City Cast Denver: Den-Mex May Be Dying

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Today, on CityCast Denver, do not listen to this episode on an empty stomach.

spk_0 Then that molten cheese and then it just goes up with the green chili, wash it down with

spk_0 a beer, you cannot beat it.

spk_0 We're talking about the precarious future of Denver's unique style of Mexican food with

spk_0 two of its biggest fans, who just so happened to be old friends.

spk_0 Patti, they appalled everyone in the United States who's ever had a chile reyeno.

spk_0 They're like, what do you mean there's a wonton wrapper around a chili?

spk_0 Today is Friday, April 9th, 2021.

spk_0 I'm Brie Damies and this is CityCast Denver.

spk_0 Hey, would you look at that?

spk_0 There's some news.

spk_0 Today, temps drop back in the high 50s with partly cloudy skies.

spk_0 But also, check your weather app.

spk_0 Things could change.

spk_0 Government researchers are warning that drought conditions in Colorado could get worse this year.

spk_0 That means a higher likelihood of more forest fires.

spk_0 After last year's record setting numbers, the governor says they are looking at a more

spk_0 proactive year-round approach to wildfire prevention.

spk_0 My newsfeed was ecstatic yesterday over the news that they're finally changing the signs at what was once known as Columbus Park.

spk_0 But the new LaRaza Park signs weren't around for long.

spk_0 The city says they're waiting to put them back until the community is able to gather for a celebration.

spk_0 But no worries, Norseiders.

spk_0 LaRaza Park will always be.

spk_0 In Big Bird News, one of the bald eagle eggs laid seven weeks ago at Stanley Lake has hatched.

spk_0 The mama eagle, who bird watchers have been calling Jo-Leen after apparently stealing another bald eagle's mate, has another eagle it on the way.

spk_0 Give the birds our best.

spk_0 For a brief moment in the mid-2000s, I found myself living in New York City.

spk_0 New York has just about everything you could ever want, minus privacy and affordable space.

spk_0 Oh, and Mexican food.

spk_0 Or as I quickly learned, the city was just missing what I know to be Mexican food.

spk_0 Ever since I moved back home, my New York friends will come and visit.

spk_0 And when they say they want to do something Denver-y, I take them out for Mexican food.

spk_0 Denver style Mexican food.

spk_0 And without fail, it blows their minds.

spk_0 They're like, what is this?

spk_0 And what I would tell folks is like don't be ashamed that no one else in the United States eats like you.

spk_0 Be proud that you're part of this diaspora of a regional Mexican style.

spk_0 El Pueblo History Museum recently invited Gustavo Aureano to give a talk on Colorado style Mexican food.

spk_0 My editor at Westward Paddy Calhoun was mixing it up in the chat.

spk_0 So I thought, what a better way to talk about one of my favorite things about the city than to get them together.

spk_0 If you're not familiar already, Gustavo is the author of Taco USA, how Mexican food conquered America.

spk_0 Which makes him the authority on regional Mexican-American cuisine.

spk_0 And Paddy, she's the biggest deadmex fan I know.

spk_0 She's also co-founder and editor of Westward, where she ran Gustavo's Ask a Mexican column until he stopped writing it.

spk_0 So we're talking about Denver Mexican food and recently I put out a call on Twitter asking folks what their favorite Denver style Mexican place was.

spk_0 And I realized by the answers I got that there's a lot of confusion around what Denver Mexican food is.

spk_0 Not just Mexican food in Denver.

spk_0 And so Gustavo, I probably would start with you.

spk_0 How can we define what denmex is?

spk_0 You define it first and foremost by its base on chili.

spk_0 And folks in Denver, of course, know what chili is, but I do have to explain it to the rest of the United States.

spk_0 It's not chili con carne or chili with an eye.

spk_0 It's not chile, just the pepper itself.

spk_0 But it's really going to be this sort of like based on the green chili of New Mexico and also Pablo, but turned into a gravy of sorts that then becomes a basis for combo platers, a basis to smother on your burritos, a basis to smother on your tamales.

spk_0 That's where denmex comes from.

spk_0 That's what also ties it to its older parents or older uncles or aunts if you well, New Mexican style cuisine.

spk_0 But from there, I think the way you're going to define denmex cuisine is going to be on the dishes, the unique dishes that are ostensibly Mexican, but really unique just to Colorado.

spk_0 Yeah, yeah, like the crispy want on wrapped reano, which until I watched your talk had no idea that was not how reanos were made.

spk_0 And this is the thing and this is one of the things that I found out in my book and that I love to expose to folks, wherever you grew up in the United States, you're going to have your style of Mexican food.

spk_0 You're also going to think that your style of Mexican food is a style of Mexican food that everyone in the world eats.

spk_0 And it's not just an American thing.

spk_0 And what I would tell folks is like, don't be ashamed that no one else in the United States eats like you.

spk_0 Be proud that you're part of this diaspora of a regional Mexican style.

spk_0 And so Patty, when we talk about Denver, Mexican food in the city itself, what restaurants are we talking about?

spk_0 Well, one of the classics, which Gustavo has been to is La Fiesta, which started in the 60s in an old safe way.

spk_0 And what was then a not great part of town.

spk_0 And they invented as far as I can tell the want on wrapped chili reano that is such a shock to people who find it.

spk_0 But they also smother it in this incredibly hot green chili.

spk_0 Very hot right now was just there yesterday.

spk_0 And you love it that a family has owned it for more than 50 years.

spk_0 This converted safe way that's been a nightclub, but that the Supreme Court goes there, Coppisco there, everyone goes to La Fiesta.

spk_0 Yeah. So La Fiesta is really the pinnacle to you of Denver, Denver cuisine.

spk_0 I would say that and shubbies right now for Denmark's.

spk_0 Yeah. And Gustavo, you wrote about that. I believe you gave chubbies.

spk_0 Mexican hamburger the best, the best Mexican entree in this country.

spk_0 Yeah. Oh, yeah. 1000% because to me, it tells you the story of Mexican food in the United States.

spk_0 A food of working class folks, a food of history, a food of also transformation, everything else Mexico changes.

spk_0 So the, you know, and of course the story, the story of Mexican food is also the story of the people who make it.

spk_0 So the cordova family specifically Stella cordova, the matriarch of this brawling family of folks with all these, you know, the original chubby and then just, you know, all the fake chubbies.

spk_0 Yeah. So, you know, the story of success because, you know, when I went patty first took me to chubbies, they were giving you the food on plastic plates

spk_0 that you would staple around so the chili wouldn't spill over. And it was a small little spot right next to this Italian market.

spk_0 Now it's its own complex in a gentrifying neighborhood. And on top of all that, the Mexican hamburger, my f*** God, it is an amazing dish that it, like, it takes a smothered burrito concept of New Mexico and just, you know, puts it to that next level to use really cliched language.

spk_0 And one of the fun things about it is it was an invented at chubbies, even though chubbies started out as a hamburger driving and then Stella took it over when she'd been a waitress there, but it started out at Joe's Buffett on Santa Fe Drive.

spk_0 And it's just legendary, some waitress invented at once in the late 60s and Joe's is gone, but the legend lives on.

spk_0 And speaking of that legend, patty, and Gustavo mentioned this, the sort of complex that chubbies and habits now that in a very quickly in the process of gentrification neighborhood, why do you think chubbies sustains in that location?

spk_0 I would assume that I would hope that they own the property so that always helps out patty would know more than me on that part, but it's just great food.

spk_0 But this is what I've been trying to tell people about 10 mechs is like the people who live there, they know what the food is, they'll go there.

spk_0 The danger is that Denver has grown so much, I've been going to Denver now, you know, before the pandemic, I would somehow pop in there at least once a year.

spk_0 So I've seen it as, you know, as an outsider, I've seen it change dramatically in the past 15 years.

spk_0 And if you have all these outsiders and they don't know what the hell, bedmechs food is, they're not going to like it.

spk_0 And so that's where the, that's why I would say that bedmechs food is more endangered, I would argue, than most of the other regional Mexican cuisines in the United States.

spk_0 Well, and one of the interesting things is these families that started these restaurants early on tried to buy property if they could.

spk_0 So the Herrera family that owns La Fiesta, they bought that Safeway property and the father who passed away just last year went on to buy a lot of other property in the neighborhood.

spk_0 I believe Chubby's that the Herrera family owns that property too, and early on you just start saving your pennies and putting it towards property that maybe wasn't that valuable at the time.

spk_0 Also, Rosalindas, which we miss, which closed a few years ago, but that family also saved their money, bought that incredibly valuable property, which they still own on 30th, 33rd in the low high neighborhood.

spk_0 So that's one of the reasons they're able to control their destiny a little more than many, many other restaurants.

spk_0 So Gustavo, you've written about this thing called the chili highway. Can you explain what it is and how bedmechs fits in?

spk_0 So then then mechs cuisine originates from New Mexico and New Mexican cuisine, of course, is this beautiful food ways that combine Spanish traditions, Mexican traditions and native traditions.

spk_0 Again, the primacy of the meal, the primacy of the meals is going to be on the chili on the green chili or the red chili, the hatch chili or all sorts of, you know, different debates about which ones better or what not.

spk_0 But, you know, so New Mexico style cuisine has been around since really the late 1500s with a onyate, the conquista doors and all that.

spk_0 That starts to change as the Manitos, the espanos of New Mexico, northern New Mexico, start spilling into Colorado.

spk_0 So we're talking about the 1810s going into Pueblo first, eventually going up to Denver and having this very unique culture, this very unique style of Mexican Americans,

spk_0 that is it really the only real migration at the time is coming from northern Mexico going through El Paso, Chihuahua, Guahuila coming up and adding on to those traditions.

spk_0 So, then mechs cuisine then really starts solidifying, if you will, starting in the 50s, starting in the 60s, people also forget restaurants were not really that common.

spk_0 Although Denver I think was different because it was like, you know, such a crazy, awesome town. But that's those, those cuisines and like the chili wanton burrito and the Mexican hamburger.

spk_0 And all that starts slowly developing, but you owe it owes its leg is or it's DNA to New Mexico.

spk_0 You know, and going back to Lafiesta, Patty, I know you have an entree on the menu. How did you, how did that happen?

spk_0 I believe it was just intense patronage of the place, but it was really funny. I didn't even realize it was coming on until one day I looked and then I was at a party one night and a man came up to me and said,

spk_0 you're number seven and I'm only number eight and I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was number eight.

spk_0 He turns out to be the loss and special on the Lafiesta menu. And can you, can you tell us what your dish is?

spk_0 I don't order it as much as I used to because I'm getting more creative, but it is the chili reenough one, smothered in green, a chicken enchilada smothered in green, rice and beans, and although it's not officially part of it,

spk_0 a couple beers on the side makes it a little bit better. Yeah, they need to come on. A Calhoun special is not a Calhoun special without some beer. That's ridiculous. It's not part of it. You know, just add it on.

spk_0 Did they have corona there, Patty? Oh, do they? That place has been my home away from home during the pandemic. Number one, very easy to socially distance. I saw you there, Brie. And two, you know, you can just go sit there.

spk_0 I feel like you're part of the family. Feel like you're actually in a city that exists during this strange being on hold time.

spk_0 So to to maybe wrap this up, I would love to hear from both of you. I know what could be considered the best or the best representation of Denver Mexican food.

spk_0 But what is your, what is your personal favorite item or entree that represents Denver Mexican food?

spk_0 I have to say right now it's also tough because it's hard to tell who's going to be coming out of this how and what food will be there. But certainly, as I said, through this pandemic,

spk_0 Lafiestas green chili smothering one of those chili pianos, which are so they would just so appall everyone in New Mexico. You can't help but love that. It is a celebration of the Denver version.

spk_0 Patty, they appall everyone in the United States, who's ever had a chile reno. They're like, what do you mean there's a wanton wrapper around a chili?

spk_0 And that molten cheese and then it just goes up with the green chili, wash it down with a beer. You cannot beat it.

spk_0 Yeah, I as much as I love chubbies and I think as a singularity, still the Mexican hamburger is the best Mexican dish in the United States.

spk_0 I will always stand by that. But you're talking about representation. And so I have to go. You have to have your lunchtime special at Lafiestas or even Friday night dinner.

spk_0 And you get one of those combo plates and you're going to have to get as much green chili as possible. You're going to have to get the wanton chile reno.

spk_0 Just one. You get your smothered burrito as well because you need that smothered burrito as well. I like enchiladas as well. So you put that enchilada there on the side as well.

spk_0 All you would need, Jay's and you know, I would probably then get it with a side of Garnalvovada because Garnalvovada, even though it's a new Mexico thing, it still spreads up to Colorado as well.

spk_0 So there you go. You have your Denmark's cuisine all on this wonderful combo platter in this amazing restaurant, which by the way, I think the mask got, if you will, of Denmark's cuisine is that old school poster with the Christmas lights around that beautiful woman.

spk_0 Oh, man, it's like, it's not really politically correct nowadays, but who the hell cares when you see beauty like that? That to me is a representation of that. And it's history.

spk_0 And here's my advice next snow storm. Be sure you pick up a pint to go of green chili from Lafiestas, which I did on Friday. If you can't eat it all, it'll melt the snow.

spk_0 And you can use it on everything. Eggs, tortillas, whatever you want. It's the it's the mana of Colorado. It really is and it's absolutely amazing.

spk_0 Well, thank you both so much. This is such a great conversation. I personally, I got I had my wedding reception at Lafiesta.

spk_0 Wow, I love it. It was cool right there. It was great. They opened their restaurant for the first time in 20 years on a Saturday night just for us. So much love to Lafiesta.

spk_0 That's all for the week here on CityCast Ember. Our producers are Paul Carole and Xandra McMahon. Paiden Garcia writes our morning newsletter.

spk_0 Our music is by Los Mocha Chetes with additional mixing by Tyler Lindgren. If you haven't already, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and tell a friend about us next time you see them.

spk_0 You can sign up for our daily newsletter and learn more about us at citycasts.fm-forward slash Denver.

spk_0 Hey, hey, would you look at that? There's some news.

City Cast Denver: Den-Mex May Be Dying

Interactive Transcript

Topics Covered

Related Episodes

212: How to manifest your dream home

Jessicas Food Reviews and Phone Check

Zac Young Serves Up Scares and Sweets on Halloween Baking Championship

What is Minecraft's Suspicious Stew?

Share Episode