Hospitality entrepreneur Robert Thompson is getting into the pickleball game and metro Denver players are set to reap the benefits. Scheduled to open in 2025, Camp Pickle will bring a “1940s-era camp culture” to a food and fun venue in the Fox Park development at 4400 Fox St., just north of downtown. First reported in Westword, the facility will feature 15 pickleball courts as a keystone that supports a number of other entertainment options like duckpin bowling and karaoke.
Thompson first proffered the “eatertainment concept” of combining games, fun, and dining via Punch Bowl Social that opened in 2012 and blossomed into 20 national locations before the restaurateur sold off his shares to bring his focus to other hospitality projects.
Camp Pickle will be a part of the larger Fox Park development, a terraced, hilltop “shared district infrastructure” that aims to provide Denverites with “a central cultural hub” over 41 acres of diverse experiences. In addition to Camp Pickle, Fox Park’s “great urban transformation” will include 14 acres of interconnected parks and open space for the community to enjoy (per Fox Park press). Thompson’s project fits right into the idea, and Fox Park offers the new facility the space necessary to construct 15 pickleball courts. This is in no small part due to the planned underground parking system, which will allow people to explore its above ground trail complex and open spaces.
Camp Pickle is also the perfect setting for an incredible food and drink selection. The venue’s “scratch kitchen” intends to serve up “smoke-influenced Mexican and camp cooking” (per Thompson in Westword). These plates can be accompanied by any of the 40 craft beers on tap, 16 wines by the glass, and 10 craft cocktails. Cascading from mirrored, self-pour draft walls, guests will pay by the ounce on a bar tab added with a tech-forward “RFID system” (per an email from Thompson to What Now Denver).
Not only will Thompson be catering to the millions of pickleball players participating in the country’s fastest growing sport at Camp Pickle, Westword reports that Thompson is searching for an additional north Denver location.
