Road Tips

Keys Cafe and Bakery - Minneapolis

The last morning of our vacation earlier this summer, we checked out the continental breakfast at The Marquette, the boutique hotel we were staying at in downtown Minneapolis.  It was the usual fare - bagels, toast, pastries, that sort of thing.  Cindy wanted something a little more substantial for breakfast so I immediately thought about Keys Cafe, a local iconic restaurant in the Twin Cities.  Given that there are 9 Keys Cafe locations around the area, I figured one had to be close by.  I took a quick look on-line to see where the nearest Keys was and, to my surprise, there was a location - Keys Foshay - down Marquette Avenue a couple blocks and a half block to the south on 9th Street. (see map)  We took our bags down to the car in underground garage to put them in the trunk and then walked over to Keys Cafe for breakfast.

I have eaten at a Keys Cafe location a couple three times in the past, but it has been quite sometime since I was last in one.  A friend of mine from the Twin Cities, George Miller, turned me on to Keys Cafe when we were talking about comfort food one time a number of years ago.  Every once in a while when I'm on the road, I'm tired of burgers or steaks or pasta, so I need some comfort food - hot beef sandwich, meatloaf, roast pork and mashed potatoes with a big glass of cold milk - to set my body right.  Keys Cafe has been one of my go-to places for comfort food in the past, but it had been quite sometime since I was last at a Keys Cafe.

The first Keys Cafe opened in 1973 in St. Paul.  Barbara Hunn was the mother of four children and a licensed practical nurse when she decided she needed a change in her life.  Along with a friend, Beverly Oien, they looked at buying a restaurant on Raymond Ave. in St. Paul, Mr. D's.  Only Hunn didn't have much experience in a restaurant.  Her parents had briefly owned a bar on a lake in north central Minnesota, and Hunn had worked as a counter person at a Dairy Queen that Oien owned.  But they forged ahead, buying Mr. D's. and putting Hunn in charge of the place while Oien took off to live in Florida.  They changed the name to Keys Cafe - known to the locals as Keys on Raymond - and the story goes is that it was named Keys as it was going to be the closest that Hunn would ever get to the Florida Keys.  

At right - Barbara Hunn with former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

The former owner of Mr. D's gave Hunn three days of training and then said, "You're on your own!  Good luck!"  She toiled over the next 10 years, refining, changing and improving the original Keys with the help of family members.  Hunn then opened a second Keys Cafe in suburban New Brighton, MN in 1983.  As I said, today there are 9 Keys Cafe locations in the Twin Cities areas, all run by Hunn (now Hunn-Miesen - her third marriage) and her children - Carol, Jean, Celine and Roy - and their spouses and children.

The Keys Cafe and Bakery is located in the historic Foshay Tower - the first skyscraper built in Minnesota.  Topping out at 29 stories, the Foshay was the tallest building in Minnesota from 1929 to 1972 when the IDS Tower was built.  The art deco designed building was added to the list of National Register of Historic Places in 1978.  About six years ago, developers Ralph Burnet, his son Ryan Burnet, Tim Rooney (the young Burnet and Rooney are co-owners of the Barrio Mexican restaurants that I've written about here and here) and the Ryan Companies development group bought the Foshay and turned it into a 230-room boutique hotel - the W - Foshay.   The famous Manny's Steakhouse is located at the corner of Marquette and 9th, just up the street from Keys Cafe and Bakery. (Look for an upcoming entry on Manny's in the coming days.)  

We got into a somewhat crowded Keys Cafe around 9:30 on a late summer Sunday morning.  It's different from the other Keys Cafe's I've been in - but I've only been in two others.  It features a bar area serving beer and mixed drinks, a bakery counter up front and a number of hardwood tables and chairs in the front part of the restaurant.  There's also sidewalk dining at Keys, but it was sort of a dreary morning outside so we decided to sit inside.  We were taken to the back part of the restaurant, up a couple steps to a little alcove where the sign said, "Section Closed", but it obviously wasn't.  There were a row of tables with banquette seating on the wall in the little room.  Cindy took the banquette seat and I took the chair opposite her.  The hostess dropped off menus and soon thereafter, our server, Monica, came to great us.  

Breakfast is served all day long at Keys and there is a lot to choose from.  Pancakes, cinnamon French toast, omelets, eggs any way you like, and their famous caramel or cinnamon rolls are the big breakfast draws at the restaurant.  They also have toast made with their homemade bread at Keys.  I had only gotten comfort food on my previous visits, so I was sort of looking forward to trying their breakfast.   

By the time Monica came back around to take our order, I was wrestling in my mind over the blueberry Belgian waffle or getting an omelet.  I decided to get a sausage (pork sausage, they also had Italian sausage as an option), mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet.  Cindy went the simple route, saying that she needed something more substantial that what the continental breakfast at the Marquette had to offer, but was still somewhat full from our meal the night before.  She ended up getting a couple eggs over easy with hash browns, bacon and a couple pieces of Keys homemade toast. 

Now, here is another story as to why I hate banquette seats in restaurants.  To me, you're sharing a booth or a bench with someone.  The tables with banquette seating are relatively close and it seems that conversations from the other tables carry more easily with banquette seating.  Just after we ordered, a middle-aged couple were seated to my immediate left.  The guy looked a little scruffy and he was seated in the banquette seat next to Cindy, and on the opposite side of him was the hallway that went down to the restrooms.  The man announced rather loudly when he sat down, "Oh good!  Right next to the restrooms!  I'm incontinent!"  A sophomoric joke that I probably would have laughed at if I were at a dive bar, but not at Keys Cafe.  

The guy and the girl began to have a conversation and no matter how much Cindy and I tried to carry on our own conversation, the guy's vocal tone and volume always interrupted us.  It turned out that they were probably on a first date, the guy was a recovering drug addict and he was describing his on-going treatment regimen to the lady.  We also believe the lady was a recovering alcoholic as she was telling the guy that she was living her life one day at a time, trying to keep the temptation of having a drink at a distance.  I'm sorry, but it was not hard to hear their conversation.  Thankfully, the table on the other side of us stayed empty during our visit.  

Monica brought out our breakfasts about 15 minutes after we ordered.  The picture I took of my omelet didn't turn out.  (I was having trouble with the camera and the lighting in Keys Cafe - a lot of the pictures of the bar area and the dining room didn't turn out.)  But it was a thin omelet that covered a good portion of the plate.  It was loaded with ample amounts of sausage and mushrooms, and was oozing with cheese at each cut into the omelet.  It was very, very good.  I don't know if it would have been better than the blueberry Belgian waffle, but it was pretty damn good for me that morning.  

Cindy was amazed at the food on her plate.  One thing Keys doesn't do is scrimp on portions.  Her hash browns covered half the plate and the slices of bacon that she had were not as crisp as she'd like, but she still ate them.  The highlight for her was the homemade toast.  The toast was thick cut, but light and airy in taste.  She loved eating the toast more than anything on her plate.  I tried a couple bites from her bread and it was better than the 12 grain toast that I had with my omelet.  

The Keys Cafe and Bakery location in downtown Minneapolis was just as good as the other Keys locations I've been to around the Twin Cities.  Unfortunately, most of the Keys locations are on the east side of the Twin Cities and I just don't get over there all that often any longer.  It was great to reconnect with Keys after not having been to one for quite sometime.  It's no wonder the Keys Cafe's are so popular - good food, generous portions and a great back story of a woman who didn't know what she was getting into nearly 40 years ago making it all come together for a true American success story.   

Johnny V's Classic Cafe - West Allis, WI

Back when I began my blog in 2005 (Wow! Coming up on 7 years of Road Tips!), I didn't have much of a vision or voice as to what I wanted for my entries.  One of the very first entries I had was on Johnny V's Classic Cafe in West Allis, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee.  Johnny V's has to be one of my all-time favorite diners.  This is a place where I've gotten breakfast at 8 a.m., at 7 p.m., and at 2 a.m.  It also features a number of comfort food entrees and excellent gyros.  While in the Milwaukee area a couple months ago, I made a point to go have breakfast at Johnny V's and give more of an in-depth view of the place.

Johnny V's opened in May of 1992.  John Vassallo, Sr. had worked in a restaurant for a good portion of his early life before he went to work for a food distributor.  Looking to run his own place, he and his wife opened their diner in May of 1992.  That's John Vassallo, Sr. in the picture above. A year and a half later, their son - John, Jr., a local bar owner/restauranteur - became involved in the business.   John, Jr., known as Johnny V, had been somewhat of an entrepreneur over the years from running a flower shop to owning a jewelry store to running a Subway sandwich shop to owning a couple bars   Johnny V took over the business from his parents and ran it until 1996.  Some other business ventures - including a second Johnny V's in West Bend - began to sour for Johnny V in 1996, so his parents and his brother, James (Jamie) came back in and took over the original Johnny V's in West Allis.  Jamie Vassallo continues to run the restaurant these days.  

Johnny V's is located on the southwest corner of a strip mall on the east side of S. 84th Street, between Greenfield and National, south of the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds (see map).  I'd had a meeting in downtown Milwaukee early in the morning and on the way out of town I stopped by Johnny V's for breakfast.  The place was about a third full around 9:45 in the morning.  

The restaurant's interior mainly pays homage to a combination of vintage Coca Cola paraphernalia and American patriotism.  Either that, or they were lazy in taking down decorations for the 4th of July from a couple months before.  I was greeted by a young lady who led me to a booth along the west wall of the restaurant.  She dropped off a menu and said she'd be back to get my order in a bit.  

The breakfast offerings at Johnny V's are not unlike many other diners of its kind.  Pancakes, waffles, omelets, skillet dishes and cereals.  They have a number of breakfast specials they run daily from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., but they do serve breakfast around the clock.  As I said, there has been more than once that I've had breakfast well after midnight after a full day at Summerfest.  

One of my favorite items on Johnny V's breakfast menu is the eggs with gyro meat.  It's a large platter of eggs, cooked to order, and a hefty side of sliced gyro meat along with a good sized bunch of hash browns.  It had been a long time since I had that at Johnny V's, so when the waitress came back to take my order I didn't hesitate one bit when ordering it up with eggs over easy and whole wheat toast.  

Johnny V's service is pretty prompt and the breakfast showed up at my booth in less than 15 minutes.  The gyro meat at Johnny V's is different from a number of Greek restaurants I've been to.  The gyro meat is almost like slices of tender minute steaks.  They have a great texture and are easy to cut with a fork.  A couple small tubs of homemade tzatziki sauce came with the gyro meat.  The eggs were good sized and the hash browns - although I only had a couple bites of them - were also very good.  But the gyro meat was the star of this breakfast.  The taste sensations that I remembered from years gone by came back with the first bite.  It was as good this particular day as it was nearly 15 years ago when I first had breakfast at Johnny V's.  

I can't remember ever having a bad meal at Johnny V's.  I've had their homemade meat loaf (which is very good), their pot roast entree (also wonderful), and their blueberry Belgian waffles - all of which have been very good.  It's far from fine dining at Johnny V's, but it's a spot-hitter if you're looking for comfort food.  The service is good, the price value is above average and the food is also above average.  Johnny V's has never disappointed me in the past and they certainly didn't on my most recent visit.

Tommy's Cafe - Davenport, IA

My friend, Randy Brekke, has been extolling the virtues of a west-side Davenport restaurant - Tommy's Cafe - for a number of years.  He kept telling me, "Their food is pretty good and you get good portions for what you pay."  One morning after walking through the Farmers Market at the Freight House and in the adjacent parking lot at Modern Woodmen Park, we decided to go get some breakfast.  We stopped at Tommy's and I have to say that what Randy was telling me was spot on.  It was a lot of good food at a reasonable price. The only problem is that I didn't have my phone with me to take pictures of the place.  On a recent Sunday morning, we headed back over to Tommy's for breakfast, this time with phone in tow. 

Tommy's Cafe could be categorized as a "blue-collar" type of place. I would lovingly call it the quintessential "greasy spoon" joint.  Located on West 3rd Street (see map), it's in the middle of an area that has been cleaned of blight over the past 15 years. There's parking on the street in front of Tommy's, but they also have a small parking lot with a rear entrance behind the place. 

Tommy's has been around since April of 1987.  That's when Tom Jones opened the doors to a small place on West 3rd that had only counter seating and a handful of tables or booths.  While he was learning his way around the kitchen, Tom's mother, Joan, waited on tables while his father, Roy, made pies, pastries and bread for the restaurant.  Tom's parents had run other businesses in the area and they taught Tommy everything about running a business. Tom's future wife, Chris, began to work in the restaurant after she graduated from high school.  They were married in September of 1990.  

In 2003, now with three children, Tommy and Chris added a new section to the restaurant effectively tripling the size of the place (above right).  Their kids work at the restaurant - Casey is a cook and daughters Kayla and Bailey work as waitresses.  Everything at Tommy's is made from scratch - the Jones' say it helps keep their costs low and the quality consistent.  

One other thing that Tommy's is famous for are their pastries and donuts.  I took a quick picture of their baking trays before they were picked bare in the mid-morning.  They have cinnamon rolls, turnovers, long johns - just about anything a bakery would have for morning pastries.  And we heard they were good.  Before Cindy even ordered breakfast, she ordered one each  of a blueberry, raspberry, cherry and apple turnover, just to make sure she'd have them before they ran out.  I said, "What are you getting so many of them for?"

She said, "I don't know.  We can give some to the neighbors or I'll take a couple to work."  

We got into Tommy's around 10 a.m. one recent Sunday morning. Even with the additional space, Tommy's is consistently full for breakfast.  We were lucky to find one booth open in the original part of the restaurant.  A waitress came over with a couple glasses of water and menus for us after we sat down.   

The menu at Tommy's has the standard breakfast fare - eggs, omelets, pancakes, French toast and waffles.  They also feature a number of lunch items including burgers, sandwiches, salads and comfort food like hot beef sandwiches.  The have a breakfast special called the 88 - eggs your way, bacon, sausage and 3 pancakes.  It was pretty cheap - I think it was $3.95.  Cindy ended up getting that.

I was sort of torn getting between getting French toast, a waffle or an omelet.  We'd had a neighborhood party the night before and I was feeling a little fuzzy that morning.  I decided that I needed an omelet - sausage, mushroom and cheese.  I got whole wheat toast on the side and a glass of milk.  

The only problem I have with Tommy's is that when they expanded the restaurant, they didn't expand the kitchen.  Because of that, you are generally waiting quite a while for your food.  That's happened to us both times we've been to Tommy's.  About the time that we were getting antsy for our breakfast - over 20 minutes after we ordered - the food was brought to our table.  

Cindy's 88 special breakfast featured three fluffy pancakes - she prefers them thin and well-done - two sausage links, two pieces of bacon and a couple eggs over easy.  She didn't get any toast, but I did.  She said, "I want to trade some toast for these sausage links."  She doesn't care for breakfast sausage all that much.  Turns out she could have gotten four slices of bacon instead of two and two.  

My omelet was thin - as I like it - and was filled with sauteed mushrooms, sausage chunks and American cheese.  Cheese was melted on top of the omelet.  I black-peppered it up and dug in.   It was good, not the best, but it was above average.  It was certainly a big omelet - it filled up the plate.  With somewhat of a hangover, it tasted pretty darn good.

Cindy said her breakfast was "fine".  Even though the pancakes were too fluffy for her, she said that she liked them.  She gave me a couple bites of the pancakes and they were all right.  I think my wife makes the best pancakes in the world and it's tough to beat that gold standard for me.  But the ones at Tommy's were good.

After eating, we went up to the counter to pay (Tommy's is a cash only establishment) and to grab our sack of turnovers.  On our first visit, we witnessed a rather ugly encounter with a customer who had called in for an order of a dozen donuts, only to find that someone had made off with the dozen before she showed up.  And there were no donuts left on the trays behind the cash register.  We thought that if she put up such a fuss for Tommy's donuts, they must be pretty damned good.  

After we got home, the temptation was too much for Cindy.  She got into the bag and pulled out the apple turnover.  She exclaimed, "Oh, my God!  This is great!  Now I know why they go so fast!"  

The next day, I had one of Tommy's turnovers - the blueberry one.  It was light, flaky and extremely good.  It had a sugar frosting on the outside and the flaky layered consistency of a good Greek baklava.  The blueberry filling was just the gravy on what was a wonderful pastry.  If I were getting a dozen rolls or donuts for someone, I'd go to Tommy's before I'd go to Dunkin Donuts.  

With the four turnovers at $1.35 each, our bill came to just under $20 bucks.  That was a lot of food for little money.  Tommy's is a great value with good food.  Breakfast is their highlight, but be prepared to wait for a table and then wait for the food.  It's nothin' fancy, but it's worth it.

The High Life Lounge - Des Moines

The High Life Lounge is a funky little 60's style bar/restaurant just south of downtown Des Moines that has been open since 2005. (see map)  I've been in the place a couple times in the past to have a beer (or six), but I'd been told their food is pretty good.  On a recent visit to the Des Moines area, I met up with a buddy who bought me lunch at High Life Lounge.  When he offered, I couldn't say no!

There's somewhat of a family lineage that involves High Life Lounge, El Bait Shop connected to High Life Lounge, and the Buzzard Billy's restaurants.  The story begins in 1993 when brothers Andy and Dan Massoth, along with business partners Chris Mayo and Tracy Maughan opened the first two Buzzard Billy's Cajun/American restaurants in Waco, TX and LaCrosse, WI operating as MSD Innovations, Inc.  Looking for another Midwest location in 1999, the group decided upon a Des Moines location in the basement of a building at 100 Court Ave. in the heart of the Court Avenue District of entertainment and eating establishments.  

Three of the workers at the Des Moines Buzzard Billy's - Jeff Bruning, Scott Alongi and Kent Middendorf - were lifelong friends from Carroll, IA graduating from Kuemper Catholic High School in 1988.  Only Alongi was looking to get into the restaurant business after high school - he graduated from a culinary school in Alabama.  Bruning and Middendorf had both graduated from college and had taken jobs in the private sector.  When both were laid off from their jobs, they decided to join Alongi who was already working at the Buzzard Billy's location.  Although both Bruning and Middendorf thought their time at Buzzard Billy's would be short, they ended up working nearly every position in the place - from cook to bartender to dishwasher to server.  The four partners in MSD Innovations were impressed with the work ethic of the guys from Carroll and the group of seven had many discussions about different concepts for restaurants.  

The group all agreed that a "beer-centric" concept would be the blueprint for any restaurant they'd develop in the future.  In 2001, the four MSD Innovations partners added the three guys from Carroll and created a new company - Full Court Press - named after the Court Avenue district they were trying to bring back to life.  The team opened the Royal Mile, a British-style pub, late in 2001; then other restaurants followed - the Hessen Haus, a German-style beer hall; the Red Monk, a Belgian-style bar above the Royal Mile; then the High Life Lounge, followed soon after by El Bait Shop.  Full Court Press also owns Fong's Pizza, Sbrocco, Shorty's, and Mullet's.  As more places opened, the seven partners in Full Court Press spun off other smaller ventures and added minority owners.  Today, there are 21 majority and minority owners of Full Court Press and/or other corporations under the FCP umbrella.

The allure of the High Life Lounge is the 60's-tacky theme to the place.  The bar floor is covered in a pseudo-shag carpet (although I have to say this looks newer than the carpet that was on the floor the last time I was in a couple three years ago).  The wood-paneled walls gives you the feeling like you're walking back into a 60's-style lounge, right down to the old Zenith tube television hanging in the corner above the bar area.  The vibe is retro and funky at the same time.  I've always loved going into the place.

I beat my friend there and took a seat at the bar.  He showed up shortly thereafter and sat beside me.  We looked over the menu and my friend said, "The best thing on the menu is the meat loaf dinner."  Indeed, the High Life Lounge had a number of down home, rib-sticking entrees to choose from.  They had a pot roast plate, tuna casserole, chicken pot pie, liver and onions, goulash, and beef stroganoff to just name a few of the comfort food entrees they offered.  One of their more popular items is the broasted chicken.  You start off by choosing two sides, then build your broasted chicken dinner from there, adding dark or white meat pieces ala carte.    

The menu features a number of interesting appetizers including the High Life Lounge's famous "Bacon-wrapped Tater Tots" -  homemade tator tots that are wrapped with jalapeno slices and bacon, then deep fried and smothered with a cheddar-jack cheese sauce.  Everyone I've talked to who has had that appetizer raves about it.  They also have classic 60's-style appetizers such as fried chicken gizzards, deviled eggs and classic-style thin-sliced onion rings.  For the health conscious, the High Life Lounge's menu also features a handful of salads and soups.

The High Life Lounge also offers nearly 20 sandwiches including a fried egg sandwich; a sloppy joe burger; a Spam, egg and cheese sandwich; and a sandwich called the "B.B.C" which has three slices of bacon, topped with three more strips of bacon, then topped with Swiss cheese and served on Texas toast.  They have burger baskets, Italian sandwiches with sausage from Graziano Brothers, and something called "The High Life Man" - a quarter pound burger with an Italian sausage patty, topped with three strips of bacon, Swiss American and American cheese, grilled onions and jalapenos, mayonnaise and BBQ sauce and served on a sesame-seed bun.  

Our bartender that day came over and told us the lunch special that day was the chicken fried steak.  My friend said, "Ooo, that sounds good!"

She said, "It is good!"  

My buddy said, "You know, I always seem to get the meat loaf every time I come here and I keep telling myself that I want to get something else.  I think I'm going to do the chicken fried steak special."  

I was torn between getting a pork tenderloin sandwich, the hot beef sandwich, or the meatloaf that my buddy had been raving about.  If he had gotten the meat loaf, I probably would have followed suit.  But when he ordered the chicken fried steak, I decided to go with the hot beef sandwich.   

Not long after we ordered, our food came out.  My hot beef sandwich had piece of Texas toast as the base, an ample amount of tender roast beef on top, then a generous scoop of mashed potatoes on top of that, and slathered in a tasty beef gravy.  From the first taste, it was wonderful.  Sometimes when I'm on the road, I need good, home-style comfort food to set my body back to normal.  I enjoyed a beer with my hot beef sandwich, but a large cold glass of milk would have gone extremely well with the lunch.    

My buddy's chicken fried steak came with the choice of two sides - he went with the corn and mashed potatoes - and the meal more than covered the plate.  He declared the chicken fried steak as "great" and he was very happy that he got that instead of the meat loaf.  He said, "Next time you come in here, whether you're with me or not, you really need to get the meat loaf.  Gosh, that's just like heaven for me."  

I was extremely happy with my hot beef.  I couldn't imagine the meat loaf being that much better than the hot beef.  It was truly one of the best hot beef sandwiches I've ever head.  

After we finished up - what we could, that is - we got to talking to the bartender after the place.  She told us that you can order food from El Bait Shop in the High Life Lounge.  "We share the same kitchen, part of it is for us, the other part for El Bait Shop," she explained.  "We get a lot of overflow from El Bait Shop at night and we let people order food over here who can't get a seat over there."  

I do want to make it to El Bait Shop at some point, but I would be perfectly happy with ordering their food in the High Life Lounge.  It's a fun and funky place to have a drink, and their food is certainly well-above average.  I'm glad that my buddy gave me the invitation for lunch that day.  It was about $25 bucks for the food and a couple beers each, I left the tip.  I had no idea that the food at the High Life Lounge was that good.  It may become my "go-to" bar when I'm in the Des Moines area.  (Photo at left courtesy Iowa Foodie)

The Windmill Restaurant - Holland, MI

We stayed at the Doubletree in Holland, MI, a nice hotel that turned out to be centrally located for the trips we made during our visit to Western Michigan.  Because I'm a longtime Hilton Diamond member, we got a free breakfast each day we stayed at the hotel.  But because we're more adventurous, we decided to pass up the free breakfasts at the hotel and seek out where the locals eat breakfast.  One of those places was the Windmill Restaurant in downtown Holland.

The downtown Holland area is very nice - Holland, itself, is a very nice city.  There are a number of shops and eateries that you won't find in malls.  Being that it's less than 30 miles from Grand Rapids, we were told a number of people come from that area to shop in Holland because of the unique nature of their shopping and restaurants.  The Windmill is located in the heart of the downtown area on W. 8th Street (see map). And because of the Dutch influence on the area, there's a lot of Dutch heritage touches to the city.  The Windmill is named, of course, after the large Dutch windmills found all over the home country of The Netherlands.  Owner Terry McMurry runs the little family restaurant that opens at 5 a.m. daily (7 a.m. on Sunday) and serves breakfast and lunch throughout the day until they close at 4 p.m. (2 p.m. on Sunday). 

We got to the restaurant just after 9 a.m. and although the place isn't small, it was packed with a number of people getting breakfast.  We had to wait in an area up front for about 15 minutes to get a table, but while we were there the line stretched out the door and onto the sidewalk.  That's a good sign for any family-type restaurant like The Windmill.

The interior of the place is not fancy, but comfortable.  The restaurant features a number of booths along the long wall, tables in the back and a couple tables with chairs and bench seats along the wall up front.  There's an old style lunch counter that was lined full of people while we waited.  The Windmill gives you a choice of a booth or table, or sitting at the counter.  We talked about sitting at the counter, but I wanted a table or booth.  

A table up front with a bench seat opened up and we were escorted there.  There was another table of younger girls seated next to us that was just finishing up their breakfast fully cognisant that the more they dawdled, the more piercing stares they'd get from people who were standing in line waiting for their table to open up.  

As we looked through the menu, we found a number of breakfast items that sounded pretty damn good.  They also had comfort food staples such as meatloaf, hot beef sandwiches and burgers.  But I was looking for things like French toast with blueberries on top, or blueberry pancakes, or anything with blueberries since we were in the heart of blueberry country in Western Michigan.  We had heard some lady who was standing in line in front of us rave about the hash brown omelet, as well.  

We saw something interesting on the menu that Cindy had to ask the waitress about when she brought her some coffee - thin pancakes, rolled up and filled and/or topped with your choice of brown sugar, powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.  The waitress said, "Oh, yeah, they're very popular and really good."  She explained that you could also get the rolled up pancakes with either a strawberry or blueberry filling.  Cindy asked if the blueberries were fresh or if they were more like pie filling.  The girl admitted that it was more like a pie filling.  "It's not blueberry season around here yet.  We won't start to get fresh blueberries until July or August."  OK, that pretty much ruled out anything with blueberries for me.  

I kept looking over the menu and decided to get the corned beef hash and Swiss cheese omelet.  We'd noticed on the table next to us when another waitress was cleaning it off that there were these thick pieces of toast.  Cindy asked if they made their own bread.  The waitress said, "We sure do!  You get your choice of either regular bread or the homemade bread for toast."  

By this time, our waitress came back and we were ready to order.  I did order the corned beef hash and Swiss cheese omelet along with a couple slices of the homemade whole wheat bread.  Cindy ordered something called the Bird's Nest  - one or two eggs over easy (Cindy got one egg) laid over hashbrowns mixed with real bacon bits, then topped with cheddar cheese.  She got some of the homemade white bread toast.  And she was intrigued enough to try one of the rolled pancakes with cinnamon sugar filling and topped with powdered sugar.  

Since it was pretty busy at the restaurant, we knew it would take some time to get our food.  We were seated right next to the front window and we marveled at how many people were standing in line to get in.  At one point, Cindy counted 22 people standing in line.  She said, "I think we came at the right time."

A family of four - man, wife, boy, girl - took the table next to us after the girls gave it up a few moments before.  Now, I know this is close quarters and it's tough not to listen in on the conversations of others even when you don't want to, but this turned out to be another hazard of eating out.  As we were waiting for our food, the family began to give their order.  The boy - probably 11 or 12 - ordered his breakfast which included one of the roll up pancakes.  The girl - a little older, we guessed - then ordered her breakfast which also included a roll up pancake, as well.  

Then the father stepped in.  He said, "OK, this is what we're going to do..."  He immediately told the waitress to cancel the kids orders and he ordered FOR THE TABLE!  "This is what he's gonna get," he told the waitress as she basically ripped the ticket out of her book and started over.  Then he ordered for his daughter, then himself, then his wife.  Cindy and I were just completely incredulous after we witnessed this.  It was like he was saying, "No, no.  You're not gonna get that.  You're gonna get THIS!"  He did order the rolled up pancakes for everyone, though.  But still, why didn't he just begin to order for everyone before the waitress took the kids orders?

I didn't notice it at the time, but Cindy pointed out to me afterward that she felt the wife was a little creepy.  "Did you see that she was just staring at us while we were eating," she asked me after we left.  I did notice out of the corner of my eye the lady looking our way, but I thought she was looking out the window.  Cindy said, "Oh no.  She was just staring at us while we were eating, looking over our food.  I almost asked her to please stop."   

Our breakfast did show up about 20 minutes after we ordered and I was hungry.  The thin omelet was good sized and chock full of a creamy mixture of Swiss cheese and what appeared to be homemade corned beef hash.   It was excellent.  It was more than enough for me along with the large pieces of homemade toasted whole wheat bread.  

Cindy's Bird's Nest breakfast was not very big, sitting on a small plate that was dwarfed by the homemade white toast on her plate.  She said it was very good and raved about the bread.  "Oh, my God," she exclaimed.  "This bread!"  The bread was good.  It was thick, fluffy, chewy and very flavorful.  I don't know if there was an upcharge for the homemade bread over the regular bread, but I wondered why anyone would want to get a meal with regular bread rather than the homemade bread.  

But the highlight of the meal was the pancake roll up.  Cindy had asked for maple syrup to go along with the pancake, but a couple bites into it she decided she didn't need it.  The cinnamon sugar inside the rolled up pancake was plentiful and the combination with the powdered sugar on top was a great taste sensation.  We joked that we'd probably have a major sugar buzz afterward, but it was excellent in taste.  

These little family restaurants like The Windmill are fun to find when we're out searching around for places like this to eat.  Other than the family next to us with the obnoxious man and the lady staring at us while we were eating (we felt sorry for the kids - they seemed rather pleasant), we were very happy with our breakfast at The Windmill.  We contemplated going back at some point during our visit to Holland, but decided to seek out other breakfast places in the area.  But I wouldn't have minded going back in the least.  

The Standard - Elmhurst, IL

I hadn't been to the Elmhurst area just west of Chicago for dinner for quite sometime.  There have always been a number of wonderful dining options in Elmhurst, but this particular evening I wanted to try something new.  Sitting in my hotel room, I found a place that I wasn't overly familiar with on Urbanspoon - The Standard - and it appeared that it was just down York Road in the Elmhurst City Centre, Elmhurst's downtown restaurant, shopping and entertainment district.

The Standard is owned by Steve Syregelas and opened in May of 2007.  Their concept is to take classic American food and offer a fresh and modern approach.  The food is all made with the freshest ingredients and made from scratch each day.  I likened it to higher end comfort food.  They also have a full service bar where they make a large assortment of specialty drinks and martini's using fresh fruits and seasonal ingredients.   

The Standard is actually just off York Road on Schiller on the ground floor of a public parking garage (see map).  I was able to find a parking spot on the street just across from the front of the restaurant.  I went in and was greeted by the bartender, Christopher, who was also wearing the hat of host for that evening.  The bar area looked rather interesting with a backlit wall showcasing their various bottles of liquor.  No one was seated at the bar and I asked Christopher if I could sit there.  He said, "Absolutely!  I could use some company!"  

The dining room was also rather interesting. It's sort of a stylish and modern take on a classic American diner.  The dining room was designed by SYRE Design, which, I'm guessing, is probably connected to owner Steve Syregelas.  The key component of the dining room are the large modern light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  While the restaurant was not bright, it certainly wasn't so dark that you could read a menu.  

Christopher sat a dinner menu down in front of me and I began to go through what they had to offer.  He came back a moment later and asked me if I wanted anything to drink.  They had three beers on tap - the Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat beer (which is one of the very few wheat beers that I like); another beer that while I can't remember what it was, I wasn't interested in getting it; and a beer whose spigot I didn't recognize.  I asked Christopher what the other beer was and he said, "Oh, that's the Magic Hat 9.  It's out of the Magic Hat Brewery in Vermont." 

I wasn't familiar with it and I asked what kind of beer it was.  He told me that it was a pale ale.  I immediately signed up for that.  And I'm glad I did.  It wasn't as forward or as heavy as some pale ales can be.  It was a very smooth drinking beer.  It turns out that it's been available in Illinois for quite some time, but I wasn't familiar with it.  I'm certainly familiar with it now.  

Looking through the menu, I found The Standard to have a wide variety of interesting salads, sandwiches, appetizers and specialty entrees.  They also had a handful of steaks and seafood dishes to choose from.  A waiter came over to talk to Christopher and Christopher said, "Hey, what's the special tonight?  Maybe this gentleman would like to hear about it."

The waiter proceeded to tell me about a chicken entree where they take a grilled chicken breast and add ham and Swiss cheese and some other ingredients.  It sounded like their version of a chicken cordon bleu.  It was tempting and I kept that in the back of my mind.  

On their web site, the picture of their burger looks fantastic and they had a handful of different variations to choose from.   All the burgers are 1/2 pound patties and cooked over a wood-fired grill.  Their Classic cheeseburger had American cheese with all the garden fixing's.  The Backyard burger had cheddar cheese with bacon and barbecue sauce.  And they had a Maytag burger featuring Maytag blue cheese and caramelized onions with lettuce, tomato and pickles.  I almost pulled the trigger on that.

But I had been on the road for a while and every now and then I get to a point that I need a good comfort food dinner.  The Standard's specialty entrees featured a roasted turkey dinner with cranberry/orange sauce along with apple stuffing, smashed potatoes and homemade gravy.  They also had a meat loaf dinner that caught my eye.  For fish, they had a sesame encrusted sushi grade ahi tuna with Thai peanut sauce, baby bok choy and rice.  And they also had a wonderful sounding Steak Diane - beef filet medallions in a mushroom madiera sauce and their smashed potatoes.  I was having a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted.

I had narrowed my choices down to the Maytag burger and the meat loaf served with a mushroom bordelaise sauce and topped with onion straws and served over a bed of smashed potatoes.  Christopher came over and asked if I was ready to order.  I told him that I was torn between the Maytag burger ("Just had one of those earlier," he said), and the meat loaf.  He said, "Oooo...  That is a tough choice.  Our meat loaf is very good."  

I did a mental coin flip in my head and it came up meat loaf.  He said, "Either way, I don't think you'll go wrong."

Less than 10 minutes after I ordered, a waitress brought out my meat loaf and sat it down in front of me at the bar.  It featured three medium sized slabs of meat loaf that appeared to be slightly grilled, then placed on the smashed potatoes, then topped with a liberal amount of the mushroom bordelaise sauce.  I was expecting onion straws on top of the meat loaf, but I was instead served with what appeared to be two small homemade onion rings.  Fresh parsley was then sprinkled over the top.  The presentation for a meat loaf dish was very nice.  

The meat loaf was firm, yet easy to cut with a fork.  Along with the mushroom sauce, it tasted very good.  The herbs and seasonings that were in the meat loaf added to the taste sensation of the sauce and the meat together.  

The smashed potatoes were, well, smashed potatoes.  They were fine, but nothing outstanding.  Actually, I wish I would have gotten more than just two of the onion rings as they were delicious.  The batter was fresh and flavorful, and the onions cooked inside had a great sweet taste to them.  Surprisingly, I didn't find the onion rings anywhere on the menu, not even for an appetizer or a side.  I thought they were excellent. 

For a first time dining experience at The Standard, I was very impressed.   The menu was very interesting, the meat loaf entree was very good, and Christopher's service was excellent.  They weren't overly busy that evening so I was able to get his full attention when I needed it, but nonetheless it was exemplary.  As I said, Elmhurst has a number of good to very good dining establishments and I'm glad that I was able to try The Standard on this particular evening.  Next time - the Maytag burger! 

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Louisville, KY

I recently had a meeting in Louisville with a prospective dealer. I ended up spending the night in Louisville and had a number of options for food, but didn't exactly know where I wanted to go. My sister and brother-in-law had lived in Louisville for a number of years and my bro-in-law suggested a place they loved to go to called the Chick Inn for what he described as the best fried chicken in the world (my sister, however, said it wasn't as good as it was before they'd had a fire there a few years ago). The decision became moot, however, when I found out the Chick Inn had closed over a year ago. Another place that I'd heard about and wanted to give it a try was Lynn's Paradise Cafe. My sister, who now lives in Phoenix, told me, "Oh, you'll like Lynn's. It has good food and its sort of kitschy."

I don't quite remember where I first heard about Lynn's Paradise Cafe. All I know is that I had it bookmarked on my computer as a "Restaurant to Visit" in my travels. It could be that I saw it on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network, or it could have been a Man Vs. Food segment on Lynn's on The Travel Channel where Adam Richman tried to eat their Quadruple "B" French Toast that features black walnuts with a blackberry glaze and a bourbon meringue. Lynn's has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show (I probably didn't see that segment) and also on the Today Show (I possibly may have seen that). The restaurant has also been featured in articles in USA Today, the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Travel and Leisure, and Southern Living - all of which I will read from time to time. In any event, I knew I wanted to get to Lynn's at some point. And even though it was a 30 minute drive from hotel, I decided to make the trek to The Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, home of many very good restaurants and shops in the area (see map).

Lynn's Paradise Cafe began in the early 90's when Lynn Winter opened the doors of the restaurant. Lynn's original vocation was as a woodworker who custom built cabinets, bookshelves and armoires in Northern California and in Kentucky. When business got slow for her, she began to wait on tables in a restaurant. She loved the interaction with the customers, the fast pace and the different types of food. In 1991, she got rid of her woodworking tools and opened Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

From the start, Lynn Winter set out to have a fun place for visit, not only for the great comfort food with a twist, but also for the visual aura her restaurant strives to achieve. Lynn's Paradise Cafe is known for their breakfasts, served anytime during the day, as well as their Sunday brunch's where lines stretch out the door waiting for a table. But one thing that I was looking for was Lynn's version of the Louisville staple - the Hot Brown.

The Hot Brown is sort of tough to describe without pictures and actually eating it. It's an open faced turkey sandwich served on sourdough bread, then topped with bacon, tomatoes and a mornay sauce and cheese, then broiled in an oven. The origins of the Hot Brown go all the way back to 1926 when one of the chefs at the then new Brown Hotel, Fred K. Schmidt, came up with the concoction of food as a late night alternative to ham and egg dinners. Styled after Welsh rarebit, the Hot Brown quickly became the No. 1 item on the menu at the hotel's cafe with over 90% of the orders for the open-faced sandwich. One of the reasons was at that time, turkey was considered only for special occassions - such as holidays or anniversaries - and people loved the fact that they could get a hot turkey sandwich at any time at the Brown Hotel.

The Brown Hotel had its ups and downs for a number of years, finally closing in 1971. (They reopened in 1986 as a Hilton property, but the Brown is now owned by the upscale 1859 Historic Hotels corporation and is a 4-star boutique hotel.) However, by that time, Hot Brown's had become the signature dish at a number of Louisville restaurants. Like Kansas City and barbecue, or Chicago and deep dish pizza, the Hot Brown is synonomous with Louisville in terms of culinary delights.

Lynn Winter was actually featured on The Today Show with Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee Gifford showing how to make a Hot Brown. Click here to see that video (there's a short commercial at the start.

I got into Lynn's Paradise Cafe around 7:30 p.m. that particular evening. The building is back from the street a bit and there's a parking lot out front. Actually, it's rather tough to miss as along the sidewalk by the street is a large coffee pot that doubles as a water fall pouring water into a cup. That pretty much tells you what kind of place it is before you even go in.

There's an outdoor seating area just beside the main entrance to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (above right). It features a long row bench in an aquamarine color with brightly colored floral vinyl tablecloths and red metal chairs. It was a nice night, but no one was sitting outside.

As you enter, you find yourself in the "World of Swirl" gift shop, a throwback type of place that offers a lot of kitschy items and toys from the 50's. More on this place a little later on.

I was worried that the place would be somewhat small and popular enough that I may have trouble getting a seat right away. After entering the restaurant, I was surprised that it was even bigger than it looked in pictures I saw in the past. There was a host just outside the main dining room in the kitschy gift shop (more on that later), and he took me to a booth along the wall and dropped off a menu.

The dining room at Lynn's is, well, interesting. The room, itself, is a slight A-frame with a high wooden ceiling supported by steel beams. Kitschy lights are hanging from the ceiling, as well as light ropes wrapped around support poles in the center of the room. It looks like some sort of a 1950's designer's experiment gone terribly wrong. But it's also tastefully humorous.

Speaking of kitschy lights, each of the booths sport a hideous looking lamp on the table. It turns out that Lynn Winter has been sponsoring and judging an "Ugly Lamp" contest at the Kentucky State Fair each year since 1999. She had been asked previous to the beginning of the Ugly Lamp contest to judge Poultry Dressing (whatever that is) and she decided that wasn't an exciting thing to judge. She came up with the concept for the Ugly Lamp contest and put the judging into two categories - Born Ugly, for the lamps that were manufactured that way; and Made Ugly, by people who took a lamp and purposely made it ugly.

Many of the winners are on display on the table tops of the booths, including the one in the picture above right which was sitting on my booth table. Yes, that's really a lamp with the shade covered in tacky men's ties. And quite honestly, we may have a couple lamps sitting in our basement back home that we could enter in the contest .

My waiter for the evening came over and asked me if I wanted something to drink. I had read somewhere that Lynn's bloody mary was one of the finest you'd have anywhere - so good that they called it the "World Famous Bloody Mary". It had better be - they were charging $9.75 for it. I usually don't have a bloody mary after noon, but these sounded pretty good from it's description - a homemade mix made from scratch, vodka (Absolute Peppar for a more spicy bloody mary), then on a skewer they put cherry peppers, pepperocinis, green olives and black olives and dip it in the glass. I found out that they also had Bell's Pale Ale on hand at Lynn's. So for a starter, I ordered an Absolute Peppar bloody mary with a Bell's Pale Ale chaser. I don't know where I got on the kick of having a beer chaser with a bloody mary, but it's sort of a staple now when I get one.

The drinks were brought out and the Bell's Pale Ale came with a frosted boot glass. It was kind of a fun little touch to go along with the beer.

The bloody mary, I'm sorry to say, was over-hyped. It was actually pretty dull in taste and sort of watery, even with the Absolute Peppar. I just didn't think it was all that it was cracked up to be, considering what I'd read about it. I like my bloody mary's with a little more of a thick consistency and have some zip to the taste. I didn't find either in the bloody mary at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Figuring that I was going to order a Hot Brown at Lynn's, I was thrown a curve ball by all the other things on the menu they had to offer. The jambalaya pasta jumped off the menu when I saw it - it had grilled chicken, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp mixed with fresh thyme, peppers, onions, tomatoes, celery, Cajun seasonings and a cream sauce. Yow! That sounded great. Almost on the other end of the scale in terms of description was Lynn's meat loaf - called Mom's Meatloaf - that was made from grass-fed Kentucky beef and topped with a spicy marinara sauce.

My wife would have liked the place as they featured fried green tomatoes as an appetizer. Green tomato slices, hand-breaded and fried, served with a spicy remoulade sauce. And another thing that I really wanted to try was the Kentucky Reuben Quesadilla. They take corned beef, Swiss cheese and fried cabbage and place it all between two tortillas. They serve the quesadilla with a side of a homemade bourbon, cayenne Thousand Island dressing. I just about came unglued when I saw that.

And, as I said earlier, you could get breakfast at any time at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. They had omelets, French toast, stone-ground cornmeal pancakes, biscuits and gravy - it was a Southerner's breakfast paradise.

But I decided to go with what I came for - the Hot Brown. I ordered that up from my waiter. When he brought it, I knew right off the bat that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. First of all, the bowl it was in was huge. Two slices of hickory smoked bacon crossed the top and chunks of chopped tomatoes were sprinkled over the caramelized cheese topping. My arteries were hardening as I looked at this thing.

And the taste - oh man! First of all, the bacon was excellent - and who doesn't like bacon. Then digging into the Hot Brown, there was a pile of sliced turkey breast laying just underneath the cheese. I found the sourdough bread under that and the combination of the bread, turkey, cheese and the mornay sauce (it's actually more like an alfredo sauce, only using pecorino romano cheese instead of guyere and parmesan cheese) was like money in the bank for my taste buds. I kept telling myself that there was no way I could eat all this, but I found that I kept going and going and going until I very ashamedly stopped with nearly the whole bowl empty. I wanted to cry because A) I was so guilty that I nearly ate the whole damn thing, and B) it tasted SO great! I knew I couldn't eat for three days after this.

After paying for the meal (sort of expensive at $43+ with tip, but the bloody mary and 2 Bell's Pale Ales added up for most of the bill), I spent some time back out in the World of Swirl gift shop just looking around and the fun and weird items they had to offer. In addition to the wacky hats they on for sale, there was just about anything and everything imaginable as far as retro toys, games, and doo-dads. And I'm sure they do sell a lot of things out of the gift shop. It was actually sort of fun to go through and see what they had.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe is not only a place to go for the good food, but for the visual stimulation, as well. It's a fun place, the atmosphere is laid-back and the service I received was very good. I'm not certain I'd order another bloody mary if I went back. To me, it certainly wasn't worth the price. But for my first experience for a Hot Brown, I'm afraid to get one any place else in Louisville because I'm sure it won't be as good as the one at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen - Chicago

A shout out to my friend, Bes Nievera, at Music Direct in Chicago for directing me to Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen, an old-world deli in the south loop on the near west side of Chicago (see map). Manny's has served Chicago's famous and elite as well as the run-of-the-mill "Joe's" and "Jane's" since 1946. It was during our little "tourist" trip into Chicago that I had my first experience with Manny's Deli.

Manny's is the quintessential Jewish delicatessen featuring sandwiches piled high with kosher meats, and large portion hot entrees such as beef stew, liver and onions and corned beef dinners, soups, sides such as knish and kishke, and daily specials with such diverse items as stuffed cabbage, roasted tongue with mushrooms, fried smelts, and lamb shanks. It's truly a cafeteria where you get your tray at the start of the line, then go down and tell the guys behind the counter what you want. And you usually end up with a lot more food than you can eat.

The beginning of Manny's pre-dates 1946, but just four years before when Russian immigrant brothers Jack and Charlie Raskin opened their first deli using home-grown recipes they learned from their mother. The brothers split their business just after World War II as Jack wanted to be closer to the open air markets on Maxwell Street. He set up shop at a place that used to be called "Sunny's" at the corner of Roosevelt Road and Maxwell Street. Money was tight and Jack couldn't afford a new sign. He decided to call his place "Manny's" - after his teenaged son, known as Manny to family and friends - and it only cost him to change two letters in sign.

Manny had worked in his Uncle Charlie's deli prior to working at his dad's place and he was the first cook of the new deli. He had learned how to cook by watching his uncle cook at the old place. Manny eventually took over for his father and the location of the deli bounced around the area until it finally settled into its present day spot just north of Roosevelt on Jefferson in 1964. Manny styled the place after a New York-style delicatessen and business flourished.

Manny's son, Ken, started to work in the restaurant when he was a young kid and took over the place when Manny died in 1983. Today, Ken Raskin continues to run the place, but his sons Matt and Danny (all pictured at right) are involved with the day-to-day operation. Ken Raskin's wife, Patti, as well as their two other children, Stephanie and Jason, come around from time to time to help out when needed.

It was about 2:30 when we finally got to Manny's after a long and somewhat expensive cab ride from Navy Pier. I figured that it wouldn't be that busy at Manny's at that time and I was right. There was no one standing in line when we walked in.

The menu including the day's specials are up on the lighted board behind the counter. We made the rookie mistakes of not grabbing a fiberglass tray as we made our way down the line to see what we wanted to order. One of the line cooks asked us what we wanted and Cindy said, "Gee, I really don't know."

The cook said, "Well, we've got up until closing time for you to figure it out." And I sort of panicked as I took that to mean that they closed at 3:00 p.m. (They don't - they close at 8 p.m.)

I really didn't know what to get either, so I took a little time to figure out the menu. We finally just decided to get a corned beef sandwich. And I knew it would be huge, so I told the guy that we'd just split it.

They sliced the corned beef on the spot with the large industrial slicer (above right). And then they piled it high on a slice of rye bread, topped it with another piece of rye and cut it in half. For good measure, we got a potato pancake as a side and a couple kosher dill pickle spears along with some cole slaw. I got a bottle of water while Cindy got an iced tea.

The next thing you encounter at Manny's as you get to the end of the line is a lady at a cash register. Only she isn't the one who takes your money. She just comes up with the ticket that you'll use to go up and pay at the REAL cash register at the front door. I thought it was a little strange, but I'm sure it's something they've been doing at Manny's for years.

We sat in Manny's main dining area, a well lit room that had pictures of famous politicians and celebrities, as well as a number of articles about Manny's over the years from local and national publications. The formica tables and vinyl padded chairs at Manny's are all right, nothing special. They're along that style of sterile cafeteria furniture.

But we were there for the sandwich and I'm sure we could have zipped it up a bit more with some cheese and maybe some veggies (spicy mustard was available on the table, so that was a plus). But it was just plain, piled high sandwiched between soft rye bread.

The meat was lean, juicy and very tasty. It was, of course, too large to take a full bite. So we just sort of nibbled around the meat and the bread, forking up the tender morsels of corned beef that fell out onto the plate. It was salty (I ended up getting a second bottle of water), but the taste was very, very good. It was some of the best corned beef I'd ever had. And having it thinly sliced as they do at Manny's made it even easier to eat.

The cole slaw at Manny's is "eh!" Nothing really special. But the potato pancake was flavorful and had a nice crust on the outside. They make it with eggs and onions mixed in with the potatoes and then they fry it up. It, too, was a damn fine potato pancake.

Before we left, we looked at all the pictures, articles and memorabilia on the wall at Manny's. Chicago politicians from aldermen to U.S. government officials have descended upon Manny's for years. But no one is more famous than President Barack Obama who has come to Manny's for years starting even before his days as state legislator in the Illinois Senate. Obama visited Manny's days after he won election to the presidency in November of 2008. Here's a picture of him ordering corned beef sandwiches at the same spot where I ordered our corned beef sandwich.

After paying at the cash register on the way out, I sort of wished that we would have driven down. (Manny's does offer valet parking, but there are parking areas on the street and on the side of the building, if available.) It didn't appear any taxi's would be driving by any time soon. I looked to the north and I noticed a cab pulling out of a gas station and heading north. A moment later, I saw another cab pulling out of the gas station and heading north. We started to wander up the street and as soon as we made it to the corner just north of Manny's, I looked over and there was a cab company right behind the gas station. It was shift change just after 3 p.m. and the cabs were gassing up at the BP station and then heading out. We flagged a cabbie at the station, he told us to hop in and he gave us a ride back to our hotel in River North. That was kind of lucky.

It turns out that a corned beef sandwich and a potato pancake is the exact thing you should order if you're a Manny's Deli rookie, like we were. Regulars usually have a good idea of what they want as they go through the line. It's not good to hold people up who are behind you and who can probably recite the menu - along with the daily specials - off the top of their heads. The corned beef at Manny's was just excellent as was the potato pancake. Now that I know where Manny's is, what they have to offer and how the drill works I'm sure my next visit will go even more smooth. I just gotta remember to get that tray before I move on down the line...

Hodak's - St. Louis

My Uncle Jack used to make what I thought was the best fried chicken in the whole world.  One or two times a month he'd get out his lard and beef suet, put it in his well worn electric skillet, batter up some chicken and fry the pieces to a dark golden brown.  Oh, man, was it good.  I was telling a friend of mine in the St. Louis area one time about my uncle's chicken and he said, "The next time you get to St. Louis, you've got to go into Hodak's and try their chicken."

Hodak's is a long-time restaurant landmark in St. Louis, one that has been around for nearly 50 years (and also one that I've driven past hundreds of times over the years).  It started out as a little tavern on the corner of 14th and Emmett where the owners, Tony and Helen, would occasionally bring in their own home-made fried chicken for the patrons to enjoy.  Progress, in the form of Interstate highways, forced Hodak's to move from their 14th and Emmett location (which, today, is right smack in the middle of the I-55/I-44 interchange) to 18th and Russell, where they began to serve their fried chicken full time.  More Interstate roadwork a few years later forced Hodak's to eventually move another three blocks to the Southwest to their present day location at Gravois and McNair.  (see map)

In 1988, Ralph and Charlene Hegel bought Hodak's and put in a few of their own little touches to the place.  Within the next few years they purchased properties around Hodak's to put in parking, expand their dining room to include a larger dining area in the back (pictured at right from Hodak's web site), and eventually put in a banquet room over the main dining room.  But fried chicken continued to be the main draw and even with the expansion over the years, lines still begin to form for lunch at Hodak's well before noon.

That's why I went around 8 p.m. on a cool Tuesday evening during a recent trip to St. Louis.  Even at that hour, there were still a good number of people in the place.  And even though tables and booths were available in both the original and in the expanded dining area, I opted to sit at the rectangular bar.  I ordered a Budweiser and asked for a menu, even though I knew I wanted to try their fried chicken.

Actually, the menu surprised me.  It was a pretty extensive menu other than chicken.  They featured steaks, pork chops, seafood, sandwiches, burgers - just about anything other than chicken if you don't want chicken that particular visit.  But I was there for the chicken and I ordered up the simple chicken platter - four pieces of chicken with a side of fries and cole slaw.

It was less than five minutes after I ordered that the chicken platter showed up. First of all, there was a ton of chicken - way too much for me to eat. It was a mixture of white and dark meat, and the pieces were huge and meaty. Now, I don't know my backs from my thighs because I usually just eat legs and wings when I get chicken. But I think I had all four of those pieces on my plate.

I bit into one of the pieces and it was piping hot like it had just come out of the fryer. The initial taste was eye-opening. The chicken meat was moist, but the batter they used on the outside was, well, I have to say that it was about as close to my Uncle Jack's fried chicken. It's been years since I last had it, but the taste sensation awoke memories of those Sunday afternoons of eating piece after piece of Jack's chicken and savoring every bite. Even though it was a lot of food, it was tough to put down the chicken.

The crinkle cut French fries were pretty basic, similar to what you'd find at most other restaurants like Hodak's. On the bar near me was ketchup and some of Hodak's barbecue sauce. I tried some of the spicy barbecue sauce on the French fries and it really helped zip up the taste. Actually, I probably found myself eating the fries more for the taste sensation of their sweet and zippy barbecue sauce than I did for the enjoyment of the fries.

The cole slaw at Hodak's was, well, sort of bland. A quick bite of that and I determined that it wasn't much too my liking. That's OK, between the chicken and the barbecue sauce drenched French fries, I was more than stuffed before 3/4's of the meal was gone from my plate. There was a lot of food for $7.25 and I definitely couldn't eat it all. But it certainly tasted great with the ice cold Budweiser that they poured from the bottle into a big frosty mug for me.

I was in one of my dealer's stores the next day and I told them that I had gone to Hodak's the night before. One of the guys said, "I grew up in Wisconsin and when I moved here over 25 years ago, I went to Hodak's for chicken. It was like this epiphany - 'You mean there's better chicken out there than Kentucky Fried Chicken?' "

The other guy - a lifelong St. Louis native - said, "Hodak's is good, but we went in there a while back and I don't know if they changed their seasoning in their batter or what. It didn't seem to be as much of what you like to describe as a 'taste explosion in your mouth' like it used to be." He still said that he liked it, but he didn't think it was as good as it used to be.

I thought the fried chicken at Hodak's was very good. I've read a bunch of reviews on line about Hodak's from a number of sites and I'm amazed at the number of people who think their chicken is just plain bad. Look, it's fried chicken, people. It's supposed to be greasy. It's not fine dining in the least at Hodak's. They're known for their chicken and it's kept people coming back for years and years. There should be no surprises that they actually deep fry their chicken (although a grilled chicken entree is available on the menu). This is the gateway to the South where fried anything is a staple!  My uncle grew up outside of St. Louis in Eureka and this is probably a recipe that has been handed down from generations to generations of families in the greater St. Louis area.  No, it's not overly healthy - but damn!  Healthy stuff doesn't taste this good!

The Claddagh Irish Pub - Middleton, WI

Claddagh (pronounced "CLAW-duh) Irish Pubs are a chain of upscale authentic Irish pubs with 15 locations throughout the Midwest.  About four years ago, I had a brief entry on Road Tips about the original Claddagh in downtown Indianapolis (see that entry here).  I've had beers at a couple three Claddagh's during my travels and had always meant to eat at one, but had never gotten around to do so even though I've certainly had the opportunity to do so.  It was a cold evening in Madison and I didn't feel like venturing far from the hotel that evening.  The Claddagh Irish Pub was a short journey from my hotel and I figured some good ol' Irish comfort food would be in order that evening. 

One of the big reasons the Claddagh pubs appear to be authentic Irish pubs is that they were started by an Irishman and an American who lived in Ireland for a time.  Kevin Blair was an Cleveland-area native who worked for a number of years for the Taco Bell corporation when it was owned by Pepsi.  He was hired in the mid-90's to go to work at the Supermacs fast food chain in Ireland.  During Blair's stay in Ireland, he loved the feel of the Irish pubs and the many friends that he met while frequenting those pubs.  The Irish have a term - craic (pronounced "crack") that describes a place that is fun, lively and friendly.  Blair decided that the United States needed authentic Irish pubs with "craic".

Blair talked Supermacs chairman Patrick McDonagh to help him start a chain of upscale Irish pubs in the Midwestern United States.  In 2001, the first Claddagh Irish Pub opened in Indianapolis.  Both Blair and McDonagh were looking at aggressive growth during the first few years growing the chain to nearly 20 locations.  However, like most partnerships, this one went sour with McDonagh withholding funds to keep the company from expanding while trying to force Blair to sell his shares.  McDonagh had already invested over $20 million dollars into the Claddagh chain and wasn't willing to invest more money for expansion.  Lawsuits and court dates ensued and the chain eventually declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.   McDonagh's CDG Acquisitions group came in and bought the assets for $10 million dollars in 2008, about an estimated third of the value of the Claddagh chain.

By the way, the Claddagh Irish Pubs get their name from a small fishing village - Claddagh - that was legendary for the friendliness of the people who lived there.  Many writers lived in Claddagh over the years (Claddagh is now part of Galway, Ireland - home to Pat McDonagh) and they wrote about the hospitality they received from the townspeople during their stay. 

Each Claddagh Irish Pub has a dining area, a bar and a handful of small rooms that feature overstuffed chairs giving the place sort of a cozy feel, allowing patrons to sit down with friends in a comfortable setting and enjoy a Guinness or a Jameson whiskey.   The dark wood walls and broad-beamed ceilings give Claddagh pubs an authentic Irish pub look.

I rolled into the parking lot of the Greenway Station shopping center in Middleton where the Claddagh is located (see map) around 7:30 p.m.  The Claddagh is located next to Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Jimmy Buffett-owned chain of upscale burger joints (click here to see my entry on Cheeseburger in Paradise) and the parking lot in front of the businesses were full of cars.  I was able to find a spot and I went in to get a seat at the bar.

The first thing I noticed behind the bar at the Claddagh was where there should have been bottles of different types of liquor, there were nothing but bottles of Jameson whiskey.  Yes, I was definitely in an Irish pub!  The bartender came over and asked if I wanted a menu.  I got a Smithwick's as I perused through the selection they had at the Claddagh and glanced up at a football game and a hockey match they had on the flat panel televisions behind the bar. 

Claddagh Irish Pubs have a wide selection of authentic Irish food including Shepherd's Pie, fish and chips, corned beef and cabbage, and Irish beef stew.  They also have some American-based foods with an Irish twist such as the Guinness barbecued ribs made with a Guinness bar barbecue sauce, the Jameson burger that's topped with a Jameson sauce, along with the normal staples - steaks, chicken and a couple of pasta dishes.  

I needed a "stick-to-my-ribs" dinner as it was cold and I was having trouble warming up.  I thought about the Chicken Kildare - a garlic encrusted chicken breast filled with spinach, mushrooms and Irish rasher (a type of Irish bacon).  The bangers and champ sounded good, too - Irish sausages served over Irish champ (baked potatoes) and topped with an onion gravy.  But what I ended up getting was the old fashioned meat loaf, topped with a sweet glaze and then served with mashed potatoes and gravy and a side of vegetables.   For a starter - and to help warm me up - I got a cup of the Guinness onion soup, basically a French onion soup that is made with a Guinness beer stock. 

I was seated next to a guy from Indianapolis who was in Madison on business and we got to talking.  He was a really nice guy, in his mid-to-late 30's, I'm guessing.  He said, "We've got three Claddagh's in the Indy area.  When I go on the road to Columbus, Cleveland or Cincinnati I always go to the Claddagh's there.  It's like a home away from home."  He said this was his first trip to Madison and he was surprised to find a Claddagh near his hotel.  Some people like that familiarity with their restaurants, I would rather explore.  Although, I have to admit that it's getting tiresome to find new and exciting places in some locations. 

The Guinness onion soup was very good - a large crouton was on top along with an ample amount of Swiss cheese.  Large onion chunks were in the broth that had a hint of a taste of Guinness to it.  Actually, a bowl of the soup alone would have been a good meal.

The bartender brought out my plate to me and I sort of looked at it funny.  It certainly didn't look like meat loaf to me - and it wasn't.  It was the Irish beef stew.  It looked very good, but it wasn't what I ordered.  I got the bartender's attention and pointed out that I think I got the wrong meal.  He said, "You had the beef stew, right?"  I said, no, I had the meat loaf.  "Ah!  Yes, the meat loaf!"  He said he'd get me the right meal straight away.  That's the problem with people who don't write down your order - they space out from the time they take your order and then enter it into the system.  But he did give me a free beer for waiting.

And the wait was worth it.  I was served two large slices of meat loaf that had a nice smoky glaze on top the slices.  There was a little bit of a heavy beef gravy on the slices of meat loaf, but the mashed potatoes were swimming in the gravy - just as I like it.  The vegetables were a medley of broccoli, cauliflower and carrott slices.  

Everything was very good - the meat loaf was flavorful and hearty, the mashed potatoes were real and the rich, thick gravy was a great compliment to the meat and potatoes.  The vegetables were also cooked perfectly with a little bit of a crunch with each bite.  The meal was exactly what I was looking for - generous portions of good ol' comfort food on a cold late fall evening.

The guy from Indy next to me had the Shepherd's pie.  "I've tried the meat loaf before," he said.  "I like it, but I think these guys make about the best Shepherd's pie I've ever had in the States." 

After I finished what I could of the meal, I sat at the bar savoring my meal, watching the football game and enjoying one more Smithwick's.  The guy from Indy had polished off his Shepherd's pie and had ordered the bread pudding for dessert.  On the menu, the bread pudding comes under the heading of "split to share" desserts.  And it was huge, easily covering an 8" dessert plate.  And this guy was going to eat the whole thing!  And he did!  I said, "Jesus, buddy!  You need to watch it!  I was your size one time and when I started traveling on the road that's when I started to gain weight.  When you have a company credit card and you're in a city far from home, it's not hard to over-indulge." 

He said, "Oh, I know it.  I've gained 15 pounds over the past couple of years.  This (pointing at the bread pudding) doesn't help, but it's so darned good that I have to indulge myself every once in a while." 

I'm glad I finally got to try the food at one after stopping in for just the beer on my previous visits.  The meat loaf was very good, the portions were generous, the Smithwick's was great (any place that has Smithwick's on tap is OK by me) and the service - other than screwing up my order - was adequate.  There are Claddagh Irish Pubs in four of the cities that I travel to and now that I know that the food is very good, I'll go back at some point when I just need the feel of some comfort food in my tummy. 

Courtesy Diner - St. Louis

Courtesy Diner in St. Louis can be categorized as nothing but an institution to late night partiers who are looking to ward off the impending next day hangover with some greasy food served at 3:00 a.m.  It's an endearing slice of culinary life to thousands of people who have eaten "Slingers", cheeseburgers and other greasy specialties over the years.  I've always wanted to try the Courtesy Diner at some point and I actually had a breakfast meeting recently at the one on Hampton, not far from Forest Park.  

There are two Courtesy Diner locations in St. Louis - the one on Hampton (see map); and the original location on Kingshighway (see map) which has been opened for, geez, from what I can tell, well over 50 years.  In doing some research for the Courtesy Diner, I found that it was once part of a chain of little places known as either Courtesy Sandwich Shop or Courtesy Chili.  There appeared to be around 30 Courtesy Sandwich Shops in New York, Maryland and a few other eastern states at one time or another.  There used to be a Courtesy Diner on S. Broadway in St. Louis until the late 90's.  The last one in the chain was the Kingshighway location, owned by Larry Rugg of Restaurants Unlimited, Inc. 

Rugg - who also owns the Country Fixin's Restaurant in Wentzville, MO,  a handful of Hen House Restaurants in Illinois, and the former O.T. Hodge Chili Shoppe in St. Louis' Union Station - opened the Hampton location in February of 1999 on the site of an old gas station.  He wanted to keep the concept constant with the location on Kingshighway - open 24/7 with breakfast served anytime, a great juke box, and good comfort food at reasonable prices.  It was an immediate hit with the late night dining crowd who came over from the bars in the Central West End to satisfy their alcohol fueled appetites.  

Courtesy Diner's signature dish is the Slinger - two eggs, hash browns and chili on a hamburger patty.   Some people like to order cheddar cheese and onions on top.  Or for the people who are really hungry, the Super Slinger comes with the above along with either beef burrito or a tamale on top of everything.  Actually, it sounds a lot like the Magic Mountain/Volcano from Ross' Restaurant in Bettendorf, IA which has become a late night staple for many of us here in the Quad Cities. 

Courtesy Diner's main menu consists of burgers, sandwiches, chicken fried steak, and about 10 different variations of chili served plain, with macaroni, with a burrito, with a tamale, or with hash browns.  Their breakfast anytime has - of course - the Slinger, as well as eggs, omelets, pancakes, french toast, and biscuits and gravy.  The menu is pretty straight forward and doesn't vary all that much.

I had a 9:00 a.m. meeting with a gentleman who was looking to get into the audio business with a concept of a home entertainment system.  We'd talked a couple times before and while he seemed enthusiastic about the concept, I didn't really know if it would work or not even with the drawn out business plan that he had forwarded to me before the meeting.  I told him that I was staying at the Hampton Inn in Forest Park and he suggested meeting up at the Courtesy Diner.  I was completely up for that. 

As I walked into the Courtesy Diner, it was pure Americana in the place.  John Mellencamp was playing on the juke box, a row of booths lined the windows while a row of stools sat in front of the counter.  It was clean and spiffy inside, and the place was lively with some families, two couples who had driven there on motorcycles, a handful of single people sitting at the counter and other various mid-morning visitors.  I took a booth in the far back of the restaurant.  The waitress, who had a sore foot, hobbled over to me to drop off menus and asked if I wanted coffee from the pot she was holding.   I told her, "No coffee, but I'm waiting on someone else."  She hobbled back to grab another menu and sort of tossed it on the table across from me.  She didn't have an attitude, I didn't think.  I'm sure she was not happy having to work on a sore foot.  You gotta take that in stride in places like Courtesy Diner. 

With Pink Floyd now playing on the juke box, my meeting guest showed up not long after that and we exchanged pleasantries as the waitress came over with the pot of coffee.  My guest heartily turned over his cup and said to me, "They actually have very good coffee here." 

My first breakfast at Courtesy Diner consisted of a couple eggs over easy with a side of bacon and whole wheat toast.  My guest got a bowl of their oatmeal - "I'm trying to watch my weight and Courtesy Diner has good oatmeal." 

While the eggs and bacon were nothing special, it was a good value at $3.75.  I had a large glass of milk that was $1.25, so my total breakfast was just over $5.00 with tax.  Along with my guest's oatmeal, coffee and a tip for the waitress hobbling around on a sore foot, the total bill came to just under $11 bucks.  Pretty reasonable for a breakfast meeting, I have to say.  One thing to note - take cash.  Courtesy Diner doesn't take credit cards. 

A couple days later, I decided to go back to Courtesy Diner by myself and try one of their omelets.  I ordered up a sausage and cheese omelet on this visit with a side of bacon and a glass of milk.  And while the omelet was good, it was far from the best I've ever had.  But it was served quickly and efficiently, allowing me to get on my way a lot quicker than I'd would had I gotten breakfast at a larger national chain. 

But it's the ambiance and history of the Courtesy Diner that makes the place unique.  If you know going in that the place is a greasy spoon restaurant, that helps add to the charm of the place.  While the Courtesy Diner isn't going to win many culinary awards, it's still a favorite with thousands of St. Louis area residents who want breakfast at either 2:30 in the afternoon or 2:30 in the morning.   I don't come across a lot of places like the Courtesy Diner in my travels, but I wouldn't mind if I did.  It's not fancy, the food is serviceable.  To use an over-used modern cliché - the Courtesy Diner is what it is. 

Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room - Savannah, GA

We had a number of great suggestions from people as to where to eat while we were in Savannah.  One place that came up numerous times was Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room.  Since they only serve lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. through the weekdays, our only chance to go was on a hot and muggy Friday midday.  We walked down there from our hotel which was about a three minute walk, tops.  (See map)

There actually was a Mrs. Wilkes at one time.  In 1942, the L.H. Wilkes family were displaced from their farm near Vidalia, GA so the U.S. Army could build an air corps base.  Seeking work in Savannah's shipyards, L.H. Wilkes stayed in a boardinghouse owned by Mrs. Dennis Dixon.  His wife, Sema, would come to visit him on the weekends with their kids.  In 1942, Sema Wilkes began to help Mrs. Dixon in the kitchen at the boardinghouse when Mrs. Dixon fell ill.  Mrs. Dixon never fully recovered and in the winter of 1943, L.H. Wilkes began to work for the railroad and Sema Wilkes bought the boardinghouse. 

Railroads workers, which made up the majority of boarders at the now Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse, flocked to the dining room on the word that she made some of the best meals in Savannah.  Suddenly, instead of serving breakfast or lunch for 12 people, she was serving up to 60 meals at a time. 

 When the railroads began to slow down, and hotels and motels became more prevalent in the 60's, Mrs. Wilkes shut down the boarding house and converted the upstairs rooms into apartments.  However, Mrs. Wilkes continued to serve her lavish, Southern-style, down-home breakfasts and lunches (also known as "dinner" in the south).  Her meals were served family-style on large communal tables that served up to 12 people.  Soon, long lines began to form outside Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room restaurant as word got out to locals and tourists, alike, that her food was exceptional.  

Wilkes daughter, Margie, was the bookkeeper and part-time hostess, while her son was the cashier.  As Mrs. Wilkes reputation grew, she published her first cookbook - Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse Cookbook - which, it turns out, was actually written by her daughter, Margie.  She spent most of her time signing books and giving the blessing at the start of each breakfast or lunch.  

In 2002, Mrs. Wilkes passed away suddenly at the age of 95.  The family had a dilemma - what to do with the restaurant.  Margie Thompson and her husband, Bill, had retired from the restaurant years prior; and a case of acute arthritis was making it tough for their son, Ronny, to continue to run the business.  After Mrs. Wilkes died, the family had a meeting as to the future of the restaurant.  Ronny Thompson's son, Ryon, only 25 at the time, stepped forward and said that he'd run the restaurant. 

Mrs. Wilkes shut down for a period, went through an extensive remodel of the dining rooms and an updating of the kitchen, and then re-opened under Ryon Thompson's management in February 2004.  He cut out the breakfast service and reduced the lunches to five days a week, cutting out Saturday service.  (Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room will serve lunch for private functions from time to time on Saturday's.)  The recipes used are the same ones used by his great-grandmother when she ran the place over 60 years ago.  Many of the cooks are second and third generation cooks who learned the recipes directly from Mrs. Wilkes.  Ryon Thompson greets and seats the patrons with help from his mom, his grandmother, Margie Thompson, is usually at the place signing cook books, and 89-year old grandpa Bill Thompson runs the cash register.   

We got to Mrs. Wilkes a little past 1 p.m. and the line was already half a block long running up to the door.  As I said, it was a hot, muggy day and standing in line was not my idea of a good time.  There was a small antique shop near Mrs. Wilkes that was air conditioned, so Cindy ended up hanging out in there for awhile as I kept our place in line.  

The people who left the restaurant would invariably tell those of us in line that the food was "outstanding" and some were having trouble walking because they were so stuffed from over-eating.  Someone ahead of me asked a gentleman who had walked out if the food was worth the wait.  "Oh, it's worth it," he said.  "And then some."

We finally got to the door around 1:50 p.m., just ten minutes before they closed.  There were still people walking up to get in line.  I suppose, once you're in line at 2 p.m., you get in.  Ryon Thompson greeted us and let us in the side door on the ground level.  Another lady directed us to a large table just behind the cashiers station, manned by Bill Thompson.  We did not see Margie Thompson or her daughter (Ryon's mom) in the restaurant.  When the last patrons would get up from a table, it was cleared and another 12 people would be seated.  This would go on for three hours, five days a week.     

Now, I'm not big on communal dining where they put you at a table with a bunch of strangers and expect to share bowls and plates of food with each other.  But we were so intrigued with the concept that we bought into it.  We were seated with a Chinese family whose son was graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design that weekend. At the opposite end of our table was a 50-ish, sort-of-stylish couple from Arkansas who appeared to be newly dating from their conversations they were having while waiting in line (that is, when he wasn't on his cellphone talking way too loudly), and then a young couple from Chicago.  

On our table were huge bowls and plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, beef stew, rice, black-eyed peas, snap beans, squash, butter beans, candied yams, peas and noodles, pickled beets, cole slaw, baked beans, biscuits, mac and cheese, okra, collard greens, potato salad - Jesus Christ!  The list went on and on!  The menu changes daily, but fried chicken and beef stew are daily staples.  Sweet tea and water were also served with the meal.   

One of the waitresses, a matronly lady quite possibly in her 60's, shouted out the rules - in tradition of the former boarders at Mrs. Wilkes, everyone is responsible for taking their plates, glasses and silverware to the kitchen when they're finished.  She said, "We'll keep bringin' food to your table as long as you eat it.  Don't like to waste anything here!"

Looking at all the food, I was incredulous.  "How are we going to eat all this," I asked. 

Finally, the guy from Arkansas at the other end of the table said, "Well, I guess we all dig in."  So we did.  The bowls and plates were passed around.  There wasn't enough room on our plates for all the food.  And I wanted to sample nearly everything.

Actually, what I was after was the fried chicken.  I'd heard that it was even better than the fried chicken at The Lady and Sons.  And it was very good.  Probably better than The Lady and Sons, but it was tough to say because it had been days between the time we'd eaten there and when we ate at Mrs. Wilkes.  It was still very good, though.  As a table, we all asked for more chicken, that was for sure. 

We made some small talk with the young couple from Chicago.  Even though the Quad Cities are only 175 miles from downtown Chicago, the couple - probably in their mid-20's - weren't familiar with the area.  "Is that Rockford or Rock Island that is part of the Quad Cities," the young man asked.  We decided the food was much more interesting than they were. 

The Chinese family - a man, his wife and their son - pretty much kept to themselves except to ask for someone on our end to pass a plate or dish back.  The Arkansas couple at the other end kept their conversations to themselves, as well. 

The Arkansas lady appeared finished and excused herself to get up and go to the restroom.  The Arkansas man also stood up and began to look around the dining room.  They left their plates, glasses and silverware on the table.  When the lady came out of the bathroom, the man had already paid for the meal and they were out the door.  The waitress who had shouted out the "rules" at the start of the meal came over, saw the empty plates with the people gone.  He said, "Now, didn't I say that you need to take your plates back to the kitchen when you've finished?"

Cindy said, "You sure did!"

She said, "I thought so!  Some people!"  She gathered up the plates and took 'em to the kitchen.  Cindy and I made damn sure that we took our plates, glasses and silverware back to the kitchen. 

I went up and paid for lunch - $16 bucks per person - and Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room doesn't take credit cards.  Man, I was stuffed!  The food was superb, the ambiance was interesting, but it would have been better to dine with a large group of people that we knew.  I just don't feel comfortable sitting next to people I don't know, especially when I'm eating.  The food definitely made up for the uncomfortable feeling that I had eating with strangers who really had little to nothing in common - other than the food.  If you like that kind of thing, you'll absolutely love Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room.  But for me, the excellent food would be the only reason I'd go back.

2510 Restaurant - Wausau, WI

One of my last trips before my hip surgery, I needed to go see a prospective dealer up in Wausau, WI.  Since I had a morning meeting scheduled, I stayed the night in Wausau - the first time I've ever stayed in Wausau.  And since I didn't get into Wausau until about 8:30 I wasn't going to seek out a fine dining establishment or a burger joint.  I was tired, hungry and needed to eat.  Near my hotel, I found the 2510 Restaurant, a pseudo-family restaurant/lounge that featured a full menu.  I thought I'd give it a try.

2510 Restaurant gets its name - not all that clever, at that - from its address: 2510 Stewart Ave. (see map).  It has been open for 31 years and is owned by Pat Baumer and Roy Heilmeier.  Not only does it feature a full service restaurant and lounge, it also has a very popular deli and bakery.

It was nearly 9 p.m. when I was seated in a booth and handed a menu.  As I said, 2510 Restaurant features a full menu from beef, chicken, seafood and pasta to burgers, sandwiches and appetizers.  I'm a little leery of restaurants that have such large menus, mainly because they're usually OK at doing everything, but not great if they focused on a minimum number of menu items.

My waitress greeted me and gave me some time to look over the expansive menu.  She and another lady were the only ones working the vast dining area in the restaurant.  But since it was late on a Tuesday night, there wasn't a lot of people in the place. 

My diet was in full swing at this point and I was looking for some comfort food.  A hot beef sandwich was out of the question, since I'm not eating potatoes and gravy for awhile.  But something caught my eye on their salad menu - something called the Black and Bleu Steak Salad.  It was a large salad topped with thinly sliced pieces of Black Angus top sirloin steak, then a creamy blue cheese dressing was poured on top. 

It wasn't long before my waitress came back and I ordered the salad.  To help satisfy my "comfort food" requirement, I got a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. 

About five minutes after I ordered, the waitress brought out my soup.  It was very good.  Actually, I could have probably gotten by with just the soup as there was an abundance of egg noodles and chicken in the broth.  It was very good, to say the least.

And not long after I finished up my soup, my Black and Bleu Steak Salad come out.  There was a generous portion of sliced sirloin - medium-rare - on top of the greens and a very good homemade chunky and creamy blue cheese dressing topped the whole thing.  Sometimes blue cheese can overpower the taste of other foods it's mixed with, but this blue cheese was mild and helped bring out the taste sensations in the rather good sliced sirloin on the salad. 

But it was too much food, so I was able to finish all the steak and about half the lettuce in the salad.  My waitress asked me if I wanted to get a "to-go" box.  I said, "You know, this was very good and I could probably have this for lunch tomorrow.  But I'm traveling and I don't have a refrigerator in my room." 

With a beer with dinner, my food and a generous tip for my waitress, the bill came to $21 dollars - very reasonable, in my opinion.  The service was great, the food was very good and I was happy and full. 

While I don't know if I'm going to be able to sign this dealer in Wausau, at least I found a new restaurant that I can rely upon in a pinch during my travels to north central Wisconsin.  2510 Restaurant has a little bit of everything for everybody. 

Dapper's West - Addison, IL

Before my first surgery, Cindy and I drove into Chicago for what was supposed to be a day, but it ended up being a day and a night.  Our ultimate goal was to go to Trader Joe's to stock up on items that I get for us when I'm in Chicago on a regular basis.  Since it was going to be about three months before I was going to be able to be anywhere close to a Trader Joe's, we really needed to go. 

The only problem is that our visit to Vito and Nick's took so long and by the time we were done with their great pizza it was past 9 p.m.  And Trader Joe's closes at 9 p.m.  Cindy was upset as that was the one thing she wanted to do while she was in Chicago (it didn't matter that we'd gone to IKEA, a couple malls, walked around downtown and went to a world class old-style pizza place on the south side of Chicago).  We needed to go to Trader Joe's even if it meant spending an unscheduled night in Chicago and then getting up in the morning to go to Trader Joe's on our way out of town. 

We ended up getting a hotel room at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Addison for the evening.  That's right - no overnight bag, no change of clothes, no toiletries, nothing.  The next morning, we got up, cleaned up the best we could and headed out the door around 8:30.  Cindy said, "Maybe we should get something to eat for breakfast."

I was actually fine, especially being on a diet and everything.  But Cindy is one of these creatures where she has to have three square meals a day.  And breakfast is the most important meal with the bigger and more elaborate the breakfast, the better.  I didn't even hesitate as I took a right on Lake Street and took her to Dapper's for breakfast (see map).

Dapper's is one of the many restaurants along the Lake Street corridor between Elmhurst and Addison in the western suburbs of Chicago.  It's a large, family style restaurant that serves good food and has a laid back feel to the place.  I've eaten at Dapper's many times when I've stayed in either Elmhurst or Addison, especially when I need a fix for some good ol' comfort food. 

The Dapper's in Addison is officially known as Dapper's West and is the third of three Dapper's restaurants in the Chicago area.  The original Dapper's - known as Dapper's East - is in the Irving Park/Avondale area in Chicago, just down Addison Ave. from Wrigley Field (see map).  There's also a Dapper's North in suburban Norridge near O'Hare Airport (see map).  Dapper's has a loyal following of customers who keep coming back for the good service and good food. 

Like a lot of family-style restaurants in the Chicago area (and in other areas, I also found), a Greek family is behind the business.  The Manaves family own and operate the Dapper's restaurants and they feature a number of Greek foods on the menu, as well.   

Dapper's building is very nice and very modern.  They feature big booths, large sturdy tables and comfortable seating.  Right from the start as you walk in, you're greeted by not only a hostess, but a huge dessert cooler full of pies, muffins and other delectable goodies that you can look at before you have your meal. 

And the menu selections are plentiful and varied.  I've often thought that if you can't find anything on the menu at Dapper's, you're not hungry.  I've found some family restaurants that have large menus where the food is *OK* because they're spreading themselves too thin.  I've never found that to be the case in my previous trips to Dapper's because every meal I've ever eaten there has been above average.

One of the more peculiar aspects of Dapper's is that they have a number of flat panel televisions around the place.  I've been in there when they were showing Cubs games or Bulls games on TV.  I've never been in a family style restaurant where they have TV's going.  It drives Cindy nuts when we have a TV going in our "lodge" at home when we're eating dinner out there.  It didn't even occur to me that she'd have a problem with Dapper's having televisions on throughout the place when we were having our breakfast.  "This is a family restaurant," she said. "People should be talking to one another over their meals, not watching television." 

I said, "What about guys like me who eat alone in places like this?  Maybe televisions help those people pass the time."

She said, "Yeah, but you always read a newspaper when you're eating alone." 

"Well, maybe I'd like to watch television instead," I replied.

Once we were seated and Cindy got over the fact that there were televisions on in a family restaurant, we took a long look at the huge breakfast menu to figure out what we wanted.  Cindy was having trouble figuring out what she wanted, so she wanted me to go first.  I was going to be very simple - three eggs over easy and three pieces of bacon.  The waitress said, "Why don't you get the breakfast special with hash browns and toast?" 

Actually, it would have been cheaper to do so, but I wasn't going to eat the hash browns and the toast and if there's one major pet peeve I have in this world is throwing out food.  God, it just rankles me to the core to have to throw out food.  Ask Cindy.  Actually, in hindsight, I should have gotten the breakfast special and told them to hold the hash browns and toast.  Live and learn when you're on a diet.

Cindy - who was not on a diet - got the Belgian waffles topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  Although it was all I could do to change my order, but I fought through the temptation. 

When our very efficient waitress brought our food, the discrepancy was enormous.  Cindy had this huge waffle topped with a pound of strawberries and covered in whipped cream.  I had a plate with three eggs and three pieces of bacon.  When the waitress set it down in front of Cindy she said, "Oh, my!"

I said, "I'm telling you - they don't skimp on portions here.  Except if you order three eggs and three pieces of bacon."

My meal was over in, oh, maybe a minute.  Cindy had just begun to dig into her waffle.  It was all she could do to eat half of it.  We could have easily shared a Belgian waffle, but I'm allergic to strawberries (love the taste, hate the hives). 

The waitress asked Cindy if she wanted to box up the Belgian waffle.  Unfortunately, we were over three hours from home and had no room in the cooler (especially after we went to Trader Joe's) for the leftovers.  Besides, can you really heat up a Belgian waffle again? 

The prices are reasonable at Dapper's.  The service is always professional and swift.  And the food is always outstanding.  Dapper's is one of the reasons I love to stay in the Elmhurst/Addison area when I'm in Chicago for extended stays.  I always have a meal there at least once during my stays and I know I'll continue to do so.

Sam's No. 3 - Denver

One morning during the recent CEDIA convention in Denver, we tried to get into the Corner Office Restaurant and Bar at The Curtis hotel where we stayed.  The hostess told us that it would be a 45 to 50 minute wait for a group as large as ours (10 in total).  One of our set up guys from Montreal had told us about a place just down the street from The Curtis - Sam's No. 3 - and he said it was a better breakfast and much cheaper than what they served at the Corner Office.  We thought we'd give it a try.

By the time we walked the half block down the street to Sam's No. 3 (see map), our group enlarged to 14 people.  We knew we were going to have trouble all sitting at one table no matter where we went for breakfast, so we all decided that it was catch-as-catch-can when we got in there. 

Sam's No. 3 is a very popular place for breakfast in downtown Denver.  They have won numerous People's and Critic's Choice Awards over the years for the food.  In addition to typical American food, Sam's No. 3 also serves Greek and Mexican dishes - many of which use the same original recipes from over 80 years ago.  

The original Sam's No. 3 opened in the mid-20's as the third of owner Sam Armatas' Coney Island restaurants.  Armatas, a Greek immigrant, opened five Coney Island restaurants with the one downtown being the most popular.  Coney Island - later known as Sam's No. 3 - stayed in business for over 40 years before closing in 1971.   In the meantime, Sam's son, Spero, opened the Newbarry's diner in southwest Denver serving a lot of the same items as the old Coney Island restaurants did. 

After talking about the possibility of reviving the Sam's No. 3 name, Spero Armatas' sons, Alex, Sam and Patrick (pictured at the right with their father), opened a Sam's No. 3 in suburban Aurora in 1998 (see map).  A few years later, they reopened the original Sam's No. 3 location in downtown Denver at 15th and Curtis.   It quickly became one of the favorite spots for breakfast and late night weekend eats for the citizens of Denver.

Sam's No. 3 has the look of an old time diner, but with a modern feel to it.  There's a number of seats at a counter with a lot of booth and table seats throughout.  Given that a large convention was in town, the place was packed before 8 a.m.  It was a 10 minute wait before the bulk of our group could get seated into the back bar area of Sam's No. 3.

My boss, Daniel, is big on making sure everyone has a big breakfast on trade show days, mainly because we don't have time to have lunch.  The menu at Sam's No. 3 is big enough to satisfy any hungry person's appetite at breakfast.  Three and a half pages of the menu are filled with breakfast items.  They have a number of daily breakfast specials, omelets, pancakes, waffles, burritos and skillet dishes to choose from.  It was almost overwhelming what they had to offer for breakfast.

I went with the Supreme Omelet - four eggs with diced ham, sausage, bacon, gyro meat, with Cheddar Jack cheese and a side of Sam's No. 3 famous green pork chili.  I got whole wheat toast and bacon on the side.  Hey, Daniel wants us to have a big breakfast - I'm getting a big breakfast.

The problem was that it was so busy and we had such a large group.  We only had one waitress working our group.  A couple of the guys were complaining that they didn't get coffee or they needed this or that.  I said, "Hey, cool out.  This woman's working her ass off.  It's one woman working three tables for 14 guys on one check."  One of the other guys in our group went over to the stand where the coffee was, took the pot and began to pour coffee for the rest of the group.  I don't drink coffee, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me.  But some of the guys I work with, they take their coffee intravenously.

It was over a half-hour before our food showed up and, for me, it was worth the wait.  The Supreme Omelet was big and hearty.  The combination of the sausage, bacon, ham and gyro meat with the jack cheese was excellent.  And they definitely didn't skimp on the ingredients.

After the usual impatient bitching, everyone in our group said their breakfast was very good.  I'm not big on breakfast, especially first thing in the morning.  But Sam's No. 3 was one of the best breakfast places I've ever eaten in.  In terms of selection, quality of food and ambiance, Sam's No. 3 was a true gem for breakfast.  This is the type of place that I try to find in my travels.  Good thing we had a chance to eat there.  I'll go back the next time I make it out to Denver.  There's too many interesting things on the menu that I'd like to try.

 

Bohemian Cafe - Revisited

It's interesting to go back to some of my earlier posts when I was just trying to find a direction and voice for my blog.  One of the first posts I had during the infancy period of Road Tips a couple years ago was on the Bohemian Cafe in Omaha.  Click here to see it.

This was really before I decided that I couldn't just go on the recollection of being at a specific place as much as I wanted to share the experience of going there and writing about it soon thereafter.  So when I was in Omaha recently, I stopped in for dinner at the Bohemian Cafe. 

The Bohemian Cafe has been around since 1924 when Louie Marcala began serving up Czech food to the citizens of Omaha.  Being that there was a large Czech population in Omaha, the restaurant was an immediate hit - not only with the native Czechoslovakians, but with non-Czechs, as well. 

Marcala ran the restaurant until 1947 when he sold it to Josef and Ann Libor (right).  Marcala stayed on as the head chef for a few years after.  Ann Libor was a member of the Kapoun family and her brothers, children and other relatives worked in the restaurant along with her.  Today, the third generation of Kapoun family, headed by Bob Kapoun, runs the Bohemian Cafe. 

It was a Wednesday evening when I got into the Bohemian Cafe.  I think I've been going there for nearly 20 years when one of my dealers - who just happens to be of Czech descent - turned me on to the place.  I was hooked from the first day I went there.

The large dining areas are pretty much about the same as it was when they moved to their present day location in 1959.  They also have a nice bar area that is non-smoking if you want to stop in for a beer. 

I was seated in a booth and got the menu from the waitress.  I ordered up a large mug of Pilsner Urquell and looked over the menu.  Each evening, the Bohemian Cafe has about four or five dinner specials they feature.  Each evening through the week they feature Boiled Beef with a Czech dill gravy.  Now, to me, boiled beef has lost a lot of flavor.  But with the Bohemian Cafe's boiled beef, they simmer it in a combination of spices that make it tender and delectable.  Since there wasn't really anything else that I wanted on the special menu that evening, I went with the boiled beef.

You also get your choice of sides, so I took the dumplings and sauerkraut.  And for openers, you get choice of salad or liver dumpling soup.  I always get the liver dumpling soup.  It's a light beef broth soup with a liver dumpling meat ball in the cup.  I'm not much on liver, but this is very good.

And with the soup, they bring out a basket of their homemade breads.  Oh, man!  The caraway rye bread is unbelievably great.  I used to pig out on the bread and by the time the main entree would show up I'd be so stuffed that I couldn't eat. 

It wasn't all that busy that evening (it was around 8 p.m.) and about 10 minutes after the waitress brought out the liver dumpling soup and the bread, she brought out my boiled beef.  It was just as good as ever.  The dill gravy is a light colored sauce and it goes tremendously well with the beef and dumplings.      

And, as always, the meal was a "spot hitter".  It was a little cool outside and it was perfect for a fall evening.  The beef was tender and flavorful, the dumplings and sauerkraut (which are homemade) were wonderful.  And the Pilsner Urquell beer was a nice complement to the meal.

With tip, the bill came to around $21 bucks.  It's well worth the trip to the Bohemian Cafe - something hundreds of thousands of people have been doing for over 80 years.  I've never had a bad meal in all my trips to the Bohemian Cafe.  If you're looking for great comfort "stick to your ribs" food in Omaha, the Bohemian Cafe is the one to go to. 

Breakfast in New York

My boss is always big on getting a good breakfast in your stomach to start the day when we work these trade shows.  I'm not much on breakfast, but when it's busy and we don't have time for lunch at the trade shows, it's good to have a filling breakfast to start the day.

Even though we did have lunch each day we worked the AES convention in New York recently, we decided to have breakfast, as well.  The restaurant at the Roosevelt Hotel where we stayed was nice.  But it was $27.95 for the breakfast buffet, $20.95 for pancakes, and - get this - $24.95 for two eggs, hash browns, choice of meat, and toast.  Uhhh...  No.  We'll go elsewhere.  We wanted to go out and look for some of the true New York coffee shops that permeate Midtown Manhattan.

The first one we found was a place called The Red Flame on 44th St. at the Avenue of the Americas - or Sixth Ave. (see map).  The Red Flame is a neat little coffee shop at street level with huge windows to allow those seated in the booths next to them a chance to do some stellar people watching while eating breakfast.  It sort of reminded me of the coffee shop depicted on "Seinfeld".

We went there a couple three times while we were in New York and we got in right away.  There were all different types of people in there - professionals getting food to start their day, downtown day workers getting egg sandwiches to go, tourists, etc.  The service was generally quick and on top of things. 

The menu is wide and varied.  I tried their ham and cheese omelet and asked if they could add mushrooms to it the first time we went.  The waitress - a brash New York broad (and I mean that in the most complementary way) - said, "Honey, we can put anything you want in the omelet."  After we all ordered, our food was at our table in less than 10 minutes.  It was literally unbelievable how quick the made to order food came out.  It certainly beat the 30 minute wait we always have at the restaurant at the Loews-Denver hotel.

And the food was very good.  I tried their waffles one morning and they were excellent, as well.  I had the omelet the third time I was there and it was just as good as the first time.  And each time, we got our food less than 10 minutes after we ordered. 

So, if you're in Manhattan and want a good - and QUICK - breakfast, the Red Flame is tough to beat.

But the other place we went to - The Comfort Diner - is on par with The Red Flame.

There are two Comfort Diner's in Manhattan - the one on 23rd St. (see map); and the one we went to on 45th St. just a couple blocks from our hotel (see map). 

We had a little bit of a wait when we went there on Saturday and again on the Columbus Day Monday morning.  And it wasn't because of a huge crowd.  The wait was because we found they don't open until 9 a.m. on weekends; but it's 7:30 thru the week.  When we went back on Monday around 8:45 a.m., we had to wait for the doors to open because they didn't open until 9 for the Columbus Day holiday.  But the wait was worth it. 

When the doors opened the place flooded with the same type of people who went to The Red Flame.  Only there seemed to be a lot more tourists on Saturday morning and again on Monday. 

The decor of The Comfort Diner is very much the same of any diner you'd see in the Midwest - heavy on the vinyl booths and chairs, lots of bright pastel colors, it looks just like a typical diner.

I got the sausage, mushroom and cheese omelet both times I was there and it was outstanding both times.  We ended up ordering early and our food came pretty quickly - not as quick as what we encountered at The Red Flame.  Still, for a New York restaurant, I was impressed.

And as with The Red Flame, The Comfort Diner's prices were in line with what I expected to pay for breakfast in New York.  I think we averaged about $11 to $13 bucks a person with juice, milk, coffee and our food.  It's a helluva lot cheaper than eating at the hotel.

So, there's my two recommendations for breakfast in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.  Save yourself some money by eating out  for breakfast than spending all that cash for the high priced hotel breakfast spread.  

(Update - The Comfort Diner reportedly closed for a time in 2010, but reopened sometime in 2011.)     

Patrick McGovern's Pub - St. Paul

I was in the Twin Cities a few weeks ago calling on accounts and I offered to meet one of my dealers for dinner as we couldn't get together during business hours.  He suggested an Irish pub in downtown St. Paul called Patrick McGovern's Pub (see map).

Patrick McGovern's in downtown St. Paul.

I'm not overly familiar with downtown St. Paul, not like I am with Minneapolis.  But with the new Xcel Energy Center just down the street, the area has become revitalized over the past few years. 

Patrick McGovern's is run by Patrick Boehmer, who has owned the place for 34 years.  Patrick McGovern's started as a small corner Irish pub, then took over the space next to it just to the south a few years ago.  Recently, they expanded to an outside patio area with a full service bar.  They also have a party/meeting room upstairs for receptions or parties.

Actually, we were going to meet there for dinner on a Wednesday night, but it turned out that Elton John was playing at the Xcel Energy Center that night.  My dealer said, "It's going to be a zoo downtown if we go.  Let's do it on Thursday night."

So, we did.  I got to Patrick McGovern's around 7 p.m. and sidled up to the bar and grabbed a Summit Extra Pale Ale.  The bar area has a very warm feel to it, heavy on the dark walnut paneling.  The bar, itself, looks to be well worn - possibly older than the 34 years Patrick McGovern's has been around.

Due to traffic (the main roads around the Twin Cities always seem to be under construction), my dealer didn't show up until about 7:30.  We sat at the bar and talked for about a half hour before we retreated to a booth in the half-full bar area for dinner.

Patrick McGovern's menu is varied with steaks, burgers, pork chops and ribs.  They also featured a number of comfort food items on the menu.  One that jumped out at me was the meat loaf on sourdough bread, with homemade mashed potatoes and gravy.  I was a little hungover from going to the Twins game the night before, I thought I needed to have a "stick-to-your-ribs" meal.

My dealer ordered his favorite - Jalapeno Halibut sticks.  They're basically halibut filets cut into fingerling sizes, then dredged in a breading with chunks of jalapenos and deep fried.  They sounded good, but I stuck with my meat loaf.

And the portions were huge.  The waitress brought me a huge piece of meatloaf - close to a pound of meat - on a large slice of homemade sour dough bread, with the mashed potatoes and it was all topped with a great beef gravy.  Oh, it was a spot hitter.

Total bill with our food and beer came to just over $40 with a tip.  It was a lot of food for not a lot of money. 

There's plenty of parking in the immediate area in the form of parking ramps just to the west of the place.  If you're up in the Twin Cities and want a change of scenery from downtown Minneapolis, Patrick McGovern's Pub is a great place for a cold beer and a good meal. 

Harlan's - Davenport, IA

Harlan's is a place that I'm sort of surprised I haven't talked about earlier.  It's one of our favorite places to go for comfort food - breakfast or dinner.  It's been an old stand-by in the Quad Cities for well over 50 years. 

When U.S. Highway 6 was one of the main east-west roads through the nation, the Triangle Truckport was one of the busiest restaurants along the busy highway.  Harlan Hagberg opened the Triangle in 1953 in, basically, a triangle that consisted of Highway 6 (later Kimberly Road), Hickory Grove (the main road into Davenport from Highway 6 at that time), and Fairmount Ave. (see map).

In 1960, a severe blizzard hit the Davenport area and a number of trucks were snow bound at or near the Triangle Truckport.  A photographer for the Davenport Times, the forerunner of the Quad City Times, took this picture (click to enlarge) showing the tangled mess of trucks around the truck stop.  Legend has it (mainly from Harlan's) the picture won a Pulitzer Prize for journalistic photography.  But a quick check of former Pulitzer Prize winners doesn't turn up any indication of this picture winning any award.  Still, it's a pretty impressive photo.

When Interstate 80 opened in 1962, the Triangle Truckport was located too far away from the super highway to have trucks stop in like they used to.  So Harlan Hagberg changed it from a truck stop to a family restaurant and renamed it Harlan's Fine Foods.  They continued their reputation of good, home-cooked meals at a fair price.

Over the years, the place expanded with little additions here and there to increase seating capacity.  For a number of years, the Hagberg family lived above the restaurant.  Eventually, they made the upstairs living quarters into office and warehouse space. 

In 2000, Harlan's son, Jeff - who had taken over for his father a few years earlier - built a newer and bigger building  just to the east of the existing restaurant.  The move effectively tripled the capacity of the restaurant.  With the move, they tore down the old restaurant and used the land for more parking. 

And with the move, the biggest mistake they made was that they weren't prepared - staff-wise - for the large crowds that came to the new Harlan's for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Service and the food suffered for a while, but Jeff Hagberg got it figured out and the restaurant quickly became a better version of what it was before.

Home-cooked meals is the theme at Harlan's.  Their menu is comfort food to the "nth" degree.  Breakfast is served all day long with a few items, such as omelets, only available until 11 a.m.

On nights that I don't feel like cooking and I'm in severe need of comfort food, we like to go out to Harlan's and get either a hot beef sandwich or a hot pork sandwich.  It's a sandwich piled high with meat on white bread and served with a scoop of homemade mashed potatoes in between, then smothered with a rich beef or pork gravy.  It's out of this world. 

By the way, speaking of Harlan's potatoes - they do make all their potato dishes - mashed, hash browns, french fries, etc. - from real potatoes.  They say they go through two tons of potatoes each week. 

Cindy and I just went out there last night for dinner after running some late day errands.  Both of us got hot beef sandwiches - I got a full order and Cindy got a half order.  We both got salads - Cindy likes Harlan's homemade creamy garlic dressing and I like their Russian dressing. 

Sometimes we'll get soup, as all their soups are homemade.  They make a very good vegetable beef, along with good chili and chicken noodle soup. 

They always have daily specials at Harlan's, along with a breakfast special through the week of a couple eggs, two pieces of bacon, toast, hash browns and coffee for $2.99.  It's a good bargain and it really packs in the older crowd in the morning.  But I do like their omelets and a side of homemade corned beef hash when I go for breakfast. 

Prices at Harlan's are pretty reasonable - we got out of there last night with the hot beef sandwiches ($5.99 for a full - $4.49 for a half), two salads, and drinks for a tad over $20 bucks with tip. 

Once they got rid of their growing pains after they moved to the new building about 7 years ago, Harlan's continues to serve some of the best comfort food I've had anywhere. 

Granite City - Clive, IA

I wrote about the Granite City chain of brewpub/restaurants in an earlier post over a year ago.  I cut a wide swath in that post talking about the Granite City restaurants as a whole.  I wanted to share a recent dinner I had there with a couple guys from my dealer in Des Moines. 

After we finished up with a meeting, I offered to take the guys out to dinner.  A couple of the guys begged off, but a couple of the others said, "Yeah, sure!"  We tossed around the names of a couple of places, then settled on the Granite City Brewpub out in Clive (see map).  It was a cold night and Granite City has some good comfort food for those long winter nights.

I thought the Granite City in Clive was new as I'd never noticed it before.  But I was told by the host who sat us that it had been there for over three years.  He asked, "Have you eaten at a Granite City before?"

I said that I'd eaten in a number of them and he looked back at me and said, "Well, we're the best." 

They brought out the menu and I didn't even have to open it up.  I knew exactly what I wanted - a glass of their Northern Lights lager and the Granite City Meatloaf - a large piece of baked meatloaf that is grilled before serving.  The guys were completely impressed that I knew the menu by heart.  I said, "Don't be too impressed.  I've eaten at a number of Granite City's and the meatloaf is very good."

So good that I talked one of the other guys into getting the same thing.  The other guy went with the Honey Rosemary filet mignon.  I've had that, too, and it's very good as well.

The one thing about Granite City is that their food is much better than their beer.  The beer is OK, at best.  But their food is very good and the portions with some of their plates are huge.  In fact, there always seems to be TOO MUCH food when it comes out. 

And this time was no exception.  The slab of meatloaf was easily a pound in weight.  It had a side of their garlic-mashed potatoes and handful of their very good onion straws.  The only thing that I wish they'd serve with their meatloaf and the mashed potatoes would be a side of brown meat gravy.  Still, it's very good. 

The other guy who got the meatloaf was happy he got it.  "I've never had their meatloaf before.  I was sort of surprised you ordered it, but you ordered it with so much conviction that I figured it had to be pretty darn good." 

The other guy's Honey Rosemary filet was a little overcooked for his taste, but it was still edible.  He said the taste sensation of the honey, rosemary and garlic was wonderful.  He also went with the garlic mashed potatoes and he loved them as well.

The one thing about the Granite City brew pubs is that the food is consistently good.  They serve too much of it (I couldn't even finish the potatoes or the onion straws) and it always seems to be too filling.  Still, Granite City is more of a restaurant that happens to be a brew pub rather than a brew pub that serves some food. 

And the one in Clive was very good.  I don't know if it's best of the ones I've eaten at, but it's got to be in the top three.

Ted's Montana Grill - Schaumburg, IL

I recently had to run our daughter into Chicago for her to fly out to England to meet our other daughter who is studying in Spain this year.  She said that since she wasn't going to be eating for awhile while traveling, she wanted a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal before she left.  I decided to take her to Ted's Montana Grill.

I've written about Ted's here first as a steakhouse; then again as a burger joint.  They bill themselves as a classic American grill that happens to serve comfort food.  I do like their bison steaks and burgers - the best of their kind that I've ever had.  But they also serve something called bison pot roast and I've always wanted to try it.

We got in to the Ted's in suburban Schaumburg just before noon and we were promptly seated in a spacious booth.  Our waitress was a red-haired Scottish lady with a big smile, Wilma.  Within 90 seconds we found out that Wilma retired from United Airlines after working 30 years as stewardess, she was working part-time at Ted's because the airlines cut 50% of her pension, she celebrated her 60th birthday in her native Scotland, and the actor Sean Connery kissed her on the cheek on her birthday.  She was a real trip and I liked her immediately.

She asked if we'd ever been to Ted's before.  Oh, yes.  I told her I'd been to different Ted's Montana Grill's many times before.  She said, "So you're a veteran, now.  You know the story, then." 

I said I did, but my daughter didn't.  She talked about the lunch menu and the daily blue plate specials.  The special that day was a slow roasted pork loin with cooked carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy. 

Out of the blue she offered us a sample of their bison pot roast.  I hadn't completely been sold on getting the pot roast as of yet. (I thought about getting a bison burger, only cooked a little longer this time than the last time I had a burger there.)  She brought us out two small bowls with shredded bison meat over mashed potatoes with a little gravy.  I have to say it was very good.  So, I went with the bison pot roast (which is available daily) and my daughter went with the pork loin blue plate special. 

While we were waiting for our food, the day manager came over, introduced himself, shook my hand and said, "I understand that you're a veteran of Ted's Montana Grill."  I told him that I travel a lot and I try to stay away from chains, but I've never been steered wrong by eating at a Ted's.  I was hoping he'd give me a gift certificate, but that never materialized.

Wilma brought our food out and the pork loin with carrots and mashed potatoes was exactly what my daughter was looking for.  And the bison pot roast with mashed potatoes, gravy and a side of green beans was just great for me.  The bison meat was tender and the gravy was a excellent complement to the meal. 

I was intrigued by the gravy so I asked Wilma after I'd finished what was in it.  She said, "Oh, you know I should know this, but I'll check in the kitchen." 

She came back out and said the gravy with the pork loin was a combination of chardonnay wine, cream and natural juices, while the beef gravy was also a combination of natural juices from the meat and Kitchen Bouquet.  I could have sworn there was some red wine in there with it, but Wilma said, "Nope, Kitchen Bouquet and juices.  I know it doesn't sound glamorous, but it's good, isn't it?"

It was a spot hitter. 

I'm always looking for a "stick-to-your-ribs" meal on the road and I'll be going back to Ted's Montana Grill for the bison pot roast again. 

(Update - Ted's Montana Grill closed a number of restaurants in the fall of 2010, including the one in Schaumburg.  That's too bad because many of them were in places that I travel to - Wichita, Omaha and Kansas City.  I suppose with such strong competition for steakhouses in those markets, Ted's Montana Grill felt it would be better to focus on markets where they could succeed.  Another reason why this particular Ted's probably shut down was that a Weber Grill Restaurant  opened just up the road from the old Ted's location in late 2006.  That particular Weber Grill location was always packed.  However, I'm not without a Ted's in my travels.  There are still 3 in the greater Chicago region and a couple in Indianapolis.)

Aux Anysetiers du Roy - Paris

We got into Paris from Saint-Etienne last Saturday around 1 p.m., checked into our hotel to freshen up, then took off on a little walk along the Seine River.  We found that we were probably more hungry than eager to sight see, so we found a little street that had a number of small restaurants up and down the way.

Many of the restaurants were packed (Parisians - actually all Europeans -  have a tendency to eat later than Americans), but we did find one little place that was able to handle our party of 10 - Aux Anysetiers du Roy on Rue St. Louis en I'lle in Paris' 4th arrondissement (district).  It's actually on the island of St. Louis in the Seine, just west of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.  See map here.

Aux Anysetiers du Roy is a tiny place.  It probably seats no more than 22 to 25 people.  In doing some research on the place, it turns out that the restaurant was one of the more "hip" places to hang out and have dinner in the 60's and 70's with celebrities.  Salvador Dali, Bridgette Bardot, Jerry Lewis and other celebs would grace the doors of Aux Anysetiers du Roy, primarily for their famous chocolate fondue. 

In fact, Aux Anysetiers du Roy has a number of crocks of chocolate and herbs that are sold all over the world. 

They sat us along the wall at Aux Anysetiers du Roy which afforded us a look into their very small kitchen.  It was just one chef, a woman, and one waiter working in the place.  The chef had no sous chef in the kitchen, it was just her.

The restaurant's specialty is grilled meat.  One of our guys went with the grilled veal and he said it was just outstanding.  I'd never had grilled veal before and he said it was moist and flavorful. 

I opted for the chef's special of the day - Beef Bourgogne (Beef Burgundy) - which is basically a beef stew that uses cubed pieces of beef in a rich wine based gravy with some vegetables.  I almost opted for the steak au poivre (sirloin steak in a black pepper infused sauce - the base of which they sell, as well), but I figured that after a week of eating rich foods I needed some comfort food - French style.   

We got a bottle of the 2002 Chateau Cartier Saint Emilion Grand Cru from the Bordeaux region after we ordered lunch.  Now, I don't know French wines at all, but even for a wine that probably needed a couple more years to go before we opened the bottle, it was outstanding with our lunch. 

The food was just outstanding.  This a picture of my plate after I'd eaten a couple of the pieces of beef.  Man, it was great.  The sauce had a robust taste of a good red wine, the potatoes were fried beforehand in a little olive oil.  There were mushrooms and carrots added.  It very much reminded me of my beef stew recipe. 

We didn't do any of their chocolate fondue, although had I known the historical significance and how famous the place was for their chocolate fondue, I may have tried something.  But I ate so much friggin' chocolate on this trip.  I probably had more chocolate in a week than I've had in the past year.  I just don't eat that much chocolate. 

Our lunch gave us enough fuel to get us around on our little walkabout Paris.  It was the ultimate in comfort food.  It was definitely a "spot hitter". 

Johnny V's Classic Cafe - West Allis, WI

My wife is one of these creatures on Earth who has to have three meals a day.  And when she needs food, she needs food.  Me, as much as I like to eat, I can go hours without food.   

When we would go to Milwaukee and stay with my cousin, John, for Summerfest, Cindy would always have to get breakfast before we'd go down to the Summerfest grounds for the day.  On the advice of John one day, he steered us to Johnny V's Classic Cafe in West Allis just south of the Wisconsin State Fair Park (see map).

Johnny V's is truly a classic cafe, set up like a 50's style diner with a ton of Coca-Cola memorabilia throughout the restaurant. 

Owned by Johnny Vassallo, Sr., the Classic Cafe opened in 1992.  His son, Johnny, Jr., a bar owner and restauranteur in the Milwaukee area, became involved in 1993.  Johnny, Sr. and his son, Jamie, bought Johnny, Jr. out in 1996.   

Johnny V's is open 24 hours, 365 days a year, and they get a big after hours bar crowd.  And the food is very good for a diner.  Breakfast is served at any time and they have a number of good sandwiches and blue plate specials. 

My favorite breakfast at Johnny V's is the eggs with gyro meat.  Two eggs, hash browns, toast and a pile of gyro meat.  It's scrumptious.  They also make a great hot beef sandwich, too. 

Johnny's is comfort food at its highest form.  My cousin moved away a couple years ago, but I hit Johnny's every so often when I'm in Milwaukee for business.  The decor is secondary to the food, and the decor is something else.   

Keys Cafe - Twin Cities

Keys Cafe is a Twin Cities institution with five or six locations around the area.  I've only eaten at the one in Roseville a couple of times and the food is just great.  I've had their meat loaf which is good (not as good as mine), and their hot beef sandwich, which is out of this world.  I also had a cup of the Wild Rice soup (a Minnesota staple) on one occasion and it was great, as well.

Keys is locally owned by one of the two women who started it back in 1973.  My buddy, George Miller, swears that the Beef Tips are to die for, so I'll have to try them the next time I go in. 

If you really need a "stick to your ribs" dinner in the Twin Cities, you can't beat Keys!

Drake Diner - Des Moines

There aren't a lot of comfort food places in Des Moines, but one that I like to go to from time to time is the Drake Diner (see map).

The Drake Diner is situated just off of University Ave., south of Drake University.  The ambiance of the place suggests it is a throw back to the 50's style diners and the food is typical of those type of places.

I like the Drake Diner's meat loaf and their hot beef sandwiches.  The meatloaf is very good with an oniony-sage taste quality to it.  Their hot beef sandwiches are piled high with meat and the gravy is definitely homemade. 

The Drake Diner has spawned two other diners around Des Moines - the West End Diner in Clive (see map); and the North End Diner on Merle Hay Road (see map).  I've eaten at the North End Diner before and even though it is more spacious than the Drake Diner, I have to say the food is a little better at the Drake Diner. 

The Drake Diner is not in a great neighborhood and I know a lot of people don't like going to it during the night time hours.  Still, if you're in the area and need some comfort food, it's a good place to go to.

Bohemian Cafe - Omaha

One of my favorite places to go when I'm out in Omaha for a few days is an old local favorite called the Bohemian Cafe.  Located just to the south of the downtown area of Omaha on the far east side, the Bohemian Cafe has been making great Czech food since the early 1920's.

My brother-in-law, Vic Geiger, used to drive with his parents about 30 miles into the Bohemian Cafe for Sunday lunch all the time when he was growing up.  I can't remember if he was the first one to tell me about the place, or if one of my old dealers out in Omaha turned me on to it in the 80's.  But I've been going there for years.

The seating area is pretty good sized with two big dining areas, a banquet/party area and a bar.  The building used to be a bank and a grocery store before they moved into the present location back in the late 50's. 

Actually, I couldn't make up my mind if the Bohemian Cafe would be classified as "Comfort Food" or under the "Restaurant" category.  I would probably have to call their food the ultimate in comfort food. 

I'm not big on liver, but they have a liver dumpling soup they serve as an appetizer that is just great.  It's a big ball of ground liver served in a chicken broth.  It's just outstanding.  Their rye breads are fresh and tasty, and I can't go without a Pilsner Urquell beer in a big stein when I'm there. 

They do a different dinner special every night of the week.  I love their Svickova, which is a type of sauer braten.  I get that with a side of sauerkraut and their Czech dumplings.  Absolutely great.  They also have a Jaeger Schnitzel that is outstanding as well.  I like their boiled beef with the creamy dill gravy over the top.  And I believe it was Tuesday nights when they would have their Burgundy Beef - tender slices of roast beef topped with a gravy made with Burgundy wine.  Ow!!!

Oh man!  I'm getting hunger pangs just thinking about the Bohemain Cafe. 

They also have a little Bohemian Cafe song that I've linked to that you can enjoy. 

I took Cindy there one night when we were in Omaha and she thought it was "OK".  My sister, Nan, who is married to Vic, thought it was "OK" when he took her there a few years ago.  Those women just don't know what good food really is.

They don't know what's good - and the Bohemian Cafe is good!

Olympic Star - Tinley Park, IL

One night, I was in a hotel room on the far south side of Chicago.  I was tired, I was hungry.  I didn't want pizza, I didn't want to go sit in a bar, I needed comfort food.  Meat, potatoes, a big glass of milk or two.  So I ask the gal at the front desk, "Where can I get a good hot beef sandwich?"  Without flinching she said, "Oh, you'll want to go to the Olympic Star!" 

The Olympic Star (see map) is a typical Chicago Greek-owned family style restaurant.   Big booths, coffee shop atmosphere, attentive wait staff and they're open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  (Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.)  I liked the place as soon as I walked in. 

I had the roast beef sandwich - lots of tender roast beef between two pieces of bread with a side of homemade mashed potatoes and slathered with a ton of brown gravy.  The gravy alone was worth the price of admission.  Top it off with a couple big glasses of milk and I was fixed for another week. 

I understand the Olympic Star has a great breakfast and is a favorite place for the after-hours bar crowd.  If you're looking for good food at an affordable price, try the Olympic Star in Tinley Park.