Kirkpatrick sells Savory Spice, enters retirement

FORT COLLINS — Former Fort Collins City Councilwoman and former Mayor Susan Kirkpatrick is now also a former business owner.

She sold her Savory Spice business Wednesday to another Savory Spice franchise operator and his partner.

Kirkpatrick, well known in Fort Collins circles for her interest in local affairs and, for the past 10 years, closely plugged into the retail sector of the community, said she is taking the advice of many people and will take the next year off to consider what she wants to do next. Thursday, she was baking an angel food cake, something she’s wanted to do for a while.

“It’s really the question for Baby Boomers: What are you going to do?” She isn’t certain other than wanting to take time off. She will be serving on the board of the Ayers Associates, an engineering consulting firm.

Savory Spice at 123 N. College Ave. in downtown Fort Collins is a franchise business, and Kirkpatrick operated it for the full 10 years she had in her franchise agreement.

Buyers of the business are Chris Grattino and his childhood friend Chris VanDenBerg. Grattino runs the Savory Spice in Aurora. VanDenBerg moved to Fort Collins from Texas three weeks ago, and he will operate the local store. VanDenBerg’s daughter will be a freshman at Colorado State University in the fall.

Kirkpatrick said the sale was a cash deal; she declined to share the purchase price.

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