Chris Fuselier, owner of the Blake Street Tavern at 2301 Blake Street, is temporarily closing his sports bar on January 1, but he hopes to be back once indoor spaces can reopen at partial capacity. The reason? It s just too damned cold out there to stay open in January, and tents with open sides aren t helping. The DDPHE [Denver Department of Public Health & Environment] visited about three weeks ago and said we were okay, Fuselier says of an inspection of his 40-by-90-foot tent, which had two opposite sides open at the time. But ten days ago, another investigator showed up and said there was not enough ventilation. They said the sides had to be completely open from top to bottom and side to side.
Getting food to the people who need it most during the pandemic has been a primary concern for many nonprofit organizations but what if the food being donated doesn t suit the needs of the people on the receiving end? That s the dilemma the Rocky Mountain Welcome Center was facing last spring and summer as the nonprofit s primary mission of helping immigrants and refugees integrate into new communities in metro Denver shifted to helping them simply survive the economic hardships created by the pandemic.
Jennifer Gueddiche, chief operating officer for the Welcome Center, says it wasn t enough to count on food banks and pantry donations to get food for the organization s clients, since many of them come from cultures where American staples are either unfamiliar or unsuitable for their religious and cultural requirements. Orthodox Christians and Muslims from Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea form a large part of the Welcome Center s clientele, so ensuring that halal meats, vege
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is in the process of rolling out its new 5 Star State Certification Program to augment the existing color-coded COVID health and safety dial. The program would allow restaurants to apply for certification in order to do business one level up from the current color level of their county.
The City and County of Denver is currently under Level Red restrictions, which prohibit any indoor dining but earning the 5 Star certification would allow a business to open at Level Orange rules, so a restaurant could seat diners indoors at 25 percent capacity (or a maximum of fifty people, whichever is lower).
For as close to the end of the year as we are and as entrenched in the pandemic a surprising number of new eateries cropped up this week, from fresh outposts of popular chains like Shake Shack and Raising Cane s to local restaurateurs adding to the mix. Among those is a new Chook Charcoal Chicken outlet at Stanley Marketplace, the third for the Aussie-style rotisserie-chicken company founded by Adam Schlegel, Alex Seidel and Randy Layman. Chook will be spinning birds starting at 11 a.m. today for takeout; order online for a streamlined experience.
And in pizza developments, Bar Nun took over the former Capitol Hill Tavern and is serving artisan pies.
When you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself.
That was the logic that restaurateur Juan Padró used to launch a new Denver COVID Rapid Test clinic at 2949 Federal Boulevard. Padró, the founder of the Tap & Burger restaurant group and co-owner of Bar Dough, Ash Kara, Señor Bear and several other establishments under the Culinary Creative umbrella, was looking for ways to keep his staff and customers safe while advocating for reopening restaurant dining rooms. The driving factor for this was the need in the restaurant industry, he explains. There s no reason why this can t be part of the solution to opening dining rooms.