Road Tips

Rusty Duck - Dexter, IA

The nominations for the 2012 Iowa Beef Industry Council Best Burger in Iowa contest have come in and a number of burger places across the state are vying to succeed the Rusty Duck in Dexter, IA as this year's winner. Rusty Duck's Ultimate Cheeseburger, a 14 oz. ground steakburger, topped with three different kinds of cheese, sweet red peppers, sauteed mushrooms and onions, beat out 275 other nominees for the best burger in Iowa for 2011. It has been my goal to try Rusty Duck's burger at some point, but on my first two visits to the place I was shut out. The first time, I came too early (they open at 5 p.m.) and the second time, I came on the wrong day (they are closed on Sunday and Monday). This particular visit, I made double damn sure that they'd be open, even calling beforehand just to make sure.

The Rusty Duck has been in business for nearly 8 years and is primarily known as a steakhouse. Owner Brad Waldron cuts his own steaks and uses the trimmings from both sirloin and strip steaks for his burgers. He grinds them himself and the more steaks he sells in his restaurant, the more hamburgers he can make up. There were times right after the Rusty Duck won the Best Burger award that they'd run out of burgers. He only had enough meat for so many burgers. Over a typical Friday and Saturday night period, the Rusty Duck sells over 200 burgers. In addition to the 14 oz. monster burgers, the Rusty Duck also has an 8 oz. burger on their menu.

Waldron (pictured at right), who started out his restaurant career about 25 years ago as a busboy at Gino's Italian Restaurant in Des Moines, knows his way around the kitchen. He is the grill chef at the Rusty Duck with over 80% of the items sold on their menu coming from beef. In addition to steaks and burgers, the Rusty Duck also features pork chops and chicken. In fact, their breaded tenderloin sandwich got 4th place in the Iowa Pork Producers Best Pork Tenderloin sandwich award in 2011. That's not too bad - winning the best burger and getting a top 5 finish in the best pork tenderloin.

The Rusty Duck is located in the heart of the small downtown area of Dexter (see map). Angled parking on both sides of the street is plentiful, that is if the American Legion across and down the street doesn't have a big crowd. I pulled in around 6:30 one evening and went inside. The decor of the restaurant isn't much to talk about. The dropped ceiling tiles are a little dingy and dirty, the chairs and tables are very basic. There's a large bar area that seats about 20 to 24 people with a mirrored backwall and a television in the center.

A hostess greeted me and asked if I wanted to sit at the bar. There were a number of people at the bar and I decided to sit at a table. She tried to seat me at a high table, but I asked to sit at a regular table. She sort of acted a little miffed that I wanted to sit at a table, then when I asked to sit at a regular table she sort of gruffly tossed the menu down on a table in front of the fireplace. I thought, "OK, yeah, whatever..."

However, the waitress that came over to greet me was very nice. "Welcome to the Rusty Duck," she enthusiastically said. "What can I get you to drink?"

I took a quick look at what turned out to be a very extensive menu for a small place. Of course, there were steaks, chops, chicken and some seafood items on the menu in addition to sandwiches and some salads. I was there for the burger and right at the top was the Ultimate Cheeseburger. However, I saw that it had sauteed peppers. I can't handle cooked green peppers very well. I like the taste of them, but I get indigestion something fierce afterward.

I did see that they had a bacon cheeseburger on the menu and I thought I could get one of those and maybe see if they could stick some mushrooms on the burger. When the waitress came over to take my order, I asked her if I could get a burger like that. She said, "Did you see our Ultimate Cheeseburger? It has everything on it that you're looking for." When I told her that I couldn't handle sauteed peppers very well, she perked up and said, "Oh! They're the red sweet peppers!"

Well, I CAN handle sauteed sweet red peppers, so I did end up going with the Ultimate Cheeseburger. She asked me how I wanted it cooked and she warned me that Waldron tends to cook his beef a little to the rare side. I ordered mine medium. She then said that because the burger is pretty thick, it takes awhile to cook. I was fine with that. I had my choice of French fries or their homemade steak fries. She said, "Our steak fries are actually cut long and thin, not the big thick steak fries that you get at other places." I got those, although I knew I wouldn't be eating many of them.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a bell ring at the service window and I just happened to look up to see the monstrous burger sitting there. My waitress went over to pick it up and, sure enough, she brought it to my table. Wow! This thing was HUGE!!! There was a ton of cheese on top of the burger, followed by strips of sauteed red peppers, large fresh sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, and crisp bacon. The bun was lightly toasted, light and moist.

In order to even handle this behemoth burger, I had to cut it in two. The beef was excellent - very fresh and flavorful. Actually, it was a little overcooked to my taste and I thought that if Brad Waldron tended to cook his meats a little to the rare side, I'm glad that I didn't order it medium-well. But it was still juicy enough.

Because of all the toppings on the burger - especially the cheese oozing off the top with every bite - eating the burger was a messy experience. I'm not certain any of the bacon, peppers or mushrooms actually stayed on the burger because they were constantly slipping off with each bite. I was constantly stopping and picking up the dropped toppings and putting them back on the burger. And with all that mess, I was using my cloth napkin constantly. Actually, between constantly wiping my hands and my mouth area, what I needed was a big roll of paper towels. The cloth napkin was a nice touch, but my hands never felt clean even after wiping them off. I had to go to the restroom and wash my hands after I finished the meal.

I ate half the burger with no problem and I cut the other half into another half. I barely finished that smaller quarter of the burger before I decided I'd had enough. I had a couple of the thin steak fries and they were good, but I couldn't eat any more. I saw an article on the wall of the restaurant that had to be written before they won the Best Burger award last year that said a number of guys had tried to eat the Ultimate Cheeseburger in one sitting, but hadn't been able to do so. I'm guessing that isn't the case now that the secret of the Rusty Duck is now out. I probably could have finished the whole thing had I not had lunch earlier in the day. But it was beginning to sit like a gut bomb in my stomach. Oh boy. I have to say that I was full for at least two days afterward. I didn't have breakfast or lunch the next day and I didn't care.

The overall taste of the burger was.... Good. I can't really say that the Ultimate Cheeseburger at the Rusty Duck was the best I'd had - I'm not even certain that it's the best burger I've ever had in Iowa. But it would definitely be a Top Ten all-time of Iowa burgers if I did such a list. I wish he would have taken it off a couple three minutes earlier, but the overall taste of the beef was well above average. The criteria for Best Burger in Iowa not only encompasses the taste of the burger, but how it is presented, the unique nature of the burger, and how well the bun works with the burger. I'd give the burger an A on uniqueness, an A in presentation, an A- with the bun and a B for overall taste. With all the cheese and toppings, there was a lot going on and I'm not certain that I really got a good taste of the beef. Maybe I'll go back at some point and get a smaller burger without all the fixin's.

Grinnell Steakhouse - Grinnell, IA

Thanx to Doug T. for the tip on the burgers at Grinnell Steakhouse, just off Interstate 80 at the Grinnell, IA exit (see map). I'd probably gone past this place a large number of times over the years, but never stopped in. Doug e-mailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd ever had the cheeseburger at the restaurant. Nope, I hadn't. He suggested I stop in when I could and see what I think.

I found out that the cheeseburger at Grinnell Steakhouse was one of the Top 10 finalists for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" contest for 2011. Grinnell Steakhouse is run by Laurie and Greg Hauser, assisted by their son, Chad. I was told that it's been in business for about three years, but I seem to remember that there was a restaurant in the building previous to this. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe that it was more of a bar than a restaurant. Either way, I'd never been in the place before this visit.

The key feature of the Grinnell Steakhouse is their "cook you own" concept. There's a couple three other places in Central Iowa that do "cook your own" steaks - Rube's Steakhouse is the most notable with their original location in Montour, IA (not far from Grinnell), and a location just west of Des Moines, just off of I-80 at the Waukee exit. It has been - geez, I don't know - about 25 years since I'd been to Rube's in Montour. I don't know if I'm a big fan of grilling my own steaks in a restaurant. Actually, I'm sort of scared to do so as I'm such a grilling snob that I'd probably end up cooking everyone's steaks, even people that I didn't know.

Grinnell Steakhouse had not one, but TWO open pit grilling areas in their restaurant. They had this one in their main and spacious dining room, and they had another one that was smaller than this one and situated back in a smaller dining area back near the bar that is probably used as overflow on busy nights, or for private parties.

It was after the lunch rush when I stopped off I-80 on a springlike day as I was on my way to Des Moines for a mid-afternoon meeting. From the outside, it didn't look like the place was open. If a large sign out front hadn't said, "Open Daily at 11 a.m.", I probably would have just driven on.

I was greeted by a young lady - Jazzmin was her unique name - and she asked if I wanted to have a table or eat at the bar. The dining room was empty, as was the bar. I decided to sit at the bar. Actually, the bar - although not very large - was sort of nice. It had seats for seven or eight people and had a nice back bar area filled with bottles of liquor and an assortment of beers they had to offer. A couple nice glass-faced refrigerators full of beer were down below.

Jazzmin gave me a menu and even though it appears that steak and chops are the focus at Grinnell Steakhouse, they also had a lunchtime menu that featured a handful of burgers and sandwiches. A good sized salad bar was one of the more prominent features in the main dining area.

I pretty much knew what I wanted - a burger and when Jazzmin asked me if I was ready to order, I didn't hesitate. I got a cheeseburger (I had a choice of American, cheddar, pepperjack, bleu cheese or Swiss - I got pepperjack) and a side of fries. They evidently had a grill in the kitchen because I could easily smell the charbroil scent of beef when the burger was cooking.

Jazzmin brought out the burger and set it in front of me. At first, I was sort of taken aback at how thin it appeared to be sitting open-faced on the plate. The overall size of the burger was big, but I thought it would have been a little more thick. But after taking a couple bites of the burger, I found that it was actually a lot more thick than I thought it was. Fresh red onions and pickles came with the burger, as did a lettuce leaf. A large sheet of very fresh and pungent pepperjack cheese laid on top.

The taste of the burger was good - very good, in fact. The meat was lean, but still had some juiciness to the taste. It had a little bit of pink in the middle, just as I like it, and the thick-melted pepperjack cheese gave each bite a little aftertaste kick. The bun was light and was a nice complement to the burger. Overall, it was a very good burger, one that definitely was worthy of a mention for one of the best burgers in Iowa. But I don't think I could put it on my Best Burger list. An honorable mention - probably.  But it could be a Top Ten if I just did a list for the state of Iowa.  

I really don't do a very good job of closing out my blog entries. So, thanks to Doug for the tip on the burger at Grinnell Steakhouse.  I'm sure the steaks they have at Grinnell Steakhouse are good, but I was impressed with the burger. It was good and a pretty good value. I'll go back again if I get the chance.

Cork 'N Cleaver - Fort Wayne, IN

Back in the 1960's, a number of - what was then - upscale steakhouse chains popped up across the nation offering good food in a wholesome family atmosphere. If you're over the age of 40, you probably remember Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company, Mr. Steak and Boar's Head, to name a few. All of those companies have gone out of business years ago, but one steakhouse name from the 60's that I do remember is Cork 'N Cleaver. It turns out there's still a Cork 'N Cleaver in Fort Wayne, IN and when I was out there with my colleague, Simon, for a presentation at Sweetwater we had dinner there one evening.

The first Cork 'N Cleaver opened in 1964 in the Phoenix area offering high quality steaks, seafood and chops in a casual and cozy Southwestern ranch-style setting. The concept was so popular that there were soon well over 80 locations in over two dozen states. In the mid-70's, the Chart House restaurant chain bought the Cork 'N Cleaver brand. Changing food attitudes spelled the demise for many steakhouse restaurants like Cork 'N Cleaver and the beginning of the end of many of the locations happened in the 80's. Chart House began to close Cork 'N Cleaver locations beginning in the early 80's and by the early 90's there were just three locations left - Fort Wayne, Evansville, IN and Kalamazoo, MI. (The original Phoenix location is still open, but was not part of the chain.)

In 1994, a young executive for Chart House restaurants, Wally Seward, bought the remaining three Cork 'N Cleaver locations from the corporation and moved his family from Daytona Beach to Fort Wayne. Quite seriously, that had to be both a cultural and climate shock for the Seward family. But Seward believed in the Cork 'N Cleaver concept and wanted to keep the name going. After all, he got his start in the restaurant business with Cork 'N Cleaver.

Wally Seward - pictured right

In 1975, Seward was a student at Jacksonville University in Florida when he took a job working at the local Cork 'N Cleaver location as a server. It was there where he met his future wife, Ellen, who was a hostess at the restaurant. Over the years, both Wally and Ellen earned promotions that took them to a number of Cork 'N Cleaver locations working in many levels of capacity. When Chart House bought the Cork 'N Cleaver restaurants, Wally became a Cork 'N Cleaver restaurant manager at locations in Kansas City and Orlando, then became a regional manager in Atlanta and in Cincinnati before becoming the V-P of Operations for Chart House at the young age of 34. He was 41 when he moved his wife and their three young kids to Fort Wayne.

Unfortunately, Wally Seward tragically passed away in 2007 at the very young age of 53 leaving Ellen and his son, Josh, to run the restaurant. Josh had gone to college to learn restaurant management so he could follow in his father's footsteps. He just didn't think that he was going to have to run the restaurant sooner than later.

I had picked up Simon at the airport earlier in the evening and we were at the hotel figuring out where we wanted to go eat dinner. It was a Sunday night and we knew that most restaurants wouldn't be all that busy - or we ASSUMED they wouldn't be that busy - so we didn't bother making reservations anywhere. When we finally decided to go to Cork 'N Cleaver, a restaurant Simon had eaten at before during his previous visits to Sweetwater, we took off for the 15 minute drive to the steakhouse. When we pulled into the parking lot at the location along Washington Center Road (see map) we found a very packed lot full of cars. I said to Simon, "Maybe we should have made reservations."

We went inside and found that it was, indeed, packed. The hostess told us that it would be a 10 to 15 minute wait, which wasn't that bad. I said to her, "We figured that on a Sunday night we wouldn't need reservations."

She sort of snottily replied, "We strongly suggest reservations at all times." It was like I was just talked down to by a maitre d' at a high-end Chicago or New York restaurant rather than some 20-something part-time hostess at a restaurant in Fort Wayne.

When we were finally seated, it was in one of the myriad of dining areas throughout the Cork 'N Cleaver restaurant. We were near the salad bar and in kind of a high traffic area. There seemed to be a lot of birthday celebrations going on in the restaurant involving families. And there also seemed to be a number of older people dining in the restaurant.

Our server for the evening, Pamela, greeted us and sat down the menu for that evening. It was literally engraved on a meat cleaver, not a sharp meat cleaver, but a real meat cleaver. It featured, of course, steaks and seafood, along with chicken and pork entrees. The only problem is that only one person could look at it at a time as there was just one. I wasn't certain that I liked the clever cleaver concept (I just couldn't wait to write that).

Pamela asked us if we wanted to start out with an appetizer and Simon said that he fancied the seared tuna with wasabi - six one-ounce pieces of sushi grade tuna, seared rare, drizzled with a wasabi sauce and served with kimchee cabbage and ginger. OK, that sounded good to me, as well.

While we were waiting for the tuna to show up, I looked long at hard at the cleaver menu to figure out what I wanted to get that evening. I definitely wanted a steak and the first thing that popped up on my screen was the Pepper Steak - a 14-ounce New York strip that is rolled in cracked peppercorns and marinated overnight. (They didn't say what it was marinated in.) However, it was served on a bed of grilled onions and topped with a brown sauce. (It didn't say what kind of brown sauce, so I figured it was just a gravy.) It sounded good except for the onions and the sauce.

They also had prime rib on the menu and I hadn't had prime rib in a long, long time preferring to eat more lean cuts of beef when I've gone out. But the 10 oz. prime rib sounded pretty good that evening.

Simon had his eye on the coffee-encrusted filet. He remembered that I had the coffee-encrusted filet at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill restaurant in Vegas earlier this year. "You didn't like it, if I remember," Simon said.

I said, "I don't know if it wasn't that I didn't like it as much as I was disappointed that we had a fixed menu and what I really wanted to order that night wasn't available." Actually, it was pretty good.

Pamela came back with the seared tuna appetizer and asked if we were ready to order. I pretty much had made up my mind to do the pepper steak, but I wasn't sold on the grilled onions and the sauce on top. I asked if I could just get the regular New York strip rolled in the cracked peppercorns, then grilled. She said, "Well, the regular New York strip isn't marinated overnight." I asked if I could get the Pepper Steak without the onions and the sauce on the side and she said, "Sure!" Then she asked, "Would you like sauteed mushrooms to go along with it?"  I couldn't say no!

Simon ordered the ground coffee filet with some rice pilaf. Pamela asked if we wanted any other sides and she made some suggestions including garlic mashed potatoes with crab meat. Oooo... That sounded good. I ordered that for Simon and I to share.

The seared ahi tuna appetizer was quite good, actually. It was served with both soy-sauce and a sort of honey-mustard sauce along with the kimshee. We both got three pieces each and it was a nice start to the meal. The tuna was very flavorful and delicious. It was a very good start to the dinner.

Along with the meal, we got Cork 'N Cleaver's "award winning" salad bar. I had forgotten my phone back at the hotel, so Simon did the honors of taking pictures of the meal for me. He tried to do his best in capturing the essence of the salad bar, but the back lighting was just too intense. The salad bar was really nothing special above and beyond any type of salad bar I've encountered at any similar steakhouses. The most notable exception was the sweet raspberry vinaigrette dressing that I got. Simon was just amazed. "I can't believe you got that dressing," he exclaimed. "It was more like raspberry jam!" It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't get it again if I went back. Simon got the homemade creamy bleu cheese dressing for his salad and he said it was good.

Pamela came back to pick up our salad plates after we were finished and let us know that our steaks were coming shortly. I ordered up two glasses of the Franciscan cabernet for Simon and I to enjoy with our meal. She brought them out the just before our steaks showed up on the table.

When our steaks came out, we were ready to eat. My steak wasn't covered in peppercorns the way I had envisioned it to be when I ordered. But it was rare with a cool center when I cut into it. I still don't know what they marinated the steak in, but it was pleasant enough to the taste and the meat was very juicy. I dipped a couple pieces of the steak in the brown sauce I had off to the side and I'm glad I didn't get it on top of the steak. While it wasn't bad, it would over overpowered the taste of the steak and I'm glad I decided to just get it on the side.

Simon poked at his steak and cut into it to make sure it was rare enough for him. He took a bite and said, "This isn't coffee. This is pepper." He sort of shrugged his shoulders and decided to eat it as is. It, too, was a perfect rare with the cool center. He was happy with what he got.

The sauteed mushrooms were a good complement to the steak, but the highlight of the meal had to be the garlic mashed potatoes with the crab meat. It was absolutely fabulous. I put it in between Simon and I and we took turns dipping into the potatoes and crab meat. The crab meat was chunky and you could easily taste it in the mix. I said, "You know, this is so stupidly easy to make at home. I don't know why I haven't made this before."

It was a lot of food and I had trouble finishing my steak. I don't know if it was from the meal or what, but I had some gastric uncomfort for the next couple of days while we were in Fort Wayne. I finally began to feel better around noon a couple days later. The steak was so large and so rich that it probably aided in my discomfort.

I can see why people in Fort Wayne flock to Cork 'N Cleaver. The service was very good, Pamela did a fine job in taking care of us. The food was good, definitely above average. I've had better steaks at other places, but the steak I had at Cork 'N Cleaver was tasty enough, although there was a lot of fat on it and it got tough to cut in some places.  But you could get that anywhere.  The atmosphere at the restaurant was fine enough, relaxing and inviting. I'm sure I'll be coming back out to Fort Wayne at some point and while I may not go out of my way to go have dinner at Cork 'N Cleaver, I could see myself going back for a good meal.   

Morton's The Steakhouse - Rosemont, IL

A few weeks ago, the C.O.O. for Cambridge Audio and a private consultant working on future initiatives for the company came to Chicago to visit some dealers. Since Chicago is part of my territory, I was the one who picked them up and squired them around town for the day. After a long day of meetings, Peter from Cambridge Audio, and the consultant, Vincent - both Brits, and like most Europeans I know - declared that they were ready for a big Midwestern steak. They were staying at the Hilton O'Hare and not far from there is one of the Morton's steakhouses. I'd never eaten at a Morton's, even after all the years of traveling to Chicago. Since Peter was picking up the check that evening, I decided to drive to the Morton's in Rosemont (see map).

(As an aside - for you crime drama and football fans out there - Morton's in Rosemont was the place where Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was arrested by federal agents and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine after an undercover sting operation mere days after our visit there.)  

Morton's The Steakhouse is one of the more famous steakhouses in the Chicago area, now with 77 locations in 26 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and six countries. Morton's was founded in 1978 by Chicago restaurateur Arnie Morton who opened his first restaurant - the Walton Walk - between Rush and Michigan in downtown Chicago in the 1950's. Morton, who grew up learning the restaurant business from his father who ran a restaurant on the south side of Chicago, soon became close friends with Hugh Hefner, helping him start his Playboy Enterprises of clubs, restaurants and resorts in 1960. As a VP for Playboy, Morton helped open dozens of Playboy Clubs around the world.

In 1974, along with partner Klaus Fritsch, whom he worked with at Playboy, Morton opened Arnie's, an upscale and tony restaurant on the near-north side of Chicago that catered to high-dollar Gold Coast residents. In 1978, Morton opened his first Morton's the Steakhouse on State Street, near the corner of Rush St. Business was slow at first, until one Frank Sinatra began to frequent the place during his visits to Chicago. Being able to see Frank Sinatra at Morton's suddenly made it a hot place. That's when people began to find out that Morton's served USDA Prime, thick cut, dry-aged steaks.

Arnie Morton (left) and Klaus Fritsch (right) - the original partners in Morton's the Steakhouse.

Business flourished before Morton sold his interest in Morton's The Steakhouse to the Quantam Group in 1987, prompting the expansion of the Morton's brand name nationwide. Morton closed his namesake Arnie's restaurant in 1994 after his lease ran out and died 11 years later suffering from Alzheimer's. His son, Peter, is the founder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain of bars and restaurants. Another son, Michael, is the head of the N9NE group of upscale contemporary steakhouses in Chicago, Dallas and Las Vegas. His daugther, Amy, ran the now-closed Mirador and The Blue Room establishments in Chicago. And another son, David, is behind the Pompei Italian restaurants in Chicago, as well as one of the partners in the DMK Burger Bar restaurants (see my entry on DMK Burger here). Continuing in the family tradition, Morton's grandson, Harry, is the owner of the Pink Taco restaurants in Las Vegas and Los Angeles (see my entry on the Las Vegas Pink Taco here).

It was recently announced that the investment group who owns the Morton steakhouses - including investment company Castle Harlan - will sell the restaurants to Houston-based restaurateur Tilman Ferttita, the man who is behind the Landry's and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. (To see my entry on a visit to Landry's in Las Vegas, click here.) The deal was supposed to be consummated earlier this month, but I haven't seen any confirmation of that happening. 

(As an aside, I have somewhat of an aversion to both Landry's and Bubba Gump. If they were the absolute last option for dinner, I may go there. But I try to stay away from either after bad service and food experieces at both places in the past.  I'm hoping Fertitta keeps Morton's the way it is.) 

The Morton's in Rosemont is located near the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, in the flight path of planes landing at O'Hare. As you enter the restaurant, you go into the upper level of their 12-21 bar (all Morton's have a 12-21 bar, which pays homage to the date the first Morton's opened on December 21, 1978). A hostess greeted us and ushered us down a wide and winding staircase to the dining area downstairs. As we were being shown to a booth, we passed the open kitchen where they had slabs of strip steaks on an open tray, daring us to order them on the spot.

The picture above right is literally the menu at Morton's. The waitperson brought out a large tray of aged steaks - New York strip, ribeye, porterhouse, filet, T-bone and bone-in ribeye. She also had a live lobster staring at me at a plate on the side. After describing the cuts of meats and fresh seafood they had to offer at Morton's that evening, she also had a number of side dishes that they serve family style. She eventually handed us small paper menus, but by that time I was already to order up.

I ordered the 20 oz. New York strip, rare. I chose sauteed mushrooms for the side and for a starter I got a center cut iceberg wedge salad. Vincent also went with the New York strip, medium rare. He ordered a cup of the lobster bisque for a starter and got a side order of the steak fries for the table. Peter went with the smaller of the two filets (10 oz. versus 16 oz.), medium rare, as well. He ordered oysters on the half shell for an appetizer and got a side of steamed asparagus (grilled asparagus is also available).

I was heartened to hear that Vincent fancied beer over wine. Although a nice bottle of red from Morton's extensive wine list would have been nice, we all three ended up ordering bottles of Sierra Nevada's Torpedo India pale ale. The Brits love their hoppy beer and the Sierra Nevada Torpedo did not disappoint.

My wedge salad was absolutely fabulous. It was topped with a creamy bleu cheese dressing with large chunks of bleu cheese. It had fresh chopped tomatoes, crisp chopped bacon and even more chunks of bleu cheese on the top. I had the waitperson load it up with fresh crack black pepper. It was a massive amount of greens to eat. So much so that I was still trying to put a dent into it when our steaks showed up at the table.

Vincent said the lobster bisque was "outstanding". He said it was creamy and rich with large chunks of lobster meat. And Peter said his oysters were very good, as well.

The steaks, in a word, were awesome. My New York strip was cooked perfectly - red rare with a cool center. It was lean, flavorful and overly tender. The sauteed mushrooms were a great complement to the great steak. We passed around the sides and the steak fries were large and crispy on the outside, but moist inside with a great potato taste. The asparagus was cooked perfectly (I always seem to overcook asparagus - this still had a little *snap* to each bite). 

Vincent and Peter both said their steaks were great. Peter told me prior to going to Morton's that they had eaten at the Tornado Club in Madison, WI the night before (see my entry on the Tornado Club here) and said that it would be tough to beat that meal. But Peter told me afterward, "The Tornado Club was outstanding, but this may have been the best steak I've ever had."

The service at Morton's the Steakhouse was exemplary. The maitre d' AND the restaurant manager both stopped by to ask how everything was and to thank us for coming in. The maitre d' asked me, "How was your steak cooked, sir? To your liking? Not overcooked?"

I told him it was perfect and he said, "I'll let the chef know." And he walked right over to the open kitchen, leaned over the counter and mentioned something to the chef. The chef turned and gave him a "thumbs up".

We closed the place down that evening, savoring our great meal, talking strategy and rehashing the days meetings. As we left, everyone we encountered - from our waitperson, to the manager, to maitre d', to the bartender, to one of the cooks in the kitchen, to the hostess who took us down to the dining room in the first place were all overly expressive with their sincere appreciate for our business. It didn't appear phony or forced at all. My first experience with eating at a Morton's was a real treat. I'm sure the meal wasn't cheap, but it was worth every penny Peter paid for it that evening. I hope I get a chance to go back to a Morton's again at some point.

Uncle Jack's Steakhouse - New York

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know by now that the Europeans - and the Canadians - that I work with are always on the lookout for steak each time we get together for dinner at a trade show. At last fall's Audio Engineering Society convention in New York City, it was no different. The only problem is that we had steak EVERY NIGHT we were there. Now, being that I'm from the Midwest, I'm a big beef eater. Even I can get burned out on steaks after three nights in a row. On our last night in Manhattan, I wanted to go out for an authentic New York City pizza. I was roundly shouted down on that request. The guys wanted steak and one of our guys from Montreal said that there was a steakhouse - Uncle Jack's Steakhouse - that was a block away from our hotel, down 34th St. and around the corner on 9th Ave. It was a five minute walk to Uncle Jack's Steakhouse (see map).

Over 20 years ago, Willie Degel was working as a bartender in a working class Queens neighborhood bar. Degel and his brother, both sons of a longshoreman who worked a second job at the main post office in New York City to keep his family going, bought the bar and building, renovated it and turned it into an upscale lounge/restaurant. That went over extremely well and Degel decided to get open an upscale steakhouse. In November of 1996, he opened his first Uncle Jack's Steakhouse in the Bayside neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. (see map)

He named his steakhouse after his godfather - a gentleman by the name of Jack who ran a speakeasy on Manhattan's upper west side during the height of prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, Jack's saloon became an upscale restaurant that served a high class clientele. Degel's godfather exhibited a presence where each patron - famous or not - was treated with respect and class, and no detail was overlooked. Degel adopted this philosophy in running his upscale steakhouse.

Willie Degel (pictured right)

Degel perfected his restaurant blue print over the next seven years and in 2003 he began to look for a second location, this one in Manhattan. He found an old Victorian-style saloon on 9th Ave, near 34th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. He bought the property and other than a little clean up and renovating, he didn't have much to do with the place. The mahogany bar and walls were in place, as was the copper plated ceiling. He opened his second location in December of 2003 and from the beginning captains of industry, the rich and famous, and the average Joe's and hungry tourists made it a hit. In September of 2004, Degel opened his third - and reportedly his last - Uncle Jack's Steakhouse in Upper Midtown Manhattan, three blocks south of Central Park and a block and a half away from Carnegie Hall (see map).

During his time of operating his restaurants, Degel has also found time to come up with his own line of gourmet steak sauces, mainly because he didn't like any of the sauces that were available to him through food purveyors. He also started a side business in which his company builds luxury houses in The Hamptons out on Long Island. In 2010, Degel began working with the TruTV cable television network on a concept show tentatively called "The World's Toughest Boss", that would follow Degel through his day-to-day chores as the owner of Uncle Jack's Steakhouse. I've yet to find out if any programs have aired or if any production work has even started. It could be pretty interesting as Degel is a self-described "obsessive perfectionist."

The 9th Ave. location of Uncle Jack's is certainly elegant. As I mentioned, it features lush mahogany walls, cooper pressed ceiling tiles, elegant, yet subdued lighting and a cozy feel to the dining area. The appearance of the dining room belied the fact that it's only been in existence for 7 years - it looked like we had walked into a place that was just as elegant as it could have been back in the 1930's.

The bar area is just as polished and stately as the dining area. The bartenders and waiters are all in starched shirts, bow ties and snappy vests with aprons draping across the front of their pants. Oh, yeah. This was a pretty spiffy place.

The menu at Uncle Jack's Steakhouse (below left) sits on opposite walls of the restaurant, one above the bar and the other on the far wall. It's not a large menu as you can plainly see - five seafood appetizers, five different prime steaks, pork chops, fish of the day, salads and a number of sides served family style for the table. Uncle Jack's also features a Kobe beef steak for those who really want to throw down a wad of cash for dinner.

For starters, our waiter talked us into two skyscraper appetizers of seafood including jumbo shrimp, crab meat, lobster claws, oysters on half-shell, clams and mussels. Everything was fresh and very tasty. It was an excellent start to the meal.

For wine, my colleague Ian found a wonderful bottle of the Joseph Phelps cabernet on the wine list. It was full-bodied and had a great taste for a hearty red. This was promising to be a great meal.

Since many of us pigged out on the seafood towers, we eschewed salads and went directly for the main course. Steak, steak, steak and more steak was ordered at the table. I was no different - I went with Uncle Jack's 16 oz. bone-in filet, rare. I also ordered a side of sauteed mushrooms for the table to share.

This is where the story gets interesting...

Our steaks were brought to the table and, oh, man! Did they look delicious. After our customary "Bon app!" salute to one another, I cut into mine and it was more medium-rare than rare. Not that I couldn't eat it, it just was a little overcooked. I was content enough to have it as it.

Sitting next to me was one of the pro audio dealers from France, Alain, who ordered the exact same thing and his, too, was more medium-rare than rare. When the waiter came over to check on the steaks, Alain said that he thought his was a little overcooked. The waiter said, "Sir, we'll get you another steak right away. Anybody else have a problem?"

I said, "Well, now that you mention it, mine was supposed to be rare, but it's more medium-rare. I mean, I can eat it, but..."

The waiter cut me off. "Nonsense, sir," he said as he grabbed my plate. "You ordered rare and we'll get you rare." It was sort of embarrassing and pretty impressive at the same time. Alain and I sat patiently while playfully snide remarks came at us from around the table accusing us of being steak snobs and how we were probably going to cost the cook his job.

The second steaks came out and they were covered in more au jus than the first one. But I could tell from the outside of the steak that it was overcooked. I've grilled enough steaks in my life that I can usually tell from the texture of the outside of the steak that it's over-cooked or undercooked. The manager came over and asked us to cut into our steaks to see if they were cooked to our liking. Alain cut into his and he said, "Oh, perfect." And it was - red and cool in the middle.

Mine, I knew it was overcooked and I said so before I even cut into it. In fact, it was even more overcooked than the FIRST steak I was served. The manager immediately said, "Sir, our goal here is 100% customer satisfaction. We will get you a rare steak, I guarantee."

He took the plate away and there was a moment of silence at the table as he moved back toward the kitchen. When he disappeared with the steak through the kitchen door, my colleagues let me have it. "Jesus Christ, Will," my colleague Simon playfully chastised me. "I've seen people send one steak back for being over-cooked, but never TWO!"

Ian said, "It's that Midwestern steak-snobbishness that's coming out, Will. It doesn't suit you well."

Once again, I patiently waited for my next steak to come out. I mean, seriously, I could have eaten the first steak, but they took it away so quickly before I could protest that it was edible.

The others were well through the bulk of their meals before my next steak showed up in front of me. The manager stood over me as I cut into it. This time - perfect. In fact - and I'm chuckling as I write this - it may have been just a tad UNDERcooked. I swear it was 35 degrees in the middle as the meat was COLD. But it was rare and that's what I asked for. Hey, I'm still alive, so it didn't have any microbes that weren't cooked.

And it was wonderful. The USDA prime beef was tender and overly flavorful. It was lean, yet juicy. Along with the sauteed mushrooms that I had with it, it was a fabulous steak. Ian said with a laugh, "Are you happy now?"

Absolutely! It was worth the wait.

This is a picture of the aftermath of my absolutely wonderful steak. You can see, even close to the bone, that it was pretty rare.

Since my colleagues were playfully appalled at the fact that I sent not one, but TWO high dollar steaks back to the kitchen, they made me pick up the tab that evening. It wasn't a cheap evening by any means, but the service, the attention to detail and the whole customer satisfaction philosophy was extremely worth the price. When the manager brought the bill over to me, he leaned over and said, "Sir, we're terribly sorry for the condition of the steaks. We took your steak off the bill as our way of apologizing to you."

I said, "Oh, sir. Honestly. You didn't have to do that. I was overly happy with my steak once it was right. And, quite honestly, I could have gotten by with the first one."

He said, "Well, sir, 100% guaranteed customer satisfaction is our policy. And we want you and your group to come back and see us at some point."

Our waiter came over to thank me and our our group. Even waiters who didn't wait on us made a point to come over and thank us. I was up by the bar and the bartender even asked, "How was your dinner, sir?" After I told him it was excellent and the service was exemplary, he said, "Very good, sir. Please come back to see us."

Everyone made us feel important at Uncle Jack's Steakhouse. We were just schmoes off the street who came in for a good steak and we were treated like big shots. Uncle Jack's is the epitome of a classic New York steakhouse. Great service, great food and total customer satisfaction. I haven't been able to stop talking about the place to anyone who will listen to me. If you ever find yourself in New York and are looking for a great steak with great service, Uncle Jack's won't disappoint.

Churrascaria Plataforma - New York City

While in New York for the 131st Audio Engineering Society convention, Nicholas Debard, who heads Focal Loudspeakers professional sound division, invited our group, as well as some others out for dinner to Churrascaria Plataforma, a Brazilian steakhouse located on W. 49th St. in Midtown Manhattan (see map). Brazilian steakhouses are always fun, so we took a brisk walk up 8th Ave. and then a left on 49th St. to the front door of Churrascaria Plataforma about halfway between 8th and 9th.

Plataforma, as it's known to the locals, has been in existence since 1996 becoming one of the first Brazilian rodizio (all-you-can-eat) style steakhouses in the city. It's very similar to any of the other Brazilian steakhouses that I've been to - they have a large salad bar that they entice you to gorge yourself on so you won't have room to eat the skewers upon skewers of barbecued beef, lamb, pork, sausages, chicken and turkey they keep bringing to your table. And like the others, Plataforma (which means platform in Portuguese - not quite sure the relevance between a steakhouse and a platform) has a fixed price per person for the meal. They charge a flat rate of $50 bucks per head, so it's best NOT to load up on the salad bar beforehand.

Nicholas had invited a large group that included the five guys from my company working the AES show, Brian from Lauten Audio (makers of top quality microphones), Jurg from Vovox Cables (makers of high quality cables for guitars, microphones and power cables), a couple of guys who ran pro music stores in France who were there for the show, as well as a couple of importer/distributors - one from Indonesia, the other was, I believe, from China. And he also invited Fab Dupont, the owner of Flux Studios in Manhattan and a large supporter of Focal Professional loudspeakers, and his girlfriend, who was celebrating her birthday that evening.

We had walked into the somewhat boisterous and loud restaurant and on a small platform (maybe that's the platform connection) near the center of the dining room was a Brazilian jazz combo playing music. While it wasn't ear shattering, it was still loud enough that caused my colleague Todd to wonder if we'd be able to hear conversation at the table. But to our relief, the hostess guided us into a lower level room, smaller and much quieter than the main dining area. The only problem all night was the rather loud 20-something girl at the table next to us who had this whiny, nasally voice that reminded my colleague Ian and I of the actress Fran Drescher. Ian said, "If I was married to that voice, I'd smother her with a pillow while she slept."

My boss, Daniel, had the honors of picking out wines and he ordered up two reds - a Primogenito Malbec blend from Argentina, and another red South American wine that I didn't bother to look at. That's because the Primogenito was so robust in taste that it completely eclipsed the other red on the table. The Primogenito Malbec was so complex and full-bodied, yet it went extremely well with the meal that we had. Everyone sort of forgot about the other red and more bottles of the Primogenito were brought to the table. It suddenly became a "must find" on my list of wines.

Like other Brazilian steakhouses, the salad bar at Plataforma is huge and full of diverse items such as sushi, red beets, peppadew sweet peppers, cheeses, mixed salad greens, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers - all of which I got while going through the line. Given that I'd eaten a large steak the night before at Cooper's Tavern, I thought a lot of greens and veggies would be good to have. But, as always, I end up eating the salad, then can never say no to the skewers of beef that they bring out.

After the salad, the little disc in front of me was turned over from red to green signifying that the meat fest was on. And was it ever - they first brought out their signature sirloin on a skewer, cutting off chunks of medium rare to medium cooked beef for me to grab with the little metal tongs. After I passed on the lamb and turkey filet, I tried the bacon wrapped chunks of chicken breast. The chicken was woefully overcooked and somewhat dried out. OK, no more chicken.

Beef ribs, prime rib, beef tenderloin filet and more of the sirloin made it to my plate, but all were somewhat to very overcooked. The meat was good, but we all thought they could have taken it off the grill a little more quickly. At right is my colleague Ian trying to cut through some of the overcooked meat he had on his plate.

The head waiter came over and asked us if we needed anything and Ian said, "Yes! Beef this is more medium-rare, not medium-well. And do you have garlic beef?"

The head waiter said, "Garlic beef? Absolutely, sir! We'll bring some out to you right away."

The garlic sirloin did come out and it wasn't all that great. It, too, was overcooked and only had a hint of garlic in the beef. Actually, the best garlic beef we've ever had at a Brazilian steakhouse was out in Denver at the Rodizio Grill. It was like they injected the sirloin with with liquid garlic as each bite was permeated with a thick garlic taste. That was out of this world. The garlic sirloin at Plataforma was sort of "eh!" I could take it or leave it.

They did bring more rare cooked beef, but by that time I was full. We did have some dessert - I shared a New York cheesecake with a couple other people (hey, when in New York...). It was OK, but I was too stuffed to enjoy the cheesecake to any extent.

Walking back to the hotel, Ian and I both remarked that Churrascaria Plataforma was definitely not the best Brazilian steakhouse that we've eaten at. The highlight of the meal was the great Primogenito Malbec blend. "It just walked all over that other red we had," Ian said. Nearly all the meat I had was overcooked at Plataforma, and a couple pieces I had I couldn't finish as they cooked the life out of the meat. Brazilian steakhouses are still fun, but when the food isn't that great then it takes the fun out of it. Maybe we got Plataforma on a bad night as the place was packed and it's been in business for 15 years. But I have to believe there's gotta be better Brazilian steakhouses in Manhattan.

Cooper's Tavern - New York

Right next to - and attached to - the New Yorker Hotel is Cooper's Tavern, a somewhat upscale Italian steakhouse with an entrance at the corner of 35th St. and 8th Ave. (see map). Cooper's Tavern is a place that caters to tourists who stay at the New Yorker and to the locals after a concert or game over at Madison Square Garden. A couple three of the guys in our set up crew who came in early for the AES Convention went there for dinner and told us it was very good. We decided to go there for dinner one night while we were in New York City.

The executive chef at Cooper's Tavern is Julian Clauss-Ehlers, an English-born, French-trained chef who also co-owned and was the chef at Zitoune, a Moroccan restaurant in New York, as well as the former chef at the famous Monkey Bar on Manhattan's upper east side. Ehlers, as he was known before he was married, also ran the kitchen in a public house in Haddenham, England - The Green Dragon - before moving to the states to become the chef at Acacia, a former restaurant in Manhattan. He has been the chef at Cooper's Tavern since 2008 when the restaurant was reopened after extensive improvements and upgrades were made to the New Yorker.

Cooper's Tavern is sort of L-shaped with a large bar area up front and a longish dining area toward the back. Keeping with the art deco theme that is the architectural signature of the New Yorker, Cooper's Tavern has a number of art deco-style lights, with authentic art deco-style booths and tables. It was like walking back into the 30's and 40's when you went into Cooper's Tavern.

The menu that Clauss-Ehlers has come up with at Cooper's Tavern is an eclectic mix of steaks, pork chops, seafood and pasta dishes that tries to encompass what people who stay at the hotel and those coming in off the street would like to eat. The menu isn't all that extensive, but it also has Italian specialties such as veal piccata, chicken parmigiana, and a lamb shank braised in red wine and pancetta. But the guys in my company all went there for the steak and they said not only were the cuts of meat huge, they were also very good. (My company is known as big beef eaters. And when the factory guys from England and France come over, they almost exclusively eat beef.)

We sat at a large table toward the back of the restaurant and were greeted by our waiter who called himself "Johnny the Greek". Johnny the Greek was an older guy, probably well into his 60's, with a thick accent and a jovial nature. He worked his ass off for us, but at times was a little lax or slow in getting things out to us. Like drinks.

One confusing aspect of Cooper's Tavern is that they don't have a wine or beer list. We had to rely upon Johnny the Greek to try and remember what type of beers they had to offer. I asked him what kind of pale ales and he said they had Sierra Nevada. I took one of those, then found out after he brought my beer to the table that they also had Brooklyn Brewery products on tap. Brooklyn Brewery was one of the first micro-breweries on the east coast, opening in 1987. And they have one of the most eclectic listings of beer of any micro-brewery that I've come across. I've been starting to see Brooklyn beers in parts of the Midwest and I have to say their lager and their pale ale is pretty good. After finishing my Sierra Nevada pale ale, I got one of the Brooklyn lagers on tap.

I had said before I went to New York that I wanted to get an authentic New York style pizza from an authentic New York style pizza place. Not necessarily a place where you walk up and get a slice of pizza for a buck or two, but a nice, sit-down pizza joint. Well, my colleague, Ian, immediately put the kibosh on that idea asking if I were sane. "This is New York with world-class food," he chastised me. "Pizza is dull and you can get it anywhere." Obviously, Ian didn't want pizza when we were in New York.

However, Cooper's Tavern had pizza on their menu. I was overly tempted to get the margharita pizza, then you could get up to three toppings - perfect for my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. I looked around and didn't see anyone else in the restaurant get the pizza, so I couldn't see how good it looked.

Still, my colleagues who had eaten at Cooper's Tavern said the steaks were great. I figured I couldn't go wrong with that. For dinner, I ordered the filet - rare - with a beef carpaccio for my first course. Others ordered similar items, except for my colleague, Todd, who ordered something I thought about ordering before I went with the filet - the Skyscraper burger. More on that in a little bit. And quite surprisingly, Nicholas from Focal Loudspeakers - a Frenchman - ordered Cooper's Tavern's hand-battered North Atlantic cod with their oregano French fries. Well, so much for my point about European's eating steak every chance they can get.

Someone ordered some appetizers for the table. We had shrimp cocktail, calamari, oysters on the half-shell, breaded mussels and littleneck clams. All were very good with the notable exception of the clams which were sort of fishy to me. But the shrimp were large, meaty and very good. But I didn't want to gorge on the seafood appetizers because I knew I had a lot of food coming out later on.

The carpaccio was served with a topping of arugula, shaved parmesan cheese and topped off with a truffle oil. And there was a lot of carpaccio on the plate. The rare beef was tender and very flavorful. It was one of the best carpaccio plates I'd had in quite some time.

Johnny the Greek brought out my steak and it was not small. It was easily 16 ounces and cooked to a perfect rare - red in the middle with a cool temperature. A broiled tomato slice topped with seasoned bread crumbs came with the steak. Someone had ordered a couple three orders of French fries for the table because they said they were very good. The fresh oregano flakes on the fries were a great taste sensation. I'll have to try that on American fries at home.

My steak was tender and juicy with a great beef flavor. I thought about getting lemon butter capers on the top of it, but decided to go au natural and enjoy the steak as it was cooked. It was simply outstanding.

But the star of the meal was Todd's Skyscraper burger - a 12 oz. burger patty made with chopped and ground beef from Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, a wholesale meat cutting house just across the Hudson in New Jersey who also provides the steaks and chops to Cooper's Tavern. LaFrieda meats are found in over 500 restaurants in and around the New York City area. The burger was topped with onion straws, a portabello mushroom, smoked mozzarella and smoked bacon. It had a steak knife through the middle top of the bun because, quite honestly, you had to cut the thing in half just to eat it.

Here's a picture of Todd (above right), trying his best to take a bite of the huge burger. He said the burger was outstanding. He couldn't eat the whole thing, but he made a serious dent in it. I'm going to try the Skyscraper if I ever get back to Cooper's Tavern.

Nicholas from Focal proclaimed his fish and chips to be "very good". The batter they used on the fish was thick and fluffy. It did look very good and I'm not big on battered fish. But Nicholas said, "I've had great fish and chips in London and across southern England. I'd put this up against any of those, any day." We didn't know at the time that the chef at Cooper's Tavern was English.

You really don't know what you're going to get when you eat at a hotel restaurant. But Cooper's Tavern didn't have the feel of a hotel restaurant, if you catch my drift. The steaks were excellent, the appetizers and salads - including my beef carpaccio salad - were very good, and the atmosphere was wonderful. About the only drawback was the spotty service from Johnny the Greek who literally just up and left us after our food was served. Seriously, he came by and said, "That's it! I'm leaving for the night!" And another guy sort of came over later to give us our bill. But Johnny the Greek was a great guy, very personable and outgoing, offering a number of good suggestions when we ordered. So, we gave him a pass on his level of service. Cooper's Tavern was very good - surprisingly good. But if you're a restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, you have to be very good to survive.

 

 

Weber Grill - Indianapolis

One of the surprises we came across in Indianapolis during the CEDIA Expo was that they now had a Weber Grill restaurant that was about a half a city block from our hotel.  I've written about the Weber Grill restaurants in the Chicago area here, here and here and a couple of my colleagues have since eaten with me at a Weber Grill location.  Of course, they raved about it to others so when the opportunity for us to eat at the one in Indy we gladly signed up. 

For the uninitiated, the Weber Grill restaurants cook their meats and many of their veggies over charcoal on Weber grilles.  That's right, the Weber Grill restaurants are owned by the same Palatine, IL-based manufacturer of the popular backyard cooking apparatus.  Only, these grilles are not like the ones you find in hardware stores or large retailers.  The ones that the Weber Grill restaurants use are industrial 42" models.  You can actually buy consumer grade 42" Weber grills, but I've only seen them for sale at retail at one place - Smoke 'n' Fire in Kansas City, the huge barbecue store that I wrote about here.  And they sell them for $1099.  Now, having a huge Weber grill on my back landing would be awesome, but I'll settle for the two 22" grilles and my Weber "bullet" smoker for now.  

The ones in the Weber Grill restaurants are much more heavy duty with cast iron bowls, heavy duty grates and a large aluminum top.  Since these things get cooked on more in one week than an average Weber grill would get cooked on in 1 year, they need to be heavy duty to be able to handle the constant heat.  I'm sure these things cost much more than $1000 bucks. 

Since CEDIA hadn't been in Indianapolis since 2005 - plus the fact that I just don't get downtown all that often when I go to Indy for business - we had no idea the Weber Grill restaurant existed.  That's because it opened in 2006, the 4th Weber Grill restaurant to be opened.  The original one up in the north Chicago suburb Wheeling - the first experience I'd ever had at a Weber Grill restaurant - closed down a few years ago as the company was trying to change the image of their restaurants from a small family style place to more of an upscale steakhouse, complete with a large lounge/bar area.  The one in Wheeling was deemed too small after they built their second location in west suburban Lombard and they shut it down.  They built the one at the corner of State and Grand in downtown Chicago (the one I go to quite frequently, due to the fact that it's attached to the Hilton Garden Inn - a place I stay at when I'm in downtown Chicago), followed by the one out in Schaumburg, IL near Woodfield Mall.  

We almost didn't go to the Weber Grill restaurant because it was going to be the treat of Jean-Philippe Fontaine, the Export Sales Manager for Focal loudspeakers.  He had heard us talking about Dunaway's restaurant and some of the fine roof-top meals we'd had in the past during our previous visits to Indy.  We initially made reservations for Dunaway's after the last day of the show.  However, in checking with some locals and looking up reviews on line about Dunaway's, my colleague, Ian, and I were beginning to have second thoughts about going there.  It seems that Dunaway's had gone downhill in terms of food and service.  Even my local Indy friend, Steve Somermeyer, who knows more than a thing or two about fine wine and fine dining told me that he and his wife had stopped going to Dunaway's.  That was the clincher for us when he told me that.  The day before, we pulled the plug on our reservation at Dunaway's without having a dining option for a Saturday night in Indianapolis.  

Since there was going to be a number of Europeans in the party - and Europeans love Midwest beef - we decided to see if we could get in at the Weber Grill just north of the corner of Washington and Illinois in downtown Indy (see map).  Since it was the last night of the show, a number of people had already left town so they were able to accommodate our rather large group of 22.  

In the meantime, I had talked to Jason Ressler from Music Direct who was in town for the show.  I told him that we were going to the Weber Grill for dinner the next night and he sort of turned up his nose.  "I went there last night with a buddy," Jason told me.  "It wasn't that good."

He said the service was poor and the food was average, at best.  That gave me a momentary pause and then I asked him what he had.  He said, "I had the ribs (which I've had at a Weber Grill and the ones I had were pretty good), and my buddy had the lamb shank.  He said it was fatty and greasy."    

I said, "Jason, have you ever eaten at a Weber Grill in Chicago?"  He said he hadn't.  I said, "And you live in Chicago?  OK, we have to go to the one downtown some time when I come in.  You don't get lamb shank at a Weber Grill.  And ribs are only ordered when you've literally tried everything else on the menu.  You go to Weber Grill for steaks."

At least I was doing my very best to talk myself into keeping our reservation at Weber Grill.

We had a 7 p.m. reservation that evening, barely giving us enough time to pack up at the convention center, get back to our rooms to shower and change clothes, then meet in the lobby of the hotel for the half block walk down Illinois to the Weber Grill.  Although there were a couple large parties in the place, we figured we'd be able to be seated right away.  Nope.  I know it's a conspiracy with places like the Weber Grill to hold large groups in the lobby or in the bar area to run up a large drink tab before dinner.  Well, I wasn't shy about it.  While everyone else was grousing that we had to wait, I went to Smokey Joe's Bar to get a beer, followed closely by my colleague, Ian, who was dying for a rum and Coke.  I said, "While everyone is standing there bitching about having to wait, I decided to take the initiative and get a drink!"  

"That's what I like about you," Ian said.  "You're a 'take-charge' kind of guy."  We enjoyed our drinks at the bar before others in the party got the hint and came over to get something to wet their whistle before dinner.

When we were finally seated in the dining room after about 30 minutes, we had to use two tables - a large one that accommodated 18, and then four others sat in a booth along the wall.  The decor of the Indy Weber Grill location is rich in dark walnut paneling along the walls and booths.  The heavy wooden chairs at the table are comfortable and sturdy.  And the lighting is subdued, but not so much that it's difficult to read the menu.    

I had pretty much made up my mind even before I entered the restaurant that I was getting steak.  I'd have to say that about 90 percent in our party had pretty much the same idea taking an informal poll before we sat down.  Figuring out what kind of a steak to get would be the difference.  

I ended up ordering the 28 day aged 16 oz. New York strip - rare.  My boss, Daniel, who was seated next to me, got the 28 day aged 22 oz. bone-in ribeye.  And my colleague, John, who to my other side, also got the New York strip.  And everytime I get dinner at a Weber Grill I have to get their outrageously great whipped sweet potatoes with the bourbon maple butter.  The garlic mashed potatoes that come with the steaks are wonderful enough, but I always substitute out the whipped sweet potatoes.  They're orgasmic.  

I didn't bring my phone with me that evening so I wouldn't be tempted to sit there and try to catch up on college football scores and receive the wrath of my boss who flips me shit when I do just that.  So I don't have any pictures of my food.  But I have to say my New York strip was definitely above average that evening.  And the whipped sweet potatoes - oh MAN!  Daniel said that he didn't really like sweet potatoes all that much and I offered him a bite of mine.  "You'll love these," I told him in advance.

He took a bite and his eyes lit up as the whipped sweet potatoes were still in his mouth.  He swallowed and exclaimed, "Wow!  You're right!  Those are wonderful!"   I felt bad for him, however, as his ribeye was full of fat and he was having a tough time negotiating around the marbling to find the succulent pieces of meat.  

Even with a big group the service was above par.  They had two or three people taking care of our table that night and our requests were always met with prompt service.  Our wine glasses were seemingly never empty and we were all having a good time.  It was a great last night of the show.  

I was hesitant to write about the Weber Grill in Indianapolis, mainly because I'd written about the ones in the Chicagoland area in the past.  But it has been five plus years since I wrote about them and this entry is a little more in depth than what I wrote in the past.  I've had a lot of items on the menu at the Weber Grill restaurants, but steak is definitely the king.  It's very difficult to find anything wrong with the food or service at the Weber Grill restaurants and the one in Indianapolis is no exception.     

 

Mastro's Steakhouse - Chicago

Chicago has a number of world class steakhouses, some of the very finest you'll find anywhere.  When I've had people from Focal Loudspeakers who have traveled with me to Chicago, they always want a great steak.  When Focal's export manager, Jean-Philippe Fontaine, met me in Chicago a few weeks ago for a series of meetings, his first request was, "Can we get a steak tonight?"  We stayed downtown at the Hilton Garden Inn in the River North area (my favorite downtown Chicago hotel) and just down the street a block to the west is Mastro's Steakhouse, part of an upscale chain of steakhouses and restaurants based out of Southern California.  

Mastro's Steakhouse actually got their start in Scottsdale, AZ in 1999, but the lineage goes further back.  Dennis Mastro was the owner/proprietor of a popular Scottsdale restaurant called What's Your Beef.  It featured, naturally, steaks on the menu.  In 1991, Dennis Mastro and his son, Michael, opened Maloney's Tavern in Scottsdale.  Maloney's eventually grew to six locations in three states.  The family also started the Marco Polo Supper Club in the Scottsdale area - an upscale international restaurant that featured Chinese and Italian food, as well as imported lamb from New Zealand, seafood and steaks.  

The Mastro's then opened Cocomo Joe's, an American/Mexican food restaurant in the Phoenix area.  Michael Mastro then partnered with Scott Troilo and his father to open the first Mastro's Steakhouse, an upscale place that quickly became a favorite for people in the Valley of the Sun.  They opened their second Mastro's location in Beverly Hills in 2001.  Mastro's City Hall Steakhouse opened soon thereafter in Scottsdale, as did Mastro's Ocean Club, a high end seafood restaurant.  

In 2007, the Mastro's and Troilo sold their Mastro's restaurants to an investment group headed by Mark Levy of Chicago-based Levy Restaurants.  The new company - Mastro's Restaurants LLC based out of Southern California - began to expand with more Mastro's Steakhouses in Southern California and Las Vegas.  The Mastro's Steakhouse in Chicago opened in October 2010 with great fanfare and glowing reviews.  (The Maloney's Tavern locations, as well as the Marco Polo Supper Club restaurants were all shut down not long after Mastro's Restaurants LLC took over majority interest in the Mastro family of restaurants.  Cocomo Joe's is still open, however.)  

It was a hot summer evening when Jean-Philippe and I made the two minute walk down Grand to Dearborn Street and Mastro's (see map).  I had picked him up earlier at O'Hare Airport and I was casually dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a polo shirt.  Jean-Philippe had been in North America for a week and had lost his luggage somewhere between France and Canada.  He had to go buy a couple shirts to help him through his travels until he was able to have his bag catch up to him.  (It was eventually found in Seattle and forwarded back to Montreal.  But he didn't get it in time for his flight from Montreal to Brazil later that week.)  So, we weren't dressed up by any means.  

We went into Mastro's and asked if we could get a table for two.  The hostess said, "We can seat you in the lounge."  I thought it was sort of strange that she didn't offer to take us into the dining room until I saw a number of nicely dressed people in there on our way to the bar area.  I figured that the dining room must have some sort of dress code.  The lounge was nice, but not as elegant as the dining room (pictured right).

Jean-Phillipe and I were seated at a table on the wall opposite the large bar in the lounge.  The lighting was very subdued and I had trouble reading the menu.  Our server for the evening - Mary - greeted us and asked if we'd ever been to Mastro's before.  She proceeded to tell us about the restaurant and what they're famous for - aged steaks, primarily.  

Mary was very pleasant, in her mid-to-late 40's and probably said, "Thank you" more than any one person I've ever been around.  When she handed me the wine list, SHE said, "Thank you", like she was thanking me for taking it from her.  When she brought out a basket of bread and set it on the table, she said, "Thank you."  After each time she conversed with us, she ended it by saying, "Thank you", even when a "thank you" wasn't warranted.  I don't know if she was overly polite or laying it on thick to get a big tip.  

Mastro's in Chicago features a dozen different types of steak on their menu.  They have two sizes of filets, two sizes of bone-in filets, two sizes of Porterhouse steaks (including a "double-cut" 48 oz. Porterhouse), as well as ribeyes and strip steaks.  They also had chicken breasts, pork, lamb and veal chops, and seafood.  They also had an extensive list of appetizers and an equally large list of sides that you can order with your meal.  

The wine list at Mastro's was very impressive and actually rather reasonable.  I was able to find a 2007 Franciscan Cabernet for $54 bucks - pretty damn good for a high-end steakhouse in Chicago, I thought.  

It doesn't matter which European I've ever been around, when they come to America they want steak.  Dominic Baker, the former export manager for Focal, ate steak every night we traveled together about four years ago.  Even at an Italian restaurant in St. Louis, he ordered steak.  And the Europeans like their steak cooked rare.  Jean-Philippe was no exception.  He ordered the bone-in ribeye, a 22 oz. steak.  He also got a salad to tide him over.  

I got the 16 oz. Peppercorn New York Strip, rare.  I got a wedge salad and we ordered a side of Mastro's signature Lobster Mashed Potatoes.  One order was more than enough for both Jean-Philippe and I.  

The wedge salad I had was just outstanding.  Usually, restaurants will use processed bacon bits on their wedge salads.  Mastro's actually had chunks of real bacon on theirs.  The bleu cheese dressing was great and the lettuce was ice cold.  It was one of the best wedge salads I've ever had.  

By the time the steaks came out, I was ready.  I couldn't take a picture of my steak because it was so dark in there and the flash was so bright that it blurred the picture.  But take my word for it - the steak was just outstanding.  It was smothered in cracked black peppercorns and cooked to a perfect rare with a cool red center.  Jean-Philippe attacked his steak like it was his last meal.  He was in ecstasy.  "We just don't get beef like this in France," he said, echoing the exact words I heard from Dominic Baker in his previous trips with me.  

The only average thing about the meal was the lobster mashed potatoes.  They were OK, at best.  I mean, they weren't bad, but they didn't knock my socks off.  I knew I should have gotten the gorgonzola mac and cheese or the wasabi mashed potatoes.   

I had asked Mary if they had any ground horseradish to go with my steak.  She brought out a little bowl of horseradish and cautioned us that it was very hot.  She said, "I believe they call this Atomic Horseradish."  I immediately perked up when I heard that.

I said, "The same Atomic Horseradish that you get out in Las Vegas?"  She said she thought it was, but when I took a taste of it, there was no way it was the real Atomic Horseradish.  It didn't overwhelm me and clear out my sinuses the way Atomic Horseradish will do.  But, still, it went fine with the steaks.

After we finished our meal, Mary came over to tempt us with nearly a dozen different types of desserts they featured at Mastro's.  In addition to creme brulee, key lime pie, pecan pie ala mode, and something called chocolate sin cake, their signature dessert is a butter cake, served warm and drizzled with a sweet frosting.  I about came unglued when I saw that.  But I was so stuffed from the meal that I couldn't eat another thing.  

But during the meal, I was telling Jean-Phillipe about Templeton Rye, the Iowa-based rye whiskey that has become overly popular and hard to find.  I asked him if he wanted an after dinner scotch and he said, "Do you think this place would have that rye whiskey you talk about?"  We asked Mary and she said that they did, indeed, serve Templeton Rye at Mastro's.  Jean-Philippe suggested we retire to the bar proper for a Templeton Rye.     

The bar at Mastro's was well-stocked with liquors of all types.  It was also well-lit with a back light that offered a colorful kaleidoscope of lighting at the bar.  We both ordered a Templeton Rye, but when the bartender went to pour from the bottle there was - maybe - a little less than 2 oz. left in the bottle.  He poured a couple out for us into a glass - I took mine with a little ice.  Another bartender took off to the basement to fetch another bottle of Templeton Rye.  He came back about five minutes later and said, "Man, I was sweatin' this out.  I couldn't find any more, until I looked behind a couple other bottles.  This is the last one we have."  This time, the bartender gave us both a healthy shot of T-Rye.

Jean-Philippe loved the Templeton Rye.  He said, "My family were wine makers in France and this has a lot of the similar foundations.  It's somewhat earthy and very full in the taste."  He immediately understood why it was tough to get because it tasted so good.  I told him that I'd gind a bottle of Templeton Rye and bring it to Indianapolis for the annual CEDIA Expo in early September.  (I was able to find multiple places in the Chicagoland region that had Templeton Rye and not only did I get a bottle to take to Indy with me, but I also stocked up on T-Rye to make sure I had a good backstock going into the fall and winter months.)

 Everything I'd read and heard about Mastro's Steakhouse was that it was one of the finest steakhouses in Chicago.  After eating there, I can certainly attest to that.  The steaks were killer, the wedge salad I had was outstanding, and even though the lobster mashed potatoes weren't eye-poppingly great, they were still pretty good.  I certainly couldn't bitch about the price of a bottle of the Franciscan Cabernet, either.  The only thing that sort of took me aback was the price of two Templeton Rye's after dinner - $18 bucks each.  Ouch!   (But, then again, we had the first one one the house since it was the end of the bottle.)  Thankfully, Jean Philippe paid for the drinks after I picked up the check for dinner which was over $200 bucks after a nice tip for the overly polite Mary.  But in many ways it was worth it.  I can't recommend Mastro's enough for a high-end dining experience on a trip to Chicago when you want to splurge on a meal.  

The Stock-Yard Restaurant - Nashville, TN

On our final night in Nashville, Brian from Lauten Audio was going to take my colleague, Ian, and me out for another dinner.  After looking up the name of the place he was proposing - Wild Bill's Cajun Cafe - we found that most of the food was deep friend Southern-style food.  I don't like to go hog wild with deep fried food and it appeared that nearly everything on the menu was deep fried.  Ian made an executive decision and said, "You know, Brian took us out the last couple of nights.  We should take him out tonight."  And Ian knew exactly where he wanted to go - the Stock-Yard Restaurant, an elegant steak house north of the downtown area of Nashville.

Ian had eaten at the Stock-Yard in the past and said it was well above average for steaks.  Well, this would be the fourth night in a row that I was having steak and I was getting a tad burned out on eating more beef.  But Ian assured me that this would be on par or even above Merchants Restaurant or The Capitol Grill, two of the previous steak houses that we'd eaten at that week.  

The Stock-Yard Restaurant is located in what was the old stockyard area of Nashville (see map).  The building the restaurant is housed in opened in 1924 as the main office for the Nashville stockyards.  The ornate building featured Italian marble and cherry wood in the main entrance area - the same as it is today.  The Nashville stockyards was the main distribution point for cattle, sheep, hogs, horses and mules for most of Tennessee, Northern Alabama and Southern Kentucky.  Cattlemen and pig farmers would come to the stockyards to sell their stock, but the main building for the stockyards was a luxurious destination for those men, as well.  The main floor featured a saloon, a barber shop, a private gambling club, as well as a bank and a Western Union office.  Offices were on the second floor of the restaurant, while the lower level was the area where farm animals were auctioned off.  

For fifty years, the Nashville stockyards were an important cog in moving cattle and hogs in the Southeast.  But as transportation and distribution hubs improved in the second part of the century, it became apparent that the Nashville stockyards were no longer needed.  The stockyards eventually closed in 1974.

In 1979, the building reopened as a beautiful restaurant under the ownership of William D. "Buddy" Killen.  If you're familiar with the music scene in Nashville in the 50's, 60's and 70's, there's a good chance you've heard the name of Buddy Killen.  I had not and I was somewhat surprised to find out that he was a famous music publisher, songwriter, producer and musician who had worked with performers such as Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Roger Miller and Joe Tex.  

Buddy Killen started out playing bass in a comedic group at the Grand Ole Opry.  He worked as a session musician and songwriter in the 50's.  He became involved with Tree Publishing which published songs that became country classics such as "Green Green Grass of Home", "Dang Me" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E".  One other famous song that Tree Publishing published was "Heartbreak Hotel" which, of course, became a platinum selling hit for Elvis Presley.  Killen was solely responsible for bringing that song to Tree Publishing. 

Killen eventually became the owner of Tree Publishing in the 70's, growing it into the largest publishing house in the world with 13 offices worldwide.  Sony/CBS bought out Tree Publishing in 1989 and Killen started a new company - The Killen Music Group - that published and recorded a diverse list of musical acts from country to rap to contemporary Christian music.  Unfortunately, Killen died in 2006 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 73. 

 Killen's vision for the Stock-Yard Restaurant was to bring back some of the old time flair to Nashville.  Killen used three levels of the restaurant for dining areas and brought back the old time bar area.  The old shops on the main floor became dining rooms.  The offices on the upper floor became large banquet rooms (pictured right) and the lower level where the auctions were held became private dining and banquet areas.  A few years before Killen passed away, he sold his interest in the Stock-Yard to Charles Patel.

Being that the Stock-Yard Restaurant is only about a block away from the Cumberland River, the bottom level suffered severe damage during the great Nashville Flood of 2010.  We were told the downstairs area is still not fully cleaned up and renovated yet, but they hoped to have it reopened by the end of the summer.    

One of the great things about the Stock-Yard restaurant is that they offer free shuttle service between the restaurant and downtown hotels.  Ian said that he had taken advantage of that in the past and suggested we do the same.  I called over to the restaurant and made reservations for three at 6:30 that evening with a shuttle van to come pick us up at our hotel at 6:15.  Brian met us at the hotel and we hopped in a Stock-Yard van for a short ride to the restaurant.  Ample parking is available around the restaurant if you wish to drive, but having a van come to our hotel to pick us up and take us back was too good to pass up.

After checking in with the hostess at the front, we were taken down a long hallway on the main floor to a dining room back in the southwest corner of the building.  The room we were in was probably an office of some sort years ago as it only had room for about five tables with four chairs each.  Two other parties were in the room dining at the same time.   

Our waiter came to the table to drop off menus and to introduce himself.  For some reason, I could have sworn he said his name was Isaac, but according to the name on the bill, his name was Steven.  Either way, Isaac/Steven was the guy who was going to take care of us that night.  

Steak rules the menu at the Stock-Yard Restaurant.  They specially cut their steaks, age them, then cook them over hickory charcoal for that great flavor.  They had 11 different types of steaks to choose from on the menu (12, if you count the special they had that evening - a 16 oz. barrel cut filet).  The restaurant also features a number of seafood entrees as well as chicken dishes and pork chops.  

Ian looked through the extensive wine list and found a nice French wine that he thought we'd like.  He ordered that up from Isaac, I mean, Steven, and then we were ready to order dinner.

I had been looking hard at the Filet Mignon au Poivre - a 10 oz. filet rolled in peppercorns and topped with a  creamy madeira sauce infused with mushrooms.  I asked Steven if there was a way that I could get the madeira/mushroom sauce with the 16 oz. barrel cut special they had that night.  He said, "Absolutely, sir!"  I ordered that rare.  

Well, that got Ian thinking, as well.  He said, "I'm intrigued by this barrel cut steak, too.  What exactly is a barrel cut?"

Steven explained that it was a nearly round cut that they have from the tenderloin, taking most of the outer layer off the meat to make it look like a little barrel of steak.  They had a 10 oz. barrel cut on the menu, but the 16 oz. was the special that evening.  Ian ordered that with the au Poivre sauce and got his medium-rare.  

Not to upset the apple cart, Brian also ordered the 16 oz. barrel cut with the au Poivre sauce.  "Not to be a copy cat, guys," he apologized.  "But that just sounds damn good!"  

For starters, we ordered some of the calamari and an order of escargot in a garlic butter sauce with homemade croutons.  I wanted a salad with that, so I ordered the iceberg wedge salad.  Ian ordered up a Caesar Salad and Brian passed on the greens, concentrating only on the seafood appetizers.  A number of large sides are available with the dinners including mac and cheese, sauteed mushrooms, 1 lb. loaded baked potatoes (that could probably feed three people), creamy spinach with crispy shallots, and asparagus with a hollandaise sauce.  We settled on two sides - the sauteed green beans with red peppers, and their famous five cheese potatoes au gratin.  We were set.  

The appetizers came out and the escargot was extraordinarily great.  The butter garlic sauce was just so sinfully good that I was taking some of the homemade bread that Steven brought to the table and was soaking up the sauce from the serving bowl.  The calamari was excellent, as well.  I usually like to dip my calamari in some marinara sauce, but it was so good on its own that it didn't need anything to go with it.

My iceberg wedge came out next.  It was a large wedge of lettuce topped with large chunks of hickory smoked bacon, and a creamy bleu cheese dressing with large chunks of bleu cheese.  It was also excellent.  

By now, you've probably noticed that I don't have any pictures of the food.  The room was very dark and the only way that I could get a shot of the food was if I used my flash on my camera phone.  The only problem was that it was too bright for good shots, and it disturbed people sitting around us.  I thought I'd just do my best in trying to describe what I was eating that evening.  

After a bit, our steaks came to the table.  The steaks were coated with a thick layer of cracked black peppercorns and swimming in the creamy madeira sauce with large chunks of fresh mushrooms.  Now I wish I would have gotten a picture of my steak because it looked great.  And it tasted even better.  The center of my steak was a cool red and tender as all get out.  The peppercorns gave the steak a nice zippy taste and the sauce and mushrooms were an excellent taste combo with the beef.  It was just an excellent, excellent steak.

I also have to say the sides were very good, too.  I like sauteed green beans and the ones at the Stock-Yard Restaurant were top notch.  They were fully cooked, yet still had that little "snap" to them when you bit in.  And the 5 cheese potatoes au gratin - oh man!  Those things were so great, but - oh! - so rich.  I could only eat a couple bites of the potatoes or I would have blown up.  

I didn't think that I could eat another bite until Steven showed up with the dessert tray.  I about got up and punched him.  Between the appetizers, the wedge salad, the 16 oz. steak WITH the madeira sauce and mushrooms, and the bites of the green beans and the potatoes au gratin, I was stuffed.  However, Ian kept hounding me, knowing my penchant for a good Key Lime pie.  He kept egging me on and I kept saying, "No!"  Finally, he ordered a piece of the Key Lime pie fully knowing that I'd have a couple bites, and a piece of the Southern pecan pie.  Brian wanted the pecan pie more than the Key Lime slice.  And since it was still rather early - around 8:30 - I ordered an espresso, something I rarely get.  I don't drink coffee or many caffeinated beverages any longer, but I do like an espresso or cappuccino from time to time after a good meal.  But if its too late it keeps me up from the caffeine buzz.

I did have a couple bites of the Key Lime pie and it was, also, very good.  And, of course, very rich.  I just wanted to stop and burst on the spot.  

When we were finished with the meal, Steven arranged for transportation back to our hotel.  We were talking with the driver on the way back and I asked him about the free transportation the Stock-Yard provides.  He said, "We started doing it a few years ago when some of the big name national steak houses (Morton's, Ruth's Chris, The Palm) came to town.  They are all downtown and it's sort of a walk from there to here.  So we provide the free shuttle service.  It really helps our business."   

Ian remarked, "Yeah, and you can drink a lot and not have to worry about driving."

The shuttle driver exclaimed, "That, too!  I seem to take a lot of drunk people back to the hotels after dinner."  

We ate at some very fine steak houses during our time in Nashville and it would be difficult to say which one of the three good ones were the best out of Merchants, The Capitol Grill or the Stock-Yard Restaurant.  Each had excellent food.  They all had great wine lists.  The service was top notch.  But for some reason, I liked the Stock-Yard the best for the overall quality of appetizers, salad and steaks.  The service was also top-notch.  It was off the beaten path, but was a great find on Ian's part.  I don't know when we'll be back to Nashville, but if we're there for more than a couple days, the Stock-Yard has to be high on the list to return to.  (Photo courtesy of infousa.com) 

Capitol Grill - Nashville, TN

During my trip to Nashville for the 2011 Summer NAMM show, my colleague, Ian, and I were invited to dinner by Brian Loudenslager, the founder and president of Lauten Audio, makers of high quality microphones for the professional music industry. Brian picked out the place and it was a good one - the Capitol Grill inside the historic and prestigious Hermitage Hotel in downtown Nashville (see map).

When I found out we were going to eat at the Capitol Grill, I immediately looked up the restaurant on the Internet. Not seeing the subtle difference in spelling (Capitol versus Capital) I went to the web site for the Capital Grille chain of upscale steakhouses. I had never been to a Capital Grille restaurant and I was sort of excited to finally eat at one. However, when I was trying to find the Nashville location on their web site, I was surprised to see that it was not listed. That's when I figured out that the Capitol Grill in Nashville is not connected with the Capital Grille chain.

The Capitol Grill in Nashville takes its name from the state capitol building in Nashville, located just a stone's throw from the restaurant. The Hermitage Hotel, which houses, the Capitol Grill, is one of the finest hotels in the south. First opened in 1910, the Hermitage has hosted politicians, famous actors, and the elite of the country music scene over the past 100 years. By the late 1990's, however, the hotel was tired and in need of some TLC. In 2000, a group calling themselves Historic Hotels of Nashville bought the property and went head to toe in redesigning and updating rooms and the other amenities of the hotel. Gone was the old Hermitage Grill and in came the Capitol Grill. They also updated the bar area of the place - simply called the Oak Bar. In 2003, the Hermitage reopened and it was soon awarded five stars by both AAA and Forbes Travel Guide for the comfort, technology and luxury each room offers.

Tyler Brown (left) is the executive chef at the Capitol Grill. His nickname is "Farmer Brown" as he uses a number of locally grown, farm fresh foods and ingredients in his work. Brown is a 1997 magna cum laude graduate from Johnson and Wales University's School of Culinary Arts in Charleston, SC. His first job was at the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC, before moving on to the Fearrington House in Chapel Hill, NC. He then became a partner and executive chef at Southern Comforts BBQ and Soul, an upscale comfort food restaurant in Charlotte, NC.

After the Capitol Grill opened in 2003, he was named the chef de cuisine at the restaurant working under the nationally recognized chef Sean Brock. Brock was the executive chef at the Peninsula Grill and hired Brown directly out of school. Brock stuck around for three years at the Capitol Grill before moving on to become the executive chef at the newly renovated McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston, SC, leaving the Capitol Grill in Tyler Brown's capable hands.

The Capitol Grill does have a sister restaurant out in Cheyenne, Wyoming, of all places. The Cheyenne Capitol Grill is located in the historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne. Similar to its Nashville location, the Capitol Grill in Cheyenne specializes in what they call Western High Style cuisine with many of the foods on the menu locally grown. It's easily one of the finest restaurants in the whole state of Wyoming.

We met Brian in the outer lobby of the Hermitage Hotel around 7:30 and walked down a flight of stairs into the spacious dining room of the Capitol Grill. We were seating at a table toward the back corner, not far from the kitchen. The dining room was elegant with soft lighting from sconces and antique lamps. The chair backs were a woven pattern and rich to the touch. Small lamps sat a top the sturdy tables covered with thick white tablecloths. I was immediately impressed with the place and knew it wouldn't be a cheap meal.

We were given menus and Ian took a gander at the extensive wine list the Capitol Grill has to offer. Many of the vegetables the restaurant has to offer comes from the Farm at Glen Leven, a historic site that is maintained by the Land Trust for Tennessee. In 2010, the Land Trust allowed Tyler Brown to use some of the land as a garden growing heirloom tomatoes, potatoes (lots of potatoes!), squash, watermelon and other food items that he uses in his kitchen at the Capitol Grill. Brown even maintains much of the growing plants at the farm and will expand the land use for honey bees and has just begun to raise cattle at the farm for his own fresh beef.

While the menu isn't extensive, it is interesting with a handful of items such as roasted chicken and roasted domestic lamb, a grouper fish with something called butterbean chow chow and cucumber dashi on the side, as well as a vegetarian plate that featured Glen Leven-raised veggies with artichokes covered in a curry emulsion. Of course, there were steaks on the menu and that's sort of what all three of us were looking at getting.

Ian is much better versed in French and Italian wines than I and he picked out a bottle of the French Cote de Nuits Villages burgundy. Actually, that is one of the few French wines I'm somewhat familiar with and it is very good.

Each of us ended up getting a steak - I got the Painted Hills ribeye. It's a 16 oz. cut of naturally grown beef from Oregon. Of course, I ordered mine rare. Brian got the 10 oz. Painted Hills filet and Ian got the ribeye. The sides at the Capitol Grill come family style so more than one person can enjoy them. We ordered some of the truffles with mac and cheese, peas and cornbread, and fingerling potatoes confit to go with our meals.

For starters, Brian and I both got the Hunter's Plate - a mix of smoked and pickled foods including meats and vegetables. Ian, as always, got the Caesar Salad.

Before our food began to show up, I excused myself and went to the men's restroom. On the outside of the restroom, there was this plaque (pictured below) that touted the men's room as being rather unique. During the renovation at the hotel in 2003, the men's room was remodeled to be nearly the same as it was back in the 1930's.

Inside, the black and green color scheme accented the decor with art deco lighting and fixtures in the bathroom. Women are encouraged to take a look inside the men's room and as I was washing my hands after using the facilities, a man with a thick German accent yelled in the door, " 'allo? Anybody in zere?" I let him know that I was in there and he came in and said, "You donze mind if I bringz my vife in zere, do you? I vantz to getz a picturez of herz in ze menz roomz."

I said, "As long as I can get a picture of her, too."

He said, "No, go rightz aheadz!" So, that's the picture of the German guys wife in the men's room at the Hermitage Hotel above right.

The men's room was named the best public restroom in the nation in a poll conducted by USA Today in 2008. Actually, it was kind of nice.

Ian's salad and Brian's and my Hunter's Plate come out to the table not long after I returned. The Hunter's Plate had a mix of ham's, prosciutto and salami, along with small containers of pickled vegetable confit and some lettuce greens on the side with some pickled onions on top. Grilled homemade bread came with the plate and I have to say that it was very good. It was light, yet had a great taste to the smoked and cured meats. Brian was more than impressed with the Hunter's Plate. "It's like they just took the meat out of the smokehouse," he said.

Time marched on into the night after we finished our first courses. Not knowing Brian very well (we met for the first time that evening) and trying to learn about his product made the time pass rather easily. But after awhile, we noticed that it was getting close to 9 p.m. and our steaks had not shown up. It wasn't long after that that our waiter came up and apologized for the delay in our meals. A couple large parties where in the restaurant (including a large table of loud and somewhat obnoxious women seated not far from our table) and they were getting behind in the kitchen. We told them that we understood, but that we were getting pretty hungry.

Our food finally made it to the table and this is my ribeye served in a small cast iron dish. A cream sauce was on top and it was laying in it's own juices. From the first bite, I was in ecstasy. The steak was juicy, tender and overly flavorful. It was cooked exactly as I wanted, red rare. It was a large steak that had a lot of marbling in it, so the taste was exquisite.

Brian and Ian were both impressed with their steaks. Brain's filet was literally falling apart with each stroke of his knife. Ian said that his steak was even better than the ribeye he got at Merchants Restaurant the night before. "And that was a great steak at Merchants, too" Ian exclaimed.

The sides were also very good. I did get a hint of a truffle taste with the truffle, mac and cheese. I'm not big on peas or cornbread, but it's a good Southern dish that Brian wanted to try. He said the bread were wonderful and the peas were cooked perfectly. I tried a couple three bites of the fingerling potatoes confit - basically mashed potatoes. And they were pretty good, as well. The truffles with mac and cheese was a big hit at the table.

After we finished our meal, the restaurants manager, a very petite young lady named Hannah, came by to apologize for the delay in our meal. She offered each of us free dessert and coffee, but I was so stuffed from the huge steak that there was no way I could eat anything else. Brian and Ian were in the same boat and we declined her offer. When the bill was brought out, Brian picked it up and Hannah came over to explain that she had directed our waiter to take 15% off the price of the meal for being so late in coming to the table. That was a generous token on her part for something that really didn't detract from the meal.

The Capitol Grill isn't overly cheap, but if you want to get a great meal in a great setting with great service in Nashville, it's going to be tough to find a place finer. Just going for a drink at the Oak Bar and then stealing a quick look at the men's room would still be enough for most people to try. The Capitol Grill was one of the finest dining experiences I've enjoyed over the past few years.

Merchants Restaurant - Nashville, TN

During my trip to Nashville for the 2011 Summer NAMM show, my colleague, Ian, and I found a pretty good place to eat in downtown Nashville on the touristy Broadway St. called Merchants Restaurant.  We went there for dinner after doing a little driving around the greater Nashville area earlier in the day.

The Merchants Restaurant is housed in a building that dates back to just after the Civil War.  In 1892, what was once a pharmacy on the street level, a hardware manufacturer on the second level and a wholesale drug distributor on the third floor, the Merchants Hotel came into being.  Each room was 25 cents and with the European plan you could also get a meal for a quarter.  Over the years with it's close proximity to the Ryman Auditorium and the honky tonks up and down Broadway, the Merchants Hotel became the place for country music's elite to stay when they were in town.

Once the Grand Ole Opry moved out to Opryland in the 70's, the area up and down Broadway became rather seedy with strip bars replacing the old honky tonks.  The Merchants Hotel became just as seedy, becoming a flop house hotel and a front for downtown prostitution.  When the city of Nashville moved to shut down the adult clubs and take back Broadway as a tourist destination in the mid-80's, Merchants reopened as a restaurant.  As Nashville began to grow again in the 90's and professional sports began to come to town, more upscale restaurants came into town pushing Merchants into the afterthought category for fine dining in town.  After floundering for nearly a decade, two brothers who grew up in Nashville, Max and Ben Goldberg, bought the Merchants Restaurant in April of 2010 and gave it a clear vision path of what it is today.  

The Goldbergs are no strangers to the restaurant and hospitality industry.  They already had created and oversaw some of the better niche restaurants and bars in the greater Nashville area such as Aerial, Patterson House and the somewhat kitschy Southern-fried food outlet named Paradise Park Trailer Resort.  As their executive chef at Merchants, they brought in Clayton Rollison who previously was the sous chef at the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage hotel, and before that had worked at Gramercy Tavern in New York City after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America.    

The first floor of Merchants Restaurant is more of a bistro with black and white tiled floors, waiters in bow-ties and suspenders and sort of a quasi-art deco theme to the place (below left).  It's a little more rowdy and loud in the main floor part of Merchants, sort of like the people that are walking by on Broadway.

The second floor is the fine dining area where there's dark green wall paper, dark wood paneling, subdued lighting and the waiters are all in suspenders and long ties.  The downstairs menu is different from the upstairs menu. Downstairs in the bistro, Merchants features sandwiches, burgers, appetizers, salads and basic entrees such as pan roasted chicken, fish tacos, smoked brisket and rainbow trout.  Upstairs, it gets more eclectic with sockeye salmon, a low country shrimp platter, a rack of pork and various types of aged steaks.  

 It was less than a 10 minute walk from our hotel straight down 4th Street to the corner of Broadway (see map).  Lower Broadway is now this huge tourist and entertainment district, similar to Beale Street in Memphis.  It features restaurants, bars, honky tonks, tourist traps and most anything that you'd find that has to do with country music.  This was the first and only time I was on Lower Broadway during our trip to Nashville.  

We got into the restaurant and went to the servers stand toward the back of the bistro, in a lobby area with an elevator and a wonderful winding staircase.  I had made reservations for us at 8 p.m., but it was evident that we probably didn't need them as some people were coming in and getting seated upstairs right away.  We waited in the lobby area for about 10 minutes while they got our table fixed up.  

When we were taken upstairs via the elevator we were asked if we wanted a table near the windows or one in the middle of the dining area.  Considering the tables near the windows were smaller - and that the shades were drawn - we opted for one of the larger tables in the middle of the room.  Our waiter, Porter, came over to greet us and he had a helper in tow with him most of the evening.  We knew the service was going to be very good.

I started out with a beer to wet my whistle and I asked Porter if they had Sweetwater 420, the great pale ale from Atlanta. (I had found a liquor store in Nashville earlier in the day that had Sweetwater 420 and I thought some of the bars or restaurants would have it, as well.)  He said he did not, but they had a local pale ale - Yazoo Pale Ale - on tap.  I decided to give that a try and it was pretty good.  Ian took a glass of the Oak Knoll cabernet for his initial drink. 

Because Merchants has a number of different steaks to choose from, I didn't even consider getting anything else that evening.  Ian was pretty much thinking along the same lines.  They featured natural raised beef from farms in Kansas and Oregon, as well as good ol' Angus beef including a 14 oz. New York Strip and a 16 oz. Delmonico ribeye, both of which were aged for 28 days.  It didn't take Ian and I very long to figure out what we wanted - he took the ribeye, I got the strip.  

Some interesting sides are available at Merchants.  Sweet potato hash was on the menu, as were duck fat fries.  There was poached asparagus in a truffle cream sauce, as well as gnocchi mac and cheese.  I went with the sweet potato hash for my side and Ian got the duck fat fries.  For a starter, I got the iceberg wedge salad and Ian went with their Caesar salad.   

Porter brought out our salads and I had him put a lot of ground black pepper on my iceberg wedge.  I usually joke with wait staff people that I like a lot of pepper on my food and that they'll end up getting carpal tunnel from twisting so much pepper out of the pepper cellar.  After I stopped him, he said, "Boy, you DO like a lot of pepper!  I ought to just leave this thing at the table."

My wedge salad was outstanding.  It had fresh chunks of tomatoes, real bacon and chunks of avocado that were swimming in a creamy buttermilk/bleu cheese dressing.  It wasn't all that large, but the taste sensation was excellent.  Ian proclaimed his Caesar salad as being very good, as well.     

Just before Porter brought out our steaks, I had ordered a glass of the Kenwood cabernet from him.  Ian got another glass of the Oak Knoll.  Porter's assistant brought out our glasses of wine, then for some reason, Porter brought Ian out ANOTHER glass of wine.  He sort of stopped and said, "Oh, boy.  I messed that one up.  I thought he was getting the Kenwood for you (looking at me), and I was going to get the Oak Knoll for you (looking at Ian).  I guess he got them both.  Oh well, I'll leave this one for you and if you want it, fine.  It's on the house."  

Ian said, "I doubt it will go to waste..."  

Porter and his helper brought out our steaks and the presentation looked delectable.  My New York strip (below left) was sitting on a small bed of the sweet potato hash.  The steak was covered with a demi-glace sauce that was light, but had a good flavor with the meat.  The steak was cooked perfectly to my liking - rare to rare plus - but the cut had a far amount of gristle in it.  I'd say that about 20 percent of it was inedible due to the gristle.  That's not to say the steak wasn't outstanding, because it was.  I've had enough steaks to know that you get a gristly one from time to time, even at the finest restaurants.

The sweet potato hash was pretty pedestrian, I'd have to say.  There wasn't much flavor to them and they just sort of sat there in dull fashion on my plate.  The steak definitely trumped the side.  Now I wish I would have gotten some other side instead of the sweet potato hash.   

Ian's Delmonico ribeye (above right) was a full 16 ounces and literally eclipsed the duck fat fries that it sat upon.   He likes his medium rare and he was happy with how it turned out.  It was obviously juicy when he would cut into it.  He said it was tender and very flavorful.  "A good piece of meat," Ian observed.  

After dinner, Porter tried to entice us with Merchants dessert tray.  Although the desserts looked tempting, there was no way that I was going to be able to have anything else that evening.  I was full and looking to wind down for the evening.  

Merchants Restaurant went through some hard times, but the Goldberg brothers have turned it into something special.  They're doing their best to make it a destination for not only the tourists, but to bring back some of the locals who have gotten away from the downtown area for being too touristy.  If the food and service is any indication, Nashville has a gem of a restaurant in Merchants.    

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.

Delaney's Charcoal Steaks - Madison, WI

I had an evening training session for one of my dealers in Madison one evening earlier this spring and I told them I'd take them out for dinner.  They know that I'll eat at a national chain as a last resort and like to gravitate toward places that locally unique.  We were trying to figure out where to eat that was close by for all of us and someone suggested a steak house up the road a bit called Delaney's Charcoal Steaks.  I said, "Yeah, steak sounds good.  I haven't had a good steak on the road for quite a while."  So, it was off to Delaney's for dinner.

We pulled off of S. Gammon Road on the west side of Madison and onto Odana Rd.  My dealer was driving and I said, "I used to stay at that hotel right over there when it was a Hampton Inn."  Instead of turning right to go into the hotel, he took a left and just down the street was Delaney's Charcoal Steaks. (see map)  I was incredulous.  "I stayed at that place over there for six years before they built the new Hampton Inn up the road and I never knew it was over here," I told the guys.  "I could have walked from the hotel to this place!"

The official name of the restaurant is actually JIM Delaney's Charcoal Steaks, named after the founder of the place.  Jim Delaney was a former Marine Corp officer and a service station manager when he saw an opportunity to open his own restaurant in a strip mall on Odana Road just around the corner from the present day location of the steak house that bears his name.  A number of people cautioned Delaney saying that a fine dining establishment wouldn't work outside of the downtown Madison area, but he went through with his plans and opened his steak house in 1973.  Delaney was the "jack of all trades" at the restaurant, wearing the hat of maintenance man, bookkeeper, waiter, bus boy and other jobs around the restaurant.  However, unlike most restaurant owners, Delaney never pretended he was in charge of the kitchen.  He knew good steaks and hired good cooks to work in his restaurant.

After a number of years in business, Delaney moved the restaurant to a larger location on Grand Canyon Drive, nestled back on a side street that you obviously had to know was there.  Delaney felt that the quality of the food and the service at his restaurant would attract people no matter where it was. 

Unfortunately, Jim Delaney died earlier this year at the age of 71.  His son, Daniel, is the long-time manager of Delaney's Charcoal Steaks and continues to run the business today.

The interior of Delaney's immediately reminded me of a rural supper club, the kind found all over Central and Northern Wisconsin.  There was a large bar area off to the left as you come in with a large rectangular bar with a center liquor island taking up a good slice of the real estate of the room.  I immediately saw myself sitting at the bar at some point enjoying a meal.

There were three of us that evening - the other salesperson had to go home to attend to a sick wife - and we were seated in a smallish dining room.  Delaney's appeared to have a number of little dining rooms in the place and not one large dining area.  Well, except for the bar.  Our host gave us menus and we ordered up some drinks to tide us over. 

We were tag-teamed that evening by two well-dressed waiters who were very attentive to our needs all evening long.  I was sort of confused how to tip them at the end of the evening as I didn't know if I should add a little extra for both guys.  I think I ended up tipping about 20% and let them fight over it.  

Delaney's Charcoal Steaks also had a pretty nice little wine list that featured a number of wines I was familiar with.  They had a 2006 Whitehall Lane cabernet that I've had in the past for $50 bucks a bottle, a little expensive compared to other places I've seen it, but still a good wine to have with steaks.  I offered to get some wine, but my two guests were content with beer and a rum and Coke, respectively, for their dinner.  Delaney's did offer a handful of wines by the glass and I figured I could just get a glass with my meal if I needed it. 

For beer, I had an American pale ale from the Lake Louie Brewery located in Arena, WI.  I've seen this beer when I've gone beer hunting at liquor stores in the greater Madison area, but had never tried it before.  The guest who ordered the beer was telling me about it and I thought I'd give it a try.  It was more of a malty taste for a pale ale, not quite as hoppy as I'm used to.  But it was still smooth and it drank well.  

Naturally, steaks rule the menu at Delaney's.  But they also feature pork chops, grilled chicken and seafood, as well.  The onion rings are famous throughout South Central Wisconsin and we got an order of those as an appetizer before we ordered up our main meal.  And they were great - a light, beer batter over sweet onion slices.  I can see why they're so famous in the area. 

The special that evening was an apple-wood smoked bacon-wrapped filet.  That sounded good, but I was leaning toward just a straight filet.  They had three sizes - 6 oz., 8 oz. and 12 oz.  The 12 oz. was a little pricey - $38 bucks.  I ended up ordering the 8 oz. filet, rare.  For a couple bucks more, I had it prepared au poivre style with a cognac and pepper cream sauce on top.  I got a side of their garlic mashed potatoes to go along with my steak.  A salad came with the meal and I got their homemade oil and vinegar with blue cheese crumbles on top.  It was a very good salad. 

One of my guests got the special that evening along with a side of mushrooms and onions, while the other guy got the 16 oz bone-in rib eye steak.  He got a baked potato with the works as his side.  I decided that I liked the Lake Louie beer and decided to stick with that instead of going with a glass of wine.

Our steaks came to the table and the presentation was very nice.  My steak was exactly has I like it - a red, cool middle with a nice charred crust around the outside.  The au poivre sauce was a wonderful compliment to the taste of the steak.  The peppercorn chunks with the cognac cream sauce gave the steak a little bite to the taste. The garlic mashed potatoes were OK, not very garlicky, but that's OK, I was much more interested in my steak. 

My guests also said their steaks were very good.  One of my guests said, "It's been a few years since I was last here.  It's just as good today as it was then.  But then again, this place has always been very good." 

We thought about having an after dinner drink after we finished, but decided against it.  After I paid the bill and we were walking out, I looked into the bar area and I was just mesmerized by the wonderful step-up bar.  I said, "You know what, I really wouldn't mind getting a drink at the bar, after all."  Delaney's had a small list of good Scotch's and we each had one - I had the Oban 14 year single malt which was smooth, earthy and smoky.  Well, I had a couple.  We got to talking about business, proposed expansion of their building and ended up talking about some of the great supper clubs these guys had encountered over the years when they vacationed up north.  It was a really fun evening with these guys. 

A lot of people think that Smoky's Club is the best steak house in Madison.  We were sort of talking about that and my guests were sort of perplexed as to how that could be.  "I've always thought this was much better than Smoky's," one of the guys said.  I told them about my experience at my one and only visit - ever - Smoky's (you can read about that disappointing meal by clicking here).  The service at Delaney's was much better than Smoky's Club and the steak was much better, as well.

Delaney's Charcoal Steaks is sort of tough to find, but I can see why a lot of the locals love the place.  There are a couple good to great steak places in Madison, and Delaney's is one of them.  It was just excellent and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

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.

Stack - Las Vegas

After a long day of tearing down suites and booths and packing equipment back into boxes at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, we usually all get together and have a nice meal to celebrate the end of another show.  However, since we were effectively showing in three different places, things got a little disjointed on Sunday evening as we were split up into two groups - one group at the Convention Center, the other at the Venetian.  I was with the Convention Center group which included my boss, Daniel, and two of my Montreal colleagues, Simon and Michel.   We finished packing up by 7:30 and made it back to the Mirage around 8 p.m. and decided to stop for dinner at Stack restaurant and bar. 

Stack is part of the Light Group organization that oversees a number of restaurants and night clubs in the Las Vegas area.  They also oversee two pool/lounges including Bare - the European-style private pool area at The Mirage.   Yes, the name says it all - nude sunbathing is allowed at this place.  Brian Massie is the Executive Chef for Stack (as well as some of the other restaurants) and the menu consists of an eclectic mix of American-style bistro favorites such as steaks, chicken and lamb chops.  But it also features a number of Pan-Asian specialties such as miso black cod fish in lettuce cups, yellowtail sashimi and ahi tuna tartare.  A number of items on the menu are available to share, as well.

Stack is not the kind of place where a guy in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans is made to feel comfortable in.  Unfortunately, after a full day of tearing down and packing up, I was in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.  And doubly unfortunate for me, I didn't have my room key on me - my colleague John had it over at the Venetian as they were finishing up over there.  He had it from earlier in the day to let in the freight guys to pick equipment up at the Mirage suite while I went over to the Convention Center to help over there.  So I couldn't go up and change into a better shirt and a sweater for dinner.  Simon and Michel were able to do so - Daniel was already dressed in a nicer shirt.  As Simon and Michel were upstairs changing, Daniel and I sat at the bar and ordered a couple drinks while we waited for our table. 

 
The decor at Stack is unique in that the woodwork is very sleek and contemporary in its look.  The wooden walls form a sort of cave-like feeling to the place.  It was very chic and very modernistic.  By the time Simon and Michel wandered back in, we had time for a couple more beers before we were escorted to our table near the center of the restaurant. 

The one thing we noticed about Stack as we were going through the menu, it wasn't cheap.  Even the wine list was eye-popping with their prices.  Daniel took a gander through it and then handed it to me.  He said, "See if you can find an American red that is reasonable in price."  Quite honestly, I couldn't.  Many of the wines that I was familiar with were exorbitantly priced.  I handed back the wine list to Daniel and said, "You're on your own, cowboy.  I'm not gonna order a bottle of wine that's price $35 bucks higher than it should be."  He was able to find a French red that he felt was too expensive, but the most reasonable of the ones on the menu.    

The first thing that caught my eye on the dinner menu was the Ultimate Steak for Two - a 40 oz. porterhouse served with a side of whipped potatoes.  I sort of caught Michel's eye and I said, "Hey, look at this!"  And I pointed at the steak for two. 

His eyes lit up and said, "Yeah, but it's $94 dollars!"  

Daniel said, "Go for it!  If that's what you guys want to get, go for it."  

And even though there were some other interesting things that I wanted to try such as the lobster tacos or the $29 dollar Kobe beef burger, that's exactly what we ordered.  Daniel and Simon both ordered the bone-in filet.  And all of our steaks were ordered rare.  Simon also ordered a side of baked mac and cheese - and like the potatoes, they were served family style so each of us at the table could give 'em a try.  

They brought out the steaks and Michel and I were almost giddy when they placed the 40 oz. porterhouse in front of us.  It had been sliced away from the bone and even though it doesn't look like it in the photo below left, it was a good rare steak.  There was some sort of a seasoning on the steak that was sort of salty, peppery and had a little garlic herb taste to it.  It wasn't unpleasant and really helped electrify the taste of the steak. 

 
Above right is a picture of Simon's bone-in filet, topped with a homemade potato chip.  Daniel's was identical.  From the first bite of their steaks, they declared them as magnificent.  We all had steak at Charlie Palmer Steak earlier in the week.  Daniel said, "I think this steak is better than the one I got at Charlie Palmer.  And that was a very good steak!" 

Michel and I made very short work of the 40 oz. porterhouse.  We admire each other so much for being big carnivores that it was really fun sharing the steak with him.  Michel has a history of ordering large steaks in restaurants - up to 32 oz. steaks - and polishing them off with no effort.  And he's not that large of a guy.  His saving grace is that he doesn't drink so he doesn't gather those calories like I do.

 We were sort of looking at one another and Michel said, "You know, I could almost go for another one of those."

I said, "I was thinking the same thing."  (I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast over 12 hours earlier.)

Michel said, "Yeah, but it's $94 dollars!"

Daniel was sitting there with a big smile on his face.  He said, "If you guys want to get another one, go ahead!"

We thought about it for a few moments and I vetoed the idea.  I said, "We'd just be miserable if we did, but it sure would be fun." 

We did partake in a couple of Stack's eclectic desserts - the cherry creme brulee that is served in an exotic thin, curved bowl; and the mini key lime pies - three small key lime torts with a side of lime sorbet.  And both were very good, as well.  I did take pictures of the two, but the battery on my phone was wearing down quite rapidly and the pictures were very blurry - an annoying side effect of a low battery on my Blackberry.

Other than the price of the meal and wine, Stack was just outstanding.  It was a great and very pleasant surprise not knowing what to expect when we walked into the place earlier in the evening.  We caught up with the rest of our colleagues having a night cap in one of the suites and we were telling them of how great the place was.  I'm sure we'll be staying at the Mirage at CES again next year and Stack will undoubtedly be on our list of restaurants to eat when we come back.   But we'll need a good year of sales to help pay for it.

  

Pete Miller's - Wheeling, IL

For years, food enthusiasts have traveled to a stretch of Milwaukee Ave. through Wheeling, IL where some of the best restaurants in the Chicagoland area have stood for years and years.  One of those restaurants is Pete Miller's, a seafood/steak house and jazz bar that I've wanted to visit for quite sometime.  Recently, I had the chance to go there with a client for dinner. 

Pete Miller's is one of the corner stones of the Clean Plate Club restaurant group which also runs the Davis Street Fishmarket and Merle's No. 1 Barbecue in Evanston.  (To see my visit to Davis Street Fishmarket, click here.)  The original Pete Miller's opened in 1994 in Evanston, and they opened the Wheeling location in October of 2002 in what was the old Crawdaddy Bayou Cajun restaurant.  From day one, Pete Miller's offered an eclectic combination of prime steaks, fresh seafood and some of the best jazz that the Chicago area has to offer.  The Evanston location is more of an adult destination complete with a number of billiard tables, so when Larry Huber and his partners opened the Pete Miller's in Wheeling they gave it more of a 1940's supper club feel to the place and made it more family friendly. 

And, by the way, there actually was a Pete Miller, although he wasn't involved with Pete Miller's in any way.  Harold "Pete" Miller was a frequent customer of the Davis Street Fishmarket after it opened in 1986.  Miller was a longtime salesman on the road (that sounds familiar) who dined in numerous places over the years, who had a love for good Scotch, liked to play a rousing game of pool and was a connoisseur of great jazz.  Miller's personality and charm touched the people around him and especially Larry Huber.  After Miller died in 1994, Huber and his partners opened the original Pete Miller's in Evanston as a tribute to Miller offering great food, a fair drink, great jazz and an upscale pool tavern feel to the place. 

And great jazz is exactly what you can find at both Pete Miller's locations nearly every day of the week.  Some of the greatest jazz entertainers from Chicago and across the U.S. have played at Pete Miller's over the years including Patricia Barber, Jimmy Smith, Bobby Broom and Melvin Rhyne.  The night we were at the Pete Miller's in Wheeling, the Michael Ross Trio was playing in the lounge. 

We arrived at Pete Miller's in Wheeling (see map) around 7:15 one evening and parked with the complementary valet that they offer at the restaurant.  It wasn't all that packed and we were able to get a seat right away in the larger of the two main dining areas in the restaurant.  Our dinner menus were on the table along with a wine menu.  My client wasn't much of a drinker, he said, but he said, "Have at it!" when I asked him if it were OK that I have a beer. 

After a little bit of a wait, our waitress, Liz, finally got to our table.  She said, "Gentlemen!  I am so sorry.  I had three different food orders come up at once, so I was running around getting those tables taken care of."  She asked if we wanted anything to drink and I noticed that they had the Burning River Pale Ale from the Great Lakes Brewery out of Cleveland - one of my all-time favorite beers.  I took one of those while my guest had a diet soda. 

My client had been to Pete Miller's just before Christmas and he raved about the prime rib-eye medallions, one of chef Cesar Gutierrez's signature dishes.   Two 6 oz. rib-eye medallions are topped with your choice of stilton bleu cheese, encrusted horseradish, or parmesan cheese.  He called them "outstanding".  

I knew I wanted steak and the first thing that popped out at me on the menu was the filet au poivre - a 10 oz. beef tenderloin filet topped with fresh peppercorns and a cognac/mushroom reduction sauce.  I'm a sucker for a great au poivre steak and I was certain that I would like that.   But I was also interested in the prime rib - something that I haven't had in quite sometime.  They also had a filet trio on the menu - three individual beef tenderloin filets that you could be blackened, topped with parmesan cheese or horseradish.  In fact, every steak on the menu could be ordered to your liking with four different types of sauces, encrusted in either bleu cheese, parmesan cheese or horseradish, or blackened or topped with peppercorns. 

The seafood part of the menu was also a little tempting with a pan-seared Chilean sea bass, crab-stuffed jumbo shrimp served on a bed of linguine, and a soy-ginger marinated sushi-grade yellowfin tuna encrusted in sesame seeds.  But I kept going back to the steak part of the menu - especially the filet au poivre.  By the time Liz got back with our drinks, I was ready to order. 

My guest got the prime rib-eye medallions, encrusted in horseradish.  He got a side of Pete Miller's garlic mashed potatoes, but he asked our waitress to have the kitchen leave off the fresh parsley.  I found through the course of the evening that my guest was a rather particular eater.  Not that there was anything wrong with that - he definitely knows what he likes and dislikes in food.  He's a good ol' "meat and potatoes" kind of guy.

I figured that I'd be back to Pete Miller's at some point in the future, so I ended up getting the filet au poivre on this occasion.  I ordered it rare and hemmed and hawed about getting the garlic mashed potatoes, as well, or getting something else.  The entrees come with your choice of potato, vegetable of the day, steamed broccoli or thin onion rings.  They also have signature sides that you can share at the table including their famous lobster mashed potatoes - lobster chunks with the mashed potatoes.  That sounded too rich for me that evening, though.

I also got a wedge salad with my meal, thinking that I really hadn't had anything to eat since early in the morning.  I needed something in my stomach before the main entree showed up.

While the wedge salad was good - a large iceberg wedge topped with their homemade creamy blue cheese, real bacon bits and chopped tomatoes - it wasn't the best I've had.  Still, it was a nice start to the meal.  It was so large that I couldn't finish it before our steaks showed up to the table. 

Rare at Pete Miller's - and most restaurants - is described as "cool, red center".  My filet au poivre was exactly that - one of the most spot-on rare steaks I've had in a restaurant.  The cognac/mushroom reduction sauce was just excellent on top with the peppercorns swimming in the sauce.  It was an excellent steak.  And my thin onion rings were very good, too, although I wish I would have tried the garlic mashed potatoes.  Next time.

My guest's rib-eye medallions were cooked medium for him, just to his liking.  The horseradish crust around the steak medallions was puffy with a little caramelization on the crust.  He wasn't able to finish his last medallion nor his garlic mashed potatoes.  "The horseradish crust is really rich," he told me.  I'm sure it was. 

During our meal, the general manager at Pete Miller's, Mike, came around to see how everything was with our meal.  We had absolutely no complaints.  He asked, "Liz taking good care of you this evening?"  She was doing a superb job in handling us that night, we said.  She was efficient, friendly and had a great sense of humor. 

 
With some nice jazz going on in the lounge and subdued lighting in the dining room gave Pete Miller's a nice warm feeling to the place.  It certainly was like being transported back to an old time elegant supper club in the countryside.  The food was just outstanding at Pete Miller's.  While it wasn't cheap, the quality was top notch.  Liz was a very attentive server and did a great job in making sure everything was right.   And having the GM come around to check on our meal was a nice touch, as well.  Pete Miller's was everything I expected it to be.  I can see why it's one of the favorite steak houses for thousands of Chicago area residents.  I can't wait to go back!

Charlie Palmer Steak - Las Vegas

Over the past couple three years during our annual trips to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, I was the one who made the arrangements to get what usually is a large group of people in one place for dinner.  Being that nearly everyone in our company are food and wine aficionados, it's usually going to be at a pretty nice restaurant.  However, with some pratfalls, some bitching and some poor meals because most of the time we have to choose from fixed menus because of the large group, I gladly relinquished those duties this year to my colleagues Jon and Todd.  But one place that they came up with was a place that I've wanted to eat at for a long time - Charlie Palmer Steak in the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas.

Charlie Palmer Steak is the Las Vegas edition of the network of restaurants owned by the famed New York City chef/restaurateur Charlie Palmer (pictured right).  Palmer is well known in culinary circles as one of the pioneers of farm fresh versus factory processed food.  Trained in the tradition French style of cooking, Palmer opened his first restaurant - Aureole - in 1988.  Aureole featured what Palmer called progressive American cuisine, featuring a menu using a blend of regional ingredients that caught the eye and taste buds of food connoisseurs and critics, alike.  Palmer has opened a dozen more restaurants around New York City, Washington D.C., Dallas, Reno, Northern and Southern California, and the Charlie Palmer Steak and Aureole restaurants in Las Vegas.  He also owns a couple boutique hotels, a wine shop and works exclusively to provide food services with the Seabourn Cruise Line - an upscale company that features small cruise ships.   

Three of our guys have gone to Charlie Palmer's in the past and they've declared it the best steak house they've ever eaten at.  I was just chomping at the bit to go at some point.  But when Todd said that he had made reservations for 17 at Charlie Palmer Steak, I was a little worried that it just wouldn't be as good as if we had a much smaller group.  One of the problems is that they had a prix fixe menu - a fixed price menu with a per person price.  Oh, we'd still have our choice of some of the items that you'd find on the regular dinner menu.  But trying to do 17 orders at once for a large group is taxing and convoluted.  I knew it just wouldn't be the same. 

One of the reasons our group was so big was because we had 13 people from our company at CES this year. We were showing at three different locations with six booths or suites total, so we needed to have that many people.  And on top of that we had 5 people from Focal over from France for the show, as well, who came out for dinner with us.  One of our colleagues, John, did not join us that evening.  However, he was already at Charlie Palmer's hosting two gentlemen from Audio Advisor - one of our largest dealers. 

Now, Charlie Palmer Steak is not cheap.  Even with a fixed price menu it was still $65 bucks a head.  And it was $35 dollars per person for three hours of unlimited drinks including a pre-determined white and red wine.  Plus, there was an automatic 18% gratuity added to the bill for such a large group.  Since we were the ones who invited the Focal people out to dinner, my boss was giving Todd a minor ration of shit that maybe, just maybe, we were going a little overboard on this particular dinner.  But we were sort of contracted into it - he had made the original reservations a month in advance and had to provide a non-refundable $500 deposit via credit card to hold the private room we'd need for the dinner.  Todd said, "Geez, now I know why you and Ian don't want to be responsible for any of the dinner plans.  It's a (freaking) hassle!"   

We arrived at Charlie Palmer's at the Four Seasons (see map) just past our 7:30 p.m. reservation.  For some inexplicable reason, we had to wait another 20 minutes to get into the room - most likely so that we'd have to get some drinks at the bar while we waited.  A couple of the guys did just that, but I thought that if we were getting charged $35 bucks a head for drinks until about 11 p.m., I'd do my best to make a dent into not only my obligation, but a couple of other people's, too. 

Eventually, we were shepherded back to a large room with a long table.  The room had cream colored walls with artwork and dark walnut wainscoting along the base of the wall.   One of the best things about having a large group is that sometimes you get sequestered into your own room.  And while you can't carry on a conversation with everyone at the table, it's a lot more quiet in that type of setting. 

Well, they certainly let us get a head start on the doing all we could to make a serious dent into our $35 per person drink obligations.  It was nearly 45 minutes before they came in to take our food orders.  Actually, the red wine we had was from an obscure Northern California winery and it was pretty good.  I looked at the bottle, but didn't recognize the name.  And, of course, I forgot to take a picture of the label.    

When it came time to order food, it was a three course meal with your choice of a salad, a main entree and a dessert.  Three different salads were available and I ordered Chef Steve's Caesar Salad - hearts of romaine lettuce wrapped in prosciutto with marinated anchovies.  For dinner, I went with the 18 oz. bone-in rib-eye steak - rare.  I had my choice of that, a 16 oz. New York strip, a 10 oz. beef tenderloin filet, fire-roasted chicken, crispy skinned Australian sea bass, or prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin.  And we had to make our choice of dessert at the time, too.  I wasn't certain if I'd be able to eat dessert, but my choices were a Chocolate Peanut Butter bar topped with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce (no way!), a caramel baked apple and frangipane tart (no, I don't think so), and a maple glazed crème brûlée.  Yes!  Sign me up for that! 

Of course, with that large of a group, the food was going to take a long time.  It was about a half hour before our salads made it to the table.  But the wait was worth it.  I certainly liked the presentation of the two romaine hearts wrapped in prosciutto.  And the taste was wonderful - their homemade Caesar dressing was understated and didn't overpower the salad.  It was very, very good. 

 
And about 15 minutes after I finished my salad, out came my steak.  A steamed half-shallot adorned the top.  We were also given sides of citrus-braised asparagus, potato puree and wild mushrooms with caramelized onions.  The steak was probably a tad more done than rare and it was served to me somewhat cold.  In fact most of the people around me who had steaks cooked rare said theirs was served cold, as well.  Cold, as in, just above room temperature.  Not like it was just off the grill. 

But that didn't matter all that much.  It was still good.  They age their beef for 28 days at Charlie Palmer Steak and mine was tender and flavorful.  I can't really say it was the best steak I ever had, but it was certainly very good. 

 
My colleague Michel got the 16 oz. strip steak, rare (top left picture).  Michel is a huge carnivore and he loves steak.  I've seen the guy down 32 oz. porterhouse steaks in a sitting.  He said his steak was just excellent.  And, quite surprisingly, he couldn't finish it.  "I had a late lunch today," he said.  "I didn't know where we were going for dinner tonight, but I knew we would be eating late." 

And my colleague Michael, seated to the left of me, got the 10 oz. filet - also rare.  He said, "This may be the most tender steak I've ever had.  It's so juicy and flavorful."  

We determined that Charlie Palmer Steak uses some sort of a seasoning on their beef, similar to a Montreal or Quebec beef spice that consists of coarse salt, dried minced garlic, cracked tellicherry black peppercorns, a little sugar and some coriander.  I've been using that almost exclusively on my steaks at home and I have to say it really helps zip up the taste of the meat.  The seasoning Charlie Palmer's used was a nice complimentary taste to the meat. 

I really wanted to pick up the bone of my steak and gnaw on it to get the rest of the meat, it was that good.  But I decided that decorum wouldn't allow such a thing at a nice place like Charlie Palmer's.  But by then, I had enough wine in me and my "give-a-damn" factor was pretty low at that point.  I just picked the thing up and took a couple quick bites at the corner of the bone.  We all kind of got a laugh out of that.  Michael said, "Hey, in Europe, that's totally acceptable!"

I asked, "Really?"

He said, "I don't know, but it would be a good excuse if anyone would call you on it!"  

After our main courses were cleared, our desserts came out.  Now, I am a crème brûlée junkie.  I've eaten crème brûlée all across France and North America.  I will have to say the crème brûlée at Charlie Palmer Steak was - hands down - the best I've ever had.  First of all, the maple glaze is what made this creme brulee taste so good.   The crème brûlée, itself, was just outstanding.  But the maple glaze on top just added so much pizazz to the taste.  I told the guys near me that I was almost tempted to order another one.

When the check came, the waiter handed it to Todd, who happened to be seated next to my boss.  What came next was told to me by Todd -

"The waiter handed me the bill.  I opened it up and it was well over $2100 bucks.  Daniel (our boss) saw it and sort of shrugged his shoulders.  He knew it was going to be a big one.  But then Jean-Phillipe (Fontaine, the export sales manager from Focal) reached across the table and said, 'No, no.  This one is on us.'  He grabbed the check, looked at it and his eyes just got huge.  Then Gerard (Chretian, the managing director for Focal) looked at it and almost jumped back in his seat.  Well, suddenly they were stuck with the check and I think I heard Daniel give a sigh of relief." 

Charlie Palmer Steak was very good, but I really think it would be much better if we had a much smaller group.  We talked about this amongst ourselves later on during the show that it may be easier to make three separate reservations for six at the same place.  Even at a large table, you can't carry on conversations with people at the other end.  That wouldn't be much different than having two other groups at two tables at a restaurant.  We're all there together, but we're conversing with those close to us.  Now, I don't know if my boss will sign off on another visit to Charlie Palmer Steak.  It was definitely an expense account meal.  But it was a great dining experience and one that I was happy to enjoy with my colleagues and friends. 

Anthony's Steakhouse - Omaha

I had an early morning meeting with a potential new account in Omaha recently and I got into Omaha rather late the evening before.  I was hungry when I checked in and I asked the desk clerk if any place in the area would still be serving food.  She gave me a couple recommendations, but then she said, "There's Anthony's Steakhouse just down the street a bit.  Just past Interstate 80."  (see map)

Anthony's is one of those places where I've driven by on a number of occasions on my numerous trips to Omaha over the years, but never stopped in.  One couldn't miss the place on the west side of 72nd Street with the big steer over the entry way.  I decided to give it a try that evening.

Anthony's Steakhouse has been around for over 40 years serving some of the best steaks in Omaha.  Compared to other steakhouses in the city, it's sort of flown under the radar except for the locals who have kept coming back since Tony Fucinaro first opened the doors in October of 1967.  Less than two years later Anthony's suffered a devastating fire.  But business had been so good up to that point that when Tony rebuilt the place he added seating and a large lounge area to the building.  He also added a party/banquet room to the building. 

The decor of the restaurant also changed from a Western-themed restaurant to an elegant setting that would make Anthony's comparable to most high-end steakhouses across the nation.  Tony's son, Tony, Jr., now runs the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. 

Anthony's Steakhouse features the Ozone Lounge, one of central Omaha's premier night spots.  The lounge features live entertainment six days a week and its own menu that features bar favorites as well as some of Anthony's signature dishes.  I contemplated getting dinner in the Ozone Lounge when I walked into the place just after 9 p.m. that evening, but the music had just started and I wanted to have more of a quiet meal. 

I was met by an elderly hostess who seemed a little put out that I decided to show up so late.  I asked her if it was too late to get a meal and she said in sort of a dismissive voice, "No, we continue to serve up to 10 p.m. or when the last person leaves."  It would be a good bet that if no one else came in for dinner, I would be the last one to leave that evening. 

She took me to an upper tier of booths and tables overlooking the main dining area at Anthony's.  She sat me in a booth, gave me my menu and told me that a server would be with me shortly.  There was a couple in the booth next to me, and a couple guys at a table next to me.  I thought, "Why didn't she seat me in a booth away from people?"  I figured she was trying to help the waiter out by having all of his tables in one area. 

Now, sensing my surroundings when I'm dining alone has never been a high priority, but it was difficult to not hear the conversations going on at the other two tables.  The two businessmen were discussing high-end audio - my chosen path of work.  One guy was trying to give advice to the other guy on what to look for in buying an audio system.  But the one "expert" was woefully wrong with some of his information.  I try not to interject into other people's conversations, but I came oh so close to saying, "Excuse me, but I'm in the industry and what you're telling this poor guy is just dead wrong." 

But I decided to butt out and read my paper.  They left soon after. 

The couple in the booth facing me appeared to be on a date, quite possibly their first date.  A little more about these two in a bit.

My waiter came over and I ordered up a beer as I looked through the menu.  Actually, Anthony's Steakhouse is not unlike any other old time Omaha steakhouse that I've had over the years.  They have the usual cuts of meat from filets, rib eyes, t-bones and strip steaks.  They also feature pork chops, chicken entrees and seafood on the menu.  And since the Fucinaro family is Italian, they also feature a number of pasta items on the menu. 

But I was in the mood for steak that evening and I eventually ordered the New York strip, rare.  None of the sides they had were overly appealing to me, so I ended up getting the twice-baked potato.  A side of pasta - mostaccioli with a red sauce - also came with the meal.  I also got the wedge salad upgrade for $2.00 over the house salad that came with the meal.  

As I was waiting for my wedge salad, the guy in the booth on the date with the lady excused himself to go to the restroom.  He was still gone by the time I received - and finished - my wedge salad.  By the way, the wedge salad was excellent.  A fresh lettuce wedge with topped with slices of red onions, Anthony's homemade Italian dressing and tons of very good bleu cheese crumbles around the wedge.  It was actually one of the better wedge salads I'd had in quite some time. 

By the time the waiter had come back to take my salad plate, the young lady stopped him and asked him to check the restroom for her - her date hadn't come back to the table and he'd been gone for nearly 20 minutes.  By this time, my senses picked up that this may not be a happy ending.  Another waiter brought out my steak and it wasn't long after it was set in front of me, the original waiter came back and informed her that no one was in the restroom.  The lady burst into tears.  Her "date" had left her at the restaurant holding the bill and with no ride home.  I felt so bad for her that I almost paid for her dinner so she wouldn't have to.  A manager came over and told the woman that he'd take care of the bill and that he'd call her a cab.  

(I got to thinking as I was driving to Kansas City the next day - what a great way to scam a restaurant!  The guy skips out on picking up the tab for a good meal and leaves the woman there to pick up the pieces.  Although the way this woman reacted, I doubt these two were in cahoots.  Unless she was a great actress.)

 
After that drama ended I was able to enjoy my meal.  The New York strip was cooked a perfect rare for me, nice and juicy with a load of flavor.  And unlike many strip steaks that I got earlier this summer, this one was void of gristle throughout the steak.  It was a wonderful steak for my first visit to Anthony's. 

I tried a couple bites of the twice-baked potato which was also pretty good.  The mostaccioli with the homemade marinara sauce was rather pedestrian - nothing to write home about.  But that was OK.  I was concentrating on trying to finish my steak that appeared to be larger than the advertised 14 ounces.   

Anthony's Steakhouse had a very good steak - not the best I've had, but certainly not bad either.  It's tough to be a steakhouse in Omaha with all the stellar competition in town.  But you don't stay in business for 43 years without having good food and good service - anywhere you are.  It's a testament to Anthony's staying power with all the great choices of steak restaurants in Omaha that they are definitely one of the best local steakhouses.  While I may like Johnny's Cafe or The Drover a little better, I'd put Anthony's ahead of many of the other places in Omaha. 

Del Frisco's - Denver

I was out in Denver recently for the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival and while we didn't have much time for anything extravagant  in terms of fine meals (we did eat burgers at Cherry Cricket twice - we had to do that.  The Cricket still has the best burgers I've ever had) we did go out to a restaurant that I've wanted to go to for quite sometime - Del Frisco's steak house.   Actually, I'd been to the Del Frisco's in Orlando before.  I was there on business about 10 years ago and my old friend from Colfax, IA, Pat Clarke, a long time television and radio sportscaster in the Orlando market, took me there for a wonderful meal one evening.  I knew there were other Del Frisco's around the country, but I hadn't encountered one since my trip to Orlando years ago. 

Well, it turns out that the Del Frisco's in Orlando is NOT the same Del Frisco's as the one in Denver.  The Del Frisco's in Orlando is a privately owned restaurant while the Del Frisco's in Denver is part of a chain of 9 restaurants located in 7 states.  The Del Frisco's chain is part of the Del Frisco's restaurant group based out of Wichita with the Sullivan's Steak House chain as part of that corporation.  Well, I've eaten at a Sullivan's Steak House before (Cindy and I had a great meal nearly five years ago at the Sullivan's in downtown Chicago.  Click here to see that entry.)  The Del Frisco's and Sullivan's Steak Houses were once owned by the Lone Star Steak House corporation, but they were sold off in 2006. 

The official name of the Del Frisco Steak House restaurants is "Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House."  But it's just known as "Del Frisco's" or "Del's" to their fans.  The one in Denver is located very near the Denver Tech Center area on the southeast side of the city (see map).  The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest was being held at the Marriott in the heart of the Denver Tech Center.  We had a reservation for four of us for around 7 p.m.  Of course, we got there well in advance, but like any high dollar restaurant they want to get your money at the bar.  We had about a 30 minute wait for our table to open up. 

Once we did get seated, it was in the heart of the main dining room loaded with dark wood paneling, sturdy tables with white linen table cloths and subdued lighting that was bright enough to be able to read our menus and the wine list.  One of my colleagues, Jon, had taken a dealer of his from Seattle to Del Frisco's the night before.  But he was more than enthusiastic to go back with my boss Daniel and our colleague John for dinner that night.  Except he wasn't going to get the same thing he had the night before.

Daniel, Jon and I all perused the wine list and I was struck at how proud they were of they were of their wine selection.  Similar to the experience we had at the Brooks Steak House in Denver last year, the prices of a bottle of wine were outrageously high.  I don't know what it is about wine prices in Denver, but it seems that restaurants have extremely high prices of their wine.  I saw a couple bottles I was familiar with on the wine list, but I was far from comfortable in ordering a bottle of wine.  I let Daniel do that and he picked out a nice French red that I wasn't familiar with. 

Steak is definitely the prominent item on the menu at Del Frisco's, including their signature "Wagyu" beef longbone steak.  Wagyu beef is similar to Kobe beef, but is primarily grown in America and Australia.  It sounded interesting, but the price - $89.95 - scared me off. 

In addition to beef filets, rib eyes and porterhouse steaks, Del Frisco's offers a dry-aged pork porterhouse chop, a duck breast steak, prime lamb chops and seafood dishes.  Their sides are served family style in large bowls and feature such items as jalapeno bacon mac and cheese, potatoes au gratin and maque choux corn - a Southern/Cajun style dish with corn, tomatoes, celery, bell peppers, onions and garlic. 

The special that evening was a dry-aged bone-in beef tenderloin filet, but I decided to go with Del Frisco's dry-aged bone-in rib eye - rare.  I got a side of sauteed mushrooms with it and a bleu cheese wedge salad.  John and Daniel got the same steak as I - John ordered his medium-rare and Daniel went the rare route with me.   Jon had the bone-in filet the night before and he ended up getting a couple of the prime lamb chops.  We also ordered some of the jalapeno bacon mac and cheese, and potatoes au gratin for everyone to share.   

The wedge salad was very good - a large quarter cut wedge with a generous topping of their creamy homemade bleu cheese dressing with bleu cheese crumbles and bacon bits on top.  The lettuce was crisp and fresh.  I was overly happy with the salad.

Our steaks and chops showed up with four waiters bringing each dinner to the table and simultaneously placing each plate on the table.  My 22 oz. bone-in rib eye, still sizzling on the hot plate was placed in front of me.  Wow!  It looked huge!  And the side of sauteed mushrooms that I ordered was way too much for just me.  It became part of the family style, pass-the-bowl-around sides that we'd ordered for the table. 

The first knife cut into the end of the steak yielded a tough cut of meat.  I thought, "Uh oh."  I hadn't had good luck with steaks in restaurants over the past few months.  I've run into a lot of steaks with hidden gristle that just made the experience a hassle.  But the first cut into the Del Frisco's bone-in rib eye was the worst part of the steak.  It was the fatty end of the steak.  After I got that all cut away, I took another cut into the steak.  This time, it yielded a perfect red center piece of the steak, cool and tender.  And the taste - Oh! My! God!  The dry-aged beef was just out of this world - so tender and flavorful.   The seasoning Del Frisco's uses on their steaks had a slightly salty taste along with a hint of pepper, garlic and other spices.  It was a nice compliment to the taste of the steak. 

The other guys raved about their food.  Daniel and John loved their bone-in rib eye steaks, as well.  John said, "This is one of the best steaks I've ever had."  Jon also said that his prime lamb chops were "excellent".  I'm not big on lamb, but I will say they looked great.

The sides with the meals were also very good.  I really liked the jalapeno bacon mac and cheese.  I thought, "Wow!  This could be easy to make at home!"  The jalapenos gave the dish a little kick, the bacon offered some great flavor and the three cheese sauce was outstanding.  While the potatoes au gratin and the sauteed mushrooms were very good, the jalapeno mac and cheese was just killer. 

Along with the great food, the service was top notch.  We had people constantly checking with us for any needs - not at the point that it was intrusive to our dinner or conversation.  But I've been to many places where the waiter takes your order, someone else brings your food to the table and they just forget about checking on your after that.  Even the night manager came over to make sure that everything was to our expectation.  Del Frisco's had great service. 

Since my trip to Del Frisco's in Denver, I was discussing my meal there with a dealer of mine in St. Louis.  He said, "Oh, man!  You went to Del Frisco's?  That's the best steak I've ever had!" 

He said he has gotten the bone-in tenderloin filet (obviously not a special, but a regular item that Del Frisco calls a special) on each of his visits to the Del Frisco's in Dallas, Charlotte and Denver.   He said, "It's, by far, the best steak I've ever had.  The meat literally pulls apart, it's so tender." 

Someone asked me recently what's the best steak I've ever had.  A lot of people will say something along the lines of, "Well, the ones I grill at home are the best."  But it's obvious they've never truly had dry or wet aged beef.  You just can't get that from most butcher's.  While I've eaten in some world class steak houses, I will have to say the steak I had at Del Frisco's is one of the best - if not THE best - I've ever had.  While it wasn't cheap, it was certainly a treat to have experienced the steaks at Del Frisco's. 

Charcoal Oven - Skokie, IL

The Charcoal Oven on Golf Road in Skokie, IL (see map) is one of those places that I've passed a number of times, wondered what it would be like, but have never stopped in.  It looks like an old time supper club like you'd find out in the middle of nowhere in the rural Midwest.  I happened to be staying just down the street from the restaurant a couple months ago and decided to give the place a try for dinner one evening. 

I walked into the restaurant as two men were walking out.  It was early - around 6:45 p.m. - and I was the only one in the place, save for a lone man sitting at the bar talking to the bartender.  It turned out the bartender was the owner - Rich Franco - whose wife, Maria, is the daughter of the previous owner, Phill Georgouses. 

Maria Franco came out and asked if I wanted to sit at the bar or in the dining room.  Considering there wasn't anyone in the dining room - and it was getting into the meat of the dinner hour - I thought two things.  1) It would be kind of cool sitting in the dining room all by myself.  And 2) Why am I the only one in here?  I began to regret my decision. 

I sat in an old style three-sided booth with a white linen tablecloth over the table.  Maria handed me a menu and I immediately asked her if this place was an old style supper club that, at one time, was out in the country.  She said, "Oh, most definitely!"

She told me the story of how the original business was built in 1928 - called The Oasis.  It was basically a gin joint out in the country toward the end of Prohibition.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, The Oasis flourished as a hot spot for good food and flowing drinks.  It later became known as The Little Club and was a favorite hangout for Northwestern University students fleeing Evanston to drink when it was a dry town up to the mid-60's.  The Little Club was just outside the Evanston city limits.   

Phill Georgouses began to work as a busboy and waiter at The Little Club before World War II.  Phil was called to duty during the war, but he came back in 1946 to work at the place.  He ended up buying the Oasis in 1948.  In the mid-60's, Phill put in a kitchen to serve Greek-styled meals and steaks and changed the name to The Charcoal Oven.  Rich and Maria took over the business when Phill retired a few years ago.  Many of the Greek-styled recipes that the Georgouses family had are still on the menu and I understand that Phill still checks in from time to time.

The dining room had that old time supper club feel to it.  Subdued lighting, tasteful decor, Frank Sinatra playing in the background.  It was like walking back into the 50's or 60's.  Maria said that the city of Skokie literally grew up around the restaurant.  "This was the place to go for an elegant meal," she said.  "But now, there's just so many choices in the area.  But we weren't going to change one bit."   

In addition to their Greek chicken, steaks and chops, The Charcoal Oven has a variety of homemade soups and salads topped with their own in-house dressing.  Sonia Carlson has been making the soups and salad dressings at The Charcoal Oven for over 30 years.  I sort of like that kind of consistency.   

While the menu isn't very deep, it did have a handful of great sounding meals to choose from.  Maria said they were famous for their Greek chicken - a marinated chicken breast that is lightly breaded and baked in the oven with lemon, garlic and oregano.  She said their butt steak was also a favorite.  And they were somewhat famous for their baby back ribs with their own homemade sauce. 

They did have a special on a sirloin steak that evening - a 16 oz. cut with a couple sides for $21.95.  I signed up for that - rare.  The sides were The Charcoal Oven's homemade potato chips and sauteed green beans with onions.  I also got a cup of the homemade lentil vegetable soup and a salad with their homemade Danish bleu cheese dressing.  Maria said she'd get it right out.

Sure enough, Maria first brought out the cup of soup and a fresh baked bread roll brushed with butter.  Both the soup and the bread were very yummy.  I'm not big on lentil soup, but this was very good.  

After I finished the soup, she brought out the Danish bleu cheese salad.  It was OK, rather bland in taste compared to other bleu cheese dressings I've had.  But the lettuce was fresh and tasty.  

 

The salad was done for about five minutes and Maria brought out the 16 oz. sirloin, but it certainly looked larger than 16 oz.  I cut into it and it was a perfect rare for me.  The homemade potato chips were interesting, but good.  And the sauteed green beans with the onion slices were absolutely fabulous.

I began to work into the steak and I found that a good portion of the steak was full of gristle.  What meat I could cut out of the steak was tender and flavorful, but the large amount of gristle was a downer to the meal.  I know it's the luck of the draw when it comes to meat like sirloin whether or not you'll have a lot of gristle.  My number came up this time.

Maria came out and saw that I had a lot of gristle in the steak.  She immediately volunteered to get another piece of meat for me.  I said, "Oh, God, no.  Don't worry.  I wouldn't have been able to finish this whole steak had it not had ANY gristle in it.  This is fine."

She said, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Yep, just the luck of the draw."  

She was so nice and throughout the meal I continued to be the only person in the place.  Not that it was bad - it was above average, overall.  Maria did tell me that the place usually is much more busy on the weekend (it was a Wednesday night when I was in there) and it was a beautiful night out.  People were probably hanging at home, doing yard work and cooking out that evening.

About three weeks ago, a friend of mine who works at Music Direct in Chicago had posted on Facebook that he had gone to The Charcoal Oven with his wife.  I talked to him after that and told him that I, too, had recently visited the place.  He said, "We lived not far from that place from 1968 thru 1977.  We'd always pass it on the way to my aunt's house, but we never stopped in.  I was always intrigued with the place and so my wife and I decided to go there for dinner."  

He told me he had the Greek chicken and he said, "It was WONDERFUL!  I was torn between getting the special that night, which was a ribeye steak, and the Greek chicken.  She told me to get the Greek chicken.  I'm glad I did."  

With my recent addition of Abt Electronics as one of my dealers, I'll be spending a lot of time in the Glenview/Skokie area of Chicago, probably staying just down the street from The Charcoal Oven on occasion.  I'll need to get back there to try the Greek chicken and I'll probably also try one of their steaks again, as well.  I love old supper clubs like The Charcoal Oven and I'll definitely go back. 

10 North Main - Minot, ND

I had set up a morning appointment with a dealer in Minot, ND and arrived the evening before.  I stayed at a Fairfield Inn on the outskirts of the town and the choices for restaurants in the immediate area were limited to chains, such as Buffalo Wings and Rings - a knock-off of Buffalo Wild Wings; and Paradiso - a North Dakota five-location chain of Mexican restaurants.  I asked the young lady at the front desk of the Fairfield Inn where I could get a really good meal in town.  She didn't hesitate and replied, "Oh, you'll want to go to 10 North Main.  It's downtown and it's very good.  It's, by far, the best restaurant for miles around."  She gave me quick directions and I took off toward downtown Minot. 

Even beyond the restaurants around the hotel, there's not much to choose from in Minot.  And that's probably why four guys who grew up in Minot chose to open a fine dining establishment in town.  Friends Chad Schmidt, Jon Peterson, Josh Duhamel and Lance Behm opened the restaurant in January of 2005.  Schmidt is the managing partner of the restaurant while Peterson is the chef.  Behm is a local Minot dentist and Duhamel, well, he's a somewhat famous Hollywood actor.

Josh Duhamel (pronounced Duh-MEL) grew up in Minot and has starred in the movie "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" (he played Tad Hamilton), as well as in both of the Transformers movies (a third Transformers movie is coming out next year).  For four seasons, Duhamel was also seen on the television drama "Las Vegas".  But he's possibly most famous as being the husband of Stacy Ferguson, a.k.a. "Fergie" who fronted the group "The Black Eyed Peas".  I understand that Duhamel and Fergie make it back to Minot from time to time (I believe his parents - his father was an advertising salesman and his mother was a teacher - still live in town) and dine at 10 North Main when in town.  As one of my dealers in North Dakota told me, "I can't believe a guy from North Dakota married Fergie!"

"Good Food and Nice Drinks" is the motto for 10 North Main.  It's situated in a building - at 10 North Main, naturally - just across from the Soo Line Train and Transportation Museum in downtown Minot (see map).  The exterior of the building is a mixture of brick, stained glass windows on the first level and large tinted windows that light up the second level of the restaurants. 

It was just after 8 p.m. on a warm North Dakota evening when I stopped into 10 North Main.  Two 20-something girls were at the hostess stand and I remarked to them, "I understand this is the best restaurant in Minot."

They sort of looked at one of another and one of the girls said, "Well, yeah, I guess so."  It was not quite the ringing endorsement I expected to hear after my statement.  One of the girls took me to a two-seat table along a short wall and dropped off a menu.  My waitress for the evening, Anna - a cherub-faced young lady with pig tails in her hair - came by to greet me.  If someone were to say, "Show me a typical, wholesome North Dakota girl", Anna would be the one.  I told her that I would probably have some wine with dinner, but for the time being I really needed a Bud Light.  Well, actually, I needed two.  It had been a long drive out to Minot from Grand Forks.     

The interior of the restaurant was warm and inviting giving it a very laid back feel to the place.  The dining room was segmented into three areas - I sat in the middle area - and there was a small bar area in the front corner of the restaurant with one of the stained glass windows helping provide light to the bar.  I'm not good at describing furnishings, but the place sort of had a contemporary antique look to it - if there is such a thing. 

The menu at 10 North Main was an interesting mix of beef, pasta dishes, smoked entrees including smoked duck and smoked pheasant, and a handful of both seafood and fresh water fish entrees to choose from.  I was hoping the food would be as good as the menu was making it sound. 

Anna came back and told me that they were out of prime rib for the evening - that was fine, I wasn't going to do prime rib - and she told me of a couple specials that I immediately lost interest in.  I told her that I needed a little time to look through the menu and she went to wait on other people.  I was looking at a couple three items on the menu.  First on my list of interest was the bison New York strip - a 12 oz. lean piece of North Dakota-raised bison, seasoned and grilled over white oak wood.  But I'd had a steak the night before at The Toasted Frog in Grand Forks and I wasn't certain I wanted steak two nights in a row. 

I was also looking at getting a half rack of the smoked baby-back ribs at 10 North Main.  The menu said they topped the ribs with a homemade "sweet and snarky" barbecue sauce.  I was tempted to find out what sweet and snarky tasted like.  Lastly, I thought briefly about getting the Chilean sea bass - a sauteed sea bass filet served with asparagus.  But thinking that it's a long way from Chile to Minot, ND,  I decided to stay local.  

Anna came back and I told her that I wanted to start out with 10 North Main's caprese salad, then I had to quickly decide between the bison strip steak or the ribs.  If it's cooked right, bison steaks are pretty damn good.  I was hoping that would be the case and I ordered the bison steak - rare.  A side of garlic-mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley also came with the steak. 

I asked Anna to leave the wine list as I was probably going to get a glass of wine or two with my meal.  The wine list was surprising featuring dozens of very good wines at somewhat reasonable prices.  Also surprising was the amount of wines they featured by the glass.  A full bottle of the Liberty School cabernet was $25 dollars, a fair price for a good-valued wine that we like to drink at home from time to time.  I knew I couldn't drink a full bottle of wine, but one of the many wines by the glass they featured at 10 North Main was the Liberty School cab for $7.00.  When Anna came back with my caprese salad and a basket of bread, I told her that I'd like a glass of that.  "Good choice," she said as she scribbled down my wine order.

The caprese salad was good, but not quite as good as the one I had in Grand Forks the night before.  The tomatoes weren't as ripened as the one at The Toasted Frog, but 10 North Main's caprese salad had a hefty amount of fresh basil on top and a lot more mozzarella cheese than the one from Grand Forks.  The fresh basil and wonderful mozzarella more than made up for the under-ripened tomatoes.

I do also want to mention the homemade bread with the garlic/parmesan butter at 10 North Main.  Outstanding!  I made short work of the two pieces Anna had brought out with the salad and was afraid to get more because I didn't want to be eating bread instead of my steak.  Actually, what was more addicting was the garlic/parmesan butter.  I slathered both pieces with the butter and happily wolfed it down. 

Not long after I finished my caprese salad, Anna brought out my steak.  I thought it looked sort of small for a 12 oz. steak, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.  I was also afraid that it was over-cooked from the char-marks on the outside.  But I cut into the steak and it was definitely rare.

I'm glad I got the bison strip because after the bad cut of meat I had at The Toasted Frog the night before I needed a good piece of beef to make things right in my world.  And it was a great piece of meat - tender, lean and about as juicy as a piece of bison can be.  The seasoning on the steak was sort of a mixture of salt, garlic, pepper and some other spices.  It worked well with the taste of the meat. 

The garlic mashed potatoes were OK, nothing really special to get excited about.  I had a couple bites of potatoes and a couple bites of the vegetable medley.  The medley of sliced carrots, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower were cooked just right - warm, yet with a crunch with each bite.

I finished my steak and had one more bite of the potatoes before I let Anna take my plate away.  She got a nice tip for the evening being very attentive, but not bugging me at the same time. 

I was thoroughly impressed with my meal at 10 North Main.  This is a restaurant that could easily hold it's own in a much larger city.  I'm hoping that the people in Minot know just how good this place is and don't take it for granted.  In a city full of buffet and family restaurants, along with fast food and regional chain establishments, 10 North Main stands out as being one of the best restaurants in not only the city of Minot, but in the whole state of North Dakota. 

Little Apple Brewing Company - Manhattan, KS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Angus - Prairie du Chien, WI

The night Cindy and I stayed at The Claytonian in Clayton, IA, we decided to take the short drive up to Prairie du Chien to have dinner.  Cindy's family used to go to a place called The Black Angus, a supper club/steakhouse on the outskirts of Prairie du Chien when she was a little girl.  She asked Eileen, the lady who ran The Claytonian, if The Black Angus was still there.  She said, "You mean 'The Angus'?  Yes!  It's been under new ownership for awhile.  The old owners were letting the place go to hell, but some new blood came in and took over.  And it's just as good as you probably remember it to be."

When Cindy was growing up, the restaurant was known as "The Black Angus".  The Jones family were the original owners of the place, but we'd heard the food and service had started to go downhill at some point.  The Jeffers family came in and bought the place a few years, updated the decor and added a new menu.  They restored the good name of the restaurant - now known simply as "The Angus" - back to its days of glory in the 70's and 80's. 

It took us about 25 minutes to get to The Angus from The Claytonian.  We pulled into the lot for the restaurant, located just across the street from the local airport (see map).  We had a short wait before we were seated, so we decided to have a drink in the lounge.  The restaurant has an old-style lounge with a raised oblong bar and a number of small tables off to the side.  The decor is decidedly laid-back and the lighting subdued throughout the place.  We went over and took a seat at the bar and I got a bottle of Old Style which used to be brewed just up the river in LaCrosse.  Cindy got her usual UV vodka with lemonade.  It wasn't long after we got our drinks before the hostess came over and let us know our table was ready.

She led us through the spacious dining area, past the salad bar and back into a cozy little corner to a two-seat table next to a mirrored-wall.   Not long after that, our waitress for the evening, Bunny - a 60-ish lady who had a lot of sass to her - came over to great us.  I said, "Bunny!  That's an interesting name.  Is that your real name?"

Bunny said, "Oh, heavens, no.  I have such a horrible real name that I hardly ever use it.  I've been Bunny ever since I was a little girl."  I had to find out how horrible her real name was. 

Since we already had drinks, she dropped off some cheese and crackers for the table.  I asked her for the wine list and she came back with one right away.

Actually, the wine list at The Angus was rather surprising - both in the selection and the great prices.  I shouldn't broadcast this, but they had a bottle of the 2004 Jordan Cabernet for $65 bucks.  That's easily $20 cheaper than I've seen it before - and I thought $85 bucks was a cheap price THAT time.  I couldn't resist.  I ordered up a bottle for both of us to enjoy.

The menu at The Angus is your typical Midwestern steakhouse variety, heavy on steaks, chops, chicken, some pasta and some seafood.  Steak and lobster is a big combination at The Angus and Cindy thought about getting that until Bunny told her it was $45 dollars.  Bunny suggested to Cindy that she get the 8 oz. beef tenderloin filet with the shrimp scampi.  Cindy said that would satisfy her need for both surf and turf.  She ordered a baked potato with "the works" on top. 

I was intrigued by a couple of things, one of which was a 10 oz. beef tenderloin filet topped with parmesan cheese and a garlic butter sauce.  I ordered that - rare - and got a side of The Angus' famous hash browns with melted cheese and onion.  After we ordered, Bunny invited us to partake in their salad bar.

I will say the salad bar was great.  Not only for the items, but how fresh everything tasted.  Cindy got a cup of their potato soup that they had that night along with a plate of mixed greens and some veggies.  I got the mixed greens, veggies, then went back and got a plate of their marinated beets.  The beets were good, but not as good as the beets at Bud's Skyline Inn in Moline.  Topped with their homemade dressings, the salad bar at The Angus was top notch. 

The Angus grills their steaks over a gas flame in an open area that is in full view from the dining room.   I just happened to go back to the restroom as we were waiting for our main entrees to show up and I walked right by the grill area.  I had to get a picture of this huge filet they were grilling up.  It turned out this was my filet.

When Bunny brought our meals to the table, I was surprised - pleasantly surprised - by the size of the filet on my plate.  I mean, it looked big on the grill, but on the plate next to the hash browns it looked huge!  It was much more than a 10 oz. filet, that's for sure.  The parmesan on the top was sort of crystallized and the garlic-butter sauce was a great compliment to the taste.  The steak was cooked a perfect rare for me - big tenderloins are usually difficult to cook given their thickness - with a cool, red center but a nice charred taste on the outside.  It was very tender and a steak knife went easily through the meat.

Cindy was also happy with her beef tenderloin filet - she got hers medium.  (The grill chef at The Angus obviously knows what he's doing.)  And she got five large and plump shrimp scampi.  She offered me one and it was scrumptious.

I had a little bit of the hash browns with the grilled onions and cheese and they were good, as well.  Coupled with the hefty salad I had earlier along with the beets, the large filet was more than enough for dinner.  And, of course, the big treat was having the Jordan Cabernet with the meal.

Bunny came over and asked us if we wanted any dessert.  I sort of winced and said, "I don't know.  I'm pretty full."

Cindy, on the other hand, said, "Well, let's see what they have for dessert."  Bunny went through the line-up and she came to a blueberry flan.  I sort of groaned in sort of a half "Oh boy!" - half "Oh no!" response.  Cindy said, "We'll take the blueberry flan with two forks."

I like flans, but I'm not certain that I ever had a blueberry flan.  Just like any dessert that has lemon in it, I'm a sucker for anything that has blueberries in it.  And it certainly was very good.  And rich.  We had trouble finishing it.  When the last crumb was off the plate we sort of looked at one another in amazement - both with the taste of the flan and the fact that we actually ate the whole thing.

Bunny came over to give us our check and I said, "OK, Bunny.  You're already going to get a nice tip from us, but I'll tack on another five bucks if you tell us your real name."   I was thinking that it was something like Hortense, Gertrude or Bertha.

She said, "Well, my given name is Marjorie Catherine."

I sort of look at Cindy then gave Bunny a funny look.  "Marjorie Catherine isn't that bad.  I was thinking it would be a lot worse than that!"

Bunny said, "I was raised in a strict Catholic family and I just hated the name Marjorie Catherine.  Someone in our family gave me the nickname of Bunny and that's what I started to answer to.  I've been Bunny ever since."

 And Bunny did get a good tip from us - 20% plus an extra fiver for revealing her real name to us.  Her service was top-notch.  And that mirrored the whole experience at The Angus.  The food was great, the ambiance was wonderful and we had a great dining experience.  I love the old type of supper clubs like The Angus and try to seek them out on our travels in the Midwest.  I would have to rank The Angus as being one of the best - if not THE best - supper club we've encountered over the years.  Cindy said, "I TOLD you it would be good!"

Merriman's - Waimea, HI

Chef Peter Merriman's signature restaurant - Merriman's in Waimea, HI - may have been the first place in Hawaii to address the concept of Hawaiian Regional Cuisine.  When it opened in 1988, Merriman concept was to use home-grown, organic foods found on the islands, along with grass-fed beef from the ranches around Waimea, and to incorporate only the freshest caught fish into his daily menu.  For over 20 years, Merriman's has been popular with tourists and locals alike seeking the finest in Hawaiian Regional Cuisine - a cuisine that didn't really exist 25 years ago.

For years and years, the term "Hawaiian food" meant the stuff tourists got a traditional lu'au - kalua pork, lomilomi salmon (grilled salmon with onions and tomatoes), chicken lu'au (chicken with spinach, onion and garlic), and, of course, poi, which is basically the paste from pounded taro roots.  When Merriman arrived in 1983 to be the chef at the Mauna Lani Resort, he found the island had a bountiful harvest of food to choose from.  He found ultra sweet corn that was grown by farmers on the east side of the Big Island, there were coconut trees near the hotel that he would climb to get coconuts for a special coconut sauce he used on fish, and he began a relationship with a number of organic farmers and growers on the island.  

Merriman and his wife, Vicki, opened Merriman's with the idea of fusing all these great home-grown foods into a menu that showed off the best of what Hawaii had to offer.  In the meantime, he used his relationship with the ranchers, farmers and fishermen to ask them to try different types of things to grow and catch.  This led to different types of fruits and vegetables, as well as interesting and new species of fresh fish to show up on his menu.  Merriman's suddenly became a gourmet heaven with the burgeoning "foodie" population.  

After our lunch at Merriman's Market Cafe, not far from our hotel, I did a little research into Merriman's place in Waimea.  As I said in my earlier post on his cafe in the Kings' Shops shopping center in Waikoloa Beach, Merriman also has a handful of other restaurants that he's involved in, including a Merriman's on both Maui and on the island of Kauai.  It sounded like the Merriman's on Maui was an exquisitely upscale restaurant from some of the things we were reading about.  But the one in Waimea could be described as upscale casual.  On our last night on the Big Island we decided to go to Waimea for a good dinner at Merriman's.

I had a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on that evening, Cindy had a nice top and chinos when we went out.  It was warm when we left the hotel, temps were in the upper 70's, but we knew up in Waimea it would be cold and rainy.  It was.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees and there was a light rain by the time we pulled into the restaurants parking lot on the west end of town (see map).  

The decor of Merriman's is contemporary Hawaiian - it has a high ceiling with narrow wood beams across the room.  There was subdued lighting along the edges of the ceiling, with dimly lit chandeliers hanging toward the middle of the room - bright enough to allow you to easily read the menu.  Small palm trees in large pots were interspersed in the dining room that sat about 80 people.  The tables and booths along the walls were all adorned with heavy linen table cloths.  It was a nice place to say the least.

It was about 7:30 when we got there and there was one table open - a large six-seater near the open kitchen and the small bar area.  Actually, I can't even really call it a bar as much as it was a station where the bartender mixed drinks and put them on a five foot long pick-up bar.  The hostess took us to the table and while it was large for two people.  It was either that, or the hostess said it would be about a 20 minute wait for a regular table.  Cindy thought it would be fine, so we sat there and she gave us the menus for that evening.

We were told that Peter Merriman doesn't work all that much at the restaurant any longer, he's running the small empire of restaurants from his home on Maui.  The executive chef of Merriman's in Waimea is Neil Murphy (right) who has a long resume of working in fine restaurants before he joined the Merriman's staff.  Prior to coming to Hawaii to be the chef at Merriman's, Murphy worked at a number of high-end New York City restaurants including Aureole and Symphony Cafe.  He was the chef de cuisine at the famed Park Avenue Cafe for eight years before coming to the Big Island.  

Our waitress - wait a minute - *waiter* for the evening came out to great us.  Her name was Robyn and she was a short blond, 20-something gal who grew up in Alaska.  As we found out later on, Robyn had a degree in forestry, but decided to come to Hawaii to just bum around for awhile a few years ago.  One thing led to another and she ended up as a waiter at Merriman's.  All the waiters - both men and women - are called just that.  Each was dressed snappy in black trousers covered with heavy aprons, white button down shirts with ties.  In fact, each of them were given the title of "Professional Waiter", as it showed on the business card Robyn gave me before we left that evening.  I'd never had a waiter or waitress give me a business card before.

I looked thorough the impressive wine list Merriman's had to offer.  Robyn said apologized about the shortness of wine list - the book was ten pages. "I know our wine list isn't as extensive as other places," she said.  "But we have a great sommelier here and he can give you some recommendations on some of the wine."  

I told her, "I don't think that would be necessary, but you shouldn't sell this wine list short.  Compared to some other fine restaurants I've been to, this is pretty impressive."  Since we were in the middle of ranching country on the Big Island, I figured I get a steak that evening.  Cindy was, no doubt, going to get seafood, but she said she wanted to go with a red wine for the evening.  I ended up picking out the Castillo Labistada Rioja Reserva, a 2001 varietal from Spain.  Actually, the prices on their wine list were pretty reasonable.  A 2005 Jordan Cabernet was $99 bucks - I've paid up to $120 for that on the mainland.  They also had a Whitehall Lane 2005 cab for $89.  But the Castillo Rioja was a little over-priced at $64 bucks.  But I like a good Rioja and the Rioja Reservas are aged for three years in oak barrels compared to just one year for regular riojas. 

The menu at Merriman's is eclectic, to say the least.  While there's not a lot to choose on it, there's a lot of diverse and interesting items to choose from.  As I said, Merriman's features grass-fed Hawaiian-raised beef, fresh fish from the ocean, and organically homegrown, and when possible - chemical free - vegetables and fruits.  They have an interesting list of appetizers including a kalua pig and sweet Hawaiian onion quesadilla; macadamia encrusted grilled shrimp; and their house cured smoked bacon served with sweet bread French toast with a Kona coffee barbecue sauce.  How wild is that!

For dinner, as I said, I was looking for some grass-fed beef and they had a few things to offer including a filet; a bone-in New York strip with Szechuan pepper sauce and herb butter, and their version of Steak Diane with sauteed Hamakua mushrooms.  Man, it all sounded good.

Cindy, of course, was looking at their seafood offerings which included Merriman's original wok charred Ahi tuna - charred on the outside, but rare inside.  I almost jumped at that, honestly.  They also had a prepared Ono fish, as well as a ponzu (a fruity sauce found primarily in Japanese cuisine) marinated mahi mahi that was sauteed with sesame seasoned shiitake mushrooms, hearts of palm and sweet Maui onions.  That sounded great, too. 

What I should have done is ordered Merriman's Mixed Plate - a small tenderloin medallion with the mahi mahi and the ahi tuna.  But Cindy beat me to it.  I was sort of surprised that she went with that as she had been disdaining beef all week long during our first few days on the Big Island.  But Robyn said, "Oh, you'll like that."  

Cindy smiled and said, "Oh, I know!"    

What I ended up getting was the large (12 oz) grass-fed beef tenderloin filet with a tomato, sweet onion and beet chutney on the side.  However, before that I ordered Merriman's tomato salad with fresh basil, blue cheese, anchovy, capers, lime and olive oil.  As good as the tomatoes were on the burger I had previously at Merriman's Market Cafe,  I could only imagine how good this salad would be. 

I said, "Cindy, that has mushrooms with the fish."

She said, "That's OK, I'll just put 'em off to the side and let you have them." 

For her starter, Cindy got the Hawaiian grown lettuce salad with Maui sweet onions in a house-made balsamic vinaigrette.  She thought about getting the Caesar salad, but opted to go with the basic salad instead.

And just as I hoped it would be, the tomato salad was out of this world.  I don't know if it's the soil on top of volcanic rock or the long growing season or what, but Hawaiian tomatoes were absolutely the best I've ever had.  I grow some pretty good tasting tomatoes back home, but these were just unbelievable in their taste.  They didn't have that overly acidic taste that some tomatoes can have.  They're almost sweet and very juicy.  If the state agriculture department didn't scan bags and suitcases for vegetables and fruits, I would have smuggled home a dozen or so.  Along with the fresh anchovies, blue cheese and the fresh basil - which is grown outside of Merriman's in their own herb garden - it was a taste explosion in my mouth.  It was just unbelievable. 

Robyn and another waiter brought out our main entrees later in the evening, setting them in front of us at the same time.  I had ordered my filet rare and it was a little over-cooked.  Actually, it would have been a little over-cooked as a medium-rare.  But it was tender and juicy.  Grass-fed beef doesn't have the same taste as the corn-fed beef I'm accustomed to back in Iowa.  But as Cindy pointed out, they probably aren't injecting the cows on steroids or whatever out in Hawaii.  Still, it was pretty good. 

However, Cindy's mahi mahi, wok charred ahi and the filet medallion was "the bomb".  She gave me little bites of the fish and it was just heavenly.  She said, "Honey, this is just unbelievable.  I'm so spoiled on fish here in Hawaii I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat fish when we get back home." 

The Castillo Rioja Reserva was a great complement to the meal.  I love a good Rioja and the Castillo was a pleasant surprise.  It wasn't overpowering or bold, but had a nice finish that lingered for a moment.  It went well with the seafood, as well. 

As we finished up our meal, Robyn came around to see if we wanted dessert.  When she talked about the passion fruit mousse, I asked, "Is that the same thing as lilikoi?" 

She said, "Passion fruit is from the same family as lilikoi, very similar, but not as tart." 

We were sort of full from dinner, but I decided to give the passion fruit mousse a try.  Shortbread macadamia nut cookies came on the side.  I was sort of "eh" when it came to macadamia nuts before I got to Hawaii.  However, we found some in a can - the Mauna Loa brand of macadamia nuts - and I was hooked.  But, oh!  Macadamia nuts are so rich!  I could only eat a handful before my stomach would say, "Whoa, hang on there!"  (We brought four cases of six cans of the Mauna Loa brand macadamia nuts back home with us.) 

The passion fruit mousse was light and not as tart as the lilikoi as she said.  It was very good.  And the shortbread macadamia cookies were killer.  I said, "Cindy, we need to find the recipe for these cookies."  (We did - see it here.  We haven't made them yet, but I want to wait for a special occasion.)

The crowd had filtered out by the time we were finishing up, so that afforded Robyn some time to visit with us.  She asked how dinner was and I told her that we've had some outstanding meals with great service on our visit to the Big Island and this was no exception.  I said, "My steak was a little over-cooked, however."

She said, "Well, why didn't you say something?  I would have gotten you a new steak."

I told her it was more medium-rare-medium than rare-medium as I usually like my steaks.  "It was no big deal," I said.  "I wasn't going to quibble over meat temperature tonight."  She apologized again and said, "Well, next time you guys come back, I'll give you free desserts."  (What is it with these places giving out free desserts?  I know tourism is down in Hawaii, but that was the second high end restaurant that offered to pick up our dessert if we came back.)

Cindy said, "Unfortunately, this is our last night on this island.  We're going to Maui tomorrow." 

Robyn took out her card, put "Free desserts w/purchase of entrees" on the back of it and handed it to me.  "If someday you ever make it back to the Big Island, please do stop in and see us again."

Yes, if we ever do make it out to the Big Island again, we will stop at Merriman's.  It was expensive, but we have a tendency to splurge on vacation.  I don't know if it was the finest meal we had while on the Big Island, but it was very, very good. 

Timmerman's Supper Club - East Dubuque, IL

Timmerman's Supper Club has been serving the Tri-State area of NE Iowa, SW Wisconsin and NW Illinois for nearly 50 years.  It had been a LONG time since I was last in the place and when Cindy and I were up in Galena for her birthday, we decided to head to Timmerman's for their famous Sunday morning brunch.  Cindy's not big on buffet brunches, but the selection is so extensive at Timmerman's brunch that we knew we couldn't go wrong. 

Bob and Helen Timmerman met in the mid-30's and married soon after.  Not long after World War II broke out, they opened a bar in Happy Corners, WI.  In 1943, they had a chance to buy the Chateau Supper Club just north of Dubuque and they moved over there.  The Chateau was a favorite place for receptions and parties and the place was known for Helen's fried chicken. 

Nearly 15 years after opening the Chateau Supper Club, they leased the Circle in East Dubuque, offering fine dining and live music.  In 1961, they built Timmerman's Supper Club in its current location, high on a bluff overlooking the meandering Mississippi River (see map).  Timmerman's opened Labor Day weekend in 1961 and featured live jazz trios playing on a regular basis. 

Timmerman's modernistic architecture style brought in customers from miles around as it was always busy.  One Saturday evening in the 1960's, Timmerman's served over 900 meals in their dining room.  It was quite the goldmine for the Timmerman family.

However, in 1970, Bob Timmerman passed away and Helen kept running the day-to-day operation.  The road up to Timmerman's opened the top of the hill for development and along with a number of commercial businesses that built new buildings on top of the hill, Helen Timmerman opened Timmerman's Motor Inn (now called Timmerman's Hotel and Resort) at the opposite end of the parking lot.  Helen Timmerman retired from the business in 1985 and passed away in 2002.  The Timmerman family sold the restaurant and the hotel and the two are now run as separate entities. 

I'd been to Timmerman's a couple times before years ago when I took two separate Dubuque-area dealers out to dinner in the 80's and 90's.  Cindy had been there before, as well, and she said it was probably back in the mid-80's for her.  Timmerman's main menu focuses on steaks, fish and seafood, pasta, chops and, of course, Helen's original recipe fried chicken.  One of their features which I've had in the past is their Pork Normandy - pork loin medallions that are covered with a wild mushroom, shallot and pea pod cream sauce.  It's damn good, I'm tellin' ya. 

Timmerman's Sunday buffet has an omelet bar, fresh sliced ham or roast beef, breakfast and lunch dishes, pastries, fruit, salads and even tacos.  It was packed around 11 a.m. when we showed up, but with Timmerman's large dining rooms (they can seat about 350 people) we were able to be seated right away, albeit at a table not next to a window with a panoramic view of the river.  Our waitress came around to take our drink orders and she invited us to go to the buffet at any time. 

While the buffet is huge, there's still a long line of people milling about the two sided buffet.  Quite honestly, I was still pretty stuffed from our dinner from the night before at Fried Green Tomatoes.  I knew that if I had enough food at Timmerman's I wouldn't eat the rest of the day (and I didn't). 

The line for the omelet bar was pretty long, about 8 or 9 people deep and the guy could only make four omelets at a time.  I opted for Timmerman's Eggs Benedict, a slice of roast beef and a slice of ham, and some of their bacon and sausage.  Cindy got a slice of roast beef, some potatoes and some scrambled eggs. 

Quite honestly, the roast beef was overcooked and dry.  The ham was good, however, and for a buffet Eggs Benedict, it wasn't bad.  We went back one more time to try some other things that were on the buffet, but I had another slab of ham to go along with some veggies off the relish tray they had.  I also had one of their cinnamon rolls which wasn't that bad. 

Overall, I'd give Timmerman's an above average rating for their Sunday brunch buffet, mainly due to the large selection of food they have.  In fact, they may have too much food.  If they'd cut back on some items and focus on others it could be a lot better.  But I don't think that Timmerman's would do that.  

As Cindy and I were talking the night before, we're not that far away from Timmerman's and the Galena area.  It's just about an hour drive from our home to Timmerman's Supper Club and we agreed that when the weather turned nice we were going to make the trek up to East Dubuque and order a meal off the menu.  I'm hoping it's just as good as I remember from years ago.    

Brother Sebastian's - Omaha

Omaha is a city with some great steak houses.  I've told you about Johnny's, Gorat's, and The Drover in earlier posts on Road Tips.  None of them are world class steak houses, but each are very, very good.  They are old style steak houses where I'd never be embarrassed to take someone to.  One venerable steak house in Omaha that I haven't been to in years is Brother Sebastian's.  During a recent trip to Omaha, I met a dealer there for a late evening dinner. 

I first ate at Brother Sebastian's back in the mid-90's after a colleague turned me on to the place.  But Brother Sebastian's had been in business for about 20 years prior.  Loren Koch had never operated a restaurant, but he envisioned a wonderful steak house that also showcased Koch's love for fine wine.  In April of 1977, he opened the doors to Brother Sebastian's.  It's decor inside and out had the feel of an old world mission.  There are cozy dining rooms throughout, the lights are old-world lantern styled, and there is a wonderful charm to the place.  There was a large room in the cellar that was fashioned after an old monastery wine cellar aging room.   

It wasn't long after my first meal at Brother Sebastian's that they suffered a horrendous fire that gutted the building.  Koch immediately announced that he would rebuild the original restaurant.  A year later, the restaurant reopened and has been going strong ever since.

It was after 8 p.m. when I made it into Omaha and pulled into the parking lot of Brother Sebastian's.  Brother Sebastian's is in a residential neighborhood off Pacific St. and just east of 120th St. in West Omaha (see map).  Well, the way Omaha has moved west over the past few years, Brother Sebastian's location could actually be called West Central Omaha.  I waited at the bar for my dealer to show up.  The bar is known as Brothers Lounge and features a nice bar, cozy booths and subdued lighting.  It wasn't long before my dealer showed up and we were taken to a small room with booths.  

Being that it was close to 8:30, there appeared to be a small crowd in the restaurant.  But because Brother Sebastian's have so many little dining areas throughout the building, it's really tough to know how many people actually are in the restaurant. 

Our waitress came out to greet us and to give us some time to look through the menu.  I took a look at Brother Sebastian's extensive wine list and picked out a bottle of Franciscan Cabernet that was reasonably priced at around $45 bucks.  We caught up on a few issues as we waited to order.  

Steak is the primary focus at Brother Sebastian's.  They're very well known for their tender and overly flavorful prime rib.  They also feature a number of chicken dishes, as well as a number of seafood entrees.  They also have a long list of "surf and turf" options on the menu.  One thing that jumped out at me was Brother Sebastian's New York Pepper Strip - a 12 oz. New York Strip that is lightly encrusted in cracked black peppercorns, then served with a spicy peppercorn sauce.  OK, that's all I had to see.  I was sold.  I ordered it rare-plus.  Along with the New York Pepper Strip, I got a side of rice and broccoli.  

My guest got the Rib eye and also got the rice and broccoli.  Along with the main entrees, you get a trip to Brother Sebastian's somewhat rather nice salad bar.  One thing that I had forgotten about was their great French dressing.  It's a homemade sweet and sour dressing that is killer.  I wish I could make a dressing like that.  

Our steaks came out not long after we finished our salads.  My steak had a generous serving of the spicy peppercorn sauce on the top of it.  But it was light where it didn't detract from the flavor of the meat.  The peppercorn crust wasn't heavy, as well.  Each bite was just below an orgasmic delight for me.  

My guest said his steak was very good and that the Franciscan Cabernet was a great pairing with the meat.  It's full bodied, but light to the taste.  Franciscan is one of my favorite wines to have with steak.  

Our waitress was wonderful.  She was attentive and kept checking on us to see if we had any needs.  We talked with her after the meal was over and she said she'd been there for a number of years.  "Just after the fire is when I started," she said.  "We use the fire as sort of a measuring stick around here.  The owner will make references to 'before the fire' or 'after the fire' when he talks about people who have worked for him.  I'm an 'after the fire' hire." 

It had been some time since I had last been to Brother Sebastian's, quite possibly close to 10 years.  But in a city that is known for some solid steak houses, Brother Sebastian's does quite well for themselves.  Plus they've had to weather the influx of national chains and contemporary steak houses into the Omaha area over the past few years.  On top of all that, they survived a disastrous fire and came back as strong as ever.  It's very easy to see why Brother Sebastian's has sustained for so long during a time when a number of restaurants are closing up.

Brook's Steak House - Denver

During the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, we got a tip on a steak house that we needed to try - Brook's Steak House, one of the more popular and upscale steak places in the greater Denver area.  It was a 10 minute ride to the restaurant from our hotel and a big slab of good meat. 

Brook's Steak House has won numerous awards since it was opened in the early 90's by Bob Melton and Joe Kaiton.  They feature prime USDA beef that is aged a minimum of 21 days before it's served to their customers.  Brook's also has a wine cellar that features over 1000 different varieties of wine.  The restaurant is classy, has a lot of wood paneling and has a very manly feel to the place.  The main dining area is sunken into the center of the restaurant with the bar area on one side with private dining areas toward the back. 

Brook's Steak House is located in Greenwood Village, a suburb south and east of Denver (see map).  They feature valet parking, but we opted to park in the parking lot in the back of the restaurant.  There were six of us that were seated by the hostess around a large circular table with a heavy linen table cloth.  This already rivaled some of the more fancy steak houses I've had the pleasure to visit. 

We were given our menus and they featured well over a dozen different varieties of steaks to choose from.  They also offered some seafood entrees including crab legs, lobster tails, shrimp and scallops.  They had some delectable sounding salads including a caprese salad, their famous house salad and their take on a Caesar's salad, complete with anchovies upon request.  We decided to get some appetizers to tide us over.  We ordered up some seared ahi tuna slices and calamari as we looked through the rest of the menu. 

My boss, Daniel, was looking through the extensive wine list.  He looked at me and said, "What do you say when you think the prices are high?  Something about them being proud?"  

I said, "You mean, something like, 'They're very proud of their wine list?' "

He said, "Yes, they're very proud of their wine list."  I've never known Daniel to be stunned by the prices of anything on a menu before and I've worked for him over seven years.  But the wine list at Brook's widened his eyes more than once.  

My colleague, Ian, took the book from him, his eyes widened and he said, "Holy f***!  They ARE proud of their wine list here!"  

He gave me the book and I was just floored at some of the high prices they had for their wine.  Bottles of wine that I know are $70 to $85 dollars in restaurants that we'd been in over the past few weeks were suddenly $120 to $150 a bottle.  I gave the book back to Ian and I said, "Man, I'm scared to pick anything out.  All the bottles that I recognize are obscenely overpriced."  

Ian did find a bottle of an Italian red that he thought would be a good bargain at $72 a bottle.  He said, "I'm thinking they're trying to get rid of it because it's getting toward the end of its shelf life."  So he ordered up a bottle of that.  

The waiter brought the bottle of wine to the table and opened it up.  Ian took a sip to check it out and he said, "Eww...  Well, it's going to have to open up a lot before it's drinkable."  The waiter poured wine for the table.  The appetizers came and went.  We ordered up dinner.  Our salads were brought out to us.  The wine had not opened up.  It had gone bad on the shelf.  

Ian motioned for the waiter to come over.  He said, "Tell your sommelier that this wine needs to go to the kitchen for the chefs to cook with it.  It has expired."  The waiter brought the wine list back to the table and handed it to Ian, who promptly handed it to Daniel.  Daniel laughed as he took the menu and said to Ian, "Chicken!"  

I said, "D.J., I don't need wine.  I can drink beer."  A couple of the other guys echoed my offer. 

Daniel said, "Oh, nonsense.  Let's just get a good bottle of wine.  I'll just hold my nose when I order it."  And he did order a nice bottle of wine - a French wine that he was familiar with.  He said, "This is three times more expensive than when I got the same bottle of wine earlier this year."  

And they're proud of their main entrees, as well.  Let's just say this wasn't going to be a cheap night.  For dinner, I ordered up the filet mignon, rare-plus.  I believe the price was $42 dollars.  I had contemplated the bone-in rib eye, but the filet was just calling me.  A couple of my colleagues did order up the bone-in rib eye, while another ordered the porterhouse.  Two others also got the 14 oz. tenderloin filet.  I ordered up a wedge salad with Maytag blue cheese dressing.  And Brook's offers a number of sides that are big enough to share.  We ordered onion rings, sauteed mushrooms and potatoes au gratin.  

The waiter brought back the new bottle of wine and he was accompanied by the general manager for Brook's.  She said, "Gentlemen, I understand the first bottle of wine you got had turned.  I'm truly sorry for that.  Of course, we won't charge you for that bottle."  

Ian said, "I suggested to (the waiter) that he needed to take those bottles to the chef to use them to cook with."  

She said, "Oh, we'll probably just throw them out.  We only have a handful of bottles left."

The wine that Daniel had picked out turned out to be a winner.  It was rich and full bodied.  Even before it had opened up a bit, it still had a robust taste.  I really need to get more familiar with French wines.  

Our salads came out and my wedge salad was exceptional.  The Maytag blue cheese dressing was a wonderful taste sensation.  The lettuce was fresh and cold.  It was a very, very good salad.  

Our steaks came out and I have to say that my steak was good.  I don't know if it was worth the price they charged, but it was very tender, juicy and flavorful.  It was very easy to cut with the large steak knife they provided at the table.  

Everyone declared their steaks as "good".  We all thought, however, that it was a little expensive for what was offered.  

I tried a couple bites of the au gratin potatoes, which were very good.  The sauteed mushrooms went quickly and we ordered up a second helping of those.  They went very well with our steaks.  And I had a couple of onion rings - the good ol' greasy steak house type of onion rings.  

Overall, our meal was very good at Brook's Steak House.  We all thought it was overly expensive for what it was, but it was still a very classy place.  The wine prices were outrageous, in my opinion.  I can see why it has been named one of the Great Steak Houses in North America, as it rivaled a number of other great steak places I've eaten in.  Even with the wine snafu, it was still good.  But a good value?  I'm sorry I wasn't THAT impressed.  Brook's Steak House was certainly proud of themselves.  

Bone's - Atlanta

Our last meal in Atlanta during this year's CEDIA Expo was at a steak house in Buckhead, Bone's.  Bone's has been an Atlanta institution since 1979 and has been named the best steak house in Atlanta by Atlanta Magazine nearly every year for over the last 20 years.  And this year, the Zagat restaurant survey called Bone's the best steakhouse in America.  They edged Del Frisco's in Dallas and Prime at The Bellagio in Las Vegas on points for both food and service.  It came highly recommended to us and we were eager to give it a shot.

The owners of Bone's, Richard Lewis and Susan DeRose, established Bone's 30 years ago in what was once an old men's club in the heart of Buckhead.  The club was a "good ol' boys" club that served food since the 1940's.  No women were ever allowed in the building.   There are historical pictures of old Atlanta from the 40's and 50's hanging on the golden walls of the restaurant, just above the dark walnut wainscoting.   Lewis' and DeRose's corporate restaurant entity - Liberty House Restaurants - also own The Blue Ridge Grill and OK Cafe in Atlanta. 

Today, there is still sort of a masculine feeling to the restaurant.  There are still no women working in the restaurant.  Bone's is also the "power lunch" place to go in Atlanta.  They will place pads and pens on the tables for people to jot notes down as they have their luncheon meeting.  Many deals have been hashed out over a great steak at Bone's.   

The waiters are all dressed in off-white coats, black ties and black pants.  And there are a ton of them.  While we had one waiter that seemed to be the "head" waiter for our table, there were no less than four other waiters that brought us our food, water, rolls, wine, glasses, whatever.  The service was truly top-notch. 

It was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to Bone's on Piedmont (see map).  It was just across the street from Fogo de Chao.  When my colleague, John, and I had dinner at Fogo de Chao with the buyer from American TV and a couple of his colleagues, we were told that Bone's was probably the best steak house in Atlanta.   Other guys in our company heard about Bone's and the consensus was overwhelming to eat there for our final meal in town. 

Unfortunately, my colleague John and Dominic Baker from Focal couldn't join us for dinner - they had taken off early to begin training sessions for Ultimate Electronics.  So there were seven of us for dinner and they seated us at a large round table near the entrance to the kitchen.  As we sat down, the waiters on hand all laid our napkins in our laps.  Oooo... Fancy!  

The main dining room was full of all different types of people.  The place was very elegant and classy.  It wasn't overly huge and I've heard that on some evenings they will turn away as many as 250 diners.  There have been offers to both Lewis and DeRose for space to open a second location, but Lewis said that Bone's would never work as a chain. 

The menu was short and sweet.  Steak was the main feature, but they also offered seafood, lamb chops, appetizers, soups and salads.  It was clear that Bone's focuses on just a few things and does a very good job in their preparation of those items.  

The wine list at Bone's was overly impressive.  My estimate is that they offered over 1000 different bottles in all different varieties.  The wine lovers in the group all got to take a look at the massive book that listed their wines.  We ended up getting a few bottles of the Silver Oak 2004 Alexander Valley Cabernet.  It was just outstanding with a full body and great taste.  It would be perfect for steak.  

The appetizers were tempting - especially the Kobe beef carpaccio and the jumbo onion rings.  We did order up some rings for the table, but I wanted to get the wedge salad topped with their homemade creamy Maytag blue cheese dressing.  The wedge salad was huge and the dressing was out of this world.  It was easily one of the best wedge salads I'd ever had.  

For my main entree, I was torn between the dry-aged bone-in rib eye or the bone-in filet.  Actually, the waiter told me that the bone-in filet only yielded about 8 oz. of beef.  He said, "If you're hungry, go with the 12 oz. filet.  I believe it's on par - taste wise - with the bone in.  It's very tough to tell the difference."  So I ordered that - rare plus.  

For sides, Bone's offered a variety of different items.  They had sides such as sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, grit fritters topped with cheese, and corn pudding.  We actually ordered a little bit of everything and decided to share what we wanted in a family style manner.  

As we were waiting for dinner, a cell phone of one of my colleagues rang and he answered it at the table.  A manager immediately came over to the table and interrupted the phone call.  "Sir," he said.  "We do not allow the use of cell phones in the dining room."   Earlier, one of my colleagues had a kangol style hat on and as he walked in the maitre d' admonished him, "Sir, we do not allow hats in the dining room."  Sure, the place was stuffy, but it was also classy.  Very classy.  And they wanted to keep it that way.  

Our meals came out to the table, brought out by an army of waiters.  My filet was set in front of me and I eagerly cut into the chunk of meat on my plate.  The color was a fabulous deep red, it was juicy and from the first bite it was just outstanding.  I was just floored with the taste and texture.  It was tender and the meat literally pulled apart with each cut.  With the Silver Oak wine, it was just a just a wonderful combination.

I had a few sauteed mushrooms that were excellent, as well.  I tried a few bits of the garlic mashed potatoes and they could have used some more garlic, in my opinion.  But I love a lot of garlic on my food.  And I have to say the onion rings were great, too.  Big, flavorful and sinfully greasy, they were the perfect steak house onion rings.  

With four bottles of wine, our meal was well into four figures.  My boss, Daniel, said, "We all deserved this meal.  We had a good show, we're having a good year considering the economy.  We've been working very hard."

I know I have - since June 2 I've spent over 50 nights on the road.   And Bone's was a very nice reward for the hard work and lots of travel I've put in.  I never take anything for granted working for my company, and going to a world class steak house like Bone's makes me want to work harder for my boss.  That's because I know the harder I work, the better the results and the more chances I have to eat in places like Bone's.  It was definitely one of the very best steak houses in which I've dined.  

Fogo de Chao - Atlanta

Fogo de Chao (pronounced Fo-go dee SHOUN) is not a stranger to regular Road Tips readers.  I've eaten at a couple Fogo de Chao's in the past.  You can read about the Chicago entry here.  The group of guys in our company like the Brazilian steak house theme as there are up to 15 different varieties of meats to choose from at a place like Fogo de Chao.  But I also like the ample salad bar, no doubt put in place so you will load up on greens and eat less meat.

Fogo de Chao, like other Brazilian steak houses, have a "prix fixe" policy in which you pay one price whether you eat two cuts or 20 cuts of meat.  They bring skewers of beef, lamb, pork, chicken and sausage to your table "gaucho" style.  It can get pretty frenzied with all the gaucho-clad waiters bringing meat at a dizzying pace.  If you're not ready for more meat, you just simply turn your little circular card over to the red side from the green side. 

The Fogo de Chao in Atlanta was not far from our hotel in Buckhead and we took a 10 minute walk over there one evening to have dinner (see map).  There were 10 of us as Dominic Baker from Focal joined us for dinner that evening.  Although we were given menus, though it was clear from the start that we really didn't need them.  We knew the drill - go to the salad bar, don't over-indulge there, however, then sit down and turn your little round card over to the green side and watch the waiters come out of the woodwork with meat. 

My boss likes Fogo de Chao for their wine selection.  Their wine list and cellar is pretty extensive.  Each Fogo de Chao has a different selection of wines to choose from, but they do have a number of wines from South America, primarily from Chile and Argentina.  And there are some good wines from those regions.  Since everyone was having beef, it was an easy choice for him to pick out a hearty Cabernet Sauvignon for the meal. 

One thing that we all fight over when we go to a Brazilian "churrascaria" is the garlic-infused top sirloin.  Fogo de Chao has it, as well, but I have to say it is not as good as the garlic sirloin that we had at the Rodozio Grill in Denver.  Even though it was still flavorful, it didn't have that intense garlic taste like we found on our visits to Rodozio Grill.   

As always, we left there walking slow back to hotel, completely stuffed and vowing to never have meat the rest of our visit in Atlanta.   Little did I know that two nights later I had to go back. 

Gary Lahmers, the buyer from American TV, made a date with my colleague, John, and me to go out to dinner while we were at the CEDIA Expo.  We were initially scheduled to go to South City Kitchen, a contemporary Southern-style restaurant that Gary knew of.  I was really looking forward to going there for dinner.   However, an 11th hour change by Gary put us back at Fogo de Chao.  Oh, my GOD!!! NOOO!!!  I was highly disappointed.  I decided then and there that I would do what Fogo de Chao wants you to do in the first place - belly up to the salad bar and go nuts.  

There were six of us - we invited Dominic Baker to join us, and Gary had a couple colleagues that he brought along.  John, also, was not planning on participating in the intense meat overload that we experienced just two nights before.  "Yeah, I think your idea of grazing over the salad bar is a good idea," he said before we sat down.  

The salad bar at Fogo de Chao is huge.  It features different types of greens for a variety of salads, fresh veggies, cured meats and a ton of domestic and imported cheese to choose from.  One could very easily pig out on the salad bar without having any of meat brought to your table and walk away stuffed.  While I didn't say "no" to the waiter when the skewers of filet and garlic sirloin came around, I limited my meat input that evening.  I hit the salad bar a couple times and had three or four cuts of meat.  It was still too much.  Along with three bottles of a great French Cabernet that Dominic picked out, we had a great time that evening.

Dominic, who has eaten at the Fogo de Chao's in Brazil, still thinks the ones in the U.S. are better.  "That one we went to in Chicago was just outstanding.  That may be the best Fogo de Chao I've ever eaten at," he told our group.  And Dominic likes to eat steak.  We traveled for a week together a few years ago and every night he had steak.  He told me at the time, "You just don't get beef like this in Europe."

Fogo de Chao is a fun place.  It has everything that you expect from a quality restaurant - good food, good wine, good service, good ambiance.  But it's a different type of restaurant compared to other steak houses.  With over 20 locations in both the U.S. and Brazil, it's quite possibly the most famous of all the Brazilian steak houses in existence.  You'll never go hungry when you go to a Fogo de Chao.     

Cool River Cafe - Denver

It what has turned out to be an annual event in Denver, the Colorado Audio Society, in conjunction with Red Rock Audio, hosts the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival at the Marriott in the heart of the Tech Center in the southeast part of the city.  It went from a very basic gathering of high-end, tweaky audio companies to what could now be called the biggest high-end audio show in the United States.  (Stereophile used to put on an annual high-end audio show that would be either in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, but that has been defunct now for a couple years.)  Nearly 4000 people attended the show in early October looking at products from over 200 firms. 

We were there in full force with new products from Focal, Pathos and Micromega.  We had our own room on the main floor, but also had some of our Focal Utopia Be III products that were shown in conjunction with Audio Unlimited from Denver.  John Barnes and Carl Jerritts from Audio Unlimited featured the $180,000 Focal Utopia Grande EM loudspeakers, and it was the North American debut of the new Focal Maestro Utopia loudspeakers - a bargain at a mere $50,000. 

Now, the crowd of high-end audio enthusiasts, some of whom I'd classify as audiophiles, is a broad and somewhat rather different crowd.  You'll see all types of people, all dressed in God-awful clothes.   I saw guys in shorts wearing black dress shoes and white socks, one 60-something guy was sporting mullet of gray hair, earthy ladies in hemp dresses were prevalent, and fat guys with ill-fitting Hawaiian shirts were there.  One guy, I shit you not, was wearing black pants with a silver metal belt and the buckle was the size of a satellite dish.  And he was wearing pointy alligator shoes.  I mean, LONG pointy alligator shoes.  Who dresses these people? 

Then you had the smug assholes in horn-rimmed glasses, wearing old tweed jackets who were self-professed audiophiles, but really weren't.  And, of course, you had the propeller-head nerds who spent hours upon hours in their parent's basement memorizing each and every detail of some product, then asking inane questions to the manufacturers present to try and trip them up.  As you can tell, I wasn't impressed with many of the attendees. 

This was my first trip to the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival.  Actually, I had hoped to be going back to New York for the AES Convention a week after the Denver show, but my boss determined that my hips were good enough to do some heavy lifting and moving.  So, I was tabbed to be part of the group that went to Denver.  That's OK, that afforded me a chance to get back to my favorite burger place in the world, the Cherry Cricket.  (We visited the Cricket twice, so more on that later.)

But I came here today to not talk about the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest as much as I wanted to tell you about a place that we went to for dinner one evening - the Cool River Cafe.  The restaurant was not far from the Tech Center area in the southeast Denver suburb of Greenwood Village (see map).   We took John Barnes, his wife, Pam; and Carl Jerritts, and his wife, Christine, and one of their employees there for dinner one evening.  John was one of the dealers who we took to France in the summer of 2008 to unveil the new Focal Utopia III loudspeakers.  I'd met Carl before, but only in passing. 

Now, Christine Jerritts - or I should say Dr. Christine Jerritts - is one interesting woman.  From the first meeting and initial conversations I had with her, I had no idea that she was a leading mathematician and also an open wheel race car driver.  Actually, I knew the wife of one of our dealers was a race car driver, but I didn't realize until later on that it was Christine.   Christine was so unassuming, had a good sense of humor and could actually carry on a conversation without sounding professorial.  It turns out that Carl is her crew chief and head mechanic.  "Just a nice little weekend diversion for us," Carl said.

There were ten of us for dinner at the Cool River Cafe - an upscale Southwestern cuisine/Steak house that is based out of Dallas.  There's one Cool River Cafe location in Dallas, and there's also a Cool River Cafe in Austin, TX.  The restaurants are under the direction of the Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc.  Consolidated Restaurants, or C.R.O. is an investment group headed by John Harkey.  They also operate the Cantina Laredo and El Chico Mexican restaurants, and also own upscale restaurants such as III Forks and Silver Fox Cafe.

We had a reservation for 8 p.m. at Cool River Cafe, but they weren't ready to seat us.  I passed the time having a beer and talking with John and Carl's guy, whose name escapes me.  We waited patiently as our table was readied and we finally were seated around 8:30.  The manager apologized profusely for the delay and he bought us all a round of drinks and gave us some complementary appetizers for our wait.  Now, that was a classy move to say the least.

The main dining room at Cool River Cafe is very elegant and chic.  It has sort of an old world steak house feel to the place, but with some Southwestern decor splashed in.  The lighting is subdued and the ambiance is rather comfortable.  I could tell that a good meal was about to be had.

We were given menus and told of some of the specials that evening.  I was in the mood for a steak and that is the highlight on the menu.  They also featured some seafood items, pork chops, rack of lamb and some interesting entrees such as Chicken-fried Venison, Peach chicken, and short rib Pot Roast.  You also had your choice of side items with the entree such as six-cheese scalloped potatoes, cilantro basmati rice and sweet potato hash.

Our free appetizers came to the table while we were looking at our menus.  They gave us calimari, crab cake and a couple orders of their Absolut Peppar shrimp cocktail.  The calimari was outstanding, the crab cakes were flavorful and rich, and the shrimp were very large.  Coupled with the Absolut Peppar-infused cocktail sauce, they, too, were very good.  But the large portions of appetizers they brought out to us pretty much ruled out a chance for me to get a wedge salad.  It would have been too much food before the main entree.

I ended up ordering the 16 oz. tenderloin filet - rare plus.  We all decided to just order a number of sides as they were served family-style and one portion was way too much for just one or two people.  Christine Jerritts said, "I could just eat their six cheese mac and cheese for dinner.  It's the best mac and cheese I've ever had!"

We spent the time before our food showed up talking and I got to know Carl and Christine a little better.  They were talking about the places they've been to for racing.  But most of the races they compete in are around the Colorado area.  Carl said, "We'll go out and do road races like up at Elkhart Lake.  But there aren't a lot of road courses out this way."

I told them that I'd been up to Elkhart Lake to look at the track during our trip to Door County last summer.  He said, "We may get back up there next summer.  If we do, we'll let you know so you can come up and watch Christine race."

Our food showed up and I was ready.  My beef tenderloin filet was on the more done side of rare, which is exactly what rare plus should be.  (Rare plus, I've found, gives you the best of rare cooked meat, but with a little more a warm center.)  And it was juicy, tender and flavorful.

The sides we ordered up were pretty damn good.  Christine wasn't kidding about the six cheese mac and cheese - it was very good, and I'm not a big mac and cheese guy.  I also liked the sweet potato hash, and I had bites of the white cheddar and chives creamed corn, the creamed spinach and the six cheese scalloped potatoes.  The scalloped potatoes were the best of the bunch, in my opinion.  But they were so rich and heavy that I limited myself to only a couple three bites.

The 16 oz. filet proved to be more than enough food, however.  When the waiter came around to ask for dessert, I said, "No, way.  I'm stuffed."

My boss, Daniel, who was seated across the table from me said, "Oh, come on!  Not even any creme brulee?"

(It's a standard joke in our company about me and creme brulee.  On my first trip to France in 2003, I literally had creme brulee as a dessert every time it was offered on the menu.  I love creme brulee and I had some of the best creme brulee on that trip.)

John Barnes came up to me after dinner as we were leaving and said, "So, did this meet with your approval?"

 I couldn't lie - Cool River Cafe was well above average.  The steak was delicious and we had great service from our waiter.  They had an interesting menu and wonderful food.  Cool River Cafe was a fun place and they took very good care of us.  I would have no qualms about recommending Cool River Cafe for a very good meal.

Cerar's Barnstormer - Monmouth, IL

When I was having trouble with my car earlier this summer, the car dealership I had originally bought the car from was located in Monmouth, IL.  We were talking to our neighbor, Ann Blough, about having to take the loaner car back down to Monmouth and pick up my car.  She said, "Oh, my gosh!  Have you guys ever tried that restaurant down there in Monmouth?  It's on the west side of town and, oh my gosh, is it wonderful!" 

She went on and on about this place and Cindy asked her what the name was.  Ann said, "Geez, I don't know.  But you can't miss it.  It's on the west side of town by the highway."

Monmouth isn't that big, so we figured any nice place along the by-pass on the west side of town would be easy to find.  After getting my car back from the dealership, we took off in search of the "great" restaurant.  And we did find it rather easily - Cerar's Barnstormer.  (See map)

Now, I used to drive on the Highway 67 by-pass for years when I worked for a couple companies based out of St. Louis.  Not once did I ever notice Cerar's Barnstormer, nor had I ever heard about it.  And it's been there since the mid-80's!  While it's sort of tucked back from the by-pass, it's still rather visible from the road.  It's not so surprising to my wife, however, who has said that I wouldn't notice a pink elephant in a tu-tu if it were walking down the street.  She says I'm not very observant. 

Restaurant veteran Bernie Cerar opened Cerar's Barnstormer in 1985 near the site of what was the old Monmouth airport - hence, the "barnstormer" moniker.  The restaurant is decorated with pictures and models of planes as a tribute to some of the daring pioneers of the air that flew out of the small airfield near where Cerar's is located.  Bernie Cerar retired in 1999 after 40 years in the restaurant business.  His son, Kevin, took over the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

We got into Cerar's around 6 p.m. and we were were greeted at the host stand by Kevin Cerar, who, in a booming voice, said, "Folks!  Welcome to Cerar's!  How many tonight?"   It sounded more like an announcement than a greeting, but it also came off as very sincere.  I immediately liked the guy. 

We were seated in Cerar's main dining room.  The decor looked like it hadn't changed since the day they opened over 24 years ago.  Not that there was anything wrong with that.  I sort of like old steak houses/supper clubs and Cerar's had that old time feel to the place. 

We were given menusand we were soon greeted by our waitress.  Cerar's menu is varied and very typical of the supper clubs you find throughout the Midwest in these smaller towns.  Beef and seafood are prominent, but they also feature chicken, pork, sandwiches, salads and a raft of appetizers.  Cindy ordered up a house Cabernet while I had a beer - I'd just driven about 1300 miles in four days.  

Although Ann told us that their pork chops were to "die for", I was looking at some of the beef offerings Cerar's had on the menu.  But one seafood thing caught my eye - the Blackened Cajun Combination.  They would take a salmon filet, season it with cajun spices, then pan sear the fish in a cast iron skillet.  They'd serve it with shrimp sauteed in white wine, lemon, cajun spices and a dash of Tabasco sauce.  And for a finale, they'd pour the cajun sauce over the fish and shrimp.  Oh man!  Did that sound good.

I did find the pork chops that Ann was talking about on the menu.  It's a grilled thick cut chop served with scalloped apples.  You could get it blackened with cajun spices, as well.  I thought about it for a minute, but I went back to looking at the beef.

Cindy, on the other hand, was looking for seafood.  Cerar's had plenty of seafood to choose from on the menu.  Lobster, shrimp, salmon, even farm-raised catfish.  But she found the orange roughy on the menu and decided that's what she was going to get.  

I found what I was going to get - the roasted beef tenderloin.  I like a good, thick steak that is cooked indirectly over water on a Weber grill.  Cindy sort of likes the steaks cooked directly over a flame, but every once in a while I want to taste the full flavor of the steak without the taste you sometimes get when cooking it direct. 

Cerar's bastes their roasted beef tenderloin filet in olive oil, then season the beef with rosemary and their special spices.  The filet is pan cooked and they keep all the oil and juices to be poured over the steak when it's put on the plate. 

Cindy and I finished our garden salads before the meal and the waitress came and said our entrees should be up at any time.  I ordered a glass of the house Cabernet like Cindy had which was pretty good for a house wine. 

It wasn't long after that when our meals showed up.  Cindy's orange roughy was a large filet and was not fishy smelling or tasting in the least.  She said, "Oh, boy.  This is really good."

My roasted beef tenderloin filet was very, very good.  It was juicy and tender, and the oil and juices from the pan that they put on top of the steak before serving didn't take away any of the original meat flavor.  It was a very pleasant surprise. 

Cerar's began to fill up pretty quickly as we were finishing our meals.  I can understand why they do the business they do and have been for over 20 years. 

I asked the waitress if I could get a copy of the menu.  She said the only ones they had were the original menus, they didn't have a "to-go" menu printed up.  She left for a moment to check to see if she could get one for me.  A few minutes later, Kevin Cerar came up to our table with a menu.  He said, "Are you like me and like to collect menus?" 

I explained to him that I was somewhat of an amateur food critic and that I liked to tell people about the places I've visited.  He said, "So, how did we do?  Was everything perfect?"

I said, "This was excellent.  The food was great, the service was great.  I love the ambiance of old places like this.  Don't worry, you got a high grade in my book."

Kevin laughed and said, "Well, I hope that you come to visit us again."   

And we will. 

I love finding old supper club-style steak houses in little towns or out in the middle of nowhere.  Cerar's was a pleasant surprise to find, considering I'd been driving past the place for years not knowing that one of the best steak houses in Western Illinois was just off Highway 67 on the west side of Monmouth.  It's worth the drive to go to Cerar's Barnstormer. 

Johnny's Italian Steakhouse - West Des Moines, IA

I recently took a dealer and his wife out to dinner at Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in suburban West Des Moines (see map).  I'd eaten at the Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Moline before, and they suggested dinner at the one in West Des Moines.  We had some business to discuss and I thought it would be a good choice for a good dinner and some quiet conversation.

Johnny's Italian Steakhouse is part of the Heart of America chain of restaurants and hotels owned and run by Quad City native Mike Whalen.  Whalen got his start in the restaurant business by opening the original Machine Shed restaurant in Davenport back in the late 70's.  Two of his Machine Shed restaurants - the other one is in the Des Moines suburb of Clive - are the highest volume restaurants in the state of Iowa.  Whalen was most recently known in our area as the failed Republican candidate for Congress in 2008. 

Johnny's Italian Steakhouse is designed to be an upscale restaurant, reminiscent of old time big city Italian restaurants that served steaks, seafood and pasta.  The decor is what I would describe as a muted formal with large dark wood tables, dark pastel walls with tasteful lighting, and comfortable seating.   In addition to the West Des Moines and Moline locations, there are Johnny's Italian Steakhouses in Middleton, WI, Peoria, IL, Omaha, NE, and another location in Des Moines near the airport. 

The Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in West Des Moines is attached to a Holiday Inn, not far from Jordan Creek Mall.  It's just one of a number of restaurants that have sprouted up in the immediate area over the past few years.  I was staying at another hotel close-by, so I ran over to the Holiday Inn to meet my dealer and his wife.  When I got there, the large bar area that is in front of the dining area at Johnny's was packed.  I didn't have reservations, but the hostess said we could have immediate seating for three when my dealer and his wife showed up.  It wasn't much longer before they showed up and we were shown to a booth toward the back of the restaurant. 

We were handed menus and a wine list.  Our waiter was a nice young guy who was being shadowed by a young girl who was in training to be a waitress.  Both were dressed in formal attire and were very friendly.  They brought out a basket of fresh baked bread with olive oil and fresh parmesan for us to munch on prior to ordering.  I immediately ordered a bottle of the Franciscan Cabernet while we looked over our menus for dinner. 

One thing that I immediately recognized on the menu was something I'd had when I first ate at the Johnny's in Moline a few years ago - Johnny's Filet Medallion Trio - three small beef tenderloin filets that were topped and encrusted, one with horseradish, one with Maytag Blue Cheese, and one with parmesan cheese.  It was very good, but it was unbelievably rich.  Since I was still sort of on my diet, I crossed that off my list right off the bat. 

Johnny's also features monthly specials that range from steak dishes to seafood to pasta dishes to some Italian specialty, such as a veal plate.  None of the special featured entrees tripped my trigger that evening, so I focused on a couple things on the main menu. 

The steaks definitely caught my eye, but I was more in the mood for chicken.  Johnny's famous Steak De Burgo was calling my name, but I kept looking at the Chicken piccata - a grilled chicken breast topped with a white wine and lemon piccata sauce and served with a side of broccoli.  That's what I ended up ordering when they took my order.  I also got a dinner salad that is usually served family style, but my dealer and his wife ended up getting French onion soup, so they just did all the fixin's for me back in the kitchen. 

My dealer's wife has two favorite things on the menu - Johnny's Veal Sinatra, which consists of veal slices topped with shrimp, crab, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and basil - and Johnny's Chanel No. 5, which is a pasta dish featuring lobster, shrimp, artichokes, proscuitto and cheese ravioli.  But one of the specials that evening was a dish consisting of crab-stuffed shrimp with a side of mixed vegetables.  That's what she ended up getting. 

My dealer was in a quandary.  He said, "Chicken sounds good tonight.  I always get the steak here.  I'm going to break the monotony and get chicken."   He ended up getting the chicken marsala with asparagus spears. 

We worked through our soups and salads having a business conversation and catching up on what was going on.   Johnny's Italian Steakhouse turned out to be a great place to do a business dinner.  It wasn't loud, there were minimal distractions and the service was polished with no hint of pushiness. 

Our main entrees showed up and I was disappointed in the size of the portion of chicken breasts I had on my plate.  Actually, instead of one whole medium-sized chicken breast, there were three smaller "medallions" doused in the lemon piccata sauce.  They were still very good, but I just felt the portions were a little skimpy.

My dealer said his chicken marsala was good, but also commented on the size of the three small chicken portions on his plate.  "It's like someone ate part of the meal on the way to the table," he exclaimed.

There was no disappointment in his wife's voice, however.  The four stuffed shrimp she declared as "out of this world."  She said, "I love this place.  I've never had a bad meal each time we've come here."  

I didn't think my meal was bad, I just didn't think it was that great of a value.  Even trying to cut smaller bites of the chicken and doing most of the talking during dinner, I was finished in well under 10 minutes.  Had I been on my own and not talking, I'm sure the meal would have been done in under three minutes.

With the wine and a nice tip for the waiter, our bill came to about $135 bucks.  Once again, I didn't think it was that good of a value.  But the food - what there was of it - was very good, the service was wonderful and the surroundings were inviting.  However, I don't think I'm going to be searching out a Johnny's Italian Steakhouse anytime soon.  I just think there are places that are just as nice as Johnny's with greater food values.  

J. Gilberts Wood Fired Steaks - Overland Park, KS

It's been a busy summer for me trying to line up new dealers in Midwest.  One of my longtime dealers in Kansas City decided to retire and close his doors earlier this year, so I've been scrambling to find a new dealer to take his place in the city.  I was able to find two gentlemen - one of whom is an audio/video industry veteran - who were combining their talents to open a new store later this fall and who were interested in carrying some of my products.  I suggested we get together for dinner one evening and they suggested J. Gilbert's, which was not too far from their new store front. 

Now, I've been going to Kansas City since the late 70's and have been there on a regular basis for a number of years on business.  I know I have driven past J. Gilbert's many times while going down Metcalf Ave. (see map), but never knew it was there.  It's sort of set off Metcalf a bit so if you're not looking for it, it's tough to see.  But it's been there for quite sometime, so I'm rather mystified that A) I've never seen it during my travels to K.C.; B) I've never eaten there before; and C) I've never even heard of the place.

J. Gilbert's is a traditional old time steak house that hearkens back to how steak houses used to be in the 60's - rustic interior with dark wood paneling and subdued lighting.  Waiters and waitresses are in formal attire and are very attentive to their customer's needs.  J. Gilbert's boasts some of the finest aged prime center-cut beef, and they grill their meats over an open wood fire. 

J. Gilbert's is named after longtime Kansas City restaurateur, Joe Gilbert, who started the Gilbert/Robinson chain of restaurants in the early 60's.  At one point in time, the Gilbert/Robinson chain had over 60 restaurants throughout the Midwest, primarily owning Houlihan's and Darryl's casual style restaurants.  Gilbert/Robinson was bought in 1978 and was subsequently renamed the Houlihan's Restaurant Group in the mid-90's.  Houlihan's continues to own the J. Gilbert's restaurants.   In addition to the Overland Park location, you can find a J. Gilbert's in such diverse locations as Glatonbury, CT, McLean, VA, and Worthington, OH.   

I met up with my two dinner guests at J. Gilbert's just around 7 p.m. and immediately ordered up a bottle of wine - a Franciscan Cabernet - just because it had been a long day for me.  We made small talk as we looked over the menu.  I immediately liked J. Gilbert's for the decor and coziness of the place.  I remarked to my guests, "I never knew this was here.  I can't believe how many times I've probably passed this place over the years and never even heard of the place." 

One of my guests said, "This is a very underrated place here in Kansas City.  With all the steak houses this town has, a lot of people don't appreciate this place like I do." 

In addition to steaks, J. Gilbert's also features seafood, including fresh lobster, salmon, shrimp and scallops.  They also have short ribs, chicken and pork chops on the menu.  The menu is diverse so that if one isn't even looking for meat, they can also have salads or a grilled vegetable platter.  

They had a "fixed price" menu at J. Gilbert's that evening where you had your pick of four entrees and sides, plus a choice of salad and a dessert for $33 bucks.  One of the items on the menu was a 10 oz, KC strip steak with a choice of potato.  It was such a good deal, we all three went that route.  We each ordered the KC strip.  I ordered up J. Gilbert's signature poblano au gratin potatoes.  I also ordered their wedge salad and for dessert I got the creme brulee.  

The wedge salad was very good - the homemade blue cheese dressing was very flavorful and tangy.  The wedge wasn't overly huge, so there would be room for my steak when it arrived.  

We talked business up to and into receiving our main entrees.  My steak was exactly as I ordered - a wonderful rare that was filled with juices and seasonings.  I was very impressed with the steak.  It was lean, tender and very flavorful.  And I really liked the poblano au gratin potatoes, even though I didn't come close to finishing them.  (I had cut back on potatoes during my diet phase and I don't miss them all that much.)  But it was all so wonderful.  I said to my guests, "I just can't believe that I've never heard of this place before!"   

We continued to talk business up through dessert and well after.  The couple bites I had of my creme brulee pretty much told me it was good - not the best I'd ever had, but good.  The restaurant closed at 10 p.m. and we were still there talking well past that.  I think we finally left around 10:45, but continued to talk in the parking lot for another half-hour.  The dinner must have helped - I received their financials and a commitment to two of our lines that evening, with a possibility of more lines going into their store later on. 

In a city that possibly has more world-class steak houses, per capita, than any other place in the nation, I have to say that J. Gilbert's acquitted themselves very well.  I've since been back there one more time and it was just as good as my initial visit.  My guest was right - J. Gilbert's is very underrated when it comes to steak houses in Kansas City.  I certainly haven't been disappointed during my visits. 

 

Mike Shannon's - St. Louis

We made our annual trip to St. Louis to see the Cardinals earlier this summer with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder. Actually, I was already in St. Louis on business, so Scott and Marcia drove Cindy down with them. After the Friday night game, we decided to eat dinner at a place that we've always wanted to try - Mike Shannon's. It's just a short walk from Busch Stadium over to Mike Shannon's, a popular place for fans and ballplayers, alike, after a game.

Mike Shannon is a former Cardinal baseball player who has been the lead announcer for their radio broadcasts since 2002. Before that, he was paired for 30 years with the great Jack Buck before Buck's death in 2001. Shannon is a native of St. Louis, was a big sports star while in high school before going on to the University of Missouri to play both football and baseball. Shannon was a budding superstar in football when he decided to quit school and sign a professional baseball contract with the Cardinals. Shannon has said in the past that he probably would have stayed at Mizzou and played football had the salaries in professional football been better back in the 50's. But baseball paid more back then. And that still wasn't very much.

Mike Shannon's style of announcing is down-home and folksy, but he is also known for his malaprop's. Some of his doozies over the years are:

"The Yankees and the Mets are playing at Shea tonight. After four innings, New York leads 3-2."

"We have Rick Ankiel on the mound tonight, pitching on his twenty-first birthday. Yessir, folks, this young man, just as of today, is old enough to vote!"

"The outfield is deep and playing him straight-away, and the infield is the same, except first, second, third, and short are playing him to pull."

But he's also come up with some good lines along the way, such as:

"A hit up the middle right now would be like a nice ham sandwich and a cold, frosty one."

"I said something yesterday about letting sleeping dogs lie, and this time the dog's on the porch grabbing the newspaper and stealing the baby!"

"He was trying to hit a three-run homer with the bases empty. To my knowledge, no one in the history of the game has ever done that. But it could happen someday. You never know in this world of baseball."

Cardinal fans take Mike Shannon in stride and acknowledge his deficiencies behind the mic. But don't let a fan from another team criticize Shannon. Then the Cardinal fans turn venomous. They'll say, "Yes, Shannon's an idiot, but he's OUR idiot!"

After watching the Cardinals get smoked by the Colorado Rockies, we walked over to Mike Shannon's for an after game dinner. Shannon's is located in the former Mark Twain Bank building at the corner of 7th and Market. (See map) Mike Shannon's moved to their present location in 2006 just as the new Busch Stadium was getting ready to open. Their old location - in which they were in for about 20 years - was just a block away, across Kiener Plaza at 7th and Chestnut. Mike Shannon's also boasts The Outfield in what used to be an enclosed parking area on the back side of the building facing Busch Stadium.

While Mike Shannon does show up from time to time, he really doesn't have much to do with the day-to-day operation of the business. For that, he relies upon his daughter, Pat Shannon-Van Matre (right), who has been in charge of the restaurant for over 10 years. Her son, Gary Van Matre, is the general manager for Shannon's. Nick Zotos, who worked as an executive chef for the upscale steak house chain Smith and Wollensky for a number of years, is the executive chef at Shannon's.

Although Mike Shannon's is a pretty fancy place, the maitre d' welcomed us to the place even though we had Cardinals t-shirts and shorts on. We were seated in the large dining room with ceiling to floor windows looking out into Kiener Plaza. The tables were large and covered with fine linen. The chairs were comfy. As we were seated, a man came out and placed our napkins on our laps for us. This was a real high brow joint, I'm tellin' you.

We looked through the menu and while we knew the prices would be high, even I choked a little bit at some of the prices. Their beef tenderloin filet was $48 bucks. Whoa. They also had a 34 oz. "club cut" bone-on rib eye that was $80 dollars! Oh man! They had a number of sides including baked and mashed potatoes, wild rice, asparagus, onion strings, creamed spinach - all of which were $8 dollars. Except for the Lobster macaroni and cheese. That was $12 bucks. Of course, Cindy spotted the Lobster mac and cheese and asked if we could get that as a side.

Our waiter came over and took drink orders and gave us a run down of their specials that evening. Actually, their appetizers including something called "Tuna - Two Ways", as well as carpaccio, calimari and Cajun shrimp all sounded interesting. But the one thing I wanted to see was the "64", a large amount of chilled seafood served over crushed ice. And Shannon's wanted $64 bucks for that. Nope, not tonight.

Over in the corner of the restaurant, a radio crew had set up for the after game radio show that Mike Shannon does on Friday nights after home games. It wasn't long after we got there that Mike Shannon, himself, showed up and walked over to the table to talk with the guys. I've seen Shannon a number of times from far away, but never up this close. I was actually amazed at how big of a guy he is. (6'3", about 220.) He's in his early 70's and looks like he could still go out and smack a fastball up against the wall.

We ordered up our food. Cindy and Marcia each got the beef medallions - small tenderloins topped with Bleu cheese, with a truffled marscapone potato cake, with confit Roma tomato. Scott got the 16 oz. bone-in New York strip steak, and I went with the 16 oz. dry-aged organic rib eye. I also got a wedge salad to go with the steak. Oh, and we had to order the Lobster mac and cheese to satisfy Cindy's curiosity.

During the radio broadcast, another gentleman in a cowboy hat walked into Shannon's and made his way over to the round table where Shannon was conducting his radio show. It turns out it was Tracy Ringolsby, a former writer for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, and one of the founders of Baseball America. Ringolsby also founded and writes columns for Inside the Rockies, a web site devoted to the Colorado Rockies baseball team, and is also enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame with his 2005 J.G. Taylor Spink Award given to baseball writers who excel in their writing. Our table was across the room and we couldn't hear the conversations going on, but we could hear the occasional loud laughter coming from the table.

I got my wedge salad and dug in. I have to say it was very, very good. The bleu cheese was very flavorful, as were the small bits of real bacon on the top of the wedge. Even though it was a good sized wedge, I made short work of the salad.

During a break in the broadcast, Mike Shannon got up and started to go around to individual tables to great the customers. He came over to our table and said, "Did you folks go to that sorry game tonight?"

Scott said, "Oh, yeah. Only I wouldn't use the term 'sorry'. I was thinking of something stronger than that."

Mike Shannon got a hearty laugh on that one. "Yeah, me too," he laughed. "Only it wouldn't be for mixed company."

It wasn't long after I finished my wedge salad that our steaks showed up. We were all pretty hungry, so we dug right in. Right away, Cindy declared the beef medallions to be "great!" She marveled at how tender and flavorful they were. Marcia agreed wholeheartedly with Cindy's assessment.

Scott literally tore into his bone-in strip steak and was very impressed with the taste. My organic rib eye. It was good. Not the best steak I ever had, but very good. I don't know if it was worth the $34 bucks or whatever they charged for it, but the ambiance and service was definitely worth it.

Cindy had me try a couple bites of the Lobster mac and cheese. It featured bites of real lobster meat mixed in with macaroni noodles and a multi-cheese sauce. It thought it was OK, nothing to write home about. It was very rich and all I needed was a couple bites before I knew that it was probably overpriced for what it was.

As we finished up our meal, Mike Shannon was wrapping up his radio show. He stopped by our table and asked how our dinner was. We made some more small talk and I said, "Hey, Mike! Can we get your picture?"

Scott, who is a huge Cardinals fan, jumped up to get his picture taken with Mike Shannon. We had Cindy's camera for the weekend - the nice little Panasonic "point-and-shoot" that we had taken with us to Savannah on vacation. It takes good pictures. But for some reason, I couldn't get the flash to go off - even when I thought I had it on the flash setting. I took three pictures of Shannon and Scott standing there, each time the flash didn't go off. Finally, Shannon said, "I've got to go, folks." And he followed a lady (who may have been his daughter) outside to an SUV parked in front of the restaurant in a loading zone. Shannon hopped in the passenger side and took off. I tried to clean up the pictures a bit and this was the best one of Mike Shannon and Scott. It didn't turn out too bad, but that light behind them screwed up the pic.

Before we left, we took a look around different parts of the restaurant to look at all the baseball memorabilia they had on display. Shannon's also features a couple of "private" rooms where baseball players, celebrities and dignitaries can eat without fans coming up and hounding them for autographs. Shannon's also has a large and very vibrant bar area to the right of the main entrance. There were a lot of people in there after the game. It's also known to Cardinals fans as a popular watering hole for some of the Cardinals players after the game.

All in all, Mike Shannon's was very good. Very expensive - but very good. I know that Scott had been wanting to go to Shannon's for dinner for quite sometime. (We tried to get into Mike Shannon's old location a few years ago for lunch, but they weren't open that day.) The service was wonderful, the decor was very classy, the memorabilia was to die for if you're a baseball fan. And on top of all that, we got to meet and talk with Mike Shannon. If you're a big Cardinals - or even baseball fan - Shannon's is a great place to visit. But if you're looking for a good to very good meal and money is no object, Shannon's is tough to beat.

The Tornado Steak House - Madison, WI

During my convalescing from my hip replacement surgeries, our company signed a deal with American TV in Madison, WI to carry some Focal and Cambridge Audio products in their 15 stores. My colleague, John Bevier, who had a previous relationship with American TV's new buyer, Gary Lahmers, when Gary was one of the senior buyers for the now-defunct Tweeter stores, got the ball rolling and we got some products placed in their main store in Madison. John made plans to go to Madison to do some training and I thought that since I was going to be the ones calling on all the stores, I'd better go up and participate in the training, as well. This was the first long trip for me, even before I got my "official" release from my doctor.

On my way to Madison, I was in contact with John who said that Gary wanted to go out to dinner that evening with us. John, who was in a layover in Detroit, said that he didn't know where Gary wanted to go, but said he'd call me as soon as he found out after he landed in Madison. Along about 7:30 p.m., John called me and said, "Well, Gary also has a couple of other guys with him. And we're meeting at some place called the Tornado Steak House in downtown Madison." Well, I'd been coming to Madison for years and I'd never heard of the place before. But knowing Gary Lahmers' penchant for fine food, I'm sure it had to be good. I punched up OnStar and had them direct me to the Tornado Steak House.

I pulled up in front of the Tornado Steak House, just southwest of the Capitol Square in downtown Madison (see map). John was standing out front, talking on his phone to his wife while waiting for me to show up. John hadn't seen me since January of this year and I'd lost 45 pounds since then. He was absolutely blown away when he saw me. He said, "You are such a skinny son-of-a-bitch!" Obviously, I'm still not skinny, but 45 pounds lost is beginning to be noticeable.

We went inside the Tornado and looked around for Gary and the other guys that were there with him. The Tornado has a large bar area in the back - which was packed; and a pretty good sized dining area with dark lighting, white linen tablecloths and knotty pine hardwood walls. It was the quintessential Midwestern steak house.

We found Gary and the two other guys - Dan and Adrian from Sonos, a company that makes wireless whole-house solutions - at a big table in what would be the front corner of the dining room. The waitress handed us our menus and asked if we'd like something to drink. We all decided that wine was going to be the drink of choice, so Gary picked out an Oren Swift Papillon red blend to try.

Steak is the king at the Tornado and their signature steak is a 20 oz. bone-in tenderloin. They also have a 28 oz. ribeye on the bone, as well. But they also have just regular tenderloins, a strip steak and a t-bone steak on the menu. They also had a special that evening - a 10 oz. grass-fed tenderloin filet topped with a creamy peppercorn au poivre sauce, placed in a bed of grilled mushrooms. In addition to steak, the Tornado has seafood including salmon, walleye and Alaskan king crab; and they also have an interesting mix of wild game such as duck breast, a venison filet and rabbit.

And the Tornado is also known for their appetizers which include frog legs, Oysters Rockefeller, and something called the Seafood Tower that features fresh chilled seafood on a layered server. The Tornado also features an appetizer that I don't see very often in the states - Coquille Saint Jacques. I had Coquille (Co-KEEL) Saint Jacque on my first trip to Montreal in 2002. It consists of poached scallops or shrimp in a white wine sauce, then placed in a dish with a cream sauce and covered with a layer of mashed potatoes, then broiled quickly in the oven. Oh, it's very good, but - OH! - so filling.

We decided against getting appetizers because the steaks were so big. I knew I couldn't go for the 20 oz. bone-in filet, that would be too much food. So I went with the 10 oz special filet they had that evening. Gary said they had a tendency to under cook the steaks at the Tornado, but I still went ahead and ordered mine medium-rare. If they're going to err on one side or the other, I'd rather have them under cook the steak.

Gary and Adrian went with the bone-in tenderloin filet, while John also got the 10 oz special grass-fed filet. Dan ordered up the 16 oz. New York Strip. You get your choice of sides such as either a baked potato, hash browns or steak fries; or you can order asparagus, brussel sprouts or green beans. I went with asparagus. A dinner salad with balsamic vinaigrette comes with the meal.

I found the wine to be a little heavy, yet sort of flat and lifeless. And being the wine-head that he is, Gary, obviously, felt so, too. He determined the wine was probably too young to drink and asked the waitress to see the wine list again so he could get something else. The second wine he ordered, which I can't remember what it was, was much better than the Oren Swift blend.

The conversation while we had our salad was wide and varied. It turned out that Dan and I had probably met before as he had been an audio-video industry veteran for a number of years. We knew a lot of the same people and we exchanged stories about some of the more notorious people we'd worked with over the years. And getting together with the guys from Sonos also opened a door to some merchandising ideas where we could team Focal speakers with their little kiosk displays.

Our steaks came out and my special grass-fed filet with the au poivre sauce appeared in front of me. It was fabulous looking and I couldn't wait to get a fork and knife into it. Now, grass-fed beef is making a big comeback in some Midwestern restaurants. It's generally sort of tough, but this piece of meat was very tender and the au poivre sauce was a great complement to the taste. And Gary was right - the medium-rare was more rare than medium. I didn't mind it a bit.

But the hit at the table were the Tornado's signature 20 oz bone-in filet. Adrian, who hails from Massachusetts, was floored when the waitress set his steak down in front of him. Here's a picture - albeit somewhat blurry - that Adrian took on his cell phone of his steak. It was truly a large hunk of meat. While a lot of the 20 oz. listed is in the bone, there's a lot of meat to eat. Adrian was able to eat the whole thing. He said, "We just don't get good steaks like this back home."

Although the waitress tempted me with dessert, I passed on the last course. A couple of the guys did order up a couple things - a decadent chocolate cake dessert and a cheesecake covered in raspberries. I just sat back, let my steak digest and finished up the wonderful wine in my glass.

John and Dan split the check 50-50 so both companies weren't saddled with a $400 plus bill with tax. I thought it to be a little high priced for Madison, but it was still very good.

For as many times that I've been to Madison, I still find that I'm rather in the dark when it comes to some of the more fine dining establishments the town has to offer - especially downtown. I learned on this trip, however, that there is more than one very good steak house in downtown Madison. And the Tornado Steak House is one of them. I'm looking forward to going back and trying a couple more of them out with Gary in future trips to Madison.

The Steakhouse at Circus Circus - Las Vegas

The Steakhouse at Circus Circus in Las Vegas is one of my all-time favorite steak houses.  Being the sort of "defacto" restaurant guide for our company while we're in Las Vegas for CES, I've wanted to take my colleagues to the Steak House for quite sometime.  I made a reservation for 10 the day I got to Las Vegas.  I was fortunate to get us in on a Thursday night.  

Now, the Steakhouse is about 180 degrees out of kilter w ith the rest of Circus Circus.  While the Circus Circus casino and hotel is rather tired, schlocky and low-end compared to the other casino/hotels in town, the Steakhouse is elegant, vibrant and high-end.  Let's face it - Circus Circus is a dump.  How the Steakhouse has been able to maintain a very high level of food, service and decor for over 30 years in the midst of such a miserable place as Circus Circus, well, it's a miracle.  

 If you can make it through the grungy, smoke-filled casino with old people playing the nickel slots, past the circus themed acts that go on non-stop, and down a hallway littered with run-down shops you'll come to the front of The Steakhouse - decorated with ornate dark wood paneling on the outside.  (Photo at right courtesy of Exploring Las Vegas.)  The interior of The Steakhouse combines the dark wood paneling with green wall panels and paintings of cattle and outdoor scenes.  As one of my colleagues said, "Now THIS is what a steak house is supposed to look like."

The Steakhouse cooks all their meats on an open wood fired grill.  You can actually peer through the thick glass at the chefs grilling the large chunks of meat.  The smell of the meat grilling over the wood is just heavenly and mouth-watering.

 Now, this was not the first time I've been to The Steakhouse.  I think I've been there, maybe, eight or nine times prior.  But this was my first visit in over 7 years.  It was on my first visit in 1987 when I was introduced to Atomic Horseradish. (For that story and others connected to Atomic Horseradish, click here.)  I'd been in nice steak houses before, but The Steak House was, by far, the best steak house I'd ever been to up to that point in my life.

I like to joke that The Steakhouse has three different sizes of steaks to choose from.  There's the "Hunk-o-Beef", the "Ton-o-Beef", and the big daddy of the all, "The Shitload-o-Beef".  The large filets are, seriously, about four inch cubes and have to be completely charred on the outside just to get the inner part of the steak to a perfect medium rare.  But there's nothing better than that wood-fired taste on the steaks when you bite into them.

Starting at the valet parking in front of Circus Circus, it took us about five minutes to wind our way through the smoky and down-trodden casino to the front of The Steakhouse that particular evening.  We had two more people tag along with us and the staff at the restaurant were very accommodating to add a couple seats to our table.  I don't think we waited any more than two or three minutes while they set two more places at our large table in the middle of the restaurant.

In addition to the large steaks and prime rib The Steakhouse offers, they also feature some seafood entrees, as well as pork chops and chicken dishes.  But you don't go to The Steakhouse and order chicken.  It's all in or nothing for great beef.

While they're famous for their prime rib and filets, they also have a wonderful bone-in ribeye steak that is a signature item on their menu.  And their strip steaks are lean and flavorful.  It's so difficult to make up your mind when you sit down to eat at The Steakhouse.

I was just starting my diet and I was looking for something good and lean, so I ended up ordering the filet.  I got the smaller of the two, I believe it was 12 oz. of beef.  I also ordered up a salad along with a side of asparagus.

The wine list at The Steakhouse is better than what you find at many restaurants of the same caliber.  I let my colleague, Ian, pick out a couple of cabernets for dinner.

My colleague, Todd, ordered the bone-in ribeye on my recommendation. When it came out, the look on his face was priceless.  Here was this huge bone with a large amount of beef attached to it.  And being that he likes more of the European taste in his beef, he had ordered it rare.  It looked like the meat had just been cut off the cow moments before it was quickly grilled.  It was truly a "Shitload-o-Beef".

My filet was more of the "Ton-o-Beef" variety, served a perfect medium-rare with a side of Atomic Horseradish.  The asparagus was served in a family style fashion and I shared some with other people at the table.  The filet was just wonderful - flavorful, great texture and it had that wonderful smoked barbecue taste to it.  From the first bite, I was in heaven.  All the memories of previous visits flooded back into my brain.

I had a couple of meltdown moments taking a little more of the Atomic Horseradish in bites than I bargained for.  I'm telling you - there's nothing better than fresh, out of the bottle Atomic Horseradish.  It's almost like torturing yourself when you get a big hit from the horseradish, but the taste sensation is out of this world.

As this was the first visit to The Steakhouse for everyone else with me that evening, I took an informal poll after dinner to see if they liked it.  Their replies were overwhelmingly positive.  As I was leaving the restaurant, I ran into Vance Pflanz, the owner of Pflanz Electronics in Sioux City, IA, and his son, Scott, having dinner at The Steakhouse.  Vance said, "We eat here at least once every time we come out to Vegas."

The Steakhouse at Circus Circus is an oasis of fine dining in the midst of a major dump in Las Vegas.  If you can get past the fact that one of the finest restaurants in town is located in one of the most horrid casinos, then by all means go to The Steakhouse at Circus Circus when you visit Las Vegas.  You'll never be dissatisfied.

The Drover - Omaha, NE

One of my first posts on Road Tips was on one of my all-time favorite steak houses in the world, The Drover in Omaha.  (You can read that post here.)  I hadn't been to The Drover for a long time and it happened that I set up a dinner meeting with one of my dealers in Omaha one evening a few weeks back.  I said, "You have any place in particular that you'd like to go to?"

He said, "Have you ever heard of The Drover?"

I said, "The Drover?  Good God, yes!  I love that place!"

He replied, "How does 7 p.m. at The Drover work for you?" 

I said, "I'm there!"

The Drover is one of the many old time steak houses in Omaha.  It dates back to the 70's when the old Ak-Sar-Ben race track was one of the premier horse tracks in the Midwest.  (Ak-Sar-Ben is Nebraska spelled backwards.)  The track was located just across 72nd street and you'd find a number of people who played the ponies earlier in the day congregate at The Drover.  

The name "Drover" is a term that is used by cattlemen for a cowboy who worked the cattle drives, moving large numbers of cattle over a long distance.  An average of 3000 head of cattle would be moved at any given time to outposts where they could be put on rail cars and sent to Kansas City, Omaha or Chicago for slaughter.  The "drovers" oversaw the movement of the cattle and would work for up to 24 hours a day at times.  The Drover in Omaha is named after these cowboys and the hard work they did to put good meat on the tables of America in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  

The Drover is sort of tucked back in between some office buildings and parking ramps and is sort of hard to find (see map).  I happened to get a great rate at the Doubletree Guest Suites just walking distance from The Drover, so I just walked over to meet my dealer around 7:00 p.m.  He wasn't there yet, so I ended up sitting in the dimly lit bar having a beer while I waited for him.  A man in his late 60's or early 70's came in and sat near me, and we struck up a small conversation.  He said he'd been coming to The Drover since he moved to Omaha in the 70's.  He said it was his late wife's favorite place to eat. 

While we were sitting there, a lady - probably in her mid-50's - came into the bar area and sat right down next to the man.  She started up a conversation with him that had all the elements of these two being a couple.  After about three minutes, the man said, "Now, who the hell are you?"

I thought he was kidding, but after a quick introduction by the lady, I figured out he had no idea who this floozy was.  But she was coming on strong to this guy, sort of like she was a hooker.  She said, "I just felt like coming out and partying tonight and I thought I'd sit next to the most handsome man at the bar."

The guy said, "OK, which one of my friends put you up to this?"

She said, "Why, I don't know what you're talking about.  I'm just here to have a good time!"  

She was rubbing his back and patting his arm.  The guy was clearly uncomfortable in this situation.  Now, she wasn't bad looking for her age, but she came on like she was a seventeen-year-old in heat.  It was actually kind of funny.

My dealer showed up about 20 minutes late and we took a table in the dining area.  I don't think the decor of the restaurant has been changed since I first went in there over 20 years ago.  We got a menu from the host and took a look to see what they had to offer.  Actually, The Drover is famous for their whiskey marinated steaks - they take straight Jack Daniel's and marinate the meat in it for about 15 to 20 minutes before cooking.  Marinating the meat in whiskey helps bring out more of the intense flavor in the meat when it's cooked.  

I took a look at the wine menu and while it wasn't all that extensive, the reserve list had some interesting bottles to choose from.  I initially ordered up a bottle of the Silver Oak Cabernet, but our waiter came back to say they were out of that bottle.  They had a bottle of Duckhorn Cabernet at the same price and I ordered that.  They did have a bottle of that.  

While we were perusing the menu, my dealer said, "Have you ever had the bacon-wrapped shrimp here?  Let's get one of those for an appetizer."  And so we did.  They were plump shrimp wrapped in bacon and grilled over The Drovers' open flame grill.  They were excellent. 

My dealer got the signature whiskey strip steak with a loaded baked potato.  One of the specials they were running that evening was a bone-in rib eye (not marinated).  I'm a sucker for good bone-in rib eyes so I ordered one of those, medium-rare.  I also threw caution at the wind and ordered a fully-loaded baked potato.   

One of the highlights of eating at The Drover is their salad bar.  While it's not all that big, they have some of the most fresh lettuce and toppings of any salad bar I've been to.  And they have a large bowl of cracked black pepper that you can spoon on top of any one of their homemade dressings.  I got the Western French dressing for the topping on my salad this one evening.  I could just graze at their salad bar.

We conducted some business before our steaks showed up, but once the meat came out all business conversation stopped.  My rib eye weighed 24 ounces with the bone in.   It was a perfect medium rare and very juicy and flavorful.  My guest's whiskey strip was also cooked to perfection and he just loved the taste of it.  He said, "There are so many great steak places in this town, but this is the best steak of them all." 

Even without marinating my steak in whiskey, I felt it was just as good of flavor as many of the whiskey marinated steaks I've had there in the past.  The rib eye did have a lot of marbling to it and it was just so damn tasty.  I ate so much of the steak that I hardly touched the baked potato. 

We ended up ending the meal with a couple of glasses of Scotch and hammering out a couple of more items in our meeting.  It was a productive meeting along with a great dinner - the kind of business meetings I love to have.

With tip, our bill came to just over $230 bucks.  The dealer offered to pay for half of it and I told him that if he promised to order more products from me, that would be well worth the price of the meal.  He laughed and said, "I'll see what I can do." 

Like I said earlier, there's a ton of great steak places to choose from in Omaha.  The Drover has consistently been one of the top steak houses in the area.  It's a little tough to find, but it's worth the effort once you get there.

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.)

Brett Favre's Steakhouse - Green Bay, WI

While in Green Bay recently, I took one of my new dealers out to dinner at Brett Favre's Steakhouse, located at 1004 Brett Favre Pass just south of Green Bay's legendary Lambeau Field (see map).  I've wanted to try the place for sometime and my dealer accepted my invitation to dine there one evening.

Now, for those of you who aren't sports fans, or have been living in a Turkish prison for the last 20 years, Brett Favre is the longtime quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.  He recently announced his retirement from the game after 18 seasons and three NFL Most Valuable Player awards. 

The original Brett Favre Steakhouse began in 1997 in downtown Milwaukee.  Farve partnered with Richard Monfort, the son of a long-time beef producer from Colorado, and owner of the big Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus, MA.  Favre's steakhouse in Milwaukee was very upscale, but it was only open for a few years before closing in 2000.  The restaurant then became Joey Buona's Pizzeria and Restaurant, a somewhat upscale Italian restaurant.  Farve still owns part of that restaurant. 

Favre and his family, along with some other investors, opened the Brett Favre Steakhouse in Green Bay in 2003.  It combines the look and feel of an old time upscale supper club with some variations of southern recipes Favre grew up with. 

It was a Tuesday evening when we got into Favre's steakhouse around 7:30.  There was a big gathering in one of the meeting rooms back in the bar, and a few guys were in another meeting room toward the back of the restaurant.  But the dining room was about a quarter full.

We took a seat at a table where we had a huge mural of Favre looking at us the whole evening.  It sort of looked out of place with the dark wood tables and chairs. 

We got our menus and looked things over.  I proposed getting a bottle of wine, but my dealer was on the downhill side of a bad cold and he didn't think he'd better be drinking wine with the medicine he was taking.  OK, fair enough.  He didn't object to me getting a couple beers during the meal, so that was good. 

Steaks dominate the menu, although they did have Cajun appetizers and some entrees.  I thought about a number of things - including the 12 oz. filet or the 16 oz. prime rib.  I ended up starting out with Brett's Famous Chopped salad - chopped lettuce, prosciutto, olives, onions, blue cheese crumbles and other assorted veggies in a red wine vinaigrette.  My dealer got the same thing.

I ended up getting the 22 oz. bone-in rib eye, medium-rare, with the garlic mashed potatoes.  My dealer ordered Brett's Signature Steak - a 20 oz. top-round London Broil topped with cracked black pepper and sauteed mushrooms.  That was my second pick.  He said, "It's a lot of meat, but I usually take it home and have it for lunch the next day."

Our waiter was pretty good, but he was also busy with the small party going on in the small back room of the restaurant.  We went about 15 minutes before getting our salads.  And we weren't even half done with them when he brought the steaks out.

I've had bone-in rib eyes before and this one was, well, average, at best.  It was slightly overcooked, it wasn't all that moist and juicy and there was a lot more bone on the rib eye than I've seen on others.  I'm guessing the total amount of meat was about 10 to 12 oz.  The garlic mashed potatoes were good, but nothing to get excited about.  I make 'em much better at home.

My dealer did like his London Broil.  I should have gotten that.  Dammit!  Oh, well.  It's not like I won't be back in Green Bay at some point.  I can always try that on my next visit.

Our meal with tip came to just under $90 bucks.  My dealer was impressed that we went to such a nice place on my first visit.  I said I'd like to try some of the other places in town on subsequent visits and he said that was very doable.

Before we left, we walked around the restaurant and bar area and looked at the loads of memorabilia on the walls and in glass enclosed cases.  Being a big sports nut and a closet Green Bay Packer fan for a number of years, I was mesmerized by the large selection of items they had throughout the place.  They also had a gift shop at Brett Favre's Steakhouse that I looked through, but I didn't buy anything.

Brett Favre's Steakhouse is one of the central points for tailgate parties before and after Packer games in the fall.  I've talked to friends who have gone to games up in Green Bay and they've told me it gets pretty nuts around Brett Favre's Steakhouse on game day. 

All in all, Brett Favre's Steakhouse was what I expected from a restaurant with a famous person's name on it.  The food was good, but not outstanding.  I would like to go back at some point and try the London Broil.  I wasn't overly impressed with my steak, but it was OK.  If you're a sports fan, it's a great place.  And if you're in the Green Bay area for business, Brett Favre's Steakhouse is a nice place to take clients.         

TJ's Steakhouse - Las Vegas

After the final day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we had just finished packing up all our display products and sending them off to the Solotech warehouse to ship back to Montreal.  Paul Masson, who is the international sales manager for Cambridge Audio, said, "Hey, let's go to the steakhouse downstairs (at the Hilton) for dinner.  My treat."

I love to hear "steakhouse" and "my treat" in the same sentence.  We were tired, hungry and needed to relax. 

As I said in my earlier post on Casa Nicola, the two side-by-side restaurants - Andiamo and Las Vegas Hilton Steakhouse - were damaged in a fire last year.  They decided to spruce both up and change the names of them at the same time.  Las Vegas Hilton Steakhouse became TJ's Steakhouse. 

We had eaten at the Las Vegas Steakhouse on a couple of occasions in the past.  It was actually pretty good.  The place was elegant with great food and great service.  TJ's Steakhouse is just as elegant, but has more of a warm feel to the place which featured deep mahogany walls and woodwork throughout along with subdued lighting. 

Evan Fleisher is the head chef at TJ's Steakhouse and you can see his team and him work their magic from the open kitchen situated at the front of the restaurant.  The smell of grilled beef was just overwhelming to us when we walked in.  My stomach was doing jumping jacks, I was so hungry.

Even though TJ's Steakhouse prefers business casual dress (polo shirts and slacks), we were dressed in jeans, shorts and t-shirts.  The maitre d' didn't seem to care.  There were 10 of us who sat at a big table near the kitchen, famished and ready to eat.

It's steak, steak and more steak on the menu at TJ's Steakhouse.  They also featured pork and lamb chops, chicken and some seafood dishes.  But we all wanted a large piece of dead cow.

Paul asked Daniel to choose something from the wine list.  It was apparent that TJ's Steakhouse shared the same wine cellar as Casa Nicola as they had the same 1996 Los Pagodes de Cos Saint Estephe Bordeaux wine at $44.00 on the wine list.  Daniel said, "Well, if they want to get rid of that at such a good price, they found the right people!"  We ordered up two bottles as a starter.   

Paul ordered up some appetizers for the table while we looked over the menu.  I was pretty sure I wanted the rib eye this evening, but I kept looking at the prime rib.  But I'd had the prime rib at Hugo's Cellar the other night, so I went back to the rib eye.  Then I saw a New York Strip that someone got at another table.  Damn, that looked good.  But, no.  I had to get something with a lot of flavor for my last dinner in Vegas for the show. 

So I ordered the 16 oz. rib eye with side order of the garlic smashed potatoes.  Paul, who was seated across from me, got the 22 oz. Porterhouse steak with grilled asparagus.  He said, "I normally don't eat this much, but you just can't get steaks like this in Europe."  I've heard that more than once in the past from English and French colleagues. 

We had a good time sitting and talking amongst ourselves waiting for our food to come out.  The wine was flowing, we were relaxed and laughing.  The waiter was overly attentive to our needs.  It was a fine evening after a tough show for us. 

Our steaks began to arrive at the table and my rib eye was one of the last to come out.  But, man!  The size of it almost flipped me out.  It was definitely bigger than 16 oz.  I said, "They need to get their scales checked.  This looks more like TWO pounds of meat."

They season their steaks with what I was told a combination of sea salt and roasted black peppercorns that are then ground up and liberally applied to the steak.  I'll have to try that sometime because I really liked the taste of the rib eye.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and the marbling in it gave the meat excellent flavor. 

Everyone was very impressed with their steaks.  Paul said between bites, "Now this is a great American meal."  We were on our fourth bottle of wine at this point and enjoying life. 

Paul picked up the check and I didn't get to see what the final damage was, but I'm guessing it was a few big dollars with tip.  Appetizers, steaks, wine, drinks, sides - they all add up quick.  But it was worth it.  It was a fine meal.  I was definitely full afterward, that's for sure.

I said that Hugo's Cellar is one of the best kept secrets in Las Vegas among seasoned Las Vegas visitors.  But I have to say that TJ's Steakhouse may be even MORE of a secret place to get a great steak in Las Vegas.   Once again, it's sort of tough to find in the Las Vegas Hilton, but you won't go away disappointed from TJ's Steakhouse.   

Hugo's Cellar - Las Vegas

After the fiasco of a meal that we had at Francesco's the evening before, I knew my reputation was on the line in picking out another restaurant for our evening meal in Las Vegas during CES.  The consensus early in the day amongst my colleagues was steak.  Ian suggested going back to Binion's.  I said, "Let's try to get in to a new place instead of one we've eaten at already."

I had an ulterior motive - well, actually two.  One - I wanted a new place to write about for my blog; and Two - I wanted to get into one of two places that I've eaten at before in Vegas.  The first place - The Steakhouse at Circus Circus - is an exquisite steakhouse situated in one of more run-down and schlocky casino-hotels in Vegas.  As you wander through Circus Circus and stumble upon this wonderful restaurant, you think, "What in the hell is this nice place doing in a dump like this?"

I tried to get us into The Steakhouse, but for a large group (8 of us) it was either get seated at 5:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m.  Well, since the show didn't end until 6:00 p.m., the early seating was out.  And 9:00 p.m. was just too late. 

So, I tried a place that I have eaten at a couple times before, but not in a long while - Hugo's Cellar in the basement of the Four Queens casino/hotel (see map).  Hugo's Cellar is also the quintessential old-time Las Vegas steakhouse that is known for great food, and for the table side preparations of their signature Caesar Salad, and main entrees such as the Duck Anise Flambé. 

While the Four Queens is sort of a similar dump like Circus Circus, Hugo's Cellar is an oasis of great food, great service and a relaxed comfortable place to get away from the glitz and noise of Vegas.  It's one of the best kept secrets in Las Vegas. 

I was able to get us in at 7:30 p.m.  That was perfect as we were invited to and sentenced to go to a party that Shunyata - one of our distribution partners - was putting on over at the Mirage after the show ended for the day. 

It had been a rough day for us in our company.  My boss, Daniel, had to fire a longtime colleague who had worn out his welcome in the company.  And he had to fire him on the spot in Las Vegas at the show.  It was a bad situation all around and as close of a "family" atmosphere my boss promotes, he was particularly upset that he had to take those steps at that time.  So, getting a good dinner was something that he wanted to do to take the next step forward.

After attending the party, we ended up at Hugo's Cellar just before 7:30 and they seated us right away.  They put us at a large circular table and brought us our menus.  Hugo's Cellar also has the distinction of being on Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence" list.  And they've held that distinction every year since 1993.

Hugo's Cellar is a cozy place, dark and muted throughout with red brick walls.  It's very reminiscent of the old time supper clubs that used to be the best places to eat in the "old" Vegas.  Although I don't think they've changed the decor much since when they first opened in the 60's, it's not tired like some of the old guard restaurants in downtown Las Vegas.

While we all initially ordered a stiff drink to help drown the hurt that we had from the episode earlier in the day, I had the honor of picking the wine for the evening and it was pretty tough with all the choices.  Since everyone was getting beef (with the exception of one guy), I opted for a 2003 William Hill Cabernet.  We ordered a couple bottles to start us off.

For dinner, I ordered the Prime Rib, as did another colleague of mine.  Three of the guys ordered filets.  One other got the ribeye, another the New York strip.  And Todd, being the odd duck, so to speak, ordered the Duck Anise Flambé.  He said, "I want to see them smoke this thing at the table!"

About five minutes after we ordered, the waiter wheeled out a salad cart to our table.  Individually, he asked each person what kind of salad they would like, and he'd make it there on the spot.  As I said, their Caesar's Salad is their signature salad and he'd make each one with a theatrical flair.

After finishing the salads, it wasn't long until they brought our main entrees out.  And then the waiter wheeled out a cart with Todd's duck on it.  He poured a little brandy into the pan and ignited the liquid over some flame.  It went "Whoosh!"  We all sort of laughed when he did that.  One of my colleagues remarked, "I think my eyebrows got singed!"

Along with some good ol' Atomic Horseradish, my prime rib was excellent.  It was cooked perfectly, and it was very tender and flavorful.  In fact, each of us remarked how good the place was. 

But Daniel was having trouble with his filet.  Someone asked, "Is there something wrong with your steak, Daniel?"

He said, "No, I just don't have much of an appetite after what happened earlier today."

We all gave a knowing nod.  He's such a great guy and he really cares about the people who work for him.  He's big on the "team" concept when it comes to working together and he had to get rid of a guy who had, quite frankly, become a "cancer" in the larger scheme of his business philosophy.  And it just pained him to know that someone was trying to undermine his efforts and he had to go.

After dinner, Ian said, "OK, Will.  You're off probation.  You can continue to pick restaurants out here."

Whew!  I was relieved they all liked it.

It was getting late and we all passed on dessert, although some of the guys got coffee or cappuccino.  Hugo's Cellar isn't cheap - the bill came to about $750 with tip.  But the food, the service and the atmosphere was outstanding.

With all the great new restaurants that have come into Las Vegas over the past few years, Hugo's Cellar holds their own.  It was one of the finest places to eat in town before the restaurant boom out there, and it continues to be one of the better places to get a steak in Vegas.  It's sort of tough to find, but it's worth the trip to downtown Las Vegas.

Japonais - Las Vegas

After our Cirque du Soleil experience at The Mirage, we decided we'd better get something to eat.  Given that it was around 9 p.m., we didn't figure we'd have that big of a problem getting seated at any one of the fine restaurants in The Mirage.  Well, actually, the only problem was that there were nine of us, and that turned out to be a problem. 

We found a little contemporary Japanese restaurant called Japonais.  They tried to seat us in the bar, but we would have had to take three tables.  So we decided to go to Plan B.  What Plan B was, we didn't quite know.  But as we were standing there going over our options, the hostess from Japonais came up and said, "We can seat you in the dining room if you're still interested." 

It was late and we were hungry.  The guys from the East Coast and Montreal were working on east coast time which meant it was midnight body-time for them.  We turned around and went in.

Now, it turns out that Japonais in Las Vegas is an off-shoot of the original Japonais in Chicago.  The original Japonais was started in 2002 by the world-renowned sushi chef Jun Ichikawa, and Gene Kato, an up-and-coming contemporary Japanese cuisine chef.  In 2006, Kato and Ichikawa opened a New York location in Union Square, and three months later they opened the Las Vegas location.  The food can be described as traditional Japanese with a bent toward contemporary Pan-Asian and European cuisine.  It's pretty classy stuff. 

We were seated and our waiter - who was of Japanese heritage - came over to greet us.  He was a little tough to understand, given his accent and the loudness in the restaurant.  The decor is very contemporary and chic with a lot of teak wood throughout.  From what I got from what he was trying to say is that they offered a menu similar to Spanish tapas where they bring out little bits of everything from sushi, to beef, to veggies, to whatever.  He said it worked good with big groups because everyone got to try a little bit of everything.  We all sort of agreed to that and away he went.

The first thing he brought out was a bunch of sushi that we munched on.  It was very good.  The fresh sushi was some of the finest I've ever tasted.  Given that all of us in the company are sushi whores, the plate didn't last long.    

They then brought plates of Kobe beef carpaccio, thin rare slices of Kobe beef; spicy tuna and salmon rolls; something called Hawaiian Hamachi, thin slices of yellow tail; and something they called the Japonais cocktail - a dozen oysters and a half dozen shrimp in a horseradish mango sauce.  Now that was great!

Then they started to bring out the good stuff.  They had a marinated Kobe beef chunk on a skewer.  Now, I've never had Kobe beef before - other than the carpaccio slices I had earlier.  I always wanted to try it.  And I have to tell you, it was absolutely fabulous.  It was unbelievably fabulous.  It was so tender and moist.  And, OH!  So flavorful.  Daniel and Simon were seated across the table from me and were getting a kick out of the expressions on my face when I'd bite into one of the Kobe beef chunks.

They also had skewers of marinated chicken that were pretty good.  They also brought out skewers of ground Kobe beef - basically Kobe beef burgers on a skewer.  They were OK, but they didn't have the same taste and texture of the beef skewers.  But we quickly ordered another round of the Kobe beef skewers.  And a couple guys opted for more sushi.

Next, they set two square "rocks" on the table.  These rocks were heated to 500 degrees (F) and we were told to be very careful around them.  Then they brought out plates of thinly sliced and marinated raw New York strip steak chunks.  The waiter showed us that you place the raw beef on the hot rock and it sizzles and cooks.  20 to 30 seconds later, you turn it over to cook the other side and - voila!  You've got your own "grill it yourself" steak chunks!  And - OH!  Were they great. 

Those didn't last long at the table and by the time the second round of Kobe beef skewers showed up, we were all getting stuffed.  But the Kobe beef skewers were quickly gobbled up.  It was a dining experience to say the least.

Daniel was presented with the bill and Simon looked over to see what it was.  He yelled, "Geez!!"

One of my other colleagues said, "What's the matter?  Bill a little too high?"

Simon said, "I think we just bought a whole side of Kobe beef!"

The bill - with tip included - came to just shy of $2000 bucks.  Daniel was laughing about it the next day.  He said, "I couldn't understand the guy.  Between his accent and the loudness of the restaurant, I just kept nodding my head when he would say something."

I said, "So, you basically nodded your head into a $2000 bill."

He laughed and said, "I guess so!"

So, yes, Japonais isn't cheap.  But, man, was it good.  Definitely a top ten dining experience for me.      

Ditka's - Chicago

During our trip into Chicago, we walked up to go have dinner at Ditka's, the restaurant owned by former Chicago Bears player and coach Mike Ditka (see map).  Even though he hasn't coached the Bears in nearly 20 years, Ditka is still a larger than life personality in Chicago.  Da Coach!

It was a cold Sunday evening when we walked up to Ditka's from our hotel.  Cindy said, "We're taking a cab back, that's all there is to it!"  It was cold, compared to the balmy temperatures we encountered the night before when we got to Chicago.  (Temps dropped nearly 35 degrees in a four hour period overnight.  It was around 10 degrees all day long.)

Ditka's is attached to the toney and upscale Tremont Hotel, one of the many boutique hotels around downtown Chicago.  I've never stayed at the Tremont, but I've been in the hotel a few times for meetings.  It's a very nice place.

We got into Ditka's around 7:00 p.m. and the dining area downstairs was packed, mainly because of the Bears game earlier in the day.  It would be about an hour and a half wait.  The hostess asked if we would like to eat up in the bar area upstairs.  I looked at Cindy and she said, "That's fine."

Well, the table they sat us at was a high table with no chair backs.  I knew it wasn't going to work for Cindy, so we went back to the hostess to see if we could get seated at a regular table or a booth.  She didn't have anything available right away, but then a table for four opened up away from the bar.  She said, "Oh, will that work?"

The only problem is that in Ditka's bar area they allow for smoking of cigars.  There were two or three guys sitting there smoking cigars, much to the consternation of Cindy.  I said, "OK, look.  We can go elsewhere or we can wait for a table to open up downstairs.  Either way, we're not going to be eating for over an hour." 

She said, "Oh, no.  This is fine.  I don't know why they have to smoke cigars in a bar."

Well, if it were a little over a week later, it wouldn't have happened as Illinois' new public smoking ban would have gone into law on January 1.  But it was December 23rd.  We had to live with it. 

We got our menus and ordered some drinks.  I got an Old Style, Eric got a Coke, and Cindy got a glass of the Beaulieu Vineyards Cabernet.  Actually, Ditka's boasts quite possibly the largest wine by the glass list I've ever seen.  They had to have over 30 different wines by the glass to choose from.

Ditka's is famous for steak, steak and more steak.  It's truly a Midwestern steak house.  Cindy had been hankering for a T-Bone steak and they had a 24 oz. T-Bone on the menu.  She didn't even hesitate when she ordered it.  Eric got the 16 oz. blackened prime rib and I got the 20 oz. bone-in prime rib.  We also got a side of red skin smashed potatoes, large enough for each of us to have a small amount.  And we also got a wedge salad cut into thirds for us, like we did at Brick's the night before. 

The bar area was loud and somewhat smoky.  Ditka's bar area has four large air exchange units that were working to help keep the area free of smoke.  But more people were coming in after the football game and smoking at the bar, so it was tough.  Cindy wasn't too happy. 

After finishing our wedge salad (which was very good, buy the way), our main entrees showed up.  Man, the steak and prime rib all looked bigger than advertised.  Eric's prime rib looked to be well more than 16 oz.  And Cindy's T-Bone was HUGE!!  She just licked her chops and dug in. 

My bone-in prime rib was good.  Not as good as I've had in the past, but good enough.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare.  But it was a lot of meat.  I could barely finish the thing.  Eric had problems finishing his, so we had it boxed up to take back to the room. 

And Cindy - well, she never ceases to amaze me.  She'll probably kill me for saying this, but she finished the whole thing!   I don't cook T-Bone's on the grill at home all that much, but that seems to be her favorite cut of meat.  She just devoured the whole thing.  She said it was very good.

Ditka's wasn't cheap - it was $140 bucks before taxes and tip.  The waitress that took care of us was very good.  They were always filling water glasses or Eric's glass of pop.  Other than the smoky, bar-like atmosphere that Cindy didn't care for, it was very good.  Except she wants to come back some time to eat in the peace and quiet - and no smoke - of the dining room downstairs.

Before we left, we took a look around the hallways going back toward the bathrooms at the pictures and memorabilia on the walls.  A lot of it had to do with Ditka, but a lot of it was old time pro football items, too.  It was pretty cool to see. 

Because it is attached to the Tremont Hotel, Ditka's also serves breakfast and lunch.  But if you're into sports, especially football, Ditka's is a neat place to go to.  Even if you're not, I highly recommend the place.  The food is great, if not a little expensive.  But the service was good and they were as accommodating as they could be.  We'll go back sometime.  

Beef House - Covington, IN

Just inside the Indiana line east of Danville, IL is one of the more famous Midwestern steak houses - the Beef House.  The restaurant is just off of Interstate 74 at the Covington exit (Exit 4 - see map).  I was on my way to Indianapolis recently (I've been going to Indy a lot for business) and I stopped and had dinner at the Beef House.

I've eaten there a couple three times before my recent visit.  The Beef House has been around since 1964 when Warren Wright- a beef rancher in Western Indiana - opened a hamburger place as an outlet to use some of the beef he raised.  Warren's son, Bob Wright, graduated from Purdue three years later and joined his father in the restaurant.  By this time, steaks had been added to the menu and the restaurant had expanded.  In 1975, Bob designed and built the ranch-style Beef House at its present day location. 

The Beef House is not only famous for their steaks, but for their homemade yeast rolls.  I will have to say the rolls are pretty damn good.  You can actually buy the rolls and bake them at home.  I may have to stop in there sometime and grab some to bring home.

Having just crossed over into the Eastern Time Zone, it was 8:30 local time when I walked into the Beef House.  Walking past a huge meat case filled with cut steaks, I was met by a hostess who led me to my seat.  The main dining area was about half full with customers and they had closed the divider wall that cuts the main dining area in half.  The hostess sat me at a table and gave me the menu.

Of course, the drawing card at the Beef House is steaks, steaks and more steaks.  They're famous for their rib eye steaks and offer five different sizes in cuts from 8 ounces up to 20 ounces.  They have filet tenderloin cuts, strip steaks that you can either order marinated or plain, and a 20 oz. T-bone steak.  They also have pork chops, chicken, seafood and pasta.

I decided to go with their rib eye - the 16 oz size.  With that I got a side of rice and a trip to their salad bar, too.  And, of course, I got a basket of their signature rolls, as well.

After going through the large salad bar and eating one of their rather large rolls, my waiter brought out my steak and rice.  It was a very thick cut - over an inch thick - and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare.  It actually looked larger than a 16 oz. cut.  I knew I wasn't going to walk away hungry from this meal.

The steak was good, not outstanding, but good.  I've had better steaks at other places, including at my home.  But most of Beef House's beef comes from the Wright family cattle operation.  And everyone knows the best beef (and pork) is grown in Iowa and not in Indiana.  (That's a mild joke, but then again, it's not.  I'm sort of provincial when it comes to Iowa beef and pork.)

The Beef House wasn't cheap - with the steak, a couple beers and tip, the bill came to a bit over $45 bucks.  And I was offered to take the extra rolls in my basket home with me, but since I was traveling I didn't want to take them.

I will say the Beef House is good.  It's not the best steak house I've ever eaten at, but I can see why it's been in business for over 40 years.  It does a good job with what it is and it's a favorite destination for a lot of people.  If you get a chance to stop by the Beef House at some point, you've got to try it at least once.   

The Broiler - St. Peter's MO

On a trip to St. Louis, recently, I found myself out in St. Peters, a town where my old company was located before I started to work for my present company over five years ago.  One of the places we used to go to for lunch when I would visit the main office was The Broiler, a nice little restaurant in St. Peters (see map), just south and a little east of Mid Rivers Mall.  It was close to lunch time and I decided to stop in for one of their great burgers.

Now, I didn't really know how to categorize The Broiler.  It's first and foremost a steakhouse, but they have a very good burger that they make out of ground chuck (they grind it themselves).  It's cooked over a charcoal grill and served on a very good toasted bun.  It's got excellent flavor and texture.  It's tough to beat.

The Broiler has been in business since 1988 serving great steaks to a rapidly growing area west of St. Louis.  I first went there in 1995 when my then-boss took us there for dinner one evening.  It was then I was told their burgers were the best around.  On my next trip down to St. Louis, I made a point to stop into The Broiler for a burger.  I wasn't disappointed.   

I got into The Broiler around 1 p.m. and went into the bar area.  The place hasn't really changed much since the last time I'd been in three or four years ago.  The bar/lounge area is cozy and unpretentious.  The main dining room is a little more formal, yet not stuffy or snooty.

The tables in the main dining area are covered with a nice linen tablecloths and it's got kind of an old-time supper club feeling to it, even though it's in a small strip mall.  One of the neater things about The Broiler is that in the main dining hall, you can look through a window and see the chef cooking meat over the charcoal grill.

I sat at the bar and the bartender asked if I'd like to see a menu.  Their lunch and lounge menu is more appetizers and sandwiches than their main dining menu.  But I do have to say that I've been in there on slower nights, sat at the bar and was able to watch a game on TV and order off the main dining room menu. 

But I really didn't need a menu this time.  I knew exactly what I wanted.  Provolone cheeseburger, medium, with the steak fries.  I said to the bartender, "I haven't been in here for quite some time, but that was always what I used to order for lunch.  I hope it hasn't changed."

The bartender said, "Oh, heavens no.  It's just as good as the last time you were in."

About 15 minutes later, my cheeseburger showed up.  I have to say that I forgot how good it really was.  The burger was juicy and delectable.  The bartender was right - it was just as good as the last time I was in.

When I listed my Top Ten Burger places last week in a post here, I put The Broiler just outside of the Top 10.  I may have to rethink that after my most recent visit.  It was very, very good and a place that I'll keep coming to for a good burger when I'm in the St. Peters area.  Which, I'm sorry to say, isn't all that often any more.  But I'll just have to make the time to drive out and stop in.       

(Update - It had been quite some time since I'd been to The Broiler and I decided to go there for lunch when I was in the area during a trip to St. Louis in February of 2011.  I pulled up to The Broiler and noticed a sign in the window and no cars in the parking lot.  It had closed.  I was very bummed because I really wanted one of their char-grilled burgers for lunch that day.  Too bad.  Another great little restaurant goes by the wayside.) 

Rodizio Grill - Denver

While in Denver recently for the CEDIA Expo, we decided to go out for dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse.  A couple of the guys in our company had never been to one before.  We ended up going to a place in downtown Denver called Rodizio Grill.  (see map)

Pronounced Roe-DEEZ-sho, it's one of the two big Brazilian steakhouses in Denver. (Texas de Brazil being the other - but they weren't too accommodating when we tried to make a reservation over the phone.)  Like all Brazilian steakhouses - or churrascarias, Rodizio Grille serves their meats rodizio style with the meat grilled on skewers and sliced at your table by gaucho waiters.

And, very similar to other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, they have an extensive salad bar they want you to graze at so you won't be slamming back so much meat.  But, actually, compared to the other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, the salad bar at Rodizio Grill wasn't all that big.

I sat across from one of my colleagues who had never eaten at a Brazilian steakhouse before.  He said, "So, now what?"

I said, "Well, turn over this little thing here (a small wooden object with red on one end and green on the other) so the green side is on top and just sit back and let 'em bring the meat."

They had the regular sirloin and beef tenderloin slices that were very good.  Their pork was a little overdone, as was the turkey wrapped in bacon.  And they also had some chicken chunks that were OK, but not outstanding.  And their lamb was way overdone.  It wasn't all that great.   

But they had a garlic sirloin - or called Picanha com Alho (Pee-cahn-ya com Al-yo) - that was just outstanding.  In fact, it was orgasmic.  The garlic was infused throughout the meat - you could literally smell the garlic in the meat even if you were about three feet away from the skewer.  Everyone at our table went nuts over it.  The only problem is that we'd already eaten a lot of meat before they brought out the garlic steak. 

But that didn't stop us - we asked our waiter to keep the garlic sirloin coming.  He had the gaucho waiters keep coming around with the beef.  Oh, man!  Was it delicious!

I sort of got to wondering how they were able to get the garlic to permeate the sirloin beef.  When asked, our waiter wouldn't reveal their secret.  I guessed they must use highly concentrated garlic oil with olive oil as a marinade and they keep the meat in the marinade for up to 48 hours.  It was just awesome. 

Actually, as far as the Brazilian steakhouses that I've been to go, Rodizio Grill was pretty fair.  Not really outstanding, but good.  Well, not until they brought the garlic-laced sirloin out.  That made it worth the price of admission.

The service at Rodizio Grill was very good as our waiter was very attentive to getting us refills of drinks and directing which gaucho waiter we wanted to our table.  And like all the other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, I ate way too much.  I was miserable for 36 hours after our dinner.  The garlic sirloin was just so damn good that I - and others in our group - just gorged.  If they had brought the garlic steak first, that would have been the only thing I would have eaten all night.  It was that good.

I've got to try and figure out how to make that damned garlic sirloin sometime...   

Gorat's - Omaha

Gorat's Steak House in Omaha is one of the venerable "old-guard" steakhouses that have been around the area for years.  Located on Center St. in Omaha (see map), Gorat's is one of the best steak houses in Omaha. 

Started in 1944 by Louis and Nettie Gorat (pronounced go-ROT), Gorat's is fashioned after the old New York City Italian steak houses.  It has a large dining area with two main rooms, plus a pretty large bar off to the side.  Louis' son, Louis, Jr. - or affectionately known as "Pal" - took over the family business in the 1970's and now "Pal's" son and daughter are running the restaurant. 

Not only is Gorat's famous for their steaks, but they're also famous as being the favorite steak house of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.  Buffett frequently lunches at Gorat's and has dinner there a couple times a week. 

I was in Omaha recently and I decided to run over to Gorat's and have a steak.  I hadn't been to Gorat's for quite some time - the last time was when I was traveling with a sales manager about five years ago and he wanted to have dinner at Gorat's and possibly have a chance sighting of Buffett.  Nope, no Buffett sightings that night. 

And there were none again the night I recently went.  I pulled into the parking lot and it was about half full of cars, none of which were Buffett's brown Lincoln Town Car with the vanity license plates that say "Thrifty".  The area around Gorat's has deteriorated over the years and they have a full time security guy watching the cars in the parking lot.  Nonetheless, it's still a good place to go day or night. 

I went into the nearly empty bar area and sat down at the bar and asked if it was OK to have dinner there.  The bartender, a matronly woman in her late 50's, said, "Yes, it's fine.  Actually, we just started to allow people to eat in the bar about two months ago."

She went on to tell me that Louis Gorat and "Pal" Gorat never allowed people to eat in the bar - not even appetizers.  She said, "I'm the night manager here and I made the decision to let people eat in the bar.  I don't think even Mr. Gorat ("Pal's" son) knows we do that and I don't know what he'd say." 

Gorat's menu is typical of most Midwestern steak houses.  It features steaks and chops, along with chicken dishes and Italian specialties.  Gorat's makes their Italian sauces from scratch and they aren't too bad. 

Gorat's is famous for their T-Bone steaks, a large and thick cut of steak.  However, that night I went with the filet with a side of mostaccioli with red sauce and hash browns with onions and cheese on top.  The bartender said, "Ooo, I just remembered why we didn't serve people in the bar.  You make the bartenders hungry when you order food.  That would be the exact thing I would order." 

After a salad that was nothing special, the waitress brought me my steak.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and it was as tender as all get out.  The hash browns came with a slice of American cheese on top and not a lot of onions, so they were disappointing.  But in the scheme of things, the steak was the winner on the plate.  I ate more of the mostaccioli any way. 

The meal was just as wonderful as I remembered Gorat's from my previous visits.  Service continues to be outstanding and the experience continues to be just as outstanding. 

There may be better places to have a steak in Omaha, but for the money and the history it's tough to beat Gorat's.  I mean, come on, if one of the richest guys in the world likes to eat there on a regular basis, it can't be all that bad.

Binion's Ranch Steakhouse

One of the great old time restaurants in Las Vegas is Binion's Ranch Steakhouse on the 24th floor of Binion's Horseshoe Casino and Hotel.  The place has been around since the 60's and it's one of the finer, well-kept secrets in Las Vegas, especially since the explosion of four and five star restaurants in the city over the past 10 to 15 years. 

I first ate there about 15 years ago with a buddy and his wife.  The view of the downtown area to the Las Vegas strip is pretty nifty.  At one time, the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel was the tallest building in Las Vegas.  Now, it's not even the tallest building downtown.  But the view is still very nice.

We had a group of 10 of us go downtown to the restaurant for dinner one evening.  Actually, one of our guys made the reservations, blindly.  He had no idea what to expect.  I told him that I thought Hugo's Cellar in the basement of th Four Queens was a better downtown restaurant, but I'd eaten at the Ranch Steakhouse before and I thought it was good from what I remembered from long ago.  And we were committed as he had to give his credit card for the reservation, so we went. 

The restaurant hasn't really changed in the 15 years since I was last there.  In fact, I'm not sure it had really changed since the 60's.  It was still cozy and comfortable, but it was tired in a lot of instances.  You could see some wear and tear on the place, but it certainly didn't detract from the warm feel the restaurant had.

We were promptly seated and I was handed the wine list while everyone looked through the dinner menu.  One of the first things I noticed was how low the prices of their wine was compared to other restaurants I've been in.  So low, in fact, that they had the 2002 Jordan Cabernet for only $75 bucks!  (I know, ONLY $75 bucks.  But I've seen it as high as $125 in some restaurants and is usually around $100 to $110 dollars.)

When I pointed out the price of the Jordan, my boss immediately said, "Wow!  That's a great price.  Let's order two of those right away!"   

The menu is pretty basic - beef and seafood.  The appetizers are all seafood oriented and the sides are extra with the meal.  I started off with Caesar's salad which was only OK, not as flavorful or made with the table side pizazz you get across the street at Hugo's Cellar.  One of my colleagues, however, got the French Onion soup as a starter and proclaimed it to be, possibly, the best he'd ever had.  (And, like me, this guy eats at a lot of restaurants.) 

I ordered the Binion rib-eye, blackened, medium-rare with a side of their famous peppercorn sauce.  (I almost went with the Steak au Poivre - a New York strip covered in peppercorns and peppercorn sauce.  One of my other colleagues got that.)  And I ordered some of their garlic-mashed potatoes as a side. 

One of our guests that night was a Frenchman from one of the companies we distribute.  He ordered the 21 oz. Porterhouse.  He asked me, "Is Porterhouse a good steak, no?"  I told him it was a great cut of meat and he'd be lucky to finish the whole thing.  He took that as a challenge and he ordered that.

Our meals came out and I was somewhat disappointed I didn't get the Steak au Poivre.  My rib-eye was a little overcooked (probably from the blackening process) and it didn't seem to have the spiciness I expected it to have.  Even with a side of their pepper sauce (not the peppercorn sauce, which was brought out a little later by our mildly absent-minded waiter), it still wasn't all that zippy in taste.  But when the waiter finally brought out the creamy peppercorn sauce, it was a perfect compliment to the steak. 

My boss had a rib-eye un-blackened and he really liked it.  In fact, everyone liked their meal.  Even the Frenchman across from me who devoured his whole Porterhouse steak in less time it took me to finish my rib-eye thought it was very good.  He told me, "We don't get beef like this in France." 

I don't know - maybe I'm a little jaded from living in the Midwest and having great steak cut on a local butcher's block all the time.  I thought the food was good, not great, but good.  Service was a little iffy, but competent.  You couldn't beat the wine prices. (We figured the reason the wine prices were so low is that the restaurant has to compete with a number of upscale restaurants located all throughout Las Vegas.)  And it's tough to beat the view of nearly the whole southern half of Las Vegas. 

Binion's Ranch Steakhouse was nice, but I want to try Hugo's Cellar again the next time we go out.