For the Agnew family, who own and operate Colorado Kolache Company in Fort Collins, serving the community is baked into the DNA of their business. After four years selling kolaches at 1717 S College Ave., they will be closing their doors in July.
“My parents always owned businesses, but they were always businesses that had an end,” said Angela Agnew, who helps run Colorado Kolache Company with both her parents and children. “I wanted something that if my kids wanted to have a family legacy, that if they really loved it, that they could do it.”
The bakery, however, has faced tough times in the past six months. Since its opening in 2022, they have brought kolaches, a traditional pastry from the Czech Republic, to Fort Collins.
“Angela said, ‘You can figure (starting a business) out,'” said Nancy Agnew, Angela Agnew’s mother and owner of Colorado Kolache Company. “Well, when one of my kids challenges me, I usually go through with it. I spent six months working on recipes. I had 20 different dough recipes, then I narrowed it down to four, and then I got it down to two, then we picked this one.”
Over the past four years, the family’s business values have shined through.
“With it being a family business and not a franchise, we can be more of ourselves, and we don’t have to answer to a franchise,” Angela Agnew said. “We can answer to our own beliefs and values, and we can be hokey.”
The company is deeply intertwined with the local Fort Collins community, through hosting birthday parties and coloring competitions, and has invited kids in the community to help make the kolaches.
“This is one of the most important parts about our bakery, not necessarily that it’s a family bakery, but the food that it is,” Angela Agnew said.
The familiar taste of kolache, a comfort food that originates from the Czech Republic and has become a staple in Texas, has resonated with many patrons across the business’ lifespan.
“When we first opened, we were so overwhelmed with people coming in and saying, ‘My grandma made these; my grandpa made these,’” Angela Agnew said.
Despite a wide range of backgrounds, the Colorado Kolache Company has reminded many of foods from their home countries.
“This dough tastes like home to so many different populations,” Angela Agnew said. “We had a guy coming here from Cuba and he’s like, ‘We put sweet cheese on this dough.’ We had another woman from the United Arab Emirates. She was like, ‘We put cucumbers and feta.’ There’s another lady from Russia who’s like, ‘It’s called this in my country.’ A friend of mine is from Jamaica, and he was like, ‘These taste like Jamaican donuts.’ It was so amazing that we had such a sense of community and that we didn’t taste, like, food. We tasted memories.”
Construction on the outside of the building, however, has put a damper on business since August 2025, and the owners said they are not planning to reopen at another location.
“It took a really long time for a ‘facelift,’” Angela Agnew said. “There was really poor communication. The people that were willing to come here in the construction got flat tires, and it lasted a really long time.”
The family said they were disappointed by the toll this construction project took on their business.
“They waited until the busiest part of our year to totally crash us,” Angela Agnew said. “A lot of it wasn’t even what they did, it was how it was done and the lack of concern regarding it.”
In addition to the strain on business, the bakery also said it is facing a $1,300 increase in rent per month.
“At $5 a-piece on a kolache, it’s 260 kolaches a month just to cover the increase,” Nancy Agnew said. “That doesn’t include the 520 kolaches we have to sell to make the other part of the rent and then payroll and taxes. It’s just not cost effective.”
Reach Gracie Douglas at life@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
