The colorful Bubba Chinos empire is expanding across Denver and into Boulder

This week, I reviewed the original Bubba Chinos location at 160 Federal Boulevard, where Leonard Cordova serves up a version of the green chile that his grandmother, Stella Cordova, made legendary at Chubby's. He's used that sauce to turn his own restaurant concept into an expanding mini-empire, with eight current...

By Laura Shunk

February 17, 2011

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This week, I reviewed the original Bubba Chinos location at 160 Federal Boulevard, where Leonard Cordova serves up a version of the green chile that his grandmother, Stella Cordova, made legendary at Chubby's. He's used that sauce to turn his own restaurant concept into an expanding mini-empire, with eight current locations and four or five more on the way.

Two locations -- one at West 90th Avenue and Federal Boulevard, the other at 88th and York -- are getting outfitted with equipment and liquor licenses, and are slated to open sometime this spring. Another, in the former Fanny's flower shop at 1600 East Colfax, should open any day. And Cordova is also set to start hawking green chile from his first Boulder restaurant in a couple of weeks. "They just put in the fryer," he told me last week. "We're almost ready to go." That outpost is going into the underground food court at 1310 College Avenue. He said he's looking at a Commerce City spot, too.

Each location looks a little different, but we bet those new spots will follow in the vein of the rest of the joints, which are pictorially represented here:

Bubba Chinos #3, 201 South Main Street, Brighton Bubba Chinos #6, 35th and Downing Streets Bubba Chinos #7, 2366 East 46th Avenue Bubba Chinos #8, 6400 West 20th Avenue, Lakewood Bubba Chinos #9, 3000 South Federal Boulevard Bubba Chinos #10, 8807 1/2 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood Bubba Chinos #11, 4243 West 38th Avenue, which just opened in the former home of Brickyard BBQ.

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Laura Shunk was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her toughest assignment had her drinking ten martinis and eating ten Caesar salads over the course of 48 hours. She still drinks martinis, but remains lukewarm on Caesar salads.

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