After a quiet few years, Linger/Root Down restaurant group is back for more

The company behind some of Denver’s most longstanding and popular restaurants earned the good graces of the Highland neighborhood earlier this year when it bought Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery from its departing owners.

That sale was a sudden move for Edible Beats, a restaurant group with a roster that includes Linger, Root Down and El Five, all of which are in the neighborhood.

Edible Beats founder Justin Cucci was expecting to take on only one new restaurant this year: Pip Food + Drink, set to open in the next 5 to 7 weeks on the ground floor of 2930 Umatilla St. , Denver, in the same building as El Five.

In an interview, the 56-year-old Cucci shared why he and the company’s leadership jumped at the opportunity to buy a beloved bakery. He also talks about opening their first restaurant since selling Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, his restaurant and music venue in LoDo, in 2024. Excerpts from the following interview were edited for clarity.

Denver Post: We’ve heard about Pip Food + Drink going underneath El Five and your plans to purchase Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery, so there’s a ton of new movement I want to ask you about. But first, I want to know what role Linger and Root Down have in the Edible Beats repertoire now.

Justin Cucci: There’s two others that were in our group, which are Vital Root and Root Down DIA, and obviously Ophelia’s [Electric Soapbox], which we sold. But Root Down and Linger, those were my first two, and Root Down was the first one [in 2008]. I think they are both the blueprint for the restaurants that have the most miles under their belt — for good and sometimes not so good.

The culture, the identity and the overall feel of those places, in my experience, feel very comfortable. At the same time, we have an experienced staff and our food menus are pretty dialed in. I think they just bear the responsibility of being the anchors of the company.

Edible Beats is opening its fourth LoHi restaurant. Pip Food + Drink, later this year. (Photo by Matt Geiger/BusinessDen) DP: So what’s led to all the movements you’ve made this year?

Cucci: Before, growth was very unstrategic. We’d open a restaurant, and then maybe 6 months later or a year later, a space presented itself, and then we’d weigh all the [options]. “Is it dynamic?” “Does it have an architectural story?” All these things that were important to us.

It was this great thing where we were growing as our team grew. The team was like a shark. It never stopped moving. We kept growing and growing, and it worked.

When we hit 2019 — really, 2017 — we said, “Okay, we’re putting down the pencil. We have this great group.” Everybody was in their respective roles and still growing, but there was no need to open another restaurant.

DP: How many people were you working with at the time?

Cucci: The whole group was over 500 people.

Then obviously with COVID, things changed. We sold Ophelia’s. We converted to an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). We’re employee-owned right now. These new decisions are solely based on our strategic growth, so that Edible Beats can grow the ESOP.

The Wooden Spoon [purchase] was out of the blue, so I can’t even say that was a strategy. That was a bakery we loved and in a neighborhood we love. I’m a day one person there. I thought, “Man, I would hate to see that close,” selfishly. I thought it was a great brand. I thought Jason and Jeanette [Burgett], the former owners, did a really fantastic job there. That’s a quality level that I think we can already expect, and I think that we can do honor to it.

Pip [Food + Drink] was more of a strategy once Sushi Ronin left that building . Honestly, I don’t think we would have opened a restaurant anywhere else right now. It’s just too risky and too expensive. But downstairs from El Five, which does still have overflow and has a pretty solid fan base, I thought we could open that and feel like we were getting a head start. We’re not starting at zero.

DP: I went over to Wooden Spoon recently and saw some signs asking for customer feedback. Is there anything in particular that you’re seeking out or any changes you’re going to make?

Cucci: You know, Jason and Jeanette owned it for so long and were owner-operators, and the way they did most things was very mom-and-pop. Once you get bigger, like Edible Beats is, you have to have systems in place. I think we put that sign up simply because most of the recipes came from their brains, and all of the nuance of what they’ve done is in their brains. When we get behind the kitchen and now we’re baking it, we don’t have the same 15 or 14 years of knowledge to know when things are perfect, when it’s a little over- or under-proofed or whatever it is.

We try and tell people, “Look, we have not changed a single price. We have not changed a single recipe. We’re just still finding our feet.” This was a business we never planned to own. I was trying to let people know, “We love this place as much as you guys do. If we don’t get it right, just let us know, because that’s how we learn.”

DP: It seems like you’re really doubling down in Highland. What are you expecting from the neighborhood?

Cucci: I want to earn our place, and earn respect from the neighborhood. We want to be good neighbors. I know we’re big restaurants with a lot of employees, and sometimes it could look corporate or like we’re the “man.” But like I said, I understand the mom-and-pop mentality because that’s how we grew. Now we have a board of directors because we’re an ESOP, but we didn’t have a whole contingency of people. I had to work hard and get loans and try and build these places from ground zero, literally.

The rooftop of Linger in Denver. (Sara Grant/The Denver Post) DP: Around how many employees do you think Edible Beats has now?

Cucci: Around 300.

DP: Do you cook often?

Cucci: At home, I do. In the restaurants, it’s been a long time since I’ve cooked in the kitchens. I would say I’m like a producer who’s making an album with a bunch of chefs. I usually am still the one that decides what goes on the album.

DP: Keeping it brief, what dishes would you recommend right now at your restaurants?

Cucci: I’m obsessed with a perfect bite of food, what has all the textures and flavors in one bite, and the Devils [on Horseback] at Root Down does that. They’re a Peppadew pepper wrapped in bacon with a cheese fondue with almond inside of it and a little microgreens.

At El Five, even though it’s a little out of season, the [bison] meatball dish there is so good.

For Linger, I would probably say I still love the [masala] dosa there. It’s just not a common food for American palates and even in Indian restaurants, not all restaurants have it.

DP: What about at Wooden Spoon?

Cucci: Oh, that’s an easy one. The blueberry scone is one of the things I’ve been eating there for 14 years. I love that we still make that.

But I will say, my new chef there put a maple bacon croissant on for the fall, and man, it is dangerous. Very dangerous.

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