RiNo's Fall Openings Moved Into Rooms You Already Know

At 1336 27th St., you can still hear rock music from Meadowlark across the street. The alley next door is still covered in graffiti and stickers, and Denver Central Market is still on the other side. Inside the door, the room has changed completely. Westword's opening-week review describes purple velvet curtains, a black marble bar set in walnut, and fringed chandeliers in what used to be Noble Riot. The space is now La Vie En Rose, a Champagne bar.

That is how most of RiNo's change went this fall. Several notable restaurants opened between late August and mid-October, and most of them moved into addresses neighbors already had memories of. The one built from scratch opened the same weekend a five-year neighbor a few blocks away closed. So the neighborhood didn't gain much new territory this fall. What changed was what you'll find behind doors you've walked past for years.

Four New Names, Mostly Familiar Addresses

Here is the fall lineup set against what used to be there.

What the reused rooms have in common is how far the new concepts sit from the old ones. Super Mega Bien was known for Latin dim sum, and its space now serves vegan pasta. Noble Riot became a room modeled on Paris. The ice cream counter in Denver Central Market is now a dessert counter run by the bakery behind it. Each new tenant kept the address and changed nearly everything else.

The Italian Seat Changed Hands in One October Weekend

The busiest corner of this fall's turnover is Italian. The Greenwich, at 3258 Larimer St., closed on Sunday night, Oct. 18, after five years in RiNo. The Denver Post reported that Dolores Tronco opened the restaurant in 2021 after returning to Denver from New York. It later shifted from Italian dishes to pizza and small plates, and Drew Davis bought it from Tronco on Jan. 1, 2026. Davis thanked guests in his closing message, which the Post quoted: "I took on the Greenwich because I continue to believe deeply in the necessity of restaurants in the cultural fabric of any great city."

That same weekend, Andrea Frizzi opened Risica at 3463 Walnut St. Westword pointed out the timing in its opening story. Frizzi is the chef behind Il Posto and Vero, and Risica had been anticipated for more than a year. He calls it a "Milanese pizzeria and wine bar," modeled on the places he grew up with in Milan.

As Westword describes it, the restaurant runs on Milan's aperitivo habit:

• Portafogli, or "pizza wallets": pizza dough folded in half and stuffed with meats and cheeses
• Piattini: small cast-iron dishes of bites such as eggplant parmigiana, cured salmon, and the stuffed calamari from the Il Posto days
• Taglieri: six meats and eight cheeses, ordered by the ounce like a sushi menu
• Pizzas with Italian toppings, including trumpet mushrooms with truffle, sausage with mushrooms, and a prosciutto di Parma and arugula pie Frizzi named "La Frizzi"
• Drinks: Aperol spritzes and four versions of the Negroni

According to Westword, nearly every hot dish comes out of a $70,000 oven with gas flames and a rotating floor, and nothing on the menu costs more than $20. The hours are built for stopping in at any time of day, and Frizzi explained them to Westword:

"I want to have a very good restaurant with very good pricing. A place where everybody can come any time of day. We're open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., so you can come at 3, and have an ounce of mortadella, a little giardiniera."

The name is a bet in itself. Risica means "risk" in Italian, and it comes from the saying "chi non risica non rosica," which works out to "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Soda Club Skips the Red Sauce

Soda Club makes the Italian changeover stand out even more. In its first look, Westword set the restaurant against the run of East Coast red sauce restaurants that has opened around Denver over the past year. Soda Club, in the former Super Mega Bien space on the Ramble Hotel's ground floor, is fully vegan. The menu leans on pasta shapes many diners won't know, such as gigli and casarecce, with sauces like borlotti ragu and cashew pepper butter. Westword called the wine list one of the most adventurous it had seen in recent memory.

Put Soda Club and Risica side by side and RiNo's Italian options look different than they did in summer. A pizza-and-small-plates restaurant on Larimer closed. In its place, the neighborhood has a vegan pasta room on 25th Street and a Milanese snack-and-pizza bar on Walnut with a $20 ceiling on prices. Neither is a red sauce restaurant.

Same Owners, Next-Door Rooms on 27th Street

La Vie En Rose shares its owners with the room next door. Nicole and Scott Mattson own the Champagne bar and the adjoining Nocturne Jazz and Supper Club, so the former Noble Riot space now belongs to a small cluster on 27th Street run by the same couple. The bar takes its name from the Edith Piaf song, and Nicole Mattson explained the choice to Westword:

"It's a song about optimism. It's a song about having faith that life is going to be good in the long run. And I felt like we needed a place in town where you could celebrate the good things in life, no matter what's going on outside of those doors."

Westword said the press materials describe the decor as a mix of Art Nouveau and Belle Époque. The drinks list centers on wine, especially Champagne.

Denver Central Market Moved the Bakery Forward

Across the alley, the change inside Denver Central Market came from within. Tiny RiNo Treat House took over High Point Creamery's spot at 2669 Larimer St. Westword describes it as an extension of Izzio Bakery, which sits just behind it. Izzio focuses on bread and baking, while the Treat House is all desserts, with frozen treats alongside baked pastries. So the market still has a place for something frozen after dinner on Larimer, and it's now run by a vendor that was already in the building.

Farther up Larimer, The Block Distilling Co. at 2990 Larimer St. announced in August that it planned to wind down over the following three to four months, Westword reported.

Westword's October roundup of citywide openings and closings listed two RiNo entries for the month: Risica opening on Walnut and The Greenwich closing on Larimer.

RiNo ArtPark's December Calendar

The district's next big date reuses a familiar room as well. The RiNo Art District's It's a RiNo-FUL Life Holiday Market runs Dec. 4–6 at RiNo ArtPark, 1900 35th St. Artisan booths go inside Truss House, and admission is free and open to all ages. The district asks visitors to RSVP through MultiPass so it can plan for attendance.

• Friday, Dec. 4, 5–9 p.m.: The market opens with a printmaking holiday-card make-and-take led by artist Lucy Holtsnider. The outdoor cone tree lighting is at 7 p.m., with a holiday tree built from traffic cones.
• Saturday, Dec. 5, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.: Yeastie Boys hosts zine and button-making workshops throughout the day.
• Sunday, Dec. 6, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.: The Yeastie Boys workshops continue.

All three days include a seasonal bar, live performances by Andrea Asali, and free hands-on holiday art activities. The district says it will post the vendor lineup, music schedule, and workshop details as they're confirmed. Inside the ArtPark Welcome Center Gallery, The Spaces Between will be on view during all three market days. The group exhibition is curated by Johnny Draco, features seven Denver-based artists, and had its opening reception scheduled for Nov. 6.

A December evening in RiNo could start with the cone tree at 7 p.m. on 35th Street and end with an ounce of mortadella on Walnut before Risica closes at 10.

If you're thinking about a home near Walnut, Larimer, or the ArtPark, Mile High Lifestyles can show you which blocks put you within walking distance of these spots. Start Your Property Search with a team that keeps track of RiNo's changes block by block.