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DENVER — A new restaurant concept in lower downtown that’s faced delays due to the pandemic will move forward with construction within the next few weeks.
The business will be in the old Cowboy Lounge and Tavern Downtown building on Market Street just a few blocks from Coors Field in LoDo and will feature three food and drink options under one roof.
Shortly after acquiring the building in early 2020, Morgan Margolis, the CEO of Knitting Factory Entertainment, one of 3 companies behind the project (including Fillmore Capital and Buckhead Group) said for a while they weren’t sure how to move the project forward.
“That’s been our challenge the whole time — do you go forward? Do you stop? Where do we land?” Margolis said.
Plans are moving ahead and right now project partners are going through the permitting process.
“For us, we decided to put the brakes on the project and move the timeline back which gave us actually more time to think through designs and our overall strategy for the future,” Margolis said.
Soon, the 25,000-square foot space will be home to El Tejano, Loaded, and Smash Face Brewery and Taproom.
El Tejano will be a Tex-Mex sports bar with 10,000 square feet of rooftop space facing Coors Field. Loaded will be a bar with a rock ‘n roll theme. Smash Face Brewery and Taproom will be a gastropub and part of Smash Face’s profits will be donated to local animal shelters.
Margolis said they plan to hire local general managers and employees.
“We hope to put 100-plus people to work, I mean that’s the goal,” Margolis said.
Margolis said they planned to open the restaurants by spring of this year but now they hope to open by March or April 2021.