Xicamiti La Taquería Bistro Serves Its Own Twist on Mexican Fare in Golden

Just a short drive from Denver, Golden has a culinary scene all its own that's worth exploring. Newer additions include outposts of metro area favorites Blue Pan Pizza and King of Wings, but seven-year-old taquería Xicamiti should be on your radar, too.

“I’m not an authentic Mexican restaurant. I’m not real Mexican food. I don’t believe in that,” says Walter Meza who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Paola. There, he serves traditional dishes that he constantly tweaks and improves so that even regulars are surprised and delighted by the offerings every time they visit.

Born in Chihuahua, Walter and Paola were both raised on the El Paso–Juárez border. They met while Walter was getting his college degree in business. As he jokingly tells it, “She was working for another company in accounting and I met her. She liked me and then she started asking me for dates.” That was 26 years ago.

After he graduated, Walter realized that despite having a degree, he was not making enough money to get married to Paola, "So she stayed working in Mexico and I [went to] El Paso to work as a server," he recalls. "And that’s how we paid for a wedding."

From there, his co-workers connected him to a better-paying restaurant manager position at the now-closed El Señor Sol location in Golden, and Paola joined him in Colorado in February 2004. After that, he worked multiple font-of-house jobs as a server, bartender and manager. The couple also welcomed three kids — two girls and one boy — to the family. “At the time I was thinking, being a server, I’m not going to be able to pay for college. So we needed to do a business and create something for us,” Meza explains.

A restaurant was the obvious choice but because he never worked the back-of-house, he initially dismissed the idea. But his kids inspired him to reconsider. “My two girls, when they were little, they used to play with me Top Chef," he says, laughing. The girls got to be the judges and decide on the rules. "They would watch me in the kitchen and then I present everything for them. It was funny and challenging at the same time.”

It was a similar story for every special occasion — his kids would ask him for out-of-the-box dishes and cuisines that they had seen on Food Network and Meza would happily oblige.

Around 2014, the Mezas started a catering company called Xicamiti, Aztec for “sweet potato flower” or in English, the dahlia flower. Soon, they were catering Mexican weddings, quinceaneras and graduations for 300 to 500 people — out of their home kitchen, which isn’t exactly legal.
Eventually, they struck a deal with the owner of Casa del Sabor, the restaurant that was the previous tenant of Xicamiti’s building, to use its commercial kitchen for its catering business.

For two years, the Mezas had full-time jobs, raised three kids, and ran the catering version of Xicamiti on the side. When the owner of Casa del Sabor told Walter he wanted to sell the place and asked if Walter knew anyone who might be interested, "I just responded, me," Walter recalls. After applying for and receiving a loan, the Mezas took over the restaurant and officially opened in September 2017.

When Xicamiti first opened, business was slow. “People expect nachos, guacamole and chips and salsa, fajitas, and I tell the customers, it’s not that that’s bad, I just don’t want to do the same thing,” Meza says. Instead, diners at Xicamiti start the meal with chicharrones de harina and hot sauce on the table. While many menu items are recognizable, each has a flavor profile slightly to very different than expected.

“Let’s start from the fact that there’s no authentic," Walter notes. "Because what is authentic for you is not authentic for me. We can even be from the same family — my grandmother cooks mole with chocolate. But her daughter, my mom, she doesn’t like chocolate, so she puts cinnamon. So in my opinion, there’s no authentic. There’s no, ‘Oh, this is real Mexican food.’ I don’t believe that. I don’t believe in those words.”

He continues with examples: “In Colorado, [Mexican] restaurants, they just smother everything with green chile. Green chile doesn’t exist in Mexico, that’s from New Mexico. When you go [to the store] and you see the ‘Mexican blend’ cheese with yellow cheese? In Mexico, yellow cheese is American cheese,” he says.

So instead, Walter does whatever he wants. In a mad scientist kind of way, he violates a lot of restaurant cardinal rules. He tweaks and changes the marinades, the salsas and the sauces almost every day.

There are ten different salsas in his repertoire, which he rotates in and out with his dishes. Walter doesn’t mind being unorthodox: “The traditional recipe of green chile, people use lard and flour to make it thick, like a bechamel. But the one we do is more a salsa,” he says. “The way we thicken our salsa, we put some chorizo, poblano peppers, white hominy. You don’t expect to have white hominy in your green chile.”
The same goes for the drinks, “You won’t find a Patrón margarita, you don’t find a Cadillac margarita, you won’t find a skinny margarita on my menu. That’s everywhere else. Not with us,” Meza says. Instead, the restaurant infuses all its tequilas and mezcals with fruit and herb concentrates.

"There’s always something to improve, always," Walter notes. "And it’s not that we’re searching for perfection, it's just that I don’t want to cook always the same thing."

About six months after opening, the Mezas started to find their groove with customers who appreciate Walter's “craziness," Paola says.

On a recent Friday afternoon, the tables were full of coworkers taking lunch breaks, a few families, some regulars and many who found the place on Google and Yelp. It’s a small restaurant — about 30 seats. Mexican pop music plays over the speakers and the lime green walls are decorated with Dia De Los Muertos decor and pictures of Walter's favorite Lucha Libre wrestlers.

The most popular items are the tacos al pastor, tacos chicharron and quesadilla barbacoa. In all three, the marinade and salsa were the standouts, contributing so much flavor to every bite. The pork belly in the tacos chicharron, for example, is marinated in tamarind, Morita chile, tequila, cinnamon and coffee, giving it a spicy-sweet taste and a satisfyingly crunchy texture.

It’s fun to eat in a mom-and-pop restaurant committed to doing things its own way. Meza’s passion for the craft is apparent, and the couple’s commitment to their business and family is admirable. They work all day, every day, and they say that’s how it will be until Xicamiti closes.

“Working, opening, cleaning, serving, cooking — in ten years, I don’t want to do it. In ten years, I hope my kids have finished all their degrees and I don’t have to pay for school anymore,” Walter says, laughing.

When asked where he’ll channel his passion for creativity in the kitchen after that, he answers without hesitation. “At home. What I feel at home, I transmit it here. When there’s no Xicamiti, I’ll find the passion at home,' he concludes. "Whenever my kids ask for something different I’m always like, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Xicamiti La Taquería Bistro is located at 715 Washington Avenue in Golden and is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday. For more information, follow it @xicamiti_la_taqueria on Instagram.