Daddy Bruce's

The first I heard of Daddy Bruce's was when my friend drove me by it and said, "That place is never open, but it's supposed to be REALLY good." The sign said BBQ and I was sold. I was only in Boulder a couple of days, and I ate A LOT of great food while there, but Daddy Bruce's continued to loom over me.

Finally, my last day, literally my last hour, my friend Bridget and I cruised down Arapahoe Ave and saw the open sign. We had just gorged on asian food but stopped nonetheless. I thought, "hey, I'll just get it to go and eat later." It's not that simple at Daddy Bruce's.

It sounds a little cliche to say that dining is just as much about the experience as the food, but it really applies here. When you walk into the trailer, Bruce Randolph Jr. (aka Daddy Bruce II) greats you from behind the counter, takes your order, and tells you to make yourself at home. He's in no hurry, and you shouldn't be either.

I've always enjoyed watching skilled hands make a meal. The older the person, the more fascinating to me. Their moves are so memorized, so confident; no hesitation or stumbling around for ingredients. And during all of this, he's telling us his life story. He talked about his barbershop in Denver, and told me the same hands that were making my food cut the hair of MLK. He wasn't boastful, he just had a lot of pride. There was an article about him taped to the wall, the article was from an overseas newspaper and he was quite proud of this.

Daddy Bruce placed my food in front of me, and despite my full stomach, I dug in. The meat was tender and smoky, the sauce was sweet and vinegary. He provided a stack of white bread to soak up the leftovers and it came in good use. While I ate he tried to teach Bridget how to play the piano, only giving up once another customer came in. We said our farewells and I took one last picture of him. He insisted on making it a profile shot, perhaps an homage to the greek gods of brisket.

Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery

Last fall I visited my friend Bridget in Boulder and one of our first stops was Mountain Sun. Colorado is known for it's microbreweries and although I hadn't heard of this one before, I was very eager. Mountain Sun is located off of Boulder's main pedestrian thoroughfare, Pearl St. The inside is cozy, very pub-ish. There's an open kitchen towards the back, and as you walk to the bathrooms you can spot the brewery itself, where everyone's hard at work making sweet delicious BEER.

The beer itself is of a very high quality. I noticed on their menu they include the OG (original gravity) and the TG (terminal gravity) of each beer. I'm not going to pretend I know what this means, it has to do with sugars and fermenting and such. What's important is THEY know what it means and feel it's important enough to inform the beer nerds.

Usually when I go to a new brewery I order the sampler. It's lots of fun to try different varieties and I've noticed with microbrews especially, not every beer "works." Most of the time these samplers consist of 6 to 8 tiny glasses of that brewery's most popular beers. Mountain Sun does not skimp. When the beers arrived, all Bridget and I could think was how close we came to ordering two samplers. We had quite a hill to climb. But we're strong girls and we love our beer.

My favorite beer was their Ginger, quickly followed by the Belgian Dip Chocolate Stout. Even their IPA was tolerable, and I'm usually not a hop-y gal. According to their website there's a Scotch Ale I'm eager to try but it's a winter seasonal beer. Oh well, next time!

My friend and I didn't order any food but the menu looked good. The emphasis was on fresh, organic ingredients while every dish could still be classified as "pub food." What I found interesting was that every employee worked every job. Someone who was your server one day could end up cooking your food the next. Not sure how well this actually worked, but I guess that's what happens when hippies take over a brewery ;)

http://mountainsunpub.com