Longtime NoCo restaurants are closing. What happens when local favorites are lost?
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GREELEY, Colo. — Sweet smells of apple, cherry and cream fill the air, as 73-year-old Sue Albert rolls out dough. It’s late December. She’s selling her beloved pies for the holidays – using recipes from her restaurant, Fat Albert's.
“Just like home,” Albert said, chuckling.
Albert has to fill more than a hundred orders by Christmas. It’s a big job, so she enlisted the help of a few volunteers. She has to run a tight ship, though, as just the sight of the batter is quite enticing.
“Hey I saw that!” Albert quips as a volunteer sticks their finger in an empty mixing bowl and licks off the excess.
She’s doing this work in a local community kitchen because she shut the doors of her restaurant last August after 42 years.
“(It’s) like losing a child,” she said. “In essence, Fat Albert's was a baby of mine…it was the right decision, but you know, hard.”
Albert, and her late husband Roger, opened Fat Albert's on March 1st, 1982, in West Greeley. It was a small family restaurant, with wooden tables, Irish decor and St. Patty’s T-Shirts hanging from the ceiling.
“It was all oak and brick and, you know, kind of laid back, not a lot of glass,” said Brian Payne, the manager of Fat Albert's after Roger Albert passed. “It was kind of dark inside, cozy, you know, oak booths and a very small bar, maybe eight or nine bar stools.”
Sue Albert prepares pies for a holiday sale in 2024. Her secret for creating the perfect crust? Lard. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
Fat Albert's was a community staple for family gatherings, milestones like birthdays and anniversaries, and regular dinners out. Payne said it became the local hangout for the Greeley Police Department, since Roger Albert used to be a cop. When the Denver Broncos trained at the University of Northern Colorado, offensive lineman Keith Bishop and right guard Paul Howard were regular visitors.
“They'd come out and eclipse the sun when they'd sit down at the end of the bar and have a couple of drinks,” Payne said. “The coaches would do bed checks at 10 o'clock and then come close the bar.”
The pandemic hit Fat Albert's hard. Sue Albert couldn’t raise menu prices or underpay her staff. She put in some of her savings to help the restaurant stay afloat. When their accountant called, she knew she had to say goodbye.
“My heart was broken more than my pocketbook, so to speak,” she said. “It was a creation that's brought a lot of joy, and now it's not there anymore.”
The Alberts’ son, John, grew up working in the family business and took on a larger role after his father passed away in 2005. He posted a message on Facebook two weeks ahead of the closure, stating, “It has been our greatest honor to be part of your lives, from celebrating your special moments to simply sharing a smile over a favorite dish.”
“We had people lined up out the door every day before we opened, waiting two, two and a half hours just to come in,” he said. “They were trying to buy, like, signs off the wall and T-shirts. I'm like ‘Sorry we're out. And I'm not giving you the signs off the wall because they mean things to us.’”
Customers were craving one more slice of pie or another Monte Cristo. He said the sandwich, which was dipped in tempura batter and deep fried, was the star of their menu.
“The last two weeks we were open, that's all people wanted,” he said. “And like a normal busy Friday, we would sell 35 monies, 40 maybe. And those two weeks, we did 700, and we were not prepared.”
Fat Albert's isn’t the only longtime restaurant that recently bit the dust. Sundance Steakhouse and Saloon in Fort Collins and Sports Station American Grill in Loveland both closed last year after being open more than 40 years. Johnson’s Corner restaurant in Johnstown was open for 73 years, it shuttered in January.
In 2024, numerous Northern Colorado restaurants closed their doors after decades serving the community. Map: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS.
Despite the closure of community staples like these, Northern Colorado restaurants are actually growing. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that in Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties, there were more than 2,300 food and drink shops in 2023 – over a three percent increase from the previous year. They also employed more than 45,000 people – up more than 500 jobs from 2023.
Yet that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re thriving.
“People will say, ‘Oh, this restaurant is busy. They must be back to normal. Everything must be fine,’” said Sonia Riggs, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association. “What people don't realize is what's happened since 2020, right?”
Government loans have ceased, she said, and there’s been inflation and supply chain interruptions. Expenses like labor, equipment and food have gone up while profit margins have decreased. The association states that only around three cents of every dollar is left over after paying those costs.
“People say all the time, ‘Oh, restaurant (owners) are driving around in Porsches and really fancy cars and are rolling in money,’” she said. “We all know that's not true, especially nowadays…it’s like death by a thousand cuts.”
Greeley is one of the state’s fastest growing cities. But as new homes have sprung up on the western edge of town, restaurants in the historic downtown have struggled to stay afloat. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
While big chains have the ability to absorb a profit decrease or buy in bulk, mom and pop shops can’t.
“We're seeing additional burdens being added to small businesses that are just hard for them to pay for and administer,” Riggs said. “They just don't have the manpower, the money to be able to do it.”
Drivers order lunch at a fast-food restaurant in Greeley. As costs have increased, sources told us that it has become harder for mom-and-pop restaurants to compete with chains and the speed of fast-food restaurants. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
In addition to costs, habits have changed. A restaurant consumer insights survey found that customers spent 40% less at restaurants last year, and they’re visiting them less often.
“Think about what types of life experiences happen in a restaurant, like engagements, celebrations, getting together with old friends,” Riggs said. “That's what's at stake here.”
Greeley resident Dave Adams relates to that. He and his wife Regina would go to Fat Albert's every Friday for date night.
“If you showed up at the normal dinner hour, 6:00-6:30, there could be a 30- to 45-minute wait,” he said. “We always waited…I like to patronize the ‘little guy.’”
Adams was heartbroken when he heard that his “comfortable shoe of a restaurant” would be closing. No other eatery in Greeley compared to it, he said. He and Regina went there four times in the last two weeks Fat Albert's was open.
“I didn't want it to happen, but, you know, it's kind of like death and taxes,” he said. “You don't want those to happen, but it's pretty much inevitable.”
Fat Albert's was like his real-life version of Cheers, Adams said, where everyone knew your name and every need was taken care of well. He believes the Alberts stayed in business as long as they did not just because of their food, but because of their character.
“Roger and Sue worked so many long hours, and they didn’t take a day off,” he said. “They touched a lot of lives. They did a lot of good in the community. They’re going to be missed. I’m going to miss them a lot.”
Stephanie Nealy-Higman relates to Adams’ sadness. She grew up in Greeley and went to Fat Albert's with her grandparents every Saturday night for dinner, as well as for birthday celebrations.
“If you talk to anyone that is from Greeley, I guarantee you they know of Fat Albert's, it was a staple,” she said. “It had so much character to it, you couldn't go get what they had anywhere else...it’s just something you’ll never forget.”
Debra Menke, a former Fat Albert’s employee, peels granny smith apples for a holiday pie sale the Alberts held in 2024.
Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBSNealy-Higman believes there’s been a generational and cultural shift around eating out. Younger people are looking for cheap and instant, she says, while those who are older like to frequent local establishments. She doesn’t think there’s the same appreciation for going out to dinner.
“They think that the fast food chains are the best food that they've ever had, and they are just missing out on what actual, really great, higher quality, maybe even homemade food is,” she said.
Adams said the busyness of Americans, young or old, has also impacted daily habits.
“They're just going and going and going, and the same comes true with their meal,” he said. “They just go in, eat, get out, go home. The family dynamic and unit has changed such that taking the time to relax and enjoy a meal doesn't exist anymore.”
Adams has seen more fast food chains move in as more mom and pop restaurants move out. He thinks people are choosing convenience and price over personal touch.
“Most people have this notion that bigger is better. You can go to any of the big chains, you know, like the Olive Garden,” he said. “They have a good food, but you don't feel like it's home.”
Even though Fat Albert's has closed, Sue Albert and her son John believe food is still in their future.
“I’m pretty stubborn, I don’t like to give up,” she said. “But I don't know. I don't know if I'll get back into it or I'll just help him with whatever he does.”
The Alberts are doing another pie run for Valentine’s Day, and might sell them for Easter as well. As for the restaurant’s old building, John Albert said he heard from the maintenance crew that it may be turned into office space.
Fat Albert’s closed August 31, 2024. As of January 2025, the former restaurant space remains on the market. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
This story is part of a collaboration with KUNC.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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