Spice Trade Brewing
Audio By Carbonatix
Chris Teregis was a regular at Spice Trade Brewery & Kitchen before he ever worked there. He’d come in with friends and family, drawn to the Greenwood Village brewpub’s singular pitch: globally rotating menus paired with culinary-driven beer, brewed on-site. When Teregis signed on as general manager in 2022, the place already meant something to him. By January 2025, it was gone.
Not the building. Not the beer. But the concept. Owner Dol Bhattarai, who co-founded Spice Trade with brewmaster Jeff Tyler and runs the Yak & Yeti chain of Indian and Nepalese restaurants across the metro area, took full control after Tyler’s departure and converted the kitchen to serve the same menu as his Yak & Yeti locations. He replaced the entire staff. Bhattarai told Westword at the time that the Spice Trade menu had become unsustainable, citing mounting losses, inconsistent hours and kitchen complexity.
Teregis opened up about the change himself on Reddit’s r/denverfood. He was heartbroken, he wrote at the time, but measured. He doesn’t fault Bhattarai for making that tough call. “He understands how to run a Yak & Yeti,” Teregis says now. “He understands how to make that product work. It made sense to him at the time.”
His short-timer staff stayed through the final weeks, he says. Nobody walked. On the last day, they cleaned the restaurant and ushered everyone out with what Teregis describes as grace.
Then Teregis moved on to Oakwell Beer Spa, where Spice Trade had an existing partnership. He trained at its RiNo location for three months, then opened the Highlands Ranch outpost, trained the staff, and helped build an operation that holds a five-star Google rating across more than 400 reviews.
Then Dol Bhattarai called.
“He sent me a message and said that he needed a partner to come and help run Spice Trade,” Teregis says. On March 10, Spice Trade announced on Instagram that Teregis was stepping in as CEO, effective immediately. The brewery would return to its original concept, with a relaunch target date of April 17.
Teregis says he’s been working 80-hour weeks since. The challenge isn’t just conceptual — some of the kitchen equipment was removed or relocated during the Yak & Yeti period. He’s reinstalling equipment, training staff on beer and food knowledge, and extending a standing invitation to his former employees to return. Several have taken him up on it.
The old rotating seasonal menu, which cycled through a different global cuisine every few months, isn’t coming back in its previous form. Teregis was direct about why. “We were locked into a pretty large menu with a lot of different ingredients sourced from different areas from around the world,” he says. “It was a lot to keep up with.”
The new plan is a tight core menu with built-in multicultural elements. The adult tater tots and teriyaki Brussels sprouts are already back. Chicken sandwiches roll out in limited capacity this weekend, with burgers to follow, Teregis says. He’s keeping the tandoori oven installed during the Yak & Yeti era and using it for charcoal-grilled chicken wings. Instead of quarterly menu overhauls, he’ll run targeted specials, testing dishes around moments like Cinco de Mayo and keeping what works.
“We’re going to use our community as the north star of where we go next,” Teregis says. “I’m listening to feedback. I’m hearing what they missed. I’m hearing what they like currently. I’m hearing what they want to keep. I’m hearing what they don’t want to keep.”
Head brewer Andrew Chafin will continue to run the beer program, and Teregis says the lineup isn’t changing. The brewery began at the Yak & Yeti in Olde Town Arvada, and won Westword‘s Best New Brewpub in 2021. Its beers have ranged from a GABF medal-winning chai milk stout to a tamarind Belgian dubbel and a Thai tripel brewed with lime leaf, lemongrass, coriander and ginger.
Teregis acknowledges that the January 2025 switchover split the community. Regulars who had built relationships with the staff and the restaurant’s culture since 2020 felt the loss sharply. “I completely understand if [the switch back is] met with some skepticism,” he says. “My heart is in this business. I’m committed to bringing back something that feels the same, but is maybe a little bit more operationally streamlined and meets the needs of the business and the needs of the community in one swoop.”
Spice Trade Brewery & Kitchen is open now at 8775 East Orchard Road in Greenwood Village, and is phasing in new menu items during the transition. The full relaunch is targeted for April 17. For more information, visit spicetradebrewing.com or follow @spicetradebrewing on Instagram.
