The restaurateur will debut a “totally new” concept at 1900 Lawrence, the 30-story downtown office tower where he recently signed a lease. The ground-floor spot will be Guard’s first Colorado opening since he moved to Houston over a year ago.

“I really didn’t plan to do it, but it����ap a good deal and a great opportunity,” he said. “And the opportunities (to open in Denver) are going to be few and far between because it����ap not my favorite place to do business right now.”

Guard, who got his start in Denver’s scene with TAG in 2009, declined to share details about the name or menu, but said he’s targeting a spring 2027 opening. The space is 7,000 square feet, including a 1,500-square-foot patio.

Guard said he talked to Chicago-based Riverside Investment Partners, which completed 1900 Lawrence in 2024, on and off about the space for a couple years. Riverside is also developing a building in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Guard will open another location of his steakhouse, Guard and Grace.

“I don’t like to be negative and I don’t want to throw things out there. It is what it is. We’re all having challenges here,” Guard said of Denver’s restaurant climate. “And if the landlord didn’t really work with us (on 1900 Lawrence), then there’d be no opportunity to open at all.”

It will be Guard’s sixth spot downtown.

Guard and Grace occupies 8,500 square feet at 1801 California St. His breakfast spot, HashTAG, has 5,200 square feet at 1125 17th St. in Upper Downtown. He also has a wine bar in Republic Plaza and two locations of Bubu, his customizable-bowl lunch spot.

Guard also has restaurants elsewhere in the metro area.

Guard said he has no other plans to open more restaurants in Denver unless something changes with the city’s tipped minimum wage, which many restaurateurs consider too high.

Further changes could be coming to Guard’s local footprint.

Big Wave Taco, his Mexican concept that replaced Los Chingones in Central Park over the summer, closed about two months ago. And he said four of his other spots in the area have leases ending within the next two years. He’s still deciding whether to renew or close.

While Guard lives in Houston, his TAG Restaurant Group is still headquartered in Denver, he said. He travels here several times a month.

“We’re always open to conversations with city leaders and partners about how to make Denver even more welcoming for small- and midsized businesses,” Guard said. “We want to be part of the solution.”

The 1900 Lawrence tower is 15% leased, according to CoStar. Earlier this year, Riverside’s $240 million loan on the building, which had been set to mature this month, was extended through mid-2027.

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Paperboy will move into the West Highland neighborhood at 3940 W. 32nd Ave., the former home of Rooted Craft Kitchen and a Troy Guard concept, FNG. The Texan concept’s executive chef, Pat Jackson, transferred to Denver to bring about the new restaurant.

“Colorado has always felt like a second home — I’ve spent years snowboarding in Breckenridge and enjoying the outdoor recreation,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’m incredibly excited to put down roots in Denver, not just as a chef, but as an active member of this inspiring food and beverage community.”

Paperboy’s two Austin locations serve breakfast and lunch, usually with a Western twist. The Texas hash combines roasted pork, kale, sweet potato, pecan mole and a poached egg, while the huevos rancheros grits come in a bowl with pinto beans, chorizo, salsa ranchero and pepper jack cheese. Other menu items include poblano and cheddar biscuits, brown-butter pancakes and seasonal fruit pop tarts.

Owner Ryan Harms began Paperboy as a food truck in 2015 and opened a brick-and-mortar five years later. It has drawn public support and accolades in Texas publications along the way. The diner’s second Austin location opened this summer.

Trout aren’t just found in Colorado’s rivers and lakes but are also a staple across a range of restaurants in a wide variety of forms, from a simple roasted whole fish over seasonal vegetables to decadently dressed-up plays on the savory dish.

“We felt as though putting trout on the menu fit into the dining culture in Colorado,” said Daniel Mangin, executive chef at in Denver’s West Highland neighborhood.

But most of the trout trotted out to Colorado diners don’t hail from Colorado, and they’re definitely not caught streamside with flies and ties. Instead, nearly all of it is raised on trout farms in Idaho and Iowa. Some even come from further afield, like an island off of Australia.

, a modern steakhouse downtown, serves Tasmanian trout in a Thai coconut sauce with pickled chanterelle mushrooms and herbs.

Trout used to be a staple and a popular fish in restaurants in the 1970s and 80s, said Troy Guard, executive chef and owner of Guard and Grace. But many customers now want something more exotic, he said.

“Now I can get Tasmanian trout from Australia in a day,” he said. “I’ve always been one to try new things, and a lot of people have never had it before, so I wanted to do something different.”

But less exotic trout specimens still retain broad customer appeal, according to several chefs.

“If I were to take the trout off the menu, I’d have a number of people who would be very upset with me,” said Mangin of American Elm.

The neighborhood bistro’s dish centers around the classic trout almondine dish — a lightly fried filet with a crispy crust of crushed almonds. The trout is then paired with quinoa, pickled onions, garlic chili oil and vegetables. It’s a year-round staple at the restaurant, Mangin said.

Russ Fox, executive chef at , has also found that the establishment’s roasted Rocky Mountain trout is consistently a top seller. It fits the restaurant’s goal to serve familiar comfort food with an elevated twist.

“River and Woods is what you would find if you were out foraging and in the woods looking for something to cook with,” Fox said.

Despite an abundance of wild trout — rainbow, brook and brown being some of the most common — in Colorado’s gold medal waters, restaurants looking to source trout locally don’t have a lot of options, the chefs said. River and Woods uses trout raised in Idaho while American Elm cooks steelhead trout from Iowa.

As far as he knows, Kermit Krantz is the only farmer raising trout in Colorado for commercial restaurant kitchens. His in Saguache has supplied fish to some of the most high-end restaurants in Colorado, he said.

“We’re not a very big farm, but we try to compete,” he said.

Krantz bought the trout farm — a former fish hatchery — in 2013 and is rebuilding his small business after COVID-19 disrupted his customers’ livelihoods and his supply of fish food and trout eggs. He raises rainbow trout now, but hopes to again start selling golden trout and brook trout.

On any given day, tens of thousands of fish swim on Krantz’s farm. When it’s time to harvest, he euthanizes the fish by dunking them in an ice bath. Then he puts them on ice, hops in his truck and delivers them to his customers. “They can be on a plate in Denver that day,” he said.

Krantz sells 100 pounds of trout a week to , a new restaurant an hour north in Salida, he said.

Sourcing ingredients locally is important for Shavano’s owner, Robbie Balenger, and its chef, Jesse Rogers.

“We want our influence to come from around the world, but not our ingredients,” Balenger said.

Rogers modeled his trout dish after a meal he had last year while visiting Tulum, Mexico. He wanted to add a similar dish to Shavano’s menu, but only if he could source the fish locally.

“That dish in particular really sets us apart, to be able to have a fresh fish option here in the middle of the Rockies,” Balenger said.

Rogers butchers Krantz’s trout once it arrives and marinades it in a mixture of garlic, orange, lemon, vinegar, Dijon mustard and achiote — a spice common in Mexican and Caribbean cuisine. He then grills the fish and serves it whole.

The restaurant often sells out of the fish nearly every day, Balenger said. Some people started coming to eat earlier so they could be sure to get the dish.

“I’ve been humbled by the fact that people have taken to it so well,” Rogers said. “People are stoked.”

The fast-food eatery at 1750 Wewatta St., backed by local restaurateur Troy Guard and former Colorado Avalanche player Peter Forsberg, has permanently closed.

“The Eggs Inc. Denver location has officially closed as part of a broader set of business considerations,” Chief Operating Officer Larry Sidoti told BusinessDen in an email. “While this particular site will no longer operate, we remain proud to have introduced the concept to the Denver market and grateful for the experience it provided.”

Sidoti declined to answer specific questions about why the spot shuttered and what the future holds for the brand.

Elisabet and Glenn Eriksson opened the concept����ap first location in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2019, offering a menu featuring egg pizzas, sandwiches and Benedicts in a bid to provide a healthy and inexpensive restaurant option.

The Denver outpost was the only U.S. location for Eggs Inc. At the time it was announced, Guard, who is an investor and not involved in operations, told BusinessDen the plan was to open several more spots in town before expanding out of state.

The original Stockholm location also appears to have shuttered. It comes up as “permanently closed” on Google, and its last Facebook post was in May 2024, when it said it was closing for construction.

“As with any new venture, there were important takeaways along the way,” Sidoti continued. “These insights will help inform future decisions as the brand continues to evolve. We extend our best wishes to the local team and appreciate the support from the Denver community.”

Chef Troy Guard’s breakfast spot is expected to open within the next year in the Clear Creek Crossing development in Wheat Ridge, along with a biergarten and a new concept by and Bar founder Ciaran O’Brien.

That����ap according to Denver-based , which is developing the project by the Interstate 70-Highway 58 interchange.

“I live around the corner, and we need that in the area. I think we’re starving for this out in Applewood,” O’Brien said, referring to the neighborhood to the south.

O’Brien, who also owns  in Sunnyside, said his spot — dubbed Agora at Applewood — will be a revamp of a food hall.

It will feature six separate dining experiences within the 10,000-square-foot building, including an Irish pub with a golf simulator, an Italian market featuring a deli and pizza and a higher-end cocktail bar with small plates. Agora, which means “gathering space” in Greek, will also have a more family-friendly pub, along with a rooftop bar and a place that serves ice cream and juice.

O’Brien’s restaurant and real estate group, Osta Holdings, will operate all the concepts.

“It����ap a communal space where you can walk from one concept to another with your drink,” O’Brien said. “But each has its own feel, its own vibe. There’s not a main bar you order from like your traditional food hall would be. Each venue has their own bar, own menu, own decor and own furniture.”

Guard’s HashTAG will be the chef’s fourth brunch spot. The third is slated to open downtown next month.

And Prost����ap brewpub will be the fifth location for Colorado’s third-largest brewery.

Clear Creek Crossing is already home to two apartment buildings, a Life Time gym, a Hampton Inn and Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital, which all opened last year. Bonfire Burritos, local chicken chain Birdcall, a preschool and another hotel are set to open at Clear Creek in the coming year as well.

Derek Lis, a senior development manager for Evergreen, said there will be green space in the middle of the three buildings that HashTAG, Agora and Prost will occupy. The buildings will form a horseshoe shape and have a scenic view of the nearby pond and the mountains.

“We’ll have a stage for live music, big fire pits and it’ll be open container,” Boyd Hoback, Prost����ap director of biergartens, said of the green space. “And being on I-70, we think we can capture a lot of the mountain traffic, the ski traffic.”

While Prost and O’Brien are buying their buildings, HashTAG is leasing its space. Lis said there’s another unit next to HashTAG that Evergreen will likely lease to another restaurant operator.

Hoback said Prost will pay between $5 million and 6 million to build out its 6,800-square-foot space. It will have 40 beers on tap and serve fare including pretzels, German sausages and schnitzel.

Prost, founded in 2012, opened a 60,000-square-foot production facility in Northglenn last year, where it will still make most of its German lagers. Hoback said the new Wheat Ridge spot will have a small brewing system on display, but it will be used for classes and home brewing.

The beermaker also has a biergarten in Northglenn along with Highlands Ranch and Denver’s LoHi. Prost also has a taproom in Fort Collins serviced by food trucks.

“We want people hanging out for a couple hours. We’re not focused on turning tables,” he said. “We want kids running wild and families hanging out.”

This story originally published on .

RCI purchased the operation, 6575 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., from well-known Denver chef and restaurateur Troy Guard, who had opened it in 2021. At the time, it was known as Grange Hall and contained several Guard concepts, along with a brewery and a few other restaurants.

“We weren’t interested in selling, honestly, but RCI came back to us three different times, and each time they did, the price was more and more and more,” Guard told The Denver Post at the time, adding that he was selling because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RCI is a publicly traded company that owns numerous restaurants and strip bars around the country, including Diamond Cabaret and PT’s Showclub. It was looking to Grange Hall as a way to introduce its Bombshells sports bar brand, which is similar to Hooters and Twin Peaks.

It eventually renamed the food hall and changed out all of the concepts.

“Unfortunately, labor costs were just too high to make the concept work,” RCI said in a statement to The Denver Post. The building will be listed for sale.

“You go to any other cool city and you can find anything at any time,” he said. “In Denver, we talk a lot about how cool we are, but you can never find anything after 9 p.m. … I’ve never been able to put my finger on why. Maybe it����ap because we are outdoorsy and people like to go to bed early so they can get a jump on the day.” Or maybe it����ap because bars in Denver are required to close by 2 a.m., as opposed to some other cities, where they stay open until 4 a.m.

So Guard is giving it a shot. In late September, he opened a take-out window at Los Chingones, 2463 Larimer St., that sells quesadillas, burritos, tacos and chips and salsa, and while the window is open all day, the to-go dishes are discounted between 8:30 p.m. and midnight.

“It����ap a good gamble and a good opportunity,” said Guard, a longtime Denver restaurateur who also owns TAG Burger Bar, Guard and Grace, Hashtag and other familiar concepts. “We wanted to do something different and shake things up.”

Related: Dining after dark: 9 Denver eateries open past midnight

The window was installed during a recent $750,000 renovation of the decade-old River North Art District restaurant, and while Los Chingoes also has locations in the Denver Tech Center and the Central Park neighborhood in Denver, the window will be limited to RiNo.

Although he now splits his time between Texas and Colorado, Guard used to live in the neighborhood and said there should be enough people coming and going from concerts and shows, sporting events and bars to justify some late-night eats to-go.

He said he will keep it open seven days a week until midnight for a least a year in an effort to make it work. If demand is high enough, he’ll start keeping the inside open late as well.

And speaking of the renovation, Los Chingones is celebrating that, and its 10-year anniversary, with a party on Saturday, Nov. 16 from 5 to 8 p.m. There will be guest chefs and bartenders, giveaways and a sneak peek at the XXXmas Pop-Up Bar and the newly redone rooftop. .

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The dining scene, which has been lavished with national attention in recent years — not the least of which is having Michelin Guide arrive in the city and multiple James Beard Award winners and nods — is built on the bedrock of the old guard, the restaurateurs who helped build it.

However, with pressing issues like annual minimum wage hikes (since 2021, and rises annually), times, as they say, are a-changin’.

A new (or newish) batch of restaurant operators has become increasingly nimble and braced to tackle whatever comes their way. “When we opened in 2019, we knew minimum wage increases were coming. We planned for it,” said Doris Yuen, co-owner and general manager of MAKfam, a Cantonese-American restaurant that expanded from Avanti to a brick-and-mortar last November. “That was never a deterrent in opening our restaurant, it was built into our model.”

And that model is one where every hourly employee receives what����ap called the non-tipped minimum wage (currently $18.29, but set to rise to $18.81 on January 1), and tips are pooled. Tips are divided based on hours worked, and, by law, cannot be shared with salaried employees. In total, MAKfam’s staff is 25 strong, including Yuen and her husband and chef Kenneth Wan.

“Our greatest asset is our employees,” said Wan, who was nominated for a James Beard award in 2024. “If we have their best interest in our minds, they’ll keep our best interest in their minds.” So far, this model, coupled with counter service — which requires less staff — is working, and MAKfam (which also counts a Michelin Bib Gourmand award among its prizes) has a low turnover rate.

New strategies

Employee success is paramount for Leven Deli Co. co-founder Anthony Lygizos. His non-negotiables when opening in Denver’s Golden Triangle neighborhood in 2018 were paying above industry standard and offering what he calls “natural” hours, benefits, and career development. Six years in, even with skyrocketing costs (the hourly minimum wage was $10.20 when Leven first opened), Lygizos has not strayed from his original mission.

In fact, Leven is growing, in large part to create career opportunities for its staff, Lygizos said. Not only is he planning to open a head-shakingly large 500-seat Italian restaurant inside a 30-story building at 15th and Welton streets, Lygizos is putting the finishing touches on a grab-and-go shop called Leven Supply, which is expected to open in Washington Park by the end of the year.

“Both of these projects are really specific for our managers to grow,” he said. “We’ve always prioritized labor and it has become an advantage because our model revolves around that.”

Every restaurant in town has had to find ways to survive amid rising costs. Aminata Dia, a James Beard nominated chef and co-owner of Le French, at 846 Albion St. near Colorado Boulevard, has increasingly simplified her French-Senegalese dishes. “It����ap been a constant adjustment with our menu,” she said. “My sister [and co-owner] came from a Michelin-starred restaurant so we started with more elevated plating and more expensive ingredients. Nowadays with employment rates, I’ve simplified more.”

This is in part because of the cost of goods, but it����ap even more driven by the need to simplify tasks for her workforce. Between her original location near the Denver Tech Center, which opened in 2019, and this year-old restaurant, she’s seen a decrease in skilled labor. “I’m pushing the dishes with easier plating, so when I find myself with fewer employees, they can still be executed.”

At Ginger Pig, an Asian street food restaurant at 4262 Lowell Blvd., chef-owner Natashca Hess was very deliberate when she expanded from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar in late 2020. To save on rent, she chose a neighborhood over downtown, and within that neighborhood, Berkeley, she opted to remain outside of the commercial district.

She also runs lean with a fast-casual model, which requires a smaller staff than full service and easily accommodates third-party delivery. To save on labor, Hess is in the kitchen or working the floor six days a week. When Ginger Pig expanded to Boulder with a take-out only location in 2023, it opened with only three employees. (The Denver location has 20 staffers.)

Ginger Pig received a huge bump in business after Michelin awarded it a Bib Gourmand in 2023. The award, which recognizes restaurants that offer good food at affordable prices, was presented to just nine Denver spots that year (Ginger Pig retained the award in 2024). Even with the extra business, Hess has had to raise menu prices to cover costs. “My best skill is that I’m a problem solver, that����ap why I’m still in business,” she said. “We are busy, we are lucky, we are still struggling. How can any industry withstand a 70% wage increase [in six years]?”

Tim and Lillian Lu, owners of fine-dining French restaurant Noisette in LoHi, feel the rising costs keenly. “For independent restaurants it����ap exceptionally difficult because we don’t have the economy of scale of bigger restaurant groups,” Tim said. “But we’re also flexible so we’re finding other ways of adapting.” Among them, in 2022, the Lus opened a mini bakery that activated the space during the daytime (Noisette is only open for dinner).

And just a couple weeks ago, Micheline-recommended Noisette added a wine bar to further maximize the square footage. “Our rent is reasonable but the annual charges have gone up so we have to figure out more ways to be open for more hours.” Tim is quick to point out that the wine bar and bakery run with existing staff because adding another employee wouldn’t warrant the cost.

“There’s no one right way to do it,” said Austin Carson, who along with with Ty Leon and Heather Morrison, owns Restaurant Olivia, a Michelin recommended fine-dining Italian spot in Wash Park. “That����ap one of the tricky things. I don’t get the sense that anyone has a foolproof blueprint.”

Despite that, Carson and crew are pursuing growth: Emilia, which will also center around Italian fare, will open in RiNo in 2025. Like Lygizos of Leven, Carson explains the primary reason for opening another restaurant is the ability to offer better healthcare and benefits to their employees. “As you start to add revenue, add different locations, and diversify, it puts you in the place to do more for your staff,” Carson said.

A well-intentioned problem

This is just the type of growth Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wants to see. “Restaurants are the economic and cultural heart of the city,” he said. “They are joy machines…they are some of the most important assets we have.”

At the same time, Johnston is aware of the stark truth: According to data obtained from the Colorado Restaurant Association (CRA), the city reports that the number of Denver restaurants fell from 4,130 in July/August 2023 to 3,947 in July/August 2024. That����ap a decrease of 183 or 4.5%. Prior to 2020, the number of Denver restaurants usually grew by 3 to 5% per year.

In this regard, it����ap understandable why many restaurant operators are discouraged. “There’s this feeling that business owners are left to figure it out on their own,” said Dia of Le French. “Everything is rising. What is strange to me is that we hire people, we are part of the economy, and we create employment, but we feel crushed and are stuck in the middle”

Restaurant operators are “incredibly resilient and resourceful,” said Sonia Riggs, President and CEO of the CRA. “It is, after all, an industry that survived multiple indoor dining shutdowns, capacity restrictions, and other pandemic-related obstacles to daily operations.

But that resilience can also work against them, by giving “the impression that they can survive anything,” she added. “When you start with 3-5% profit margins during the good times and add on burdensome government regulations and across-the-board increases to operational costs, sustainability becomes a real issue.”

Johnston concedes that the city’s minimum wage is part of the problem. “Minimum wage is one of those things that while well-intentioned, and in another economic environment maybe would work, is an added complication with rising property taxes and rising costs,” he said.

While it����ap not within Johnston’s jurisdiction to reverse the action (it����ap written into Colorado’s Constitution), he is focusing on doing what he can to revitalize a critical driver of the city: the downtown corridor, which historically has housed hundreds of restaurants. “I do have a ray of hope. This is why we’ve made such a priority on getting people back into restaurants and back into downtown,” Johnston said. “We knew a core element was resolving homelessness and upping safety, and it was about bringing people back to downtown.”

The change is now

Erasmo Casiano, co-owner of Lucina, Xiquita, and Create Cooking School and one of the most optimistic guys in the business, would like to see legislation that����ap more forward-thinking and aware that a one-size-fits-all model doesn’t work for the restaurant industry. The premise behind increasing the minimum wage was, of course, a good one. Paying staff a good wage that allows them to live within the city they work is a basic right.

This is something that Casiano embraced long before it became law. When he first opened Create, he was paying significantly above the industry standard. “We were actually waiting for the laws to catch up with us,” he said. Same with Lucina, which Casiano opened in Park Hill in 2022, and now again with Xiquita, which just started serving in Uptown at the beginning of August.

Between Lucina and Xiquita, there are 54 employees and everyone started at minimum wage, and like at MAKfam, there’s a tip pool for hourly employees. From there, as natural leaders emerge, their hourly wage is increased. “The restaurant is a symbiotic relationship,” said Casiano, who is also a previous James Beard semi-finalist. “I always tell my staff to remove ‘just’ from your position, you’re not just a server, just a cook, or just a dishwasher. When that person ‘just’ doesn’t show up, we all feel it.”

With that comes the understanding, camaraderie, and accountability, that if everyone pulls their own weight, they will all make a good living.

Most important, Casiano refuses to not get bogged down by negativity. “We don’t want to bend to the will of what����ap being told about the industry,” he said. “The change is now, it����ap like the ground is kind of shaking beneath us, but our foundation is settling.”

The owner of TAG Restaurant Group (Los Chingones, Hashtag, Bubu, Guard and Grace) has teamed up with NHL Hall-of-Famer and former Colorado Avalanche player Peter Forsberg and the founders of Eggs Inc., a fast-casual concept in Sweden, to bring the brand’s first U.S. location to Denver.

“If Chipotle has 2,500 stores, I think we can do at least 10,000 or more,” Guard said.

Elisabet and Glen Eriksson created , which has an all-day menu centered around eggs, in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2019. The couple had sold their apartment and were living in a temporary space without a kitchen, struggling to find quick meals high in protein and quality without going to an expensive, sit-down restaurant. “We thought there was something missing in the market if you don’t want to eat a hamburger,” Elisabet said.

Eggs Inc. has one restaurant in Stockholm, and the Erikssons want to make eggs an all-day meal with popular menu items, including egg-based pizza, sandwiches, egg bites and Benedicts. “The same people behind McDonald’s and Burger King built the kitchen, so it����ap extremely efficient,” Elisabet said. “If we have a line of 180 people, the longest wait time is six minutes.”

Forsberg, who was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in 2014 and played for the Colorado Avalanche between 1995 and 2004, is a native of Sweden and was impressed by the brand on a trip home. He wanted to bring the concept to the U.S. and connected with Guard, who he’d personally met through meals at Guard and Grace, to help spearhead the expansion.

The Erikssons said they had offers to located in other cities around the world, but thanks to Forsberg’s connection to the U.S., particularly Denver, they felt confident in the partnership. “The U.S. is a bigger market and it����ap more mature when it comes to fast-casual food,” Glenn said.

“There’s no chain like this,” Elisabet added. “There are some small ones like Eggslut, which is more chef-driven, but no one else is doing the same all-day, protein-focused menu.”

The team has also brought on Larimer Square co-developers Jeff Hermanson and John Zakhem, owner of Denver’s Zakhem Real Estate Group, as investors. The group hopes to open five locations in metro Denver in the next year and a half and are currently on the hunt for brick-and-mortar locations. Guard said they are in the midst of signing leases and will have two Eggs Inc. locations open in Denver by mid-summer or early fall this year.

The restaurant is streamlined so guests can order and pay through an app, on a kiosk or with a cashier. It uses proprietary machinery (no range hoods necessary) that����ap easy enough to use without chef experience. Multeral, the Swedish supplier for McDonald’s and Burger King’s kitchen machines and improvements, helped Eggs Inc. develop their own efficient machinery.

“I could have my nine-year-old go in there and put something together because the recipes are so dialed in, and the equipment is so high-end that it cooks everything perfectly,” Guard said. “You can’t mess it up.”

Elisabet is no stranger to growing chains. In 1996, she founded the Espresso House coffee chain, known as the “Swedish Starbucks.” It started as a small venture in Lund, Sweden, but grew quickly with over 450 units across Europe.

“We want to do 10,000 in 10 years,” Guard said. “That sounds kind of crazy, but it����ap doable with this concept. The goal is to get all over the world, and there really is no limit.”

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The restaurant discovery and review platform recently released its list of , which features 100 establishments including three in Denver and one in Fort Collins.

Yelp scoured customer reviews for words like “date night,” “romantic” and “valentine” to cull a list of restaurants that it then ranked based on factors such as the volume of reviews and ratings mentioning those keywords. The list includes a maximum of five places per city.

Chef Troy Guard’s downtown steakhouse (1801 California St., Denver) took top honors as the most romantic local hot spot, according to Yelp, ranking No. 31 on the nationwide list. (Guard and Grace also made Yelp’s list of top places to eat in 2024.) Reviewers laud the ambiance, the service and the food quality as reasons it makes an apt date night.

“Went there for a date night with my husband and the service was incredible,” wrote Yelper Morgan P. in June. “We ordered a few apps, sides, and New York strips. Meat was cooked a little more than what I had wanted but the apps and the sides were phenomenal. Would def go again!”

If you’d prefer a different type of cuisine, (603 E. 6th Ave., Denver) came in at No. 50 on Yelp’s list, followed by cocktail bar in Fort Collins (1 Old Town Square, Suite 7, Fort Collins) at No. 51, and jazz club in RiNo (1330 27th St., Denver) at No. 73.

Of note: . Flagstaff House in Boulder was Colorado’s sole entry there.

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