Brunch of the Week: The Sky's the Limit at Tamayo's Rooftop Brunch

Bottomless brunch is a beautiful alliteration, and you can find it downtown at Tamayo. The Mexican restaurant has been located in Larimer Square for seventeen years and serves up an all-you-can-eat tapas brunch, with or without bottomless drinks.

Start with the bottomless menu for $25 and add on a drink or two, or go all out with unlimited (with some restrictions) food and drinks for $39. Either way, you will eat too much and be tempted by the many bottles of tequila that adorn the wall behind the bar.

Tapas is an ingenious idea for brunch; this isn't a typical buffet-line all-you-can-eat. Instead, servers bring rounds of ten different small plates, so you can try a little bit of every main and side. There's nothing worse than ordering a big plate and then experiencing brunch envy when you see what someone else has ordered.

Half of the Tamayo brunch menu comprises eggs, bacon, potatoes, Benedicts and other typical breakfast foods. The other half includes traditional Mexican bites from Tamayo's regular menu: enchiladas, flautas and tacos, to name a few. Our waiter suggested that everyone should get three things to start, and he brought a little taste of each. And then, because it's all so tempting, you will order three more plates and repeat the process until you slam your hands down on the table and declare that you can't eat another bite. At which point your server will ask you if you want dessert. Your brain says no, and then you see the desserts that Tamayo pumps out and you take one of each.

The flautas are rolled blue-corn tortillas stuffed with braised short rib and fried until crunchy. Shredded-chicken enchiladas come topped with mild green chile. The thick-cut chipotle bacon is smokey and plentiful. (Did I mention that you can order as much as you want?) Sweet and delicious caramelized plantains are listed as a starter but could be considered a dessert; you can feel less guilty by eating them first. Rumor has it that Tamayo also serves fresh fruit cups, but with all of the aforementioned snacks, I didn’t bother to verify — and I was trying to save room for desserts.

Those decadent desserts come in the form of churros, bread pudding and pan dulce. The churros are golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside; anything covered in cinnamon sugar is alright by me. The bread pudding is soft and soaks up its raspberry glaze perfectly. And the pan dulce is like a version of French toast: slices of bread are soaked and sautéed and laid on top of a layer of Nutella before being drizzled with crema and a spicy-sweet caramel sauce.

Brunch drinks are limited to mimosas (served with guava or mango juice), Bloody Marys and margaritas. Drinks can be added on to bottomless brunch for $5 or $6 each, if you think you'll be having less than two.

Brunch is great, but eating brunch on a beautiful terrace can’t be beat. Tamayo's rooftop patio is split into three sections (which can also be reserved for private parties), with two open-air spaces overlooking the city and an intimate walled-off dining area.

Miranda Garcia is the general manager of Tamayo and has been with the Richard Sandoval company for sixteen years. She started out as a host while still in college and has worked her way up the corporate ladder, helping the chef/restaurateur open new restaurants all around the world before returning to Denver. “I’ve been here for sixteen years, and when you come in now, you will get the same recipes and quality that you saw almost twenty years ago,” she explains.

Tamayo is located at 1400 Larimer Street, and bottomless brunch is served from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, call 720-946-1433 or visit the restaurant's website. Hot tip: Join the Tamayo email list and receive a complimentary guacamole on your next visit.