Review: Rocko's Cantina

When Rocko's first opened in Belmar, I chimed in with my dislike of the bar's original name, Rocko's Tacos.

Well, as it's turned out, Little Pub changed the name not long after to the non-rhyming, much less annoying, Rocko's Cantina. They also chose a bull as their mascot, and not the Chihuahua I had feared (and not without reason-- among Little Pub's businesses are the Three Dog Tavern, Irish Hound, and Doghouse Tavern. Clearly, Mark Berzins, the owner, has a thing for canines.)

Rocko: Not a Chihuahua, Thank Goodness

The good news is that Rocko's Cantina has turned out to be a nice place to grab a drink, some chips and salsa, and sit outside on a beautiful fall day.

When it opened last year, service was spotty and the chips (made in house) were greasy and poorly fried. All that went away with time and practice. The place still seems understaffed in the late afternoon, just as customers start to get off work and trickle in, but the staff has become much more attentive, and I haven't had to flag down a server in a long while.

And the chips and salsa are now my favorite item on the menu. Crisp and lightly salted, they come with two kinds of salsa (a red and a green). The secret is then to add a bit of the Rocko's house garlic salsa (the kind that comes in a little bottle on each table) to each chip. I usually ask for a side of guacamole as well. It's the perfect accompaniment to a beer or two on the patio.

I can recommend the tacos as well, which avoid the Tex-Mex cliche of ground beef, iceberg lettuce, and cheddar cheese. Instead Rocko's serves up authentically Mexican options, like hongos (mushroom and scallions), barbacoa (slow cooked shredded beef), chorizo (spicy Mexican sausage), and al pastor (pork in a slightly sweet pineapple-chili sauce), all on a mixed flour/corn tortilla. There's even the uber-authentic option of chicharron (fried pork belly)!

Chip & Salsa at Rocko's: Now Crisp and Delicious

I haven't tried anything on the menu yet, but Rocko's has burritos as well (made with the same filings as the tacos, plus black beans and rice), along with nachos and even queso fundido (a Mexican style cheese dip). For details, take a look at the menu here.

It's the outdoor seating, though, that really makes Rocko's a place worth visiting. With two outdoor patios, it's easy to grab a seat outside on a warm fall afternoon and watch the progress on the David Weekley townhomes going in across the street. As the vacant lots get filled in over the next year in the northeast corner of Belmar, that sense of urban street life is only going to improve.

My advice is to take advantage of Rocko's patio and order a beer and some chips and salsa now, while the weather is still good and the trees are full of those beautiful red and yellow leaves.

Belmar's Sustainable Neighborhood Network Sign

Belmar's Sustainable Neigborhood Network sign is up! The program "gives residents the opportunity to become active partners in building vibrant and sustainable communities." Belmar is one of five officially designated sustainable neighborhoods in Lakewood, having earned the designation in 2013.

Want to learn more? Here's the link.

In Photos: Fall in Belmar

Coming Soon: Smallcakes Bakery

Smallcakes, a bakery specializing in cupcakes, has signage up in Lakewood Commons, right across from the Belmar Library, and will presumably be opening soon.

Update: A bit of googling turns up lots of info on Smallcakes. It's a national franchise, with two locations here in Colorado (one in Lonetree, and now the downtown Lakewood location). Their menu can be perused here.

Cider Days 2014

I love the city of Lakewood's annual Cider Days. Quaint and oddly anachronistic, it harkens back to the days when Lakewood was a farming community on the outskirts of Denver.

High Brow: Cider Tasting

Today, Lakewood is a city of 145,000 people, with the area around Wadsworth and Alameda as its newly designated downtown. But Lakewood grew in a patchwork fashion, as apple orchards and farms were developed into housing, one by one.

Cider Days reflects this agricultural heritage, with displays of cider presses, saw mills, and vintage tractors. This makes it sound like Cider Days is a series of historical reenactments. And it is. But it's also part county fair, with deep-fried Snicker bars, turkey drumsticks, and funnel cake. Low brow, yes. But also delicious!

Low Brow: Fried Foods Galore

Owners of vintage tractors bring them in from all over Colorado and even beyond to participate in the Cider Day's Tractor Pull competition. There's music and cowboy-themed comedy routines.

Cider Days also has a contemporary feel, with tasting booths offering small glasses of fine hard ciders (real cider, the alcoholic kind-- not apple juice), and food trucks selling sweet barbecue tortas with Kimchi garish, potstickers, and french fries with Thai peanut dipping sauce. So it's high brow, too. Really, it's hard not to have a great time.





The event even takes place at the Lakewood Heritage Center in Belmar Park, which makes it an easy walk for anyone living in downtown Lakewood. But if you didn't make it this year, here are some photos:

Cutting Beetle Killed Pine into Boards

More Vintage Saw Mill Demonstrations

Cowboy Themed Entertainment

Pony Rides! Or are they Donkey Rides?

Antique Car Show

The Every Popular Hand-Powered Apple Press

Protests Continue to Rock Jefferson County, Downtown Lakewood

Protests against the Jeffco School Board's conservative majority continued on Friday night, as an estimated 2500 protestors waved signs at intersections from 120th Ave in the north of Jefferson County to Ken Caryl Blvd. in the south. Newspapers as far away as Great Britain reported on the controversy.

Parents, students and teachers line Wadsworth

Blvd. in downtown Lakewood on Friday night 

to protest the actions of the Jeffco School 

Board.

The protests began last year when a newly elected conservative school board majority announced its plans to end the Jeffco school district's 45 year history of collaboration with its employee association and implement a series of controversial decisions, including the firing of Jeffco's award winning superintendent, Cindy Stevenson, and the unilateral imposition of an opaque and untested pay scheme for teachers.

It was the decision by board member Julie Williams to create a curriculum review committee, however,  that ignited the latest round of protests, sick-outs, and student walk-outs. The proposed committee would have had the mandate to seek out and bring to the board's attention classes and curriculum that failed to promote Ms. William's narrow view of patriotism, the free-market system, and history. The original text of the committee's mandate even hinted that courses that taught about safe sex, global warming, or evolution would soon be placed under the school board's microscope.

The Jeffco School Board dropped Ms. William's language at its Oct. 1st board meeting, but voted nevertheless to establish the curriculum review committee, despite nearly three hours of public comment that ran overwhelming against the proposal.

All year, I've been hearing rumblings about the Jeffco School Board's hidden agenda. Now it seems that agenda is out in the open.

Jeffco Schools Ruckus to Hurt Local Economy, Home Values

Will the ongoing Jeffco school board drama hurt area businesses and economic development?

That's the question posed in the headline of a recent Denver Business Journal article about the chaos Jeffco has seen in the wake of a right wing takeover of our local school system.

The article reports on a survey of Jeffco business owners by the West Chamber. The results should serve as a wake up call to anyone who doubts the potential of this Jeffco school board to damage home values.

Considering that the school board members who started this ruckus won't be up for reelection for three years, this makes for some scary reading, folks.