Downtown dumpling house expanding to Tennyson Street this summer
Bao Brewhouse, an Asian fusion concept, also has a new executive chef.
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The blossoming Tennyson Street corridor in Denver will serve as the second location for Bao Brewhouse, an Asian fusion restaurant with a design that will emulate the neon and graffiti-tagged streets of the continent’s food stalls and markets, its owner says.
Already occupying a two-story structure off of downtown’s Larimer Square, the second Bao Brewhouse, on 3973 Tennyson St., is expected to open this summer, owner Michael Swift said. Carpenters were at work replacing the entire main floor of the black, stately building on Tuesday.
“I want you to feel like you’re transported from Denver to a major city in Asia,” Swift said, adding that he envisions an even stronger “street-food, taproom experience” than that of his taproom downtown.
The concept also has a new executive chef: Joe Bracero, a Miami chef who specializes in Asian food and has worked at restaurants in Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago. He’s taking over the helm of partner and chef Jose Guerrero, who Swift brought on board earlier to help curate the menu and organize the kitchen.
“With the expansion of Bao, we really wanted to find an executive chef to take over, be a lot more hands-on and be in the building,” Swift said of Bracero’s hire.
Bracero has also helped refine the recipes, he said. Crispy tuna rice and maple miso sea bass are two new menu items; others, like the Peking duck and a full-size red snapper, have been tweaked.
The Larimer Square location, at 1317 14th St., is sandwiched between two related concepts: the Bao Brewhouse tea room upstairs and Ukiyo, a sushi chef’s counter in the basement.
Borrowing from the taproom’s more casual environment, Swift said the Tennyson Street restaurant will have an order counter for dumplings, skewers and other savory dishes prepared in rapid-fire fashion.
“For me, it’s one of the most fun foods,” he said of dumplings, calling himself a “connoisseur” of the bite-size, stuffed snacks.
Swift, 44, opened the original Bao Brewhouse in late 2020. Asana Partners, the North Carolina real estate investment firm that owns Larimer Square and redeveloped the block in recent years, also owns the building he’s moving into on Tennyson, property records confirm.
In addition to Bao Brewhouse and Ukiyo, Swift also runs Jimoto Ramen in Aspen.
Another building on the Berkeley neighborhood block, at 3965 Tennyson St., will reopen its doors this year as American Lore, a bar and hat store.
