Restaurant impresario Troy Guard may be best known in Denver for his string of four Los Chingones taquerias, along with his flagship eatery, TAG, and his steakhouse, Guard and Grace (which will gain a Houston sibling in November). But craft beer isn't something that springs to mind when Guard's name comes up in conversation. Even when you add TAG Burger Bar, FNG and Mister Tuna into the mix, the chef's food is always more at the forefront than the drinks.
That's all about to change, though; Guard and his restaurant group just purchased the space where C.B. & Potts Restaurant & Brewery closed earlier this year, at 6575 South Greenwood Plaza Boulevard in the Denver Tech Center.
"I've been looking at it for the past ten months or so," Guard explains. "We're going to turn it into a brewery/food hall/beer garden type of place."
The new brewery owner says that he'll keep the beer production in-house, rather than bringing in an established brewing company, and that he already has someone on board to handle that side of the project.
On the food side, he plans to have up to ten different vendors selling food with a counter-service model. "It seems like everyone's doing a food hall these days," he admits, "but they bring great value and service for the community. And we love the DTC community and how they have supported Los Chingones."
Guard is targeting summer 2020 to open the new project, which as yet has no name. (Beer Guard-en, perhaps?) "We want to find some cool tenants to move in — either people who have done it before, or someone with a great idea looking to do something new," he adds.
Denver's urban landscape is sprouting new market halls and food courts on a regular basis, but there's still plenty of real estate in the suburbs where the concept could take hold. Greenwood Village and the DTC don't have a full-blown food hall (Urban Market @ 6350, inside a DTC office building, is about as close as it comes), and Guard says the idea of one built around a central brewery has yet to be explored.
Tacos, steaks, burgers...and now beer. Sounds like the makings of a pretty good party.