Two Denver Restaurants Earn Status Among the Best in World from Travel + Leisure

We've known it all along: The restaurant scene inside Union Station — the transportation hub reopened last summer after a grand renovation — is world-class. Not only did we name the iconic building the Best New Restaurant Neighborhood in our Best of Denver 2015 edition, but we also included two of the train station's restaurants, Mercantile Dining & Provision and Stoic & Genuine, on our list of the best new restaurants in Denver for 2014. Word is getting out about Denver's rise as a culinary destination — and not just nationally. These two eateries were just included among seven other establishments on a list of the best train-station restaurants in the world by Travel + Leisure.

Travel + Leisure included Union Station among top travel hubs in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and Washington, D.C. It's impressive that out of all the terminals in the world's great cities, Denver is getting attention for two restaurants. Stoic & Genuine, the seafood hall and raw bar from Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch, the duo behind Denver favorites Rioja, Bistro Vendome and Euclid Hall, was selected by the magazine for its chef's-choice seafood Tower of Power and other creative and playful dishes. 

Mercantile Dining & Provision, the creation of restaurateur Alex Seidel helmed by proprietor-chef de cuisine Matt Vawter, got the nod for its artisan food market as well as its dinner menu, which offers housemade pastas, perfectly grilled and roasted meats, and family-style platters priced and portioned for big groups.

These two restaurants are no stranger to the spotlight: We also awarded Mercantile Dining & Provision as Best New Restaurant and selected Stoic & Genuine as Best Seafood Restaurant.

Union Station, with its hotel, bars and eateries catering to many different tastes and budgets, has gone from a cavernous and mostly empty public-transportation hub to a thriving and energetic destination, thanks in part to these two restaurants. But now that the world knows, getting a table or a seat at the bar just got a little more difficult.

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