Every Opening and Closing This Week: Pizzeria Shutters Two Locations and More

While November brought nearly thirty new places to eat and drink, that pace slowed as December kicked off. This week, there are four openings to report, and just as many closures.

Two of those are the two locations of Pizza 3.14, which specialized in Chicago tavern-style pies and got its start in Boulder in 2021. Owners David Daniel and Olivier Leheux added a Denver outpost two years later, but both spots are now shuttered.

“It was a lot things,” Daniel says of the decision to close the business. “The insanely long permitting process in Denver that delayed our opening seven months, and being in a bad debt cycle ever since. A culture shift in Boulder that led to the nightlife on the Hill completely dying. Rising cost of everything and consumer spending going down. … It was an amazing four-year run for the company, and a great two and a half years in Denver. The main thing would absolutely be the City of Denver and all the delays in opening that put us in a hole we were never able to get out of. I closed Boulder two weeks ago after the last home football game. I tried everything I could to save the Denver store, but just wasn’t able to make it happen.”

Permitting delays have long been a complaint from restaurants opening in Denver; Mayor Mike Johnston says that this year,  the city reduced the time it takes for restaurants to get through the permitting process from eighteen months to “a number of weeks” by launching an express systemfor restaurateurs.

Also now closed is the longstanding Arby’s on South Colorado Boulevard, right next to the still-vacant former Black Eyed Pea building, and the Whiskey Biscuit, which had been open in Englewood since 2017.

There are some tempting options among this week’s four new spots, which include Phatt Matt’s, a new restaurant from Matthew Mino, who launched Big Daddy’s Pizzas in Denver and still operates the Littleton outpost. The menu includes a pretty standard lineup of pizza, calzone wings and cheesesteaks with one unexpected choice that we’re particularly intrigued by: Jazzy’s South African Philly with shaved seasoned ribeye, provolone, Cheese Whiz, onions, peppadew peppers and Mrs. H.S. Ball’s Peach Chutney, with the option to make it spicy with peri peri sauce.

Saturday, December 6, is the official debut of Eloise (which is not related to the Eloise that formerly operated inside Avanti.). This new Tennyson Street spot, from Oliver Miller-Finkel, co-owner of Lula Rose and Good Bread on Colfax, will star a lineup of sandwiches. The opening menu includes two brioche versions (mortadella with pistachio cream; and strawberry with hazelnut, chocolate and vanilla cream) as well as four built on shokupan, or Japanese milk bread: egg salad with a soy-marinated jammy egg inside, cucumber with avocado and wasabi cream cheese, porchetta with cabbage salad and tonkatsu sauce, and a BLT.

The DU area recently lost old-school diner Pete’s University Park Cafe, but is set to gain a new coffee shop and burrito joint soon. And this week, the neighborhood got a new Thai spot: Thai Town, which offers an extensive menu of options, including the tempting khao soi made with slow-cooked bison.

Rounding out this week’s openings is the new flagship expansion location of Old 121 Brewing in Littleton, in the former Great Frontier Brewing space. It’s celebrating with a party on Saturday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Festivities include a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. and live music with Meghan Cave Duo from 2 to 4 p.m. and The One and Only Jon Ham from 5 to 7 p.m. There will be new Old 121 beers on tap, including a Czech Pils, a pale ale, and collaborations with Milieu Fermentation, Lady Justice Brewing, Palisade Brewing, and Paramount Beerwerks. The space now includes expanded bathrooms, upgraded fixtures and an expanded outdoor seating area.

In other openings and closings news:

• The Frasca Hospitality Group is closing Sunday Vinyl after New Year’s Eve and replacing it with an events space.
• Theo Adley, the chef/owner of Marigold in Lyons, is opening a new restaurant in RiNo this winter.
• We finally got confirmation that Benny’s, the beloved Mexican spot that had been closed since 2020, is gone for good.

Here’s the complete list of restaurants and bars that opened or closed this week*:

Openings

Eloise, 4315 Tennyson Street
Old 121 Brewhouse, 2010 South Oak Street, Lakewood
Phatt Matt’s, 2231 South Broadway
Thai Town, 2039 South University Boulevard

Closures

Arby’s, 1480 South Colorado Boulevard
Pizza 3.14, 225 East 20th Avenue and 1313 College Avenue, Boulder
The Whiskey Biscuit, 3299 South Broadway, Englewood

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

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