Funky Flame Opening Colorful Northside Cafe on November 17

"This is absolutely one of the most wild things I've ever done or experienced in my life," says Allison Declercq, who runs Funky Flame with her husband, Colton Steiner. "I think we're just trying to soak it all in and be as present as possible."

Funky Flame started as a delivery-only cottage-foods business in December 2020, quickly building a legion of fans who hungered for Declercq's sourdough bread cooked in a mobile, bright-yellow wood-fired oven. Since then, it has evolved in many different ways.

Declercq met Steiner through the venture, and the two are now married. The business added more items like pizza and breakfast sandwiches to the lineup and set up shop at the Radiator in Sunnyside, then moved to a nearby outdoor kitchen at West 44th Avenue and Zuni Street last summer. This year, it was a staple at the Highlands Square Farmers' Market, and also launched a bread club.
But on November 17, Funky Flame will officially debut in its new, permanent home at 4994 Lowell Boulevard. "We have been popping up for so long that some days I stand in here and forget that this is our restaurant and we're not just popping up here, we're going to be here for days and years to come," Declercq says. "We are bursting with ideas and visions for the space, and it's really exciting to see those things come to fruition."

The space was formerly home to the N.O.S.H., a cafe that originally opened in 2014 as the Noshery, at 4994 Lowell Boulevard. "It's always hard to see our peers close up shop, but it seems like a really special community, and we're really excited about it," Declercq notes.

She and Steiner toured a lot of places in their search for the right brick-and-mortar for their business, and when they connected with N.O.S.H. owner Justa Ward Alvarez and toured the space, it was an opportunity they couldn't pass up. "It feels good to find the right spot," Declercq says.

Unlike other potential locations, this one came complete with the cafe and baking setup they needed. "You just gotta trust the universe on these things," she adds. "You can only plan so much."

Beyond the practical reasons for the space being a good fit, "You can feel how much Justa really cared about [the N.O.S.H.], and that felt really special to us, because that's how we feel," Delcercq adds.
"We've put our funky touch on it," Steiner says of the space, which is now outfitted with a colorful mural by local artist Sarah Jane Post. "We wanted it to have diner, homey, hang-out-and-get-to-know-each-other kind of vibes."

"When people ask what it is we're opening or what kind of restaurant, our answer is a funky neighborhood joint with a focus on bread, pizza and coffee," Declercq explains. "We want our space to be approachable and fun, with something for everyone."

And while Funky Flame, which has typically cooked everything outside, now has an indoor kitchen, "We'll still be cooking parking-lot pizzas," Steiner adds. "The trailer will be parked out back and be utilized, but people can sit inside and be served inside."

The two live in Sunnyside and wanted to stay in that community, where they have built so many deep relationships over the years. "We've seen a lot of Funky babies grow up, and that's been a beautiful thing for us," Steiner says. But this location will allow them to "broaden our vision," he adds.

Besides, Funky Flame will have a presence in Sunnyside by next year. Delcercq and Steiner are working to open an outpost at 2557 West 46th Avenue by mid-2024, in a 600-square-foot space that was most recently a hair salon but was once a neighborhood grocery store. The location will be called FunkMart, and is going to be "a general store, corner store-meets-bodega," Delcercq says. It will serve coffee, sandwiches, grab-and-go items and ice cream, but will also carry grocery essentials.
"You start a business like this because you want to cook, but the community that's come out of it and the affirmation from that is the driving force in everything we do," Declercq says. "It's a beautiful thing to see all these connections we've made."

"I've worked in high-end restaurants where you cater to a certain demographic and you don't get the locals," Steiner adds. "We want the locals; we want to make it for everyone. We want to be the place that you go and get your coffee and we know your name."

Ahead of its grand-opening weekend, "We're immensely lucky to have surrounded ourselves with a great team who's ready to get funky and really bring something special to the Denver dining scene," Declercq says. "I’m so immensely proud of our team. We’re incredibly lucky to have surrounded ourselves with talented people who pretty blindly trusted us as we walked them through a construction site and said, 'We’re going to open a bakery and funky neighborhood joint here, you in?' When they say it takes a village, words couldn’t be more true."

"Restaurants have always been a gathering place," Steiner concludes. "We saw that as a really needed thing when we were doing Funky Flame in our backyard and in parking lots, and we're so looking forward to honoring that community feeling — people hanging out, people being comfortable."

Funky Flame is located at 4994 Lowell Boulevard, and will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, November 17, through Sunday, November 19. After that, regular hours will be 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday through Monday. For more information, visit thefunkyflame.com.