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It’s the final day of the 2018 Eater Awards, the ninth annual year that Eater honors the most talented restaurants, chefs, and other hospitality world experts in cities around the world. As a closing, Eater Denver is highlighting the city’s dining scene disruptor of the year.
All 24 Eater cities grant prizes in different categories, including Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, and Design of the Year. The final two awards are chosen by cities based on their dining scene — and Denver in 2018 has seen more drastically different options than ever before.
There was the international food hall, Zeppelin Station, that drew diners to the edge of RiNo for banh mi sandwiches, Korean barbecue, Montreal smoked meats, and more. One new hotel, the Ramble, attracted both a national big-name bar and a beloved local restaurateur, making “Pan-Latin” dim sum a thing in Denver. Another hotel, the Source, tacked onto its eponymous market hall and made a big splash on the culinary scene with an Israeli and barbecue restaurant, plus a New Belgium rooftop bar.
Downtown, the Dairy Block opened its activated alleyway (a first for the city), along with multiple bars, a neighborhood coffee shop, and the Frank Bonanno-helmed Milk Market. And at the base of an industrial apartment and office building, the small lunch counter Comal celebrated its second year supporting low-income women from the Globeville and Elyria Swansea neighborhoods as they train to run their own restaurants.
Voting for this final award ends on Saturday at 10 a.m. Both an editor’s choice winner and a reader’s choice winner will be selected in each category, and both will be announced on Wednesday, December 5th.