Patrick Mangold-White, Denver restaurateur, dies in fishing accident

Colorado restaurateur Patrick Mangold-White, 53, died on July 7 when he was hit by a fallen tree during a fishing trip in Philipsburg, Mont.

Mangold-White owned Denver and Fort Collins restaurants Uno Mas Taqueria y Cantina, Bird American Comfort Food, Kaos Pizzeria and Mas Kaos Pizzeria + Taqueria.

He is survived by his wife, Lisa, his daughter Zoe Makela, son-in-law Nik Makela and many in the local restaurant and wine industries who also considered him family.

“He had just so many people that he sort of adopted into his family,” Zoe Makela said. “Really his whole thing for his business model was hiring college kids and letting them stay (to work) as long as they needed to… He was the type of boss who would pay for (staff) to go to Mexico for tequila tastings, or shut down the restaurant for a day at Water World,” she laughed.

“He just was a love of a guy, just always positive,” agreed friend and fellow restaurant owner Goose Sorensen. “His laugh was this big, loud, booming laugh. He wasn’t pretentious and was always there to help people.”

“Everyone would joke that you could hear him (laugh) from the entire Pearl Street corridor,” Makela added.

Mangold-White was known for his earlier career in wine distribution, for his first restaurant, Gaia; and for his lasting neighborhood food businesses on South Pearl Street, Tennyson Street, 6th Avenue and in Fort Collins, where he and Lisa had recently moved to make more space for the falcons.

He kept two of them at home in an outdoor mews and told his daughter that he wanted to move where he could go outside and freely fly them. Over the years, Mangold-White introduced many in his circle to the sport of falconry. He also worked as a fly-fishing guide and spent much of his free time on the water.

“What he loved to talk about were his hunting birds, his wife and daughter, and fishing,” Sorensen said. “He went through a lot of b.s. with his restaurants but always figured out a way through it.”

“He loved every ounce of (running restaurants),” Makela added. “If there was a love-hate relationship it was probably that he couldn’t give more to his employees… .”

For now, her family has told the restaurants’ staff “that if they feel like they need to close (temporarily), they’re welcome to,” Makela said. Mangold-White had still been very present in the restaurants.

And now his family has started a fundraising page to deal with all of the related expenses, some especially unexpected: “To add to the tragedy of Patrick Mangold-White’s passing during his annual camping trip, we’ve learned that his life insurance policy was in lapse at the time of the accident,” they explained on the GoFundMe page.

“It was very, very like my father to die when his life insurance had lapsed, by a day,” Makela added.

She posted publicly on Facebook about her father’s death on July 8, writing, “For what it’s worth, my dad always had an immense fear of hospitals. He said that he didn’t want to die in a bed, and that if he could pick any way to die it would be on the river. That’s what’s making me smile right now.”

Details on Mangold-White’s memorial service and “life party” will be announced before the end of the month, and Makela says to check the restaurants’ social media feeds for announcements and updates.

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