Downtown Tasting-Menu Spot Shutters Four Months After Reopening

There was a lot of hype when chef Brian de Souza and his wife, Syd Younggreen, reopened the Guest at 1432 Market Street in October. The intimate restaurant-within-a-restaurant-turned-event-space had made a comeback with a high-end, eleven-course tasting menu that was all over Instagram feeds after an influencer-heavy rollout of the refreshed concept, which quickly sold out its first eight weeks.

But just four months later, guests have been left in the dark at the Guest, which appears to have closed permanently. There are no updates from the owners on social media or the restaurant’s website, but it is marked as permanently closed on Google. Phone calls have not been answered since last week, and there has been no response to emails. Adding to the mystery, both de Souza and Younggreen’s Instagram accounts have also disappeared.

The couple met while working at Her Name Was Carmen in New York City. After moving to Colorado in 2019, they originally launched the Guest as a tasting-menu pop-up at their Boulder home. In 2023, they opened 1432 Market Street as the Regular, an à la carte fine-dining concept that included a separate room where they hosted prix fixe dinners as the Guest.

As the two-in-one concept struggled, the couple made a series of pivots, including adding daytime market El Mercado in another connected space and launching a cocktail pop-up dubbed The Stranger.

A year ago, the Regular was repurposed as an event space. Then, the Guest made its return — with one big shift in the ownership model. The third iteration of the Guest fell under the business branch of Culinary Creative Group, which recently announced a big shift of its own.

CCG founder Juan Padró, who was a vocal supporter of the Guest and a driving force behind its move to the group’s business branch, stepped down as CEO last month, though he remains chairman of the board and “will continue to serve as an equity holder and strategic advisor, focusing on investor relations, community engagement, and advancing the company’s social impact initiatives,” the company says.

The group announced several hires and promotions as part of the change, including a new CEO, Richard Flaherty, who was previously CEO and board member at Punch Bowl Social and Wagamama USA.

“It was our pleasure and honor to partner with Sydney and Brian on the Guest,” Flaherty says in a statement to Westword. “They have made the difficult decision to move on from the Guest due to personal reasons, and they have our full support. The Guest’s event space will operate through March to honor existing commitments. Team members of the Guest will be offered interviews at Culinary Creative’s other concepts.”