La Casa de Manuel is probably Denver's oldest surviving Mexican Restaurant. Founded in 1958 it has mural inside showing Spanish speaking people
discovering the future site of Denver. Mexican Diggings on the South Platte River about where Florida crosses it today was estalished in 1857, a year before the official founding of Denver November 22, 1858. Jerome Smiley, in his defitive 1901 "History of Denver" mentions and maps Mexican Diggings. After that it disappears, as has so much of Colorado's Hispano history and places. For more details see the entry on La Casa de Manuel in HIstoric Denver's 1982 book," Denver"s Larimer Street: Main Street,Skid Row & Urban Renaisance" by Thomas J. Noel. Gonzalo Silva opened the place in 1958 and his son Manuel still owns and runs it. Manuel serves only Mexican food which some consider the best in Denver. Of a hundred Mexican restaurants in Colorado, this was the first. And its inside murals portray life in the Silva's hometown in Mexico and are also the only extant evidence of Mexican Diggings which is gone without any trace, not even a historic marker, today Originally at 2010 Larimer in today's Ball Park Historic District, that building was demolished and Manuel moved to the ccurrent location at 3158 Larimer in an old bandoned hamburger drive in.
Comments
The murals are priceless and must be saved. During my 20 years of working downtown, the original site was a favorite lunch place. After my retirement, I rediscovered La Casa in it's Larimer St. site, and it again became a favorite lunch place. The menu, the cooking, the murals have all remained the same for 40 years.