When opening Agave Blue Cantina, chef Oscar Padilla wanted to offer something more homey than his other operation, and pay homage to his grandmother and traditional cantina cooking at the same time. He also aimed to launch the restaurant in a place where no other Mexican eatery has gone before.
Hence, starting today you can find Agave Blue Cantina open within the 1,500-acre Candelas, the largest master-planned community in Arvada. Padilla opens the restaurant with the team behind Lot One, also in Arvada.
“We are going to be the first Mexican restaurant, and we are looking not for something super fancy, but something casual,” said Padilla while sitting outside Gaucho Parrilla, his Argentinean-influenced eatery inside Arvada’s Freedom Street Social. “We are not going to be a traditional restaurant…something more proper for the people but with all these essences coming from the grandmas, coming from home.”
In essence, he said, the new spot will be a true cantina in honor of his own grandmother, who learned to cook by working in a Mexican cantina. Padilla learned to cook from his grandmother when the California-born chef lived with her as a kid…