Hidden Gems: Meet Niya Gingerich

Today we’d like to introduce you to Niya Gingerich.

Hi Niya, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started working in the restaurant business at about 13-14, main goal was trying to save up for a car. Pretty typical story, started as a host/busser, moved my way up over the years, and ended up landing GM at a successful, local neighborhood bar and restaurant, at the ripe age of 23, I was positioning investors and working with the SBA to buy this restaurant and building on 32nd and Lowell. (The old Mead St Station).

The story turns and someone else buys the restaurant and I find myself unemployed for the first time. I did some soul searching and after what felt like a heartbreaking loss, of not buying my dream restaurant, I considered leaving the industry and starting fresh. I was dating (my now husband) Grant at the time, he had just opened up El Camino back then.

One of his fellow real estate colleagues in the neighborhood had acquired the Music Bar property. He reached out to see if Grant knew anyone who wanted to take over the Music Bar space, as their lease was running up. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. We immediately saw the potential and the vision of the music, events, and the biergarten. We signed a 10-year lease, and Grant and I became business partners before we married, risky or smart!?

We threw a team of friends, family, and local craft and trades folks together and rebuilt the bar and then the Biergarten the following year. We grew and evolved, I poured my heart and soul into that place for 10 years. I tried everything those first few years, I dressed up like a clown and painted kids’ faces on Sundays for a while, we tried a daytime juice shop, a dog park for a moment, Café 46 by day Local by night, and so many things.

By year 3, we started to hit a stride and business was good, we were finding our identity and putting down some solid roots. A lot of highs and lows over the 10 years but we built something that will be forever remembered in the hearts of many. I will never really get over the loss of Local 46 I don’t think. But we had a 10-year lease and were never able to buy into the property there, the owners had sold to developers towards the end of our lease and they have already ripped down the building and Biergarten and begun the largest complex development on Tennyson St.

We were always sort of looking out for what may become our new home after our Tennyson adventure was over but knew it all had to line up just right. I was struggling the last few months we had Local 46. It was emotional. The outpouring of love and the stories shared about how we touched so many made it so hard to say goodbye.

That giant tree in the middle of our Biergarten watched me grow up in a lot of ways, becoming a business owner, a leader, a wife, and a mother. It knocked me down when that place was down. I found myself drinking a (crying in?) beer alone at the bar at Edgewater Inn about a month before we closed Local. I hadn’t been there in almost 20 years. It was nostalgic. The bartender, ended up whispering to me that I should buy the place and gave me her number.

It was the first time in all the years of looking at other potential places, that lit a fire inside me. I saw the potential. Local 25 meets Edgewater Inn. Preserve another legacy place and get to recreate Local, 2 for 1! We took over in January and I am so honored that our entire front-of-house team came with us from Local. We redeveloped the menu and made everything from scratch.

Our food is killer, and we are very proud of what we are doing, but it has been hard. The restaurant business is always hard, I knew what I was getting into, and now I am in the thick of it! But I am having a ball tossing pies, working these old Blodget ovens, and slinging schooners to great people. Local 25 is getting built out as we speak and we are finalizing the stage and bar design, we are very excited to get that going again.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Restaurant/Bar business is never easy! Throw in Covid when you are running a nightclub, great! The hardest part is always managing people and we have been blessed with some of the best in the industry, but personalities and life just make it tricky. I have learned a lot, but building a foundation of open, honest communication and setting clear expectations is key.

Most of our core team have been with us for 5-10 years, which is pretty unprecedented in this industry. We are a family. Being in a partnership is hard, being married to your business partner is hard, being a woman with male partners has challenges, and being a woman in a man’s world can be hard. Doing business in the City of Denver was hard, increasing rents and labor costs are a real struggle.

Having a few neighbors that fight you endlessly, hard. Lots of struggles along the way, no doubt.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
In an industry that sometimes seems to be losing its soul to corporations and AI and automated everything, we feel strongly about providing a meaningful experience to our guests and creating lasting relationships. It is the deep sense of community that our place provides. It is not selective, it is inclusive.

In our place(s), you meet the old timer sharing stories of North Denver’s and Edgewater’s rich history, the parent, a child, the teacher, a student, the hipster, the freak, the loner and the socialite, the liberal, the conservative, the young and the old. All are welcomed into our home, the only requirement; be respectful and kind and try to have fun.

Community is something that has to come organically, it can’t be forced or manipulated but it is unmistakable when you sense it. We are home to many, on both sides of the bar and in our kitchen. We pride ourselves on supporting companies we believe in and making everything from scratch using high-quality, fresh ingredients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.edgewaterinnpizza.com
• Instagram: @edgewaterinnpizza
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdgewaterInn