Pasquini's closes Uptown location to make way for Serioz

Stephen Cummings

Pasquini's Uptown has become Serioz.

Late last year,Tony Pasquini was making changes to his 25-year-old chain of pizzerias, building out a Cherry Creek address, which opened in late January, and getting ready to ink a deal for a new spot on East Colfax. At the same time, he was quietly buying back his franchises, bringing all restaurants still bearing the Pasquini's name under his control.

The Uptown Pasquini's closed altogether. "We had a license agreement for fourteen years," Pasquini explains. "I didn't run it. Things have been in transition with all the franchisees, so we negotiated and let it go."

The franchisee still controls the space. "It's under the same ownership," confirms Justin Trinchard, the manager there. "We just have nothing to do with Pasquini's anymore."

But it didn't take long to find another local pizza concept to put at that address. In late January the spot reopened as Serioz Pizzeria, an outpost of the original restaurant in Lowry, serving soups, salads, pizzas, pastas and sub sandwiches. "We're doing the exact same things as they're doing out at Lowry," Trinchard says, and that includes delivery in the Uptown neighborhood.

Pasquini's will continue to serve the Uptown neighborhood, too. "We're delivering from Cherry Creek to that area," Pasquini says. And that should tide residents over until he secures another Uptown location, which he says is a priority. Such a priority, he explains, that he's postponing his plans for a restaurant at Colfax and Quebec, in the Phoenix on the Fax project, until the end of the year.

"I'm looking to replace the Uptown location first, that's more of priority," says Pasquini. And though he won't say exactly where that new restaurant might go, he has a tentative opening month on the calendar: June.