J's Jamaican Flava ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

First visit: May 2025

Location: Strip center dive restaurant. Sits in the same semi-abandoned shopping center as Felipe's 109. As noted before, I find myself down in the south part of the Springs often during lunch time. It's a small place but there are stools to sit at for solo dining. Or benches outside. Order at the counter.

Food: Even though I'm a fan of Jamaican food, I rarely seek it out. A good reason for that is most cities don't have a specialized restaurant for the cuisine. Or they find themselves near ghettos, though that's not a deterrent for me. But it's not like I spend a lot of time there. Even Mr. Music hasn't contributed a review, and you know how adventurous he is! J's represents Jamaican food's debut on RJG, some 17 years into the blog. Jerk Chicken is my go-to dish, as it is for many patrons. I just went for a quarter bird and asked for it spicy. Their variety is very saucy, and also exceptionally spicy hot. A bargain of a price too. Though I didn't add a starch such as rice. Probably next time I will but I was running late and didn't want too much to eat.

Drink: Though I didn't try one, they have local-to-Jamaica soft drinks including malt.

Overall: An excellent experience. Seemed to be popular with the nearby Army base as well. I'll be back at least once a year, if not more.

5/9/25 (new entry)

Rita's Mexican Food ~ Pueblo, Colorado

Latest visit: May 2025

First visit: Jul 1994

Personal history: Rita's was the first restaurant in Pueblo for me to visit. This goes back to my first Colorado Springs residence. I was on my way to Tucson, Arizona to buy some records (sound familiar? - and this was 31 years ago, a few years before Mrs. RJG), which is a very interesting story in of itself. I'll leave that for another day. I enjoyed that first visit and Rita's has been on my radar ever since. Sporadic as it may be. Each visit below has a memory associated with it. Whether it was post hiking or on the way to New Mexico.

Location: Just off of the main downtown strip. How did I first discover it? Decided to drive downtown and look for the first appealing restaurant. Rita's was perfect. Back then they had a tall freestanding sign with the Pepsi emblem. I miss those days when you would see that kind of corporate sponsorship.

Food: What I always associate Rita's with is their chips and salsa. The chips are homemade, crispy, and tasty. The red sauce is very flavorful with a medium kick. That plate in the photo is only half full. I was eating like I'd had my first meal in a week before realizing I should photo it. (I should mention the outdoors photo isn't mine, so thanks to the person who did take it!). The red bottle houses more yummy salsa goodness. This was my first time to try their breakfast, and also their green chile. I was very pleased with the ingredients - eggs, potatoes, and ham. All cooked expertly. But the chile? No, not really my style. It's more like a gravy than a sauce, and it tastes "plastic-y" for a lack of a better description. The pork chunks are good though. In the past I only had lunch here and remember the red sauce enchiladas being excellent. So I'd suggest that. Even though they're open until 7, I would consider Rita's a breakfast-lunch option. I don't think they even have alcohol. I didn't look for it though.

Overall: Rita's will remain a once-in-a-few-years option for me. I'm just not in Pueblo enough to make it an annual Rotation restaurant. And there's so many places I want to try. But if we lived in Pueblo, it most certainly would see us often. Good, solid Mexican food.

7/1/94; 7/11/98; 7/23/11; 8/18/18; 5/2/25 (new entry)

Avenue 19 ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

First visit: Apr 2025

Location: On Tejon right in the middle of the downtown action. Avenue 19 is a modern day food court with various restaurants inside of a large "hangout space" with tables, TV's, games, etc... I consider the bar area Avenue 19 and the rest are essentially static food trucks. Many of them are (or were) just that.

Food: On this visit we tried Firebird Chicken Sandwiches. I went for their hot variety which they call The Phoenix. Fire Mayo and Kimchi Slaw are the key ingredients to the crispy chicken I ordered. Mrs. RJG had the Dragon Rice Bowl (to the right) which she said was too sweet and not hot enough temperature. The latter a common complain for both of us, though mine was fine on this visit.

Drink: Fine selection of cocktails and a few craft beers, though not extensive. I went for a Goat Patch that I hadn't tried prior.

Overall: I'm adding to the RJG Rotation for two reasons. 1) I want to try some of the other food concepts. And 2) A good friend of the RJG's is one of the bartenders here. :-)

4/20/25 (new entry)

Basil & Barley ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Apr 2025

First visit: Nov 2018

Personal history: The first visit was solo and was a fine experience, but circumstances didn't allow for an easy follow up. The second try was last year with Mrs. RJG, and we enjoyed it immensely. We're back again one year later.

Location: Basil & Barley is not too far from our house, a few blocks east from The Promenade shopping area. The restaurant is in a nice setting in a modern strip center. Perhaps too much natural light but one doesn't have to squint while eating here either.

Food: I was initially reticent to take Mrs. RJG here because Italian styled Napoletana pizzas were a real mixed bag back in DFW. They started with a bang but it seemed each restaurant lost their luster as time went on. If you have the will and time to research, this blog is filled with places like that: INZO, Cane Rosso, Spin!, Cavalli, Pazzo!, Campania, Apeizza e Vino. The latter three spectacularly crashed and burned, especially Campania (literally). INZO was the only place we continued to visit but we had pivoted away from pizza towards Italian food. So with that backdrop, I knew Basil & Barley would be a tough sell for my better half. But finally she relented. Their pies are just a little bigger than a "individual" pizza, but not large enough for two. We can take home the leftovers. Mrs. RJG asked for the basic margherita and I ordered their spicy offering The Diavola. A few minutes later out came our very-hot-to-the-touch pizzas. I patiently awaited Mrs. RJG's feedback. It was a huge hit! She loved it. Perfect dough, slightly chewy and crispy, not mushy. Great sauce and first class ingredients. Best pizza she's had in town and she wants to go back soon! So you never know... I enjoyed mine as well, exactly for the same reasons.

Drink: On my first visit they served local Deuces Wild beer exclusively. But now they have more variety. Not quite as well researched as Walter's303, but better than most of these kind of places. We each ordered a beer on the lager side, and they weren't cold enough, which is inexcusable really. That didn't get us off to the best start (2024). Fortunately they seem to have fixed this error and our beers were appropriately cold (2025).

Overall: Stays in the RJG Rotation. It's a little on the pricey side, but the pizza is some of the best in town. Call it a splurge meal.

Anecdotes: We celebrated Mr. RJG's 60th birthday on the 2024 visit!

11/16/18; 9/11/24 (new entry); 4/22/25

Whataburger ~ regional chain : Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: May 2025 (Montebello @ N. Academy)

First visit: 1977 (Dallas, TX - Walnut Hill Rd.)

HQ: San Antonio, TX

Locations: 17 states (same but DC is out. Nevada is the new state). 1,138 total (+136). Texas is up to 764 (+28). Colorado is now at 8 (+2), One new in the Colorado Springs area and now one in Pueblo. They appear to be avoiding Denver (I don't blame them). Our former local in Keller is still open. As for that original personal location on Walnut Hill? Yea, it's long gone. Though there's one not too far from it (Hwy 12 & Webb Chapel).

RJG primary location: Interquest @ Voyager

---5/3/25

First visit of the year, just a different location this time. All checked out. Remains in the Rotation.

---2/2/24

Back again for the RJG annual review. I could just cut and paste the below and serve my purpose here. This time I was the only one in the drive-thru at lunch on a Friday. The signs are all around us folks. Get ready for a bumpy landing. But at $11.50 for a double cheeseburger, and nothing else, it's only a matter of time when the business just dries up. Though, as the Locations above suggest, Whataburger is still in aggressive growth mode. Other than that, my double cheeseburger experience was exactly as below. Except this time I watched the last episode of The Winter King (S1) on my Friday lunch break from work. 

---2/5/23 notes

Time for a yearly checkup. I anticipate going here about four to six times a year. I think this is our 4th visit since they've opened, which is much more than our last days in Keller, though far short of my peak times of the late 80s (bigger appetite in those days!). Been using the drive-thru, and on this visit the order turnaround time was particularly slow. I arrived around 11:00 in the morning, and there weren't that many vehicles in the double lane drive through. I would say only one car moved in 10 minutes, which is egregious for a fast food place. Whatever the case, they managed to get my order right, and I always throw it into the air fryer when I get home anyway, just to crisp the bread and ensure everything is hot. I had what I always have - the double meat with cheese and no tomato. And it was great - perfect for watching Jack Ryan on a slow Sunday late morning. :-)

Whataburger has expanded two more locations here in Colorado Springs since our last update. These three are the only locales in Colorado total. Overall Whataburger are currently in 14 southern states and 937 total (up 49 from last year) with 716 of those in Texas (+8). Like with Jersey Mike's, these are impressive totals considering most chains are shedding locations at a rapid clip. Our old Keller location seems alive and well.

---4/21/22 notes

Well lookee here - we now have a Whataburger here in Colorado Springs! As I've said in a couple of other places, it's as if we never left Texas. Since moving here, Colorado Springs has added In-N-Out and Torchy's in addition to Whataburger. And when we arrived we were greeted by Fuzzy's. As well as national chains like Freddy's, Five Guys, Jersey Mike's, Dickey's, etc.. All within a stones throw of where we live here up in the far northern part of the city.

As with the case of In-N-Out, the lines were insane at first. However, Whataburger is open 24 hours, and there's no pandemic keeping everyone in their car with nothing better to do. As such those lines subsided in a couple of months instead of years. For this visit, I went inside to inspect. They've spiffed up their look. It's larger than the ones in Texas (or at least the last ones I've been to), with plenty of seating all around. I ordered by usual Double Whataburger with cheese (no tomato). Just as I remembered it! Well cool, I have yet another quick lunch place to visit - as long as I go early.

In doing personal research, I surprised myself that I didn't go to our local Texas Whataburger (Keller) for the last three years we lived in NE Tarrant. Huh. Not really sure why that happened actually... So that makes it seven years since I last had one. Way too long.

---original 11/30/11 review (Keller)

I know, I know. "Gee RJG, where do you find these obscure restaurants anyway?" To Texans, Whataburger is family. They're the little brother we pick on. We call them gross, stinky, dumb, and goober. But we don't mean it. Now that In-N-Out Burger is here, suddenly we become all protective, and yell back that Californians don't know what a good burger is. Hell, if they could only eat a Whataburger then they'd know!! But it's really two entirely different burger experiences. Whataburger's are Texan BIG. In-N-Out's are Californian fresh.

When I was kid in the 1970s, it was always a treat when my Mom would take me over to the closest one to our house, which was on Walnut Hill in NW Dallas (an old A-Frame building of course) near the UPS depot. They were also there in Lubbock when I attended Texas Tech in the mid 1980s. I loved them then, and I still do. Though they suffer from the same problems that most large franchises do - inconsistency. But if I'm looking for a quick burger at lunch while working, I tend to wander over to my local Whataburger (which is definitely one of their more consistent franchises) and get a double meat with cheese. It's quick, relatively cheap, and usually very good. We didn't have them in Colorado (ed: at the time), a good reminder for me at least that we take them for granted. They're far better than the publicly traded companies in this space like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jr/Hardees, etc...

When I first started going to Whataburger 35-40 years ago, they weren't much more than a small Texas chain from Corpus Christi. Today they are ubiquitous throughout the south region. 

Stop by your local branch if you haven't been in awhile!

1977; 1983; 1989; 5/2/05; 11/6/06; 12/14/09; 11/30/11 (new entry); 6/14/12; 2/13/15; 4/21/22; 2/5/23; 2/2/24; 5/3/25

Dallas, Texas (2); Lubbock, Texas; Colleyville, Texas; Keller, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado (3)