Popular Boulder Burrito Joint Nopalito's Makes a Big Comeback

“I learned how to cook Mexican food because the families that I grew up with were Mexican. I think because it was in front of me, I developed that sense of how the meat is, cooking with dried peppers and spices. I’ve learned to mine those recipes and use them to my favor,” says Milton Guevara-Navas, who recently reopened his fast-casual eatery Nopalito's in a new location, at 1805 29th Street in Boulder.

While Guevara-Navas himself is Salvadoran, he found community with Mexican families from an early age. In 1998, when he was thirteen years old, his mother made the difficult choice to send him with his aunt from El Salvador to California to spare him from the mounting dangers of gang violence. “It’s either you join or you get killed,” he says of the pressure to become an affiliate. After only a few years in California, Guevara-Navas ran into similar issues there, which led to another move when he was sixteen — to Boulder, to live with an uncle.

He landed a job at Illegal Pete’s and worked for the homegrown chain for more than two decades, learning from mentors who “allowed me to open my horizons and be creative,” he says.

Using that experience and knowledge, he struck out on his own and opened Nopalito's at Diagonal Plaza in north Boulder in 2019. The name refers to the bite-sized preparations of the prickly pear cactus, or Opuntia, which have a light flavor with a crisp texture. “For Mexicans, the cactus is a way of living,” Guevara-Navas says. “They mix it with eggs. They grill it. They do all kinds of things with it, and it becomes the extra thing that you want in a dish.”
After weathering the pandemic shutdowns, the burrito joint slowly became a local favorite, drawing everyone from CU students to local athletics/running groups. But by last year, just as Guevara-Navas felt that the business was hitting its stride, the building was sold, the lease was up, and the rent had nearly doubled, forcing him to find a new location.

“When I first closed, I was very worried, because I was like, ‘What if people move? Once we open, none of the people are going to be around anymore,’” he recalls. After a nine-month hiatus, Nopalito's opened the doors to its new location at the end of December. It has expanded its team from 9 employees to 21, and so far, Guevara-Navas says, the response has been overwhelmingly supportive.

He attributes the continued success to the unwavering optimism of his wife, Dora. “I tend to lose it sometimes, lose hope or get a little derailed,” he admits. “She was the one who kept it positive the whole time,” motivating him to increase his social media presence and encouraging him to be candid with the public about their journey to reopening. The results have been rewarding, he adds, as fans have offered countless well wishes, words of encouragement and now, finally, congratulations.

Nopalito's has an extensive menu of burritos, tacos, quesadillas, flautas and more loaded with protein choices such as chicken, steak and barbacoa. Guevara-Navas is especially proud of the beer-battered cod made with high-quality, wild-caught fish from the Pacific Ocean and prepared with a light, fluffy coating.

Swing by in the mornings for a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, cheese, green chile and a choice of protein. Guevara-Navas recommends the all-natural chorizo, which is sourced from local business Polidori Sausage.
The lucha libre aesthetic of the newly remodeled space is a tribute to Guevara-Navas’s father. “When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to the fights, so I became passionate about the fighters, and I have masks and stuff,” he says.

The full bar has signature margaritas named after luchadores. Guevara-Navas even created a mascot out of the logo — a Mexican fighter with a cactus mask affectionately called Nopalito, el Cactus Luchador. “I wanted to put the fighters in the restaurant and create a theme based on them as a tribute to my dad and the memories that we had — a way to express who we are and how we came to be,” he says.

Guevara-Navas knows that his family-owned and -operated business is stepping into the ring as an underdog of sorts, situated among many popular chains. Nopalito's is a labor of love, a way to provide for his wife, his five-year-old daughter, Emily, and their growing family, he explains. His brothers-in-law and his wife’s parents all help with day-to-day operations, too.

“What you see is what you get. We’re a very small family,” he notes. “We’re very quality-oriented. Everything that we make, we make it in-house. There’s nothing frozen. We try to do everything fresh every day. We want people to try our food so they can understand what we mean by that.”

Nopalito's is located at 1805 29th Street in Boulder, and is open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit eatnopalitos.com.