Love stories in restaurants don’t just unfold over candlelit tables on Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, they’re forged on the line, tested during opening week chaos, and strengthened over years of shared prep lists and late nights.
Operating a restaurant is hard, and running one with your partner might be even harder. But for these culinary couples around the Front Range, it’s also made the experience richer, deeper, and more rewarding.
Sweethearts and Sweet Treats at Darlene’s Ice Cream
Husband-and-wife team Joy Williams-Clark and Kyle Clark recently debuted the best new scoop shop in Aurora, Darlene’s Ice Cream. The culinary couple first met in 2013 as line cooks at ChoLon where, as Joy jokingly put it, they didn’t even get along at first. After hours in the kitchen, they eventually became friends, then started dating, and married in 2020.
The pair grew their careers side by side, with Joy eventually running the pastry program at ChoLon, Tag Restaurant Group, and working as the operations chef for Edible Beats. At the same time, Kyle took on roles as head chef at ChoLon and eventually moved over to Edible Beats’ El Five too.
While they may have worked for some of Denver’s most prestigious restaurant groups, their small batch ice cream store is a dream realized for the couple. They live just a few blocks away from the shop with their two children, who naturally love sampling all the flavors like roasted strawberry jam, salted pretzel, fudge brownie, mango chili sorbet, and toasted sesame with red miso caramel. There’s also house baked goods, novelty bars, ice cream cakes, floats, and espresso drinks.
“It’s kind of humorous, I don’t really want to take time off because my best friend is at work,” shared Kyle. “We worked together off and on for years, and built a family together. Now, we’re excited to build our dream.”
Table for Two at The Guest
Iowa-native Sydney Younggreen and Peruvian-born Brian De Souza first met when they were both working at Her Name Was Carmen in New York City. Not too long after, the pair began hosting their friends and family for free pop-up dinners at Younggreen’s apartment in the Lower East Side.
“We really started creating together early on in our culinary journey,” said Younggreen. “To me, it’s the most natural thing in the world to work together.”
In 2019, the couple landed in Boulder and revived their pop-up dinner concept during the pandemic. This time they called it The Guest, and served a 16-course tasting menu out of their A-frame house on Walnut Street. They converted the main floor of their home – dining room, patio, bedrooms, and all – into a makeshift restaurant, while they lived in the attic.
Today, The Guest has its own brick-and-mortar location in a hidden backroom at the couple’s downtown Denver event space, The Regular. The concept has quickly gained success for the 11-course tasting menu, where the element of surprise remains central to the experience and the menu is withheld until the end of the meal.
Love on Long Play at The Peach Crease Club
Alex Jump and Stuart Jensen have decades of restaurant and bar experience between the two of them, but The Peach Crease Club, which debuted last November, is the married couple’s first venture together.
The concept traces back to the pandemic, when Jensen, who is also a partner in Curio at Denver Central Market and Roger’s Liquid Oasis in Edgewater Public Market, moved into a rental on the edge of Sunnyside with a small backyard shed. Feeling stir crazy from social distancing, he and Jump transformed the space into a home bar they named The Peach Crease Club, using it to host small gatherings amongst friends. When the opportunity arose to open a brick-and-mortar location, they jumped at the chance.
The cheekily named spot housed next to Mission Ballroom focuses on analog sound and craft cocktails. Vinyl records from the pair’s personal collection spin while culinary-driven drinks named after dishes like Borscht (made with vodka, beets, yogurt, dill, lemon, and horseradish cream) and Peaches and Cream (made with peach brandy, bourbon, rum, vanilla and topped with snickerdoodle cookie cream) are mixed and poured.
“My parents have worked together for a long time and are still happily married, so I feel like I have a good role model to look to,” said Jump. “We find a way to talk through our disagreements and apologize to each other when we get snappy or frustrated…You have to be willing to say, ‘you’re right.’”
A Slice of Romance at Outside Pizza
While their relationship didn’t start in Colorado, it sure sounds like it did. After all, Ashely and Ryan Grilleart initially bonded over snowboarding, beer, and a shared love of the outdoors. They came to the Centennial State in 2019.
As for the pizza, initially the couple launched the @outsidepizza Instagram account as a mutual joke, a place to post pizza slices against scenic backdrops during their hikes and adventures. Little did they know, they were inadvertently building a brand that would later lead to a full-fledged pizza shop.
In 2021, they raised money to buy a vintage camper and launched the Outside Pizza trailer, where they began making slices of their own. Ashley brought the dough experience from her time working at Seattle’s Zeeks Pizza, helping shape the shop’s naturally fermented sourdough crust and eclectic creations, like its cult-favorite pickle pie. After years of popping up outside breweries around Denver, they eventually partnered with Cerebral Brewing and opened a shared space in West Highland in 2025.
When asked what it’s like to work together, Ryan said, “I love working with my wife!” And Ashley quickly responded, “Yeah, he does!”
Shared Heritage and Hearts at MAKfam
Kenneth Wan and Doris Yuen first met in 2014 at a happy hour in New York City. Yuen, a biotech professional who had long dreamt of opening a restaurant, found her perfect match in Wan, a chef with experience at acclaimed spots like Xi’an Famous Foods and Momofuku. The pair shared similar upbringings as Yuen immigrated from Hong Kong to Rhode Island as a child and grew up watching her father work as a chef, while Wan spent his childhood at his parents’ Chinese takeout spot in Massachusetts.
A year after meeting, the pair launched the HKFT (Hong Kong French Toast) food stand at the Queens Night Market. Its success led to the creation of Meta Asian Kitchen as a pop-up in Jersey City, which eventually found a home at Avanti Food & Beverage when the couple relocated to Denver in 2019. After years of serving at the food hall, Yuen and Wan opened their own brick-and-mortar, MAKfam, in 2023.
The Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant is known for serving a modern take on classic Chinese dishes such as Chinatown Dumplings, Beef Stir Fry Noodles, and Hong Kong French Toast, and its proud embrace of traditional Chinese ingredients like MSG.
“Ken is my partner in all aspects of life, when we decide to do something, we go all in,” said Yuen. “It’s hard to find someone who has the same drive and passion as you. I’m very lucky.”
Wan mirrored his wife’s sentiment, “This job is hard enough, I love having Doris there to support, because I know she cares as much as I do and that really helps.”
Good Chemistry at Glo Noodle House
The secret to romantic and professional success for husband-and-wife team Chris and Ariana Teigland is, funnily enough, not sharing the kitchen.
“Chris and I tried running a kitchen together, which turned out to be an unsuccessful venture for our relationship,” joked Ariana. “Once we decided to separate the front-of-house and back-of-house, it felt much more harmonious.”
The couple behind the Michelin Bib Gourmand Glo Noodle House first met while working together at Blackbelly in Boulder. The noodle joint is known for its adventurous take on Asian cuisine, with a menu divided up by small plates, skewers, raw options such as hamachi and spicy tuna crispy rice cakes. Diners can also order a variety of eclectic ramens like miso bacon and the Deathwish, made with a chili-pork broth. This spring, the Teiglands will debut their second concept, Odd Rabbit, a sushi restaurant with a “traditionally non-traditional” menu.
“Every service in a restaurant is like a dance between the kitchen and dining room, and I think it helps when you know your partner very well and can anticipate their next steps before they make them,” she concluded.
Buttered and Boo’d Up at Mama Jo’s Biscuits
Over the past 16 years, Jodi Polson, who is known for running the pastry programs at Apple Blossom and Coperta, has built a life with her husband Ben, a former corporate chef for Compass Group. Together, they’ve raised two children while laying the groundwork for what would eventually become Mama Jo’s Biscuits.
When COVID brought the world to a halt and Ben’s job disappeared, the Polsons decided to invest in a food truck, drawing on a pop-up concept Ben had developed during his corporate cooking days. They named it Mama Jo’s after Jodi’s nickname during her pregnancy with their first son, and built a menu inspired by Carolina barbecue traditions and Jodi’s soft, flaky biscuits.
The success of the food truck led the couple to open a brick-and-mortar location last Valentine’s Day on Colfax. They will celebrate its one-year anniversary with a day of BBQ specials, desserts, and prizes.
“I’m grateful to have the kind of relationship with Ben that I do, which means that I’m working every day with my best friend,” said Jodi. “Nothing beats that!”
Funny Valentines at Nocturne Jazz Club
Nicole and Scott Mattson first met in high school, long before the debut of Nocturne, but the idea of running a jazz club was always in the back of their minds. In 2015, that long-held vision became reality when they opened Nocturne in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, historically a cornerstone of the West’s jazz scene. The club is a marriage of the couple’s strengths, leaning into Nicole’s 20-plus years of hospitality management experience and Scott’s sommelier and jazz drumming chops.
Music lovers can enjoy rotating acts Wednesday through Sunday, with shows paired to three-course dinners. Or, go all out with the Ellington Experience, a five-course wine-paired tasting dinner available for two two-tops each night. Guests can also opt to sit at the bar and order a la carte, or simply enjoy a cocktail with the live show. Over the years, the joint has become a well-known romantic date night spot, a reflection of the love that Nicole and Scott have woven into the space.
“There’s times that you come home from a long day at work and you have to say, ‘Hey, we need to stop being business partners and just be husband and wife for a little,’” Nicole shared. “I wouldn’t do it with anyone else, though. The immense amount of trust that’s there just makes it easier to make choices and respect each other.”
This spring, the couple will be setting out on a new adventure with the anticipated opening of their next concept, La Vie En Rose, a Parisian-inspired Champagne and cocktail bar in the RiNo Arts District right next door to Nocturne.
The Power Couple Behind Fonda Fina Hospitality
After years of orbiting in the same restaurant circles, the Curiels connected in 2022, discovering a partnership that extended beyond professional. Before joining forces, Kasie worked for the Hillstone Restaurant Group for more than a decade, honing her operational skills. Johnny, who was born in Guadalajara and immigrated to Denver as a teenager, built his culinary resume working under chefs like Richard Sandoval and Troy Guard.
Since the two have teamed up to create Fonda Fina Hospitality, they’ve become one of the most influential hospitality couples in Colorado with a growing restaurant portfolio that includes two one-Michelin-starred restaurants, Alma Fonda Fina and Mezcaleria Alma in Denver. They also run the Michelin Bib Gourmand Cozobi Fonda Fina in Boulder, and, inside the Clayton Hotel and Members Club in Cherry Creek, the Michelin-recommended Alteno the newly opened Mar Bella Boqueria. Soon, the Curiels will launch Maize, a new tasting-menu concept in RiNo.
“Having the community embrace what we’ve built over these last few years has been so rewarding, but the most meaningful part has been growing together as a couple while building restaurants we both believe in,” said Kasie. “It’s made us stronger as a couple and deepened our marriage in ways I never expected.”
“Sharing my story through these restaurants over the last few years has been incredible, but it wouldn’t mean half as much without her,” added Johnny.
Modern Love and Cuisine at Sap Sua
Anna and Ni Nguyen have earned many accolades for their modern Vietnamese restaurant, sap sua, on Colfax Avenue. The couple first met at the International Culinary Center in Campbell, California, and then briefly went their separate ways after graduation. Ni stayed in the Bay Area while Anna returned home to Colorado. They found their way back to each other in Los Angeles in 2015, growing their culinary careers side by side until the pandemic landed them in the Centennial State.
The couple was determined to build something of their own and launched sap sua after months of testing recipes out of Anna’s parents’ kitchen in Longmont. Before opening, the chefs hosted pop-up dinners at Sunday Vinyl and Pizzeria Locale, and sold Vietnamese baked goods out of back alleys. Finally, in 2023, sap sua finally opened as a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
The restaurant quickly earned national acclaim, landing on Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America list in 2023, and has since earned multiple James Beard nods. More recently, sap sua revived its Saturday Bakehouse concept, giving Anna and pastry chef Korinna Mahan a platform to showcase their skills with items like pecan monkey bread, apple fritters, and Vietnamese banana rum cake.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” said Anna when asked what it’s like working with her husband. “It’s really kind of what makes it all great, it’s fun and enjoyable to be around him. We’re super collaborative in the creative sense, and in the kitchen we’re super in sync, which is honestly just a joy.”
