Shawn Campbell
Audio By Carbonatix
It’s pretty clear that local diners have embraced chef Johnny Curiel, who’s had a string of hits since opening his first restaurant, Alma Fonda Fina, in LoHi in December 2023. That was followed by Cozobi Fonda Fina in Boulder, Mezcaleria Alma next door to the OG spot, Alteño inside the Clayton Hotel & Members Club and his latest, the Spanish neo-bistro Mar Bella Boqueria, which is also located inside the Clayton.
It’s pretty clear that Bon Appétit also has an infatuation with Curiel’s culinary prowess. Back in 2024, it named Alma Fonda Fina’s staple sweet potato dish, camote asado, one of the best dishes from new restaurants that year. Last September, Mezcaleria Alma was among its picks for the best new restaurants of 2025. The following month, the publication featured Mezcaleria Alma’s corn sour cocktail as “a love letter to Mexican spirits.”
Shawn Campbell
On January 14, Bon Appétit showed more love for Curiel when it listed Maize in its roundup of the ten most anticipated 2026 openings in the country. Set to debut this spring in RiNo’s Taxi development, Maize will be Curiel’s first tasting menu-only concept.
“It’s apt to use the expression take by storm when referring to Johnny and Kasie Curiel’s restaurants over the two past years in Denver,” writes Bon Appétit. “But Maize is perhaps the crown jewel as the first tasting menu restaurant of the group. Maize will debut this spring with an 18-course tasting menu focused on masa in a space that welcomes eight guests at a time. The Curiels are pulling out all the bells and whistles with a cold counter for raw specialties, a glass-enclosed wine and fermentation room, and a hot counter for masa-focused dishes like the tamal de mar with Hokkaido uni. In case that’s not enough, Johnny and his team plan to make six different moles and even produce their own pechuga-style mezcal, Bozal Maize, made exclusively for the restaurant in partnership with the brand Bozal. Lucky for Denver diners, their only job is to show up and eat and drink it all.”
Although one local could have a very different job. Curiel is currently hiring for Maize, and the open positions include a head of fermentation. That’s not a job commonly seen in the industry, though groups like Id Est Hospitality, which includes two Michelin-starred the Wolf’s Tailor and one Michelin-starred Bruto, are changing that — the company’s director of fermentation and sustainability, Mara King, has been on board since 2021 and has helped push the team to new heights.
Maize is the only upcoming opening Curiel has planned in Colorado at the moment (that we know of…), but 2026 will also take his team out of state for the first time, with the debut of a second Alteño in Charleston, South Carolina.
