Velvet Lasso, a new cafe in LoHi, is ready to swing open their doors on Valentine’s Day, Sat, Feb 14.
Owner Bree Licata, who formerly ran the buzzy Portland bakery Flour Bloom, has now set up shop in Denver with a café full of the same treats she loved getting at bakeries while growing up on Long Island, NY: cannolis, Italian butter cookies, and rainbow cookies, now dolled up in reds and pinks.
She’s teamed up with GM/chef Cole Sinatra (opening chef at Yampa Valley Kitchen in Steamboat Springs) who got in-house bread making capabilities up to snuff, and together they’ve slid in nods to classic NY deli culture.
This translates into dishes like a B.E.C. zhuzhed up with tomato jam and hash browns, a veggie sandwich stuffed with preserved rapini and marinated Corona beans, and a hoagie named after Pagliacci’s — the family-owned Italian restaurant that once occupied the same location — loaded with River Bear meats, stracciatella, and chopped peppers.
Inside, the look is blazing cherry-red walls lined with butterfly and horse tchotchkes, honey-oak furniture, and velvet-trimmed seating, creating a vintage cowgirl dreamscape that breathes new life into the former home of the beloved French restaurant Noisette.
Rounding out the team are pastry pro Wynter Sierra (Sweet Anarchy owner, Bakery Four, GetRight’s) who is in charge of filling the bakery case with freshly made croissants, cookies, and cakes, while Katie Pratt runs the FOH and coffee program brewing Middle State Coffee.
While the café is the first part of the project to launch, construction has also begun on the main space, with plans to open this spring as a bar/lounge. For this phase, Mo Weeber will join as bar director, applying their savory cooking knowledge in crafting a creative drink program.
The details
Velvet Lasso
3254 Navajo St Suite 100, Denver, CO
Disclosure: I attended a soft opening, sampling the food and coffee. However, the restaurant has no influence over my coverage, which remains independent.