Red alert! Roca's officially opens on April 7 in Lakewood. Here's what you'll find at Alex Seidel's latest spot.
Roca's still feels like a neighborhood joint, albeit a cleaned-up version of its previous iteration. The design is simple with wood floors; a few large, brown booths; black-and-white checkered tablecloths and a simple salad bar in the middle of one of the dining areas. It's like a modern, more monochrome take on the vibes of an old-school Pizza Hut, back when those were full-service restaurants — although there are no big, translucent red cups.
Many of the waitstaff are high-schoolers — some served their first tables ever during this preview — but even if they're still learning, they were eager to help with any request. Sure, a few items took a while to find their way to the right tables, and one glass of pinot never made it at all, but for its first service, Roca's was buzzing as thin, tavern-style pies, thicker Sicilian pizzas and a while lot of pasta was pumped out of the kitchen.
That plan has now come to fruition. The pasta selections include the basics — any of the six housemade pasta shapes can be served with alfredo and marinara; lasagna, chicken parm with spaghetti, bolognese and vodka sauce are all present and accounted for, too. There are a few less common selections, such as strozzapreti alla diavola with sausage fromand spaghetti alle vongole with clams, but they're all comforting classics.
Seidel's commitment to keeping prices affordable is a nice surprise, too. As an award-winning fine dining chef, he certainly could have opted to make Roca's more of a destination restaurant. Instead, he's taking lessons from the fast-casual Chook Chicken, opting to design a menu and restaurant for those who live nearby. Start with $5 garlic bread and mussels for $14.
Seidel started his career in Italian restaurants, and thirty or so years later, his passion for the simple beauty of a good red sauce joint shines at his newest venture — even if it may need a little time to smooth out service. , it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism.