Mother Muff’s – The Catalyst

Oct 24, 2024 | FEATURES | By Brett LeVan and Porter Barnes
The first impression of a restaurant isn’t always an indication of how good the food will be, but for us it is.

After dozens of brunch dates at local diners and restaurants like Mountain Shadows Restaurant, 503W, Omelette Parlor and Susie’s Westside Cafe, we finally tried Mother Muff’s at 2432 W Colorado Ave. in the heart of Old Town Colorado City.

Mother Muff’s, a gastropub that markets itself with the statement, “It’s 8 a.m. somewhere!” Serving early morning cocktails and late evening breakfasts from morning until moonset, Mother Muff’s 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. and finally Live -Music Every Sunday night there is no doubt, at least at first glance, that Mother Muff’s is the place to be.

Our mother Muff’s experience began two blocks early when Brett failed to give Porter proper instructions. However, as we strolled through Bancroft Park, which we had only really experienced before during the Saturday morning farmers market, we encountered a cheerful older couple who said “good morning” after just smiling.

Mother Muff’s is somewhat unremarkable from the outside, as it is housed in a large red brick building and has no easy-to-read signs unless you are across the street and can read the copper lettering on the side. From the outside, the size of the interior is hard to believe.

A big old wooden door greeted us before we walked into a dark foyer that led to another big old door. As we entered, The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” was playing on a jukebox and a sign in the first seating area asked us to take a seat. With only a few tables occupied, we had to decide whether we wanted to sit next to a wall covered in pictures or on a tall metal plate in the middle. We chose to sit at a dark wooden table for six next to the windows.

To Porter, the space felt very much like a bar, but Brett particularly admired the stained glass and copper accents (see cover image for a beautiful copper fan!). As we sat down, a friendly middle-aged man came to collect 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 at the beautifully laminated menus, but first told us that the pizza oven would be out of service for the next two weeks because the mechanic hadn’t had time to repair it yet, so we We couldn’t order any of their breakfast pizzas – that wasn’t what we wanted to order at all, but we appreciated the forewarning. Later we heard a seemingly normal voice that broke his heart as he was also informed that the pizza oven was currently out of service. So we don’t give any guarantees, but the breakfast pizzas could be great.

A few minutes later our drinks arrived and we ordered everything from the “Mother’s Medley” section of the menu – Mamita’s Burrito, Chicken-N-Waffles and Sweet Potato Hash. We also ordered a cinnamon roll from Heads Will Roll, but a few minutes later we were informed that the dough hadn’t risen yet, so we couldn’t try it – a good sign that the cinnamon rolls were already there, in fact, any day now freshly prepared.

The coffee was perfectly hot for Brett, but the orange juice wasn’t great in Porter’s opinion. It tasted like Tang Orange Drink Mix or an alternative orange juice powder, but either way, Porter wasn’t impressed when clumps of powder floated to the side of his glass.

Brett, who is non-vegetarian for the first time in 15 years this summer, was extremely 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 along with a classic rolled napkin with a knife and fork. A dollop of butter slowly melted on the warm waffles as we tried to figure out who would start which dish. Brett easily chose the Chicken-N-Waffles and Porter easily chose Mamita’s Burrito. The chicken was everything Brett had imagined – perfectly dark and crispy, but tender on the inside. However, when Porter later tried the Chicken-N-Waffles, he found the waffle to be slightly undercooked, but real and homemade, unlike the syrup, which he called “fake.” For five dollars extra, you could get the Chicken-N-Waffles with a shot of maple whiskey – “Adults Only,” the menu said. Unfortunately we decided against it.

Mamita’s burrito was excellent, drenched in sauce and having an excellent mix of scrambled eggs, hash browns and crispy bacon. At almost every brunch date we’ve attended, Porter has ordered a green chile breakfast burrito, and Mother Muff’s wanted to be no exception, but unfortunately he forgot to ask for green chiles, so no comparison can be made Front.

After Brett ate a quarter of the waffle and a full chicken fillet, she pushed the plate aside and started on the sweet potato hash. It was a very tasty and well-rounded dish served with sweet potatoes, two completely over-easy eggs (runny yolks but not slimy whites), Italian sausage, peppers and green onions. In Brett’s opinion, the dish would have been a bit dry without the over-easy eggs, but Porter enjoyed it much more since sweet potatoes are one of his favorite foods.

After Porter finished half of Mamita’s burrito, he too set the plate aside and finished the rest of the Chicken-N-Waffles and Sweet Potato Hash while Brett ate the breakfast burrito. Brett loved the idea of ​​crispy bacon, tightly wrapped, with crispy hash browns and delicious scrambled eggs, but had never had really good country sausage gravy. So the sauce-smothered burrito, not green chile, was Brett’s preferred order, even though it meant Porter missed out.

Porter continued as Brett tried to recover from a severe food coma after eating a quarter plate and two half plates that together contained bacon, sausage and chicken. So far, a new record for Brett, as she’s only really eaten a different category of meat every now and then (preferably steak, if she has the choice).

As we chatted about the weekend and other random topics, we remembered that we had planned to bring Porter’s travel-sized cribbage board to play with (only if there were no other customers waiting to be seated). When we realized we couldn’t play While we were slowly and desperately trying to finish the rest of our meal, Porter suggested that we play a modified (and much more fun) version of Tic-Tac-Toe with sugar packets, as he grew up with his family.

Brett lost almost every game as Porter’s math brain effortlessly and meticulously thought out every best play. Brett was still desperately trying to finish the last bite of the Mamita’s burrito because when our waiter came to pick up two of the three plates, his mouth was watering. He stopped with both plates in his hand and asked something like, “Do you play tic-tac-toe?” We weren’t sure if he was annoyed at two random customers who were playing tic-tac with 10 of their sugar packets. Toe games, or whether he admired our ability to turn simple objects into a game. It wasn’t an option, instead he struck up a conversation and explained his favorite variation of tic-tac-toe, which Brett didn’t really understand, but Porter nodded approvingly. His version used different sized pieces that could cover smaller pieces, expanding the game and adding another layer of strategy.

We continued playing tic-tac-toe while our server took away the last plate with a few more pieces of Mamita’s Burrito that neither of us could imagine eating. Brett texted her parents and told them that she had found the new best brunch spot in Colorado Springs that they could all try on their next visit, and she sent Porter’s mother a photo of the makeshift tic-tac-toe board instead of Cribbage, to which she responded with, “An excellent backup solution!”

When the check arrived, Mother Muff’s had filled more than a dozen tables in the front dining area, but there was still enough room for additional customers. Neither of us went back to the additional dining area, but as we ate we watched guests go in that direction and back again, so we assumed it was pretty busy there too. We put the sugar packets back in the black wire ketchup and jam holder, pushed our seats in, and left the dark, wooded, and warm gastropub on a crisp October fall morning with overfull but happy stomachs.

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