"There's an argument to be made that we simply have too many restaurants in town," the Neighborhood Gazette's restaurant columnist wrote at the end of August. "But you'd be hard-pressed to choose which ones we could do without." The column was saying goodbye to Mestizo Brew Cantina at 6800 W. 38th Ave. Three months earlier, Colorado Plus had poured its last beers just a block away.
Two brewpubs have now closed on the same short stretch of Wheat Ridge's main street in one year. You could read that as a street losing ground. The addresses tell a different story. The people moving into these spaces already have customers. Some proved their concepts as pop-ups. Others spent years rebuilding a building before they opened the doors. On West 38th, the restaurants are changing, but the new ones aren't starting from zero.
Two Brewpubs, One Summer
Colorado Plus Brew Pub and Taphouse opened in May 2013 at 6995 W. 38th Ave., in the old Valente's building. It started with Colorado-made beer on tap and a scratch kitchen. In February 2024 it closed for an eight-month renovation and reopened that October with counter ordering, table service and a longer bar.
The remodel didn't buy much time. When owner Eugene Khang announced the closure this spring, he pointed to changing trends and how hard it was to keep up with a craft-beer market that was shifting fast. He told Westword his staff had dropped from about 25 people to 12. At that size, every call-out turned into a grind, and he lost his enthusiasm for the business. The last day was at the end of May. Local outlets disagree on whether it was May 30 or 31.
Mestizo had a shorter run. Former Rock Bottom brewer Ryan Piec opened it in January 2023 as a neighborhood brewpub. The menu put Salvadoran pupusas, Ecuadorian llapingachos and Argentine-inspired tortas next to house-brewed beer and cocktails. Westword's October 1 roundup lists it among September's closures. The owners haven't given a reason publicly. The Gazette remembered them as a husband-and-wife team "who lived and breathed community."
The Strip, Address by Address
Here is the stretch between Wheat Ridge Lanes and Little Brazil as of early October:
| Address | What's there now | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 6595 W. 38th Ave. | Wheat Ridge Lanes | Open |
| 6800 W. 38th Ave. | Former Mestizo Brew Cantina | Closed in September |
| 6875 W. 38th Ave. | El Arka Plaza | Food-truck lot and gathering space, active since summer |
| 6995 W. 38th Ave. | Former Colorado Plus | Snipeburger and Tillie's Tavern Pizza, targeting early 2027 |
| 7100 W. 38th Ave. | Rolling Smoke BBQ | Open seven days |
| 7101 W. 38th Ave. | The Green at 38th | City park, opened August 2025 |
| 7333 W. 38th Ave. | Little Brazil | Open |
The two vacancies are close to the newest openings on the street. Rolling Smoke and The Green share the 7100 block, and the Colorado Plus building sits just east of them at 6995.
The Incoming Tenants Built Their Following Somewhere Else First
St. Louis natives Evan Pierce and Eddie Renshaw have been cooking in this area since they launched the King of Wings food truck in 2015. They now run restaurants in Golden and Wheat Ridge. The Wheat Ridge location is at 7741 W. 44th Ave.
Inside those two restaurants, they've been testing two limited-hour pop-ups. At the Golden location, Snipeburger makes smashburgers with what Pierce calls a "crispy, razor-thin edge." At the Wheat Ridge location, Tillie's Tavern Pizza turns out square-cut, thin-crust pizzas and Italian beef sandwiches. The Denver Post reported in September that both will move into the former Colorado Plus building at 6995 W. 38th Ave. The new space will have patio seating, and they hope to open in early 2027. "Snipeburger has been super popular and deserves its own location," Pierce told the Post. According to the Gazette, the new operators are aiming for January. That's faster than the one-year timeline that first came up.
If you can't wait that long, Tillie's has been running inside King of Wings on 44th. In July, Westword reported the pop-up was serving on Mondays and Thursdays. The schedule may have changed since then, so check before you drive over.
A few doors west, Rolling Smoke BBQ took the slow route too. Owner Terry Walsh and managing partner Andrew Clapp bought the former Right Coast Pizza building at 7100 W. 38th Ave. They spent nearly two years converting it before they opened. Like the King of Wings partners, they arrived with a track record. Their kitchen also supplies the Rolling Smoke stand at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and their food truck sold out every day of Clancy's three-day St. Patrick's Day celebration this year.
Rolling Smoke is open seven days a week, and about a quarter of its business is takeout. The menu goes past brisket and ribs to portobello mushrooms and other vegetarian and vegan dishes. For the summer, the owners planned live music and a Tuesday Kids' Night. They also know the building can look dark from the street in the evening. Their fix is to open the front garage door during business hours and add more visible signage.
The Gazette columnist sees a pattern in which places are doing well around town:
"Esters on 26th, Rolling Smoke on 38th and now Prost Brewing at Clear Creek Crossing have all figured out the magic formula: Have something for the kids, and you'll have parents ordering drinks, eating and hanging around a whole lot longer."
Compare that with what's leaving. Colorado Plus and Mestizo were built around beer. Rolling Smoke and the incoming Snipeburger and Tillie's are built around food that already has fans. The patio at 6995 fits the formula the columnist describes.
The Rest of the Block Is Holding Steady
The turnover is happening alongside businesses that have stuck around. Clancy's Irish Pub has been in Wheat Ridge for 53 years, and its operator told Denver7 that moving onto the 38th Avenue corridor was a deliberate business decision. At the east end, Wheat Ridge Lanes at 6595 W. 38th Ave. is still rolling. At the west end, the Gazette columnist writes that Little Brazil at 7333 "is finally thriving." He praises its good portions, friendly prices and friendly service.
El Arka Plaza at 6875 W. 38th Ave. is the newest experiment on the block. It's a food-truck lot that hosted Colombian food, fresh juice and outdoor activities this summer. It doesn't have a liquor license, and it depends on the weather, which the Gazette columnist flagged as challenges after a summer he called brutally hot.
The businesses are getting some help. This spring, the shop-local group Localworks and the city's 2026 Ridge at 38 initiative launched a new website and hung about 80 banners on light poles. They also started a reimbursement program that pays shoppers back 20% of a purchase, up to $20. Ridge at 38 calls itself Wheat Ridge's Main Street.
The Street Itself Is Next in Line
The road may change too, though not soon. The city's 38th Avenue Main Street Refresh covers the corridor from Wadsworth to Sheridan. It's a targeted design project focused on safety, connections and public spaces, not a full rebuild of the road. In June, city leaders moved two early concepts forward. The renderings show multimodal paths, more trees, better lighting and smoother traffic. The project has about $10 million from the 2J sales tax extension that voters approved in November 2023. Public engagement comes next. Denver7 reported that construction could start sometime in 2028, but no construction plan has been approved.
If Snipeburger and Tillie's open in early 2027 as planned, they'll have about a year on the street before the earliest possible construction start. Businesses that reopen on 38th now will be the ones working through whatever construction comes later.
The Green Shows How Fast a New Spot Can Catch On
The best evidence that new things work on this stretch is the park at 7101 W. 38th Ave. The Green at 38th opened to the public on August 8, 2025, and held its grand opening on September 6. The city called it Wheat Ridge's first new park in a decade. It has a stage, an open lawn, a playground, firepits and public art. A little over a year later, the city is using it for a fall event.
The city's Trunk-or-Treat is on Saturday, October 24, from 4 to 6 p.m. at The Green, on the same block as Rolling Smoke and just west of the building where Snipeburger and Tillie's are getting ready to open.
My wife and I bought our first house in East Wheat Ridge, and 38th Avenue is where a lot of our errands and dinners end up. If you own a building or a business on the corridor and want to talk through what the refresh might mean for your property, or you live nearby and want a candid read on how this stretch is changing, reach out to Jon Mottern at The Source at SERHANT.. For more on the neighborhoods around the strip, see the Wheat Ridge guide.
