Checking in With the Soul Food Scholar on Juneteenth

After winning a James Beard Award in 2014 for his first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, Denver's Adrian Miller has become known as the Soul Food Scholar.

In 2021, he appeared in the Netflix series High on the Hog, and in 2022, he nabbed a second James Beard Award for his third book, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. He's since published his fourth: Cooking to the President's Taste: Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History.

And this month, he's booked for speaking engagements all over the country about Juneteenth and other historic topics, culinary or not.

But he took the time for our annual check-in about his favorite soul-food restaurants in Denver. As he notes, it's "not a huge scene, but we’ve got joints that do a good job, and I hope people will support them."

The big news this year? The reopening of Welton Street Cafe.

After opening in 1986, this family-owned spot quickly became a community anchor in Five Points. From its space at 2736 Welton Street, the Dickerson family served favorites like fried chicken, fried catfish, smothered pork chops and Caribbean-style plates for more than two decades. The restaurant survived COVID by offering takeout, but in 2021, it almost closed when a malfunctioning HVAC system created unsafe heating conditions in the kitchen. Both times, the community showed up to support the business.
By January 2022, however, the family had decided to make a big move after facing challenges with its landlord. They closed the 2736 Welton location that March, when the lease was up, and signed a new lease for a space twice as large just two blocks away. “This is like moving out of my house,” Fathima Dickerson, one of the daughters of founders Flynn and Mona Dickerson, told Westword at the time.

Now she's overseeing the new Welton Street Cafe, which opened in its new home at 2883 Welton last November. The remodeled space is full of great art...and great cooking smells. And unlike the original spot, this one has a full liquor license and a bar.

But while the Welton Street Cafe news is all good, there's no news about CoraFaye’s Home Cook'n & Soul Food, another longtime favorite for fried chicken that was located on Colorado Boulevard for more than a decade, then moved to East Colfax Avenue a few years before the pandemic hit. In April 2021, it reopened in a new, more visible location at 15395 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora. But that spot was closed by a fire in April 2024.

"I'm still trying to decide after almost twenty years of this, what's next — if I should reopen or do something else. It kind of drains you. People really don't know how difficult running a restaurant is," owner Priscilla Smith said at the time. "Sometimes we make it look easy."

And according to the last Facebook notice posted in December, Smith is still trying to decide what to do with Cora Faye's, which remains closed.

But there are a few other options around town, including:

Swirk Soul Food
2205 South Peoria Street, Aurora
The sign outside this small, takeout-only spot in an Aurora strip mall reads "Swirk Supreme Food," and what a supreme selection it has: barbecue, sandwiches, seafood and more. Not sure where to start? Go for the Southern King Platter Dinner, which includes a fried catfish fillet, two jumbo shrimp, one hot link and barbecue chicken, with your choice of two sides.
Blazing Chicken Shack II
5560 East 33rd Avenue
This soul-food eatery in Park Hill has all the standard items you'd expect, including fried okra, collards and catfish, but Blazing Chicken also has some options that are less common in Denver. Gizzards, pig ears, pork neck bone and gumbo are all on the menu, as is an oxtail dinner only available on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

TeaLee's Teahouse & Bookstore
611 22nd Street
TeaLee's has been a mainstay in Five Points since 2018, when Rise Jones and her husband, Louis Freeman, opened a shop named after Jones's grandmother, Evelyn Jones, whose nickname was T-Lee. It quickly became our pick as Best Teahouse in the Best of Denver 2019, with a menu that focused on an assortment of loose-leaf teas and light bites. The walls highlight works by Black artists, and the shelves showcase books by Black authors. In March, it got a new leader in the kitchen when 22-year-old Riyan McNeal joined the team in her first head chef role. While the offerings may not qualify as soul food, TeaLee's definitely has soul. “Because I think TeaLee’s is a place where people enjoy being here, and that’s what drives me," says Jones. "I think it’s a needed place and we’re in a time where we need places of comfort and safety.”

With the fate of Fixins unknown, Miller offers a few other recommendations: Mississippi Boy (next to Blazing Chicken Shack, Randall's on York, the Smokehouse at Green Valley Ranch and Stuboy's in Littleton.

And coming soon on East Colfax: Catfish King!