By the letter of the law, Jake Linzinmeir is wrong. He knows it, too.
But he thinks the acrimony around a flag outside Jovanina’s Broken Italian, his restaurant at 1520 Blake St., is a microcosm of a city clashing with its business community for no discernible benefit.
“I see it as a culture of No, and then you’re paying to try to get to Yes,” Linzinmeir said of Denver’s approach to giving permits and licenses.
On May 21, a zoning inspector with the city’s Community and Planning Development office told Linzinmeir to take down the flag, which depicts a woman along with the words “Jovanina’s Broken Italian,” by June 4.
The pole that Jovanina’s flag hung from until last week. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
The flag had been up since shortly after the restaurant opened in 2018. Linzinmeir originally wanted to put up a vintage sign from downtown Telluride, but after Denver denied that, he said he got a temporary signage permit to fly the flag. It had been the business’s main signage, along with two smaller signs on front windows that are still there.
He didn’t hear anything about the flag until a year ago, when nearly every business in the 1500 block of Blake was cited for some type of signage violation. He said he was able to “kick that can down the road” since Jovanina’s was going through the process of getting a city-approved sign.
But the situation came to a head with the late May email.
“My enforcement case has been open since 5/23/24, if I had kept current with what the code requires as far as writing citations, we would be well into the ten thousand in citations issued,” the inspector wrote in a May 29 email to Linzinmeir. “The Flag is not permissible and must be removed.”
“He didn’t care,” Linzinmeir said of the situation. “He was just like basically your sign’s illegal, get rid of it. And I was obviously not very happy about that. I did take it down because he said, ‘You could be responsible for $10,000 in fines if I was fining you this whole time.’ And I took that as he’s going to clearly start fining me every day if I don’t do it.”
For Jovanina’s, which has seen a 30% downtick in business since last summer, the potential unexpected fees are a major hurdle. Linzinmeir also said getting the permanent, approved sign has been a tedious back and forth with Denver to make sure it’s up to code. He’s paying the sign maker $13,000.
Linzinmeir said other restaurants on the block are also beaten down. Mexican spot D’Corazón, two doors down from Jovanina’s, recently took down the signage above its doors. As of Tuesday afternoon, the spot, whose owners declined to comment to BusinessDen, had nothing marking it.
“A lot of them have just given up. A lot of them are talking about giving up,” Linzinmeir said of his neighbors. “We’ve had a couple restaurant spaces within the block close, and … the spaces have not been able to be filled. And a lot of that is frustration with the city, with getting permits.
D’Corazón’s sign used to sit on the wooden planks above the doors. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
“They’re like, ‘We’re going to go to cities and towns that want us,’” he added.
The restaurateur, who has consulted for high-end hotel and restaurant projects across the country, said he hasn’t dealt with anything like the difficulties he’s faced in the Mile High City.
“I’ve not encountered this type of resistance, or again, that culture of No. Even in very, very complex situations where it might be a national historic district, or a state that’s notoriously challenging to get work done in, like New York City or Santa Monica,” he said. “Idiosyncratic, for sure. But not this just aggressive, anti-business.”
The city believes it is just enforcing laws as they are written.
“Our goal is to ensure compliance with the zoning code – not to be punitive,” said CPD spokesperson Ryan Huff. “We work closely with businesses to inform them about the code and steps they can take to be in compliance before issuing fines.”
But at a time when Denver’s restaurants and downtown are struggling, Linzinmeir sees the measures as misguided. Especially when CPD has been offering a $25-per-square-foot subsidy per year for four years for operators to take space on the 16th Street Mall – less than a block away.
“It’s a quandary to me why there’s all this punitive action toward businesses on our block and then the city’s giving money to vacant spaces to open on 16th Street Mall,” he said. “Yes, I’d like to see those open too and be vibrant. But I’d also like some help just staying in business here because we’re already here.
“We’ve been paying our taxes and paying our employees for almost seven years now,” he continued. “So don’t kick us when we’re down and then give away a bunch of money for empty space on the Mall.”
By the letter of the law, Jake Linzinmeir is wrong. He knows it, too.
But he thinks the acrimony around a flag outside Jovanina’s Broken Italian, his restaurant at 1520 Blake St., is a microcosm of a city clashing with its business community for no discernible benefit.
“I see it as a culture of No, and then you’re paying to try to get to Yes,” Linzinmeir said of Denver’s approach to giving permits and licenses.
On May 21, a zoning inspector with the city’s Community and Planning Development office told Linzinmeir to take down the flag, which depicts a woman along with the words “Jovanina’s Broken Italian,” by June 4.
The pole that Jovanina’s flag hung from until last week. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
The flag had been up since shortly after the restaurant opened in 2018. Linzinmeir originally wanted to put up a vintage sign from downtown Telluride, but after Denver denied that, he said he got a temporary signage permit to fly the flag. It had been the business’s main signage, along with two smaller signs on front windows that are still there.
He didn’t hear anything about the flag until a year ago, when nearly every business in the 1500 block of Blake was cited for some type of signage violation. He said he was able to “kick that can down the road” since Jovanina’s was going through the process of getting a city-approved sign.
But the situation came to a head with the late May email.
“My enforcement case has been open since 5/23/24, if I had kept current with what the code requires as far as writing citations, we would be well into the ten thousand in citations issued,” the inspector wrote in a May 29 email to Linzinmeir. “The Flag is not permissible and must be removed.”
“He didn’t care,” Linzinmeir said of the situation. “He was just like basically your sign’s illegal, get rid of it. And I was obviously not very happy about that. I did take it down because he said, ‘You could be responsible for $10,000 in fines if I was fining you this whole time.’ And I took that as he’s going to clearly start fining me every day if I don’t do it.”
For Jovanina’s, which has seen a 30% downtick in business since last summer, the potential unexpected fees are a major hurdle. Linzinmeir also said getting the permanent, approved sign has been a tedious back and forth with Denver to make sure it’s up to code. He’s paying the sign maker $13,000.
Linzinmeir said other restaurants on the block are also beaten down. Mexican spot D’Corazón, two doors down from Jovanina’s, recently took down the signage above its doors. As of Tuesday afternoon, the spot, whose owners declined to comment to BusinessDen, had nothing marking it.
“A lot of them have just given up. A lot of them are talking about giving up,” Linzinmeir said of his neighbors. “We’ve had a couple restaurant spaces within the block close, and … the spaces have not been able to be filled. And a lot of that is frustration with the city, with getting permits.
D’Corazón’s sign used to sit on the wooden planks above the doors. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
“They’re like, ‘We’re going to go to cities and towns that want us,’” he added.
The restaurateur, who has consulted for high-end hotel and restaurant projects across the country, said he hasn’t dealt with anything like the difficulties he’s faced in the Mile High City.
“I’ve not encountered this type of resistance, or again, that culture of No. Even in very, very complex situations where it might be a national historic district, or a state that’s notoriously challenging to get work done in, like New York City or Santa Monica,” he said. “Idiosyncratic, for sure. But not this just aggressive, anti-business.”
The city believes it is just enforcing laws as they are written.
“Our goal is to ensure compliance with the zoning code – not to be punitive,” said CPD spokesperson Ryan Huff. “We work closely with businesses to inform them about the code and steps they can take to be in compliance before issuing fines.”
But at a time when Denver’s restaurants and downtown are struggling, Linzinmeir sees the measures as misguided. Especially when CPD has been offering a $25-per-square-foot subsidy per year for four years for operators to take space on the 16th Street Mall – less than a block away.
“It’s a quandary to me why there’s all this punitive action toward businesses on our block and then the city’s giving money to vacant spaces to open on 16th Street Mall,” he said. “Yes, I’d like to see those open too and be vibrant. But I’d also like some help just staying in business here because we’re already here.
“We’ve been paying our taxes and paying our employees for almost seven years now,” he continued. “So don’t kick us when we’re down and then give away a bunch of money for empty space on the Mall.”
