For long time Colorado residents, the name Baur’s evokes memories of fine food and old-world elegance. Otto Baur, a German immigrant, came to Denver in the 1860s. He served free biscuits to the Indians camped in Denver, and eventually formed a partnership with James Colwell. The two rented a store at G (16th St.) and Lawrence and began a confectionery, bakery and catering house. Mr. Colwell shortly moved to Wyoming to develop his own business, and Otto Baur moved to this location (at 15th and Curtis) in 1891.
The prosperity of the time brought success to the Baur family, and Baur’s quickly became the most popular catering service for all of Victorian Denver society.
During the Great Depression Otto’s nephew Joe Jacobs’s passed ice cream cones out to thousands of children. Many credit Baur’s for inventing the Ice Cream Soda.
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I thought I might mention that my mother, her brother and several cousins worked at Baur's. I have a number of notes like dates, names and duties. I visited the kitchen a number of times, then as a teenager I worked in the shoeshine shop directly across the street from Baur's. Dates were probably 30's, 40's and 50's. I shined shoes at Mr. Lee's shop in the early 50's. I am 81 these days. Michael Clark, Professor Emeritus, history.
My mother in law always told the story of shopping downtown with her daughter (my husband's sister now 77 yrs old) for back to school clothes and then going to Baur's for chili. She said she somehow got them to give her the recipe and it's the one all the family uses to this day !