Daniel Asher opens an Israeli restaurant in LoHi

A vacant space for Lower Highlands restaurants will soon return to life with the opening of Ash & Kara this fall. The new restaurant at 2005 West 33rd Avenue – formerly Bremen's Wine & Tap – will serve Israeli and Middle Eastern dishes prepared by the chef behind Boulder's River and Woods and Lafayette's Cidery & Restaurant Acreage . Before creating his own restaurants around Boulder, Daniel Asher ran the kitchens of Root Down, Linger and Ophelia's in Denver. This last project goes back to its roots.

The Ash 'Kara menu inspires modern Israeli cuisine, with Middle Eastern flavors – grilled meats wrapped in harissa and zhug, pita bread and lavash dipped in hummus , muhammara and baba ghanoush. While his latest restaurant project, Acreage, focuses on Basque and Spanish Mediterranean influences, Asher grew up eating Middle Eastern food in Montreal and visiting the Israeli kibbutz of his family. Ashkara is Hebrew slang with Arabic influence; it translates as "for real".

The first Denver restaurant in Asher is a joint effort with a long list of local names. Among the partners is the Culinary Creative Group (see also Bar Dough, Señor Bear, Morin and Maine Shack); Ben Higgins, who was on "The Bachelor" and Dina Castillo, the owner of the Bremen's Closure & Wine & Tap. This restaurant lasted seven months and closed in February at the same address. But Ashkara is undergoing a reorganization from Shike Design, and his food should be at the right time on the Denver stage. Safta, a modern Israeli restaurant, opens at RiNo next month.