Joe Vostrejs

Exclusive first look: TAG Burger Bar opens tomorrow in the former Madison Street space

In April of last year, Troy Guard, owner of TAG and TAG Raw Bar in Larimer Square, became an operating partner of Madison Street, a Congress Park neighborhood restaurant and lounge that Joe Vostrejs, COO of Larimer Associates, took over in the fall of 2010. The space, a former Dominos Pizza, didn't ... More >>

Reader: Cherry Creek North is becoming a food court in any mall USA

The Denver dining scene lost two long-time restaurants this weekend. Longo's Subway Tavern poured its last beer -- for now -- on West 38th Avenue; after 52 years, the Longo family sold the circa late 1800s building to Larimer Associates, and although COO Joe Vostrejs says they're not yet sure what t ... More >>

New York City's Big Barbecue Block Party will heat up Denver in August

A signature New York City barbecue pig-out is being expanded to the Mile High City. Danny Meyer's Union Square Events is debuting the first annual Big Denver Barbecue Block Party, at Skyline Park August 4-5, featuring pitmasters from around the country, cooking demonstrations, live music and, of cou ... More >>

Photos: An exclusive first look at what's on the menu at the Lowry Beer Garden

The new Lowry Beer Garden, which opens next Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Hangar 2 project, is not, insists Joe Vostrejs, a German mimic. In fact, says Vostrejs, the COO of Larimer Associates, a coalition of partners who are developing the Hangar 2 project, it's a homegrown, Colorado-style beer garde ... More >>

Larimer Associates inks a deal with Smashburger to lease the Samba Room space

It's been nearly two years since the Samba Room, a Cuban restaurant chain based in Dallas, closed in Larimer Square, following a major water leak that dripped...and dripped into the Comedy Space Works space below. The chain's parent company, E-Brands Restaurants, eventually filed for bankruptcy last ... More >>

Readers: Lowry Beer Garden? We'll drink to that!

The news that Joe Vostrejs and Larimer Associates plan to put the Lowry Beer Garden -- a nearly 8,000-square-foot bar, authentic beer garden and pavilion -- into the Hangar 2 project (which will also have a dozen restaurants in its dining district) had beer fans raising their steins in thanks. Says ... More >>

Larimer Associates will open the Lowry Beer Garden in the new Hangar project

Joe Vostrejs and his Larimer Associates partners traversed across the country to check out America's beer gardens before they came back to Denver to build their own -- and what they found, admits Vostrejs, was surprising.

Union Station developers bite into a delicious project

​Union Station was once a bustling spot, but as fewer people decided to "travel by train," as its neon sign advises, more and more businesses pulled out of the station. By the early '80s, the only refreshment options were a soda fountain in the lobby, the classic Caboose Lounge and, for two gl ... More >>

Local star chefs Jennifer Jasinski and Max MacKissock tie the knot

Last weekend, Jennifer Jasinski and Max MacKissock, two of Denver's best -- and most beloved -- chefs got hitched in California. Jasinski, who owns Euclid Hall, Bistro Vendome and Rioja, where she's the executive chef, and MacKissock, the exec chef of the Squeaky Bean, met several years ago, and the ... More >>

Troy Guard becomes an operating partner of Madison Street

Lori Midson​Last week, Joe Vostrejs, the COO of Larimer Associates, was heading home from Madison Street, the Congress Park neighborhood restaurant he opened in October of last year, when he started to think about dots -- specifically, connecting those dots to Troy Guard, the chef/owner of TA ... More >>

Satchel's on 6th will open in the next couple of weeks

Satchel's on 6th​Last September, Andrew Casalini shuttered his vibrant Park Hill restaurant, Satchel's Market, to make way for a new concept called Satchel's on 6th, which was originally slated to debut late last year in the Larimer Associates-owned building at 1710 East Sixth Avenue. And aft ... More >>

After months of repair limbo, Samba Room finally pulls the plug

​It's been many, many months since floor leaks forced the closure of Samba Room in Larimer Square, but as late as December of 2010, the company, along with Larimer Associates, the group that owns the space, were optimistic that the place would eventually reopen. It wasn't to be. E Brands, the ... More >>

Ocean Prime sails into one of the last empty spots in Larimer Square

Ocean Prime now holds down a corner of Larimer Square​"I'm looking at it across the street," says Joe Vostrejs, COO of Larimer Associates, gazing through his office window at Ocean Prime, the restaurant in the old Z Gallerie space. "They're ready." Not long after restaurateur Cameron Mitchell ... More >>

From Samba Room to Ocean Prime: Larimer Square's trickle-down economics

​The big opening on Larimer Square this month will be Ocean Prime, which sets sail on Thursday, after a fundraiser for the Hospice of Denver tomorrow. Ocean Prime is opening right on schedule -- unlike Samba Room. That spot closed more than seven months ago, so that a leak dripping into the ... More >>

Samba Room in Larimer Square will reopen in January or February

​The music hasn't played in the corner space that holds Samba Room, 1460 Larimer Street, for six months now, but despite speculation that the Latin American restaurant might never reopen, the Larimer Associates, who own the property, say the beat will go on-- it just won't start pulsating unti ... More >>

Madison Street now open for weekend lunch

Madison Street​Madison Street, 1222 Madison Street, may have had a few fights with the new neighbors before it opened, but now that it's settled in, it's ready to invite those neighbors over for lunch. The restaurant just extended its weekend hours, opening a few hours earlier for daytime eat ... More >>

Madison Street opens -- see for yourself what all the talk is about

​There's already been plenty of noise about Madison Street -- and the restaurant at 1222 Madison won't officially open its doors until 3:30 p.m. today. Madison Street is the brainchild of Larimer Associates -- the group that also created Ernie's Bar and Pizza, LoHi SteakBar and Billy's Inn -- ... More >>

Larimer Associates debunk the rumors around Madison Street

​"This nonsense about us forcing them out is just that: nonsense." That line was in an e-mail from Joe Vostrejs, COO of Larimer Associates, the group that's partnering with Brian Sifferman, general manager of Larimer Square's Corridor 44, to open Madison Street, 1222 Madison, in the Congress ... More >>

Bier here! Don't get your lederhosen in a bunch: Oktoberfest is still kickin' at 41

Save the crust: Ernie's Bar & Pizza stretches expectations

Frank Bonanno's new Larimer Square space will peddle pie... and something else

Frank Bonanno at Bones​A couple of months back, we saw a tweet from Frank Bonanno asking his Twitter followers whether Denver would rather see doughnuts or pie. Denver must have said pie. The chef, whose expanding restaurant group includes Mizuna, Bones, Osteria Marco and Luca d'Italia, acqui ... More >>

Samba Room, Euclid Hall, Ocean Prime and the ongoing evolution of Larimer Square

​A month ago, when Samba Room went dark and a sign appeared in the window of the restaurant at 1460 Larimer Street announcing that the space was under "construction," Joe Vostrejs, COO of Larimer Associates, started getting calls. Restaurateurs were interested in leasing this corner spot in ho ... More >>

Sean Kelly finds a home at the LoHi SteakBar

Planning Board votes down controversial Writer Square sign plan at impassioned hearing

Len EdgerlyOpponents of the Writer Square sign plan use an eight-by-12-foot sheet to demonstrate the size of the proposed video billboard.​The Writer Square pedestrian shopping center downtown may be subtle, quiet and low-key, but the passions the location inspires are anything but. Denver's P ... More >>

The Larimer Square guys and Sean Kelly get a pizza the action

Lori MidsonThe future home a New York-style pizza joint from the Larimer Square gang and Sean Kelly​Sometime in December, Jeff Hermanson, Joe Vostrejs and Rod Wagner will add a new pizza bar to their portfolio of successful restaurants that already includes Billy's Inn, LoHi Steakbar and prett ... More >>

Ginger Gimlet at LoHi SteakBar

Jason Sheehan is ready to face his critics

Say hello to two new debuts: LoHi SteakBar and Icehouse Tavern

What will you eat at LoHi SteakBar? We've just gotten word that LoHi SteakBar, the new restaurant spearheaded by Joe Vostrejs and chef-partner Sean Kelly, is opening tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. in the former home of North Star Brewery at 3200 Tejon Street, which is exactly seven hours (that would be ... More >>

Larimer Square is a garden of eatin'

Banner day for Tocabe

I had lunch plans that were made weeks ago.  I had a time and a date, a big group of friends, a table waiting out on the patio.  What I didn't have?  Any idea that today was the day the Denver Post was going to drop the love on my new favorite north Denver American Indian fr ... More >>

Steak Bar putting down stakes in Highland

Selling the sizzle in northwest Denver When Jason Sheehan checked in with Joe Vostrejs a couple of weeks ago, he had high hopes that the LoHi Steak Bar that's moving into 3200 Tejon Street -- the old home of North Star Brewery -- would be open in June. He just didn't know when in June. "We have all ... More >>

Joe Vostrejs and his army are out to conquer Denver

Dining blind at Cracovia

Lester and Maria Rodzen offer a taste of Poland at Cracovia.Bigos. Flaki. Czerwony barszcz, with or without uszka. Kapusniak. Pyzy, placek and kiszka. I'm pretty good with languages, particularly on my favorite conversational topics of food, kitchens and cooks. My pronunciation might be embarra ... More >>

The Westword.com blog shortcut, April 15 edition

Photo by Eric GruneisenCobra Starship's Gabe Saporta has some issues. I'll try not to make this too taxing. Today in Backbeat Online: • Last Night: Fall Out Boy at the Fillmore. • Last Night: Mastodon at the Fox Theatre. • DJ Vajra impresses NAMM crowd with his turntable magic. • Update: H ... More >>

Joe Vostrejs knows fry bread

A regular at the old Billy's InnLong after my review of Tocabe was safely in the can, I was still dreaming about fry bread.  I was also eating fry bread -- having made at least three post-review visits to Tocabe's home at 44th and Lowell just to "check my facts." One that almost slipped by me? ... More >>

What's in a name? Steak and bar, but not steak hut

Lori Midson Until yesterday, I hadn't spoken to Sean Kelly in a long time -- not since he shuttered Somethin' Else (now Fruition) in 2006. Not since he hooked up with the Little Pub Company, whose fourteen pubs, bars, taverns, saloons and (sort-of) restaurants are strewn all over the city. And not ... More >>

Is a chicken wing without chicken even a wing?

Back in business: Sean Kelly

Rumors were rampant that the recently vacated North Star Brewery space at 3200 Tejon Street had already been snapped up by Joe Vostrejs, Jeff Hermanson and Rod Wagner -- the Larimer Square gang, in part, and the crew most recently behind the resurrection of Billy's Inn, at 4403 Lowell Boulevard. So ... More >>

Tocabe liquor license hearing today

Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery has been open less than two weeks, but the sleek restaurant at 5356 East 44th Avenue has already gained a loyal following with its native American twist on fast-casual food. And that following could grow -- fast-- if the liquor-license hearing scheduled for ... More >>

The earls of sandwich

North Star space snapped up by Larimer Square gang

Troy Guard: cottage cheese pimp, general of the TAG army

Jonesing

New Life Church has gotten a makeover since Ted Haggard left — as Mike Jones reports from the inside.

Ground Zero

Bistro Vendome gets a new chef.

Oyster Barred

A taste for revenge.

Beyond Borders

The Chen Brothers offer a pan-Asian experience at Blue Moon.

Bite Me

Birth Pains

Bite Me

Red Alert

Bite Me

A Square Deal

Bite Me

Star Trek