Local Table Tours launched in September in Fort Collins, featuring the city’s best food and drink artisans across a handful of bespoke walking itineraries. We started with a tour of the coffee shop and roaster, baker, brewery and restaurant located in Jessup Farm Artisan Village. Check out more about that experience over on our friend Heidi’s Travel Blog. Our second tour highlighted three Old Town Fort Collins businesses, all true success stories in the local food and beverage culture.
We started at Harbinger Coffee, where owner Jonathan Jarrow prepared us samples of Ethiopian pour-overs and “piccolos,” which are smaller than but similar in proportion to a flat white, which has less foam than a latte. [If that sounds confusing, join us on tour!] A 2011 Regional Brewers Cup champion, Jarrow started his Fort Collins craft coffee business that same year with just a small stand. Now he is working on his second store location, set to open on Harmony Road in 2017. Across the two businesses, his focus will be on quality sourcing, service and preparation.
Our next stop was at The Waffle Lab‘s new brick-and-mortar restaurant, which opened this past spring on Mason Street. We talked to owner Erik Rohman about his experience evolving from a Fort Collins food truck to a restaurant, and we got to try his famous Liege-style waffles, made from yeast-leavened dough and Belgian pearl sugar. Half-sized “happy hour” chicken and waffles were the perfect early evening appetizer, while dessert came in the form of flambeed strawberries and Walrus ice cream served atop another miniature waffle.
Finally we finished the tour at Fort Collins’ bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Nuance Chocolate. We heard from owner Toby Gadd about the process of making chocolate, which includes fermenting and roasting the cacao, grinding the nibs and tempering the chocolate “liquor.” Once ready and packaged, Nuance hand-delivers its bars from the factory to the shop via wooden push-cart. This season, in addition to the world’s largest single-origin chocolate bar selection, get ready for spiced holiday bars and cups of thick sipping chocolate.
Coming up in October and throughout the winter, you’ll find the coffee, waffle and chocolate tour along with the Jessup Farm experience, a seasonal cocktail tasting and a spotlight on the artisans at Scotch Pines Village. Check out upcoming dates on our calendar, and sign up for a tour to get an inside look at some of the great food and beverage artisans this town has to offer.