Entry No. 27 — the Boulder file — filed under: dive bar
The Sink
Boulder's oldest bar, open since 1923 in a sunken basement space on The Hill near CU, The Sink is equal parts tavern and accidental museum. Every inch of the low ceilings and walls has been claimed — beatnik artists Mike Dormier and Llloyd Kavich kicked off the mural tradition in the late 1950s, including Kavich's deliberately misspelled signature ("just for the 'L' of it"). Old newspaper clippings from the Boulder Daily Camera are sealed into the tabletops. Zippo-scorched ceiling signatures layer over decades of graffiti. The most famous mark belongs to Robert Redford, commemorated in a caricature mural — he mopped these floors as a janitor in 1955 while attending CU before becoming a film icon. None of it feels curated. All of it is real.
The story
In 1923, before anyone called it The Sink, this sunken basement space on University Hill opened as Somer’s Sunken Gardens. The center of the dining hall held a fountain that students immediately christened 'The Sink'—a nickname that stuck so thoroughly the owners finally surrendered and made it official in 1949. By 1955, a pre-fame Robert Redford was down here mopping floors as a janitor while taking classes at CU Boulder. Long before anyone painted a caricature of him on the wall, he was just another student sweeping up grease and spilled draft beer under the low-slung ceiling joists.
The restaurant's visual anarchy kicked off in 1959 when beatnik artists Mike Dormier and Llloyd Kavich—who insisted on spelling his name with three L's 'just for the L of it'—started slinging paint over the brickwork. They created iconic characters like the Sink Angel and Devil, allegories for clean-cut freshmen getting thoroughly corrupted by university life. When mid-century owners temporarily boarded over the art with pine paneling, locals revolted. By 1989, the boards came down, and Kavich was called back in—frequently locked inside overnight with bottles of wine—to restore his original work and expand it.
Today, the place functions less like a polished bar and more like an unmonitored archive of student vandalism. Tabletop resin seals vintage newspaper clippings from the Boulder Daily Camera directly into the wood. Look straight up and you'll spot thousands of names and dates scorched into the wooden rafters with Zippo lighters and scratched with Sharpies. President Obama even dropped by unannounced in 2012 to order a pizza—promptly renamed the 'POTUS' pie—and signed the wall alongside decades of nameless miscreants. None of it is curated, which is precisely why it works.
What it's like
Stepping down off 13th Street into the low-ceilinged basement feels like slipping into a heavily tagged underground bunker that smells of charred burger crust and draft beer. On weekend nights, the room fills to capacity with loud college crowds and long wait times. If you actually want to study the tabletops or decode the overhead graffiti without squeezing past a fraternity outing, come on a weekday evening around 5 PM. Grab a booth, order a Sinkburger lathered in hickory sauce or an 'ugly crust' pizza, and ask your server for a marker—if you can spot an unmapped millimeter of exposed rafter above your head, you can leave your own mark.
The move: Arrive early enough to snag a booth, order Sink burgers and a pitcher, then spend the wait reading the walls together — spot the Redford mural, decode the layered graffiti overhead, and try to find the oldest legible date you can. Low-key, genuinely weird, zero pretension.
📍 Before you go Open daily 11 am to 10 pm (11 pm Fri–Sat), no reservations needed. Street parking on 13th and Pennsylvania is metered until 7 pm Mon–Sat; free after 7 pm and all day Sunday. The 14th Street Lot at 1205 Pleasant St is a short walk and free on Sundays. Gets loud on weekend nights with the college crowd — weekday evenings are calmer for actually reading the walls.
- 📍 Boulder
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1165 13th Street, Boulder, CO 80302 (The Hill neighborhood, one block west of CU campus)
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Columbia Cemetery — Pair a quiet walk through Boulder's historic 1870 burial ground with a greasy burger at the city's oldest bar just four blocks away.
- Groundworks Art Lab — Get your hands dirty at an art workshop before drinking under decades of beatnik hand-painted murals on University Hill.
- Press Play Bar — Keep the low-ceilinged subterranean dive vibe going by heading downhill from The Sink's cartoon walls to Press Play's vintage arcade cabinets.
Good to know
Where is The Sink located, and do I need reservations?
It sits at 1165 13th Street on University Hill, one block west of the CU Boulder campus. They operate on a walk-in basis only and do not accept reservations.
What is the parking situation near University Hill?
Street parking along 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue is metered until 7 PM Monday through Saturday, becoming free after 7 PM and all day Sunday. The nearby 14th Street Lot at 1205 Pleasant Street is also free on Sundays.
Who is the celebrity janitor featured on the wall murals?
Actor Robert Redford worked as a janitor mopping floors at The Sink in 1955 while attending CU Boulder. He is commemorated in a custom caricature mural alongside beatnik artwork painted by Mike Dormier and Llloyd Kavich.
When is the best time to visit to avoid heavy crowds?
Weekday afternoons and early evenings are significantly calmer than Friday or Saturday nights, making it much easier to grab a booth, read the wall murals, and examine the tabletop newspaper clippings.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Westword · colorado.edu · aboutboulder.com · travelboulder.com · Reddit
last checked: 2026-06-11