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In its 17th year, Colorado Asian Culture and Education Network proudly announces the 2026 Asian American Heroes of Colorado

Since 1986, Kokoro has built a loyal following of diners who love Japanese food, want it authentic, affordable, quick and easy. Kokoro, with two locations in Denver and in Arvada, was “fast casual” before the term became a business model for chains like Chipotle and Noodles & Company. This year, Kokoro celebrates its 40th birthday as a popular pillar of Denver’s Japanese dining scene. It is a reliable destination for loyal diners who want real, legit Japanese cuisine in a relaxed setting (or from a drive-through window) at an affordable price. But, most of its fans may not know that Kokoro, a family-run business, has roots that are even older than four decades, and in fact, reaches back to 1899 and the establishment of a gyudon, or beef bowl, restaurant named Yoshinoya in Japan. Yoshinoya began as a street food concept, selling thin-sliced marinated beef and onions over rice to laborers for a quick meal. In the postwar 1950s, it expanded into a chain that would go on to dominate Japan’s beef bowl market, with nearly 1,200 locations across the country. Yoshinoya expanded into the U.S. in 1973 and established its headquarters near downtown Denver. Just two years later, in 1975, Yoshinoya opened its first Colorado restaurant at Colfax and Logan. Although Yoshinoya opened several more Denver locations by the mid-1980s the company had pulled out of the state. Today, there are still over a hundred Yoshinoya restaurants left in America, but mostly in California. Yoshinoya’s legacy in Denver is Kokoro, which took over the vacant Colorado Boulevard location in 1986. The man who opened it, Mareo Torito, came from Japan and had been the manager of Yoshinoya’s Denver operation. He married a woman who was a server at Yoshinoya and stayed in Colorado when the company left for California. Torito later opened Kokoro, which means “heart” in Japanese and built it into its own successful operation, eventually expanding to a second location in Arvada. Today, the restaurants are run by his son, Masaru, while Mareo leads a broader family enterprise that includes RedBird Farms. Founded in 1949 and acquired by Torito in 1990, RedBird Farms has become a powerhouse brand known for its high-quality chicken, raised without antibiotics or steroids, and fed a vegetarian diet in a cage-free environment. The company supplies both restaurants and major supermarket chains like King Soopers and Safeway. In a news report, Torito noted that RedBird accounts for approximately 40% of Colorado’s chicken market. Masaru, Torito’s son, reflects on his father’s ambition: “He never expected RedBird to get so big, but I believe he wanted it to reach a scale where it could compete with the industry’s biggest players. In my words, he aimed to be a predator in the ocean, even if he never saw himself as a ‘big fish.’” Kokoro is not a big fish in the restaurant scene, but it’s doing just fine, thank you. Celebrating 40 years is no small feat, and for its anniversary, a new item was added to the menu: Miso-Teriyaki Japanese Chicken Wings, made with RedBird chicken coated with a spicy-sweet miso-teriyaki garlic glaze sprinkled with sesame seeds.  Over the decades, Torito has added plenty of items to the menu, from its beef and chicken and veggie bowls to tasty ramen dishes. Traditional udon noodles are served under the modern name “Splash,” while yakisoba fried noodles carry the playful moniker “Sobaghetti.” The menu also features beef and chicken curry, seafood rice bowls with unagi eel, salmon, and shrimp tempura, as well as Hawaiian-style poke bowls. Last year, the restaurant even added handmade onigiri rice balls to its sushi selection.