There are worse problems to have than deciding between Peruvian lomo saltado and West African jollof rice.
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While we might complain about service charges, QR code menus and $20 cheeseburgers, the truth is, there’s never been a more thrilling time to eat in Colorado than right now when dumplings could mean Ukrainian varenyky, Nepalese momos or Somali sambusas. Cuisines and dishes that many of us hadn’t tried a decade or two ago — no matter how well-traveled or curious we may be — have found an audience here.
There are more cultures on our plates than ever, more spices, more stories, more options, more joy. Simply put, Colorado has more. And that’s great news for eaters.
From the influx of regional Mexican and a new wave of Vietnamese restaurants to the expansion of African, South American, Middle Eastern and, well, cuisines from many parts of the globe, there’s truly no excuse to be bored with our food scene. The world is our oyster. (Or our oyster mushroom birria taco.)
It feels in many ways like an endless international buffet, where the hardest part of eating isn’t finding something good, it’s deciding which direction to go. And that’s thanks to the multitude of culinary traditions preserved, as well as the new generations innovating and putting their own spins on the classics. Because the wonderful thing about food is that today’s novelty has a way of becoming tomorrow’s staple. Dishes that seem unfamiliar now could soon feel as ordinary and essential as a bowl of slow-simmered Colorado green chile.
Naysayers will always point out that we’re not New York City or Chicago, and it’s true. We don’t have the same diversity of population or palate — not to mention that both of those metro areas dwarf the population of our entire state — but what we do have gets better and better every day. (And shoutout to Aurora, where 140 countries are represented within its 165 square miles, and its food scene reflects that level of global presence.)
The economics of eating out are admittedly increasingly tough, with rising costs reshaping how restaurants operate and how consumers spend. But the move away from white-tablecloth, European-style formality and toward hybrid concepts, food halls, pop-ups and shared kitchens actually makes for more exciting options. Social media helps, too, introducing eaters to foods they never knew they needed, like jiggly souffle cheesecakes, hand-pulled Chinese noodles and pistachio-filled Dubai chocolate bars.
We’ve come a long way, but of course there’s still a way to go. We need more support for independents and startups — especially for immigrant-owned businesses, minority entrepreneurs and women restaurateurs — more openness to flavors we don’t yet understand and more respect for people and cultures different from our own.
Sometimes it feels like we’ll never get there, that fear or bias or the same old power imbalances will hold us back. Yet if Colorado’s food scene has taught us anything, it’s that people are eager to connect over a good meal.
Maybe that’s the most exciting part. Colorado’s dining scene isn’t finished; it’s still becoming. Which means the most delicious thing you’ve never heard of yet is probably already simmering in somebody’s kitchen, waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
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