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Around this time last year Lauren and I were in Los Angeles visiting friends and eating yummy food, of course. One spot our pals introduced us to was a place near their Pasadena home named Cluck2Go. It specializes in Hainan chicken and rice, of Chinese origin but now widely popular across Southeast Asia under other names. One of those is khao mun kai — the Thai moniker.

Despite the multitude of local Thai eateries, I’m not aware of any serving khao mun kai — that is until now, with five-month-old food cart Thai Style. They park behind Downtown Fine Spirits & Wines downtown, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays.

I’m directed to the spot by BrewCha owner Fatima Concepcion, who just opened her tea kiosk inside COATI back in June. When I’m in for a drink recently, she tells me khao mun kai is her favorite dish, and she introduces me to her friend Joy (full name Nadakorn Yancharoon) who happens to also be there at the time.

I know that Fatima knows her stuff, and I figure if a Thai person is directing me to Thai food somewhere it will definitely be authentic and good.

Before I tell you more about the dish and our impressions of it, here’s a little more about the owners: Joy’s partner in the venture is Chanupong Mahakiattikhun, who goes by “NU” as a nickname. The two worked as sushi chefs together at Sushi Thai Woodland Park for the two years preceding Thai Style’s launch. He’s from the northern city of Chiang Mai and she’s from Bangkok originally.

They tell me a familiar story I’ve heard from countless industry people over the years: after working for other people for a long time they desired something of their own. While they wish they could afford a brick-and-mortar spot now, realistically the food truck model is the way to get off the ground and stay nimble meanwhile. While they’re growing their walk-up business they’re also fulfilling orders on all the major third-party-delivery platforms. (Know that you can order ahead directly online for self-pickup to save yourself and them the extra service fees.)

Back to the food and drink: Whatever you order, don’t miss pairing it with Joy’s homemade salted lime and honey juice ($5), a stellar, sour-sweet sipper that’s an electrolyte pick-me-up due to the sodium. It’s a 90-plus-degree day when we’re visiting so the drink hits perfectly, reminding me of how essential these types of drinks are when traveling to tropical places. (I’m thinking back to my own time in Thailand as well as Indonesia.)

Because I’ve come to visit her truck literally the day after we met at COATI, Joy rewards me with a complimentary Thai iced tea — classic, equally refreshing between bites and definitely what I want to be drinking with the Pad Thai I order.

Pad Thai’s an easy litmus plate for determining a place’s true prowess, even though Fatima already vouched for this one. (I’m recalling my CS Indy days, where we did “food fights” and battled renditions of dishes around town to pick a favorite. We once ran all over trying multiple Pad Thai executions; I honestly can’t remember who won.)

We’ve selected shrimp as our protein and a medium-hot spicing level. Thai Style’s flavors absolutely slap. Great Pad Thai beautifully balances the taste sensations, as this one does. I think back to Side Dish Dozen member Suwanna Meyer of Elephant and Chaang Thai describing it to me last year: “In Bangkok, the flavors need to be savory, sweet, sour and salty, but not too sweet — just the perfect combo.”

Anyway, Joy and NU’s version tastes extra rich and feels so textually, exuding roasted peanut essence and a nice and toasty wok hay. Fresh squeeze of lime — chef’s kiss.

On finally to the khao mun kai, the dish exists as a polar opposite to Pad Thai’s layered complexity. Its delight stems from its utter simplicity and almost one-note poignancy. It’s like a super clean expression of chicken-y-ness, but not the bad, somebody-overcooked-it, dry kind of near-cat-food chicken. I’m talking about juicy and tender bird, cooked in a redundant chicken broth to infuse more pollo power. The central seasoning is ginger, which infuses the meat in the marinade, the broth and the bed of rice the chicken comes atop, accompanied by refreshing cucumber slices.

The broth gets served on the side for dipping bites, but I have no qualms going against advice and dumping it over the chicken and rice (to get the hot liquid out of a plastic container … I bring my own glass to-go ware to save packaging waste, hence my photos not showing typical to-go boxes). Also: I ordered the steamed chicken version, so I wouldn’t be sogging the crust of the fried chicken version; you can also order a combo of the two to try it both ways.

We enjoy the broth-soaked bites alone, with forkfuls of rice and with a side of provided house ginger sauce atop. Joy says they make it with fresh ginger, garlic, fermented soybean paste and fresh chilies, blended with their house sauce “to create a rich, flavorful dipping sauce.” It adds a pop of seasoning and mild spiciness, perhaps destroying the purity of the dish at its most traditional, but once you’ve experienced that why not enjoy it other ways?

Thai Style’s small menu also offers apps (like spring rolls or gyoza); a few fried rice plates (including a pineapple with cashews and veggies option); a couple of stir-fry items (basil-veggie-meat choice or orange chicken); and two more noodle dishes: drunken noodles and pad see ew.

My concluding question for group discussion: Will khao mun kai catch on here in C. Springs as it has internationally, such that we see it pop up on other Thai menus? Or will Thai Style enjoy exclusive service?

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Salsa Brava to close and yield to Urban Egg

Rocky Mountain Restaurant Group (RMRG) founder Randy Price calls the sunsetting of Salsa Brava “bittersweet” in a press release, honoring the brand that launched his wider company in 2002.

On Aug. 29, the last-standing location at 5925 Dublin Blvd. will give way to the Urban Egg it shares space with. The press release sites guest-facing benefits to the takeover like increased seating capacity, extended operating hours and shorter wait times, while noting behind-the-scenes operational improvements like kitchen efficiencies.

In talking with GM Brad Gartner and Marketing Director Jami Leahy and asking more about the “why” of the decision, I glean the closure isn’t about Salsa Brava’s financials being problematic, but more about streamlining everything under a single strong brand. Plus, operating dual brands up to now under a single roof, and in a single kitchen, has effectively meant two separate staffs sharing space.

The brand at one point ran locations off Briargate and Rockrimmon. The Briar Village Point spot transitioned into an Urban Egg in 2019 and the Village Center Drive one became Salsa on the Rock that same year, purchased by a longtime employee. It closed in early 2025 and his since become another Miguel’s location.

While acknowledging Salsa Brava’s legacy, the two spokespeople say they aren’t looking back. Other than for the next month of specials to “celebrate the journey we’ve had over 24 years,” says Leahy. “We’re focusing on the future of the company,” Gartner says.

The future includes more Urban Egg locations in other states, operated by RMRG (with investor funding), not franchisees. Several spots among the dozen-plus portfolio exist along the Front Range, with a couple in Kansas City and multiple now in Texas, too. Austin will get its first location soon.

Springs locals might remember that Urban Egg was first named Over Easy before it rebranded in late 2018. The first Over Easy (inspired by Denver’s Snooze) opened downtown in fall 2012, next door to Sonterra Innovative Southwest Grill, another early RMRG concept that closed down in 2019.

Leahy tells me Urban Egg is “constantly evolving.” Menus tend to be updated a couple times annually with minor changes informed by input from culinary management at each location.

“They can submit ideas and we’ll R&D it,” she says, noting seasonal scone flavors are one more item for fans to look out for. Right now at the University Village location you’ll find a Dubai chocolate scone that was in market testing during July and will be featured on menus company-wide come August, alongside new items like a Smoked Salmon Benedict that was a prior seasonal hit.

But back to Salsa Brava’s swan song: You can head in during the final month for specials like $5 house and $8 Perfect Patrón margaritas (at 2002 pricing). There will also be throwback dishes like Margarita Chicken Enchiladas, made with Jack cheese and spinach, tomatillo lime sauce, fajita-marinated chicken and cilantro cream. (We relish it during our visit as part of a trio of plates the team brings us to photograph.)

At their direction we revisit a “Christmas” (red and green chile) steak burrito and the bestselling fajita platter, both of which highlight notably tender and succulent beef, salty and seared and complementary to all the fixings. I sip on the housemade pineapple-vodka martini, served up with a sugar rim. Its flavor hits like a boozy agua fresca, the fruit doing all the talking, lightening the comfort food’s heaviness.

That pineapple-vodka martini (which sees the fruit steeped in vodka for a month) has been such a Salsa Brava staple since day one that RMRG incorporated it into Urban Egg’s menu too. It’s utilized as component in a couple other cocktails: with OJ and prosecco in the Maui Waui and with bubbles, Mavi Aperitivo, sparkling water and lemon in the Urban Spritz. You can also get it on its own with a splash of pineapple in the Rise & Pine Martini. (See what they did there?)

Not much else other than the mildly spicy house red and green chilies, which show up on Urban Egg’s breakfast burrito, will survive Salsa Brava’s menu. It’s a full retirement for all the rest. Which, frankly, feels like an okay thing in our marketplace that’s well saturated with Tex-Mex style fare.

As we sample and snap our pics, my feeling is this food is starting to feel dated anyway — a throwback to the ’90s and early aughts when José Muldoon’s (which turned 50 in 2024) reigned supreme and craft cocktail culture had yet to appear and elevate the bar side.

On the food side, a proliferation of alluring, modern taquerias have eaten the lunch of many of the institutional spots, some growing popular enough to justify brick-and-mortar themselves. And as exemplified by Denver’s highly awarded fine-Mexican scene (think: the Fonda Fina Hospitality concepts), the new frontier is diving deep into true-Mexican heritage and culture, further developing the American palate and distancing the genre from over-cheesed monstrosities that were the gut-bombs of an entire generation of eaters.

So while RMRG’s taking the diplomatic “bittersweet” stance on killing its pioneering darling — rightfully indulging in nostalgia — methinks there must be some relief mixed into cocktail of emotions. With simplification comes clarity. The focus on the bright morning horizon for which Urban Egg stands well positioned to soak up sun.

Catch live music on the patio, Aug. 21-22 and 28-29 starting at 5:30 p.m. each night.

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Bites & Bits

• The Chuckwagon 719 received a visit from Texas Monthly magazine contributor and barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn this past weekend. “As a born and raised Texan I'm not sure there is a more accomplished feeling!” co-owner Jared Hammond wrote on Facebook. For context: the publication’s Top 50 BBQ List has been likened to the Michelin Guide of the barbecue world. “I’m pretty sure we told you how much it would mean to us if he ever showed up,” co-owner Deidre Hammond said to me afterwards. “And it was more than we could have dreamed of.” On her Facebook page, she told a more amusing story: “When I walked into the restaurant dining room and rounded the corner I did a triple take, then I ran to Jared and said ‘Jared is that &@&$*$< Daniel Vaughn over there.” When I ask Deidre how Vaughn found them, she says one of their customers told him about Chuckwagon 719.

• ROHR Coffee has (finally) opened its long-desired drive-thru at 2013 Templeton Gap Road. (“Fourth time’s the charm, babes.”) It’s now open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. just in front of their sit-down cafe space in the same shopping center. (Not familiar with the brand? Meet them here.)

• Totem announced on July 29 that it would be “hitting pause” to work on “the next chapter of Totem.” The spot only opened in October 2025, and in May of this year had worked on a revamp with a new chef in place. Though challenges have clearly continued, the eatery says “the fire is still burning” and they’re taking the time off to “experiment, create, and perfect every detail of what’s next.” The announcement did not give a predicted reopening date, but I reached out to them and learned they’re tentatively thinking about a two- to three-week closure timeline with plans for a re-grand opening when it’s time. Follow their socials for updates.

• Pizza Paul’s Perfect Pies is having a Pay What You Can Sale from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., July 31 outside of The Next Us coworking space at 525 N. Cascade Ave. Owner Paul Di Diego is closing the food truck and wants to go through what ingredients are left while giving fans a final taste of his Neapolitan pizza in New York-style slices.

• Cinchona has added a prepared food item to its tight coffee and tea menu: onigiri, prepared for them by Chiba Bar. The triangular Japanese-style rice and seaweed snacks, stuffed with ingredients like egg yolk, kimchi or seared ahi, are $5 and will be prepped fresh for daily service on Fridays through Sundays, until sellout each day.

• From The Gazette this week: Ice Cream Lab moving downtown, taking over Michelle’s and Munchie’s building. The article notes a “somewhat crowded field” of ice cream spots downtown these days. Josh & John’s is the historic anchor, of course, but recently Lolley’s opened nearby and Ice Guys also expanded into south downtown.

• “We had a big crash, but we came back stronger!” wrote Bread & Butter Neighborhood Market on their Facebook page late last week. Click in to see a very sad amount of broken liquor bottles spread across the floor, the result of a shelving collapse. (For a moment I was reminded of the broken bottles at the Virginia liquor store that went viral late last year after a raccoon made a mess and passed out drunk on the floor. I know everyone’s all in on Jimothy right now, but my hero remains drunk raccoon between the two bandits.)

• “Cracker Barrel Chief Executive Who Oversaw Logo Change Steps Down,” reported the New York Times. According to data cited in the article, the botched rebranding effort caused sales to fall 2.6 percent with foot traffic declining 6.7 percent over a three-month period, resulting in a drop in revenue of $797.4 million. (Don’t feel too bad for said executive; she departs with $4.6 million in severance pay apparently. … Remind me why we pay CEOs so much in this world.)

• A Chicago dog, a pastry, and a pandesal walk into a garden. It’s the Taste of Pikes Peak! And that’s a link to our latest KRCC/CPR segment as Andrea Chalfin and I digest our experience judging this year’s premier culinary event.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

IPA Tasting with a certified beer judge at 105 West Brewing Co. July 30, 6 p.m. $25 includes five Colorado IPA samples.

Music in the Yard at Bristol Brewing. July 31, 6 p.m. Free; this week, enjoy Ty Gibbs.

Maker’s Market at Red Leg Brewing. Aug. 2, 11 a.m. Support independent creators while enjoying craft beer and community.

Beer Releases

Monsoonal Kölsch at Lost Friend Brewery. A new light and crisp Kölsch with a clean malt character and subtle finish. An ode to recent rain.

Tangerine Haze at Storybook Brewing. A fresh pale ale.

Tasman Mist Hazy IPA at 105 West Brewing. A New Zealand blend of Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Riwaka and Wai-iti hops, resulting in a punchy burst of fresh lime zest and bright stone fruit flavors, balanced by a resinous backbone with dank undertones.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

July 30: Sip with Schnip at Elephant Thai - Monument. 5-8:30 p.m. Come see the new location! Side Dish subscribers get one free Thai iced tea with your meal by request. Special pricing on newly created dishes: Grilled Beef Ribs, Beef Rib Khao Soi, and Salmon Choo Chee. Full menu available, with lots of gluten-free and vegan items.

July 30: Tails, Tunes & Tastes at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. 6-9:30 p.m. $64.75 tickets include two drinks and unlimited food samples. (Event repeats Aug. 27 and Sept. 24.)

Aug. 1: Indian Food Festival at Liberty High School. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; food samples, dance and music performances, food competitions and more. Free; early access/$12.50.

Aug. 1: United We Rock Beer Festival at Rock Ledge Ranch. 2-8 p.m. Brews, spirits, live music and food trucks.

Aug. 1: Vine & Notes Wine Festival in Woodland Park’s Memorial Park. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $45-$66.

Aug. 2: Pinot Palooza on the Patio at The Margarita at PineCreek. 3-6 p.m.; $75 with proceeds benefitting the Tri-Lakes community.

Aug. 8: Tacos & Tequila Festival at UCHealth Park. Throwback hip-hop, margs and tacos and much more. $77-$181 between GA and VIP options.

Aug. 15: Pasta in the Park. 6 p.m. $120 benefits TESSA.

Aug. 16: 8th annual Smokin’ the Ute Pass Summit at Paradox Beer Company. Noon to 2 p.m. $15-$35 includes tastings and a drink ticket.

Aug. 16: Paella on the Patio at TAPAteria. Three seatings; $55 includes a drink. (Next up: Sept. 20 and Oct. 18.)

Aug. 18: KRCC Live: Michelin in the Springs with Side Dish at Ivywild School. 6:30 p.m. A live recording with special guests to discuss the Michelin Guide’s potential impact on C. Springs’s culinary scene ahead of statewide award announcements later in the fall. $25 tickets include small bites; drinks available for purchase.

Aug. 20: Jefferson’s Bourbon Meet the Maker dinner in The Penrose Room at The Broadmoor. 6 p.m., $258.

Aug. 21: On the Mesa at Garden of the Gods Resort & Club. 6-10 p.m.; $195 benefits Goodwill.

Aug. 21-22: 2nd Annual Polaris Pour - Bourbon at the Gate at Hotel Polaris. Bourbon and cocktail seminars, culinary pairings, grand tasting and much more.

Aug. 23: 4th annual 719 Battle of the Food Trucks outside Norris Penrose Event Center. Featuring samples from 45 area trucks. 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Beer Garden, live music and more.

Parting shot(s)

Sometimes I get backlogged on content and not everything makes it to this newsletter — instead hitting my social media channels.

So here’s a random photo dump from recent weeks that captures some things eaten and drinks drank. Presented in no particular order of importance:

• When I charge my EV at the Target in Castle Rock whenever heading to and from Denver I tend to head in and pass the time working at the attached Starbucks. I get a drink to pay my dues. Recently I tried their iced blue coconut matcha seasonal drink. I’m told they make it with 2% milk, to which mango syrup, toasted coconut syrup, matcha, blue spirulina powder and vanilla cold foam are added. It smacks tropical and highly sweet for my tastes. But hey, with a portion of sales proceeds going to the international Get Blue clean water initiative, don’t I feel better about my purchase? Well … kinda. Also, I don’t go to Starbucks often, so I didn’t know they were now selling protein cold foam in half a dozen flavors; a grande gets a 15g protein boost. Wow America is obsessed with protein right now.

• Speaking of Americans’ fixation on protein now, I probably don’t have to tell you that tallow is still trending, thanks in part to the war on seed oils (and Mr. Jeans in the Sauna and Ice Bath, RFK Jr.). I was recently up north and grabbing a coffee at Hotel Polaris’ lobby coffee kiosk when I spied this new-to-me snack bar company (Genesee Nutrition) and their bison tallow protein bar. I was curious enough to try it, next to a disappointing dirty chai that was not up to the standards we last experienced on site. The bar, too, left much to be desired, mainly in texture as its incredibly drying to the mouth and a bit sticky. Ingredients include peanut butter, raw honey, whey protein, collagen and the tallow (layering the proteins) plus coffee and coconut sugar (13g total — not too bad). The roasty coffee and honey flavors are positives and it all tastes natural enough versus synthetic in any way, but it’s just not convincing enough to draw me back to buying it again in the future. I can see it playing well with the hotel’s military clientele though, because the whole product just looks testosterone fueled. (They should probably get Hegseth to shill for it.)

• I hadn’t been back to Grand View Restaurant at the Garden of the Gods Resort since writing about it in June 2023, just after it was renovated and reopened. I recently had family in town and wanted to create some special experiences with memorable scenery, so of course Grand View made the list. It has an unparalleled view directly down onto Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak centered in the background. It has to be the best piece of real estate in the whole city. A lot of people still may not know that the restaurant is open to non-club members, which makes it kinda like dining inside The Broadmoor in terms of a towny’s access to bougie stuff. Our food was overall totally serviceable (not spectacular for the prices) and we were more than happy with our patio table right up against the lawn’s edge. But the reason to go, if it’s not clear by now, is the view, the view, the view! I could linger here all day just staring off into the distance daydreaming.

WHealthy Unlimited opened in early 2024 downtown at 121 E. Bijou St. (across from Story Coffee). If you’re still unacquainted, know that it’s a smoothie and juice bar with a deep mission behind the welcoming coworking storefront. About its name, think: “You can’t be wealthy without the health.”

That’s what volunteer Rubin Benford, a former Teen Court Program Manager with Forge Evolution, says to me when I inquire about the faux gold bars stacked at the ordering counter and fake million dollar bill that’s served with each smoothie — a hole punched through it allows straws to hold the bills in place. They’re not a nod to greedy capitalism; they’re a clue to the financial literacy classes that happen on site as just one of many outreach programs.

Benford speaks about his former work setting, which revolved around punitive and restorative justice interventions. He’s thrilled to be learning the ropes at Whealthy Unlimited to focus instead on preventative measures. “I think we need to be teaching the youth that ‘you made a mistake, but you can bounce back.’”

I take a tour of the full complex with Site Director Dominique Thompson, who explains that the for-profit enterprise puts all its profits back into its programming, so it essentially acts like a social-impact business. It’s tied to local nonprofit Community Anchor Academy through founder and CEO Juaquin Mobley, a community advocate for criminal justice reform — he speaks as someone formerly incarcerated. “Through this work my hope is to see more people thrive in the Springs instead of just survive,” he explains in this video clip posted by Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade.

Thompson tells me they work with at-risk youth, some referred by the state’s Division of Youth Services. But they also mentor children who’ve never been in trouble, seeking to teach vital skills such as “emotional regulation and making smart choices” so the kids never run afoul of the law in the first place. That’s where instruction on entrepreneurship comes in, dovetailing with the financial literacy piece. “If you don’t know how to manage money, it’s bad for your overall health,” she says. Community Anchor Academy’s focus on workforce development plays into this as well.

A summer camp is underway when I’m touring, mostly with 5- to 9-year-olds who’re in the middle of a nap time, spread out on mats in the facility’s rear gym space, which also hosts Santiago’s Boxing Club, another youth-related nonprofit. Thompson says many families (some dealing with substance abuse recovery or post-incarceration) can’t afford a traditional summer camp, so Whealthy has developed an activities program that teaches skills but also keeps kids occupied so parents can be at work earning money (while receiving affordable day care).

“We say we’re like a rec center, with so many activities going on,” Thompson says. Anyone who comes in to buy a juice or smoothie can stay and work out in the gym for free when it’s not occupied with other programming. (A monthly $34.95 membership includes two smoothies, bringing the price to around $15/month actually.) “We’re trying to make wellness accessible to everyone, and to bring dignity into it for someone who may not be able to afford a membership to the Y.”

I ask if busy people on the run, who just want to buy a smoothie and get in and get out, can feel okay about doing so without engaging at the higher level. She says of course. “Even transactional visits make an impact. You buy a $10 smoothie and that helps feed one kid all day long — breakfast, lunch and snacks. It’s very important. And when we’re not feeding the kids we’re feeding adults. You can’t operate without food. People take that for granted.”

As just one more branch of Whealthy Unlimited, the kids help produce the lemonades that get canned (technically jarred) on-site and sold at the front smoothie/juice bar in a grab-and-go cooler. They also sell them at fundraising events, kind of like how Girl Scout Cookies operate, learning everything from safe food prep to entrepreneurial skills all along the way. (Adults can also take customer-service classes to prep them for the workforce.)

I decide to order a smoothie named For the Love of the Money. It’s made with peaches, strawberry, coconut, spinach, plant-based yogurt, honey and blue spirulina. I add in the optional WHealthy Blend of vitamins C and B, MCT oil, sea moss and pink Himalayan salt. The result is wonderful, and I show no self restraint and suck it down too quickly. Benford pours himself a sip from the dregs in the blender that wouldn’t fit in my cup, so he can try a new-to-him flavor. He rates it his #2 smoothie in-house at the moment, rattling through the rest of his top five so far.

I stick around and do some writing while walking on a treadmill at a standing desk with a laptop mount that makes for better ergonomics. You can also perform mobile work with stair-step pedals or a stationary bike desk. The house WiFi code is posted about the room for easy remote working for the small ask of buying a drink — which, as I’ve highlighted, goes on to fund so many good things.

Whealthy Unlimited is hosting its annual OlymPeak City Field Day from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Aug. 29 in Acacia Park, just across from the gym and smoothie bar. There will be relay and workout competitions, youth challenges, live music, bounce houses and a vendor village.

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This month’s Ranch Foods Direct collaboration recipe with The Broadmoor features a Peruvian dish by Chef Rocio Neyra Palmer. July is special in Peru, as Fiestas Patrias on July 28 honors the country’s independence from Spanish rule. And July 29 recognizes Peru’s armed forces and national police with an annual military parade. Families will celebrate over food and drink, enjoying everything from pisco sours to ceviche and lomo saltado, plus other national dishes. You could of course make Palmer’s recipe for a symbolic tie-in just for fun and cultural enrichment. ¡Felices Fiestas Patrias!

Trivelli’s Hoagies to celebrate half a century in business

There’s a sweet sorrow to the actual anniversary of Trivelli’s Hoagies: July 16. It’s the same day that original co-founder John Trivelli Sr. passed away in 2005.

“It’s a tough day for us,” says son and owner/operator since 2004, Steve Trivelli. “So we decided to celebrate on another day,” which will be July 25 (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with all five Trivelli children and extended families coming into town).

“We don’t always do anniversary celebrations,” he says, “but turning 50 is so rare.”

Considering the precarious knife’s edge that the restaurant industry is, that’s an understatement. And Trivelli’s has weathered its share of challenges, including relocations (like in 2013 when the roof caved in) and a split with a now-unaffiliated franchisee off Austin Bluffs Parkway.

A four-year stint off Space Village Avenue led to an eventual return back home to 2739 N. Nevada Ave. in 2022, and a relationship began with neighboring Murphy’s Tavern, which was under new ownership. Since Trivelli’s has no dine-in space, many guests grab sandwiches and head next door to pair them with a drink at the iconic dive bar.

On the day last week that I drop in to meet with Steve and reacquaint myself with the sandwiches we head into Murphy’s to chat. He introduces me to bartender Jake Jackson, son of the co-owner Ben. Amusingly the two are wearing t-shirts of each others’ businesses, not their own.

Steve tells me he started working at his parent’s shop when it opened in 1976 and he was just 13 years old. He has a grandson who’s now that same age, who’s “chomping at the bit to come work here,” he says, joking that it’s a different era now for child employment. Whenever that grandson can officially start work, he’ll represent the fourth generation of Trivelli family members to have a hand in sandwich making. All five Trivelli children worked for their parents at some point, Steve says. “We all grew up in the shop.” So did their kids.

When I ask the significance of 50 years to him, and what they feels like, Steve says “It’s always been about my parents’ legacy. This is a celebration of their dream.”

Specifically his mom Barbara. “She was a workaholic, and this was perfect for her,” he says. “My dad did 20 years in the military and lived his dream. When they opened the shop he told my mom ‘now it’s your turn.’

“I’m not sure they envisioned us making it 50 years.”

Despite being around the shop his whole life, Steve says that when he bought it from his parents in 2004 he had no idea what he was getting himself into. “Working in it and owning it are two different things. I didn’t appreciate how hard they had to work to survive. I’m keeping it going for them. They deserve that.”

I ask if he plans to go anywhere soon, or pass the business down, and he says no. “My two kids are super smart. They’re not getting into food.”

When I get some sandwiches later and take them back over to Murphy’s to enjoy (with some N/A beers at lunchtime), I order Steve’s personal favorite and another bestselling item.

The first is the Italian Hoagie, baked to melt the cheese a little. It’s composed with Genoa salami, capicola, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onions, oil and spices and sweet cherry peppers that Steve calls “the secret weapon.” The other potent force about it is an authentic Amoroso Philly roll. Steve ships them in twice weekly. In a way that good bread can make or break a sandwich, it sets Trivelli’s apart. It’s perfectly pillowy and spongy but stands up to heavy ingredients, including the sauces, without getting gummy or breaking apart.

The second sandwich is the Steak Hoagie, with thin-sliced, marinated Ranch Food Direct Callicrate beef shoulder, American cheese and all those same fixings. It’s a terrific sandwich that I imagine is impossible not to like. Steve calls it a working man’s lunch, blue collar. But he notes that he regularly has executives pull through the drive-up window in BMW’s and such, so clearly everyone can appreciate the fare.

A wall filled with donation plaques (that helped fund a renovation on the building) shows that there’s three generations of local Trivelli’s fans. The years etched on the plaques indicate what year each person ate their first Trivelli sandwich.

I comment to Steve about how shiny all the stainless steel kitchen walls are and how tidy and clean the tiny space is. It surprises, given the humble exterior.

“I have solid people,” he says. “My crew makes all the difference.”

His parents would be proud.

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Bites & Bits

• Owner Bryce Dillingham announced July 22 that he has sold Roll Up COS after nine years in business. The incoming owners are moving from the Denver area to take over. “Our goal when we started Roll Up was to bring some local food options to the area [Widefield] that otherwise didn’t exist at the time. We made it happen, and it’s time for me to personally dedicate my focus to some other parts of my life and career,” he wrote on Facebook.

• Gather Food Studio is hosting a 50% Off Everything sale, leading up to its planned July 31 closure in Colorado. Founders David Cook and Cortney Smith are moving the business to Minnesota. Though they’ll no longer be teaching classes and offering retails sales at 2011 W. Colorado Ave., they’ll continue to host online classes and sell from an online spice shop. “This move is about choosing a different path for our family and carrying Gather with us into the next season of life,” they wrote last month when first announcing the transition. (Those of you who’ve been with Side Dish since its inception in early 2023 will recall that for the first year of my monthly collaboration with Ranch Foods Direct, Gather provided all the awesome recipes, which are still posted on my site. (Scroll down from the landing page of that link.)

• August 1’s Culinary Connections meal will highlight Afghan cuisine. Learn more about the program via our recent KRCC/CPR segment.

• Luchals recently offered a model for how to handle health department violations: transparency with the public. Check out the graphic they posted on their Facebook page, below, and click into it to see what else they wrote.

• If your adventures this summer take you through Hartsel, check out the newly opened Badger Basin Mercantile. “The mercantile was envisioned and developed by Colorado Springs residents and business partners Eric and Sumer Liebold, John and Tara Schutz, and Lisa and Matt Heiden, who saw an opportunity to create more than just another roadside stop,” according to a press release, which notes products available from Colorado Springs makers. “Visitors will find groceries, grab-and-go provisions, outdoor goods, apparel, gifts and elevated souvenirs… [and] a curated selection of fishing gear from Colorado Springs’ Angler's Covey.” The store will host a grand opening celebration Aug. 7, with discounts and giveaways.

• Mirasol, Looking at the Sun, the agriculture-related documentary produced by the Palmer Land Conservancy, is now available to watch free online. The film “delves into the lives of multi-generational Italian and Hispanic families in a rural Colorado farming community… explor[ing] their fight to safeguard a way of life that hangs in a delicate balance in the face of rapid development, water scarcity and population growth.”

• From Ranch Foods Direct’s Mike Callicrate via his No-Bull Food News blog: “Questions about Taylor Farms’ political spending have surfaced as the company’s role in the ongoing Cyclospora investigation continues to draw national attention.” Why it matters? “Regardless of whether the issues are related, the combination risks undermining public trust in both the food system and the institutions responsible for overseeing it.”

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Goat Patch Brewing: We’re turning 9 years old! Come celebrate at all three locations all weekend long. Here’s what’s happening each day. Festivities include live music, lots of food trucks, local art, books and kids activities. We’re also tapping some special firkins; giving away prizes and merch; and offering beer-to-go mix and match deals. Download our app to earn free Trail Water.

Blue Star Group: Pick up a punch card at any of our shops and buy the $13 featured special at all four locations to be entered to win dinner for two at The Blue Star when it reopens later this year. Specials include two slices of Pie at Gold Star Bakery and a Class Reunion cocktail at the Principal’s Office.

Kangaroo Coffee: Join us for tasty beverages and arts and crafts! Our staff is hosting a T-shirt Bleach Painting Party at our Hillside Coffee House on August 4 from 2-5pm. Admission price will cover all painting supplies and shirts. All you have to do is bring your creativity and your friends. Tickets are available online. We hope to see you there!

Wobbly Olive: Come sample from our new cocktail menu. The Saffron Skyline features saffron-infused gin, Meyer lemon, oleo saccharum, cardamon tincture and yuzu tonic. The 36 Chambers mixes Szechuan peppercorn tequila with cucumber extract and cilantro agave. Every weekday happy hour at both locations is 4-6 p.m.; all cocktails and beers are half off, plus $5 house wines.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Come in for Locals Sunday with $1 oysters and more; all night happy hours on Mondays; Cantina Tuesdays; Po Boy Wednesdays; Wine N’ Snack Thursdays; Happy Hour Date Night Fridays from 3-6 p.m. (with meals for two for $65); and Boil Night Saturdays with $20 beer buckets.

Edelweiss: Enjoy live music on our award-winning patio every Wednesday at 5:30 with Santi Davila, a classic rock and Beatles cover performer. Happy hours in the Ratskeller, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. Traditional live music Thursdays-Sundays, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Evergreen Restaurant: Enjoy live music with singer/songwriter Ava Grace on our lovely patio, July 25, 5:30 to 9 p.m. We serve lunch Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and brunch on Sundays during the same hours. View our menus here.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Releases

Summer Peach Blonde at Dueces Wild Brewery. A light blonde ale with a subtle peach character, light and refreshing at 5.2% ABV with minimal bitterness.

Huckleberry Cream Ale at Goat Patch Brewing. Smooth, slightly creamy and packed with huckleberry aroma. Easy drinking, super summery.

Honey Wheat French Saison at Peaks N Pines Brewing. A French Saison style beer with honey. (Releases July 27.)

Beer Events

Throwdown Thursdays at Red Leg Brewing. July 23, 6 p.m. Free, weekly line dancing class led by @db.moves for all skill levels (ages 16+).

Christmas in July at Cerberus Brewing Company. July 25, 11 a.m. Catch a re-release of Krampusnacht Yulebier and eat roasted turkey sandwiches with all the fixings. Coincides with a dog adoption event hosted by From Forgotten to Forever Rescue.

Ethan Cup Touch Rugby Benefit at Storybook Brewing. Touch rugby at John Venezia Park benefiting Children's Hospital Colorado. $20/player or $200/team. After party at Storybook with $1 off pints and $1 per pint going to the hospital.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

July 25: 5-year anniversary celebration at Kinship Landing. 10 a.m. onward. Family friendly activities include face painting and yard games, plus live DJ set, food and drink specials and more.

July 26: Below the Belt Bar Crawl through downtown. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meet at Counterfeit Cowboy to start. $25 tickets benefit Sues Gift (gynecological cancer support).

July 30: Sip with Schnip at Elephant Thai - Monument. 5-8 p.m. Come see the new location! Side Dish subscribers get one free Thai iced tea with your meal by request. Special pricing on newly created dishes: Grilled Beef Ribs, Beef Rib Khao Soi, and Salmon Choo Chee. Option to add a discounted Thai beer or cocktail. Full regular menu available, including abundant gluten-free and vegan items.

July 30: Tails, Tunes & Tastes at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. 6-9:30 p.m. $64.75 tickets include two drinks and unlimited food samples. (Event repeats Aug. 27 and Sept. 24.)

Aug. 1: United We Rock Beer Festival at Rock Ledge Ranch. 2-8 p.m. Brews, spirits, live music and food trucks.

Aug. 1: Vine & Notes Wine Festival in Woodland Park’s Memorial Park. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $45-$66.

Aug. 1: Indian Food Festival at Liberty High School. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; food samples, dance and music performances, food competitions and more. Free, or early access for $12.50.

Aug. 15: Pasta in the Park. 6 p.m. $120 benefits TESSA.

Aug. 16: 8th annual Smokin’ the Ute Pass Summit at Paradox Beer Company. Noon to 2 p.m. $15-$35 includes tastings and a drink ticket.

Aug. 16: Paella on the Patio at TAPAteria. Three seatings; $55 includes a drink. (Next up: Sept. 20 and Oct. 18.)

Aug. 18: KRCC Live: Michelin in the Springs with Side Dish at Ivywild School. 6:30 p.m. A live recording with special guests to discuss the Michelin Guide’s potential impact on C. Springs’s culinary scene ahead of statewide award announcements later in the fall. $25 tickets include small bites; drinks available for purchase.

Aug. 20: Jefferson’s Bourbon Meet the Maker dinner in The Penrose Room at The Broadmoor. 6 p.m., $258.

Aug. 21: On the Mesa at Garden of the Gods Resort & Club. 6-10 p.m.; $195 benefits Goodwill.

Aug. 21-22: 2nd Annual Polaris Pour - Bourbon at the Gate at Hotel Polaris. Bourbon and cocktail seminars, culinary pairings, grand tasting and much more.

Aug. 23: 4th annual 719 Battle of the Food Trucks outside Norris Penrose Event Center. Featuring samples from 45 area trucks. 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Beer Garden, live music and more.

Visit Springs Things for more food & drink and cultural event listings.

Parting shot(s)

Here’s something cool on the sustainability front that I encountered this past week at Ozo Coffee in Boulder: the GaeaStar to-go clay cup.

It’s a plastic-free, reusable option which includes a small discount when brought back in for a drink. It was only $1.50 to purchase, and whenever it breaks (because it’s thin and feels fairly fragile) it will eventually turn back into dust. It’s constructed with clay, water and salt, “a form factor inspired by biomimicry,” according to the company’s site.

I purchased a couple with intent to use them at local coffee shops just as I would my travel mug. Here’s hoping some Springs shops pick up the product and support the mission. (Hint-hint.)

Ruby’s Brew Bus just hit the road a few months ago as a mobile coffee trailer, hand-painted by co-owner Merri Newhart and named in tribute to her grandmother.

Merri learned to roast in 2012 while out on the East Coast, trained by Veteran Coffee Roasters founder Robert Mastin. That’s who she still procures beans from today, with a dollar for every retail pound sold going back as a donation to veterans organizations. You can buy bags, including mini sampler six packs to find your favorite flavor, direct off the truck at events. (And you can order online, with free delivery included.)

Merri taught her husband Dale how to roast, so that’s his primary duty these days, in addition to grinding, bagging and delivering beans. Her daughter Kenzie works with her on the truck at events, with Merri operating the espresso machine as the chief barista.

I order the Salty Dog, which is a salted caramel latte made with Veteran Coffee Roasters’ Milano Espresso Blend. It’s a Northern-Italian-style dark roast composed of Sumatran and Colombian beans, with medium-roasted Costa Rican added in “for sweetness” to counter the bolder, chocolatey, roastier notes. It stands up plenty to oat milk and my requested half-sweet serving of the salted caramel.

I hop aboard the bus briefly to further interview Merri during an event I catch them at. She tells me a little more backstory that dates this business in some form back to 2017 despite the bus being so new to the streets.

They’d started roasting and selling Veteran Coffee Roasters beans in a space downtown and briefly operated a kiosk inside Archery School of the Rockies. Construction was underway on another spot inside some office space in January 2020 … and well, you can probably guess where the story goes from there. Yep — COVID.

Merri and Dale lost their roaster as part of that whole ordeal, but received a lifeline from fellow roaster Ryan Wanner at Golden Pine Coffee Roasters in Black Forest. He invited them to roast on his equipment “and never charged a dime” recounts Merri. Today, they continue to roast on Ernesto (Wanner’s roaster’s name, I have learned in the process of fact-checking) and now pay a “nominal fee” for storage space.

If you want to help support veterans organizations by buying beans through Merri and Dale text “I need coffee” to 719-301-9761 or visit their Veteran Coffee Roasters Colorado Springs Facebook page. She mentions that local nonprofits can create fundraisers of their own by purchasing batches of beans wholesale, even creating custom labels, and reselling them at a small retail markup themselves. So ultimately, Ruby the Brew Bus aims to be a vehicle for positive change.

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Heaven Artisan Creamery

We were recently in Denver for some activities and made an effort to stop by one of Heaven’s seven metro-area locations that span from Boulder to Lakewood and Arvada.

I hadn’t had their ice creams before, but was immediately drawn in when learning they’re made to be as healthy as possible. They claim to use “50 percent less sugar than traditional ice cream.” And they don’t use artificial additives, preservatives or refined sugars. Instead, they sweeten their ice creams, gelatos (including vegan gelato) and sorbet with either agave, monk fruit, stevia, honey or cane sugar.

Oh, and they also market with more than 500 flavors developed and in rotation. So maybe don’t expect to find what I’m writing about when you go, as it sounds like things swap-up frequently.

We figured the best way to try as many flavors as possible was with a couple of ice cream flights, which are $13.75 and come with a choice of five flavors plus a tuile, whipped cream dollop and chocolate sauce — that can be drizzled on top or set on the side in a ramekin.

We mix-and-matched between regular ice creams, gelatos and vegan gelatos (which are made with coconut and oat milks in their base). And we tried the following flavors: coffee, ube, avocado, pineapple-lemongrass, matcha-blueberry-lavender, tiramisu, mint chocolate, coconut-pineapple, blackberry-orchid and raspberry dark chocolate.

Between them, textures were pretty uniform and if you aren’t paying close attention you won’t notice what’s what by way of the different bases. The flavors are what are critical. I like mine without the chocolate sauce for the most part (so I’m glad I’m the one who elected to put it on the side); for what it’s worth it hardens and creates a shell over scoops upon contact, and some folks will love that texture contrast. So long as we’re in Heaven, let me say thank God that the sauce doesn’t taste like commercial Hershey’s bullshit but instead something rich, clean and clearly housemade by the same people who care about putting less sugar in ice cream.

Anyway, a couple flavors leave us wanting more, including the ube, which has a pretty purple color but kinda “taste like nothing” as I wrote down in my notes on my phone. The mint chocolate, raspberry dark chocolate and tiramisu are good but notably less punchy than expected, which is to say I think that’s where the reduced sugar shows up most. The coffee flavor has that cappuccino ice cream vibe that’s an easy winner.

Where things really get interesting, and Heaven shines its light down on us the most, is with its tropical flavors. This likely speaks to Heaven’s earliest roots as a prior business in the Latino community.

The blackberry-orchid is highly floral and just wonderful, while lavender is properly balanced with the bitter matcha element and sweet blueberry element in that fun tri-flavor vegan ice cream. The avocado is subtle, and a flavor you’ll have a hard time describing to someone as it’s not very avocado-y, but just enough so to invoke the raw fruit along with the color cue.

Whereas coconut-pineapple predictably tastes like a piña colada, it does so in the desired way, which is not to taste like suntan lotion smells — a testament to the natural ingredients versus artificial flavorings. My single favorite flavor of the day, though, is the pineapple-lemongrass, which transports my palate more into a Thai or Indian realm. I love the herbal lacing under the fresh pineapple zing; and it tastes so refreshing on what is a hella hot day out.

Ultimately, in feeling like we need to rank Heaven compared to where else we’d go for ice cream when we’re in Denver — and you know there’s a bunch of great options — we say come here if you care about a healthier option and are willing to trade the reduced sugar for a little reduced wow factor at turns. Still, there’s some standout bites (or licks, or whatever).

But as we’re departing Heaven and walking back to our car in Five Points, we agree that our go-to remains Van Leeuwen Ice Cream (on Larimer Square or Platte Street). Maybe you’ve tried their wacky flavors found in grocery stores, like dill pickle and Kraft mac n’ cheese. But in-store they kill it with absolutely every flavor, including the vegan options.

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Colorado City Creamery

While legacy ice cream spot Josh & John’s just celebrated its 40th anniversary, Colorado City Creamery will turn 47 come August of this year, occupying the cute little European chalet-looking building with eye-catching yellow trim at 26th Street and Colorado Avenue in the heart of Old Colorado City.

The shop has a bygone era, nostalgic feel to it, with a notably low ceiling inside; red, white and blue quilt pattern wallpaper; and what I believe to be the town’s only Sundae Bar — an island of garnishes in the dining room where you can dress up your own sundae as you would garnish tacos at a salsa bar.

While we await our turn to order, we peruse dated news clippings on the wall, some of which detail the shop’s commitment to fresh-made ice cream from a simple cream, sugar and egg base. I haven’t been by in many years, though we used to serve their ice cream at Sencha when I worked there with Chef Brent Beavers a couple decades ago, so I was once well acquainted.

In revisiting it now, by way of a raspberry chip flavor and the Pikes Peak Trail (vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cups and fudge swirl), I find it to be a pretty mild ice cream style, leading with the rich base that’s less sweet than most commercial ice creams on its own, allowing the natural-tasting flavors to speak up. Though the adjunct ingredients do the most talking; so chocolate and peanut butter in these cases. They’re perfectly good, but don’t really blow my skirt up in a way that makes then my go-to unless I’m already in the neighborhood.

Trying to place Colorado City Creamery in context in our present marketplace, they just feel more classic like the BJ’s Velvet Freez (dating back to 1954) and Drive-In Tasty Freeze options (established in 1955), despite those being soft-serve style. Again: playing off nostalgia and multi-generation tradition.

That’s in contrast to more modern-feeling spots like Josh & John’s and Lolley’s and Rizuto’s and especially Frozen Gold. There’s so many options now when you want some of the good, cold, sweet stuff. I could further name drop Caffeinated Cow and Ice Guys and Starving as places sourcing quality ice creams versus making them in-house, plus Stellina who does make authentic gelato on-site.

I guess part of the point I’m making is C. Springs has grown a lot in the nearly five decades since Colorado City Creamery’s inception. It’s awesome we can go corner to corner in the city and never be too far from a good ice cream spot.

While options now abound, this legacy spot has held its own and nurtured a following that surpasses tourist-season traffic. It’s cute, sincere and completely serviceable on a hot summer evening. Oh, and they serve Vienna Beef hot dogs too, should you want a Chicago- or New York-style meat tube prior to your ice cream licking.

It’s rare that I keep thinking about something days after I’ve eaten it, but that’s how it is with the Godfather sandwich at Pizzeria Leopold. In the above picture you see layers of speck, prosciutto, mortadella and sweet sopressata — four types of fine, cured Italian pork products, each with its own personality — plus slices of sharp provolone, tomatoes, arugula, pepperoncini and red wine vinaigrette (staining the edges of the bread).

All that’s great, but it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful on anything other than Pizzeria Leopold’s house focaccia. After a couple of bites, I’m completely over the moon for it. The texture is just wonderful: crisp on the crust almost as if it has been fried (it hasn’t), then soft and spongy in the crumb while still dense and hearty. Finishing salt and herbs sprinkled on top lend flavor that complement the sandwich fillings such that the bread’s not a boring blank vessel for what’s inside but instead a standout ingredient itself.

All assembled the Godfather is a cold, fresh, herbaceous and garden-y delight, fabulous with a soft red wine or crisp beer. (It’s even better with a smear of basil pesto, which we order on the side along with an olive tapenade and truly fiery Calabrian chili-habanero-garlic sauce.) Since I’m obsessed, I have to know more about it, so I’m glad that my basic reporterly due diligence demands that I speak with the newbie Old Colorado City restaurant’s owners.

That would be Chris and Lindsay Lyons, who I learn have an interesting connection to another Colorado Springs eatery: Edelweiss Restaurant (a Side Dish Dozen member). Turns out Chris’s mom is Edelweiss owner Dieter Schnakenberg’s sister-in-law, and both she and Chris worked at the legacy spot for many years in the front of house. Chris cut his teeth in the industry there, having come over from Germany in his late teens.

He met Lindsay in Colorado Springs. She was a teacher who also worked restaurant jobs on the side in order to pay bills. She describes food as a mutual passion and “what connected us when we were first dating” and in subsequent travels together. Before they started a family, which now is composed of four kids under five years old, they jointly decided they wanted to “take a dive into the restaurant world” and began looking around the marketplace for an opportunity.

What caught their eye was a 30-year old neighborhood Italian market in Lakewood that was up for sale, named Deli Italia. They saw potential and went all in, quitting their jobs, selling their house and moving up to metro Denver. That was in 2018, and they spent the following few years, leading into the Covid pandemic, renovating the space and slowly converting it away from a grocery store with a sandwich counter into a pizzeria like what you see today in Old Colorado City. In 2021 they won the Denver Post’s reader-voted award for best pizza in the city; in 2022 they rebranded into Pizzeria Leopold (named for their son); and in 2025 they again won a best pizza vote, this time from the Denver Gazette.

“It was just us and one other person running it for the first two years,” Lindsay says, describing Chris’ continual R&D in the kitchen to develop his doughs, plus their exhaustive and meticulous researching to “find vendors that align with our standards.” She says after that first award, “everything just exploded.”

Flash forward and they found themselves desiring to return to the Springs to raise their family, which inspired the idea for a second location. It was supposed to launch around Memorial Day Weekend in 2025, but due to unforeseen challenges with their building renovation and other delays, it wasn’t until a full year later that doors finally opened. And ever since they have, there’s been a regular line at the door and waits as long as a couple hours to get a table inside or on the rooftop patio.

Back to how the sausage gets made: The focaccia was born out of an effort to eliminate food waste and find a purpose for extra pizza dough. Chris kept experimenting with different fermentations and such until he and Lindsay were happy, then tested it on their customers, who soon were requesting full loaves to take home. They bake sheet trays of focaccia in the late night or early morning hours, when the deck pizza oven’s not in use for pies.

I return a week after my initial visit to test consistency and try another sandwich, to make sure the focaccia is as good as I’ve convinced myself it is. The Italian Hero, with ham, capicola, two types of salami, provolone and fixings that include oregano and red wine vinaigrette doesn’t disappoint in any way (though I’m still partial to the Godfather). Once again, I’m mesmerized by the bread and savor every crumb.

As for the pizza dough, which I find quite pleasurable as well, Chris employs the poolish method of equal parts water and flour with a wild yeast activator, allowing fermentation over a 48-hour period. It’s a thin-crust style and they cook it towards well done. Lindsay refers to it as a “a Neapolitan and East Coast hybrid” that speaks to her roots in Boston, Chris’ time in New York for a period, and the Italian flours utilized. “Chris went knee-deep into the science before he got it right to create something we were proud of,” she says. After rounds and rounds of testing, finally: “we took one bite and said ‘this is the one.’” Similar to its focaccia offspring, it leads crisp before yielding with a delightful chew.

Something else you can try with the dough when you’re at Pizzeria Leopold is the hot sandwiches, where the dough is folded differently to form it into sandwich bread. In Naples, that’s called a Panuozzo. Think something closer to a calzone, but not sealed into a pouch.

We don’t end up trying one of those, but we do choose the tomato sauce-based P.W.A pizza, topped with pineapple, pepperoni, jalapeños, speck, pineapple chili marinated onions, Pecorino and hot honey. As you can infer reading that, it punches with spice, zing, layered sharpness and concluding heat — especially if you dip your crust in the aforementioned Calabrian chili-habanero-garlic sauce.

We also started with a shared appetizer of house meatballs made with Niman Ranch pork and beef. They’re smothered in tart, vibrant tomato sauce and get a cap of melted cheese, basil chiffonade and slices of olive oil drizzled focaccia.

To lighten that up, we also share a classic Caesar salad, tossed in a zesty Caesar dressing with housemade croutons and Parmesan slivers and slices of fried chicken cutlet that’s recommended to us by staff. Though you can get it as its own sandwich, we like the satisfying crunch and extra richness it brings to the Romaine salad. It’s not greasy or heavy.

Which brings us to something really important to Lindsay and Chris, which you won’t find emphasized on the printed menus, though their website’s “about” page does mention “as much sustainable, local, and organic, products as possible.”

Whereas I read that cautiously, with an eye out for common greenwashing, Lindsay more than convinces me during out chat that there’s no bullshit to it. She even offers to send me a full list of the vendors from which they purchase goods. “I’m beyond the definition of a crunchy mom,” she says. “If I can’t feed my kids here and feel good about the food, all this would be pointless. When it comes to the treatment of animals, and honoring the food and the process, that’s really what drives us. We stand confidently with what we put on the table. It’s the reason behind what we do.”

Other than the fine Italian imports, they cook in a scratch kitchen and make all their sauces and such. They use only avocado and olive oils and beef tallow for frying. They buy sustainably produced meats and have relationships with local purveyors like La Mozzarella out of Denver, who Lindsay says can deliver incredibly fresh cheese from single-milking sessions — basically the vendor calls the farmer as needed and a week later the product is ready.

They buy organic lettuces, and research to avoid glyphosate in all products. She recognizes that not everything is as local as can be, especially with the imports, but whatever they are buying is something of high quality that they vouch for. “We really look at where we get our ingredients from,” she says, noting that even flours they use for dusting the pizza dough are pricier Caputo flours; no corners cut.

The cool thing as I see it, all that accounted for, is Pizzeria Leopold’s pricing is totally in line with competitors and not ridiculously up-charged just because. Everything feels expensive in the marketplace these days, so it’s nice when there’s a real reason behind it that justifies the cost. Plus, they more than meet the threshold of a good value proposition, given how damn good the food is.

I remember thinking many months ago, when I first heard about Pizzeria Leopold’s impending opening, that Old Colorado City didn’t really need another pizza joint given Pizzeria Rustica and Slice 420. But now I see how clearly the three are different and awesome in their own ways. Pizzeria Leopold has created something special, from the heart, built around family, time-tested and public-applauded in Denver. I’m glad they gifted the Springs a location.

On that first visit, we relish our meal with good company on the rooftop, enjoying the sunset over the mountains, sipping Goat Patch and South Park Brewing beers. Despite how slammed the eatery is downstairs, our food arrives fast and our service is warm and personable.

I met the Godfather — and well, you now know where the story goes from there.

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The Warehouse Urban Grocer now open

In September of last year I told you about the impending arrival of The Warehouse Urban Grocer, a spinoff attached to The Warehouse Restaurant.

Owner James Africano explained at the time that the idea for the market initially came about in 2018 as he was noticing the numbers shift on his banquet revenue from the private events space that Urban Grocer now occupies. The Covid pandemic did what it did, and Weidner Field arrived as a neighbor (changing the parking dynamic for large groups), and by 2024 he was 40 percent below 2019’s all-time-high numbers.

Flash forward and Urban Grocer quietly soft-opened earlier this week, ahead of a grand opening celebration planned for this Saturday, July 18, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Ribbon cutting at noon; first 100 customers after the cutting will get a free Urban Grocer tote bag. Samples, including from local vendors will be served throughout the day.)

I stopped by the market earlier this week to take my first gander at the stocked-up shop and chat with Africano. We toured around for about 20 minutes as he pointed out the wide variety of goods and paused occasionally to tell me the backstory of a specific item — ranging from a premium, $25 can of poached Spanish tuna belly in Galician butter (set next to a $3.99 can of common StarKist as the affordable option) to an $8.49 box of stone-milled, heritage-grain purple barley pancake mix out of Arizona (which I bought and have since made breakfast with, and wow!).

“We want to be as inclusive to the Mill Street neighborhood as possible,” he says. “We sell Cheetos too.” And a shocking $1 loaf of housemade white bread. “Somewhere along the line you have to have your Costco hotdog,” he explains. “Our neighborhood is an odd mix, as we also have luxury apartments nearby, and Hillside and the West side, so there’s lots of diversity.”

As for other products, there’s a small selection of craft and domestic beers plus basic and fine wines, with ample N/A options. You’ll find beans from six local coffee roasteries and breads from three local bakeries alongside house-baked breads. (Oh, and Africano convinced Manitou Springs’ The Loft to sell him bagels.) There’s a whole cooler section dedicated to area ice cream makers; cheeses; a meat case at the butcher’s counter (for fresh-cut venison, lamb, bison, elk and pork) and frozen pounds of ground beef, yak and more; frozen and fresh grab-and-go meals and sandwiches; eggs and milk … the list goes on.

As for produce, The Warehouse Urban Grocer got certified to repack commercial organic items and house label them. They also buy from local growers like Austin Family Farms. I come home with bags of peaches, apricots and cherries.

I’ll leave you to discover the rest, like eight varieties of housemade pasta, locally produced sausages, a line of Warehouse dry spices — and, wait for it … homemade donuts. (Schnip tip: A limited amount are baked on Sundays, and sold until they’re gone, so don’t expect them past Mondays or Tuesdays.)

I couldn’t leave without trying out a sandwich from the bakery. I get the Prosciutto & Focaccia (on Provision-baked bread), which comes with prosciutto run through the slicer to-order, cherry sauce, mustard, tomatoes and provolone. It’s a fair $10 considering today’s marketplace. And it eats nice, light and fresh. I can’t rave about it like I did above for Pizzeria Leopold’s focaccia sandwiches, but that’s a tall order, and they cost nearly twice as much.

Anyway, from the eight options, if you want to try Chef Africano’s favorite, get The New South End, made with salami, mortadella, mozzarella and pepperoncini on your choice of bread.

When you go: market hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily.

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Bites & Bits

• Springs Magazine reported on The Brit Pub’s collaboration with the band Shinedown — set to play Weidner Field July 31 — which involves a dual sandwich promo that utilizes the band’s custom hot sauces. One is a jumbo shrimp po’boy with mango habanero sauce; the other is a chicken sandwich with slaw and chipotle garlic sauce. Check out the article for photos and more details.

• New Denizen has published her monthly list of 5 new restaurants & cafes you should know about. One is “A welcoming vegan restaurant with everyone in mind,” in Denver, named Mother Other. Other picks include newly launched spots in Breckenridge, Boulder and Grand Junction.

• Here are the most-anticipated restaurant openings in Denver this summer according to Westword. One of them: “Denver OG restaurateur Frank Bonanno is returning to Larimer Square, taking over the former Teds Montana Grill across the street from Tamayo with his latest concept: an Italian-Japanese fusion effort called Rōmyō (pronounced “Romeo”).” Westword also reported that Denver bar Number 38 was the most visited in the nation during World Cup.

• Local chef creators Season Two Taste’s latest newsletter features “Summer's Best Composed Salads & Homemade Dressings.” One is a fresh pea and asparagus salad with pistachios and feta.

• “There’s a perception that agriculture uses all the water. We utilize water out here, but the consumer consumes every last drop. Whether we grow vegetables or beans or beef or hogs or chicken, it’s being consumed in the city.” — excerpt from a worthwhile article you should read in the latest Ranch Food Direct newsletter (on p. 3), interviewing Joel Schneekloth, a retiring Water Resource Specialist with the Colorado Water Center and Colorado State University Extension, speaking on Eastern Colorado’s groundwater.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Blackhat Distillery: This summer when you’re looking to shake up your cocktail lineup, reach for our Golden Hearth Cinnamon Pineapple Rum. It brings together juicy pineapple, smooth vanilla and warm cinnamon spice — and is the first ever branded cinnamon-pineapple rum produced. This limited-edition release is available now in our tasting room. Stop by for a sample, take a bottle home and help us decide if this new fan favorite deserves a second batch!

Bristol Brewing Company: Join our annual Color Fight this Saturday, July 18! Come and enjoy a bit o' beer-drinking and hurling handfuls o' color at friends and fam just for fun. Your $7 ticket gets you a white Bristol tee to battle in. Plus our free Friday night Music in the Yard series continues with Sofakillers on July 17, Red Rocks Rebellion on July 24, and Ty Gibbs on July 31, all 6-8pm.

Red Gravy: July’s Pastarama battle pits our June champion — Rigatoni alla Vodka with fennel sausage, spinach and Parmesan — against a new challenger: The Chuckwagon: featuring smoked brisket from Chuckwagon 719, charred poblano, cavatappi pasta and cacio e pepe sauce with Pecorino Romano.

Four by Brother Luck: Our new summer menu drops July 21, so come in to taste Four Corners summer ingredients treated reverently! Attend our six-course Wine Dinner with Guest Chef Lamar Moore on Aug. 6; $175 per person. Moore is celebrated for his Southern-inspired food.

bird tree cafe: Some say we have the best happy hours in town, 3-6 p.m. daily. You’ll find $3.50 mimosas, $6 bloody marys, $7 espresso martinis and other cocktails, $3 Bristol Beehives, $4 Jameson and Fernet shots and sandwiches, snacks and breakfast plates for $6 to $9.

Elephant Thai: Come see us at our new Monument location at 562 W. Hwy. 105. We’re open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4:30-8:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Featuring five exciting new menu items.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

2-Year Anniversary Party at WestFax Springs. Noon onward, July 17. Live music, live tattooing and more.

Color Fight at Bristol Brewing. 11 a.m., July 18. $7 includes a white Bristol t-shirt. Throw handfuls of color at friends and fellow attendees.

Warhammer Wednesdays at Wackadoo Brewing. 4 p.m. weekly.

Beer Releases

Strawberry Cream Ale at Fossil Craft Beer Co. Made with over 150 pounds of strawberries.

Blootycakes at WestFax Springs. A blueberry wheat with maple, inspired by blueberry pancakes for breakfast. (Releases July 17.)

Cantaloupe Blonde at Peaks N Pines Brewing. A cantaloupe-flavored ale. (Releases July 20.)

(Are you noticing the summertime fruit-beer trend? We’re up for it!)

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

July 17: Coffee as Color, Texture, and Story - A Sensory Tasting Experience at Loyal Coffee. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $34.

July 18: Tag Ulan Baon Supper Club at Good Neighbors Meeting House. 6-9:30 p.m. Five courses inspired by Filipino rainy season plus welcome drink and take-home snacks.

July 18: The 90s vs Y2K Bar Crawl at Atomic Cowboy. 4 p.m. to midnight; $18-$24.

July 19: Paella on the Patio at TAPAteria. Three seatings; $55 includes a drink. (Next up: Aug. 16, Sept. 20 and Oct. 18.)

July 23: 4th annual Pinot on the Patio at The Pinery on the Hill. 5:30-7:30 p.m.; $75.

July 25: 5-year anniversary celebration at Kinship Landing. 10 a.m. onward. Family friendly activities include face painting and yard games, plus live DJ set, food and drink specials and more.

July 26: Below the Belt Bar Crawl through downtown. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meet at Counterfeit Cowboy to start. $25 tickets benefit Sues Gift (gynecological cancer support).

July 30: Sip with Schnip at Elephant Thai - Monument. 5-8 p.m. Come see the new location! Side Dish subscribers get one free Thai iced tea with your meal by request. Special pricing on newly created dishes: Grilled Beef Ribs, Beef Rib Khao Soi, and Salmon Choo Chee. Option to add a discounted Thai beer or cocktail. Full regular menu available, including abundant gluten-free and vegan items.

July 30: Tails, Tunes & Tastes at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. 6-9:30 p.m. $64.75 tickets include two drinks and unlimited food samples. (Event repeats Aug. 27 and Sept. 24.)

Aug. 1: United We Rock Beer Festival at Rock Ledge Ranch. 2-8 p.m. Brews, spirits, live music and food trucks.

Aug. 1: Vine & Notes Wine Festival in Woodland Park’s Memorial Park. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $45-$66.

Aug. 1: Indian Food Festival at Liberty High School. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; food samples, dance and music performances, food competitions and more. Free, or early access for $12.50.

Aug. 15: Pasta in the Park. 6 p.m. $120 benefits TESSA.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

Food Truck Tuesdays at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum continue through Aug. 25. Every Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Parting shot(s)

It was great to see and meet some of you at last week’s Taste of Pikes Peak. I enjoyed judging again this year, joined by ICONS co-owner Josh Franklin and KRCC’s Andrea Chalfin.

The food and drink on display was roundly awesome, and I loved the Hillside Gardens venue (new to the event this year) for the foliage-lined ambiance it offered. It was lovely to duck off the walking paths into shady spots and pause to enjoy some bites and sips — and socialize.

A special callout congrats to Cowboy Star for winning the Best Taste of the event with their Japanese Omi Gyu wagyu beef Steak Bites served with chimichurri aioli and a summer herb salad. This is steak so premium that it comes with a beef certificate of authenticity (displayed at their booth) which shows a list of details including the animal’s grading (A-5, the highest possible), slaughter date and location, production prefecture and more.

To call the steak mind blowing is practically an understatement. It was tender to the point of partially melting across the mouth. (That sensation is largely why the brand is revered.) People, including other restaurateurs and vendors, would get their sample bite and then get back in the line that kept forming to get a second taste. (Or third … I saw you … you know who you are.)

If you want to experience the magic of the meat yourself, you know where to make a reservation.

Anyway, here’s some pics from Ryan Hannigan’s photo gallery of the event, which you can visit to see all the images he snapped:

*Warning: This story relates to mental health and touches on the topic of suicide.

There’s an unnerving and not at all comedic irony to Mike Girard telling me that he was “a ticking time bomb” before he sought anger-management treatment for his traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Why? Because when he was serving in Army in Afghanistan, Girard was an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Operation Sergeant. The guy literally in a bomb suit sent to disarm improvised explosive devices.

Some of those explosives were made out of pressure cookers plucked from kitchens and armed to maim enemy soldiers. Girard now displays one inside his Monument tap room at 3 Hundred Days of Shine. “They happen to make good stills if you know what do with them,” Girard says in the Bombs to Booze documentary, now playing on Prime Video and set to air on Rocky Mountain PBS July 9 at 7 p.m. and July 10 at midnight.

Girard, who is 3 Hundred Days’ founder and head distiller, took spare parts and rigged up a machine capable of making alcohol out of what was on hand in the battlefield. That happened to be A&W Root Beer. He turned it into moonshine.

Yes, that’s very much against Army rules and could have gotten Girard into all kinds of trouble. It’s a story he first told me 11 years ago when the distillery was just opening, but he asked that I not share those particular details in my writeup at the time in the Colorado Springs Independent. I honored his request respectfully but reluctantly, knowing it was a hell of a story I was withholding.

So I felt especially glad to finally see it told in-full in Bombs to Booze. In my chat with him last week, I ask what changed and when he started sharing it more publicly.

“In the beginning I was more guarded,” he concedes, saying that in the business’ first couple of years he wouldn’t even mention his Army service, preferring to generally lay low. But after he felt enough time had passed for the statute of limitations to expire, so to speak, he started talking.

“Now I’m open about it,” he says. “I’ve even had old battalion and brigade commanders come in the distillery, and they give me the side eye, but quietly say ‘that’s pretty cool.’”

As colorful as this story is, it’s actually not the focus of Bombs to Booze. Rather, it’s the opening setup for everything that happens when Girard comes home, eventually facing his mental health for the wellbeing of his family and those around him.

Girard says that documentarian Lauryn Ritchie — who’s the daughter of some of his longtime taproom regulars — was just aiming for a five- to 10-minute short as her first project out of film school. But after meeting for the first time in early 2022, she quickly realized there was a much bigger story to tell, as Girard in recent years had turned part of his distillery’s focus into helping other veterans.

After roughly a year of intermittent filming, she worked to get an hour-long edit down to 40 minutes, and the film was first screened privately for Girard, family and friends at the distillery. Then in mid 2024 they held an official premiere in Girard’s hometown in Montana, where he says “half the town showed up” to support him.

Patrons in the Monument taproom over the years have also been a continual source of support — a found family gathered around the house spirits. If you are unfamiliar with the brand, 3 Hundred Days now makes 18 flavors of moonshine that range from apple pie and sweet tea to peach cobbler and cinnamon-laced Firebomb. They have six newer flavors: huckleberry-hibiscus, blackberry-mojito and watermelon (in a 50-proof category) and Old Fashioned Root Beer, Honey Salted Caramel and Whiskey Barrel Chocolate (in a 70-proof lineup). Those are all sold on site, with more limited selections in liquor stores, plus sips to be found at bars and restaurants around the state: 300-plus locations in all, says Girard, noting they also opened a second tasting room, inside a Vail Resorts village in Keystone earlier this year.

While it may feel awkward to have just read the above paragraph — jumping from serious mental health matters directly into alluring moonshine flavors, as if leaving the war zone and entering Candyland — that’s a bit how 3 Hundred Days now acts as both a place for respite and imbibing but also a front for connecting with veterans who may not even know they’re in need of help. (Which doesn’t affect your visit if you go in as a normie and enjoy the place like any brewery in town; it’s welcoming to all.)

As part of his advocacy, Girard created a nonprofit in partnership with the Invictus Project to offer an annual 0.k Run for Veteran Mental Health, which involves no actual running. Instead, it’s “a marathon of information” presented to attendees, like info about resource agencies and organizations available to help. The central goal is to fight veteran suicide. On their info pages, they share the awful statistic that on average 17 veterans die by suicide per day in the U.S.

That statistic isn’t something abstract or remote for Girard and the 3 Hundred Days crew. As depicted in the documentary, they lost one of their staff members to suicide: the wife of a veteran who preceded her by taking his own life. She was like a daughter to Girard and his wife Jenn.

“It’s not just veterans going through these issues,” he says in the documentary. “It influences those that they love.”

Girard tells me that his life before his therapeutic intervention — which included nasal stem cell infusions and clinical ketamine treatments to help heal and reset his brain patterns — was “like walking through water.” A thin veil keep him distant from even the people closest to him. “I was taking a cereal bowl full of pills every day,” he says, listing what was prescribed by the VA for his nerve damage, TBI and PTSD.

Today, he’s off everything, and only goes in for an occasional maintenance dose of a chosen therapy modality. Jenn will attest that he has grown calmer, with less short of a fuse. It was she who was in the room holding his hand during the last session of a ketamine treatment series: “All of my focus was on her and my family and what’s important to me in my life,” he says. “All the other shit is white noise.”

Girard says in the documentary that he remembers all too well what it was like to live with suicidal ideology, “driving home and thinking I’d be just fine if I were to drive off this overpass right now.”

He lived like that for years, but came to realize he didn’t have to. He refers to his then-self as “who I was before I got treatment,” aware that “I was just pieces of that guy Jenn married, but now a larger portion of who she fell in love with is back. I was gone for a while.” He likens it to a switch that was stuck on: the high intensity, high energy, “go-go-go” chaos of the battlefield and how he was trained as a soldier to endure that.

“You come home and you can’t turn that switch off. I couldn’t flip it.”

It made him angry. “At everything. At the world.”

As he’s talking, I can’t help but think back to the pressure cooker — but now as a symbol. Imagine one with no release valve for the steam building up inside. There’s no way to prevent the inevitable explosion. That is unless someone like Girard the EOD Sergeant bravely straps on the bomb suit and comes to disarm it first.

But for Girard to save himself, he had to take something off instead. Home from the war, he had to remove his mental armor and disarm the bomb he unknowingly built inside himself.

“These organizations we work with, they teach guys to recondition and re-train the brain — how to not have that switch on all the time,” he says.

His advice is seek their help. “Do something … don’t just live with it,” he says in Bombs to Booze. “Come to 3 Hundred Days of Shine. There’s always a veteran in here. Just show up if you’re having a bad day.”

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Peruvian pork with Ranch Foods Direct

Nature’s Start Bread Company launches in brick-and-mortar off Centennial Boulevard

Dating back to 2018 as a cottage industry, mobile food cart, then wholesale business, Nature’s Start Bread Company finally realized a dream this week: to open its own bakery in a physical location for retail service. (The buildout took nearly six months.)

It’s at 4935 Centennial Blvd., suite A, next to Marco’s Pizza and Golden Flame Hot Wings, not far from Ute Valley park. In previous iterations, Nature’s Start had prepped and sold products out of The Cupcake Doctor’s spot and Five Star Food Stop (both off Austin Bluffs Parkway) and vended at some farmers markets.

Owner and Founder Victoria Tandberg tells Side Dish her early inspiration was to “introduce sourdough to the community and see if they liked it as much as my family.” Bear in mind this was a couple years ahead of the everyone-is-making-sourdough-at-home-during-the-pandemic craze.

She has nine children who she says encouraged her to go to market. She describes “always being in the kitchen,” having first learned to make pastry and bread dough from her German grandmother. She also inherited a love of cooking on the other side of the family, from her French grandma.

But Nature’s Start isn’t based around European-style items — other than open-face sandwiches (coming soon) that are Scandinavian inspired. Rather, the core sourdough starter comes via Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter, which she received by mail with a self-addressed, stamped envelope back in 2006. “It’s an amazing starter,” she says, noting her sister played with it too in California and now Oklahoma, and hers has taken on a unique life of its own (due to different flours and environmental conditions).

Victoria was living with her family in Hawaii at that time, as her husband was in the Navy. She developed a separate strain that she calls “Hawaii Sweet” — which is admittedly a misnomer because it’s not really sweet itself. But it informs her cinnamon rolls (which I can now vouch for as delightfully soft, chewy on the crumb, mild with the spicing and overall sweetness), and items like her blueberry and raspberry white chocolate breads, plus dinner rolls and burger buns. “I don’t want them to have the typical sourdough flavor,” she explains.

She had to modify her earliest recipes for altitude once she hit C. Springs. And in addition to the 1800s and Hawaii Sweet strains she makes products from another base she named “Francisco” — that’s a blend with her sister’s strain — and she developed a gluten-free-friendly starter.

Between them all, Nature’s Start now offers a vast array breads, to include classic loaves and flavors like pecan-raisin, cranberry-walnut, tomato-rosemary, honey-molasses whole wheat and multigrain. I buy a loaf of a Three Pepper Cheese bread, made with roasted jalapeños, red chili flakes and habanero powder. I agree with Tandberg that “it has the right amount of heat,” and she says it makes a great sandwich bread. I pull a hunk off the loaf and savor the aroma first, then the earthy peppery flavor, with a fast-fading flash of spiciness across the tongue. The texture is pillowy, spongy and chewy, with small flecks of cheddar cheese adding sharpness and more depth. I love it.

The store is in a soft-opening phase with limited offerings as they ramp up and finish some lingering interior design projects, so Tandberg says on a given day to expect 8 to 10 flavors available on a rotating basis. (Look out for details on a grand opening celebration sometime in mid August, tentatively.)

On day one, Monday, they sold over 50 loaves. And on day two, Tuesday, when I stop by, I watch a steady stream of customers come through the door, quickly buying out whatever’s available in the pastry case and on racks. Folks living in the immediate neighborhood are thrilled for the new bakery so close by. I hear them say that directly to Tandberg.

Here’s some more things to know:

• Though Nature’s Start isn’t certified organic, Tandberg strives to buy as many organic ingredients as possible. She buys flours from Utah’s Central Milling and from Gosar Natural Foods’ Mountain Mama Milling out of Monte Vista (who also sells to Nightingale Bread locally). They include rye, spelt and Yecora Rojo hard red spring wheat. Because she wholesales, all ingredients are listed on the back of loaves so shoppers can check the inputs for allergens.

• Nature’s Start products can be found retail at spots like The Backyard Farm Shop in Black Forest as well as Bread & Butter Neighborhood Market. Restaurants utilizing her breads include Clean Juice off Interquest Parkway and The Happy Cow in Old Colorado City. She makes a special coconut-sugar-sweetened burger bun for them (they go through 800-1000 weekly) and a coconut-sugar buttercream-frosted cinnamon roll that’s been exclusive to their eatery. (She plans to start offering it at her new bakery soon.)

• The bakery will soon serve breakfast hoagies (we didn’t go into details on those) plus breakfast burritos on a house sourdough tortilla, made with Ranch Foods Direct pork sausage, potatoes, egg, cheese and a fresh house salsa that Tandberg says is standalone awesome. Sourdough house bagels are coming soon too.

• Deli sandwiches on various sourdough breads will include classic cold-cut items like ham and turkey, and Tandberg really wants to do a Reuben in the future on her marbled rye. The aforementioned European-style open-faced sandwiches are partly a nod to her husband’s Norwegian heritage.

• Pastries will include savory quiches and both sweet kolaches (with fillings like apple and berry) and Texas kolaches with Andouille sausage, jalapeño and cheese inside sourdough brioche buns. There will also be a vegetarian option. Also look out for cakes (with flavors like carrot, chocolate and chiffon) and pies (such as berry, apple and banana cream).

• The bakery’s coffee component features Colorado Coffee Merchants-roasted beans — specifically an exclusive Nature’s Start Blend for drip and pourovers and an espresso blend for lattes and such. Tandberg will make homemade syrups, to include vanilla, caramel and bananas foster. (The coffee counter isn’t yet up and running during my visit, so I can offer no early notes on that.)

• If you’re had Nature’s Start breads before, and notice anything different about them in this new location when you go, know that you aren’t wrong. The bakery is utilizing new steam injection ovens that “give the bread great lift,” says Tandberg. They’re adding a consistency that she couldn’t hit before when opening the oven door and manually misting down breads with a spray bottle, which let much of the steam escape. She says her regular customers noticed the difference already: “They’re saying the bread is even better than before!”

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Side Dish Dozen happenings

Stellina Pizza Cafe: Find our booth at Taste of Pikes Peak on July 9, where we’ll be dishing grass-fed beef meatballs in our house marinara sauce with Parmigiano-Reggiano alongside sips of Italian-style sangria. And come to our cozy cafe from noon to 2:30 p.m., weekends for Cicchetti Hour, featuring snacks similar to Spanish tapas.

Goat Patch Brewing: The summer music series continues July 12 with My Girlfriend’s Garage at Lincoln Center, 5-8 p.m., and Clay Cutler in Monument, 2-5 p.m. Catch Tic-Stack-Boom!, a free, family-friendly activity at Northgate, July 11, noon to 6 p.m.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Weekly specials include Locals Sunday with $1 oysters and more; Monday all night happy hours; Cantina Tuesdays; Po Boy Wednesdays; Wine N’ Snack Thursdays; Happy Hour Date Night Fridays from 3-6 p.m. (with meals for two for $65); and Boil Night Saturdays with $20 beer buckets.

Evergreen Restaurant: Join us Friday evenings for live music on the patio, 5:30-9 p.m. weekly. And return for brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sundays. Must-try dishes at dinner: our traditional Georgian shawarma; Chicken Kiev; Pork Belly Paprikash and our Evergreen Beef Stroganoff.

Kangaroo Coffee: Join us at the Taste of Pikes Peak tomorrow evening, July 9! We’ll have Kangaroo Coffee beverages, Gold Star Bakery treats and our new Golden Milk from Mane Beverage to sample. Great food, drinks and music equal a fun evening!

Edelweiss: Enjoy live music on our award-winning patio every Wednesday at 5:30 with Santi Davila, a classic rock and Beatles cover performer. Happy hours in the Ratskeller, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. Traditional live music Thursdays-Sundays, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Wobbly Olive: Our amazing new cocktail menu is live. Come for drinks like the Papaya Noir: papaya black tea-infused vodka, amaro, lemon and charcoal. And Hibiscus Reign: hibiscus-infused mezcal, lemon and cinnamon syrup. Every weekday happy hour at both locations is 4-6 p.m.; all cocktails and beers are half off.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

Pedal Party at Cerberus Brewing. July 9, 6 p.m. Community bike rides for all, every Thursday through September with different monthly themes.

Poker Night at Nano 108 Brewery. July 10, 6 p.m. Recurring every Friday evening.

Beer & Craft at Dueces Wild Brewery. July 12, noon. Weekly Sunday craft beer and activities.

Beer Releases

Boom Chachalaca West Coast IPA at OCC Brewing. A modern take on the classic. Loaded with five hop styles for bold aroma, crisp bitterness and a crushable finish.

Hibiscus Pale Ale at Goat Patch Brewing. Brewed with hibiscus flowers and orange peels. The perfect patio beer.

Cherry Honey Wheat at Storybook Brewing. A slightly sweet, refreshing wheat beer made with Washington cherries and local honey.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

July 9: Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens & Event Center.

July 16: Less Water, More Flavor: A Wine Dinner in the Garden with Ephemera at Hillside Gardens. 6-9 p.m.; four courses, $108.55.

July 17: Coffee as Color, Texture, and Story - A Sensory Tasting Experience at Loyal Coffee. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $34.

July 18: Tag Ulan Baon Supper Club at Good Neighbors Meeting House. 6-9:30 p.m. Five courses inspired by Filipino rainy season plus welcome drink and take-home snacks.

July 18: The 90s vs Y2K Bar Crawl at Atomic Cowboy. 4 p.m. to midnight; $18-$24.

July 23: 4th annual Pinot on the Patio at The Pinery on the Hill. 5:30-7:30 p.m.; $75.

July 26: Below the Belt Bar Crawl through downtown.

July 30: Sip with Schnip at Elephant Thai - Monument. 5-8 p.m. Come see the new location! Side Dish subscribers get one free Thai iced tea with your meal by request. Special pricing on newly created dishes: Grilled Beef Ribs, Beef Rib Khao Soi, and Salmon Choo Chee. Option to add a discounted Thai beer or cocktail. Full regular menu available, including abundant gluten-free and vegan items.

Aug. 1: Vine & Notes Wine Festival in Woodland Park’s Memorial Park. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; $45-$66.

Aug. 1: Indian Food Festival at Liberty High School. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; food samples, dance and music performances, food competitions and more. Free, or early access for $12.50.

Parting shot(s)

Okay, I guess this pic’s not exactly food-and-drink related, but there is a full booze bar inside of Beat the Bomb in Denver. That’s where the photo was snapped, right after a worker hosed most of the green slime off of me (old-school prison shower style, from what I’ve seen in the movies).

Anyway, Lauren took us up there for her son’s 21st birthday and as a team we actually did beat the bomb’s time clock, with ample time to spare. In fact we scored inside of the top 2 percent of people to play through the series of interactive video games and face the concluding slime sprayers. (Smarty pants we are.) Still, we got the option to get drenched, and having driven all that way for adventure it just seemed like the right thing to do.

If you’re looking for textural parity at Beat the Bomb’s bar, order a slimy Jello shot. Have fun. Good luck.

And yes, I’m aware as I write this of the potentially off color editorial decision to run a concluding blurb about beating a bomb when this newsletter opened with a deadly serious story about bomb disposal tech and mental health. But I did mention irony in the first paragraph, and it makes for a soft landing as far as a thematic bookend. So here we are. If you have feels, click the blue button below and tell me about it.

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Japon opened a couple of months ago next to 105 West Brewing at 1466 Garden of the Gods Road, #160. It’s an expansion from a Denver location off Colfax Avenue, and the staff tell me that the ownership group has other concepts in their portfolio.

The decor is tidy and decorative, with mural and ornate lighting accents and a clean, bright dining room. The menu feels comprehensive, ranging from sushi and ramen to hibachi and teriyaki dishes plus bento, donburi and rice and noodle plates and poke bowls. Service is prompt and friendly, though we’re the only table one mid-afternoon between lunch and dinner service. Everything’s pleasant atmosphere wise, save for country music playing which A) I don’t like anyway and B) completely doesn’t fit the Japanese setting.

Anyway, we order three sushi rolls — all proficient and uniquely delightful — to kick off: The Colorful, Crazy and Green Dragon rolls.

• The Colorful Roll features tuna, salmon and yellowtail as a rich fish trio plus crisp cucumber for texture and four colors of tobiko as garnish, making for a visual treat at the table.

• The Crazy Roll sports a spicy tuna, jalapeño and cilantro core with a seared tuna topping and more cilantro garnish. It’s mid-level spiciness tastes in balance to please all eaters and the herbal accent pops.

• The Green Dragon Roll leads with unagi (barbecue eel) and more cucumber than the Colorful Roll, then gets an avocado and masago (tinier, granular roe) topping. It’s the creamiest, sweetest bite of the batch and just as vibrant as its plate mates.

Next comes our order of hamachi kama (yellowtail collar), grilled crispy and served with what tastes like a ponzu dip, with bright citrusy-salty notes. It’s a prized part of the fish for its buttery, unctuous qualities and it doesn’t disappoint, especially at the $14.50 cost.

Then we get a bowl of yaki udon with chicken and vegetables. At least that’s how the menu presents it, but what arrives is more of just chicken and onion slivers, leaving us feeling like it wouldn’t hurt them to throw in some broccoli, carrots and whatever else. Otherwise the flavor tastes good and it’s a starchy treat.

Overall, Japon rates plenty strong for deserving a return visit when I’m in the area and craving sushi and such. With neighboring Eim Thai it makes for a solid Asian duo next to a quality brewery which has its own food program. That’s great for those living or working close and bountiful enough to draw others to venture.

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Shanxi Noodle

Shanxi Noodle opened a few months ago at 5935 Constitution Ave., just past Powers Boulevard, in the space that was Xiang’s Kitchen for over 20 years.

It’s operated by Julia Fan, who also owns Mugi Ramen and Poke locations in Colorado Springs (at 122 Tracker Drive, off North Gate Blvd.) and in Parker, Colorado. She was also an opening partner in Kung Fu Noodles and Dumplings at 4543 Austin Bluffs Pkwy. But she is no longer associated with that business, who got dinged pretty hard by Restaurant Roundup, which is to say the Health Department, in April after she’d stepped away.

Shanxi is her passionate effort to revive what she originally envisioned for Kung Fu Noodles, and she takes time to tell us about how these are her recipes, passed down from her grandmother in China’s Shanxi province. The area is famous for its noodles and production of black vinegar, she explains, pointing to a bottle of it on our table for optional garnish. Next to it, there’s a couple of chile sauces she makes herself, weekly, and both are fiery goodness. The hot chile oil is made with five peppers, she says, while the other features spicy Thai chilies.

The majority of her menu highlights traditional Chinese items, with only a few American-Chinese options thrown in for picky eaters or kids who expect to find approachable dishes like General Tsao Chicken and orange and sesame chicken plates. We of course skip those. It’s worth noting her drink list includes teas, limited boba drinks, beers, wine and sake.

We order a good spread for three of us and dive in.

The first plate to arrive is called Sichuan Cold Noodles but they actually arrive warm, covered in garnishes like cucumber slivers, chopped green onion, bean shoots and peanuts, plus a chile past. Beware the dish is quite spicy, with lightly mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper heat leading the way. I love it.

Next we dutifully plow through baskets of chicken xiao long bao (soup dumplings), shrimp shumai and chile oil wontons. The shumai are straightforwardly shrimpy with a mild dip and other two are proficient and pleasing, eating as expected with gushes of broth and pops of spice. Julia transparently says she does buy her dumpling wrappers, as the kitchen size limits her ability to presently produce them onsite. But she reiterates that she and her crew make most everything else.

We ask her for a recommendation for another plate, and she points us to her Dry Pot Chiba Tofu, explaining how she buys a special tofu and presses it dry and slices it thin to achieve an ideal texture. The plate holds a nice wok hay and mild chile spiciness, with the tofu mixed amongst sauced green bell peppers and green and white onions.

Lastly, as sort of a dessert in place of the listed cheesecake or mochi ice cream, we order cartoon buns and a coconut green tea bun.

The latter is an item she again transparently says she buys from New York, but she boasts its quality and says she has an exclusive on the item around town. It’s a little bigger than golf ball sized, with a gooey, coconut-y core and faintly tannic, bitter wrapper that balances a bit of the sweetness.

The cartoon buns appear just like the piggy buns I first had at Bubbles N’ Bites locally a few years ago, so I presume they’re curated too. (These we didn’t discuss at the moment.) They’re super cute on the table, a definite pleaser of children if you’re dragging your spawnlings to dinner. The only hiccup here is one of them has ruptured and is bleeding its sweet core out, which could potentially terrify a sensitive child who anthropomorphizes it. I’m not sure why the kitchen didn’t pull this one back and serve a non-mutilated one, but in failing to do so it makes me giggle inside.

So yeah, Shanxi isn’t perfect, but it’s sincere in its intention and plenty peppery (which is to say spicy and lively) to deserve a visit for generally authentic Chinese food. Julia’s certainly putting her heart into the effort.

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But then an opportunity presented itself. “Sometimes, I feel something is meant to be,” she says, describing how she felt after first touring her new space in the Safeway shopping center in Monument. For the past seven years, up until May 31, it had operated as Pho Brothers II.

“The location is good,” she says. “There’s no other Thai food here and a lot of people live in the area. I felt like if I bring Elephant Thai here, people will like it.” She adds that she has existing customers at both her spots that drive down from Monument to eat; so she knows they’ll appreciate a closer spot. She also has staff already living in the area.

Though the menus are currently the same between her two eateries (save for a full bar at Elephant Thai), she feels the Elephant Thai brand is stronger, despite it only being around for five years compared to Chaang Thai’s 12. That may be because of more Thai restaurant competition closer to Chaang Thai’s location, she theorizes. (Read more about both, as well as the most recently added menu items, here. Meyer is a Side Dish Dozen member.)

In an effort to further distinguish all the spots, she’s planning to add more gluten-free and vegan items at Chaang Thai, and she’s adding five new items to the Monument Elephant Thai location when it opens. Some are Northern Thai-style, where her father grew up. She walks me through them:

• Sai Ua is a housemade pork sausage filled with spices like kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lemongrass and turmeric. She’ll service it as both an appetizer with side vegetables and entrée with choice of white rice, sticky rice, fried rice or brown rice. (All the following items save for the duck will get the same option.)

• Thai Salmon Choo Chee swims in a coconut red curry sauce, with a fresh slivered cabbage garnish. It’s served in a cast iron pan and holds a big lime leaf aroma. Meyer describes the finish flavor as “very unique.”

• Tamarind duck will also be plated in cast iron for pretty presentation, arriving with sautéed veggies and fried shallot garnish.

• Nam phrik ong typically gets made with ground pork, but Meyer will substitute that for chicken here, and serve the dish with rice. It’s a lightly spicy and sweet tomato chile dip, plated with an array of fresh vegetables, including pea shoots, broccoli, carrots and squash plus hard boiled egg halves and Thai prawn crackers.

• Thai-style beef short ribs are tender and laced with aromatic spices, finished with a lightly sweet glaze and complemented by a red chile sauce on the side for dipping.

As for an opening date, Meyer projects sometime in mid July. She’s completing a thorough remodeling, to include new wallpaper murals in the dining room and an upgraded kitchen. She’s also waiting on final inspections and paperwork to transfer the liquor license. (On that note she teases expanded cocktails from the existing Elephant Thai bar menu.)

She’s happy for an existing waterfall installation that she feels has good feng shui and adds a pleasant sound to relax diners. “I’m excited to serve people in the Tri-Lakes area,” she says. “To bring authentic Thai street food here. I hope people will welcome us.”

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Angelo’s Taverna and Carboy Winery launches off Woodmen as synergistic dual brand

In the former Old Chicago location that closed in June 2025 at 7115 Commerce Center Drive (just off Woodmen Road near the Margarita at PineCreek), Carboy Winery and Angelo’s Taverna opened on July 1.

Similar to how Denver Biscuit Co. and Fat Sully’s compose Atomic Cowboy under one roof downtown, Angelo’s and Carboy synergistically work together as integrated brands who share umbrella ownership. This C. Springs spot — marking a third Angelo’s and fifth Carboy — is the second one that co-locates the businesses. The first is the Littleton home base that includes Carboy’s production facility.

Carboy also operates two vineyards in Grand Valley, one of the state’s two American Viticultural Areas; both are situated outside of Grand Junction on the Western Slope. And they own a winery in South-Central Washington’s Columbia Valley, which grows grapes to supplement the estate-grown Colorado wines. In the decade since it was founded, Carboy has quickly grown to become the largest wine producer in Colorado says Co-founder and CEO Kevin Webber.

He tells me they’re now producing the equivalent of around 28,000 cases annually and earning the highest marks yet from respected rating publications for Colorado-produced wines. That includes a dozen wines scoring in the 91- to 93-point range as evaluated by Wine Enthusiast — keep an eye out for their August issue for that.

“We’re trying to make Colorado wines stand on the world stage,” he says. (I like that they’re doing so with environmental considerations at the forefront.)

I’m chatting with him in Carboy’s upstairs tasting room and events space, which you access from a stairwell leading out of Angelo’s foyer on the building’s south side. There, I also meet Wine Club & Education Manager Kellen Brewer and glean those wine club details from Wine Specialist (and tap-tender) Sarah Nasatka (a familiar face from The Carter Payne). I miss saying hello to this location’s appointed Tasting Room Manager Robin Hinson (another friendly face, and former Ephemera wine director among many local vino postings).

But we do nab splashes of a couple excellent wines by way of sipping some staff favorites Nasatka pours us. One is the CO.NOUVEAU, an unfiltered, dark rosé colored wine that undergoes carbonic maceration (a natural fermentation process) and takes on lightly tart, fruity characteristics with a faint effervescence that makes me think of kombucha for a passing second. Another is the Vin ’59, a bold blend of Grand Valley grapes including Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and New World variety named Chambourcin, which incorporates different vintages (harvest years) to capture the optimal qualities of each.

Before I tell you about Angelo’s downstairs, it’s worth noting you can venture to Carboy Winery on its own and order charcuterie to snack on. But you can’t order food from Angelo’s. However, if you haven’t finished any wine you’ve ordered upstairs, I’m told you can carry that downstairs to continue enjoying with your meal.

Once we’re seated, we order a glass of Carboy Sangiovese on tap: its grapes are grown in Washington and it sips rich and robust, with jammy hints of blackberry and high tannins (dry astringency) that give it ample structure to stand up to our food’s meaty elements. By contrast, our other glass, a Colorado Red Blend from a bottle, drinks elegantly soft and smooth, with brown edges like a Pinot Noir visually, made predominantly from Noiret grape. It’s inherent pepperiness plays off the more delicate, zesty and herbaceous flavors in our meal, from fresh arugula and oregano to acidic tomatoes.

We’re guests for a pre-opening friends/family training service on June 29, so we’ve selected food from limited lists plucked from Angelo’s rather sizable full menu. In talking with Managing Partner and GM of this location Jason Crane, as well as AGM Mersadies Bustamante, we learn the eatery’s backstory and how its disparate elements came together. The short of it relates to a legacy Italian place in Denver’s Capitol Hill area, the original Angelo’s Taverna that launched in 1974. It was purchased in 2013, with the incoming owners tapping Chef Scott Hybbeneth to usher it into the new era with updated menus. Hence how the charbroiled oysters came to be, inspired by Drago’s Seafood in New Orleans, we’re told.

Hybbeneth’s background as a pastry chef helps explain the quality of the homemade pastas, pizza dough and desserts. The sauces and everything else speak to his experience as a chef de cuisine and sushi chef, mastering techniques from many cuisines. At Angelo’s he can lean into traditional Italian, but he’s clearly not afraid to modernize as needed and have some fun. Example: I’m genuinely interested in returning to try his chile relleno ravioli made with red chile and corn pasta stuffed with Pepper Jack, chiles and Parmesan cream.

We are able to try his Ragu Di Capra, made with goat meat (hailing from Salida-area farm El Regalo Ranch), green olives, fresh oregano and goat cheese on fettuccini as we receive it. (The menu says “choice of pasta” typically.) The pasta is thick and toothsome and the meat’s succulent and tender, having marinated for a day and slow-cooked overnight, we’re told. The dish’s tangy aspects pop with the wine, as I said prior, and on the whole it’s a balanced symphony of flavor that’s wholly impressive.

Next up, bison ravioli in garlic-herb butter (we could have chosen marinara or Alfredo sauce) again highlights a firm pasta that easily holds up structurally and texturally to its hearty core. The bolder wine wasn’t even necessary to give counterbalance, as the softer Colorado blend matched just fine, partly because the butter wasn’t overly garlicky.

Our pizza — The New Style — by contrast, sports almost excessive truffle oil, potently punching also with earthy roasted mushrooms, a fuck ton of lightly peppery arugula and salty prosciutto, softened a bit by a white sauce and generous fresh mozzarella. It’s so rich that a slice or two will go a long ways towards filling you up.

Part of the heartiness comes from the thick dough itself, which is calzone soft and pillowy without any crispy cracker-y crunch, but instead a soft chew that’s dense and cake-y in that it doesn’t have a glutenous stretch your teeth fight against. It’s more like deep-dish dough in this way, but not as thick and ingredients aren’t piled so high either. Another way to experience it, if you don’t wish for a whole pie, is to get a bruschetta appetizer, which is actually a flatbread instead of toast slices, topped in pesto, tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic and melted mozzarella.

By the way, the pizzas are all named after Beastie Boys songs at this location, whereas Littleton pays homage to other artists like Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction and Nirvana, and Denver shouts out the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We finish with house tiramisu, as good a rendition as any, fluffy and airy and not overly wet nor dry (like crappy attempts), balanced too with its cocoa and coffee notes. You may as well save room for it, or take some to-go if you get overstuffed on the starches prior.

As for the ambiance and vibe, Angelo’s and Carboy are certainly doing their best to fill the stark shell of an Old C’s location set amongst a trio of chain hotels off an interstate highway. Beautiful mountain sightlines are unfortunately marred by corporate signs and surrounding development, but that’s unavoidable. Inside, the barebones brick, wood slat and corrugated metal features, alongside industrial touches like exposed HVAC ductwork will transport you to the 1990s as easily as the pizza names.

With emphasis off the decor to impress, everything comes down to the hospitality — of which we saw plenty being baked into training — and the quality of the products. I can sincerely say Carboy’s wines are the best Colorado-produced ones I’ve had. And just when I was thinking to myself “do we really need more Italian spots in town?” Angelo’s proves that it’s unique and worthwhile. That’s a strong combo for a dual enterprise.

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Bites & Bits

• The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey put out a press release this week to say that it will close its doors on Sept. 30 if a buyer doesn’t step forward to purchase the business (listed at $950,000). “I’d love to have someone continue the legacy we have built over the years, but finding the right person to carry it forward hasn't been easy,” owner Larry Oddo is quoted saying. “I may have to let it go and move on.” The winery has decided to cancel its annual Harvest Fest, typically held in late September. To honor its 25 years in business — during which it claims to have netted more than 1,200 awards and medals at prestigious wine comps — guests can now receive a 25 percent discount on all wine flights, glasses and bottles, and the tasting room in Cañon City remains open daily.

• Westword gave a first look at Westminster’s new food hall, featuring four food stalls and 92 self-serve taps. (Which is a shitload, if that’s not clear to you.)

• You have a little over one week to commit to attending this year’s Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens, on July 9 from 6-9 p.m. I’ll be co-judging the food vendors, and more than half of my Side Dish Dozen members will be on display with samples. Service industry members can get a discounted $30 ticket (a screamin’ deal) and restaurant owners may purchase bundles for their staffs accordingly should they wish. Don’t miss it. “It’s the party of the summer.”

• Gazette food writer Teresa Farney offered her notes from Aspen’s Food & Wine Classic last week. She ran into familiar faces from Colorado Springs at one bougie brunch event.

• KRDO’s Restaurant Roundup segment — which I wrote about here late last year, interviewing their editorial team — featured a taco spot last week that failed its routine health inspection for the fourth time in five years. Remember: they’re just going off of El Paso County Health Department grades. And they try to balance the bad reports with highlights of high scorers, such as Bubba’s 33 this week.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Bristol Brewing Company: Stop in for a pint of our SoCo Cerveza Mexican Lager, a lower-ABV sipper made with agave nectar for a subtle layer of flavor. We’re partying at the pub on July 4, with $5 beers, burgers and brats all day! Also catch our late night happy hours, starting at 8 p.m. nightly, with $5 pints. Book early for our annual Color Fight on July 18.

Elephant Thai & Chaang Thai: Our house specialties include Pad Thai Woonsen with soft shell crab; red curry duck, Phuket fried rice and Khao Soi noodles with your choice of chicken, pork, beef or tofu. Find an abundance of gluten-free and vegan items on our menu too.

bird tree cafe: Some say we have the best happy hours in town, 3-6 p.m. daily. You’ll find $3.50 mimosas, $6 bloody marys, $7 espresso martinis and other cocktails, $3 Bristol Beehives, $4 Jameson and Fernet shots and sandwiches, snacks and breakfast plates for $6 to $9.

Four by Brother Luck: Grab tickets before they sell out to our Wine Dinner with Guest Chef Lamar Moore on Aug. 6. Moore is celebrated for his Southern-inspired food, and we’ll be doing six paired courses; $175 per person. Book a five- or seven-course private Chef’s Table with us for any occasion.

Blackhat Distillery: Come sample and sip in our tasting room in back of the Alexander Building, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays — where American Agave Spirits meet disciplined craft and elevated Colorado hospitality. Take a guided tour with our intimate Distiller’s Vault experience, third Mondays monthly.

Red Gravy: Meatball Mondays mean specials on our beloved meatball sliders, apps, subs and spaghetti and meatballs. Get half off all bottles of wine on Wednesdays. And enjoy happy hours from 4-6 p.m., Mondays-Thursdays, with half-off glass wines, drafts and well drinks plus apps on special.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

Red Leg Brewing Company’s 13th Anniversary Celebration & 4th of July Bash. 11 a.m. onward, July 4. Live music, games, prizes, face painting and VIP experiences available.

Bingo at Whistle Pig Brewing. Every Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Unscripted Open Mic Night at Seven’s Gate Taproom. Every Wednesday, 8 p.m.

Beer Releases

SoCo Cerveza at Bristol Brewing Co. A Mexican lager brewed with agave nectar, offering a crisp, clean, and refreshing profile with low bitterness.

Sandy Sunglasses Hazy IPA at WestFax Springs. Juicy, tropical, and built for summer.

Frisky in the Forest Apple Graff at Mash Mechanix. A fresh, apple-forward craft beer. (Releases July 4).

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

July 9: Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens & Event Center. 6-9 p.m.

July 16: Less Water, More Flavor: A Wine Dinner in the Garden with Ephemera at Hillside Gardens. 6-9 p.m.; four courses, $108.55.

July 17: Coffee as Color, Texture, and Story - A Sensory Tasting Experience at Loyal Coffee. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $34.

July 18: Tag Ulan Baon Supper Club at Good Neighbors Meeting House. 6-9:30 p.m. Five courses inspired by Filipino rainy season plus welcome drink and take-home snacks.

July 18: The 90s vs Y2K Bar Crawl at Atomic Cowboy. 4 p.m. to midnight; $18-$24.

July 23: 4th annual Pinot on the Patio at The Pinery on the Hill. 5:30-7:30 p.m.; $75.

July 26: Below the Belt Bar Crawl through downtown.

Save the date: July 30: Sip with Schnip at Elephant Thai Monument location. 5-8:30 p.m. More details to follow.

Save the date: Aug. 30: Sip with Schnip at Goat Patch Brewing Monument location. More details to follow.

Parting shot(s)

Josh & John’s celebrated its 40th anniversary this past weekend, giving away pints of a deconstructed birthday cake flavor they named 1986. It was made with a white cake ice cream base, to which fudge brownie bits and rainbow confetti sprinkles were added.

At a private event for staff, family and friends (that I was grateful to be invited to, as they’ve been a collaboration partner) several of us in attendance were thrilled to finally meet the “Josh” part of the business: original co-founder Josh Paris, who’s now the head of a high school math department in the metro Boston area. He left J&J’s in a working capacity in the early ’90s and sold his share to John in the early aughts. He tells me he felt a calling to go back East, and that he loves working with kids. (This was after I jokingly asked: “What, ice cream was too boring for you so you wanted to go teach math?”) Fun fact: John was a math teacher too at one point.

Amusing guests at the party, John presented their original recipe book for display, suggesting to wear gloves if we wanted to thumb through it. Not to protect the pages from us, but us from the sticky pages. They call it their “Bible.” I’ll be the first to propose it be archived at the Pioneer’s Museum or Pikes Peak Library District some day for historical preservation.

John also told stories of the early years, when he and Josh were the only employees, working doubles every day from open to close. When they finally were able to hire their first employee, he recalled going to celebrate at the Hatch Cover with gin and tonics.

“Forty years feels good,” John said at one point, contributing growth in the past decade to his wife Lindsay Keller’s business savvy and encouragement. “The most important metric isn’t our number of stores or scoops sold. It’s the number of families we’ve touched and the stories they tell about us. Of everything we’ve done that’s most precious to me.”

In early June last year, Monse and Tim Hines of Monse’s Pupuseria and business partner Humberto Cabrera were opening The Best Coffee & Lounge in the former Wild Goose Meeting House spot at 401 N. Tejon St.

That was on the heels of announcing they’d stepped in to save Mountain Shadows from disappearing after a 32-year run in Old Colorado City. (It’s still under construction, and I’m told could open as early as October.)

The prior year the Hineses had purchased Saigon Café and tried to make a go of refreshing it, but received some push back. When they opted to close it in mid 2025, they teased of bringing a second Monse’s to the spot, with an upscale ambiance similar to the design of the coffee shop, “like something you’d experience in Cabo,” Tim said at the time.

After my preview visit this past weekend, just ahead of its June 23 grand opening, I could clearly see the vision.

With cream-colored tile floors and textured walls, fiber artworks, pendant lights and woven straw furniture, plus light wood accents (including oak handle chairs and beefy, live edge walnut on the bar top) and cool, curvy cement fiber tables, the space feels Latin American tropical and breezy but also a little bit like a Middle Eastern or North African dessert cantina to me. A micro-tiled central support beam has been turned into a palm tree-inspired installation, with light panels jutting out in a multi-pointed star pattern, like a palm’s leaf canopy.

It all looks impressively chic, and not inexpensive. (I asked, but they prefer I don’t share the price tag.) It’s not just a complete overhaul of the dated Saigon Café space, but a new vision for the ambiance and physical feel of Monse’s Pupuseria that may become a blueprint for more locations out of state.

Cabrera, who splits time between here and Florida, acts in a contractor role for the businesses. He’s who gave the coffee lounge its slick look and who’s working on Mountain Shadows now, too. He tells me they’re looking at cities like Tampa and Sarasota to possibly expand. To be clear, they aren’t looking at franchising at this time, but maintaining ownership.

Tim elaborates on that, expressing an interest in other tourist towns, that like Colorado Springs also have strong community ties. In a way, he ways, it’s like following some of the tourists here back home, and bringing Monse’s clean food aesthetic to their markets. “Where do our tourists live? Let’s go there,” he says. “And expand our reach and introduce Monse’s food and culture.”

Monse’s originally launched in its original Old Colorado City location at the beginning of 2018, quickly becoming a go-to spot for gluten-free dining anchored around excellent Salvadoran pupusas. That menu will translate in full to the new location, which will receive some downtown-exclusive items in addition.

At our preview we’re treated to a buffet-style tasting of three of those dishes, each representing a different country. A large menu details “the stories behind the table,” talking about the significance of corn to Indigenous communities in El Salvador; Colombia’s geographic diversity and how it influences various foods; and an Ecuadorian dish named chaulafán that was born out of Chinese fried rice. Staff members representing each country present the dishes to the assembled guests.

Continuing somewhat of a grandiloquent tone, an “our philosophy” note on the menu speaks to recipes representing “generations of knowledge, migration, celebration, resilience and family,” saying they don’t just wish to recreate traditional items, but honor origins “through a modern lens that reflects the diversity and creativity of Latin America today.”

What all that looks like on the plate is Salvadoran aguachile mar y tierra, being texturally contrasting crispy chicharrón and ceviche-like cured shrimp strips with a citrus-chile sauce and fresh cucumber, red onion and cilantro garnish. Then Picada Colombiana, a mix of grilled chorizo sausages with hunks of beef, pork and chicken, served with bits of corn on the cob and yuca wedges. And lastly, the Chaulafán Ecuatoriano, a mound of jasmine rice flecked with bits of pork, chicken, shrimp, plated with avocado pieces and long plantain strips.

Everything is interesting and delicious, especially alongside sips of a stupid-good, mint-watermelon agua fresca (of which I shamelessly drink two glasses). The spot also features housemade sangria and a wide lineup of Holidaily gluten-free beers in cans.

We’re served small slices of gluten-free tres leches and chocolate cakes before we depart, and Monse floats about the room beaming her wonderful smile as she chats with all those who made the pre-opening VIP list. She’s thrilled to bring her brand into downtown, just a couple miles away from home base, but a world away as far as the elevated decor and refreshed vibe go.

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Seeking kitchen inspiration? Visit the Side Dish recipes page to find three years worth of monthly dishes created by local chefs utilizing Ranch Foods Direct’s Callicrate beef and pork products.

Modernizing military dining

Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine was back in Colorado Springs last week, following up on his Restaurant Impossible visit to Momma Pearl’s Cajun Kitchen some years ago and his more recent appearance in mid 2023 at the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center.

I interviewed him at the time to glean his opinion on how to push our food scene forward, and rather appreciated his colorful and blunt answers. “If the people you intend to serve are currently flocking to TGI Friday’s, maybe compete with them? Maybe do some of what they do but better,” he said at one point. (If you weren’t a subscriber back then, when Side Dish was only four months old, click here to appreciate the full interview, in which he also encourages technology upgrades in restaurants, offers nutritional advice and gives more thoughts on Momma Pearl’s, which has since closed.)

This go around, Irvine came to tour the newly opened Stack House Bistro on Fort Carson, “part of the Army’s Campus-Style Dining Venue (CSDV) initiative to improve the Soldier dining experience,” in the words of a base spokesperson. “The new standard is one that prioritizes quality, choice, nutrition and an atmosphere comparable to what young Americans experience on college campuses, at innovation hubs and in cities across the country,” Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, commanding general of U.S. Army Materiel Command, is quoted saying.

Fort Hood, Texas launched the first CSDV in February of this year, with Stack House Bistro following suit in April, as pilot programs. Both are operated by Compass Group, who operates in more than 25 countries. They’re among the top three contract food service providers, alongside Sodexo and Aramark.

I attended a media event to watch Irvine inspect the facility and chat with staff, as well as open a little time for press questions. (Here’s a clip of one that I asked him.)

Before Irvine arrived, I listened in on a pre-shift pep talk by Compass Group culinary leaders, addressed to the line cooks and kitchen hands. “Why are we here,” one began, quickly answering rhetorically: “To make food and feed people. To nourish those who serve our country. To provide hospitality. This is an escape for them. A little time to help them feel good. If you don’t feel that, you shouldn’t be doing this. We are here to serve. Make people smile. That’s the mission.”

Soldiers get a $39 per day stipend to spend between all three meals, with flexible grab-and-go options plus offerings from a robust salad bar. There’s also several kiosks with different menus: Piccola Italia, Forged Grill, Provisions and Noble Fork. Between them eaters will find everything from pizza (okay, so not everything is super healthy) to sandwiches, stir fries and rotating international foods. The staff tell me that including the takeaway items, they’ll serve between 4,000 and 5,000 meals daily — high volume for time-managed people.

The cafeteria staffs nutritionists who float about and answer questions for any soldiers needing nutritional guidance. I chat with one of them, Matt Poland, who refers to the soldiers as “tactical athletes who need to be fit and ready.” Not everyone has the same dietary restrictions or requirements, so he says to “eat for the work required” respective to the person. So someone stuffing sandbags in training will need more caloric intake than someone at a desk, for example.

I next speak with Executive Chef Matthew Miller, who’s been with Compass Group for 12 years. He says they’re well established in corporate dining and senior living facilities, ballparks, college campuses and more, but the military contract is new for them this year. (Robert Irvine says he helped them acquire the contract, and a base PIO clarifies that “Irvine serves as a special, non-paid consultant to the Army on how to improve its food program modernization initiative.”)

Miller tells me that his team cooks from scratch, in-house, with a huge emphasis on nutrition. “For me this so fulfilling,” he says. “I almost get choked up. People really appreciate us. I’ve never gotten so many “thanks” in a short period of time.”

I’m told the soldiers are thrilled for what Stack House Bistro now offers. But of course I want to put that to the test, so I pull one aside to ask her thoughts. Captain Rachel Mingo, 2nd Brigade S&S OIC (Supply and Services Officer in Charge), says she’s noticed that the “throughput is more efficient in this new space” and soldiers are appreciating the upgraded seating and game tables spread about, like a foosball table nearby to where we’re chatting. With 12 years in the military between four stations, she calls this “one of the best I’ve eaten in,” adding “it has a luxury feel.”

Another soldier later tells us: “This place is awesome. It really boosts morale for us soldiers. Especially after long days, weeks, months in the field. To come back to a nice place and get a good, well-cooked meal. I come here every day for food. I love it.”

That seems to validate the (CSDV) initiative’s intent to improve the soldier dining experience. A press release notes 800,000 soldiers in need of feeding worldwide each day, so the mission to replace outdated dining facilities with modern eateries has a long way to go.

A reporter from The Colorado Sun — who I later eat lunch with in order to taste what the soldiers are getting — took a look back at Fort Carson’s recent dining debacles in her writeup, which I encourage you to read here for more info I don’t cover. She found reports of “insufficient meals” and limited hours at dining facilities that hindered many base inhabitants from easy access. Troop ratings of Fort Carson’s facilities on an app named Hots & Cots were so low that complaints caught the eye of media. KRCC reported on that in late 2024, noting food lacking in nutritional value and unable to meet basic caloric requirements for troops, creating “food insecurity in these facilities.”

Enter the man tasked to help fix it.

Robert Irvine finally arrives and his handlers walk him from kiosk to kiosk, speaking to cooks, staff and soldiers. Someone delivers him a drink from an attached coffee and smoothie cafe named Shake Smart. He asks how many grams of protein are in it, sending it back for 20 grams additional.

When he finally settles in front of the small, assembled press pool, he tells the first reporter to ask a question that his title is “cook — of eggs,” kicking off cheekily.

He doesn’t hold back with criticisms, saying this “is what the Army should have done 30 years ago,” and that we haven’t been treating our soldiers “like athletes from a food standpoint.”

Irvine says he’s lived in the U.S. since 1996, working at the White House two days a week. (I couldn’t easily verify that online. It’s worth noting that he admitted to The Guardian many years ago to “embellishments and inaccuracies” in his résumé). “When I started looking at the food, going around the world to every base, sub and ship, I was appalled at the food we were serving our soldiers, sailers, airmen, guardians, marines and Air Force folks,” he says…. “23 years it took me to fight to get this.”

He laments how every four years administrations change and projects get terminated in the middle of their work. “What tends to happen is we start off with a big bang and it all implodes when nobody’s watching,” he says. “Well guess what, I’m watching.

“We owe it to our service members to give them the best that we have. It’s like having a Mercedes and putting olive oil in the gas tank — that’s what gonna happen with our athletes,” if they aren’t cared for, he says. “There’s some great 92’s [92G Culinary Specialists in the Army] and CS’s [Culinary Specialists in the navy], but unless we give them the tools, the training to do the job, we can never achieve what you see here.”

Irvine says the momentum with these first CSDV’s is just getting going, fueled by positive feedback from troops. He says RFP’s are out for more venues soon, and that “a lot of places are being torn down and rebuilt right now.”

When it’s my turn for a question, I ask what finally clicked to make this happen after decades of effort. Irvine seems to credit Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George (who was ousted by Hegseth in April), saying they “decided that people were what we needed to take care of,” and that the effort is “a holistic look at the total force.”

Striking a different, almost sentimental tone a moment later, Irvine calls food “the international language of love and hope because it breaks down barriers, and helps us talk and communicate.” He calls it the “community maker.” He points to the importance of dining halls like Stack House Bistro as offering comfortable gathering space for troops to connect and talk about what’s going on in their day. “That’s what food is to most people. If you go to a restaurant it’s two hours of escapism,” he says. “We want the Army, Navy, Marines to have the same.”

Chef Irvine says he took military leadership to see the culinary program at Colombia University in New York City as a model, pointing out its 95 percent graduation rate as some evidence of happy students. “It works,” he says. “Why? Because the food is fresh, healthy and great flavored.”

There’s also a push for sustainability at Colombia, and Irvine mentions how Compass Group is aiming to buy from local farmers in the areas of bases. Whether that will happen in a meaningful way remains to be seen after I peek at a “What’s Local Today” sign near the Stack House Bistro’s salad bar. While it’s great to find basil, romaine and butter lettuce from Aurora’s Gotham Greens and oyster and shiitake mushrooms from Fort Collins’ Hazel Dell Mushrooms, there’s no meat purveyors listed, which seems like a blindspot (or savings point).

Five other Front Range companies listed are all prepackaged items: Patterbar, Wild Zora, Bobo’s Oat Bars, Purely Elizabeth and Quinn Snacks. All are better and arguably healthier products than national-level commercial counterparts, but talking of farmers and showing off granola smacks of a little greenwashing. (In fairness, I’d need to see “What’s Local” tomorrow and the next day and next week, etc.)

Still, I’m happy to find compostable cups in use and signs of some sustainability shits given, as per the mandate. I stick around after the event concludes to dine, as I’m not sure when I’ll ever get the chance to again on base.

I start at a digital kiosk and order a smoothie named A Perfect 10, featuring blueberries, banana, vanilla protein and peanut butter. I add extra protein and low-fat milk to recreate the drink that Irvine was given after sending his first smoothie back. (It just seemed like a novel thing to do, for funsies.) In talking with staff, we calculate it contains somewhere between 55 and 60 grams of protein now. It’s surprisingly not chalky to drink, but hella rich and dense.

From the international food kiosk, which rotates cuisines daily and is featuring Caribbean island-style dishes this day, I next order spiced jasmine rice, jerk chicken and curry-roasted cauliflower. It sets me back all of $6.50 and tastes a step above the average college dining hall, which is to say impressively good. (And for context of reviewing on a military base, I once dined at the El Paso County Jail for a story in the CS Indy, so I do know what horrific institutional grub tastes like.)

For dessert, we share a red velvet cupcake made with red quinoa (for added protein) and all real ingredients that I can pronounce. It also rates surprisingly delightful, exemplary of nutritional substitutes for basic ingredients. I depart feeling like I can honestly say I’d be perfectly happy to return and eat here again.

“This our way of saying thank you,” Irvine had said when asked by one of the reporters what his message was to soldiers. “You should have had this a long time ago. But now you’re getting what you deserve.”

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Bites & Bits

• A new spot named House of Birria has opened in the former Roots Cafe space at 330 E. Colorado Ave., next to Rebel Rebel. According to FOX21, it’s operated by the same folks who own The Mactory at 125 N. Spruce St.

• Angelo’s Taverna and Carboy Winery has bumped its public opening one day back from initial estimates, to July 1. I’m slated for a preview meal on June 29 and plan to share some early content on social media ahead of next week’s newsletter.

• Earlier this month, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed HB26-1033 into law, effectively expanding the Colorado Cottage Foods Act. Known as The Tamale Act, the law supports entrepreneurs and “remove[s] barriers for home-based cooks to earn a living and legally sell delicious food to Coloradans, growing our economy and supporting communities,” Polis is quoted as saying.

• Two Colorado spots on shortlist of finalists for ‘best new cocktail bar in U.S. The Gazette reported. Both are in Denver. One is Rougarou, and the other is The Peach Crease Club. New Denizen reported on the latter’s opening late last year, calling the cocktail menu “genuinely one-of-a-kind” and said it “reads like the offerings at a globally-inspired restaurant rather than a watering hole.” And she placed Rougarou on her list of Denver’s Best New Restaurants of 2025, saying it “comes as close as the city gets to a cool-kid hangout.”

• Chef John Casto, current Chairman of the Board for the Pikes Peak Chapter of the American Culinary Federation and a general manager for Sodexo, as well as a Pikes Peak State College instructor, was among six people nationally to receive the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Heroes of Everyday Life award. It came with a $5,000 grant to give to the hunger-relief charity of their choice. Casto selected the Springs Rescue Mission. Then, according to this detailed report by KKTV11, “He was surprised on stage with a grant for a second charity, which he plans to give to the Marian House Soup Kitchen.”

• My latest segment with KRCC/CPR aired this week. Reporter Andrea Chalfin helped me revisit one of my favorite stories that I wrote last year: the Culinary Connections program that serves refugee-cooked meals out of First United Methodist Church downtown. We shared last month’s Afghan meal with friends at my house and she recorded the experience. Give it a read or listen.

• In an amusing act of patriotic mixology, Cocktails After Dusk shared a recipe this week for a Reflection Pond Cocktail, in-part utilizing Fernet Menta, aloe syrup and green and blue Bitters and Glitters cocktail bitters. (Thus far no arrests have been made of those interacting with the drink.)

• According to this Wired article, scientists have invented a way to brew espresso with ultrasonic waves, sans hot water, using 75 percent less energy. Explained in layman’s terms, it’s “a room-temperature brewing process that uses high-frequency sound waves to extract the flavor, oils, aroma, and caffeine from ground coffee.” A group of tasters reportedly couldn’t notice the difference in flavor between the ultrasonic and traditional brew methods.

• Shared with me by local artist Sean O’Meallie: “How to Display Fine Art in Your Restaurant (Without Getting Spaghetti Sauce on It).”

• Allusion Speakeasy is holding The Great Allusion Warehouse Cleanout on June 28 at 9 a.m. They’re selling off pieces from 30 prior Allusion themes, to include “props, decor, signs, costumes, furniture, artwork, themed pieces, and countless treasures.” Click the link for more details.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Wobbly Olive: Every weekday happy hour at both locations is 4-6 p.m.; all cocktails and beers are half off, plus $5 house wines. Plus we have a new happy hour food menu, with small bites like dirty martini popcorn, Szechuan wings and calamari tacos. New cocktail menu launching soon!

Goat Patch Brewing: Our summer music series continues June 28, with Chinaflower Suncats at the Lincoln Center, 5-8 p.m., and the High Life Cajun Band in Monument, 2-5 p.m. Catch Bleating Heart Night at all locations on June 30, benefitting Bike Clinic Too.

Evergreen Restaurant: Join us Friday evenings for live music on the patio, 5:30-9 p.m. weekly. And return for brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sundays. Whenever you come in, you have to save room for our viral mousse cakes for dessert.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Weekly specials include all night happy hours on Mondays; Cantina Tuesdays; Po Boy Wednesdays; Wine N’ Snack Thursdays; Happy Hour Date Night Fridays from 3-6 p.m. (with meals for two for $65); Boil Night Saturdays with $20 beer buckets; and Locals Sunday with $1 oysters and more.

Kangaroo Coffee: Join us for our Summer Music Series with Lookee Here, June 27, 1-4 p.m. at our Kangaroo Coffee Hillside Coffee House. Visit each of our locations to discover delightful drinks of the week. Order online for in-store pickup, or have a drink delivered through Uber Eats or DoorDash.

Edelweiss: Enjoy live music on our award-winning patio every Wednesday at 5:30 with Santi Davila, a classic rock and Beatles cover performer. Also come for European brunch, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., to include $5 mimosas and Bloody Marys. Join us for the next Germany World Cup matches, June 25 at 2 p.m. and June 29 at 2:30 p.m.

Stellina Pizza Cafe: Join us from noon to 2:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays for our newly launched Cicchetti Hour, featuring bite-sized snacks, similar to Spanish tapas, typically served in rustic Italian bars. The menu includes salads, house focaccia sandwiches, happy hour drink pricing and BOGO gelato.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

World Cup Streaming: USA vs. Turkey at Phantom Canyon. June 25, 8 p.m. Catch game day specials like $10 chili cheese or veggie fries.

Music in the Yard at Bristol Brewing. June 26, 6 p.m. Live music and Bristolicious beer.

Field of Drinks Brew Fest at Black Forest Brewing Co. Noon, $35. Keg barrel race, live music, local trucks and vendors, games, and community vibes.

Beer Releases

Hill Climb Hero Lager at Mash Mechanix. A crushable, golden lager made in collaboration with the PPIHC.

Lite Lager at Fossil Craft Beer Co. The perfect patio beer for dads.

The Prancing Pony at Nano 108 Brewery. A bright farmhouse ale with lemon zest, subtle spice and crisp, dry finish.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

June 26: Murder Mystery Dinner at Avenue 19 food hall. 6-9 p.m.; four courses, costume contest and prizes, $119-$161.

June 27: Beats, Eats, & Sneaks at COATI. 2-8 p.m. Beat battles, streetwear market, sneaker convention and good eats and drinks.

June 27: Colorado Springs Mimosa Fest at Illegal Pete’s. 1 p.m.; $32-$65.

June 27: Field of Drinks Brew Fest at Metcalf Park in Fountain. Noon to 4 p.m. $35-$130.

June 28: Taylor Swift Drag Brunch at Cerberus Brewing Co. 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; $23.

July 1: Whiskey Church Tasting Series w/Storm King Distilling Co. at The Carter Payne. 6:30-8:30 p.m.; $39.

July 9: Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens & Event Center.

July 16: Less Water, More Flavor: A Wine Dinner in the Garden with Ephemera at Hillside Gardens. 6-9 p.m.; four courses, $108.55.

July 17: Coffee as Color, Texture, and Story - A Sensory Tasting Experience at Loyal Coffee. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $34.

July 18: Tag Ulan Baon Supper Club at Good Neighbors Meeting House. 6-9:30 p.m. Five courses inspired by Filipino rainy season plus welcome drink and take-home snacks.

July 18: The 90s vs Y2K Bar Crawl at Atomic Cowboy. 4 p.m. to midnight; $18-$24.

July 26: Below the Belt Bar Crawl through downtown.

Food Truck Tuesdays at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum continue through Aug. 25 (with exception of July 7). Every Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

For more daily events check out springsthings.co/events.

Parting shot(s)

For the second year in a row, I co-judged the Famous Dave’s All-Star BBQ Series, part of the World Food Championships. I was joined by Famous Dave Anderson; (who I interviewed here last year); meteorologist Matt Meister; (who now runs his own Peaks2Plains weather service); area influencer Chris Curtis (of @foodingdrinkingcolorado) and Delilah Ala of the Cos Foodies Facebook group. We’re all pictured above in the top left photo. At bottom right with me are Ashley & Trystan Brown, owner/operators of Texas T-Bone Steakhouse/Famous Dave’s BBQ.

This year’s winners, who competed in chicken, rib and wild card categories, were:

Grand: Smokin BPQ (Jeremy Sanders)

Reserve Grand: Zings BBQ (Bobby Cooks, a Colorado Springs local)

People’s Choice: Smokin BBQ, but golden ticket handed down to Pretty Freaking Good BBQ (Joshua Morgan, a local event caterer)

The Local Table opened its doors in the Security-Widefield area three and a half years ago in a former Pizza Hut location, hence the familiar, cupcake-shaped windows. They serve “classic American comfort food” by their own description, which is to say familiar diner, cafeteria and pub food. You can read chef/owner Tony Pera’s short backstory on the business’ “about” page, which includes three decades of industry experience across the country.

I’ve most heard friends locally talk about The Local Table’s brunch, so that’s what we decide to visit for on a recent weekend. And as you know, brunch for many people means bloody marys, so that’s what decide to drink.

Lauren orders the House, spicy, which really isn’t, but it’s totally proficient, if lacking any garnish beyond a citrus wedge. While I can appreciate that they don’t do the over-the-top ostentatious shit like whole meals skewered atop it wouldn’t hurt them to throw a stick of celery in. Don’t be afraid to order the Ghost Pepper Bloody Mary, as I did, if you actually want a spicier version. They don’t overdo the house pepper infusion, so you get a mild burn finished by the zesty spicing of a chamoy rim, which itself could be more bountiful and better executed. Still, it drinks.

For bites, we order The Local Table Reuben, which appears on the brunch, lunch and dinner menu. And smothered breakfast burrito, which isn’t available during evening hours.

The first features salty, house-braised corned beef with typical sauerkraut, Swiss and thousand island toppings on toasted marbled rye. Aside from the bottom slice of bread arriving fairly soggy already, it’s a pleasing bite that any deli would be happy to serve.

The cheddar-jack-garnished burrito, filled with generous scrambled egg and potato and a not very talkative chorizo, arrives in a puddle of soupy green chile with a mild to medium heat and the delightful earthy flavor we all crave. It’s good, but can’t entirely make up for the burrito’s under-seasoned elements that ultimately leave it tasting basic.

Kudos, though on the included sides (one for each dish), for which we choose grilled vegetables and roasted potatoes. The veggies this day are tomatoes and thick slices of zucchini, which are allowed to just taste like themselves and be a fresh, light offset to the heavier meal. The potatoes, served with thin slices of Parmesan, have that great quality of being baked then fried to a satisfying crispy texture. No notes.

The Local Table also delivers nice presentations on their dishes, showing care in the kitchen. I’ve heard the burgers are good, if that’s your speed, and the menu also features sweet items like upside-down pineapple pancakes and a strawberry mousse waffle for kids (or adult children). The dinner options include hearty mains like a pork tenderloin, chicken-fried steak and New York strip; there’s even a seafood and pasta section to further fill out the catch-all menu.

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Kelly’s Boba & Dessert

By Lauren Hug

Kelly’s Boba & Dessert is a new addition to University Village food and drink options, taking over the space that previously operated as a Mochinut franchise. (They don’t have an online presence yet that we could find.)

Located between Nothing Bundt Cakes and Tokyo Joe’s, the independent brand retains mochi donuts and Korean corndogs similar to those Mochinut served, but the new owners have expanded the menu with bubble waffles, sago (a refreshing, warm weather dessert incorporating chewy pearls) and their own specialty drinks.

We left the bubble waffles and corndogs for another time and opted to try the strawberry, chocolate and funnel cake mochi donut varieties. A note on a chalkboard sign informs customers that the donuts contain gluten. That may be why they’re somewhat lighter in texture with a crispier exterior than Mochi Thaim’s fully gluten-free offerings.

I prefer Mochi Thai’m’s version, but I’ll gladly stop by Kelly’s when I’m in the area. The strawberry donut, topped with a Pocky stick, was our favorite. The sweet and slightly tart glaze was a welcome complement to the dough. The chocolate version is topped with something closer to a milk chocolate spread than a traditional glaze, which didn’t really work for me.

The drink menu is extensive, featuring milk teas, “milky’s,” smoothies, fruit teas and lemonades with several options for toppings. There also serve featured drinks that include matcha, coffee and even sugarcane juice.

We tried the matcha ube latte made with coconut milk (our choice), which arrived in beautiful layers of green, white and purple. An employee made sure we knew to stir it before drinking to mix the flavors together. We also sampled the wintermelon milk tea with brown sugar boba. The warm, soft and delicious boba elevated the drink, which is served in a sturdy, attractive cup that can be reused after the beverage is gone.

Tempted by the fact that we’ve never seen sago on a menu before, we ordered the lychee version (strawberry, mango, and watermelon were the other options). I was expecting something more chia-pudding-esque, but it turned out to be a refreshing dessert soup full of pearls, jelly and lychee halves. It left me interested in trying other flavors sometime in the future.

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When the European Café & Restaurant announced back in late March that their building in Old Colorado City was sold, and that they were seeking a new home by May 15, some local eaters wondered if that would be the end of things for the businesses that launched back in 1996.

But those are probably the people who don’t know the fortitude of the cafe’s owner, Bozena Jakubczyk. Around a decade ago she’d moved from European Café’s original Manitou Springs location into a charming cottage in Old Colorado City, maintaining and growing a loyal following.

Nothing was saying she couldn’t do it again, on the eve of European Café’s 30th anniversary in July. But where to? What would fit their vibe and style?

What about the old Dale Street Bistro Cafe downtown? It had closed late last summer (after a couple decades in business near the Colorado College campus). It’s a cute building, bright with pastel colors and already laid out in a suitable way for European Café’s size. Super fitting. Perfect, actually.

Jakubczyk jumped on the spot and her tiny team got to work soon after the last day of service in OCC, on Mother’s Day. They’ve spent the past month refreshing paint, scrubbing the kitchen, tidying the dining room and updating the front patio with new equipment and features. Regular patrons will recognize the familiar artworks of artist Pam Pappas, also a cafe front-house employee.

Home relocated home.

I spend some time on the first day of service downtown, June 11, dining and chatting with Jakubczyk and her front-house lead Tyler Correa, as well as two longtime customers seated nearby.

Correa explains that the menu’s pretty much the same since the transition, although some items have received new names for a refresh (such as Crepes Bozena) and they’ve begun offering breakfast items all day. Lunch items launch at noon, and service stops daily at 4 (but for Mondays and Tuesdays when they’re closed). Also, they’re working on getting a new liquor license.

What definitely hasn’t changed, says Jakubczyk, is everything made in-house daily — no frozen items, or cans beyond some tomatoes. “Everything is fresh,” she says emphatically. No microwaves or warmers, “now or ever.” They’ve also ditched the old deep frier (used for french fries) in favor of olive oil- and butter-cooked home fries. As the primary prep cook and shift cook, she ensures “everything is very clean and tasty and I treat customers well.”

Picture that said through a Polish accent. She’s the fourth generation to be cooking these family recipes, which started in her great grandmother’s kitchen. Pierogis made each morning, potatoes shredded for pancakes, etc.

I dine on a large potato pancake, which is similar to how my family makes Hannukah latkes, but thinner, and with less onions and salt. (Hey, that’s us.) It’s topped with Norwegian smoked salmon, a big dollop of sour cream and garnishing capers and red onions. I’m offered an egg on the side and say yes; after all, potatoes love runny yolk.

A pair of Russian pierogi must be had, so I add them to my order and relish them plus a crepe filled with sweet cream for a light dessert.

I ask the two regulars seated near me what their go-to items and favorites are. Marsha Garrett starts by saying “everything.” Then narrows that down to the cafe’s stuffed cabbage rolls with red gravy, Reuben sandwich, potato pancake with stroganoff, pierogis, crepes and the Polish sausage omelet, because of incorporated sauerkraut and cheese. “It’s really good,” she says.

Dennis Kleinsasser —who tells me he’s been dining at European Café weekly for the past decade, often with Garrett — says he loves the buttermilk pancakes (which he’s eating this day) and home fries. “Bozena’s crepes are wonderful, especially the dessert crepes,” he says. “Even just crepes alone with butter.”

He adds that he would sometimes go to Dale Street Bistro Cafe, and thinks “this is a really good fit for European Café — the atmosphere fits.”

Jakubczyk agrees, telling me “it’s smaller but so cozy — I love this building.”

I ask her if she does plan to retire anytime soon and she jokes with me about being “too young.” She’s been running the business for so long it’s a steady routine that she doesn’t find too hard. (Building sales aside.)

“I want to keep doing this,” she says matter of factly. Then an order comes in and she leaves me at my table, disappearing into the kitchen to cook.

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Ranch Foods Direct is The Spot for pork belly

The Springs has a matcha influencer. I sat in on her class and came home prepped to make tea like a pro.

Just as third-wave coffee culture marks periods in recent history of great leaps forward in public understanding of craft standards, so too is finer tea culture enjoying a heyday across America.

Now, many of the best coffee cafes incorporate sophisticated tea drinks. Look no further locally than Cinchona. I hope you’ve had their blueberry matcha tea by now.

Just a couple weeks ago, I told you about the launch of BrewCha inside COATI food hall. Though it launched earlier in food truck form (and remains on the road as such), the anchoring of a brick-and-mortar holds significance to the Springs’ tea scene, which also owes a debt of gratitude to Yellow Mountain Tea House for introducing gong fu ceremonies years ago.

BrewCha has leaned heavily into matcha tea culture specifically, launching with a 10-drink “Pick Me Up Matcha” menu that includes an option to select unique matchas from one of four Japanese growing regions. Owner Fatima Concepcion recently tapped a friend to teach a Matcha 101 class at COATI, aimed at teaching the basics of making amazing matcha drinks at home, the traditional and proper way. I sat in.

The instructor was Dai, who prefers to go by her first name only here. Her handle (which you should follow) is @thematchamix. She regularly shares recipes for alluring drinks that look like this:

As for how the Springs has come to be home to a matcha influencer, Dai moved here three years ago. She was born in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and immigrated to the U.S. at age five, to Houston, Texas. She’s a pediatric physical therapist, and turned matcha making into a hobby and passion in late 2024 when she launched her page.

Her entry point to matcha, like many people, was at Starbucks, via an iced matcha latte that became her go-to order. But it wasn’t until she and a friend visited Japan in early 2024 that she had an ah-ha moment. “We went to a random donut shop and asked for a matcha latte,” she tells our class. “It was just regular milk, a regular latte, nothing crazy. But I took my first sip and had this epiphany. I was like, ‘what’s this?!’”

She says she went on a matcha binge for the rest of the trip, returning home determined to learn how to make it for herself. She started experimenting and playing with recipes, and soon was being sent samples for review from matcha companies. One of the first came from a boutique company in Japan, who she was able to meet up with on a return trip there at the beginning of this year, creating a rewarding, full circle moment for her.

When I ask her more about her “why?” she says “The Springs just has BrewCha and Cinchona. The more we educate, the more we build the culture. It’s time to get serious about matcha as a cafe. Because people are savvy and they will know when a cafe has not properly educated itself on matcha.”

Meaning they’ll understand when places are using commercial pre-mixes and blends with additives such as sweeteners built in, versus hand-whisking matcha with reverence, the traditional way, making exceptional drinks. To be fair, it’s not everyone’s model nor should it be, for quick-serve places especially. To some coffee shops it would be a distraction. But for others, like Cinchona, it has the potential to be another draw.

What Dai breaks down in her class is everything you need to know about matcha: from its origin and modern cultivation areas to growing and processing methods to healthful properties and understanding why colors and flavors vary. Obviously terroir plays a role, such as in matcha grown in volcanic soil, but so too does harvest time and other important factors. And freshness for the consumer is key.

I won’t steal her thunder here by relating everything she teaches in class, but one of the myths worth debunking, from her handout, is that the term “ceremonial grade matcha” is a product of marketing and not an actual scoring system that holds weight. So don’t be fooled into overly expensive products. That’s where her reviews come in handy, including this recent roundup of her 6 top matcha powders after trying over 50+ tins.

One part of the class I found surprising (read: effective) was the importance of prepping our palates with delicate sweets to counterbalance the bitterness of the matcha sips ahead. Dai breaks down three categories of traditional Japanese wagashi that can be as simple as mochi snacks found at area import markets.

I like that she exhibited the traditional pottery, glassware and equipment for a proper tea ceremony — clarifying that she’s not a certified tea master, equivalent to a wine sommelier — but encouraged attendees that they can make do at home with what’s on-hand. Though a scale and bamboo whisk are essential. (The cost of the class includes a take-home whisk for students to get them started.)

“The main thing is to get a high-quality matcha,” she says. “You can fudge the tools.”

We learn to make a “thin tea” (usucha) that can be drank as-is, and a “thick tea” (koicha) which we turn into a latte, pairing it with our milk of choice and an optional complementary sweetener. Everyone makes a couple drinks and departs properly caffeinated. (Watch my short video of Dai teaching us how to whisk matcha rapidly in the bowl.)

By way of a mini Q&A afterwards, I sit down with Dai to learn a little more:

What’s it like to be a matcha influencer?

The biggest thing is community. I have friends all over the world that I haven’t met in person, but we support each other.

For new drinkers, what are the most common flavors to look out for? What adjectives do you tend to reach for?

The most common flavors to look out for would be umami, floral, grassy, or nutty. Sometimes you can look at astringency, which is how the aftertaste dries on your tongue. Sometimes you will get other unique flavor profiles, such as a seaweed flavor.

What’s something that’s surprised you in a matcha?

One of my all time top favorites is so different than anything I’ve tried. It has notes of black sesame and Japanese milk bread.

What do you do with lower ranking matchas as you rate them?

If I get a powder that’s not my favorite I’ll use it in a sweeter drink recipe where the matcha can be more highlighted with complementary flavors. Sometimes a matcha will be more culinary-grade, which is better for making desserts like cookies and ice cream.

Who else should people follow to become more matcha informed?

@matchamonk.ryo and @misheru

Want to attend the next class? It will be on July 26 at COATI food hall (upstairs). Only eight spots available. Check BrewCha Tea Lounge’s website event page two weeks prior to sign up. There will be more monthly recurring workshops announced, so be on the lookout on that page for more dates.

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Bites & Bits

• Firebrand, the high-end steakhouse concept that’s part of Tava House in Woodland Park, has now opened. You’ll recall from my story in early May that the massive new project originally launched with its event venue and downstairs taproom, complete with a self-pour beer system. Firebrand was on a delayed start as it cleared final health inspections, etc. Chef and co-owner Victor Matthews explained at the time that Firebrand would be devoted to primo steaks sourced from excellent ranches locally and nationally, and that there’d be a chef’s table option for customizable, drink-paired courses. It’s open 5-9 p.m., Thursday-Sunday presently. I haven’t yet been back up to check it out, but that’s on my list to do soon.

• Monse’s Pupuseria will open at 20 E. Colorado Ave. (in the former Saigon Cafe space they purchased) on June 23. There’ll be a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. to kick off the first day of service. As with Monse’s Taste of El Salvador in Old Colorado City, everything at the downtown pupuseria will be gluten free. I’m slated to attend a private, pre-opening preview, so will likely have some photos and notes up on social media before the opening, or in next week’s newsletter.

• Berries Basket Cafe opened on June 16 in the former Red Lobster space at 4925 N. Academy Blvd. The mom-and-pop spot, billing itself as “a family-owned neighborhood cafe,” now serves all three meals, promoting “fresh ingredients, generous portions, classic comfort food, specialty drinks, and friendly full-service dining.” The breakfast menu features diner classics. The lunch and dinner menu offers everything from sandwiches, salads and soups to seafood, pasta, burgers and Greek-inspired items. There’s also a full coffee bar with espresso drinks, smoothies and more. I aim to stop by and check it all out sometime soon.

• In the above ad you’ll notice that Side Dish sponsor Stellina has launched a cicchetti hour — cicchetti being akin to tapas, but traditionally served in rustic Italian bars. Special weekend service from noon to 2:30 launches June 20, featuring not just small bites, but full Italian sandwiches on house sourdough focaccia. (Full menu here.) You’ll also find happy hour pricing on drinks and BOGO homemade gelato for dessert. (Give me all of the stracciatella, please and thank you.) We caught a preview meal a couple weeks ago, as Stellina sought early feedback from its regulars.

• 2026 James Beard Award Winners were announced earlier this week. One is Chef Penelope Wong of Denver’s Yuan Wonton, a three-time finalist and first-time winner. “Holy shit. Holy shit, I beat Johnny Curiel!” she told Westword.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Bristol Brewing Company: It’s summer and that means it’s time for patio vibes. Head to the Barrel Room at Ivywild, now open for the season Thursday-Sunday, or grab an adirondack and chill outside in the Schoolyard. And don’t miss Music in the Yard Fridays 6-8pm featuring Wirewood Station on June 19 and The Fuzzheads on June 26.

bird tree cafe: We have one of the best happy hours around: 3-6 p.m. daily. Come in for our special Pride Month drinks, like The Gay Agenda, a beautiful, rainbow-layered sipper with blue spirulina, lavender lemonade, orange juice and alpine berry tea. Or if cold brew is your speed, get the Salty Bee Word.

Red Gravy: Enjoy happy hours from 4-6 p.m., Mondays-Thursdays, with half-off glass wines, drafts and well drinks plus apps on special. Pastarama persists with Lamb Ragu facing off against Rigatoni alla Vodka for all of June. Try them both before one’s knocked out for contention.

Blackhat Distillery: Experience Blackhat Distillery, where American Agave Spirits meet disciplined craft and elevated Colorado hospitality. Come sample and sip in our tasting room, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. Take a guided tour with our intimate Distiller’s Vault experience. Advance resos required.

Elephant Thai & Chaang Thai: Our house specialties include traditional Thai-style pad ga prow, Thai Boat Noodles, Pad Thai Woonsen with soft shell crab, and red curry duck with pineapple. We also served dedicated gluten-free, kids and vegan menus to accommodate all eaters.

Four by Brother Luck: Book a five- or seven-course private Chef’s Table with us for any occasion. Wine pairings available. Email info@fourbybrotherluck.com to reserve. Come see us for happy hour, 3-6 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

World Cup Streaming: USA vs. Australia at Phantom Canyon. 1 p.m., June 19. Includes game-day specials like 80-cent wings.

Beers & Books Summer Book Sale at Black Forest Brewing. 11:30 a.m., June 20. Local authors, books, artwork and creativity.

Matterville Wolf Dog Meet and Greet at Dueces Wild Brewery. Noon, June 20. Get to know the area nonprofit and pet pups over pints.

Beer Releases

War Child IPA at Cerberus and Urban Animal Brewing. A collaboratively brewed Triple IPA named after a character from Point Break.

Mango Wheat at Goat Patch Brewing (all locations). A juicy mango wheat beer with soft wheat and a touch of hop bitterness.

Tangerine Sour at South Park Brewing. On draft and in cans to-go.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

June 18: Bar Mom’s Birthday Bar Crawl Fundraiser. 6 p.m. to midnight. $25 tickets benefit Care & Share. Includes VIP menu pricing at stops and commemorative challenge coin.

June 20: 4th Annual All-Star BBQ Cook Off at Texas T-Bone Steakhouse & Famous Dave’s BBQ. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free barbecue and guest vendor samples (including coffee and whiskey), live music and DJ, family activities, giveaways and more. I’ll be co-judging.

June 26: Made In America Wine Tasting at Wayfinder Coffee Co. 6-9 p.m.; taste six domestic wines with food pairings.

July 9: Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens & Event Center.

July 18: Tag Ulan Baon Supper Club at Good Neighbors Meeting House. 6-9:30 p.m. Five courses inspired by Filipino rainy season plus welcome drink and take-home snacks.

For more daily events check out springsthings.co/events.

Food Truck Tuesdays at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum continue through Aug. 25 (with exception of July 7). Every Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

Parting shot(s)

Wow it was a packed week of events. Here’s some things I got into:

• Watching the first U.S. game of the World Cup at newly opened The Sportsbook Bar & Grill downtown. Huge space, tons of TVs!

• The Summer Sync Creator + Business Mixer put on by Springs Things at T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila.

• Learned to make a better and more traditional matcha at home, as featured in the above story.

• I Co-judged the Absolut Heat Streak cocktail competition with Jacob Pfund, owner of Rebel Rebel, at Avenue 19 food hall. A dozen local bartenders took the speed-drink-making challenge, and Allie Johnstone, operations lead for Choice Restaurant Concepts, took home the ticket to visit the Tabasco headquarters in Louisiana.

“Accolades would be great, but as far as who we are, they don’t define our identity.”

That’s Chef de Cuisine Ashley Brown at Four by Brother Luck, one of my Side Dish Dozen sponsors. We’re seated together in Four’s dining room during prep hours one recent morning, talking through a number of topics and plotting out next week’s Sip with Schnip Happy Hour event.

I’ve asked her about the hype and potential pressure around statewide Michelin award announcements coming up in the fall, partly because Four resides on many peoples’ short-list as a contender for at least a recommendation, if not a Bib Gourmand nod. After all, speaking of accolades, Brother Luck is a Top Chef and he’s assembled a formidable force of culinary professionals at his eponymous eatery.

Ashley attended the Fall 2025 James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change and she’s part of the 2026 City of Colorado Springs Mayor’s Fellowship class. She tells me both experiences have helped shape her approach to leadership in her kitchen and with her front-of-house team. There’s a “do your part” tone to her takeaways, touching on accountability, solutions thinking and mindset, putting in the effort and “knowing your resources before you speak on something.”

Five years in the CDC role at Four, meaning 20 seasonal menu refreshes, has given Ashley the confidence to lean into her own style of cooking. “I’m not knocking molecular gastronomy, but I like my food simple for what I’m trying to sell,” she says. “You won’t find translucent ravioli here. We cook with raw ingredients and find new ways to incorporate disparate flavors you wouldn’t think would match.”

Peruse Four’s current menu and it’s easy to find examples of that, from a cucumber-strawberry salsa on yuzu-charred octopus to green chile corn broth and cilantro-lime butter on a PEI mussels dish.

“Ashley is inspiring,” says Brother Luck. “To watch a young chef find her voice and discover herself, and to express that creatively through the food she’s putting out. And for her to find the balance between motherhood, partnership in her relationship and her professional career. What I love about her food is her understanding as a Latina woman of food’s cultural connection and the regionality of where we live.”

That geographical designation underpins Four’s core concept, honoring and showcasing the ingredients of each season in the Four Corners and Southwest region — but also the symbolic roles of the hunter, gatherer, farmer and fisherman. They’re even represented by the icons in the eatery’s logo. When designing menus, Brother, Ashley and the Four cooks talk how it’s not just the products of domesticated farmlands in our area but also the significance of what our water touches.

“When people talk about the Southwest they’re usually just talking about the desert,” says Brother. “They aren’t talking about the water from the mountain top and the nature and people that follow the rivers.” In Ashley’s words, “it’s all connected.” (Which explains why you’ll find an item like octopus on the menu in the first place.)

Ashley grew up in the Springs and has family in Arizona, with distant ties to New Mexico. “My roots are in the Four Corners,” she says, noting that she grew up eating the flavors of this region.

Since opening Four in 2017 Brother says they’ve evolved their four-season approach in this way, redefining what Southwest cuisine means. “It’s the result of many failures along the way,” he says. “Nine years later we’re completely different. There’s more intention, focus and clarity in the food we’re cooking. I had to learn a lot of lessons, including getting out of the way of amazing talent.”

That talent includes the people behind Four’s dessert, cocktail and wine programs.

Pastry Chef Marjorie Furio dials into the seasons creatively with past creations like a “forest floor” presented like an edible terrarium. And current sweets like a lavender pavlova with honey kataifi and tuile accents intended to resemble a nest — a nod to springtime’s birds and bees.

Bar Manager Kyle McNerney mixes cocktail lore and history with personal twists and seasonal flourishes. I’m thinking back to a recent mocktail I had off the happy hour menu, made with persimmon simple syrup and a carrot shrub. He turns drinks into stories, with playful names, but doesn’t stray from making them balanced and beautiful. Ashley says they’ll meet up before a new menu drop and play off one another, sometimes intentionally cross-utilizing an ingredient. A recent example was yogurt that she used in an elk dish and he found a way to incorporate into a cocktail.

With seasoned sommelier Steve Kander, sometimes the collaborative direction starts with his input, “because I can change the dish, but he can’t necessarily change the wine,” Ashley says. That’s not to say he couldn’t source a different bottle; it’s to say when he has something special in hand that they’re seeking the perfect pairing for, Ashley’s willing to work with him to dial a dish’s ingredients and garnishes around it, to make it “seamless.”

“Within the last several years I’ve learned to tone things down and think about the wine instead of solely the dish,” she says, joking that she used to put cilantro and honey on everything, which can be tough for pairings. “Steve has helped shape my palate more than any chef has.”

Which goes to show another aspect of leadership that Ashley’s gleaned along her journey: listening.

Back to the opening topic of accolades: if Four’s going to net a Michelin nod of any sort it’s not going to come through the old-school toxic kitchen culture of chest-pounding alphas, flying pans and verbal (and sometimes physical) abuse.

Not to be overserious and soapy about it, but it will come instead through the values inscribed in Latin on a pin given to Ashley and all of this year’s Mayor’s Fellows: animos (courage), empathia (empathy), and humilitas (humility).

Though those will be exercised most via self-care, and practice with and regard for others, that last value of humility offers a wise culinary application as well. The best chefs I’ve worked with and interviewed over my 30 years around the industry have all said some form of the same phrase “let the ingredients speak for themselves.”

That means not muddling and muting flavors in misguided and vain attempts to elevate them, and essentially getting out of their way so they can speak up with their inherent essences. Ultimately holding them in perfect harmony and balance as they fuse with one another to be the best expressions of themselves. As we desire to be the best expressions of ourselves, existing within the moodiness of the seasons.

In essence, humility’s what Ashley touches upon when she says she likes her food “simple.”

The magic for us eaters, of course, is when a chef’s “simple” tastes like the most dynamic and complex gastronomy, tickling all the senses at the table, heightened by a complementary sip. That is why we dine out, forever chasing the dragon.

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Bella’s Bagels announces huge expansion to Creekwalk

A little over three years in business on the north end of the city (off Powers Boulevard and Old Ranch Road near Pine Creek High School) and Bella’s Bagels stands poised for a significant expansion toward downtown.

“We’ve been told by too many people who live on the south side that if only we were closer to them they’d be here dangerously frequently,” says co-owner Jason Stele.

I first gleaned Bella’s backstory from Stele just after they’d opened in spring 2023 (when I was launching Side Dish, nostalgically). We like to remind each other of that significance just about every time we catch up. One of those times was in early 2025 when Bella’s expanded one storefront over, adding a coffee bar.

They’ve had a stellar run since, growing from selling around 700 to 800 bagels daily to 1,200-plus now, including wholesale. “We’re north of 9,000 a week,” he says. They set a single-day record on Mother’s Day with 2,300 bagels sold, and have grown to a staff of 24, that includes four bakers across two baking shifts.

In April they won Schmear of the Year at BagelFest West in Los Angeles — earning a visit from Governor Jared Polis. Come May, they won Gold in the Gazette for Best Bagels in Colorado Springs and were named Best Bagel Shop in Colorado by Chowhound.

“It’s validation we’re moving in the right direction,” says Stele. “We don’t chase accolades, but it shows that our product is differentiated, unique and consistent, and that goes along with our excellent customer service. The reality for us is the network effect happens, where someone tries our food once and then brings friends and family back — we now have 17,000 loyalty members.”

Which brings us back to the expansion, announced this past weekend through a video on Facebook. It introduces Bellas Bagels & Bistro at the Creekwalk shopping center, to include full service for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a full bar, market and deli. The roughly 5,000-square-foot space includes a spacious creekside patio. Wraparound accordion windows in the dining room will be able to open for more of an outdoors connection and pretty view over the waterway.

Senger Design Group, who’s behind Ryze Skyline Lounge and many other F&B projects locally, is underway with plans which have also been informed by Brother Luck in a consulting capacity. Stele explains that Luck has been a loyal customer at Bella’s since the beginning, and several months ago he shared the expansion news on the down low when he ran into Luck at the bagel shop. The Top Chef offered to help with the kitchen layout and things like equipment procural. Stele’s best guess for an opening date is sometime in Q1 of 2027 — “we have a long way to go.”

Stele says the larger, second location has been the grander vision since day one. “We’re pulling from several delis where I grew up in New Jersey, as well as where my wife Michelle grew up in Indianapolis. They were part of our routines and traditions.”

He describes being able to order a Bloody Mary with a lox bagel on site, or nabbing a grab-and-go quart of tuna salad from the market, or half pound of lox from a deli counter. Or perhaps a picnic kit to take outside to the grassy creekside amphitheater during summer music concerts. “It’ll be an upgraded experience with an expanded menu,” he says, offering another example of being able to order a bagel and cream cheese with your omelette at breakfast in the full-service dining room.

The dinner menu isn’t something he’s ready to say too much about yet, but he does tease items like roasted chicken and meatloaf, “done the Bella’s way.” He says “we’re going for Sunday Supper high-quality comfort food.”

Most importantly for those eaters laser-focused on the bagels: Bella’s will expand flavor offerings at the south location. Stele says the only reason they haven’t done so up north is the limitation of their bagel case’s size at the retail counter. “We’re busting at the seams,” he says. “We’re so grateful for the community’s support. The timing is right now for us to expand.”

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Bites & Bits

• Restaurateur Phil Duhon announced earlier this week that Burnt Toast will open a third location in town, this one off Powers Boulevard at 3265 Cinema Point. He says it should be open by late October. The original location opened in 2022 across from City Hall downtown, and the brand expanded to North Academy Boulevard in 2024.

• Chef James Africano of The Warehouse posted a video on Facebook over the weekend to share progress on The Warehouse Urban Grocer buildout. Which is to say, share the lack of progress on the timeline he was originally hoping for. But he asked for grace given it’s a 130-year-old building that had some surprises in mind for construction crews as they’ve made upgrades. “We’re slowed down but we’re not giving up,” he said, noting they can get staged to operate within a day once they finally get their certificate of occupancy. “We’ll let you know just as soon as we know, when that opening day is,” he concludes.

• Former longtime Beer Ranger for New Belgium Brewing Travis Flett, who also consulted more recently for breweries like Goat Patch, has taken a new position as the Sales and Branding Director for Fossil Brewing. I ran into him earlier this week and he told me about some big plans he has to build on Fossil’s nearly 12 years of success in the community. I’m embargoed on one particular beer project he’s pumped about, but I suspect you’ll see some reporting from me down the road on it.

• Make Southern Crispy Fried Green Tomatoes with Season Two Taste’s recipe.

• “Donation-only and pay-what-you-wish restaurants are not new. What makes Mr. Alverson’s approach novel is his determination to center his business on an expanded concept of hospitality driven by more than economic survival. Serving customers who don’t have the means to eat at most restaurants brings an ethical component to his recalibrated definition of success.” — an excerpt from a New York Times article about a Minneapolis restaurant where “a tax protest has turned into a social experiment and a critique of the hospitality industry.”

• Rocky Mountain Food Tours has released updated tours around town as part of their 16th anniversary celebration. The new routes include: A morning walking tour of Manitou Springs that includes the historic mineral springs; a craft beer-focused “Wild West Burgers & Brews Tour”; an evening “happy hour-style” tour highlighting tacos, tequila and margaritas downtown; and a collaboration with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum “that combines international food tastings” with museum admission. RMFT says they’ve now served more than 25,000 tour guests since 2010.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Evergreen: Join us for Flatbreads & Frosé: A girls morning out on June 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s free, but reservations required. Enjoy a pilates class with Core Collective; a bloom bar; giveaways; and of course, flatbreads and frosé.

Kangaroo Coffee: Join us for our Summer Music Series every Saturday in June at our Kangaroo Coffee Hillside Coffee House. June 13: The Mitguards, 1-4 p.m.; June 20, Community Share Fair Event Open Mic, 1-4 p.m.; and June 27, Lookee Here, 1-4 p.m.

Edelweiss: Make reservations early for Father’s Day, June 21. We’re doing a prime rib special! Catch all of Germany’s World Cup group stage matches June 14, 20 and 25 in our Ratskeller. Enjoy happy hour beer pricing and $3 off appetizers.

Gold Star Bakery: Sweeten your Fourth of July celebrations with our three-pie bundle and get 10% off. Red: Strawberry Rhubarb. White: Dutch Apple. Blue: Wild Blueberry. Available gluten-free. Pre-order through June 25 for pickup on July 2, 3, or 4.

Goat Patch Brewing: Our summer music series continues June 14, 6-9 p.m. with the SofaKillers at the Lincoln Center and Deuces Wyld in Monument, 2-5 p.m. Catch trivia night at Northgate, Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and enjoy bites from Grazing Goat Kitchen.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Make reservations for Father’s Day at Jax on June 21. Tell us your best dad joke for a free beer! Enjoy a lavish Surf ‘N Turf plate with beef tenderloin, whipped potatoes, asparagus, horseradish butter and a choice of lobster tail, crab cake, sea scallops, or jumbo lump blue crab meat.

Wobbly Olive: Every weekday happy hour at both locations is 4-6 p.m.; all cocktails and beers are half off, plus $5 house wines. We can’t wait to introduce you to new sips from our upcoming cocktail menu refresh! Check out chef Mark Henry’s first-of-its-kind (at Wobbly Olive) happy hour food menu, which includes dirty martini popcorn.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

Cosmic Pizza Music Bingo at Fossil Craft Beer Co. June 13, 7 p.m. Drink pints, win prizes (if you’re lucky).

Recess in the Schoolyard at Bristol Brewing Co. June 18, 5-8 p.m. Weekly on Thursdays; a family-friendly evening of food, games, beer and playtime for all ages.

Beer Releases

NEIPA at Goat Patch Brewing. A juicy, hazy New England IPA loaded with peach candy, tropical and citrus hop aromas with a soft, low-bitterness finish.

Cowboys vs. Hipsters IPA at WestFax Springs. Berry, citrus, and tropical fruit IPA brewed with Strata and Amarillo hops.

Junibock at Lost Friend Brewing. An easy-drinking Maibock lager featuring smooth bready malt notes and classic German-style character with a clean, refreshing finish.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

Food Truck Tuesdays at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum continue through Aug. 25 (with exception of July 7). Every Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

June 13: Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival at Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church. Noon to 4:30 p.m. Family-friendly, live music, food trucks, beer, wine and spirits tastings. $55.20 to $108.55 (VIP).

June 13: Ethiopian Night at Crepe Amour. 5-8 p.m. A traditional Ethiopian tasting menu featuring some of Ethiopia’s most beloved dishes, an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, soft drinks, and plenty of gluten free and vegan options. $45; $25 kids.

June 13: Tubby’s Turnaround Free Tasting Event. 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring Ranch Foods Direct hamburgers and special tastings from local vendors, ranging from coffee to pastries and chocolate. Give input on the iconic Manitou business’ future.

June 13-14: Pikes Peak Pride in downtown. Includes food trucks, beer garden and vendor booths.

June 14: Matcha Workshop at COATI. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Join BrewCha and @thematchamix to learn how to prepare matcha traditionally and turn it into an awesome latte at home. $85 includes a take-home whisk.

June 14: Springs Things Summer Sync Creator + Business Mixer at T-byrd’s Tacos & Tequila. 3-6 p.m. Hayato Ramen takeover; all day happy hour; DJ HotBoii.

June 14: 7th Annual Rosé-a-Palooza at the Carter Payne. 2-4 p.m., $49.

June 15: Absolut Heat Streak bartending competition at Avenue 19. 1-4 p.m. Come spectate as bartenders compete for prizes in a timed competition, mixing drinks with Absolut Tabasco Vodka. The battle is meant to mimic service on a busy brunch shift. (Bartenders, register at the link to compete for free.) I’ll be co-judging. Free food, drinks and swag!

June 17: Colorado Springs Western Street Breakfast in downtown. 5:30-9 a.m. at Pikes Peak and Tejon streets.

June 17: Happy Hour Sip with Schnip at Four by Brother Luck. 3-6 p.m. Enjoy $10 cocktails and $5-$6 mocktails plus a full drink list. Snacks start at $2.50, small plates at $8 and larger items for $10-$13. Come for items like Pueblo chile blue cornbread with wojapi jam, hominy hummus, pork belly sliders, Brother’s famous bacon jam burger and duck poutine ... and maybe a surprise or two.

June 18: Bar Mom’s Birthday Bar Crawl Fundraiser. 6 p.m. to midnight. $25 tickets benefit Care & Share. Includes VIP menu pricing at stops and commemorative challenge coin.

June 20: 4th Annual All-Star BBQ Cook Off at Texas T-Bone Steakhouse & Famous Dave’s BBQ. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free barbecue and guest vendor samples (including coffee and whiskey), live music and DJ, family activities, giveaways and more. I’ll be co-judging.

Parting shot(s)

It had been overly long since I dropped by Frozen Gold — what with all my Josh & John’s collaborations and Lolley’s expanding downtown as well as Ice Guys — it’s fair to say I’ve been distracted by other cold, sweet goodness.

But due to being conveniently chased inside by the freak storm that delayed last weekend’s Switchbacks FC match to starting at 9:50 p.m., I was able to try Frozen Gold’s flavor of the month.

It’s called the Must-tachio and is made with a pistachio soft serve, brown sugar cheesecake softcore (unless you get it deconstructed with a cone as I did) and honey-glazed filo and pistachio crumble.

I made a hella mess of it at our table, knocking the garnishes off with my first bites. But I enjoyed the flavor combo as an alternative to my favorite flagship items, the Samoa Samoa and Piña Colada, both made with the vegan toasted coconut soft serve. Suffice to say: Frozen Gold I have missed you. Let’s see each other more often.

The line stems from Between the Sips, which aims to be open in Monument — just off W. Hwy 105, near Serranos Coffee — sometime in August.

“We’ll be the first trope bookstore in the Colorado Springs area,” owner Sheena LaBadie tells Side Dish, citing a blossoming industry that’s inspired Denver’s Spicy Librarian, Boulder’s Sugar and Spice Books and Fort Collins’ Cherry on Top.

But what those lack that Between the Sips will offer is the teahouse component. “My daughter and I are big into tea rooms, says LaBadie, who’s a military spouse, homesteader in the Peyton area and healthcare management and small business development professional.

“And I’m an avid romance reader — especially fantasy. So I thought why not combine the two passions and create a tearoom focus around romance books?” That’s something that will distinguish Between the Sips from existing Springs-area tea rooms, like Toodles Tearoom, Tea & Tidbits, The British Pantry and Tea Room, Miramont Castle, BrewCha, Yellow Mountain Tea House and Glen Eyrie.

See how I just worked in a name-drop for all the spots that make up our tea scene? Yeah, amazing. And notice none are in the Monument area, which gives Between the Sips the leg up in a new area. (“Leg up is my intended pun for a romance bookshop, in case you missed it.)

As the bookstore goes, LaBadie says she’ll stock a wide range of romance styles, including contemporary, Harlequin, historical and LGBTQ. “There’s so many genres in romance,” she says. “People like different things, from hard core to soft and sweet.”

I ask if she’s concerned about pushback from the local community, which it’s fair to say is buttoned up (read: conservative) in many regards.

“Education will be a challenge,” she says. “There might be pushback against a romance bookstore because of its spicier side. Romance books can be like reading porn versus watching it. I’ll need to explain to people that’s just a small piece of it, though. It’s the story, the plot that’s important. It’s about romance and love: sometimes between friends and lovers, or enemies and lovers.”

LaBadie says she plans to host book-themed tea parties, and she’s already had local authors reach out asking to do events. The tea room will initially serve black, green, white, and oolong teas with matcha coming later. She aims to be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, largely by reservation as the tea service goes.

As you can see from the digital renderings above, the tea room will have a more modern style, with feminine, floral touches but no stuffy Victorian vibe. “It’s going to be cozy, with Colorado colors,” she says. “It won’t scream ‘smut.’”

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BrewCha Tea Lounge opens a kiosk at COATI

I first met BrewCha owner Fatima Concepcion at the Sober Soiree event in mid 2024, running into her again that fall at a food truck rally. I was highly impressed by her creative and diverse tea drinks, spanning from Thai to English and Japanese flavors. As I wrote at the time, she takes a cocktail-making approach to building alluring sippers with healthful ingredients.

Earlier this week, Concepcion held a friends and family soft opening at her new COATI food hall kiosk, ahead of an official opening on Tuesday, June 9. Regular hours for the time being are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the menu expanding as she gets settled in the new space and some breakfast foods planned to join the menu later this month.

At the preview event, BrewCha offered a two-page “Pick Me Up Matcha” menu to highlight 10 matcha drinks, including items not previously available on the truck. Choices included a strawberry or maple-blueberry matcha — both of which I relished — a maple-lavender; black sesame; hojicha; and brown sugar-cinnamon. All are made with dairy-free alternatives like oat and coconut milks.

What’s super cool is an option to choose your matcha origin from one of four Japanese growing regions. BrewCha explains that they use 4 grams of matcha per drink, which Concepcion tells me is roughly equivalent to a double-shot of espresso. Patrons can up-charge to 6 grams for a triple-shot equivalent; she says Thai people tend to drink 7 grams in a 16-ounce volume for a stronger ratio than many Americans will prefer.

Concepcion says she will still take the food truck out and will participate in the Acacia Park farmers markets on Sundays this season as one regular stop. Once she staffs up, appearances elsewhere will expand.

Related, while on the topic of COATI: Look for a Piglatin Cocina express kiosk to open soon in the kiosk next to BrewCha. A food hall representative tells me it should be there for at least the summer months, with potential to stick around and anchor on site. (On a personal note: I think that’s a terrific idea. I’ve told owner Andres Velez for years that he should expand the food-truck-launched brand into COATI, where he had opened an arepa stall and healthier concept named Green Freak back in 2024.)

Reception launches a Hold Fast Coffee Club

Reception, who introduced C. Springs to the build-your-own espresso martini menu last October, has now introduced the Hold Fast Coffee Club.

To be clear: It’s not an actual club, requiring sign ups, membership fees, etc. Rather, it’s a special service from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fridays-Sundays, featuring newly introduced Belgian Liége waffles alongside seasonal and flagship espresso drinks. “‘Club’ in this case just means being part of our community,” says owner Grace Harrison.

The waffles are inspired by Harrison’s family ski trips. After bombing down icy hills all day, her kids love hitting the Waffle Cabin in Winter Park. She’d had the idea to bring waffles to Hold Fast, before Reception was born, but it hasn’t made sense until now, as both businesses have shifted recently to help Reception find its footing.

Turns out a lot of loyal customers wanted more quick-service-style Hold Fast offerings inside Reception, and the staff quickly grew tired of saying no. Linking the branding was clunky so Harrison found it “time to pivot” by bringing Hold Fast favorites into Reception while allowing it to still focus on manual coffee methods to highlight their roasters and barista talent. By night, Thursdays-Saturdays, 4-9 p.m., it’s still a cocktail bar with a coffee habit.

Harrison tasked her culinary lead Audra Pearce to create Reception’s take on Belgian Liége waffles, which are doughier by design (and $6-$8). They’re made with a yeast dough that proofs, lending “a bread-y, almost brioche texture” in Harrison words. (I agree. And before anyone asks: No they’re not gluten-free.)

One seasonal savory option they’ve launched with is a sun-dried tomato, herb, garlic, Parmesan and pesto waffle —vegetal, with light zesty notes. Then there’s a classic pearl sugar waffle, a universal option to pair with any coffee drink. And a seasonal sweet option, currently a wild blueberry, lemon-poppyseed waffle with lemon glaze which is definitely a sweet treat, particularly if you ask your barista to pair with a traditional coffee drink made with any fruitier varietal.

While we were on site for the inaugural waffle service, we also tasted through Reception’s current seasonal drink menu. A cardamom rose latte leads with huge floral aromatics and tastes true to the flower, not soapy or synthetic like lesser attempts. The banana bread latte, a mainstay at Hold Fast, is so on-point that it will convince your brain that you’ve just swallowed a slice of the real thing. An oat milk base adds body and richness.

If you’re looking for more of a dessert drink, get the tiramisu latte (we had it iced by recommendation), which allows you to dip a garnishing ladyfinger into vanilla cold foam dusted with cocoa powder — super yum!

And if you wish to skip espresso for some reason, get the cascara yuzu soda, which places the light, delicate coffee cherry skin (in syrup form) with a mildly sweet, commercial yuzu soda to create an effervescent sipper with mild citrus bite and faint earthy elements. Coffee lead Josh Slama says the drink “encapsulates how cascara can contribute to something bright and refreshing,” complementing how its inherent taste brings out and plays off of the yuzu in the soda.

These drinks will be available until the summer seasonal menu flip, on June 20 tentatively, so get in before then to try them. You can also still take part in monthly cuppings at Reception, which are only $10 and include $5 back toward a full espresso drink. And Hold Fast offers rotating specials on third Saturdays, such as pancake days, affogatos on the patio or a cappuccino and cookie combo. Follow both businesses social media pages for days, hours, times and updates.

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Bites & Bits

• On its 21st anniversary this past weekend Rizuto’s Ice Cream expanded from its original location at 4785 Barnes Road to a second location at 2050 Jet Wing Drive on the Southeast side.

• Atrevida Beer Co. announced on June 1 that it would cease operations on June 28, after eight years in business. “Obviously this decision doesn’t come lightly, but more on that later,” they wrote on Facebook, celebrating the community they created and many accomplishments, including being the first Latina-owned brewery in the state. The brewery plans to extend taproom hours and host events all month, include a June 20 “Atrevida Adios Party” from 3-9, to include a mariachi band, DJ and more.

• Gather Food Studio announced last weekend that it would be moving the business to Minnesota later this year, but continuing to offer online classes and online spice ordering to stay connected to C. Springs. Classes and events will continue as scheduled through July’s end. “This decision was not made because Gather failed or because our business wasn’t surviving,” wrote owners Dave Cook and Cortney Smith in their newsletter. “… This move is about choosing a different path for our family and carrying Gather with us into the next season of life.”

• The Sportsbook Bar & Grill will grand-open its new C. Springs location at 402 S. Tejon St. at 4 p.m., June 5. Catch happy hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

• “Polis vetoes bill that would have ended credit card fees on sales tax,” reports Colorado Public Radio. Our Governor, explaining his action, said “it is questionable whether this bill is fully implementable or operationally feasible.” In response, the Colorado Restaurant Association’s Sonia Riggs was quoted as saying: “We’re devastated that the Governor chose to believe the falsehoods spread by the credit card lobby over the painful reality currently facing our local restaurants and retailers.”

• “Atomic Cowboy to pay over $800K in settlement with employees” Denverite reported last week. A class action lawsuit argued that wage violations had occurred, including “failing to pay employees for overtime work and wrongly paying the tipped minimum wage for employees who were not actually getting tips.” The company denied the allegations, but settled out of court.

• The Brit Pub will screen every World Cup soccer game, June 11 through July 19. They’ll be offering food and drink specials during matches, plus a giveaway for two tickets to one of the games in Kansas City in June.

• Here’s 7 new Denver and Boulder restaurants & bars you should know about, via New Denizen. One is a “dreamy Basque date night spot in RiNo; another is a bakery where you can find Portuguese-style pastel de nata treats. (I last wrote about those in late 2024 after my return from Portugal.)

Side Dish Dozen happenings

T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila: We’re celebrating 10 years in business on June 6! Starting at 1 p.m. we’ll have live beats from DJ HotBoii plus some other fun surprises. Be there.

Blackhat Distillery: Experience Blackhat Distillery, where American Agave Spirits meet disciplined craft and elevated Colorado hospitality. Come sample and sip in our tasting room, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. Take a guided tour with our intimate Distiller’s Vault experience. Advance resos required.

Bristol Brewing Company: Catch Music in the Yard every Friday during June and July in the Schoolyard. This week it’s Funkology, and next Friday local favorite SOAPDISH rocks the yard. Shows run from 6-8pm.

Red Gravy: For June’s Pastarama battle, the May winner, Lamb Ragu, will face off against Rigatoni alla Vodka, made with Italian fennel sausage, spinach, tomato cream sauce with vodka and Parmesan. Come try ’em both and upvote your favorite.

Four by Brother Luck: Come see us for happy hour, 3-6 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays. And sample from the current spring menu, which includes dishes like rabbit empanadas, juniper-smoked trout, anasazi bean consommé, Colorado lamb, and vegan oyster mushroom asada.

Elephant Thai & Chaang Thai: Our house specialties include traditional Thai-style pad ga prow, Thai Boat Noodles, Pad Thai Woonsen with soft shell crab, and red curry duck with pineapple. We also served dedicated gluten-free, kids and vegan menus to accommodate all eaters.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

Southpark Brewing Second Anniversary Party. June 6, noon. Get $5, 21-ounce beers and enjoy small-batch new releases and giveaways.

Bayou & Bluegrass Fest at Whistle Pig Brewing. June 6, 1:30 p.m. A full day festival featuring a crawfish boil, three live bands and dog- and family-friendly space.

Makers Market at Red Leg Brewing Co. June 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feature a rotating selection of local artists, bakers, makers and farmers.

Beer Releases

Hill Climb Hero International Lager at Mash Mechanix. Clean, crisp lager built for race season. Official craft beer of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Redcoat Amber at Nano 108 Brewery. A smooth and approachable English Draught Beer featuring notes of toasted biscuit, caramel malt and earthy hop character.

New Shore IPA at Storybook Brewing. A bitter IPA with light tropical front and hoppy finish.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

Through June 12: Pilgrimage of Pints 2026. A self-paced brewery crawl to earn perks and rewards, leading up to the Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival on June 13.

June 5: Prism’s Pride Kickoff Party at Avenue 19. 5-8 p.m. Free; drag show, drag bingo, music, performers and more.

June 6: Summer Music Series kickoff at Kangaroo Coffee Hillside. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Featuring Lookee Here. Next shows June 13, 20 and 27 from 1-4 p.m.

June 6: Manitou Springs Wine Festival. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Memorial Park. $65-$100.

June 6-7: Donut Day at Pikes Peak. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with toll gate admission.

June 11: Local Relic’s 10th anniversary Party at The Carter Payne. 6-8 p.m. Meet the brewery’s new owner Andrew Mueller and see a new art display by Robert Anderson.

June 13: Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival at Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church. Noon to 4:30 p.m. Family-friendly, live music, food trucks, beer, wine and spirits tastings. $55.20 to $108.55 (VIP).

June 13-14: Pikes Peak Pride in downtown. Includes food trucks, beer garden and vendor booths.

June 15: Absolut Heat Streak bartending competition at Avenue 19. 1-4 p.m. Come spectate as bartenders compete for prizes in a timed competition, mixing drinks with Absolut Tabasco Vodka. The battle is meant to mimic service on a busy brunch shift. (Bartenders, register at the link to compete for free.) I’ll be co-judging. Free food, drinks and swag!

June 17: Colorado Springs Western Street Breakfast in downtown. 5:30-9 a.m. at Pikes Peak and Tejon streets.

June 18: Bar Mom’s Birthday Bar Crawl Fundraiser. 6 p.m. to midnight. $25 tickets benefit Care & Share. Includes VIP menu pricing at stops and commemorative challenge coin.

July 9: Taste of Pikes Peak at Hillside Gardens & Event Center.

Parting shot(s)

Earlier this week I met up with my pal Cole at Side Dish sponsor Goat Patch Brewing to do a fun sampling with items from Grazing Goat Kitchen at the Northgate location. Our objective was to find optimal food pairings for the newly released Citrus Summer Drink, which is brewed with limes and calamansi fruit from the Philippines — a kumquat and mandarin orange hybrid.

The brew sips light at 5.5 percent ABV and has a body similar to wheat beer, but with a clean, smooth, citrusy finish. Don’t think juicy like some IPAs or bitter-finishing like some other IPAs that are fruited, and taste pithy at times. This drinks with lower acidity, but just enough to still dance nicely with ingredients on our pizzas, like floral basil and earthy vegetables, plus hot Calabrian pepper honey. At its heart, it’s just refreshing and optimal for the season we’re in. Watch the short video for further elaboration on all that via our spontaneous thoughts as we live-taste. Cheers!

Caféina

Caféina, a Latin-infused mobile coffee bar, originally launched in 2022 in a smaller cart form for private events. But in September 2025 sisters and co-owners Ariana, Alondra and Paulina hit the road — which is to say began regular commutes into the Springs from Ellicott, a half hour to the east — in their upgraded coffee trailer. It’s a cute, simply designed, vintage-looking cafe on wheels with a wide ordering window. Both flagship and seasonal menus are displayed outside it.

Paulina, the oldest, says the venture has been her dream. “I love making coffee at home, and crepes too,” she says, noting they’ll sometimes serve those as specials. (The day I catch them they’re offering matcha tres leches cake, instead.) The sisters say their ultimate goal is to grow into a coffee shop and bakery somewhere in the Springs. Meanwhile, they all keep side jobs, ranging from hair styling and baking to truck driving and immigration-related paralegal work.

To construct their drinks, the sisters buy beans from Denver’s Huckleberry Roasters, a respected craft coffee brand also used by Totem, locally. They make some syrups in house and utilize French-made 1883 Syrups otherwise. (That’s a naturally-produced brand also used by The French Kitchen and Kangaroo Coffee).

While you can order traditional espresso drinks, Caféina shines with their Latin-influenced creations. We first order the fabulously creamy and somewhat beach-y Coquito Latte, a Puerto Rican-inspired breve (with half-and-half) made with Caribbean syrup, coconut cream, cinnamon, coconut and hibiscus flakes and a cream top. If you’re a matcha lover, try the Matcha Palmera, which subs out the double espresso shot for ceremonial matcha, while all other inputs are the same.

Next up we try the Arroz con Leche Latte, Mexi-Mocha and Mazapán Latte.

You know arroz con leche as the Mexican rice pudding dessert, and here the sisters spin that with caramel sauce and cinnamon added to the espresso and breve base, with the same sweet cream top that comes on all our drinks (think: cold foam). The drink works equally well hot or iced (between our group, we order it both ways), and sips balanced despite its sweetness. That can generally be said about all our lattes.

The Mexi-Mocha leans on chocolate cocoa milk and cinnamon for its flavor enhancements. While the Mazapán latte offers a choice of milk, to which macadamia nut and white chocolate syrups are added, then garnishing crumbles of De la Rosa Mazapán peanut candy on the cream top. Though that ratchets the sweetness factor higher, it still makes for a delightful (if guilty) sipper, with a unique and addictive nutty flavor.

Caféina tends to post their weekly schedules on Monday evenings on Facebook and Instagram, so check in there to find a spot convenient for your schedule. They regularly park at KAE Event Studio & Floral Boutique downtown and UCHealth Eastview Medical Center off Powers Boulevard (on the south side of the building).

Yeyo Will Puerto Rican Food

What Yeyo Will lacks in curb appeal — tucked away off B Street just outside Fort Carson, with windows to the dining room blocked out — it more than makes up for in flavor.

Owner William Santiago Ortiz launched the business as a food truck during the earlier days of the Covid pandemic, but moved to brick and mortar a couple of years ago.

He offers a simple, two-sided menu, wherein proteins come with either rice or mofongo — the awesome Puerto Rican side item made from mashed, fried, unripe plantains, garlic (notably) and typically pork broth or chicharrón. Protein options include roasted pork, mojo or Creole shrimp, chicken wings, meatballs and pork chops ($16-$20).

I nab the mofongo with chicken kebabs to-go, and wait a little over 10 minutes for it to be prepared fresh as I wait in the small dining room, painted a bright orange and adorned with Puerto Rican flags and signage. I’m glad to see items made to order and not languishing in a hot-hold condition. The chicken’s nicely tender and chewy, grill-marked with a basic barbecue sauce, lightly sweet. The mofongo delights with its starchy texture, satisfying (filling) richness and deep garlic essence. (I’m burping it a couple hours later and not mad for it.)

Some meals don’t require deep analysis or storytelling; they just offer sincere pleasure through authenticity and proper execution. This is one of those. If you’re not familiar with Puerto Rican food, Yeyo Will’s offers a great place to start, the humble settings aside.

For me, my visit created a touch of nostalgia, having visited Puerto Rico in late 2021 and gotten to taste the culture on its home turf. From the Ruta del Lechón (“pork highway”) to meals in San Juan and small coastal towns, we had a blast.

Urban Animal Beer Co.

We dropped into Urban Animal recently and sipped through a couple of tasting flights so that we could try more of the alluring beer lineup without having to get sauced at higher volumes.

I love tasting paddles for this reason, even if they do set you back $14 each for four pours here, which is basically the going rate these days. Relatedly: When I wrote a cover story for the CS Indy years ago I asked a bunch of local brewers why paddles are so expensive compared to a pint. The takeaway was beertender time and effort (i.e. pain in the ass factor) plus some extra beer waste due to clearing foam and maybe they said something else substantial, but I can’t recall.

I don’t love the value proposition, but I know what I’m consenting to when choosing to order them, and that’s on me. At least at Urban Animal — who’ll turn three come September — the beers rate so across-the-board stellar that I’m left feeling like it’s worth it still — again for the convenience of wide sampling.

On our first paddle we choose: the Street Taco Skies Mexican Lager (Lauren’s favorite for simple, crisp, light drinking); the Strawberry Banana Ultrasuede fruited sour (creamy from oat inputs, really fruity, only mildly sour and not too sweet); Berriosa! tart raspberry kölsch (clean berry flavor and not that tart really); and Kahuna Ninja Piña Colada Hazy IPA (my favorite, truly pineapple-y and coconut-y and bursting with tropical flavor with wonderful aromatics).

Next up on a mostly dessert-beer-y paddle: Shark Wheat pomegranate wheat (truly tart and easy drinkin’); Jock-A-Mo pistachio blond (a fun Mardi Gras inspiration with big nutty vanilla notes that evokes Italian gelato); Upside Down Hangover pineapple pancake ale (surprisingly on-the-nose with caramel, cinnamon and brown sugar flavors rounding out the sweetness); and Stouty McStout (a thin mint tribute with cacao, almond, vanilla, oats and mint, plus added lactose, with enough foundational roasty flavor to balance the sugariness).

Of the batch, I very much enjoyed tasting some of them but would not want a full pint, or perhaps even a half pint, so the tasting paddle served its purpose. I’m mainly talking about the sweeter beers there. Overall, “the artistry is impressive” says Lauren, noting the true flavors and creativity.

If there’s one beer I would have happily taken a pint of (or more), though, it’s that Piña Colada Hazy IPA. Go by the Star Ranch or downtown location soon after you read this, while it’s still on tap, to enjoy your own little island-flavor vacation.

Departing and coincidental fun fact relative to this batch of write-ups: The Piña Colada was created in Puerto Rico, and when we were there I visited the bar in which it was supposedly conceived. Honest review: It was just okay, and better versions abound, but nonetheless it was cool to partake in the cocktail history.

On the eve of its 10th anniversary celebration at The Carter Payne, Local Relic Artisan Ales is changing hands.

The brewery (which manufactures off-site) will effectively split off from the events center (which has acted as its taproom), but maintain a very close connection to it. Incoming owner Andrew Mueller is an existing Local Relic member — think: mug club elsewhere — and been helping out part time for the past year as an event staffer. That’s in addition to his full time job as an IT guy for CommonSpirit Health.

He tells me he’s been into beer culture for around a decade, first inspired by his brother and later by travels and the Untappd app. He has some bartending experience from time living in South Dakota most recently, but he’s from St. Louis originally and arrived in the Springs three years ago. Local Relic was one of the first breweries he visited, quickly becoming a fan. “I like weird beers and odd ingredients and new takes on traditional styles,” he says. “That’s really what attracted me to Local Relic as a consumer.”

In speaking with The Cater Payne co-owner and chef Brent Beavers earlier this year Mueller learned they were exploring selling the brewery. “Beer is not my thing,” Beavers says self deprecatingly, as he obviously knows how to pair food with it and he loves drinking saisons, which have historically been Local Relic’s strong suit. But the event center has been steadily growing and demanding more attention. The two talked numbers, Mueller toured the production facility and he began spending time learning the back-end. A deal, which will be officially inked soon, took shape.

“We’re not selling Local Relic to an unknown entity,” says Beavers. “It’s to someone we built a relationship with, who cares about beer and The Carter Payne too. For both companies to be everything they can be, we needed to separate them. It’s important to us that it goes to someone we trust and who’s vested in keeping it what it is.”

Key to that is head brewer Ben Cape, who makes “the best saisons I’ve ever had,” says Beavers. He will stay with Mueller and has been tasked with developing some flagship saisons that will open up more distribution capabilities in the future and potentially act as base beers for ongoing experimental brews. Local Relic has become known as a brewery to never brew the same beer twice, utilizing lots of culinary ingredients, to include teas, spices, fruits and even tobacco. That’s not changing, and Cape says he aims to still do barrel aging as well.

I ask him his goal during the transition, and he says it’s to “bring table beer to more peoples’ attention for its depth of style” and to make it approachable. “The world of beers below 4-percent ABV are largely under-appreciated and -explored around here.” As for flagship brew development, Cape says he’s envisioning a robust Belgian yeast body with a crisp bite like an American lager, but with more flavor profile. “Jester King’s Le Petit Prince comes to mind,” he says, but with a different finish.

“The reason Local Relic exists,” says co-owner Melissa Howard, “isn’t because of a single individual, but Ben deserves a lot of credit.” She says he started in a volunteer capacity in 2018, growing into the head brewer position by 2021. She otherwise credits the beer club members, some of whom have been with them for almost the entire run. “We wouldn’t have made it without them, especially through Covid.

“The people who’ve supported Local Relic deserve for it to live on in a fresh and creative way. We’re excited to have Andrew step up to the plate. We’re supportive of his vision and his desire to see it grow beyond what it has been,” she says.

Mueller says he would like to increase the brewery’s production capacity in the future and transition away from glass bottles for easier distribution opportunities. He just purchased a canning machine last month, to that end. He’s already found one new client in Caddie’s at Valley Hi Golf Course, who’s now serving an Arnold Palmer Seltzer brewed with lemonade and black tea. The brewery will continue to offer custom-label beers for weddings and such, which ties back to The Carter Payne’s event clientele.

Though Mueller says he’d love to have his own taproom some day for Local Relic, for the foreseeable future Carter Payne will continue to serve as an unofficial tap room in some capacity. That means continued member nights and Small Brew Saturdays on site, and Mueller hopes to find other time slots for public accessibility. Stay tuned to their social media for updates and event happenings.

Ice Guys expands downtown

Ice Guys Homemade Ice Cream has expanded from Old Colorado City into downtown, taking up residence in the former Dad’s Donuts space across from retro-inspired soft serve spot Frozen Gold. If you haven’t been introduced to Ice Guys yet, here’s my earlier writeup on them from my mid-2024 visit.

This new location is split into a mini board and card game store and scoop shop, with limited seating presently but more coming. In addition to the good cold stuff you’ll also find some cakes and such, with pastries on the way soon for morning hours next to some savory items and coffee service. Ice Guys will be open daily at 7 a.m. and stay open until 11 p.m., aiming to capture late-night customers.

Contextual observation: It’s interesting to see two new ice cream shops enter the downtown market in the last month, each located within one block of existing shops. But as I opined regarding Lolley’s launch near Josh John’s, all the ice creams are great, and different in subtle ways that make me happy to patronize all of them. I say strength in numbers; collaboration not competition.

Anyway, I chat with the downtown store manager when we’re in to refresh my memory on the ice creams. They have their flavors made for them, using their own recipes, she says. The base starts with Longmont Dairy milk and the store promotes the use of only natural ingredients and real sugar.

Ice Guys shines with unique flagship flavors like basil-blackberry swirl; cookies and cream 3 ways; and Earl Gray & Shortbread Cookies. Every few months they’ll rotate out six of the 20 offerings with seasonal specialty flavors. Presently you’ll find piña colada and watermelon-tajin sorbets; a Cookie Monster; tiramisu; spicy brownies (with cayenne); and honey bergamot (which I tried a sample of and loved).

In the end, I can’t resist ordering the Tin Cup whiskey and pistachio brittle flavor as an affogato, enjoying the nutty hooch elements in my espresso shot. For a sweet treat, it has more than enough game. (See what I did there?)

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Totem hires a new exec chef

Former Choice Restaurant Concepts (T-Byrd’s/District Elleven/bird tree cafe) Chef Dustin Archuleta has taken over the executive chef position at Totem, which opened in Oct. 2025 downtown.

“Dustin has arrived at the perfect moment,” says co-owner and chef David Ferretís, who brought the Mazatlán, Mexico-based eatery to town. “After some challenges we’ve finally found the right person. We’re going to bring back Totem’s culture that got a little lost in process of getting established. Now we’re stronger than ever, and ready to push forward and show Colorado Springs what Mazatlán has to offer.”

Ferretís has already had a chance to fire-test his new chef inside of the first week of his employment. The two tell me the story when I sit down with them on Wednesday at the cafe. It was hell when it happened, but they’re all smiles now, with their blossoming professional friendship fortified by the experience.

You’ve probably heard industry stories before about kitchen crews walking out in some manner of protest (as happened at Lumen8 upon its opening; a story I told in the CS Indy at the time), and suffice to say that’s what happened here, leaving only Ferretís and Archuleta to work the kitchen on their busiest shift of the week: Sunday brunch. Tickets from the POS machine were almost down to the floor, with the rail already full of orders that had been fired. (It was like a stressful scene out of The Bear.)

The bakery crew and even the dishwasher jumped in to help as they could, and the skeleton crew made it through the day. “That was Dustin’s first opening. I was afraid he was going to quit after that,” Ferretís says, laughing. Quite the opposite, Archuleta was energized. He’s since brought in a trio of former coworkers he’s cooked with in various kitchens to restaff and rebuild a tight new crew. He tells me he’s underway with a top-to-bottom menu audit and that he and Ferretís are tweaking recipes together to dial everything in anew.

They mention sauces for the chilaquiles and enchiladas, for example, and even a new pancake batter that results in lighter and fluffier flapjacks. “David told me to make a Michelin-quality pancake,” says Archuleta, noting it features bananas three ways: as a compote along with marsala spice in between stacked cakes; a brûléed banana on top; and a banana-toffee cajeta sauce garnishing.

Another dish that Archuleta has added is a roasted beet salad with seasonal lettuce and micogreens, shaved carrots and fennel, puffed quinoa, spiced yogurt and a honey-lime-truffle vinaigrette. He also teases a new ABC (avocado, bacon, chicken) sandwich on house-baked brioche with avocado crema, salsa macha mayo, Provolone, tomatoes and greens dressed in that same vinaigrette as the salad. The chicken’s breaded Milanese style, he notes, but with both panko and a seed mix for crunchiness.

Ferretís tells me he’s given Archuleta carte blanche to make changes, and that he likes his chefs to assert their own personality onto Totem’s menus. “It’s annoying to me when a chef stays in their comfort zone and doesn’t want to explore,” he says, commending Archuleta’s creativity, and noting how their chef in Mazatlán even leads the front-of-house team to set the tone.

All that said, don’t expect many changes on the bakery and bar sides of the business, which they say are dialed in. And they’ll “stay in the same lane of Mexican comfort food with international twists,” assures Ferretís, adding there’s a lot of things they’ve executed in Mexico that they still wish to introduce here. One example is more use of seasonal ingredients, which Archuleta feels passionate about too. Another concept they’re discussing is introducing a tasting menu alongside the regular à la carte menu. They also aim to activate the patio area with events as much as possible this summer.

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Bites & Bits

• I told you in late April that Lebowski’s Taproom would be expanding into the former Till space at Prominent Point. The eatery soft-opened for its first day of service on May 25. Click that link to see some teaser pics of the new, Dude-inspired decor. Though there’s no bowling alley on site, as many commenters have requested, Lebowski’s has created “bowling alley lane booth” seating.

• A late-breaking news item for me this week: Stage Stop Cantina announced that it has created Stage Stop OCC at 2925 W. Colorado Ave., the historic Mason Jar space that’s most recently been Trails End Taproom. Stage Stop, if you aren’t familiar, started off Old Stage Road as a destination barbecue spot, and has since placed food carts outside of Mash Mechanix and Urban Animal (Star Ranch) breweries. The new location grand opens May 29. And ChooJai Sushi Thai & Ramen remains open in the connecting space. I reached out to owner/chef Eve Natasha for a quote and will likely follow up with more info after we chat and I visit.

• Axios reported this week (through an aggregated post from BizWest) that Stoney’s will take over the former Oskar Blues spot on Tejon Street. (That closed at the beginning of this year, you’ll recall.) The new location will be the fifth for the self-described “sports & music bar and grill restaurants.” There are currently three spots in Denver and one in Winter Park. Relatedly, this will mark the second sports bar brand to be entering the downtown C. Springs market from the north: I noted in early April that The Sportsbook Bar & Grill aims to be open sometime soon in the SpringHill Suites building under Lumen8 Rooftop Social.

• Golden Pine Coffee Roasters posted to say they’re now open for to-go drinks (online ordering recommended), with expanded offerings coming soon, and seating still on the horizon. “It's been a loooooong 26 months from lease signing until this moment. We promise it was worth the wait,” wrote owner/barista Ryan Wanner.

• Westword offers its picks for The best food festivals in Denver this summer. The list includes a bounty of international cuisine, including Philippine, Korean, Greek, French, Latin (bundling Central and South American and Caribbean), Polish, Japanese and Ethiopian.

• Springs Magazine weighed in on what its writing team believes to be The 30 Best Restaurants in Colorado Springs. (Side Dish Dozen members were among the cut: Four by Brother Luck, Stellina Pizza Cafe, Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar and Red Gravy.)

• Listen to the latest Side Dish segment (just 4.5 minutes long) on KRCC/CPR, in which we discuss my recent coverage of Tava House and Stix and Soul.

• More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic reports NPR. If you want to do something about it locally, consider a donation to Care and Share, Food to Power, or another area resource agency.

• Do your part for the environment this summer and “indulge a little bit” by choosing a cone instead of a cup at your favorite ice cream shop, says Time magazine.

• Comment of the week from Nextdoor from the Golden Hills neighborhood: “This might sound ridiculous, but who keeps buying up all the shredded fiesta cheese at Walmart? Why are you doing this?”

• “Good food, obviously, can make people happy. It should be clean to protect them from dubious additives and protect the environment they share. And the people who grow the food, prepare it and bring it to farm stands, supermarkets and restaurants should be paid and treated fairly.” That’s an excerpt from a New York Times story in which food writer Pete Wells eulogizes the founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, who died last week.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

Magic: The Gathering Commander Night at Lost Friend Brewing. 6 p.m. Bring your own deck and lord to compete.

Queers & Beers First Wednesday Game Night at Seven’s Gate Taproom. 7 p.m. Happy hour through 11 p.m.; bring your own game of play one of theirs.

Beer Releases

Beach Cruiser Coconut IPA at Mash Mechanix. A tropical summer brew with toasted coconut notes.

Kahuna Ninja Piña Colada Hazy IPA at Urban Animal. Big with pineapple and coconut notes and bursting with tropical flavor and island aromatics.

Elderberry Kettle Sour at Goat Patch Brewing Co. Tart ale balanced with sweet elderberry for a refreshing treat.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

May 31: Happy Hour Donuts 2nd Birthday Bash. 7 a.m. to noon. Freebies, raffles and one-day-only donut and drink specials.

June 2: Food Truck Tuesdays return to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Every Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., through Aug. 25 (with exception of July 7). View the food truck lineup at the link.

June 6: Manitou Springs Wine Festival. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Memorial Park. $65-$100.

June 6: Donut Day at Pikes Peak. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with toll gate admission.

June 11: Local Relic’s 10th anniversary Party at The Carter Payne. 6-8 p.m. More than 2,000 unique beers later… meet the brewery’s new owner Andrew Mueller and see a new art display by Robert Anderson.

Through June 12: Pilgrimage of Pints 2026. A self-paced brewery crawl to earn perks and rewards, leading up to the Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival on June 13.

June 13-14: Pikes Peak Pride in downtown. Includes food trucks, beer garden and vendor booths.

June 15: Absolut Heat Streak bartending competition at Avenue 19. 1-4 p.m. Come spectate as bartenders compete for prizes in a timed competition, mixing drinks with Absolut Tabasco Vodka. The battle is meant to mimic service on a busy brunch shift. (Bartenders, register at the link to compete for free.) I’ll be co-judging. Free food, drinks and swag!

June 17: Colorado Springs Western Street Breakfast in downtown. 5:30-9 a.m. at Pikes Peak and Tejon streets.

June 18: Bar Mom’s Birthday Bar Crawl Fundraiser. 6 p.m. to midnight. $25 tickets benefit Care & Share. Includes VIP menu pricing at stops and commemorative challenge coin.

Parting shot(s)

You still have a few days left to take part in Downtown Colorado Springs’ Tacos & Tequila tour. Visit the Side Dish Instagram page to see all 10 tacos and margarita pairings you might wish to devour. Here’s some outtakes:

At some point in their school years or career, every journalist has studied one of the most literarily brilliant profile pieces ever penned, Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.”

I’m thinking back to the structure of the famous article because of how it focuses on the reverberations and ripple effects of the central character’s mood; how that affects everyone and everything in his orbit.

While The Wobbly Olive’s co-owner Sean Fitzgerald is no Sinatra — pshaw, he wishes!— his entrepreneurial drive and thirst for reinvention, à la the attached, quarterly-rotating popup theme-bar Allusion Speakeasy, has profoundly shaped the direction of the Springs’ arguably most ambitious cocktail program.

His whims become your fantastical cocktail whimsy, be it for Barbie or SpongeBob. But when Seans’s unhappy, the whole of the company will know about it.

Take for example his recent disappointment with his own leadership. As documented by For Chef’s Sake, Sean and his wife and co-owner Inez had a collective epiphany after stepping in to cover shifts after some employees quit. Walking in their shoes, they realized multiple failure points, finding their own operations structure unsustainable and primed for staff burnout. They took full responsibility, showed humility and enacted immediate steps towards solutions, with full transparency.

That’s a rare move in a too-often-toxic industry. They know they aren’t irreproachable, but damn they would like to be. While mentally laboring over Wobbly’s soon-to-release, new cocktail menu, Sean says he told his chef and co-owner Mark Henry “I want this to be perfect.” Mark responded: “There’s no such thing.”

Sean had conceived nearly 80 drinks for the menu, but has been slowly killing his darlings to pare down to less than 50. Two-thirds of those aim to be N/A-flexible, requiring their own recipes to re-achieve balance. He’s been developing those recipes for the better part of a year. While one might suspect an obsessive element that’s grown into impatience to cross the finish line (yeah, there’s some of that), Sean tells me that’s just the beginning of the story.

“I want Wobbly Olive to be much more than just a waiting room for Allusion,” he says self deprecatingly. “For a long time, I’ve struggled with the direction of our cocktail menu. Our menus are already successful. Sales are strong, guests are happy, and because of that, I became creatively apathetic. There wasn’t urgency to reinvent anything. Over time, I realized I wasn’t proud of what the menu represented anymore.”

So, he’s taking a fresh crack at refreshing and reinvigorate it.

“Every single drink now exists for a reason,” he says. “Instead of asking, ‘What cocktails should we serve?’ we started asking, ‘What are we actually crafting for our guests?’ That question changed everything.”

Sean says “The focus became technique, preparation and originality. Not just making classics well, but creating cocktails that require real culinary work behind the scenes.” To that end, his bartenders make a long list of mixers and infusions, items like a miso bourbon for the current Star Wars theme at Allusion.

“Lately I’ve become fascinated with savory and umami-driven flavors,” he says. “We’re using black garlic in two cocktails on the new Wobbly menu. One is a blackberry and black garlic rye cocktail with black walnut bitters. And another, called the Olive + Ink, combines black garlic-infused gin with olive brine reduction, charcoal-infused vermouth and an umami tincture.”

For a new drink named Don’t Stop Believing, Sean has combined Thai basil-infused gin with mezcal, Green Chartreuse, Aperol, agave and a house honeydew tincture. He describes it as “herbal, smoky, bright and surprisingly delicate considering how aggressive those ingredients sound on paper.”

Another cocktail takes inspiration from a strawberry lassi, he says, reinterpreting it as a clarified cosmopolitan with rose water, gin and clarified yogurt.

“The goal isn’t shock value,” he insists. “It’s depth. Balance. Texture. Hospitality through craftsmanship. We’re trying to push ourselves creatively and technically in a way we haven’t before.

“I think it represents the clearest expression yet of who we are as a cocktail bar. It’s the most honest cocktail menu I think I’ve ever written.”

Opposite the incoming cocktail menu update, Wobbly Olive Chef Mark Henry and his team have just refreshed the food menu for the season (set to run through late July). Henry tells me it’s partly inspired by his recent nine-day motorcycle round-trip to Key West. “The focus in on spring produce and big, bright colors and flavors,” he says.

Examples include his personal favorite dish, Shrimp Caesar Tacos made with pan-seared garlic-Parmesan prawns and locally grown romaine, served on Raquelitas white corn tortillas. “They’re light, but full of flavor,” Henry says. Another seafood item he’s hyped about is a sumac-cured, pan-roasted salmon plated with sweet pea purée, corn succotash and a red pepper gastrique.

For something more in his comfort food zone, he offers birria hand pies constructed with beef cheeks instead of typical chuck roast. He braises them for 12 hours and presents them in a savory tart shell topped with roasted tomatillo emulsion and poblano-cilantro crema. “It’s all the components of a taco, but in a different form.”

“We’ve been incredibly intentional with our menu pricing,” he points out, noting that the most expensive item is $23. They’ve also just released the first happy hour food menu Wobbly has ever offered, with five items that top out at $9. The goal is for someone being able to nab a bite and drink for around $20 post-tip, which is increasingly hard to do in this economy.

In terms of the “why now?” behind that happy hour menu, Henry says it’s also about one more outlet to experiment and play with ingredients adjacent to the themed menus on the Allusion side of the building. Some items didn’t make the cut for those limited menus but got his cooks inspired, so they’ve added them at Wobbly Olive.

Examples include a highly addictive, dirty martini-invoking Wobbly popcorn that’s popped in coconut oil and dusted with an olive powder they make by dehydrating queen olives then pulverizing them with kosher salt, citric acid and citrus zest. To garnish the item before presenting it to guests, they mist it with a vermouth spritz for aroma and a hint of cocktail flavor. Trust me, you’ll want a bowl to snack on for $3.50.

Otherwise, consider beer battered fries with umami seasoning, covered in a béarnaise sauce. Or crispy Wobbly halloumi curds, which are oversized cheese cubes served on ciabatta toast points with giardiniera, red wine syrup and an oregano oil made smoky by infusing it with charcoal.

In a similar way that Wobbly’s cocktails aim to sidestep “shock value” despite ambitious touches, so too does the food menu desire to balance novel surprises with genuine culinary technique and foundational flavor. As Henry had told Sean, “there’s no such thing as perfection,” so for his part of the wild ride, he’s just trying to have more fun. That spirit should translate through to Wobbly’s dining and drinking experience for the guest now just as clearly as it does next door at Allusion.

Which leads me to personally conclude: “Always two there are… a master and an apprentice.” (Sorry, couldn’t resist the Star Wars reference.)

Join us from 4-7 p.m., May 25 at Wobbly Olive downtown for a Happy Hour Sip with Schnip sneak peek of the new cocktail menu. Be the first to try some of the new cocktails and enjoy an extended happy hour, with half-off all menu cocktails & mocktails — meaning $6 drinks!
Plus Chef Mark Henry's new happy hour food menu will offer bites for $3.50 to $9.

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Pin-Txi Wey anchors at WestFax Springs

I’m having dinner with Chef Fernando Trancoso and Pin-Txi Wey co-owner Princess Deleon in their home on the east side of Colorado Springs. He’s just set a beautifully composed plate in front of me that contains patatas bravas. But they’re not in the typical country potatoes form typical to Spanish renditions. Rather, he’s presented the dish like French potato pavé, in stacked layers of thin-cut potatoes (sometimes called “thousand layer potatoes” à la mille-feuille in the pastry world).

Spices cling to a browned rectangular wedge. Dollops of habanero aioli adorn the top with cilantro microgreens. A puddle of sofrito purée rests on the side for dipping. I carefully (reverently) fork a bite and taste through every flavor, relishing the crispy then starchy texture. I probably close my eyes and nod my head for a moment, as I tend to do when meal-happy.

“We do a lot of comfort food, but with dishes like this, I’m trying to test the limit of what I can do out of a food truck,” Trancoso says. “I’m done playing it safe.”

The main reason Trancoso’s invited me over — aside from me being a roundly stellar houseguest, dontcha know — is to highlight new items he’s planning to add to his menu come early June when he starts a partnership with WestFax Springs to be its exclusive food truck. Pin-Txi Wey, which launched in October 2025, will be there daily except Mondays (hours TBD).

Trancoso says to think of his newly designed menu as “more tapas style,” which makes perfect sense when connected to a craft beer bar — making me think back to my recent experiences hopping from spot to spot on Plaza de Jesús in Madrid.

The chef says favorite items from his Tepex food truck (and stall at Avenue 19 briefly) will make appearances, such as the quesabirria. And he plans to revive popular dishes from Inefable (which closed down in mid 2024 after nine-month run), like his pork belly pastor and duck flautas appetizers. Then there’ll be new, beer-friendly items like a New Mexico green chile cheeseburger with smoked cheddar.

“Prep for this menu will be insane,” Trancoso says, sounding pleased by the challenge. “I want people to be happy with what I do l.”

Back to our meal together, he next serves a platter for us to share, featuring toast points, roasted cherry tomatoes and burrata, a classic chickpea hummus and a Mayan-inspired pumpkinseed dip named Sikil P’ak. Yum and yum.

Then comes slices of picanha (sirloin cap) steak with chimichurri on one half and salsa macha on the other. Trancoso adds piñon nuts and black sesame seeds to his salsa macha as his “personal twist” and I can’t think of a better version I’ve had.

For dessert, the two gather at their kitchen counter to play with the presentation on Deleon’s raspberry semifreddo with apricot clafoutis and berries. Then we all sit down to dive into it. I think the dish is wonderful, light and springtime perfect, but I enjoy listening to the two nitpick elements they want to improve upon, including the semifreddo texture, which was a little too crystaline in an icy way.

Deleon tells me she plans to rotate desserts regularly, with items like a dark chocolate ganache cake with raspberry sauce, panna cotta, and a tres leches tiramisu. They’re still in the R&D process, working on flavor development and other new creations, they remind me, as if I’m going to formally review them in their home. (I would never!)

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Bites & Bits

• “A new café has opened at the base of the Manitou Incline, promising ‘earthly nourishment for the upward bound,”’ reports The Gazette. IncliNation Café, co-founded by SunWater Spa’s Kat Tudor (also the creative director at Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts, among many other things), offers coffees, kava, boba, pastries, breakfast burritos and more, according to the article. Coming later this year or early next: attached Bailout Spa & Groove Lounge “will offer post-hike massages, saunas, red light therapy, yoga, soundbaths and ‘late night grooves.”’

• Pizzeria Leopold quietly soft opened in Old Colorado City. It’s a spinoff from the original spot in Lakewood, opened under this brand in 2022. I’m looking forward to stopping by, based on high praise from a fellow foodie.

• Rocky Mountain Food Tours just passed their 16-year anniversary, with new tours around town now available on their revamped website.

• Michelin-winning Chef Johnny Curiel of Alma Fonda Fina and Mezcaleria Alma just launched his newest Denver eatery, Milpero. It’s designed around an 18-course tasting menu, even though “corn-obsessed” Curiel has “zero experience working at tasting menu restaurants,” writes New Denizen. Go behind the scenes with her as she interviews the chef at Milpero, detailing the long road that led him here. (And dig the pretty photos of some of the plates he prepared for her.)

• “I used AI to help market my bagel shop. Then the one-star reviews came in.” Read this cautionary tale at Business Insider. And here’s another local example of backlash recently on our Culinary Colorado Springs Facebook group, if you click into the comments. “Not supporting AI generated slop,” wrote one commenter.

• Why’s everything feeling so expensive, including dining out? Because Colorado’s cost of living soars, ranks third highest in the US, says Fox21.

• Also from Fox21: Warner Bros. put the kibosh on a Harry Potter-themed popup bar in Denver. Apparently it was “too magical.”

• Springs Magazine takes a look at Visit COS’ just-released Crafts & Drafts Passport, the free app that will score you BOGOs and such all over town. (I bumped into editor Jeremy Jones at the media release party at Pure Distilling this week, and we clinked glasses of an espresso martini made with Pure’s cacao-peppermint St. Bernard Mountain Whiskey and an Aviation rendition made with Dog Violet Crème de Violette.)

• Have you still not downloaded the Goodie Bag app to score deals and help avert food waste? (You’re welcome to use my code to earn a buck for signing up: YCZIPJ16.)

• I co-hosted one of Hey Neighbor’s 150 Tables Across COS events in my neighborhood last weekend. I ended up making the KOAA5 evening segment that day, hamming it up with a nearby neighbor I’d just met for the first time (despite us living just a block apart for 20 years). If you want to host your own shindig to get to know the humans around you, visit Hey Neighbor’s page to get started. The initiative runs through October, focusing on “the power of a shared meal with neighbors to create connection, trust and belonging.”

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Gold Star Bakery: We’re celebrating Memorial Day Weekend with free à la mode with every pie slice, May 22-25! Flavors include Derby Pie (Chocolate Bourbon Pecan), Grasshopper Pie, Four Berry, Strawberry Rhubarb and Dutch Apple. We’ve also baked extra pies for all the celebrations happening this time of year; preorder here.

Kangaroo Coffee: Join us every Saturday in June at our Kangaroo Coffee House (319 S. Hancock Ave.) for our Summer Music Series! Featuring live local bands like Lookee Here and Mitguards, plus a special Open Mic Night. Grab your favorite drink, soak up the summer vibes, and enjoy great music with even better community.

Goat Patch Brewing: Catch Books & Brews with Roadrunner Bookshop, 2-7 p.m., May 22 at Northgate. Our Summer Music Series continues with Clay Cutler, 6-9 p.m. May 24 at Lincoln Center. And the May 28 Bleating Heart Night, 5-9 p.m. at all locations, benefits Pikes Peak Pride.

Edelweiss: Make your graduation party reservations with us early; we stay busy this time of the year! Catch happy hours in our subterranean bar, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays. And traditional live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Thursdays-Sundays.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Catch daily happy hour from 3-5 p.m. and all night Mondays. And weekly specials like Cantina Tuesdays, Po Boy Wednesdays, Friday Date Nights, Saturday shrimp and crab boils, and Locals Sundays with $1 oysters.

Evergreen: Come try drinks from our new spring cocktail menu. And join us for lunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays-Fridays, and brunch, during those same hours, Saturdays-Sundays. Menu items include shakshuka, saganaki, pork belly paprikash, Chicken Kiev, and an array of flatbreads.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

1st Year Anniversary Party & Car Show at Ascent Brewery. May 23, 10 a.m. Classic cars, live music, food trucks, and family-friendly fun all day long.

Small Brew Saturday at The Carter Payne. May 23, noon to 4 p.m. New releases include a West-Coast IPA, plus small bites and build-your-own six packs to-go.

Beer Releases

Raspberry Blond at 105 West Brewing Company. A highly sip-able, spring-friendly, gluten-reduced fruit beer.

Angel Beer at Red Leg Brewing Co. A German Pilsner available after the 8th Annual Angel Run. Proceeds benefit Angels of America's Fallen. (Releases May 25.)

New Zealand Pilsner at Peaks N Pines Brewing. A crisp pilsner brewed with New Zealand hops, delivering a clean and refreshing lager experience. (Releases May 25.)

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

Through June 12: Pilgrimage of Pints 2026. A self-paced brewery crawl to earn perks and rewards, leading up to the Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival on June 13.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

May 31: Happy Hour Donuts 2nd Birthday Bash. 7 a.m. to noon. Freebies, raffles and one-day-only donut and drink specials.

June 6: Manitou Springs Wine Festival.

June 6: Donut Day at Pikes Peak. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with toll gate admission.

June 11: Local Relic’s 10th anniversary Party at The Carter Payne. 6-8 p.m. More than 2,000 unique beers later…

June 13: Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival at Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church. Noon to 4:30 p.m. Family-friendly, live music, food trucks, beer, wine and spirits tastings. $55.20 to $108.55 (VIP).

June 13-14: Pikes Peak Pride in downtown. Includes food trucks, beer garden and vendor booths.

June 17: Colorado Springs Western Street Breakfast in downtown. 5:30-9 a.m. at Pikes Peak and Tejon streets.

Parting shot(s)

What happens when you miss a Sip with Schnip event?

You miss out on cool stuff like an exclusive Side Dish mousse cake!

Evergreen Restaurant produced a special cake just for our brunch bash, made with raspberry filling, Kangaroo Coffee espresso mousse and white chocolate. (No, the hats were not edible, but everything else was — and it was damn delicious.) Thanks to Goat Patch Brewing and KartveliWines for joining us with samples!

My next Sip with Schnip event with more exclusive access to treats is on Memorial Day at Wobbly Olive; don’t miss it!

And as a last parting shot: My pal Victoria from Blue Star Group took her Side Dish mousse cake on a date to Stellina, where it got sauced on a strawberry-cucumber Vesper before she ate it. I approve.

Armillary opened on April 21 off Austin Bluffs Parkway, not far from Phelan Gardens. The name, brewer and co-owner Jeff Lockhart tells me, was inspired by a video game he was playing named Starfield. There’s a quest in the game that requires the player to build an armillary sphere, historically used as an astronomy tool. (The brewery was originally going to be called Constellation Brewing Co., but he and his wife and co-owner Kristin ran into a conflict with an existing entity and opted to change it.)

Jeff’s brew resumé runs deep, with around 25 total years in the industry. As outlined by Springs Magazine: “He has served as head brewer or brew master at Dueces Wild Brewing (DWB Craft Beer), Cerberus Brewing Company, Red Leg Brewing, Shamrock Brewing Company in Pueblo, Royal Gorge Brewing Company in Cañon City, and Ouray Brewery.”

Most notably, he’s won both of the top coveted beer awards: A GABF medal (Gold for a Scotch Ale at Dueces Wild in 2019) and two World Beer Cup medals (both Bronzes while at Red Leg Brewing, in 2014 and 2016). Suffice to say, he more than knows what he’s doing, so although Armillary’s new, it’s not a rookie exactly.

We drop in to try a tasting paddle and take a quick tour of the brewery with Jeff. Impressively considering his time commitment here, he still holds a day job as an aerospace inspector. He’s assembled a 7-barrel brewhouse and calls in helpers to brew.

From 12 taps in the small front tasting room, four will remain flagships and the rest will rotate between Armillary seasonals and occasional guest taps. Jeff says he always brews traditional styles, “back to basics,” and prefers not to make many big beers, “because with high-ABV beers you can’t sit and have two or three” without getting shnockered (my word, not his). His favorite beers to make, he says, are porters and stouts, though he’ll run the gamut, as evidenced on the opening menu, which has three hoppy beers and two “fruity/tart” brews.

We try the Blueberry Tart, Rye Pale Ale, Sessionable IPA (at 4.8-percent ABV) and Chixulub Impactor IPL, a Fossil Craft Beer collaboration. The first, made with blueberry purée, lands mildly sour and dry, with kombucha-level acidity that’s refreshing. The rye, brewed with 30 percent rye malts, displays expected spice qualities with balancing tropical hop notes.

The West Coast-style Sessionable IPA indeed sips on the highly bitter side, “hopped to the gills with Galaxy and Comet hops,” explains the menu. But for all the punch on the palate, it drinks light. My favorite of the batch is the collaboration IPL though, which bears a complex aftertaste that lingers and unfolds through lemony citrus then residual strawberry aromas. Lockhart says the Lemondrop hops are responsible for the citrus factor (obviously), but the Belma hops deliver the unusual and dynamic strawberry flavor perception.

By the time you read this, some of these brews may have tapped out and changed up, but expect something equally enjoyable in their place.

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Tacos Revolution

Farther up Austin Bluffs toward at Dublin Boulevard you’ll find Tacos Revolution in a Safeway shopping center, opened four months ago by co-owners Adrian Colin, his sister Arandení Colín and her husband Luis Macias, who also operates the Zapatas Mexican Taco Shop about 10 minutes away on Dublin Boulevard.

Adrian tells me they’re awaiting a liquor license still, and that the family cooks Jalisco-style. The wide menu covers everything from tortas, tacos and breakfast burritos to quesadillas, bowls and salads and seafood and meat plates (and more). While we await our to-go order I chat him up, and he shares a sample of their birria soup with me — wow, super good.

We order sopes with pastor; chicken tamales with rice and beans; and four tacos: tripa (beef intestine), lengua (beef tongue), buche (pork stomach) and the Taco Revolution (with asada, beans and nopal, which are prickly pear cactus strips).

We fill ramekins at the salsa bar, and take chocoflan and guava cheesecake home as well.

The sopes’ thick corn masa base delights texturally, requiring a butter knife to cut bites more easily. (Plastic to-go ware struggles, if you’re stuck with it.) The faintly sweet and tendor pastor meat pops the plate with fixings of shredded lettuce, beans, mild Ranchero cheese and sour cream drizzle. Milder tomatillo and salsa rojo pair better than the much hotter chile de árbol and habanero salsas, which delight (and burn us out a bit) on the tacos.

By now you probably know what you’re in for if you order the less-Gringo lengua, tripa and buche options. Served simply with cilantro, diced onion and lime, street-cart style, each holds highlights inherent to their respective meatiness. The tripe and buche are both rich and chewy and the lengua’s succulent, tasting deeply beefy with spice accents. The more complex Taco Revolution sports a nice contrast between the beans and nopales (naturally slimy but hydrating) and tender carne asada.

The chicken tamales come smothered in a vibrant, medium-spicy red chile sauce. They’re big, thick and fluffier than many dense styles. We really enjoy them with side servings of basic Mexican rice and refried beans.

I’m glad we don’t skip on dessert once we finally fork into the chocoflan and guava cheesecake at home later. The first is homemade, with a moist cake layer and custardy top. I like that it’s not over-sweet or synthetic tasting, like too many versions on the market.

Adrian tells me they do buy the cheesecake, but he stands by its quality. I don’t disagree. He’s thoughtfully sent us with a frozen piece to thaw on the drive home, and by the time we cut into it it’s perfectly cold (like colder than normal but not icy). I love the texture of the tacky guava layer on top and the cheesecake’s more firm and not gummy (again, a problem with lesser versions out there). Overall the flavor tastes pure and tropical with a creamy and graham crackery conclusion. All good stuff.

Roasted Coffee Co.

Roasted Coffee Co. launched on April 18 near Village 7 Road and N. Carefree Circle. (across the parking lot from Las Palmitas Mexican Restaurant). It’s attached to Breathe Reformed Baptist Church, a Calvinistic and Evangelical Christian worship house. Roasted owner Jordan Smyers is one of the pastors at Breathe, and tells me he just wants “to serve the community.”

Smyers spent six-and-a-half years living in Northern Italy while he was in the Air Force, which informs his love of coffee culture. His idea behind Roasted, he says, was to utilize this extra church space “more than just twice a week.”

His wife makes homemade sweets like scones and muffins, plus cinnamon rolls on Saturdays. He buys beans from a local, small-batch roaster named One Drop Coffee Co., who counts other churches among clients, he says. They only serve organic coffees.

We order all four seasonal drinks: a Blueberry Muffin Latte, Cookie Crumb Latte, Salted Honey Latte (in a to-go mug, hence why it’s not pictured) and Cup of Dirt Latte. They’re beautifully presented in heavy, decorative glassware. They’re well-balanced considering their sweetness, with darker-roast profiles, which makes sense given the Italian inspiration. The highlights are the cold foam toppers: blueberry on the iced maple drink, chocolate on the Cup of Dirt (which has a gummy bug on the bottom), and marshmallow on the Cookie Crumb, which is a vanilla iced mocha, like the Cup of Dirt.

They’re all quality sippers (at $6.50 to $7), which could easily attract secular sippers in the area who may not mind or even pay much attention to the religious decor, including prominent portraits of key reformers. Other items we didn’t try: traditional coffee drinks, Italian sodas, and tea drinks like a house-made chai or matcha latte.

This is the second installment on the subject of childcare and the hospitality industry, written by Lauren Hug, a.k.a. sidedishsidekick. If you missed the first, catch up here.

Story by Lauren Hug

Conversing with Katie Fisco, a Colorado Springs-based Filipina-American chef, is a journey for the mind and senses. She effortlessly segues between history, culture and culinary expertise, bringing experiences alive through vibrant descriptions of sights, smells, tastes and textures. Her company, which hosts monthly Filipino pop up dinners, is named Baon Supper Club — Baon means “food for the journey” in Tagalog.

When we meet to talk about childcare and the hospitality industry, she approaches the topic with the same thoughtfulness and awareness of cultural nuance. She has recently returned from the Philippines and reflects on the intermingling of parenting and culinary work she witnessed in food culture there.

“I saw plenty of street vendors where the kids are stirring the oil as mom’s dropping the fish balls in, and the other kid’s making the change,” she says. “They’re making a living for their family and they’re teaching their kids how to be entrepreneurs and run the business.”

She notes what is gained from that kind of co-located work and parenting experience: “Kids gather culture and knowledge and emotional intelligence by being in that environment. While I feel like the perspective here in the States would be ‘that’s child labor.’ There’s so much that we, in American culture, compartmentalize and separate.”

Chef Katie’s observations echo those of London-based researcher Georgia Norton in her work on childcare and co-working (discussed in more detail in the first story in this series): multiple benefits result when children are proximate to their parents during work, like children developing a more rich understanding of the world of work and less stress and worry for parents about being away from their children.

A few weeks after our conversation, I see a warm, familial scene reminiscent of Chef Katie’s descriptions of Filipino street vendors when we stop by the One Table Asian Pop Up Market that she’s organized.

Her children are present at Baon’s vendor table, taking payments and chatting with customers about the special dish the business is serving. Katie’s husband Eugene ceremoniously marches it out of a prep area, shouting “taho! …. taho!” to market guests and fellow vendors. Chef Katie explains it’s a popular morning street food snack in the Philippines, composed of homemade silken tofu, tapioca pearls and burnt brown sugar syrup.

Chef Katie doesn’t romanticize the merging of work and child-rearing. But for her, it’s preferable to not being with her children at all during the 10 to 12 hour days her culinary business requires.

“I don’t want to have to shut out all the people in my life and be siloed and by myself all day to make it work,” she says. “I’m a person too, and I need connection too.”

Currently, she works out of a commercial kitchen with a side office space where her children do their homework while she preps, cooks and packages.

“They can see me working, and I can see them,” she says. “They can open the door and say, ‘I don’t know what three plus three is.’ I accept the challenge of being able to be present and work-minded with having my children nearby.”

Before becoming a parent, Chef Katie pursued professional excellence with a devotion common among chefs aiming to execute at the highest industry standards. She worked at upscale and fine-dining establishments like Nosh and Craftwood Inn and trained under chefs like Brother Luck and Shane Lyons.

“I was all in,” she says. “I was the first one in, the last one out all the time. I was obsessed with work. There were no birthdays, no weddings I attended. I didn’t go to holiday things. That level of excellence takes abandonment of other things in your life.”

Chef Katie first noticed the difficulty of balancing culinary work and family life when she and her husband began the process of becoming foster parents. Her heart broke for kids in need of a home, and she wanted to make real impact in their lives. Preparing to foster, though, turned out be “a whole other job on top of my job job. I noticed quickly I couldn’t be all in at work anymore.”

As much as she loved her culinary career, parenting two children through fostering and adoption required a level of devotion incompatible with that career’s demands.

“I went back and forth for a few months,” she says about deciding to pause her career to prioritize being the primary caregiver for her children. “I would work for six months then say, ‘I need to take a break.’”

But her love of food and hospitality always called her back.

On a break from restaurant work while pregnant with her third child, Chef Katie launched a culinary business selling homemade sourdough bread: “As weird as it sounds, I missed baking and cooking and being on my feet all day.”

She returned to restaurants and catering while still breastfeeding her little one, adding another layer of complexity to juggling work and parenting: her workplace had no dedicated space for nursing moms.

“I was pumping milk in bathrooms or after a catering event in my car. People attending the event are passing my car, watching me pump milk in my chef coat.”

“It made me feel resentful toward some men I knew who were cooks,” she continues with a laugh. “Because they could just shower, slap clothes on, work their shift, go home, and do it all over again. But I had to figure out when and where to pump milk, make sure my kids had what they needed for school, attend to all the therapy things the kids needed for the week … and also be a good cook.”

Finding childcare was a challenge as well.

First there were the trust issue. “My kids come from hard places. Two of the three of them are special needs,” she says. It was hard to leave them with people she didn’t know.

Then there were the non-traditional hours. “Childcare ends at a certain hour and hospitality starts when everyone’s partying at nighttime,” she says. “Thankfully, we had a great base of friends and family that we trusted to care for our kiddos a couple hours at a time.”

In many communities, care provided by friends, family and neighbors (FFN) fill gaps where licensed care is unavailable, unaffordable or incompatible with how people actually live and work. According to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, more than half of Colorado families with young children rely on informal FFN care arrangements at some point during a typical week. This type of care is heavily utilized by families working evenings and weekends — the exact hours that define the hospitality industry — and for children with additional needs.

Finally, the cost of childcare was also a consideration in how Chef Katie chose to continue her culinary career after becoming a parent.

“My husband has a great job and works really hard to provide all the things for us, so I’ve been able to pursue my dream,” she says. “But childcare still isn’t affordable for us. Do I go to work just to pay for childcare and a bag of chips? That’s literally what I can afford. Or do I pursue [my own business] and get more value out of it for myself? It might not be more money-wise … but more fulfillment.”

So Chef Katie birthed Baon Supper Club. In part because it would allow her to be more present with her children than when working for someone else. “Birthed” is an appropriate word because she sometimes worries about her children seeing her business as “the other kid” who gets her time and attention.

“It feels in some ways like I’m abandoning my family to do the thing that I love,” she says.

But she also sees the potential for building something special: “If the business is successful in the way that I’ve structured it so that I can be with my family, I’ll have a successful business that my family is a part of.”

It truly is a family business. She schedules meetings and culinary events on days Eugene isn’t working so he’s available to care for their children. Sometimes he helps with culinary events while Katie’s brother-in-law stays with the kids.

One of the servers Chef Katie hires is also a childcare provider, so whenever there’s an event where servers aren’t needed, Katie hires her for childcare. “It has been a lifesaver,” she says.

Securing reliable care for her children requires coordination, communication and careful planning — additional duties on top of everything else she juggles as a mother and a business owner. And it’s impossible to schedule everything perfectly. She has to say no to things she’d love to do. Family life doesn’t always fit neatly into her culinary career.

“It’s weird to me to me that this is an industry that revolves around hospitality, but the people inside of it find it hard to be nourished and have care for their family,” she says.

When faced with limited childcare options, people with expertise and passion end up leaving the culinary scene.

“Do you want longevity?” Katie asks rhetorically. “Do you want people to stay in the industry? Do you want people with wisdom and knowledge to pass down this legacy? Or are you just going to keep bringing in new people who are single and available?”

Valuing what is lost when seasoned hospitality professionals leave the industry and creatively experimenting with ways to make hospitality more hospitable to parents could make a difference in how the industry as a whole — or even individual restaurants — address the childcare crisis. Chef Katie imagines a scenario where a restaurant provides childcare vouchers to their employees or establishes a childcare site nearby where employees can visit their children on their break.

Had an option like that been available, she might not ever have started her own business, she says. When she did, though, she centered it on a concept of hospitality as care. “I don’t know how to run a business and not care for people,” she says. “I don’t want to run a business where I don’t care.

“It’s not worth it to have something that’s perfect and pristine if it doesn’t have warmth and heart behind it,” she says. “I’m not aiming for Michelin by any means. What’s important to me is that we’re doing everything we can to be excellent and to represent what is good about our community, and that the community feels part of what we do.”

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Five Questions with Michelle Pollick, owner/head chef of Chelle’s Daily Dish

What is Chelle’s Daily Dish and who’s behind it?

We launched in August, 2025. We’re an organic, grab-and-go meal producer. It’s me — my nickname was “Chelle” as a kid — my partner Clay Bidwell, who’s my sous chef and distribution guy, plus my daughter Morgan.

What should people know about your organic approach?

We buy most of our ingredients from Natural Grocers. We haul in our own filtered water to prep our food at Chef’s Kitchen. We cook with extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil or sesame oil, and don’t use any preservatives or artificial ingredients. Our packaging is plant-based with a bio-based lining, and it’s compostable. We eliminate food waste by donating leftovers from food prep to Caring Matters Industries, a local nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness.

What meals do you offer? Walk us through them.

We sell five dishes: Garlic Szechuan Peanut Noodles; Japanese Udon Noodles & Snap Peas; Apricot-Glazed Chickpea Couscous; Mongolian Vegetable Stir Fry; and Vegetable Butter Grand Masala. All but the Masala are vegan and two are gluten-friendly, but I tell people they can easily add their own meat to any item; I like to add chicken to my udon noodles.

Every meal has something special about it. We use St. Dalfour apricot jam from France with the chickpeas. I buy authentic Japanese ramen noodles from Hakubaku for the Szechuan, and I use their udon noodles. I make my sauces from scratch, taking the time to open up the spices. The sauce and the bok choy are what really make the Mongolian stir fry special. I got my butter masala recipe from a coworker who’s from India. I cook down fresh tomatoes and tri-color bell peppers for it; it takes time.

The main thing I hear from people is ‘this tastes like a restaurant meal’ and not something from a grocery store. I want to project that hand-made aspect. Our meals tastes like real food should taste.

What made you want to start a wholesale, organic food business?

I’m also a respiratory therapist. I see sick people all day. It allows me to share basic nutrition information. I tell them people are often sick because of what they’re putting into their body.

The wheels started turning for me after a trip to Italy, where I ate pasta, pizza and anything I wanted, and still felt amazing. Their food system is cleaner than ours. That got me digging into my diet and making changes, becoming aware of what my body was telling me.

What got me started with Chelle’s is I was looking for a good grab-and-go meal without all the processed foods in it and couldn’t find one.

[Read more in Chelle’s “about us” section online, which details creating meals for her family, which turned into delivering to friends and colleagues, co-inspiring the eventual creation of this business.]

Where can people find your products?

Our items are at sold at Bread & Butter Neighborhood Market locally, as well as Lucky’s Market in Boulder and the Niwot Market. Our longterm goal is to get our meals into Natural Grocers.

Leftovers — three more tidbits I gleaned during this interview:

• Key players in encouraging Michelle to market were Stacy Poore and Aubrey Day at Bread & Butter. She’d shared her early concept of Chelle’s, and they essentially said “bring it here, let’s try it.”

• “I moved to Colorado 30 years ago, but I grew up on the East Coast. I’m super appreciative that I got home-cooked meals as a kid. My mom said we didn’t have the money to go out. She and my grandmother from Ukraine were my inspirations in the kitchen.”

• Michelle was also a bike mechanic at one stint, who worked at Timberline Cycles in Old Colorado City over a decade ago (before it closed years later).

Final editor’s note:

Thanks to samples provided, I was able to try (read: enjoy) each Chelle’s dish. It’s a toss-up for me between the udon and ramen noodles for a favorite. And I can confirm the sauces stand out in the other three dishes. All flavors pop and everything’s vibrant, feeling light in the belly, despite the carbs. I’ll probably adopt Michelle’s addition of chicken to the noodles next time, to up the protein. This is the kind of clean eating I’m into, and generally aim for at home when I’m not dining out for work.

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Your homework assignment until the end of the month: Make you way through 10 downtown restaurants to sample their taco and tequila pairings. (Remember last year, it was the Weenies & ’tinis tour.)

I’ve thus far caught previews of two spots. First up, at Golden Hour at The Mining Exchange, Chef Noah Siebenaller has created the Golden Hour Glow-Up: a Raquelitas purple hibiscus corn tortilla, crispy Oaxaca & aged Cotija cheese “skirt”, mezcal-glazed Kurobuta pork belly, compressed mezcal-mango, golden berry & morita salsa macha, marigold petals, and 24k edible gold leaf. Finished tableside with an orange blossom & mezcal aromatic spritz. (Wow — that’s a mouthful figuratively and literally.) It’s superb, paired with a milk-washed, dual reposado (one smoked) tequila Golden Margarita with citrus foam.

And at T-byrd’s Tacos & Tequila, Chef Joel Blantz has created a Jalapeño Relleno Taco:
Fried Jalapeño stuffed with ground beef and asadaro, with fresh guacamole, pico, crema and cilantro on a warm corn tortilla. It’s paired with the Hibiscus Hottie created by bartender Allie Johnstone: house-infused cucumber-jalapeño mezcal and tequila (split base), hibiscus, passion fruit, lime, with a mango chamoy rim and a flaming jalapeño coin. (So good, with complementary flavors!)

Bites & Bits

• Crafton’s Summit Sourdough grand opens in Chapel Hills Mall May 16 at 11 a.m. (until sell out; it’s located in the Dillard’s Wing, directly across from the pickleball courts on the first floor). Co-owner Matt Crafton tells Side Dish: “This has been a huge family dream for us. I recently retired from the military after 20+ years and [my wife] Brittany left her corporate career to go all in on the bakery full time. Seeing the community support this journey has honestly meant everything to us.” (Here’s more info on them both.) Crafton’s will also be at the Backyard Market in Black Forest as well as the Acacia Park Sunday Market this summer. They make long-fermented artisan sourdough loaves and sell wholesale too. Check out their menu here.

• The Chamonix Casino Resort in Cripple Creek — which I visited and wrote about in mid 2024, calling it “a big ante” — recently opened a new eatery named Don Juan’s Cocina inside Bronco Billy’s Casino. According to a press release, “Don Juan’s Cocina is led by James Beard Award-winning Chef Johnny Iuzzini, the property’s Director of Food & Beverage and Executive Chef, and Chef Starlene Trujillo. The concept showcases a dynamic menu rooted in authentic Mexican cuisine while incorporating modern techniques and unexpected touches.” Iuzzini is a former TV personality and celebrated pastry chef, so Don Juan’s desserts are likely worth attention. The release lists churros with dark chocolate and passionfruit sauces, mango tres leches, spiced chocolate ice cream and chocoflan. The cocktail menu reads well too, listing drinks like a Oaxaca Old Fashioned, Mezcalita and Mango Chile Smash.

• The Margarita at Pine Creek says that “Pivot is the word of 2026.” While you may have thought that post-pandemic we were done with the word, turns out that’s not the case. “This weekend our restaurant was broken into, vandalized and robbed. Our phone lines, internet, and camera lines were cut leaving us without warning or service until 10 minutes before Mother’s day brunch, one of our busiest days of the year,” they wrote on Facebook. So, being the seasoned restaurant professionals they are, what did they do? “Our staff pivoted, they got the customers fed, the broken glass cleaned up and repaired, and the moms pampered… The Margarita makes it through anything that comes our way! #52yearsandcounting.”

• Visit COS released it’s 10th annual Crafts & Drafts Passport this week. Download the digital passport for free and take advantage of local BOGO deals across beer, wine, cocktail, coffee and even milkshake categories from nearly 20 businesses around town. The more you use it, the more chances you have to win swag, through Dec. 31.

• Axios reported that “Swig, a drive-through “dirty soda” chain, plans to expand to the Colorado Springs area, with the first location expected to open by year’s end, and a total of 10 planned for El Paso County.” Writer Glenn Wallace explains that “the Utah-based chain is making a nationwide push, fueled at least in part by its prominence in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reality show.” (Yes, these are non-alcoholic drinks.)

• Shake Shack just opened a second C. Springs location, at 7465 N. Academy Blvd., reports the Gazette. The first location opened off Interquest Parkway in late 2023, and is among the 10 company-owned spots in Colorado.

• “Sin entered into the world through food, and Satan doesn’t stop there. Food, for me, is really like a weapon of how I can fight back.” A Christian influencer discusses being a “biblical eater” in this New York Times story.

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Bristol Brewing Company: Grab a Compass and gear up for summer at our third annual Beers & Gear Expo on Saturday, May 30! Come out to celebrate all things outdoors, with beer and live music, gear vendors, local nonprofits and clubs, and axe throwing. Kicks off with a group trail ride in Stratton Open Space.

Four by Brother Luck: Book now for our six-region, six-course wine dinner, June 3, 6 p.m. Each course will feature cuisine inspired by a different region, paired with wines selected by Steve Sander to showcase the character and traditions of each destination.

Red Gravy: From our new menu, the branzino is a must-try, earning rave reviews already from our patrons. Also, catch this month’s Pastarama contenders: lamb ragù over pappardelle, and a steak and broccoli rigatoni.

Elephant Thai & Chaang Thai: Come in for our lunch specials, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mondays-Fridays. Items are only $10.95 to $11.95. Choose between dishes like pineapple, Panang or yellow curry; Pad Thai; Thai-fried rice; and teriyaki chicken, beef or tofu. Finish with mango sticky rice!

Blackhat Distillery: Experience Blackhat Distillery, where American Agave Spirits meet disciplined craft and elevated Colorado hospitality. Through May’s end, readers can secure access to our guided tours at 50% off and our intimate Distiller’s Vault experience at 25% off. Advance resos required. Tours are booked online, and Vault experiences are arranged directly with our distiller.

T-Byrd’s Tacos & Tequila: Taco Tuesdays feature $3.50 tacos all day and $5 Margaritas and Swirls. Happy hours are 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and all day Sunday. Our $12.99 lunch special gets you chips & salsa, two tacos, rice, beans and a fountain drink; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Hoppenings of the week

Beer Events

National Mimosa Day Celebration at Urban Animal Brewing (Star Ranch). May 16, 10 a.m. Celebrate National Mimosa Day with $8 beer-mosas all day long.

3rd Annual Rescue Fair and Yappy Hour at Cerberus Brewing. 1 p.m. Meet adorable adoptable dogs, explore vendor booths with merch and giveaways, learn about rescue orgs like Rez Dawg Rescue, and enjoy exclusive yappy hour deals in our beer garden.

Beer Releases

Cerveza Mezcal at Gunslinger Brewing Co. Mezcal-inspired light lager featuring bold, smoky flavors.

Sandy Sunglasses Hazy IPA at WestFax Springs. Bright, juicy and ultra-crushable with big citrus and tropical notes. Releases May 15.

Orange Creamsicle Sour at Fossil Craft Beer Co. A refreshing 5.5% ABV patio sipper featuring bright candy orange upfront with a smooth creamy finish. Releases May 15.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

Through June 12: Pilgrimage of Pints 2026. A self-paced brewery crawl to earn perks and rewards, leading up to the Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival on June 13.

Visit your local farmer’s markets: Full listings here via Visit Colorado Springs.

May 16: Lolley’s Ice Cream grand opening celebration downtown. 12:30 onward.

May 16: 2nd annual Mrs. Roper Romp at Coati. Noon to 6 p.m. 20+ vintage vendors, flash tattoos, tooth gems, tarot, a photo booth, DJs, and Mrs. Roper Costume Contest.

May 17 (rescheduled): Patio Brunch Bash Sip with Schnip at Evergreen Restaurant. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. $5 Goat Patch beers, bottomless mimosas, live music, pup-friendly patio plus a Breakfast Burger Special and one-day-only special Side Dish Mousse Cake, made with espresso from Kangaroo Coffee!

May 17: Paella on the Patio returns for the season. Seatings at noon, 2:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. $49 includes a wine, sangria or beer. (Next dates: June 14, July 19, Aug. 16, Sept. 20, Oct. 18.)

May 31: Happy Hour Donuts 2nd Birthday Bash. 7 a.m. to noon. Freebies, raffles and one-day-only donut and drink specials.

Parting shot(s)

Back in early March, I told you about the impending arrival of Perriteaux’s Cajun Restaurant — essentially a revival of Springs Orleans.

I caught a private preview on May 14 ahead of May 15’s opening. Chef Jason Miller, who cooked in Louisiana for almost two decades, is going for authenticity here, especially with ingredient sourcing. Examples include Leidenheimer French bread from New Orleans for his new lineup of poboys. We got the Andouille Sausage one and enjoyed the hell out of it. We also started with awesome popcorn chicken bites with Creole remoulade dip (made in-part with Zatarain’s Creole Mustard) and Miller’s own Creole seasoning (which they sell retail). His collard greens are outstanding too.

For my entrée I chose the Bayou Sampler, allowing me to pick three items from a Cajun & Creole Classics list. I went with the jambalaya (possibly my favorite), shrimp & crawfish étouffée and chicken & Andouille gumbo. Each has its highlights, like the creaminess and generous crawfish bits in the étouffée and deep roux spice in the hearty gumbo. Miller also gave me a sample of his new vegan gumbo — a long work in progress that he’s rightfully proud of.

There’s a lot left for me to try and I’m genuinely excited to go back, as is my dining companion and others in the industry I spoke with during our tasting. One other highlight, not to miss for nostalgia sake or just a refreshing drink on a hot day: Perriteaux’s Hurricane cocktail, which FOH personality Moe Serato tells me is made with a unique combo of dark, white and spiced rum, plus passionfruit, orange juice and of course grenadine for signature color.

If you’re going to be at Prospect Lake at all this summer, paddleboarding, swimming, fishing or whatever, you’re definitely going to want to stop by. This could be the anchor business to revive the long blighted edge of Memorial Park (ahead of the Printer’s Parkway project).

Let’s begin this week with a flashback to September 2024, when I reported “Tava House breaks ground in Woodland Park.”

That gives you some idea of how long a project of this scale — which started a few years prior in concept form — takes to come together. The massive new Woodland Park eatery and events space just launched a “sneak peek week” in its lower-level taproom on Monday. (An upper-floor steakhouse named Firebrand aims to open sometime later this month.)

I stopped by to tour and taste with Tava COO Victor Matthews, who we playfully call “Reverend Doctor Chef” due to his advanced degrees in theology and his long history of teaching and culinary work. He founded Paragon Culinary School and can claim a distiller title as well, as the man behind Green Mountain Falls’ Black Bear Distillery (formerly the Black Bear fine dining restaurant for an era). Suffice to say Matthews is a Renaissance man if I’ve ever known one; I’ve also called him an Energizer Bunny.

There’s a lot to tease out here, so I’m going to jump in, and let the photos do some lifting as well:

• The scale and scope: Over six acres of land directly in the center of town. I’m told 40,000 cubic yards of soil were hauled from the lower basin to upper area where the restaurant sits in order to level it with Hwy. 24 for visibility. New roads, sidewalks and street lighting were installed, as well as a dedicated turn lane from the major roadway. Tava didn’t just work closely with the City of Woodland Park, but CDOT, too.

Echo Architecture’s design mixes modern industrial touches (exposed beams, metal accents) with naturalistic (touches of thick, rough-hewn wood) and brutalist elements (heavy concrete forms) that make the restaurant feel somewhat monumental. Matthews (who gave lots of design input) boasts that it’s now the “crown jewel” of the tiny town, calling it “mountain sexy.” The view of Pikes Peak out the entire west face of the building, plus the expansive (dog-friendly) patio, indeed stuns guests.

Tava PR Manager Mike Perini says “this whole venture is not like anything this town has seen. I think we deserve it. And I think the town will support it, and people will come up from the Springs.” Plus, there’s tourist-season traffic, Matthews points out.

The price tag so far? Around $9 million they say. The banquet hall alone fits 90 inside or 150 connected to outdoor space during warm months.

What’s to come: extensive landscaping in the lower lot that will form a modular amphitheater for concerts and festivals and such. Fountain Creek’s headwaters begin on the site, and Matthews — always one to find symbolism — traces its water down the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers into New Orleans, where he got his culinary start. “My friend calls me a salmon, because I came all the way up stream,” he jokes.

• The team behind it: Five major investor couples: Matthews and his wife Rhianna; Derek and Nicole Waggoner (Derek also co-owns Gripstone Climbing & Fitness), Mark and Mary Jean Weaver, Mary and Alan Sekowski; and Philip and Deborah Waggoner (Derek’s parents).

In the kitchens, Justin Edgar is in the chef de cuisine role and will lead Firebrand when it opens as Matthews’ “right hand.” Edgar graduated Paragon and has taught there and he also did stints at Wobbly Olive, and Ephemera most recently. Rhianna Matthews is Tava’s lead pastry chef and a longtime Paragon instructor.

Karsta Stoudt, formerly executive sous chef at the USOTC, is the Taproom’s chef, supported by Paragon graduates like Jesse Anderson, who worked at Jake & Telly’s. Matthews says around half the current crew are his graduates. While the school will stay located in Manitou Springs, Matthews says Tava will function as an extension campus, where students will get “a taste of the real world.” Area high school ProStart students will also filter through, as Matthews acts in an advisory role for Woodland Park High School and Merit Academy (a charter school).

Brad Beck is the GM, bringing experience from multiple concepts at The Broadmoor.

• In the taproom: A self-pour beer wall of high-quality craft labels and select bottles and cans, to include some lesser seen and harder-to-get brands. (I spied a can of legendary Heady Topper, for example.)

A full cocktail bar includes lots of locally distilled spirits, classic and modern sips, plus some N/A drinks. We sample The Rampart Peach: Black Bear Distillery dark rum, peach liqueur, brown sugar and lemon. (A porch pounder.) The Florissant Ridge: Pure Distilling Tava gin, lavender syrup, lemon and orange. (A floral delight.) And a dessert drink, the Cripple Creek Cream: vodka, key lime juice, white chocolate, condensed milk and lavish, key lime-zested cheesecake foam.

The soft-opening menus remain in development day-to-day but some flagship food items are rooted. It’s not being served this day, but Matthews talks up their unique Turducken Reuben, made with housemade duck pastrami, house-smoked turkey and house-corned chicken, plus classic fixings. It was an idea Matthews started and CDC Edgar refined and final-conceived. “He’s able to execute what I’m envisioning and add his own thing,” Matthews says. “Our two minds together, when we get symbiotic — it levels everyone up.”

Two things I do try, on that note: a fresh ahi tuna tartar with cucumber, avocado and sriracha aioli, plus wonton chips. And the signature, Legendary Local Ranch Slider Trio that’s effectively the first meat flight I can think of ever having. Meaning one slider features Divide’s PBJ Cattle Co. yak (that I wrote about here in my final month at the CS Indy), topped with Swiss, onion, mushroom and Dijon aioli. The next spotlights PBJ-affiliated Double Eagle Ranch beef with sweet bacon fig jam. And the third places Elk Ranch Ltd. bison with poblanos, pepper jack and chipotle aioli.

It’s a fun, dynamic sampling of proteins. Matthews frames it as “purveyor-driven cuisine” that he hopes to raise to representing seven area producers on the plate once growing season kicks in. That would be adding to custom Sourdough Boulangerie kaiser-brioche buns with seasonal toppings. “This is what we mean when we call Tava a ‘community hub’ says Matthews. (On that note, the full Tava Burger features local bacon and cheeses, utilizing Ranch Foods Direct’s wagyu ground beef.)

• Desserts: Matthew’s wife Rhianna is Tava’s pastry chef. Her prep for this menu dates back a year, when she began growing and freeze-drying flowers for her garnishes. A violet adorns her Key Lime Pie next to a white chocolate, yuzu and lime mouse cake shaped and colored like a halved lime. Gold dust on the plate looks as if it morphed out of the brown butter graham cracker crust. The pie custard itself leans more tart and sour, less sweet, leading with a lovely citrus punch.

Next up, her Triple Chocolate Layer Cake with Guinness chocolate ganache, Bailey's mousse and gold leaf. It’s ridiculously rich and good. Matthews tells me she plans to make a creme brûlée cheesecake for Firebrand steakhouse when it opens upstairs, and serve it out of her own pottery and plateware she made. I saw a demo plate, embossed with the Tava brand — not the logo, but the livestock brand. Matthews has already designed and registered it, with plans to partner with a Wyoming ranch to produce cattle for Tava. (It sounds like that’s some time out in the future.)

• What about Firebrand?: It will be a high-end steakhouse, with some more affordable off ramps. For instance you’ll be able to go à la carte and find entry-level steak cuts for as low as $30 says Matthews. But he’ll also feature exclusive cuts from celebrated ranches that could go up over a couple hundred dollars. And guests can choose a multi-course, drink-paired Chef’s Table, like the Black Bear back in its day. Or what Matthews is calling his “omakase” option, meaning chef’s choice: “I’ll hit you with courses until you say stop.”

The interior design remains underway, and on my tour I pass by staff unboxing primo wines and allocated whiskies for Firebrand’s bar. (I spy a vertical Weller lineup and several bottles of Pappy, including a 20-year.) Matthews says blackboards are coming on a back wall, where ranches will be called out by name, farm-to-table style. From the dining room guests will look into a Himalayan sea salt dry-aging cave. One fireplace is also a window overlooking Pikes Peak. An opposing one at the other end of a long community table gives a view into the kitchen, above the grill station, intending to create the illusion of your steak being grilled in those flames.

It’s a nerdy level of detail. Matthews says he’s been thinking about the design for years. And that carries through into how the upstairs kitchen line’s laid out. There’s a dedicated butcher counter for breaking down primals; a smoker; and a 15-burner sauté and grill line with dedicated prep stations and coolers for each cook. (Downstairs his wife has her own pastry area and the kitchen’s super long, with three walk-ins and room for concurrent banquet and dining room service.)

Matthews says he designed for around 60 seats once the bar and upstairs patio (facing Hwy. 24) are factored in. That’s based off The French Laundry he says; it’s probably the third time he drops Thomas Keller’s name during our tour while talking culinary theory and such. Makes sense for someone who’s for years taught Paragon students about the world’s Master Chefs.

Not necessarily wanting to end on a highfalutin note, he says he plans to meet Tava customers on all levels. “You can just come for a pretzel and beer downstairs and chill on the patio, or come up for 12 courses at Firebrand.”

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Eat your liver and onions with Ranch Foods Direct

Your grandmother would be proud — but this is definitely not the way she was eating her liver and onions back in the day. El Chapin’s Chef/Owner Luis Guerra will convert you to liking liver with his easy-to-execute recipe for tacos and fixings.

Happenings of the hog

• Front Range Barbeque now open on the East Side

Back in early March, I told you that Front Range Barbeque had purchased Porkbutt BBQ, which had suddenly gone up for sale in late January. They assumed the storefront at 2220 Academy Place, and quietly soft-opened this past weekend.

I stopped by on day one to chat with owner Brian Fortinberry and his team, and enjoy some barbecue, of course. Fortinberry tells me this will be home base for the next couple years, for catering in addition to dine-in service. That’s because demolition hasn’t even yet begun on the West Side location, which closed in November 2025, after 25 years, to begin a significant “refresh” of the space.

This new East Side menu has already received a refresh, with minor recipe tweaks and some new additions. Chicken leg quarters have joined the house-smoked meats list (available by the half or full pound, generally), and they’re excellent, I confirmed from my sampling. Fortinberry has switched to Yukon vs. Russet fries, and instead of selling pies by the slice, they’re now serving round mini pies like banana pudding, Key lime or bourbon-pecan for $6 (good for two or a hungry solo eater). To brighten bites alongside house barbecue sauces, he’s also added chow chow relish, which is a punchy blend of cabbage, onions, tomatillos and mustard seed cured in a brown sugar vinegar. (It’s great, and available to-go by the pint.)

Current hours: noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday-Sundays. Expect daily specials. Things people will miss until the West Side location reopens: live music nights on the patio (as there’s not one here), and quality craft beer selections. Presently Front Range is only serving Southern sweet or unsweet teas and fountain soda drinks.

• The Chuckwagon 719 to expand in place

Three-year-old Chuckwagon 719 announced on Wednesday that they’ll be undergoing a significant expansion as of June 1 at 6453 Omaha Blvd., and doing so without pausing operations. “We found an amazing crew willing to work on our days off, Monday through Wednesdays co-owner Deidre Hammond says, noting they’re occupying an additional 2,400 square-feet of space behind their existing location to create a total of nearly 4,200.

She walks me through the plans, to include: removing kitchen walls to punch outwards; swapping the current seating and service areas so the line can be more efficiently located near the kitchen; adding a second carving station and register in hopes of making the customer line move more quickly (and eventually serving more food with the added volume); landscaping and expanding outdoor seating, with shaded areas; and adding a stage for live music.

Hammond says they’re getting paperwork for a liquor license going, and to expect an expanded menu when it’s all completed, with larger, family meal options plus “more fun specials.”

“Welcome to Austin in The Springs,” she says. “We can’t wait to serve y’all!”

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Bites & Bits

• Gunnar’s Deli, which only recently launched its business at Red Leg Brewing Co., has expanded to a second location at 7636 Dublin Blvd. That’s inside of Sasquatch Cookies, a fellow Red Leg kiosk vendor.

• China Menu has opened at 600 21st St #150, in the Roundhouse complex. And Shanxi Noodle recently launched at 5935 Constitution Ave. (I aim to visit both soon.)

• Axios Colorado Springs this week reported that “Colorado craft beer defies national downturn.” In his succinct summary (Axios-style, you know) Writer Glenn Wallace shares Brewers Association data (ahead of its public release later this week) that says “Colorado craft brewers produced 75,469 more barrels than in 2024 — nearly a 10% increase.” That runs counter to the “broader industry slump.” Another strong stat for the suds: “Breweries’ estimated $2.8 billion statewide economic impact in 2024 grew by $28 million in 2025.”

• Earlier this week, the Colorado Restaurant Association & Foundation gave an update on SB26-134 (the Swipe Fee Relief Act), which would eliminate credit card swipe fees on sales taxes, potentially saving small businesses thousands of dollars annually. The CRA is framing the bill as “choosing Colorado businesses over Wall Street card networks and big banks.” They say industry opposition is “paying millions to attempt to kill this bill.” They’re asking concerned folks to “contact your State House Representative and urge a YES vote on SB26-134.

• New Denizen spotlights 3 new Denver and Boulder restaurants and bars you should know about. Among them, Odd Rabbit is a ramen and sushi spot from a Michelin-recognized duo.

• “Surging concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have produced potent changes in the way plants grow, draining the nutrients from food,” reports The Washington Post. “… even people who consume enough calories won’t get the nutrients they need to thrive… for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, the consequences could be devastating.” (Context: recent polling shows 14% of the U.S. population doesn’t believe global warming is happening, while 29% doubt it is caused mostly by human activities, and 46% don’t think they’ll be personally harmed by it.)

Side Dish Dozen happenings

Allusion Speakeasy: Our new Star Wars theme is delighting fans at both locations! Resos required; awesome N/A cocktails available. Check out the amazing lineup of drinks, in theme glassware, and match your zodiac sign with a drink.

Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar: Catch daily happy hour from 3-5 p.m. and all night Mondays. And weekly specials like Cantina Tuesdays, Po Boy Wednesdays, Friday Date Nights, Saturday shrimp and crab boils, and Locals Sundays with $1 oysters.

Evergreen: What do you mean you still haven’t come in to check out our viral mousse cakes? We look forward to seeing you May 17 for our Patio Brunch Bash Sip with Schnip, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Goat Patch Brewing: Our Summer Music Series has kicked off at our Lincoln Center and Monument locations! We’re proud to be the beer sponsor for MeadowGrass Music Festival, May 22-24. Download our app to stay in the know.

Kangaroo Coffee: Celebrate Nurses Week with us through May 12. Hop over to any of our locations, flash your badge and enjoy 50% off your drink. It’s our small way of saying thank you for everything you do, we appreciate you!

Edelweiss: We’ve switched to using 100% beef tallow for all of our deep fried items, giving our schnitzels and other fried dishes an even better golden brown crust and robust flavor! Come in today and try the favorites you know and love, now even better.

Stellina Pizza Cafe: We’re celebrating six years with our special birthday menu through May 31. Enjoy a customizable, five-course prix fixe menu for two for $75. Also Pike Ride Community Rides start May 12 (RSVP required). Catch pre-ride happy hours and return for dinner with extended happy hour until 9.

Hoppenings this week

Beer Events

Chocolate & Beer Pairing at Gunslinger Brewing Co. May 9, 1-2 p.m.; $25.

Brewer’s Republic Resurrected at Seven’s Gate Taproom. May 9, 5 p.m. Expect Fremont Lush, Prairie BOMB!, Chouffe and a few other surprises.

MeadowGrass Pre-Fest at Goat Patch Brewing Monument. May 10. Live music featuring Patchwork Jack with Roma Ransom (2-5 p.m.) and Chinaflower Suncats (6-8:30 p.m.), food trucks and good vibes all day long.

Beer Releases

Street Taco Skies at Urban Animal Brewing downtown. A tropical-themed beer being re-released for Hawaiian Shirt Fridays.

Prickly Pear Mexican Lager at Wackadoo Brewing. A refreshing Mexican-style lager brewed with prickly pear for a unique twist. Light and crisp with fruity notes.

Old Trash Panda at OCC Brewing. A 2024 Russian Imperial Stout featuring layers of chocolate, coffee and roasted malt with subtle nutty complexity.

For full listings of events and releases download the free Hoppenings app on Apple on Google.

Upcoming events

May 9: 2026 America’s Mountain Festival Songwriters Competition at Tava House. 6-8:30 p.m.; free.

May 9: Second Annual Murder Mystery Fundraiser at Madera’s Grill and Cantina in Falcon. 5:30 p.m.

May 10: Colorado Springs Sunday Market kicks off in Acacia Park for the season. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Find full farmer’s markets listings via Visit Colorado Springs.)

May 10: Mother’s Day special menus all over. You better have made resos by now!

May 13: Whiskey Tasting Dinner at Black Forest Bistro. 6 p.m. $150 includes five paired courses with optional upgrades for more allocated whiskies.

May 14: Master Sommelier tasting dinner at My Cellar Wine Bar. 6 p.m.; $100 for six wines and five food courses, led by Master Sommelier Nigel Wilkinson.

May 16: Lolley’s Ice Cream grand opening celebration downtown. 12:30 onward.

May 17 (rescheduled): Patio Brunch Bash Sip with Schnip at Evergreen Restaurant. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. $5 Goat Patch beers, bottomless mimosas, live music, pup-friendly patio plus a Breakfast Burger Special and one-day-only Side Dish Mousse Cake, made with Kangaroo Coffee espresso!

May 17: Paella on the Patio returns for the season. Seatings at noon, 2:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. $49 includes a wine, sangria or beer. (Next dates: June 14, July 19.)

Through June 12: Pilgrimage of Pints 2026. A self-paced brewery crawl to earn perks and rewards, leading up to the Feast of Saint Arnold beer festival on June 13.

Parting shot(s)

We attended the Codigo 1530 Tequila Meet the Maker dinner at The Broadmoor’s Penrose Room on Cinco de Mayo.

A Codigo rep walked us through tastings of their Blanco, Rosa, Private Broadmoor Barrel Selection, Reposado, Añejo, and 6-year-aged Origin Extra Añejo. Despite five generations of history behind their tequilas, Codigo has only been imported to the U.S. for the past decade. We were told it’s one of only six in the tequila industry to operate its own distillery (whereas hundreds of other manufactures produce thousands of brands on shared distilleries).

For the aged spirits, they utilize French White Oak, Napa Cabernet Barrels. Those used barrels are charred with exception of the Rosa label, wherein Codigo’s Blanco tequila rests for one month in an un-charred barrel to glean some light color and flavor from the vino residue. They pioneered the tequila category; others have since made similar products. The faintly floral Rosa proves to be my favorite sipper of the evening, followed closely by the deeply complex Añejo and easy going Blanco. It was also novel to try the Extra Añejo, which heads in a brandy direction after six years of flavor concentration through evaporation.

Chef Bethany Fahey and team created wonderful pairings for the tequilas, leading mostly light and beach-y for passed canapes, which included mofongo fritters, snapper ceviche and tequila-shrimp tostadas. The seafood theme continued into appetizers with hamachi poke rolls and Polynesian King Salmon Crudo, then crab cakes in the first course, along with a citrus burrata salad. Things finally got heavy (and fabulously delicious) with a Codigo tequila-braised short rib served over Ancho-Poblano farro with asparagus, carrots and tequila jus.

The meal concluded with a gorgeous Tequila Sunrise Entremet, featuring orange crémeux, pomegranate gelée and tequila-infused cake with lime zest chantilly cream. Sipping the Extra Añejo between bites created quite an interesting pairing experience, with the sugary sweet notes counterbalancing the bold, oaky and somewhat hot (higher alcohol) elements of the tequila. Just wonderful.

Don’t sleep on these Meet the Maker dinners. They’re special, and full of surprises, like our souvenir Codigo bottles laser etched on-site by one of their reps. Some have hefty price tags, but that’s typically for highly allocated spirits you’ll be hard-pressed to get access to elsewhere. And the food is always abundant and next-level delicious.

Lewis Cox tells me that he’s known his wife Francesca since around the time they were kindergarten aged. “We grew up thinking we were cousins,” he says, laughing. “She was partly raised by my mom as well.”

Their moms were best friends, he explains, and at age 15 he and Francesca started dating. Flash forward 25 years and they have seven kids together, plus a new restaurant endeavor that may as well count as an eighth child for the time being.

Stix & Soul Kitchen opened in early March at The Citadel mall (where Hooters resided up until last year). It’s the Coxes’ first foray into the professional food-service world, though Lewis assures me they more than know their ways around kitchens.

“I was that kid who wanted to be next to momma’s hip,” he says. “I was always in the kitchen with her wondering what she was cooking.” She’d learned to cook from her father, who was born in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s where Cox’s extended family still lives and where he ventures to every fall for family reunions. He’s one of four boys.

Even though he was born in Germany, as a military brat, he says he likes to let people know he learned to cook in the South. Authenticity is important to him. “Everyone in my kitchen here is from the South. I’m the executive chef, and they follow our routine.”

That routine has been shaped by home life, as Cox regularly cooked for his family, plus his kids’ friends and other family members. “People would pitch in with sodas and drinks; we didn’t ask for a dollar. I feed people here as if they were in my house. I put my heart into it. This is my gift from God, to feed the world.”

Before Cox realized this gift as a business, he was on a very different path. He alludes to a difficult period earlier on when “I was hanging around the wrong people, and I had to change my life.” His struggle included a few years of homelessness, he says. “I had to stop everything and do something right.”

He picked up a job at an asphalt company, and worked his way up to being a foreman. Years later when the business’ owner was retiring, he convinced Cox it was time for him to do his own thing. So he started renting gear at Bill’s Equipment & Supply and taking small jobs. That turned into a company called C&H Asphalt, which has been in operation for almost 15 years, now employing more than 20 people.

“Because of having to learn how to sell asphalt jobs, I can talk to anyone,” he says. “It’s why I’m a good salesman.” It’s why he’s not daunted at all to bite off selling his food. Touching tables is easy when you love talking to people and you’re a natural at it. Plus, that food has started to sell itself with good word-of-mouth in the community.

The opportunity at Stix & Soul started late last year when Cox started dabbling at some small bars in town to dip a toe in the marketplace. He did a popup stint at Woody’s Bar & Grill at Pikes Peak Avenue and Academy Boulevard for example, and says it significantly improved the business’ traffic and sales inside of a month.

During the football playoffs, he met his cousin to watch a Bronco’s game at Uno Mas off Platte Avenue. He met owner Richard Perea and pitched him on bringing his foodservice there. After listening, Perea told Cox his vision was bigger than the facilities could handle, but he’d just procured a spot at Citadel Mall that had a large kitchen. Perea was only planning to open a pool hall in the space, more as an event center not open regularly to the public. But perhaps it could use a dining component?

After seeing the space, Cox made an offer. Perea weighed it for several weeks, and ultimately decided to partner 50/50 with him to create Stix & Soul Kitchen. Francesca took on the GM role; their kids are part of the crew.

In the short couple months it’s been open, Stix & Soul has been promisingly busy. Sometime a line will back up to the doors, Cox says. Every service hasn’t been as smooth as he’d like, but he concedes they’re learning their way forward and earnestly listening to feedback.

“I’ve tightened the menu up,” he says, “adjusting seasonings, and backing off salt for the elders.” He wants his customers to feel like they’re walking into his home, not like they’re at a restaurant. It’s a cliché, but true for him.

“Food tastes better when you feel you’re at home,” he says. “If you feel like you’re at a McDonald’s it’s just not going to taste as good. This is like a big family reunion here. Our atmosphere is high-energy. I’m gonna greet you like you’re my auntie or my grandma. I accept people like they’re family.”

He returns to a humble, almost sheepish tone, saying “if anything’s wrong with your food, come tell me and I’ll make it again. I want you to feel like you’re at a barbecue at your cousin’s, and he won’t hesitate to remake your chicken on the grill.”

It’s clear Cox is a people pleaser, finding success by embracing the true spirit of Southern hospitality. He got that from his mom, who got it from her dad, and he’s passing it along to his children here. “They weren’t born in Mississippi, but it’s in their genes,” he says.

The family’s warmth has resonated with various segments of the community, but with the Black community in particular. I think I’m the only white dude at the eatery during a late lunch rush and I love that, feeling transported back home to Alabama where I grew up. Colorado Springs’s population is only around 6-percent Black, so to get out of the Caucasian bubble, you typically have to venture mindfully to Black-owned businesses anchored in specific neighborhoods, mostly on the Southeast side,

I chat with Cox about it and he says “I didn’t think it would be like this. This demographic speaks volumes. We’ve been strongly embraced by the Black community, and not just from here. I’ve had people drive from Denver, Longmont, Fort Collins.” Then there’s the people living here that, like me, came from the South. “I found a whole niche of people from Georgia and all over,” he says, adding that there’s also support from the Hispanic and white community. Soul food speaks to everybody.

He pauses a beat, then shouts-out the other Southern-food businesses in town, saying he’s not in this to compete. There’s Club Tilt & Grill on Astrozon Boulevard and Sabrina’s Soul Food Kitchen not far from there, on South Academy Boulevard. “And I love Luchals — her energy and her food,” he says, acknowledging the Cajun departure from his strictly Southern menu.

Notice I’ve talked around food with this writeup, painting you a picture of the people and the place mostly instead. It’s not because our meal (pictured above, if you need to scroll back) wasn’t good. It was great. Chef Brother Luck and I knocked out the crunchy catfish (expertly seasoned and fried); the tangy ribs (meat easily releasing from bone with a good chew); crispy chicken gizzards dipped in hot sauce; juicy fried green tomatoes; and the terrific sides: Lou’s Smack’n Cheese, Nana’s Candied Yams, MaMa’s Collards with turkey, black-eyed peas with turkey, and cornbread with a caramelized sugar top that makes it as dessert-y as the sappy yams.

There’s a wide array of dishes to go back and try, ranging from wings, pork chops, brisket and a Salisbury steak plate. Now that you have a sense of the vibe, go get lost in some soul food and get your fingers sticky on something. Beer and cocktails will be coming soon (likely within a couple weeks of you reading this).

And Cox, being the smart guy that he is — knowing how people in this town behave, and just the right thing to say to them — wraps up by telling me: “We have the biggest parking lot in the Springs.”

Spoken like a true asphalt salesman.