Why Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe matters.
Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe is a celebrated Colorado breakfast and lunch destination where Downtown Colorado Springs' independent dining culture meets the revival of a longstanding westside gourmet market, chef-driven Southwestern cooking and Mitch Yellen's influential hospitality enterprise.
Set along South Tejon Street near East Rio Grande Street and a short walk from the Pikes Peak Center, the cafe occupies a contemporary commercial space at the southern edge of downtown, amid neighborhood restaurants, renovated commercial buildings and the developing South Tejon dining corridor. Its broad windows and open dining areas create an inviting connection between the interior and the surrounding streetscape. A spacious dining room accommodates breakfast and lunch service, with an adjoining patio extending the seating into the Colorado sunshine. Display cases present freshly baked pastries, desserts and prepared foods, and a dedicated market area brings together packaged provisions, specialty ingredients and products from Colorado businesses. The result is a versatile neighborhood establishment whose dining room, bakery and gourmet market bring several complementary traditions of everyday hospitality into a single downtown destination.
What defines Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe.
Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe is best known for its evolution from a small Old Colorado City food business into a prominent Colorado Springs restaurant, bakery and specialty market whose successive transformations reflect the growth of the city's independent hospitality industry. The enterprise began in 2001 on South 26th Street, establishing its early reputation through prepared foods, catering and specialty provisions serving the city's westside neighborhoods. Its original business developed under the Garden of the Gods Gourmet name, connecting restaurant-quality cooking with a retail operation that made prepared meals accessible beyond conventional dining hours. Lynn Schlemeyer and her husband subsequently expanded the enterprise, developing a substantial catering business alongside its growing market operations. A merger with The Pinery Enterprises in 2012 introduced a new organizational structure and brought the business under the Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe name. The partnership supported plans for expanded retail offerings, additional cafe seating and a stronger relationship between the company's catering and restaurant divisions. In June 2013, Schlemeyer announced the acquisition of the former Saigon Stars restaurant property on South 26th Street, establishing a larger permanent home for the growing business. Executive chef Amy Fairbanks contributed to the operation's culinary development through cooking demonstrations and an expanded program of prepared foods. The larger westside establishment strengthened the market's reputation for freshly prepared meals, baked goods and specialty ingredients, attracting customers seeking a convenient connection between restaurant cooking and everyday grocery shopping. Entrepreneur Mitch Yellen subsequently incorporated the business into Altitude Hospitality Group, an expanding Colorado Springs restaurant organization associated with several distinctive dining concepts. Yellen's broader hospitality development included Till Kitchen, establishing a relationship between the market's accessible daytime cooking and the group's ambitions in contemporary American dining. In December 2020, Altitude Hospitality Group announced plans to relocate the cafe into a former Coquette's Bistro property in Downtown Colorado Springs, introducing a substantial expansion of its dining and retail facilities. The move preserved the original westside location as Garden of the Gods Catering and Westside Market, maintaining the company's established catering operation and prepared-food business. The downtown restaurant opened on April 16, 2021, with executive chef Ariel Bilyeu developing a breakfast and lunch menu that retained longstanding customer favorites alongside new preparations suited to the expanded setting. The relocation introduced additional seating, private-event facilities and a substantial outdoor patio, positioning the cafe within a growing concentration of independent restaurants along South Tejon Street. The business subsequently earned recognition as Best Restaurant for Tourists in 2024, reflecting its established appeal among visitors exploring Colorado Springs. Its development demonstrates the successful adaptation of a neighborhood gourmet market into a broader hospitality enterprise, preserving the original emphasis on accessible prepared food through successive changes in ownership, location and culinary leadership.
Brian Meiler's contemporary culinary direction emphasizes seasonal ingredients, careful preparation and the relationship between familiar American breakfast traditions and the distinctive flavors of Colorado and the Southwest. His professional background began with dishwashing at thirteen and developed through successive kitchen positions, including work under two James Beard Award-winning chefs. That experience informs a cooking approach built around the natural character of ingredients and the changing availability of seasonal produce. The kitchen's breakfast preparations establish a central relationship between eggs, freshly prepared breads and regional seasonings, bringing recognizable morning dishes into contact with the culinary traditions of the American Southwest. Green chile provides a defining example, introducing earthy heat and savory depth through a regional preparation closely associated with Colorado's Mexican American food culture. Its integration into eggs Benedict demonstrates the kitchen's approach to adaptation, connecting poached eggs and hollandaise with a buttermilk biscuit and the concentrated flavor of roasted chiles. Brown butter deepens the sauce's richness, creating a complementary relationship between the biscuit's tender interior, the eggs and the chile's gentle heat. The same emphasis on substantial breakfast cooking extends into hash preparations, where carefully browned potatoes and savory proteins establish contrasting textures beneath freshly cooked eggs. Seasonal fruit introduces a lighter dimension through its relationship with yogurt, grains and honey, allowing the kitchen to develop satisfying morning meals around naturally sweet ingredients. Lunch preparations carry the same attention to balance into sandwiches and salads, combining fresh greens, carefully seasoned proteins and dressings that introduce acidity and aromatic complexity. The cafe's longstanding curry chicken salad demonstrates this approach through the interaction of warm spices, tender chicken, dried fruit and nuts, bringing sweetness and texture into a familiar American lunch preparation. Vegetarian and vegan selections extend the kitchen's ingredient-driven approach through legumes, grains and seasonal vegetables, accommodating a broad range of dietary preferences within the same culinary structure. The bakery contributes an important complementary dimension, producing pastries and desserts that connect the restaurant's daily cooking with the market's prepared-food tradition. Its grab-and-go offerings translate that cooking into meals intended for home, work and outdoor excursions, maintaining a direct relationship between the kitchen and the surrounding community. Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe derives its culinary character from this integration of seasonal American cooking, Southwestern ingredients and practical gourmet food preparation, sustaining a restaurant concept built around the everyday pleasures of breakfast, lunch and carefully made provisions.
How Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe fits.
Garden of the Gods Market & Cafe works as the culinary anchor for an outing connecting Colorado Springs' historic civic institutions, the preservation of its regional heritage and the contemporary architecture celebrating the city's international significance in Olympic and Paralympic sport.
Begin at Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, the regional history institution housed within the former El Paso County Courthouse, an expansive building completed in 1903. Architect August J. Smith designed the Second Renaissance Revival structure, introducing substantial granite masonry, carefully articulated façades and an ornate domed clock tower that established a prominent architectural landmark in the developing city. The museum originated in 1896 through the El Paso County Pioneers' Association, whose members began collecting historical materials during the twenty-fifth anniversary of Colorado Springs' founding. The collection passed into municipal ownership in 1937, strengthening its preservation through the city's cultural institutions. Following the courthouse's retirement from government service, the museum relocated into the building in 1979, transforming its former judicial spaces into galleries devoted to Indigenous history, settlement, mining and the development of the Pikes Peak region. Continue to Cottonwood Center for the Arts, the nonprofit arts institution occupying a substantial former commercial building on East Colorado Avenue. Its two-story brick and concrete-block structure provides studio space for working artists, establishing a concentrated creative community within the downtown district. The center's galleries present changing exhibitions that connect regional artists with audiences exploring contemporary painting, sculpture, photography and mixed-media work. Its monthly First Friday receptions contribute to Colorado Springs' downtown arts program, opening the building's galleries and studios for public engagement. Educational workshops and collaborative programming extend that relationship through opportunities for practical artistic instruction and direct interaction with working artists. Conclude at U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, the landmark cultural institution that opened on July 30, 2020, as a permanent celebration of American achievement in international sport. Architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the building in collaboration with Anderson Mason Dale Architects, creating a sculptural composition of overlapping aluminum-clad forms inspired by athletic movement. The 60,000-square-foot museum incorporates twelve galleries arranged along a continuous accessible route, allowing visitors to explore the histories of Olympic and Paralympic competition through artifacts, interactive installations and multimedia presentations. Its exhibition design incorporates contributions from athletes, with accessibility integrated into the organization of the building and the presentation of its collections. A pedestrian bridge connects the museum precinct with America the Beautiful Park, extending its relationship with the surrounding landscape and the mountain setting that distinguishes Colorado Springs. The progression moves from the preservation of the city's nineteenth-century civic history through the contemporary artistic community of downtown and concludes at an architectural landmark celebrating Colorado Springs' position within the international Olympic and Paralympic movements.
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