The Kevin Taylor Experience
One Man. Many Restaurants.
Part of a big family, Kevin Taylor had to pull his own weight from an early age. He worked in Colorado kitchens starting as a dishwasher at age 14, eventually mastering every station in the kitchen at a local country club led by a chef from the illustrious London Savoy Hotel. Never formally educated and completely self-taught, Taylor taught himself to cook from books like Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire. “My food is original, since I never “staged” anywhere,” he says. He was only 21 when he held his first Executive Chef position at the Denver Prime (“too young”, he laughs). It wasn’t long before he realized he was the type who needed to work for himself, and he opened his first restaurant, Zenith American Grille, in 1986 at the tender age of 25.
It was a smart move. Zenith was located above the monumentally popular Rattlesnake Club and offered “the same service and quality, but cheaper,” says Taylor. Their reputation grew quickly, and four years after opening, in 1991, they moved Zenith to 17th and Arapahoe. The new location had three times the number of seats, tripling their sales overnight, and Taylor’s regional American cuisine garnered culinary acclaim, locally and nationally, including the prestigious Mobil Travel Guide Four Star rating.
However, their lease also tripled in 1996 and Kevin was forced to close Zenith (the space is still empty to this day). Kevin went to France for inspiration and found it at Michel Guérard’s Michelin 3-star restaurant in Eugénie les Bains, determined to bring a new level of fine dining back home to Denver.
In 1998, Taylor opened one of the first restaurants in a boutique hotel, his flagship restaurant “Restaurant Kevin Taylor” in the Hotel Teatro. Next to the Denver Performing Arts Complex and well-loved by theater-goers, Restaurant Kevin Taylor offers dramatic flair (for example, waiters pour soup from silver pots) a dazzling interior with 17-ft ceilings, honey-stained pecan wood paneling and gold silk tapestries, impeccable service and imaginative five-star contemporary French cuisine. For eight years in a row it has received the AAA Four Diamond award, the Mobil Travel Guide Four Star award, and the Wine Spectator “Best of Award of Excellence.” More recently, Restaurant Kevin Taylor was inducted into Nation Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame and named one of Travel + Leisure’s “50 Best Hotel Restaurants”.
Over the next few years Taylor also opened one of the first restaurants in an art museum, “Palettes” in the Denver Art Museum, as well as a few others that didn’t survive for various reasons, mostly due to the economic downtown following 9/11: Brasserie Z, Nicoise, Café Iguana, and the Dandelion in Boulder.
Undaunted, Taylor opened four more restaurants in an eleven-month period 2005-2006, including two opera house restaurants, “Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House” in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, open only theater nights, and “Rouge at the Teller House” Central City, open only during the Central City 10-week opera season. Rouge serves exceptional steaks and seafood “with a modern twist”. Taylor’s crew also serves lighter fare and appetizers at The Face Bar on the main floor of the Teller House. A popular tourist attraction, The Face Bar houses Herndon Davis’ famous ‘’Face on the Barroom Floor’’ painting, inspired by Hugh Antoine D’Arcy’s poem.
In 2005 Kevin opened a second restaurant in the Hotel Teatro, “Prima”, partially to handle room service requests from hotel guests, but popular also among Denverites and critically acclaimed in its own right: Prima was voted “one of Denver’s Top Ten New Restaurants of 2005” by 5280 Magazine. Prima has a warm, classy dining room with 18-foot windows and yellow walls decked with Italian opera prints; they serve contemporary Italian fare with an emphasis on flavor and freshness, excellent homemade pastas, seafood and meat dishes.
Summer 2006 Taylor returned to Boulder, opening a second Prima Ristorante one block from the Pearl Street Mall. Prima Boulder offers a casual, upscale experience with an Italian stone-fired pizza oven, a private dining room that seats 50, and, knowing how Boulderites like to be outside, a beautiful patio with a view of the mountains.
Most recently, Taylor and fiancée/partner Denise Mease reopened Palettes Contemporary Cuisine at the Denver Art Museum after a complete makeover during the construction of the new Frederic C. Hamilton building.
The future looks bright for Taylor. “People are willing to pay for food now. Restaurant Kevin Taylor has a 7-course Tasting Menu for $100, and this doesn’t include wine! Plus, Denver is very up-and coming, with major hotels like Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and a “W” planning to open a location in Denver in the near future.”
Advice, tips, and lessons learned
#1 “Don’t do it. But you have to do it, never rest – you can always do better.” The day we interviewed him, Taylor had recently worked 7 weeks straight without a day off. He says no one invites him out since they know he’s “always working”.
#2 “I can’t say it enough: you’ve got to be prepared for your first year. Too many chefs go into this undercapitalized and run out of money. You need a good business plan – your rent has to be reasonable, your landlord has to be reasonable.”
#3 “Location is the number one factor. You can have a wonderful restaurant in a bad location and have to struggle to survive; you can have a mediocre restaurant in a great location and do just fine.”
#4 “It’s hard to make money with just one restaurant.”
#5 “The most high-end restaurants are the most economy-proof – the rich rarely lose their money.”
#6 “Booking private events (corporate dinners, etc.) can make a huge difference to your revenue.” Most of Kevin Taylor’s restaurants have a private dining room, including the most recently-opened “Palettes” which now seats 278 guests, including 80 in a private glassed-in room.
#7 “Wine can also make a huge difference to your bottom line: buy the biggest wine list you can: make sure there’s a lot of variety, older vintages, etc..” Restaurant Kevin Taylor has over 900 wines in their cellar.
#8 “Hire a really experienced sommelier and bend over backwards to retain them for as long as possible.” The sommelier at Restaurant Kevin Taylor has been there more than six years.
#9 Change your menu often. Taylor changes 90% of each of his menus every season.
#10 Taylor always has his business eye open for the next smart new restaurant. The day we interviewed him, he had three restaurant ideas on his desk.
Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House
960 13th Street, Denver 80204
303.640.1012
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Dinner 5:30-10 pm on performance
nights only
Prima Ristorante (Denver)
1106 14th Street, Denver 80202
303.228.0770
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Breakfast daily 7-11 am
Champagne brunch Saturday and Sunday
11 am-4 pm
Lunch daily 11 am- 2 pm
Dinner daily 5 –11 pm
Restaurant Kevin Taylor
106 14th Street, Denver 80202
303.820.2600
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Monday-Saturday 5:30-10:30 pm
Rouge at the Teller House
120 Eureka Street, Central City 80427
303.582.960
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Lighter Fare & Appetizers
Tuesday-Sunday 11 am-10 pm
Fine Dining Tuesday-Saturday 4:30-9 pm,
Sundays 4-8 pm
Prima Ristorante (Boulder)
1801 13th Street, Boulder 80302
303.247.0600
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 am-11 pm
Sunday 5-10 pm
Palettes Restaurant
Denver Art Museum
100 W. 14th Ave Pkwy, Denver 80204
303.534.1455
www.ktrg.net
Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday,
Sunday 11 am-5 pm
Wednesday, Friday 11 am-9 pm g g g
