Puebloans have spoken and they’ve chosen the 10 best slopper stops on a self-guided tour of the county. Considered a Pueblo specialty, a slopper is a burger with a bun, often open-face, drowned in green chile. Cheese, onions and French fries are often in the mix.
Perennial slopper favorites and longtime food war rivals, Gray’s Coors Tavern and Sunset Inn, snagged the top two spots respectively. This year's list also includes two food trucks.
Winners were chosen by popular vote in an online survey hosted by the Pueblo Chile Growers Association and the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce. The first-place winner will take possession of a traveling golden trophy for a year.
Along with being the home of the slopper and the site of the World Slopper Eating Championships, there’s also the signature Pueblo chile pepper, more formally known as the Marisol, grown on farms around the region. It’s got a good burn, according to the Scoville pepper heat rating scale. It too, has a rival, the Hatch chile pepper grown in New Mexico, where lawmakers are currently debating whether or not roasting chile should be the official state aroma according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The 2023 Pueblo Slopper Tour winners are:
1. Gray's Coors Tavern
2. Sunset Inn
3. Star Bar Pueblo
4. Riverside Bar & Grill
5. Cactus Flower Mexican Restaurant
6. The Lunch Box #What's in your lunch box?
7. Gold Dust Saloon
8. Café Murillo
9. Milberger Farms-Pepe's
10. Three Sisters Tavern
More chile coverage
- Pueblo Chile Season’s Smoking Hot
- The Great Chile Contest: An Earthly Terroir
- Thanksgiving Recipes, But With Chiles In Everything
- New Mexico’s Really Into This Chile War, Huh?