Fish N Beer Rises From the Ashes With An Expanded Menu

Kevin Morrison has stayed busy since a kitchen fire shuttered Fish N Beer last October. The chef/owner spent a lot of time at his Tacos Tequila Whiskey locations, including the newest outpost in Phoenix, Arizona. He hung out with family. And most exciting (for Denverites, at least), he worked on some new menu items for the day when Fish N Beer would reopen its RiNo doors.

Last week, the doors swung wide, welcoming seafood lovers back to Fish N Beer. The fire caused damage to just a portion of the restaurant’s kitchen ceiling, so there were no big changes to the white-boothed interior. Morrison did, however, make improvements to the patio, adding a lounge area where folks can wait for a table and cushioning the concrete floor with soft, green AstroTurf.

Morrison and executive chef Antonio Herrera Ramirez (who spent the months of the closure visiting family back home in the Caribbean) didn’t mess with Fish N Beer’s menu staples. East and West Coast oysters, served raw or fire-grilled with compound butters, are still there, as is the whole grilled Colorado bass. But they did add some new, Southern-inspired dishes in the service of having a more approachable, neighborhood feel.

Take the SNG bologna sandwich: An entire loaf of Boar’s Head bologna is smoked out back, hand-cut, and then grilled over white oak and hickory before being piled on a yellow-mustard-brushed City Bakery brioche bun with slaw and melted American cheese. Get the full-size for dinner or enjoy a slider format during happy hour, but either way, get it.

Also new are epic seafood platters served via crushed-ice-filled paella pans. Three sizing options—ranging from $37 to $140 and serving two to nine people—means you can get just the right amount of peel-n-eat shrimp, raw oysters, crab legs, and smoked fish dip for your table.

3510 Larimer St., closed Sunday