4580 Broadway has operated under three different names in the past few years: Bellota, then an outfit known simply as Restaurant 4580, and now Cinq à Sept, the French bistro from chef Samuel McCandless and restaurateur Bryan Dayton that opened in July. The building didn't change. What changed is what's within a five-minute walk of it.
Cinq à Sept translates to 5 to 7, the French shorthand for the after-work hour when a bar fills before the dinner crowd arrives, and the menu leans into that idea. Starters include steak frites and a $27 oyster plate. The petrale sole meunière and the lamb fusilli have become the two dishes people mention first. The wine and cocktail list runs French. The bar operates first come first served, though tables can be reserved online, which tells you something about who this place expects to walk in without a plan and who it expects to book ahead.
Two Names Before This One
A single address cycling through three restaurant concepts isn't unusual on its own. Broadway has seen this pattern before and will see it again. What's different about this particular reopening is the timing. Bellota and Restaurant 4580 preceded Cinq à Sept at the address. Cinq à Sept adds a dining option to a North Boulder mix that includes nearby trails, shops, and other destinations.
Several of those nearby stops are close enough to combine in a single outing.
What's Actually Within Walking Distance Now
BookCliff Vineyards and Upslope Brewing sit next to each other, close enough that trying both in one afternoon doesn't require a second stop in the car. Wonderland Lake has a paved walkway and a fine-crushed gravel trail circling the water, wide enough and level enough to work for someone using a wheelchair or a stroller, with foothill views on one side and enough bird activity on the other to make binoculars not feel like overkill.
The retail mix has shifted the same direction. Boulder Sports Recycler, The Amazing Garage Sale, and LOV'D Vintage Denim have built a small but real thrift and vintage cluster in the neighborhood, the kind of shopping that turns a fifteen-minute errand into an hour of browsing. None of this existed as a cluster a few restaurant cycles ago. It exists now.
The SKIP bus runs the length of Broadway, connecting North Boulder through downtown to South Boulder, which means a night that starts with a walk around Wonderland Lake and ends at a table at Cinq à Sept doesn't require moving a car at all in between.
A day in North Boulder without touching a steering wheel might look like this:
- Morning: the loop around Wonderland Lake
- Midday: a stop at Boulder Sports Recycler or LOV'D Vintage Denim
- Afternoon: a glass at BookCliff Vineyards, a pint next door at Upslope Brewing
- Evening: a table at Cinq à Sept, or a seat at the bar if the tables are full
None of these stops are new discoveries. What's new is that they now function as a sequence instead of four unrelated destinations that happen to share a zip code.
How North Boulder Has Changed
North Boulder was industrial land before it was anything else, and the shift toward new residents, artists, and entrepreneurs setting up here happened gradually enough that it's easy to miss the moment it tipped. The restaurant at 4580 Broadway is one marker of that change, alongside the shops, trails, and destinations described above.
Restaurants close, and a July opening alone does not predict how long Cinq à Sept will operate. Its opening adds another stop to the nearby mix of trails, shops, and dining in North Boulder.
North Boulder is one small piece of the wider Front Range picture that Hogan Ranch follows closely, from the trailheads to the dinner tables. Check back for more on what's actually changing in the neighborhoods around Boulder, Golden, and Denver.
