For 88 years, if you lived in Bonnie Brae, you oriented the corner of University and Ohio by the windowless brick box of the Bonnie Brae Tavern. That anchor is gone. In its place, a fenced construction site and, across the sidewalk at 730 S. University, a new dining room serving molcajetes under warm light.
The 700 block did not lose its center of gravity this summer. It swapped one for another, and the swap is worth walking.
The corner, decoded
Alpine Investments and Revesco Properties are building a three-story, 46-unit apartment building at 740 S. University Blvd., where the Bonnie Brae Tavern operated for nearly 90 years before closing in June 2022. The project is called akin Bonnie Brae. The two firms bought the roughly three-quarter-acre parcel three years ago for $4.5 million. Demolition of the tavern happened in June 2025, and the building has been rising through 2026.
According to akin's own leasing site, the community is a curated collection of one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences near Wash Park, pre-leasing Fall 2026, with delivery targeted for early 2027. The design incorporates ground-floor retail, which is the piece residents should be watching. The tavern was one large tenant on a fully depreciated single-story building. The new bays will be smaller, newer, and priced accordingly, which will shape who ends up next to your morning coffee walk two summers from now.
For a sense of the developer's own read on the site, David Pietsch III of Alpine told BusinessDen during demolition:
"It's been really hard, and I think we've been fortunate because the real estate fundamentals are really good, it's a great location."
That is a candid line. It also explains why the corner is being rebuilt rather than restored.
Ni Tuyo, decoded for people who already walk here
The tavern's closure created a vacuum on the block. Ni Tuyo, which opened in mid-June 2026 at 730 S. University Blvd., is filling it faster than most residents expected. The concept comes from the family behind Adelitas Cocina y Cantina and La Doña Mezcaleria. Owner and COO Nathan Ayala-Schmit is the son-in-law of Chef Silvia Andaya, and the kitchen leans on recipes he describes as "generations-old, sometimes two or three hundred years."
What that means practically, if you live three blocks away and are deciding where to eat on a Tuesday: the menu is built around tacos, margaritas, eclectic appetizers, and five or six different molcajetes, plus Mexican charcuterie built from imported Mexican meats and cheeses, with 25 to 30 mezcals and 20 to 25 tequilas. The mezcal list is intentionally short. Ayala-Schmit called it "a little bit smaller of a list, a little bit more thoughtful."
Early Yelp write-ups from July 2026 report the happy-hour margarita at $9, taquitos at $10, and the molcajete as the shared main. If you have been telling out-of-town guests that Bonnie Brae's dining scene starts and ends at the tavern jokes, the reference point has changed.
The block, walked south to north
If you have not made the loop since June, this is what the 700 block of S. University reads like on a summer evening.
- 730 S. University — Ni Tuyo. The block's new dinner anchor. Reserve for weekends, walk in weeknights.
- 740 S. University — The akin Bonnie Brae construction site. Site fencing, staged materials, and a rendering board facing the sidewalk. Not photogenic yet, but the massing is visible.
- 750 S. University — The former Wish Gifts building was folded into the akin parcel per naked denver's reporting on the assemblage, so this address is part of the same project rather than a separate storefront.
- 799 S. University — Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. Open for over 30 years, with classics like Butter Brickle and Sinful Cinnamon, and, per The Scout Guide's July 2026 Denver ice cream guide, a real Denver institution feel with 120-plus flavors. The train still runs above the counter.
The walk between Ni Tuyo and Bonnie Brae Ice Cream is now the shortest post-dinner scoop route in central Denver that does not require a car. That is a new sentence for this block.
What the akin retail bays actually mean for 2027
The corner's ground-floor retail is the piece with the most consequence for daily life, and it has not been leased. Residents watching the site over the next twelve months should track three things.
First, unit count and floor plates. Per naked denver's early coverage, the building was originally sized at 15 different floorplans, ranging from one to three bedroom apartments, with sizes spanning from 689 to 1,532 square feet. Smaller floor plates on the residential side usually mean smaller retail bays on the ground floor, which favors coffee, wine, boutique fitness, or a second restaurant over another full-service dining anchor.
Second, tenant mix versus rent basis. The Cherry Creek News summarized the wider mechanic plainly: landlords typically seek higher base rents to cover construction and financing costs when replacing older, fully depreciated single-story structures with new construction, which often prices out long-time, lower-rent tenants. That is why the retail lineup that eventually opens under akin will not resemble the pre-2022 tavern-and-gifts pairing, even if the sidewalk footprint looks similar.
Third, parking. Residents have raised questions at public meetings and through neighborhood associations regarding the project's scale, design, parking, and tenant mix. Whatever comes into those bays will land on the same block face as Ni Tuyo, and street parking on Ohio and University has not gotten easier this summer.
What is not new, and why that matters
The story of the block this summer is easier to tell if you also name the things that did not change.
Bonnie Brae Ice Cream is the same shop it was in 1986, and it is winning awards on that basis, not despite it. The Scout Guide's July 2026 roundup put Sweet Cow ahead as the 2026 Denver Gazette Ice Cream Bracket winner, edging out Little Man in the final round, and Best of Mile High named Bonnie Brae Ice Cream a 2026 Silver Winner. Silver in a citywide field, from a single 799 S. University storefront, is a strong signal that residents should not treat the shop as a summer default and forget to actually walk to it.
The curvilinear street plan is also unchanged, and it is doing quiet work on the block's identity. Bonnie Brae's winding, curvilinear streets and distinctive 1920s-era architecture lend the area a tranquil, almost European feel, and this unusual design is a defining and celebrated hallmark of the community's identity. That geometry is why the walk from Ellipse Way to the 700 block feels like a village errand rather than a city trip, and it is the reason the akin building's massing was scrutinized by neighbors rather than accepted quietly.
The neighborhood itself was designed as a European reference. It was named for a Kansas City subdivision that developer George W. Olinger admired and then recreated in Denver in the 1920s. That backstory is a fun aside for guests. It is also the reason ground-floor retail on this block is not interchangeable with retail on any other Denver arterial.
A resident's honest summer evening
If you already live here, the useful version of this post is the itinerary.
Walk to Ni Tuyo at 6:30 on a Tuesday or Wednesday for a two-molcajete table or a happy-hour seat at the bar. Cross University north to Bonnie Brae Ice Cream before the summer line settles in around 8:00. Loop back through Bonnie Brae Park on Ellipse Way. Take the long side of the loop under the mature canopy, which is the part of the neighborhood that reminds you why the akin design review mattered in the first place.
The construction fence at 740 S. University is the least interesting thing on the block this summer. In a year, when the retail bays open, it will be the most interesting thing. The residents who spend this summer paying attention to what is currently in the two storefronts on either side of that fence will be the ones who can tell the difference.
If you are weighing whether to stay in Bonnie Brae, upsize within the neighborhood, or reposition a property before the akin retail lineup lands, Chriss Bond knows this block by name and address. Contact Me to talk through what the corner's next chapter means for your home.
