The Cow, opening tonight on Sante Fe, plans to cater to whatever team is playing against Denver

​After a long run as Joe's Buffet, the building at 753 Santa Fe Drive went through a number of incarnations, including Club Mystery, Club 753 and, most recently, the Sound Kitchen. Now Marcus Giavanni has taken over the three-story, 15,000 square-foot space, which he's dubbed The Cow (as in "cash cow"), and the place is opening tonight.

But the venue will live up to its name in another way: Giavanni, who says he bought the rights to the Joe's Buffet name, will also serve the dish that joint made famous -- the Mexican hamburger -- in the ground-floor dining area, which will be open seven days a week. The back of that level will be a sports bar, and that's where Giavanni will broadcast his radio shows on Streaming Radio USA.

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Instead of following in the footsteps of LoDo sports bars that dedicate themselves to the home teams, he plans to go after fans of visiting teams, including the Chicago Bears next week, when the Broncos return from Minnesota, and the New England Patriots the week after that. "I'm going to go with the guys who are traveling with the teams and the people," Giavanni says. "There are lot of fans here who watch Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears. There are more fans here for the other teams than there are for the Broncos. So I figured I'd capitalize on that group of people."

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But Giavanni also plans on making the Cow about much more than sports. Every Wednesday will be Ladies Lockdown, when male dancers and performers will do skits and strip for two or three shows a night. These events will be billed as networking events, so that women can also talk about women's issues; attendees will also get gift bags. Thursday night, dubbed Le Girls, will be devoted to burlesque, when up to fifteen woman perform mini-Broadway shows.

A new stage was built on the second floor to accommodate a steady stream of local acts on the weekends, including Dio Rising, the Dio tribute band that features Giavanni. Next to the live music room is a space that will eventually have two bars, and will feature concerts from the '70s through the '90s projected on the walls. Giavanni hopes to eventually use a third room in the back as a spot for clothing and electronics vendors.

Come spring, Giavanni plans to open the 5,000 square-foot roof-top deck, which has a 360-degree view -- and could eventually have a swimming pool. At the same time, he hopes to open a membership-only area in the basement, which will feature a Limo Suite that looks like the interior of a limousine, with flatscreen TVs showing cityscapes from various cities.

The Cow is on the move.