The Warehouse restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs is transforming part of its space into a specialty grocery store, with The Warehouse Urban Grocer set to open in spring 2026. The market will offer a variety of high-end grocery options, from fresh seafood to restaurant quality prepared meals.
“We want to bring the hospitality of the restaurant into the grocery space,” said James Africano, chef and co-owner of The Warehouse and soon-to-open Urban Grocer.
Although downtown Colorado Springs has an abundance of retail stores, there isn’t much in terms of grocery offerings. The only other store offering grocery items is Bread and Butter market, a small store offering upscale produce that’s celebrating their fifth anniversary this year. Africano hopes to complement Bread and Butter’s goods by offering a deli counter, a butcher, a bakery case, and a seafood counter.
“We’re trying to give a more curated and crafted experience than what you’re going to find at King Soopers or Safeway,” Africano said. “We can bring a personal touch to the way that people shop in terms of recipes we can offer that they might not have seen before, or a way to use ingredients differently.”
The Urban Grocery will offer pre-made meals that are similar to what’s offered in their preexisting restaurant, as well as flowers, dairy products, beer and wine, and local snack items from around Colorado. They’ll offer specialty items like wild boar, elk, and venison, while also stocking typical pantry items like pasta, flour, and olive oil.
Africano explained that he and his wife, Shaundy Africano, have been working on the idea for a grocery store within the restaurant for the past seven years. In 2018, Colorado Springs announced the Weidner Field development downtown, which meant that parking would be challenging for the groups of customers who would book their event space. The two owners decided to transform the event space into a grocery store, which they hope will serve residents in the new apartment complexes which have opened nearby.
“Now, we’ve got people living in the neighborhood within walking distance of the store. They’re living in apartments, so they’re not going to be Costco shoppers or going on $500 missions to King Soopers, and Walmart. They’re more daily shoppers that are going to look for a more personal experience when they shop,” Africano said.
The idea of pairing a grocery store with a restaurant isn’t new. Complexes such as Eataly, an Italian marketplace that combines imported goods and fresh produce with in-house restaurants, have thrived in larger cities. Customers enjoy the convenience of shopping before or after a meal, while also getting a kind of culinary experience.
While they begin construction on the space, The Warehouse will continue to operate as it has before, serving customers for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. Africano’s goal is to open by March 15, though the official target is spring 2026 because the construction timeline may vary.
“Over the last ten years there’s been all of this residential development that makes [opening a grocery store] a much more feasible and reasonable thing to do downtown. It’s the right time for Colorado Springs to bring something here,” Africano said.