New Owners Are Giving Capitol Hill Restaurant a Mexico City Reboot

Since opening in 2013, the family-owned-and-operated Mexican restaurant 100% de Agave has become known for its weekend brunch and a deep selection of tequilas served in a prime location in the Beauvallon condo building on the corner of Tenth Avenue and Lincoln Street.

Earlier this month, though, brothers and original co-owners Ric and Pepe Ruiz decided it was time to throw in the towel and sell the restaurant, which they have passed on to another family: the father-son team of Silvio and Alex Villanueva.

"This is the first time my dad and I have owned a restaurant," Alex says, "but we managed a lot of restaurants before all over Mexico, including Mexico City and Acapulco. The restaurant experience is very different in Mexico. The food is more accessible and more complex at the same time. It's like a whole variety of spices and flavors that you don't see as much here. You have to be really creative with those things."

The Villanueva family emigrated from Mexico to Denver six years ago "with nothing," Alex says. "We're still in the process of getting citizenship, but we're not planning on going back."

Buying a restaurant is a pretty ambitious way of putting down roots. Alex, however, has faith in his father's silent partnership as well as his years of expertise as a general manager.

"I'm the GM/owner, and my dad is the owner/owner," he says with a laugh. "When we took over, I didn't want to make any drastic changes. I trained with Ric and Pepe for a week, and we're keeping the staff. We're going to change, slowly but surely."
Some of the changes are going to be strictly visual. "I love the place, but it's too dark," Alex says. "You can barely see through the windows. We're going to make it brighter in there. Also, we're going to make a new logo. The old one is hard to read from the street."

What won't be changing is the back room of the restaurant, a spacious sports bar that doubles as an event rental. The Villanuevas fell in love with it when the Ruizes first gave them a tour.

It's easy to see why. After passing through the quiet front dining room with its cozy bar, a hallway opens up into a huge space with a gorgeous view of the Rockies. Showing everything from NFL games to UFC bouts on a state-of-the-art audiovisual system, the sports bar has also hosted wedding receptions, corporate dinners and family holiday parties. Since it's separate from the main dining room, it can get rowdy without infringing on a low-key happy hour or a romantic dinner in the front room.

However, it all comes down to the food. "We want to streamline the menu. We're adding some things and taking some off," Alex says. As it stands, the Ruiz-created menu is lengthy and, at times, overwhelming. "We want to give it a fresh start and work in more of the authentic flavors of Mexico that we love," he adds. "But we don't want to change everything."

The tequila selection, on the other hand, won't be changed at all. In 2014, Westword named 100% de Agave one of the seven best places in town to drink tequila, so there's nothing to mess with there.

The Villanuevas are planning a grand reopening in the coming weeks, but only after they've tweaked enough things to point the way forward for 100% de Agave.

"It's pretty simple," Alex says. "We are very much looking forward to making this a brilliant place."

100% de Agave is located at 975 Lincoln Street and is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit 100deagave.com.