Rocky Mountain Taco is celebrating 10 years in 2025

The origin story of Rocky Mountain Taco is both hilarious and resilient. But this summer, its three owners and longtime staff are celebrating 10 years serving the “World’s Most Best Taco” now out of three locations. And while the flavorful, filling and affordable menu has stayed mostly the same with Southern California-inspired Mexican fusion food, Rocky Mountain Taco has come a long way after starting with a 20-year-old taco truck parked outside of a brewery — and marijuana dispensary — in 2015.

But even before that, their story starts in Anaheim, California, where co-owners Dan Purtell and Chris McGinnis grew up together, wreaking havoc at West Coast skateparks. As some of their high school friends packed up and moved to Avon to work at a pizza shop, they soon followed. It was from working side-by-side together, talking after hours in the kitchen and even into mornings from their apartment that Rocky Mountain Taco was born. Jose Reza, the third owner of RMT, also worked at the pizza shop and willingly signed up after overhearing their plans.

“Picture Beavis and Butthead on a couch, just talking,” McGinnis says of his and Purtell’s late-night conversations, surrounded by skateboards in their man cave. “We had to try it.”

Soon, the world aligned. Colorado voters legalized marijuana and a Native Roots shop was opening in EagleVail — next to the newly opened Vail Brewing Company. It’s worth noting, to fully set the scene, that a Crossfit gym was there as well. So Purtell and McGinnis, the friendly folk they are, joined in the scene.

But it was a rough start to Rocky Mountain Taco. The truck was freezing cold inside, the transmission went out on the way to one of their first gigs in Rancho del Rio and the owners were cashing in retirements, selling their dirt bikes and scrapping to make ends meet. But then, halfway through the first year, they were invited to WinterWonderGrass in Avon, where business boomed and the rest is history.

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“We were just thinking this would be so funny,” McGinnis recalls of opening RMT.

While the food truck was officially off and running now, with a home parked next to a brewery and pot shop, they decided to open a brick and mortar restaurant. Thanks to community commissaries, they were able to function — but they wanted their own space. With an opening date and party planned, COVID hit and they had to pivot and open a week later for takeout only.

Originally designed as a home base for their trucks, with eight chairs, the Rocky Mountain Taco Minturn location now has 150 seats, including a patio. There are also apartments upstairs where some of them live. Those skateboards once hanging in their man cave now don the entire restaurant’s walls — well over 100 beautiful boards, each with a story.

With locations in Avon, Minturn and EagleVail, plus a food truck that comes to you, Rocky Mountain Taco is a community business, created by members of the community. And despite the rocky start, Rocky Mountain Taco is still having fun 10 years in. But whenever they start talking about their next big ideas, McGinnis is torn.

“Why not buy a puppy and maybe not work so much,” he says with his French bulldog Mija on his lap, gearing up for another busy day at Rocky Mountain Taco in Minturn — where he walks downstairs with his wife to work every day. “We still love it.”