Restaurateur Juan Padro is handing the keys to his Sloan’s Lake bar to Stoney Jesseph, the owner of local sports bar chain Stoney’s Bar & Grill.
“We’ve been friends a long time and we started talking a few months back,” said Jesseph, who opened his first location in Cap Hill in 2010. “It made sense for us to step into the situation.”
The restaurant opening at 1565 Raleigh St. in March, Jesseph said, will replace Sloan’s Lake Tap & Burger, which Padro, the CEO of Culinary Creative Group, opened in 2016 and closed on Wednesday.
Jesseph, who also has spots in Uptown and Winter Park, said he and business partner Will Trautman are sticking with a tried-and-true formula: cheap draft beer, plentiful food and sports.
“They were a little bit more culinary-focused,” he said of Padro’s joint. “We want college alumni groups in here raising hell with a Coors Light.”
While breweries have had a rough go the past few years, Jesseph said lower priced pints are still in demand. Stoney’s runs a $10 special for a burger with tater tots and a cold one.
“We sell more Coors Light than everything put together,” Jesseph said, adding that nonbeer drinks such as White Claw seltzers also sell well.
Padro said his lease was up in August, so the closure comes at a natural time.
Before COVID-19, Padro said Sloan’s Lake Tap & Burger annual revenue was around $4 million, making it his group’s fastest-growing store. But it has since hovered around $3 million, posting $2.8 million in sales last year.
Padro said similar types of eateries, like pizza joints, taco spots and pubs, suffer the most from an inflationary and regulated post-pandemic restaurant environment.
“Nobody gives a (expletive) if you raise the price of a filet mignon from $70 to $80, but if you raise the price of a burger from $14 to $16, the sky crashes,” Padro said. “It’s a different thing, different consumer and generally there’s a different expectation.”
Having another nearby Tap & Burger in Highland also was hurting the business. Padro said that since the pandemic there’s been more crossover between its customers.
“Before, those were very separate neighborhoods,” he said. “But now there’s more cannibalization.”
He also noted a lack of conceptual diversity in the area, which has Odell Brewing and The Patio, as a reason for closing. He thinks Stoney’s fills a void.
“Coming out of COVID … every business that was opening was pretty much the same,” he said. “Where Stoney’s is gonna be really successful is the sports bar thing. Tap was more of a community restaurant where you catch a game.”
This is the first time Culinary Creative, which opened seven restaurants last year, has voluntarily closed one. Padro doesn’t count Red Tops Rendezvous in Jefferson Park, which he closed last year because of the impacts of city construction.
“It’s something that the city screwed up on, and we took the brunt of that, which should never happen,” he said, noting that construction was supposed to take three months and ended up taking 14.
But Padro said Tap & Burger got caught in the crosshairs of a tumultuous Mile High food scene.
“Denver lost 150-plus restaurants last year and applications at Excise and Licensing are down 22%,” he said. “Denver is in a flat-out crisis.”
Denver’s minimum wage increasing by 65% since 2019 is a major reason, Padro said.
The Colorado Restaurant Association estimates the wage increase from last year to this year ($18.29 to $18.81 for nontipped, $15.27 to $15.79 for tipped) will cost Denver eateries an average of $51,000 this year.
A bill, which Padro and the Colorado Restaurant Association support, was introduced at the statehouse Tuesday that would shrink the Denver tipped wage by up to $4 an hour.
“I think it’ll provide immediate relief and I think it will help a lot of restaurants survive,” he said.
He said his girlfriend, who has two children, recently closed her restaurant because of the financial struggles. She was paying a 17-year-old cashier more than she was making, he said.
“Why is it that a hair salon doesn’t need to pay a hairdresser? Why is it that a car dealership doesn’t have to pay a base salary?” he asked. “Why are we picking on restaurants? That’s crazy to me.”