17 MAY 22-28, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Special Delivery COCINITA MEXICANA COOKS UP DENVER’S BEST COMFORT FOOD IN A GHOST KITCHEN. BY HANNAH METZGER I fi rst discovered Cocinita Mexicana while scrolling Uber Eats on a Saturday night. My usual burrito joint had closed six minutes prior, so I begrudgingly placed an order with the unknown alternative. But what soon arrived at my door was miles beyond any delivery meal I’d ever received. Before I took a single bite, I was stunned by the care put into my order. A personalized, handwritten note thanked me for my support and directed me to a Spotify playlist made to accompany the meal. The food was packaged in sturdy, mostly reusable containers within a beautiful embossed bag that looked like it could be used to wrap a gift. And the food was a gift. From the fl autas and barbacoa to the rice and beans, every component was fl avorful and fresh. Since then, each subsequent order has met the same high bar, consistently delivering quality, authentic Mexican dishes that are often hard to fi nd at local restaurants, such as cochinita pibil, menudo, ensalada de nopales and tacos de papa. Cocinita Mexicana is unlike any Mexican restaurant in Den- ver — perhaps because it’s not a restaurant at all. It’s a ghost kitchen run by an Englewood family on a mission to bring their multi-generational reci- pes to homes throughout the metro area. The operation is managed by sisters Raquel and Jael Avila. Their mother, Luz Maria Avila, is the chef — though she doesn’t like to be called that. “A chef is a person who went to culinary school, and I didn’t go,” Luz explains. Rather than formal training, Luz learned to cook from family, including her mother, aunts, grandmother and, later, her husband, Leonel. Luz’s cooking background lends to the appeal of Cocinita Mexicana. Most of the recipes come from within the family, passed down over multiple genera- tions. They focus on traditional, homestyle, soul-food inspired dishes, instead of the Tex- Mex or Colorado-Mex style food typically found around Denver. “We like that food, too, but that’s not what we eat at home in a Mexican household,” Raquel says. “One of our main goals was to invoke memories of simpler times. ...We got one review from a man who said the black beans reminded him of home. And we’ve had a few chefs tell us they’ve cried after eating the food because it reminded them of their grandmothers’ cooking.” Luz learned how to make the barbacoa from her uncle, who learned from her grand- father. Her father taught her the original carnitas recipe. The cabbage and tomato slaw on top of the tacos de papa came from her great-grandmother, and the tacos themselves were created using recipes from both Luz’s and Leonel’s families. Raquel jokingly says she had to “fi ght with” her sister to get Jael’s favorite fl autas dish on the menu because they’re “so near and dear to her heart.” “Growing up, we would have our cousins over and when my mom asked what they’d like, everyone would always say fl autas. My sister became very protective of that recipe,” Raquel recalls. “I don’t know how we convinced her, but now they are a top-selling item.” Cocinita Mexicana operates out of a com- mercial kitchen on Federal Boulevard, offer- ing meals via delivery, pick-up or catering. Transitioning from a home kitchen wasn’t a problem for Luz; she had already learned to make many of the recipes in large quantities to feed their big family. Raquel says they’ve counted over 100 cousins on her dad’s side, and her mom’s side is even larger. Lacking a brick-and-mortar location hasn’t slowed the business’s success. Cocinita Mexi- cana has 4.9 out of 5 stars on Google and 4.8 on Uber Eats from hundreds of reviews. Dozens of them laud the establishment as the best Mexican food in metro Denver (with others calling it the best Mexican food of their lives or just the best food they’ve had, period). Cocinita Mexicana was named the Best Mexican Comfort Food in Westword’s 2025 Best of Denver. After that announcement, the Avilas invited me to their Englewood home to share a meal in person. Over homemade ceviche, totopos and salsas, the family told me the intention behind every detail of their business. The Spotify playlist is fi lled with songs that their par- ents and grandparents played around the house during child- hood. The colors and emboss- ing of the delivery bags are inspired by Mexican black clay pottery and copper pots used to make carnitas. Even the logo is designed from the shapes of Mexican staple foods, created by a branding agency in Mexico. They hope to soon sell jarred salsas, expand their catering ser- vice and, one day, open a brick- and-mortar location where they can serve dishes that don’t hold well enough to sell in a delivery format, like hot beverages and ceviche (which I highly rec- ommend). But when that day comes, they want to keep the restaurant “very small.” “We want it to be intimate and cozy,” Raquel says. “So you feel like you’re at home.” The family started Cocinita Mexicana out of necessity. Luz and Leonel used to have a cleaning business, but after Leonel suffered a traumatic brain injury from multiple car accidents, he had to step down. Jael fi lled in, but the demands of the business wore on her and Luz. While the family brainstormed what else they could do to make ends meet, cooking immediately came to mind. “Since I was a young girl, when my par- ents would have people over, there were always beans and tortillas on the table,” Luz says, noting that she is from a ranching community in Mexico where visitors had to travel long distances to get to one another. “The best way we knew how to be hospitable was to receive them with food.” Growing up in Colorado, when Raquel and Jael were in trouble, the Food Network was one of the few TV channels they were allowed to watch, and the girls would try to recreate the recipes from the different cooking shows. They also learned to cook from Luz, their aunt, their grandmother and Leonel, who taught them recipes he picked up from working at various restaurants and country clubs. “Cooking has been our love language,” Raquel says. “We like to show our customers the hospitality we have in our home.” Cocinita Mexicana kicked off in January 2024, but paused over the summer because of issues with the fi rst commercial kitchen the family used. They relaunched in their new location in September and have been going strong ever since. After an afternoon of delicious food and pleasant conversation, the family sent me off with leftover ceviche and a batch of leche quemada candies, feeling warm and satisfi ed. But then, since my very fi rst order, getting Cocinita Mexicana delivered to my home has always left me with that same feeling. Delivery or pickup orders can be placed at the Co- cinita Mexicana website, cocinitamexicana.com. CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Cocinita Mexicana’s cochinita pibil, a traditional Yucatan dish. Cocinita Mexicana offers traditional, homestyle Mexican dishes for delivery, pick-up and catering at cocinitamexicana.com. KATE BL AKEMAN KATE BL AKEMAN
