Nicolas Medina feels like a phoenix.
The restaurant owner will open Cenizas — Spanish for “ashes” — at 3900 Tennyson St. next month. It’s a return to the space for Medina, who operated the Mexican cantina Tres Chiles there from 2018 through 2023.
“It’s like a renaissance,” Medina said. “Some of the same, but new, better and different.”
His upcoming spot will feature a slew of family recipes from his native Mexico, including classics like enchiladas and tacos that Tres Chiles fans will remember. Medina also plans to bring back breakfast and brunch on weekends, where chilaquiles, a salsa and egg-topped tortilla dish, will be the featured item.
The biggest menu change from his last spot, Medina noted, will be more hamburgers, steaks and other meat-filled sandwiches.
“I love the barbecue. There’s always carnes asadas in my house,” Medina said. “I’m one of those guys that if you invite me to your barbecue, I end up cooking the food for you.”
He had to do little build-out to the space, other than making it a “warmer” vibe with more fire elements – an ode to Cenizas’ name.
Medina, who records show bought the property for $775,000 in 2014, transformed it from apartments to a restaurant space, so he is intimately familiar with the 5,000 square feet. He’s also a general contractor, so he’s been able to do much of the work himself.
“It’s going to be a warm place to be with your family, with your partner, with your friends,” he said. “Not crazy loud music, just a place to be relaxed where you can eat your food, have your margarita and your cocktail with tequila or mezcal.”
Medina operated Tres Chiles in the 5,000-square-foot space from 2018 through 2023 before renting it out to Santo Remedio, which left the space last year. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
This will be the third restaurant venture for Medina, who opened Los Nogales in Thornton 25 years ago, though he is no longer involved there. He closed Tres Chiles years ago for “personal reasons.” Santo Remedio, another Mexican spot, called the space home from early 2024 through the middle of last year before relocating to Jefferson Park.
Medina immigrated from Chihuahua, a state in northern Mexico, over 35 years ago and has lived in Denver since 1991, he said. He finished building his own house, just blocks away from the future Cenizas, last year and has been in the Berkeley neighborhood for 20 years.
He and his wife are the brains behind the project, and their 12-year-old child will one day join the family business, he said.
“This is something I love to do. This is my neighborhood. I love this place,” he said. “The first time I saw this building for sale I knew what I was going to build. This is my dream, so coming back to this is an honor.”
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