Troy Guard

TAG Restaurant Group Chef and Owner Troy Guard compares his business during the pandemic to a boat out of water.

The pandemic forced a pause and provided an opportunity to reassess, or in Guard’s analogy, to take the boat out of the water and work on the underbelly before putting it back in the water to keep sailing.

“As we come up on the 24-month mark of COVID – and what I call the restaurant/hospitality collapse – I am excited about the future,” he said. “We will continue to have tough times; however, I feel the hospitality industry has had to reassess to be better.”

The plan now is to build on the restaurant group’s success, do the basics well and aim for aggressive growth in the next three years.

In the past year, Guard is most proud of opening up Grange Hall in the Denver Tech Center; Guard and Grace Denver being named a top steakhouse by Westword magazine seven years in a row; Guard and Grace Houston being named a top 15 steakhouse; and winning three categories in the Denver RARE steak competition.

“We work every day to foster positive growth and learning in our restaurant group by doing monthly accounting classes, monthly P&L reviews, monthly food cost updates, etc.,” Guard said. “We also have been doing as much community work as we can, like usual — but right now we are campaigning to raise $50,000 for Boulder fire relief. They need us, and we need to help our community; we try to lead by example.”

This is Guard’s second time as a Denver Titan 100. “This means a lot — makes me very proud to work hard daily, monthly, yearly and be recognized for our hard work.” he said.