House of Yakitori II, which closed its longtime location last year in the central part of Colorado Springs after it lost its lease, recently reopened on the city’s north side — an undertaking that took seven months and required the restaurant’s owners to clear a series of financial and logistical hurdles before they could relocate.

The restaurant, which specializes in Japanese dishes, reopened Jan. 18 at 1831 Briargate Blvd. in the Briargate Center shopping center, just east of Chapel Hills Drive and south of the Chapel Hills Mall. It will operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

“It has been a lot,” Reilly Fetter, who co-owns the House of Yakitori II with his wife, Saira, said of issues they’ve faced as they worked to relaunch the restaurant.

House of Yakitori II — unrelated to the similarly named House of Yakitori in Colorado Springs — was one of a handful of tenants at the Polo Center, an aging shopping center northeast of Academy and Palmer Park boulevards that had been known mostly for its odd location, sandwiched between the north and south lanes of Academy.

Tulsa, Okla.,-based QuikTrip, however, purchased the Polo Center in December 2023 and terminated tenant leases over the next few months. QuikTrip recently completed demolition of the shopping center, where it now plans to build one of its convenience stores.

House of Yakitori II, which had been in the Polo Center for about 30 years and previously had been owned by Reilly’s parents, had a longer lease than other tenants. It remained open until June 22 before it moved out eight days later at the end of that month.

Though he knew they had to leave the shopping center, the closure was tough, Fetter said.

“A lot of times, we were just trying to clean all of our stuff, get everything packed and get up out of there before the time came up,” he said.

But then, “as soon as we moved out that last Ryder truck full of appliances and knick-knacks that we have, that’s kind of when it really hit me,” Fetter said. “The last day of getting all that stuff out of there, it was definitely a sad moment.”

The Fetters targeted a new location on the city’s north side.

The area around the Chapel Hills Mall area isn’t “super new,” but it’s a short drive to fast-growing developments farther north at InterQuest and Polaris Pointe, Fetter said. He hopes to attract customers who might be coming and going from attractions such as the Ford Amphitheater, the Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers and the iFly indoor skydiving facility.

Retail rents in the Chapel Hills Mall area also were cheaper than the Powers Boulevard corridor to the east and other areas farther north, he added.

Setting up shop in the new location, however, took time.

After they moved the House of Yakitori II out of the Polo Center, the Fetters initially put fryers, grills, appliances, tables, booths and other restaurant items and equipment into storage for a few months, which was costly, Reilly Fetter said. Though neighbors helped out, the Fetters later moved items into the garage at their home to save money — costing Saira her parking space, he said.

The Fetters also needed to make over the storefront on Briargate Boulevard — knocking down two walls and adding a second bathroom, new tile in an existing bathroom, a dishwasher hood, flooring and new wallpaper, among other upgrades, Fetter said.

Their new landlord offered to let them have a walk-in cooler from a shuttered restaurant at another shopping center, and Fetter and a friend retrieved it for use at the new location.

But they had to wait for a portion of the kitchen remodeling to be completed before they could install it — a sign that the pace of construction wasn’t always going smoothly, he said.

“We had to push our contractors to their limit,” Fetter said. “I could tell that a lot of our contractors, they had never done commercial work like this. … They did residential work for housing and stuff like that. We were kind of like the guinea pig for a lot of these people.

“It’s been challenging,” he said. “I had to step in and almost become a contractor myself. And this is something that I’ve never done; this is all new to me. I know if we ever have to do it again, if I ever want to open another restaurant, I know what to do and what not to do. There was just a long period of just waiting. For the last three months, me and my wife, we’ve been in here almost every day, just trying to get everything ready.”

The new location on Briargate Boulevard can seat 52 to 54 diners, a slight increase from the 48 to 50 in the Polo Center space, Fetter said. By year’s end, he hopes to add a few more tables to accommodate an additional 10 to 12 customers, he said.

One thing that hasn’t changed at House of Yakitori II: the menu.

“We kept everything the same,” Fetter said. “We wanted to get everybody accustomed to what we had originally.”

After the restaurant is more established at its new location, the Fetters might add a couple new items to the menu, he said.

“Right now, we’re just staying original,” Fetter said. “It’s what we’ve known. It’s gotten us so far in life. Getting them (new customers) acquainted with the original menu, first, is ideal for me.”