After months of uncertainty following its closure in May, Wheat Ridge Poultry & Meats will soon reopen under new ownership, preserving a legacy dating back to 1942.
Jeff Prah, a veteran of Denver’s meat industry, has taken over the 5650 W. 29th Avenue shop’s lease and plans to open it again in mid-October. The new operation will officially be named “Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meats LLC.”
The reopening marks the end of a chaotic chapter for the 83-year-old business, which culminated in the City of Wheat Ridge seizing the property in May due to unpaid sales taxes. The closure followed years of financial struggles and personal hardships for former owner Jessica Bobitsky, most notably the death of her husband, Rob, and her own mounting medical bills related to multiple sclerosis.
Property owners Conrad and Kathy Nuanes, who purchased the West 29th Avenue Marketplace properties in 2018, say they were unaware of the tax issues – roughly $87,000 in unpaid sales taxes dating back to 2022 – until the city took action on May 12. “We were shocked. We had no idea that this was going on,” Kathy says. The Nuanes spent weeks processing the situation while trying to support their other tenants who were affected by the reduced foot traffic and harassment from creditors.
When it was decided that the space would need to change hands, the Nuanes’ found Jeff Prah to be the best option.
“Jeff has a great reputation in the local meat industry,” Kathy says. “He gets the history of the meat market, and it was clear that this was a chance to move forward.”
Prah emphasized his respect for the previous operation while being realistic about keeping the business name in place. “I’m not trying to steal [Jessica’s] name. I’m really not trying to do that,” he says. “It’s a tragedy, what happened. But I wanted to keep that name because of the lineage and the history of what that building means to the city of Wheat Ridge. That building is known as Wheat Ridge Poultry & Meats, and I wanted to keep it that way.”
Prah brings a great deal of experience to the new role, including 15 years at Marczyk’s Fine Foods, general manager experience at the Hook and Hock butcher shop at Leevers Locavore, and operation of Oscar’s Eats, a sandwich shop and delicatessen he now owns.
The new operation will differ from its predecessor in several ways, including closing the meat-processing side business and vacuum sealing all of the meats on sale. “All of the meats will be cryo-sealed, so you don’t have to worry about getting blood on your groceries and you’ll have 14 to 21 days to eat it,” Prah explains. “If you don’t get to it in that time frame, you can throw it in the freezer, and it’s freezer-ready in that Cryovac packaging – ready to go.”
The expanded market will also stock dry goods, fresh produce, and specialty items. Prah plans to prioritize affordability and quality due to the area’s growing population of young families. “There are a lot of young families in Wheat Ridge and around the area,” Prah says. “Money is tough these days, so I want to make it delicious and also affordable.”
Prah also hopes to keep in place the community-focused services started by the Bobitskys – including a neighborhood cooler stocked with free food for families in need – while adding a lending library of cookbooks and nutrition guides. Longer-term plans at Wheat Ridge Poultry & Meats include live music events, pop-up farmers markets in the parking lot, and sit-down dinners featuring local chef collaborators. Prah hopes to eventually secure a beer and wine license as well.
Prah’s vision fits well with the Nuanes’ goals of keeping the strip mall’s authentic, neighborhood character amid Wheat Ridge’s development. “I value the story of what it is and what it was,” he says.
The West 29th Avenue Marketplace is home to three other established businesses alongside the butcher shop: Anne’s Pie Café offers homemade pies and baked goods, Flair-Do for Hair provides salon services, and Altitunes offers music lessons for children and families. The mix of businesses supports the Nuanes’ vision for a family-friendly destination that serves multiple generations.
The marketplace, which has been around since before Wheat Ridge was incorporated, originally served surrounding farmland when it opened during World War II. The butcher shop building housed chicken coops on its upper level, with eggs delivered to customers below via conveyor tubes. “It really was a place for the community to come and gather, to purchase their produce and visit other businesses that were there,” Kathy says. “That’s really our focus, to keep the legacy alive and make it a destination, a place for the community to come and enjoy the services there.”
Kathy, who grew up in rural Nebraska, chose to preserve the center’s character as a reminder of home: “I know that building is old, and when we purchased it back in 2018 there was a developer who was looking at it, and it could very easily have been scrapped,” she says. “But we wanted to preserve it because for me, when I see that place, it just reminds me of home.”
If all goes according to plan, customers will be able to shop at the reopened Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meats by mid-October, keeping one of the city’s oldest businesses alive and going strong into its next chapter.
