The 16th Street Mall Illegal Pete's outpost (1530 16th Street) is always busy; it usually takes a bit of a hunt to find a table (although you'll have better luck in warm weather, thanks to the substantial patio), and often the line to build a burrito winds out the door. (You can circumvent that line with a new Illegal Pete's phone app that lets you order and pay before you even walk in the door.) This particular venue is also home to a full bar and stage that hosts intimate concerts, and the fact that Pete's is open until 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday makes it a very popular post-bar stop for the hungry masses in LoDo.
There are certainly plenty of options for carnivores, including an amazing beer-battered fish burrito, stuffed with shredded cabbage, white sauce, salsa frasca and lime, that pescetarians should definitely check out. For the vegetarian or vegan diner, Pete's has a basic bean-and-cheese burrito; a veggie burrito with grilled bell peppers and onions; the primavera burrito rolled with grilled zucchini, squash, red bell peppers and onion; and the popular-even-among-meat-eaters Big Potato burrito, served with cheese, salsa fresca and sour cream. The tortillas at Pete's are whole-wheat and all-natural, and gluten-free veggies can always order their tacos with corn tortillas.The beauty of Colorado's Mission-style burritos -- including those at Illegal Pete's -- is the fact that they're made right in front of you, so that you can mix and match your order as you please. Pete's uses a big metal spoon to mix all the burrito ingredients together before they're rolled up in a tortilla, resulting in a uniform distribution of contents -- no just-rice or all-sour-cream bites in these burritos!
You can order Illegal Pete's burritos in a bowl (with chips or a tortilla) as well, or "smothered" with either pork or vegetarian green chile. (There is no beef broth in Illegal Pete's vegetarian green chile -- we asked.)To view the full menu, visit www.illegalpetes.com.
