"Because the shop was closed, there was nothing else: no fixtures, no coolers, no anything." Lisa Morris, the last owner of the Truffle Cheese Shop, gave that description to Westword in June when she explained what the new owner had bought from her. He bought the name, the customer list and the social media accounts. The room at 2906 E. Sixth Ave. was not part of the deal, and it had already been leased to someone else.
That empty room is now Chicken Riot. Next door at 2908 E. Sixth Ave., the old Maggie & Molly's Bakery got a full build-out this year. It has new equipment and furniture, and its tenant signed a ten-year lease. It still hasn't opened. The 7th Avenue Historic District is a residential parkway running from Logan Street to Colorado Boulevard between 6th and 8th Avenues, and this commercial strip sits on its southern edge. On this one block, the space that came back was the one that had been stripped bare. The space that was ready to go is waiting on a federal bankruptcy judge.
Two Seizures, Two Doors Apart
Maggie & Molly's opened its Sixth Avenue storefront in 2010, right next to the Truffle. The two shops shared a wall for fifteen years. Their closures came about two months apart, and both followed the same process.
- October 2025. The Colorado Department of Revenue seizes the Truffle Cheese Shop for back taxes. Morris told Westword at the time that with most sales coming from online orders, keeping a storefront no longer made sense.
- December 2025. The doors at Maggie & Molly's Sweet Life are locked. A Denver Department of Finance warrant cites more than $30,000 in unpaid sales tax going back to December 2023. The bakery had won a 2013 Best of Denver award for its coffee cake. It closed about a week before Christmas Eve, in the middle of holiday cookie season.
- January 2026. BusinessDen reports that the group behind Riot BBQ has leased the 660-square-foot former Truffle space.
- March 2026. Brooke Vaughn announces that Please & Thank You, her cookie and coffee company, will open at 2908 E. Sixth Ave. "in the coming months." Chicken Riot opens next door that same month.
- June 2026. Please & Thank You files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 2.
So the two closures were nearly identical, and the next tenants were announced within weeks of each other. Everything that separates the two doors today happened after March.
A Small Empty Room Filled Fast
Chicken Riot is a sister restaurant to Riot BBQ, the Tex-Mex barbecue smokehouse at 2180 S. Delaware St. The Denver Post counted Riot BBQ among the city's biggest restaurant openings of 2025. Pitmaster Patrick Klaiber and chef Manny Barella, a former "Top Chef" contestant, built the new place around one dish. It's a half-chicken called pollo asado, which became a standout on Riot's first menu.
At Sixth Avenue, the half-chicken comes either a la pibil or citrus-marinated, served with two sides such as Mexican fried rice or beef tallow black beans. The menu also has shredded chicken sandwiches and smoked chicken Caesar wraps, plus smoked turkey tamales for anyone who wants something other than chicken. In March, plates ran $13 to $19 and a single tamale was $6. According to the restaurant's website, it's open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and takes online orders.
The details matter here. The space is only 660 square feet, and the Truffle had left nothing behind. The tenant was a team with one restaurant already running, and it was adding a second place built around a dish it had already proven. About two months passed between the lease report and opening day.
A Finished Café With Nothing to Open It
The 2908 space was in better shape. In a June 2 court filing, Vaughn wrote, "Capital improvements were made to the space, equipment was purchased, and the café was furnished. It was slated to open in June 2026, but the project is stalled due to lack of working capital." She had told BusinessDen in March that she signed a ten-year lease.
The trouble was the company, not the room. In the filing, Vaughn said the company had lost $430,000 on $4 million in revenue in 2025. It hadn't turned a profit since 2019, even in years when revenue grew. When it filed, it listed $332,000 in assets against $4 million in liabilities. Vaughn blamed higher costs for supplies and labor and unpredictable tariffs. She also cited a drop in sales that followed an online controversy over one of her Louisville stores early in the year.
Here is what the court record shows as of today:
- The company has a new owner. An August 10 court order approved a sale of substantially all of Please & Thank You's assets to RRHHA, LLC, the only bidder. RRHHA paid $137,500 and took on $37,500 in gift card and rewards obligations, for $175,000 in total.
- The buyers are a Louisville group. It includes Matt Argo and Zach Hensley, co-owners of Good Folks Coffee, which has supplied the chain's coffee for about fifteen years. Wild Eggs co-founders JD Rothberg and Shane Hall are also partners. They're promoting the change with the line "Same cookie. Fresh start. More hospitality."
- Coverage of the sale doesn't mention Denver. Daily Coffee News reported in mid-September that the company runs three Louisville-area cafés. In July, Good Folks did not answer BusinessDen's questions about the Denver store. No public source says whether the new owners kept the Sixth Avenue lease or let it go.
- The case isn't over. On October 2, the U.S. Trustee moved to convert the bankruptcy to Chapter 7. A hearing is set for November 10.
So 2908 E. Sixth Ave. has new improvements, equipment and furniture, and a lease signed for ten years. What happens to it depends on decisions being made in Kentucky.
Where the Cheese Went
The Truffle is the third piece of this story, and it shows the same split from the other side. Its storefront was lost, but the business itself survived.
The Truffle started on East Sixth Avenue in 2001. It has had five sets of owners. In 2007, Rob and Karin Lawler, who had worked at Potager, bought it and turned a general specialty foods shop into a cheese shop. The newest owner is David Walsh of Denver-based DHP Holdings. According to Morris, Walsh and his wife were regular customers who contacted her after reading about the closure in Westword. Morris said the two had been talking for almost a year before the sale. The announcement said the outstanding obligations had been resolved, which cleared the way for the business to come back.
The Truffle isn't returning to Sixth Avenue. Its new home is the historic Evans School at 1115 Acoma St., and the building's tenant directory lists it in Suite 110. The retail counter isn't open. The shop's August 21 update said there was "a lot of work to do" before the doors open, and it gave no date. In June, Westword said the shop could reopen "as early as this fall." No newer announcement has confirmed that timing.
In the meantime, the business is running without a storefront. It's taking orders for cheese and charcuterie platters again and has restarted its cheese-making classes in the old schoolhouse. The class calendar lists an in-person session at the Evans School on Thursday, October 8, at 6 p.m. Walsh has also said he plans to sell products from Colorado makers and farmers, first online and later in the store. That's a return to the broader specialty foods shop the Truffle was in 2001.
The Two Addresses in October
The block shows why one door reopened and the other didn't. At 2906, a stripped-down room went to a team that already had a working restaurant, and it filled in about two months. At 2908, a finished café went to a company that ran out of money before opening day. Nine months after the bakery closed, the space is still empty. The Truffle, meanwhile, has new owners, a suite at 1115 Acoma St. and a class on October 8, but no counter and no opening date. For anyone living near the 6th Avenue side of the parkway, here's the short version for this month:
- 2906 E. Sixth Ave. Chicken Riot, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- 2908 E. Sixth Ave. Please & Thank You's Denver café, furnished but not open. The next scheduled step in the bankruptcy case is the November 10 hearing.
- 1115 Acoma St., Suite 110. The Truffle Cheese Shop. Classes and platter orders are running now, and the retail shop has no opening date yet.
When a storefront near you changes hands, the lease is usually the part nobody sees, and it's the part Aaron Linkow and Lindsey watch most closely on the blocks around the parkway. If you're curious how a quiet stretch of East Sixth figures into what your home is worth, start with a free home valuation and we'll walk through it with you.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
