"I think people sense when things have soul. Like real good intentions with art, with food."

This art installation was intended to launch the whole RE:FRESH project, but the full execution was halted by the pandemic. It involved a special collaboration with suicide prevention advocacy nonprofit, Hope For The Day, whose tagline is "It's OK not to be OK.” This message continues to share abright, hopeful, and supportive message during an uncertain time. It launched at our DU location during Mental Health Awareness Month.

Our Park Hill mural continues the La Loteria card mural tradition—which began the year after Pete Sr. lost his battle with cancer. The mural explores our new brand colors, icons, and type while honoring the longstanding motif. It provides a pathway through which diners are welcome to enjoy themselves without a formal introduction. What's for the experienced, is for the newcomer alike, and when one is ready, there's always more to explore.

The space behind restaurants and in alleys can often feel dark and unwelcoming. With staff using this space at our DU location during their breaks, and guests parking behind the restaurant, we wanted to make the area bright and inviting. As an extension of Olive Moya’s previous hope-filled mural, this art project brings colorful, well-lit messages like "We're Glad You're Here" and "Stay With Us.” It was meant to illuminate the shadows, both literally and figuratively.

Transform a rusted woven metal fence surrounding the parking lot and patio to the west, to create a beautiful and unexpected landscape, framing the restaurant and its activity as its subject.

Our first location, opened right off CU campus on August 15, 1995, utilized as our only promo a crime-scene stylized photo of a lion about to go in on a gazelle with the original censor bar Illegal Pete’s logo over its eyes. The blown-up, black-and-white image was put over the windows as construction finished inside the building, and it left passersby wondering what the f* Illegal Pete's was going to be...a pet store, as folks kept asking what Illegal Pet’s was?