Niya Gingerich sets up her laptop, water bottle, and papers at a corner booth at Edgewater Inn. She signs for orders and talks casually with the bartender on duty.
For Gingerich, who took over the historic restaurant in 2023, this is a normal workday.
Gingerich owned Local 46 Bar & Biergarten, a beloved fixture in the Tennyson neighborhood, before its closing. Local 46 served as the site for many first kisses, first dates, baby showers, anniversaries, and birthdays. For Gingerich, this is the type of community local restaurants and bars should create, she said.
After Gingerich’s 10-year lease ended on the building housing Local 46, the property owner decided to sell the building to a developer—a familiar story to the Tennyson neighborhood, with many historic brick buildings torn down in the name of development.
“There was a bit of an outcry from the community trying to save it, but money is money, and developers have a lot of power,” Gingerich said. “We are not developers, so that was what it was.”
Despite the community pleas to keep Local 46 open, Gingerich closed the doors in September 2022. Three months before the closing Gingerich sought comfort in a neighborhood she visited as a child. Growing up in the Highlands area, Gingerich ate at Edgewater Inn nearly 20 years prior.
Gingerich found solace in the old bar located in a different pocket of Denver, where no one would be talking about Local 46 closing. Over a salad and a beer at the bar Gingerich chatted with Edgewater Inn founder’s granddaughter. Ben DiPietro founded Edgewater Inn 71 years ago. A local legend and the namesake of the street where Edgewater Inn is located, DiPietro’s legacy also includes sponsoring local sports teams, cashing checks for community members and being an anchor in the Edgewater community.
Gingerich began commiserating with the fellow bar owner over the struggles of the industry, including the story of how her beloved restaurant was soon to be shut down. DiPietro’s granddaughter was keen on selling the business to another woman.
“I tell her the story and she leans over and she says, you should buy this place,” Gingerich said.
With an adjacent enclosed patio addition in the building, Gingerich pictured the potential of building a patio, music venue and community gathering space.
By January of 2023 Gingerich took over operations, bringing in a pizza specialist to revamp and train the kitchen staff. Gingerich expanded business hours and remodeled the Lot 46 patio, which earned its name from a City of Edgewater permitting form regarding the development of Lot 46.
“That’s it, we’re Lot 46 because it’s just too serendipitous,” Gingerich said. “We’re still holding on to that piece of paying tribute to Local 46.”
Nearly the entire team from Local 46, along with some loyal customers, joined Gingerich in her shift over to Edgewater Inn.
“This might not be what my high volume bartenders necessarily were planning to do, serving pizza at 11:30 in the morning to a bunch of old timers, but it worked, and we have that core value of hospitality,” Gingerich said.
Dining and drinking at the restaurant for 50 and 60 years, Edgewater Inn has its fair share of old timers and loyal customers.
“A lot of people still come in here that knew Benny [DiPietro] and will tell me stories about who he was and how he was in the community,” Gingerich said. “It’s pretty special. That’s really what it was always about trying to keep the legend of Edgewater Inn going and the legendary Local 46. We got to preserve two pieces of history.”
Although not a member of the DePietro family, Gingerich prides herself on being a small business owner.
“We are a family-owned and operated business,” Gingerich said. “We live in this community. We’re raising our daughter in this community. We aren’t corporate. We’re still ma and pa.”
With neighboring restaurants like 5280 Providence closing its doors, Gingerich feels the pressures of being a restaurant owner in the current economy.
“All my restaurant friends, we’ve all been talking about how much harder it feels in the last few years, what it takes to survive as a small, independent restaurant,” Gingerich said. “That’s why you’re seeing so many go out. It’s a labor of love. We definitely are not in it for the money.”
Gingerich keeps her Local 46 legacy alive by hosting weekly events in the Lot 46 venue, including live music acts, karaoke and DJ dance parties. The patio and Lot 46 community spaces are also open for private event reservation.
Pizza is still the main focus at Edgewater Inn, with dishes on the menu made from scratch, down to the mozzarella. The restaurant also serves beefed up salads and their original pizza sandwiches. Open for late-night dining, Edgewater Inn customers can taste Gingerich’s dedication to the restaurant’s legacy in the slices.
