Food halls are the great equalizers of the Denver dining scene. They solve the age-old problem of where to eat when one person wants tacos, another ramen and your kid will only eat pizza. But besides being amazingly practical in their diverse food offerings, these halls are just plain fun, culinary playgrounds for chefs to test out their innovative concepts. Luckily, they’ve been popping up all over the city, giving locals and tourists alike lively, communal and cosmopolitan gathering places that foster conversation and feed our souls. This cheat sheet of food halls covers a dozen marketplaces to eat your heart out in (and close to) Denver.
Avanti Food & Beverage
Residing in Denver's Lower Highland (LoHi) neighborhood, Avanti Food & Beverage, a dynamically diverse food hall holding court in a former printing plant, shelters a collection of self-contained shipping containers, each of which is a mini restaurant. Diners can choose from a world-spanning variety of cuisines — everything from Venezuelan arepas to Berliner Döner Kebab—and enjoy their lunch or dinner in the communal first-floor dining area, or on the riveting rooftop deck bedecked with modern lounge furniture and enthralling views of the downtown Denver skyline. Along with its restaurants, Avanti lays claim to two bars, including one on the altitude-high terrace.
Denver Union Station
At Denver Union Station, the Mile High City’s main transportation hub, morning train travelers hit up Pigtrain Coffee Co. for a caffeine thunderbolt and Snooze for the profoundly delicious pineapple upside-down pancakes. Locals and tourists alike huddle at Ultreia, a snug, sunlit gastroteka that takes diners on a culinary sojourn through Spain and Portugal — a journey that’s enriched by a terrific bar program that dives into Basque ciders, fortified wines, sherry, port and gin tonics, by which they’re known in Spain. Mercantile Dining & Provision, a lovely New American restaurant, sells hand-crafted jams, spreads and pickled vegetables, along with sandwiches and terrific cheeses. Book a dinner reservation at the chef’s counter to fawn over beef tartare and bucatini. If you’re lusting for libations, flash back to the golden years at The Cooper Lounge, an elegant mezzanine hideaway overlooking the 100-year-old great hall, or commune in the historic ticketing office that’s now the Terminal Bar, a convivial watering hole that pours craft beers, cocktails and wine. And crown every meal — or heck, kick it off; who are we to judge? — at Baumé: A Dessert Bar, for the prettiest Paris Brest and pistachio gateaux this side of the Seine.
Milepost Zero at McGregor Square
Milepost Zero gets major points not just for bringing a solid lineup of excellent foodstuffs to baseball crowds, but also for its enviable Ballpark location just a bat’s swing from Coors Field, home to the Colorado Rockies. A mecca of gathering places, including 28,000 square feet of al fresco plaza space, Milepost Zero — its name a nod to the city’s early railway days when Milepost 0 was the center of where Denver’s train tracks began — is already a home run for the food-obsessed. The restaurant concepts include Tora Ramen, TaCo (where enchiladas, burritos and even a Bangkok Bowl join the street taco menu) and Anthony's Pizza & Pasta. Loading the bases is the Milepost Zero Bar, which trumpets a self-serve tap wall flowing with craft cocktails, wine, hard seltzers, cider and beer.
Denver Milk Market
Always a hot spot in the Ballpark neighborhood’s historic Dairy Block (now owned by Sage Hospitality), the 16-venue Denver Milk Market has a kitchen to satisfy every culinary itch: wood-fired artisanal pizzas; crisp-fried hot chicken; specialty salads; jolts of caffeine coupled with breakfast pastries; burgers and sandwiches; shakes, fresh-spun ice cream and gelato; eggs Benedicts and Belgian waffles; traditional Ethiopian plates and dumplings, noodles and dim sum. The stalls are anchored by three drinking emporiums, including a gorgeous craft beer bar. On Sunday mornings, things get rambunctiously fun during drag bingo brunch.
McGregor Square
The Source
The River North Art District (RiNo) is arguably the city’s most dynamic neighborhood, thanks in large part to urban developers Mickey and Kyle Zeppelin, a father-and-son team who, in 2013, opened The Source (and later, next door's The Source Hotel), a pioneering epicenter for food pilgrims, cocktail connoisseurs and craft beer geeks. The sprawling two-market complex populates an industrialized ironworks building that’s a multi-purpose village of culinary hotspots: Temaki Den, one of the city's top sushi restaurants; Safta, award-winning chef Alon Shaya’s homage to unassailable Israeli cuisine; smōk, whose superlative barbecue scents the heavens with mega doses of smoky puffs; and Cimera, a restaurant and rooftop bar that pairs Pan-Latin food with what could be the best view in Denver.
The Denver Central Market
River North Art District (RiNo) locals are spoiled rotten by the terrific combination of culinary concepts at this high-spirited food-and-drink emporium grandstanding eleven ace vendors, including Vero Italian, GreenSeed, Call Your Mother Deli, High Point Creamery, Tammen’s Fish Market and Temper Chocolate and Confections. If you crave caffeine, swing by Crema Bodega for a pick-me-up cappuccino, and when the clock rings in cocktail hour, snag a seat at the bar at Curio for a boozy Manhattan, negroni or boulevardier. The 14,000-square-foot space also highlights brilliantly graffitied outdoor picnic tables painted by local artists. If you’re flying in or out of Denver International Airport, look for the market’s second (and smaller) outpost on the A Concourse.
The Source
Stanley Marketplace
Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace already boasts a beautifully browsable cluster of independent boutiques, bookstores, markets, breweries and wine-and-spirit shops scattered across its vast expanse, all of which is surrounded by alluring food temptations. Empanada lovers feast on the best at Maria Empanada, coffee connoisseurs get their caffeine injections from Logan House Coffee, those with a sweet tooth savor the gorgeous bonbons and candy bars from Miette et Chocolat, morning types break for the unassailable breakfast bagel sandwiches at Rosenberg’s, taco lovers line up for the Mexico City-inspired Molino Chido and date-night couples book a coveted table at Annette, chef/owner Caroline Glover’s petite nirvana of season-intensive culinary excellence. If you just want a beer, the 37 pour-your-own tap handles at Stanley Beer Hall should suffice.
La Plaza Marketplace
The 100,000-square-foot La Plaza is a Latin marketplace so sprawling that it’s actually the largest Hispanic food hall in the United States. And it gets better: nearly all of the 24 kitchens (and food trucks parked outside) are locally owned, mom-and-pop eateries, serving up everything from tacos to hibachi to grasshopper-topped pizzas. But it’s not just food; more than 100 businesses operate in the village, a fun spin on a flea market covering daily essentials, clothes and fun wares. With live music, virtual reality experiences and events happening pretty much around the clock, La Plaza is always a good time.
Junction Food & Drink
If you’re on the south side, there’s plenty to ponder at this University Hills food hall housing 10 local and national proprietors for one-stop eating in a spacious and modern setting at the junction of Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25. Hit up Lazo for savory empanadas, Just Kool Jamaican Kitchen for jerk chicken and curry goat, Lulala for Latin inspired sandwiches and tequeños and Bowl'd Masala for healthy Indian wraps and bowls. No trip to this urban food hall would be complete without sipping a spirit-forward cocktail or tasty mocktail from the Junction Bar.
Edgewater Public Market
A long-vacant supermarket and lackluster strip mall got a major glow-up with Edgewater Public Market. This now-essential neighborhood gathering spot is a show-stopping destination for terrific shopping, drinking, eating and special events, including outdoor movies and festivals. Coffee, arepas, gyros, wood-fired pizza, ramen, empanadas, ice cream, burgers, top-notch vegetarian fare and some of the most notable and craveable Ethiopian food in the city pepper the market hall’s landscape, which gets a boost from the sun-smooched rooftop bar graced with an airstream trailer slinging beer, potent cocktails and hard seltzers. You can fault the magnificent views overlooking nearby Sloan’s Lake and, just beyond, the Denver skyline, for ditching the work-related Zoom meeting.
Mango House
Aurora’s diverse landscape is embodied by this endearing shopping center and food hall for refugees and asylees who pour their hearts and souls into the foods that beautifully illustrate the culinary traditions of their homelands. It has the vibe of community and pure passion, lined with aromatic stalls like Urban Burma, whose standout samosas and brilliant rice noodle dishes make you want to bow in grace. Stop by Natoli Ethiopian Cafe for lovely vegetarian platters and juicy lamb tibs, Jasmine Syrian Food for the faultless hummus and chicken shawarma, 509 Cuisine for heaping plates of Haitian fried meats, plantains and fritters, Nepali Spice for Kathmandu-style vegetable dumplings and Tata and Nono Sudanese Kitchen for real-deal spiced stews and flaky pastries. This is a wonderful place to see — and taste — the world without the trials and tribulations of travel.
Denver Milk Market is pictured above.