Category: Colorado

ColoradoDiners Drive-Ins and DivesItalianRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Paravicini’s Italian Bistro – Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Para vicini translates roughly from Italian to “for the neighborhood.”  Paravicini’s Italian Bistro isn’t located in just any Colorado Springs neighborhood.  It’s located in the heart of Old Colorado City, the historic west side of Colorado Springs. Founded in 1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, Old Colorado City was the first permanent settlement in the region and briefly served as the first capital of the Colorado Territory. In 1917, it was annexed and incorporated into Colorado Springs. Today, the former wild-west town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and functions as a pedestrian-friendly arts and dining…

AmericanColoradoDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichUnited States

Shuga’s – Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Gastronomes shall not live on great restaurants alone.  Sometimes, our souls need to be fed, too.  Few cities can accomplish both feeding our bodies and nurturing our souls as well as Colorado Springs, a city of incomparable beauty and endless outdoors opportunities.  As a “foodie” destination, WalletHub ranked the city 70th overall from among 180 major U.S. cities (Albuquerque ranked 49th).  In terms of diversity, accessibility and quality, the Springs ranked 63rd nationally.  For affordability, it ranked 79th, indicating dining out and food-related costs are slightly higher than average.  Colorado Springs has a rapidly expanding independent culinary scene, food trucks…

ColoradoDeliRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichUnited States

East Coast Restaurant & Delicatessen – Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“I’ll have what she’s having.”  Can it really be 35 years since Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal created their famous fake la petite mort scene from When Harry Met Sally?  The scene was filmed at New York City’s Katz’s Delicatessen where sumptuous sandwiches are skyscraper tall and absolutely delicious (my sole visit was in 1978).  Unlike Meg’s character, most of us wouldn’t have to fake our “excitement” with one gander of the sheer size of Katz’s pastrami sandwich.  A Katz’s, the world-famous pastrami sandwich is enormous, featuring about one pound (12–16 ounces) of hand-carved meat stacked between rye bread. The sandwich…

AmericanColoradoRating: N/R (Not Rated)SouthernUnited States

Juniper Valley Ranch – Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Fried chicken just tend to make you feel better about life.” ~Minny Jackson (The Help) One of the most heart-warming scenes in the 2011 period drama The Help involved the character Minny Jackson (brilliantly portrayed by Octavia Spencer) teaching her employer, a lonely housewife named Celia Foote (played by Jessica Chastain), the art of Southern cooking through what has probably become the famous fried chicken lesson ever depicted on cinema.  Minny begins the lesson by delivering a sermon on Crisco, the “most important invention since they put mayonnaise in a jar.”   The naive and privileged Celia, who likely wouldn’t know…

ColoradoGuy's Grocery GamesItalianPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Red Gravy – Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

There wasn’t much ethnic or cultural diversity in Peñasco where I grew up. Our little village was overwhelmingly (probably 98% if not more) Hispanic. One of the only other ethnic groups in the area were non-Hispanic white residents, most of whom worked either as teachers or for the forest services. Other whites were “left overs” from the years in which a hippie commune set up camp nearby. We also had a couple of families (Sahds and Owens) of Lebanese descent. Everyone referred to them as “Los Arabes” because Arabic is the principle language in Lebanon. Los Arabes were (and still…

AmericanColoradoRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Three Sisters Tavern – Colorado City, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:00 AM

“The Pueblo Chile represents Colorado’s history, heritage, and strong agricultural roots. The Pueblo Chile is simply the very best chile that exists and a key ingredient in delicious dishes across the state and country. The Pueblo Chile is part of Colorado’s past, present and future innovation and I look forward to the final selection for Colorado’s 2028 American Innovation Coin so that all Americans can see our Pueblo chile up close in pocket change and collector’s books.” ~Governor Jarod Polis. On 17 September 2026, Governor Jarod Polis of Colorado revealed that he has nominated Pueblo Chile to be displayed on…

ColoradoDog FriendlyRating: ExcellentSouthwesternUnited States

Gray’s Coors Tavern – Pueblo, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:48 AM

Dante Alighieri’s classic poem “A Divine Comedy” recounts a spiritual journey in which the author was guided by ancient Roman poet Virgil through hell, purgatory, and paradise.  Their path takes them through the nine circles of Hell where they witness the punishments suffered for all eternity by the souls of deceased sinners.  The deepest circle of Hell, where Satan resides, is reserved for history’s worst traitors–Judas Iscariot, Brutus, Cassius…and maybe a certain New Mexico food blogger who not only admits there is wonderful green chile to be found outside the paradise that is the Land of Enchantment; he believes it’s…

AmericanBar & GrillColoradoDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SteakUnited States

The Rock Inn Mountain Tavern – Estes Park, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

During my years at St. Anthony’s in Peñasco, I frequently tried the patience of the saintly nuns.   Thankfully capital punishment was not permissible or you wouldn’t be reading this.  It’s bad enough I wore out a few rulers and hopefully one elderly nun’s knuckles which often found their way to my head (that may explain a few things).  I wasn’t a malicious student, just one who didn’t always conform.  It wasn’t the age of “doing your own thing” though I certainly did my best to be an individual.  Albeit, I was an individual who didn’t do his homework or…

AmericanChickenColoradoDiners Drive-Ins and DivesRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

The Post Chicken & Beer – Estes Park, Colorado

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 1974 prolific author Stephen King and his wife Tabitha spent a night in Room 217 of The Stanley, a a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park, about five miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The hotel staff was preparing to close the hotel for the season so the Kings found themselves the only guests in the place.  King wrote about the experience on his website: “Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect—maybe the archetypical—setting for a ghost story. That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking…

Brewery-PubColoradoDog FriendlyIrishRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Shamrock Brewing Co. – Pueblo, Colorado

Gil Garduno1:46 PM

When my friend David Wagner, author of the spell-binding Rick Montoya Italian mysteries, invited us to dinner at the Shamrock Brewing Co. in his hometown of Pueblo, Colorado, I quickly leapt to the conclusion that Shamrock just might be the inspiration for O’Shea’s Irish Pub, the favorite gathering spot for Rick Montoya and other English-speaking expats living in Rome.  I pictured “a decor that could best be described as mid-century modern, that century being the seventeenth” with wood being the dominant feature.  My picture included a “professional tavern owner” with an appropriated name, maybe something like Guido Shamrock, would preside…

Closed in 2010ColoradoGone But Not ForgottenSteakUnited States

The Hamilton Chop House – Durango, Colorado (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:17 PM

The Land of Enchantment with its 121,356 square miles of deserts, mesas, rivers, mountains, forests, cities and villages is the fifth largest state in the country.  In 2007, Albuquerque’s KOAT television station began a recurring series in which the station treated its viewers to an aerial perspective of many of the communities in its viewing area.  That unique bird’s eye view perspective was captured from Sky 7, the station’s news helicopter. In 2008, the station expanded its coverage, sending news anchor and New Mexico native Royale Dá skyward once again to show viewers the challenges faced by the communities featured on the series and how they…