The name “The Wolf’s Tailor” carries a layered parable. On its surface, it’s Colorado’s most acclaimed restaurant — now the first in the state to earn Two MICHELIN Stars. But beneath the title lies a biblical echo: the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” from the Gospel of Matthew, a warning against deception. For Chef Kelly Whitaker, the son of a minister and a schoolteacher, it became something else entirely — a meditation on transformation.
“The wolf doesn’t have to be the villain,” says Whitaker, in his first post-award interview with The MICHELIN Guide. “You can tailor the story. You can make something wild into something restorative.”
That duality — faith and fire, discipline and rebellion — defines Whitaker’s work. The Wolf’s Tailor is equal parts sermon and experiment, where by-product becomes beauty, and where excellence is pursued not for recognition, but for redemption — in a place where Whitaker tests his own limits as much as the ingredients.
“We were never chasing Stars,” Whitaker says. “We were chasing excellence.”
The First Wave
When Whitaker opened Basta in Boulder in 2010, The MICHELIN Guide was still more than a decade away from launching in the Centennial State. The regional restaurant scene was hitting its stride: chefs like Jennifer Jasinski, Alex Seidel, Daniel Asher and Bobby Stuckey were carving out a culinary identity for the Denver metro area. Whitaker was the newcomer — scrappy, cerebral, quietly obsessive.
His foundation was international. After earning a degree in hospitality management from Colorado State University, he studied at the Hotel Institute Montreux in Switzerland, which led to a formative job on the island of Procida, Italy. There, he fell in love with wood-fired cooking and the joy of feeding people simply and well. He later cooked in Los Angeles at Hatfield’s and Providence, where working under Michael Cimarusti — whose restaurant earned a Third MICHELIN Star this year — shaped his sense of purpose.
“Providence showed me what a Two-Star restaurant looked like,” Whitaker recalls. “Michael cared for the oceans the way I wanted to care for food systems. That kitchen set the bar for how excellence and ethics could coexist.”
Back in Colorado, Whitaker and his wife, Erika, additionally co-founded Id Est, Latin for “that is.” It became the umbrella for his growing ecosystem beyond Basta, which today also includes: Dry Storage, Hey Kiddo, Ok Yeah, Brutø, and The Wolf’s Tailor. Collectively, the hospitality group holds three MICHELIN Stars, two Green Stars, one Bib Gourmand, and one Recommended designation — making Whitaker the most decorated chef in the entire Rocky Mountain region.
The Evolution
If Basta was the ember, The Wolf’s Tailor became the crucible. Opened in 2018 in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood, it evolved from an à la carte menu to one of the most progressive tasting menus in the country.
“When I started Wolf’s, I said, ‘This is where I’m going to put most of my brain and energy.’ I just knew I couldn’t spread it out everywhere,” he says. “Wolf’s Tailor is my home.”
After it earned One Star in 2023, Whitaker recognized a creeping danger: complacency. “We got stagnant,” he admits. “So, we burned it down and rebuilt it.” The current remodel wasn’t about expanding seats but expanding purpose. Plans in progress also include an employee greenhouse and electric-powered kitchen upgrades.
“Guests come through a few times a year,” he says. “But our staff is here every day. I want them to leave better than they came in. That’s the real measure of success.”
Inside the kitchen, refinement met reinvention. Whitaker brought in pastry chef Emily Thompson (formerly of The French Laundry) to co-create a pastry program born of waste and fermentation. Together they turned discarded sourdough starter into flour for a delicate macaron — a small act of rebellion, cloaked in precision. “We’re taking high-technique items and replacing refined ingredients with discovery,” Whitaker says.
The Manifesto
Ask Whitaker about sustainability, and he’ll gently push back. “Sustainability’s become a buzzword,” he says. “I prefer the term impact.”
That shift in language defines Id Est’s philosophy. The group’s kitchens don’t just minimize waste—they design systems that regenerate. Grain milled at Dry Storage supports regional farmers; fermentation captures flavor and preserves every scrap; menus evolve with the ecology of the Rockies. Whitaker calls it "defending the maker."
“We’re not farm-to-table,” he explains. “We’re system-to-table. We’re defending our fishermen and farmers, not just supporting them.”
That mindset has drawn partnerships with global leaders in responsible food: Slow Food USA, Big Green, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. Through collaboration, Id Est is helping pilot traceable sourcing models that track seafood, grains, and produce from origin to plate — an approach that merges ethics with logistics.
“We ferment not just for flavor,” Whitaker adds, “but because we’re in Colorado. We ferment to use everything.”
The Platform
Whitaker’s voice and reach now resonate far from the Front Range. Since his Stars have launched him into a new stratosphere, he’s led a zero-waste tasting tour through Aspen’s historic Smuggler Mine for Global Fire, spoken on a ‘Climate on the Menu’ panel for the Aspen Institute and popped up on Beaver Creek Mountain for a two-night omakase experience.
“These issues show up at the back door of every restaurant,” he says. “If we can flip the model — make restaurants that replenish instead of deplete — then we’re making progress and real change.”
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City (Whitaker was born and raised in Tulsa), Id Est’s two new concepts outside of Colorado are testing smaller-scale versions of those same systems: community bakeries, circular waste loops, and hyper-local supply chains.
“Every restaurant is a lab,” he says. “They just ask different questions.”
The Roots
For all his global perspective, Whitaker’s sense of purpose traces back to his grandparents’ farm on the plains of Oklahoma. As a kid, he’d sneak into the tornado cellar and find the walls lined with jars — pickled beans, tomatoes, peaches, anything the land gave up that season.
“I didn’t realize then that fermentation was my first connection to food systems,” he says. “It was just survival. But now I see how much of my future was buried right there in that cellar.”
That memory — of preservation as both necessity and care — still anchors his work. The same instinct that drove his grandparents to stretch a harvest now drives him to stretch an ecosystem. “We’ve come full circle,” he says. “Only now, the cellar is a kitchen.”
The Future
For Whitaker, accolades aren’t finish lines — they’re waypoints. “We’re a good Two-Star,” he says. “We could be a great Two-Star.” He’s not chasing a third Star, at least not in the literal sense. What he’s chasing is durability: stronger teams, deeper impact and a blueprint for the restaurants that come next.
The wolf in his story is no longer a warning; it’s a symbol of transformation. The tailor, more focused than ever. “The wolf doesn’t have to hide,” Whitaker says. “You can clothe it in craft, feed it with purpose and let it lead.”
From igniting his first flame to creating Colorado’s first Two-Star kitchen, Kelly Whitaker has become both shepherd and spark — a chef who proves that fine dining can have a conscience. For him, the work is just beginning — it’s not about accolades, but about light: the kind that grows things, feeds people, and, at its best, restores.
Hero image: Jeff Fierberg / The Wolf’s Tailor
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