The Good Son Becomes the Goods Under New Ownership

The U Baron Group, which operates a string of Silvi's Kitchens and Etai's Bakery Cafes throughout Denver, rebranded the Silvi's at 2250 East Colfax as the Good Son in March 2015, bringing Detroit-style pizza and a long beer menu to the Lowenstein Theater complex. But the group has now sold the restaurant to new owners, who closed the Good Son last night after a farewell party. They'll reopen the space on September 16 as the Goods.

The new owners are Denver restaurant veteran Seth Murty and Mark Whistler, an investment expert who has written several books on the subject. Although the Goods will be the first restaurant for the two, Murty has been a general manager at several area eateries, including School House Kitchen & Libations, Central Bistro & Bar and the first two bakery cafes opened by the U Baron Group (which were then known as Udi's). The two will open the Goods with dinner six nights a week and then add brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day but Monday.

One thing that won't be returning is the Good Son's Detroit-style pizzas. (Blue Pan Pizza will fill that void when it opens its second location less than a mile away in Congress Park.) The Bar-on family will still maintain a small ownership stake in the business, but the concept and operations are in the hands of Whistler and Murty.

Murty's focus at the new restaurant will be vegetarian and vegan dishes — many utilizing the wood-burning oven that comes with the space — along with meat-based options. His recent travels in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia will flavor some of the dishes, but the menu will not be overtly Southeast Asian — though he says he hopes to add pho as an option. A tentative menu handed out at last night's closing party shows six meatless appetizers out of nine, a vegetarian burger made with banana heart (similar to hearts of palm) and main entrees equally divided between vegetarian and meat-based choices.
The restaurant interior will also undergo changes, with new paint and decor, though Murty says that the eye-catching zebra wallpaper will stay in some form. The doorway between between the restaurant and the Tattered Cover Bookstore next door will also be reopened, a move that will help establish a sense of community with neighboring businesses and shoppers, he says.

Whistler and Murty only met earlier this summer, but Whistler explains that the partners immediately clicked and that Murty's concept felt like just the right project for East Colfax Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods. Since the renovated Lowenstein complex opened several years ago, the restaurant space on the east side of the building has been home to Encore, Udi's (which was renamed Silvi's) and the Good Son. Murty and Whistler could finally be the ones to bring the Goods to the space — for good.