Cap Hill Hotel Owner Still Has High Hopes for Cannabis Consumption Lounge

If all goes according to plan, Chris Chiari will celebrate his birthday on December 19 with bong in hand. But this won't be in a friend's backyard. Chiari hopes to be legally consuming cannabis at the consumption lounge he dreamed of in March 2011, when he first set eyes on the redstone castle at 420 East 11th Avenue.

"I'm going to turn you into a marijuana bed-and-breakfast," he said out loud, pointing up at the imposing structure at the corner of 11th and Pennsylvania. After being told for ten years “not to make plans” because of a melanoma diagnosis, the New Jersey native had just received a clean bill of health and was ready to dream.

In 2018, Chiari bought the fully renovated Patterson Inn and took over operations at the nine-suite boutique hotel.

“I guess the difference between a boutique hotel and bed-and-breakfast is the number of doilies on the property,” he says, laughing. “Breakfast is included, but we prefer to be called a hotel.”

Chiari successfully rezoned the Patterson as a mixed-use property in 2021, the same year the Denver City Council adopted cannabis hospitality rules for hotels and other venues. He applied for a hospitality license the same year and was approved in 2022. Originally, Chiari planned to put the cannabis lounge in a carriage house on the property.

However, repeated revisions to the plans for the HVAC system in response to comments from the city Building and Planning Department and problems in funding slowed the cannabis lounge's roll out.

"The city is not the problem here. It's not easy what we're doing, but it's no longer fair to say that the city is the problem." says Chiari. "The city has been very supportive. And I was in a position to start construction on the lounge in January. I had secured some financing, I still had a year left on my current mortgage. But then the pipe burst."

In May 2022, Chiari opened the 12 Spirits Tavern inside of the Patterson. Named in honor of twelve ghosts who allegedly haunt the mansion, the tavern occupied the basement lounge where former mansion owner (and United States Senator) Thomas Patterson entertained gentlemen with Scotch and cigars.

A burst pipe inside of the 12 Spirits Tavern during January’s freeze flooded the space...and a new concept was born. Chiari moved 12 Spirits to the former carriage house at the back of the property, which accommodates around sixty people inside and on the adjacent courtyard.

"The carriage house was an infrequently used event space," says Chiari. "The only change we had to make was in the HVAC."

And the long-longed-for consumption lounge? That’s going into the basement, where the bar formerly was.

“It came about because of misfortune,” Chiari explains, “but it’s proven to be the best move. Excavating and gutting the basement has shown that the space really is going to work well, because we have the ability to bury a lot of the HVAC from below."

The plan for Chiari’s custom-designed HVAC system will be submitted next week, he says, and the 25-person indoor consumption lounge should become a reality by December, he hopes. Cannabis products will not be for sale in the smoking-friendly consumption space, which will only be open to guests 21 and up, but people can bring their own products to consume. Due to regulations, the cannabis space can’t serve alcohol, but food and drink will definitely be on the menu.

According to Chiari, 12 Spirits general manager and chief mixologist Scott Allen is concocting non-alcoholic syrups and tinctures that will enhance and play off terpenes, or aromatic compounds, found in different cannabis strains. “I’m really excited about that,” says Chiari. “Scott is an extraordinary mixologist. We're going to build a menu where we’ll use things like infused oils and infused simple syrups with food to offer an opportunity for guests in the consumption lounge to enhance their particular experience, relaxing or energizing. These are already the effects that these foods have; that's why people drink a chamomile or mint or ginger tea.”

Guests may order outside food to be served at the cannabis lounge, but, as Chiari says, “Our kitchen can deliver in seven minutes.” The menu is undergoing a redesign but will feature at least three varieties of “slop tarts,” or savory hand pies stuffed with fillings including veggie and Manwich-adjacent ground beef, along with grilled cheese sandwiches, pretzels, marinated olives and strawberry shortcake.

Although it will be open to the public, Chiari sees the consumption lounge primarily as an enhancement for guests at the Patterson Inn.

"I'm not creating a lounge that's meant to address the needs for cannabis consumption in the heart of Denver," he insists. "It's primarily, first and foremost, for the hotel. We give people a bed they never want to get out of and a breakfast they never want to sleep in on. That's intended to remain the core of the hotel, with the exciting and unique addition of on-site consumption."