Elliot Strathmann has always been a curious person. After studying physics and the liberal arts and sciences in college, he dabbled in finance and considered law school. He worked in restaurants and married a chef. “I don’t satisfy easily,” he said. “But when I dig in, I dig deep.” These days, Strathmann is digging in on amaro.

And that’s proven to be a very good thing for him and his wife, Cindhura Reddy, partners in the restaurant Spuntino in Denver’s Lower Highlands neighborhood. Before settling in Denver in 2013, and buying the restaurant the following year, Strathmann and Reddy circumnavigated the globe. After quitting their restaurant jobs in Philadelphia, they backpacked for nine months through Southeast Asia, India, Egypt, Turkey, and Eastern and Western Europe, extending their budget by working on farms. In Italy’s Abruzzo region, they stayed with a friend’s father in the medieval town of Pacentro.