Bio : Edible Beats Denver
Justin Cucci, Owner and Executive Chef, 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.
His Denver Edible Beats restaurant group is a sextet of dynamic restaurants, comfortably saturated with culinary music, flavorful design, and authentic hospitality.” This mash-up of restaurants includes:
Root Down, a mid-century gas station with a farm to table B-side
Linger, long time mortuary reborn into a Street Food Eatuary
Ophelia's, historic Victorian XXX Peep Show come music venue/Gastro brothel
Vital Root, former candy factory, fully grown into a vegetarian-GF Fast-Slow Food Joint
El Five, An ode to Gibralters Mediterranean expanse of food & culture with 360 Views of the Denver skyline & mountain sunsets.
Root Down DIA at the Denver International Airport is a traveler’s oasis, an ode to 1960s LaGuardia feel, serving the greatest hits from the OG Root Down.
“In 2008, I moved to Denver, drained from the years in the industry,” Cucci says. “By that time, I had sold my restaurants in Key West, and wanted to parlay my winnings, shun prudent advice, and try find my voice as a restaurateur and chef . I wanted to color outside the lines.
I rented an abandoned mid-century gas station in the Highlands neighborhood, and quickly pitched the owner on a mash up of a global farm to table restaurant, that toyed with a Sanford & Son design approach, using reclaimed and repurposed design materials that were intentionally misaligned. Once it opened it felt like we ran the table in the best imaginable way. It felt like the whole city embraced that moment.”
Flash forward to 2015, Cucci launched live music venue/gastropub Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, which occupies a beautiful Victorian brownstone that once housed a brothel, peep show and an adult bookstore, and playfully acknowledges its seedy past while embracing a sexy present. The vibe varies from independent local music hub,to diverse roster of National talent, from Parliament-Funkadelic to Brothers of a Feather to The Meters to Pharcyde, to David Grisman.
“At Ophelais we wanted to focus on an often missing element of great live music: the junction where Quality music, authentic hospitality, craveable food and beautiful design jam together to create a deeper level experience. We want that experience to be impactful beyond the moment, and carry forward.”
“Covid kicked our ass as a venue,” Cucci admits. “We went dark for almost 2 years, and impatiently waited to get back on stage, and do what we love. However we used that time to evolve what we learned in the first five years of Ophelia’s, so that we would honor and improve the music experience. We missed our staff, we missed the bands, we missed the fans and we are truly grateful to have the opportunity to plug in again! ”
Not only did Cucci and his team work for almost a year to evolve and upgrade Ophelia’s sound system, stage lighting and video systems, but they also reconfigured the setup of the stage and bar areas, expanding the square footage to make it safer and more comfortable for patrons in the Covid era.