LRF Rocks the Rockies: Part 4–Fort Collins

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018 - Scott Leave a comment

I have mentioned the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway in a previous post. Here is another day trip from Estes Park that I recommend. Come back down through the Big Thompson Canyon and hang a left on Rt. 287 in Loveland to get to the college town of Fort Collins.

If you love your craft beer (and boy do I), this is the place to go. Rocky Mountain snowmelt into the Cache la Poudre River provides the main ingredient for the product of 20-odd craft breweries. Some you may have heard of, such as New Belgium Brewing Co. (home of Fat Tire, among others), some you may not, like Funkwerks, Black Bottle and Horse & Dragon.

Since many of these breweries are within walking (or staggering) distance of each other, you might want to consider a brewery tour. I would recommend a guided tour though, unless you’re REALLY good with directions. I am convinced that whoever laid out Old Town had been on a few too many brewery tours himself. I like to think I’m handy with a map, but DANG! At least if you get yourself lost (not that this happened to me, except that it . . . might . . . have . . . happened to me), it’s a gorgeous town to get lost in.

Old Town Fort Collins Colorado — Kids playing in the street fountain in Old Town.

Flowers and brightly painted murals everywhere you look.

Alley Fort Collins Colorado — Every shortcut alley we took to get back to our car looked at LEAST this nice. Oh yes, and bikes everywhere. It amazed me how many people we saw on bikes in the mountains when people in Illinois will drive around the corner.

Plus, there are random, artistically-enhanced pianos scattered all over town that you can just sit down and play. (The more breweries you’ve hit, the better you sound!)

Fort Collins Colorado street piano — These must be a bear to keep in tune. Of course, it is a LOT dryer in Colorado.

But if you’d rather take a brewery tour without the frustration of getting misdirected, might I suggest Beau Jo’s Colorado Style Pizza? Beau Jo’s is a Colorado chain with half a dozen locations that is famous for Mountain Pies. Which look like this.

Beau Jo's Mountain Pie Fort Collins Colorado — (Front) Skier Mike’s, which is canadian bacon, chicken and green peppers on honey white crust. (Rear) Hamburger and Pepperoni on honey wheat crust. Both $12.50.

These are smalls. They only weigh ONE pound. An extra-large is FIVE pounds. You’d need a whole vanload of Low-Rent Foodies to tackle one of those bad boys.

Beau Jo’s pizza also comes in a Prairie Pie size crust, but what fun is that? Go big or go back to the cabin. The crust comes in honey white or honey wheat. (Note for the non-gluten folk—almost everything on the menu can be made gluten free for an additional charge). I recommend the honey wheat, which is delicious in its own right, but dip it in the honey that they keep on the table, and you’ll wonder why more pizza places don’t do this.

There are a mind-boggling number of choices for customizing your pizza. Beau Jo’s offers 11 different sauces, 15 meats, 18 vegetables and 10 different types of cheese to top your mountain pie. There are also three tiers of specialty pizzas, such as the Sky Hawk (pepperoni, Hatch green chiles, mozzarella and feta cheese); the Cajun (andouille sausage, pepperoni, onions, jalapenos, cheddar and provolone cheeses); and the Motherlode (salami, pepperoni, meatballs, bacon, Italian sausage, ham and mozzarella), to name just a few. (Note: the meatballs are NOT gluten-free.)

And of course, you have to have something to wash it down with, right? Did I mention that Fort Collins has a few beers?

Beers at Beau Jo's Fort Collins Colorado — Thirsty?

I love it when places with a large beer selection offer “flights” (those samplers with small glasses of several different kinds of beers). This way, you can try several different beers without getting too hammered to find your way home (or getting stuck with a whole pint of something you don’t like). At Beau Jo’s, you can go first class, or coach. Here’s a coach:

Coach Flight Beau Jo's Pizza Fort Collins Colorado — Clockwise from front (I think): New Belgium Citradelic, WeldWerks Hefeweizen, Odell 90 Shilling, Black Bottle Tropical Depression, Sam Adams Summer Ale

There are still a lot of Fort Collins beers that I haven’t tried yet, but my favorite so far is the Sad Panda Coffee Stout from Horse & Dragon Brewing Co. I don’t know why the panda is sad, but it made me happy!

So if you find yourself in Fort Collins (or Evergreen, Idaho Springs, Arvada, Steamboat Springs or Longmont), GETCHA SOME! (Before you do that, though, click on the pic below for a special deal on a gift card!)

Kathmandu

April 19, 2018June 30, 2018 - Scott 1 Comment

Last summer, my wife and I vacationed in Colorado. As I have mentioned before, one of the fastest ways to connect with a new place and its people is through their food. As it turns out, the Colorado Rockies are home to many immigrants from Nepal. The Rockies are nothing like the Himalayas, but they’re the best we can do for mountains in the lower 48, so the Nepalese make do. As a result, there are quite a few Nepali and northern Indian restaurants in the Rockies. Our favorite that we found on this trip was Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu Restaurant has two locations. The newer one is in downtown Boulder, but the one we visited is in the smaller town of Nederland, about a half hour’s drive up into the mountains from Boulder. Astute Stephen King fans might recognize Nederland as the hometown of the Colorado Kid.

We didn’t come from Boulder, though. We arrived in Nederland from the north, along the Peak to Peak National Scenic Byway. This is a 55-mile road that begins in Estes Park, where we were staying, and meanders southward to the casino town of Black Hawk. Nederland is a little more than halfway down.

Mt. Meeker Colorado — Mt. Meeker, 13,911 feet. From the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway.

Kathmandu is on a dusty side street a couple of hundred yards off the main drag. We arrived in time for the lunch buffet, which they offer daily from 11 to 3 for $10.99. (Tip: Leave your jacket in the car. It is ROASTING hot in this place!)

Kathmandu Restaurant, Nederland, Colorado.

So what is Nepali food like? Well, for the most part, it tastes a lot like Indian, which I adore. One notable addition is momos, which are handmade, Tibetan-style dumplings, fried or steamed, and filled with chicken or vegetables and mild seasonings.

And papadums. Love me some papadums. These are basically chips made out of fried lentil flour. I could eat those all day. Actually, I could eat all of it all day. Or at least until 3:00, whereupon the buffet closes.

So if you’re in the Boulder area, or going for a leisurely drive in the mountains (not TOO leisurely–the drivers in Nederland do get a bit cranky with tourists), go GETCHA SOME!

Donuts

February 28, 2018July 6, 2018 - Scott Leave a comment

My wife, Diana, loves donuts. Any kind of donut. Take some dough and fry it, and she’s there.
I liked them a lot more when I was younger and fried food didn’t bother me so much, but I can still go for a donut every now and then. When I was growing up in Mattoon, IL, the place to go was Mister Donut. I was (and am) particularly a fan of almost any kind of filled donut, but Mister Donut Bavarian Creams were always my favorite as a kid.

Today, only one Mister Donut remains in North America. Fortunately, it’s within 90 minutes of my house, in Godfrey, IL, near Alton. It’s as good as I remember it, plus they have a Strawberry Angel to go with the Chocolate and Vanilla that I grew up with. The Angels have more of a whipped cream filling, as opposed to a custard.

Though my wife prefers raised dough, I am also a fan of cake donuts. Regular, chocolate, iced or plain, I love them all. A particularly yummy local treat is the Apple Cider donuts from the Apple Barn in Chatham, IL. If you’re in the neighborhood, go get you a dozen of those. You’ll thank me later.

Donuts on road trips are a family tradition of ours as well. From the bag of chocolate iced donuts we keep in the car for the trip (affectionately referred to by my family as “plastic donuts”) to Krispy Kreme sightings, it seems we are always on the lookout for a good donut. I think it’s no accident that my wife was born on National Donut Day (June 7). Since we are frequently on vacation around her birthday, we are always on the lookout for birthday donuts.

Last summer, Diana and I vacationed in Estes Park, Colorado. For those of you that know, Estes Park has the busiest Safeway store in America. This store sits in the shadow of the Stanley Hotel, which was already famous, but made even more so by the fact that it was where a young Stephen King stayed when he was inspired to write The Shining. (I was a bit surprised to see that the hotel is up on a hill right in the middle of town, since the movie leads you to believe it’s isolated.)
Safeway is not afraid to get outside the box (see what i did there?) with its donut flavors. A couple to note are the Fruity Pebble and, my personal favorite, maple bacon. Yes, that’s an entire strip of bacon on that longjohn.

What are some of your favorite donut memories? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of the yums to come here at Low-Rent Foodie!