Friday, May 24, 2013

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Denali Businesses Close Shop for the Winter
As tourists leave, pizza pub closes its doors
By John Thain


DENALI - If you were to take a drive up to Denali National Park, it would look like a ghost town.

The tourists are trickling out, which means businesses are shutting down for the winter.

You could blame it on the moose or the bears or the mountains, but it's likely a little bit of everything here in Denali National Park that brings 400,000 people from all over the world here every year.

But come September it’s a different story. The tourists go home and businesses get ready to shut down.

Joshua Rinck runs the Panorama Pizza Pub.

“We play music, there’s dogs running around, we have a lot of fun,” he said.

Without the park just a few miles away, business would be bleak.

“During our dinner rush we get a lot of people that are just going to the park,” Rinck said.

This night, they celebrated the end of another summer season, complete with aluminum foil outfits.

For Rinck, it can be difficult to say goodbye.

“I might keep the bar open for a little while longer. If we get to hang out and play music and finish off the open bottles of open booze, then we'll probably do that.”

For the pizza pub, this night was last call until next spring.