Inside the Final Days of a 114-Year-Old Colorado Restaurant

Running any restaurant in Colorado is a tough endeavor; for a restaurant to last over 110 years, is amazing. Imagine how many customers the restaurant served and the million of memories that were made inside the great spot in a small Colorado town.

in 1913, the Pepper family opened up a small restaurant in Hudson, soon moving to a bigger establishment. In 1956 they moved to their final destination at 530 Fir Street, closed to I-76. In 1977 Dave and Beth Martin took over the owning and operating of The Pepper Pod, which served bison on a daily basis, Some of the bison heads that adorned the restaurants walls came from the bison herd that was once out back of the original restaurant.

Why Did The Pepper Pod Close After More Than 100 Years?

It was in early January of 2026, that The Pepper Pod announced it would be closing its doors, due to Dave's health; he just wasn't able to be on his feet like that, anymore. Though their daughter Amy was well-versed in the restaurant and had Culinary Arts training, she didn't want to run the restaurant without her Dad. Hundreds of people made their way to the restaurant before it officially closed on January 11, 2026.

A Road Trip for a First and Last Visit to The Pepper Pod

Being one who's always up for a little road-trip adventure, I decided that I would be one of those final people to dine at the restaurant, and made the trip from Loveland to Hudson on Saturday, January 10. I wonder if anybody else had made the trip for their "first and last" visit, like myself.

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It turned out that I made the right decision to go on that Saturday instead of their actual  'final' day; they'd plan to serve one final dinner on Monday, January 12, but so many people visited during the weekend that they ran out of food and they closed on Sunday, January 11.