Pardon Our Dust

Good morning from the Qdoba Queen! I know you’ve all come to depend on my tri-weekly posts as a source of mental and literal sustenance in your lives, but we’re taking just the shortest of time off to do some sight maintenance and get some great stuff prepared for everyone out in blog land!  So we’ve got the site listed as “protected” right now while we rearrange, but fret not for we’ll be beaming back into your computer in no time (even though you probably can’t even read this since it’s still a protected post…quite the paradox).  But don’t worry, we’ll unprotect it soon and then the posts while fly as fast and as furiously as grandma’s accusations when someone DVRs over her soap operas.  I promise.

All the best!

—QQ—

Menu Monday: Qdoba Chicken Nachos

Hello hello my lovelies, time for your Monday Qdoba Queen check in, now with 30% more queso (I like queso).

If you follow the blog at all, you know that every now and again I like to pop in and suggest some of my favorite items from the Qdoba Menu in a segment I call Menu Monday.  However, I know that sometimes a queen can be a little biased toward her kingdom (queendom?), so I thought it was only right to bring in the thoughts and opinions of a few of our loyal Qdoba subjects in order to illustrate the beauty, depth, and deliciousness of the Qdoba product!

This is Jenny.  And when she’s not busy coyly avoiding eye contact with the camera, she enjoys coming into the Qdoba Grandview location and whipping up a custom, made-to-order batch of the Qdoba Chicken Nachos — a dish I like to call Nachos ala Jenny.  With all her favorite fixin’s and just a touch of that Qdoba Grandview flair, Jenny’s created a dish that’s good enough to share…but so delicious that she doesn’t want to (and who could blame her?).  Jenny says she hits up the Grandview Qdoba about once a week with her fellow coworkers from a little private school she calls Ohio State University (I’ve never heard of it, sounds made up).

Jenny and her famous Qdoba Chicken Nachos...feel free to copy her style.

Special thanks to Jenny and her Menu Monday creativity, if you want to get in on your own Menu Monday creations and maybe even end up internet-famous on this blog, just swing by the Grandview Qdoba and keep an eye out for the Queen or one of her faithful assistants in the burrito bourgeois (that’s a compliment, I promise).

Check back Wednesday for more Qdoba goodness wrapped tighter than a Pablano Pesto Burrito (with queso!).
—QQ—

The Friday Five: Best Summer Jams to Eat By

Fact: everything is better with music.  Don’t believe me?  Then go get your own Qdoba franchises, start your own blog, and write something contradictory.  Until then, my word is burrito law (which by the way would make a great cable television cop drama…Burrito Law, coming Thursdays on TNT — We Know Drama…and Burritos).  So in an effort to kickstart your Qdoba eating soundtrack into overdrive, I’ve come up with the Five Best Summer Jams to Eat By for this week’s Friday Five.  Feel free to leave your Five Fave Jams in the comments section.  Let’s get it started!

1) California Girls — The Beach Boys
Not to be confused with the Katy Perry tune of the same (albeit incorrectly spelled) name, this song is the quintessential summer tune, with Brian Wilson’s trademark harmonies that make your burrito taste so much better.

2) The Boys of Summer — The Ataris (made famous by Don Henley)
Most times it seems like covers of popular songs are poorly thought out, less-than-stellar clones of the original.  One exception to this unwritten rule is the version of Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” that The Ataris released in the mid 2000s.  Fast, fun, chorus and a personalized flair with enough of the original vibe intact to please fans of the original, this summer jam is a must for any mid-year mealtime mix CD.

3) Young Forever — Jay-Z (featuring Mr. Hudson)
Ok, so I know that Jay-Z probably isn’t the first artist you think of when you’re getting ready to jam out your summer tunes or slam some delicious Qdoba Craft2 combos, but this sample of the famous Rod Stewart Forever Young gives a solid backbeat and a fun flavor to any sunny drive with the windows down and queso nachos on hand (for the record, I’m not endorsing eating your queso nachos while driving…be safe, people)!

4) God Save the Foolish Kings — House of Heroes
If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I’m all about supporting the local Grandview/Columbus scene, and they don’t get much more local than the homegrown boys from small-label band House of Heroes (a four-piece split of Hilliard and Dublin guys) who just put out the perfect summer album, complete with the single that will make sure you’re tapping your feet and chewing your food in time to their catchy, Queen-inspired tribute to the good ol’ days of Grease-era, 50s gang violence.  Be the coolest one of your friends and go download this track and/or album from iTunes and then brag about how knowledgeable about the local music scene you are.  You can thank the Queen later.

5) Somebody to Love — Queen
And speaking of Queen, what kind of Qdoba Queen would I be if I didn’t pay homage to the original feel good, summertime music of those British behemoths from the classic rock era?  Sure, it would be easy enough to go with We Are the Champions, Fat Bottomed Girls, We Will Rock You, or the legendary Bohemian Rhapsody or any of their genre-changing hit singles, but Somebody to Love really encompasses all the best things about sharing a meal with your friends on the Grandview Qdoba patio.  Brotherly (and sisterly) love, good food, good memories, and good times are the ingredients to this song, and I guarantee your enjoyment of this season and our chow will go way up if you have this song blaring in the background.

I may have just out-rocked myself, time to go cool off with a nice naked burrito and a Coronoa.  The Queen abides.

—QQ—

Meet the Queen!

Hey guys and gals, Qdoba Queen checking in…

I hope everyone’s taking a crack at playing Queen Quest (the Where’s Waldo where if you track me down in the Qdoba-mobile or my car with the Qdoba vanity plate you can win a free burrito, on me!), but it dawns on me that your average queen might seem aloof or unapproachable, which might be scaring some of you away from trying your hand at Queen Quest.  Well fret not my burrito-loving subjects, ‘cause I tracked down VIDEO EVIDENCE that I am the nicest and friendliest burrito dictator since Castro (ok, maybe a bad example).  To take a gander at this gem and tell me you don’t feel just like you’re part of the family (not you can’t borrow any money for the weekend).

So last fall I had a chance to sit down with the awesome TasteCasting Team and give them a firsthand glimpse into what sets Qdoba apart from the other tortilla-wielding establishments in town (I’ll give you a hint: it’s our menu, which has so much diversity on it you’d think it was a We Are the World remake from the ’70s), and they were just as gracious and as full of delicious Qdoba food as could be.  Take, read, and keep a look out for my next video to you guys!

This post will self-destruct in 3…2…1…
Kidding!  See you here Friday!
—QQ—

The Queen Gets Fairtastic!

It’s late summer here in beautiful central Ohio, which can only mean one thing for the Qdoba Queen: Ohio State Fair is full on and ready to go with all the elephant ear, fried everything, Cup O’ Noodles, make-a-shot-win-a-prize action you can shake a corndog at. And that’s just according to the commercial, so you can only imagine how much more the real thing rocked. Luckily for all you fine followers in the WWW (that’s World Wide Web to the uninitiated), I went to the fair today, and I must say it lived up to all the fairtastic hype and then some.  If you didn’t get a chance to go with your friends, family, or loved ones, you missed out on some of the best soy-and-horse-based entertainment the Buckeye State has to offer.  I have a picture of a cow whose milk was actually used to make my milkshake, and indeed it was a very special milkshake (though definitely not the kind that “brings all the boys to the yard”).  As soon as I get a couple pictures off my phone you will see what I’m talking about and immediately be jealous.

In burrito-based news, you can still play Queen Quest (aka Where’s Paula) and win some free chow if you find my personal car with the vanity plate “Qdoba” or the Qdoba truck that I also drive on occasion.  Just mention that you read the blog and we’ll hook it up.  Let’s see the Queen of England do THAT for her subjects (as far as I know she’s never even given a scrap of food to anyone…not even that charming Oliver lad who asked so nicely).  We’re also cooking up (literally) some fun things for the end of summer and early fall, so make sure you check the blog often (I usually post new updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), and as always, give a holler if you have some constructive suggestions for your heir to the blogging throne.

Until we meet again, I bid you fair-well!
—QQ—

The Friday Five: Five Ways the Ohio State Fair is Like a Qdoba Burrito

Hey guys, sorry we missed out on our usual Wednesday post, but I lost power due to the crazy thunderstorms, and as it turns out, computers and the internet are still run on electricity.  Weird, I know.

Aside from the crazy weather, things are pretty normal here in the Qdoba Queendom, make sure you’re on the lookout for me — either in my car with the Qdoba vanity plate or driving the Qdoba Truck…find me and mention social media and it’s free food in your stomach.  Couldn’t be easier.

In on other news, it’s my favorite time of the Ohio State year because it’s Ohio State Fair time!  I’ll have more to post on this soon, but for now, your Friday five is gonna be the Five Ways the Ohio State Fair is Like a Qdoba Burrito (whew, that post was as much of a mouthful as a queso burrito).  Here we go.

The Five Ways the Ohio State Fair is Like a Qdoba Burrito.

1) Both are better when shared with a friend (or several).

2) Both chock a ton of content into a very small area.

3) Both were government -founded programs started in the 1800s (ok, so I may have made that one up).

4) Both are tastiest when experienced directly after a 3rd-class roller coaster.

5) Ten percent of all fair revenue goes to plugging up the oil spill that’s contaminated J.C. Chasez’s hair.

Have a great weekend,
—QQ—

Menu Monday: Three Cheese Nachos

Happy August from the Qdoba Queen, everybody!

Hopefully you’re enjoying the trials and tribulations of your Monday morning in the merriest of ways…or at the very least, faking it through your day so you can get home and watch some Shark Week action (I’m trying to talk Grandview Police into letting us do “BYO Harpoon Day” at Qdoba, so far they don’t seem interested).  Speaking of local Grandview references, don’t forget that if you can track me down around town driving either the Qdoba Truck or my personal car with “Qdoba” on the vanity plate (pics to come at some point in the near future), I will hook you up with some free burrito swag!  Score!  We might not have sharks at the Fifth Avenue Qdoba, but that doesn’t stop us from having a feeding frenzy.

This week for Menu Monday I wanted to pull out a dish that I love, but that doesn’t get enough love from the masses.  It’s our Qdoba Three-Cheese Nachos, and while I can’t take credit for inventing them (that honor belongs to the head chefs at our headquarters…aka HQdoba), it’s still worth pointing out how delicious and awesome and unique they are (especially when compared with — ahem — certain competitors who think that dry chips in a bag counts as a meal).  Like all of our Qdoba faves, you can customize or plagiarize this entrée all you want, but here’s the way I get it:

+Toasty, fresh, warm Qdoba chips
+Grilled steak
+Qdoba’s secret-recipe three-cheese queseo
+Black beans
+Salsas roja and verde
+Shredded cheese
+Pico de gallo (aka our fresh tomatoes and veggies mix)
+Qdoba’s fresh, hand-smashed guacamole

I'm not gonna lie, I got so excited about my Three-Cheese Nachos that I forgot to take a pic before I started eating them. Whoops. Über tasty though.

…and boom, you’ve got yourself the perfect answer for the question mark of hunger.  And it’s also a great item to share with a friend or family member if you’re looking to make your Qdoba experience a multi-course meal…some nachos, a couple of fountain sodas, our Mango Salad for the Mrs., and a Pablano Pesto burrito for yourself.  And all for less than the cost of a couple pizzas — that’s eating smart and hard.

Ok gang, I’ve given you the tools to eat well, so now it’s just up to you to do it up right.  We’ll be waiting for ya!

Eat on,
—QQ—

The Friday Five: The Five Best Places to Eat Your Burrito

Well how do you like that, Qdoba Queen here, and it looks like we’ve got ourselves a bit of a Friday on our hands, so you know what that means…it’s time for the Qdoba Queen’s patented Friday Five!  Before I regale you with the fiviest of Friday lists, here’s a quick recap of what you missed this week: A) our last Buy One, Get One Wednesday was this week, but stay tuned, because you never know when a BOGO deal will pop up for our loyal Qdoba Qummunity.  B  ) I’m back from Los Angeles, which means that if you want to play Queen Quest and track my vehicles down for a free entrée, you can!  Just look for either the Qdoba truck or my car with the Qdoba license plate strolling along the streets of Grandview.  And C) the Pelotonia is coming up faster than Lance Armstrong on a 17% grade hill, so send me your comments and stories so we can make everyone not involved with it feel guilty (just kidding…kind of).

And with business out of the way, let’s focus on the pleasure part of the post, The Five Best Places to Eat Your Burrito:

1) On a boat.
Fact: everything is better on a boat, so it makes sense that a nautical background would only make our Qdoba courses taste all the better.

2) In a car.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to eat spaghetti or salad while you’re late driving in to work, but it’s not a pleasant experience.  Burritos and quesadillas are much handier and self-contained, perfect for consumption on the go.

3) At a ballgame.
Sure, anyone can snack on peanuts and crackerjacks, but what’d really make people care to come back is for real food!  Why spend money on Dime-A-Dog night when you could spend it on a meal that fills you up just as much, tastes delicious, and isn’t comprised of a cow’s anatomical leftovers?  It’s as American as $9 beers at a Triple A baseball game.

4) In Mexico.
It’s a little-know factoid that the burrito actually wasn’t invented in Mexico, nor by Mexicans…but that doesn’t mean our brothers below the border don’t deserve all the top-notch Qdoba Queso and all the naked burritos they can handle. Get some Qdoba Catering and show those guys what they’ve been missing out on.

5) On the Qdoba Grandview Patio.
I can’t say it enough times: most fast food establishments that have “patios” really just mean it’s a place for them to stick their spare trash cans or for their employees to take a smoke break.  The Grandview Qdoba has a patio complete with real, fully functional tables that you can sit upon and eat your real meal like the real human being you are.  Umbrellas to block out the direct sunlight or indirect rain, the patio is a magical world where you are the one who creates the burrito-consuming atmosphere that suits you best.  Top that, Taco Bell.

Well I’m off for another weekend of pleasing stomachs and angering competitors with our superior products and lower prices.  Until next time, chow down!
—QQ—

Food Fit for a Qdoba Queen (and Last July BOGO!)

The question I’m asked most often (second only to “Will you please adopt me and my family so we can eat all your awesome food for free?”) is “What do you like to eat at Qdoba?”

The answer is: everything.  However, I understand that in these economic times, that not everyone can afford to order everything off the entire menu every single time they visit…it would probably also give you a bit of a stomach ache.  So on this BOGO Wednesday (the last one for a while, so get in and get your free food asap…more on that below), I’ve decided to share with you a dish of my own creation.  Separate from the phenomenal pre-picked choices we give you on the menu at Qdoba Grandview, is an item I like to call the Green Queen.  How do you order one of these tasty and filling dishes?  The recipe is as follows, and can be made at the Grandview Qdoba (or any Qdoba that has the right ingredient selection):

+Naked Qdoba bowl

+Rice with cilantro

+Black beans

+Freshly cooked steak

+Our exclusive-recipe three-cheese queso

+Pico de gallo, Salsa Verde and Salsa Roja

+Sour cream and cheese

+Hand-smashed, made-fresh-daily Qdoba guacamole

Ask for the Green Queen at Qdoba...and then explain what it actually is.

And there it is, The Green Queen (althought they won’t know what that is when you order it, so make sure you’re ready to specify the items unless all you’re ordering for dinner is blank stares : )

I recommend trying one, or at minimum ordering one for your friends and loved ones, then trying some of theirs.  It’s a delight to the senses (mostly the taste and smell sense, although it’s certainly pretty to look at as well).

In other Qdoba Qummunity news, today is the LAST DAY for Buy One, Get One Wednesdays in July.  Which means it’s your last chance to come in and buy a burrito/entrée, then walk out with a second burrito/entrée (of equal or lesser value, but definitely of equal awesomeness) ABSOLUTELY FREE.  When was the last time you got free food just because it was Wednesday and someone likes you?  Not recently, unless you’re counting the leftover donuts that Dunkin’ Donuts tosses out on Wednesday mornings.  So come in and take my food from me, for free.  It’s a heck of a business model.

See you back here on Friday, until then, my friends!

Qdoba: burrito better.

—QQ—

Menu Monday: Three Cheese Nachos…FROM SPACE!

Hello, friends!  Qdoba Queen signed on with another fab burrito bulletin to brighten the beginning of your work week!

A question I get all the time is, “Your royal and most important highness, if it be your will, please tell me which Qdoba items you like best.”  …Ok, so maybe the question isn’t usually phrased exactly like that, but the idea remains the same: the people wanna know what the Queen and her cohorts are ordering at Qdoba.  Since I love alliteration so much (if you don’t believe me just read the first sentence of this post), I thought I could do a segment called Menu Monday where we tap into the brains (and stomachs) of our delightful Qdoba Qummunity and find out what makes them love their Grandview Qdoba experience so much.  And because it was my idea, I get to start (it’s good to be the queen).

Now of course I’m 100% unbiased, so I should tell you that I love each and every item and ingredient we serve equally (would any mother be able to choose a favorite child? No way.  Not even if her children were burritos), but something that really impresses me about what we do is our awesome Three-Cheese Nachos.  If you’ve ever been to Qdoba before, you know our queso is simply out-of-this-world good, so you can imagine how deliriously delicious our queso, combined with two other cheeses and all of our burrito bar fixin’s would be.

Burritos have got some new competition in town with the Three Cheese Nachos

…Doesn’t that make you just wanna eat the screen?  Now in the next few weeks I’m gonna be turning the tables and asking YOU readers what you like to eat (I’ll even be swinging through the store sometimes to get some Queen-on-the-street reporting done about what menu items you like best, so be ready!), so make sure you’re always ready to rock out some Qdoba goodness and you just might end up on a blog!

Until then, eat well, my friends!

—QQ—