Denver’s Blake Street Tavern will shut its doors at the start of the new year in what its owner hopes is a temporary closure until the state’s COVID-19 restrictions on indoor dining are lifted.
Owner Chris Fuselier called the decision “heartbreaking” on Twitter, and said he would furlough 25 staff members.
“Covid’s economic consequences sidelined us,” he wrote in the tweet. The popular sports bar will close Jan. 1.
Fuselier was one of 200 bars and taverns who filed a lawsuit against state health officials in July over the state’s coronavirus restrictions for restaurants, protesting both its capacity limits and earlier-than-normal last call for serving alcohol.
At the time, restaurants could not serve more than 50 people at once inside. Fuselier said in July that was unreasonable for his restaurant because Blake Street Tavern could hold 900 people, so he could safely serve well more than 50 even with social distancing.
The Tavern League of Colorado, which brought that lawsuit, voluntarily dropped it in September, court records show.
Fuselier has not announced a date for Blake Street Tavern reopen.
