Welcome to the neighborhood, Cheba Hut. (Eric Lubbers, The Denver Post)

Chickens getting high? Natural grocer, 420-friendly sandwich shop do battle

A friend of mine said “only big cities have billboard fights.”

Denver, welcome to the big time.

Cheba Hut sandwich shop (which opened just a few weeks ago at East Colfax Avenue and Washington Street) wasted no time staking out its territory by poking fun at neighbor Natural Grocers’ anti-GMO billboard.

The Fort Collins-based sandwich chain is no stranger to drug references (see its name, marketing materials, employee T-shirts and menu for more examples), or using their marquee as a platform for humor.

During the renovation of the new location (formerly a bodega, which according to former Cap Hill resident Dan Schneider was an Everyday for years), the sign read “THIS S**T IS TAKING FOREVER” for about 12 hours before being replaced with the more family-friendly “SO CLOSE YOU CAN SMELL IT.”

Full disclosure, despite my apartment being ~660 feet away from this intersection, we here at The Den were first alerted to this juxtaposition on /r/Denver via redditor liljerryseinfeld. Additional hat tips to Joe Murphy, the above-mentioned friend, and Editor-in-Chief of The Den’s Brooklyn Bureau.

This story was first published on DenverPost.com