Chicken Riot Brings Smoked Pollo Asado to Cherry Creek's East Sixth Avenue

2906 E. 6th Avenue

Chicken Riot, a new counter-service concept built around smoked and fire-roasted chicken, opened in at 2906 E. Sixth Avenue in Cherry Creek, taking over the 20-seat space vacated by the Truffle Cheese Shop following that business's closure late last year.

The restaurant is the second concept from chef Manny Barella and pitmaster Patrick Klaiber, co-owners of Riot BBQ at 2180 S. Delaware St. in the Overland neighborhood. Riot BBQ opened less than a year before the duo began planning the Cherry Creek outpost, marking a rapid expansion for the pair.

Chicken Riot's menu centers on whole and half rotisserie chickens prepared using techniques drawn from both Texas barbecue tradition and the pollo asado culture of Northern Mexico.

Signature offerings include the Big Boy Pibil — a pibil-marinated, slow-smoked half chicken — and the Señor Loco, a citrus-marinated slow-smoked half chicken. The menu also features wraps, sandwiches, and salads, along with smoked turkey tamales finished with a red mole sauce based on Barella's grandmother's recipe, the only non-chicken main on offer.

Barella, a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Emerging Chef category and a Top Chef alum, has described Chicken Riot as a "love letter to chicken," rooted in the neighborhood pollo asado spirit of Northern Mexico — where live-fire cooking functions as both sustenance and community gathering. The concept is designed around that tradition: a casual, welcoming space centered on the singular act of cooking chicken well.

The 2906 E. Sixth Ave. space had been home to the Truffle Cheese Shop, a long-running Cherry Creek retail fixture. The Colorado Department of Revenue seized the shop's assets in September 2025 over $21,471 in unpaid taxes, effectively closing the location and creating a vacancy on one of the neighborhood's more walkable retail corridors.

Cherry Creek has seen a wave of new restaurant concepts arrive in recent months. Last week, restaurateur Sean Huggard brought Ash & Agave to the former California Pizza Kitchen space at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and chef Johnny Curiel's Alteño has opened nearby. Chicken Riot's compact, counter-service format offers a deliberate contrast to the neighborhood's otherwise upscale dining additions — a neighborhood chicken shop in a corridor that has trended toward white tablecloths and prix fixe menus.

Chicken Riot is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.