Mother Other to Open on June 27
Photo courtesy of Casey Wilson Photography
A new neighborhood restaurant honoring the women who taught us to cook and the tables that brought us together
DENVER, CO (June 15, 2026)— Mother Other, a new vegan bar and restaurant rooted in family recipes, seasonal ingredients, and radical hospitality, is set to open its doors in Denver’s Baker neighborhood on June 27. Located in the Denver Design District, the restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Alexi Mandolini and Beverage Director Taylor Herbert, the team behind The Easy Vegan. Mother Other is the brick-and-mortar realization of six years of pop-ups, farmers markets, and a long-held dream to give their food a permanent place at the table.
The name says it all. Mother Other is a love letter to the women who defined hospitality long before it was an industry: the grandmothers, mothers, and chosen family who made food feel like belonging. Their recipes, handwritten, dog-eared, and passed down through generations, will hang on the walls as a living archive of the women who taught us that feeding someone is an act of love.
Mother Other is also an act of defiance, where professional kitchens have often sidelined and tokenized women, Mother Other places them at the center. The restaurant is committed to pay equity, a positive workplace, and extending genuine care to its team as much as its guests. Don't expect a special occasion spot. Expect your neighborhood restaurant—the one that feels like walking into your Italian grandmother's kitchen with 50 years of patina on every surface and the food polished to a five-star shine.
“Women have always been the backbone of hospitality, and we want our kitchen to reflect that, but Mother Other is also for everyone who has ever needed a third place to call their own,” says Mandolini. “Queer folks, chosen families, people who found their people at a neighborhood bar. Hospitality, to us, means everyone at the table.”
The menu tells the story of both founders: Mandolini's Chicago roots, her grandmother Doree's table, her father's foraging trips, and Herbert's years of craft behind the bar. Shareables set the tone: the Giarancini, a panko-crusted deep-fried risotto served with house giardiniera, celery root puree, and chive aioli, is a love letter to Mandolini's Chicago roots, while the Spring Pea + Leek Dumpling arrives in a ginger and porcini brodo with charred peas and pea shoot. Vegetable-forward plates include a Japanese Sweet Potato crowned with miso and black garlic whipped potato, tempura-fried onion, truffled taro chip, and sesame chili oil, and the Carrot + Ginger Bisque finished with coconut cream and a house carrot chip. For heartier appetites, expect Potato + Chive Pierogi with ruby kraut, coconut sour cream, braised apple, and caramelized onion, a The Easy Vegan fan favorite, alongside a Rigatoni alla Vodka with signature sauce, whipped almond ricotta, basil oil, and aleppo crumb. And for something sweet: a Chocolate Budino layered with vanilla sponge cake, passionfruit curd, chocolate cashew pudding, and shortbread crumb, and a Brioche Doughnut served with vanilla custard and poached rhubarb with basil. The bar program will feature house-carbonated vegetable sodas (think carrot, tomato, and celery root), creative cocktails using the same seasonal produce from the kitchen, and true to form, a cold cheap beer and a shot.
"Farmers markets are an incredible proving ground, but they can't replicate the full dining experience,” says Herbert. “My background is in bartending and bar management, and there's a craft to that work that I've been eager to bring back, such as developing cocktail menus, working behind the bar, creating drinks that speak the same language as the food on the plate. At Mother Other, the bar program and the kitchen aren't separate conversations. They're the same one."
Mandolini is a graduate of Kendall College's culinary program in Chicago and became executive chef of a Chicago catering company before she could legally drink. Herbert has spent most of her adult life working behind the pine–from bartending and managing primarily at LGBTQ+ nightclubs and bars from North Carolina to Denver. The two met in 2018 when Mandolini moved to Denver from Chicago and Herbert served her her first beer in town at Asbury Provisions and they have been partners in life and business ever since. The duo rose to national attention in 2023 when their team won Season 16 of Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race. In building out Mother Other, the pair has stayed true to their DIY spirit—completing much of the physical build themselves with the help of friends and family, from plumbing to light construction, rather than taking on a six-figure contractor loan.
Mother Other will be located at 675 South Broadway Ste. 300, Denver, CO 80209. Opening is anticipated for June 27. For updates, follow @motherotherdenver on Instagram or motherother.com.
Mother Other hours of operation:
Thursday - Sunday, 4-10 p.m.
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About Mother OtherMother Other exists at the crossroads of artful sophistication and a warm embrace—a vegan bar and restaurant that feels less like going out and more like being invited over to your grandmother’s house, sitting down with the whole family, and noshing on the recipes that have been passed down, argued over, and perfected for generations. Everyone says their mom makes the best version of something. Mother Other is all of your mothers' favorite recipes, reimagined through a plant-based lens and served without the pomp, the pretense, or the price tag that fine dining so often demands.
Founded in 2026 by Chef Alexi Mandolini and Beverage Director Taylor Herbert, Mother Other is located in the Denver Design District in the Baker neighborhood. Rooted in radical hospitality, the restaurant is committed to matriarchal leadership, pay equity, and a warmth that extends as generously to its team as it does to every guest who walks through the door. Follow @motherotherdenver on Instagram or visit motherother.com.