Elevated Grub Pub is the draw at the Eddy Hotel Restaurant, Food Truck

One evening given to Eddy Taproom & Hotel at Golden you’ll find an eclectic mix of out-of-town patrons and Goldenites enjoying dinner and drinks while listening to live music, playing a giant game of chess on the lawn or around the lawn. ‘a campfire. This cozy, relaxing vibe is exactly what Eddy’s founders hoped to create when they opened the boutique hotel and restaurant in June.

The Eddy, which is located on the site of Golden’s iconic Briarwood Inn, offers 49 rooms, two rooftop terraces, an outdoor lawn with garden games and fire pits, and easy access to the many trails and more. Golden outdoor activities. In addition to the hearty seasonal fare, local craft beers and infused cocktails on the menu at the Eddy Taproom restaurant, located on the hotel’s first floor, there’s also an on-site food truck in the parking lot, Truck Eddy, serving up barbecue and locally inspired milkshakes.

Both dining options have already proven to be much more popular than the hotel owners anticipated (they are doing three times more business than expected), which they see as proof that they have succeeded. to create an inviting living room and esque space where people feel comfortable hanging out. In a related vein, the hotel also hosts regular events open to the public, such as free yoga classes on the lawn at Golden’s Rise Yoga Studio. Lots of people walk to spend time at the neighbor’s Eddy Basecamp Apartments, which were developed, along with the hotel, by Golden-based Confluence Companies.

“We definitely want to welcome everyone – it wasn’t designed to be just a place where people who stay at the hotel want to eat, we want everyone in Golden and Colorado to enjoy it,” Tony says. DeSimone, director of Confluence. Companies. “We wanted it to be more of a neighborhood hub that helps build community. We wanted it to be inviting. We want people to come with flip flops and shorts, bring the kids in and let them play games in the yard, relax and run. “

Executive Chef Ben Shapiro has translated this philosophy into the menus he created for Eddy Taproom and Truck Eddy. The restaurant menu offers a selection of 12 starters, salads and starters that are meant to be fun and accessible, like the buffalo meatballs served with chimichurri and tomato jam, the French wild mushroom dip, and the popsicle-style fried chicken drumsticks, Shapiro says. The two dessert options – the s’mores bread pudding and the seasonal cast iron cobbler – are a nod to all of the great camping and outdoor recreation the area is known for. Many of the Eddy’s cocktails feature spirits infused with inventive ingredients such as Granny Smith apples, chili peppers, chamomile and hibiscus. The restaurant also offers a special 100 mile cocktail, made exclusively from ingredients produced within 100 miles of the Eddy.

Shapiro’s overarching goal is to create memorable dining and drinking experiences that challenge hotel dining expectations. “We didn’t want this to be your typical hotel restaurant – I feel like these just have a bad reputation for microwave food and steamed vegetables. In most hotels, the restaurant is kind of an afterthought, â€said Shapiro, a Denver restaurant veteran who most recently served as executive chef at El Camino Community Tavern. “I wanted it to be a restaurant in Golden, not a hotel that has a restaurant in Golden.”

With Truck Eddy, Shapiro tapped his Kansas City barbecue roots for smoked meat offerings like Apple Pulled Pork, Sausage, Breast, Burnt Ends, and Hot Honey Chicken Drumsticks, as well as sides. like brown butter cornbread and burnt baked beans. The food truck also offers a selection of sauces inspired by some of the country’s great barbecue regions: Kansas City, South Carolina, Texas and Alabama. “I wanted to find a way that if someone shows up and says, ‘I like Texan barbecue,’ we can tell them to try our sauces,†Shapiro explains. “The way we smoke our meats depends on the meat – we use salt and pepper and nothing else. We want to blackmail meat and smoke.

The food truck’s milkshakes also aim to offer something sweet and nostalgic for everyone and to share a little piece of the history of the region. Shapiro searched for mining terms and gold benchmarks to find names like Gold Rush (peanut butter, homemade jam, and graham crackers), Jackpot (vanilla ice cream, whoppers, malted milk), and Magic Mountain (cake topper). birthday and sprinkles, named after a now-closed 1950s Golden theme park).

There are patio tables near the food truck, and Eddy’s liquor license encompasses this area as well, so diners have mix-and-match options for where to sit and what to order when. of their visit, Shapiro said. For now, the truck is parked right outside the hotel, but Shapiro also plans to bring Truck Eddy to Golden events in the future. “Both of these concepts are really fun to use,†Shapiro says. “Honestly, it’s pretty awesome to have this hotel with only 49 rooms, so it’s by no means giant, and to have two different restaurant concepts.â€

1640 8th St., Golden