It’s been a bumpy ride at 231 Milwaukee St.
The subterranean restaurant/bar space thrived through the ’80s as The Bay Wolf – and limped along for years as Manhattan Grill. When married couple Bruce and Jean Garrett, who were running Manhattan, split, Jean stayed on with the financial backing of her dad, Henry Roath. Last May, they brought in local restaurant guy Marco Colantonio, who grabbed the reins and changed the name and concept to Steak au Poivre.
That didn’t work.
Jean Garrett eventually ended her daily involvement in the bar-restaurant. Colantonio closed the bar area and poured buckets of Roath’s money into it, making Bar Luxe, Cherry Creek’s sleekest nightclub-lounge. He also shut down the restaurant, gave it another total redo, and opened it recently as EURO.
Chefs came and went. All the while, the place hemorrhaged money. “The space has been besieged with problems,” Colantonio says.
Colantonio says he quit Thursday when he was told by Roath that Jean Garrett was returning to work. Colantonio sent out an e-mail blast explaining that the place wasn’t making it, he was leaving, and Jean Garrett was taking over. “I simply cannot work with her,” he said.
But when I talked with Jean Garrett on Friday, she said she was totally unaware that Colantonio had left the restaurant or that she was taking it over. “I don’t know where that comes from,” she said. “I’m not involved in the restaurant.”
I relayed that to Colantonio, who said, “That’s nuts.”
And the beat goes on.
30
In newspaperland, “30” means a story has ended. For three Denver publications, it means the story continues.
Out Front Colorado, Denver’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender magazine, turns 30 next month – and throws itself a big invite-only party April 12 at Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House.
Out Front is not alone. The Rocky Mountain Oyster, a magazine for Denver’s swingers and sexually curious, turns 30 in the fall. And Westword, our steadfast alternative weekly, turns 30 in fall 2007. There must be something about the mid-’70s.
“Lots of gay and lesbian magazines have come and gone,” says Out Front owner-editor Greg Montoyas. “We just do what we do, and we do it the best we can, and we keep getting older.”
Ace is the place
Fans of Colorado’s “American Idol,” still-standing Ace Young, call themselves “Highrollers.” They love their man and think he gets unfairly dissed for being too handsome. USA Today quotes the idol on the first song he sang in public: “The Jackson 5’s ‘ABC.’ (At) the Crossroads Mall in Boulder. It was nerve-racking – I knew everybody. I had a Braves hat on because of the ‘A,’ to signify Ace.”
City spirit
The N.Y. Daily News reports actress Laura Linney is hanging out in Telluride these days, smitten with local guy Mark Shauer … Sightem: Owen Wilson visiting Aspen’s slopes and bars last week … Karenna Gore Schiff (Al’s daughter) and her family in Aspen … Sez who: “It takes two people to lie, one to lie and one to listen.” Homer Simpson
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-820-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com.
