Dave Hoffman:  

I owned a restaurant and bar in Colorado Springs, Co. named "The Chicago Loop". We were located in the Citadel mall not far from the Air Force academy. Our idea was to bring the great food of Chicago to Colorado. Only problem was, you cannot get the ingredients out there and no one up here delivers truckloads to the Springs. Our pizza was still the best in town and we were flooded with patrons that had transplanted from Chicago. We made our own beef, Italian sausage and steak for burrito's. We had 4,800 sq. ft. of space and sat 200 patrons. It was a nightmare finding anyone who could cook, so I usually had the responsibility of cooking as well as managing and the usual ownership responsibilities. We had two big screen T.V's and ten smaller T.V's located throughout the rest. bar. We played every Bears game possible, but the Denver Bronco's would usually cut in to our games 5 minutes before the end of the Bears games. Saturdays were especially busy due to college games, the Springs bo...Expand for more