Weeks for Some, Months for Others: How Hampden South's New Restaurants Are Arriving This Fall

"Every restaurant I open is for the neighborhood, not for me," Troy Guard told Mile High CRE in June, when he announced G&G Surf Club for Penterra Plaza at East Union Avenue and South Ulster Street. That was four months ago. In September, while his restaurant was still under construction plastic, a noodle shop up on Hampden Avenue moved into an empty dining room and opened within weeks.

The difference in speed is this fall's real restaurant story in Hampden South. The quiet storefront swaps along the Hampden corridor have already happened. The two openings with the most attention, G&G Surf Club and Egg Harbor Cafe at Belleview Station, are still on the calendar, and both have moved since they were first announced.

Weeks on Hampden Avenue

Westword's restaurant roll call for September, published October 1, listed Mian Fresh Noodle Bar at 7350 E. Hampden Ave. as a closure and YGF Malatang at the same address as an opening. Food and drink editor Antony Bruno noted that many of the month's openings had come "after long permitting and regulatory processes," while others went faster. "For new spot YGF Malatang, taking over the Mian Fresh Noodles space took mere weeks."

One noodle concept handed a ready dining room to the next. Diners on that stretch of Hampden barely went without a noodle shop at all.

A little farther west, Call Your Mother Deli shows the next-fastest kind of move. BusinessDen reported on May 13 that the self-described "Jew-ish" deli had filed permits for 5074 E. Hampden Ave. in the Happy Canyon Shopping Center. The site was a 1,500-square-foot former Starbucks that closed in fall 2025 when the chain downsized. The permit documents estimated $64,000 in construction, mostly to cover the space in the brand's pink, blue and yellow. Westword counted it among September's openings. That's about four months from permit filing to opening, in a small room that already served food and drink.

Where Each Project Stands as of October 4

The two openings at the bottom of the table are much bigger projects than the two at the top.

The Address Guard Waited Five Years For

G&G Surf Club is a seafood-focused offshoot of Guard and Grace, the downtown steakhouse. Guard has run Los Chingones in the Tech Center for years. He told Mile High CRE he first looked at the 8100 E. Union Ave. space nearly five years ago, before the timing worked. Penterra Plaza is a 23-story mixed-use residential tower, and the restaurant takes a ground-floor corner space.

Westword toured the site in mid-September and described an 8,500-square-foot space with:

• a large wraparound bar with a lounge
• a raw bar and a sushi bar
• an open kitchen and a private dining room
• roughly 225 seats inside, plus two large patios

That's a full restaurant buildout, not a quick refresh. Westword noted that G&G will fill the space "years after McCormick & Schmick's left the property behind." In June, BusinessDen reported that Guard expected to open "by Nov. 1." Westword's September 16 piece described the dining room as "still covered in construction plastic sheets and filled with the noise of saws and drills," with an October/November target.

The same article explains why the Tech Center opening matters to Guard. He had made a very public move to Houston, citing Denver's high operating costs and long city approval and permitting times. G&G is the first of four restaurants he now plans for the metro area over the next two years. "I'm a glutton for punishment," he told Westword during the tour.

"I just kind of go with my gut." Troy Guard, speaking to Westword in September 2026

As of today, no specific opening day has been published. The G&G Surf Club website takes sign-ups and inquiries but lists no date.

Egg Harbor's Date Has Moved Three Times

Egg Harbor Cafe's Belleview Station location has changed dates more often than G&G. On October 30, 2025, the Denver Post reported that the Chicago-born breakfast brand would open at the Tech Center site in February. Its own page for 7222 E. Layton Ave. now says "Opening Fall 2026" and invites people to join its loyalty program. DougCo Social reported that Egg Harbor had been aiming for late September. As of October 4, it had not opened, Google still listed it as not open, and the brand had not posted an opening date. Belleview Station's own business directory, though, labels Egg Harbor "Recently Opened" and "Now open," without giving a date. With the restaurant's page and the development's directory saying different things, it makes sense to check before planning a breakfast there.

Meanwhile, Egg Harbor opened its first Colorado location in Highlands Ranch in March 2026. That makes Belleview Station the second Colorado location, not the first as the original plan suggested. Anyone near Belleview who wants Egg Harbor's skillets, benedicts and gluten-free menu and finds the Layton Avenue location not yet serving can drive south to 9579 S. University Blvd., which serves 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.

The Market's Last Sunday Comes First

All these delays matter for one fall routine at Belleview Station. People + Produce, which Belleview Station calls "South Denver's only farmers market," runs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Its 2026 season ends October 11. G&G Surf Club's latest target is October/November, and Egg Harbor's own page still says only "fall," so neither has a published date that lands before October 11. The market's final Sunday is the only firm date of the three.

The final market weekend has a few other things going on:

1. Saturday, October 10, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. The High Line Canal Conservancy and Denver Audubon have three birding walks scheduled that morning, including one at Quincy Farm in Cherry Hills Village.
2. Sunday, October 11, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Last People + Produce of the year, with 50-plus local vendors, produce, live music, a beer garden and the dog park next to the market. Street parking is free, and the paid lot is free for the first three hours once you register at the kiosk.
3. Any morning that week. Call Your Mother on Hampden for a bagel, or a bowl at YGF Malatang, both now open.

The Rest of the Tech Center's Year

The same pattern shows up across the wider Tech Center in Westword's monthly roll calls, where small storefront changes have come and gone all year. Chicken Salad Chick opened at 5322 DTC Blvd. in Greenwood Village in March. El Tule opened at 4862 S. Newport St. in June. In July, Tifa Chocolate & Gelato opened at 4880 S. Newport St., and Tap & Burger closed a few doors down at 4910 S. Newport St. Crave Cookies also closed at 4940 S. Yosemite St. in Greenwood Village that month. In August, The Sen Tea House opened at that same Yosemite address. The listings don't say whether one business directly replaced the other.

September's list also included Mama Kim at 8745 E. Orchard Rd. in Greenwood Village, which closed the same month as Mian Fresh Noodle Bar. Most of these openings and closings are small enough to happen between one monthly roundup and the next. G&G Surf Club and Egg Harbor are the exceptions, and their dates have now slipped across several roundups.

The next date to watch is November 1, the original G&G target BusinessDen reported in June. By then, Westword's October roll call will show whether either of the two big projects made it.

If you live near Tamarac or Belleview and wonder how the new tenants at Penterra Plaza and Belleview Station fit into the area around your street, I'm glad to talk it through over coffee at one of the new spots on Hampden. Lisa Taylor has followed south Denver since 1992. Let's Connect.