Skip to main content

Happy Eats Pasta ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado


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 cooked breaded chicken. The fries were great as well, and I couldn't eat them all. And a pickle too that I enjoyed up front. The owner / chef brought me a homemade chipotle mayonnaise dipping sauce for my fries which was also great. There are many items I want to try on the menu. I need to get back here more often than once a year. They even have Peroni on tap, an additional bait that I tend to chomp at (notice the half glass by the time my meal showed up). The restaurant is bright and airy. It's decorated in a southern charm sort of way. Very comfortable. Service was very friendly on this visit.

8/15/25

8/30/25 (new entry)

Comments

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...

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 ...

Taco Villa ~ Texas chain : Amarillo

Latest visit: May 2023 (Amarillo - W. Amarillo Blvd @ Tascosa) First visit: Jul 1981 (Amarillo) We blew through New Mexico and into the panhandle of Texas. As we were beginning to circumvent the Amarillo traffic I noticed Taco Villa. I mentioned to JL how great they are. How about a quick snack? We both were on the same page. It's been 5 years since we left DFW, and that's the last time I had Taco Villa goodness. I ordered 3 crispy tacos. Happy to say everything is as good as I remembered it (except the price of course...). The salsas, the meat, and the piled high cheese. And JL absolutely *loved* them. He mentioned it a few times on the trip. We have a new convert!  Now for some chain news: There are 5 locations in Amarillo; 5 in Odessa; 3 in Midland; 1 each in Andrews, Big Spring, Canyon, and Hobbs, New Mexico for a total of 17. They exited the DFW market not long after we left in 2018 (did we keep them in business?). ---4/19/18 update (Fort Worth) I often would eat at Tac...