Last week, Otis’s BBQ owner Stephen Eshelman announced on social media that Sept. 10 would be his last day in Manitou Springs. Eshelman’s restaurant started as a food truck on the El Colorado Lodge grounds, but moved to its current location in the summer of 2024.
“The issues that I have here is that there’s no parking, so a lot of my customers that have been with me since the beginning can’t get down here,” said Eshelman. “I don’t have a kitchen, so I’m unable to produce food as I need to. The place that I’m at now [952 Manitou Ave] is wired for a rock shop, and it’s not a restaurant, so when I go to toast a bun or something, sometimes the power will go out three times when I’m trying to set up an order. So I kind of just have to move on to a place where I feel like I can expand more and do more, have a parking lot, and just have the ability to make the food that I want to make.”
Eshelman says he plans on finding a new location that is more conducive to his business “I’m gonna be able to do what I want to do,” he said. “I haven’t been able to do that. I can’t have my smoker in Manitou. I can’t have my smoker with me and that’s just been a real problem for me because it’s like I have to drive everywhere. Go get the wood, go get the propane, go get to meat, go to the smoker. It’s just a lot of running around that I’m not gonna have to do with a more centralized location. I’ll be able to have my smoker outside. I’ll be able to have everything delivered. It’s just in Manitou, I wasn’t able to do that, and that really kinda held me back a bit.”
Parking and limited facilities aren’t the only problems Eshelman is facing. On Aug. 6, Rebecca Vera, a former employee of Eshelman’s, filed a lawsuit against Otis’s BBQ for $11,336.09 in unpaid wages. According to the lawsuit, “From July 2024 to January 2025, [Vera] did not receive any of her tips earned by credit/debit card. [Vera] is informed and believes that Stephen Eshelman, the owner and/or manager of [Otis’s BBQ], was keeping the tips in order to pay for groceries. In or about Jan. 2025, [Vera] complained to Eshelman about not receiving her tips. After [Vera] complained about her tips, [Vera’s] hours began to be cut by management. As a result of her hours being cut and not being paid her tips, [Vera] resigned from her position with [Otis’s BBQ]. On or about Jan. 24, 2025, [Vera] made a written demand for payment of her earned tips to Defendant. [Eshelman] denied [Vera’s] written demand for payment of her earned tips.”
Eshelman declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. “My lawyer always tells me an unfunny joke, that you haven’t been in business unless you’ve been sued twice,” he said. “I’m not really supposed to comment on that, but it’s gonna get handled in court. It’s gonna be whatever’s fair is gonna get handled. So I look forward to that and I have nothing against anybody.”
Eshelman isn’t the only restaurateur to run afoul of wage laws. In 2021, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s former business, the Wild Goose Meeting House, was found to have committed wage theft by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. Employees argued that under Colorado labor law, server wage employees must not share tips with food preparers or management and claimed ownership illegally split tips between all three of those positions to avoid paying minimum wage, paying employees less than minimum wage before tips.
The Division concluded that the Wild Goose owed wages to a former employee in the amount of $2,372.67, and penalties in the amount of $2,965.84. The Division also concluded that the employer owed fines to the Division in the amount of $850.00.
In addition to the lawsuit, Eshelman also received a critical report from El Paso County Public Health on Jan. 10, 2025. “Observed gross unsanitary conditions – including a large number of trash bags stored in basement, dirty equipment, utensils, and food contact surfaces,” noted a copy of the report obtained by the Bulletin. “Observed facility to lack sanitizer.”
Eshelman blamed the limitations of his current location on that single incident. “I’ve never been closed,” he said. “I got like one issue the entire time. That goes back to like, I can’t function as well as I need to in Manitou. But you know, I’ve had one issue. I have never been shut down. I invite everybody to come in and see for themselves that everything is always on the level.”
Eshelman took this reporter into the food preparation area of his establishment and the basement, which was devoid of trash bags, to demonstrate the current conditions. Eshelman said he looks forward to opening a new location in about a month.
“There’s a great location,” he said. “I haven’t said anything yet because I don’t wanna jinx it, but it’s excellent. I mean, just excellent. Everything that I need basically.”
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