How Chef Rick Bayless is Connected to CO Tex-Mex

In today's Denver Post feature about Colorado Tex-Mex chain The Rio Grande we revisit many aspects of the margarita destination. None of the college-aged hippie founders from Houston had restaurant experience (well, one worked at KFC), no one dreamed of wealth and no one saw six restaurants in the future. We also learn that Rio president Pat McGaughran enlisted uber-zen celeb chef Rick Bayless to help him research Oaxaca cuisine for El Monte Grill, his more recent restaurant venture in Ft. Collins. Moral of the story? Hippie wanderers, as McGaughran describes his crew, can turn into restaurateurs and Bayless is an Oaxaca guru.

· Fort Collins' Margaritaville [DP]
· Looking Beyond The Marg at The Rio Grande [~EDen~]