Is this the last stand for Mustard’s Last Stand?
Boulder’s institutional hot dog joint will have to move from its home of nearly 50 years as the city’s The building, at 1719 Broadway, is in the crosshairs to be razed alongside the adjacent Park Central building. The Civic Area project aims to give a makeover to an area in downtown Boulder that stretches from Ninth Street to 14th Street, and Canyon Boulevard to Arapahoe Avenue. The city of Boulder says that a relocation is necessary as the building is located in a high-hazard zone for flooding.
The city envisions the Civic Area giving an economic shot in the arm to downtown Boulder and the Pearl Street Mall, which have seen slowing sales tax revenue.Dan Polovin, , told the Daily Camera he’s not sure when the restaurant’s final day in its longtime home will be. According to the city, construction on the second phase of the Civic Area project is expected to start in 2027. Mustard’s Last Stand also has a location in Denver.
Until that day comes, Polovin and co-owner Dave Goodhart are trying to find a path forward in Boulder.
“It’s basically starting over,” Polovin said, later adding that after hearing ideas and locations they’re interested in, they would “explore that, put the numbers down, try to find the finances for it.”
Boulder spokesperson Sarah Huntley said the issue at hand is the building’s location. Mustard’s and the Park Central building, which houses municipal staff, lie in a high-hazard floodplain. Boulder County land records show that Mustard’s is in a floodway, which can limit the kind of development that can happen in that area. a floodway must remain open in order for floodwaters to pass.
“The issue is not that we want to create a bigger park footprint,” Huntley said. ”It’s that we don’t think the development should be on those parcels of land for life safety reasons.”
When the Civic Area project was first announced around 2015, Polovin said he lobbied for the restaurant to have a spot in the new area. He said he was given assurance that it would be in the past, but that changed in an October 2025 meeting with city staff, he said. Polovin and those close to Mustard’s have known of the restaurant’s fate since then. A Friday post about the subreddit r/Boulder, which was accompanied by an excerpt from a that mentions Mustard’s future, and other posts on social media, brought the issue into the public eye.
According to a report from , Historic Boulder Inc., a nonprofit preservation group, is inviting its members and the community to gather for lunch on Tuesday at Mustard’s Last Stand.
Polovin believes that Mustard’s would have to negotiate for an on-site space with anyone who owns buildings in the new Civic Area. He also said he believes that the city staffers have had good intentions during this process, but isn’t sure if there was enough direction or desire to keep Mustard’s standing.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way and there’s no will,” Polovin said.
Polovin, 76, has taken a step back in Mustard’s day-to-day operations. He thinks that Goodhart, who was a longtime employee before taking an ownership role, and the managers run Mustard’s as well as, if not better than, he did.
The news comes on the heels of the city losing the Dark Horse bar, which intends to move to Louisville after its longtime home closed in March.
Polovin feels this reality is emblematic of Boulder losing part of its identity. He then referenced a comment on the Reddit post: “‘They’re taking Mustard’s spot to open a Lamborghini showroom for Sundance’,” Polovin said. “That was pretty cute.”
Huntley said the city empathizes with resident concerns that new development is forcing longtime businesses to relocate, and that it’s willing to help Mustard’s find a new location — even one near the proposed Civic Area.
The other Mustard’s location near the University of Denver campus hosted some of the school’s men’s hockey players after the team won the national championship, and Polovin said that the community atmosphere is always something he has wanted to provide.
While Mustard’s opened in the 1970s, the building itself is much older and, according to past Camera reporting, opened in 1940. In 1944, Bush’s Drive-In moved into the building.
If this is it for Mustard’s in Boulder, Polovin said he has no regrets.
“My goal was to be part of a community. Build friends, watch the community, grow, and be there to meet people, and be behind the counter more than being in an office, so my goals were met,” Polovin reflected. “The way I remember my career in the restaurant business is being a counter guy. Talking to people over the counter, talking to people that just went up (to the) city and got their project, uh, denied, and be a bartender for, you know? Talk to celebrities, talk to homeless people, talk to whoever … and it turned out to be perfect.”
