ARVADA — Kira Witt is very precise when explaining how she does her favorite job at Jack’s Bar & Grill, making sweet- and-sour mix for margaritas with freshly squeezed juices.
She describes each step in the process slowly and deliberately — her halting speech the result of a developmental disability — but the pride and enthusiasm she has for her job is evident, both in her demeanor and her attention to detail.
“When I make the sweet-and-sour, I have to squeeze the lemons and limes, get all of the juice out of them, so they are nice freshly squeezed,” said Witt, 31, who is engaged to be married. “Then, with the lemon and lime juice, we have to blend them into simple syrup. When we make our simple syrup, all we need is water and sugar. Then we add the juice to the simple syrup, and I stir that, and I ladle it into our bottles.”
Witt has worked at Jack’s, which doubles as a coffee shop called Steamers, for six years. She and 40 other developmentally disabled employees there enjoy their work, whether it’s cutting potatoes for French fries, rolling silverware in napkins or making jams and jellies to serve with breakfast and sell over the counter.
Crysta Bartram is autistic, which makes her exceptionally talented at dicing vegetables.
“I had a woman ask me the other day, ‘Does a machine dice your tomatoes?’ ” said co-owner Athan Miller. “I said, ‘No, we have a woman who’s autistic who dices our tomatoes.’ They are perfect.”
Because of her autism, Bartram wants everything in her environment to be precise. Her cutting board has to be placed perfectly straight on the table, equidistant from the edges.
“We capitalize on that part of her heightened ability,” Miller said. “We just have to find each person’s heightened ability, capitalize on that, and they become a really productive worker. It’s very easy for her to cut perfect little sections. For me, it becomes entirely too tedious. I can’t do it. She can do it for four hours.”
Before Miller got into the coffee shop and restaurant business with her husband, Jack, a former racer on the U.S. Ski Team from Steamboat Springs, she was a social worker working with the developmentally disabled. Athan, 39, has worked with the developmentally disabled in one manner or another since she was 15.
When the Millers bought Steamers in March 2007, it was a 400-square-foot coffee shop grossing about $70 a day. Elsa Lombardi, 57, was their first developmentally disabled employee, and she’s still working for them six years later.
“They’re beautiful, they’re nice, very nice people,” said Lombardi, who makes coffee, puts dishes away, cleans tables and sometimes teaches customers how to say good morning in Italian. “I love them.”
Six months after buying Steamers, the Millers moved into a nearby space with 1,300 square feet. In April 2010 they moved into a 2,000-square-foot space at their current location and added the bar and grill, building the restaurant out of a hollow building shell funded out of savings by the Millers and partner Scott Parker, along with a small family loan.
In May 2012 they added upstairs seating with another 1,200 square feet.
Eighteen months after taking over the original coffee shop, sales grew from $25,000 annually to $110,000, and sales the first year in the current location were $530,000.
Aaron Zieschang has been a loyal customer since the beginning.
“To see it grow has just been amazing,” Zieschang said. “One of the special parts is seeing all the employees, their faces light up. They take a lot of pride in their work and having a job. I think a lot of us take for granted that we have jobs and forget how special it really is, what it means to us as a person. The fact that Athan can employ these folks and teach them skills, and they really enjoy it and are proud of it, is an amazing thing.”
The Millers own the operation debt-free with Parker, whose Parker Personal Care Homes manages housing, supported living, independent living, foster care and vocational rehabilitation services for the developmentally disabled. Athan was a caseworker there when Jack had the idea to buy the coffee shop and hire disabled workers.
Steamers/Jack’s employs another 40 workers without developmental disabilities.
“One of the things we talk about is building inefficiencies into the business model,” Athan said. “Business models are efficient. The more efficient you get, the better off you are. Our business model is inefficient. The more inefficient things we do, the more work we can provide for people with disabilities.”
Now, through the crowd-funding site Indiegogo, the Millers and Parker are trying to raise $45,000 to build a 1,300-square-foot commercial prep kitchen across the street so they can hire even more people with disabilities. So far they’ve raised $15,000.
“We just don’t have the space to do all of our prep work,” Athan said. “We’re going to have more space and allow more people to do the prep work. We will also have more time to assist people who may have a more difficult time learning the prep stuff. We’ll have more time and space to teach that person.”
The prep kitchen would allow Steamers/Jacks’s to hire 20 to 30 more people with developmental disabilities in a training program. Trainees would learn how to do kitchen work, and then they could apply for jobs at Steamers/Jack’s or other restaurants.
The unemployment rate for developmentally disabled adults runs around 75 percent. The Millers get their disabled employees from all over the metro area.
“All people can work, we just have to learn how to teach them how to work,” Athan said.
Jack competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in slalom and giant slalom. After retiring from racing, he worked for a while in real estate. Now, Steamers/Jack’s is a labor of love.
“The better our food is, the happier our customers are,” Jack said. “The more customers that come in, the more opportunities we can provide. We really are changing people’s lives. It’s maybe sad to think, but for a lot of these, coming to work and having that opportunity is the greatest thing in their lives. I feel great for giving that to them.”
So does his wife.
“They brighten my day,” Athan said. “They are funny, they are talented, they make you laugh. Who wants to run a restaurant? Nobody. It’s an awful, hard job. But running a restaurant where developmentally disabled people work is the funniest, most chaotic, greatest thing ever.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
