There s no question that the restaurant industry is still struggling as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. But a mild winter and the partial reopening of dining rooms has made January just a little more bearable than December. Still, many eateries are choosing to stay closed until Denver has better patio weather, more widespread vaccinations and safer projections from government agencies.
Despite the challenges, few restaurants decided to call it quits permanently last month. The Denver Diner and Hearth & Dram had already closed, but in January revealed their decisions to officially throw in the kitchen towel permanently. While the Denver Diner had operated at partial capacity from June to November, it closed for good on November 20, when dining rooms were declared off-limits; the owners have left room for the possibility of opening in a new location in the future. Hearth & Dram never reopened after closing in March, though it originally planned to make a comeback this spring. But
Todd and Schefter are accustomed to multi-tasking; they got engaged the same month they opened their food truck, so they planned their wedding while slinging calzones to hungry late-night bar patrons downtown. Two and a half years later, they had to deal with building out their eatery while navigating the pandemic and shifting their food truck business to Denver neighborhoods instead of downtown streets. Delays in the initial handover of the space, which was previously half of a liquor store (the other half will become a tea shop), turned out to be a blessing, since it allowed the couple to take their time and open now instead of six months ago, when business would have been far more difficult.