When Charlie (oh yes, that Charlie) approached me about a local dive bar bracket challenge, I loved the idea. However, we both knew we wanted to involve the FoCo community in helping us to create this challenge. On July 6th, 2025, we asked the @FortCollins subreddit for help in selecting the top eight dives to be visited. We had over 100 comments suggesting and debating the best bars in the area.

Lastly, one overall note on our rating system. Some of you may see our totals out of 100 and think back to High School where anything below a 60 is a fail. That is not the case here. We are attending these bars on random nights of the week (Wednesday for this matchup). We expect that a Saturday experience would raise these scores. Also, we want to consider some of the best bars in America, on their best nights, as deserving scores of 90+ and that is near impossible to compare your local joints to. The scores reflected below are solid scores and our overall impression is we would absolutely go to either bar again.

Signed, your Director of Dives,

So, with no further ado, our first matchup: Swing Station vs West End Pub!

We started things off with a surprisingly closer matchup than I expected, based on the voting. Both of these watering holes were welcoming, clean, entertaining and had activities or entertainment to set them apart. We walked out of both surprised we had not spent more time there and genuinely wanting to go back. Let’s dive into the specific results:

Swing Station

1 – Pricing: 5/10

Overall prices here were just ok. A Lagerado pint was $5, a single Titos cocktail was $7. The best deal of the night was actually a N/A ginger beer at only $2. There were a couple posted specials around the bar but nothing applicable to us. They do offer $1 off your drink if you cycle to the bar and have a great bike rack out front.

2 – Food: 6/10

The bar itself does not directly serve food, however they have La Campechana Mexican food truck in their parking lot, which in our mind serves equally as well as a bar kitchen. The truck has a decent selection of food items including tacos, burritos, tortas, etc. We tried three types of tacos: pastor, barbacoa and asada (they were out of tripa). I am honestly thinking they may have been having a bit of an off night because I have heard really good things from multiple people about this truck. However in our experience, the barbacoa was a bit flavorless. The asada and pastor were both decent. Either way, a decent Mexican truck is still better than many bar kitchens. (Perhaps a Mexican food truck bracket is next??)

Nearby is Laporte Pizza, which is a surprisingly good classic pizza spot I have eaten at several times in the past. There is also a “Asian Food” take out restaurant I know nothing about across the street. You are welcome to bring any of these to the bar.

3 – Staff: 6/10

The bartender was great. He was very welcoming, served us right away, and started things off with some good natured ribbing. From there, he mostly left us alone but was attentive and got us a second round without any trouble. There was a guy at the front as well that welcomed us in and asked if we were participating in open mic.

Perfectly pleasant experience with the staff.

4 – Patrons: 4/10

We had a good experience briefly talking with a guy at the bar about sports and “nerdy s**t” as he put it. People were friendly when we engaged but mostly doing their own thing. The ages ranged widely from likely 30s to 60s and it was 100% men at the bar when we attended. Most kept to themself and watched sports or the one person participating in open mic. 

5 – Location: 3/10

Obviously this is a relative category, depending on where you live or work. However, thinking about it for ourselves (Charlie and I each live near Lemay and Shields, more or less surrounding the Old Town population center) it is not relatively easy to get to. Taking 287 north to Laporte does mean you rarely will hit traffic from Willox, however it is still driving a bit. We could take a bike but looking at maps, we didn’t see any great bike paths or direct back roads. There were adequate parking spots but not a ton and if it were busier, we may have been forced to park at a strip mall across the street. Some of the parking spots back directly onto the road, which could be dangerous after drinks. 

6 – Activities: 5/10

Only two activities that we were able to discern – a pool table and a couple dart boards. This is about middle of the road adequate for a dive bar and would offer enough activity for any given night out but maybe not repeat visits.

7 – Decor: 6.5/10

We actually really enjoyed the look of the place. It has a rustic saloon look with a cowboy kinda vibe. The bar was a really nice reclaimed wood and the overall feel was a bit darker with wood panel walls throughout. There was adequate lighting but much of it colored, giving it a funky vibe. The stage had a nice muted mountain mural with an Odell logo behind it.

8 – Bathrooms: 5/10

Not a ton to say here. They were clean. There was a slight smell that you would expect from a dive but overall fine. The bathroom is single user with a lock on the door and that door was covered in stickers. Soap and paper towels were stocked.

9 – Entertainment: 7.5/10

This is where I think Swing Station stood out. The aforementioned stage allows them to have a variety of musical acts and the schedule we saw seemed to indicate they take advantage of it often. This night was open mic, which was not well-attended but the person singing was doing a fine job. I could definitely see this place filling up on a Saturday night with lively dancing and partying around a fun musical act.

10 – Stickiness of floors: 2/10

Is this a weird and unnecessary category? Yes. Will we “die on this hill” that it still needs to be included? Yes.

The floor was rather clean and unremarkable. There’s a photo if you’re an aficionado.

11 – Extra Credit: 4/10

This category is bonus points for whatever strikes our fancy. The biggest thing for me? They had a dog that greets you at the door and will hang out for rub downs. The pup would occasionally come check on the guests and make sure happiness stayed high. Charlie discovered a patron also knew of his favorite athlete competing in NCAA women’s softball: Karlyn Pickens of the Tennessee Lady Vols (“if you know, you know” – Charlie probably). 

Total Score:  54/110

West End Pub

1 – Pricing: 5/10 

Not a whole lot different in price to Swing Station. $5 for an Old Aggie pint, $4.50 for their signature Odell West End Lager. I did accidentally order a well vodka drink for this one (very unscientific…) instead of the Titos I was served at Swing Station and it was $4.50. They had a few specials advertised as well but nothing that popped out as amazing.

2 – Food: 3/10

We had a lot of debate about this one, because West End doesn’t serve food (besides chips and candy) and yet we still wanted to give them a decent score for a few reasons. The first is right next door is Pulcinellas Pizza, which is really good thin crust pizza. There is also Mt Everest across the parking lot for Nepalese/Indian fans. During football season (specifically Raiders games) they have a flat top grill and will make burgers for customers. Also, most charming of all, the bartender offered to make us Hot Pockets or White Castle frozen burgers if we got hungry.

3 – Staff: 7.5/10 

This is an area where West End shines. The bartender was working the place by herself this night but was fantastic. She got us served right away and checked on us often. The pour in my cocktail was strong. She was also happy to chat with us about the bar and some of her favorite aspects of the place. She went out of her way to get us some hot wheels (see Activities section below) and at one point she said something really funny and endearing that I will not put into writing for her sake but got a good chuckle out of us. 

4 – Patrons: 6/10

There was a wide mix of ages here as well, from 30s to likely 60s. Mostly men, besides one couple who were playing pool. We ended up chatting with a few different people, playing different bar games and getting recommendations for places all around town to visit. Everyone was very excited about the hot wheels (you’re going to love the Activities).

5 – Location: 4.5/10

Not the best location but much more accessible than Swing Station for the majority of the FoCo population. At Shields and Drake and located in a strip mall, there is plenty of parking with lots of lights. It is bikeable and there was a bike rack nearby. There are a few other nearby businesses that may be helpful, like the restaurants and a laundromat.

6 – Activities: 7.5/10

Another area that West End shined. There were several TVs for watching sports. This is randomly a Raiders bar, if anyone follows them (as a Saints fan, I am still bitter about them offloading Derek Carr on us…). They had a couple pool tables, Big Buck Hunter, Golden Tee, bar dice, AND Hot Wheels racing! The track had 4 lanes and you could bet on which car was going to make it to the bottom first. We were playing games and entertained our entire time there. 

7 – Decor: 5/10

This was a typical dive bar, through and through. There were some funny-ish signs scattered throughout, mostly making puns or jokes about drinking. Some Raiders decorations. They had curtains over their windows to keep it dark even during the day (and they open at 7am on weekends, so that is necessary). Also the typical alcohol company signs, star wars memorabilia, some toys above the bar, etc.

8 – Bathrooms: 4.5/10

Similar to Swing Station but a bit brighter and multi-stall. Only a slight smell here. No stickers or graffiti or anything, just a basic bathroom. Plenty of paper towels and soap. 

9 – Entertainment: 3/10

There really wasn’t a lot to judge here. They have some events on other days of the week but nothing happening on this Wednesday. There was a jukebox but it wasn’t on. 

10 – Stickiness of Floors: 2/10

Not sticky. Rather clean. Floor porn (Charlie calls it “floorn,” I prefer “underfoot fetish”) photo for reference.

11 – Extra Credit: 7.5/10

The hot wheels was a fun surprise, as I have never seen that at another bar and we played for several rounds. The fact they do special events for games or honoring some of their patrons also gives them extra points here as well. They open up at 7am on weekends for NFL Europe games or that morning “itch.” Odell brews them a signature lager, and I do love Odell Brewery collaborations. Also, the fact that we were offered a hot pocket for our hunger. Loved all of that. 

Total:  55.5/110

This round was much closer than we expected. Definitely a bit different on a wednesday night, but it still gave us an apples-to-apples comparison and we feel like we got a good vibe check and feel for the character of each spot. Both are places we look forward to visiting in the future, but definitely going to give the opening round “dub” to West End Pub.

The Winner: West End Pub

Next, stay tuned for Steak Out vs Town Pump in a battle of Old Town!