FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS CAFE Where There’s Smoke... THE FIRE HAS BEEN REIGNITED AT THE FORMER OWLBEAR, WHERE PIT FIEND IS PREPARING TO OPEN. BY MOLLY MARTIN By January, Karl Fallenius was done. After nearly two years of operating Owlbear, his popular barbecue joint at 2826 Larimer Street, largely as takeout-only, Fallenius announced that the restaurant would close after service on January 23. But it never did open for that last day. On January 22, as a long line of Owlbear fans waited for a fi nal taste of barbecue, Falle- nius got a call informing him that one of his mainstays, Teven Hudgins, was in intensive care. Hudgins passed away on January 23 “from organ failure due to insuffi cient oxy- gen for an extended period,” with excessive alcohol, smoking, weight and undiagnosed sleep apnea listed as triggers in a statement released by his family shortly after. The loss hit the tight-knit team hard, recall colleagues Juan Pablo Llano and Mi- chael Graunke. “He was a great inspiration... as far as how to cook barbecue, but also how to break the rules a little bit,” Llano says. “We had a couple other cooks that came through, but we were the core crew during the pandemic, which was really formative.” So formative that Llano, Graunke and part- ner Esteban Gallardo will open their own bar- becue restaurant, Pit Fiend, in the former home of Owlbear later this month. And Hudgins has inspired them every step of the way. “That’s the biggest change. When people talk about how this isn’t going to be quite Owlbear, I think to myself, ‘Well, yeah, you’re right,’” says Llano. “But mostly because Te- ven’s not here anymore. That’s the biggest difference.” While Hudgins, who moved to Denver from Texas, came to Owlbear with plenty of barbecue knowledge, Llano and Graunke had none. “We learned a lot and grew as barbecue cooks tremendously, because we were at zero. Karl helped with a lot of that, and we’re very grateful for that experience,” Llano says. All three started working for Fallenius right around when Owlbear’s brick-and-mortar location opened in May 2019; before that, it had operated out of Finn’s Manor and did a series of pop-ups. “I always knew that when this opened, I wanted to be part of the team,” Llano recalls. “It was my fi rst cooking job; I was just very interested in it from having tried the barbe- cue.” Before that, he’d worked a series of jobs, including health advising, pizza delivery and a short stint at 14er Brewing. “[Juan Pablo] was a regular at Finn’s, and when we were building out the restaurant, he kept checking in, asking if there was a place for him on the team,” Fallenius says. Fallenius had met Graunke, who was formerly a teacher in Wisconsin but had been doing hospitality gigs on the side for years, when both were working at the now-closed Bar Fausto before Owlbear opened. Like Llano, Graunke was vocal about wanting to be part of the team at the barbecue joint. “He very quickly became my number-one guy. He just constantly stepped up to every challenge in front of him — and even ones not put in front of him,” Fallenius adds, laughing. “I was super lucky to have both of them on my team from the get-go.” Hudgins, it turned out, had likely met Fallenius years earlier, at a barbecue joint back in Austin. “He used to hang out at the Blue Ox — my fi rst barbecue job — although we didn’t fully realize that until he’d been working with me for a bit,” Fallenius says. “He really cared a lot about Owlbear.” So did customers, who quickly made Owlbear a go-to in RiNo. But a year into the pandemic, Llano and Graunke, along with Gallardo, who’d worked in a grocery store in Florida and in the marijuana industry in California before moving to Denver, started thinking about starting their own food business. “The three of us were considering Michael Graunke (left), Juan Pablo Llano and Esteban Gallardo are opening Pit Fiend. [Karl] was considering selling the smokers,” Graunke remembers. “We started thinking, ‘We know how to use them....’ Honestly, Teven was a big part of that. Right at the last couple of days, we were talking with him about how we could possibly keep this going in some form, because none of us were ready to be done cooking barbecue specifi cally.” While the details of the deal to take over the Owlbear space were being fi nalized, Llano, Graunke and Gallardo began putting on a series of pop-ups. “It’s been a really fun way to try out new recipes and ideas that, when you’re doing full-service barbecue, may not be practical. But it challenges us to expand our horizons as far as what we can cook and what we feel comfortable cooking, and we’ve gotten some good ideas out of it that may continue,” Graunke says. “We want to expand beyond traditional Texas barbecue,” Llano notes. “Or even just American barbecue. We Teven Hudgins passed away in January. completely pivoting,” Graunke explains. “We were preparing to do our own thing, and didn’t expect it to be barbecue. We were just thinking Owlbear would go on without us.” But then Fallenius called each of the Owlbear cooks to tell them that he was plan- ning on shutting down for good — a decision driven by a number of factors, including operational challenges like food costs, but also mental health and burnout. “The tipping point was when we heard have interest in Mexican barbecue and Aus- tralian and South African and Korean. There are a lot of countries that have barbecue traditions or similar live-fi re traditions that we want to explore,” Graunke adds. Pit Fiend’s fi rst two pop-ups focused on hot dogs and sausages. Graunke and Llano “are the ones that started to do sausage at Owlbear,” Fallenius recalls. “I provided the ingredients, they provided the time. They’d come in and make it during their free time, which is a testament to how much they care.” Making sausage is a way to use what would otherwise be food waste, but it’s also been a chance to explore new ideas that may make the Pit Fiend menu, like a Colombian blood sausage and an Argentinian choripán sausage served with chimichurri. The partners have also landed on a new take on pulled pork. done mojo style with cit- rus and garlic instead of the Carolina style they did at Owlbear. They also want to continue to offer vegan options like jackfruit, something that resonated with Owlbear’s customers. “The sides will be all vegan and vegetarian, too, as much as possible,” Graunke notes. The plan is to have six or so meats and three veggies on the permanent menu, with other specials rotating frequently. Combo plates will also be a new offering. While the trio wants to make Pit Fiend their own, there will be some other hold- overs. “The Texas-style brisket from Owl- bear is never going to change,” Graunke says. Nor will the mac and cheese, which will be dubbed Owlbear Mac. “That’s what we feel like we kind of owe to Owlbear.” One of the challenges Fallenius says he faced was balancing rising costs with keeping menu prices affordable. And like their men- tor, the Pit Fiend partners feel it’s important to use high-quality product like prime beef and Duroc heritage pork. “We don’t want to switch to a lower quality just because it’s cheaper,” Graunke explains. So they’re going to be battling rising prices, too. “Even just since we did our fi rst brisket pop-up three weeks ago, I think the price has gone up like eighty cents per pound. It’s signifi cant,” Llano admits, adding that they hope the public understands that sup- porting sustainable practices comes at a cost. The team is keeping some things the same. The interior of the space hasn’t changed much; there’s fresh continued on page 18 17 westword.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | WESTWORD MAY 12-18, 2022 JUAN PABLO LLANO EVAN SEMÓN
