Half-Eaten Cookie Hospitality Group, the team behind Oak at Fourteenth, Corrida and C Burger, opened Cinq a Sept in North Boulder in July, bringing classic French cuisine to the neighborhood.
Founder Bryan Dayton said the group saw an opportunity to bring something new to the neighborhood in the space previously occupied by Bellota and The North End at 4580, formerly Restaurant 4580. The goal was to create a restaurant that would appeal to North Boulder residents while also drawing diners from elsewhere in the city.
The answer was to lean into chef Sam McCandless’ history with French cuisine, with a menu built around classic dishes and a happy hour featuring great bread and cheese, fresh oysters, French ham (jambon de Bayonne) and cold drinks.
“The menu’s delicious, but it is definitely nice and tight and executed well,” Dayton said.
The focused menu reflects the restaurant’s smaller space and kitchen, as well as a trend toward keeping menus pared down. It’s similar in size to Oak at Fourteenth’s menu, though organized a little differently. The approach allows the kitchen to focus on quality and execution rather than offering every dish under the sun.
“If you’re doing good classic pieces, you don’t have to overdo the menu,” he said. “And you look at some of the classic French menus, you’ve got a great chicken, you’ve got a great steak, you’ve got great fries, you’ve got a great bread, some cheese, great seasonal veggies. I think there’s something to be said for just leaning into those classic things that we’ve all had as part of our peripheral just from doing this business for so long, looking at those classic flavors, those classic touches, and really leaning into that overall.”
Dayton said much of his culinary experience, like that of many chefs trained in European culinary traditions, has been shaped by French cooking. McCandless’ path followed a similar trajectory, learning to cook through French classics such as “Larousse Gastronomique” and “The French Laundry Cookbook,” before working as a prep cook in Billings, Montana, and later in Chicago and some of Boulder’s premier kitchens.
“All of these experiences are the core of my professional cooking and my main mentors have been either French or highly French in training,” McCandless said, noting the ability of great chefs to elevate great ingredients rather than relying on elaborate techniques or overly complicated dishes. “This has led me here and is my inspiration for the cuisine behind Cinq a Sept. It’s a story of simplicity that I hope everyone can appreciate.”
That philosophy extends to the restaurant’s ingredients. Like Half-Eaten Cookie’s other restaurants, Cinq a Sept relies on local suppliers whose products help shape the menu. The restaurant works closely with local farmers and ranchers, including Esoterra Farms, which supplies fresh greens, carrots, squash and zucchini, and Buckner Family Ranch, which provides beef and lamb.
“There’s only so much you can do these days in the restaurant business. Everything’s been done, right? You’re not really reinventing the wheel so much, you’re just working with great ingredients, making it good and it’s the same for the beverage programs and the back of house,” Dayton said.
Like the group’s other restaurants, Cinq a Sept will update its menu regularly to reflect the seasons and what’s available from local suppliers.
“There’ll be the staples that never change, and then there’ll be the seasonal stuff that’ll change fairly regularly,” Dayton said. “We’re always seeing who we can source the best products from. Maybe we take it for granted in Boulder a little bit that most people are always pushing on that and that we have a good healthy bounty and a consumer base that kind of demands that, but we’re definitely always sourcing, always pushing.”
For first-time diners, Dayton recommends starting with the “amazing” bread and oysters from Prince Edward Island.
“Then the zucchini, that’s next-level. That would definitely be on my table. The simple salad that we have from Esoterra is delicious and amazing. I would have that on there,” he said. “I would also have the chicken and probably the sole. We’ve got a great sole that’s on there, great fish with great brown butter and caper. For me not to say ‘beef’ is probably a big statement, don’t get me wrong, but I think those are some of the great ones to start with.”
Dayton said he’s seeing a lot of familiar faces, along with plenty he doesn’t recognize, “which is pretty interesting for somebody that’s owned a business in Boulder for 16 years.”
The restaurant takes its name from the French phrase cinq à sept, meaning “five to seven,” a reference to the early-evening hours associated with drinks and socializing. But Dayton said customers are coming throughout the evening, not just for happy hour.
Cinq a Sept is located at 4580 Broadway in North Boulder and is open from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Happy hour runs from 4 to 5 p.m. daily.
