Snow fell as Ben Polson stepped outside of his new restaurant wearing a short-sleeved shirt and an apron. He wasn’t cold though, as he opened the furnace-like doors to his smoker and tossed in a large piece of moss-covered wood.
The racks of spare ribs and slabs of pork inside the smoker still had more than four hours to go before they’d be ready to serve at Mama Jo’s Biscuits & BBQ, which opened Feb. 14 in the former Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs at 3525 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver.
“I can only imagine what it’s going to be like in the summertime,” Polson said.
A few days later, and less than half a mile west, at 2730 E. Colfax Ave., Maria Empanada opened its long-awaited fourth location.
The openings are breathing some life into a stretch of East Colfax between York Street and Colorado Boulevard where more than a half dozen restaurants have closed in the past few months, including Steve’s, Enzo’s End Pizzeria, Fox Run Cafe, Rico’s Pizza, Tacos Tequila Whiskey and its short-lived replacement, Rolling Pin Pizza.
They also provide some optimism as the city embarks on a years-long, $280 million bus rapid transit line construction project along the avenue — an effort that will threaten every business in its path. Neon-orange cones the size of dumpster bins squeeze traffic headed in both directions at multiple points between the State Capitol and East High School.
Polson started Mama Jo’s Biscuits and BBQ as a food truck with his wife Jodi Polson, a former pastry chef at Coperta, a Denver Italian restaurant. They moved into the space long occupied by Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs in December, spending the next two months giving the space a major facelift and replacing the theme of their ketchup-and-mustard-colored predecessor with the blue and white of their food truck.
Framed pictures of chickens the Polsons collected over the years hang around the interior, where before there had been hundreds of photos of Steve’s former customers. A smoker more reminiscent of a submarine replica rests on a platform outside behind the food truck.
Mama Jo’s specializes in ‘Carolina-style’ barbecue, which Polson said is prepared with a dry rub and vinegar sauce. His kitchen also makes towering chicken biscuit sandwiches, smoked jackfruit and fried green tomatoes. The restaurant still has a stock of hot dogs, which it will sell until it runs out. Right now, most people are coming in for the barbecue and biscuit sandwiches, he said.
The opening of Maria Empanada, meanwhile, is a “milestone” for the business, owner Lorena Cantarovici said in a statement last week.
The new location — Maria Empanada’s first in six years — will serve baked empanadas with beef, chicken, mushrooms, sweet fillings and more. The traditional Argentinian alfajor, a cookie coated in chocolate, dulce de leche and pistachios, is on the dessert menu, along with churros and medialunas, or croissants.