Atticus

The neighborhood around the University of Denver is home to many student-oriented hangouts -– and Atticus, a new project by Table to Tavern, which also owns Boone's Tavern next door, was originally conceived as “a bar with shared plates,” says Table to Tavern CEO Brian Midtbo. But after Atticus opened in February 2014, people kept thanking the staff for bringing a grown-up restaurant to the area -- so two months in, the owners expanded the menu to include grown-up entrees such as duck confit and scallops with blood-orange gastrique. "The neighborhood has changed the place completely," he says. The clientele that frequents the place is also more grown-up than the usual DU crowd. But while the menu is ambitious and the space comfortable and inviting, both the kitchen and the front-of-the-house staff have some growing up to do before Atticus becomes the place Midtbo and his partners envision, with "great food and great cocktails in the neighborhood environment."