Skip to main content

Ivywild Kitchen ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado


Latest visit: Oct 2022

First visit: Jan 2019

It seems nothing is like what it was before (see El Tepehuan and countless others in this blog). Chalk up "The Bristol Pub" as yet one more victim of the pandemic. We last went here in the final days before our freedom was wiped off the map. The Bristol Pub is where Mrs. RJG and I thought we were going for lunch on this fine Sunday. It was essentially the restaurant arm of Bristol Brewing, by far and away Colorado Springs' largest brewery. No more. Sitting inside the Ivywild School - an ancient former elementary school repurposed for food and drink - the way it works now is that you can order a beer from Bristol and then walk around to any one of your favorite restaurants nearby. Sort of like brick and mortar food trucks. There's a barbeque option, empanadas, Detroit-styled pizza, coffee/ice cream, and burgers/chicken. Ivywild Kitchen is the latter and made up most of the old Bristol Pub menu. We were completely confused at first, but we got it figured out. I can see the allure of this setup, but we had already settled in our table only to find out we needed to go fetch our meal. Mrs. RJG did not like that at all. Well - now we know.

OK fine, so we wandered over to the Ivywild Kitchen counter to order our meal. The cook-cash register dude didn't really seem too happy about more business. But took our order anyway. What a guy. They then proceed to text you on your phone that your order is ready for pickup (they want a tip for that too - just amazing). By now, Mrs. RJG and I were sitting in detention in another seating area. It had all the warmth of dining in - well - an elementary school hallway. OK now I understand what they mean by "community eatery". Remember this is how English majors make a living now. I had the cheeseburger with a side of green chile. The chile was actually pretty spicy and tasty for such an endeavor. But - stop me if you heard this from me before - it wasn't hot enough. Are personal injury lawyers roaming Colorado Springs looking for burn victims? This is starting to drive me batty. I knew Frank Azar was everywhere, but this is getting ridiculous. The burger was flavorful - also pretty small. And they charged for something bigger. Mrs. RJG got a similar burger with fries. Her pet peeve is not toasting the bread, and sure enough, they didn't. Cold potato buns. And she thought it was too messy with the chipotle mayonnaise all over it ("house sauce"). Fries were good - perhaps a bit too much cooking oil though.

OK, scratch one more off the list! Beer was great though. I'll go back and review the taproom separately at another time. Maybe I'll grab a snack too. But this is no longer a brewpub operation.

1/27/19; 2/8/20; 10/23/22 (new entry)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Guys Burgers and Fries ~ national chain : Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Oct 2023 (Colorado Springs - Interquest) First visit: Jan 2007 (Reston, VA) Locations: 49 states + DC. Only Alaska is missing. There are 30 in Colorado (4 in the Springs). That's +3 from last year. Texas has 68 (our former locale of Southlake is closed, so Hurst would have been the closest). There are 123 in California which is their largest state presence. The original Reston location that I first went to is still going.  In what appears to be a recurring theme, I state each year this will be my last visit to Five Guys. Only to return anyway. This year's excuse is I wanted to try their new location, which very recently opened up close to our house. This is definitely the closest we've ever lived to a Five Guys - even the Reston location was further from my office at the time. And I thought maybe it would make a good choice for a weekday lunch while working from home, thus putting Five Guys back into the rotation. I put that idea to the test here this Saturda...
2 comments
Read more

Denver's Old School Italian Restaurants

I know, I know... I haven't posted anything in 6 months. You were checking back every week, then every month and now I've fallen completely off your radar. Sorry about that. My only lame excuse is that I've been "saving up" for a good one. I've been wanting to write about Denver's Italian restaurants since we returned part-time last year. And you all know how the RJG feels about this style of restaurant . As someone who grew up in Dallas, perhaps I've been more drawn to cities that embrace their history rather than completely demolish it. Only recently has Dallas become more acutely aware of their past. Previously, any buildings not in use have been razed as fast as possible, to make way for the next brand new shopping center - all in the latest architecture naturally. Contrarily you have cities like St. Louis that are 19th and 20th century industrial ghost towns - places frozen in time because for most everyone who could, they just up and left to ...
8 comments
Read more

Taco Casa ~ regional chain : Keller, Texas

Latest visit: Oct 2018 (Keller, TX)  First visit: 1992 (Durant, OK) We snuck into DFW to move the RJG's official Mom to Colorado Springs this past October. This was our only restaurant visit, as we were on a tight schedule. Could this be the last RJG visit in DFW (other than the airport of course)? It could very well be... wow, seems strange. Hard to believe the majority of the below review is now 10.5 years old. --- The RJG likes him some tacos. We mentioned in other posts that while Italian and Thai probably constitute our favorite restaurant experiences, taco places represent our favorite fast food excursion. And we'll boldly admit that it isn't even the authentic Mexican taco / taqueria stand that has been in vogue these last 25 years (though we like those too!). No, we like the good old fashioned American styled, crunchy taco. Taco Bell may be its iconic image, but it's hardly the best representative. Most taco chains are of the regional variety. And we've ...
10 comments
Read more