After 80 years, La Popular still supplies the tamales, tortillas, and fresh masa at the heart of Denver family celebrations
DENVER — Every year, as the holidays approach, families across Denver make the same trip to a small storefront on Lawrence Street. For HispanicBusinessTV publisher Daniel Armendariz, it’s a family tradition: buying masa from La Popular to make tamales together at home.
La Popular has been feeding those traditions since 1946. The Galindo family founded it, and in 1961 Sal De La Torre bought the business and ran it with his family for more than three decades. After Sal, his nephew Jesus led La Popular for about 20 years, keeping it in the family.
From the Firehouse Back to the Family Business
Today, La Popular is run by Sal’s son, Dan De La Torre, who knows the business from the ground up. He started making tamales at 13, coming to the shop after school to work alongside his family.
Dan then spent 33 years as a firefighter in Aurora, serving the community in a very different way, before coming back to take over the family business.
Under Dan, La Popular modernized its production while keeping everything that made it special. New equipment let the shop make 50 dozen tamales in 30 minutes, a big step that opened the door to larger commercial and wholesale customers.
Recipes That Haven’t Changed
What hasn’t changed are the recipes. La Popular still makes its tamales from fresh-ground masa using the De La Torre family’s original recipes, in two classic styles: a mild red chile pork and a spicy green chile pork. The shop also makes corn and flour tortillas, chips, taco and tostada shells, salsas, and pastries, and it sells fresh stone-ground masa every day, plain or prepared, for families making their own.
That consistency has earned La Popular a long list of honors, including Westword’s Best of Denver award for Best Tamales in 2025, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2016, and 2004.
Like small businesses everywhere, La Popular faced hard times during COVID, and it came through. Asked what keeps him going, Dan points to “the pride of sustaining the business longevity”: the same family recipes, still made the same way, generations later. He’s also quick to thank the people who made that possible, and says he’s grateful to the Denver community for its support over the years.
A Season of Tamaladas
November and December are La Popular’s busiest months, as families stock up for Posadas, holiday gatherings, and tamaladas. The single busiest day of the year is Christmas Eve, when lines form for tamales to take home for Nochebuena. The shop recommends ordering holiday tamales well in advance.
Visit La Popular
La Popular is at 2033 Lawrence St. in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, open Monday–Friday 7 a.m.–5 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Learn more at https://www.google.com/url?q=http://lapopulartamales.com&source=gmail&ust=1791488988207000&sa=E or call 303-296-1687.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, HispanicBusinessTV and WooWhoLocal celebrate the family businesses that keep Denver’s traditions alive.
