Every opening and closing this week: Rock Bottom continues to bottom out

It was a relatively quiet week in openings and closings around Denver’s food scene, capped by the continued downfall of the once-mighty Colorado brand Rock Bottom Brewery and the exit of a veteran Denver-area restaurateur. On the openings front, a pair of newcomers opened doors, with both expanding from more humble origins. 

Rock Bottom Brewery bottoms out further

When the new private equity owners of the Rock Bottom Brewery chain closed its original, flagship downtown location on 16th Street, it did so not with a bang, but a whimper. And the short, weak bursts of that death rattle continue with more closures of the chain’s other locations across the Denver area.

This week we learned of several suburban Rock Bottom closures, including one on County Line Road in Centennial and another in Highlands Ranch. The closures mark the end of the Rock Bottom Brand in Denver, with the sole remaining outlet in the state limited to Loveland (and if I worked there, I’d be polishing up my resume). 

Bang Up to the Elephant shutters

Another vegan restaurant has closed, this time the Caribbean-themed Bang Up to the Elephant. According to a statement on the company’s website, it purposely chose an Irish Goodbye rather than forecast the move. 

“We chose not to announce our final week of service,” it reads. “Rather than turning every visit into a goodbye, we wanted our last memories together to simply feel like a bang-up moment. We’ll remember all those first dates, birthdays, regulars who became friends, conversations that lingered long after dessert, and all the wonderfully quirky evenings in between.”

According to the post, owner Kevin Delk is “ready to spend more time with the people I love, the creatures I care about, and see what comes next.”

Delk had previously opened Beatrice & Woodsley, along with Two-Fisted Mario’s and Mario’s Double Daughters Salotto, sticking with a theme of offbeat names and environments (Beatrice & Woodsley, if you remember, featured a forest setting with trees). “Bang Up to the Elephant” is apparently a Victorian-era saying that means “well done.”

Giorgios Pizza returns

Another week, another shuttered pizza joint rises from the ashes. After learning last week that the Enzo’s space on Colfax has re-emerged for a third run at the space adjoining the PS Lounge, this past Wednesday saw the grand opening of Giorgios on 5701 Leetsdale Dr. in Denver, two years after shutting down the original version that lived in the Mile High Food Club. 

The former Santiago’s Mexican Restaurant space is now home to the NY-style pizza joint augmented with dishes from the owner’s Greek heritage, such as gyros, souvlaki and baklava. 

Beginning of an Era? 

Back in April, we wrote about popular Auraria campus food kiosk s’ONO! and its plans to relocate to the former Golden Wok space in Aurora. Looks like that’s now up and running and ready to continue dishing out the Hawaiian-Korean fusion food that made it so popular with students. 

It still has a few wrinkles to iron out, however, as the online order form powered by Grubhub still points to Golden Wok. 

Here’s the complete list of restaurants and bars that opened or closed this week*:

Openings

Giorgios Pizza, 5701 Leetsdale Dr.
ONO Era, 15282 E. Hampden Ave., Aurora 
True Food Kitchen, 1755 29th St., Boulder

Closures

Bang Up to the Elephant, 1310 Pearl St.
Rock Bottom Brewery, 9627 E. County Line Road, Centennial
Rock Bottom Brewery, 1505 Park Central Dr., Highlands Ranch 

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

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