Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
You can shape your own cowboy hat and drink a whiskey at the same bar. Same room. Same 30 minutes. That is the whole pitch at American Lore, and honestly, it is one of the more fun things you can do in Denver on a random Tuesday afternoon right now.
The address is 3965 Tennyson St., in the Berkeley/Northwest stretch, and if you know this part of town you know it has been moving fast. Tennyson went from sleepy to one of the most competitive retail corridors on the north side, and the storefronts turn over. So when a 1,200-square-foot space becomes a working hat workshop AND a saloon, people notice.
The founder is Parker (Patrick) Thomas Orms, and this is the part that matters. He is a third-generation hat shaper, born and raised right here in Colorado. He also played safety for the University of Colorado football team, which is not the resume you expect from a guy who builds cowboy hats by hand, but here we are.
Parker already runs Hats by Parker Thomas out of Cherry Creek. For American Lore he teamed up with Spencer Fronk and Andrew Palmquist, the two co-founders behind Number Thirty Eight, the big north Denver bar and venue over in RiNo. So you have got a real hat man on one side and the Number Thirty Eight bar guys on the other. That is how you end up with whiskey and felt in the same building.
They opened January 9, 2026. And the timing was not an accident. That drops you right into National Western Stock Show season, which is basically Denver's Super Bowl for anyone who owns a pair of boots.
Here is the part people miss. This is not a gift shop where you buy a hat off a peg. You build it.
The space splits in two. One side is the outfitter and workshop where you actually shape and design your own hat. The other side is the watering hole, a large bar with a few small tables. You walk in, you pick your material, your color, your crown shape, your brim style, and then the fun stuff, feathers and bands and whatever accessories speak to you.
The whole process runs about 30 minutes. A custom hat lands around
Thirty minutes and
This is where the Number Thirty Eight DNA shows up. The bar pours whiskey, beer, wine, cocktails and non-alcoholic options, and the cocktail list has some real thought in it.
There is a single-barrel bourbon and deep-steeped tea Old Fashioned. There is a rodeo lemonade built on sotol with roasted jalapeno lemonade, which sounds like a dare and probably tastes incredible on a hot day. And there is the La Vaquera Latte, a tequila-based coffee liqueur with cold foam and espresso, which is dangerous for me because I will order anything that combines caffeine and tequila and call it research.
But look at the number that actually got my attention. Four-dollar beers in frosty mugs. In this part of Denver, in 2026, a $4 beer in a cold mug is basically a public service.
The interior does a lot of the work here. Warm wood, worn-in textures, vintage Americana. And the pieces are not warehouse props. They are sourced from Parker's own family, from Colorado barns, and from antique stores. So the whole thing feels lived-in on day one, which is hard to fake.
That is the difference between a concept that feels like a marketing meeting and one that feels like a person. Parker grew up in this state doing this work. The barn wood is real barn wood.
Tennyson Street is one of the fastest-changing corridors in Denver, and the retail turnover up here is real. Small footprints, high rents, tons of foot traffic between the restaurants and the shops. A 1,200-square-foot storefront on this block is prime, and putting a workshop plus a bar in it is a smart use of every square foot. You give people a reason to stay 30 minutes, then a reason to stay another hour with a drink in hand.
Denverite put American Lore in their July 14, 2026 roundup of new Denver spots to try, with photos by Kevin J. Beaty and the crew including Sharon Bankert and Jericho Heese. So the word is out.
Here is my honest take. Most new concepts in this city are one idea stretched thin. This one is two solid ideas that actually belong together. You get a hat you made, you get a good drink, and you did it in a neighborhood that is worth walking around anyway.
Grab Hayley, or grab a friend, book a session or just walk in. 3965 Tennyson. Tuesday through Sunday. Buckle up, you are leaving with a hat.