Lucky Pie Pizza says goodbye to Niwot after three years

Saturday, July 25 marked the last day for Lucky Pie Pizza's Niwot restaurant location.

The restaurant, located on the southeast corner of Niwot Road and 79th Street, offered Neapolitan-style pizzas, with an emphasis on local, organic ingredients.

For three years, the pizzeria built a rotating menu around local offerings. Lucky Pie partnered with Colorado farms whenever possible for a menu that changed with the available local organic produce.

In addition to their pizza, Lucky Pie offered a selection of up to 25 craft beers, serving up local favorites like Bootstrap, Avery, and Upslope. With both an indoor space and an outdoor patio complete with garden boxes, cornhole, and space for kids to play, in prior summers, the restaurant was a favorite spot for families and locals alike.

This summer was very different, as the restaurant struggled to adapt its offerings and keep up the business under Boulder County COVID-19 regulations and stay-at-home orders.

Sarah Brown, the general manager of Lucky Pie at the time that the restaurant closed, said that the restaurant simply couldn't survive the extended closure and reduced offerings.

Brown, who started as the assistant general manager in May 2019 and took over as general manager in February 2020, noted, "After being shut down for two months, we really struggled with converting to takeout only."

As with all Niwot restaurants, the Boulder County COVID-19 regulations impacted Lucky Pie's daily operations and limited the restaurant's ability to serve up pizzas and beer to customers.

In March, Lucky Pie reduced operating hours to Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. They continued to offer pre-ordered pick-up and take-and-bake pizzas.

"We had a pretty solid group showing up every week to get takeout, and I am forever grateful to those people. They made such a difference to us," said Brown.

Through May, Lucky Pie expanded the to-go offerings to include to-go cocktail kits, bottles of wine, and a bring-your-own growler for to-go beer.

"About 20% of our business was bar-related, and it was nearly impossible for us to translate that. I believe we were down to about 4% bar business at the end," said Brown. She noted that with the already small margins of running a restaurant, this loss of income was a severe blow.

At the beginning of June, Lucky Pie announced that it would be back up and running from 4-7 p.m. on Thursdays for takeout only, and Friday and Saturdays from 4-7 p.m. for takeout and 5-8 p.m. for patio service with reservations in advance.

But as Brown pointed out, it wasn't simply a matter of seamlessly re-opening the doors. "You have to have sales to be able to continue to order and keep things stocked. Without sales for two months, we struggled to get restocked on a lot of our products. Plus we worked with a large number of small local businesses, and they were all hit pretty hard by COVID as well," she said.

Lucky Pie re-opened for a short time for limited dine-in. In compliance with local health department regulations, diners were required to wear a face mask at all times when not seated and each table was fitted with a laminated QR code that diners could scan to access the Lucky Pie menu online.

"We love Niwot very much and made some really amazing connections with our guests out here, but I truly believe people were still a bit uneasy about eating out and getting take out," Brown said.

Even with all their efforts, the restaurant could not stay afloat, announcing via social media on Wednesday, July 22, that the last day of business would be Saturday, July 25.

"We want Niwot to know that we really enjoyed our time here. Some of our best memories are the family celebrations we got to be part of - birthday parties, baby showers, anniversaries - that's what we hold on to. Most of us who have stayed in restaurants do it because of the connection to people. Niwot became like a second family for a lot of us," Brown said.

While the Niwot Lucky Pie Pizza chapter is closed, Brown's stint with Lucky Pie will continue at the Louisville location, which remains open. She will be joined by some of the other Niwot staff, and she encouraged folks to stop by.

"We're hopeful some of our die-hard Lucky Pie guests will venture down there. It's always nice for the staff to see friendly faces during the transition times," she said.