"It's an honor to be back in the kitchen here at Bar Dough and a creative challenge to revamp the menu with fresh Colorado flavors while staying true to our neighborhood vision," Carrie Baird said when she came back to the restaurant on West 32nd Avenue this September, according to DiningOut.
Lower Highland's dining year has followed the same pattern. From June to September 2026, each notable LoHi opening came from an operator Denver diners already knew or moved into a room the neighborhood already knew. A chef went back to her old kitchen. A restaurateur who had left Tennyson Street came back to a small stretch of Platte Street. A butcher that has been on Tejon Street since 2013 took over the space next door. A restaurant group that already runs several Denver concepts opened its upscale line on Central Street. The one LoHi room that changed hands without a familiar name ready to step in still has no announced tenant.
The chef who went back to Bar Dough
Bar Dough, at 2227 W. 32nd Ave., is the place where Baird was an early member of the team and earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination in 2019, DiningOut reported. She never really left the company that owns it. She is still culinary director of The Culinary Creative Group's Tap & Burger restaurants and a partner and chef at Fox and the Hen, the Highland breakfast spot she opened in 2023. Axios Denver says she is now running Bar Dough full-time.
The changes are seasonal and some of the produce is grown on site. General manager Jaime Flanagan keeps a garden at the restaurant. A late-summer fettuccine used Olathe sweet corn and Jimmy Nardello peppers. Baird also brought back her Fancy Toast, which is currently Centennial beef tartare on sourdough made from Bar Dough's 13-year-old starter. That same starter goes into a pizza dough fermented for 72 hours. In September the restaurant announced an $8 personal pan pizza for happy hour. The pollo al limone stays on the menu.
Since the menu follows the harvest, the dishes described in September won't all be there in November. DiningOut said as much. The constants are the starter, the wood-fired oven and the restaurant's ten-year reputation.
A restaurateur back on a small street
A few blocks downhill, the same pattern shows up with a different operator. Marco Albertin opened La Vietta Trattoria on July 9 in the former BriDer space at 1644 Platte St. DiningOut reported that the name comes from the "little street in Italy" Albertin sees in that short block of Platte. Before this, he owned Voghera Ristorante & Apericena on Tennyson Street, which closed a few years ago.
The menu is mostly pasta, with Milanese cutlets, steaks and imported Italian snacks alongside. Albertin's old Tennyson restaurant had aperitivo in its name, and La Vietta keeps the idea going with an aperitivo menu. It includes bruschetta, polenta, meatballs and small pizzas, plus spritzes, Negronis, house wine and Peroni. The materials we reviewed don't list aperitivo hours, so the restaurant is the place to confirm them.
The butcher that took the room next door
Bar Dough is a chef returning to her kitchen and La Vietta is an operator returning to the area. Western Daughters is the clearest case of a business growing into the space beside it. Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe opened at 3326 Tejon St. in 2013. This summer its owners opened Western Daughters Wine Bar next door, in the room that most recently held Mr. Lucky's Sandwich Shop, the Denver Post reported. The wine bar's own page gives June 2026 as its opening date.
The restaurant follows the same sourcing rules as the shop. It has 30 seats. General manager Noah Heaney runs it and Chris Snider, who started at the butcher shop several months before the restaurant opened, is the chef. Western Daughters works mostly with farms and ranches within 150 miles of Denver, and every bottle on the wine list is certified organic, biodynamic or made with those farming practices. Heaney told the Post that longtime regulars of the shop are now regulars at the restaurant too, and described the staff this way:
"My coworkers, they'll hold your baby if you have to go to the bathroom."
The Post's critic singled out the burger, with beef bacon, tallow aioli and tobacco onion, and also the dry-aged pork chop with chicharron gremolata. Dinner runs Wednesday through Sunday, 3 to 10 p.m. Brunch start times differ by source: the Post listed 8 a.m. on weekends, and the wine bar's site currently says 10 a.m.
A known group, a new tier, on Central Street
The fourth opening looks the most like a newcomer, but it also comes from an existing operator. Blossom by SYC opened at 1691 Central St. in July. It comes from Shuang "Sherry" Crossland, who already runs the Bronze Empire, Miya Moon and Chubby Fish Sushi through One Concept Restaurant Group. She set up a second company, SYC Concepts, for higher-end restaurants, and its projects include Sushi by SYC and Blossom, 5280 reported. The magazine put it on its fall 2026 list of the city's best new places to eat and drink.
5280 describes small plates such as steamed dumplings, Sichuan-seasoned wagyu tartare and lychee shrimp pearls, along with caviar service and wagyu chow fun. The restaurant's site still calls this a soft opening. Dinner is Sunday through Thursday 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., dine-in only, with reservations recommended.
How the four rooms line up
| Venue | Address | What came before | Who is behind it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar Dough | 2227 W. 32nd Ave. | Same restaurant, now entering its second decade | Carrie Baird, back full-time in September 2026 |
| La Vietta Trattoria | 1644 Platte St. | BriDer | Marco Albertin, formerly of Voghera on Tennyson |
| Western Daughters Wine Bar | Next door to 3326 Tejon St. | Mr. Lucky's Sandwich Shop | The butcher shop open since 2013 |
| Blossom by SYC | 1691 Central St. | Not reported | SYC Concepts, Sherry Crossland's upscale group |
Two of the four moved into rooms that had already been restaurants. One is the same restaurant with its former chef back in the kitchen. The fourth comes from an operator that already runs several Denver restaurants. Every row has a familiar person or business attached.
The room without a second act yet
The counterexample is on the same street as Bar Dough. Park Burger's Highland location at 2643 W. 32nd Ave. was set to close July 28 after its lease was not renewed, Westword reported. DiningOut noted that it had been there more than 15 years. We have not found a replacement tenant announced in any of the coverage we reviewed.
Fifteen years is a long run for one restaurant in one room. Every other room on this list was filled by a familiar chef, operator or neighbor. At 2643, no one has been announced.
Elsewhere in LoHi, the familiar places are mostly holding. When Tap & Burger closed its DTC location in July, its founder told BusinessDen that the LoHi location would stay open, at least as of that July 23 report. Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery at 2418 W. 32nd Ave. was listed as a reopening in Westword's August roundup.
What's on the calendar between now and December
The season adds a few dates around these restaurants, some in LoHi and some just west of it:
- Through October 31: Lady Jane, 2021 W. 32nd Ave., is running its "Black Lagoon" Halloween pop-up daily, with varying hours, according to Denverite.
- October 25, 2 to 5 p.m.: West of LoHi in Highland Square, the free Harvest Festival and Trick or Treat Street fills 32nd Avenue between Julian and Newton streets with a costume contest, a pumpkin patch, a beer garden and trick-or-treating at local businesses.
- December 5, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Holiday in the Highlands brings local makers, food and drinks, with Santa and carriage rides at 3737 W. 32nd Ave. from noon to 3 p.m.
A full loop of the year's openings starts at La Vietta on Platte for aperitivo, goes up Central past Blossom, and ends at Bar Dough or the Western Daughters bar on Tejon for dinner. Each stop was opened or reopened by an operator with a track record in Denver.
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