Popular Denver Barbecue Restaurant Closing Its Doors

DENVER, CO —A Denver restaurant once rated as one of the state's best barbecue joints by a national culinary magazine, announced Wednesday that it is closing its doors this weekend.

Owlbear BBQ, located 2826 Larimer Street, revealed on Facebook that Saturday and Sunday would be its final days open.

"We absolutely loved cooking and serving bbq to all of you beautiful people out there. Thank you to each and every one of you that came through our doors and trusted us to feed you something delicious. Owlbear will always love you," wrote the restaurant's owners.

By Thursday, the post already had received 133 comments, many from customers lamenting the demise of the restaurant, which was opened by Karl Fallenius in 2019.

"Nooooooooo!! Best bbq I've ever had. Sad to hear this and good luck in whatever comes next," wrote one customer.

"Absolutely the best. Thank you for your hard work and for making Denver a better food city. We'll miss all the Owlbear love!" wrote another customer.

One customer wrote that they routinely flew to Denver from Idaho for a "food weekend," which always started at Owlbear BBQ.

Owlbear was featured in a September 2020 story on FoodandWine.com titled "The Best Barbecue in Every State."

In the profile, the story noted that Fallenius, a Telluride native, began serving barbecue to locals from pop-up shops and food trucks before opening up his own place in RiNo.

The story touted Owlbear's pork belly and tenderloin, and even its smoked jackfruit and mushrooms for "your vegetarian friends."

"There's really no getting around this: if you're looking for the real thing in Colorado right now, this has to be your first stop, and not just because the good stuff sells out fast," wrote David Landsel in the story.