Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers opens

Maricopa residents were bunstoppable in their quest to grab a seat at the city’s newest sit-down restaurant on Thursday.

Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers opened its long-awaited 14th restaurant to much fanfare, with a line forming outside the restaurant 20 minutes before opening.

“This is our single-busiest day of the year throughout all our locations with March Madness and spring training and spring break,” said Tracy Frazier, chief operating officer of Square One Concepts, the umbrella company that owns the restaurant. “With everything that’s been going on, we’re looking to capitalize the opening today with the basketball games.”

One of their most popular hand-formed, half-pound gourmet burgers is the Open Pit, stacked with cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, bacon, an onion ring and barbecue sauce.

“My favorite, hands down? The PB&J burger or the PB&J sliders,” he said. “The way the peanut butter contrasts with the beef, it’s a unique taste that you don’t experience. It’s salty, it’s sweet, it’s creamy. And then you’re adding the jelly and we do a little chipotle sauce on there for a bit of back-end heat.”

Frazier pointed out the restaurant’s 50-foot bar, the longest at any of their locations. The bar hosts 20 television screens and seats up to 52 people inside and out. Customers can choose from 150 different beer selections.

Plans for the restaurant were initially announced in 2021 with a proposed opening date for mid-2022 but a series of construction and labor delays pushed that back to spring 2023. However, Frazier believes this won’t dissuade customers from patronizing the restaurant.

“It was tough to get everyone together to get this to the finish line,” he said.

Frazier added that he believes the store will be busy for months to come.

“The community has opened their arms and they’re welcoming us,” Frazier said. “They’ve all told us about how the need for something like this in the community is wanted and needed, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Details: 20350 W. John Wayne Pkwy., Ste. 160, located in the Sonoran Creek shopping center. Open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.