Pass the bottle
Local Relic brewery changing ownership; OCC's Ice Guys ice cream expands to downtown; Totem names a new chef; Stage Stop Cantina takes over Trail's End; Lebowski's #2 opens + more food & drink news
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?)
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.
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:
