Taste of home: Restaurateurs ordering up Colorado to go

It may not make much sense at first glance that a chain of pizzerias called Old Chicago actually was born on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, not on State Street in the Windy City.

Or how about Boston Market and Tokyo Joe’s? Same story. First known as Boston Chicken when it was founded in 1995, the first Boston Market opened in Golden, not Massachusetts. And Larry Leith opened the first Tokyo Joe’s in 1996 in Denver, not in the capital city of Japan.

Fact is, our state is home to scores of eateries that got their start here — especially in Boulder, Northern Colorado and metro Denver — and have since branched out across the country and, in some cases, around the world.

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But why?
Kimbal Musk, a native of Pretoria, South Africa, who moved to Boulder and co-founded The Kitchen and its spinoffs, has an idea.

“My theory,” Musk said, “is that almost everyone in Colorado chose to be here, or are maybe second generation, and that brought together some of the brightest minds from around the world who also care about thriving personally.”

Carolyn Livingston, communications director for the Colorado Restaurant Association, added that the same goes for restaurant customers in Colorado.

“They’re also part of the demographics,” she said. “They’re a very transient group, and younger and younger. It’s part of their culture to go out to meals every single day.”

“People come to live in Colorado because of its lifestyle,” said Courtney Walsh, The Kitchen’s communications director. “It draws people, and they feel empowered to do what they want to do.”

That enthusiasm bursts forth on local radio any given Saturday during shows hosted by veteran reviewers Warren Byrne on KEZW-AM 1430 and Pat “Gabby Gourmet” Miller on KHOW-AM 630, as Front Range food fanatics jam the phone lines to compare notes on the newest eateries they’ve found.

It shows up in the numbers as well, Livingston said, especially in the fast-casual sector.

Colorado is an incubator for fast-casual restaurant chains, and boasts the highest per capita number of those businesses of anywhere in the nation — 12 to 13 per 1,000 people, as opposed to about five per thousand in the rest of the United States.

“Another tidbit I found out just last week,” she said, “is that Colorado restaurant scene has boomed in the past 10 years, growing by nearly 1,000 locations and 40,000 employees. Even more astounding is that most of that happened in the past five years. We have 38,000 additional employees and 900 locations.”

Livingston speculated that Coloradans, both natives and transplants, “have a closer familiarity with fresh food, farm to table — the Colorado approach anyway. And even fast casual is trying to fit into that.”

The list of Colorado-born chains is familiar across the country, including Chipotle, Qdoba, Smashburger, Mad Greens, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Modern Market. Budding regional ventures such as Larkburger, Good Times and 3 Margaritas are spreading their wings out of state as well — and in the case of Greeley-based Wing Shack, it’s literally.

Often it’s a family affair. J. Manuel Morales started Las Margaritas in Seattle in 1990 and opened more than a dozen locations in that area, then sold that chain of Mexican restaurants to former employees but kept the name and moved to Denver — but the name “Las Margaritas” was already taken. So they picked a number, and “3 Margaritas” was the result.

Morales and family members have spread their 3 Margaritas restaurants along the Front Range and into Nebraska and Wyoming.

According to the chain’s website, 3 Margaritas “is an example of the immigrant dream, which included financial success as well as a chance to go back home and help those left behind.”

In Mexico, according to the website, “the nine Morales kids, six girls and three boys, slept on mats on the floor of a two-bedroom house at their small ranch. After school they worked in the fields. Today all of them own at least one restaurant.”

Manuel Morales’ brother Nicolas now is mayor of his hometown of Cuatla, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. “His agenda is ambitious,” according to the website, “to change the very conditions-lack of jobs, education and opportunity-that made him cross the border to the United States when he was 17.”

The idea of connecting family, friends and community also tells the story of how The Kitchen was born and operates today.

In 2002, Kimbal Musk and Jen Lewin moved to Boulder, met British transplant Hugo Matheson and decided to create a “world-class neighborhood restaurant.” The name came from their desire that the restaurant be a lot like the kitchen in someone’s home — a gathering place where family and guests like to hang out.”

But just as with the Morales family, The Kitchen decided to give back.

“In 2010 Kimbal went down a ski hill and broke his neck,” Walsh said. “He was paralyzed for a bit on his left side. He had surgery and was in bed for two months. While he lay there, he had this epiphany that he wanted to focus on what he loved — how to make the Kitchen work and scale local food. He wasn’t quite sure how to do that with just The Kitchen itself. He realized he wanted to dedicate his life to figure out things like the obesity epidemic. So he and Hugo devised Learning Gardens — modular raised beds teachers could play in — and how to make simple real food affordable. So the Kitchen Community was founded in 2011, and so was Next Door.”

The owners opened their first Next Door restaurant in Boulder, with a price point similar to Chili’s, Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s — “but as a real-food alternative,” Walsh said. Locations also were opened in Denver’s Union Station and in Glendale.

The Kitchen also opened in Denver, and in 2014 it came to Fort Collins at the busy Old Town corner of College and Mountain avenues, the former home of a Beau Jos pizzeria.

The Kitchen Community, a philanthropic 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is focused on making “community through food” a reality in a different way than the restaurants. Through the nonprofit, The Kitchen developed the Learning Gardens — scalable gardens that are installed at local schools to help children get in touch with where their food comes from and have a connection with it. They’re much more likely to eat the vegetables they plant.”

One was installed in May 2014 at Bauder Elementary in Fort Collins.
Next, for The Kitchen, inevitably, has come the reach out of state — but always in touch with the Colorado roots and philosophy.

“We opened our first restaurant in Chicago, in the River North district,” Walsh said, “and then we worked with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to bring Learning Gardens to Chicago. We’re now operating Learning Gardens in 118 schools in Chicago schools, and we plan to have 200.”

They’re spreading the concept to Memphis, Tenn., as well, Walsh said, as part of The Kitchen’s “Heartland strategy” — “to build a network of restaurants supplied by local suppliers, because locally sourced food develops relationships with farmers and ranchers.

“Our goal is basically join communities and accelerate a food culture at scale,” she said. “Rather than just doing one or two gardens, we go really deep into the communities we work with.

“We’re about to open The Next Door in January — same concept as the one we opened in Boulder — in Shelby Farms Park in Memphis,” she said. “More than half of the food is sourced locally or through a direct relationship with the purveyor. Fish is a good example of that in Colorado; it’s not local, obviously, but we have that direct relationship.

“We’ve planned 100 Learning Gardens in Memphis schools, and we already have 60,” Walsh said. “We’ve also gotten funding to put 100 Learning Gardens in Indianapolis. We’re scouting locations.”

According to The Kitchen’s website, “being a community establishment also includes our commitment to environmentally friendly practices, including composting, wind power, eco-friendly packaging and recycling.”
Sounds a lot like Colorado values.

Dallas Heltzell can be reached at 970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or dheltzell@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.