Taibe opened the original Kawa Ni, a restaurant inspired by Japanese izakayas, in Westport, Connecticut. Now, in his first venture west of the Mississippi, he's bringing a larger version of Kawa Ni to 1900 West 32nd Avenue, where it will debut (softly) starting at 4 p.m. today, November 2.
The idea is to start slowly and get feedback from both his staff and guests as the restaurant settles into the neighborhood. "I'm all ears," Taibe notes. "What should we be doing to really attract this clientele, to make these people comfortable, make this community comfortable? I want this to be a place that they can trust, and that's it."
With this opening, the LoHi neighborhood now has a plethora of Japanese options. Nearby, Uncle has been a staple for ramen lovers for over a decade. There's also Kobe An for shabu-shabu, and sushi spots Mizu, Bamboo and Sushi Ronin. Less than a month ago, Culinary Creative debuted its first Japanese restaurant, Kumoya, just down the street, where it specializes in sushi skillfully crafted by chef Corey Baker as well as small plates; there's also a late-night menu on the bar side.
"I want them to be great," Taibe says of the competitors nearby, "because I want a great place to eat, and they also bring people into the neighborhood, so I'm all for that. ... I don't get competitive where I'm worrying about somebody else. I think it's more of a sports mentality, where coaches will be like, 'Stop worrying about the other guy, it's you."
Besides, Kawa Ni has plenty of differentiators from its neighbors. It won't be open late, as Kumoya is, and neither sushi nor ramen are the focus, though both do appear on the menu, alongside a trio of dumplings, some hot and cold small plates, bao buns, rice bowls and noodle dishes like kimchi carbonara and spicy lamb dan dan. The dishes on the menu have largely come from the original Kawa Ni, though that may shift as Taibe and his team get to know their Denver clientele.
The Kawa Ni concept was a complete shift for Taibe when he launched it nearly a decade ago. At the time, he was running a farm-to-table restaurant called LeFarm, "which worked its way into the Whelk, which is our larger flagship now, kind of a New England oyster bar," he says. When a nearby space, "a little hole-in-the-wall in this completely defunct, wacky strip mall," became available, Taibe fell in love with it. But he wanted to do something new there, and was up for challenging himself.
"I knew nothing about Asian cuisine, in terms of how to cook it," he recalls. So he spent nearly a month eating his way through Japan. "As soon as we got to Osaka, one of the first places we went to was an izakaya. The menu was so fun. It was everything and just random and weird."
After visiting about a dozen more izakayas in Japan, he went back home and "focused on designing a space that felt like what I felt when I was there," complete with Japanese posters, wood paneling and warm floral details.
The concept wasn't a hit right away. "At the time, I was a different person. My ego was much bigger," Taibe admits. Kawa Ni's debut menu was written entirely in Japanese with a glossary on the back, and the food was very "cheffy, with lots of tweezers," he adds. "All this horribly affected bullshit that I would never dream of doing now."
Kung pao karaage.
Kawa Ni Westport/Instagram
In time, he shifted to something much more approachable. "It took about three years for it to really become successful. Then it became everybody's hidden gem," Taibe recalls. In 2020, the restaurateur, who is the vice chair of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, opted to shut down indoor dining before it was mandated, taking that time to set up takeout and delivery operation, a move that proved to be successful. His team's strength through the pandemic also gave Taibe the confidence that the concept could expand.
"We started immediately to identify locations we want to be with Kawa Ni," he says. He didn't want to open another restaurant in the Northeast; an avid skier, he found Colorado appealing. Plus, his son fell in love with the University of Colorado Boulder.
Taibe also found the right location, inside what was once an old LoHi fire station that had been converted into apartments. The space is larger than the original in Westport, allowing for a back dining room, a front room with a large communal or group table, a long bar, and a front patio as well as a smaller side patio that Taibe hopes to utilize in the future.
Taibe is now settled into a rental with his two dogs; his business partner has relocated to the Mile High as well. "I'm in love with the city, I'm in love with the people here," Taibe says. While both he and his wife will continue to travel back and forth between the East Coast and Colorado, he's all in on Kawa Ni Denver, having signed a twenty-year lease.
While the original Colorado plan also called for opening a second location of his Mexican concept, Don Memo, in Platt Park, that deal ultimately fell through — and Taibe is grateful for that. "How the hell did I think I was going to run two restaurants across the country?" he jokes. "Good things happen when you just let them."
And he's hoping Kawa Ni will be a very good addition to LoHi for a long time to come.
Kawa Ni is located at 1900 West 32nd Avenue; after the soft opening, its regular hours will be 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; weekend lunches will be added in the next two to three weeks.
