North Denver residents will still be able to have their fried green tomato Benedicts and banana cream pie milkshakes when a popular local brunch spot switches neighborhoods next month.
With two locations near downtown and one more in Golden, is packing up its little Jefferson Park restaurant within a house and starting fresh in a much bigger Highland restaurant within a house, just a mile north.
The new Sassafras should open by mid-April in a spot that was most recently home to Solitaire restaurant, which closed late last summer. Before that, Highland’s Garden Cafe operated there for two decades. Customers have until March 24 to dine one last time in the old Sassafras.
With the move, the eatery will more than double its seating for breakfast and lunch.
“This will allow us to just serve more people and, honestly, elevate the experience,” co-owner Julia Grother said. She and partner Richard Stewert were debating renovating Sassafras’ first location when she drove by 32nd Avenue and saw a “for lease” sign out front. Grother had been eyeing the property years earlier, but the timing hadn’t been right.
“It was just truly serendipity,” Grother said. “I’m hopeful that since we’re only moving a mile away, all of our regular guests and anyone who’s been a fan will just go over there.”
Starting in April at Sassafras Highland, customers can put their names in for brunch and head to the waiting room for cocktails or to an outdoor fire pit for roasting marshmallows. Seating will be scattered around the house and two patios, with an upstairs reserved for special events. Chef Colin Mallet, originally from Louisiana, will serve his usual beignets, boudin balls, po’ boys and other Cajun specialties.
Slightly less Cajun but still on the menu are breakfast milkshakes in flavors like chocolate dipped bacon, Cinnamon Toast and Cap’n Crunch, which makes Sassafras the second offbeat cereal bar to open recently in the neighborhood: douses its bowls in rumchata and Irish cream.
Check back for an official Sassafras reopening date.