Burrito Bros! 🌯 wraps up Greeley and beyond with heated discussion about all things burrito
A carnitas burrito from Mi Gallo Giro in Evans is stuffed with shredded pork that has a lingering smokey taste of bacon. It’s topped and smothered with green chile. Photo by Emily Kemme.
By Emily Kemme
Do you eat your burritos hand-held or smothered? Carnitas, al pastor, or beans and cheese? Can you officially call it a breakfast burrito if you ditch the eggs and snuggle up potatoes, chorizo and green chile inside a tortilla? And here’s the burning question: How hot does a sauce have to be to get acknowledged that it is SERIOUSLY hot?
These, and many more questions, are posted for philosophical discussion about burrito gastronomy on Burrito Bros! 🌯, a Greeley-based Facebook group that counts 8,200+ members.
The word-of-mouth group got its start in March 2019, after Dane Roche and a couple of buddies were talking about where to get the best burrito in Greeley. Roche, who styles himself Reverend Dane Roche, said he is the minister of wherever he’s preaching that day. Mostly it’s been weddings and funerals — yes, he’s actually a minister — but he also preaches about burritos, one of Colorado’s favorite foods.
“The burrito page exploded from 10 people to this,” Roche said. “It became a hit.”
The group’s goal is to support local businesses because they believe the best burritos are made in mom-and-pop stores. Members spread the word about local burrito joints.
Not all burritos are created equal. Like the Sea and Earth handheld from Sonoritas Prime Tacos in Los Angeles, for example. A Cadillac of burritos, at $16.25 it’s pricier than most of the genre, and features Angus beef, spicy shrimp, guacamole, and toppings. Courtesy photo.
“Before long, other stores contacted us, asking us to do videos and show off their places in Northern Colorado. There’s even a chapter in Arizona,” Roche said.
In the last month, members drooled over La PaPa’s wrap up (pork burrito with Mexican rice, veggies, chipotle mayo and sweet BBQ sauce) in Ireland; a birria and shrimp burrito with fries in Kansas City; and The Sea and Earth from Los Angeles, a Cadillac of burritos — for $16.25 you get Angus beef, spicy shrimp, guac and toppings. Interspersed between the unusual are homespun handhelds from food trucks or hole-in-the-walls, each notable in its own right.
The goal, Roche said, is not to demoralize restaurants by leaving a bad review. Posters want to lift up and help out restaurants with hints or tips for improvement. Members can post comments directly on the page, but page administrators are “sheriffs” and will vet comments. Posts are kept food related and friendly. “We don’t mix politics with burritos,” he said.
To keep the heat focused on burritos, the page encourages a rating system of 1 to 10. Roche said what he looks for in a good burrito begins when he walks into a place. “The fêng shui, or ambiance, is big. I can tell if the place cooks good food by the decorations. You want a classic hole-in-the-wall where they didn’t spend a lot of money making it look nice. It’s not dirty, but the money is spent on the food.”
Next, Roche looks for the right combination and ratio of meat, beans, rice, cheese, and green chile or pico de gallo, if you’re putting that on a burrito. “You don’t want to get a burrito with all rice and beans and three bites of meat. You can have a mix of proteins and textures, and adding hot sauce to change up the spice level is okay. But you don’t want a dry burrito. Hot sauce can save it, but ideally you don’t want it cooked like that.”
Speaking of sauce, beginning in December 2019, Roche partnered with Matador Mexican Restaurant in Fort Collins to produce and bottle a red hot sauce made with habañero chiles he rates as having a 7/10 heat level. Recently, the partnership has developed a green sauce (Salsa de la Raza) with jalapeńos, tomatillos and peaches that give it a sweet, nectary taste at the end, Roche said, who ranks the verde salsa heat level at 1/10.
The rating doesn’t have a scientific basis, such as the well-known Scoville Heat Unit Scale. Based on his hands-on hot sauce experience, if he had to rank it, he thinks his Original red sauce would be in the 100,000 to 300,000 range. Habañero heat depends on how ripe a pepper is, and cooking can deplete capsaicin oil levels — the chemical component that makes a pepper a scorcher.
Burrito Bros! has sold approximately two thousand bottles.
Burrito Bros! partnered with Matador Mexican Restaurant in Fort Collins to produce and bottle an Original red, habañero based hot sauce, and the milder Salsa de la Raza, made with jalapeńos, tomatillos, and peaches. Available through Etsy. Courtesy photo.
Ranking burritos, spreading the word on where to nab the tastiest and hottest, and selling hot sauce is only part of the group’s chatter. Two other pillars in their platform concentrate on fundraising for community causes and camaraderie. Sales of sauce and merchandise go towards philanthropic efforts.
Roche grew up in Greeley, and through his business contacts and the burrito page, has developed strong relationships with area restaurants. People trust his word when he says money will go to where he says it will go, he said. “There’s a cohesion in our group,” he said. “A lot of these people know each other even though we’re spread around the country. It speaks a lot about how our community reaches out to help even if they don’t know someone.”
Currently, Burrito Bros! donates to Weld Food Bank and Food Bank for Larimer County. The camaraderie part centers on food, which means eating burritos. Burrito Bros! has hosted two Burrito Cups, featuring speed eating and spicy burrito contests. This year’s event was held at Mighty River Brewing Company, with the Matador providing the burritos — dry burritos for speed eating, and spicy ones for the second event. How spicy? How about a scorching chile mix for hours-long burn: Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion? (the third hottest pepper in the world), XX pepper extract and wasabi. Roche hopes to partner with a local nonprofit for next year’s event to raise awareness for the nonprofit.
His dream goal is for the event to be as big as Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. Given how quickly the burrito group has grown, that should be any day now.
Reverend Dane Roche’s Top 10 Burrito Spots
Mi Gallo Giro, 3721 W. Service Rd., Evans
Sarah’s Food Truck
El Pueblito, (Greeley-Loveland-Fort Collins locations)
Las 4 Americas, 3505 11th Avenue, Evans
Cazadores Mexican Grill & Cantina, 2140 35th Avenue, Greeley
Matador Mexican Restaurant, 1823 East Harmony Road, Fort Collins
Albertos Express, 5750 W. 10th Street, Greeley
Burritos el Morro, 115 18th Street, Greeley
El Mero Mero, 1002 25th Ave, Greeley
Taco Cabo, 729 Yampa Street, Steamboat Springs
For more
To order Burrito Bros! sauce, click on the Etsy link. Bottles are $7; there’s merchandise, too.
Burrito Bros! is a private group on Facebook that’s visible to the public. To become a member, click here.