Los Dos Potrillos, a four-location Mexican restaurant in the Denver area, brews and cans its own beer. Now the family behind the restaurant is using that “manly” beverage to promote a good cause: Male health awareness.
The idea emerged after Daniel Ramirez, who runs the restaurant together with his brother Luis and his father Jose, was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“The message we want to send with this project is to normalize male health check-ups,” says Ramirez, who underwent surgery and chemo to battle his cancer. “Men tend to put health on the bottom of our priority list. When we reach a certain age we go into our ‘go’ mode, we have to provide for our family, for our business, for our employees. Our health gets pushed back.”
The stories of five men who faced serious illness are being printed on the restaurant’s beer cans during November, which is Men’s Health Awareness Month. Half of the proceeds from sales of those beers – both canned and draft -- will be donated to related organizations. The restaurant also will sell commemorative beer glasses to raise funds.
Ramirez’s story is on the restaurant’s Mexican Lager cans, and proceeds from that brew will go to the Testicular Cancer Society and the Testicular Cancer Foundation. His goal is to raise $10,000 for those groups; he expects the campaign will raise $20,000 total for all the groups involved. Los Dos Potrillos will do a similar campaign in April, which is Testicular Cancer Awareness Month.
“The majority of men love beer, so when they pick up our beer and read the story, hopefully it will remind them to go to the doctor and get checked out,” Ramirez says. “I want to spread the word in the restaurant industry, too, because this is a fast-paced industry and we have to take time for ourselves.”