Broadway karaoke bar sings closing number after 18 months

Rhapsody Karaoke has sung its last tune.

The bar at 24 N. Broadway in Denver’s Baker neighborhood has closed after 18 months filled with building issues, liquor license delays and a downtrodden drinking environment. Owners Ben and Hillary Todd, who also run Full Afterburner Calzones on the same block, said foot traffic dropped from 800 people a weekend to about 250.

“We saw an opportunity since (restaurants) have closed there three times in four years,” Ben Todd said. “Afterburner is right next to it, and we thought we knew how to operate a late-night place on Broadway.”

But karaoke and alcohol turned out to be a whole different genre for the couple, who opened the aviation-themed calzone spot nearly five years ago.

While that shop is still flying high, Rhapsody had trouble getting off the ground. When the couple got into the building in October 2023, they saw construction costs increase nearly five-fold from a projected $40,000 to an actual $187,000.

The Todds took over the space from Casey Jones, a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”-themed spot that opened in the spring of 2022 but lasted only four months.

An unserviced grease trap and clogged pipes were two of the money sinks, Todd said. But the biggest stemmed from Rhapsody’s liquor license, which he expected would be turned over in a speedy transfer process from Handsome Boys Hospitality, the group behind the terrapin-themed spot.

Instead, the Todds had to apply for a whole new license, which ended up taking four months. For a karaoke bar semireliant on alcohol to get those musical juices flowing, this was detrimental. All the while, he had to continue footing a nearly $14,500 monthly rent bill.

Todd said he took out loans to keep the place going, which resulted in him having to pay back $25,000 a month for basically the whole time Rhapsody existed. As traffic dropped — something Todd attributed to drinking rates being their lowest in 90 years — it became harder to make those payments.

That culminated in their cash being seized earlier this month by the lender, Todd said, which forced Rhapsody to shutter for good.

“We borrowed our asses off and that’s ultimately what killed this,” he said. “Everybody just was playing hot potato with this thing and we ended up with the bag.”

Todd places much of the blame on property owner Doug Antonoff, the CEO of Antonoff & Co., for not being flexible during the struggles. He was particularly disappointed that Rhapsody didn’t get a break on rent after the liquor license setback.

But Antonoff told BusinessDen that Todd shouldn’t have been negotiating with him at all. That’s because Rhapsody was a subtenant of Giordano’s, the national pizza chain that closed in 2022 after less than a year in the space. Antonoff said everything should have been handled between the two of them.

“He made his deal with Giordano’s and then he wanted to come to us and ask us to make concessions to him,” Antonoff told BusinessDen. “But I deal with Giordano’s. I’m not going to be negotiating concessions with them. He wanted things he should’ve asked for up front with Giordano’s.”

The two agree on one thing though — they want to see a general improvement district implemented along the South Broadway corridor.

In November, those that live or own property in the area will vote on whether to establish the tax district along the road from Sixth Avenue to Interstate 25. That money would be put into three buckets: security, maintenance and marketing.

Todd said he believes a tax district would help clear up the homeless and vagrant population, which he said has gotten worse in the past few years. Just weeks ago, he helped another South Broadway store patch a window that somebody threw a brick into. He hopes an increased police presence and more TLC for the stretch will help revive it.

Both he and Antonoff also hope that vacancies along the street will decline as a result. Todd said he counted 16 within six blocks of the calzone shop.