Beckon

Beckon is an 18-seat chef's counter at 2843 Larimer Street in RiNo, opened in 2018 by chef and owner Duncan Holmes, a James Beard Award semifinalist, and it holds a Michelin star. Guests sit in a single row facing the open kitchen and eat a multi-course, reservation-only tasting menu that turns with the seasons; a good deal of the produce comes from the restaurant's own one-acre farm, and vegetables are usually the part of the meal people remember. It operates Wednesday through Sunday evenings only, with the whole room seated on a schedule rather than run as a walk-in service. Allison Anderson of Beckon won the Michelin Guide Colorado Service Award in 2024, which is a useful signal for anyone weighing whether a counter of this kind will handle an unusual request gracefully.

That matters because tasting-menu restaurants are where non-drinkers most often get stranded between an expensive wine pairing and a glass of tap water. Beckon's beverage menu carries Zero Proof as its own labelled section alongside By the Glass, Sparkling, White, Rose, Red, Sake, Signature Cocktails, Dessert Cocktails, Spirits and Beer, which puts it structurally on a level with the wine programme rather than in a footnote. Two built drinks are current, both $10. First Ascent is the brighter of the pair, passion fruit and almond lengthened with ginger beer. Starry Maid is the more composed: flowering coriander and hibiscus with Seedlip Grove 42, Ghia non-alcoholic aperitivo, lime and faba, shaken to a texture that holds up against several courses. San Pellegrino is stocked at $6. Because the counter runs a set menu that changes quarterly and the drinks are built to track it, the zero-proof list is worth confirming when booking; the section itself is permanent, but the two drinks in it rotate with the kitchen. Service runs Wednesday through Sunday evenings only, and the counter books out in advance, so the drinks question is best raised at the point of reservation rather than on arrival. Reservations are handled through OpenTable, and the eighteen seats mean there is no bar to drift into and no second room to be moved to, so the beverage decision is made once, at the start, for the whole meal.