{"id":2447553,"date":"2019-08-14T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T21:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/tasters-last-day-in-aspen-is-aug-31\/"},"modified":"2019-08-15T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T16:56:09","slug":"tasters-last-day-in-aspen-is-aug-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/tasters-last-day-in-aspen-is-aug-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Taster\u2019s last day in Aspen is Aug. 31"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Taster\u2019s Pizza employee David Lucero rings up an order Wednesday at the restaurant, which will have its last day of business in Aspen on Aug. 31. It has been at the Aspen location since March 2008.<\/strong>
Rick Carroll\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Taster\u2019s Pizza will be the latest locally serving restaurant to shut down, with a closing date set Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

The city of Aspen notified the restaurant\u2019s ownership, on the first of this month, that its days are numbered due to the construction underway on the neighboring civic offices. Taster\u2019s Pizza operates from city-owned property at Rio Grande Place and is located across from the skate park and a quick walk away from the county building and courthouse on East Main Street.<\/p>\n

The pizzeria has been operating on a month-to-month lease with the city since 2012 and paying a fraction of the rent \u2014 $1,300 a month plus triple net \u2014 that downtown retail space commands. It has been in its Aspen location since March 2008. It also has a location in Snowmass Village.<\/p>\n

The closing has been expected because of the city\u2019s construction of a 37,500-square-foot building between Rio Grande Place and Galena Plaza. Its completion is anticipated for the spring of 2021, according to Jeff Pendarvis, the city\u2019s interim director of capital assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, Jeff has been really good about advocating for us,\u201d said Stacy Forster, owner of Taster\u2019s, on Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s always tried to get us more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, there are no plans to find another Aspen location, he said.<\/p>\n

Even before the city began talking seriously about building offices on Rio Grande Place, Taster\u2019s knew its tenancy was tenuous because it was in city-own space coveted by the Aspen Art Museum. Aspen voters in May 2009 however, by a margin of nearly 62%, rejected the museum\u2019s ballot question to buy the old youth center building, where Taster\u2019s anchors the bottom level.<\/p>\n

In the past couple of years, the city and Taster\u2019s had an informal agreement that though the restaurant was on a month-to-month lease, the city would try to keep it on a season-to-season basis until it was time to go. That\u2019s essentially what\u2019s happening with the upcoming closing date \u2014 the last day of business for Taster\u2019s is on the last day of August, also the Saturday before Labor Day, which locals more or less consider the start of fall. Taster\u2019s must vacate the premesis by Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mainly access,\u201d Pendarvis said of the reason Taster\u2019s exit. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a crane and a bunch of equipment, and we\u2019ll be getting that whole patio (at Taster\u2019s) reworked as part of the project for the restaurant space.\u201d The city plans to keep the space Taster\u2019s is vacating for future restaurant use, Pendarvis said.<\/p>\n

Forster said his employees know about the upcoming closure. He currently has a staff of 10 full-time workers, along with two delivery drivers, at the Aspen store. That\u2019s on the low side because of anticipation of the pending closure, Forster said, noting that staff size ranges from 15 to 20 during the busy seasons.<\/p>\n

One of those employees, David Lucero, has been a mainstay behind the counter and on the floor at Taster\u2019s since 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want something to get that is reliable,\u201d he said of Taster\u2019s. \u201cAnd it\u2019s easy in and easy out, and they know how much it\u2019s going to cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucero, who lives in Aspen, said he\u2019ll figure something out for future employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Patrons could order pizza by the slice or a whole one; salads, pastas, sandwiches and other items also are on its menu.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, construction workers, a local family and others were having a noontime meal, as the restaurant staff also was busy preparing 27 pizzas for the Aspen Police Department\u2019s Picnic in the Park community gathering at the skate park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has been one of our best customers,\u201d Forster said of his landlord.<\/p>\n

Another government customer, the Pitkin County Courthouse, also has depended on Taster\u2019s during trials and other courtroom proceedings<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have relied on Taster\u2019s to feed our juries,\u201d said Ian Roberts, a deputy court clerk.<\/p>\n

The combined-courts system is tax-exempt, but Taster\u2019s has been the sole restaurant that wouldn\u2019t charge it sales taxes on its purchases, Roberts said. The proximity between the courthouse and pizza shop also was a plus, he said.<\/p>\n

Before Taster\u2019s, the Grill Next Door operated in the space, which also has been home to restaurants serving Indian food and wraps.<\/p>\n

Taster\u2019s joins a number of other locally owned Aspen restaurants that have closed in recent years, including Boogie\u2019s Diner, Little Annie\u2019s Eating House, Main Street Bakery, Peach\u2019s, Over Easy and Rustique.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taster\u2019s Pizza employee David Lucero rings up an order Wednesday at the restaurant, which will have its last day of business in Aspen on Aug. 31. It has been at the Aspen location since March 2008.Rick Carroll\/The Aspen Times Taster\u2019s Pizza will be the latest locally serving restaurant to shut down, with a closing date […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 00:19:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2447592,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447553\/revisions\/2447592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}