Carrie Baird is plating up her Fancy Toast, made famous on Season 15 of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” at her new breakfast joint.
The local chef, along with Denver restaurateur Juan Padro and Dis Burrito’s Michael Fox are officially opening Fox and the Hen, at 2257 W. 32nd Ave. on Saturday, June 10.
Fox and the Hen will serve fun twists on classic American breakfast dishes, like sausage rolls with a spicy maple dipping sauce, a Big Mac-inspired omelet, and hash browns served “Animal-Style” (a take on In-N-Out fries) or “Trout Style” with smoked trout roe and creme fraiche. The breakfast tacos with chorizo, scrambled eggs, cheddar, pico de gallo and crema on flour tortillas, are Baird’s favorite menu item “today,” she said.
“I can’t believe how much pico de gallo we’re going through,” Baird laughed. “I need a whole other person just to make it fresh everyday.”
There’s also a full indoor/outdoor bar, serving playful cocktails, including “Bryan Cranston’s Bloody Mary” with the actor’s Dos Hombres Mezcal, and a coffee shop.
The “Fancy-Ish Toast” includes one with pea pate, cream cheese and heirloom tomatoes on homemade sourdough English muffins, or a spin on a croque monsieur. And of course, Baird is adding the huevos rancheros that secured her the crown in her appearance on another cooking show, “Beat Bobby Flay,” calling them “Beat Bobby Flay-vos.”
“Opening my own breakfast spot has always been the dream since I was a little girl,” Baird said. “My father loved to cook and passed that on to me. We would daydream of opening our own breakfast restaurant, and I could see myself pouring coffee and making eggs for my guests. When I was in culinary school, we were often given assignments to design a restaurant and for me, it was always breakfast.”
This will be Baird’s first brick-and-mortar concept. She is a partner in Padro’s Culinary Creative restaurant group and is the executive chef of the restaurant group’s Americana division, which includes three Tap & Burger locations and, now, Fox and The Hen.
Fox owns Dis Burrito, a wholesale burrito business he started in 2020. Padro is a longtime friend of Fox’s, and let Fox get Dis Burrito up and running in A5 Steakhouse’s kitchen before it opened. When Fox started looking for new spots for his commercial kitchen, he stumbled upon Fox and The Hen’s new space, but thought it was the perfect place for a breakfast joint. When Fox pitched it to Padro, he brought Baird on board as partner and executive chef.
Fox is adding a grab-n-go window for his breakfast burritos and drip coffee, which is set to open in the next few weeks.
The trio signed a 20-year lease for the space, which seats 50 inside and 40 on the patio. It’s down the street from Padro’s Highland Tap & Burger and Bar Dough concepts in the West Highland neighborhood. They’ve gutted the former Cebiche space and invested around $1 million in the renovation, including adding a hot sauce wall, fun playful printed wallpaper and a neon sign that reads “I Wanna Do Right But Not Right Now.”
Fox and the Hen will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
