"They had me at “text ‘ammo’ to Murf.”

Most of the birds that live around Colorado Springs are raptors, corvids and songbirds, so locals tend to take notice when they see a Makaw hanging around. Dad jokes aside, Carlos Gruber and his family started Makaw’s Food Truck in late summer of 2021, serving Venezuelan and Caribbean food a…

I remember getting off a nearly hour-long phone chat this past July with OCC Brewing head brewer Taylor Donner and laughing to myself, thinking, “man, that guy really has beef with milkshake IPAs.”

The shopping center at the corner of Delmonico Drive and Rockrimmon Boulevard has a broad selection of quality restaurants, with pizza, Mexican, Jamaican food and a deli.

The original Trivelli’s Hoagies was long-standing on North Nevada Avenue, opened in the late 1970s. Today, the East Coast-style sandwich joint has a location on Space Village Avenue and this Austin Bluffs Parkway spot.

The historic Murphy’s Tavern reopened Nov. 18 after having gone dark early in the pandemic. It’s under the new ownership of majority investor Lance Martinez, who’s also the main stakeholder in Patty Jewett Bar & Grill and the operator of an engineering company, with a real estate develop…

Doug Pua and Ailene Ting opened the first Shangri-La Restaurant in Briargate in 2003, offering upscale Chinese cuisine with Mandarin and Szechuan specialties.

Megan Fuller started a gluten-free restaurant and bakery to meet her own needs as much as anyone else’s. The place she opened, Homemade to go — right in the middle of town, a short walk from Palmer Park — is some miles away from established gluten-free spots in the Old Colorado City, Downtow…

Bird Tree Cafe just released a fully overhauled menu, moving away from all-day offerings to a separate breakfast menu till noon and a shared lunch/dinner menu (which launches at 11 a.m. for an hour of overlap). Choice Restaurant Concepts’ Corporate Executive Chef Noah Siebenaller, who also r…

This past May, Lori Morrissey launched this colorful food truck (with cool cow logo artwork contributed by her 14-year-old daughter and a slick banner wrap) to share her cookies and baked goods with the world, with an assist from Blue Bell ice creams as well as Monument local Lolley’s Ice Cr…

Palmer Lake’s former Depot spot has morphed into many things over the years; currently there’s signage on the complex for a salon, a Wild Bill’s Buffalo Wings location, the Ugly Mug Saloon, and this 8-month-old java stop.

Cinephiles will appreciate the rich history of the Alexander Film Company, unknown to most Springs residents today. Back in the early 1950s, the local production house on North Nevada Avenue employed hundreds of industry workers, making advertisements shown during movie intermissions.

Fly fishers who hit the Deckers/Cheesman Canyon area know about this roadside gem around 20 minutes north (and an hour southwest of metro Denver). But so do plenty of other outdoor enthusiasts who’ve enjoyed its constantly changing menu over the past 15 years since Kurt and Karen Blackwell t…

The Stuft Food Emporium opens Nov. 20 in a former Denny’s location. The business originally launched as a festival-focused food truck in Orlando, Florida in 2018, moving to Colorado in 2019. It parked regularly outside the Snooty Foxx for the past year and a half, and plans to stay on the road. 

Seafood and steak spot Bonny & Read’s expansion into sushi has happened with the deliberate decor typical of a Joseph Campana project, complete with an atmospheric purple light and white-blossomed cherry trees in a dedicated second dining room with its own bar.

The text on the street-facing side of Gorditas y Burritos Juanita sits stark black atop white paneling, just big enough that it’s easy to read from the stoplight at the intersection of Platte Avenue and Murray Boulevard.

The Dirty Byrd, part of Choice Restaurant Concepts, specializes in wings and whiskey. Its theme is focused much like its next-door neighbor’s, fellow Choice restaurant T-Byrd’s, which does tacos and tequila.

Tacos Fuego recently opened in Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhood, near a bunch of blue-collar bars, like Steve’s Klamm Shell.

Owner Karissa Saunders’ great-grandparents operated a deli in Brooklyn in the 1940s and some of their recipes carry on at Schlep’s (named that because when she started it seven years ago it was delivery only — i.e., schlepping food around).

Humble Coffee opened in 2014 and has changed ownership several times, most recently in January 2021.

For the last six months, Dr. Carlo Nicastro, wife Cecilia and their family have taken Yucatan-style cuisine on the road with The Original Dr. Taco. Nicastro and his wife started the business in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in 2003, building a reputation in food and tourism publications on the st…

‘This place is cool as shit,” I say to an employee trimming fresh basil leaves from a raised herb garden planter box out front of Black Box Provisions. “Are the owners from Seattle or something?” I ask. 

You can’t miss the baby blue truck parked regularly at the Santa Fe Trail lot along Monument’s Highway 105. Sabino Nava and his partner Amada Adame have operated it for seven years. “Chilango” is a slang term for a Mexico City resident; “el rincon” generally means a nook or corner.

It’s not the massive, photo-illustrated list of signature rolls and appetizers that sticks most clearly in our memory at this sushi restaurant, located near Banning-Lewis Ranch. Nor is it the clean, tasteful decor.

La Burla Bee is set to open sometime later this month in the former Underground. Keeping tradition with the space’s LGBTQIA-friendly past, it will be home to nightly entertainment (except Mondays, when closed), weekly burlesque and cabaret performances and a full bar and Italian food menu. 

Susanna Maestas owns and operates this mobile food biz with help from husband Ben Kirk. In addition to Maestas’ work in her food truck, named Sabor, Susanna’s Comfort Cuisine also offers family-sized entrées, pop-up dinners and catering.

Angry Chicken isn’t one restaurant, it’s two: Angry Chicken itself, and 88 hotdog & Juicy. Or maybe it’s one restaurant with a roommate. Whatever it is, both seating and the ordering process are confusing.

In 2016, Matt Bonno launched Colorado Common Hard Cider locally, which rebranded in mid-2019 to become Boxing Brothers Ciderhouse (4655 Town Center Drive, #130, boxingbrotherscider.com). Recently, under the banner of his Monte Cervino Beverage Company, Bonno announced the upcoming Monte Cerv…

Seriously: Mark your 2022 calendar for late September/early October aspen viewing along the stunning Guanella Pass that links Grant (off Hwy. 285) to Georgetown (off I-70).

This delivery-only ghost kitchen chain contracts with local restaurants, silently adding a Chinese menu to an established kitchen that gets delivered through third-party companies like DoorDash or Grubhub.

File the Vintage Moose as a post-skiing stopover this winter; we hit it after early October aspen viewing nearby when we couldn’t get a seat elsewhere in town due to the ongoing worker shortage.

Not long ago, Elephant Thai was the new kid on the block, sister outfit to Chaang Thai farther north on Academy Boulevard.

Bunzy’s launched mid-summer as a food truck, gaining an additional following as a vendor at Switchbacks FC matches at Weidner Field.

Acme Bar and Grill’s location and menu says that it’s here for the neighborhood. Located off of Academy Boulevard, Acme offers some serious catering options and family meal-sized boxes, which include tacos.

We reviewed Hangry Ohana’s Fountain location with pretty uniform praise in 2020, so when we visit this third location of the Denver-based restaurant, we have expectations.

Colorado Springs now has a weekly CHOW meeting from 7-8 p.m. Tuesdays at the Wild Goose Meeting House. CHOW (chowco.org), launched in 2018, stands for Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness. Free gatherings are for past and present food-and-drink industry workers, to include peripheral r…

Torchy's Tacos launches its Colorado Springs location Wednesday, Oct. 20. 

It’s theoretically possible for a place to have enough taco and tequila spots, but Colorado Springs remains far from the limit. Or at least that’s what Jacy Olmos and Craig Dominguez banked on when they opened Westside Cantina in the former Wobbly Olive West/Happy Belly Tacos this past July.…

Jessie and Jim Huthmaker formerly lived in the Springs, but moved to his hometown of Lexington, South Carolina, 12 years ago and opened a coffee shop. Jim found a roasting mentor in Guatemala and learned the trade, falling in love with that country’s beans, still his favorite.

Don’t hit Los Pollos seeking poultry plates. Oddly, for a place named “The Chickens” they serve none. Turns out it’s a nickname for two cute kiddos featured on the business’ signage.