COLORADO SPRINGS – As we previously reported, three Borriello Brothers pizza locations in Colorado Springs have closed for nonpayment of taxes.
But there is still one location open: the downtown shop at Platte and Weber.
The downtown location has been around since 1999 and the manager is hoping he can keep it that way.
Manager Rob Raia says phones are ringing a little more than usual.
“Now I have all numbers, all telephone numbers, coming to this location,” he said.
“Yesterday it was every five minutes. ‘oh, you’re open?’ or ‘oh, i was trying to reach fountain or ‘oh, I was trying to reach 8th street’ and it’s like ‘oh, they’re not there.’”
Signs on the door show the state seized these properties for nonpayment of taxes.
“It’s caught everybody off guard a little, you know, I knew they were having problems like that,” Raia pointed out.
“But I didn’t know it was going to come down to that.”
Though he says at his location, doors will remain open to customers like Derek Matten, who’s been coming here since 2011.
“I can still get my pizza!” Matten said.
And now, Matten is savoring it a little more knowing he can only get it here.
“All the other ones are closed,” Matten said.
“This is the last of the Mohicans,” he chuckled.
Or, as the figure of this winking Italian chef out front puts it: “last man standing”.
When Raia explained the meaning behind the sign, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Actually somebody dropped that to me yesterday and my partner said something about that, and I just laughed so this morning i said ‘hey, I’m gonna throw up that sign!’”
He said he wants to remind everyone, “the original guys are still here.”
Raia also said he’s working on hiring some of those other workers that were left without a job
