“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted three restaurants,” says Boulders on Broadway owner Erick Geryol.
He’s about to achieve his dream: The Tempe neighborhood grill and craft beer bar is opening a spinoff – Boulders on Southern – in Mesa.
Along with Spokes on Southern, which opened in Tempe in February 2013, it will give Geryol his trio.
Not bad for the one-time pizza cook who bought the former Old Chicago where he worked while attending ASU and turned it into Boulders on Broadway, the name reflecting his love of rock climbing.
The new Boulders will take over the former R.T. O’Sullivan’s building on Southern just east of Alma School near Fiesta Mall.
Due to its proximity to Boulders on Broadway, bicycle-themed Spokes on Southern has its own identity and menu, Geryol says. But Boulders on Southern “will be more like Boulders on Broadway 2.0.”
The 6,700-square-foot venue is being renovated in what Geryol calls a comfy Northern California decor with lots of wood, rock, and patinaed metals.
Elements of the look eventually will be incorporated into Boulders on Broadway. The elevated pub-grub menu, recently streamlined, will be the same at both Boulders locations.
There will be 24 beers on tap in Mesa (compared to 30 in Tempe). The bar will host frequent craft beer tastings and events, just like its Tempe sibling. But Geryol doesn’t think of either as craft beer bars.
“We’re a neighborhood bar and grill,” he says, explaining that his main focus is a one-mile radius around each location.
A Dec. 1 opening is planned.
