Food fast, not fast food
By Ryan Casey

Boulder: where even the fast food is healthy. Actually, don’t call it “fast food.” These guys prefer “quick-serve,” “quick casual,” or even “fast-ish.” Just not “fast food.”

Modmarket, Larkburger and V.G. Burgers, three local restaurants that serve food in a quick manner, are on the leading edge of an emerging trend: healthy food, fast. “I never thought that fast food had to be bad food,” says Anthony Pigliacampo, one of the founders of Modmarket. “We thought a lot about what types of food you could serve in a faster setting that could still meet the requirements that we had: food, made from scratch, from simple whole ingredients, that you could eat every day.”

Adds Tim Gargiulo, founder of V.G. Burger, “It seems to almost take away from the value of what we do to kind of put ourselves in that ‘fast food’ box.”

Though all three restaurants are relatively new in town — V.G.

Burgers was founded in 2006, followed by Larkburger (2007) and Modmarket (last September) — the response has been overwhelming.

“I think that Boulder is definitely receptive to a little bit more of a progressive restaurant,” says Adam Baker, one of the founders of Larkburger.

For each, the approach starts with ingredients. “The kind of foods we have, you can eat here every day and not worry about it,” Pigliacampo says. “The goal is to make real food, not health food.”

Modmarket uses whole ingredients and is designed in a way so that the kitchen is visible to customers, meaning the food is prepared and cooked in plain view.

“It shows our commitment to the fact that we’re not hiding anything from people,” Pigliacampo says. “We’re not embarrassed by what’s in our food.”

The restaurant even prints nutritional information on its receipts. “Our idea was, ‘Why not just show people?’” Pigliacampo says. “It’s right there. You kind of just start the conversation about it.

“Our stuff is definitely not the lowest calorie in town,” he adds, “but we’re not trying to be.

“It’s good, because I think most people have no clue of what lunch, calorically, should be, and it just kind of starts the conversation. It just helps to educate people.”

Larkburger, the spawn of a hamburger on the menu at Larksbur, a fine-dining restaurant in Vail, prides itself on wholesome food.

“There’s nothing funny about what we’re doing,” Baker says. “It’s all real food that you could replicate in your own kitchen — if I gave you the ingredients.”

Larkburger also focuses on keeping portion sizes down. When the restaurant was founded, “this was around the time when super-sizing everything was still going crazy, and everyone was over-eating,” Baker says. “So we wanted to be responsible … with our portion sizes.”

V.G. Burgers has a vegetarian menu. All of its ingredients are organic, and the restaurant works closely with local farmers.

“We try to really do our best to make sure that we’re providing our highest-quality foods and bringing them from as close as possible,” Gargiulo says.

The store has made a big effort to make sure that its organic ingredients don’t lead to an over-priced menu.

“One of the things that I’m really out to redefine is kind of the notion that organic foods need to be really expensive, and that people are pretty much priced out of being organic,” Gargiulo says, adding that prices range from $3-$10. “For the starving students or the millionaire yoga mom, we’ve pretty much got everybody covered.”

All three restaurants make a major point of being eco-friendly.

Everything Larkburger puts on its trays is compostable, and the store even recycles the canola oil it uses for fries as automotive fuel. The paneling inside the restaurant comes from reclaimed timber.

“As we get bigger and as we can have more influence and more buying power, we’ll continue to add responsible elements to what we’re doing,” Baker says.

V.G. Burgers prides itself on being zero-waste. Part of that philosophy includes sending behind-the-counter food waste to local animal rescue efforts, including a sanctuary in Coal Creek Canyon.

“We’ve got llamas up there eating old French fries,” Gargiulo says.

“It’s pretty cool.”

The combination of healthy menus and environmental friendliness — what Baker calls “being responsible” — have led to Modmarket, Larkburger and V.G. Burgers finding a niche.

“You serve pretty healthy food at pretty reasonable prices,” Pigliacampo says, “and I think it strikes a chord with most people.”

Share this!