Road Tips

Maiz de la Vida - Nashville

My company has been doing a number of promotional videos with studio and mastering engineers who use our products and we had set up a couple of video shoots in Nashville with a couple mastering engineers.  My colleague from Montreal and another co-worker from Los Angeles were flying into Nashville on a Sunday and I drove down - primarily because it was the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and plane fares from the Quad Cities to Nashville were astronomical.   We all have a former colleague of ours that we used to work with in our old company who lives in Nashville and we made plans to meet up for dinner once we all made it in town.  Our Nashville friend suggested we go to a Mexican taqueria that he had always wanted to go to, a place called Maiz de la Vida located in Nashville's Gulch neighborhood.  

Like many restaurants that come into existence these days, Maiz de la Vida came from a food truck concept.  But even before all of that, Julio Hernandez's trek to becoming a chef was somewhat contradictory to the normal path one takes to become a chef.  A native of Tlaxcala, Mexico - located about 75 miles east of Mexico City - Hernandez's family harvested their own corn to make tortillas in their home.  However, young Julio never took an interest in how the food was made - he just liked to eat it.  

In fact, when Julio went to New York City as a teenager, it was the first time he even thought about working in a restaurant, let alone in a kitchen.  He started out working in a restaurant as a waiter, but Hernandez determined that he wasn't cut out to be a server.  Julio liked to hang out with the cooks working the line in the kitchen and decided that life as a prep cook was better than waiting on people.  

Pictured right - Julio Hernandez.  Photo courtesy StarChefs.com

Hernandez got lucky in that he got a kitchen job at Becco working under celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali.  He continued his culinary education on the job at Phil Suarez's Spice Kitchen working under chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.  Finally, he worked at the acclaimed Mexican restaurant Toloache alongside chef Julian Medina.  This was all before Hernandez reached his 21st birthday!

By 2011, the toll of working in high-intensity kitchens was getting to Hernandez and he sought out a much-needed change of scenery.  He settled on Nashville where he caught on in the kitchen at Hillwood Country Club, an ultra-private golf and tennis club on Nashville's west side.  This is where Hernandez was introduced to French cuisine with a Southern twist.  When he first started in the kitchen at Hillwood, Hernandez was asked to make a casserole from scratch.  He was stymied, he had never come close to making a casserole at any of his previous spots.  But like he did in New York, he learned on the job and eventually stayed on at Hillwood for 8 years.  

In 2019, Hernandez left Hillwood to join Nectar: Urban Cantina, a sort of underground taqueria located on Nashville's far east side.  Hernandez was hired as the head chef at Nectar, but the problem was that he even though he was a native of Mexico, he didn't know the first thing about preparing traditional Mexican food.  Once again, his education on-the-job came into play as he learned from his co-workers.  He also called upon his mother in Mexico to help him out.  He visited her on a couple occasions to learn how she made her tortillas.  He found that the secret was using heirloom corn that was ground down by a stone mill into a flour-like substance and hand-made on a flat grill with a tortilla press.  

When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, Nectar closed when public buildings were forced to shut down.  Sitting at home with his wife Emma, Hernandez decided to take a leap of faith with his new-found love for making tortillas.  With their stimulus checks, the Hernandez's invested in a stone mill and 200 pounds of heirloom corn imported from Mexico.  Then he handmade tortillas that he sold primarily through social media, delivering them to people up to 30 miles from his home, eventually setting up shop at local farmers markets and selling directly to Mexican restaurants in the area.  

In the meanwhile, Hernandez caught the eye of Andy Mumma who owned Chopper, a tiki bar in East Nashville.  Mumma convinced Hernandez to set up a little stand outside his bar to sell tacos to Chopper's late night crowd.  That went over extremely well and with his ever-growing tortilla business, Hernandez was able to buy a food truck.

The Maiz de la Vida - "Corn is Life" - food truck was found at a number of farmers markets around Nashville selling tacos and his tortilla shells.  On Sundays, it spent the day parked in front of Chopper.  The crowds that came to Chopper on Sunday convinced Mumma and Hernandez that the food truck needed to be permanently parked at the tiki bar.   

Things were really starting to explode for Hernandez.  His tortilla business was booming so much that he had to find a facility where he could commercially make tortillas.  Hernandez found a location in Nashville's Bordeaux neighborhood on the north side of the city and opened a facility which can produce about 3000 tortillas per hour.  The facility employs 12 people and also acts as a commissary where people can get food to go, buy tortillas, and as Maiz de la Vida's catering hub.  

But Hernandez's culinary shooting star continued to brighten when he was featured on the hit Netflix show "Somebody Feed Phil" with comedian and Nashville native Nate Bargatze accompanying Phil Rosenthal to try some of the Maiz de la Vida's food.  But the pinnacle of Hernandez's ever-growing career was when he was named a James Beard semi-finalist in the Emerging Chef category in 2023.  You don't find that happening with many people working out of food trucks!  

A brick and mortar restaurant was inevitable and Mumma agreed to partner with Hernandez in a Maiz de la Vida restaurant venture.  They found a spot in the Antiques Building that was part of the Paseo South Gulch re-purposed urban neighborhood.  Hernandez wanted to separate the food truck menu from the restaurant menu leaving only one item shared between the two spots.  

And Hernandez wanted to have a fusion between Mexican and Southern food - sort of a Mexico City meets Nashville in cuisine.  Dishes that included grits and sweet potatoes were going to be part of the offerings of the restaurant.  And Hernandez and Mumma went out and hired some key people to help run the restaurant.  Chepe Laredo had worked with Hernandez in the food truck and he was named the head chef of the restaurant, Obed Vallejo was installed as the sous chef, locally-renowned bartender Nick Dolan was hired as the general manager, and David Broomhead - who moonlights as a local musician - was brought in to run the bar.  In early October of 2024, Maiz de la Vida opened to much fanfare with reservations hard to come by for the first couple months of its existence.

Traffic was a bitch on the 8+ hour drive to Nashville for me.  Road construction in Illinois coupled with off-and-on standstill traffic between Clarksville, TN and Nashville on I-24 made for a somewhat stressful trip.  I was glad to get into my hotel near Vanderbilt University and I texted my Nashville buddy to let him know that A) I had made it to Nashville; and B) ask him what the parking situation was at Maiz de la Vida and if I needed to Uber.  His reply was, "Glad you made it.  I've never been there so I don't know what the parking situation is."  I've found in previous trips to Nashville that parking can be scarce and at a premium price for location.  

I called the restaurant to ask if they had parking in the vicinity.  The young lady who answered the phone told me that there was a parking lot next to the restaurant and that they validated for the first hour.  I thought that was good enough for me, so I set my GPS for the address on S. 8th Street in Nashville.  (see map)

There was a garage that, as it turned out, was part of the ParkMobile system in Nashville.  I had signed up for that app on a trip to Nashville nearly two years prior to this visit and it has turned out to be somewhat handy (yet, somewhat expensive).  The garage had a license recognition system and it automatically notified me via text that I had been recognized.  The validation provided by Maiz de la Vida took $10 bucks off the normal $25 parking cost at the garage.  A nice discount, but still an "ouch" on the wallet just for parking.  

After taking the elevator down to the ground floor from the second deck of the garage, the doors opened up to a courtyard that showed me a brick building facade with a mural painted on it and a large Andean condor symbol on the wall off to the side showing me to the front entrance to Maiz de la Vida.  Above Maiz de la Vida was the famous Carter Vintage Guitar shop - something that my guitar-playing colleague from Montreal immediately noticed when he was dropped off by an Uber as he came directly from the airport. 

I was the first one to the restaurant, walking in about 10 minutes before our 7 p.m. reservation.  Since it was a Sunday night, we really didn't need a reservation as the restaurant was about 1/3rd full.  Of course, my buddy from Nashville didn't know that and he played it safe by getting us reservations.  The interior of Maiz de la Vida is sort of modern industrial in appearance.  There were a number of booths along the walls, a few community tables and a bar area off to the side.  Classic rock music from artists such as Cat Stevens, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Billy Joel was playing in the background of the restaurant.  

The kitchen was open and looked out into the dining room across from the bar.  Stacks of plates were placed on the kitchen bar.  I don't know if those seats were for people to sit in them while they had dinner or if they were for Uber Eats people who were coming in to pick up orders for delivery.  

The bar was basic, but had a bit of character to it.  The back bar was shaped in what I thought mirrored the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.  It was a full bar with a number of different types of tequila, as well as other liquors and beers on tap.  

Our server that evening was Gavin.  He was a great guy and did a great job for us all evening long trying to herd in 4 hungry and thirsty guys through the visit.  While I was still waiting for my friends to show up, he came over with a drink menu.  I told him that I just needed their house margarita to start out.  He asked if I wanted any chips and guacamole to tide me over and I immediately signed up for that.  The house-made chips and guac came with a mild salsa verde, a fire-roasted salsa, and a creamy habanero sauce that had a nice kick to it.  

My friends started to filter in just after 7 p.m.  My friend from Nashville and my colleague from Los Angeles had met up earlier in the day and came in together.  My colleague from Montreal took an Uber directly from the airport to the restaurant and got in just around 7:20.  More chips, guacamole and assorted salsas were ordered for the table along with margaritas.  

I had made short work of my margarita and I asked Gavin what kind of beer they had on tap.  "Something's wrong with our tap line," he said in sort of a dejected manner.  "But we do have some beers in cans."  He started to give me a line-up of what beers he had in the cooler behind the bar and when he said that he had the Bearded Iris Homestyle hazy IPA, I stopped him there and ordered one of those up.  The Homestyle hazy IPA has turned into one of my favorite beers and I made sure I stopped at Corkdorks liquor store on the way out of town to pick up a few 4-packs to take back home with me.  

The menu at Maiz de la Vida was interesting to say the least.  There were duck carnitas on the menu, as well as a pork belly street taco, and a chicken tinga street taco.  They had a chicken breast that was rolled in cotija cheese and dried sage, as well as a grilled salmon dish topped with a serrano pepper masa-thickened sauce.  They had chicken salsa verde enchiladas on the menu that evening, as well as some vegetarian options for my friend from Montreal.

We just started to order stuff and it was brought to the table when it was made.  I started off with a "El Jefe" taco - grilled Gulf shrimp wrapped in a quesillo crust along with black beans, chopped peppers and onion and topped with a Morita chile sauce.  It was all served on a soft corn tortilla.  This was fabulous.  The melted cheese in combination with the shrimp, onions and peppers just popped with flavor.  The Morita chile sauce gave it just a bit of a spicy bite on the back end.  This taco was fabulous.  

  
My second taco was steak taco - grilled sirloin steak chunks topped with fried chimichurri straws on a soft corn taco shell.  The fried chimichurri straws were pretty unique.  I don't think I've ever had chimichurri other than in a sauce form.  The consistency was like little potato straws.  It was a great taste combination with the chopped steak chunks.  

Later on, my stomach had room for a third taco - the carnitas taco.  It featured pork carnitas that were topped with shredded greens along with sliced jalapeños and a Morita chile sauce.  The flavor sensations of this taco was off the charts.  I was getting full, but it was so tasty and delicious that I really couldn't stop.    

 
My friend from Nashville and my colleague friend from Los Angeles weren't that hungry - they had gotten a burger earlier in the afternoon after my colleague got in from L.A.  In addition to the chips, guacamole and salsa, my buddy from L.A. got the El Jefe shrimp taco like the one I had earlier.  Our friend from Nashville got the quesabirria - Maiz de la Vida's take on a quesadilla with Wagyu birria beef, onions, cilantro and cheese, flat-grilled, then served with the Morita chile sauce and another sauce which I didn't quite get what it was.  

My Montreal friend asked Gavin what kind of vegetarian options they had available and he came up with a couple.  One was the salmon flautas that Gavin said the kitchen could make vegetarian by taking out the salmon, but keeping in the potato filling mixed with requeson (ricotta cheese), and topped with a salsa verde and a lime aioli.  A green peppercorn salad came on the side.  My colleague said it was perfect for what he was looking for and was very good. 

In addition to the flautas, my colleague got the moletes - two quesillo cheese-stuffed plantains along with beans and shallots, then deep fried.  They were topped with pickled onions, a fresh crema spread, and grated queso.  No, my friend thought these were fabulous.  He said they were very rich, but very good.  He made short work of both.

After dinner, we took the time to get caught up and to have one more drink.  Just being able to sit back and savor the meal was another plus about Maiz de la Vida.  It probably wouldn't have been that way had they been more busy, but Gavin didn't seem to be pushing us along.  We ended up sticking around until well past their 9 p.m. closing time and it was only when my friend from L.A. glanced up and noticed that they were stacking up chairs on tables near us.  "I think they're possibly wanting us to leave," my buddy from L.A. said.  I settled up with Gavin and that was that.  

Maiz de la Vida was another great recommendation by my friend in Nashville.  So far, he hasn't steered me wrong on any of the restaurant recommendations that he's given me.  The food was very interesting and very good, the service we got from Gavin was excellent and he was a great guy who had a playful sense of humor.  We were lucky to get into Maiz de la Vida on a slow evening so we were able to take our time, figure out exactly what we wanted, enjoy the meal, and have some time to lounge back and talk after the meal.  Maiz de la Vida's brick and mortar location might be a bit hard to find, but it's worth the effort.   

Vasili's Kitchen - Gaithersburg, MD

I had a long day at the trade show that I was at in the Washington D.C. area last fall.  Initially, I had planned to go out to dinner with one of my former colleagues and one of his co-workers, but they ended up staying at the bar at the hotel where the show was being held to get a bite to eat there.  Suddenly on my own, I was looking for something sort of unique as a place to go have dinner.  I had been sort of craving Mediterranean-style food for a while and it turned out that there was a Mediterranean restaurant not too far from the hotel where I was staying.  I ventured over to Vasili's Kitchen in Gaithersburg to have dinner that evening.  

Since 1990, Vasilis "Bill" and Julie Hristopoulos have owned a number of restaurants in and around the Gaithersburg area.  In 2001, they opened Vasili's Mediterranean Grill on Main Street in the Kentlands planned urban neighborhood in Gaithersburg.  The restaurant was pretty small seating only 50 people maximum and featured primarily Greek-style food.  Truly a family-run business, the Hristopoulos' sons Theo and Yianni were part of the staff at Vasili's from a young age.  (The family also runs Sin & Grin Tacos in the heart of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg.)  

Known as a "New Urbanism" community, the focal point of the Kentlands was Kentland Market Square, an open-air retail and restaurant district that first opened in 1988.  In the mid-2010's, Market Square started to undergo a series of changes and one of the restaurants in the market - Star Diner - closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2014 citing economic hardships.  Having a restaurant in the former Star Diner location was paramount for the developers who were upgrading the open-air mall.  They approached the Hristopoulos family about moving their popular restaurant into the space.  

Logistically, Bill Hristopoulos knew he would need to change his restaurant's concept and he brought in his nephew John Mazarakis who was the Chief Operating Officer of the Seasons Pizza chain to help with the changes and the move.  Mazarakis reached out to Culinary Institute of America grad Yiannis Lucacos who was born in nearby Virginia, but was running his own restaurant in Greece - the critically acclaimed Psomi & Alta located in a suburb of Athens.  A close family friend to Hristopoulos and Mazarakis, Lucacos was looking for an opportunity to come back to the U.S. and Mazarakis wanted to upgrade the menu at Vasili's to more of a well-rounded and traditional Mediterranean offerings.  

The family took over the former Star Diner location in 2015 and it took over a year to transform the former 50's-style American diner into a modern rustic Mediterranean restaurant.  They had hoped to open in February of 2016, but that timeline was pushed back to September of that year.  They finally opened the doors to Vasili's Kitchen Fresh Mediterranean in January of 2017.  

It was past 7:30 when I found out that my former colleague and his current co-worker decided to have dinner at the hotel where the trade show was being held, so I was getting sort of hungry by that time.  It was about a 10 to 15 minute drive from my hotel to Vasili's Kitchen located nearly smack in the middle of the Kentlands Market Square.  (see map)  Parking was at a bit of a premium in the nearby lots, so I found parking on a side street just down from the restaurant.  

The inside of Vasili's Kitchen had a nice modern flair to it.  The long narrow dining room had the bar area up front with the kitchen opposite that.  The main part of the restaurant will accommodate about 90 people - nearly 3 times the size and capacity of the original Vasili's Mediterranean Grill.   

There's dining area off to the side that accommodates up to another 80 diners year round.  In the colder months, they put up plastic coverings that help keep the cold out with the help of heaters on the patio.  Edison lights were strung across the crossbeams and the patio had well-crafted brick flooring.  

I wanted to sit at the bar, but it was at its full 16-seat capacity when I walked in.  I hadn't been there more than a minute when a couple in the corner of the bar got up to leave.  I got the attention of the hostess to see if I could take one of the two seats.  She said, "Yeah, go ahead and grab one.  I'll bring a menu over for you."  

There were three bartenders who were working the bar that evening and they were constantly in motion.  They ended up tag-teaming me once I sat down.  After the hostess gave me a menu, one of the bartenders asked what I'd like to drink.  I asked if he had a hazy IPA and he said that he didn't.  He said the closest the had was an IPA from the Brookeville Beer Farm brewery located in nearby Brookeville, MD.  It was only available in cans, but the beer was good and I had a couple three during my time at Vasili's.  

There were so many things on the menu to choose from that I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening.  They had a number of delicious sounding appetizers (more on that in a bit), as well as a seafood pasta entree, a bucatini pasta and shrimp dish, a large broiled crab cake with oven roasted potatoes, and slow-braised beef with parmesan scalloped potatoes.  They had kebab's on the menu - chicken, pork or lamb; and they had pita sandwiches including a gyro that I contemplated getting.  

The appetizers are what really got my attention as they had lamb & beef meatballs in a house-made tomato sauce, spicy calamari, fried saganaki cheese, and fresh-made hummus with pita.  But there were two other things on the menu that I couldn't make up my mind to get - so I ended up ordering both.  

The broiled shrimp just jumped out from the menu at me.  It consisted of four butterflied jumbo shrimp cooked in a garlic/butter/olive oil/white wine mixture, then topped with herbs.  It was served with a couple pieces of toast garlic bread to sop up some of the heavenly sauce that came in a small iron skillet.  I made short work of the shrimp and eagerly soaked the garlic bread with the butter/garlic/oil/wine concoction to eat.  I swear to god - I almost tipped the skillet up and drank the remaining broth, it was so good.  

Along with the shrimp appetizer, they had a grilled octopus appetizer.  I love good grilled octopus and the appetizer at Vasili's was exceptional.  The chunked grilled octopus sat on a bed of pureed fava beans and was topped with a caramelized onions, crispy capers and finished with a heavy vinegar gel that was drizzled on the octopus.  Oh man - was that great!  But, oh!  So rich!  It was simply outstanding.  

I had kept one of the menus thinking that - just maybe - I'd get something else.  But, quite frankly, I was pretty full after the grilled shrimp and grilled octopus appetizers.  I don't know if anything else on the menu at Vasili's Kitchen would have matched the appetizers that I had that evening.  

I've found myself just getting a couple appetizers instead of a full entree on some recent visits to restaurants.  And I'm not certain that the two appetizers I had at Vasili's Kitchen weren't the best things on the menu at the place.  The broiled shrimp in the garlic/butter/white wine/olive oil combination was simply superb, and I thought the grilled octopus over pureed fava beans was even better.  The three bartenders that were working the bar that evening were very busy, but they all took care of me and made me feel welcome as a single diner.  If you're in the northern Washington D.C. suburbs and you're in the mood for Mediterranean food - or just looking for a good place to eat - I can't help but recommend stopping by Vasili's Kitchen. 

 

Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina - Costa Mesa, CA

Whenever I'm out in Southern California, I have to find a good Mexican restaurant.  And the good thing about it -  there are a number of them!  And because of that, Mexican restaurants in SoCal generally have to be good or they'll be going out of business sooner than later.  I was looking at Mexican restaurants near my hotel and there was one that I had passed numerous times over the past couple of years getting on and off the freeway to and from my hotel.  I decided to go have dinner at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina in Costa Mesa.   

Ray Marshall grew up in Denver, Colorado and as a teenager he developed an affinity for Mexican food.  After high school, Marshall made his way out to Los Angeles to work as a cook.  He eventually ended up as the night chef at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel in the mid-50's.  It was during his time at the Biltmore than he developed friendships with many Mexican immigrants who were working at the hotel, many of whom assisted Marshall in the kitchen.  

One of the perks of the job was to make meals for the kitchen staff and because many of them were Mexicans, Marshall ended up honing his skills in Mexican cuisine.  He would go to the homes of some of his assistants to watch them prepare Mexican food made from long-time family recipes, then Marshall would accompany others to Mexican restaurants in East Los Angeles to learn from some of the cooks there.  

Mexican restaurants catering to Anglos weren't the rage in 1960 when Marshall opened his first Acapulco y Los Arcos restaurant in Pasadena.  But by the mid-60's, some of his Mexican specialties began to catch the eye of every day families.  His original menu consisted of 8 pages of authentic Mexican food and twists on Mexican food including a crab meat enchilada which won a gold medal in a seafood competition held at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in 1970.  

Over the years, Marshall's recipes won numerous awards in North American and Europe, and he was cited by Restaurant Business magazine as establishing the very first chain of Mexican dinner-style restaurants with his Acapulco restaurants.  At one point, Marshall changed the name to Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina and had 31 locations in California and Oregon doing about $39 million dollars in total sales.  

In 1985, Marshall sold his shares of Acapulco to Restaurant Association, an East Coast-based holding company that had previously bought 39% of the total shares of Acapulco.  Restaurant Association paid Marshall about $7.7 million dollars (about $20.5 million in today's money).  

From there, Acapulco changed hands a few times over the next few years.  In 1998, a private equity group that had a stake in Restaurant Association bought the remaining assets of the company.  The private equity group used Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina as a starting point for their new venture - RealMex Restaurants.  In the coming years, RealMex purchased the assets for El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex, and a handful of other restaurants mainly in Southern California.  

In 2006, Sun Capital Partners bought the RealMex Restaurant group from the private equity company.  But by 2011, RealMex was in financial trouble and was forced into bankruptcy.  Locations were closed and the remaining assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2012 to a group of note holders.  However, in 2018, another group came in and bought the assets of the remaining restaurants.  That company - which became the Xperience Restaurant Group - today owns not only the Chevy's, El Torito and Acapulco restaurants, but they also own the upscale SOL Mexican Cocina (click here to see the Road Tips review on SOL), Cal Mex Cantina, Solita Tacos, and the venerable Los Brisas restaurant located on a cliff high above Laguna Beach.   

Today, there are four Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina locations and the one I went to in Costa Mesa is on Bristol Street just south of where the California 55 and 73 freeways meet up.  (See map)  The hotel I stay at in Orange County is a good starting place to go in either direction thanks to the freeways next to Acapulco.  The low-slung adobe-style building with a brick base looked nice in the daylight and I figured that it had to be pretty good place to eat.

It wasn't very busy at Acapulco when I got there around 7:30 in the evening.  The front foyer opened into a large dining room with exposed wood joists along the ceiling and wooden floors.  There were a few booths along the wall, but there were large tables in the middle with no chairs around them.  I don't know if they were getting ready for a large party in the room, but it certainly seemed a bit stark without any chairs around the tables.  Just behind the large room was the bar area.  I thought I about sitting at the bar, but decided to sit in the dining room.  

There was a smaller dining area off to the side where they were primarily seating people that night.  The booths had colorful seat backs and the tables had chairs with aqua-colored seats and decorative seat backs.  Decorative sea turtles and fish adorned a light blue wall that hid the kitchen area behind it.   Music from Latin American artists such as Leonardo Aguilar & Mario Bautista, Venesti, Los Bunkers, and Mau y Ricky played in the background while I was at Acapulco.  

Just beyond the big room was a covered patio with heaters hanging from the ceiling and a brick-tiled floor.  The metal chairs around the tables had colorful red, yellow or blue seat pads.  There were canvas roll-downs along the opening to the outside that allowed the room to be used on colder days and evenings.   

And just past the covered patio area, there was an open air patio for dining al fresco.  A brick gas fire pit was the centerpiece of the outdoor patio.  It was a bit of a cooler evening that night and no one was out on the patio.  Then again, they weren't very busy, either.

I took a seat in a booth of the corner of the smaller dining area.  After I was given a menu, my server for the evening - a wonderful guy by the name of Luis - came over to greet me.  Let me say that Luis was a great guy - outgoing, gregarious, and he made me feel welcome as a single diner.  I ordered up a Grand Compadre margarita - Maestro Dobel Silver tequila mixed with triple sec, a sweet & sour mix, and finished with a mini bottle of Grand Marnier that was held in place by a little plastic holder that attached to the side of the glass.  Chips and salsa were provided and I asked Luis if he could bring out some of their salsa verde to go along with the house-made red salsa.  The margarita was outstanding and a great way to start off the meal.  

The menu was pretty deep with a number of appetizers including guacamole, a queso dip with shrimp and spinach, and grilled chicken taquitos.  They also had a ceviche appetizer consisting of marinated shrimp and mahi mahi on a bed of guacamole mixed with a mango and pineapple relish.  I thought about getting that to start out, but there were a lot of other things on the menu that I was interested in.  They had fajita platters, seafood entrees, enchiladas, tacos and burritos on the menu.  And a lot of it sounded very good.  I was in a bit of a quandary as to which direction I wanted to go.  

Thankfully, Acapulco has a section of the menu where you can make your own combinations.  The combos allow you to pick either 2 or 3 items between enchiladas, tacos, a chicken tamale, a chile relleno, and chicken taquitos.  Enchiladas and tacos come with a choice of shredded chicken or beef, carnitas, or picadillo - seasoned ground beef with potatoes.  Rice and refried bean come on the side.  I ordered a shredded beef soft taco - I had a choice of either a soft shell or a hard shell - along with a shredded beef enchilada and a carnitas enchilada.  The shredded beef wasn't all that much shredded as it was more chunky in texture.  I asked Luis to have the chef put salsa verde on the enchiladas and he heartily complied.  I also got a pint of Dos Equis Ambar to go along with the meal.  

My food, in general, was fabulous.  The carnitas were tender and full of flavor, as were the beef chunks in both my other enchilada and soft-shell taco.  My taco was topped with shredded chihuahua cheese, chopped fresh tomatoes and shredded lettuce.  I added more of the salsa verde I still had from the chips to the taco to give it even more of a tasty punch.  There was nothing to dislike about the food I had at Acapulco.   

I had hoped that the food at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina would be good, but it surpassed my expectations.  The meal I had was simply excellent - the carnitas and chunky beef enchiladas topped with salsa verde were scrumptious, and the chunky beef taco was equally tasty.  I can't say enough about Luis' service during my visit.  He was friendly, accommodating, and made me feel more than comfortable during my time at Acapulco.  Like my food, there was nothing to dislike about my experience at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina.  

D.L. Mack's - Dallas, TX

I've found that virtually any big city I've traveled to over the past couple of years has a Chicago-style pizza place where ex-pats or former visitors to the Windy City can enjoy either deep-dish or tavern-style pizza.  I prefer a good thin-crust tavern-style pizza to a wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, so I'm always on the lookout for the places that serve a good Chicago tavern-style pizza.  It turned out that there was a place not too far from where I was staying that offered a thin-crust tavern pizza.  I ended up going to D.L. Mack's in north Dallas.  

Hunter Pond grew up in the toney Highland Park neighborhood in Dallas.  At first glance, people who know the Dallas area would automatically surmise that Pond came from money, but his parents were far from wealthy, both working jobs to provide for the family and for Hunter's college education.  They were able to send Hunter off to Texas Tech University to study entrepreneurship and business.  He graduated from Texas Tech in 2009 and was planning on being a lawyer.  

However, Pond found that law school wasn't for him and he ended up dropping out and moving back home to Dallas.  His parents weren't too whippy about his decision to forego law school given the financial sacrifices they had endured to send him to college, and they told him he had to find a job to tide him over.  He became a dishwasher at Eno's Pizza Tavern and it looked like his life was going nowhere.  But what a lot of people didn't know was that Pond was working on a business plan for a sandwich deli that sold made-from-scratch foods.  

Even though his family wasn't as well-heeled as some of his classmate's families were while growing up in Highland Park, he had made a number of connections with people he knew while growing up in the neighborhood.  When it came time to raise money for his restaurant idea, Pond turned to those numerous connections to help him raise money for his venture.  It must have worked as he was able to raise the $400,000 needed to start his business.  In 2012 at the age of 24, Pond - along with his business partner Kyle Brooks - opened the first East Hampton Sandwich Co. in Snider Plaza in Dallas.  

From there, Pond and Brooks started a corporation - Vandelay Hospitality Group - to oversee the operations at his slowly growing chain of upscale deli's.  Not everything Pond did was right - he had to close a couple of underperforming East Hampton Sandwich Company locations, and he had a couple unfavorable leases that he had to try to renegotiate as time went on.  But by 2019, there were nine East Hampton Sandwich Co. locations in and around the great Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.  However, after the pandemic, Vandelay Hospitality Group pared the number of East Hampton Sandwich Co. down to just three locations.  

In 2017, the Vandelay Hospitality Group founded Hudson House billed as an East Coast comfort food restaurant that focused on burgers, sandwiches, and oysters on-the-half shell.  Hudson House now has three locations in Dallas, Houston and in Beverly Hills.  Other Vandelay Hospitality Group restaurants include Drake's Hollywood - an L.A.-inspired steakhouse that Pond was taken with some of the old SoCal steakhouses he visited on trips to Los Angeles; as well as Dallas area restaurants Brentwood, Anchor Sushi Bar, and Jack & Harry's. 

During the height of the pandemic, Pond and the Vandelay Hospitality Group came up with a new concept - bringing Chicago to Dallas in terms of Chicago-style pizza served in a space that sported reclaimed antique bricks from a Chicago building that had been built in the mid-19th century.  Reclaimed tin ceiling tiles along with reclaimed wall tiles that were originally in the Chicago Civic Center (now the Richard J. Daley Center) went along with reclaimed wooden floor planks that were first used in buildings built in the early 19th century.  Local Chicago touches such as archived photos of famous Chicago sports figures, along with benches on the outside patio that were inspired by the main terminal of the Chicago Transit Authority.  D.L. Mack's on Hillcrest Street in University Heights.  

A second D.L. Mack's opened in November of 2022 in the Preston Oaks shopping mall at the corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane on the north side of Dallas.  This was the location I went to as it was just about a 10 minute drive from my hotel in Addison down the Dallas North Tollway to Royal Lane.  (see map)  There turned out to be plenty of parking in the lot of the shopping mall lot - even for a Saturday night.  

Quite actually, I didn't really know what to expect before I walked into D.L. Mack's, but I have to say that I was somewhat taken aback at how elegant the place was.  I immediately thought, "Wow!  This is a pizza joint?  It looks more like an upscale steakhouse like you'd find in downtown Chicago!"  

Cream-colored slat walls with Chicago-centric pictures were on one end of the dining area, while the room was full of mahogany booths with leather-padded seating.  Dark wood-slat window coverings, brick columns and trim, along with off-white antique tin-ceiling tiles gave the room a cozy, yet elegant atmosphere.   The place was nearly full when I walked in and by the time I left there was a wait to get seats.   

The L-shaped bar was equally elegant with a dark wood top, wide padded stools and an ornate back bar.  Dark wood slatted ceiling with light fixtures hung over the bar.  The bar was also nearly full when I walked in to D.L. Mack's.

I was able to get a seat on the short side of the bar closest to the front door.  There were three bartenders working that night and the guy who took care of me for the evening was Joshua.  He handed me a menu and asked me what I'd like to drink.  I asked if they had any hazy IPA's and he said, "We have the Manhattan Project (Half-Life) hazy."  I gave him two thumbs up for that.  

The menu's main focus was the Chicago-style tavern pizza, but being that they call themselves a "true Chicago tavern", D.L. Mack's also features appetizers such as deviled eggs, mozzarella bites, and a spinach artichoke dip.  Salads included a Caesar and a Greek salad, and they had handhelds such as a cheeseburger, a tuna melt on sourdough bread, and a spicy Italian grinder with pistachio mortadella, pepperoni, genoa salami, smoked provolone, and a spicy giardiniera.  Entrees included cheese-filled tortellini in a marinara sauce, a chicken parm dish, Asian-glazed grilled salmon, and Greek chicken with peppers and mashed potatoes.  

But I was there for the pizza and I ordered my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pie.  When I ordered, Joshua asked, "You want me to bring out some fries with that?"  I thought that was an odd question, given that I don't think I've EVER ordered fries with pizza.  I declined on the fries.  

However, a while later, a couple sat down next to me and ordered a pizza.  Joshua asked the same question, "You guys want me to bring some fries out for you?"  

The couple sort of looked at one another, and the man said, "Yeah!  We'll take some fries!"  I laughed and thought to myself, "Suggestive selling at its finest!"  But I have to say the fries - on their own - looked pretty good.  Maybe D.L. Mack's is known for their fries.  

Moments before the pizza came out, one of the other bartenders came over with a metal pizza stand, similar to ones that we see in pizza joints in Chicago.  Moments later, the pizza came out.  It was about 12 to 14 inches in size and featured large chunks of fennel sausage, ample amounts of spicy and salty pepperoni, and a fair amount of fresh mushrooms on the top.  The mushrooms were also sort of chunky in their size.  Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes were also provided along with the pizza.

After letting it cool down for a bit, I was able to take the first bite.  The crust was thin and crispy, and it didn't sag with all the toppings on each little square or triangle - the hallmark of a true Chicago tavern-style pizza.  The fennel sausage was bursting with flavor, the mushrooms were fresh and earthy, and the pepperoni was cupped from the cooking process.  It was a fabulous pizza.  Did it taste good with beer?  Oh, yeah - it certainly did!

Finding Chicago tavern-style pizza outside of Chicago is sometimes difficult to do.  But I'm starting to see more and more of these types of pizza places in my travels.  It's not that I don't like a good Neapolitan wood-fired pizza from time-to-time, it's just that I like that crunchy thin crust with ample toppings on my pizza.  And the one at D.L. Mack's was superb.  My only quibble was the price - it was $26 bucks for the pizza.  Just a base pizza with mozzarella and sauce at D.L. Mack's is $16, but you add Italian sausage ($5), pepperoni ($3), and mushrooms ($2), it adds up quick.  The sticker shock was the only drawback about D.L. Mack's.  Joshua did a good job of taking care of me even though he and his colleagues behind the bar were in constant motion the whole time I was there.  D.L. Mack's was a nice, upscale pizza joint, something that I wasn't expecting when I walked in.  And, unfortunately, the prices reflected that.  

Jerry's - LeClaire, IA

There was a new restaurant that opened up at Pebble Creek golf course that's technically in LeClaire, IA, just up the river from Davenport.  It opened in May of 2023 and my wife and I tried to get out there at least three times.  But the place - which isn't all the big to begin with - was always packed.  A few weeks ago, I had just taken a flight from the east coast with a quick connection in Chicago earlier in the day getting back home around 11:30 a.m.  My wife had taken the day off and I suggested earlier in the morning that we go out to lunch after I got home from the airport.  It was a nice day, so we took a little drive and ended up at the restaurant we had been having trouble getting into - Jerry's.  This time, we were finally able to get in.  

Jerry's is the collaboration of two local businessmen who have stakes in local restaurants in the Quad Cities.  Marc Van Severen is the owner of Van's Pizza, and was a partner in the (now-closed) Dam Tacos restaurant.  Mark Roemer is the owner of 5ive Cities Brewing, Central Standard, and has a couple Dunn Brothers coffee shops in the area.  Roemer was needing some extra space for 5ive Cities brewing production, so he built a building near the new clubhouse at Pebble Creek, a once popular local golf course whose future is in doubt after going on the market in the spring of 2024.  However, there are a number of upscale housing developments in the immediate area around Pebble Creek that Jerry's draws its clientele from.  

When Roemer built the building to house 5ive Cities brewing operation, he approached Van Severen to see if he would be interested in putting in a restaurant in part of the building.  Things got worked out between the two and Jerry's opened on May 13, 2023.  The restaurant was named after Van Severen's father Jerry who was a big influence on Marc's life.  

First, I made sure that Jerry's was open for lunch before we hopped in the car to head out there.  It's a bit of a drive from our house in Davenport out past Bettendorf and the TBK Sports Complex (known locally as the BettPlex) along Forest Grove Road which eventually turns into 195th Street.  Jerry's is located at the corner of 195th and SW 35th Street in LeClaire.  (see map)  Quite honestly, if you were coming from Davenport - as we do - it's almost easier to go out I-74 to I-80 eastbound and get off at the LeClaire exit and go west on Highway 67 to Valley Drive.  SW 35th St. intersects with Valley Drive and it's a short drive up the hill to Jerry's from there.  But the drive to Jerry's along Forest Road via 195th Street is much more picturesque.   

We pulled into the parking lot at Jerry's around 1 p.m.  The parking lot is shared with The Clubhouse at Pebble Creek, an event space that can be rented out for receptions, parties and gatherings which is owned by Roemer.  And three months ago in early October, Jerry's took over part of the space for a supper club concept - Jerry's Supper Club - that is open just three days a week (Wednesday thru Friday) from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  So far, it's a pretty short menu with items such as a honey-glazed salmon, a beef tenderloin filet, lemon chicken, and mahi mahi, along with a prime burger, a jalapeño chicken salad sandwich, and an extensive salad bar.

There's a nice patio in front of Jerry's and that place is usually packed on warm summer days.  It features a bar and some lounge style seats along with a few tables for dining.  We saw that in the fall they put up wind screens on the north and west side to be able to allow customers to sit outside when the weather is tolerable.  It was a beautiful day when we went to Jerry's, but no one was seated outside.  

Directly behind Jerry's is an indoor/outdoor golfing range called The Rock Pile at Pebble Creek.  It features 10 bays - 5 on the ground level and 5 on a second level.  Using Toptracer technology, the facility can be used for group outings, individual play, or for training.  

Inside Jerry's, you'll find a modernistic space with a small bar and a number of high-top tables with high-backed padded seating.  There's a small sitting space on an upstairs platform overlooking the seating area.  As I said, Jerry's isn't all that big with seating for - maybe - 36 to 40 people.


Off to the side of the dining room were floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed a look into the brewing facilities for 5ive Cities Brewing.   The new production facility allowed 5ive Cities to go from brewing about 10 barrels a day to over 90 barrels a day.  While I haven't been a big fan of some of the 5ive Cities beers in the past, they've added a number of beers since they've upped their brewing capacity.  

There was a high-top table in the corner that was open and we settled in there.  There was just one server working that day, a young woman by the name of Erica who had waited on us at a couple other places around the Quad Cities in the past.  She apologized to us when she handed off a couple menus and said she'd be back to take our drink order.  I looked through the beer menu and there were a number 5ive Cities beers on tap along with craft beers from Iowa breweries such as Big Grove and Toppling Goliath.  One of the 5ive Cities beers caught my attention - the Schwifty Hippie Hazy IPA.  As I said, I was not much of a fan of 5ive Cities beers - until now.  Their hazy IPA was excellent.  They have a full bar at Jerry's including a number of wines to choose from.  My wife said that she was going to get a glass of wine for lunch with her meal.  

The menu at Jerry's started off with appetizers such as grilled wings, poutine, ahi tuna crisps, and ribeye chunks topped with a garlic & herb boursin cheese and served on crostini bread.  The menu also included soups and salads, some specialty burgers including a blackened burger topped with blue cheese, and a number of sandwiches including Jerry's popular lobster roll, a blackened salmon with avocado sandwich, a BLT served on toasted sourdough bread and topped with a garlic aioli, and their Chopped Italian rolls - a combination of ham, salami, pepperoni, and prosciutto with provolone cheese along with lettuce, tomato, pepperoncinis and red onions topped with a red wine vinaigrette and garlic mayo, all served in split-topped Italian rolls.  That really sounded good.

Jerry's also had a handful of entrees on the menu including the same honey glazed salmon that is served at their supper club across the way, as well as a 10 ounce ribeye, and chicken marsala.  The beef bolognese served over cavatappi pasta also caught my eye.  I made a mental note of that if we make it out to Jerry's for dinner at some point.  

My wife was sort of up in the air as what to get.  She thought about the pesto avocado sandwich with a choice of either turkey or prosciutto, and she thought about the grilled chicken breast sandwich served without the brioche bun.  But in the end, she went with the reuben sandwich - corned beef slathered with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and 1000 island dressing, all served on grilled thick-cut marble rye bread.  

For her side, she had a choice of fries, house-made chips, broccolini, garlic mashed potatoes, potato salad, or cottage cheese.  She didn't seem to be too thrilled with any of the choices until Erica said that she could substitute a salad for a side for a small upcharge.  My wife was happy with that news and she got a Caesar salad for her side.  

She got a glass of the J. Lohr Los Osos merlot that they had available either by the glass or by the bottle.  My wife was more than happy with what she got.  The reuben was a gooey mess that required a number of napkins during the course of the meal.  

I ended up getting the mushroom/Swiss burger - a 1/2 pound USDA prime beef patty that was topped with sautéed mushrooms and a slab of Swiss cheese served on a toasted brioche bun.  I asked Erica if I could get bacon on the burger and she said that would be no problem.  Sliced dill spears, a slice of red onion, tomato and lettuce greens came on the side.  For my side, I got the fries.  

The burger was excellent - juicy with a rich beef flavor.  The juiciness of the burger combined with the generous amount of Swiss cheese on top of the burger made it a splendidly messy meal.  The hazy IPA that I had was a great complement to the burger's overall taste.  And the fries - which were plentiful - were also very good with a great crunchy outer shell.  It was not a cheap lunch, but it was well worth the price.  

Things had quieted down by the time we had finished our meal and we engaged Erica in conversation about Jerry's, the new supper club in the Clubhouse at Pebble Creek, and other endeavors Marc Van Severen and Mark Roemer were involved in.  We were primarily interested in the supper club given that we love the supper clubs up in Wisconsin.  "The event space was just sitting there," Erica said.  "We thought we'd do something different to see if it might go over.  It's only open for 3 nights now and we have a limited menu.  But if it takes off, who knows?"

After trying to get into Jerry's for over a year, it turned out the wait was worth it.  Even though it was an expensive lunch, I thought the value was worth it, as well.  By prime beef burger was delicious, and my wife was very happy with the thick, juicy and messy reuben sandwich.  For being the only server, Erica did a great job in taking care of us and about six or seven other tables while we were there.  Jerry's is a nice upscale tavern with some good and interesting items on the menu, along with a full bar featuring a great selection of craft beers, specialty drinks, and an acceptable wine list.  From our first experience at Jerry's, we can see why it is such a popular place to get into.    

Cattleack BBQ - Farmers Branch, TX

My first experience of having Texas barbecue for the first time in a number of years was not, well..., it was somewhat disappointing.  I wanted to have top-notch barbecue when I was in Texas and I looked up a number of barbecue places that were near me in the North Dallas area.  One barbecue place seemed to stick out mainly because of the number of positive reviews, that it was only open 3 days a week at lunch, and the interesting name.  And it turned out that it wasn't far from where I was at the trade show.  So, for lunch one day, I headed down the road to Cattleack BBQ.  

Todd David grew up in St. Louis and started to get into barbecuing when he was a teenager.  He continued to dabble with barbecuing meats when he was majoring in accounting at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University).  After graduating college, David moved to the Dallas area and started a business that restored other businesses and buildings that were damaged by water, fire or smoke.  On the weekends, he continued to dabble with smoking meats in his backyard.  

Along with his wife Misty, Todd David ran the restoration business for over 30 years.  During that time, David used to throw parties for some of his clients that included him making barbecue.  Of course, those clients would remark that David needed to open his own barbecue joint.  But he always said that he only did barbecue as a hobby.

That is, until Todd and Misty decided to retire from the restoration business.  Switching directions, the couple started a barbecue catering business in 2011.  At first, they liked doing the occasional parties, receptions and corporate gigs.  But it got to be too much for them and they wanted to cut back on the catering.  But they didn't want to stop doing the barbecuing.  The Davids found a building in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch and opened Cattleack BBQ in 2013.  It was open only two days a week - and occasionally on Saturdays - and it was a bring-your-own-bottle joint.  But their barbecue was so good that lines would form before they would open their doors and they were usually sold out around 2 p.m.  

Recognition came to the David's in 2017 when Texas Monthly magazine named Cattleack BBQ as the third best barbecue joint in a statewide poll.  The lines on Thursday and Friday before they opened at 11 a.m. became much longer and they usually sold out well before 2 p.m.  

In 2018, the Davids welcomed a new employee by the name of Andrew Castelan.  Like Todd David, Castelan studied accounting and got his degree from the University of Texas in 2012.  He immediately got a job at the prestigious EY (formerly Ernst & Young) accounting firm.  And like David years before, Castelan would barbecue on weekends as a way to get away from thinking about work.  However, it was during a visit to the venerable Franklin Barbecue in Austin where he met pitmaster Aaron Franklin when he really caught the barbecue bug.  During a 30 minute conversation with Castelan, Franklin was so taken with Castlean's passion for barbecue that he convinced the young man to buy a 500 gallon propane tank and build his own smoker.  

Castelan did just that, but after it was finished he immediately got into trouble with the home owners association who said that he couldn't use or keep the smoker on his property.  Castelan did what anybody would do in that situation - he sold his home and moved to an area where he could park his large smoker outside his house.  

The barbecue bug was too big for Castelan to bear, so he quit his corporate gig at EY and went to work at Ten50 BBQ in Richardson, TX, not too far from his hometown of Plano.  Castelan worked as a pitmaster for 10 months further learning the art of Texas barbecue.  After working at Ten50 BBQ, Castelan hooked on with Cattleack BBQ in 2018.  Castelan worked for David for six months prepping food before he was even allowed to work the barbecue pits at Cattleack BBQ.  

For the next five years, Castelan worked side-by-side with David whom Castelan claimed was a "tremendous mentor".  And when David decided in 2023 to retire, he made Castelan an offer he couldn't refuse - to take over the business.  Castelan jumped at the chance and purchased Cattleack BBQ in August of last year.  

Pictured right - Todd David and Andrew Castelan.  Photo courtesy Dallas Morning News.

David wanted someone who would continue the legacy that he and his wife started with Cattleack and provide what amounted to an "insurance policy" that the business would continue, not only for his employees, but for the customers who would regularly come through the door.  And David's "retirement" just meant that he wouldn't be working the day-to-day operations and manning the pits the night before they would open.  But he would still be working the line as a meat slicer when they would be open for three days a week after Castelan added Wednesday to the Thursday and Friday openings soon after he took over.  (Cattleack BBQ continues to open on the first Saturday of each month.)  

It was just before noon when I pulled up to Cattleack BBQ which is located in the midst of a neighborhood of office buildings and light industrial complexes on Gamma Road in Farmers Branch.  (see map)  Originally founded as Mustang Branch in the early 1840's, it was renamed Farmers Branch in 1845 because of the rich and tillable soil in the area.  During the 19th Century, city fathers advertised widely across the U.S. and Europe trying to entice people to move to the area.  

A large group of people - mainly firemen - had congregated in front of the restaurant and the small parking lot was full.  I had read that the restaurant could have lines out the door, but these guys were just sort of milling about around a covered area with a couple picnic tables underneath.  I found a parking space just north of Cattleack BBQ on Gamma Road and walked down the street.  

While there wasn't a line out the door just yet (the firemen milling about were waiting on more colleagues to show up), there were about a dozen people in line inside for the cafeteria-style order line.  The menu for the restaurant was on a chalk board on one wall, while another wall had photos of a number of local and national celebrities who had visited the barbecue joint in the past.  On a small shelf above the photos were a number barbecue sauces that either had been dropped off or collected by the Davids over the years.  

The line moved relatively fast and before I knew it I was ordering from one of the guys working the line.  The serving line featured a corrugated tin wall behind the prep line with a large beverage cooler in front of the wall.  Meat warmers were also behind the serving line.    

The dining room was just past the end of the cafeteria line.  It featured another large corrugated tin wall with signage on it along with a number of hats.  I didn't bother to look at much of the signage or hats, but I did notice a number of the large flags from local area college and professional teams hanging from the rafters above the dining room.  It was spacious enough where people weren't necessarily on top of one another.  

The original Cattleack BBQ was just the space where the cafeteria line was located.  In 2016, the Davids were able to take over the space beside them to turn into a dining area.  After shutting down for 2 weeks in June of 2016, they reopened in early July of that year more than doubling the size of the restaurant.  A series of Edison lights were strung across the dining room that featured a number of picnic tables underneath.  I don't usually like to sit at picnic tables - especially if they're going to be used as community tables.  But there was enough of them that I could sit by myself at one and not be bothered while I was eating.  

I ended up getting the Texas Trinity platter - a thick slice of brisket, a meat pork rib, and a choice of either smoked sausage or a Hatch chile cheese sausage.  Of course, I went with the Hatch chile cheese sausage that was sliced into 7 or 8 pieces.  For my side, I had a choice of a number of sides including a vinegar-based cole slaw, Hatch chile mac & cheese, and dirty rice with burnt brisket ends.  However, I got the burnt end brisket baked beans.  After placing my order for the food and walking down the line, a guy behind the counter asked me what I wanted to drink.  "Do you guys have beer," I asked.

"We do," he said enthusiastically.  He turned into the cooler behind him and pulled out a can of Lone Star Beer.  Score!!!  Lone Star Beer - the Old Style of Texas - and barbecue.  What could be better than that?  (Cattleack's web site says that you can also bring in your own beer, if you like.)  

Well, it did get better.  When I went to pay, the lady at the cash register said, "The Lone Star is on the house!"  Double score!!!  Wow!  I wanted to reach over the cash register and hug her!  

Now, the experience I had a couple days prior at an "upscale" barbecue restaurant was pretty disappointing.  But I can't say anything bad about the food at Cattleack BBQ.  The brisket slice was thick, moist and had a wonderful flavor.  The pork rib was thick and meaty with a great seasoning on the meat.  The meat fell off the bone very easily and was just wonderful.  They had a couple different types of sauce - a mustard sauce that I didn't care for, and a sweet and somewhat spicy barbecue sauce that I thought was outstanding.  The baked beans, on their own, were very good and really didn't need any additional barbecue sauce as I'm accustomed to do when I get baked beans at a barbecue place.  

But the Hatch chile cheese sausage link may have been the star attraction.  I'm usually not big on smoked sausage, but this was simply outstanding.  Smoked sausage is big in Texas - especially in Central Texas where German immigrants settled in the 19th century.  I've just had a hard time warming up to smoked sausage in the past, but the smoked Hatch chile cheese sausage they had at Cattleack definitely turned my head.  

My visit to Cattleack BBQ was just fabulous.  I don't care for cafeteria/counter - style ordering, but that seems to be the norm for most good barbecue joints in Texas.  And the term "good" is under-emphasizing how great the barbecue was at Cattleack.  The brisket was killer, the pork rib was perfect, and the smoked Hatch chile cheese sausage was an eye-opener.  Plus on top of all that - I got a FREE Lone Star beer out of the deal!  The only problem I had with the place is that they're only open for 3 days a week - once a month on Saturdays - and for just 3 hours, or until their barbecue runs out.  But the hit-or-miss cycle of the restaurant is worth the trouble if you're looking for great barbecue in the north Dallas area.  

The Cut Handcrafted Burgers - Irvine, CA

When I was out in Southern California earlier this year, I had finished up with a morning meeting and was heading back to the hotel to do some office work before heading over to help set up for a trade show I was attending.  I didn't have breakfast and was feeling a bit hungry, so I decided to find someplace for lunch.  I was looking for a good burger/beer place and one came up that I wasn't too far away from.  I ended up heading to The Cut Handcrafted Burgers for lunch.  

Orange County, California has long been a destination for Korean immigrants dating back to the early 70's.  Irvine has the third largest U.S. population of Korean nationals living within its limits and because of that there are a number of Korean food restaurants in the area.  But it turned out that Koreans also tried to blend into American culture and that's something Steve Kim did when he opened up his burger-centric food truck in 2014.  The Cut Handcrafted Burgers became a popular food truck parked in parking lots and at events around Orange County based on Kim's philosophy - Quality, Freshness and Tradition.  He used only the finest beef for his burgers, freshly ground in his food truck.  The freshness of the beef was key as it was never frozen and always made available to him before each day.  And the tradition of a good burger - hearty cheese, fresh toppings and unique condiments - were probably the most important aspect of his burgers.  

Kim's concepts paid off and in 2015 his food truck was named as the Best Food Truck by the food critics of the Orange County Register.  And in 2016, The Cut was a finalist for the Best Burger in Orange County.

Pictured right - Steve Kim.  Photo courtesy The Cut Handcrafted Burgers web site.

As it happens with many food trucks, The Cut became so popular that Kim's customers clamored for a brick and mortar restaurant.  He found a space in a strip mall in Irvine and opened The Cut Handcrafted Burgers full service restaurant in 2017.  The Cut first focused on burgers, craft beers, wine, and specialty cocktails, but in 2018 they added a weekend brunch as the little restaurant started to transform into something more than a burger and beer place.

In 2020 just before the COVID pandemic hit, Kim opened Cluck Kitchen, a chicken-centric restaurant located near John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana.  Saddled with two restaurant locations during the height of a pandemic, Kim decided to shut down his food truck in 2021.  However in 2022, Kim brought in a chef partner - Ryan Yi - to oversee the menus at both The Cut Handcrafted Burgers and Cluck Kitchen.  In July of 2022, Kim and Yi opened a second Cluck Kitchen in Redlands about halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.  And in October of 2023, the partners opened The Cut Modern American Eatery & Bar in Rancho Cucamonga at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains just west of San Bernardino.  The Rancho Cucamonga location featured a more diverse menu with shareable plates and entrée selections in addition to burgers, sandwiches and salads, as well as having a full bar.  

It was just after 1 p.m. when I pulled into the Westpark Plaza strip mall along Alton Blvd. in the heart of Irvine.  (see map)  There's a community patio in front of The Cut which it shares with a Chinese restaurant on one side and a Mexican restaurant on the other.  The small dining room at The Cut opens in the front to the patio when the weather is nice.  And it was certainly nice out that day.  The inside dining area at The Cut has a row of tables with banquette seating along the wall, a community table in the middle, and assorted tables throughout the space.  Music by Pears, Tofer Dolan, and Lady Gaga (who sang a soulful version of The Carpenters' hit Close to You that got my attention) played in the background while I was there.

I took a seat at the small bar that is part of the dining area.  Franco - he introduced himself as Frank - was the bartender that day.  They had a dozen beers on tap that included 3 hazy IPA selections - a Boat Shoes hazy IPA from the Karl Strauss Brewing Company; a hazy IPA from the Harland Brewing Company both of which are out of San Diego; and the hazy IPA from the Unsung Brewing Company out of nearby Anaheim.  Frank gave me a taste of the Karl Strauss hazy IPA and the Unsung hazy IPA (I'd had the Harland hazy IPA before, but wasn't familiar with the Unsung or Karl Strauss variety).  I chose the Unsung hazy IPA.  

Frank gave me a food menu to look over while he poured my beer.  The menu was definitely more than just burgers as they had a number of interesting appetizers including poutine with braised beef, smoked shishito peppers, and cheesy tots with spicy nduja sausage.  Sandwiches included a fried buttermilk chicken breast sandwich, a reuben sandwich, a Nashville-hot chicken sandwich, and a sliced-ribeye truffle cheesesteak sandwich.  For people looking for non-burgers or non-sandwiches, they had a grilled skirt steak with chimichurri, as well as salads.

The burger part of the menu was pretty interesting.  They had a $40 signature burger - The Cut - which was made from in-house ground 60-day dry aged ribeye steak, topped with 2-year aged white cheddar, and served on a black and white sesame seed potato bun.  More modestly priced burgers included the Savory burger with Swiss cheese and a bacon relish; the Blue Cut with blue cheese and bacon; the Sweet & Spicy with bacon, pepper jack cheese and a honey Sriracha; and the Truffle & Brie which was what was on the burger - brie cheese with a truffle aioli.  

But I went basic for my first visit to The Cut Handcrafted Burgers.  I got the OG burger - a single patty burger with American cheese, with pickles, lettuce, tomato and a choice of grilled or raw onions.  I asked Frank to have the chef put raw onions on the burger, but it came out with caramelized onions on it.  It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but I think I would have liked it better with raw chopped onions.  For my side, I had a choice of fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, a black truffle mac & cheese side, or tots.  Well, of course, I got tots!  I asked Frank if he had Cholula, but all he had was Tabasco.  Once again, not a deal breaker, but I prefer Cholula over Tabasco with tots.  

The burger was cooked perfectly - just a shade under medium with a nice light pink color.  And the burger dripped with cheese with every bite.  It was a messy burger, to say the least, and they had linen napkins at The Cut.  I had to ask Frank if I could get another napkin about halfway through the meal because it was such a wonderfully messy burger.  And the tots were a great complement to the burger.  

For a gourmet burger joint, The Cut Handcrafted Burgers did not disappoint.  They had a pretty good selection of craft beers, the menu was more than just burgers, but the burgers they had on the menu all sounded delicious.  And my OG burger was fantastic - cooked perfectly, gushing with American cheese, and having a bun that stayed together very well for such a messy burger.  And Frank's wonderful and friendly service was just the icing on the cake during my visit.  The Cut more than exceeded my expectations going in.  

Matchbox - Rockville, MD

I was at a trade show in the northern Washington D.C. suburb of Rockville, MD recently and the first day was sort of tiring.  I was told by a friend that the bar at the hotel where the trade show was held really needed to have their tap lines cleaned out as all the craft beers they had on tap tasted funky.  But he said there was a pizza place across the street that had good pizza and a good selection of craft beers.  I got out of the trade show around 5 p.m. and instead of heading back to my hotel and figuring out what I was going to have for dinner that evening, I just decided to head across the street and have pizza and some beer at Matchbox.  

From the sleek architecture on the outside of the building along Rockville Pike in Rockville, I should have guessed that Matchbox was a chain.  That's because it was - it started over 20 years in Washington D.C.  But the partnerships involved in the opening of Matchbox started years prior.  

In 1990, Ty Neal owned a restaurant in Huntington, West Virginia called Mycroft's.  It was near the campus of Marshall University and situated between the basketball arena and the football stadium.  Mycroft's could be described as a kitschy cross between Cheers and Hooters.  One day, a young man by the name of Drew Kim came in to apply for a job as a waiter.  Neal waved his hand around the restaurant to point out all the female servers at the place and bluntly told Kim that they only hired women as servers - something you could get away with nearly 35 years ago.  

But Kim was a persistent kind of guy and on his fourth time meeting with Neal to get a job, Neal hired him.  It turned out to be fortuitous for both men - Kim turned out to be a great server, then Neal moved him behind the bar to be the lead bartender.  He did so good running the bar that Neal named Kim as the overall manager of the restaurant.  Before long, Neal had made Kim a partner in the business.  Soon after, the duo opened an entertainment/cafe venue where up-and-coming bands would play.  

Neal and Kim ended up selling both ventures and then headed west to Chicago where they partnered up with Neal's brother Mark, and Ty Neal's longtime friend Perry Smith to open the Windy City's outpost of Polly Esther's - a 70's and 80's-themed bar/dance club chain that was a popular destination for bachelorette parties in the late 90's.  The group ran the place for five years before selling their interest in 2001 and heading back toward Washington, D.C.   

For their next endeavor, the group envisioned an upscale wood-fired pizza and craft beer bistro where families and couples could enjoy a meal.  The group found an abandoned warehouse in Washington's Chinatown district and started to work on the restaurant.  Because it was just them with no investors, they did everything by themselves and on the cheap.  The tables that were going to be used in the restaurant were made in Mark's basement, and the group did the full build-out of the restaurant.  

When it came time to open in mid-2003, Drew Kim was the bartender, Ty Neal worked the front of house, Perry Smith wore a number of different hats, and Mark Neal was the pizza chef.  They originally called the restaurant "Matchbooks" after the thousands of matchbooks the Neal brothers had collected from various restaurants over the years.  But they eventually changed the name to Matchbox and opened in July of 2003.

Pictured right - Drew Kim, Ty Neal and Mark Neal. Photo courtesy Washington Post.  (This photo was taken after Peter Green left the group in 2012.)  

At the time, Chinatown was not the trendy area of Washington D.C. as it is today and having a restaurant in an area that was years away from gentrification was a major risk.  But a positive review in the Washington Post not long after they opened caused the floodgates of people to open.  Within days, lines were stretched out the door and down the street.

The group formed the Matchbox Restaurant Group soon thereafter and planned to expand around Washington D.C. and beyond.  Approached by another restaurant from the West Coast, the group opened a second Matchbox location in Palm Springs, CA as a joint-venture.  It didn't end well and that Matchbox location closed less than two years later.  

Focusing on the Washington D.C. area, a second Matchbox opened in Washington D.C. in 2008 and their third location - the one I went to in Rockville - opened in 2010.  By this time, a number of investors including family, friends, banks and capital investment firms put money into the Matchbox Restaurant Group.  By 2015, there were six Matchbox restaurants around the Beltway, along with five Ted's Bulletin Bistro locations the group started in 2011.  Ted's Bulletin was more of an upscale diner focusing on farm-fresh American-style foods.  

As the group was gearing up for expansion, they hired Peter D'Amelio and industry veteran who oversaw the explosive growth of the Cheesecake Factory years before.  Hoping to branch out to put more Matchbox locations starting in Florida and expanding around the east coast with both company-owned and franchisee-owned restaurants, D'Amelio was brought in to forge a path of expansion for the group.  

But soon after D'Amelio was brought on board, a number of investors tried to oust the Neals and Kim citing a lack of direction in the expansion plans.  The group then sued a number of the investors to try to keep their positions within Matchbox Restaurant Group.  However, in 2017 the court ruled against the group finding that the lawsuit had no merit and threw out the suit.  

The Matchbox Restaurant Group was forced to raise money to pay off the investors and they sold controlling interest of Matchbox to Thompson Hospitality, a Washington D.C.-based restaurant holding group, and they sold off all assets of Ted's Bulletin to the Salis Holdings, another investment group whose Catalogue Co. arm oversaw the stewardship of restaurants such as Federalist Pig barbecue, Sidekick bakery, and Honeymoon, a upscale Southern-style fried chicken restaurant.  

It was a rocky two year period from 2018 to 2020 to begin with for the Matchbox Restaurant Group after selling off the majority of their assets.  But they were doubly smacked when the pandemic broke in early 2020.  Never able to recover from the downturn in business, Matchbox Restaurant Group was forced into bankruptcy in August of 2020.  Thompson Hospitality came in and purchased the remaining assets of Matchbox Restaurant Group for $11.6 million.  Thompson Hospitality continues to run the 12 Washington D.C. locations along with a single Florida location near Fort Lauderdale that was actually the first of what were to be many more Matchbox locations started by the Matchbox Restaurant Group just before the investor upheaval began nearly 10 years ago.  

The Matchbox is part of the Congressional Plaza shopping complex on the west side of Rockville Pike.  (see map)  It's located in a stand-alone building near the street with plenty of parking on all four sides.  The brick facade building had a nice patio out front - one of two patios at Matchbox.  It was a somewhat cool late afternoon and they had the overhead heaters cranking out the heat for the sparse crowd dining on the patio.

Inside the restaurant was a great room for the main dining area with brick walls, a fire place, and a number of booths and tables throughout the room.  There was an upstairs dining space that was used for parties or overflow dining.  

In the corner of the dining room were two wood-fired ovens for cooking thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizza.  The main kitchen area was sort of back behind the large brick ovens.  Even though it was just past 5 p.m., the pizzaiolos were busy making up a number of pies.

The bar area was just past the wall separating the pizza ovens and a row of booths in the bar.  The bar was busy - happy hour is 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the week.  I didn't really want to sit by myself in a nearly deserted dining room, but I didn't really want to be seated by myself at a table or a booth in the busy bar.  I ended up taking a seat at the nearly full bar, sandwiched in between a large guy who was obviously drunk already, and another guy who was too busy talking on his phone to acknowledge me when I asked if the seat was taken.  

There were two bartenders who seemed to be overworked and not very friendly.  Their customer service skills were not the best and one was almost contemptuous behind the bar.  I overheard him complaining to another Matchbox employee that he hadn't had a break since he came in to work at 9:30 a.m.  Both bartenders were not on top of their games in terms of taking care of people at the bar.  It took them quite some time to even acknowledge I was sitting there.  

Once I did get the attention of one of the two guys, I asked for a food menu and a beer list.  He said they didn't really have a beer list, but asked what kind of beer I was looking for a hazy IPA.  He said they had the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger hazy IPA, but I'm not a big fan of New Belgium beers.  I asked about an IPA they had on tap - a house brew called Matchbox Pro IPA.  I decided to get one of those.  And it wasn't bad.  I asked him later on who made it for them and he said it was by a local brewery called DC Brau.  I had a DC Brau hazy IPA later that weekend and I ended up buying a six pack at a local liquor store to take back to Iowa.  

Even though I was thinking pizza, they had a number of other items to choose from at Matchbox.  Pasta dishes such as a chicken fettuccine alfredo, a fennel sausage rigatoni, and a crab & shrimp fettuccine alfredo were highlighted on the menu.  They also had pan-seared scallops, a jumbo crab cake, and baby back ribs.  They also had sandwiches, burgers and a number of salads on the menu.  Appetizers included calamari, crab dip with chips, chicken wings, and a tuna tartare with guacamole and spicy aioli.  

My friend told me that he thought the pizza was good, so I decided to go that direction.  While they have a number of specialty pizzas on the menu, I wanted to make my own.  I got the fennel sausage and pepperoni.  Somewhat surprisingly, they didn't have mushrooms available at Matchbox.  They have two sizes - a 10 inch and a 14 inch pizza.  I got the smaller of the two and when I ordered, the bartender cautioned me that the pepperoni was spicy.  I sort of waved him off knowing that it couldn't have been that spicy to me.

Since it's cooked in a wood-fired oven, the pizza didn't take long to get out to me.  It was loaded with pepperoni slices on top and an ample amount of ground fennel sausage under the cheese with a puffy crust.  I will say the pizza was good, and the spicy and salty pepperoni made it go well with the IPA.  It wasn't a fabulous pizza, but it was far from inedible.  Let's just say that it worked for me at that moment.   

The pizza I had at Matchbox was fine for what it was - a good wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza with loads of pepperoni slices and a some savory fennel sausage.  I do have to say that the happy hour crowd at Matchbox was a bit overwhelming, and the bartenders were not on top of their game.  It seemed like a nice place overall, but there was just an overall negative vibe from the bartenders that didn't make it such a welcoming place.  Everyone has bad days and while the food was good, the service was a bit less than desirable. 

Mascot Brewery - Etobicoke, ON

I got into Toronto late in the afternoon during a recent trip up there.  I was on my own that evening as my colleague from Montreal was driving in later, and my colleague from France - who was on a France-Australia-Los Angeles-Toronto-France around-the-world trip - wasn't due from in L.A. until around 10:30 that evening.  I had it in my mind to find a brewpub for dinner that evening.  I ended up Uber-ing to one place near my hotel for dinner and some beers (more on that later on), but it turned out that only it had food at its downtown Toronto location.  However, the people at that microbrewery steered me to another place that they knew had craft beer and food - Mascot Brewery.  After getting another Uber to pick me up, I took off to head over to Mascot Brewery.  

Aaron Prothro is a native of Nova Scotia who moved to Toronto as a young man full of ambition, but really no clue as to what he really wanted to do.  Prothro was an athlete and worked out at a local fitness center.  He eventually got a job at the fitness center as a personal trainer and competed in local body-building championships.  

But he also had an interest in the hospitality industry and had some conceptual ideas of the kind of place that he'd like to run - a chic little restaurant with seasonal menu items and an extensive wine list.  Oh!  And a second-story bar above the restaurant that would feature artisanal drinks and a D.J. with a thumping sound system.  That dream of Prothro's came true when he opened Nyood Restaurant and Bar in February of 2008.  

While owning and running Nyood, Prothro and a friend came up with another concept - F-Stop - an EDM (electronic dance music) and hip-hop dance club.  But there was something brewing - literally - in his mind.  He became immersed in the craft beer community and as a black man he noticed the inclusivity and the laid-back vibe the growing craft beer scene was in Toronto.

Pictured right -  Aaron Prothro.  Photo courtesy Mascot Brewery Facebook page. 

Prothro especially liked the fact that craft beer seemed to bring people together and not try to divide them.  He didn't like the technical jargon that some microbreweries used to describe their beers and wanted a place where plain-speak in his beer's descriptions was the norm.   And he wanted a brewpub where people could gather and just chill out.  

Aaron Prothro sold his interests in Nyood and F-Stop to work on getting his concept of a brewery and taproom up and running.  He found a space in downtown Toronto and in May of 2015 he opened Mascot Brewery - the first black-owned brewery in Canada.  The original location for Mascot Brewery was on Mercer Street in downtown Toronto, but they moved to their present location on King Street West in 2019.  

Also in 2019, Prothro announced they would open up a second location in suburban Etobicoke complete with a brewing facility, tap room, patio and event space, along with a restaurant in collaboration with Matt Basile who owned the popular Fidel Gastro food truck.  The pandemic slowed down the progress of the buildout and the new Mastro Brewery location finally opened in June of 2021.  

As I said earlier, I set out to go to a brewpub that I thought had food.  The Uber driver dropped me off in front of Great Lakes Brewery (see map) and when I walked in, I sort of suspected that they didn't have a kitchen there.  After sitting down at the bar and ordering a beer, I asked the bartender if they had food.  "No, sorry," she said.  "Our downtown location does, but we don't.  This is our tap room and retail location."   They had a number of beers on tap, and cans of beers for sale in a refrigerator near a wall of wearables that were also for sale.  

But I ended up hanging out there for a couple beers talking with the two bartenders who turned out to be wonderful people.  Canada "Nice" people.  They had a couple hazy IPA's on tap and I tried them both.  I ended up getting the HazeMama New England-style IPA that is one of their year-round beers.  The place wasn't all that busy and I visited with the bartenders who were intrigued that a guy from Iowa had found their tap room.  They were also very helpful in their suggestion of a nearby brewpub that had food - which turned out to be Mascot Brewery.  

Getting an Uber from Great Lakes Brewery turned out to be a bit of a challenge as there was a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey match starting just down the nearby Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto.  It turned out that I had time for one more beer waiting for my Uber ride to show up.  As I said, it was a slow evening and the bartenders were happy for the company.  And they had great music playing in the background from artists such as Onra, The Herbaliser, and Ólafur Arnalds with Bonobo.  

Once the Uber driver showed up, it turned out to be less than a 10 minute ride through residential streets of suburban Toronto to the Mascot Brewery.  (see map)   I found an industrial building which housed some other businesses including a little coffee shop.  Mascot Brewery was toward the back of the building with a very nice wood-facade corner beer garden in front of the building.

Opening the door to Mascot Brewery, I found a small bar area with a concrete-faced bar and room for five or six chairs.  There were some tables in the bar area where some people were seated.  Music from the likes of Bob Marley, Jack Johnson and Red Hot Chili Peppers played on the sound system.  I immediately liked the laid-back vibe of the place. 

 
The on-tap brew menu was on the wall just to the left of the bar and very prominent when you walk into the small bar area.  There was no one behind the bar and I wondered if there was a dining area in the place.  

Just past the bar was a larger room with a larger bar.  There were a few people seated in this spacious room, but the bar was also unmanned.  A large garage door that opened onto the beer patio was the prominent feature of the beer hall.  

A guy came out of nowhere and asked if I needed any help.  I told him that I was looking for some beer and some food.  He said, "You came to the right place!"  I asked him if I could just sit at the bar and he said, "Yeah, I'm in the other room tonight.  We don't have this bar up and running tonight."  

Back in the smaller bar room, I took a seat at the bar.  The bartender's name was Ben and he turned out to be a great guy.  He gave me a food menu to look through and I wanted to know what they had for a hazy IPA that evening.  They had 16 beers on tap when I was there and Ben told me that that their hazy IPA was called the Juicy J.  I tried a sample and immediately signed up for a pint of that after a quick tasting.  

The menu at Mascot Brewery wasn't long, but it was certainly interesting.  They had grilled octopus on the menu that certainly caught my eye.  There was a fennel sausage and rapini dish, as well as a braised short rib served with fresh horseradish.  All three of those sounded great.  Appetizers included wings, charred Brussels sprouts, and "Bang-Bang" cauliflower bites.  And they had other items such as jerk chicken tacos, a chicken Katsu sandwich, and a beer-braised bratwurst plate.  

I really considered getting the grilled octopus - I just love grilled octopus.  But I ended up getting the Oklahoma-style (cooked with onions on a flat grill) smash burger with mild cheddar cheese and bacon.  A side of fries came with the burger.  The burger, itself, was very good.  It had the very crispy edge that you get with good smash burgers.  The cheese oozed out of the burger with each bite, and the grilled onions offered a great flavor complement to the crispy bacon on the burger.  I had absolutely no complaints with the burger.

The fries were also very good - while they weren't all that crisp on the outside, they had a wonderful flavor like they had been cooked in beef tallow.  The fries were delicious on their own.  

I had told Ben of my odyssey that brought me to Mascot Brewery that evening.  I told him that I like to find brewpubs during my travels.  "There's a lot of excellent brewpubs in the area," Ben told me.  And he proceeded to give me a handwritten list of some of his favorites that he suggested I try.  He had listed Rainhard and Shacklands breweries at the top of his list.  "They're next door to one another, probably about a 15 minute drive from here," Ben told me.  "Great beers, great people."  

He also mentioned and listed Blood Brothers Brewing which was northwest of downtown Toronto; along with Henderson Brewing Company that collaborated with the Toronto-based rockers Rush for a series of Rush-themed beers.  (I've had the Rush golden lager and it's a very good beer.)  Closing out his list, he had written down Halo Brewing which was just west of downtown Toronto; and finally he listed Nickle Brook Brewing Company, a brewery in Burlington, ON near Hamilton.  "Nickle Brook has a taproom just down the street from Great Lakes," Ben told me.  "I really like their beers.  They have a stout that I really like."  

I told Ben that I was in town for a trade show and I really didn't know if I would have time to get around to any of the breweries he had listed.  He said, "Well, hang on to this and when you come back you can check 'em out on your next visit."  I didn't know if I would be back in Toronto anytime soon, but it's a guess I'll be back next fall for the trade show.

It was past 9 p.m. and I figured I'd had enough and it was time to get an Uber to get back to my hotel.  However, I was having trouble getting a signal from Bell Canada on my phone outside Mascot to use the Uber app.  I had to go back in and get the wi-fi password from Ben to be able to get the Uber app to work.  He was more than helpful and commiserated with me on the pitfalls of having Bell Canada as a service provider.  

I was actually sort of sad when the Uber showed up at Mascot Brewing to take me back to the hotel.  The me of 20 years ago would have been taking the Uber to the next craft brewery on the list instead of heading back to the hotel.  But I knew we had a long day coming up and it was time to get back to the hotel to rest up.  But what a fun night this was!  I was able to go to two craft breweries in the Toronto area and have some good beers at both places served by typically friendly Canadians.  And the smash burger and fries I had at Mascot Brewing was a spot-hitter, to say the least.  I put the list of breweries that Ben gave me on my Google Maps of "Restaurants to Visit" listing for when I do eventually make it back to Toronto at some point.  But until then, I'll have great memories of visiting both Great Lakes Brewing and Mascot Brewing on this trip to Toronto.  

Oliver's Trattoria - Irvine, CA

Out in Southern California for a trade show this past fall, I had been sitting with a former colleague and his wife catching up on things at the bar at the hotel where the trade show was being held.  I offered to take them out to dinner, but they said they needed to head back to their home just north and east of Los Angeles.  I got back to my hotel and I was looking up some of the restaurants in the immediate area.  I was sort of in the mood for Italian (when aren't I?) and I found a place that looked sort of interesting - Oliver's Trattoria.  Getting the address plugged into my GPS, I took off to go have dinner at Oliver's Trattoria.  

Erik De Marchi was born and raised in Imola, Italy, about halfway in between Bologna and the coastal town of Ravenna on the Adriatic Sea situated in the Emilia-Romagna region of the country.  Emilia-Romagna consists of nine provinces and is very well known for their culinary and wine-making traditions.  Bologna's signature dish is pasta, while Ravenna is known for their seafood and rice meals.  De Marchi was exposed to the region's diverse gastronomy selections at a young age, especially loving his grandmother's lasagna.    

De Marchi eventually enrolled in the culinary sciences program that was part of IAL Emilia-Romagna, a service training academy located in Bologna.  After graduating from IAL in 2002, De Marchi made his way to Los Angeles to work under chef Gino Angeleini at his prestigious Italian eatery Angelini Osteria.  

From there, De Marchi made the rounds of some the better Italian restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area.  After 15 years working in various Italian restaurants in Southern California, De Marchi decided he wanted to do his own restaurant.

Pictured right - Erik De Marchi.  Photo courtesy Orange Coast Magazine.  

Making his way down to the Orange County coast, De Marchi found a spot in Laguna Beach.  He modeled his new restaurant after the osterias - simple cafes - that served locally-sourced foods and wine that were found near his home in Italy.  And while he was getting ready to open his restaurant, his wife was expecting a child - a baby boy that they had already picked out a name for.  In September of 2018 - the same day that his son Oliver was born - De Marchi opened Oliver's Osteria, named after his son.  

De Marchi's little Italian restaurant became an instant hit with residents in and near Laguna Beach.  Food critics praised the restaurant for its authentic Emilia-Romanga-style cuisine, along with its eclectic list of Italian wines.  In 2021, Michelin gave Oliver's Osteria a Bib Gourmand rating - sort of an honorable mention short of getting a star - in its Michelin Guide of Los Angeles restaurants that year.  

Before he got his Michelin mention, Erik De Marchi noticed that a lot of his customers were coming from the Irvine/Newport Beach area making the drive down to Laguna Beach.  In the back of his mind, De Marchi wanted to have a more modern restaurant that offered patio dining, wood-fired pizza, private event space, and sleek furnishings.  Already living in Irvine, De Marchi found an open spot in the Quail Hill shopping and entertainment center and in the fall of 2023, he opened Oliver's Trattoria.  He immediately found that the opening of the new restaurant in Irvine didn't fully take business away from his original restaurant in Laguna Beach.  So it was definitely a win-win situation for De Marchi by opening a second location!

It was about 8 p.m. when I pulled into the Quail Hill complex at the corner of Sand Canyon Ave. and Quail Hill Parkway near the 405 Freeway.  (see map)   The restaurant opened to a bar area and a well-lit dining area off to the left side.  This dining area was a mishmash of square booths, as well as 2-seat, 4-seat, 6-seat and 8-seat tables.  An outdoor patio was located just beyond this dining room.  But it was a cool evening and no one was seated on the patio.

There was a second and somewhat more cozy and subdued dining area past the bar.  It seemed to be a bit "Christmas-y" in the room with dangling white lights around the perimeter and a frosted white tree illuminated by spot lights in the middle, even though it was in the early fall.  A third dining area was in the back and it could be closed off for private dining or receptions.  

I ended up asking the hostess if I could sit at the bar.  There was one seat open on the curved corner of the two-sided bar.  The bar was sort of unique in that two or three of the seats were table-top height, while 7 or 8 chairs were high-top height.  I took one of the high-top chairs with a faux lighted candle in front of me.  The marble-topped bar had lighting underneath to illuminate the brick facade below.  Along the wall next to the bar and behind the hostess stand were a series of high-top tables where people were standing enjoying drinks.  

Once I sat down and was given a menu, one of the bartenders - Lorenzo - came over to greet me.  I had just finished up having a couple three beers at the hotel and I was looking to get a glass of wine to start.  After looking through the by-the-glass wine list Lorenzo gave me, I ordered a house Malbec wine they had.   

The dinner menu started out with a handful of salads and antipasti choices including beef carpaccio, roasted octopus, and fried calamari.  There was wood-fired pizzas on the menu, as well as a Mediterranean sea bass entree, lamb chops in a mint salmoriglio sauce (think Indian mint chutney), and an 8 ounce beef tenderloin served on a bed of arugula and baby artichoke hearts.  Pasta dishes included Oliver's Trattoria's house-made thick pasta noodles with roasted red cherry peppers, linguine and clams in a garlic-white wine sauce, and Tonnarelli ai Crostacei - house-made thick spaghetti noodles, with lobster meat and prawns, mixed in a slightly spicy cherry tomato sauce.  

One of the nice touches Oliver's Trattoria provides after you place your order is a plate of fresh house-made bread cubes with an olive and caper tapenade on the side.  The bread was a spongy focaccia with herbed toppings.  The tapenade was tangy and had great flavor.   

I was torn between a couple items on the menu.  The house lasagna - from the recipe Erik De Marchi's grandmother had made for him as a little boy - was tempting; as was the house-made pappardelle pasta with the wild boar ragu.  But in the end, I went with the tagliatelle pasta with the bolognese sauce.  I've been on such a bolognese kick - both at home and one the road - lately that it just sounded good to me. 

And it was great.  The robust flavor of the meaty bolognese sauce was complemented by the wonderful house-made pasta they served at Oliver's Trattoria.  Parsley flakes and parmesan cheese were sprinkled on the pasta and bolognese to give the dish a rustic appeal.   This was - in simple terms - a killer meal.   

And I've also been on a dessert kick at Italian restaurants on my last few visits and I've been especially keen on the affogato - vanilla gelato with espresso.  And I asked Lorenzo if I could get a shot of amaretto to go along with the affogato.  The affogato had chunks of chocolate on the top of the vanilla gelato and I needed to eat some of the dessert down before I could add the amaretto Lorenzo supplied to me in a small metal pitcher.  The affogato was rich, decadent and very delicious.  It was a great ending to what was a very memorable meal at a very memorable Italian restaurant.  

 

I can't say enough about the experience I had at Oliver's Trattoria.  First of all, Lorenzo was a great bartender - friendly and efficient.  He did a great job taking care of me on my visit.  The focaccia bread cubes with the tapenade spread was a nice touch the restaurant provided as a pre-meal appetizer.  And the tagliatelle pasta with the rich and hearty bolognese sauce was simply outstanding.   I like to find good Italian restaurants if I'm staying in an area for more than a couple days and Oliver's Trattoria surpassed my expectations of what I thought the restaurant would be before I entered the building.  This was a great Italian meal.