Somewhere in the past several months, a diner sat down at Summit or the Penrose Room, ordered like anyone else, paid the check, and left without saying who they really were. Colorado Springs restaurateurs have spent this year watching every table a little more closely, because for the first time since the Michelin Guide arrived in this state, an anonymous inspector could plausibly be sitting at the next one. If you live anywhere near the Broadmoor, that quiet scrutiny has been happening in your own backyard.
It is easy to miss, because nothing about it looks like news. No ribbon cutting, no sign change, no scaffolding. But two things are true about this particular stretch of Colorado Springs right now that were not true a year ago, and they are worth understanding together rather than as separate items on a list.
The State That Finally Showed Up
When Michelin first brought its guide to Colorado in 2023, Colorado Springs was not part of it. The geographic boundaries covered Denver, Boulder, Aspen and Snowmass Village, Vail and Beaver Creek, decided in large part by which cities were willing to help fund the inspection costs. Colorado Springs, along with Aurora, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction, declined to pay in at the time. The city simply was not in the conversation.
That changed on February 11, 2026, when the Michelin Guide announced it would expand its 2026 Colorado selection to cover the entire state, with the Colorado Tourism Office contributing roughly $100,000 to make that happen. Anonymous inspectors have been in the field ever since, making reservations and quietly evaluating restaurants they were never allowed to consider before.
As of that February announcement, Colorado already had 50 Michelin-recognized restaurants statewide, including one two-star kitchen, eight one-star restaurants, and four Green Star honorees. None of them were in Colorado Springs, not because the city's food scene wasn't good enough, but because it was never eligible to be judged in the first place. This year is the first time that changes.
The Two Names Already Being Whispered
Food writers covering the story have not been shy about where they expect Colorado Springs' best shot to come from. In a March piece for Axios Colorado Springs, local food journalist Matthew Schniper pointed directly at the Broadmoor's fine dining rooms, the Penrose Room and Summit, as leading contenders once the full selection is revealed. Schniper, who has covered this market for years, called Colorado Springs "the second biggest market in the state," a fact that has apparently mattered more to Michelin's inspectors than it ever did to the guide's earlier boundary lines.
The case for those two rooms is not hard to make if you have eaten in either one. The Penrose Room has held Colorado's only Five-Star, Five-Diamond restaurant rating for years, a distinction separate from Michelin but built on the same obsessive attention to service and consistency that Michelin inspectors are trained to look for. Summit, designed by hospitality architect Adam D. Tihany, has already collected a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and a spot on Frommer's list of America's ten best hotel restaurants. Neither restaurant needed Michelin to prove itself locally. What changes this year is whether the rest of the country hears about it too.
The full 2026 selection typically drops in early September, which means residents near the Broadmoor are, right now, in the final stretch of not knowing. If the pattern holds, that announcement lands within the next couple of weeks, not months from now.
Meanwhile, Down The Hill On Lake Avenue
While one end of the neighborhood waits on a national verdict, the other end has already answered a much smaller but more immediate question: what happens when a shopping center that has looked the same for years starts filling back in.
Broadmoor Towne Center, the retail cluster at Southgate Road and Lake Avenue that sits at the bottom of the same Lake Avenue stretch that runs straight to the resort itself, has added its first new sit-down restaurant in some time. L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, the largest Hawaii-based restaurant chain in the country, opened its doors on April 1, 2026, at Suite 101, 2130 Southgate Road. It is the chain's third location in Colorado Springs and its seventh in the state, run locally by franchise owner Ron Chadwick Jr., who has operated L&L restaurants in Colorado since 2014. The menu centers on the Hawaiian Plate Lunch, a combination of rice, macaroni salad, and a choice of entree that has become the chain's signature order nationwide.
That is not the only change in the works at the center. Commercial leasing materials for the property also list Kids Empire and Hobby Lobby as coming-soon tenants, joining a long-running mix of anchors that includes Home Depot, Ross, Chipotle, Ulta, and Red Robin. None of this is glamorous. It is the ordinary machinery of a neighborhood shopping center staying occupied, which is its own kind of signal.
Two Signals, One Corridor
Here is the part that is easy to miss if you only read local news for the headline: a fine dining recognition story and a strip mall leasing story rarely happen in the same commercial corridor in the same season. One is about scarcity and prestige, judged by inspectors who will not tell you their names. The other is about foot traffic and franchise economics, judged by whether a national chain believes enough people drive past that intersection on a Tuesday night to order a plate lunch.
Both bets are being placed on the same few square miles right now. A hospitality group that owns a five-star resort is willing to let its kitchens be judged against restaurants in Paris and New York. A regional restaurant operator who has spent over a decade building out Colorado locations decided this was the right corner for his next one. Those two decisions were made independently, for entirely different reasons, but they both point toward the same conclusion: this stretch of Colorado Springs is not standing still on either end of the price scale.
For anyone who already lives near the Broadmoor, that is the useful takeaway. You do not have to choose between the neighborhood's history and its everyday convenience this year. Both are moving at once, just at different speeds and for different audiences.
What To Watch For In The Next Few Weeks
If the Broadmoor's restaurants do land recognition when Michelin's Colorado selection is revealed, expect the kind of ripple effect other newly recognized Colorado restaurants have already described, longer waits for reservations, a noticeable jump in out-of-town diners, and a fair amount of local pride that has nothing to do with real estate values and everything to do with finally being taken seriously by an outside judge. If the Broadmoor's kitchens come up short this first year, that is also useful information. Michelin's inspectors visit each restaurant under consideration several times before making a call, which means this September is a starting point for Colorado Springs, not a final word.
Either way, the next few weeks are worth paying attention to if you eat in this neighborhood regularly. And the next few months are worth paying attention to at Broadmoor Towne Center, where Kids Empire's opening and whatever fills the center's remaining spaces will say something about how the practical side of the neighborhood keeps pace with its more decorated one.
If you are watching this corner of Colorado Springs for reasons that go beyond dinner reservations, whether you already call the Broadmoor home or you are weighing what a move here would actually look like day to day, Eric Scott has spent years tracking exactly this kind of neighborhood detail. Book a private consultation when you are ready to talk specifics.
