Luis, Jose, Martha, and Daniel Ramirez of Los Dos Potrillos Restaurant in Denver
By Ed Avis
Beer is a big seller in Mexican restaurants -- mostly Corona, Dos Equis or other major brands. But Los Dos Potrillos, a Mexican restaurant in the Denver area, will soon offer its customers something special: Beer brewed in-house.
“We’d been on the search for a new restaurant location for about a year when we got notification about this building,” says Daniel Ramirez, director of business development and operations for Los Dos Potrillos, which currently has three locations. “I looked at the building and thought, ‘Wow, this could be the place.’ Then I noticed the brewery equipment was already there.”
The six brewing tanks in the free-standing building in Parker, Colorado were left behind by the previous tenant, a short-lived sports bar. Ramirez, who runs Los Dos together with his brother Luis and father Jose, says the possibilities immediately jumped out at him.
Los Dos Potrillos logo
“I had to ask myself and my brother and father – what if we did a cerveceria, too?” Daniel remembers. “We don’t know much about brewing, but we can find people who do and be part of something great. We had asked ourselves at the beginning of 2018, ‘What will make us uncommon?’ Well, this would be something that will make us different.”
Luis Ramirez is a sommelier and the director of liquor for the restaurant, so he’s taken the reins of the brewery. He said they plan to brew a Mexican lager, a pilsner, and possibly an IPA. That would leave the other three tanks for some interesting Mexican-inspired brews.
“We might do something fun like a mole style or tamarindo,” Luis says. “And we’d love to get involved with some of the craft brewers in Mexico and do a collaboration.”
Luis says he plans to help customers learn about the new brews by pairing them with certain dishes. For example, they could create a beer flavored with mango or pineapple and pair it with ceviche.
“I’ll be drinking a lot of beer and eating a lot of food,” Luis laughs.
The Ramirezes have hired Robert Bell, the brewmaster who worked in the previous restaurant at that location, to oversee the brewing. They hope to launch the beers, and the new restaurant location, in the fall. Once the operation is running smoothly, they plan to introduce the beers to the other Los Dos Potrillos locations, and eventually sell it beyond.
The restaurant, founded in 2002, is already known for its house-made tortillas, 13 different salsas, and weekend-only carnitas, so adding a custom line of beer will only enhance the customer appeal.
“Governor [John] Hickenlooper once called Denver the Napa Valley of beer,” Luis says. “We want to be part of that. We really feel it’s an untapped market in the Mexican food area.”