Thursday, October 14, 2010

First Local Pick: Eats

How would you like your favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot to be the very same place? Yes? Then pack your bags and head west...east...center!!... as long as the final destination is Adam's Mountain Cafe in Manitou Springs.

Adam, you've done it. You've single-handedly created the best food and ambience for all three meals and everything in between, right there in your little mountain cafe. Okay, so it wasn't Adam. It was Greg Adams who started this beautiful thing in 1984, the very year before I entered this great, wide world. The restaurant has moved around but is now planted {hopefully forevermore} in the historic Spa Building.

Adam's Mountain Cafe maintains the highest standards for every dish. As part of the Slow Food movement, you can count on a leisurely meal, local, original food with outstanding taste, and service that assumes you want to linger. These people take their restaurant seriously, and have even included the Slow Food International Manifesto on their homepage. They want you to eat like snails crawl. Sllloow. Savoring every bite.

My favorite meal there is the Fresh Pear and Pecan Salad, topped with a heaping portion of the best Colorado goat cheese to be found. To drink, a cold glass of fresh lemonade. On a summer evening, I prefer to eat on the patio next to the creek and watch the mountain shadows creep their way down Manitou Avenue. When it's too cold for the patio, the dining room vibe is just right. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Antique, mismatched chairs, high ceilings and Persian rugs all add to the style, and if you're there on a Tuesday or Thursday evening, you'll enjoy a tasteful serenade by local musicians.

The restaurant is in the heart of downtown Manitou, so a post-meal walk is always an interesting one. I often connect with my inner child at the Penny Arcade next door (yes! a good laugh for only a penny!), but there are art galleries, clothing and jewelry boutiques, shops just for chocolate, ice cream and coffee all along the Avenue. And did I mention that Manitou is at the base of a mountain? I don't know what more a person could want, really. Adam's is a great blend of city and mountain, so if you like both, you'll love it here.

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