Cantina Loca opened at 2890 Zuni St. in 2021. (BusinessDen file)
Tacos are out. Hot pot is in.
The assets and lease of LoHi’s shuttered Cantina Loca sold this week to a hot pot restaurant operator for $280,000 — $20,000 below the original listing price.
Dana Rodriguez, the chef behind concepts such ase RiNo’s Work & Class and Super Mega Bien, and the executive chef at Casa Bonita, closed the Mexican restaurant at 2890 Zuni St. and listed the three-year old restaurant’s assets for sale in April for $300,000.
“Cantina Loca, like dozens of Denver restaurants, is an unfortunate casualty of conditions that were out of our control,” Rodriguez said at the time, citing high labor and food costs.
Alex Lung
Rodriguez, who declined to comment Thursday on the sale, is currently preparing to open a new restaurant in the former Il Posto space in RiNo.
The Cantina Loca space was bought by Alex Lung and Johney Kim, the Colorado franchisees for Tasty Pot. They opened their first location in Aurora three years ago.
Lung told BusinessDen he looked for real estate in LoHi for over two years before landing on the 2,765-square-feet Cantina space.
“They (Cantina Loca) already had all the stuff set up so I had to take it over and do minor remodeling versus building it from the ground up,” Lung said.
Lung said he’s investing about $170,000 in remodeling and anticipates opening in the fall. Louis Lee with Antonoff & Co. represented Lung in the deal. Axio Real Estate’s David Schneider represented Rodriguez.
Lung said Tasty Pot has 16 different hot pot flavors, including Thai, Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean styles. In addition to hot pots, Lung said Tasty Pot also sells boba and skillet dishes, and the new spot will have a full bar serving Asian beers and cocktails.
Tasty Pot’s Sichuan flavor hot soup with udon (Courtesy Tasty Pot)
Tasty Pot offers individual hot pots, which Lung said is unusual, as most hot pot places are buffet or family style.
“We don’t really have anything like that in Colorado,” Lung said.
A Colorado native, Lung said he hopes to open a few more locations, and is eyeing near the airport and potentially Colorado Springs next.
Cantina Loca opened at 2890 Zuni St. in 2021. (BusinessDen file)
Tacos are out. Hot pot is in.
The assets and lease of LoHi’s shuttered Cantina Loca sold this week to a hot pot restaurant operator for $280,000 — $20,000 below the original listing price.
Dana Rodriguez, the chef behind concepts such ase RiNo’s Work & Class and Super Mega Bien, and the executive chef at Casa Bonita, closed the Mexican restaurant at 2890 Zuni St. and listed the three-year old restaurant’s assets for sale in April for $300,000.
“Cantina Loca, like dozens of Denver restaurants, is an unfortunate casualty of conditions that were out of our control,” Rodriguez said at the time, citing high labor and food costs.
Alex Lung
Rodriguez, who declined to comment Thursday on the sale, is currently preparing to open a new restaurant in the former Il Posto space in RiNo.
The Cantina Loca space was bought by Alex Lung and Johney Kim, the Colorado franchisees for Tasty Pot. They opened their first location in Aurora three years ago.
Lung told BusinessDen he looked for real estate in LoHi for over two years before landing on the 2,765-square-feet Cantina space.
“They (Cantina Loca) already had all the stuff set up so I had to take it over and do minor remodeling versus building it from the ground up,” Lung said.
Lung said he’s investing about $170,000 in remodeling and anticipates opening in the fall. Louis Lee with Antonoff & Co. represented Lung in the deal. Axio Real Estate’s David Schneider represented Rodriguez.
Lung said Tasty Pot has 16 different hot pot flavors, including Thai, Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean styles. In addition to hot pots, Lung said Tasty Pot also sells boba and skillet dishes, and the new spot will have a full bar serving Asian beers and cocktails.
Tasty Pot’s Sichuan flavor hot soup with udon (Courtesy Tasty Pot)
Tasty Pot offers individual hot pots, which Lung said is unusual, as most hot pot places are buffet or family style.
“We don’t really have anything like that in Colorado,” Lung said.
A Colorado native, Lung said he hopes to open a few more locations, and is eyeing near the airport and potentially Colorado Springs next.
