- Lauren Boebert's Shooters Grill, famous for its firearm-toting waitresses, has shut down.
- Boebert said its lease had expired and was not being renewed by her new landlord.
- She said she's mulling reopening a scaled-back venue "like a Shooters coffee shop with pastries."
Rep. Lauren Boebert's Shooters Grill restaurant — which gained notoriety for its firearm-packing waitresses — has closed its doors.
The Glenwood Springs Post Independent, a Colorado news outlet, first reported the closure on Wednesday.
Speaking to the publication, Boebert said her new landlord informed her that the restaurant's lease would not be renewed after June.
"There wasn't really much wiggle room or anywhere to compromise unless we bought the building ourselves," Boebert said, per the outlet. She added that she was hoping to preserve the "Shooters brand" with her husband.
"It's been an amazing journey. I don't regret anything. It's always sad to close a chapter. But this is where we're at," Boebert said, per the Independent.
The lawmaker also floated the idea of reopening as a scaled-back eatery that could look "like a Shooters coffee shop with pastries and some easy breakfast sandwiches and merchandise," the outlet reported.
The restaurant closed its doors on Sunday, per CBS News.
Pictures by the Independent and Twitter users showed a sign written in chalk outside the restaurant that read: "Thanks for the Support. Stay Tuned. #COVFEFE."
"Covfefe" is a possible reference to a 2017 Twitter gaffe by former President Donald Trump, who also used the hashtag in a message signaling his return to the Truth Social platform.
Boebert's restaurant courted its fair share of controversy. In 2014, it made headlines after pictures of its gun-toting waitresses were posted on Facebook. The lawmaker also repeatedly used a bogus story about a man being "beaten to death" outside her restaurant to advocate for gun rights, despite the man having died of a drug overdose.
In 2017, dozens of people at a local Colorado rodeo came down with symptoms of food poisoning after consuming the restaurant's pork sliders, The Daily Beast reported.