Benzina Will Not Close This Month After All

Sometimes, restaurants close with no warning. But lately, more and more places are opting to give guests a chance to say goodbye before serving their last meals.

Steve's Snappin' Dogs, for example, announced the end of its run three weeks before its last day and fans flocked in for a final taste, resulting in some of the busiest days the place had seen in years.

In that case, owner Steve Ballas had chosen to retire. But in others, an outpouring of support can be enough to keep the business afloat. That's what happened Wendell's, the diner on Tennyson Street that shared its struggles and impending closure in February.

A month later, things were looking much more optimistic for the business owned by husband and wife Roy Benoit and Casey Keller. "We were able to find a way through it, largely thanks to community support," Benoit told Westword. "And there were some individuals who stepped up to help us. Apparently, it means something to the community for us to be there."

While he and Keller emphasize the need for ongoing support — there's still an active GoFundMe for the diner — Benoit noted: "The amount of people who have said how important it is for small, local businesses like us to remain and keep Tennyson really true to what it is, it's been incredible to feel the love and support from all of these people."

Now another restaurant that previously announced its upcoming closure may not shut down for good, after all.
In February, Benzina, one of our current picks for the top 100 restaurants in the metro area, announced that it would serve its last meal by the end of this month — after a nearly four-year run in a renovated former gas station and muffler shop at 4839 East Colfax Avenue.

At the time, owner Brad Anderson shared a statement on social media with a bleak outlook for the future of the industry. "The cost of labor, food, rent and property taxes has created a situation where the small guy can't compete. If something is not done, and fast, prepare to see only big, out-of-state, multi-unit operations flood the market. I've been a part of the Denver food scene since 1981, as both an employee and employer, and I have never seen it this bad," he wrote.

But on March 24, he posted a statement with a very different tone. "The overwhelming support from our loyal customers, combined with the enthusiasm of new ones, has been incredible in helping keep Benzina up and running," he writes. "Almost every customer this month has stopped and chatted with me about how much they love Benzina, and what they can do to help keep us open. I tell them, numbers matter. During a normal Tuesday, we have sales of $2,000 and labor costs us $1,000. The math doesn't work. If we can get customers coming in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then we'll have a fighting chance.

"Due to all of your requests to stay open, we have decided to stay open until May 3, and see what happens. If April is as good as March, we will stay open throughout May, and who knows, we just might get enough momentum to make it work. With your help, we could pull off one of the great miracles of the Denver restaurant scene."

That's good news, but it does make us wonder: Do the city's independent restaurants need to be on their way out in order to get the kind of attention they needed all along?  Stories like these should remind us to support the restaurants we love before they announce a closure date.