One of the Front Range’s most well-known full-service Mexican food restaurants is preparing to serve diners in Denver for the first time in its 22-year history.
Los Dos Potrillos announced plans for its seventh location at 4100 E. Mexico Ave., Suite G in south Denver. It’s expected to debut early next year.
The family-owned company, which opened its first eatery in Centennial in 2002, specializes in dishes like fajitas, burritos and tacos, and it’s become a local favorite. In 2022, readers of The Denver Post voted it one of the top four taco shops in the metro area.
Food isn’t the only draw. Los Dos Potrillos also brews its own beer onsite at its Castle Rock and Parker locations. The ever-popular Mexican Lager was one of five recipes to score a medal at the 2023 U.S. Open Beer Championship.
Despite the accolades, Los Dos Potrillos has never operated a restaurant within Denver’s city limits. Daniel Ramirez, CEO of parent company Ramirez Hospitality Group, said the time was right to make a move beyond the ‘burbs.
“We started creating such a good community sense of the south in Centennial, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Rock. We dipped our toes a little bit north with Cocina y Cantina in Northglenn, and we felt we were pretty ready to start serving the community in Denver,” he said.
The Denver restaurant will inhabit an 8,000-square-foot space near the intersection of I-25 and Colorado Boulevard where diners will find breakfast, lunch and dinner served seven days a week. Expect “the same exact menu and warm feelings of Mexican comfort food” as the other locations, Ramirez said.
The Denver opening follows Los Dos Potrillos’ newest locale in Castle Rock, opened in January, which houses a new brewery. Last year, the company experimented with its first counter-service concept – deemed Los Dos Potrillos Cocina y Cantina – in Northglenn. But after about eight months, Ramirez changed the format to a full-service, sit-down restaurant in response to patrons’ feedback.
Apparently, standing in a line to order wasn’t a desirable experience for most. Ramirez isn’t afraid to call it a failed experiment, even if the spot has cultivated a unique identity with its trendy neon signs and walls of fake foliage.
“People love to go out to eat to be served. That’s what we’re really good at,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to learn and grow.”
While Los Dos Potrillos has been on an expansion blitz the last couple of years, Ramirez said he doesn’t anticipate opening more locations at this time. The Castle Rock brewery, however, is maxed out so the company may seek out an offsite production facility in the future.