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- Where:
- 1551 S. Pearl St., Denver (Platt Park)
- The Draw:
- Inspired dishes centered on seasonal produce; the tasting counter experience
- The Drawback:
- The multipurpose space can be confusing; some dishes are under-seasoned; occasional food or drink lag time
- Noise Level:
- Low to medium
- What To Order:
- Merguez tagliatelle; Kinship toast; chicory “Caesar salad”; British cheddar with honey
When I think of Margot, chef Justin Fulton’s Platt Park restaurant that earned a Michelin star just three months after its June 2025 opening, I keep coming back to the merguez tagliatelle. Though the lamb sausage Bolognese spiced with adobo was expertly earthy and rich, it wasn’t the composed dish that captivated me. It was the noodles themselves.
The al dente pasta ribbons were springy perfection—and vegan. The absence of egg is one of Margot’s tells: This is a tiny kitchen where the pressures of complex cooking in a small space sometimes yield creatively delicious solutions (why make two noodles when just one can please the carnivores and the plant-based crowd?). But as I discovered over multiple visits to Margot, the constraints may also be contributing to missteps.
Eight gas burners, a small oven, a grilltop, a fryer, and an overhead broiler are the backbone of this restaurant’s multipronged approach: a 12-course tasting counter ($165 per person) and dining room experiences that include an à la carte menu (shareable plates range from $10 to $32) and a five-course tasting menu ($95 per person). Only occasionally will you see crossover dishes.
While courses are well timed and smoothly delivered at Fulton’s eight-seat chef’s counter, there’s often a lag in dining room service. Conversely, cocktails from the bar take longer than they should to migrate to the tasting counter. The feat of running multiple upscale concepts out of one small kitchen likely explains some of the hiccups, but the space’s layout is also a complicating factor. Margot’s dining room and chef’s counter sit inside Sushi Den–famed Toshi Kizaki’s newly constructed Denchu building, which also houses Kizaki’s eponymous chef’s counter. The restaurants share an abutting bar opposite the entrance to both, and the minimalist decor throughout the building is decidedly—stunningly, gorgeously—Japanese. It fits Kizaki but can feel like a mismatch for Margot’s New American bent.
Fulton focuses on using produce at its absolute height. That’s somewhat expected these days, but too many restaurants trade on the message while failing to deliver. Not so at Margot. A last-of-the-fall-season tomato dish dotted with coriander flowers rang with savory, gazpacholike flavor; delicate slices of cured steelhead trout beckoned colder weather with pickled spruce tips and kumquat; a crisp and bitter chicory salad sprinkled with breadcrumbs announced winter.
Other dishes are shapeshifters, getting seasonal modifications as needed. This is true of the toasted bread, topped with a heavenly cloud of foie gras parfait. In October, the snack arrived with mandoline-thin peaches and smoky pasilla negra. In mid-November, the toast (made with sourdough from Boulder’s Kinship Bread) was crowned with bracing marmalade and blueberries pickled at the peak of ripeness.
But some courses, while gorgeously composed, were so compartmentalized that the flavors didn’t have a chance to meld. Take the Parisian gnocchi. Made from choux dough, this variety is infinitely more decadent than its potato-based Italian cousin. I managed to eat every last gnocchi blanketed with a pouf of Parmesan foam—before discovering the earthy (and much-needed) balance point of the mushroom duxelles hidden beneath.
If you can afford it, the best way to experience Fulton’s cooking is at the tasting counter. The service and food here are more cohesive, and one particular touch stands out: Once seated, you’re welcomed with a pan of rising brioche rolls that will be baked and returned to you with a swoon-worthy timut peppercorn butter during course seven. A sibling of the tingly Sichuan peppercorn, timut tastes cardamom-y and floral. You’ll be thinking about the pairing of this slowly melting butter on hot, baked-just-for-you rolls for a very long time.
Fulton tantalized diners with similarly memorable dishes across three years of pop-ups before opening Margot. Still, receiving a Michelin star three months in is a quick coronation. (Roommate Kizaki also garnered a star, after just five months.) While the recognition is certainly good for business, it also sets up great expectations. Minor flaws—the kind normally forgiven at other new eateries—now stand out. I’d argue, however, that those bumps are consistent with a young restaurant finding its way in a complicated space.
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