Queer reality TV winners are set to open their first restaurant in Denver this week
“Queer folks, chosen families, people who found their people at a neighborhood bar. Hospitality, to us, means everyone at the table.”
Mark
Mother Other is the name of a new, vegan restaurant arriving in Denver this weekend. It launches June 27 in the Denver Design District, at 675 South Broadway Ste 300, Denver, CO 80209.
The establishment comes from partners Alexi Mandolini and Taylor Herbert.
The women met in 2016, after Mandolini moved to Denver from Chicago. Herbert served her her first beer in town, at Astbury Provisions, and they’ve been together since.
They began selling food in 2012 via their first venture, The Easy Vegan, through food markets, pop-ups, and mobile services. Some of you may recognize them from their winning appearance on Season 16 of The Great Food Truck Race (2023).
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Following that success, Mother Other represents their first brick-and-mortar restaurant.
As for the name, “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,” they say in a press statement.
“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.”
In terms of decor, Mandolini and Herbert undertook much of the work themselves, with the help of friends and family, to avoid taking on a contractor loan. They say they watched lots of YouTube videos and hope it “doesn’t look too DIY.”
”Radical hospitality”
They’re promising to deliver a culinary experience “rooted in family recipes, seasonal ingredients, and radical hospitality.”
The couple believes women have often been sidelined in the restaurant industry. Mother Other will correct that.
“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.”
She continued this theme in a recent interview with Dining Out Denver.
“Women are still not centered in the way that we want in professional kitchen spaces, [and] there is this otherness to vegan food in general. It’s a reference to queerness as well: Lex and I are partners in business and in life. So we want to [boost] the familiarity of the other—everybody has a seat at the table here. Come as you are.”
Menu
Menu-wise, prepare to fall in love with the likes of Giarancini, a panko-crusted deep-fried risotto served with house giardiniera, celery root puree, and chive aioli— or Spring Pea and Leek Dumpling served in a ginger and porcini brodo with charred peas and pea shoots.
Favorites already established by the Easy Vegan food truck—such as Potato and Chive Pierogi with ruby Sauerkraut, coconut sour cream, braised apple, and caramelized onion—also make an appearance.
Just as much attention will be paid to the drinks options. Again, Easy Vegan favorites, such as strawberry and red pepper lemonade, appear on the menu — but this time with added tequila.
”Farmers markets are an incredible proving ground, but they can’t replicate the full dining experience,” says Herbert, who has a history of managing LGBTQ+ nightclubs and bars.
“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.”
Living their dream
The women feel strongly about caring for their team in relation to pay and teaching them new skills. They’re also opening for only four days a week, “so people can have a life outside of this grind,” Herbert told Dining Out Denver.
“It shouldn’t be radical to open a business and really want to take care of the people who show up every day to help you live out your dream. And this is the dream, you know?”
“We have so much gratitude for everyone who’s come and supported Lex and me over the years.
“I am just so excited that they can finally come and sit in our dining room.”
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