Mountain Shadows Restaurant, the staple diner “where the locals eat” in Old Colorado City, has closed.

“I’m so sorry to say Mountain Shadows Restaurant is permanently closed. My heart’s breaking; things just haven’t worked out,” co-owner Kasie Swain announced, in part, in a statement posted on the restaurant’s website and social media this week.

In the statement, Swain said the COVID-19 pandemic was partly to blame for the decision to shutter the restaurant that has been family owned and operated for more than 30 years, serving guests breakfast and lunch seven days a week.

“Then a bunch of other stuff piled on,” she wrote.

Swain was not available for an interview with The Gazette before press time.

In her statement, Swain said she is looking to sell the restaurant. She also thanked the restaurant’s customers for their support through the years.

The social media post had nearly 200 comments as of Tuesday evening. Commenters expressed their sadness at the restaurant’s closure and wished its staff well.

“This was our first go-to place when we moved here 10 years ago,” Chesley Stoltz wrote in part. “It’s also the only place that is a hit with every person we take there when they visit. Heartbreaking news.”

Mountain Shadows Restaurant originally opened in Lake George in 1991, moving soon after to its location at 2223 W. Colorado Ave. in historic Old Colorado City, according to information on the restaurant’s website and reported in May 2017 by The Catalyst, the independent student newspaper of Colorado College.

Perhaps best known for their signature massive cinnamon rolls so tasty they would sell out quick, it wasn’t uncommon to see crowds pouring onto the sidewalk in front of Mountain Shadows Restaurant. Visitors loved the diner’s all-day breakfast offerings, salads, burgers, and specialty sandwiches and other plates.

The restaurant even enraptured American celebrity restaurateur Guy Fieri with its hefty servings of comfort food. Mountain Shadows Restaurant was featured on an episode of Fieri’s popular Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” in November 2015.

Mountain Shadows Restaurant is among several businesses across Colorado Springs that have announced closures in recent weeks and months.

Munchies and China Town Restaurant in downtown both recently announced their restaurants will close at the end of the year. Hungry Howie’s, inside the Marketplace at Austin Bluffs shopping center northwest of Academy and Austin Bluffs Parkway, closed in late October, before a Blackjack Pizza opened in its place at 4272 N. Academy Blvd. a month later.