This Denver restaurant takes its entire staff to Italy each year

Barolo Grill opened in Denver in 1992. Three years later, the Italian restaurant took its staff to Italy. Not just the executive chef or a few key members of the culinary team — everyone. Nearly 30 years later, the tradition is still going strong.

Barolo Grill in Denver has taken its staff on annual trips to Italy since 1995. Photo credit: Barolo Grill

Each July, the restaurant closes for about 10 days so the staff can take educational field trips to regions like Piedmont, Tuscany, and Umbria, tasting food and wines and learning from the chefs, vintners, cheesemakers, and other producers across the country. 

The restaurant says it gets an undeniable return on its investment, including high staff retention, repeat guests, and industry accolades — Barolo Grill’s sommeliers earned the inaugural Michelin Colorado Sommelier Award in 2023, and the restaurant was bestowed with a Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2024. And the Italy-gleaned inspiration is evident on the menu, which offers à la carte dishes in addition to a four-course degustation with wine pairings.

Barolo Grill’s owner and wine director, Ryan Fletter, was on that first trip in 1995 as a young member of the staff and has continued the tradition since purchasing the restaurant in 2015. To learn more about the trips and their impact on the business, we asked Fletter for insights into the initiative.

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Ryan Fletter is the restaurant’s owner and wine director. Photo credit: Barolo Grill

What inspired this tradition?

In the early days of Barolo Grill, we were trying to get our feet under us, and the desire for genuine inspiration from the authentic source was calling. During the summer of 1995, we closed the restaurant and organized a trip with all the Barolo Grill staffers to tread throughout Northern Italy, to see local wineries and have food experiences with local chefs. I began immersing myself and studying everything Italian: the language, the foods, and the wines.

July was the easiest month for us to close up the restaurant, and it turned out to be a great time to be received by the Italians for personalized visits and excursions.

What do these trips typically entail, in terms of locations covered and activities on the ground?

It has now been nearly 30 years since that inaugural trip back in 1995, and every year we go a different direction, from north to south or east to west, constantly expanding our footprint on the boot. We typically spread ourselves around to three or four regions, making our way through areas like Piemonte [Piedmont], Toscana [Tuscany], Le Marche, or the Veneto. Each year we take a different sojourn. Sometimes we hug the coast of Liguria and Cinque Terra, eating pesto and various seafoods, then nose-dive into the wineries of Toscana, tasting the local grape varieties like Sangiovese and all of its various expressions. Other times, we trek up the center of Emilia-Romagna, visiting the cheese wheel giants of Parmigiano-Reggiano while sampling the world-famous balsamic properties of Modena.

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Last year, we immersed ourselves solely within the larger footprint of Piemonte, tasting great wines made from Nebbiolo [grapes] in the Barolo and Barbaresco wine zones, and visiting Michelin-rated restaurants as well as mom-and-pop local spots along the way.

How have these trips impacted staff education and retention?

We have had various staff working at Barolo Grill now for periods of 13 to 18 years. The executive chef, Darrel Truett, has been here nearly 20 years now, and a few of his staffers similarly. We are so proud to have a footprint of stability, creativity, and sustainability within our restaurant, and it allows the staff to participate in something that many restaurants struggle to offer in the workplace.

Barolo Grill’s wine room is a popular spot for private dinners. Photo credit: Barolo Grill

Have these trips benefitted other relationships, like with wineries or suppliers?

These educational and experiential trips strengthen the in-house community while creating incredibly strong external relationships with our purveyors and suppliers. We have winery owners visiting us when they are here and adding their contributions to the local food and dining scene with intimate community wine dinners here onsite. The staff continues to learn about harvest and vintage updates as we swap stories between our Italian counterparts.

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Can you share a couple examples of how the chefs develop dishes inspired by their travels?

The team went to an area in Piemonte called Castelmagno last year that is quite famous for one of the greatest artisanal cheese productions in Italy. This Castelmagno cheese is showcased in a few of our dishes on the menu, most notably our Castelmagno cheesecake, which is harmoniously wrapped together with the sweet and savory Piemonte ingredients of toasted hazelnuts and lavender honey.

Another one of our very favorite dishes on the menu now is the Agnolotti del Plin, a Piedmont dish that is a ravioli-like stuffed pasta. Currently, we bring in the fresh autumn butternut squash and roast them, then stuff them with the sweet, creamy filling, which comingles with sage brown butter and a sprinkle of Castelmagno cheese to add another savory expression to finish it off.

Where to next?

Northern alpine areas of the Alto Adige and Lombardia [Lombardy] are on our potential radar for this next coming year.