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Went to Dogtooth a few times, it was a very nice place that put out a great sandwich to go with the coffee.
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"A locally owned burger favorite has shuttered one of its two Colorado Springs locations.
Drifter's Hamburgers closed its restaurant this month at 1485 Jamboree Drive, near the Chapel Hills Mall on the city's north side. The location had been open since August 2012.
Owner Rich Beaven declined to comment on the closing. He continues to operate his original Drifter's location at 4455 Mark Dabling Blvd., near Garden of the Gods Road, which opened in 2008.
Several restaurants and other businesses have been hit hard and closed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, though it's unknown what effect, if any, the pandemic might have had on the north-side Drifter's location.
Drifter's has drawn many comparisons over the years to In-N-Out Burger, the California fast-food chain that has expanded to Colorado and will open its first Colorado Springs restaurant by year's end at InterQuest and Voyager parkways.
Like In-N-Out, Drifter's menu focuses on burgers, fries and shakes; Beaven even has called his fare "California-style hamburgers" and topped them with a Thousand Island-type dressing that is a reminder of In-N-Out. The Drifter's menu also features a chicken sandwich, breakfast sandwiches and burritos and a side salad, among other items.
Beaven has tried to make Drifter's a cut above other burger places, bringing in beef from Springs-based Callicrate Beef that's free of hormones and antibiotics and using hamburger buns without preservatives or GMOs, according to the Drifter's website.
"We had the attention to detail in every step of the process; from the house-made hamburger sauce to the hand-leafed lettuce and the tomatoes that are sliced throughout the day to ensure freshness," the website says.
Beaven, who once worked for In-N-Out while growing up in Southern California, has been a member of the local restaurant scene since the early 1990s. He and a partner founded the old Classics Hamburgers in Colorado Springs; after his partner's death in 2002, Beaven sold that business and it closed a few years later."
"Before the COVID pandemic, the only time locals typically heard much from the Colorado Restaurant Association’s Pikes Peak Chapter was through promotion of its annual Pikes Peak Food, Wine and Beer Expo. The 25-year-running event, held at The Broadmoor each spring, tends to draw huge crowds to sample goods and spectate chefs’ and bartenders’ battles. (I’ve participated as a media-member guest cook or judge for more than a decade.) It’s a lavish affair that spotlights local restaurant/bar members and creates a basic awareness of the trade organization’s function in supporting the industry statewide.
To frame how influential the food and drink industry is to Colorado’s economy, the CRA says it provides 10 percent of all employment (nearly 300,000 jobs, at least pre-pandemic) and generates $14.5 billion in annual sales. Though there’s some chain-drain (i.e., franchising fees, etc. that leave the state), still 75 percent of Colorado restaurants are independently owned.
Monthly restaurant-impact surveys available at corestaurant.org provide a “current industry overview” that includes a small jobs report, data from sampled restaurants and some business survival tips. In brief, November’s survey (taken from Nov. 4-12) showed 91 percent of restaurants’ revenue down in summer of 2020 compared to 2019 (roughly 40 percent down being the average). An estimated 27 percent of jobs were cut, amounting to 63,450 positions industry-wide. And when asked when they’ll consider closing permanently if indoor dining is shut down again (as it now is), 79 percent said within six months; 59 percent said within three months, and 24 percent said in less than a month. (To help, consider donating to the CRA’s Angel Relief Fund at corestaurant.org/angel-relief-fund.)
The most recent data as of this writing from the National Restaurant Association showed industry employment at 2.1 million jobs below pre-coronavirus levels as of October. They estimated that at the peak of lockdowns, more than 8 million industry employees were either laid off or furloughed.
Greg Howard, partner in Slinger’s Smokehouse & Saloon and Patty Jewett Bar and Grill, and president of the Colorado Restaurant Association’s Pikes Peak Chapter, says he’s now getting about 100 texts a day; he notes he’s advocating for everyone, not just CRA members. “It’s disheartening. I know some of these operators will lose their businesses, and there’s nothing down the pipeline to help.”
In his unpaid CRA role, he gathers info locally, keeping in touch daily with El Paso County Health reps, and liaises with the state reps, participating in advocacy. He recently wrote a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and the state health board petitioning to allow restaurants that meet certain criteria to be allowed to still operate at 25 percent (or, better, 50 percent) capacity, with sensitivity to case counts in different counties.
“Contact tracing hasn’t been great, so to blame restaurants is a misstep for sure,” he says, pointing out that people will find ways to gather together no matter what. Under restrictions, they tend to crowd homes, which have less air circulation than restaurants, he argues. When restaurants get their occupancy license, part of that process, he explains, is an air-exchange test. Without further clarification of exact air-exchange numbers from the state (part of the discussion around tents), a specialist he recently met with told him that hypothetically just by opening front and rear doors, many places could likely achieve compliance.
On a similar note, CRA President and CEO Sonia Riggs said to Denver Fox affiliate KDVR in mid-November: “We feel like it’s better to have people in an environment that is already uniquely qualified to keep people safe… When you’re moving people out of that regulated space and into private gathering space, those restrictions just aren’t being adhered to. We really think it makes more sense to have people in a space where they are monitored by people already educated to keep those folks safe.”
It’s disheartening. I know some of these operators will lose their businesses, and there’s nothing down the pipeline to help.
— Greg Howard, Colorado restaurant Association, Pikes Peak chapter president
Howard also points to a mental health toll this pandemic has taken and will continue to take on industry members. “Restaurant people are known as misfits,” he says. “They often live check-to-check, and for some of them, the main thing they have going on in life is to be part of a crew.”
Lori Jarvis-Steinwert, executive director of The National Alliance on Mental Illness Colorado Springs branch, confirms that, saying “Research has shown that unemployment has serious and long-lasting impacts on mental health. And when you work in a creative field — like people in local restaurants, bars and breweries — you often live close to the edge financially, which can make you feel especially vulnerable.
“Whether or not they’re called ‘essential workers,’ what these people do is essential to the quality of life we’ve all come to love and appreciate in our community. Their contributions are vital, and their ongoing mental health and financial well-being should be a concern for all of us.”"
It really bummed me out when they announced they were closing. I had some good times there, I always loved the funky, quirky energy of that place. Gentle Fritz did have a fundraiser going and was saying they wanted to open a new place in a new location at some time in the future. I hope they can do that.
I hope that eventually, like maybe late next year or into 2022, if the Covid threat is firmly "get thee behind me" for all of us and life can go more or less back to normal...that there is such a big demand for live entertainment that maybe things will come back strong. It would be cool if we could redefine the "Roaring 20s" for the history books of the future.
I've always thought that Colorado Springs needs at least one or two more live concert venues than we've had. Like Zodiac is tiny, there are a few other little places, Black Sheep is a bit on the small side, the Arena is too big, there are a lot of bands that need a sweet spot, similar to Summit or the Bluebird or whatever up in Denver... I guess we've got that Sunshine Studios place down in Security, but that's...down in Security. And I don't think they promote stuff very well. And I'm not sure if they are any bigger than the Black Sheep, might even be smaller. I dunno. But anyways, I think we could use a good sized (but smaller than arena) concert venue here.
Maybe when this is all over, someone can seize on that opportunity.
I do think that there's gonna be a boom in travel and entertainment and all the stuff that people COULDN'T do during the pandemic, and anyone who is poised to jump in and revive those industries is gonna make bank.
Stargazers is a decent mid size venue. City Auditorium would be the next incremental step up from there. I saw The Rossington-Collins band there many many moons ago. They have had numerous other acts there as well.
Stargazers is a decent mid size venue. City Auditorium would be the next incremental step up from there. I saw The Rossington-Collins band there many many moons ago. They have had numerous other acts there as well.
Yeah, but Stargazers isn't where something like metal bands should really be playing.
I once saw March Fourth Marching Band there, and that was INCREDIBLE. They later played at the Black Sheep, and I thought that was bad...it just was not the right kind of venue for them. The turnout was really low, comparatively, too. Some concerts just make more or less sense at different venues.
It's been sad to me that in the years since I saw M4 at the Stargazer, that I have checked their calendar now and then and not seen anything that caught my eye. Mostly classic rock cover bands. I'd kill to see something like Beats Antique play there, that would be a fantastic fit.
This may be mostly musing from two/three Old Fashioned(s) into a Friday evening, but I sometimes wonder if we are seeing a shift in the relationship between the consumer and what/who produces the consumed (producer). If what was being consumed was operating at such thin margins, perhaps the consumer was demanding too low of charge/price [not an economist, using wrong terminology] to support the producer? Perhaps there needs to be reckoning (in progress) of prices?
I have often wondered about the rise of restaurants/decline of home cooking, and the demand for prices to equate the idealized version of what prices should be. At what price and condition would the charge need to be to warrant eating out? Adjusting for our reality, $100 for two is not going to work for me (and many) to sit outside in 20 degree weather- frankly, no charge will do that for me. At what point will our economy adjust necessarily to provide jobs for the providers that the consumers will agree to pay for? And the providers to also be able to pay as consumers?
What jobs will be created in the absence of these low-wage jobs that provide products for a consumer-based society, if our current system were to become obsolete? Are we at a tipping point, had the 10 month absence of a safety-net created such a need for change that our consumer-based system will fundamentally change, or will it go back to "how it's always been" (that's what I think)?
I feel like, as a society, we have an opportunity to make something new. A new economic system, but alas, we won't know for ten years or so whether or not we have navigated ourselves out of this reality. Of course, I am a historian by training, so I am more "content" in a morose way to wonder what the future will hold.
Several Old Fashioned(s) sounds like an excellent relief for this era.
As for future jobs
I've advised my kids to learn from Darwin, i.e. The future belongs to those whom are the most proficient at adapting and evolving. Life will always kick you in the butt. Get used to it.
People will need to constantly reinvent themselves to maintain a salable skillset. It's been that way since the beginning of the industrial revolution. For example, people used to be employed pumping gas and operating elevators. Imagine that!
However, it's never been easier to learn new things. The internet provides instant access to unlimited topics.
From my point of view, the future is so bright, you're going to need shades.
I feel like, as a society, we have an opportunity to make something new. A new economic system, but alas, we won't know for ten years or so whether or not we have navigated ourselves out of this reality. Of course, I am a historian by training, so I am more "content" in a morose way to wonder what the future will hold.
Yeah, and put you in charge. Sure.
In all times and in all places there have been huge numbers of people who believe if only they and their ideas were put in place - and enforced (for they always have to be enforced) - that the world would be so much better. And in almost all times and places the norm has been poverty and misery on a scale none of us in the Western world recognize.
There has never been but one alternative and that is personal liberty. What is often called the "Capitalistic System" is not a system at all. It is, in fact, the opposite of a system. It is the way free people interact with other free people to pursue their own interests and desires. Before you complain that this sounds selfish please recognize that the ONLY other possibility is to REQUIRE people to pursue the interests and desires of someone else.
That individual freedom brings with it huge economic benefits (as was discovered separately in both Jamestown and Plymouth in the early 17th century) is certainly true. The far greater - and seldom recognized - benefit comes from the inherent dignity which comes from being a free actor in thought and spirit. In any "system" the individual inevitably becomes just a cog in that system, interchangeable and ultimately unimportant.
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