After more than 70 years, Cy’s Drive In is closing in Colorado Springs — and Elvis is leaving the building.

Cy’s, one of only a handful of 1950s-era drive-ins remaining in the Springs, will end its run when the west-side eatery at 1833 W. Uintah St. shutters at the end of October or in early November, said owner Kathy Micci.

“I will miss it a lot, honestly,” said Micci, a former software engineer who’s operated Cy’s since 2005. “I’ve met a lot of people over the years. I see them, I know them by name. That’s the part I will miss.”

The closing is bittersweet for Micci, one of several owners since Cy’s was launched in 1953 by founder Cy Long. His namesake restaurant, which operated on West Colorado Avenue for a time, moved to its current location in 1970, Micci said. Long died four years later, according to Gazette archives.

Micci leases the single-story cinderblock building that houses Cy’s from property owners Dan and Jeana Hopper. Since 2018, they’ve owned and operated the next door Rick’s Garden Center; last year, they created a separate entity that purchased the Cy’s property, Dan Hopper said.

The Hoppers aren’t renewing Micci’s lease, which runs to year’s end; that decision was made after several discussions between the Hoppers and Micci, who said she bears the owners no ill will.

Dan Hopper said the feeling is mutual on the part of himself and his wife, who are looking to redevelop the Cy’s site. They have no concrete plans at this time, though a coffee shop is one idea, he said. It’s unknown if the existing building will remain, he added.

“It’s their property,” Micci said of the Hoppers’ decision not to renew her lease. “I don’t want to throw shade at them; it’s just business.”

Her decision to close Cy’s, however, isn’t just about her lease.

Now 71, she said she’s been looking to retire and sought to sell the business for the past two years. But there have been no takers, Micci said.

“I’m really kind of heartbroken that after all the years we had it posted for sale that nobody bothered to think about it until we said, ‘oh, now we’re going to have to close,'” she said.

Now, as news has spread, many people are saddened by Cy’s closing, Micci said.

“Like I said, I was wanting to retire, but I was hoping to sell it,” she said. “I’ve got all of my retirement from my old job, my 401(k), everything I had is sunk into this restaurant. And so now, it’s kind of like, I’ll walk away with whatever I can get for my equipment.”

The restaurant business also is tough. Profit margins are slim, Micci said, and there’s more and more competition. California-based In-N-Out Burger and Whataburger of Texas, for example, have opened locations about 5 miles to the north along Garden of the Gods Road.

On a personal front, Micci said her husband, John, has suffered serious health issues this year, including a stroke.

“You kind of come to the point where we may not have a lot of time together,” she said. “I’m at the restaurant generally 50 to 60 hours a week. It’s time for me to let go of it.”

Some customers aren’t necessarily ready to let go of Cy’s.

“In an age when business seems geared to constant growth and change, Cy’s is small and true to the past,” Ted Delaney, columnist for the then-Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph wrote in 1988 when he profiled the restaurant. “Cy’s is a touchstone for many people in this west side neighborhood. It’s a place that can connect them to the long-gone days when Colorado Springs was a town of 35,000.”

And not much has changed about Cy’s since that was written. It’s the kind of place where every day of the week is a Throwback Thursday.

Hand-lettered menu boards — there’s nothing digital here — still display Cy’s comfort food favorites that include hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, patty melts, fries, onion rings, shakes, malts, sundaes, soft-serve ice cream cones and banana splits.

Cy’s signature sandwich remains the Alaskan Burger — two hamburger patties, cheese, a center bun, lettuce and Thousand Island dressing. Cy Long named it after the state because of the burger’s giant size and because he created it in 1959, when Alaska gained statehood, according to Gazette archives.

At Cy’s, employees still work as carhops to provide curbside service for motorists who park out front and turn their lights on to signal they’d like to order. Cy’s cozy dining room of four booths and three tables, meanwhile, is adorned with decades-old memorabilia, including photos and a small statue of Elvis Presley, which Micci said she might auction off after the restaurant closes.

At lunch Wednesday, while her daughter, Kat, cooked in the kitchen, Micci manned the front  counter where a steady stream of customers waited patiently.

Don’t look for a fancy ordering kiosk like those at McDonald’s or a point-of-sale, iPad-like digital technology system that many restaurants employ.

Instead, Micci jots down customer orders on a pad of paper and hangs order slips on what’s known as a ticket reel, which spins around so that kitchen workers can grab the orders and start cooking.

“We’ve got an old cash register,” Micci said. “An old system. We’ve got a ticket reel. We’re very old-school. Sometimes we take orders and people go sit and wait in their car if it’s to go. We take it out to them.”

Others are glad to wait in the dining room or at picnic tables just outside the front door. Cy’s draws a mix of loyalists and newcomers, some who live nearby on the west side and others who make a cross-town trek.

Bethanie Bacon and her 13-year-old son, Noah, live about 20 minutes away near Powers Boulevard and Constitution Avenue on the Springs’ east side. They’ve only been coming to Cy’s for about a year, but make it over about once a month for lunch which, on Wednesday, consisted of cheeseburgers, fries and Cokes.

“It’s a friendly atmosphere,” Bethanie said. “The food is really good and the price is right on point.”

Bethanie and Noah didn’t know Cy’s is closing.

“I’ll miss the entire whole thing,” Noah said.

So will Mike Askins, 71, who’s been coming to Cy’s since 1964 — yep, 60 years — for one reason: a butterscotch malt.

He said he lived in the Widefield-Security area south of the Springs, where his father was a church pastor. He earned a few dollars mowing lawns as a kid and developed a taste for butterscotch malts.

“They have butterscotch malts,” Askins said of Cy’s. “Everybody else will have caramel. That’s about as close as you get. But they have real butterscotch.”

Askins now splits his time between Arkansas, where he has a peach orchard, and Colorado. He makes a point of visiting Cy’s when he’s back in the state during the summer.

“It will be hard to replace it,” he said after learning of Cy’s closing. “The personality, the culture up here, the friendliness.”

And where will he get his butterscotch malts?

“I don’t know,” Askins said. “I’m not converting to caramel, though. I’d rather go to McDonald’s and have vanilla.”

Terry and Jim Wincek, who live downtown, eat at Cy’s maybe once a week. Terry said she and family members have been coming to Cy’s since they moved to Colorado Springs in 1960.

On Wednesday, Terry ordered a cheeseburger and a Coke to take back home to Jim, who was working. A day earlier, Jim got a strawberry malt.

“He likes the strawberry because it’s made from scratch,” Terry said. “It’s got a strawberry in it.

“It’s awesome,” she added of Cy’s food. “They have homemade everything. It’s not sitting on the counter getting dry and hard and nasty. It’s made to order. It’s quality.”

Told that Cy’s is preparing to close, Terry reacted like some other customers: “That makes me sad. I’ll have to break the news to (Jim) when I get home. He’ll be sad, too. One of a kind. They’re all going away.”

At least two similar drive-ins remain in Colorado Springs: The Drive In Tastee Freez at 2309 N. Weber St. and BJ’s Velvet Freez at 1511 N. Union Blvd.

But many other familiar names have disappeared, such as Conway’s Red Top and the Hungry Farmer, which Micci called one of her favorite restaurants.

“It’s sad to see them go,” she said.

Now, Cy’s will be joining them.

“We’ll be around for a couple more weeks at least, maybe three,” Micci said.

She added: “It’s kind of hard. I never wanted to be the last owner. I honestly thought there’d be somebody out there (a buyer), who’d be like, ‘oh, you know what, this has been around forever, I think I can do this.’ But I guess not.”