Abo's Pizza celebrates 20 years

This June, Abo’s Pizza is celebrating 20 years of selling New York-style pizza to the Niwot community. Located in Cottonwood Square, the restaurant is a longtime favorite for inexpensive quality pizza.

The restaurant began when owner “Big” Tom Smathers branched off after working his way up the ladder at the original Abo’s Pizza in Boulder and opened Abo’s Pizza in Niwot in 1996. There are now 10 Abo’s Pizza restaurants along the Front Range, two of which Smathers owns.

Big Tom, as he prefers to be called, established the restaurant in Niwot at a time when Cottonwood Square’s occupancy was sparse.

“I’m the oldest tenant in this whole shopping center,” Big Tom said. “It has really grown from a small town with not a lot of business to a ‘restaurant town.’”

In the restaurant’s early years, Abo’s Pizza struggled to attract enough business to survive in such a small town.

“It was a lot of hard work,” Big Tom said. “But it’s a great town and the people here appreciate a better pizza.”

Throughout the past two decades, the menu for Abo’s Pizza has remained largely the same, with only minor changes revealing the passage of time.

“I really believe in keeping it simple,” he said. “It’s the best way to run a restaurant. We have a good product I believe in and there’s no reason to change anything.”

Big Tom, who built the pizzeria from the ground up, emphasizes that Abo’s Pizza is not a franchise. Although it retains the name of its predecessor in Boulder and is licensed to sell their products, it remains a locally-owned business.

Though it was an uphill battle at times, Big Tom is proud of what the restaurant has accomplished. While other small pizzerias have come and gone, Abo’s Pizza has persisted and is now a staple of Niwot’s business community.

“The most enjoyable part has been seeing the business prosper after those first few hard years,” he said. “And being exposed to this town. I had no idea Niwot was so cool 20 years ago and it has turned into one of the coolest towns you could ever own a restaurant in.”

As a small business owner, Big Tom knows all too well the difficulties many local restaurants face and therefore urges patrons to support all of them.

“I really want people to support local pizzerias,” he said. “If you’re not going to support me, support the other guys. I truly believe in that.”

Looking to the future, Big Tom is confident that Abo’s Pizza will continue to thrive with the support of the community for years to come.“We’re very well established, have a great reputation, and I don’t see any negative changes happening – just growth.”

He credits much of Abo’s Pizza’s success to the support it has received from many of its customers. “I’m appreciative of all the support we’ve had (as a) locally-owned business.”

To bolster its success, Abo’s Pizza has also expanded its business by providing mobile pizza services for parties, catering and large events such as Rock & Rails and the Boulder Creek Festival. The restaurant transports ovens and bakes pizzas on-site to maintain its commitment to quality.

The restaurant will be selling $2 slices of pizza through the month of June beginning on Wednesday, June 8 as a thank you to Niwot for its continual support.