"We were big fans of Santiago's," explains Boyd Hoback, president and CEO of Good Times, which got its start in Boulder and now has outposts in four Western states. "We just approached them and asked, 'What would you think of letting us use your green chile?'"
Santiago's, another homegrown chain that's grown to around twenty local locations and is a regular winner of our Best Green Chile award, thought it was a good enough idea to sell Good Times buckets of its half-and-half, medium-hot green chile -- the same stuff you can also buy in the frozen-food aisles of certain grocery stores.
This is the first of several Colorado-centric collaborations Good Times is considering rolling out over the next year. The company is in talks with Colorado craft brewers about using their beers for beer-battered onion rings, and is chatting with local barbecue sauce producers, too. It's also looking at the fruits growing around the state for frozen custard material.
"We are trying to build a story around Colorado and Western ingredients," Hoback says.
And although Cafe Society's biggest Santiago's fan says the results of the Good Times/Santiago's menu merger is only "meh" in taste, he salutes the attempt. But how about offering a cup of that mean green on its own?
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