Boulder’s getting another food hall downtown, this time on Pearl Street Mall’s corner of 14th Street, former site of the Cheesecake Factory.
Avanti Food & Beverage, which has run a seven-restaurant food hall in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood since 2015, will fling open the doors to its six-restaurant, two-bar, one-coffee shop Boulder concept as soon as June this year.
The 13,000-square-foot operation will operate five restaurants, a bar and a small coffee bar on a market-style first floor and a single restaurant and bar on the fourth floor with 270-degree mountain views including the Flatirons and Sanitas.
This week, the firm announced its first three restaurateurs of the Boulder operation: Oak at Fourteenth owner Steve Redzikowski will operate New York-style pizzeria New Yorkese on the fourth floor; Jerrod Rosen, co-owner of Denver Jewish neighborhood delicatessen, and operating partner Ross Goldberg will operate a Rye Society outpost; and Nicholas Kayser, most recently a head chef at Denver’s Vesta, will open his first venture in Rooted Craft American Kitchen.
We spoke with Avanti co-owner Patrick O’Neill, who went to CU and whose wife was born in Boulder, about the vision for the space for BLDRfly’s latest podcast.
2 downtown food halls, many similarities 1 big difference
Of course, Boulder welcomed its first food hall in October 2019 with Rosetta Hall, just a few blocks away from Avanti’s coming Boulder outpost.
Interestingly, the two food halls share a similar design: both own and operate the buildings’ bars, both provide front-of-house staff and bussers, and both provide restaurateurs the basic infrastructure they need to run a kitchen. Both food halls also help bring people in the door with advertising and their great, open design.
Avanti differs in one big way: it’s designed as a restaurant incubator. The idea is for restaurateurs to test out concepts, menus, etc., gain a following, potentially raise some money and then move to their own solo endeavor.
Avanti has graduated 11 restaurants so far at its Denver location and the Boulder location is designed to do the same. Avanti provides guidance on building a menu, operating a kitchen and more. Restaurateurs typically sign a two-year lease with Avanti.
Patrick explains more in the short podcast above.
