Tejon Eatery & Bar food hall closes in downtown Colorado Springs

Oct. 11—The Tejon Eatery & Bar, a food hall that opened just over a year ago in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, closed permanently Tuesday.

The two-story venue, which offered multiple food concepts, two bars, pool tables, big-screen TVs and large seating areas inside a remodeled office building at 19 N. Tejon St., struggled financially since its debut in July 2021, said operations manager Geoff Weichelt.

Because it operated with multiple kitchens, the food hall's labor costs were high, Weichelt said. Tejon Eatery opened with nine food choices a year ago; at the time of its closing this week, its website showed there were a half-dozen concepts.

At the same time, Weichelt said Tejon Eatery failed to draw enough customers. Its opening last year came at a time when many office workers still hadn't returned downtown after working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some businesses still haven't returned to their downtown spaces full time or have hybrid models in which employees work remotely a few days a week. Some critics on social media, however, complained the food was too pricey.

"With that many kitchens, keeping them all open is very labor-intensive," Weichelt said. "And the clientele just didn't support it.

"We tried our best, kept it going as long as we could," he added. "It just wasn't a profitable model."

The closure was strictly a dollars-and-cents decision and unrelated to the Sept. 11 death of owner Sam Guadagnoli, said Weichelt, Guadagnoli's son-in-law. Guadagnoli and his wife, Kathy, also owned and operated several other downtown bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues, as well as the upscale Prime 25 steakhouse south of downtown.

Tejon Eatery's closure resulted in the layoffs of 27 employees, who received notice Tuesday, Weichelt said. The venue might have had as many as 42 employees at different times of its operation.

Some of those employees complained on social media about losing their jobs and paychecks, receiving no notice and suddenly being forced to scramble to pay their bills.

"Closing businesses are extremely, extremely tough decisions to make," Weichelt said. "I don't take closing a business or laying anyone off lightly."

Weichelt said discussions are underway with Kathy Guadagnoli about whether to bring a more traditional, single-kitchen restaurant to the space, though no decisions have been made. Sam Guadagnoli was part of the 19 N. Tejon building's ownership group.

At the time of Tejon Eatery's opening, Guadagnoli said he had spent $2 million to remodel the building into the roughly 26,000-square-foot food hall. Those upgrades included removing offices and opening up a portion of the first floor to the second floor and creating an open-air seating area.

A large portion of the second floor also was set aside as the home for the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum, which was counted on to help draw customers to the food hall.

Guadagnoli, a classic motorcycle owner and fan, donated the space to the museum and only received a portion of museum apparel sales in return, Weichelt said. The museum will continue to occupy its second-floor space for now, he said.