Denver’s award-circuit Mexican kitchens are planning dedicated tortillería capacity, Rocky Mountain PBS reported Oct. 5, 2026 — a craft-masa story that sits adjacent to wholesale plant coverage rather than replacing it. Chef Jose Avila, owner of La Diabla, purchased the property next door and plans tortillería Ocho Hileras. La Diabla now makes about 1,300 tortillas from scratch per day; Avila told RMPBS the planned line would produce more than 3,000 tortillas an hour, with a longer-term aim to “expose good corn” in Colorado and eventually focus more on tortillas than restaurants.
Johnny Curiel’s Fonda Fina Hospitality group (Alma Fonda Fina, Mezcaleria Alma, Milpero — Michelin-recognized concepts in the RMPBS account) is also planning a tortillería to “control our own product,” Curiel said. The piece situates smaller Denver molinos — including Don Zorros Molino (Julian Salas) and Dos Caras — as part of a broader scratch-nixtamal bench that restaurants have used while building in-house capacity. Incumbent industrial/foodservice volume in the state still includes long-running players such as Raquelitas, per the same report.
For Tortilla News readers, treat this as Plants & People color: foodservice-owned masa rooms at chef scale, not a WARN-sized capacity shift. Both tortillería projects are described as plans, not completed startups. It does, however, flag demand for fresh corn tortillas and nixtamal know-how in a market that also just watched Mission Foods exit Pueblo manufacturing. Read the RMPBS feature for Avila’s throughput claims and Curiel’s build plans.
La Diabla Ocho Hileras Fonda Fina Hospitality Don Zorros Molino Dos Caras Raquelitas