Chain Invasion: Three Fast-Casuals Coming to Denver — With a Free Food Offer Today

Pizza, burgers and barbecue are still hitting the Denver restaurant scene hard, with new fast-casual concepts falling like cheese from a shaker onto the metro area. With openings from today through the next few months, our options — in quantity, if not in variety — keep expanding. Here are few to keep an eye on.

A California burger-and-grilled-cheese chain, The Melt, will officially open its first Colorado location in the food court at Park Meadows Mall tomorrow, but if you head over today, you can get free food by using the password "burger lover." The Melt has plans to add more stores in the metro area quickly: A liquor-license hearing notice went up at 16th and Champa streets, so it won't be long before downtown will have another burger joint, too. The Park Meadows location is the company's first foray outside California; it  also plans to add eateries in Longmont, Littleton and Fort Collins this year.

PizzaRev, another California concept, is hosting its grand opening today on Boulder's 29th Street Mall. The celebration will include a fundraiser that will allow customers to pay what they want for a pizza ($8 is the suggested donation). Proceeds will benefit giveSports, a partnership between A Precious Child and the "I Have A Dream" Foundation of Boulder County. PizzaRev served its first pizzas in Los Angeles in 2012 but has already spread to more than 25 locations in six states, with more coming faster than you can top a pizza, including a Lafayette branch. 

Crushed Red, an "urban bake and chop shop" with three locations in Missouri, is getting into the Colorado fast-casual game with a new store scheduled to open on Monday, August 17, in the Orchard Town Center in Westminster. Crushed Red offers pizza and salads along with a few shareable appetizers.