american bistro · $$$ · since 2013
The Nickel
Seasonal American cooking off the Hotel Teatro lobby, across from the theaters.
The restaurant in Hotel Teatro, named for the Denver Tramway's five-cent fare, working a seasonal American menu with a proper bar. Its real function is pre-theater: you are directly across 14th Street from the Denver Center, and the kitchen knows what an 7:30 curtain means. Service has been uneven in recent reviews, so this is a place to book rather than walk into and to tell them your curtain time when you sit down. Breakfast is the quieter, more reliable meal and the dining room is a good downtown morning meeting.
Why go. The closest sit-down dinner to the Denver Center that is not a chain.
Tell the host your curtain time when you sit; without it the kitchen paces you for a leisurely dinner and you will miss act one.
A short walk from The Nickel
Hotel Teatro
$$$Downtown's original boutique hotel, in the 1911 Denver Tramway building.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1100 14th Street
Garner Galleria Theatre
$$A 210-seat cabaret room with table service and long-running comedies.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1400 Curtis Street
The Curtis Hotel
$$Pop-culture themed floors across the street from the Arts Complex, recently renovated.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1405 Curtis Street
Dazzle
$$Denver's serious jazz room, now at the foot of the Arts Complex.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1080 14th St
Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex
$$The round brick building holding four of the Denver Center's working stages.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1101 13th Street
TheaterDenver Performing Arts Complex
$$$Four blocks of theaters under one glass canopy, a five-minute walk from Larimer Square.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1400 Curtis St