Welcome to Modmarket, a little eatery located in Boulder, CO that serves tasty pizzas, salads, sandwiches and soups.  Our fare is made from simple, whole ingredients (think perimeter of your grocery store) and is prepared right in front of you in our open kitchen.  Let us change your expectation of what fast food can be.

Today's Menu

Dishes from the Blog

Why we switched to plates

Some of you may have noticed we recently switched from serving our large salads in bowls to serving them on plates. (Plates are actually on order for side salads, they are just not here yet). You might be surprised at the reasoning behind this. Number one is related to sustainability and Modmarket’s overall environmental impact. Turns out that one of our biggest uses of water in the space is our dishwasher. Despite having the most efficient one we could buy, every load that runs through the machine uses a set amount of soap, sanitizer and water. Doesn’t matter if one dish or 100 dishes are in it, the cycle is pretty much always the same (at least how we use it). Our bowls do not fit well in the dishwasher. You can fit about 12 per load, and that is if you PERFECTLY load the tray, which does not always occur. Also, in order to get 12 on a tray, you have to stand the bowls on edge. This results in the bowls not getting as clean as we would always like which means they have to be rerun occasionally. Standing on edge also results in chipped edges, and once an edge is chipped, the bowl has to be tossed. A bowl needs to be used about 300 times before the eco impact of having a reusable bowl beats out having disposable ones. We have had bowls chip on their first washing cycle, and there is nothing worse than throwing away a brand new expensive bowl b/c it has a chip in it. So why are plates the solution? Well, first off, we can fit about 27 in the dishwasher at once. We will use less than half the soap and water to wash the same number of plates now. Second, we found a plate with a 5 year chip warranty. We found exactly one company that offers this. They make REALLY high quality plates. And according to their rep, they can afford the warranty b/c the plates are so well built, they will not really ever chip. Our testing has confirmed this, they are extremely durable. Third, the new plates look really sweet. The new plates are a little more expensive than our bowls were, but b/c if the chip warranty, that should pay for itself in a month or so of use. You would be shocked to see how many of our bowls were getting tossed because of chipping. I love things like this – we make a smart business decision that is also eco-smart. Obviously we save money the less plates we throw away and the less dishwashing cycles that we have to run. But we also are doing something good for the eco footprint of our restaurant in the process. Details like this are where a business likes ours makes its eco impact. I hate how all these restaurants are like ‘we have cups make of corn’ and everyone things they are so sustainable. Arggg. (Note: we use corn cups right now, but hopefully before the year is out we will have a MUCH more sustainable solution in place!)

The Problem With The Food Industry

I get into discussions all of the time with people about how the average consumer is somewhat powerless to try and eat a healthier diet.  Big food companies spend all of their efforts making foods that you really shouldn’t be consuming and then they market and position them on shelves in ways that makes a person have to go so far out of their way to get an alternative that most never do.

Case in point, the new version of Gatorade, ‘G Natural”.  I just was reading some Tour de France coverage and saw this online ad.  Great job PepsiCo.  You realized that ‘normal’ Gatorade, the type that 99% of people know about, is not natural so you create a sub brand that is all natural, rebrand it, and then sell it through ONE retailer.  Not that I have anything against Whole Foods, I actually love them, but Whole Foods, previous to this version of Gatorade did not sell Gatorade.  Plus, because Gatorade seems to be sold in every gas station and grocery store on the planet, does selling this version at Whole Foods give the majority of Gatorade consumers a chance to try it?  Not even close.  Why should only people who shop at Whole Foods have access to an all natural version of Gatorade?

Going further, why even make the non-natural version anymore?  You took the time and effort to rebrand, why not take the opportunity to rebrand the entire Gatorade franchise and make it the all natural alternative?   Why do customers in low income areas with no Whole Foods get left out in the cold in their hunt for an all natural sports drink?  Is it because regular Gatorade is basically corn water (thanks to sweetening it with high fructose corn syrup) and corn is really cheap and therefore Pepsi thinks that all they can sell to lower income customers is a cheaper drink?  That is probably it, as companies like PepsiCo have done an outstanding job lobbying to kill things like the proposed soda tax in NY state.  I just love how they are positioning it as bad for consumers to pay more for things like soda and that it causes an undue burden on them.  THAT IS THE POINT OF THE TAX!!  The people proposing the tax WANT people to balk at the price and consume less soda.  Same reason why NY taxes the heck out of cigarettes.  You charge….. Read More

Thinnest states today are like the fattest states in 1991

From our friends at Treehugger.com

“Both images–taken from the F Is For Fat report [PDF]–show obesity trends in the US among adults, the top from 1991 and the bottom from 2007-2009.

The lightest blue areas have less than 10% obesity rates, the next two blue shades represent 10-20% obesity rates. This is where we were in 1991, with no state in the US (which reported data, the white areas didn’t report) having greater than 20% obesity.

The purple is 20-25% obesity, followed by red at 25-30% and orange at greater than 30%. Note that only one state in the 2007-2009 timeframe, Colorado, is in the blue range.

Today our statistically thinnest state has a 19.1% obesity rate among adults, combined obese and overweight is 55.6%. Our fattest, Mississippi (which was also in the bulging ranks in twenty years ago) has an obesity rate of 33.8%, and a combined rate of 68.6%.”

I find this fascinating.  in 20 years, as a nation, we have gotten A LOT fatter.  In the same period of time health care costs have skyrocketed, cancer rates have risen, etc etc.  Coincidence?  I think not.  When I go to the grocery store now, all I can find is heavily processed food if I stray from the perimeter of the store (and even there it is getting pretty bad these days).  EVERYTHING has sugar added to it.  Even at places like Whole Foods, the majority of the foods sold are decidedly not whole.  I have made crackers before.  Pretty easy recipe, flour, salt, yeast, water.  Try finding crackers in the grocery store that have less than 20 ingredients.  We really have no idea what effect all of this processed food has on the body – it is all too new.  One thing we do know though, is that people are eating a lot more it and obesity rates are blowing up.  This has to change.