Ivywild School Is Getting Its Mornings Back and Losing Its Pizza Counter

On Monday, Oct. 5, the front door at Ivywild School, 1604 S. Cascade Ave., is scheduled to unlock at 7 a.m. Coffee will be poured at the Principal's Office. Bluebird Breakfast will be serving hot food. Yellow Brick Bake Shop will be selling pastries and fresh bread. That is a much earlier start than the 11 a.m. opening the Principal's Office has kept until now.

The fall refresh reads like a menu update, but it is really a reset of the school's daily clock. The Principal's Office is dialing its opening back from 11 a.m. to catch the early crowd, Decent Pizza is leaving, and the partnership that shared the school and the restaurant across the street has split into two separate owners. Each piece below explains one part of that reset.

A 30-year partnership divides at Tejon Street

Bristol Brewing Co. and Blue Star started as neighbors in co-owned property near South Tejon Street and East Ramona Avenue almost 30 years ago. Blue Star owner Joe Coleman opened the first restaurant in Old Colorado City in 1995 and moved it to South Tejon in 1998. When the former Ivywild elementary building came up for sale at 1604 S. Cascade Ave., Coleman and Mike Bristol bought that too. The school was built in 1916 and closed in 2009. It reopened in 2013 as a 20,000-square-foot, two-story artisan marketplace with event space, anchored by the brewery and pub.

In mid-September the two sides bought each other out. Mike Bristol told The Gazette that he and his wife, Amanda, now own all of Ivywild School.

"We're officially fully Ivywild, and the Blue Star Building at 1645 S. Tejon is fully Blue Star."

The line between the two buildings is now an ownership line as well as a street. Several Ivywild vendors that Blue Star ran are being reworked, and Gold Star Bakery is moving out. Bristol has described the change as a continuation of the original idea. "It's inevitable that there will be some change after 13 years," he said, adding that the plan is to carry on the original vision.

The morning is the change that matters most

The first visible shift came on Sept. 21, when the Principal's Office rolled out a new fall cocktail menu. Ivywild Kitchen got a lightly revamped menu from new Executive Chef Paul Ryan, who told the press he hopes to give diners "a kaleidoscope of flavor." Food columnist Matthew Schniper previewed the bar's new drinks, co-created by cocktail consultant Montana Horsfall and front-of-house manager Alyssa Mather. One is called Straight A's and is built on Cimarron Reposado.

The bigger change starts Oct. 5. Bristol says the Principal's Office was a place to get coffee, pastries and breakfast when the school opened and up until COVID, and the plan is to bring that morning program back. The bar will still serve cocktails, but it will open earlier. Coffee service expands to mornings and evenings, and the school is working with Loyal Coffee on the program. Bristol confirmed the building will be unlocked at 7 a.m. to allow for early traffic.

Two new Bristol concepts fill the morning menu:

• Bluebird Breakfast serves a simple menu of hot breakfast items.
• Yellow Brick Bake Shop sells breakfast pastries, desserts, sweets and fresh breads, and keeps the take-away focus that Gold Star Bakery had.

The school's day starts in the morning again, as Bristol says it did before COVID.

What leaves, what moves, what stays

The tenant list is easier to follow as a table than as a run of paragraphs.

Decent Pizza is the Detroit-style pizza counter, and it is being retired for the time being. Bristol called retiring it "a tough decision," made to free up space for The Restless Chef, a concept that plans to explore a wide range of food cultures and regions. The Restless Chef is expected in early 2027.

Reports differ on where Gold Star Bakery ends up. FOX21 says it moves across the street to the new Blue Star restaurant. The Gazette describes a location still to be determined. Schniper reports that it moves into the Blue Star building for production, with a retail space coming later. A retail counter for Gold Star pies has no confirmed date or address yet.

The stayers matter as much as the leavers. Salad or Bust began as a family-owned salad bar on a short school bus in 2018, parked in front of Ivywild during 2020, and eventually moved inside to a counter. Axe and the Oak Distillery and Tasting Room and Odds & Ends Emporium also stay put. They are unaffected by the ownership change.

One tab, table service by QR code

The refresh also changes how ordering works inside a building with several separate kitchens. Ivywild plans a unified point-of-sale system, so a guest can open one food and beverage tab anywhere in the building. Food ordered from a QR code gets brought to the table, and counter service is staying. Bristol described the old pattern as going around to each counter and having a different transaction every time.

That change fits the physical rearrangement. Ivywild Kitchen and an indoor Spark BBQ outpost are slated for two hallway-based "kitchen encounters." Bristol says the goal of the shared tab is to make a visit a little smoother.

The next phase adds more to the calendar. Ivywild has announced plans for weekend brunch, more live music, art openings and events, and a private event and catering program. None of those has a start date yet.

The building across South Tejon with no opening date

The Blue Star restaurant closed in October 2017. Blue Star Group said then that the building needed renovation and that the concept would be reimagined. A sneak peek in early 2025 showed plans for a large bar and lounge just inside the door and a dining room beside it, separated by a see-through fireplace. KKTV reported in March 2026 that the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department had issued permits for the remodel at 1645 S. Tejon St. The Gazette photographed construction nearing completion on Sept. 15, 2026.

A grand reopening date has not been announced. Lindsey Hafemeister, a marketing consultant who works with The Blue Star Group, said COVID and the economy have stretched the timeline well past what Coleman first expected. The restaurant's own site now uses the language of return, and the Gazette calls it closer than ever to that comeback.

Schniper reports that the Blue Star building will also serve as the production site for Gold Star Bakery, with a retail space coming later.

The next few visits

Several dates now sit on the calendar. The fall cocktail menu is in place, and Chef Ryan's tweaks to the Ivywild Kitchen menu are on the board. The 7 a.m. opening arrives Oct. 5. The Restless Chef follows in early 2027, and the Ivywild Kitchen move and the Blue Star reopening follow on dates still to be set.

For more of what's changing around the Springs, see our roundup of where to eat in Colorado Springs and the August calendar and restaurant openings. Our Colorado Springs neighborhood page has more on the area.

If you own near South Tejon and South Cascade and want a current number on your home while the Blue Star building nears its reopening, Pulse Real Estate Group will run a free home valuation for you.