The Secret Garden Bar & Cafe closed abruptly during service on Friday morning after workers began petitioning passers-by about their efforts to form a union.

City Street Investors opened Secret Garden a year ago, next to its company headquarters at the Tears–McFarlane House, 1290 Williams St., a historic mansion adjacent to Cheesman Park in Denver. But barista Tess Devillier told the Denver Post that the company grew frustrated by employee attempts to unionize earlier this year.

She said she was working Friday when two of the firm’s employees emptied the cafe — which is one of the only restaurants located adjacent to a park in Denver — closed the doors and told employees of the closure. “I was crying and having to serve the people that already paid for their coffee,” Devillier said. “T

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