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- Where:
- The Source Hotel, 3330 Brighton Blvd., Denver (RiNo)
- The Draw:
- Pan-Latin eats that draw heavily on Peruvian and Nikkei culinary traditions; nearly panoramic views, especially from the expansive deck
- The Drawback:
- Portions are generous—a plus if you’re sharing but maybe too much if you’re not.
- Noise Level:
- Medium
- What To Order:
- Peruvian ceviche, smashed avocado, pork belly anticuchos, tacos de hongos, papa rellena
- Price Per Person:
- $50–$65 (before drinks)
The Source Hotel’s new penthouse restaurant is named Cimera, the Spanish word for “summit” or “peak”—which is appropriate, given that it towers over its Brighton Boulevard neighbors. Cimera’s Pan-Latin American menu springs from the minds of former Hop Alley executive chef Geoff Cox and Peruvian consulting chef Diego Muñoz (formerly of Lima’s Astrid y Gastón, long considered one of the world’s best restaurants). Even after 10 years at Hop Alley, Cox wasn’t looking to leave the modern Chinese hot spot, but when the Source reached out with an offer to open Cimera with Muñoz, Cox couldn’t refuse.
“The opportunity to work with a world-renowned chef and say ‘Yes, chef’ doesn’t come along often,” he says.
It wasn’t just that: Opening Cimera was a chance for Cox to do something entirely new. “When [Diego and I] first met, I didn’t know much about Peruvian food,” he admits. His crash course was a 10-day trip to Lima in July 2025. There, Cox ate his way around the city, visiting cevicherias, trying cuy chactado (guinea pig), and experiencing true lomo saltado, a popular beef stir-fry that highlights Peru’s longstanding Chinese influences and its globally famous potatoes.
On Peru’s independence day (July 28), Muñoz invited Cox to a rooftop barbecue where the food included pan-fried sweetbreads, papas a la huancaína (an iconic potato dish), and a local version of paella topped with duck and sausage. Cox soon realized that the other partygoers comprised a who’s who of the Lima dining scene. “For the rest of my trip, at every restaurant I went to, the chef, the somm, or the server had been at the party,” he says.
Even before boarding his flight home, Cox knew this venture would push him into exciting new culinary territory. “I fell in love with the fresh fish, the potato dishes, the ceviche, the coastal foods, the mountains, and the Amazonian fruit and chocolate,” he says.
That passion is what the duo brings to Cimera, which took over the remarkable space—a glass-encased dining room and bar with south- and west-facing walkout balconies that afford mountain and city skyline views—previously occupied by the unremarkable Woods restaurant. Muñoz flew in a couple of weeks before the October 2025 opening to fine-tune the menu. Now, the two chefs are in regular contact, trading ideas and workshopping recipes. “Even though Diego’s not on-site, he’s very much a part of it,” Cox says. “It’s a collaboration.”
Thus, while Cimera’s menu spans Mexico and South and Central America, the Peruvian cuisine is the highlight. Take the showstopping ceviche: Served in a large bowl, it’s a masterpiece of texture and flavor. There’s sweet grouper, charred sweet potato, crunchy cancha (the Andean equivalent of corn nuts), toothsome hominy, wisps of red onion, and sharply limey leche de tigre (you’ll most certainly want to use a spoon to scoop up every last drop). At lunch, the gorgeous dish is a meal unto itself; at dinner it’s a sure-fire starter.
Another non-negotiable is the crushed avocado, which reinvents guacamole so entirely I won’t even put it in the same family. “There are so many rules about what guac is and isn’t,” Cox says. “This is Diego saying, ‘If you’re going to give me rules, I’m going to add, add, and add.’ ” And add he did. There are 20 ingredients—pomegranate seeds, quinoa, hard-boiled egg, bacon, and queso fresco among them—and they all come arranged like pigments on a painter’s palette on top of, yes, smashed avocado. Briefly admire, and then follow your server’s orders to mix it all together before digging in with the fresh-fried tortilla chips provided.
In many ways, the crushed avo represents the heart of the restaurant. “Peru is such a mashup of cuisines—it loves fusion,” Cox says. There are deep Chinese and Japanese culinary influences (called Chifa and Nikkei, respectively) that extend back to the late 1800s. In some Asian-leaning dishes, you’ll see sesame seeds replaced with quinoa and wasabi swapped out for ají amarillo chile. (To really appreciate the brightness of ají amarillo, order the hamachi tiradito and try not to drink the sauce.) These pockets of creativity really appeal to Cox. “[Our menu] is a natural progression of what I was already doing at Hop Alley; the pantry has just changed.”
The excellent tacos de hongos, for example, incorporate spiced tahini and caramelized corn for an exciting twist on mushroom tacos. Likewise, the anticuchos, or coal-fired skewers, reflect Cox’s deep kitchen fluency. While beef heart is the most traditional of anticuchos, Cox wanted to start off with something more familiar to Denver palates. His tender pork belly leans into Nikkei influence with a Japanese-style glaze and sesame scallion dressing (plus, the crispy purple potato shavings on top are so delicate they look like flower petals). Cox also offers marinated hanging sirloin cap and teriyaki chicken, which draws depth from dried shrimp in the curry paste.
Noodle saltado, a version of Peru’s famed stir-fry, briefly appeared on Cimera’s menu, but it has since changed to the better-known lomo saltado, which is served over rice. Perhaps that’s for the better, because I found the noodles oversalted. I also appreciate the opportunity for guests to customize the lomo saltado with chicken, beef, or shrimp, or all three—slyly called the Happy Family in a nod to Chinese takeout menus and Cox’s time at Hop Alley.
An unconventional way to finish off your meal is with an order of the papa rellena. Cox and Muñoz might disagree, but my position is that the ridiculously creamy stuffed potato croquette can moonlight as a shared dessert (despite the knob of braised beef inside). No matter what you decide to order first or last, Cimera delivers an experience that lives up to its lofty name.
