All aboard for Stoic & Genuine, opening Wednesday in Union Station

Even though the official grand opening of the renovated Union Station has been pushed back to July 26, Stoic & Genuine, the seafood restaurant created by Jen Jasinski and Beth Gruitch (the team behind Rioja, Bistro Vendôme and Euclid Hall), is ready to get in the swim, and plans to...

By Westword Staff

July 7, 2014

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Even though the official grand opening of the renovated Union Station has been pushed back to July 26, Stoic & Genuine, the seafood restaurant created by Jen Jasinski and Beth Gruitch (the team behind Rioja, Bistro Vendôme and Euclid Hall), is ready to get in the swim, and plans to be open for lunch on Wednesday, July 9, with lunch and dinner service continuing seven days a week after that.

In anticipation of hitting that target, the partners began stocking the place and using the kitchen as soon as they could get in late last month, and hosted a variety of practice meals for friends and family there over the weekend. The bathrooms in the basement are accessible, and customers can get in through the restaurant's front door. (Once the ground floor of the station is open, there will be an entrance off the lobby, too.)

"We'll be the first restaurant to open at Denver Union Station," says John Imbergamo, a restaurant consultant who works closely with Gruitch and Jasinski. And while the grand opening has been pushed back, the Crawford Hotel will be open for business on July 11 -- the same day that more than a thousand people will gather at Union Station for a gala fundraiser -- and other restaurants will open next week.

"That was actually our goal from the start, to open before the gala party on the 11th," adds Imbergamo. "We think this restaurant will be significant enough that people will come and find it."

In fact, people are already trying. Adds Imbergamo: "Every day if you stand outside for five minutes, there are a dozen people asking to come in and see Union Station."

Thanks to Stoic & Genuine, on July 9, they can.

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