French-inspired cocktail bar/restaurant taking over Beatrice & Woodsley space

Beatrice & Woodsley has been closed since the start of the pandemic, but the several dozen Aspen trees that lined the South Broadway restaurant live on.

New owners Mike Huggins and his wife Lenka Juchelkova decided to keep the urban forest that brought in many admirers over the years. The couple, who also own Arvada Tavern, Union Lodge No. 1 in downtown Denver, and The Tatarian on Tennyson Street, are opening La Forêt, a cocktail-forward French restaurant in the former Beatrice & Woodsley space at 38 S. Broadway next month.

“This is what South Broadway needs, not more dive bars that make up most of the presence now,” Huggins said. “We want to bring a more elevated crowd back to South Broadway, and I couldn’t think of how...