New sit-down restaurant coming to Maricopa

Maricopans will have a new sit-down restaurant option next spring.

Popular Valley restaurant Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers has confirmed it will add a location in town early next year.

More development news: 440 homes planned for tract off MCG Highway

Tracy Frazier, the chief operating officer of Scottsdale-based Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers, said the company has been looking at Maricopa for quite some time.

“The demographics really support a location there,” Frazier said. “We’ve looked at Maricopa a handful of times in the past few years. That market is dramatically underserved for sit-down restaurants.”

City Manager Rick Horst said the deal has been percolating with the chain for some time, and the city did what it could to facilitate its arrival.

“We met with the restaurant owner well over a year ago,” he said. “Again, we were reaching out and selling the vision of Maricopa. It took time but we drew his interest. From that point, the owner engaged real estate agents to assist in finding a location.”

Frazier said the restaurant will occupy a pad behind Culver’s in the soon-to-open Sonoran Creek Shopping Center. He expects construction to begin in September with an opening in early spring. The Maricopa restaurant will be the company’s 13th location.

He added the “neighborhood burger joint” here will have a dramatic distinguishing feature.

“The location there in Maricopa will have the biggest functioning bar at any location in Arizona,” Frazier said. “It will be a 50-foot bar that will have 20 televisions over the bar.”

He said the restaurant will be span about 5,000 square feet, plus about 2,000 more square feet of patio space. Most of the company’s patios feature rolled-up garage doors, indoor/outdoor bars for direct service and high-top community tables with built-in beer coolers.

Horst said the addition of CB&C is more evidence of the city’s progress.

“It means we are maturing as a city and the market is beginning to realize the opportunities that exist here in Maricopa,” he said. “The day will come when we will not have to woo such entities…they will just come. We are excited for this development and welcome them to Maricopa. Opening night will be a blast.”

One thing to keep an eye out for on opening night is the restaurant’s “Burger Challenge,” which is available at any time for adventurous types. Guests can order three half-pound burger patties on up, with the burger being free, as long as it is finished in a specified time. Patrons can try as many patties as they want; the most impressive finisher thus far completed a nine-patty monster weighing in at more than five pounds, according to CB&C. Those who finish in the posted time get their burger on the house, but if they don’t, their face is posted on the company website for the world to see.

CB&C’s menu reflects it focused approach to dining. “Keeping it simple, we decided to call ourselves exactly what we offer: cold beers and cheeseburgers!” the website says. “We are not your basic burger place. Our menu features only fresh ingredients with all items made in-house daily.”

The menu offers chicken wings and mac and cheese.

The restaurants offer more than 150 beer choices at most location – draught, bottles or cans – and a casual and friendly atmosphere featuring leather booths, butcher block tables, and more than 30 HD flat screen TVs. The company prides itself on providing “great service, amazing food, a high energy atmosphere, and a neighborhood sports bar feel,” the website says.