La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal

La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal treats pozole as the main event, not a side note, and builds a menu around it that earns the confidence. The choice of five broths for the pig's head or chicken pozole means there's no wrong order, but the cabeza de cerdo in rioja broth is the one worth building a visit around — tender chunks and stringy bits of pork swimming in nixtamalized corn, with the egg add-on doing real work. That kind of specificity, a restaurant naming its own best move, is rare and it's earned here.

The rest of the menu doesn't coast on the pozole's reputation. Tacos and ceviche hold their own, and a duck confit stuffed into sweet potato and covered in black mole shows a kitchen willing to push past the expected without losing the thread of what the place is about.

Denver noticed. Three straight years of Bib Gourmand recognition, a James Beard semifinalist nod, a spot on a national restaurant list — the kind of run that doesn't happen to a kitchen resting on one good bowl of soup. Service and room keep pace with the food, which is the part that too often gets sacrificed at places this busy. This one hasn't sacrificed it.