Point Easy

Point Easy opened on June 29, 2022 at 2000 East 28th Avenue in Whittier, taking over a corner that had been the Whittier Pub until 2020 and, for more than thirty years before that, M&D's Cafe. The owners are Andy Bruch and the brothers Dan and Dennis "Denn" Phelps, who had worked together at the Kitchen Restaurant Group in Boulder and had been planning a neighbourhood restaurant of their own since before the pandemic. The conversion turned a dark pub into a bright room with a long bar seating roughly twenty and tables spilling onto a patio. Denn Phelps, who built the opening menu and told Westword during the first week that he has good ideas and silly ideas, died unexpectedly on July 22, 2022 at 37; the restaurant has carried on under Bruch and Dan Phelps, with Reuben Tomlins now executive chef, Marianella Giannini as sous chef and Richard Long as general manager.

The food is seasonal and local-leaning, anchored by a house-made pasta programme, and the wine list runs to biodynamic and smaller-producer bottles chosen by an in-house sommelier. The bar's defining service is Get Fed, in which a guest describes what they like and the bartender builds something to match, and that same posture governs the spirit-free drinks: the restaurant describes them on its own site as spirit-free options that are actually worth ordering, and they are listed with the cocktails rather than in a separate box. The restaurant's own published menu carries a headed 0% ABV section of six drinks, which as of August 2026 runs: a pineapple tepache and soda, fermented and fizzy, at $8; the Haykin Family Cider 'Dolgo Crabapple', a non-alcoholic sparkling cider made in Aurora, at $9; the Pink Gold Peach with grapefruit, lime, non-alcoholic peach bitters and citrus oil at $9; the AmericaNA, built on Dr Zero Zero amaro and the Colorado-made Strongwater aperitif, at $9; the Ouiser Boudreaux with Citadel non-alcoholic gin, amarena cherries, ginger and rosemary at $10; and West of Thomaston, on Giffard elderflower non-alcoholic liqueur with lemon and honey, at $10. A rotating non-alcoholic brew is $5. Because the list turns with the seasons the specific names rotate, but the section itself is standing, and a non-drinker gets the same bartender's-choice treatment as anyone else. The room is small, about twenty seats at the bar plus tables and a patio, and it runs Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm to 9pm only, so it fills. Westword's first-look review picked out a morel mushroom agnolotti at $18 as the dish that set the tone, and 5280 has since written it up as the neighbourhood restaurant of your dreams.