Andrea Frizzi isn’t afraid to admit that pride is part of what kept him going at Il Posto, the lauded fine-dining restaurant he ran from 2007 to 2024, when it closed. Known for high-end Italian comfort food, Il Posto, at 2601 Larimer St., also won hearts for its interior design.
But Frizzi is older and wiser now – and looking for something simpler.
Next year, the chef plans to open Risica, a neighborhood spot in Edit, a 13-story luxury apartment building at 3463 Walnut St. in the River North Art District.
It will serve charcuterie, oysters and small plates along the lines of beef carpaccio, seasonal crudo, crostini and white cannelloni bean hummus. There also will be Neapolitan-style pizza, baked in a Marra Forni brick oven, with a classic crust and modern toppings like mortadella with pistachio cream, fresh figs, Palisade peaches, foie gras, local porcini mushrooms and ramps.
“I think fine dining is not working. It is complicated and very expensive, labor costs are out of control and it is difficult to do that anymore,” he said. “I have wanted to do something like this for a long time. … But I don’t think I was able to do this until now because my chef’s fine-dining ego wasn’t able to let me. But now I have changed enough that I can do it.”
There also will be cocktails — most under $12 — and a “cute but inexpensive” wine list with most glasses at $8 or less. “I want people to enjoy high-quality food and drinks, but at a very good value,” said Frizzi, who is originally from Milan, Italy. “It will be very dynamic, always moving, with a very Milano energy. … When I think about this, it makes me happy. It makes me smile.”
The name Risica comes from an Italian expression – chi non risica non rosica – which translates into roughly the same idea as “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
So it’s no coincidence that the plans coincide with Frizzi’s exit in August from Denver Central Market, the upscale food hall at 2669 Larimer St., where he’d operated two other concepts: Vero, selling pizza, handmade pasta and dry goods, and Tammen’s Fish Market, a seafood shop.
Frizzi didn’t want to discuss his reasons for leaving the market, but said he’s looking forward to working for himself again, and that Denver Central Market will continue to be successful.
In the meantime, he’s been back in the kitchen at a new concept called Cucina Fantasma, which is located inside Georgie’s Denver, a bar at 1416 Market St. Georgie’s is owned by HB Hospitality, which also owns spots like El Patio, Jaguar Room and the RiNo Country Club. (He’s a one-man-show, working in the kitchen Wednesdays-Saturdays from 3 to 9 p.m.)
“I am loving it. It’s back to the basics,” Frizzi said about the operation, where he is cooking and producing many of the same dishes he plans to bring to Risica.
The last few years haven’t been easy on Frizzi. Between the pandemic, which killed his business at Il Posto, and a serious accident last year involving his scooter (at Italian Vespa, of course), he said he is having to start over with nothing. “I went to back the basics, the way I came to this country in 1993. But it’s beautiful, especially when you can clear up the clutter of being a businessman. Right now I am completely focused on making the food I like to eat.”
Frizzi, who lives in RiNo near where Risica will be, said he signed a 10-year lease on the space “because I believe in Denver even though Denver has become unfriendly to the restaurant business. I believe in it, that is why I stay.”
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