Middleman Closing After Seven Years on Colfax...and Business-Killing BRT Construction

Middleman, the celebrated neighborhood bar and home of the James Beard Award-nominated Misfit Snack Bar, will close by the end of the month.

According to chef Bo Porytko, owner of Misfit and the nearby Molotov Kitschen + Cocktails, the months-long, ongoing Bus Rapid Transit construction has disrupted traffic and accessibility for Middleman, which is located at 3401 East Colfax Avenue, to the point that it is untenable to remain open. “We are down 50 percent from last year, and we are hemorrhaging money every month now,” Porytko says.

Middleman is co-owned by Charlie Thomas and Jareb Parker, who says that the Middleman business has been purchased by two locals who plan to reopen the place very quickly, with original staffers who choose to stay. They “intend to keep the name and concept the same and not change anything right away,” Parker adds. “It is the best-case scenario for us.”

With happy hour canned beer and shot specials served alongside handcrafted cocktails and an impressive backbar of global spirits, Middleman strikes a lovable balance between quality and casual, where high-end service melds with unpretentious, upbeat energy. It's a singular space that Parker is proud to have been a part of. “It was a reliable source of community. People came to expect certain things there," he says.

Molotov Kitschen + Cocktails, Porytko’s Michelin Guide-recognized Ukrainian restaurant that opened in early 2023, is located a half block west of Middleman at 3333 East Colfax. Buoyed by a strong weekend service, Molotov's weekday walk-ins and reservations have sharply declined while food costs skyrocket and accessibility along Colfax remains a major problem. “Restaurants don’t survive on the weekends alone,” Porytko says.

The Bluebird Business Improvement District, funded by taxes on the properties in the district, has partnered with the owner of an empty lot at Colfax and Adams Street, formerly occupied by Paradise Cleaners, to develop the space into a parking lot for Colfax business customers. “We have literally paved Paradise and turned it into a parking lot,” Parker says with a cynical chuckle.

“Here’s a local guy who feels bad for what’s happening and has to take the situation into his own hands,” Porytko says of that lot. “But we’re not even through the worst of it,” he adds, noting that the next construction phase will rip up the north side of Colfax, directly in front of Molotov and Middleman.
“It’s the same shit we had to deal with at Rebel,” he adds, referencing the innovative, edgy restaurant and bar that Porytko opened with co-chef Dan Lasiy in 2015 at 3763 Wynkoop Street. After months of battling accessibility challenges and other issues from the construction project along Brighton Boulevard, Rebel closed in August 2018.
Now Middleman, which opened on June 18, 2018, is suffering the same fate. “We will be closing on our seven-year anniversary," Porytko says. "This is the second time this has happened to me. The city doesn’t give a fuck about small businesses.”

According to Parker, Middleman has applied for the city-sponsored Colfax Revitalization Fund and is waiting to see if it will receive funds — which the owners have allocated to paying past due bills. The fund offers $7,000 to $15,000 grants to neighborhood businesses that can prove a 20 percent loss in revenue from the previous year because of construction; Parker says the money won't go far. “That will give us a month [in rent]," he says. "It’s something, but it ain’t much.”

Parker says he was fearful of the project’s impact from the start. “It was a bad idea to begin with, and it turned out to be as bad as we thought it’d be. But now we have a bus line…that was there before," he notes.

Citing the ongoing exodus of small businesses under immense financial strain from prolonged construction projects on South Broadway, Brighton, the 16th Street Mall and now Colfax, Porytko says the city has developed destructive habits in its planning. “It’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern," he adds.

Those projects favor large developers and create a homogeneous aesthetic across the city, he continues, offering little regard to small businesses. “I don’t know of anyone who isn’t struggling,” Porytko says.

Porytko hopes to eventually open Misfit Snackbar in its own brick-and-mortar location; in the meantime, he'll continue to split time between the Molotov and Misfit kitchens until his Middleman era comes to a close at the end of the month.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done here," he concludes. "There’s a lot of pride in that little kitchen. And I’m excited for neighborhood people to take it over.”

Middleman is located at 3401 East Colfax Avenue; find out more at middlemanbar.com.