Here's The Best Food and Drink In Colorado For 2018

ACROSS COLORADO -- Hungry for nothing but the best? You might want to plan an in-state road trip. Popular food site The Daily Meal has provided what it's calling the definitive list of the best places to eat and drink in Colorado for 2018.

"Known for its hiking and early legalization of marijuana, Colorado is a stunning and serene state," the site says. "The state’s food is rumored to be just as awe-inducing as its scenic views, stretching from the culinary hotspot of Denver to the less populous regions near the mountains, and we’ve rounded some of the state’s best eats."

The site goes on to explore some recent developments in Colorado cuisine: "In-N-Out decided to open its doors in the mountainous state, building 50 new restaurants as part of the chain’s westward expansion. And though some deceivingly shaped gummy edibles are now banned, some restaurants in Denver are allowing people to smoke marijuana and enhance their dining experience.

While you’re skiing in this snowy state, make sure to take advantage of the myriad of dining opportunities residents have to offer. The state has doughnut delivery, damn good tacos, and some classier restaurants hiding in the depths of Colorado’s desert. Amidst the Rocky Mountains, you’ll find pockets of culinary prowess and delectable eats.

Here is where to look to find Colorado’s must-try foods and drinks.

Best Bar: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Denver

Located within an old foundry building-turned-marketplace called The Source, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project has 22 taps filled with a variety of sour beers, wild ales, and saisons.

Best Beer: WeldWerks Brewing Company’s Medianoche

Colorado is home to many, many beautiful beers, but WeldWerks Brewing Company’s Medianoche takes the cake for 2017. Brewed to celebrate the brewery’s first anniversary, this full-bodied imperial stout has deep notes of vanilla, bourbon, oak, and cocoa.

Best Burger: Green Chile Cheeseburger, Steuben's, Denver

Representing Colorado's neighbor, New Mexico, the menu presents what is regularly named the best green chile (or chili, as Steuben's puts it) cheeseburger in Denver.

Best Chicken and Waffles: Steuben’s, Denver

The chicken at this old-school Denver diner is brined in buttermilk and seasonings for 24 hours before being breaded and fried to order, and the Belgian-style waffles are also made to order and served alongside a pool of red-eye gravy made with coffee, Jim Beam, and bacon.

Best Chinese Restaurant: Star Kitchen, Denver

Located in a modest strip mall, Star Kitchen is turning out expert renditions of more than 70 dim sum classics, including pork buns, dumplings, rice crepes, and salt and pepper shrimp.

Best Craft Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery, Longmont

In 2002 Oskar Blues Brewery starting canning their Dale’s Pale Ale, which “began the craft-beer-in-a-can craze.” They now brew numerous beers year round, such as Priscilla, Old Chub, and Gubna, an Imperial IPA brewed with “the most potent, unique and mind-bending hop varietals of the season.”

Best Cupcake: Happy Bakeshop, Denver

This small, family-run bakery began as a passion for cookies but quickly grew into a gourmet cookie and cupcake destination.

Best Dive Bar: Ace-Hi Tavern, Golden

Two happy hours a day? Say no more. This bar has been around for over 130 years, with 60 years under this moniker, so its reputation as a world-class dive bar is well earned.

Best Doughnut: Glazed and Confuzed Donuts, Aurora

The inventive and often surprisingly delicious flavors range from maple bacon (with two strips of bacon on top), to root beer float, to Nutter Butter fluff with chocolate-covered bananas, to blackberry pecan cobbler.

Best Farmers Market: Boulder County Farmers Market, Boulder

The Boulder County Farmers’ Market is an iconic gathering place in the community and a produce-only market. All 120 vendors set up shop Saturdays and some Wednesdays between April and November.

Best Food Truck: Basic Kneads Pizza, Denver

Basic Kneads operates four different units (each with punny names) around Denver. There are eight pies on the menu, starting from the basics (Margherita, pepperoni, fennel sausage) to more extreme pies like sweet Thai chile chicken.

Best Grocery Store: King Soopers, Multiple locations

King Soopers has a large selection of goods and is cheaper than the high-end markets, making this store a local favorite.

Best Homemade Ravioli: DiFranco’s, Denver

This tiny, low-key Italian spot's chef Ryan DiFranco runs what’s been rated the city’s best Italian restaurant.

Best Hot Dog: Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs, Denver

Some of the dogs on the menu at Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs include rattlesnake and pheasant, linguiça, duck cilantro, southwest buffalo, pheasant, and Louisiana red hots, but the elk, wild boar, and reindeer have specifically been attested to by none other than everyone’s favorite gastrogrouch, Anthony Bourdain.

Best Inexpensive Steakhouse: Columbine Steak House & Lounge, Denver

This low-slung, no-frills Denver legend has been going strong since 1961, and its main claim to fame is how amazingly inexpensive it is. Fried chicken costs $8.75, a steak sandwich costs $7.95, pork chops $11.25. And most impressively of all, there are six steaks on the menu, and the most expensive one of the bunch, an absolutely massive porterhouse, costs just $20.75.

Best Italian Restaurant: Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder

Frasca Food & Wine captures the spirit of an Italian roadside farm restaurant while also championing the vast diversity of Colorado’s unique culinary resources.

Best Mexican Restaurant: Tacos Tequila Whiskey, Denver

Originally a taco truck, chef Kevin Morrison’s Tacos Tequila Whiskeyputs a modern twist on comida de la calle (Mexican street food), along with small-batch tequilas.

Most Expensive Restaurant: Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder

If you decide to celebrate a special occasion at Colorado’s best restaurant, it’ll cost you: The seven-course tasting menu costs $105, plus $95 if you opt for the suggested wine pairings. If you want until Monday, however, a four-course menu only costs $50.

Best Pasta Dish: Pastiche at Panzano, Denver

Drop by during Happy Hour (from 2:30 to 6 daily), and order the pastiche. It’s a little cast iron pot, filled with meatballs, cheese tortellini, meat ragu, and cinnamon-kicked béchamel, topped with a thyme-accented crust for $6.

Best Pizza: Pizzeria Locale, Denver

The pizzeria offers 11 “Classics,” (seven red, four white), but you’re probably going to want to build your own from a selection of more than 25 toppings including eggplant, Calabrian chiles, corn, smoked mozzarella, pork meatballs, and prosciutto.

Best Restaurant: Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder

In the Friuli region of northeastern Italy, a frasca is a roadside farm restaurant, serving simple regional food. Owners Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson have created a warm and inviting space that can accommodate an impromptu dinner or an evening of fine dining.

Best Ribs: GQue Championship BBQ, Westminster

At Gque Championship BBQ, owner Jason Ganahl brings exquisite barbecue to North Metro Denver with his own tried and tested version of barbecue, a mouth-watering effort to put this town on the barbecue map with his pork spare ribs.

Best Sandwich: L’Entrecote at Vert Kitchen, Denver

This popular brunch spot serves a handful of high-end sandwiches, but regulars swear by L’Entrecote with perfectly grilled sliced skirt steak, arugula, and walnut mustard to tie it all together.

Best Soup: Croc Soup, Golden

Every day, Golden, Colo.’s Croc Soup rolls out seven or eight scratch-made soups based on what’s fresh and in-season.

Best Steak for Less Than $20: 4-Ounce NY Strip at Guard and Grace, Denver

Chef Troy Tuard’s modern Denver steakhouse sells a four-ounce Angus New York strip that will set you back just 18 bucks. Yeah, it’s small, but if you supplement it with a $5 loaded baked potato we guarantee you’ll leave stuffed.

Best Steakhouse: The Buckhorn Exchange, Denver

One of America’s oldest restaurants (and the oldest in Denver), the Buckhorn Exchange was opened by Henry "Shorty Scout" Zietz opened in 1893 and was given the first liquor license in the state of Colorado. The menu remains mostly unchanged to this day.

Best Taco:Pork Belly ‘Agridulce’ at Tacos Tequila Whiskey, Denver

Pinche Taquería, now known as Tacos Tequila Whiskey because “pinche” isn’t fit to translate on a family website (it’s something you’d say when you’re moved by extreme emotion), was originally a taco truck, and the name of the shop still harkens a bit of street attitude: Given how good the restaurant’s pork belly “Agridulce” is, you too may be emotionally moved.

Read the whole report right here.

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