22-03-2025
A new Alex Seidel and a new Mercantile
Alex Seidel is back in the kitchen. And the James Beard Award-winning chef says he is having fun again.
Why it matters: How he whittled down his Denver restaurant empire to focus on what he loves is a study in how the city's food scene grew fast, slid backward and left top chefs like Seidel imagining a new future.
State of play: Seidel, 52, closed his farm in Larkspur in 2021 — the first step on what he called "a personal journey" back to his roots, he told BusinessDen in a recent interview.
Last August, he sold his majority stake in Mercantile — where won his 2018 Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest — to Sage Hospitality.
And he closed his Denver landmark restaurant, Fruition, in January.
What he's saying: "I wasn't having fun worrying about what new legislation was going to come out. I don't have fun going to the mayor's office and talking about business," he told BusinessDen. "I like to be in my restaurant working with my people and creating things. … And I got so far away from that."
The latest: Mercantile — where Seidel still owns a 35% stake — reopened after a six-week closure and $500,000 renovation to its Union Station space. It now features a spacious bar and cafe as well as a private dining room.
The menu has evolved from its market concept and will change seasonally.
Lunch is expanded to include counter service and a $35, two-course meal.
The big picture: Seidel is not the only prominent name to shed pieces of his restaurant portfolio post-pandemic.
The closure of Fruition, his first restaurant, was not solely driven by economics, he says, and his other properties — three Chook Chicken locations and Fudmill, a Denver bakery — are doing well.
