The two biggest restaurant projects heading for the Denver Tech Center over the next six months are both seafood houses. One is a seafood spinoff from the team behind one of the area's best-known steakhouses. The other comes from an oyster bar owner who says he chose seafood partly because the area already has plenty of steakhouses. Both sit a few minutes from Greenwood Village homes, just across the line in Denver's half of the Tech Center. Between them, they show where the DTC's dinner scene is likely to go after its steakhouse years.
The Baseline Everyone Is Building Against
Sean Huggard, who runs Shucking Good Hospitality, gave a short history of the Tech Center restaurant scene when he announced his newest concept in August. "The Denver Tech Center is known for having some of the best, highest volume and most expensive restaurants in Denver, between Del Frisco's, Shanahan's, Ocean Prime, Guard and Grace coming down," he told The Denver Post.
He went on to describe what those rooms share. "But those are steakhouses. They're very expensive. They're very formal, and that's not what we're doing."
That list maps to familiar addresses. Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse is at 8100 E. Orchard Road. Shanahan's is on South Syracuse Street. Ocean Prime is at 8000 E. Belleview Avenue and is the one on the list with a Greenwood Village address. For years, a big dinner out in the DTC usually meant a white-tablecloth room with a serious steak list. The two incoming restaurants each take a different approach to that history.
G&G Surf Club Keeps the Steaks and Adds the Ocean
Troy Guard's G&G Surf Club is going into Penterra Plaza at 8100 E. Union Ave. In June, Guard told The Denver Post he expected to open "by Nov. 1." When Westword toured the site in mid-September, it was still under construction plastic, and the target had moved to an October or November opening. No firm date has been announced.
The concept is a seafood-forward sibling of Guard and Grace. Prime steaks, salads and pasta stay on the menu, with seafood, a raw bar and an open kitchen added. It is big. Westword reports roughly 8,500 square feet with about 225 indoor seats, a wraparound bar with a lounge, a raw bar, a sushi bar, a private dining room and two large patios. That size fits the high-volume Tech Center model Huggard described, now with the menu tilted toward the coast.
G&G is also the first of four restaurants Guard plans to open across the metro over the next two years. The others are a downtown concept called Barbara, another HashTAG in Wheat Ridge, and one that hasn't been named yet. Westword notes that this comes not long after he publicly moved to Houston, citing high operating costs and long permitting timelines in Denver. "I'm a glutton for punishment," he said during the construction tour. The chef is choosing the Tech Center as the first stop of his return.
The Coastal Service Starts From the Other End
Huggard's restaurant, The Coastal Service, is planned for On The Square at Belleview Avenue and Ulster Street, where Marina Square used to stand. He signed a 20-year lease on 4,000 square feet, about half the size of G&G, and is aiming for early 2027.
The name is a nod to the postal service. His group ships seafood in from both coasts seven days a week, and he says he still buys from many of the same boats he worked with during five years as an executive chef on Nantucket. The planned menu leans toward East Coast fish that rarely show up on Colorado menus:
- Black bass, tautog and hake, alongside the salmon and halibut Coloradans already know
- Oysters from the Blue Island Oyster Bar side of the business
- A classic New England scallop, broiled, basted in garlic butter and white wine, and topped with cracker crumbs, which Huggard calls his favorite thing to eat
- No fried clams or fish and chips
The room is split into three parts. A raw bar with high-tops and booths greets guests at the door. Sliding doors lead to a four-season covered patio, and the last dining area is meant to feel like a converted Nantucket home.
"Fresh seafood is not inexpensive, right? But we don't have $120 steaks on our menu."
That line from Huggard sums up the pitch. G&G brings the steakhouse format along with the seafood. The Coastal Service makes seafood the occasion in a more relaxed room.
Why Both Addresses Sit Just Over the Line
Neither restaurant is technically in Greenwood Village. Denver's assessor maps place Penterra Plaza in the City and County of Denver. Denver planning staff put the former Marina Square site in the Hampden South neighborhood. The Tech Center crosses the boundary, and these two projects happen to be on the Denver side.
On The Square is the bigger change. Shea Properties is building the roughly $200 million project with 481 apartments and retail space, and construction started in summer 2025. Shea's project page says it opens in late 2026. The restaurant tenants announced so far are on a later schedule. Barcelona Wine Bar, announced for 8107 Belleview Avenue, could open as soon as early 2027, according to 9NEWS. BusinessDen reported in April that GolfTec is coming back to the project. Over the next few months, that corner of Belleview is likely to turn into a cluster of new restaurants and shops.
Orchard Road Shows How Menus Are Changing
The DTC restaurants inside Greenwood Village city limits have seen their own turnover this year, and some of it points the same way: tighter menus built for a specific crowd.
Spice Trade Brewery & Kitchen at 8775 E. Orchard Road is the clearest example. The brewpub had been converted to a Yak & Yeti concept in January 2025. This spring it went back to its original identity under new CEO Teregis, with head brewer Andrew Chafin still running the beer program. The old rotating menu, which switched to a different global cuisine every few months, didn't come back. "We were locked into a pretty large menu with a lot of different ingredients sourced from different areas from around the world," Teregis told Westword. "It was a lot to keep up with." In its place is a short core menu. The adult tater tots and teriyaki Brussels sprouts are back, and the tandoori oven left from the Yak & Yeti period now turns out charcoal-grilled chicken wings.
A few doors down at 8745 E. Orchard Road, the restaurant side of Mama Kim's had closed by early September, while the spa stayed open.
Elsewhere in the Tech Center, the changes this year have been in casual dining:
- Chicken Salad Chick opened at 5322 DTC Boulevard on March 4.
- Yummy Hot Pot showed up on Westword's July openings list at 8181 E. Arapahoe Road, and Crave Cookies at 4940 S. Yosemite St. was on the same month's closures list.
- Tap & Burger closed its DTC location at 4910 S. Newport St. in late July. Its LoHi and Westminster locations are still open.
Huggard's description of his dining room, "Nothing was overbuilt," could describe much of this year's activity. The concepts moving into the Tech Center are ones that have narrowed their focus.
The Calendar Between Now and the Openings
The new seafood rooms won't open until later this fall at the earliest. Here's the timeline for Greenwood Village from now through spring, in order:
- Saturday, October 3, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Fall Fest at Carson Park and City Hall, 6060 S. Quebec St., with music, art projects, games, inflatables, a pumpkin patch dash and a costume contest. It's free and aimed at Greenwood Village residents, but you need a ticket to get in.
- October or November. G&G Surf Club's target opening window in Penterra Plaza.
- November 12 to 14. Greg Warren at Comedy Works South.
- Early 2027. The Coastal Service and Barcelona Wine Bar are both expected at On The Square.
- March 31, 2027. The main playground and tot lot at Westlands Park reopen with new equipment. The northern playground for ages 5 to 12 stays open during construction.
New restaurants change how a part of town feels, and in the Tech Center they often come before changes in the streets around them. If you own near Orchard Road, Belleview or the Landmark and want to know how this next wave of openings might affect your home's position, T.J. Gordon can walk you through it. Let's connect.
