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DENVER — When Covid-19 hit the U.S. in March, rev­enue at Alyssa Manny’s yoga stu­dio fell 60 per­cent to 70 per­cent. And it wasn’t just her. Near­ly every busi­ness on Ten­nyson Street, in a gen­tri­fy­ing neigh­bor­hood about 15 min­utes from down­town Den­ver, was hit hard by the pandemic.

First to go was Biju’s Lit­tle Cur­ry Shop, a pop­u­lar din­ing spot fea­tur­ing dish­es that Biju Thomas grew up with in south India, like samosa chaat, dosas and rotis. He moved to the U.S. in 1980 and set­tled in north Den­ver. Feb­ru­ary had been his best month since he opened the restau­rant in 2016. But by March, he was done.