A Taste of Colorado

I took a trip to Longmont, Colorado for my friend's wedding. Of course I had to try a local restaurant, but I decided I was going to drive over to Boulder and check what they had to offer there. Boulder is only about 30 minutes away.

When I got to Longmont, which is about 45 minutes north of Denver on the east side of the mountains, I didn't feel like eating my turkey sandwiches on white bread any more, I wanted real food. (I always bring food in a cooler to save money on the trip). I decided to check out the Mexican restaurant called 3 Margaritas, next door to the hotel I was staying in. The lady at the front desk said it was good, and I didn't have to drive anywhere. After driving eight hours I didn't want to drive any more.

Three Margaritas was your typical Mexican restaurant that can be found here in Topeka, or really any other city for that matter. The only thing special that I found on the menu, was the Burrito Colorado, and the server recommended it, too. So that's what I got and it wasn't bad, I ate the whole thing. It was shredded beef cooked in a spicy red sauce inside a flour tortilla with guacamole, beans, cheese, sour cream and green chili. I did not like their chips and salsa, though. The first bowl was so spicy I could hardly eat it, and the second bowl, when I asked for something mild, tasted like tomato sauce, so I didn't eat much of that, either. If you like spicy, you'll like the salsa, I'm just a wimp, I guess.

The Burrito Colorado was smothered in a green chili sauce, sour cream and cheese. Inside, the shredded beef was just spicy enough to be toned down by the creaminess of the toppings. Since I didn't like the salsa, I used the chips to eat most of the toppings mixed together. Other than it being a tasty combination, I didn't really get the "Colorado" part of it. Then again, I'm not from there, so who knows. My server wasn't too chatty so I didn't ask him.

After eating Mexican, I wanted to get a taste of the region. I went back to my hotel room and looked up restaurants in Boulder. I found a list of the top 10 spots, and tried to go with one that wasn't going to cost me over $35 an entree. I found a little diner called Lucile's, a creole/cajun breakfast nook found in an old Victorian style house in a residential area.

Fresh squeezed lemonade

The tables are packed inside, reminding me of restaurants in New York City, but it has a down-home country feel. The napkins are swatches of random fabric, and the walls feature local newspapers and playbills.  The wait was almost 30 minutes at noon on a Saturday, but the review I read said that would be the case, so I wasn't surprised and ready to wait. The host said there was a community table with no wait so I said "What the heck?" I was immediately sat and even got to meet some locals while I ate my meal.

I ordered freshly squeezed lemonade because my table mates recommended it and had just waited on it to be made. For lunch I ordered breakfast: eggs, potatoes and a biscuit. Everything about the meal was memorable. The biscuits come out first, square and cut from a cake pan, fluffy and buttery and hot. They are so big, too, I had to slow down so I would still be hungry for the rest of my food. There is strawberry jam on the table and I tried that, too. It was sweet and I enjoyed it, but the biscuits were so good on their own, I only just tried the jam.

My potatoes and eggs came out soon after. The potatoes were so good that I bought the creole seasoning they used and tried to make them myself at home. They were soft and smothered in Lucile's own creole seasoning. I wouldn't say they were fried, but they weren't boiled either. I think they may have been steamed or sauteed like I did them at home, only adding water every so often to soften them up. The seasoning was just a little spicy, but it was sweet,
too. I was pretty full from the biscuit but the potatoes were so good, I practically finished them off. The eggs were a perfect over medium, which is usually hard to come by -- I usually get over easy when I order over medium. Yeah, I'm picky.

I stood in line to pay and the service was brisk. Nine people were in front of me to pay, but I only stood there for about 10 minutes. I only paid $11 for the meal and I tipped a few bucks, too. I figured that since the other restaurants on the top 10 list averaged $35 for entrees that I had fared pretty well.

I saw that Lucile's has locations in Denver, Longmont, Littleton and Fort Collins, also. The one in Boulder was the original restaurant that was opened in 1980. When I return to the state I will definitely be returning to Lucile's Creole Cafe.