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Latina-owned Longmont restaurant serves up slices of Peruvian culture, takes Coloradans on a tasty journey to the Andes
This story was originally published in October. It was featured on a CBS Colorado newscast on Dec. 26.
Rosario’s Peruvian Restaurant in Longmont has become a staple in the Denver metro area over the last 10 years, thanks to the determination and passion for cooking by the restaurant’s owner Rosario Cardenas.
Cardenas spends seven days a week at her beloved namesake restaurant, joking that she calls it her “bebé” — Spanish for “baby.”
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But how she made the restaurant a success is no joke at all, it’s the culmination of hard work and persistence to turn a vision into reality.
“I’ve always said, if you can dream it, you can accomplish it, and for me, the restaurant was my dream,” Cardenas said in an interview with CBS News Colorado translated from Spanish.
Rosario’s is an unassuming little place in a small strip mall off Ken Pratt Boulevard, but for the last decade it has been serving up big, bold flavors from recipes Cardenas brought with her from her home in Perú — recipes that have helped her solidify a status for many as the best Peruvian restaurant in the Denver metro area.
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Cardenas has regular customers who will drive three to four hours, some even from Wyoming, just to enjoy her cooking.
“When I cook, I visualize bringing the plate to the table and the look of satisfaction on people’s faces, and I’m always thinking what they’re going to say and I’m excited to hear their constructive criticisms,” Cardenas said. “For me it’s not work, it’s a delight.”
As a former teacher and school principal, cooking used to be just a hobby. But when she immigrated to the U.S., she couldn’t use her education degree here, so she decided to use her talents to share her country’s unique dishes with her new community, like Peruvian ceviche, which is traditionally made with a special ají pepper and served with sweet potatoes, or lomo saltado, a beef stir fry served over rice.
Rosario’s isn’t just about delicious food, it’s also serving up slices of Peruvian culture. It’s part of Cardenas’ vision to help customers feel like they’ve taken a trip to her home country.
“I try to help them learn through my food what Perú can offer as a gastronomic and cultural tourism center, and my focus is that everything we make in this restaurant is of the best quality,” Cardenas said.
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She created a concept on her menu called “tours,” where guests can have samples of all kinds of Peruvian dishes.
“Some don’t know what Peruvian food is about, and because of that, I had an idea, I said to myself, ‘I want to take them to get to know my country,'” Cardenas said. “So, I made these dishes called Peruvian tours, it’s like a small trip to my country.”
Her daughter Estefany Martínez has helped out at Rosario’s since the restaurant opened.
“Being Peruvian is something that’s really important to me, and getting to show that to not just my friends, but also to other people, and them getting to see the best aspect of Peruvian food through my mom’s cooking is phenomenal,” Martínez said.
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She says it’s also been wonderful to see how her mom’s food has helped bring other Latino cultures together in the metro area.
“Food is a great way to connect, not just with the Peruvian community, but every single community. We have people from Mexico, Columbia, from all parts of South and Latin America, and they are always like, ‘I have a hard time finding a restaurant that represents my culture, but your restaurant has been the closest thing that I’ve been able to find to my mom’s cooking or my family’s cooking,'” she explained. “So, having us be that connection between other people and their culture and their heritage, I think it’s just beautiful.”
Martínez says the first couple of years were tough for the restaurant to stay open, but her mom was determined.
“She’s my biggest inspiration, I think everything I am now, and everything I’ve done is because of her,” Martínez said. “She’s taught me that even if you don’t feel like you fit in, fight for who you are.”
Inspired by her mom, Martínez is now pursuing a business and marketing degree at the University of Colorado Boulder, and she hopes her mom’s success will encourage others to also follow their dreams.
Cardenas said, “this country offers you a lot of opportunities, and as immigrants, we need to do and give the best of us.”
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says Americans need to know about “huge amount of misinformation” on election
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