OnTheTable: Pioneering Café, Wild Goose Continues to Innovate Downtown

The Wild Goose Meeting House 

401 N Tejon St.

(719) 599-4776

www.WildGooseMeetingHouse.com

Hours: 8am-9pm, Mon-Sat; closed Sun

Prices: coffee, $2.50-$5; food, $5-$17; alcohol, $5 and up

What you need to know: One of the first third-wave cafés, the Goose remains relevant and influential

The Wild Goose Meeting House was one of the first authentically third-wave coffee houses in Colorado Springs. Debuting in 2013, the Wild Goose offered Springers not only great third-wave coffee, but draft beer, wine and food.

For lunch, On The Table sampled from the Goose’s prodigious menu, with its offerings from charcuterie to nachos, from brats to mousse. Whether you’re peckish or famished, the Goose delivers, (figuratively, not literally—this isn’t Chinese food). Beverages, too, quench all thirsts. Classic espresso drinks, hyper-local beers on tap, a respectable wine list and, recently, Colorado Springs produced spirits.

The Wild Goose has partnered with local roasters in an ongoing spirit of Springs camaraderie. One of our newest roasters, Holdfast, and its Christmas blend, were featured in our cortado ($3), along with well steamed, sweet and smooth milk. Rich, dark, deep and tobaccoy, without slipping into overly “roasty” characteristics, the aggregate was a perfect balance of milk to espresso.

Butcherknife Brewing’s Morningside Coffee Porter ($5, 5.5% ABV) may not be an appropriate companion for your morning’s bowl of Cheerios, but it did make a proper lunchtime pint. The porter’s body was not as full and lasting as some, nor fleeting and vapid as others. Claims of coffee in the porter were tenuous, with no distinct coffee flavors present.

The Goose’s charcuterie board ($17) is a misnomer as it features more cheeses than meats. Nonetheless, the two meats were excellent while two of the four cheeses impressed. Prosciutto slices were thicker than commonly found, proving substantive and of high quality. Semi-hard salami was intensely flavorful without tasting of preservatives as lesser salamis do. The smoked swiss was subtly smoked without overpowering the original cheese. The horseradish imbued havarti was mild and creamy with a slight ramp-up of heat at the end. The smoked sharp cheddar was innocuous, while the asiago was an odd choice altogether—usually subbing in for parmesan in pastas, the blocks of asiago were uninspiring. Playing accoutrements were a gooseberry relish and an odd presentation of caramelized, pearl onions. While the relish provided great pairing, the onions were left nearly untouched for lack of knowing what to do with them. Onions on cheeses on meats is not pleasant.

It was decided that the charcuterie would serve well for sharing amongst friends with a bottle of wine. But if you dine alone, or choose not to share, the Wild Goose Sandwich ($12) is a superior choice. Layers of thin-sliced ham and turkey were agglomerated via a generous melting of jack and brie cheeses between two, hardy slices of panini-pressed bread. The whole was a deeply satisfying sandwich perfect for weathering any cold-front.

The Wild Goose does many things well. Our qualms were merely the result of fastidious critiquing; perfection is exceptionally rare. Nonetheless, the Goose remains relevant and influential within its niche of third wave coffee and associated food, beer, wine and spirits. The Springs owes the Goose a debt of gratitude for its pioneering history.