Every Opening and Closing This Week: The OG Snooze Is Back and More

It's back. After announcing expansion plans for its original location in the Ballpark neighborhood last year, locally born breakfast chain Snooze temporarily closed the eighteen-year-old outpost on Larimer Street in June. On August 14, it welcomed diners — including Mayor Mike Johnston, whose stop included flipping pancakes in the kitchen — back to the now 4,100-square-foot space.

The $2.5 million project including additional seating capacity, though "most of the extra space has been devoted to improving operations in the heart-of-house kitchen space," according to Snooze. "The restaurant now seats 124 inside and offers an outdoor patio with an additional fourteen seats."

There's more Snooze news, too. Next month, it will close its current Union Station location (Olive and Finch is set to take that over) and move into a bigger space in the facility that was formerly occupied by the Kitchen Next Door.

Brand-new concepts opening this week include Viva!, a Mexican cafe on East Colfax Avenue; the first Colorado outpost of Mecha Noodle Bar, a chain founded in Fairfield, Connecticut; and Sizzling Hibachi, which took over the former Jamaican Grill space on Eighth Avenue.
Some familiar names debuted new concepts as well. Little Arthur's, which has been slinging some of the best sandwiches in town through pop-ups, opened its brick-and-mortar inside Out of the Barrel Taproom. The new iteration of Little Arthur's offers hoagies as well as an expanded menu of options, such as large, twenty-inch pizzas that got a lot of people talking about the high price tags. We did the math, and found that even the most expensive ($40 Margherita) is in line with the average prices of comparable pizzerias — and we tasted the pies and can confirm that they are top tier. Another can't-miss: mozzarella in carrozza, which is basically an Italian-style breaded and fried take on a grilled cheese.

Chef Zuri Resendiz, who cooked at places such as Cattivella and Shanahan's Steakhouse before striking out on his own to launch a food truck called Luchador, opened a brick-and-mortar under the same name this week. Check out our first look at what's on the menu.

In late June, gluten-free eatery Just Be Kitchen shuttered its Greenwood Village location, writing on Instagram, "While we’ve been humbled by the support from our south Denver community, and your excitement for what we do fuels our passion, we’ve faced challenges specific to this location (visibility, lack of signage allowed, slowed foot traffic in the center, long permitting process draining valuable resources and staffing) — challenges that have complicated the path to sustainable success." It still has outposts in Denver and Boulder.
While restaurateur Jared Leonard tried (with Budlong Hot Chicken), and tried (with Au Feu), and tried again to make a restaurant concept stick at 81 South Pennsylvania Street, his most recent venture there, AJ's, a steakhouse spinoff of his Michelin Bib Gourmand barbecue joint, has shut its doors.

Leonard's latest ventures are south of the border. He recently debuted an outpost of  AJ's Pit Bar-B-Q in Punta Mita, Mexico, and is working to open a steakhouse there in the coming months as well.

"The steakhouse [in Denver] was the best executed and received concept we had [in that space]," Leonard says. "Our lease was coming to an end at the end of August, and we decided not to renew, and the landlord found a new tenant. ... We’re potentially looking at a location in Parker or Castle Rock that is larger and has parking. We need about 100 seats for this concept to make sense, and the Wash Park space was just too small. Lack of parking also makes that neighborhood tough to execute this style restaurant (special occasion dinners)."

In other openings-and-closings news:

• Biker Jim Pittenger is back slinging dogs through a new residency at Milk Market.
• Saturday, August 17, is the last day for the Mountain Sun group's Under the Sun in Boulder.
• Capitol Hill pizza staple Benny Blanco's will close at the end of the month, but you can still get a fix in Arvada.

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

Openings

Little Arthur's, 205 East Seventh Avenue
Luchador Taco & More, 2030 East 28th Avenue
Mecha Noodle Bar, 2801 Walnut Street
Sizzling Hibachi, 709 West Eighth Avenue
Viva! Mexi-Coffee Shop, 4900 East Colfax Avenue

Reopening

Snooze, 2262 Larimer Street

Closures

AJ's Pit Bar-B-Q Steakhouse, 81 South Pennsylvania Street
Just Be Kitchen, 5370 Greenwood Plaza Boulevard, Greenwood Village

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

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