MAKfam Leads the Next Phase of Homegrown Denver Restaurant Expansions

The metro restaurant scene is tough. Opening new restaurants is hard, particularly in Denver. But that isn’t stopping two homegrown favorites (plus one national chain) from unveiling expansion plans in this city. 

They include a second location for the highly regarded MAKfam Chinese restaurant, a return to roots (of sorts) for the Nguyen sisters now running Dân Dã and Bánh & Butter Café, and the Denver Tech Center debut of a popular RiNo wine bar. 

MAKfam

With accolades such as a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand nod and a nomination from the James Beard Foundation already under their belt, the power couple behind MAKfam is ready to expand from the Baker neighborhood to RiNo. 

Chef Kenneth Wan and his wife, Doris Yuen, will bring the MAKfam concept made famous at 39 West First Avenue to a larger space with a full bar, allowing them to offer expanded food, beverage, and service capabilities. These include full table service, a full bar with an expanded drink menu, and a larger kitchen that will allow for new menu items along with the dishes made popular at the original location. No address or target opening date has been released for the new venture, which will reportedly open later this year.

This would seem like a perfect time to expand MAKfam. The original location regularly has a line of diners out the door, waiting to squeeze into one of the tight table or bar seats (a wait that the owners somehow manage to make both charming and a welcome part of the overall experience).

What’s more, the business success the restaurant has achieved since the Michelin honor, which earlier this year Wan pegged at a 25 to 30 percent increase in revenue earlier, makes the still-risky move less of a nail-biter. 

Rễ Tre

Another Denver culinary power family, although in this case a pair of sisters, is expanding its Denver footprint with the upcoming opening of Rễ Tre. The headline here is that the restaurant’s location at 640 South Federal Boulevard is the home of the former New Saigon Vietnamese restaurant, which was owned and operated by the parents of the sisters now bringing Rễ Tre to life in the same space.

New Saigon was a staple in the Denver dining scene for over forty years. It was the second Vietnamese restaurant to open in the city, and served as an anchor to what eventually became the Little Saigon commercial district, running along Federal from Alameda Avenue to Mississippi Avenue.

The restaurant opened in 1982 and was bought by Ha Pham and her husband, Thai Nguyen, in 1987; Pham had worked as a cook at the restaurant before taking it over. The couple added a bakery in 2012, which their daughters An and Thoa ran until striking out on their own: An with the popular Dân Dã restaurant at 9945 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, and Thoa with the Bánh & Butter Café right next door.

Now, the two are combining their culinary talents to return to the Denver space that their parents made famous, a return reflected in the name: Rễ Tre is Vietnamese for bamboo root. 

Barcelona Wine Bar

Yes, it’s a chain with some two dozen locations nationwide, including in RiNo. But by next year, Barcelona Wine Bar will have its second location in Colorado — also in Denver, at 8101 East Belleview Avenue. The tapas and wine concept will anchor a $200 million development under construction called On The Square, taking on a 5,000 square-foot space with an indoor/outdoor patio. The development just broke ground, so no openings are expected until 2027.

Other restaurants joining the lineup there include an as-yet-unnamed concept from the restaurant group behind Blue Island Oyster Bar & Seafood, Oliver’s Italian, and Ash and Agave (which just opened in Cherry Creek). Other eateries eyed for the space are national chains Sweetgreen and Mendocino Farms, which is adding a spot on 16th Street next week.