Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood has a stylish new boutique hotel and community gathering space—the All Inn Hotel, a 54-room, lovingly restored property featuring mid-century architecture, a coastal Mediterranean restaurant, a lobby bar and a soon-to-open outdoor wine garden.
When it first opened in 1959, the property was home to the Fountain Inn, a luxury motor lodge with a signature restaurant and lounge called the Gold Room. The Fountain Inn closed in 1969, but the building continued to serve as a motel and entertainment venue for several decades. Later, from 2005 to 2012, it became Rockbar, a beloved Denver dive bar.
Now, it’s been reborn once again—this time, after a $22 million transformation that modernized it while also preserving its character and honoring its history.
“The All Inn Hotel fulfills a promise I made to this neighborhood when I first purchased the property a decade ago,” says Brian Toerber, owner of The All Inn Hotel and president of Inspire Investment Group. “I committed to revitalizing a place that carries deep significance for Denver. We truly went ‘all in’ preserving the spirit and history of East Colfax while creating a destination that can once again become the heartbeat of the community.”
The design was led by Abigail Plantier, an ownership partner in the hotel and the founder of Maximalist Experience Design.
“We approached the project as an opportunity to steward this iconic building into its next era,” says Plantier. “Its architectural bones carry so much character and history. We were careful to preserve those defining elements while adapting the interiors, creating spaces that feel grounded in the past but fully alive in the present.”
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel has iconic features like patterned vertical windows, an exposed rock wall and a restored neon motel sign. Those elements have been paired with new terrazzo floors, sculptural lighting and vintage furnishings, as well as materials like natural cork, olive tilework and walnut paneling.
Travelers arrive through the historic porte-cochère, now a plant-filled gathering space. Indoors, the lobby offers an elevated conversation pit and a lobby bar, which serves coffee in the morning and cocktails in the evening.
“From the conversation pit to the material palette and lighting, every element was designed to encourage gathering and connection,” says Plantier. “For us, design is not just visual; it is experiential. Every detail was chosen to create a place where both locals and guests want to gather.”
The hotel has three floors of guest rooms that carry on the property’s historic tradition of color-themed levels—red, blue and green. Each room has been designed individually using adaptive reuse and vintage elements, including reclaimed pieces from the 1960s, antique hand-knotted rugs, curved upholstered leather headboards, floating burlwood nightstands and sculptural lamps.
A doorway from the lobby opens into FiNO, the Mediterranean-inspired restaurant offering seasonally driven shared plates and a dynamic wine and cocktail program. The space features high-gloss red lacquered shelving, olive-green booths, walnut and burlwood, smoked glass, chrome fixtures, woven textured flooring, a sculptural terrazzo bar and a seamless indoor-to-outdoor layout inspired by European al fresco dining traditions.
The food and beverage program is led by owner-operator Steven Waters, owner of Run for the Roses and Take Care Brands Hospitality. Offering house-made pastas, playful snacks, natural wines and a zero-waste cocktail program, FiNO offers a 112-seat dining room that flows seamlessly outdoors to a 40-seat patio and an expansive 100-seat wine garden, which is slated to open this summer.
“FiNO brings coastal Mediterranean-inspired flavors to the table, but what we’re really capturing is the rhythm of that region, where afternoons slip into evenings and gathering before dinner is a ritual,” says Sheamus Feeley, consulting chef for the restaurant. “Our opening menu blends cultural techniques and flavor profiles to invite conversation and storytelling, the kind that unfolds naturally over a long meal.”
Guests can enjoy dishes like the Anchovy Toast, featuring anchovies, herbed tonnato, creme fraiche and grilled lemon on square toast, and the Potato Chip Tower, made with kettle chips, prosciutto and salsa. The Cabbage Kabob features savoy cabbage, coconut tzatziki, crispy shallot, extra virgin olive oil, while the Bucatini Al Limone is made with preserved lemon, panna, malabar pepper and parmigiano reggiano.
Zero-waste principles are woven into every dish and cocktail, with the kitchen and bar teams working together to maximize every ingredient. Lemons, for example, are used in multiple ways. Peels become oleo saccharum and essential oils, the juice is enhanced with citric acid to maximize yield and spent lemons go to house-made limoncello and lemon candy.
The cocktail program includes spritzes, full-proof freezer pours, easy sippers, dessert cocktails and non-alcoholic cocktails. Standout offerings include the Hazelnut Hugo Spritz, made with elderflower, hazelnut, Palo Cortado and blanc de blanc, and the Stefano’s Scorpino featuring Campari shaved ice and housemade sparkling FiNOcello.
FiNO’s wine program highlights small, independent winemakers who specialize in natural and biodynamic wines, with pours ranging from half-glasses to standard pours and magnum bottles for the table.
