10 new Denver restaurants, bars and breweries to try this fall

Caroline Glover, the 2022 James Beard Award-winning chef behind Annette, is opening a second restaurant at Aurora's Stanley Marketplace in December.

• Her latest concept will be a 28-seat cocktail and oyster bar called Traveling Mercies, featuring a seafood-centric menu and coastally-inspired wines and spirits.

The big picture: Traveling Mercies is just one of more than a dozen new destinations heating up the metro Denver dining scene.

• Here are nine other restaurants, bars and breweries that have opened, or soon will, that we're especially eager to check out:

🥢 MAKfam: The owners of Meta Asian Kitchen — an NYC-area pop-up turned Denver food hall concept — debuted their brick-and-mortar restaurant Nov. 1 in the Baker neighborhood. The fast-casual restaurant specializes in tradition-inspired Chinese food, including steamy bao buns, homemade dumplings and spicy noodles.

🥙 ASLI Mediterranean Grill: This Virginia Vale eatery, which opened Nov. 5, is one of just a handful of kosher restaurants in the area, featuring a menu that will "transport your taste buds" to Turkey and Jerusalem.

🥐 The Bakehouse at Sap Sua: Vietnamese restaurant Sap Sua on East Colfax — named one of this year's most anticipated openings — will debut a bakery Saturday that will be open on weekends and serve coffee cakes, banana bread and more.

🍺 Monolith Brewing: Located in the former Black Project space on South Broadway, this brewery opened Nov. 10 and prides itself in all things sustainability, from nixing paper products to sourcing ingredients locally.

🍜 Kawa Ni: What started in Connecticut has expanded into Denver's LoHi neighborhood as a Japanese pub concept. The restaurant, which quietly opened Nov. 2, focuses on dumplings, noodle bowls and a vast whiskey selection.

🌸 Domo: This country-style Japanese restaurant known for its stunning garden reopened this month. It now only serves lunch Monday-Saturday, and no longer takes reservations.

• Flashback: The restaurant was forced to close in 2021 after going viral on TikTok, which led to crowded conditions that ran counter to social distancing measures at the time.

🍸 Call Me Pearl: Come for the cocktails and stay for the caviar service at this intimate downtown martini bar, which opened Nov. 4, in the cozy lounge of the Rally Hotel at McGregor Square.

🍻 Out of the Barrel Taproom: Opening Friday in the Governor's Park neighborhood, this bar will pour local craft beers from small, lesser-known breweries across the state. The brewery is located in the former Counter Culture Brewery & Grille space.

🍦 Sweet Izzy: This dairy-free ice cream shop hails from Massachusetts and held its soft opening last week. The shop serves hard- and soft-serve ice cream – all of which is vegan, soy-free and gluten-free.