Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar, which sprang into the downtown Colorado Springs restaurant scene in early 2020, closed its doors permanently this week.

Its last day of operations was Sunday, its Boulder-based ownership group, Big Red F Restaurant Group, said by email on Wednesday. A written notice on the restaurant’s front doors at 11 St. Tejon St. in downtown Colorado Springs alerts passersby of its closure.

“After six and a half years — a long and disturbing trip down COVID Road, our current recession that isn’t a recession, and a challenging Colorado restaurant climate — our Colorado Springs Jax location has closed. This was a difficult decision, and we are so grateful to the Colorado Springs community and our incredible Jax team for their years of support,” Sonya Query, the organization’s senior director of marketing, said in an email to The Gazette on Wednesday afternoon.

Three other Jax locations in Boulder, Denver’s LoDo district and Fort Collins remain open.

The brand was established on Boulder’s Pearl Street in 1994. It opened its first Colorado Springs location downtown in January 2020, featuring the same fresh, sustainable seafood Jax has served since 2014.

Jax’s menu includes a chilled raw bar, oysters served in various styles, clam chowder, fish and chips, crab cakes, mussels, lobster, a variety of fish and more.

Query said the brand does not currently have plans to open a new Jax location elsewhere in Colorado Springs.

The Colorado Restaurant Association reports that the statewide industry is one of opportunity but is facing challenges in 2026.

Margins are tighter than ever, with about 3 cents or less remaining from each dollar spent at a restaurant after operators pay for labor, overhead costs and food, according to data available on the association’s website.

Restaurants are struggling to hire qualified staff, operational costs keep rising and Colorado menu prices are about 5.1% higher than the national average as operators try to offset increasing costs.

Additionally, data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment show the state lost 498 eating and drinking establishments between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

Downtown Colorado Springs has seen some restaurant closures since December, including 707 Pizza Co. and Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, while The Perk Downtown has remained vacant since shuttering its doors in 2024.

As well, the area has welcomed several new eateries in 2026. These include Lolley’s Ice Cream, The Sportsbook Bar & Grill, Stoney’s Bar & Grill (which took over the Oskar Blues space), Monse’s Taste of El Salvador 2 and the Ice Cream Lab, for example.