Tell us about the Edible Beats concept.
Edible Beats is a collection of enticing ingredients—hospitality and food that is guest driven, groove-friendly design, and communicates a story above all. All of the Edible Beats restaurants take inspiration from the history and location of their original buildings and the celebrate the musicality of how we do things, what our culture is like, and how the design is improvised, dynamic, and influenced by listening to the buildings speak.
What is special about Ophelia’s, your newest location after Root Down and Linger in Denver?
Essentially Ophelia’s is a Victorian, gastro- brothel, live music venue, and bar all in one. It is steeped in repurposed design, sex, and damn good food and music. The building is an 1894-era Victorian brownstone—it was a brothel turned peep show turned adult video library and is also on the National Register of Historic Places in Denver. It was too hard to pass up such a rich and sordid history.
You’re a chef by training but also design your restaurants. What was Ophelia’s process?
I handled the interior design myself in close collaboration with [locally based] BOSS Architects—our collaboration exceeds what I’d be able to do on my own. I love to mix in design elements from reclaimed and mid-mod collections I’ve bought off Craigslist, eBay, yard and estate sales, and even found some in random alleyways. We found this great picture of our muse, a strong, empowered woman who is naked from the waist up. We called her Ophelia, and over time that became the name of the restaurant. The design is a mashup style of recycled and repurposed craziness similar to what I’ve done at Root Down and Linger.
Why do your concepts work well in Denver?
Denver is such a young, genuine city. The peoples’ philosophy of health, life, vibrancy—it all comes together. Denver is still underrated, underappreciated, and undiscovered. People are hungry for more food, music, art, culture. It’s an exciting time to be here and to see the evolution of such a vibrant and proud city.
What else do you have in the works?
I have two projects in the next year: One is a fast-slow food idea that will be a vegetarian-ayurvedic fast-casual restaurant, aimed at connecting healthy and tasty food in the fast food world we live in. The second is a tapas restaurant that will have, bar none, the best view of the city skyline.
