We prepare, file and track your Denver liquor license for a flat $799. Every deadline stays on the clock.
This is what opening a restaurant used to look like…
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Opening a restaurant starts at a desk buried in paperwork.
That desk was the paperwork for one liquor license, for one restaurant, in one city.
Four forms. Two agencies. Nine stages.
Here is what it looks like when we carry it.
You pick the license. You tell us the facts. We type them onto the forms, assemble the pack, and file it. Once it is issued, the license stays here, checked against Denver’s public record every day.
Apply
You
Compare the classes side by side. We don't rank them or pick one for you; the choice is yours.
On screen: the license classes you can start, side by side and all drawn the same, each in Denver's own words with their source. Hotel & Restaurant is selected.
You, then us
Your restaurant, its owners, and where it will operate. We copy your answers onto the state and Denver forms.
On screen: the intake's People step, where the second owner's name and share are entered until ownership totals 100%, then the review, which says Cleared transcribes these facts onto the state forms and does not advise which answers to give.
You
Upload each item on the checklist and watch it get accepted. Forms that ask for a Social Security number come partly filled in; you finish them privately, and only you and our staff can open them.
On screen: documents being uploaded one by one, each marked In review, then Accepted, until 13 of 13 are accepted. The individual history form is marked as containing a Social Security number.
Follow
Us
We file with the city and the state and post each of the nine stages as it happens. We only reach out when something needs you.
On screen: the application moving through the nine stages, from the application pack to final city and state review, each current stage saying what is happening, and final review with Denver's published window and its source.
Keep
Us
Once Denver issues it, the license is on your home page with its dates on file. Already hold a license? Add it, and we track that one too.
On screen: the home page, where the application's card, marked Filing with Cleared, becomes the license's, marked Filed with Cleared, with the date its renewal window opens and the date it expires.
You, then us
Renewing isn't automatic. When the window opens, ask us to file: you answer the form's questions, we prepare it, you sign, and we file it with Denver.
On screen: the license's year drawn as a band with Denver's filing window hatched. Once today is inside the window, the client asks Cleared to file the renewal, and its four steps tick off: the client answers the form's questions, Cleared prepares it, the client signs, Cleared files it. Then the new expiration date appears.
Screens show sample data and are simplified from the dashboard. Stage names and statuses are the dashboard’s own. The timeline quoted is Denver’s published figure, and checklist items come from the Colorado retail liquor application set and Denver’s submission requirements. The agencies decide how long each step takes; we quote what they publish.
Screens show sample data and are simplified from the dashboard. Stage names and statuses are the dashboard’s own. The timeline quoted is Denver’s published figure, and checklist items come from the Colorado retail liquor application set and Denver’s submission requirements. The agencies decide how long each step takes; we quote what they publish.
Already hold a license?
Add it to Cleared, and we check it against Denver’s public record every day.
When its renewal window opens, ask us to take it on.
Rent and payroll don’t wait for the license. Here is a month of both, and the profit that isn’t coming in, for a 3,000 sq ft full-service restaurant in Denver.
3,000 sq ft at $20.63 / sq ft / yr
Staff hired against an opening date
$750k annual revenue at a 5.5% margin
Every month it slips
$13,600
Since you opened this page, a restaurant like this one has lost
$0.00
waiting to open. That’s $453 a day, $19 an hour, 31 cents a minute: the same $13,600, divided by thirty days.
The agencies set their own clocks. We carry everything else.
What’s left for you: answer our questions, upload your documents, and sign.
Every week you don’t lose to paperwork is $3,173 you keep.
Rent: CBRE Denver Retail Figures Q2 2026 ($20.63/sq ft net asking, metro average). Footprint: Toast. Margin and sales per sq ft: WhippleWood. Payroll and fees: RestOps, Permit Place, Colorado Restaurant Association. Rounded. These are published market averages, not a projection for your restaurant. $3,173 a week is the same $13,600, divided by thirty days, times seven.
Most firms in this market quote on request. Here is ours, before you tell us anything about your restaurant.
Expediters and licensing attorneys
$2,000 to $7,500
quoted on request, if at all
Our service fee
$799
Flat, for your Denver liquor license filing. Government fees are separate: you pay them to us at the published amounts, and we pay the agencies when we file.
$49/month
To track your license and take on its renewal, whether we filed it or you already hold it. Government renewal fees are separate, and we pay them for you when we file the renewal.
What the $799 covers
Government fees, separately
License fees vary by the class you choose, and the fingerprint vendor bills you separately. Once you have picked your class we show you every line that applies, added up, before you start. You pay the government fees to us with our fee, at the published amounts with no markup, and we pay the agencies when we file.
Government fee figures transcribed from Colorado DR 8500, dated 08/14/26, and Denver’s published application fees. Fee schedules move; the figures we quote you carry the version and date they came from. Expediter and licensing-attorney pricing from our August 2026 competitive review; most publish no price at all.
Denver is the first door.
A restaurant in a city like Denver needs a dozen or more permits before it can open, and no one covers the whole run.
So that is what we are building. Every license. Every permit. Every inspection. For every restaurant and bar, in every major city.
One desk at a time.
Every major city
One of these is a product. The rest are the plan.
Now
Restaurant liquor licenses in Denver.
The Beer & Wine, Hotel & Restaurant and Tavern licenses, prepared from your answers, filed, and tracked against every published deadline. Renewals too, for the liquor and food licenses you already hold.
Next
The rest of what a Denver restaurant needs to open.
Every license, permit and inspection between a signed lease and a first service, in one place, on one clock.
Then
Every major city.
The same desk, cleared the same way, wherever someone is trying to open their doors.
“A dozen or more permits” and “no one covers the whole run” are findings of our own competitive review, August 2026, of what a full-service restaurant in a city like Denver needs before it opens and who offers to help with it. Today we prepare, file and track the Beer & Wine, Hotel & Restaurant and Tavern liquor licenses in Denver, and take on renewals of the liquor and food licenses a business already holds; everything after that is what we are building.
You choose your license class from the published criteria, then tell us about your restaurant, owners, and location. We transcribe those answers onto the state and Denver forms, assemble a pack for you to review and sign, file it, and track it. You watch every stage from your dashboard.
Only the personal parts. We prepare DR 8404 from your answers and send it to you to sign. Two other forms, DR 8495 and DR 8404-I, ask for Social Security numbers. We fill in what you have already told us and leave the rest to you: the Social Security numbers, and each person's own history on DR 8404-I. You add those privately and sign: DR 8495 on your dashboard, where what you type goes into the form on your own device, and DR 8404-I on paper, because the state requires a handwritten signature on it. Only you and Cleared's staff can open them, and every download is logged.
$799 flat for the filing. Then $49 a month to track your license and take on its renewal, and the same plan covers a license you already hold. Government fees are separate: Colorado's application fee is $1,100 and Denver's is $1,000 ($750 on a transfer of ownership), with license fees that depend on the class you pick and a fingerprint charge billed by the vendor. Once you have chosen your class we add up every line that applies, from the published fee schedule, before you start. You pay the government fees to us, at the published amounts with no markup, and we pay the agencies when we file.
The agencies decide that, so we quote what they publish rather than predicting a date. Zoning runs up to 20 business days before you file. Denver holds a hearing only in some cases, and when one is held it cannot be set sooner than 30 days from your application date. The fingerprint check takes 10 to 15 days. Denver's published target for city review is 7 business days, and state approval has to come before the city license issues. Your dashboard keeps every one of those clocks visible.
No. Liquor licenses are issued by state and local authorities, so no legitimate provider can guarantee approval. What we do is transcribe your answers onto the state's forms, check them against the agency's own checklist, and track the application at every stage.
Four groups. Your entity and how it is registered. Your premises, and the lease or property rights behind them. The people involved, meaning owners over 10%, officers and any registered manager. And how the business will operate. We copy your checklist from the government's own and show a status on every row, so you can see what is still outstanding.
Today, a new Denver liquor license in the Beer & Wine, Hotel & Restaurant or Tavern class, whichever you choose from the published criteria, a transfer of ownership of an existing license in one of those classes, and renewals of the liquor and food licenses you already hold. That is the work we do, and we would rather say so than list services we cannot deliver yet. More permit types are what we are building next. If something else is holding up your opening, tell us and it goes on the list.
Whether to transfer that license or apply for a new one, and how the purchase is set up, are questions for an attorney. We show you the routes side by side, each with its rules quoted, and pick none. If you file a transfer with us, we fill in Denver's transfer papers and the temporary permit request from what you tell us, and you review and sign them on your dashboard. We send the seller a link for what only the seller has, such as the tax certificate and the list of wholesalers, and we track each wholesaler's affidavit. Denver's online form ends with an oath. Denver lets someone other than the applicant sign it only with the applicant's written permission, so you sign a letter naming the Cleared staff who may, and they sign it in their own names after you approve everything we will file.
That is not ours to answer. We transcribe your answers onto the forms, file them and track the clocks; we do not give legal advice. If a question comes up that needs legal judgment, we route it to a licensed Colorado attorney and tell you that we have.
We transcribe your answers onto the forms, assemble the pack for your signature, file it with the agencies, and track its progress. You'll only hear from us when there's an update or something requires your attention.
Yes. Nine stages, the same ones our staff work from: Application started, Documents & forms, Zoning confirmation, Application pack prepared, Submitted to city & state, Background check, Neighborhood notice (and hearing, if one is held), Final city & state review, License issued. Each one shows the published deadline attached to it and anything waiting on you.
It has to be renewed before it expires, and your dashboard shows what is due and when. We check your licenses against Denver's public record every day and keep them, with the documents behind them, in one place for an inspection. When you ask, we prepare a liquor renewal for you to review and sign on your dashboard, with a letter that lets the Cleared staff it names sign Denver's online oath for your business, and then we file it; a food license renewal we check with you before you submit it. For a liquor license, Denver accepts the renewal from 90 days before expiry and asks for it at least 45 days before, and one filed within 90 days after expiry carries a flat $500 late fee to the state and another to Denver. The renewal fees themselves depend on the license class, so we show the ones for yours rather than quoting them here.
Tell us about your restaurant and we'll take it from there. It takes about twenty minutes to get started.
Rather ask a question first? info@clearedtoopen.com