Fine Dining Chef Makes a Move to Grow + Gather in Englewood

"I know where that food comes from. I know that farmer, I know that baker who made that bun, I know the value of it, and I believe that's what attracts our customers," says George Gastis, founder of Grow + Gather, which opened at 2900 East Hampden Avenue in Englewood in 2019.

Housed in a refurbished auto shop, Grow + Gather is an urban farm and community space with an on-site restaurant, the Feedery.

This month, the restaurant introduced new seasonal menu items including falafel sliders with hummus; tahini yogurt, and lemon vinaigrette on brioche buns; roasted winter squash salad with tahini yogurt, house grown greens, labneh, pickled shallot and pepita granola; pita with tzatziki, baba ganoush, tahini yogurt, hummus and romesoco; and a cheeseburger on a brioche bun with all the classic fixings alongside house burger sauce.

The new menu items were curated by James Gnizak, a chef who has worked at many of the city's best fine-dining restaurants, including Rioja, Mercantile and the now-closed Beast + Bottle. Most recently, he was the chef de cuisine at Koko Ni, a farm-to-table tasting menu concept from Austin-based FAM Hospitality Group. (That restaurant is currently on pause and hosting various pop-ups.)

Gnizak joined the Grow + Gather team several weeks ago and is refreshing its cocktail menu as well as the food. He will also launch a series of intimate sit-down dinners in the greenhouse. Gnizak shares Gastis' passion for sustainable, fresh food, and the two met through mutual local farming connections.

"I know he's a big farm-to-table guy. I've always thought in the back of my mind, 'Man, you would make a great leader in my place,'" says Gastis. "What James brings to the table is he has such an appreciation for that style of cuisine. He loves it, too. But his creativity is to kind of take some of those dishes and put more of a unique twist on some of those traditional flavors."
Gnizak says that joining the Grow + Gather team is a way to reconnect to the intimacy of growing, making and sharing meals. He hopes that he and Gastis can build a strong and sustainable template that could potentially be replicated in Denver's restaurant industry.

The two are focused on equity across the board, from food sourcing and meal prices to employee wages.

“Being in the industry for twenty years, I’ve realized that traditional restaurant models aren’t super sustainable anymore, and so to have a multi-faceted operation that can kind of balance off of each other and help build each other, it really excites me," says Gnizak. “So I see this place as an opportunity to not only make impact and change in the community, but in the industry of Denver as whole, to hopefully create a model that's sustainable for employees.”

The operations at Grow + Gather are very personal to Gastis and if you catch him on the floor during lunch service, chances are high that he can take a look at your mushroom sliders or chicken souvlaki and list the neighboring growers, farmers and curators that made your meal, from the house baked bun to the fresh garlic — though many of the ingredients come directly from Grow + Gather's multiple gardens, rooftop greenhouse, hydroponic system or the one and a half acre farm in Gastis' own backyard a few blocks away.

"We're trying to grow as much as we can in as many kind of unique ways of what's possible in an urban environment," says Gastis. "Connecting people with your food, what it looks like, where it comes from. What does it take to grow that plant before it hits my mouth?"

It was that ethos that enticed Gnizak. “This place is kind of like an extension of what I wanted to do my whole career," the chef notes.

From the start, Grow + Gather was "this idea of creating a hub, a neighborhood hub, for bringing people together for various reasons," Gastis says. "But the hook, the main hook, is local food, good food, knowledge around food, connecting us with our food sources."

Its commercial ventures include the Market, which serves coffee and pastries and carries a wide variety of hyper-local retail goods with ample workspace for customers; the Feedery, which functions as the restaurant; and the ever-growing list of community events, such as yoga and sound healing, that are usually held in the rooftop greenhouse.
“Between me and George, we have a lot of connections throughout the Boulder and Colorado agriculture community, so I really think we can help a lot of people out," says Gnizak, noting local farms such as Esoterra and Toohey & Sons.

Gastis describes the food as farm-to-table Mediterranean, with traditional Italian and Greek influences alongside modern twists — a crowd favorite is the gyro burger with housemade tzatziki. The menu flows with the seasons, shifting frequently to highlight fresh vegetables and herbs. The bar at the Feedery offers local beers and always has a local vodka or whiskey on hand.

The venture prioritizes local connections with artisans, farmers, bakers and foragers, aiming to make the business side of Grow + Gather as inclusive as possible. “It comes back to being a full circle, community-focused, industry-focused, Colorado-focused establishment,” says Gnizak.

Gastis adds, "I'm not really sure I knew what I was biting off when I got into this. I don't have a history in the restaurant business. But food has been part of who I am and my family, my culture, so it was a natural area for me to move my gardening and farming interest into something that's a little but more directly connected to this neighborhood."
Gastis grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, as the youngest of four. His parents "both came from farming families back in Greece" in the '60s says Gastis. "My mom's family still farms grapes and olives and figs on one of the Greek islands."

Gastis' Greek Orthodox-style upbringing in the Midwest was powered by a cultural love and commitment to farming, gardening and cooking. He was exposed to the deep social value of not only sharing meals, but being involved in the process of growing, harvesting and creating together. Gastis carried that passion forward when he moved to Denver in 1995.

"Food has been a big part of my ethos, who I am, and access to good food," says Gastis. "I feel very fortunate that I can have access to good food and [can] share that with my children."

When Gastis happened upon Bill's Automotive Shop in 2015, he had just sold his tech company and moved his family from Platt Park to Englewood. The city was experiencing economic growth and had begun to establish itself as a hotspot outside of downtown that welcomed small businesses. The aspirations for an urban farm and feedery that had been in the back of Gastis' mind since childhood finally had room to jump to the forefront.

"We were on the front end of that Renaissance rejuvenation," Gastis notes.

With a mind for business from his days in marketing and technology, Gastis also wanted to look for ways to make Grow + Gather a safe place for his employees. "I have such compassion and respect for people in this industry because they work really hard," he says. "Both industries, farming and hospitality, run on the backs of overworked, underpaid, often exploited people. We're trying to do that differently, and it's really hard, but we're getting closer."

Gnizak, who's also from Ohio, carries that same awareness into his new chapter at Grow + Gather, which is "trying to just pull away from the commodity broad liners of the world,” he notes. “Focusing on putting our money in the right places and keeping it local.”
As for his step away from the fine dining world, Gnizak sees it as a bittersweet but timely move towards a style of business that will allow him to connect more intimately with a broader range of diners. “Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland [in] a relatively poor family — I have six siblings, five sisters and a brother so, big family — my family couldn’t really do a lot, we didn’t need fine dining," he admits. "So it never really connected to have that super fine dining restaurant and the tasting menu with such a high price point — very unapproachable for a lot of people.

“I didn’t really ever feel super right. To come here, it humbled me a lot. To be able to have a place where I can reach so many more people is so much more in sync and in line with my ethos. So it’s really nice, and it feels easier to talk about. It feels easier to be here because it’s so much more rewarding.”

Grow + Gather is formatted to be open year-round through all its growing and farming channels, both internal and external. But still, due to the seasonality of the menu, the Feedery offers lunch only during winter.

"By far, summertime is the best time to kind of experience what we do here in full force," says Gastis, noting that over 75 percent of the food on the menu comes directly from Grow + Gather's own gardens and farms during the summer.

Honoring seasonality and sustainability and refusing to cut corners is an extra weight that many restaurants don't have to carry. "It's kind of taken over our lives in good and bad ways. I like to compare it to the difficult child in the family, you know, lots of demand, lots of energy, can be hard to wrangle sometimes, but also very rewarding," Gastis concludes. "We certainly haven't figured it all out, but I think some version of what we're doing here is the future of our food — smaller farms, closer to where people eat."

Grow + Gather is located at 900 East Hampden Avenue in Englewood. The Feedery is currently open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and the Market is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. To stay up to date with hours, the menu and community events, visit feedery.com.