OCT 24, 2024 | FEATURES | By Brett LeVan and Porter Barnes
The first impression of any restaurant is not always an indication of how good the food will be, however, for us, it has been.
After dozens of brunch dates at local diners and restaurants, such as Mountain Shadows Restaurant, 503W, Omelette Parlor and Susie’s Westside Cafe, we finally tried Mother Muff’s located at 2432 W Colorado Ave. in the heart of Old Colorado City.
Mother Muff’s, a gastropub that markets itself with the line, “It’s 8 a.m. somewhere! From morning to moonset, Mother Muff’s serves up early morning cocktails and late night breakfasts,” offers a warm retreat for locals. From “Sunday Jam Band Brunch” every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to “Geeks Who Drink” every Wednesday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. to “Crazy Tony’s Karaoke” every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m. to finally live music every Sunday night, there is no doubt, at least from our first impression, that Mother Muff’s is the place to be.
Our Mother Muff’s experience began two blocks too soon when Brett failed to give Porter adequate directions. However, as we strolled through Bancroft Park, which we’ve only ever truly experienced during the Saturday morning farmer’s market, we were met with a cheerful older couple who said “good morning” after we offered only a smile.
Mother Muff’s is a bit unremarkable from the outside as it resides in a big red brick building with no easily readable signs unless you’re across the street and can read the copper lettering on the side. From the outside, it’s hard to believe the size of the interior.
A big old wooden door greeted us before we walked into a dark foyer which led to another big old door. As we entered “I Can’t Explain” by The Who was playing over a jukebox, and a sign inside the first seating area told us to seat ourselves. Only a few tables were occupied, so we were left to decide whether to sit next to a wall cluttered with pictures or at a metal high top in the middle. We opted to sit at a six person dark wooden table alongside the windows.
To Porter, the space felt very much like a bar, however, Brett admired the stained glass and copper accents more than anything else (see cover photo for a beautiful copper fan!) As we sat down, a friendly middle aged man came to take our drink order – Brett ordered a cup of black coffee and water and Porter ordered a glass of orange juice and water.
Our waiter gave us a few minutes to look over the beautifully laminated menus but not before informing us that their pizza oven was down for the next two weeks as the mechanic hadn’t had time yet to come fix it so we couldn’t order any of their Breakfast Pizzas — that wasn’t at all what we were going to order but we appreciated the heads up. We would later overhear a seems-to-be-regular voice his heartbreak when he was also informed that the pizza oven was currently down. So no guarantees from us, but the breakfast pizzas might be amazing.
A few minutes later our drinks arrived and we placed our order all from the “Mother’s Medley” section of the menu — the Mamita’s Burrito, Chicken-N-Waffles and Sweet Potato Hash. We also ordered a Heads Will Roll Cinnamon Bun but were told a few minutes later that the dough hadn’t had time to proof so we wouldn’t be able to try it — a good indication, however, that the cinnamon rolls were, in fact, made fresh each day.
The coffee was perfectly hot for Brett but the orange juice was not great in Porter’s opinion. It tasted like Tang Orange Drink Mix or an alternative powdered orange juice, but either way Porter was not impressed as chunks of powder floated near the rim of his glass.
Brett, a newly non-vegetarian as of this summer for the first time in 15 years, was exceptionally excited to try the Chicken-N-Waffles since her only comparison so far has been Raising Cane’s chicken tenders.
Our three plates of food arrived promptly alongside a napkin classically rolled to include a knife and fork. A dollop of butter slowly melted on top of the warm waffles as we tried to figure out who would start with which dish. Brett easily picked the Chicken-N-Waffles and Porter easily picked Mamita’s Burrito. The chicken was everything Brett could have imagined — perfectly dark and crispy but tender on the inside. However, when Porter tried the Chicken-N-Waffles later, he thought the waffle was a bit undercooked but real and homemade, unlike the syrup which he called “fake.” For an extra five dollars the Chicken-N-Waffles came with a shot of Maple Whiskey — “For Adult Only,” the menu read. Regretfully, we opted out.
Mamita’s Burrito was excellent, drenched in gravy and had an excellent mix of scrambled eggs, hash browns and crispy bacon. Almost every brunch date we’ve gone on, Porter has ordered a breakfast burrito smothered in green chili and Mother Muff’s was going to be no exception, however, unfortunately, he forgot to ask for green chilis, so no comparison can be made on that front.
After Brett had eaten a quarter of the waffle and a full chicken tender she moved the plate aside and started in on the Sweet Potato Hash. It was a very tasty and well-rounded dish that came with sweet potatoes, two perfectly-over-easy eggs (runny yolks but no slimy whites), Italian sausage, bell peppers and topped with green onions. In Brett’s opinion, without the over easy eggs, the dish would have been a bit dry but Porter enjoyed it much more since sweet potatoes are one of his favorite food groups.
After Porter finished half of Mamita’s Burrito, he too set the plate aside and finished the remainder of the Chicken-N-Waffles and Sweet Potato Hash as Brett went in for the breakfast burrito. Brett was excited at the thought of crispy bacon wrapped tight alongside crispy hash browns and yummy scrambled eggs but has never really had good country sausage gravy yet. So, the smothered burrito in gravy and not green chili was Brett’s preferred order even though it meant Porter missed out.
Porter continued as Brett tried to recover from a major food coma after eating a quarter plate and two half plates which combined included bacon, sausage and chicken. A new record so far for Brett as she’s really only eaten a different meat category every now and then (preferably steak if she has a choice).
As we chatted about the weekend and other random topics, we remembered that we had planned to bring Porter’s travel size cribbage board to play (only if there weren’t other customers waiting to be seated.) At the realization that we couldn’t play cribbage, as we slowly and desperately tried to finish the rest of our meal, Porter suggested we play a modified (and much more fun) version of tic-tac-toe with sugar packets, as that’s what he grew up doing with his family.
Brett lost almost every game as Porter’s math-major brain effortlessly and meticulously thought out every best play. Brett was still miserably trying to finish every last bite of the Mamita’s Burrito since it was mouth watering when our waiter came to retrieve two of the three plates. He stopped with both plates in his hands and asked something along the lines of, “are you playing tic-tac-toe.” We were unsure whether he was annoyed at two random customers playing tic-tac-toe with 10 of their sugar packets or if he was admiring our ability to make simple objects into a game. It was neither option but rather he started a conversation explaining his favorite variation of tic-tac-toe which Brett didn’t really understand but Porter nodded along in recognition. His version used pieces of varying sizes that could cover smaller pieces, extending the game and adding another layer of strategy.
We continued playing tic-tac-toe as our waiter took away the final plate of just a few more bits of the Mamita’s Burrito which neither of us could fathom finishing. Brett texted her parents and told them she’d found the new best brunch spot in Colorado Springs for them to all try when they visit next and she sent Porter’s mom a photo of the makeshift tic-tac-toe board instead of cribbage which she replied with, “An excellent backup solution!”
By the time the check came, Mother Muff’s had more than a dozen tables filled in the front dining space but there was still plenty of room for additional customers. Neither of us walked back into the additional dining space but during our meal we watched as customers made their way to and from that direction so we assumed it was fairly full back there as well. We placed the sugar packets back into the black wire ketchup and jam holder, pushed our seats in and left the dark wooded and warm gastropub into a crisp fall October morning with overly-full but happy stomachs.