Number Thirty Eight’s Coveted Concept

We live in a time when we are all craving social connection. While the desire to connect is strong, many of us are attempting to channel and hone those wishes into the anticipatory feelings of reunions. I know I am, and when I visited Number Thirty Eight, I added this large, event-specialized restaurant onto my bucket list of places to take my friends when things ‘normalize.’

December 9, 2020 :: Best of Denver- Pandemic Edition

OK, so first off, what’s up with the name? Well, Number Thirty Eight is a restaurant concept that acknowledges Colorado’s status as the 38th state to enter the union of the United States of America. The owners of the space are proud to provide an experience that is all about give guests the essence of Colorado—whether they be tourists looking to have a good time while visiting the state or locals on a Saturday night who are ‘dying to live.’

Number Thirty Eight opened up at 3560 Chestnut Place within Denver’s RiNo Neighborhood on October 8, and OUT FRONT editor Addison Herron-Wheeler and I gained the opportunity to tour and taste a sample of Number Thirty Eight’s offerings in hospitality and dining. Number Thirty Eight provides street-food style cuisine and live entertainment every night while not requiring guests to pay into a cover. If you’re like me and wish to save when we are post-COVID-19, cover costs are always something I look to first when there is an event occurring in Denver.

Number Thirty Eight wants its space to be a space in which tourists who love Colorado would want to visit. The marketing for Number Thirty Eight takes appeals to potential tourists who would want to have an experience that fulfills the expectations of Colorado. Taprooms, camping, campfires and red hot skillets, and stampedes of wild horses are all attributes the concept identifies with. Number Thirty Eight strives to capture the essence of what makes Colorado our home by providing beer from 24 taprooms throughout the state, the best food inspirations from the best kitchens in the Rockies, and the space for Colorado’s music scene to showcase themselves.

Number Thirty Eight wants guests to see their Colorado State of Mind, and they do that utilizing aesthetics and influencing the atmosphere with a mixture of interior and exterior design. The upscale, interior design is a stand-out feature of the restaurant. Number Thirty Eight finds its aesthetic inspiration from the ski and lodge culture of this very state. The restaurant replicates Colorado ski culture by channeling the après lifestyle enjoyed in a cabin or enjoying the non-urban outdoor setting after a day on the mountain.

When we visited, the first thing I observed was the size of the large venue. However, perhaps ‘large’ is not the proper adjective to use to give to Number Thirty Eight. It was giant! With an indoor size of 12,000 square feet and an outdoor size of 18,000, this gives the restaurant a total of 30,000 square feet to use to organize social events within the local community.

The interior to Number Thirty Eight is expansive and spacious, with very high ceilings and very open and natural lighting, but the tour quickly found itself in the outside space where I found myself forgetting we were at a restaurant. The outside space felt very open and had the capacity for team sports to be played. I would say by far, Number Thirty Eight’s greatest focal point would be this outside dining space which can host a multitude of events for corporate parties or live musical events, and Number Thirty Eight envisions a focus on musical entertainment.

Once the pandemic is over, I foresee Number Thirty Eight becoming a space in which Colorado’s local music scene can flourish. While we were touring Number Thirty Eight, we were able to enjoy a band sound checking and rehearsing in the performance space.

The staging area is inspired by Red Rocks and ‘bar-ifying’ it. On their website, Number Thirty Eight describes their staging area as being “where Red Rocks meets your favorite corner bar. One night it may feature that local band you’ve never heard before, and next, it’s home to that big-name act you’ve been dying to hear. You never know who you’ll find on stage at Number Thirty Eight.”

The food at Number Thirty Eight has been meticulously chosen by celebrated Chef Merlin Verrier who hails from the central coast of California. I learned that Chef Merlin takes much of his food crafting inspirations from Asian pantries and Mexican cuisine from his local home base in California. Chef Merlin spent over a half a decade cooking in Summit County after attending school in Portland, OR.

For more information on Number Thirty Eight, please visit nmbr38.com.

Photos by Danny Bradley