MEITUS: Colorado fare worth the trip

By Marty Meitus, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 8, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Updated July 8, 2008 at 6:03 p.m.

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With my sister visiting last week, we did a lot of stuff relatively close to home instead of blowing our budget on major car trips, gas being what it is. One day we went to Colorado Springs by accident, since we were headed to Manitou Springs. I turned left instead of right because, well, I was talking or something.

It didn't matter, because our goal was to sightsee some of the picturesque Colorado gift stores and eat as often as possible, because what's vacation all about? In the Springs, I thought we'd hit the venerable Michelle's restaurant for lunch. Except that it had closed. (For tax issues, it turns out. Who knew?)

So I had to go in search of that other Springs landmark, Josh & John's Ice Cream. After a brief run in Denver a few years ago, the latter has thrived in the original Springs locale, 111 E. Pikes Peak Ave., with a shiny new place where you can get homemade Ghirardelli hot fudge sauce with the homemade ice cream. And cheerfully die and go to heaven, right there.

I finally wended my way to Manitou Springs, where it was threatening to rain. I hastily found a parking spot, which turned out to be in front of Adam's Mountain Cafe, another well-known restaurant. Unbeknownst to me, it had moved to a new locale at 934 Manitou Ave., which just happened to be almost right in front of my parking spot. That was so considerate of them.

Manitou is known for the springs that are set up almost like drinking fountains throughout the town. You can get a walking map of locations at the visitors center. Each spring tastes slightly different: Some are fizzy, seltzerlike, and others taste of minerals.

With a long wait for lunch, we entertained ourselves by visiting two of the natural springs, one almost directly in front of the restaurant and another on a wall behind Patsy's Candies nearby. (Of course, we stopped at Patsy's, famous for caramel corn and homemade candy, where the saleswoman told us that the original owner lost the "formula" that would become Cracker Jack in a poker game.) Then we took turns drinking the "unusual- tasting" spring waters and trying not to spit them out. Ahhh, good times.

The food at Adam's was superb. I broke down and bought some Seattle Orange Spice tea to take home. It reminded me of the spiced tea from Denver's closed-but- still-lamented Harvest restaurant. The tea smells wonderful. So far, it's sitting on my kitchen counter like a potpourri.

The next day, back in Denver, we took a tour of Hammond's Candy Factory, 5735 Washington St. The tour is 10 minutes of peering through glass and trying not to step on all those day-camp kids swarming like bees around you. Nevertheless, it was an interesting 10 minutes, and I admire the hard work of the candy-makers. They're doing an intense job in high heat, shaping the soft candy and cutting it as it extrudes ropelike from a machine before packaging each piece in cellophane by hand.

Afterward the tour leads to - surprise - the candy store. One of the day-camp kids was sitting on the floor of the gift shop sobbing his head off because he dropped and broke his third piece of candy and the counselor was at her wit's end.

I asked whether I could buy a fourth piece - ostensibly because I'm so nice, in reality because I was hoping to end the crying-kid standoff. I'm a big believer in peace at any price. Besides, when you're on a mini-vacation, you just can't let anyone disrupt your shopping-and-eating karma.

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