Avanti Food & Beverage Opens on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall

BUILDING DIALOGUE

WORDS: Kevin Criss

For Boulder locals, The Cheesecake Factory restaurant on the Pearl Street Mall was never a good fit. The interior was a peculiar mix of Egyptian columns, wood paneling and palm trees. The gold-hued Vegas-Meets-Cairo vibe was a head scratcher. And the menu? Well, that weighty laminated tome never aligned with Boulder’s healthful, organic, farm-to-table foodie palate.

And yet the restaurant survived almost two decades at 1401 Pearl by being a safe option for tourists who preferred a “glamburger” to ceviche. Vegans wouldn’t go there but the relatives from Ohio sure loved it.

Well, Boulderites can now rejoice; in September, Denver’s Avanti Food & Beverage will open its second Front Range location (in the Cheesecake Factory space), and it promises to deliver innovative dining options in its signature industrial funk aesthetic along with jaw-dropping views from a rooftop deck guaranteed to be the place to be downtown.

The new Avanti is 13,000 square feet spread out over two floors – the first and the fourth – and features two bars, six restaurants and a coffee shop with walk-up counter service accessible directly from the pedestrian mall.

The relatives from Ohio will dig it, but Boulder is going to fall head over heels for this place.

It All Starts with the Perfect Location

The food hall/restaurant incubator Avanti Food & Beverage has been a huge success since it opened in the Lower Highlands in 2015, and co-founders Rob Hahn and Patrick O’Neill have toyed with the idea of opening a second location for a while.

“Three years ago, we got really serious about a second location,” says Hahn. “We started looking at different areas – Fort Collins, Boulder, Colorado Springs – but ultimately we landed on Boulder.”

Hahn and O’Neill looked at a variety of properties in Boulder, but nothing seemed to fit until the Cheesecake Factory space showed up on their radar.

“This location checked all the boxes,” says Hahn. “Most important was the location. It’s on the bricks, but it really stands as its own stand-alone building, which is what we have in Denver. And then we had to find a space that could accommodate what we wanted to do for a food hall. And then there are the views from that rooftop.”

The building is owned by Unico Properties, which manages, owns or is developing properties throughout the United States. Hahn explained that in order for Avanti to be able move in, a lot of things had to fall into place. “The Cheesecake Factory wanted out of their lease, the second floor was already vacant, and the third and fourth floors were running out their leases. Unico wanted to remodel the exterior of the building so it seemed like a good time to vacate the entire building.

“One thing about us taking over that space, we would only take it over if we got the first floor and the fourth floor because we wanted the rooftop deck,” says Hahn. “So, there would have been no way for us to do the construction on the building, unless it was vacant. It would’ve been too much chaos, as you can imagine.”

A Small Team Delivers Big

With a lease negotiated and secured, Hahn and O’Neill quickly built their team. OZ Architecture was picked for the project, having worked with Hahn on a previous multifamily project in Denver. Amanda Johnson, being OZ’s expert in Boulder development, came on board and she brought along Quinlan Construction having worked together for many years. Rounding out the team was Lauren O’Neill, wife of Patrick, who had designed the interior of the first Avanti. But, as with the others, her involvement was purely merit based.

“I will say that as much as I know my husband loves me, if he wasn’t happy with the design and direction that we did for Avanti Denver, he would’ve had no problem hiring somebody else for Avanti Boulder,” jokes O’Neill, owner of Scout Interiors. “They know that I get Avanti not only as a designer, but because I see it on such a different level from an owner-operator perspective, as well.”

The Transition from Cheesecake to Avanti

As the team began to deconstruct the Cheesecake Factory space, they stumbled upon one positive from the previous tenant, thanks to that dictionary-sized menu. Hahn explained that not only did they need space for the six kitchens and room for customers, a large back-of-the-house is needed for prep, dry storage and more.

“We were amazed,” says Hahn. “Cheesecake Factory has a massive menu and they literally had six walk-in coolers back there. They had so much dry storage. It was almost like it was designed for a food hall.”

Unlike many developers who delegate the creative vision to the designers, Hahn has significant creative input. “It’s amazing to work with a client who also has a creative vision,” says Johnson, principal at OZ. “Rob was able to walk into the old Cheesecake space and imagine restaurants here and the bar over there. He knew it was a great spot. It was all of us coming together to figure out how to create the gritty, yet comfortable, environment that is Avanti and how signature elements can translate into an iconic space in Boulder.”

According to Boulder native O’Neill, they applied the same design approach here as they used at Avanti Denver, working with local fabricators and artists to create unique furniture and art in an effort to achieve an industrial chic ambiance. “We’re trying to make sure we’re highlighting and showcasing the art and skill of all of our makers. It keeps Avanti feeling authentic and when you walk in, we want you to feel like it’s your living room … where it feels really comfortable and inviting.”

A list of local fabricators and artists whose work will adorn the Avanti Boulder interior includes:

Housefish
Denver furniture makers

Denver Upholstery
All custom booths

Atla
Boulder furniture maker

Industrial Arts
Denver furniture maker using wood from Boulder County trees

Fenway Clayworks
Denver pottery company making custom light fixtures

Britt Madden
Custom Boulder-themed wallpaper from Boulder County artist/ printmaker

Jack Ludlam
Black and white photos of Boulder-area tree species

Color Cord
Denver lighting company making custom festoon chandelier for the market area.

D’Arcy O’Neill
Art and wallpaper by Longmont artist

LVTD
Denver furniture company

Mountains Vs. Plains
Artwork

Scot LeFavor
Denver-based muralist

Easily Clearing Hurdles

But, as with many downtown Boulder projects, this one was not without some minor challenges.

“We were taking the entire Cheesecake Factory space, repositioning that into this selective eatery that is Avanti, on top of the core and shell work that Unico was doing, so there were a lot of eyes on the project,” says Johnson. “The building itself was being reviewed by Boulder’s landmark commission, we were required to have the restaurant use approved for both the first and fourth floors, create a management plan for the neighborhood, and obtain both health department and liquor license approval. A bit complicated, but overall it seems like the city was very excited to welcome Avanti into the mix of Pearl Street restaurants.”

While Unico worked on the core-and-shell remodel, Quinlan Construction was doing a construction do-si-do around those crews in order to get their work done on the interior.

“It would have been nice if (Unico) had been finished, but sometimes things just don’t work out that way,” says Jim Conaghan, president and co-owner for Quinlan Construction.

“They took the whole front of the building off, so there were certain things we couldn’t do until they were done with their work. We had lots of people on the site January, February and March of this year, two complete crews, and there was a little bit of overlap in that some of our subcontractors were the same as theirs, so, yeah, it was a complicated coordination effort, let’s just say.”

As Johnson mentioned, another hurdle in Avanti Boulder’s path was the need for a tavern liquor license. The incubator model of Avanti means they will run the two bars and sublease space to the six restaurants. So, when third-party operators control the food sales, this makes a tavern license necessary. A needs and desires survey in the neighborhood showed 194 residences and businesses in favor of the tavern application and only two in opposition. In June 2019, the Boulder Beverage Licensing Authority voted unanimously to approve the tavern liquor license.

A Wide World of Flavors & Postcard Views

Construction began in December 2019 and COVID-19 shut down construction for a few months earlier this year, but the team moved quickly to complete their late-summer opening.

The first-floor features an expansive bar, coffee shop and this eclectic lineup of restaurants:

Rye Society
Made-from-scratch Jewish family recipes

Rooted Craft American Kitchen
Americana classics

Quiero Arepas
Venezuelan arepa concept

Boychik
Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant

Pig & Tiger
Taiwanese cuisine

The fourth floor will feature a New York-style pizzeria, New Yorkese, another bar and a horseshoe-shaped seating area with stunning 270-degree views of downtown Boulder and the famous Flatirons, Settlers Park, Mount Sanitas and Flagstaff Mountain to the West. Sunsets from there will be epic.

Hahn and his team have succeeded in transforming The Cheesecake Factory space into a cool, funky, hip place to explore a broad culinary spectrum. Not only that, they created Boulder’s family room in a downtown area that has recently grown stale, corporate and, in some cases, vacant.

“I think the reason why Avanti is so successful is that you feel like you can just go in and grab a seat and just be at home and relax,” says O’Neill. “People have to be able to approach it and be comfortable to just, you know, enjoy it.”