Denver restaurateur Jared Leonard has opened and closed three different restaurant concepts in the same building, at 81 S. Pennsylvania St., in Denver’s Washington Park. He’s hoping that the fourth idea — which stays true to what he knows best: fire and meat — will be the final one.
When it opens next month, AJ’s Steakhouse will be a sister restaurant to AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, which won a Bib Gourmand award from Michelin last year. It will replace Clairette, a Mediterranean-inspired cocktail lounge and restaurant that Leonard opened in June and will close on Saturday.
“This will be the final concept here,” Leonard said. “The other concepts were always a little out of our category, like we were trying to make up a concept fit for the space. Now that I’ve been in the neighborhood for almost four years, I’ve figured out what they really need is a neighborhood steakhouse, and this fits into our category of restaurants so well, since we already work so closely with meat and fire at AJ’s.”
Leonard’s first restaurant in the building was Budlong Hot Chicken, which he brought to Denver from Chicago in 2019. That closed in 2021 when he replaced it with Au Feu Brasserie, a fine-dining French-Canadian restaurant that he first tried in the Zeppelin Station food hall. Two years later, he replaced Au Feu with Clairette. Leonard also owns Campfire, with locations in Lakewood and Evergreen, and Grabowski’s Pizzeria, which he moved from Denver to Lakewood.
“Denver is still a meat and potatoes town that loves an old-school steak menu,” Leonard said.
AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, at 2180 S. Delaware St., has been serving occasional steak specials for the past couple of years, but without a wood-fired grill, it didn’t make sense to add the cuts of beef to the barbecue menu, he said. Now, Leonard can make use of Clairette’s wood-fired grill in collaboration with AJ’s pitmaster Patrick Klaiber’s meaty expertise.
“AJ’s is a really recognizable brand and has a lot of brand power in Denver as an expert for all things meat, so it made sense to keep the name,” Leonard said.
AJ’s Steakhouse will serve four prime cuts of beef, including filets, hanger steak and New York strips. The steaks will be smoked at AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q to give it that barbecue flavor, before they’re cooked sous vide and finished at the steakhouse.
Leonard said he plans to source the meat from local butcher Rugby Scott Ranch Provisions. The menu will also offer pork chops, salmon, and Lion’s Mane mushrooms, as well as classic sides like creamed corn and spinach, fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts and asparagus.
“It will be a laid-back neighborhood steakhouse, where servers aren’t dressed up in suits and ties, but there will still be that old-school-style of service and showmanship, where guests can see their steaks raw on a tray before they order, so you have an idea of what you’re actually getting,” Leonard said.
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