Mother Other is ready to make you eat your vegetables

After more than a year of sold-out supper clubs, farmers’ market pop-ups and mounting anticipation, Mother Other finally has an opening date.

The long-awaited vegan restaurant from founders Alexi Mandolini and Taylor Herbert (of The Easy Vegan) has been on our list of most-anticipated openings ever since we learned of their plans to convert a private kitchen space into a proper dining establishment. 

Those plans will come to fruition next weekend, June 27, at 675 S. Broadway in the Denver Design District, according to an announcement released June 15. The opening is the culmination of six years of building a following through market appearances, catering gigs and, of course, the team’s victorious stint on “The Great Food Truck Race” in 2023, which sparked the hunt for a brick-and-mortar location. 

Mother Other first emerged in early 2025 as a monthly supper-club concept hosted inside the private kitchen where they are now opening. At the time, Mandolini described the project as an opportunity to create a more ambitious dining experience than The Easy Vegan, a food truck that still does regular pop-ups and farmers’ market visits. The supper club also served as a useful way to test dishes and build excitement ahead of a full-restaurant launch.

Now, diners can get a clearer picture of what the finished concept will look like. True to their vow to create a space inspired by the women who shaped their culinary vision, the restaurant features handwritten recipe cards from mothers, grandmothers and other family members displayed throughout the space. The goal is to create a “living archive of the women who taught us that feeding someone is an act of love,” the founders say in a statement announcing the opening date.

“Women have always been the backbone of hospitality, and we want our kitchen to reflect that,” Mandolini adds. “Queer folks, chosen families, people who found their people at a neighborhood bar. Hospitality, to us, means everyone at the table.” 

The menu expands on the plant-based comfort food that helped make The Easy Vegan a local favorite. Dishes slated for opening include the Giarancini — a giardiniera-inspired take on arancini that nods to Mandolini’s Chicago roots — along with spring pea and leek dumplings in porcini broth, and Japanese sweet potatoes with miso and black garlic whipped potato. Rounding out the options revealed so far are a potato and chive pierogi, rigatoni alla vodka with almond ricotta, and desserts such as chocolate budino and brioche doughnuts with poached rhubarb.

The beverage program, led by Herbert, will be a much larger part of the operation than it was during The Easy Vegan’s market years. The restaurant plans to offer seasonal cocktails built around the same produce used in the kitchen, like house-carbonated vegetable sodas flavored with such ingredients as carrot, tomato and celery root. But you can also get a decidedly straightforward cheap beer and a shot as well. 

“Farmers’ markets are an incredible proving ground, but they can’t replicate the full dining experience,” Herbert says in the release. “My background is in bartending and bar management, and there’s a craft to that work that I’ve been eager to bring back, such as developing cocktail menus, working behind the bar, creating drinks that speak the same language as the food on the plate. At Mother Other, the bar program and the kitchen aren’t separate conversations. They’re the same one.”

Mandolini and Herbert, who met in Denver in 2018, say they largely built out the restaurant themselves with the help of friends and family rather than taking on a major contractor loan, continuing the DIY approach that defined the couple’s rise from market stand to full-service restaurant.

Mother Other will be located at 675 S. Broadway Ste. 300, and will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday starting June 27. For more information, visit motherother.com or follow the restaurant on Instagram at  @motherotherdenver.