Boulder is not a town in which there is great need to extol the virtues of healthy eating… healthy anything, really. While every choir needs a little preaching to from time to time, let us step away from the pulpit for this message. (For those squeamish about eating meat, consider yourself warned.)
Place yourself in this scenario, if you will: You’ve just clocked 20-some miles on your bike through the Buffalo Creek Big Loop (or you’ve spent a day in the back bowls of Vail, or completed your third IRONMAN this month, or just spent 10 days biking from Boulder to Black Rock City so you could dance in the dust and run the Burning Man 50K — looking at you, Ryan Van Duzer). Now you’re back in Boulder and you’ve worked up an appetite that won’t be sated easily. You need food: warm food, healing food and maybe a beer. You’re gonna hurt tomorrow, but today you celebrate with comfort food.
And what, as Americans, is more comforting than a hamburger (perhaps with a beer to wash it all down)? Burgers are simplistic in nature — just meat between bread, maybe some accoutrements like lettuce or tomato — but maybe that’s where the comfort lies, in the simplicity. And this town isn’t lacking in options for amazing hamburgers, but let’s talk for a moment about Boulder’s newest hamburger joint, Eureka!.
This California-born concept serves up all-American food without coming across like a typical chain restaurant; ingredients are locally sourced when possible, and the beer and spirit lists showcase some of Colorado’s finest.  Â
There are ribs and steaks and burritos, oh my, but what you want to try at Eureka! is a bone marrow burger.
You may have heard that bone marrow — the squishy stuff inside bones — is pretty good for you… to eat… because of course it’s good for you to have in your bones. In fact, it’s a delicacy in many cuisines. From Native American tribes to traditional Chinese medicine, bone marrow is known to ease digestion, build immunity and even fight leukemia.
I’m not saying that Eureka!’s bone marrow burger will cure cancer or soothe IBS, but I am saying it will sate your hunger after a 20-mile bike ride or a five-minute walk from the car to the restaurant.
Eureka! creates a bone marrow porcini mushroom butter to top what I am assuming is a half-pound hamburger patty. Charbroiled onions are layered on top, with roasted Roma tomato and mustard aioli, all sandwiched between a toasted, sesame-seed bun. The result is a richly decadent bite, where the oven-roasted tomatoes melt right into the buttery burger patty and the onions provide a delicate crunch and a hint of caramelized sweetness to an otherwise umami flavor. The mustard aioli compliments the sweetness of the caramelized onions with just a touch of bitter.
The flavor of the bone marrow is subtle in the porcini butter, like the hint of bone one gets while eating ribs.
In case you haven’t been on a 20-mile bike ride and feel a little gluttonous eating the whole bone marrow burger, you might consider splitting this monster (served with handcut fries and truffle sauce in which to dip them) with a friend. But if you don’t split it, no judgment here. There’s always time for a bike ride later…
Eureka! 1048 Pearl St., Suite 105, Boulder,
720-259-3636.
