Tasty food. Great company. Kids always welcome.
These were the criteria Paul Sullivan and Emily Brown had in mind when they began dreaming up their perfect Denver restaurant. The couple had always loved going out to eat, but as they grew their family, that became a little more complicated.
“We wanted a place in our neighborhood that we could bring our kids to,” Sullivan says. “A family-friendly, all-encompassing, welcoming-to-everyone kind of place.”
Sullivan and Brown brought their idea to life in 2015 with Esters, a casual pizza and beer joint in Virginia Village named after the esterification process of alcohol. “When yeast and hops interact it releases an aromatic smell that’s referred to as esters,” Sullivan says (It also helps that his favorite band, Phish, has a song called “Esther”).
Sullivan and Brown opened Esters’ second location in 2018 in the kid-friendly Oneida Park enclave of Park Hill. This space is especially suited for kids because it overlooks a safe, grassy turf where they can run and play while parents hang at shaded outdoor tables nearby — not to mention that Dang soft serve is right next door. In 2022, Esters’s third location opened in Wheat Ridge.
“All of our restaurants specifically are in neighborhoods with young families,” Sullivan says. “You can go there, bring the kids, have a good beer.”
Sullivan and Brown still live in the same Virginia Village home with their two daughters, but other things have evolved with time. For instance, the first generation of kids who dined at Esters are now old enough to work there, and many of them do. Now, they’re the ones serving Esters’ tiniest guests at its weekly kids night, where children eat free with the purchase of an adult meal (Mondays at Oneida Park, Tuesdays everywhere else).
Running a restaurant dedicated to families? That’s one thing that won’t change.
“We have really great food and great hospitality,” Sullivan says. “But if your kid pukes on the floor and ruins our bathroom, we're totally okay with that, you know? It is part of having kids.”
