Though we have left 2024 behind there’s plenty of trends from the year still trickling into 2025, in the best possible way. Last year we saw the bloom of a chef as he raked in accolades and quickly expanded. Comfort foods such as dumplings and pasta continue to hit the right notes in the dining scene. And while younger diners crave a bit of class with their meal, fast casual still reigns, especially when it’s combined with slow foods.
What trends from 2024 were your favorites, and which ones would you like to see wither away? Here are some hot takes from the year, with some insight on our 2025 restaurant predictions.
The Future Is Pasta
Finicky new American cuisine has been set aside as diners embrace the comforting world of pasta. But not just Italian-style dishes, today’s upcoming pasta shops take classic noodles and give them modern twists in order to create something fresh for our palates.
Chefs Spencer White and Alex Figura, along with Lulu Clair, will open Johnny Bechamel’s later this year. If the names sound familiar, it’s because the team runs Dio Mio and Redeemer Pizza. The newest venture combines the two, showcasing both pasta and pizza. While we don’t have too many details on the upcoming eatery, based on the past endeavors we’re sure it will be good.
Chef Cliff Blauvelt and his wife Cara gear up to launch something new and noodled too. The power couple launched Odie B’s (ne Bodega) in 2022, and now it’s time for a second concept. Nope, unlike the original Sunnyside shop, sandwiches won’t be the crux of this venture.
Enter Boombots Pasta Shop, opening in Summer 2025. The main focus of this offshoot is playful pasta, for example Dirty Martini Bucatini with a vodka sauce puttanesca, Pastrami Agnolotti inspired by the Reuben sandwich, and a Smoked Duck Green Chile Mac.
Chef Johnny Curiel Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
In early December, 2023, chef Johnny Curiel opened Alma Fond Fina in LoHi with his wife Kasie. If you had told the chef a year later he would garner a Michelin Star, Michelin award for Colorado’s young chef of the year, and accolades from publications across the country, he may not have believed it.
Through it all, the team has kept working to not only keep Alma Fonda Fina in the spotlight, but to open two more concepts over the past year. In July the Curiels debuted Cozobi Fonda Fina in Boulder, and in mid November Mezcaleria Alma launched right next to the original restaurant. Now, the Curiels are working on a fourth and, if rumors are true, a fifth spot as well.
Will the popularity of the restaurants continue? Based on how almost every person we know has touted the Agave Roasted Sweet Potato on Alma’s menu as the best dish of the year, we think it will be another banner run for the chef.
Mountain Destinations
So many great concepts have taken mountain homes, it’s giving us yet another excuse to head west. For example, at the end of 2024 Tavernetta opened a second location inside the Four Seasons Vail, bringing Frasca Hospitality Group to the Rocky Mountains for the first time. Avanti Food & Beverage also launched a foodhall in Vail. On the menu, Glo by the Berkeley-based Glo Noodle House, Boychik from Stanley Marketplace, and Powder Crust Pizza, owned by chef Nicholas Kayser, who runs EatYa Pizza on the 16th Street Mall in Denver and Rooted Craft Kitchen at Avanti Boulder.
Olive & Finch Spreads Its Wings
Mary Nguyen’s Olive & Finch Collective opened its first restaurant in Uptown in 2013, and over the decade-plus it’s grown to three spots, one in Cherry Creek and another, Little Finch, downtown. Now, Nguyen (who we followed around for a day), will double that amount this year.
The first new iteration of Olive & Finch opens this winter in Denver’s Union Station, inside the space previously occupied by Snooze A.M. Eatery (which moved to the former Kitchen Next Door Spot, also in the station). Finch on the Fly plans to land in the Denver International Airport Terminal A sometime in late spring or early summer. Nguyen has also secured a space at the Denver Performing Arts Center. Opening this spring, it will serve the neighborhood every day, not just during show times, and, unlike the other ventures, offers a private dining room.
Dumplings Continue To Cajole Diners
For years the only way to get really good Chinese food was to hit the suburbs of Denver, namely Aurora. But now as the market grows and the desire diners have for authentic flavors and bold spice akin to something you may find abroad, the door to the Mile High has opened for these restaurants to come in. Especially when dumplings are the main show.
Take Nana’s Dim Sum and Dumplings, which went from one shop in LoHi (that opened in October 2023) to two more locations in Boulder and Aurora this past year. In June, Vincent Liu launched Dillon’s Dumpling House inside Aurora’s Tower Pavilion retail center. Growth continues at Mason’s Dumpling Shop, which originally opened in California in 2001. There are now three locations in Colorado, and the latest opened last year in Lakewood.
Diners Crave Slow Foods Fast
Since opening in 2018, owner Anthony Lygizos’s Leven Deli Co. has continued to be a favorite spot downtown for super fresh sandwiches featuring high-quality ingredients and 12-day aged pastrami. Now, the popular shop branches off with Leven Supply, opening mid-January in the Wash Park Supply retail center at 300 E. Alameda Ave.
Similar to the original deli in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, this concept will be a counter-service restaurant, as well as a grocer and gift shop. Expect grab-and-go-style meals and a curated selection of high-end goods and wine to take home. All of the food is made in house, from the side salads to the fresh loaves of sourdough to the biscuits and pastrami gravy during brunch hours.
In Downtown Denver the Texas transplant Not a Damn Chance Burger (NADC) opened this past December. The crux of this joint, owned by pro skateboarder Neem Williams and Michelin starred chef Phillip Frankland Lee of Sushi by Scratch Restaurants & Pasta Bar (coming soon to Denver), is not only about a great burger, but making sure the ingredients are top notch too. The wagyu beef comes from a small ranch in Texas, and the team knows the owner personally. Everything on the $16 burger has been well thought out for balance and a perfect bite each time.
Miles Odell of Odell’s Bagel in Highland has a similar mission. While getting one of his gourmet, open-faced bagel “sandwiches” isn’t cheap, the ingredients are the best he can source. The butter comes from a small farm in Vermont, the other dairy comes from Wisconsin, the cured fish is made by top producers, and the flour in the bagels comes from a local mill.
Mocktails and N/A Beer and Wine Are Here To Stay
Sure, it might be Dry January right now, but the growing trend of zero-proof beverages that drink like a traditional cocktail, wine, or beer isn’t just for the month. Local makers such as Grüvi have nailed the N/A beer and wine category, especially when it comes to its Dry-Secco and Juicy Dayz IPA.
On the cocktail side, so many bars and restaurants offer crave-able choices. At Nocturne Jazz and Supper Club the recently launched “Ain’t Misbevain’” menu pairs zero-proof concoctions with the meal. Id Est has also been a proponent of the movement. At both of the group’s Michelin-starred restaurants Bruto and The Wolf’s Tailor, imbibers can opt for a $95 N/A pairing to go with the tasting menu. The best part about this upward trend, these zero-proof drinks taste really good, sometimes better than the boozy ones.
