StarChefs - Kelly Whitaker’s Dear Denver

The chef/founder of id est hospitality group addresses the Denver restaurant community.

We are in the process of securing ourselves on the map as a destination food city.

We should be proud of where our industry has come in the last decade—better farmers markets, unique tasting menus, clever restaurant designs, improved wage models, national accolades; but I urge you, don't be complacent. The work has only just begun.

Let’s be different.
We must be different.
Denver is where “different” can belong.

It’s an exciting time—we’re getting a foothold after the pain of the pandemic, our restaurants are young, our town is hungry, and big development won’t stop knocking. This is as pressing a moment as any to take control of our narrative and make a real impact.

Who do we want to be, Denver? What do we want our menus to say? We may not have the food culture or history of major markets, but that allows us the freedom to define ourselves however we choose. We do not have to abide by outdated industry standards. We can write our own rules around how we source, how we build, how we empower and nourish our community, and how we take care of each other as colleagues and peers. We can design our workplaces more responsibly, to make spaces we are all proud to work in. We can only stand in our own way of doing restaurants right. This will take imagination and a collective effort.

The last review of one of my restaurants repeatedly referred to me and our menu as “kooky,” and another publication wrote that I needed to “chill out.” I am doing what I can to push this city forward and I won’t stop. We can raise our voices so that we can get more diversity in our dining rooms, better flour in our bread, more natural wines in our glass, and more equity and inclusion in leadership. Chefs, food writers, bartenders—we can all shift our mentality to take more responsibility in these spaces.

I want this community to recognize its hospitality workers differently. Local storytellers must dig deeper into what we are offering Denver. We are the tailors sewing suits for the sly wolves. Too often, the restaurant industry doesn't reap the reward, but we are the ones crafting the future of this city. We have the freedom to be whoever we want; so let’s build this city responsibly, with kindness, and with our people and planet in mind. We may not get it perfectly every time, but we must keep trying. We must do things differently.