Kanastakos, the fifth and final concept announced for the Pueblo Fuel and Iron Food Hall, will serve tacos with ingredients sourced from Pueblo farms and recipes inspired by chef José Avila’s childhood in Mexico City.
Avila, a James Beard Award-nominated chef with more than two decades of experience in the Denver dining scene, considers himself fortunate to have grown up in Mexico City. He saw people from all over Mexico and neighboring countries flock to the big city and bring their cuisine with them during the first 20 years of his life.
For his Kanastakos concept, he takes inspiration from tacos de canasta, tacos from Central Mexico that are cooked and often carried in a canasta or basket. In his youth, Ávila would travel to different neighborhoods of Mexico City with his cousins in search of a bicycle salesman with a giant canasta full of tacos with a soft, crispy shell.
“This guy just hangs around,” Ávila said. “He’s got two buckets of salsa hanging from the basket, and he stops in a corner. You go and order your tacos. The traditional is always potatoes, black beans and pork, those are the ones you always find.”
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When Kanastakos opens this fall inside the Pueblo Fuel and Iron Food Hall, 400 S. Union Ave., diners will have a variety of taco fillings to choose from, including beef adobo, chicken mole, marinated pork, pork rinds, potatoes and beans. fried. Side dishes will include sea bass ceviche, steamed elotes (street corn), grilled elotes, and Esquites (street corn salad).
While the tacos cannot be served in a bicycle salesman’s basket, Ávila’s method of cooking tacos achieves the trademark soft yet crispy crust of canasta tacos. After Ávila prepares the soft-shell tacos, he wraps the inside of a basket with plastic, cardboard and brown paper before placing the tacos in the basket. While the tacos are in the basket, Ávila pulls out a boiling pot of chili oil.
“You pour the oil into the basket and then you cover it all up,” he said. “The steam from the hot oil and the oil being so hot, it cooks the tortilla, but it’s also steaming. It has a very, very soft and crispy consistency.”
Born into a family that operated tacos and pies throughout Mexico City, Avila has always had a passion for food preparation. Twenty-one years ago, he moved to Denver, starting out as a dishwasher before becoming CEO of Elway’s Cherry Creek Steakhouse in the mid-2000s.
He is the current owner of “La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal”, a pozoleria on Larimer Street in Denver, and “El Borrego Negro”, a weekly pop-up serving Barbacoa style Hildago.
As the fifth and final Pueblo Fuel and Iron Food Hall concept to be announced, Kansastakos will establish itself with Diavolo Pueblo Hot Chicken, Mosh Ramen, The Cutting Board and Steel City Crescent Kitchen. Dining hall developers Zach Cytryn and Nathan Stern said an exact date for the cafeteria opening has not been finalized, but it will be sometime in the fall of 2022.
Pueblo Fuel and Iron Food Hall vendors will be at the Colorado State Fair at varying times from August 26 to September 5.
Check out the other Pueblo Fuel and Iron Food Hall concepts:
Diavolo Pueblo Hot Chicken:Fuel and Iron debuts hot chicken concept for upcoming cafeteria in Pueblo
Mosh Ramen: Mosh Ramen debuts as the newest concept for Pueblo’s upcoming Fuel and Iron Food Hall This may interest you : Let’s talk about business: Parkview wins awards for quality success.
The Cutting Board: Plant-based restaurant set to take root in the next Fuel & Iron Refectory
Steel City Crescent Kitchen: Cajun cuisine with a Pueblo twist coming to Fuel & Iron Refectory
