Where in the Clayton Hotel & Members Club at 233 Clayton St. can someone who isn't a member get a table between now and New Year's Eve? For most of the past year, the answer was the ground floor. This fall, the only answer is the roof.
Both of the hotel's summer pop-ups did well enough to stay. They are staying in very different ways. SHEEP, the rooftop residency from the team behind The Wolf's Tailor, was due to close today, Oct. 4. It is now open nightly through the end of December. Tequilería Alteño, the cantina that took over the ground-floor wine bar in July, is now permanent. It is also temporarily closed while the space is converted, and the team is aiming to reopen in spring or summer 2027. Both pop-ups are staying, yet for the next three months the public can only eat at one of them, and it is the more expensive of the two.
The rooftop room that had never been open to the public
The Clayton's sixth-floor restaurant has 54 seats. Before SHEEP arrived on July 8, the public had never been able to book a table there. The residency comes from Id Est, the restaurant group that owns The Wolf's Tailor, which the Denver Post describes as Colorado's only restaurant with two Michelin stars. Id Est founder Kelly Whitaker and Wolf's Tailor chef Taylor Stark design the menu.
When the residency was announced in June, it was a three-month run from July 8 to Oct. 4. The four-course menu cost $95, and bookings were through OpenTable, with walk-ins also accepted. The fall version changes three things:
- Price: the four-course tasting menu goes from $95 to $125 per person.
- Hours: dinner only, starting at 5 p.m. seven days a week.
- Dates: the fall and winter menu runs Oct. 5 through Dec. 30, 2026, for parties of one to six.
The cooking still centers on the hearth. The menu describes "elemental ingredients shaped by fire, smoke, and seasonality," and each of the four courses offers a choice. Summer dishes included smoked heirloom tomato jelly with tomato water and frozen wasabi, mackerel with tom kha cream, sourdough piada with nori butter, bone marrow butter and caviar, and squab with sourdough gochujang and a Sonoran pancake. Seasonal cocktail and wine pairings are offered alongside.
Some of the information online about SHEEP is out of date. The hotel's own SHEEP page still lists the summer price and weekend lunch. The newer fall and winter listing on OpenTable and the Denver Post's Sept. 24 report both say $125 and dinner only. The hotel page does confirm that walk-ins are welcome when space allows. For a party of two on a weeknight, that is still an option.
Downstairs, a space that keeps changing
The ground-floor space SHEEP's sibling pop-up just left has changed hands often. According to Westword, it has been Oak Market, Five Nines, Chez Roc and Bar Amorina. Then came Mar Bella.
Mar Bella Boqueria opened on Jan. 10, 2026. It was Johnny and Kasie Curiel's first Spanish concept, a neo-bistro and wine bar serving tapas and conservas, with a chef's counter set up like a jamonería. Later coverage, and the hotel's current page, call it Mar Bella Wine Bar. Six months after it opened, the Curiels used its dining room and patio to try something else.
The hotel lists Tequilería Alteño's opening date as July 8. Westword's first look described a July 7 debut, which may have been a preview night. Westword described the pop-up as a way to "test the waters and neighborhood demand" before committing to a permanent replacement. The concept was a Mexican cantina and tequila bar based on Mexico's neighborhood cantinas. Its masa came from Curiel's partnership with the Masa Seed Foundation, an ancestral corn project southeast of Boulder, and was nixtamalized in house. The bar carried more than 80 Mexican spirits. Summer dishes included Flautas Bañadas, Cachetadas De NY made with prime New York strip, a Pacific halibut fish taco, and a pork shank Chamorro for the table.
The test answered the question. WhatNow reported Curiel's Oct. 2 statement:
"After a really rewarding summer, it feels right to permanently change Mar Bella Wine Bar into Tequilería Alteño. Thank you for all the support and understanding! More to come soon."
The next day, Westword's weekly roundup put Tequilería Alteño, 233 Clayton St., on its "Temporarily Closed" list. The remodel will turn a space built for Spanish wine service into a permanent cantina. No reopening date or new hours have been announced beyond the spring or summer 2027 target.
The summer schedule gives a sense of what the street level offered. The pop-up was open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight. That was five evenings a week of walk-in cantina food on the ground floor. Those evenings now move to the sixth floor, where the format is a $125 tasting menu.
What about Alteño?
The Curiels' original Alteño, which takes its cues from the Jalisco Highlands, also has a location at the Clayton. The hotel lists its hours as 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. on weekdays. The hotel also says that access is mainly for members and their guests. For someone without a membership, the Curiels' food will be easier to get once Tequilería reopens as a public restaurant.
The permanent Tequilería joins a Fonda Fina Hospitality group that also includes Alma Fonda Fina, Mezcaleria Alma and Cozobi Fonda Fina, with more projects in the works.
How SHEEP's run lines up with the rest of Cherry Creek North
SHEEP's final night, Dec. 30, falls six days after the district's biggest outdoor holiday event ends. Its whole fall run overlaps with the busiest stretch of the Cherry Creek North calendar:
| Dates | What's happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Saturdays through Oct. 10, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Final weeks of Cherry Creek Fresh Market | East side of Cherry Creek Shopping Center, by Steele Street and Macy's |
| Oct. 5 to Dec. 30 | SHEEP fall and winter tasting menu, nightly from 5 p.m. | Sixth floor, 233 Clayton St. |
| Nov. 19 to Dec. 24 | Cherry Creek Holiday Market, with the Mistletoe Lounge bar | Fillmore Plaza |
| Nov. 19 to Jan. 4 | Giving Machines, open 24/7 | 2nd Avenue and Fillmore Street |
| Nov. 27 to 30 | Small Business Weekend | Throughout Cherry Creek North |
The Holiday Market is free and features local makers and live music. The Giving Machines stand at the market's entrance. Winter Wanderland, the district's free holiday program, promises more than one million lights across its 16 blocks. Fillmore Plaza and Clayton Street are a short walk apart. Through late December, the outdoor holiday events and the rooftop residency share the same few blocks.
On Jan. 4, the Giving Machines leave, and the busy holiday stretch ends with them. SHEEP's residency will have ended five days earlier.
What's coming in early 2027
Tequilería is not the only Cherry Creek opening expected in the first half of next year. In an Aug. 31 report, the Denver Post said Two Hands is opening a second Denver location at 221 N. Milwaukee St. It will be on the ground floor of BMC Investments' The Oasis building. Founder and CEO Henry Roberts gave the timing only as "this spring," without naming a year. Since the report came out in late August, the spring it means is most likely 2027. Arhaus also plans to move from Cherry Creek Shopping Center to 299 Milwaukee St. in early 2027. Pottery Barn is planned for the 13,379-square-foot space Arhaus will leave, with no opening date yet.
Some changes have already happened. Syrup, at 300 Josephine St., closed on Aug. 16 after nearly 16 years in Cherry Creek. The chain's other four locations are still open. At the mall, Cherry Creek Shopping Center now lists Crate & Barrel and STUDS as "Now Open."
None of the spring openings has a firm date yet. SHEEP does, and its fall menu is bookable for 87 nights, Oct. 5 through Dec. 30.
Changes on blocks like Clayton Street and Milwaukee Street affect how buyers see the homes and condos within walking distance of them. The Corbitt Group follows Cherry Creek North closely, from rooftop residencies to the openings planned for 2027, and includes it in how we price homes nearby. If you own in the neighborhood and want to know where your home stands this season, request a free home valuation.
