Road Tips

India Rasoi (Formerly Taj Oriental) - Moline

(March 2012 Update - This entry is going to be a little confusing as I've been informed that Taj Oriental in Moline is now known as India Rasoi.  Rasoi is Hindu for Kitchen.  This entry was written after we went to Taj Oriental twice before the name was changed last month. It's my understanding the original owner skipped town and left the place to new management who changed the name to India Rasol.  However, the chef stayed and the food is still the same.) 

A local friend who we don't see enough of, Shawn Eldridge, sent me a tip on a new Indian restaurant that opened last year in Moline, Taj Oriental. After my visit to Taj of India in Indianapolis (click here to see that entry), I couldn't quit raving to Cindy about how good the curry chicken was at that place. She said, "Didn't Shawn say there's some new Indian restaurant in Moline that's pretty good?" I didn't feel like cooking one Sunday evening, so we made the trek across the river to downtown Moline to Taj Oriental. (See map)

Taj Oriental is housed in the same space that was once the upscale and rather snooty Charles Michel fine-dining restaurant, as well as an Italian restaurant, Portabella's, that we ate at once and we had a sub-par meal. It wasn't open much more than a year, if that.

There is evidently a Hawaiian connection to Taj Oriental, one that was cryptically told to us by a young guy who appeared to be an owner or manager of the restaurant. He said relatives own an Indian restaurant on the island of Kaua'i and that's where he learned the art of Indian cooking. He said he was in Las Vegas about 10 years ago at an Indian restaurant and the food was so good he asked to meet the chef. The chef was a young Indian and the two became good friends. Somehow - and I'm still fuzzy on this - they ended up in Moline opening Taj Oriental last summer.

While the front of Taj Oriental sports sort of a "bunker-type" concrete facade, the interior of the restaurant hasn't changed much from the time we'd been in years ago when it was still an Italian restaurant. The booths were still set back in little alcoves along the north and east walls of the restaurant, with sturdy wooden tables and chairs throughout the main dining area. A hard wood floor with a high ceiling echoes conversations throughout the place and I do remember it being somewhat loud in there on the previous visit.

Taj Oriental is also known for their lunchtime buffets - served 7 days a week - and a large buffet area is off to the side of the main dining room.

Since it was a Sunday night when we were there, only a couple three other tables were filled with diners. We were met by a hostess/waitress who told us later that it was her first day on the job at the restaurant. (We could tell - her knowledge of Indian food was even worse than ours.) She sat us in one of the booths along the east wall and gave us menus. The room temperature of the restaurant was cool for me and downright cold for Cindy. "It's like they don't have the heat on in here," she said.

Like most Indian restaurants I've encountered over the past couple three years, the selection at Taj Oriental was no different from many of the others I've been to. They featured Tandoor oven baked foods, as well as a wide selection of vegetarian dishes on the menu. They also feature a number of seafood entrees, but they are known for their biryani dishes - a seasoned basmati rice that originated in the Middle East that, depending upon who is doing the cooking, may include scrambled eggs, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, garlic and onions, then mixed with your choice of chicken, goat, shrimp or vegetables. Goat - I had that once in Atlanta. I think I'll pass on goat biryani.

While we were looking through the menu, the waitress brought us a free appetizer consisting of a sort of Indian thin bread - that's the best I can describe it - with a red curry sauce and a green herb sauce on the side. Sort of like tortilla chips, the "chips" were deep fried and still a little oily hot when she brought them to the table. Actually, both sauces on the appetizer were pretty darn good.

I was thinking of getting something along the lines of the Murgh (Chicken) vindaloo or the Murgh curry. Since I'd had the curry chicken in Indianapolis about four nights before - and it was just killer - I thought I'd go with the vindaloo that evening. Cindy ended up ordering some of the jingha biryani - shrimp with rice. The waitress let the owner/manager come over to take our order as he had to ask some questions as to how spicy we wanted our foods. I told him that I'd like my vindaloo a little spicier than medium. "Medium-hot, if you can do that," I told him. Cindy said she wanted her shrimp biryani "medium." He asked if we wanted any naan to go with the meal and I perked up and said, "Naan! Oh, sure! We'll take the garlic naan!"

Our meals came out about 15 minutes after we ordered and we were ready to dig in. Cindy's eyes got big when the shrimp biryani was placed in front of her. It was this huge mound of basmati rice with herbs and spices with medium-sized grilled shrimp throughout. "Geez," she exclaimed. "This is a lot of food!" She already was thinking of getting a to-go box before she even dug in. There was a ton of biryani on her platter.

My chicken vindaloo came with a deep red colored gravy broth - something that I don't remember from visits to other Indian restaurants where I got chicken vindaloo. Usually, vindaloo is more of a brown sauce than a deep red sauce like I had at Taj Oriental. The taste was a little different than I remember from other vindaloo dishes I've had, as well. What my mind was telling my taste buds vindaloo should taste like didn't quite jive with the messages my taste buds were sending back to my brain. It wasn't bad - just different. It took me about five minutes of eating before I figured out that I sort of liked it.

The garlic naan was good - not the best I've had - but still good. It was actually more fluffy than other naan breads we've had in the past, but there was a large amount of cilantro and garlic chunks on the bread helping to make it very tastey when it was topped with some of the murgh vindaloo.

Cindy just raved about the shrimp biryani. "This is outstanding," she excitedly said between bites. I had a bite of some rice with a shrimp and she was right. It was very good. It was a little spicy, but the seasonings they add to the rice helped cut down the zippy taste sensation. I liked it better than my chicken vindaloo, and I ended up liking the vindaloo.

But spicy? Whew! This was supposedly medium-hot and it was getting my attention. It wasn't anything that I couldn't eat, but I was certainly going through the water. The waitress was back about once every three minutes to fill our water glasses as Cindy's biryani was a little spicy, as well. Cindy tried a bite of the vindaloo and she said, "Oh, my God. That's too spicy for me."

When the owner and/or manager came over to see how things were, I told him that the spiciness was really getting my attention. He said, "When you said 'medium-hot', I backed that down to medium. Our dishes are naturally hot here at Taj Oriental, so our medium is a little more spicy than what you'd find at most other Indian restaurants." I told him that may be a good thing to tell people before they order.

Cindy picked out all the shrimp out of her biryani and ate them when she knew she wasn't going to be able to finish the whole thing. There was still well over half the platter covered in basmati rice. She asked the waitress for a box and the box she brought over was almost too small for all the rice Cindy wanted to put inside. I had a bunch of the steamed rice that came with my murgh vindaloo that was leftover and I asked her if she wanted to mix it together with her rice. Cindy said, "No, I don't think so. I love the taste of this rice. It would go great with chicken." And it did - we had baked chicken the next evening at home and finished off a good portion of the remaining amount of the seasoned basmati rice. Actually, I think the taste of the seasoned rice was better after it sat in the fridge for nearly 24 hours and was reheated.

The owner and/or manager came over to check on us and he offered a free dessert on the house that evening. He offered the Gulab Jamun which are round milk dumplings, deep-fried and topped with cinnamon and a sweet cardamon syrup. We immediately said, "No!!!" We were so stuffed from all the food we got at Taj Oriental. He asked us if we were sure and Cindy said, "Well, we can take it home, can't we?"

He explained that it was the type of dessert that usually had to be eaten fresh. "It doesn't travel well," he said. OK, well, that was a nice gesture on his part, but we still declined.

We both agreed that Taj Oriental was good - good enough to make plans to go back again at some point. While my vindaloo was "different" from other vindaloo's I've had, it was still good. And Cindy thoroughly enjoyed her shrimp biryani. We just have to remember next time that their medium spiciness is more like medium-hot at other Indian restaurants.

(Update - Since this post was originally written a couple months ago, we've been back to Taj Oriental one other time. Once again, it was cold in there - the temperature in the dining room had to be in the low 60's. Cindy wore her heavy winter jacket around her the whole time. One of the waiters came over and asked if she was cold. "Freezing," was her reply. He explained that their furnace was out and that someone was supposed to come the day before to fix it. We're guessing that since it was cold the first time we came, the furnace may have been out for quite some time.

I went into the restroom to use the facilities and when I went to wash my hands I waited and waited and waited for hot water to come out of the faucet. It didn't. No hot water in the restroom. That's not good.

Service that evening was horrible. There was a waiter and a waitress. The waitress sat us at a booth and gave us both water and menus. Then she forgot about us. We sat there and waited. It was over 10 minutes since we had walked in and no one had come over. It finally got to a point that I had my timer on my cell phone going, saying that if no one came to take our order in five minutes, we'd get up and leave. The girl finally came back to us a couple minutes later and said, "Has no one taken your order?" Nope. She was running around waiting on two other tables (it wasn't that busy) and the waiter was doing God knows what - moving tables, chairs, plates, whatever he could do other than take our order.

Cindy ordered some tea to go with her meal and it took over 25 minutes for her to get the tea. And that was because the girl served it with our meals. Yep, service was excruciatingly slow that evening.

I will say the chicken curry I had that evening was pretty good (below left). I ordered the curry sauce medium knowing that from the last time we were in that their food tends to run a little spicy at Taj Oriental. It had a bite to the sauce and the chicken was tender and tasty. Still, it didn't come close to my new gold standard of chicken curry that I had at Taj of India in Indianapolis.

Cindy had the paneer tikka (above right) - marinated chicken with onion and green pepper and cooked in a tandoor oven. It was brought out on a sizzling plate, similar to fajitas. Cindy loved it. I had a bite and it was pretty good.

Still, we couldn't get over the slowness of the service. From the time we walked in to the time we left, it was nearly an hour and a half. I said, "Well, we'll have to rethink coming here if the service is going to be that slow."

If you're not in a hurry, Taj Oriental is very good. If you are in a hurry, come for the lunch buffet.)

The Demise of Tastee Freez - Davenport, IA

Our household was in turmoil last evening after watching a gut-wrenching story on the 10 p.m. news - the Tastee Freez on Rockingham Road on the southwest side of Davenport was closing (see map). No reason was given for the demise of the little shop that was first opened in 1954 and served soft-serve ice cream, burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches, as well as milkshakes and malts. It was a wonderful summertime treat for us to take the 20 minute drive over to the other side of town and get an ice cream cone on a warm evening. (Photo courtesy Quad City Times)

The Tastee Freez on the west side of Davenport was a little slice of nostalgia from a time when people would routinely go out for ice cream after dinner. The building hadn't changed since the 50's and it was like going back through a little time warp when you walked up to the one of the two outside windows to place your order. Service was generally fast and efficient and you'd have your ice cream cone within moments after ordering.

In a city where Whitey's Ice Cream rules, the Davenport Tastee Freez had some of the best vanilla soft-serve ice cream I've ever had. For soft-serve ice cream, I liked it better than Dairy Queen and much better than the vastly over-rated Country Style ice cream that has a number of fans in the Quad City area. Cindy liked the chocolate/vanilla swirl, but when they would have their special Walnut flavor ice cream, she would go wild over that.

The highlight, however, was the people watching as you enjoyed your ice cream cone on one of the picnic tables around the building. People from all walks of life went to the west end Tastee Freez, some dressed in some interesting summertime clothes.

The current owner, Tara Kirschenmann from Moline, had owned the Tastee Freez since 1993. She was only the third owner of the franchise in its nearly 58 year history. No word as to why Kirschenmann shut down the Tastee Freez, nor if she was planning on selling the building and its contents. But the signage was taken off the building and the inside appeared to be bare from the picture shown above.

The Davenport Tastee Freez was the last of what was once dozens of Tastee Freez locations across the state of Iowa. There was a pretty good Tastee Freez in Newton, IA where I grew up. It was run by Paul Rose and not only had pretty good ice cream, but they had some of the best hot dogs I've ever had. Many a lunch was spent at the Tastee Freez in Newton until I moved to the Quad Cities over 20 years ago. (Westside Davenport Tastee Freez picture courtesy of Captain Ernie's Showboat.com)

Tastee Freez, as a company, began in 1950 in Newport Beach, CA. The original owners, Harry Axene and Leo Moranz, invented a pump-style soft-serve ice cream machine and the concept was an immediate hit. They began to rent out the machines and franchise the Tastee Freez name. The one on Rockingham Road was one of the first ones in the state of Iowa. As a little kid, I remember getting milkshakes from the Tastee Freez in Newton in cups that had the little Tastee Freez mascots on them - Tee and Eff (below left). Tee, I believe, was supposed to be male, Eff, was female. Or maybe it was vice-versa. It was hard to distinguish the difference between the two other than the "Tee" and "Eff" on their front.

Since 2003, Tastee Freez has been owned by the Garlardi Group, the owners of the Weinerschnitzel chain of fast food restaurants, found primarily west of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, you can find Tastee Freez soft-serve ice cream in over 350 Weinerschnitzel locations across the nation. But the bulk of Tastee Freez locations have closed over the past decade. Today, there are only 42 Tastee Freez stand-alone locations in 17 states including a dozen in Illinois, most of which are in the greater Chicago area.

So it's a sad morning around our house knowing that after a great meal of Cajun barbecued chicken that we won't be able to take the crosstown drive to help cool us off with a great Tastee Freez ice cream cone. Another part of life that we took for granted is now gone.

Red Ginger - Bettendorf, IA

It's been somewhat of a Christmas time tradition for Cindy and I to go out for sushi and then take in a movie on Christmas Eve.  Later this week will probably no exception as there's a couple movies I would like to see and there's some pretty good sushi in the area.  One place that we like going to from time to time is a newer sushi place about a mile from where we live - Red Ginger. 

Red Ginger opened up in the summer of 2010 and we've been there about four or five times since it opened up.  It's housed in a small strip mall on the spot where Duck Creek Tire used to be before they moved further out in Bettendorf, behind Bruegger's Bagels and right across the parking lot from the Burlington Coat Factory store (see map). 

The interior decor of Red Ginger is a very contemporary theme with a nice bar area, a medium-sized dining room and a couple sunken booth tables off to the side for somewhat authentic Japanese dining.  (They even ask you to take your shoes off when dining.)  

We like to sit at the sushi bar when we go to Red Ginger.  It only seats six or seven people and it can get kind of crowded if it's full.  But one of the good things about the sushi bar is that the sushi chefs will give you a treat right off the bat.  This particular night, we both got an appetizer that consisted of broiled eel strips topped with a tangy sauce, some bamboo chutes and parsley.  It was actually pretty good.  

The menu at Red Ginger is just more than sushi.  You can get teriyaki and tempura dishes, chicken or pork tonkatsu (cutlets that are deep fried), as well as soups and salads.  Cindy especially likes the miso soup at Red Ginger.  Not that it's much different from anyplace else, she likes the taste of it.

They have a number of specialty rolls at Red Ginger including their Crazy Tuna rolls.  They take spicy tuna, and avacado and other things and roll them all together, then top them off with some more spicy tuna and breaded crunchies (foreground, picture below left).  Oh, boy, is it good.  It's expensive ($12.75), but it's a wonderful treat when we go there.  We started off with a Crazy Tuna roll as well as a Spicy Tuna roll.  The Spicy Tuna roll is actually a pretty good value at $4.75.  Most other sushi places charge upward of $6 to $7 bucks for a similar sushi roll.

We also ordered up pieces of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, smoked salmon and red snapper sushi (above right).  The fish has always been fresh tasting at Red Ginger and this visit was absolutely no exception.  I especially love the smoked salmon at Red Ginger.  It literally melts in your mouth and has a great taste to the fish.  Sometimes, I'll find yellowtail to be a little fishy in taste from some sushi places, but I've never run into that with the yellowtail at Red Ginger.  Along with a couple of Asahi beers for me and green tea for Cindy, it's a great meal.  But at $1.99 to $2.50 a piece, it adds up quick.

Because of the price of sushi - and the fact that we usually pig out when do eat sushi - we don't go to Red Ginger as often as I'd like.  It's usually a $75 dollar bill with tip each time we go out for sushi, so our sushi adventures are few and far between.  But they do have a very reasonably priced lunch menu where you can get four pieces of sushi, six pieces of sashimi (sushi with no rice) and a chef's choice roll for $11.95.  Red Ginger has been a wonderful addition to the rotation of restaurants we like to go to in the Quad Cities.  And we're happy that it's close to home.  

 

 

Blue Iguana - LeClaire, IA

Since last summer, we'd been hearing about a new Mexican restaurant that had opened in the small tourist town of LeClaire, IA, just up the river from the Quad Cities. The name, Blue Iguana, was interesting enough. And when we found out that the owners of the place were the same people who owned Steventon's just down the road, we were intrigued (see my entry on Steventon's here). Through the summer, we'd heard pros and cons on the food and service at the Blue Iguana and we finally decided to take the short drive out to LeClaire to see for ourselves.

Open less than six months, the Blue Iguana already had a little bit of national notoriety from earlier this summer when President Obama made a surprise stop in LeClaire during a bus tour of the Midwest. One of the places he stopped at to press the flesh with the little people was the Blue Iguana. The quaint little Mexican restaurant couldn't have had better free advertising, even without the President of the United States eating there.

Blue Iguana is located on the main drag of Cody Road in LeClaire, next door to the long established Sneaky Pete's steakhouse (see map). It was a beautiful fall afternoon when we took the drive out to Blue Iguana and hoped to get a place to eat on what turned out to be a busy afternoon in the little town.

The Blue Iguana features outside dining in both the front and the back of the restaurant. The front area is larger than the back deck, but the back deck offers views of the Mississippi River. We checked out the back deck to see if any of the four or five tables were open and they were not. There were a couple tables available out front, but we didn't want to dine with all the traffic going by on that beautiful fall day. We resigned ourselves to eating inside. And, actually, that wasn't a bad thing.

The dining room and adjacent bar area featured a high wooden ceiling, brick walls and a hard tiled floor. The front windows of the building were also large. Because of all those factors, the sound just booms and echoes throughout the place. So much so that we had a difficult time hearing our waiter, Nicholas, when he greeted us with menus. More than once during our visit, I had to ask him to say again what he just said because it was so loud in the place from the reverberation of conversations coming from a half filled room. I wondered how loud it would be if both the dining area and the bar were packed on a weekend night.

Nicholas brought out chips and salsa - there was a small bowl of homemade deep fried tortilla chips, holding about a dozen chips. We'd heard the first bowl was complementary, but you had to pay $4 dollars for a second bowl. Well, this bowl wasn't going to last long. And if I had to pay $4 bucks for a bowl of these, I would gone without.

He explained that the two salsa containers that he brought out were very different in taste. The green tomatillo salsa was the milder of the two, while the red sauce "was spicy". And he wasn't kidding. The red salsa WAS spicy, so much so that I really needed their signature Blue Iguana margarita that I'd ordered from him sooner than later.

The margarita, itself, was just OK. I didn't think I could taste all that much tequila in my drink, and that was probably OK considering it was 2 p.m. in the afternoon. I found out while we were there that they get the margaritas out of a machine, the bartender doesn't make the drink. I was a little disappointed in the drink, although there was a lot of it (22 oz.) for $6.50. I just wish there would have been more tequila in the drink. Getting a margarita out of a machine takes away the mystique of the bartender, but probably helps add to the bottom line. So after I finished that, I ordered a 24 oz. Dos Equis Amber that was a good value at $4.75 a glass.

The menu at Blue Iguana isn't overly extensive compared to other Mexican restaurants in the area. One of the first things that jumped out of the menu was their guacamole. $10 bucks for a serving of the guacamole at Blue Iguana. Holy guacamole! $10 bucks? It was made fresh and you could add anything from cilantro, lime juice, tomatoes or jalapenos to the mixture. For $10 bucks, it had better jump up off the table and kiss you.

One of the other things that I saw on the menu was their "Wanna Iguana" challenge. Spurred on by the uptick of food challenges, Blue Iguana has their own challenge in which they serve you a 6 lb. burrito and you have 30 minutes to eat it along with downing a 30 ounce beer. You get your name put into a Hall of Fame and get a Blue Iguana t-shirt. All that for just $30 bucks. I'll pass on that.

They had a handful of entrees including a charbroiled 1/4 bone-in chicken that is marinated in an herb citrus oil, an 8 oz. charbroiled skirt steak that you could either get plain or with poblano peppers, onions and sliced avocado, or large shrimp sauteed in their homemade butter garlic sauce. As it said on the menu, if you're a garlic lover, you'd love this dish. I do like garlic, but for lunch and at a $15 dollar price tag, I don't like garlic that much.

Cindy was looking at getting the chile relleno, but for $12 bucks all you got was one cheese filled poblano pepper. "That's ridiculous," she said. "One chile relleno pepper for $12 bucks? No way..."

We finally decided upon getting burritos. Actually, their tacos and burrito selections were extensive. For fillings you could get steak, chicken, beef tongue, fish (deep fried, unfortunately - at least that's what I think Nicholas told me, but I couldn't hear him very well), pork or chorizo. You can also get vegetarian burritos at Blue Iguana. I went with the pork burrito and Cindy had the chicken burrito.

When Nicholas brought the food to our table we were impressed with the size of the burritos. It was very large and Cindy immediately lamented that she should have just gotten the burrito by itself rather than with the rice and beans dinner.

The pork burrito that I had was interesting - it featured shredded pork slow roasted in Mexican spices. When I usually order pork tacos, burritos or enchiladas from Mexican restaurants, they usually come out with grilled pork chunks rather than shredded pork. But the burrito was very good, surprisingly good.

Cindy said her chicken burrito was very good, as well. "But this is a lot of food," she said. "I may not want to eat dinner tonight." (As a side note, we did not.)

Nicholas came back to see how things were going and he asked if we wanted more chips. Cindy said, "Sure", but I was worried that we'd have to pay $4 bucks for a small bowl. Considering we were halfway done with our meals and I was getting full, I would have liked to have more chips about 15 minutes before after we nailed the first bowl in about 5 minutes. But he brought another bowl and we didn't get charged. I have to say that even though it was very spicy, the red salsa at Blue Iguana was somewhat addicting.

We've started to do this thing with our neighbors once a month on Sunday nights where we pick out a Mexican restaurant to go eat. We'd talked about going to Blue Iguana at some point and we'll make the suggestion to go back and eat there. The burritos we had were very good. I really liked the chips and salsa (as long as I didn't have to pay for extra), but the margarita was a little disappointing. The ambiance of the place was nice, but Blue Iguana is a little loud for laid-back dining. For a nice Mexican dining experience, the Blue Iguana is above average. I think some of their prices are a little high, but the burrito was a very good value. I'm definitely going to try something else on my next visit.

Gramma's Kitchen - Walcott, IA

The Iowa Pork Producers Association annually awards a restaurant across the state for having the best pork tenderloin sandwich.  This year's winner is Gramma's Kitchen along Interstate 80 north of Walcott, IA, at Exit 284, just west of the Quad Cities (see map).  We'd been to Gramma's in the past (it's been around since 1980), but had never gotten the pork tenderloin sandwich.  I had returned home after a long trip and Cindy wasn't up for making anything at home that evening (she was suffering from a cold), so I suggested we'd go out to Gramma's Kitchen and give their tenderloin a try.

Gramma's Kitchen is part of the Heart of America group of restaurants and hotels run by Quad Cities native Mike Whalen and includes The Machine Shed family style restaurants with six locations, Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport, Rockford and Pewaukee, WI, and Johnny's Italian Steakhouse with six locations (soon to be seven).  You can click here to see my entry on the Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in West Des Moines.  Gramma's Kitchen is the only stand alone restaurant of the Heart of America empire that stretches across six states in the Midwest.  

I've eaten at - and shared on Road Tips - the past three winners of the Iowa Pork Producers Best Tenderloin contest.  They are the 2008 winner Augusta in Oxford, IA; 2009 winner Goldie's Drive Inn in Prairie City, IA; and 2010 winner Buck's Bar in Mitchellville, IA.  (Buck's Bar closed up earlier this year.)  While I usually don't go out of my way to experience pork tenderloin sandwiches like I do with burger joints, if I come across one that I've heard is pretty good, I'll stop.  Thankfully, Gramma's Kitchen is only 15 minutes from our home.  

We entered Gramma's Kitchen around 7 p.m. that evening and it was far from packed.  Although the parking lot was over half full, many of the people who drove - or who walked over from the Iowa 80 truck stop (the World's Largest Truck Stop) - were in the attached Checkered Flag Bar and Grill.  We were immediately greeted by a hostess, then escorted through the gift shop area (similar to the gift shops you find at the Machine Shed restaurants) and seated in a booth in the spacious and well-lit dining area.

Our waiter for the evening, Eric, was young guy who was very friendly and was overly attentive.  He apologized for not coming around sooner (he was busy with other tables and it was less than five minutes after we were seated).  And by that time we were ready to order.

Most of the food on the dinner menu at Gramma's Kitchen is comfort food, but you can get steaks and some seafood at the place.  Actually, since Cindy was suffering from a cold, she almost got the Chicken Pot Pie, one of the king comfort food dishes you can find.  But at the last moment, she went with the battered pork tenderloin sandwich with a side of cole slaw. (Grilled pork tenderloin sandwiches are available, as well.  Make sure you know which one you're ordering when you order a pork tenderloin sandwich.)

I, too, went with the battered pork tenderloin with a side of fries.  And for good measure, I asked Eric if I could get a side of gravy for the fries.  He said, "Sure!  What kind of gravy?  Breakfast gravy, turkey gravy, pork..."  

I told him beef gravy and he said, "You bet!"   

It took about 15 minutes for the pork tenderloins to come out to us.  The pork tenderloins start out as 1/4 pound pork loins, slightly pounded out, then dipped in an egg and flour batter, then deep-fried to a deep golden brown color.  The best thing about the pork loins at Gramma's Kitchen is the term "slightly pounded out".  Some places that feature pork tenderloin sandwiches pound the living shit out of the loin and they end up being large and flat.  That also takes the moisture out of the tenderloin making it dry.  The second best thing about the pork tenderloin sandwiches at Gramma's is that they're battered - not breaded.  I'll eat a breaded tenderloin, but - to me - it's not as good a deep-fried, battered tenderloin.    

Cindy's pork tenderloin sandwich (above right) was a little larger than mine.   The tenderloin stuck out a bit from the toasted bun, but not so much like you find at other places.  The only problem I had was that there weren't enough pickles.  Only one long pickle slice came with the sandwich.  Eric came back with my drink and I asked him for some more pickle slices.  He brought out a plate with about 10 pickle slices.  He said, "We try to do everything big here at Gramma's Kitchen."  

The pork tenderloins were thick, juicy and very good.  The batter was a little salty in taste (then again, I hardly salt anything), but it was still very good with the pork loin.  I had contemplated getting just one and splitting it.  But as it turned out, we were both hungry - Cindy was especially hungry as she hadn't been eating well because of her cold - and I made very short work with my tenderloin, along with the fries and much of the gravy.  Cindy dawdled a bit, but she was able to eat all but a couple three bites of her sandwich.  She said, "Yeah, that was great!  I guess I was a lot more hungry than I thought!"  

For their winning this year's best pork tenderloin sandwich, Gramma's Kitchen was given a plaque and a $500 dollar check from the Iowa Pork Producers Association.   When Eric came back to get our dishes, he asked, "Well, how was it?"  

I told him, "You guys are much better than the last two winners (Goldie's and Buck's).  But I'm not certain that you're as good as the one over in Oxford that won three years ago.  It's close, but I'd have to go back there to see for sure.  And it certainly gives the one up at TC's Point After in DeWitt a run for the money.  That's a very good one, too."

But all that's not to say the pork tenderloin from Gramma's Kitchen isn't good.  It's very worthy of its standing as the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa for 2011.  Even though the plaque says "Best Breaded Tenderloin Sandwich", it's the batter on the pork tenderloin at Gramma's Kitchen that makes the difference.

Ribs at Creekside Bar and Grill - Davenport, IA

Right off the bat, I have to put a disclaimer on this post. The owner of Creekside Bar and Grill - Randy Adams - is a nearly lifelong friend. We've known each other for almost 40 years. And I've already written about the Creekside Bar and Grill here and here. It is one of the biggest good food secrets in the Quad Cities. They have great burgers, an outrageously great 10 oz. foot long hot dog and great chili. And now they are doing pork ribs. Good ribs. No, great ribs. I'm almost afraid to let the secret out because I'm afraid that they'll be overrun with people wanting their pork ribs.

But let me tell you the story anyway...

Randy Adams and Randy Brekke met while in an apprenticeship program at the Rock Island Arsenal nearly 20 years ago. They stayed close friends as Randy B. moved to Florida for about 10 years and then came back about four years ago to go back to work at the Arsenal. In the meantime, Randy A. had opened Creekside Bar and Grill and eventually took it over from his ex-wife a couple years after their divorce. Enter Lorrie Brekke, Randy B's oldest child. She and Randy hooked up after Randy B. moved back and they eventually got married last year. So for the sake of painting the picture, Randy B. is Randy A's father-in-law.

Randy B. is also what I would call an accomplished barbecue enthusiast. I've learned a few things from Randy B. over the years and have incorporated it into my barbecue world. A little over a year ago, Randy B. got to thinking that he could take an old conventional kitchen oven and turn it into a smoker. He could put the rack of ribs in the oven like you would with any other food, but use the bottom drawer that usually is used to store pans and such as the smoking chamber. He put it up on cinder blocks in his back yard and it worked great. He could get about 8 to 10 racks of ribs in the oven, the smoke would permeate the oven through the internal vents, and he could get a nice even temperature around the ribs. He'd cook the ribs for 4 hours, then take them inside to his real oven in the kitchen and cook them for another 4 hours. It worked slick and the ribs were delicious. He called it his "Redneck Smoker".

Randy B. began to provide Creekside Bar and Grill with his ribs and the initial reaction among the few who tried them was overly positive. He also made a wonderful homemade barbecue sauce that I have to say is one of the best homemade barbecue sauces I've ever had. It has a sweet and smoky flavor to it with just a small bite of spicy flavor at the end. I like it on French fries when I have them as a side at Creekside.

Randy also has his own homemade rub that he uses on the ribs. He cooks his ribs dry - something that I like to do with my barbecue, rather than slather the meat in sauce which will burn and detract from the taste of the meat. I've been trying to get him to give me the recipe for both his rub and the barbecue sauce, but that's a closely guarded secret.

As demand grew for Randy B's pork ribs, he had to figure out how to make a bigger smoker, one that he could use behind Creekside or take to other places if they asked for Creekside barbecue catering. A lady who frequents Creekside told Randy that she had a line on an old fuel oil storage tank - something that Randy B. was looking for when he started to draw out his design for a smoker. With the help of a welder in Bettendorf, Randy B. transformed this fuel tank into a portable smoker, complete with a trailer and hitch. They were able to fashion some racks attached to a rod that went to an electric motor that acted like a Ferris wheel inside, turning the racks of ribs to even out the heat and smoke while cooking. He also got an old top from a gas grill to act as the smoke box that he put off to the side and used a fan to push the smoke into the cooking chamber.

On paper, it was rather ingenious on Randy B's part. But in real life, he had some problems from the start. The fan melted because it got too hot near the wood box. The motor to run the racks was too small. The rod they used to attach the racks turned out that it was also too small and needed to be larger in diameter. There was heating problems and a handful of other things that he had to sort out before he could really get into smoking ribs and other meat in his smoker. Being a resourceful guy, Randy B. got things sorted out and the smoker is up and running on a regular basis just off the beer garden at Creekside. In addition to ribs, Randy B. can take out the racks and use a spit for doing a pig in the smoker. He's done that a couple times. He can also put a wire rack on top and be able to smoke pork butts or brisket if he wants.

Randy B. (pictured above right) cooks the ribs for about 4 hours at 350 degrees, then transfers them to a table top steam cooker in the kitchen at Creekside for another 4 hours. After the ribs are cooked, they put them in the refrigerator and then re-heat them when ordered. More and more rib joints are doing this - Cactus Bob's in Des Moines is one - and I'm beginning to believe this is a great way to do barbecue because the taste of the rub and the smoke flavor gets all through the meat and it's just wonderful. Some barbecue purists say that's cheating, but after having some good barbecue at both Creekside and at Cactus Bob's, I'm starting to think that it may be the way to go.

I went into Creekside a while back just to try some of the ribs from the new smoker. You can order the ribs either in 1/4 slab, 1/2 slab (Randy B. cooks 'em half slab as shown above) and full slabs. Hand-cut French fries come with the ribs. Oh, and Randy B's homemade barbecue sauce. I can't forget about that great stuff.

I ordered a 1/4 slab of ribs. I asked for some extra Randy B's barbecue sauce so I can dip my fries in it, as well. After a bit, Stephen brought me out a platter of ribs and hand-cut fries. I'm sure that he threw a couple extra bones on there for good measure just because I eat there a lot. The ribs were meaty, juicy and literally falling off the bone. There was a nice smoke ring deep into the meat and the overall taste was just wonderful.

In order to get fall off the bone ribs, you can do it two ways - the correct way of cooking the meat low and slow, or the wrong way of parboiling the meat before you stick it on a grill. There are two rather well-known places in the Quad Cities who are famous for their ribs who will parboil the meat before they cook it on a grill, then they slather the meat with a sweet sauce to try and bring back the taste of the meat that they cook out in the boiling process. Randy B's ribs were the former - he cooks his at a little higher temperature than I would cook the ribs, but these were far from dried out or overdone. They were damn fine ribs.

Randy and Lorrie Adams are always looking for ways to improve on the food at Creekside Bar and Grill. Between the great burgers and now the great barbecue, Creekside Bar continues to be one of the best kept secret for food in the Quad Cities. The ribs are just fantastic and for a homemade barbecue sauce, I've not had one that is finer. But please don't tell anyone because I don't want the place to be overrun with people who will buy all the ribs up before I can get more. Let's just keep it our little secret.

Behind the Scenes at the 2011 River Roots Live

The 7th annual River Roots Live festival was recently held in LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport and, once again, I was the stage manager/announcer/parking attendant/janitor/paymaster and whatever else needed to be done behind the stage area. I've done River Roots Live for six of the seven years of its existence - the one year I didn't work the event turned out to be a financial disaster, and the Davenport Chamber (now the Quad City Chamber) took over the event and folded it in with the highly popular Rib Fest. The Rib Fest has been going on for 14 years, and I've worked each one of those running the stage area with the exception of the first year in 1998.

It takes a lot of hard work and planning to pull off an event like River Roots Live. After last year's event, our planning and production team was pretty much burned out and we all said, "This is it - we're not doing another one of these."

But Marcy Hyder from the Quad City Chamber called me in March and said, "Well, are you up for another one?"

I said, "Wait a minute! I thought you said you were through!"

Marcy said, "Yeah, I know. I know."

In addition to Marcy heading the planning for the festival once again, we had Kate Benson and Tom Swanson from the River Music Experience booking bands, Ellis Kell from the R.M.E. coordinating the "Junior Jam" sessions, Scott Rexroat from Rexroat Sound (and his very competent and professional crew) doing the sound, staging and lighting again, Kyle Carter from the QC Chamber handling marketing of the event (and who took many, if not all, of the pictures in this entry), and Marcy's assistants Abbey Nagle and Jeanna Trenkamp, along with their summer interns, Kelsey (who I kept calling Ashley by mistake) and Nichole who were all a big part of helping pull off another big event like this. Chris Mandle and his crew handled the beer delivery once again and did a stellar job of helping keep the tubs full of beer. I've also got to give a shout out to Dale Sievert from the Davenport Police Department and Tom Flaherty, Marcy's boss at the QC Chamber, for their efforts in making the event a big hit once again. And I also have to thank Mike and Michele Monfort for their continued great food for backstage catering. Finally, I have to give a shout out to my lovely wife, Cindy, who helped us all out in a lot of different capacities once again this year.

Over the past couple three years, Mother Nature hasn't cooperated with us. Last year, it rained out a portion of the Friday night program. The two years previous to that, flooding in LeClaire Park meant that we had to venture onto the streets of Davenport. (To see my previous entries on River Roots Live, click here, here, and here.) This year, we were back in LeClaire Park and even though rain was a distinct possibility during the weekend, we were pretty blessed with good weather for a large portion of the event. It rained on early Saturday morning - enough to leave mud puddles in some areas of the backstage (I'll talk about that in a moment) - but since it had been so dry, the ground sponged up much of the water and by mid-morning on Saturday, it was mainly sunny and the grounds were mostly dry. It did rain ever so lightly on Saturday night for a brief moment, but we didn't lose any of the crowd and actually it turned out to be a record night with well over 25,000 people in the park. (This picture is just before Blues Traveler hit the stage on Saturday night.)

Since River Roots Live is a free event, the event is predicated upon selling beer to help defray the costs of the event. Lots of beer. And we did just that. I'm not going to give out numbers of beer sales that I heard after the show was over on Saturday night, but I was amazed at how much beer was sold. And I was told afterward that many people were upset that the beer lines were so long that they just gave up and walked up the street to Sippi's and got beer up there and listened to the music from their outdoor patio.

Ribs are still a big draw for River Roots Live. We had six national rib vendors and a couple local guys for the ribfest portion of River Roots Live this year. We had some repeat vendors such as Desperado's, Chicago Barbecue and Texas Outlaws. But one big surprise was Uncle Bub's Barbecue from Westmont, IL, a place that I've eaten at a couple three times before. (To see my entry on Uncle Bub's, click here.) Since I'm pretty busy most of the time around the stage area, I don't get a chance to try much of the barbecue (to my chagrin). But I was able to try some ribs and pulled pork from Big Boned Barbecue, the winners of the "People's Choice" award at this year's River Roots Live/Ribfest. Both were pretty damned good.

This year also featured an appearance by the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales (above right). Chad Pregracke from Living Lands and Waters, a great environmental group based out of the Quad Cities that goes around cleaning up the nation's waterways from all the junk and crap that people throw into rivers, was to receive a large grant from Anheuser-Busch during River Roots Live this year. He was also offered the Clydesdales to use as a promotion and he wanted to have them at the festival. Well, it was a logistical nightmare to have these large animals pulling a Budweiser beer wagon down a narrow street with thousands of people around them. Scott Rexroat and I joked (but were also somewhat serious at the same time) that the whole thing was going to turn into a Clydesdale stampede. But long story short, their appearance came off without any incident.

Music started on a beautiful Friday evening with the local band, the Candymakers (below left), starting things out. Last May, the band won a spot and will represent the state of Iowa in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis next February. I've worked a couple three events with them now and they're good people and put on a great show.

Following the Candymakers, Kevin B.F. Burt and the Instigators from Iowa City came to play on the side stage at River Roots Live. I've seen Kevin (pictured above right) play both with his band and as a solo act for a number of years, but had never met him before.  And it's a wonder as it turns out that Kevin and I know a lot of the same people.  He did a great job and the early evening crowd really got into his music.  

One of my highlights of the Friday night portion of the evening was the appearance of the Kansas City-based blues band, Trampled Under Foot.  This band consists of two brothers and a sister who grew up in a household with parents who played blues music in bands around the K.C. area.  About four years ago, I just happened to click on Iowa Public Television and there was this band with a male guitarist and a female bass player - both of who played left-handed - who were performing from the Simon Estes Riverfront Amphitheater in Des Moines.  I was immediately drawn in, not only because of the music, but because I'm a left-handed guitar player. (I'm not very good at it, but I still dabble from time to time.)  It's extremely rare to see a group with one left-handed guitarist/bassist in the band, let alone TWO of them.  

Trampled Under Foot consists of guitarist Nick Schnebelen (above left) and his sister, Danielle, on bass, and brother, Kris, on drums (above right).  The siblings won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2008 and have garnered a growing following around the U.S. over the past few years.  They were all just very nice and easy to work with.  They stuck around for a good portion of the evening before they hopped back into their van to head to the East Coast for a round of dates out there.  

Speaking of easy bands to work with, the Gin Blossoms headlined the Friday night portion of River Roots Live.  Like most national bands that play the festival, I don't have a lot of interaction with the band members as much as I do with the production staff they have.  The two guys that I worked with primarily, Brian Allensmith, the Gin Blossoms production manager; and Gary McIntyre, the band's road manager, were great guys to work with.  They do around 100 shows each year and both were overly impressed with how professional we all were in regard to getting them up and going from the time they showed up around noon to the time they left about midnight that night.  Most of the band members were back at the hotel, but lead singer Robin Wilson hung out a good portion of the day with the production crew.  At first, I wondered who this shirtless guy hanging out behind the stage was and I finally had to ask Gary McIntyre if he knew him.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  That's Robin, the lead singer."  I got to talk to him a few times and he was a great guy, down to earth and very unassuming.  He did turn into a rock star after the show inviting girls back to their RV/dressing room and wanting to stay there and party with them all night long before I finally had to ask Gary to get him to vacate the grounds.  But all in all, they were great to work with. 

During their encore, Robin Wilson told the crowd, "You know, we'll do about 80 to 90 shows this year and we have to put this event in our top ten."  I was pretty happy to hear that.   

Another side story about the Gin Blossoms - Robin Wilson had left behind his iPod Shuffle in the RV they were using as a dressing room.  We found it after cleaning it up later that evening and I called Gary McIntyre to let him know we had it .  He called me back on Sunday to thank me for picking it up and to give me their corporate FedEx number and an address where to send it.  He said, "I just want to let you know that we all had a great time the other night.  The guys couldn't stop talking about how well everything went with your festival.  It was really first class."   

He contrasted River Roots Live to a show the Gin Blossoms did the following evening in Atlanta.  "It was a benefit concert that they changed the venue three times on us," he said.  "I guess a car dealership had to put up the money after the original promoters ran out of money."  

Gary told me that the stage didn't have a roof and, as you can guess, it rained, heavily, an hour before the gig.  He said the rain ruined two on-stage amplifiers and half of the stack of amplifiers used to run the P.A. system. Gary told me, "The people running the event were nowhere to be found once the shit began to hit the fan.  We had to literally pull the whole thing together by ourselves and the small crew that they had."

Gary told me that our festival was one of the best ones that they've ever played at. He said, "From the time we were booked for your show, before, up and through showtime - and now afterward - it was one of the most organized and easy shows we've ever played. And when it's easy for us, it's easy for the band and they play better." He told me the touring community is pretty tight knit and he sees the tour managers and production managers of a lot of bands all the time. Gary said, "I'll let 'em all know how well you guys do things in Davenport."   

A crowd estimated at just over 10,000 people came to listen to the Gin Blossoms on Friday night and, thankfully, many of them stayed to listen to Jason Isbell and 400 Unit.  Jason Isbell is the former guitarist with the great alternative rock band, The Drive-By Truckers.  Isbell, a native of Northern Alabama, joined the Truckers in 2001 and recorded three albums with them before he split from the band after his divorce from Drive-By Truckers bassist Shonna Tucker in 2006.  Isbell has been getting some rave reviews for his recent album, "Here We Rest", and things are beginning to come around for him.  

I talked to him at length before and after the show.  I told him that I really liked his work with the Drive-By Truckers.  He was very appreciative that I brought that up.  "When I went out on my own about five years ago, I didn't know where it would end up," he told me.  "I had my doubts and things were tough for a long time, but we're finally starting to put it together."   

We had an 8 a.m. stage call for the load in for Blues Traveler and I had my alarm set for 6:45 as I was expecting a 7:30 phone call from Gina Thompson, the road manager from Blues Traveler (and the subject of the song "Gina" from Blues Traveler's first album).  However at 6:05, I was awaken by the sound of thunder outside my bedroom window.  I went into the office and looked up the weather radar on my computer.  A large thunderstorm cell was just about to hit the area.  And when it did, it poured.  We got about a 1/3 of an inch in 20 minutes.  Thankfully, the ground was so hard and dry what didn't run off right away was soaked up into the ground.  

 However, a curve ball had been thrown at us about six weeks prior.  The picture to the left is the backstage area behind the bandshell at LeClaire Park.  This was taken just as construction was beginning on a new addition to the bandshell that would hold two dressing rooms, a couple permanent restrooms, and a handicap access to the stage area.  By the time River Roots Live came about, they had a good portion of the addition up, but the backstage area (that we use extensively during the festival) was a large dirt pile.  In other words, we didn't have a backstage area for River Roots Live.

I was actually the one who alerted Tom Flaherty of the QC Chamber to this construction after it had initially started.  He said he didn't know anything about it.  A few calls to the Davenport Public Works department by Tom also failed to come up with an answer as to who made the decision to allow Russell Construction to begin on the bandshell addition even with three or four more large events coming up in the summer.  I found out much later that a guy in the Public Works department, who had a reputation for being somewhat of a turd to work with, authorized the start of construction after the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival ended on the 4th of July weekend.  And he did it just before he retired on June 30, so the city couldn't reprimand him as the construction was supposed to begin in September.  Or as Tom told me, "This guy gave the city one more big "F You!" before he retired.  

Since it was a big dirt pile, Tom authorized the city to come in with five large dump truck loads of gravel - after considerable prodding by Marcy - to cover a large portion of the dirt so we could, at the very least, use part of the backstage area as a drive through to get back to the RV dressing rooms and catering that we placed closer to the river.  When the rains came, the water was repelled by the gravel and a couple dirt areas that were still exposed became muddy quagmires.  After the show on Saturday night, I playfully went over to Tom and showed him the dry gravel and then a deep, muddy hole that still had water in it from the downpour that morning.  I said, "Hey, Tom!  Look at this!"  I pointed to the dry gravel and said, "Gravel."  Then I pointed to the muddy hole and I said, "Dirt.  Aren't you glad that you had them bring in gravel on Thursday?"  

He sort of put his head down and said, "I know. I know..."  Tom's a great guy.  

The sun had come out by 9 a.m. when we were setting up Blues Traveler for their show that night.  I had worked with Blues Traveler one time before about seven or eight years ago and while the guys in the band were great guys, the road crew was not a likable bunch - well, at least one of the guys was sort of a prick to work with.  I got to know Chan Kinchla, the guitarist for Blues Traveler (Chan is in the corner on the far left in picture on right), during their previous visit and it was good to see him again.  I reminded him of the time I ran into him at O'Hare Airport in Chicago when I was on my way to Montreal and he had a morning flight that was taking him from Fargo to Cleveland.  He said, "That's right!  That was right after we played here the first time!"  

However, on this pass through Davenport, Blues Traveler's crew were great to work with.  Gina was with the band the first time they had played at the bandshell in LeClaire Park and she didn't remember playing there.  She said, "When we pulled up, they said we'd played here before.  I didn't think we had.  But then our bass player (Chan's brother, Tad Kinchla) pulled himself up out of his bunk and looked out the window of the bus.  He said, 'Is that a minor league park over there? (John O'Donnell/Modern Woodmen Park is next door.)  Yeah, we've played here before.' "  

When I told Gina that my memories of working with Blues Traveler the first time around wasn't very pleasant, she wondered what the deal was.   I said, "You had a guy that was just a prick the whole time he was here."

Another guy working for Blues Traveler was standing there with Gina at the time and at the same time they both said, "Fisher!"  It was the former production manager/sound guy who was pretty high strung.  Gina said, "We were getting the reputation of a pretty difficult band to work with on the road.  We had to make a change and it wasn't long after we were here before that the band fired him."  

Scott Rexroat and I were talking at one point on Saturday night and he said, "Whoever hired these bands, I want to know if the first question out of their mouth was, 'Are you easy to work with?'  Because every band we've dealt with this weekend has been great!"      

He told me that one of the production guys in the Gin Blossoms had told him the day before that they had fired their long-time drummer about two years ago and had him replaced because he was so difficult to work with.  "I guess he was pretty demanding with the local (production) crews and the band was getting a bad reputation within the touring industry because of this guy," Scott said.  "It was getting to a point that if a venue booked the Gin Blossoms, they never wanted them back."  

I told him the story about the story Gina Thompson had told me about their former production manager that they had let go.  The Blues Traveler show from seven or eight years ago was the first time I'd worked with Scott and we've been good friends ever since.  He said, "Yeah!  I remember that prick!  Oh, he was a piece of work."  

Music started at noon on Saturday and by that time the sun was high in the sky with a few puffy white clouds.  It was still a little humid, but there was a nice breeze out of the north helping keep things very nice.  A good-sized crowd had come in early in the afternoon and it just kept filling up the rest of the day.  By the time Blues Traveler came on, there were more than 25,000 people in the park.  It was just packed.   

We had another curve ball thrown at us late in the morning.  Chamberlin, a band from Vermont, had their tour van break down on the way to the show the night before and they wouldn't be able to make their appearance later in the day.  Kate Benson and I huddled and decided to give the five afternoon bands an extra 10 minutes to play to make up for the 50 minute set that we were going to lose.  It actually worked out pretty well.  Each band that we told we were going to give an extra 10 minutes on stage were literally ecstatic.  To them, playing River Roots Live was a big deal.  

One band that I was really looking forward to seeing was the Kris Lager Band, a blues band based out of Nebraska and an act that I'd seen before during a trip out to Omaha a few years ago. I even have one of their CD's in my collection, I liked them so much.  The only problem was that they were woefully late getting to the venue.  Along with River Roots Live going on, the Quad City River Bandits had a game that evening and it was to feature fireworks.  They had their biggest crowd of the season and traffic downtown was a mess.  Kris Lager and his band were stuck in traffic.  By the time they finally got parked, it was 20 minutes before their scheduled appearance.  But with our great stage and sound crew and the fact that they didn't have a lot of equipment for a four piece band, we were able to get them set up, do a line check for monitors and sent them off right at 7:30 p.m.  

After he played a blistering set that had people screaming for more music, I was able to talk a little bit with Kris Lager.  He said, "I heard you were freaking out that we were running late."  

I said, "In all the years of doing an event like this, I've never had a band show up so late.  And then we were able to get you guys up and going withing 20 minutes.  So, yeah, I was freaking out a bit."   

Kris told me later in the evening, "We've done hundreds of festivals like this over the years and I have to say that this is probably my all-time favorite.  The crowd, the river being right there, the whole set up.  This is first class."   

Wisconsin-based Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons was a band that was scheduled to play River Roots Live last year, but were canceled due to the rain we had on Friday night.  Well, just after the Kris Lager Band began to play that particular night, it began to rain - but ever so lightly.  Enough that you knew it was raining, but not heavy enough that you were running for cover.  And it only rained off and on for about 45 minutes.  By the time Cory Chisel and his band took the stage, the little bit of rain caused some major malfunctions with the sound at the festival.  He had to play a good portion of his set with feedback issues and sound cut-outs.  It was all the Rexroat Sound crew could do to keep it from falling apart.  Cory Chisel wasn't too happy with the problems, but it was Mother Nature and not shoddy workmanship that was causing it to happen.  Still, he put on a good show, but told me afterward that he was pretty frustrated that the rain played havoc - again - with his scheduled appearance at River Roots Live.  "I want to come back next year," he told me.  "And I want it to be warm and sunny!"  

After the Clydesdales made their entrance with Chad Pregracke on the barrel wagon along with Budweiser executives and people from the local distributor with him, it was time for Blues Traveler.  The last time Blues Traveler played, the band all came together on a bus, with the exception of lead singer/harmonica player John Popper (pictured at left) who flew in for the gig.  This time, they all came on the bus, but Popper has some pretty peculiar rituals the day of the show. While the band and crew were staying at a hotel over in Bettendorf, Popper was placed in one of the nicer hotels in downtown Davenport.  Gina told me, "It's just better for John to be seperated from the band.  He goes through all these pre-show rituals and it takes him forever to get ready for a show."  

At the last Blues Traveler show I worked years ago, I sensed a little bit of "prima donna" syndrome with Popper as he didn't hang with the band by the side of the stage as they were getting ready for the show.  The guys in the band, especially Chan Kinchla, were all great guys, easy going and fun to joke around with.  When Popper came out of the bus to go on stage, he had a handler to show him the way to the stage.  

This time, Popper showed up with one of our van-driven runners about an hour before the gig.  He's had some health issues over the years and Gina said that it's tough for him to get up and down stairs.  When I showed her that he only had to go up about seven or eight stairs inside the bandshell to get to the stage, she was happy with that.  While the guys in Blues Traveler still milled about backstage before the gig started, Popper relaxed in the bus.  

But once they started, he was great.  During set up earlier that morning, they had his custom microphone that he uses for both vocals and playing his mouth harp on an old table that looks like he's used for 20 years.  I found it to be rather interesting with the volume control and the buttons for his Hammond Leslie bottom that he used to play his harmonica through. I know I was probably committing some sort of sin for a stage manager, but I had to get a shot of it.  

After the show was over, the band came off the stage and I happened to be near the bus.  Each one of them shook my hand, including John Popper, who told me, "Thanks for having us back.  This was a great show." 

Later in the evening, one of the guys from Blues Traveler was still hanging around after the show and he went up to Cindy who had a River Roots Live "staff" shirt on.  He sort of touched her arm to get her attention and he told her, "Great job.  You guys know how to put on a show."  

Cindy told me later, "All I could say was 'thank you!'  I wish he would have told someone else who worked a lot harder and more hours than me!"  

Closing out the 2011 River Roots Live was an L.A.-based rhythm/soul/funk performer Nikka Costa.  Last year, we had Grace Potter and the Nocturnals close up the show after Creedence Clearwater Revisited played.  Our hope was to keep a good portion of the people in the park up to the midnight closure of the festival.  But it didn't quite happen as well as we planned.  This year, however, once Nikka Costa and her very good band got to starting as soon as Blues Traveler got off stage, I was simply amazed at how many people stuck around for her set.  While a large portion of the crowd filed out after Blues Traveler, there was three to four times the crowd that stuck around for Nikka Costa than did for Grace Potter last year.  

 And put on a show she did!  I don't generally get to see much of the entertainment at River Roots Live because I'm usually so damn busy behind the stage, but I did make it a point to go out to the sound board and catch some of Nikka Costa's act.  She had the crowd in her hand.  Dressed in a glittery top with spandex pants and high boots, Nikka belted out tune after tune, played percussion, sank to her knees for effect.  The crowd was really into her.  She was a great performer and I can't say enough about her band.  They were tight and on top of it in the hour or so that she played.  

When Nikka Costa came off the stage after her last song and the band was still playing, I was there with a flashlight to illuminate the path off the back of the side stage.  I said, "That was a great show.  But I've got to tell you, you've got one helluva band!"

She sort of laughed and said, "They are very good, aren't they?"

We had very little problems during this year's River Roots Live and some brainstorming directly after the event gave us some great ideas for next year's festival in August of 2012.  Tom Flaherty wants the event to get bigger, going after big name bands rather than older bands that primarily tour on their name.   I don't know if we're quite ready for that, but as energized (but physically beat) as I was after this year's River Roots Live, I almost can't wait for next year. 

Pagalo's Pizzeria - Milan, IL

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I'm not very fond of what I call "Quad City-style" pizza. It features lifeless ground sausage and bland tomato sauce on a thin, yet doughy pizza that are cut into long rectangles. Harris Pizza is the main pizza in the area and I'm simply amazed by the number of "cloned" restaurants around the Quad Cities that feature a similar style of pizza. Oh, there are a few places that buck the trend and one of them is a place called Pagalo's Pizzeria in the Illinois-side suburb of Milan (MY-lan).

For years, Pagalo's was better known as Pinocchio's Pizza and was one of the better places around the Quad Cities to get a pizza. I had mentioned Pinocchio's briefly in my synopsis of Quad City area pizza places in one of my first entries on this blog about five and a half years ago - an entry that is woefully outdated. (You can see that entry by clicking here.) Pinocchio's was started by businessman John Hoffman in 1996 and features wood-fired gourmet pizzas, the first of its kind in the Quad Cities. It started out as a small little place that sat about 35 to 40 people when it first opened, but in 1998 Hoffman expanded the restaurant to include a banquet/overflow room that effectively doubled the seats in the restaurant. In 2001, Hoffman took over the business that had occupied the street side frontage of the building and opened J Crickets, a bar/lounge that catered to cigar smokers. When the state of Illinois went smoke free in public places in January of 2008, that concept was literally snuffed out.

Last December, we went to Pinocchio's for a pizza and immediately noticed that the name had changed. It was now called "Pagalo's Pizzeria and Gelato Cafe". We were a little leery with the change, but we walked in and saw that the place was basically the same. After we sat down, Cindy asked the waitress what the deal was with the name change. She said, "Oh, the owner is looking to franchise the restaurant and it turned out that someone else had the Pinocchio name for a pizza place. So, he just changed the name. Everything else is the same, though."

It was a Friday evening and our son, Eric, was with us as we decided to go to Pagalo's (we still refer to it as "Pinocchio's - old habits die hard). It's about a 15 minute drive across the river, down I-74 to I-280 westbound and then getting off at the Airport Road exit which takes you into downtown Milan. Pagalo's is located right where Highway 67 and Airport Road meet up (see map). The parking lot is pretty small, but there is some overflow parking on the north side of the building. We were surprised to be able to get one of the spots just in front of Pagalo's.

For that time of the evening, we were surprised to find only one large party occupying a large table in the center of the well-lit main dining room at Pagalo's, with two or three other couples in the booths along the side walls. As time went along, more people showed up and it began to fill up fast.

The wood-fired oven is along the west wall of the main dining room with a tall counter that serves as a pizza preparation area between the oven and the main dining area. An electronic digital temperature gauge is prominently displayed on the wall next to the opening where you can see the flames dancing in the oven. That evening the temperature darted between 708 and 712 degrees F (375 to 377 C). It doesn't take long to cook a pizza at Pagalo's.

We sat in one of the corner booths and a waitress came over with some menus and took our drink orders. Many of the gourmet pizzas that Pinocchio's featured are the same with Pagalo's. Cindy especially loves the one that features fresh chopped tomatoes, red onions and garlic.

The Italian sausage at Pagalo's is still the same ground sausage like you can find at 90 percent of the other pizza places in the Quad Cities. But they use fresh mushrooms and pretty good pepperoni on their pizzas, and they cut them in traditional triangles, not the long skinny slices that could easily be made into party cuts if the pizza chef would just make a couple more cuts across the pizza.

Cindy wanted her special pizza that evening, so Eric and I decided to get a medium sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. Cindy got a small pizza with all her natural vegetarian stuff on top. She also got a small house salad with homemade poppy seed dressing to tide her over until the pizza came. Cindy also got a glass of the house Chianti wine to go along with her pizza.

As I said, it doesn't take long for the wood-fired oven to make a pizza at Pagalo's. I timed it this time with my timer on my new phone and it took just over 12 minutes from the time we placed our order to the time we got the pizza on the table. Cindy wasn't even close to being through with her salad by the time her pizza made it to the table.

The pizza crust at Pagalo's is thin and cripsy, but has a nice chewy texture to it. The crust edges are much thicker and are indicative of the hand-tossed nature of the dough. Cooking it in a wood-fired grill gives it a smoky and rich Neapolitan taste. The toppings are plentiful - they really put a lot of the ground sausage on the pizza Eric and I had - and very fresh. My only quibble would be that they need to put a little more fresh mozzarella cheese on top of the ingredients.

Well, another quibble had to do with the waitress. She seemed rather indifferent and sort of forgot about us a couple of times. The place was getting busier, but when I wanted to get another beer, she was up behind the counter doing something. When I finally did get her attention to get another beer, it took her about three minutes to retrieve one from J Crickets. And when she left the full bottle on the table, she neglected to pick up the empty. And when I went to pay with my credit card, the bill she left off at the table didn't match the total on the credit card receipt. We guessed that she was rather new to the wait staff at Pagalo's.

The bill is the other problem I had with Pagalo's. Cindy mentioned going to Lunardi's for dinner that evening, but I said that it was too expensive for three people. When she mentioned Pinocchio's (Pagalo's) I thought that would be a pretty good value for a meal. The bill for a medium pizza, a small pizza, two beers, a pop and a glass of wine for Cindy was about $47 bucks. To me, that was a little extravagant for a pizza place. Cindy said, "Well, maybe they raised their prices when they changed names." I'm guessing that was possibly true.

I may have to think twice about visiting Pagalo's in the future. The pizza is very good - not the best in the Quad Cities, in my opinion - but still much better than the Harris Pizza-style joints that proliferate the area. But the price tag was a little bit of a shocker for me. It thought it was about 8 to 10 bucks too high for what we got. But with the dearth of good pizza places in the Quad Cities, we may be forced to go back to Pagalo's down the road. But we just won't go there as frequently as we once did.

Steventon's - Le Claire, IA

While I do like fine dining, I thoroughly detest pretentious fine dining. Those are the kind of restaurants who are good and they either know it or think they are. Pretentious fine dining doesn't work well around the Quad Cities. Well, save for a place in Davenport called Duck City Bistro, a place that has been opened for nearly years. The owner/chef insists to be addressed as "Chef Charles" (or "Chef Chawles", as I like to call him) and anyone who is like that just drips with pretension. For that, I refuse to eat there. There's another place that Cindy and I went to years and years ago that smacked me with such a pretentious gob that I refused to go back - Steventon's in Le Claire, IA, just up the river from Davenport.

Well, that is, until recently. It was my birthday and I decided to give Steventon's a try after a 15 year exile from the place.

It was Cindy's birthday in the latter part of December 1995 and I asked her if she'd like to go somewhere nice for dinner that evening. We'd heard about Steventon's, a fine dining restaurant that had opened just three years before, and Cindy decided we would go out there. Now, I was dressed in a pair of slacks, a button down shirt and a pullover sweater. Cindy was dressed stylishly in a nice top with a sweater, designer jeans and nice shoes. When we entered the restaurant, the host asked if we had reservations and we did not. Then he proceeded to tell me, "We usually do not seat gentlemen who do not wear suit coats in the dining room. But we can make an exception this evening."

I wanted to turn around and walk out right there. But Cindy was set on Steventon's. Jacket required for dining anywhere in the Quad Cities just reeked of false pompicity. I told Cindy after the snooty host sat us at a table, "Our money spends just as well as those people in their suits."

While I remember the food was pretty good, it was a very uncomfortable experience. It was quite evident that we were not the clientele that Steventon's was looking for. And believe me, I was REALLY dressed up for me! But not dressed up enough for Steventon's.

A few years later, a good friends of ours told me that his wife and he had taken his parents to Steventon's for dinner. Knowing this guy would rather be wearing hunting clothes rather than a suit, I asked, "Did you have to wear a coat and tie?"

He said, "No, nothing like that. I wore a sweater and jeans. Hell, my dad was in a flannel shirt." It was evident that they had thoroughly relaxed their clothing requirement at Steventon's, but my initial visit had left a distasteful film in my mouth - one that didn't go away easily.

We had talked about going back to Geneseo and The Cellar, but I decided to head out to Le Claire and head up the little hill off of Interstate 80 and pull into the lot behind Steventon's (see map). Steventon's official name is "Steventon's Riverfront Food and Spirits", but it's quite a ways from the riverfront well south of the downtown Le Claire shopping and restaurant district. But you do have a good view of the Mississippi River and Port Byron, IL across the way.

As I said, Steventon's originally opened in 1992, the lifelong dream of Steventon Wagner, a local Quad City businessman, West Point graduate and Viet Nam War vet who longed to own a fine dining restaurant along the river. Unfortunately, Wagner died in November of 1995 at the young age of 57, but his wife Sharon, has kept the business going since then. She's helped by Jennifer Swanson, the general manager of the restaurant.

Juan Hernandez is the executive chef at Steventon's. He was formerly the sous chef at the restaurant and was elevated to the executive chef after the longtime Steventon's chef left in 2008. Hernandez got his start working as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Chicago. He ended up in the Quad Cities and went to work at Steventon's around 2004. We were told that Hernandez changed a few of the items on the menu when he took over, but much of the menu remains the same as it was since it opened up about 19 years ago.

They had expanded Steventon's from the last time we were there. We entered the restaurant from the parking lot and it took us into an expansive lounge with a nice bar and a good view of the river. This time, I was dressed in blue jeans, cross-trainers, an orange t-shirt with a black V-neck sweater over that. Cindy had a nice top and jeans on. We were much more underdressed than our previous visit. But the young hostess didn't flinch when we asked for a table for two. She said that she wanted to make up a table near the window for us. Moments later, she led us to our table, seated us and placed menus on the table. It was just before sunset and we had a good view of the river down the hill from us.

We don't like to have a bunch of people around us when we eat at nicer places if it can be helped. It wasn't all that busy for a Wednesday evening at Steventon's. Directly behind Cindy was a large group of John Deere engineers, but they were on their last leg of their meal and left soon after we sat down. And another couple was seated directly behind me at another window view table. Cindy thought it was rather strange that the hostess sat us in between two other parties considering there were open tables along the window back toward the bar. I figured those tables had been reserved. But as the night went on, only one other group of four people came into the restaurant and were seated at one of those tables. Oh well...

The dining room looked a little bigger from our last trip to Steventon's. It seemed a little longer to me. Cindy said she remembered a lot of tableside food preparation. But she was also more interested in the artwork on the walls of the dining room. A local artist out of the Bucktown Galleries in Davenport had a number of pieces of art on display at Steventon's and Cindy said that one of our neighbors had some similar artwork in their house.

The wine list for Steventon's is located in the dinner menu. It's not very long, but the first thing that caught my eye was a 2006 Jordan cabernet they had priced for $70. This is the same bottle of wine that I see regularly at other restaurants for upwards of $100 to $115 dollars a bottle. Cindy said, "Wow! That's a great price on the Jordan, isn't it?"

It sure was and when our waitress for the evening, Ashley, came to the table I ordered up a bottle of the Jordan cab for us.

Later on, I happened to find the drink menu and I found that in addition to a number of specialty martinis that they featured, Steventon's also had a reserve wine list. There were only about a dozen wines on the reserve list including about five cabernets, but it was as overpriced as much as I thought that the Jordan cab was underpriced. They had a Cakebread Cellars cab on the reserve list for $125. It's a nice wine, but it's about $25 to $35 higher than what I've seen on the wine list of other restaurants.

Ashley came back with the wine and told us of some specials they had that evening. For an appetizer, they were featuring pan-seared scallops and topped with a spicy creole cream sauce. Two entrees they had for the specials that evening were a horseradish encrusted fresh salmon and another dish that I can't remember. We had Ashley put in an order for the scallops appetizer and I looked over the menu.

Actually, I was sort of interested in a steak that evening and Steventon's had a number of different ones to choose from. Some of their signature steaks included a bone-in 20 oz "cowboy" rib eye. You could also get it "Oscar style" with shrimp, asparagus and a bearnaise sauce, or "Steve's style" with blue cheese, cracked peppercorns and and chopped green onions on top. That sounded really good.

Possibly their most popular steak is the Bushmills Whiskey steak - they take a 16 oz. New York strip, marinate it in Bushmills Irish whiskey, chargrill it, then cover it with a cream sauce and and scallions. It was sort of expensive for $37 bucks, but it was a possibility.

Steventon's also had an 8 oz. filet infused with garlic cloves called the Filet Patori. They topped it with a caramelized onion glaze sauce. That sounded good, too! Another one that caught my eyes were the Tournedoes New Orleans - two filet medallions each topped with a Cajun seasoned shrimp, then covered with a mushroom cream and green onion sauce. That got Cindy's saliva glands hopping. But she hates mushrooms and I pointed out that it had a mushroom sauce. (I have a number of great recipes that feature mushrooms, but she was evidently scarred as a little kid from having too many meals that were made with cream of mushroom soup.) She said, "I'm warming up to the idea of mushrooms." Wow! I was floored!

Steventon's also had pork chops, chicken entrees, seafood, pasta and even lamb chops. But I was torn between a couple of the steak entrees.

Ashley brought out the scallops and asked if we were ready to order our main entrees. Cindy was ready and ordered the Tournedos New Orleans. She got a side with the meal and she ordered wild rice. She also ordered the Steventon's signature salad - the Plantation. It featured lettuce greens topped with a garlic dressing and fresh parmesan cheese with homemade bagel chips mixed in.

I was torn between the cowboy rib eye - Steve's style - and the Filet Patori. Ashley said, "Do you like blue cheese?" I told her I did in moderation. She said, "Well, the Steve's style is literally encrusted in blue cheese. If you don't like a lot of blue cheese, then you may not like that."

I said, "OK, I'll do the Filet Patori."

She said, "Oh, that's my favorite. We actually cut into the filet and place garlic cloves inside the meat. Then we put this sweet onion glaze sauce over the top. It's my favorite."

I sort of hesitated when she said, "Sweet onion glaze sauce." I don't like a sauce that is too sweet on my steak. I contemplated for a second about the Bushmills Whiskey steak, but didn't pipe up. I let my order stand with the filet, rare, also with a side of wild rice.

I remembered that Steventon's lobster bisque was outstanding from our earlier visit and I told her that I wanted to get a cup of that and a wedge salad. She was sort of amazed that I wanted soup AND a salad. But it was my birthday, so what the hell!

Turning our attention back to the scallops - there were three good-sized scallops that smelled a little fishy from a distance, but they were actually pretty good with the spicy sauce mixed with them. They had a nice little chargrilled taste to them and weren't fishy to the taste buds. We both had a whole one and split the third. Cindy was a little miffed that we didn't have any bread on the table. "I wouldn't mind sopping up some of that sauce," she said.

After a bit, Ashley brought out the lobster bisque. I remembered it to be more of a light cream color and loaded with chunks of lobster. This was more of a cheese/tomato based bisque with three little chunks of lobster. A piece of toasted brioche-type bread accompanied the bisque.

Well, at least I THOUGHT it was either a cheese or tomato based bisque. I didn't think it was all that great. I let Cindy have a spoonful and she said, "Oh, that's not the same lobster bisque that I remember, either. You're right, it's sort of like a cheese soup with lobster in it."

When Ashley came back to check on the bisque, she asked how I liked it. I said, "This isn't the same from what we remember. Does he use a cheese base or a tomato base?"

She got a pained look on her face and said, "No, we start out with a lobster reduction. There's no cheese or tomatoes in the bisque."

I sort of shrugged my shoulders and said, "Oh, OK. Well, I could have sworn it was more a cheese soup than a bisque. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just don't remember it being that way."

As she took away the cup of bisque, she said, "You know, we changed chefs about three years ago and it could be that he changed the recipe of the lobster bisque. I know some of the menu items changed when he took over."

It wasn't that it was bad, but it wasn't as good as the lobster bisque that we'd had before. But, once again, that was 15 years ago.

Our salads came out soon after and Cindy's Plantation salad covered a standard size plate. My wedge salad was on a similar sized plate and covered in creamy blue cheese with real bacon bits and sweet pecans. I usually don't like pecans, but these were a nice touch with the salad. A couple of red onion rings sat precariously on top the concoction. Quite frankly, I thought my wedge salad was pretty good.

I asked Cindy if there was a lot of garlic in salad dressing and she said, "No. I can hardly taste the garlic." She wasn't overly thrilled with her salad. She thought the salad was pretty bland overall. She made an effort to eat about half of it before she gave up. I suggested that maybe some anchovies would help liven up the salad. Cindy said, "I think it needed more than anchovies."

Not long after we finished our salads, Ashley brought out our steaks to the table. The presentation was nice, but I was sort of surprised with the amount of the onion glaze sauce on my filet. It was literally swimming in this rich brown onion sauce. I like a good sauce on the steak, but I thought it was a little too much. But I was pleasantly surprised with the size of the filet. They said it would 8 oz. on the menu, but it looked to be bigger than that.

Cindy's Tournedos New Orleans looked delectable. The filet medallions sat on either side of the wild rice on her plate with the two Cajun shrimp scampi resting on top. The light mushroom cream sauce wasn't quite as overpowering on her plate as the sweet onion glaze was on my steak. It all looked very nice.

My steak was a tad overcooked. It was more medium-rare than rare. And the sauce was a little too sweet for my taste. It completely overpowered the taste of the steak. About half of the sauce served would have been fine with me. I'll have to say that the Filet Patori was just "OK". I let Cindy have a bite of the steak with the sauce and she sort of made a face and said, "Oooo, that sauce IS sweet. I'm surprised you got that. I would have bet you were going to get the whiskey steak."

Looking back, I wish I would have.

Cindy's piece of my steak that she tried had a large chunk of garlic in it. There were three or four medium sized cloves that were cut into my filet and they were punguent. Cindy said, "My God! I can taste the garlic now! There won't be any vampires bugging us tonight!"

But Cindy seemed to like her Tournedos New Orleans. She gave me a bite of one of the medallions with the mushroom cream sauce. It was better than mine. As Cindy jokingly pointed out, she always seems to get the better of the two meals whenever we go out to a nice restaurant.

We finished our meals and Ashley cleaned up the plates. By this time, we were the only people in the dining room, save for the table of four near the bar area. It was a nice, relaxing time and we finished up the rest of the Jordan cabernet.

Ashley came out with a dessert tray that included a lemon cake, a chocolate mousse tort and a couple other things. She said, "We also featured a homemade creme brulee that's pretty good."

Cindy didn't make me a cake or pick one up for my birthday - I didn't really want one. But I was sucked in to the lemon cake on the dessert tray. I talked Cindy into getting the creme brulee as I ordered up a slice of the lemon cake.

I asked Ashley what kind of Scotch they had in the bar. She said, "Oh, Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker..."

I said, "What do you have for single malts? Glenlivet? Glenfiddich?"

She said, "Yeah, you named about all we have."

I asked if I could go to the bar and take a closer look and she said, "Sure!"

They didn't have a lot single malts in their inventory, but I did see a bottle of the Macallan 12 year. I ordered up one neat, with a couple ice cubes to help open it up.

Ashley brought out the desserts with my scotch. Actually, it looked like a double. And it was - Ashley said, "He went a little overboard with the pour, but he'll only charge you for a single." That was fine with me.

The desserts were, well, not all that great. The lemon cake was presented very nicely with a little lemon cream drizzle under the slice, but it was sort of dried out and not as a forward lemon taste that I prefer in my lemon cake. Cindy and I traded bites of our desserts and I found her creme brulee to be pretty average. She said, "Yeah, it's not that great. I've had better. And you're right. Your cake is pretty dry."

Ashley came out with our bill and she said, "We took off the lobster bisque since you didn't like it."

I howled in protest, "It was all right. I didn't say I didn't like it. I just thought it was different than what I remember."

She wouldn't hear of it. "No, no. I could tell you didn't like it. We won't charge people for what they don't like."

I half-jokingly said, "Well, in that case, I didn't really care for my steak all that much either." Cindy and our waitress just laughed. However, I think Ashley's laughter was more of a nervous laugh.

We went all out at Steventon's for my birthday. The bill with a nice tip for Ashley ended up on the near side of $200 bucks. I thought the meal and desserts well over-priced for what it was. Cindy did like her filet medallions, but was disappointed in her salad and creme brulee. But I thought the Jordan cabernet was a good price and I couldn't complain with the double shot of Scotch for an after dinner drink.

Before we left, Ashley took us out on the new two-tiered outdoor seating area that Steventon's recently built. She said that they have a separate bar menu that features burgers, sandwiches and appetizers. She said, "As soon as the weather starts getting nicer, you need to come back out for lunch on the deck. Or, heck, come out and have one of our martinis on the deck."

Steventon's also has a notable Sunday brunch that I understand is pretty popular. But, just like the meal we had, the brunch is also pricey at $20 bucks a head. The food was OK at Steventon's, but not a very good value. The service was good and there wasn't a bit of pretension or snobbery on this visit. While it will probably be some time before we go back to Steventon's, it probably won't be 15 years before our next visit.

Lee's on 14th - Rock Island, IL

My buddy, Greg Hipskind, the drummer for Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls, Superfly Samurai, and the Midwest touring edition of Caroline's Spine, texted me one day earlier this year and said, "Excellent burger at Lee's on 14th in Rock Island. Gotta go there sometime." He had just finished having lunch with his dad there and he texted a second time, "But don't order the double. My dad did and he regretted it. It was huge!"

 

I texted Greg to see where Lee's on 14th was as I didn't seem to be familiar with it. He texted back, "On 14th street in Rock Island. Next to La Rancherita."

I knew where La Rancherita was, but I was sort of confused as to where Lee's on 14th was in Rock Island. After dinner one evening, Cindy and I drove up the hill to go past La Rancherita. As we went past La Rancherita, just down the street my eye caught the sign for Lee's on 14th. Cindy exclaimed, "Oh! We've been here! This was the place we had breakfast!"

On New Year's Eve day, we had tentatively agreed to meet some friends for breakfast at Jimmy's Pancake House in Bettendorf. We got over there around 8:30 and the place was packed (as always - Jimmy's is damn good!). Our friends were there, but they were seated at a booth for four. Instead of staying and waiting for a table for six, I decided to cut our losses and go someplace else for breakfast. It didn't sit well with Cindy. "I would have waited," she pouted as I tried to figure out a place for breakfast.

We went across the river and a place that Cindy had enjoyed in the past was closed up. It turned out they had closed a week before Christmas while they went through some organizational and ownership changes. So, we drove around for a bit more before I remembered this little place called The Waffle House on 14th St. in Rock Island. We pulled up to the place and it was no longer the Waffle House, but called Lee's on 14th. We decided to go in and have breakfast.

Lee's on 14th breakfast menu - click on the picture to enlarge.

 

And I'm glad we did because it was very good. The blueberry pancakes were just outstanding. They fold the blueberries into the batter rather than just putting them on top. I happened to leave my phone in the car and Cindy implored me to go out and get it so I could get pictures of the breakfast we had. I told her, "This place is good. We'll be back. I can get pictures then."

When I went to pay at the cash register before we left, I met the owner, Lisa Slaight. We told her we really liked the food and she was overly appreciative. She told us that this place was, indeed, the old Waffle House. She said they bought it early last year and opened last fall. Lisa told us, "We didn't realize how much work it was going to be to basically remodel everything in this place. It took us nearly 8 months of work before we opened up."

And it's not that big of a place. There's a small counter that seats seven or eight people, along with about five booths and a like number of tables. But it has knotty pine panels on the wall with some rural and rustic accessories on the wall. She told us at the time that they were only serving breakfast at that time, but hoped to start serving lunch very soon.

 

After Greg texted me a couple three months later, it was fully apparent that they were serving lunch now. I called him up a couple days later and I said, "So, Lee's on 14th does a great burger, huh?"

He said, "Oh, buddy! They're huge and they're cheap! My dad ordered a double cheeseburger and he's a big guy, right? Well, he couldn't finish the thing!"

Greg and I immediately made plans to go have lunch there at some point very soon. He said, "Yeah, but they're only open until 2 p.m., so we'll have to make sure we get there before then."

 

A couple months ago, it turned out that for the first time in weeks I'd be home on a Friday. I called Greg up the day before and told him that we needed to run over to Lee's on 14th for lunch. He said, "Cool! Give me a call tomorrow and we'll set it up."

I picked Greg up around 12:30 p.m. that next day at his place in Moline and we drove over to Lee's on 14th. Parking is plentiful up and down the street around Lee's on 14th. We went in and took the last booth available in the corner. Lee's on 14th was hoppin' for lunch just like it was hoppin' for breakfast the one morning we were there.

The waitress brought us menus and Greg said, "I think we know what we want." We both got the cheeseburger baskets that came with fries and your choice of cottage cheese, cole slaw and, I believe, pasta salad with the basket. Greg and I both got the cottage cheese. Greg sort of laughed when she took our order and said, "That was pretty simple!"

They certainly didn't rush the burgers as it was a good 15 minutes between the time we ordered and when she brought out the burgers. I couldn't believe my eyes - the burgers WERE huge! I could see where Greg's dad would have problems eating a double cheeseburger because one was big enough! They were a hand-pattied burger topped with two slices of cheese that didn't even cover the face of the meat. Fresh lettuce, pickles and a very fresh tomato (considering the time of year, it was six months before any vine ripened tomatoes would be available locally) came with the burger. It was all we could do to get our mouth into a full bite of burger, toppings, condiments and buns.

Here's Greg making his best effort to get a full bite into this burger at Lee's on 14th. The only thing that I'd have to say about the burger is that the flat top grill helps with the taste of burgers like the ones at Lee's on 14th. It's evident from the taste of the burger that the grill isn't "broken in" yet for a flat top burger grill. There are a number of places that have burger meat just like Lee's on 14th, but the grill has it's own flavor that helps with the taste of the burger. While the burger was meaty and lean, it was a tad drowsy in taste. Not that it was bad - far from it. But as I told Greg, "I wonder what a burger from here will taste like three or five years down the road. Once that grill gets more burgers on it, it will develop it's own taste and character. It will transfer to the meat and make it even better."

   

Greg shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think it's pretty damn good as it is!"

   

And Greg was right about the price - the burger basket at Lee's on 14th is only $4.95. "That's friggin' cheap," Greg exclaimed. "And the thing about it, a double cheeseburger is only a buck more! How can they do that?!"

 

When I went up to pay for our lunch, I handed the waitress a $20 (they do take credit cards, as well) and she gave me back about 7 bucks and a lot of change. I just took the five dollar bill and gave her the rest. It was a helluva value even with the nice little tip for the waitress.

 

Lee's on 14th is open every day except Sunday from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m 2 p.m. Both visits I've been there, the food has been very, very good. It's small and you may have to wait for a place to sit down, but it's worth it. I'm hoping it doesn't get TOO busy where they'll have to turn customers away. But if they keep it up with the great breakfasts and the large burgers, it could very well turn out that way.

The Cellar - Geneseo, IL

Cindy wanted to go out for steak recently and we discussed going to Bud's Skyline Inn over in Moline for dinner. But we'd had a couple bad experiences the past couple of visits and decided to pass on Bud's. We thought about The Captain's Table on River Drive in Moline, but the Mississippi River was flooding and it would have been tough to make our way around the detours to get to the place (it turned out that all access to The Captain's Table was shut down due to flood waters). So, I made the decision on the spot to head over to Geneseo, IL, just about 15 miles from the Quad Cities, but close enough to be considered part of the metro area, and have dinner at a place we hadn't been to for quite some time, The Cellar.

The Cellar is located in the basement of the historic Geneseo House in downtown Geneseo at the corner of State and Main (see map). The Geneseo House was built in 1877 and was (at that time) a state of the art four-story hotel. The hotel had gone out of business in the 50's and stood empty until brothers Bob and Stan Bestor purchased the building and put a restaurant in the cellar of the building. Calling it, of course, The Cellar, the restaurant featured fine dining and banquet facilities. However, since Geneseo's population was hovering around 6,000 people at that time, the Bestor's relied upon the new Interstate 80 that would allow customers from the Quad Cities to make it to their restaurant in a jiffy.

When the Bestor's opened The Cellar in 1960, their first chef was Bob Schaefer. Schaefer eventually bought the business and building from the Bestor's in 1977. In 1980, a young kid by the name of Scott Stetter came in and asked for a job. Schaefer put him to work as a busboy and a dishwasher, with Stetter eventually working his way into the kitchen and becoming head chef. In 2000, Stetter bought the restaurant from Schaefer. (Schafer still owns the building and much of the space on the upper floors is used as office space.) Stetter continues to work as the head chef at The Cellar and you can see him most nights laboring over the large grated charcoal grill in the kitchen.

The Cellar consists of two main dining areas and a bar area with a banquet are off to the side of the bar. Local artists have their artwork on display on the stone walls of the restaurant. The lighting is subdued and each table features a lit candle. It gave the dining area a nice little coziness. However, the tables in the dining area are a little too close to one another, putting people in pretty close proximity.

It was around 7:30 on a Friday evening when we got to The Cellar. We found some parking on the side street and went down the stairs into the restaurant. We were wondering if we would be able to get in without a wait, but the hostess took us directly to the back dining room and sat us at a table along the wall. Cindy looked at the closeness of the tables around us and she said, "Wow! They really like to cram 'em in here, don't they?"

We were given menus and the waitress came over to take our drink orders. I looked over the wine list and while it was pretty short, they did have a couple three good red wines on the list. Cindy wasn't certain that she wanted much more than a glass of wine that evening, so she ordered an in-house-brewed iced-tea and I got a Bud Light for the time being.

Steaks, chops and seafood are the headliners at The Cellar. They're famous for their chargrilled shrimp served with drawn butter. I considered getting a "surf and turf" combination that evening with the grilled shrimp and a steak.

Another specialty at The Cellar are their skewered beef filet tips. They only have those from time to time, usually after they've cut up a number of filets off of a full tenderloin. It turned out that they had them this particular evening and that's what Cindy ordered. She also got a side of their hash browns mixed with cheese and onions.

I ordered the regular filet, rare. I also got the hash browns with the cheese and onions. We also both got salads - Cindy got the homemade garlic, I got the Italian vinegar and oil with blue cheese crumbles on top. And when the waitress brought out our main entrees, I asked her to bring out a couple glasses of the Avalon Napa Valley Cabernet.

The salads were good, nothing outstanding. The garlic dressing Cindy had wasn't as overpowering as she seems to like her garlic dressing. Nonetheless, I still had to have a bite of her salad with the dressing or I wouldn't have been able to sleep with her that night, no matter how many times she brushed her teeth before we went to bed. My vinegar and oil dressing was pretty basic, but the blue cheese was definitely fresh and had a rich taste. Glad I learned about that combination a number of years ago.

The waitress brought out our glasses of wine saying that she wanted to make sure the wine was on the table before she brought our steak. And it wasn't much longer when she came back with our main entrees.

As I said, it had been a long time since we'd been to The Cellar, but the presentation was very nice. Our beef entrees along with the hash browns were served on a nice, somewhat ornate plate. Everything was very nice. I was a little taken back by the hash browns. It looked like they were more of a potato pancake with some cheddar cheese melted on top. But I soon found that the hash browns were certainly made in house with fresh potatoes, and the onions were cooked in with the potatoes rather than sauteed on the side and mixed in before they were put on the plate. They were very good.

And whoever cooked my steak that evening got the temperature right on (above right). The filet was thick and tender with a nice grill ring around the top and bottom of the steak. It was absolutely fabulous.

And Cindy's filet tips were also very good. She likes hers a little more medium than I and she told me that the tips were cooked perfectly. They, too, were tender and flavorful with a great chargrilled taste to the meat.

 

I also forgot to mention that with dinner we got these little sticky honey buns that were just outstanding. In fact, everything was wonderful at The Cellar. Half way through the meal we were questioning each other as to why it had taken so long to come back over to Geneseo to have dinner there. It's definitely worth the 20 minute or so drive - one way - for us from Davenport over to The Cellar.

 

 

 

 

 

Before we left, we went into the bar area to look around. It's not all that big and not that many people were in there. The bar itself is a dark-wood, three-sided small bar with lighted candles on top. There were a number of small tables in the room, also with lighted candles. It's definitely a nice place to hang out if you have to wait for a table at The Cellar.

As we were getting ready to walk out the door, I glanced into the glass enclosed kitchen/grill area. Scott Stetter silently mouthed, "Thank you!" and waved at us.

I waved back and also silently thanked him and then exaggeratedly mouthed, "We'll be back!"

 

And not long ago, we were. We were invited by some friends of ours to join them for an anniversary dinner at The Cellar with two other couples who had never been there before. This time, I had the 6 oz. grilled boneless pork chop and 5 count grilled shrimp combination. They grill both the pork chop and the shrimp with a homemade barbecue glaze - somethling that I don't care for during the cooking process. Then to top it off, the waitress brought out melted butter for the shrimp and a side of sweet barbecue sauce for the pork chop. I have to question why they glazed the shrimp and pork chop with the barbecue sauce, and then brought out butter and barbecue sauce. Actually, the shrimp were pretty good, but the pork chop was a little thin and a tad overcooked for my liking. But I should have asked for both without the glaze.

 

On this trip, Cindy got the grilled orange roughy that she said was very good. She got a side of rice with hers (I got the good ol' hash browns with onions mixed in and a dollop of cheese on top). While she had a salad with the homemade garlic dressing - this time with more zip in the garlic than last - I had a cup of their outstanding French onion soup before dinner.

 

The two other couples who had never been to The Cellar before seemed to like it very much. All of them had steak and they all raved about how good it was. Cindy said, "I should have gotten the steak, too. It smelled so good."

I love places like The Cellar. While tons of places have come or gone during their 50-plus years of existence, The Cellar has persevered through a couple of tough economic times during that period. The price of the meal wasn't out of line, the service was very good, and the food was just excellent. Sometimes you've got to go to the small towns to get some of the best steaks available, and The Cellar is absolutely one of those types of places.  

An Update on Two Quad City Area Eateries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Creekside "Two-Tone" Sandwich and Juicy Lucy Burger

First of all, I have to remind readers of Road Tips that the owner of Creekside Bar and Grill in Davenport, Randy Adams, is a good friend of mine. (You can read my initial entry on Creekside here.) We grew up together in Newton, IA and even though he moved away nearly 30 years ago, we stayed friends as I would visit him on my business trips to Davenport.

 

When I moved to the Quad Cities just coming up to 20 years ago on June 1, Randy and became fast friends again and have shared a lot of good times since I've been here. When Randy opened Creekside Bar and Grill about five years ago (see map), he wanted to have a great burger on the menu. Through a series of hiccups, trial and error and finding the right cooks, he finally has a pretty damn good burger, including his very good portobello mushroom, bacon, Swiss cheese burger that Randy's step-son, Stephen, came up with last year. It's a two-time nominee for the "Best Burger in Iowa" by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.

 

Randy told me recently that his other step-son, Ryan, came up with a sandwich on his own - the Two-Tone. Ryan's nickname is "Two-Tone" (I think it had something to do with a colored splotch in his hair that he used as a fashion statement at one point) and he designed a grilled pork tenderloin sandwich that was topped with a homemade onion ring, jalapeno peppers and cheese. Then for good measure, he put on some of his grandfather's homemade barbecue sauce.

 

On a recent Sunday night when Ryan was cooking at Creekside, he made one for a customer to try. The guy raved about it so much that someone else ordered one up. Then someone else ordered one. By the time he finished his grill time that evening, he had made 10 of this new sandwich which wasn't even on the menu at Creekside. In fact, they weren't really certain what to charge for it.

 

Randy soon told me that Ryan had come up with this new sandwich and that I needed to come up and give one a try. I was in Creekside on a recent visit and I was sort of hungry. Randy said, "Hey, you should try one of those Two-Tone sandwiches that Ryan made." Ryan just happened to be cooking that day.

 

I exclaimed, "Yeah, that's right! What's it again?"

  

Ryan said, "I grill a pork chop, cut it in half, serve it double decker style with cheese and jalapenos in the middle. Then I put an onion ring on top and then pour some of Grandpa's barbacue sause on it."

 

I said, "OK, you got me when you said, 'Grandpa's barbecue sauce'."

  

(As an aside, the barbecue sauce is made by our good friend, Randy Brekke. Both Randy's got to know each other when they were in an apprentice program at the Rock Island Arsenal. Randy Adams, in turn, met Randy Brekke's daughter, Lorrie, years ago. After both went through a couple failed marriages, Lorrie moved back to the Quad Cities from San Diego and got together with Randy Adams almost two years ago. They were married last fall in a ceremony in which I officiated - yes, I'm also an ordained minister legally able to conduct weddings and other non-religious ceremonies for people. But that's another story...)

 

The barbecue sauce that Randy Brekke makes - aptly named "Randy B's" - is a sweet and somewhat peppery sauce that I have to say is damn good. It has a little bit of zip to the taste and it is, by far, the best homemade barbecue sauce that I've ever tasted. Like most homemade beer, most homemade barbecue sauces I've tasted aren't all that good. If you say it's bad, it's like you've told the person their kid is ugly.  I can't say that about Randy B's sauce.  It's very, very good.

 

He now makes his sauce for Creekside and was kind enough to give me a small jar of it to use at home. I think he told me that Creekside is going through about three gallons a month and that will grow precipitously once they soon begin using this new smoker (pictured above left and right) that Randy Brekke designed and helped build.

 

Ryan commenced to make the Two-Tone for me, placing the thin, non-breaded tenderloin on the open grill and preparing the large homemade onion ring for placement on the top. It took about 12 minutes to make, and I have to say that because it was me he was extra diligent in making sure everything was right. He served it to me and here's what it looked like below left.

From the first bite, I was hooked. The Two-Tone was thick, juicy and cheesy with that great barbecue sauce on it. The jalapenos weren't all that hot - toe me, anyway - and didn't over power the overall taste of the sandwich. The onion ring - although Stephen still hasn't come up with the right seasoning for their homemade batter - was a nice additional taste that went well with the pork tenderloin.

 

Now, as I look at the pictures, there seems to be something else on top of the onion ring. I believe it's white cheddar cheese. 

 

Randy and I were sitting at the bar, and as I was eating the sandwich he was smiling as I kept exclaiming how good the sandwich was between my favorable grunts and "mmmmm" noises. Randy turned to Ryan and asked, "Now, how did you come up with this?" 

 

Ryan said, "I started to figure out all the things that I'd like on a sandwich and I just put it all together. Grandpa's barbecue sauce was the key, I think."

 

All I know is that it was certainly very good. There's a lot of stuff going on with a Two-Tone pork tenderloin sandwich and Ryan came up with a real winner on this one. 

A couple weeks after I tried the "Two-Tone" sandwich at Creekside, I happened to be in there one afternoon and Stephen was cooking. Randy had been telling me about Stephen's version of a "Juicy Lucy", the cheese stuffed burger that is so famous up in the Twin Cities. Stephen starts off with two hand-pattied burgers, stuffs them with pepper jack cheese, then tops it out with jalapenos and white cheddar cheese.  I decided to give one a try.

When Stephen brought his "Juicy Lucy" to me at the bar, I was amazed at the size of it.  It wasn't quite like taking two of their regular burgers and putting them together, but it was close.  The cheese was just oozing out of and off the top of the burger.  Randy was sitting there and he said, "It's pretty good, isn't it?"

I said, "Man, it sure is!"  The spicy cheese and the jalapeno's gave the burger a little bit of a bite, but not overpowering enough to detract from the overall taste of the burger.  The bun continues to be a big selling point with any Creekside sandwich and the toasted egg bun is a great compliment to their sandwiches and burgers.  Creekside's "Juicy Lucy" would have put up a good fight against any of the similar burgers I've had in the Twin Cities.

Randy, who is always on the lookout for menu ideas when he goes out and around to other restaurants and bars, said that he's seen variations of the "Juicy Lucy" on a number of menus of places he's been.  "Oh, yeah.  I'm starting to see a lot of places that do cheese stuffed burgers." 

Well, I travel a lot and I don't seem to find them outside of the Twin Cities.  Maybe I need to pay a little bit better attention. 

The key to a good "Juicy Lucy" style burger is to not over-cook the burger while you get the inner cheese to melt.  Stephen did a fine job in making sure that didn't happen.  The one thing Randy preaches at Creekside is consistentcy.  Between Stephen, Ryan and the other cook, Alyssa, they all do a fine job.  Creekside Bar and Grill is one of the most underrated and unknown places for good burgers and sandwiches in the Quad Cities.

 

The Flood of 2011

Over this past weekend, the Mississippi River topped out at 20.7 feet in the Quad Cities - 5.7 feet above flood stage.  Although it never got to the projected 21.2 feet, it was still the sixth highest flood in history.  The above picture is a panoramic view of the Mississippi on the left, Le Claire Park along the riverfront (and sometimes in the river) straight ahead, and River Drive along the south side of downtown Davenport to the right.  Last Saturday was the nicest day we've had around here for quite sometime, so I decided to take the camera out and get some pictures of the flood.

The pictures I took were in the morning on Saturday and right at about the time the river crested.  Below to the left is a picture of River Drive right next to the Village of East Davenport.  This is just down the hill from our house and provided a good starting point for a tour of the flood area around the Quad Cities.   River Drive is one of the main thoroughfares in Davenport and it has been shut down now for about two weeks.  As the water continues to drop, they hope to have parts of it open by this weekend. 

Above right is a picture of the corner of Mound and River Drive in Davenport.  This is the main entrance to the Village of East Davenport shopping and entertainment area, so having the intersection effectively closed put a damper on business for a number of merchants.  Notice the Davenport police car sitting as a lookout for anyone who dared to go around the "road closed" signs and into the water on River Drive.  The water depth is deceiving on some of these roads. 

The Iowa American Water plant just south and west of the Village of East Davenport was fully prepared to keep the river out.  Initial projections of the flood had the river topping 25 feet in the Quad Cities thanks to an abundance of snow up in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  However, cold temperatures up north slowed the melting process and the river didn't come up as high as earlier expected.  Even with more snow and some rain up north, when the river did flood they knew it would be high, but not as high as earlier expected. 

Not wanting to go through what Des Moines went through in 1993 when they lost their clean water for nearly 2 weeks, Iowa American Water built a flood barrier that would keep the river out up to 25 feet.  In the past, flood protection consisted primarily of just sandbags.  This flood, the City of Davenport bought hundreds of Hesco Bastion barriers to keep the water out.  The barriers - used primarily for military purposes, civil construction and security - are also great for keeping flood waters out of areas.  The bastions are 4' X 4' X 4' and can be erected, put in place and filled with sand in about a third of the time - and at a much lower cost - than traditional sandbagging efforts.  Iowa American had a 200 yard barrier in front of the water plant along the levee just up the river from downtown Davenport.  Although the water didn't make it over the levee, they were certainly ready for it to happen.

Heading down along River Drive toward the downtown (it was open westbound only at Mound Street), I went along until I hit the eastern end of the detour that took people around the flood waters in downtown Davenport.  Below left is the corner of Federal and River Drive.  Hesco barriers are holding back about three feet of flood water over River Drive.  Once again, this was at the height of the flood. 

Davenport is the largest city along the upper Mississippi River that does not have a permanent flood levee.  It's a point of consternation with some taxpayers and with the federal government who is tired of funding clean up efforts in Davenport after major floods.  However, if you walk along the Davenport riverfront on a warm summer evening, you'll quickly figure out that having a flood barrier would ruin the view and the ambiance of the river would be significantly altered.  Thanks to three of the biggest floods to hit the area over the past 18 years, the City of Davenport really has their act together.  They began to mobilize flood efforts back in March when it appeared that this would be a big one.  When projections were down-sized, the city workers did a remarkable job of getting the barriers up and protecting businesses in the Davenport area.  Still, some businesses along River Drive and in the East Village suffered, but at least they weren't completely closed up and facing a long clean up after the flood.

The above picture is of Lock and Dam 15 along the Mississippi.  Between the fencing on the left and the grass on the right is River Drive.  This picture was taken from the north entrance to the Government Bridge that takes people over to the Rock Island Arsenal.  River Drive dips below the bridge and right under me the water was about 10 to 12 feet deep.

Above left is a stairwell that goes from 2nd St. down to River Drive.  The water was up to the second step above the landing and there's another 15 steps or so down to River Drive.   Above right, here's a picture of River Drive looking up river from the Government Bridge.  The sign, itself, is about 11 feet high to the top, and it's sitting on an upslope that brings River Drive up from under the Government Bridge.  This part of River Drive is usually the first place to flood and the last place to get rid of water when it floods on the Iowa side of the river.

I went across the Government Bridge and ended up in downtown Rock Island.  They have a permanent flood barrier as well as temporary flood walls that they put in place when the river comes up.  I climbed up on the permanent flood wall and took this panoramic picture of the Davenport riverfront.  Yeah, it's sort of difficult to see unless you zoom your browser up to about 400%, but the picture stretches from the Centennial Bridge on the left, Modern Woodmen Park just to the right of the bridge, then Le Claire Park, the Figge Art Museum, Rhythm City Casino and on up river to Lock and Dam 15.  I've got this panorama program that can stitch some pictures together and it does a pretty good job from time to time.  It's just that when you take more than three or four pictures and try to stitch them together that the finish product comes out pretty small.

Speaking of Modern Woodmen Park, this is the first year that Quad City River Bandits games didn't have to be cancelled or rescheduled for later dates due to a flood.  The City of Davenport initially built a flood berm along the outfield area when they did an overall renovation to the stadium about four years ago.  This effectively helped keep water from engulfing the field from the east and south sides of the stadium.  (Photo at right courtesy of Quad City Images.)

This year, the city erected a portable flood wall that cut out the need to sandbag around the west and north sides of the stadium.  The flood wall is easily recognizable in the picture above.  They placed a series of posts about 10 feet apart around the outside concourse of the stadium, then dropped in six foot high flood gates to keep the water out.  The stadium literally became an island surrounded by flood waters, but the games still went on as scheduled. 

Unfortunately, the parking lots around Modern Woodmen Park were unusable, as were the sidewalks that took you to the stadium.  For this problem, the City of Davenport erected a walkway made from scaffold frames and plywood.  People could park in the streets north of River Drive, then get on the walkway at corner of River Drive and Western Ave. to make it to the stadium.  It was sort of shaky and wobbly in some parts of the walkway, but it did its purpose.  It cost the City of Davenport something like $44,000 to erect the walkway.  But if the River Bandits had to cancel games because people couldn't walk through the flood waters to get to the stadium, the city would have to pay them something like $6600 a game.  With the River Bandits home during a good part of the flood, the city ended up saving money in the long run. 

I ventured over to the Freight House and went up on the second floor outdoor patio of what used to be Nan's Piano Bar.  The picture above left is looking east past Union Station and along River Drive in front of the Figge Art Museum.  The Davenport sky bridge is in the background and you can see dozens of people who came out to take pictures or gawk at the flood.  Sort of like what I was doing that day.

Above right and to the immediate left is a view of Le Claire Park and the ornate band shell that is completely surrounded by water.  This is where a number of festivals take place including the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest and River Roots Live.  However, if the water doesn't recede quickly, it could damage the grass and the park could become off-limits for a couple months as the city tries to re-seed or re-sod the damaged turf areas.  They're supposed to be doing some renovations to the backstage area of the band shell at some point - I had hoped it would be before the River Roots Live event in August.  But that may be put on hold for the time being.  I'm guessing the park will be ready for River Roots Live, but the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest in early July may be touch and go.   

A lot of people joke that the sky bridge - also derisively called "the bridge to nowhere" - is worth the price it cost to build during the floods.  Originally touted as a bridge to connect a downtown parking garage with the Rhythm City Casino, it sort of just stopped just short of the casino's entrance.  The City of Davenport said that patrons of the casino could use the sky bridge to get over flood waters.  But during the double crest flood of 2008 (see my entries on that flood here and here) city officials deemed that the casino had to be shut down as there would be no way for emergency vehicles to make it through the flood waters up and down River Drive if a medical situation occurred on the boat.  So the sky bridge is basically just a long lookout tower that gives great views of floods.  Well, and it is a great place to view the Davenport riverfront during normal times, too.  

But the sky bridge and the adjacent top of the parking garage are both good places to get some pictures of the flooding.  The top picture at the beginning of this entry is taken from the sky bridge and stitched together with my panorama program.  Above left is the woebegone and long-closed Levee Inn - sort of an iconic structure when it comes to historic floods in Davenport.   The Flood of 1993 saw river waters come up to just under the red-outlined awning around the building.  They have marks on the side of the building that denote the height of certain floods.

Above right is Lock and Dam 15 with the equally woebegone and long-closed Dock Restaurant in the foreground.  Too many floods have made the building unusable.  And that's too bad.  As the building is right up next to the river, it was a pretty neat place to take people from out of town for a good meal and a drink while you watched the river roll by.  And they used to have some of the best clam chowder that I've ever had.  

Before I left the downtown area, I had to stop by the Front Street Brewery to see the efforts the City of Davenport employed to keep that restaurant open during the flood.  The city erected a number of Hesco barriers along River Drive and encased them in plastic with sand bags on top and along the base of the barrier.   There was some seepage from the base of the barriers, but the city had crews on site 24 hours a day to man pumps and to look for any breaches in the portable dam.  The water was still about a foot below the top of the barrier at its crest on Saturday about 11:30 a.m. - about the time this picture was taken. 

I took these three pictures from up close along the barrier until I was told by a city worker that I couldn't be anywhere near the area.  I was actually out in the street up next to the Hesco barrier and he said that I wasn't supposed to venture off the sidewalk.  The city didn't want anyone walking in the flood waters as the water had been tested and found to have low levels of fecal matter.  I told the guy, "Even when it's not flooding there's low levels of fecal matter in the river.  It's the world's largest toilet!"

He sort of laughed when I said that...

After the river crested on Saturday, it started a slow descent that saw the river levels go down about a foot by Monday night and it should be down below 19 feet later today.  Projections are that the river will continue to slowly recede and be close to 17 feet by next Monday.  That is if we don't see any more heavy rains in the region before then.  This has been a soggy April with more than half the calendar days seeing measurable precipitation here in the Quad Cities so far. 

While the flood is a big event and it does cause some hardships for people who live and work along the river, I have to say that I was overly impressed with the planning and efforts that local municipalities and private companies put forth in combating the flood waters.  I've lived here for nearly 20 years and they just seem to get better and better with each flood that occurs.

El Mariachi - Moline, IL

As I've said in many of my entries regarding Mexican restaurants in the Quad City area, we're very blessed to have a number of very good to great Mexican restaurants in town.  There's a significant Hispanic population in the Quad's and that's why we have an abundance of authentic Mexican restaurants.  One of those is a little place in Moline on top of the hill on 15th St. is Restaurante El Mariachi, or as the locals call it, just simply El Mariachi (see map). 

Virginia and Alfredo Castro are the owner's of El Mariachi, a place they opened almost 9 years ago.  Alfredo Castro learned how to cook from a Mexican chef and Virginia had a number of recipes that were handed down to her by her grandmother and mother.   Alfredo and Virginia began their restaurant experience selling Mexican food out of a trailer they'd take around to events in the area.  After people began to inquire where their restaurant was located, the Castros opened Restaurante El Mariachi in 2003.   I've had Hispanic friends I know in the area tell me that the food at El Mariachi could easily be the most authentic of any Mexican restaurant in town.  And given the amount of authentic Mexican restaurants in the area, that's saying a lot!  And Virginia is also well-revered in the Latino community in the Quad Cities - she was recently named the Latina Business Owner of the Year by the Greater Quad City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. 

(Alfredo Castro - right)

El Mariachi has a wide array of Mexican food to choose from including traditional cheese and onion enchiladas, homemade chile rellenos, chicken mole, and their popular Camaron Fiesta - a three course shrimp dinner consisting of a shrimp cocktail, shrimp salad and shrimp fajitas.   It's also one of the very few places in the Quad Cities that features a traditional Mexican dessert - arroz con leche - a Mexican rice pudding. 

During the lunch hours, El Mariachi features a popular Mexican buffet through the week and a Mexican breakfast buffet on Sundays consisting of pozole (pork stew), chilaquiles (fried tortilla mixed with egg and chicken), huevos a la mexicana con chorizo (Mexican style eggs with chorizo), pozole (pork stew) and a lot more including some traditional American breakfast staples.  The lunch buffet (served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) is $8.95 a person while the Sunday breakfast buffet (served from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.) is an overly reasonable $6.95 a person. 

I was hesitant to talk about it on Road Tips, mainly because I'd really like to keep El Mariachi a secret.  The food is priced extremely reasonably at El Mariachi.  You get a lot for a good price.  Most entrees and combinations top out at $8 to $10 bucks.   

And the restaurant, itself, is not all that big - it seats, maybe, 56 people, and that's really cramming them in.  And there's usually only one waitress and one bartender working in the place.  Some nights, the bartender IS the waitress.  But even with the small staff, we've always been served promptly and have never had an issue with being forgotten about.  I'd sort of like to keep it that way.

And because it's one of our favorite restaurants, we usually go to El Mariachi once a month.  They have two dining rooms in the restaurant - a lower dining area just inside the entrance, and the upper area that features the bar, a couple booths and three or four tables.  We usually like to sit up near the bar, especially in the winter time, as it can get a little cool with the door opening and closing all the time.  During a recent visit to El Mariachi, it was a Friday night and the upper part of the restaurant was full.  It doesn't take many people to make it full.  We were forced, actually for the first time, to sit in a booth along the far wall as you come in. 

They have wonderful margaritas at El Mariachi and up until a couple years ago it used to be one of the few places in the Quad Cities that had Sol beer available.  But they do have Dos Equis, which is still pretty darn good.  Sometimes I'll get a margarita while I'm waiting for the meal, but then get a Dos Equis (or two) with my meal.  I think there's nothing better than having an ice cold Mexican beer with authentic Mexican food. 

And while El Mariachi has a number of authentic and unique entrees to choose from, I like to order the combinations which is like ordering two, three or four items a la carte including enchiladas, burritos, regular tacos, specialty tacos, tamales and three or four other types of Mexican food, served with rice and beans.  Cindy is sort of fond of the enchiladas at El Mariachi and that's exactly what she got this time we went (below left).  The enchilada platter is served with Mexican rice, refried beans, chopped lettuce and tomatoes. 

 
Everything is so good at El Mariachi, I have a lot of problems figuring out what I want on any given visit.  This particular visit I got a large combination dinner (above right) where you get your choice of 4 different types of Mexican specialties.  The large combination I had that evening consisted of a beef flauta, a pork tamale, a beef enchilada and a pork carnitas taco.  The tacos aren't very big at El Mariachi and I can usually kill an order of 3 pretty easily - that is, if I don't overindulge on the great homemade chips and salsa they bring to the table when you first sit down.   My combination plate with Mexican rice and refried beans came to just under $10 bucks.  That's a lot of food for $10 dollars. 

While Road Tips doesn't have a huge following (but we seem to be garnering more people on a weekly basis - and I thank you for that), I didn't want the word to get out on El Mariachi - one of the best kept secrets in the Quad Cities.  The food is authentic and excellent.  The margaritas are tasty and the beer is cold.  And the service is wonderful and the staff is always attentive and friendly.  Just do me a favor - don't tell anyone else about El Mariachi.  Let's keep it our little secret.

Trattoria Tiramisu - Bettendorf, IA

For years, I can safely say that there was not a good authentic Italian restaurant in the Quad City area.  Oh, Lundardi's was good - and continues to be very good - but there was an Irish-American-ized flair to their Italian food.  The Olive Garden continued to be the high point of Italian food around the area.  However, in the late 90's, the Cepeda family from the Keokuk area moved into a downtown space and opened Trattoria Tiramisu.  That's right - it took a Hispanic family to bring authentic Italian food to the Quad Cities.  And compared to other places around the area, it was outstanding.  Not the best Italian I'd ever had, but very good for what was offered in the area.

Trattoria Tiramisu moved from that downtown location (now housing Antonella's Italian restaurant) to the old R.J. Boar's site in Bettendorf about six years ago (see map).  It gave the restaurant about triple the space and their own parking lot out back.  There were also ventilation issues at the old location, especially in the summertime.  We'd been in there when it was almost as warm inside as it was outside.  The new location had a much better HVAC system. 

But since they've moved, we had only been there one or two times - considering it's a lot closer to our house now than when they were downtown.  We've sort of took a shine to the people at Antonella's and when we think of good Italian food, we usually think of Antonella's first.  (Although Lunardi's comes in a close second with their wonderful lasagna.)  However, just before Christmas, we decided to run down to Trattoria Tiramisu for a quick bite one evening. 

The parking lot was full and we were wondering if we'd have any problems getting in on a weekday night.  But Trattoria Tiramisu was hosting a holiday party in the bar area.  There was plenty of tables open in the dining room.  In fact, one side of the dining area was closed off.  Green and white checked table cloths cover the tables at Trattoria Tiramisu.  They did their best to make it look like an authentic Italian trattoria, but there's still some cheesy-ness to the decor.  But if you're more worried about what they're going to serve you than your surroundings, you can easily get past that. 

We sat in a booth and looked over the menu.  And I forgot that one of the traditions at Trattoria Tiramisu was a complementary plate of bruschetta our waiter brought to the table as we looked over the menu.  The food at Trattoria Tiramisu is like a road map of Italy - they feature Southern Italian red sauce dishes, Northern Italian white sauce entrees, Napoli-style homemade sausage and Mediterranean-style seafood dishes.  And while the wine list isn't extensive, there are some good buys on the menu.  I ordered up a bottle of the Pedroncelli Merlot which was priced at $23.00.  I thought it was a pretty good bargain. 

Since it had been quite sometime since we'd been into Trattoria Tiramisu, I didn't really have any "favorite" on the menu that I knew that I'd get.  Pasta sort of sounded good that evening, but the Chicken Parmesan did sound appealing.  But I had made Chicken Parmesan the weekend before, so I didn't get that.  Their Fettuccine al Funghi Porcini - fettuccine in a cream sauce topped with dried porcini mushrooms and chunks of chicken breast - sounded very appealing, as well.  The Linguine Alla Bolognese - linguine pasta with ground Italian sausage and topped with parmigiano cheese - also caught my eye.  But I ended up ordering the Tortellini Al Timballo - cheese filled tortellini in a red sauce with Italian sausage and topped with a four cheese sauce. 

The special that evening was a rib-eye steak, topped with a peppercorn/cream sauce and served with broasted potato wedges and sauteed spinach.  Cindy wasn't really certain what she wanted, so she ended up ordering the special.  She said, "I was all set to get pasta, but for some reason a steak sounded good." 

Being that it wasn't all that busy in the dining room, we sort of figured we'd get our meal pretty quickly.  But the large party in the bar area had ordered their food about the same time we ordered ours, so it was a good 25 minutes before our food was brought to our table.  Our waiter came out to apologize to us about 10 minutes before the food came out.  "We suddenly got swamped in the kitchen," he said.  "It should be here shortly." 

 
When it did come out, it was worth the wait.  And quite actually, the portions were huge.  Cindy's steak (top left picture) wasn't swimming in the peppercorn/cream sauce like I've seen at some places.  Part of her steak was void of any sauce allowing her to get a taste of the steak without the sauce if she so desired.  She ordered her steak medium and it was cooked to a slight pick center - a perfect medium in my book.  She offered me a bite and it was good.  It was tender enough for a $14.95 steak and had some good flavor to it.  I really did like the peppercorn/cream sauce that went with it. 

My tortellini was a great value at $11.95.  And there was a lot of it.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing, so I concentrated on getting the chunks of homemade Napoli-style Italian sausage out of the dish first.  I'm not overly big on cheese-filled tortellini - I prefer a meat filled tortellini - but it was still very flavorful and filling.  After devouring the sausage chunks and a few of the tortellini rings, I'd had enough. 

Cindy did have some of her steak left over and she had the waiter bring her a box to take home so she could eat the rest at lunch in a day or two.  Our waiter wanted to know if I wanted to take what was left of the tortellini home with me and I told him, "No, it's never as good re-heated as it was in the restaurant." 

He said, "Yeah, I know what you mean.  I'll get some pasta dish to go when I leave work, then try to heat it up in the microwave when I get home.  It's not as good, is it?" 

I guess I forgot how good of a value Trattoria Tiramisu really is.  We got a lot of food for under $30 bucks.  For people like us who treat ourselves once or twice a week to a nice meal out when I'm home, that's a pretty good bargain.  If you're looking for good - and authentic - Italian food at a great value in the Quad Cities, skip Olive Garden and head straight to Trattoia Tiramisu. 

Jimmy's Pancake House - Bettendorf, IA

We're always on the lookout for breakfast places close to our home and Cindy noticed a new one that had opened up last September in Bettendorf called Jimmy's Pancake House (see map).  We were driving by the place one day and she pointed it out to me.  "I want to try that place sometime," she said to me.  One recent Saturday morning, we did just that.

The building that houses Jimmy's Pancake House has seen a number of restaurant or food establishments over the past few years.  For a number of years, it was a Pickerman's Deli - a small franchise chain of soup and sandwich shops found primarily around the Midwest.  After the local franchisee closed her two Iowa locations, the former Pickerman's in Bettendorf became a place where dinner entrees were made in advance and people on the go could go in and grab something for their family on the way home to heat up in the oven or microwave.  That didn't last much longer than a couple years. 

 A Greek family from the Sterling/Rock Falls area in Illinois came in last summer and renovated the restaurant into a breakfast/sandwich shop that seats just under 50 people.  They open at 6 a.m. daily and close at 3 p.m.  In addition to a full breakfast menu, Jimmy's Pancake House features a number of sandwiches and salads.  And like any Quad City area breakfast place worth their salt, they also feature a huge cinnamon roll on their menu.  If you're going to serve breakfast at a restaurant in the Quad's, you've got to have a big cinnamon roll. 

Jimmy's was packed the first time we went in - we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table to open up.  Cindy said, "Well, that's a good sign, I guess.  If you have to wait for a table at a place like this, it must be pretty good."

We finally got a booth in the back corner of the place and the very pleasant waitress gave us our menus to look over.  The light colored walls and large front windows help make Jimmy's bright and open.  Pictures of famous Greek landmarks adorned the walls.   

The first thing that caught my eye on the menu was that Jimmy's Pancake House had the normal staples of a breakfast menu including pancakes, French toast and waffles - but you could get your choice of fruit toppings including strawberries, apples and blueberries.  Well, I'm a sucker for anything to do with blueberries for breakfast.  The only problem is that some restaurants we've visited in the past will use blueberry pie filling or compote instead of just using fresh blueberries.  I decided to give Jimmy's blueberry-topped waffle a try.  The waitress asked if I wanted whipped cream on top of them, as well.  Sure!

Cindy has been taking some cooking classes over the past few months and one night she learned how to make crepes.  She made some homemade blueberry crepes for a dessert one evening and I have to say that they were pretty damn good.  She wanted to try Jimmy's cream cheese crepes, topped with a hollandaise sauce. 

Being that it was pretty busy in Jimmy's Pancake House, it took over 15 minutes for our breakfast to show up.  But that wasn't too bad of a wait.  And I completely forgot about the wait once she laid the waffle down in front of me. 

 
The waffle covered the nearly the whole plate and five whipped cream mounds topped the waffle.  The blueberries - fresh and not pie filling (a plus!) - waited underneath the whipped cream.  Even though it was processed whipped cream from a can, it was still pretty tasty on the waffle.  It's pretty tough to screw up a waffle, but the blueberries and whipped cream really gave it a great taste.  It was very good.

Cindy was overly happy with her crepes.  She gave me a bite and I will say they were pretty good.  She didn't know if the hollandaise sauce was homemade or not, but she said that it really didn't matter.  The crepes were very good.  She said asked me if I was going to write about Jimmy's Pancake House and I said that I probably would.  She said, "Don't write about it until we've come back and I've tried their fruit filled crepes." 

Just before Christmas, we went back to Jimmy's for breakfast again.  This time - once again after a short wait for a table - I was looking to get one of their three-egg omelets.  Their Greek omelet sounded pretty good - it features gyro meat, onions, tomatoes and feta cheese.  But I ended up getting their sausage and cheese omelet.  I asked the waitress if I could get some mushrooms in the omelet.  She said, "You bet!"

She asked me if I wanted either toast or pancakes for a side.  I said, "Hmmm... Pancakes?  Really?  OK, I'll go with the pancakes."  I wanted to try them out. 

Cindy, for some inexplicable reason, changed her mind at the last moment from getting the strawberry crepes to getting pancakes with two eggs over easy and a side of bacon.  I said, "Wait a minute.  I thought you wanted to come back to get some fruit crepes?  You could have just had a few bites of my pancakes.  I won't be able to finish them all."

She said, "I don't know.  I thought pancakes sounded pretty good."

 
When the waitress brought out the omelet and pancakes, my eyes had to grow about three times their normal size.  The omelet was big and fluffy.  The only caveat was that they had taken sausage links and cut them up to use in the omelet - I'd rather have ground sausage or sausage chunks in an omelet.  Oh well.  But the mushrooms were fresh - a plus.  But I would have liked to have a little more cheese on the omelet.  I had to try to open the thing up to see if they had actually put any cheese on the omelet.  They had - just not a lot. 

The pancakes were huge, too.  My side of pancakes were basically the same size as Cindy's main order on her plate.  They were a little more thick than I like (Cindy makes homemade crepe-like pancakes that are to die for), but they were pretty good.  A large helping of hash browns came along side the omelet.  It was way too much food.  I told Cindy that it reminded me of some of the breakfasts we had in Hawaii during our trip there nearly a year ago.    

There was no way that I could finish the whole breakfast.  The omelet was just too big and fluffy.  I had about a third of my pancakes and - maybe - two bites of the hash browns before I had to say, "No mas!"  Cindy made an appreciable dent in her pancakes, but couldn't finish it, either.  One thing that I do want to mention about Jimmy's Pancake House is that they have great bacon.  It's thick and tasty, some of the best restaurant bacon I've ever had.   

I was telling a friend of mine who lives within walking distance to Jimmy's Pancake House that we'd been there a couple times so far.  He said, "Isn't that place awesome?  Next time you guys go there, call us up and we'll meet you there!"

We'll definitely go back.  Jimmy's Pancake House has good food at a very good value.  The service can be a little slow, but only because it's a pretty popular place.  I was pretty impressed with my two visits so far.  With a lot of choices for good breakfasts in the Quad City area, Jimmy's Pancake House has become one of the best in a very short time. 

Behind the Scenes at River Roots Live - 2010

 

 

The sixth annual River Roots Live festival was held in LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport over the weekend of August 20-21.  Once again, I was called upon to be the stage manager/coordinator and did the announcements for the event.  As I tell people, I must be doing something right because the promoters of the event - the Iowa Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce and The River Music Experience - keep asking me to come back.  In all, I've been involved in five of the six River Roots Live festivals. 

 

 

We began production meetings back in June headed up once again by Marcy Hyder from the Iowa Quad Cities Chamber and her fun and able right hand gal, Jessica Kohn.  And once again, Kyle Carter headed up marketing efforts, and Tom Swanson and Kate Benson from The River Music Experience were the contacts with the bands we hired.  We continued with these meetings throughout the summer on a regular basis, getting to the point just before the festival where Marcy sort of stopped in the middle of one meeting, looked at me and exclaimed, "Wow!  I think we actually know what we're doing!"   

Our budget had grown so we could get bands like The Marshall Tucker Band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  And given that the last two years of River Roots Live (see the 2008 entry here, and the 2009 entry here) were on the streets of downtown Davenport and free to the public, we had to make it free at LeClaire Park, as well.  Once you open that door, it's going to be difficult to shut it. 

 

 
In addition to the music, it's also the annual Rib Fest - the 13th year there's been a rib festival (and the 12th year I've been involved).  We had six national rib vendors and a couple of local guys show up for the festival this year.  Over the past couple years, the rib vendors were inundated with people once we opened the festival up free of charge.  All the rib vendors ran out of food quite early a couple years ago.  Most of them were back last year and brought even more food, but many were out of food by the time 10 p.m. came around on Saturday night. 

 

 
This year, the rib vendors had large refrigerated trucks parked in the lots near the park, hoping that they wouldn't run out of ribs again this year.  One of the long time rib vendors, Desperado's, was back this year.  Their owner, Lee Rice, had suffered a stroke earlier this year and was confined to a wheel chair.  Lee, who was well over 400 lbs when I first met him years ago, had dropped over 100 pounds before the 2009 River Roots Live/Rib Fest.  He said he was looking to drop another 50 to 75 pounds.  Well, he certainly had, but it was sad to see him in his wheel chair, able to only move the left side of his body. 

By the way, check out the unique smoker in picture on the upper right.  I've seen pictures of these pistol-shaped smokers, but had never seen one up close until the Texas Thunder cooking team brought this one out for display during River Roots Live.  It's a true working smoker with a wood box off to one side and the barrel of the "gun" acting as the chimney.  I'm not certain I'd want one, but it was pretty interesting to see.

Production work on River Roots Live began on the Wednesday night before the festival.  Scott Rexroat's stellar production crew from Rexroat Sound and Elite Productions began to set up the two stages that we had literally side by side in front of the band shell at LeClaire Park.  This worked tremendously well for me compared to the last couple of years where we had two stages about 75 yards apart.  I had a lot of logistical problems working between the two stage areas and there was a lot of running back and forth between the areas.  With the larger stage in front of the band shell and the smaller stage off to the side, the lay-out worked tremendously for us.  We did get a little cramped back there from time to time, but we made it work.

 

 

 

This is what the stages looked like after the roofs were up and the lights were set.  Scott Rexroat had over 150,000 watts of power for 72 bass speakers and about a dozen P.A. horns all controlled by six sound boards for both front of house and stage monitors.  Between what Scott had and what he got from Joe Murphy at Murphy Sound in Iowa City, we had over 120,000 watts of light power combined for both stages.  I'm telling you, this was certainly a big time production.

Of course, it wouldn't be River Roots Live if we didn't have some rain to contend with.  I think five of the six events have been hampered by rain at some point - either during set up or during the show.  We knew rain was going to be coming on Friday evening and we were fully anticipating having to either cancel or push back some starting times with the bands.  We were able to get Lojo Russo, a local guitarist/singer, up on stage at 5:30, but it began to rain around 6:15.  It continued to rain steadily for the next couple hours, hard enough that we had to shut the music down even though we have roofs over the stage and tents over the sound boards. 



We ended up canceling three bands including Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons - a band from Wisconsin that features the son of a Baptist minister (Chisel) as their front man.  I was looking forward to their show as I'd heard that Chisel got a lot of his stage presence from watching his preacher father give fire and brimstone services as he was growing up.  Now his son is playing the devil's music...

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

The Marshall Tucker Band was the headliner on Friday night.  Like many of the old time bands we've had in the past, there was only one original member of the band still around - lead singer Doug Gray (seated in the lower right corner of the picture on the left).  Three of the original members of the band, including the two Caldwell brothers - Toy and Tommy - are dead.  The other members - drummer Paul Riddle and flutist Jerry Eubanks - retired from the road a number of years ago. 

The Marshall Tucker Band continues to play today anchored by guitarists Stuart Swanlund and Rick Willis.  Georgian Marcus James Henderson takes over the reed instrument parts of the band and spells Gray on some songs where the 67-year-old can't quite hit some of those notes like he used to nearly 40 years ago. 

Because these classic rock bands usually only have one or two of the original members in the band, their bread and butter is their live shows.  They usually don't do albums any longer and they have to be damn good in concert or people aren't going to come and see them.  Marshall Tucker has a rabid following as witnessed by the nearly 3,000 people who stuck around in the rain to wait for their show later that evening. 

I don't usually have much interaction with members of the band, but I did spend about 10 minutes before their show with the members of the band, joking back and forth with them and their road manager, David Warren.  Doug Gray and David were telling me about a time out in Colorado a few years ago when the promoter had the band play in the middle of a driving rain with lightning dancing all over the place.  "There had to be 2,000 people on this hillside, all holdin' umbrellas, with all this lightning." David told me. 

"Crazy people," Doug said.  "But that's our fans.  The funny thing about it was that it was really lightnin' out when we were playin' 'Fire on the Mountain'."  (The song features the line "Lightning in the air...")

I wished Doug Gray to have a good show and he gave me sort of a half-hug and a hand shake.  My t-shirt was wet from being out in the rain earlier and he told me, "Now, I don't mean to sound like an old grandfather, but, Son, you've got to change outta that wet shirt!"  I told him I was going to do that just as soon as I got off the stage.   

Nice guys and they did a pretty good job on stage.  I can't say it was a stellar show  from what I saw and heard (remember, I don't get to see many shows in my capacity of stage manager), but they did do a good job. 

Our Friday night was closed out by Backyard Tire Fire, a Bloomington, IL-based band that plays American roots-style rock.  These guys played at River Roots Live in 2009 and were stepped on - literally - by Joe Bonamassa who began to play his set while the band was playing their last song on the small stage.  It was one of the most unprofessional things I've ever witnessed in my years of working these events.  And the Backyard Tire Fire guys sorely remembered the slight.  They all laughed when I promised the guys this year that they could start playing during Marshall Tucker's encore.  

Saturday awoke to gray skies and cool temperatures.  Our first band wasn't scheduled to start until noon and Creedence Clearwater Revisited wasn't due in until about 10:30 a.m. for their set up and sound check.  Compared to other early morning load-ins we've had in the past, this was a piece of cake.  I was actually able to sleep in and got to the stage area around 8:30 in the morning.  

The road crew from Creedence got in and immediately began bitching about this and that.  We had a problem with the bass guitar amplifier and it was evident that it wasn't going to work for the performance.  That didn't make them happy.  We had six stage hands on deck to help them with set up and they didn't think that was enough.  One of the guys on the Creedence crew suffered a small cut, more of an abrasion, on his arm and demanded to see the Emergency Medical Technician on site.  And he came back with this bandage that covered about a third of his forearm - sort of overkill for the small scrape that he had.  

But after awhile, the Creedence crew began to settle in, they warmed up to us and things began to get a lot better with them.  The band had played in western Nebraska the night before and it was a 650 mile, 10 hour drive overnight for the band and crew.  So it was understandable that the crew was a little cranky at first while the band was back in a hotel room sleeping and resting up for the show later in the evening.  

The sun came out just before noon making everything hot and sticky as the first bands began to play.  We had a pretty spacious backstage area with some RV trailers that were used for dressing rooms or "chill stations" for the bands.  We had a great catering service put on by Mike and Mary Monfort again, with help from Neil Vigars who did a lot of the procuring of food and drinks for the back stage area and to put in the band's trailers as part of their contract riders.  That's one of the problems I have with River Roots Live being paired with the Rib Fest - I hardly ever get a chance to take the time to go try some ribs.  But the Monfort's always do a good job of providing some great food to the bands and production crew.  

 

We had a pretty good sized crowd for the afternoon, partly because of the draw of the ribs and the fact that it was free admission.  We knew we were going to have a huge crowd that evening and everyone from the cops to the beer guys to the rib vendors were gearing up for the night.  But in the meantime, the music continued and it featured an eclectic mix of American-roots-based music, modern bluegrass, hip-hop/reggae, and spacey hippies era rock.  The band pictured on the right is a local Quad City band -Bumper Crop - fronted by Craig Smith, whose wife, DaMel, cuts my hair at Salon Luce in downtown Davenport.  (A little plug for Craig and DaMel who own the shop.)

By the way, I'd be very remiss if I didn't mention a couple of things.  First, many of the pictures in this entry are courtesy of Tony McKinney who works for Rexroat Sound.  Tony takes a lot of great photos from his vantage point either on stage or out at the front of house sound board.  So I have to thank Tony for letting me use some of the pictures.

Secondly, I have to acknowledge that I had help this year in the form of my lovely wife, Cindy, who was my assistant behind the stage.  Last year, Cindy said to me, "What do you do after the show is over on Saturday night so that you don't get home until 3 a.m.?  I suppose you just sit and drink and carry on with everyone." 

Well, there is some of that, but I am pretty busy getting stuff put away, cleaning stuff up, helping with this or that.  Last year, she stuck around after Joe Bonamassa played on Saturday night and helped me with my duties.  She said, "I really had no idea of all the stuff you do at these shows!"  So, she volunteered to help out behind the stage this year and she did a great job.  At times, she would be sitting around, feeling guilty that she wasn't doing something at that moment.  But as I explained to her many times, "Don't worry.  You'll get busy.  We just need you to be ready when we need you." 

Later in the afternoon, Cindy came up to me and said, "Hey, WQAD wants to interview you over by the backstage entrance."  I went over there and WQAD's Brian Boesen, whom I'd met before on a couple of occasions (including the night before when he was hanging out in the VIP area of the festival with Cindy and our friends Greg and Jenny Hipskind), was wanting to put me on camera.

Well, I looked like hell - sweaty, hair all askew - and I protested about being put on camera.  He said, "Oh, come on.  We'll just do a head and shoulders shot."

 

If you want to see the segment that Brian did on River Roots Live, including my little part of the interview he did with me, click here. 

The crowd began to fill in quite rapidly on Saturday evening in anticipation of both Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  We had some last minute requests above and beyond the standard tour riders that we have to fulfill for national acts like those two bands.  Kate Benson, who is the events coordinator at the River Music Experience, did a great job with many of these requests including running out to get mouthwash so Grace Potter's road crew could clean the face of the microphones. (I never heard of that before, but it certainly made sense - especially at a festival.)  Here's Kate in an all too familiar pose with the phone pressed to her face as she cheerfully ran down some inane request from one of the bands. 

 

One of the true highlights of River Roots Live is discovering bands that I'm not familiar with and this year that band was Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, a Dallas-based band that played good ol' straight-forward rock and roll.  I had a chance to catch a bit of their set and I was standing with a couple guys from Rexroat Sound at the monitor board on the small stage who were just amazed at how well these guys played.  And they did do a great job.  It was the perfect lead-in to Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here's a couple pictures of the crowd just before Creedence played that evening.  In the picture in the upper left, you see the back of Eric Kranz of Rexroat Sound, affectionately known to his friends as "Chikken", getting things ready for Creedence to take the stage.  The picture on the upper right is one that Tony McKinney took just after the show began.  Police estimated there were between 20,000 to 25,000 people at the park that evening.  It was just absolutely packed - the most people I'd ever seen at LeClaire Park. 

Creedence Clearwater Revisited has only two of the four original members of Creedence Clearwater Revival - drummer Doug Clifford and bass player Stu Cook.  John Fogerty, who wrote most of the great Creedence songs, has his own solo career and wants nothing to do with the reincarnation of the band.  Fogerty's brother, Tom, died 20 years ago when he contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion for a back ailment.  The original CCR may be the first main stream roots rock act to make it big.  I still have trouble believing they were from the San Francisco Bay Area and not from the Mississippi Delta. 

 

The other members of Creedence Clearwater Revisited feature lead singer John Tristao, whose vocals are very similar to John Fogerty's.  Before his work with Creedence, Tristao was with a Bay Area band by the name of People!, who had a hit back in the mid-60's called "I Love You".  We've seen Creedence Clearwater Revisited at Summerfest in Milwaukee in the past and his Fogerty-like vocals were the key to making the band sound like, well, like Creedence Clearwater Revival. 

Guitarist Tal Morris and guitarist/keyboard player Steve Gunnermake up the rest of the CCR band.  Morris has worked with the likes of Huey Lewis and the News, Ronnie Montrose, and the Sons of Champlin.  Morris replaced original Creedence Clearwater Revisited guitarist Elliott Easton - formerly of The Cars- a few years ago.  Steve Gunner is sort of the "everyman" for Creedence playing not only guitar and keyboards, but doing some background singing, playing percussion and a little harmonica. 

 

Creedence (pictured at right during their show at River Roots Live) showed up around 8 p.m. for their 9:00 p.m. show.  Their road manager, Wayne Nagel, is a music industry veteran, probably best known as one of the co-founders of the Austin Rehearsal Complex - a.k.a. - the ARC - in Austin, TX.  The ARC was known as the hub of Austin music in the 90's with a large number of area musicians using the space to rehearse and record.  Nagel was also the manager of the famous Continental Club in Austin for a number of years.  The number of bands and artists that have made their way up through the ranks of the Austin music scene and who have played the Continental Club since 1957 is mind-boggling. 

 

Wayne was a very nice guy in a down-home Texas sort of way.  He was a somewhat imposing figure with a barrel chest, but had a quick smile and was very easy to work with.  He was overly grateful for the requests he put forth and was very appreciative of our efforts in making sure everything came off without a hitch.  I've always said the national acts are usually the easiest to work with, even if they can be a little demanding.  There's a lot of give and take when it comes to working festivals, and bands like CCR and The Marshall Tucker Band understand that.

 

Unfortunately, the management for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals didn't quite understand that (as did the management with Joe Bonamassa the previous couple of years).  Grace Potter's tour manager, Ben Erickson, was a nice enough guy, but a little high-strung and overly demanding at times.  Ben heads the Elysian Artist Group, a management firm that handles both business and tours for the likes of Grace Potter and Martin Sexton. 

 

One of the last minute requests we got from Ben was a police security detail in and around the backstage area for Grace Potter.  Grace Potter is a rapidly rising star in the music world and she's not bad to look at either.  With her long hair and long legs, it's little wonder that she probably gets hassled by fans on a regular basis.  However, Ben told me that one of the biggest problems she has is with other musicians hassling her - especially at festivals like River Roots Live.  So, we had to coordinate with the Davenport Police Department in getting one of their uniform cops to accompany Grace at all times and stand guard outside her trailer before and after the show.  Mark Hanssen, lovingly known as "Lumpy" to his fellow cops, drew the short straw to take on this task.  Mark told me, "I have no idea who Grace Potter is, but by Monday, I may be one of her biggest fans."

Another strange request from Ben Erickson was that no one was to be on or near the stage area during Grace Potter's show.  We had three stairwells up to the stage and he wanted security posted at each one.  Well, we couldn't do that and I told him that we just didn't have the manpower.  I just decided to clear the backstage area of all non-essential personnel including some of the bands who had played earlier in the day.  That was one of the more unpleasant parts of my job as the stage manager. 

As Creedence was winding down on stage, it was evident that they were running over their time allotment.  And, quite frankly, that was fine with me.  Nearly every song that CCR played was one that you'd hear on the radio at almost any time on any day.  It was an amazing run of songs they had with the original band. 

Wayne Nagel, Ben Erickson and I huddled before Creedence ended their show.  Wayne explained the way they did their encores - come off stage, go back on for two songs, come off again, go back on for two final songs.  We wanted Grace Potter to start almost as soon as Creedence made their way off stage.  Ben knew this would cut into their 10:30 p.m. starting time by about 10 to 15 minutes.  Ben was told that they had to be off stage by midnight per noise restrictions for the City of Davenport.  (I found out later we had a variance for the noise abatement.)  I told him that if Grace went 10 minutes past midnight, I'm sure the cops wouldn't roust them from the stage.  Mark Hanssen was standing right next to me and I looked at him and he sort of shook his head "no" when  I wanted confirmation to that.  Still it didn't set well with Ben.

As we went to the smaller stage with Grace and the band, Ben was having a mini fit on the stage.  "We're the f***ing headliners here!  We shouldn't have to get pushed around by a bunch of has-been musicians!"

I turned on my heels and went right up to his face. I said, "Hang a second, son.  CREEDENCE is the headliner tonight!  Look at the crowd that came out to see them!  Do you think this crowd is for Grace?  3/4's of the people here have never heard of Grace Potter!  Your job is to hold the crowd and to make new fans!"  And with that, I jumped off the stage and went to the backstage area.

Later on, after Grace began her set, Ben came up to me and apologized.  He said, "Sorry I snapped at you earlier.  You're right.  Creedence is the headliner and we're just the clean up act."  Glad he saw it that way.  And I'm glad that I didn't have to tell him that Creedence got about 3 and a half times more money than Grace did.  But every cent we paid to Creedence was worth it.  They did one helluva job. 

One of the problems with being the stage manager and announcer for the event is that most people think that I'm in charge of the whole event.  We have a television crew from Impact Video that provides the Jumbotron screen and does television production for the event.  A lot of times in the past, they've shown me on the Jumbotron when I do my little bit of announcing.  Over the past couple of years, I've had a wireless microphone and would stand off to the side of the stage out of sight of both the cameras and most of the people.  But I still get recognized from time to time.

 

One of those times occured during Grace Potter's set.  Grace Potter's Hammond B-3 organ was set up to the far side of stage right and we didn't have any handheld cameras set up for that stage.  We just had one camera situated on top of the scaffolding above the front of house sound board.  The only problem was that right in between Grace and the camera was one of the decorative lamp posts that are in the LeClaire park bandshell area.  So the cameraman couldn't get any shots of Grace Potter for the Jumbotron. 

 

This infuriated a number of people who were back toward the middle part of the park.  I went out to the front of house during Grace's set (I always like to go out to the sound board because, quite frankly, that's the best sounding place for any concert) to hang for a bit.   One very inebriated 30's-something lady came up to me and began to complain.  "Hey, this is a bunch of shit!  We can't see Grace Potter.  What the f***'s wrong with the cameraman? I can do a better job than he can!"

I said, "See that lamp post between here and the stage?  Well, it's right in the way of the camera and where Grace is standing." 

She drunkenly said, "Well, that's a bunch of shit, man!"

I got closer to her face and calmly said, "Hey!  How much did you pay to get in here?"  She backed off very quickly after that.

Later on, Grace came out from behind the organ and stood at center stage for a good portion of the rest of the night allowing the camera to follow her around.  

As I said earlier, I tried to keep all non-essential people from the back stage area while Grace was playing.  We had a few people from the Iowa Quad Cities Chamber come back, including Executive VP Tom Flaherty, Marcy's boss.  I had to explain to him that we couldn't have anyone close to the stage area and he helped make sure that happened.  However, one guy was right up behind the stage taking pictures with his Iphone.  And he wasn't wearing any backstage credentials.  I went up to him and sort of pulled him away from the stage area.  I said, "Who are you!?"

He said, "I'm the lead guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revisited!"

I looked at him in the face and saw that it was, indeed, Tal Morris.  I said, "Oh, man.  I'm sorry.  Grace Potter's manager said that he didn't want anyone hanging close to the stage area and I didn't see any credentials on you."

He sort of laughed and pointed at their tour bus.  "My credentials are on the bus!  I've never heard of these guys and I wanted to get pictures so I can say I played on the same bill with them when they get really big!"  

Well, Grace went about 20 minutes over the midnight curfew.  I was a little unhappy about that because she was really milking the crowd that was left - about 3,000 strong by the time the night was over - and stringing out her songs.  I stood over on the now bare main stage with Tom Flaherty and his girlfriend waiting for Grace to get over.  Now, she was good, but I thought she was also a little egotistical when it came to the end of her show.  

As we were standing there, Tom came over to me and shook my hand.  He said, "Thanks for not screwing up."

I looked at him funny and said, "You thought we would screw up?"

He said, "No, I'm serious.  Thanks for not screwing up.  This means a lot to me and the Chamber."   

After getting Grace off the stage and loaded up to get back to the hotel, Cindy and I began cleaning up the trailers and backstage area.  One of the fringe benefits of cleaning the trailers after the headliners have been in them is scavenging the remains of their food that is part of their contract riders.  Creedence had a sandwich tray along with cheeses, wines, beer and some other munchie food.  Grace Potter's trailer had a similar spread.  Of course, they never come close to finishing any of the food provided.  Creedence had asked for ribs from one of the rib vendors and we got some for them to take on their bus. 

 

Looking back, it was a pretty stressful River Roots Live for me.  But it was also one of the most rewarding of all I've been involved.  I had a lot of great help in the back stage area and I can't go without acknowledging the great help I had from Tom Swanson and his wife, Katie, along with Tim (Red) Roberts who were the defacto stage-hands and jack-of-all trades all weekend long.  And I have to also acknowledge the help from CC Backline in Peoria - Chad Cook and his partner, Kris (aka "Squid") - who provided a number of backline instruments, amplifiers and speaker bottoms for a number of the bands.  Everyone worked so well together that it really took a lot of pressure off of me. 

After we finished up, I sent Cindy home and helped out with a few more chores.  The RRL production staff met up behind the stage area around 3 a.m. for a few beers, to tell some stories and share some laughs.  We keep telling each other that this would be the last time we do River Roots Live, but I have a funny feeling that I'll be getting a call from Marcy sometime in March or April of next year making sure I had that weekend open.

Uncle Pete's - Moline, IL

One of the first people I met after I moved to the Quad Cities nearly 20 years ago turned me onto a little Greek gyro place in Moline called Uncle Pete's. He told me, "They have the best gyro's in the Quad City." Quite honestly, I haven't found another place that sells gyros that even comes close - even the Greek guys who come in for the annual street fest in downtown Davenport don't come close to Uncle Pete's. Over the years, Uncle Pete's has turned into a favorite dining spot of ours.

Uncle Pete's is named after Pete Panouses (below left), a big bear of a guy who was the original owner since 1988. He and his wife, Kathy, operated a little 32-seat "hole-in-the-wall" location on the Avenue of the Cities in Moline. It could get crowded in Uncle Pete's with people waiting for in-house and to-go orders. But the food was always good. We always used Uncle Pete's as the measuring stick against any other gyros we'd encounter during our travels. And we've found time and time again, Uncle Pete's is hard to beat.

Just after Christmas in 2006, Pete Panouses passed away. His son, Chris (above right), had been working in the family business and had been in managing the place while Pete held court at a little table near the cash register talking to longtime friends and customers when they came in. Other than a large picture of Pete on the wall and his obituary hanging next to it, you couldn't tell if there were any changes going on with the restaurant. Uncle Pete's gyros continued to be the best in town.

Last year, ALDI grocery stores bought the little strip mall that Uncle Pete's was housed in. They were going to tear down the strip mall and put up a grocery store. Chris Panouses had to scramble and find a new place. He wanted to stay within a mile of the original Uncle Pete's location and found some land just up the road a bit (closer for us, actually, from our home in Davenport). It was there he built the new and improved Uncle Pete's restaurant, nearly tripling the seating to 80 in the process. He had hoped to be open by February 1 as they had to vacate the old place by the first of March. But delays in the building of the new restaurant forced him to shut down operations for seven weeks before he was finally able to re-open in the new location in late April.

Not only has the seating increased, but it allowed Panouses to increase the number of items on his menu. He's introduced Italian beef sandwiches, a reuben sandwich and a steak sandwich to the menu. The prices on the gyros have gone up modestly since the move, but they pack them with so much gyro meat it's still a great value.

Cindy and I were over in Moline one Saturday earlier this summer and we had passed the new location of Uncle Pete's (see map). It had been early February since I'd been in - Cindy had been over to the new location a couple of times when I would be on the road. While the old location was sort of recessed and off the street - it was tough to see if you didn't know it was there - the new building stands much closer to the street and the signage is large and easy to see. And Uncle Pete's has a large parking lot that they don't have to share as they had to with two or three other businesses in the old strip mall.

As we walked in, the first thing I noticed was how large the dining room was. There were a number of tables and booths throughout the place - a lot nicer tables and chairs, I might add, than what the Panouses family had at the old location. But that also helped with the ambiance of the old place. The new and improved Uncle Pete's was very nice.

And just like at the old place, you place your orders at Uncle Pete's at the counter - although the counter at the new location is just as you walk in the door from the parking lot. The counter of the old place was in the back of the restaurant and you had to walk through diners just to get your order place. Once again, it was one of those things you just did to get a good gyro from Uncle Pete's.

The menu is located behind the counter, even helping with the correct pronunciation of gyros (YEE-roes). They have two sizes of gyros at Uncle Pete's - the regular and the super. The super comes with an extra container of tzatziki sauce, which, I was told, comes from a family recipe handed down through Kathy Panouses' family. The super gyro is my usual order at Uncle Pete's. While they do have good french fries, a super gyro is usually the only thing I need when I'm there.

Cindy ordered up a regular gyro and an order of Uncle Pete's fries which are more like steak fries than thin French fries. Uncle Pete's slathers on the tzatziki sauce on the regular gyro and you usually don't need to get another container. But if you do want one, it's 50 cents extra.

We found a table and waited for our number to be called. When the girl called out our number, I went up and got our gyros and a ton of napkins as you'll usually need them when you eat an Uncle Pete's gyro. Wrapped in wax paper and served on a paper plate, Uncle Pete's gyros haven't changed since my first visit in 1991. Look at the amount of gyro meat they put on their super gyro. You have to use a fork and knife - plastic, naturally, at Uncle Pete's - to eat some of the gyro meat before you can pick up the pita shell and eat it.

The gyro meat at Uncle Pete's is always cooked just right - not too overdone or undercooked. Too many times at other gyro places they slice off the gyro meat from the spit and let it sit on a tray under a heat lamp, over cooking the strips. Uncle Pete's sort of does the same thing, but as quick as they go through gyros, the meat doesn't stay in the tray all that long. The onions on the gyros at Uncle Pete's are always fresh and strong, and while the tomatoes are of the common salad bar variety that you find in most restaurants, they still put a lot of slices on their gyros.

Since I didn't have any breakfast that day, I made short work of my super gyro. Thank God the taste and quality didn't change with the move to the new location. I helped Cindy with a few of her fries and they were the same as the old location. Many times when a restaurant has moved to a new location, there's something that changes in the quality of the food. Other than a lot more seating and a new building, I can't see much of anything that changed at the new Uncle Pete's.

Chris Panouses was quoted in a couple of the local papers as saying that it was a shock for him to have to leave the old location. They'd gotten into a comfort zone at the old place and leaving the old location was "really emotional." But as good as business has been for him at his new location, I'm sure he's not missing the old place one bit. Uncle Pete's is still closed on Sunday's, but the rest of the time you can find some of the best gyros you'll ever eat anywhere over in Moline. And even though I haven't had one yet, I understand Uncle Pete's has a good burger, too. I'll have to give that a try at some point, but it's certainly tough to go to Uncle Pete's and not order a gyro.

 

The Captain's Table - Moline

At one point in time, The Captain's Table in Moline was THE place to eat in the Quad Cities when it came to special occasions, impressing a date, or hosting a high profile business meal. Unfortunately, that was many years - and a few owners - ago. However, the current incarnation of The Captain's Table has been creating a little buzz, locally. For my birthday dinner a while back, Cindy and I decided to head over there to give the place a try.

It had been a long time since I was last in The Captain's Table. Cindy had been in more recently when she was there with the local chapter of the Blue Thong Society. She told me it was "OK to pretty good, but still nothing special." I'd read a couple of different things in the local papers about the place since it had been bought and re-opened last summer by Peter Harman, aka "The Food Guru", who owns (or has owned) restaurants in Iowa City, Davenport, Burlington, IA and Macomb, IL. Harman said his goal would be to bring back the classic menu that made The Captain's Table a stalwart in the Quad City restaurant scene for years.

The Captain's Table started in 1974 as a small steakhouse/supper club next to the Marquis Harbor on River Drive in Moline (see map). Local businessman Jim Sweet ran the marina and restaurant for years before selling the place in late 1990's to American Marine out of La Crosse, WI. The time between 1974 and 1998 were the golden years for the restaurant. Their steaks, chops, fresh seafood and especially their homemade clam chowder were part of the finest in upscale dining the area had to offer. The Captain's Table looked out over the marina and the Mississippi River and was a popular place for locals to dine in the summer, as well as in the winter. Cindy and I had many memorable meals at The Captain's Table during the years Jim Sweet was the owner.

After Jim Sweet sold the restaurant and marina, American Marine leased out the restaurant to a handful of people since then. I do know that the Heart of America group leased the restaurant for a while - the same people that own the popular Machine Shed restaurants that are found throughout the Midwest (and based in Moline). And that's about the time The Captain's Table began to go downhill. Service got bad, the menu changed drastically, the food was not very good, and the homey, welcoming feel the Sweet's had given to the place sort of dissipated. It was just another corporate-run restaurant with no soul.

Heart of America got out of their lease in 2003, but it was taken over by the chef of the restaurant, Mark Luciani. But by that time, any momentum the original Captain's Table had was pretty much gone. Luciani tried tinkering with the menu, but nothing seemed to bring the magic back. With a surge of finer restaurants in the area and the economic downturn in 2008, Luciani closed the restaurant in February of 2009.

American Marine then got into talks with Peter Harman to come over and revive the restaurant. Harman's group leased the restaurant and re-opened the place in July of 2009, not long after he had closed his Graze location in Davenport. Many of the employees from Graze went over to The Captain's Table. American Marine remains the owner of the place, and we were told Harman is more of a consultant who comes to the restaurant once or twice a week to meet with G.M. William Black who runs the day-to-day operations.

It was a beautiful evening, cool, yet clear, when we got to The Captain's Table. Since it was the middle of the week, we had no problem getting in. One thing that I'd noticed since my last visit, oh, maybe three years ago, was that they had put in a nice little outdoor patio with heavy metal chairs and tables that overlooks the harbor and the river. It was too cool to eat outdoors that evening, but there were a couple tables occupied with people having drinks, but dressed in heavier coats.

The original Captain's Table was a long, narrow dining room with huge booths that featured large windows that looked out toward the river. Before Sweet sold the place in the late 90's, he expanded the restaurant to include a large bar area that had a nautical theme to the place. There was also a little watchtower added to the place that allowed people to go up and get a better view of the upstream bend in the Mississippi River.

The original dining room has changed a little from the first time I visited the place nearly 19 years ago after I moved to the Quad Cities. It's more light in the place with white walls and ceilings versus the dark walls and ceilings of the original Captain's Table. The host that evening took us to one of the large window booths and gave us our menus to look over. There wasn't a lot of people in the restaurant and we noticed there was only one waitress working - Nancy, a pleasant 40-something lady who was working her butt off trying to keep up with the orders and requests.

I was still on a Hawaii hang-over and saw they had mai-tai's on their cocktail and wine menu. Nancy came to ask us what we wanted to drink and I told her that we were probably going to get a bottle of wine, but in the meantime I wanted a mai-tai. She went to get my mai-tai and I looked over the limited wine list The Captain's Table had to offer. I decided to get a bottle of the Frei Brothers merlot, a little over-priced at $36 bucks. I've seen the same wine at restaurants in larger cities at lower prices.

Nancy brought out the mai-tai and it was more fruity than boozy. Definitely not like what we had out in Hawaii. But as Cindy reminded me, "We're not in Hawaii. We're in Illinois!"

The host who seated us brought out the bottle of wine and opened it for us. I was actually looking for a hearty cabernet that evening, but they only had two on the menu. I sort of expressed my astonishment that they only had two cabs on the wine list. He said, "Our wine list is evolving. We feel we have about the best values in wine right now. The Louis Martini cabernet is very good." I had to disagree with him. I find the Louis Martini cab to be over-priced and over-rated. There's a number of better cabs at lower prices that they could choose from.

In fact, the original Captain's Table was where we were turned on to one of our favorite California wines, Judd's Hill. Cindy and I were treated to dinner at The Captain's Table about 14 years ago by Jeremy Burkhardt, the president and former owner of SpeakerCraft. That was back when The Captain's Table had a very extensive wine list. Jeremy was blown away when he saw Judd's Hill on the wine list and we had two bottles of their cabernet that evening. Cindy still talks about the night Jeremy took us to dinner at The Captain's Table because she got a little tipsy and Jeremy and I ended up closing down the new bar that evening drinking top shelf Scotch.

The menu was an interesting mix of beef, chicken, seafood and pork chops. Prime rib was available only on Friday and Saturday nights - the same as the original Captain's Table. The steaks were limited to a couple different sizes of tenderloin filets, a rib-eye and a strip steak dubbed "The El Cheapo". A strip steak sounded pretty good, but the name of it completely turned me off. It was the cheapest steak on the menu - $17.99, if you can call that cheap. But I was leery of how good of cut the "El Cheapo" would be. Plus, I couldn't bring myself to order the "El Cheapo" by name. Cindy said, "Just order it as the strip steak!"

"Yeah," I said. "But she'll probably come back and say, 'Oh, the El Cheapo?' And say it loud enough that the restaurant will know I'm a cheapskate!"

Cindy just laughed.

There were a number of seafood entrees on the menu. Cindy was definitely getting seafood that evening and the choices ranged from grilled shrimp, sauteed scallops, broiled salmon, baked haddock in a cheese sauce, herb encrusted sea bass, sesame seed seared ahi tuna, and their famous brown sugar salmon where they top the salmon with brown sugar and Boetje's mustard and bake it in the oven. However, the special that evening was sea bass bruschetta - their house-made bruschetta topped with grilled sea bass, then baked and finished with a garlic sauce. Cindy couldn't pass that up.

I went with the 9 oz. filet with a side of bearnaise sauce. We also decided to get a side of The Captain's Table's own macaroni and cheese. We also got a Captain's Salad that featured mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, provolone cheese, parmesan and topped with their house vinaigrette that is served family style at the table. In addition to all that, we also decided to give a couple of their soups a try. I ordered the gumbo and Cindy got the clam chowder.

There was a point in time when the Quad Cities would rival New England for the quality of their clam chowder. about four or five restaurants in the area had some world-class clam chowder. I had a guy I used to work for back in the 80's who visited the Boston area many times (and ended up moving there) and who used to travel to the Quad Cities for business before I joined his firm. He once told me, "I don't know what it is, but the clam chowder in the Quad Cities is on par with some of the chowder that I've had in New England." It was very good. And "was" is the operative term, here.

Since the original Captain's Table was sold by Jim Sweet, a few other fine dining restaurants in the area went out of business. All of them had great clam chowder. Jim Sweet and his son eventually bought a place on the Davenport riverfront called The Boat House, not far from where we live (and a place we occasionally go to, but the prices are high and the value is not that great), and their clam chowder was revived there. Sweet has since sold The Boat House and the clam chowder is definitely not the same as it was when the Sweet's were involved.

And the present day clam chowder at The Captain's Table is just OK. Cindy had it the time she was there with the Blue Thong Society and she said it was better than what the previous incarnation of The Captain's Table had to offer. But it still wasn't like the clam chowder in the hey-day of Jim Sweet's ownership.

My gumbo, too, was just OK. It really wasn't anything special and I had to put a bunch of Tabasco into it to kick it up a notch in the heat scale. While it was thick and there were large chunks of andouille sausage, tomatoes, okra and other stuff, I've made better gumbo at home.

Nancy brought out our salad in a large bowl that looked more like a center piece presentation than something you'd want to eat. There were four cherry tomatoes that were equally spaced on top with shaved provolone and parmesan sprinkled on top. And for a weird effect, they placed cheese-flavored Goldfish crackers on top. I don't like Goldfish cheese crackers on their own, why would I like them on a salad? I had a couple bites of the salad with them on top, but knocked them off after I found the taste to be distracting. The house-made vinaigrette was also OK, nothing special at all.

Our main entrees soon arrived. My 9 oz filet was a generous 9 ounces, I'll tell you that. It was a thick cut of tenderloin and quick possibly more toward 12 to 14 ounces in size. It was cooked a perfect rare for me.

(Here is a back story with rare steak at The Captain's Table just after Heart of America took over the restaurant. About 12 years ago, I was traveling with Frank Sterns who was the VP for Sales at Niles Audio, a prestigious custom audio/video company based out of Miami. It was my first trip with him and I was trying to impress him. So, I took him to The Captain's Table and Frank ordered a New York strip, rare. The waitress brought it out and it was cooked medium-well. Frank asked to send the steak back and the waitress left with his steak. She came back out and said, "We're all out of New York strips." He asked for a filet. She said, "We're out of filets, too." She said they had rib-eyes, but he wanted something lean. I was embarrassed to no end that evening. I had never had any problem with The Captain's Table at anytime and the night was a disaster.)

The bearnaise sauce they served on the side (you better ask for it that way or they'll serve it over the filet) was pedestrian and bland. It didn't do anything to enhance the taste of the meat. The steak, on its own, was juicy, tender and tasty. You really don't need the bearnaise sauce on it.

Cindy's sea bass bruschetta was very, very good. She gave me a bite of it and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the taste. It had a wonderful garlic finish to the taste and the brushetta was also very good. While I was happy with my steak alone, Cindy was overly happy with her sea bass.

The mac and cheese side that we got was sort of like the bearnaise sauce - bland and lifeless. The dish was very cheesy, but there was no taste sensation to the cheese. I think we both had a couple bites and decided to just concentrate on our main entrees.

After we finished our dinners, Nancy tried to tempt us with The Captain's Table's desserts including a coconut key lime pie, their homemade cheesecake with triple berry sauce, an angel food cake parfait with the same triple berry sauce, and a chocolate brownie sundae. The cheesecake was tempting, but between the gumbo, salad, steak and a couple bites of the mac and cheese, I was done. We asked for our bill and lingered a bit to finish our wine and savor our meal.

There were some things very good about The Captain's Table - our entrees were very good and Nancy's service was also very efficient, considering she was the only one working the dining room that evening. The salad was OK, as was the gumbo and clam chowder. The mac and cheese was bland and disappointing. And the wine list was also very disappointing. But with the great view of the river, the over-sized booths with large wooden tables, and a history of providing good food - most of the time - since the 70's, The Captain's Table rated as slightly above average in my book. While I do give Harman some points in trying to capture the former allure of the original Captain's Table during Jim Sweet's era, he'll still have a long way to go to achieve just that.

Saint Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza - Moline, IL

We're always on the lookout for new pizza places to try in the Quad Cities.  We recently tried a new place - well, new to us, but not new to people on the Illinois side of the river - called Saint Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza.  The lady who does pedicures for us (that's right - I get pedicures and they're GREAT!) suggested this place and we thought we'd give it a shot one night.

Now, most of the pizza places in the Quad Cities fashion their style of pizza after Harris Pizza, the four-restaurant establishment that is near and dear to the hearts of most Quad City residents.  Harris Pizza is the first pizza many of the life-long residents enjoyed and will still flock to one of the restaurants for their pizza.  And some people who moved away from the Quad's still regard Harris as the best pizza in the world.  The only problem is that in my somewhat educated opinion about pizza, it's not. 

One of the most viewed posts on Road Tips has been my synopsis, nearly 4 1/2 years ago of Quad City pizza places.  (Click here to see that post.)  I should get around to update that post, but part of it had to do with my first - and only - encounter with Harris Pizza.  Here's the story -

I had just moved to the Quad's in 1991 and everyone was telling me how great Harris Pizza was.  So one night on a Sunday night, it was getting kind of late and I decided to call for a Harris Pizza to go pick up.  I ordered my usual - sausage, pepperoni, mushroom - and I ordered a large so I could put some in the fridge and piece on it through the week. 

I ordered from the one on E. Locust and went and picked it up.  I took it back to my apartment and tried a piece.  Hmm, something with the taste isn't right here.  Ooo, what are these things on top?   Is this the sausage?  Where's the big chunks?  I finished that piece and got into the second piece.  It wasn't tasting too good.  In fact, it tasted pretty bad.  For the first time in my life, I actually threw away a nearly whole pizza. 

I got home late on the following Monday night from a meeting in Iowa City and remembered that trash day was the next morning.  I took the trash out to the curb around midnight and went in and went to bed.  The next morning, I had to be up for a 7:30 meeting at the store I was working at.  As I was driving out of the parking lot, I noticed that something had gotten into my garbage sack.  I stopped and kind of cleaned things up around the sack and noticed that the Harris Pizza box was opened - and not one piece had been taken!  The pizza was so bad, even the critter that got into my garbage thought it sucked and wouldn't eat it!  True story!

If you've read "Road Tips" for any time, now, or even click on the "Pizza" category to read about past visits to some pretty damn good pizza joints, I consider myself to be somewhat of a pizza connoisseur.   What I thought made the Harris pizza so bad was the rather bland tomato sauce - it didn't even taste like tomatoes.  The sausage - it's not even Italian fennel sausage - is ground and scattered across the pizza.  Harris Pizza started this practice saying that you get the taste of sausage (or whatever meat topping) with every bite.  The only problem is that the sausage is about as bland as the tomato sauce.  And while the crust is thin, it's spongy and limp with large crust edges that are make it too chewy.

From time to time, Cindy's work place will bring in Harris pizzas for lunch for the work force.  She's at the point that she won't even have a piece because she doesn't like it.  But both Cindy and I were not raised in the Quad Cities and were exposed to more authentic Italian-style pizza growing up.

Over the years, a number of Harris Pizza "clone" shops have popped up around the Quad Cities.  That's because a handful of former workers at Harris have opened up their own pizza places.  What gets me is that a lot of these places are thriving - having the SAME style of pizza as Harris.  I mean, why would anyone want to go to a Harris Pizza-style pizza place when they can get the original at four different locations around the Quad Cities?

That's when we heard about St. Giuseppe's and found out that the owner didn't appear to have any connection or past with Harris Pizza, we were encouraged that it could be a pretty good place.  In fact, Bobby Schilling was an insurance salesman supporting a large (and growing family) when he decided to make a complete career change in 1997 by opening a pizza restaurant that was based on "family values and Christian beliefs" (hence the "heavenly pizza").   From the start, Schilling and his wife, Christie, worked hard to make a go of the place.  As the business got up and going, Schilling decided to close on Sunday's to allow his employees and himself the opportunity to spend time with family.

But Schilling decided that running the restaurant wasn't enough.  He is running as the Republican nominee for the 17th Congressional district which encompasses a large portion of Western Illinois.  It's an uphill climb for Schilling running in a district that has voted primarily Democratic for nearly the past 30 years.  But he feels he has a good chance of overtaking incumbent Phil Hare in the fall elections.  Click here to see his web site for U.S. Congress. 

(Update - Schilling did, indeed, win the Congressional election in 2010 and represents the Illinois Quad Cities in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Here's his congressional web site - http://schilling.house.gov/)

St. Giuseppe's has turned into a pretty popular place on 53rd St. in Moline just a couple blocks south of The Avenue of the Cities and a couple blocks west of the Moline/East Moline border (see map).   We found that to be true the one evening we were there as the restaurant was over half full and there was a steady stream of people coming in for "to-go" orders on pizza.  The phone never stopped ringing with orders while we were there.

We found a table in the center of the restaurant that seats approximately 60 people.  There were a couple booths near a buffet area (lunch Tuesday thru Saturday) on the north wall and five or six booths along the south wall.  The front counter is also the pizza oven area and the young guys back there were hand-tossing the pizza dough.  That was a good sign for us.

There was only one waitress in the place and she was overwhelmed by the amount of people that were coming in.  It was about five minutes before she could even come over to greet us.  By that time, we'd looked at the menu they had on the table and figured we just wanted to get a medium sausage and pepperoni pizza.  Cindy also wanted to get a garden salad as a starter.  Since St. Giuseppe's is a family-oriented place - fully indicated by the crayon-drawn pictures that sat under a clear plastic table cover on all the tables - I pretty much figured I couldn't get a beer with our pizza.  So I just stuck with water.  Cindy got an iced-tea.

As I said, the waitress was very busy and she was the one who was taking orders, getting drinks, clearing tables, making salads and bringing food to the tables.  About three or four tables or booths remained cluttered with plates and glasses for quite some time after those who had eaten at those stations had left.  The three guys back behind the counter were also very busy taking phone orders, waiting on people to pick up pizzas, and making the pizza.

It took our waitress about 15 minutes to come out with Cindy's salad.  She got a side of their homemade garlic dressing which was really nothing more than garlic powder in mayo, but the garden salad was very good with chunks of fresh tomatoes, olives and chopped lettuce greens.  Cindy gave me a bite and it was very fresh.

Another 15 minutes went by and she finally came out with our pizza.  As soon as she set it down, Cindy and I looked at one another - it was another Harris Pizza clone.  Ground sausage - plain ground sausage - a mild tomato sauce, lots of cheese hiding a few slices of pepperoni and a limp and soft thin crust with thick edges.

And it was OK, nothing special.  Even a cold beer wouldn't have been able to help the taste.  But it was just like any number of other pizza joints in the area.  It's almost like all these pizza places get their meat, sauce and dough from the same food purveyor.  It's all the same as the others.  That's what upsets me most about Quad City area pizza places.

The price wasn't bad - the pizza, an iced-tea and the salad came to $18.50, tax included.  I left our waitress a $3.50 tip because she was working hard, but they really needed two waitresses to keep up with the crowd they had in there.

I'm sure St. Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza is a popular alternative to Harris Pizza in the eyes of some people.  But we probably won't drive all the way over there to have a pizza again when we can easily get the same style of pizza at three or four different establishments on the Iowa side of the river.

La Flama - Moline

As I've pointed out in many posts regarding Mexican food restaurants in the Quad Cities, we are blessed to have a number of very good places that serve authentic Mexican cuisine.  One that has been around for over six years is La Flama in Moline.  They recently moved to a larger spot in downtown Moline - one that used to house the former Brown Bottle restaurant.  We went there recently on a Sunday night when neither of us felt like cooking.

Juan, Alex and Martin Garcia moved from Mexico to the Quad Cities in 1998 and worked in various restaurants around the area.  In 2004, the brothers opened La Flama in a small building on 5th Ave. in Moline.  It became one of the more popular places for authentic Mexican food in the Quad Cities.  A couple years ago, the brothers opened Papi's Bar and Bites on Kimberly Road in Bettendorf, not far from our house.  They bring in food from La Flama and serve it on the menu there.  We drive by it all the time, but have not yet gone in. 

The Garcia brothers (right) moved to their new location (see map) just a block down the street from their old location in January of this year.  Their old location had seating up to 100 patrons, but the new location effectively more than doubles the capacity.  Friday nights is La Flama's "Salsa Dance Night" with a D.J. who plays salsa, merengue, and cha-cha-cha music.  The basically move the tables out of the way on the floor and turn it into a dance club.  We've gone by the place on Friday night and it's usually packed. 

A City of Moline parking ramp is located directly behind La Flama and you can park there for free after 5 p.m.  There's a rear entry to La Flama coming out of the parking garage.  We got into the restaurant around 7:30 that one Sunday evening and we didn't realize that they closed at 8 p.m. on Sundays.  We got a hostess to seat us and she gave us menus to look over.  Both Cindy and I ordered margaritas.  It wasn't long before a young guy brought us chips and salsa. 

The food found on the menu at La Flama is typical of what you find with other authentic Mexican restaurants around the Quad Cities.  One thing that is rather unique is their selection of soups, including pozole - shredded pork in a red chile broth with hominy.  It's topped with lettuce and onion and served with tortilla chips.  They also feature the Mexican staple, sope.  They take a large hand-made tortilla and fill it with beans, deep fry it and then top it with anejo cheese, sour cream and guacamole.  You can also add chorizo and potatoes or steak and onions to a sope, as well. 

La Flama also features lengua - basically beef tongue.  They boil slices of beef tongue in herbs and spices, then top it in tomatillo salsa.  You can also get lengua tacos, as well.  I'm not quite that brave enough to try beef tongue, although the Mexicans rave about the stuff. 

Cindy was certain that we'd eaten at the original La Flama before.  She may have eaten there at some point, but I was overly certain I had not.  She said, "I don't think you liked it.  That's why I was surprised that you wanted to come here tonight."  I assured her that I had never eaten at La Flama before. 

Our waitress brought out our margaritas and took our order.  We had eaten heavily for breakfast and it was one of those lazy Sunday days where we really didn't do much to work up much of an appetite before dinner.  I was pretty basic - I went with an order of beef tacos, although I almost went with the pork carnitas tacos.  I wasn't overly hungry, so I thought three small tacos would be fine.

Cindy ordered up a single beef and bean burrito, topped with melted colby cheese.  We figured between the chips and salsa and what we ordered for dinner, we'd be fine.

And the chips and salsa was pretty good at La Flama.  It didn't stick out as anything remarkable.  It was pretty much about the same as you find at other Mexican restaurants.

But the margaritas - hoo boy!  Were they packed with tequila!  Cindy took a drink of hers, sputtered, opened her eyes real wide and said, "Oh, my God!  These things are lethal!" 

I took a drink of mine and was taken aback by the amount of tequila in mine.  I like tequila, but this was almost overpowering.  I said, "I'm glad I didn't order a double shot in my margarita.  It would have been like drinking tequila on the rocks!"

It was getting close to closing time, so they got our food out to us in a hurry.  The tacos were soft flour tortillas with beef and what appeared to be potatoes mixed in.  They were topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and anejo cheese.  I took a bite and realized that, yes, it was small chopped potatoes in with the beef.  The beef had some strange seasoning, as well.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly was in the beef, but it was - well - different.  I'm not certain that I liked it all that much.  I was suddenly wishing that I'd gone with my first impulse and gotten the pork carnitas tacos. 

Cindy said her beef and bean burrito was "OK".  She said, "This is pretty basic and quite honestly that's all I really wanted this evening." 

But everything was reasonably priced, including the margaritas.  With a tip for our very helpful waitress, the bill came to just over $20 bucks.  I'm not overly certain that I liked La Flama as much as I do some of the other good Mexican restaurants in the Moline area.  But a lot of people must like it as they had a good crowd up to closing time on that Sunday night.  And the place is doing great business since they moved to their new location.  I may have to go back and try their carnitas taco at some point.  Then I can determine if I really like the place or not.

La Primavera Restaurante - Moline, IL

As I've said on a couple of occasions when writing in "Road Tips", the Quad City area is blessed with an abundance of authentic Mexican food restaurants. One place that just opened recently is La Primavera in downtown Moline (see map). Actually, La Primavera is also the name of the grocery store run by Yolanda and Angel Vargas just down the street from the restaurant. They had a little 20 seat restaurant in the back of the store where they served tacos and tortas. They became so popular that they opened up a full service restaurant a few doors to the west. (Photos courtesy of the Quad City Times)

As a little girl, Yolanda Vargas sold chickens from a road side stand in her native Mexico. She immigrated to the U.S. in the 80's and settled in Chicago. She eventually made it to Davenport to work in a friend's Mexican grocery. In 1989, Yolanda opened her first small store in Moline. Within three years, business was so good that she moved to a larger location. In 1999, the business expanded again and moved to its present day location on 6th Ave. in Moline (see map). Actually, the second location for the store was right next to where La Primavera restaurant is today.

Not only does Yolanda Vargas have a wide variety of Mexican foods in her grocery store, she also sells items such as clothing, Mexican-made goods and magazines. She also has a thriving distribution business for her fresh produce that she delivers to other stores and restaurants around the Quad City area. We go over there from time to time to get tortillas, authentic cuts of Mexican meats, limes and fresh produce when we're going to have a good homemade Mexican dinner.

La Primavera restaurant is run by Yolanda's and Angel's daughter, Claudia, and their son, Erick. It's housed in an old corner building that was once the very popular Glenn Moore's supper club years ago. Most recently, it was a Mexican restaurant called Chino's. I didn't care for the place all that much, but Cindy seemed to like it. She always wanted to go there, but I always balked at going back. Eventually, it went out of business a couple years ago.

The Vargas family came in and renovated the interior of the restaurant and painted the walls in festive colors. A huge old picture of the corner of 15th St. and 6th Ave. showing the building is on the wall. They replaced the spartan and shabby tables and chairs that were in Chino's with new booths and sturdy tables and heavy chairs. There's a small bar area toward the back of the restaurant.

We took a seat in one of the booths and the menus were on the table. The lighting is somewhat subdued in the place and I didn't have my glasses with me. I could hardly read the menu. The print was small and it was a red colored font against an orange background. I told Cindy, "I can't read this." My eyes finally focused enough that I was able to make out some of the things on the menu. Cindy, who wears contacts, wasn't having any problem reading the menu.

A waiter brought a basket of chips while we waited. Another waiter, who we figured to be Erick Vargas, came over to take our drink order. I got a Sol beer while he coerced Cindy into one of their special margaritas. "It's not overly sweet like other places," he said. "We don't use all that syrup in our margaritas."

It must have been a made from scratch margarita because it took quite a while for him to bring Cindy's to the table. By the time he got back with it, we were ready to order our food. Cindy ordered the steak especial, a thin slice of grilled beef steak with sides of grilled veggies, Mexican rice and refried beans. Cindy also has a soft spot for chile rellenos and she asked our waiter if she could get one ala carte. He said it was no problem.

I ordered the combination - a taco with your choice of meat, an enchilada and a tostada. I also ordered one "perna" taco - perna (Pee-air-na) is a type of pork that is marinated and cooked in mild juices and spices. I had to give that a try. For my taco with the combination, I ordered carne asada.

I will say that Cindy's margarita was worth the wait. It wasn't as sweet and syrupy as you find at other Mexican restaurants. It had a refreshing tart taste and had a generous amount of tequila. I sort of wondered what their special margaritas were like considering this one was pretty damn good.

We had finished our basket of chips and another waiter came over to see if we wanted any more. I hesitated, knowing that we'd be having a lot of food coming out in a short bit. But Cindy said, "Yes." He brought more chips and a second bottle of salsa. He told us, "You look like people who enjoy the hotter stuff. This is a little more spicy than the first bottle."

I wouldn't say it was overly more spicy than the first bottle, but it did have a little zip with a spicy aftertaste. I liked it immediately.

Not long after that, our waiter brought out Cindy's chile relleno. He explained that it was an authentic chile relleno from an old family recipe they got from relatives in Guadalajara. It was adorned with an avacado slice on top. Now, I forgot to bring in my new camera phone so I could get a picture of it, but it was worthy of a pic. Cindy used to chastise me for bringing my old Blackberry into restaurants, so it was by force of habit that I didn't bring my phone in with me that evening.

I will say that Cindy's chile relleno was very good. Cindy went so far as to call it "the best chile relleno I've ever had." It was a hefty poblano pepper with a very good brown sauce on top. I had a couple bites and it was very good.

Actually, I'm glad that we had the second basket of chips and that I had a couple bites of Cindy's chile relleno because it was quite some time before the rest of our food showed up at the table. Business was steady at the restaurant, but it wasn't overly busy. From the time we initially ordered our food, a couple came in, sat down, ordered, ate their food and left all before our main order showed up. I thought it to be a little strange that they brought out the chile relleno well in advance of the rest of the order. But quite honestly, we were in no hurry. It was a pretty relaxing environment.

When our food finally did show up, well there was a lot of it. Cindy's steak was pretty good sized, not all that thick, but it covered a large portion of her plate with the grilled onions and peppers on top. She said, "My God, I'm not going to be able to eat all this!"

The waiter had forgotten my carne asada taco and he went back to get one for me. In the meantime, I had the perna taco. Their version of tacos come with the meat, chopped onions and chopped cilantro on a couple small soft corn tortillas. No cheese. It was pretty good - a little dry, but still OK. The carne asada taco, after he brought it out, was similar. It wasn't bad, but I can't call it the best I've had.

My enchilada was a rather pedestrian cheese enchilada and the tostada was topped with refried beans and white cheese. Once again, it was OK, nothing special. I determined that if we went back, I wouldn't order the combination again.

Cindy's steak, on the other hand, was flavorful and tender. One thing that I liked about the waiter is that he would explain some of the dishes to the customers. He told us the steak is marinated in juices and spices (sort of like the "perna" pork) before grilling. Cindy thought the steak was just wonderful. But as she said it was way too much food - especially after a chile relleno and a couple baskets of chips. She didn't touch her rice or refried beans and hardly touched her grilled onions and peppers. And she wasn't able to finish the whole steak.

While our waiter was a nice guy, service was pretty slow. We were finished for quite some time before we were able to get his attention to get us our bill. He said, "Ah! We have it up front." I also thought that to be sort of weird as he was giving checks to other tables. OK, that's fine.

For all we got, including three beers and an a margarita, the bill came to just over $40 bucks. I thought that to be rather high for a Mexican restaurant. At first I thought they'd miscalculated, but after further review the bill was correct. Cindy's steak was $11.99 and her ala carte chile relleno was $4.50. My combination was $6.95 and my ala carte taco was $2.50. I guess it adds up fast when you order a lot of food to try.

All in all, La Primavera was good, but not outstanding in my book. Cindy, however, loved the food, loved our waiter, and loved the decor. We'll go back again and I'll have something different the next time around. Hopefully, it will be better than what I had on my first visit.

(Update - We noticed that they have shut down this location during a trip over to Moline late in 2011. However, they are still preparing food in their little restaurant in the La Primavera store just down the street on 6th Ave. We've eaten there once. Tacos are OK, but the menu is limited.)

Creekside Bar and Grill - Davenport, IA

A good friend of mine who I grew up with in Newton, IA, Randy Adams, owns Creekside Bar and Grill in Davenport. For the longest time, he's been working on trying to get a great burger to serve at his place. Knowing my penchant for cheeseburgers, he enlisted my help in trying to find the right combination of meat, bun and toppings. And with the help of Stephen, the head cook at Creekside, I think they may have got it close to being an outstanding burger.

Randy moved to Davenport in 1982 for work and we'd stay in touch from time to time. When I moved to Davenport in 1991, we hooked up right away and picked up our friendship like we'd just seen each other for the last time just a couple days prior. Randy ended up getting a job at the Rock Island Arsenal, then later on at John Deere. But he always harbored the idea of owning his own bar at some point.

Randy's second wife, Kristy, was also keen on the idea of opening a bar and the two set out to find a place that would be in near move-in condition for their bar. What they found was an old McDonald's location at the corner of George Washington Blvd. and Brady Street (see map), right next to Duck Creek in Davenport. The place had been closed for over three years and it was pretty dire on the inside. It took about nine months of a lot of hard work and remodeling by Randy, Kristy and a number of friends and contractors before they finally opened the doors in July of 2006.

What is interesting about the building Creekside is housed in, it was the first McDonald's franchise to open west of the Mississippi River. In 1959, McDonald's opened the doors of their first restaurant in Iowa. Of course, like other McDonald's, it was an immediate hit. It was also the place to work if you were in high school. In fact, a former C.E.O. of McDonald's, Jim Skinner, worked there while he was going to high school in 1962.

This McDonald's location was also first in a couple of other things - it was one of the first McDonald's anywhere to have indoor seating. Also, it was one of the first - and it may have been the first - McDonald's to have a drive-thru window. The drive-thru lane was literally made out of the bank of Duck Creek above the bike path. The old drive-thru lane is now Creekside's beer garden.

The Creekside is also a popular place for live blues music and has become well-known in the Quad Cities as a place to have over-21 birthday parties, celebrations and retirement parties. While they do have a large screen projection television, it's not really known as a sports bar. Still, they do pack people in to watch sporting events from time to time. At one point, Creekside was one of the few places where you could watch Iowa sports on the Big Ten Network as they've had DirecTV since they opened up.

From Day 1, Randy wanted to have a great burger at the place. They featured hand-pattied, never frozen burgers, grilled over an open flame. I tried one and it wasn't very good. Kristy experimented with adding Lipton's Onion Soup mix to the meat. That made it even worse. They tried different types of ground beef. It still wasn't very good.

Randy and Kristy eventually split up and divorced. Randy got the bar in the settlement. In the meantime, an old girlfriend of Randy's, Lorrie Brekke Ricketts, came back into his life and she became involved in the bar. As time went on, Lorrie took over most of the day-to-day operations with the bar while Randy continued to work his full-time job at John Deere. Lorrie's sons Ryan and Stephen started to help out as cooks, and her daughter, Morgan, tends bar from time to time. To make things even more interesting, Lorrie's dad, Randy, is one of their best customers and one of Randy Adams' - and mine - good friends here in the Quad's. Here's a picture of Lorrie and Randy.

(Update May 2012 - Lorrie had been battling health issues off and on for the past couple of years.  She survived Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma about 8 years ago, but as it happens with many survivors, the cancer finds its way back into your system in some other way.   A mass on her heart was discovered and she had been having trouble breathing.  When a specialist was called in for surgery on Lorrie, he found a golf ball sized tumor on her heart.  Then he wanted to check what appeared to be a clot in her lung and found that her lungs were ravaged with cancer.  There wasn't much that could be done for her at that point and Lorrie peacefully passed away on Monday, May 21.  Click here to view her obituary.)

It took finding the right type of ground beef and a little ingenuity on Stephen's part to come up with what I finally call a suitable burger to write about on my blog - the Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger. Last fall, Stephen came up to me and said, "Hey, we got a new burger patty. It's pretty good."

Randy told me, "Yeah, it's pretty good. Except we've got to get rid of the burgers we have before we can start selling 'em."

I asked Randy if I could try one now and he said, "Well, yeah, sure." So, Stephen made a cheeseburger up for Randy Adams, Randy Brekke and myself. And it was pretty good. Much better than any burger I'd had up to that point. But there was still some work to do.

Actually, I hadn't been eating the burgers when I'd go in. They had a pretty good grilled pork tenderloin that they'd top with cheese, onions, pickles and jalapeno peppers. And they also featured a 12 oz, 10-inch-long chargrilled hot dog they called "The Homewrecker". And they'd top it with Creekside's homemade chili along with chopped onions, cheddar cheese and jalapenos. It was a gut bomb from the word go, but it tastes pretty damn good.

Randy, Lorrie and Stephen were still working on finding a good bun for their burgers, as well. Stephen finally found one that he liked and he butters them up and toasts them on a grill for a minute or so to give them a little crunchiness. And the bun doesn't fall apart.

I've been somewhat hesitant to make blog entries on friend's restaurants. Up to this point, I'm not certain Randy would have liked what I would have written about his burgers. But they finally found the right kind of combination of meat, bun and toppings to make a very good burger.

Last winter, I was in one day and I asked Stephen if they were into the new meat yet. He said, "Oh, yeah. We're going strong with it, too." So I ordered up a cheeseburger. He said, "I made up a Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger the other day. It was pretty damn good. You want me to make you one of those?"

Man, that did sound good. And it was. Stephen would saute the mushrooms and cook Applewood smoked bacon on the flat grill. The burger was big and juicy and it was very, very good.

However, the next couple times I came in to get a burger, well, it was overcooked and not as good as the one Stephen made for me. That was the one thing that Randy was trying to get through the head of his employees - consistency. He said, "That's sort of why we have the chili made the same way, why we have our Bloody Mary's made the same way. We need to have our burgers consistent, too. We can't have 'em be great one day and so-so the next."

One day not long ago, I was in Creekside with our next door neighbors, George and Hanna. I asked Stephen if he could make one of his Swiss-Mushroom-Bacon cheeseburgers. He went back to the grill area to make it. When it came out it was so thick and juicy that it actually looked like a double cheeseburger. George thought the same thing and I had to show him that it was the large chunks of bacon and generous sauteed mushrooms on the burger. And it was outstanding. It was juicy and succulent with each bite. The new toasted bun that Creekside has had a nice little crunch to it, but helped soak up the juices that didn't drip on to the plate. Stephen had cooked up a winner.

Stephen (shown at the right cooking at the grill) is pretty consistent with his burgers now. In fact, I told him that I needed to have two good burgers in a row to be able to be confident to write about the burgers at Creekside. When that happened, I wrote this entry.

In addition to writing about the Creekside Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger on this blog, I also nominated the burger for the Iowa Beef Council's new "Best Burger in Iowa" contest. I figured that Stephen's Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger was worth a shot. I took some pictures of the burgers (some of the same that you're seeing here in this entry), and sent the entry form into the Iowa Beef Council. As I write this entry, we're still waiting to see if representatives from the organization show up for a burger. It was dependent upon the number of nominations Creekside would get on the burger. Only the top five nominations in numbers would get visits to try the burger. And I'm sure there's going to be some ballot box stuffing from a lot bigger restaurants.

Since then, I had Stephen made a cheddar cheese burger and top it with ham and a fried egg - medium. He's even tried it with the Applewood smoked bacon instead of the Canadian bacon. Now that Creekside has been getting their act together on the burgers, it's suddenly become on of the better places in the Quad Cities to get a burger. Consistency is the key and Stephen has been doing a good job of showing his brother, Ryan, and the other part-time cooks his way of doing burgers. While Creekside may not win the title of "Best Burger in Iowa" in the near future, they have an even better shot of winning the title of "Best Burger in the Quad Cities" even sooner.

A Revisit to the Belgian Village Inn - Moline, IL

One of the very first posts I had when I started this blog over 4 years ago had to do with the Belgian Village Inn in Moline (click here to see that entry).   I've come a long way from the style, prose and message from my earliest posts, plus I now have camera phone that can take pictures of the food.  And the huge VandeReuben sandwich is still the big draw at the B.V.I. as it's been for over 30 years.

There's a large Belgian population on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities.  There's a handful of Belgian clubs, restaurants and groups that call the Moline area home.  A local electrician of Belgian descent, Denis Ceurvorst (pronounced cur-VORST), opened the Belgian Village Inn in 1977 on top of the hill of the Uptown neighborhood in Moline (see map).  He and his wife, Loretta, offered a unique sandwich called the VandeReuben - a ham and corned beef sandwich topped with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese all on slices of a homemade bread.  This homemade bread was the key - the loaves were huge!  They were about a foot across and sliced into thin pieces of bread. 

When I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991, one of the guys that I used to work with took me to the Belgian Village for a VandeReuben sandwich.  I was immediately hooked.  Even though there wasn't a lot of meat, cheese or kraut on the sandwich, the bread was scrumptious enough on its own.  When I would have people come visit me in the Quad's, a drive over to the Belgian Village was a must.  I still have friends who ask, "Where was that place that you took me to that had the big sandwich?"

Not much has changed since my first visits to the B.V.I. nearly 20 years ago.  Denis and Loretta semi-retired about 10 years ago and their daughter, Karen Manning, and her husband, Shawn have taken over the day-to-day operation.  Business at lunch is still brisk, but not as good as it was when the old Moline Public Hospital was in operation just down the street.  The place would be teeming with doctors, nurses and other health professionals from about 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  They shut the hospital down about 12 years ago and have since razed the building.

The one thing that you could never get at the Belgian Village Inn was a VandeReuben to-go.  They have a second location - the Belgian Village Drive Thru - just around the corner (see map) that only does carryout orders.  No matter what they used to tell me at the B.V.I., the sandwiches are not as good from the Belgian Village Drive Thru.

Cindy and I still get over to the B.V.I. about two or three times a year and we decided to head over not long ago on a cold winter night.  We took a seat in one of the many booths the restaurant has in the main dining area.  There's a large three-sided bar that can be full on weekend nights with people waiting to get a table.  There's also a smaller dining area in the back of the restaurant.  The weekends are pretty big at the B.V.I. as they serve prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights.  It's so popular that they sometimes run out of prime rib long before the end of the evening.  And I can attest that it's pretty damn good.

The clientele at the B.V.I. is a mix of young and old, blue collar and professionals, families or couples looking for a quick bite.  It's got a great neighborhood feel to the place and they're always laid back and very welcoming each time we've gone there to eat.

 

One of the things I like about the B.V.I. is their frosty mugs of beer.  When I first started going there years ago, they used to have large frosty schooners of beer.  And they had Old Style on tap.  Then they dropped the Old Style and I had to get Budweiser.  Then they dropped the big schooner glasses and now they have 12 oz frosty mugs.  When we went in that recent evening, I asked for a frosty mug of Bud.  The waitress said, "We don't have Budweiser on tap any longer.  I can bring you a bottle of Bud and a frosty mug."  I opted for a Miller Lite on tap instead.  And the mug was so cold that I swore they were keeping them outside in the well-below freezing temperatures.  Even on a cold night, a frosty mug of beer from the B.V.I. still tastes pretty damn good.

We ordered up a VandeReuben with extra pickles (hamburger dill slices).  I also ordered a side of their very good marinated cole slaw.  Cindy and I can usually eat about 2/3rds of a VandeReuben and take the rest home for leftovers.  That night, Cindy decided she wanted to warm up with a bowl of the B.V.I'.s surprisingly good clam chowder.

I usually cut the VandeReuben into sixths, throw on a ton of dill pickle slices and slather the sandwich with liberal amounts of Boetje's mustard.  Even though the slices of meat are ultra thin, the sauerkraut is sporadic and you can't really taste the cheese, the bread is what makes the sandwich.  It's the exact same recipe the Ceurvorsts and their daughter have used since the beginning.  And it's always damn good.

 The Belgian Village Inn is a tough place to beat for a unique meal, a comfortable atmosphere and good service - all at a pretty fair price.  It's not fancy, it's not pretentious, but it's not low-rate either.  It's one of those uncommon places where people from all walks of life rub elbows and have a good meal.  Winter or summer, it's very tough to beat the Belgian Village.

Symposium Cafe - Davenport, IA

The Symposium Cafe is a concept restaurant that has never gained much steam with franchisees across the nation.  What appears to be the original Symposium Cafe in Durham, NC has been closed for nearly a year, and there looks like there's one in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as a couple three in Canada.   I've eaten at the Davenport Symposium Cafe about four times now and I've had mixed feelings about the place.  My wife seems to like it a lot.  I've been tepid - at best - regarding the restaurant.  We had a planned holiday get together for dinner with friends and one of them picked the Symposium Cafe.  My reaction was, "Ohhh...OK, I suppose."

The Davenport Symposium Cafe is located in a small strip mall near the corner of 53rd Ave. and Utica Ridge Road (see map) in the middle of a belt of theme and both regional and national chain restaurants.  It's been open for a little over a year now.  The first time I was in the place was to buy gift certificates for the people who helped me with my rehab after my dual hip replacements last year.  I then met a friend for lunch there later in the summer.  I had the steak salad and it wasn't too bad.

At that time, I also met the G.M., Mike Chupka, the former owner of the Waterfront Deli in Bettendorf, who had come on board to be the manager for a group of investors headed by David Smith and Jim Bergman - two real estate developers based in the Quad Cities.  It appears, however, that Mike Chupka has moved on to a new venture - Rivals Sports Bar and Grill - which opened recently not far from our home in Davenport.

Executive Chef Josh Guthrie is in charge of a menu that features breakfast, lunch and dinner items served seven days a week.  The concept behind the Symposium Cafe is to offer various eclectic and gourmet dishes throughout the day, including breakfast that is served up to 5 p.m..  They also feature a number of specialty coffees, teas and hot drinks - sort of an upscale Starbucks, if you will.  And they also have a number of homemade dessert cakes they have on display in a case up front.   This, no doubt, allows people who are waiting for a table to get a good look at the cakes to get them thinking about dessert before they've even sat down to order.

Symposium Cafe is part bar, part restaurant.  They have a large bar area off to the left as you walk in that features a couple of flat panels behind the bar.  When I stopped in to get the gift certificates for my physical therapists last summer, I sat at the bar and ordered one of their Bloody Mary's.  I have to say it was pretty damn good.  The area around the the bar is large and it's a comfortable place to wait for a table in the dining room.

Two of the last times that we've been in before was to have breakfast and dinner, respectively.  Breakfast was on a Sunday and while the place was busy - a large group of elderly bus travelers was in the back dining room - the main dining area was not as busy.  However, our waitress must have been suffering from a hangover, or at least she intimated that she was not on top of her game after a night out.  We waited a LONG time for our food (we guess she forgot to put the order in), she forgot to fill up Cindy's coffee and she never came back to check if I wanted another Bloody Mary.  Finally, she never did come back to give us our bill.  We had to go up to the counter to ask for our bill.  She didn't get a good tip.

The next time we went was for dinner and it was early so we didn't really encounter any problems with our service.  However, one thing that I do not like about Symposium Cafe - or any cafe like it, for that matter - is when they have the booth seat for a table up against a wall.  They have that against the north wall of Symposium Cafe and while it saves on space, it also takes away the intimacy of dining at a table.  It's like you're immediately part of the group or couple dining next to you as conversations can be easily heard back and forth between the two tables.  Some people may look at that as a chance to foster interaction between the patrons at different tables, but I view it as an intrusion for what should be a relaxing experience.

There were six of us who gathered on an early Saturday evening at the Symposium Cafe.  The other two couples were already seated at a table in the corner near the front.   Cindy and I were relieved to see that we wouldn't be seated along the wall.  Our server for the evening, Alex, had already given the specials for the evening which included prime rib and a seafood dish.  We spent the first hour having drinks and catching up with everyone while Alex patiently awaited our dinner orders.  He was overly patient, I might add.

When we finally got down to ordering, I was torn between a number of things.  I have to say the food I've had in previous visits to Symposium Cafe up to that point was good, but there really wasn't anything that tripped my trigger.  I decided to go with the Cajun New York Strip, rare.  For the sides, I had a choice of rice, mashed potatoes with garlic or broasted wedge potatoes.  I really didn't want any of those, but I ended up getting the garlic mashed potatoes.  A side of mixed veggies also came with the meal.

Cindy ordered the orange roughy, while three of the rest of the group got the prime rib special.  The last person, Jerry, ordered a bowl of the French Onion soup and an appetizer that consisted of a dozen hazelnut coffee encrusted grilled shrimp.  Cindy and I both got a glass of the Silver Palm Cabernet to go along with our meal. 

The place had filled up appreciably as the night went on.  But our waiter, Alex, was attentive and was helped out by other waitresses in bringing drink orders to our table.  I will say, however, that he did miss getting me a new beer when I'd asked for it earlier.  That was the only blemish on his otherwise stellar serving performance that evening.

Our meals showed up and here is my Cajun New York strip steak.  The plate presentation, to me, was a little jumbled and messy.  But the steak was cooked about right, probably a little more medium rare than rare.  The garlic mashed potatoes, however, were WHOA!  They should have called them mashed garlic with potatoes.  They were really garlicky, so much that it got my attention from the first bite.  Others in our group also remarked at how much garlic was in the potatoes.  One of our friends, Ladd, said, "I like garlic but this may be too much."  I made Cindy take a bite of my garlic mashed potatoes or she wouldn't have been able to be around me the rest of the evening, it was that strong.  But, quite honestly, I thought they were pretty good.

Cindy's orange roughy was good, she said.  It came with a bed of rice and mixed veggies.  One thing that she was a little miffed about was that lemon wedges weren't automatically brought to the table for her fish.  When our waiter came back to check on us, she asked for some lemon wedges. He quickly grabbed four or five wedges for her and brought them to the table.

The people who got the prime rib were all happy with their choices.  I took a picture of the prime rib our friend Karen had sitting next to me, but I inadvertently erased it.  She said she got her's medium, but wished she would have gotten it medium rare.  It looked a little more medium well than medium.  But the other two prime ribs looked great.

Jerry offered me one of his hazelnut encrusted grilled shrimps.  I like the taste of hazelnut, but I'm not certain that it went all that good with shrimp.  Between his French Onion soup and the shrimp, he said it was a good, but very rich meal.

What was probably planned to be a two hour meal with friends went well into the night with us talking about a lot of things, as we usually do when we all get together.  Some people were finished before others and Alex came by to clean some plates off the table.  Ladd's wife, Deb, pointed out something to me that I really had never thought of before.  She said, "You can tell how good a restaurant is by the way they clean the plates off the table.  To me, it's wrong if they come and ask to clear plates when people are still eating."

She said that it's awkward for the person or persons still eating and - to her - it's a sign that they want you to hurry up.  Ladd said, "I'm usually done well before Deb is and I'll keep a bite or two left on my plate so that when the waiter comes up and asks if he can take my plate, I can say, 'No, I'm still working on it.' "  You know, in all the years I've eaten in fine restaurants, I've never noticed that.  But come to think of it, I do remember restaurants where both sides of the spectrum have happened.  That's going to be something I'm going to watch out for from here on out.

Most restaurants want to have 1.5 turns per table per evening.  That is, if you have an establishment with 30 tables, they want to have 45 tables served during the evening.  Our table never got turned.  By the time Cindy and Karen decided to share a piece of carrot cake for a dessert, it was fast approaching three and a a half hours since we'd walked in.

Alex got a healthy tip for his service, plus the fact that we were at the table for quite some time after he presented us our bills.   My meal wasn't bad at Symposium Cafe and I got a better feeling about the place this time around.  While it's still not my first choice of restaurants to go to in the Quad Cities, I don't think you could go wrong with picking the Symposium Cafe from time to time.

Van's Pizza Pub and Grill - Davenport, IA

One of my first posts on "Road Tips" had to do with the dearth of good pizza places in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois.  You can see that post by clicking here.  (For those of you who are geographically challenged, the four cities that make up the Quad's are Rock Island and Moline, IL; and Davenport and Bettendorf, IA.)  Until very recently, for as many pizza places there are in this town, there were only two or three that I would deem as worthy.  But those two or three are still not what I would call great pizza. 

Quad City style pizza is usually a thicker, chewy crust and they use ground sausage instead of Italian Sausage chunks on top.  That is, unless you're Happy Joe's Pizza that uses a form of processed sausage pellets on their pizza.  Harris Pizza is still the King of Pizza in the Quad Cities with thousands of devotees still going through their doors to get the same type of pizza they were brought up eating.  Over the years, Harris Pizza has spawned a number of "me too" pizza places that make pizzas almost exactly like Harris.  As one friend told me recently, "Why would I want to go to a Harris Pizza 'clone' when I can just get the same damn pizza at Harris?" 

Antonella's in downtown Davenport has good thin crust pizza, but there's still something missing in the taste of the dough and the sauce that I'm looking for.  Lunardi's has very good deep dish pizza, but it's nowhere as close to Lou Malnati's in Chicago.  We really like the calzones at Stashu's and Son's, but they also use ground sausage.  When I order a calzone from Stashu and Son's, I order it with their cajun sausage where they just take a link and cut it up into pieces.  It's better than their ground sausage, but it still ain't the big chunks of Italian Sausage that I'm looking for. 

The 11th St. Precinct in the East Village of Davenport, just down the hill from where we live, has a good thin crust pizza with Italian sausage chunks.  But they have a funky tomato sauce that they use on their pizza that isn't overly pleasing to my taste.  Plus it's pretty expensive.  There was a Nancy's Pizza franchise in Davenport for a number of years and they had good stuffed and thin-crust pizza, but it wasn't as good as what I'd find in Chicago.  It went out of business about four or five years ago and there's been a void in the market ever since. 

Things had been getting so desperate in regard to what I would call "good" pizza in the Quad Cities that Cindy and I had talked countless times over the past couple of years about opening our own pizza place just to show how real pizza should be made in the Quad Cities.  But we also realized that the large number of people who think Harris Pizza is "real" pizza would probably hurt our chances.

About four months ago, a new place opened up in Davenport called "Van's Pizza Pub and Grill".  It opened in what was the old Pat McGuire's location on Harrison Street (see map).  The people behind Van's Pizza are the guys who are behind Kelly's Irish Pub on 53rd Ave. in Davenport - Marc Van Severen and Dan Kelly.   They brought in Dan's brother, Dave, to be the managing partner of Van's.  (Marc and Dave are pictured at the left.) Dave Kelly used to own and operate The Hub in Cedar Falls, and before that he managed The Other Place on the Hill near the Northern Iowa campus.  Dave moved back to the Quad Cities a couple years ago and was helping Dan out at Kelly's from time to time.

(Update - I've since been told that Dave Kelly recently left Van's to pursue a vocation that is more in line with his degree from Northern Iowa.  Something that is closer to a real "9 to 5" job.  The hours one puts in while running a restaurant/bar are just horrific at times.  Marc and Dan Kelly are still involved with the business.)

 

Now, I have a personal "in" with the Kelly boys through my friendship that I forged with Bob and Leo Kelly who play in Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls, one of the more popular groups in the Quad Cities.  (Leo, Bob and Greg Hipskind also play in Superfly Samurai when Liz isn't fronting the Bellyswirls.)  I've come to know Dan and their other brother, Jerry, pretty well over the years, and I've got to know Dave by running into him at various places around town.  When I found out that Dan, Dave and Marc were going to open a new place in the old Pat McGuire's - and that they were going to specialize in pizza - my initial fear was that it would be another place that sells the same style of Quad City pizza like everyone else.

But in talking with Dan one evening last fall, he told me, "We're going to fashion it after a Chicago-style, thin-crust pizza.  We'll have Italian beef sandwiches, Italian sausage sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs, the works, man.  We're bringing a bit of Chicago to the Quad Cities.  For as close as we are to Chicago, there's no one that is embracing that style of food here." 

When I asked him if he was going to have real big chunk Italian fennel sausage for their pizza, Dan said, "Oh, you bet!"  I couldn't wait. 

The Kelly's and Van Severen bought Pat McGuire's from Mike and Pat Shouse, the original owners of the business they opened in 1986.  Pat McGuire's was one of our favorite places to go for a quick bite on a late Saturday night, they had a great beer selection with over 100 different beers to choose from and they also had a pretty good Sunday brunch that we used to hit from time to time.  I especially liked their $1.00 vodka bar where you could make your own Bloody Mary's. 

When the Shouse's retired in 2004, they ended up selling out to a cousin, Pat Kilfoy, and his partner, Pat Doyle, who own and operate Rookies Sports Bar in Davenport.  Kilfoy and Doyle opened up a new place couple years ago called Jersey Grille not far from our house.  (Surprisingly, Jersey Grille also has pretty good pizza and calzones, too.)  Once Jersey Grille opened, Kilfoy and Doyle defaulted on their contract and the business went back to the Shouse's. 

The Shouse's initially said that they welcomed getting back into the business because they found retirement in their early 50's as "boring".  (I sure as shit wouldn't think being retired in my early 50's would be boring!)  It appeared they were all set to reopen the restaurant, but suddenly the Kelly's and Van Severen swooped in and took the business off their hands.  Dan said that he didn't want to have Pat McGuire's be in competition as a second Irish bar in Davenport, so they decided to go another way and that's how they came up with the concept for Van's Pizza Pub and Grill.

We had gone to Van's a couple times after it opened to get salads or a sandwich, but had never tried the pizza yet.  One Sunday night recently, we met our next door neighbors, George and Hanna, at Van's, specifically to get pizza.  

The lay out of the restaurant is similar to what Pat McGuire's had.  The big changes are the menu, which is smaller than Pat McGuire's, but still a work in progress according to Dave and Dan Kelly; the televisions, which are all new flat panel TV's replacing the old, worn out tube televisions that were the same televisions in the place when I first started going there over 18 years ago; and the restrooms have been enlarged.  The restrooms at Pat McGuire's were notoriously small.  The Kelly's and Van Severen tore out the two restrooms and made it the men's room.  The ladies restroom was built from scratch toward the back corner of the restaurant that was sort of a "catch-all" area when it was Pat McGuire's.  Believe me, the larger bathrooms are welcomed as I sometimes stood six or seven deep waiting to use the men's in the past. 

We took a booth up on the upper level of the dining area and we saw Jerry Kelly sitting at a table near the bar.  He came over to talk with us for a bit and then Dave came over.  Dave greeted us and I said, "Well, Dave, I have had some world class pizzas in my day.  Tonight, I'm hoping to find out if your pizza passes the test."

He said, "We'll try our best to please you, buddy." 

I ordered up a large (14") Italian sausage and pepperoni and had them put mushrooms on one half as Cindy doesn't like mushrooms.  George and Hanna got the same size and had Italian sausage and black olives.  George said, "I love black olives on everything."  

Now, we have a rule in our family that we don't go to a restaurant that has been opened for less than three months.  We want to give them time to shake out the process, making sure that everything is working on all cylinders before we give the place a try.  On this visit, I think Van's had been open for about 10 weeks.

When Dave brought our pizza out, he said, "Well, Will, I've got good news and bad news.  The good news is that I have one pizza here - I don't know whose it is, but it's here.  The bad news is that the second pizza, well, they forgot to put cheese on the pizza.  We're remaking it right now."  

After Dave left, George sort of snickered and said, "Man, what kind of people does he have working in the kitchen?  How can you forget to put cheese on a pizza?"

Fortunately for Cindy and me, it was George and Hanna's pizza that they screwed up.  We offered to wait on their pizza, but George said, "Naw, that's OK.  Go ahead and eat!"

And from the first bite I could tell - this was not another Harris Pizza clone.  This was unlike any pizza I've ever had in the Quad Cities.   The crust was crisp on the edges, but chewy in the middle.  The sauce was rich and tangy, and the Italian sausage was GREAT!!!  The chunks were large, meaty and had that great fennel taste.  I was in ecstasy.  FINALLY!  A great pizza in the Quad Cities! 

I told George and Hanna as I was devouring my pizza that the wait would be well worth it.  Dave brought out their pizza to them, apologized profusely for the screw up and offered to take something off their total on their bill.  Dave then asked me, "So, what do you think?"

I said, "I think it's the best f***ing pizza I've ever had in the Quad Cities, Dave.  That's what I think." 

George and Hanna also loved their pizza.  When asked if he liked it, George said, "Oh, yeah.  This is great pizza." 

And he was amazed at the value.  Their pizza was just a smidge over $13 bucks.  George said, "This is a lot of pizza for $13 bucks."   

Since our initial visit to Van's Pizza Pub and Grill, we've gone back a couple more times for pizza.  One evening, we were with our friends Scott and Marcia and we each ordered a 14" pizza.  The waiter came back and said they were out of 14" pizza dough.  Hmm... OK, I'm sort of bewildered as to how a pizza joint can run out of dough.  They were very busy that evening, so I'm guessing they make up the dough beforehand and ply it out as the pizzas are ordered.  So we ended up getting three - 12" pizzas.  We ordered an Italian sausage and mushrooms; Italian sausage and pepperoni; and an Italian sausage and jalapenos. 

The Italian sausage and jalapenos was the first to come to the table.  They could have taken it out of the oven a couple minutes earlier as the outer crust was almost burned beyond recognition.  The Italian sausage and pepperoni came next and it wasn't much better on the crispy scale.  Then our waiter said that they screwed up the third pizza - a troubling trend in that we've been there for pizza on four visits and they've screwed up a pizza twice.  When the third pizza finally showed up at our table, the edges were almost black.  We could still eat it, but we just didn't eat the crust.  The toppings were still plentiful and fresh, but the pizzas were definitely overcooked.  If they had taken 'em out of the oven three minutes sooner, they would have been much better. 

Overall, I think Van's pizza is very, very good - that is, when it's not overcooked.  It's not the best I've ever had as far as a thin crust is concerned.  I still think Salerno's on West Grand in Chicago has the best thin crust pizza I've ever had.  Other than my concern that the pizza is inconsistent on my visits over the past couple of months, I think Van's quite possibly has the best pizza in the Quad Cities.  When they're on top of their game, it's the best.  When they aren't, it's still better than the majority of pizza places in the area. 

Behind the Scenes at River Roots Live 2009

The annual River Roots Live festival closed out the summer music season here in the Quad Cities.  Once again, I was hired to be the stage manager and the announcer for the event.  I must do a pretty good job as they keep asking me back to do the event.

As it was for the River Roots Live event last year, it was held on the streets of downtown Davenport.  Even though we didn't have the floods that inundated Le Claire Park in 2008, Davenport One (now the Iowa QC Chamber)- the producer of the event - thought the downtown venue worked tremendously.  And considering that it was free to the public last year and the crowds were huge, that formula should probably work again.  Well, it did and it didn't.

Highlighting the performers this year at River Roots Live were Blue Oyster Cult, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and the return of Joe Bonamassa.  Some of the other performers included The Nadas, Backyard Tire Fire and the Uniphonics.  To see the full line-up, click here. 

As it's been in the past, the River Roots Live was co-joined by the annual Rib Fest that I've been a part of since its inception over ten years ago.  Last year, a number of the good rib vendors that we'd had in the past had pulled out of the event citing the meager crowd we'd had in previous festivals.  When word got out that it was now a free event - and that the rib vendors ran out of food both nights last year - we had a number of them clamoring to come back.   While we couldn't accommodate them all, we did have Desperado's come back from a one-year hiatus.  Lee and Donna and their family are good people and they serve up some good ribs. 

The problem is that I'm usually so busy that I can't get out to sample any of the ribs.  We do have a catering company that takes care of meals back stage, but it's not ribs. 

I had the pleasure of working with Scott Rexroat from Rexroat Sound who did the sound, lights and set up the stage.  The stage at River Roots Live was the largest that Scott and his crew ever assembled.  And his sound system was also the largest he'd ever put together for a show.  Actually, the P.A. system doesn't look all that big, but Scott is able to squeeze a shit-load of sound pressure out of those cabinets.  It's always a pleasure to work with Scotty and his guys in these events.  They make my job just that much easier.  (As always, to get a better look at the pictures, just click your mouse over the picture.)

About the only thing we had to worry about was the weather.  We'd had an unusually cold and wet summer in Eastern Iowa/Western Illinois and the weather was threatening all week long leading up to the event.  In fact, it began to rain on the Friday afternoon of the event, which pushed our schedule back about three hours and we were doing a lot of catching up to make sure the event went off on time.  It was scheduled to start at 5:30 with a local band, Sleeping on Sidewalks, opening the festival.  We couldn't get them on in time and I asked if they would come back the next morning to open the Saturday portion of the event at 11:30 a.m.  A couple of the guys had to scramble to re-arrange their schedules, but they pulled it off. 

The cool and wet weather on Friday night helped keep the crowd down.  Estimates were around 8,000 to 10,000 people in the downtown area - down significantly from last year's Friday night show when we had an estimated 15,000 people downtown.  Since it is a free festival, Davenport One relies upon beer sales to make up for the cost of the entertainment and other amenities to put on the event.  While it wasn't a complete wash-out on Friday night, the cool weather kept beer sales down about $7,000 from the previous year. 

Blue Oyster Cult's road manager and sound man, Steve "Woody" LaCerra, was a great guy to work with.  We couldn't do a sound check for the band because of the rain and he said, "That's OK.  We'll do a line check before the band starts.  I'll just adjust it on the fly."   Most bands would have a shit-fit if they couldn't do a sound check before the show.  Woody's attitude was very refreshing.  "Shit happens," he said.  "And then we try to make the best of it." 

The members of Blue Oyster Cult showed up about a half-hour before their scheduled show and I met the members of the band in the backstage trailer we provided for them.  There was a "meet and greet"  with Blue Oyster Cult that had been organized by some people associated with Davenport One and I had to escort the guys over to the backstage area to sign some autographs and pose for pictures.  Eric Bloom, one of the original members of Blue Oyster Cult, said to me, "How long is this supposed to last?" 

I said, "As quick as quick can be." 

"How many people," he asked.

"15.  20, tops."

He said, "Good, I hate 'meet and greets' that drag on and on." 

I assured him that I'd have him out of there in five minutes.  What I didn't know is that the person who arranged for the "meet and greet" didn't keep it down to the 15 or so people that had been agreed upon by Woody LaCerra.  When we got over to the backstage area where the "meet and greet" was to take place, I was horrified to see about 45 to 50 people milling about.  But Bloom, nor his long time partner Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (both pictured here), didn't bitch.  They went about their business, signing autographs, posing for pictures and carrying on with the star-struck fans.

Now, I was a huge Blue Oyster Cult fan when I was younger.  I have three or four of their albums lying around in my record collection at home.  I could have easily brought a couple for the two original members of the group to sign.  But I've resisted doing that during all the events I've worked in the past where some of these classic rockers have come to play.  It just doesn't make a lot of sense to be a star-struck "groupie" when you're supposed to be making sure everything is running on time and there's no hassles for the performers.

Blue Oyster Cult put on a great show, from what I was able to see of it.  I still had The Nadas to worry about (they were going on just after Blue Oyster Cult), getting them on stage and setting up for their set.  That's one of the problems being the Stage Manager for the event - I usually don't get to see a lot of the shows.  I can hear them, but I'm busy doing a lot of things and generally can't relax until the last band is off the stage and I've paid them. 

I was, however, able to talk with both Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma, along with their bass player, Rudy Sarzo, after the show.  Bloom and Dharma were very nice and cordial.  Sarzo, who has played with Ozzy Osborne, Quiet Riot and other established hard rock bands over the years, was nice, but somewhat quiet. 

I also spent a bit of time talking with Woody LaCerra about the Focal Professional loudspeakers that I sell to studios and recording engineers.  I had my Focal shirt on it piqued his interest.  It turns out that Woody is a contributing editor for Mix Magazine, the leading trade magazine for the recording and sound reinforcement industry.  He said, "We've done reviews on your speakers!  That's so wild that you work for Focal!"  We were suddenly friends for life.  Unfortunately, I wasn't scheduled to be at the annual AES convention and trade show coming up in New York.  But Woody said, "Listen, let me know who's coming out from your company and I'll line up some tickets for the Mix Magazine party."  

(The Mix Magazine party is the most coveted and exclusive party that goes on at AES.  But it turns out that we already had tickets for the Mix Magazine party.  Some of our Focal Professional speakers were up for Mix's "Product of the Year" and we had to have our guys who went to the show attend the party in case we won.  We didn't, but I understand the party was a very large time.)

Saturday dawned with brilliant sunshine, blue skies, warm temperatures and light winds.  After a short and fitful sleep at the Radisson in downtown Davenport, I was back to the stage at 7:00 a.m., getting ready for the 7:30 stage call to get Joe Bonamassa's equipment up on stage and ready for a sound check.  Last year, we had a tremendous amount of problems with his road manager/sound man, Warren Cracknell.  Warren was just impossible to work with, initially.  He continued to be somewhat petulant even after we had to have a sit-down with him to explain that his shit really did stink and that he was not the emperor of River Roots Live.  But once he realized that we weren't amateurs putting on the show, he calmed down quite a bit in the hours coming up to the show.

During our pre-River Roots Live production meetings, Scott Rexroat and I were just dreading having to work with Warren again.  Scott told me, "I've already had some pretty contentious phone conversations with him.  I mean, he was swearing at me and saying that he hated these outdoor festivals.  I just told him, 'Hey, Warren.  You don't need to swear at me.  Just work with me and we'll get through this.' "

The Bonamassa bus and his semi-trailer were backed up to the stage when I got there.  The same bus driver that Bonamassa had last year was here again.  He came up and put out his hand and said, "Will!  Great to see you again, man!"  And it wasn't much longer after that that Warren came out of the bus.  He came up to me, put out his hand and said, "Hey, Will.  Good to see you again."  He was quiet, he was laid back.  It was not the same Warren Cracknell that we came to hate last year. 

The stage crew got Bonamassa's band's equipment on stage.  A little after 9, a very sleepy looking Joe Bonamassa came on to the stage.  He came up to me and I didn't recognize him at first.  He shook my hand and said, "Hi, Will.  Joe."

I said, "Yeah, Joe.  How you doin'?"

He said, "I'm fine.  Thanks for having us back again this year."  And five minutes later, the band started their sound check.  By 9:20, it was over.  Warren was happy with the sound, the band wanted to go to the hotel to rest up and Scott and I figured that we didn't have anything to do until about 11 a.m.  So we went back to the Radisson for a leisurely breakfast.  It was a complete an 180 degree difference from last year.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds were scheduled to play before Bonamassa on the main stage and we had to rent a lot of their equipment and instruments (as we did the same for Blue Oyster Cult).  Misha Lapine is The Fabulous Thunderbirds manager and he, too, was a joy to work with.  We had a number of telephone conversations leading up to the event and Misha knew that Bonamassa was going to be the last guy on the main stage that evening.  He told me a week before the show, "Yeah, I've heard some horror stories about the road manager for Bonamassa.  I don't know how you can be that way and expect to have people work with you.  We're easy.  Just give us the front 15 feet of the stage and we'll be happy."   We had a deep stage, so we were actually able to give The Fabulous Thunderbirds about 20 feet of stage in front of Bonamassa's equipment.   Misha was very happy when he showed up and saw the space we'd given them.

Here's a picture from the parking ramp above and behind the stage just before the Fabulous Thunderbirds were scheduled to play.  We had a bigger crowd for Saturday night than we did for Friday night as the weather was so much nicer, but it was not as big as the Saturday night crowd for last year's event.   Marcy Hyder from Davenport One told me after the event that preliminary figures show that beer sales were down significantly from last year.  And since we rely upon beer sales to help subsidize the cost of the festival, it was disappointing to hear that news. 

We also had a couple large sponsors back out of their monetary commitment for the 2009 event, mainly due to the economy.  In all, we started out the event $55,000 in the hole from the previous year due to reduced sponsorship money. 

Even though there's only one original member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds - lead singer/harmonica player Kim Wilson - the rest of the band did a great job performing.   Lead guitarist Johnny Moeller was just fabulous.  I talked to the guys before they played and they were all pretty nice to hang with.  Except for Kim Wilson who was pretty stand-offish.  But they did put on one helluva show - a 20 minute harmonica solo by Wilson notwithstanding.

Over on the side stage, a couple of bands put on some great music.  I was especially impressed by the performance from Dick Prall - or what I saw of his performance.  Prall is a native of Iowa who now bases himself out of Chicago.  His songs are a history of what he's been through in his life and he sang them with the same self-deprecating humor that he had when we spoke before and after his performance. 

Backyard Tire Fire hails from central Illinois and they've been getting a solid following around the Midwest over the past couple three years.   They played on the side stage between the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Joe Bonamassa.  They did a great job in rocking the crowd with their roots-style rock and roll. 

Then things blew up - I was standing over by the side stage to give Backyard Tire Fire their "last song" warning and all the sudden I heard a commotion around the corner.  For some reason, Joe Bonamassa - five minutes before his scheduled time - was up on the main stage and playing.  It caught everyone by surprise.  Warren decided to start Joe on stage early - it didn't matter if the other band was playing on the side stage or not.  I ran over to the main sound board and said to Warren, "What the f***, Warren?  We still have a band playing over behind us!" 

He said, "You weren't around to tell us what to do!"

I said, "That's because I was over at the other stage!  As soon as I got those guys stopped, that's when you were supposed to start!" 

He just gave me that asshole grin of his and he said, "Well, shit happens." 

But that was about the only hitch we had all weekend long.  And Bonamassa put on a fine show, as always.  Since Warren was running the sound, Scotty Rexroat and I hung out and drank wine at the main sound board.  He'd told me earlier in the day for Cindy to bring down a bottle of wine for us to celebrate the completion of another River Roots Live.  Just before Bonamassa took the stage, Scott came up to me and said, "Did Cindy bring down that bottle of wine?"  I told him that she did.  He said, "Well, bring it out to the front of house (main sound board) and we'll drink it during Bonamassa's performance."

So we did.  It was kind of funny when Warren turned around and there was Scott, Cindy and I drinking wine and watching the show.  He just sort of smiled, shook his head and then went back to work. 

After the show, Warren and I talked and we agreed to disagree about the foul-up with the start.  I said, "Warren, I told you we were doing it just like last year.  As soon as the other band stopped on the other stage, you guys were to start up."

He said, "I thought they were done.  That's when I gave Joe the signal to start up."  Oh well...

Joe and his guys didn't stick around like they did last year.  It was the last show of their summer tour and they were all scattering to their homes for a few weeks before they all got together for a tour of Japan.  Joe came up to me and said, "Hey, thanks again, Will.  We always have a good time here."

And just before he was getting ready to get onto the bus to leave, I caught Warren and said, "Hey, you aren't leaving here before I get to say good-bye." 

We shook hands and Warren said, "Thanks for everything, as always."

I said, "Well, if I don't see you again, have a good life, Warren." 

He kind of laughed and said, "So, we're not coming back next year?" 

I said, "I didn't say that, but you never know."    

And with that, another River Roots Live went into the books.   

La Rancherita - Rock Island, IL

I just love authentic Mexican food.  We have a large Mexican population in the Quad Cities and finding a good Mexican restaurant with REAL Mexican food is a real treat.  Some of the more established Mexican food places in the Quad's are getting to be either too predictable, or the quality of their food has gone down hill as they've expanded or grown their business.  On the advice of a friend, Santo Pullela, with whom I worked with on River Roots Live in the past, Cindy and I went to La Rancherita over in Rock Island one evening.

La Rancherita is located on 14th Ave in Rock Island, just south of Augustana College and near the border with Moline (see map).  In fact, 16th Ave in Moline becomes 14th Ave. in Rock Island.  It's a little confusing when you come through Moline to get to La Rancherita.    It's housed in a building that - I was told - was formerly a neighborhood grocery store a number of years ago.  Parking is mainly street parking, but there are a couple lots across the street that appear to be attached to vacant buildings.

La Rancherita is owned by five brothers - Roberto, Carlos, Jeronimo, Everando and Salvador Villalobos, and helped out by their nephew, Jose Arias, Jr.  The family is originally from San Jose de Gracia, Mexico, a small village just south of Guadalajara in west central Mexico.  They moved to the Chicago area about 13 years ago and ended up in Rock Island over five years ago.  The recipes they use at La Rancherita are family recipes that have been passed along over the years.

Cindy and I got in there around 6:30 one evening earlier this summer and took a booth up toward the front of the restaurant.  We were given chips, salsa and homemade pico de gallo, and I ordered up a Sol beer, while Cindy got a Negra Modelo.  The menus were on the table and the description of the food was exactly what I was looking for.  Real pork tacos al pastor, shredded beef enchiladas, real homemade pork or chicken tamales, menudo soup - I was already in a mental tizzy just trying to figure out what to get.

La Rancerita has a number of dinner combinations, or you can order ala carte.  That's exactly what I did.  I knew the tacos were pretty small, so I got two pork tacos al pastor with corn tortillas, a beef enchilada and a pork tamale.  Cindy got the burrito combination with refried beans and rice.  She also got a chicken tamale.

Our waitress was pleasant and very thorough, checking on our chip basket, salsa and beers on a regular basis.  Their hot sauce salsa was very good and I was getting a slow burn from eating the chips with the salsa.  I think I went through three Sol's before we got our food.

And it wasn't all that long - less than 10 minutes - after we ordered our food when it came to our table.  The pork tacos were great.  I love the small (5 inch) corn tortillas when eating a taco.  Two tortillas per taco (sometimes three in some places I've been) is the norm in authentic Mexican places.  I really liked the enchilada and the pork tamale was a little dry, but really tasted good with a generous slather of salsa on top.

Cindy, on the other hand, wasn't quite as enamored with her dinner as I was.  She declared her burrito as "OK", but she did like the chicken tamale.

We noticed a lot of families coming and going from La Rancherita while we were there.   The table turnover was rather quick at the restaurant, which is very good if you own the place.  There were also a number of people who got food to go.  La Rancherita also offers a kid's menu and they also have an extensive breakfast menu with authentic Mexican egg and chorizo dishes.  Cindy did want to come back sometime for breakfast.

With tip (La Rancherita doesn't take credit cards - cash only), our bill came to about $35 bucks -$17.50 of that was our bar tab - so our food was relatively cheap.  And I thought it was delicious.  Cindy wasn't quite sold on the food, but I thought it was wonderful.  We've got La Rancherita programmed in on the GPS so we'll have no problem finding it the next time we go.  

Bier Stube - Le Claire, IA

The Bier Stube is - now - a three restaurant operation that was originally based just down the hill from us in the East Village of Davenport.   I say "now" because they recently opened their third location in Le Claire, IA - a picturesque community along the Mississippi just up river from the Quad Cities. 

(Update - The East Village location closed in December of 2011.) 

The first Bier Stube - the one in the East Village - opened about 8 years ago (see map).  Austrian native Dieter Rebitzer and his wife, Nancy, realized there really wasn't a true German restaurant in the Quad Cities that featured traditional German food and a great selection of beers.  They took a little restaurant in the Village and turned it into a beer lovers paradise.  In 2004, they opened a second location in downtown Moline (see map) that featured a much larger bar area, a larger dining room, a larger menu and a very nice beer garden outside.  After some delays with the Le Claire legal department, the Rebitzer's opened their third location in Le Claire (see map) earlier this year.  Rebitzer's sons - Mike, Ted and Bob - help with the day-to-day operations of all three restaurants. 

While we've eaten at the Moline one on a number of occasions, we normally only have beers on our visits to the East Village location (right) because the menu there isn't very extensive as they basically just have a small grill behind the bar.  My next door neighbor, George, loves the Bier Stube in the East Village.  He and his wife, Hanna, went out to the one in Le Claire a couple months prior to us going out.  George said, "The food's good, but if they're trying to call it an authentic German beer hall, it's like trying to say Bennigan's is an authentic Irish restaurant." 

We had a tough time getting out to Le Claire the night we went.  What is normally a 15 to 20 minute drive out to Le Claire became an hour trip of detours, back roads, and u-turns on Interstate 80 due to a horrific crash just west of the Mississippi River.  We finally got into the Bier Stube around 7:30 ready for a beer and some food. 

The new Bier Stube in Le Claire is part of a small strip mall that was recently built.  Walking in, I immediately saw what George was talking about.  While they did their best in trying to outfit the place with Bavarian flags, some signage and a few lights, it really didn't have an "old beer hall" feel to the place.  Still, the tables and booths were comfortable, there was a large bar and a great view of the river. 

The waitress greeted us and sat us at a booth.  She handed us a couple food menus and I ordered up a Warsteiner - one of their over 20 beers on tap - while Cindy had to look through the beer menu.  She ended up getting a pint of Samuel Adams, her old stand-by when she can't make up her mind as to what type of beer she'll have. 

After being in the car for a little over an hour trying to get out to the Bier Stube, I had to go to the bathroom.  I walked into the men's restroom and noticed right away that the large windows that were in the dining room extended into the men's.   In other words, there really was no privacy for a guy to go to the bathroom - either at the urinal, where the top of the urinal was just below the window ledge; or in the toilet stall where you could stand and look out at all the people on the beer deck overlooking the river.  I thought that to be a little odd.  

Our waitress brought back our beers and gave us a few minutes to look over the menu.  While the Bier Stube serves such German favorites as Jagerschnitzel, Sauerbraten, and an assortment of sausages, the Bier Stube also has an assortment of burgers, sandwiches and salads to choose from.  They have a wonderful corned beef reuben and I got that.  Cindy wanted something a little more substantial for dinner so she went with the Sauerbraten.  With both meals we got a choice of two sides - Cindy went with the Bier Stube's homemade red cabbage and a potato pancake; I went with a side of red cabbage and sauerkraut.  They also have a great German potato salad. 

About 15 minutes after we ordered, the waitress brought out my reuben sandwich.  She told Cindy, "Yours will be up in a little bit."  They could have easily waited to bring my reuben out with Cindy's Sauerbraten, but they chose to bring them out separately.  It was a couple minutes more before her meal came out. 

My sandwich was very good.  The homemade sauerkraut is a perfect complement to the slow roasted corned beef they use on their sandwiches.  I believe their 1000 Island dressing is also homemade.  I like to get an extra side of dressing to dip the sandwich into, but there was enough dressing on the sandwich where I really didn't need any extra.

Cindy proclaimed her Sauerbraten to be "good".  She said, "Ah, it's OK.  Pretty basic Sauerbraten." 

But both of us loved the red cabbage from the Bier Stube.  Cindy said, "They could bring a plate of the red cabbage out and I'd just eat that for dinner."   It is very good.

While the interior isn't quite the same as the other Bier Stube locations in the Quad's, the food was still edible, the service was adequate and the beer selection was well above average.  I think I still like the Bier Stube in Moline the best, just for the ambiance and decor.  But the Le Claire Bier Stube is a nice addition to the local restaurant scene. 

The Faithful Pilot Cafe - Le Claire, IA

Cindy and I recently celebrated our 14th anniversary with a meal at a place that we hadn't been to in quite some time, The Faithful Pilot Cafe in picturesque Le Claire, IA, just up the Mississippi River from Davenport (see map).  Actually, I wanted to go there for my birthday in April, but Cindy sort of way-laid those plans when she organized a small surprise gathering.  I was sort of upset we couldn't go to The Faithful Pilot that evening, but I was darn well set that we were going out there on our anniversary.

It had been a number of years since we were last at The Faithful Pilot.  I don't know how long it had been, but it had been too long.  The Faithful Pilot has been in business since 1991 when Steve and Nancy Rosetti first opened their doors.  The Rosetti's strive to have some unique menu items, ones that are made fresh each day and with local ingredients when they can find them.  Executive chef Robert Cook also contributes to some of the more interesting items on the daily menu.  In addition to dinner served each evening, The Faithful Pilot also has a wonderful Sunday brunch they serve between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.  

  The Faithful Pilot has garnered a number of great reviews over the years and was voted as both the Best Restaurant and Best Fine Dining Restaurant in the Quad Cities for 2009 by readers of the River Cities Reader.  My buddy, Shawn Eldridge, who works at the Reader, definitely knows good food and he and I were talking about The Faithful Pilot one evening before we went there.  He and his girlfriend, Kasey, just love the place. 

The Rosetti's are also noted wine connoisseurs and own the Rosetti Wine Shop, which is sort of part of The Faithful Pilot.  While there really isn't a retail store on the premises, the Rosetti's will deliver wine in the Quad City area, or you can make arrangements to pick up pre-ordered wine at the restaurant.  The Rosetti's also host a number of wine tasting events at The Faithful Pilot where they pair wines with different courses of a meal.  We've talked about doing that sometime. 

It was a beautiful May evening when Cindy and I drove out to The Faithful Pilot.  The restaurant is small and cozy with a number of old menus from famous restaurants on the walls, along with a number of paintings and other artwork.  There's two dining areas - a front area as you walk in, and a back area that consists of seven booths and a small bar.  We took a booth in the back area that afforded us a look out toward the Mississippi River. 

Since it was our anniversary (Number 14), I wanted to do it up right.  We both figured that we'd get seafood, so I took a gander at the wine list to see what kind of interesting white wines the Rosetti's had to choose from.  After looking through the wine menu for a moment, one that caught my eye was the La Crema Chardonnay, a little winery from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County in California.  Most of the wines we've ever had from the Russian River Valley have been excellent.  I'd never had the La Crema before, so I took a chance.  It was light, yet with a complex fruity aroma and taste.  It would go extremely well with our seafood.

For our main entrees, Cindy ordered the grilled salmon served on a bed of olive oil-infused mashed potatoes with sauteed spinach and an anchovy-rosemary cream sauce.  She also ordered a mixed green salad with The Faithful Pilot's homemade creamy garlic dressing.  I, on the other hand, was sort of torn as what to get.   

Although I initially wanted fish, I was torn between the grilled Iowa pork chop served with fingerling potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and fried sage leaves.  I hadn't had pork for a long time and that sounded great.  What also sounded great was the grilled sirloin in a smoked gouda cheese sauce, also served with fingerling potatoes and a medley of fresh vegetables they'd acquired at a local farmer's market. 

But, still being on the diet I went with the swordfish that is first marinated in citrus juice, then grilled medium-rare.  It was laid on a bed of finely mashed cauliflower and served with five asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto.   It sounded wonderful.  I also got a salad, however I had mine with the creamy Maytag Blue Cheese dressing that's made in house. 

Cindy's garlic dressing was unbelievably strong.  I had to have a bite of it just to be able to stand to be around her later that evening.  But the creamy Maytag Blue Cheese dressing was excellent, as well.  Sometimes the blue cheese can be a little overpowering, but the dressing was far from that. 

Not long after we finished up our salads, our entrees showed up at the table.  Cindy's salmon filet wasn't all that big, but it was adequate.  She said, "This is the perfect size.  Any larger and I don't know if I could finish it."

And my swordfish filet was a little bigger and a little more thick.  While I've had tuna medium-rare before, I'd never had swordfish cooked that way.  Sometimes if the fish isn't all the fresh, you get sort of a fishy taste to it.  Well, I certainly didn't get that with my swordfish at The Faithful Pilot.  It was very good and had a great taste to it. 

Our waitress that evening was on top of the ball, skillfully maneuvering between a couple other booths and our table.  She made sure that our wine glasses weren't too low and she was making sure that we were fully taken care of. 

Our food reminded us of why we used to go to The Faithful Pilot on a regular basis a number of years ago.  Cindy said, "It's been too long for us since we've been here and we've forgotten how good this is."  She couldn't have said it any better. 

After we finished our dinner, our waitress was clearing our plates.  She said, "Did you save room for dessert?"   She rattled off a couple three things before Cindy stopped her when she mentioned the tiramisu.  Cindy said, "Is the tiramisu homemade?"

The waitress said, "It's made fresh every day."

Cindy glanced at me and said, "We'll take that and bring a couple forks." 

I've turned into somewhat of a tiramisu snob over the years.  I can usually tell the good ones from the bad ones just by looking at what they've brought me.  Actually, it's been one of the toughest things to give up during my diet.  But it had been quite some time since I'd had a piece of tiramisu that I thought one piece wouldn't hurt me. 

And, once again, I'm glad Cindy had the waitress bring one out to us.  It was delicious.  It was moist, but not soggy.  It had a nice little coffee flavor, but wasn't overpowering.  I said to Cindy, "This is homemade?  This rivals anything I've ever had even in great Italian restaurants."   It was very, very good.

All in all, our anniversary dinner at The Faithful Pilot was an absolute hit.  We were full, but not gorged.  The food was excellent, the service was wonderful and the wine was outstanding.  The Faithful Pilot isn't cheap, but for a special occasion or for a birthday dinner it's highly recommended.  It's a little bit of a drive to Le Claire from anywhere, but The Faithful Pilot is worth it.  And we hope it won't be quite so long before we make a return trip to the restaurant. 

Woodfire Grille - Davenport, IA

Woodfire Grill in downtown Davenport is one of few fine dining restaurants we have in the Quad Cities.  The open and airy restaurant features a diverse menu that includes gourmet pizza, steaks, pasta, seafood, burgers, and classic Midwestern dishes such as glazed pork chops, beef brisket and meat loaf.  It's actually pretty damn good. 

Woodfire Grill opened in March of 2008 in the former space that housed Centro in the Redstone Building, just below the River Music Experience and Redstone Room in downtown Davenport (see map).  Centro had suffered a fire in late 2007 and their owners decided to sell the establishment rather than remodel and reopen.  Toby Christianson is the managing partner in The Woodfire Grill and helped open upscale restaurants at various places around the Midwest.  Executive chef Blake Schar has a number of years of experience at restaurants in Arizona, Colorado, Chicago and New York.

Just like it's predecessor, Woodfire Grill uses a wood-fired brick oven to cook many of their entrees.  The wonderful scent of hickory smoke can be smelled throughout the downtown Davenport area.   It's a place where you can walk in with a coat and a tie on, or in a pair of shorts and a polo shirt and feel welcome. 

Actually, Cindy and I made the mistake of going to Woodfire Grill only three days after it opened up.  We were going to a performance at the Redstone Room and decided to just go have dinner at the new restaurant, not knowing that it had only opened three days prior.  We knew we were breaking our rule of not eating at a restaurant for the first three months after opening (to allow all the bugs to be worked out of the system, so to speak), but we thought it had opened a month or so before. 

I had the woodfired meatloaf with a sweet barbecue glaze that night and it was very good.  But Cindy had ordered a ribeye steak, medium.  They brought her out a top sirloin strip.  Cindy exclaimed, "This is the most lean ribeye I've ever seen!"  

We called the waiter over and I asked him, "Is this the ribeye?"

He said, "Isn't that what the lady ordered?"

I said, "Yeah, she ordered the ribeye, but this looks more like a strip." 

He sort of held it up, looked at it and said, "No, I think this is a ribeye."

I had Cindy cut into the meat.  It was void of any significant marbling like you find on a ribeye.  I said, "That's a strip steak."

The waiter said, "Do you want me to send it back?"

Cindy, knowing we were up against a time deadline to get up to the show, said, "No, I'll just have this."

When we were presented with our bill, I noticed that he had still charged us for the ribeye, which was 8 bucks more expensive.  (The strip was 10 oz, the ribeye 18 oz. - Cindy figured that she would cut off a lot of the marbled fat and then get a to-go box for what she didn't eat.  And since we were parked just outside the door at Woodfire Grill, she could just set it in the car before we went upstairs.)  When the waiter came back, I pointed out that he had charged us for the ribeye.  He said, "But that's what she ordered."

I said, "Yes, I know.  But you brought out a strip steak and she had that instead."

He then said, "Oh, yes.  I remember.  So, you want me to adjust the bill?"

I looked at him rather incredulously for even asking the question and I said, "Well, yes!  Of course!"

It wasn't much longer when the waiter brought back the adjusted bill.  Not long after that, the owner, Toby Christianson, came to our table to introduce himself and to see how everything was.  I told him about the mix-up in the steaks and how we had still been initially charged for the ribeye.  He apologized profusely and said the staff was going through some "growing pains."  He said, "I do hope you give us another chance."

Cindy said, "Oh, we'll be back.  We just sort of have a policy of not going to new restaurants for the first three months to allow all the kinks to get out of the system."

Toby sort of stood there for a second and said, "That's a great rule to have.  Except if everyone followed it, a lot of restaurants would be out of business before the 90 days were up."

I said, "That's why I let other people be the guinea pigs."

Well, we have been back to Woodfire Grill on a number of occasions since then, including a rather rainy/snowy night in March after my first hip replacement.  Cindy and I have been doing "date nights" on Monday night lately and trying to spend some time together out of the house.  (God knows we've been spending a lot of time together IN the house after my surgeries.)  Actually, I wanted pizza that evening, but Cindy didn't.  We compromised and went down to Woodfire Grill so she could get a steak and I could get pizza.  

The pizza at Woodfire Grill is an eclectic mix of fresh ingredients, a rather thin and flaky crust and some interesting toppings.  While they only have six different pizzas to offer (they don't allow you to mix or match ingredients), all of them are very interesting.  The one I like is the andouille sausage and mushrooms.  They use large chunks of andouille sausage, cut from the ring, and they add slices of garden fresh mushrooms, topping it with a wonderfully sweet and light marinara sauce and REAL mozzarella cheese, not the processed type you find at most pizza places.  It's cooked in the woodfired oven at around 700 degrees for about 12 minutes and the taste is, well, it's great.  We don't have a lot of great pizza places in the Quad Cities and I wish Woodfire Grill would offer more toppings, but what they have is very, very good.

This time, Cindy DID order the sirloin strip steak on purpose - medium.  It came with a vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower, red peppers and corn.  Cindy also wanted some wine with dinner and I ordered a bottle of the Mill Creek cabernet.  I was still going to have a beer with my pizza - it's the only way to truly eat pizza - but a glass of wine or two was going to be nice on a cold night in March.  

It wasn't a busy night at Woodfire Grill, so our waitress was attentive and on top of things.  Not long after we opened and poured the wine, our food made it to the table.  Cindy was very pleased with her steak, cooked perfectly and had a great taste quality to it.  And, of course, my pizza was wonderful, as well.  I'd really rather have a good spicy Italian sausage on the pizza, but I really do like the andouille sausage on the Woodfire Grill pizza.

Although the pizzas are 12" in diameter at Woodfire Grill, they're very light and don't bomb your gut like other pizzas can.  I've found that on my diet I can easily eat a small pizza that is light and thin in the crust and it doesn't have a lasting effect on my waistline.  

Cindy sort of wanted to see the dessert menu, but the girl brought our check out before she even asked if we wanted dessert.  I certainly didn't, but Cindy thought she needed something sweet.  Cindy said, "She didn't even ask if we wanted coffee after the meal."

I said, "Do you want a coffee?"

She said, "No, but it's just the principle of asking."

Oh, boy.  I've turned my wife into a restaurant snob.

The gaffe of not asking if we wanted dessert or coffee, notwithstanding, the meal at Woodfire Grill was very good.  With the wine and tip, it was a little expensive - even for date night.  But if you get to the Quad Cities and want a fine meal at a reasonable price, it's tough to find a better place than Woodfire Grill.  I think they've worked out the kinks in the system by now...

French Rose Bakery - Davenport, IA

                     

One of my worst guilty pleasures in my world is a bakery called the French Rose Bakery.  They don't really have a retail location as they sell their goods at one of the Farmer's Markets we go to nearly every Saturday here in Davenport.  And while they don't have a retail location, they are looking to move into one.  And the bad thing about it, it's not very far from our house.  

Cindy found out about the French Rose Bakery a couple years ago and she had an assortment of cinnamon rolls, eclairs, beignets and croissants delivered to our house for my birthday.  From the first bite of the maple eclair, I was in ecstasy.  By the end of the day, Cindy, her kids and I were fighting over the remaining maple eclairs.  

Then when I tried one of the French Rose Bakery cinnamon rolls, I went straight to heaven.  It was one of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life.  And just like finding a good burger, finding a good cinnamon roll is one of my life goals.  The French Rose Bakery uses nutmeg in the cream cheese frosting on the cinnamon rolls.  They're big and chewy, and there's ample amounts of cinnamon in the roll.  There's three or four restaurants and/or bakeries around the Quad Cities all well known for their cinnamon rolls.  But the French Rose Bakery is head and shoulders above 'em all. 

And their croissants are so light, flaky and flavorful that I would have thought they were made in France.  The first time I tried one of her croissants, I told Cindy, "This is unbelievable!  This is EXACTLY how the croissants in France taste!"  I have never come close to experiencing a croissant in the U.S or Canada as good as the one from the French Rose Bakery.   

The proprietor of the French Rose Bakery is a 20-something young lady by the name of Jennifer Ewert (right).  I've met her a couple times and she's a great kid.  Jennifer studied as a pastry chef at The French Pastry School in Chicago.  She grew up on the west side of Davenport and she uses an addition onto her parents home as her bakery.  Her mother, Mary, and father, Gary, help her out at the Farmer's Market in the parking lot at NorthPark Mall.  They're really great people. 

Jennifer tried selling some of her pastries at a local gift store, but that experiment ended after a few weeks.  She would invariably run out of pastries, disappointing dozens of people - like me -  who would stop in to pick something up.  Her mother told me earlier this spring that they really needed to have a place where she could bake and sell her good tasting stuff.  The last I heard, she was looking at a store front in a strip mall about a mile from our house.  That's not good, especially for my diet. 

Actually, the French Rose Bakery was probably responsible for a 10 to 15 pound increase in my weight over the past couple of years.  At least, that's what I accuse them of doing to me.  But now that I'm on a diet, I have to show restraint when I walk past their booth at the Farmer's Market at NorthPark Mall.  But those maple eclairs keep calling me and calling me! 

A couple three weeks ago, Cindy was out of town for the day.  But she told me to go up and get a half-dozen maple eclairs at the Farmer's Market from the French Rose Bakery.  She wanted to take some to work with her to show some people how good they were.  When I got up there, a lady I didn't recognize was running the stand.  I asked if they had any maple eclairs and she said, "No, I'm sorry.  She ran out of them at 3 a.m." 

I was kind of perplexed - she ran out of them at 3 a.m.?  Now, I know her eclairs are great, but running out of them at 3 a.m.?  What did she do?  Go hang out outside of the bars in the District of Rock Island and sell eclairs to the drunks walking by on their way home?  (Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad marketing idea.)

Instead, I got a cinnamon roll (and showing restraint, I cut the roll into thirds and ate those portions three mornings in a row).  I walked away and as I was nearing my car, I heard Mary Ewert calling for me.  She said, "I'm sorry, I can't remember your name, but you come here all the time."

I said, "Will." 

She said, "I'm Mary."

"I know.  We've met before, " I replied.

And then she began to PROFUSELY apologize for not having maple eclairs this morning.  It turned out that Jennifer had a big order of eclairs for another function and she ran out of maple flavoring for the frosting at 3 a.m.  Oh, OK.

Mary said, "But come back next week and we'll have more!"

Now, that illustrates how nice of people the Ewert's are.  She didn't have to come running after me to tell me WHY they'd run out of maple eclairs.  They were out of them, end of story.  But Mary went out of her way to track me down to apologize and explain herself.  Good people. 

Cindy and I went back the next week to pick up some assorted things for her dad's lady-friend's birthday the next day.  The weather was cold and blustery.  There were about 50% less vendors at The Farmer's Market at NorthPark that day.  And the French Rose Bakery was one of the no-shows.  I didn't blame 'em.  

In addition to her great croissants, cinnamon rolls, eclairs and beignets, Jennifer also has a full menu of cookies, cakes, brownies, dessert trays and cream puffs.  Her mother told us that she hoped to be able to expand her offerings when she moves into the retail space.  Boy, I think she has a lot to offer now!

But for now, Jennifer only sells selected items at The Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings, or they'll deliver to your home or business (in the Quad Cities only) for a $50 minimum order.  I know once she opens her retail bakery location, her business is just going to take off.  She's a little higher priced than some of the other bakeries around.  But the difference in taste and quality versus those other places is why The French Rose Bakery is a little more expensive.  

Man, I have GOT to quit writing these blog entries on an empty stomach!  

(Update - Unfortunately, Jennifer has not only quit selling on Saturday's at the Farmer's Market, but never realized her dream to open her own bakery.  While part of me is sad for her, another part of me completely misses those cinnamon rolls and maple eclairs.  I don't know if she's still doing any baking as her web site is down, as well.  Oh, well.  I'd probably be over 400 lbs. if she was still baking.)

BeauSoleil - Davenport, IA

Earlier this year, the great Cajun band BeauSoleil (pronounced Bo-so-LAY) came to Davenport for a performance at the Redstone Room at the River Music Experience.  I had seen BeauSoleil a number of years ago in Des Moines and I really enjoyed their rollicking authentic Cajun music.  When I found out they were coming to Davenport, I immediately got tickets.  I didn't know if Cindy would like that kind of music, since most of the singing is in French, but I find Cajun music to be infectiously fun. 

We met up at the Redstone Room with my long-distance, yet local friend, Burt Gearhart, and his wife, Marilyn, who were nice enough to save us a couple seats at a table near the side of the stage.  And we're glad they did.  The place was packed when we got there and there were more people coming in.  The crowd was decidedly older, but boisterous.  There weren't many BeauSoleil "rookies" in the crowd. 

BeauSoleil is headed by multi-instrumentalist Michael Doucet (background right) and his guitar playing brother, David (foreground right).  The band is based out of Lafayette, LA, right smack dab in the heart of Lousiana Cajun country.  Started in 1975, BeauSoleil specializes in traditional and original Cajun root-music - the kind you'd expect to hear if you walked into a bar in any one of the small Louisiana towns on a Saturday night.  The Grammy award winning band has been touring since the mid-80's.  In addition to the Doucet brothers, BeauSoleil also features Jimmy Breaux on accordian, Mitch Reed on fiddle and bass, Tommy Alesi on drums, and even though he wasn't with the band that evening in Davenport, Billy Ware on percussion.  

BeauSoleil's performance was announced as starting at 8 p.m., but as the Redstone Room has a habit of doing, they neglect to mention there will be an opening act.  Instead of BeauSoleil taking the stage, a 50-something troubadour by the name of Tony Cavitt who billed himself as "Tennessee, the Nashville Cat" came out with his guitar.  Cavitt had been playing around the Quad City area for a while and I don't know if he's a permanent resident of the area or if he was just hanging out for a few weeks. 

He told stories about his upbringing where his mother was a longtime bartender at "the only bar in the Nashville airport."  Because of that, she became friends with a number of entertainers who would invariably be sitting on the bar waiting for a delayed flight.  I actually thought his stories were more compelling than his music.  

And because the Redstone Room neglected to say that there would be a warm-up act before BeauSoleil, a lot of the older people in the crowd were vocally upset that someone OTHER than BeauSoleil was on stage at 8 p.m.  Actually, it was kind of comical because Cindy and I knew there would be an opening act that evening - it was the Redstone Room's "m.o." to do so and not tell people there would be an opening act.  

Still, one lady seated near us, probably well into her 60's, couldn't contain her disgust between Cavitt/Tennessee's songs.  "It's 8:30!  Where's BeauSoleil?!  They said the show started at 8!  I expected BeauSoleil to take the stage then, not this bum," she would yell.  

After Cavitt/Tennessee's performance ended shortly before 8:40, it wasn't any more than about 20 minutes before BeauSoleil took the stage.  Fronted by the wild-haired Michael Doucet (bald top of the head, white hair sticking straight out on the sides) - who looks more like a college professor than an accomplished musician - they launched into one of the many fast-paced good time numbers they're known for. Michael Doucet said after the first song, "If you're not familiar with us, we're a Louisiana band known for taking songs in English and singing them in French." 

At one point, Michael Doucet said, "This is dance music.  You can get up and dance if you want."  And the small dance floor in front of the stage was filled with a bunch of people kicking up their heels.  There were some good dancers, too, including the lady who was verbally disgusted when Tony Cavitt was playing earlier. 

BeauSoleil continued playing until about 10:45.  I like Cajun music, although I don't crave it like some people who attended that evening.  In fact, a lot of Cajun music sounds alike.  But, BeauSoleil has released 22 albums and 5 compilation albums since 1977.  So somebody must think it doesn't all sound the same.  Still, you can't get past how Cajun music makes one feel really good.  And BeauSoleil is quite possibly the best Cajun band in the world today. 

It was a fun evening hanging with Burt and Marilyn, and listening to BeauSoleil.  It had been about 20 years since I'd last heard them live and I hope it isn't another 20 years before I see them again. 

Osaka Steak House - Davenport

One of the things Cindy and I do on an annual basis - no matter if we're in Chicago or home in the Quad Cities - is take in a movie on Christmas Eve. This past Christmas Eve was no exception, but we decided to go out to dinner before the movie. We both were thinking sushi, so we went to the Osaka Steak House on Utica Ridge in northeast Davenport (see map).

Osaka used to be just across the street from Southpark Mall in Moline and moved to their present location in the fall of 2008. They also maintain a sushi bar at Northpark Mall. Their Utica Ridge location was formally a local rib joint called R.J. Boar's. Actually, I thought R.J. Boar's was much better at their old location in downtown Bettendorf. And, evidently, a lot of other people felt the same way. It didn't stay in business for very long after their move to Utica Ridge.

When Osaka moved in, they substantially changed the decor to an elegant Japanese theme. There's a large bar area on the right when you move in and the dining area featured a number of grill tables where people can watch one of Osaka's hibachi chef's do their little shtick. And in the far back of the restaurant, through the bar and past the dining area, is the sushi bar. As we like to do, we sat right at the bar and were given a menu. While Osaka has a lot of different styles of Japanese/American food to offer, we were in the mood for sushi.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that we wanted a spicy tuna roll along with a California roll. And then we ordered some other pieces of sushi to go along with it - spicy tuna, spicy yellowtail, red snapper, sweet shrimp, red snapper, salmon. We went to town with the order, really hoping to have a seafood overload for our pre-Christmas dinner.

In addition to all the sushi we ordered, we also got a bowl of miso soup to start out. There's not really much to miso soup - it's basically chunks of tofu, some scallions and some edible seaweed in a seasoned broth. Think chicken and noodle soup, only without the chicken and the noodles and with tofu, scallions and seaweed. But Osaka's miso soup was very good. Some of the best we'd ever tried.

When the spicy tuna roll and California roll came out, we were ready. And the spicy tuna roll was just outstanding. It certainly didn't last very long. In fact, both rolls were devoured within about two minutes of them being served to us. But the good thing is that they weren't overly busy at the sushi bar so our sushi order came up soon after we finished the rolls.

I have to say the sushi at Osaka was very, very good. It's amazing that you can get such fresh tasting fish in the middle of the country. We were wolfing the sushi back like it was the last meal for us.

Now, sushi is not appetizing to a lot of people. Actually, it took me a few times of having sushi to really appreciate the taste sensations and to get past the idea that I was eating "bait". It really can be an acquired taste.

My first trip to a sushi place was out in Las Vegas about 14 years ago. The guys in the company I was working with at the time decided they wanted sushi that evening. And as our sales manager at the time said, "Willie, we're going to go get sushi tonight. Now, you're more than welcome to come with us, but I don't think they have hamburgers on the menu, if you know what I mean."

Although I did find myself wanting to gag during my first couple of encounters with sushi, I learned to really love sushi. Later on, I took Cindy to a sushi place in Madison, WI for a snack one afternoon. She loved it immediately. And she turned her kids on to sushi, too. Her son will do stupid human tricks for sushi, he loves it so much.

One of the decadent pleasures we have in eating sushi is ordering the fatty tuna - or nigiri - from time to time. Usually, fatty tuna is pretty expensive per piece - about three to four times the price of regular sushi. But, man, is it good! We were first introduced to fatty tuna about 12 years ago at a sushi place called Sushi to Dai For in San Rafael, CA (see map). We were the only people at the sushi bar that evening and the sushi chef explained to us the different grades of tuna, cutting chunks of tuna for us to try. Fatty tuna is more marbled than regular chunk tuna and has a wonderful flavor.

It turned out that Osaka had fatty tuna that evening (some places only get it part of the time). We each got a couple pieces of the nigiri - at $7.95 a piece. Yow! But, man! Was it good.

I was still hungry after eating all that sushi, so I ordered up a Crazy Tuna Roll - basically, it's a tuna roll with spicy tuna wrapped around the outside. By the time we finished that, we'd hit the coveted seafood overload level.

But I don't know what it is about sushi. I can gorge myself on the stuff, getting to the point that I'm starting to grow gills on my neck. But an hour to 90 minutes later, I'm craving White Castle hamburgers. Yep, I don't quite know why, but for some reason I get hungry for the taste of a White Castle "slider". I think it has something to do with Cindy and me having sushi in West Lafayette, IN a number of years ago, stuffing ourselves and making our way back to our hotel. Then about two hours later, I was hungry again. It just happened that there was a White Castle near our hotel. We walked over and got a couple "sliders". It was the perfect complement to the sushi we'd had earlier in the evening.

Our sushi-fest at Osaka wasn't cheap - the bill came to over $100 bucks with tip. It was mainly sushi as I had a couple of beers and Cindy had hot tea with our food. But the fatty tuna helped push it over a "c-note". But it was worth it as a nice little Christmas present to us both.

Before we left, I ran into a good friend, Mike Weindruch, who was having a hibachi dinner with his family at Osaka. He said they had just gone to a movie and then decided to have dinner. Mike said, "A movie, then sushi. This is what Jews do on Christmas Eve."

I said, "Hey, we're not Jewish and we're doing the same thing, except we're heading to the movie right now."

We agreed that sushi is definitely a non-denominational treat. And Osaka's sushi was a definite spot-hitter.

Ripley Street Grille - Davenport, IA

We had planned on going into Chicago for Cindy's birthday in December.  But the weather that weekend started off with freezing rain, then we had plummeting temperatures with snow and high winds that caused blizzard conditions in parts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.  We made the decision not to go in the night before all of that hit. 

Since we weren't going into Chicago, I told Cindy that I'd take her to some place nice locally for her birthday.  There's a new place in town down in the old Freight House building near Davenport's river front by the name of Ripley Street Grille (see map).  We decided to go there for her birthday.

Ripley Street Grille is part of four segments of the Freight House building - Penguins Comedy Club, Nan's Piano Bar, and Balls and Pucks Sports Cafe.  When Penguins Comedy Club was looking for a new place to move to, the co-owners - Bob Eckles and Jeff Johnson - wanted to have a building big enough to house a fine dining restaurant along with the comedy club.  They found the building big enough for the club, restaurant and more in the Freight House building.  The Freight House hasn't had the greatest track record in keeping businesses in the building.  There's been a series of restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. that have come and gone over the years that have been housed in the building.  For whatever reasons, the Freight House hasn't been able to sustain any life in any business. 

I think, however, that Eckles and Johnson have found the right combination of businesses to sustain the Freight House for a few years.  Although I'm not too impressed by Balls and Pucks as a sports bar, it's really nothing more than the bar area for Penguins.  But Nan's Piano Bar is regularly packed with people looking for a nice diversion of entertainment in the area.  And we've heard good things about the Ripley Street Grille.

Scott Elmer is the head chef at Ripley Street Grille.  Most of the menu is an eclectic mix of contemporary American food with steaks, seafood, pasta and sandwiches.  They even have a "build-your-own" burger for $7.50 that I wouldn't mind trying sometime. 

The parking lot attached to the Freight House building was nearly full when we got there around 7 p.m.  We ended up parking across the street in the old Union Station which was much closer to the entry way of Ripley Street Grille, anyhow.  We went in and checked in at the hostess station.  The girl asked if we had reservations and we said we didn't.  I said, "How long for the wait?"

She looked at me and said, "There's no wait.  We can get you in right away."

I sort of hate that when they ask if you have a reservation right off the bat, but that's normal procedure for most fine dining restaurants.  She led us to a booth just in an area near the front entrance.  Actually, I wouldn't have minded getting a table next to the large ceiling-to-floor windows that run along the south side of the restaurant.  But Cindy is perpetually cold from November 1 to May 1, so sitting near the window is generally not an option this time of year.  So it worked out.  

Our waiter came out and we started to make some small talk with him.  He wanted to know if it was our first time in and we said it was.  He talked a little bit about the restaurant and what they served.  He gave us a little bit of time to look over the menu.  In the meantime, I took a look at the wine list - a not too impressive list, I might add.  But there wasn't anything that was overly expensive, probably not wanting to immediately scare the locals who they're trying to get to come in to the place.

I found an appetizer that I wanted to try right off the bat.  I ordered up some of the scallop and shrimp scampi - medium-sized scallops and shrimp baked in a combination of butter, garlic and white wine, then topped with some Panko bread crumbs.  It was very good.  It was served with a soft homemade bread that was great to dip into the butter, garlic and wine sauce. 

When I ordered the appetizer, I ordered up a bottle of the Murphy-Goode Cabernet Sauvignon.  I'd had the wine before and they had a good price on it - $35 bucks.  I've seen bottles of Murphy-Goode go for $50 bucks at restaurants in the past.  

Our appetizer was well over before the waiter bought the bottle of Murphy-Goode out and the general manager of the place was right behind him.  The G.M. said, "Oh, you ordered the Murphy-Goode Cab.  That's my favorite wine on our list."  It was almost like he was patronizing me for making the selection.  

The waiter had the bottle, two large red wine glasses and a decanter.  I said, "Look, you don't really need to decanter the wine."

He said, "Yes, but decanting the wine will help bring out the fruit flavor."

I said, "Look, the glasses are large.  Once they get poured into the glasses, the wine will open up nicely.  We're not going to slam it back or anything.  Besides, decanting wine just seems too pretentious to me.  I've eaten in some fine dining establishments in Chicago, New York, L.A., where ever, and only a handful of places have ever offered to decanter the wine.  I know you're trying to put your best foot forward, but this is the Quad Cities, for God's sake."  

He said, "As you wish, sir."  And he poured the wine in our glasses, sort of miffed that he couldn't fulfill his waiterly duties.  But the wine was very good out of the bottle and I said, "This is great and it will be even better in about 20 minutes."  

After he left, Cindy said, "I would have liked to have him decanter the wine."

I said, "You know, there are places in this town that just go out of their way to be "big city" when even nicer places in big cities don't even try to do the things they do here in the Quad's."  I explained to her that while it must be nice for some people who think they're getting a world class dining experience in the Quad Cities, it just reeks of pretentiousness.  And I hate any signs of pretentious dining - especially in the Quad Cities.  

(As an aside - there's a place just up the river in LeClaire called Steventon's.  It's a fine dining place that I took Cindy to - once.  It was her birthday in 1994 and we went out there for dinner.  I had a crew neck sweater, buttoned down shirt and slacks on.  Cindy was similarly dressed.  I was told by the host that they normally don't seat men without coats and ties, but given that it was the middle of the week, they'd make an exception.  Well, it pissed me off so much that I've refused to go back - even AFTER we've heard they've relaxed on their dress code.  It wasn't like I was in shorts and a polo shirt like I was this past summer at The Inn at Kristopher's in Door County.  And that was a much nicer place than Steventon's.  Like I say, it doesn't matter what you have on - our money spends just as well as the guy who's wearing a coat and tie.) 

Our waiter came back and took our order.  Cindy ordered up the Chilean sea bass - a broiled sea bass filet topped with a Panko pecan breading with a beurre blanc (white butter) sauce.  Along with the sea bass came a vegetable medley.

Ripley Street Grille has prime rib on both Friday and Saturday nights.  And I thought the price for a 24 oz. cut ($32 bucks) was pretty reasonable.  So that's what I ordered.  With the prime rib I ordered some of their garlic smashed potatoes.   He asked how I liked my meat cooked and I asked him to bring it rare.  He said, "Well, our prime rib usually starts out medium-rare."

I said, "OK, that's fine.  But try to make it the most rare part of the medium-rare."  He said he'd see what he could do.

I got up to go to the bathroom and I walked through the restaurant.  The main restaurant is long and narrow with the bar on the other side of the main entrance to the restaurant (which is sort of weird).  I would say the place was about half-full with diners and there was a Christmas party going on in one of the rooms.  In the past, we've gone to places for Cindy's birthday where the restaurant was hosting two or three Christmas parties.  And because of that, the food usually suffers.  I was hoping that wouldn't be the case with Ripley Street Grille.  

When our food came out, I was astonished to see the size of the chunk of meat the chef cut off for me.  It was WELL over 24 ounces - possibly hitting 40 ounces.  The waiter said, "We took care of you on this one.  We're actually a little slow this evening and the chef just cut off the biggest piece of rare-medium-rare he could find."

I asked the waiter if I could get some fresh-ground horseradish.  He sort of looked at me funny and said, "I don't know if we have any."

I said, "Man, you serve up a great prime rib like this and you don't have fresh-ground horseradish?"

He said he'd check in the kitchen.  He came back with a small container of fresh-ground horseradish and said, "Well, I learn something every day.  We do have fresh-ground horseradish.  And the chef said, 'That guy knows how to eat prime rib if he wants the fresh stuff.' "  He said he'd been a waiter there since the place opened in June of 2008 and he said that he's served hundreds of prime rib dinners on the weekend and no one had ever asked for fresh-ground horseradish.  "We've got the creamy horseradish," he said.

I said, "Ah, creamy horseradish is for tourists.  Well, now you can impress your customers by asking them if they'd like some fresh or creamy horseradish with their prime rib."

There are times that I wish that I had a camera for some meals and this was one of the times.  The chunk of prime rib was - easily - two and half inches thick and about eight to nine inches in length.  I certainly didn't get short changed in that department.  And it was very flavorful and very tender.  There was no way I was going to be able to eat even half of the portion. 

Cindy was very impressed with her Chilean sea bass.  She gave me a small chunk of it.  It was very good, not very fishy tasting and it was also very rich.  The light breading and the white butter sauce were both excellent on the fish.  And she gave me a couple pieces of the asparagus that came with her vegetable medley.  It may have been the best prepared asparagus I've ever had at a restaurant.  It was fully cooked, but still had a nice fresh "crunch" to the bite.  I said, "Why is my asparagus at home not like this?" 

Cindy said, "Because you usually over-cook it." 

After we ate all we could, the waiter came back and asked if I wanted my prime rib boxed up.  I said, "Absolutely!  This will be good for two prime rib and eggs breakfasts in the coming days."

When he was picking up our plates, he asked if we were interested in dessert.  Cindy said she was, so he went through the list of items they had that evening.  One of the desserts was a flour-less black chocolate torte topped with a house-made whipped cream.  He also mentioned a vanilla-bean and almond creme brulee.  I said, "Oooo, the creme brulee sounds good, but I don't care for almonds all that much."

He said, "Quite honestly, I like almonds and I think they should put more of the almond flavoring into the creme brulee.  So, it might be OK with you."

He then said, "Look, you can give it a try and if you don't like it, I'll take it back and not charge you for it.  Fair enough?"

I said, "Geez, you can't go wrong with that."

Cindy ordered the very rich chocolate torte.  He brought them out and even though the creme brulee had a hint of almond flavoring in it, it wasn't overpowering to the taste of the dessert as a whole.  He didn't have to worry about taking the creme brulee back. 

After some initial uneasiness with our waiter, it turned out he was a pretty good guy - joking with us later on in the evening, he asked how the Ripley Street Grille stacked up against any big city place we'd eaten at.  He asked, "Were we too 'big city' for you?"

I said, "Not after we set and understood the rules and boundaries.  The service was very good, the food was excellent and we will be back at some point."

After dinner, we tried to go up to Nan's Piano Bar to check the place out, but there was a doorman at the bottom of the stairs who was telling people that it was closed that evening for a private party hosted by one of the local large realtors in the area.  Cindy was kind of bummed, but the guy said, "You should have my job turning people away who have been planning on going to Nan's for a long time.  That's what I'm up against this evening.

So, we ended up at a downtown Davenport bar where our buddies from Samurai Superfly were playing.  Leo and Bob Kelly, along with Greg Hipskind are better known as the musicians in Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls.  But with Liz raising a family, she can't play as often as the guys would like to.  So the guys go out and do their own classic and contemporary rock gigs on their own.  It was a fun evening, to say the least. 

With very handsome tip to our waiter, our meal at Ripley Street Grille came to a little over $150 bucks.  It was worth every penny.  I thought the prices were well in line compared to other places in larger cities, the portions - albeit, a very abnormal piece of prime rib - were very adequate.  It was a great atmosphere and I want to go back and try one of their burgers for lunch at some point.   I hope the Freight House is able to sustain the businesses that now inhabit the place.  Ripley Street Grille was a great value with good service and a wonderful atmosphere.  It's definitely one of the best places to eat in the Quad Cities.

(Update - Less than a year after I made this entry, the Ripley Street Grille has closed its doors.  Actually, they are still serving for groups and private functions, but they are no longer a full service restaurant.  As good as the place was, the higher than average prices and pretentious nature of the place turned off a lot of local people.  That was pretty much echoed by the managing partner, Jeff Johnson, during an interview on one of the local television stations.  It's too bad because as long as I've lived in Davenport, the Freight House has had a number of restaurants and bars come and go.  Restaurants in downtown Davenport aren't doing all that well to begin with.  One of these days I hope they'll find a restaurant that earns its keep in the Freight House.)

Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue

Recently, we had the fortune to see the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue at the Redstone Room in the River Music Experience in downtown Davenport.  The line-up consists of San Francisco-based blues guitarist Tommy Castro and his backing band; blues-pianist and saxophone player Deanna Bogart; the long-time harmonica player from the J. Geils Band, Magic Dick; and blues guitarist Bernard Allison, the son of the late blues legend Luther Allison.

In the past, the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue has featured Ronnie Baker Brooks, the son of blues great Lonnie Brooks, instead of Bernard Allison.  Our friends, Tom and Mary Ann Laake, saw that show in Waterloo earlier in the year.  We wanted to go see the show in Davenport and Tom and Mary Ann were up for going with us, as well. 

After standing in line for nearly an hour for the doors to open so we could get a table in the Redstone Room, we finally found a table in the back.  While the sight lines aren't too good in the Redstone Room, the giant projected images they have of the performers on the wall opposite the bar helps those in the back to see the performance.  But the sound system is great, no matter where on sits in the venue.

The show started promptly at 8 a.m. with Tommy Castro and his band taking the stage.  I worked with Tommy Castro at the Rib Fest about 5 years ago.  I remember him being a very nice guy who didn't drink alcohol.  His drink of choice was Red Bull and he had a couple three on ice in the colors off the side of the stage. 

Castro's blistering guitar and gravelly voice did a great job of convincing one that he'd probably grown up in the south instead of the Bay Area.  Castro's band consisting of longtime associate Keith Crossen on sax, Tom Poole on trumpet, Scott Sutherland on bass and Ronnie Smith on drums did a great job accompanying Castro. 

After about 30 minutes of playing his tunes, Castro introduced Deanna Bogart.  I wasn't overly certain if I'd ever see her play before, but the Washington, D.C.-based Bogart put on a great set of about four or five songs as she sang and played both her piano and her saxophone with authority.  I was really impressed with her work.  I wish she would have been able to play longer than she did.

Coming out to join Castro and Deanna Bogart after her short set was harmonica player-extraordinaire Magic Dick.  Born Richard Salwitz, Magic Dick was the cornerstone with the J. Geils Band until the group disbanded in the mid-80's.  He is one of the true innovators of the modern blues harmonica style.  And the guy can really blow on that mouth harp.  Although he's approaching 65 years of age, Magic Dick was still a flamboyant presence on the stage, bouncing, dancing and doing wild arm gyrations when he played. 

Joining the group last - but certainly not least - was Bernard Allison.  It turned out this was one of the first gigs the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue had done with the Chicago native.  Allison still plays the same guitar that his father, Luther, played when he became one of the most revered blues artists.  And Bernard Allison did a great job playing three or four of his songs with the other musicians helping out.  It was about 2 hours of non-stop great music played by a stage full of great musicians.

The band took about a half-hour break before coming back out and beginning a jam session where everyone played on stage.  Actually, I'd had enough of the music and heard what I wanted to hear that evening, so we took off after a couple of the jam songs.  But it was still a treat to have so many great musicians on stage for one evening of blues.  The Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue continues to travel across the nation into 2009 (see upcoming dates here), this time with blues great Kenny Neal taking Bernard Allison's place.  If you love blues music and get a chance to see the show, do it.

Behind the Scenes at River Roots Live - 2008

 The fourth annual River Roots Live music festival was held in downtown Davenport, recently.  Once again, I was on hand to be the stage manager and the main announcer for the event.  Things were thrown into turmoil in the planning stages when the festival had to be moved from its regular location in LeClaire Park to the streets of downtown Davenport due to damage caused by the floods we experienced earlier in the summer.  And because it would have been a monumental logistical nightmare to charge for admission, the powers that be decided they'd make River Roots Live a free event this year, hoping that beer sales would help offset the loss at the gate. 

The main stage at River Roots Live this year was set up on Second Street in front of the Ground Transportation Center in downtown Davenport (see map).  The size of the stage was a staggering 40' X 40' with a same sized canopy roof on top.  We needed that size and then some.  We had two big touring acts on Saturday night - The Guess Who and blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa.  Both road managers wanted to set up at the same time on Saturday morning.  We got it done with a minimum of bruised egos between the two camps. 

And as with last year, we combined the annual Rib Fest with the River Roots Live.  This year there were only six or seven rib vendors at the festival, and all brought their small setups and secondary crews.  We really didn't know what would happen with River Roots Live and the Rib Fest being on the streets of downtown Davenport.  We expected the worst in terms of amount of people who would show up.

It turned out that we didn't have to worry.  Crowds exceeded an estimated 15,000 on Friday night and over 20,000 on Saturday night.  It was almost overwhelming.  Well, actually it was for the rib vendors who ran out of everything before 8:30 p.m. both nights.  The above left picture is a shot from the top of the parking ramp of the main stage crowd when Foghat played on Friday night.  It was just packed both nights.  It was actually kind of fun to see.

Because I was doing a lot of prep work before the shows, I didn't have a chance to eat much of the barbecue this year.  I did have some ribs and a sandwich on Friday and Saturday from a "mom and pop" barbecue place from around Osceola, IA.  All the touring rib vendors were busy and had long lines from the time they'd open around 11 a.m. until they ran out of food.  A lot of people were pissed off because people ran out of food.  One of the local rib vendors told me that he brought six times the amount of meat for Saturday than he did on Friday - and he STILL ran out of ribs by 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night!  It was just crazy.

Here is your handsome stage manager and announcer getting things rolling on Friday evening on the side stage.   It worked out pretty well this year as the main stage and the side stage were nearly in view of one another and it allowed people to just turn their chairs or bodies toward one stage or the other to watch the performers.  Plus, this year, we were able to use the large "jumbotron" for both stages, allowing people far in the back to see the performances. 

The weather, in a word, was perfect for the River Roots Live.  We had a lot of rain during set up on Thursday, and it was sort of cool and foggy during the day on Friday.  But by the time the first band played at 5 p.m. on Friday, the clouds had burned off, there was little to no humidity and the sun was shining.  And it was the same for Saturday. 

The main acts this year were Foghat on Friday night, and The Guess Who and Joe Bonamassa on Saturday night.  But, in between, there were a number of very good performers who came to play at River Roots Live this year.  One of the problems with being the stage manager is that I can introduce an act, then I'm off doing a number of other things behind the stages getting ready for the next act to go on.  I don't get to see or hear much of the performances except right at the start and right at the end.  

And one of the neat things about being the stage manager is that I get to know the guys from Iowa Public Television pretty well.  They've come to River Roots Live for the past couple three years to record the event to be played back on TV in six to eight months.  The executive producer, Jerry Grady, is great to work with and he's offered me DVD's of bands that performed for my personal enjoyment.  The only problem was that every band that was filmed and recorded on the side stage, the sound was all screwed up.  It made the recorded DVD's virtually useless.  I understand they won't be able to use any of the performances on their River Roots Live television show this winter.

And that's too bad because there was some great bands that played on the side stage.  One of them was Pete Francis, who is a former member of the great indie band Dispatch.   Dispatch is renown for having the best selling CD's of any independent band in music history.  Pete went by his given name of Pete Heimbold during his days with Dispatch.   

Pete and his band were in from New York City for the show.  We had some glitches that delayed Pete's performance by 15 minutes or so.  I was pretty pissed about the whole thing, because it was clearly our fault, but Pete and his guys were so pleasant and understanding about the whole thing.   

Actually, I got to hang with Pete for a while after his show as we were waiting for the bank ladies to get him cash to pay his band.  It turned out that Pete had just moved from Boston to New York and was slowly getting settled into his new digs.  He was really complimentary of the way we did things on the production side for River Roots Live.  He was a great guy all the way around. 

Other bands and musicians who played at River Roots Live this year included Goodnight Nurse, a group from Chicago that featured noted Chicago musician and producer, Brian Abraham; and Kris Myers, the drummer for the up and coming jam band Umphrey's McGee (who has played the RRL twice in the past.  Their style of music can be classified as electronica jazz, using computers, samplers and electric drums to make their music.  In fact, we were about 20 minutes late in getting the band up and going because of problems Abraham was having with his Apple computer.  Once they got that all figured out, they were only able to play for about 35 minutes.  Thank God it wasn't our fault on that one. 

Also playing was Assembly of Dust, a New York-based folk-rock band that was beginning to get quite the name out on the east coast.  They were good guys to hang with.  It was sort of funny because their leader, Reid Genauer, told me it was the first time they played west of the Mississippi River.  I said, "Well, actually, this is the first time you played NORTH of the Mississippi River.  The river runs east-west here."

Like most people who grew up learning that the Mississippi River runs north-south, Genauer had a hard time coming to terms that he was actually looking south into Illinois.  I said, "Hey, don't worry.  It took my wife about four years to get her directions straight because the river runs east-west." 

Other bands and artists included Brother Trucker, a roots-based rock band from the Des Moines area; Daphne Willis and Company, a folk-rock band from Chicago that played RRL last year and has been getting some positive national press as of late; and Lissie, a Rock Island native who now lives in California, and who plays folk rock.  Her most recent claim to fame is that she and her band opened for Lenny Kravitz on his tour in early 2008.  She played solo at River Roots Live and was also accompanied on a couple tunes by local musician Jordan Danielsen (above right). 

Local bands also played such as Rude Punch, Head Held High and my friends, Ellis Kell and Andrew Landers, as well as my friends from Jim the Mule.  Before the Mule band was to take stage I was ribbing them about their initial performance at River Roots Live three years prior when they opened the festival.  They were all so nervous and it was overly evident by the way they were playing.  I said, "Don't let your butt holes pucker up like you did the last time you played River Roots Live."

They all laughed and went out and played a great 45 minute set.  They definitely acquitted themselves from their earlier RRL performance. 

It's fun to interact with the bands before and after their performances.  Most of them are a little nervous when they get ready to go on, so I try to joke with them and calm them down a bit.  Afterward, when I go to pay the band, they're usually so jacked up that they want to keep playing.  Good crowd coming out in beautiful weather will do that. 

Usually, I don't get to interact all that much with the big name performers.  I do get to hear the shit from the road managers for those artists, however.  Actually, I do like working with professionals who are somewhat demanding.  However, the road manager for Joe Bonamassa, Warren, was a Class A asshole from the time he arrived with the band at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning until we just sort of had a "come to Jesus" meeting around 11:30.  It was pointed out that he was making life more difficult than it had to be.  And he was also reminded that even though Joe Bonamassa played last that evening, the band that was paid big money - about three times more than Bonamassa - was The Guess Who.  And they were paid big money to bring in the people.  I said, "Your job is to hold the younger people in the crowd to keep our beer sales going up to midnight." 

Once we got on the same page and he quit being such a penis head, we were suddenly friends for life. 

It's interesting that Foghat only has one guy traveling with them - their road manager who also served as their sound technician.  The Guess Who had two guys traveling with them - a sound tech and a monitor technician.  Bonamassa had five road guys traveling with him, plus a nice young lady who I guessed was Bonamassa's girl friend.  I thought it was rather telling in that Bonamassa needed five guys for four guys in his band. 

I'd always heard that Bonamassa (left) was somewhat of a prima-donna and a pain in the ass to work with.  I was fully prepared after the initial run-in with his road manager to see how Bonamassa would react to having to work around The Guess Who setting up on stage in front of Bonamassa's band's gear.  Actually, it turned out that he was fine with everything.  In fact, I was introduced to him and we talked casually for about three or four minutes in the backstage area during the afternoon.  He was very soft spoken, he did complain a little about starting so late, but he said he fully understood the "festival" concept and how things did get to be a little backed up toward the end of the evening.  He was a very nice guy. 

After his show, Jerry Grady from Iowa Public Television and I were standing near the back gate area of the backstage.  Jerry noticed a guy and two young kids standing near the gate.  I excused myself to go do some work in the dressing room trailers and Jerry went over to talk to the guy and his kids.  Jerry told me later on that he asked the guy, "Can I help you?"

The guy said, "Well, my kids are just starting to play guitar and they're big fans of Joe Bonamassa.  We were just wondering if Joe would be able to come out and say, 'Hi!' "

Jerry went over to Bonamassa's tour bus and knocked on the door.  He asked if Joe was on board and the person said he was.  Jerry said, "Well, there's a couple of young guys out here that would just love to meet him if he's got the time."

Jerry said it wasn't more than 30 seconds later and Joe came bounding off the bus and went over to see the kids.  I was shuttling stuff back on a golf cart and I passed this crowd of people all huddled around Bonamassa by the back gate.  He stood there and talked to people for about 45 minutes.  I thought it was rather cool on his part to do that.  Let's say that any notions I had about Joe Bonamassa being a petulant prima-donna were squelched right then and there.

The guys from Foghat were also very nice guys.  Roger Earl is the only original member of the band.  Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price have both died.  Original bassist Tony Stevens isn't touring with the band.  His replacement when he initially left the band in the mid-70's, Craig MacGregor, is still playing with the band.  Taking Lonesome Dave's and Price's place in the band are Charlie Huhn, who used to play with Ted Nugent; and Bryan Bassett, whose claim to fame previously was as the guitarist for the 70's disco-rock band Wild Cherry (whose one big hit was "Play That Funky Music, White Boy"). 

Now, I was sort of leery when I was told Foghat was going to play the River Roots Live fest, given that the core and soul of the group was long gone.  But from the first notes they played and all through their set, they just rocked.  During their set, I was able to get to the VIP area where I met up with Cindy and our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder.  (I was able to get them VIP passes for the weekend.)  Now, Scott and I have known each other for years and I've always thought him to be somewhat ambivalent when it came to music - especially hard rock.  But Scott enthusiastically yelled in my ear, "These guys ROCK!!!"

When Foghat came off the stage before their encore, I was standing near the back of the stage.  Craig MacGregor exclaimed, "The people are backed up all the way to that third stop light!  There's a shit load of people out there!" 

This is what it looked like from the stage before Foghat began to play.  It was just a mass of people in downtown Davenport. 

I was able to hang with the guys from Foghat for a bit after their performance.  Roger Earl told me that he's living on Long Island and has been for a number of years.  He said a lot of English rockers from the 70's moved to the U.S. to beat the British tax system.  He said in his still thick British accent, "Long Island is home."  The guys from Foghat were just thrilled to play River Roots Live and Roger gave me a hug before the band left in a rented van piloted by Roger, himself. 

I was also somewhat leery of The Guess Who, given that the two biggest names - Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman - had long disassociated themselves with the group.  Only two original members were left - bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson.  Both Kale and Peterson are well into their 60's and had been having health problems.  In fact, we had to have a special seat with back supports for Peterson, who suffers from a bad back and who is not a small man by any means.  

But they did a great job.  I was really impressed and pleasantly surprised by their performance - or what I saw of it.  It turns out that most of The Guess Who gigs are on Saturday nights.  That's right - they usually only play once a week at casinos and small festivals.  I'm guessing the crowd they played in front of that Saturday night was probably the largest they'd seen in quite some time. 

Interestingly, their road manager is also a member of the band - multi-instrumentalist Leonard Shaw.  He was a very high strung, nervous kind of guy, always asking questions about time schedules, when they were going to get paid, who would be looking after the band merchandise, who would be come to pick them up at the hotel, etc., etc.  But he was a very nice guy.  Once he got all the answers he was looking for, he was fun to be around.  

The other two members of The Guess Who, lead guitarist Laurie MacKenzie and guitarist, lead vocalist Carl Dixon, were really the spark of the band.  MacKenzie's claim to fame was that he was just a good local musician around the Winnipeg music scene - as was Leonard Shaw - and Dixon was the guitarist for an obscure Canadian heavy rock band in the 80's by the name of Coney Hatch.  

It appears that both Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman want nothing to do with this incarnation of The Guess Who as we were told before the show that Iowa Public Television couldn't record any of the songs the band played that evening, with the exception of "Shakin' All Over".  It turned out all the other songs are owned by either Cummings or Bachman and they don't allow any recording of the songs either via audio or video when The Guess Who performs.  "Shakin' All Over", a Johnny Kidd-penned tune, was the first hit the band had in the mid-60's.  So that was the only song IPTV could record.

However, the guys at IPTV were also providing the camera shots for the Jumbotron.  During The Guess Who's performance, they only showed one camera shot - a long shot of the full stage.  You couldn't even see the band on the Jumbotron if you were a couple blocks back.  I heard a lot of people complaining (since I'm the defacto "face" of the River Roots Live, being the announcer) and I went into the control room on the IPTV mobile production facility.  Jerry was sitting in his chair and I was asking him what the deal was.  He told me, "According to their contract, we can't show anything other than the shot from Camera One, with the exception of 'Shakin' All Over' when we can tape it and use other cameras".  

However, after the show, Howard, the sound tech guy for the band came up to me and said, "Will, what the f***?  How come they didn't show close ups of the band on the big screen?"

I said, "I was told that it was a contractual situation that they couldn't show the band except for 'Shakin' All Over'."

He said, "Who told you that?"

I told him, "Jerry Grady from IPTV." 

Howard said, "Where did he get that?"

I said, "From Leonard Shaw, I'm guessing."

Howard shook his head and said, "No, no, no.  That's only for recording.  They could have easily shown the band in close ups."

I said, "Look, Howard.  I'm just going on what Jerry told me.  If you want to discuss it with Jerry, he's standing right over there."

Yeah, it was a misunderstanding on Jerry's part.  And a lot of people were pissed, but it was over and done with, so nothing could be done about it. 

Ah!  The politics of the back stage area...

Here's a shot of the crowd during The Guess Who's performance.  I had my camera with me, but I was so busy that I never got to use it.  I got these pictures from Kyle Carter at Davenport One.  I'm still impressed with the number of people who were there.

But it was all free and that brings people out in droves.  I was told by one of the sales guys from the local Anheuser-Busch distributor that it was the most beer they had ever delivered for any event in all the years they'd been working with the city, the local blues society or any other organization producing festivals. 

In 2005, the first River Roots Live lost about $45,000 bucks.  The one in 2006 - the one I didn't work - lost over $200,000 dollars.  Last year, we lost about $30,000 dollars - even combining it with the Rib Fest.  This year, preliminary audits show that we may have broken even - just on beer sales alone!  And there could have easily been more beer sales as the beer tents were inundated with people both Friday and Saturday night, with some lines as long as 30 to 35 people deep waiting to get a beer.  I had one guy tell me a few days after the event that he could have easily gotten a beer, then gone back and stood in line, drinking the first beer while he waited to order his second. 

While we did have some hiccups with the production of this year's River Roots Live, it came off OK.  I wasn't as happy with everything as I was after last year's RRL, but it took a lot of team work to pull off the festival again.  Marcy Hyder and Kyle Carter from Davenport One took the lead in getting everything in place.  Santo Pullela from The Redstone Room booked the acts and took care of the musical riders (always a pain in the butt to track down equipment for some bands), Scott Rexroat from Rexroat Sound took care of the stage work, sound and lights including the building of the massive main stage.  Everything was in place for me to direct who and when and where. 

It will be interesting to see if we go back to LeClaire Park next year, given the success of the festival this year.  There were some logistical nightmares having it on the streets of downtown Davenport, but there was also an intimacy.  I know Marcy is already thinking about next year's event and wondering if we should charge admission like we have in the past.  However, I know for a fact that based on the turnout by the large number of people those two days in late August, a number of sponsors have already upped their monetary commitment to the River Roots Live for 2009.  And that means more big name acts to play the event.

And that also usually means more headaches for the production team and me...

Red Crow Grille - Bettendorf, IA

For our 13th wedding anniversary recently, Cindy wanted to go out to dinner at a place that she's wanted to dine at for quite some time, the Red Crow Grille in Bettendorf (see map).  I'd eaten there once before with one of my local dealers after a training session and I thought it was very good, but very high priced.  Still, whatever Mama wanted for an anniversary dinner, Mama got for an anniversary dinner.

Laura Sandoval, the owner/manager of Red Crow Grille, is a Quad City native who moved back to the area in the 90's with her husband from California.  She had been involved in a number of restaurants during her years out west and her dream was to open a fine dining restaurant that had an exquisite wine list she helped cultivate from her learning about various wines during trips to California's wine country.  Sandoval opened the Red Crow Grille in 1999 and in 2002 the restaurant achieved Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence in food and wine. 

The executive chef at Red Crow Grille is a local Quad City native by the name of Brian Olsen.  Olsen studied at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school in Minneapolis and then worked at various places in Minnesota before moving back to Iowa to work at Red Crow Grille.  He started as a prep cook, quickly working his way up to sous chef in a matter of months.  And one year later he was named the executive chef.  Olsen's style of cooking involves a lot of homegrown and farm fresh items that he buys locally. 

We had made a 7 p.m. reservation earlier in the day, but it was mid-week and the place was less than half full when we walked in.  We were given a seat at a table near the front window and given our menus.  I noticed that we didn't get a wine list and I asked our waitress, Sara, for one when she came over to introduce herself.  Sara pointed out that their wine menu was printed in the back of the menu.  I took a look at it and was surprised to see just a handful of wine listed - good wines, mind you.  But just a handful compared to what I thought they'd have.  I thought it was rather odd for a place with such little selection to be given the Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator. 

Nonetheless, I found a Judd's Hill 2005 Merlot on the menu.  Hoping that it would be ready to drink, I ordered that for our meal.  I found out much later, however, that Red Crow Grille has a reserve wine list.  I suppose I should have asked earlier, but she made it sound that all the wine they had was from that small list in the main menu. 

Red Crow Grille offers four course dining with the first course being an eclectic batch of appetizers.  Although we were tempted to get something, we just went straight to the second course and ordered our main entree.  The soup of the day was a creamy tomato soup with basil and small chunks of jalapeno's.  Cindy thought that sounded great and took that.  I got the bibb lettuce salad with creamy bleu cheese topped with applewood smoked bacon chunks and fresh tomato wedges. 

For the main entree, Cindy order the salmon topped with a caramelized sauce and sided with potato confit and caramelized onions.  I went with the bone-in rib eye steak, medium rare, with a side of brie whipped potatoes, topped with a caramelized onion cream sauce.  And that evening they also had fresh morel mushrooms offered a side.  I couldn't pass those up, so I ordered some mushrooms, as well.

Red Crow Grille is laid back for a fine dining establishment, which is the kind of place we like.  It's not too loud in the place and it's very comfy and cozy.  The atmosphere is upscale, but there's a lack of pretentiousness about the place.  Cindy was happy with the restaurant from the moment we walked in. 

The 2005 Judd's Hill Merlot was still too young to drink, however.  I've found that most of the Judd's Hill wines we've had in the past really need a good five to seven years to fully age before opening up and giving their best.  I was hopeful the bottle would open up some after it was initially opened, but it never really did.  It turned out to be the only disappointment of the evening. 

Well, that and the fact that I never knew about the reserve wine list until Sara offered the reserve list to a table ot well-dressed gentlemen seated next to us later in the evening.  Now, Cindy and I weren't overly dressed up - I had a pair of shorts and a nice shirt on, Cindy had jeans and a nice top.  Sara made the common mistake of judging her customers by the way they dress. 

Our main entrees showed up and they were wonderful.  The steak was cooked a little more medium than medium-rare, but that was fine.  I was really happy with the mushrooms.  They really tasted great.  Cindy was very happy with the salmon and offered me a bite.  It was very good. The meal was everything she expected it to be.

By the time Sara brought around the dessert selection, we were contemplating skipping the course.  But Cindy talked me into sharing some tiramisu with her.  She had an espresso and I ordered a Macallen 18 year scotch on the rocks for an after dinner drink. 

When Sara brought us the bill, I said, "Can I ask you something?  I'm just curious.  When we came in and sat down and I asked about the wine list, you said it was in the back of the menu.  Yet, when those gentlemen came in, you immediately offered them the reserve wine list.  Was there some reason why you thought they would be interested in the reserve list and we wouldn't?"

Obviously caught and starting to feel a little embarrassed, Sara sort of stumbled and stammered an answer out.  I said, "Look, you did a great job tonight.  You seem like a real likable person, you're gonna get your tip.  But I guess I want to know that because we are dressed more casual than those gentlemen, did you not think we would like to see the reserve list because it may be too expensive for us?"

By this time, Cindy was saying, "All right.  You made your point."

I said, "No, I just want Sara to know that she should never judge her clientele by the way they're dressed.  I learned that lesson years ago when working at a stereo shop in Iowa City.  Our money spends just as well and easily as those gentlemen at that table."

I said to Sara, "Just for grins, can I see the reserve wine list to see what I missed out on?"  She said she'd bring one to me right away.  Now, our bottle of Judd's Hill was something like $55 bucks.  There were a couple of wines on the reserve list that were in the $80 to $90 range that I would have picked over the Judd's Hill had I known they had it in their reserve bin. 

I wasn't trying to embarrass the waitress, rather than to make a strong point that she could have easily upped the bill - and subsequently, her tip - by asking a simple question - "Would you like to see the reserve wine list?"  I learned long ago that you'll usually never embarrass a customer by trotting out your best.  Sara did get a good tip - over 20 percent on a bill that came to a little over $140 before tax.  

And it was a good meal.  Red Crow Grille was everything I remember it being from my first visit five years prior and it certainly didn't disappoint Cindy.  I would have to say that if you're looking for the best in fine dining in a completely laid-back atmosphere in the Quad Cities, Red Crow Grille is the place.         

The Flood of 2008 - Part II

You have to be living in a cave to not know of the devastating floods we've been having in Iowa over the past couple of weeks.  Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and a number of smaller cities have seen tremendous devastation in the past few days.  And cities south of the Quad Cities, such as Burlington, Keokuk, Quincy and Hannibal, are bracing for tremendous flood crests along the Mississippi.

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have had the lion's share of media coverage from around the nation.  Both cities have been debilitated over the past few days.  Here's a picture of downtown Cedar Rapids courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Here is a picture my friend, Bill Hesson, sent along of the Iowa River inundating the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  I'm not certain where he got this picture, but it's pretty impressive showing the water levels along the river invading up to 16 buildings on campus.    

This is the second major flood we've had in the Quad Cities this year.  That doesn't happen very often.  For pictures of the first flood, click here.

This flood is bigger than the first one back in April.  The crest ended up being 21.3 feet - 6.3 feet above flood stage, but 1.3 feet under the record 22.6 mark from the Flood of 1993.  Davenport didn't have anywhere close to the flood damage other Iowa cities have had - mainly because the Mississippi came up more slowly than the Iowa and Cedar Rivers.  Preliminary forecasts had the Mississippi topping out just under 20 feet in Davenport, but a nearly 5-inch rain we had last Thursday night helped push the level to over 21 feet. 

I went down to take some pictures of the flooding along River Drive and the Davenport river front on Monday.  This is at the corner of River Drive and Iowa St. with Lock and Dam 15 in the back ground.  River Drive goes down under a railroad viaduct at this point, so the water is probably 20 to 25 feet deep right here. 

This is the Arsenal Bridge that connects the Iowa side of the river to the Rock Island Arsenal.  The bridge was not shut down as City of Davenport did a good job of keeping the approach open. 

The picture on the right is of Modern Woodman Ballpark along the banks of the Mississippi.  With the flood in April, I was able to get across River Drive and into the parking lot.  The water levels weren't all that deep right here.  But, with all the crap that is in the river during floods, I wouldn't even dare to tip toe through the water to get a closer look.

Here's a picture of Modern Woodman Park from the air, courtesy of the Quad City Times.  With the new flood berm and flood gates in place the field is high and dry, even though there's water surrounding the stadium.  The Quad City River Bandits had constructed a bridge that goes over the flood waters allowing fans to be able to get to the stadium. 

This is the infamous "sky bridge" in downtown Davenport that heads over to the Rhythm City Casino.  The bridge was designed to allow patrons to continue to go to the casino during floods.  But just as it was back in April, the casino was closed.  I was talking to Marcy Hyder, who is the events coordinator for Davenport One, and whose husband, Mo,, is the VP and GM of the Rhythm City Casino.  I said, "Marcy, why does the casino close?  I thought the sky bridge was supposed to allow it to stay open."

She said, "Emergency services can't get to the boat during a flood.  Well, they could, but they'd have to go up and across the sky bridge and then down to the boat.  And that would be a pain and take too long. "

I'm sure the people who came up with the sky bridge idea didn't think that one out all the way.

But the sky bridge does offer some good views of the flood.  This is looking west into LeClaire Park along the riverfront.  Davenport is the largest city along the Mississippi that does not have a flood wall.  This has been a major bone of contention with FEMA over the years who have helped the city with past floods.  But I have to tell you - walking along the river front in the summertime when the river is safely in its banks is one of the hallmarks of living in Davenport.

Here is the Levee Inn in front of the casino.  As I said in my post from last April, the Levee Inn is sort of a de facto monument to previous floods.  The Flood of 1993 ended up just on the underside of the awning.  The Levee Inn hasn't been open for a number of years and I'm not certain anyone would be foolish enough to reopen the place. 

This is looking east along River Drive.  Once again, the city did a good job of keeping water out of establishments along River Drive such as Front Street Brewery.  However, Front Street was forced to close last Thursday night due to smoke damage from a warehouse fire next door to the brewery.  Geez, if it isn't a flood that nails those Front Street people, it's a fire next door.  I hope they re-open soon. 

And this is looking west along River Drive.  The water is creeping up past River Drive, but well short of 2nd Street where it hit during 1993.  Water is receding now, but it will still be a few days before the river fully gets back in its banks.  And because of that, it will be touch and go for the 2008 Blues Festival being held at LeClaire Park on July 3 thru 5.  I'm hoping it dries out before then as LeClaire Park is a great place to stage a festival. 

Here is the fountain at the foot of Main Street.  They've been talking about restoring the fountain someday, but I'm sure the occasional floods may have city leaders rethinking that little plan. 

We've been pretty lucky over the past three or four years as I can only remember one time when the waters came out of the river.  It wasn't all that bad, either.  I think it got a foot over flood stage which puts a little bit of water along the levee in LeClaire Park.  But now Mother Nature caught up with us and let us know that she and Old Man River can still screw around with us from time to time.

Au Jus - Milan, IL

A new restaurant opened recently in the Quad Cities - Au Jus.  Located on the far south side of the metro area in Milan, IL (see map), it's owned by Paul Lerminez and chef Randall Byrd.  Lerminez's son, Matt, is the operating manager of Au Jus.

 

Byrd is the former executive chef at Bud's Skyline Inn, one of our favorite restaurants in the area.  Byrd and Paul Lerminez opened Au Jus in August of 2007 in a building that used to house the Hodge Podge lounge in Milan.  From the outside, it's not much to look at, looking more like a roadhouse bar than a nice supper club restaurant. 

Cindy had heard about the place and she said she heard they had a Sunday breakfast buffet.  We went over there on a Sunday around 10 a.m. and pulled into an empty parking lot.  I said, "Well, either they're closed or they have a really shitty buffet."  It turned out they were closed.  I'm sure it probably didn't make sense for them to be open on Sunday mornings.

We ended up going back over on a Saturday night recently.   Au Jus calls itself a neighborhood bar and grill and there were a lot of people seated at the large square bar in the main room.  We were seated at a large table in the main room as all the booths were full of people.  It was actually a little loud and a little bright in the room, but it was manageable. 

And there were all types of people in there - some nice dressed ladies at the bar for what appeared to be a "girls night out".  Guys who looked like they were construction workers in t-shirts and jeans.  A number of older people were semi-dressed up and having dinner.  Three or four guys looked like they'd just come off the golf course.  There were families in there with kids dressed in baseball or soccer uniforms.  The clientele was sort of all over the place.

We both got a menu from our waitress and started looking over the offerings.  Right away, we could see that Randall Byrd had brought a lot of Bud's Skyline Inn with him.  In fact, I said, "Geez, this is exactly like Bud's menu."  And the salad bar was almost exactly the same as Bud's, right down to the great pickled beets. 

I was in the mood for some beef that evening and I ordered the large rib eye (16 oz.) with Buck's potatoes - homemade hash browns with onions and peppers.  Cindy ordered her favorite - the beef tournedos, two small and very tender filet's topped with a rich cream sauce.  We also ordered up some onion rings just to give them a try as an appetizer. 

When we went over to the salad bar on the far side of the bar, I looked into a small room and noticed subdued lighting, nice tables and a few people eating in there.  I sort of wondered what that room was.  Cindy thought it was a private party room.  But then I noticed that not all of the people in the room were eating together.  Hmm...  Why didn't they seat us in there, I thought.  OK, next time, we'll ask to be seated in there.

By the time we got back to our table, the onion rings were waiting there for us.  They were the same beer-battered onion rings we would get over at Bud's.  No surprise there.  Even though they brought a big plate stacked with rings, we only had a couple three each.

Looking a little more closely at the booths in the main room, Cindy said, "I think those seats are old church pews that were cut down to size."  Sure enough, they had the arm rests on the outside of the seating and the wood was cut in an ornate style.  Most of the booths were filled with older or elderly people - many of whom had a lot of trouble getting up and over the arm rest to get in and out from the booth.  Cindy said, "Boy, it's probably a good thing we didn't get a booth.  With your hip the way it is, you'd be having trouble getting into those booths!"

Our steaks showed up and - once again, no surprise - Cindy's beef tournedos were exactly like she gets at Bud's.  Very tender filet cuts, so tender you could probably cut them with a fork.  She offered me a bite and they were still very good. 

My rib eye was cooked to a perfect medium rare and it was topped with some seasonings that were salt-based.  It didn't detract from the taste of the meat and actually highlighted the flavor.  Even though I don't like to eat a lot of salt, it was actually very good.  I've had a number of steaks over at Bud's over the years and I don't remember them seasoning the beef when they grill it. 

The other thing about my rib eye is that they called it a 16 oz. cut of meat in the menu, but it had to be closer to 20 oz.  There was no way I could finish the whole thing.  It was cut very thick and it had a lot of great marbling throughout.  I got a "to-go" box and put about a quarter of it in there.

Our waitress was OK, nothing special.  She was overworked and we did have to wait on drink refills a couple times.   Still, we gave her a nice tip on top of the $65 bill we received.

Before we left, we wandered into the other dining area by the kitchen.  Cindy said, "Well, this is much nicer in here.  You don't have all the lights and the loud conversations going on at the bar."  We agreed if we came back, we wanted to be seated in that room.

And we probably will return sometime.  But I still like Bud's Skyline Inn a little bit better.  The food is almost identical, but the atmosphere is better at Bud's and it has more of a supper club feel than what Au Jus exudes.   Plus the service at Bud's is a little better, as well.  But at either one, you really can't go wrong with the food.   

(Update - Au Jus didn't stick around much longer after I posted this in June of 2008.  The restaurant closed down in early 2009.  Bud's, however, is still open and going strong.)

Bo Ramsey - Davenport, IA

Bo Ramsey, the heralded folk/blues/roots music troubadour, recently played the Redstone Room at the River Music Experience in downtown Davenport.  He was unveiling his new CD, Fragile, which came out the end of March.  We got a copy of it - it's pretty good music. 

I've known Bo Ramsey for a number of years, first meeting him in 1977 when he was part of Patrick Hazell and the Mother Blues Band.  They played my annual pasture party that summer and they were a big hit.  At that time he was known as "Bibby" Ramsey and had only been playing guitar for a couple three years.  But he was such a natural at it that he quickly became one of the anchors of the band.  Here is a picture of the Mother Blues Band from 1977 - Bo Ramsey is in the back with the white hat on. 

The Mother Blues Band played at my party again in 1979, only without Ramsey who had gone on to a solo career with his band, The Sliders.  Ramsey also began a relationship with Greg Brown, producing and playing on a number of Brown's great albums in the 80's and 90's.  In 1997, Brown and Ramsey were nominated for a Grammy as co-producers of Brown's great "Slant 6 Mind" album.

Ramsey has also played with and produced albums with artists such as Kevin Gordon, Pieta Brown and the legendary Lucinda Williams.  He toured with Williams for a while and appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" backing Williams. 

Still, Bo has stayed true to his down home roots and has remained in Iowa making music.  We stayed in contact over the years, running into each other at gigs and the like.  He's played a number of events I've worked over the past few years and it's always great to talk with him. 

Cindy has fallen in love with Bo's music ever since she saw him perform during a 1995 reunion of The Mother Blues Band at the Palmer Auditorium here  in Davenport. In fact, we tried to get him to play our wedding reception back in May of 1995.  But Bo had gotten pretty big by then and even though he gave us a discounted price of $800 to play, we decided that was out of our budget.  Looking back, we should have come up with the extra bucks and had him play.  That would have been a large time. 

Here's a music video Bo did a few years ago with the title song from his 1997 album "In The Weeds".  You'll get a good idea of what his modern music style is from the video:   

Because Ramsey is such a well-known musician in Eastern Iowa, the Redstone Room was filled to capacity when Bo hit the stage with his backup band.  We had a couple of extra seats at our table and a younger couple was looking for a place to sit.  Cindy offered them the seats and they gladly took them.  It turned out the guy was Scotty Hays, a talented guitar player from Wisconsin who is living in the Quad Cities now, and his friend, Jenny.  Although I'd heard about Scotty Hays, I'd not seen him perform before.  He was a very nice guy and we had a good time with them at the show. 

Ramsey's music is almost indescribable.  He has kind of a folk, rock, blues, country thing going on.  He can pick it up and slap it down with up-tempo offerings, or he can lay back and play a haunting slide guitar that conjures up the music he used to hear growing up on the Mississippi River as a young Bob Ramsey.  His style may not be good for everyone, but, for me, it's enjoyable to listen to.

Bo and the band played two sets and ended up about 11:30.  We were able to talk to Bo for a moment after the show.  He's always genuinely happy to see me and is gracious that I take the time to stop by and say, "Hey!"  He's as soft spoken as the day is long, but always the gentleman when he comes around.  He's as great a guy as he is a musician. 

The Flood of 2008

The Mississippi River is out of its banks here in the Quad Cities this week.  Last week there was minor flooding along the river as the Mississippi hit 16.8 feet in the Quad Cities - 1.8 feet above flood stage.  Then the river began to recede.  However, heavy rains in Northern and Northeast Iowa last week drove the river to over 19 feet yesterday.  The river levels will slowly recede this week.  That is, if preliminary predictions of heavy rains for Northern Iowa don't materialize on Friday.

Davenport is the largest city on the Mississippi that doesn't have some sort of a flood wall or levee system in place.  This has caused a major controversy in the past with a number of government officials, including those from FEMA, questioning the rationale of providing Davenport federal funds to help clean up the aftermath of the flood.  Federal officials, for a long time, have wanted Davenport to put up some sort of a flood wall.  But I have to tell you - walking along the river in the summertime without any visual impediment is pretty cool. 

I went down to take pictures when the river hit 18.7 feet on Monday.  Here is a picture of the infamous "Skybridge to Nowhere" in downtown Davenport.  Actually, the Skybridge was built to allow customers of the Rhythm City Casino to get to the boat during floods like this.  However, the Rhythm City shut down on Sunday citing the safety issues of rising flood waters.

(As always, click on the photos for larger images.)

I was able to get up on the Skybridge and take some pictures.  Here's a pic looking east toward the building that was the old Dock Restaurant.  Lock and Dam 15 is in the background and River Drive is on the left.  There's actually a railroad track in between the two fences between River Drive and the parking lot. 

Here's a picture of the Levee Inn along the river just east of LeClaire Park.  The Levee Inn has been closed for a number of years, but for some reason it's still sitting there as some sort of a monument to previous floods.  If you click on the picture and look at the blue marks along the near corner of the building, you'll see the water marks of previous floods.  The Great Flood of 1993 went all the way to just under the awning of the roof.  And that was just over 22.6 feet.   

I tried to get down there to take a closer picture of the Levee Inn, but a security guard from the Rhythm City Casino stopped me.  It was stupid, but he wouldn't let me go down.  Of course, employees from the Rhythm City Casino were going down and coming up the elevator.  I understand they're losing something like $175,000 in income each day they're shut down.  And I shouldn't say this as Rhythm City has sponsored a number of events that I've worked at in the past, but I view that as payback.  The citizens of Davenport got slickered into building a Skybridge that basically stops at the front of the casino so they can keep the place open for floods like this, and they still shut down.

Here's a shot looking west from the Skybridge toward LeClaire Park.  When I work events at LeClaire Park, I always announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to beautiful LeClaire Park, right next to and sometimes IN the Mississippi River."  Well, it's certainly in the river now. 

This is looking east along River Drive.  The Government Bridge is in the background.  The building in the foreground is part of the building that houses the Front Street Brewery.  Notice the sandbags around the building allowing the brewpub and other businesses in the building to stay open.

Now, for those of you who grew up learning that the Mississippi River runs north/south, it actually runs east/west in the Quad Cities.  It's the longest stretch of the river where it runs east and west.  It screwed up my wife's directions for the first few years she live in Davenport as she was one who learned the river ran north and south.  She just couldn't fathom the fact that she was driving south into Illinois from Iowa.   

I ended up going down west of the Skybridge to take a few pictures.  Here I'm standing in the middle of River Drive, normally a busy street.  Notice the water in the background which made the street impassible. 

And here's a shot of Modern Woodmen Park, formerly known as John O'Donnell Stadium.  The river has come up enough that it's surrounding the park and encroaching into the main stadium parking lot. 

Here's a picture of the water lapping up at the outfield berm the City of Davenport put in a few years ago to keep water out of the park as part of the major renovation of the stadium.  As far as I know, the stadium field is high and dry.  The Centennial Bridge over to Rock Island is in the background.

I used to have a picture of the ballpark completely under water from the Flood of 93.  I'll have to see if I still have that somewhere and load it into the blog.   

Here's the bandshell at LeClaire Park.  Notice the seats in front of the bandshell and how they're almost under water.  It's kind of spooky seeing the river up that high.

And here's a shot of the Bix Beiderbecke memorial by the bandshell at LeClaire Park.  It's going to take one helluva flood to submerge Bix's head.

I have a good friend who lives along the river who is in Puerto Rico right now.  He has been planning this trip for quite sometime.  Last Friday, just before he left, he got word that the river was going to climb to 19.6 feet.  He already had an inch of water in his garage situated under his house - "Just enough water to piss me off," he said. 

When he found out that the river was going to rise about another three feet, he was resigned to the fact that he was going to lose his riding lawn mower, his beer fridge and a few other things.  See, the water has been up long enough that he hasn't been able to drive back to his house from the road for a few days.  He's been using his boat to go back and forth from his house to where they part their vehicles.  Getting the mower, fridge and other things out at that point would have been impossible.

He told me, "What are you going to do?  I'm basically f***ed.  But I chose to live along the river and I have to face the consequences.  I'm going to Puerto Rico, I'm going to drink a bunch of rum and I'm not going to worry about it until I get home."

God love him. 

I got a text message from him yesterday telling me it was hot in Puerto Rico and asking about river levels back home.  I texted him back, "River went over 19 feet last night.  We had a hard freeze (29 degrees at 6 a.m. yesterday morning)."  I figured the good news that he missed the hard freeze in late April would diminish the bad news about the river level.   

Hopefully, I won't have any more flood updates in the coming days.  We'll have to watch the developing weather coming up this Friday.  All I know is that I wish we could just get a soaking one inch rainfall, once a week, four times a month, rather than getting four inches all at once.  Especially this time of year.

St. Patrick's Day in the Quad Cities

There may be no larger festival in the Quad Cities than the St. Patrick's Day parade on the closest Saturday to St. Patrick's Day.  Put on by the St. Patrick Society of the Quad Cities, it's billed as the only bi-state parade in the United States.  It starts out in downtown Rock Island, crosses over the Mississippi on the Centennial Bridge, and ends on 3rd St. in downtown Davenport.  It features floats, bag pipers, family clans, school groups and all types of people dressed in crazy and outlandish costumes.  And they're flinging beads and candy to crowd.  It's a really large time. 

Our next door neighbors, George and Hannah (shown here with some rather large drunken idiot, according to my wife who took the picture) had never been to the St. Patrick's Day parade before.  George is Irish and they were planning a little party at their house after the parade.  He made some GREAT corned beef.  Oh, man.  It was absolutely fabulous. 

Anyway, we went downtown just after noon for the parade.  The parade starts at 11:30 over in Rock Island and it takes about 45 to 50 minutes for it to make it over to downtown Davenport.    Starting at 11:30 allows the participants - and spectators - ample time to get good and lubed up for the parade.  Here's a couple ladies having a good time at KilKenny's before the parade.

Cindy, George and Hannah ended up in front of Mac's Tavern along the street.  I went down 3rd St. a ways to take pictures of the parade.  As always, click on the picture if you would like to see a larger image.

It's wall to wall people along the parade route.  There are four bars at the end of the parade - Mac's Tavern, Carriage Haus, KilKenny's and Shenanigans.  Each of them are packed with people before and after the parade.  In fact, I was told one time by a Davenport cop that more people are picked up for drunk driving on the Saturday of the St. Patrick's Day parade than at any other time. 

You can't have a St. Patrick's Day parade without bag pipers.  Which leads to the inevitable question - what does a bag piper wear under a kilt?  Why, shoes and socks, of course! 

Here's one of the largest Irish clans in the Quad Cities - the Kinney clan.  They're so big they put people on the flatbed of a semi during the parade.  They've been in the parade for years and the family just seems to grow exponentially each year.

A couple more crazoids along the route of the parade.  The guy was obviously having a great time.  They let you drink outside during the parade.  It gets to be pretty wild at times.

And here's one of the floats in the parade.  Some of them are pretty creative and they hand out prizes for the best floats in the parade.  I don't know how this one fared, but it was pretty clever.

The parade features military personnel, ROTC groups and other municipal groups such as firemen and policemen.  They also have "Peace-niks" in the parade.  Here's an Irish guy hoping for peace in the world.        

Another shot of the huge crowd on 3rd St. in downtown Davenport.  The weather was actually pretty nice - well, compared to other St. Patrick's Day parades over the years.  It was about 38 degrees with a cool breeze out of the northeast.  We've been down there when it's been in the 20's and spitting snow.  That's not good parade weather. 

And the parade brings out all ages.  Here's a little guy sitting on his father's shoulders in front of Mac's enjoying the sights.  Little kids go nuts for the candy that's thrown from the floats.  Except the candy all falls on the ground and they have to pick it up.  Man, I wouldn't eat any of that crap after having it fall on the pavement, even if it had kevlar wrapping on the candy!

After the parade, people head back in to some of the bars downtown.  Here's the inside of Mac's Tavern.  Actually, it wasn't all that packed in there at this time.  Mac's was one of my favorite places to go at one point in time, but it just isn't the same since Bill Collins was the owner. 

KilKenny's puts up a huge tent behind their bar in a parking lot.  They have bands play in there during the course of the day and evening.  But this isn't even the biggest party.  Kelly's Irish Pub up on 53rd Ave. has a larger tent - 120' by 60' and they serve upwards of 14,000 to 15,000 people on the day of the parade.  I wanted to go up and see our friends Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls play Saturday evening, but my wife reminded me that the cops would be out and I didn't need to be driving at that point.  She's always right.

The St. Patrick's parade is always a great time.  It's fun running into people you know at the parade and at the bars before and afterwards.  Everyone is drinking, everyone is eating corned beef and cabbage.  The levels of methane from human farts creates a hole in the ozone above the Quad Cities beginning Saturday night and stretching into Sunday.  But, boy, is it fun up until then.

Albert Cummings

When Albert Cummings played at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival last summer, I felt his performance was possibly the best of every musician who was there that weekend.  Cummings played with such passion it electrified the crowd.  When I found out he was making a return trip to the Quad Cities, I jumped at the chance to get a couple of tickets.

Cummings recently played at the Caribbean Cove, which has been converted from Penguins Comedy Club at the Isle of Capri casino/hotel complex in Bettendorf (see map).  Even though it was a Wednesday night, he was able to draw about 250 blues fans from the area to come see him play again. 

Cummings, who hails from Massachusetts, is first and foremost an award winning building contractor.  He's a fourth generation builder who has been constructing high-end homes and re-models in Western Massachusetts for nearly 13 years.  For a short story on Cummings as a builder, click here.

Cummings, who is just short of 40 years old, played the banjo while growing up.  However, he put the banjo away when he saw Stevie Ray Vaughan in person in 1987.  Vaughan's performance sparked a new found passion for playing the guitar for Cummings. 

Cummings finished college getting his degree in building trades to carry on the family legacy.  But he began to play weekend gigs on the side about 13 years ago.  It wasn't long before he had a strong following and a solid reputation as both a contractor and a guitar player in New England.

Cummings' style of playing the guitar is very reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Cummings has actually played with Double Trouble - Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton - who backed up Stevie Ray Vaughan before his tragic death in 1989.  Both Shannon and Layton played on and produced Cummings' first album, "From the Heart (Under the Radar)" in 2003.  Reese Wynans, who was Vaughan's longtime keyboard player, also played on that album. 

For those of you not familiar with Albert Cummings' music, click here to listen to "Lonely Bed", a track from his 2004 album "True to Yourself."  The guy just cooks on guitar and he's a pretty good singer, too.

The Caribbean Cove was about half full when we arrived 45 minutes before showtime.  We took a large table off to the side and grabbed a few beers waiting for the show.   

Cummings, wearing his trademark two-tone wingtip shoes, took the stage promptly at 7:30.  Accompanied by Dan Broad on bass and Aaron Scapin on drums, they cut right into the title track of Cummings' 2006 album "Working Man".  The Caribbean Cove immediately came alive.  The Stevie Ray Vaughan influence was evident from the opening notes.  Not that there's anything bad about that, but Cummings' is about as close to capturing the essence of what Stevie Ray's sound was all about. 

Cummings ripped through a number of songs before slowing it down for his song "Together as One" from his "From the Heart" album that he recorded with Stevie Ray Vaughan's back up band.  Then he was back up and rolling again before he took a break at 8:45.  A break?  I figured he'd be done at 8:45. 

After about a 45 minute break - including Albert Cummings personally delivering beers (bought by a buddy) to our table - they got back up to play some more.  It was getting late and Cindy had to get up early in the morning so we stuck around for about 20 more minutes before leaving.  I understand that he ended up playing until about a quarter to 11.  It was a great show. 

Albert and the boys were having a great time and were amazed at the turn-out on a cold Wednesday night.  I'm sure that if he hadn't played the blues fest last summer there might not of have been that many people there.  But he drew a great crowd.  The Isle of Capri said the bar was never as busy has it was that night.  And they ran out of a lot of beer - early.  They definitely weren't prepared. 

So, if you're into rollicking blues with a hint of Stevie Ray Vaughan mixed in, don't miss Albert Cummings if he comes through and plays near you.  Better yet, get a couple of his albums, then go watch him.  You'll love the music, but he's better live and in person.       

Hunter's Club - Rock Island

Hunter's Club in Rock Island has been around since 1931 and is a historic icon in the Quad Cities.  They have been under new ownership for a little over a year now, but we hadn't been in since the old owners were in charge.  We decided to go over for lunch on a Saturday a while back and see what it was like.

Hunter's Club is famous for their hamburgers, garnering "Best of the Quad Cities" for a number of years in a row back in the 90's.  They would charbroil them on a grill just behind the bar and the smell of the burgers would just hit you when you walked in the door.  But the new owners did extensive remodeling on the place and the grill is now back in the kitchen area opening up more room behind the bar.

Bill Hunter, Sr., founded Hunter's in downtown Rock Island (see map) as a speakeasy toward the end of Prohibition.  When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Hunter's Club became the second establishment to receive an Illinois state liquor license.  The first bar was in Chicago, but it has long since gone out of business.  Hunter's now holds the oldest state liquor license in Illinois.   

(As an aside - if you saw my post on the old Berghoff restaurant and bar here, they were the holder of Chicago liquor license numbers one and two, but not the first two State of Illinois licenses.)

Bill Hunter, Sr., put the charbroiler in the restaurant in 1956 after visiting a restaurant in downtown Chicago that featured burgers cooked over an open flame.  It was the first flame-broiled burger in the Quad Cities.

Hunter's son, Bill, Jr., took over the operation and ran it until the mid-80's when it was bought by Todd and Debbie Mosenfelder.  The Mosenfelder's continued the legacy of the great charbroiled burgers and added other items to the menu including full dinners and new sandwiches.  They also started having live jazz music on the weekends featuring a number of local jazz musicians.

In 2002, the Mosenfelder's sold the business to Alan Mosley who ran the business for four years, slowly running it into the ground.  He eventually closed the doors of Hunter's Club in August of 2006, but the place was almost immediately bought by two Quad City men - Mark Polaschek and Ray McDevitt, who used to own Dalton's in downtown Davenport. 

Polaschek and McDevitt spent over $500,000 dollars in renovating Hunter's Club and it really needed it.  They cleaned the place up, replacing the old ceiling, putting in new windows and a better ventilation system.  They upgraded the entraces in front and on the side where the parking lot is.  And they revamped the kitchen offering more space in which to work. 

The one thing they didn't want to do was to screw with the success of the burgers, something that suffered with the previous owner.  I have to say that I was disappointed the last couple times I went to Hunter's to get a burger.  It was generally over-cooked and lifeless.  And I hadn't been back for nearly two years. 

We tried to go there one time last summer on a Sunday as they used to have burger basket specials on Sunday.  But the new owners decided to close on Sundays, so they're open from Monday thru Saturday.  I don't believe they do the live jazz music on weekends either as the area where the musicians would play is now full of coolers.

Cindy and I went in on a snowy Saturday afternoon around 1:30.  Hunter's Club was defintely cleaned up and much more bright and less smoky than the old place.  But the smell of burgers cooking on the grill wasn't as prevalent as it used to be. 

We sat in one of the old original booths the new owners kept in the restaurant and the lady waitress came over and asked for drink orders.  I got a beer and Cindy got a pop. 

I took a quick look at the menu, which had been revamped, but still prominently featured the burgers.  The Hunter Burger is a half-pound chargrilled burger that comes with lettuce, pickle, onion and tomato.  It's 50 cents more for cheese.  A buck more if you want bacon or sauteed mushrooms. 

Cindy just got the straight Hunter Burger, cooked well done (Yuck!  She just loves having the life cooked out of her burgers.)  I got a Hunter Burger - medium - with pepperjack cheese and sauteed mushrooms.  With the burgers, you get a basket of fries and a 2 oz. container of cole slaw. 

It wasn't more than about 15 minutes later and the waitress brought out our burgers.  The sauteed mushrooms were the canned kind.  They were OK, but I wish they would have been a little more fresh.

But, still, they didn't detract from the taste of the burger.  From the first bite, I was in heaven.  Hamburger heaven.  My burger was juicy and flavorful.  The bun was light and tasty.  The toppings - including raw red onions - weren't overpowering.  I couldn't get over how great this burger tasted. 

Cindy even thought her overcooked burger was very good.  I could smell the charred odor from across the table.  But she liked it and was happy with the taste.

The fries were OK, nothing special.  The cole slaw had kind of a fishy smell to them.  They could have easily added a few more fries and deep-sixed the cole slaw.  That would have been fine by me.

Well, I used to think Jack's Locust Street Tap had the best burger in the Quad Cities.  I still have an affinity for Jack's and their burgers, but I'm afraid I have to say that I don't think I've ever had a better burger in the Quad Cities than the one I had that afternoon at Hunter's Club.  I'll have to go back a couple more times to make sure they're consistent.  Then I'll make the final determination as to which one is better.

But right now, I have to say it's Hunter's Club.

Update - As I usually write these blog entries days in advance, a rather disturbing revelation came my way last Saturday.  I was in dire need of a good cheeseburger for lunch and I drove over to Hunter's Club.  As I walked up to the door, I saw a handwritten sign that said, "Hunter's Club Will No Longer Be Serving Food." 

I about crapped on the spot.  I wondered what the deal was.  Well, I found out yesterday in this article in the Quad City Times.  The owners felt the restaurant business was not profitable and their turning it into a sort of convenience store.  I'm really bummed because I wanted to try one of their cheeseburgers to see if it would be as good as the last one. 

So by default, Jack's goes back to having the best cheeseburger in the Quad Cities.  And I'll be having lunch there today.   

Front Street Brewery - Davenport

The Front Street Brewery on River Drive here in Davenport (see map) is a place that Cindy and I like to go to from time to time.  And, quite frankly, I'm surprised I haven't written about it before.  The food is good, the beer is good and it's one of those very underrated places in the Quad Cities. 

First and foremost, Front Street Brewery is a brewpub that makes some pretty good beers.  But they are also a surprisingly good little pub that has some good dinner specials.  On the weekends, they usually have a prime rib special.  But the rest of the items they have on the menu are pretty good.  I can't say it's outstanding, but it's good for brewpub food.

Front Street Brewery is within walking distance to many of the entertainment venues in downtown Davenport.  There's a large parking lot across the street from the brewpub that belongs to the Rhythm City Casino, but we've parked in it many times in the past when we've gone there.   

Steve Zuidema and Randy Junis opened The Front Street Brewery in October of 1992.  Zuidema was the brewmaster and Junis would run the restaurant's operations.  They sunk a lot of money into the gutting of an old warehouse and turning it into a brewpub. 

The following April of 93, the first big flood of that spring forced them to sandbag to keep the Mississippi waters out of the place.  They were successful in fighting that flood, but later in the summer the Great Flood of 93 hit.  The river was seven and a half feet over floodstage and it literally wiped out The Front Street Brewery.

But Zuidema and Junis cleaned things up and reopened by that fall.  There's been a handful of floods since then, but nothing compared to the one in 1993.  To see how close Front Street Brewery is to the Mississippi, click on the above right photo. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)   

A few years ago, Zuidema's wife, Jennie Ash, came in to run the day-to-day operations.  Zuidema continues to be the brewmaster today.  And one of the great things about The Front Street Brewery is that it's a smoke free restaurant and has been for over a year. 

There's a nice little patio out back that's nice to sit in on warm summer nights.  But we usually opt to sit inside in the big wooden booths that line the west wall opposite the bar. 

Before going to see Sonny Landreth a while back at the Redstone Room in downtown Davenport, we met my buddy, Randy Adams, and his girlfriend, Laurie, at Front Street for dinner.  Like always, I got a glass of their Raging River Pale Ale, an English-style pale ale that is smooth and has the hoppiness of traditional pale ales.  The Raging River Pale Ale is named to commemorate the Great Flood of 93.  It's an above average beer, but not as good as other pale ales that I like.   

We ordered an appetizer of spinach/artichoke dip served with small pieces of toasted bread before ordering our dinner.  The bread and dip came out on a plate with the hot spinach/artichoke dip in the middle.  We've gotten it before and it's very good.  In fact, Cindy's addicted to the stuff.  It's too filling for me.   

For dinner, Randy and Laurie ended up sharing a plate of beef nachos; Cindy got the teriyaki grilled chicken sandwich and I got the shaved roast beef sandwich.  It was busy as it was a Friday night, but we got our food in about 20 minutes. 

Like the beer at Front Street, the food is above average.  It's not quite as eclectic as what you find across the river at the Blue Cat Brewpub, but for basic American food, it's good.  My sandwich had a lot of tender shaved roast beef in it, and it was just enough to keep me from being way too full.  Cindy pulled her bun away from the chicken breast and ate it with a knife and fork.  She's been trying to cut down on eating breads lately.  And Randy and Laurie said their beef nachos were "top notch, buddy". 

Front Street Brewery isn't all that expensive, but it isn't cheap food, either.  And it shouldn't be as the food is very good.  We've never had a bad meal in the place for as long as we've been going there.  And the beer is more than drinkable.  Like I say, The Front Street Brewery is one of those very underrated gems here in the Quad Cities.         

Brew-Ha-Ha - Davenport

One of my more favorite local events was held recently in LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport - the annual Brew-Ha-Ha beer tasting event.  Brew-Ha-Ha is a fund raiser for the local Illinois public television station, WQPT.  And with proposed cuts in state funding to WQPT looming in the future, they really need all the help they can get.  It cost $20 bucks (in advance - $25 at the gate) to get in and I thought it would be a nice little donation to public television while getting a nice little buzz on at the same time. 

I haven't been to the Brew-Ha-Ha for three years.  The past three years, I've either been out of town or went to an Iowa football game.  This year was the first time I would be in town for the event with nothing else going on.

It was a nice day for the Brew-Ha-Ha, light winds and temps in the low 80's.  A big crowd had gathered to try a number of beers from a number of different breweries.  Three tents were set up - albeit way too close to one another - with a number of stations that gave out the beer samples.

Now, compared to other Brew-Ha-Ha's - and other brew fests I've been to in the past - this one was a big dud.  First of all, I was told that a new law on the books in the state of Iowa prohibited those who did not hold $1 million dollars of liability insurance for the festival to be able to dispense beer.  Immediately, that took out the bulk of Midwest area micro-breweries from participating at the Brew-Ha-Ha.  So that basically limited the participants of the event to the local Budweiser and Miller distributors, a specialty beer distributor from Rock Island, and the Coors distributor out of Des Moines. 

And because of that, there wasn't a lot of things available that I hadn't tried before.  I was able to try the new Boulevard Luna Ale, which was pretty good, but definitely not my favorite Boulevard beer.  And it was a bit too early for a lot of the Oktoberfest beers that were coming out in a few days.

But the good breweries that have been here in the past - Capital, Millstream, Gray, and a number of others - didn't want to come up with the hefty price of a one million dollar liability insurance policy for the event.  And that really hurt the event. 

That, and the fact that it was just too damned crowded.  The tents were spaced too close to one another and the lines to get some varieties of beer were almost impossible to be in.  The weirdest thing - to me - was that the longest lines were for the fruit flavored beers.  That was fine with me as I absolutely abhor that type of beer.  But they must be real popular as the lines were long all day long. 

Brew Ha-Ha is a great fund-raising event, but I was deeply disappointed in the offerings they had.  If the same insurance stipulations exist next year, I hope they move the event to the Illinois side of the river.  I don't think I'd go again if they have it in Iowa.  I have a better selection of fine beers in my refrigerator in my garage than they did at Brew Ha-Ha.   

Sonny Landreth - Davenport

The great Louisiana guitar player, Sonny Landreth, played at the Redstone Room in Davenport a while back.  We've seen Landreth on a number of occasions playing at Summerfest in Milwaukee with John Hiatt, as well as with his own band.  And he played the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival last year here in Davenport, putting on a great show. 

If you aren't familiar with Sonny Landreth, check out this incredible YouTube video of him playing at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago earlier this summer.  It's one of his new songs that he played the night he was in Davenport. 

Cindy and I went with my buddy, Randy Adams, and his girl friend, Laurie Brekke, to the show.  I had asked Santo Pullela to hold us a table, but he wasn't able to do so.  I noticed before the show started that there was a table over by the wall that had a "Reserved" sign on it.  I asked Santo, "Is that table for us?"

He said, "Well, no one was supposed to be saving tables, so if you want to sit there, do it."

And we did.  We had a great sight line directly to the stage.  No one challenged us for the table. 

Opening for Sonny Landreth that evening was a local trio calling themselves Fusion Infusion consisting of Paul DePauw on guitar, Al Nache on drums, and Barry Vestal on bass.  These guys used to back up Ernie Peniston for a time, but broke out on their own to play a jazz/rock infused style of music.  As long as I've known him, I've always been a big fan of Paul DePauw's guitar work and the band did a great job that night. 

After about a 25 minute break, Sonny Landreth hit the stage.  Landreth was accompanied by his longtime bass player David Ranson and a new drummer, Mike Burch, who played the hell out of the drums.  The show was just absolutely electric.  He played for about 90 minutes with one short break to solve a grounding problem after about five songs.  But after the break, the band just unloaded.  It was one helluva show.

The Redstone Room was extremely lucky to get Sonny Landreth for the price they did.  He had an open date between a Thursday night show in Champaign, IL and a blues festival he was playing in Monroe, WI the next day.  Santo told me how cheap it was to get him and I promised that I wouldn't reveal the amount.  But it was significantly lower than what he normally gets for a show.

If you're into great guitar players, don't hesitate to buy a ticket when Sonny Landreth comes to a stage near you.  He plays it all - rock, blues, cajun, jazz.  You won't be disappointed. 

River Roots Live - Davenport

The 3rd Annual River Roots Live event will be held beginning tonight at LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport.  They've combined the River Roots Live with the annual River Rockin' Rib Fest after last year's River Roots Live turned out to be a monumental money loser. 

I worked the first River Roots Live in 2005, but wasn't asked to work the event last year.  This year, DavenportOne - the city's chamber of commerce arm - took over the event and are working with the River Music Experience to produce the event. 

I worked the annual Street Fest again this year - the 9th year I've worked the event as the stage manager and stage announcer - and I must have impressed Marcy Hyder, the new director of events for DavenportOne.  (It didn't hurt that Bob Dorr - the leader of The Blue Band - told Marcy I was the best stage manager of any locally produced event they've played at.)  She asked me to be the lead stage manager for the two stages that will feature performances this weekend.

At Street Fest, I am the stage manager, the stage announcer, an equipment guy, a bartender, a traffic cop, a janitor, a parking coordinator, a banker, and I have to be an asshole from time to time, especially when someone from the crowd wants to go up on stage with the band, or hang around with the bands behind the stage. 

At River Roots Live, I have a whole slew of local union stage hands and volunteers who will be working under me to do many of the jobs I do at Street Fest.  I don't even have to do announcements - they're supposedly having some of the local on-air radio talent come in to do that.  Other than making sure bands are ready to go, and having to pay them afterward, I don't have to raise a finger, much less my voice. 

Some of the bands that are playing this year are the old 70's rock/folk group America (right), who just came off a very successful summer tour headlining with Chicago; Tea Leaf Green, an up and coming jam band; Reel Big Fish, a fun "ska" band, the great Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter; and the Headhunters, featuring Leo Nocentelli - an original founder of the great New Orleans band The Meters.  It's a pretty diverse music line-up, just as River Roots Live has proven to be over the first two years. 

The only problem is that it's been raining over the past week and the ground at LeClaire Park is very mushy.  As I write, we got 1.2 inches of rain last night and it's still coming down.  We're hoping that the rain gets out of here this afternoon and we get a respectable crowd for the show which starts at 5 p.m. tonight.  Tomorrow - when America, Charlie Hunter, The Headhunters and Tea Leaf Green will play - promises to be much better with sunny skies and much lower humidities than what we've experienced over the past three or four weeks.

There will continue to be rib vendors on site - although only 5 compared to the 8 to 10 we've had in the past for Rib Fest.  There will be no amateur contest to judge, but that's OK.  Quite honestly, a lot of the amateur rib cooks that participated - especially over the last couple of years - weren't all that great. 

I'm hoping for a good weekend and I'm sure I'll have pictures and some backstage stories to share with you later on.