For years, the food conversation in Sunnyside defaulted to 38th Avenue: Bacon Social House, The Universal, Lou's Food Bar. The stretch was lively, local, and reliably crowded on weekends. Meanwhile, 44th Avenue sat a few blocks north — acknowledged as a corridor with potential, described by 5280 as recently as 2019 as likely to become the neighborhood's "hidden go-to area" once it "rounded out its offerings."
It is rounding out. Three distinct concepts opened or are opening on 44th and its connecting artery, Tejon Street, between May 2025 and March 2026. A fourth is under construction in the same corridor. If 38th has been your mental address for Sunnyside food, the news has moved north.
What Changed on 44th
The shift started quietly. In May 2025, Semiprecious opened at 2839 W. 44th Ave. — a cocktail bar built around a single engineering premise: every drink served at or just above freezing. The concept comes from hospitality operator Capoferri, who spent years visiting roughly 100 bars a month as a Campari ambassador before deciding Denver was where he wanted to build. He brought the same high-tech technique from his Los Angeles bar Thunderbolt, rewired it through an aperitivo lens, and opened in a renovated 1950s building that had previously been a furniture showroom.
The bar's intent is worth noting for the neighborhood. Capoferri told Westword he wasn't arriving with a ready-made formula: "We're not coming to shoehorn some L.A. concept in. We're building a concept for Denver." Semiprecious draws a crowd that isn't walking over from 38th — it is building its own regulars from a block that had none.
The Spice Kitchen Bet on the Same Street
A few doors east, 2915 W. 44th Ave. sat vacant through most of 2024 after Sunnyside Supper Club closed when its lender initiated foreclosure. The 5,700-square-foot building sold in May 2025 for $2 million — down from the $3.1 million paid for it in October 2021, with not a dollar of the $2.55 million note paid off. The buyer was Suraj Aryal, the restaurateur behind Spice Kitchen, an Indian and Nepali restaurant with existing locations in Thornton and Parker.
Aryal was clear-eyed about the environment: "It's not easy at the moment," he told BusinessDen, citing interest rates, labor costs, and food prices squeezing margins at his existing locations. He bought the building anyway, took out a $2.1 million loan maturing in 2050, and is planning to open his third Spice Kitchen there later in 2025. The address that went through foreclosure is now a long-term restaurant bet on what 44th Avenue is becoming.
Tejon Gets Its Anchor Back
Where 44th and Tejon meet, you have Chaffee Park — the neighborhood green that hosts the annual Sunnyside Music Fest each September. One block south on Tejon, the address most residents already knew just changed hands.
Ebisu Sushi and Ramen Star is holding its grand opening on March 20, 2026 at 4044 Tejon St. — the former home of Ramen Star, which opened in 2019 and built its following around owner Takashi Tamai's traditional and creative ramens. Tamai decided to sell to return to Japan; the sale closed February 23 to husband-and-wife co-owners Myong and Chef Soon Choi, who are bringing their own sushi and ramen menu to the space.
What matters here is continuity. The Tejon corridor runs from 38th up through Chaffee Park to 44th, connecting Sunnyside's two commercial strips on foot. Losing Ramen Star to a vacancy would have broken that walk. Getting Ebisu instead keeps the address alive and gives the corridor a functioning anchor at its midpoint.
38th Isn't Standing Still
None of the activity on 44th and Tejon means 38th Avenue fell quiet. In November 2025, Boombots Pasta Shop opened at 2647 W. 38th Ave. next door — connected by an interior door — to Odie B's, the sandwich shop Cliff and Cara Blauvelt turned into a neighborhood institution. The two now share a kitchen.
Boombots is Italian-ish pasta that refuses the Italian-American playbook: unconventional combinations, a menu built on the same iconoclastic energy as Odie B's, and a name borrowed from a 1970s SNL character whose Italian-American translation roughly means "idiot." The Blauvelts told 5280 the name appealed to them because "it's a crazy time to open a restaurant in Denver right now." The restaurant made 5280's list of the city's best new openings of 2025. The practical effect for neighbors: the 38th and Tejon corner is a bigger destination than it was twelve months ago, not a smaller one.
The Foundation That Made This Possible
New spots land differently in a neighborhood with a working food culture already underneath them. Sunnyside has that. Huckleberry Roasters has been roasting at Pecos and 43rd Ave. for years, with an outdoor deck that functions as the neighborhood's unhurried morning. Cherry Bean Coffee on 44th offers a quieter alternative to the LoHi scene a few blocks south. Bonacquisti Wine Company anchors 38th. Diebolt Brewing and Factotum Brewhouse give the neighborhood two craft beer options without crossing a highway.
That base matters because new operators are filling specific gaps, not arriving to a blank canvas. A cocktail bar with actual craft. A ramen address that doesn't go dark. A pasta spot with personality. A full-service restaurant willing to bet on a building that went through foreclosure. Each arrived because existing foot traffic made the math plausible.
The Corridor, End to End
Running north from 38th to 44th along Tejon and the parallel streets, a walkable Sunnyside evening in spring 2026 looks like this: start at Boombots or Odie B's on 38th, walk up Tejon to Ebisu at 4044, continue to Chaffee Park at 44th and Tejon, then turn west on 44th to Semiprecious at 2839 and the incoming Spice Kitchen a few doors down at 2915. That is a contiguous food-and-drink corridor that did not exist in this form eighteen months ago.
The 5280 guide that called 44th a future "hidden go-to area" back in 2019 was not wrong. It was early. That rounding-out is happening now, with a specific opening date attached to the newest piece.
Watching a neighborhood fill in block by block changes what your home is worth — and when the right moment to act might be. Kissel Group tracks these shifts in Sunnyside and across Denver, and would be glad to talk through what the current market means for you, whether you're buying, selling, or just keeping an eye on things. Reach out to work with Madison and the team.
