After five years in Middleman’s tiny kitchen, Misfit Snack Bar is making a name for itself.
Chef and owner Bo Porytko is closing the playful bar-food concept within Middleman at 3401 E. Colfax at the end of May to search for its own brick-and-mortar space.
“Middleman and Misfit were always two separate businesses,” Porytko told The Denver Post. “We were always meant to splinter off and do our own thing.”
Jareb Parker, owner of Middleman, recruited Porytko to take over the cocktail bar’s kitchen in 2019, after Porytko closed down his whole-butcher restaurant Rebel. There, Porytko created a menu steeped in nostalgia that rotates through imaginative snacks, like elote ramen or currywurst Scotch egg. He even earned a James Beard nomination last year.
Porytko left the Misfit kitchen to open Molotov Kitschen + Cocktails, his Eastern European-inspired restaurant, a couple of doors down last year, and Rico Carbajal took over as chef-de-cuisine.
“We are so proud of everything we have accomplished in that tiny kitchen, from just barely surviving COVID to being nominated for a James Beard award,” Porytko wrote on Instagram.
Porytko has been looking for a new space for Misfit for the past couple of months and hopes to reopen in a similar, hip area, like South Broadway or LoHi, as quickly as possible.
“We’re trying to move as fast as we can, so that we’re not gone too long that we’re forgotten,” he told The Denver Post.
The cheeseburger at Misfit Snackbar inside Middleman bar on Colfax. (Josie Sexton, The Denver Post)
When Misfit finds a new home, Porytko plans to expand the menu, especially the burger offerings. The only mainstay on the Misfit menu item is Porytko’s My F*cking Burger, a double smashburger with cheese, pickles, caramelized onions and a Thousand Island-style sauce. He wants to add a whole section of playful patties, like a BLT burger he toyed with last summer.
“I want there to be arcade games and pinball machines, like the kind of place you’d love to go to as a kid, but for adults,” he said.
Once Misfit closes up shop in Middleman, the kitchen will begin rotating new chefs in and out every three months, as a sort of culinary incubation. For the first three months, Rock N Lobster Roll food truck will take its place. Porytko said they’ve taste-tested a variety of fare to narrow down the next chefs they plan to feature for the following six months.
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“It’s time to give other chefs the opportunity to put their names out there, and we want to keep ideas fresh for the guests coming in, so there’s no menu fatigue,” Porytko said.