"This is going to be around for awhile; we have to figure out a way," Avanti owner Patrick O'Neill told the Boulder Daily Camera in late September 2020. He was explaining why he was opening a two-story food hall in the former Cheesecake Factory on Pearl Street in the middle of a pandemic. The grand opening was October 3, 2020, at 1401 Pearl St.
The hall turned six last month, and O'Neill's prediction has held up in a specific way. Avanti describes its food halls as an incubator, where up-and-coming chefs can launch a concept "for a fraction of the cost of a typical brick-and-mortar restaurant." On that model you'd expect the counters to turn over every year or so. At 1401 Pearl, most of the people cooking are still the ones who opened the place. That's why one new name on the first floor this month counts as real news for downtown.
The stalls that opened with the building
When the Daily Camera reviewed the opening lineup, the first floor had five stalls serving Taiwanese, Israeli, Venezuelan, deli and farm-to-table food. Method Roasters ran the coffee bar, and there was a full bar. New Yorkese, Steve Redzikowski's pizza counter, opened with the hall too. Here's each counter from October 2020 and where it stands this fall.
| Counter in October 2020 | Team at opening | Fall 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Boychik, Israeli street food | Chase Devitt and Charles Troup | Boychik |
| New Yorkese, pizza | Steve Redzikowski | New Yorkese, the upstairs vendor |
| Rooted Craft American Kitchen | Nicholas Kayser | Rooted Craft Kitchen |
| Pig and Tiger, Taiwanese | Darren Chang and Travis Masar | Peko Peko, from the same team |
| Rye Society, Jewish deli | Jerrod Rosen and Ross Goldberg | Mangia Panino, from Jeremiah Harvey |
| Coffee bar | Method Roasters | Bona Coffee Roasters |
| Quiero Arepas, Venezuelan | Igor and Beckie Panasewicz | Costa Brisa, from Bill Espiricueta, with a Nov. 2 debut reported |
Three of the original counters still have their original concept and team. Boychik's menu still draws on Israel's street food culture. Rooted still runs on Kayser's focus on "well-sourced American food." Redzikowski still makes New York crust with a three-day fermented dough. One more counter is run by its original team under a new name. Over six years, only three of the seven counters have gone to a new operator.
How a counter changes hands at 1401 Pearl
In spring 2023, Travel Boulder announced Mangia Panino, an Italian deli from Jeremiah Harvey, as the hall's new concept, set for the first-floor space that had been Rye Society. Harvey said he picked up bread making during the pandemic and built the menu around focaccia sandwiches, adding that "Mangia means 'eat' in Italian."
In June 2024, Westword reported that the Pig and Tiger team had replaced that concept with Peko Peko, a Japanese-inspired stall. The name, co-owner Darren Chang said, "is Japanese slang for 'I'm Hungry.'" The same report said the team was working toward a standalone Pig and Tiger restaurant in Denver. So the counter stayed with the same team, who used it to try a second idea.
The coffee bar has changed the most. Method Roasters opened it, and in August 2024 Bona Coffee Roasters took over the space previously occupied by Lost City. Bona is owned by Andre Di Bonaventura and Vanessa Rossi and had already been roasting in Boulder for seven years, with a coffee shop at Sanitas Brewing Co. Its counter carries pão de queijo, açaí bowls, and a Whiskey Aged Coffee aged in bourbon barrels from Boulder Spirits.
The August 2024 announcement listed the rest of the hall as Boychik, Peko Peko, Mangia Panino, New Yorkese, Rooted Craft Kitchen and Quiero Arepas. The Denver Post's list from October 21, 2026, is identical except for one name. That means the stall lineup didn't change for more than two years.
The arepa counter's next chapter
Quiero Arepas came to Boulder with a long history. Igor and Beckie Panasewicz started with a Venezuelan food truck, opened their first restaurant in 2019, and made the Boulder stall their third location. The brand's website now lists two locations, on South Pearl Street in Denver and inside Avanti Denver at 3200 N. Pecos St.
The Denver Post reported a November 2 debut for Costa Brisa in that first-floor space. Costa Brisa comes from Bill Espiricueta, who has run SMŌK in Denver since 2018 and previously ran Vaca Gordo. SMŌK is in the MICHELIN Guide as a recommended restaurant at The Source Hotel. Espiricueta told the Post the idea came from testing Baja fish tacos at SMŌK: "people really responded to them, which got me thinking about what we could build around that idea."
According to the Post, the menu includes:
- Shrimp tostadas with guacamole
- A California-style burrito with carne asada, cheese and French fries
- Baja fish burritos
- Tacos, burritos, quesadillas and bowls
- SMŌK's breakfast burrito, which went viral, served on weekends
Costa Brisa is the third counter here to go to a new team. Like Bona, it comes from an operator with an established business elsewhere, not a first-time chef testing a concept.
A three-day stall in a seven-day hall
The schedule is where Costa Brisa really stands apart. The Post lists its hours as Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Avanti's Boulder hours page shows every other counter open daily.
Downstairs food vendors: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
New Yorkese, upstairs: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight
Bona Coffee Roasters: Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Bar: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Costa Brisa's listed hours line up with the rest of the first floor. From Sunday through Wednesday, its listed schedule has that one counter closed while the hall is open.
Bona's hours have moved the other way since it opened. In August 2024 it closed at 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday. It now runs until 8 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The bar runs its own schedule:
- Happy hour Monday through Friday, 2 to 6 p.m., and all day Sunday
- Avanti After Dark happy hour, Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to close
- Brunch Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The events page also lists recurring nights, including Trivia Night, College Night, Tini Tuesday, Friday Afternoon Club and Spritz Saturday. One house rule matters for anyone walking downtown with a dog: following Pearl Street guidelines, only service animals are allowed inside.
Where it fits in a November downtown
Costa Brisa's Thursday-through-Saturday hours overlap with the busiest stretch of the downtown calendar. On November 14 and 15, Firefly Handmade's free holiday market fills Pearl Street Mall from 11th to 15th streets, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 80 makers and Colorado musicians. That puts the 1400 block, where Avanti sits, inside the market.
Downtown Boulder Community Initiatives' holiday program runs from November 22 through December 12. It starts on Sunday, November 22, with Switch on the Holidays, running 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the 1300 block and beyond, with the lights coming on at 5 p.m. across Pearl Street Mall, the Civic Area and the Boulder County Courthouse. Since that's a Sunday, the downstairs counters are listed as open until 9 p.m. after the lighting, and Costa Brisa's listed hours don't include Sundays.
St. Nick on the Bricks brings free Santa visits, with a suggested $10 donation per group, to the Downtown Boulder Visitor Information Center at 1303 Pearl St. from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, November 27, and Saturdays November 28, December 5 and December 12. All four dates fall on Costa Brisa's listed days, and the Visitor Information Center is one block from Avanti's front door.
Over six years, few counters at 1401 Pearl have changed hands, and most of the ones that did went to operators who already had businesses running. At Marybeth Emerson, we follow downtown storefronts the same way we follow downtown homes. If you'd like to talk about how the businesses on your block affect the value of where you live, schedule a consultation and we'll go through it with you.
