From the corner of the historic Brown Palace Hotel to the local pub around the block from city hall, downtown businesses are gearing up for hundreds of thousands of Broncos fans coming Tuesday to Denver’s first Super Bowl championship parade in 17 years.
With a route that’s expected to begin at noon at Union Station and go down 17th Street until it turns south on Broadway, before curling to city hall at Civic Center, restaurants and pubs along the way and nearby foresee large crowds.
Food businesses small and large are expecting an onslaught of patrons that could linger well into the afternoon, and beer distributors said they are filling orders that began pouring in with the Broncos’ victory Sunday night.
“I’ve been going through our menu and making the additional beer orders because it will be very busy,” said David Caughey, the manager at Katie Mullen’s Irish pub and restaurant at the corner of 16th Street and Court Place. “We’re not a sports bar, but we are into celebrating sport.”
The challenge of last-minute readiness, Caughey said, is manageable because the pub regularly handles large crowds during St. Patrick’s Day festivities. “This is a bit more on the fly, but getting ready is the fun part,” he said. “My distributors are at the ready.”
The crowds will keep food-cart vendors busy on the 16th Street Mall.
“The parade in 1999 was tremendous, huge and we had fun, but we were really, really busy,” said Sally Rock, 70, whose Philadelphia Filly cart sits at Broadway and the 16th Street Mall, nearly ground zero for the parade.
“We won’t double our normal business, we’ll quadruple it,” said Rock, already sporting a deep-blue sweatshirt with “Hurry, Hurry” emblazoned on it.
Her husband, Dale Goin, 65, said they’d do even more business if they could, but “there’s only so much food you can handle in a food cart.”
Up the street, the Brown Palace that corners 17th Street and Broadway is expecting a greater influx of people to its several restaurants and its large-pane windows overlooking the parade route.
“We have some already setting up to watch the parade from inside and across the skywalk,” said Marcel Pitton, the managing director at the Brown. “But we’d like our employees out there.”
Additional staff will be ready to handle the surge at the Palace’s Ship Tavern pub, according to Marisa Vera, the hotel’s food and beverage manager.
“We are definitely gearing up and staffing up,” she said.
The same is true at Pint’s Pub, which sits around the corner from City Hall along 13th Avenue.
“We’ve seen this before,” owner Scott Diamond said, noting Denver’s 1999 Super Bowl parade and its wash of fans. “Fully staffed, fully ready.”
It’s not as if the pub will run out of microbrews or its well-known “spitfire” hot wings. “We get the gist of what to expect,” Diamond said, “and we’ll be covered.”
Across the way at Dozens, owner Kim England said she already had calls reserving breakfast tables at her place for as early as 7:30 a.m.
“They want to get a good spot on the parade route, so they’re here early,” England said. The restaurant typically closes at 2 p.m. but may stay open later.
“It’ll be a great time,” she said, noting that extra food is on order and additional staff coming in. “It’s much more fun celebrating than crying into spilled milk.”
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or @davidmigoya