The Brinkerhoff restaurant group, which dates back 45 years and is valued at $34.5 million, has been divided up by a divorce court following years of highly contentious litigation.
The split, made official in December, follows a divorce judge’s determination that patriarch William Brinkerhoff used “a series of concealed machinations” to clandestinely eliminate his wife’s ownership stake in their Mexican restaurants, including La Loma and Sierra.
As a result, Renee Brinkerhoff now owns three of the family’s six restaurants. They are, in a financial sense, the worst three: two La Loma locations under construction south of Denver, and Caldero in McGregor Square, which has been losing more than $100,000 per month since opening in 2023, according to the divorce judge.
But that restaurant partitioning has not soothed the acrimony — which has also prompted the couple’s two sons to take opposing sides. Denver jurors are expected to hear this summer about the many allegations of infidelity, coercion, scheming and fraud that have divided one of the city’s most prominent families. More than 500 pages of court documents reviewed by BusinessDen tell that story.
Members of the Brinkerhoff family declined to be interviewed for this article.
“Our primary goal in this matter is to reach a resolution that will serve the needs of our entire family,” William and Renee said in a joint statement. “Our guests will continue to receive the extraordinary level of hospitality they have enjoyed over the past forty years.”
“Benevolent dictator”
The Brinkerhoffs trace their family’s time in America to 1612 and reached new levels of affluence in 1912, when oil was discovered on Last Chance Plantation, their farm in Louisiana. That led to the Brinkerhoff Drilling Co., a wellspring for all business endeavors to follow.
The company moved to Denver in 1954 and the Brinkerhoffs moved to Cherry Hills Village. William’s father and uncle helped found the exclusive Castle Pines Golf Club and William’s father, Sonny, invested in a Mexican restaurant in Jefferson Park: La Loma. William later bought all shares and the restaurant’s real estate. A new family business was born.
According to a psychologist’s report obtained in a records request, William and Renee Brinkerhoff met as college students through a Christian sect called “the Local Church,” which encouraged its members to burn their clothes and other worldly possessions in bonfires and preached that only they could be raptured.
More importantly to the court proceedings that would follow in later decades, the group stressed that women are subservient to men, a belief that William wholeheartedly embraced, his ex-wife says. William called himself the “benevolent dictator” of their family and considered himself, as well as the couple’s two sons, to be inherently superior to his wife, Renee recalls.
She later found an email that her husband sent to one of their adult sons with the subject line “Please Read This In Entirety As You Can.” Attached was an e-book titled “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood,” which teaches, among other lessons, that Adam’s failure to control Eve led to original sin. Renee says her husband espoused that same belief to her.
William controlled his wife’s communications, even requiring that he be copied on any texts or emails between Renee and her female friends, her psychologist determined. Renee once told the doctor, “I never felt love. I was an object. There was no kindness. I was a thing.”
“Mr. Brinkerhoff had a long history of infidelity in the marriage,” the psychologist, Dr. Janine Shelby, wrote in her 2024 report, and he used threats of further infidelity to coerce his wife into doing what he wanted, or as a punishment when Renee tried speaking her mind.
By the summer of 2008, the 29-year-old marriage was teetering. Then, a deal was reached, giving Renee half ownership of La Loma and its real estate. The marriage survived.
“Secretive or deceptive”
“My mom told me that she had agreed with my father that they would be 50-50 owners of the family’s restaurant business,” Will Brinkerhoff Jr., the eldest of the couple’s four children, recalled in a recent affidavit. “My dad confirmed this to me several times. Specifically, he told me that he regretted giving my mom an ownership stake in the family restaurant business.”
The younger William, who is not involved in the family restaurant business, remembers hearing his father “musing whether he could revise the deal so that she was no longer an owner.” And that is what happened, according to William Meyer, the judge in the couple’s divorce case. “Concealed machinations” in 2014, 2015 and 2016 removed Renee from the family’s real estate and restaurant holdings, Meyer discovered.
So, when the original La Loma’s real estate was sold for $18 million, the money went only to William, who used it to launch La Loma restaurants in downtown Denver and Castle Rock, plus Sierra in Lone Tree. All the while, Renee believed she was their co-owner, she says.
This has caused a rift between Renee and Mark Brinkerhoff, her son and actual co-owner of those restaurants. She accuses her ex-husband and son of stealing her shares and says that she never approved of Mark being a co-owner, because of his immaturity and drinking.
For his part, Mark Brinkerhoff has said in court that it was common knowledge he co-owned the restaurants with his father. He points to times when he emailed his mother news articles that mentioned his ownership of the restaurants and received maternal encouragement.
“To your future success and the new La Lomas!!! oxxo Mom,” she wrote in one reply. After reading another news piece, she typed, “Super article! Great job!! Mom oxxo.”
Will Brinkerhoff Jr. says it “is not correct” for his brother to claim their mom knew about Mark’s ownership shares. He says it was intentionally not discussed in front of her. His affidavit, filed in November in support of his mother’s civil case, is critical at times of his father.
“William Brinkerhoff Sr. is not an open, transparent person. His actions are often secretive or deceptive,” he wrote. The son said he was often told to keep details from his mother. “I would describe my father’s reminders to keep my mother in the dark … as his ‘mantra.’”
“Litigation flames”
The marriage of William and Renee Brinkerhoff ended in December 2024, about 45 years after it began. Meyer, the judge, then completed the tall task of dividing their assets.
“The parties earned and lived a lavish lifestyle,” he marveled. “They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. When they traveled, they stayed at five-star hotels. They have over one-half dozen luxury vehicles, belong to three elite country clubs, dine at the best restaurants and drink the best wine. They enjoyed and achieved a privileged lifestyle.”
William received their four properties in Sedalia, and Renee got their $8.5 million of real estate in Hawaii, plus lots in Denver at 695 Water St. and 2323 Seventh St. worth another $8.5 million. Renee, who races a 1956 Porsche to aid anti-child trafficking groups, was given that car and a 1957 Porsche. The couple’s 21 other vehicles, including four more Porsches, were split.
When it came time to divide the six restaurants — four open and two under construction in Parker and the Denver Tech Center — Renee asked for the La Lomas in Denver and Castle Rock, plus Sierra. But that would mean sharing ownership with her estranged son.
“To accede to (Renee)’s request would simply add fuel to the litigation flames that have already consumed too much of the marital estate,” Meyer wrote in refusing her idea.
So, it will now fall on the former Mrs. Brinkerhoff to complete the build-outs of the La Lomas in Parker and the DTC, and either turn around or close the failing Caldero. Through her attorney, she declined to be interviewed last week about her plans for the three restaurants.
In part because her ex-husband was given the profitable restaurants, he is required to pay Renee $5.5 million over five years, plus $50,000 per month until she either remarries or dies.
William Sr. and Mark Brinkerhoff believe the divorce case, in which Renee was awarded assets of $29.5 million, should end the litigation. Renee wants more than she is owed, they say.
They see no reason for her to continue suing her ex-husband and son for allegedly stealing ownership shares when their business decisions financed her lifestyle, “including her international racing hobby/business that lost millions of dollars,” as her ex-husband’s lawyers wrote in a recent court document. That paper goes on to deny that he “psychologically abused and isolated her while she raced vintage Porsches on all seven continents over the last 10 years.”
A dozen lawyers are working on the case, with Renee represented by the Denver office of Womble Bond Dickinson and William and Mark represented by Ireland Stapleton. Barring a settlement, they will make their pitch to Denver jurors over nine days, beginning June 23. The verdict could be vindication for the male Brinkerhoffs or a further carving up of their restaurant and real estate companies.
As for Renee, she became the first person to race a car on all seven continents in 2021 when she drove her 1956 Porsche for 356 miles in Antarctica. In a story she often recounts, she began racing at the improbable age of 56 after decades as a stay-at-home mom.
“I really did put who I was on hold,” she said in 2017, “and my family didn’t know who I was.”