Upscale Colorado Springs restaurant complex offering sushi, steak, tapas, tacos and drinks almost here

Feb. 9—If it's done right, a restaurant can become a destination, not just a place to eat, industry experts say.

Restauranteur Chuck Schafer's latest Colorado Springs project will have four chances to do just that.

Schafer, who owns Five Times Hospitality Group, is targeting a late March opening for his Manhattan Room Tapas Kitchen and Cansano Italian Steakhouse and a late April opening for Longboard Tacos and Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi — four restaurants being built as part of a single dining complex and with multiple customer options.

The high-end restaurants are under construction at the Victory Ridge mixed-use development on the city's far north side, southeast of InterQuest and Voyager parkways. A limited liability company formed by Schafer paid nearly $620,000 for a less than 1-acre parcel on the north side of the 155-acre Victory Ridge, El Paso County land records show.

The project isn't a food hall; each restaurant will have its own entrance, menu, kitchen, look, feel and concept.

Yet, because they'll be under one ownership and constructed adjacent to each other, diners can have a drink at one restaurant and transfer their bar tab over to another when their reservation is called, Schafer said.

"When I got this lot, I tried to think many times, what do I want to create?" Schafer said. "What do I want to do? It's a destination. I want people to believe that, 'Hey, I can go to one place and enjoy myself. I don't have to go here and eat and then go somewhere else later.'"

Schafer's restaurant background includes ownership of the Prime25 steakhouse south of downtown Colorado Springs. He and his uncle, local businessman and nightclub owner Sam Guadagnoli, opened Prime25 in early 2017.

Guadagnoli died in September; Schafer said he continues to own Prime25 with new partner John Goede, an attorney who stepped in after Guadagnoli died. Goede also has partnered on several hotel and restaurant projects with Springs attorney Perry Sanders Jr.

Schafer tapped his friend and award-winning chef Christopher Lee to create the restaurants' menus and recipes; executive chef Phil Griffin will help run the restaurants day to day.

Schafer said he's envisioned a restaurant project in northern Colorado Springs for more than 2 1/2 years. He liked the location of Victory Ridge, which is one of four residential and commercial developments in the fast-growing InterQuest area that's home to restaurants, stores, service-oriented businesses, hotels and apartments.

The new St. Francis-Interquest Hospital will open in the area this summer, while Ent Credit Union built an expanded headquarters nearby that opened in 2021. Victory Ridge also is a few miles south of Polaris Pointe, another mixed-use development where the 8,000-seat Sunset amphitheater is targeted to open in 2024; Schafer said he hopes concertgoers will frequent his restaurants before or after shows.

Victory Ridge includes In-N-Out Burger's first Colorado restaurant and the company's production and distribution facility; several additional chain restaurants; hundreds of townhomes constructed by Denver-area builder Lokal Homes; the ICON movie theater complex; a four-story office building; and a 474-unit apartment complex that's now under construction.

Schafer expects his restaurants to appeal to residents on the far north side, which U.S. Census figures show has some of the Pikes Peak region's highest household incomes. Many of those residents don't want to drive across town to reach a restaurant, he said.

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"When I drive to Prime, it's a long ways away for me," said Schafer, who lives northeast of Victory Ridge in unincorporated Black Forest. "And a lot of my friends live in Flying Horse (a nearby, upscale development) and they go to Prime and stuff. They're like, 'we can go down there and eat and drink, but then we've got to drive all the way home.' I feel like this part of town has been missing out on a little bit."

Schafer said his new restaurants have been designed with open kitchens that customers can see from dining rooms and interiors decorated to reflect a particular location's concept. Food will be refrigerated, but not frozen; none of the restaurants will use freezers, he said.

Three fire pits will create outdoor gathering spots for diners, while Cansano, Longboard Tacos and Pause will have patios. Eight large concrete pads with tables and festoon lighting in front of Cansano will allow its diners to lounge outside the restaurant.

A walkway between Cansano and Longboard Tacos links to a free, 1,100-space parking garage on the south side of the restaurants; the garage was one of the first amenities built at Victory Ridge when the development got off the ground more than a decade ago.

Restaurant details include:

— Manhattan Room Tapas Kitchen is envisioned as an intimate dining spot that will seat about 100 at booths and tables and offer live music — "soft, not loud," Schafer said — performed on a corner stage perched above a bar. Its menu will feature small plates of food from around the world, including some Mediterranean and Japanese dishes, he said. Several whiskeys, wines and cocktails also will be available. A private dining room will seat about 30 and open up to allow its diners to join other restaurantgoers.

"This one, I would say it's like that date night out," Schafer said. "This is where the parents are coming out to have a nice meal, listen to some soft jazz up there on the stage and just mingle with themselves."

— Cansano Italian Steakhouse was named for a town in northern Italy where Schafer's grandfather was born and where his family originated, he said. The upscale steakhouse's menu will include pastas, noodles, pizza and 400 pounds of steaks and meats aged on site, Schafer said. Its circular booths and tables will seat 150. Another 80 can sit on an enclosed patio whose windows open when the weather is nice; heaters will allow the patio to be used year-round. A separate chef's table near the front of the dining room will allow customers to pay a set amount and have food served to them family style — everyone at the table "gets to sample a little bit of everything," he said.

An espresso machine, wines and liquors will be on display near the restaurant bar. Diners also can purchase bottles of wine from the restaurant and store them in decorative lockers installed on a wall behind the bar — allowing them to have their favorite wine on hand when they come in for a meal, Schafer said.

"This is family friendly, but upscale," Schafer said. "Kids will enjoy this because of the pizzas, because of the pastas and all that. Adults will enjoy it because of the steaks and different types of stuff we're doing, adult-wise."

— Longboard Tacos will have a Southern California vibe. Its bar counter has been designed to look like an ocean beach; the bar itself has tiki hut touches; a pair of palm trees — portions of real trees make up their base, though their leaves are artificial — dominate the dining room; a specially made surfboard will serve as a 10-seat table; and license plates from all 50 states decorate one of the walls. Three garage doors will open the dining room to the outside and a year-round, heated patio; combined, the dining room and patio will seat 210. Longboard will specialize in its namesake tacos, fish and other fresh foods, Schafer said. .

— Pause Ultra Lounge & Sushi will operate on the second floor of the building that houses Longboard Tacos, and will be reached via a staircase or elevator. While Longboard has the feel of Southern California, Pause is meant to conjure up Miami's South Beach neighborhood. Its name reflects Schafer's goal for customers to relax. "Pause — like take a break," he said. "Push pause in life."

Pause will have a pair of bars — one for sushi, which is the only menu item, and another for drinks. A patio will have a disc jockey booth, fireplaces and couches, where diners will be served bottled drinks and enjoy views of the Air Force Academy through large windows. The patio will have heaters, though it's not covered for now, Schafer said. The dining room and patio will seat 150.

Schafer expects a nonstop happy hour atmosphere at Pause.

"I see up here being heavy on the drinking," he said.

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