Denver · Colorado
Custom food trailers for Denver, Colorado.
Built from scratch in our Texas shop, spec'd for Colorado — altitude, freeze package and all — and financed by us with weekly payments. About 920 miles from our shop — a two-day tow, scheduled properly.
- Spec'd for the elevation. Every gas appliance re-orificed, because factory settings are for below 2,000 ft and Colorado has nowhere that low.
- Freeze package fitted. Heated and insulated tank bay, heat-taped lines, skirting, labelled drain-down ports.
- Plan-review submittal in your hand — floor plan, equipment specs, mechanicals.
- Weekly payments, no bank, no credit check. No Colorado builder offers this.
No obligation. No credit pull to get a quote. We answer in one business day or we call you.
The Denver market, honestly
Denver is the largest mobile food market in the Rocky Mountain region and the only Colorado city that runs its own licensing regime end to end. It has the densest brewery scene, the biggest event calendar, and the most competition — both from operators and from the three or four builders based in the metro. It is also the city where getting the paperwork order wrong is most expensive.
28.0% of Denver identifies as Hispanic or Latino (US Census QuickFacts, 2025 estimate) — and we work in Spanish.
Where Denver operators actually park
- Brewery and taproom lots across RiNo, Baker, Berkeley and the Highlands — Colorado taprooms generally can't serve food, so a vendor slot is closer to a necessity than an amenity
- Federal Boulevard, Westwood and the west side, where the Hispanic food scene is concentrated
- Downtown and LoDo office lunch trade
- Event work — a relentless summer calendar, plus festivals and stadium-adjacent trade
- Commerce City and the northern industrial belt, fifteen minutes out and 48.5% Hispanic
A trailer we delivered to Denver
- TAIMA — 8 × 18 ft, hot dogs and street food
Real trailers, real owners. If you want to talk to one of them before you buy from us, ask and we'll give you the number.
Licensing and inspection in Denver
Denver licenses separately from the rest of Colorado, and HB25-1295 built a bridge between the two. A valid Denver retail food licence is treated as a state health department licence, and a state licence holder can operate in Denver through Denver's reciprocal process. That bridge is Denver ↔ state only — it does not make a county licence portable.
The expensive trap: Denver requires department approval before fabrication for self-contained units, and re-approval for any change afterwards. A builder who fabricates first and submits later can hand you a trailer that has to be rebuilt. We produce the plan-review submittal as part of the build and don't cut metal on a Denver self-contained unit until it's approved.
Denver's published water sizing is the strictest we've found in Colorado: fresh tank at minimum 10 gallons or 3 gallons per hour of operation, whichever is greater, and large enough to fill the three-compartment sink once every four hours. Handwash basin minimum 10 in × 10 in, hands-free, 1 GPM, 100–120°F through a mixing valve.
Denver Fire has required a Type I hood with an extinguishment system on grease- and smoke-producing equipment since May 2018, allows a maximum 200 lb of propane, and permits a single external cooking appliance — a smoker or grill — provided all prep and service happen inside the unit. Denver also requires an independent power source.
Denver's self-contained exemption requires a mop sink, a food prep sink and a three-compartment sink on board, plus a limited menu — a single category. If your concept needs breadth, that route may not be open to you regardless of how the trailer is built.
| What you need | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Health licence | Denver Department of Public Health & Environment. Statutory annual fee for 2026: $481 full service or $338 prepackaged, rising in 2027 and 2028. Counties may charge less. |
| Plan review | Required, and a real submittal — menu, floor plan, equipment specs with manufacturer information, and plumbing/electrical/ventilation mechanicals. Commonly $155 filing plus hourly review, capped at $580 or $900 depending on the agency. We supply the package. |
| Fire inspection | Local, but Colorado has converged on IFC §319 and the statewide Fire Marshals Association of Colorado checklist — which exists in English and Spanish. A valid fire safety permit is now reciprocal across Colorado jurisdictions. |
| Commissary | Written into the statutory definition of a mobile food establishment. Some jurisdictions allow a self-contained unit instead, on strict conditions. |
| Electrical | Colorado adopts the 2023 National Electrical Code statewide, effective 1 August 2023. Municipalities may be more stringent, not less. |
| Plumbing & fuel gas | IPC 2021 and IFGC 2021 adopted statewide (3 CCR 720-1) — which is why manufacturer high-altitude instructions are enforceable here, not just advisory. |
| Sales tax & business licensing | Colorado Department of Revenue, plus any city licence. Colorado Springs, for example, charges $110/year for its own mobile food vendor licence. |
What we build differently for Denver
Every Colorado trailer leaves here with high-altitude gas orifices, a listed LP-gas alarm (IFC §319.8.5 — the item that most often fails an out-of-state build), the freeze package, water tanks sized to Colorado's local math, brakes rated for mountain descent, and stowable awnings. The full list of what changes →
Concepts we build for: taco, birria, BBQ, coffee, pizza and whatever you're actually selling. Tell us the menu and we draw the layout around it.
Denver — questions
Do you deliver to Denver?
Yes. About 920 miles from our shop — a two-day tow, scheduled properly. Delivery is quoted with the build, so it's a known number rather than a surprise at the end, and we walk you through every system on site.
What licence do I need to operate in Denver?
A retail food establishment licence for a mobile unit from Denver Department of Public Health & Environment, plus plan review, plus a local fire safety permit, plus state and city business and sales tax registration. The statutory annual licence fee for 2026 is $481 full service or $338 prepackaged.
Can I get financing in Denver with bad credit?
We don't check credit. We carry the financing ourselves with weekly payments, so there's no bank and no credit-score cutoff — and as far as we can tell, no builder in Colorado offers in-house financing at all. How it works →
Do I really need the altitude and freeze work?
The altitude orifices, yes — manufacturers configure appliances for below 2,000 ft and Colorado has nowhere that low, and because Colorado adopts the 2021 fuel gas code statewide, installing against the manufacturer's instructions is a code violation. The freeze package is not required by any code and we'll say so plainly — it's the difference between a trailer that works in November and a burst line.
¿Atienden en español?
Sí, todo — cotización, plano, contrato, garantía y entrega. Ver en español →
Other Colorado markets
Start selling before you finish paying.
Tell us what you're going to sell and we'll send back a floor plan and a weekly payment — no obligation, no credit pull.