Mayor no longer a restaurateur

Employees buy Hick's 40% stake in seven restaurants

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 28, 2007 at midnight

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It's the end of an era for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Just a few months shy of 19 years since he opened his first restaurant in Denver - the Wynkoop Brewing Co., on Oct. 18, 1988 - Hickenlooper has sold his share of seven restaurants to his employees. He was the majority shareholder.

Hickenlooper, a dark horse candidate with no political background, used his experience as a successful restaurateur to persuade voters to elect him as mayor in 2003.

The sales price wasn't released, but observers estimated that Hickenlooper received in the neighborhood of $7 million for his 40 percent share of some of the best-known eateries in Denver.

"They're icons," said restaurant consultant John Imbergamo.

Wynkoop's was the first brewpub in Denver; Gaetano's was once a hangout for the mob in northwest Denver; and Cherry Cricket is one of the last low-cost, locally owned dining spots in Cherry Creek.

"The employees bought it," Hickenlooper said. "In some way it is every entrepreneur's dream to some day sell what you created to your employees."

The deal closed Friday.

Lee Driscoll, CEO of Wyn-koop Holdings Inc. and the second- largest shareholder of the restaurants, with 35 percent, said there are initially six new owners.

But there will be about 20 owners when shares are granted to managers of the restaurants, head chefs, and other key executives and longtime employees, he said. However, it will not be an employee stock ownership plan, in which every employee typically can own shares, he said.

Hickenlooper said he first learned about the offer about a month ago.

"They were pretty far down the planning before they approached me," Hickenlooper said.

He said he appeared before the city's ethics board to make sure it was all right for him to talk about selling his holdings, and he was told it was fine.

"I haven't had time to give a thought to the restaurants since I was elected mayor," Hickenlooper said.

He said it was only right that the "people working at the restaurant every day should enjoy the fruits of their labor," by being owners.

He said he made the right decision by selling but admitted it wasn't easy. Hickenlooper added that he has always considered himself an entrepreneur first and foremost, whether running the restaurants, "rejuvenating" historic buildings or running the city.

"I hardly get a chance anymore to get to any of them, but certainly the affection I feel for Wyn-koop and Wazee, Cherry Cricket, the Pearl Street Grill and the others is a real emotion, and I do feel a great sense of loss. Whenever there is a loss, it should be mourned. I felt a loss when I stopped being a geologist and opened Wynkoop's."

Driscoll said it is also "bittersweet for us," since Hickenlooper has been such a great partner. He said there will be no changes at the restaurants.

Driscoll said everyone they've asked wants an ownership stake. Some have indicated they would be willing to pay money to buy more stock.

Hickenlooper said the money from the sale will go into a blind trust run by friends and successful businessmen Driscoll, Steve Leatherman and Ken Gart.

"This will be a true blind trust, because with the restaurants, I obviously knew what my assets were, but I won't now," Hickenlooper said. "I'm sure they'll invest it in things that are conservative and noncontroversial."

Asked if he thinks he will get free beer at his restaurants now that he no longer is an owner, Hickenlooper said, "That's an interesting question. It's hard to say."

But the mayor's money is no good at any of the restaurants, according to Driscoll.

"He's got a lifetime of free beer - and food, too," Driscoll said.

What was sold

Mayor John Hickenlooper sold his entire stake in seven restaurants to a group of employees. The restaurants:

Wynkoop Brewing Co.

Wazee Supper Club

Cherry Cricket

Gaetano's Goosetown Tavern

Pearl Street Grill

Phantom Canyon in Colorado Springs

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

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