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This week in Nibbles, chef Hosea Rosenberg talks about the deep dive into pasta and pizza behind his new Table Mesa restaurant, Morso. Plus: a preview of Taverna Laudisio, a new bagel shop, crispy zucchini fritters and a few words of wisdom from Luciano Pavarotti. Next week: our guide to Boulder County’s best roadside farm stands.
— John Lehndorff
According to The Food Network, Runner’s World and TikTok, some runners are carrying heavy cream on their runs and finishing with homemade butter. If you’re a Boulder County runner who churns and burns, let me know at nibbles@boulderreportinglab.org.
Follow your appetite and discover the heart of Boulder. Downtown is where post-trail cravings meet sunny patios and quick stops turn into lingering conversations. Fresh, seasonal menus, local ingredients and vibrant energy fill every block. Whether you’re grabbing a casual bite or settling in for a special meal, there’s always something new to enjoy. Welcome to Downtown Boulder, where Boulder comes to life.
Hosea Rosenberg ate red sauce when he was a kid, but it wasn’t usually on pasta or pizza.
“It’s not really the food I grew up eating in New Mexico, which we serve at Santo,” he says, speaking from the office at his new Morso restaurant in the Table Mesa Shopping Center.
“I’m not Italian by any stretch, but my dad talked about growing up in New York City and the kind of food he ate,” Rosenberg says.
However, he also married into red sauce, says Lauren Feder Rosenberg, Hosea’s wife and director of marketing and communications for Boulder-based Little Piggy Hospitality. The company operates Blackbelly Market in Boulder and Denver and Santo locations in Boulder and at Denver International Airport.
“I’m from New Jersey. My whole family is from New York. Our two chefs are from New York,” she says.
According to Rosenberg, he was leaning toward opening a Spanish-influenced eatery the first time he and Lauren looked at the former Village Inn/Under the Sun space.
“It became obvious that this is exactly what we should be doing, and the pizza oven was the source of the inspiration. We have been cooking pizza at home for years and making pasta at Blackbelly for as long as I can remember. It felt really nice and comfortable,” he says.
Rosenberg’s career has taken him from an engineering physics degree from CU while waiting tables at Boulder’s Mataam Fez Moroccan Restaurant to winning Top Chef Season 5 while at Jax Fish House and earning Michelin Green Star and Michelin Recommended status for his establishments.
“Morso” means “a bite” in Italian. “We want to delight people with the simple, best ingredients you can imagine through an Italian lens,” he says.
Despite its humble focus, Morso is no red sauce joint in East Coast tradition. It means scratch-made pizza, pasta and focaccia doughs and regional Italian wines, and no slices to go or laundry list of toppings.
“We have a lot of Parmigiana — chicken Parm, shrimp Parm, eggplant Parm,” Rosenberg says.
Morso’s starters include calamari with marinara and a classic Caesar salad. Pizzas come topped with everything from pepperoni to broccoli raab, with pasta choices including Pappardelle Short Rib Sugo. Sweets range from tiramisu and affogato to soft serve ice cream and sorbet. A kids’ menu lists pasta with red sauce, shells and cheese and small pizzas.
According to Hosea Rosenberg, the opening of Morso had nothing to do with the arrival of the Sundance Film Festival in January.
“We’ve been in a lot of meetings about Sundance, but the event is only about 10 days out of the year. If anybody needs Sundance to survive, then they’re probably not doing their business well. It’s not going to be the end-all for anybody serving food in Boulder,” he says.
Siren calls for grilled cheese, caviar and cold beer
Chef Hosea Rosenberg smiled when quizzed about the East Coast-style watering hole near Morso in Table Mesa. “Siren is very tiny and the place is just rocking. People love it. It’s very much a neighborhood bar. We love being their next-door neighbor,” he says.
Siren is tucked into barely-there space that previously was home to the South Boulder Speakeasy, an off-shoot of the nearby Tandoori Grill. When I visited with a friend recently, we immediately felt comfortable in the maritime-themed ambience.
Siren pairs a well-curated beverage program with a minimalist seafood-focused menu that cleverly works around the fact that it doesn’t really have a kitchen. A three-gram caviar “bump” tops the list, but we opted for a fine, blini-like slider: sturgeon caviar with crème fraiche and chives on a sweet roll paired with a glass of bubbly. Tinned seafood is viral these days. At Siren, canned fish and seafood (or beet tartare) are dished with toasted sourdough, whipped butter and pickles.
We finished with a classy five-cheese grilled sandwich with onion jam on Dry Storage bread, served with chips.
I look forward to sipping a cold can of Narragansett Beer, a brew I grew up on in New England, on Siren’s less-loud patio one afternoon while waiting to eat clam pizza at Morso.
Taverna Laudisio soft-opens and a new bagel shop is coming
Until opening for dinner later this month, Antonio Laudisio’s new Taverna Laudisio at 121 2nd Ave., in Niwot, is hosting soft-opening dinners Thursday through Saturday evenings on the patio with a limited menu.
Nederland’s Decent Bagel will open a second location at 5863 Arapahoe Ave. in Boulder, next door to the new Odd Rabbit eatery.
Masa Seed Foundation is growing Oaxaca Green, Chihuahua Blue, Concha White and other heirloom corn varieties on its Boulder farm for chef Johnny Curiel’s Fonda Fina Hospitality, including Boulder’s Cozobi Fonda Fina.
Look sharp and take a knife skills class!
Forget the viral cooking videos, food shows and Reddit recipes! The single best thing you can do to become a better cook is to take a knife skills class, like the one July 13 at Boulder’s Food Lab. Besides avoiding painful, bloody visits to urgent care, you will be able to prepare better food much faster. This class teaches slicing, rocking and cross-chopping, batonnet and julienne, small-to-large dice, bias cuts, rondelles, and chiffonade, followed by dinner.
The coming months are full of wonderful community food festivals. If you love Italian-American culture and food, check out the 95th annual Mount Carmel Bazaar July 18 at north Denver’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. Booths will offer sausage and meatball sandwiches, pizza fritta and Italian ices.
Other upcoming events include: Crested Butte Wine & Food Festival, July 13-18; Boulder County Fair, Aug. 5-9, Longmont; Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival, August 21-23, Eagle; Colorado Ukrainian Festival, Aug. 22, Lakewood.
(Get your upcoming food event, festival or class listed free on Boulder Reporting Lab using the self-submission form here.)
How to fritter away the summer
Summer squash like zucchini can seem kind of blah. Our recipe from the Boulder County Farmers Markets elevates squash by using it in fritters — essentially, a chunky savory little pancake. Plus: What to do with all those squash blossoms.
Get the recipe here, and all Market Meals recipes here.
“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”
– Italian opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti
Want more Boulder bites?
New Boulder cocktail bar Siren brings a nautical, East Coast tavern vibe to South Boulder
The team behind Jungle has opened a martini-forward neighborhood bar with tinned seafood, vintage-ship decor and a family-friendly feel. Continue reading…
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🎆 A Fourth of July toast to the foods that made Boulder famous
