Regular Joe's Guide

First visit: Aug 2025 (Voyager) Founded: 1978 (Palo Alto, CA) HQ: Newport Beach, CA ---8/30/25 (Colorado Springs) We often drove by Mountain Mike's as they were building out their new spot off of the feeder freeway from I-25 to Voyager. Having never been, Mrs. RJG and I were curious how good it is. We waited until football season, and on this fine Saturday at lunch we ordered online for takeout, a medium sausage pie to enjoy while watching a few plays of the Texas / Ohio State opener. Arch Manning is the starting quarterback. The grandson of Archie Manning, who I watched play for the Saints when I was a kid. There's just something magical and nostalgic about the first week of college football (and the NFL when it starts next week). The restaurant is a large space and is geared for both local takeout (they have delivery as well) as well as for diners. No doubt they wanted to be "close to the action" near the Ford Amphitheater. Upon arrival back home, Mrs. RJG had the ...

Latest visit: Aug 2025 (Voyager Pkwy.) First visit: Dec 2018 (Cascade Ave.) ---8/28/25 (Voyager) Much has changed in the world of Goat Patch since I last updated this post. All for the good. First they bought out Pikes Peak Brewing in Monument, but left the branding intact (hooray). And now they opened up a brewpub right here in RJG land. Across the street no less! In the same shopping center of RJG fave Zapata Tacos. This is the closest we've ever lived to a local brewery. And it seems they took our advice (and others I'm sure) that no one "owned the north" of Colorado Springs. Which is crazy considering this is one of the nicest parts of town. Of course it takes money to do that, but apparently Goat Patch has been very successful. So much so, they're also canning their beers. Likely because they took over Pikes Peak which did similar. I've been wanting to go since they opened, but there's always some reason why we didn't. Finally we found the perfect...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/30/25 I'm two weeks late in getting this post up and running. I was here for a Friday at lunch, not long after we returned from our trip to western Colorado. I've been meaning to add new places to the RJG but I often forget which ones, especially considering I could be anywhere in town. But on this day I made a point of coming over here. Happy Eats sits in the renovated part of South Nevada, an area they are still upgrading. It was quite rundown when we moved back to the Springs in 2018. It's a full service restaurant, so I grabbed a table, perused the menu (which I'd done online already), and ordered away. I was most curious how their Chicken Parm sandwich would be. First of all I must say that their website is the way to do it! Everything looks so delicious. Even better is that the photos aren't figments of the owner's imagination.  My sandwich came out better than hoped. Crispy and chewy bread , excellent red sauce, perfectly cooke...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/23/25 Leaving Bluff and heading to the Four Corners region of Arizona is a bit scary. There is nothing there. No signs of any kind of life, other than maybe snakes, spiders, and scorpions. You just pray your car will make it to civilization. Fortunately, Zippy (my Acura SUV with over 100,000 miles) was up to the task and eventually humans reappeared onto the landscape. As we entered New Mexico, the poor just gets poorer. There's not much to see here other than poverty. And an incredible nature structure known as Shiprock. And that's exactly what it looks like - a huge ship frozen in time, fossilized.  The oasis in this area is Farmington, a relatively pleasant town that seems much larger than it is. I was reminded of similar small towns in Oklahoma or Kansas. Plenty of shops and places to eat. Normal commerce that is to say. I'd never been here before and was curious for some years. We did some thrifting in downtown and then it was time for lunch...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/23/25 After Ridgway we took the gorgeous drive around Telluride and down to Cortez for a little thrifting. The landscape goes from stunning green mountains to boring arid desert pretty quickly once you drive through Dolores. I hadn't been to Cortez since 1994. There's not much to do or see there, but it makes for a nice stop. And 31 years ago I stayed overnight on my way to Tucson. We then headed over to southeast Utah, and our final destination was to be Bluff. What a day we had for travel, though. If you read the Lazy Dog Saloon review, you'll have noted that we had a 90 minute delay due to a bad car wreck. Once we drove into Utah, the roads immediately got much better. Beautifully paved and newly painted. As we were gliding towards our destination, signs for road construction started to pop up. Uh-oh. Yep, they were of the worst kind: The one way road. There were about four of these, and one of them took close to an hour wait. It was just madde...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/23/25 This was not the original plan. We started the day with a hike in Montrose, and then we were to journey to Telluride. Unfortunately there was a very bad wreck with casualties on US-550, which forced the state patrol to shut the freeway. The subsequent detour took us way out on a route that included unpaved roads. The delay was about 90 minutes. And we were the lucky ones, especially after Google Maps gave us a nice shortcut (making up for their transgressions with Spenny's yesterday - see Mochas review). And those going north most likely had a 3 to 4 hour delay. It didn't help that the detoured route had one lane closed for construction. What a complete mess. But we were all alive, so what's to complain about? We finally arrived at the thrift shop in Ridgway, a town we'd never stopped in before. Afterwards it was already lunch time, so why not eat here and we'll visit Telluride another day (maybe). It wasn't meant to be. Lazy Dog...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/23/25 Two years ago we stopped into Gunnison for some thrifting and Spenny's ice cream. Google Maps told us that Spenny's wasn't open until 4. Well that's stupid, why do that? As we drove out of town, we saw that Spenny's was indeed open. Nice work Google, making sure hard working people lose business. It was particularly frustrating after-the-fact because we had gone to Mochas instead for our ice cream. Despite the positive reviews, we weren't quite as impressed. The ice cream wasn't very creamy nor tasty. Not sure if they make their own or they get it from somewhere else. Service was slow as well. It certainly wasn't terrible, but this is not where we are going next time in Gunnison. 8/5/25  8/23/25 (new entry)

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/23/25 It's time for The RJG's to hit the road for our first trip to Western Colorado in two years! I had every intention of getting these writeups closer to the moment, but other activities called me away. I did, however, update the existing posts awhile back. So now it's been close to three weeks since we left. With that, these reviews will be short. Not that they're ever that long to begin with. Salida seemed like the perfect place to enjoy a breakfast, early lunch. Romeo's popped up and the reviews are excellent. It's an old fashioned breakfast house, and since it's still tourist season, there was a (short) waiting list even on a Tuesday morning. I've been getting in the mood lately for smothered burritos after taking a break, and you can see what I had. That green chile is absolutely outstanding. Crave-worthy actually. Very spicy with a distinct flavor I'd never experienced before. The interior was filled with eggs and ...

First visit: Aug 2025 ---8/2/25 I had no idea this place existed, and sits right next door to a thrift shop and flea market I frequent at least once a month. Tucked away on the street side of the strip mall, it's clear from the signage this place has been here a while. Walk in and order at the counter. Plenty of seating. They don't have a fountain machine, so you'll have to get your drinks by the bottle. I went for what they call a "Regular Feelin'" which is the traditional Philly Cheesesteak. It came out piping hot loaded with meats, diced onions, and gooey cheese. Excellent. The menu also had some fetching looking Italian sandwich items as well. Definitely an RJG Rotation addition. 8/1/25  8/2/25 (new entry)