After a summer of false starts, Bruto is finally open at the Dairy Block. The new restaurant by James Beard-nominated chef Kelly Whitaker — who also owns award-winning restaurants The Wolf’s Tailor and Basta — is the latest addition along this activated downtown alleyway.
Elsewhere on the block, you’ll find dining options like Kachina Cantina, Milk Market and Run for the Roses, for late-night snacks. Here’s what to know about the new Bruto, and its offshoot, coffee counter BOH.
1. The location: Free Market at Dairy Block
Bruto is surrounded by boutique retail and caters to shoppers, but don’t come expecting mall food court fare like ice cream and pizza by the slice. Instead, you’ll find versions of shopper-friendly comfort foods kicked up a notch. The closest thing to pizza on the current menu is a calzone filled with pork al pastor, pineapple and cilantro. The closest thing to ice cream is fancy soft-serve, which is not far off. (More on this later).
2. The names: “Bruto” and “BOH”
Bruto has a few meanings in Spanish. One is “raw” and another is “crude,” and both could apply here. The large, wrap-around bar that separates Bruto’s kitchen from the dining and shopping areas at Free Market is a place for people to pause, grab a drink and have some snacks.
There you’ll find “raw bar” options such as vegetable crudités with hummus; avocado and bass tiradito; and West Coast oysters with yuzu mignonette. Where “crude” comes in: Whitaker is designing the menu around Colorado-grown grains, which he’s harvesting with his team in the San Luis Valley to then mill on-site at the restaurant.
As for BOH, it stands for “back of house.” It’s where the coffee, ice cream and grains are made. The space will also host workshops.
3. The toys: a grain mill, wood-burning oven and soft-serve machine
Soft-serve ice cream just keeps getting cooler in Denver, and now BOH — Bruto’s coffee shop, pastry counter and workshop space — is equipped with a soft-serve machine that churns out the most complex flavors yet.
Find earthy-sweet combinations like matcha and taro root. And check out the restaurant’s grain mill while you’re there. Imported from Switzerland, it takes heirloom rye and wheat varieties grown in Colorado and makes flour for all of Bruto’s house-made breads cooked to a perfect char inside the wood-burning oven at the restaurant.
4. The food: Spanish, Mexican, Italian, Japanese and more
Chef Josh LeGrand is leading the kitchen at Bruto. He just came back to Denver after stints at Washington D.C. fine dining destinations Metier and Kinship. And he’s an alum of Basta, Whitaker’s original Boulder Italian restaurant. The task for LeGrand is to apply all that training to this new boutique-shop environment.
You’ll find a smattering of Spanish, Mexican and Peruvian ingredients among the chefs’ now-familiar Italian and Japanese dishes on the new menu. They’re pairing tomatillo salsa with savory okonomiyaki pancakes and black sobrasada sausage with pluots (plum apricots) and puffed quinoa.
5. The drinks: Champagne, spritzes and more bubbly cocktails to drink while you shop
The stores around Bruto aren’t cheap. See: Aesop skincare and lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne, along with six other high-end shops. To add to the pampering experience, Bruto sells plenty of alcohol that you can sip while shopping.
Bar manager Raffi Jergerian built his cocktail and wine lists mainly around bubbles, from Prosecco by the bottle and glass to a sparkling, salt-rimmed Paloma. But you’ll also find martinis, sazeracs and local ciders and beers to pair with your extravagant purchases.
Bruto at Free Market: 1801 Blake St., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. every day except Monday, freemrkt.co
