Tamales By La Casita

Westword's No. 3 and 5280's Best for Smothering. a 50-year-old north Denver institution whose olive-hued, pepper-heavy chile is pleasantly sweat-inducing.

Picks from 5280 Magazine and Westword

State senator Paul Sandoval opened this Tejon Street shop in 1974 and his family still runs it. 5280 reports the kitchen stuffs tamales every morning with either vegetarian green chile and cheese or red chile and pork, and that it turns out more than fifteen thousand a day between the counter, the wholesale trade and a second outlet at Denver International's Concourse C. Order the red chile and pork by the dozen at Tejon Street, which is the original and the only one you can reach without a boarding pass.

Picks from 5280