Thursday and other dates. Upscale sushi specialist Uchi RiNo is bringing back its Garden Dinner Series, which consists of “four one-night-only, multi-course collaborative dinners pairing Uchi Denver chef de cuisine Geoff Daniel with guest chefs from standout Colorado restaurants, all al fresco” in the restaurant’s garden area, according to the restaurant.

Tonight’s rendition, with Pig & Tiger, is sold out. But upcoming dinners are Thursday, July 23, with Brasserie Brixton; Thursday, Aug. 20, with chef Jose Avila’s La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal and Malinche Audiobar; and Thursday, Sept. 17, with Rougarou. All dinners are at 7 p.m. and cost $150 per person. Make reservations at .

Street heat

Saturday. Juneteenth returns to Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood on Saturday, June 20, to commemorate the freeing of black slaves in the United States. The event features a parade; a street fair with hundreds of vendors, artists and food trucks; and live music and an all-day celebration on Welton Street between 24th and 29th streets.

The day begins with the parade, which starts at Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th Ave., beginning at 11 a.m. In the evening, “the main stage will feature an electrifying lineup of live performances, headlined by Grammy-nominated recording artist SiR, alongside a powerful showcase of regional and national talent bringing the sounds of R&B, hip hop, soul, and more to the streets of Five Points,” according to organizers. Get more information at .

Bright, sunshine-y day

Saturday. There’s no better place to note the longest day of the year than at Denver’s beautiful RiNo Art Park, 3400 Arkins Court, where a one-night solstice celebration will bring immersive art, live music, lawn games, projection mapping, performance, food venters, drinks and community gathering to the heart of RiNo,” according to the art district, which is hosting the event on June 20, from 5 to 10 p.m.⁠

“As the sun sets, the event gradually transforms into an immersive nighttime experience centered around light, sound, movement, and large-scale visual art,” according to the website. Highlights include: immersive projection mapping and visual environments by Deep Space Drive-In; interactive light and projection-based installations from local artists; a live performance from Agent Jazz beginning at 6 p.m.; roaming performers, a DJ and more. RSVP in advance at , and you can get a free drink.

Dad jokes

Sunday: Dads like to laugh, even at good jokes. So why not take your favorite father to Stanley Beer Hall’s inaugural comedy night, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m at the business inside the Stanley Marketplace, at 2501 Dallas St. in Aurora.

Comedians on hand will include Janae Burris, Jack Cornstalk, Ali Kareem and Jeremy Lomax. The evening is hosted by Justin Deutschmann.

There is a $10 cover charge for the event, which is 21-plus. Tickets are available at . Stanley Beer Hall is planning to host future comedy nights as well.

The venue cancellations, at least two of them said to be based on security concerns with hosting the event featuring Hasan Piker, prompted outrage by the candidates. The episode also underlined broader questions as Democrats from different factions of the party debate whether figures like Piker draw in voters or risk alienating them.

Piker, a Twitch streamer who has 3 million followers on the video livestreaming platform, has tapped a young, anti-establishment audience that the Democratic Party has struggled to bring into its fold.

He’s also been the subject of sharp criticism from prominent political groups, including , for some of his most controversial comments. Those include a 2019 comment because of its foreign interventions and Piker saying he would “ every single time.” Piker has apologized for the comment about 9/11.

His provocative comments have made Piker a . But some Denver Democrats, including Melat Kiros, who is running in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District primary against U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, and state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who is running against U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, have leaned into the figure’s sphere of influence. Both share progressive political views with Piker, and Kiros identifies as a democratic socialist.

“He has a large audience of really engaged voters,” said Annie Orloff, a spokesperson for Kiros’ campaign. “I think people like to throw a lot of shade at him, but he’s really supporting these candidates and helping them.”

Orloff said the two times have overlapped with some of the campaign’s best fundraising periods.

Gonzales, who wasn’t available for an interview for this story, to discuss her platform.

Both Kiros and Gonzales were set to campaign with Piker at a rally in Denver on Sunday. The event changed locations three times after venues canceled.

The original location, ReelWorks in the Five Points, canceled the event a week ahead of time after stating that its HVAC system wasn’t working, according to an email provided to The Denver Post. According to Kiros’ campaign, the venue hosted other events that same weekend.

A Reelworks representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Then a backup location, the Ogden Theatre on East Colfax Avenue, pulled out two days ahead of time, citing “significant pressure and concern from the local community.”

“This decision was made purely from a security viewpoint, there was no political viewpoint or political decision around it,” Dennis Dennehy, a spokesperson for theater operator AEG Presents, told The Post.

Organizers then turned to the Stanley Marketplace in Aurora. But it also canceled the event, citing security concerns related to Piker’s appearance, according to the Kiros campaign. The Stanley Marketplace didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Piker has spoken at Yale University and the University of Chicago. He was also set to speak at South by Southwest in London until he was banned from entering the country because officials believed his presence “may not be conducive to the public good,” .

After the Kiros campaign ultimately moved the event to the steps of the Colorado Capitol on Sunday, drawing hundreds of people, Piker and Gonzales both decided not to attend. Instead, during the event and later hosted Kiros and two candidates from other states who were in town for the event on his channel.

Kiros’ campaign alleged, without evidence, that DeGette had applied pressure to compel the venues to cancel the event.

“I think it is hard to make a distinction from the folks who fund people like Diana DeGette and the people who own these venues,” Orloff said.

AEG Presents is part of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, founded by Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz, a Republican.

DeGette’s campaign denied the allegations, saying the claim was made up.

“I can’t believe I have to say this, but it’s an absolute lie that I or my campaign had anything to do with her venue cancellations,” DeGette said in a statement. “She’s free to make her own mistakes, and campaigning with an infamous anti-semite who says he ‘hates this country’ and thinks we ‘deserved 9/11’ is a big one.”

Democrats in other states who have appeared alongside Piker have seen a mix of harsh criticism and a boost of engagement with their campaigns.

Democratic left figures like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders have also all appeared on his channel.

Other Democratic candidates — like Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, who are running for governor of Colorado — haven’t appeared on Piker’s channel. Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Andrew Nicla said the party had no comment on candidates appearing on shows like Piker’s.

Colorado’s June 30 primary and other states’ party contests may serve as a litmus test of sorts for candidates who welcome that ideological corner of the internet.

When Politico reported that Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was appearing alongside Piker in April, his opponents heaped criticism on him. But in recent polls, he in the three-way race.

Earlier this month, as primary election results rolled in, Piker celebrated the victory of a congressional candidate he had campaigned for in New Jersey, . But that same night, in California, three candidates whom Piker also supported lost their primary races.

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Kevin Singer of Receivership Specialists was appointed to oversee the 32-unit building at 1960 Dallas St. on June 13.

The building three blocks away from Stanley Marketplace is owned by 1960 Dallas Street LLC, which records show purchased it in October 2019 for $3.6 million. The LLC is managed by Shaul Gabbay.

In December 2020, building ownership took out a $5.2 million loan, records show.

Singer oversaw the building once before, in the spring of 2025, when lender Wilmington Trust sued and said it hadn’t received loan payments for February, March and April. But a month into the receivership, Wilmington Trust said it had reached a deal with Gabbay’s LLC that allowed him to retake control of the property.

“Receiver has made critical repairs in the course of discharging his duties, and Borrower has agreed to and has undertaken to complete that work,” Wilmington Trust said in a court filing.

Then, in January, 1960 Dallas Street LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying the $4.8 million it owed to Wilmington Trust was more than the property was worth.

Another 32-unit Gabby-owned building, at 1592 Boston St., also filed for Chapter 11 at the same time. The two cases were later consolidated.

“It didn’t work,” Gabbay told BusinessDen of his plans to turn the buildings around. “Our expenses are very high. We have high turnover.”

For a time, it seemed the buildings might get a new owner. In February, records show that Brian Watson and Grant Van Der Jagt, a Castle Rock attorney, signed a deal to pay $11.85 million for the two structures, as well as apartments that Gabbay owned at 1433, 1451 and 1463 Macon St. in Aurora — 97 units in all.

But the deal fell apart after the U.S. Trustee, a sort of “watchdog” for bankruptcy court, noted that the Macon Street properties were under receivership and that the judge in that case had not approved a sale. He also said there was no guarantee that Gabbay would use excess funds from the sale of one property to pay the lender of another property.

The bank cases were subsequently separated. Steven Mulligan, an attorney representing the buildings, requested that the 1960 Dallas case be dismissed, saying a sale of the 1592 Boston building still might happen.

A judge formally dismissed the Dallas Street case in mid-May. The Boston Street case was dismissed about a week later; the building still has not sold.

Wilmington Trust requested that Singer be reappointed as receiver on June 1, saying Gabbay hadn’t paid rent on time since December. Gabbay told BusinessDen that he expects the lender to foreclose.

Read more from our partner, .

Stanley JV, a joint business venture that grew from three friends in the neighborhood who wanted a place to hang out, has a buyer under contract.

The food and entertainment attraction, which is also a shopping market and office space, has proven to be a steady economic driver for the area in the past decade. It has also developed a loyal customer base along with a lineup of businesses that hasn’t wavered much, even through the pandemic.

Denver-based has talked to the owners over the past couple of years about Stanley Marketplace, said Chris Carroll, who runs Magnetic with fellow managing partner Daniel Huml.

“We really focus on assets that have a great story to them, with strong fundamentals, a strong place in the community,” Carroll said.

With Stanley’s 10th anniversary celebration coming up in August and plans to open a “mini Stanley Marketplace” at Denver International Airport in 2027, “we thought now is a great time to acquire the asset and really shepherd this into the next generation,” Carroll said.

The purchase price under discussion for the Stanley is roughly $41 million, according to Both Carroll and Jonathan Alpert, a partner with an owner of the marketplace, said the $41 million figure is “in the neighborhood.”

Other proposals mentioned in the memo, including a hotel and more apartment units, are conceptual, Alpert said. The contract isn’t closed yet.

Westfield formed Stanley JV with Flightline Ventures, started by the local residents working on the concept. Together, they started raising money to transform the 140,000-square-foot industrial building that housed Stanley Aviation for 53 years.

The manufacturing facility in far northwest Aurora was the city’s largest employer for a while. Bob Stanley started in 1948 after attending the California Institute of Technology and becoming a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot. In 1954, Stanley moved the company to Aurora, just south of the former Stapleton International Airport, where he developed ejection seats and other equipment for the military.

He died in a plane crash in 1977. The aviation company was sold and later closed in 2007. Stanley Aviation’s original signs and logo remain.

After it reopened as Stanley Marketplace in 2016, the 20-acre site became a catalyst for an area that Aurora wanted to reinvigorate, said City Manager Jason Batchelor.

“Just south of the Stanley Marketplace, there used to be an old tow yard that was pretty dilapidated,” Batchelor said.

Apartments were built on the site. A nearby shopping center, Montview Plaza, was rebuilt into a mixed-use development that includes apartments.

“Folks want to be near the Stanley,” Batchelor said. “We’ve really seen it be catalytic for reinvestment and redevelopment of the surrounding areas.”

The Stanley Marketplace has been an asset not only for Aurora, but the metro area, Batchelor said. “I think Stanley was sort of at the forefront of the food hall movement in the metro region and I think they’ve set such a high bar. Folks are trying to bottle that lightning.”

The city of Aurora was a driver behind turning the marketplace into reality in the first place. Batchelor, who oversaw the budget and was the finance director, said city staffers pitched the old Stanley Aviation building as the home for a neighborhood gathering spot.

As mayor, the late Steve Hogan, along with other city officials, went to bat for the project when the property owners were set on selling to a manufacturer.

The city also used performance-based tax increment financing through its urban renewal authority, allowing the developers to use a portion of tax revenues to fill financing gaps. Through April, the city has repaid Stanley $7.45 million in eligible tax rebates out of the maximum $13 million in the agreement, which runs through 2040.

City officials said they’re reviewing a request to transfer the agreement to the buyer. “The city understands the sale is anticipated to close in August and is working with that deadline in mind,” spokesman Joe Rubino said in an email.

Stanley Marketplace wouldn’t have happened without the city’s support, said Mark Shaker, who with friends Lorin Ting and Megan Von Waldled the campaign for a neighborhood hangout. They lived in Central Park, formerly the Stapleton neighborhood, but couldn’t find a spot there.

After a tour with city officials of various sites, the abandoned Stanley Aviation building became their focus.

The three, none of whom had development experience, enlisted other friends, family and entrepreneurs. They worked with Denver restaurateur Kevin Taylor. After the Front Porch newspaper featured their efforts, the group, which formed Flightline Ventures, started hearing from people wanting to lease spaces. The group raised $2.6 million for the property in 2014.

“As we started talking to different banks, it became really clear to us that we needed a development partner,” Shaker said.

In 2015, Flightline teamed up with Westfield, a real estate and development company based in Denver. They became equal partners in Stanley JV, each contributing $5.2 million and taking on a $20 million loan.

One of the draws for Westfield was that Flightline did “an extraordinary job” of curating the tenancy, Alpert said. “The groups that had already signed up and wanted to be here was a cool, electric mix of local, really wonderful operators.”

More than half the current tenants are original lessees. Alpert said the marketplace is 98% occupied.

Westfield will keep the 168-unit Stanley House apartment complex it built on the site.

Magnetic Capital will meet soon with the people running the more than 50 local businesses at Stanley. Carroll said the firm will concentrate on maintaining Stanley’s role as a community hub and work with tenants on their individual goals.

The company plans to add gathering places after the realignment of , trails and landscaping are completed on the site. The project is part of ongoing work to increase the creek’s stormwater capacity and water quality.

“It’s the right time for another group to come in and reinvest, put that energy in and take this thing to the next level,” Alpert said.

‘Stanifesto,’ a manifesto

Karina Tittjung is one of the several tenants who learned in May of the pending sale of the Stanley Marketplace. She has been there almost from the time the doors opened in October 2016. She handled catering and special events for Rolling Smoke BBQ for seven years and then opened the pet boutique when a space became available.

“After working here for seven years, I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to open a business than Stanley,” Tittjung said.

While it was a scary leap from employee to business owner, Tittjung said she could count on help from a building of peers who’ve become family.

“This isn’t just a job,” Tittjung said. “This is our community This is our pack.”

Tittjung’s sentiments echo some of those on a poster on a wall inside a main entrance to the marketplace. A manifesto named “The Stanifesto”  was written to promote collaboration, putting “goodness into the world” and spending time with family and friends.

One of the line reads, “We believe there’s no point in making a profit if you’re not also making a difference.”

“We wanted a North Star that guides us and helps us make decisions when we have challenges in the future,” Shaker said.

The Stanifesto was attached to lease agreements. “Sometimes lawyers would be like, ‘What’s this Kumbaya nonsense?’ ” Shaker said.

The spirit of the message was important, Shaker added. He said the vision helped people cope with the time and expense of building a marketplace in a cavernous manufacturing facility, requiring extensive environmental cleanup.

Alpert said the spirit was evident during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when employees and business owners showed up, making deliveries by electric skateboards and tuk-tuks.

Customers showed up, Shaker said. Counters at the doors in August 2020 recorded only 20% of the number of visitors that walked through the doors in August 2019.

“But we had about 60% of the sales,” Shaker said. “We only lost one business out of 55 during COVID.”

Stanley generally sees 1.3 million-1.4 million visitors per year, Alpert said.

Javier and Jennifer Perez, owners of , were the second tenants to move into the marketplace, but the first public-facing business. The first tenant was a preschool.

“We opened in December. It was winter. There was no heat in the building yet. Most of the walls weren’t up yet,” Javier Perez said.

Cheluna arranged to have food trucks in the parking lot. When it was too cold for the trucks to show up, the brewery worked with nearby restaurants to have food delivered. They used an industrial-size space heater to warm up the bar.

Perez and other business owners are waiting to talk to Magnetic Capital. He and his wife started their business after he retired as an emergency room doctor. He said Cheluna has many regulars.

“We’ve known people who tell us when they’re pregnant. We know the kid when they’re born. And then 10 years later, we’re talking to the kid about school. It’s been amazing,” Perez said.

Caroline Glover, a 2022 James Beard Award-winning chef, co-owns the restaurant Annette and Traveling Mercies, an oyster and cocktail bar in the Stanley Marketplace. She opened Annette, her first restaurant, nearly 10 years ago when Stanley was the only place that offered her a lease.

“I had been looking at other spots in Denver and nobody was really ready to take a risk on somebody that never had a restaurant before,” Glover said.

She didn’t want to be in a marketplace, but changed her mind after meeting the owners. The spot she looked at had access to the outside, so customers wouldn’t have to go through the rest of the building

And Glover said Shaker was excited to sign someone who didn’t have other places in Aurora or Denver. “I feel like when you get told ‘no’ a lot and then somebody gets excited for you, it gives you momentum.”

Working with other independent business owners striving hard to succeed has been motivating, Glover said. She hopes the new owners will continue the approach that has been effective through the past decade.

When the marketplace changes hands, Shaker will still be there. He owns the Stanley Beer Hall. Shaker said it’s natural to be a little uneasy with change pending, but he believes the new owners will continue “that same sort of community, local charm.”

“It’s the end of an era. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into doing a project  that most people thought was impossible,” Shaker said. “I’m proud of where it’s at, where it came from, and so I’m hopeful for the next chapter.”

Jonathan Alpert, partner at , confirmed the news to The Post on Wednesday.

“We have a local buyer we’re excited about and believe is the right fit to steward Stanley into its next chapter,” Alpert said. “We’re confident in their vision and execution as they lead the marketplace into its second decade, and feel strongly that this is the right step for the business owners here and the broader community.”

Although the buyer’s identity has not yet been disclosed, Jessica Nelson, a spokesperson for the Stanley, said in an email to The Post that the transaction is still subject to ongoing diligence, approvals and customary closing conditions, adding that processes like this typically take several months to complete.

Additionally, Nelson said the property will remain open and continue normal operations.

Westfield Company, a real estate and development firm, co-owns Stanley Marketplace through a joint venture partnership with Flightline Ventures, which the formerly vacant Stanley Aviation manufacturing facility in 2014.

Inspired by Denver’s The Source, the site underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation and opened as The Stanley Marketplace in 2016. It is home to more than 50 locally owned businesses at 2501 N. Dallas St.

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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.

The “Cookout con los Compas” is a combined effort from chefs Manny Barella, Erasmo Casiano, Johnny Curiel and Michael Diaz de Leon. The event originated after the deadly turn of Operation Metro Surge, the ongoing deportation effort of undocumented immigrants by federal immigration officers in Minnesota, Barella and De Leon said this week.

When more than 20 local restaurants and coffee shops announced they would close the last Friday in January for a nationwide general strike opposing the operation, Barella said he and his collaborators received backlash from some people on social media because they weren’t publicly voicing their solidarity.

Texting in their shared group chat — the four are close friends, Barella said — they decided to take on the critics’ challenge by throwing a cookout open to the public. The title of the event translates to cookout “with the friends.”

“We should use our spotlight,” Barella said, “but it’s going to be our way, the way that we feel comfortable and the way that we feel is going to make the biggest impact.”

The cookout is taking place in the parking lot of Curiel’s commissary, at 2258 California St., which services his restaurants, including Alma Fonda Fina, Mezcaleria Alma, Alteño and Mar Bella Boqueria, De Leon said. The quartet will be cooking from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, accepting only donations for the , a nonprofit. (A representative for the group will also be there taking donations.)

Barella is bringing his brisket tacos and grilled chicken from Riot BBQ, he said. Casiano, the chef at Xiquita Restaurante y Bar, and De Leon, the co-owner of Molino Chido inside Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, will add to the menu with carnitas, carne asada, tortillas, a salsa bar and beverages.

They are also raffling off prizes to their restaurants.

“We would do this (anyway) and we have done this among ourselves,” Barella said. “We’re just inviting anybody who wants to come.”

Michael Diaz de Leon, currently chef at taqueria Molino Chido in Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, is one of 16 participants in “America’s Culinary Cup.” The show premieres on CBS at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with an extended episode introducing the contestants who are vying for a $1 million cash prize.

This is De Leon’s first experience on television, he said in a phone interview Tuesday, calling from New York City where he was promoting the show. In 2022, he had auditioned for “Top Chef,” the long-running reality series on Bravo previously hosted by Padma Lakshmi, but was not selected.

“I was pretty sour about it,” de Leon said, thinking his TV career had fizzled before it even started.

So he hunkered down in the kitchen at BRUTO, the gourmet small-plates restaurant where he worked at the time. The following year, he was a James Beard finalist and BRUTO received a star in the inaugural Michelin Guide in Colorado.

Around the same time that De Leon signed a lease with restaurant operator Tommy Lee for the Molino Chido property in the spring, he got a call from the producers of “America’s Culinary Cup” asking if he wanted to participate in the series, he said. Lakshmi, whose company was putting on the production, would be the host, and the grand prize was the largest for a food competition in television history, the producers told him.

They got his attention. De Leon and the other competing chefs met with Lakshmi and the show’s judges in September, filming the show from New York City studios.

“It was harder than I expected it to be, to be fair,” De Leon, 37, said, keeping mum on the show details. “It pushed me, made me grow and I found out a lot about myself as a chef and person.”

The premise of each episode revolves around the chefs’ approach to one of “10 culinary commandments,” including meat, vegetables, sauces, sustainability, consistency and culinary science. It also includes segments focused on the backgrounds of the chefs.

Also among the contestants is Malyna Si, a chef and food and beverage consultant in Jackson, Wyo. Her previous experience includes leading the kitchen at Capa, a Michelin-starred restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando in Florida.

There’s Hop Alley, the first restaurant project he and his partner took on. The owner, Tommy Lee, later hired him to design Uncle Wash Park and Molino Chido, the latter a chef-driven taco shop that debuted inside Stanley Marketplace in Aurora late last year.

Then there was Spencer White and his partners, who brought Nguyen on to design River North hot spots Dio Mio and Redeemer Pizza. Both had their challenges: The fire department didn’t love their initial idea of hanging paper planes from the ceiling at Dio Mio, and Nguyen had to execute a difficult job at Redeemer Pizza, opening the front for sit-down diners and the back as a pickup and takeout order counter.

But a good relationship meant they would work together again on Johnny Bechamel’s, an Italian restaurant that opened next to Uncle Wash Park in December. With Molino Chido decked out in lime green chairs, and Johnny Bechamel’s chairs a subdued shade of seafoam, Nguyen’s wife has started referring to this as his “Green Era.”

Nguyen’s firm has also designed three of the seven restaurants in Denver with Michelin stars: Beckon, Bruto and the two-starred The Wolf’s Tailor.

Altogether, he’s responsible for the interiors of more than three dozen concepts.

“He’s probably been the architect of every one of your favorite restaurants,” said Mike Waldinger, CEO of the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). “If it����ap got a Michelin star, there’s a darn good chance that Kevin was the designer of that restaurant.”

His contributions to the city’s literal culinary landscape were recognized in October by AIA Colorado, which named him its architect of the year. It’s the institute’s top honor, one that Nguyen is chalking up as a win for the city’s dining scene at large.

“I’m excited, probably more so, to see that Denver as a food scene is still growing,” Nguyen, 41, said of his ever-expanding list of clients. “And then secondarily, it means that I can still have a business and do the work that we love doing.”

His firm, Regular Architecture, is currently at work on a handful of projects, including Dear Emilia, the sister concept to Michelin-recommended Restaurant Olivia, which will open in late January at 3615 Delgany St., Denver.

Nguyen’s love of food developed when he was a child, eating the dishes made by members of his large Vietnamese-Mexican family in Aurora. Now food and drink have become his vocation.

“I don’t really want to admit this, but I have sort of become like the ultimate foodie,” he said, aware of the term’s archetype — an enjoyer of the finer things — and the spoils that come with his chosen line of work.

One of the first jobs Nguyen took after his studies at the University of Colorado was with Galloway & Co.. There, he was tasked with designing prototypes for fast-food franchises, including Jack in the Box and Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. The job, Nguyen said, familiarized him with the inner workings of restaurants and their safety regulations.

Following a lead from a former professor, he and Scott Lawrence, his friend and peer in college, earned a contract to design Hop Alley. It’s where he first met Lee. They formed a firm, Nguyen Lawrence, and secured projects from restaurant owners looking for sleek designs for their own kitchens and dining rooms.

Nguyen continued the firm when Lawrence left for an academic position at the University of Idaho, changing its name to Regular Architecture. He hired two junior interior designers and rented an office, graduating from the early days of late nights crouched inside job sites, he and Lawrence working under the laptop light.

“What he’s doing now is so much more at a different level than what we were doing,” Lawrence said.

In recent years, Regular Architecture has designed the lively interior of Xiquita Restaurante y Bar in Uptown; the bagel shop/Japanese food counter of Odell’s Bagel and its owner’s new restaurant, Florence Supper Club; the storefront of dumpling hotspot Yuan Wonton; and Insee Father Noodles House, a noodle shop whose owner wanted to make it look like a 20th-century house in Thailand and decorated it with her own mementos of home.

His restaurant design is similar to his personal style: minimal, clean edges and bold, solid colors. The restaurateur’s identity is represented via cultural adornments, family photographs or artwork plastered along the walls. Bars are prominently featured, as is natural light, which he said improves working conditions for staff.

He prioritizes the work of chefs and other employees. It’s perhaps one of the reasons why so many chefs and restaurant owners keep hiring him to spruce up their interiors.

“He’s always super willing to deal with curveballs,” said Dio Mio’s White, noting his willingness to listen to feedback and redraw layouts.

Johnny Bechamel’s space was previously used by restaurateur Jared Leonard, who flipped through several concepts before abandoning the property. Nguyen’s main renovations brought the bar from the back of the room to the front, an open window into the buzzing new restaurant.

The owners of the European-inspired BearLeek called Nguyen up last year to ask for his help redesigning the basement used for years by Osaka Ramen.

“Probably the biggest failure of Osaka was that it was a basement restaurant that didn’t feel like you were in a basement,” Nguyen said. “That was our entire thing from day one. We were like, ‘I just want to make a freaking crazy night dungeon that just feels exciting.'”

The basement is now painted in dark colors and features splashes of blue and red neon lights. His firm custom-made light fixtures that are shaped like giant cigarettes — a nod to the restaurant industry’s iconic cigarette break — and hover over the dining tables. Framed photos in one section of the hall document the city spots where BearLeek chef Harrison Porter takes his own mid-shift smoke breaks.

“I was surprised how well they were able to envision the changeover,” BearLeek general manager Tara Marcellus said. “It’s kind of a hard thing to get into a space that’s already so well established.”

One project put him in touch with his roots. While designing the interior of Sap Sua, a modern Vietnamese restaurant on East Colfax Avenue, Nguyen reached out to one of his Vietnamese aunts for advice, someone he said used to get out of bed at midnight to fix up bowls of pho for her relatives.

The magnified life of the “ideal minority”: that was his upbringing, he said. He was named AIA Colorado’s Young Architect of the Year in 2019. In a career that’s largely white and male, Nguyen’s recent win for Architect of the Year led to other people of color reaching out to him over Instagram and asking how he grew his business to where it is today.

Nguyen is happy to help, serving as an ACE Mentor at local schools and volunteering Friday mornings at Food for Thought, a Denver nonprofit where he packs groceries for the children of low-income parents to take home from school.

Mentorship and continuing education are ingrained in the architecture career path, partly because of how intensive it is to get an architecture degree. Nguyen has taken that attitude to the restaurant world, developing relationships with hospitality workers and eating well while he’s at it.

“As architects, we have an inherent responsibility because of the impact and influence we have on every space that everybody walks into,” he said. “We have an inherent responsibility to do our best to push those boundaries in the use of those spaces as far as we can.”

When Lawrence visited Nguyen recently, the pair went out to eat, hitting up to six restaurants in one day, Lawrence said. He noticed how Nguyen would ask the staff not just about business, but about their life outside of work.

“It was very clear that there was a community there, that he was there building a community,” Lawrence said.

While he says he’d rather be behind the scenes, the AIA Colorado win has given him confidence going into the new year. He’s also pondering a major goal he’s yet to cross off his list: designing the exterior of a building.

“We haven’t done a building,” he said, the thought left lingering in the air.

The approval, which came in a block vote, marks the first time the city has created an entertainment district to allow a common consumption area. The state first allowed the open drinking areas — which allow bar patrons more flexibility to wander with their drinks — back in 2011.

Denver paved the way for the districts in 2019. But despite plenty of early interest, this was the first successful application.

Westfield Co. manages that 14-acre property at 4180 N. Wynkoop St., including the music venue, the Chubby Unicorn Cantina and Left Hand Brewing. It applied for the license in August. The Peach Crease Club, a cocktail bar, opened next to those businesses in the fall. Until now, their customers have been able to drink outside only within the confines of their patios.

“This program really is about the flexibility and opportunity to have the choice, it����ap not so much about the alcohol itself,” said Ally Fredeen, the special project manager for Westfield, in December.

Mission Ballroom won’t be included in the program, so concertgoers won’t be able to go in and out of the venue with drinks.

But Fredeen said Monday that the company plans to collaborate with the neighboring businesses and organize more ways to activate the plaza to draw in people, potentially through things like yard games and art events. Once the new license is finalized by the city, potentially within days, the consumption area will go into effect, she said.

“We’re excited for additional programming and activation and the community building that naturally happens” when something like this exists, she said.

Several Colorado cities already have common consumption areas, including at The Exchange in downtown Fort Collins and Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, which Westfield operates. Others are in place in Telluride, Black Hawk, Salida and Edgewater.

“We are ecstatic to demonstrate this opportunity to support our small restaurants so they can continue to stay in the communities they want to stay in,” said Denver Councilman Darrell Watson, whose district includes Mission Ballroom. He sponsored the legislation.

No other property or business owners in the city have applied to form an entertainment district, which is part of obtaining a common consumption license. A district must meet several requirements, including being an area smaller than 100 acres and having at least 20,000 square feet of liquor-licensed premises. At least two liquor-licensed businesses must form a promotional association to apply for the license. They also must show evidence of the surrounding community’s support for the common consumption license.

“We haven’t seen high interest in this — it’s very difficult to get,” said Erica Rogers, the policy director for .

Eric Escudero, the licensing spokesman, said approval of the first entertainment district could lead to more applications.

“We want to see this new license type give businesses the opportunity to explore their entrepreneurial spirit and freedom to come up with creative ideas,” he said. “We think some of the most innovative bar and restaurant owners in America operate in Denver, and once they see how this license type can help their business succeed, we may see a lot more applicants.”

Separate from the common consumption license, city officials earlier this year established a consumption area around Glenarm Place and 16th Street as part of efforts to revitalize the recently renovated pedestrian mall. Customers can take drinks they buy at nearby businesses into the barricaded zone, which is closed to traffic.

Several outside groups have shown interest in forming common consumption districts in the past, Escudero said. Early on, people associated with the Dairy Block downtown, which includes the Milk Market food hall, expressed interest publicly.

On Monday, the council also repealed a that would have ended the city’s pilot program for the entertainment districts later this year.