When chef Brian De Souza and Sydney Younggreen first opened The Regular last summer, they bit off more than they could chew.
The couple had big dreams for their 6,500-square-foot space at 1432 Market St., originally dividing it into three concepts: The Regular, an a-la-carte, fine-dining restaurant; The Guest, a 22-seat speakeasy restaurant; and El Mercado, a daytime deli.
After a few months, they decided to transform El Mercado into The Cellar, which houses all of the wine for The Regular and serves as a stand-alone bottle shop for guests and neighbors.
And now, they’re getting rid of The Guest, their 25-course dinner series on Fridays and Saturdays.
“Sometimes your plan doesn’t always go your way, and you have to adapt to new circumstances,” De Souza said.
“When we got this huge space, it didn’t make sense to do one big restaurant at first, so we divided it up,” Younggreen said. “After some trial and error, going with our gut and listening to customers, we’ve settled into a more sustainable situation.”
The pair had originated the dinner series, a reservation-only event with a rotating multi-course menu, in Boulder in August 2020. This inspired their weekend services with a secret menu of 25 courses, which De Souza and Younggreen created every night — with only a poem to clue guests into the everchanging ingredients.
“The Guest kind of gave birth to The Regular, but trying to operate both at the same time, we found that our passion lay with The Regular, which brought in more types of people for more types of occasions,” Younggreen said.
Now, the space will be reserved for private events and dinner parties with The Regular’s menu, which has been updated to include “spirit of The Guest,” they said. Chef De Souza incorporates his Peruvian heritage with new dishes, like grilled chocolo (Peruvian corn) with black mint sauce and carrot chips; chupe, a Peruvian seafood stew his grandmother used to make; and papa a la huancaína, a traditional Peruvian potato dish.
“The Regular is the type of restaurant that Syd and I have always dreamed of, and it deserves our whole focus,” De Souza said.
