All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
Pinocchio's Incredible Italian in Niwot will be getting a new name in the coming weeks.
The Italian restaurant in Niwot, currently known as Pinocchio's Incredible Italian, will soon have a new name according to Kelsey DeBoard, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband Joe.
"I think the name is going to be a family name," Kelsey DeBoard said. "The family name is Cimmini," she said, but there's an argument among family members as to whether it has one "m" or two.
The name change and rebranding comes about as a result of the recent SEC Consent Decree involving Pinocchio's founder Annie Vick, when Vick agreed to pay approximately $1.16 million in penalties, interest, and return of funds to investors from her day-trading pooled investment fund known as AMV Investments, LLC (see sidebar). When the information became public about the SEC and Vick this fall, DeBoard knew she would need to make a change.
DeBoard has received a lot of input from her regular customers about a new name, and she hopes to make a decision in the next week. "It's a big deal, it's like naming a kid," she said.
Everything else is moving forward quickly. "My sister has the new menus pretty much typed up," she said.
The restaurant location at 300 2nd Ave. in Niwot was home to Treppeda's Italian Restaurant for many years before it abruptly closed in December 2018. Vick opened a Pinocchio's at the same location on July 4, 2019. The DeBoards bought the Niwot restaurant from Vick in January 2021 pursuant to a franchise agreement.
Joe DeBoard is the chief cook for the restaurant, but Kelsey is the one who got the family into the restaurant business. "I was working in insurance before this... but I was only working part time....I started serving at the location at Ken Pratt and Main [in Longmont] in 2018, and I fell in love with it."
The original plan was for DeBoard to take over the Superior location, which is now closed. But when Vick started the idea of opening Niwot, DeBoard wanted it. "I went to Niwot High, I love this community, I knew that it's exactly what I'm looking for," she said."It's sort of an old-time restaurant we can have here, and community.... I don't think we can have that at other locations."
The 2003 Niwot grad started working at the Niwot location as soon as it opened. She said she later "suckered her husband in." He ran his own appliance delivery and installation business, but she told him, "Just come and learn to cook, maybe you'll like it." He floated among several Pinocchio's locations at first, but "once he was fully trained, he became our main cook," she said.
The restaurant recently opened for brunch on the weekends. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and open Wednesdays through Sundays. In addition to outdoor patio dining when weather permits, it also offers a large room for private parties. "I just need everyone in town to be patient with the change," DeBoard said. "It's going to be this gradual evolution."
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