Teocalli Cocina Serves Up Mexican Cuisine With a Side of History in LoHi

"There's history in everything we do," says Grant Hopfenspirger, a third-generation restaurateur who founded Teocalli Cocina in Lafayette in 2019 and just opened a fourth outpost of his Mexican eatery in a LoHi space steeped in history.

This expansive spot at 1575 Boulder Street was originally part of the Olinger Mortuary complex. And over a century ago, it was where William F. Cody — aka Buffalo Bill, and the most famous person in the world when he was touring that world with his Wild West Show — was put on ice after he passed away in Denver in early 1917, in anticipation of the ground thawing at Lookout Mountain, where he had requested he be buried overlooking the plains.

Among his many accomplishments (controversial and not), Cody opened the first Mexican restaurant in the country, a pop-up outside of Madison Square Garden in 1886, when his troupe was in residence in New York City.

Now a new Mexican restaurant is in his almost-final resting place.

There's more recent history to this place, too. Oaxaca native Julio Gaspar, who worked in restaurants on both coasts (including a stint for Richard Sandoval in California), was the chef de cocina at Lola Coastal Mexican, the first eatery to occupy the space, when he left to join Hopfenspirger as head chef at the first Teocalli. Lola, a project of Big Red F, had moved its upscale Mexican eatery from Platte Park into the increasingly upscale LoHi neighborhood almost twenty years ago, when the Olinger complex was first redeveloped. In 2021, Big Red F replaced Lola with an outpost of The Post Chicken & Beer, the fried-chicken concept it had introduced in 2014; last December, though, the Post flew the LoHi coop.

Big Red F founder Dave Query recommended that Hopfenspirger look at the location; he was encouraged by Johnny Curiel, a friend who's had a big hit just around the corner with Alma Fonda Fina, his own upscale Mexican spot.

Hopfenspirger, who grew up in Colorado Springs and spent enough time in Mexico to know that he wanted to bring the heritage and traditions of that cuisine home to Colorado, was already three restaurants deep by then. The first Teocalli, with an emphasis on great tacos (birria, bigeye tuna, avocado tempura) and salsas (pick a trio of interesting versions for $9) as well as bigger dishes (pork shank, carne asada) had opened in a historic building in Lafayette six years earlier. The next move was into Arvada, where the popular menu played just as well in a former Griff's/Der Weinerschnitzel. Then came last summer's opening in Longmont, in a former JCPenney with "good bones," Hopfenspirger remembers.
He wasn't really looking for another location, but this one was irresistible. So without the backing of a big company or other investors, Hopfenspirger took on the space, doing a quick facelift that brightened it, opening up the outside deck, and remodeling the former Groovy Bar downstairs into Dearly Departed, an area that isn't quite done but is already making fans with its intimate party feeling and special tapas menu of ten items.

A week into this LoHi location, Hopfenspirger is keeping the focus basic, even if the food and space are not: "I want people to come in, have a good drink, have a good meal."

And a very good time.

Come make some history here.

Teocalli Cocina is open at 1575 Boulder Street from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Learn more here.