2883 Welton Street
Welton Street Cafe, one of the last Black-owned restaurants in Denver's Five Points neighborhood, has been awarded a default judgment of more than $1 million against the contractor the Dickerson family hired to build out their new location.
The Dickerson family has been in the restaurant business in Five Points since the mid-1980s, when founders Flynn and Mona Dickerson brought their vision of Southern cooking with a Caribbean twist from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Denver. The cafe opened at 2736 Welton Street in 1999 and became a cornerstone of the historically Black neighborhood. But by 2022, a failed HVAC system and an expired lease forced the family to close after 23 years. The community rallied with more than $140,000 in donations to help them relocate to a larger space at 2883 Welton Street, one block north.
The family hired Denver design-build firm Desibl and its owner, Keesh Pankey, to handle the buildout. The project was supposed to take six months. It took nearly three years. Work stalled almost immediately after an interior wall came down in mid-2022. The budget, which started at just over $600,000, ballooned. The commercial kitchen hood was paid for three times. Electrical work had to be redone after residential-grade wiring was installed in a commercial space. Plumbing repeatedly failed inspections. The delays devastated the family financially, with members taking on second jobs to stay afloat.
Attorney Jason Krueger filed suit on behalf of the cafe. According to court documents, Desibl and Pankey failed to purchase more than $167,000 in kitchen equipment they were paid for, stopped work for weeks at a time, and drove up costs through unexplained charges. Court filings detailed defective workmanship across insulation, drywall, flooring, HVAC, plumbing, and window installation. A judge awarded the cafe a default judgment of $1,054,079.15 for breach of contract, civil theft, and trust fund statute violations. The contractor's legal team has filed a motion to set aside the judgment. State records show Desibl LLC was voluntarily dissolved in January 2026. Court records also show a separate default judgment of nearly $550,000 against the same contractor in another case involving similar allegations.
The cafe reopened in late 2024 after Gilmore Construction stepped in to finish the job. The new space features a full bar, an expanded dining room, and a mural by Paul Vismara depicting Mona Dickerson and her native Saint Thomas. The Dickerson family continues to operate the restaurant together at 2883 Welton Street.