As we've reported, the Masters family is looking to unload the space at 1120 East Sixth Avenue, where Mel and Janey Master got their local restaurant start thirty years ago as partners in Dudley's. Since then, the spot has been Chives and Piscos, then Montecito when the Masters took it on again after they closed Mel's in Cherry Creek, then a new Mel's when Montecito didn't quite work. And then Mel's Anti-Bistro, after the Masters passed the torch to their son, Charlie Master, who'd moved on from Brix, the anti-bistro he'd started near his parents' joint in Cherry Creek. (That spot is now Barrons, and the original Mel's location -- which the Masters vacated because of problems with the new landlord --is empty after Iron Mountain Winery lasted barely long enough to uncork a bottle.)
But since Charlie's again ready to move on -- into farming! -- the Sixth Avenue address is in play. Among the people looking at it: Adde Bjorklund, who found a faithful following when he opened Bistro Adde Brewster at 250 Steele Street (now home for French 250) a generation ago. Will those faithful follow him to Sixth Avenue? A group of regulars think so, and are looking at each investing $25,000 to close the deal. The restaurant is a relative deal -- a rumored $125,000, or $14 a square foot, building not included -- and Adde an affable host, but still, the grim economic outlook is something to chew on.
