The Secret Garden Bar & Cafe closed abruptly during service on Friday morning after workers began petitioning passers-by about their efforts to form a union.
City Street Investors opened Secret Garden a year ago, next to its company headquarters at the Tears–McFarlane House, 1290 Williams St., a historic mansion adjacent to Cheesman Park in Denver. But barista Tess Devillier told the Denver Post that the company grew frustrated by employee attempts to unionize earlier this year.
She said she was working Friday when two of the firm’s employees emptied the cafe — which is one of the only restaurants located adjacent to a park in Denver — closed the doors and told employees of the closure. “I was crying and having to serve the people that already paid for their coffee,” Devillier said. “They shut us down, no notice, no news.”
City Street Investors marketing and branding director Kirsten Becker confirmed Secret Garden’s closure in a statement Friday afternoon. She said the cafe closed because it was operating at a “significant loss” and not because of the union.
“The restaurant was a financial failure. It never posted a profit,” she said in a statement about the restaurant, coffee shop and cocktail bar. “There is no connection to the employee unionization.”
City Street Investors is a major investor in restaurants and restaurant properties in Denver, including many in Union Station, along with the Lowry Beer Garden, Billy’s Inn and more.
A majority of about 20 staff members voted to unionize this summer, Devillier said. After a scheduled bargaining meeting this week, City Street Investors told employees about their intent to close Secret Garden later this month, she said.
The closure came earlier than expected after employees began telling parkgoers about the unionization effort, she said. She specified the workers were off duty and not on company property, but rather near the walking path on the park grounds.
“There was a line out the door,” she said. “A couple of higher-ups closed the doors and we sat in there for a second.”
“They wouldn’t answer any questions, and so we grabbed our stuff and clocked out,” she said.
In a statement, the UFCW Local 7 union said, “This sudden shutdown not only displaces workers who were organizing to improve their workplace but also strips the local community of a beloved gathering space. Workers and supporters are calling on Denver residents to stand in solidarity. City Street Investors — a company with deep ties to publicly supported development projects and multiple well-known restaurants across the region.”
In the same statement, UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova added, “This retaliatory closure in response to what is clearly activity protected under Federal law is just the latest in a string of unlawful acts committed by Secret Garden and its corporate owners, City Street Investors, to silence the voices of workers and retaliate against them for unionizing.”
Secret Garden’s social media pages and website were no longer accessible on Friday. Ex-employees continued to petition for signatures at Cheesman Park on Friday afternoon following the closure.
City Street Investors operates Union Station and the Schoolyard Beer Garden in the nearby Golden Triangle neighborhood. It recently announced it would buy The Fort in Morrison upon the retirement of the restaurant’s owner next year.
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