Starter Set RESTAURANT-UP HELPS ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS MAKE THEIR DREAMS A REALITY. BY KATRINA LEIBEE K enyan barbecue, a Cincinnati-style chili joint and an incubator kitchen with a rotating bar program are just some of the concepts that seven aspiring restau- rateurs hope to open in Denver with the help of Restaurant-Up, a city program funded through Denver Economic Devel- opment and Opportunity and the Ameri- can Rescue Plan Act. “The whole idea was, fi rst and fore- most, we lost so many restaurants due to COVID,” says John Hill, senior advisor with DEDO. “We certainly wanted to help populate some of those spaces again. I think people love the local restaurants the Denver market is known for, so we wanted to bring some new entrepreneurs into the fold.” Hill notes that the process of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant is a lot more complicated than people might expect when they fi rst start, and this program helps would-be restaurateurs navigate the challenging process. “They’re all running catering companies [and] doing pop-up events; they’re very exposed to the indus- try,” Hill says. “When you’re going in and investing in that restaurant space, there are so many blind spots. Unless you’ve done it numerous times, there are going to be surprises.” To qualify for the program, partici- pants are required to have fi ve or more years of experience in the restaurant in- dustry, a concept idea for a startup, at least two years of experience in restaurant management, and the intention of opening a restaurant in Denver. The current group of participants submitted applications in May and recently completed the ten-week group curriculum program, which was designed by the Denver Metro Small Busi- ness Development Center and EatDen- ver, a nonprofi t organization founded in 2008 that supports Denver’s independent restaurant community. 16 WESTWORD FOOD & DRINK 2022 Participants in the Restaurant-Up program. The curriculum included education on topics like writing a business plan, offi ce management, marketing strategies and more to ensure that the restaurateurs have the resources they need. EatDenver also brought in guest speakers such as Juan Padró, CEO of the Culinary Creative restaurant group, and Tim Maness from Shamrock Foods to guide the budding entrepreneurs on business building and management. After completing the group curricu- lum, each participant was matched with mentors from the industry, including Dave and Dana Query, owners of the Big Red F Restaurant Group; Peter Newlin, CEO of the Gastamo Group; Nicole Mattson, co-founder and owner of Nocturne; Andy Niemeyer, owner of Cart-Driver; Daniel Asher, owner of Working Title Foods and the high-profi le chef behind River and Woods and Ash’Kara; Hal Reynolds of Denver Beer Co; and Meaghan Goedde, COO of Sage Hospitality Group. The mentors will continue working with participants as they fi nalize their business plans, which will be submitted by the fi rst week of November. All of the participants who fulfi ll the program re- quirements are eligible to receive an award of $30,000 from the Business Recovery Category of ARPA to put toward their restaurant in the form of reimbursements for startup expenses. Participant April Yiadom runs BBQ N’Kenya, Denver’s fi rst Kenyan barbe- cue outfi t, which opened with a pick- up-and-delivery operation in 2021. She says that she applied because she loves Denver and wanted to bring something to the restaurant scene that she hadn’t seen before. With the aid of mentors Dana and Dave Query, she was able to solidify her business plan and connect with inves- tors to help her open her fi rst sit-down restaurant. “I defi nitely think Kenyan barbecue is a unique niche, because I’m the only place that provides it,” Yiadom says. For this cuisine, goat, beef, chicken, bison and pork are seasoned with Kenyan spices and smoked for more than twelve hours over African wood. The barbecue comes with signature sauces and a kachumbari (tomato and onion) salsa alongside such other items as ugali (a porridge native to Africa), corn bread, and mac and cheese. Yiadom’s husband is from Kenya, and during their frequent travels to his home- land, she started to master Kenyan cuisine. A Johnson & Wales graduate, she has been in the culinary fi eld for 22 years but has never opened a brick-and-mortar loca- tion — yet. The Restaurant-Up program helped her fi gure out the business side of creating a restaurant. “It’s always good to have some guidance and have someone come and ask questions,” Yiadom says. “I appreciate Denver providing such a won- derful program to continued on page 18 DENVER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND OPPORTUNITY
