A Highland restaurant that spent three decades feeding Denver has been handed to a new generation. La Mexicana Taqueria, which opened at 2538 West 32nd Avenue in 1996, is being reborn as Don Raúl's Mexican Cuisine, with founder Raúl Hernandez's daughter Alejandra now at the helm after the family fought to reclaim the space from operators who had taken it over.
The restaurant’s return also sits within a longer history of Mexican migration and neighborhood change in northwest Denver. Mexican migrants who came to Colorado for seasonal work settled in Denver’s Westside communities, and later moved north into Highland, a neighborhood that had been known as Little Italy through the 1970s, as a history of Denver’s food culture recounts. La Mexicana’s long run on West 32nd Avenue ties the family’s story to a part of the city shaped by successive immigrant communities.
A Family Restaurant Changes Hands, Then Comes Back
Raúl Hernandez opened his first Highland restaurant in 1984 at age 31, and by 1995 he had saved enough to buy the building a block away at 2538 West 32nd Avenue, debuting La Mexicana Taqueria there the following year, according to Westword. He ran it alongside his wife, Eloisa, for 24 years before the couple retired in 2020 and rented the restaurant to new operators, who ran it as La Grande Mexicana. That business describes itself as a family-owned Mexican restaurant nestled in the Highlands neighborhood, according to its own website, which also lists the same 2538 West 32nd Avenue address.
The Hernandez family’s multigenerational handoff has parallels elsewhere in Denver’s Mexican restaurant scene. La Fiesta, founded in 1963, remains a family-run restaurant more than six decades later; Westword’s account of its 60th anniversary describes it as a community gathering place as well as a restaurant. Don Raúl’s plans to keep La Mexicana’s menu and staff while putting a daughter in charge echo a broader local tradition of family restaurants carrying recipes and relationships across generations.
The arrangement didn't hold. The new operators subleased the space to an investor, who damaged it, the Westword report states. That forced the Hernandez family to hire a lawyer and pursue an eviction, in Alejandra Hernandez's words: “We, unfortunately, had to get a lawyer and do an eviction.” It was Alejandra who proposed taking the restaurant back and trying to run it herself, a plan her father agreed to.
From the Classroom Back to the Kitchen
Alejandra Hernandez had spent time working in education before stepping into the family business. Now her parents are helping her get Don Raúl's Mexican Cuisine ready to open, with the family having taken back the space on September 21. Per the same account, the family is still waiting on the City of Denver to issue the restaurant's food license, a step the City and County of Denver outlines on its own retail food licensing page for any new food business in the city.
Denver’s restaurant licensing process involves more than a name change or a final inspection. The city’s restaurant permitting guidance says food-establishment plan review can cover the menu, kitchen equipment, architectural plans and plumbing, while businesses also need zoning approval. The city says virtually all restaurant and commercial-kitchen projects require building permits and inspections, making the family’s wait for authorization part of a broader review process for opening a food business.
Alejandra Hernandez told Westword she expects the license to arrive soon and had originally hoped to open by the first week of November, though the restaurant's actual opening date was not confirmed and will instead be announced on its Facebook page once the licensing process wraps up.
Same Green Chile, New Name
The name itself came from Eloisa Hernandez, who wanted to honor her husband's legacy. “My mom was the one who came up with Don Raúl's,” Alejandra said. Don Raúl's Mexican Cuisine will occupy the same 2538 West 32nd Avenue address and plans to serve both lunch and dinner.
Longtime regulars shouldn't expect a culinary overhaul. The original La Mexicana Taqueria menu will remain intact, including the signature green chile that takes eight hours to cook and a mole built from a long list of ingredients, the report notes. The menu will simply be organized in a more modern way, with more detailed descriptions for diners. The restaurant's original decor, brought from small towns in Mexico by Alejandra's mother and grandmother, is also expected to stay in place.
Staff from the old taqueria are returning too. The Hernandez family stayed in touch with employees throughout the transition, and the same report states that staff will be back working at Don Raúl's once it opens. Alejandra Hernandez said she wants the restaurant to remain familiar to longtime customers even as she takes over with what she calls fresh eyes and fresh ideas. The restaurant has already set up a new Instagram account, @donraulsdenver, ahead of its reopening.
