Mestizo Brew Cantina

Mestizo Brew Cantina is a restaurant in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. It serves Latin American cuisine alongside beer brewed in-house, with a menu that includes tacos, pupusas, llapingachos, tortas, margaritas, micheladas, and Mexican lager. The kitchen makes all dishes to order and from scratch. Small bites include grande chips and salsa, built on corn tortilla chips made fresh daily and served with a salsa trio of mild salsa molcajete, medium salsa verde, and hot salsa roja, with salsa aguacate available as an alternative to guacamole. Quesadillas come on a large flour tortilla with Mexican white melting cheese and a choice of add-ins such as grilled veg, black beans, refried beans, chicken tinga, al pastor, carnitas, or carne asada. Tacos are served a la carte on fresh, small-batch, locally-made corn tortillas, in varieties including al pastor grilled on an in-house trompo with fresh pineapple, carne asada, quesabirria with consomme for dipping, carnitas, al jardin with roasted poblano and calabaza, chicken tinga in housemade chipotle adobo, and birria.

The drink menu covers brews, cocktails, wine, and mocktails, and all beers are brewed in-house. The Mestizo Lager is a Mexican lager at 4% ABV and 15 IBU. The Incorrigible IPA is a throwback West Coast style at 6.5% ABV and 70 IBU. The Michoacana is a farmhouse saison brewed with hibiscus, lemon zest, and honey at 5.5% ABV and 30 IBU. The Tamarind Gose is a soured wheat brewed with tamarind and piloncillo sugar at 4.5% ABV and 35 IBU, with an optional tajin rim. The Oaxaquena is a Mexican chocolate stout brewed with cocoa, chile ancho, and cinnamon at 6% ABV and 20 IBU. The Michelada de Mestizo is a Mexican-style lager cocktail made with in-house michelada mix, fresh squeezed lime, and a tajin rim.

The restaurant sits on W 38th Ave, a short walk from the public artworks The Blessed Virgin Mary and The Cross, both about a tenth of a mile away. Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School is roughly 0.2 miles away, Stevens Elementary School about 0.3 miles, and West Metro Fire Rescue Station about 0.4 miles.

Mestizo Brew Cantina pairs its own house-brewed lagers, IPAs, saisons, goses, and stouts with from-scratch Latin American cooking, giving Wheat Ridge a brewpub where the beer and the kitchen are equally the point.