Photo: Jay Bianci at So Many Roads (by Taylor Bish) | By Catie Cheshire, Westword | After a Denver Police Department investigation into reported violations at Sancho’s Broken Arrow, the Department of Excise and Licenses slated a hearing for 9 a.m. October 27 to determine if the Grateful Dead-themed venue should keep its liquor license.
But on October 26, Jay Bianchi, who had an ownership stake in Sancho’s until 2020, when he divided his holdings so that Tyler Bishop owned two-thirds and Timothy Premus owned one-third, posted a notice on Facebook that the bar is closing at the end of tonight.
“Sancho’s Broken Arrow has been an institution in Colorado for 22 years,” Bianchi wrote. “I am very sad to announce that it will not be in that location anymore.”
Under an agreement with the Department of Excise and Licenses, another Grateful Dead-themed bar founded by Bianchi, So Many Roads at 918 West First Avenue, is already slated to close for the month of November because of violations of both state statutes and city ordinances related to providing alcohol to a minor, selling alcohol to a minor, distributing a controlled substance and disorderly behavior.
In February 2021, the DPD sent two plainclothes vice cops — Officer Sierra Kenoyer and Detective Michael James — into Sancho’s Broken Arrow to conduct an undercover drug purchase. They couldn’t buy drugs that night, but after two other vice officers met an employee at So Many Roads who also works at Sancho’s, they reportedly were able to purchase cocaine at the bar in September 2021, and then a second time that November.
Sancho’s was cited with four counts of cocaine dealing, two counts related to an unlicensed security guard and two counts of allowing underage alcohol consumption, as well as three charges related to the conduct of an establishment, including allowing on-site marijuana consumption.
At the hearing scheduled for October 27, an independent hearing office would listen to testimony from both the Denver City Attorney’s Office and a representative of Sancho’s Broken Arrow. The hearing officer would later issue a recommendation regarding the bar’s liquor license, which would be reviewed by Molly Duplechian, executive director of Excise and Licenses. She would have the ultimate decision on whether the bar could keep its license.
But according to Bianchi, it became clear to the owners of Sancho’s that the city would revoke the bar’s license, and so they decided to close on their own.
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Read the rest of the article here:
https://www.westword.com/restaurants/sanchos-broken-arrow-denver-bar-excise-liquor-license-15325222
Catie Cheshire is a staff writer at Westword. After getting her undergraduate degree at Regis University, she went to Arizona State University for a master’s degree. She missed everything about Denver — from the less-intense sun to the food, the scenery and even the bus system. Now she’s reunited with Denver and writing news for Westword.
Read a related article on So Many Roads here:
So Many Roads Brewery Agrees to Close for November Over Code Violations
https://www.westword.com/news/so-many-roads-brewery-will-close-for-november-over-code-violations-15222812
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! http://www.femmusic.com ]
October 27, 2022| Music-Related Business| Barb Dye