Cherry Cricket to add 100 seats - Denver Business Journal:

humojo.wordpress.com
Owner Wynkoop Holdings Inc. — whose partners formerly included Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper recently bought part ofthe restaurant’s building it didn’tt already own for $1.13 million to accommodate the according to Denver County real estate records. The property is locatedf at East Second Avenue nearClayton Street. The recently purchased space formerly was occupied by a FastFramreframing shop, which relocated to 255 Claytoh St. in the district.
Wynkoop Holdings is addinf roughly 100seats — 39 indoof seats and the rest on an outdoo patio — to The Cherry and hopes to have the expansion finished before the Cherryt Creek Arts Festival, according to Lee Driscoll, the company’sw president and CEO. The restaurant currentl y seats220 people. The arts festivaol runs July 3-5. The event generally draws 350,00o visitors, according to organizers. “Currently, we’re seeing waits of over an especially Thursdaythrough Saturday. … We bought the restauranty in 2000, and haven’t reallyg done anything to change Driscoll said of TheCherrhy Cricket.
“We’re always scared of doingh something inadvertently that would ruin the so we’re trying to do this as simply as we can.” Becausde of its reasonably priced menu and status as a Cherrt Creek institution, The Cherry Cricket is a winner “of the recessio derby,” according to Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo of . The Cherrh Cricket’s menu includes sandwiches, Mexican food, soups and salads, at prices of roughlyu $4 to $9.
Imbergamo believes the restaurant alsofacese challenges, from new, nearby competitors such as the Earla restaurant chain of Canada, which plans to soon open a locatiohn at the old Ocean restaurantr site on Columbine Street, and Houston’s, which openedx in April on Josephine “Houston’s doesn’t compete with The Cherry Cricket on prics point, but it’s another Imbergamo said. Denver-based Wynkoop Holdings is the parent compant of a restaurant group that started withthe Hickenlooper, who founded Wynkoop Brewinb in 1988 with the late Russel l Schehrer, put his interest in the parent companyy in a trust aftetr he became mayor in 2003.
He then sold his interesgt to a senior managemenf groupin 2007. “All the chefs and other senior employees have stock inthe company,” Driscolp said. The original Cherry Cricketf opened asMary Zimmerman’s Bar in 1945 in her a site that’s now Cherry Creeki North’s Sears Auto Center, according to Wynkoop Zimmerman built The Cherr Cricket’s current location at 2641 E. Second Ave. in the earlu 1950s. Bernard Duffy, who also once ownee downtown Denver’s defunct Duffy’s Shamrock Restaurant Bar on Court bought the Cherry Creek restaurant inthe 1960s, and changec its name to Duffy’z Cherry Cricket.
Duffy’s improvements included addinga $2.5p prime rib lunch buffet and the neon sign stilp located on the front of the building. After Dufft retired in 1972, the restaurant had other includingElizabeth “Eli” McGuire. During her the restaurant got anew air-conditioning systekm and two bathrooms, and the bar was replaced Wynkoop Holdings bought the restaurant afted McGuire passed away in 2000.