As gardens around Colorado begin to overflow with tomatoes, growers and cocktail enthusiasts may find themselves crossing paths at a unique version of that particular morning drink, whether the hair of the dog or a jump-start to the day, the Bloody Mary.

In a state bursting with home gardens, farmers markets, fresh produce and a DIY spirit, it seems inevitable that the drink would move beyond syrupy, heavily processed tomato juice out of a can. A couple of Colorado establishments offer their own versions of the drink and they stepped up with tips and tricks for the home bartender to try their hand.

Visitors to the juice bar at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs near Buena Vista have come across the freshly juiced Bloody Mary this summer, recently returned to the menu after some years of absence. The Mt. Princeton version of the cocktail relies on extremely ripe local hothouse tomatoes — grown on a neighboring property that makes use of the same geothermal activity that powers the springs — juiced along with a small handful of additional vegetables, according to Tom Warren, general manager at the hot springs.

For each 16-ounce drink, he said they juice five to six tomatoes along with half a lemon, a touch of fresh garlic and three local carrots, the last of which vastly improves the texture of the juice.

“With the tomatoes only it’s very thin, but when you squeeze the carrots it’s a thicker juice,” he said. “I think in the mouth it feels better than just the really really liquidy tomato juice.”

Warren rounds out the flavor profile with a touch of Japanese oyster sauce, which takes the place of traditional Worcestershire sauce in adding a touch of savoriness to the whole package, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and the customer’s choice of vodka. They experimented with oyster and Worcestershire, and Warren said the Worcestershire was too strong for the milder, freshly-juiced version of the cocktail. 

“We thought with the oyster sauce, it tasted very, very good. I did taste a sample with the Worcestershire sauce, it was not bad, but it almost overwhelmed the taste of the tomato,” he said. It’s overall a relatively low-sodium approach, though they rim the glass with Tajin, a blend of chile, lime and salt.

When it comes to garnishes, Mt. Princeton sticks with its minimal approach, offering bacon as an add-on. There once was an option to add three chilled shrimp, but that became “just a nightmare to prep” because of its popularity, Warren said.

For the home enthusiast, he recommends finding high-juice tomatoes, such as the fresh local ones used at the resort. “This is a very low-structured, soft tomato that’s full of liquid content,” he said. Some varieties and underripe tomatoes, liked the ones in the big box grocery stores that are “as hard as an apple,” will have too much flesh and yield less juice. “You would juice 20 for a (cocktail).”

Warren’s biggest recommendations for making a home-juiced Bloody Mary were to buy a good juicer and be prepared to spend some time making and perfecting the cocktail. It’s a “very simple, very wholesome” drink that relies on a few quality ingredients. “The real joy to it is that none of it is from a can or a bag.”

“The best Bloody Mary I’d ever had”

In Colorado Springs, Mother Muff’s owner Susan Hirt says her menu of Marys was informed by an older, more complex version of the Mt. Princeton cocktail that she enjoyed almost 20 years ago. Inspired by “the best Bloody Mary I’d ever had,” she experimented with different vegetables and different proportions to put one on the menu years later when opening Muff’s.

Because Mother Muff’s can serve hundreds of Bloody Marys in a day, the restaurant relies on a high-quality commercial tomato juice for its base, and blends it with a “concentrate” that consists of other juices and ingredients. The concentrate is made by juicing carrots, celery, cucumber, green and red bell peppers, beets (for color), jalapeño and a secret seventh ingredient in big batches using heavy-duty Breville juicers. They pass the initial pulp through a second time to ensure that they’re getting as much juice as possible for their effort and then freeze the concentrate

“At first we juiced every couple of days, because it only stays fresh for three or four days,” Hirt said. “I wanted to keep it as fresh as possible, and as veggie as possible. We came up with making it in big batches and freezing it.”

Vegetables get cleaned and chopped for ease of processing, but none are peeled. Once everything is processed, the vegetable juice is dosed with Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces and is ready to be added to the tomato juice.

For the home mixologist, Hirt recommended the approach she took to develop the Mother Muff’s recipe: juicing a few cups of a variety of vegetables, then playing with the proportions. She had a cucumber-heavy version that she liked, but it was less popular with tasters, so she dialed down the cucumber and turned up the peppers, carrots and other ingredients. “The beet helps to give it that juicy, earthy flavor, but it’s also for color,” she said. Without it, Muff’s mix is more brown than red.

Removing the seeds from the jalapeños or other peppers can impact the flavor profile and the level of heat, and she suggested substituting poblanos for the home mixologist who prefers it mild. She’s used Anaheim peppers in a pinch, as well.

“Don’t be afraid to try different things if it’s for yourself, for a party,” she advised. “It really is endless, the things you can juice. I think apple might be a really great minor ingredient if you’re looking for something different.”

Muff’s offers a variety of additional customizations that customers can explore or the home bartender can take inspiration from. There are choices that stray from vodka or house-infused poblano vodka — with offerings that include gin, rum, whiskey and tequila — and garnishes that range from the typical olive and celery stalk to bolder choices such as a pickle spear, bacon, blue cheese-stuffed olives and pepperoncini. 

Other tweaks, often based on regional interpretations, include Clamato instead of tomato juice, or augmenting the drink with olive juice, pickle juice, sriracha, wasabi, porter-style beer, and even beef broth. 

“There are different kinds of Bloody Marys depending on where you are in the United States,” Hirt said. “Where I grew in in Illinois, they put beef broth into ‘em, which I think is kinda gross, but it’s on there. Years and years and years ago, I stole a recipe from a bartender at The Keg Lounge in Manitou — who is now a regular, by the way, which I love — he put a little bit of porter beer in his Bloody Mary. It was something really unique that’d I’d never tried. It was really good, so it’s on there.”

So whether or not it includes clams or beef, Mother Muff’s illustrates the diversity of the drink. There are countless roads that the tender of a Bloody Mary bar can explore to make the drink their own, and the next great iteration might just come from a basket of fresh farmers market ingredients.

A basic tomato juice recipe

3 pounds very ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
1¼ cup chopped celery, including leaves
⅓ cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of black pepper
A couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce (6-8 drops, to taste)

This recipe can be made using the cooked method, recommended by simplyrecipes.com, or using one of these no-cook methods (including putting the ingredients through a countertop juicer) recommended by alphafoodie.com.

We tested the recipe using the blender method using extremely ripe field tomatoes and substituting two carrots for the sugar.

Story first appeared in:

Months before the global pandemic, chef Troy Guard opened his first restaurant outside of Denver, a Guard and Grace steakhouse in Houston. Then COVID “kicked our butt,” he said. The restaurant eventually found its place in the city, even landing top honors in a state where beef is just part of being Texan. 

And now Guard, who began building his restaurant empire TAG Restaurant Group in Denver in 2009, is leaving Colorado for greener pastures.

“My wife and I are moving to Houston,” Guard said. “The company will still be based in Denver, but we want to grow more of the company in Houston because it’s a better climate for business and restaurants over there. … Honestly, I love Denver. I’ve been here 23 years. But it’s becoming more and more difficult every year to open restaurants. The last three restaurants have taken way too long by the city to OK, and I’m just kind of over that.”

Troy Guard, chef and owner of Guard and Grace, located in downtown Denver at 1801 California St., on July 26. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

That’s just one beef that Guard and other top local chefs and restaurateurs have with doing business in the city these days. Higher operating costs were exacerbated by the more commonly known culprits, like inflation, which pushed up the price of not just food, but also construction, insurance, utilities and property taxes. Labor shortages fueled rising wages and new worker benefits, like the state’s paid-leave program.

But there seems to be something in particular with Denver, especially as downtown has struggled to return to its pre-pandemic heyday. Ongoing construction that ripped up 16th Street Mall hasn’t helped. While Mayor Mike Johnston’s pledge to end homelessness has minimized the number of tents pitched along sidewalks, the reputation has been difficult to ditch. For some of the biggest names in Denver dining, it feels like the city just isn’t listening. 

Juan Padro, cofounder of Culinary Creative that operates several Denver restaurants, including Michelin Bib Gourmand winners Mister Oso and Ash’Kara, first ventured out of state in 2019 with Italian eatery Sofia in New Orleans. Now the Big Easy also has a Mister Oso, and soon, another Denver original, A5 Steakhouse.

“We are looking all over,” Padro said. “We have deals that are signed in Denver that we’re going to honor, but generally, I don’t have a strong interest in doing business in Denver right now. I love Denver and want to do business in Denver. But economically, it’s just not feasible.”

How infeasible?

Culinary Creative’s Red Tops Rendezvous, a Detroit-style pizza joint that opened last summer in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, started on a high note, averaging $50,000 a week in revenue, Padro said. But when construction began last fall on Federal Boulevard, making it tough to turn onto West 25th Avenue, where the restaurant is located, sales dropped to $30,000 a week overnight. He said $36,000 was breakeven. 

“And then they ripped up 25th and we dropped to $16,000 to $18,000,” he said. “I’m under no illusion that the city doesn’t have to move forward with projects to enhance the streets and sidewalks for citizens. I support that. What I don’t understand is how the heck do they not have a plan for the businesses?”

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Instead of keeping Red Tops open and paying staff, food and other other operating costs, he temporarily closed it in June. It’s still losing money. Padro has loans to pay, plus insurance and other upkeep for the building.

“I’m losing $17,000 a month, but it’s better than losing $50,000,” Padro said.

While he’s rethinking Denver for new restaurants, he hopes to reopen Red Tops, which he said did get a $15,000 grant from the city’s Business Impact Opportunity Fund with United Way. 

“You don’t just get into the restaurant business to make money,” he said. “You get into the restaurant business for community, and because you believe in something. It’s a form of art and entertainment. So as long as the company remains healthy, and the company’s healthy, but, generally speaking, we have other restaurants that are more profitable for sure.”

During a recent weekday lunch hour at the Mercantile Dining & Provision, business seemed steady, but there was no wait to be seated as the clock ticked past 1 p.m. The restaurant, tucked into the northern end of Union Station, was one of the most anticipated openings in 2014. That’s because it’s led by Alex Seidel, the first Denver chef to earn a semifinalist nod in the prestigious James Beard Foundation awards in 2008 for Fruition. He was named Best Chef South West for Mercantile in 2018.

Alex Seidel, owner and chef, inside Mercantile Dining & Provision on July 26 in Denver. The restaurant is located downtown inside Denver’s Union Station. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Business hasn’t returned since COVID, at least not enough to sustain a staff of 100, which Mercantile employed prior to the pandemic. It now employs 30, he said.

“I personally have never worked in a restaurant in my entire 36-year career where it is slower on a Friday and Saturday night than it is the rest of the week,” Seidel said. “What that tells me is that there’s nobody coming down from the suburbs. The people that go out on Friday, Saturday night are no longer coming downtown.” 

It wasn’t too long ago that Seidel was excited about sharing his cooking. “You felt this great responsibility to provide something amazing for the community,” he said. He opened the fast-casual Chook Charcoal Chicken in late 2018 to “bring great food to people and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.” Back then, Chook charged $20 for a whole chicken. More than five years later, it’s $21.95, or 10% higher, less than inflation for the same period.  

118 minutes

In 2018, when the state’s minimum wage was $10.20/hour, it took one hour and 58 minutes of work to pay for a whole chicken at Chook, which cost $20 at the time.

72 minutes

In 2024, with Denver’s minimum wage at $18.29/hr, it takes one hour and 12 minutes of work to pay for a whole chicken at Chook, which now costs $21.99

“We’re a certified B Corp., we have been trying to do things for all the right reasons, taking care of people and our planet,” he said. “And those restaurants have struggled in this setting. And when I say struggle, I mean they just break even.”

His northeastern Denver commissary, Füdmill, which produces pastries for his restaurants, has struggled to renew its license after the city put the licensing system online to save applicants an in-person visit to City Hall. He admits that this delay could be his fault. His applications had some missing information. But the back-and-forth emails to figure out what was missing has been such a time suck that even a James Beard award-winning chef feels hopeless. 

He took up pottery during COVID and that “has brought some peace to my life,” he said. But, he added, “I am not looking to open another restaurant. (Insert audible gasp from the interviewer.) No really. It sucked the life out of me.”

Denver. Costs. More.

The restaurant business is no picnic even with the fame and foodie fandom that can come with it. Profits are notoriously minuscule, like living from paycheck to paycheck. 

According to an analysis by point-of-sale system developer Toast, restaurant profit margins range between 0% and 15%, but the average is 3% to 5%. Larger corporate-owned chains benefit from shared costs and streamlined operations, allowing a place like Olive Garden to notch a profit margin of 22.8% despite a 1.5% drop in sales at existing locations in its latest quarter, according to parent Darden Restaurants. 

“It’s very, very difficult to make any money,” said John Imbergamo, a Denver restaurant consultant who represents award-winning chef Jen Jasinski’s restaurants Rioja, Bistro Vendome and Stoic & Genuine. “The fact is, you not only have to be busy, you also have to make money. And we’ve had a harmonic convergence of cost increases … that have all hit at once combined with pandemic relief funds, which are now running out or have run out in most cases.”

Jasinski, in fact, with Crafted Concepts partner Beth Gruitch, announced Aug. 2 that Stoic & Genuine will close in September, a decision made based on “changing market conditions” and  coinciding with an expiring lease at Union Station. They’ll also hand over two restaurants to their partners. Adam Branz  becomes sole operator of Ultreia, while Tim Kuklinski takes Bistro Vendôme. Jasinski and Gruitch will continue to operate Rioja in Larimer Square. 

“It was always our plan to turn our businesses over to our partners and let the young, fresh people run these businesses so we can take a little bit of a step back,” Jasinski said. “We weren’t thinking about closing Stoic, but that has more to do with the economy. … The pandemic changed a lot of things.”

Inflation also hit the Denver area earlier than other U.S. cities. The metro area recorded a 9.1% increase in consumer prices in March 2022, several months ahead of the nation. And while Denver’s inflation has slowed —  it fell to 2.6% in May — it hasn’t stopped.

Once raised, prices rarely go down, though corporations do try to nudge revenues higher. In late June, McDonald’s launched a $5 meal deal. It wasn’t enough to improve sales for the quarter, which fell 1% from a year earlier. But CEO Chris Kempczinski said it did the job of “improved brand perceptions around value and affordability,” reported business-news site TheStreet.

Honestly, I love Denver … But it’s becoming more and more difficult every year to open restaurants.

— Troy Guard, chef and owner of Guard and Grace

And restaurants and all businesses, really, must deal with customer perception, Imbergamo said. Sourcing fresh ingredients, maintaining a trained staff to grill a burger to perfection, and serving customers at the table, costs more than it did a few years ago. The consumer’s “value barometer is a very, very difficult thing to change,” Imbergamo said. 

“For 10 years, we’ve been telling people that a burger is worth $10 or $12. Now it’s $15 and that just doesn’t compute when it comes to the value barometer,” he said. “We can’t move that needle over to where it needs to move very easily because even though consumers understand (that) the price of goods has gone up in the grocery store, they don’t equate that necessarily to restaurants. And if they do, they still don’t care. The fact is they say, ‘Why is my burger that used to be $12 now $15?’”

But not all consumers have pulled back their spending. Guard said he’s seen sales at his lower-priced restaurants slow, but not so much at pricier places, he said. Guests at Guard and Grace, where a 22-ounce Cowboy Ribeye is $140, tend to be out-of-town visitors or business professionals with big expense accounts. 

“At Guard and Grace, which is a high-end steakhouse, we were up. In my opinion, people that go out and dine at the $100-plus check average have the money to do that,” he said. “At our HashTag restaurant, breakfast is a little bit down. … Maybe it’s summer and it’s hit and miss because people are on vacation (but) the first seven years of HashTag have gone up every year. And this year, it’s down, so not flat, but down. That’s kind of a bummer.”

Hop Alley owner Tommy Lee introduced a six-seat Chef’s Counter in February. The chef-driven tasting menu is available only by reservation, which requires a $100 deposit per person. He said 90% of Chef’s Counter customers end up spending around $230. That’s steeper than the average $65 check at Hop Alley, which earned a Bib Gourmand award from the Michelin Guide this year for “good quality, good value.”

“It’s been great because we’re generating a good amount of revenue out of the six seats,” Lee said. “It’s a lot of people from out of town because there are people seeking out these tasting menu experiences. A lot of these customers that are coming to the Chef’s Counter have never been to Hop Alley.”

The economy may be impacting consumer budgets, but restaurants are still opening in Denver, Imbergamo pointed out. According to his unofficial count — he relies on Westword’s weekly “Every Opening and Closing This Week” report — more open each month than close. 

What he doesn’t understand is why established out-of-state restaurants pick Denver, where operating costs, including minimum wage, are much higher. Denver’s hourly minimum wage is $18.29 an hour and will increase to $18.81 in January since it’s pegged to inflation. Many other states, including Texas and Louisiana, default to the federal minimum of $7.25. 

And in the land of restaurants, there’s something called the tipped credit. There are many, many complex rules around tipped credits in Colorado. But the gist is that tipped servers can be paid $3.02 less than the minimum wage, or $15.27. Meanwhile, the states that use the federal rate? The tipped minimum is a mere $2.13 an hour, which hasn’t changed since 1996.

“I can’t stress enough how much that tipped minimum wage increase every year impacts profitability because we use so many tipped employees,” Imbergamo said. “In many restaurants, some restaurant servers, bartenders are making $55, $60, $70 an hour and for them to get $1 raises is, you know, it just doesn’t really make any sense. When you multiply that dollar times the number of hours that we use in a week, in a month, in a year, that turns into a huge number for restaurants.”

The minimum wage and tipped minimum in Denver and Colorado are going up again in January. That will happen every year, as long as inflation exists. Robin Kniech, an at-large Denver city council member in 2019 who advocated for the city to break out in 2019 with its own higher minimum wage, said her support was due to the gap between stagnant wages and escalating housing prices. 

“We talk a lot about a housing crisis in Colorado, but we’ve really had a wage gap. That’s really the underlying thing that has complicated and exacerbated our housing crisis,” Kniech said. 

But she also pointed out that rising wages is just one piece of rising costs of doing business. Commercial landlords have increased rent. Food prices are up. The city policy helps the lowest-paid workers whose income makes it challenging to live in the city.

“What’s really clear (is that) leisure and hospitality employment in Denver is growing,” she said. “It grew at a rate of 5.9% last year. It’s grown every single year since the pandemic — 13.8% in 2021, 19.9% in 2022 and 5.9% in 2023. All of that is along with this wage. Each individual business may be having a variety of adjustments that they are making in this era of making sure that workers can earn closer to what it costs to live in their city. But overall, the industry is growing. It is not contracting.”

The city’s leisure and hospitality workforce has grown since the worst of the pandemic, and so has pretty much every industry, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. But at the same time, the city’s estimated 65,322 workers in such occupations is just back to where it was in 2019, as seen in the chart below. 

Kniech, now a Bell Policy Center fellow working on affordable housing projects, said the City Council couldn’t touch the tipped minimum because it was already baked into the state constitution. 

“There was a desire to talk about it and it just wasn’t on the table,” she said. “But I will tell you because I have a little mental file cabinet of the number of restaurant owners who said they could never, or would never, go to a service-fee approach (like in Europe) and that was not happening in America. That it was impossible. That was 2019. And here we are. Many restaurants have adjusted. It’s not just about government policy. It’s also about business practices.”

Dana Rodriguez, chef and owner of Carne and Work and Class, inside Carne located in RiNo at 2601 Larimer St. on July 26 in Denver. At a cutting board, she prepares olive tapenade to be served with achiote-grilled octopus. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Chef Dana Rodriguez may be one of the more recognized names in the local restaurant industry as the chef behind Casa Bonita’s new menu. But at the two restaurants where she is executive chef and owner, she has just 60 employees. TAG Restaurant Group employs about 500 companywide. Culinary Creative Group has 750. Darden Restaurants, which owns brands including Olive Garden and The Capital Grille, employs 190,000 globally.

Policies often apply uniformly to all. Why is that, Rodriguez wondered. She said she appreciated how Mayor Johnston talked last year about helping people who were homeless.

“He said the first thing is to divide. Some is mental health, some is addictions. And the other one is literally like they just want to live their life like that,” she said. “And I say they should look at us in the same way. There are the big corporations, there are the small independents, there are franchises and fast-food restaurants. How can we help them and them and them? The same formula doesn’t work for everyone. That’s the part that we’re missing. They don’t see us for our real needs.” 

Denver improves backlog, wait times 

And then there are delays with building permits, inspections, reviews and business licenses. Before COVID, Guard said, the city provided a time estimate on how long it would take for approvals. Now, it seems like it’s timeless.

“It used to be 90 days. Now, it could be eight months, which my last one was, and I lost my general contractor because of that. I lost my pricing because of that,” Guard said. “Then I have to reprice and then the price goes up and then I have to go to my investors. They don’t want to give me more money. It’s like this complete circus and it’s frustrating.”

City officials acknowledge that things got backed up during COVID. But commercial building permits, in particular, have been a priority of Denver’s mayor. Last year, Johnston pledged to reduce building-permit wait times by 30%. As of the end of July, the average wait time for intermediate commercial projects had been cut by 14% to 30 days. The goal is to get to 25 days by the end of the year, city spokesperson Genna Morton said. Current plan review times are posted on the city’s interactive dashboard.

“Our recent efforts have brought those review times back to what customers were experiencing pre-COVID. There’s opportunity to continue to improve and the city is focused on continuing to bring down those review times,” Morton said in an email. “Overall, our permit review times as of (July 31) are comparable to what our customers experienced 3 to 5 years ago, before the pandemic.”

The city also revamped its food licensing program by moving everything online so applicants no longer needed to show up in person. When the new system launched a year ago last month,  the average wait was 71 days. Now, it’s five, said Eric Escudero, spokesperson for the city’s Excise and Licenses department.  

“We’re seeing the fruit from the changes with the processing times. I mean the vast majority of applications are (completed) within five days,” Escudero said. 

But he understands that the new system may be confusing. Companies that just needed to renew had to start over because the new system didn’t have their old data. Escudero said the department helps anyone who asks.

“If you’re applying for a license and you’ve run into a dead end, you’re not sure what to do or are confused, we’ll meet with someone and we’ll coordinate with those other city agencies,” he said. 

According to city licensing data, the number of retail food establishments has increased in Denver since 2021, but it declined 4.4% to 3,947 businesses this year. (Escudero said older data before 2021 is unreliable.) Statewide, the Department of Revenues’ sales tax data shows that the number of active food services and drinking establishments in Colorado is higher than it was before the pandemic. 

Permit delays have long been part of commercial projects, which include restaurants. But the convergence of inflation, pandemic recovery and a slower summer has just made restaurant operations more challenging, Ibergamo said.

“Restaurants used to be the place that people who didn’t have a ton of money could open, could find a spot that had a grease trap and make some minor changes to the way the place looked and get open,” Imbergamo said. “That’s kind of gone.” 

How chefs decide to increase menu prices

Higher prices are an issue consumers face at nearly every income level. But not all restaurants have effectively shared why menu prices are higher.

Rodriguez gave it a shot: “This restaurant is a $2.3 million restaurant,” she said referring to the revenue at her award-winning Work and Class in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood. “And then when you look at the expenses, it’s $1.9 million. “And you’re like, ‘Why even open?’” 

That’s roughly a 17% profit margin, and her most profitable restaurant, largely because the staff is small with 31 employees. And call her crazy, or uncorporate-like or just someone who wants to do right by her staff and the community. Her workers have benefits. They support one another, which meant covering health insurance for an employee who spent three years fighting cancer and was unable to work.  Customers waiting for a table can order a discounted mixed drink, for $4. But every year, costs continued to rise. 

As the cost of Colorado lamb rose, she pulled it off the menu at Work and Class to avoid raising prices. 

“And people said, ‘What?’ Yeah, now I can serve chicken, pork, veal, the meats that are more affordable. And people who say, ‘What the f—, we want our lamb back’ (and) I say, ‘Are you willing to pay market price?’” she said. “That’s why all the menus now you see market price for oysters, for lamb, for steaks, for caviar (so) you don’t get stuck as an owner feeling, ‘Oh, I’m losing more and more every time.’”

She brought lamb back at double the price. It’s currently going for $64.75 a pound, up from $28.75 a decade ago when the restaurant opened.

216 minutes

In 2014, when Denver’s minimum wage was at $8/hr, it took three hours and 36 minutes of work to pay for the lamb dish at Work and Class, which charged $28.75 back then.

212.5 minutes

In 2024, with Denver’s minimum wage at $18.29/hr, it would take 3 hours and 33.5 minutes of work to pay for the lamb dish at Work and Class, which now costs $64.75.

Restaurants hate to raise prices though because of customer perception, said Lee, whose restaurants, Uncle and Hop Alley, serve up ramen and regional Chinese cuisine, respectively. But they have to figure out a way to make a business sustainable.

“I was looking at our prices and our ramen has only increased by, I think, $4 in 12 years when it should probably have increased by $10,” Lee said. “We’re lucky, you know. I think our restaurants are relatively busy in general, like every day, and we’ve just had to kind of get creative with how we bend our models to make it work.”

105 minutes

In 2014, when Denver’s minimum wage at $8/hr, it took one hour and 45 minutes of work to pay for a bowl of Uncle’s Chashu ramen, which cost $14 back then.

63 minutes

In 2024, with Denver’s minimum wage at $18.29/hr, it takes one hour and 3 minutes of work to pay for a bowl of Uncle’s Chashu ramen, which now costs $19.

Lee said that right before the interview, he was texting another restaurant owner about how some places are adding a credit-card surcharge to their bills. Among his three restaurants, Lee said he pays “a hundred-and-something thousand” a year in credit card fees. 

“And if you were to pass on that 2%, which the customer would barely notice probably, you could cover your credit card fees. But to a customer seeing that, it’s like, ‘Hey, why are you charging me $1.25?’” he said. “But we can’t just eat the cost of everything that’s going up.”

For him, the restaurant business is a marathon with good years and bad years. He’s had more good years than bad so he feels fortunate. But 2024 may be one of the bad ones. Lee has a business degree so when he started out, he was always thinking about sustainability.  

LEFT: Tommy Lee, owner and chef of Uncle, inside his restaurant’s West Wash Park location at 95 S. Pennsylvania St. in Denver on July 26. RIGHT: Line cook Hilario Gregorio prepares Chinese eggplant inside Uncle. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

“At the two Uncle locations, we have open kitchens where the cooks are also helping serve customers. So we can legally put them as part of our tip pool, which helps pay your cooks through a different method and outside your bottom line,” he said. 

In Colorado, wait staff can’t share tips with the kitchen crew unless those workers interact with patrons and provide customer service. In order to pool tips, all staff must earn the full minimum wage, and not just the tipped minimum.

Jasinski said that her restaurants opted to skip the tipped-minimum savings and pay everyone minimum wage so that the kitchen crew, who are doing all the prep and cooking, can share tips. That started after 2019 when the city of Denver approved its own minimum wage, which initially was 7.1% higher than the state. Now, it’s nearly 27% more.  

Padro tested out a service fee at Highland Tap and Burger, the first restaurant he opened in Denver back in 2010. Then they rolled out a 20% service fee at all 18 restaurants that is shared with its nontipped kitchen crews. Customers are told that no tip is required, but some consumers call such fees “sneaky” and vow to never return. One Reddit thread tallied up Colorado restaurants with fees and the restaurant’s explanations.

But it’s really helped the rest of the staff. The restaurants still had to raise prices. At Tap and Burger, it’s still busy but profit has slid, Padro said.

“Volume in our restaurants? For sure, people are there. We have some really busy restaurants. It’s just not translating into profit,” he said. “In 2017, Highlands Tap and Burger did $3.7 million or $3.8 million in sales and a profit of $900,000. Last year, it did $3.3 million in sales and profited $30,000.”

Is it just Denver?

It’s still challenging even for someone like Rodriguez, who has won multiple best-chef awards. Sadly, she said, she made the hard decision to close her first solo venture, Cantina Loca, on April 29. Higher costs for food and labor plus declining number of patrons did in the 2-year-old Loca, she said.

“My employees start working at 8 in the morning to prep. And then at nighttime, come to cook at 4 p.m. but no one shows up from 4 to 6, so you already lose money in the first two hours. And then you make money only two, and lose money the other three,” she said. “That’s when I decided the numbers are not making sense. I put all my savings to save a restaurant and then I say, I’m hurting myself and my other businesses. It’s a hard decision that investors will never understand. And maybe the community will never understand. It’s so sad when people hear you are closing and are like, ‘Oh my God, she was my favorite.’ And I’m like, ‘But where have you been?’”

Of course, Rodriguez is a little … loca. Two months and a few days later, she opened Carne, a globally inspired steakhouse “for everyday” in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood. She says she wasn’t going to do it. She says she probably shouldn’t have done it.  

“I was down. I was sad. And the next day, literally, I’m like, ‘I’m not f-ing done.’ I guess I have this strength that I’m going to keep going whether it is here, whether it be somewhere else,” she said. “This is the only thing I know how to do and I love it.”

The “everyday” menu items may be more expensive than grilling steaks at home. But for the extra service, flavor and overall dining experience, Carne’s menu has dishes that seem tricky to cook at home, like the Argentinian Bife de Chorizo, which at $29 is about the same price as a bacon cheeseburger, large fries and milkshake at Five Guys ($26.37, before tax).

She still doesn’t feel Denver is the easiest place to open a restaurant, even if it took a mere two months to turn the old Il Posto location into a sexy, ’70s-inspired hangout complete with an upstairs lounge with shag carpeting, low-slung seats and Playboy magazines hiding behind a beaded curtain. She considered other states. Nearby cities also tried to woo her.

She picked Denver. RiNo specifically, because it’s an active nightspot that translates into multiple hours of activity. It helped Work and Class, located a few blocks away. Both are open Wednesday to Sunday, mainly for dinner “’til close.”

She wishes someone at the city would just listen “with their heart.”

“I have a fake sign because I’ve been waiting three months for a permit. If they come and they want me to take it down, I have to pay a fine. They are not very helpful in trying to build more businesses,” she said. “It feels like they’re saying, ‘Dana, you don’t need to open another restaurant.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I do need to open another one.’ ‘No, you don’t.’ And I’m like, well then if I close all my restaurants and Troy closes restaurants and Jen closes restaurants and Alex, what do you got in Denver? Do you want just Applebee’s?”

In the past two weeks in downtown Denver, Bonanno Concepts announced a temporarily closing of French 75 on 17th Street (via Westword), Cholon Restaurant Concept’s Bistro LeRoux shuttered on 16th Street (via Denver Post), and the aforementioned Stoic & Genuine is closing on Sept. 1. 

But coming soon, two new restaurants will debut inside the funky new Populus hotel near Civic Center park; South Carolina import Church and Union may finally open on 17th Street (via 303 Magazine); and (ahem) two more from Guard, including a HashTag on 17th Street and Swedish import, Eggs, on Wewatta Street, which Guard is opening with former Avalanche hockey player Peter Forsberg. 

Guard said it’s hard to say if he’d be moving to Texas if the permit delays had never happened. 

“I love Denver. I have the brand here and, yes, we want to continue to grow. But this was just one more push that says ‘Troy, you’ve got to get up and get out of the city and go somewhere else to continue the growth.’ I kept my roots here, but I believe in signs. I don’t know why but this is a sign. It’s time for your family to get up and move and try something new and grow the company somewhere else,” he said.

Jasinski is eager to focus on her first born, Rioja, which she and Gruitch opened in 2004. It’s won multiple best chef and restaurant honors. So, instead of running around operating four restaurants, she’ll return to the kitchen. They just signed a 20-year lease.

“There were times I didn’t cook all week and that was a bummer for me,” she said. “But you know, Beth and I have wanted to do this plan. We’ve taken these people, we’ve taught them and they’re wonderful people and we want them to shine on their own, have new ideas and do cool things like that. Let me get out of the way.”

A new city, new people and new food experiences invigorate many a chef, and that’s probably the sentiment Guard, Jasinski and others felt when they landed in Denver years ago. 

“There’s always a new crop of people who have worked their lives in restaurants and are now looking for the opportunity to do one of their own. And that’s what keeps the Denver restaurant scene vibrant,” Imbergamo said. “The base premise is that it’s an industry that thrives on creativity and opportunity and hard work. That premise remains in place no matter what the economics are. It’s just harder.”

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In a farmyard on the western outskirts of Palisade, a distinct odor seeps through the sweet scent of ripening peaches, the yeasty aroma of fermenting wine, and the perfume of lavender.

It doesn’t take a vampire to recognize that punchy smell. It is allium sativum — garlic — and it is wafting from the Green Acres U-Pick farm.

Green Acres U-Pick is the most prolific grower of garlic varieties in Colorado. In five acres that neighbor a handful of wineries, bulbs of Montana Zemo, Russian giant, Georgian crystal, Killarney red, rose de Lautrec and dozens of other garlic cultivars are waiting under the soil for farmer Bob Korver’s digging fork. 

About 1,500 pounds of bulbs will be liberated within the next several weeks.

Bob and his wife, Elaine, still have fruits and vegetables dotting and fringing their small farm, but it is the half-acre spiked with the spear-like leaves of 40 garlic varieties that has bumped up the Korvers from garlic growers to garlic geeks.

If the Korvers were to put pins on a map showing where their garlic cultivars originated, the dots would be sprinkled to the far reaches of the world.

This year’s garlic crop originated in Siberia, the Republic of Georgia, the San Juan Islands, Uzbekistan, Russia, Italy, Spain, France, Transylvania, South Korea, Vietnam and Romania. There is also garlic that was first grown in California, New Mexico and the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington.

“I don’t think you will find anyone that is crazy as I am,” Bob admits about his garlic enthusiasm.

Elaine puts that obsession into more sensible terms: “We like to experiment.”

How to grow (and sell) garlic by hand

All the work of planting and harvesting garlic at Green Acres is done by hand except for the initial field preparation. Bob does that by putting around on his little orange Kubota tractor to create furrows.

Halloween is planting season. That’s when Bob hunkers down over those rows poking each garlic clove into the ground. For the next seven months, if all goes right, those single cloves will expand into a fist-sized bulb made up of many cloves.

Shortly after each Fourth of July, Bob starts the harvest by aiming his trusty garden fork with uncanny accuracy into the weed-choked rows. He digs and hauls in the early mornings and the evenings because the hot sun can leach some of the flavor from garlic.

He lays out the newborn allium bulbs in his well-used wheelbarrow and hauls them one load at a time up the road, past the revelers on the patio of Red Fox Cellars winery, to the Korvers’ little garlic-colored house.

There Elaine sorts it, with nothing more than an appraising eye and a quick heft in the hand to determine the size of each bulb.

In a couple of weeks, this same patio will become the sales floor for Green Acres garlic.

The Korvers don’t waste any time or money on advertising. Those in the know watch their Facebook page for Elaine’s posts that the garlic is ready or that different varieties are running out.

Right now, the Korvers’ earliest harvest is undergoing a two-week curing rest in their four-car garage (which has never had a car in it). They fill it with garlic four times each season.

Bob is responsible for nipping the leaves and stems from the rested bulbs before Elaine takes a cheapo toothbrush to them to banish clinging dirt. Bob helps out with that task, too, when he is waiting for dinner or hiding from the heat.

Last year, there was more scrubbing to do. The Korvers had 50 cultivars of garlic. A few of those didn’t do so well in the increasing heat of western Colorado.

Bob could easily have replaced those with some of the new allium cultivars he ogles in seed catalogues during the winter, but “she said enough,” he explains while cutting his eyes toward Elaine.

She levels a hard stare at him over a grin: “Enough is right!”

Trading the classroom for the field

The Korvers, both in their early 70s and married for 37 years, never saw garlic taking over their lives back in the day.

Bob moved with his third-generation agricultural family to a farm just down the road from Green Acres when he was 4 years old. He grew up picking peaches and trying to listen to his father who warned him: “If you want to make a million dollars in farming, start out with $2 million.”

He went off to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, then on to Colorado State University where he earned a master’s in guidance counseling. He taught English and journalism and coached volleyball and track as well as serving as a counselor at schools in Columbus, Nebraska, on the Eastern Plains of Colorado and eventually in Steamboat Springs.

Elaine first met Bob in Greeley where she was attending college to earn a degree in library science. She describes herself as a city girl. She had grown up in Omaha, Nebraska, and after college aspired to teach in larger places like Denver and later Grand Junction.

The two came together like garlic and bread when Elaine was doing a librarian stint in Rifle during the oil shale boom. Friends invited her along to watch a volleyball game in Steamboat.

In between games, she spotted a guy in the bleachers who was busy grading papers, oblivious to the hubbub around him. His briefcase was beside him. Bob!

Their conversation led to a connection and eventually to Green Acres after they both decided they would retire from their professions and farm together. They would grow fruits and vegetables without using pesticides and herbicides and showcase rows of lavender.

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They proved they could master lavender when their oils won two first-place prizes in an international lavender competition last year in Australia.

Neither one remembers exactly how they came to decide that the fragrant lines of waving lavender could be neighbors to a garlic plot. It has something to do with saving water. Garlic does not require much water.

Bob’s years of classroom planning made him well suited to garlic farming. Garlic is an easy thing to grow. Home gardeners can plunk cloves in loose soil and create a bulb. But the way Bob does it requires complicated charts and graphs and timing schedules. Locations, planting dates, size of cloves, names are all neatly printed out on papers spotted with sweat and dirt, and snapped onto a clipboard that resides in the garlic field while Bob is working there.

His colored charts correspond to brown, pink, blue, red, green, orange and yellow flags that flutter at the end of rows in the recent air-fryer heat.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to think they were getting one kind of garlic and get another,” Elaine explains about all that paperwork. She is, she admits, “the queen of handouts.”

Each garlic bulb sold or given away at Green Acres comes with one of Elaine’s cheat sheets of information about that particular cultivar. Elaine staples the info to the brown paper bags that she stresses are the only proper receptacles for storing garlic. Her slips include information on variety, taste, storage, cooking, how many cloves should be in one bulb, where the garlic originated and where the seed to grow it came from.

Elaine’s taste descriptions require a passel of adjectives, including mellow, complex, spicy, musky, hot, full-bodied and even explosive. 

Beyond supermarket garlic

“I never knew there were that many varieties. It’s insane,” says Katie Henderson, a dedicated garlic customer at Green Acres who claims to cook with garlic every day.  When she runs low on Green Acres garlic, she asks the Korvers to scrounge around for scraps. Even a couple of cloves will do, she says, to keep her from having to buy grocery store bulbs that she now writes off as bland.

Julie McSherry of Omaha waits every year at this time for a box of garlic from Green Acres.

“I get about 15 types. The variety is exceptional,” she says. “Pungent is a good word for it.”

Pungent is a good word for it.

— Julie McSherry, an Omaha resident who gets a yearly box of garlic from Green Acres

Jarrett Nelson says Green Acres garlic has become a favorite at the Gypsum Fire Protection District where he works with the Korvers’ son.

“I am not a garlic taste-tester expert, but I can definitely tell the difference,” he says of the many varieties he has tried and used in his firehouse meals of lasagna and carne asada. This year, he has found more recipes to showcase garlic. He also plans to roast it, store it in olive oil and turn it into a butter.

Sherrie and Scott Hamilton who own Red Fox Cellars say they also cook with it regularly. They welcome garlic wafting over to mingle with the top notes of cabernet franc and merlot at their winery.

“A lot of my customers see Bob out there working in his field and they ask us, ‘What is it that he’s doing?’” she says.

A crop with deep roots

If wine tasters wander over to talk to Bob, they can get a garlic lesson.

Garlic is one of the oldest crops tended by humans. It is believed to have evolved and spread from south central Asia and was carried around the Mediterranean and European continents by nomadic tribes.

Garlic appears in the oldest written language, Sanskrit, in writings from 5,000 years ago. The Egyptians used garlic with its loads of sulfides for food and medicine. They revered it so much they entombed garlic with their dead.

There are two subgroups of garlic — hardneck and softneck. The hardneck varieties send up a flower stalk that is known as a scape (a tasty morsel on the grill or in a pickle jar). Hardnecks do better in colder climates, and they often pack the spiciest punch.

Softneck garlic (the kind you will see in those fancy garlic braids) has no tough stem.

Beyond those neck differences, there are 13 sub-varieties of garlic. Bob holds up one called an artichoke. The name comes from the fact that the cloves resemble artichoke petals. The cloves on the outside are large, and they get smaller toward the center.

Bob has also grown sub-varieties of porcelains, purple stripes and creoles.

He didn’t do great with the latter, he says, because he failed to figure out that something called creole would do better in Southern climates.

 “I’m kind of slow sometimes. I learn some things the hard way,” Bob says, garnering an indulgent smile from Elaine.

Garlic’s future 

There are other vegetable farms around Colorado that grow garlic. The Rocky Mountain Garlic Farm near Salida grows about a quarter-acre on an agricultural operation that has gone in the opposite direction of Green Acres and pivoted to more vegetables. Several other small Colorado garlic farms have closed in recent years.

Trisha Nungester with Tagawa Gardens in Centennial says Tagawa sells about 40 varieties — mainly for seed. Their garlic comes from multiple sources, including the motherlode of U.S. garlic, Filaree Farms in Washington state. When Tagawa announces that garlic is ready for sale, there is always a line out the door with people clamoring for favorite varieties.

In terms of homegrown variety in Colorado, the Korvers take the odiferous prize.

They grouse about maybe wanting to plant less. They both have had health problems in recent years.

But their seed-saving practices say cutbacks won’t happen soon.

They are already at work picking out 300 pounds of the fattest bulbs that will be saved to seed next year’s crops.

And there is always one new garlic variety to try, one more wheelbarrow load to sort, one more giant bulb to marvel over, and one more group of kids who come to Green Acres to get a farming lesson from a librarian and a teacher who can’t drop those old habits.

Bob won’t tell many of them one of the deepest, darkest secrets of Green Acres: He really doesn’t like to eat garlic.

Cacophony behind the coffee bar starts off many mornings at Prodigy Coffeehouse in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood, waking up the earliest customers before they’ve even had their first cup. 

But since late March, the constant whir of the espresso machine and the accompanying whoosh of the steam wand have quieted down as the flow of patrons has slowed.

Day-to-day sales at the coffee shop, which opened in September 2022, have been slashed in half as construction has overwhelmed the area and at times fenced off the shop, leading customers to believe it’s closed, according to Jeslin Shahrezaei, executive director of the nonprofit, Prodigy Ventures, behind the coffeeshop.

The downturn cuts into more than Prodigy Coffeehouse’s bottom line: It also diminishes the on-the-job training opportunities for the baristas, or apprentices — all young adults, many who live in the neighborhood and have turned to the coffee shop to gain a sense of stability and jump-start their careers.

“If there’s no customers, apprentices aren’t learning,” Shahrezaei said. “They’re not understanding how to engage with the community. They’re not applying their technical skills and making drinks. They’re not celebrating success in a team setting. They’re not having any of those experiences because the shop is virtually dead. And so we have to ask ourselves, is this the right place for us? Because if there’s no business, there’s no apprenticeship.”

The cafe, which has another location that opened near Colorado Boulevard in 2015, has become a gentle landing pad for young adults who haven’t quite mapped out their future. The spot is part-coffeehouse, part-haven for the 25 apprentices and seven staff members who keep both shops humming. That’s one of the reasons that the nonprofit is pleading with the community for support, including through an online giving campaign, to help carry its staff through the lulls in business brought on by construction to improve pedestrian access in the neighborhood.

Shahrezaei said the Globeville shop — located near the corner of East 45th Avenue and Broadway, just below where Interstates 70 and 25 intersect — is not on the verge of closing, but each day of fewer patrons means the organization will have to shift more of its focus to additional fundraising efforts. The shop has yet to reach its full potential, she said, as Prodigy Ventures took a hit in revenue this month after doubling its operating costs by opening the second location.

Meanwhile, demand for its yearlong apprenticeship program has only intensified, with the nonprofit counting 170 applications for 25 positions last year. 

“These neighborhoods have our next great leaders,” Shahrezaei said. “We’re offering them an opportunity to understand that greatness and to activate it. So we’re not doing anything that they couldn’t do on their own. We’re just giving them a space to activate it.”

It’s their space to enliven, after all, as most of the apprentices have long called the neighborhoods adjacent to both Prodigy locations home.

“They desire to continue to live in their neighborhood,” Shahrezaei said, “and they should be able to showcase what they want to see coming into these communities. And so apprenticeship programs increase their understanding on how they are leaders.”

A second chance — followed by countless other chances

Neighborhood construction began this spring to improve conditions for pedestrians, and the city shut down West 44th Avenue between Broadway and Cherokee streets, according to Nancy Kuhn, spokesperson for Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. 

“We can’t do the work and keep travel safe at the same (time),” Kuhn wrote in an email to The Colorado Sun.

The road is slated to open before the end of the month, but construction will continue into mid-June, Kuhn wrote, noting that the city placed a message board on Washington Street to indicate that local businesses are still operating.

The project is funded mainly by Elevate Denver Bond dollars that taxpayers agreed to in November 2017. As part of the bond, $47.7 million is aimed at filling gaps in sidewalks, about $17 million of which is benefitting Denver’s Globeville, Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods, Kuhn wrote.

Once the project is complete, the area will become more walkable and accessible for people with physical disabilities. It will also ease pedestrian access to the 41st and Fox Street light rail station and will reinforce safety, including for students walking to and from Garden Place Elementary School, according to Kuhn.

In the meantime, Prodigy Coffeehouse’s apprentices-turned-prodigies continue to hone their craft behind the coffee bar and carve out a few hours each week to learn about a range of life skills, including financial literacy, civic engagement, nutrition and active living in an onsite classroom.

Among them is Lola Valdez, 20, who has perfected the art of topping a latte with steamed milk in the delicate shape of a tulip. Valdez, a Globeville resident, has climbed her way to one of the advanced roles in the apprenticeship program, training less experienced apprentices after she mastered the shop’s sales system, helped prepare drinks and took over the coffee bar. 

“Before I even found this place, I was very shy and not outspoken, but they’ve helped me come out of that shell and be willing to speak more and just talk to more people,” Valdez said. “And I feel like it’s helped me grow a lot within myself.”

Valdez has also started therapy through Prodigy Coffeehouse — a free mental health resource the organization provides its apprentices. Additionally, the nonprofit has a learning team that helps apprentices facing food and housing insecurity.

No one is ever fired from Prodigy Coffeehouse.

“We offer people multiple chances,” Shahrezaei said. “Absenteeism is something that we are constantly navigating here, and in part, it’s because the young adults that are working here are navigating other things. And so we want to make sure that we understand where they’re coming from and how we can offer support.”

Valdez, who will graduate from the apprenticeship in May, said she wants to one day open her own coffee shop. Her year at Prodigy Coffeehouse has prepared her to take steps toward that goal while also giving her a safe space where coworkers have seamlessly turned into friends.

“I feel like every day there’s just more space for me to grow,” she said.

Danna Martinez, 22, has also found a nurturing workplace in Prodigy Coffeehouse, where she feels free to make mistakes and be more assertive.

Martinez, who has a background in youth activism, said she has become a stronger leader while working for the coffee shop the past six months. She plans to pursue a career in culinary arts and has already built up experience by learning how to make syrups at the shop.

The nearby construction has frustrated her as it has stifled opportunities for her to put her skills into practice.

“When things are really slow at that shop,” Martinez said, “there’s not a lot of opportunity to, for example, tap into my leadership skills or tap into the teamwork building skills.”

Sunlight pours through the floor-to-ceiling glass, making the coffee shop’s white brick wall and cheery furniture seem even brighter. Orange, turquoise and purple ropes track across the ceiling like webs, each leading to a rectangular light. 

The ropes represent people’s varied journeys. And the lights are the doors that lead to the rest of their lives. 

David Jepson, a barista sprinkling a chai latte with cinnamon, got here the long way. 

Like many who will work at Purple Door, which opened last month at 16th Avenue and Sherman Street in Denver, Jepson was homeless as a teenager. His mother died when he was 17, and his relationship with his father had been wrecked by years focused solely on caring for his mom. Jepson left home in Thornton and spent years sleeping on the streets. 

Now 34, Jepson has an apartment and full-time job in one of the city’s hippest new coffee shops. 

Purple Door is an extension of the nonprofit Dry Bones, which operates a walk-in center where young people who are homeless can shower, play pool and find a seat at the 16-person dining table. The first version of the coffee shop existed for a few years in the Five Points neighborhood, but closed in 2019 when the nonprofit realized its approach to job training wasn’t quite right. 

Dry Bones used to hire kids living on the streets to work behind the espresso bar, at the same time offering them help with housing and therapy. This time around, the plan to get teens and young adults on track is much more gradual. The nonprofit has opened a coffee roaster in Englewood, where young people go through a yearlong job readiness program before they graduate. Then they can apply to work at the new Purple Door, or any other job.  

The lattes, cookies and pies sold at Purple Door, plus the beans sold at other coffee shops and through home-delivery subscriptions, fund the job readiness program that helps get young people off the streets. 

In what’s been a rough few years for downtown eateries, Dry Bones executive director Matt Wallace is relying on office workers and whoever else strolls by the coffee shop with the bright-yellow chairs on its patio. Already, customers are lured by the famous Guard and Grace chocolate chip cookies, Hinman pies and cupcakes from Steuben’s. 

Wallace is hopeful that sales will soar on Sundays, when parishioners pour into Central Presbyterian Church. The church, which operates a men’s homeless shelter in its basement, is leasing the space at the edge of its building to Purple Door. 

Coloradans are overwhelmed by the homelessness crisis and concerned about “the people camping in their front yards,” Wallace said. “When you don’t know what else to do and you feel completely overwhelmed, one thing you can do is go buy a latte,” he said. Besides, Purple Door — which uses beans ethically sourced from Nicaragua, Brazil and Uganda — offers “an incredible coffee experience,” he said. 

“You have value” 

So far, Purple Door is shipping 75-100 monthly subscriptions of its beans, which come in bags decorated with the same web of lines leading toward a door. The roaster supplies coffee to about 20 churches, 20 offices and a handful of other coffee shops that stock its beans. 

It’s called Purple Door because purple is the color of royalty and self-worth, which is what the entire program is trying to restore. Black letters on a white wall at the coffee shop spell out the message: “You have value.” 

This belief that you have unsurpassable worth and value is something that we are trying to infuse into every conversation, every activity, every moment that we do.

— Matt Wallace, Dry Bones executive director

“Society has told them they’re worthless, their families have told them they’re worthless, the systems have let them down in a way that they feel like they’re being told they’re worthless,” Wallace said. “And so this belief that you have unsurpassable worth and value is something that we are trying to infuse into every conversation, every activity, every moment that we do.”

What Dry Bones learned in its first iteration of the coffee shop was that many young people who survived on the streets needed time to develop their self-worth before they could deal with the stress of the morning rush, and customers in general. When the workers feel valued, they pass the feeling onto customers.

“We also want every customer that walks through the door of the cafe to feel like they’re being reciprocated in that same way,” Wallace said. “If a young person is beginning to believe that about themselves, which we see all the time, it’s like this awakening that starts happening.”

About 45 people, staggered in cohorts of about six, have gone through the job program, which teaches them not only how to pour the perfect latte but how to show up for work on time and take criticism from a manager or a customer. Participants, who are paid minimum wage to package and ship coffee beans, also get help finding housing, dealing with outstanding warrants or mental health counseling. Some enter the program while still living on the streets or in homeless shelters. 

Dry Bones, established in 2001, got its name from an Old Testament story from the chapter of Ezekiel in which God shows Ezekiel a valley scattered with brittle, dried-up rib cages and bones. “Can these bones live?” God asks, and then, with a rattling noise, brings the bones back to human form. 

Making a “mental gear switch”

Jepson first wandered into Dry Bones day shelter because he wanted a place to take a shower. At 17, he had been using drugs and camping out around the city, vying on cold nights for the spot between radiators in a skate park on the west side of downtown. 

It took awhile, he said, but he began to trust the people who worked there. And the job program — in which he would show up for work on time at the original Purple Door and work hard and in exchange, he would get paid — made sense to him. 

“It was like you are going to have to work here, we’ll help you with that but we’re not going to forgive you every transgression,” he said. “You’re going to show up, be part of the system like everybody else. That was the exact kind of structure that I needed. I was no longer interested in being addicted to substances. I was no longer interested in being homeless.”

While Jepson made it through the hands-on job training program at the original coffee shop, many of his peers did not. 

Other people do not know about your struggle. They just came to get a cup of coffee.”

— David Jepson, Purple Door barista

“The biggest problem that they seem to be having was people, many who earnestly wanted to change, hadn’t made that mental gear switch,” he said. “They were still carrying those addictions and those issues, and they were carrying them with them to work. And you can’t do that in a regular job, much less any one that involves customer service. Because other people do not know about your struggle. They just came to get a cup of coffee.” 

Living on the streets, people learn to fight back as a first response, Jepson said. “That’s how you survive,” he said. “But when someone is rude to you about their cappuccino, you can’t fly off at them.” 

After working at the coffee shop, Jepson spent time in New York and Florida, then, serendipitously, he says, returned to Colorado just as the new Purple Door was opening. Now he is one of the mentors for young people who complete the job training program at the roaster and get hired by the coffee shop. 

He knows where they are coming from, and why they got stuck out there. 

“You see someone who’s out there and they seem like they’re set, and it’s because they are,” he said. “They’ve figured out when they’re going to eat. They’ve figured out where they’re going to sleep. They’ve figured out where they are going to get whatever mind-altering thing allows them to live that life. The next thing you know, it’s been three years. And it’s been six years.”

The color of royalty

Many of the young people who find Dry Bones and Purple Door have aged out of the foster care system, while others, like Jepson, ran away from home. After providing warm meals, taking them bowling and on camping trips, and helping them get their GEDs, the next step was helping them find work, Wallace said.  

“We could hold hands with someone, figuratively, through the process of applying for a job or going into their interview, building the resume that they don’t really have because they’ve lived on the streets since they were 14, 15 years old,” Wallace said. “And they kept striking out. They’d get hired at McDonald’s. They would work a week or two, and the manager would have to let them go, or they would quit, because they didn’t know how to get along with their coworker, or they were late three days in a row.”

That led to the opening of the first Purple Door in 2013.  

Customers will notice the new Purple Door doesn’t actually have a purple door like the original coffee shop did. It did for a minute, though. 

Just before its opening, an unknown person smashed the coffee shop’s glass front door so the crew temporarily replaced it with plywood. 

And the employees painted it purple. 

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JOHNSTOWN — As a kid, Randy Pauly’s favorite barbecue in Texas was served out of a window. He’d order a brisket sandwich, step back and wait for a hand to slide a plate out in front of him. He never saw what he called “the action.” The chopping, slicing, saucing and slamming it all together.

When Pauly became the full-time pitmaster for Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based gas station known for its fresh-cut brisket sandwiches and buck-toothed beaver mascot, he wanted to turn the sandwich assembly into a show. 

“Freeeeeeeshhhh brisket on the board!!!” a man in a red polo shirt, denim apron and fake tattered cowboy hat yells out from the Buc-ee’s butcher block. “Fresh brisket on the board!” The other deli counter employees around him echo, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. 

Heeding the call, the gas station’s customers gather around and pull out their phones to film the chopping, slicing and saucing — then they post it on social media. Type “fresh brisket on the board” into the YouTube search bar and you can watch Buc-ee’s employees holler out from Athens, Alabama; Daytona Beach, Florida; Tennessee and all over Texas.

“First it was going to be a cowbell and a chant, but we decided to just start with the chant,” Pauly said. “We never thought it would become a thing, right?”

But of course it became a thing. Because everything at Buc-ee’s becomes a thing. 

Fresh brisket on the board videos can start pouring out of Johnstown on March 18, when Buc-ee’s opens its first Colorado location at the southwest corner of exit 252 off Interstate 25. It is the company’s 14th store to open outside of Texas and its largest — for now. The anticipation has been slowly building since June 2022 when Buc-ee’s officially broke ground on the site, and picked up momentum when the opening date was announced at the end of last year.

Two weeks ago one Facebook user posted on the Buc-ee’s Johnstown Facebook group that he was looking for 15 Buc-ee’s onesies for his extended family to wear to the grand opening. “Any idea where to get some?” he asked. Thirty-eight people responded. 

Others in the group posted photos of their Buc-ee’s branded blanket collections, cup collections, T-shirts, water bottles and stuffed beaver toys. People worried about traffic on opening day, hotly debated a new roundabout at the Buc-ee’s entrance and gave construction updates as opening date neared.

“It’s the amusement park version of a convenience store.”

— Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores

Buc-ee’s has the traditional signs of a fandom: Facebook groups, reddit subs, a dedicated community willing to debate the limits of their loyalty. Like with many avid followings, people’s behavior surrounding this cheerful beaver with an overbite is perplexing from the outside looking in. And with Buc-ee’s, it’s hard to parse what is an ironic attraction to the brand and what is genuine devotion — but maybe those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. 

Why a buck-toothed beaver has become such a beloved landmark of many Southern road trips remains a mystery, even to those who work for the company. Cultural fandoms emerge for all kinds of reasons: relatable characters, exciting plotlines, aesthetics — but rarely, if ever, do they emerge out of necessity.

And Buc-ee’s is not a necessity. 

“When you look at Johnson’s Corner, when you look at similar gas stations in that area, they are service-based businesses,” Sarah Crosthwaite, economic development manager for Johnstown, said of the truck stop two miles north of Buc-ee’s that is so reliably open there are allegedly no keys to the front door. “You get your gas. If you go inside, you use the restroom and maybe purchase a couple of items, right? That’s a service that they’re providing. It’s a needed service. But Buc-ees, for me, is more of a destination retailer.”

The company recognizes this. Which is why even though Buc-ee’s is a gas station, it barely focuses on gas (though you wouldn’t guess it just by looking down their infinity-mirror-like row of 116 gas pumps). And even though they’re convenience stores, they do little to create a sense of convenience. One oft-cited study showed that customers are willing to drive an average of 21 minutes out of their way to visit a Buc-ee’s. 

Instead, Buc-ee’s pours its energy into creating an unforgettable customer experience that hinges on good food, clean bathrooms and an insanely popular clothing line. Josh Smith, director of operations, told BizWest that about half of their revenue comes from selling food. 

The company also pumps out merchandise adorned with Buc-ee beaver — and while Kum & Go fanny packs and Casey’s T-shirts have had their moments, Buc-ee’s is probably the only gas station brand to land a feature in the New York Times’ Style section.

“What convenience stores do is they eliminate hassles and they solve simple, everyday problems,” said Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Buc-ee’s doesn’t really address hassles. It’s the amusement park version of a convenience store.”

What is a Buc-ee’s? 

The Buc-ee’s origin story is about as hometown Texas as it gets. 

Arch “Beaver” Aplin III grew up visiting his grandparents in Harrisonburg, Texas, where they owned a small mercantile known for farm fresh produce and cured meats from animals his grandpa raised. In 1982, when Aplin was 23 years old, he bought a plot of land for $52,800 at a four-way intersection a few towns over in Lake Jackson. He built a small mercantile of his own and called it Buc-ee’s. The interior was adorned with brass ceiling fans and extra elbow room — 3,000 square feet compared with the industry standard of 2,400. 

These days, the industry standard for travel stops and gas stations is 3,000 square feet, while the average Buc-ee’s is upward of 50,000. 

Last summer, Buc-ee’s opened a 74,707 square foot store in Sevierville, Tennessee, which stripped the “world’s largest convenience store” title from the Buc-ee’s in New Braunfels. When the Johnstown location opens, it will be tied for first — but only for six months, when the company’s Luling, Texas, location finishes a remodel that will nudge the store over the 75,000-square-foot mark. This means by summer, Buc-ee’s will have the first-, second-, third- and fourth-largest convenience stores in the world. But who’s counting? Buc-ee’s is.

Despite the massive footprint of its stores and oversized cultural presence, Buc-ee’s doesn’t even crack the top 100 in terms of number of stores in the U.S. The nation’s leader, 7-Eleven, has more than 12,000 stores. The Western-themed Maverick has about 400 stores nationally, the merch-heavy Kum & Go also nears 400, and Love’s Travel Stops, which shares a color scheme and emphasis on clean bathrooms with Buc-ee’s, operates more than 600 stores. Buc-ee’s, on the other hand, has 47 stores — soon to be 48. 

So, what is Buc-ee’s? “We’re a family travel center that’s gonna have something inside of our store for every person in your vehicle,” Smith, the director of operations, said in an interview with The Sun, then added: “It’s overwhelming.” And he meant it in a good way.

The most commonly cited features of the massive convenience store are the beef jerky wall, the beaver nuggets (a brown sugar coated corn puff) and the remarkably clean bathrooms. But the energetic center of every Buc-ee’s is the Texas Round Up, a circular deli counter where the fresh brisket hits the board and the sandwiches are dished out. This is Randy Pauly’s domain.

Randy Pauly the pitmaster 

Randy Pauly is a competitive barbecue champion who got a knock on his door seven years ago. That’s how he describes it, anyway, that Buc-ee’s came knocking on his door. 

The way Pauly got into competition barbecue is too cinematic not to tell, which he has surely done 20 times over. A young Pauly, born and raised in central Texas, loses his dad at age 15. His dad was “in the meat business,” Pauly said without elaboration, and was a passionate cook. A neighbor takes Pauly — “a jacked young guy,” in Pauly’s words, with a love of cooking and in need of distraction — to the county fair to compete in a barbecue competition. Pauly is hooked. “Girls, music, food,” he said. “What’s not to love?” 

The following year Pauly cast around for a barbecue team to take him in and ended up working with Regroup Cookers. One competition day, in 1994, the chief cook overslept. Pauly, then a dishwasher for the team, spiced, smoked and hustled a rack of ribs to the judges. The ribs made it to the finals, and Pauly hasn’t stopped competing since. 

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But now he competes on the side of his full-time job as the official Buc-ee’s pitmaster. He still dons a big, black cowboy hat even when he’s inside working at the test kitchen, and still has the energy of a jacked 15-year-old central Texas boy who just wants to make good barbecue. 

More than once Pauly motions toward his heart when he’s talking about the people he works with at Buc-ee’s, especially when he gets to talking about training new hires for the Texas Round Up. Part of his job is to travel to new Buc-ee’s locations and teach the deli teams how to assemble the perfect brisket sandwich. 

“We get to walk into Colorado with a couple hundred employees and we’re gonna teach them a Texas barbecue skill set. On day one I’m gonna see a dozen, two dozen folks that don’t even know what a brisket is,” he said. “And then we’re gonna open a month later, and they’re gonna be champions on the knife. That’s what excites me.”

Kind of in the middle of nowhere

“Where is Johnstown? Is it kind of in the middle of nowhere?” asked Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores. It’s in northern Colorado, just south of Fort Collins, I told him, and waited for a reaction. Halfway between Denver and Cheyenne.  

“No disparagement toward the town, but that absolutely fits Buc-ee’s,” Lenard said. 

You won’t find a Buc-ee’s in downtown Denver, Lenard explained. Or even downtown Fort Collins. Where most convenience stores rely on a mix of highway travelers and repeat customers at in-town locations, Buc-ee’s strategically positions itself between major destinations. In doing so, it becomes its own destination.

“What they want to do is just create a feeling that you have to stop there, that you can’t miss this,” Lenard said. 

LEFT: Buc-ee’s employees and staff undergo training the week before the Johnstown grand opening. RIGHT: Dozens of gas pumps line the Buc-ee’s off I-25. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Over the past 10 years Johnstown, along with nearby I-25 corridor towns like Windsor, have seen — and pursued — aggressive population growth. The growth has been especially pronounced during the past three years, as Johnstown rapidly approved new residential permits, filling fields that flank the highway with uniform neighborhoods, the sky around them dotted with balloons signaling the next wave of housing developments. In 2021, Johnstown approved around 200 new residential permits, according to Crosthwaite, the economic development manager. In 2022 that number more than doubled to 420. Last year, the town approved another 440 permits. 

Accommodating a nearly 50% increase in population over the past decade also means greatly expanding service and retail needs, and Johnstown maintains a good reputation among business developers. 

“That’s something we’re really proud of,” Crosthwaite said. “It’s not to say that we’re bending the rules for anybody in particular. What we’re doing is saying: Here is the process and here are the rules for getting approved. As long as you’re meeting that process, checking off those boxes, you know exactly when you’re gonna be able to put a shovel on the ground.”

“You imagine a gas station and you think, well, how grand can a gas station really be? But Buc-ee’s is so much more than that.”

— Sarah Crosthwaite, economic development manager for Johnstown

Buc-ee’s has been shopping around outside of the Lone Star state since shortly before 2019, when they opened their first non-Texas location in Alabama. The company invited Johnstown to the table just over two years ago. To secure the company as their first Colorado location, Johnstown offered Buc-ee’s a competitive incentive package that included a mix of tax rebates, performance incentives and a four-week review policy, meaning that comments had to be addressed within four weeks of submission from either side. 

“The purpose of that (four-week policy) was ensuring that we both stayed on track with this project, because we know that this is going to have a huge economic impact on the community and we wanted to make sure that they open the doors as quickly as possible,” Crosthwaite said. “Time is money.”

Among those estimated economic impacts are close to 300 jobs and 1.5% in sales tax revenue. Johnstown has a 3.5% sales tax rate, with 0.5% earmarked for roads and infrastructure. That gave the city 3% in revenue leverage with Buc-ee’s — they settled on a 50-50 split. Buc-ee’s keeps 1.5% of their sales tax share through rebates, while Johnstown receives the other 1.5%.

“Our owner always says, ‘Life’s too short to do business with people who don’t want to do business with you,’” Smith said. “So finding a location that is going to be suitable first for the company and for the town, it really requires a relationship.”

And not everybody wants to do business with Buc-ee’s.

In 2014, city leaders in Corinth, Texas, shot down a proposal from Buc-ee’s to build a 60,000-square-foot facility, citing traffic and light pollution concerns from residents. Similar worries plagued residents of Denton, Texas, who organized a 200-person protest of a new Buc-ee’s the following year (the Buc-ee’s opened anyway). 

LEFT: Applicants are screened for open Buc-ee’s job positions in January at Embassy Suites by Hilton in Loveland. The mass hiring event spanned five days and screened over 1,500 individuals for positions in cashier and food service, janitorial maintenance, grocery stocking and merchandise. RIGHT: Newly hired Buc-ee’s job candidates wait to be onboarded. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

In 2021, residents in Efland, North Carolina, fought the beaver’s arrival and won, after their city council asked Buc-ee’s to shrink the size of its project — an offensive blow to a brand that promises “the largest convenience store in the world” to nearly every community it expands into. 

But Johnstown is ready for Buc-ee’s. During a weeklong hiring fair in January more than 1,500 people interviewed for 250 advertised jobs. And as for the other gas stations in the area — Buc-ee’s sits across the street from a Loaf n’ Jug, and about two miles from Johnson’s Corner, a travel stop famous for its plate-sized cinnamon rolls — Lenard, of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said they have nothing to worry about.

“An experience is what people buying gas at Buc-ee’s are looking for. They’re looking for something different than the person stopping for gas two exits later and expects to be on the road in 10 minutes,” Lenard said. “So there is competition, but it’s a different kind of competition. And I would imagine you’d go out of business if you tried to out-Buc-ee’s a Buc-ee’s.” 

Another roadside attraction

When Buc-ee’s started meeting with the town of Johnstown, company representatives wasted little breath trying to describe Buc-ee’s. 

“All they said was, ‘you gotta come see it,’” Crosthwaite said. “We were kind of wary, like, ‘all right, I guess we’ll come see what it’s about.’ You imagine a gas station and you think, well, how grand can a gas station really be? But Buc-ee’s is so much more than that.”

Smith thinks that part of the business’s success comes from keeping their employees happy. Their starting wages are advertised between $17-$21, significantly higher than the national average for gas station attendants of $14.73, and three weeks paid vacation. That said, on Glassdoor, a site where employees anonymously submit reviews of their employers, Buc-ee’s has a 2.9 out of 5 star rating. But close to one-third of those reviews do mention the good pay.

What makes Buc-ee’s Buc-ee’s can’t be traced to one specific element — its size, its strategic geography, the goofy grinning beaver or the brisket sandwiches. It’s a lucky mixture of them all and, most importantly, a very dedicated fan base. 

LEFT: New employees prepare chopped brisket sandwiches at the Johnstown Buc-ee’s. RIGHT: A bumper sticker commemorating one of the Georgia Buc-ee’s locations adorns a car outside the Johnstown store. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

“What Buc-ee’s has done better than anybody is they’ve taken the things that people really don’t like to do — use the bathroom, buy gas, pick up food — and made it into things that people absolutely want to do,” Lenard said. “And that’s really, really hard to do. But you don’t see anybody walking into a Buc-ee’s in a bad mood, and you don’t really see anybody leaving a Buc-ee’s in a bad mood.”

After visiting Buc-ee’s at the company’s insistence, Crosthwaite had to concede: “It is really cool, though.

“I can’t describe it except to say that you gotta come check it out,” she laughed, realizing that she’d borrowed the company’s own line from their early meetings. “You just have to come see it. You become a believer.”

One of the coolest endeavors to open in Pueblo in recent years is tangled up in a court battle after being accused of not paying its builders for the full cost of the project. 

Fuel & Iron, the historic hardware store transformed into affordable housing and a trendy food hall where visitors can find cocktails and beer, pizza and fried chicken, opened in April. It was sued in May, its contractor claiming it was shorted more than $2.4 million. 

The dispute is a black eye on a project heralded as the perfect mix of private investment and public dollars, a $16 million plan cobbled together from 17 sources, including grants and local, state and federal government investments.

Fuel & Iron’s owners, commercial brokers Nathan Stern and Zach Cytryn, declined to talk to The Sun about the ongoing lawsuit, and attorneys on both sides did not respond to requests for comment. But court documents lay out a case that includes claims not only against Fuel & Iron, but Pueblo and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, entities that helped fund the transformation of the 100-plus-year-old brick building into a first-floor food venue with second- and third-floor apartments. 

Ash and White Construction, the project’s general contractor, claims that costs escalated beyond the initially agreed-upon cap — thanks to Fuel & Iron’s repeated design changes and requests. 

The cost of the project was initially capped at $7.25 million. Fuel & Iron retained 5% of the budget agreed to in the initial contract, which is a common way to ensure a project is completed. The so-called retainage happened as dealings between the developers and their general contractor began to sour. In addition, the construction company claims project costs exceeded the cap and Fuel & Iron refused to pay. The general contractor accused Fuel & Iron of breaching their contract and placed what’s called a mechanic’s lien on the property in an attempt to recoup their costs. 

To complicate the case, subcontractors who worked on the three-story, 28-unit project have intervened in the lawsuit, saying they’re owed money, too. 

Fuel & Iron, in court records, blames the extra costs on the construction company’s mistakes and disorganization. The dispute is between the owners and the general contractor, and not directly related to the agreements between the food hall or its tenants, which include The Hungry Buffalo and Steel Crescent Kitchen. 

Still, the food hall, an incubator that started strong and then saw its sales decline, has undergone significant turnover in its first year. A ramen place that became a burger place, called Mosh Burger, is leaving this month, being replaced with a plant-based eatery called The Cutting Board. A taco restaurant became Union Pizza Co. And Solar Roast Coffee & Nick’s Dairy Crème, longtime Pueblo favorites that served as the food hall’s front-door anchor, has left the building. Trailglazers Bakery and Cafe is set to take the space. 

Fuel & Iron says it and the construction company agreed in 2021 that the cost of the project would not exceed $7.25 million. The parties “had considered but then agreed not to add a provision” in the contract concerning price escalation. The construction company “voluntarily chose to accept the risk of subcontractor price escalation,” according to court records. 

Costs went up, Fuel & Iron claims, “due almost entirely” to the construction company’s “poor performance and defective and incomplete” work. That poor performance, the food hall owners say, caused delays that meant Fuel & Iron did not receive a temporary certificate of occupancy for the project until April 18 — nine months behind schedule.

It’s the construction company’s fault that they “failed to lock in pricing” and purchase materials on time, Fuel & Iron says in its response to the lawsuit. 

The timing of the project coincided with a nationwide jump in construction costs. 

The cost of construction materials and labor has soared since the pandemic due to a mix of early supply chain challenges, home improvement trends and a scarcity of labor. That also impacted nonresidential construction. In 2022, material and services costs rose 10.1% from an already more expensive 2021, with materials like paint and wallboard increasing between 20 to 30%, according to Associated General Contractors of America, an industry trade group.

The contract gave Ash and White Construction 268 days to complete the bulk of the project, plus an additional 45 days for final completion. That should have meant the project was finished by August 2022. 

The construction company failed to keep up with the building schedule, including neglecting to complete the elevator as scheduled and “drastically” impacting the sequence of tasks, court records say. The company also wasted two days of work by laying out the third-floor walls according to a design that was more than six months old, Fuel & Iron alleges in court records. And Ash and White had trouble finding staff willing to travel from the Denver area to work in Pueblo, and had to replace its project manager three times, the lawsuit says. 

The delays and missteps were “catastrophic to the project,” Fuel & Iron states in court documents. 

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which provided state funding for the revitalization project, was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The state agency, in a response filed by the attorney general’s office, said it claims an interest in the Pueblo property and that it has no knowledge of the details of the payment dispute. 

Gov. Jared Polis visited Fuel & Iron in December, bestowing an award praising a local business that used state tax funds to repurpose a historic building. The 1910 building on 2.5 acres in the heart of downtown Pueblo was damaged by a fire, then rebuilt in 1915. For years, it was Holmes Hardware, but then sat vacant for decades after the hardware store closed. 

The next phase of the project includes a child care center and a skate park.

Stern and Cytryn, who specialize in food and beverage properties, bought the property for $2.73 million in May 2021. 

Stern previously told The Sun that funding for the project, which breathed life into the Union Avenue Historic District and created much needed affordable housing, included money from three foundations, loans from four banks, tax increment financing, a grant from the American Recovery Plan Act, and state and federal historic preservation tax credits. 

The Colorado Historical Foundation provided two loans, which have been paid back. Another $1.4 million in grants and a tax-credit program came from First Southwest Bank, the Colorado Health Foundation and First Southwest Community Fund, which also was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

State agencies also provided $4.56 million in loans and grants.

The Office of Economic Development and International Trade awarded the project a Community Revitalization Grant of $1 million, the final draw paid in May after expenses were verified. The Department of Local Affairs provided a $3 million loan from the Colorado Housing Investment Fund, which must be repaid within seven years. A second loan of $560,000 is from the state’s Housing Development Grant Funds and is dependent on the company’s cash flow, according to a DOLA spokesperson.

Longhorn cattle, cowboys and cowgirls ambling through downtown Denver at noon Thursday will kick off the annual National Western Stock Show. 

The two weeks of big hats and tall boots, rodeo, mutton bustin’ and Wild West shows take the big city back to its historic cowtown roots. It’s the time of year when hundreds of thousands of people hit the wind-swept stockyards north of the city, dirt flying, to pet goats, marvel at dogs performing heroic tricks, sample food that should not be food and watch some of the country’s best riders and ropers. 

Here are a few things you need to know about the National Western Stock Show, which runs through Jan. 21.

Who to watch

Routt County’s Keenan Hayes, national bareback champ

A 20-year-old cowboy from Hayden, near Steamboat Springs, won the national championship in bareback riding last month. Keenan Hayes, who started riding mini steers at age 8 and graduated to bareback horses, won the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December, capping off an outstanding year of wins. 

The National Western’s official lineup of rodeo contenders isn’t released until today, but Hayes confirmed to The Sun that he’s competing Jan. 11 and 12. 

Hayes has been rising in the rodeo rankings for a few years. At age 19, the Routt County resident finished in the top 10 at last year’s National Western, getting bucked by horses called Painted Pistolera and Mesquite Thorn.

Three top rodeo clowns are rotating the jokes

Rodeo clowns — who are also known as bullfighters or part of a rodeo protection team — are legit badasses. Their job is to distract a 1,500-pound angry bull with horns in order to protect the cowboy after he flies off the bull’s back and hits the dirt. They might look ridiculous, with their painted faces and baggy pants, but they’re arguably the bravest dudes at a rodeo — not counting the bull riders trying their hardest to hold on for eight seconds. 

For the first time, the National Western will have three rodeo clowns in rotation throughout the 16-day event. In prior years, the show had one bullfighter for all Professional Bull Riders events and one for all Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. 

Rotating them keeps the content fresh year after year, meaning the audience won’t hear the same banter with the announcer and see the same entertainment bits between bull rides. After all, there are 29 rodeo performances during the two weeks of the National Western, and many of the entertainers and competitors were just at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. 

This year’s three rodeo clowns are Matt Merritt, who has a reputation for his dancing skills, Tate Rhoads, who took up bullfighting at age 14, and Allan Dessel, who also teaches high school math and physics. 

Wranglers on horseback herd a group of longhorn cattle through Denver’s financial district, during the annual parade kicking off the National Western Stock Show in 2013. (Brennan Linsley, AP Photo)

What to see

The Coors Western Art Show has a new curator

For the first time in almost 30 years, the Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale won’t have Rose Fredrick’s fingerprint on it. Fredrick was hired in 1998 as curator of the art show, which takes place on the third floor of the National Western Complex during the Stock Show. For two-and-a-half decades, Fredrick built the show into a million-dollar enterprise and nearly tripled the number of artists on display. This year, Kate Hlavin takes the reins. 

Part of the allure of Western art is repetition. Marlboro men, Santa Fe sunsets, buffalo herds and sandstone bluffs are recurring motifs in Western art, and that adherence to tradition provides a level of comfort to its collectors. Over the years as the Coors show grew, Fredrick’s strategy shifted to focus on a younger generation of art collectors. She didn’t completely recast the Western Art mold, but had an eye for artists who could operate outside of it. She introduced the crowd to artists like Maeve Eichelberger, whose Plexiglass saddles were unusual enough to stand out, but “Western” enough to fit in. That said, there are plenty of classic cowboys and creek-carved landscapes for those who appreciate the genre’s lineage and traditional values. 

Denver is a hot spot for the Western art genre, so if the Coors show leaves you curious for more, head downtown. If you’re more inclined toward classic interpretations, the Western art collection on the 7th floor of the Denver Art Museum is worth a look, and the American Museum of Western Art is only a few blocks away. For those intrigued by more contemporary renditions, check out the Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Cowboy” exhibition, on display until Feb. 18, and the “Counter Cowboy II” group exhibition at Visions West Contemporary. 

Entry to the Coors Western Art Exhibit is included in the Stock Show’s general admission. Revenue from the sale of art is divided among the artists, the Stock Show and the National Western Scholarship Trust, which funds Colorado and Wyoming college students pursuing agriculture, rural medicine or veterinary science.

How to get there

Public transit options

N Line runs every 30 minutes between Union Station and the National Western Complex. Quickest and most reliable option. 

48 bus runs from the Civic Center to the National Western Complex (except during the Stock Show parade). A 25-minute bus ride to the Brighton Boulevard and 47th Avenue stop on the northeastern side of the complex. Exit and walk down 47th toward the Stock Show. 

Cost: 

3-hour pass — $2.75

Day pass — $5.50

Youth 19 and under ride for free 

On the day of the parade

The National Western Stock Show Parade starts at Union Station, at the intersection of Wynkoop and 17th streets and will continue up 17th Street for 12 blocks before ending at Glenarm Place. (The end point is just short of the Brown Palace hotel, where the steer or heifer named grand champion in the junior livestock show will be penned up in the lobby 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 19, sipping water from a silver bowl.)

Drivers should expect road closures around the parade route, which returns up 18th Street.

To get there, RTD is encouraging spectators to use the Next Ride web app to plan their trip and receive service alerts. 

Many bus routes will detour for the parade, including routes 0, 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 15L, 19, 20, 28, 38, 43, 44, 48, 52.

RTD will also pause its light rail service for the D, H and L lines downtown at 11 a.m. during the parade. All D and H lines will end at the Theatre District Convention Center Station and the L line service will not run during the parade. The Free MallRide service will also be suspended between 11:30 and 1:30 p.m. 

Regular train service will resume around 2 p.m. after the parade ends. 

A more connected complex

The National Western Complex sits on the same plot of land where the very first Western Stock Show took place, under a big top circus tent, in 1906. Over the past century the show and its complex has grown significantly, but remained largely isolated from the rest of Denver. This year, a decade’s worth of infrastructure projects (some of which are ongoing) has finally stitched the complex into its surrounding communities — Globeville to the north and west, Elyria-Swansea to the east, and Five Points/RiNo (River North Art District) to the south. 

At the South Platte River’s edge, a new 6-acre greenspace called “Riverfront” opened in June, with walking trails and picnic tables replacing wastewater pipes and freight rail lines. A bridge spanning the South Platte at 51st street connects the Elyria and Globeville neighborhoods.

Heading toward downtown, the $1.3 billion Central 70 Project also wrapped up this summer, establishing 7 miles of north-south sidewalks that pass beneath Interstate 70. The Brighton Boulevard connection in particular provides a new lifeline from the complex into the Five Points/RiNo area, which saw the completion of its own $32 million sidewalk improvement project a few years ago. 

Although you’re still welcome to while away your day drinking Coors under the railroad tracks, the new sidewalks and bridges mean you can visit more bars, breweries and local cafés.

Where to find a morning brew or a beer while in town 

These 10 nearby hot spots are worth a stop.

Convenient cafés and breakfast restaurants

Blue Sparrow Coffee, 3070 Blake St. #180 in Denver. Open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

This cozy coffee shop serves a good cup of coffee along with a variety of more flavorful drinks, including a few different lattes, iced coffees and kombucha. You can pair your drink with a freshly made croissant, Danish or brownie and snag a seat inside or outdoors on the dog-friendly patio.

Crema Coffee House, 2862 Larimer St. in Denver. Open every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This coffee spot, located in the heart of Denver’s River North Art District, RiNo), has an artsy flair with colorful murals both inside and outside and what the internet describes as “a chill hipster vibe.” You can get a house cup of coffee or something with a higher dose of caffeine like a cappuccino, macchiato or latte. Crema also has a heartier breakfast and lunch menu than other cafés with breakfast burritos and waffles along with sandwiches for meat lovers and vegetarians. This coffee spot also features a dog-friendly patio.

Butcher Block Cafe, 1701 38th St. in Denver. Open Mondays through Saturdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This family-owned restaurant is the closest restaurant to the National Western Complex and has all the makings of a small-town diner with a menu full of comfort food — from omelets, pancakes and homemade cinnamon rolls to burgers and chicken fried-steak. The service is fast and friendly and the meals are filling with some of the cheapest prices in the area. Butcher Block Cafe is a particularly good option if you’re short on time and getting hangry.

A fast meal that’s not fast food

Denver Central Market, 2669 Larimer St. in Denver. Open Sundays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

This public market is well worth a visit, whether you’re searching for a good meal or have a spare half hour to explore. The RiNo market has fare for all kinds of palates, whether you’re in the mood for an artisan pizza, steak or lamb, a fresh smoothie, a platter of nachos or a pint of creamy ice cream. You can order your food to go or sit down at a table to savor your meal while chefs and other visitors buzz all around. The alleyway, where some of the neighborhood’s signature murals are splashed on the walls, offers another place to eat if you prefer a quieter setting.

Shake Shack, 2995 Larimer St. in Denver. Open every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

This fast-casual burger joint, part of a chain, has a whole slew of sandwiches capable of refueling any rodeo-goer. The ShackBurger is their signature item, with a patty, lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. If you want to be more adventurous, you can try the Spicy ShackMeister, the avocado bacon burger, the Colorado-only green chile CheddarShack or one of Shake Shack’s chicken sandwiches. Don’t forget a side order of cheese fries (or bacon cheese fries!) and one of their hand-spun shakes (including a new cinnamon roll flavor).

Finer dining experiences

Barcelona Wine Bar, 2900 Larimer St. in Denver. Open Mondays through Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to midnight; Thursdays from 2 p.m. to midnight; Fridays from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.; Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.; and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

This Spanish-flavored wine bar is one of the neighborhood’s trendiest spots with a sophisticated bar and dining room where you can still get away with your casual Stock Show jeans and flannel. The menu features a full list of wines from Spain and South America and specializes in small plates meant to be shared, including charcuterie and cheese, spiced beef empanadas, pork tenderloin and seared diver scallops. Barcelona Wine Bar also has cocktails, sangria and beer if wine isn’t your first choice. Reservations are wise here as the restaurant often draws a crowd.

Il Posto, 2601 Larimer St. in Denver. Closed on Mondays and open Tuesdays through Thursdays from noon to 8:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This Italian restaurant is one of RiNo’s most upscale dining venues, where you can fill up on classic dishes — including gnocchi, bucatini, tortellini and risotto — or try any one of a handful of meaty entrees: steak tartare, flank steak, pork belly pampanella, pressed chicken and beef angus porterhouse for two. The restaurant also serves several seafood dishes and a lineup of desserts that include gelato, cannoli cake and dark-chocolate mousse. The restaurant offers lunch and dinner and has a separate brunch menu.

Breweries to start or end the night

Ratio Beerworks, 2920 Larimer St. in Denver. Open Mondays through Wednesdays from noon to 11 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays from noon to midnight; Saturdays from 11 a.m. to midnight; and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

This RiNo microbrewery emerged from punk rockers-turned-brewers and is one of the city’s edgier places to grab a craft beer. Inside, you can expect to stroll up to the bar while punk rock songs blare in the background. The brewery has a range of beers on tap, including IPAs, a Mexican-style lager, an award-winning carrot elderflower saison, a French saison, a chocolate rye scotch ale, a peach raspberry sour and more. And much like the rest of the neighborhood, the brewery’s building is adorned with vibrant murals and has a dog-friendly patio with outdoor seating.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing, 2810 Larimer St. in Denver. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Housed in a building covered in a kaleidoscope of bright colors, this craft brewery is one you won’t miss while wandering throughout RiNo. The brewery’s menu is divided into distinct flavors of brews. Want a light and crisp drink? Try one of its pilsners or an amber ale aged with amburana wood. Prefer something smokey? The CO Smoked Helles Lager or Norwegian Smoked Dark Strong Ale might be for you. The brewery also pours drinks that are funky and sour, hoppy, and strong and heavy. You can down them inside or on the adjoining dog-friendly patio.

14er Brewing & Beer Garden, 3120 Blake St., Suite C, in Denver. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m.; and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

This RiNo brewery, whose name gives a nod to Colorado’s tallest peaks, has a carefully crafted mix of beers, hard slushies and seltzers, and nonalcoholic creations. Flavors run the gamut — from a piña colada slushy, a peach cobbler seltzer and a lime watermelon jalapeño seltzer to four kombucha options — including pineapple peach and ginger grapefruit — to lagers, sours, an Italian-style pilsner and a fruity IPA. Try more than one with a flight, and sip your selection in the brewery’s dog-friendly beer garden.

Wynkoop Brewing Company, 1634 18th St., Denver. Open 11 a.m. daily.

A bit of a hike from the National Western grounds, but close to the posh hotels where stockmen and women stay during the show, the bar that birthed the craftbrewing industry in Colorado is a reliable spot to belly up any time of the day for perfectly delicious — and normal — food and drink. Known for its responsiveness to community (which is why the draft lineup includes chile infused beer created and named for the cowboy boot wearing publisher of Westword alt weekly), Wynkoop will deliver during the Stock Show, tapping kegs of its iconic Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout flavored with Colorado malts and 25 pounds of freshly sliced and roasted bull testicles. Trust us, it’s good. If you prefer your adventure in solid form, starting Jan. 4, the restaurant also has a mid-day special, the OG Sack Lunch, featuring fried strips of Rocky Mountain Oysters served with horseradish dipping sauce.

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Many consumers of craft beers and spirits pride themselves on being able to draw a clear line from their beverage to a local brewer or distiller. But a Colorado nonprofit is trying to help extend that line further up the supply chain, so consumers can trace their drink all the way to the farmer.

The Colorado Grain Chain has funded a small number of beer and spirits projects with the idea of promoting Colorado-grown grains, like wheat, barley and quinoa, while helping consumers to broaden their view — these beverages aren’t just made locally, but sourced locally.

Despite being in a state that’s a leader in the craft beer and craft spirits industries, the vast majority of grain used by Colorado brewers and distillers comes from out of state, sometimes even from Europe and Canada, Grain Chain project manager Lisa Boldt said.

“There are a number of breweries that dabble,” she said. “There’s a couple that use a majority or all Colorado grains. But it is by-and-large commodity grains being used by brewers and distillers in the state, because it’s what everyone did, and it’s easy, and it’s cheaper.

“There’s no story to it, and you don’t know who you’re supporting. It’s probably not a small family farm like your brewery is a small family-run brewery.”

She’s speaking on the topic as someone with skin in the game. Her work at the Colorado Grain Chain is in addition to helping run Primitive Beer in Longmont, where she and her husband, Brandon, use all Colorado grain, grown within 30 miles and malted in Fort Collins. She said the benefits range from lower transportation costs and a smaller shipping carbon footprint, to the ability to work directly with the farmer and the maltster to get a product dialed in to the brewer or distiller’s particular needs.

“If we as brewers and distillers want the local community to support us, to buy our products and come to our tasting rooms, I think it’s important that we support the local ingredients that go into our products,” she said. “The flavors are incredible, we get such a high-quality product, and you’re supporting local farmers who are running businesses just like you. By keeping them in business, you’re keeping the whole food system working.”

It’s connecting you back to where you’re living.

Audrey Paugh, Grain Chain’s marketing and networking specialist

Support for growers is becoming essential as the pressures of commercial development and the commodity grain market continue to squeeze out small farmers who can’t match the razor-thin margins of a large farm leveraging greater economies of scale, said Audrey Paugh, marketing and networking specialist for the Grain Chain. 

The nonprofit is member-supported and, among other things, helps small-scale farmers to network and market their products. Many of them include heritage varieties of small grains in their crop rotations and produce high-value types of barley, wheat and rye that are appealing to artisanal brewers, bakers and distillers who, in turn, can charge a bit more for products that have a local story attached.

“It’s connecting you back to where you’re living,” Paugh said.

She also noted a 2022 survey by Colorado State University that showed an overwhelming level of support for local food and agriculture among Coloradans. 

“Nationally, we’re losing farmland every day, and the more we can have local farms in Colorado profiting, being channeled into our local food and beverage industries, the more they’re going to be able to survive,” she said.

Win-win

Sometimes the level of support that drinkers want to offer to producers and producers want to offer growers runs up against financial constraints, Boldt noted. This can be reflected in higher prices for ingredients grown locally at a smaller scale, or in the increased risk when using new ingredients that a brewer or distiller may not be as familiar with.

“Everyone has to watch their bottom lines, and there are pressures from all sides, and you can only raise your prices,” she said. “We decided, let’s take away the risk, let’s give people these microgrants, let’s see what kinds of beverages they come up with using all Colorado grains. We’ll help market it, they’ll help market the Grain Chain in return, so it’s a win-win that way.”

LEFT: WeldWerks Brewery in Greeley. RIGHT: Jordan Wheeler monitors beer canning at WeldWerks on Nov. 10. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun). (Photographer credit)

TOP: WeldWerks Brewery in Greeley. BOTTOM: Jordan Wheeler monitors beer canning at WeldWerks on Nov. 10. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun). (Photographer credit)

To that end, the Grain Chain used part of a $109,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation to support four beverage collaborations — two beers and two spirits — with $4,000 microgrants.

The selection committee prioritized grain-forward products and different grain types and sources when choosing which projects to fund. They also considered other factors, such as collaboration among multiple producers or with other supply chain members, and assessed aspects of the projects that may contribute to sustainability.

The breweries and distilleries are able to leverage free ingredients toward a profitable product, while the Colorado Grain Chain receives free advertising and marketing, and the grantees will report back on information regarding the grain itself, handling and yield, customer feedback, with write-ups available for members.

“If another brewery or distillery wants to take a risk and use quinoa or a specific type of special wheat, they have this report they can turn to and say, ‘Let’s see what their experience was,’” Boldt said.

The two beers were the first to hit the market, starting with Foamies, a Czech-style lager that came out of a collaboration between Denver’s Cohesion Brewing and WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley. Eric Larkin, brewer and founder at Cohesion, said the project with WeldWerks’ head brewer Skip Schwartz had been long in coming. 

“I’ve been wanting to brew with Skip and the WeldWerks crew. We’ve been colleagues going back five years or so,” Larkin said. “It was an easy fit with some of the core values that we started Cohesion with and want to do, and he was on board.”

They’d been discussing a collaboration for a couple of years, Larkin said, but the effort was delayed with the installation of a new brewhouse at WeldWerks. He had gotten used to brewing with local grain when he worked at Odd13 Brewing in Lafayette, and when he started Cohesion to focus on Czech lagers, he began working primarily with Troubadour Maltings. Like other malting companies, Troubadour prepares grains for brewing, steeping, germinating and sometimes roasting the grains used in the fermentation process. The malting process differs depending on the type of beer.

“We built a custom base malt with them, we work with them a ton,” Larkin said. “When we do collaborations, I try to advocate for local malt, craft malt. I think there’s a variety of benefits — economic, relationship, diversity of flavor profiles.”

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Schwartz had also worked with Troubadour while at the now-defunct Black Project Spontaneous and Wild Ales in Denver. WeldWerks uses more malt than a craft maltster like Troubadour can provide, but he jumped at the opportunity to connect with owner Chris Schooley on this project and use the bespoke Cohesion base malt.

“We always like when we get the opportunities to work with smaller craft maltsters,” Schwartz said. “I’m always excited to work with him and his team and his malts. It was really cool to be able to pull that in and do something that we don’t normally do with the craft stuff.”

The recipe they created, like all Cohesion beers, is designed to showcase the more intense flavor that Troubadour created for Larkin. “If I’m paying a premium for the malt, if I’m building something for malt-forward beers and beers that aren’t really showcasing hops in the way that an IPA might, I want as much flavor as possible,” Larkin said.

Their special base malt, dubbed Super Pevec, isn’t proprietary for Cohesion, but it’s not a big focus for Troubadour. It’s designed to mimic a more robustly flavored, traditionally made European malt, and Larkin said he’s pleased with any opportunity to share the malt and their methods with other brewers.

“I love that we have a malt that we can say, ‘Hey, you don’t need to bring in a European malt.’ There’s more options now than when we opened Cohesion just two years ago,” he said. “The more customers and brewers can learn about this style and use as close to the correct ingredients as possible, the better off we are, because we’re already seen as a leader in this.”

Compared to commodity malt, he said he’s sacrificing a certain level of consistency for that additional level of character. He said he enjoys the technical aspect of having to tweak his recipes or processes based on the variability of an agricultural product, rather than sacrifice flavor to make processing easier.

“For us, it’s not about replicating exactly the same flavors to a T every time,” he said. “If the malt changes, my beer is changing, and that’s OK. That’s something that we embrace.”

The two breweries may seem like strange bedfellows. While Cohesion is so heavily focused on traditional, malt-forward lagers, WeldWerks is known for experimental and hoppy beers, such as their flagship Juicy Bits hazy IPA.

“I prefer hoppy styles, personally. I’m more of an IPA drinker than a lager drinker, except for Eric’s lagers,” Schwartz said. “At WeldWerks we don’t make a lot of malt-forward beers that often, even our stouts are kind of adjunct focused.”

They made some adjustments for using Schwartz’s yeast, upped the level of hops a little from Larkin’s normal range, and decided to give it a shot. If something went wrong, if they skewed a little from target, he said, it’s just a learning experience. They made a 30-barrel batch — a little more than 900 gallons — but came in shy of their targets. Once it came out, they set to work almost right away making a second batch to iron out the kinks.

“It’s a really cool project to have the Grain Chain linked into, and something different to talk about,” Larkin said. “There’s a little bit more of a story to this beer.”

Foamies first came out in mid-August, with the batch split between Denver and Greeley. Cohesion sold out in five or six days, and WeldWerks in two weeks. A second batch was packaged Nov. 10, with more put into cans than the first time; Schwartz said the release should cover WeldWerks’ entire Colorado footprint.

A link to Southwestern Colorado 

In Cortez, WildEdge Brewing Collective leveraged its microgrant to partner with Root Shoot Malting to make a German dunkelweizen-inspired beer for the fall. 

The Front Range malthouse had reached out earlier in the year to ask about collaborating with the brewery, according to brewer and owner Tucker Robinson. He said he talked to the staff about what they were excited about at the malthouse, which turned out to be a new Munich-style wheat malt — slightly darker and richer than regular wheat malt, made in the style of a traditional Munich barley malt that forms the backbone of German Oktoberfests and other malt-forward beers.

“Whenever I work with producers, I always like to take inspiration from what inspires them as far as what I’m going to create,” Robinson said. They set a brew date for late summer to have a fall release, and he crafted a recipe inspired by the amber to brown German wheat beer, using all Root Shoot malts and substituting a large portion of Munich-style wheat for what would normally be malted white wheat.

The nontraditional malt addition “contributed some pretty cool notes of honey and crusty bread, a little bit of cocoa powder,” he said. “It just made it kind of a more interesting beer. As with many of my beers, I take inspiration from traditional recipes, but then modify them, trying to make them unique.”

In keeping things as local as possible, Robinson also sourced a German weizen yeast from Denver yeast lab Inland Island. He targeted a milder version of a beer that can have strong — and for the beer novice, possibly unexpected — flavors. It yielded a beer with notes of crusty bread, a touch of cocoa, stone fruit, and some baking spice character.

The brewery, which opened in 2017, has long focused on local grain, sourcing about 15,000 pounds of grain each year from in-state (as well as developing a relationship with local hop farm Billy Goat).

“I saw a need in our small town here in the southwest corner of the state for a community space built around high-quality, creative, locally made craft beer,” Robinson said. “It is a core tenet of our business, to source a majority of our grain from Colorado producers. We’ve worked with Root Shoot, we’ve worked with Proximity, we’ve worked with Colorado Malting Company. Pretty much all of the base malt that goes into our beers is Colorado grown and malted. That’s something we’ve done since day one.”

WildEdge also offers local wine and runs a small kitchen, and Robinson said it’s been humbling how the business has been embraced as a local hub. 

“The thing I’m most proud of about the brewery is that we have been adopted by the community, between groups of friends gathering after work, to board meetings, people hosting birthday parties, we seem to be increasingly in the fold of Montezuma County here.”

Another link in the chain

The brewery, in turn, is getting more involved with the Grain Chain. Robinson has met up with another local producer in the area, a farmer who just opened a bakery, and the nonprofit held its Grain School in the Field, an immersive field-to-consumer program, in Cortez this year.

“It’s been a great experience working with the Grain Chain, to be honest I didn’t even know they existed prior to applying for this grant,” Robinson said. “It’s been cool to get into that community of like-minded people a little bit more.”

The beer itself — dry, refreshing, and drinkable, a little darker without going into the realm of a heavy winter style — also fits into WildEdge’s embrace of seasonality. With 12 taps, 11 for the brewery and one for a local cidery, Robinson only keeps two beers available year-round, a pale ale and a porter. The rest rotate frequently, with a new beer on at least once a month. “I’m a very seasonal drinker myself,” he said.

From the Fields was released Oct. 6, and Robinson said they threw a big release party with live music and local baked goods.

“We just tried to make it a good community event, and it turned into a nice Wednesday night. We got to spread the good word about what the Grain Chain is, its mission and how we worked with them over the last six months or so,” he said.

The first of two spirits funded by a Colorado Grain Chain microgrant that will hit the market is a sloe-style gin made by Routt Distillery in Steamboat. The distillery has been open for about a year and a half and was focused on developing clear spirits — gins and vodka — followed by whiskey, until they caught wind of the Grain Chain program, owner Brad Christensen said.

Inspired by the tradition of infusing gin with sloe berries, the ripe fruit of the blackthorn tree, he applied for support to create a gin built instead around locally foraged sarvisberries, aka serviceberries, which grow bountifully in the area.

“The sarvis gin was a project we’ve been thinking about for a while. This was my kick in the pants to get it up and running,” he said. “People use them for baking, for making jams, lots of things, and I wanted to make something out of it. The first thing that came to mind was a version of a sloe gin.”

He partnered, along with the Grain Chain, with local nonprofit Yampatika, which focuses on environmental stewardship via educational programs in the area. “They do nature hikes where they teach about wild and edible plants, and they also do lots of kids outdoor education programming,” he said.

Christensen went out with their foragers and harvested about 50 pounds of berries, then froze them to help break the fruit down to facilitate infusing the gin.

While harvesting berries was the most labor intensive stage, he also had to work out his grain source. The neutral spirit — which is the base for the distillery’s winter and summer gins and its vodka — is a 50/50 blend of wheat and malted barley.

“I really like the flavor there, it has a unique grain character that you don’t get from other grain sources for vodkas,” he said. “I love barley as a crop. It’s a great Colorado crop, it’s great to work with, it’s easy to work with, I’m familiar with it. We make a single-malt whiskey here at the distillery with it.”

Barley for the gin came from pilot projects that Proximity Malt in Monte Vista was doing with farmers in Montrose this year. While the barley was ultimately blended with other San Luis Valley barley sources for malting, he said he worked with the malthouse and waited for a batch that had the highest percentage of Montrose barley possible.

“For all of our products, we use 100% Colorado grain and really try to embrace Colorado agriculture,” he said. “I think our grain and our grain supply chain is awesome here.”

Once he got that special batch of neutral spirit done, and the base gin distilled, he soaked the berries in it for five weeks. He yielded 93 bottles of gin — at more than a half-pound of berries per bottle — that that recently received federal label approval and are sold for $42 in the tasting room. He said the berries bring a hint of sweetness, but not to the level that sloes provide. “I’d probably call it an off-dry style.”

Along with the sarvis gin, which might only be sold through the tasting room but which Christensen plans to make an annual fall release, they harvested “a bunch of other stuff” including crabapples and sweet anise root that he extracted in vodka. They’ll be standalones for people to try, and potential ingredients to use in the future.

LEFT: Routt Distillery owner Brad Christensen picks sarvisberries for his Grain Chain collaboration. RIGHT: Routt Distillery’s Sarvisberry Flavored Gin, which sells in the tasting room for $42 a bottle. (Photos courtesy Brad Christensen)

TOP: Routt Distillery owner Brad Christensen picks sarvisberries for his Grain Chain collaboration. BOTTOM: Routt Distillery’s Sarvisberry Flavored Gin, which sells in the tasting room for $42 a bottle.. (Photos courtesy Brad Christensen)

Quinoa! It’s not just for dinner.

In Mosca, Dune Valley Distillery sits at a crossroads of agriculture, tourism, the local food system, and Colorado wine and spirits history. After operating Valley Roots Food Hub for several years, Nicholas Chambers started the distillery earlier this year. The distillery space shares part of an old community events center and school gymnasium with potatoes and quinoa, feedstock for his current and future spirits and inspiration for the venture. “The valley is second in the nation for potato exports, and we’ve got this wonderful quinoa stock,” he said.

White Mountain Farm, also in Mosca, is “essentially the farm that brought quinoa to North America,” Chambers said. “This is really the seedbed for the field trials, genetics, the trial and error to develop a good seed stock from the Andes that works well for us.”

Many years later, he now sees semitrailers of quinoa going out of the valley. He sat down with Paul New, whose father, Ernie, first brought quinoa to the San Luis Valley in the late 1980s, in his White Mountain office one day. New pulled out a quinoa vodka from France. “We poured it in dirty coffee cups, and it was, at that point: ‘This we must do.’”

Chambers has a family history in Colorado wine and spirits that traces back more than a century. He said his great-grandfather had the first wine and liquor license in Colorado after Prohibition ended, in 1933, and prior to that the family had set up shop in Denver in 1903 to sell their wine and distribute spirits.

I think our grain and our grain supply chain is awesome here.

— Brad Christensen, Routt Distillery owner

But he’s “really from the soil.” Chambers is well tied into the local food vein and already very familiar with the Colorado Grain Chain. He has a store in the gym that sells local food, and a revived family wine brand, Carbone Wine, that is produced in Palisade. The distillery was opened as an extension of that embrace of local ingredients. He focused first on dialing in his potato vodka, and will eventually expand that to multiple vodkas and gins.

“Given what our feedstocks are, we want to showcase potatoes. I’m doing a russet as our flagship, but I want to do a purple, and a fingerling,” he said. “Quinoa would be our standby, always available, we’ll just continue to optimize it, get the process better and better.”

He’s using the Grain Chain grant to work through a series of lab-scale quinoa maltings to dial in starch conversion, then scaling up the malting and producing a 35-gallon batch, and finally scaling up to a 395-gallon mash for a final run in an 80-gallon spirit distillation. “It’ll be foundational,” he said, describing a product line that relies on quinoa vodka for fruit infusions and an “apothecary line.”

“By next summer we’ll have this baby bottled up and ready to go,” he said.

He’s using local quinoa varieties that don’t have a fancy name. “It’s probably something scientific like A1234,” he said. Multiple varieties and blends are going into the trials, whatever White Mountain has some excess of. A lot of it is a blend named casually “McCamant Special Blend,” after University of Denver professor John McCamant, who first helped to bring quinoa to Colorado.

“Quinoa is such an amazing crop,” Chambers said. “It truly is a superfood.” It’s high in protein, minerals and vitamins, with 58% to 68% starch that can be converted for fermentation and distillation. “I think for the yeast, too, it’s going to have a very diverse diet, just a well-balanced environment for yeast to thrive in.”

While the distillery opened in June, he said they’re still working on the steam system and the building overall. It’s a renovated adobe building from 1933, “a tremendous construction project,” he said. Dune Valley has partnered with guest chefs for occasional five-course dinners and closed out the season with a big producer appreciation event, serving about 150 people at the end of October.

“We’re probably only using 30% of the facility, so we have a lot more to open up and be able to accommodate more people, more events,” Chambers said. Along with building out the distillery, he’s working to develop the campus as a renewable energy park, using methane gas, solar and thermal energy and a biodiesel plant.

“I really want to be that sort of eco-destination resort, where people can come and we’re showcasing what our region has to offer,” he said.

Mas Torito never thought he’d care so much about a few grams of rice.

And yet, there he was, engaging rather than ignoring a vendor of a machine that dispenses a precisely measured amount of piping-hot, steamed rice. At nearly $10,000, the cost may seem steep considering that a few morsels of rice is just cents at the grocery store. 

But Torito runs Kokoro, the homegrown Japanese restaurant that his parents started in 1986. There are two locations, in Denver and in Arvada. They serve about 1,500 bowls of rice a day.  

“It dispenses rice to within, I think, two or three grams or whatever amount you specify, and it drops it into your bowl,” Torito said. “It’s the exact amount of rice every single time.”

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Restaurants have been operating in one of the more challenging economic eras in years, thanks to a mix of low unemployment rates, labor shortages and rapidly rising food costs. But those who serve rice may have additional headaches as the global rice industry struggles for stability, leaving restaurants like Kokoro figuring out how to save money on mere morsels.  

The new fangled machine would not cook the rice. Restaurant-sized rice cookers would still do that. And then Kokoro employees must scoop rice into the new machine. But employees could push a button on the machine to automatically fill a bowl. No more measuring by hand. No overages, or deficits leading to customer complaints. If time and cost savings add up to 10% to 20%, he estimates it could take two years to pay off — an appealing investment.

“Who thought that we would get to the point where grams of rice would be so essential to your operation that we’d be willing to spend $10,000 more or less on a machine that gives you that accuracy,” Torito said. “But that’s where we are.”

The chaos of the rice

Rice has been having a chaotic couple of years. Besides all sorts of supply shortages that cropped up in the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted trade routes. In California, where some of the U.S.-supply of medium-grain rice used for sushi rice is grown, drought and water shortages limited planting. Last year, U.S. rice production was cut in half. 

In July, Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative that provided safe passage for cargo ships carrying grain. That led to India, which produces 40% of the world’s rice, to ban the export of all non-basmati rice to conserve its supply for its own citizens. 

“Food prices have been increasing steadily over the past year and that’s because of a combination of the war in Ukraine, negative weather and countries imposing policies,” said Amanda Countryman, an associate professor at Colorado State University’s Dept. of Agricultural Resource and Economics in Fort Collins. “India imposing export bans is a big deal. It has a dramatic effect on global markets because they’re the largest rice exporter.” 

What that means for consumers — and food businesses — is a pound of white, long grain rice is up 46.2% since 2018,  according to the U.S. Consumer Price Index. Globally, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that the rice price index was near a 12-year high in July.

The domino effect of export policies meant to insulate a country’s prices can be devastating for the rest of the world, especially for consumers who eat a lot of rice, Countryman said. 

“Rice is a critically important food source around the world so when you have high rice prices, that really has a negative impact on low-income households,” Countryman said. “It’s an important source of calories.”

At least this year in the U.S., a wet season in rice-growing states like California and the south helped boost production. Prices should fall, said Tanner Ehmke, lead economist for grains and oilseeds for the Knowledge Exchange research division of CoBank in Greenwood Village.

However, prices of actual food can only drop so much, he said.

46.2%

How much the cost of rice has gone up since 2018. Globally, the
rice price index was at a near 12-year high in July.

“There’s a lot of points between the farmer and the consumer,” Ehmke said. “And so even though rice prices are going to be coming down because of the bigger crops that we had this year, you still have a lot of cost in the system with labor and the supply chain. Grocery stores are struggling with labor shortages and so the consumer is going to see higher food prices at the grocery store as a result.”

Wheat, for example, has also had a productive growing season this year, he said. But he estimated that actual wheat makes up just 5 to 10 cents of the price of a loaf of bread. It’s all the other inflated costs that keep food prices high — labor, electricity, fuel, the cost of insurance, interest on loans, etc. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill has regularly raised menu prices due to higher food costs — notably, guacamole. In the second quarter, the fast-casual chain that got its start in Colorado saw improved margins, partly thanks to lower avocado prices. However, it was offset by “inflation across several food costs, primarily beef, tortillas, dairy, salsa, beans and rice.” Last month, it announced it would raise prices again, due to inflation. 

“So even though wheat and rice prices may be going up and down, you also have rising transportation costs, rising warehousing costs, rising labor costs, rising electricity costs, rising fuel costs. You have rising insurance costs, insurance is ridiculous, rising cost of funds to borrow, interest rate expenses are going up,” Ehmke said. “All the other factors are going up.”

Who thought that we would get to the point where grams of rice would be so essential to your operation that we’d be willing to spend $10,000 more or less on a machine that gives you that accuracy. But that’s where we are.

— Mas Torito, who runs Kokoro

Kokoro shares its costs

At Kokoro, rice by itself is barely on the menu. A bowl of steamed white rice is $2.75, about 31% higher than in 2018, according to an old menu captured by the Internet Archive. Rice plays a supporting role for the menu’s stars, like the spicy tuna roll, chicken curry bowl or inari, the seasoned tofu-wrapped sweet rice shaped like a log.  

The costs for those other ingredients have increased too. Chicken is up 29.8% since 2018, according to the BLS Consumer Price Index. CPI doesn’t track bluefin tuna or tofu prices. 

Meanwhile, the expense of running the restaurant is higher too. Takeout containers and lids have raised the cost of items up to 15%. Credit-card transaction fees eat up an average of 2% of the bill and may be going up even more, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

Labor, of course, is a big one for many businesses. It’s not just about higher wages, but new laws that require employers to contribute to policies, such as employee paid leave. 

As for wages, those are up, too. Colorado and the city of Denver have increased the minimum wage annually for more than a decade. Every time that happens, all of Kokoro’s hourly staff get a pay raise. Denver’s minimum wage has increased 70% since 2018, and will increase another $1 per hour in January to $18.29. 

“You’re paying all of your employees a dollar more an hour so everyone gets a raise, and that’s the way it should be on so many levels,” he said. “For employers like us, we’re so lucky to have them because I’m able to have this meeting in my home office because I have great long-term employees. (But) that means we have employees making $30 an hour because they’re getting that dollar raise every single year that they’re working.”

Reluctantly, Torito has raised menu prices — including for a bowl of white rice, which is up 10 cents since November 2022. 

He’s tried to limit the increase on “regular” sized items because that’s what the most cost conscious customers purchase. He felt he had more leeway with items like unagi sushi (grilled freshwater eel) or super-sized portions since those are more expensive normally.  

“Our number one tool, and this is the part that you hate answering because it never looks good for your business, but it’s to raise prices,” Torito said. “But because it’s all restaurants and it’s even grocery stores, it doesn’t feel like you’re losing market share. … And some customers won’t understand, but plenty of them do on some level.” 

That understanding customer includes Terry Coke-Kerr, a regular who comes in at least weekly (“Usually twice,” she said) for her beef bowl fix, the thinly sliced beef and onion mix slow cooked in its own juices and served over a bowl of steamed rice.

Sure, she said during a recent lunch visit, menu prices have gone up. Not just at Kokoro but elsewhere. But the beef bowl still seems fair at $8.65.

“This is probably the best deal” around, she said. “It’s very, very reasonable. But I will pay more if I need to. It’s really because I like the food.”

Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun. Design by Danika Worthington, The Colorado Sun.