Riot BBQ builds its menu around two barbecue traditions at once: the discipline of Texas-style smoking and the asado techniques of Northern Mexico, treated here as one combined approach rather than two separate menus bolted together.
The name comes from Denver history. In 1898, a barbecue festival in Park Hill drew a crowd of roughly 30,000 people and ended in a stampede, wrecked tables, and a fatal bar fight after a rope line broke — an incident often cited as a forerunner to the National Western Stock Show. Riot BBQ takes its name and identity directly from that chaos.
Westword named Riot BBQ one of the city's best in 2025. Regulars point to it as a neighborhood find, though word around town on any given visit varies, with the Texas-Mexico combination landing differently depending on who's at the table.
The name comes from Denver history. In 1898, a barbecue festival in Park Hill drew a crowd of roughly 30,000 people and ended in a stampede, wrecked tables, and a fatal bar fight after a rope line broke — an incident often cited as a forerunner to the National Western Stock Show. Riot BBQ takes its name and identity directly from that chaos.
Westword named Riot BBQ one of the city's best in 2025. Regulars point to it as a neighborhood find, though word around town on any given visit varies, with the Texas-Mexico combination landing differently depending on who's at the table.