Some Denver Restaurants Announce Temporary Closure: 'Breaks My Heart'
DENVER (CBS4) - More Denver restaurants are making the difficult decision to temporarily close while restrictions on indoor dining remain in place. The owner of Crafted Concepts tells CBS4 all four of the group's restaurants will close for 10 days starting Jan. 4.
The closures include Bistro Vendome and Rioja at Larimer Square, as well as Stoic & Genuine and Ultreia at Union Station.
"I never thought we'd even have to look at it," said Beth Gruitch.
Even on the sunniest of winter days, outdoor-only dining can be an uphill battle for popular restaurants such as Stoic & Genuine. The challenge starts with getting guests to come in the first place, then, it's keeping them comfortable and safe – all while trying to make a profit.
"Right now, we're surviving," Gruitch said. "We're asking for everybody to do more with less, and that's been a struggle to make ends meet."
Gruitch remains hopeful about the future of the restaurants and said the temporary closure could partly serve as a break for the exhausted staff. The larger hope is the landscape for restaurants will change by the time the four restaurants reopen.
"Hopefully by the mid-month of January we're going to have this five star program in place and processing, and we'll be able to seat inside our restaurants at limited capacity," Gruitch said.
"We also hope that the new round of PPPs will be out, the loan money."
Starting Jan. 1, the Blake Street Tavern will also temporarily close. Owner, Chris Fuselier, made the announcement Saturday on Twitter and called it "one of the most heartbreaking days of my life."
"It's going to be 25 people I'm going to have to furlough during Christmas, and it just breaks my heart," Fuselier said.
Earlier this year, the large sports bar issued furloughs and adjusted the days it was open due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Fuselier said his restaurant and bar was built for 100% capacity, so the recent weeks have been costly. He's also critical of new tent guidelines from the state.
"It has to be completely open and top to bottom and side to side. So even if you put heaters in there, it didn't matter," Fuselier said. "No one is going to go eat in 27-degree weather, and you shouldn't expect your staff to stand out there for four hours and serve customers."
For now, both closures remain temporary, but the fear is some restaurants making similar choices in Denver will not be able to reopen when the time comes.
"I think there's a lot of restaurants that aren't going to be as fortunate in the reopening process and just may throw their hand in the air and say we're done," Gruitch said.
