12 NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 3, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | A Cut Above RIOT BBQ IS SMOKIN’ HOT THANKS TO A PARTNERSHIP FORGED IN FIRE. BY MOLLY MARTIN “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” says Manny Barella of his new role as one of three co-owners of Riot BBQ, which opened at 2180 South Delaware Street in June. “If I don’t have to wear a chef coat again for the rest of my life, I will be a happy man.” That’s quite a statement from a chef who has spent much of his career rising through the ranks in the fi ne-dining world, even earn- ing a James Beard nomination in 2022 in the emerging chef category and competing on season 21 of Top Chef last year (he fi nished in the top fi ve). Now, his go-to uniform is a t-shirt and an apron. Riot BBQ made headlines when it re- placed former Michelin Bib Gourmand pick AJ’s Pit-Bar-B-Q, which lost its Bib status before closing in March amid allegations of bad business behavior by owner Jared Leonard, who was arrested for fraud in July. But Riot has a story — and a take on barbecue — that’s burning brighter than AJ’s ever did. How It Started Riot BBQ’s pitmaster and co-owner, Patrick Klaiber, has been working in barbecue since he was a teenager. He got his start as a line cook and dishwasher at Hecky’s Barbecue in Evanston, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. After turning 21, he moved to Colorado and began working at the now-closed Moe’s Original BBQ in Fort Collins. By 2018, he’d moved to Denver, where he began working the pits at the then-new AJ’s, which special- ized in Texas-style smoked meats. “Before I started working at AJ’s, I hadn’t really eaten a lot of Texas-style barbecue. It was more Chicago-style, like rib tips and hot links and chicken, which I still love. But something about Texas-style is that the meats really speak for themselves,” Klaiber says. “When I started at AJ’s, I was like, oh, this is completely new to me. It was a really good learning experience — well, good and bad,” he notes, alluding to circumstances that ul- timately led him to stage the walk- out that marked the end of AJ’s run. While Klaiber was working at AJ’s, he got a fortuitious message from Barella, whom he’d never met before. Barella grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and began traveling and cooking in the U.S. on J-1 visas as a way to get out and explore the world. As with Klaiber, his fi rst restaurant gig wasn’t glamorous. “I went to Mississippi and worked at a casino changing chafers at a buffet,” he recalls. That was followed by increasingly upscale gigs in Atlanta, southeast Georgia and Napa. By then, “I knew about Frasca,” Barella says of the Boulder fi ne-dining stalwart that has earned many accolades during its two- decade-long run, including a Michelin star in 2023. “That was my dream job for three years.” So he immersed himself in Italian cuisine and made his way to Boulder, where he landed a job working as a sous chef at Cen- tro Mexican Kitchen under Johnny Curiel (yes, the Johnny Curiel who now owns four restaurants of his own, including two with Michelin stars, with a fi fth on the way). After just a couple of months, “Johnny told me, you should quit,” Barella recalls with a laugh. “He said, I know you want to go to Frasca.” Which he did, for over a year. Then he took on more new experiences, becoming becoming the sous chef at Uchi despite having no prior ex- perience with Japanese cuisine; he later scored his fi rst executive chef role when Bellota replaced Acorn at the Source, a move that brought him back to cooking Mexican food inspired by his upbringing. “I like to look for that challenge and put my- self into uncomfortable situations,” Barella says of his career trajectory. After Bellota, Barella took on another new-to-him role as culi- nary director for two concepts in development by Robert Thomp- son, the original founder of Punch Bowl Social. One of those, Jaguar Bolera, opened in Raleigh, North Carolina, last year; its food is what Barella describes as “Mexican heart with a Southern soul,” and developing the menu included starting a meat-smoking program. A Partnership Forged in Fire “I had dabbled [in barbecue] but never on a restaurant level,” Barella recalls. At the time, one of the buzziest barbecue joints in metro Denver was Plates by the Pound, which even- tually closed when owner Aaron Gonerway decided to move to Texas. It was Gonerway who suggested that Barella reach out to Klaiber for advice, and the pitmaster agreed to help. “I was living in Longmont at the time and I would drive down a couple of times a week just to learn. ... I had never even held a brisket in my life,” Barella admits. “At the time, I told Patrick, you make this look so easy — I know it’s not, but you are so consistent, it’s like a well-oiled machine. I hope that one day I get to that point, and if I ever have a barbecue place, I hope it’s like AJ’s.” Barella continued to practice his barbe- cue skills and stayed in touch with Klaiber for the next two and a half years, often texting him photos of his brisket-smoking progress. After the AJ’s property was seized by the state for unpaid taxes, the landlord reached out to Klaiber to see if he could help fi x some clogged drains. When he went over to take a look, he learned there was going to be an auction -- news he shared with Barella, who was between gigs and had just welcomed his fi rst daughter. Barella looped in Caleb Benton, whom he’d met through the Hispanic Restaurant Asso- ciation, where both are founding members. Benton is an operations-minded hospitality pro with corporate experience at companies like Hillstone. “We found out there was an op- portunity to bid for the entire thing,” Barella CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Manny Barella and Patrick Klaiber, co-owners of Riot BBQ. The ultimate Riot BBQ spread. VALERIA MOONCH PHOTOGRAPHY VALERIA MOONCH PHOTOGRAPHY
