Denver restaurant tears down COVID outdoor dining structures, donates to homeless cause

A Denver restaurant that pivoted to outdoor dining during the pandemic is now giving back to the homeless community. They're doing so, by donating their outdoor dining structures to a nonprofit that helps the homeless.

When Ryan Fletter realized the pandemic was going to last longer than just a few weeks, he and his staff began building outdoor structures at Barolo Grill for customers to dine in. It began with just one prototype, then multiplied in the parking lot adjacent to the business.

"We started building out the first three, then we did another six, and then we did five, we did a few out front, and we had done 19 of these at one point," said Fletter.

Fletter, who owns Barolo Grill, said they spent about $100,000 building the structures. They were equipped with working air conditioning during the summer, and in the winter, working heat.

On New Year's Eve, the restaurant served its last meals to customers using the structures.

"We wanted to do something really special with all this and give it a second life, so we'll be donating it to help the homeless cause," said Fletter. "As we all watched the homeless activity and influx of refugees the past year, it's a natural thing for us to want to do something."

Now, the structures will serve another purpose with the Colorado Village Collaborative. It's a nonprofit organization that provides transitional spaces for people experiencing homelessness, and the organization also helps bridge the gap between the streets and housing.

"We're actually expanding our case management and peer support program which has a lot of one-on-one time with the community that we're serving," said Grey Crady.

Crady, the senior developer of Build Environment with the organization, says it will use the donated structures to continue meeting the needs of the homeless community.

"We're going to be using these as space for one-on-one meetings, to have a private conversation to navigate the housing process to access housing," said Crady.

The organization also helps provide alternate solutions to people when it comes to the current shelter system.

For example, people who have a pet, or a couple, or people who don't feel safe going to shelters.

Crady said the bungalows could not be used as shelter because they don't meet the required code and regulations. But she said she's glad, they're given a second life.

"They're providing so much additional resources by providing these for us that we're really excited about the next steps," said Crady. "It is cool, because they put so much work and effort into designing and building these, that they have a longer lifespan than what they were used for. So being able to keep using them is a perfect next step for us."

Fletter added while they put in a lot of time and money building the structures, he's also happy to see that the structures will continue being used for good.

"It's full circle. We knew this day would come at some point. But it feels really good that we're able to do something with it, and put it to great use," said Fletter. "It's really important to do whatever we can, and it's hard to do a lot, so you do what you can, and this was a natural thing for us to feel the desire to do."

The area where the structures sat for the past several years will be transformed back into a parking lot for customers to use.

Crady said they hope to repurpose and rebuild the structures to have them in use by the end of the year.

She added that over the next few months, the structures will be stored while the organization continues to work on its expansion and permits and come up with a plan for where the structures will be placed.