Denver chef Dana Rodriguez releases new mezcal — The Know

To be clear: Regarding Cinco de Mayo, “We don’t do (expletive) in Mexico,” laughs Dana Rodriguez about the largely American celebration.

A native of Chihuahua, Mexico, Rodriguez earned her affectionate nickname, “Loca,” over years working in Denver. But her reputation goes well beyond a fun, almost irreverent approach to cooking and tradition.

After emigrating to Colorado in 1998, Rodriguez worked her way up through some of Denver’s top restaurants, eventually gaining U.S. residency and opening her own dining destinations.

Today, the James Beard-nominated chef owns and operates two wildly popular RiNo restaurants, Work & Class and Super Mega Bien, both of which are reopening in time for Cinco de Mayo this week after long pandemic closures.

And at both restaurants, Rodriguez will be serving her new brand of mezcal, aptly named Doña Loca and produced from planting to bottling by a small palenque (distillery) in Oaxaca, which she handpicked after visiting the region.

If you go

Super Mega Bien and Work & Class have both reopened in time for Cinco de Mayo at 1260 25th St. and 2500 Larimer St., respectively. For more information and to find bottles of Doña Loca mezcals near you, visit donaloca.com/locations.

“I wish I could be George Clooney or The Rock and have all the money to buy (a Tequila brand),” Rodriguez laughed. “But I think the story behind Doña Loca is (the brothers who make it), Marco and Juan.”

“I would rather do it the way we’re doing it, and support the families in Mexico,” added Doña Loca CEO Karen Ashworth-Macfarlane, a former financial planner who is Rodriguez’s co-founder in the mezcal venture.

The Oaxacan brothers’ distillery, Enrique Diaz Cruz, is behind Doña Loca mezcals, which are made in the traditional, artisanal way, using wood fire pits and mule-drawn mills for fermentation.

The spirits come from three types of agave varieties — espadín, tobalà and tepeztate — and each grows to maturity over the course of five to 30 years, making some bottles rarer and more complex in flavor than others.

While mezcal is known as the smokier relative of tequila, owing to its pit-cooking process, Doña Loca has a smoother taste, both Rodriguez and Ashworth said. Theirs separates out the burnt agave.

The distillery also utilizes extra plant material to create bottle labels, so nothing is wasted.

The purity of the final product was important to Rodriguez, who said she just wants to know the facts when it comes to her sourcing and partnerships.

And that is another important part of Rodriguez’s reputation: She is a shrewd businesswoman, known for taking care of her employees and being transparent with them (as well as with her customers) about the business’ financials and related decisions.

The restaurant industry “has been broken for so long, but we still have a chance to fix it.”

By early fall, Rodriguez will open a new bar, Cantina Loca, in Denver’s Highland neighborhood. It will serve as a tasting room for the mezcal, as well as forthcoming tequila, raicilla, sotol and more traditional Mexican agave-based spirits made under the Doña Loca brand. And it will serve street food — tacos, posole, cactus fries — alongside the tasters and mixed drinks.

Until then, customers can head to Rodriguez’s Larimer Street restaurants, or other local bars and liquor stores, to taste Doña Loca’s mezcals.

Amid all of the serious education in spirits, Loca is still living up to her name, reopening two restaurants simultaneously, welcoming back customers and breaking out the slushie machines (to make frozen palomas and margaritas) for some proper American Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

“This is real, this is life,” Rodriguez said with a smile. “It’s not pretentious.”

Recipe: Spicy Grapefruit-Rosemary Oaxacan

(Makes three drinks)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup grapefruit juice
  • 1 fresh lime
  • ¼ cup spicy syrup (recipe below)
  • 4 ounces Doña Loca Espadín Mezcal

Directions

  • Fill three glasses with ice
  • Add the grapefruit juice, spicy syrup and mezcal to a mixing glass/vessel
  • Squeeze in the fresh lime
  • Stir all ingredients well
  • Pour over glasses with ice
  • Garnish with rosemary
  • ¡Salud!

Spicy syrup ingredients

  • 3 habanero peppers, chopped
  • 10 rosemary sprigs, leaves removed from stems
  • 1 quart hot water
  • 1 quart sugar

Spicy syrup directions

  • Muddle the chopped peppers and rosemary leaves together in a large bowl
  • Add hot water and sugar, and mix well
  • Let the mixture rest for 15 minutes
  • Strain the mixture into another vessel, and then cool in fridge for an hour
  • Use the syrup in cocktails galore

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