El Chingon just celebrated its grand opening in Denver’s Arts District on Santa Fe, after taking over the longtime home of El Noa Noa this spring. But it’s already closed — for now.
A fire broke out in the kitchen on Friday, June 27, just as lunch service was starting. Only a few tables in the patio area were occupied, and those diners were quickly escorted out onto Santa Fe Drive before the Denver Fire Department arrived, according to Lorenzo Nunez, one of the restaurant’s owners and the son of El Chingon’s founder, Gloria Nunez.
“Everybody was safe, and that’s the most important thing,” he says…