5280 Magazine 06.2022

THE DENVER MAGAZINE THE 5280 GUIDE TO MEDICINE BOW-ROUTT NATIONAL FORESTS HIKE + CAMP + PADDLE + CLIMB + BIKE + FISH PAGE 72 BY SHANE MONAGHAN PAGE 38 JUNE 2022 | 5280.com























































































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CHANGE MAKERS Sharif Villa Cruz knows this all too well. He has cooked in Colorado for 20 years, from assembling drive-thru orders at Taco Bell in Frisco to commanding the kitchen at now-closed Lola Coastal Mexi- can, with stints at TAG, Mercantile Dining & Provision, and Boulder’s L’Atelier in between. He certainly has the experience and the culinary chops to open his own restaurant, but because he only has a work permit and is still in the process of gaining American citizenship, which has taken 12 years and counting, banks have told him he wouldn’t be able to get a loan. “A lot of chefs and cooks in Denver go through the same thing,” he says. “I know plenty of peo- ple here who want to buy a Find our food truck.They either give Dining Guide, up all their savings, or they an extensive list of area don’t do it.” restaurants, on While he waits on his page 90 citizenship, Villa Cruz and online at 5280.com/ is cooking private meals restaurants. in customers’ homes and offices via Migrante Concepts, a cater- ing company he co-founded last year that allows him to make the kind of fare—veg- etable-heavy dishes, moles, and soups—he grew up eating in Mexico City. “I see it as a good opportunity to meet people and network,” Villa Cruz says. “Hopefully, one of these days we run into a guy with a lot of money, and he throws money at us.” With dozens of surprising puzzles and mazes to solve, THE COLORADOBASED Hispanic Restau- give your brain (and your body) a full workout that’s perfect rant Association (HRA), founded in early for curious kids and active learners. Start exploring this family- 2021 by Selene Nestor and John Jaramillo, friendly adventure today, free with your Museum admission! aims to make it easier for Hispanics to open their own food businesses. In addi- Mazes & Brain Games is GET TICKETS tion to mentoring local high school and created by Minotaur Mazes, college students interested in culinary a company specializing in DMNS.ORG careers, the HRA connects those in need interactive maze exhibits. of financial assistance with grants and loans through the Minority Business Ideas and inspiration Office of Colorado. The HRA also offers guidance on how to navigate city permits for your next home project. and rental agreements. “The resources are there; they’re just not being utilized because people don’t know about them,” says Nestor, who moved to the United States from Mexico when she was 13. “A lot of our chefs started as dishwashers, and they want to open their own restaurants— they just don’t have the tools.” Without support, loans, or investors, Avila saved up for years to open El Bor- rego Negro and La Diabla, outfitting his Elevated living in the Mile High City. Visit 5280Home.com or Zinio.com to subscribe. 44 5280 | JUNE 2022



LOVE LET US CHANGE MAKERS INSPIRE YOU. LOVE spaces with thrift store finds and $10 FOLLOW @5280HOME chairs from Lowe’s. He hopes wider rec- 46 5280 | JUNE 2022 ognition of the critical roles chefs like himself play in the restaurant industry will help increase opportunities for chefs of Latin American descent. Even if that happens, though, there’s still a perception problem to overcome: Mexican and other Latin American foods are commonly thought of as inexpensive and easy to pro- duce, making the restaurants that serve them seemingly less deserving of acclaim, special-occasion dining status, and higher menu prices than those producing other cuisines, such as Italian and French. This misconception is at least partly driven by the ubiquity of Tex Mex–style eateries that use mass-produced masa and dump cheese sauce on everything—and it’s why chefs such as Villa Cruz are on a mis- sion to showcase how complex the dishes of their homelands can be. “That’s what Mexican chefs should be pushing for,” Villa Cruz says, “so people can understand how much labor goes into this cuisine.” Take La Diabla’s four types of pozole, which simmer all night long in the res- taurant’s kitchen to meld the flavors of chiles, garlic, and cumin and to soften the hominy. Chunks of cabeza de cerdo (pig head) are slow-cooked separately for patrons to add to any of the soups. Or con- sider El Borrego Negro’s barbacoa: First, Avila slaughters a sheep he’s raised on a tiny piece of land in Wellington and builds a fire in a three-foot-deep, brick-lined pit he dug at nonprofit Re:Vision’s urban farm in Westwood. Then, he buries the animal, covers the hole with mud, and lets the meat steam for up to 16 hours as the fat and juices drip into a giant pot of cloudy broth set below the animal. The resulting protein is sold there, at Avila’s pop-up food stand, by the pound—alongside quarts of consomé, tortillas, and salsas—on Sundays from 9 a.m. until it sells out. “The first smell of it, all of the steam coming out that’s been trapped for hours, there’s nothing like it,” Avila says of uncovering the barbacoa. “It’s the food that I just love.” Whether he’s called onstage later this month at the James Beard Award ceremony in Chicago or not, Avila says he’s glad to be cooking what he knows and craves—and to be doing it in his own restaurants and on his own terms. But now, maybe, more people will know his name. m

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BUSI N ESS BY RIANE MENARDI MORRISON Recipe For Success Boulder has long been a hotbed for natural and organic food products. Now it’s giving its secret ingredient list for business growth to cities nationwide. O n a brisk day this past October, Juan Ignacio Stewart the Latino community, a market that, according to Stewart, Photographed on location in Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory at Denver Botanic Gardens invites attendees at an annual pitch slam in Boulder to is untapped in the U.S. natural food scene. “[The tamarindo sip samples of Frescos Naturales—canned, carbonated flavor] tastes so good—it tastes like home,”says Stewart, who aguas frescas he started making just nine months before. grew up in Guatemala but moved to Boulder when he was The event is hosted by Naturally Boulder,a membership 17. “It tastes like nothing the markets here have.” organization that supports the Front Range’s natural products industry, and Stewart is a finalist. In a few The 40-year-old entrepreneur’s company is just one of hours,he will present his product to a team of judges and hundreds that have joined the Naturally Boulder network investors who—if he wins—could provide his fledgling since its inception in 2005, and he’s one of many ambitious company with funding, mentorship, and the chance to founders aspiring to grab a slice of the country’s $274 billion natural and organic products industry,which includes all-natural exhibit Frescos at a major national trade show. provisions, plant-based and dairy-free food alternatives, and Frescos’ packaging, with its bright colors and bold chemical-free household and personal care goods. The sec- lettering, conveys the same confidence as Stewart, and those tor has seen sharp growth since the onset of the COVID-19 who can read the Spanish words on the labels—tamarindo, pandemic, when health and wellness have been central to the rosa de Jamaica, maracuyá—know instantly what’s inside.The public discourse.In 2020,Americans bought a record $62 billion all-natural,low-sugar fruit drinks flavored with ingredients such worth of organic food, an increase of 12.4 percent from 2019. as tamarind, hibiscus, and passion fruit are popular through- But even before the pandemic-born good-food revolution, out Mexico and Central and South America. But Boulder,with its entrepreneurial spirit and a population Stewart’s versions are unique: The soda substitutes known for its crunchy lifestyle, had long cultivated are not only bubbly (a refreshing twist on classic, Juan Ignacio Stew- a natural products community, leading some to use flat aguas frescas), but they’re also made by and for art founded Frescos a now-clichéd phrase: It’s the Silicon Valley of natural Naturales in 2021. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH BANKS 48 5280 | JUNE 2022