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Los Chingones
Los Chingones is chef Troy Guard's take on Mexican food, built around a self-described "badass" sensibility — sassy, spicy, and deliberately irreverent rather than a strictly traditional taquería. Guard, a well-known figure in Denver's restaurant scene through his broader TAG Restaurant Group, opened the RiNo location as a bi-level space with a 90-seat rooftop bar looking out over the neighborhood, a genuinely different physical footprint than most of the city's taco spots. The food leans into creative reworkings of familiar formats — handmade tacos and bold, sometimes unexpected flavor combinations built to keep the soul of classic Mexican cooking while pushing past strict tradition — served alongside a serious tapas-style small-plates menu and a cocktail program built specifically around margaritas. That combination of rooftop bar, tapas format, and inventive tacos has made Los Chingones as much a destination for the scene as for any single dish. RiNo itself has become one of Denver's most concentrated dining and nightlife districts over the past decade, and Los Chingones' rooftop has become one of the more recognizable gathering spots in that stretch — the kind of place regulars go as much for the view and the margaritas as for a specific order off the menu. The concept has since expanded to a second location in the Denver Tech Center, extending Guard's format beyond its original RiNo home. For a Denver taco list, Los Chingones is the essential "tacos as part of a bigger scene" entry — a chef-driven, rooftop-bar taquería in the heart of RiNo, proof that Denver's taco scene has real room for kitchens built around spectacle and creativity rather than strict tradition.
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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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