Cockburn doesn’t leave the swampy bounds of the District too often, but he has now and then been tempted by a trip to Colorado’s Western Slope, where, until last Sunday, Representative Lauren Boebert ran a restaurant in the town of Rifle. Every waitress who worked there open-carried a gun.
Cockburn learned of this Second Amendment-themed eatery through a video his colleague Teresa Mull produced back when Boebert was just a gun and burger-slinging small business owner. Now, eight years later, Shooters Grill has closed. According to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Boebert was shocked to learn that her new landlord would not be renewing her restaurant’s lease:
Boebert said the letter came as a shock. She soon called the landlord but “there wasn’t really much wiggle room or anywhere to compromise unless we bought the building ourselves.”
“Within the next two hours, I had reporters reaching out to me asking me if this was true and if we were being evicted,” she said. “I said, ‘Well, we’re not being evicted. The lease is not being renewed — that’s a big difference.’”
According to Mull, Rifle is a cute little place, but like many small mountain towns, it’s pretty sleepy and has its fair share of drugs. Shooters Grill was a downtown draw and gave Boebert credence when she told Beto O’Rourke, “Hell no, you’re not [taking our guns].” Boebert made national headlines for confronting Beto, launched a political career, pulled off a huge upset, and is now a sitting member of Congress, where she continues to make headlines for being hardcore MAGA, challenging the AOC-led “Squad,” and being the target of some salacious online accusations.
Despite his disappointment at never having experienced Shooters Grill IRL, Cockburn is hopeful that some iteration of the brand will continue. Boebert has said a scaled-back Shooters coffee shop is not out of the question. And with the Supreme Court issuing pro-Constitution rulings right and left, Cockburn wouldn’t be surprised to get a little taste of Shooters Grill right here on Capitol Hill, with Boebert dressed in full Shooters regalia, as she promised to do when she first took office:
Let me tell you why I WILL carry my Glock to Congress.
Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how we are allowed to keep our families safe.
I promise to always stand strong for our 2nd Amendment rights.https://t.co/E75tYpdN4B pic.twitter.com/qg7QGenrNo
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 4, 2021
