Wazee Supper Club changing owners

Roadhouse Hospitality Group has acquired the 40-year-old Wazee Supper Club at 1600 15th St. in lower downtown, making it the 17th restaurant for the family-operated Colorado-based company.

Roadhouse Hospitality Group has been one of the state’s best-established restaurant family dynasties for nearly three decades. Owned by the brothers  Dan, John and Mike Shipp the group comprises such diverse eateries as the popular Washington Park Grille, Reiver’s, Spanky’s Roadhouse in the University of Denver neighborhood, the upscale pair of dining experiences that are the two Hodsons (downtown and SouthGlenn) and myriad mountain destinations such as the Kickapoo Tavern in Keystone, as well as four Dusty Boot Steakhouse & Saloons in the metro area and the mountains.

“We could not be more excited to add Wazee Supper Club to the mix,” Dan said. “It fits in perfectly with our mission, and we can see the potential for bringing it back to its former glory.”

The Shipp brothers plan renovations for Wazee that will revisit its past while retaining the significant features that the beloved and now-famous restaurant – President Barack Obama ate pizza there in 2014 during a Denver stop – lost over the years through ownership changes and remodels. Otherwise, the Shipps intend to keep the look and feel of the eatery as true to the original as possible.

“Our hope is to change as little as we can and bring it back to what it was,” Dan said. “People loved the old Wazee and so did we, and that’s what we want to see it return to.”