Boulder Mexican Restaurant Closing After Four Years

The Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality group has had some big wins and hard losses in the last year, and now it’s saying goodbye to another concept, Bellota, which is set to close on Saturday, January 31, after a four-year run at 4580 Broadway in Boulder.

Founded by restaurateur Bryan Dayton, the group includes upscale Boulder favorites Corrida and Oak at Fourteenth. Last year, it added its first standalone location of the fast casual C Burger on Boulder’s Pearl Street. (The concept got its start operating out of Sanitas Brewing in Englewood; that outpost is currently closed and a brick-and-mortar is on the way).

C Burger highlights the meat from Dayton’s Corrida Cattle Company, which sources regeneratively raised beef.

In the summer of 2025, the group also opened C Bar, a cocktail lounge that shares C Burger’s Pearl Street address.

Last October, though, the group took a hit with the closure of Platte Street staple Brider after a decade in Denver — we still miss its French dip, and those tasty chocolate chip cookies (we’re hoping they’ll make a comeback at another concept at some point).

This year started with some positive news for Half Eaten Cookie — and diners in Denver — when Dayton announced a new steakhouse, the Stockton, set to open this summer inside the Exchange at the National Western Center. “This is not a concept to me, it’s my life’s work,” Dayton said in announcing the deal “I’ve worked on a ranch for three years and this is the only other work I’ve done outside the restaurant business. I want to show how beef, when raised regeneratively, can honor the land, the rancher and the animal itself. We have brought this to life at Corrida through the lens of the Spanish chophouse and can’t wait to extend this to Denver in a true Colorado steakhouse experience. The Stockton will be quintessential Colorado dining.”

But even as the group prepares to open Stockton, it’s now closing Bellota, the Mexican eatery that originally launched in 2020 at the Source in Denver, replacing another Half Eaten Cookie eatery, Acorn. The Boulder Bellota was added in 2022; a year later, the original shut its doors (that space at the Source remains vacant).

This closure, though, comes with a hint at something new in the works. “Thank you Boulder and NoBo for the past 4 years!! It’s been a great run,” the restaurant shared in an Instagram post announcing the news. “While it’s a bummer to say bye to our great food and amazing drinks there is something brewing so stay tuned!!”

Whatever is in the works, one thing is certain: Dayton and the Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality team are certainly staying busy!