Every Opening and Closing This Week: Three Chef-Driven Restaurants Make Their Debut

It was a big week for openings, including three new concepts from chefs who’d already made their mark on the culinary landscape and are now taking on new challenges.

Theo Adley, who’s been offering destination-worthy dining in Lyons at Marigold, opened Heretik, a Basque and Southwestern French restaurant in RiNo. The two-time James Beard Award semifinalist leads hard with rotisserie chicken, seafood and shellfish, as well as an exciting wine list that encourages discovery with ample half-glass pours. Heretik features a tight, but exciting, six-seat counter overlooking all the action that’s reminiscent of coastal European wine bars.  

“We want this to feel like a bistro you’d stumble into, where you’re greeted by oysters on ice and the warmth and aroma of the rotisserie,” says Adley in a statement announcing the opening. “A place where you can get curious at the raw bar, share a bird off the spit, and linger over a great bottle of wine.”

Also now open is Monarch in the Urban Cowboy Public House. The live-fire pizza-and-chicken concept has functioned as a pop-up for years while chef Justin Freeman searched for a place to call home. With the exit of Little Johnny B’s, the wood-fired oven in the kitchen needed a new pizzamaker in residence, and Freeman jumped at the chance to fill that hole. 

“We have been looking for the right space for Monarch to land for the last three years,” Freeman says in an announcement. “We were really excited to hear that Urban Cowboy was looking for a new partner. The space and ethos really fit what we were looking for, so this felt right from the start.”  

Rounding out the trio of chef-driven openings, the space that had housed longtime Denver favorite Fruition is a working restaurant again, with the May 7 opening of chef Quincy Cherrett’s Madeline.

“Madeline is really a culmination of everything that’s shaped me,” Cherrett says. “It comes from a deep love and respect for food, family, and hospitality. This restaurant is my way of bringing it all together into something that feels uniquely my own.” 

And that was just the start of the openings. Michelin-recognized pitmaster Patrick Klaiber and James Beard nominee (and Top Chef contestant) Manny Barella brought their highly regarded Riot BBQ south to Sedalia, taking over the kitchen at the Wide Open Saloon. The move came just weeks after the pair added the poultry-focused concept Chicken Riot to Cherry Creek. 

Hell or High Water is now open in its new home in RiNo. Champagne Tiger added a new outdoor concept, and Pindustry turned its Skydeck into Bar Tropical for the summer.

And Reunion Bakery is now open in an expanded space in Platt Park.

This good news was tempered, however, by a pair of eye-opening closures, one permanent. Reckless Noodle House, a popular spot in Capitol Hill, shut its doors without warning and posted a farewell message on social media.

Also closing abruptly was Ollie & Park’s, after a U-Haul truck crashed into its building in Uptown. It was a tough break for owners Jason and Hallie Alfonso, who are still working to reopen Odyssey Italian Restaurant, which closed for repairs following a February fire. Now they’re working to get Ollie & Park’s back online, too.

Here’s the complete list of restaurants and bars that opened or closed this week*:

Openings

Bar Tropical, 7939 East Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village
Champagne Tiger’s Country Club, 601 East Colfax Avenue
East & Co., 2100 Central Avenue, Boulder
Encanto Taqueria y Cantina, 10155 East 29th Drive
Hell or High Water, 3542 Walnut Street
Heretík, 1441 26th Street
Madeline, 1313 East Sixth Avenue
Mendocino Farms, 1380 16th Street
Monarch at Urban Cowboy, 1665 Grant Street
Mujka, 3900 Elati Street
Pattern Break Brewing, 3550 Frontier Avenue, Boulder
Reunion Bread, 1250 South Pearl Street
Riot BBQ, 5607 US-85, Sedalia
Roll It Up Sushi, 5505 West 20th Avenue
Starbird Chicken, 6360 Promenade Parkway, Castle Rock
Two Lazy Dogs, 1531 Champa Street
Ugly Rice Korean Street Food, 8450 East Iliff Avenue

Closings

Baere Brewing, 320 Broadway
Ollie & Park’s, 1210 East 17th Avenue (temporarily, after a truck crashed through the building)
Reckless Noodle House, 800 Sherman Street

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

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