La Loma has been through plenty of evolutions since founder Savina Mendoza started serving her distinctive pea-soup-hued green chile in a Victorian cottage in Jefferson Park in 1973. La Loma—or rather, Savina’s Mexican Kitchen, as of today—now sits in the pantheon of Denver’s most venerable Mexican restaurants, having survived an ownership change, two moves, and, most recently, a divorce.
In La Loma’s early days, oilman Milford “Sonny” Brinkerhoff enjoyed “Grandma” Savina’s food so much that he and his son William bought the business. In 1981, they moved it to a spacious new spot on West 26th Avenue—just far enough away from a nearby school that La Loma could get a liquor license and Sonny could enjoy a margarita with his chile rellenos.
The Brinkerhoff family has operated La Loma ever since. Sonny died in 2012 at the age of 92, but William still guides Brinkerhoff Hospitality along with his son Mark, who joined the business in 2010. In 2016, they sold the Jefferson Park property and reopened downtown (on Tremont Street, across from the Brown Palace). The next year, they added an upscale Southwestern eatery called Sierra in Lone Tree, and in 2020, they expanded the La Loma brand with a Castle Rock outpost. Then, in 2023, Brinkerhoff Hospitality opened Caldéro in the McGregor Square development in LoDo…