26 W E S T W O R D F o o d & D r i n k 2 0 2 4 westword.com Only in Colorado GET A TASTE OF SOME TRUE ORIGINALS. While restaurant kitchens in this state may still be grappling with what con- stitutes Colorado cuisine, there’s no question that local folks have displayed plenty of culinary creativity over the decades. Entrepreneurs have cooked up everything from Chipotle burritos to Coors beer and some of the country’s best craft brews. Here’s a taste of Colorado’s culinary inventions: Jolly Rancher Candies The world’s favorite hard candy got its start in Golden back in 1949, at a little ice cream and candy shop that Bill and Dorothy Harmsen opened on Washington Street. Dorothy got the idea of making hard candies, too, starting with the Fire Stix, which had an intense cinnamon spank; the couple chose the Jolly Rancher handle as a way to combine a Western feel with the glee customers would feel while eating their candy. The Harmsens turned their Wheat Ridge barn into a factory in 1951, and for a short time in the ’50s, they sold Jolly Rancher franchises across Colo- rado and in other Western states. But in 1967, they sold the fi rm to Beatrice Foods, which then sold it to Hershey and moved all Jolly Rancher action out of Colorado. Fool’s Gold Loaf In the 2014 fi lm What If, two twen- ty-something hipsters in Toronto start talking about a sandwich that was created in Denver in the ’70s, when the Colorado Mine Company was the hottest restaurant in Glendale, beloved by athletes, cops...and Elvis. Nick An- durlakis, who was in the restaurant’s kitchen one night when the King came through the back door, in town for a concert and hungry, later opened Nick’s Cafe in Lakewood, where he served a version of the Fool’s Gold sandwich created that night. If you want to re-create this indel- icate delicacy at home, it’s basically a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bacon, made with two tablespoons of margarine, one loaf of French bread, one pound of bacon, one jar of peanut butter and one jar of grape jelly. You take the bread, bathe it in butter on all sides, bake it, gut it and then fi ll the in- side with peanut butter and jelly — and bacon, sans grease, which you absorb by placing it between two paper towels. Root Beer Float There are several stories about the invention of the root beer fl oat fl oating around, but most people credit Frank Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brew- ing, with the creation of the popular ice cream drink. He was looking out of his window at Colorado’s Cow Mountain back in 1893 and decided that the snow on top looked like ice cream fl oating in a dark drink. Yes, that’s all it took: The next day, he dropped a scoop of ice cream in some root beer, and the famous “Black Cow” was born. Shredded Wheat As you start your morning right with a bowl of shredded wheat, you can thank Henry Perkins. He’s the Denver man who in 1890 developed a method of processing wheat into strips, then cre- ated a way to turn them into pillow-like biscuits. His fi rst customers for the cereal were vege- tarian restaurants continued on page 30 Louis Ballast and his cheeseburger- delivering crew. The Mexican hamburger is a Denver creation. HISTORY COLORADO MARK ANTONATION
