One restaurant has arrived in downtown Colorado Springs and another is poised to reopen.

Illegal Pete’s, the fast-casual, Denver-area chain known for its Mission-style burritos, tacos and other Mexican fare, opened Thursday at 32 S. Tejon St. in downtown — more than two years after owner Pete Turner announced he would bring his popular restaurant concept to Colorado Springs.

Despite the delay, word circulated quickly that Illegal Pete’s had opened and its dining room had a steady stream of customers throughout much of the day.

“It’s been smooth sailing,” said Turner, who was busy working in the restaurant during the afternoon, yet looked casual and relaxed in shorts, a ball cap and an Illegal Pete’s T-shirt that proclaimed “beans & rice and everything nice. “We had a good line for a while. … Everything seems to be working.

“Very well received in the community and people seem really excited that we’re here,” he added. “Obviously, a lot of comments like, ‘What took you so long?’ I’m just telling my team to tell people, we just wanted to get it just right.”

The debut had been planned for summer 2022 after Turner announced in January of that year that he would expand Illegal Pete’s to the Springs.

But its arrival was delayed, in part, after a series of personnel changes within his organization, Turner has said. At the same time, he said he’s been focused on updating and improving his restaurants’ kitchen, bar and other systems, with a goal of making them “cleaner, safer and better.”

For example, at the Colorado Springs location, Illegal Pete’s has switched from a traditional gas flame grill and flame cooking to a more energy efficient system, which allowed the size of the restaurant’s cooking area to be cut in half to 10 feet, Turner said.

“We’ve just gone heavy into innovation,” he said. “I’ve been testing that for the last 15 months.”

Some of those improvements were added when Turner opened an Illegal Pete’s at the end of February in Wheat Ridge. Since then, he said he’s fine-tuned those upgrades as part of the opening in Colorado Springs.

“This represents a culmination of three years, plus COVID, of really re-thinking all of our systems,” Turner said.

In addition to upgrading the restaurant’s operations, Turner said the Colorado Springs space was gutted, which allowed for a new dining room, kitchen area and bar. That work also contributed to a longer timetable in opening the restaurant, he said.

At 32 S. Tejon St., Illegal Pete’s has joined Lulu’s Downtown, the live music venue that relocated from Manitou Springs and opened on the building’s second floor.

Turner founded Illegal Pete’s in Boulder in 1995. The Springs restaurant is his 14th in the chain and joins locations in Denver, Boulder, Greenwood Village, Fort Collins, Wheat Ridge and Tempe and Tucson, Ariz. Another Boulder location is slated to open in May.

“There’s so much happening down here,” Turner said of downtown Colorado Springs, which is now home to thousands of apartments that have opened or are under construction, along with amenities such as the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum and the Weidner Field multiuse stadium.

“We’re just excited to be here and it’s just incredible how much is happening in this town and how hot Colorado Springs is nationally. We know it, we feel it, we live it. But, man, Colorado Springs is dead in the center of people’s attention nationally, which is really neat. We’re just excited to be a part of it.”

A few blocks farther north at 204 N. Tejon St. in downtown, the Skirted Heifer hamburger restaurant reopens at 11 a.m. Friday. It had been forced to close Feb. 11 after a car rammed its storefront and damaged the restaurant’s exterior and dining room.

Since then, owner Kevin Megyeri and his contractors have worked to repair the damage and make upgrades, including new lighting and flooring, improved menu boards and a garage door in the front of the restaurant that replaces a shattered window. The garage door can be opened in warm weather for diners inside the restaurant and those eating on its sidewalk patio.