Shooters Grill, a restaurant owned by Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado where waitresses with guns on their hips served “Shotgun” burritos, “Locked N’ Loaded Nachos”, “Swiss & Wesson” burgers and “Rifle Toast”, closed on Sunday after the landlord of the building decided not to renew the lease.
Ms Boebert confirmed the closure in a posted statement on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, after contacting The New York Times, saying the landlord, Milken Enterprises, had “no political motivation”.
Benjamin Stout, Ms Boebert’s communications director, said: The Denver Post in June that the lease for Congresswoman’s campaign office, which is next door to Shooters, would also not be renewed by Milken Enterprises. Ms Boebert’s statement on Thursday was not directed at her campaign office and Mr Stout did not respond to an email about it.
Phone and text messages sent to Daniel Meskin, a principal owner of Milken Enterprises, were not immediately answered on Thursday.
Ms. Boebert was elected to Congress in 2020, overthrowing a sitting president by running far to his right. She has embraced spectacle, shouted at President Biden during his State of the Union address, and led to the installation of metal detectors outside the room of the house with her vow to carry a gun on the floor of the house. She won her Republican primary last month.
Mrs. Boebert said: The Post Independent, who reported the closure earlier Wednesday, was told in June that the lease for the restaurant would not be renewed. According to the outlet, Ms. Boebert said, “There wasn’t really much wiggle room or anywhere to compromise unless we bought the building ourselves.”
Ms Boebert at one point came up with the idea of opening a similar establishment: “It might look like a Shooters coffee shop with pastries and some basic breakfast sandwiches and merchandise,” she said in The Post Independent†
In her statement on Thursday, she added that “the Shooters brand is not going away. Exciting things are in the works.”
Attempts to contact the restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, just over an hour’s drive from Aspen, were unsuccessful. Local officials reported seeing items in the restaurant boxed earlier this week and being taken outside.
Susan C. Beachy research contributed.