Closure Looms for Wendell's, Revived Diner on Tennyson Street

Casey Keller and her husband, Roy Benoit, have worked in the service industry for their entire careers. In September 2020, they made their dream of owning their own restaurant a reality when they reopened Wendell's, a diner at 3838 Tennyson Street.

The space had long been home to another daytime neighborhood eatery, DJ's Berkeley Cafe, until that spot abruptly closed in 2017. The following year, it was revived as Wendell's, but after restaurants were forced to close for dine-in service in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, it didn't reopen — until co-founder Kade Gianinetti sold it to Keller and Benoit.

Since then, Benoit says, "We've given everything we've had to give mentally, emotionally and financially. We've made friends in the area, we have staff that's incredibly loyal."

But now, Keller admits, "We probably only have a couple of weeks left." After falling behind on rent, the business is currently going through an eviction process.

"I never planned that it would be this," Benoit says. "That rising rent and rising taxes and rising product cost and just everything would just be too much. It's four and a half years of not just a business gone, this is four and a half years of our lives that, if we close, is just gone now."

The landlord has "been very pleasant with us," Benoit notes, and he's holding out hope that they can work out some kind of deal to keep Wendell's open. But the business has a triple-net lease, which means it pays base rent along with other expenses, including some tied to property tax, which has risen significantly on Tennyson Street, where many new developments have been built in recent years.
"We're not the first local restaurant to be gone on the street," Benoit says. "It seems like there's been a lot more chain and corporate and outside entities on the street. ... It's very difficult for a small, local mom-and-pop place to compete with that."

"I feel like Denver doesn't really care about having those small local businesses," Keller adds. "The changes that have happened on Tennyson Street are that those cool old buildings that made it unique and made it a destination location are being torn down and replaced with apartment buildings that have to have retail space in the bottom of them, and you don't have small, locally-owned and -operated businesses that can afford to lease space in those kind of buildings."

The property value assessments that have raised property taxes in the area have "been a blow," Benoit notes. "A few years ago, what we were doing in sales was absolutely enough to meet those things, but every year property tax increases as well, and that gets built into our rent. For me personally, I would say that's one of the ways the city does not care about small businesses, is when you can arbitrarily say, 'Well, now this property is worth this much.' ... I can't make business match what the assessment says it's worth."

Certainly not without raising menu prices significantly — and at Wendell's, the price for its staple items hasn't gone up since 2020. That's a point of pride for Keller and Benoit. "We're just like everybody else, we're all in the same boat, and you deserve to be able to come in and have a good breakfast in a good atmosphere, eat some good food, and not have prices that have gone up by 50 percent over the last couple of years just because there has been inflation," Benoit says. "We're not a place that's going to justify a 50-cent wage increase by raising our prices a dollar just so we can make more profit off of it. That's not what we're about."

Credit-card processing fees have gone up as well, Kendall notes, but adding a fee to cover that isn't something she and Benoit wanted to do either.

This week, Wendell's took note of the new 50-cent egg surcharge at Waffle House on Instagram, posting this: "Meanwhile at Wendell's, no egg surcharges, no living wage fees, same prices since 2020. Eat local. Or don't...go to Waffle House, and Snooze, or some other chain. The billionaires need your egg surcharge money." (Benoit shares that the restaurant's first case of eggs in 2020 was $13 while the most recent case was $133.)

"It's little things like that that add up and deter people from supporting small businesses or going out and enjoying good food," Keller notes.
Instead, Benoit says, "We wanted [Wendell's] to be that space. Our space is there for you and we've held through. Inflation, product cost, egg prices, cost of gas. It's gone up for all of us. Yes, we have a business because we want to make money and we want to have a roof over our heads, but it's not something that we have ever thought of as, we're gonna get rich off this and we're gonna take advantage of people to make a few cents."

"We love this industry," Keller adds, "and we're proud of what we do."

They're also proud of the community they've built, which is highlighted on the "regular's board" they created in the restaurant after being gifted colorful letters from a diner who'd stopped in for some friendly banter about the all-white letters they'd inherited from the previous owners. "We love our regulars, always room for more," the board says.

"It's a beautiful thing to have that up there and people get excited about it and they want to be part of it," Keller notes.

The two live in the southern suburbs but they've become a part of the Tennyson Street community, and care deeply about. it. One or both of them have worked at the restaurant nearly every day since they took it over. "Our child grew up here. He spent many days with us here and still does," Keller says.

"You don't see those stories when you walk by a vacant storefront that was open before," Benoit adds.

Wendell's is currently operating with limited hours, but Benoit and Keller hope to see many familiar faces as they deal with the looming closure. They have launched a GoFundMe as well for anyone who would like to donate to help keep the doors open.

Keller and Benoit also hope that their story is a reminder of how much small businesses like theirs need customer support, especially in the current financial environment aggravated by the industry's traditionally slow post-holiday season. "Maybe it's just a reminder for the next half-dozen places that are going to be in our shoes," Benoit concludes.

Wendell's is located at 3838 Tennyson Street and is currently open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday. For more information, visit wendellsbreakfast.com.