Polish Restaurant Belvedere Closes to Make Way for a Greedy Hamster

Polish cuisine is a rarity in Denver and it just got even scarcer; Belvedere Restaurant on 14th Street downtown is now closed after four years in business. Kinga Klek, owner of Kinga's Lounge at Colfax Avenue and Marion Street, opened Belvedere in July 2011 after previous tenant Cafe Berlin moved...

By Mark Antonation

April 16, 2015

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Polish cuisine is a rarity in Denver, and it just got even scarcer: Belvedere Restaurant, at 323 14th Street, has closed after four years in business. Kinga Klek, owner of Kinga's Lounge, at Colfax Avenue and Marion Street, opened Belvedere in July 2011 after previous tenant Cafe Berlin moved to a new location on the 16th Street Mall.

The building won't be dark for long, though: A sign out front states that the space is under new management and will open in May as The Greedy Hamster. Owner Tay Wilbanks says the Hamster will be a bistro/pub serving sandwiches (like muffulettas and croque monsieurs) and flatbreads at lunch and a variety of burgers and other pub fare at night. The goofy name comes from the YouTube video featuring a hamster stuffing food into its cheek pouches, and from a plaque commemorating the video that Wilbanks saw for sale from a street vendor while on vacation in Paris.

As silly names go, the Greedy Hamster joins Fractured Prune as an early contender for the 2015 title.

Mark Antonation is the former Westword Food & Drink Editor. In 2018, he was named Outstanding Media Professional by the Colorado Restaurant Association; he's now with the Colorado Restaurant Foundation.

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