AURORA – Some day I’ll retire and finally get to open a fast casual restaurant based on my coolest idea and grow it into an international chain.
It’s almost guaranteed to be successful. After all, it will be born in Colorado, the epicenter of the fast casual phenomenon.
In the beginning, there was Noodles & Company and then Chipotle Mexican Grill. The metro area has also begat Qdoba Mexican Grill, Quizno’s, Mad Greens and Smashburger. They are collectively spreading across the nation and the globe and challenging both casual and fast food chains.
Colorado casual burger maker Red Robin has responded by launching its own fast casual option, Red Robin Burger Works.
At fast casual eateries, you order at the counter and have it delivered to your table. The food is hopefully fresher and higher quality and the atmosphere hipper than at fast foods joints.
Two new Colorado ideas just made the Nation’s Restaurant News list of top “breakout brands” for 2013. Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill — love the house-baked pita — has 15 Colorado shops also that many set to open in 2013. Snooze, the wonderful brunch-centered cafe, has six locations including one in Centennial and in Diego.
Hot on their heels as hot concepts are Udi’s Bread Cafe, Boulder-based sandwich shop Snarf’s, and the green-oriented Larkburger from Edwards.
Colorado is also where the fast casual folks test out new concepts. For instance, the sole location of Basil Flats, a Mediterranean-focused eatery featuring flatbreads, in Longmont is the brainchild of veterans from Noodles & Company.
And just in the past week I’ve visited Masala Xpress, a fast casual Indian concept, and Bop and Gogi Korean Kitchen in Centennial, which is among the very first fast casual eateries dishing Korean fare.
And my retirement fast casual restaurant idea?
That would be The Filling Cafe, which would offer only foods that have fillings: soup dumplings, potstickers, piroshki, ravioli, pies, pelmeni, empanadas, momo, calzones, spanakpita, kolache and samosas with toppings and dips.
If it’s homegrown Colorado, it’ll be love at first bite.
COLORADO FOOD NEWS
We lift a toast today to President Jimmy Carter who signed legislation in 1978 recognizing home brewing as a legal activity nationally. Without the legalization of home brewing, the entire microbrew/craft brewing movement in Colorado including the brewpubs and the Great American Beer Festival might never have occurred. … Splendido (Beaver Creek) and the Palace Arms at the Brown Palace in Denver earned a spot on OpenTable’s 2012 Diners’ Choice Top 100 Best Restaurants in the U.S. … Denver’s Continental Sausage is offering its cult favorite blood sausage for a limited time at Continental Deli in Denver. … Thinking of selling muffins or jam out of your home? Take Colorado State University’s new Developing a Safe Food Business online certificate program which starts March 24. Information at online.colostate.edu.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
“When we begin treating sugar-sweetened beverages as we do tobacco, we will make a huge stride in improving our diet.”
– Mark Bittman, New York Times
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