A Local's Guide To A Girl's Getaway In Boulder

Curating the perfect girlfriend getaway in Boulder is a combination of gourmet eats and athletic feats.

Alexis powers her adventures with wholesome food.

When visiting Boulder to seek locally sourced food, high-quality coffee, scenic bike rides and unique retail therapy, there’s one woman to ask for where-to tips: Lentine Alexis. The former professional cyclist and classically trained chef wears multiple hats, including working as the culinary director for Cured (curedboulder.com), a specialty food store on Pearl Street; acting as a culinary consultant (lentinealexis.‌com); working for brands like Rapha and Specialized; and representing Whole Foods as a chef ambassador. She’s also a soon-to-be cookbook author. Her Instagram (@lentinealexis) stories of beautiful high-country picnics and awe-inspiring bike rides fueled by homemade treats—think pop tarts made from freshly milled flour from grains grown within 100 miles of Boulder and filled with cherries from her backyard tree—will surely have you planning your next Boulder getaway.

What might Aspenites appreciate in Boulder?
Boulder has an amazing local food economy, and the community is connected to it. One hundred percent of what I’m eating—except maybe avocados—from May to November is coming from a local farm.

Lentine Alexis on the roads around Boulder, famous for cycling.

Describe your perfect Boulder day.
I’d grab coffee at Boxcar Coffee Roasters (don’t miss pastry chef Milli’s soft yeast doughnut with cinnamon and cardamom topped with an Earl Grey glaze) or Rapha, and go to the farmers market early. Later, I’d head out on a bike ride up Flagstaff or out to Gold Hill, the sweetest little mountain town with gravel road access. I’d come back and grab a juice at Wonder before visiting friends at Cedar & Hyde Mercantile or Two Hands Paperie to pick up something special. Then I’d take Caitlin Rose Kenney’s Yin yoga class at The Little Yoga Studio. Then I’d bike down Pearl for cocktails at Corrida, a Spanish-style tapas spot with the best rooftop bar in Boulder (tableside gin and tonics, anyone?). Afterward, it’s dinner at OAK at Fourteenth, which offers farm-driven menus that change with the seasons. (Don’t miss the bruschetta with homemade wood-fired bread or the goat’s milk panna cotta.)

Sounds like the perfect girlfriend getaway.
When girlfriends come to visit, I love riding to a great food spot like Moxie Bread Co., an organic heirloom wheat bakery in Louisville, or Babette’s Pizza & Pane in Longmont. Or we pack a picnic with supplies from Cured and hike Green Mountain for the best view of town.

Hotel Boulderado’s The Corner Bar, at the intersection Spruce and 13th streets, is a popular meeting place.

And if they’re not staying chez Lentine?
I’m partial to the Hotel Boulderado. I love the history; I love the location, and there’s nothing pretentious about it.

(Writer’s note: I followed Lentine’s advice and stayed at the Hotel Boulderado and couldn’t have been happier in the 100-year-old landmark hotel one block off Pearl Street with a recent award-winning renovation. The five-story Italian Renaissance-Spanish Revival brick building beckons locals and visitors to its spectacular atrium lobby, and, inside, you’ll find enough stories to warrant an in-house historian.) Rooms from $152 per night, 2115 13th St., hotelboulderado.com