Intimate chef’s counter restaurants — often with fewer than a dozen seats — have cropped up in metro Denver with regularity over the past few years, gaining attention after the Michelin Guide bestowed stars on two of the newest, and rewarding creative chefs with fine culinary technique, a personal story to tell and multicourse management.
Although the price tag can be lofty, diners often say they enjoy the experience of watching the chefs work their magic and being able to interact with them on a personal level. Some of these chef’s counter restaurants are so small that they share their spaces with other restaurants, making it financially feasible for them to operate.
Denver’s newest tasting-menu counter, Milpero, opened this week. It’s the product of chef Johnny Curiel, who has earned Michelin stars at two of his other restaurants, along with national recognition. Milpero follows on the heels of spots like Petit Chelou, located inside Hop Alley in River North, and Mas Chido, an upgraded experience at Molino Chido in the Stanley Marketplace.
“Everyone wants to just put everything in a shoe box. They want to know exactly what something is before they decide on it,” said chef and restaurateur Tommy Lee, who owns Hop Alley and is the co-owner of Molino Chido with chef Michael Diaz de Leon.
In paying for a lengthy tasting-menu experience, diners are turning their trust to the chef and their team, he added. “Restaurant people are the complete opposite. We want to be surprised.”
Below are four of the newest counters in Denver.
Milpero
It has only been two-and-a-half years since Johnny and Kasie Curiel opened Alma Fonda Fina in Denver’s Lower Highland neighborhood, but their empire now includes Mezcaleria Alma, Alteño, Cozobi Fonda Fina and Mar Bella Wine Bar. Two of those, Alma Fonda Fina and Mezcaleria Alma, have a Michelin star rating.
Until recently, though, Curiel didn’t have a restaurant with a chef’s table. That’s why he opened his sixth restaurant, Milpero, on Wednesday, May 13. There, he and his chefs will serve 18 of their best Mexican dishes twice a night from Wednesday to Saturday — to just eight guests at a time.
“It’s the same thing that we were doing at Alma, but in a tasting-menu format, doing it in a small and … a more intimate setting where I can have a conversation with eight guests for three hours and share as much knowledge as I can share,” he said.
Milpero (which changed its name from Maize just before opening) charges $225 for the guided experience, not including wine pairings or cocktails. The first courses are elevated seafood appetizers, such as an Otoro bluefin tuna flauta and Hokkaido sea urchin tamal. Those are followed by a look inside Milpero’s fermentation room, where a sample drink acts as a midway digestif for the spicy, spectacular hot courses served later in the night.
Hosts then seat diners at a white counter facing the kitchen, where they can see Curiel and his team prepare, plate and present dishes such as a cut of Wagyu “asada” beef with large ayocote beans and mole amarillo and California squab with charred onion jam and a fruity mole “manchamanteles,” Spanish for “tablecloth stainer.”
Six moles are served throughout the night, including for dessert. Corn, or “maiz,” is the main star and featured throughout the night in different forms.
“My life goal has never been about Johnny Johnny Johnny, Kasie Kasie Kasie,” Curiel said before Milpero’s opening. “It’s always been about Mexico. And if I continue to share Mexican food, if I continue to share my knowledge, even though it’s minimal, I think I’m contributing to what I always said from day one I would do.”
Located at 3455 Ringsby Ct. Unit 105A, Denver. Reservations are made .
Mas Chido
Michael Diaz de Leon and Tommy Lee had anticipated launching their chef’s counter, Mas Chido, in one section of their taqueria, Molino Chido, when it opened last November. But they took some extra time to dial it in.
The five-course tasting menu only operates on Fridays and Saturdays for now, and it costs significantly less than some of the other chef’s counter restaurants in town at $85 (beverage pairings are an additional $55). But the experience is still “designed to be immersive, expressive, and above all, fun,” according to the restaurant.
Diaz de Leon, who won a Michelin star while he was the chef at Bruto, is focused on corn that is milled and nixtamalized in-house. Mas Chido’s menu consists of dishes, such as Sonoran momo dumpling with tamarind birria, potato, ginger and curry leaf and a sope, or fried masa, with a red mole consisting of scarlet turnip, huckleberry, fig and other crimson-colored fruits and vegetables.
Mas Chido can bring in 10% of a day’s revenue with just a fraction of the customers, Lee said. “If you can keep it booked out and not apply tons of labor to it, then it makes a lot of sense,” he said.
There are three seatings per night, at 4, 6 and 8 p.m.
Located at 2501 Dallas St. Unit 140, Aurora. Reservations are made online via
Petit Chelou
When a six-seat counter and kitchen inside of Hop Alley opened up after a series of popups there, owner Tommy Lee got in touch with Douglas Rankin, a lauded chef who had recently closed his Pasadena restaurant Bar Chelou after wildfires there and was planning a move to Denver for a fresh start.
Rankin jumped at the opportunity because he wanted to get familiar with the local restaurant scene, and a chef’s counter was a perfect way to do that — and a chance to show off his style and creativity without a major investment.
Petit Chelou is a team of three: Rankin, sous chef Rebecca Balenson and sommelier Jacob Roadhouse, a recent James Beard semifinalist through his wine program at Hop Alley, which is also a Michelin-recommended restaurant. The group offers seatings twice a night, Thursdays through Saturdays, working out of a kitchen space barely big enough to contain the three of them.
“It’s kind of like living in a studio apartment,” Rankin said. “It’s really good that the three of us work together very well.”
His French, Japanese and Spanish-inspired dishes are made with the skill of someone whose long career includes working for industry luminary Jose Andres at SAAM at The Baazar in Beverly Hills, California. They include a grated potato dish with creamy soubise, bonito and 30-month Comte cheese and crispy quail with vin jaune sauce and fennel pollen furikake.
At a recent three-hour dinner at Petit Chelou, a customer celebrating a birthday brightened up when she saw the words “Happy Birthday” written on her printed menu. When another guest said she was allergic to sesame, one of the evening’s main ingredients, Rankin and Balenson prepared her a meal she could enjoy. His team’s pace was composed and never rushed.
“We always try to do our best to create an entirely new dish and something that feels like it’s on the menu,” he said.
Dining at Petit Chelou is $125 a person, while Roadhouse’s wine pairings are an additional $88 or $56 for non-alcoholic picks.
Located at 3500 Larimer St., Denver. Reservations are made online via
The Counter at Odell’s Bagel
Chef Miles Odell flips his daytime bagel shop into a nighttime 14-seat omakase restaurant — omakase is Japanese for “I’ll leave it up to you” — three times a week.
The seasonal 16-course dinner costs $175 per person (beverage pairings are an additional $85) and has recently included dishes like nigiri sushi with fish imported from Japan, along with Alaskan black cod marinated in shio koji seasoning served with fermented rice and Colorado winter spinach.
It has been so popular that Odell and his team plan to expand service from three to five nights a week.
Gigs at omakase counters in Japan and New York City inspired Odell to pursue a similar style of service in Denver. He likened cooking in front of guests and engaging with them to public speaking.
“When I first started my career, talking directly to guests in a Michelin-starred environment, I was very nervous,” he said. “The more you do it, the more comfortable you get with it. Now I really enjoy learning about people. I don’t feel nervous at all.”
Located at 3200 Irving St., Denver. Reservations are made online via OpenTable.
