Last July, the mood at Slater's 50/50, which was just opening at 3600 Blake Street, wasn't quite as festive as at most restaurant debuts. Customers were certainly pleased with their big, topping-laden burgers and even bigger milkshakes, and staffers were on their toes making sure everything was running smoothly. But the brand-new eatery was opening in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and nobody knew exactly which direction the statistics would go.
"By the time we were getting going, we were into the summer, and we didn't know if the worst of it was over," says Charlie Murray, the franchise owner of Colorado's first Slater's, a small chain out of southern California.