You may have seen the hat around town, on stickers adhered to coffee mugs, bar tops, cash registers or social media. That silhouetted hat with the bearded line-art face gets around — but not as much as the real thing. That hat has become the logo for its owner, food journalist Matthew Schniper and his Side Dish with Schniper newsletter. And there’s a pretty good chance you’ve seen the real thing while out eating and drinking around Colorado Springs.
Since being laid off as the Food & Drink Editor for the Colorado Springs Independent in March 2023 during the newspaper’s financial turmoil, Matthew Schniper launched his own brand of independent food journalism, built on a foundation of his Side Dish with Schniper Substack newsletter. With deep relationships across the industry, the award-winning food and drink critic knows, loves and champions the Colorado Springs scene, but he isn’t afraid to speak truth to and about it in his restaurant reviews.
We sat down with Schniper to chat about the life of an independent food journalist, the state of the local dining scene, and some standout places to eat and drink in Colorado Springs. Here are highlights from the conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Schniper on His Food Journalism Career
Springs: So tell us what you do. What are the various projects under the Side Dish with Schniper umbrella?
Matthew Schniper: I send out a weekly newsletter to both free and paid subscribers that includes food news. And there are review article newsletters that go out every other week on average to the paid subscribers. Besides the newsletter product, we’ve just launched a podcast called Tap and Table. It’s a partnership with Ryan Hannigan, who runs Focus on the Beer and the Focal Pint Substack newsletter. Tap and Table brings us together to cover food and drink in another medium. It’s a nomadic show, filming in different locations out in the community. We’re always drinking something, and we’ll often have guests on the show from inside the industry.
What are some of the other events you are doing?
Right now I have the Third Thursdays Sip with Schnip gatherings, and I’ve been a co-presenter of monthly Bar Battles. Sip with Schnip is an open invite to anyone in the community, particularly my subscribers, to come hang out, get a drink or bite with me. It’s a chance for people to talk about their favorite places or ask questions or just enjoy the evening. I’ve been holding them at The Carter Payne, where Chef Brent Beavers creates some specials for us. We sometimes will have other guests; we’ve had Distillery 291 join us to do whiskey sampling — things like that.
The Bar Battles have been in partnership with Tipperary Cocktail Parlor and are friendly competitions that highlight local bartender talent. We’ve had competitors from the Archives, 503W, District E11even and Wobbly Olive, among others. It’s a chance to support the bartender industry and highlight some spirits. The competitors will make their drink and then batch it, so people can try what they’re making instead of those shows where you watch food or drinks being made but you ever get to taste it. We want people to be able to not only see it, but to participate in the action and try it, which makes it really fun.
So why food for you? How did you become a restaurant critic and food journalist?
From my first job at Piggly Wiggly when I was 15 as a bag boy in Birmingham, Alabama, I went to a local four-star Italian restaurant as a busser and food runner and immediately loved it. It was so social and active and fun, and I immediately got hooked on the restaurant life and industry. My junior year at Colorado College, I started working at Il Vicino, where Jax Fish House is now. After college I didn’t know what to do, so I got back to the industry. I did a little bit of management for 32 Blue, which was a cool live music club back in the day, where Studio 32 is now upstairs and Illegal Pete’s will be downstairs.
I left to work at Sencha for Chef Brent Beavers; it was fine dining where Arby’s is now on Nevada and Costilla. I was waiting tables there and connected with Katherine Eastburn, one of the founders of the Independent. I ended up freelancing a piece for her in 2004 and accepting assignments doing mainly arts reporting. Once I got in house at the Independent in 2006, there was a vacancy, so I stepped up and said, “Hey, I’ve got industry experience, I’ll do this.” So I just sort of claimed it at the right place, right time. It was never that I was aiming for food journalism. It just fell in my lap.
We know there is a ton of work involved, but in this era of social media influencers, food reporting can appear pretty glamorous. What does food journalism look like on the inside for you?
I think it’s a cool job. It is a cool job. But I’ve also had comments from people like, “You’re meaningless. We don’t need you. What’s the point of critics in the era of Yelp? Everyone can do this on their phone.” And that’s true. Everyone can do it on their own, and they should. Restaurants should be more afraid of their average customers than us because you’re only as good as the last plate of food that came out of the kitchen. The only difference though is Yelp and all those platforms are a little bit unreliable. It could be the owner’s friend. It could be someone who’s got an ax to grind because they couldn’t get a reservation, or whatever. I think journalists still have that ability to police with integrity and trust.
I have seven different fedoras. I wear each of those different hats for different pictures. But the joke is almost like each one of those hats represents a job I do: writer, publisher, editor, accountant, social media guy. Being your own journalist these days, you have to be good at everything. And as a journalist, if I want to do the thing that I have passion for, I have to make this sustainable and profitable. I cannot do this as a vanity project.
Schniper on the Springs Food Scene
In 100 words or less, how would you describe the Colorado Springs food scene?
Historically middling. On its way up. We hope and believe we see bright spots and reasons to celebrate.
I feel hopefulness, and I feel like I still see so many old, bad habits and old-school methodologies that will not help advance the scene to make us the next great food city. If I could leave some legacy after my work, I hope it would be to have played my part to help make the Springs the next great food city. We aren’t there yet. We’re usually about five to 10 years behind Denver and then further behind the biggest food cities. But we can’t not celebrate what we do have going. And it’s not going to help anything improve if we’re just overly negative.
So I want to say that we have an excellent craft coffee scene. We have an excellent craft cocktail scene. We have some great breweries. Individually, you can find some really beautiful dishes in town, across cuisines. We also have a five-star hotel here [The Broadmoor] that does the high end of the highest end. But — if you’re talking to someone from a big city like New York, Chicago or LA, jokingly, we’re still going to say we’re a bit of an armpit city, or whatever. In a way, I say it lovingly. If I’m being mean, it’s to try to inspire us all to be our best, to be better.
What has been most exciting to you in the restaurant scene over the past year or so?
One trend I’m kind of tracking personally that I think is great is the rise of Hispanic chefs and higher-level Hispanic chefs. We’ve had tons of taco trucks and lots of Mexican eateries. There’s not an under-representation of Hispanic or Latin culture. But trend wise, there’s a rise of finer dining representing Hispanic culture coming out of taco trucks into sit-down, fine dining — as it should. It’s one of the most diverse cuisines in the world behind Indian food. They use more ingredients, more spices, more things. When you go to Mexico, there’s a whole other pantry than what we’re seeing at a few taco places.
Now we’ve seen Chef Beto Reyes come from Chicago to open Milagros Cocina Mexicana. He recently left Milagros to open Eleven18 in the shell of Folklore, which used to be Lucky Dumpling. Beto just did a Hispanic Top Chef dinner, kind of in that same vein of Brother Luck bringing in the top chefs from the Food Network scene. The Hispanic Top Chef thing is a specific brand out of Denver. But in his own way, Beto is trying to bring up the Hispanic fine dining chef scene.
Meanwhile, we see Fernando Trancoso open Inefable at Avenue 19. Fernando came up from the Santa Fe scene running Tepex food truck, which was a wonderful food truck. Now he’s fulfilling his own dream to have a brick-and-mortar and start his empire because he wants to be that next great restaurateur and chef. Inefable is a great start from what I’ve seen.
On a smaller scale, there’s chef Daniel Moreno at the recently opened Chile Coloradodowntown representing New Mexican food — and the guys up at Paradox Beer Company in Divide are doing the same thing.
Schniper on Colorado Springs Restaurants
What were your top three meals or dishes you’ve eaten in the past year?
I’m always reluctant to pick bests and favorites because there’s lots of great meals to be had in our marketplace, and anything I pick is by virtue of recent dining versus something spectacular in the past. With that as a disclaimer, and in reviewing my archive, I’m going to go with: jalapeño sashimi with a caviar bump at Sushi Row; the brisket at Chuckwagon 719; and pretty much everything on the plate at Summit at The Broadmoor. Honorable mentions: the chilaco shrimp torta at Native Grill food truck and duck confit with pipián verde at Inefable.
How about your top three cocktails or drinks that you had in the past year?
Same disclaimer here on recency versus historically, and it’s worth noting that I co-judge and co-present the monthly Bar Battle series with Tipperary Cocktail Parlor. So I’ve been served a long list of fabulous cocktails over the past six months since we launched it, by some of the city’s most talented bartenders. (Read: I’m spoiled.) So I’m going to pick three I encountered on regular menus about town. The first would be Bloom Ultra Lounge’s Bee Sting, made in-part with Lee Spirits gin and Tingala buzz button liqueur and garnished with bee pollen and a buzz button flower.
Next up, I did a fall cocktail sampling at District Elleven with Colby Schaffer and his team right when that seasonal menu launched. I don’t recall a single favorite from the batch, but I remember relishing all the spices, a rare hot-drink option and all the wintery aromatics that set a mood.
Last, I attended the Buffalo Trace Meet the Maker whiskey dinner series at The Broadmoor, which was a follow-up to the also awesome Distillery 291 whiskey dinner prior. In addition to being able to interview Sazerac Master Blender & Director of Quality Drew Mayville, I sipped on some of the rarest, most sought-after allocated whiskies. Yeah, the Van Winkle is legend, but it’s the Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel that won my heart.
Honorable mention to Allusion Speakeasy during its Lord of the Rings theme service. When else do you get to drink from a glass pipe or Sauron’s cup?
What chefs or restaurants or restaurateurs do you think are really leading and changing the local industry?
There are legacy guys for our area that are still in the game, who deserve credit for past leadership. I feature some of them in my State of Plate podcast. Others have been leaders in the community, like Brother Luck for sobriety and mental health advocacy and Eric Brenner at Red Gravy for extraordinary outreach during the early pandemic. But if I’m thinking about who’s come up recently or on their way up, who’s doing amazing work right now, I’d go with: Brian Meiler at Till (who we awarded the Best Bite among 50 vendors at Taste of Pikes Peak); Fernando Trancoso at Inefable; Beto Reyes at Eleven18; the chefs at Ephemera, including Nora Dillon and Ian Dedrickson; Ashley Brown and her team at Four by Brother Luck; and I respect the energy Jae Cho is trying to bring to the scene with Indvstry Video Bar. Those are just some shout-outs I can make. I know I’m missing people.
What are your personal favorite places to eat and drink?
Usually I just dine for work, knowing I’ll be checking out the newer places once or twice a week, sometimes more. I’m always happy for strip mall Indian, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese and Mexican fares and any international food, really. But when it comes to picking favorites, I think about a mix of legacy spots like:
- Adam’s Mountain Cafe
- Margarita at Pine Creek
- Uchenna for its euphoric Ethiopian food
- Chiba Bar for the donburi bowls
- Formosa Bites’ Taiwainese food at The Well
- Brent Beavers’ fares at The Carter Payne (nostalgic for me since I worked for him 20 years ago, and I’m there monthly for my events)
- Bingo Burger (and the Diavolo Pueblo Hot Chicken spinoff I did a popup with)
- Nightingale Bread for the phenomenal bread and baked items
And I make it a point to eat at El Chapin monthly (tacos or burgers depending on mood) when I’m by to shop at Ranch Foods Direct (due to our recipe collaboration series). - I wish I had more time (and dime) to regularly revisit more of our deserving legacy spots, be that Luigi’s or Edelweiss, and all the solid standbys out there.
Keep an eye out for Schnip and give him a shout the next time you’re out eating and drinking at your favorite Colorado Springs restaurants — the fedora is a dead giveaway.
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