At a time when many diners take to social media to claim there’s “no good Mexican food in Denver,” launching an upscale Mexican, let alone Mexico City focused restaurant may seem at odds. Yet some of the Mile High’s best chefs have taken to the challenge and opened award-winning concepts aimed to not only serve a superb experience and outstanding cuisine, but open up the conversation as to what Mexican food really is.
After all, Mexico itself has 31 states, and much like the United States the cuisine varies from region to region. Mexico City, a federal district akin to our Washington D.C., is a colossal metropolitan area with over 20 million people. LIke any large and cosmopolitan place, the restaurants teem with cultural influences from around the world.
Now back to Colorado. In Denver the food scene is dynamic, though up until this past year or so a lot of the Mexican joints favored the greasy spoon model. Think hulking plates of green chile, sizzling fajitas, tons of melted cheese and tortillas, and towering tortas served on paper plates. While there’s a time and a place for those delights, today we look toward the finer side of Mexican dining, and regional cuisines tip toeing into the limelight.
A Mexican Food Uprising
Look hard enough and you’ll find Denver’s food scene has Mexican food offerings from all around the country, from Oaxaca to Michoacan to Sinaloa. Now, Mexico City cuisine has made a stand, thanks in part to the first chef to bring high-end Mexican fare to town, as well as younger chefs showcasing not only how good the food is, but chic too.
The trend actually started small in the early 2000s as a new generation of epicureans raised on Anthony Bourdain and far-flung food trucks grew more adventurous. At the same time a cohort of chefs grew more comfortable pushing the envelope and exploring their rich cultural histories. The ghettoization of great food would no longer do.
Today the movement looks toward Alma Fonda Fina, the utterly refined chef’s counter nook from husband and wife team Johnny and Kasie Curiel. At just nine-months old the team took home a Michelin star, just one of four in Denver. The accolade shows just how far the collective consciousness of both diners and cooks has come when it comes to elevating Mexican food.
The Beginning
Before chef Johnny Curiel, Richard Sandoval pushed out his wild array of award-winning restaurants, which now span four continents, He was one of the early spokesmen for the shift in dining discourse.
“Denver has been an important city for me,” said Sandoval, who introduced Tamayo in 2001 as one of the first upscale, modern Mexican restaurants to land downtown. Nearly two decades later he followed with the pan-Latin Toro in Cherry Creek in 2019. “Denver is a city that embraces innovation, which has allowed me to push boundaries and introduce new dining experiences.”
The New Kids on the Block
While it’s been a long time coming, 2024 was a pinnacle year for Mexican food’s triumphant sprint to the top of the city’s fine-dining food chain. Johnny Curiel followed Alma’s December 2023 opening with the debut of Boulder’s Cozobi Fonda Fina, a much larger but similar ode to the casual food the chef grew up with. Riding on the coattails of success, in November Mezcaleria Alma debuted in the space next door to the original restaurant. Unlike the other two, Mezcaleria garners inspiration from the cuisine of Mexico City. Plus, Curiel’s growing staff has had the chance to showcase their love of the cuisine and developed an array of dishes.
“Alma Fonda Fina is my brain,” said Curiel. “At Mezcaleria, all of the chefs create.”
Mezcaleria is currently serving some of the best food that can be found in Colorado. Indulge in dishes like the Aguachile de Erizo ($24), made with Santa Barbara uni, Hokkaido scallop, mandarin aguachile, crispy ginger, and chile seco oil. Or go for the Tostada De Toro ($22), which arrives with an almost unfair amount of tuna belly.
At the beautiful bar the mezcal selection is vast, and literal top-shelf orders require nimble ladder acrobatics. The wine list proudly comprises Mexican varietals, the sole focus. Even with the accolades, the chef remains humble.
“People say we’re leading this revolution, we’re just happy to be a part of it,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Loca [the nickname of chef Dana Rodriguez], Jose Avila, and Richard Sandoval, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Rodriguez introduced RiNo to Latin dim sum in 2018 with Super Mega Bien (she also runs Carne and Work & Class). Rodriguez also revamped Casa Bonita, an institution that rightly or wrongly had been shaping folks’ perceptions about Mexican food since 1974, into a successful reopening in May 2023. For chef Avila, he made pozole into a well-known and embraced dish in 2021 when he opened La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal, even garnering attention from the James Beard Awards.
Strength in Numbers
It takes more than bravery to produce the kind of food Curiel and fellow rising-star chef Erasmo Casiano have been gracing the city with. Casiano opened Xiquita in the Uptown neighborhood in August 2024. The menu, an ode to Mexico City, may be the only one comparable to Mezcaleria. Both offer an elaborate, but not overly–ostentatious, vivacity to each dish, thoughtfully sourcing, preparing, and arranging all the ingredients.
Casiano also co-owns Lucina Eatery & Bar in Park Hill, serving pan-Latin food with fellow owner and chef Diego Coconati. At both Lucina and Xiquita it’s important to order the Sikil Pak ($15), a Yucatan tomato and pepita spread, which at the latter restaurant, is served with grilled beets and topped with goat cheese and salsa macha. Also at Xiquita don’t miss the Tamal Oaxaqueno ($15), a banana leaf-steamed tamal smothered in mole madre, then topped with creme, queso fresco, toasted sesame seed, and onion.
“We’re getting a lot of praise for dishes we grew up with,” said Casiano about his new Mexican restaurant. Curiel has often echoed a similar sentiment. “It’s fonda food that was at my table growing up,” said the Guadalajara native.
Schooled in the Art of Cooking
Despite the childhood connections, the food served at all of Curial’s restaurants is far from ordinary, likely benefitting from his time at Escoffier Culinary School in Boulder. He also has a wide education in a variety of cuisines working in kitchens in Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Breckenridge, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, and Aspen.
Casiano’s career has been similarly varied. He started young, excelling in his high school’s culinary arts program before attending Johnson and Wales in Providence, Rhode Island. He’s since worked at an upscale SoHo-style Italian restaurant and a modern eatery in Dallas before coming to Colorado and helming a wine bar in Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree. He also opened his own cooking school, Create Kitchen & Bar in 2020.
Sandoval’s talents were also honed in school, though he didn’t start out in the kitchen.
“Though my early aspirations leaned toward professional tennis, I even attended school in California to pursue it, it became clear that my true passion was in the culinary arts,” said Sandoval, who traded his racket for a chef’s knife and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. “It was there that I began to truly understand the depth and potential of cuisine as both art and culture.”
The face of Colorado dining is changing as more people move to the state. Now, with the presence of the Michelin Guide in some cities including Denver and Boulder, there’s even more draw. While these new upscale Mexican restaurants make a mark on the scene, there’s still plenty of room for smothered burritos, street tacos, and cheap margaritas at quiet counters and cash-only stalls.
But now, we have the options for Camote Asado ($15), Alma’s famed agave-roasted sweet potatoes with broken salsa macha, to add to the choices. From low brow to upscale, Mexican food finally has screamed to Denverites that it’s not one thing, there are as many layers to the cuisine for every taste. You just have to look for it.
