A Stay at Hotel Teatro Blends History, Theater, and Modern Comfort

A sentinel in glazed brick and white terra cotta, downtown’s Hotel Teatro has watched the city rise and reshape around it for more than a century. A 1911 landmark, the Renaissance Revival-style tower originally served as the Denver Tramway Company headquarters in an era when streetcars strolled the city blocks for just a nickel per ride. Over the decades, the building has adapted with the city it anchors: a fortified stronghold during the Tramway Strike of 1920, a university office, and in 1999, Denver’s first boutique hotel. Today, it feels both rooted in history and ready for what’s next.

Walk into the lobby and look up: the original chandeliers still glow. Running along the elevator shaft, an old-school mail chute recalls postcards from the past. The Chancellor’s Suite, formerly the university president’s boardroom, retains its oak floors and fireplace. “People use it for anything that needs a little grandeur,” Courtney Griffith, the general manager, shares. “It’s a room that remembers how to host.”

The hotel’s restored details play effortlessly against its modern updates. In 2014, Telluride-based Studio Frank reimagined the first-floor spaces, flooding the hotel’s restaurant with natural light and carving out The Study, now one of Denver’s beloved work-from-home hideouts. Four years later, the guestrooms followed with a refresh that honored the building’s bones while elevating comfort: irresistibly soft beds, stately suites with double doors, and leather headboards that stretch towards the ceiling. And new this year, a roster of lively programming animates the ground floor, from The Study’s Women Winemaker Wednesdays to The Nickel’s live music on Friday nights.

It’s that same interplay of past and present that shapes Teatro’s cuisine, which pairs time-honored preparations with bright, seasonal flavors and modern techniques. The preserved nickel vault and locally sourced menus honor the restaurant’s history, while chef Franco Ruiz brings a distinctly modern touch with upcoming chef-led urban foraging classes and the recently launched 10×10 Tasting Menu dinners. As he explains, the monthly 10-course experience for a group of 10 diners “brings the meaning of teatro, theater, to life by presenting each course as an act in a culinary performance,” a concept that deepens the hotel’s artistic roots and its ties to the nearby Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Teatro’s history also hides a few mysteries. Multiple original safes remain sealed throughout the building, but a renovation planned for next year might finally bring their secrets (most likely nickels for riding the streetcar, but who knows for sure) to light. And somewhere among the echoes of trolleys and footsteps, the “Tool Man” still wanders. Said to be a mechanic from the Tramway days, he appears with his tool belt before vanishing. “People call the front desk to report something broken, see a flash of the Tool Man in their room before he disappears, and suddenly the problem’s fixed,” Courtney says. “He’s a prankster, but a helpful one.”

Maybe that’s the real magic of Teatro: a place where ghosts and guests mingle, remembering the past, celebrating the present, and leaving room for a little mischief.

From Lobby to Limelight

Hotel Teatro, named for the Italian word for theatre, puts you steps from the DCPA and fully in the city’s dramatic pulse. During a recent stay, elevators hummed with well-dressed families flowing toward The Nickel for a pre-show bite before The Lion King’s curtain call. During your next stay, book tickets to these nearby theatres to make your staycation a front-row experience of Denver’s most exciting live performances.