If it feels like every week brings news of something new opening in Colorado Springs, you're not imagining it. Look closer at where these openings are landing, and patterns emerge: Colorado Springs is seeing different kinds of growth in different parts of town.
North of downtown, along the Interstate 25 corridor near Northgate and Interquest, restaurants are opening both on newly developed sites and in existing restaurant spaces. In older neighborhoods south and east of there, some openings are also reusing former restaurant spaces, including one restaurant returning to its former address.
North Of The City, Openings Include New And Existing Sites
Drive the stretch of I-25 near Polaris Pointe and you'll see cranes that have barely stopped moving in the past two years. That's where Surf Shack opened on Aug. 1, 2026, bringing an indoor FlowRider wave machine to a city that Dr. Michael Kofford, the local orthodontist who spent three years and roughly $10 million building the facility, calls "the perfect place to live" with almost no natural water nearby. The 12,000-square-foot building at 13208 Touchstone View sits next to Top Golf and the Air City 360 trampoline park, part of a cluster of entertainment venues that's grown up around Polaris Pointe rather than downtown. Kofford told the Gazette the response before opening day was already strong:
"We're excited about it. We have had a lot of interest in it, people calling and asking when we will be open."
A few miles away, Texas de Brazil opened its first Colorado Springs location on Aug. 5, 2026, at 140 Spectrum Loop. The company's own announcement described the surrounding Northgate and Interquest district as "one of the region's fastest-growing destinations for shopping, dining, entertainment, and business," which is corporate language for a fact locals already sense: this is where the newest square footage in the city keeps landing.
Angelo's Taverna and Carboy Winery opened on June 30, 2026, at 7115 Commerce Center Drive, right where I-25 meets Woodmen Road. It's the first Colorado Springs location for both brands, built into the former Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom space with rooftop views of Pikes Peak. The Gazette quoted Carboy CEO Kevin Webber as saying:
"We've spent the last decade building Carboy and Angelo's one guest at a time."
None of these four businesses had ever operated in Colorado Springs before this year. Together, they occupy three addresses within a few miles of each other along the same growth corridor.
In Older Parts Of The City, Some Restaurants Are Reusing Former Spaces
The story in older, built-out parts of the city also includes restaurants reoccupying spaces that already had a restaurant in them. In one case, the restaurant itself is returning to its former address.
The clearest example is The Blue Star. Before it closed in 2017, it had spent decades as one of the city's defining dining spots in the Ivywild area. Owner Joe Coleman opened the original Blue Star in Old Colorado City in 1995 and moved it to 1645 S. Tejon St. a few years later. In March 2026, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department confirmed that permits had been issued for a remodel of that same Tejon Street building, meaning the restaurant is returning to its own former address rather than picking a new one. As of this writing there's no confirmed opening date. Springsmag reported in late 2025 that the team was eyeing a third-quarter opening, and Coleman's Blue Star Group has kept fans engaged in the meantime through wine tasting events and WSET certification classes rather than a soft launch. If you drive past South Tejon expecting an open sign this month, you're early, but the wait is shorter than it's been since 2017.
A similar pattern is playing out at 5710 S. Carefree Circle on the east side, where the original Jose Muldoon's closed in January 2024 after 13 years, with owners Concept Restaurants citing financial challenges (the downtown Muldoon's location stayed open through the closure). Rather than sit empty, that building is being converted into the first Colorado Springs location of Homegrown Tap and Dough, a Denver-based pizza and craft beer chain, with a late-summer 2026 opening planned. It's new to the market, but it's landing inside an existing restaurant shell instead of new construction.
Guthrie's Chicken Fingers took a third approach when it opened its first Colorado location on July 14, 2026, at 1520 S. Nevada Ave. It's a genuinely new concept for the market, the original chicken finger chain dating back to 1965 in Alabama, but it's entering a South Nevada corridor already packed with chicken-focused competition. The Gazette's own rundown of the area lists Angry Chicken, Birdcall, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chick-fil-A, Chicken Salad Chick, Daddy's Chicken Shack, Dave's Hot Chicken Wings, KFC, Popeyes, Raising Cane's, and Slim Chickens all within reach, plus El Pollo Loco, which opened its first Springs location the previous fall. Betting on an already-saturated strip is a different kind of decision than staking new ground where nothing existed before, and it says something about how much confidence a national chain has in this specific stretch of the city.
Why The Patterns Differ
Northgate and Interquest have been under continuous construction for years, and several new restaurants have arrived along the corridor this summer. The center of the city is more built out, so some openings there use empty storefronts, closed restaurants, or existing buildings. That's not a sign of a slower market. It's what growth can look like in a city whose older neighborhoods are already filled in.
What This Means For Your Fall Calendar
If you're deciding where to spend a Saturday between now and the end of October, both halves of the city have something worth the drive.
- Fiestas Patrias brings live music, dancing, and food to downtown on Sept. 12, 2026, marking Mexican Independence Day with one of the larger cultural festivals of the fall.
- Military Appreciation Week at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo runs Sept. 14 through 20, 2026, with 50% off base admission for active duty, veteran, and retired military and their dependents.
- The Pikes Peak Regional Airshow returns to the city in September 2026, per Visit Colorado Springs' event calendar.
- The Acacia Park farmers market downtown runs every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Oct. 25, 2026, according to the Downtown Partnership's events page.
- If you haven't tried the FlowRider yet, Surf Shack is booking sessions now, with a grand opening celebration planned for September.
Whether you end up north or south, the city's growth this fall is taking different forms, and knowing which kind of opening you're walking into changes what you should expect when you get there.
For more on how daily life here keeps shifting neighborhood by neighborhood, our Colorado Springs neighborhood guide is a good place to start, and if you've ever wondered how the city's outdoor options shape the way people actually choose where to live, we've written about that too in how the Colorado Springs outdoor lifestyle shapes home choices.
If you're the kind of person who likes knowing what's changing in this city before it shows up in a listing description, that's exactly the kind of local detail Leslie Neumann keeps track of. Let's Connect.
