5 Regional Restaurant Chains Coloradans Will Defend to Anyone From Out of State
When visitors ask where to eat, Coloradans don’t always point to the famous names.
Some restaurants have a loyal following that out-of-state visitors have never heard of.
These are the regional chains Coloradans stand behind.
1. Illegal Pete’s
Illegal Pete’s opened in Colorado Springs in April 2024 as the chain’s 14th restaurant.
Springs Magazine says residents there had waited more than two years for it.
How long would you wait for a restaurant chain to open near you?
Owner Pete Turner said some people teased the company about the delay.
Boulder had Illegal Pete’s first.
Founder Pete Turner earned an English degree at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1993 and opened the first shop on the Hill two years later.
Illegal Pete’s took best burrito in Boulder County in Boulder Weekly‘s 2025 reader picks.
If you’re in Boulder, the 2025 list gives three addresses: 1447 Pearl Street, 1124 13th Street and 657 South Broadway.
Westword reports that Delaware once refused to incorporate the company over its name.
The company sued Delaware.
The Delaware Secretary of State settled the lawsuit out of court, and Illegal Pete’s was re-registering in Colorado.
2. Beau Jo’s
Skiers who grew up on the Front Range invariably remember stopping at Beau Jo’s on ski days, according to The Colorado Sun.
Those stops included scribbling art on napkins that people pinned to the wall.
Beau Jo’s original restaurant in Idaho Springs celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, and 5280 calls it the self-proclaimed birthplace of Colorado-style mountain pies.
As of September 2026, Beau Jo’s website lists seven locations, all in Colorado.
If you live near Arvada, Denver, Evergreen, Fort Collins, Lone Tree or Steamboat Springs, you can get a Beau Jo’s pie without driving to Idaho Springs.
What a Beau Jo’s Mountain Pie Is
A Beau Jo’s mountain pie has a hand-rolled edge of daily made dough, according to the restaurant’s website.
Beau Jo’s sells its Colorado-style pizza by the pound, in 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-pound sizes.
If you’re ordering for a group, figure a pound per hungry person.
Beau Jo’s also lists a Prairie Pie, which has no hand-rolled edge and a smaller amount of toppings.
You dip the edge in honey as a built-in dessert.
3. Snarf’s Sandwiches
Snarf’s Sandwiches won best sandwich shop in Westword‘s 2024 Best of Denver readers’ poll.
Boulder Weekly readers also picked Snarf’s for the best sandwich in Boulder County in 2025.
Snarf’s says its first shop opened in Boulder in 1996.
Jimmy Seidel launched it in a former A&W shack on Pearl Street, according to Boulder Weekly.
If you’re new to Snarf’s, the Italian is the bestseller.
There’s also The Farmer, a customer-devised sandwich that isn’t on the menu, layered with turkey, egg salad, bacon, Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing.
Your sandwich comes on homemade, oven-toasted bread.
Psst! How much do you know about Denver restaurants? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Denver Dining IQ
Answer nine questions on restaurants and their history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which Denver restaurant, located inside the Colburn Hotel, started serving alcohol after Prohibition in 1946 without a liquor license?
4. Cherry Cricket
Cherry Cricket won best burger in Westword's 2024 Best of Denver readers' poll.
Readers also wrote in to defend it after a commenter called it overrated.
5280 says Cherry Cricket has been a Denver fixture since it opened in Cherry Creek in 1945.
As of September 2026, Cherry Cricket is a small Denver-area chain with four locations, according to the restaurant: Cherry Creek, downtown Denver, Littleton and Broomfield.
It opened downtown in 2018, in Littleton in 2023 and in Broomfield in 2025.
If you live north of Denver or in Littleton, you don't have to go to Cherry Creek for a Cherry Cricket burger.
A kitchen fire closed it for five months in 2016.
It reopened in April 2017.
The neon marquee above the original restaurant still glowed in January 2026, according to the Denver Gazette.
The marquee reads "Duffy's Cherry Cricket," for Bernard Duffy, who became owner in 1963.
5. Santiago's
5280 says Santiago's seems synonymous with breakfast burritos, which Denver's mayor gave an official day in 2017.
Founder Carmen Morales opened the first location in Brighton in 1990.
Morales uses her mother's green chile recipe.
By 2023, the chain had 29 locations along the Front Range.
Westword says Santiago's is the company that has made breakfast burritos nearly ubiquitous in Denver.
If you're an early riser, you can join the construction crews and desk workers who face the day with a foil-wrapped breakfast in hand.
A writer there said Santiago's gets a lot of love, but left the chain off the paper's best green chile list again.
The writer said readers get upset when their favorites miss the list.
The 5280 panel disagreed.
The May 2024 blind taste of 14 Denver green chiles named Santiago's the best classic Colorado green chile.
The panelists tasted each green chile without knowing which restaurant made it.
Chains Beyond Colorado
Chipotle, which opened its first restaurant on East Evans Avenue in 1993, said in 2017 that it had more than 2,300 locations worldwide.
Springs Magazine said in 2024 that every Illegal Pete's is in Colorado except a pair in Tempe and Tucson, Arizona.
Snarf's says it has nearly 60 locations across Colorado, Missouri and Texas.
If you live in Missouri or Texas, you may already have a Snarf's nearby.
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