“Every day is a snowflake for me,” said Adley, who just opened his Denver restaurant Heretik two months ago in the RiNo neighborhood and will be doing a chef takeover with DiningOut this week. ”I could be going to a bank, driving between Lyons and Denver and back again, or butchering 40 pounds of mackerel or other seafood.”
On this particular day, said the chef, he was making the classic French seafood sauce Américaine and cleaning sweetbreads. On Wednesday during the takeover, he added, he will probably be “waste deep in Heretik, cutting fish, doing service.” And we can’t wait to get a closer view into his daily life.
The other possibility, Adley may make a visit to Marigold in Lyons, the restaurant he opened four years ago inside a former butter shop. Here the chef (who formally worked for lauded restaurants such as Boulder’s Flagstaff House, Little Nell in Aspen, and the now closed spots The Populist and Squeaky Bean in Denver) serves seasonal fare with no particular style, leaning into his years of training and pulling spices, techniques, and flavors from around the world to create completely unique and unforgettable dishes.
That means one week it may be a traditional chickpea bread such as farinata ‘ripiena’ with crushed burrata, apricot, and saba; the Marigold ‘Caesar’ featuring gin-washed trout roe; or, a personal favorite, celeriac ‘parmigiana’ tossed with pistachio, brown butter, and lemon.
Heretik, which Adley loosely describes as “a really good seafood restaurant hidden in a chicken shop,” had been swimming around in his mind for years. When it opened at the beginning of May, the identity had long been established. Now, said the chef, he wants to finesse the concept and eventually expand to adding more things in the rotisserie. In fact, he told us, he just bought some new gear for said rotisserie.
Another new thing he’s working on for Heretik is a take-away chicken dinner. While not finalized, the idea is to serve a $100 family meal that includes a whole chicken, fries, a huge salad, and slices of his addictive Basque-style cheesecake.
“We want to do our best and hit it out of the park when someone says they want a rotisserie chicken,” said Adley, adding the restaurant serves approximately 180 of these birds per week. “A big part was sourcing a sustainable product that was delicious.”
Heretik buys the chickens from an Appalachian farm cooperative that works with regenerative farming and can match the volume of birds he needs. Other ingredients used at both restaurants are sourced well too, be that locally or imported from overseas. The latter mainly refers to the unmatched Cantabrian anchovies, which come from Spain.
“Getting people to eat anchovies, that’s mission one for the restaurant,” said the chef. “We want to reverse the stigma of things being too fishy, and once you have one you realize it’s a sliver of parmesan from the sea.”
Far from the cheap tins you find at the grocery store, these little fish are aged to perfection and go so well with the freshly-made Dry Storage bread and butter, you almost don’t need anything. Almost. You won’t want to skip the Matrimonio ‘Marigold’ either, which is Adley’s ode to his first restaurant.
“It’s such an unlikely favorite…just because on paper, mackerel, it’s not like entry-level fish eating,” said the chef about the historically bold and fishy fish. “It’s been really cool watching people [try it] and they end up ordering another. We brought 200 pieces [of the Matrimonio ‘Marigold’] to Aspan [Food and Wine] and it was awesome watching people passing caviar and then smashing mackerel bites.”
Of course all this should be enjoyed in tandem with the rotisserie chicken. Order it by the half or whole, and share the tender meat with a friend. It comes with perfect fries and three housemate sauces. Add on a heaping green salad studded with herbs, which helps cut richness of the meal and overall adds a brightness to the experience. A glass of fizzy txakoli also helps, and if you’re lucky you can get the server to pour it long.
More On the Chef Takeover
You just may get a glimpse of this magic mackerel during Wednesday, July 15’s takeover. What we won’t see, most likely, is the chef’s home life. He lives in Boulder with his wife and two daughters, ages 12 and 15. But, he said, he leaves so early he’s not sure they will get to make an appearance.
That doesn’t mean Adley spends all his time at Heretik and Marigold. When dining at home his family loves to make tacos or go out for Vietnamese food at Dân Dã in Aurora or Chez Thuy Restaurant in Boulder. They also like heading to an all-you-can-eat feast at Seoul K-B.B.Q.& Hot Pot in Aurora.
Come try Heretik for yourself. Adley is giving away a $100 gift card to the restaurant for our readers. To enter, simply follow along on the stories, like and share that static post on DiningOut Denver’s Instagram, follow, and comment. Give Marigold Lyons a follow too. We would send you to Heretik’s social page, but, as Adley mentioned, it’s on its third iteration since the company keeps deleting his accounts, so we aren’t sure which one is still good (of course you could follow all?).
Visit Heretik Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. 1441 26th St., Denver, maisonheretik.com
