Englewood Has a New Neighborhood Eatery From Longtime Industry Pros

“Sometimes you’ve just gotta pull the trigger,” says Matt Ciani, one of the co-owners of Englewood’s newest restaurant, the Barn South Broadway. For seventeen years, Ciani worked at Rio Grande Mexican, which is where he met his wife, Erin McCann Ciani, back when they were both in college and she was bartending at the local chain famous for its strong margaritas.

Now, McCann Ciani owns a communications firm and has been able to help launch her husband’s new venture with business partner Chase Devitt. His resume includes operating the now-closed Mr. Miner’s Meat & Cheese. He is also a partner in Boychik and was also a longtime chef and managing partner at Brider, the beloved Platte Street rotisserie chicken joint that shuttered last year after a decade-long run.

“With Brider closing last October, I had been looking to open something new, but I was trying to get out of the city of Denver,” says Devitt, who met Ciani twenty years ago when they both worked at the legendary Dark Horse (RIP) in Boulder.

During that time, “we had a large fraternity house for more adult people than college kids,” Ciani recalls. “We called it the Barn,” which inspired the new restaurant’s name.

“Chase and I sat down and had a beer, started building the concept, and said, let’s just do it,” Ciani recalls. Both agreed that they wanted a space “as close to Denver as possible without being in Denver” — but not because of the higher minimum wage. “Working downtown and dealing with the city [of Denver] and the way they deal with permits, I think they really hurt the industry with them coming back after COVID,” Ciani notes. “So we found this spot in Englewood and jumped on it.”

The space, located at 3299 South Broadway next door to Moe’s Original BBQ and Bowling, was most recently home to the Whiskey Biscuit, which shuttered last year. The name “‘the Barn’ just had some nostalgia to it and really just fit the vibe of the restaurant,” Ciani notes.

What really solidified the decision to build the Barn in Englewood was an outing to the suburb’s annual block party. “I was just amazed at how many families there were, a lot of people with tattoos and piercings, and young people. The vibe was just great. We all kind of left like, this is where we want to be,” recalls Ciani.

The concept: an elevated American eatery with farmhouse vibes that’s family-friendly and welcoming to all, with a big focus on service. With so many places moving to quick-service models after COVID, where much of the guest interaction is minimized, “we want to bring back that casual dining experience with the service that it used to come with. We want to make people feel welcome and have a genuine style of engagement, not a script, just really bringing an experience to people that I think is missing in the industry,” Cianni explains.

Construction on the Barn began on January 2; the space got a facelift designed by Eli Hariton of Damn Good Interiors (which also designed Boychik’s Stanley Marketplace space) that includes new floors, tables, chairs and hightops, plus the addition of reclaimed wood surrounding the entire restaurant. Less than three months later, it’s officially open.

What’s on the menu?

“This part of town is known for its dive bars — Whiskey Biscuit was more of a dive bar — we want to be a family-friendly eatery first that happens to also serve alcohol and has TVs. But we want to be known as a restaurant first, not a bar,” assures Devitt, who heads up the back-of-house team, which includes some who came over from Brider.

“The goal behind the food is to take some American classics and elevate them and modernize them,” he notes, listing off dishes such as steak and potatoes, smoked chicken, roast pork, blackened salmon and shrimp and grits. “I worked at Brider for ten years, Boychik for the past six years now, so taking some of those styles with a more modern, American feel that’s approachable for families. Familiar food, but just dine at a slightly elevated level and at a value point where people can come here and feed their family of four for $100.”

Appetizers run from $8 to $13; salads come in two sizes, priced $8-$9 for a small and $13-$14 for the large (proteins can be added for an additional charge); burgers and sandwiches are $16-$19 with potato chips included; and dinner-only mains max out at $27 for the grilled ancho marinated flank steak.

There is a full bar for standard drinks plus beer, wine and eight signature cocktails ($11-$15) designed to be playful, colorful and, like the food, approachable.

The team is excited to become an ingrained part of the Englewood community. “The city has been so welcoming and easy to work with compared to what we dealt with in Denver for years,” Devitt says.

According to McCann Ciani, Englewood “has been so welcoming and great and warm, and they have such a strong community vibe, and they really seem to care a lot about promoting the businesses there.”

“Denver will come back, but it’s not there, and we wanted to build what Denver was in Englewood,” Cianni concludes. “Hopefully, maybe we open a Barn in Denver and help bring the vibe back there, too.”

The Barn is located at 3299 South Broadway and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. For more information, visit thebarnsobo.com or follow @thebarnsobo on Instagram.