Plenty of bars and restaurants have closed in Denver’s downtown core over the past few years, but not every one of them gets a shout-out from Mayor Mike Johnston during his State of the City address — especially when that business blames city policies, in part, for its closure.
Cap City Tavern, which has operated at 1247 Bannock St. in the Golden Triangle for more than 18 years, said on social media earlier this week that it will close its doors for good on Sunday, July 27. Cap City is just a block from City Hall and steps away from the Denver Art Museum.
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“We still have 7 million square feet of vacant office space in downtown, which means my wife Courtney and I discovered one of our local favorites, Cap City, will be closing after 20 years because still not enough of their customers have returned post-Covid, and that’s not good enough,” Johnston said Monday night in his prepared remarks for the address.
Johnston’s administration has been criticized repeatedly by businesses all over the city for taking a lackadaisical approach toward addressing the problems that restaurants and bars are facing, including rising costs, a comparatively high minimum wage, crime, homelessness and street and construction projects like those on East Colfax Avenue and 16th Street.
On top of that, he has been knocked for the slow pace of permit approvals, high fees and other regulatory hurdles that make an already tough business environment even worse.
Cap City’s owners are no exception. “The increase in minimum wage, cost of food, and the taxes and fees that the city of Denver is imposing on restaurants has become too much to bear,” the owners, the McTaggart family, wrote on Facebook on July 19. “Sadly, we are not alone, as the community of independently owned restaurants in Denver is literally going extinct.”
In February, 14 well-known restaurateurs signed a letter to the mayor, saying that the city was “completely falling apart,” and adding that conditions had worsened since he took office. “How many more restaurants and small businesses need to close before your quota alarm is triggered,” they asked. Since then, Johnston has talked with several restaurant owners and even guest bartended at a few in an effort to show his support. The city is also planning to hire a contractor to work with bars and restaurants and to listen to concerns about city processes.
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