Road Tips

Bier Markt - Montreal

Earlier this year, the company I have worked for for over 16 years was purchased by a capital investment group.  The good news is that I still have a job.  The bad news is that there's still some uncertainties and some figuring things out with the new company.  The other good thing is that my boss, the former owner of the company, was retained by the capital investment group to run the North America operations for the company.  The familiarity of working with the same people is a big plus, but even during the course of transition, there's still some apprehension.  To help get over the trepidation and uneasiness of this transition, my boss called for a company meeting in Montreal.  The only problem was that it was in late January.  And Montreal in January isn't as fun as Montreal in, say, August.  Still, I always relish the chance to go to the city as it has a lively and diverse culinary scene.  For lunch one day, a group of us went to a sort of sports bar/beer place by the name of Bier Markt.  

Bier Markt is a small chain of restaurants that started in Toronto in 2001.  A Toronto restaurant group, Prime Restaurants - which was founded back in the early 80's - was behind the original concept of the sports bar restaurant that featured a number of beers and upscale bar food.  The Montreal location opened in 2013 along Boulevard René-Lévesque West (see map) in what was the original location of Queue de Cheval - one of the best steakhouses in Montreal - before that restaurant moved to a new location in 2012.  Today, there are 7 Bier Markt locations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and St. John's, Newfoundland.  

Montreal has an intricate labyrinth of passage ways under the city's center.  The Montreal Underground City is something I've heard about, but have never experienced - until this trip.  We were staying at the Hotel Bonaventure, a 70's-era hotel known for its rooftop pool that's open even in the dead of winter.  The Hotel Bonaventure is also somewhat well-known in rock music history as the place where members of The Who completely destroyed one of the suites after a show in Montreal.  Members of the group, as well as some of their entourage, were arrested and the band's management was forced to pay nearly $10,000 in damages to the hotel to get the band out of the pokey.  

The Hotel Bonaventure is connected to the underground walkways and since it was snowing out pretty good, we decided to take the Underground City passageway to Bier Markt.   We took a lot of steps down, a lot of right turns, a lot of left turns and then steps up before we found ourselves outside in the snow and just across the street from Bier Markt.     

For a pseudo sports bar/beer joint, Bier Markt is pretty nice.  Walking into the space, I saw a metal topped bar that curved around with lots of dark wood paneling throughout the place.  

The main floor was spread out with a number of tables that featured comfortable padded chairs and a large of number of televisions that could be seen from nearly every seat in the place.  It was a lively lunch crowd that was enjoying being out of the late January snow outside.  

Toward the back of the main floor was another bar area that featured a small bar with an area for grilling meats, primarily beef and sausages for small charcuterie plates.  This place was more like a bistro than a sports bar.  

We ended up going upstairs to a second floor dining area.  There was a small bar up there along with a large glass-front refrigerator that featured a number of bottles of beer they had to offer.  They offered a wide variety of beers on their beer menu including pale ales, stouts, ciders, amber ales, and radler beers - a half beer/half fruit soda concoction - that have become popular (but I don't care for) in Canada and parts of the U.S.  They did have blonde ales available, but unfortunately they didn't have the Boréale Blonde, a locally-brewed beer that I have fallen in love with on previous trips to Montreal.  But they did have the Yakima IPA from the Le Castor brewery located about 45 miles west of Montreal.  It was actually a very good beer and one that I had many times during my visit to Montreal.  

The food menu at Bier Markt featured a number of interesting appetizers including bacon poutine (it was all I could do to NOT order that), angus beef tartare, and beer-braised duck wings.  They had sandwiches, hand-tossed pizzas, pork or chicken schnitzel, P.E.I. mussels, grilled Atlantic salmon, and steaks including a 1.5 kilogram (a little over 3 pounds) bone-in tomahawk-style ribeye.  

I went pretty basic on my trip to Bier Markt - I got the burger with frites (fries).  It was served on a sesame-seed bun and topped with what was a surprisingly fresh slice of tomato, iceberg lettuce, kosher dill pickle slices, and shaved red onions.  The burger was, well, all right.  I thought I might have been more happy getting something else, but I was sort of in a mood for a burger that day.  

After I finished my lunch and went to the washroom, our server brought out a plate of warm powdered-sugar donuts drizzled in caramel as an after-meal dessert that Bier Markt is sort of famous for.  While I wasn't expecting anything after the burger I had, I have to say these were a nice touch at the end of the meal.  The donuts were light, but the sugar and caramel gave them a decadent quality in taste.   

I have to say that Bier Markt was a nice place, but the food was just sort of average.  They had a nice selection of beers - many of which I wasn't all that familiar with - but the atmosphere was that of an upscale sports bar.  I was impressed with the layout and the comfortable atmosphere in the place.  If you're in Montreal and looking for a place that has sports, a good beer selection, and an interesting menu with some upscale bar food, Bier Markt would be worth the stop.  

Abarrotes Carrillo - Davenport, IA

My wife and I happened to be over at Wake Brewing in Rock Island, IL one recent Friday evening, a nano-brewery that we like to go to from time to time.  As we were seated at the bar, a guy and a lady came into the place with some Mexican food they picked up earlier.  The bartender inquired as to where they got the food and the guy said that it was from a small Mexican grocery store over in Davenport.  "La Finca," I asked as I turned to him standing next to me.  He said, no, it was from another place on 3rd St. on a corner on the west edge of downtown Davenport.  He couldn't remember the name of the place, but he said they had excellent Mexican food.  My wife said she knew where the place was and that we should go there sometime.  

That sometime came less than 24 hours later as we tried to get into Los Primos, one of our favorite little Mexican places in the Quad Cities, for some lunchtime tacos.  But the place was packed and they changed the way you ordered food at the place where instead of ordering at the counter, it was now wait service.  The only problem was that they didn't have enough staff on hand to wait on tables or to clear the tables off from previous diners.  We sat there for nearly 15 minutes with a half-cleaned table before we decided to cut our losses and leave.  Disappointed, we took off toward downtown Davenport and pulled up to the corner of W. 3rd and Warren Streets to go have lunch at Abarrotes Carrillo.  (see map)

Adrian Carrillo grew up in Guanajuato, Mexico and immigrated to Muscatine a number of years ago.  He and his wife, Rosa, raised a large family - six boys and five girls.  Seeing an opportunity to open a grocery store/taqueria on downtown Davenport's west side, the Carrillo's opened Abarrotes Carrillo (basically translated as Carrillo's Groceries) in 2014.  Many of their children help out in the grocery/meat market/restaurant.  

Entering the building, you walk right into the grocery store.  There's a large emphasis on vegetables and fruits at Abarottes Carrillo finding everything from tomatillos to sapodilla in the bins.  The meat counter in the back featured pork and beef cuts, and we also saw that they had fresh ceviche in the meat case.  The young man behind the counter told us that they make their ceviche each Friday.  Canned foods, spices, and other Mexican food items were found on shelves along the narrow aisles of the tienda. 

To the left of the grocery store as you're facing toward the back when you come in is the small restaurant.  Colorful and interesting piñatas hung from the ceiling in the dining area.  We especially got a small kick out of the piñata shaped like a minion from the Despicable Me movie franchise.   

The restaurant isn't all that large - it feature four or five booths along the wall with a handful of table in the center of the room and along a half wall on the side.  Some of the Carrillo children and some of their friends were hanging out in the back booth of the dining area as it was Saturday when we were in there.  

To order at Abarottes Carrillo, there's a window that looks into the kitchen manned by one of the Carrillo sons. There were three women working in the kitchen preparing food, which my wife says is a great sign that this was going to be some outstanding and authentic home-style Mexican cooking.  Carne Asada platters, menudo soup, tortas, pork dishes, enchiladas, and chile rellenos were part of the menu at Abarottes Carrillo.  Breakfast is also available during the mornings on weekends.  I'm pretty sure you can't get a margarita there, but imported Mexican beers were available in a cooler near the front counter of the grocery store.  We ended up just getting water on our initial visit.

After ordering at the window, we took a seat along the half wall.  Not long after we sat down, we were given a basket of chips along with a bowl of salsa and a small bowl of a creamy avocado concoction.  We asked if they had any type of a salsa verde and the young man brought out two bottles.  "The salsa verde is kind of spicy," he explained.  "But the other sauce is muy caliente."  And he said that with an impish smile on his face.   The chips were fresh, thin and crisp.  The salsa in the bowl was thick and zesty with a great tomato, onion, garlic and cilantro flavor.  It was some of the better salsa we'd experienced in the Quad Cities.  

The salsa verde in the bottle was a bit more than we bargained for.  It was VERY spicy.  Well, not at first, but it had a deep spicy kick on the backside.  But it was very good.  We found that if we tried a chip with the green salsa, then had a chip with the cool and creamy avocado dip, it helped cut down on the overall spiciness. We were too chicken to try the red sauce in the other bottle.  We figured if he said that if the green sauce was categorized as "kind of spicy" - and it turned out to be more than that - then the red sauce had to be burn-your-face-off hot.  

My wife's daughter is married to a Mexican national who knows his way around a kitchen very well.  He told us a long time ago that you can tell if a Mexican restaurant is good just by ordering the tacos.  And that's what we did on our first visit to Abarottes Cabrillo.  I went with a couple shredded pork tacos and a steak taco.  My wife went with a shredded chicken taco and a steak taco.  We figured that since they cut, then cooked their meat in-house, the tacos should be pretty good.  

The tacos were served on soft corn shells, Mexican-style with chopped onions and cilantro.  A half-slice of lime came on the side along with roasted onions and a roasted jalapeño.  The pork was more like shredded carnitas with sort of a citrus taste and a crispy edge to it.  It was a little tough, but still tasted good.  But the carne asada (steak) taco was absolutely outstanding.  I don't know what they did with the cut of beef or how they cooked it, but the meat was tender with a wonderful steak flavor.  Coupled with the fresh cilantro and onion, along with a dollop of the creamy avocado dip and a quick squirt of the spicy salsa verde, there were a lot of outstanding flavors going on with the tacos.  

My wife very much enjoyed her shredded chicken taco - the meat was moist and tender.  Like me, she really liked the carne asada taco, as well.  And for funsies, we decided to take a bite of the roasted jalapeños that we both had on our plate.  It had a great grilled taste, but - man - the spiciness hit me and it almost took my breath away!  It was back to the cool and creamy avocado dip to quell the burning in my mouth.  

I've said many times that we're blessed living the Quad Cities with all the excellent and authentic Mexican restaurants at our disposal.  And Abarottes Cabrillo is one of those places.  The menu isn't all that extensive, you can't get a margarita there, and the place is not all that fancy.  But if you can get past all of that, you'll find good to excellent authentic Mexican food there.  The combination grocery store/meat market/restaurant is family-owned and operated, and we found everything we tasted to be fresh and authentic.  Oh, yeah - we'll be going back for more food, as well as produce, meats and especially the ceviche at Abarottes Cabrillo.     

Mamma Mia - Muscatine, IA

My wife and I had to take her car over to the dealership in Muscatine one evening so they could begin to do some service work on it the first thing the next morning.  Downtown Muscatine has undergone a number of renovations over the past couple of years and one of the bigger renovations is the Merrill Hotel and Conference Center and the renovated condominiums next door at The Pearl Building.  The developer of the project was looking for a tenant to take a restaurant space on the walk-up first floor of the Pearl and he was able to find two brothers who had experience in running Italian restaurants.  There are already some good Italian restaurants in Muscatine, but on this trip we decided to see how good Mamma Mia was in comparison to the others.  

Besim "Johnny" Qerimi and Gony Veseli were half-brothers who were literally raised in kitchens.  With a family tree that stretches back to Sicily and the Eastern Mediterranean, they were taught how to cook by their father and their grandfather.  Working in restaurants out east and down in Texas, Johnny and Gony ended up in the Cedar Rapids suburb of Marion, IA in February of 2011 to open an Italian restaurant/pizzeria by the name of Napoli's.  At first, the small place was a "bring-your-own" beer and wine place, but a bit over a year after they opened they decided to put in a full service bar and expand the restaurant.  Shutting the business down for nearly a month, Qerimi and Veseli renovated the restaurant adding a lunch menu and got a liquor license.  They reopened the new and improved Napoli's in April of 2012.

Feim Veseli was working in a family-owned restaurant down in Texas when an opportunity to move to Iowa to help out in his brother's restaurant came up.  The family scouted around Eastern Iowa for another Napoli's location and found a building that housed a former Maid-Rite franchise in Clinton.  Feim and Gony Veseli opened a second Napoli's in that location in April of 2016.  Unfortunately, the success the family had with their Cedar Rapids-area location didn't translate well into the dining patterns of people from Clinton and they closed that Napoli's in February of 2017.  

Undeterred, the brothers looked for a second location and found that Muscatine developer Tom Meeker was looking for someone to put a restaurant in a space he had in the Pearl Building, a building that was built in 1916 and Meeker had owned for about 15 years.  He had turned much of the building into condos, but had first floor space for a couple more restaurants to join Tantra Thai Bistro which had been in The Pearl for about 9 years.  The Veseli brothers brought in a chef they knew from Texas, Nick Lutvi, who learned the basics of Italian cooking working at his father's restaurant in New Jersey as a young boy.  Using many of the same "made-from-scratch" techniques that the brothers implemented at their Napoli's locations, they opened Mamma Mia in November of 2017.  Feim Veseli and his wife, Rina, are the managing partners of the Muscatine restaurant.   

The Pearl Building in which Mamma Mia is housed is located at the corner of Iowa Ave. and River Drive in downtown Muscatine.  (see map)  The entrance of Mamma Mia is up a flight of steps that leads to an entry way that is reminiscent of an old Italian wine cellar.  Through a large curved wooden door, you'll find a water wall embedded in a small stone wall between the entrance and the dining area.

To your right just inside the restaurant is the bar area.  It, too had sort of a wine cellar motif heavy on stone and brick.  The bar, itself, was small with a wooden arch above the bar.  A few tables were in the bar area that could be used for overflow from the dining area.

Inside the restaurant, there's an L-shaped dining area with windows on the north and east side.  During daylight hours, you can easily see the Mississippi River just beyond River Drive.  It had a very rustic Tuscan accent to the decor and we were impressed with how they were able to make it elegant, yet non-pretentious at the same time.  It was a cozy and laid back feeling in the room. 

My wife and I were greeted just inside the entrance by a lady with a thick Eastern European accent who turned out to be Rina Veseli.  She guided us to a table next to one of the windows on the river side of the dining area.  The place was about a third full - pretty good for a Sunday night, we thought.  A large group of guys who we determined were in town for meetings at Allsteel, the makers of HON office furniture, were at a table near us.  Rina dropped off menus for us to look over.  

Right off the bat, I was looking to get something with a red sauce that evening and the Chicken Parmigiana was calling my name.  However, they had a number of other chicken dishes that intrigued me including the Chicken Tetrazini that featured chicken breasts in a creamy brandy sauce with red peppers, and the Chicken Niccola that had chicken breasts stuffed with spinach, cheese and sautéed mushrooms in a cream sauce.  

They also had a number of Italian specialities on the menu such as Eggplant Parmigiana, lobster-stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce, fettuccine carbonara, and manicotti.  Mamma Mia also featured seafood dishes such as shrimp and scallops, shrimp alfredo, and a mussels and shrimp dish served in a spicy sherry marinara sauce.  They also feature pizza at Mamma Mia, as well as a number of appetizers including calamari, stuffed mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese sticks served with their house-made marinara sauce.  

At first, I thought I was pretty much going to go with the chicken parm, so I ended up getting a glass of Malbec wine when Rina came back to take our drink order.  My wife was pretty certain what she was going to get - something more toward a cream sauce - so she ended up ordering a glass of their house Pinot Grigio.  But the more I looked at the menu, the more torn I became as to what I really wanted to have.

After hemming and hawing about my choices, changing my mind three times before we finally ordered our main dishes, Rina brought out our salads as a precursor to the entrees.  It was a simply salad consisting of lettuce, a single ring of sliced red onion, a couple slices of cucumber and a smattering of croutons.  A house Italian dressing came on the salad.  The lettuce was firm and crisp and the house dressing was zesty, but not forward in taste.  A basket of fresh-baked braided bread came with the salads.  The bread was soft and warm and was easily pulled apart.  I could have sat there and just ate the bread the rest of the meal, it was that good.   

My wife ended up getting getting the Veal Florentine - veal medallions in a garlic cream sauce with sautéed mushrooms (I've finally gotten my wife to eat mushrooms as long as they're fresh and not canned), red onions and fresh spinach.  Fresh chopped parsley was spread over the dish to finish it off.  My wife thought that the veal was a little tough, but she really liked the overall flavors in the entree.  

As I said, I thought I was going to go with the chicken parmigiana, but at the last moment I ordered the Chicken Siciliana.  It consisted of small chicken breasts in a white wine/butter/lemon sauce served on a bed of angel hair pasta.  Since I now had gotten something with a white wine sauce, I finished up my glass of Malbec wine and ordered an Italian Orvieto they had on the wine list.  However, Rina said that they were out of the Orvieto and I ordered up a glass of the same Pinot Grigio that my wife had.  

The Chicken Siciliana was very good - the chicken breasts were tender and easy to cut.  Artichoke hearts and sautéed mushrooms were interspersed with the chicken giving the dish a nice balance between tangy and earthy flavors.  The lemon in the sauce was forward in taste, but not overpowering with the other flavors in the dish.  The more I had, the more I liked about about the meal.  

After finishing what we could - there was a lot of food - Rina tried to tempt us with some after dinner desserts, but we declined.  She offered to box up what we had left - most of mine was the pasta and my wife had pretty much eaten her veal medallions - but we told her that it was fine.  It never tastes as good re-heated as it does in the restaurant.  

For our first visit to Mamma Mia, I'd have to say we were mightily impressed and we made plans to come back again at some point.  My wife was happy with her Veal Florentine - even though she thought the veal may have been a little tough and overcooked - and I have to say that the more that I ate my Chicken Siciliana, the more I liked it.  And I liked it fine from the first bite.  The portions were large for what we paid, the service was friendly and efficient, and the rustic Tuscan-style decor was elegant, but still warm and inviting.  Muscatine has a number of good to very good Italian restaurants and Mamma Mia may arguably be the best we've had in the city.  

Seamus McDaniel's - St. Louis

I've been staying near the Clayton/Tamm area in central St. Louis for a number of years, but it's only quite recently that I've made an effort to find interesting places to eat in the neighborhood.  Also known the locals as Dogtown, the neighborhood has long been known as the original Irish enclave in St. Louis.  So, it's only fitting that one of the oldest and more popular Irish pubs in the city is located in the neighborhood - Seamus McDaniel's.  On a trip to St. Louis last fall for a dealer event I was working, I went to Seamus McDaniel's for lunch.  

The building that houses Seamus McDaniel's - which sits just south of the corner of Clayton and Tamm (see map) - dates back to the 1920's.  After Prohibition ended, the spot became a bar and was in business for about 12 years before local politician Jack O'Shea bought the place toward the end of World War II.  O'Shea - a former state legislator in Missouri and a local Democratic Party operative - named the place O'Shea's Shamrock Pub and it became a popular watering hole in the neighborhood and a gathering spot for politicians.  It also became a rather notorious place in the 1950's as O'Shea kept a private poker room in one of the upstairs rooms.  One afternoon, an illegal high-stakes poker game with a number of men playing in the room was busted by St. Louis police officers.  O'Shea, who was downstairs in his bar at the time, along with five men who were unable to flee the room when the cops broke in were arrested.  

O'Shea retired soon after that episode and sold the place to Eddie Brady.  Trying to clean up the image of the place, Brady made the place a more traditional Irish pub and was instrumental in some of the first planned St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the neighborhood.  In 1966, Brady sold the place to novice tavern owner Norman Journey who kept the Jack O'Shea tradition of free corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  

However, in 1983, the Irish pub was sold to two brothers by the name of Burke who overhauled the decor in the place, turning it into a more modern bar with mirrored walls and a drop-down white ceiling while changing the name to Burke's Place.  Of course, that didn't go over well with the regulars and the Burke brothers were forced to close the business in 1985.

Jim Venincasa grew up in the neighborhood - just a block away from the original O'Shea's Shamrock Pub -and soon after he graduated from high school he started working in a restaurant kitchen.  After becoming a chef and working at a handful of restaurants in the St. Louis area, Venincasa and his good friend, Danny Liston (who was locally famous as a guitar player in Mama's Pride, a Southern rock band who had a some success in the early 70's) decided to buy Burke's Place.  They pulled down the stick-on mirrored walls, they pulled down the white drop-down ceiling to re-expose the original tin ceiling.  They found the original Anheuser-Busch ornate backbar that was in storage and re-installed it.  Turning it back into a cozy Irish pub, they renamed the place Seamus McDaniel's and opened in November of 1985.

Venincasa and Liston added a back dining room to the small bar just before St. Patrick's Day in 1986, and added a beer garden behind the building some time later.  In 1990, they took over a space next door to their pub that they leased out to an upholstery shop to expand their place even more.  The pub became known for their burgers, reuben sandwiches, and homemade potato chips.  And it was also a favorite place to gather before and after St. Louis Blues hockey games when they played at the old St. Louis Arena until 1994.  Seamus McDaniel's used to run a shuttle bus for fans to and from the nearby arena when the arena was open.  

Liston was a recovering alcoholic and owning a bar was always a challenge.  In 2002, he spearheaded a reunion of Mama's Pride playing some dates around the area.  By 2003, Liston was through with the bar business selling his shares to Venincasa and his wife, Susan.  The Venincasa's continued to run Seamus McDaniel's, but, quite tragically, Jimmy Venincasa died suddenly at the age of 56 in April of 2015, weeks after he and his wife were the co-Grand Marshalls of the Ancient Order of Hibernians St. Patrick's Day Parade held each year along Tamm Ave. in Dogtown.  Susan Venincasa continues to own and operate Seamus McDaniel's today.  

Parking along the stretch of Clayton and down Tamm can be pretty challenging most times, but an unseasonably early November snowstorm had blanketed the city with over six inches of snow the night before and the parking situation along the streets was sort of a mess.  However, Seamus McDaniel's has a small parking lot in back and even though there were piles of snow in some spots I was able to find an open parking space.  

Inside Seamus McDaniel's, the original bar area is just inside the front door.  The original tin roof ceiling and the original ornate back bar were very eye catching.  This was a great little neighborhood bar.  

In back of the bar area was the back room that added in 1986.  It featured dark walnut wall panels, a stone floor and a stone fireplace in the corner.  The room added about a couple dozen seats to Seamus McDaniels when it was open.  

Off to the side area from the bar was the addition that was opened in 1990.  This was a much bigger room with natural light coming in from windows on the south side.  This space more than doubled the number of patrons Seamus McDaniels could serve.  

In the far back of the place beyond the back room was an "L"-shaped all-seasons room that had garage-style doors that would open up to a back outdoor patio and to the parking lot.  The all-seasons room tremendously expanded the number of seats in the place.  If you just looked at Seamus McDaniels from the front, you would be surprised - as I was - at how big it really is in the place.    

I ended up seated at the bar and was greeted by Maria, the bartender on duty that day.  She gave me a food menu and asked what I'd like to drink.  They had all the good Irish beers on tap - Guinness, Smithwick's and Harp - as well as some domestic beers.  I decided to have a Harp while I looked through the menu.  

They had about a dozen appetizers on the menu including the St. Louis staple - toasted ravioli, as well as a garlic bread topped with provel cheese, breaded mushrooms, and chicken wings.  Soups and salads were also available, along with a number of burgers, sandwiches, and main entrees that ran the gamut from steaks to chicken dishes to pasta selections.  

Seamus McDaniels is famous for their burgers and their sandwiches.  I had a burger the day before or I probably would have signed up for their Swiss cheese and mushroom burger where you get your choice of either sautéed mushrooms or a mushroom gravy on the burger.  I probably would have got for the mushroom gravy.  Sandwiches included a roast beef sandwich with a choice of either au jus or beef gravy, a buffalo chicken sandwich topped with provel cheese, and an 8 oz. ribeye steak sandwich with sautéed mushrooms and sautéed onions.  

I ended up going with the reuben sandwich.  Instead of fries, I asked Maria if I could get a side salad with their house-made Greek dressing.  Maria said, "Oooo, good choice."  The salad was very good and I really enjoyed the tangy Greek dressing.  

The reuben featured thin-cut corned beef piled high on marbled-rye bread topped with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.  Instead of putting the Thousand Island dressing on the sandwich, a small container of it came on the side.  That was fine with me as sometimes restaurants will put too much dressing on their reubens.  

The corned beef on this reuben was, well, in a word, fantastic.  Some of the best and most flavorful corned beef I've ever tasted.  The spices they use were very prevalent with each bite of the sandwich.  I asked Maria if they cooked it in-house and she said she wasn't sure.  She checked with someone else and came back and said that they do cook and slice the corned beef in house, however, they get the corned beef from a local food purveyor who seasons it in advance for Seamus McDaniels.  The marble-rye bread was thin, but held together very well with the moist sauerkraut and oozing Swiss cheese on the sandwich.  Occasional dips of the sandwich into the dressing made it a multi-flavored experience.   

I've been coming to St. Louis on a regular basis for business for over 30 years - about as long as Seamus McDaniels has been in business.  I seriously can't believe that I hadn't found the place until this visit.  It's not far from where I stay in St. Louis and I could see myself hanging out at Seamus McDaniels on future trips to the city.  The reuben sandwich was one of the best I've had, I thought it was a great value considering how much corned beef (and how good the corned beef was) they put on the sandwich, and I really liked the atmosphere of the place - which is surprisingly larger than it looks from the front of the place.  The service was prompt and friendly, and it really gave me the feeling of being in an authentic Irish pub.  Now that I found the place, they could be my home bar away from home when I go to St. Louis.

White Dog Black Cat Cafe - Green Bay, WI

During a previous trip to Green Bay some time ago, I happened to be reading in a local publication about a quirky little bar/cafe in the Broadway District of the city - White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I had put that on my list of places to go to and on a trip to Green Bay last fall before the snow began to fall, I headed over to check out what the place with a double dichotomy as a name was all about.  

White Dog Black Cat's Cafe owners - Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel - were both social workers in the area for a number of years.  About 20 years ago, Holly decided that she needed a change of scenery from the rigors of social work, so she moved out to Egg Harbor in Door County to work in a restaurant with some friends of hers.  It turns out that she enjoyed the restaurant work more than social work.  From her friends restaurant, she moved on to the popular White Gull Inn working as a cook for about a dozen years and learning the restaurant business.  (Click here to see an over 10 year old Road Tips post on the White Gull Inn.) 

Around 2003, Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel (pictured at right - photo courtesy Glidden Drive Association) decided to open their own restaurant in Green Bay.  Now, this is just a guess, but I believe they may have named their restaurant after the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia which was owned by entrepreneur/author/urban activist Judy Wicks whose restaurant was one of the first in the nation to feature locally grown and sustainable foods cooking and to promote responsible business practices including offering a living wage to its employees.  Wicks also ran the Black Cat gift boutique located next door to the White Dog Cafe which featured locally made goods and fair trade gift items.  (Well prior to her life as a restaurant/boutique owner/author/activist, Wicks co-founded the Free People store with her then-husband Richard Hayne as part of an entrepreneurial class at the University of Pennsylvania.  Hayne and Wicks divorced in 1971 and the store eventually evolved into Urban Outfitters of which Wicks has no involvement with today.)   

White Dog Black Cat Cafe featured artwork from local artists and garnered a following the Green Bay community offering craft beers, good burgers and a great place to hang out.  The success with their little bar/cafe in Green Bay prompted Fiorello and Hebel to buy a long time Door County establishment called The Hitching Post in 2015.  The two transformed the bar and grill into The Tin Plate that somewhat mirrored the vibe and menu found at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  Unfortunately, having a second location proved to be somewhat too much for Fiorello and Hebel and they closed The Tin Plate last July.  But they continue to run White Dog Black Cat Cafe today.  

I found White Dog Black Cat Cafe at the corner of S. Broadway and N. Howard near the Fox River.  (see map)  Much of that stretch of Broadway is made up of small shops, coffee houses, and restaurants.  I was able to find a parking spot on Broadway just past of Howard and walked back over to the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  

From the outside, you wouldn't think much about the place.  It's a nondescript block style building with a brick facade and pastel colors on the side.  But walking inside the building, it comes alive.  The restaurant is segmented into two parts.  The bar area along with high-top tables along the wall is to the left as you come into the restaurant.  The "L"-shaped bar featured high-backed chairs with a barn board facade.  

The burnt orange wall opposite the bar gave the room some vibrancy.  The sound system was playing an interesting mix of artists such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Police, and Jade Bird.  I immediately liked the funky vibe to the place.  

Off to the right side as you come in to White Dog Black Cat Cafe was a more common style dining area.  There was a certain funkiness to the space with the walls and curtains in pastel colors.  As with the bar area, some interesting art work - all of which, I understand, was available for purchase - was on the wall.  Chairs were mismatched, as were the lamps hanging from the ceiling.  An antique stove stood at one end of the dining area, while on the opposite end there was a lime green couch under the window with an antique coffee maker on one side and a small wood burning stove on the other side.  

I ended up seated at the bar and was greeted by my server/bartender James who had a soft-spoken, amiable and laid-back demeanor.  He gave me a food menu to look over and I ordered up a Fantasy Victory IPA from the Karben4 Brewing Company, a small brewery from Madison, WI that I wasn't familiar with.  I liked the beer immensely and had to pick up a couple six packs when I got to Madison later that evening.  

Burgers and sandwiches are the main items on the menu at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  On Fridays, they have a number of fish and seafood items that are added to the menu.  And on Saturdays and Sundays, the cafe has a popular brunch menu available.  Soups, salads and appetizers are also available.  

In the article I read about the place previously, it talked about how good their burgers were at White Dog Black Cat.  I had a burger the day before and I wasn't certain that I was going that direction two days in a row.  I considered the fish tacos or the muffuletta sandwich for a moment, but the White Dog burger is what I ended up with.

The burgers at White Dog Black Cat Cafe all come with potato chips, but I asked James if I could get a cup of the chili they had listed on the menu.  This was a thick chili, but not nearly-concrete thick, with beef and beans, then topped with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped onions.  It had a very noticeable and forward chili powder taste.  The chili was very good - a spot-hitter, if you will, considering there was a noticeable chill in the air in Green Bay that day.

The White Dog burger consists of a 1/2 pound of premium ground beef and served with lettuce, tomato and onions.  For an uncharge, you can get cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  I got all three - Swiss cheese, of course.  The burger was piled high with the toppings and it looked pretty impressive.  The Swiss cheese just oozed off the top and onto the sides of the burger.  

The burger, itself, was very juicy and very good.  Even with the load of toppings on the burger, I could still get the good grilled beef taste with every bite.  The only quibble was that there was too much bun.  The base was very thick and the crown - although light and spongy - was a little chewy.  I pulled away much of the bun using parts of it to hold as I ate the burger and the toppings.  Overall, it was a very good burger.  

If you're looking for a fun, laid-back and quirky place to eat in Green Bay, I would recommend seeking out the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I liked everything about my visit - the interesting artwork, the decor, the choice of music and I thoroughly enjoyed both the White Dog burger and the cup of chili that I had.  James, the bartender/server, was a nice guy, friendly and not pushy.  While there's not a lot to choose from on the menu, even if you want to go there to get a beer they have a good selection of local and regional craft brews.  This is the kind of place I wish I had in my neighborhood to go hang out at.  

Willy McCoys - Bloomington, MN

Up in the Twin Cities last fall, I was looking for someplace to go that would be showing playoff baseball where I could get a cold beer and some above average bar food.  I looked for places around the hotel where I was staying and I found a place that I wasn't familiar with - Willy McCoys.  I sort of cringed thinking that this was going to be one of those family-friendly "good-time-had-by-all" theme restaurants.  But then I found out that they had the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap - my beer of choice these days.  I thought, "What the hell.  If the food sucks, at least they'll have baseball on TV and Big Wave on tap."  I took off to go find Willy McCoys in Bloomington.  

Tom DeQuattro grew up on the East Coast and got into the restaurant business at a very early age.  He was running restaurants in Michigan and in the Miami area in his 20's.  It was in Florida where he met Korey Bannerman, a former gymnast at the University of Minnesota who was a partner in a company called Premier Restaurant Management.  Bannerman convinced DeQuattro to head to the Twin Cities to manage a restaurant called The Lodge.  DeQuattro didn't know how long he would be staying in Minnesota, but it wasn't too long after he moved to the state he met his future wife, Tracy.  Suddenly, the Upper Midwest became DeQuattro's permanent home.  

DeQuattro and Bannerman became involved in other restaurants, most notably the former Whiskey River Saloon that had locations in Madison and LaCrosse, WI, and a restaurant called The Pub also located in Madison.  (They have also opened a couple of restaurants in the Naples, FL area.)  In 2012, they decided to take over a former restaurant location in the far northwest Minneapolis suburb of Ramsey and open a new concept restaurant that would be family friendly - complete with its own PlayStation area for kids - as well as a sports bar with a number of craft beers available on tap.  They called it Willy McCoys and it became an immediate hit.  Today, there are six Willy McCoys in the Twin Cities area.  The Bloomington location that I went to opened in 2015.  

Now, most theme restaurants like this usually have a made up name with a made up story behind the name.  But it turned out that there really was a Willy McCoy - William "Bill" McCoy, to be exact.  McCoy and his brother were sea captains and yacht builders in Florida in the early 1900's.  When Prohibition took effect in 1919, McCoy became a bootlegger, or as they were known in the Caribbean a "rum runner", who would fill his boats with cases of rum from Caribbean islands and bring them to the United States.  He became proficient at the task earning millions of dollars for his efforts and becoming the darling of criminal folklore in the early 1920's.  The federal government finally caught up to McCoy in 1923 sentencing him to 9 months of prison time.  After serving his sentence in New Jersey, McCoy went back to Florida and invested his ill-gotten gains in real estate, living there until he passed away in 1948.  

Since I'd been experimenting with the OMAD (One Meal a Day) Diet that has helped me lose over 50 pounds, I'd been eating usually late in the afternoon.  And it was just after 5 p.m. when I pulled into the Willy McCoys in Bloomington located in a strip mall on the southwest corner of West Old Shakopee Road and France Ave. South. (see map) 

The Bloomington Willy McCoys has a large and open space with a bar area in the middle.  Overhead garage doors opened to a patio, but it was a cool fall afternoon when I was there and they were closed.  The place was packed with an after work/early dinner crowd.  I took a seat at the crowded bar, a couple young ladies scooched over to let me have some room.  Major League playoff baseball games were playing on the sets hung over the center of the bar area.  

Amongst the dozen of handles on the row of taps I saw the distinctive ocean blue Kona Big Wave Golden Ale tap handle.  I ordered one of those up and started to take a look through the food menu.  The bar area had a tin ceiling about it and it was enhanced by a blue light around the edge.  

When the bartender brought me my beer, he actually brought two beers.  I soon figured out that happy hour at Willy McCoys meant two-for-one beers.  So, I suddenly had two pints of Kona Big Wave sitting in front of me.  And that really wasn't that bad of a thing.   

Looking through the menu, I saw number of typical items that you'd find at a similar family/sports bar - appetizers, burgers, salads, sandwiches, flatbreads, soups and a few entrees.  But they were actually pretty different and rather interesting compared to menus at similar restaurants.  Appetizers at Willie McCoys included pot stickers that were pan-seared in a whiskey ginger sauce, blackened beef bites, and a Southwest-style shredded chicken dip that was made with a creamy concoction mixed with diced tomatoes, jalapeños, onions and sweet corn.  

The crispy buffalo chicken salad topped with blue cheese caught my eye, as did the beef brisket sandwich.  The blackened mahi mahi tacos on the list of entrees were a large possibility, but I was sort of intrigued by the Juicy McCoy burger - Willy McCoy's rendition of the Twin Cities staple stuffed cheeseburger.  But I had a burger the previous evening, so I didn't want to get into that rut.  Quite frankly, they had a number of interesting things on the menu where one minute I'd decide on something, only to have that trumped by something else I found on the menu.  

The two bartenders let me think about the four or five dinner items I had to choose from over a couple of beers.  When I ordered up another Big Wave - it was still happy hour, so I got two more pints - I was ready to order.  I first ordered a cup of Willy McCoy's house-made wild rice soup - a Minnesota staple.   It was thick, creamy, very rich and very good.  I probably could have gotten a whole bowl of the wild rice soup and been happy with that for my meal.  

I ended up getting the Jambalaya sandwich.  It had crispy buffalo chicken, sautéed shrimp, and andouille sausage mixed in with peppers, onions and tomatoes.  It was served open-faced on French bread and was drizzled with a creamy and spicy Cajun sauce.  I got a side salad with ranch dressing instead of a choice of fries, tater tots, waffle fries, cole slaw or other side items.  

I concentrated on what was on top if the bread - the crispy chicken, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp covered in the cream and spicy Cajun sauce.  The sauce was spicy enough where it caught my attention on top of the already spicy crispy chicken and andouille sausage.  But it wasn't overpowering where I couldn't enjoy all the different flavors on the sandwich.  It was actually pretty good.

As I was seated there enjoying the sandwich, an older gentleman came in and sat down next to me at the bar.  The female bartender had a drink ready for him and called him by his first name.  Obviously a regular, he asked the bartender what the special was that evening.  She said it was open-faced sliced turkey sandwich topped with the wild rice soup.  Now, they never told me what the specials were before I ordered off the menu and I would have DEFINITELY ordered that!  Not that what I had was bad - far from it.  But an open-faced turkey and creamy wild rice sandwich would have been a spot-hitter.  

When they brought it out to the gentleman next to me, I couldn't help but comment on the sandwich.  I said, "I like what I got, but that looks delicious."  He said it was very delicious.  He said that he eats there on a regular basis - "probably too much," he said - and the food is always consistently good.  

Going in to Willy McCoys for the first time, I was a little worried that it would be one of those theme-restaurants that I usually despise.  But I have to admit, the food choices they had on the menu made it very hard for me to make up my mind.  While I settled on the open-faced jambalaya sandwich and a cup of the house-made wild rice soup, the open-faced turkey sandwich topped with the wild rice soup special they had that evening - which wasn't offered to me by my servers - looked like a winner.  Not that I didn't like the jambalaya sandwich, it was a true spot-hitter.  I just wish I would have had the special options given to me that evening.  Nonetheless, Willy McCoys has a wide and varied menu and a number of great craft brews on tap.  I'm sort of surprised I hadn't known about this place sooner than my first visit this past fall.  

O'Rourke's Public House - South Bend, IN

Staying overnight in South Bend late last year, I decided that to try a German restaurant that wasn't far from the hotel.  The only problem is that when I pulled up to the place, it turned out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday nights.  Well, Plan B was going to be an Irish pub for that evening's food choice.  I had already tried Fiddler's Hearth last year in downtown South Bend (click here to read the Road Tips entry on Fiddler's Hearth), but my old neighbor who is a huge Notre Dame football fan told me after my visit there of an Irish pub literally across the street from the University of Notre Dame campus on the north side of the city.  I looked the place up and found the name - O'Rourke's Public House.  That's where I went for dinner and some beers that evening.  

Even though the O'Rourke's Public House is owned by a number of investors who went to school at Notre Dame, the backstory of how it got to South Bend is one of those "Only in America" kinds of stories.  It all started with a young guy by the name of Dave Magrogan who, along with two siblings, were raised in near poverty by their single mother.  Forced to move multiple times before Magrogan started high school, his mother always stayed positive with her outlook in life and eventually got her degree in nursing.  

Magrogan inherited much of his mother's positive "can-do" spirit and after college he looked at becoming a chiropractor.  He opened his first practice in suburban Philadelphia on a shoestring in 1996 and he quickly found that normal chiropractic techniques of multiple patient visits with fee scheduled payments wasn't working out.  Moving to a "Pay-what-you-can" philosophy, adding seminars, and giving patient discounts for referrals turned out to be the Midas touch for Magrogan.  Within a short time, he was seeing over 800 patients a week, opened a second clinic, and had a local weekly cable television program on chiropractic health where he was known as "Dr. Dave."

By 2003, Magrogan had grown bored with the practice of chiropractic medicine even though he was immensely successful with his business.  He started to look into starting a restaurant, even though it was a risky venture as a study found that nearly 60 percent of all restaurants fail within their first three years.  But, he had worked in restaurants since he was 12 years old all the way through high school, into college and through chiropractic school first as a busboy, then a waiter, then becoming a bartender to help get himself through college.  He focused his first restaurant - an Irish pub by the name of Kildare's - in the wealthy suburbs west of Philadelphia.  

By 2007, there were five Kildare's in and around the Philadelphia area and Magrogan drew the attention of Bernie Spain who, along with is brother Murray, sold their Dollar Express chain of dime-stores to Dollar Tree.  Bernie Spain was looking to invest his money and he was taken by Magrogan's entrepreneurial spirit.  He invested into Magrogan's plan to open 25 more Kildare's locations by 2010.

However, the Great Recession of 2008 put a large hold on those plans and Magrogan had to rethink his outlook.  He discovered that putting Irish restaurants in affluent suburbs wasn't the smartest thing because most people didn't like Irish food - they would end up ordering burgers, sandwiches and appetizers - and they would only have a couple beers since most people had to drive to and from his restaurants.  And beer was a huge money maker in restaurants.  He decided that focusing on Kildare's locations in cities near college campuses to help cater to younger crowds would be the answer.  

It was a group of 8 Notre Dame alumnus who entered into a franchise agreement with Magrogan's restaurant group to put a Kildare's in the new Eddy Street Commons just south of the Notre Dame campus.  The restaurant opened in August 2010, but it wasn't long before the group of investors began to splinter away from the Kildare's concept.  They broke their franchise agreement with the rapidly failing Kildare's concept and rebranded their restaurant as O'Rourke's Public House in the spring of 2011.  (Kildare's formally closed their last company restaurant in Philadelphia in 2016, but Magrogan continues to run other restaurants today.  He sold the original Kildare's in West Chester, PA to his manager there in 2015 and it continues to this day.)

Parking around Eddy Street Commons can be a little tricky, especially near O'Rourke's Public House situated at the corner of E. Angela Blvd. and N. Eddy St.  (see map)  However, there's a large public garage with free parking up to 2 hours most evenings just around the corner.  That's where I ended up parking that chilly fall evening.  

Inside O'Rourke's Public House, I found a nice open space with a long bar with a curved turn-out at one end.  Like the other Kildare pub's that were built before this place became O'Rourke's, the interior of the restaurant was designed and built by a company in Dublin, Ireland that was shipped to South Bend for installation.  The restaurant has five different Irish design themes depicted in the space - Victorian, Cottage, Brewery, Shop and Gaelic.  I didn't know which was which, nor did I bother to ask anyone for a tour.  It's an Irish pub, for god's sake!  Let's drink and not worry about various architectural themes!

I ended up seated at the bar and I was immediately greeted by one of the bartenders, Aubrianna.  She introduced herself to me, stuck out her hand and asked my name.  I've been noticing more places are doing that.  Actually, I sort of find it somewhat forced and canned on the servers part to do that, but I guess it's all right.  She gave me a food menu and I ordered up a Bell's Two Hearted Ale from the somewhat impressive craft beer tap list they had. 

Now, this was an Irish pub, right?  I thought it was sort of strange that they were playing country music over the sound system in the place - something that would drive my somewhat Irish pub-puritan ex-neighbor crazy.  (When I told him after the fact that they were playing country music in an Irish bar across from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, he went apoplectic.)  

Well, it got better.  At 8 p.m. they switched the music to urban.  I just had to laugh over that.  It had to be the first time I'd ever heard hip hop in an Irish pub.  And at 10 p.m. that evening, they were going to have karaoke.  I thought it may be pretty late on a weeknight for karaoke.  

O'Rourke's Public House featured a number of sandwiches, burgers and entrees including Irish favorites such as fish and chips, and a Guinness beef stew.  Their pub burgers consisted of ground prime rib and available with five different types of cheese and a number of other toppings including Irish-style rasher - thin slices of bacon.  The Four Horsemen burger consisted of a prime rib burger topped with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing.  It's for people who can't make up their mind between getting a reuben or a burger.

And I was sort of that way that evening.  I was contemplating between getting a sautéed mushroom/Swiss cheese burger and the reuben.  But the guy seated a couple seats down from me was just finishing up his Shepherd's Pie.  Aubrianna asked him how it was and he said it was very good.  I decided to go with the Shepherd's Pie that evening.  After I ordered, the guy said to me, "Good choice.  I was happy with this."

After getting a dinner salad that had too much other stuff on it than lettuce - it was covered in croutons and had too many sliced cucumbers and red onions on it, but the balsamic vinaigrette was very good - I was served the Shepherd's Pie.  It was served in a dish with a ton of mashed potatoes topped with broiler-melted cheddar cheese (a $1 add-on) and onion straws on top.  I certainly didn't need - or really want - that heavy layer of mashed potatoes covering the rest of the Shepherd's Pie.  The potatoes really got in the way of getting to the ground beef and veggies mixed in with the stout beer gravy.  It was good, but it was a lot of food.  I was able to maybe eat just over half of the Shepherd's Pie, picking around the potatoes where I could.  It was very rich, very filling and pretty good.  

Given that O'Rourke's Public House was my second choice that evening since my first choice was closed for the night, I can't say that I was disappointed.  The pre-fab Irish decor in the place gave it a true pub feeling, but the curious choices of blaring country music and then urban hip hop after 8 p.m. sort of destroyed any type of Irish ambience to the place.  Aubrianna's service was friendly and efficient, and while I had a couple quibbles with the food - too many toppings on the salad, and too much mashed potatoes on the Shepherd's Pie - I thought it was good for what I got.  They had a good selection of craft brews and there were enough flat-screen televisions to keep a single diner entertained for the duration of their stay.  O'Rourke's Public House wasn't the best Irish pub I've been to, but it was better than others that put up an Irish flag on a wall and call themselves an Irish bar.  

Eagle Park Brewing Company - Milwaukee

My neighbor is a craft-beer enthusiast who likes to take drives to brewpubs and microbreweries around the Midwest. He's turned me on to a number of brewpubs over the past few years.  He likes to go to Milwaukee as he's a big Brewers fan and I was telling him that I was going to the city to call on a couple three accounts last fall.   My neighbor told me of a place that I really needed to check out called Eagle Park Brewing Company.  After meeting with an account in the afternoon, I sought out Eagle Park Brewing Co. for an early dinner and a few beers.  

Jackson "Jack" Borgardt and his older brother, Max, were musicians living in their parents home in the Milwaukee area.  Once Jack reached legal drinking age (which, in Wisconsin, could be 16 in most families, but 21 legally), Max and he started to brew their own beers in the family garage.  Their parents were supportive of their budding musical career - the brothers formed a band by the name of Eagle Trace along with their younger brother, Cass - and they were equally supportive of the home brewing hobby the brothers developed.  

The first beer the brothers brewed was an India Brown Ale that they liked immensely.  After the success of their first small-batch brew, the brothers were as hooked on brewing their own beer as they were with their music.  

Like most home brewers who are proud of their beers, the Borgardt brothers had a number of their friends try their unique brews.  One friend, Jake Schinker convinced the brothers to do their own micro-brewery and the brothers made him partner in the venture.  Starting the brewery out of their parents garage in 2015, the trio named their new nanobrewery Eagle Park Brewing Co.  

The trio needed to get out of their parents garage to expand their brewery and they found a spot on the second floor in the Lincoln Warehouse, a former warehouse built in 1928 that was refurbished to house businesses as diverse as recording studios, hair salons, a distillery, and boutique shops.  The Borgardt brothers and Stinker started out with a single brewing vessel and a small tap room.  They brewed 10 different styles of craft brews and almost immediately they realized they were outgrowing their space in the old warehouse. 

Like Minds Brewery opened a restaurant/tap room/seven-barrel brewing operation in 2016.  After a partner left in 2017, the operation just became a craft brewery/tap room.  It was in late 2017 when the owner of Like Minds decided that he needed to find another spot for his operation and was looking at relocating to his hometown of Chicago.  Like Minds closed in December of 2017 and put the building up for sale.

The Borgardt brothers and Schinker immediately jumped on the property in early 2018.  It gave them a larger space to brew more beers and room for a canning facility.  The kitchen was intact (Schinker joked that the only thing they had to buy was a can opener) and the group hired Nathan Heck to run their kitchen.  And true to the brothers musical roots, they added a small live performance area in the space.  Eagle Park Brewing Company relocated to their new location in April of last year.  

That new location is at the corner of E. Hamilton and N. Marshall just north of downtown Milwaukee.  (see map)  There's a parking lot on the north side of the building, but there is also parking along Marshall if needed.  

Inside the small brewery was an open taproom with a skylight that allowed natural light to filter in during the day.  A number of tables were placed in the middle of the room with a small conversation area in the corner that could be taken out when live music was played.  Dark gray walls featured a flat screen television surrounded with a number of music posters.  The original floor still had oil stains from back when it was a garage for the owners of the tannery that originally occupied the space years ago. Exposed duct work and brick walls gave the space a sort of industrial vibe.    

The brewing area was in the back of the building down a long hallway.  It was tough to see how big the brewery was, but the smell of hops and grains were prevalent in the air.  A small window underneath a sign that said, "Order Here" was the portal into the brewery.  Cans of Eagle Park beers were in coolers near the window.  

I ended up sitting at the bar in the corner of the taproom.  A door to the outdoors beer patio was off to the side.  One of the bartenders, Sarah, came up to great me.  The beer menu was on a flat screen television mounted to the wall behind the bar.  The selections rotated two or three times on the screen with the beers they were serving that day.  

Kind of a hip urban millennial kind of place, Eagle Park falls in line with their owners - who are musicians - by playing vinyl albums on their sound system behind the bar.  They played the first side of Abraxas by Santana, but when someone put on Make It Big by Wham!, the selection was roundly booed down by the crowd that was in there.  That record was quickly taken off the turntable and replaced by Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones.  It was a much better choice in my opinion.  

Eagle Park has a number of seasonal brews and at this time they had over a dozen beers available on tap.  You can get full pints for generally $7.00, half-pints for $4.00, or you can get a trio of half-pints for $10.00.  That's what I ended up doing and I went with the Goon Juice New England IPA, the Loop Station Golden Ale, and the Demon Haze New England IPA that didn't have as much alcohol content as the Goon Juice.  Out of the three I liked the Goon Juice the best - I wasn't too enamored with the Loop Station Golden Ale.  

They do have a limited food menu at Eagle Park with appetizers, burgers and a handful of sandwiches.  The burgers consist of a combination of ground chuck and short rib beef, smashed during the cooking process.  They also had a smoked brisket sandwich, a smoked pulled pork sandwich, a fried chicken breast with a buffalo curry sauce, and a grilled cheese sandwich made with Hook's Cheese Company's five-year old cheddar.   

I ended up going with the Smashburger - a 1/3 pound patty topped with in-house cured bacon, Hook’s aged American cheese, mixed pickles, pickled mustard seeds, lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions, and finished with a garlic mayo.  Eagle Park's karate chopped fries - basically hand-cut fries mixed with a Cotija cheese, pickled mustard seed and herbs - came on the side, but I asked Sarah if I could get a side salad instead.   

The burger was served along side the salad in a wax paper lined oblong tray.  The fringes of the burger had that signature flat-grilled crust and it came on a toasted bun.  The burger, itself, was very good - a good burger for a good burger city like Milwaukee.  It was juicy and very messy - it was at least a four napkin burger - with all the toppings on it.  But the toppings didn't mask the overall taste of the ground chuck/short rib beef patty.  It was a surprisingly outstanding burger.  

Eagle Park Brewing Company was a good place to visit.  Beer is really the focus at Eagle Park, but food is also available in terms of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers.  A couple of the beers I had were good, the burger was even better, and I really liked the urban industrial atmosphere of the place along with the selection of 70's and 80's vinyl music they were playing on the stereo system.  With a number of choices of small craft breweries in Milwaukee, Eagle Park may not be the biggest or the most popular, but it's definitely worthy of a visit.  

Ike's - Bloomington, MN

 I had an appointment with an account in Bloomington late one afternoon and I was looking for a place not too far from the meeting place for a late lunch.  I had noticed a restaurant in an office building that was set back from the road just north of 494 in Bloomington and decided to give it a try for dinner on a previous trip to the Twin Cities, but it turned out that the place was packed.  However, this day it was late enough that it was well past the noon rush. This time I was going to have lunch at the very popular Ike's restaurant with five locations around the Twin Cities.  

Gene Winstead worked for a vending and gaming machine company and worked with a number of bars and restaurants in the area over the years.  Gene epitomized the term "Minnesota Nice" as he was highly respected in Bloomington, a city that he had made his home back in the mid-70's.  He served on many civic and governmental commissions over the years, and in 1995 Gene was appointed to the city council in Bloomington.  In 2000 he was elected to his first term as mayor of the city.  Gene has been re-elected four times and continues to be a popular leader for the City of Bloomington.  

In the early 2000's, Winstead (whose sister Lizz Winstead is an author/comedienne/satire writer and co-founder of The Daily Show) partnered with restaurateur Carl "Chip" Isaacson to open the original Ike's in downtown Minneapolis.  Styled after post-World War II supper clubs, Ike's classy setting was also inviting and warm to patrons who would be going to and from shows and sporting events in downtown Minneapolis.  

After putting an Ike's location in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport in 2005, Winstead and Isaacson set their sights on a location in Bloomington in 2008.  They had a signed a letter of intent to lease a location in the city, but that fell through at the last moment.  Isaacson was determined to put an Ike's in the suburbs of Minneapolis and he found a spot in what was the former Primo Italian restaurant.  Isaacson decided he wanted to focus fully on the Minnetonka location, so he sold his partnership in the downtown and airport Ike's location and opened the new Ike's in 2012 as a licensed franchisee from Winstead.  

Pictured right - Gene Winstead.  Photo courtesy Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine.  

Two MarketPointe is a multi-use office building along 78th St. W. in Bloomington.  Built in 2008, it houses a number of corporate offices and featured a seafood restaurant - Blue Point Oyster Bar - that went out of business in 2015.  Winstead hashed out a deal with the building's owners and took possession of the space in Nov. of 2015.  After months of renovations, the Bloomington Ike's opened in the spring of 2016.  (There is also an Ike's location inside the new U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.)  

There's a parking lot in front of the entrance to Ike's and I was able to find a spot in there.  (see map)  Walking into the lobby of the building, I found the interior entrance to Ike's.  A dark walnut facade with windows flanked either side of the entry.  A maroon canopy with the Ike's logo was above the front entrance.  

I walked into the restaurant and there was literally no one in there.  I waited for a moment at the hostess stand and finally a bartender came out of the back.  She asked if she could help me and I asked if they were open.  "Sure," she said enthusiastically.  "You can sit anywhere you like."  When I asked if I could sit at the bar, she said that was fine.  She introduced herself as Paige and gave me a menu to look over.  I ordered up a Schell's Oktoberfest beer, but I saw a picture of a bloody mary that they serve at Ike's that looked pretty good.  "It is very good," Paige said when I enquired about it.  I thought about getting one, but remembered that I had another appointment later that day.  

The bar area also featured a lot of dark walnut accents.  The bar was two sided with a number of booths along the walls and tables in the middle of the room.  A number of reprints of portraits and photographs were on the walls around the booths.  This looked to be the main dining area of the place.

There's also a dining area off to the left side as you walk into Ike's.  It is usually closed for the lunch hours, but is open at night for overflow dining.  

From what I could tell, the lunch menu didn't seem to be much different from the dinner menu minus some entrees that appeared to be only served in the evening.  It was heavy on salads, appetizers, sandwiches, burgers and small plate selections.  They also had a daily feature each day of the week and this particular day it was the house-made pot roast.  Mmmm....  That sounded yummy!

But so did a couple three other things on the lunch menu.  The wine-soaked sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese burger sounded very good.  As did the smoked turkey and bacon club sandwich.  And they also have the same steak sandwich on the menu that is a very popular item at the U.S. Bank Stadium.  

I was reading about their chili - they use three different types of meats, three different types of beans and three different types of peppers in their chili along with a proprietorial blend of spices and herbs.  I ended up ordering a cup of that.  It came with a side of cheese, chopped green onions and sour cream - just the way I like my chili served.  (I've also learned to like chili with chopped lettuce on top with the other stuff, as well.)  There were big chunks of meat in the chili, but it wasn't thick.  And I like a that isn't quite so thick where the place brags that you can stand a spoon up in it and it won't fall over.  No, I'd rather have some chili that is a bit runny, thank you.  And this was very good. 

I couldn't help it - I had to go with the pot roast special they had that day.  They braise the Angus beef in the pot roast all day along with vegetables in a mixture of herbs, spices, and a dark beer.  It was served on a bed of garlic-mashed potatoes covered with a beef gravy with a side of peas.  A side of creamy horseradish came with the pot roast, but I had Paige get me some fresh ground horseradish.  

The portion served was the perfect size for lunch, especially after having a cup of chili.  The pot roast was wonderful - tender, moist, flavorful.  A large steak knife came out with the plate, but the beef was so tender that I didn't need it.  This was simply a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs type of meal.  

After I finished, Paige brought out a chocolate chip cookie as a free signature dessert at Ike's.  It was warm and gooey and I mentioned that they needed to serve milk with the cookie.  Paige said, "Yeah, something like a shot of milk!  That's a good idea!"  Frankly, I thought she would get me a small glass of milk to go along with it, but she didn't.  And that was fine.  

I usually stay near the Ike's location in Bloomington and I made a mental note to put this place on my rotation of restaurants in the area.  There were a lot of interesting items on the menu - I'll have to try one of their burgers on my next visit - and they had a good craft beer list and, of course, a tantalizing bloody mary.  And I can't say enough about the professional and friendly service I received.  It didn't hurt that there was a very light lunch crowd when I was there.  Still, Ike's was a nice, laid-back place with what I would call a very upscale bar menu - one of the kind of places that I like to seek out when I travel. 

Flatted Fifth BBQ and Blues (and River Ridge Brewing) - Bellevue, IA

Last fall when I was working a event over a weekend, my wife decided to take a road trip on a warm fall day up along the Mississippi River in Eastern Iowa.  She ended up in Bellevue, IA and went to a little brew pub called River Ridge Brewing.  She talked about how good the beer was there and how friendly the people were.  On a cold and blustery Sunday a few weeks ago with nothing going on for us that day, we decided to get in the car and head up to Bellevue to try River Ridge Brewing.  And we ended up having lunch at the Flatted Fifth BBQ and Blues restaurant in the historic Potter's Mill in Bellevue.  

Potter's Mill is a former grist mill along Big Mill Creek not far from the Mississippi River.  The building - one of the oldest in the state of Iowa - dates back to 1845 and featured six large milling stones turned by water turbines from a dam on the creek.  E.G. Potter was the first owner of the mill and he had customers for his ground flour all around the Midwest and extending to the Eastern part of the United States and down to New Orleans.  Potter sold the mill in 1871 and it changed hands a number of times over the years before the Mill finally closed in 1969.  

The neglected property went up for auction in 1980 and it was bought by Dr. Daryll and Carolyn Eggers who had planned to restore the original mill.  However, that turned out to be a task that was unfeasible and, in turn, they transformed the property into a restaurant/gift shop.  Historical flooding on the Mississippi in 1993 caused the Eggers to close the restaurant.  They eventually opened part of the building as a bed and breakfast destination.  A couple parties bought the restaurant on contract from the Eggers, but both defaulted causing the Eggers to shutter the place for good in 2011.  The building was offered at a deep discount at auction and the City of Bellevue was offered the building at a low price, but it sat empty for three years.  

Mark Herman grew up in Mason City, IA and he and his wife, Rachel, were living in Rochester, MN for a number of years.  Mark was working as a business administrator for a local church after being a management consultant and owning his own landscaping business for a number of years while Rachel worked as a clinical nurse.  Both shared a passion for good food and good blues music, and the two had long harbored a desire to have a restaurant/music venue.  

Pictured right - Mark and Rachel Herman.  Photo courtesy Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.

Rachel's mother lived about an hour from Bellevue on the Illinois side of the river and the couple would pass through the small river town a number of times each year to and from her mother's home.  They always admired the Potter's Mill building and when they found out it was available, they jumped at the chance to buy the property.  

Retiring at the church, Mark Herman moved to Bellevue to oversee the building's renovation while Rachel stayed behind to work her job in Rochester, coming to join him on the weekends.  She eventually moved full time to Bellevue to live with her husband and the two opened Flatted Fifth in August of 2014.  Their chef since Day One has been Andrew Weis, a Bellevue native who was a bus boy at the original restaurant in Potter's Mill as a teenager.  After graduating from culinary school in the Twin Cities, Weis went to work at both the Hotel Julien Dubuque and the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque before joining the Herman's in the Flatted Fifth.  

As I said, our main idea going to Bellevue that day was to hit River Ridge Brewing, a nanobrewery that has been in business since September of 2016.  Two couples - Nick and Kelly Hueneke along with Kelly's brother Jeremy Roth and his wife Nikki - decided to start the brewery after years of experience both as home brewers and working in the industry.  Jeremy and Nikki Roth decided to divest themselves from the business in 2018 and the Hueneke's turned to one of their bartenders, Nic Hockenberry, to join them in the business.  

Nic's wife, Alison Simpson, also worked at the brewery and when they told Alison's father, Greg Simpson, and her step-mother, Amanda, that they were going to buy into the business, Greg Simpson jumped at a chance to buy part of the business, as well.  Greg Simpson had been a beer enthusiast and a home brewer for a number of years in addition to his normal job in as a health care professional and as a political operative in Dubuque.  Hockenberry and the Simpson's joined as owners in late summer of last year.

We pulled up in front of River Ridge Brewing around 1 p.m. on that blustery Sunday.  It's located on the main road through Bellevue.  (see map)  Nic Hockenberry and Alison Simpson were behind the bar with Greg Simpson standing at the end of the bar.  They welcomed my wife and I into the place, and Greg Simpson asked if we had ever been in the place before.  My wife recognized him from her first visit and she said, "Well, he hasn't, but I was here awhile back and talked to you just after you bought into the place."  He gregariously welcomed her back as we settled in at the small bar near the front.  

River Ridge is not that big of a place, the bar seats about six and there are tables and seating areas along the side and toward the back.  Down a hallway past the brewing room is an exit to a beer garden that is open during the warmer months.  

We got a couple of beers - the Iowa Bale Ale, a combination American pale ale and Indian pale; and the Oar What IPA that had a great hoppy taste to it.  River Ridge tries to buy local ingredients for their beers when they're available.  They don't serve food at River Ridge, but they do have two different types of beer cheese spreads and crackers that are available for $7.00.  They work with a local cheese maker to make a mild and a spicy cheese spread.  My wife thought she needed a little something to tide her over, so I sprung for the mild cheese spread and crackers.  The mild cheese spread had a bit of a spicy bite to it and I could almost imagine how more intense the spicy cheese spread would have been.  We had a few crackers with cheese and took the remainder home with us.  

After finishing up at River Ridge Brewing we made our way down to the historic Potter's Mill building to have something to eat at The Flatted Fifth.  (see map)  We went inside and were greeted by LouAnn, a friendly lady who showed us to a table on the upper level with a small stage was in the corner.  The Flatted Fifth hosts a number of local, regional, national and even international blues artists on their stage on most Saturday nights.  In fact, the restaurant/venue gets its name - Flatted Fifth (also known as the Devil's Interval or Devil's Chord) - from the fundamental chord structure and progression used by blues guitarists.  

The interior of the main dining area featured hand-hewn rafters and support pillars with stone walls.  Old grist mill machinery was on display in some areas.  It was warm, laid-back and cozy in The Flatted Fifth - so cozy that Food and Wine Magazine named the restaurant as the most cozy in the state of Iowa in 2017.  

Back behind the main dining area was a smaller dining room that was used for overflow in the restaurant.  This room had full stone walls with a handful of tables that could handle groups of 4 to 6 people for food.   

Since it was Sunday, they were featuring their brunch menu at The Flatted Fifth.  LouAnn said they had a special on bloody mary's that day and we had a choice between ones infused with Flatted Fifth's house-made barbecue sauce or a regular bloody mary mixture.  I took the BBQ bloody while my wife got the regular one.  I also got a pint of the Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue to go along with my bloody mary.  The BBQ bloody was thick and had a spicy taste, but the sweetness of the barbecue sauce was not something that I particularly liked.  My wife's bloody mary was also a bit spicy, but I liked the taste of their mixture better than the BBQ bloody mary.  

If we would have had access to the regular lunch menu, we would have found a limited selection of Cajun-inspired and barbecued meat sandwiches and some southern entrees such as red beans and rice, chicken pot pie and shrimp & cheesy grits.  The dinner menu opens up more choices, especially on the entree side of things including Cajun seafood pasta, chicken Tchoupitoulas, blackened catfish, and a Bourbon Street-style ribeye steak.  The brunch menu menu cut down on both the sandwiches and entrees, but featured chicken & waffles, pecan-crusted French toast, and a Cajun omelet stuffed with andouille sausage, shrimp and crawfish meat.  

One thing they had as an appetizer that day was a burnt end brisket platter that came with fries.  My wife and I decided to give that a try, but we didn't want the fries.  She got the cole slaw instead.   We were sort of surprised at the number of burnt ends that LouAnn brought out to us.  It looked more like a full meal rather than an appetizer.  But the burnt ends were very good.  They came with Flatted Fifth's sweet and smoky barbecue sauce that had a bit of a spicy kick.  The burnt ends were tender and lean, and had a wonderful barbecued/smoked taste quality.  

I wanted to try the jambalaya they had on the menu.  For brunch you can get a half portion or a full portion.  I took the half portion with a side salad that came with it.  One again, when LouAnn put the bowl down in front of me I had to ask if this was really a half portion.  "It sure is," she replied.  I remarked that I could almost imagine how big the full portion would be.  "We don't have many people walk out of here who are still hungry,"  LouAnn commented.  The jambalaya was a mixture of smoked chicken and andouille sausage in a creole sauce with the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers and celery on top of a bed of Cajun-style rice.  It was good - not the best jambalaya I've had - but it was still passable.  Especially when I got it a bit more spicy with some dashes of Tabasco sauce.  I concentrated mostly on the chicken and sausage sauce and left most of the rice.  Between the burnt ends, bloody mary's and jambalaya - not to mention some of the crackers and cheese spread that we had at River Ridge Brewing - that was pretty much all we were going to eat that day.  

After finishing up with our meal, LouAnn invited us to head upstairs to the third floor to the art gallery/coffee shop the Herman's dubbed "A Corner to Fill."  This used to be the bed-and-breakfast part of Potter's Mill years ago.  There's an elevator that we took up to the third floor that came out on a landing with a view of the mouth of Big Mill Creek with the Mississippi River just beyond.  

The third floor space features a cozy little combination gift shop/art gallery/coffee shop and seating area.  There was a young girl manning the area and we were the only ones in there.

The rooms featured a number of paintings and artworks by local artists.  Rachel Herman's mother and Mark Herman's sister both had a strong connection to the arts and they dedicated the area in Potter's Mill to the two ladies.

This is the type of place where my wife likes to linger and look around.  The area featured tables and chairs where people could enjoy coffee and pastries while playing board games.  We were kind of surprised we were the only ones there as it was sort of a nice little place to hang.

We made our way down the stairs to the second floor and walked into a large room that appeared to be used for private functions, meetings and receptions.  There wasn't really much to see in there other than some of the original woodwork in the room. 

It was certainly a good trip to Bellevue that day with a stop at River Ridge Brewing, then lunch at The Flatted Fifth located in the historic Potter's Mill building.  While we enjoyed the beers along with the beer/cheese spread at River Ridge, we were more than happy with the burnt ends and the jambalaya we had at The Flatted Fifth.  Potter's Mill is still a very unique place to visit, a place we'd been by many times over the years but finally took the time to visit on this trip.  If you're ever out on the Great River Road along the Mississippi south of Dubuque, take the time to stop for lunch or dinner at The Flatted Fifth, and then head over to River Ridge Brewing for a good craft beer.