Have you ever in life heard of a breakfast joint offering 99 cent bloody marys and mimosas? Didn't think so.
P.S. Everywhere you turn the view of the mountains surrounding you is nothing short of spectacular. This is Colorado livin' my friends.
The restaurants slogan is "Eat in the Buff"
They had a pitcher of water and 6 empty mason jars waiting for us when we sat down.
Laura and I are the only ones who can appreciate the sharp tomato taste and spicy pepper and horseradish notes of a bloody mary. The rest of the girls enjoyed mimosas.
We were all intrigued by the the Pecan Caramel Quesadilla with pecans, brown sugar streusel, and cream cheese in a flour tortilla so we decided to split it.
The quesadilla was the perfect few bites of crunchy powdered sugary cinnamon goodness before the real deal. I feel like ordering appetizers are unheard of at breakfast, especially when you order a meal this big.
Off the Griddle Collection menu I ordered the Two Step. Two griddle cakes or two slices of french toast, two eggs, potatoes, and two slices of bacon or two links of sausage. The waitress let me substitute in the banana bread style for the regular french toast. Best decision I've made yet.
I coated on some syrup and then flipped the slab over allowing the hot buttery mixture to melt into both slices.
It oozed out the sides of the bread, coating the crusts and dripping onto the over medium eggs below which I lightly sprinkled in Tabasco sauce.
This is quite possibly one of the best breakfasts I have ever ate. The eggs were cooked perfectly to my liking - a tad bit runny, but enough that all the yolk doesn't "run" away from you. The french toast was thick and moist, bursting with banana, cinnamon and toasted nut flavors. I managed to consume all of my eggs, the majority of crispy potatoes, 1 out of 2 sausage links, and about 1 whole slice of the homemade banana bread french toast. 
We finished a second round of drinks - they actually have a limit of three, but two at this hour was just plenty.
I wasn't the only one packing up a to-go carton. Food as good as this can not go to waste.
The Buff is not in the center of all the action, it is actually in the opposite direction of downtown from Laura's apartment, so we dropped the car and the leftovers off and continued our day on foot. Bliss was the first store we wandered into. I wanted to buy every other journal, soap dish and pair of earrings I saw, but I stuck to browsing and snapping a few pictures.
After a few more stops at some really neat clothing stores and boutiques we came upon Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery.
Let the day drinking continue! The staff at Mountain Sun were extremely friendly and since it was the majority of our parties first time here we were offered a brewery taster with six ales to sample.
I enjoyed passing these around the table and hearing everyone's reaction to each. I believe the below is a coffee stout. To me it tasted like a cold espresso. Not sure I could drink and entire pint of it....
The gal who delivered our tasters could have done a better job in preparing a cheat sheet. She explained everything to us, but when it came time to remember / understand the initials she scribbled on a coaster it proved a difficult task.
We managed to decipher most of them between the 6 of us and using the menu. Funny thing - I can't remember the name of the beer I ordered. I feel it was a special brew and nothing on the menu rings a bell as I review it trying to remember what I drank.
Laura ordered the same one, so maybe she can remember?!
Tricia and Ash enjoyed a Blackberry Wheat. A popular choice - this beer was crisp, sweet, and very pink - made with Oregon blackberries. 
As I rounded the hallway to the bathroom....
the super friendly brewmaster saw me taking pictures from behind the glass walls and invited me behind the scenes.
We chatted it up about Boulder and my blog. His name is Nate.
He was telling me they have a sister brewery called The Southern Sun also in Boulder which is larger and where most of the beer crafting takes place.
Worth noting about the Mountain and Southern Suns is this excerpt from their website: There will never be televisions at our pubs because we want our guests to meet and discuss the world in which we live or simply to play Scrabble. We believe our approach to the service industry is unique and worth noticing. Your server today may be cooking your food tomorrow, or even managing. Every employee does every job here. 
We finished our beers and continued to the heart of downtown, the Pearl Street Mall.
The wide brick walkway is bustling with folks of all ages. Evergreen trees line the center paths and today the bright sun streamed through the branches.
This time of year there are bright flowers and exotic plants in bloom.
You'll find plenty of park benches, newspaper stands, local flyer boards, mountains in the distance and even some live entertainment.There's me taking it all in.
Loving life!
We hit up the two main tourist shops: Where the Buffalo Roam and Jackalope.
In Topo Ranch I paid a fortune for an organic cotton tee shirt.
P.S. Colorado has 8.16% sales tax - it is quite a shock the first time you purchase something! Probably my most favorite store that we went into was Peppercorn. Holy food blogger/home cook/chef/foodie/mixologist heaven. This store is 2 floors, though I only circled the first. To begin, the cookbook section is massive and I had a serious photo shoot.
There's the cookbook I own, along with some other Top Chef and Food Network books. I spy Padma Lakshmi and Booby Flay.
Actually, every section in this store is massive in quantity. Dirty hot sauce collection anyone?
Flasks, martinis shakers and mixers galore.
Fun Sangria recipe book.
When we finally pulled ourselves out of there....a few more stores later....
The consensus echoed - it was definitely time for more drinks. Happy Hour at The Mediterranean Restaurant awaited us. Probably one of the coolest things about Boulder is the drink specials (varying from bar to bar) from 3:00 to 5:30pm. I remember being so jealous learning about this citywide deal when Laura first moved here. Happy Hour in Boston is non-existent (why oh why...) so this was really a treat!
Entering through a funky teal green door into a bright space with large green potted plants to one side and a chic bar sprawling in front of you, there are multiple dining rooms that stretch from the windows on Walnut Street to the far corners of the building. I also noticed an outside seating section with a large tile mosaic spanning the wall enclosing the patio.
I enjoyed the view from our round table which looked up at the elevated open kitchen.
The drinks are pretty cheap to begin with and Happy Hour at The Med is $1 off the listed price.
I enjoyed a refreshing White Wine Sangria. 
We ordered a few tapas to hold us over until dinner. First, a slice each of the Margherita Pizza.
A few bites of Artichauts - fried artichoke hearts with aioli, Bistecca - grilled hanger steak with blue cheese and more satisfied us for the time being.
My personal favorite of the bunch were the Datiles - bacon wrapped dates in garlic sauce. 
Rough textured saltiness and gooey soft sweetness proved a tremendously appetizing combo.
You really can't go wrong with wedges of Mozzarella - fried topped in marinara sauce and basil.
Everything was delicious. To bad this wasn't our dinner because I really wanted to taste more of their tapas! 
What a perfect spot. I highly recommend The Med if you are visiting Boulder. Actually, I highly recommend all the spots I ate and drank at today. We settled the ridiculously inexpensive tab and headed back to home base to get ready for another evening on the town!
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