Sputnik Enters Next Phase Under New Ownership

Spencer Madison and Joe Phillips are tucked into a corner table inside the entrance of Sputnik, the Baker neighborhood stalwart at 3 South Broadway that opened in 2003.

They scan the bustling barroom filled with a mostly young and stylish clientele. Being seated among the patrons during a busy happy hour is the opposite point of view from what they are used to. Madison and Phillips both worked at Sputnik for about a decade beginning in 2010. They moved on to other jobs during the pandemic shutdown — Phillips opened Fellow Traveler, a vegan eatery and cocktail bar, in Englewood in early 2022, while Madison worked in real estate. Now they are back in Sputnik, but this time as the business’s new co-owners, a role that offers them a new perspective in very familiar surroundings.

“It feels natural to me. Like it’s coming home,” Madison says.

Seated with Madison and Phillips are Allison Housley and Matt LaBarge, Sputnik’s original owners. Earlier this year, they decided to sell Sputnik for a combination of reasons, none of which were their lack of love for the business or the local service industry. They both express profound gratitude for their time owning and operating Sputnik, but there were heavier factors at play in their decision to move on.

“Old age,” says LaBarge.

“And there was this global pandemic," Housley adds.
They both speak with noticeable sarcasm in their voices, but they're not being facetious. Twenty years of ownership demanded an immense amount of labor and dedication on their part, and LaBarge says that the actual modern drinking culture has notably changed post-pandemic. “Our bread and butter was the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. [crowd], but people don’t stay out late anymore,” he notes.

Housley assumed there would be a return to normalcy for the bar if it could survive what ended up being an eighteen-month hiatus from operating. But that wasn’t exactly the case. “We learned that the world just didn’t get put back together the same way," she says.

Once Sputnik was able to reopen, in mid-2021, Housley and LaBarge dealt with operating costs and supply-chain issues paired with the departure of longtime employees and a regular clientele that needed to be recaptured after a prolonged shutdown.

They were able to overcome those obstacles, as Sputnik continues to be a hot spot in the neighborhood for longtime patrons while also attracting a new, younger generation of guests. Like Sputnik fixtures of the past, they are largely tattooed, with dyed hair and clad in faded denim, but they tend to drink and congregate differently, preferring bubbles of friends sitting together in booths rather than a swirl of strangers piling up at the bar.

Madison and Phillips were eager to take over the controls of Sputnik once they heard that it was for sale. It had been years since they'd worked there, but their admiration for Sputnik had not faded. With their experience of the inner workings of the operation, they considered themselves uniquely qualified — not to mention super motivated — to make an offer on the business, bringing them back into Sputnik’s orbit once again.
“I love this bar. When I started coming here, it was the first real time I felt like a real sense of community and a place of belonging, and they built something very special," Phillips says. "I credit Matt and Allison with some of the happiest years of my life. I know this bar and this neighborhood and this clientele probably better than I know my own bar, Fellow Traveler."

Sputnik was an early outpost for drinking and live music on South Broadway, which looked much different when the bar opened two decades ago. LaBarge recalls blocks with long stretches of empty storefronts between other joints breaking trails in the neighborhood, like the original Skylark Lounge and the iconic Jack Jensen’s book store.

When Sputnik opened, LaBarge adds, he was inspired by the idea of the guests influencing what Sputnik would become. “We wanted the people in here to dictate what the space was like," he says.

South Broadway has undergone drastic changes in recent years, with massive modern apartment complexes now looming over the area and franchise brands creeping into the landscape. Madison says that in the context of this new-age growth, Sputnik’s simple presence is a defiant stance that favors quality of clientele over quantified commerce. “It’s become kind of a holdout in the resistance against corporate bullshit that is happening all over the city. It’s like catering to the least common denominator," he notes. "There’s no soul in the least common denominator. You won’t offend anybody, but you won’t impress anybody.”

Sputnik is now serving a more streamlined version of its former menu, which includes longtime favorites such as the hand-dipped corn dogs made with beef or vegan sausage; the Cubano served on a light, crunchy panino with pork or braised jackfruit; and a banh mi served with pork or seared tofu. Phillips says any future additions to the menu will not include meat options.

Despite occasional obstacles and turbulent times, Sputnik has endured — even thrived — for over a decade, bringing an incomparable style and steady presence to South Broadway. It's a bar for all seasons. There are few finer sights in the city than watching a soft evening snow drift down onto Broadway from your cozy barstool within its warmly lit interior, or to belly up at the same bar on a summer afternoon with the front doors swung open to the warm breeze and bouncy vibes of one of Denver’s most vibrant strips.

Housley and LaBarge will be stepping aside as owners in mid-August, as Madison and Phillips assume their roles as co-owners of Sputnik. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Phillips says.

“But there’s some screws that need to be tightened around here," LaBarge interjects with a laugh.

“You know how you go into a casino and they purposely make it so you don’t know what time it is? Sputnik is like that, but you don’t know what year it is," Phillips notes. "There’s new places and new hot spots in the Denver area, but I feel like this place has kept its edge the whole time. And if this place would have folded, it would have folded by now. This trip is eternal.”

Adds Madison: “This place has a soul of its own. It’s been created by twenty years of patrons and employees that have been coming in and out of this place, putting their own soul and flavor into the place. One of the things Joe and I really want to do is keep that soul going. We don’t want this place to become soulless. It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay — but everyone is welcome here.”