801 Chophouse Coming as Cherry Creek Shopping Center Turns 25

The Cherry Creek Shopping Center turns 25 this August, and it's getting a grown-up restaurant as a birthday gift: 801 Chophouse, a link in a Midwest-based chain owned by the 801 Restaurant Group. The first 801 Chophouse opened in Des Moines in 1993; the group also has the Pig & Finch and 801 Fish concepts. While 801restaurantgroup.com lists an 801 Fish location as coming to Cherry Creek, Dave Dixon, marketing & sponsorship director for the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, says it's definitely getting an 801 Chophouse.

(John Elway, whose flagship Elway's has held down the western edge of the mall for a decade, might want to throw a flag on the idea of a second steakhouse opening there. But Cherry Creek North is about to get both another seafood restaurant and another meat market: Blue Island Oyster Bar will soon open at 2625 East Second Avenue, and Del Frisco's Grille is coming to 2930 East Second Avenue.)

801 Chophouse will be located by the remodeled valet plaza that already services the Kona Grill and California Pizza Kitchen. Both of those restaurants are currently closed and undergoing extensive remodeling while the hallway between them is removed; they'll reveal new design concepts when they reopen in late summer.

And there's more booze news at the shopping center: RH Denver, the Gallery at Cherry Creek, the four-level Restoration Hardware project that will open this fall, has also applied for a beer-and-wine liquor license; that hearing is at the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on July 31.

So soon you'll have another spot where you can raise a glass to Cherry Creek's big anniversary. Sadly, the shopping center doesn't have a list of the watering holes that have dried up over the past 25 years, Dixon says — so why not help him out? Before the Cherry Creek Shopping Center officially marks its 25th birthday next month, we're compiling a list of the restaurants that have come and gone, starting with the all-wet Rainforest Cafe. Remember Sfuzzi, Chevy's and Paul's Place? How about the previous occupants of the Kona space: Roy's Cherry Creek, preceded by Black Hawk Steak House and a Rattlesnake Club before that. 

What are we missing? Post your nominations as a comment, or e-mail [email protected].

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