Life In Limbo

Local Business Owners Adapt, Try to Stay Upbeat

Compiled by Cara DeGette, Editor, GPHN

For dozens of independent businesses, life in the midst of the pandemic has forced owners to adapt in major ways – including having to close, at least temporarily, their doors completely.

Last month we highlighted restaurants and other shops at Oneida Park Center and other areas of Park Hill and surrounding neighborhoods (read that report here). This month, the owners of two bars/restaurants and a fitness studio weigh in on what they’re doing and how they’ve tried to keep business going while city and state lockdowns are in place.

We’ll continue to cover the impacts of COVID-19 on local businesses in the months ahead. Please email news tips, updates and photos to editor@greaterparkhill.org.

Mozart’s Lounge

1417 Krameria St, mozartsdenver.com

Sadly, we were completely shut down as of March 17 per the city’s mandate. We aren’t doing take-out or delivery because we don’t serve food. It’s really rough, particularly because my business partner Michael Bruntz and I know we’re a big part of our seven bartenders’ livelihoods. We had to lay them off, and we worry about them the most.

We miss being able to serve our neighborhood. We’ve owned Mozart’s for almost four years now and were doing well until this. We had regular dart leagues on Tuesdays and Saturdays, karaoke on Thursdays, private events and parties and live music on the weekends, and good regular crowds just about every day of the week. That has all changed and it’s unknown how safe people will feel going out into public and among other people they don’t know for months to come.

We are using this as an opportunity to do a deep clean, fix up some things like tile, refresh with new coats of paint. It’s hard to feel good about keeping up a leased space when we don’t know how long we’ll be shuttered and the timeline continues to extend into spring and summer. Our future is uncertain. The management company isn’t providing any rent relief, which is tough, as it is for all tenants who aren’t operational during the pandemic.

We obviously can’t continue to pay rent when we have literally zero income. We applied for the Paycheck Protection Program loan from Chase but were deflated when we received word that the current round of funding ran out before they could even process our application. It’s heartbreaking, especially hearing about some of the “small” businesses that received funding, and what strings were pulled to get that. Seems like the little guy doesn’t have much recourse. I know both Michael and I are grieving our loss of a sense of purpose while Mozart’s is closed.

As a Park Hill resident, I am trying to safely support local small business by ordering take-out and delivery as much as possible. I hope that the neighborhood will return to Mozart’s as soon as we can safely open. We send a huge thank you out and appreciate everyone who has reached out and asked what they can do to support us.

— Mia Peterson, Co-owner

The Owl Saloon

5026 E. Colfax Ave, theowlsaloon.com

We’re offering to-go food Thursday through Saturday, from 4-8 p.m. Currently, we have our full menu available for pick-up. And under the guidelines set forth by the city, we are offering to-go beer, wine and spirits. However, we are limiting it to our happy hour specials all night.

We’re offering our Tiki Togo drink specials as a take-home cocktail kit, and have had a lot of success with these. We created Tiki Togo videos on our Facebook page – check them out as they are a lot of fun. We do have delivery available through UberEats and GrubHub.

Business has been OK. We do have our good days. But, unfortunately, it’s been inconsistent.  We’re doing our best to get the word out. We are constantly using social media to promote what we’ve got going on, and trying to have fun as we do.

More than anything, we’ve built our business on the belief in community. And at the end of the day, that’s what we’re trying to keep alive. We are simply a small business that is trying to survive. We ask that everyone support local, eat local and spend local. We have a great neighborhood full of local businesses that needs everyone’s support. We hope all the small businesses survive. The future is scary as it keeps changing day by day, but we’re staying positive!

— Victor H. Muñiz, Owner-Operator

Anytime Fitness Mayfair-Park Hill

6005 E. Colfax, anytimefitness.com

On April 27, we marked our one-year anniversary. We exist because of each and every one of our members and we cannot wait to re-open our doors. We have put a freeze on all membership dues until we are able to re-open. At the same time, we continue to provide many services virtually because we also know how critical exercise is for physical and mental health.

We are providing a range of free virtual coaching, nutrition and wellness content to anyone in the community via our Facebook page (facebook.com/anytimefitonthefax). We have a solid core of members who are actively engaging and continuing to stay fit. Our coaches are reaching out daily to all members with valuable wellness information and to be a touchpoint for people who are isolated at home.

All this good stuff aside, the financial challenges we are experiencing are significant. We have retained staff to ensure that we can continue to provide virtual services and to be sure we are ready to re-open when approved. We applied for federal help from the Paycheck Protection Program but the program ran out of funds before we got approved. We also applied for help form the Denver Small Business Emergency Relief Program, but we submitted an application over a month ago and have not heard back as of press time. We have not expanded beyond our current members to offer coaching or training.

We hope that our neighbors will see the value in supporting all the small local businesses in the community as they re-open and continue to trust that our primary goal is to make healthy happen by ensuring a supportive and clean environment for everybody.

— Kate Jenulis, Co-owner