Mama Lolita's

Mama Lolita's was a Mexican restaurant in Broomfield, Colorado, just north of Denver, and it was a real full circle moment for me. In 2015, Chef Joe Mazzocco and I worked together at Lola Coastal Mexican. I was the general manager and he was a line cook. We stayed connected, and when Joe decided to open his own place, I was eager to help bring his vision to life.

The space was already a restaurant, so our job was to reskin it and improve the floor plan. The industrial bones gave us a lot to work with, but the room was vast and wide open, and it needed to feel a little more compressed. So we brought the ceiling down with a wood lattice dripping in greenery and hung oversized rattan pendants beneath it.

What we ended up with was a striking restaurant with a seat for every kind of night, from a community table to sofas and lounge chairs. We wanted it to work for casual cocktails and small plates just as well as a special night out in a cozy booth. The design leaned bohemian, with sophisticated touches that made it feel feminine and masculine at the same time.