New three-story restaurant and bar with rooftop views opening on South Broadway

BurnDown is South Broadway’s newest watering hole.

Pack your friends into the three-story restaurant and bar with rooftop views of downtown and the Front Range at 476 S. Broadway, set to open on May 20. The 24,000-square-foot building, built in the 1940s, was previously home to LeGrue’s, a flower shop and year-round Christmas store that operated for 50 years.

BurnDown is a reference to a fire in 1978 that destroyed much of the building’s interior, leaving a hole in the center that has been incorporated into the design as a three-story atrium. Photos of the fire taken by a neighbor hang on the restaurant’s wall to remind visitors of its history.

“We figured we might as well embrace the past,” co-owner Reed Sparks said. “Normally, when things burn down, they fall down. So, to have a burned down building that’s still standing, we wanted to try to bring it back to life.”

The first floor is a classic restaurant and bar with a surprisingly elevated food menu, available for lunch on the weekends and dinner everyday, from chef Eric Navratil with an international flare and Colorado-sourced ingredients. Try signature dishes like the lamb pozole made with Denver-based Superior Lamb, guajillo broth, hominy and a side of sweet cornbread; the pan de campo, a buttermilk flatbread with whipped chèvre and a balsamic reduction; or the grains of truth, a mixture of farro and japonica rice topped with roasted mushrooms, roasted sweet potato and greens.

“The menu and the way I cook is my way of traveling to places I have not yet been,” Navratil said.

BurnDown’s second floor is a bar and lounge, serving lunch and dinner everyday. There are round, red leather booths, vintage pool tables and couches perfect for working remotely during the day, plus a New Orleans-style balcony overlooking South Broadway.

“It’s basically like free advertisement, you know, you have thousands of people commuting home up and down Broadway, and if you see a bunch of people on the balcony having fun, it’s a great way to draw people in,” said co-owner Alex Vickers, who is a childhood friend of Sparks.

Guests can always order beer on tap or in a bottle/can, plus classic wells like a vodka soda, but for an elevated experience sip on signature cocktails from beverage director Gigi Muto, such as the Sweet Trip, a take on an Old fashioned with candy cap mushroom-infused double High West rye whiskey, or the Red Dress with mezcal, maraschino liqueur, green chartreuse, lime, beet and egg.

BurnDown will have live music performances every weekend. There’s a stage overlooking the atrium on the second floor, where local jazz, blues and funk bands will perform Friday and Saturday nights or Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m. The restaurant also has a space for live music on the rooftop patio.

The restaurant’s third floor bar has an open-air layout and a perfect view from above of the second-floor stage. For more room, and an even better view of the Mile High City, the Flatirons and even Pikes Peak, guests can ascend the staircase to the 1,500-square-foot rooftop patio.

“It’ll be one of the best spots in town to see fireworks from every angle on Fourth of July,” Vickers said.

Sparks has been wanting to open his own restaurant since he got into the hospitality industry in 2013. He used to work for a New York City insurance firm, but decided that industry was too stiff for him. In 2012, he moved to Jackson Hole, where he met chef Navratil, to become a ski bum before moving to Denver in 2018 to start his own business and be closer to his family.