Fireside Books & Coffee - Englewood, CO

When I’m feeling homesick for Englewood, Colorado, I can always look at the many gigabytes of digital pictures I took of the town in the last years before I left. Remembering what I'd see in day to day life there, from the usual places I'd go near daily, to rather insignificant city blocks that nothing for me really happened at. Like the retail at Hampden and Delaware, and specific to this story, Fireside Books & Coffee!

The building once known as Fireside Books & Coffee sat underneath the Qdoba billboard. At least it did on the morning of July 4, 2014, when I took this picture. (I haven't had Qdoba since I left Englewood. It sounds good right about now.) To the right of it sits a two story building that I was never completely sure about it's use.

Looks to be a pretty secure building at 420 W. Hampden.

I don't think it was a dispensary, but it does say 420 above the door...

Across the alley from the mysterious 420 building sits the Loaf n' Jug gas station...

A Sinclair for many years, when Kroger Groceries made their big push to get into fuel sales, this was converted to Loaf n' Jug. More importantly, they started accepting Kroger discount cards on gasoline. Which ends up being a good deal if you buy a decent amount of groceries, but don't use an excessive amount of gas. This station's location on my way home from work, made it a frequent stop for all non-7-11 convenience store needs.

I have a photo of the men’s room that I won’t publish here. One night I needed to urinate after pumping my gas, and the Jug was open. Unfortunately, whomever used the restroom before me absolutely destroyed it. Sprayed and splattered feces coated the toilet, walls and floors. Thankfully, I didn’t have to touch anything in there, but I could still pee on it!

I feel bad for the employee that had to clean it. After all my years of toiling in a gas station, this was the worst gas station restroom I’ve ever seen. A picture to remember it by had to be taken...

In preparation for writing Wasted Quarter issue 70, Abandoned Englewood, I walked up and down the sidewalks of the major streets, taking pictures for reference material. For this part of town, the pictures were taken on April 19, 2015. However, the story of Fireside Books & Coffee only got a couple of sentences and some very small black and white images in the printed version of WQ70.

So here’s a full re-write! 

Not because it's notable, only something I was familiar with and miss seeing now!

Confined to just this section of the north facing wall, I'd love to see the rest of this building covered in vines! Perhaps wrapped around he chimney used by the fireplace implied inside? Come to think of it, I didn't see a chimney on any wall of the building.

Soooooo... Where’s the fire?

Across Delaware Street was a liquor store and a vape shop, because there has to be. Since these are electronic cigarettes, there really isn't any fire involved. So that can't be where the fire is that the books and coffee are allegedly beside.

Oh look! There's a hint of the Rocky Mountains on the horizon! Sure miss seeing those every day...

Unfortunately, Fireside Books & Coffee did not last very long as a book and coffee shop. Likely due to all of the competition for the local coffee dollar. Fireside's attempt at standing out from the crowd involved the addition of a small bookstore, with areas for customers to sit and read while drinking overpriced coffee. Next to a fire?

Any upstart coffee shop will face a hard road in challenging the nipple-less mermaid.

But that mermaid doesn't have these cool ass vines!

Looking through the window, you can see another difficulty facing Fireside. A small parking lot would limit the amount of customers able to park on-site. Granted, there was always ample parking in whatever sections currently open at the former Bank One Ramp around the corner.

Did that distance mean more walking than most were willing to make?

Maybe Fireside's coffee was sub-par?

Maybe the book selection was lame?

I had an answer to that last question! 

In the fall of 2013, I was finishing up WQ68 (the 20th Anniversary Issue), when the idea of selling some copies here entered my mind. Perhaps some zines would pair well with a coffee shop in a high traffic area, nearby to a high school and multiple apartment buildings? My hopes were to sell the anniversary issue to introduce WQ to that coffee shop reading audience, then sell back copies to interested parties. That can't fail!

So I printed the zines, did nothing with them for a few months, then when I tried to bring them to Fireside... It had permanently closed.

Maybe they'd still be open today if I'd only brought them by earlier? The power of Wasted Quarter could have saved Fireside Books & Coffee, bringing prosperity to both parties! Fireside would then go on to replace the nipple-less mermaid with the fireplace, as the most recognizable logo in heated caffeinated beverages worldwide!

They would have needed a bigger parking lot...

The main entrance looks rather uninspired, with the most basic of all possible awnings above the doors. Although the lights on the walls are pretty cool, they appear to be hung unevenly. Perhaps it's just a small sample size represented in this picture?

A shopping cart from the Walmarts across Hampden has wandered over the rest against the south wing of Fireside Books & Coffee. Some vines have started climbing up the wall here. I bet the Walmarts shopping cart is responsible for planting them. That Walmarts shopping cart escaped to do some good in the community!

Inside the south wing of the building.

I don't see a fireplace.

Let's go around to the east facing windows and find that fire the books and coffee were beside...

Without any visible clues, I'm going out on a limb and declare this as the place the coffee came from.

Floor's a bit dusty, but I'm thinking this is where tables and chairs used to be. Allowing for reading and sipping of the books and coffee, beside a mystery fire.

I'm a big fan of that bookshelf wrapped around the support pole. 

Hmmmm... A big piece of wall is a different color... In a rather odd shape. 

Almost in the shape of a fireplace? Without a chimney...

That means the fire that the coffee and book were beside likely came from a boring old gas fireplace! 

What a bunch of fakers! No wonder the place closed! People were all ready to make Fireside Books & Coffee the new sensation in enriching minds while keeping them awake! Putting that nipple-less mermaid in her place. Had all the potential in the world... But then Fireside came up short in the fire department...

Very disappointing...

While researching this building for WQ70, I found a few details and this picture on a commercial real estate website:

Fireside Books & Coffee used to be an old auto garage when it was built in 1963. I don't remember what it was used for before it's most recent renovation. But the building looked like this before Fireside Books & Coffee. Makes me wish I would have taken a picture from this angle (standing on Delaware St.). I didn't get one that shows the full building, and I should have.

When I left Englewood in June of 2018, I don't think a new tenant had moved in to Fireside. In fact, I think the Fireside Books & Coffee signage was still in place, three years after I took the photos used here. But I'm not certain about that.

Anything other than this identity would ruin my mental picture of Delaware and Hampden. At least what pops into my head when I think of Englewood.

******

One final thought that has absolutely nothing to do with books, coffee or Englewood, before I go...

The other day, I was picking up a prescription from the local Walgreens and saw that some new Fairfield repacks hit the shelves. Never know when I'll find a junk wax Expo that I need! Well, I found three of them actually. But they are nowhere near as cool as this oddball that found it's way into the 100 card + 1 pack (1988 Donruss, because of course) box for $4.99...

A 1987 Topps WWF Action Card of King Kong Bundy (and Corporal Kirschner) levitating in mid-air! While getting a 1987 Topps card in a Fairfield Repack is never news, this is something I would have actually bought if I found it for sale. If it was under a $1.00...

Come on, Bundy ruled!