Neato Burrito

Neato is one of a small handful of places in the downtown region where I like to eat for quick and cheap good food.

Good bike parking: the restaurant is all window, so you can lean your bike on the window and gaze upon it as you dine. You can also lock to a railing which is in view.

The music usually annoys me, but I sometimes think that's kind of the point. The folks working the counter are typically good eggs: local kids in between life adventures.

Tim and Patty own this place and they're worthy of a post on their own at some point. Like many, I first met Tim when he was working the entire restaurant at Benidittos v2. He was a pain in the ass surly bastard but he was the second most efficient food server I'd ever witnessed. Over the years, I've gotten to know him just a tiny bit and I'm really impressed by his resourcefulness, work ethic, and general goodness as a father and local citizen type.

Anyway. I dig the tofu filling at Neato. The burrito is a perfect tofu application. The Neato tofu literally looks like puke, so it's a damn good thing that it comes wrapped in a burrito.

My standard Neato burrito: flour tortilla, brown rice, black beans, tofu, cheese, corn salsa, habanero salsa. Each bite gets a dash of Valencia hot sauce. I think it's about $7 for the burrito.

Water solution here is good: big-ass plastic cups with serve-your-self thing.

Tim and Patty always have interesting beer on tap, though I've been there a couple times when there was not an IPA, which I find distressing. They always waste at least one tap on some cheap-o hipster crap beer du jour. But that's their bread and butter, so you can't exactly fault them for that.

Just recently they've added a coffee/pastry morning thing. I've had one vegan chocolate cup cake that was off-the-charts great, but otherwise, I'm not prepared to comment.