Champa Street Cheba Hut Closes Suddenly With No Warning for Staff

"Thank you downtown Denver for the memories and good vibes," reads a note on the door at 1531 Champa Street, which was home to the first Denver location of Cheba Hut, an Arizona-founded toasted-sandwich chain (which produces one of our favorite stoner foods), for nearly fifteen years.

But there are no good vibes from staffers, several of whom say they were blindsided by the closure at a May 13 meeting. One employee, who asked that their name not be used as they are planning to transfer to another Cheba Hut location, tells Westword that only about ten of the shop's thirty or so employees arrived for what was described as a "voluntary meeting."

Some of those staff members thought they would be opening the store that day. Instead, a representative from Cheba Hut corporate "turned off the ovens" and presented employees with severance contracts, offering $1,000. According to the employees we spoke with, no one explained that signing the letters would result in being ineligible for unemployment benefits.
David Timmons, CEO and owner of Cheba Hut's parent company, Elevated Inc., calls that claim "inaccurate," noting that "we gave immediate transfer opportunities to all of our employees as well as an additional paycheck even if they stayed with the company, and we've not done anything to restrict unemployment benefits. We did our best to take care of our employees even in light of this tough situation. We are grateful to have so many employees transfer to our other locations."

"I'm very grateful to the managers at [the] Capitol Hill and Sloan's [locations] for offering to take on as many people as they can," the anonymous employee notes. "They were blindsided by this, too."

There had been rumors about a potential closure, this employee says, owing to the condition of the building — including "consistent pest problems and structural issues. ... We had been asking for resources; it just never happened."

As of May 15, the Cheba Hut sign was already removed from the front of the building, paper covered the windows and there was fresh graffiti over the note. "Our lease has expired," it gave as the reason for the closure.

"We had to close our doors because we've reached the end of our lease," confirms Timmons. "It's been a great fifteen-year run in downtown. We have several other nearby locations to keep serving the Denver community."