The building’s landlord decided not to renew Ms. Boebert’s lease for the restaurant.
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This article is part of our Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing
Representative Lauren Boebert outside Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colo., in 2020.
Shooters Grill, a restaurant owned by Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado where waitresses with guns holstered on their hips served “Shotgun” burritos, “Locked N’ Loaded Nachos,” “Swiss & Wesson” burgers and “Rifle Toast,” closed on Sunday after the building’s landlord decided not to renew the lease.
Ms. Boebert confirmed the closing in a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, after being contacted by The New York Times, and said the landlord, Milken Enterprises, had “no political motivation.”
Benjamin Stout, the communications director for Ms. Boebert, told The Denver Post in June that the lease for the congresswoman’s campaign office, which is next door to Shooters, would also not be renewed by Milken Enterprises. Ms. Boebert’s statement on Thursday did not address her campaign office and Mr. Stout did not respond to an email about it.
Telephone 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, unseating a five-term incumbent by running far to his right. She has embraced spectacle, screaming at President Biden during his State of the Union address, and prompted the installation of metal detectors outside the House chamber with her vows to carry a gun onto the House floor. Last month, she won her Republican primary.
Ms. Boebert told The Post Independent, which previously reported the closing on Wednesday, that she was notified 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 floated the idea of opening a similar establishment at some point: “It may look like a Shooters coffee shop with pastries and some easy breakfast sandwiches and merchandise,” she was quoted as saying in The Post Independent.
In her statement on Thursday, she added that “the Shooters brand isn’t going away. There are exciting things in the works.”
Efforts to contact the restaurant in Rifle, Colo., a little more than an hour’s drive from Aspen, were not successful. Local officials reported seeing items boxed up inside the restaurant and being moved out earlier this week.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Source: nytimes.com
