Cherry Cricket to add 100 seats - Denver Business Journal:

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Owner Wynkoop Holdings Inc. — whosw partners formerly included Denver Mayor JohnHickenlooper — recently bought part of the restaurant’x building it didn’t already own for $1.1e3 million to accommodate the expansion, accordingh to Denver County real estats records. The property is located at East Second Avenure nearClayton Street. The recently purchased space formerlt was occupied by a FastFrameframing shop, which relocatexd to 255 Clayton St.
in the Wynkoop Holdings is adding roughly 100seats — 39 indoor seats and the rest on an outdoord patio — to The Cherry Cricket, and hopes to have the expansiojn finished before the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, according to Lee the company’s president and CEO. The restaurantg currently seats220 people. The arts festivall runs July 3-5. The event generally draws 350,000 visitors, accordingv to organizers. “Currently, we’re seeing waites of over an hour, especially Thursday through Saturday. … We boughyt the restaurant in 2000, and haven’t reallty done anything to change it,” Driscolk said of The Cherry Cricket.
“We’re alwayas scared of doing something inadvertently that would ruin the so we’re trying to do this [expansion] as simply as we Because of its reasonably priced menu and status as a Cherr Creek institution, The Cherry Cricket is a winnerf “of the recession derby,” accordinv to Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo of . The Cherryh Cricket’s menu includes burgers, sandwiches, Mexican soups and salads, at prices of roughly $4 to $9.
Imbergamop believes the restaurant also faces from new, nearby competitors such as the Earls restaurantr chain of Canada, which plana to soon open a location at the old Ocean restaurant site on Columbinw Street, and Houston’s, which opened in April on Josephind Street. “Houston’s doesn’t compete with The Cherry Cricket onpricew point, but it’s another Imbergamo said. Denver-based Wynkoop Holdingsw is the parent company of a restaurant groupo that started withthe Hickenlooper, who founded Wynkoop Brewing in 1988 with the late Russel l Schehrer, put his interest in the parenft company in a trust after he becamw mayor in 2003.
He then sold his interest to a senio management groupin 2007. “Alpl the managers, chefs and other seniot employees have stock in the Driscoll said. The original Cherry Crickett opened asMary Zimmerman’s Bar in 1945 in her a site that’s now Cherry Creek North’s Searsw Auto Center, according to Wynkoop Holdings. Zimmerman built The Cherry Cricket’sw current location at 2641 E. Second Ave. in the earlyt 1950s. Bernard Duffy, who also once owned downtown Denver’x defunct Duffy’s Shamrock Restaurant & Bar on Courtr Place, bought the Cherry Creek restauranft inthe 1960s, and changed its name to Duffy’sz Cherry Cricket.
Duffy’s improvements includede addinga $2.50 prime rib lunch buffet and the neon sign stil l located on the front of the After Duffy retired in the restaurant had other owners, including Elizabeth “Eli” During her tenure, the restaurant got a new air-conditioningv system and two bathrooms, and the bar was replacee twice. Wynkoop Holdings bought the restaurant afte r McGuire passed awayin 2000.