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In this week’s Nibbles, we are noting the 250th birthday of the U.S. and Colorado’s 150th anniversary as a state by celebrating Boulder’s historic food accomplishments. Plus: Eatery anniversaries, beer history on tap, antelope pie and a July 4 recipe for homemade Peach Gingersnap Ice Cream.
By the way, National Ice Cream Soda Day, June 30, honors Denver soda fountain owner Otto Baur, who is credited with inventing the ice cream soda.
— John Lehndorff
Out-of-towners from certain large cities tend to be skeptical — if not outright sarcastic — when I tell them that Boulder is one of America’s foodiest cities. They seem surprised that Boulder is not best known for the Flatirons, high-tech, Coach Prime or progressive politics.
As the exhibit historian for Boulder Eats! Food Traditions Along the Front Range at the Museum of Boulder, I’ve guided numerous tours through displays detailing 150 years of history.
I tell visitors that Boulder is most famous for food and drink. Across the nation and the globe, people see “Boulder” on their packages of Justin’s Nut Butter, Rudi’s Bread, Celestial Seasonings teas and Bobo’s Bars. Their Michelin Guide tells them they must dine at Boulder’s celebrated eateries. Beer bibles revere this city as a mecca for craft brew appreciation.
On July 4, we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States and Colorado’s 150th anniversary as a state. In honor of the occasion, I’m raising a toast to the foods, farmers and restaurants that have left their mark on our history.
Michelin and the hamburger hall of fame
Boulder is an international destination for diners seeking Michelin Guide and James Beard-approved meals at places like Frasca Food & Wine, Cozobi Fonda Fina, Corrida, Blackbelly, and Basta. However, the city also lays partial claim to a true culinary icon: The Happy Meal.
Bob Charles, owner of Boulder’s 28th Street McDonald’s, told the Wabash News in 2009 how he helped create the kids’ favorite of the burger chain, launched in 1979.
“I went over to the Coke distributor and told him I needed some kind of a cardboard box to put a hamburger and French fries in. He had a little cardboard box that looked like a car. The kids would sit there and eat their food out of this car and they’d have their paper toy to play with, so they were occupied — all of the sudden (McDonald’s) was more fun.” Bob Charles also opened the first double-drive-thru lanes in Boulder.
From farm to market to table
Boulder’s rich tradition of sustainability and support for locally grown food is centered around the 40-year-old Boulder Farmers Market, and is held up nationally as the template for farmer-directed markets. Peggy Markel and others helped form one of North America’s first Slow Food chapters in 1997 in Boulder. At chef/farmer Eric Skokan’s Black Cat Farmstead, diners feast in the fields on what the farm produces. For American school systems, Boulder is famous for scratch-cooked student meals that feature local ingredients, thanks to the collaboration between the Boulder Valley School District and Boulder’s Chef Ann Foundation.
Minus Prohibition, beer has always been here
Boulder City Brewing Company began tapping lagers in 1975. In 1963, The Sink in Boulder sold more 3.2 beer than any other bar in the country. The nation’s single-largest craft brewing celebration, the Great American Beer Festival, first took place in Boulder in 1982. The godfather of American homebrewing, Boulder icon Charlie Papzian, is honored in a Smithsonian Institution exhibit.
Boulder is also all about pie
In 1975, the same Charlie Papazian declared his birthday, Jan. 23, to be National Pie Day, because of his passion for pastry. The holiday is still celebrated annually in pie-loving countries.
A granola kind of place for 125 years
The city has long been a magnet for those who support healthy living and sustainable farming. Boulder’s food-as-medicine trend started long before Hanna Kroeger opened her pioneering New Age Foods in the late 1950s, and Alfalfa’s Market and Wild Oats Market introduced the modern natural foods supermarket. In the late 1890s, cornflakes inventor Dr. John Kellogg opened the Colorado Sanitarium in Boulder, which operated a health food store where locals could grab graham crackers, granola and almond butter.
Birthplace of multiple eatery chains
Modern Market, Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard, Rush Bowls, Illegal Pete’s, Snarf’s, Moe’s Bagels, Lucile’s Creole Café and Old Chicago are among the local, regional and national chains launched in Boulder.
To my knowledge, Boulder’s only food-related historic marker sits in front of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, explaining its amazing history.
Perhaps it is time to add a few more.
1990s beer, 40-year-old kombucha and big wine awards
Local beer history is on tap at Boulder Social. Boulder Social owner Gina Day, and brewmaster Rodney Taylor, who worked at Boulder’s first brewpub, the Walnut Brewery, are serving Boulder Beer Co.’s highly popular Buffalo Gold Golden Ale from the original 1990 recipe. The Boulder Beer Company began in 1979 in a converted goat shed as Colorado’s first craft brewery.
Opening a food or beverage business in Boulder County has never been easy. Here are a few that have survived and thrived.
In Boulder, Snarf’s Sandwiches is in its 30th year of oven-toasted subs. Cosmo’s Pizza is 25 years old, and Boxcar Coffee has been roasting for 16 years. In Longmont, Pumphouse Brewery is 30 years old, Georgia Boys BBQ turns 15 this year, and Abbott & Wallace Distilling is marking its ninth anniversary with a 9-Year-Old Malt Whiskey release. Meanwhile, Cliffhouse Kombucha has been brewed in Jamestown for 40 years.
The 55-year-old Flagstaff House Restaurant earned a 2026 Grand Award from Wine Spectator, one of only 99 restaurants worldwide. The Boulder eatery has held the award every year since 1983. Boulder’s one-year-old Vinca on Pearl earned Wine Spectator’s 2026 Best of Award of Excellence for its restaurant wine program.
Coming attraction
The folks who operate Oak at 14th, Corrida and C Burger will open Cinq à Sept, a French-style bistro at 4580 Broadway in the former Bellota space.
Got chokecherries? Donate them to Wind River Reservation
Boulder’s Community Fruit Rescue is looking for residents who have lots of chokecherry plants on their property. CFR will harvest this traditional Northern Arapaho food and distribute it to Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation. Schedule a harvest ASAP using this form.
Chef Daniel Asher and I will be joined by Grace Yoon of Ginkgo & Co., a new local kimchi company, and Phoebe and Steven Lee of Boulder’s new sushi-centric Wellness Counter on Kitchen Table Talk, 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. July 2 on KGNU (88.5 FM, streaming at kgnu.org).
Recipe: Chill on Colorado’s 150th with Peach Gingersnap Ice Cream
Despite the spring freeze on the Western Slope that destroyed part of the annual crop, Colorado’s famous peaches are now available at the Boulder County Farmers Markets. This week, we’re sharing a sweet July 4 holiday recipe for making peach-packed ice cream at home.
If you own an ice cream maker, it is probably electric. For a fun STEM activity with a history lesson, pick up an old-fashioned ice cream maker and a bag of rock salt and put the kids to work cranking.
Get the recipe here, and all Market Meals recipes here.
“On the 4th of July we killed eight antelopes, and made a public dinner, that is, we all threw in and ate together. The bill of fare contained antelope pot pie, potatoes, light bread, biscuit, apples, peaches, blackberries, sugar and coffee.” — Menu for an 1859 gathering near Boulder, recorded in a letter from J. S. Shoup to the Geneseo Republic on Aug. 24, 1859
Want more Boulder bites?
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Mustard’s Last Stand carries the legacy of Boulder’s earliest drive-ins, from Bush’s Drive-In to the Twinburger era. Continue reading…
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🧇 I started waffling everything. Some of it worked.
