Mr. Biggs thinks a bit smaller — new side aims for 10 and under

Mr. Biggs is scaling back in its latest incarnation.

Entrepreneur Steve Bigari and his partners opened Mr. Biggs Family Fun Center on the northwest side of Colorado Springs in 2005 and recently transformed Fat City in Littleton into the first Denver-area Mr. Biggs. Now comes a new direction for the brand: the first Li'l Biggs.

Li'l Biggs, opening Sunday at Stetson Hills and Powers boulevards on the east side of Colorado Springs, combines food and fun into "eatertainment" similar to Mr. Biggs. But at 10,000 square feet, Li'l Biggs is much smaller than the Springs or Denver Mr. Biggs, which are roughly 150,000 square feet. And its focus is narrower: Instead of offering something for everyone, Li'l Biggs is geared toward kids 10 and under.

"Play with your food" is the slogan for Li'l Biggs, which includes a restaurant, an arcade with tickets for prizes and Little Bigg Town, the kid-friendly pretend town that is a hallmark of Mr. Biggs.

Bigari said Li'l Biggs encompasses the three fastest-growing trends in the restaurant industry: convenience, value and fun.

The food is fast, typically arriving in five minutes or less, and is available as takeout. Cost is $3.99 for a kid's meal or $5 for the meal plus play time in Little Bigg Town. The average adult meal will cost about $6.

"When you're innovating, you've got to know what you know and know what you don't know," Bigari said. "What we know is kids love Little Bigg Town. What we know is people don't have enough time and they don't have enough money."

The menu includes pizza, salads, flatbread melts, wraps, soups and Bigg Babies, which are beef and turkey mini burgers.

"This is a restaurant destination," said Matt Van Auken, chief operating officer of the growing Mr. Biggs enterprise. "This is real food made fresh for you. We don't cook with microwaves. This is the real deal."

Van Auken, a restaurant industry veteran, designed the menu, which reflects the same health consciousness that caused the Springs Mr. Biggs to end its all-you-can-eat pizza buffet this year.

So, for example, don't look for french fries on the menu; instead, there are potato "smiley faces" baked in the pizza oven.

"There is no fryer in this building and we will not fry any food," Van Auken said.

Li'l Biggs is about three miles north of It'z, a restaurant and family fun center off Powers that opened in February.

The new venture gives the Biggs brand a presence on the east side of town, Bigari said, but is less of an investment than the mammoth Mr. Biggs and more of a neighborhood destination.

"There are 15,000 families with kids under 10 within three miles of this place," he said.

Bigari and Van Auken expect Li'l Biggs to be the first of many.

"What I know is this will be successful," Bigari said. "How successful will determine how quickly we make others."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0272 or bill.radford@gazette.com

DETAILS

Li'l Biggs, opening Sunday, is at 5944 Stetson Hills Blvd., Suite 180, at the northeast corner of Powers and Stetson Hills boulevards. Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays. More information: www.becooldoright.com.