Boulder's James Beard-Recognized Restaurants

Boulder might be on the smaller side compared to cities like New York and LA, but it is mightily stacking up new culinary accomplishments every year that rival major urban hubs. This is thanks to the city’s vibrant community of creative, talented chefs, more than 1,000 surrounding farms, and a population that loves to eat well and often.

Not only is Boulder home to the James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Restaurant in 2025, but a host of other chefs, restaurateurs and service teams also have won James Beard awards and are consistently nominated by this prestigious foundation.

Frasca Food and Wine 

2025 Outstanding Restaurant
2011-2025 Outstanding Service 

The shining star here is Frasca Food and Wine, which won the James Beard Outstanding Restaurant Award in 2025. This honor is a top American culinary award (only one is handed out to one restaurant in the entire country each year), recognizing consistently demonstrated excellence in food, service and atmosphere, and a lasting impact on the national dining scene. Frasca has also received the coveted Outstanding Service Award by the James Beard Foundation every year since 2011.

Basta & Dry Storage

2024 James Beard Award Outstanding Restaurateur

Co-founders Kelly and Erika Whitaker of Id Est, the hospitality group behind Basta and Dry Storage, won the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur. Basta is a tucked-away, accoladed Italian eatery with a wood-fired oven and a top-tier wine and cocktail selection. Dry Storage is a bakery and coffee shop with pastries and sourdough bread made fresh daily with their house-milled grains. Erika is only the fifth woman in U.S. history to earn this honor, and Kelly has been acknowledged two additional times by the James Beard Foundation.

Bramble and Hare

Farm-to-table Bramble and Hare's founder and head chef, Eric Skokan, has twice been nominated for regional James Beard Awards. In 2017, he was a semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest, and in 2022, he was again a nominee and finalist. Most of the restaurant's ingredients come from the chef's farm, Black Cat, producing nearly 250 varieties of vegetables, grains, legumes and herbs, as well as hundreds of heritage pigs and sheep. The farmstead also offers popular on-farm dining in private garden cabanas with wood stoves, pastoral views and a four-course chef tasting menu.

Zoe Ma Ma

Chinese street food restaurant and locals' favorite, Zoe Ma Ma, was founded by Edwin Zoe, a semi-finalist for the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur, and features his mother, Anna Zoe's, beloved cooking.

OAK at Fourteenth 

Chef and co-founder of OAK at Fourteenth, Steven Redzikowski, has also been a consistent nominee for the Best Chef: Southwest and Best Chef: Mountain categories. His New American cooking style and experience at top U.S. restaurants have earned him national recognition and made OAK a Boulder dining destination.

Blackbelly Market and Santo

Hosea Rosenberg, the acclaimed chef behind Blackbelly Market — a nose-to-tail butchery and eatery — and Santo — a contemporary, Northern New Mexican restaurant—has been a multiple-time semifinalist for the Best Chef: Mountain category. His innovative approach to butchery and farm-to-table dining at both restaurant concepts has garnered national attention.

Boulder's James Beard Recognized Restaurants