Colorado cafe owner defies county officials and court, stays open after failed health inspections

Grand County officials are weighing their options in a legal battle against a contentious cafe owner who continued to serve customers despite failing health department inspections for more than a year. 

John "JD" Schein, the owner of Middle Park Meat Co. in Kremmling, was ordered by a judge to close his business's doors in February, according to a timeline from the Grand County Department of Public Health. He kept the business open, according to the county, while refusing to pay for his restaurant's state license, failing to meet with health inspectors, and failing inspections when they did happen. 

Schein reportedly rang up sales to several customers during his suspension as health department and law enforcement personnel stood by, according to the county.

"All they had to do was leave me (and my customers) alone," owner Schein told CBS Colorado in an email. Schein accused county and state health department officials of conspiring to "willfully falsify their official government document reports for use in an abusive court case to tortiously interfere with my rapidly growing successful business operations."

In his email, Schein vowed to seek damages in a defamation lawsuit against those agencies. 

The Middle Park Meat Co. was established in 1958 by Joe McElroy, according to local reporting in the Sky-Hi News. Harlan and Jane Land bought it in 1975 and turned it away from primarily a meat processing facility and into more of a retail outlet, per the newspaper. They retired after 35 years, having built a regional following. 

Schein is the cafe's third owner since the Lands retired. 

The current conflict began in October 2024, shortly after Schein obtained the business. He passed a pre-operational inspection that month and was free to open the business.

The first routine inspection of Middle Park Meat Co. occurred on July 1, 2025. That one, it failed. County health inspectors ordered the business to close, according to the county. 

But it didn't. Middle Park Meat Co. was open the very next day. 

In April of this year, a third closure was ordered - this time by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment - after the shop failed another inspection, its fourth out of five in the previous calendar year.

The next month, the Kremmling Police Department sent photos to county health officials of Schein's shop doing business for four consecutive days.

"What began as reluctance to pay for a retail food license for the 'privilege' to serve wholesome, nutritious, clean food to the Public turned into a court case brought by Grand County Public Health & Environment under entirely false pretenses from the beginning," Schein wrote in his email. 

The county health department demanded Schein post a sign which stated, "Not a Health Department Inspected Facility." Schein complied with that order. 

But in response, Schein says he now poses two questions to customers who enter:

"Do you place a higher value on...A) Trusting the ongoing reputation and self-interest of the owner-operator and trained staff who depend on your continued satisfaction and word of mouth referrals to stay in business? Or B) Relying primarily on government inspections and regulatory compliance checklists by local career bureaucrats every 6 to 8 months? 

"What Grand County Government really hates," Schein continued, "is that I all but force my customers and community members to think critically enough to start questioning the authority and subsidized programs pushed on the People by the Public Health Departments locally and nationwide ... It's depressing to know that our tax dollars directly fund the social and moral decay of my Community."

Grand County Public Health's restaurant inspections are normally unannounced, Director Abbie Baker told the Grand County Commissioners in a July 28 meeting. The idea is to observe operations as business is conducted on any given day. 

Schein, however, was given the benefit of scheduled restaurant inspections, according to Baker. But he failed to show up as scheduled for many of them, she told the commissioners, or even return phone and text messages as staff waited outside the cafe.

Schein, on the other hand, claims health inspectors didn't conduct inspections on the occasions when he did give them access. 

"This has been our first experience with anything like this," Grand County Public Health's Christine Travis said of the disagreement. She said the county health department conducts more than 300 restaurant inspections annually in both Grand and Jackson counties. And the department tries to educate and coach violators back into compliance. 

Apparently, the department does not have a relationship with any other restaurants that reach this level of contempt.

In that July meeting, Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin told the commissioners that Middle Park Meat Co. is the only establishment where his deputies "provide backup" for health inspectors. 

Schein says he is carrying on the legacy of the business. He sells the best smoked brisket on either side of the Continental Divide. Legendary beef jerky, as he describes it. Apple-brined pork chops "that are the best chops anywhere on Planet Earth!" And the best steak on all seven continents. 

The Grand County Health Department has its own list which it presented to the county commissioners: Broken coolers and food repeatedly found above required storage temperatures; cross-contamination risks; insufficient handwashing, hot/cold holding, date marking and surface sanitizing; inadequate labeling and allergy declarations; unpasteurized milk, raw eggs and other items obtained from unapproved sellers; and failure to properly separate his living areas from food preparation and storage areas.  

At the commissioner's meeting, Baker expressed doubt Schein would correct the issues. Following her presentation, she read a statement: 

"Based on these findings and interactions, it is evident that the operator of this facility does not intend to remedy known food safety issues in spite of continued guidance, education, and communication of those issues. The operator continues to put the health of the public at risk of illness and improperly handled foods prepared at this facility. The operator has also demonstrated consistent disregard for Public Health and Judicial authority requirements for closure until food safety issues can be addressed properly. We would recommend immediate physical closure of the facility due to public health nuisance and moving forward with permanent revocation of this retail food license."

Assistant County Attorney Shira Cohen joined Baker in front of the county commissioners. She said that, while the broken cooler was a serious issue for some time, many of the Middle Park Meat Co. violations are simple to remedy. Things like labeling spray bottles and writing expiration dates on food. 

But she said to commissioners, "The constant and repeated violations despite the education provided by public health have demonstrated that this isn't a matter of some lack of understanding or inability to comply due to some outside force. This is just intentional disregard for the rule of law, in this case."

Cohen, citing the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak, said visitors to a restaurant should be able to say to themselves, "'I'm going to get food here, and it's not gonna do all sorts of horrible things to my insides.'" But, she noted, "[W]e're just not there right now with this operator."  

Cohen then recommended the commissioners authorize a cease-and-desist order. The commissioners voted unanimously to do so. 

Afterward, one commissioner, unidentified in the audio recording, bemoaned the circumstances. 

"It's really sad that this situation is happening," he said. "That particular business had a longtime reputation... reputation regionally for people getting pork loins or whatever... I think you've bent over backwards, Abbie, with your staff to try to get this business in compliance."

Schein, meanwhile, promises he will maintain a fighting posture.

"Grand County Government is now so drunkenly brazen with untouchable power that they'll publicly defame one of their own most beloved local establishments before the case has even reached final judgment," he wrote by email. "Little did they expect this A+ student and lifelong autodidact to learn the rules and procedures of their game just to beat them at their own profession.

"It's sad to see such wicked corruption happening in the place I've chosen to settle down and call 'home,' but I've trained my whole adult life for this moment as a free-minded individual Libertine, ready to stand in firm resistance to tyranny, especially locally.

I was never one to back down from the elementary school playground bully."

The two sides have a hearing in Grand County court on Sept. 14.