The Denver Restaurant Closings You Need to Know

After a string of recent restaurant closing announcements, Denver will have a little less curry, gelato, seafood, old-school Italian fare, and sushi to devour.

As Westword first reported, Biju Thomas will close the original location of his Biju’s Little Curry Shop at the end of October or early November. The lease on the RiNo spot that he opened almost five years ago will be up in November, and with rising rents and declining traffic, he decided not to renew.

“There’s a ton of restaurants now compared to when we started,” Thomas says of Walnut Street. “I’m really excited to get out of RiNo and focus on having Tenny (the Tennyson Street location of Biju’s Little Curry Shop) be our home base. It’s a very positive move for us.”

Thomas has plans to revamp the Tennyson shop in look, concept, and menu this fall. He says to expect more elevated plating, a new weekend brunch, and a slightly different menu and format. He’s also focused on franchising curry shops nationwide. Using his stall inside Broadway Market as the model, the first store outside of Colorado will open in Dallas.

You can still get your southern Indian fix in RiNo at lunch (from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.) until the shop closes up for good later this fall.

Also in RiNo, Gelato Boy departed Zeppelin Station at the end of July, according to Eater Denver. Luckily, we can still inhale its Orange Creamsicle, Salted Caramel, and Vietnamese Iced Coffee flavors—but it’ll just require a trek up to the store’s Pearl Street Mall locations in Boulder to do so.

After just more than a year in business on South Broadway, Mario’s Ocean Club closed over the weekend. The casual seafood spot replaced Chowder Room, which shuttered in January of 2018 when the owners decided to move back to their home state of California. Ocean Club owner Mario Vega explained his decision to close in a social media post, writing, “I have been offered another opportunity to open a restaurant in Littleton and could not see a way to operate both.”

Westword also reported that Dino’s Italian Food in Lakewood would be closing its doors on September 30 after 58 years in the red sauce business. Fans and longtime regulars have been posting on social media since the announcement, expressing their sadness that another Denver restaurant icon is soon to be no more.

View this post on Instagram

There goes the neighborhood. Dino’s has been a neighborhood staple for the last 60-years. It was one of the few places I had to eat every time I was home. So sad this place is closing. Had to visit one more time for homemade noodles with my mom!

A post shared by Alicia Jessop (@rulingsports) on Aug 15, 2019 at 5:08pm PDT

Also, Izakaya Ronin posted on Facebook about its closing on Brighton Boulevard just a few weeks after 5280 reported news about its break with founding chef Corey Baker. The announcement indicated that Izakaya Ronin may return: “With much regret, we have decided to close Izakaya Ronin with an anticipated move to a much more visible location in Denver…stay tuned for an upcoming announcement.”

We’ll follow up with more information on the Ronin story as we learn more.