Welcome to Nibbles, Boulder’s weekly food newsletter. Look for Nibbles every Tuesday in your inbox for a smorgasbord of Boulder County food and restaurant news, dining tips and cooking hacks.
Encourage your favorite foodies to sign up for this free community culinary resource, too.
In this week’s Nibbles, CU students help launch a reusable takeout container program that’s already keeping tens of thousands of disposable containers out of the trash. Plus: We discover what happens to the crusts from the 420 million Uncrustables made annually in Longmont, share news about upcoming restaurants, and offer a recipe for Pumpkin Coffee Cake using purée from a local pie pumpkin, not a can.
By the way, National Chicken Fried Steak Day on Oct. 26 celebrates a Colorado-born dish. The earliest known record of the term “chicken-fried steak” appears in a 1914 Colorado Springs Gazette ad. The gravy-soaked comfort food is available at local cafes ranging from Foolish Craig’s to the Village Coffee Shop.
— John Lehndorff
For Clementine Clyker, the problem seemed grossly obvious as she walked on the CU Boulder campus.
“I love coffee. I noticed how many students were getting coffee on a daily or weekly basis in disposable cups. I was really wondering why we didn’t have a better system in place to reduce that waste,” she says. Clyker recently moved from Boulder to Washington, D.C.
The cups didn’t include all the takeout food containers from CU Boulder Dining Services, which serves 15,000-plus meals daily at campus dining centers and residential sites during the academic year, according to the University of Colorado.
Frankly, that mountain of takeout trash was a glaring stain on CU Boulder’s otherwise sterling reputation for culinary sustainability. CU’s Village Center Dining received the 2025 Greenest University Restaurant Award from the Green Restaurant Association. CU Boulder was also named the No. 1 post-secondary institution for plant-based dining and sustainability by the Humane Society of the United States in 2025.
Clyker was working on the zero-waste team at the CU Environmental Center. “I went to my supervisor in late 2023 and said, ‘This is like something that I care about. What are our options?’”
The timing was significant. CU, like many institutions and cities, had closed its composting program because of severe contamination problems, according to Clyker.
“CU was still using compostable takeout containers, which were more expensive. There were discussions about switching everything back to single-use plastic again. It seemed like the perfect time to make this jump.”
What followed were months of coffee-fueled meetings with CU staff, students, advisers and suppliers to discuss the logistics of buying, storing, collecting and washing reusable food and drink containers.
According to Matt Bratton, director of Campus Dining and Hospitality at CU Boulder, the adoption of a reusables program on campus was largely driven by students.
“Reducing single-use to-go ware is definitely a priority. The challenge is trying to meet the convenience needs of our guests and trying to be good stewards of the land. It’s a balancing game. Clementine and the involvement from the students was the catalyst to move us along.”
CU Boulder recently launched the USEFULL reusable takeout container program at Alferd Packer Grill and the SEEC Cafe in the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community building. In its first month of use, the program kept more than 50,000 single-use containers out of landfills, according to CU Boulder. In a company press release, USEFULL says that CU is “the first campus in Colorado to embrace plastic-free dining.”
At the register, customers scan reusable containers to their accounts or tap a credit card. They have three days to return the containers to campus USEFULL collection stations before a late fee applies.
“It’s much like a library card. The USEFULL tumblers, containers and bowls are double-walled, insulated stainless steel. The food looks very sharp and it stays hot or cold.”
There were concerns that many of the shiny containers would become dorm room artifacts.
“Our on-time return rate so far is sitting at about 99.3% within three days of checkout,” Bratton says.
Only a few dozen other American universities have adopted similar programs, according to Clyker.
“This is still really new. No universities have all their facilities completely reusable yet, usually just one or two dining halls,” she says.
It’s not that earlier generations of CU students haven’t been interested in changing things. “I was researching and found a class in the early 2000s proposing a reusable system in one of the dining halls,” Clyker says.
The program is likely to expand, according to Bratton.
“You could see the impact in the stats and quite immediately in the reduction of those containers ending up in trash cans. The program also created room for us to open food-only composting again in the UMC. This was a pilot project, but, honestly, it has gone so well that I’m really starting to look at how to bring it to other campus dining venues.”
CU Boulder was recently named Sustainability Institution of the Year by the International Green Gown Awards, making it the first U.S. university to receive the honor.
One reason cited: its adoption of the USEFULL reusable container program.
Tequila for CU, 420 million Uncrustables and new Boulder restaurants
Boulder-based Suerte Tequila is offering a special CU edition of its Reposado, with 8% of proceeds benefiting the university’s name, image and likeness (NIL) fund rather than scholarships. Details here.
One of Boulder County’s biggest food production operations churns out 420 million frozen Uncrustables sandwiches annually at J.M. Smucker’s huge plant in Longmont. According to the company, the tons of crusts from Uncrustables — which are technically “decrusted” — are fed to Colorado cattle and pigs. Smucker also offers refrigerated Uncrustables for those who can’t wait for them to thaw. Maybe the company should market Uncrustables beef and bacon with subtle hints of PB&J.
Coming attractions
Costa Brisa is set to open Nov. 2 in Boulder’s Avanti Food & Beverage. Bill Espiricueta, owner of Denver’s acclaimed SMŌK barbecue, will offer a Baja Peninsula-inspired menu.
Other upcoming openings include Pollo Lima at 2525 Arapahoe Ave. in the former Zolo Grill space; Home Team Deli at 2710 Arapahoe Ave.; The Werks at 3400 Valmont Road, offering burgers, beer and bowling; and The BuffHouse sports restaurant at 2860 Arapahoe Ave.
Barista classes for Sundance, a gluten-free party and an audience invite
The final Lafayette Farmers Market of the season is this Sunday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Public Road.
Baristas will serve an epic number of cortados, flat whites and skinny dirty lattes Jan. 21-31 during Boulder’s debut Sundance Film Festival. If you want to sharpen your latte art skills before applying, OZO Coffee offers hands-on barista classes in October and November. Register here.
The Gluten-Free Food Festival on Oct. 24 at Rocky Mountain Tap & Garden in Louisville features celiac-friendly vendors including Tom’s Waffles, S’mores Time, Mesa Latin Kitchen, Doughology, Mungfu, Casa Crobu and Forever Spicy.
Want to be in the audience for broadcasts of Kitchen Table Talk at KGNU’s new downtown studio on the first Thursday of every month? John Lehndorff hosts the show with chef Daniel Asher and culinary guests. The Nov. 5 lineup includes chef Alberto Sabbadini, Pastificio’s Claudia Sheen and Slow Food Boulder County. If you are a morning person (arrival at 8 a.m.!), RSVP here.
Market Meals: Bake a great pumpkin coffee cake with local pie pumpkins
Skip the canned pumpkin and make your own pie pumpkin purée for this week’s pumpkin coffee cake recipe from the Boulder County Farmers Markets. Get the recipe here.
If you just harvested bushels of gnarly apples and pears, make your own cider by renting a cider press from Boulder Community Fruit Rescue. Email harvest@fruitrescue.org.
“You can tell a lot about somebody if they make you their tuna sandwich. … It can take three hours. You have to test it along the way. Know that tuna salad, like a Bolognese (sauce), is gonna be better when you put it into the fridge and let it coagulate.” — Matthew McConaughey, speaking on the Mythical Kitchen podcast.
Want more Boulder bites?
Inside North Boulder’s new French bistro, Cinq a Sept
Opened in July by the team behind Oak and Corrida, Cinq a Sept serves French classics, seasonal ingredients and an early-evening happy hour. Continue reading…
Check out recent editions of Nibbles:
🧂 Boulder’s pumpkin spice obsession (and my embarrassing spice cabinet)
📗 The Boulder restaurants you love (and miss), in one new book
🍰 She started baking gluten-free cakes in Boulder. Now they’re sold nationwide.
This email was sent to *|EMAIL|*
Unsubscribe from this newsletter — Opt out of all emails from *|LIST:COMPANY|*
*|LIST_ADDRESSLINE_TEXT|**|IF:REWARDS|*
*|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*
