Every Opening and Closing This Week: El Chingon Reopens and More

This week brought three comebacks in the dining scene.

In the Highland neighborhood, one of our 100 favorite restaurants, El Chingon Bistro, is serving once again. In late May, it was seized by the Colorado Department of Revenue for unpaid taxes dating back to February 2023, but the doors are now open again. (Owner Lorenzo Nunez Jr. did not reply to a request for comment.)  El Chingon is also in the process of opening an outpost at Denver International Airport.

Jessie's Smokin's NOLA has moved into its new home in Parker. It's the latest iteration of the Cajun eatery that got its start as a food truck before moving into a brick-and-mortar in Centennial in 2019. Owner Jessie Rayford intended to retire when he closed in 2022, but decided to bring it back once again, reopening in the Centennial outpost of Max Taps. "This is my last go-round," Rayford says of the newest location, for which he signed a six-year lease.

And Vine Street Pub, which had not reopened since the pandemic shutdown of March 2020, hosted a soft reopening this week — and is officially back today.

There are two new concepts at the Gaylord Rockies Resort near DIA. It just introduced the Fortunate Prospector, an English pub "inspired by the dark coziness of famous taverns across the pond and subtle nods to Colorado mining history," as well as Embers Lodge Bar, which has a 360-degree wraparound bar and a view of the Rockies.
The team behind Pig and Tiger inside Avanti Boulder has swapped out that concept for the Japanese-inspired Peko Peko. The name “is Japanese slang for ‘I’m Hungry’ and we hope to satisfy our guests’ cravings with our traditional and non-traditional Japanese fare,” co-owner Darren Chang says in an announcement of the news. Meanwhile, the team is working to open a brick-and-mortar location of Pig and Tiger in Denver.

A Westword reader alerted us to a Vietnamese restaurant that opened in Littleton last month. Vinnameals is a family-owned spot that serves staples like pho and banh mi but also offers some harder-to-find specialties, such as porridge, clay pots and a wide variety of soups.

The only closure to report this week is a temporary one. Brunch powerhouse Snooze is on pause at its original Ballpark location, which is getting a remodel that includes an additional 1,200 square feet of space. It's set to reopen next month.

In other openings-and-closings news:

• Logan Street Restaurant will shut its doors on June 16 and reopen just three days later, on June 19, as a Mexican concept, Pancho Poncho, partially inspired by the still-closed Benny's Cantina.
• Citizen Rail near Union Station is set to close on June 29 and will be replaced with Ajax in August — though it sounds like the concept and most of the team will remain the same.

Here's the complete list of restaurants and bars that opened this week*:

Openings

Embers Lodge Bar and the Fortunate Prospector at Gaylord Rockies, 6700 North Gaylord Rockies Boulevard, Aurora
Jessie's Smokin' NOLA, 11061 South Parker Road
Peko Peko at Avanti Boulder, 1401 Pearl Street, Boulder
Vinnameals, 1500 West Littleton Boulevard, Littleton

Reopening

El Chingon Bistro, 1691 Central Street
Vine Street Pub, 1700 Vine Street

Closed Temporarily

Snooze, 2262 Larimer Street (expected to reopen in July)

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

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