In a neighborhood in Golden in the early 2000s, five friends formed a clique dangerously dubbed The Burrito Boys. Raymond Pierandozzi, Sky Schnautz, Ian Linear, Matthew King and Travis Toms got to know each other at Bell Middle School and became fast friends. Their meeting spot: a burrito truck that was permanently parked in a lot in between their houses and school.
“Summer of 8th grade is when it all started. It wasn’t the McDonald’s or Wendy’s everyone was going to. It had a cool factor,” Pierandozzi said.
Fast-forward to 2013, the boys — now men — saw that the little yellow burrito truck was going out of business. “This sucks,” said Linear. So they devised a plan to buy it from the owner, Cecilia Bustillos. “We learned the recipes from her daughter,” who translated.
The group took those recipes, including Bustillos’s famous green chile, and created their own combinations of flavors and branding — and Bonfire Burritos was born.
Next month, they’ll embark on a huge expansion that will put Bonfire Burritos in front of new customers all over the Front Range, and in Arvada and Wheat Ridge in particular.
But back to the beginning. The group operated a tight ship out of the trailer for three years, serving newly-minted items, like the Chupacabra, made with chorizo, sausage, bacon, house-made chipotle crema, cheddar cheese, Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs, hash browns and green chile; and the Jackalope, with house pico de gallo, roasted anaheim peppers, cotija cheese, avocado crema, eggs, hash browns and green chile, to an eager and growing fanbase.
“We wanted to continue the community aspect that the truck had created,” Pierandozzi said.
Business eventually picked up, and the original six people became 15, while they traded in the 12-foot trailer for a 20-foot rig.
“At that point, we knew we needed a brick-and-mortar,” Pierandozzi said. In 2019, they opened on Ford Street in downtown Golden, converting an old Taco John’s with a DIY aesthetic that has continued to inform their business since. “We thought it was going to be turnkey. It certainly wasn’t.” But when the doors opened, business flooded in.
Bonfire was built for takeout, so the COVID pandemic didn’t put much of a dent in their flourishing enterprise. “Right off the bat, we’re like, ‘Wow, we’re killing it,” said Pierandozzi. During that time, they also expanded into selling frozen renditions of their more popular items. Pierandozzi cold-called a few coffee shops and got about ten to sign on right away. They now sell in over 200 local breakfast joints along with a slew of golf courses, ski resorts and hospitals. The burritos are also available in 122 Safeway stores in the Rocky Mountain region, Natural Grocers nationwide.
In April, they will also be available in 160 King Soopers and City Markets across the country. Pierandozzi says that their commitment to pasture-raised eggs, nitrate-free meats and non-GMO cheese has helped them become one of Colorado’s more lauded purveyors of fine burritos.
This year, Bonfire will add two new locations. The first, at 5800 Olde Wadsworth Blvd. in Olde Town Arvada, is slated for May. The second, at 4001 Clear Creek Drive in Wheat Ridge, should open by August. “We’re trying to make both places family-centric. The one in Arvada will be like Ford Street except larger. There will be a beer garden and a kids’ playground,” Pierandozzi said. The team plans to add a full-service coffee program, with items like Pinon and Horchata lattes.
Both places will continue the commitment to DIY that has been a central tenet of the business since day one. “We’re doing the same stuff we did with Ford Street. We’re hanging the drywall. We’re putting in the sweat equity and making it our own,” said Pierandozzi. “We make the signs and do the siding. We make the furniture. We build a lot of stuff together.”
They’re also comfortable with the community aspect of Golden, Arvada and Wheat Ridge. “There’s a bit of a void in those suburban communities. We would like to be the ones that provide that. The three unique locations will complement each other,” Pierandozzi added. And if you’re going skiing, “there’s going to be three different spots you can pick up a Bonfire Burrito.”