You’ll find ceramic mugs full of steaming hot green chile at this family-owned South Broadway spot
The South Broadway restaurant is unique for its presentation of the classic Southwestern dish.
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When it comes to green chile, how do you eat it?
The answer is as open-ended as the Southwestern landscape that lays claim to the dish. It’s “smothered” over eggs, burritos and enchiladas, plated alongside beans, rice and tortillas and sold by the quart to take home. Some recipes are soupier, others thicker or with larger chunks of chiles and pork. Every restaurant, vendor and family is likely to have their own signature serving style.
La Loteria, a Mexican restaurant at 42 S. Broadway in Denver, serves its pork green chile ($7) inside of a colorful ceramic mug and with a spoon. A baked, folded corn tortilla and a handful of tortilla chips on the side complete the dish. It’s one of most comforting ways to eat green chile. Spoonfuls of it bring the sustenance needed after a fall or winter day out in the cold. Dunk the chips to break up the flow and dip the tortilla for a savory bite.
The dish, the recipe, and the restaurant itself are all very much a family product, said La Loteria owner Edgar Silvestre. His sisters and brothers work there, and the green chile he serves was passed down from his parents.
Silvestre’s father, Epifanio (Epi for short), is still in the kitchen, ladling green chile inside those decorated ceramic mugs. During a recent lunch hour, he stepped out, mustachioed in a white apron, and deferred to his son for an interview.
“I like it spicy, but I tell my dad to not make it so spicy,” said Silvestre, who added that his clientele includes “muchos güeros”, a Spanish term of endearment for white people.
Silvestre, who was born in Acapulco in the state of Guerrero in Mexico, moved with his family to Denver at 16. He immediately got a job in a kitchen. For 10 years he worked at The Hornet, a 30-year-old bar and grill one block north from his current restaurant.
La Loteria graduated from a food truck to its hole in the wall on Broadway five years ago, he said. The space is painted in vivid shades of blue, yellow, red and orange, much like the cards used in the Mexican party game the restaurant is named after.
Silvestre said he doesn’t promote the green chile much. A basic recipe, he said what makes it stand out is the use of masa, a dough made from corn soaked overnight. As a result, the green chile is thicker than what is often found at other restaurants that use green chile more as a sauce. (La Loteria’s tortillas are made from the same mixture, he said.)
In Colorado, green chile comes in many forms and adaptations, Silvestre said. Even La Loteria adds green chile to its California burrito, which in turn makes Californians mad, he said. But the presentation and experience of eating it from a textured mug brings the dish back to its Hispanic roots, he added.
(La Loteria was one of 32 restaurants that The Denver Post included in its annual food bracket challenge, which is ongoing and focused on green chile. It lost in the first round, but readers can keep voting at denverpost.com/theknow.)
As far as what state — Colorado or New Mexico — makes green chile better, Silvestre said he’s not looking for a fight.
“I’m not going to compete with New Mexico,” he said, laughing.
