Like any family, Welton Street Café has its own unique history, full of drama, highs, lows, and love.
Definitely love.
There’s the love that the Dickerson family puts into each and every Southern Caribbean dish they serve, the love diners receive simply by entering the vibrant restaurant and then there’s the love that’s given right back to them by the community they feed.
Welton Street Café has been a Five Points staple since 1986, but it’s been a tumultuous journey. Most people probably best know the restaurant’s last location on 27th and Welton Streets, where it served their Denver-famous fried chicken, wings, smothered pork chops, and mac and cheese for almost 23 years before lease issues forced them to find a new home. They found it a block or so up, but moving into the new space took a lot of time, energy, and tears.
“When you open and close a restaurant over a few years, you feel every emotion,” says Fathima
Dickerson, one of six members of her family who co-own the restaurant together. “My family, we’re
grateful to remain on Welton Street. We’re extremely grateful to continue serving this community, but
it’s still mixed emotions. Trying to settle into the new place, after having been somewhere all those
years—it was like our home.”
Now, after being closed for nearly three years to get everything up and running in the new space,
Welton Street Café is back. Besides being the restaurant’s largest location, it’s also the most colorful,
with a showstopping mural starring Ms. Mona, Fathima’s mother and heart and soul of the Café, along with her native St. Thomas.
This location also has a large bar, a first for the restaurant, which means you can wash down your jerk chicken with a hibiscus margarita or jungle bird cocktail. But the bar isn’t the focus, Fathima insists; it’s still all about that welcoming family atmosphere. “The bar is an accessory to the outfit,” she says. For sure, most people are returning to the restaurant for the family recipes they’ve long loved. It’s that Southern soul food with a Caribbean twist, where the comforting plates of fried shrimp and black beans and rice taste even better because of the welcoming hospitality.
“The regulars love that they just get to be in community,” Fathima says. “They’re super excited, and they love the space. They’re bringing their families, all generations, and that is beautiful.”
The regulars are loving it so much, in fact, that it can be hard to get a table. While Welton Street Café does accept walk-ins, it’s first come, first serve, and here’s the thing about a family restaurant—it’s not just one family member stopping by; it’s the whole household. So yeah, it’s best to plan ahead and make a reservation.
Like every family, the Welton Street Café tribe has experienced heartbreak and trauma, but at their new location, you also feel hope and love. Always the love.
Welton Street Café: 2883 Welton St., Denver, 303-296-6602; WeltonStreetCafe.com