The Front Range has long enjoyed the food and brews put out by Oskar Blues in several locations, from the original bar and brewery in downtown Lyons to a restaurant, a burger bar and a tasting room in Longmont. Now the company is opening its first all-season eatery in Denver, as Chuburger joins the RiNo fray at 3490 Larimer Street. And with it comes Hotbox Roasters, a coffee and doughnut shop that shares a patio with Chuburger in the same building.
The original Chuburger opened in Longmont in 2013, serving beef from the company's own Hops & Heifers farm. Since then, Oskar Blues has partnered with Meyer Natural Angus (another Colorado company) to help meet increased demand. Choose from the original Chuburger, the Double Chubble, a bison burger or a build-your-own option with a variety of toppings. Beyond beef, there's also a chicken sandwich, a Berkshire pork burger, a salmon burger and a housemade vegetarian falafel burger.
Other bites include cheese curds, beer-brined wings, fries tossed with shishito peppers, pierogies and Old Chub mole chili. And because a shake is always great with a burger, Chuburger mixes up chocolate, vanilla or strawberry Hand Shakes; add Spirit Hound whiskey and a topper of Old Chub Nitro to make it a Hard Hand Shake.
Over at the morning-oriented Hotbox Roasters, espresso drinks and doughnuts are the main draw, but there's also cold-brew coffee served on nitro, beer on tap and whole beans sold to-go in the company's patented Crowlers — sealable aluminum cans that typically hold 32 ounces of beer, but in this case make the perfect airtight, recyclable package for twelve ounces of coffee beans roasted at Hotbox's Longmont facility.
Oskar Blues isn't entirely new to the area; Chuburger has an outpost inside Coors Field. But with a shared beer garden between the burger bar and the coffee shop, a walk-up window where coffee and doughnuts will be served during the warmer months and space for live music, the new location will fill multiple neighborhood needs. Hotbox is now open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; Chuburger opens for lunch today and will maintain regular hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Oskar Blues is also in the process of building a full-scale restaurant and tap room in LoDo as well as a similar project in downtown Colorado Springs.