Audio By Carbonatix
Quick! Name a Peruvian food.
Chances are you named ceviche — raw, citrus-marinated fish. But Bob Van Diest is hoping that will soon change. A year and a half ago, Van Diest and his family opened La Polleria, a small restaurant in Centennial serving another type of authentic Peruvian fare: rotisserie-style chicken.
Unless you’ve been to Peru, you wouldn’t associate pollo a la brasa with the country. But Peruvians do, and Van Diest knows that — not because he’s from there (he was born in Kansas) but because he’s married to a Lima native, and because over the past three decades he’s earned plenty of frequent flyer miles traveling back and forth.
See also:
– La Polleria, a Peruvian chicken house, will open next week in Centennial
– Photos: Taita Peruvian Cuisine & Bar
– Best Nouvelle Peruvian Restaurant: Limon
“I added up the time on my passports, and I’ve spent right about three years in Peru,” he says. And on every trip, he eats pollo a la brasa “at least six or eight times.”
Though the idea of opening his own polleria occurred to him decades ago, it wasn’t until recently that he had the resources to do so. So after years of selling residential real estate in Denver – he’s lived here for 33 years – Van Diest and his wife, Rosario, and sons Ryan and Jason, decided to take the plunge. Consulting with Peruvian friends who own a handful of pollerias in Peru, Bob made a trip to procure the special oven and opened his place in September 2011 in a shopping center not far from his house.
Sure, it stands out amid the other chain restaurants. But “we thought it was time for different ethnic restaurants to be somewhere where people can be more in the proximity of their own home,” he explains. And while he adds that Denver’s Peruvian population “might not be centered around our location, they do patronize us for sure.”
Find out what they’ll find in Centennial for when my review is posted here tomorrow.
