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Tio Wally Eats America: Johnson’s Corner

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Johnson’s Corner in Johnstown, Colorado.

Greeting from Johnstown, Colorado!
N 40° 21.777’  W 104° 58.908’  Elev. 4976’

When I was growing up my Mom used to say that if you wanted good food go to a truck stop. Well, it’s a myth. The truth is that the truckers eat there for one simple reason: They can park! Thus, the number of trucks at a truck stop has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the food but rather the size of the parking lot.

As a rule, if you want to find good food ferreted out by truckers, look for trucks parked in unlikely places. It usually turns out that the greater the effort they expended to park, the better the food.

But there are truly notable exceptions. And since it was just a few miles out of my way I decided to go have lunch at Johnson’s Corner (2842 SE Frontage Rd.).

I hadn’t been here for eight years or so. I used to stop here all the time as the food was always really good and fairly reasonably priced. I also liked the fact that it was such a funky, clean-but-rundown place. It had so much class that you had to sit in the well-worn “ass-dentations” in the seats of the booths just right to get comfortable.

It turned out the food was as good as ever but, much to my dismay, they remodeled a couple of years ago and got rid of all the funk. And it was funky.

Originally built in 1952, Johnson’s Corner was a landmark place as it was located in the middle of nowhere roughly halfway between Denver and Cheyenne. A couple of years later the Interstate was built and, voila, instant gold mine. Of course, it also helped that there was nothing else around.

They’re supposedly most famous for their homemade cinnamon rolls. As I’m not a cinnamon-roll fan I’ve never had one. But you can’t miss them when they serve them: they measure (conservatively) 6-inches square and about 4-inches high. They could be fairly characterized as “big.”

But what’s really good there, and often overlooked, I think, is the soups. They’re all made from scratch and now they have a cook who’s rather inventive, according to the waitress. I kind of had to agree.

I got Chili Blanca with my meal. They called it a soup but it wasn’t soupy at all. It was made with white beans, chicken and some sort of chili pepper; judging by the color and flavor I’m thinking it was those real long semi-hot banana peppers, definitely not jalapeño. Needless to say, it was really, really good, flavorful with enough bite to make it interesting.

For the entree I ordered Meatloaf ($11.99 w/tax) and, although I was technically a little early for them, a baked potato. I’d had the meatloaf before and remembered really liking it, and wasn’t disappointed this time. It has big pieces of onion and bell pepper in it and, I think, stewed tomatoes. It was good and it was a lot. Two meals!

While all of their food is really good, another standout meal there is their Roast Beef. Why they call it “roast beef” is beyond me as it’s actually shredded pot roast, piled high on white bread, with brown gravy. And if you get mashed potatoes with it they serve them old school: A scoop of smashed taters on a piece of white bread smothered in gravy. Seriously, how can you go wrong with starch on starch smothered in gravy thickened with starch?

Though I didn’t order any, they also have great desserts, especially the pies. Everything is made in-house from scratch and the portions are extremely generous.

I guess this place has been featured on the Travel Channel, Food Network, et al. Nevertheless, I highly recommend Johnson’s Corner. Although it’s not as funky/charming as it used to be, the food is still great. And the view of the Rockies ain’t bad either.

And so we roll.

Johnson’s Corner - 2842 SE Frontage Road. Johnstown, CO 80534

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Hacienda Real

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is at Hacienda Real in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Greetings from Fort Collins, Colorado
N 40° 34.819’  W 106° 00.509’ Elev. 4951’

The hold of the SS Me So Hungry is rather pungent today. A skid (pallet) of beer (5% Chelada Bud Lite) fell over. As a result, we’re docked (read: beached) in Fort Collins until the good folks at Anheuser-Busch sort it out.

So what is Chelada? I have no idea. The can says it’s crap beer mixed with Clamato®. I do know that when the cans are punctured, they spew like little rose-colored geysers. Very festive-looking but very smelly when it gets on you. I also know that in 12 years of hauling stuff around I’ve never hauled a beer I would drink. This is no exception — and I like red beer.  Am I bitter? Yes.

Fortunately I found a place to park across the street from Hacienda Real (CO 14 & I-25), which bills itself as a Family Mexican Restaurant. I’m suspicious of Mexican restaurants that feel the need to tag “family” or “cuisine” or, worse, “grille” onto its name. Another thing that makes a place suspect is decor that’s too thematic, too clean. It’s usually a tip-off that the food is going to be a step up from Taco Bell in authenticity.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food here is actually pretty good. It was a pleasant evening so I dined on their patio, even after being warned about the mosquitoes. Having just walked across the highway and not encountering a single skeeter, I toughed it out through my mosquito-less meal.

I ordered a Chile Relleno and Tamale plate. I ate the Relleno and was pretty full, so ended up with a Tamale meal out of the deal. Although the chips were commercial as opposed to homemade, the salsa was pretty good, which is always an indication of how the foods going to be. Another pleasant surprise was that they served the chips with bean dip (actually refried beans). The tamale turned out to be surprisingly meaty, though I can’t tell if it’s beef or pork.

All in all I was pretty happy with the food. Turned out to be a good $10 meal for what could’ve been a real disappointment.

I was also able to snag a couple of treats during my forced hiatus that are hard to find, especially at a reasonable price. The first was Swiss brand Southern Style Sweet Tea. If I’m lucky enough to find sweet tea in a half-gallon size it’s usually full of citric acid. I hate citric acid. I don’t want lemon — especially phony lemon — in my sweet tea. I found it for 87¢ at the Merchant of Death aka WalMart; more about them later.

The big score, however, was Odwalla Carrot Juice. I found it at Safeway for $5.10 “club price.” Another really good carrot juice is Bolthouse, but it’s really pricey. Curiously, the carrot-juice concentrate in Odwalla’s is from Bolthouse Farms in Bakersfield, California. I know this because I’ve seen their trucks being loaded when I picked up there. The 55-gallon drums of concentrate I dragged away went to some subsidiary of Campbell’s for making V-8 Juice, among other things.

And so we roll.

Hacienda Real – 421 Centro Way (CO14 & I-25) Fort Collins, CO 80524-9283

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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Tio Wally Eats America: Galena, MO

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here’s his introduction.

Greetings from Galena, Missouri!

N 36° 47.079’ W 093° 30.350’ Elev. 885’

By way of introduction I am Tio Wally and I am a truck driver. While some may call the vehicle a semi, a tractor-trailer, a big rig or an 18-wheeler, I like to think of it as a land yacht. Jason is graciously allowing me to contribute to his blog and, better yet, has granted me the privilege of piloting the SS Me So Hungry around the country and file road-food reports. (Those of you with some nautical knowledge know “SS” is the universally recognized abbreviation for Steamship. In this case, however, it stands for Street Scow as this craft has a flat bottom and is used for transferring goods from Point A to Point B.)

As this is my maiden Me So Hungry entry it’s only fitting that I tell how I stock the stores for a cruise. I always start with homey things that I just can’t get “out there” like I like them, homemade comfort foods. Lately it’s been Egg Salad and Tuna Salad. It’s hard-to-virtually impossible to find these things on the road that are any good.

If I’m lucky enough to find Egg Salad I usually have to beef it up with mustard (deviled) or dill weed, depending on how I feel. The only Egg Salad I’ve ever found that I don’t have to “enhance” has been the Amish Deviled Egg Salad from Dierdorf’s(?), a St. Louis-area grocery store chain. Tuna Salad is more difficult still as I like it mixed fairly dry with Mayo, red onion, hard-boiled egg and canned peas. Tuna Salad is a pain to beef up as it requires a knife, a can opener, a bowl big enough to mix it in, hard-boiled eggs (good luck finding them), etc. As the galley is rather small in the land yacht, I don’t screw with that stuff anymore. In both cases, when mixing for the road drier always travels better — you can always make it wetter.

Rather than to take up too much of Jason’s space, let’s get right to the pre-roll check list:

Coleman Thermo-Electric Cooler working? Check.
Apple Juice? Check. Unsweetened, generic store brands travel best as sweetening tends to turn quickly;
Water? Three gallons. Running out of drinking water is a serious, serious crisis;
Lay’s Classic Potato Chips? Check.
Orowheat/Brownberry 100% Whole Wheat Bread? Check.
Homemade sandwich fixins? Check.
Baby Wipes? Check. Ah, baby wipes. A miracle product. When you get really tired you can pull one out and wipe your face and neck and … instant refreshment, you’re good for another 50 miles! Also, it’s a little known fact: Those puppies will take grease off of anything! ANYTHING!!
Empty half-gallon plastic jug? Check.

Okay. Let’s go for a cruise.

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht *SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road-food from around the country whenever parking and **InterTube connections permit. *Street Scow and **InterTube (aka “the Internet as memorably explained by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK”) are his terminology, not mine.