Inside Chubby’s, the Northside's Green Chile Empire

Fall is here and the chiles are roasting — but at The Original Chubby’s Burger Drive Inn, it’s always green chile season. For more than half a century, the Cordova family has been serving up some of the city’s spiciest and most beloved green chile, smothering everything from burritos and rellenos to burgers and fries. But it turns out, the secret to Chubby’s magic isn’t just heat and spice — it’s a whole culture spawned from the family’s matriarch Stella Cordova. Today on the show, City Cast Denver politics and green chile correspondent Justine Sandoval joins host Bree Davies to give a neighborhood insider’s take on the sprawling Chubby’s family empire and her tips on how to have the best Chubby’s experience. 

We gleaned a lot of great info on the Cordova family from “Smothered: The Saga of the Chubby's Empire,” Adam Cayton-Holland’s 2007 Westword piece (which includes a conversation with the late, great Stella Cordova herself!)

Bree mentioned our episode about the global meat giant JBS’s new plant-based subsidiary Planterra.

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