Disclaimer: While the restaurant’s signage indicates a temporary closure, the online status lists the restaurant as permanently closed.
707 Pizza Co. has closed six months after opening on July 19 in Ed Robson Arena and Yalich Student Services Center.
The establishment, known for its Neapolitan-style pizzas and interactive touchscreen tables, which provided diners with a digital interface to place orders and play games like air hockey and chess, posted flyers on its entrance and windows in early January announcing that it would be “pausing operations” while “evaluat[ing] next steps for the location.”
Subsequently, the Google listings for 707 Pizza Co. and its sister restaurant, Penrose Pizzeria & Pub, were updated to reflect the status of both restaurants as “permanently closed.”
Penrose’s website and social media pages have also been deleted. 707’s website and Instagram page—neither of which mention a permanent closure—remain up.
707 Pizza Co. did not respond to The Catalyst’s request for comment when contacted via its listed phone number and Instagram page. However, in a statement to The Catalyst, Colorado College Vice President of Finance Lori Seager confirmed the eatery’s closure. Seager said that the owners of 707 Pizza Co. notified the college, which was 707’s landlord, in early January that “they did not intend to reopen.”
Information regarding the specific circumstances of 707’s closure is not publicly available.
According to a cost calculator from Interactive Restaurant Technology, the company that supplied 707’s touchscreen tables, outfitting a 120-seat restaurant (comparable to 707’s 118 seats) with its tables would cost approximately $390,000. By comparison, Beaufurn, a distributor that sells conventional restaurant furniture, estimates it would charge at most $110,000 to furnish a similar 120-seat restaurant with both wooden tables and upholstered chairs.
High startup costs impose strict cash flow requirements that can be difficult for restaurants to meet. New restaurants run a typical profit margin of 3% to 5%, according to Toast, a leading restaurant point-of-sale system company. If a restaurant isn’t performing well, it can quickly sink into the red.
Though the restaurant received generally positive Google reviews, it earned more tepid ratings on Yelp and from The Catalyst’s own Sydney McGarr ‘27 and Michaela Ocko ‘27, who described their meal in September as “unimpressive” and added they weren’t “particularly keen” on the touchscreen tables.
Though manager Ashley Villagrana told Fox 21 News in a November video segment that the goal of the tables was to “bring…families together” and entertain small children, McGarr and Ocko stated that, when they visited, “there wasn’t a single one [kid] in sight.”
707’s closure is emblematic of a larger slowdown affecting the $31 billion U.S. pizza market.
In an article titled “America is Falling Out of Love With Pizza,” The Wall Street Journal notes that, since 1990, pizza has dropped from the second largest cuisine by restaurant sales to sixth, a trend driven by market saturation and a lack of novelty.
According to the publication, since 2019, thousands—or roughly 10%—of U.S. pizzerias have closed, reflecting these challenges. Now 707 Pizza Co. and Penrose Pizzeria & Pub are among them.