Mediterranean fine dining · $$$ · since 2004
Rioja
Jennifer Jasinski's Larimer Square anchor, twenty years in and still the reservation.
Rioja opened on Larimer Square in 2004 and is the restaurant that made Jennifer Jasinski a James Beard Best Chef Southwest winner in 2013. The food is Mediterranean by way of Colorado: handmade pastas, the artichoke tortelloni that has never left the menu, Spanish wines, bread baked in house. In 2024 Jasinski and partner Beth Gruitch marked the twentieth anniversary by shrinking the dining room rather than expanding it, which tells you what kind of place it is. It works for a real occasion dinner, but weekday lunch and the 2:30 to 5 happy hour are how locals use it.
Why go. It is the surest good dinner on Larimer Square, from the chef who defined the block.
If the book looks full, call; the chef's counter and last-minute cancellations are handled by phone, not online.
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