After a morning of browsing in Ross, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Burlington Coat Factory, Big 5 Sporting Goods and TJ Maxx – along 88th Avenue in Westminster and Arvada – a discount shopper needs a pick-me-up.
Sure, you could stop at Chili’s or Wendy’s on 88th and Wadsworth, but after the thrill of finding that silk Ralph Lauren blouse for $14.99, why not seek out the same kind of value for lunch?
Right next to the TJ Maxx on the northeast corner of 88th and Wadsworth, Gary’s Gourmet Grill serves high- quality food at bargain prices. And like shopping in the above stores, you want to try a lot of items to find what you like. Here’s what we liked:
Colossal 12-inch Brunch Wrap ($4.99): 3 eggs, nitrate-free sausage or bacon, American cheese, hash browns wrapped in a spinach tortilla.
The Hot Stuff tortilla wrap ($4.99): three eggs, sausage links, hash browns, pepperjack cheese, onions and jalapeño or banana peppers.
The Turkado sandwich ($6.50): Nitrate-free turkey breast, avocado, bacon bits, romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, sweet onions and Gary’s sauce – brown mustard, mayonnaise, herbs and pepper.
The Arvada sandwich ($6.50): Cajun-spiced roasted chicken, black forest ham, provolone, pepperjack cheese, onions, banana peppers and Gary’s sauce.
Insatiable Salad ($4.99): Lettuce, roma tomatoes, onions, carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and celery, with a clean-tasting dressing of nonhydrogenated olive, canola and safflower oils, basil, oregano and generous chunks of feta cheese.
Veggie Wrap Extraordinaire ($5.50): The Insatiable salad wrapped in a spinach tortilla. Ask for all the extras to “beef” this one up, and eat it at the restaurant, rather than take-out. By the time we got it home the dressing had coated the outside of the wrap, but it did make a nice hand treatment.
“Legendary” skin-on fries ($1.99): Although they are fried in a good-tasting blend of olive and canola oil, they taste more like baked potato wedges than crispy fried potatoes.
The homey restaurant looks like it was built with leftovers from an ’80s-era Marie Callender’s and decorated with tchotchkes from Gary’s basement – grandpa dolls, wicker doll carriages and houseplants.
Gary Erichson is a man with a message, and it’s all over the shop – signs, fliers, menus, even a newsletter – but the food speaks for itself. Each dish we tried backed the claim of pure ingredients: hormone-free chicken, organic burgers, nitrate-free turkey and sausage, organic New York-style bagels.
Staff writer Kristen Browning-Blas can be reached at 303-820-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
Gary’s Gourmet Grill
BREAKFAST/LUNCH|7639 W. 88th Ave., Arvada, 303-422-3831|$1.99-$6.50|7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Parking lot..
Front burner: High-quality ingredients with pure, clean flavors at affordable prices. Served with a tolerable dose of fast-food activism.
Back burner: Interior and menu could use some fine-tuning. Decor is outdated and dusty.
