At a ceremony on November 8, Westword's Food & Drink editor will be honored with the Colorado Restaurant Association's award for Outstanding Media Professional.
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Punch Bowl Social got its start in a former Big Lots at 65 Broadway. From there, Robert Thompson grew his eatertainment complex to a nationwide chain that ultimately partnered with Cracker Barrel, of all things. But as the pandemic hit, the company wound up closing all nineteen PBS locations in March 2020, and Thompson left the group entirely.
This week, though, the flagship and first Punch Bowl Social reopened (the location that had opened in Stapleton s old tower is gone for good). Snarf s has reopened its spot at the Spire, too, and Denver s first sober bar, Awake, started stirring things up in Jefferson Park.
If this were a normal year, we’d just be pushing back from the table after the ten-day eating orgy that is usually Denver Restaurant Week. But this isn’t any normal year.
On March 5, 2020, five days after the finale of last year’s Denver Restaurant Week the sixteenth annual celebration of the city’s culinary scene designed to coincide with a slow time of year for restaurants Colorado registered its first COVID-19 case. By March 17, all restaurants across the state had been ordered closed for anything other than takeout and delivery. In late May, most were able to reopen their dining rooms at very limited capacity levels, but it’s been a tough, tough time for the dining industry.