At noon on a recent Friday, one Downtown Boulder lunch spot is busy and rocking. Animated greetings and worried chats about the day’s news take place around long tables. Couples, business associates and a group of CU students are munching happily in one corner of the dining room.
Everyone is here for the $7.99 full lunch, including beverages and dessert.
If you stopped at most cafes, $7.99 plus a tip might get you a fancy coffee and pastry: It certainly won’t get you a sandwich. Why is this long-standing restaurant still a secret to most Boulder residents as the cost of dining rises?
The reason is simple. The deal is available at the Eat Well Café inside the City of Boulder’s Age Well Center at 909 Arapahoe Ave.
That’s right: It’s a cafeteria at a senior center.
I don’t know about you, but the idea of eating there automatically fills my mind with images of cranky, hard-of-hearing white-hairs, flavorless steam-table food on a tray and meandering conversations.
That is why this old food critic had never dined at the Eat Well Café, which has been open (minus the pandemic) since 1994, much longer than most Boulder restaurants. It was formerly named Classico Cafe when the Age Well Center was called the West Senior Center.
After I finally grabbed lunch at the Eat Well Café, I sighed and realized my prejudice had denied me the best full meal deal available at any Boulder restaurant … and a big hug of community.
Lunch: soup, chicken pot pie, key lime tart
The cafe space in the busy center is fronted by big sunny windows and decorated in bright murals painted by artist Salowa Salzer. I grabbed a tray and moved through the cafeteria line and beverage station and settled in to lunch with a longtime friend.
As a starter, I skipped the well-stocked salad bar and opted for “pizza soup,” a thick stew of tomatoes, beans and olives topped with mozzarella — oyster crackers on the side. “It should be hotter,” I hear myself mutter, and realize I sound like my mother.
My chicken pot pie entrée was a baked round of puff pastry over a thick creamy filling of mildly seasoned shredded chicken and rice. The side of mixed frozen vegetables needed to be less steamed. I made a chicken pot pie slider using a soft, buttered dinner roll.
Given my pie judging experience, I don’t gush about pies very often, but the key lime tart with real whipped cream was a genuine first-class pastry joy.
It’s easy to appreciate the cafe’s all-you-can-drink beverage choices including milk, juice, iced tea and coffee.
Honestly, this is good but not gourmet fare. Considering the dietary needs of some of the regulars, the food can’t be drenched in spices. The cafe maintains a roster of bottled hot sauces for anyone needing to add a little flavor oomph.
A new menu every day
Cute farm-to-table bistros sometimes feature menus that change every week. The offerings at the Eat Well Café are different every day of the month, a point of pride for Boulder-born chef John Bleil.
While Bleil gets requests for favorites like his beef tips with noodles, roasted chicken and fish and chips, he fills the month’s menu with a world of options like croque monsieur sandwiches, chicken chimichurri, beef bulgogi and a vegan farro skillet.
The chef mixes in nostalgic comforters ranging from meatloaf and sloppy joes to pork schnitzel and Italian sausage with peppers and onions. Meatless options are always available including mushroom stroganoff, chickpea curry, eggplant parmesan and falafel pitas.
Cafe manager Sara Steinman noted that downtown shoppers, CU students and business associates who prize an affordable, convenient lunch destination with parking are spreading the word.
In fact, the Eat Well Café is the write-in winner in the Business Lunch category in the Boulder Weekly Best of Boulder 2025 survey published May 1.
‘It sounds really old’
If dining in a cafeteria around elders makes you nervous, Mary Ellen Floyd says she understands. She is dining with her whiskered husband, Delbert, who was born in Boulder in 1936.
“A lot of people wouldn’t want to come here because it sounds really old,” she says. “This is the best place in town. The food is good and the people are really nice. We usually take home leftovers for another meal.”
Floyd has been eating at the cafe since it opened and lunch cost $2.50.
“Honestly, I don’t know how to cook,” Floyd says. “My sweet boyfriend here is a good cook, but he’s on strike so we eat here.”
Talking to some of the diners confirms a hunch: Boulder’s large and growing boomer cadre are not your great-grandfather’s old people. Dear old Granny and Pappy may look sweet, but back in the 1960s and ’70s, they filled Folsom Field for concerts and protested Rocky Flats. Their generation helped to make Boulder the cool place it is today.
The Eat Well Café is operated by Meals on Wheels of Boulder, which focuses on delivering healthy meals to seniors and others regardless of their ability to pay.
There is a certain sweetness to lunching at a place that allows everyone on a fixed budget the dignity of dining out, and company for those who live alone. Most of the truly kind folks working for this nonprofit spot are volunteers. The cafe counter includes a donation jar for those who can afford to pay a meal forward. (You can help fund this work at mowboulder.org.)
The Eat Well Café offers a few other bonuses, too. A freezer is packed with ready-to-heat or bake quiches, pies and soups crafted in the Meals on Wheels of Boulder kitchen. Also, the Age Well Center backs up to Boulder Creek, making it easy to take a post-lunch stroll behind the nearby Boulder Public Library.
The Eat Well Café is open 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays. The changing daily menu is available at mowboulder.org/eat-well-cafe-boulder-lunch