DTC Brewpub Spice Trade Switching to Yak & Yeti Food Menu This Week

It's been nearly five years since Spice Trade Brewery & Kitchen opened at 8775 East Orchard Road in Greenwood Village, nabbing our pick for Best New Brewpub in the 2021 edition of Best of Denver.

But now some things are shifting. "The beer is going to be the same," assures Dol Bhattarai, owner of the Yak & Yeti restaurants and formerly a partner in Spice Trade who has taken full control of the brewery. "We are changing just the concept, the food."

Bhattarai, who originally hails from Nepal, opened the first Yak & Yeti in Westminster in 2003. The brand now includes four outposts in the metro area.

Spice Trade first formed at the Arvada location of Yak & Yeti and expanded to its stand-alone location in DTC in 2020. Bhattarai partnered with brewmaster Jeff Tyler on the project, whose beers were inspired by both tradition and a variety of Asian food cultures. The beer lineup at Spice Trade has ranged from European classics like German lager to American standards such as West Coast IPA, to boundary-defying brews like a tamarind Belgian dubbel and a Thai tripel brewed with lime leaf, lemongrass, coriander and ginger.

Bhattarai says that Tyler left the operation a few months ago because of mounting losses at the business, though the outgoing Spice Trade brewmaster did train his replacement before moving on.

Through the years, Spice Trade has served a rotating menu of foods influenced by cuisines worldwide, from a fried chicken sandwich and cioppino to Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian-inspired dishes. "We couldn't keep up with the Spice Trade menu," Bhattarai notes, which prompted the shift to the Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan fare that Yak & Yeti is known for.

Spice Trade will close with its current menu on Wednesday, January 15 (though many items are already listed as out of stock online) and will reopen with the Yak & Yeti menu on January 16.

Bhattarai also laments the shorter and inconsistent hours of operation that Spice Trade had maintained. "Sometimes they open at noon, sometimes they open at 3 p.m. Sometimes they slow down and want to close the doors. The customer is going to be confused," he says, adding that the plan is to have more consistent hours going forward.