Kevin Taylor goes for seven

Word came down from on high late last week that Kevin Taylor and his Kevin Taylor Restaurant Group will be adding a seventh name to their reconstituted roster of super-high-tone food-service operations.  Let's run the numbers, shall we?

First, there's Taylor's namesake, the flagship Restaurant Kevin Taylor at 1106 14th Street inside the Hotel Teatro (above). Though it sometimes doesn't get the credit it deserves, this is one of the best restaurants in the city and has been working with quiet excellence for years.

Following that, there's Prima, also at the Hotel Teatro, which is where KT and his boys get to play around with Italian food. Not everything here is awesome (squid ink pasta, anyone?), but the soft egg ravioli that I had during one of my review meals there still stands as one of the most memorable dishes I've had in the city. (A second Prima in Boulder did not last, however.)

What else...there's Palettes, at the Denver Art Museum (not among my favorites); a catering operation, Rouge at the Teller House, up in Central City (never been); Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House (also never been) and the nearby Limelight Supper Club, stuck in there among the theaters in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, which opened in December 2007.

French (with a little bit of fusion), modern Italian, New American, a chophouse and a boite -- the man's got just about one of everything at this point. He's diversified even if he doesn't (yet) have a noodle bar of his own, a pho shop, a deli or a takeout Chinese operation. But he'll be adding to his prestige in several different ways at once with the new joint, Kevin Taylor Steak.

It's going to be a steakhouse, for starters, so he's throwing his hat into the ring and competing against some of the biggest boys in the biz. Further, he'll be putting it into a leased (read: non-partnership) space at the new Arista hotel in Broomfield, which, when completed, will be a new, W-branded, Aloft property -- its new "lifestyle" branch, made for the modern business traveler. Finally, it's another joint with his name above the title, so to speak, which will be doing dinner only for a presumed clientele of big-time movers and shakers -- the kind of people who, for whatever reason, are in Broomfield on business and have the green to stay at a W hotel.

The menu is still being fine-tuned, and the space remains in a "hard hats must be worn beyond this point" state. But a quick call to the KTRG offices got me an answer on the projected opening date, at least: Look for the grand opening of Kevin Taylor Steak in mid-September.

Whether there will still be any business travelers come September remains to be seen...