Molly Martin
Audio By Carbonatix
This week, a new owner takes over the former Secret Garden space in Cheesman Park, Colorado may be considering changing the state’s tipped pool regulations, and the future of Portillo’s Chicago hot beef in the city comes into serious doubt, among other news.
Changes coming to Colorado’s tip-pool regulations?
The Colorado Division of Labor Standards & Statistics is holding two listening sessions next week to gather “input and perspective” of restaurant workers participating in tip pool establishments. According to the post, the department is considering “potential changes or clarifications to current labor regulations.”
Meetings are being held next week to collect feedback on Monday, July 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesday, July 14 from 1 to five p.m. Those interested can attend either in person in the DLSS offices at 707 17th Street, Suite 2400 (the Maroon Bells Conference Room), or remotely via zoom. Visit the DLSS site for more information (expand the “Listening Session Details” tab).
Portillo’s plunge?
Midwestern transplants in Denver got a bolt of excitement in 2024 when news broke that Chicago hot beef purveyor Portillo’s was eyeing an expansion into the Denver metro area, including a Littleton location. But cracks in that plan began to appear in late 2025, when the company announced a “strategic pivot” to slow its store-development pace after expansion projects in Texas underperformed, leading to the resignation of its CEO and a cratering of its stock.
By February, the restaurant industry media began calling the alarm, and even hometown Chicago press took the hometown hero to task for overplaying its hand. So it’s little surprise that as early as April, local real estate watchers started questioning the likelihood of seeing the red and white stripes raised in Colorado any time soon.
The latest comes from Naked Denver, which reports that a review of public filings and planning department correspondence “found little to no movement” on any of the previously announced locations, including an outright canceling of a pre-application meeting in Littleton.
Guess we’ll just have to wait for that “Original Beef of Chicagoland” franchise strategy that ended this season of “The Bear” to manifest itself into a Colorado reality. Or, just visit one of the many existing Chicago Beef restaurants already operating across town.
A restaurant newbie and hospitality veteran walk into a park
This week, we learned that the former Secret Garden Bar & Cafe space by Cheesman Park is getting a new life as The Carriage House. Co-owner John Goscha, a Denver-based entrepreneur with no restaurant background, and Jake Reiderer, a long-time hospitality pro with a tenure that includes Work & Class and Super Mega Bien, are leading the charge.
The duo is aiming for a “European-style cafe” that will roll out in two phases. The first, tagged for July 28, will feature sandwiches, salads and wine available on the patio or for takeout. In September, phase two will expand inside with a full cocktail bar and expanded menu.
Can you hear what they “Taste?”
In case you missed it (and we sure did), podcast “This is TASTE” from the James Beard Award-winning online magazine of the same name paid Colorado a visit recently and recorded a pair of podcasts designed to showcase “a state that has been quietly (and then not so quietly) building one of the most exciting culinary scenes in America.”
The first episode featured interviews with Fonda Fina Hospitality’s Johnny Curiel, a Five Points and RiNo tour with local food influencer Laura Young (aka @newdenizen… and soon-to-be Westword contributor), and Matthew Chasseur of Peche in Palisade. A few weeks later, a second episode went live with interviews of Toshi and Yasu Kizaki of Sushi Den and Kizaki fame and Mawa McQueen of Mawa’s Kitchen in Aspen.
Among places the crew paid visits was Cafe Tres, Crown City Roasters, Stowaway, Welton Street Cafe, Alteno, Sap Sua, El Taco de Mexico and Joy Hill Pizza. In Grand Junction they visited Los Jilbertos, Fidel’s Cocina & Bar, and they made as top at Paradise Bakery in Aspen as well.
Coming soon-ish
A few new restaurant openings are on the longer-term horizon based on recent permit filings and plan submissions, as reported by the Denver Business Journal. They include another In-N-Out burger near the Denver International Airport, a Broncos-themed restaurant inside the airport (how is this not already a thing?), and an indoor pickleball and golf simulator concept — but with beer — in Parker.
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