10 New Resturants Coming to Denver (2020)

Mark Antonation | January 7, 2020

We get it: Everyone (well, almost everyone) is jonesing for In-N-Out Burger! The California-based fast-food chain is poised to launch in Aurora, Fort Collins, Lone Tree and Colorado Springs in the coming year, and anyone with a pulse has an opinion about whether to love or hate the new arrival. But there's more to Denver than burger joints with secret menus; here are ten highly anticipated restaurants expected to open in the coming months.

Avanti Food & Beverage Boulder

1401 Pearl Street, Boulder

Avanti's success since the original LoHi food-hall-slash-restaurant-incubator opened four years ago made creating a multi-vendor destination look easy; since then, numerous other players have jumped in the game. In fact, Rosetta Hall entered the market in October in Boulder, just three blocks from where Avanti F & B plans to debut its sophomore effort. But the Pearl Street Mall has always been able to sustain a wide variety of restaurants and food kiosks, and Avanti's prime corner location in a former Cheesecake Factory should equate to instant foot traffic. The food hall's website indicates a spring opening, though specific vendors have not been announced.

Brasserie Brixton

3701 Williams Street

This neighborhood French eatery from partners Justin Morse and Matt Daniels has been in the works for the better part of 2019, but renovations on the circa-1884 building are now complete, and interior framing and drywall are well under way. The Cole neighborhood could have a new place to dine within the next two months if progress on Brasserie Brixton continues at the current pace.

Campus Lounge

701 South University Boulevard

The corner of South University Boulevard and East Exposition Avenue proved unlucky for two ownership groups who tried to make a go of it after Jim Wiste sold his decades-old Campus Lounge in 2016, but a new team hopes the third time will be a charm. The founders of Recess Beer Garden in LoHi are behind the latest effort, and they plan to return some of the neighborhood ambience and sports-bar vibe to the space. The new ownership group will keep the Campus Lounge name. Recess co-owner Owen Olson says he grew up in the neighborhood and remembers going to the Campus Lounge with his parents, so honoring its history is a priority. Olson says the bar will reopen to the public on January 29.

Fox Run Cafe

3550 East Colfax Avenue

Budding restaurateur Lucien Reichert took over the former home of the Humble Pie Store last spring and has been slowly transforming the space into an all-day cafe that will bake its own sourdough bread and serve a range of modern and homey eats, from toasts topped with housemade ingredients to hearty breakfast burritos. Reichert, who previously worked at the Plimoth, is targeting late January for an opening.

Northside Eatery & Market

1691 Central Street

This isn't the first time we've named Northside in a list of anticipated openings; the initial nod was back in April 2019. But the latest news coming from the LoHi space previously occupied by Candela offers the estimated opening of "early 2020." Expect a counter-service restaurant on one side with a "corner store" on the other, selling coffee, pastries, grab-and-go eats and various other sundries.

Mason's Dumpling Shop

9655 East Montview Boulevard

Transforming an old dive bar in Aurora into a modern Chinese dumpling house took some doing, and owner Ker Zhu says he almost gave up on more than one occasion. But the results are nearly ready to unveil, and Mason's, an offshoot of L.A.'s famous Luscious Dumplings, is currently hiring. Poised on the edge of Denver's Stapleton neighborhood and a quickly revitalizing section of Aurora, Mason's will surely make a big splash when it opens in the next month or so.

Meta Burger

5505 West 20th Avenue, Edgewater

Vegan cuisine was one of the biggest trends of 2019, and plant-based eaters will continue to seek out new options in 2020. Meta Burger has attracted a steady following of fans looking for comfort food free of animal products at its original home at 7950 East Mississippi Avenue, and a second location at the Edgewater Public Market should make the eatery's vegan fast food more accessible to westside residents. Co-owner Matthew Coates is looking to open the new Meta Burger in May or June.

Olivia

290 South Downing Street

Last fall, Bistro Georgette co-owners Heather Morrison, Ty Leon and Austin Carson purchased Cafe Marmotte, which they continued to run as a French restaurant until December 31, slowly introducing pasta dishes from Leon's repertoire of Italian cuisine. Cafe Marmotte served its last French fare on the last day of 2019, and now the team is busy converting the space into a fully Italian restaurant called Olivia, after Morrison's daughter. You should be able to nab a table come mid-January.

The Ponti

100 West 14th Avenue

Along with the complete overhaul of the Denver Art Museum comes a new wing where Palettes once stood. The Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center will be home to The Ponti, a new project from James Beard Award-winning chef/restaurateur Jennifer Jasinski. The chef says that the focus will be on vegetables, ancient grains, heirloom legumes and other local and seasonal items. If all goes according to plan, the Ponti will open in June 2020.

The Post Brewing Co. at the Stanley Hotel

333 East Wonderview Avenue, Estes Park

Dave Query, founder of the Big Red F restaurant group, is expanding the Post Brewing Co. with a fifth location, which will take up the main floor of a former carriage house on the grounds of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. The Post started out as a brewery and fried-chicken joint in Lafayette in 2014 and has since expanded to Longmont, Denver and Boulder. Query says he hopes that Estes Park residents and visitors will be enjoying the great views, beer and fried chicken by July 4.

What else is coming soon? The owners of Abejas will soon open Nosu Ramen at 700 Twelfth Street in Golden; Close Quarters, a coffee and cocktail bar, is taking over the former home of the White Whale Room at 415 South Cherokee Street; the Molecule Effect is adding a second outpost next door to Fire on the Mountain at 300 South Logan Street; and Third Culture Bakery is getting close to opening its mochi muffin and doughnut bakery at 9935 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora. And Bartaco, a cantina chain operated by the same folks that run Barcelona Wine Bar, will move in at 2001 West 32nd Avenue alongside Lady Jane and Method Roasters.

Dear Denver: Don't Fine for Unshoveled Sidewalks Until Streets Are Clear

(This article was originally published by Denver Westword)

Dear Denver,

It's been a helluva week, hasn't it? The pre-Thanksgiving storm caused havoc for travelers and those celebrating at home, too, with snowfall amounts measuring in feet across parts of the greater metro area. But it's been more than five full days since the primary white-stuff dump, and now some Denver residents are concerned that the city is going to start assessing fines for uncleared sidewalks while many streets remain indistinguishable from hockey rinks.

On that subject, we've got three words: Don't do it.

We understand the reasons for the rules about shoveling. As described on this page on the City of Denver's website, "Denver requires that property owners clear snow and ice from their sidewalks, including adjacent ADA ramps, so that EVERYONE has safe access throughout the city! Senior citizens, people with disabilities, parents with strollers, and mail carriers — just to name a few — struggle to negotiate hazardous walkways. We need to do our part to make our community safe and accessible for all."

The regulations call for inspectors to begin enforcement "after snow has stopped falling...checking business areas the same day and residential areas the following day. Inspectors check business areas proactively, and residential areas in response to complaints." After leaving "a time-stamped notice at properties with un-shoveled sidewalks," businesses are given four hours and residences have 24 hours to take care of the situation prior to a re-check and a potential fine that begins at $150 for a first offense, escalating to $500 and $999 for a second and third, respectively.

Problem is, temperatures that have mostly been in the 30s or lower have caused a partial-melt-and-re-freeze scenario that has made it difficult for even the most responsible property owners to keep pedestrian areas easily passable. The result is a thick layer of ice that seems largely impervious to sidewalk salt.

This should come as no surprise to the folks at Denver Public Works, who handle snow plowing for the city — a process that DPW spokesperson Nancy Kuhn described in detail earlier this year for a story we reposted in recent days. Although many of our readers haven't seen any plows out and about, the city insists drivers have been doing their best to chip away at the problem. But this morning, right and left lanes of major routes such as Broadway remain icy and snowpacked in spots, and side streets look like a backdrop from Frozen II. Here's a look at the 000 block of Sherman a short time ago:

Lots of walkways remain equally treacherous, and we understand how problematic that can be. The Denver Fire Department reportedly tracked 86 falls over a 48-hour period after the storm, and disability activists have gone on record to emphasize how many mobility problems uncleared sidewalks create for people who use wheelchairs and the like.

Then again, punishing residents for issues the city itself can't control would be the height of hypocrisy — and should homeowners who live on streets like the one above receive fines for sidewalks in a similar condition, you can bet they'll point that out.

Of course, this situation isn't isolated to the Denver area. I live in unincorporated Jefferson County, on a cul de sac that plows seldom visit. That changed with this storm; I actually saw a plow go through the neighborhood on the afternoon of November 26, much to my surprise.

Too bad it didn't make any difference. The road network throughout the entire neighborhood remains encased in ice, making it all but impossible for me to walk my dog without using an ice hammer and pitons.

Drivers have it no better. Yesterday, I witnessed a minor accident that looked like it took place in slow motion... because it did. Two cars trying to navigate a corner at under 15 miles per hour drifted toward each other like a pair of hot air balloons before crunching each other's fenders.

In an attempt to address this situation, Jeffco or another local agency decided to plow my street again at 2:30 a.m. today — a time I can confirm, because that's when I was jolted awake. While I listened to scraping sounds that continued for a whopping thirty minutes, I wondered if what appeared to be a fool's errand would do more good than I suspected. The answer was no, as demonstrated by this shot from around 4:30 a.m.

Locals are understandably frustrated that there's been so little improvement over the span of nearly a week, as I'm sure you can understand. Deep down, we know that even sending out crews armed with flamethrowers wouldn't make much of a dent on many streets in the area. Only warmer temperatures will improve things, and while the forecast for the coming days calls for highs in the 40s, that's not enough of a boost to quickly assure dry pavement for all.

In the meantime, people like me are still trying to make our properties safe — but Mother Nature is ratcheting up the degree of difficulty. I immediately shoveled after last week's storm, but by the next morning, melting icicles hanging from the rain gutter had created an icy patch that Nathan MacKinnon would have had a tough time navigating. Since then, I've twice chipped away at this section as if highwaymen were forcing me to dig my own grave, then poured de-icer on the portions that I couldn't remove. On both occasions, though, the ice was back the next day.

Our staffers who live in Denver report equally problematic situations — with the additional challenge of looming citations from the city. Take the example of our editor. Concerned about getting cited for the inches of ice on her Denver sidewalk, she stopped at three supermarkets on Thanksgiving in search of de-icer, only to find they were out. She finally tried a 7-Eleven on South Broadway, where the clerk suggested she "do your business in a bucket and just pour the pee on the ice." She declined, and fortunately found a well-stocked Ace the next morning. Her sidewalk is clean as a whistle. Her street? Almost impassible.

And so we're encouraging city sidewalk inspectors to remain patient and understanding. Especially if they want us to offer that patience and understanding in return regarding streets that could double for Winter Olympics toboggan runs.