Right now, on the south side of town, a permit sits on file with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department for a remodel at 1645 S. Tejon St. On the north side, new hires walked into their first day of training this morning at a restaurant that shares an owner with a steakhouse across town. Neither of these facts made headlines outside the food press. Together, they explain something about how Colorado Springs actually grows: not through outside chains parachuting in, but through the same handful of local operators building twice, in opposite directions, at the same time.
What Ivywild Never Stopped Building
If you've eaten at Ivywild School in the last few years, you've already eaten inside Joe Coleman's business without necessarily knowing it. Coleman's Blue Star Group runs roughly half the food hall built into the old schoolhouse: Ivywild Kitchen, Decent Pizza Co., Gold Star Bakery, Stellina Pizza Café and the Principal's Office all trace back to him. Coleman spearheaded the transformation of the old Ivywild School alongside Mike Bristol, whose Bristol Brewing has brewed in Colorado Springs since 1994, a year before Coleman opened the original Blue Star across town in Old Colorado City. Bristol opened its pub inside the schoolhouse itself in 2013.
That original Blue Star moved to South Tejon Street three years after it opened and became, for the better part of two decades, the restaurant Colorado Springs pointed out-of-towners toward. It closed in 2017. Coleman kept building inside Ivywild School in the years after, but the flagship address on South Tejon sat empty.
That changed this spring. In March 2026, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department confirmed permits had been issued for the remodel of the old Blue Star space, and Coleman's team is renovating the same 1645 S. Tejon St. building where the restaurant spent most of its run. Springs Magazine reported the Blue Star Group is eyeing a third-quarter opening for what they're calling a 2.0 version of the concept. That window is now. If the timeline holds, the restaurant that anchored Ivywild's reputation for elevated food could reopen before the leaves turn.
None of this happens in a vacuum. The schoolhouse around it has kept its own calendar running all year:
- Wednesday trivia at Bristol Brewing Pub, hosted weekly
- Friday Schoolyard hangouts through June and July, live music and beer, bring your own chairs
- Salsa Night by Ember & Flow, scheduled for Aug. 22, 2026, at Ivywild School
- Buses at the Brewery, Bristol's annual VW bus and Oktoberfest gathering, and Color Fight, its outdoor color-throwing party, both held on the schoolyard grounds
Coleman isn't reopening a restaurant into an empty neighborhood. He's completing one that never stopped operating.
The North End Is Writing Its Own Playbook
The far north side of the city tells a different version of the same story. At 1895 Democracy Point, the southeast corner of InterQuest Parkway and Voyager Parkway, Five Times Hospitality Group built the FO4R North complex around four original concepts: Cansano Italian Steakhouse, Manhattan Room, Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi, and Longboard Tacos. Cansano and Pause are still part of the lineup. Manhattan Room is not, because it's being replaced.
Chuck Schafer, who already owns Prime 25 steakhouse elsewhere in Colorado Springs, is a partner in Five Times Hospitality Group. Rather than launch a brand-new concept in the vacated Manhattan Room space, he's opening Prime 25 North there. Springs Magazine reported that a job fair ran Aug. 3–9, staff training began Aug. 10 and runs through Aug. 23, and the restaurant is targeting full service starting Sept. 1, 2026. As of today, the people who will be serving your table at Prime 25 North are on day one of training.
A few minutes away on Spectrum Loop, a different kind of expansion landed even more recently. Texas de Brazil, the Brazilian steakhouse chain known for continuous tableside meat service, opened its Colorado Springs location at 140 Spectrum Loop on Aug. 5, 2026, five days before this was written. Dinner with full meat service runs $58.99 per person, salad-only is $33.99, and the restaurant's president told ColoradoBiz the city's appetite for elevated dining made the location an easy call.
Same Operators, Opposite Directions
Line these two stories up and the pattern is not "Colorado Springs is getting new restaurants." Plenty of cities can say that. The pattern is that the operators driving both stories already had a foothold in this market before they expanded. Coleman isn't a new name testing Colorado Springs. He's reinvesting in the schoolhouse he helped build out over a decade ago. Schafer isn't new either. He's exporting a restaurant he already runs successfully to a part of town he doesn't operate in yet.
| Ivywild (South Side) | InterQuest/Voyager Corridor (North End) | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead operator | Blue Star Group (Joe Coleman) | Five Times Hospitality Group / Prime 25 (Chuck Schafer) |
| Anchor address | 1645 S. Tejon St. | 1895 Democracy Point |
| What's arriving | The Blue Star, reopening after March 2026 permits, targeting Q3 2026 | Prime 25 North, full service targeted Sept. 1, 2026 |
| Already running nearby | Ivywild Kitchen, Decent Pizza Co., Gold Star Bakery, Stellina Pizza Café, Bristol Brewing | Cansano Italian Steakhouse, Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi, Longboard Tacos, Texas de Brazil |
That's a meaningfully different growth story than a national chain scouting empty storefronts. It means the restaurant scene on each end of the city is being shaped by people who already know that specific stretch of pavement, its parking, its regulars, its slow nights. It also means the two halves of town are drifting toward different identities on purpose rather than by accident. Ivywild is doubling down on the food-hall-plus-flagship model it already built. The north end is assembling a steakhouse-and-lounge corridor from a standing start.
What This Means for Your Next Reservation
If you're on the south side this month, Ivywild Kitchen, Decent Pizza Co. and Gold Star Bakery are open now, Bristol's Wednesday trivia is running, and Salsa Night lands Aug. 22. The Blue Star sign on South Tejon Street is worth checking every few weeks between now and the end of September.
If you're closer to InterQuest and Voyager, Cansano, Pause and Longboard Tacos are already serving, Texas de Brazil opened its doors five days ago, and Prime 25 North's staff are training this week for a Sept. 1 launch. Neither side of town needs the other to succeed. That's the actual news here: Colorado Springs isn't getting one bigger restaurant scene, it's getting two distinct ones, built by people who already had skin in the game before they broke ground.
Keeping track of which corner of the city is building what, and why, is part of how Lux Estates reads the Front Range for clients who are relocating into Colorado Springs, choosing between neighborhoods, or simply trying to understand what a given part of town is becoming. If you're weighing a move here and want a read on how a neighborhood's daily rhythms line up with what you're looking for, schedule a consultation with Drake Guidry.
