Three-year-old CFB claims to be America’s only true “estate brewery,” meaning some of their beers (the porter and a wheat when we visit) are entirely made on-farm, with San Luis Valley water, farm-grown hops and grains (malted on-site by sister company Colorado Malting Company) and house-cul…

The Juicy Seafood is a Cajun seafood chain that sprawls across nine states, mostly in the South. Everything about it feels like it came out of a pre-assembled kit labeled “seafood shack.”

Christine Bradley’s coffee and snack stand opened in early 2021 where The Pop used to be. It’s a cute little drive-thru shack located a stone’s throw from Dublin and Academy boulevards. When we stop in, it’s somewhat busy, with a few cars ahead of us, but the fact that it’s a drive-thru cues…

Eight-year-old, veteran-owned and military-themed Red Leg Brewing Company opened last week in its massive new location (roughly 15,000 square feet on a 2.5 acre campus) at 2323 Garden of the Gods Road, just up the road from its original 4,900-square-foot facility.

Mood Tapas Bar has a new menu, and more importantly a new executive chef: Noah Siebenaller, formerly of Beasts and Brews and Phantom Canyon. Siebenaller is now also the corporate executive chef for all of Choice Restaurant Concepts, which includes Mood, Districtelleven, Bird Tree Cafe and T-…

When Ciao Down Food Truck owner Francine Vonfeldt spoke with theIndy in February, she said that while her initial menu would be deli-style and focused on hot sandwiches, she intended to add Neapolitan-inspired entrées down the road. We would love to try her more traditional Italian offerings…

It’s been a few years since we’d daytripped to Westcliffe, and we immediately notice a new-to-us spot on Main Street: the spacious and stylish Sugarlump coffee, sandwich, ice cream and mini retail shop.

The hometown of Red Gravy owner/chef Eric Brenner, St. Louis, Missouri, has a long history with jazz music. As a major destination for Black Americans leaving the Jim Crow-era South during the first wave of the Great Migration, St. Louis and other cities allowed for creative expression not p…

Look for the launch of OCC Brewing sometime around mid-to-late August. The brewpub (with a sandwich menu) may be a startup, but it has ample experience at the helm: Owner Dan Ramos is a widely traveled beer scientist with a biology degree and has spent the last eight years at Woodland Park’s…

Even small cities like Westcliffe prove that often some of the gems are tucked away on side streets, so it’s worth exploring off Main Street. Launched in 2015, Elevation operates as a wild game and livestock processor (with a mobile slaughter unit) but also town butcher shop and deli special…

For all its saturation across popular comfort-food segments, Colorado Springs does not hold a deep history with Puerto Rican food. Past spots like Mi Viejo San Juan and Chinchorreo Fuera De La Isla didn’t make it long. Currently, Rumba Latin Cuisine hits a few dishes and Don Guillo reigns su…

The propagation of hipster joints in south Downtown continues apace with this new beer garden. Cleverly named The Garden, the spot offers a variety of local tap brews and mixed drinks, with stylish, breezy indoor seating and ample outdoor seating, making it a sure thing for hot summers growi…

Angie’s Latin Food represents another food-truck-to-brick-and-mortar success story. The Honduran outfit launched in late 2016 and found roots here a few years ago. They’re hopping with to-go orders at lunch.

Chef Edward Salazar’s food truck now serves as a permanent fixture at The Garden. When we stop in for a drink, we first aim ourselves at the pork belly green chile fries, and we’re sad to say that the tallow-fried ’taters themselves rate flaccid and wimpy, which sucks.

Lee Spirits Co. began selling its gin locally in 2015, adding the cool speakeasy Brooklyn's on Boulder Street the following year. Literally just ahead of the pandemic shutdown in 2020, the company also opened a manufacturing facility and second taproom in Monument. 

Bell Brothers Brewing will be one of four ventures opening in the fall at 112-114 N. Tejon St. The other three, which I’ll report on later, are: a second Springs Dog Haus; Shrunken Head Tiki Bar and Lounge via restaurateur Joe Campana and biz partner Audriana Sutherland; and Aspen Axe axe th…

Bale Bale Bistro, a Honduran food truck, first opened in February 2021 serving authentic food. For Chef Tirza and husband Noe Perez, who own the truck, it’s about sharing a piece of family and heritage, yes, but it’s more than that. It’s all family operated, serving as a way to teach their k…

The premise tantalizes: donuts garnished with booze-infused glazings and buttercreams. (See our May 5, 2021, Side Dish for the back story.) The execution is a mixed bag. Happy Hour Donuts’ yeast donuts alone are great, plenty puffy with a little chew and interior density, not overly sweet.

The good “ship” — rather, repurposed parcel truck — S.S. Bertha has come to peddle its South Pacific goods: kava. For those unfamiliar, kava is the name of both a plant (Piper methysticum) and a drink made with the root of that plant.

The Eagle represents the U.S., the Crane Uganda. The company name stems from owner Mackynzie Schutz’s travel in 2018 through the African country, where he discovered a love for its people and coffee.

Toss a stone in Colorado Springs and you’re bound to hit a food truck. They were proliferating long before the pandemic, and the past year has only added new faces to the mobile scene. But nearly a decade ago we could count all those we knew of on a couple hands. One of the early ones to mar…

Owner Hieu Hoang and her husband and restaurant manager Kevin Tram took over the former Pho Saigon Grill in May 2020, redecorating, rebranding and rebooting the menu for pandemic times — which is to say shortening it to make it more manageable for a skeleton crew that’s still running it toda…

We don’t want to like this 20-plus-year-old, Tallahassee-born chain. It’s another smoothie shop serving kinda-trendy health food. But sometimes a person just wants a fruity smoothie and a wrap, and dammit, they meet that need affordably.

No place is perfect, and we find that to be true on our second visit to Ecclesia Market. Romo’s Street Tacos, the Castle Rock church-turned-food-hall’s Mexican concept, fills us up but doesn’t leave us wanting more.

Daniel Kesterson’s dad homebrewed beer when he was a teenager, and he tried his hand at the craft too once he was of age, but didn’t fall in love. Then he met a bottle of Schramm’s Mead from Michigan and got inspired to make a mead in early 2016. It turned out really good, he says. So he pla…

When Suwanna Meyer opened Elephant Thai, her second Thai restaurant, just 10 minutes’ south of Chaang Thai on North Academy Boulevard, she told the Indy she would be offering street food dishes in addition to what Americans expect to see on a Thai menu. Being that I’ve never been to Thailand…

Continuing to operate the longstanding Pet Pawlor dog grooming shop, the Gunter family has gone a different direction with their second business: a vegan food truck.

Knowing that the most experimental brewery in the Springs no longer has the polarizing but undeniably skilled Jason “Saison Man” Yester at the helm, we’re unsure what to expect.

Sometimes, all there is to hold onto is a quick, tasty hot dog: no BS, no craft aspirations, nothing fancy whatsoever. That is what Stump Dog does, and for only a few bucks, the modicum of sanity that a fine-ground, cured, smoked, all-beef sausage offers can make its soothing presence felt.

You’ve never heard someone talk about pizza as enthusiastically as Slice 420 co-owner Christian Patriarca. But he and his wife Stefany are equally passionate about the mission behind their business, inspired by their daughter Sofia’s special needs, which brought them all to town as “medical …

Dynamo Coffee Roasting has taken over the former Java Punk Coffee space at 4029 Tutt Blvd.

Dine & Dash takeover: This week, in tandem with our summer guide, we venture to Denver’s graffiti mural-rich River North Art District (RiNo). We sample a classic, a newbie and a one-of-its-kind in Colorado. This is just a snapshot from a very happening area with options aplenty.

Dine & Dash takeover: This week, in tandem with our summer guide, we venture to Denver’s graffiti mural-rich River North Art District (RiNo). We sample a classic, a newbie and a one-of-its-kind in Colorado. This is just a snapshot from a very happening area with options aplenty.

Altitude Hospitality Group has more dining concepts and brands than we care to shake a stick at, but given the high bar they tend to set, we’re not complaining. Garden of the Gods Market & Café, for instance, has expanded into the former Coquette’s Bistro at 616 S. Tejon St.

Longtime area restaurateur Phil Duhon has revived Oscar’s Oyster Bar (facebook.com/OscarsPatioBar) at 112 N. Nevada Ave., in the former Brewer’s Republic spot. Oscar’s former home at 333 S. Tejon St. became The Block Bar & Grill in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit and not long af…

It’s a bustling morning at El Super Taco with an almost full dining room and a steady line of patrons to the door for breakfast burritos. From six options, we try the two beef variants: steak and Machaca, both rolled with egg and cheese in a toasted flour tortilla: $6.60 and $5.90 respectively.

Long-standing India Palace, owned by chef Raj Kumar, was replaced by China One a little over a year ago when Kumar’s family chose to make more time to raise young’uns with proper energy and attention.

It’s been five years since I last dropped by Black Bear, which holds more than 20 years’ history under several owners. I recall it being more popular for fine in-house pastries and sweet espresso drinks than straightforward coffee drinks for the third wave snobs.

White Pie launched a new brunch menu a couple weekends ago, and we got a sampling on week two with co-owner/chef Kris Wallenta and team. Brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays starting at 10 a.m. 

Bottles & Taps is so not what it seems to be from the outside. Located in the corner of a strip mall near a Walgreens off Academy Boulevard, with poor street visibility, it reads like a dive-y watering hole where comestible- and hooch-wise you’d expect to find Fat Tire as the craftiest b…