New Denizen

Your inside track to new Denver restaurants + experiences | NYC expat + zero-proof drinker in Colorado

05/20/2026

“This is the first time ever I’m going to do a tasting menu,” says Johnny Curiel () of his newest restaurant, Milpero (). It's a tiny, intimate space that only fits 16 diners a night, split into two seatings of eight.

It’s also Curiel’s most ambitious project to date: a culinary playground designed to showcase the vast nuances of traditional Mexican cuisine, guided by a simple principle: there is still so much to love about Mexican food that people don’t yet know or understand.

Guests spend their three-hour meal divided between two chef’s counters (for cold and hot food), including a stopover in a glass-enclosed room lined with wine and vinegars that’s wedged into the back corner like a museum diorama.

It’s a new approach for the chef, who has zero experience working at tasting menu restaurants.

Subscribers to the New Denizen newsletter just received a deep-dive profile on Johnny Curiel and Milpero. Want to know what this award-winning chef has left to prove and what it's like eating at his newest restaurant? The article is free to read. Hit the link in bio to get access to the piece.

📍 Milpero, 3455 Ringsby Ct, Denver, CO 80216

🎥:

Disclosure: The content for this video was facilitated by a media preview dinner. The restaurant has no influence over my coverage, which remains independent.

05/12/2026

I highlighted three notable restaurants and bars that opened in and around Denver and Boulder during the month of April in my latest newsletter on Substack. Featured spots you should know about included:

boulder

plus an illustration I drew of a yummy dish from .colorado

For the details on each spot, newsletter subscribers can check their inbox for the email that went out last week. Not on the list? Hit the link in bio.

📸s: , Battlecreek Media
Illustration:

04/27/2026

The annual Mile High Asian Food Week () kicks off today, Sunday, April 26, and runs through Sunday, May 3, 2026, with participating businesses spread across Denver and the Front Range. Now in its fourth year, the food week helps elevate and support locally-owned and operated Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) businesses in Colorado.

The event has grown to span 8 days and 73 vendors, so there’s no shortage of events, specials, and deals to choose from. But lucky for you, I’ve combed through all the offers to put together this cheat sheet of the most exciting and interesting spots to check out.

For all the details on my picks, check out the New Denizen newsletter on Substack or my blog post (link in bio). The complete list of participating vendors can be found on the official MHAFW website.

04/22/2026

Last week, I opened up a survey to newsletter subscribers + IG story watchers to find out what you’d like to see me tackle in my coverage on New Denizen. Here are my 3 takeaways based on what you said…

✨You are interested in new AND older restaurants.
✨You still want lists!
✨You value authenticity over feeding the algorithm.

Does this track with what you were feeling? Anything else you think I should focus on in the future? Let me know in the comments!

04/21/2026

I highlighted five notable restaurants and bakeries that opened in and around Denver and Colorado during the month of March in my latest newsletter on Substack. Featured spots you should know about included:
paperboy (West Highlands)
(Congress Park)
(Parker)
(Cherry Creek)
(Union Station)

plus an illustration I drew of a dish from the tasting menu

For the details on each spot, newsletter subscribers can check their inbox for the email that went out last week. Not on the list? Hit the link in bio.

All 📸 + illustrations:

04/07/2026

Decades of misinformation have given Americans the wrong idea about MSG and Chinese food. Let’s set the record straight and bust some myths!

🍅MSG isn’t an artificial chemical. It’s a savory salt made from sodium and glutamate. Glutamate is naturally created in our bodies and found in many common foods like tomatoes.
🧂MSG is used in all sorts of foods and cuisines – not just Chinese food.
🍅The myth of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” (CRS) began with a single letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine – not a scientific study. Since then, research has debunked that CRS exists. The FDA and WHO consider MSG safe to use by most people when consumed in normal amounts.
🧂A new wave of Asian American chefs and restaurateurs like , , , are reclaiming the narrative and are proudly pro-MSG.

Some other interesting facts:
🇺🇸The 1968 letter that kicked off MSG and Chinese food misinformation was published three years after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that abolished national origin-based immigration quotas and opened the US to immigrants from Asia and other regions.

🥡The building where the Quan family operated the Chinese Rathskeller restaurant (45 Mott St) is now home to ’s .

I got curious about verifying what I’d heard about MSG after learning psychological, media, and scientific literacy skills from during my fellowship. I was positively shocked to see just how wrong the reporting was in 1968 (!!!). I’d love for fellow NCC community members and to weigh in with their thoughts.

Additional thanks to for inspiring me to dig even further into the origins of the MSG misinformation story.

All 📸:

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