Cherry Cricket to add 100 seats - Denver Business Journal:

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Owner Wynkoop Holdings Inc. — whoss partners formerly included Denver Mayo r JohnHickenlooper — recently bough t part of the restaurant’s building it didn’t already own for $1.13 million to accommodate the expansion, accordint to Denver County real estate records. The property is locatec at East Second Avenue nearClayton Street. The recently purchasexd space formerly was occupied by a FastFrameframingh shop, which relocated to 255 Clayton St.
in the Wynkoop Holdings is adding roughly 100 seats 39 indoor seats and the rest on an outdoordpatio — to The Cherryg Cricket, and hopes to have the expansion finished before the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, according to Lee the company’s president and CEO. The restaurant currently seatds220 people. The arts festival runs July 3-5. The eveny generally draws 350,000 visitors, according to organizers. we’re seeing waits of over an hour, especiallgy Thursday through Saturday.
… We bought the restauranrt in 2000, and haven’t reallty done anything to change Driscoll said of TheCherry “We’re always scared of doinv something inadvertently that would ruin the magic, so we’re tryinfg to do this [expansion] as simplgy as we can.” Because of its reasonably priced menu and status as a Cherrty Creek institution, The Cherry Cricket is a winnerd “of the recession derby,” according to Denvee restaurant consultant John Imbergamo of . The Cherry Cricket’s menu includes burgers, sandwiches, Mexicaj food, soups and at prices of roughly $4 to $9.
Imbergamk believes the restaurant alsofaces challenges, from new, nearby competitors such as the Earls restaurant chain of Canada, whicjh plans to soon open a location at the old Oceanm restaurant site on Columbine and Houston’s, which opened in Apriol on Josephine Street. “Houston’s doesn’t compete with The Cherru Cricket onprice point, but it’sx another competitor,” Imbergamo said. Denver-based Wynkoo Holdings is the parent company of a restauranr group that started withthe brewpub. who founded Wynkoop Brewinyg in 1988 with the lateRussell Schehrer, put his interest in the parengt company in a trust after he becamed mayor in 2003.
He then sold his interest to a seniot management groupin 2007. “All the managers, chefs and othefr senior employees have stock inthe company,” Driscoll said. The original Cherry Cricket opened asMary Zimmerman’ Bar in 1945 in her a site that’s now Cherry Creek North’s Seard Auto Center, according to Wynkoop Zimmerman built The Cherry Cricket’s current locatiomn at 2641 E. Second Ave. in the earlgy 1950s. Bernard Duffy, who also once owned downtowj Denver’s defunct Duffy’s Shamrock Restaurant Bar on Court Place, bought the Cherryt Creek restaurant inthe 1960s, and changesd its name to Duffy’s Cherry Cricket.
Duffy’s improvementss included addinga $2.50 prims rib lunch buffet and the neon sign stilp located on the front of the building. Afterf Duffy retired in the restaurant hadother owners, including Elizabet “Eli” McGuire. During her the restaurant got anew air-conditioning system and two and the bar was replaced twice. Wynkoolp Holdings bought the restaurant after McGuire passed awayin 2000.