Denver, Colorado
You know how you get all excited to go to one of your favorite places to eat?
That was me the other day. We decided to go to Tamales by La Casita in the Denver Highland neighborhood. It was the perfect plan. I was definitely getting a shredded beef burrito this time. My pal, I'm sure, would order the green chili. The plan would have been great if we didn't take a detour to a local bar to do 2 rounds of cocktails.
After cocktailing it, we walked over to La Casita. On approach, the people we could see in the windows eating dinner, made us that much more hungry for one of our favorite places. So when I pulled door number one and it was locked, I just figured, that's odd, then door number two. Locked as well. My friend then saw the sign. Closed at 7pm. It was 7:07pm. Arrrrgh! I didn't even think to call or check their website to make sure they were open. Who closes at 7 these days? Isn't everyone in the city open until 10 making tacos and burritos? I guess not. In the past I have only been here for lunch, so it just never registered with me to inquire about their hours for dinner. Drat. What do we do now?
After a few, let's go here, or let's go there, my partner in crime suggested Jack-n-Grill on Federal. OK. I had been there once before. I couldn't remember if I liked it or not. It was ages ago. I'll try it again and it's pretty close by too.
The sign on the wall at Jack-n-Grill is promising. The sign says that they were on the Travel Channel's "Man vs. Food". That's cool, right? Well maybe. Doing "research" on this place, I think the award was presented back 4-5 years ago, and, well, things change. Things change a lot.
It was pretty divey inside and that's fine. We were seated in the bar and pretty much everyone is seated in the bar, as the bar is weirdly in the center of this establishment. Menus were presented and both my friend and I at the same time commented on the high prices. Burritos, tacos all listed with numbers like $12.95 or $14.85. If we were at La Casita our bill would be total $15 for the both of us. This is not looking good. As the place is just not doing it for me, I go the safe route and order a Pacifico and two chicken tacos. My friend orders a bowl of green chili. After enjoying my warm beer for 5 minutes the waiter returns with our order. Oh, here we go. Should I even bother? OK, the green chili that I tasted, was very familiar to me. I'm a Progresso Soup person too (it's great for a cheap meal at home, but not something I'm looking for at dinner out on the town). That's what it tasted like. Someone opened a can of veggie broth/soup and dumped some canned green chilies into it? And the pork? It was ground pork! In green chili? Who does that. Oh gross. The tacos. Well the boiled shredded chicken (or maybe it was canned as well) was flavorless. The pico de gallo, just tasted like tomatoes. Bland, bland, bland. It's not even worth my time to describe.
So here's what I learned. Don't go to places that have an old banner waving in the wind from 2009 saying they were on the Travel Channel. It doesn't mean anything, and that if I want to go to Las Casitas I need to skip the 6 o'clock happy hour and get my buns to that place by 6:58PM. Lesson learned. Damn you that second 6:45PM margarita cocktail. You totally screwed up my evening.
Jack-n-Grill info (not sure if you need it!)
Address: 2524 Federal, Denver, CO
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