For a city with such a serious baking obsession, Denver started out on a much slower burn.
We used to have what every other urban center could claim: a smattering of beloved neighborhood shops, plus the occasional destination baked good to seek out.
Then, over the course of the pandemic, our collective baking lust led to an explosion of cottage bakeries, baking Instagram accounts and bake sales, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since junior high.
Thanks to Colorado’s Cottage Foods Act, social justice fundraisers and social media, everyone from enthusiasts to pros started baking comfort foods and finding their own dedicated audience. By the end of 2020, pastry and bread devotees were even waiting outside of some Denver bakeries for hours just to get a bite.
Now many of these small-business success stories that came about during the baking boom of 2020 are graduating into full-scale bricks-and-mortar restaurants and shops.
Bittersweetly, they replace the businesses that closed before them in the pandemic. But they’re bringing a renewed energy to the dining scene — scratch that, to the baking scene — that Denver didn’t know it was fermenting all these years.
Here are three new bakeries worth getting in line for over the coming months.
Jeff Fierberg, Provided by Hearth
Hearth specializes in sourdough breads, bagels and pastries made with the bakery's own house-milled flours.
Hearth specializes in sourdough breads, bagels and pastries made with the bakery's own house-milled flours.
Jeff Fierberg, Provided by Hearth
Hearth specializes in sourdough breads, bagels and pastries made with the bakery's own house-milled flours.
Hearth
Before starting Hearth, Matt Quinlisk worked as the pastry chef at Moxie Bread Co. in Louisville, learning everything he possibly could from Andy Clark, who Quinlisk considers a main source of Colorado’s current baking craze. From Clark, Quinlisk learned the importance of sourcing and milling local grains and using that homemade flour in fresh-baked bread.
“A beautiful, poetic, big country sourdough loaf,” is the way he describes the kind of bread he’ll sell at Hearth when it opens later this month, at 2500 Lawrence St. in Five Points. “I think it’s a really cool time to be a baker in Denver, and I think there are so many options for high-quality products,” Quinlisk said. “There really hasn’t been a better time to utilize local grain and really up the bread game in Colorado, and nationally, too.”
When Hearth debuts in the space previously occupied by Third Culture Bakery, Quinlisk will sell his own bags of flour, various sourdough loaves and baguettes, plus bagels, a spread of pastries, shortbreads, cookies and house-made granolas. He’s been perfecting his own spin on their recipes over the past two years, by selling them wholesale to local coffee shops and direct to customers at farmers markets. Once the place is up and running, Quinlisk will start serving lunch in the garden space behind his shop and the restaurant Uchi, where Altius Farms grows herbs and seasonal flowering plants.
Hearth, 2500 Lawrence St., Denver, 781-710-1569. Opening late July, with farmers market stands in City Park, Highland, Union Station, Arvada and Golden throughout summer. hearthdenver.co
Provided by LIVstudio
A rendering of the bakery side of Noisette, opening in Aug. in Denver's Highland.
Provided by Noisette
At Noisette, pastry chef Lillian Lu will make French desserts such as canneles, macarons and eclairs.
Noisette
By August, Lillian Lu and her husband, Tim, will open a French-inspired bakery and restaurant in the same space where There closed in 2020. The new restaurant owners worked together in New York City before deciding to move to Colorado in 2018 to be closer to family. While their plan all along was to open a restaurant and bakery of their own, the Lus honed their skills by first working in the kitchens of Crema Coffee House and Beckon, respectively.
“We had heard Denver had a burgeoning culinary scene, so we definitely wanted to go somewhere that was moving forward in that way,” Lillian said. “And we always knew that we wanted to do French food. The French style of baking is a little bit lighter and a little bit softer. And then for the restaurant, (we’re following) a tradition of mothers’ and grandmothers’ cooking. So the dishes will be quite homey in flavor, I think.”
At Noisette (French for hazelnut and pronounced Nwa-set), they’ll provide coffee and pastries — from a signature hazelnut chocolate éclair to macarons and cannelés — as well as baguettes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, before switching to dinner service on the other side of the shop starting at 5 p.m.
“I’m not going to do anything with a starter as of yet,” Lillian said, “but will have baguette and brioche. And I love making chocolates, so a selection of bonbons and macarons and maybe some French cookies as well.”
Noisette, 3254 Navajo St., Denver, 720-769-8103. Restaurant coming early August; bakery coming by late August. noisettedenver.com
Jintak Han, The Denver Post
A slice of cherry cream pie at chef Matt Dulin's home in Denver on Sunday, July 10.
Jintak Han, The Denver Post
Chef Matt Dulin serves cherry cream pies at his home in Denver, Sunday, July 10.
Jintak Han, The Denver Post
Chef Matt Dulin sprinkles garnish over dessert pies as he talks to his wife Lindsey Judd and son Lani Dulin at their home in Denver, Sunday, July 10.
Jintak Han, The Denver Post
Chef Matt Dulin sprinkles garnish over cherry pies he baked at his home in Denver, Sunday, July 10.
GetRight’s
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more emblematic, pandemic-era hospitality story than that of Matt Dulin. The former Uncle sous chef went from cooking nightly for a hit local restaurant to selling houseplants and sourdough bread out of his Denver home. He dabbled in street markets, picked up odd landscaping jobs, and polled his bread customers on what they were most looking to buy from their favorite local, unemployed chefs. The answer, he found, was mostly pastries and baked goods.
“I didn’t want to get into pastries because I don’t have a background in pastry anything,” Dulin said. “I started with a shortbread cookie, plum gallette and coffee cake. And it was all the sweet things that drew people in. In the beginning, I wanted to simplify my life and my offerings: just sourdough bread, that’s it. And then I just kept trying new things every week … and I realized the process was the kind of thing I could fall in love with.”
At GetRight’s, which has gained a loyal following of bread, baked good and pastry — not to mention houseplant — buyers, Dulin gets to combine a number of passions, last but not least of which is cooking dinner for a community around him. This season he started selling out intimate backyard dinners that Dulin and his wife, Lindsey Judd, serve behind their family home. They invite local chef-friends to cook for some of the meals; for others, Dulin breaks out the savory skills himself.
It’s all building toward the opening of GetRight’s brick-and-mortar bake shop, lunch cafe and occasional rooftop dinner spot, which will be ready at 6985 W. 38th Ave. in Wheat Ridge sometime this fall. By the time it’s open, Dulin will have worked for about three years to get that balance of his own passions and those of his customer base just right.
“It’s a lot of learning not to force stuff even though you’re still trying to constantly push,” Dulin said. “I think it’s a lot of ego and let-down combined into one that keeps you in check. Without both of them, I think you wouldn’t get the progression that you need for a business to actually grow and develop.”
GetRight’s, 667 S. Raleigh St., Denver (moving to 6985 W. 38th Ave., Wheat Ridge, by fall). 808-640-5319. Weekly bake and delivery Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; pickup Friday at 12 p.m. goodygetright.com
10 more must-try Denver-area bakeshops
Looking for more evidence of Denver’s booming bakery scene? Head to any of the spots below.
Babettes, 2030 Ionosphere St., Longmont, 720-204-7420. Open Wednesday-Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. babettesbakery.com (closed July 13-27 for vacation; back on July 28)
Bakery Four, 4150 Tennyson St., Denver. Open Thursday-Sunday from 8 a.m. until sold out. bakeryfour.com
Bánh & Butter, 9935 E Colfax Ave., Aurora, 720-513-9313. Open Sunday-Thursday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. banhandbutter.com
Dry Storage, 3601 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 720-420-0918. Open Tuesday-Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. drystorageco.com
La Fillette Bakery, 4416 E 8th Ave., Denver, 303-355-0022. Open Monday and Tuesday 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday-Friday 7 a.m.-3 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. lafillettebakery.com
Moxie Bread Co., 641 Main St, Louisville, 720-420-9616. Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. moxiebreadco.com
Poulette Bakeshop, 19585 Hess Road, Parker, 303-955-5647. Open Wednesday-Saturday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. poulettebakeshop.com
Rebel Bread, 675 S. Broadway, Denver. Open Friday-Sunday 8 a.m. to noon. rebelbreadco.com
Reunion Bread Co., 3350 Brighton Blvd., Denver, 720-620-9336. Open Tuesday-Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. reunionbread.square.site
Tokyo Premium Bakery, 1540 S. Pearl St., Denver, 720-531-3784. Open second and fourth Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday-Sunday 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. tokyopremiumbakery.com
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