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Noisette, one of Denver’s top restaurants and part of a surge in Denver French cuisine in recent years, is closing the maison. Owners Tim and Lilian Lu cite “ongoing challenges in the current economic climate” as the primary reason for ending their restaurant’s three-year run.
The charming alternative to more boisterous LoHi hot spots will serve its last dinner on Saturday, June 14. Noisette’s elegant dining room, robed in soothing shades of sage and dusty rose (including the most comfortable chairs in town), is emblematic of the Lus’ dedication to a serene experience where diners are able to focus on food, wine, and conversation. The owners describe their menu as “cuisine bourgeoise,” middle-class home cooking, only beautified for restaurant plating. The space also includes a bakery counter where baguettes, breads, pastries, and Saturday sandwiches have been available for breakfast and lunch. At night, it transforms into a wine bar.
The dining room at Noisette. Photo courtesy of Noisette
So is Noisette’s closing a sign of the economic crisis facing restaurants today? Or is it a casualty in Denver’s on-again, off-again romance with French eateries? The Lus attribute the closing to several factors, including the style of food. “We were hit with so many cost increases from so many directions, and as a new business trying to get our footing, it was just too much,” Lilian says.
Tim agrees, noting a particularly big hike in property taxes. “And our style of French cuisine is very specific—not everyone gets it,” he adds while expressing his appreciation for Noisette’s regulars.
Noisette debuted in 2022 among several recent French restaurant openings dating back to 2020, including Brasserie Brixton, La Forêt, Chez Maggy, Le French, and Jacques. The latter also said adieu just a few weeks ago.
I’ve become accustomed to the French goodbye over the years; there was a time when continental cuisine ruled over the high-end dining scene, but in Denver, restaurant-goers treat the likes of moules frites and escargot more as novelties worth an occasional dalliance than regular options on the dinner rotation, making it difficult for operators to keep dining rooms full.
Restaurateur Frank Bonanno, who opened upscale Mizuna in Capitol Hill in 2001, has experienced both sides of the fickle relationship. He says he owes Mizuna’s longevity to not being dogmatically French. Like Noisette, Mizuna doesn’t rely on repetition or familiarity for customer engagement; only Bonanno’s take on beef Wellington and his Food Network–famous lobster mac and cheese have been staples. “The focus is on French-cooking style, but it’s always been like a playground to me,” he says. “I just put a new dish on the menu, and honestly it’s more Spanish and American than French.”
Mizuna’s lobster mac and cheese. Photo courtesy of Mizuna
That wasn’t the case at French 75, which Bonanno ran downtown from 2017 to just last year. “We went hard after the whole French bistro thing, like Balthazar in New York,” he says, noting that “the escargot flew out the door” alongside other classics like mussels, sole meunière, and even a gruyere-topped onion soup.
But in the long run, business was not consistent enough to keep French 75’s doors open. “Maybe it was the location or the size, maybe I was wrong to think the downtown office crowd would go to a French bistro for lunch,” he says. “And we didn’t have the space to host those big, 80-person business dinners.”
Another veteran is Bistro Vendôme, which is going strong at 20 years despite a 2023 move from its original Larimer Square location to the less touristy Park Hill neighborhood. A great brunch and a consistent approach to the classics are part of the bistro’s success. Long under the umbrella of Rioja’s Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch, it’s now operated by protégé Tim Kuklinski. A few others have been quietly chugging along, like eight-year-old Atelier by Radex in City Park West, and decade-plus survivors La Merise in Cherry Creek and Bistro Barbès in North Park Hill.
But who remembers long-running classics like Le Central, which operated for more than 30 years at 8th and Lincoln, or Crêpes ’n Crêpes, a Cherry Creek institution for two decades that faded out last year after a move to Congress Park? What impact did the brief runs of arguably great places like the glorious (but long gone) Brasserie Rouge, Aubergine, and Z Cuisine have on Denver’s culinary culture, not to mention others like Le Grand, Cafe Marmotte, or Bistro Provençal (all casualties between 2010 and 2020)?
I’ll get misty over my rosé, foie gras, and frog legs, hoisting a silent toast to other favorites that have come and gone—while wondering which new young chefs are waiting to rekindle the romance.
