Boulder Smashburger VIP Event

I had the opportunity to attend a VIP (or sneak peak) event for the new Smashburger in Boulder. I was really excited and honored to receive the invite! When we arrived I was pleasantly welcomed by one of Smahsburgers PR representatives at the door. She quickly chatted as I looked around the room at the overwhelming amount of people in attendance. When I saw Richard Gere, from Runaway Bride I thought "Wow this really is a big event!". Julie, the PR rep waved him over. It wasn't Richard Gere, it was Tom Ryan! The founder and Chief Concept Officer. He was busy but promised to come chat after we got seated with our food.

(Does he not look Richard Gere?!)

When we went up to order we obviously had to yell to get our order in over all the excitement. We all three ordered the Colorado Burger in honor of it's new appearance on the menus. We've wondered when this burger would come into creation and were more than thrilled to hear that a Colorado Burger had made it to the menu. Each of us ordered a different side. I suggested my sister-in-law order the Haystack onions since they are my favorite! I had to try the Sweet potato fries; also delish. And my husband tried Smash fries; best fries in the whole world! Plus! The burger's here are perfectly seasoned, cooked to perfection, juicy, messy on a fresh flavorful bun! Which by the way, come in different flavors!

My personal favorite is their Create Your Own. I like the 1/3 lb burger on a egg bun. I add BBQ sauce and haystack onions as well as grilled onions with their sharp cheddar cheese. Basically, I wish Colorado would trade burgers with Utah but hey, I can create my own so I'm ok!

(Smash Fries and the Colorado Burger)

(Colorado Burger and Haystack Onions with their sauce)

(Colorado Burgar with their garlic seasoned Sweet Potato Fries)

The new Colorado Burger is unique as well as carefully planned out. After a few deliciously cheesy yet peppery bites, Tom Ryan came and sat down next to me. He was kind enough to talk with us for a good ten minutes. He explained the process in designing this new concoction.

He and my husband talked more about the business side of things. We asked Tom why he started Smashburger in the first place. He explained that he was the Chief Concept Officer of McDonalds and found that millions of people were eating the food but were not happy with it.They eat it simply because it's there. His plan was then to create a restaurant that is cheaper and faster than a sit down place but nicer, better and fancier than fast food. I think he hit the nail on the head!

Smashburger has a modernized yet cozy feel to it. The customer service is simply the best I've seen at any burger restaurant. You truly get fresh, high quality food and the best service. You feel great when you leave, knowing you got a good deal and were treated right.


The number one thing I admire most about Smashburger (other than their amazing food) is Tom Ryan's effort in giving this national chain a home town feel in each of it's locations. They even created a burger just for Boulder (a burger made of black beans rather than beef)! I'm really excited that Smashburger is growing so rapidly and even more excited that they are now in Boulder. They are going to LOVE this home style burger joint.

Check out Smashburger and even order online!

Cherry Cricket

Cherry Cricket on Urbanspoon

This morning, our plan was go to check out Snooze for breakfast since Saturday is the only day we can make it before it closes at 2:00. I was really looking forward to our visit. Once we got there we realized that for some odd reason, there were about 30 people sitting in the hall. We soon realized those 30+ people were there waiting for their turn to be seated. We went up to the desk and asked how long the wait was. The lady told us about an hour. We were shocked! I don't care how good the food is, I'm not standing in line for an hour to eat. So we left.

At this point it was 11:00 so we thought, why not hit up Cherry Cricket since it's just around the corner? Knowing it is Denver's #1 most popular restaurant according to Urbanspoon, I was expecting we'd have to wait at least an hour, just like Snooze. Luckily, we got there right before the huge lunch rush! We walked right in and sat down, no waiting. We ordered and BAM! Huge amounts of people started flooding in the doors.

It's clear why too! Their burgers are divine. I ordered the "Little Cricket" with white cheddar cheese, grilled red onions and guacamole.  I couldn't finish it so I had to hand it off to my husband with about a 1/4 of the burger left. He had the regular size 1/2 lb. "Cricket Burger" with onions, guacamole, salsa, American cheese and bacon. I think he was really hungry... he ate the whole thing!

 

My husbands huge burger!

The burger was the messiest burger I've ever tried eating but it was worth the mess! It was juicy and flavorful. The toppings are around $1 to $2 each but they are large portions! I enjoyed my sweet, crunchy yet soft onions and the white cheddar cheese was perfectly melted. The guacamole was delicious too! A simply divine burger experience.

The fries are just as good, if not better! We had their shoe string seasoned fries. They were soft (which I LOVE) and seasoned to perfection. I had to hold back from overeating. Our vegetarian friend found plenty of options on the menu to try. He actually had a hard time deciding between the Combo plate and the Avocado melt sandwich. He went with the sandwich and loved it!

 

Sandwich and Fries!

Overall I'd say this place was amazing. I loved the burgers. The fries are the best fries I have found in Denver. The service was great. The decor wasn't anything worth mentioning but decent enough. Cherry Cricket is really a place you must try!

Check out their website!

Einstein Bros Bagels

Last week on their Facebook page, Einstein Bros Bagels was giving away free bagel coupons to new fans! I quickly signed up for my free bagel and headed to try my first Einstein Bro Bagel!

I was overwhelmed with the amount of choices they offer! They have a ton of bagel flavors and cream cheese flavors. I ordered the blueberry bagel with blueberry cream cheese. My brother ordered their honey whole wheat bagel with the honey almond cream cheese. Both bagels were wonderful! I had mine toasted so it was warm and creamy! It was a wonderful way to start my day! 

I'm glad they did this promotion. It is what got me in the door as a first time customer and I'll certainly be back for more!


Check out the Einsteinbros site!

South Philly Cheesesteaks

Last weeks adventures took us to South Philly Cheese steaks! I love a good cheese steak sandwich so I had been looking forward to this one!

When you first walk in you'll feel a hip, college style vibe. They have a flat screen LCD TV with sports playing and a video game in the corner. The workers are young and full of life too!

The menu is full of different types of cheese steak sandwiches. Of course if you find yourself in a place like this, we'd assume you'd be looking for... well... a cheese steak sandwich! However, they have chicken and other items on the menu. We all ordered the typical cheese steak sandwich combos. They came with fries and a drink!

The sandwich looked divine! The flavors were great, very steak-like. It did seem a little dry though. Good thing I got a drink! I love fries so I was pretty happy I got some but when I started eating them I was a bit disappointed. They were dry, flavorless and a bit over cooked  in my opinion.
So, if you find yourself in Park Hill, hungry for a some Philly steak sandwiches, you might want to try this place out! Just do yourself a favor and have them hold the chips. I mean fries.

Smiling Moose Deli

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I were out and about and well... we got hungry. Luckily we noticed a cute deli and thought we'd try it out! I wasn't in for a big amount of food so I only got a plain bagel toasted with butter. Rachelle ordered their half sandwich and soup. She selected the hot turkey club on rye bread. The soup she picked was a spicy chicken enchilada soup.

All of their food looked delicious! I wished I was hungry enough to order a whole meal! Overall I really enjoyed this restaurant. The decor is fun. It is filled with great choices of breakfast sandwiches, soups, drinks.... You can even check out their menu on their website.

Smiling Moose Deli

Charcoalburger (Glenwood Springs)

I forgot to post about this cute little drive-in a few weeks ago. Oops!

We had heard great things about Charcoalburger and since we were passing through Glenwood Springs, we decided to give it a try. There were 5 of us and we all ordered burgers. Some ordered fries and a couple ordered milk shakes!!!

The menu was a little like Smashburger's in that you can pick pre-made burgers or create your own and you choose which size burger you want with each one. What makes this burger joint a little unique is that after picking what size you want, you also have to decide if you want that burger made of buffalo, elk, veggie or beef.

We all ordered the regular beef, sadly. It would have been neat to hear opinions on the other meats but oh well! The burgers were good. They tasted just like a burger you'd make at home actually! I'm pretty sure the fries were just the frozen kind you buy at the store and bake. They were dry and boring.

The milk shakes were pretty delicious! I only tried a chocolate one but the berry one looked pretty amazing!

Pricing was average. It's about $6.00 for a beef burger. Other meat choices are a bit more expensive (which must be why we didn't order any).

All in all, I still like Smashburger the most! This place was good... just not the best burger I've ever had.

You can check out their website at: http://charcoalburger.com/

Waffle House

I've heard of this place many times and never seen one. Don't worry though, earlier this week I was invited to a birthday bash at a Waffle House! Wahoo! I was pretty excited and expected something just like Denny's or IHOP.
I was surprised to see how small the building was. It's a cute little cafe though! You can see the whole kitchen behind the bar stool style counter. You can also choose to sit at a booth but you must have four or more people since there are only 3 of them.
The menu was very simple. There was less than what I expected but that also meant that the prices were lower too. I ordered something like "the special" or similar in name. It was toast, hash browns (I LOVE hash browns and had to order something with some) sausage, eggs and a waffle! No, I can't eat that much but I wanted a waffle, sausage and hash browns and this whole meal came with that and more and was only $6.99!!! What a deal! Gary ordered off the lunch/dinner menu and picked a Philly style steak sandwich. I was pretty excited to sneak a bite!
First bite... eggs. They were cold. Sadly a bad start to a good looking meal! Next bite... hash browns. While tasty, the texture was much like a potato chip. I think they were burnt. I then moved onto the toast. Simply yummy! Just like toast. The sausage was an average sausage with some spice, nothing spectacular and again, kinda cold. So my plate of food wasn't quite a hit but wasn't too horribly bad either.
I tried Gary's sandwich and was thrilled at the yummy taste of goodness. It was good. Not the best Philly style sandwich I've had but it was better than my food! Finally after we were all done with the food in front of us they brought me my waffle. Gary and I were hoping this would be good since it is the Waffle House. Guess what? It was really good! The butter was all melted and the syrup was warm and tasty. The three amazing flavors all together made the waffle the hit of the night! Gary even said it was one of the best waffles ever!
We decided we wont go back since it wasn't anything special and it is a ways away from our house. If it was across the street I might run over for a waffle now and again but their other food was, like I said, nothing special. The overall cleanliness was less than satisfactory but the service was good. Prices were average at about $5-$8 per plate.

And there you have the Waffle House!