BRUTØ has been a LoDo staple since it first opened its doors in 2019. Its limited seat tasting menu centers around a hearth oven and a brutalist concept, making every dish and drink a celebration of aesthetically inclined minimalism imbued with equal parts smokey nostalgia and striking experimentation. When Chef Byron Gomez took the helm as Executive Chef early last year, that balance between simple, oft-locally sourced ingredients and a unique, risk-taking approach to flavor made for a natural fit. Gomez’s Costa Rican roots and Michelin Star resumé meld at the wood-burning oven for tangles of unexpected bites coursed with cocktail pairings.
So, when Chef Gomez and the BRUTØ team were approached by Blvck Svm – a Florida-born, Chicago-based rapper whose lyrically-pervasive style perpetually orbits the thematic discourse of fine dining – for a tasting pairing taken one step further, it made for yet another kismet partnership.
“This is a bit of a risk,” Blvck Svm said, “in that I don’t think any artist – any rapper, at least – has done this before. It’s an album listening party that doubles as a tasting menu dinner, in which each course of the dinner is inspired by a song from my debut album, Michelinman, which I released late last year.” Thankfully for Gomez and the entire BRUTØ staff, Blvck Svm’s poetic approach to the culinary arts gives them plenty to work with. After all, the finest ingredients provide plenty of opportunities for wordplay, while the rapper’s minimal-impact delivery and steady flow mirrors the BRUTØ ethos to celebrate the ingredients for what they are.
“We’ve never done anything like this,” said Chef Gomez “Actually, I’ve never referenced anybody that has worked with a musical artist – taking his concept and his inspiration and making an experience out of that.” However, for all the novelty behind the concept, it’s still one grounded in the heart and soul of both the culinary and hip-hop communities, where collaborations to further expand a respective set of artists’ creative visions, run rampant. BRUTØ itself is a manifestation of that collaboration.
“Here at BRUTØ, the bar team and the culinary team work hand-in-hand with inspiring each other,” Chef Gomez told his guests as they sat for night one of the event. “As you can see, we’re literally across from each other – we share a space – so there’s a lot of communication. So, a lot has gone into the ideation of these cocktails, these dishes, and these pairings.”
The first pairing reinforces the idea that unexpected partnerships can make for the most intriguing results. White-oak barrel aged Toki Japanese whiskey, Bozal mezcal fat-washed with jamón Ibérico, heirloom alchermes liqueur, a mocha and mushroom broth, and umami bitters are spun delicately into a glass that welcomes guests to the experience while paired with Blvck Svm’s meditative musings on those same ingredients.
“You guys will get to immerse yourselves in tonight,” Chef Gomez continues, “Whether you’ve been here or not, this is going to be a different experience, so we’re thrilled to be doing that. We’re working with some fancy ingredients, but we’re also going to have you eating with your hands…. Just like hip-hop which is all about breaking barriers, we want to do that even though we’re known as a fancier restaurant or a high-end place.”
New tracks give way to new courses, some liquid and others solid, on and on for two hours. There’s a porcini mushroom chawanmushi broth with shaved black truffle topped with a gherkin and ramp relish. There’s Japanese temaki with fajita marinated octopus, scallion and pickled chanterelle. Rice flour fried chicken dusted with tiger prawn, served with a cheddar and chive biscuit and Aleppo butter. Turbot with squid ink, Hamachi collar lettuce wraps and a smoked gouda ice cream with berry compote leather and caviar for dessert.
To drink, there’s Mexican sparkling wine, sake from Niigata, Japan and a flurry of cocktails. One blends rhum agricole, banana liqueur, Smith & Cross, curaçao, pumpkin orgeat, lime and pineapple jam, all rimmed with cinnamon-sugar. Another takes the liquid form of a Belgian waffle.
The ingredients here are premium and seemingly sporadic, the results unexpected, entirely new and complementary. The culinary contemplations of Blvck Svm hum throughout the night, not only soundtracking but pairing with each course until a diner is immersed in a multi-dimensional tasting and listening experience unlike any other. Unique even for Blvck Svm, the two-night event with BRUTØ is his first in what he hopes to turn into a series. BRUTØ – and by extension Denver – acting as the concept’s premiere says a lot about both the city’s music and food scenes.
“Hopefully, this is not the last time that we do something like this here at BRUTØ,” said Chef. And why would it be? If any chef, any restaurant and any scene could continue building momentum for cross-sectional creative collaborations like Michelinman, it’s Chef Byron Gomez, it’s BRUTØ, and it’s Denver.
BRUTØ is located inside Free Market at 1801 Blake St., Denver. Its hours are Tuesday – Sunday 5:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
All photography by Evan Dale.