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  • Image: Elway's Downtown

    Elway's Downtown

    1881 Curtis St. Downtown Denver

    303-312-3107

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    Although the second Elway's lacks the fun factor of the original in Cherry Creek, it's still a good bet for a business dinner -- especially if your group is large enough to fill the League of Evil-like private seating area. And despite its hoity-toity location (it's in the Ritz-Carlton), this Elway's also works for a casual, after-work meetup, particularly if you grab one of the comfy booths and start ordering drinks and app after app (and maybe a burger or two) off the extensive menu.
    45 articles
  • Image: Fruition

    Fruition

    1313 E. 6th Ave. Central Denver

    303-831-1962

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    It’s been seventeen years since James Beard Award-winning chef/restaurateur Alex Seidel opened Fruition, and if you think this spot is only for fancy nights out, it’s time to visit again. Despite its reputation as a celebration spot, Fruition has always aimed to be more of a neighborhood bistro. Its current chef, Jarred Russell, came from a three-year stint at Thomas Keller's lauded French Laundry, but he’s committed to Seidel’s mission of catering to regulars and newcomers alike with fun twists on familiar favorites.
    64 articles
  • Image: Oak at Fourteenth

    Oak at Fourteenth

    1400 Pearl St. Boulder

    303-444-3622

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    Bryan Dayton and Steve Redzikowski opened Oak at Fourteenth in 2011 and almost immediately suffered a three-month closure because of a fire. But in the years since, Oak has grown to the top of Boulder’s fine dining scene. Today the menu boasts a seasonal approach, with wood-fired foods inspired by the many cultures that make up American cuisine.
    67 articles
  • Image: Potager

    Potager

    1109 Ogden St., Denver Capitol Hill/Uptown/City Park

    303-246-7073

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    Started by Teri Rippeto in 1997, this Capitol Hill eatery ushered in Denver’s obsession with farm-to-table eating. In early 2019, Potager was sold to Paul and Eileen Warthen and Nik Brand, who have stayed true to its spirit, carrying Rippeto’s commitment to connecting with local farmers and the community. From the cozy dining room to the hidden back garden, there’s not a bad seat in the house, and one meal here will show why this eatery has claimed a special place in so many people’s hearts for over 25 years.
    29 articles
  • Image: Punch Bowl Social

    Punch Bowl Social

    65 Broadway Central Denver

    303-765-2695

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    The original Punch Bowl Social opened on Broadway in 2012 as a premier fun zone for adults. The newer Stapleton location, at 3120 Uinta Street, continues the tradition in a breathtaking space built into the former airport’s control tower. Bowling, karaoke, vintage video games and shuffleboard are just a few of the diversions, but both locations boast multiple bars for those just there for the drinks. Founder Robert Thompson has built a nationwide Punch Bowl empire over the past several years, spreading the Denver brand far beyond Colorado’s borders.
    94 articles
  • Image: Sputnik

    Sputnik

    3 S. Broadway, Denver Golden Triangle/La Alma

    720-570-4503

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    Corn dogs, vegan eats and cheap drinks have made this bar with mid-century vibes a Baker neighborhood favorite since 2003. Located next door to one of the area’s best places for live local music, the hi-dive, it’s the ideal spot to soak up the raucous punk vibes of Broadway — and it will remain just that after being taken over by new owners, who are also former employees. Spencer Madison and Joe Phillips, who also owns Fellow Traveler, are committed to keeping Sputnik a rough-edged refuge among recent, more corporate additions to the area.
    1 event 22 articles
  • Image: Vita Restaurant

    Vita Restaurant

    1575 Boulder St. Northwest Denver

    303-477-4600

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    Highland has become Denver's hottest restaurant neighborhood, and from the stunning rooftop of Vita, with its view of the Platte Valley and downtown beyond, you'll feel on top of the world. And you'll definitely feel above the LoDo fray; this is just the spot for those who enjoy drinking outdoors without having to fight plastic-cup-carrying crowds.
    9 articles
  • Image: 1515 Restaurant

    1515 Restaurant

    1515 Market St. Downtown Denver

    303-571-0011

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    Gene Tang is the consummate host. For close to two decades, he’s overseen every aspect of 1515 Restaurant, which occupies a Victorian storefront in LoDo -- greeting guests, checking on table settings, asking diners if everything is to their liking (it usually is). While the first floor is home to a comfortable bar whose crowds spill into the basement lounge on the weekends, the elegant upstairs dining room is devoted to serving seasonal modern American/French cuisine, often with a unique twist. The service is as professional as the menu is impressive. And 1515 doesn’t just serve good food; it does so with a clean conscience, since it’s been recognized by Denver as “certifiably green” and given gold status for environmental leadership by the state.
    36 articles

  • 1914 House

    121 2nd Ave., Niwot Boulder

    303-834-9751

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  • Image: Abejas

    Abejas

    807 13th St. Golden

    303-952-9745

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    Since Abejas opened in downtown Golden in 2015, the intimate eatery has become a standout for fine dining in the western suburbs. The name is Spanish for “bees,” after founders Brandon Bortles and Barry Dobesh, who were called “the Bs” by their friends — and it’s still buzz-worthy, thanks to its eclectic, seasonal roster of clever yet grounded dishes incorporating global influences and bolstered by playful cocktails and a succinct but smart list of wines by the glass.
    9 articles
  • Image: Acova

    Acova

    3651 Navajo St., Denver Highland/Lower Highland

    303-736-2718

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    The owners of the Hornet have already had success building a neighborhood spot on Broadway. Now they've done the same at Acova, which opened in the spring of 2018 in the space that was Patsy’s for almost 100 years. Extensive renovations have resulted in a contemporary, whimsical and welcoming restaurant, with ostrich heads painted on exposed brick, a host stand made from a repurposed Patsy’s pasta maker, and cool blue pendant lamps. Neighborhood families enjoy both the patio and the bright, breezy bar with garage windows. Look for a familiar mix of casual, globally inspired sandwiches, soups and entrees, with plenty of vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan options.
    9 articles
  • Image: Ad Hominem

    Ad Hominem

    43 W. Ninth Ave. Central Denver

    303-454-0000

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    After Charcoal closed in 2017, the Golden Triangle was in need of a dining room serving creative, chef-driven cuisine that didn't feel stuffy or uptight. Ad Hominem is the answer, offering a tight menu of seasonal creations with equal hints of whimsy and comfort. A glowing, glass-encased herb garden to the side of the dining room gives guests a glimpse of the greenery that will make it onto their plates, and a menu centered on local produce and proteins makes for a distinctly Colorado experience while sending tendrils into Japan, Italy and Mexico.
    5 articles
  • Image: American Elm

    American Elm

    4132 W. 38th Ave., Denver Highland/Lower Highland

    720-749-3186

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    American Elm opened in 2019 with a seasoned pro calling the shots. Taking inspiration from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where owner Bob Reiter previously lived, the restaurant is a neighborhood bistro with an elevated approach that makes it worth a trip to Highland, if that doesn’t happen to be your neighborhood. And the bar offerings are among the best in town.
    3 articles
  • Image: Annette

    Annette

    2501 Dallas St. Aurora

    720-710-9975

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    In 2022, Annette chef-owner Caroline Glover became Aurora’s first James Beard Award winner, five years after she opened her first solo venture. During its run, this Stanley Marketplace anchor has only gotten better as Glover plays with seasonal ingredients to keep things fresh while also revisiting past favorites from time to time. The beef tongue remains a staple, the happy-hour steak frites are swoon-worthy, and we always save room for whatever dessert the kitchen is dishing out — especially if it’s a Paris-Brest pastry.
    23 articles
  • Image: Beckon

    Beckon

    2843 Larimer St., Denver Five Points/RiNo

    303-749-0020

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    When Beckon opened in 2018, it was the city’s first chef’s-counter restaurant. Now, more and more high-end tasting-menu options are available, but Beckon continues to stand out with a menu created by chef Duncan Holmes and his team that changes quarterly, an approach inspired by the Earth’s connection to the moon. Tucked off busy Larimer Street, this is an intimate dining experience that earned the Beckon team its first Michelin star in 2023.
    7 articles
  • Image: The Bindery

    The Bindery

    1817 Central St., Denver Highland/Lower Highland

    303-993-2364

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    Linda Hampsten Fox opened her LoHi eatery — part market, part all-day dining destination — in 2017. Seven years later, the menu continues to show off her passion for highlighting seasonal ingredients in unexpected ways as she composes dishes inspired by memories from her childhood, her travels and a thirty-year-plus career in restaurants.
    28 articles
  • Image: Blackbelly

    Blackbelly

    1606 Conestoga St. Boulder

    303-247-1000

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    After winning Top Chef in 2009, chef Hosea Rosenberg launched a food truck and catering company before opening Blackbelly in 2014. Now he’s expanded the business even more, creating what the team calls a “culinary campus” complete with an upscale dining area, private dining room, two patios, and a market that showcases its in-house butchering, charcuterie and baking programs. It also serves daytime fare such as sandwiches and one of the best breakfast burritos in the metro area. In 2023, Blackbelly’s efforts were rewarded when it earned a Michelin green star for excellence in sustainability.
    37 articles
  • Image: Bramble & Hare

    Bramble & Hare

    1970 13th St. Boulder

    303-444-9110

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    Bramble & Hare opened in 2012 with the aim of being a more accessible lunch-and-dinner version of its older sibling, Black Cat Bistro (which is located next door). While it has since dispensed with lunch service, it remains true to its original vision of offering a prix fixe menu that changes daily based on the ultra-fresh, ultra-seasonal, ultra-local proteins and veggies from chef-farmer-owner Eric Skokan’s farm. Black Cat Farm is located just a few miles away and supplies the restaurant with the majority of its ingredients year-round. And in recognition of the care and ingenuity with which Skokan treats those homegrown goodies after they leave the farm, the James Beard Foundation named him a semi-finalist for Best Chef, Mountain Region, in 2022.
    13 articles
  • Image: Brider

    Brider

    1644 Platte St., Denver LoDo/Ballpark/Commons Park

    303-455-3084

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    Culinary all-stars Steven Redzikowski and Bryan Dayton opened this Highland joint in January 2016, and fans of the duo's highly acclaimed full-service ventures (Oak at Fourteenth and Acorn) will recognize elements that run like swoon-worthy motifs across their menus. That means the meatballs we know and love, this time snuggled on ciabatta in the best meatball sandwich you'll ever eat, plus the signature kale-apple salad and Dayton's cocktails on tap. But it also means a deep roster of hearty, seasonal salads like roasted carrots with cumin, chickpeas and pomegranate seeds; a porchetta-and-kimchi sandwich; and dinnertime plates featuring rotisserie meats that tilt American, Korean, Middle Eastern or Indian, depending on the sides. This isn't a poor man's Acorn; it's exquisite (fan)fare for the common man, dished up three times a day in a fun, mod fast-casual space.
    22 articles
  • Image: BurnDown

    BurnDown

    476 S. Broadway Central Denver

    720-899-3827

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    Originally constructed in the 1940s, BurnDown's building previously held a furniture store and a year-round Christmas shop. In May 2023, the space was resurrected as a multi-purpose venue, with an expansive first-floor dining room, a second-floor lounge where a small acoustic stage is located, and a third indoor/outdoor level with a rooftop deck and a hell of a view of downtown Denver and the entire Front Range. All levels look into a showstopping three-story atrium in the center of the building, where a fire once left a gaping hole.
    2 articles
  • Image: Candela Latin Kitchen

    Candela Latin Kitchen

    1691 Central St. Northwest Denver

    303-477-4582

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    Central Bistro & Bar owner Isiah Salazar and chef Jesse Vega converted their breezy bistro into a pan-Latin lounge in the summer of 2017, compiling a roster of tacos from Salazar's upbringing and Puerto Rican specialties from Vega's family, along with a few other dishes from Central and South America. The result is a restaurant loaded with intensity and soul, with dishes that leap from the plate with joy while maintaining a heart of pure comfort. Mofongo, the national dish of Puerto Rico, is the star, but bright ceviches, meats drenched in cooked-down sauces and homey empanadas make up a lively accompanying cast. Central Bistro may have been hot, but Candela burns just as bright.
    80 articles
  • Image: Church and Union

    Church and Union

    1433 17th St. Downtown Denver

    720-446-5366

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    The fourth outpost of Church and Union — and the first outside of Tennessee and the Carolinas — opened near Union Station in September 2024 after many delays and much anticipation. The spot isn't a carbon copy of its southeastern siblings: The space is chock-full of art, and the menu includes a long list of Denver-exclusive sides to pair with steaks. Diners who'd rather pass on red meat have plenty of other options, like Colorado trout with extra-crispy skin served with nutty brown butter, charred leaks and spinach gnudi.
  • Image: The Corner Office

    The Corner Office

    1401 Curtis St. Downtown Denver

    303-825-6500

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    The decor is extraordinarily kitschy-hip: half ultra-modern diner, half rumpus room. Like everything else at the Corner Office, the menu is heavy on style and designed to catch the eye first, dragging the rest of the sensorium along behind: individual scalloped casserole dishes of lobster mac-and-cheese, flat plates of cheeseburger sliders arrayed around a squiggled nest of shoestring frites. This is powerful art-and-commerce stuff, working that tender juncture in the brain between want for comfort and want for beauty. And for a killer plate of Southern-style fried chicken and waffles.
    39 articles
  • Image: Corridor 44

    Corridor 44

    1433 Larimer St., Denver LoDo/Ballpark/Commons Park

    303-893-0044

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    Drinking champagne is often compared to drinking stars, and with its dangling chandeliers and European-style furnishings, Corridor 44 is sufficiently sparkly to support that analogy. While the tiny Larimer Square spot has a full bar, the bubbly is what makes this place rise above the rest. Corridor 44 serves a seasonal selection of true Champagne as well as sparkling wines; during the week, nearly twenty champagne cocktails are available for sipping and sampling. The menu is designed to match the chi-chi drinks, with offerings ranging from truffle-oil fries and caviar to mussels and steak. The ambience is ideal for a first date, an anniversary or an intimate meeting with friends.
    7 articles
  • Image: Crazy Horse Kitchen & Bar

    Crazy Horse Kitchen & Bar

    1201 E. Colfax Ave., Denver Capitol Hill/Uptown/City Park

    303-862-5236

    Crazy Horse Kitchen & Bar opened in June 2023 at a legendary address. Not only was it home to the Irish Snug for eighteen years, but it was strip club Sid King's Crazy Horse Bar from the 1940s to 1983. Now the upstairs is a full-service restaurant offering small plates, and the downstairs space is a full nightclub, complete with a new lighting and sound system, DJs and luxurious decor like velvet couches — the kind of place that might inspire patrons to dress up a bit for a more upscale night out.

  • Danielle's at Castle Pines

    872 W. Happy Canyon Rd., Castle Pines Southwest Denver Suburbs

  • Image: Dazzle

    Dazzle

    1080 14th St. Downtown Denver

    303-839-5100

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    In business for more than fifteen years, Dazzle has secured its spot as the premier place for jazz in Denver. But it's not just here that the club's been praised: DownBeat magazine listed it as one of the top 100 jazz clubs in the world, and with good reason. The level of talent that's brought in week after week is unmatched in these parts. Dazzle has hosted Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding, the Bad Plus, Vijay Iyer, Kurt Elling and the stellar trio of Ron Miles, Bill Frisell and Brian Blade. To top it all off, the lounge's walls are acoustically treated, so the sound is top-notch, and sight-wise, there's not a bad seat in the house. And Dazzle is more than just a jazz club; it's also a great local watering hole, renowned for the martinis offered at the comfortable bar. The late-afternoon and late-night happy hours feature a roster of dishes -- including a terrific bar burger, pizzas and salads -- that are enough to make a meal. But the main menu is also worthy of note, with its famous four-cheese macaroni and other favorites.
    13 events 311 articles
  • Image: Death & Co

    Death & Co

    1280 25th St., Denver Five Points/RiNo

    720-330-2660

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    This NYC-based cocktail institution debuted its second outpost inside the Ramble Hotel in 2018 with a trio of spaces, each of which offers a slightly different experience but equally impressive craft libations. There’s the opulent lobby bar, a second-floor lounge dubbed Suite 6A, and an outdoor space called the Garden, which is open seasonally and lit by a sign that says “Wish You Were Here,” an appropriate sentiment for this envy-inducing escape in RiNo.
    14 articles
  • Image: Del Frisco's Grille

    Del Frisco's Grille

    100 Saint Paul St., Suite 140 Central Denver

    303-320-8529

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    Most Denverites think steak — expensive steak — when they hear the name Del Frisco's. But the new Del Frisco's Grille, which opened in late 2015 in Cherry Creek, only has three cuts of prime beef on the dinner menu: a filet, a New York strip and a ribeye. The rest of the menu is casual, modern and even playful: Try the ahi tacos, crisp wonton shells stuffed with glistening poke, or lollipop chicken wings, looking very much like their namesake with the exception of being lacquered in a bright-orange, tangy buffalo sauce. The dining room itself is upscale Cherry Creek luxe, thanks to a three-year buildout, but if the weather's fine, skip the indoors and head straight to one of the best rooftop patios in town.
    16 articles
  • Image: Duo Restaurant

    Duo Restaurant

    2413 W. 32nd Ave., Denver Highland/Lower Highland

    303-477-4141

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    A lot of buzzy new places have opened in LoHi in recent years, but Duo, one of the city’s pioneering farm-to-table restaurants, has been holding down its corner of the neighborhood for nearly two decades. In 2023, longtime owners Keith Arnold and Stephanie Bonin passed the reins to longtime chef Tyler Skrivanek, who is excited to guide Duo into the next era — not with any sweeping changes, but by staying true to its culinary roots while taking smart steps to keep things fresh.
    45 articles
  • Image: Elway's DIA

    Elway's DIA

    8500 Pena Blvd., Terminal B East Denver

    303-342-7777

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    Cutting it close is the way to go when traveling by air; time wasted while wedged into an uncomfortable airport chair is time you'll never get back — unless you choose to while away your extra travel time at Elway's. If it's your first day on vacation, you won't mind splurging on steak and eggs, a Colorado whiskey or a $19 burrito — the latter worth every penny because it's stuffed with enough chicken-fried steak to easily feed two adults. Business travelers will feel at ease surrounded by dark wood and other suits and ties, and an expense account means you can spring for that twenty-ounce prime rib dinner. With surroundings so swank and food so good, you might choose to miss your plane.
    8 articles
  • Image: Emmerson

    Emmerson

    1600 Pearl St. Boulder

    303-953-9852

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    There are restaurant "concepts" — easy to define in a word or two, recognizable in format by potential customers — and then there are restaurants. For a new eatery aiming to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from a team of creative and forward-looking chefs and bakers, a pat definition isn't easy, or even desirable. That's the case at Emmerson, which opened in August 2017. Under executive chef/partner Michael Gibney and pastry chef/partner Jeb Breakell, the cuisine careens between the familiar and the astonishing. A straight-up bodega breakfast sandwich appeals to the New Yorker in all of us, and croissants crackle in a pitch-perfect French accent, but dinner challenges guests with unusual combinations of flavors and textures. On the opening menu, jiggly raw oysters robed in velvet sheets of raw beef shouldn't have worked, but they did, tied together with sharp mustard, radish and scallions. Fresh pastas are dressed in both simple peasant wear and stylish modern couture. Emmerson offers something edgy lacking in many other establishments: excitement and anticipation — for the next dish out of the kitchen and the next visit to see what's new.
    12 articles

  • Espresso Vino Brewing Market

    2770 Dagney Way Lafayette

    720-890-3993

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    Coffee, Wine, excellent cuisine and greenest place in Boulder County with real cups, real plates, real silverware and even clothe napkins!
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