There’s something that happens to you when you encounter the perfect burger. One bite, and suddenly you’re ten again, strapped to the passenger seat with total tunnel vision. For one brilliant moment, it’s once more, just you and a Happy Meal.
Western Daughters Wine Bar has just such a burger.
A selection of dishes at Western Daughters Wine Bar in Denver. Credit: Madi Garcia)
Anyone familiar with Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, at 3326 Tejon St., knows there are few places in the city as committed to slow food, even if the burger rekindles fast-food nostalgia. Opened in 2013 by husband and wife Josh Curtiss and Kate Kavanaugh, the spot specializes in locally sourced beef and pork, alongside ethically sourced chicken products.
“It has to be good for the land, good for the animal, good for the farmer and good for the consumer,” said Curtiss, who is also a farmer. “That’s been the driving force with how we’ve approached our sourcing. You are what you eat eats.”
Curtiss and Kavanaugh now live in upstate New York, where they work the land, raise animals, and put their money where their mouth is. But over the summer, they opened Western Daughters Wine Bar in the space next door to the butcher shop (it most recently housed Mr. Lucky’s Sandwich Shop). Under the stewardship of partner and general manager Noah Heaney, the 30-seat restaurant is now serving a small but mighty selection of small plates, protein-forward mains and thoughtfully curated wines.
Items like whipped goat cheese with honey, fruit and house crackers, and miso-braised cabbage with sake and sesame are approached with the same principles as the butcher shop.
“When we opened the butcher shop, we saw ourselves as a bridge between rural communities and urban consumers,” Curtiss said. The wine bar is a place to amplify this philosophy.
Heaney is as committed to hospitality as Curtiss and Kavanaugh are to supporting regenerative agriculture and equitable supply chains. “My coworkers, they’ll hold your baby if you have to go to the bathroom,” he said with a grin.
The staff is knowledgeable and can tell customers as much as they want to know about where the ingredients come from and how these things affect the bigger picture. But this is no soapbox. Guests can choose to engage as much or as little as they want. Either way, the food often tells the story on its own. “We usually have 30 active participants in a conversation about sustainability and regenerative farming,” said Heaney, adding that longtime regulars of the shop are now frequently the restaurant.
Western Daughters primarily works with farms and ranches within 150 miles of Denver, all raising 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef and lamb, and pasture-raised pork and chicken. The wine bar follows a similar ethos in that every bottle is certified organic, biodynamic, or produced using those farming practices.
The kitchen is run by Chef Chris Snider, a graduate of Stoic and Genuine and Rioja who started at the butcher shop several months before the restaurant opened. “His culinary creativity is expansive,” said Heaney.
By every indication, Heaney’s right. The dry-aged pork chop comes with chicharron gremolata, and the hand-cut shoestring fries are served with a beef tallow aioli. Heaney’s wine list is full of producers from the big regions like France, California and Italy, but some of the best finds he sources from Hungary, Georgia or Austria. Pasture-raised pork from Cottonwood Creek Farms and beef from Grama Grass and Buckner Family Ranch provide a firm foundation, reminding guests that meat also has terroir.
Every bit of Western Daughters Wine Bar’s small menu is worth exploring, but to go there and not get the burger would be to ignore the restaurant’s foundation. It’s one of the best in the city, and not just because the beef bacon, tallow aioli and tobacco onion perfectly enhance the patty. What really separates it is the composition. There’s not a stray dollop of sauce dripping where it shouldn’t, not one extra onion keeping the burger from nestling into your hand. Everything is right where it should be.
Western Daughters Wine Bar is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 3 to 10 p.m., and for brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.
Dining and Cooking