In its heyday, Longmont’s Dickens 300 Prime restaurant and Opera Home was a spot the place folks loved coming to work.
“It was actually laid-back. It was actually enjoyable,” mentioned former server Kristina Ball. “There weren’t too many issues, to be trustworthy … everybody appeared to get alongside.”
Katie Drexler, the restaurant’s former head server and coach, labored alongside mates in addition to household — her mother and father, Invoice and Danielle Lusk, had been the manager chef and the overall supervisor, respectively. And Drexler and her mother and father mentioned the proprietor, Noella Colandreo, thought-about them “like household” to her.
“I imply, I’ve her stuff in my storage,” Danielle Lusk mentioned.
“We’ve traveled together with her earlier than, we’ve gone and accomplished stuff collectively — it was greater than only a work relationship,” mentioned Invoice Lusk.
In mid-October, although, the Lusks had been fired, others promptly resigned, the enterprise immediately closed its doorways and Colandreo stopped speaking with workers. Greater than a month later, quite a few former workers have mentioned they nonetheless haven’t been paid their ultimate paychecks.
“(Colandreo) was working hand in hand with my household,” Drexler mentioned. “For the few months I labored together with her, it was actually nice up till, on the finish, she simply blew the swap and we had no clue the place it got here from.”
On the morning of Oct. 15, Colandreo abruptly fired Invoice and Danielle Lusk by way of a textual content message despatched to Danielle. Danielle Lusk despatched a screenshot of the textual content to the Instances-Name. “I respectfully will transfer on with out your and Payments (sic) providers. Any ultimate pay shall be despatched inside 24 hours,” the textual content learn.
And the next morning, former server Kaitlin Horvath confirmed up for her Sunday brunch shift to seek out nobody else there and the constructing closed.
“I assume everybody both put of their two weeks or simply determined to not present again up throughout that shift,” mentioned Horvath. “There was no supervisor there, there was no govt chef. So I feel it was simply, like, a domino impact form of factor.”
Horvath, Ball, Drexler and the Lusks all say they nonetheless haven’t been paid their ultimate paychecks, which had been resulting from them Oct. 28. The Lusks have had no contact with Colandreo since she fired them. Drexler and Horvath have unsuccessfully tried to succeed in Colandreo to seek out out when their checks could be arriving by mail (as they mentioned they had been instructed they might). Drexler mentioned she has begun speaking with an legal professional and is contemplating authorized motion.
“I don’t wish to be left with out cash that I’m owed and I’ve earned,” Drexler mentioned. “We made positive (Colandreo’s) restaurant ran. We made positive every little thing seemed correct and we had been nothing however nice to her, and we don’t respect this … slap within the face.”
“I’m angered that I didn’t get a dialog,” Invoice Lusk mentioned. “I really feel disrespected on the subject of that. Per week earlier than (I used to be fired), we had been household.”
The closure got here 2½ years after the restaurant and opera home, which shared house within the historic Dickens constructing at 300 Major St., got here underneath new possession. The Instances-Name beforehand reported that Colandreo and her husband, Anthony Sanschagrin, took management of the companies in March 2020, after shifting to Colorado from Tampa, Florida. They operated the companies underneath the umbrella of their company entity, SRN Enterprises LLC.
Colandreo and Sanschagrin rebranded the restaurant as an upscale steak and seafood eatery, and the 300-seat Opera Home upstairs hosted stay music occasions in addition to weddings. Though there have been plans to open a Boulder location at 1125 Pearl St. this summer time, these plans by no means got here to fruition, and an Oct. 13 letter hanging within the window of the constructing on Pearl confirmed SRN Enterprises LLC owing the owner simply over $41,000 in hire and charges.
Now, a “for lease” signal hangs within the window of the Dickens in Longmont, and a crew was seen taking down awnings outdoors earlier this month. Colandreo and Sanschagrin have additionally break up, in response to a number of former workers, and Sanschagrin has not been concerned within the enterprise since earlier this 12 months.
Former workers of the Dickens say they don’t know the place Colandreo is now. However as of Nov. 10, Colorado Secretary of State enterprise information confirmed that SRN Enterprises had modified its registered agent to Jennifer Noella Colandreo Sanschagrin, Colandreo’s full identify, and its mailing deal with has been modified to at least one in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Beforehand, Colandreo and Sanschagrin co-owned a pair of marriage ceremony venues in Tampa that closed immediately in 2017 underneath equally mysterious circumstances. ABC Motion Information reported that the venues had been closed because of the couple failing to pay hire.
Colandreo and Sanschagrin couldn’t be reached for touch upon this story. Hansal Properties LLC, which owns the Dickens constructing, additionally couldn’t be reached for remark.