Chicago Pizza Bar&Grill (NOW CLOSED), Colorado 303, New Mexico

Anyone visit? A new place near the Culture Park, the boss/owner is from Chicago so I will try after the holidays but wanted to see anyone else here had visited and what to try. From the facebook food looked good and cheaper so wanted too see if anyone tried.

Link?
Yes, Iā€™m being lazy.

edit:

Food is very good. Itā€™s not Chicago-specific in any way, which is a bit odd, but it is high quality Western cuisine. (For Chicago-style deep dish pizza in Kaohsiung you go to the Colorado-themed place, of course).

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I actually had a long conversation with the owner before he opened it. Iā€™ve been meaning to check it for a while.

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He seems like nice guy.

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Great reviews except the unhappy reviews that say they have a smokerā€™s room and smell of smoke in restaurant is very strong.

Yes, they do. Itā€™s a bar and they are on the second floor, so not so easy to step outside and have a smoke, I guess.

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Iā€™d personally be fine with it, but that might be a deal breaker for my wife and toddler. Guess Iā€™ll have to go there alone.

Oops, Tango edited after my response.

I didnā€™t notice any smoke smell outside of the smoking room. Itā€™s a very well done, completely sealed off sort of thing, like many states in the US require, or like airports have (but nicer). Itā€™s not an old-fashioned ā€œsmoking sectionā€ where the smoke wafts all over the joint.

Maybe there were fewer smokers when I went, but Iā€™d lean towards that reviewer being overly sensitive.

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A colorado themed bar? Why is this not in Taipei? Youā€™ve now given me a reason to stop in Kaohsiung. Thereā€™s pork green chili on the menu.

Yes. Which of course is originally more of a New Mexico thing, so the CO place (The 303) has IL and NM foods. The quality of both is good for Taiwan, but not great. Not the same level of food as Chicago Bar, IMO.

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No actually itā€™s both. New Mexico has a Hatch and Colorado has Pueblo. Smothered green chili burritos are a Colorado thing. Either way surprised to see it here.

This is not the right thread to argue this point, but in brief: New Mexico has many types of green chiles, not just Hatch. Eventually New Mexico style cuisine drifted up to Colorado, where there are way more people now (most of whom havenā€™t lived there very long) who have claimed it as their own. Whatever. Itā€™s good food wherever itā€™s from.

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Youā€™re right itā€™s not the right thread so not sure why you insist. Food didnā€™t just stop because thereā€™s a border there. Hatch and Pueblo are chile varieties based on where theyā€™re cultivated. They were first cultivated by Pueblo Indians which spans the four corners region. Colorado in particular is known for pork green chili smothered burritos. Any place that claims to be Colorado themed will have green chili. Just Google green chili for yourself and youā€™ll see two varieties.

The Colorado place has good Chili soup. Did not try the Pizza only Burger which was ok (there are better in town)

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Why the new thread title?

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Everything in New Mexico, certainly including burritos, is smothered in chile; red, green, or ā€œChristmas.ā€ Thatā€™s not a Colorado thing. Itā€™s a New Mexico thing that made its way to Colorado, precisely because, as you note, food doesnā€™t stop at borders.

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Look up a Mexican hamburger. That comes from the 1960s smothered in green chili. Traders in the 1870s commented on Mexican using chiles to cook in Colorado. On Larimer st. in Denver at the turn of the century there were chile parlors. Hatch Green chile was cultivated in 1894 from the Colorado chile, Pasilla and Negro cultivars all grown in southern Colorado and New Mexico.

It doesnā€™t really matter whether you agree or not, or what label you put on it. This is not a new phenomenon.

New Mexico Green Chili, Colorado Green chili, and Chile Verde in Northern Mexico are all cousins. It didnā€™t start in one place. Chiles were cultivated all throughout the region. And youā€™ll find it on menus all over Colorado so it makes sense in a Colorado themed restaurant.

Yes, I had excellent food in New Mexico, much better than the not so good food I ate in Denver. El Paso and Texas in general also lots of good choices.

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Letā€™s not forget you went to Chipotle and Smashburger considered that being local :joy:. Thereā€™s good food all up and down the chile highway.