Brothers Daniel and Luis Ramirez are not afraid of their ambitions for the family business. They want their restaurant, Los Dos Potrillos, to be “the Shake Shack of Mexican cuisine,” Daniel said.
The journey to turn that dream into reality begins later this year with the debut of Los Dos Potrillos Cocina y Cantina at Northglenn, a fast-casual spin-off of the brothers’ original restaurant, which serves some of the Front Range’s best tacos. , according to readers of the Denver Post.
Additionally, Los Dos Potrillos is set to open a new restaurant and brewery in Castle Rock next month that will become its main beer production and packaging facility. This will not only fuel the taps of its aggressive expansion plan, but also make its original beers more widely available in liquor stores and grocery stores, the Ramirezes said.
Ever since they started peeling potatoes and washing dishes together in the kitchen of the original Los Dos Potrillos, which their father Jose Ramirez opened in 2002, Daniel and Luis have dreamed of carrying on the legacy. After all, the restaurant bears his name.
As Daniel tells it, the rambunctious boys earned the nickname los dos potrillos, or two foals, from their grandparents. Today they operate the restaurant group, which includes four locations in Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Centennial and Parker, as co-general managers. The Parker location houses the existing brewery, which also makes beers for the other restaurants.
“It’s just instilled in my brother and I. It’s a goal we set for ourselves when we were younger that we wanted to develop our father’s vision when he started Los Dos and we just want to carry on his legacy,” Luis said.
Here’s a taste of what to expect at new restaurants in Northglenn and Castle Rock.
Los Dos Potrillos Kitchen and Cantina – Northglenn
While the Northglenn location is set to be the fifth in Los Dos Potrillos, Luis prefers to call it the first of a new type of restaurant to come.
Cocina y Cantina, which is slated to open in a former Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-BQ (100 E. 120th Ave.) in late October, will have a dining room, but will operate as counter service instead of a restaurant sat . The menu features all 50 best-selling Los Dos Potrillos, including nachos chili relleno, a plate of carnitas that’s currently a weekend specialty at other places, and of course, tacos served on homemade tortillas. . To sweeten the deal, it will serve free fries and salsa to order, Daniel said.
Additionally, customers will be able to order a roast chicken meal which includes a whole chicken plus rice, beans, tortillas and several salsas. Customers who don’t want to dine in will be able to pick up their order at a drive-thru window — takeout alcohol included, Daniel said.
La Cocina y Cantina will have a full bar, selling libations such as margaritas and original Los Dos Potrillos beer. And once the Ramirez brothers have a plan, they hope to expand quickly.
“By the end of 2023, our goal is to have at least five locations ready to operate. This is our first footprint. We expect this to become easier with each Cocina y Cantina in the future,” said Luis: “We’ll try to open one every 30 days. And if we can be more efficient, we’ll try to do one every two weeks.”
Daniel and Luis are looking to expand the concept to northeast Colorado and the Midwest to give people farther from the border “that real taste of Mexico,” Luis said.
The goal is to eventually reach over 200 locations with the help of their broker David Hicks & Lampert Brokerage, who has worked with brands like Shake Shack along the Front Range, Daniel added.
Los Dos Potrillos – Castle Rock
As the Ramirez brothers expand their fast-casual concept north, they plan to continue feeding taco and beer lovers down south with a new Castle Rock brewery and restaurant.
The new location at 6372 Promenade Parkway will be the company’s largest yet, with a 7,000 square foot interior and an 1,800 square foot patio that the company is building from scratch. The Ramirezes build a brewery with an 8-barrel brewhouse, a large holding tank, and a bottling and canning room.
“Mexican beer is always out of stock due to in-store demand. It’s hard for us to get that for other accounts,” Luis said. “Now, with the opening of Castle Rock, we will be able to supply Mexican beer to our full-service restaurants and other accounts.”
“I mean we’re already at 300 barrels right now and with this new operation hopefully we can double that,” Daniel added.
The brewery currently offers half a dozen styles, including a hazy Indian lager, a sour recipe, and several fruity recipes.
The Castle Rock Restaurant will be full service and will offer the same menu as the existing establishments. Daniel and Luis plan to start in September and are aiming for an opening date in the spring of 2023.
As if that weren’t enough, the Ramirez brothers also plan to expand full-service Los Dos Potrillos, beginning along the Interstate-25 corridor, with locations eventually in Monument, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, they said.
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