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)