Bigsby’s Folly plans larger ‘roaring 20s-inspired’ winery

Bigsby’s Folly Craft Winery & Restaurant’s plans for its Superior expansion are growing.

The team behind the Superior project, couple Marla Yetka and Chad Yetka, who are also the operators of the original Bigsby’s Folly in Denver’s River North neighborhood, previously received approval to build 5,400 square feet of interior restaurant and events venue space at the corner of Creek View Way and Marshall Road.

Now the Yetkas are set to go before the Superior Board of Trustees on Monday evening seeking an amendment to the final development plan that would bump the allowable building size up to 6,200 square feet.

Plans for Bigsby’s Folly’s Superior outpost, which is described in Superior planning documents as being “roaring 20s-inspired,” also call for outdoor patio and roof deck seating areas.

“Bigsby’s will bring its proven and successful combination of an upscale, family-friendly restaurant, award-winning winery, full bar, and popular private event venue to serve as a community gathering place. Our rooftop deck will have unmatched mountain views for everyone to enjoy,” the operators said in a memo to Superior planners.

The Yetkas founded Bigsby’s Folly Craft Winery & Restaurant in 2017. “About a year or two after we opened, we knew the concept was viable, and we wanted to reproduce it in other areas,” Marla Yetka told Bizwest in a January interview. “But we wanted the second location to be close enough to the first so that we could really be there and have the owner present.”

After an exhaustive search for sites all along the Front Range, the Yetkas found a location in central Superior, where the Downtown Superior development would soon sprout, and “we just kind of fell in love with it,” she said. The “lack of event venues and good wineries and bars” presented an opportunity for Bigsby’s to fill a niche in the community that had plans to build hundreds of homes and thousands of square feet of office space near the Yetkas’ target site at the corner of Coal Creek Drive and Marshall Road.

The couple was on the verge of signing a lease when the pandemic struck. “Obviously, everything halted,” Yetka said.