Leetsdale Drive Is Filling In Small While Its Bigger Future Is Still Being Drawn

Leetsdale Drive picked up three new food businesses in 2026, and all of them fit the same pattern. Giorgios Pizza reopened in August at 5701 Leetsdale Dr. in a room its owner describes as a few tables, takeout and delivery. Mr. Taco opened a second location at 6200 Leetsdale Dr. in the spring. Dutch Bros filed plans for a 986-square-foot coffee shop at 7150 Leetsdale Dr. with two drive-through lanes and a walk-up window. Each one is designed for a quick stop on a road built for driving.

This fall, a regional transit study started asking a bigger question. It wants to know whether Leetsdale should stay that kind of road. The Southeast BRT Study, led by the Denver Regional Council of Governments in partnership with Denver, is in the phase where it defines what the corridor should become. The businesses are adapting to Leetsdale as it is, and the study is only beginning to sketch what it could be.

Three addresses, one format

Here is what changed this year, going east along the road:

1. 5701 Leetsdale Dr. Giorgios Pizza is in the former Santiago's Mexican Restaurant space. Westword's August openings roundup listed it among the month's arrivals.
2. 6200 Leetsdale Dr. Mr. Taco is a second outpost of the Centennial restaurant, and it appeared in Westword's March openings roundup.
3. 7150 Leetsdale Dr. Dutch Bros filed plans with the city in late April for a drive-through in Leetsdale Marketplace, the Denver Post reported on May 6, 2026.

A family pizza counter, a taqueria expansion and a drive-through coffee shop are all built for errands and quick trips. That matches the road. Leetsdale is a multi-lane arterial, and the businesses that are betting on it in 2026 are betting on traffic that pulls in, orders and leaves.

Giorgios came back looking for exactly this kind of room

Of the three, Giorgios Pizza shows most clearly why a small operator would pick Leetsdale. The family has run pizza kitchens across the metro area for years, and Westword's July 31 profile covered that history in detail. Before going out on his own, the father of current operator Chris Korosis worked at Famous Pizza on Broadway in the early 2000s. He then opened a shop in Broomfield, and in 2010 he opened the original Giorgios Pizza at Hampden and Tamarac. That location ran for nearly ten years before closing during COVID.

Next came Giorgios NY Pizza, a pickup-and-delivery operation in a 200-square-foot kitchen at the Mile High Food Club. It lasted about a year and a half. After another break of roughly the same length, the family found the Leetsdale space.

Korosis, who is 28 and now runs the business, told Westword the space is "like a dream location" for him:

"I've always wanted a little tiny place... a couple tables, takeout, delivery, easy service. And found the perfect spot."

That description fits the 2026 pattern on this road. After a 200-square-foot delivery kitchen, the family wanted a small room that could still take walk-in customers. A former restaurant space on Leetsdale gave them one.

What is on the table

The family remodeled the Santiago's space themselves, from the build-out to the paint, according to Westword. The room mixes old-school Italian red-checkered tablecloths and New York skyline photos with art showing Greek landscapes and architecture.

• The pizza: traditional thin-crust NY-style, with dough and sauce made in-house and cheese brought in from the East Coast. Some recipes go back to a great-grandfather's pizzeria in Brooklyn. Korosis's father learned to make pizza at an uncle's pizzeria in Montreal.
• The Greek side: Korosis created the Mad Greek Express concept during the Mile High Food Club years and brought its menu here. That means gyros, chicken souvlaki with tzatziki made from scratch, salads, and subs on house-made bread.
• Dessert: baklava made from his Greek grandmother's recipe. Westword reported that she helps in the kitchen with the original recipes.
• Schedule and drinks: Westword's July preview said the restaurant would be open Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays. It opened without a liquor license, and Westword reported plans to add alcoholic drinks "by next summer."

Updates are posted at giorgiosdenver.com and on the restaurant's Instagram.

The coffee shop on paper and the taqueria already open

Mr. Taco follows a familiar path for Denver restaurants. A suburban place with a following adds a second location inside city limits, on a road with steady traffic. Westword listed the 6200 Leetsdale address in its March 21, 2026 roundup and described the restaurant as already open by then.

Dutch Bros is the clearest example of a business designed around the car. Its plans call for a 986-square-foot building, two drive-through lanes and a walk-up window, according to the Denver Post's May report, which did not give an opening date. As of this writing, the company's online location finder doesn't list a Leetsdale store among its Denver entries.

Most of a 986-square-foot building fits behind the counter. Two drive-through lanes are a direct bet on the road's car traffic, and that kind of building depends on Leetsdale staying a high-volume driving road.

The study that asks what Leetsdale should become

The Southeast BRT Study is where the corridor's longer future gets decided, and it covers more than a stretch of storefronts. The study looks at Speer Boulevard, Leetsdale Drive and Parker Road together. It is evaluating better transit options from downtown Denver to I-225. The DRCOG board approved the study in August 2025, according to the City Council page that tracks it.

DRCOG's project page defines bus rapid transit as a high-capacity bus service that borrows from light rail. That can include enhanced stations, all-door boarding, buying tickets before boarding, and dedicated bus lanes. The study is still deciding which of those features, if any, would apply on Leetsdale.

The published schedule, as shown on DRCOG's Southeast BRT Study page:

This month the study is in its third step. The corridor vision and the measures for judging options are being worked out now, before any specific design reaches the public. The first specific alternatives aren't due until this winter, and public feedback on them comes in spring and summer 2027.

Where the two timelines meet

The businesses that opened or filed plans in 2026 chose formats that work on Leetsdale today: small dining rooms, takeout and delivery, and drive-through lanes. The study that could reshape how buses, cars and stops share the road won't have a final plan until early 2028, after Giorgios expects to be serving drinks.

Through the end of the year, the existing conditions analysis and the corridor vision will run side by side on DRCOG's schedule. The decisions in those two phases set the terms for the alternatives that follow this winter, so this is when the early direction for Leetsdale gets drawn. The DRCOG project page is the public place to follow that work as it moves.

For now, Leetsdale has a family pizza counter back in business at 5701, a taqueria at 6200, and a drive-through coffee plan on file at 7150.

At Mckinze Casey, we watch corridors like Leetsdale closely, including the businesses that open along them and the transit plans that may reshape them. If you'd like to talk through how the Southeast BRT Study's next phases could affect the blocks around Hilltop and Crestmoor, we'd be glad to share what we're following. Request a Private Consultation.