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Meet the bar at Bang Up To The Elephant!, a Caribbean-inspired new community spot at 13th and Pearl Streets
Jonathan Phillips

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Check Out Bang Up To The Elephant’s Bananas Cap Hill Buildout

If “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and Rainforest Cafe had a baby

Kevin Delk stays up late at night envisioning the details of his Denver bars and restaurants. The Atlanta transplant has made his mark on Colorado with a trio of whacky concepts from a punk-rock pizza parlor and dark fairytale lounge on Market Street to a woodland cabin wine bar with an upscale dining room on South Broadway. His latest project, Bang Up To The Elephant!, will open Saturday for dinner. The name comes from Victorian English slang for spot-on or complete. A fan of history and of stories, Delk says this new spot takes the best of his previous endeavors and should be “just right” in its combination.

The exact ingredients are hard to pin down. A Calypso and Caribbean-inspired gathering space, Bang Up To will serve punchy cocktails and plates matched by live music and bird sounds of the rainforest. It will open for all-day service that starts with a morning take-out window in a Southern porch-feeling cafe and continues with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night drinks inside the warehouse-like main dining area. The space could certainly serve as a community center at the intersection of 13th and Pearl Streets, where Wax Trax Records meets Hudson Hill and, just around the corner, the Molly Brown house. Next door, Denver Ted’s cheesesteaks gained a cult following before the owner vacated in 2017 for a move to LoDo.

The facade of Bang Up To The Elephant, with oversized French doors that will open up most of the year to Pearl Street
Jonathan Phillips

Thirty years ago, Bang Up’s 6,000-square-foot room at 1310 Pearl Street was home to the Mercury Cafe. By the time Delk, himself a Capitol Hill resident, came across the building, it had fallen into disrepair: “When we found the space it was basically a home for pigeons and squatters.” Delk is a big fan of Cap Hill, however, and he has a history of moving into neighborhoods with challenging concepts. “I’m trying to find places that haven’t really been appreciated,” he says. “We’re not so much preserving history as making sure it doesn’t get erased.” But fixing up a decaying downtown building is only part of the equation. Together with Beatrice and Woodsley chef Travis Messervey, a Caribbean homage is carefully being created. Watch for a preview of the food here on Friday. For now, check out the interior with photos by Eater photographer Jonathan Phillips.

Status: Bang Up To The Elephant! at 1310 Pearl Street opens for dinner at 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 27. All-day service will begin at 7 a.m. Monday.

Community seating spans the dining room at Bang Up To The Elephant! which opens Saturday
Jonathan Phillips
Sliding stained glass doors separate the main dining room and bar from a front daytime cafe and grab-n-go window
Jonathan Phillips
More than 800 plants growing on a homemade irrigation system fill the room at Bang Up To The Elephant!
Jonathan Phillips
The dining room at Bang Up To The Elephant!
Jonathan Phillips
The mod bar at Bang Up To The Elephant! serving up coconut cocktails and more Caribbean flavors
Jonathan Phillips
Swamp cooling and boiler-run coil heating will regulate the large room’s temperature throughout the year, so the restaurant can keep its front doors wide open
Jonathan Phillips
Colorful plates showcase the flavors of the Caribbean created by chef Travis Messervey
Jonathan Phillips

Bang Up To The Elephant!

1310 Pearl Street, , CO 80203 (303) 792-4949 Visit Website
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