Stoney Jesseph said adios to a restaurant he opened on South Broadway in 2021.
The restaurateur, who owns three remaining Stoney’s locations around Colorado, said the one at 30 S. Broadway branded Stoney’s Cantina never made a profit.
The biggest culprit: a year of road and sidewalk construction on the bustling commercial strip.
“You can’t ride. You can’t walk down a whole block. It’s a nightmare down here. You can’t get anywhere,” Jesseph said, adding that sales fell by 60 percent once construction commenced.
“From what I hear, everyone (on the retail strip) has seen business slow down considerably,” Jesseph said.
“It doesn’t have the same walk-in traffic it used to have. It’s not the same neighborhood at night, either.”
Jesseph opened the Cantina in 2021 in 4,000 square feet that was previously restaurant Gozo. By comparison, the Golden Triangle Stoney’s is 18,000 square feet.
Jessup said another restaurant group will be taking over the space, but declined to name it.
The other Stoney’s locations are all doing about the same as 2022, he said, and staffing has become far easier than a few years ago. But the location on South Broadway, an area that also struggles with vagrancy, deteriorated.
“The homelessness didn’t help,” Jessup said. “All those factors just led to where we couldn’t make it down here anymore.”
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.