Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
That corner at 1691 Central St. has burned through tenants. El Chingon lived there. So did Central Bistro. So did Candela Latin Kitchen. If you have watched LoHi for any length of time, you know that stretch of Central Street chews up restaurants and spits them back out.
So when I tell you what just moved in, pay attention.
Blossom by SYC opened this week. And this is not another safe LoHi concept hoping to survive a year on the strip. This is Sherry Crossland planting a flag.
Crossland is the Denver restaurateur who founded One Concept Restaurant Group and SYC Concepts. If the SYC part rings a bell, it should. She is the person behind Go Fish Sushi, Miya Moon, Chubby Fish Sushi, The Bronze Empire and Sushi by SYC. The woman knows how to open a restaurant in this town and keep it open, which on Central Street is no small thing.
Blossom is her most personal swing yet. The concept is elevated Chinese food built on French culinary technique. She said it is her way of sharing the food, traditions and memories she grew up with, told through a modern perspective. That is the whole idea. Not fusion for the sake of fusion. Her actual childhood, run through a serious kitchen.
And the kitchen is where this gets interesting.
The menu is curated by Crossland and Executive Chef Adam Chan. Here is the resume. Chan worked at TATE Dining Room in Hong Kong, which holds two Michelin stars. Then he cooked at Ever, Chef Curtis Duffy's place in Chicago, which is one of the most decorated fine dining rooms in the country.
That is the pedigree walking into a LoHi storefront. Two-Michelin technique, applied to Chinese cooking, four blocks from where you park for a Nuggets game. Honestly, that combination does not show up here often.
Look at the menu and you can see the training. Artisanal pork soup dumplings. Black truffle pork shaomai. Hokkaido scallop carpaccio. Amber lychee shrimp balls. Crispy Sichuan chili chicken. Truffle and Hokkaido scallops next to shaomai tells you exactly what Crossland means when she says French technique meets the food she grew up on.
Here is the part people are going to circle. Blossom is building a Peking duck program with tableside carving service. The kind where the cart comes to your table and the whole thing becomes an event.
It is not running yet. They are waiting on the proper ovens to arrive before it launches. Peking duck done right needs specific equipment, and Crossland is not faking it with whatever is in the building. So for now the duck is a coming attraction, not a menu item.
Worth the wait, if you ask me. Westword already put Blossom on its list of most anticipated openings and flat out said it would be first in line once tableside Peking duck service starts. When Westword commits to standing in a line, that is a signal.
The space seats 130, so this is not some tiny 40-seat room where you cannot get a reservation for two months. There is real capacity here, which matters if Blossom becomes the special-occasion spot it clearly wants to be.
Hours are Sunday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m., and they push to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Dinner only, which fits. This is a place you go on purpose, not a place you wander into for a quick lunch.
Here is the real story. LoHi dining has been booming for years, but a lot of what has opened lately runs together. Another patio. Another cocktail bar. Another safe crowd-pleaser. What Denver has actually been short on is a genuine new special-occasion destination. Something you would drive across town for. Something you would book for an anniversary or the night the in-laws visit and you need to impress somebody.
Blossom is aiming directly at that gap. Two-Michelin technique, a chef who cooked at Ever, tableside duck on the way, in a walkable neighborhood where the real estate keeps climbing and the restaurant turnover has been brutal.
And that is the part that makes me watch this one closely. That Central Street address has beaten better-funded operators. Crossland knows it. She has run enough Denver restaurants to understand exactly what she is walking into. She did it anyway, with her most ambitious concept and a two-Michelin chef.
So my advice is simple. Get in now while you can still get a table without a fight. Order the shaomai. Then keep an eye out for those ovens to land, because once the duck cart starts rolling, that room seats 130 and every one of those seats is going to be spoken for.
Blossom by SYC. 1691 Central St. The corner that never held anyone finally has something worth holding onto.