For Richard and Brenda Lucio, Blue Agave Grill is more than one restaurant. It is the Fort Collins restaurant Richard had imagined for years, a place shaped by decades of experience, a love of Southwestern flavor, a commitment to cooking from scratch, and a belief that hospitality should make people feel at home.
Their story began long before Blue Agave. Richard and Brenda met at 16 at Greeley West High School, then entered the restaurant business as teenagers. By their early 20s, both were general managers for a restaurant group, learning every side of the industry.
From the beginning, Richard and Brenda have built the business side by side, bringing different strengths to a shared vision. Richard gravitates toward concepts, menus, and flavors, while Brenda brings a strong instinct for hospitality and operations. Together, they’ve shaped restaurants where the food, service, and guest experience all work hand in hand.
In 1999, they opened their first restaurant, Coyotes Southwestern Grill in Greeley. Palomino Mexican Restaurant followed in 2004, with another Palomino in Loveland in 2012. Then came Blue Agave in Fort Collins in 2014. The concept Richard says he had wanted to create from the beginning.
“Blue Agave was the concept I always wanted,” he says.
Unlike a traditional Mexican restaurant, Richard envisioned something contemporary and Southwestern, with the freedom to borrow inspiration from Asian, Italian, and other cuisines while layering in flavors from the Southwest and south of the border.
Richard and Brenda lived and worked here as young adults, then built a home. Richard had long hoped to open his own restaurant in Fort Collins. When the opportunity finally appeared, they jumped at it.
“It’s always been a big restaurant town,” Richard says. “We knew we were bringing something a little different to the table.”
That difference is at the heart of Blue Agave today. Travel throughout the Southwest still influences Richard’s cooking. A meal in Santa Fe helped crystallize the idea years ago. He loved the creativity of higher-end Southwestern cuisine but wanted to make that experience more accessible, something guests could afford to enjoy regularly, not just for a special occasion.
That philosophy shows up across the menu. The Tuna Rita and Black & White Nachos offer starts, while the signature asada and lobster-and-shrimp enchilada with chipotle cream reflect the restaurant’s contemporary approach.
Just as important is what happens behind the scenes. Blue Agave is a true scratch kitchen, part of a standard Richard and Brenda maintain across their restaurants. They handle and prepare fresh product in-house rather than relying on pre-made or partially cooked items. In fact, Richard says one of their restaurants is used as a training ground for health department inspectors because they can observe raw, fresh product being handled. Maintaining that approach is harder operationally, he says, but it is central to the quality and consistency their restaurants were built on.
The bar is just as much a part of the experience. Blue Agave offers margarita flights, tequila flights and 90 tequilas, along with its house-made Sangria Swirl, a signature combination of homemade sangria and frozen margarita. Weekend brunch, bottomless mimosas and daily happy hour give Fort Collins guests more reasons to make Blue Agave part of their regular rotation.
But for Brenda, food is only half of what makes a restaurant memorable.
“Food’s going to bring people in, but the hospitality is going to complement that and hopefully bring them back,” she says.
That belief runs through every concept the Lucios have built. Managers are encouraged to visit tables, listen to guests, and make things right when something falls short. Brenda says the goal is simple: guests should feel welcomed, appreciated, and comfortable enough to feel at home.
Over the years, the Lucios’ restaurant family continued to grow. They opened a second Blue Agave in Denver, then Richard created Vatos Tacos + Tequila, beginning in Fort Collins before expanding to Loveland and Denver. Today, their company includes seven restaurants, with Lucinda’s Mexican Grill in Greeley, named for Richard’s mother, on the horizon.
Some employees have been with the company for decades, including a corporate chef who has worked alongside the Lucios for roughly 25 years. Their son Blake joined the business after college, while their daughter Savannah took a different path but also spent time working in the restaurants.
For Richard and Brenda, that sense of family, both at home and within their company, is one of the things they are proudest to have built.
Fort Collins remains a part of the journey.
“We feel very loved and embraced here,” Richard says.
That may be why Blue Agave feels less like another stop in their restaurant history and more like the concept that brought so many pieces together. Scratch-made food, creative Southwestern flavor, years of experience, and hospitality designed to keep people coming back.
After all these years, Richard sums up the journey best:
“Wow. What a ride.”
BRUNCH, MARGARITAS & MORE
Make any day worth celebrating at Blue Agave Grill. Enjoy weekend brunch with bottomless mimosas, or stop in for weekday happy hour featuring handcrafted margaritas and crave-worthy bites. From afternoons on the Old Town patio to date nights and gatherings with friends, bold Southwestern flavor is always on the menu.
“Blue Agave was the concept I always wanted to create—a place where bold flavors and genuine hospitality could bring people together.”
—Richard Lucio