Then the pandemic hit and the city, hoping to help restaurants struggling with social distancing, closed the street in front of her place.

Three years later, it’s still closed — much to Trillo’s chagrin.

She said blocking off the one-block stretch in RiNo may help the bars on the street, but it doesn’t help Heaven.

“If you’re going to come and buy ice cream, you do and leave or stay and eat it and leave,” she said. “But you don’t see them get another scoop of ice cream. When you go to a bar and get a beer, you get a second, third, fourth.”

Of the handful of stretches of road that Denver closed to vehicles during the pandemic, three remain. In addition to the RiNo block, there’s Larimer Square and Glenarm Place between 15th and 17th streets near Denver Pavilions Mall downtown.

The temporary street closure permits for the three are set to expire at the end of the year, but Denver is considering making the closures permanent, and the blocks will continue to be closed into the new year as long as there’s a pending application for permanence in.

The closure of Larimer in RiNo appears to be sparking the most controversy.

Heaven Creamery’s Trillo said she doesn’t need the street for seating; she’s got plenty inside and a patio out back.

“We understand that for other businesses it’s a good thing but we don’t have the exposure that we felt we had before,” she said.

Plus, she said, the block in front of her business hasn’t been physically transformed.

“If this was an amazing and beautiful concept, super attractive for everyone in the city …  I probably would be with it,” Trillo said. “But it’s not like that. There’s nothing special to come and see other than going bar to bar.

“But we’re not fighting too hard because at the same time, you don’t want to be fighting your neighbors.”

The potentially permanent street closure is being spearheaded by the RiNo Business Improvement District, with help from the RiNo Arts District.

Across the street from Heaven Creamery, Kraig Weaver owns The Block Distilling Co. at 2990 Larimer St. He said the closure was “instrumental” for him and other businesses. The distillery has a shipping container on the street that holds a handful of tables.

Without the closure, “We would be another street instead of having something unique that shows a collaborative effort between small businesses, land owners, the city as a whole and the neighborhood — that’s what makes it cool,” Weaver said.

He said he thinks keeping the block closed and investing money to spruce it up would not only be good for the neighborhood, but also help push Denver to become a more walkable and bikeable city. He said pro-closure business owners on the block recently created a nonprofit to fund improvements assuming the application is approved.

Other businesses on the block, such as Odell Brewing and Ratio Beerworks, previously told The Denver Post they also support keeping the block closed. Weaver acknowledged that not everybody is going to support it, but said he thinks closure benefits the entire community.

“Is this for the greater good? Is this overwhelmingly positive with a few small pain points for you personally, or for the community as a whole? What I’ve heard feels more like a personal issue,” he said.

Nancy Kuhn, spokesperson for Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, said if approved, the RiNo BID will be able to renew the street closure permit annually for up to five years. After that, Denver will determine whether or not to permanently close the block.

One block away from the closure, at 3090 Larimer St., is Jerrod Rosen’s business Rye Society. He opened the Jewish deli in 2017, and said the pandemic made business “disappear,” but he now thinks the nearby closure is having a negative effect.

“We are on a block where the main street is Larimer, and people driving through can’t get to us,” Rosen said.

Rosen grew up in Boulder and said he would support something like the Pearl Street Mall, where a few blocks are closed to vehicular traffic, not just one.

“I love those guys down there,” Rosen said, referring to businesses on the closed block. “I have nothing against them and understand why they would want it closed but it seems like it’s to the benefit of a few businesses and not the whole community.”

Tai Beldock, who owns Erico Motorsports at 2855 Walnut St. as well as nearby real estate, said she doesn’t understand why business owners throughout the neighborhood are funding a project that doesn’t help the majority of RiNo.

“We’re paying thousands of dollars for a design that really only benefits three businesses,” Beldock said.

According to Sarah Cawrse, director of urban strategy and design for the RiNo Art District, the RiNo BID has $55,000 in the 2024 budget for Larimer street design, although it’s not yet known if those funds will be needed. Cawrse said the BID also funded “materials and effort needed to collect community feedback” this year.

While the block has roughly 13 businesses on it, only four were using the street for seating last week. Beldock has been advocating against the street closure for a while, and went to Denver City Council in November to ask councilors to vote against the RiNo BID budget, to no avail.

She also thinks the street closure is creating traffic issues in the neighborhood, which will only get worse when two large properties for sale nearby (the corner of 29th and Blake, and 29th and Walnut) get redeveloped.

“When those lots sell, they will go up five stories, become approximately 600 units, bring 1,200 additional people, a whole bunch of cars, and main arteries are blocked because of the street closure,” Beldock said.

Beldock, who’s been in the neighborhood since 1999, said ultimately the block closure doesn’t plan for the future.

“We’re not thinking of the big picture,” she said. “In the end, I get the sense the district is going to move forward, and it’s unfortunate.”

Tom Sprung owns a corner of 30th and Larimer opposite the closure, which houses a few tenants such as Oz Architecture and Arc Document Solutions, as well as his business Sprung Construction. He echoed Beldock’s concerns.

“There’s only three ways in and out – Blake, Walnut and Larimer,” he said. “We’re all about keeping the street active but we want to keep the traffic flowing.”

He said supply trucks for the restaurants on the closed off-block already clog the surrounding streets. And while he’s all for making the neighborhood more pedestrian- and bike- friendly, “you still need people driving for businesses to thrive,” he said.

Beldock and Sprung said they would be happy with some sort of compromise, like closing the block on weekends or leaving one lane open.

“It’s hurting our businesses, on either side, it’s hurting us terribly,” Sprung said.

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After skyrocketing during the pandemic, used car prices across the board are softening, with the average annual decline running 3.6% in Denver and 5.1% nationally as of October, according to a study from online car shopping site iSeeCars.

For used electric vehicles (EVs), prices are down by about a third nationally in the past year. And if that trend continues, it is only a matter of time until used EVs will not only cost less to power and maintain but also to buy.

“Used electric vehicles are facing a combination of lower prices for new models and consumer reluctance to try a new, more expensive technology when inflation and interest rates are both high,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars executive analyst, in an email.

The declines reflect basic economics. Supply has outstripped demand when it comes to EVs, which are now taking three times as long to sell as they did last year. Tesla, the leading maker of electric vehicles, cut the price of its new cars, including a $21,775 decrease for the Model X, $18,596 for the Model S and $14,716 for the Model 3.

That not only deflated the price of used Teslas but forced many other manufacturers to cut their prices.

In Denver, the Chevy Bolt EV suffered the biggest decline, going from an average of $30,169 last October to $20,089 this October. The Nissan Leaf fell from $29,386 to $19,864, while the Tesla Model 3 dropped from $47,958 to $34,167.

Although they have come down sharply, used EV prices remain higher than gasoline-powered alternatives. In October 2022, used EV prices averaged a 60% premium over the rest of the market — $52,821 compared to $32,627. But by this October, the gap was down to 13% — $34,944 versus $30,972.

Brauer suspects that consumers, facing the prospect of job cuts as the economy slows and struggling under the weight of inflation, are less willing to buy EVs than they were just six to 12 months ago.

“These same pressures are also pushing the price of traditional used cars down, but not nearly as much as EVs because gasoline models already cost less than used EVs and consumers are more comfortable with them,” he said.

Brauer said demand for new EVs has hit a plateau at the same time that automakers have been ramping up and pushing out a bunch of new models. Unsold EVs are piling up on dealer lots, which should continue to keep downward pressure on prices.

“It suggests there’s a threshold of market share for EVs that has been hit, making it tough to further increase their sales numbers,” he predicted.

Consumers who have been waiting to buy an EV will find more affordable options, especially with the help of favorable tax credits. Once limited to new car purchases, federal tax credits have expanded to used EVs as well.

New cars and trucks as a whole still command a premium, selling for 8.4% above the MSRP. That premium drops to 7.1% on new EVs. Dealers in Denver have been most willing to bargain on the new Hyundai Ioniq 6, Volkswagen ID.4, and Hyundai Ioniq 5, taking around 9% to 10% off the sticker price.

The big drop in used EV prices shouldn’t be seen as a rejection of cleaner alternatives in general. Of the 10 fastest-selling new cars nationally, seven are hybrids, including the Ford Maverick, Kia Sportage and Toyota Grand Highlander. Used prices in that category are down 9.6%.

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The Texas-based company, known for its mega convenience stores, gas stations and red-capped beaver mascot, is building a store in Johnstown. The store will be the company’s first planned outside the South and the farthest west.

And at 74,000 square feet, the Johnstown store will be one of the biggest Buc-ee’s. There will be 120 gas pumps.

“We’re scheduled to open the store in March. As we get closer to March, we’ll announce the official day,” Jeff Nadalo, Buc-ee’s general counsel, said Thursday.

The building at the southwest corner of Interstate 25 and Colorado 60 is taking shape, clearly recognizable as a Buc-ee’s. The store will be the same size as one in Sevierville, Tenn., currently the largest Buc-ee’s, Nadalo said.

A new store under construction in Luling, Texas, will be slightly bigger at 75,000 square feet. Luling was the site of the first Buc-ee’s. There are now more than 40 stores.

Nadalo said hiring has started for the Johnstown store. The company plans to hire about 400 people for jobs including grocery and warehouse stockers; deli workers; cashiers; food and merchandise associates; managers; and janitors and maintenance attendants.

The pay is in the $18-$22 range, Nadalo said. Employees get three weeks paid time off, medical and dental benefits and a 6% matching 401(k) contribution after one year on the job, he said.

Nadalo said Buc-ee’s locates its stores in areas where there are families and people who are on vacation and where there’s a pool of employees to pull from. Northern Colorado is one of the state’s fastest-growing regions.

The company doesn’t allow 18-wheelers because its travel centers are “optimized for passenger vehicles,” Nadalo said.

Buc-ee’s stores are known for its big selection of merchandise and food, including Texas barbecue, freshly baked pastries and beaver nuggets, caramel coated corn pops.

And it has a reputation for super-clean bathrooms. In 2012, a Buc-ee’s store in New Braunfels, Texas, won “America’s Best Restroom Award,” from Cintas, a business services company.

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Living the Dream is also moving into the small bar that Grist had been operating inside the Sterling Center, a building at 8155 Piney River Ave. that serves residents of Littleton’s Sterling Ranch neighborhood. That change will take place on Dec. 29.

Grist owners Chuck Norman and Jim Mack, both petroleum engineers by trade, had originally been “passive” investors and are now “ready to get back to our roots,” Norman said.

Living the Dream owner Jason Bell, on the other hand, “knows the industry and has spent many years in it. He’s on-site every day, and that’s an important part of success,” Norman added. And while Living the Dream is buying Grist’s assets and taking over its leases, it isn’t buying the company itself. “Grist will still be alive, but what we do with it, I don’t know.”

The move “just makes sense,” said Bell, who opened Living the Dream, at 12305 Dumont Way, in 2014. “We have been looking for a new home for the better part of a year and a half.”

“It’s a big deal, a lot of work and a good amount of money,” Bell continued, speaking about the mile-or-so move up Santa Fe Drive to Grist’s spot. “The economy is not robust, either, but this is when you can make those kinds of moves — and hopefully they pay off.”

The move is also an upgrade, Bell explained, in part because Grist’s brewing system is bigger, more advanced and more efficient than the one at Living the Dream, but also because Grist’s space, including the taproom and the overall infrastructure, is “much nicer.”

If anything, Bell joked, Living the Dream will have to rough it up around the edges to give it the more rustic and outdoorsy feel that his customers are accustomed to. Living the Dream has a heavy focus on skiing, both in its decor and its beer names. Powder Run Cream Ale and its variations, for instance, are the brewery’s biggest-selling beers in cans and taproom flagship.

While Grist served food, Bell said Living the Dream, which will close its existing location, will continue to rely on food trucks, as it has done in the past.

The business of brewing beer has changed quite a bit over the past decade, Bell said, as the industry has matured and public habits have changed. “Ten years ago, it was 65% fun and cool, and 35% business. Now it’s 95% business.” To survive in the existing beer economy, each brewery needs to know how it fits in and what its goals are for the future.”

The deal is expected to close on Dec. 29. Bell said he hopes to make cosmetic changes after that and reopen inside Grist in mid-January.

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The whiskey maker, which was founded in 2004 and has often been billed as the first new distillery to open in Colorado since Prohibition, plans to debut a new tasting room, Stranahan’s Whiskey Lodge, sometime this winter in Aspen, according to the company.

This “marks our first outpost beyond our Denver distillery and tasting room, and it is being designed to be the ideal environment for fans, already made and new, to experience our award-winning American single malt whiskies – and to say thank you to those who helped start it all,” the company, which is now owned by beverage giant Proximo Spirits, added.

Stranahan’s was co-founded by longtime Aspen resident, millionaire, physicist and entrepreneur George Stranahan and former volunteer Aspen firefighter Jess Graber. The story goes that Graber was part of a team that responded to a fire at Stranahan’s barn, and that the two got to know each other after that and hatched a plan to start their own whiskey distillery.

They did just that in 2004, at 2405 Blake St., in Denver, before buying their own building and moving the operation to their existing location at 200 S. Kalamath St. New Jersey-based Proximo bought the company in 2010; Stranahan himself passed away in 2021.

Details on the new location are slim, though the Aspen Daily News reports the bar will take over the former Aspen Pie Shop, at 307 S. Mill St., downtown. Stranahan’s is currently hiring a head chef to lead the creation of “alpine-inspired bites” from a kitchen onsite.

Stranahan’s will join another soon-to-open bar and restaurant at the MOLLIE Aspen hotel, which partnered with Gin & Luck, owners of Death & Co., to create the food and beverage program.

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“I learned from my grandmother, Ethel Black Crow, and my aunt, Rose Spotted Eagle, when I was real young,” the 76-year-old Denver-based Oglala Lakota artist said. “I’ve been doing it all my life.”

Quillwork is an art form that uses porcupine quills to embroider clothing and make jewelry, and it is one of the oldest artistic traditions practiced by Indigenous North Americans, mostly in the northern plains of what is now the U.S. and across Canada.

To Bull Bear, who is from the Medicine Root District of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, quillwork products are as precious as gemstones.

“Quillwork is like wearing diamonds,” Bull Bear said. “Quillwork is sacred. It was here before the beadwork people do now.”

Bull Bear is one of many artists who patronize and sell their art at the reopened Orr’s Trading Post, a Native arts supply store that has long been an important community hub for Indigenous people.

New owner Lakota Sage wants to expand Orr’s 133-year legacy as a community hub and arts store into a destination for authentic Indigenous arts.

Formerly located in Englewood and Denver and operated by the Orr family for generations, the new owner, Lakota Sage, reopened the store in Lakewood at 9797 W. Colfax Ave. in February after the previous owners decided to close down.

Orr’s has always offered Denver’s Indigenous community a place to buy supplies to make regalia, practice traditions and create art; even Bull Bear’s grandmother used to buy supplies at Orr’s when it was on Colorado Boulevard in Denver.

“Most people come here to buy supplies, so when word started getting around it was closing, the community started freaking out a little,” Sage, a Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said of why he restarted the business.

This new location continues the business’ legacy of serving Denver’s Indigenous community, but Sage also wants it to be a place where people who are not Indigenous can come to see and buy local artists’ artwork.

Here, Sage hopes, they can also learn about sacred traditions and see that Indigenous art and culture is alive and well in Denver.

“The more we can have representation, the better,” Sage said. “Because we are still here; we’re still remembered.”

That’s also why Bull Bear said being able to sell her work at Orr’s is so important to her: Not only is quillwork sacred, but here in Denver, the skill is a rarity.

Bull Bear is the only practicing plains quillwork artist in the area; many people stopped doing quillwork to take up the less complicated beading art that is most commonly associated with Indigenous embroidery now. She’s started classes in Denver to keep the tradition alive here.

“They say it’s a dying art, but if people like me teach it, I think we can keep it alive,” she said. “It’s really a blessing to try and teach it to new generations. We need to take care of it.”

Newer local artists also get a chance to show people their work at Orr’s.

Tom Salazar, an Indigenous third-generation Coloradan, is a self-taught artist who sells beaded jewelry at Orr’s and buys a lot of his supplies there. His art is also meant to show people Native American traditions are still alive, and he said Orr’s is the perfect place to teach people about art through his and others’ work.

“Art is something I like to do so people don’t forget where we came from,” Salazar said. “A lot of people don’t see Native art as something somebody put their heart and soul into. When I make something, I genuinely have a love for my ancestry and love for the community to where I want to make it authentic.

“A place like Orr’s is a great place for the community to make and see authentic jewelry.”

Sage also has branched the store out for more than just the beadwork and regalia-making products.

Other wares include macaw feathers for Nahua, or Aztec, people of Mexico; shells of all types, sea stars and urchins for coastal nations and Pacific Islanders; painted beads from Peru; and katchina dolls, ancestral spirits of the Hopi and Pueblo people of the Southwest, are all available at Orr’s.

“There’s something for everybody here,” Sage said. And that goes for non-Indigenous people, too.

A whole section of the store is dedicated to naturopathy, with traditional teas that have healing properties lining a wall and sages, sweetgrass and palo santo available for ceremonies and smudging. Stones with different astrological and healing purposes are also available in different sizes and shapes for different uses.

“It’s not just a store for Natives; it’s a store for everybody,” Sage said. “The idea behind that is the more people we can get in here, the more these local Native artists can be seen and our culture appreciated. It’s a helping hand for everybody.”

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Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, to include the address of Orr’s Trading Post. It was omitted because of an editing error.

The owner of Ursula Brewery, which opened in 2014 next to the Anschutz Medical Campus, Procop decided earlier this year that it was time to sell the brewery in order to focus on his family restaurant at 2100 Ursula St., Cedar Creek Pub, which is across the street from the brewery.

That happened this week, and the new owners, who he didn’t name, plan to reopen the brewery with a different name in early or mid-2024.

“I’ve been in the restaurant business for 34 years, so this is sort of like going back to my roots,” Procop said about turning his attention to Cedar Creek, which he opened in 2011 with his wife. “It was a good run [at Ursula]. We did great, and this is the end of the story.”

The last few years have been harrowing for small brewery owners, who have dealt with the effects of the pandemic, rising costs for raw materials and supplies, and static beer sales in an industry that had been previously experiencing double-digit growth in the early and mid-2010s.

“Everyone is hurting,” he said about fellow craft beer breweries and taproom owners. As an example, Procop pointed to one of his most well-known and well-loved beers, Crustless, a peanut-butter-and-jelly porter, and an imperial version of the beer that was aged in bourbon barrels. “We used to have lines down the street of people waiting for that beer. Now it’s nothing.

“Brewing is a young man’s game, and I can’t figure it out anymore. I got to a point where I just wasn’t sure what to do next,” he added. “But restaurants aren’t going anywhere.”

And that’s how Procop intends to continue supporting craft brewers in the future. Cedar Creek, which serves burgers, sandwiches, fish and chips and other traditional pub food, has always had a wide selection of craft beers on tap as well and hosts rare beer tastings on occasion.

After Ursula closes, it will still have a few of the brewery’s beers on tap, and Procop said he’ll carry the new brewery’s beers in his restaurant as well if the new owners ask him to. (Procop would only say that it is a business group that hasn’t owned a brewery before.)

In the meantime, he’ll be working the bar at Ursula by himself until the brewery’s last day, Dec. 22. But not before he throws one final two-day party for the winter solstice. The annual fest is typically the release of the Sacred Fire, an imperial Scotch Ale. Procop also will have a hot poker by the fire to caramelize and warm the malty beer.

“We want to go out with a bang at the end as a thank you to our customers,” he said.

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While some business owners aren’t sweating it, John Agnew has a less sanguine view of the effect REI’s presence may have on his snowboard and outdoor gear shop on Main Street once it opens in early 2025. The Seattle-based chain has 181 locations and reported nearly $4 billion in revenue last year.

“They’ll eat up a lot of goggle, helmet and snowboard sales,” said Agnew, who founded The Boarding Haus in downtown Durango in 1995. “I had to fight for many years to get the brands I want.”

REI, which has several locations in Front Range cities, has expanded its mountain market footprint in recent years, opening outposts in Dillon and then Glenwood Springs. The next-closest REI to Durango is an older location in Grand Junction, 170 miles away.

In the eyes of Kendrick Williamson, who oversees operations at Gardenswartz Outdoors just a couple of blocks south of Agnew’s store, the opening of REI there is not a direct threat to his nearly century-old downtown business.

“We’re not going to be losing a lot of customers — there’s not a lot of overlap,” Williamson said, as customers browsed a wide selection of fishing poles, Stetson hats and knives on an early fall afternoon. “People are pretty loyal to the local concept here.”

Gardenswartz sells hunting rifles and ammunition, which are not available at REI. Plus, Williamson noted, the new REI location will be on Durango’s south side — away from the tourist-heavy Main Street in the city of 20,000.

“They’re not in the epicenter,” he said.

The epicenter is the 10-block stretch of shops and restaurants, where hundreds of people empty out of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad depot daily in the warm season to stroll and shop in the city’s historic district.

Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District, said he’d been monitoring the situation on behalf of the businesses his organization represents.

There are more than a dozen sporting goods stores already in the city, which is surrounded by square mile upon square mile of wilderness that beckons campers, anglers, rafters, skiers and hikers.

The improvement district recently crunched the sales numbers for the sporting goods sector in Durango. It found that more than $23 million worth of merchandise was sold last year, down just slightly from $24 million-plus in 2021, Walsworth said. Those figures compare to less than $19 million in pre-pandemic 2019.

The state’s outdoor recreation industry generates $37 billion in consumer spending each year and contributes 511,000 direct jobs, according to data from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade.

“Our existing local sporting goods stores are concerned, of course, but also have spent many years cultivating their customers and providing good service and products,” Walsworth said. “They know they will have to step up their game.”

Similar competitive concerns cropped up when Walmart and Home Depot came to Durango, but Walsworth said the two national chains “did not cause local businesses to close.”

“We are worried that this could impact the viability of some of our existing sporting goods stores,” he said. “But again, they have years of local experience and tons of local customers, plus better visibility by being located in the heart of our town.”

“Even so,” Walsworth said, “we expect REI to take some market share due to their name recognition and that they already have members here.”

When the improvement district first heard about REI’s interest in Durango, it reached out to a sporting goods store in Flagstaff, Arizona, and learned that REI claimed about 20% of the market during its first year in town — and about 10% annually after that.

REI currently has 9,000 members in the Durango area, according to REI spokeswoman Megan Behrbaum. Durango will be the co-op’s 10th location in Colorado.

“Product assortment will broadly include camp, cycle, run, climb and snow sports — also similar to other stores in the state,” Behrbaum said. “The store will also have a section dedicated to Re/Supply, our used gear and apparel offering.”

REI can co-exist peacefully in markets with established outdoor retailers, she said.

“We don’t believe it is a simple scenario of big retailers driving out smaller retailers, but we do recognize our presence can create competition,” Behrbaum said.

Corry Mihm, a project manager with the Summit Economic Partnership in Summit County, said the opening of REI in Dillon in 2017 has produced no definitive negative impact on local outdoor recreation businesses.

“We have seen a couple of mom-and-pop sporting goods stores close, but it is difficult to say exactly why — it could be pandemic impacts, aging and tiring of the owners or landlord renewal issues,” Mihm said. “We have seen all of these issues impact local business but don’t have specific store-by-store information.”

But Agnew, The Boarding Haus owner, cringes at yet another big-box retailer setting up shop in Durango, which sits just a half-hour north of the New Mexico line.

He worries about what it’s doing to Durango’s character — and to its sense of self-identity.

“Part of the charm was the mom-and-pop businesses,” Agnew said. “This is another tick towards wiping that out.”

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The beloved Mexican food spot, El Tepehuan, at 3495 S. Broadway, plans to shutter on Dec. 31 as its owner, Graciela Corral, retires, according to an announcement shared by her son, Miguel Corral.

The restaurant, endearingly called El Tep by locals, dates back to 1978 when immigrant Jose David Corral of Sinaloa, Mexico, used his hard-earned money to “achieve his dream to open his own business,” according to the restaurant’s website. He named it El Tepehuan as an homage to his mother’s indigenous tribe.

In 1987, Jose Corral died in a car accident and his wife, Graciela, took over and ran the business for 36 years. She also oversaw its relocation between 2015 and 2017.

Speaking by phone, Graciela Corral said she kept the restaurant open after Jose’s death because she needed work and thought having her own business would be the best opportunity. El Tep weathered several economic downturns, not the least of which was the COVID-19 pandemic, which Corral described as “difficult.” But the local community stepped up with support, ordering to-go food and drinks.

“I will miss the customers and workers. For me, it’s like family,” Corral said. “To the customers, thank you for everything, for support for 45 years. Thank you, thank you for everybody.”

Over the decades, El Tep became known for its highly coveted green chile and other specials. In 2008, The Denver Post lauded the eatery’s signature House Special in a dining review.

“Every item in the combo was, if not astonishingly fantastic, nonetheless a solid throw-down, gimme-more, don’t-talk-to-me-I’m-eating keeper. Fresh, flavorful, spicy and just naughty enough, from the spicy red chile Colorado to the melty-velvety cheese over the beans to the plump, meaty beans themselves,” dining critic Tucker Shaw wrote at the time.

Corral’s retirement plans include spending more time with family, including her kids and grandkids. And while she won’t have a restaurant, she expects to continue sharing her love through food.

“They like (when) abuela cooks for them,” Corral said.

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A survey by Deloitte found that Denver shoppers expect to spend an average of $1,902 this holiday season, which is up 15% from 2022 and 15% higher than this year’s national average.

Rachel Smeak, the Denver-based managing director of Deloitte Consulting, said shoppers’ anticipated spending is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“What was a bit surprising is that consumers plan to spend like it’s 2019 again,” Smeak added.

Nationwide, people reported planning to spend an average of $1,652 on gifts this year, surpassing pre-pandemic figures for the first time, according to Deloitte’s survey.

The National Retail Federation is also predicting a robust holiday shopping season. The survey by the organization and Prosper Insights and Analytics estimates that 182 million people plan to shop in stores and online. The number is up 15.7 million from last year and the business association’s highest estimate since it began tracking the data in 2017.

In the Denver area, some of the spending will be on holiday decorations and clothing rather than gifts, with 80% of the respondents planning to make those purchases.

Consumer spending has been charging along despite inflation and speculation about whether the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases to bring down prices will cause a recession. The Wall Street Journal reported that Americans spent 0.01% less in October, but economists had expected a larger decrease.

However, inflation has somewhat tempered spending plans, Smeak said. About 74% of Denver-area shoppers are budgeting for fewer gifts, from 10 in 2022 to nine this year.

And 41% of the Denver-area respondents who have student loans said they’ll cut back on holiday spending this year.

“We’re seeing a lot of folks being very focused on promotional events, particularly on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is pretty consistent with last year,” Smeak said.

Deloitte’s national survey found that people plan to spend an average of $567 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events, a 13% jump from 2022.

In Denver, retailers are also looking at Small Business Saturday this weekend to help launch their holiday season. The event was founded by American Express in 2010 and has been cosponsored by the Small Business Administration since 2011.

Entrepreneurs in the River North Art District are planning events and encouraging shoppers to go local when looking for gifts and ideas for the holidays.

“We really consider ourselves to be one of the premier locations for small businesses and those more creative maker spaces as well,” said Charity Von Guinness, executive director of the RiNo Art District.

Von Guinness said RiNo businesses like Green Spaces Market and Empire Collective, are cooperative marketplaces that offer shoppers opportunities to patronize local artists and makers.

“We’re just encouraging everyone in Denver to be buying more local and just really enjoying the district,” Von Guinness said. “On top of all of these great cooperatives spaces, where you can go around to so many different vendors and retailers, are small food and beverage locations.”

Kimberlee Ward is one of the business people in Green Spaces. She founded her company, Eternal Balance Candle Co., in 2019. She’s offering people 35% discounts on Small Business Saturday to encourage people to not just shop via keyboard.

“Being able to come in and smell the candles really gives you the ability to choose something special for the people in your life. I get multiple people that come in and say, ‘This reminds me of my mom’s house or my grandma’s house,’ ” Ward said.

Divine Ramazani, the creative director at Green Spaces, said the market and the different vendors plan promotions for Small Business Saturday.

A holiday market is planned Dec. 9 in the art district. More than 20 vendors and artists will be featured at “It’s a RiNo-Ful Life!” at 29th and Larimer streets.

Online holiday shopping and e-commerce in general exploded during the coronavirus pandemic when stores closed or limited the number of customers. Deloitte’s Denver survey, which had responses from 401 residents, said shoppers planned to do 66% of their buying online, compared to 63% nationally.

“That’s pretty high participation in the online shopping arena. But that’s very consistent with where we’ve been and is kind of leveling off instead of that continuous increase that we have been seeing for several years,” Smeak said.

Ramazani would like to see more people venture out to Denver’s small-business districts this holiday season. “I definitely understand the convenience of online shopping. It does make our life easier.”

But walking into a store and talking to the business people and other customers is part of what makes communities stronger, Ramazani said. “I feel like that adds to the story and the product. I feel like it gives you more of a connection to what you’re buying.”

Updated at 11:38 a.m. Nov. 22 to add data on holiday spending.

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