Energy Bar Café

by Denny Patterson

For the first time since March 2020, Energy Bar Café inside the Colorado Athletic Club is open to the public.

Located on the third floor of the Tabor Center at 1201 16th Street, Energy Bar Café serves coffee, smoothies, freshly pressed juices, and healthy breakfast and lunch options to both club members and the larger downtown community. It is now owned and operated by Thach and Dustin Tran, who share over 30 years of experience in hospitality and restaurant management.

“We have both worked in hospitality and restaurants for a long time, and we’ve been wanting to go down a slightly different, healthier route,” says Thach, who also serves as the operating chef for Denver’s Ace Eat Serve. “As a chef, it was always hard for me to get myself to the gym, be healthy, and have a good work-life balance. We would always work nights, so I wouldn’t be leaving work until around midnight. Dusty works on the bar side, so he wouldn’t leave until 1 or 2 a.m. So, we have been wanting to shift gears, and we always dreamed of owning a little coffee shop.”

For the pair, Energy Bar Café was somewhat of an unexpected opportunity.

“I started a new membership with the Colorado Athletic Club in October of last year, and the manager who signed me up took notice of my email,” Thach explains. “I used my Ace Eat Serve email, and he asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in operating the vacant coffee shop they already had set up. Since the pandemic, they haven’t found a tenant to take it over. So, I was curious, and when he showed me around, I saw an opportunity. Like, this is perfect. It’s a small enough opportunity where Dusty and I could put less than $10,000 into this and get it up and running. We took every ounce of savings that we had and went for it.”

Officially opening in December 2022, Energy Bar Café is bringing new life to downtown Denver, since it is not as vibrant as it once was. With several office and restaurant closures, there aren’t many choices for healthy, great-tasting food and beverages.

According to Thach, the establishment has been received very well by the public so far.

“We appreciate the love and support we have been getting,” Thach exclaims. “Things are starting to pick up, and it’s trending in the right direction. Dusty and I feel very confident that we can make Energy Bar Café a success.”

Currently, there are four parts to Energy Bar Café’s beverage program: smoothies, grab-and-go bottled beverages, fresh juices, and coffee drinks.

Smoothies have been the most popular item in terms of units and revenue, and four different kinds are offered to appeal to a variety of tastes: Purple Magic (blueberries, bananas, hemp hearts, cacao nibs, chia seeds, acai juice, oat milk), Elvis Moves (bananas, dates, peanut butter powder, almond powder, almond milk, honey), Tropical Thunder (pineapple, mango, banana, coconut milk, lime juice, orange juice, mint, honey), and Kale-Rizian (kale, spinach, avocado, apple, pistachio, almond milk, coconut water).

“Our Elvis Moves is one of our top sellers,” Thach says. “We do not use dairy milk or ice in any of our smoothies, preferring to find texture in frozen ingredients and non-dairy beverages.”

Energy Bar Café also offers a wide variety of health boosters that can be added to any smoothie, its fresh juice program uses raw ingredients that are never pasteurized or heated in any way, and its coffee program features a variety of tea, espresso, and coffee beverages

“We use locally roasted coffee and imported Vietnamese coffee to make our drip and Vietnamese coffees, respectively,” Thach says. “We also offer matcha lattes made with non-dairy milk and all the classic beverages one would expect to find at a neighborhood coffee shop.”

In terms of food, Energy Bar Café sells a combination of grab-and-go snacks and homemade food items. The menu is continuing to evolve.

“We've had a lot of guests asking about diet-friendly food options; keto, dairy-free, and gluten-free are the most popular requests,” Thach says. “We have had a lot of success with a chicken pesto flatbread sandwich as well as kale and apple and Waldorf chicken salads, with homemade sauces, dressings, and proteins that are typically lower in sugar, sodium, and hydrogenated fat than restaurant preparations. We also serve hot breakfast sandwiches and soups, which are popular on the numerous cold days Denver has experienced so far this winter.”

Plain and simple, Energy Bar Café is vastly different from a local Starbucks.

As for the future and long-term goals, Thach and Dustin hope to open other Energy Bar Café locations around the city.

“We believe that quality comes first, and we want to keep providing the community with healthy food and drinks,” Thach says. “We would love to expand and open more locations.”

For more information and to check out the full menu, visit energybarcafe.com. Also follow Energy Bar Café on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

by Rachel Galstad