Top Chef Winner Hosea Rosenberg To Open Blackbelly

Between flirting with season 5 Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg and talking about his handsome piglets residing at a Boulder farm, Lori Midson reported today in her Westword column "Gastronaughty" that Rosenberg will open a new restaurant.

With bartender and partner James Lee, Rosenberg has plans to open Blackbelly, another farm-to-table restaurant that will double as a catering company. Rosenberg says the restaurant is named after blackbelly sheep.

Rosenberg, who left Jax Fish House after winning Top Chef, has spent his time catering and headlining culinary events after he retired food truck business StrEat Chefs in April. Lee has tended bar at Bitter Bar in Boulder, TAG and Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar, both in Denver.

After cooking a pop-up dinner featuring potential Blackbelly dishes last weekend through Hush Concepts, Rosenberg plans to open Blackbelly next spring after his eight piglets are grown and his green house is built.

"I want to do a really good, very seasonal, meat-driven, contemporary American restaurant with a nod toward New Mexico, which is where I'm from, but I'm a firm believer in that the space, the energy and the neighborhood will dictate what we do," Rosenberg told Westword. He said his goal is to serve a menu with 90 percent of the product coming from his farm and green house.

Until Rosenberg and Lee find the right space, they're running Blackbelly catering out of a yellow trailer purchased from the former general manager of TAG with a commissary kitchen in Longmont.

· Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg and bartender James Lee partnering on a restaurant? [CS]
· HUSH's pop-up dinners spotlight dishes and cocktails from Blackbelly [CS]