Does The Denver Food Scene Need Content Creators?

Community and Connection With Zoe Greene and Tony Pasquini

The art of breaking bread together fuels the universal language of connection. The food and restaurant industry is an ever-growing vessel where consumers can dine and commune in hopes of having a well-rounded experience.

The Denver food scene is diverse, thoughtful and constantly growing. With buzzy new restaurant concepts, food halls, bars and more making their debut in The Mile High City, community support and collaboration are critical for these businesses to flourish. For locally owned businesses especially, the support of their community and peers is what makes restaurants like Tony P’s Bar and Pizzeria thrive for over 35 years.

On the corner of Zuni Street under a row of Aperol Spritz branded umbrellas, we at The Curio Cabinet sat down on the patio of Tony P’s Bar and Pizzeria with two individuals: Zoe Greene, digital creator and self-proclaimed food enthusiast, and Tony Pasquini, owner of the local Italian restaurant and bar. Collectively, we chatted about the beauty of food, local support and community.

With a table full of brightly colored plates topped with fresh Italian cuisine, two individuals incredibly different from each other were effortlessly brought together by their love of food. Originally from Wisconsin, Greene, moved to Denver two years ago after living in Los Angeles, and quickly built a blossoming community on and offline through her quick-witted and honest video reviews, like her Is it Worth The Hype series. “Denver is a new city to me and the way I explore this city is through food,” she shared. Greene’s love of food began watching Anthony Bourdain and evolved quickly with a passionate teacher who taught her to cook. With dreams of becoming a private chef now far behind her, Greene combines her creative outlet of media content and her deep food knowledge to bring high-quality cuisine coverage.

Then there’s Pasquini, a Canadian-born yet Denver-raised business owner who keeps his Italian heritage and history at the forefront of his business.

Communities are built and curated differently nowadays. With so much information online, the world is at our fingertips alongside multitudes of personalities and opinions contributing to our worldview. Greene uses content creation as her creative outlet. Like most, social media became a source of education on where to explore and eat.

“Like most people, I go to Instagram and TikTok to know where to eat, and I kept getting burned by all these places…no one was talking about the quality of the food in these trending videos,” said Greene. This inspired her to start a channel of her own where she can provide genuine content about her experiences and exploration of the Denver food scene.

“All these people are going for these trendy and overhyped places and conclude that Denver has bad food when that’s not the truth,” she elaborated.

Unlike new concept restaurants, legacy businesses like Tony P’s Bar and Pizzeria curate their recipes and menus through experience and generational knowledge. Pasquini entered the food scene at the age of 10. At such a young age, Pasquini’s love for this industry began to blossom as he learned how to make New York-style pizza at a family friend’s local pizza shop. He continued to work for this pizza shop until the end of high school and eventually came to take it over while attending school at CU Boulder. By the time he graduated, he became the full-time owner and operator of his first Italian restaurant, Pasquini’s, where he curated a menu of several beloved family recipes and dishes.

“Over the years, I would always add things to the menu like my grandmother’s gnocchi or ravioli recipe. I was always looking for ways to improve, which is the secret to success. Even now, I’ve done this for 38 years and I’m still looking for ways to improve,” said Pasquini.

Home made Olive Oil from Pasquini’s family in Italy (left).

The city of Denver has gone through massive changes in the past several years. Undoubtedly, the city is also constantly looking for ways to improve and invite more individuals in. When it comes to new food concepts, Greene critiqued that, “the focus is too much on the design and aesthetic and the food can sometimes be such an afterthought and even the service.” As a content creator, there’s an expectation of trying the latest installments to the city, so that the community can see it and “test” through someone else’s point of view. Greene is conscious that as someone in her position with a following who trusts her expertise, it is in her and their best interest to be honest.

As Greene continues to build up her community and impact, she aims to focus on Denver staples and old-school restaurants. That’s where she finds the heart and soul of a culinary experience.

“This is where I live and I want to support my economy and the culture that I’m taking in. I really do love it here and I’ve been welcomed with open arms and people really try to build a genuine connection,” shared Greene.

Supporting the local community can come in many forms. For Pasquini and Greene, this outing resulted in a sincere connection laced with the intention to uplift and learn more about the business. This is a frequent practice for Greene as she steps out and tries local cuisine. Regularly, she finds herself navigating the city and building rapport with staff at the places she frequents. With the growth and intention happening around the city, one thing we can all agree on is that Denver loves Denver, and the community will always find a way to support businesses – old and new.

Like Greene, content creators take the time to curate educational, timely and entertaining content that influences others to go out and put the wonders of their city to the test. Content creators are also incredibly beneficial for small businesses economically because of their reach and consumer-focused content. Unlike agencies, content creators take the time to build a unique audience that is genuinely interested in finding new places and treasures in their city.

Understandably, not all have the desire to be content creators. So how else are consumers able to spread the word about their favorite local business in an age that’s so digitally focused? To support local restaurants like Tony P’s Bar and Pizzeria or your favorite locally owned business, Greene put it simply, take the time to leave intentional reviews.

“There’s a general trend of people going out to eat less, and in order to support these smaller businesses, everyone can still participate for free by writing more reviews. People here and especially people out of town read a lot of reviews and they utilize these tools to find places to go. Going out to eat is a luxury and it should be special,” said Greene.

Community and finding others to hold space for you and your ambitions is a powerful tool. Restaurants and our local communities allow us to do just that. With full stomachs and dipping our forks into Pasquini’s homemade Tiramisu, we all gladly participated in the art of connection and collaboration.

To learn more about Tony P’s Bar and Pizzeria please visit tonypspizza.com.

All Photography by Victoria Glidden and Jordan McClendon