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El Taco de Mexico
El Taco de Mexico opened in November 1985, when Maria Luisa Zanabria — who'd emigrated from Mexico City — and Felipe Juarez began serving food from a trailer parked on Denver's Santa Fe Drive, in what's now the city's Art District. Four decades later, the family-owned restaurant is still operating on that same stretch of Santa Fe, one of the longest continuous runs of any taquería in the city. The menu covers a broad range of Mexico City-style cooking — tacos, enchiladas, chile rellenos, burritos, tamales, and gorditas — but it's the green chile that's become the restaurant's defining dish, a slow-built, well-balanced preparation that regulars order over nearly everything on the menu, tacos included. That green chile is as much a reason to visit as any single taco filling, a rare case of a side condiment becoming a restaurant's actual signature. The recognition that's followed has been serious and specific: in 2020, El Taco de Mexico received the James Beard Foundation's America's Classics Award, the first time a Colorado restaurant had received that honor. That's a meaningfully different level of validation than most neighborhood taquerías ever get, awarded specifically for restaurants that have become community fixtures over decades rather than won recent critical buzz. For a Denver taco list, El Taco de Mexico is the essential "40 years, one family, national recognition" entry — a Mexico City-style taquería that started out of a trailer on Santa Fe Drive in 1985 and has since become the only Colorado restaurant to win a James Beard America's Classics Award, still run by the same family that founded it.
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Taqueria Patzcuaro
Taqueria Patzcuaro opened on Mother's Day in 1978, founded by Francisco Almanza — known locally as Francisco "Patzcuaro" Almanza — as what he's described as essentially a place to hang out with friends rather than a calculated restaurant launch. Almost half a century later, it's widely regarded as Colorado's oldest taquería, still family-owned and still operating out of the same Lower Highland storefront. The restaurant is named for Lake Pátzcuaro, a secluded lake in the founder's home state of Michoacán, and the menu leans specifically into that region's traditional cooking — carnitas estilo Michoacán, carne adovada, tacos albañil, and shrimp in garlic sauce among the dishes regulars order most. The menu has stayed deliberately small over the decades rather than expanding to cover every regional Mexican style, a commitment to a specific culinary identity that's rare for a restaurant that's been open this long. For much of its history, Taqueria Patzcuaro operated almost like a neighborhood secret — one writer described it as staying hidden from all but a lucky few for years before the surrounding Highland neighborhood began its more recent wave of development and the restaurant's reputation spread well beyond the people who already knew about it. For a Denver taco list, Taqueria Patzcuaro is the essential "the city's oldest taquería, still doing it the same way" entry — a Michoacán-rooted menu that's been served out of the same Lower Highland storefront since a 1978 Mother's Day opening, run by the same family for nearly half a century.
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