Denver music landmark Herman’s Hideaway, which this year will celebrate 62 years in business and 42 years of hosting concerts, is being offered for lease again after less than a year under management by Hermans Legacy LLC, an external group.
“Had we stuck it out another 3 to 4 years I think we’d be fine,” said Tony Sainte, principal owner of the LLC and former venue director for Herman’s. “But we really struggled with attendance and bar sales last year. We’re proud of what we did, but in the short term it was extremely costly, and this concept was for the long term.”
Sainte said the group invested about $170,000 into Herman’s during its months-long lease in 2023. That included new lighting and sound gear — which the venue will continue to rent from Sainte — as well as converting a trio of offices into green rooms, adding bar space, and increasing pay for employees.
Sainte declined to answer questions about a lawsuit brought in December against Grant Babb, a member of Herman’s Legacy LLC. Babb is being sued by Joyride Brewing for allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in brewery money on two other businesses — including Herman’s Legacy LLC. The lawsuit also claims that Herman’s Legacy LLC was aware that the money was coming from Joyride and has since “refused to return the funds.”
Herman’s owner Mike Roth said he and the venue have nothing to do with the lawsuit. He appreciates the improvements that happened under the LLC’s lease, but said that Sainte was “more of a band guy,” and that Herman’s needed a business perspective to thrive.
Despite the management changes, some of Herman’s employees have worked there for decades, said Roth, who began running the coat-check closet at Herman’s when he was 10 years old. Now 45, Roth took over the business when his father Allan Roth died at age 79 in 2019, having worked with him for 16 years in the venue’s upstairs office.
Roth’s grandfather Herman, a Polish immigrant, first took over the bar in 1962 and renamed it after himself. It quickly became “a beer and a shot joint” for workers at the nearby Gates Rubber Company and Samsonite plants, which have since closed.
Prior to that, the building at 1578 S. Broadway had been Cunningham’s Lounge, a steak-and-lobster restaurant that catered to the city’s upscale boxing culture of the 1940s and ’50s, Roth said, with Denver having established itself as an epicenter for the sport.
In 1982, after running a successful bar in Boulder and his own talent agency, Allan began hosting live music. About a decade later, and thanks to the mainstreaming of college jam- and alt-rock bands, Herman’s started hosting now-huge acts at some of their first Colorado shows. That includes Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Jane’s Addiction, Widespread Panic and Phish.
But it was also an early haven for platinum-selling Denver acts such as Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Fray and Flobots, as well as touring hip-hop and reggae groups, Denver’s first all-women wrestling competition, K-pop club nights, and stand-up comedy headliners Doug Stanhope and Ben Roy.
Roth and Sainte pointed to the intense competition in Denver’s booking scene, led by corporate promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains, and the 2020 pandemic shutdown as reasons the 500-capacity venue has struggled to draw big acts in recent years.
“We’d expect 150 (people) at a show and only see 90,” Sainte said. “Our tickets have been like $8 plus service charges. But bar sales were reduced by 30% or 40%, because the expectation was that we’re a dive and drinks should be cheap. And yet people don’t have any problem paying $20 for a Coors Light at (AEG’s) Mission Ballroom.”
While Roth said he’s committed to running Herman’s for as long as he can, his “business brain” has compelled him to see if another group can run it better.
“It’s just something smart to put out there, to see if there’s someone who can bring in more talent and compete with the big boys better than us,” Roth said. “I’m sure everybody realizes we have the shallowest pockets in the Denver (music) industry. That’s just part of the game. We’ve always been a small fish in a tide pool with ginormous sharks.”
Sainte said he handed the venue back to Roth on a silver platter, given the pricey improvements, and that he wishes Roth the best. Roth owns the building outright, with a city-assessed value of about $1.7 million.
“My grandpa bought (Herman’s) for $40,000 in the early 1960s,” Roth said with a laugh. “But I honestly think we’re in a beautiful position. We have a great reputation, the staff has been amazing, and the location is great.
Running Herman’s is the only thing I’ve ever done,” he added. “But a lease would be great for me too, because I could go down there and sit at the bar and enjoy it.”
