About Us

Overhead shot of food inside Luca, an Italian restaurant in Denver.
Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno on the stairs in French 75.
Set table with a salad in focus.
Frank Bonanno Making Pizza
Wine Cheers in French 75, a French Restaurant in Denver, Colorado.
Overhead shot of the bar inside French 75.
CREATING HAPPY PEOPLE

What We Do

is Who We Are

Overhead shot of food inside Luca, an Italian restaurant in Denver.
Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno on the stairs in French 75.
Set table with a salad in focus.
Frank Bonanno Making Pizza
Wine Cheers in French 75, a French Restaurant in Denver, Colorado.
Overhead shot of the bar inside French 75.
Mizuna Concept

There is such a thing as a perfect dining experience. We provide it.

We opened tiny little 40 seat Mizuna in 2001, and Frank said “if we make just 50 people happy a night, we’re doing great work.”

Thousands and thousands of happy diners have crossed these Bonanno thresholds, in search of the composed magic of Mizuna, or the hand cranked beauty of Luca, or the bespoke intimacy of a Salita drink. We’ve toasted your weddings at Osteria Marco and watched you fall over laughing on the Vesper patio, still holding on to that last Baharat French fry, still in possession of the final drop of your Old Fashioned, just. Laughing. 

 

We’ve fed the likes of Robert Plant and Michelle Obama and Anthony Bourdain and U2 and most importantly, we’ve fed you. We’ve delighted you. You’ve worked with us, and your children have worked with us, shaving sheer sheets of prosciutto to layer on sandwiches at Salt & Grinder, or pouring rich buttery, nuanced broths table side at French 75. The talent that’s walked these tiled floors have sharpened their knives, their skills, their craft, to open restaurants of their own, and it has been our honor, our joy, here in the Bonanno restaurants, to not only partake of Denver’s culinary landscape, but to inspire its shape and feel and flavor. 

 

But look. See in that little window that opens onto the Mizuna line? Is that Frank cooking? Is that my lipstick on someone’s cheek? It feels like you left something behind last time, while you were discovering that wine, that unforgettable bite, that taste of something remarkable. You need to come back and rediscover it. Or maybe you haven’t experienced a Bonanno restaurant before? Oh, how fun! Because Frank’s up to something tonight, and. Well. Enough words already. Please, right this way. You’re in for a treat.

Concepts
History
Wide shot of Mizuna, a high end French restaurant in Denver, Colorado.
2001
Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno stand in front of Mizuna 2002
Frank and I in front of the flagship (Luca’s in there, too, but in my belly!) at the start of our restaurant journey together
2001

Bonanno Concepts

opens Mizuna

  • Frank’s restaurants have become the most fertile training grounds for upcoming restaurateurs and chefs in the western United States. Since Mizuna’s inception in 2001, more than 25+ of our restaurant family members have gone directly from an experience working alongside Frank to opening a restaurant of their own. 

 

Luca Exterior
2003
Frank making Pappardelle
2003

Frank on Food

…Network

Food Network Boys and Check
  • After opening Luca, Frank is invited to participate in two Food Network competitions. The wins spark an invite to cook at Aspen Food & Wine with David Chang and Wiley Dufresne. The seeds for Bones are planted. 
GR Breakfast Old Fashioned
2004
GR Mai Tai Bartender
2004

Spirited Inspiration

Raising the Bar

GR Entry and Bar
  • Staff of Luca and Mizuna attend the opening of Thomas Keller’s Per Se in NYC. Their signature gin & tonic sparks a shift in cocktail ideation, ultimately inspiring Frank to open Green Russell– the first modern speakeasy in Colorado–which goes on to be twice recognized by Travel & Leisure as among the top cocktail bars in the world. 
Bones Frank
2008
Osteria Marco Opening
2008

Ambition in the Aughts

Two Restaurants, One Year

Bones Green Chile Ramen
  • Bones & Osteria Marco open the same year, starting Frank’s pattern of opening two wildly divergent concepts simultaneously.
Vesper Lounge Drink
2010
Vesper Lounge
2010

No Reservations

Bourdain Visits Mizuna

Frank and Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain & Frank Bonanno, Easter

We slaughter a baby lamb behind Mizuna to feed Anthony Bourdain and his crew after filming the 15th episode of Season 6 of No Reservations. When he drinks with our team afterwards behind what will later become Vesper Lounge, we are all smitten.

Lou's Chicken
2012
Lous Hot and Naked Milk Market
2012

Close to Home

Two Neighborhood Joints

Lou's 38th Exterior

Vesper Lounge and Lou’s Food Bar open forays into more casual fare for Frank–and both are heartily embraced by the community.

Lous Hot and Naked
2013
Lou's Exterior 7th and Grant
2013

Heating Up

Frank Flips the Bird

Lous Hot and Naked Milk Market
  • Frank cooks for the Beard Foundation event in Nashville and after much chicken and blistered lips, he makes a plan to bring Nashville hot chicken to Denver. His version is later available at Denver Milk Market’s Lou’s Hot & Naked and the updated iteration of Lou’s Food Bar on 7th and Grant. 
Chef Driven
2015
Chef Driven Casados Farms
2015

Chef Driven

Frank’s Show Airs on PBS

Chef Driven
  • Frank films a travel/cooking show highlighting the independent food and beverage artisans in Colorado who make restaurants possible. The show has two seasons, still airing on PBS today.
French 75
2018
Milk Market
2018

Double Up

Food Hall & French Bistro

Milk Market MOO Bar
  • French 75 and Denver Milk Market (the only food hall in the country run by a singular chef) open. French 75 gets a visit from the Chartreuse team, where a partnership is forged over yellow-Chartreuse-infused espresso, bouillabaisse and sole.
Frank & Jacqueline CREATOR Newspaper
2022
Frank & Jacqueline
2022

Leaders, Creators

A National Award

Cook Book Release
    • Frank and Jacqueline are awarded the NRN Leadership CREATOR Award celebrating their pioneering work in bringing on the first full-time staff therapist in the restaurant industry and instituting a tipless structure to boost pay equity.
El Rancho Sign
2023
El Rancho Nachos
2023

Turn the Page

Reimagining Icons

Salita - The Team

The pandemic puts an iconic 75-year-old venue at risk and Frank steps in to reopen El Rancho in Evergreen. The Green Russell crew, after being displaced from Larimer Square for historic building renovations, moves to the corner of 7th & Grant to join Mizuna, Luca and Vesper Lounge and opens Salita–a coffee shop and cocktail lounge with a touch of Italian glam.

F&B

Frank Bonanno

is obsessed

with the beauty and the energy and the very politics of food. He is obsessed with flavor combinations and plating styles, with mentoring new chefs and creating new dining experiences, with opening new restaurants and shaping the surrounding neighborhoods.

Frank’s is a life devoted to aroma and flavor and Delicious with a capital D. Frank is ten restaurants, three bars, a brewery and a 16-concept food hall deep into his obsession –literally and figuratively shaping the culinary landscape in Colorado and the western United States.

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We love what we do, and we have fun doing it!

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Team Image