splitting small plates from the surrounding vendors share the counter. It reads neighbourhood rather than destination, which is the appeal.
The market around the bar does half the work. Denver Central Market gathers more than a dozen vendors under one roof, from a pasta counter to a chocolatier to a fishmonger, so a single order can pull together oysters, a slice, and a Negroni without anyone leaving the hall. That makes Curio a natural first or last stop on a long graze.
Curio also reflects how RiNo drinks in 2026, casual and spirit-literate at once. The bartenders talk through the house rum blend and the Colorado whiskeys without ceremony, and the ten-dollar ceiling keeps a second round easy. That mix of real craft and plain pricing gets harder to find as the district gentrifies around it.
Come for an unfussy cocktail and a bite from whichever stall looks good, not for table service or a quiet date. The seating is communal and the energy stays daytime even after dark, so Curio suits a first drink before dinner better than a long sit.
What keeps Curio worth a stop is the trade it offers. Ten-dollar drinks made with care, inside one of Denver's best food halls, with no cover and no wait. Few RiNo bars hand you that much for so little ceremony.
Curio pairs naturally with RiNo's denser cocktail rooms. A short walk away, Death & Co and Miller's & Rossi handle the late, low-lit end of the night, while Williams & Graham keeps the speakeasy tradition going across town. For the wider field, see our roundup of the best bars in Denver and the full Denver bar guide.
