Successful Colorado Restaurant Owners See Opportunity Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

DENVER (CBS4) – There is no light at the end of the tunnel for restaurants yet. Tables are empty. There is limited capacity that won't pay the bills and an unknown duration of the pandemic.

"It's a three-phase thing and I think it looks different in every phase," said Frank Bonanno, owner of Mizuna, Vesper Lounge and other places near 7th and Grant and at the Denver Milk Market.

The first phase is getting thorough the next few weeks, he believes. The next comes when colder weather arrives and people will no longer eat outside.

"How am I going to survive through the winter? And then what does it look like on the other side?" said Bonanno.

He plans to get through, "I truly expect all 10 of my restaurants in a year will be open."

It's been brutal for restaurants on the bubble.

"It sucks to lose your business," said Juan Padro, who owns 10 restaurants.

But not all restaurants that have, or will go under were destined to succeed.

"COVID's a hell of an alibi," said Padro. "I think when this all flushes out at the end, the people that choose to stay and are pretty good operators are going to do pretty good."

"There's going to be some change in the industry and I think a lot of it is going to be for the better for sure," Padro said. "I mean it's tough to tell somebody that's losing their business you know that they're been passionate about, that's been done a certain way for so long that there's some positives in this."

He sees a reckoning in commercial real estate and spaces available that may not need as much re-tooling. But it's likely he believes, that low margin fine dining options may be reduced.

The people who are still working are learning to do more with less right now, both observed.

"They're learning so much about efficiencies, about what can you do on a shoestring right? Those chefs and those managers and those servers, they're going to be the ones that rebuild it," said Bonanno.

He said he fully expects his chef at Mizuna will one day go off on his own as many other workers have done in the past.

"In two years, he's going to be opening up the next cool spot."

And current spots that know how to cater to their customers, he thinks will pull through.

"It's times like that when you're not going to be running off to the new flash in the pan thing right? Because your dollar is going to be a little more valuable to you."

Learning is a part of business and innovation and nowhere is it more important than the restaurant business.

"It's failures and challenges that make you great. That make you good or make you learn."