The smoking ban is just the tip of the iceberg, the start of a wild and sprawling fight over property rights and eminent domain. "The ban was the catalyst that began all this," Von Feldt says. "And I have a list, a list of how everyone voted, so our next move is to get rid of these people."
He tells me a story about the night the smoking-ban bill was approved. He was at a meeting with a bunch of other bar and restaurant owners, waiting for the news to break. When it did, a lot of people in the room just gave up, surrendered on the spot. More than anything, that was what got Von Feldt's blood boiling -- seeing his fellow citizens so willing to just roll over and take it.
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"They just gave up," he remembers. "Saying there was nothing more to do. And I said, ŒThis guy's not lying down.'"
Leftovers: Last fall, Johnson's Corner-- a classic American truck stop even older than Davies Chuck Wagon -- debuted its new look, an overhaul that removed almost all of its diner essence ("Cornered," November 10, 2005) but added a ventilated aquarium for smokers in the center of the dining room. Come July 1, all of that money will have been wasted, but Chauncey Taylor, president and general manager of the family-owned enterprise, at least got a consolation prize: Exit 254 -- the exit off I-25 that dumps onto the frontage road on which Johnson's Corner has sat since there was nothing in this area just south of Loveland excepta little piece of road cutting through a big, flat nowhere -- will not be shut down.
"There were discussions about closing 254," Taylor says. "But now, as far as I understand it, exit 254 is targeted for a full upgrade, a full interchange."
He credits Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave with coming to the rescue. "She was able to give me some guidance about what I should be doing," Taylor says. She told him that he needed to get involved -- to circulate petitions, attend meetings, get in front of as many people as he could and explain what the impact of closing the exit would be.
"Marilyn's office was attending all of the meetings with me," he continues. "She also wrote a letter encouraging CDOT to include us in the upgrade plan. She was a huge, huge help."
(Never mind that her help might not have been needed: According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, over the past two years every exit between Wellington and Union Station has been studied as part of a major I-25 project.)
But even the mighty Musgrave -- with whom Taylor seems more than a little smitten, describing her as a very good-looking woman who stood up for him when no one else would -- couldn't do anything to stop the smoking ban. Just how much did Taylor spend on that sealed smoking room? "The costs that we're looking at were upwards of $60,000, maybe $70,000," he says. "And that's just for the air, the machinery. Then there's the glass, the enclosure.... Maybe $90,000 or $100,000, total."
So that's a hundred grand for less than a year of use. Thanks, Bill Owens! I'm sure independent business owners like Taylor are thrilled to be eating that kind of loss.
Like Von Feldt from the Coalition for Equal Rights, Taylor is also upset about the exemptions to the smoking ban. "So they can still have a smoking lounge at DIA because DIA services travelers?" he asks. "I'm servicing travelers here. Why can't I have an exemption? If you're going to have exemptions, you'd better be able to look at each and every business and judge each and every business. That's what would be fair."
And finally, after the Fourth Storyclosed the book on ten years in the restaurant biz last week in anticipation of the Tattered Cover's move to the Lowenstein Theater on June 24, there's news of another restaurant signing on for that East Colfax project. On Friday I talked to David Berenson, vice president of restaurant development for Udi's (both the Bakery, at 7000 Broadway, and the Bread Bistro, in Stapleton), and he says a brand-new Udi's concept could debut at the Lowenstein this fall.
"We don't have a lease finalized," Berenson notes, but both parties have signed a letter of intent. "There is an excellent likelihood that the restaurant is going to happen, but it's not a done deal." Even so, the Udi's folks have a working name -- Bianco -- and a concept based on pizza bianco, a Roman-style flatbread that will be used to make wood-fired pizzas and sandwiches. Bianco will also feature a small-plates menu and a big, full-service bar. "The space has a ton of character," Berenson says -- not to mention plenty of parking and a ninety-seat patio.
And if that's not enough, he says the Udi's group could have a fourth location up and running within the year.
