As we climb the stairs from Avenue 19 food hall toward the stylishly understated sign and turn into Inefable, we find Fernando Trancoso near the restaurant’s hostess stand. He’s checking in with his staff as the dinner service builds momentum on this Friday night, but we’ve caught him in just the right spot for a welcome and greeting. While he’s not normally at the front door, it’s not unusual to see the chef and owner present in the dining room. Throughout our meal, we can see him moving throughout the dining room, the bar and kitchen, supporting his staff, cooking, serving, greeting his customers, ensuring that they are enjoying their dining experience. This is Trancoso’s restaurant, after all, and the achievement of a long-time dream. His passion for every aspect of Inefable is evident, and he is able to mingle with his guests because of the relentless hours he puts into the preparation of his food, his drinks, his service, his staff, his restaurant — his home.
“What I want them to take from my restaurant is the experience that they’re at my house, they’re sitting at my table,” Trancoso tells me during an earlier visit and interview. “The way I see it is if you’re sitting at my table, we’re going to eat, we’re going to drink, we’re going to have a good time, we’re going to talk. We’re more than friends. You are welcome into my home.”
There’s a warmth and humility to Trancoso that pair well with his passion for food and for his elevated Mexican cuisine. Since opening in December 2023, Inefable has brought a new level of Mexican fine dining to Colorado Springs. The opening came with high expectations thanks to Trancoso’s reputation and loyal following from his former food truck, Tepex. Trancoso is meeting and exceeding those expectations, and Inefable easily deserves it’s place among the best restaurants in Colorado Springs.
Falling in Love with Food
In a sense, Inefable is a dream that has come full circle for Trancoso, from discovering a love for food in his native Mexico to sharing an unexpected intricacy to that cuisine with others. Trancoso grew up in Aguascalientes, the capital city of the same-named state in north-central Mexico. He began helping in taco stands as a kid and fell in love with food. He soon started earning his own money so he could try more dishes and style of food. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a teenager and discovered a new world of various cuisines when he began working in restaurants. He worked his way from the dish pits to sommelier certification and managing some of the best restaurants in Santa Fe: Sazón, Izanami, Restaurant Martín. He considers the 10-time James Beard-nominated Chef Martín Rios one of his mentors. The highly respected Santa Fe food scene was an excellent place to learn, but not one where Trancoso saw himself owning his own restaurant. Making your mark in a scene vying for top national awards is a daunting task. (This year alone, Santa Fe has four chef nominees for James Beard Awards and one restaurant, Alkeme, nominated for best new restaurant in the country.)
So Trancoso headed to Colorado at the beginning of the pandemic. “I ran away with the circus, and I started this adventure,” he says.
That adventure in Colorado Springs began with a short-lived initial food truck partnership. Within months he changed course, opening his own food truck: Tepex. The lines grew long quickly, and Trancoso built a loyal following. His popular pairing dinners in locations such as Lost Friends Brewery also gave him opportunities to showcase his fine dining skills and serve the creative dishes he is constantly concocting. Those who tasted his innovative fare knew it was only a matter of time before Trancoso moved on beyond the food truck.
Trancoso knew it too, but the truck gave him the versatility to establish himself in his new adopted hometown as the COVID-19 pandemic waned. It also gave him a place to plan and create.
Inefable: Going Beyond Words
When the right opportunity arrived in the rebirth of the Avenue 19 food hall downtown, Trancoso was ready. The name for his new restaurant was certainly ready. It had been with him since childhood.
“I read a lot,” he says. “When I was a kid, that was my favorite pastime: books, books and more books.” That was when he discovered a new word: inefable. It sounded beautiful enough to send him to a dictionary.
“When I saw the meaning, it was like, Wow! and it stuck in the back of my mind. It’s always been there. Inefable is Spanish for ineffable: something you cannot explain with words but that leaves you with a good feeling in body, mind and spirit,” Trancoso says. “That’s what I want to give my guests, that nice feeling of I can’t explain this dish, but it brought me to a place or a person or a memory. It made me feel something.”
There is an artistry to Trancoso’s food, and the name works well to represent that imaginative passion. His dishes are creative. His flavors are innovative. His presentations are beautiful and exquisitely detailed.
Take his Pato al Pipian, for example, one of the most popular dishes on the Inefable menu — for good reason. The duck confit starts with a traditional French recipe but gets a Mexican remix thanks to a wonderful toasted pumpkin seed green mole. Although unfamiliar to many American diners, the green mole is popular in Central and Southern Mexico, Trancoso says. The puree bursts with flavor, adding a subtle spice and complementary heat to the succulent duck.
Trancoso’s Pork Belly al Pastor crosses cultures in the other direction, beginning with traditional Mexican tacos al pastor, then adding French technique. “It’s seasoned and marinated French style: coriander, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic,” Trancoso says. After a few hours in the oven at low temperature, the pastor then marinates for at least 24 hours. The finished dish falls off of your fork and melts into the moderate, slightly smoky tang of salsa morita, made from fully ripened jalapeño peppers.
I could go on. Trancoso’s ceviche is like none I’ve ever had and the best dish I’ve eaten recently in the Springs. The appetizer is a work of art centered around hamachi sashimi rather than the salsa-like blends of my ceviche experience. The silky, mild yellowtail fish is topped with passion fruit emulsion, citrus supremes, pickled onion, rolled cucumber, delicate microgreens and a bit of sliced jalapeño. A layer of avocado paste rings the deep plate, adding a creamy harmony to this dish that sings with a citrusy freshness.
A Mexican Restaurant at Heart
Call it gourmet. Call it fine dining. Call it fusion. None of these labels is wrong to describe Inefable, but don’t forget the Mexican. “If they ask me, ‘What kind of food do you serve?’ every time the answer is Mexican food,” Trancoso says. “Not necessarily what they think of as Mexican, but it’s no less Mexican than any other Mexican food.”
While he sees more awareness, Trancoso says he wants to overcome American misconceptions about Mexican food.. “We know so little about Mexican food in the U.S.,” he says. “For example, Mexico has seven different regions, and every region has its own take on Mexican cuisine.”
Although there’s not room in this article for a full description, Trancoso is skilled at summarizing those regional variations of Mexican cuisine and the agricultural and historical foundations that have shaped them. His knowledge runs deep. So does pride for his heritage, evident in the Mexican flag embroidered on his chef’s coat above his heart.
“The misrepresentation of Mexican food in the world is changing now,” he says. “But [my cooking] starts with feeling that sense of pride and passion for your roots, where you come from. Mexican food is one of the main things we have to offer. It’s the most beautiful thing Mexico gave to the world — along with Salma Hayek.”
Representing the breadth of Mexican cuisine motivates Trancoso. So does the positive attention he has received around the opening of Inefable. He says it drives him to work harder, to do more. “You have to raise the bar because people will be expecting more from you,” Trancoso says.
But there is a sense of joy evident when Trancoso talks about creating and experimenting with food. “I see it as some kind of healthy obsession with food,” he says. “You always will find me in the kitchen cooking something, trying something new, testing recipes. When I’m in the kitchen, I’m happy.”
He often shares his creations on social media, previewing them for holiday menus or chef dinners like a recent guest chef dinner with Rafael Zamora of Santa Fe’s La Fonda Hotel. As for regular menus, Trancoso plans to change twice a year. Some favorite dishes will remain year round while others will change for colder or warmer months. Watch for special chef dinners on a monthly basis.
Inspiring the Colorado Springs Food Scene
When Trancoso does get out of the kitchen, he loves basketball and a good road trip. “I get up early, jump in the car, get some coffee, loud music and drive,” he says. The music might be Mexican or hip hop from the ’90s and early 2000s. “No reggaeton; I hate reggaeton,” he says. “Maybe Latin music; salsa, cumbia, merengue.”
On one recent trip, Trancoso decided to do some research in Los Angeles and explore the debate of who has the best Mexican food in the U.S. “I said, ‘OK, now I’m a food critic. I’m going to see what they’re doing, that we are not.’ You know what I found? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I know food trucks and restaurants that are doing exactly the same things as Mexican restaurants in San Antonio, Mexican restaurants in L.A, Mexican food in Texas, Mexican food in Arizona, Mexican food in California.”
When I ask about some of his favorite local restaurants, Trancoso replies, “Beto [Reyes] at Eleven18 is doing great things. Beto and I are good friends, and I’ve always enjoyed his food. I go to Las Americas all the time. Leonela’s. I love those Spanish markets like Carniceria Leonela, Luna, Tlaquepaque. At Luna’s Market, the lady in the kitchen asked me, ‘Why do you come here? You have a food truck,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, but I like your tacos better than mine.’”
He also lists The Famous and Ephemera as favorites. But Mexican food clearly — and understandably — has a special place in his heart. His hope is that it will inspire others to an even better local food scene.
“What I’m doing is to represent my culture, to represent who I am, but my main thing is to inspire somebody else to get in the kitchen and create,” Trancoso says. “We are so tired of people saying we want to be like Denver. I don’t want to be like Denver. I enjoy Denver, but I don’t want to be like Denver. I want this to be Colorado Springs. If I can inspire one chef, and that chef inspires two more chefs, and two more, and two more, then we create a movement.”
With Inefable, Trancoso is well under way.
NOTE: As of August 2024, Inefable is closed indefinitely while Chef Fernando Trancoso seeks a new location. In the meantime, visit his Tepex food truck.
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