See also: - Paul Reilly walks away from Cherokee on 12th Avenue -- but not Beast + Bottle - Olivea, one of Denver's top restaurants, is closing in mid-January - Udi's Colfax Pizza Bar taking over the former Encore space
Reilly, the former chef-owner of Encore, which shuttered last April in the Lowenstein Cultureplex and will soon become an Udi's Colfax Pizza Bar, had originally signed a lease on the (still vacant) Cherokee on 12th Avenue plot, in the Golden Triangle, but the deal fell through just after Thanksgiving, explained Reilly, because it required too much work. "Considering everything we wanted to do to renovate it to where it needed to be, we just couldn't justify how much it was going to cost," he told me last month.
But while he has a new space, the approach will remain the same, says Reilly: an accessible nose-to-tail restaurant focusing on the whole beast and the foods that most inspire him; his sister, grape guru and general manager, Aileen, will design the wine program.
The ink is still wet on the deal, its sale the result of Bonin and Arnold moving back to the East Coast, where they're both from. (Duo, however, will stay open.) And while Reilly tells me he has "no idea" when he and Aileen will unleash Beast + Bottle -- early spring is likely -- it's guaranteed to be one of the most anticipated openings of 2013.
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