Chef Ryan Leinonen, who opened Trillium, an award-winning Scandinavian eatery, in December 2011, recently closed his Ballpark restaurant. “It’s time to move on from Trillium and explore new opportunities,” said Leinonen, a Michigan native whose culinary career spans more than two decades of accomplishments, including working at Denver’s Colt & Gray, Root Down, The Kitchen and Q’s (now Spruce) in Boulder.
“I was living my dream, and I had a ton of fun doing it, plus I won a lot of awesome awards, cooked at the James Beard House and pushed myself — more than I ever thought possible — to achieve success during Trillium’s five-year run,” Leinonen said. “I’ve worked with some absolutely amazing people — people who helped my dream of opening my own restaurant come to fruition — and they’ve all enriched my life more than they’ll ever know. I hope they learned as much from me as I learned from them.”
Leinonen, whose life was recently graced by the arrival of his second daughter, plans to revel in fatherhood. “I’ve been working nonstop for the past several years, so I’m going to take a few months off to stay at home and enjoy some much-needed time with my wonderful wife and daughters,” he said.
Still, while he’s happy to relax for a bit, the next chapter, he said, will definitely involve a professional kitchen and perhaps another restaurant that he owns and operates. “The opportunities for me are endless, and the best is yet to come.”
For more information, contact Leinonen at ryan@trilliumdenver.com.
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