On December 16, Moonflower owners Sam Salomon and Jason Haygarth announced via social media that they were temporarily shuttering, effective immediately. The short notice left customers wondering what caused the sudden closure, but little other information was provided. On January 9, Moonflower and Full Tank posted the following update on Instagram, garnering over 600 likes:
"We’re coming back!! But, we need your help. Here’s the rundown: We’re working on opening back up as a permanent coffee shop and bar concept (more on that soon!), but in the meanwhile, we are excited to launch our new Winter Business Marketplace.
The Winter Business Marketplace will be open Friday-Sunday during February-May 2024. The project will be put on by Full Tank team Danny Newman and Lily Walters and will feature Moonflower Coffee as well as other local entrepreneurs like food trucks, crafters, and educators. The purpose of this project is to create a thriving marketplace for women and minority-owned small businesses and to foster community connections in the West Colfax neighborhood. You’ll be able to grab your favorite Moonflower drink, try new foods, browse the marketplace, and attend a new community event every weekend.
Here’s where you come in! In order for this project to be approved, the city needs to see letters of support from the surrounding neighborhood. If you live near Full Tank/Moonflower Coffee and you would like to submit a letter, tap the link in our bio. Please fill out the form and submit your full letter of support in the appropriate box."
In a comment on the original post, Moonflower said that it had received over 150 letters in support of the project.
Full Tank owner Danny Newman says, "We knew going into this that Denver doesn't have any kind of same level of food truck park rules or zoning or codes that other cities have figured out, so we worked with some legal folks verifying the way we were interpreting code generally in the right direction because there's no black and white."
Newman began working on a project in the building that formerly housed a garage in 2019. What was originally meant to become a country club-themed bar has since gone through several iterations. A buildout of the space was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is when Newman came up with the idea for a mobile food truck park, similar to those popular in places like Portland and Austin.
"We submitted our plans [for the buildout] well before this, but we knew we had however long it takes to do the permitting and the buildout, so that's when we came up with a semi-temporary, interim idea," says Newman. "Nothing prohibits it, but nothing allows it."
The Department of Community Planning and Development had a different interpretation of the zoning laws, but worked with Newman to come up with a solution — a special permit allowing Full Tank to operate on weekends until May, when the buildout is scheduled to begin.
"They're trying to look out for the community, but unfortunately for us that meant we couldn’t be here after things were going so well," says Haygarth.
He and Salomon started Moonflower as a mobile coffee business in a custom trailer they built out themselves. After a season of catering events around the city, they were approached by Full Tank to be the temporary coffee service operating inside of the permanent structure during its interim phase of awaiting permits for a proper buildout.
"Realistically it's a basic buildout since...some of the initial plumbing and electrical already got done in 2019," says Newman. "Hopefully if we get permits, we can crank everything out quickly."
Because Moonflower has been so well received by the community, Newman scrapped the country club bar concept and now plans for Haygarth and Salomon to stay on as a permanent fixture in the space. They will also take over the development and operation of the bar component.
"The goal is to have something here that will be here for years to come for this community," Haygarth says. "Danny fought harder for us to reopen than we fought for ourselves. ... He saw that we were doing really well and building a community, and he's in full support of this new venture and new direction. We didn’t think we were going to be permanently in a place, but we found that we really love being here for the neighborhood and building community."
Starting this weekend, the community can visit Full Tank and Moonflower from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday through May 19 during the Winter Business Market. "We're giving people a space to showcase their new and growing businesses where it usually doesn’t happen during the winter," Haygarth notes.
Moonflower will resume its original post slinging coffee from behind the cart inside, and three to four vendors per day will be set up outside the building selling everything from crafts to pastries to breakfast sandwiches and burritos.
