The Fourth of July weekend has always belonged to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Two hundred and sixty-five juried artists, a stretch of 2nd Avenue closed from Clayton to Adams, and roughly 149,000 people passing through in three days. That much is familiar. What has changed since last summer is what happens on the blocks around the festival footprint after the tents come down. For the first time in a long while, Cherry Creek's most talked-about addresses are not inside the Shopping Center. They are north of it, on Fillmore and along the Clayton Hotel's ground floor, and they are pulling the neighborhood's dining center of gravity with them.
If you live here, you have probably already noticed the reservation friction. Here is what actually opened, what is still coming, and how to think about the weekend ahead.
Fillmore Street is now the anchor
The single biggest arrival is
