Eatertainment Concept With Pickleball to Open Near I-70 and Colorado

"We really love the community aspect. Everybody has a good time — you get to catch up and meet new people. Then when you're not playing, you're sitting on your cooler, drinking a beer, listening to music and just chatting with other people," says Improper City general manager Giovanni Leone of pickleball, which has exploded in popularity in recent years.

Along with Justin Riley, co-owner of Improper City and the Rayback Collective, and partner Colton Cartwright, Leone is aiming to capitalize on the sport's appeal with a new project, Moodswing, set to debut at 3625 East 48th Avenue in the spring of 2025.

While several other pickleball concepts have debuted or are coming soon to the metro area, the team behind Moodswing says it will offer something different. "The whole goal of this space is that you're gonna come here to eat good food, drink good drinks, enjoy the patio and hang out, and if you have the inkling to play pickleball, it's available," Leone explains.
The space where Moodswing will debut is in an area of the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood where there's not much in the way of food or drink options save for El Toro, the divey, cash-only bar known for its fried tacos. "We were working on a site in Globeville that didn't work out. We were on the hunt to find a replacement spot, and this came along. We weren't really excited about it," he admits, but after walking inside, "we fell in love with it."

Located on 3.5 acres, the building is 43,000 square feet with 33,000 square feet of outdoor patio space — which will make it the largest patio in Denver once Moodswing opens. Plans include twelve outdoor pickleball courts and six indoor courts, co-working space, indoor and outdoor lounge areas, an outdoor stage for concerts, golf simulators and a full food and beverage program. The patio will include "turf and games and a very park-like feel," Leone says. He's also excited about the mezzanine area complete with "indoor-outdoor balcony. And from our location, there's nothing impeding our views from the mountains or the city, so it's really beautiful."

As at Improper City, the drink options will include local craft beer and "easy and approachable cocktails and N/A options," Leone says. The food menu will be centered on pizza and Mediterranean fare cooked in an Italian brick oven.
There will also be a full coffee program, since plans call for Moodswing to open as early as 7 a.m. for work sessions and pickleball games.

Moodswing will also include an event area that can accommodate 200 to 250 people or be separated into three smaller event spaces. "We're really excited to be able to host events here that aren't going to interrupt the natural flow of business," Leone notes.

Although the area is mostly industrial, "it's really easy to get to — it's five or ten minutes from a lot of the places where we work and play. And we'll have 130 parking spots," Leone says. "We really like it being kind of on the fringe, and we want to lean into that kind of gritty grunginess that we did with Improper City when Five Points and RiNo were just starting up. We think we're going to have a similar vibe until some of the spaces nearby start getting developed."

"Our whole point," concludes Riley, "is that if you have zero interest in ever playing pickleball, the rest of the space — or really, the majority of the space — is so inclusive of all these other activities and ways to socialize that I'm actually very hopeful that over half of the people who come hang out never even play pickleball."

Moodswing will open in 2025 at 3525 East 48th Avenue. For more information, visit mood-swing.com or follow it on Instagram @moodswingdenver.