Vinca restaurant in Broomfield is bringing its focus on finely crafted European dishes, premium wine selection and a casual atmosphere up US 36 to a second location, at 1043 Pearl Street in Boulder.
Founder Tomas Zatloukal is moving the new Vinca into the former Colorado Club space, which itself followed a quick succession of restaurants — Ash K’ara, Sophomore and then Colorado Club — making Vinca the fourth restaurant in that location in just two years. The restaurant opened last week.
The Boulder spot will feature the same food and wine selection — some of Zatloukal’s favorite dishes from across the continent and a wine list recognized by Wine Spectator magazine — as the location in Broomfield’s Arista development. He said the concept is rooted in his experience traveling Europe for decades and tasting the best of the cuisine wherever he went.
“It’s not one specific region because Europe, the cuisine is so massive and so diverse. And so exciting, and we want to play with all the options we have,” he said. “We are excited to offer some really good dishes from Greece, Italy, Spain in the summer and go north to Scandinavian in winter because it’s so amazing.”
Zatloukal was born in Prague and lived in Austria until 2014. He worked as a lawyer for 25 years, running a law firm with offices in Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Berlin. When a large firm in Germany approached him about taking over his business, he leapt at the opportunity to pursue his longtime passion for food and wine.
He had long wanted to move to the United States, and discovered Boulder in the late 1990s after starting further north and working his way down the Rocky Mountains. It reminded him of the mountain towns in France, Germany or Austria.
“I visited Boulder and I fell in love, because how could you not?” Zatloukal said. “It’s just an amazing college town with amazing architecture, amazing Pearl Street, the Flatirons, open space, and you are in the mountains. You can feel it.”
He decided to bring those experiences collected over 20 years to America and share them with his adopted home. His menu focuses on high-quality ingredients, including from local farmers to get the freshest products where possible, and importing other items from Europe for authenticity.
“European cuisine is really based on the ingredients,” he said. “One of my favorite dishes is just spaghetti with tomatoes, spaghetti pomodoro, but it is so amazing because you get these specific tomatoes in Italy and you have this fresh basil and you have this amazing olive oil, and the combination makes the dish so amazing. And if you try to substitute these specific tomatoes, it gets less and less exciting.”
He’s not afraid to elevate hearty, rustic dishes, offering options like beef bourguignon, weinerschnitzel, and Swiss rösti, but there are no deliveries of frozen meats or presliced vegetables from large suppliers, Zatloukal said.
He’s bringing executive chef Carlos Trujillo from Broomfield to oversee the rollout and manage both kitchens, and emphasized that everything is prepared from scratch with a focus on freshness.
“We offer fish. If we don’t get the fish fresh, we say, ‘We are sorry, middle in the country.’ We don’t buy frozen fish. And the reason is because I hate it. I can taste the difference,” he said.
A great wine list was also essential to Zatloukal’s vision. He sees wine as inextricable from a top-tier dining experience, a part of European culture dating back thousands of years.
“If you want to learn about history in Europe, follow the wineries and you will see how it started with the Romans, how it changed hands to the Germans, and then to the French,” he said.
After selling his law firm, Zatloukal moved to Boulder and spent two years studying with the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. He earned his diploma there but more importantly, he said, was able to travel to visit wineries and talk to winemakers before opening the first Vinca in 2019.
“If I open a bottle of wine, the bottle of wine alone brings me to the place where it is from. I immediately see the location, and most likely if I visited the winery, I am there. I can smell the cellar,” he said. “For me it’s not an alcoholic drink, it’s more. It’s history, it’s culture, it’s social, it’s farmers.”
Like the food menu, he’s bringing the entire wine list from Broomfield to Boulder. It’s one of a few dozen locations in Colorado to be awarded two glasses (out of a possible three) by Wine Spectator. Vinca offers pairing suggestions and an excellent selection of by-the-glass wines so that customers don’t have to pay for an entire bottle.
“The wine can make the food better, and that’s the whole point,” he said.
Zatloukal said the experience of dining out, to him, is about more than simply the food and drink. It’s a time to socialize and spend time with friends and family, time to gather around a table and enjoy great conversation. He’s aiming to offer an elevated experience without the fuss of fine dining.
“In Austria, in the Alps, you have Michelin-star restaurants, and you can still walk in from your hike as you are and enjoy it,” he said. “I like to call it fine dining casual — fine dining in the way of the quality of the food, the quality of the service, the bottle service. But still, you can come straight from your hike, because we are in Boulder.”
The new restaurant’s storefront is also still a work in progress. The former Colorado Club had a prominent, branded awning over the entrance. Vinca has been working with Boulder’s Historic Preservation Board for several months to install a similar feature. The board has reviewed the proposal and continues to consider allowing it. Zatloukal said a bit of signage would help the Pearl Street location feel more welcoming.
My partner and I were there at the beginning in Broomfield and we have gone there frequently. We haven’t shown up in hiking clothes but we can attest to the laid back vibe of the restaurant. The wine list is superb and the food is very European. It really does transport you back to your times in Europe. And Mr. Zatloukal is very personable.
Too bad. I still miss Juanita’s, which had been in that space for decades. It had an Art Deco façade, which he City declared did not fit in with everything around it. The made it fake 1890s.