Restaurants

Denver has been craving the creative confections of chef Ian Kleinman ever since he had to close the Inventing Room at 2201 Lawrence Street last fall. A four-day doughnut pop-up at Fruition last month sated our sweet tooth temporarily, but a person can only go so long without exploding whipped…

Dina Castillo has been working on overhauling the former Rosa Linda’s Cafe space at 2005 West 32nd Avenue for the better part of the year, and now she’s nearly ready to unveil her new Highland neighborhood eatery, Bremen’s Wine & Tap. One of the last steps before opening was hiring…

The stretch of South Broadway near Evans Avenue continues to add new restaurants in a variety of styles. The latest is Turtle Boat, which bills itself as a specialist in “Colorado-style poki salad.” Chef/owner Jeremy Song says the spelling of poke as poki is intentional, to help Coloradans get past…

Chef George Eder founded Pizza Republica in 2009, a difficult economic time for restaurateurs — and nearly everyone else in Denver. Eder’s partners, the Jet Entertainment Group, dropped out of deal in those lean economic years, but Eder soldiered on at two locations, at 890 14th Street downtown and at…

Señor Bear — the Tejon Street Latin American restaurant from Bar Dough crew Max MacKissock, Blake Edmunds and Juan Padro and Katie O’Shea Padro — should open imminently: the restaurant is waiting for one more permit sign-off from the city, and then the crew will take possession of the space…

When Nick Kayser took control of the kitchen at Vesta last year, he became just the third chef to fill the role in the restaurant’s two-decade run. This was no maintenance job: Owner Josh Wolkon tasked Kayser with overhauling Vesta’s menu, preserving its global roots and penchant for bold flavors while jettisoning the focus on dipping sauces. W

When Zengo and La Güera closed last week, they ended a thirteen-year run in Riverfront Park and vacated some prime restaurant real estate on Little Raven Street. So it’s no surprise that the spaces aren’t going to stay empty for long: Way Back and American Grind partners Chad Michael George, Kade Gianinetti…

Not many restaurateurs reach the ten-year mark. Il Posto did, and chef/restaurant Andrea Frizzi marked the celebration by moving Il Posto to RiNo, where it’s better than ever and now Denver’s Best Italian Restaurant.

A year and a half have passed since the sign went up for Villagran, at 1512 West Alameda Avenue. At the time, it looked like Maria Garcia and Marco Angeles, who’d operated the Villa Real food truck at the same address for years, would open their brick-and-mortar restaurant any day. Finally, Villagran turned on the open sign and welcomed customers on May 1.

It’s Cinco de Mayo weekend, and there are parties around Denver. But do people know what they’re celebrating?

Denver’s restaurateur’s have been stepping up their game when it comes to upscale dining, offering sumptuous dining experiences, even at moderate price points. If a typical table in a crowded dining room isn’t your thing, though, you can always call ahead to these seven new eateries to see if you…

May is heating up with seasonal and local ingredients, great outdoor cooking and plenty of new restaurants to check out. Peas and carrots are at their peak sweetness — making them perfect even in a dessert! And new potatoes and spring lamb are making appearances on menus too. Here are…

Grower’s Organic co-founder Brian Freeman has been working in the organic produce business long enough that he remembers when people would tell him that organic farming was just a fad that wouldn’t last. But that was before Grower’s Organic launched in 2005 as a wholesale company focused on putting quality…

Chef/restaurateur Richard Sandoval opened his first Denver restaurant, Tamayo, on Larimer Square in 2001. He followed that one soon after with Zengo in 2004 on a brand new plaza at 16th and Little Raven streets. Back then, the place was packed nightly even though the Riverfront Park neighborhood was new…

Next Door, founded in Boulder by The Kitchen owners Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson as a kind of “Kitchen Light,” just opened in the new Eastbridge Stapleton development. This is the fourth Colorado location for the group, which is also launching the brand in Memphis, Tennessee this spring and will…

Put down your tray…unless you want to bite off a piece of the past at an auction today. The Country Buffet at 7407 East 36th Avenue has closed, and the remaining assets are being offered through Auction Nation, a national online auction company.

Garett Palecek’s love affair with cheese began by happenstance: After a stint working in purchasing and warehouse management for Aramark at Coors Field, he landed a job at Cheese Importers, a Longmont outfit that maintains a shop and supplies specialty grocers and restaurants all over the Front Range. He’d been…

Merlin Verrier, culinary director of the Kitchen’s Next Door eateries, talks about how and why he made the transition from Michelin-starred dining to fast-casual food, detailing a produce-filled California childhood, struggles with addiction, and cooking for President Barack Obama along the way.

It’s a testament to the magnetic pull of Sichuan food on American eaters that Szechuan Tasty House, 1000 west Evans, is yet another new Denver Chinese restaurant named for or specializing in food from a region from which the owners do not hail. The chef at this unassuming eatery is…

Graduation season is here. For most students across Denver, that means final exams, family events and a big sigh of relief once the ceremony is over. But for students enrolled in Ready for American Hospitality, graduation is just the beginning of fulfilling a dream — after surviving the nightmare of…