Downtown's dilemma
Downtown's dilemma
City's homelessness response plan public-input meeting fires up affected industry people; Happy Eats Pasta accurately named; Brother Luck evolves Eleven 18 concept + more food & drink news
This week I’m mixing things up (for my own amusement, if nothing else) by running this newsletter mostly in reverse of its regular order, with the lead story at the bottom. Although I’m confident many of you (dare I say most?) do click on the “view entire message” button in your inbox when my lengthy newsletters get clipped by email service providers, I want to highlight how I typically pack the bottom of the scroll with a lot of info on things you can do and stuff you can eat (to put it less than elegantly). So make sure you do read to completion each week. Call it my version of the clean plate club — all crumbs cleared and the porcelain all shiny again. 🤩
Upcoming events
• Sept. 7 [Early warning]: Book tickets before they sell out for Revel: The Urban Arts Party. 5-8:30 p.m., $175 includes a six-course, wine-paired, al fresco dinner in AdAmAn Alley, with platings by chefs from Ephemera, Colorado Craft, Red Gravy, Jack Quinn’s and Golden Hour. Enjoy greeting cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, live entertainment and a post-meal dance party. The event benefits vital downtown cultural programming.
• Aug. 16-18: 26th annual Greek Festival at Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church. Enjoy Greek food and drink (including wine and beer) and shop a Greek import gift market.
• Aug. 17: Manitou Springs Heritage Brew Festival in Memorial Park. Noon to 5 p.m. Tastings from 20-plus breweries plus live music and yard games. $10-$55 tickets.
• Aug. 22: Meet The Maker at The Broadmoor's Ristorante Del Lago, with Matt Ray, Mixologist & Experience Team Leader for Buffalo Trace Distillery Bourbons. 2 pm.; $100 includes Buffalo Trace and Wheatley cocktails samplings with small bites served.
• Aug. 24: Pasta in the Park at the Myron Stratton Home. 6-10 p.m. $120 tickets benefit TESSA (domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking response advocates). Enjoy pasta samples created by local eateries and other involved organizations alongside adult beverages and much more. *I’ll be judging; come say hi.
• Aug. 25: Twist of New Orleans, a curated evening of painting, dinner and live jazz at Summa. 4-8 p.m.; $90-$170 tickets here.
• Aug. 27: Colorado Restaurant Association Pikes Peak Chapter 33rd annual Hospitality Open Golf Tournament at Patty Jewett Golf Course. You don’t have to play to take advantage of the networking lunch buffet at the clubhouse.
• Aug. 27: Boodle Fight, No Forks Allowed with Baon Supper Club and Fil Craves By: D'nette. $65 gets you a seat at a communal dinner where you’ll eat with your hands and explore Filipino culture.
• Sept. 8: [Early warning]: Fiddles, Vittles and Vino at Rock Ledge Ranch. 2:30 p.m. to late. Sample from a variety of local vendors and enjoy beers, wines and spirit pours alongside live music performances. $65 tickets benefit the historic ranch. Organizers are saying this will be the popular event’s final year, so don’t miss out.
Side Dish Dozen happenings
*If you are a newer subscriber and don’t know about my Side Dish Dozen: it’s a selection of stalwart local outfits who collaboratively sponsor this newsletter. That financial backing includes weekly listings of their respective events and happenings. Side Dish is made viable by their support, as well as Ranch Foods Direct’s and my valued paid-level subscribers.
• Odyssey Gastropub: We’re giving a special Side Dish Discount this week only! (Through Aug. 22.) Mention you’re a Side Dish subscriber when ordering and get a free order of our Crispy Brussels appetizer or a free draft beer (with other purchase).
• The Carter Payne: On draft right now from Local Relic: Yerba Mimosa Seltzer, oak-smoked plum table sour, matcha saison and a passionfruit Milkshake DIPA. Check our events page, as we’ve planned special dinners out through November already.
• The French Kitchen: As first teased in Side Dish in June, we’ve now begun sales of our retail crêpes! Also, due to strong popularity, we’ve extended sales of our Olympic Village-inspired Paris Chocolate Muffins through the Paralympics’ end on Sept. 7.
• Eleven18: Stop in for our happy hours, 4-5:30 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays.
• Bristol Brewing Company: It’s the long-awaited return of Movies Under the Stars - Bristol’s epic outdoor movie night on Saturdays. The series kicks off with a cult classic, The Goonies, August 17 at 8 p.m. Bring your own chair and enjoy cinematic masterpieces and Bristolicious brews.
• Red Gravy: Visit soon to check out some new menu items, including a BBQ chicken pizza and a chocolate-pistachio cannoli dessert.
• Blue Star Group: After taking a few months off, Stellina Pizza Cafe Supper Club is back. Enjoy a delightful summer menu complete with a Palisade Peach Spritz! Buy your tickets before they're gone.
• Kangaroo Coffee: Our baristas have so much fun with their Drinks of the Week! At New Center Point, get the Deadpool & Wolverine: An Infused RedBull with spicy mango and pineapple syrups and a dash of cayenne. Honey drizzle optional. Also come to our Community BBQ at the Hillside Coffee House, Aug. 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Edelweiss: Have you tried our Stiegl Grapefruit Radler from Austria? It’s clean, crisp and only 2-percent ABV for a refreshing low-alcohol option made with real cane sugar. Sip a pint on our expansive dog-friendly patio.
• Goat Patch Brewing: Civics Bee & Celebrity Karaoke, 1-3 p.m., Aug. 17. Tie-Dye Party, 2-4 p.m., Aug 18. Singo Music Bingo: Drankin’ Songs, 6-8 p.m., Aug. 22.
• District Elleven: Have you checked out the tap&table episode with our very own Colby Schaffer, recorded at our bar? He discusses the keys to great service as he and fellow guest Shayne Baldwin unpack craft cocktail culture in Colorado Springs.
• Rasta Pasta: We’re proud to team up with US Foods and donate the pasta for TESSA’s Pasta in the Park fundraiser on Aug. 24. Come support the event!
• Wobbly Olive: Half-priced cocktails from our full menu during happy hours, 4-6 p.m., Mondays-Fridays, at both locations. Pair a drink with our shrimp aguachile or coconut-crusted sea bass if you’re in a seafood mood.
• Ascent Beverage: Head to The Carter Payne for a black walnut bitters Old Fashioned made with Arcola Whiskey.
Eleven18 evolves under Brother Luck
Chef Beto Reyes recently left Eleven18 to take a job at Acanto in Chicago, the city he’d come from for the chef role at Milagro’s when it opened here a couple years ago. Reyes had just partnered with Brother Luck back in June on a revamped menu that shifted the concept away from a Mexican taqueria and toward a Latin tapas bar. Luck says although he’s taken over full ownership, he’s maintaining the concept and honoring the significance of why Reyes named it Eleven18 (partly related to the symbolism of “new beginnings” but also a key birthdate).
Luck has been spending most of his time working Eleven18’s raw bar in a more customer-facing role than he’s had in prior months, and says he’s tapping one of his former sous chefs at Four by Brother Luck, David Ortiz, to step in with him. But he says he wants to remain hands-on and “keep this concept close.” While he still pops into Four By Brother Luck, helmed by Chef Ashley Brown, he says he and his director of operations Matt Sparks are “knee-deep” on this iteration of Eleven18. He says they’ve elevated the wine program to match the exceptional bar program that Jacob Pfund has built on the other half of the building (formerly Tipperary).
While Eleven18 has retired their popup weekend brunches presently, paella for two remains on the menu, as do several items Brother and Beto originally collaborated on. They’re now calling their chef’s table The Siesta Experience, which delivers a rotating 10-course tasting menu with drink pairings optional. “I’m calling it that,” says Luck, “because I’m gonna put your ass to sleep!” (As in, bury you with delicious, filling food; that’s your lullaby.) He adds that his goal is to give the team at Four “a run for their money” as a friendly, in-house competition. Ultimately, he jokes, “it’s me vs. me.”
Our Schnip’s Pick cut-of-the-month at Ranch Foods Direct is Callicrate top sirloin, featured in this outstanding beef bulgogi recipe, courtesy Supansa Banker of personal chef and catering business Chef’s Roots. She’s made it super easy to execute, with options for an hour-long or overnight marinade. Just click on the image link and you’ll be directed to a short grocery list that includes the top sirloin and RFD beef tallow for pan-searing the meat. Make sure to mention Side Dish when you’re in the retail market for 5% off your whole shopping cart.
Bites & Bits
• File this one under Best Instagram Post of the Week (not that I’m committing to curating that weekly): Felipes109 nails it with this deadpan expression and relatable comment that “We’re tired of making social media videos. Just come eat here, please.”
• Tepex reopened Wednesday in its temporary spot at Avenue 19, while Chef Fernando Trancoso’s other brand Inefable goes on hiatus to relocate.
• Make this Jamaican Jerk Chicken Grilled Kabobs recipe via my friends over at Season Two Taste. (Remember, they’re who contributed our tomahawk steak recipe back in June.)
• In-N-Out’s Colorado locations have made the news more than once for fights on premise. Most infamously there was the “pantless fight” in late 2020 in Aurora, and earlier this month the Loveland location received a lot of media attention for some “horseplay” that led to a teenager being assaulted by a man who’s female companion had been splashed by water. While both are inherently disgraceful, they’re not as bad as the brawl between rival NFL fans in August 2023 at a Santa Clara, California location, where two people got stabbed. (In that incident, one was shirtless.)
Pasta pros
I mentioned here a couple weeks ago that Happy Eats Pasta had opened at 1536 S. Nevada Ave., graduating from four-year-old food truck to brick-and-mortar. While build-your-own-pasta is the key concept, Happy Eats also serves an affordable array of apps, sandwiches and salads and they have a beer and wine liquor license. I stopped by late last week to say hi in person and take some food to-go for my late dinner, shortly before they closed shop for the night. I received the warmest greeting from co-owners Darby Hapgood and Monica Bisek, as well as her son Spencer. They toured me around the space, pointing out details such as diverse dining room tables procured from local estate sales and Marketplace listings and the like, to bring a sense of various families’ tables and a sense of home into their eatery.
I learned they bring roughly 50 years combined experience to the business. She has a corporate background and formerly helped open restaurant properties in Las Vegas; she handles all of Happy Eat’s (notably sharp) design and marketing. His first job was as a line cook, and he managed both Old Chicago’s and José Muldoon’s many years ago, also overseeing the food service at two Denver-area country clubs at different points in the past. (Some locals may know him because he played hockey at Cheyenne Mountain High School and went semi-pro.) Hapgood tells me got the idea for doing a build-your-own-pasta food truck from organizing large pasta buffets at the country club jobs. His sauces, the real menu highlight, are all homemade and gluten-free (and there’s a GF pasta option available too).
I also learn that the food comes out fast, partly designed for easy online ordering and pickup as well as catering. Hapgood says he cooks the pastas al dente, finishing them in the pan with his sauces, to-order, to infuse flavors. Portions are large and very fair for the price, we feel. Given it’s week two of their service, I don’t aim to approach very critically, in a review capacity. We order a Five Veggie Stir Fry whereby we select our veggies from a list as well as a sauce; we go garlic butter for the win, with eggplant, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and onions.
For the pastas, we firstly take Hapgood’s recommendation for his Chipotle Alfredo sauce over tortellini with bacon added — which is a lavish, lights-out-rich dish that’s heavy but damn delightful. We lighten things up significantly with the next plate: grilled chicken in marinara sauce over penne noodles. So it’s very much a choose-your-own adventure menu that can lean healthier or heartier. If you’re going the latter option, definitely end your meal with a cup of gelato, which they procure from a fine company named Grateful Spoon out of Phoenix.
Downtown restaurateurs and retailers sound off at public input meeting for City’s homeless response plan
On Tuesday, representatives from the City’s Housing and Community Vitality department hosted the first of two public meetings this week (the second took place on Thursday, as I was writing this blurb), seeking feedback on their long-term homelessness response plan. The department is currently underway with updating the plan, “designed to reflect the community's priorities and outline key strategies to address the critical concern of homelessness in Colorado Springs.”
As you can see here, the department has identified “six key areas” of focus, including preventative measures, more outreach programs, affordable housing, employment opportunities and the enforcement of laws. While Thursday’s meeting was offered to the general public, Tuesday’s was specifically hosted for local businesses. I spoke afterwards with several restaurateurs in attendance (as I couldn’t be there). By all accounts, things got fiery after the City reps presented and began fielding questions and hearing downtown shop-owner testimonies. I was told many attendees were upset over a lack of answers to their questions, and one person I spoke with felt like the messengers (City employees) got shot, with misplaced anger over long-simmering tensions directed at them. “It was a crazy meeting,” one told me. “I’m not sure they realized the extreme situation of things happening downtown.”
So, despite the hubbub, it sounds like at least the meeting was effective in the department gleaning the severity of emotions downtown, where the largest concentration of independent eateries in Southern Colorado reside, according to the Downtown Partnership. That agency’s President and CEO, Susan Edmondson, was widely praised by everyone I spoke with for playing an ambassadorial role during the meeting. One restaurateur praised DP as an “excellent resource” who provides a vital security patrol in the area, but they acknowledged “they don’t have the teeth to necessarily solve the problems,” as they try to diffuse situations while awaiting actual law enforcement officers.
One last thing I’ll note by way of summary, before getting into some more direct quotes and anecdotes, is that each person I spoke with talked sincerely about wanting to remain compassionate, acknowledging the humanity of the issue, which is much larger in scale than one meeting (or story in this newsletter) can encapsulate. It’s a highly complex and delicate matter even to discuss, for fear of sounding callous or uncaring. But it’s clear that Tuesday’s meeting held a “something must be done” tone where attendees were desperate to hear about solutions to their ongoing problems.
“We can be compassionate,” says Wobbly Olive/Allusion Speakeasy co-owner Sean Fitzgerald (a Side Dish Dozen member), “but we also have to be compassionate to our our guests and our employees.”
In recent weeks, Fitzgerald says he’s had two staff members quit — one at the management level who’d been with the company four years — citing concerns with safety. A third submitted a formal letter requesting a meeting to discuss the topic. Fitzgerald shared the letter with me, keeping the employee’s identity private. In it, they write: “As a manager that works downtown, myself and my staff no longer feel safe being downtown. We no longer feel safe taking out our trash at night or walking to our cars… Not sure how much longer myself and other employees are going to be able to continue working at these high-risk stakes. Very seriously considering another place of employment.”
A fatal shooting happened last week on Wobbly/Allusion’s block, and in early June one of their employees (off the clock) was stabbed by a stranger just after 9 p.m. on a Sunday night on the patio of Gasoline Alley. Fitzgerald reports there’s also a homeless encampment in a parking lot behind their building that’s established enough to have an inflatable hot tub. He says last week a woman ran into Wobbly Olive during service for help, being pursued by a (presumably unhoused) person screaming obscenities. Staff called the Downtown Partnership’s security patrol after the man returned on site, who Fitzgerald says arrived just three minutes later, while police arrived after 17 minutes, he says, and did not take any statements.
“I’m not qualified to talk about what should be done,” he tells me after the City’s public input meeting, “but I am qualified to talk about the experiences of my staff and our guests.” He adds that he’s noticed real estate agents approaching downtown businesses in at attempt to lure them to newer commercial developments elsewhere in the city, and the he’s concerned we will see more businesses downtown close.
I next talk with Shame & Regret owner Matt Baumgartner, who after the public-input meeting presentation felt like “those aren’t the answers for the problems we are dealing with.” He says “everyone felt disappointed for the lack of awareness of what we’re facing every day.” He hires his own security five nights a week, he says, and schedules himself to close on the other two nights. “There’s a heightened sense of danger,” he says. He and his staff have seen used needles and feces littering the alleyway around the business and he was personally assaulted last year by a woman who he disturbed from sleeping outside Shame’s front door. He says he’d asked her to move, but she became enraged, throwing her phone at his head and then throwing punches.
He’s part of an Instagram group of nearby business owners who try to offer one another assistance when needed; he says others have asked him to help move homeless people along from their establishments too. “This has evolved because we can’t be on the phone for a half hour [with police non-emergency] to ask someone to come down, so we take it upon ourselves,” he says. “Everyone’s looking for better solutions and more consistency in dealing with these situations as they occur.” Echoing something I heard from Fitzgerald, he wondered why existing laws aren’t being enforced.
Next, I spoke with Co-President of the Colorado Restaurant Association Pikes Peak Chapter, Jenny Sherman of Odyssey Gastropub (also a Side Dish Dozen member). She too attended the public-input meeting and relayed to me some stories from the session that everyone found impactful. She says the takeaway was essentially “we need more enforcement and consequences for bad behavior.”
But she personally acknowledged something that another restaurant manager I spoke with also said, which is essentially it’s a waste of public resources to perpetuate the cycle of issuing fines that people often can’t pay, while they end up put back on the streets. The other person had phrased it: “I’m not a fan of criminalizing ordinary behaviors like sitting, lying, etc. But I also feel like actual threatening behavior isn’t addressed by building up rap sheets and increasing severity of consequences.” By way of a proposed solution, that person said they’d like to see foot patrol officers. And they asked: “Other parts of town have PIF or TIF [public improvement fees or tax increment financing] mechanisms for infrastructure and upkeep. Why not a fee on sales transactions downtown to allow for material support?”
Sherman, who’s long been part of the downtown food and drink scene — we first met one another when working in the industry in the early aughts — echoes something Baumgartner had also told me. Which is a couple decades ago “It wasn’t like this… we knew their names [homeless people downtown] and didn’t feel threatened by them. It’s more transient now, the people we see change more often.” Struggling to find the most sensitive and compassionate way to say it, she says “this style of homelessness is different.”
My final call was to Downtown Partnership’s Susan Edmondson shortly before publishing this newsletter. Somewhat reassuringly for business owners, she says that between Tuesday and Thursday’s Housing and Community Vitality department meetings, items had already been implemented into the homelessness response plan, reflecting the feedback they’d gathered 48 hours prior. As well, representative from other city departments such as CSPD, code enforcement and the Homeless Outreach Team were in attendance, “so there was broader City representation.”
“We at Downtown Partnership engage on this issue very deeply and continually, at a daily level, with our public space manager and supplemental security team,” she says. “And we stay in communication with businesses and CSPD as well as others on safety concerns. Monthly, we meet with the Homeless Outreach Team and CSPD to talk at a macro and surgical-level, block-by-block about challenges we’re facing.”
Edmondson says of what business owners (not just from downtown, but from Old Colorado City) and the public spoke about at the meetings, very little surprised her. “We’re well aware of these issues, but it was new information to some of the City representatives present. They took that info down quickly and have been in communication with me about it since Tuesday, with more to come,” she says, “and it has been added to plan, which remains in draft form.”
Addressing the enforcement concerns, she says “just because these are public spaces we don’t welcome illegal behavior. It’s not conducive to an environment that’s welcoming of everyone. A small subset can negatively impact the whole community.”
Touching on the theme of wanting to express compassion before making any comments that could be misperceived as callous, she acknowledges two key factors to the overall situation: mental health and addiction. “Mental health [problems] aren’t against the law, but that person needs help,” she says.
She confirms that Downtown Partnership’s security service lacks enforcement and arrest abilities, as they aren’t sworn law officers. “But the vast majority of calls don’t require a police response,” she says. “But they do need a response.” She says often the team diffuses situations and calms down the immediate conflict. If they do require more assistance, they call the Homeless Outreach Team or CSPD.
Before we conclude our call, I tell Edmondson what the industry folks had said about knowing individuals by name 20 years ago, and how today feels different. She concurs, recalling “pretty benign folks then.” But she adds they still know some by name today. Unfortunately it’s often the most problematic ones. “It’s a very different situation than what it used to be.”
She shares a telling anecdote, about how when she was applying for her job 11 years ago, the rigorous interview process overseen by the agency’s board included questions “about everything under the sun, including baseball, as they were talking about putting a stadium downtown at that time.” But one topic that wasn’t breached: homelessness. “No one asked me a single question about it,” she says. “It wasn’t occurring to them, then.”
I thought about ending this story right after that above quote, for impact. But I’m compelled here at the finish line to share my own anecdote of something minor but symbolically meaningful that occurred a few hours before I hit the publish button. I was pondering ending with a transparency note about editorializing for a moment, to proffer that what’s clearly different today is the strength of street drugs like Fentanyl. The opioid epidemic has forged a new and ugly reality that cities everywhere face; Colorado Springs is not unique in this way. I recognized that’s just one tentacle of the wider matter.
But I was walking downtown Friday morning, preoccupied by these thoughts, when outside of the City Auditorium (directly across from Municipal Court and diagonal from City Hall) I passed a presumably unhoused person, with a duffel bag at his feet and generally disheveled look. He was frozen in a seated position, eyes closed, as still as a statue-mimicking street performer, seated with one arm half outstretched, his palm facing skyward. Resting in his loose grasp was a dirty glass pipe, stained from some substance smoked, I know not what. For me, the visual was such a profound, open display thematically, literally illustrating my mental musings. Sadly synchronistic. Not an answer to anything, and not necessarily a sign. Perhaps a reminder, or reinforcement. Painfully precise and deeply unsettling. Also just one moment in time, a strand of a wider, intricate web with a geometry too complex to decipher and fragile attachment points in spaces unseen, but perceptible.
I carried onward, feeling unsure of everything. Other than yeah folks, we need a plan.
Parting shot(s)
Wow, what an awesome turnout for our Sip with Schnip at The Carter Payne on Thursday night! Thanks to all of you subscribers who joined us and to my many Side Dish Dozen members who came out to show support and enjoy the special menu with ingredients from Frost Livestock. (If you didn’t make it, I’m sorry you missed the epic lamb burgers and fresh farm veggie flatbread with goat cheese spread — so good!) Remember, you have until Sept. 1 to enjoy The Carter Payne’s taproom/restaurant arm before the business transitions to events and special dinners only. Keep an eye on their events calendar for upcoming special dinners, to include a Harvest Dinner, whiskey church, Local Relic bottle release parties and something Chef Brent’s particularly excited for: Nov. 1’s Dinner in the Veil, inspired by Dia De Los Muertos.
Great articles and sorry to have missed Sips with Schnip! It is a crazy summer of events!
I’m bummed we missed Sip. I like how you reversed the newsletter this time, and great reporting on the homeless issue.