McLain Hedges and Mary Allison Wright
Yacht Club | Denver
july 2022
McLain Hedges and Mary Allison Wright met as many music-loving couples do—by following Phish on their summer tour. They moved to Atlanta after graduating from the University of Mississippi and became music venue promoters, spending all their free time at local restaurants and bars. After a couple trips to Denver, Hedges and Wright were eager to join the Mile High City’s burgeoning hospitality scene. Hedges picked up a job as a cook and Wright worked at a wine shop while they took their time looking for a permanent home. Serendipitously, the landlord of a prospective apartment also owned a space at The Source Market Hall. Hedges and Wright signed a lease on the shop and transformed it into Proper Pour, a boutique bottle shop. They took over a second spot within The Source in 2012 and called it RiNo Yacht Club, a cocktail and oyster bar known for unpretentious drinks and warehouse-style music nights.
They closed RiNo Yacht Club in 2019 and Proper Pour in 2020 and, while searching for a new home, took on roles at French restaurant Morin—Hedges as beverage director and Wright as wine director. When the restaurant shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple launched Jellybone consulting company and Door Prize, a meat-and-three, pay-what-you-can pop-up, partnering with various charities, including Black Women’s Blueprint. In 2021, Wright and Hedges were finally ready to open Yacht Club as a brick and mortar in the Cole neighborhood, bringing along Wright’s brother, John David, as the “chef de hotdog.” They designed Yacht Club to be a bar for all—affordable cocktails, late night bites, and live music every Sunday.
