Greeley Grub spotlights unique Greeley eats and drinks in MyGreeley’s new image campaign
A waffle wrap at Aunt Helen’s Coffee House. Courtesy photo.
By Emily Kemme
Designed to build on the civic pride Greeley residents already have for their hometown, the City of Greeley recently launched a campaign to spotlight local restaurants, breweries and more.
The campaign, dubbed the Greeley Grub Program, is free for local food and drink establishments to join – the requirement being that the venue or the items sold must have a local address or be sourced from local products and sold in town.
It’s all part of the My Greeley image campaign called Greeley: A Story Best Lived In, said Jaqueline Villegas, Greeley image and brand manager.
“Our local businesses and restaurants keep our economy thriving and we want to promote and elevate them,” she said.
Greeley Grub launched this summer and had 20 participating businesses at publication time. It builds on the belief that Greeley — a city filled with creative, innovative people with great ideas — should foster that creativity to help people reach their full potential.
Villegas hopes to continue adding businesses to showcase Greeley’s diverse flavors. So, get out and let your tastebuds explore what Greeley has to offer.
Food — Greeley’s unique eats
They always say a good day starts with breakfast. Aunt Helen’s Coffee House, 800 8th Avenue, Ste. 101 wraps up baked eggs, sausage, bacon, ham or chorizo in a slightly sweet thin waffle, or jump on the avocado toast bandwagon with savory avocado toast strewn with a crunch of sliced radishes and microgreens at Margie’s Java Joint, 931 16th Street.
For carb-loading, Cables Pub & Grill, 1923 59th Avenue, has been a local favorite for Italian food and a popular watering hole since 1972. Cables is known for house-made thick cut spaghetti, rich tomato sauce and all-you-can-eat Mondays, when people vie in friendly stomach-stretching contests to get their fill of this satisfying combo. Originally called Cables End, (with tables made from converted telephone cable spools, if you’ve ever wondered how the restaurant got its name), its new location offers cozy nooks, a roaring fireplace and outdoor patio equipped with gas fire-pits.
To get an authentic Italian experience from the coast of Puglia, Pellegrini Cucina Italiana, 2400 17th Street in Cottonwood Square, features a market concept with counter service ordering and sit-down dining in a freshly refurbished space. Pellegrini’s homemade mild Italian sausage with pork, fennel and garlic is their Greeley original. Sausages are sold for $3/link or dine-in and let them prepare an Italian feast for you.
Pellegrini Cucina Italiana serves authentic southern Italian cuisine in market-style surroundings. Photo by Emily Kemme.
Whether it’s game day or you’re just craving the chicken wing of your dreams, you’ll find them at any of Wing Shack’s nine locations offering traditional or boneless wings in 12 flavors, including mild, golden hot, Bear Hot (go UNC Bears!) and Thai. Wing Shack first opened in 2004 and is notable for serving more than 13 tons of fresh, never frozen wings on Super Bowl Sunday — that’s 250,000 wings cooked at a rate of 19,200 wings an hour — but you can feast on their wings year-round.
For healthy fast-casual chicken, enjoy a teriyaki chicken bowl at one of Hiroshi Teriyaki Grill's three locations. Like all of the program participants, it’s locally owned and operated and prides itself on using fresh ingredients.
If you’re craving spicy Asian cuisine, food truck Seven Fish, 2406 W. 10th Street, stuffs a ball of sushi rice with imitation crab, avocado, cucumber and cream cheese — then covers this Greeley specialty with crushed hot Cheetos, chipotle and eel sauces and a sprinkle of — (aargghhh) — more hot Cheetos. This two-pound masterpiece is literally the tastebud BOMB.
Seven Fish Hot Cheeto Sushi Bomb. Seven Fish courtesy photo.
Sandwiches come with a story at The Cow (formerly The Mad Cow), 800 9th St., where meals between bread celebrate local people and businesses. The Mary T honors Mary Roberts, owner of Lincoln Park Emporium, after she designed her own sandwich (oven-roasted turkey, lettuce, tomato and mayo) and the idea stuck. Boomer House, 1024 8th St., stacks up the Terra Mystica, a mound of artichokes, basil pesto, cream cheese, provolone, lettuce and tomato with a choice of roasted cauliflower or sliced turkey. Bite into it between turns while playing the eponymous board game at Greeley’s new game night venue.
Burgers might not precisely fit into a definition of “sandwich” but since they’re composed of meat between bread, don’t grill us about it. Greeley’s burger lineup includes Kenny’s Steak House, 3502 W. 10th St., Kenny Burger, a burger prepared with JBS’s Gold Canyon steak trimmings and ground beef honoring the late Kenny Monfort of Greeley beef fame.
The Annex at WeldWerks Brewing Co grills up a neighborhood diner style burger. Photo by Emily Kemme.
The double cheeseburger at WeldWerks Brewing, 508 8th Avenue, is the burger from your neighborhood diner, except for the aioli. Juicy and loaded with grilled onions, house pickles and a drape of melty American cheese, a generous dollop of aioli takes it out of the diner and into the gourmet stratosphere. Pair it with the brewery’s flagship IPA, Juicy Bits, a hazy IPA with citrusy, tropical fruity character that’s won gold many times over.
Syntax Spirits' Basilisk is a fresh basil spiked mojito. Photo courtesy of Syntax Spirits.
Greeley sippers
Colorado’s over 400 craft breweries include three Greeley beer makers participating in the program. WeldWerks’ flagship IPA, Juicy Bits, features citrus and tropical fruit character thanks to generous amounts of Mosaic, Citra and Eldorado hops. It’s also the beer that placed WeldWerks on the craft beer map across the country.
Tightknit Brewing Co., 813 8th St., has an in-house small batch program offering up a refreshing city namesake, Greeley Beer, an approachable interpretation of a classic European lager made with Pilsner malt and touches of Vienna malt and Sterling hops.
Rule 105 Brewing’s, 4731 W. 10th St., tap lineup of gluten-reduced beers incorporates ingredients sourced in Northern Colorado. Highly drinkable lagers and ales are their specialty. Sit, sip and find your favorite while feeding your non-beer stomach with scratch-made pizza, wings and pretzel balls.
Greeley also has two distilleries — Syntax Spirits Distillery and Cocktail Bar, 700 6th St., and 477 Distilling, across from Lincoln Park at 825 9th St. Syntax prides itself on a grain-to-glass process made from local grain and grows many of the herbs and spices they use in their designer cocktails in their house garden. Try the Basilisk, a lime-forward mojito spiked with fresh basil that you can enjoy in the converted grain elevator tasting room. 477 Distilling’s signature Prohibition-style cocktail, the Living Legend, is a sweet take on the old fashioned, pairing bourbon, Almondretto and house-made, honey vanilla simple syrup featuring local honey.
Stock up your kitchen with greens, jams and soup mixes
While it’s fun to go out and have someone else cook, staying in for DIY meals is warm and cozy.
You can’t go wrong with Warm Hugs, 809 10th St., a Greeley gift boutique selling the Sereff family’s hand-crafted soup, bread, dessert and dip mixes and rubs. They’re time-tested and much loved by locals.
Country Sunshine Jams makes and sells jams from the bounty of two acres of fruit trees and gardens in west Greeley. Its sweet and spicy jams are available at the Greeley Farmers Market.
The Gift Shop at Lincoln Park Emporium, 822 8th St., carries special products supporting local creatives and small business enterprises. The Sprouts Grow Kit supports Blooming Health Farms, which aims to help at-risk youth. Hand-made kits let you grow your own sprouts for sandwiches, salads and more to help promote a healthy lifestyle.
And if that’s not enough greens, Clean Greens — created by college biology student Rey Ramos — allows you to grow your own microgreens in countertop containers to assure you’ve got fresh, locally grown greens no matter what the temperature is outside.
For more information
To learn more about Greeley Grub, go to https://mygreeley.com/greeley-grub-2022/.