The owner of AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q is scaling down his Denver operations and closing three restaurants this month, leaving only his Michelin-rated barbecue spot.
Restauranteur Jared Leonard confirmed the closures Tuesday of Grabowski’s Pizzeria in Lakewood and two Campfire locations in Lakewood and Evergreen.
“Current conditions have made operating full-service restaurants in the state of Colorado very difficult,” said Leonard, 44, adding that he “can’t continue to run businesses that lose money.”
A new tenant will open a pizzeria under a different name inside the Grabowski’s, which has housed pizza joints for 40 years, he said. Other tenants are interested in the Campfire locales.
He will continue to run AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q at 2180 S. Delaware St. in Denver, the restaurant he originally opened in his hometown of Chicago in 2010. The Michelin Guide rated the restaurant in its inaugural Bib Gourmand list for Colorado in 2023. He credited the restaurant’s counter service and its longevity for its popularity.
SSC Hospitality Group, the company Leonard founded with his wife, Amanda, grew once the couple moved to Denver from Chicago in 2018. They launched Au Feu Brasserie in the Zeppelin Station food court, transplanted AJ’s Pit-Bar-B-Q and opened Grabowski’s and Campfire, which served both Neapolitan-style pizzas and barbecue.
Leonard later moved Au Feu into Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood, in a building he first used to open Budlong Hot Chicken. He didn’t keep the concept for long, changing it to a French cocktail bar and then again into a now-closed steakhouse.
Grabowski’s originally opened in 2019 inside The Source Hotel in Denver, then moved to Lakewood four years later.
AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q will remain open, he said, along with two sister restaurants in the resort community of Punta Mita near Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.
When asked about upcoming plans, Leonard, reached from Mexico, said he was “working on peace of mind.”
