Chef Caroline Glover
James Beard Award–winning Chef & Restaurateur
About Chef Caroline Glover
Caroline Glover founded Annette in the fall of 2016. She named the restaurant for her feisty and brilliant great aunt Netsie, a novelist and short story writer who lived in small town Texas. Netsie didn't teach Caroline to cook, though her tamales and martinis were exemplary. Instead, she taught caroline to have a strong opinion. That confidence in her own good taste has carried Caroline through more than 15 years in the restaurant industry.
The 2022 James Beard Foundation Award winner for “Best Chef: Mountain,” Caroline was nominated in the same category in 2020 and earned semi-finalist nominations in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, Annette was a semi-finalist in the “Best New Restaurant” category.
In 2019, Caroline was named one of the 10 best new chefs in America by Food and Wine magazine. In 2017, Annette was named one of the 50 best new restaurants in the country by Bon Appétit Magazine and was also was Eater Denver's restaurant of the year. Annette has been on 5280 magazine’s list of Denver’s 25 best restaurants each year since it opened.
Caroline and her husband Nelson also own the oyster, cocktail and wine bar Traveling Mercies, which was a 2025 semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Bar award and was named one of Esquire Magazine’s Best Bars in America in 2024.
In 2026 they co-founded Mother Sauce, a ‘zine that is part serialized cookbook and part look under the hood at the million moving parts of the hospitality industry.
Caroline is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After school, she worked for two years at The Spotted Pig in New York City, a pioneering gastropub run by famed British chef April Bloomfield. She became a sous chef under Bloomfield and executive chef Nate Smith (now a Brooklyn restaurateur in his own right) before leaving to work on farms in Pennsylvania, Vermont and Colorado.
awards
James Beard Award winner — Best Chef: Mountain
Food & Wine — Best New Chef
James Beard Award nominee — Best Chef: Mountain
James Beard Award semifinalist — Best Chef: Mountain
Caroline Glover Restaurants & Projects
Annette
Annette is chef Caroline Glover’s award-winning, scratch-to-table restaurant in Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace. Named for her spirited great-aunt Netsie, Annette pairs seasonal, wood-fired cooking with warm, unpretentious hospitality and a deep respect for farmers, producers, and carefully sourced ingredients.
awards and recognition
2022 James Beard Award: Best Chef - Mountain
2019 Food & Wine Best New Chef
2018 James Beard Award semifinalist: Best New Restaurant
2024 Colorado Restaurant Association HOSPY: Restaurant of the Year
2017 Bon Appétit: 50 Best New Restaurants in America
5280: Denver’s 25 Best Restaurants, most recently in 2025
2017 Eater Denver: Restaurant of the Year
2025 Westword Readers’ Choice: Best Restaurant - Aurora
Traveling Mercies
Traveling Mercies is an intimate neighborhood oyster, cocktail, and wine bar from chef Caroline Glover and her husband, Nelson Harvey. Tucked into the third floor of Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace, the bar draws inspiration from their travels, pairing pristine seafood and comforting bar snacks with thoughtful cocktails and coastal wines.
awards and recognition
2025 James Beard Award semifinalist: Best New Bar
2024 Esquire: Best Bars in America
2024 5280: Denver’s 25 Best Restaurants
Mother Sauce Magazine
Mother Sauce is an independent print magazine created by Caroline Glover and Nelson Harvey for people who love restaurants and the people behind them.
Drawing on nearly a decade of restaurant ownership, it brings together original essays, recipes, interviews, photography, and candid stories about cooking, hospitality, creativity, and the realities of running an independent restaurant.