The former Secret Garden is now The Carriage House bordering Cheesman Park.

Antony Bruno

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It was a quiet week for restaurant closures, but there was plenty of activity on the openings front, with a number of long-awaited concepts opening their doors alongside a few pleasant surprises. 

Carriage House The current signature item at The Carriage House is a series of “toastettes.” You can choose three for $10.

Antony Bruno

The popular cafe and bar, once known as the Secret Garden, bordering the northern edge of Cheesman Park has reopened under new ownership as The Carriage House, a European-inspired cafe in the first of a two-phase rollout plan. By the looks of the line on day one, there’s been some pent-up demand for the space to reopen. 

It’s currently open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, offering a limited menu of sandwiches and “toastettes” along with a full line of pastries provided by Black Box Bakery (which itself is in the midst of a cafe-style expansion). The toastettes consist of thin slices of bread, toasted, with a variety of toppings like charred avocado, whipped ricotta and pepper jam, or crispy prosciutto with sun-dried tomato pesto. They’re $4 each, but you can mix three options together for $10 and get a nice light breakfast out of it. 

Sandwiches include a jambon au beurre ($14), turkey pesto ($15) or French onion grilled cheese ($13) among others, along with a selection of salads. All of it can be eaten on the cafe patio (named Best Place for Coffee in the Morning and Cocktails in the Afternoon in last year’s Best of Denver while still the Secret Garden), or taken with you as a park picnic. And, if you like, there’s a small retail area with snacks, wine and other provisions. 

Next month, the team aims to launch phase two, with cocktail service, a broader food menu and an indoor cafe space.

Go Fish Sushi Dishes from Go Fish Sushi

One Concept Restaurant Group

In late May, Go Fish Sushi announced a sudden, temporary closure due to “unforeseen structural and plumbing issues within the building.” This is the original Go Fish Sushi location on Broadway, not the Broomfield expansion that permanently closed earlier this year. (That location is being eyed for a Yuzu by SYC concept.)

So we’re happy to say that the restaurant has now reopened. Go Fish Sushi is the Once Concept Group’s first restaurant, which has since expanded aggressively over the years to include Miya Moon, Mikaku Ramen & Temaki, Bronze Empire and high-end SYC Concepts eateries like Sushi by SYC and the newly opened Blossom by SYC.  

In other expected openings, San San is now live in Boulder, Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery is open again under new ownership and Enzo’s mades its Colfax return (again) with another new owner. We also are eyeing a few scheduled closures on the near horizon, including the Aug. 16 closing of Syurp in Cherry Creek and the Aug. 29 shuttering of Gateaux Pastries after 30 years in business.

Here’s the complete list of restaurants and bars that opened or closed this week*:

Openings

Black Rock Coffee Bar, 9111 E. 40th Ave.
Blue Nest Bar & Bistro, 2050 Youngfield St., Lakewood
Carriage House, 1290 N. Williams St.
Dumpling Legend, 2595 S. Lewis Way, Lakewood 
Enzo’s Brick Oven Pizza, 3424 E. Colfax Ave.
Go Fish Sushi, 1 Broadway (reopening)  
Longmont Supply, 508 3rd Ave., Longmont
Post Brewing, 3801 Crossing Drive, Lakewood 
San San, 2014 10th St., Boulder 
Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery, 2418 W. 32nd Ave. (reopening)

Closures

BopBowl, 8719 E. Dry Creek Road, Centennial

*Or earlier and not previously reported.

Know of something we missed? Email editorial@westword.com.

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Antony Bruno has been Westword‘s Food & Drink editor since April 2026. Before joining the staff full-time, he wrote the Eat Up Havana series, visiting every restaurant on Havana Street in Aurora. A graduate of the Cook Street School of Culinary Arts, he strives to help others level up their cooking skills and food knowledge. Bruno was previously a senior writer at Billboard magazine, a communications advisor, and a freelancer for multiple Denver-based publications.