Over the years, as crowds continued showing up at Raquelitas to plead for the ability to buy the brand’s savory tortillas, Ben Williamson knew his family’s business had to give the people what they wanted. “The answer was always, ‘Only restaurants, sorry,’” he says. “But the demand was there. We needed something that reflected the uniqueness of our products.”
The result is a snug yet charming retail experience within the Larimer Street factory. It mirrors a wine tasting, but in place of grape varietals, we learn about local ingredients; instead of sipping chardonnay and pinot noir, we sample tortillas and chips in flavors ranging from classic butter to the unconventional cinnamon roll, bison tallow, and caramelized onion. “The tortilla is the foundation to infinite possibilities,” Ben says. “We are nearing 200 flavors. There’s almost no limit to what we’ll try.”
Raquelitas is a Denver institution. Founded by Sal De La Torre in 1960, the company makes fresh corn and flour tortillas for some of Colorado’s biggest event venues and restaurants, including Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. Today, Sal’s sons Raul De La Torre and Rich Schneider remain as owner and "tortilla savant," respectively, while Ben, their nephew, manages the brand’s marketing efforts. As the retail shop celebrates a year in business, Ben reveals a few new flavors, his favorite Mexican food meals, and the secret to Raquelitas’ enduring legacy.
Your retail space is such a fun concept. What can guests expect?
Everyone is given the option to go on a tasting tour, where I guide them through our inspiration, ingredients, and recipes. We usually have 20 different flavors each weekend, so there’s always something new. People come back with friends and family to do the tour again. I had a feeling it could be good, but I had no idea the response would be as overwhelming as it has been.
How does Raquelitas practice sustainability?
We partner with local farmers to ensure that our ingredients taste better and support Colorado's agricultural economy. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe for heirloom corn, the Uhland family in Lamar for Colorado Mills sunflower oil, the Cooksey family farm in Roggen for flour, Musso Farms in Pueblo for our chile ... They share a similar mission in helping preserve the land we live on and wanting to inspire others to do the same.
What are your favorite ways to enjoy tortillas at home?
Frying up fresh chips from our hibiscus corn tortillas for ahi tuna nachos has been a fun one. I love picadillo tacos; I make mine with a blend of beef and chorizo, slow-cooked with potatoes in a rich sauce and just about everything in my spice drawer.
How do you stay consistent over the years while still evolving?
It’s the easiest part. We’ve always been the weird ones, the funky crew who doesn’t care to be traditional in the sense that there’s only one way to make something. Taste and quality in tortillas is synonymous with Raquelitas. It’s been the same since 1960, long before I was here.
How has Raquelitas influenced the Mexican food scene in Denver and throughout the state?
Rich and Raul truly helped usher tortillas and Mexican food into Colorado. Rich now sits on a variety of boards—the Colorado Restaurant Association, Colorado Restaurant Foundation, and Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association—and helps fight for a more vibrant and flavorful food scene in Colorado every day.
What do you hope to achieve next? Any new flavors you can tease?
Chili Fig, Everything Tortilla (like the bagel), Buffalo, Apple Pie, and Chimichurri are some of our upcoming tortilla flavors. We’ve been fortunate to find success in our little niche. Outside of a few goals in reshaping production to keep up with demand, we want to keep doing what we’re doing. We’ll be a Colorado-first company forever.
For more on Raquelitas tortillas, visit Raquelitas.com.
SIDEBAR:
By the Numbers
2,000+ Colorado bars, restaurants, hotels, and stadiums offering Raquelitas tortillas
170,000 tortillas a day are made during the peak summer season
840 acres of corn are harvested every year
900,000 pounds of chips are made and shipped annually
4.6 million YouTube views on a clip from a 2019 Sesame Street episode, where the Raquelitas team teaches Cookie Monster how to make taco shells