Jack-N-Grill

In the ongoing search for the quintessential hole-in-the-wall eatery, the Lovely Spouse and I went to a place we saw on The Travel Channel's Man v. Food program. Jack-N-Grill, a Mexican / New Mexican restaurant that is located at 2524 Federal in Denver, just a few blocks from Invesco Field at Mile High. It is famous for a giant 7-pound breakfast burrito that defeated man, as Adam Richman, the show's host, could not eat it all. It is rare when food wins against man on the show, but this intrigued me.

So we went over for a late lunch / early dinner. The place is not very big, and is located in a free standing building that has housed other things in the past. We were going to eat on the patio, but the wind kicked up so much that we decided to move inside.

I had the calabasitas enchilada plate, which was absolutely delicious. These stacked enchiladas were made with chopped zucchini, corn, and cheese; and since I could not choose between the red and green chili, I got it Christmas style...with red on half and green on the other. The LS chose a stacked shrimp enchilada plate with green chili. Both came with charro beans and roasted red potatoes, and were supposed to have spanish rice also. The bad news was that they were out of rice and so we got extra potatoes and beans. Not that these weren't delicious, but I wanted to try the rice also.

One other disappointment was the waitress forgot to bring the chips and queso that I ordered as an appetizer, but we really had so much food that we didn't need that anyway. So I have to give Jack-N-Grill a couple of demerits, but the food was very good, so it balanced out. Overall, the staff was friendly and I did enjoy myself.

On the way out, I noticed a couple of interesting things. One is captured in the second picture in this post. It is obviously an early Taco Bell building that is now home to some other Mexican restaurant. Since Jack-N-Grill is right across the street from it, I imagine there is some competition going on here. But this is in a predominately Mexican part of Denver, so there are Mexican restaurants, bakeries, and shops all along Federal.

The other interesting thing was the old Ford F-600 truck parked behind Jack's. It's bed is closed in with a cage, and it is equipped with a snow plow blade. It appears to be in excellent condition and still used. What a work horse this truck must be!

To view the Travel Channel video from Adam Richman talking about his visit to Jack-N-Grill, CLICK HERE and scroll the list of videos for the correct one. To visit Jack-N-Grill's website, CLICK HERE.