Sometimes, for various reasons, The Business Times isn’t able to print everything it wanted to present in a story. When that happens and we feel the need to provide what the original story was missing, we’ll bring you “More to the Story.”

The July 1, 2026, edition included a Page 2 story about Rides Bar & Grill surviving a tough winter and spring when Fruita’s South Mesa Street was torn up for reconstruction. Because of The Business Times’ space limitations, the story did not delve into Rides owner Krista Mahler’s thoughts about the need for the project. So, here they are now

Mahler acknowledged she knew when she bought Rides Bar & Grill, 152 S. Mesa St., in the spring of 2025, she knew about the South Mesa Street project that was scheduled to begin in the fall and generally approved of it.

“One of the main reasons they needed to do it was because the sewer lines have always backed up on the street for a long time,” she said.

However, she did not anticipate Rides “would be blocked off from the main roads for a good portion” of the project, which ended up lasting eight months. She said if she’d been told it could last eight months instead of three to six months, she would have budgeted differently and possibly mitigated some of the harm to her business.

Asked whether the street work was something that needed to be done, Mahler said without hesitation, “Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah. I mean I was aware when I purchased the business that there was going to be construction, and I understood what they were doing, and I bought into the whole concept of it.

“I do believe that this will become one of the new main arms into the downtown area, because it gets very congested over by City Market, coming off of there, and then just driving down through all the residential areas. So, I knew it needed to be done, and it looked very industrial prior to all of this. So I bought into the whole concept of: We will be the first thing you see. Of course, Fiesta Guadalajara will be first, but then you’re gonna see us as the new face of downtown.

“And so that’s really what I brought into was that concept. And I still believe in that. It just took a lot longer than I had initially been informed. But, you know, it’s turned out beautiful.”

Mahler said South Mesa Street stands to be the new path for Fruita’s parades to start and head toward Park Square.

“They’ll line up down McCune (Avenue) and start going down Mesa Street,” she said, “so that’ll allow me to have maybe some outdoor seating areas where we can utilize the entire parking lot for people to watch the parade.”

u Understanding landlord: Mahler said she asked her landlord for a little help when the street reconstruction was decimating Rides’ revenues and ability to pay bills.

“Luckily, my landlord was gracious enough to cut my rent during the last half of it, so that helped immensely,” she said. “I had him start coming out here to see what I was dealing with, and he was like, ‘Oh, now I see what you’re talking about.’”

u A few residual issues: Mahler said the city posted in late May that the street is open, but there were still “a couple of fine-tuning things” that needed to be done.

Before the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, the city had to do a couple of temporary closures, she said, “so it created confusion for people. It’s like, ‘Aren’t they, open?’ So, it was just a little chaotic in the interim, but now they’re fully open, and they’re not doing anything else.”

Mahler said South Mesa Street was blocked off during the festival “just because of all the pedestrian traffic,” and she didn’t want passers-by getting the wrong impression when they saw barricades.

“It’s like, ‘No, no, that one’s temporary,’” she said.