What Happened To Lauren Boebert's Restaurant? Why The Controversial Grill Shut Down

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has been embroiled in numerous messy controversies, personally, politically, and involving her former restaurant. For nine years, Boebert owned an eatery called Shooters Grill. She was motivated to start the business as an employment opportunity for former inmates. "We were like a family," Boebert explained to the Post Independent. "Shooters, for any employee, was their life."

Located in Rifle, Colorado, Boebert also had a campaign office adjacent to the restaurant. In summer 2022, the congresswoman was forced to move out of the building when its owners didn't renew her lease. While Boebert didn't offer any specific reasons, she did clarify on X (formerly Twitter) that it "was purely a business decision with no political motivation." At the time, Boebert and her now ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, considered their options for continuing the business, including buying the building or moving to a smaller location in the town. However, those plans didn't come to fruition, and by September 2022, a Mexican restaurant was renovating the location.

Shooters Grill was a gun-themed restaurant, with menu items referencing firearms, like the "double barrel cookie" or the "Swiss & Wesson" burger. In addition, staff members carried guns while they worked, including semi-automatic weapons. This policy led to a potential legal debacle when a 17-year-old server asserted she could wear a gun while working at the restaurant, even though she was underage according to Colorado laws. In addition, there were concerns that Boebert could be charged for allowing her staff member to have a gun.

Despite U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert's surprising net worth, Shooters reportedly had its share of financial difficulties. In two years, the business operated at a loss exceeding $600,000, according to the Daily Beast. Shortly before it closed in 2022, Boebert also referenced how much her operating costs had increased over time. "When I first opened, my burgers cost (diners) nine dollars. That price has almost doubled," she informed The Daily Sentinel. "A lot of that increase has been this year due to inflation." Boebert also clashed with local governmental policies involving the operation of her restaurant. In 2020, she lost her operating license after she disregarded COVID-19 restrictions on indoor dining. 

Three years earlier, her restaurant was implicated in giving 80 people food poisoning at a community event. The contaminated food was actually prepared by Smokehouse 1776, another eatery owned by Boebert. Unfortunately, it wasn't adhering to proper protocol to keep food at a safe temperature and had some hygiene violations. Boebert denied the claims and asserted that the number of confirmed cases was only two. In addition, she further declared in the Post Independent, "My food was tested immediately and came back negative of all bacteria." However, it's unclear how this testing would have occurred. The county's health department conducted their investigation after people reported feeling sick a day later. They didn't have the opportunity to examine food safety practices onsite during the event since proper paperwork wasn't submitted ahead of time.