Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe is not so much a restaurant as it is a home away from home.
Construction workers mix easily with starched-shirt businessmen, Lower Highland neighborhood residents and whoever else drops in for a hearty plate of huevos con papas for breakfast, a big bowl of posole for lunch or a vegetarian suprema de nopalitos – an oversized burrito of grilled cactus with onion and tomato with rice on the side – for dinner.
None of it costs more than $6, and it all comes from a kitchen not much larger than a generous walk-in closet. It’s not fancy, but then, it isn’t intended to be. It’s Rosa Linda Aguirre’s home cooking that people really want.
And twice a year, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve, people from all over the city come to have dinner with her family.
Rosa Linda cooks, and with the help of Virgilio, her husband of 35 years, and their four children, they greet, serve, clear tables and refill the glasses of those who have no one with whom to share Thanksgiving or the means to prepare their own meal.
It is what Rosa Linda calls “a Mexican Thanksgiving” – shredded turkey with green chiles, mashed potatoes, rice, beans, a green vegetable, bread and dessert. Seconds are allowed, no one is turned away, and the meal is free.
In the first year, the Aguirres served 200. Last year, including deliveries to nursing homes and senior citizen centers, they fed 2,500. They began preparing for this year’s dinner weeks ago. With volunteers and the aid of a battalion of friends, family and loyal customers, they are braced for Saturday’s gathering.
“Some of the people who donate food and time, I don’t even know the last names,” Rosa Linda says. “I have Michael the pie man; I call him that because he always brings all kinds of pies because he says you must have pie for dessert on Thanksgiving.
“Then there are my angel donations, from a man who pulled up one day in a van with a trailer loaded with everything I could want. With what was left over, we made baskets to give to people.”
Twenty-two-year-old Linda Aguirre, who seems wise beyond her years, tells of the man who came one Thanksgiving when he had lost his home and his job. Some time later he returned. Linda’s eyes fill with tears and her voice breaks as she recalls the day.
“He walked in, and I knew I recognized him, but I couldn’t remember where,” she says. “He told me he was the man who had no home, no job and no place to go and we fed him. Then he handed me a check for $100 and said we should use it for the next Thanksgiving dinner.”
Similar stories abound, such as the teacher at a nearby Roman Catholic school whose students volunteer to help with the Thanksgiving dinner as part of their catechism’s service component. Or members of the “Liars and Flyers” club. The members, all professionals, are pilots who gather on Thursdays to swap stories. Some members help out in more ways than one.
Two years ago, when Virgilio was injured in an automobile accident involving an uninsured driver, one of the Liars and Flyers suggested Virgilio contact his son-in law, a neurologist. The physician’s diagnosis ultimately persuaded Virgilio Aguirre’s insurance company to settle in his favor.
The Aguirres have lived in the same neighborhood for three decades. Friends told them they were crazy to open a restaurant there, where gangs with delineated territories hung out. They didn’t care. They liked where they were.
“We have people who come every Sunday after Mass,” says Virgilio. “They sit in the same seats and order the same food. When they walk in, we know what they want. Sometimes there will be 20 or 30 people from one family.”
Tina Iami, who is sitting nearby, hears the comment and volunteers that she is one of them.
“I’ve been eating here for years,” she says. I live in the neighborhood and heard about the restaurant by word of mouth. And it’s true I come here for the (huevos) Machacados. No jalapeños. I come because I like supporting the restaurant and supporting the family. They do it with compassion and grace.”
Aguirre came to the United States in the 1960s. His father was a newspaper editor in Michoacan, Mexico, a career Virgilio hoped to follow.
“But then the governor told my father he had three choices at his newspaper: affiliate with him, leave the country or die, so we came to America.”
Virgilio was a dishwasher and worked his way up to cook. He eventually worked at La Bonita, La Hacienda and a few hotels before deciding to return to journalism. He became advertising salesman for Antena, a Spanish-language newspaper that became the first to be recognized by the Colorado Press Association. Eventually, he came to a crossroads.
“I had to decide between continuing to work in journalism or marrying this beautiful lady I met,” he says, nodding toward his wife. “So I took a job in construction. After 18 years, they laid me off and I decided to open a business for myself. Everybody loved my wife’s cooking.”
In 1982 the Aguirres bought the building at West 33rd Avenue and Tejon Street. Rosa Linda was pregnant with their third child. They discovered the building, which needed work, and had at one time been a nightclub. The customer base grew.
“To this day we have one customer, Chuck Murphy, who says he can walk out of his office, sniff the air and tell when the chile rellenos are being served,” Rosa Linda says. “Another couple used to come in individually. They always got guacamole. Then they got married. And they still got their own bowl of guacamole. Another customer lives in Germany now. He comes here from the airport when he returns to Denver. He stops before he leaves and takes back food I freeze for him.”
The success of Rosa Linda’s is closely tied to the backbreaking hours the entire family puts in. Son Oscar is the chef, Linda and her sister Esmeralda work the front of the house, while brother Eric is bartender.
“People ask me why we do the Thanksgiving dinner and I tell them we have so much to be thankful for,” Rosa Linda says. “I saw the work Daddy Bruce and Paco Sanchez did for people and they inspired me. Once, we had a balloon payment for the mortgage on the restaurant and I nearly fainted. I thought there was no way we could make it.
“That night, I prayed and said ‘Lord, if you help me, I promise to help others’. So we’ll be here Thanksgiving before the crack of dawn. Gotta keep my promise.”
Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe, 2005 W. 33rd Ave., 303-455-0608
Restaurant roundup
Want to get out of the kitchen this Thanksgiving?
These places are open for business.
The Fort
Prix fixe Thanksgiving dinner, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. |
$32.95, $16.95 children | 19192 Colorado 8,
303-697-4771, thefort.com | MORRISON
The Fresh Fish Co.
All-You-Can-Eat buffet, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Reservations
required | $25.95 | 7800 E. Hampden Ave.,
303-740-9556
Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli
Serves a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,
noon-4 p.m. |$25.95 | 3130 Lowell Blvd.,
303-477-2605
Jill’s Restaurant
Buffet, noon-8:30 p.m. Reservations required
|$24.50 | St. Julien Hotel & Spa,
720-406-7399 | BOULDER
Maggiano’s Little Italy
Noon-7 p.m. Reservations recommended
|$29.95, $14.95 children ages 5-12, free for
children under age 5 | Denver Pavilions,
303-260-7707 and Denver Tech Center,
303-858-1405
M & D’s Cafe
Second annual Thanksgiving for the homeless
and elderly, 11 a.m. All plates will be prepared
in to-go containers. Food, beverage, paper
products and cash donations are needed by
Nov. 21 | East 28th Avenue and Race Street,
303-296-1760
OpenTable
The website lists Denver-area restaurants
open on Thanksgiving | opentable
.com/promo.aspx?m=5&ref=551&pid=1
Samplings
Thanksgiving tasting menu beginning at 2
p.m. Reservations required. | 320 Main St.,
970-668-8466 | FRISCO
Singles Cooking Connection
Cook an upscale Thanksgiving dinner, noon-6
p.m. |$20 | 303-231-3371 or 303-987-1744
