When Chef Toshi Kizaki first came to Denver’s South Pearl Street with his brother nearly 40 years ago, he recalled the for-rent sign he saw on a former Piggly Wiggly grocery store where they opened Sushi Den together.

There was a gas station and auto repair shop on the street, a movie theater, a sandwich shop, a Hungarian restaurant and, another early pioneer on the corridor, Pearl Street Grill, he said.

Back then, Kizaki said, they came to South Pearl Street because it was “cheap” for a new chef like him to get his start.

Today, it looks a lot different.

The busy corridor is filled with quaint coffee shops, boutiques, fitness studios, high-end restaurants and one of Denver’s most popular farmers’ markets.

And after the latest Colorado Michelin Guide released Sept. 15, South Pearl Street can now call itself home to two one-star restaurants, including contemporary American restaurant Margot led by Chef Justin Fulton and the Sushi Den founder’s omakase-style concept Kizaki.

Since he came in, South Pearl has grown into a ”foodie street,” Kizaki said.

His original concept Sushi Den already drew a lot of people to the street, he said.

He also owns several Asian restaurants on South Pearl Street, including Temaki Den, Izakaya Den and Ototo, in addition to his newest restaurant Kizaki, an intimate Japanese chef-counter experience that serves 20 courses for $225.

“But now, we have two stars here,” the 69-year-old chef said. “So, I think different people will try to come from other states.”

Stars go to a legacy chef and a newcomer

A Michelin star is one of the highest recognitions in the dining world.

Restaurants from several Denver neighborhoods — such as downtown, the Lower Highlands and Cherry Creek — have been featured in Michelin’s guide since it was introduced to the state three years ago. Boulder’s Pearl Street has already nabbed a few stars, too.

With Kizaki and Margot, South Pearl Street made it onto Michelin’s map.

The two restaurants that both earned one star share the same building at 1551 S. Pearl St. but its chefs came onto the scene on opposite ends in the history of the street’s decades-long renaissance.

Kizaki is recognized as a a catalyst in the corridor’s growth, according to the South Pearl Street Association. And Michelin’s official review named him a “trailblazer” of Denver’s sushi scene.

Fulton just moved to South Pearl earlier this year into a space he leases from Kizaki.

South Pearl Street is a small-but-mighty commercial district hidden among affluent suburban homes in the south Denver neighborhood of Platt Park, and less than 2 miles away from the University of Denver.

It’s the “antidote to the modern mega-mall,” according to the South Pearl Street Association, though there was a time when shopping malls nearly decimated the area.

The neighborhood was once home to a trolley car line in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It attracted businesses that set the foundation for South Pearl Street’s commercial corridor in the area, according to the association’s history page.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many small businesses shuttered, as customers were lured by the shiny new shopping malls that defined the era. But the decline of the area attracted artisans and restaurants like Pearl Street Grill (which shuttered in 2011) and Sushi Den to move into its cheap buildings in the 1980s.

The area has been undergoing a “resurgence” since then, said Mark Gill, the president of the South Pearl Street Association.

“There’s been a nice, steady evolution and growth of the area, and it just seems to get better and better,” Gill said.

The South Pearl Street Farmers’ Market, one of the largest in Colorado, has also been a big boon to the businesses since it was founded in the early 2000s. While other markets are located in large open spaces like parks and parking lots, the street shuts down several blocks for local vendors to take over.

“This is just an ideal place where you can be in the market or you can visit the surrounding businesses,” Gill said. “That’s helped bring a steady flow of people in the neighborhood, but also from outside to come and see what’s here.”

There have been a few downturns over the years following the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, when several businesses shuttered. But it consistently refilled with new businesses coming in.

Ride Revolution, a spin cycle studio, opened in 2023. In August, boutique store Five Green Boxes reopened into a new space – that it was once located in – at 1705 S. Pearl St. And two weeks ago, furniture store Taylor’d Home opened its doors.

There are also several culinary newcomers on the way. Food Lab, the recreational cooking school based in Boulder, is set to open its first Denver location by November, according to its Instagram. And James Beard-awarded bakery Reunion Bread, currently located in the River North neighborhood, is also set to move in and has become a weekend regular at the farmers’ market this year.

But the completion of the building home to Margot and Kizaki has been one of the biggest additions to Pearl Street this year, Gill said.

He wasn’t surprised by the Michelin star awards, he added.

“If anybody in Denver is worthy of that, it would be Toshi,” he said. “And I haven’t been able to get into Margot yet, but I’ve heard great things.”

New energy on the street

When Fulton moved onto South Pearl Street to open his first restaurant Margot, he wanted to bring something new to the residents and clientele who frequent the area.

“The pot had to be stirred a little bit and I think we’ve done that,” Fulton said.

Kizaki is the landlord of the building at 1551 S. Pearl St. and leases the main dining space and another private chef’s room to Margot.

Margot is a contemporary American restaurant that offers an eight-seat chef’s counter experience for an exclusive 12-course tasting menu or a more casual à la carte menu, where diners can sit at either communal or individual tables.

Michelin describes Fulton’s cooking as “both global and distinctly Coloradan, taking inspiration from local ingredients while weaving together wide-ranging influences.”

The guide highlights the Parisian gnocchi in sauce of mascarpone and caviar, dry-aged duck breast with cherries and a truffle jus and the loaves of olive oil brioche.

When the street closes down for the market, Margot opens up its grand windows and blasts music to invite people in.

Margot originally began as a pop-up concept in 2022 starting at Coperta in Capitol Hill (a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef), then later at the Michelin-recommend Noisette Restaurant & Bakery before it shuttered this year.

Fulton, a 42-year-old chef who grew up in the ski town Keystone, Colo., came back to the state in the wake of the pandemic after working across the U.S. He and his family wanted to settle back in his home state but he said it was too risky to launch his own restaurant without establishing rapport in the local culinary world.

“The idea of coming to a new town where I didn’t have much of a reputation and I didn’t really have much of a following or a fan base and launching into a full-time restaurant seemed a little daunting and maybe too much of a risk,” he said.

Margot’s time as a pop-up has helped the restaurant menu evolve and grow into itself, Fulton said. Then a mutual connection told him Kizaki was looking for another chef to take up the rest of the building — and the rest was history.

Margot opened in early summer and quickly nabbed a star.

The morning Michelin released its 2025 Colorado guide, Fulton got a text from his publicist while walking his son to school with the news.

His eyes welled up and his voice broke recalling his reaction.

In his career working for other famous James Beard and Michelin chefs, Fulton said he’s heard that someone on his path can either have a really great restaurant or a family. But rarely both.

“To discover winning a Michelin star while walking my son to school was pretty special,” Fulton said.

Since then, he said, Margot has been sold out through October.

“Hopefully, that steam carries on into the new year and through the rest of time,” he added. “That’s how it’s effective. People now know who we are.”

With the wave a star brings, he said the rising tide can help lift all boats on the street.

New diners on the street may come chasing stars. But they could inevitably find some pearls, too.