225 E. 7th Avenue | Mizuna
Twenty-five years after opening Mizuna, Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno are still helping shape the way Denver eats. We recently joined the Bonanno Concepts team for an intimate anniversary dinner celebrating the restaurant that started it all.
The 40-seat restaurant opened in 2001 as an ambitious neighborhood dining room rooted in French technique, seasonal ingredients and highly attentive service. It became one of Denver’s earliest fine-dining restaurants to earn national recognition and was famously featured during Anthony Bourdain’s 2010 visit to the city.
The evening revisited dishes from throughout Mizuna’s history, beginning with its longtime potato-and-caviar course and continuing with the green tea-poached Chilean sea bass, which Frank said was the first dish he created for Mizuna’s original menu.
The main course was a perfectly prepared beef Wellington, a dish Frank said he was making at Mizuna long before it was in style. After tasting it, that claim was easy to believe.
Mizuna also became a training ground for Denver’s next generation of culinary talent. Bonanno Concepts says more than 25 former team members have gone directly from working with Frank to opening restaurants of their own.
Frank has led the food, while Jacqueline has shaped the creative identity and design of the restaurants. Together, the husband-and-wife team built a footprint that has included Luca, Osteria Marco, Bones, Green Russell, Vesper Lounge, French 75, Denver Milk Market, Salita and numerous other concepts.
Today, Mizuna remains the group’s flagship, joined by Luca and Salita on the same Governor’s Park corner, Vesper Lounge nearby and Osteria Marco on Larimer Square. The anniversary celebration will continue August 22 with a Mizuna block party featuring a progressive six-course experience split between Mizuna and Luca, followed by music and a toast on Luca’s patio.
Reservations for the 25-year celebration can be made at $250 per person here.
The Bonannos are also preparing for their next chapter. Rōmyō, pronounced “Romeo,” is expected to open this summer at 1401 Larimer Street. The 80-seat restaurant will fuse Japanese and Italian cuisine, transforming the group’s popular Itameshi pop-up into a permanent destination and bringing ideas from Mizuna, Luca, Bones, Dumplin’ and Osteria Marco under one roof.
As Frank reflected at the dinner, the dishes created 25 years ago still translate today.
“Food is timeless. Everything that’s old is new.”