One Year After Old Chicago Closed, Broomfield Became Two Different Towns to Eat In

On the Sunday before Cherry Cricket opened its doors at 1280 E. 1st Avenue, people were already lining up outside the old Old Chicago building, a full day early, just to be close to the front of the line. The sign was up. The ribbon had been cut. A golf cart shaped like a cricket sat parked near the entrance. By the time the doors opened Monday morning, August 25, 2025, the restaurant that had sat empty in that spot was gone, and Broomfield had its fourth Cherry Cricket location, and its second with an outdoor beer garden.

That was a year ago this week. In the twelve months since, Broomfield's restaurant scene has not simply added a few new names to a list. It has split into two distinct experiences, depending on which part of town you happen to live near. On one side, a walkable town square is filling in with chef-driven concepts and turning into the kind of place people plan a Saturday around. On the other, a stretch of West 120th Avenue keeps attracting the same category of national chain, one drive-thru proposal at a time. Both things are true of Broomfield right now, and they are not converging.

What Actually Moved Into the Old Chicago Building

Cherry Cricket has been a Denver institution since Mary Zimmerman opened the original as a home bar in Cherry Creek back in 1945. It later moved across the street and became the burger spot generations of Denver residents grew up on, expanding to a downtown Denver location and a Littleton outpost in 2023 before Broomfield became its fourth stop.

General manager Taylor Hauenstein called it the chain's northernmost location and, in his words, "a great suburb" to land in. The company's own explanation for the choice was more specific than typical corporate language. In announcing the move, Cherry Cricket said it had searched extensively across the metro area before deciding it had "fell in love with Broomfield's strong sense of community," pointing to conversations with longtime residents who had fond memories of gathering at the Old Chicago that used to occupy the same address.

That detail matters more than it first appears. Cherry Cricket did not pick a vacant lot or a new development pad. It picked a building with an existing emotional attachment and built on top of it, which is a different kind of bet than the one national chains usually make when they enter a suburb.

A Different Kind of Opening, Across Town

While Cherry Cricket was settling into its first year, a different concept had already taken root inside the Arista neighborhood along the US-36 corridor. Hickory & Ash describes itself as a modern American meatery, and it sources its beef exclusively from Aspen Ridge Ranch rather than a national distributor. The kitchen is run by Executive Chef Ryan Taylor, whose father is the well known Denver chef Kevin Taylor, and the menu leans into short rib pastrami, classic steak tartare, and a glazed bone-in pork chop rather than anything built for a drive-thru window. The space itself runs about 5,500 square feet, with a private dining room that seats roughly 66 guests and a 24-seat outdoor patio.

Hickory & Ash did not open into an empty commercial strip either. It opened into Arista Place, the two-block town square at the center of the Arista development, a space built specifically to function the way an old downtown might, with a performing water feature, an outdoor fireplace, and festival banners that come down and go back up depending on the season. Arista Park hosts the neighborhood's farmers markets and concerts on the same lawn where BrewHaHa, Broomfield's annual craft beer festival, drew crowds again this June with a pre-event yoga class on the grass and live sets from Astronaut Class and Jared Mahone.

This is the version of Broomfield where restaurants open expecting foot traffic, not car traffic. It is walkable by design.

Two Corridors, Two Very Different Bets

Put the two openings side by side and the difference in strategy becomes obvious.

Neither corridor is better or worse. They are simply answering different questions about how people in Broomfield actually want to eat, and the last twelve months have made the gap between them wider rather than narrower.

Meanwhile, on West 120th Avenue

In-N-Out has been trying to get into Broomfield for a while. The chain first proposed a location at 5005 W. 120th Avenue in the Broomfield Plaza shopping center, then withdrew those plans after Broomfield planners received roughly a dozen resident emails raising traffic concerns. In February 2026, the company came back with a new proposal a couple of blocks east, at 4181 W. 120th Avenue, this time calling for a 3,890-square-foot building with a 1,400-square-foot patio and 76 parking spaces. That stretch of road is already home to Chick-fil-A, Noodles & Co., Raising Cane's, IHOP, and Ted's Montana Grill, so In-N-Out would be adding itself to a corridor that has already picked its identity.

Chipotle filed its own plans the same month, for a location just off Baseline Road. New locations from major chains typically take about nine months from groundbreaking to grand opening, based on past comments from In-N-Out's own vice president of store development, so residents watching either project should expect a wait measured in months, not weeks.

The Jersey Mike's Test

A few miles from both of those proposals, a Jersey Mike's franchise has been working toward a summer 2026 opening inside Broomfield Marketplace at 1170 US Highway 287, a grocery-anchored plaza where the sub shop's neighbors include a Massage Envy, an Edward Jones office, and an urgent care center. Franchise owner Steven Ashoori, who comes from a family that already runs several IHOP locations, said Broomfield stood out for its growing community and family-friendly atmosphere.

That is a smaller, quieter story than In-N-Out's, but it tells you something similar. West 120th and the 287 corridor are becoming the part of town where a resident errand run, groceries, a haircut, a sandwich, all happens inside the same parking lot. It is convenient. It is also a completely different daily rhythm than a Saturday afternoon at Arista Park.

What Doesn't Change

Not everything about Broomfield's food and gathering calendar is about new construction. The Orchard Town Center kept its Summer Concert Series going through August, with Red Rock Vixens playing August 15 and That Eighties Band closing things out August 22, alongside the recurring Sunday farmers market that draws people to the same lawn most weekends. The Broomfield Jewish Festival returned to Palisade Park Amphitheater on August 16. None of that required a permit fight or a planning commission vote. It is simply the part of Broomfield that shows up every year regardless of what is being proposed on West 120th Avenue.

The Actual Takeaway

A year ago, Broomfield gained a burger restaurant in a building that used to be something else. That alone would not be worth writing about. What makes the last twelve months worth paying attention to is what happened around it: an independent, chef-led concept settling into a town square built for lingering, and a completely separate corridor a few miles away filling in with the same national names you would find in almost any Front Range suburb. Both are genuinely part of Broomfield now. Which one shapes your week more depends entirely on which side of town you come home to.

If you are curious how either side of Broomfield is shaping up as a place to put down roots, or you are simply weighing what your current home might be worth in a market that keeps changing block by block, the team at The Mock Group knows this area well enough to talk it through honestly. Request a Home Valuation whenever you are ready to see where things stand.