In this month’s cheat sheet a top Denver chef returns with a new taqueria, a vibey Italian-ish pasta shop, and a rockin’ new cocktail lounge with a one-of-a-kind menu.
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I keep a list of all the new and upcoming restaurant openings in and around the Denver area and every few weeks I filter through them to find the ones you actually need to know about. November was busy, with a number of highly anticipated spots opening their doors. Here are the most noteworthy spots to open their doors in the last month:
New restaurant concepts
1. Molino Chido – Aurora: The taqueria slinging seriously addictive Mexican street food and more
Molino Chido is here to feed the people. Opened on Nov 11 at Stanley Marketplace, it’s chef Michael Diaz de Leon’s first restaurant working with restaurateur Tommy Lee (Uncle, Hop Alley) and the focus is on Mexico City-inspired street food.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Diaz de Leon. After leading Brutø to its first Michelin star in 2023, he spent a year traveling and doing pop-ups. The urge to settle down was already there when Lee approached him. Diaz de Leon calls the seasoned operator the final piece that made launching a new restaurant click, and the concept came together fast after the two linked up.
Only in its first few weeks, Molino Chido is already primed to be a hit. Weekends are especially busy. A new wait list system is now in place, but be prepared to exercise some patience when trying to get a table during peak hours.
- Vibe: Vibrant green and lime tiles line the bar and kitchen, while the windowed molino room — modeled after the viewing stations at Din Tai Fung — is wrapped in banana-hued glossy squares. To make the space feel as close to a Mexican taqueria as possible, Diaz de Leon tracked down a fabricator in Guadalajara to produce custom-branded chairs and tables, even traveling to the factory in person. Photos he shot himself were printed on newspaper at a shop in London and wheat-pasted to the far wall of the space, lending the gritty, urban vibe reminiscent of strolling the backstreets of Mexico City.
- What’s on the menu: The team wants to be known for doing simple food really well. Fair enough. But with Diaz de Leon, drawing from the best flavors and techniques he’s picked up around the world is second nature. So even tacos, quesadillas, and burritos take diners on unexpected detours: pavo tacos with Yucatecan recado negro and a jammy ajitama-style egg, al pastor boosted by tamari, miso-cooked frijoles, and curry-potato flautas with mole masala. Ready to die young? Add a costra cheese crust to any taco for $2. (Try it with the prime strip loin.) The in-house molino turns out 1,000 tortillas daily made from Bow & Arrow maíz and nixtamalized in-house. A natty wine list and AGM Javier Portillo’s cocktails — including a great caffeine-filled carajillo — nicely compliment the savory menu.
2. Boombots Pasta Shop – Sunnyside: For a good time, call B-O-O-M-B-O-T-S
A reader DMed asking where to take their 22-year-old daughter who wanted dinner at a “fun and vibey” restaurant. My immediate answer: Boombots Pasta Shop, a new Italian-ish spot in Sunnyside with feel-good energy and fantastically fun pastas.
Since opening doors at the beginning of last month, business at Boombots has been brisk since owners Cliff and Cara Blauvelt have built a loyal following with their first restaurant, Odie B’s, which sits next door and now shares a kitchen with Boombots.
The don’t take reservations at the moment, so folks have been lining up before the 5pm opening, especially weekends. The meal can expand or contract based on the number of people in your party — pastas are available in single (1-2 people) or mingle (3-4 people) portions.
- Vibe: Designed by Regular Architecture, the new space leans into a comforting retro-modern style that makes you want to stay a while. Groovy wood paneling gets lightened up by spring green and pink accents, and shows some humor with cheeky custom checkered wallpaper composed of squiggly pasta-shaped lines.
- What’s on the menu: Executive chef Connor Gushen and Cliff Blauvelt (serving as culinary director) collaborated on the globe-trotting opening menu built around pasta. The samosa agnolotti, which nails the flavors of the South Asian pastry, is a great place to start, or go for something heartier like the porcini pasta stroganoff with slices of braised beef. A great add-on for the table is the dirty martini-inspired bucatini, coated with a vodka sauce mixed with olive pasta, pickled onions, and blue cheese. Appetizers like the house-cured meat board (Gushen honed his charcuterie skills at the much-loved, but since closed Vesta) or the tangy shredded root veggie salad are also worthy orders. Drinks from bar manager Lee Clark and GM Tyler Arthur range from Italian whites to Slovenian reds, sake, and cheeky cocktails like a Pasta Water Martini. For non-drinkers, the Bell Ringer is a pepper-forward zero-proof option that lands like a crisp, grown-up V-8.
3. Ma’s Kitchen – City Park: Chinese cooking from a long-time East Colfax restaurant owner and his brother
Xi Yong Zheng, owner of Okinawa, a Japanese sushi restaurant on East Colfax that has operated for more than a decade, has taken over a space around the corner and transformed it into Ma’s Noodles, with his brother and chef/owner, Xi Nuan Zheng, leading the kitchen. According to the Denver Post, Xi Nuan, who has hotel experience in Singapore, also traveled to China earlier this year to brush up on his dumpling and noodle making skills.
- Vibe: Efficient yet stylish, the space has been lightly refreshed since its former days as the home for Rolling Pin Pizza. Supporting columns and accent walls are now painted a bright red, and a few bamboo steamers have been added to a repurposed black pegboard wall that still displays the former tenant’s collection of rolling pins. The large, nest-like globe light fixtures remain unchanged.
- What’s on the menu: The menu offers a robust selection centered mainly on Cantonese dishes. Appetizers include wood ear mushroom salad, chilled bitter melon, and a dim sum combo platter with shu mai, steamed pork buns, dumplings, and egg rolls. There’s an entire section devoted to buns and baos, along with noodles and rice dishes such as twice-cooked pork stir-fried noodles. Entrées range from Sichuan boiled fish to green beans with XO sauce. For dessert there’s a jiggly coconut milk rice pudding molded into an undeniably cute bunny shape.
Bars, cafes, and coffee shops
4. Peach Crease Club – RiNo: A slick new bar from two Denver drink world heavyweights
Denver just got a rockin’ new cocktail lounge: Peach Crease Club, from husband-and-wife team Alex Jump and Stuart Jensen. Jump, co-founder of the hospitality industry wellness initiative Focus on Health and former head bartender at Death & Co Denver, and Jensen, co-owner of Curio Bar and Roger’s Liquid Oasis, have finally launched a project together, making it one of the biggest bar openings of the year. The lounge opened at the end of November, right across from Mission Ballroom, creating a dream scenario for the duo, who are both lifelong live music lovers.
- Vibe: 1970s-inflected touches abound: wood-paneled walls, a palette of browns, dark green leather booths perfect for sinking into with a table full of friends. A mishmash of Western and Southwestern Americana artwork from the couple’s personal collection lines the walls and glossy light fixtures and brass accents add a slightly glam polish to the space. Jump and Jensen wanted their spot to honor its music-centric location, and included sound design as a core part of their hospitality ethos built around carefully considering every element to create the ideal guest experience. Jensen got to indulge his audiophile tendencies while outfitting the sound system. The room features vintage and refurbished Altec speakers – two of which dominate the main back bar – along with McIntosh and custom amps, and even an alcove with two turntables ready to host vinyl DJs in the future. Not a dedicated listening bar, the goal, as Jump puts it, is to create a space where the music lovingly “wraps around you” without ever drowning out conversation.
- What’s on the menu: The cocktail menu is genuinely one-of-a-kind and reads like the offerings at a globally-inspired restaurant rather than a watering hole. There’s an elegant fattoush-inspired cocktail, a nod to Jump and Jensen’s love of cooking Middle Eastern food at home, plus drinks tied to moments from their relationship: flavors from a Copenhagen wedding anniversary trip, a brandy distilled the day they got engaged. Their style leans fresh, seasonal, and quietly classic, with balanced drinks that don’t rely on modifiers but are far from simple. Some of the best low- and no-alcohol options in town are on this menu too, including a bright pink borscht-inspired number and a zero-proof take on their peanuts and cola cocktail that harkens back to the flavors of Jump’s upbringing in Tennessee. Add a fortified wine selection pulled from independent makers, small snacks, and smørrebrøds on seeded rye from Good Bread, and the result is a bar that feels both personal and deeply dialed-in to the needs of today’s drinkers.
One quick PSA: Parking can be confusing since the bar is in the same complex as Mission Ballroom. Ignore Google Maps when it tries to get you to turn at 42nd Street and instead pull in on 41st. Park in the gravel lot at 41st and Wynkoop with the “Westfield Employee Parking Only,” “No Pets,” and “No Parking” signs. Peach Crease Club guests can park there for free on non-concert nights. On show nights, tell the attendants you’re headed to the bar (or choose 2 hour “restaurant” parking at the kiosk) and it’s only $5 for parking.
Expansions and upgrades
5. Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse – Cherry Creek: For pulling out all the stops for a power lunch meeting
There’s a time and a place for $60+ steaks, and if it involves expensing it on the company card, all the better. Broadway 10 opened at the start of November in Cherry Creek, the second location of the chophouse concept from Oklahoma City-based Provision Concepts.
Perfectly positioned to appeal to the power lunch crowd, this modern steakhouse is ready to give the Hillstone next door a run for its money. Expect a reliable polish and level of hospitality that ensures everything goes exactly as you expect, making for a no-stress meal that would also be a great spot to bring your hard-to-please parents when they’re in town.
- Vibe: Thanks to its corner location and oversized windows, the restaurant is flooded with natural light, making it an appealing spot for daytime dining. The look is chock full o’ clean, contemporary lines in neutral colors, pleasing to the Millennial eye trained on West Elm esthetics – tan leather banquets with a prominent color scheme of black, white, & brown.
- What’s on the menu: The lunch and dinner menus are nearly identical, with the only difference being a slight markup at dinner. The food is solid across the board, so you really can’t go wrong. If you want to impress your dining companions, order the scallops starter that arrives snapping and crackling, flames dancing across the plate. Other theatrical touches include a bacon course clipped to a metal clothesline with golden scissors and a gold chocolate ganache globe that melts open under hot bourbon caramel. Salads are well-dressed, soups like the lobster bisque are smooth, and the Chilean seabass in herbed butter with a crisp little salad is excellent. Entrees are modestly sized but perfectly executed, with tidy stainless-steel sides. Cocktails are well-rounded – my guest loved the Golden Hour – and the small non-alcoholic menu sparkles with drinks like the refreshing mango-kissed Midwinter Night’s Dream.
One final craving
I’m officially a Berliner döner convert. Berliner Haus, now operating from a stall at Avanti F&B in Highlands, serves a signature sandwich that faithfully recreates the Berlin style. Döners, introduced to the country by Turkish workers in the early 1970s, evolved into a loaded, veggie-forward sandwich: plenty of salad and vegetables piled over shaved beef and lamb. At Niko Diamantopoulous’s stall, they deliciously channel the Berlin-style döner, tucking everything into a pillowy slice of pide (a Turkish flatbread) and drizzling the toppings with a pair of addictive white garlic and red chili sauces. The mammoth sandwich requires two hands to keep upright and is a full meal in and of itself.
ICYMI: Last month, I shared a Pan-Latin rooftop restaurant with million-dollar views, an audio bar still finding its groove, and an African speakeasy with a techy twist on entry.✨Read it here✨