Denver Has Great Food (Seriously) Can It Become a Food City?
Growing up in Denver as a foodie was a rough. I remember going to eat sushi(regularly) for lunch during my senior year in downtown Denver and that was wild at that time. I also remember that the soul food restaurant that used to be open next to my high school had some of the best food in town. That was before gentrification and high prices displaced restaurants and people throughout the metro area. Denver has a long-standing reputation for mediocre food and good steaks.
However, for the past 10-15 years I’ve noticed things changing and I think it’s time to talk about the fact that Denver does have great food and some of the reasons why Denver will have a hard time becoming a bona fida food city. By the way, I’m talking about the Denver Metro area because it’s very common for Denverites to travel across town for experiences including going out to eat.
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Want to Move to Denver?
Are you planning a visit to Denver because you’re thinking about moving here? I’m a local who is sharing what to consider before you quit your job and pack your moving van. Imagine we’re having a cup of coffee (or tea) while I share a quick break down on life in Denver. If you’re thinking about moving to Denver, watch this first. Go to https://squarestateco.com/denver-move
Does Denver Have Good Food
Yes. Denver has good food in and around town. We have several things that I as a person who truly loves food and eating good food have observed in many of the great food cities that I’ve eaten in.
- Energy-There is a truly energized and focused community of restauranteurs, foodies and companies that source the food that’s making its way into our food spaces and ultimately onto our plates.
- In-bound Immigration-We’ve had a steady influx of people moving into the state both from other states and from other countries. Notable immigrant communities include: Ethiopians, Mexicans and Vietnamese community members.
- Organized food communities focused on protecting, advocating, expanding and empowering food entrepreneurs.
- Grocery stores-Most notably in Aurora-Since Aurora is literally a 15 minute drive from my house there’s no way that I’m not including the amazing grocery stores located in Aurora. I make a point of doing a big shop as often as I can at one of the many stores located in Aurora.
- Restaurant Variety-This actually development has been amazing to me. We have so many choices of places to eat. I literally have a list of restaurants or very food adjacent spaces that I want to work my way through. I’m going to share a few below:
- Trybal African Speakeasy
- Molinche Audio Bar-Mexico City Inspired food
- Sap Sua-Elevated Vietnamese food
- Molino Chido-Mexico City Street tacos
- Rougarou Elevated Southern Food
More importantly, more often than not, I’m seeing visitors to Denver talking about the fact that they enjoyed the food that they ate while here. But one person on Threads asked a really important question about the food scene in Denver “Is a food scene “good” if you need to go to specific places to get the good food?I can go anywhere in NYC without looking at any reviews and will likely get very good food. Denver aint that.”
My response was the following “Actually, this is a very reasonable question. However, no one said Denver was a food city. What we said is that there is good food IN the city. And you cannot make a comparison between Denver and NYC. It’s ridiculous to think about.”
This exchange leads me to some of the points that I’m going to make about the challenges that Denver has as its food scene evolves.
The Challenges
- Long-standing negative perceptions about the Denver food scene-I totally get it tbh. But, I think this actually has become a huge problem. People are just unwilling to believe that good food is here and are less inclined to try out restaurants around town and will stick with chains that they’ve eaten at in their hometowns or other cities because they know what to expect in terms of food quality and overall experience.
- The Denver Fitness Lifestyle-We’re known for loving exercise. The components that make great food great such as: butter, lard, msg, salt, sugar, gluten-we have a ridiculous number of people who don’t want to eat these things or can’t eat them for whatever reason.
- Lack of Population Diversity-Compared to other cities that are similar in size to Denver, it’s just not as diverse so that lack of population impacts food concepts that open up in town. Yes, I mentioned in-bound immigration in my earlier comments…but, we’re still way behind other towns specific to population diversity.
- The Extended Denver Metro Area-When we talk about restaurants in and around Denver that’s also subtly referring to other towns such as Aurora, Boulder, Longmont, etc. This can be confusing to people and also low-key pisses off purists specific to the location of said restaurant or food experiences.
- I believe that there are five (ish) tiers in pricing when you go out for a meal
- Cheap
- Inexpensive
- Mid-Tier
- Expensive
- Special Occasion
- Denver struggles at that cheap tier. Our cheap food is often not that great and there’s really not a resource or conversation about inexpensive food that you can grab around town and it’s just phenomenal and worth the price.
Finally, here are the last two issues impacting our potential food city status-the actual design of the city. Denver has all of these cute little neighborhoods that you have to go to in explore in order to find those wonderful new and old spots to eat at. People these days are pressed for time, things are stressful and the last issue is impacting Denver’s food space: Cost.
Our restaurants aren’t cheap. Denver in general isn’t cheap. When I visit other cities I’m often amazed at how inexpensive things are. If you’re visiting from another town-regardless of how much you make, you’re wanting the cost to match the value and if you’re trying to choose without knowledge of the city-you may unintentionally chose a restaurant that leaves you unimpressed.
What Can We Do About It
Fortunately, there are things that we as the consumer, locals and visitors can do to have a better eating experience while visiting Denver (in fact, these tips are applicable for most places you find yourself in)
- Ignore Yelp-I’m serious. I never look at Yelp as a way to figure out if a place has good food.
- Ask online-I’m active on Threads and some of my favorite Threads are the ones where people ask-Where should we go out to eat while in town?
- Surprisingly-Instagram is good for food recommendations-You can see people’s expressions as they eat their way through a city.
- Check the website-I like to look at restaurant websites before I go. This helps me better understand what the pricing is, hours and the menu before arrival. This one practice helps me plan a meal out.
- Shout out your favorite spots-I share different places that I enjoy eating at not only on my Threads profile, but also in my Square State Colorado content.
- Go during Happy Hour-Are you watching your wallet but would like a nice treat? Go to a new to you restaurant’s Happy Hour. This lowers the overall price and risk to you that you’ve spent a lot of money on a meal that you might potentially dislike.
- Follow Local Food Influencers-There’s an important caveat…if these influencers never go to Aurora, Federal or North Denver-I don’t trust that their palate is expanded enough for the types of recommendations that I’m looking for.
- Attend a local food event-Some that stand out:
- Anything at Hecho En Westwood
- Rebel Bread’s Denver Bake Off (hopefully they’ll hold it again this summer)
- Mile High Asian Food Week
- Festivals such as the Lunar New Year Festival on Havana Street in Aurora
Here are the types of food experiences that really stand out for me currently in town:
- Weirdly enough-Sushi. We have great sourcing for high quality sushi.
- Baked goods-this one surprises me because recipes have to be adjusted due to the altitude here. But our sweet and also savory baked goods are fantastic. I lived in Paris, we’re competitive with Paris.
- Farm to Table-This one shouldn’t surprise anyone. We have great product sourcing locally.
- Korean Food-I do think downtown Denver is missing a Korean fried chicken spot, but around the metro area-different Korean concepts are really good.
- Our food halls are really good and I’d like to point out one that’s way underrated because it open during the COVID times-Junction Food and Drink by Dave and Busters on Colorado Blvd and the Colorado Station Light Rail Stop. They have a Jamaican spot, a Turkish spot and an incredible Indian Food vendor as well.
- Mexican food and it’s not TexMex (which I don’t like) I feel like there needs to be a bigger conversation about the fact that the current state of Colorado used to be Mexico. And if you’re used to eating Mexican food from other parts of the U.S. I would ask from which Mexican states did they migrate from and how does that influence the food that is being made in your state? That’s an episode for another day. At the time that I’m recording this episode the La Plaza Colorado has opened up and is touted (and I quote) as the largest Hispanic food hall in the country .
As you eat your way through town, be kind. Stay curious, take risks and have fun-let us know where you’ve experienced great bites and meals around town. Let’s uplift those spaces operating during challenging times.