Updated June 2026
Real Google ratings, shown as-is. First-hand Denver curation. No pay-to-play, no ads. Here's exactly how we source our data and decide what to recommend — so you can judge it for yourself.
Updated June 2026
Every venue on Hit the Town starts from real, public data. Star ratings, review counts, hours, and the short editorial description on each page come from Google, displayed as-is — the same rating you'd see on Google Maps, not a number we cooked up. When a venue's Google rating is 4.3 with 1,200 reviews, that's what we show.
On top of that public layer, we add a curation layer you won't find anywhere else: structured taste attributes for each place — its energy level, how loud it gets, how long people typically stay, the signature thing to order, the vibe. These are what let the app build a night that actually fits your mood, instead of handing you a generic alphabetical list.
Then we clean it. Our dataset is quality-gated: it's Denver-and-Colorado only, permanently and temporarily closed venues are removed, and duplicate listings are merged so you never get the same bar twice under two names.
The rating and review count on each page are the live Google figures for that business. We never invent ratings, and we never publish a made-up site-wide "Hit the Town score" dressed up as an aggregate.
Venues can't buy a listing, a higher rank, or a nicer write-up. There are no ads in our recommendations. What rises to the top is what fits your night — not who paid.
Yelp hands you a filtered list and leaves the planning to you. We string venues into a walkable night — dinner, drinks, the after-spot — with real walking times between stops. That's the whole point of the app.
Hours and details reflect our most recent data refresh. For anything time-sensitive — a holiday closure, a private event — we tell you to confirm with the venue rather than pretend we're live.
Vibe, energy, time, neighborhood, and who you're with. The more you tell us, the sharper the match.
We rank venues by how well their curated attributes and real rating fit what you asked for — then check the stops form a sensible, walkable route.
A sequenced night with directions, walking times, and tickets where relevant — not a wall of search results.
Yes. The star rating and review count on each venue page are the real, current Google figures for that business, shown as-is. We don't invent ratings or publish a made-up aggregate score.
No. There's no pay-to-play and no ads in our listings. Venues can't buy a spot or a better position — recommendations are based on fit with your night.
The planner ranks venues by how well they match the vibe, energy, time, neighborhood, and group you picked, weighing curated taste attributes alongside the venue's real Google rating — and whether the stops form a walkable route.
We refresh from Google periodically and remove closed venues. For time-sensitive details, confirm directly with the venue.
It's built and run from Denver by its founder, Ryan Cartwright. It's a working product grounded in first-hand knowledge of going out in Denver — not a directory bought wholesale.
Plan a real Denver night in the app — or browse the venues we curate.