Hospitality & Tourism  November 13, 2015

Old gas station in Fort Collins to become pizzeria

FORT COLLINS — A former gasoline station in southeast Fort Collins will house a Colorado-themed bar and pizzeria that is slated to open in February.

Brian Tessari, who owns Domenic’s Bistro and Wine Bar at 931 E. Harmony Road and Vincent Heavenly Pizza Pies and Pasta at 902 W. Drake Road, will open his third eatery, otto Pint, at 1100 Oakridge Drive, near the southeast corner of Harmony and Lemay Avenue.

The two existing restaurants are named after Tessari’s sons Domenic, now 13, and Michael Vincent, now 11. Otto is the name of a stuffed animal that belongs to Michael Vincent, Tessari said.

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“I purchased about an acre of land with a car wash and the gas station that used to be a Diamond Shamrock and near an Egg & I restaurant,” Tessari said. “It had been on the market for about a year. I had to go through an amendment process to change the use and breathe new life into the property. I got the dead trees out of there and added new landscaping and was able to get the parking restructured.

“My best friend is an architect,” Tessari said. “We’ve been designing and building things since we were kids. Conservative folks kept saying, ‘How are you going to alleviate the gas-station stigma?’ But I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel and make that location completely different. . Nostalgia is fun to see when these things get modified. I really want to play off of the fact that it was an old gas station, and do something fun and creative.”

Tessari plans otto Pint to be “a high-end, one-size-fits-all pizzeria, with a rotating list of eight specialty pizzas such as smoked duck or Cuban, but also a build-your-own option in which customers check boxes much like at a sushi bar.

“This is going back to grass roots for me because pizza’s where I got my start, so I wanted to create this concept show kitchen,” Tessari said. “You’ll be able to see the assembly, watch how it gets done.” The kitchen will include an open-deck oven that can cook a pizza in as little as four to six minutes.

The bar will feature 20 taps featuring local brews and spirits as well as specialty cocktails. An associate who is a metalworker is building bar stools to match the industrial theme, and the canopy over what had been the gas pumps will be closed in with garage doors for the seating area.

“It’s a fun play on a Colorado bar,” Tessari said, “approachable and laid back.”

FORT COLLINS — A former gasoline station in southeast Fort Collins will house a Colorado-themed bar and pizzeria that is slated to open in February.

Brian Tessari, who owns Domenic’s Bistro and Wine Bar at 931 E. Harmony Road and Vincent Heavenly Pizza Pies and Pasta at 902 W. Drake Road, will open his third eatery, otto Pint, at 1100 Oakridge Drive, near the southeast corner of Harmony and Lemay Avenue.

The two existing restaurants are named after Tessari’s sons Domenic, now 13, and Michael Vincent, now 11. Otto is the name of a stuffed animal that belongs to Michael Vincent, Tessari…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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