Bonfire Burritos has held a steady blaze in Golden for decades.
And for the first time ever, the owners are expanding that flame out of the western city.
Co-owner Ian Lanier said Bonfire is opening its second and third locations in Arvada and Wheat Ridge, pending city and municipality approvals. The company’s cult following can expect the same menu and that same Colorado “rustic charm,” he said.
“We are recreating the heart of Bonfire,” Lanier said. “There’s some rapid growth taking place here, but it has been a long time in the making.”
In Arvada, Bonfire is moving into 2,400 square feet at 5800 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., formerly an Arby’s. The property needs some work, and Lanier said they plan to convert about 2,000 square feet of parking on the lot to an outdoor patio. If the plans are approved, construction could start in June and take at least three months.
“We really tried to create an environment … that emulated a place that we would want to be, we would want to take our family,” Lanier said. “That’s been our basis since day one.”
Meanwhile, in Wheat Ridge, Lanier said the company plans to build a roughly 2,000-square-foot restaurant at 4001 Clear Creek Drive, off of I-70 and Highway 58.
The space will also have an outdoor patio – something Lanier and the other owners prioritize – and a drive-up window where customers can pick up to-go orders placed online.
Bonfire is leasing both of the new spots. Lanier said the company wanted to do a slow expansion into nearby cities where the brand is likely already known, what he called the “bubble approach.”
Lanier and his high school best friends –Raymond Pierandozzi, Matt King, Travis Toms and Sky Schnautz – bought Bonfire Burritos in 2013. The small burrito food truck was a staple for the group, who went to Golden High School together.
“It was almost like this special sanctuary to us where we could show up at this cool little run-down 1950s food trailer and absolutely munch down and hang out during an off-block lunch outside in the Colorado sun, enjoying basically the most quintessential food to us in Colorado, which is anything smothered in green chile,” Lanier said.
When Lanier was finishing up undergrad at the University of Denver, he stopped by the trailer and found the owner, Cecilia, was retiring. So, the friend group decided to buy it.
With minimal restaurant experience, Lanier described that first year as “grueling,” but things eventually eased up. In 2016, he said, they were able to upgrade to a larger, temperature-controlled commercial food trailer, which they then sold three years later to fund Bonfire Burritos’ first brick-and-mortar location.
During the pandemic, Lanier said they started getting requests from coffee shops to sell their breakfast Burritos, so in 2021, they rolled into wholesale. Those burritos are made in a leased commercial kitchen near I-70 and 6th Avenue.
Three years later, Lanier said Bonfire Burritos are in roughly 75 coffee shops around the metro area, and about 100 grocery stores, including Safeway. Last year, he estimated 1 million burritos were made in that commercial kitchen.
“I try to sit there and reflect on the fact that a million times, somebody’s hand did that final fold on the burrito, put it in wrap and slapped a sticker on it,” he said.
Over 10 years since they bought that 1950s trailer, Lanier said somehow a lot has changed, and not much at all. The restaurant is expanding, but he and his friends have worked to keep Bonfire the same place they would want to go nearly every day for lunch.
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“The absolute hardest thing in small business is organic growth,” Lanier said. “It’s just an absolutely uphill climb. It takes time and it’s been a decade in the making, really.”
Once the Arvada and Wheat Ridge restaurants are up and running, Lanier imagines it’ll be a while before the restaurant makes any other big moves.
“That might be the end goal, sustaining our three little touches on kind of this western metro area,” he said.
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.