Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii

A block from Union Station, this Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii location pours Hawaiian and Kona-leaning coffees out of a small, funky storefront. Roger is the barista who gets named in reviews, and the welcome regulars describe is genuine. The space is cozy. Then there is the recent corporate playlist change, which one regular flagged as making the room harder to settle into for a working morning. That is an honest catch and worth knowing if you came for the old vibe and were planning a long sit.

The coffee leans hard into the Hawaiian brand. The Lava cold brew is a signature pour and the named order most often called out. The pistachio vanilla creme coffee shows up on the favorites list right next to it. Oat milk lattes are solid, and the cold brew lemonade is the summer order if you walk in on a warm Denver afternoon with sun coming off the LoDo sidewalks. Malasada doughnuts come from the kitchen, and the breakfast sandwich is a real food order rather than a holdover pastry from the morning rush.

The room used to attract a regular weekday work crowd, and the music shift has pushed some of that crowd elsewhere. That is a fair flag for anyone planning a long study session, because the room is small enough that the playlist is the room. If you want a cafe to disappear into for three hours, the playlist change is a friction point worth taking seriously.

As a Union Station coffee stop for a traveler stepping off the train who wants something more specific than a chain across the platform, it still does the job. Hawaiian-leaning coffee, Lava cold brew, malasada, a barista who knows the menu by heart. The proximity to the station is the obvious reason to walk over rather than make a destination trip. Order the Lava, grab a malasada or the breakfast sandwich, and figure out whether the music works for you that morning before committing to a seat.