Once upon a time, not so long ago, five journalists, a marketing strategist and an operations maven joined together with a shared passion.
Motivated in equal parts by “let’s make art together” and “Denver deserves cool media coverage” the seven individuals set out to fill a void that their city had been missing.
And so, they created Denver Dive.
Dive is, first and foremost, a love letter to Denver. It represents our city at its most genuine: the people, the neighborhoods, the hidden spots that don’t get enough love.
Dive is a break from the homogenous, chronically online culture that’s quickly become the norm. The team behind Dive offers this magazine as a space for real connection and to tell the stories that matter, separate from comment-section bots and echo chambers. Instead, this publication will celebrate the human experience as it deserves to be celebrated: honestly, raw and without airbrush.
In a world oversaturated with AI generation and highly curated social media feeds, our focus is humanity, sharp perspective and unwavering authenticity. While Dive will not shy away from hard-hitting realities and the sometimes gritty nature of our city, this publication is dedicated to present Denver as it lives and breathes, uplifting the individuals who keep its heart beating.
As such, we named this project after some of our favorite Denver details: the bar top made of dominos at Horseshoe Lounge. The “GOD LOVES SLUTS” bathroom at Hi-Dive. Midnight Mass at Electric Cure. The sticky floors, the eccentric decor, the characteristics that make our favorite dives feel like home.
What follows is the lineup at your favorite dive: different regulars, different reasons for showing up, all somehow making the place feel like home. A few shared a past, a couple came by way of trust and all of us stayed on purpose. This is how Denver Dive came together.
Meet The Team Behind Denver Dive
Thomas Rutherford
Hey y’all, I’m Thomas. Though I was born and raised in Nashville, I have lived in Colorado for 13 years, nine of which I have spent living all over Denver. I originally came out here to study English at CU Boulder but I have truly found a home here since I graduated.
This city has impressed itself upon my heart, become a part of me as I have of it. The art and music and overall beauty that Denver has provided a home for now runs through my veins. My blood now resembles something closer to the paint that adorns our city’s walls. My heart beats in rhythm with the pulse that all who live here feels reverberating in their bones, slow and easy yet urgent, keeping my feet moving forward and encouraging me to dance. And I have danced all over this town. From sweaty nights at Cervantes’ that come to an end just as dawn threatens to rise to glorious revelries spent swirling around the Mission Ballroom to Hi-Dive mosh pits in which kindness and respect live, I have grooved through this town, let it wash through me, change me, teach me.
I now know that there are few things better than a freshly poured IPA coupled with a fat joint shared with those you love and can laugh with. I know that resilience is inherent to human nature, that love exists, that hope can look like a city skyline, proud and tall as mountains shining in the sun that never seems to leave us for too long in this city. Denver taught me these things, shaped me, made me someone I am proud to be. With Denver Dive, I hope to share these lessons I have learned, to tell the stories of the people that share this city and call it home. I love Denver and Denver Dive loves you. Let’s fuckin’ party.
Colin Wrenn
Hello Denver, it’s nice to see you again. As a Colorado local yokel and old head, I’m still enamored with the changing heartbeat of our fine city. I’ve been eating, drinking, bartending, catering, meandering and galavanting through this city for enough decades to have some mild insight about its nuanced, crude and charming customs. Sometimes I write about it.
Emily Rodz
Welcome to Dive, friends! We’re glad you’re here. Denver is a city with a rich history and a future worth paying attention to and Dive exists to explore both — curiously, thoughtfully and without taking itself too seriously.
I’m Emily—a Colorado native, green chile sommelier, film snob and aspiring DJ (at times). I have long mourned the closing of beloved Denver establishments such as Breakfast King and the Esquire Theater, but find healing in the ones that still stand today, like Pete’s Kitchen and Sam’s No. 3. Breakfast is my favorite meal of any day and will most likely be my last.
In the wild, you can usually find me appreciating the fleeting moments in life through my camera (shot on iPhone most times, but 35mm whenever possible).
Like some of my fellow colleagues, I received my one-way ticket to student debt (and hopefully a career) from CU Boulder, where I studied Film and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Different worlds on paper, but both trained me to look closer, ask better questions and find the story beneath the surface. That’s Dive. We’re here to explore Denver with intention, humor and care—spotlighting the people, places and moments defining the modern moment and beyond.
Thanks for being here.
Stay curious, Denver, and take the dive with us.
Genevieve Meehan
Hi there! I’m Genevieve – Pennsylvania transplant, but decade-long devotee to the quiet magic of the Queen City.
I’m a legal compliance nerd who’s had the privilege of working with tons of Colorado-based businesses, as well as on some of the regulatory policy that makes this state unique. That work brought me alongside some of Denver’s brightest, funniest, and most creative people – and I’m lucky enough to end up collaborating with a handful of them here.
My favorite word is methexis — the idea that participation in something beautiful is itself the beauty. I’m also a sucker for synchronicities, and after more than a few of them urged me in the direction of supporting the writers at Denver Dive, I assumed the role of the Type A person behind the scenes — with a healthy amount of whimsy and a few scribbles in the margins, of course.
Kymberly Drapcho
Hi friends! I’m Kym, a Scorpio, ENFP, and all-around soft-hearted crybaby from Erie, Pennsylvania. In 2021, I moved to Denver in the midst of grief and restlessness and found the community that I’d always fantasized about.
When I was 8 years old, my second grade teacher told me I was a good writer, and I made that my entire personality for the next 22 years. Sometimes, people think that pursuing an education in English means that we sit around all day and talk about Shakespeare (that’s only partially true – between my Bachelor’s and Master’s, I read Othello no less than three times). But on top of all that classic literature, my education gave me so much more. It set me up for navigating the real world: showing me experiences I’ll never have myself through the words of writers across the world and teaching me how to engage thoughtfully with the world around me.
In a world like the one we’re living in, I’m more grateful than ever for that education and the experience that followed. A career in journalism hasn’t always been roses and butterflies, but it’s allowed me to connect with Denver on an intimate level. Every human has a story to tell, and it is one of the great joys of my life to be that storytelling vessel: learning everything I can about someone and presenting them through an honest, loving lens.
I like to say, “I fall a little in love with everyone I meet, and that makes me a better journalist.” And I really mean it. As publications lean heavily into generative AI, Dive is both an opportunity to keep falling in love and an invitation for our readers and writers to do the same. We all need a little more playfulness, a little more crush-worthy connection, and a lot more transparency and honesty to stay connected.
Dane Chromzak
Yo! Dane here. I’ve been a Colorado resident for 11 years, and a Denverite for the most recent six. Though I was born in Atlanta, and largely raised in Lincoln, NE I spent much of my childhood back and forth between Lincoln and Denver. So it’s safe to say my love for this place has been growing along with me for a minute. I went to the University of Colorado – Boulder to obtain my Bachelors in Business Marketing. I spent the last few years doing everything from being the manager at a “Church of Cannabis” to barbacking at my local pub (shoutout Zuni St.) to marketing for the cannabis law firm that helped bring legal weed to Colorado. It’s been a long strange trip for sure but one thing that has remained consistent throughout it all is the people. The people of Colorado, and more specifically Denver, are what make this place so special. Say what you want about the “transplant problem” – to me that’s what makes this great city so damn great. It’s a melting pot of everyone, everything, and everywhere with a bit of mountain crunch mixed in for good measure. So when my good pal Thomas Rutherford came to me with an idea of starting a Denver-based people-forward publication, it was a no-brainer. We hope to bring you the heart of the Mile High city and remind you why you stuck around in the first place.
Evan Dale
Dive on in, folks, the water’s more than fine. Here at Denver Dive, we’re exploring the waves that pulsate through our city and beyond, delivering stories of the people and culture that define Colorado from an insider’s perspective. As for myself, I’m Evan, a Colorado native whose own roots have been watered by not only the city and state I call home, but equally by years of living, traveling, and working around the world. By day, that work is architecture. By night, it’s a mix of bartending, writing and photography. It’s that mosaic of experience that’s granted me a wide lens from which to see the stories unfolding all around me, while the years have also afflicted me with a love for the lens that I’ve never been able to shake. I have a camera — or three — with me just about everywhere I go, and yet, I never get tired of capturing Denver, its beauty and its culture — and that Colorado at large — by way of the photo and the written word.
All photos by Evan Dale
