A legend on the top right-hand corner of Pure Kitchen’s menu denotes the new Frisco restaurant’s vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options.
A shredded kale salad, grilled cauliflower hummus appetizer or cranberry grapefruit quinoa pilaf for the kids are only a few of the choices nestled alongside dishes like the organic beef tenderloin, wild-caught yellowfin tuna and duck confit.
Created by restaurateur Terry Barbu, who’s opened over 100 restaurants over the course of his career, Pure Kitchen started service on Dec. 27 as an upscale, health-food restaurant and the newest offering from The Pinnacle Companies.
“Having a broad range of price points, flavor and style was important,” said Chris Renner, founder of The Pinnacle Companies. “As the menu has evolved over the first few weeks, we found we didn’t want to limit ourselves to only serving vegetarian food.”
Knowing he would be eating there himself quite often, Renner said he knew coming into the endeavor he wanted a restaurant that fed into the healthy culture he demands for himself and his employees.
The idea was to create a healthy menu that appeals to a wide range of dietary needs and preferences, and they landed on Pure Kitchen, which features vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free menu items aplenty alongside a board base of dishes with meat. In fact, Renner said he’s been working his way through the menu since the opening and has yet to find anything he doesn’t personally enjoy.
Recommended Stories For You
That’s great news for chef Greg Slagle, who was born and raised in Fort Collins. He said being presented with an opportunity to create a health-conscience menu based on organic, farm-to-table ingredients was too good to turn down.
“This is something totally cool and different,” Slagle said of the driving concept behind Pure Kitchen. “It’s healthy. It’s a lifestyle, and we look forward to giving the community something that is unlike anything else in Summit County.”
Opening the new restaurant capped off a busy year for The Pinnacle Companies. In 2018, the company started its own philanthropic wing with Pinnacle Gives, moved many of its business operations into the new $5 million headquarters building while taking its first steps into the restaurant business and opening a new retail store as well.
“I don’t think it was our intention to take on so much in 2018,” said Renner, adding that he plans to “take a deep breath” this year as they work on refining the newest additions to his growing lineup of businesses.
Renner knows it might seem like his company has launched a handful of random business endeavors as of late, but he sees great synergy in what they’ve doing and thinks Pure Kitchen comes as a natural extension of his company’s mission.
“From a style perspective, what better style complements our mountain-modern home furnishing store than an upscale, progressive, healthy, modern restaurant?” Renner asked.
As his business outgrew its space in Breckenridge, that led The Pinnacle Companies to Frisco, where they constructed the new HQ at 114 Basecamp Way, across the parking lot from Whole Foods Market.
By building their own space from the ground up, Renner explained, they could detail exactly what they wanted out of it, and that in turn led The Pinnacle Companies into the restaurant business.
“I think we can eat and drink healthy and fresh,” Renner said, adding that quality health food dovetails nicely with the Colorado mindset and even extends to the full-service bar at Pure Kitchen. “Even if somebody wants an alcoholic drink, I think there’s a healthy way to do that.”