Valeria Moonch Photography
Audio By Carbonatix
By this time last year, Denver restaurateurs were fed up.
They were tired of balancing increasing costs — for labor, for supplies, even for rent, despite the high vacancy rates in certain parts of town — with keeping menu prices palatable. They were tired of hearing from customers who had trouble reaching their restaurants because of construction and parking problems. And they were particularly tired of would-be diners saying that certain parts of town just seemed too dangerous to visit.
Sometimes that was even true.
One veteran restaurateur summed up his frustrations in a letter that quickly went the rounds last March, and finally wound up in the hands of an organization willing to listen. So Visit Denver, working with Denver’s Economic Development & Opportunity department and inKind, a hospitality technology company, created a collaboration to cook up a fix: the Denver Restaurant Liaison Project. Together, they commissioned two industry veterans– to research the state of Denver restaurants. Over the next six months, Dana Query and Adam Schlegel conducted dozens of interviews — not just with restaurateurs, but with city officials.
The resulting report is out today, and it sums up the current challenges in this key industry — restaurants are responsible for 13 percent of the city’s sales tax, as well as almost 10 percent of the city’s jobs…and sometimes it seems like 100 percent of its fun.
But despite the fact that new restaurants — many of them very good — keep opening, other longtime owners are throwing in the towel.
The need for relief is real, as one independent restaurant owner noted: “Everything costs more – labor, food, insurance, trash. But our guests have hit their limit on what they can pay for a night out. We are absorbing more and more of the cost just to keep the doors open.”
Key among the challenges is the cost of labor, particularly the tipped minimum wage. As another independent restaurant operator noted: “There is no world where you’d project a 95% increase in the tipped minimum wage when you’re writing a business plan or financial projections.”
Although the Colorado Legislature considered a major move on this issue last year, it instead kicked the can down the road…right to the municipalities were the restaurants were located, giving them the right to make changes in the minimum wage rules. So far, Denver has not taken action to ease this burden.
The city has taken action on another major challenge: the endless and confusing permitting process. As one restaurant operator said: “I’d sum up Denver as a city of No.”
Said another: “Every permit requires a different office, a different portal, and a different interpretation of the rules. It feels like there is no single person who can tell you what the full process looks like from start to finish.”
While Mayor Mike Johnston has moved to streamline the process, more can be done — and must be, the report advises.
And finally, there’s the issue of unsafe conditions — both real and rumored. Here, too, there has been some progress; last spring, he authorized the Denver Police Department to get more active in downtown Denver. But there are still problems there, as well as in other parts of town.
As one independent restaurant operator in Central Denver said: “My staff does not feel safe closing at night. We’ve had windows broken, guests harassed on the sidewalk, and people sleeping in our doorway when we arrive to open.”
Even as conditions improve, some naysayers in the local media keep pushing the negative narrative. “The energy of the city used to flow through our dining rooms,” one restaurateur told the team. “Now it feels like people go out less often, spend more cautiously, and are more likely to stay home or order in.”
When they do, restaurants suffer…but so does the entire city. Denver’s reputation as a food town has been growing, but such challenges stymie that growth.
“Restaurants are one of the pillars of Denver’s economy and part of our cultural identity,” said Visit Denver’s Richard Scharf in announcing the plan to survey restaurants. “From your favorite neighborhood bistro to our new Michelin-star restaurants, and cherished events like Denver Restaurant Week and Denver Food & Wine Festival, the food and beverage industry is one of the most visible and treasured parts of what makes Denver such a great place to live, work and visit. This liaison effort builds on our longstanding work to support the industry and ensure it thrives for the betterment of Denver as we continue to attract visitors from across the country and around the world.”
Visit Denver will continue to do its bit; it sponsors Denver Restaurant Week, which is coming right up. Now you can do yours: Read the report, chew over its recommendations…and then go out and eat.
