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10 food and drink destinations in Denver to visit during Newtopia Now
Newtopia Now guests will thrill to the Mile High City’s vast diversity of restaurants and cuisines, as well as its density of top-notch breweries. Take a look.
6 Min Read
Lucina - Facebook
Denver hasn’t always ranked as a food destination. Up until the 2000s, most ambitious options revolved around steak, with some decent Italian scattered around and some solid Mexican food. One shining star: the Mile High City’s first microbrewery, Wynkoop Brewing Company. Former Denver mayor and Colorado governor, and current U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, opened the brewery in the city’s LoDo (Lower Downtown) neighborhood in 1988.
Alma Fonda Fina
Today, however, people travel to Denver for art, sports, a colorful urban patchwork of neighborhoods—and for food. Name the cuisine, and it probably finds purchase in at least one Denver restaurant, if not dozens (or more). Visitors also swing through the city for beer (thanks, John). In addition to supporting more than 150 breweries, the city also hosts the Great American Beer Festival, the largest celebration of beer in the world, scheduled for Oct. 10 this year.
Newtopia Now guests will find loads of options within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center. Rideshare options will open the door to many, many more.
Where to eat in Denver during Newtopia? Here’s a list of five restaurants and five breweries that are hot today. Among the restaurants, most are fairly new. The brewery list offers some OG spots, as well as some relative rookies.
Carne Restaurant - Facebook
Hot restaurants
Carne: Acclaimed Denver chef Dana Rodriguez recently opened Carne, a global steakhouse, in Denver’s always lively RiNo (River North) neighborhood. Rodriguez, who routinely receives honors from the James Beard Foundation, knows how to craft crave-able foodand how to throw a party. Here, you’ll find everything from roasted Colorado lamb to Argentinian tri-tip, French duck confit, Mexican pork rib and Peruvian chicken. Even caviar service.
Alma Fonda Fina: This LoHi (Lower Highlands) neighborhood spot has attracted loads of buzz since it opened, helmed by a celebrated chef who grew up in a restaurant family in Guadalajara, Mexico. Recent stars include dishes like heritage pork carnitas with mole verde, salsa seca and escabeche de jalapeño; applewood smoked tuna with smashed avocado, chicatana (chicatana is a kind of culinary ant) mayonnaise and salsa macha; and Black Angus ribeye with ajillo (garlic) oil, roasted onions and mushrooms and fresh lime.
Makfam Restaurant - Facebook
Makfam: Head to the effervescent South Broadway neighborhood for this outstanding Asian spot with deep roots in China, thanks to the wife-and-husband team who opened it. Dumplings, wings and scallion pancakes for apps. Corned beef fried rice, sizzling spicy noodles and steak and egg “jian bing” for entrees.
Lucina: Neighborhoods can be distinct and quite different from one another in Denver. Some of them, like Park Hill, have lots of trees, older homes and a higher quotient of young families walking around with strollers. The neighborhood’s new spot, Lucina is a mélange of Latin American, Latin Caribbean and coastal Spanish cuisine that pleases everybody from neighborhood regulars to cross-city pilgrims. Paella for the table? We’re sold.
Noble Riot: Bored by beer? Finding cocktails cloying? Then wine may be your move. Head to this natural wine bar in the heart of RiNo for a tidy list of wine excellence, along with easy-breezy wine snacks like charcuterie and cheese, hot artichoke dip, chicken-liver pâte and tinned sardines.
Cool breweries
Few cities garner as much craft beer adoration as Denver. The Mile High City’s density of first-rate breweries, representing a vast diversity of beer styles and brewery vibes, makes it one of the top spots in the country for suds fanatics.
Whether you’re on the lookout for big joints with huge lists, neighborhood spots that focus on just a handful of beers or places that fix on one style, like German lagers, and run with it, the city has got you covered.
If you enjoy beer, then visiting at least one brewery should count into any Denver travel plans. We’ve picked five—among many others—that warrant a call-out.
Dos Luces Brewery
Dos Luces Brewery: Most beers revolve around barley as their grain. Not at Dos Luces, where corn rules. This brewery, in Denver’s eclectic South Broadway neighborhood, focuses on traditional Latin American beverages. Styles of chicha a corn-based beer from Peru, and pulque, a traditional Mexican adult beverage made with corn and agave, comprise much of the refreshing and delicious menu. All of the beers are naturally gluten-free.
Zuni Street Brewing: This fun, bustling brewery sits along a busy patch of the arresting LoHi neighborhood. Bars, restaurants, boutiques and more crowd LoHi—and Zuni Street Brewing has long been an anchor. The big patio never fails to attract good times, especially during summer. The beer list runs the gamut: IPAs and sours, barrel-aged imperial stouts and ales flavored with ingredients like ginger, hibiscus and lemongrass. It serves pleasing hard seltzers, too.
Bierstadt Lagerhaus
Bierstadt Lagerhaus: Lager heads unite! And do so at Bierstadt Lagerhaus, a nationally celebrated lager brewery in RiNo. Brewers at Bierstadt hew to the German Reinheitsgebot (“purity order”), a series of directives that guide how Germans brew their pilsners and helles, their dunkels and dopplebocks and the rest of the lineup. The beer will come in handy for washing down Bavarian pretzels, currywurst, schnitzel and more.
Crooked Stave Brewing Co.: Sour lovers have been known to travel to Denver for one reason: To sip beer at Crooked Stave, which opened in 2010. While the brewery crafts a range of styles, including IPAs and pilsners, the sours are what made it famous. The Sour Rosé, which the Stave has been brewing for years, takes sour ale fermented in oak and mixes it with raspberries and blueberries. The Petite Sour Peach nails the good places where beer and peaches intersect. Seasonals like Raspberry Spon deliver big flavor and the place also offers beers from its “Cellar Series,” meaning the beers have undergone extensive aging in barrels and more. It’s a bit out of the way—north of downtown near Interstate 70—but a fast rideshare away.
Great Divide Brewing Company: It’s big and boisterous, with two breweries close to downtown. And it’s been slinging beers for 30 years. Great Divide is well worth a visit. Here you’ll find everything from Mango Sticky Rice lager to farmhouse ales, IPAs, fruited sours, pastry beers and more—and that includes house-crafted seltzers. The brewery in the Ballpark neighborhood is the OG. Its “Barrel Bar” in RiNo is just as wonderful.
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