Reader (and owner): Veggie green chile back at Little Anita's

For over a decade, Little Anita's -- the Colorado outpost of a New Mexico group -- was a go-to spot for vegetarians hungering for meat-free green chile. But sometime last year, the five Little Anita's restaurants in the metro area started making both their red and green with beef stock...

By Patricia Calhoun

January 27, 2011

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For over a decade, Little Anita's -- the Colorado outpost of a New Mexico group -- was a go-to spot for vegetarians hungering for meat-free green chile. But sometime last year, the five Little Anita's restaurants in the metro area started making both their red and green with beef stock -- which definitely ruled it out for vegetarians. If they knew about the switch, that is; an alert eater contacted us about it.

And after numerous calls and e-mails to corporate headquarters (a worker there told us that only Mr. Big at Little Anita's could give us the official word), we finally heard from Larry Gutierrez:

I'm sorry I did not respond to your phone calls. I was out of town. Little Anita's since last week has had vegetarian green chile available in every restaurant. We are very clear that our customers in Colorado want vegetarian items, We get it.! We are currently working on new menus with additional vegetarian items and should be done in about a month.

We'll be watching for that new menu. In the meantime, Mr. Big might want to tell staffers at his spot at 1550 South Colorado Boulevard that veggie green chile should be made available to customers; when our reporter stopped in on Friday, she was told the chile was veggie -- as long as you didn't mind the meat part!

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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