Birfday Dinner Break! - East Asia Garden - Denver, CO

Happy birfday to me! 

And I'm going to celebrate by going back in time for my 43rd birfday Dinner Break! All the way back to August 16, 2014 (which is not my birfday, that would be today), when the East Asia Garden was still open!

Previously located at 1156 S Broadway, in Denver Colorado, East Asia Garden was a long running and well liked restaurant, according to online reviews I found. This location closed in November 2014, and moved to Cherry Creek, under a new name: Hasu Asian Bistro & Sushi.

Their previous identity was a specific target for photography on my 40th birfday photo mission. I had no personal attachment to the East Asia Garden. I'd never eaten their food. However, much like with anything involving real estate, it's all about location!

Located smack dab in the middle of the 1100 south block of Broadway Avenue in Denver! Which is also one of the most photographed blocks of this famous Colorado thoroughfare, in my collection. The north side of the block is fronted by Mississippi Avenue, with Arizona Avenue to the south. This block was typically used for parking over the last few years, while I was taking weekly demolition pictures of Gates Rubber Factory.

Specifically, the US Bank on the southeast corner of Mississippi and Broadway. This location closed, and US Bank moved two blocks south in early 2015. This building was demolished later that Spring. 

(That story will show up here at some point in the future...)

The northwest corner of Broadway and Mississippi was the long time home of the Gates Rubber Factory. Established on that site in 1910, Gates eventually had a second factory built on the southwest corner of Broadway and Mississippi (demolished in 2007, converted to Luxury Apartments soon after). The northeast corner housed Gates owned medical, administrative and even it's own credit union. Those buildings were demolished in 2006, but didn't get their Luxury Apartments until 2012. And more are currently being built on former Gates land... 

To be fair, the Luxury Apartments directly west of Gates got their own Sprouts... So to those Luxury Apartments, it was probably worth the wait...

From November 2013 to September 2014, I parked my car on this block and walked up Broadway for two blocks, to photograph Gates demise. Just as the sun rose, on weekend mornings after work, my routine was to walk around Gates and photograph the demolition crews' progress. 

I enjoyed that mission up until I finished doing it...

This is what the grave of Gates looked like on March 22, 2015.

And... It looks exactly like that today... Other than redoing both Broadway and Mississippi Avenues, affecting the boundaries adjacent to the Gates property, nothing has changed since Demolition was declared complete back in 2014.

The US Bank parking lot provided the best access for walking for those treks. By March 2015, all businesses had vacated their structures along the 1100 S. Broadway side. From the construction equipment lurking behind the US Bank parking lot, the entire block was about to be scraped...

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this guy!

One of my favorite Colorado Rockies during his stay here.

He didn't truly start filling his potential until after the Rockies traded him... 

Figures...

******

But this is about East Asia Garden right now. I'll talk more about US Bank, Tim's Remodeling, Gutterpup and the other businesses on this block some other day...

However, I will talk about the rest of the building that East Asia Garden once called home. The restaurant took up two store fronts, while two of the other three were used by an antique store of an unknown name, and THConnect. A Medical Marijuana supply shop.

THConnect moved to a new storefront on Federal, in September 2014.

Tim's Remodeling next door (behind the fence) was soon to follow.

I didn't follow this particular block while I was taking pictures of Gates, so I missed a lot of the activities as this block was dying. With Gates gone, I wasn't paying as close of attention to it anymore either. After an early March 2015 drive by, I noticed all five storefronts had been recently boarded up. Then I decided this would be my first stop on the March 22, 2015, 40th Birfday Photo Tour!

Fresh plywood covering up the doors and windows of a business with intact signage, makes it seem extra sad...

They left behind the dangley awkward X-mess lights, but took the hangey down red globes, that hung from the marquee. With is already crumbling given broken panels and fallen trash in front of the door. They also left behind a giant ashtray and potted evergreen...

To the south of East Asia Garden was Dayton Tires. That building had been demolished years ago, but the sign was left standing. By September 2015, the Dayton Tires sign was covered by an advertisement for the new townhomes on the north end of the block. All Dayton Tires was advertising for it's site was a giant pile of dirt, as seen in the bottom corner of the picture.

But enough about Dayton Tires...

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this guy!

The most recognizable voice behind sports interviews. Long enjoyed his reporting and commentary on a variety of networks, covering a wide range of sports, throughout my life...

******

The north end of the store cluster wasn't getting the same amount of tags, but THConnect was becoming a magnet for posters. 

The Antiques store's sign was covered in black paint on the north side, but was fully readable to the south. While I'm certain that I've driven by this complex hundreds of times over my time in Denver, I honestly don't remember this place very well at all. 

And I stopped at that US Bank often...

So how old is this building anyway? A sidewalk stamp dated 1951 offers some clue... This would have been during Gates' peak growth period. So was the building from that year, or earlier? With a widening of Broadway leading to a new sidewalk closer to it's door?

I should have done better research on this story...

A closer look at the posters applied to THConnect show they were for the Mythic Creatures exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Hmmmmmmmm...

Around to the north side of the building, THConnect had a mural painted on the brick wall. Taggers ruined it, so much of the mural was covered by grey paint. Shadow people have started appearing over the cover up paint. 

I'm also a big fan of the modified billboards above THConnect...

When Tim's Remodeling left this location, their iron fence was sawed off at sidewalk level. More or less... Watch your step, because the post remnants aren't exactly flush with the pavement...

More importantly, the fence's removal allowed for free and easy access to the back of the building, Tim's old garage and into the alley. Not that I wasn't planning on walking up the alley to see the back of the building anyway...

Speaking of Tim's garage...

Love that mural...

On the far left side of the picture is the south wall of the former Gutterpup vintage clothing store.

Just for perspective. I'll tell that story later...

Because I turned around to reveal the guestbook for the taggers that hang out behind East Asia Garden!

It was early morning, and no one was awake yet, but I remember feeling
a heightened sense of "oh shit!" as I quickly photographed that scene
and moved away just as quickly...

The far end of East Asia Garden ends with this garage, which looks nice and clean from this angle...

I'm not sure, but I think there may have been small living quarters behind the restaurant. The first thing that popped into mind when I saw the various rainbow colors painted on the white walls...

Was of test pages that office supply stores have set out for customers to scribble on with different colored pens....

With a comfy couch in the corner, after a hard day of it not mattering if you stayed within the lines while doing your coloring...

That is a SWEET handicapped parking sign...

Had I the time or the tools handy, that would have been so worth stealing!

The dumbass in me momentarily debated going down these basement stairs and into the wide open door of the basement under East Asia Garden...

But I didn't want to get stabbed for my 40th birfday...

Like I said, I quickly shot these pictures and moved on...

But what was this on the ground, as I walked back out into the alley?

Well, they're fans of The Mighty Flyers! I have nothing at all to worry about!

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this guy!

Montreal made the choice to go with Berry over Archi Cianfrocco as their third baseman in 1993. 

I turned 18 in 1993... 

Coincidence?

******

Two months later, on May 19, 2015, Full Time Crime has been laid off...

A close up of the THConnect sign. I could start a whole blog series of businesses named for lame Marijuana puns, that I've seen over the last few years. But I find that a lot less interesting than abandoned buildings... 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this pot culture can be downright embarrassing at times...

And apparently, the pitches are back... Or something...

June 7, 2015

The X-mess lights are sagging, and the evergreen appears to be everbrown.

But no one has yet taken it...

Later that same day...

Someone's crayons have been taken away, and they were made to clean up the wall. 

The ensuing tantrum saw several couches overturned...

And they didn't fold, nor put away the laundry...

Oh, but I really want to go inside...

A few weeks later, in mid-June, things are more calm and pop culturey on the THConnect community billboard out front. The Masterminds and Ted 2 are currently representing. 

Owen Wilson and Peter Griffin as a Teddy Bear are so much calmer and safer
than what is going on out back...

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this gal!

I'll leave it up to you to decide what exactly she is doing...

******

The East Asia Garden death watch saw that construction activity was picking up, with demolition of US Bank now complete. By August 2015, the end of this building seemed likely to come any day.

But at least one of the kids got their markers back...

Excuse me, waitress, someone dining on the front patio would like more salt. 

He's been trying to get your attention for a while, and he's starting to get a little... 

Uh um... SALTY!!!

HAHAHAHAH!!!

Bud Light is now advertising under THConnect? 

Is there really some kind of advertising company that sells space to major corporations on abandoned building cover ups? Is this seriously a thing?

These last three pictures were taken on August 23, 2015. When I came back the following weekend, a demolition fence had been placed around the property.

Not that it was were overly secure...

I really like this picture, taken September 5, 2015. 

The tagging on the billboards in front of a cloudy pink sunrise... So works for me...

Apparently summer is dingy couch mating season... At least four dirty gross couches have appeared in their adopted habitat behind East Asia. I did not cross the fence to get in any closer, out of fear they may bite.

Even with the demo fence in place, Efforts in covering up graffiti were sill in effect. Seems really wasteful to me...

This homeless guy sleeping behind the East Asia Garden is NOT the same homeless guy I encountered the week before...

On that day, as I was walking up the alley and rounded the corner of the garage, I was greeted by a man laying horizontally on that very mattress, grunting, wiener out, whizzing an arching stream of urine into the morning sun... 

We briefly made awkward eye contact and I moved briskly along. 

I took no pictures behind East Asia Garden that day.

Well, maybe it is the same guy... I can't really be sure...

On September 23, 2015, I took my last photo of East Asia Garden as an intact building....

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this guy!

The Twins have never really featured anyone who shares my birfday...

And I am not impressed by this...

At least Bane was a first round draft pick...

******

My next stop at the property came on October 11, 2015. East Asia Carden, THConnect and everything in between, now looked like this...

This was the north end, where THConnect stood.

The already cleaned out basement of East Asia Garden. 

It appears the south building of the restaurant did not have a basement.

This basement would have been what I would have entered had I gone down those open and inviting stairs to stabbytown on my 40th birfday...

Always love it when some chucks of floor tile cling to life during a building demolition...

Another shot of the block from the south. With this building joining US Bank and Gutterpup as officially gone, only Tim's Remodeling's garage (along with the Deez Nuts Squirrel) remained. That garage would go on to live for almost a whole extra year, as that part of the block was used as a staging area for construction equipment used in the widening of Broadway and Mississippi.

Another peek at basement graffiti under the East Asia Garden. 

The foundation for the garage and possible small house that was part of the back end of the restaurant?

******

Happy Birfday to me!

And to this guy!

You better run!

******

So with East Asia Garden, Tim's Remodeling, THConnect, Gutterpup and US Bank all gone... 

What's going to become of this property?

LUXURY APARTMENTS!!!!

Yeah... I know...

******

Well, if you'll excuse me, it's time to go enjoy my birfday! 

Which includes looking for Twins and Expos singles at Mike's Stadium Sports Cards! 

My phone will be turned off.