Road Tips

Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub - Madison, WI

On a recent trip to Madison, I took a couple guys from one of my dealers out to dinner.  Madison, of course, is a big beer town with a number of restaurants and brew pubs with good food and great beer.  We had been to Great Dane brew pub a handful of times (click here to see my entry on Great Dane) and I was sort of looking to mix things up.  One of the guys said, "Well, Sprecher's (a small brewery out of Milwaukee) has a brew pub over near Middleton.  They have great food.  We could go there."  Since I was staying in a hotel in the same general area that evening, I enthusiastically agreed that we should go there.  

Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub is located in an area of West Madison that has a number of hotels and restaurants (see map).  The building it's housed in used to be a Houlihan's until franchise owner Randy Lederer decided the didn't want to be tied to a chain any longer - especially a chain that had been slowly fading away. (Today, there are less than 50 Houlihan's restaurants across America.)  Lederer approached Sprecher Brewing Company owner Randy Sprecher with an idea that would exclusively pair Sprecher beers with upscale pub food.  Sprecher was sold on the concept.  The first Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub opened in Madison in early 2010.  Lederer - who along with his wife, Katy, and his in-law's, Felix and Kristin Richgels own the licensing for the Sprecher pubs - turned one of his Houlihan's locations in the Wisconsin Dells area into a Sprecher Restaurant and Pub a year later, then transformed a third location in Lake Geneva into a Sprecher location, as well.  There has been talk of opening a Milwaukee location, but that hasn't happened as of yet.  

Our small group got into the restaurant around 6:30 and we were greeted by a hostess who asked if we wanted to sit in the bar to the right, or in the dining area that was in front of us.  There was a pretty good sized crowd in the bar area and it was pretty loud.  We decided to sit in the spacious and somewhat elegant dining room (below right) to discuss a little business before having a relaxing dinner and multiple beers.   

 
We were seated at a table with banquette seats on one side of the table and chairs on the other side.  Our hostess left off dinner menus for us, and soon after our server for the evening - Lynsey - came over to greet  us and get our beer order.  The restaurant has 14 Sprecher beers on tap and four of their soda selections including their awesome root beer.  I don't drink pop any longer, but the Sprecher root beer is one of the best I've ever had.  But, it's - OH! - so sweet and rich that even when I did drink pop, it was difficult to take more than a few sips of the stuff.  

To me, the Sprecher beers have also been a little too sweet for my taste.  We've had Sprecher beers many times at Summerfest in Milwaukee.  While I can't call them my favorite, they're still better than drinking Miller Lite.  Their Amber beer was probably my favorite, but it was still a little too sweet for me.  On the beer menu at the Sprecher restaurant they had an India pale ale that I decided to try. One of the other guys got the Black Bavarian beer - a dark beer with a full body.  They had the seasonal Winter brew on tap during our visit, described as a "flavorful blend of dark roasted and sweet caramel malts defines this smooth and robust lager."  My other guest got that and I immediately asked Lynsey if I could get a sample of that.  She said, "Do you want a taste or a sample size?"  What's the difference, I asked.  She said, "I can just bring you out a small taste in a glass or a 4 oz. sample."  I took the 4 oz. sample.  I found out later on that the other difference was a $1.95 charge for the sample.  

Looking through the menu, the Sprecher Restaurant and Pub had a long list of appetizers, as well as a number of entrees that are almost too numerous to mention.  I was a little worried about the quality of the food because they had everything from steaks, seafood, sandwiches, salads, a number of burgers, flat bread pizzas, barbecue, German food, Irish pub favorites and American comfort food.  It seems that restaurants who do a little bit of everything don't do them all very well.  

As we were looking through the menus, it was time to get another beer.   My I.P.A. was all right, nothing special, but I did like the taste of the Winter Brew and signed up for one of those for my second beer.  My one guest also got a second Winter Brew, while the other guest decided the Black Bavarian was a little too heavy for him so he switched to the Hefe Weiss.

After conducting a little business at the table, we were ready to order our food.  I was torn between the schnitzel - breaded pork tenderloins served with a lemon caper sauce and topped with a fried egg; or the meat loaf - a special meat blend that comes with veggies and pepper jack cheese, then topped with their onion straws and a brown gravy.  They also had jambalaya on the menu that caught my eye.  But I thought the schnitzel or meat loaf would be better.  When Lynsey came by to take our order, I almost jumped on the meat loaf, but ended up getting the schnitzel.  

One of my guests that evening ordered the tender tips - beef tips tossed with Wit-beer marinated mushrooms served over beer-cheese potatoes and topped with a red wine reduction sauce.  That actually sounded pretty good.  He told me, "Oh man.  My wife and I have eaten here over a dozen times over the past three years.  And that's our favorite thing on the menu."

My other guest got the California burger - a burger with pepper jack cheese and guacamole on top.  (I had a burger for lunch, or I would have been interested in looking into the Mushroom/Swiss cheese burger that is topped with a red-wine reduction sauce; or the Breakfast burger that is topped with cheddar cheese, bacon and a fried egg.  I may have to go back there for lunch at some point.)  

Our food made its way to the table and I was ready to eat.  The Winter Brew was very good - probably the best Sprecher beer I've had.  I didn't think it was sweet as compared to other Sprecher brews I've had in the past.  I was looking forward to pairing it with my schnitzel.  

My schnitzel featured two medium sized pieces of pounded pork filets, covered with a breading and pan-fried.  A small egg was on top and a small container of the lemon caper sauce was off to the side with a medley of veggies.  The schnitzel was a little dried out and even the lemon caper sauce had a hard time making it palatable.  It was all right, but definitely not the best schnitzel I've ever had.  

 
The tender beef tips were served in a bowl with large button mushrooms and onion straws on top.  My guest who had that was in heaven.  "This is the best thing on the menu," he said between bites.  "The burgers are good here, too.  But this is my go-to item on the menu."  

My guest with the California burger was very pleased with his burger, as well.  It came on a bed of lettuce and red onion slices with French fries on the side.  There was a liberal amount of guacamole on the burger.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  This is good.  They do have good burgers here."  I'll have to try either the Breakfast burger or the Mushroom/Swiss cheese burger if I make it back.

After we'd finished, Lynsey came back with our bill.  I was sort of surprised that she didn't ask if we wanted anything else because we all wanted an after dinner beer.  I sort of kiddingly asked, "Do you want us to leave?  We were thinking of getting another beer."  

She sort of jumped and embarrassingly said, "Oh!  I'm so sorry!  Sure, you can stay!  Stay as long as you want!"  I immediately ordered up another Winter brew, while my other guest who had been drinking the Winter brew switched to the Pipers Scotch Ale - a reddish-brown beer with a slightly smoky taste.  My other guest - full from his beef tip entree - decided to go light with the Fire-Light, the lightest beer Sprecher has in their beer arsenal.  I've had it before and it has a distinctive fruit taste that I didn't care for.  I was happy with my Winter Brew.

My schnitzel was pretty underwhelming and, as I suspected, a place that has many diverse things on the menu doesn't do all of them well.  My guests seemed to like their beef tips and burger, respectively.  Overall, the experience at Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub was nice, we had good service from Lynsey and the dining room was a very comfortable setting.  I'm just wondering if they could cut down on a third of their items on the menu and focus more on the food that is left.  I just think there's too many things to choose from on their menu and some items - like the schnitzel - suffer because of it.   

Kirkwood Station Brewing Company - Kirkwood, MO

On a recent trip to St. Louis, I had a late day meeting with the guys from one of my dealers.  Knowing that we'd go out for beers and food afterward and talk a little more business, one of the guys was telling me about a place that he had gone to after a concert a few weeks prior.  He said, "I'd heard about this place, but I'd never been there.  Actually, the beer and the food was pretty good."  The name of the place was Kirkwood Station Brewing Company in the near St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood - a nice little upscale community with a number of shops and restaurants in its downtown area.  I thought that sounded good to me.  

Kirkwood Station Brewing Company has been in business since 2009, but they've only been known as Kirkwood Station for a little over a year.  When they first opened, they were called Highlands Brewing, named after an old upscale resort that was in Kirkwood over 100 years ago, Meramec Highlands Resort.   However, the Highland Brewing Company in North Carolina filed suit against the Kirkwood brew pub for copyright infringement.  In the summer of 2011, a judge ruled that Highlands Brewing Company had to change their name, so owner Mike Willerton held a contest through Facebook asking patrons to rename the business.  Their new name, Kirkwood Station, pays homage to the nearby historic Kirkwood Train Station.

Dave Johnson oversees the brewing operation at Kirkwood Station which features nearly 20 year-round and seasonal beers on tap.  Johnson was formerly the assistant brewer at O'Fallon Brewery, and before that he was the brewmaster at Buffalo Brewing Co., a brew pub in midtown St. Louis.  In addition to their craft brewed beers, Kirkwood Station also offers the usual domestic and imported beers for those who prefer those brands.  

Kirkwood Station Brewing Company is located just east of the corner of E. Jefferson and N. Kirkwood Ave (S. Lindbergh when it's not going through Kirkwood) in a building that used to be the old Alandale Brewing Company before Willerton bought the business. (see map)  There is parking on the street in front of the business, but there's also a large parking lot just to the east.  But because there are a number of eating establishments in the immediate area, that lot can be full - like it was when I drove in there around 7:00 p.m.  However, a couple people were leaving and I only had to wait a couple minutes for a parking place to open up.

Kirkwood Station has an outdoor seating area in front of the restaurant/brew pub.  It was a nice night and we contemplated sitting outside for a moment, but the close proximity of Jefferson Ave. and the traffic going back and forth told us that it probably would be sort of loud from time to time.  

Coming into Kirkwood Station, they have a large blackboard with a listing of the beers they have to offer that day, along with food specials and upcoming bands that will play at the brew pub.  In fact, Kirkwood Station is sort of split in half.  To your right as you come in is The Tunnel, Kirkwood Station's live music venue that also serves as a secondary bar and dining area.  The Tunnel is named after the locally famous Kirkwood Tunnel that was built back in 1883.  The Kirkwood Tunnel, also known as the Frisco Tunnel after the St. Louis and San Francisco rail line, was 400 feet in length, 20 feet high and 12 feet wide.  When he bought the brewpub back in 2009, owner Willerton stated that he wanted to make his place the "Blueberry Hill" of live entertainment on the southwest side of St. Louis.  (Blueberry Hill is a hip and funky restaurant/entertainment establishment in the Delmar Loop area of St. Louis that features the Duck Room, their main stage entertainment room where local legend Chuck Berry plays once a month.  Click here to see my entry on Blueberry Hill, but I really need to get back there to do a more in-depth look at the place.)

We took a seat in the main bar/dining room to the left as you come into Kirkwood Station.  There was a lively crowd in the brew pub that evening, even for the middle of the week.  We were given menus and not long after our waiter for the evening, Kevin, came by to greet us.  One of the guys who had been there before said, "We only had appetizers the first time we were here and the beer seemed decent."  He looked at Kevin and said, "What are you guys known here for food?"

Kevin said, "Ah, I'm probably not the one to ask that.  This is my first night working here.  I mean, I've been here three days so far getting trained, but this is my first night of waiting on tables.  I've had the burger and it's pretty good.  And some of the appetizers are good.  But I'm not going to B.S. you and tell you what we're famous for."  

We weren't certain what we wanted to order for our first beer, so we asked for a couple minutes to take a look at the beer menu.  As he walked away, my guest said, "Well, that's great.  It's his first night.  But at least he didn't bullshit us."

The bar/dining room area features a large bar that snakes across the east side of the room.  Three long shelves on either side of a middle partition hold a large number of liquor.  There were a number of flat panel televisions interspersed throughout the room.  Thick wooden tables with sturdy chairs were spaced across the floor and a handful of booths lined the wall opposite the bar.   

The brewing facility was in a room with large windows to the left of the bar as you were looking at it.  With the high ceiling with exposed rafters and the wooden floor, it was sort of loud in the place.  One of the guys said, "Maybe we should have gotten a table outside.  It's loud in here and it's not even half full."

Kevin came back and I ordered up their India Pale Ale.  It's more of an American-style IPA with a forward hop taste.  One of the guys ordered the Brown Ale, also an American-style brown brewed with 9 different types of malt.  The other guy got the Altbier, one of their seasonals that they had that particular evening.  It's a German-style that uses a warm-fermenting yeast during the brewing process.  

We decided to order up some appetizers.  My guest who had been there before said they had the crab dip appetizer when they were there before.  It's served warm with tortilla chips.  I also saw that they had fried pickles on the menu.  I asked the guys, "You guys ever had fried pickles before?"  They both said they had not.  I told them of my experience of having fried pickles at J.K. O'Donnell's in Fort Wayne, IN.  I said, "If these are even half as good as the ones I've had in Fort Wayne, they'll still be delicious."  They agreed to give 'em a try.   

While we waited for the appetizers, I took a good and long look at the menu.  Kirkwood Station featured a number of salads, sandwiches, and a handful of entrees including a 12 oz. ribeye steak, barbecued ribs, chicken Florentine, a shrimp basil pesto capellini pasta dinner.  They also had four or five different types of burgers and they also had pizza.  In fact, one of the guys said, "I saw their pizza when we were here before.  It looked good.  In fact, I may have to try that tonight."  

Kevin brought out the appetizer plates just before we were ready to order.  The crab dip had creamy and buttery texture and taste with lumps of crab meat throughout the warm mixture.  Chopped fresh parsley was sprinkled on top.  The chips were fresh, but we ran out of chips before we finished the dip.  We weren't shy as we finished up the dip by spooning it into our mouths.  It was that good.  

The fried pickles were equally as good.  They had a nice light batter around the pickle slices that were cut long and thin.  The ranch dressing dip was a nice complement to the fried pickles.  They weren't as good as the ones at J.K. O'Donnell's in Fort Wayne, but were still very good.  One of the guys said, "I don't think I've ever had fried pickles before.  These are damn good!"  

It was time to order our food and one of the guys order a pizza, the other ordered the Kirkwood cheeseburger - a half-pound patty with your choice of cheddar, American, pepperjack, Swiss or provel cheeses.  I thought about getting either the reuben sandwich or the Highlands Cuban - slow roasted pork and sliced ham topped with melted Swiss and jack cheeses, garlic dill pickles and mustard and served on a baguette roll.  But I'm always disappointed in any Cuban sandwich I've had outside of Miami.  There's nothing like the sweet bread they have for their Cuban sandwiches down there.  However, I took a complete turn and I ended up going the comfort food route, getting Patsy Ann's Meatloaf - a slow roasted meatloaf with a tomato glaze and served with garlic mashed potatoes with gravy and veggies.    

About three minutes after Kevin took our order, he came back and told us, "Well, I've just been told that the pizza making machine is down.  No pizzas until it can get fixed."  We were all sort of taken aback and sort of surprised.  "Pizza making machine," the guy who ordered the pizza asked incredulously.  

Kevin said, "I don't know.  That's what I was just told by one of the cooks in the kitchen when I placed the order."  (Turns out it was the pizza oven that had gone out.) 

My guest took a look at the menu that Kevin brought back with him and he ended up ordering the crispy chicken club sandwich - a battered and fried chicken breast topped with a slice of ham, melted cheddar and ranch, then bacon and served on a bun.  

The food came out in a timely fashion and even though I was a little full from the appetizers (they were pretty rich), I was ready to dig in.  The meatloaf (below left) had the gravy on it and not on the garlic mashed potatoes.  I sort of wanted to try the meatloaf without the gravy as I thought it would go on the potatoes.  A side of fresh steamed broccoli sat opposite the potatoes.  The meatloaf was good, not necessarily outstanding, but I really couldn't tell because of all the gravy on top.  But I ate all of it.  And because I was somewhat full from the meatloaf and appetizers, I hardly made a dent in the potatoes and the broccoli.  What I did have of the potatoes, however, yielded a nice garlic taste.

The Kirkwood cheeseburger (above right) came with a large beef patty and two slices of melted cheddar cheese.  My guest had a choice of a number of sides and got the creamy cole slaw.  After eating about half of his burger, I asked him how it was.  "It's very good.  They cooked it perfectly," he said as he showed me a bit of pink in the middle of the burger.  

Across from me, my guest who had the crispy chicken club sandwich also said it was good.  He got fries as his side - the big, thick steak fries that are the best to have.  He said, "Well, I sort of had my heart set on pizza, but this is still pretty damn good." 

Finishing up the evening, we had one last beer before going our separate ways.  The food at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company was pretty good.  For as varied a menu they have, it's difficult to do a lot of things well.  But I was happy with my meat loaf, but if I were to get it again I'd ask for the gravy in a bowl on the side.  The others guys liked their burger and/or chicken club sandwich.  And Kevin did a fine job for his first night working the tables.  (He was doing such a good job for his first night we surmised he had waited tables before.)  As we left, one of the guys said, "Yeah, I'd come back here.  This was pretty good all around." 

Shoreline Brewery and Restaurant - Michigan City, IN

We took off for a long weekend up to Southwest Michigan earlier this year and one of the places Cindy wanted to stop at was the Lighthouse Place outlet mall in Michigan City, IN.  It was around 1 p.m. when we got there and she decided that she needed some lunch before she went to shop.  Just up the street from Lighthouse Place, it turns out there's a local brewpub - Shoreline Brewery.  We did a U-turn in the parking lot of Lighthouse Place and went to Shoreline Brewery for some food and a beer.  (See map)

The Shoreline Brewery opened in 2005 and the co-owners are Sam Strupeck - a veteran of the restaurant industry and the brewmaster of Shoreline Brewery; and his father, Dave Strupeck - whose main vocation is an accountant as well as an accounting professor at Indiana University Northwest in Michigan City.  Sam Strupeck had been working in the restaurant industry since a teenager and the Strupeck's were involved with the Aberdeen Brewing Company in nearby Valparaiso from 2000 until it closed in 2004.  

The Strupeck's found a building near the Lake Michigan shoreline that was built in 1857.  It started out being a lumberyard, but later on in its life it was a golf ball factory, a camera factory and a training facility.  The Strupeck's took over the building and completely gutted and revamped the inside of the 16,000 square foot facility.  From the outside, the building looks old and somewhat distressed.  But it also adds to the charm of the place.

Like their beers, most of the food served at Shoreline Brewery is made from scratch.  Chef Barry Davis, who learned classic French cuisine as a young culinary arts student, provides many entrees that you wouldn't find at many other brewpubs, as well as making sauces, dressings, soups and appetizers in house.  Before we went there, we didn't really know much about the place other than it was a brewpub that sold food.  We just didn't know the extent of what they had to offer at Shoreline Brewery. 

We sat in the main dining area of Shoreline Brewery.  One thing that we didn't expect was the smoking in the room.  I guess we're so spoiled from having smoke-free restaurants in Iowa and Illinois that when you do encounter a place that still allows smoking - like Indiana does in many locales - it's a minor shock to the senses.  It wasn't a deal buster because they had the doors open and a nice breeze was coming through the place.  But the smell of cigarette smoke would occasionally come across our table.  

The dining room featured a large bar that was backed by glass that looked into the brewing area at Shoreline.  Light colored knotty pine paneling helped give the large room an open and bright look.  For having wood paneling, hard floors and a high ceiling the place wasn't overly loud.  Cindy remarked that if it were more full it probably would have been louder.  But even at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, the place had a good sized crowd in it.    

Our server for the day, Amanda, dropped off a couple menus for us to try.  She pointed out the beer menu on the table and I have to say that it was rather extensive.  They had 10 beers on tap and at first I wasn't certain if all the beers on tap were from Shoreline or if they were beers from other breweries.  But Amanda assured me they were all Shoreline brews.  I was surprised because you normally don't find a brewpub that will have this many beers to choose from.

And choosing was the hard part.  Cindy likes pale ales and they had five different styles of pale ale to choose from.  Amanda told us that we could sample some of the brews if we liked and Cindy immediately signed up for a sample of the Benny's American Pale Ale - a Western U.S. style of pale ale made with American grains and hops; and the Sum Nug India Pale Ale - a hoppy American style I.P.A. with a forward taste.  They also had something called Leaper American Pale ale that was described almost word for word like the same thing as the Benny's pale ale, and the Nitro Queen Mum India Pale Ale that had a higher alcohol content and uses English hops and grains.  I signed up for the Nitro Queen Mum without even wanting to sample it beforehand.  

Looking through the menu, the food served at Shoreline Brewery is definitely a step above what you'd find at most brewpubs.  They have some interesting appetizers including homemade sour dough pretzels served with  their homemade "Don't Panic" stone ground mustard, a Scotch Egg that is a sausage covered hard-boiled egg breaded and deep fried, and something called Thistle Sticks - spicy cream cheese wrapped in wonton skins served with roasted red peppers and Greek tzaziki sauce.  Those sounded overly interesting and I almost got that for us to try.  

The main entrees include a number of luncheon specials including fish and chips, pastas, sandwiches, salads and burgers.  But they also featured steak entrees, as well as a stuffed chicken breast, seared scallops, baby back ribs and probably their signature entree, an Oatmeal Stout Braised Lamb Shank - a slow-cooked lamb shank topped with an herb and Oatmeal Stout demi-glaze, served with carrots, onions and celery.  I don't care for lamb all that much, but Cindy almost pulled the trigger on that.  

Amanda brought Cindy's beer sampler glasses over for her to try.  She didn't bring my Nitro Queen Mum saying the foam needed to settle in the glass before she brought it over.  "It's the nature of the beer.  It takes about 10 minutes from the beginning of the pour to the serving," she explained.  I wish she would have explained that before I ordered.  

Cindy tried the Benny's American pale ale and then the Sum Nug I.P.A.  She immediately said that she liked the Sum Nug better and asked for a pint of that.  I tried both beers and while the Benny's was smooth with a little hoppiness to its finish, the Sum Nug was much more forward.  When Amanda came back, she had both Cindy's Sum Nug and my Nitro Queen Mum.  The Queen Mum was very hoppy and had a somewhat bitter aftertaste.  Cindy's Sum Nug didn't have that bitterness.  I liked mine and she liked hers.   

During this time we pretty much figured out that we were probably just going to get burgers for lunch.  They did have a reuben on the menu that was tempting to me, but I decided to go with their Shoreline Pub Burger - a prime beef ground chuck burger that's served on a pretzel bun with beer caramelized onions and their homemade Don't Panic mustard.  For an extra buck I got some pepperjack cheese on top.  Cindy got the same thing, only with bleu cheese on hers.  For sides, I got the French fries and Cindy inquired about cole slaw.  "Is it homemade," she asked Amanda.

Amanda sort of stammered for a moment and said, "Well, yeah, I guess it is.  I mean, they make a lot of stuff in house, so I'm guessing it's homemade."  Even with that less than stellar endorsement, Cindy still got the cole slaw.  We figured that Amanda had to be somewhat new.  She kept referring to the kitchen staff and management as "they" and not "we", sort of like she was from another restaurant helping out that particular afternoon.  

Amanda brought the burgers out and the presentation was nice.  The pretzel buns were big and spongy with a somewhat hard crust on top.  Cindy doesn't understand the allure of a good pretzel bun, but I certainly think it's a great touch when a burger is served on one.  

The burger was cooked a perfect medium with a little bit of pink in the center.  The homemade "Don't Panic" mustard offered a good flavor with the burger.  I usually like my burgers with yellow mustard, but the homemade stone ground mustard was a great compliment with the chewy pretzel buns.

Cindy said that her bleu cheese burger was "good", but once again said that she didn't really care for the pretzel bun.  "I guess I don't like the bun to be so thick and chewy," she said.  Still she pretty much finished the burger, leaving only a small bite or two on her plate.

By the way, the fries were all right - nothing special.  They were deep fried to a golden brown color, but were a little limp.  They were edible, but they weren't on par with the burger.  And Cindy declared the cole slaw as somewhat bland and nothing special.  But I was certainly happy with my burger and the beer I had at Shoreline Brewery. 

I will say that Shoreline Brewery was a pleasant surprise - both for the beer and the food.  Not many brewpubs that I've been to can boast of having a chef, let alone one that was trained in French cuisine.  Although I thought having five different styles of pale ale was a little confusing, I thoroughly enjoyed my Nitro Queen Mum I.P.A.  Shoreline Brewery is definitely above average as far as brewpubs are concerned.  

Jaipur Brew House - Omaha

I worked an event at The Sound Environment in Omaha one evening earlier this year.  I was standing and talking to one of their longtime employees, Jim, just catching up on things when a woman walked in looking for her husband and his friend.  She said, "They're either in here or they're over at the Indian restaurant."

I turned to Jim and said, "There's an Indian restaurant nearby?"

He said, "Yeah, Jaipur!  It's just right over here."

We walked to the front door and he pointed to a building down the way in the Rockbrook Village Shopping Center in which both businesses are located (see map).  It was literally a 50 yard walk to the front door of the restaurant.  Now, I figured that I had been coming to The Sound Environment at this location for over 20 years. Jaipur opened in 1992 and I have driven by the place countless times over the years and never noticed it before.  But, then again, that shouldn't be surprising as my wife has told me countless times over the years that I am not good at noticing things.  

I asked Jim if the food was good and he said, "Oh, it's very good.  And they're also a brewpub."

"A brewpub," I asked him, somewhat incredulous.  "An Indian brew pub?"

He said, "Oh, yeah.  They have a brewing operation in the back.  They make the most outrageous jalapeno beer."  

The event at The Sound Environment was over at 9 p.m. and Jim said that Jaipur served food up to 9:30.  I said, "We ought to try the place out!"  

Jim said, "Oh, anytime I have the chance to eat at Jaipur, I go!"  

Jaipur, named for a city in northern India, was co-founded by Steve Gordon who also co-owned The Oven in Lincoln, also a highly acclaimed Indian restaurant; and L'Orient, a former upscale restaurant in Rockbrook Village.  I have an industry colleague, Bruce Jacobs from Stillpoints, who happened to be at The Sound Environment's event that evening who calls the Oven one of his all-time favorite restaurants.  Bruce told me, "When I drive out to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, I always time it so that I can have a meal at the Oven in Lincoln."  

Bruce told me that evening in Omaha that when he found out that the Oven and Jaipur had been joined at the hip at one point, he tried the food at Jaipur the previous evening.  Is it similar to the Oven, I asked him.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  It's excellent."  

Gordon sold his shares in both the Oven and Jaipur around 2004.  He sold the Oven to Ngawang Rinchen, a Bhutanese native who was once the chef for the Royal Family of Bhutan (you gotta click on the link - the King of Bhutan has four wives - all sisters!); and the Jaipur Brew House was sold to Nepalese native Gyanendra Bhandari who had been the chef at the restaurant for three years prior.  Bhandari continues to be the executive chef of Jaipur, but Sanjay Pandit and Bhojraj Paudel run the day-to-day operations in the kitchen.  Steve Gordon still works with Bhandari as the Jaipur's wine consultant and helps with the wine list that totals over 180 bottles.  

It was just after 9 p.m. when we got into the Jaipur Brew House and sat at a table toward the east wall of the restaurant.  The lighting was somewhat subdued, almost too dim to adequately read the menu. But the decor was elegant and classy.  Once we were seated, we were given menus by our waitress that evening, Smrita.  She was a pleasant young lady who reminded us that they closed the kitchen at 9:30.  

Jim had been raving about the jalapeno ale at the Jaipur Brew House and he ordered a 10 oz. glass of the brew right off the bat.  I asked if I could get a sample of the jalapeno beer and Smrita took off to get the beers.  She came back moments later and said, "I'm sorry, we're out of the jalapeno ale this evening."

Jim reacted as though someone had run over his puppy.  "Oh man," he exclaimed.  "You're out of the jalapeno beer?  I've been craving one for the past couple of hours!"  Smrita said she was sorry, but the jalapeno ale is, by far, their most requested beer at Jaipur.  We decided upon each of us getting a glass of their India Pale Ale.  Actually, it was a tad flat and didn't have a forward taste like I've found in other IPA's.  But it was certainly drinkable.  

In addition to traditional northern Indian foods, the Jaipur Brew House also features an "Indian Fusion" menu that offered an Indian twist on Midwestern/American foods.  Some of the entrees they had to offer on the fusion menu included a beef tenderloin that was cooked in their high temperature tandoor oven, a grilled tenderloin with Indian spices; a Tandoori marinated grilled salmon; a Colorado lamb kabob marinated in garlic and ginger then cooked in the tandoor oven; and a Jaipur chicken cutlet marinated with yogurt and Indian spices, then pan-fried.  

Jim told me that all their lamb dishes were wonderful.  I'm not big on lamb - I don't like the greasy taste of lamb, nor do I like the texture all that much.  But he was pretty adamant that the lamb at the Jaipur Brew House was excellent.  I decided to further broaden my horizons and I wanted something sort of spicy that evening.  The lamb vindaloo filled that bill.  I ordered that and, along with Jim's wholehearted recommendation, I went with a bowl of the Mulligatawny soup - a traditional Indian soup featuring pureed lentils with spices, then topped with rice and fresh coriander.  

Jim was torn between a number of items.  "This happens to me every time I come here," he explained to me.  "Everything is so good."  Knowing he was under pressure because the kitchen would be closing shortly, he decided upon the chicken pad Jaipur entree - large marinated chicken chunks with stir-fried rice noodles along with egg, fresh veggies and Indian spices.  A cashew sauce then topped the concoction.  The special soup that evening was a pureed bean soup and Jim signed up for that, as well.  Then Jim said, "Should we get an appetizer?"  I suggested the garlic naan, but he said the Kheema naan - a lightly buttered naan bread stuffed with ground lamb.  I've had Kheema naan before and I thought it was pretty damn good.  

Smrita brought out our soups.  I had taken a picture of both our soups, but the one of my Mulligatawny soup didn't turn out.  Below right is Jim's pureed bean soup.  Jim said his soup was overly flavorful and he offered me to take a spoonful.  My Mulligatawny was very good, but I liked the rich spice and herb flavor of his pureed bean soup.    

The Kheema naan came out next (above right).  It was big and fluffy, chocked full of ground lamb.  It looked like a small stuffed pizza sitting on the plate.  And it was rich and very flavorful.  I knew there was no way we'd be able to finish all the food.  

After about another 10 minutes, our main entrees came out.  Jim's chicken pad Jaipur looked overly thick and rich.  I'm not big on cashew or peanut sauces, but the large chunks of cashews on top of the pad Jaipur looked very good.  Jim offered a portion to me and he put a sample on my bread plate.  The taste sensations were overwhelming.  I don't know exactly what was in it that made it taste so good, but it certainly appealed to me.  

From the first bite of my lamb vindaloo, it got my attention.   First of all, the lamb chunks weren't greasy in the least.  The lamb had a great taste quality to it and wasn't chewy like I've found other lamb dishes to be for me in the past.  The second thing was the forward taste of the Indian spices incorporated in the sauce.  It was just wonderful.  But the big thing - it was HOT!  I mean spicy hot!  I wanted something spicy and, man, I got it!  I was telling Jim how hot it was and I offered to reciprocate on a sample of my lamb vindaloo.  He offered his bread plate and I put some on there.  He took a bite and said, "Holy shit!  That IS hot!  But it's so damn good, too!"  He was absolutely right.

The best part was dipping some of the Kheema naan in the vindaloo sauce.  Oh, God!  It was just excellent.  It was so forward with the spices and had an explosive aftertaste.  It was just fabulous.  

Jim and Bruce couldn't have been more spot on about the food at the Jaipur Brew House.  Although the beer was a little flat and they were out of their popular jalapeno ale, the food was outstanding.  In fact, the vindaloo was possibly a little more hot in spiciness than I like, but it was still excellent.  And I have to say the lamb was nothing like the lamb I'd had before.  Smrita was an excellent waitress for us and even though it was well past closing time when we finished up, we didn't feel hurried at all.  Now that I know about the Jaipur Brew House, I look forward to going back at some point and having something other than the vindaloo and trying the jalapeno beer.  Oh!  And it looks like on my next trip over to Lincoln, I'll have to seek out the Oven, as well. 

Schlafly Bottleworks - St. Louis

I don't get to St. Louis as often as I'd like to any longer.  With the closing of Ultimate Electronics earlier this year, followed by the closing of the American TV stores in the St. Louis area this past summer, then soon after that, the announcement of the closing of one of my independent retailers, St. Louis is suddenly a dormant market for me.  I was in town to try to convince a former dealer of mine to come back on board with us and I had a chance to have lunch at the Schlafly Bottleworks on the southwest side of the city (see map).  

I've eaten at the Schlafly Tap Room before (see that entry here) and I remember the food being pretty good.  The Schlafly beer is above average, but a little too sweet for me at times.   Still, I do like their pale ale and their Oktoberfest beers.  Since it was late September when I was there, the Oktoberfest beer was on tap and flowing.

The condensed history of Schlafly's is pretty interesting.  In the late 80's, local lawyer Tom Schlafly was instrumental in getting Missouri laws changed to allow brew pubs in the state.  Once that went through, Schlafly teamed up with a local St. Louis man, Dan Kopman (left - picture courtesy St. Louis Business Journal) to realize his dream of opening a brewpub in St. Louis.  Kopman had studied in Scotland during his college years and became enthralled with all things beer.  He worked for a time for the Wells and Young's brewery, first in production, then in export sales.   

After moving back to St. Louis, Kopman hooked up with Schlafly primarily to just start a microbrewery, not a brew pub.  When it became apparent that they'd need the food to help supplement the cost of building a brewery, they decided to do the brew pub concept.  They looked at a handful of buildings just west of the downtown area before settling on a nearly 90 year old structure that once housed a printing company, but had largely been vacant for about 15 years.  They named their company the St. Louis Brewing Company, hired their first brewmaster in Dave Miller, then opened up the brewery and the Schlafly Tap Room.  

The steady growth of Schlafly beer products, primarily the bottling process, necessitated a larger brewing facility.  They were approaching 10,000 barrels brewed annually and Schlafly and Kopman figured they needed a facility that could do three to four times that capacity.  Kopman found a building that formerly housed grocery store at the corner of Southwest Ave. and Manchester and the partners bought the property.  They spent over $1 million dollars in setting up and renovating the building and the Schlafly Bottleworks opened in 2003.  

The bottling line at the Schlafly Bottleworks -  

With distribution now approaching 10 states in the Midwest and South (we began to get Schlafly beers in Iowa earlier this year), the capacity of the Bottleworks is fast approaching its capacity of 45,000 to 50,000 barrels annually.  In the summer of 2010, Schlafly contracted with the Stevens Point Brewery in Wisconsin to brew and can their Summer Lager beer.  And earlier this year, Kopman announced that they had signed an agreement with Nashville-based Blackstone Brewery to brew Schlafly beers to increase distribution in the Southeast.  The head brewer of Blackstone Brewery is Dave Miller, who left the Schlafly brewery to head up the brewery at the Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery when it opened.  Blackstone just opened a new facility that features a 30 barrel brewhouse similar to the size Schlafly has in St. Louis.    

Stephen Hale is the current brewmaster for Schlafly's, which produces six year-round brews and over 40 seasonal or special brews.  Still known to many as "the other brewery" in St. Louis, Schlafly is celebrating their 20th year of business with a limited series of four commemorative beers including an Imperial Pilsner and a Citrus Witbier.  

I've been to the Bottleworks for beers a couple three times in the past, but had never gone there for food.  The food menu consists of locally grown natural foods and produce.  They also feature pizza at the Schlafly Bottleworks with toppings such as bison, goat cheese and a host of fresh vegetables.  Their appetizers are well-known throughout the St. Louis area for such eclectic items as their sausage platter that features lamb, salsiccia (sweet St. Louis-style pork sausage), and andouille sausages; as well as their bison nachos.       

Schlafly Bottleworks has a large bar area (above left) that features just bartender service for food and drink, along with a dining room with full waitstaff service.  In the warmer months, the Bottleworks has a very nice beer garden that offers dining al fresco (above right).  Even though it was a beautiful fall day when I was there, I decided to eat inside at the bar. 

The guy seated next to me at the bar was eating one of Schlafly Bottleworks pizzas - a 10" thin crust pizza that had multitudes of toppings on it.  Since I was going out for dinner with my dealer that evening, I quickly knocked the pizza off my list of possibilities.  

Another thing that completely caught my attention on the menu was their meat loaf entree.  It featured bison, ground beef and andouille sausage mixed together and topped with an oatmeal stout tomato sauce.  That sounded great, but it also sounded way too filling for lunch.  I've got to go back to Schlafly Bottleworks for that at some point.  

I ended up opting for the bison burger - an 8 oz. lean bison patty on a brioche bun.  For extra measure, I had them put some bacon and Swiss cheese on top.  Cole slaw came with the bison burger.  In the meantime, I had already ordered the seasonal Oktoberfest beer they had on tap.  

 Here's the bison burger as it was presented to me.  Most bison burgers are usually too lean and they dry out from the cooking process.  I have to say the bison burger at the Bottleworks was one of the better ones I've ever had - coming very close to the bison burger at the Ted's Montana Grills that I've visited in the past. It had great flavor and was definitely helped by the cheese and the bacon on top.  The brioche bun was also very good.  

The cole slaw - eh!  It was pretty bland and I only had one bite of it before I decided that it wasn't all that great.  But I definitely finished all of the bison burger.  

After I finished my lunch, I took a quick walk around  the Schlafly Bottleworks to check out the merchandise they have to offer (below left).  In addition to shirts, sweatshirts and other nice items to wear, the Schlafly Bottleworks also sell their beers - at the same price as local grocery and liquor stores so not to undercut their distribution.  However, like nearly every other brewery that sells neat clothing, it was way too expensive for me.   

In the bottleworks is also a small museum that commemorates the history of brewing in St. Louis (above right).  There were old time pictures of breweries and the people who were the pioneers and legends of brewing beer in St. Louis.  An audio/video presentation was playing on one of the flat screen TV's regarding Schlafly beers and their brewery.  

Brewery tours are available at the Bottleworks and it would probably be a fun thing to do at some point.  It isn't all that long and then you have the chance to have some of their good beer and very good food at the end of the tour.  Even if you don't want to do the tour, the Schlafly Bottleworks is a unique destination to have a good in-house brewed beer, good food made with natural ingredients, and a laid-back atmosphere that allows you to chill out and enjoy your food and beer.  Later that evening, my dealer signed up to come back on board with my company's products and I was happy about that.  I was also happy because their store is not far from the Schlafly Bottleworks.  I foresee a number of evenings quaffing a few brews and having some good food.  

 

Brewery Creek Brewpub - Mineral Point, WI

During our little "stay-cation" this past summer, we decided to take a day trip up to Mineral Point, WI, a little artists town in southwest Wisconsin about two hours from our home. Actually, this was something Cindy has wanted to do for quite sometime with our friend, Marcia. But for whatever reason they'd never been able to find the time to get together to do it. Since we weren't doing anything during our vacation, I decided to ferry Cindy up to Mineral Point to look at the shops.

Actually, Mineral Point was sort of disappointing to Cindy in that many of the shops were closed on Tuesday, or that there were a dwindling number of artists and pottery shops that were even still in existence. After visiting about a half dozen shops and artists boutiques that were open, we decided to have lunch. We found out that a number of restaurants are not open on some days through the week, as well. But one place that was open was just down the street from one of the artist's shop and it was highly recommended - Brewery Creek Brewpub. We decided to give it a try.

Mineral Point is a small, hilly and picturesque town that has a long history in the state of Wisconsin. The city has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1971 and is full of limestone buildings, large and small. At one point in time in the early 1830's, Mineral Point had a larger population than Milwaukee and Chicago, combined. That was due to the lead and zinc mines that dotted the landscape in the area. A number of experienced miners came to the area from the Cornwall area of England to work in the mines, and because of that there is a large Cornish influence in the community, starting with food.

A dish that is indiginous to the Cornwall area in the U.K. is the pasty (pronounced PASS-tee). A pasty is a folded pastry that is filled with beef, chopped potatoes, onions and, in some cases, turnips. Pasties in the U.S. that I've had before in both Mineral Point and up in the Upper Peninsula area of Michigan are usually made in pans and cut out and served in squares.

I wanted to try a pasty again in Mineral Point and the most famous place to try one is the Red Rooster Cafe in the downtown area. But Cindy wasn't too hip on going to the Red Rooster, so we settled on Brewery Creek Brewpub.

The Brewery Creek Brewpub in on the ground floor of what is also a small boutique bed and breakfast that features five rooms above the brewery/brewpub and two out cottages. The building that houses the brewpub/bed and breakfast was originally built in 1854 as a warehouse. At the time the building was the largest in Mineral Point and was used first as a cold storage building, then it became an insulation family and also was the stables for a local veterinarian.

In the mid 90's, Deborah and Jeff Donaghue came to Mineral Point to "do something completely different" with their lives. They came across the dilapidated building on Commerce Street (see map), basically unused since the 1970's and it had no power, no plumbing, no interior walls or stairways, and the doors and windows were all gone. They bought the building with the plan to turn it into the present day bed and breakfast/brewpub. Construction on the building began in July of 1997 and it opened about 11 months later. They named their inn/brewpub/microbrewery after a nearby creek - Brewery Creek.

Jeff Donaghue is also the brewmaster at the small microbrewery located on the main floor next to the brewpub. The 15 barrel brewery has the capacity to brew 3000 barrels of beer annually. Brewery Creek makes nearly 2 dozen year round and seasonal beers.

The menu at Brewery Creek features a number of farm fresh items including locally grown hormone free beef for their burgers, their tomatoes are grown hydroponically in nearby Darlington, the cheeses they use are from small dairies around the Southwest Wisconsin area, and many of the sauces, dressings, salsas and soups are made from scratch.

It was about 1 p.m. when we got into Brewery Creek. The brewpub is sort of small - it seats about 40 people, not counting the seats at the ornate old bar that sits on the north end of the brewpub. The ceiling has exposed beams and the large windows allow a lot of natural light into the room. Antique-style chairs and tables are throughout the place and along the long wall of the brewpub is a restored church pew.

Our waitress came over to drop off menus and give us the lunch specials for the day. We also both ordered up a pint of their pale ale. It was OK, sort of bland and a little flat, but with the price of hops skyrocketing (they're over $16 bucks a pound for just your run of the mill hops) I'm sure that he's not using as much hops in their beers.

Well, I wanted to get a pasty and they did have a pasty on the menu at Brewery Creek that particular day. But I was also enticed by their burgers and their grilled chicken sandwiches. They also featured a bacon/lettuce/tomato sandwich made with sourdough bread and topped with a homemade roasted garlic/mayo aioli sauce. That sounded out of this world.

One of their burgers was a stuffed bleu cheese and bacon burger topped with cheddar cheese that comes from the local Hook's Cheese Company along with lettuce, tomato, red and caramelized onions and their homemade aioli. That's what Cindy ended up getting. She also got a side of their homemade sweet corn souffle. I got a side of their homemade Belgian-style fries to go along with my pasty.

They were a little busy, even for the middle of the week, so it took a little time to get our food. She brought out my pasty and I saw that it was the authentic Cornish-style pasty and not one that is made in a pan and cut out. The folded pastry was light and flaky and it was filled with an ample amounts of large chunks of beef, potatoes and onions. A side of homemade hot sauce came with the pasty to dip the pastry shell into.

The pasty, itself, was a little dried out and lacked the sort of pizazz flavor that I was maybe looking for. But pasties are, traditionally, a food that Cornish people made in tough times. The drab flavor of the pasty was definitely helped with the homemade hot sauce.

But Cindy's burger was absolutely out of this world. Once again, she got something that was much better than what I had. She offered me a bite of the burger and it was juicy and flavorful, the bleu cheese and bacon stuffing was noticeable but not overpowering. The veggies on top were fresh and the roasted garlic aioli sauce was a great complement to the taste of the burger. The bun was also very good - Brewery Creek has a bakery in Madison make their burger buns for them. I still say that a good bun helps make a great burger.

However, the highlight of the meal had to be Cindy's sweet corn souffle. She took a bite and said, "Oh, my God! You've GOT to try a bite of this!" It was baked in a bowl with a flaky crust topping over the creamy sweet corn. And it was just outstanding. Here's a picture of Cindy with a big smile on her face enjoying a bite of the sweet corn souffle.

I was sort of stuffed after lunch - the pasty was very filling and really stuck to my bones. But our waitress came out and said that they had homemade desserts. When she said they had key lime pie, Cindy sort of lit up. She said, "We'll have a piece of the key lime pie with two forks." The key lime pie came with some whipped cream and drizzled raspberry sauce. It was good, but we've definitely had better.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised with Brewery Creek. Oh, the beer was a little flat, the pasty was sort of dried out, and the key lime pie was average, at best. But the burger was excellent and the sweet corn souffle was a grand slam home run. I'd really like to go back at some point and get a burger on my own at Brewery Creek and since it's just off the main road between the Quad Cities and Madison, I'm sure I'll have a chance to give one a try on one of my next trips up to Madison.

The Potosi Brewing Company - Potosi, WI

After touring the National Brewery Museum in Potosi, WI, we had lunch at the Potosi Brewing Company brew pub that is attached to the museum.  Actually, before we took the tour, we checked in at the brew pub's front desk and saw if we could make a reservation.  The manager said, "We're going to be pretty busy today and we have a lot of reservations."

I told him that we were going to go through the museum and wondered if we could make a reservation for an hour later.  He said, "I'm sure we can fit you in.  Just come on back after your done and we'll get you in."

It took us about 45 minutes to fully go through the National Brewery Museum and we were a little early for our table.  But it didn't appear that it was all that busy when we went back to the hostess stand and we were promptly seated at a small table near the front of the restaurant.

The Potosi Brewing Company was originally founded in 1852 when German immigrants Gabriel Hail and John Albrecht started a small brewery to serve beer to local  farmers, fishermen and miners.  In 1886, Adam Schumacher bought the brewery and 20 years later, with brothers Henry and Nicholas, they renamed their brewery the Potosi Brewing Company.  At one point in time, the Potosi Brewing Company was brewing and marketing beers such as ("Good Old") Potosi, Holiday, Augsburger, and Garten Brau, and it was the fifth largest brewery in Wisconsin in terms of barrel production.

In 1972, Potosi Brewing Company ceased operations.  But as I chronicled in my previous post on the National Brewery Museum, Galena, IL woodworking artisan Gary David came in and bought the run-down property in 1995.  After years of renovation, the museum and brew pub opened in June of 2008.  

Originally, the members of the Potosi Brewery Foundation - the non-profit group that oversees the brewpub and museum - turned to Steve Zuidema of the Front Street Brewery in Davenport (one of our favorite brewpubs in the Quad Cities) to become the first brewmaster for the brewery.  Using the natural spring water that poured out of the bluffs above Potosi, Zuidema came up with a handful of beers to help get the brewery started.  

After helping the brewery get up and running, Zuidema went back to run Front Street Brewery full time (his wife, Jennie Ash, had been overseeing the day-to-day operation in his absence) and the Foundation brought in former Bell's Brewery brewmaster Steve Buszka to run the brewery.  Buszka was the brewmaster at Bell's (then known as the Kalamazoo Brewing Company) for ten years before going on to over see the brewing and distilling process at Liquid Manufacturing in Brighton, MI.  After three years there, he joined Potosi Brewing Company in 2009.  

Jeremy Culbertson was the original head chef at Potosi Brewing Company when it opened in 2008.  Culbertson is now the sous chef at Caroline's Restaurant at the recently renovated Hotel Julien Dubuque in Dubuque, IA.  In Culbertson's place as the  head chef at Potosi Brewing is 24-year-old Jerry Hollis.  A native of Freeport, IL, Hollis studied at the Sullivan University Culinary School in Louisville.  After working at Brendan O'Shea's Restaurant in Louisville, and later at the Heidel House Resort in Green Lake, WI, Hollis took over the menu at Potosi Brewing Company earlier this year. 

 The main dining area of the brew pub was designed and built by Gary David utilizing the stone walls and implementing a high wooden ceiling in the room.  The bar and back bar was also made by hand by David and the bar features inlaid depictions of beer glass complete with foam tops.  The stools, we were told at the museum, were fashioned from old oaken barrels that were used to store beer in the old brewery nearly a 100 years before.  

Our waitress came over to give us our menus and she noticed that we had yellow bands on our wrists - our "free beer" wristbands for going through the museum.   We looked through the beer menu at the available beer and we both settled on getting the Snake Hollow India Pale Ale.  We were given 10 oz. glasses (regular glasses are pints) for our free beer.  And it was pretty good.  

 

 

 The menu at Potosi Brewing Company is a good mix of entrees such as honey glazed salmon, Potosi root beer glazed pork chops, walleye, some pasta and other Midwestern types of food.  They have an extensive burger and sandwich menu, as well as a number of appetizers.  One of their more famous appetizers is the beer cheese soup - a blend of their Potosi Pilsner beer and hearty Wisconsin cheddar cheese.  We both got a cup of that, and it was very good.

I wasn't looking for any type of a big meal, but I thought a sandwich or a burger would tie me over.  They had a burger on the menu that was topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce.  Then they topped if all with a homemade pretzel bun.  I thought that sounded good and I ended up ordering that.  A side of fries came with the burger, as well as a cup of cole slaw.

Cindy ended up ordering the grilled chicken and blue cheese sandwich, also with a side of fries and cole slaw.  She didn't drink all of her Snake Hollow pale ale, so I finished that off and ordered another one for me.  

Our meals showed up and the presentation was very nice, although it looked a little sparse on the large plates. 

 My burger was cooked perfectly to my taste.  I ordered it medium, but it had a little bit of pink throughout.  The bun, on its own, was fabulous.  Cindy ate her chicken breast with a knife and fork, eschewing the top of the pretzel bun.  I ended up taking her bun top and tearing off pieces of it to dip in some of her remaining beer cheese soup.  The bun was out of this world - one of the best buns I've ever had on a burger.  It was slightly toasted, but the bun had a hard outer shell that was both chewy and flavorful.  A great bun makes a great burger and this was pretty damn good.  

The French fries were OK, but nothing all that special.  And even with ample amounts of paprika on top of the cole slaw, I found it to be somewhat bland.  I had a couple bites and called it quits with that.  

Cindy said her grilled chicken sandwich was very good, even without the bun.  She said it was juicy and had a good charred taste to it.  And the blue cheese topping was a nice compliment.  She was overly happy with what she got.  

The only bitch I had was that our waitress didn't write down our order and I had asked for the barbecue sauce on the side of the burger.  Unfortunately - and as I feared would happen - it came with the barbecue sauce on top.  I'm not as fond of barbecue sauce on a burger and I would have liked to have dipped my fries in the sauce.  But she had three large tables in addition to us, so she was a little frazzled and I don't think she paid much attention to us.  In fact, I had ordered a glass of the Potosi Pilsner when she brought our meal out and she completely forgot to bring it to me.  My burger was 3/4's down my gullet when Cindy finally got her attention as she was rushing back to remind her of my beer.  By that time, I almost didn't want it.  But she finally did bring it and it was very good.  

After we finished our lunch and paid, we walked out onto the outdoor patio area.  Cindy said, "Why didn't we eat out here?"  I said I really didn't know.  They never offered outdoor seating to us when we first checked in.  It was sort of a hot and humid day with hazy sunshine and the air was pretty still.  And not every table had an umbrella to shade us from the sun.  That may have been one of the reasons we weren't told of the outdoor seating option.

The outdoor beer garden had a nice little koi pond (above right) that was fed by the natural spring running out of the bluffs.  It was a nice relaxing area that would have been nice to hang out in for both just a beer or for having a good meal at Potosi Brewing Company.    

 I'd heard the Potosi Brewing Company had good food and we were far from disappointed with both the food and the beer.  It was a busy day and we thought it would be nice to come up to Potosi again at some point when it wouldn't be as busy.  But the Potosi Brewing Company and the National Brewery Museum are destination points for people from all over Eastern Iowa, Northwest Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin.  A lot of weekend motorcyclists were swarming into town along with the car loads of people from Madison, Dubuque and other points in the area.   While there's not a lot to see in Potosi proper, the brewpub and museum are a great stopping point.  It's about a 75 minute drive from our home and I'm sure we'll be back at some point down the road.  

    

 

 

Upstream Brewing Company - Omaha

One of my favorite places to go when I'm in Omaha is the Upstream Brewing Company, a locally-owned brewpub/restaurant that has good food and good beer. It had been quite some time since I was last in the original Upstream Brewing Company location in the Old Market area (see map) and it had been awhile since I was last in their location within the Shops of Legacy shopping area in the far west side of Omaha (see map) I met a client for dinner at the far west Upstream Brewing Company on a recent trip to Omaha and I thought I'd share the experience with you.

The Upstream Brewing Company began in 1996 when Brian Magee opened the doors to his brewpub in downtown Omaha. Three years later, Gary Hoffman joined Magee as the executive chef adding a lot of flair and creative dishes to the menu. The Upstream Brewing Company is definitely an upscale brewpub, but doesn't have the pretentious air that you find in some fine dining restaurants.

The menu at Upstream is an eclectic mix of items such as steaks, pastas, gourmet pizza, and sandwiches, along with a good number of bar-type appetizers, soups and salads. Given that Hoffman's background before coming to Upstream Brewing Company was primarily as a chef in seafood restaurants, a number of seafood dishes are available on the menu, as well.

But beer is still a big draw for Upstream. Their beer menu is as wide and varied as their food menu. They have seven year-round beers including their O! Gold light lager, the delicious Capital Premium pale ale, and the Firehouse Red lager. All three are damn fine beers. Upstream also features a number of seasonal beers, as well as a handful of specialty bottled beers with higher alcohol content that they release from time to time.

Longtime head brewer Zac Triemert left Upstream about two years ago to open his own microbrewery, Lucky Bucket Brewing Company. But he stayed on long enough to show the ropes to his replacement, Mike Hall, formerly of the Oskar Blues craft brewery out in Colorado. Hall has continued the fine beer tradition at Upstream while adding some of his own touches to the beer menu.

It was around 6 p.m. when I met up with my client who was already seated at the bar enjoying a cold Capital Premium pale ale. The bar was nearly full with the after work crowd enjoying some beers and appetizers. We decided to get a table in the dining area. While the Upstream Brewing Company has a large outdoor seating area (and it features live music from time to time), it was extremely windy outside and it would have been a little cumbersome to eat in those conditions.

When we were seated, our very laid back and almost comatose waiter came over to check to see if we needed drinks. I signed up for a Capital Premium pale ale while my guest got another one. The Capital Premium is a hoppy, yet very smooth drinking beer. It's more of an American pale ale that has a nice finish to the taste, but is more flavorful than many other American pale ales that I've had over the years.

My guest and I sat and chatted about business and stuff for about the first 20 minutes. The waiter came back a couple times to give us the specials for the evening and to check to see if we were ready to order. After a bit, I said, "You know, we'd better order so we can let this guy get on with his work."

I was torn between a number of delectable items on the menu. My guest, who eats at Upstream quite a bit, told me that their pork schnitzel - breaded pork medallions served in a garlic aioli sauce - were very good. They almost had me with that, but I remembered the beer braised beef pot roast (served with smashed potatoes and gravy) was also very good. Even though it was rather warm outside, comfort food didn't quite sound all that bad.

The Upstream Brewing Company also has a great Beef Lover's salad - they take beef tips and sauté them with onions. They then join the beef and onions with lettuce greens, crumbled bleu cheese and chopped tomatoes. Oh, man, is that great! I had it for lunch at the Old Market location a few years ago.

But something kept calling my name on the menu - the Jackson Street jambalaya. It featured fresh andouille sausage with chicken, shrimp, peppers and rice in a spicy Creole sauce. That's what I wanted.

My guest decided on getting one of Upstream's gourmet flatbread pizzas, the Pizza Italiano that featured everything I like on a pizza and then some - Italian sausage, pepperoni, fresh cut mushrooms, sweet banana pepper slices and marinated red pepper slices, topped with fresh mozzarella. My guest said, "I know you like pizza so I'll give you a slice to try."

It wasn't long before our meals made it to the table. The jambalaya was a healthy portion served in a large bowl with a slice of Upstream Brewing Company's famous homemade beer bread. It was spicy to the taste, but I wanted to kick it up a notch so I got some Tabasco to give it a little more zip. The andouille sausage chunks were big and plentiful with a nice smoky taste to them, and they didn't scrimp on the chicken chunks and the shrimp. The creole sauce had a great taste and consistency. It was simply some of the best jambalaya I've ever had - anywhere!

The Pizza Italiano looked great, as well. It was exactly how I like my pizzas - thin crust, large chunks of sausage, ample amounts of toppings and a lot of fresh mozzarella mixed in. After my guest had three pieces on his own, he offered one to me. It was absolutely delicious. I knew they had pizza at Upstream, but was always sort of reluctant to give it a try. But one bit, then two bites, then three bites convinced me that their pizza could go up against any number of pizza places I've visited over the years.

There was no way I could finish all of my jambalaya, but it was just excellent. I was stuffed. I had completely forgotten how good the food was at Upstream. The last couple times I went there was to meet friends for a beer or two and didn't get any food. But the food is absolutely fabulous at Upstream Brewing Company.

Before we left, I noticed a set of steps going upstairs. I asked my guest, "What's upstairs?"

He said, "Oh! There's another bar, some pool tables, a little lounge. It's kinda nice up there. C'mon, let's go take a look."

We went up the stairs and while I had been to this Upstream location, maybe, three or four times in the past, I had no idea that there was literally a whole secondary bar on the upper level. The billard room featured tournament size tables with leather pockets and light colored felt tops. While the bar wasn't as large as the one downstairs, it was still big and fully functional.

There was also a little den area and a party room on the upper level. Upstream Brewing Company is a lot larger than what it looks like.

My fingers are still crossed that I'll continue to grow business in Omaha. It's a great city with a lot of great places to go and see. And they have a number of very good to great restaurants in the city featuring all different types of food. But for a good meal - and good beer - in an upscale, but casual atmosphere, it's tough to beat Upstream Brewing Company - at either location.

An Update on Two Quad City Area Eateries

A couple updates on two of our favorite restaurants in the Quad Cities - Bud's Skyline Inn in Moline, and Front Street Brewery in downtown Davenport. One update isn't so favorable, the other is not quite as bad, but still a major shake up in their menu.

We'll do the bad news first - Bud's Skyline Inn is one of those wonderful 50's/60's style supper club that has continued to flourish for years and years. (Click here to see my entry on Bud's Skyline Inn.) Located just past the entrance of the Quad City International Airport (see map), Bud's has good steaks, chops, seafood and a wonderful salad bar that we've enjoyed for years and years. While it may not be the fanciest place in the Quad City region, it's certainly one of the most cozy and comfortable restaurants that serves good food at a reasonable price.

However, on our last couple of visits to Bud's, we've noticed a change to the food. First of all, both my wife and I love good pickled beets. I never really liked them until Cindy brought home a jar of them from her grandmother a number of years ago. Finding pickled beets like her grandmother's were tough to find. But Bud's had the closest in taste to Cindy's grandmother's. They were sweet and flavorful, and we always cheated at Bud's when we'd go to the salad bar by getting a plate just for our salads, then an extra plate between the two of us for the beets. They were that good.

When we went to Bud's just before the New Year, we noticed the beets weren't as sweet and had a very earthy taste to them. We went back a couple months later and they were the same beets - they had very much of a dirt taste to them. Cindy said, "These aren't the same beets."

We'd noticed that the steaks weren't quite as flavorful and tender as we've come to have them in the past. The Beef Tournedoes - a couple of tender beef filets with a hollandaise sauce on top - weren't quite as tender as we remembered. And I got a twice-baked potato on my last visit earlier this year and it was a processed, pre-made and then frozen twice baked potato that just wasn't very good.

Things have changed at Bud's. I don't know if they've changed food suppliers (I'm guessing they have), or what the story is. But on our last couple of visits, we've felt the food just isn't as good as it used to be. We'll probably go back one more time as the weather gets nicer, but it could be their last chance with us.

Front Street Brewery has been one of our favorites for not only the beer, but also for the above average food they serve. (Click here to see my entry on Front Street Brewery.) Located on River Drive in downtown Davenport, (see map) it's definitely one of the better brew pub menus that we've encountered over time. However, they just went to a new menu that has some pros and cons.

The owners of Front Street Brewery, Steve Zuidema and Jennie Ash, recently changed their menu to more of a natural and fresh food friendly fare. In doing so, they cut out anything on the menu that was previously frozen and added a few things. They effectively pared down the total offerings by over a third from the original menu. A number of our favorite items are now missing from the menu including a wonderful seared tuna filet that I used to have them use in place of their battered tilapia in fish tacos. Cindy liked their teriyaki grilled chicken sandwich and that's not on the menu any longer.

We went there recently with our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder, and we were surprised to see that it was a new menu with a lot of things missing that we'd all enjoyed before. We quickly entertained the thought of going somewhere else close-by, but decided to stay and have dinner to give the new menu a try. Cindy had the grilled salmon caesar salad that she said wasn't all that great. Scott got the prime roast beef sandwich that he said was very good. I can't remember what Marcia got, but I seem to remember she wasn't overly happy with it. I got the special that evening - blue New England mussels steamed and served in a wonderful spicy butter broth. They were actually outstanding for $11.95. And there was more than an adequate amount of mussels that were served in a large bowl (the only problem is that they didn't have a second bowl to throw the shells into after the mussels were picked from the shell). They were some of the best mussels I've had. And it was hard to believe that they'd never been frozen coming from New England to Iowa. Thankfully, I didn't have any problems as I did with the mussels at The Publican in Chicago.

So, the new menu at Front Street Brewery is a double-edged sword. They've cut down on a number of items that we liked, but what they do have now is still good to above average compared to many other brew pubs. At least they haven't changed their beer and now that the Flood of 2011 is over, it's still one of the most popular places to eat and drink in the downtown area of Davenport.

Stone Cellar Brewpub - Appleton, WI

While in Appleton the night before we went to see the Green Bay Packers play at Lambeau Field, we decided to take in some of the local drinking establishments before we went out to dinner.  Like myself, George has an affinity for Wisconsin brewed beers - especially beers from the Capital Brewery and Esser's Best.  He wanted to go find a couple places with good beers and a relaxing atmosphere.  We ended up at the Stone Cellar Brewpub for a few beers and a good meal that evening.  But more on that later.

We stopped in Madison, WI on the way up to Appleton to have lunch at The Avenue Bar, owned by my good friend Paul Zach.  Paul told us, "Hey, there's this great bar up in Appleton that you guys need to go to." 

He turned to his buddy, Dave, sitting at the bar and asked him the name of the place.  Dave thought for a second and said, "Cleo's!"

Paul said, "Yeah, it's a pretty cool bar.  They've got all these decorations up year round and they've got these amazing drinks." 

It turned out Cleo's wasn't far from our hotel and we found it easily in downtown Appleton.  It was decorated with Christmas lights, wreaths, over-sized ornaments and other stuff.  Turns out it's like that 365 days a year in Cleo's.   First of all, it was far from a beer bar.  Most of the people in the place were drinking mixed drinks.  When George asked the bartender what kind of pale ale beers she had, she said, "Not much.  We've got Bass." 

So he got a Bass and I got a Bud Light.  He said, "I didn't come all the way here to Wisconsin to have a Bass!" 

Cindy said, "You guys notice anything weird about this place?"  I looked around the nearly full place and noticed a lot of guys sitting together drinking what I would call rather feminine looking drinks.  Now, my "gaydar" is an economy model, but Cindy's "gaydar" is a top-of-the-line model.  There were a lot of male/female couples in the place, too, but the men sort of stood out.  Cindy said, "I think Paul sent us to a gay bar!" 

I wouldn't call Cleo's a gay bar, per se.  But there did seem to be a lot of guys checking George out.  At least, that's what I teased him about as we finished our beers and got along to the next place.

We found something next that was right up George's alley - an authentic Irish bar situated in the middle of Appleton.  McGuinness Irish Pub is located - literally - right across the street from the Appleton Police Station (see map).  We found a parking spot out front and George and I openly wondered if the cops would sit across the street and watch people come and go from this place and the bar just two doors down from McGuinness Irish Pub - the Fox River House. 

McGuinness Irish Pub was about as realistic of an Irish Pub as you can find in North America.  So realistic that it didn't have a television set in the place, which was sort of disappointing to George and I at first as there were a couple good football games on that evening.  Oh, wait.  There was a television set in McGuinness Irish Pub - two of them, as a matter of fact.  There was a flat screen over the fire place mantel that showed a number of pictures in rotation, and a small tube television in the fireplace hearth that was showing a DVD of a fire.  I thought it was sort of funny, but it fit in with the hip surroundings in the place.

George was also in heaven.  In addition to a number of great imported Irish and Scottish beers, they had Capital Brewery's winter brew - Winter Skal - a beer that I turned him onto a couple years ago.  I had a Smithwick's, while - I think - Hanna had a beer.  The bartender talked Cindy into getting a Shamrock Martini with Irish whiskey and green Creme de Menthe.  She liked it a lot.

Not having a television around forced us to carry on a conversation at a table that was bordered by two old church pews and a couple chairs.  It was actually kind of nice getting caught up with George and Hanna - they became very good friends before they moved earlier this year.  And even though they're only two hours away, it's still a long haul for us to get together on a regular basis. 

After a quick stop at the Fox River House for a beer and a look around Appleton's oldest continuous tavern, we took off for the Stone Cellar Brewery.  When we got there, I quickly realized that Cindy and I had been there before a number of years ago. 

The brewery was once called the Adler Brau brewery - one of the first brewpubs in the state of Wisconsin.   In 2004, the father-son team of Tom and Steve Lonsway bought and re-opened the brewpub as the Stone Cellar Brewery, named after the stone cellar in the 150-year-old "Between the Locks" building on South Olde Onieda St. (see map).  The building was originally a covert brewery built back in the late 1850's before Appleton's citizens allowed for the brewing and sale of beer. 

That brewery, called the Appleton Brewing and Malting Company, eventually was sold to Carl Muench, a young plant foreman for Joseph Schlitz in Milwaukee.  The Appleton Brewing and Malting Company ran for 58 years, surviving a fire in 1884, before it was sold to George Walther in 1918 who renamed it the Walther Brewery.  The Walther Brewery temporarily went out of business during Prohibition, but it reopened in 1929 when Wisconsin repealed the law on a statewide basis (I've always loved the State of Wisconsin).  Walther Brewery's signature beer was Adler Brau (German for Eagle Beer), a smooth and mild lager.  Having to keep up with modern marketing and sales techniques versus much larger breweries caused the closing of the Walther Brewery in the mid-70's.  

The "Between the Locks" building became a small shop mall, but was reopened as a brewpub in 1989 by John Junger.  Junger brought back the Adler Brau brand name and kept the place going for the next 15 years before the Lonsway's - who owned a homebrewing supply store in Appleton - bought it from him and changed the name.  Steve Lonsway is the brewmaster at Stone Cellar Brewpub. 

As I said, Cindy and I were at the place about 12 years ago when it was still the Adler Brau Brewpub.  Only it was on a Sunday night and they weren't open for food.  I was sort of disappointed that we couldn't eat at the place, but we did end up at a nice downtown steakhouse for dinner that evening.  

The entry to the Stone Cellar Brewpub winds down a stone stair case and opens up into the bar area.  The bar area was absolutely packed and we were worried that we'd have a little trouble finding a table for dinner.  But one of the waiters came up and said that they had immediate seating.  He took us into the two room dining area, into the far back of the place where they used to store kegs, we were told, where he sat us and gave us dinner menus to look over.  

My first job was to find a beer to drink from their beer list.   Stone Cellar keeps seven brews on tap year round and has a handful of seasonal brews to choose from.  The Scottish Tilted Kilt ale caught my eye and I ordered that.  George got their Pie Eyed India Pale Ale.  I forgot what Hanna ordered, but Cindy got one of Stone Cellar's gourmet sodas - the root beer.  She figured the two Shamrock martinis from McGuinness Irish Pub were enough for her for the evening. 

Stone Cellar's menu was pretty extensive featuring about 20 different appetizers, about 10 salads and a like number of specialty burgers.  They had sandwiches from reubens to wraps, and full entrees from steaks, chops, seafood and a chopped Elk steak on the menu.  Stone Cellar Brewpub also features a pub favorites section on the menu with Shepherd's Pie, fish and chips and a beer braised pot roast.  

 I was sort of thinking that if we didn't go to Stone Cellar Brewpub that we'd end up at Frank's Pizza Palace.  But I saw that Stone Cellar had pizza on their menu - a thin crust pizza topped with fresh ingredients.  They featured some specialty pizzas like a chicken, bacon and ranch dressing pizza, and a New Orleans-style with andouille sausage, chicken and shrimp with peppers, onions and Cajun spices.  No, I thought I'd just get my old stand-by sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. 

Cindy ordered the Stone Cellar's special that night - the grilled chicken breast served on a bed of rice and topped with asparagus spears.  George was on some chicken sandwich kick all weekend (he had a chicken sandwich for lunch earlier in the day and had a chicken sandwich when we went to the Great Dane Brewery in Madison the next night), so he got the Brewhouse chicken sandwich - a chicken breast topped with aged cheddar cheese, bacon and chipotle mayo.  Hanna got the Jaeger Schnitzel - an old world style pork chop topped with a dark mushroom gravy and served on a bed of spaetzel and topped with asparagus spears.  I almost got that, but decided on the pizza at the last minute. 

First of all, the beers were very good.  The Scottish ale I had had a nice smooth taste and finish, but wasn't as forward of a taste that I like in my specialty beers.  George said his IPA was excellent, hoppy and very forward.  He was a happy camper.  

Cindy's root beer was like drinking sugar syrup, however.   Stone Cellar makes their gourmet sodas with pure cane sugar.  I had a little taste and, man!  It was like licking a candy cane, it was so sugary.  Cindy couldn't even finish drinking the root beer, it had so much sweetness.  She didn't sleep well that evening, she said it was probably because of the root beer.

I finished my Scottish ale and decided to order the Marquette Pilsner for my second beer before my pizza made it to the table.  It was lighter than the Scottish ale and had a nice pilsner taste to it.  I liked the Tilted Kilt ale better than the Marquette Pilsner, though.   

 
Our food came out and I was pretty happy to see my pizza cut into the thin-dough party cuts that I like so much.  The cheese was caramelized with plenty of fresh toppings mixed in.  Fresh oregano leaves were sprinkled on the top.  It was a very good pizza.  A surprisingly very good pizza.   

Cindy's chicken breast (above left) was butterflied and sprinkled with an herb seasoning and then grilled.  She also declared it to be very good.  She cut off a little chunk for me and I took a bite.  It was very good.  

 
Hanna's Jaeger Schnitzel was truly a "stick to your ribs" meal.  It featured a large thin-cut pork chop smothered in a mushroom gravy.   A large amount of spaetzel rested under the pork chop.  And while George's chicken sandwich wasn't really much to look at, he said it was very good.  The bun was lightly toasted and he said he liked the chipotle mayo and the sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese on the chicken. 

I offered everyone a piece of my pizza because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish a 12" small pizza by myself.  Everyone was impressed with Stone Cellar's pizza.  In fact, we were all pleasantly surprised and very happy with our meals. 

I'm sort of happy that Cindy and I didn't go to the old Adler Brau brewpub because I'm not certain the food would have been as good back then as it is now.  And I don't remember too much about the Adler Brau beer - I do remember what I had in the past was OK - but I really liked the Scottish Ale Stone Cellar Brewpub had on tap while I have to say the Marquette Pilsner was just *OK*.  The Stone Cellar Brewery also boasts a nice beer garden for summer time drinking (a beer garden that dates back to the early 1860's) and has a large room - the English Room - for parties, receptions and meetings.   Good food and good beer - we all were very happy with our visit to Stone Cellar Brewpub. 

Little Apple Brewing Company - Manhattan, KS

First of all, let me say that Manhattan, KS is one of my all-time favorite cities to travel to.  Yes, that's right - Manhattan, KS.  The home of Kansas State University.  They call Manhattan "The Little Apple" - a take off of New York City/Manhattan being called "The Big Apple."  I dated a girl when I was going to school at the University of Iowa around late 1983 - early 1984 who had gotten her under-graduate degree at K-State and was going for her masters at Iowa.  When I kidded her about going to school in Manhattan, she said, "Oh, no!  Manhattan is a great town.  It's a real party city." 

We didn't date any more than about three or four months as she was more interested in getting her masters and getting out of Iowa City and back to the family business near Dodge City, KS.  But all the time we dated I still was incredulous that Manhattan, KS could be a "party town". 

Imagine my surprise about three years later when I first traveled to Manhattan in 1987 to visit an audio/video dealer based in the Aggieville area near K-State and another dealer over in nearby Junction City.  The drive to Manhattan along I-70 through the Flint Hills region is rather boring.  At the 313 mile marker exit on I-70 it's another nine miles north of the Interstate down into a valley where Manhattan is located.  Suddenly, it's like this oasis in the middle of the prairie.  I instantly fell in love with Manhattan.  Yes, she was right - it was a party city.  The Aggieville bars were fun, the restaurants were pretty good and I would purposely stay in Manhattan for two or three nights - sometimes even staying on Friday and Saturday nights - just to have a large time in town.

As time went on, the dealer in Manhattan - The Sound Shop, owned by John Heritage - went out of business - and that was only to concentrate on his two restaurants, one of which was the Hibachi Hut which I wrote about here during a visit over four years ago.  (He's long since sold the restaurants.)  And the dealer that I used to call on in Junction City had also gone out of business, only to be resurrected when a guy came in and gave him money to re-open his store in Manhattan.  But he's more into car audio than home audio.

Long story short, I don't get out to Manhattan all that much any longer.  But recently, I had a meeting in Salina - about 70 miles from Manhattan - with Acoustic Sounds, one of the largest vendors of vinyl albums and high-end equipment via the Internet in the U.S.  I have stayed in Salina.  There are scary looking people in Salina.  There's not much going on in Salina (even though there used to be a great bookstore in downtown Salina).  I lost $80 dollars in a hotel room robbery in Salina (back in 1988 - I think the maid came in and took the money while I was in the shower).  I wasn't staying in Salina.  I'm staying in Manhattan.

As I said, I visited the Hibachi Hut on my last visit to Manhattan about three years ago.  Next door to the Hibachi Hut is their sister restaurant, Texas Star Cafe.  I used to eat there years ago when John Heritage owned the place.  It features more of a Tex-Mex menu along with some barbecue items and down-home chicken-fried steaks.  I was all set to have dinner there the night I spent in Manhattan earlier this summer.  

I got checked into my hotel, changed clothes and headed down to Aggieville to have dinner at Texas Star (see map).  I parked across the street in the public lot and walked across the street to go to the restaurant.

Now, if you read my recent post regarding Mader's in Milwaukee, I haven't had a lot of luck regarding restaurants, at least the ones I want to eat at. 

When I walked up to the door, it was locked.  The lights were off.  As I was sort of standing there trying to look into the windows trying to figure out if they'd gone out of business, a 50's-something couple happened to be walking by.  The man said, "Trying to get into the Hibachi Hut?"  

I said, "Actually, I was set to eat at Texas Star."

He said, "Oh, they're closed on Tuesdays."  

In an anguished response, I said, "Oh, you're kidding!"  I was completely crestfallen. 

We got to talking about some other places around the area and they gave me some suggestions.  One was a barbecue place, but I was going to eat at Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City the next night.  I said something about a brew pub or a steakhouse - some place like that.  The lady lit up and said, "Oh, you want to go out to the Little Apple Brewing Company.  It's like a brew pub and steakhouse in one!"

Her husband said, "Well, the food is much better than the beer." 

OK, so I told you that story to set up my entry about the Little Apple Brewing Company.  Known to the locals as LABCO, the brewpub has been in business since 1995.  Co-owner/chef Russ Loub has been in the restaurant business since the age of 13, eventually earning a degree in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University.  Prior to opening the Little Apple Brewing Company, Loub managed the kitchen at the Manhattan Country Club. 

Loub's priority at the Little Apple Brewing Company is to provide his customers with some of the finest beef possible.  He uses only Certified Angus Beef for his steaks, but also has a natural, anti-biotic/hormone free Kansas City strip steak on the menu.  LABCO also features prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights, and also has a number of standard pub fare items such as burgers, salads, appetizers and some specialty entrees such as a smothered steak and black bean burrito, chicken fried steak and Southern-fried catfish.

I found the Little Apple Brewing Company, tucked back into a strip mall on the west side of Manhattan (see map).  From the outside, it sort of looked a little shabby.  I walked in and it was like walking into an old west steakhouse.  The bar area was off to the immediate right and the main dining room was in the back.  I stood at the hostess stand for a moment waiting for someone to come greet me.  I looked around at the bar area and saw they had a baseball game on the television and a number of people were eating dinner in there.  Unfortunately, the bar, itself, was full, so if I was going to eat in there I was going to have to sit at a table.  

A hostess finally did show up and I asked if I could eat in the bar.  She said, "Sure!  It's open seating in the bar, so anyplace you'd like to plant yourself, go right ahead!"

 

 

I found a table for two near the front of the bar area, looking directly at a television with a game on up in the corner.  I was given a food menu and a beer menu was on the table.  My waitress for the evening, a cute blond with an equally cute name - Cherish - came over to great me.  She asked if I would like something to drink and I decided to try their Prairie Ale, a hoppy Indian Pale Ale that is one of their five flagship beers.  LABCO also features up to three seasonal beers, but at that time their brewmaster, John, had none to offer. 

While I was sort of up for some Tex-Mex food at Texas Star Cafe, I decided to try one of their steaks on the menu.  I was thinking of something along the lines of a filet when Cherish returned with my beer.  She told they had a special on a natural fed filet that evening for $29.99 for a 10 oz. cut.  I told her that I would gladly sign up for that - rare.  I had a choice of potato with my meal, so I took the red potatoes.  A dinner salad or a trip to their salad bar (located in the back dining room) also came with the meal.  I took the salad bar.

The salad bar was very good with a lot of items on the side to choose from.  I got some lettuce, a little cottage cheese and a couple other small sides on my plate, then topped the salad out with some of their homemade blue cheese dressing.  The salad bar offerings were very fresh and the homemade dressing was very good.

I will say the Prairie Ale IPA was OK, at best.  It was a little flat and not quite as forward of a hoppy taste that I've normally found in a good IPA.  I thought about getting one of their other beers but really nothing sounded all that good to me.  They had a brown ale and a red ale, but I decided to stick with the Prairie Ale for my second beer.

Cherish brought out my steak and it looked very good.  I'll call the filet size as a generous 10 ounces.  The steak was not over-cooked and had a nice cool red center.  It was tender and flavorful.  It wasn't the best steak I've ever had, but it was certainly good.  There were about five or six small red potatoes on the plate.  I think I had a couple of them, concentrating on the steak. 

The man that told me the food at the Little Apple Brewing Company was better than the beer was absolutely right.  If I were to grade the beer I'd give it a C-.  The steak was a solid B+, however.  Cherish was a good waitress and I sort of liked the ambiance to the place.  For being in a town miles from any large metro area, the Little Apple Brewing Company does a very nice job and is probably one of the top restaurants in the area.  Even though I couldn't get into Texas Star Cafe that night, I certainly was far from disappointed with my meal at LABCO.  

Next time I go through Manhattan, I'll have to make sure it's not on a Tuesday night... 

Square One Brewery - St. Louis

Before our annual baseball trip to St. Louis, my friend Scott had mentioned that his son, Greg, had eaten at the Square One Brewery near Lafayette Square on a couple three occasions and he thought the food was very good.  I had been past Square One a few times, primarily to eat at Arcelia's just down the street.  Scott reminded me the day before we left that he really wanted to try Square One during our visit to St. Louis.  I thought that was a good idea, so we stopped in to Square One for lunch and a few beers after our journey from the Quad Cities.

The Lafayette Square area in St. Louis has seen a steady rise in socio-culture activities and gentrification over the past three or four years.  One of the true historic areas of St. Louis, the neighborhood surrounding Lafayette square is a combination of stately homes, rehabbed apartments, curious shops, eclectic eateries and interesting taverns.  Square One, at the corner of Park Ave. and S. 18th St. (see map), is housed in a somewhat historic building that was originally built by Anheuser-Busch toward the start of the 20th century when local breweries would own their own taverns to exclusively sell their beer.  A similar tavern run by the locally immortal Griesedieck Brothers Brewery was situated just a block away.  

Over the years, the building has housed a number of tavern/restaurants with the most recent descendant being the Lafayette Pub and Grill.  A fire in June of 2004 closed down Lafayette Pub and Grill (they've since relocated to the Soulard area) and the building was eventually bought by local restaurateur and micro-brewer Steve Neukomm.  Neukomm, a 50-something man who recently sold the Augusta Brewing Company in Augusta, MO, had once operated a restaurant - Ronayne's - in the same location back in the 80's.  Neukomm purchased the assets and equipment of the old Heartland Brewing Company in 1999, then a year later he opened his first brew pub in the heart of Missouri's wine country west of St. Louis. 

In 2006, after a long restoration of the property, Neukomm opened Square One Brewery.  After awhile it became apparent to Neukomm that he was having trouble being in two places at once, so he sold the brew pub in Augusta earlier this year to concentrate on the Square One operation.  The hour and a half drive time between the two businesses was taking too much time out of his day. 

Actually, one of the big reasons Neukomm sold the Augusta Brewing Company was because of his burgeoning distillery that's part of Square One Brewery.  Neukomm became a licensed distiller in 2008 and has created a number of craft liquors that are sold at Square One.  And his liquors are getting noticed, as well.  At the recent Whiskey and Moonshine Distilling Conference put on by the American Distilling Institute in Louisville, Square One took home a silver medal for their Vermont Night whiskey liqueur.  Vermont Night is an oak-barrel aged whiskey infused with Vermont maple syrup, lemon, cloves, orange, cinnamon and vanilla beans.  I'm not big on sweet or fruity liqueurs, but that actually sounds sort of interesting. 

 
We parked just down the street from Square One around 1:30 in the afternoon.  It was a warm summer day in St. Louis with temperatures hovering around 90 with somewhat stifling humidity.  Scott and Marcia had called Greg to meet us at the restaurant and he was on his way when we checked in with the hostess in the bar area.  The bar area was this wonderfully ornate room with a huge walnut bar with an arched leaded-glass window directly behind the bar.  A row of about a dozen spigots adorned the front of the bar and a number of Square One specialty liquors occupied the back bar area.  

On the way down to St. Louis, I was in the sun most of the trip so I had the air-conditioning sort of cranked up to keep me cool.  Unfortunately for the ladies in the back seat, it got a little cold for them and when asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside on their patio, Marcia immediately opted for the outside.  Cindy said, "She needs to warm up!"  The hostess stuck us back in a corner that offered some shade, but after a while the sun had moved and I was soon getting roasted. 

 
The outdoor patio area featured a number of heavy tables with sturdy metal grated chairs.  Umbrellas were placed around the patio to help screen the sun that wasn't filtered already by the large trees outside the restaurant.  A nice little bar area was along the west wall, but the focal point of the patio was a waterfall wall that was encased in what was once an ornate doorway, probably from a nearby building that had been torn down or renovated.   

Just past a large wall of wood and glass-paned doors that appeared to fold out to offer a walk-out to the patio when the temperature was more agreeable was the main dining room for Square One.  It had a sky light with an ornate wood ceiling to go along with a nice wood floor.  It was tastefully decorated and the only hint of the place being a brewpub/micro-distillery were the huge distilling tanks on the other side of a glassed in room as you walked between the bar area and the main dining room.  Cindy had gone in to use the restroom and when she came out she told Marcia, "I think you made the right call.  It's rather cold in that dining room.  They've really got the AC cranked up in there!"

Our hostess had dropped off menus for us and set up placements for five at a table that was designed to seat four.  I took the corner, which wasn't a big deal - other than the sun starting to beat down on me - as the table was large enough for everyone to have enough room.

We didn't wait for Greg to show up before we ordered off the beer menu.  Square One features a rotation of over 50 different styles of beers throughout the year.  Twelve beers were on the list that day including a Spicy Blonde ale, a single malt Scotch ale, a nut brown ale, a Bavarian weizen, and an Imperial Stout.  They also featured a cask-drawn stout beer, as well.   I ordered the Park Ave. pale ale - an American pale ale that isn't quite as hoppy as their India Pale Ale (which was also on the beer menu).  Cindy got the same thing.  Scott opted for the Spicy Blonde (which Greg got as well after he showed up) and Marcia went with their Light Squared beer - a nice tasting lighter beer that goes down good in warm weather.

Cindy wanted to get an appetizer so she ordered up the goat cheese/artichoke/spinach dip.  The dip was served warm with a plate of small toasted bread and tortilla chips.  It was actually pretty good with large chunks of artichokes throughout the dip.

The dip was part of Square One's "microplate" section on their menu that featured a series of delectable items including pan seared crab cakes, beer pretzels, chicken wings and their version of nachos that included smoked flank steak with corn salsa, jalapenos, jack and cheddar cheese topped with lettuce and sour cream.  Seriously, I almost got that for my meal.

One other thing that caught my eye in the "microplate" section of the menu was the grilled mahi mahi fish tacos.  The waitress couldn't sufficiently describe them - how big they were or if it would be a full meal - so I passed on them for the time being and looked for something else to try. 

Greg said his favorite thing on the menu was the smoked flank steak Philly cheese steak sandwich.  They take strips of flank steak and smother it in Swiss and cheddar cheese and grilled onions, then place it on a baguette.  That's what both Scott and Greg ordered.

Cindy was torn between a number of items - she was looking at some of the fish dishes in the "Macroplate" section of the menu, which were basically the main entrees served at Square One.  They had a jerk mahi mahi that was grilled with jerk spices to give it a little kick (that sounded real good to me), a salmon entree that was grilled with a raspberry pecan butter (that didn't sound good to me), or good ol' fashioned fish and chips - beer battered grouper with french fries.

Cindy got to looking at the extensive sandwich selections they had on the menu and finally decided to get the tuna steak sandwich - a seared rare tuna steak topped with avocado, tomato, sprouts, and a smoked tomato aioli sauce and served with a side of Square One's pub chips.  Cindy told the waitress that she didn't want the chips, but asked if she could substitute a side salad with ranch dressing.  The waitress said there'd be a slight upcharge and Cindy was happy with that.  She opted to get the salad before the sandwich.

Square One features a number of salads and soups to choose from.  Greg said that the beer cheese soup was out of this world and Scott and he both got a cup of that.  It's served with a side of the pale ale to pour into the soup, truly making it a beer cheese soup.  Marcia was looking at a couple of the salads before finally choosing to get the grilled chicken salad sandwich - they take a grilled chicken breast and chop it up, then the add Gorgonzola cheese and pecans and a tarragon mayonnaise with the chicken, then place it on mixed greens on whole wheat bread.  I'm not big on chicken salad, but that sounded really interesting.

Me - I was torn between a number of things.  Each week, Square One features a burger on their menu - this week it was one of their 1/2 pound pub burgers topped with onion straws and barbecue sauce.  It didn't sound very inspiring to me.  They had a pulled barbecue pork sandwich that I thought about for a moment.   They had a Cuban pulled pork platter in the "Macroplate" section that was enticing me.  Their stout-braised pot roast caught my eye until I reminded myself that it was 90 degrees and it would probably sit in my stomach for hours on end.   The jerk chicken sandwich was appealing to me.  The turkey pub club sandwich would have been a great choice for a hot summer afternoon.

I was in a quandary as what to get when it came to me to order.  Finally, I settled on the reuben - thick slices of corned beef piled high on swirled marble rye and topped with lager-infused sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing.  I asked the waitress if I could get an order of their onion straws on the side instead of the fries.  She said, "Well, we only offer them as a garnish and not as a side."

I said, "But you would have enough to make a side, wouldn't you?"

She sort of stammered for a moment and said, "Yeah, but they're not offered as a side."  I told her they should be.  I know I sort of flummoxed her and threw her off her game, but I ended up getting the pub fries instead.  I also got a cup of their homemade chili.  I know - it was 90 degrees out and I was sweating like a whore in church sitting in the sun, but for some reason the description of their chili in the menu sounded great.

Cindy sort of chided me for hassling the waitress about the onion straws.  I said, "I guess I don't get it with some restaurants.  If they've got them in the kitchen, then they should be able to make them available as a side.  I don't care if it costs me a buck or two more above the price of my meal.  I wanted the onion straws."

Scott reminded me of a similar circumstance when we had all gone out to eat at Granite City back in Davenport one evening.  "I remember you'd asked for onion straws instead of fries and the waitress had to go back to check," he said.  "And she got 'em for you!"

After a bit, the waitress brought out my chili, the beer cheese soup for Scott and Greg, and Cindy's salad.  My chili consisted of three different types of beans with chopped smoked flank steak topped with cheese and onion straws.  Cindy said, "Well, thank God you got some onion straws as part of your meal!"  I made quick work of the chili, it was damn good.

Scott and Greg's beer cheese soup was served with a small amount of pale ale in what looked like little metal pitchers, the kind you'd used for pouring maple syrup on pancakes in upscale restaurants.  They just poured the beer in and went to town on the soup.  Scott said, "Oh, man, Greg.  You were right about this soup.  This is good stuff!"  I was sort of jealous that I didn't try the beer cheese soup.  Next time...

Cindy and Marcia were intrigued with the specialty liquors and liqueurs on the menu.  They featured a bloody mary made with Square One's made-in-house Spirits of St. Louis vodka.  She got one of those.  Cindy wanted to try the Citrus Mello Cello liqueur - it's Square One's take on an Italian Lemon Cello liqueur, only they make theirs out of rum and infuse it with blood oranges and Agave nectar.  Cindy said she liked the flavor, but that it was too sweet for her taste.   For me, I switched to Square One's India Pale Ale as I thought their Park Ave. pale was a little flat.  The Park Ave. pale was good, but the I.P.A. was much better.

 
Not long after we finished our soups and or salad, the sandwiches showed up at the table.  The description of the reuben in the menu didn't do it justice.  It was overly piled with thick slices of tender corned beef although they could have put a little more sauerkraut on the sandwich.  A ton of melted Swiss cheese covered the top of the corned beef and the marble-rye bread was thickly cut.  I could tell the Thousand Island dressing was homemade with large chunks of sweet pickles mixed in.  I got a side of the dressing to dip my sandwich in to as I like to do with reubens.  And my sandwich was very good and very filling.  Well, I'm sure a combination of a couple three pale ales, the cup of chili, and some of the dip with the toasted bread had something to do with it, as well.

Cindy's tuna sandwich looked lonely on her plate, but she showed me how it was lightly seared and rare inside.  She said it was very good.  I knew that I was going to have trouble finishing my sandwich with all that meat piled on there, so I offered her some of my fries.  She must have been very hungry as she eagerly grabbed some off my plate.

Scott and Greg's smoked flank steak Philly cheese steak was a monster sandwich.  Scott said, "Oh, boy.  This is really gonna be a gut bomb.  I may not be able to eat pizza later on tonight."   But he said it was "great".  Greg didn't steer his dad wrong with either the beer cheese soup or the flank steak Philly sandwich.

And Marcia said her grilled chicken salad sandwich was also very good.  I told her that I don't know if I've ever seen grilled chicken in a chicken salad sandwich before and she said, "Oh, I have.  But you certainly don't see it very often.  I'm guessing it might be a pain to make."

Before lunch, we talked about getting an after-lunch beer at a new place just across the street from Square One called the Lafayette Fire Company - a restaurant/bar that had opened just last year.  It looked pretty interesting from the outside.  However, after a couple three beers and the big sandwiches, Scott and I pretty much vetoed that idea.  We were absolutely stuffed.  But it will be one of those places that we'll have to check out on subsequent visits to St. Louis.

  I'm glad Scott reminded me about Square One Brewery just before our trip.  The food was a good value with large portions for all and it tasted very good.  The beer was above average, but I felt the Park Ave. pale was a little flat.  Drinkable, but not the best American pale ale that I've had.  But it was fine for a hot summer afternoon.  But I really liked the ambiance of Square One.  I could see myself sitting at the bar some rainy Saturday afternoon pouring down a few specialty beers and having a burger or sandwich.  Too bad it's not back home in Davenport.

 I'm beginning to really like the area around Lafayette Square and when I stay downtown as I sometimes do when I go to St. Louis, it's not that far of a drive to the Square One Brewery.  It's another good restaurant that I've now found to add to my list of places to eat when I'm trying to figure out what I want for dinner when I'm in St. Louis. 

Maui Brewing Company - Lahaina, HI

Another famous brewpub in Hawaii is the Maui Brewing Company in Lahaina.  I had that on my list of places to visit while we were on Maui, but we just never got around to doing it.  Thanks to Cindy's keen eyes and a little bit of backtracking, we did go there for lunch on the last day we were on Maui. 

We usually ship a number of items back home when we're on vacation to free up space in suitcases for things we want to return home immediately with us.  Before we left Maui on our last day, we took a lot of stuff (dirty clothes, tour guides, macadamia nuts, knick-knacks, etc.) to a UPS Store in Lahaina to ship back home.  After that was done, we still had about three hours to kill.  We were trying to figure out someplace to go eat lunch before we had to go to the airport for the first leg of our long trip home.

We had visited downtown Lahaina a couple days earlier and decided that we didn't want to eat lunch at any of the tourist-trap restaurants they had in the area.  We thought we'd work our way back toward the airport and see if there was any place that sort of jumped out at us where we could stop. 

As we were stopped at a traffic light in Lahaina, Cindy looked over and exclaimed, "Hey, the Maui Brewing Company!  Isn't that where you said you wanted to go?"

I was past the entrance of the place and had to do a turn-around up the road to come back.  I turned into the entrance to a strip mall parking lot and headed toward a sign in the back that said, "Maui Brewing Company" with an arrow pointing to the left.  I turned the corner and headed back toward a large industrial looking building.  It was quite obvious this wasn't the brew pub but the brewery.  Disappointed, I started to turn the car around and Cindy noticed an open door on the side of the building.  She said, "If someone's in there, they should know where the brew pub is." 

I went in and the place reeked of crisp, baked hops.  Yep, this was the brewery.  I didn't see anyone, so I hollered, "Hello!" a couple of times.  Finally, a guy and a lady came around the corner and asked if they could help me. 

I said I was looking for the brew pub and he said, "Oh, that's up the road a bit.  This is the brewery."   I asked how far up the road it was and he said it was about six miles to the north.  We were almost there when we were at the UPS store just earlier. 

The lady came back around the corner and had a brochure on the brew pub that included a map to the place, along with some Maui Brewing Company stickers.  They gave them to me and I headed back outside.  As I getting ready to get into the car, another car pulled up and a lady asked out her window, "Is this the Brew Pub?"

The guy hollered back to the lady, "Get another brochure, honey!"

We took off back up north on the Honoapiilani Highway toward where we were earlier in the day, past the large resorts and toward Napili Bay.  In the meantime, Cindy had programmed the address into the GPS and it took us to a strip mall at the northwest corner of Honoapiilani Hwy and Hoohui Road (I love Hawaiian street names).  Back in the corner of the strip mall was the Maui Brewing Company brew pub (see map).

The Maui Brewing Company began in 2005 when Garrett Marrero (right) and Melanie Oxley joined forces with Tom Kerns, who owned the Fish and Game Brew Pub on Maui.   Marrero's background was in personal financing and investments in his native San Diego and first visited Maui in 2001.  He had a longtime love for craft brews and decided to move to Maui to start his own micro-brewed beer.

With Kerns' help, Marrero and Oxley started a production facility (the location we went to first) in 2006.  After helping get Marrero established, Kerns eventually sold the brew pub to Maui Brewing Company in 2008.  He then "retired" but turned up again as the guy behind Tako Taco on the Big Island and who is in the midst of establishing a small micro-brewery behind the place.  Click here to see the post on our visit to Tako Taco.

Marrero's goal was to make both the brewery and the brew pub "sustainable" as they use ingredients in the beer and for their food that is locally grown on Maui.  Maui Brewing Company's beers use unique ingredients such as coconuts, pineapple, guava and other sustainable produce in the brewing process.

 

 
The interior of the Maui Brewing Company could be easily described as industrial.  It's a large space with an open black ceiling that exposes the truss beams across the top.  There are four skylights that allow natural light to come in during the day, cutting down on the need for lights in the restaurants during the day.  There's a large bar toward the back of the dining room with a series of tables and booths throughout the place.  One of the more unique features of the place were the lights on the wall and from the ceiling.  They had taken small kegs and made hanging lights out of them.  And it was like they had taken the same small kegs, cut them in half and hung them on the wall in front of a light.  It was a rather ingenious use of old kegs. 

Marrero's philosophy of being a "green" company encompasses both the brew pub and the brewery.  The tables they use at the brew pub are made with recycled materials.  In fact, much of Maui Brewing Company's philosophy is based upon reducing the carbon footprint they produce.  Their beers are available in cans and not bottles as bottles can break and you definitely don't want broken glass on a beach.  Plus, Garrett Marrero's philosophy is that light can cause beer to go bad.  No light can get into a can of Maui Brewing Company beer.  The cardboard trays they deliver the can beer to at various retail locations are picked up and re-used each week.  They try to use the cardboard trays as often as possible before recylcing the cardboard at the end of their life-span.   

We sat at a table toward the center of the room and we were given menus to look over.  They have a grease board menu on the wall near the bar that lists all of the beers they have on tap.  I saw one that sort of caught my attention - the Exotic Ale made with lilikoi.  Anything with lilikoi caught my attention, actually, and I ordered one of those.  Cindy ordered up a glass of the Big Swell IPA, a hearty and hoppy India Pale Ale that had a little higher alcohol content that the Exotic Ale.

The food at the brew pub also has a "home-grown" theme with Maui-raised beef, produce and and fresh fish caught off the coasts.  The beef they use at the brew pub is from the Maui Cattle Company ranch on Maui.  They call their food "from farm to table and beyond."

The menu at the Maui Brewing Company was very interesting with a number of soups and salads, a load of yummy sounding appetizers, sandwiches and pizza.  Their entrees included a coconut beef stew - beef and veggies in a hearty broth made from the brewery's Coconut Porter.  They also had a number of pastas, jambalaya and ribs on the entree menu.

I'd only had one hamburger while I was in Hawaii and none while we were on Maui.  The only burger Maui Brewing Company has on their menu is the Maui Cattle Company burger, a 1/2 pound burger served on an onion bun with Maui-grown lettuce, sweet onions and tomatoes.  I'll tell you, I miss a lot about Hawaii, but Hawaiian-grown tomatoes are at or near the top of my list of things I miss the most.  You can also include a number of toppings including goat cheese, jalapenos, and onion rings.  I got Swiss cheese and mushrooms to top off my burger.

We'd had sort of a large breakfast a few hours earlier (I don't think you can get a small breakfast on Hawaii) and Cindy was torn between getting a sandwich or one of Maui Brewing Company's delicious sounding salads.  She finally settled on getting their Butterleaf wedge salad - a large chunk of Maui-grown butterleaf lettuce, topped with bleu-cheese crumbles, macadamia nuts (that was the clincher for her) and finished off with chopped tomatoes and a gluten-free dijon vinaigrette dressing.

I'd finished my Exotic Ale - it was OK, not as good as I hoped.  It was sort of light and would have been a good beer on a hot summer day.  I tried a small sample of Cindy's Big Swell IPA and it was good, so I went with one of those for my second beer.

I got up to use the restroom before our food came and I wandered over to the bar area.  The bar top was made of stainless-steel so the wood wouldn't deteriorate from sweating beer glasses.  But what was rather interesting about the bar was the cooling strip along the back edge.  The white strip in the not so clear picture at the right is the cooling strip that will allow people to rest their beer on the strip, keeping it cold as they pause between drinks.  I've been accused of being a quick drinker when it comes to beer because I don't care for the taste of beer above 40 degrees (F).  I could literally sip my beer if I had a cooling strip like this.

Nawwww....

 
Our food came out soon after and the presentation was very nice.  Cindy's salad wedge didn't look like a conventional wedge salad like we'd get back on the mainland.  It was a large collection of large leaf lettuce - I guess that would be butterleaf lettuce - with a healthy amount of chopped tomatoes and blue-cheese crumbles and drizzled with the dijon vinaigrette.  It looked good and healthy.

My burger was equally good looking.  Large, chopped fresh sauteed mushrooms on top of the melted Swiss cheese on the burger made my stomach jump.  A large butterleaf lettuce leaf along with sweet Maui onions and a slice of a Maui tomato garnished the side.  Beer-battered fries came with the meal, but I was sort of upset afterward that I didn't order up a side of their beer-battered onion rings because the beer-batter was very good.

The burger was thick and juicy and the toasted bun was light, but not to chewy.  I like a good onion bun on a burger and the one at Maui Brewing Company didn't disappoint.  The Big Swell IPA, although somewhat filling,  was a good compliment to the burger. 

About half-way through the meal, our waiter came over to check on us.  I was low on beer and he asked if I wanted another one.  I was getting sort of full, so I perused the board for a lighter-bodied beer to finish off my meal.  The waiter said, "We have the Hot Blonde which is a lager, but it's infused with chipotle peppers.  It's got kind of a smoky taste with a little bite in the end."  I like hot stuff, but not so much in my beer.  I ended up getting a Pau Hana Pilsner.  Cindy was doing fine with her original Big Swell IPA.  She could have benefited from having the cooling strip at the bar.

My burger was very good.  The grass-fed Maui Cattle Company beef was juicy and flavorful.  The tomato had this amazing taste explosion in my mouth.  I finally figured out why they scan your bags for fruit and vegetables when you leave Hawaii for the mainland - they don't want you taking Hawaiian tomatoes or lilikoi back home with you.  They want to make them only available on the islands so you'll have to come back at some point to enjoy the taste.

Cindy also declared her salad as very good.  The bleu-cheese was pungent and flavorful.  And she really liked the dijon vinaigrette.  She said it was the perfect lunch for her after the big breakfast.

And I have to say that of the three beers I tried, I think I liked the Pau Hana Pilsner the best.  They were all very good, but I sort of liked the pilsner taste of the Pau Hana over the Big Swell IPA.

I'm glad we were able to go to the Maui Brewing Company.  It's the only one on Maui and it would be tough to top if another brew pub were to pop up at some point.  The beer was good, the food was very good and the service was attentive, yet laid back.  It was also a little expensive - our bill with tip came to nearly $50 bucks.  But it was our last true meal while we were in Hawaii and it didn't disappoint in the least.

Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company - Columbia, MO

I'm in the process of putting on a new dealer in Columbia, MO, a great Midwestern college towns.  In fact, Columbia has been one of my favorite destinations since I began to travel in the mid-80's.  I had a meeting with my new dealer recently and I thought we were going out to dinner.  But his partner was out on an install and he had a meeting with a doctor later in the evening, so he begged off until next time.  That afforded me the chance to go back to one of the better brew pubs in the Midwest, Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company. 

Located on the west end of the downtown area and near the University of Missouri campus (see map), Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company opened in 1994 and is housed in a building that was built in the late 1920's.  It was the first brewery in Columbia since 1841.  The business is named after Flat Branch creek that flows not far from the building.  Years ago, the building was the home to the local Hudson automobile dealership.  The building features a unique curved barrel roof and they've kept the original brick walls and hardwood floors intact.  The brewery is on the premises and it's headed by Larry Goodwin, who has been at Flat Branch for about 10 years.  Plus, there's a great outdoor beer garden on the south side of the restaurant.  It's a very popular place for people in and around the Columbia.

I got into Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company around 7 p.m. and was met with a large crowd milling about in the lobby area.  The hostess told me that it would be approximately 30 to 45 minutes to get a table.  I noticed there were a couple places to sit at the bar and I asked if I could eat at the bar.  She said, "We have full menu service at the bar, yes."  The bar, itself, is sort of unique in that it has a couple of short 90 degree angles and I sat in a spot where I could easily lean up on the bar to my right.  It was sort of cumbersome for the bartenders to work around, but they managed.  

My bartender gave me a menu and I ordered up one of their pale ales - the Katy Trail Pale Ale.  It's an American-style pale ale made with Cascade hops.  It's not as forward of a pale ale like I normally like, but it was OK for that evening.  Flat Branch may have the largest beer list of any brew pub I've ever encountered.  They have a minimum of 10 different types of beer to choose from at any point in time.  However, Goodwin and his brewery crew have an arsenal of over 90 different types of beers they can brew.  They use hops and grain from all over the world including Germany, Belgium and New Zealand to make their special beers.   

In addition to their beers, Flat Branch Pub features one of the largest and most impressive Scotch selections in the Midwest.  And not only do they have a ton of great Scotches to choose from, they also have a fine selection of Bourbons, as well.   My colleagues Todd and Chris are big Scotch and Bourbon aficionados, respectively, and I thought about them as I looked over the whiskey menu.  I could see spending an afternoon in Flat Branch just trying the different Scotches they have to offer.

The food at Flat Branch Pub is a nice mix of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers and what I would characterize as upscale bar food.  They feature a rib eye steak, a pasta dish (Bayou chicken and sausage pasta - I've had it and it's great), ribs, chicken dishes and even brick oven pizza.  One thing that caught my eye was the Buffalo Stout meatloaf - they mix ground beef and lean buffalo meat and mix in some of their stout beer.  They top a couple slices with a barbecue bourbon glaze and you get your choice of one side.  I signed up for that and I got their dirty rice for my side. 

I had finished my Katy Trail Pale Ale and I was looking to try something else.   Most of the beers Flat Branch serves are unfiltered beers.  One that caught my eye was their Green Chili beer - a mild beer that is hopped up with Serrano and Anaheim peppers.  I asked my bartender for a sample of that.  She brought me a small 6 oz glass that was about half full.  It has a peppery smell to the beer and mildly spicy aftertaste.  But I decided to try their American Pale Ale - an American style pale ale that was actually a little more forward in the taste of the hops and bitters.  I liked it better than the Katy Trail Pale Ale. 

A waitress brought out my dinner and sat it in front of me at the bar.  The slabs of buffalo/beef meatloaf were about 3/4 inch thick and very lean.  They were sort of dry - I think they may have thrown them on the grill for a bit before they were served to me.  But the meatloaf was still good and I did like the sweet Bourbon barbecue sauce they had with the meatloaf.  The dirty rice was also very good with a nice spicy aftertaste to it.  Overall, the meal wasn't overwhelming, but it was good. 

The Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company is one of the finest brew pubs I've encountered in my travels.  It has a great atmosphere, a number of above average beers, and the food isn't bad.  The beer garden is a great place to have a cool beer on a warm Missouri Summer afternoon.  While it may not be quite the place to go to impress a client, the food is still serviceable for a brew pub.  It's a great place to go for a quick bite with friends or by yourself. 

Kona Brewing Company - Kailua-Kona, HI

The Kona Brewing Company in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island is one of the more famous brew pubs in the U.S.  It was at the top of my list to try when we got to the Hawaiian Islands.  On our first full day on the Big Island, we went there for lunch and a few beers.

The Kona Brewing Company has been around since the mid-90's when the father and son team of Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa moved back to the Big Island from Oregon to start a brewery which featured beers that were to be made with "spirit, passion and quality".  Their first beer, Pacific Golden Ale, was released on February 14, 1995.  It became a hit and within three years they introduced their second beer, their famous Longboard Island Lager.  More beers came along the way and today the original brewery in Kailua-Kona brews 10 beers and puts out over 10,000 barrels annually.  

Five of their beers are bottled and made available all over Hawaii.  However, Kona Brewing Company has a brewing agreement with Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland, OR and with Redhook Ale Brewery in Portsmouth, NH to brew and bottle their Longboard Lager and Fire Rock Pale Ale, as well as their seasonal Pipeline Porter and Wailua Wheat Ale.  Although Kona Brewing Company says they maintain strict brewing control over their mainland brewed beers - even down to the mineral content of the water that goes into making their beers, locals told us they're not the same.  Anheuser-Busch has an agreement with Kona Brewing to distribute the beer in select markets in the U.S. mainland.  I've never seen any around the Midwest.  The closest distributor is in Colorado.

Today, in conjunction with their west coast and east coast brewers, Kona Brewing Company is the 14th largest craft brewer in the nation quickly approaching 100,000 barrels of beer sold annually.  But, quite unfortunately, neither of the two mainland breweries brew and bottle what turned out to be my favorite Kona beer - Big Wave Golden Ale (the original Pacific Golden Ale became Big Wave Golden Ale a few years ago).   More about that beer later on. 

We slept in on our first morning on Hawaii and had a late breakfast at the hotel.  We took off in our rental convertible with the top down and the sun shining down on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island.  It was a beautiful day with the temps in the low 80's.  We had driven around the downtown are of Kailua-Kona earlier that was teeming with tourists from a cruise ship moored out in the bay.  A lot of the restaurants and shops were tourist trap joints, beckoning people to come in and spend their money.  It was really too much for us. 

As we tried to drive away from the touristy area, I got the idea.  "Hey, I want to find that Kona Brewing Company!"  Cindy asked if they had food and I said, "Oh, yeah.  And I guess it's pretty good."  I put the name of the place into my GPS and it came right up.  Turned out we weren't very far away. 

The Brewpub at Kona Brewing Company is right next to the original brewery just north of the intersection of Kuakini Highway and Palani Road (see map).  The brew pub opened in part of the brewery in 1998.  At the time, Cameron Healy brought in Mattson Davis from Oregon to oversee the restaurant's operation.  Today, Mattson Davis is the President and CEO of Kona Brewing Company.

The menu consists of a number of varieties of fresh seafood and homegrown produce from the Hawaiian Islands.  The brew pub is also famous for their varieties of gourmet pizzas in which they use a garlic-infused olive oil base in their dough.  Davis had worked for a Portland, OR-based small chain of gourmet pizza restaurants - Pizzicato.  He kept the gourmet pizza concept with Kona Brewing Company's brew pub menu, but also added a number of appetizers, sandwiches and entrees that highlighted the Hawaiian grown concept behind the menu.

It was around 2:30 when we got to the front hostess stand just outside the outdoor seating area of the brew pub.  True enough, there was a working brewery right next door, right down to fork lifts maneuvering pallets of keg beer around an outside, fenced-in holding area.  It had kind of a weird industrial, yet tropical feel to the place.  It turned out that a lot of people were having a late lunch that afternoon and our wait was going to be about 20 minutes.  There were a handful of people sitting on benches near the hostess stand.  I asked the hostess if we could go in and get a beer from the bar.  She said, "Sure, but the 'beepers' here don't work in the bar for some reason, so you need to be outside to get 'buzzed'."  

I was hoping their beer would give me enough of a buzz.  

We went into the bar and the smell of their pizza hit us like a brick oven.  Oh, my God, it smelled wonderful!  We sort of looked at one another and Cindy said, "Oh, God, Will!  Smell that!  I don't know if I want a pizza, but that smell is so tempting!"   We picked up a menu while we were standing at the packed bar waiting to order a beer.  We took a look at the prices of their pizzas and that was probably the first time we realized restaurants in Hawaii weren't going to be cheap.  Just a basic 10" pepperoni pizza was $12 bucks.  OK, well, we're on vacation in Hawaii.

It took us a little while for the bartender to get over to get our beer order.  She was really working her tail off.  In addition to five bottled beers, Kona Brewing also has five beers on tap.  We both ordered up their Castaway India Pale Ale.  Actually, it's more of a mild American Pale Ale that does have some subtle hoppiness, but isn't as forward as most India Pale Ales.  We grabbed our glasses and went back outside to enjoy the day.  

While we were waiting at the bar, I noticed a number of posters on the wall of the inside of the brew pub touting shows that Kona Brewing Company had put on in the past.  They had shows that featured the likes of John Mayall, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson, Jonny Lang, Walter Trout, and Everclear.  It appeared that many of the shows were part of some blues festival that Kona Brewing Company evidently sponsored.   When we went back outside, we ended up at the counter of the Kona Brewing gift shop, just near the hostess stand.  We got to talking with the young guy working behind the counter.  

I asked him about all the shows on the posters in the main restaurant and asked where they had them.  He said, "Oh, we'd have 'em right here at the brewery.  That fenced in area was the backstage area, we put a stage in front of that and then people stood or brought lawn chairs in the parking lot."  

I asked when the last show was and he said, "Oh, geez, I don't know.  2004 or so.  It's been awhile."  He explained that they would have to shut down both the brewery and brew pub for two or three days to pull it off.  He said, "We can't afford to do that any longer."   He did say that they still sponsor much smaller shows that feature lesser known or local artists, but the days of the bigger shows are pretty much over. 

He explained that even before the economic downturn, business has been down at both the brewery and the brew pub due to a tourism slump in Kailua-Kona.  He said, "See that big cruise ship out in the harbor?  We used to have three of them come a couple times a week.  Now we only get one a couple times a week."  He said the place used to be packed with tourists - some days, the wait for a table would be 90 minutes.  "These days, we're just holding on with what we get."  

It wasn't much longer when our pager buzzed and we were taken to a table deep in the outdoor seating area.  We were seated at a table right next to a sea turtle sculpture that was pretty neat.  The late lunch crowd had begun to sort of filter out and our waitress came right away to check our drink orders and to drop off a couple menus.  I was almost done with my pale ale and I asked if I could get a Big Wave Golden Ale.  She said, "Oh, I'm sorry.  We're out of that today." 

I said, "We're at the brewery and it's one of your most popular beers and you're out of it today?"

She gave me a pained look and said, "Yeah, I know.  I'm sorry."  I decided to try one of the Longboard Lagers.  She said, "I know we have that today."  The Longboard Lagers are a little more full-bodied than most American Lagers.  It had sort of a Germanic lager taste to it.  But it was very good.

Cindy and I had ruled out getting a pizza.  She was on a mission to have some fish and since most of Kona Brewing Company's seafood is freshly caught, she decided on getting the Lawai'a Special - a sandwich that featured the fish of the day, grilled and put onto a homemade bun and topped with lettuce, tomato and a special sauce.  Ahi tuna was the catch of the day and she asked to have hers cooked medium rare. 

I was still thinking of getting at the very least a calzone, but I saw something on the menu that sounded great - Uncle's Fish Tacos.  I'm a sucker for fish tacos, especially if they're grilled and not breaded and deep-fried.  (That's like eating fish sticks on taco shells.)  I asked our waitress how the fish in the fish tacos was prepared and she said, "We season the fish with cajun spices, then we bake the filets in the oven.  Then we pull the filets apart when we serve them on the taco shells."  I happily signed up for that.

The outdoor seating area was very casual and very laid-back.  Each table had a huge umbrella that kept the hot sun off the tables and it was nice and cool.  There was sort of a garden area off to the side and Cindy pointed out this one plant to me.  She said, "What is that?"  I took a look and immediately recognized little flower clusters of fresh hops growing in a planter near the building.  Only I'd never seen hops that color before.  They were kind of the normal green at the bottom, but were sort of a deep red at the top.  I figured it must have been some sort of a tropical hop plant.  I guess I should have asked. 

When she brought the fish tacos out, I was overly surprised at the presentation.  They were topped with fresh island-grown cabbage and a salsa that included black beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, green onions and cilantro. And the fish was topped with a chipotle yogurt sauce with avacado aioli - a avacado/sour cream sauce that also has lemon and lime juices, with minced garlic, fresh basil and jalapenos.  It was outstanding.  I've got to make that for my fish tacos at home. 

Cindy also declared her Ahi tuna fish sandwich as being outstanding.  The chunk of tuna was the perfect size for a sandwich and it was cooked perfectly to her liking.  She ended up taking the ahi tuna off the bun about half-way through the meal to savor the taste of the fish.  She gave me a little bite of the tuna and it was excellent.  And I let her have a bite of my fish tacos and she got this look on her face of "Oh my God!"  She said with a mouthful of food, "That's great!"  And it was great. 

Lunch wasn't overly cheap - with our food and four beers (I went back to the Castaway Pale Ale for my last beer and Cindy had the same) the bill came to just over $50 bucks before tip.  And our waitress was very good so she got a 20% tip on top of the bill. 

Before we left we stopped at the gift shop and Cindy got a Kona Brewing Company visor that she could wear in the car when we had the top down.  And I picked up a Big Wave Golden Ale t-shirt.  It wasn't until later in the day when I was able to try a Big Wave Golden Ale back at the hotel.  I'm not big on fruit beers, but the fruit taste in the Big Wave Golden Ale was so subtle that it wasn't really noticeable.  The combination of the flavors in the beer made it a very refreshing taste sensation, especially on those warm Hawaiian days.  It immediately became my beer of choice when we'd go out for dinner or when we'd stop off at the bar at the hotel.

 

Of all the things that I probably miss most about Hawaii is the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale.  I was hoping that it would be available on the mainland, but it isn't.  I actually looked up on line to see if I could get Big Wave Golden Ale shipped to me in Iowa.  I found a wine store in Kailua-Kona that would sell me a case of Big Wave Golden Ale for $47.96.  Getting it to Iowa from Hawaii (as we found when we shipped a couple boxes back home) ain't cheap.  It would cost $95 bucks to have it shipped regular FedEx Ground.  But I'm not kidding you - I'm still thinking about it. 

The food at the Kona Brewing Company was excellent.  We loved the outdoor seating area and the coziness of the indoor bar area.  The beer was equally excellent.  We had entertained going back to the place to get a pizza at some point, but just like many other places we really liked on our visit to Hawaii, we never made it back - mainly because of all the options available to us.  But even if we don't ever make it back to the Big Island, I'll always have great memories of the beer and the great fish tacos at Kona Brewing Company. 

Trailhead Brewing Company - St. Charles, MO

A night after going to Lewis and Clark's, I decided to go to their sister restaurant - Trailhead Brewing Company - in historic downtown St. Charles (see map).  When I worked for my former company based in St. Peters, we spent a lot of time at Trailhead Brewing Company.  And after I left the company over 7 years ago, I still caught up with some of my former colleagues at Trailhead when I'd make it to St. Louis.  But the company ended up closing, former colleagues moved away or got other jobs, and it had been a long, long time since I was last in. 

Trailhead Brewing Company opened in 1995 in an old building that once housed the Old Grist Mill.  The land the restaurant sits upon is said to be the "trailhead" point for the Lewis and Clark expedition.  As St. Charles grew as an important trading center in the 1800's, it was known as a trailhead for fur traders, settlers and other people heading west.  Today, Trailhead Brewing Company marks the eastern trailhead of the Katy Trail, a recreational trail that ends 225 miles away in Clinton, MO.

Trailhead Brewing Company is a very popular place with a large square bar and a couple of dining areas in the place.  The bar was packed with people when I got there that evening, so there was no place to sit and be able to watch TV and get dinner.  I opted for a table in the upper dining room.  The hostess took me up there, sat me at a table and handed me a menu.  The waiter came over and asked if I wanted a beer to get started.  It had been such a long time since I'd been there that I had to look over the beer menu just to remember what they had.  I ended up getting a Trailhead Red Amber for my first beer. 

Trailhead Brewing Company's menu is sort of extensive with a number of appetizers and about five pizzas to choose from.  They also have a number of soups and salads, along with some house specialties that include ribs, fish and chips and a sausage platter.  And just as I remembered, Trailhead has large selection of sandwiches including burgers, prime rib sandwiches and grilled chicken sandwiches.  

But I was looking at the entrees that evening, even though the spicy hot beef sandwich was getting my attention.  Trailhead Brewing Company has three different sizes of slow roasted prime rib, and an interesting "jerk"-seasoned grilled Mahi Mahi.  But the slow smoked, then grilled center-cut pork loin medallions kept calling me.  That what I ended up ordering when the waiter came back with my beer.  The medallions were served on a bed of rice and I got a choice of a side, as well as a salad.  They had maple infused sweet potatoes that evening.  Ooo, I'm a sucker for maple and sweet potatoes.  Putting them together sounded so joyfully sinful.  For good measure, I also ordered a cup of Trailhead's chili in which they put smoked beef brisket chunks.  I remembered that as being pretty good.

The Trailhead Red Amber beer was, well, sort of disappointing.  It tasted rather flat and didn't have the forward taste that I've come to expect from an amber beer.  It just wasn't very good.  I knew I wouldn't be ordering that again for my second beer.

The salad was a generous plate of greens topped with Trialhead's homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Nothing spectacular, but it was serviceable.  But the chili was everything I remember it was.  It featured nice sized chunks of smoked brisket and it had a great taste to it.  Looking back, had I just gotten a bowl of chili for dinner that could have been more than enough. 

The waiter came by to pick up my salad plate and my empty cup of chili.  I ordered up one of Trailhead's Trailblazer Blond ales, about the lightest thing they had on their beer menu.  I do like their Missouri Brown dark ale (has a nice blend of caramel and coffee taste to it), but it's a little too heavy for me.  As is their Old Courthouse Stout.  Stout beers and I don't get along, anyhow.  And I certainly wasn't going to order up the Riverboat Raspberry beer.  Ordering a fruity beer is not part of my drinking agenda.  

My pork medallions came out along with my beer and I dug in.  The pork was actually a little over-grilled making the meat a little tough, and the barbecue sauce really overpowered the taste of the meat.  The barbecue sauce that Trailhead Brewing Company uses is all right, but it's nothing exciting.    The highlight on my plate were the maple sweet potatoes.  Oh man, were they great! 

The Trailblazer Blond was OK, better than the amber, but not by much.  It had a light flavor, but I should have probably ordered a Bud Light.   I have sort of an unwritten rule that I have at brewpubs - drink what they make, even if it isn't all that great. 

The Trailhead Brewing Company was exactly what I remembered it to be.  Average food and average beer all served in a unique 1800-style building that is cozy and comforting.  Like I say, I do remember their burgers and some of their sandwiches being pretty good and maybe I'll stop back for lunch some day to give them another try.  But with all the choices in the St. Louis/St. Charles County area for places to eat for dinner, it may be quite sometime before I make it back to Trailhead Brewing Company for an evening meal. 

Moon River Brewing Company - Savannah, GA

I always want to try a local brewpub when I'm on vacation.  Not only for my interest in their beers, but also because they usually have some interesting food to go along with their micro-brewed beer.  One place that we drove by many times was the Moon River Brewing Company on Bay St. in downtown Savannah. (see map)  We decided to go in for lunch one day. 

The building that houses the Moon River Brewing Company has a historical past in that it dates back to 1821 when it was built as the City Hotel, the first hotel in Savannah.   In addition to the hotel, the building also was home to the first United States Post Office in Savannah, as well as the first United States bank branch.  The City Hotel stayed in business until 1864 when the last customer checked out just before Gen. William Sherman's march into Savannah during the Civil War.

By the turn of the century, the building was used as a storehouse for both lumber and coal.  When the coal industry went away prior to World War II, the building was then used as a general storage warehouse.  In the 60's, the building was then turned into a office supply store.  When Hurricane David hit Savannah in 1979, the roof was torn off the building.  It sat empty until 1995.

As part of the revitalization of the Savannah Historic District, the main floor and basement of the bottom was turned into a brewpub - the Oglethorpe Brewing Company, named after James Oglethorpe, the founder of Savannah.

The Oglethorpe Brewing Company had a tough go and closed their doors after less than three years in business.  It was reopened in 1999 as the Moon River Brewing Company, named after the nickname of the local Wilmington River which was made famous in the song "Moon River" which was penned by Savannah native Johnny Mercer.  In 2004, local investor Gene Beeco, along with brewmaster John Pinkerton (who had come down to Savannah from the Frederick Brewing Company in Maryland), bought Moon River and its 15 barrel brewery.  Here's a picture of Beeco (on the left) and Pinkerton (on the right) during one of their famous Christmas Eve parties at Moon River.  

As you enter the Moon River Brewing Company, you walk right into the bar area - an old antique looking square bar with high back chairs.  A hostess greeted us and took us into the dining room and sat us at a booth.  She handed us our menus and said the waitress would be right with us. 

They had a beer menu on the table and I took a look through that.  They featured 8 beers they brewed on their own at Moon River, including something they called "Tater Ale", a sweet potato beer.  It sounded interesting, but the "Swamp Fox" India Pale Ale caught my eye.  The Swamp Fox featured a very hoppy and forward taste, the kind I like in a good strong pale ale.  Cindy doesn't really like that kind of a pale ale, but Moon River had a "Slo-vannah" pale ale that is more of an American style pale ale, less hoppy and forward.  For people who don't like to try microbrews, Moon River also offered other tap beers such as Guinness, Smithwick's and Sierra Nevada pale ale.  

Our waitress, a young, 20-something, very fun girl, came over to get our beer order.  We ordered up a couple - the Swamp Fox for me, and the Slo-vannah for Cindy.  She said, "Oh, I'm sorry.  We're out of the Swamp Fox."   So, I ordered up two Slo-vannah pale ales.  

She also talked about some of the specials they were having for lunch.  But Cindy had her eye on one of the appetizers - fried green tomatoes topped with real blue crab meat, then drizzled with a cucumber wasabi sauce.  Yeah, that sounded pretty interesting.  We ordered a plate of those while we looked through our menus and sipped our beer. 

I was in the mood for a good burger and Moon River has three burgers featured on their menu.  They also had other sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads and entrees - including seafood, steaks and an interesting sounding chicken/sausage Creole dish.  It sounded good, but I wanted a burger.  

And so did Cindy, so when the waitress came back, she ordered a Moon River burger - just an 8 oz. plain burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion.  She also ordered a side of the scalloped potatoes.  I thought about getting their Black and Blue burger - an 8 oz. blackened burger topped with bleu cheese and served with dijon mustard.  But sometimes, the bleu cheese overpowers the taste of the burger.  I do like bleu cheese, but I opted for the Moon River burger topped with Monterrey Jack cheese and grilled mushrooms.  I got a side of their beer battered onion rings. 

Our fried green tomatoes appetizer showed up at the table and, man, was it a lot of tomatoes.  Big fried tomato slices covered the plate and then were topped with a generous portion of blue crab meat.  There was going to be no way we were going to be able to finish everything on the plate, especially with more food coming our way.  But we made a small dent into the tomatoes while we waited for our burgers.  I have to say they were really wonderful and really Southern. 

Our burgers showed up and they were thick and juicy.  There were a lot of grilled mushrooms on top with the Monterrey Jack cheese.  The burgers were very good.  The onion rings were OK, not exactly what I was thinking they would be.  They were a little too "bready" for me, but still good.  Cindy's scalloped potatoes, however, were just outstanding.  She offered me a bite and they were very cheesy and delicious.  They were excellent. 

The Slo-vannah pale ale was a great compliment to the meal.  It had a nice forward taste, but didn't overpower the taste of the food.  Whatever John Pinkerton did to make the Slo-vannah pale ale a smooth taste, he got it down.

Our lunch at Moon River wasn't all that cheap - about $35 bucks before giving our very fun and efficient waitress a good tip.  But the food was very good, the decor was pretty cool, the service was great and the beer was superb.  A trip to Moon River Brewing Company should be on your agenda if you're going to Savannah and want to experience a great brew pub.

Shipwrecked Brewery and Inn - Door County

One more place we went to during our visit to Door County this last summer was to the only brewpub in the area, Shipwrecked Brewery and Inn in Egg Harbor (see map).  We'd been looking around in some of the shops and I wanted to take a look inside the pub and maybe have a beer. 

The building which houses Shipwrecked Brewery and Inn has a little bit of history behind it.  It was originally built in the late 1800's as a pub house for many of the sailors that came to Door County to transport goods.  It became somewhat infamous in the 1920's when Chicago gangster Al Capone used to frequent the place.  Local lore is that a series of tunnels under Egg Harbor allowed Capone to escape capture a number of times. 

The place changed hands a number of times until 1997 when investors bought the pub and turned it into Door County's first and only brewpub.  They also refurbished 8 guest rooms on the upper floors of the building to serve as an inn. 

We were told by the bartender on duty that day that, supposedly, Shipwrecked has a number of ghosts that inhabit the building.  One of the ghosts is said to be the illegitimate son of Al Capone who was reportedly hanged in the attic of the building so he wouldn't talk to federal investigators moving in on Capone.  The bartender told us that a number of people who believe in the supernatural have stayed in the inn over the years and have supposedly seen these spirits. 

The general manager of Shipwrecked Brewery and Inn, Ed Downham, has said that he lived in a attic for a number of years after the building was refurbished and he never experienced any ghosts.  But he said that for those who do believe in the supernatural, it's an interesting place to stay. 

The outside dining area was nearly full as we walked into the bar/restaurant just after noon on a beautiful day in Door County.  The bar area was completely empty, save for the bartender.  I took a look at the beers they had to offer.  It wasn't much - they only five different types plus a seasonal India Pale Ale that they were out of that day.  I ended up getting the Captain's Copper, a full-bodied English style ale that had a nice finish.  The bartender said it was similar to their India Pale Ale, only not as hoppy.

Cindy ordered up one of their Bayside Blonde ales, a light beer with a nice malty flavor.  I had a taste of hers and I actually liked it a little better than the Captain's Copper.

Shipwrecked beers go through a seven step process, not unlike other brew pubs.  The bartender said that all the brewing is done in the basement of the building and space is a problem.  He said, "I think the brewmaster (Rich Zielke) would like to do more beers, but he doesn't have any where to expand."

The bartender, in his 50's, explained that he helped out from time to time in the daytime.  He said his normal job was working at the kite store just down the street that he owns with his brother.  Then in the wintertime, they go to Hawaii for four or five months.   "We've been doing that for years.  It's like a perpetual summer for us."

God, I love perpetual summers. 

He said he's friends with the owners and as soon as the Shipwrecked brewery is closed in early November, it's time for them to close up their shop.  He said, "We'll come back from Hawaii about the time the brewpub opens back up in the Spring."

The decor in the Shipwrecked pub is whimsical and fun.  It has a nautical theme to the place with fishing nets hanging from the ceiling.  The bar top and table tops were an industrial stainless steel that looked like they could stand up to incessant pounding by a hammer.  I suppose it cuts down on graffiti and people carving their initials into the wood, but it looked a little out of place in the bar area.  

Here's the sign showing the way to the bathrooms.  It looks like the little guy is screaming, "Outta my way!  I've gotta shit!"  

We had a eaten a late and very filling breakfast, but I did want to take a look at the menu while we drank our beers.  The food at Shipwrecked Brewery is typical of most brewpubs I've been to - mostly sandwiches, burgers, appetizers and a few entrees.  The bartender said they have great barbecue at Shipwrecked ("Best in Door County", he said) and I found that they have St. Louis style ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and beef brisket sandwiches.  I would have liked to have tried the brisket, but given that we were full and the many options of good restaurants in the area, I decided to pass.

There is a main dining area of Shipwrecked Brewery just off to the side of the bar area.  There were only a couple people in there having lunch when we were in there.  We ended up finishing up our beers and headed out.

The beer at Shipwrecked was OK, nothing special.  I would have loved to have tried the India Pale Ale, but it was not to be on this trip.  I'm guessing when night falls upon Door County, the bar area probably gets hopping.  I'm not certain I'd want to be spending my nights in the inn above the bar, given the probably noise generated by the brewpub, but it was a nice place, nonetheless. 

Wynkoop Brewing Company - Denver

When in Denver recently for the CEDIA Expo, we went to dinner at The Rodozio Grill the first night we were in town.  While it was still good, it didn't seem to be as good as when we were there last year.  And we hardly got to try any of their unbelievable garlic beef.  Still, the amount of food satiated us and a couple of my colleagues talked me into walking caddy-cornered over to the Wynkoop Brewing Company after dinner.

The Wynkoop Brewing Company bills itself as the world's largest brewpub.  I don't quite know about that, but it is pretty big inside.  But one thing I do know is that it's the first brew pub in Denver and the state of Colorado.  Wynkoop Brewing Company is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. 

I always thought some guy named Wynkoop started brewery, but it turns out the Wynkoop in the name belongs to one of the founders and first sheriff of Denver, Edward (Ned) Wynkoop.  Wynkoop was appointed sheriff of the area in which Denver eventually became incorporated by the territorial governor of Kansas, James Denver.  When the city was incorporated, Wynkoop suggested naming the town after the governor.  

The brew pub was started by five people, including current Denver mayor John Hickenlooper.   It's housed in the historic former J.S. Brown Mercantile building in the Lower Downtown (aka LoDo) area of Denver (see map).  In the 90's, the Wynkoop organization began an aggressive push to establish brew pubs in historic buildings across the nation.   They set up partial local ownership and some of their "chain" restaurants include the Upstream Brewing Company in Omaha, Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay, and Raccoon River Brewing Company in Des Moines.  I've been to all three, but I have to admit it's been quite some time since I've been to Upstream and even longer since I've been to Raccoon River.     

First of all, I'm not a big fan of most Colorado brewed beer.  I think most of them are overrated and I don't care for the taste of some of them.  The Wynkoop beers are OK, but I wouldn't call them anything special.  The brewery makes about a dozen different types of beer, including a root beer.  I went with their most famous beer, the Railyard Ale, a marzen-style Oktoberfest beer that's their signature brew at Wynkoop.  One of my colleagues went with the B3K Schwarz ale, a dark German-style ale that has a good forward taste to it, but was a little too heavy for my tastes.  And the other colleague got a St. Charles Extra Special Bitter, a malty English-style beer. 

We walked around the main floor of the Wynkoop Brewery which houses the brew pub and restaurant.  The restaurant/brew pub area has an old style quaintness to it.  I took a look at one of the menus and found their offerings to be similar to what I've found at other brew pubs.  Wynkoop prides itself upon serving Colorado raised meats and produce.  Given the amount of people in the restaurant having dinner on Labor Day evening, I'd say the food must be pretty good.

We ventured upstairs to the second floor to look around.  The whole second floor is one big pool room with dart machines and other games.  I'd have to say there was 20 pool tables up there, all the big fancy ones that you'd find in upscale pool halls.  It was a pretty large room, to be sure.

I got another beer - this time I got one of their India Pale Ale, a English-style pale ale with a load of dry hops.  It was much better than the Railyard Ale.  Before I ordered the I.P.A., I tried a sample of their Chili beer.  They add 3 1/2 pounds of Anaheim chili peppers to each barrel and let the peppers mix with the beer.  It had a nice bite to it, but I'm not big on chili beers except for throwing some in with my homemade chili from time to time.  

I also gave try to their Scottish Ale, which I liked, as well.  It had a nice roasted flavor to it.  In fact, I couldn't decide what to get and I ended up getting the I.P.A.  One of my colleagues ended up getting the Scottish Ale while the other opted for the Sagebrush Stout, a very forward tasting beer made with a number of varieties of grains and hops.  I tasted it and it was OK, but too heavy for my tastes.  

While the brewpub was impressive, I'd have to say Wynkoop's beers were middling, at best.  I thought the I.P.A. was good, but it just didn't have the bite that I normally like out of my pale ales.  I don't know what it is about Colorado beers.  Maybe I'm just partial to the Germanic style beers of Wisconsin.  Everyone is different, that's for sure.  Given the amount of people in the Wynkoop Brewing Company, there's a lot of people who like their beers.  And if they've been in business for over 20 years, they must be doing something right.

Three Floyd's Brewery and Pub - Munster, IN

Three Floyd's brewery Alpha King Pale Ale is one of my all-time favorite beers.  It is, by far, the most hoppy and forward tasting Pale Ale I've ever had.  But it's very smooth and full-bodied.  And it's also pretty expensive - $10.99 a six pack at most places in Chicago.  However, the Three Floyd's brewery and brew pub is located just across the Indiana/Illinois border south of Chicago.  It's not far from one of my far southern suburban dealers in Chicago and I decided to go over there one day for lunch.

Three Floyd's began in 1996 in a small building in Munster, IN.  Nick Floyd had been a brewer at the Florida Brewery, a defunct small brewery in Florida; and the Weinkeller brewery in suburban Chicago before starting the brewery with his brother Simon Floyd, and his father Michael Floyd.  I believe I read somewhere that the other two Floyd's are no longer involved in the business.

Nick Floyd hired brewmaster Jim Cibak away from Goose Island Brewing in Chicago and the company was off and running.  However, I understand that Cibak left the company in a dispute with Floyd in 2006.  Cibak, who concocted many of Three Floyd's signature beers, ended up at Firestone Walker brewery in California.  (Firestone Walker also has some pretty good Pale Ales.)  It's reported that he's back in Indiana looking to open a brewery in Crown Point.

After a few missed turns and long ways around, I was able to find the Three Floyd's brewpub in a small industrial section of Munster (see map).  I knew I was in the right place as there was a sculpture of the Alpha King holding a beer keg next to the street.  The brewpub looks like it was an after-thought to put it on the brewery.  The addition sort of juts out from the original brewery.

Once inside, you'll find a combination dining area/gift shop with a big window looking into the brewing area.  On the left is the bar area with a projection television and a lot of funky kitsch on the walls and shelves.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show was playing on the projector - with no sound.  And The Grateful Dead were playing on the sound system.  I knew I was going to like this funky little place. 

For around 1:30 in the afternoon, the place was sort of full.  I was able to get a seat next to an elderly guy at the bar and I got a menu from the bartender.  And I also ordered up a Three Floyds Alpha King.  Damn, is that good beer!

I ended up ordering a Reuben sandwich with fries.  I've been on such a Reuben kick that I had to keep going.  The bartender said, "That's a great choice.  We have a good Reuben here." 

While I waited for my sandwich, I was talking with the gentleman next to me.  He told me that he just loves Three Floyd's beer and doesn't like all the "watered down" American beers.  He said, "I spent a lot of time in Austria for my work a number of years ago.  I retired about 8 years ago and I couldn't find any beer that compared to the beer I used to have in Europe.  Then I had a friend who told me about this place and they have about as close to what I was used to drinking in Austria."

My sandwich showed up and I got another Alpha King to help wash it down.  The sandwich had thick slices of corned beef and a tangy homemade Thousand Island dressing on the side.  It was very good.  The seasoned fries were also very good.  But the Reuben was a spot-hitter.   

Before I left, I asked the bartender if they sold beer to go.  She said they did, so I got a couple sixers of the Alpha King.  For buying them at the brewery, you save a buck a sixer - $10 each.  Expensive stuff, but it's worth it. 

The Three Floyd's Brewery has an annual event - DarkLord Day - usually held toward the end of April.  That's the one day the brewery sells their DarkLord Russian Imperial Stout.  I've been told it's a huge, huge deal with bands, food, and beer tastings.  It sounds sort of fun.

The Three Floyd's brewpub is sort of tough to find - you just gotta pay attention to the cross-street signs along Calumet Ave. in Munster.  But the beer is great, the food is good and the atmosphere is fun.  I'm writing this at 6:45 in the morning and my mouth is watering for an Alpha King Pale Ale.  I'll definitely go back.

Titletown Brewing Company - Green Bay, WI

Before I left Green Bay to make my way down to Milwaukee, I stopped off and had lunch at the Titletown Brewing Company in downtown Green Bay (see map).  I was hankering for a Reuben and I thought I'd give it a try. 

Titletown Brewing Company is housed in the historic Chicago and Northwestern railway depot that was originally built in 1898-99.  It was in use until 1971 as a passenger depot, then was eventually made into a freight depot.  In 1994, the building was basically abandoned and sat idle for a couple of years.

In the summer of 1996, a group of investors bought the building and transformed it into a brewpub which opened in December of that year.  Titletown Brewing Company is named after the nickname locals call Green Bay after the Packers won so many NFL championships before and during the Super Bowl years. 

Titletown Brewing has a large parking lot stretching along the north side of the building.  I was able to get a parking spot and a seat at the bar around 12:15 with no problem.  The bartender gave me a food menu and I checked out the beer menu they had on a chalk board above the bar.  Unfortunately, they didn't have descriptions of the various beers they were pouring, so I was at a loss as what to get.

I asked the bartender about the Hopasaurus Ale.  She said it was their most hopped beer.  I said, "Do you have a pale ale?"

She said, "Hopasaurus IS our pale ale." 

Oh!  OK!  I'll take that, then.  I felt sort of stupid. 

While they did have a full menu of appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches and entrees, like I said in a post a couple weeks ago, I had been having a hankering for a good ol' Reuben lately.  So that was a no-brainer.  I also got an order of their french fries on the side when I ordered the sandwich.

The Hopasaurus Beer did have a good forward taste to it.  Definitely more hoppy than an American Pale Ale, the bitterness in the taste didn't linger like you find with some India Pale Ales.  It was very good and I wish I'd picked up a "growler" of the stuff.  But, like I say, I'll be back to Green Bay sometime soon.

My sandwich came and it was lightly grilled with a lot of nice thick chunks of corned beef.  (Turkey Reuben's are also available at Titletown.)  It was a serious spot hitter.  I don't know if it is as good as the one I've had at The Stein in downtown Green Bay, but it was damn good.

Lunch with the sandwich, beer and a tip came to about $13 bucks.  Before I left, I walked around the bar and dining area of Titletown Brewing to check out some of the historic old pictures and memorabilia from when the trains ran to town. 

Good beer, good food - Titletown Brewing Company is a very good brewpub.  It's definitely worth another visit when I get back to Green Bay.

J.T. Whitney's - Madison

I was in Madison recently and took one of my dealers out for dinner at J.T. Whitney's, a brew pub on the southwest side of town (see map).  J.T. Whitney's has been around since 1995 and they brew some pretty good beers to go along with some pretty good food. 

It had been a long time since I'd been into J.T. Whitney's.  My dealer's store is not far from the place and he suggested going over to have a couple beers and a sandwich, nothing fancy for dinner.  I don't know if I'd ever had the food at a J.T. Whitney's, other than appetizers, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

J.T. Whitney's is owned by David Bookstaff, and the head brewmaster is Richard Becker.  Actually, one of the original co-owners of J.T. Whitney's was my friend Paul Zach and his father, Skip, who also owned The Avenue Bar in Madison.  (Skip passed away a few years ago and Paul is the owner/manager of The Avenue Bar.)  Paul told me they sold off their interest in J.T. Whitney's a few years ago after the place got established. 

Richard Becker continues a long heritage of brewers in his family that dates back to the late 1500's in Germany.  His family owns the Mahrs Brau Brewery in Bamberg, Germany and an uncle runs it today.  Through the years, the family's specialty was to make smoked ales.  And preserving the family tradition, Richard Becker has made a number of smoked ales over the years.  I have to admit that the J.T. Whitney smoked ales that I've tried in the past have been outstanding.  I especially remember a Scotch Smoked Ale that I first had at the Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival a number of years ago. 

We walked into J.T. Whitey's just before 8 p.m. on a weeknight.  A band was setting up getting ready to play.  A number of people where in the place, including a number of younger kids making a lot of noise while their parents ate and drank beer. 

My guest and I bellied up to the bar and he was greeted by name by one of the bartenders.  I said, "So, I guess you come here often."

He said sort of smiled and said, "I've been here a few times, yes."

My dealer told me he liked the place because all they sell is their own-brewed beer.  No Miller Lite, no Corona, just the beer they brew.  In fact, more than once we heard people asking for a name beer while we were seated there.  "Sorry, we only serve what we make."  I don't find many brewpubs like that. 

We got food menus and the beer menu, and ordered up a couple of beers.  My guest got the Badger Red and I got one of the Smoked Porters they had on tap.  Now, I'm not a big fan of porter beers, but I have to say the Smoked Porter from J.T. Whitney's is just outstanding.  It's light and superbly flavorful with a hint of the great smoked flavor I remember in their smoked beers.

We ordered up an appetizer of boneless chicken wings in a Buffalo/Ranch dressing.  We sat and talked about things enjoying our beers until the appetizers came out a little while later.  As they set the boneless chicken wings down, there were nine little pieces of boneless wings in the basket topped with this Ranch dressing with some Buffalo wing sauce mixed in.  I was sort of disappointed and felt they were somewhat overpriced ($7.95) for what we got.  But I didn't bitch.

We ended up getting a couple more beers and ordered our food.  Even though J.T. Whitney's does have full dinner entrees, we went with sandwiches.  My guest got the Reuben and I went with the French Dip sandwich topped with mushrooms and swiss cheese. 

We finished our second beers as the sandwiches were brought out to us.  My sandwich was OK, nothing special.  In fact, the au jus sauce was very salty.  But the meat was piled high and the mushrooms gave it a nice flavor.

My guest's Reuben looked very good - corned beef piled high on dark German rye bread topped with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing.  I sort of wished that I'd gotten that instead, but I've been on such a Reuben kick lately - mainly since I first saw this picture on the cover of the most recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine - that I didn't want to get burned out on them.  I was satisfied with what I got. 

We decided to take off just before the band got to playing, which was probably good.  J.T. Whitney's has a lot of wood throughout the place and there were a lot of younger people in the place whooping it up.  We were having trouble hearing each other even though we were seated next to one another.  When the band started, we wouldn't have been able to hear each other at all.

Like all bars and restaurants in Madison, J.T. Whitney's is smoke free.  That's certainly a plus when you go into a place for food.  And even though the food at J.T. Whitney's is just a step above average, I have to say the beer is much better than the food.  I may have to get a growler of the Smoked Porter the next time I go to Madison.  But I'll pass on the boneless chicken wings.

(Update - JT Whitney's closed their doors in March of 2009.  They have since been bought and replaced by a brewpub called Vintage Brewing Company.  I still have not given that new place a try.)

Gordon Biersch - Las Vegas

After I got back from my little trip to Hoover Dam when I was in Las Vegas recently, I decided to have lunch at Gordon Biersch - an upscale brewpub/restaurant that is part of the Gordon Biersch chain with 26 locations in 15 states and Washington D.C.  The food is very good, made from scratch each day; and the beer is pretty good, as well - a very German-style of beer.

It had been a while since I was last in a Gordon Biersch location - actually it was about seven years and the last time was at the Las Vegas location on Paradise Road (see map).  This location is in an area with a number of other upscale restaurants, not far from the Las Vegas Convention Center and near a number of corporate offices.

In 1987, Dan Gordon, a successful restauranteur, was looking to open an upscale brewpub.  He sat down with veteran brewmaster Dean Biersch and over a couple three beers they hashed out the master plan of the Gordon Biersch blueprint.  Gordon and Biersch were fans of great food and German beers.  That's what they had in mind for their brewpub.  With that, the first Gordon Biersch opened in Palo Alto, CA in 1988.

Dean Biersch (left) and Dan Gordon (right)

Gordon and Biersch grew their chain of upscale brewpubs for the next 10 years before running into an antiquated California law that allowed for only a small number of breweries to be owned by one company in the state.  They tried to get the 70-year-old law repealed, but to no avail. 

They sold the restaurants to Big River Brewing Company of Chattanooga, TN, which then changed their corporate name to Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group.  The Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group also runs the Big River Grille and Brewery, a couple of Rock Bottom Breweries and a handful of other brewpubs in the Southeast.  However, Gordon and Biersch continue to own and run the brewery operations of Gordon Biersch.

I got into Gordon Biersch around 1:30 on a Friday afternoon.  I had two and a half hours to kill before I had to get to the airport, so a leisurely lunch was on the docket.  The Las Vegas location is open and airy, with a definite contemporary theme.  They have a beer garden, but I opted to sit at the four-sided bar to read a newspaper and watch television.

The bartender handed me a menu and I ordered up a Marzen-style beer from their beer menu.  It's similar to a number of the Oktoberfest beers that I like, full-flavored with a smooth finish. 

I also looked over the lunch menu trying to figure out from the large selection what I wanted to eat.  In addition to appetizers - which include their world-famous Garlic Fries (above picture courtsey of Foodhoe) - Gordon Biersch has a large selections of salads, sandwiches and entrees, including steaks, pasta and seafood.  And this is just the LUNCH menu!

They had a meatloaf made out of Italian sausage and ground beef on the menu.  They also had a pulled pork with a Marzen beer-based barbecue sauce.  And G-B also had a mushroom-Swiss cheeseburger which a guy near me was having and it looked yummy.   A main entree was tempting, given that I probably wouldn't be eating again that day, but I didn't really want a steak or chop.   

They also serve a 10" thin crust pizza at Gordon Biersch.  Don't ask me why I kept going back and looking at the pizzas on the menu.  I normally don't like to get pizza at a place like this, but from the description the bartender was giving, the pizzas sounded great.  I bit the bullet and ordered an Italian sausage, mushroom and pepperoni pizza. 

And I'm glad I did.  The crust on the pizza was flaky and chewy, but still sort of thin.  The Italian sausage on the pizza were the big chunks, ground in house.  The mushrooms were fresh and the pepperoni had a great kick to it.  And the homemade sauce was tangy and the mozzarella was incredibly fresh.  I was happy that I got it, although anything I would have ordered probably would have been great.  And that was the problem - there were too many good things to choose from on the menu.   

They've just recently opened locations in Kansas City and in suburban Chicago, so I'll have more chances to sample some of the good food and good beer at Gordon Biersch in the near future.  I've tried the pizza and now I want to try some of the other things they have.  Their beer is above average, but Gordon Biersch's food is not like most other brewpubs.  It's definitely a step above. 

Boulder Dam Brewing Company - Boulder City, NV

During my trip down to Hoover Dam when I was out in Las Vegas recently, I drove through Boulder City - even though there's a by-pass now that allows you to drive around the town.  In the downtown area, I noticed the Boulder Dam Brewing Company, a nice little brewpub (see map).  It looked sort of interesting, but being that it was before 11 a.m., I didn't stop in.  However, on my way back through, I did go back through town and stopped in for a couple of beers.

The Boulder Dam Brewing Company is actually pretty new.  It was opened in February 2007 by Todd Cook and his father, Toby.  Todd's mother, Gail, is the manager of the brewpub. Although the brewpub is not all that large, it's not cramped.  It's also pretty bright in the place with a number of large windows throughout.  I don't think they had any lights on when I was in there just before noon.

I went up to the bar with the big beer tanks located just behind and took a look at their beer menu.  They had three Pale Ale's listed - an American Pale Ale, an English-style Pale, and a very hoppy India Pale Ale.  I asked for a sample of the English-style Pale - the Powerhouse.  It was very hoppy, but very smooth.  It had a great aftertaste that didn't linger - just like I like my Pales.  The bartender told me the American Pale - the Penstock Pale - is much more light and less hoppy.  She said, "That's my favorite."

A few people were beginning to come in for lunch and I took a quick look at the food menu.  It really wasn't much.  They primarily had bratwurst and hot dogs.  In addition, they had a couple three sandwiches and about four or five appetizers.  I decided to have lunch in Las Vegas. 

I took my beer and began to wander around the brew pub.  On a couple of the flat screen televisions they were showing a documentary of the building of the Hoover Dam.  And all throughout the place they had historical pictures and documents on the building of the dam.  It was actually pretty interesting.

Being that it was such a nice day outside - 62, sunny, light wind - I went outside to their beer garden that is situated just in front of the restaurant.  There were 12 to 15 wooden tables and metal chairs in the beer garden and I sat down facing the warm Nevada sun.    Actually, the chairs were rather comfortable.  But being that I wasn't in the snow and cold of Iowa at that point in time probably made the chairs more comfortable than they really were.

I went back in to get another beer.  This time I went with the Powder Monkey Pilsner.  Now, all of the beers are named after nicknames or phrases to do with the building of the dam.  A "Powder Monkey" is a person who packed the dynamite in the holes to blow rock out.  The pilsner was very good.  It had a toasty flavor to it and was very, very smooth.  I went back outside to enjoy the sun. 

As I was seated outside, I began to notice that I was the only one out there.  Everyone was going inside for lunch.  The waitress came out to check on me and asked, "Are you enjoying the weather?  Aren't you chilly?"

I said, "Oh, God, yes, I'm enjoying this.  And I'm from Iowa, so 62 degrees is downright hot for me in the winter time."

I finished my beer and took my glass inside.  I told the bartender that I'd be back some time.  I'm sure a couple three of my colleagues would like the beer.  The only problem is that the Boulder City police are a little aggressive and it's caused a problem with some of the bar and tavern owners in Boulder City.  There's been harrassment of patrons in the past and bar and restaurant owners want it stopped as it's hurting business. 

It turns out that the Boulder Dam Brewing Company was named one of the 10 best places to get a drink in Las Vegas Life magazine's "Best of Las Vegas - 2007" issue.  I have to agree - Boulder Dam Brewing Company is a wonderful place to have a beer.  However, don't think you're going to get a great meal in there.  The food looks like it's servicable, but the beer is definitely the draw.  Oh, that, and the beer garden on the warm winter days. Like their motto says, "It's a bolder dam beer!"   

Alcatraz Brewing Company - Indianapolis

A place that I've visited a few times before and stopped into during a recent trip to Indianapolis is the Alcatraz Brewing Company in the heart of the downtown area in the Circle Center Mall at the corner of Illinois and Maryland (see map).  I had a busy day and wanted to get a quick bite to eat.  I happened to be near downtown so I stopped in. 

Alcatraz Brewing Company came to Indianapolis in 1995 as part of a group of four A.B.C.'s that were under the California Cafe corporate umbrella.  The original Alcatraz was located in Orange, CA, while two more were in Tempe, AZ and Detroit, MI.  In 2003, California Cafe went bankrupt and the Alcatraz Brewing Companies in Indianapolis and Orange were bought by the Tavistock Restaurant Group, along with six California Cafe locations.  The A.B.C.'s in Detroit and Tempe folded in December of 2003.

Even though both Alcatraz Brewing Companies are under the Tavistock corporate umbrella, they are radically different in both their menus and the selection of beers they make.  Both have sort of the same decor - they're supposed to be reminiscent of the old Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay with steel bars and metal seats throughout the restaurant.  At first glance, you sort of think, "What the hell?"  But the concept works very well.

Omar Castrellon (right - picture courtesy of Indiana Beer) is the head brewmaster at the Alcatraz Brewing Company in Indianapolis.  Omar has been at A.B.C. in Indy since 2002.  Omar got his start in the brewing business working at the old Heidelberg brewery in North Carolina in the early 90's.  He did the grunt work at first before rising to the position of head brewer just before the brewery shut down.  He kicked around at a couple three brewpubs before getting the call to come to Indy.

Omar brews a number of annual and seasonal beers for the Alcatraz in Indianapolis.  He does a very good job at it, as well.  I'm sort of partial to their Pelican Pale Ale - an American pale that has a nice hoppy and citrus taste to it; and what they call The Devil's Ale - a very smooth beer with a light copper color to it that has a light hoppy flavor.

It was around 8 p.m. when I got into Alcatraz Brewing Company.  A couple people were at the host stand and I asked if I could eat at the bar.  Sure, no problem.  So I found a spot at the bar and ordered up a pale ale from the bartender.

I got a menu and began to look over what they had for that evening.  Alcatraz Brewing Company has the standard brew pub fare - appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and salads - but they also feature some nightly specials, as well as some interesting entrees.  The chef at A.B.C. likes to incorporate some of Omar's beers into his recipes such as the beer-battered fish and chips, smoked ribs with a sauce made of the dark ale beer they have, and beer-battered chicken strips. 

One thing that I've had before at the Alcatraz Brewing Company and I wanted it again was the Jambalaya Fettucine with blackened chicken, andouille sausage, and prawns in a spicy Creole cream sauce with fettucine noodles.  I got a house salad along with my order and I was set for food.

Sitting at the bar, you get a good look into the open kitchen area at the Alcatraz Brewing Company.  It was hopping with a lot of activity that evening.  On the wall behind the bar are a couple of flat panel televisions that had games turned on.  I was able to catch some basketball and read some of my paper at the same time. 

Before he brought me out my food, I asked the bartender for a glass of A.B.C.'s October Bock that was featured on the beer board behind the bar.  This Munich Maarzen style of beer had a very smooth malty taste to it.  I thought it would work well with my meal.

Soon thereafter, my bartender brought me out my bowl of the Jambalaya Fettucine.  I couldn't quite tell for sure, but I think my prawns were just plain ol' shrimp.  Of course, I can't really tell the difference between shrimp and prawns.  But they were still good, just the same. 

The andouille sausage was very flavorful.  The blackened chicken didn't have quite the spicy bite I normally expect with blackened food.  But the fettucine and the Creole sauce was very good.  It wasn't overly spicy, but it did have a noticeable bite to it.  It was a very large portion and after picking through the chicken, shrimp and sausage, I still had a lot of fettucine noodles to go through.  I left a few in the bowl.  The meal was a spot-hitter. 

Compared to other brew pubs that I've been to in the past, I have to say Alcatraz Brewing Company compares favorably to the best of them.  The food is good - consistently good.  The beer is also very good.  I think Omar Castrellon does a good job with the beers he brews.  The place can get loud with a lot of people dining and drinking.  But it's comfortable and casual and is a place that I'll continue to go to when I get the chance in the future.

(Update - Alcatraz Brewing Company, which had been in place since the mall opened in 1995, closed in early 2011.  It has been replaced by a California Pizza Kitchen.  I'll withhold my editorial comments on CPK at this time.)

BJ's Brewhouse - Boulder

We had our annual pre-CEDIA company meeting in Denver in early September.  Actually, it was the shortest company meeting on record.  We finished just before 12:30 and broke for lunch.  Except my boss said, "I want to have us grab some beer and some wine, go up in the mountains and just hang out this afternoon."  God, I like working for this company.

The only problem is that it's monsoon season in early September in the Colorado Rockies.  Rising heat mixing with the cool air over the mountains creates clouds which, in turn, create rain showers - and some of them can be pretty heavy.  As we started out toward Estes Park, it became very evident that the weather was not going to cooperate.  So we ended up stopping in Boulder and looking for a place to eat.

Now, I hadn't been in Boulder since 1979.  I remember some of the city, but it was still sort of a new experience for me.  Downtown Boulder is really nice.  There's a lot of shops and restaurants in the area.  The Pearl Street walking mall is very nice.  We were walking along and one of the guys pointed out a place called B.J.'s Brewhouse.  "Food and beer," he said.  "Looks like a winning combination for lunch."

The BJ's Brewhouse in Boulder (see map) is a long narrow place with tables up front, booths along the wall toward the back and a long bar that looks into the beer vats behind a large glass window.  It was about 2 p.m. when we were in there, so we were able to get a big combo booth in the back of the place for our group.   

I didn't realize until I did some background research on BJ's Brewhouse that the restaurant was part of a chain under the Chicago Pizza and Brewery Inc. umbrella.  The background of the company is rather interesting.

In 1978, two men - Bill Cunningham and Michael Phillips - owned a Burger King franchise in Southern California.  Wanting to expand their franchise empire with Burger King, they were halted by the company who decreed that franchisees couldn't own multiple locations. 

Cunningham and Phillips then looked toward owning a pizza restaurant.  But not the typical Southern California pizza restaurant at that time where you had to wade through screaming kids, ordered your pizza at the counter and basically had to wait on yourself.   They wanted an upscale sit-down place with good Chicago style pizza, beer and good food. 

With only two years experience of running a Burger King, the men opened the first BJ's Chicago Pizzeria in Santa Ana, CA in 1978.  The place became an instant hit.  They eventually opened six BJ's in the area and business was booming.  For years, they garnered awards for having the best pizza in the Los Angeles area. 

In 1991, they turned to their accountants - Jerry Hennessey and Paul Motenko - to see how they could scale back their day-to-day involvement in the business.  This intrigued the two accountants who immediately agreed to take over running the six restaurants, even though they had absolutely no experience running a restaurant.    

Hennessey and Motenko went on an aggressive campaign to expand BJ's by expanding the number of restaurants, buying up other chains, adding brewpubs to the mix, and making franchises available to buy.  Motenko and Hennessey ended up buying out Cunningham and Phillips remaining shares of Chicago Pizza and Brewing, Inc. in 1995.  Today, there are 66 BJ's restaurants in 11 states.    

The menu at BJ's is widely varied.  There's a little bit of everything for everyone.  In addition to their pizza, they have a great variety of burgers, sandwiches, pasta, ribs, steaks and other great looking entrees.  But the first order of business was getting beer on the table. 

BJ's has seven craft beers they brew at their locations.  They also have a dozen other beers they brew at selected locations during certain parts of the year.  We ended up getting a couple pitchers of their Tatonka Stout and a couple pitchers of their Piranha Pale Ale. 

The Piranha is an American-style Pale Ale, short on the hoppiness you get with more of the full pale ales.  Still, it had a nice "bite" to it (hence, the "Piranha"), and it was smooth to drink.  The guys who had the stout were impressed with it, as well. 

So many choices on the menu led to a lot of different things ordered at our tables.  A couple of the guys went with the open-faced chili cheese burger - a 2/3 pound burger (that actually looked bigger than 2/3's of a pound) smothered with cheese and chili.  You have to eat it with a fork, it's so big. 

It looked good, but I went with the Roast Beef Dip - tender roast beef topped with cheese on a French hoagie bun and served with au jus and creamy horseradish sauce to dip in.  A couple of the guys went for the pizza.  And the others filled in with sandwiches and burgers.

My Roast Beef Dip was OK - nothing special.  The burgers, however, were HUGE!  My boss ended up getting one of their cheeseburgers and this huge patty between a bun was served to him.  He just started laughing.  He said, "I'm hungry, but this is sort of ridiculous!"

I got a bite of the pizza, which wasn't all that bad.  Compared to some of the better Chicago pizzas I've had I'd say BJ's would hold it's own against them.  And I got a bite from one of my colleague's chili cheese burger.  It was very good, but - man!  Was it a lot of food.

I'm sure they have better items on the menu other than the Roast Beef Dip, but I was in the mood for a sandwich like that rather than a burger - considering that I knew I was going to be heading to Duffy's Cherry Cricket in the coming days for the best burger in the world.  But BJ's, overall, was a good experience.  The beer wasn't bad, the food was above average, and it had a nice comfy atmosphere.  I'd go back if I encountered a BJ's Brewhouse again in my travels.

Firehouse Brewing Company - Rapid City, SD

I just went on a lengthy trip to the furthest places in my territory - most notably North and South Dakota.  I rented a mid-size Toyota RAV 4 SUV to carry some samples in - too many things to carry than the ROKNROL Impala could handle.  As you can see from the picture I took when I pulled into the driveway on Friday night, I put on just under 2300 miles for the week.  A lot of driving, but I saw some neat things and ate at some good places along the way.  I'll be sharing some of those places with you in the coming days.   

One place that I'm really excited to tell you about is the Firehouse Brewing Company in downtown Rapid City (see map).  I had a long day of driving from Dickinson, ND to Rapid City, stopping to see some sights along the way and wandering a bit, so when I pulled into the hotel in Rapid City around 8:45, I just wanted to throw my bags in the room and go get some dinner.

I'd read about the Firehouse Brewing Company when I was doing some pre-trip research in the days leading up to the long drive.  It turns out it's the first brew pub in the state of South Dakota.  Opened in 1991, it's housed in the original fire station in downtown Rapid City.  There's a lot of fire station memorabilia throughout the place, including the original fireman's pole leading from the second floor of the building. 

I got in just after nine p.m., hoping they were still serving food.  They were.  I sat at the bar and grabbed a beer menu.   They were extremely busy that evening, and even with three people behind the bar it took some time to get waited on.  I finally got someone to come over and I ordered up their Eagle Pale Ale - an American style pale - and I asked for a dinner menu. 

The Eagle Pale Ale was somewhat flat.  Definitely not as hoppy as I would have liked it.  It was OK, but I should have ordered their Chukkar Ale, an English style pale that was described as being more of a traditional pale ale beer. 

The menu was quite extensive.  They have specials through the week and that night it was all you could eat barbecued pork ribs for $13.95.  I saw a lot of those plates going out to people as I was looking through the menu.

They had everything from pasta to Mexican, to steaks and burgers, to sandwiches and salads.  It was pretty impressive.  A couple three things caught my eye.  One was the Souvalaki - a marinated pork tenderloin smothered in grilled onions, mushrooms and peppers served on rice.  Man, that sounded great, but I knew with the cooked onions and peppers, I'd be up half the night. 

They also had something they called Rancher's Pie - they take their homemade mashed potatoes and layer them with beef chunks and veggies, then cover with parmesan cheese and then caramelize the cheese under a broiler.  That sounded wonderful. 

Another thing that I looked at was the Italian Sausage Ravioli - sausage stuffed ravioli's in a marinara blended with red and green peppers.  Man, my stomach was doing back-flips when I was reading that.

But what I went for was something that television personality Rachel Ray had when she visited the Firehouse Brewing Company a few years ago for the Food Network's Tasty Travels show that she hosted.  I'm not a big Rachel Ray fan, but this sounded good.  They called it "Spontaneous Heating" - the brewpub's own gumbo concoction made out of Andouille sausage, buffalo sausage, shrimp, seafood, and chicken, simmered with Firehouse Brewing Company's own Chukkar Ale.  They served it in a huge bowl on a bed of rice. 

At that time, I also ordered up a Chukkar Ale, but the bartender pointed to the board on the wall and said, "We don't have Chukkar Ale this evening."  I was sort of incredulous they wouldn't have the Chukkar Ale on tap that night, but, nope, they didn't.  So I ordered up the Brown Cow Ale.  I hoped it would be more flavorful than the Eagle Pale, but I was equally disappointed.  It, too, was flat tasting and didn't have the "pizazz" one would expect from a roasted brown ale. 

When my dinner showed up, I knew I was going to have trouble finishing the meal.  It was a HUGE bowl of their gumbo on top of a bed of rice.  The gumbo sauce was rich and thick.  I asked for a bottle of Tabasco to go along with it and immediately poured some on without tasting the gumbo.  A guy and a lady sitting near me looked at me when I did that and the guy said, "Are you sure you want to add more Tabasco to that?  It's plenty hot on it's own."

I assured him that what may be hot for them was pretty mild to me.  Besides, I like the taste of Tabasco in my gumbo. 

From the first bite, I was hooked.  It was unbelievably great.  I've had gumbo in New Orleans, and I've had gumbo in some of the best Cajun restaurants around the Midwest and Las Vegas.  But I have to say this may have been the best damn gumbo I'd ever had in my life.  Actually, it was more like jambalaya than gumbo, but I wasn't going to quibble as to what it was called.  It was just damn good.

It was so good that I finished the whole meal.  I couldn't believe I ate the whole bowl of food, but it was just so freaking great that I just couldn't stop. 

After dinner, I went out to their beer garden to check out a reggae band that was playing.  The Firehouse Brewing Company regularly has a number of bands playing during the summer months and that evening they featured Yabba Griffiths, a Jamaican-born reggae artist who is now based out of Chicago.  I grabbed one their Firehouse Red beers, an OK red - the best of the three beers I had that evening, but still not the best red I've ever had - and sat and listened to Griffiths and his band play three or four songs.  For a Wednesday night, they had a pretty substantial crowd there to listen to the band.  And the music was very good.

For dinner and three beers, the bill came to just under $30 bucks before tip.  I wasn't too enamored with their beers, but I have to say that was one of the finest Cajun meals I've had for quite some time.  Who would have thought it would have been in Rapid City, SD?

I was driving across the vast spaces of South Dakota the next day thinking about the meal I had the night before.  My stomach was doing jumping jacks as I remembered the taste sensations from the gumbo.  I'm hoping I can start doing some business out in Rapid City - even though it's an 11-hour drive one-way from the Quad Cities - just so I can go back out and have more of Firehouse Brewing Company's Spontaneous Heating.  It was that good.   

Schlafly Tap Room - St. Louis

I was driving to St. Louis a couple weeks ago to have a meeting and dinner with one of my dealers in town.  Driving through Peoria, I noticed my "Low Tire Pressure" light came on.  I reset it, thinking the tires were running at a different RPM because of the rain-slick roads.  When it came on again about five miles later, I thought I'd better pull over and check it out.

I pulled over to a convenience store/gas station and, sure as shit, I had a tire that was rapidly going flat.  Thinking that I'd rather have AAA fix the tire, considering that I was in a dress shirt and slacks, I pulled the car into the parking lot of the Par-a-Dice Casino and called the road service.  As soon as I got a hold of AAA to come out to fix the tire (I DO pay a lot for AAA's services), I called my dealer and told him I'd be late.  He begged off for the meeting and dinner, knowing full well that I wouldn't be in town until about 8 p.m.

After getting the tire repaired at a local Goodyear store, I was back on the road and knowing I'd have a free night in St. Louis, I began to wonder where I'd have dinner that night.  Dinner at one of the great Italian restaurants on The Hill is a good option.  I thought about a great steak at Citizen Kane's.  I thought about getting Mexican food or just a good ol' St. Louis style pizza.  And I remembered there's a couple of good restaurants near the Hampton Inn Union Station where I was staying at that night.

Pulling into the hotel, I was still wondering where I was going to eat.  I wasn't overly hungry.  But I was in dire need of a cold beer and something good to eat.  After I got into my room, I looked at one of the in-room guides and my eyes caught an ad for Schlafly's Brewery Tap Room.  I'd always liked Schlafly's beer and I knew their brewery/brew pub was nearby.  I did a quick Mapquest search and found that it was less than four blocks away as the crow flies, easy walking distance from the hotel (see map).  But also knowing how dicey the neighborhood could be after dark, I decided to drive over. 

There's only two cities in the United States whose names are truly synonymous with beer - Milwaukee and St. Louis.  While Milwaukee has a number of brew pubs throughout the city, St. Louis only has a couple brew pubs - Morgan Street Brewery located in Laclede's Landing; and Schlafly's.  That's it in St. Louis proper. 

Now, there is a rich history of breweries in St. Louis and I always thought Schlafly's was one of those old time St. Louis breweries that went out of existence, but was brought back by entrepreneurs when the microbrewery craze hit in the 1990's.  In doing research for this blog entry, I found that was not the case.

Tom Schlafly (right) was a lawyer in St. Louis who was instrumental in getting Missouri laws changed in the late 80's to allow the existence of brew pubs in the state.  Schlafly teamed with Dan Kopman, a local brewmaster who worked in breweries in the United Kingdom, to open the St. Louis Brewery, the corporate parent of Schlafly's beer.  Their goal was to bring back the German-styled brewing tradition that St. Louis was known for before Anheuser-Busch became the literal 800-pound gorilla. 

Schlafly and Kopman bought a nearly 90-year-old building north and west of historic Union Station.  The building had been empty for nearly 20 years.  Prior to that, it housed a printing company for nearly 65 years.  They set about to attain their goal of becoming the first brew pub in Missouri.   

Schlafly's Tap Room brew pub opened on Dec. 26, 1991 and Schlafly's served only two beers - their Pale Ale and their Hefeweisen wheat beers.  Immediately, Schlafly's was a hit among beer connoisseurs looking for something more interesting to drink than Budweiser or Michelob in St. Louis. 

Schlafly's offers six year-round beers to choose from, as well as over 30 seasonal beers brewed at different times of the year.  Most of their seasonal beers are cask-conditioned double-fermented draft beers, hand-pumped to the bar from Schlafly's cellar which is constantly at 55 degrees.  Schlafly's offers their Pale Ale as a cask-conditioned beer on tap.  It's good stuff.   

Even though it's not in a great neighborhood, Schlafly's Tap Room has adequate - and safe - parking directly behind the building.  As you walk in from the parking lot, there is a bar to the left that features pool tables and dart boards, along with televisions.  There's also the Schlafly gift shop located in that area.      

The Tap Room is toward the front of the building and to the right.  There is an outdoor seating area that is open when the weather is nice. 

I really wanted to watch some baseball while I had my dinner, but the game room part of Schlafly's doesn't serve food.  And the Tap Room doesn't have televisions.  So, I sat at the bar with my newspaper and ordered a Pale Ale and a menu.  The Tap Room was dimly lit and even though they had a number of large windows on the east side facing the street, and on the north side that faced the outdoor dining area, it was still pretty dark in the place.  That's OK - it gave it kind of a nice, intimate feel even though it was a pretty large room. 

The menu was pretty extensive featuring a number of appetizers, salads and sandwiches.  However, there were three or four entrees that caught my eye.

The first was a traditional British steak and mushroom pie - steak slices, onions, carrots and mushrooms cooked in Schlafly's Oatmeal Stout beer - and then topped with either a choice of a puff pastry or Schlafly's beer biscuits. 

The second one was the Tap Room's Fried Steak - breaded fried steak topped with gravy and served with a side of their fresh mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans.  That sounded really good.

The other thing I saw was the chicken andouille pasta - grilled chicken breast chunks served on a bed of linguine with andouille sausage in a cream tomato sauce.  Given the amount of great Italian restaurants in St. Louis, I thought it would be blasphemous to have Italian food in a brew pub.  But it still sounded delicious.

But what I went with was the Tap Room's weiner schnitzel - a pan-fried breaded pork cutlet topped with a spinach, gouda cheese and bacon sauce; served with fresh mashed potatoes and braised red cabbage.  That sounded like it could be a real spot-hitter.

Since all the food at the Tap Room is made from scratch, prepare to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes to get your food.  Just sit back and enjoy another beer while you're waiting for your food to show up.  I guarantee it will be worth the wait.

When the bartender brought out my weiner schnitzel, the breading looked like it was severely overcooked.  It was pretty crunchy and dark.  But when I cut into the pork cutlet, it was very moist and the taste of the breading was far from burnt.  It was very good.  As were the mashed potatoes and the red cabbage.  Along with my dinner, I got one of Schlafly's Pilsner beers - a very nice mix of German and Czech heritage flavors that went perfectly with my meal.

My meal and three beers came to about $28 bucks.  And even though I felt the bartender could have been a little more attentive, I gave him five bucks as a tip.  The place was about 1/3 full - a lot of that was one table of about 20 guys - and the ornate old bar only had six or seven people around it. 

Schlafly's also has a second restaurant location at their brewery in the southwest part of St. Louis (see map).  Called The Bottleworks, it features a significantly different menu than the Tap Room.  As with the Tap Room, the Bottleworks offers lunch and dinner seven days a week, and they also have live music from time to time (as does the Tap Room).  And brewery tours are available at The Bottleworks.

Schlafly's beers are available at bars and restaurants throughout the St. Louis area.  Their beers are available in a number of stores in the area, as well.  But because their bottled beer isn't Pasteurized, it can't be out in extreme heat for very long.  It's best to buy the beer cold and get it into a cooler on ice immediately.

Schlafly's beers are very good, and the Tap Room is a very good place to get a meal in St. Louis.  Although it's not in a great neighborhood, it's still safe enough to visit the place at any time.  I would certainly recommend a visit to Schlafly's Tap Room during a visit to St. Louis.   

Blue Cat Brew Pub - Rock Island

We met up with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder one night last weekend and decided to go out to get something to eat.  We wanted to go to a place that we hadn't been to either before or for quite a while.  Cindy came up with a good suggestion - Blue Cat Brew Pub in downtown Rock Island, IL (see map).

The Blue Cat has been in business since 1993 when the sister and brother duo of Martha and Dan Cleaveland started the place in the middle of The District - Rock Island's entertainment district.  Martha ran the kitchen while Dan brewed the beer. 

In 2001, Dan Cleaveland gave way to brewmaster Bernie Moore.  Cleaveland is still in charge of the brewing process, giving his final say on the flavors Moore comes up with, but Moore is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the brewing plant. 

Known for their eclectic food menu, the Blue Cat quickly got a reputation as having great food with very worthwhile and drinkable beer.  I can safely say that I've never had a bad meal at the Blue Cat, although I've had some interesting ones. 

Their beer selection is impressive with a variety of year-round and seasonal ales.  And their Off the Rail Pale Ale is one of the better brew pub pale ales that I've had. 

It was a very cold and raw night when we got into the Blue Cat around 8 p.m.  The crowd was very sparse so we were seated right away.  (In contrast, we've been in there on weekend nights where we had to wait upwards of 30 to 40 minutes to get a table.)

Scotty and I immediately ordered an Off the Rail while the women ordered hot tea.  I didn't care that it was cold out.  I wanted a good beer. 

As I said, their food selection is a step above the usual sandwich/burger fare that you find at most brew pubs.  But their sandwiches and burgers are pretty darn good.  And they have a good selection of seafood dishes including a great portabella mushroom stuffed with white fish, with spinach, tomatoes and mixed cheeses and served over a bed of pasta with sauteed shrimp.  It is out of this world. 

But since it was a cold night, I was look for something warm and rib-sticking.  Marcia went with the Brew Pub cheese burger and Cindy ordered the special that evening - salmon topped with mozzarella and a tomato sauce with a side of pasta.  I'm not partial to seafood with a tomato sauce, but Cindy thought she'd give it a try.

I was torn between three things - the barbecue beef brisket, the meat loaf with seared spinach, and the pot roast platter with melted cheddar cheese and grilled onions piled on top.  Scott ended up getting the beef brisket and I decided to get the pot roast.  It was comfort food at its very best.

And as always, my food was very good.  Nothing fancy when it comes to pot roast with melted cheddar cheese and grilled onions on top of real mashed potatoes.  Marcia liked her burger and Scott devoured his beef brisket.  Cindy said the salmon with the mozzarella with the tomato sauce was "interesting".  She told me later she didn't know if she'd get it again, but wanted to give it a try.   

The Blue Cat is one of the more popular places to go for business people for lunch where they serve a number of the same items on the dinner menu.  And the Blue Cat has dinner specials each night that they change on a weekly basis.

All in all, the Blue Cat isn't pretentious, the beer is good, the food is above average for a brew pub.  It's one of our favorite places to eat, but we obviously don't eat there enough.

Lafayette Brewing Company - Lafayette, IN

I was "bird-dogging" recently one evening in Lafayette, IN looking for prospective dealers when I decided to have dinner and a couple beers at the Lafayette Brewing Company in downtown Lafayette (see map). 

Actually, downtown Lafayette is a sleepy place through the week.  With Purdue University across the Wabash River from the Lafayette downtown area, you'd think there'd be a lot of hustle and bustle.  Nope.  It was about as dead as dead can be in terms of people out and about. 

However, the Lafayette Brewing Company was hopping that evening.  It's been in business since 1993 and brew master Greg Emig has won numerous awards for LBC's beers over the years.  They recently expanded their restaurant to the second floor of their building to include a kitchen that specializes in pizzas, a stage area that showcases musical and comedy acts, and a fully restored bar area.

I've eaten at the Lafayette Brewing Company a couple times before and I do like their beers.  Their Prophet's Rock Pale Ale is one of the more hoppy and likable pale ales that I've had.   But I do really like their Piper's Pride - a Scotch ale-style of beer that has a great smoky taste to it. 

They have a dining room that is spacious, including a room that overlooks the brewing vats.  The bar area also features a number of tables including three or four that are next to the large window that looks out onto Main Street.   

I was able to get a seat at the bar that looked right into the brewing room and I ordered up a Prophet's Rock and got a menu.  LBC serves a wide variety of brew pub-style food - sandwiches, appetizers, burgers and salads.  They also serve some interesting entrees including a bison steak that I considered, but knew they couldn't do a bison steak as good as Ted's Montana Grill.

I really didn't know what to get and the waitress said, "It's our 'Smokeshak night'."  She explained that on some nights they feature a smoked entree from a smoker in their back parking lot.  That night they featured a smoked pork loin, sliced and grilled, with new potatoes cooked in olive oil.  I went with that. 

They brought my food out soon thereafter and it was good.  Not great - I thought the grilling they did after they pulled it off the smoker and sliced them into small pieces dried them out too much.  Still, with the Piper's Pride smoked Scotch ale, it was a good meal. 

And cheap, too!  All that sliced pork loin, potatoes on the side and a dinner salad before the dinner, it was $7.95.  A great deal, in my book. 

Another thing I like about Lafayette Brewing Company - they're part of a growing number of restaurants who don't allow smoking.  Actually, they do allow smoking in the place after the kitchen has shut down for the evening.  But they allow no smoking in the upstairs bar area at any time - including during the shows. 

Good beer, good food - the Lafayette Brewing Company is worth a try.

Springfield Brewing Company - Springfield, MO

The Springfield Brewing Company in downtown Springfield, MO - (which has the smallest and most underwhelming downtown area for a city the size of Springfield - about 150,000 people) is one of the more unique brew pubs in existence today.

First of all, the brew pub was built in the mid-90's as a research and development wing of the Paul Mueller Company, one of the largest manufacturers of stainless steel food and beverage equipment in the world.  With the upsurge in micro-breweries, the Paul Mueller Company developed a number of tanks, mills and mashers to sell to micro-breweries.  They use the Springfield Brewing Company as a state-of-the-art showcase to demonstrate Mueller's equipment. 

The brewpub is housed in an old warehouse that was completely remodeled specifically for the Springfield Brewing Company (see map for location).  It has a huge bar and a spacious dining area.  Actually, it's one of the nicer brew pubs that I've ever been in.   

Springfield Brewing Company's beers are named for Mueller and are ably brewed by master brewer Ashton Lewis.  The Mueller beers have won a handful of medals in the Great American Brew Festival held annually in Denver.  The Mueller beers are available in bottles as far away as Kansas City and St. Louis. 

I like their Pale Ale - a hoppy and spirited beer with a good clean finish.  Their Lager is also very good - it has a rich and toasty taste to it.  And their Oktoberfest fall seasonal beer is now available. 

The food at Springfield Brewing Company is also very good.  I've eaten there three times now.  I was in Springfield recently and took one of my dealers out to lunch.  The menu is varied from standard bar food favorites such as burgers and appetizers; to a good number of upscale entrees such as steaks, pastas, and chicken dishes. 

I'd been on the road a lot lately and I needed some comfort food.  So I went with their Redbird Pie - a knock-off on the old Irish Shepard's Pie with seasoned beef, onions, potatoes, corn, green beans and gravy.  My dealer ordered the fish and chips, or as he explained to me, "I don't know why, but fish and chips just sounded good." 

Well, my Redbird Pie was very good.  A "spot hitter" to the nth degree.  Coupled with a Mueller Pale Ale it was a great lunch.  My dealer went with the Oktoberfest and he said it was very good - a little stout paired with the fish - but he said it was still good.  It looked like his fish was over-cooked, but he said that the batter was very good and the fish was cooked perfectly. 

Springfield Brewing Company is a wonderful place to go for food, beer and relaxation.  The beer is above average as is the food.  The atmosphere and surroundings are very comfortable.  If you're ever in Springfield - which really is a nice city - I'd highly recommend the Springfield Brewing Company.   

Great Dane Pub and Brewery - Madison/Fitchburg, WI

The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company is the oldest brewpub in the Madison area.  Started in 1996 by Eliot Butler and brewmaster Rob LoBreglio, the first Great Dane brew pub was opened in the former Fess Hotel and Restaurant property on Doty St. a block away from the Wisconsin State Capitol (see map).

The Great Dane Pub downtown is a typical brew pub - the tanks are lined up behind glass to show patrons the brewing process.  It has a nice little beer garden in back that is surrounded by trees, and the food is typical brew pub fare - sandwiches, appetizers and a few entrees. 

Their beers are very good for a brew pub.  I especially like their Old Glory American Pale Ale, a very hoppy pale ale that is supported with an underlying malt flavor to smooth out the taste.  It's one of the better pale ale's I've had at a brew pub. 

They also make a German pilsner - the Verruckte Stadt German Pils - that uses German hops and pilsner malt to give it a very Germanic taste. 

Their John Stoner's Oatmeal Stout is named after the original settler of the Madison suburb of Fitchburg, where the second Great Dane Pub and Brewery opened about four years ago.  I'm not big on their oatmeal stout, but it does have a nice roasted taste to it. 

Other beers include their Landmark Lite Lager, the Crop Circle Wheat and the Sugar River Extra Special Bitter.  They also have a British cask ale that is drawn from authentic "Firken" casks.

They have a Scotch Ale at their Madison location that they, unfortunately, don't have at their Fitchburg pub.  Actually, a couple of the beers they have in Madison, they don't have in Fitchburg (and vice-versa). 

I recently took a dealer and some of his guys to the one in Fitchburg (see map).  It was a great night, so we sat out in their expansive beer garden.  There were many more people seated outside than inside (the one in Fitchburg is a lot bigger - both inside dining and beer garden - than the one downtown). 

I ordered a pale ale, a couple of the guys ordered the wheat, one of the guys ordered the oatmeal stout and one of them ordered a bloody mary.  I kind of looked at him funny and he said, "Oh, these are the best bloody mary's in Madison.  It's a family tradition on Christmas Eve to meet my parents and brothers and sisters for lunch at the Great Dane downtown and we always have bloody mary's." 

The waitress brought out his bloody mary after she'd gotten us our beers.  It looked great - olives, pickle, lime and lemon wedge.  I told the waitress, "I've got to try one of those." 

She brought me one out a little later and it was very good.  One of the best bloody mary's I've had a in long time.  It was smooth, rich and really flavorful.  The waitress said, "We make a pretty good bloody mary here.  A lot of people don't know about it." 

For dinner, I had the peppercorn mushroom sirloin steak with a side of garlic smashed potatoes and a vegetable medley.  The guy who got the bloody mary originally, Paul, got the chicken pot pie.  Once again, I sort of gave him a look when he ordered the chicken pot pie and he said, "It's the best chicken pot pie you'll ever have."

The other guys got the spaghetti and meatball special or burgers.  My steak was a little overcooked, but the peppercorn sauce and mushrooms over the top of it were a great complement.  And the garlic smashed potatoes were great with it, as well. 

Paul was literally in ecstacy eating his chicken pot pie.  It did look good.  It was in a small pot with the dough just rising and spreading out over the top.  He said, "You're going to have to get one of these the next time you eat here." 

The guy who got the spaghetti said it was very good.  The bolognese sauce had a little spicy bite to it and the meatballs were very good.  In fact, he talked one lady who was seated at a table next to us to get it for dinner.  She liked it, too.

Dinner for five with tip came to $140.00.  Of course, our bar tab was about $60 bucks, so the price of the food was very reasonable. 

The times I've eaten at the Great Dane Pub, the food has always been good.  The beer is good, it's a good place to go when you're in Madison.  I highly recommend it. 

Lazlo's Brewery and Grill - Lincoln, NE

Lazlo's Brewery and Grill in Lincoln, NE has been a pleasant surprise twice for me.  I first went to Lazlo's downtown Lincoln location in the historic Haymarket area (see map) about six years ago upon the recommendation of a buddy who had eaten there a couple times before.  The food was good as their meat entrees were cooked over wood fires, and the beer was actually pretty good, as well.  The beer is brewed by the Empyrean Brewing Company which is located just behind Lazlo's. 

The second surprise was when one of my more favorite restaurants in Lincoln - Stackwoods - turned into Lazlo's second location on Lincoln's south side (see map).   Stackwoods also cooked their food in a wood fired oven and grills their meats over a wood fired pit, only Lazlo's used hickory wood and Stackwoods used apple wood. 

Stackwoods filed for bankruptcy protection about three years ago and Lazlo's came in and bought the property.   It's right next to the Hampton Inn Heritage Park in Lincoln, a very easy walk from the room to the restaurant.

I was in Lincoln recently and met a client for dinner at the Lazlo's on the south side.   Lazlo's has kind of a "northwoods" motif to the place, heavy on the wood throughout the building. 

I started out with the Luna Sea pale ale, a good hoppy beer that has a good bite and smooth aftertaste.  It's my favorite of the beers they serve. 

We ordered food - I had the slow wood smoked prime rib, my client had the wood grilled rib-eye.  We both opted for the mashed potatoes and salad.  They make all their salad dressings in house and their blue cheese dressing is very good. 

I grabbed one of their Burning Skye Scotch Ales with my dinner, but I wasn't all that impressed with it.  It almost tasted flat.  Our waiter suggested I try the Third Stone brown ale.  It was smooth, but once again it didn't have the full body that I was looking for.  It did complement my prime rib, however.  I went back to the Luna Sea for my last beer of the night.

I've yet to have a bad meal at Lazlo's.  Heck, I didn't have a bad meal when it was Stackwoods.  And this meal was no exception.  My prime rib wasn't as rare as I'd like it to be, but the taste of prime rib cooked slow over hickory is tough to beat.

Overall, the food is pretty good, the beer is just as good.  I can't say that Lazlo's is the best I've had, but their food and beer are consistent.  Consistently good. 

Granite City Food and Brewery

Granite City Food and Brewery is a chain of about a dozen restaurants/brew pubs in the upper Midwest.  By now, you know that I usually try and stay away from chains like the plague.  But Granite City is still small enough that each restaurant has a little bit of local character to it. 

Granite City started in St. Cloud, MN in 1999 by Steve Wagenheim and brew master Bill Burdick.  Both had been involved in the restaurant business for a number of years prior to opening their first Granite City restaurant.  They just opened their 12th Granite City this month next to the Kansas Speedway in Northwest Kansas City.

Now, most brew pubs - I've found - are brew pubs first and the food is somewhat of an afterthought.  That's not the case with Granite City.  The food is really what brings the people in, the beer is so-so to OK.

Their beers are a little too sweet for my taste.  The Northern Light Lager has a smooth taste, but the aftertaste reminds me of a sweet beer along the lines of Falstaff.  Their Duke of Wellington Pale Ale is also a little too sweet for me.  It doesn't have that good pale ale bite that I like when I finish a swallow.

But as I said, the food is what brings the people in. 

They had just announced they were going to open a Granite City in Davenport sometime in 2003.  I happened to be up in Sioux Falls, SD one evening and just down the street from my hotel was a Granite City.  Turns out it was the second Granite City restaurant in the chain.

Granite City - Sioux Falls

As I found with all the Granite City's I've been to (4 so far), the Sioux Falls Granite City was spacious and well-appointed on the inside and the building looked attractive on the outside.  The one in Sioux Falls has a nice outside patio that overlooks a little pond with a fountain.  Nice touch.

I ordered the meat loaf for my first meal.  When they brought me my meal, I couldn't believe the size of the portions.  In fact, it was too much.  But that's been the trademark - and one of my largest complaints - of Granite City's food service.  There's just too much food. 

I do like their Honey Rosemary Filet Mignon, a filet marinated in honey, garlic and rosemary, then broiled.  Their meat loaf is an old stand-by for me - they grill the cooked meat loaf giving it a nice little flavor that you don't expect out of a meat loaf. 

Granite City's blue cheese peppercorn burger is pretty good.  And their Chicken Florentine lasagna is a good get, too.  They also have pretty good garlic mashed potatoes that you can get when you get a steak. 

And ask for the onion straws instead of french fries if you get a sandwich.  They usually use the onion straws - which are thin onion rings - as a garnish on burgers and other sandwiches.  They're much better than the fries.  And don't let them tell you they can't substitute the onion straws - they can.  I still don't understand why they don't have them available on the menu. 

In addition to the one in Sioux Falls, I've been to the one in Lincoln, NE, Cedar Rapids, IA, and, of course, the one in Davenport.  I've never had a bad meal, the service is always good, the beer is, well, it's OK.  Drinkable, but nothing outstanding.  And the one in Davenport is so popular of an eating destination that the wait can be upwards of 45 minutes to an hour on a Friday or Saturday night.

It's probably a good thing that Granite City says "Food and Brewery" rather than "Brewery and Food".  As I said, it's the food, not the beer, that makes Granite City good.

Holy Cow - Las Vegas

Holy Cow on the Las Vegas Strip at Sahara (see map) was Las Vegas' first brew pub. Started in 1993, Holy Cow was a wonderful spot for a good beer and a good burger.

They had a good Pale Ale - the Ambler Gambler - that was full flavored, yet light. And it had a nice finish to it. The Ambler Gambler actually won the Gold Medal for English Style Pale Ale's at the 1993 Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Actually, that's what piqued my interest in the place when I first went there when I was in Las Vegas for the Consumer's Electronic Show in 1994.

The place was good sized, sort of too smokey and too dark. They had a lot of video poker and slot machines throughout the place. Lots of tables and booths and a nice little bar to belly up to.

I remember they had a Red Ale that was pretty good and a Rye ale that was a little too sweet for my tastes.

They had entrees available - steak, chicken, pork chops, etc. - but I always opted for their burger which was thick and juicy. Always cooked right.

Holy Cow was a favorite pilgramage for me and a couple of my buddies and colleagues each year we went to Las Vegas. Imagine my surprise when I went to go there a couple years ago and it was closed up tighter than a drum. This last week when I was in Las Vegas, I saw the building is now the real estate office for Ivana Trump's Ivana Las Vegas high rise condo that she is hoping to build on the spot.

Holy Cow was the first in Vegas and I'll always remember how very good it really was.

Monte Carlo Pub and Brewery - Las Vegas

I first went to the Monte Carlo Pub and Brewery, located in the Monte Carlo hotel and casino in Las Vegas, about six years ago.  I thought their beer was pretty good and the food fare was equal to above some brew pubs I've visited. 

During our annual trip to Las Vegas for the Consumer's Electronics Show, we had to spend one night at the Monte Carlo due to a scheduling snafu.  I was actually looking forward to doing so as I'd never stayed at the Monte Carlo, and it had been a while since I'd been to the Pub and Brewery.

The Pub and Brewery touts itself as being one of the largest brew pubs in the world.  It's open and ornate with a lot of brass and dark woods throughout the place.  Actually, I guess I didn't remember much about it being more of a sports bar when I was there before, but they had televisions throughout the place (they were showing the 2006 Orange Bowl game when we were in there). 

I had a couple glasses of the Jackpot Pale Ale to start off.  I guess I don't remember it being that weak of a Pale Ale in taste.   It wasn't unpleasant, but it certainly wasn't as flavorful as other Pale Ale's I've grown accustomed to drinking.  I felt they must tone down the hoppy-ness and bold nature of the Pale Ale for the tourists.

I then went to a High Roller Red lager.  It sort of tasted flat and lifeless.  It definitely was not like other Red's that I've had in the past.  Once again, it wasn't unpleasant - but after traveling all day from Moline to Dallas-Fort Worth to Las Vegas, anything with "beer" in the title would be fine with me.

One of my colleauges got the Silver State Stout, which he also characterized as pretty weak in taste.  He ended up switching to Bud Light, it was that unpleasing to him.  We all agreed the taste of the beers probably had to appeal to a wide range of tourists and they probably made them weak just to appease the multitudes of tourists that come from all over the world.  To me, I'd go just the opposite.  But that's me. 

I had the rib-eye steak sandwich served on a huge sourdough roll.  It was too much bread.  I ended up just eating the steak and leaving the bread.  The fries that came with them were seasoned, but I didn't eat many of them.

The consensus in our group was the Pub and Brewery at the Monte Carlo was in the "fair" category.  Nothing special about it, at all.  I was disappointed because I somehow remember it as being a better brew pub than that.  In addition to being more of a sports bar, they turn the place into kind of a disco with a D.J. after 10 p.m. on some nights, other nights they have a live band playing (a Prince tribute band - Purple Reign - was playing the nights they had live music).  That's not a brew pub in my book.