Justin Cucci, Chef and Founder, Edible Beats Restaurant Group

Innovative Chef and Restaurateur Justin Cucci is a born and raised Manhattanite, cut from the cloth of a family of restaurateurs. After dropping out of college to run his family restaurant, NYC’s renowned Waverly Inn, Justin Cucci spent the next 20 years immersed in the restaurant industry. In 2008 Chef Cucci moved West to Denver in search of a more authentic culinary voice for himself. His first step was renting an abandoned mid-century gas station and developing a globally inspired farm to table restaurant, Root Down. Since then he has opened six restaurants and venues under his Edible Beats restaurant group, all focused on serving local, seasonal, sustainable, and vegetable forward cuisine. Denver hotspot Vital Root, will soon turn shipping containers into hydroponic greenhouses, growing peppers and leafy greens to start. As a music lover, he has bridged the gap between his passions with Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, a former brothel flipped into a restaurant and music venue local press hails as “a staple in Denver’s local music scene.” Joining only a small handful of restaurants in the entire country, Justin implemented a self funded, 100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan for all his staff, a benefit that gives Edible Beats employees an ownership stake in the business. He is also the author of The Edible Beat cookbook featuring 60 deliciously globally inspired recipes, along with other cookbooks in the works.