Welcome to the Eater 38, a seasonally updated guide to restaurants that represent the growth and ingenuity of Denver’s culinary community. Since its launch in 2012, this map has traced the city’s evolution from what many outsiders dismissed as a cowtown to an ever-growing, prismatic dining destination that has earned a place in the national conversation for its youthful energy and freewheeling creativity.
Any given update, then, is designed to reflect what’s defining and redefining the scene now. Spanning a variety of cuisine types, price points, and neighborhoods, it centers on the cornerstones of the landscape — hence the word “essential” — while highlighting more recent arrivals that are extending Denver’s horizons. The fact that it can’t include every place fitting those descriptions is the nature of the beast; removal from the Eater 38 doesn’t, in short, mean that a restaurant isn’t still important and won’t return in the future.
Note, too, that while the map may include the occasional Boulder establishment as well as food trucks and pop-ups with fixed addresses, it does not include mobile vendors (so here’s a shoutout to stars in that category like Pho King Rapidos, Yuan Wonton, and Little Arthur’s Hoagies). It also does not include bars, which have their own map, as do bakeries. And finally, it doesn’t include restaurants that are currently on the Eater Denver Heatmap. And for all the latest dining intel, subscribe to Eater Denver’s newsletter.
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