"For me to be busy only 4-6 hours a week, and then a ghost town the rest of the week, it's not sustainable," chef Matt Maher told Side Dish with Schniper a few days before Base Camp Restaurant served its last dinner.
Base Camp closed after service on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 2611 W. Colorado Ave. Five days earlier, The Gazette reported that BJ's Velvet Freez plans a third location down the avenue at 2132 W. Colorado Ave., with a drive-thru window. The closed kitchen needed full dining rooms all week. The incoming business can sell through a window on a slow afternoon. Old Colorado City gets busy in short bursts, mostly on weekends, and the businesses arriving on the avenue are designed for that rhythm. A full-service, chef-driven kitchen has the hardest time with it.
The storefront at 2611 has turned over three times
This wasn't the first concept to try 2611 W. Colorado Ave. Side Dish has followed the address for years:
- A Wobbly Olive expansion opened there during the pandemic and didn't last.
- Westside Cantina ran there for about three years. Its owners, Craig Dominguez and Jacy Olmos, closed it at the end of 2024 and opened Agave Lounge in early January 2025 at 2332 W. Colorado Ave., next to Front Range Barbeque, in the former Cucuru Gallery Lounge space.
- Base Camp opened in March 2025 with locally sourced, seasonal menus built around Colorado staples: Olathe corn, Palisade peaches, Pueblo chiles, bison and trout.
Maher told Side Dish he doesn't think the location was the problem. He pointed to the past year instead. With gas prices up and consumer confidence down, he thinks people are sticking to familiar places rather than trying new ones. Even with OCC's tourist traffic, Base Camp hadn't built enough business to get through the winter slow season. The Gazette's headline on the closure named rising operating costs and a downturned economy.
The owners plan to work with a broker to find a new tenant. As of this writing, no new tenant has been announced.
The weekend bottleneck
In his Side Dish interview, Maher described how the restaurant was staffed. On most weekdays he cooked with a single server out front. On weekends he added a second server, another cook and a dishwasher. He said that kind of uneven demand made staffing, scheduling and training hard to plan.
"Everyone wants to come in at that same time, between 5:30 and 7:30 on Fridays and Saturdays."
That's Maher in Side Dish with Schniper. Side Dish's Matthew Schniper connected this to a point Chef Brother Luck has made publicly for years: even Michelin-recognized restaurants can't survive if they're only busy on weekend nights.
Maher considered Base Camp's pricing reasonable. "Where else can you get 10 courses for two for $120, or five for $75?" he asked. The change he named was more people dining out on weekdays.
Base Camp isn't the only recent departure. In June, The Gazette reported that Gather Food Studio & Spice Shop at 2011 W. Colorado Ave. was preparing to close its OCC shop and move the business to Minnesota. No final Colorado Springs date was published.
What's arriving is built differently
Compare the two concepts that have opened or announced on the avenue this year.
Stage Stop OCC Bar & Smokehouse opened May 29 at 2925 W. Colorado Ave., in the former Trail's End Taproom. The Gazette described it as a barbecue-focused sister to the original Stage Stop. A bar with a smoker is a different kind of business from a tasting menu.
BJ's Velvet Freez goes further. The family-run ice cream parlor has been in Colorado Springs since 1954, when it opened at 1511 N. Union Blvd. It added a second location on Platte Avenue in February. The third is going into an old credit union building at 2132 W. Colorado Ave. Owner Stan Kelley told The Gazette it will open by spring break next year.
Here's what the plans filed with the city show, according to The Gazette's report:
| Feature | OCC location plan |
|---|---|
| Ordering | Order and pickup window, plus a drive-thru window |
| Outdoor seating | About 550 square feet, some under a corrugated-metal patio roof |
| Size | About three times the space of BJ's other locations |
| Menu | "Extended food menu" with more fried options |
| Staff | About 15 to 20 hires, trained at existing locations first |
The drive-thru took some extra work. Kelley first submitted development plans on Aug. 17, then withdrew them after learning he would need a nonuse variance, because city code limits drive-thru windows near residential areas. He resubmitted on Sept. 10 with the variance included. With a window, BJ's can sell soft-serve on a slow Wednesday without seating anyone.
Kelley presents the move as filling a gap. He pointed The Gazette to the recent closures of a Wendy's and a Sonic nearby. He also noted that the Dairy Queen across the street, which operated for more than 60 years, is now Los Carnales Mexican Food. Los Carnales sits at 2131 W. Colorado Ave., directly across from the future BJ's. "Old Colorado City needs something like this," Kelley said.
It's part of a citywide trend. The Gazette counts BJ's as the latest in a 2026 run of ice cream openings that includes Lolley's expanding from Monument to downtown, the Ice Cream Lab in July, and a second Rizuto's on the east side.
The avenue's own calendar runs on weekends
Through December, almost every OCC event falls on a Friday or a Saturday. The listings below come from the Old Colorado City Partnership calendar and the OCC Christkindlmarket site.
| Date | Event | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Last OCC Farmers Market Saturday, Bancroft Park, 2408 W. Colorado Ave. | 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Pumpkins in the Park | Noon to 6 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Trick or Treat Street | 2 to 4:30 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 6 | First Friday ArtWalk | 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Christmas Stroll | 4 to 7 p.m. |
| Weekends, Nov. 28 to Dec. 20 | Santa at the Bancroft Park Cabin | Varies by date |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Holiday First Friday ArtWalk | 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Dec. 4-6, 9-13, 16-23 | Christkindlmarket, Bancroft Park | Noon to 8 p.m. |
The farmers market lists more than 80 vendors and food trucks for its final weeks. Pumpkins in the Park is free and includes a pumpkin patch, crafts, costume and carving contests, live music, dance, a beer garden and visiting zoo animals. At the Christmas Stroll, Santa photos run in Bancroft Park from noon to 8 p.m., with live reindeer, fire pits and hot cocoa from 4 to 7 p.m., plus carolers and musicians along the avenue.
The Christkindlmarket is the exception. Its second and third runs open on Wednesdays, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16, and keep the same noon-to-8 hours through Dec. 23. For two December weeks, Bancroft Park has a scheduled event in the middle of the week.
Where that leaves the west side this winter
Maher put it simply: "Dining out on weekdays may be enough to change the game for places like mine." The weekend calendar is full through December. After Dec. 23, the Christkindlmarket closes for the season, BJ's is still a few months away from opening at 2132, and 2611 W. Colorado Ave. is waiting for its next tenant.
The Galloway Group follows this kind of street-level change across the west side, from storefronts waiting on a variance to spaces looking for their next tenant. If you'd like a clear picture of how the avenue near you is changing, Erik Galloway can walk you through it. Get Your Free Home Roadmap.
