But where do I eat now?
People asked that question when the Steak Pit closed in 2010, when Little Annie’s did in 2016, then the Red Onion in 2020 and Jimmy’s an American Restaurant & Grill in September. Aspen resident Ruth Harrison, writing to local newspapers, concluded her letter about L’Hostaria Ristorante’s closing last week with the same line, “but where do I eat now?
Aspen’s menu of restaurants hasn’t just been tinkered with since the pandemic broke in late March 2020. Remade is more like it, the seismic shift evident through the arrival of out-of-town restaurant owner/investors and the continued loss of locally owned and popular standbys, with affordable options becoming an increasingly endangered species.
“The whole town is changing, and it gets harder and harder to survive,” said Mark Tye, who worked 35 years in Aspen’s service industry. These days he’s an observer. “Corporate ownership is a totally different mentality than local ownership.”
Aspen still has plenty of locally run restaurants, and Tye worked at one of them — Mezzaluna. But be it Boogie’s Diner, Wienerstube‚ La Cocina, Cooper Street Pier, Pinions, The Chart House, Rustique, Shlomo’s or Main Street Bakery — and many others that have closed since 2000 — all were locally owned, and guests had a good chance of being personally greeted by the owner, with some of those initial handshakes blossoming into friendships (and repeat visits).
There have been exits among chain locations, too, over recent years. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, popular in metropolitan cities, was a bust and closed in 2009. Casa Tua operates there now. McDonald’s shuttered in 2016 and was replaced by a yoga studio. Domino’s left around the time the pandemic hit in 2020.
The wrecking ball came for buildings that had housed popular restaurants: The Boogie’s building was remodeled; Wienerstube’s old Hyman Avenue address is now retail and office space; La Cocina’s spot was razed and replaced with new restaurant space on the 300 block of East Hopkins Avenue, also known as “Restaurant Row”; the Dancing Bear complex occupies the former Chart House space; and Main Street Bakery is an unfinished project that developer Mark Hunt has said he wants occupied by a diner.
Other than the old Main Street Bakery location, there just aren’t any restaurant spaces available in Aspen, unless current restaurant tenants will sub-let their space to a new restaurant, and maybe sell their business as well.
“The only way to get in now is to buy someone out,” said Karen Setterfield, who brokers commercial space downtown. “There’s no space waiting there.”
Liquor license applications offer insight into what kind of money it takes to get a restaurant going in Aspen.
Eli Hospitality, which is taking over Tatanka Western Bistro spot, is investing $2.9 million into what will be called Eli Eats, according its liquor-license paperwork on file at the Aspen city clerk’s office.
Eli Eats’ future spot at 308 E. Hopkins Ave. — La Cocina’s old address — is owned by a Nevada company. Tatanka didn’t last long at the space; it opened in the summer of 2019 and had closed by the end of last ski season. Eli Hospitality also is taking over a lease, which is set to expire in July 2028, that commands an annual base rent of $227,885 through its first five years and $247,724 for the next five years.