Arvada Beer Garden Brings a Park-Like Feel to Dining and Drinking

“What we’re doing here is creating a park with a lot of seating and a concession stand, that’s how we try to run it,” says Joe Vostrejs, a founder and partner at City Street Investors, the company that runs the new Arvada Beer Garden, which opened July 7 to large lines and crowds. According to Vostrejs, the team’s goal is to make the restaurant, which is on about an acre of land, feel as much like a public space as possible.

Arvada originally wanted a “pocket park” on the property, notes Vostrejs. But City Street said it needed the entire space, and ended up planning for additional landscaping that included a total of 44 trees and over 1,000 plants, as well as a small park for children. Vostrejs credits his business partner Rod Wagner with the landscaping. “He hand-selected every tree,” says Vostrejs. “He immersed himself in it.”

The Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) provided $1.6 million towards the project and sold the land to City Street Investors for a discounted price of $270,000; according to Vostrejs, the land might be worth $1 million to 1.5 million. But City Street invested roughly $4 million of its own money in the project. “Without [the city money], it gets harder to make the numbers work,” he says.

AURA selected City Street Investors as its partner for the project; City Street has locations in Lowry, Edgewater and Green Valley Ranch and recently added its Schoolyard location in Denver. The Lowry Beer Garden is the oldest;  opened thirteen years ago. Vostrejs says he's seen children who played at the beer garden grow up and become employees; that's a phenomenon that GM Casey Kirk has noticed as well.

Kirk curates the beer list for every individual location — and it changes depending on the vibe of the community. Lone Tree’s Mexican Lager has been an early hit at the Arvada location, which includes a varied lineup of beers like Comrade’s Superpower IPA, Westbound & Down’s Italian Pilsner and Ratio Beerworks’ King of Carrot Flowers saison.

Food options include burgers, brats, sandwiches and salads, along with a variety of sides. Patrons walk up and order, then take a buzzer with them. Vostrejs says the target ticket time for food is under seven minutes. “It’s a hallmark that we maintain at every location,” he says.
Another aspect of the beer garden is the line culture. There can be a short line to get inside the beer garden, after which patrons line up at the bar to order drinks. Vostrejs doesn’t try to fight this phenomenon, so long as the line is moving relatively steadily.

The team even leans into the lines by regularly sending an employee with free samples up and down to keep patrons engaged. “The next thing you know, the line is part of the party,” says Vostrejs. It’s not uncommon to see people get a beer, then immediately turn around and get back in line, soaking up the free samples and socializing while they wait for another beverage.

“As long as it moves quickly and it’s social, the line is good,” adds Vostrejs. “We sample beer, we sample food, we sample frozen margaritas, rose, we just try to keep it fun and lively and make it a part of the overall experience.”

Vostrejs believes the beer garden model is even more important in the suburbs than it is in the city, given the typical sprawl in major U.S. cities and how car-centric everything  can be. “Giving people a place to walk to, to bike to, and to stand in line with all their neighbors, it has a magical effect,” he says.

The early reviews for the Arvada Beer Garden are positive. From the affordable food ($11 burgers and a $13 burger, fry and drink lunch special) to the plant life and energetic atmosphere, initial customers have been fans of the setup.
The one negative has been some pushback on the mandatory 18 percent service fee — which City Street imposes at all of its beer gardens.

“It’s something we’ve done for twelve years now,” says Vostrejs, explaining that it makes things easier on the patrons — there’s no tipping, so customers can leave at any time. Every tab is closed out at the end of the night, so there’s no need to get in line to close out.

Another aspect of the service charge is that employee morale is improved. “There’s no fighting over splitting tips, there’s no drama,” he says, adding that full-time bartenders are making over $60,000 a year at his places, with health benefits and a 401k plan.

Vostrejs is not a believer in the service charge for every situation, however. He says that at full-service restaurants, a relationship is formed with the server. “Some of those servers have unbelievable wine, whiskey or tequila knowledge, they’re very skilled, so I don’t think the model works there,” he notes.

When opening new beer gardens, Vostrejs notices an initial wave of complaints about the 18 percent service charge, but then people get used to it. “They realize they're going to tip anyway, so they really love just being able to leave without having to specifically close out,” he says.

As for future beer garden locations, Vostrejs says that company has land under contract in Broomfield, but that it’s a project that is several years out. He’s also in discussions with other municipalities, but adds that City Street Investors is very choosy about where it puts new beer gardens. “At our heart, we’re a real estate company. We’re all about placemaking,” says Vostrejs. “We want to create meaningful, important places that people love and care about. We build beer gardens when the right location becomes available.”

Arvada Beer Garden is located at 9258 58th Place, Arvada, and open Sunday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Tuesdaythrough Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Find more information at arvadabeergarden.com.