Employees left without pay after sudden closure of Longmont’s Dickens

In its heyday, Longmont’s Dickens 300 Prime restaurant and Opera House was a place where people enjoyed coming to work.

“It was really laid-back. It was really fun,” said former server Kristina Ball. “There weren’t too many problems, to be honest … everyone seemed to get along.”

Katie Drexler, the restaurant’s former head server and trainer, worked alongside friends as well as family — her parents, Bill and Danielle Lusk, were the executive chef and the general manager, respectively. And Drexler and her parents said the owner, Noella Colandreo, considered them “like family” to her.

“I mean, I have her stuff in my garage,” Danielle Lusk said.

“We’ve traveled with her before, we’ve gone and done stuff together — it was more than just a work relationship,” said Bill Lusk.

In mid-October, though, the Lusks were fired, others promptly resigned, the business suddenly closed its doors and Colandreo stopped communicating with employees. More than a month later, numerous former employees have said they still haven’t been paid their final paychecks.

“(Colandreo) was working hand in hand with my family,” Drexler said. “For the few months I worked with her, it was really great up until, at the end, she just blew the switch and we had no clue where it came from.”

On the morning of Oct. 15, Colandreo abruptly fired Bill and Danielle Lusk via a text message sent to Danielle. Danielle Lusk sent a screenshot of the text to the Times-Call. “I respectfully will move on without your and Bills (sic) services. Any final pay will be sent within 24 hours,” the text read.

And the following morning, former server Kaitlin Horvath showed up for her Sunday brunch shift to find no one else there and the building closed.

“I guess everyone either put in their two weeks or just decided to not show back up during that shift,” said Horvath. “There was no manager there, there was no executive chef. So I think it was just, like, a domino effect kind of thing.”

Horvath, Ball, Drexler and the Lusks all say they still haven’t been paid their final paychecks, which were due to them Oct. 28. The Lusks have had no contact with Colandreo since she fired them. Drexler and Horvath have unsuccessfully tried to reach Colandreo to find out when their checks would be arriving by mail (as they said they were told they would). Drexler said she has begun talking with an attorney and is considering legal action.

“I don’t want to be left without money that I’m owed and I’ve earned,” Drexler said. “We made sure (Colandreo’s) restaurant ran. We made sure everything looked proper and we were nothing but great to her, and we don’t appreciate this … slap in the face.”

“I’m angered that I didn’t get a conversation,” Bill Lusk said. “I feel disrespected when it comes to that. A week before (I was fired), we were family.”

The closure came 2½ years after the restaurant and opera house, which shared space in the historic Dickens building at 300 Main St., came under new ownership. The Times-Call previously reported that Colandreo and her husband, Anthony Sanschagrin, took control of the businesses in March 2020, after moving to Colorado from Tampa, Florida. They operated the businesses under the umbrella of their corporate entity, SRN Enterprises LLC.

Colandreo and Sanschagrin rebranded the restaurant as an upscale steak and seafood eatery, and the 300-seat Opera House upstairs hosted live music events as well as weddings. Although there were plans to open a Boulder location at 1125 Pearl St. this summer, those plans never came to fruition, and an Oct. 13 letter hanging in the window of the building on Pearl showed SRN Enterprises LLC owing the landlord just over $41,000 in rent and fees.

Now, a “for lease” sign hangs in the window of the Dickens in Longmont, and a crew was seen taking down awnings outside earlier this month. Colandreo and Sanschagrin have also split, according to multiple former employees, and Sanschagrin has not been involved in the business since earlier this year.

Former employees of the Dickens say they don’t know where Colandreo is now. But as of Nov. 10, Colorado Secretary of State business records showed that SRN Enterprises had changed its registered agent to Jennifer Noella Colandreo Sanschagrin, Colandreo’s full name, and its mailing address has been changed to one in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Previously, Colandreo and Sanschagrin co-owned a pair of wedding venues in Tampa that closed suddenly in 2017 under similarly mysterious circumstances. ABC Action News reported that the venues were closed due to the couple failing to pay rent.

Colandreo and Sanschagrin could not be reached for comment on this story. Hansal Properties LLC, which owns the Dickens building, also could not be reached for comment.