- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Denver and help keep the future of Westword free.
An electrical fire closed School House Kitchen & Libations at 5560 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard at the end of February, and while no employees or customers were injured in the blaze, damage to the kitchen was extensive enough to keep the place closed since then. But repairs and inspections are finally complete, and the year-old restaurant will reopen on Wednesday, April 13, for lunch and dinner.
Owner Scott Spears says that School House will be thanking the Arvada Fire Department, which kept the fire from destroying the entire building — an actual schoolhouse built in 1882 — by donating 10 percent of all sales through April 20 to the Friends of Arvada Fire.
Although insurance covered some employee wages, Spears also sold T-shirts to raise additional funds to keep employees paid. Other fundraisers were held by neighboring businesses and vendors, and as of today, all but three of School House's 75 employees have stayed on board.
Kitchen and bar staff used the time off to come up with new food and drink offerings that will be added to the menu this week; a new "whiskey encyclopedia" will help patrons navigate the ins and outs of the
bar's extensive list of whiskeys, which numbers more than 1,100. The collection prompted Spears to create the "whiskey fire drill" graphic (below) that went on the fundraiser T-shirts.
Keep Westword Free... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.
