With its floor-to-ceiling windows and warm, gentle ambiance, the newest Italian restaurant in Denver is bound to draw eyes and diners to one of the less-frequented pockets of the River North Art District.
Dear Emilia opens Thursday, Jan. 29, on the ground floor of The Current, an office tower at 3615 Delgany St. as an ode to Emilia-Romagna, a region of Italy that lays claim to some of that country’s most iconic Italian food and drink. Prosciutto di Parma, balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese are original to the region. Chef and co-owner Ty Leon likens their connection with Emilia-Romagna to Champagne, which must come from the Champagne region of France.
At Dear Emilia, these ingredients are used in concise, exquisite dishes that also make the most of Colorado produce and sustainably sourced fish and meat. The restaurant will blend these two elements together for a unique outcome.
Leon and his co-owners employ a sustainability director at their other establishment, Restaurant Olivia in Washington Park. Paula Thomas specializes in — and has a license for — reusing food scraps to make miso pastes, fruit-based vinegars and preserves, vegetable powders and other condiments that she calls “flavor enhancers.” Leon and his kitchen crew said they’re digging heavily into Thomas’ basement pantry for those enhancers for use at Dear Emilia, too.
“This menu is full of Paula,” said Leon, who will also lead a chef’s counter at Dear Emilia.
From left to right, the owners of Dear Emilia, a new Italian restaurant in Denver’s RiNo Arts District: Austin Carson, chef Ty Leon and Heather Morrison. (Photo provided by Prim + Co)
In the starters, that could be in the gnocco fritto ($18), a plate of fried puff pastries piled with domestic prosciutto — not from Europe this time — and paired with a dollop of Thomas’ mostarda, an Italian condiment made, in this case, with finely diced preserved pears.
In the section of sides, titled “d’accompagnare,” it could be in the patate ($13), fried fingerling potatoes dusted with her kimchi salt and a preserved pepper aioli.
You can even find it in the off-menu dessert section: It’s Thomas’ rhubarb preserves that are drizzled over a saucer-sized olive oil cake with candied almonds.
Dear Emilia splits its entrees between a section of pastas, titled “E poi,” and another, “E Ancora,” with three protein-based dishes. The anolini, a coin-shaped pasta, is filled with braised beef cheek ($26), while the lasagna verde ($28), which gets its green color from spinach, is rolled into a pinwheel and layered with bechamel sauce and a rich pork and beef Bolognese.
The interior of Dear Emilia, a new Italian restaurant from the team of Restaurant Olivia, on the ground floor of the Current office tower in the RiNo Arts District, on 3615 Delgany St., Denver. (Miguel Otarola/The Denver Post)
The non-pasta plates range from $36 for a hefty cut of pork shoulder with polenta and peach preserves, to $65 for strip loin steak with focaccia miso jam and pesto Modenese, a spread regional to Emilia-Romagna. In the middle for $44 is a refined seafood stew consisting of Colorado rainbow trout, mussels and clams with dollops of pureed parsnips and finished with a tomato consommé.
Some of the fattier dishes, like the pork shoulder and polenta, benefit from being paired with another one of Emilia-Romagna’s specialties, a red sparkling wine called Lambrusco, said wine director Scott Thomas. (Thomas is married to Paula Thomas.) The Lambrusco flight ($25) lets you try three Lambruscos, ranging from the light and floral sorbara to the darker, mellower grasparossa.
Dear Emilia’s devotion to Italy and Emilia-Romagna was cultivated during several trips by the owners and the Thomases to the country. (The couple lived in Italy and have a Denver-based academy, Grappolo Food & Wine School, that offers wine tours there.)
Understanding that many diners here may be less familiar with the area, Leon and Thomas are happy to point them in the right direction. So is hospitality director Heather Morrison, who last year won an Outstanding Service Award from Michelin for her work at Restaurant Olivia. This year, Olivia is a semifinalist for outstanding hospitality at the James Beard Awards.
Dear Emilia will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. Reservations, which can be made online through Tock, are strongly encouraged.
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Dining and Cooking