15 JUNE 11-17, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Hot on the Trail THIS MAN IS ON A MISSION TO FIND THE BEST GREEN CHILE AROUND. BY MOLLY MARTIN “This stuff will just punch you right in the face with spice,” says Larson Baird in his 72nd review of green chile, the beloved Colorado staple. That rendition, served at Ricco’s Burritos on Washington Street, earned a 3.6 out of 5 on Baird’s green chile scale, for which he considers heat, consistency and overall fl avor. “It is a very scientifi c process,” he jokes, explaining that the score really just comes down to his gut green chile feeling — some- thing he’s been cultivating for as long as he can remember. Baird grew up in Louisville and went to high school in Lafayette, right down the street from one of the earliest outposts of the locally-grown chain Santiago’s. “That’s where my love for green chile started,” he recalls. “We would go there almost every morning before school. We even went there as a fi eld trip in Spanish class to practice ordering in Spanish.” From those foil-wrapped breakfast bur- ritos to visiting his grandparents annually in Albuquerque, Baird was raised on green chile. “Mexican food has always been comfort food for me, and that’s probably true for a lot of Coloradans as well,” he says. So when the pandemic shut down indoor dining in 2020, Baird went to Santiago’s for a to-go burrito, which sparked the idea of reviewing green chile as a way to support strug- gling eateries. But the mission remained an idea ... until early this year, when he decided to offi cially launch Green Chile Reviews on YouTube, Insta- gram, TikTok and Facebook. “I’m just trying to highlight restaurants, eat good food, and I want people to go out and try it for themselves,” he notes, adding that he hopes this series will bring attention to places that “don’t get the recognition I think they should, or the customers they deserve.” His fi rst review, of Chico’s Mexican Food in Broomfi eld, went live on Feb. 20. (It earned a 4.4.) “From there, I started branching out and asking people where their favorites are, and recommendations just started fl owing in,” Baird says. “Now I have a list of probably over 200 places.” That’s in addition to the 70-plus reviews he’s already posted. The hunt so far Baird’s review strategy is simple: He works in construction doing sales and esti- mating, so he’s constantly driving to differ- ent parts of the Front Range. Wherever his day job takes him, he searches social-media comments for nearby recommendations, or turns to Google for potential stops. “If it has green chile on the menu, I’ll try it,” he says. When he arrives at a restaurant, he always orders the chile on its own, opting for hot if there are spice levels to choose from, and with pork when that’s a choice. Then he takes his haul back to his car, where he can fi lm his reaction without distractions, taking a brief pause to collect his thoughts before doling out his rating. So far, only two places have earned a perfect 5 out of 5 on the chile scale: Con- suelo’s Express in Fort Collins and Moose Hill Cantina in Lakewood, one of the big- gest surprises. The eatery recently got some attention for its soft-serve margaritas, but Baird says that its green chile is a must-try. “It’s sort of an unassuming kind of place” he notes. “It doesn’t look like your standard Mexican place, but the owner is from Trini- dad in Southern Colorado and learned the recipes from her mom, and it was incredible.” Other surprising standouts include Noonan’s, the sports bar at Heather Ridge Golf Course in Aurora, and South Broadway metal-bar Brutal Poodle, both of which clocked a 4.8 on the chile scale. “You re- ally don’t know” where you might fi nd a great green chile, Baird says. “It might be a sports bar, golf course, diner.” And that’s part of the fun. It’s also been fun experiencing the wide range of green chile styles, from the more traditional takes made with a roux to brothier versions to stews and sauces. One big take- away: “No matter what somebody says about green chile, somebody else will say the exact opposite,” Baird says. “Don’t even get me started on the New Mexico people. They have fantastic food, but I don’t think even they can agree on what green chile is. And that’s what I love about it — there are so many interpreta- tions, recipes, ingredients. And everyone has their own tastes.” As for Baird’s own tastes, he’s found that he generally prefers spicier, thicker ver- sions, and goes for diced pork versus shredded. When he revisited childhood favorite Santiago’s, he was surprised to give it only a 4.3. “It’s still good, I will always love Santiago’s,” Baird admits. “But after trying a bunch more, I’m like, I don’t know if this is actually as good as I thought it was.” Recently, he’s been doing at least one green chile review a day and “I’m not tired of it,” he says, adding that he’s even “lost weight since I started doing this, so there might be some- thing there, the green chile diet. I’m not a doctor, this is not medical advice, but eat four or fi ve spoonfuls of green chile a day and nothing else and see what happens.” The future of Green Chile Reviews “I’ve had requests everywhere from Cor- tez to Sedgwick, literally opposite corners of the entire state,” Baird says, and he’s plan- ning to keep reviewing green chile for as long as possible. “I still have a lot to go, and I wanted to get a few under my belt before I started to go to some of the heavy hitters in town,” like El Taco de Mexico. Its review (which includes a special guest Westword readers may recognize...hint, hint) is com- ing very soon. Baird is heading to Pueblo soon to taste- test his way through its green chile scene, and he’d love to make the trek to New Mexico in the future. This fall, when green chile season peaks, look for content from Pueblo’s annual Chile & Frijoles Festival and the Brighton Chile Fest, as well as Baird’s own recipe for making green chile at home. He’s also been tracking his reviews on a spreadsheet that he’s turning into a website, so that people will be able to see all the stops and ratings. As the reviews stack up, Baird has a re- minder: “Just because I go to a restaurant and don’t like the green chile, that doesn’t mean that that restaurant is bad by any means — it doesn’t refl ect the business as a whole just because they don’t have my favorite version of one thing. Plus, maybe it was a bad day, or a bad batch, or a bad scoop. I don’t like to see comments saying, ‘this place sucks.’” But he does love seeing comments from people who have visited the places he’s reviewed. “It’s really cool to see people just trying good food. Food is the one thing that all people have in common, and it should bring people together,” he concludes. “I’m just a guy who likes green chile. I don’t claim to be a green chile guru or the end-all be-all. It’s just one guy’s opinion, and I want people to form their own.” Find Green Chile Reviews on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Larson Baird is on a mission to review green chile. MOLLY MARTIN The green chile bowl at the Brutal Poodle is among Baird’s favorites. MOLLY MARTIN
