Broomfield Is Building Two Restaurant Scenes At Once
August 13, 2026
August 13, 2026
A friend group in Broomfield spent twenty minutes in a group text last week trying to agree on dinner. One person wanted Cherry Cricket. Another suggested just doing Chick-fil-A off 120th because it was closer and nobody wanted to circle for parking. Neither felt like a compromise. They were choosing between two different versions of eating out in this city, and most residents make that same unconscious choice several times a week without naming it.
Here's the pattern once you look for it: Broomfield's restaurant growth this year isn't spreading evenly across town. It's splitting into two distinct tracks that happen to sit on opposite sides of the city, built by two very different kinds of decision-makers.
For years, 1280 East 1st Avenue was just the Old Chicago everyone drove past. That changed when the Cherry Cricket opened its Broomfield location on August 25, 2025, taking over the space with an 8,500-square-foot buildout, seating for 325 people, and roughly 100 new jobs. It's the burger institution's fourth Colorado location and only its second with an outdoor beer garden, a detail the company clearly considered a selling point for a north-metro suburb built around backyards and patios.
What makes this opening worth noting isn't the burger. It's the site selection. Cherry Cricket has been slinging burgers out of a Cherry Creek bar since Mary Zimmerman opened it there in 1945, and it didn't need Broomfield the way a fast-casual chain needs rooftops and traffic counts. The company's ownership said the decision came down to something less measurable:
"We fell in love with Broomfield's strong sense of community."
General manager Taylor Hauenstein put it more plainly to CBS Colorado on opening weekend: "It's our northernmost location, and I think it's kind of perfectly situated." Broomfield turns one year old as a Cherry Cricket town later this month, on the 25th.
A few miles away, inside the Arista master-planned community, Hickory & Ash has been doing something similar from the other direction. Instead of a national brand discovering Broomfield, this is a from-scratch concept built specifically for the neighborhood it sits in. The restaurant is run by Executive Chef Ryan Taylor, son of well-known Denver chef Kevin Taylor, and it sources its beef exclusively from Aspen Ridge Ranch rather than a commodity supplier. The space runs 5,500 square feet with a private dining room that seats about 66 and a 24-seat patio, sized for the kind of neighborhood that wants a place for a graduation dinner or a work retirement lunch without leaving the community.
Arista didn't wait for a chain to notice its rooftops. It built a restaurant into the community plan the way it built the trails and the town square, which is a different growth model entirely from what's happening on the other side of Broomfield.
West 120th Avenue tells the opposite story, and it's a messier one. In-N-Out has now tried twice to open in Broomfield. The first attempt, at 5005 W. 120th Ave. in the Broomfield Plaza shopping center, was withdrawn before it even reached a neighborhood meeting after Broomfield planners received about a dozen emails from residents worried about traffic and Sheridan Boulevard access. The chain came back in February 2026 with a new concept plan a couple of blocks east, at 4181 W. 120th Ave., a 3,890-square-foot building with a 1,400-square-foot patio. In-N-Out's own letter to city planners addressed the traffic problem head-on:
"Excellent vehicle circulation is provided onsite with no dead-end parking aisles."
The proposal still needs a formal traffic study before it can move forward, and the public comment period on the concept closed March 12, 2026. Whatever the outcome, the location tells you something: this stretch of 120th is already saturated with exactly this kind of restaurant. The new In-N-Out site sits on a block that's home to a Chick-fil-A, a Noodles & Co., a Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, an IHOP, and a Ted's Montana Grill. It isn't trying to become a food destination. It's trying to fit into one that already exists.
The rest of the corridor keeps growing in the same direction. Chipotle filed plans in February 2026 for a new Broomfield location off Baseline Road. Jersey Mike's is slated to open a location at 1170 U.S. Highway 287 inside the Broomfield Marketplace this summer, a roughly 1,400-square-foot shop with a projected staff of 22. Franchise owner Steven Ashoori explained the appeal in terms that could describe half the retail leasing decisions in this part of town:
"Broomfield stood out to us for its growing community, family-friendly atmosphere, and convenient location for local residents."
What's arriving along this stretch right now:
None of these openings happened by accident, and none of them happened for the same reason. National chains pick sites off traffic counts, highway visibility, and rooftop density within a drive-time radius. West 120th Avenue checks every one of those boxes, which is exactly why it keeps attracting the same kind of tenant even after one proposal gets sent back to the drawing board over parking and access.
Cherry Cricket and Hickory & Ash didn't run that math. One is an 80-plus-year-old Denver institution that picked Broomfield because it liked the town, in its own words, more than it liked a spreadsheet. The other was built into a planned community from day one as an anchor amenity, the same way Arista planned its trails and its town square. Neither restaurant needed to be near a highway interchange to make sense. Both needed to be near people who'd already decided to put down roots here.
That's the actual story behind the openings, and it's more useful than a simple list of what's new. Broomfield isn't getting one restaurant scene. It's getting two, built by two completely different kinds of decision-makers, and they're not going to blend into each other.
Once you see the split, the practical part gets easy. If you want something fast, familiar, and five minutes from the highway on a Tuesday, the 120th Avenue corridor is doing exactly what it's built to do, and it's about to get more crowded with options as Jersey Mike's and Chipotle open their doors. If you're marking something, a birthday, an anniversary, a visit from out-of-town family, East 1st Avenue and Arista are where Broomfield is putting its money on the kind of dinner people actually plan around.
Both halves of this map are worth knowing if you live here, because they're only going to get more distinct as the corridor fills in and the destination side keeps building its own identity. Keep an eye on that In-N-Out application if you're on the west side of town. It's a small case study in how much a single traffic complaint can reroute a project two blocks down the same road.
If you're the kind of person who pays attention to what a neighborhood is becoming, not just what it looks like on a listing photo, that instinct serves you well beyond dinner plans. Jessica Arguello works this exact stretch of the north metro every day, and she's usually the first call from friends trying to figure out whether a street, a builder, or a corridor like this one is worth betting on. If Broomfield's next chapter has you curious about more than just where to eat, reach out and start a conversation.
Your real estate journey is unique, and it deserves a trusted partner who understands your goals. Jessica Arguello specializes in creating a seamless experience for clients in Thornton and Denver Metro. Let’s find the home that’s right for you—your journey starts now.