Spuntino sits on West 32nd Avenue in Lower Highlands, and it is a restaurant first. Call it a bar only in the Italian sense, the place you go for an aperitivo before dinner and an amaro after it. On that count it earns the listing.
This is a small, independent room that has collected four James Beard nominations, a rare run for a kitchen this size. 5280 magazine keeps it on its Denver lists, and the dining room is intimate enough that a counter seat feels like the right call for a solo drink. Expect a wait or a reservation rather than a walk-up bar stool.
The drinks are the reason it lands here rather than in a pure-dining guide. Spuntino makes its own limoncello, basilcello, and fennelcello in house, alongside a tight list of aperitifs and a real selection of amari to close the night. The bar program is Italian to the bone, built to bracket a meal rather than replace one.
Start with an aperitivo. A Negroni or a spritz off the list does the job, and the house liqueurs are the move most regulars on Yelp single out, where the room runs a strong following across more than 540 reviews. Order the basilcello if you want the one drink you will not find down the street.
The food matters because the drinks are designed around it. Handmade pasta is the headline, and the bill reflects a kitchen working at a high level rather than a neighbourhood trattoria. This is a $$$ night, so treat the drinks as part of a proper sit-down rather than a cheap round.
The gelato is the closer worth planning for. The house flavours, including an olive-oil gelato that reviewers keep flagging, pair with a digestivo better than any dessert menu in the neighbourhood. An amaro and a scoop is the way to end a meal here, and it is the kind of detail a James Beard committee notices.
The room is tiny and the schedule is tight, so check the hours before you go. Spuntino runs dinner only and closes on Tuesdays, with last seatings on the early side compared to a late-night bar. This is an evening plan, not a nightcap stop.
Best time to go is a weeknight reservation around 6pm, when you can actually get a counter seat and the kitchen has time to talk through the amaro list. Weekends book out, and the small footprint means there is no overflow bar to wait at. Plan ahead or aim midweek.
The counter is the seat to request if you are there for the drinks rather than a full dinner. A solo perch at the bar lets you work through an aperitivo and an amaro without committing to the tasting-menu pace, and the bartenders know the house liqueurs cold. Reviewers note the room rewards curiosity, so ask what is new on the digestivo list. For a small, independent kitchen, the depth of the Italian bar program is the quiet surprise.
Getting there is easy. West 32nd is the spine of the Highlands restaurant strip, walkable from the rest of LoHi and a short rideshare from downtown. Street parking is the norm, so allow time to circle on a Friday.
This is the spot for an Italian dinner that takes its bar seriously, a house liqueur you cannot get elsewhere, and a gelato-and-amaro finish. For more of the area, see our guide to the best wine bars in Denver, the full Denver city guide, and our roundup of the best date-night bars in Denver.
Sources: Spuntino official site · 5280 magazine · Yelp (540 reviews) · OpenTable
