Several Denver restaurants said they are at a boiling point with the state of downtown.

In a letter to Mayor Mike Johnston and city leaders sent last week, Dave Query, owner of Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar, expressed frustrations with the mayor, noting he had promised on the campaign trail to turn downtown around.

Several other major restaurateurs in downtown Denver signed on to Query’s letter, including owners from Illegal Pete’s, ChoLon Restaurant Concepts and Union Station’s restaurant operators.

“You ran your entire campaign platform on restoring our Downtown Denver business districts,” Query said in his letter. “It has gotten worse since you took the position of Mayor, even though you have received $550M towards stewarding it in a different direction.”

The Boulder-based chef behind BRF Restaurant Group said downtown’s traffic plan and new bike paths implemented in the last two years have taken up parking spaces and made it more difficult for customers to come to their businesses. In addition, food trucks are taking parking spots and bringing in more competition, he said.

He also pointed to the series of stabbings on 16th Street Mall over a January weekend, when two people were killed and two injured.

Tragedy hits 16th Street Mall as businesses are months away from construction relief

“This is the current vibe and energy on our downtown streets and our long-time LoDo and Larimer guests are now driving to Cherry Creek and NorthField and Golden for dinner and entertainment,” Query wrote.

“We are now watching the 10th District fall completely apart. The entire downtown traffic plan and bike path cluster implemented over the last two years is a catastrophic disaster,” he also wrote.

Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, reiterated the mayor’s goal to make downtown a safe place for workers, residents, tourists and businesses. 

“That’s why Mayor Johnston has helped remove large tent encampments, increased police patrols, and is bringing more than $500 million in transformative investments. There’s more work to do, and Mayor Johnston will continue to partner with local businesses, restaurants, and residents to ensure downtown is a safe and thriving part of our community,” she said. 

Fuja also said that Johnston’s team reached out to the restaurant owner group on Feb. 8, offering available times to meet, both this week and next.

She added that the city has been investing in increasing the presence of both police and community safety officers, focusing on high-priority areas, such as LoDo, Larimer Square, Upper Downtown and Capitol Hill, as well as working with partners to reduce shoplifting and theft and increasing mental health response for individuals in crisis.

Several who backed the letter did not want to comment but said they support Query’s efforts to address problems facing downtown restaurants.

John-Mark Larter, the business operations director at City Street Investors, said in an emailed statement that Downtown Denver is “not sustainable” for small businesses.

City Street Investors and Sage Hospitality, both part of the alliance of organizations tasked with operations and restaurants at Denver’s Union Station, signed the letter. Union Station had added a flurry of new dining and beverage concepts this year.

“We have all poured years — decades — into building energetic, welcoming spaces that contribute to the cultural and economic fabric of this city,” he said in a statement. “And yet, we find ourselves navigating an increasingly untenable environment where safety, infrastructure, and policy decisions seem to be working against us rather than supporting us.”

Problems were ‘last week,’ ‘last month’ and ‘tonight’

In an interview with The Denver Gazette on Friday, Query said “enough is enough.”

The Boulder chef said he was pushed to write to officials after going through his restaurant’s shift notes, a diary of the restaurant’s daily events.

He read his employee’s notes of seeing people who are homeless locking themselves in the bathroom, a man with a machete hacking at a tree outside and taking his pants off in public, and someone smoking fentanyl in the trash enclosure.

This was all within three days, Query said.

“It’s not a homeless problem,” Query said. “It’s an addiction problem.”

He asked for more police presence downtown to stop drug usage in popular public areas.

Query also mentioned Johnston’s first major downtown initiative to invest $570 million into the area through expanding the Downtown Development Authority but said it doesn’t immediately address the issues restaurants have been facing for a long time.

“Well, these problems were last week. They were last month. They’re tonight,” Query said. “We’ve got Valentine’s Day guests coming to all of our restaurants downtown and they’re not safe.”

“If we ran our businesses, our restaurants, like the way this city runs, we’d be out of business,” Query said. “It takes forever to get something done.”

Restaurant owners operate on very thin margins. Since the pandemic, downtown has faced a myriad of issues hampering businesses from empty office buildings, 16th Street Mall construction and rising homelessness and crime.

Drug violations on 16th Street Mall soared to 408 violations in 2023 and dropped to 140 in 2024, according to data from the Denver Police Department, which attributed the rise in drug crimes to more enforcement.

Violent, property and drug crimes on 16th Street Mall dipped in 2024, Denver Police data shows

When asked about crime in the LoDo area and the concerns of business owners, Denver Police Sgt. Jay Casillas said, “While recent data shows that all crime continues to fall, DPD recognizes the perception of crime may show something different to people living in Denver.”

He added: “Much of DPD’s focus remains the same, which is to address violent crime, but also addressing issues that help reduce the perception of crime. Some of those issues include narcotics complaints, shoplifting, trespassing, damaging property, etc.”

On top of that, high inflation is still hitting restaurants hard.

While inflation overall in the metro Denver region has returned near the annual target rate of 2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the slowdown hasn’t been even across sectors. The cost of food away from home — the category representing eating out — rose about 6% since January of 2024.

Over the last five years, eating out surged nearly 40%.

More than 425 restaurants have closed in Denver since 2022, according to Denver Excise & Licensing data provided by the Colorado Restaurant Association.

This week, Eat Ya Pizza on 16th Street Mall posted on Instagram it is closing after struggling to stay in business since opening in 2024.

“This has everything to do with the current landscape of Denver, and the hardships of the economy at the current time,” the post said.

Councilmember: Restaurateurs’ voices are critical

District 10 Councilmember Chris Hinds said he shares the frustration of downtown business owners and understands the challenges they face.

“Your voices, as downtown stakeholders, are critical,” Hinds wrote in an email chain to business owners. “I am actively working with (Denver City Council) President Sandoval, Kourtny Garrett, and others to ensure we not only restore the vibrancy we enjoyed before the pandemic but also strive to reach new heights for our center city.”

Hinds said he recognizes the importance of addressing the issues the restaurateurs raised, from public safety concerns, negative perceptions of downtown to parking and infrastructure needs. 

“This is the largest financial investment in any center city in the country, and we are working diligently to deploy these funds as quickly as possible,” Hinds said of the recent $570 million voter-approved investment in downtown. “While the ideal time to have these funds would have been at the onset of the pandemic, we are now in the position to put this significant investment to work for our center city, revitalizing key areas and addressing critical needs.”

Hinds told The Denver Gazette that, given the upcoming massive financial investment in the downtown city center, he’s been responsive and engaging with stakeholders.

Along with meetings with restaurant owners and a Feb. 11 public town hall on the topic of safety in District 10, Hinds said he has also engaged state legislators regarding the newly introduced House Bill 25-1208, which would define the maximum tip offset as the difference between the local minimum wage and the state minimum wage, plus the constitutional $3.02 tip offset amount.

The Downtown Denver Partnership also partnered with the restaurant association and other industry groups to support the bill that supporters dubbed as the “Restaurant Relief Act” and committed to working on improving safety in downtown.

In an emailed statement, Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett said she is optimistic with the full reopening of 16th Street Mall and the number of businesses signing leases for ground floor spaces in downtown.

Downtown has about 17 new leases announced for 2025, most of them food and beverage businesses, according to data from the Downtown Denver Partnership.

“The Downtown Denver Partnership also recognizes the significant, undeniable challenges facing our restaurant community, from public safety concerns to regulatory hurdles,” she stated. “We are actively working with law enforcement, city officials, and state legislators on multiple fronts — including crime prevention, business-friendly reforms, and streamlined permitting processes.”

Reporter Deborah Grigsby Smith contributed to this article.