Casa Juani
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This year has been filled with notable additions to the dining scene, from tasting-menu spots to more casual eateries. While we savor the best of 2025, we’re already looking forward to what the new year will bring…and an upcoming local restaurant was just named one of the most anticipated winter openings in the country.
On December 16, Bon Appétit dropped its list of the seven spots it’s most excited about, and a single Colorado restaurant made the cut: Casa Juani, which is set to debut in Boulder in February.
The project comes from chefs Eduardo Valle Lobo and Kelly Jeun. The culinary couple are both alums of the celebrated Italian eatery Frasca, where Lobo served as the longtime director of culinary operations and co-executive chef alongside his wife.
Casa Juani will be located at 901 Pearl Street and is named for Lobo’s mother, Juani, who is the inspiration behind the concept. The magazine describes it as the couple’s “deeply personal memoir” and “a return to [Lobo’s] roots in celebration of his Spanish heritage and the soulful cooking of his mother.”
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According to Bon Appétit: “Eduardo Valle Lobo, the longstanding culinary director for Italian fine dining icon Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, is opening his first solo venture alongside his wife and chef-owner Kelly Jeun. Casa Juani, named after Lobo’s mother, is a love letter to his childhood in Madrid. Lobo is in his element in the kitchen, cooking seafood-driven tapas like the tortillitas de gamba cristal, rice and noodle dishes like fideua de cangrejo, toasted vermicelli with Dungeness crab and padrón pepper served in the shell, and large plates like a churrasco with mojo sauce and wrinkled potatoes.”
The space will include a custom-built wine room near the front entrance, a dry-aging room in the kitchen, and an L-shaped marisquería where the chefs will prepare raw dishes in front of guests using ingredients such as turbo, sole, razor clams, surf clams and sea cucumbers sourced from Spain’s Atlantic, Cantabrian and Mediterranean seas.
Since the arrival of the Michelin Guide in Colorado in 2023, tasting menus have become more common, and Casa Juani plans to offer just that at a 12-seat chef’s table.
Lobo and Jeun certainly have stacked resumes, so their first venture together is a spot that should definitely be on your 2026 radar. And for diners in Denver, look out for another buzzy Spanish eatery opening soon, Mar Bella Boqueria from Michelin-starred restaurateurs Johnny and Kasie Curiel.
