Colorado scores whopping 18 Beard noms
It’s officially food awards season.
On Wednesday, the James Beard Foundation announced this year’s award semifinalists, and Colorado chefs and restaurants already won big.
Across the state, 18 chefs, restaurateurs, restaurants, bars and a spirits producer received nominations for the 2020 James Beard Foundation Awards. Last year, just eight Colorado semifinalists were named.
James Beard Awards are given at the national and regional level, and Colorado got a whopping seven nods among the countrywide categories. Ten Colorado chefs were also nominated for Best Chef in the mountain region, which includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
Following last year’s awards, the James Beard Foundation redistricted its regional map, giving California and Texas their own categories and creating a new Mountain category. (Colorado was previously considered among Southwest states.)
But many Colorado chefs and restaurants saw nominations for the first time in awhile — if not ever — this year, including Sunday Vinyl, Sushi Den, Spuntino, Bar Dough, Crafted Concepts, Beckon and Hop Alley.
“It’s really cool to see the traditionally lesser-known names on this type of list,” said Tommy Lee, who was nominated for the first time this year for Best
Chef Mountain region for his restaurant, Hop Alley. “It seems like (the James Beard Foundation is) really making an effort to recognize the larger pool.”
Last week, Denver’s 35-yearold El Taco de Mexico was even honored with a 2020 America’s Classics Award from the Beard Foundation.
And Lee’s restaurants aren’t
brand new to Denver, either. He opened Hop Alley in RiNo in 2015 and Uncle in LoHi in 2012, finally expanding that ramen shop to a second location last year in Wash Park.
“I never really open these restaurants to win awards,” he said. “It’s more about, you know, taking care of my employees . ... I think this is just backing up that we are doing something great and doing it on our own terms. Ultimately, we’re not trying to win awards, but it’s very cool to be nominated.”
Lee was running errands Wednesday morning when the nominations were announced. Across the state, in Grand Junction, restaurateur Josh Niernberg was cleaning grease traps.
Niernberg — and Grand Junction — received the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Mountain region nod for the first time this year for his work at Bin 707 Foodbar. He also owns Grand Junction restaurant concepts Taco Party and Dinner Party.
“I am so proud to help raise the profile of the Mountain region,” Niernberg said. “My goal has always been for diners to take away the story of Grand Junction and Western Colorado in a single dish. I am proud to represent my state — most especially the Western Slope — and my hometown of Grand Junction. I am also representing the community of talented Colorado farmers and producers I work with every day.”
Niernberg, Lee and the other semifinalists will find out on March 25 if they make it to the finals, and winners will be revealed at the annual James Beard Awards gala in Chicago on May 4.
Denver and Boulder restaurateur Bobby Stuckey knows the three-step process well by now. In 2019, his 15-year-old restaurant Frasca Food and Wine won its third James Beard Award, for Outstanding Service (now referred to as Outstanding Hospitality). This year, it’s nominated for Outstanding Restaurant alongside Denver’s Sushi Den.
Meanwhile, Stuckey’s twomonth-old Denver wine bar Sunday Vinyl also is nominated for Best New Restaurant in the country in 2020.
“I’m really overwhelmed with (the nominations),” Stuckey said, adding, “opening restaurants is emotional.”
While opening Sunday Vinyl in December, he told his team: “We’re going to have some teary nights and teary days and exhaustion. And remember nothing’s going to feel normal for a minimum of 90 days. And I don’t want people to lose sight that we will find our normalcy and our lifestyle.”
Now just 60-some days into running the restaurant, that hard opening work has paid off, and Stuckey and his team hope Sunday Vinyl, its neighbor Tavernetta and Frasca in Boulder will stay busy as ever, until the next award announcement.
“It’s going to be the perfect day to bus some tables,” he said. “I’ll tell you that.”
One long under-the-radar Denver restaurant, Spuntino, received the most nods of any Colorado nominee this year.
Spuntino owner Cindhura Reddy and her chef de cuisine Austin Nickel were both nominated, for Best Chef Mountain region and Rising Star Chef of the Year, respectively.
“I actually don’t know how it happened, or how we were nominated,” Reddy said. “I’m just super flattered and in awe and totally floored.” She and her husband, Elliot Strathmann, have run the Highland restaurant since 2014, while Nickel came on-board three years ago.
“It was very quickly obvious to me that we saw eye to eye on all the important things,” Reddy said of Nickel. “We kind of just run the kitchen cooperatively and collaborate on all the menus.” When Reddy, Nickel, Strathmann and others from their 13-person team walked into the restaurant on Wednesday to prepare for their midRestaurant Week dinner service, there was shock and excitement, and some tears.
With a busy night ahead of them, they pulled it together and got back to work: “Let’s just cook,” Reddy said.
Here are the 2020 James Beard Foundation Award semifinalists from Colorado:
Best New Restaurant: Sunday Vinyl, Denver
Outstanding Bar Program: Williams & Graham, Denver
Outstanding Restaurant: Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder; Sushi Den, Denver
Outstanding Restaurateur: Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch, Crafted Concepts, Denver (Rioja, Bistro Vendôme, Stoic & Genuine and others)
Outstanding Wine Program: Element 47 at The Little Nell, Aspen
Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Producer: Todd Leopold and Scott Leopold, Leopold Bros., Denver
Rising Star Chef of the Year: Austin Nickel, Spuntino, Denver
Best Chef, Mountain Region (CO, ID, MT, UT, WY): Carrie Baird, Bar Dough, Denver; Caroline Glover, Annette, Aurora; Duncan Holmes, Beckon, Denver; Tommy Lee, Hop Alley, Denver; Brother Luck, Four by Brother Luck, Colorado Springs; Josh Niernberg, Bin 707 Foodbar, Grand Junction; Cindhura Reddy, Spuntino, Denver; Dana Rodriguez, Super Mega Bien, Denver; Kelly Whitaker, The Wolf’s Tailor, Denver; Luis Young, Penrose Room, Colorado Springs