Road Tips

Blue Agave Mexican Cantina - Phoenix

Our flight to Phoenix out of Denver was late getting out of the gate due to a faulty sensor that took about 45 minutes to get fixed.  We had hoped to get into Phoenix around 1 p.m., but it was well after 2 p.m. after we gathered our bags and made it to the tram that took us to the car rental facility about 3 miles away from Sky Harbor Airport.  A couple missed turns, we finally made our way up to Scottsdale where we were going to stay for the evening and to have dinner with my two sisters and my brother-in-law who live in the area.  Knowing that we were going to be hungry when we go into town, I had asked one of my sisters where a good place to eat would be close to our hotel.  She didn't hesitate.  "Blue Agave," she told me.  "Their food is so good!"  We made it to Blue Agave Mexican Cantina about 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon.  

Brian Johnson grew up around the restaurant business.  He worked at and, eventually, cooked in restaurants and found a great love for the business.  But Johnson was encouraged to go off to college to study business.  However, it became evident that business college wasn't for him, so he decided to drop out of college and head off to culinary school.

In 1994, Johnson enrolled at the (now closed) Scottsdale Culinary Institute, one of the largest culinary schools in the nation.  Johnson went through the full program and graduated with honors in 1997.  

(Pictured right - Brian Johnson.  Photo courtesy Phoenix.org)

From there, Johnson found work at a French restaurant before moving on to an Italian restaurant.  He eventually ended up at a corporate-owned Chinese restaurant before the place closed down in 2005.  By this time, Johnson was ready to get out of the corporate restaurant world and do his own gig.  

The same year, a Mexican restaurant on the border between Scottsdale and Phoenix had come up for sale and the owner was motivated to sell the business.  Johnson decided to take a chance and bought the restaurant, opening Blue Agave Mexican Cantina in 2006.  He changed up the menu and eventually ended up renovating the spot over time making it one of the top destinations for Mexican food near the tony North Scottsdale neighborhood.  

The one thing I really liked - after the fact - about Blue Agave is that it's not a chain.  There are a number of Blue Agave-named restaurants in the Phoenix area, as well as in the Denver area and down in Texas, but this Blue Agave is a stand alone business and that made it even more appealing to me after I found out it was a single outlet restaurant.  

There's ample parking in front of the restaurant which is located on the corner of a strip mall just off the 101 Loop and N. Scottsdale Road.  (see map)  There was a patio area in front of the restaurant and an open air bar just inside the restaurant.  We were greeted by a young man who wanted to know if we wanted to sit at a high top table in the bar area, or in the dining room. 

Even though I thought the bar was sort of nice, we ended up getting a booth in the dining room.  It was more air conditioned in there and even though it was in the upper 80's with very low humidity, I knew my wife would be more comfortable.  80's and 90's rock music from the likes of Pearl Jam, Oasis, and 3 Doors Down were playing in the background at a moderate level.  

Our server that day was a hip and laid-back guy by the name of Eddie.  We had gotten food menus and were looking them over when he brought over a basket of fresh warm chips and a bowl of a smokey and delicious salsa made with roasted peppers and tomatoes.  We were both famished and dug right into the chips and salsa.  

I wanted a margarita and they had an extensive selection on their drinks menu.   I ended up ordering the El Maestro Especial - Blue Agave's top shelf margarita finished with a shot of Grand Marnier.  It featured Maestro Dobel Diamante (diamond) Tequila, Clement Creole Shrub orange liqueur, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and agave nectar - just like I make mine at home.  The only problem is that the bartender forgot to put the shot of Grand Marnier with the margarita.  But that was fine, I probably didn't need the extra booze.  My wife didn't want a drink just yet, but she did take a couple sips of my margarita.  It was excellent - a great start to our vacation.  I made short work of the margarita and then ordered up a Dos Equis Ambar to have with my food.  

Considering it was mid-afternoon and we were going to have dinner at my sister's house later that evening, we really didn't want anything heavy.  But they had a lot of interesting items on the menu that made my mouth water.  Their Ultimate Chimichanga was listed as their most popular dish - by far - on the menu.  It featured a huge chimichanga stuffed with slow-roasted pork, pinto beans, rice, cheese, a green chili sauce, a Baja cream sauce, a jalapeño cream sauce and pureed chipotle peppers.  There was a warning with the description that it was "very hot".  That sounded more like a challenge to me!  

Some of the other house specialities included a spicy Baja shrimp pasta, cilantro lime chicken, and a spicy carne asada rice bowl.  My wife considered the cilantro lime chicken, but thought that may be too much food.  Other items on the menu included fajitas, a jalapeño steak wrap, and assorted styles of enchiladas.  

My wife ordered up the single chicken tamale.  It was served with a green chili sauce, Manchango cheese and cilantro with picked red onions.  It came with rice and a choice of black or pinto beans.  She hesitated on the beans for a moment and I was sort of incredulous.  "You LOVE black beans," I said to her.  "That should be easy for you."  She sort of chuckled and agreed.  She said it was the perfect lunch for the time of day - nice, light, and enough food to fill her up for now, but to leave room for dinner in about 4 hours.  

I also went light with a couple of tacos from the a la carte part of the menu.  I got the grilled fish tacos and a shredded pork taco.  I considered getting a birria beef taco, as well, but I knew that would be too much. The fish tacos were cut in half and filled with grilled white fish, pico de gallo, red cabbage and a sliced avocado.  It came with a delicious chipotle mayo sauce on the side.  The fish tacos were sort of bland, but the chipotle mayo dipping sauce helped zip up the flavor.  The shredded pork taco was the winner of the plate.  It was pretty simple - pulled pork with pico de gallo and mixed cheese finished with a dollop of spiced sour cream.  In hindsight, I should have gotten the birria beef taco instead of the fish taco.  But I always want to try fish tacos, so I couldn't pass it up.

Even though we weren't able to try any of the house specialties opting for a light mid-afternoon lunch instead, my sister's recommendation of Blue Agave Mexican Cantina was spot on.  Although I wasn't as impressed with my grilled fish taco as I was with the shredded pork taco, my wife raved about her green chili chicken tamale.  The El Maestro margarita was a spot-hitter - even if they forgot to add the splash of Grand Marnier - and the service was good.  It was a clean and comfortable atmosphere at Blue Agave.  But I would like to go back and try one of their house specialities if I get the chance.  

 

Sedona

My wife and I just celebrated a significant wedding anniversary and wanted to make it a memorable one.  We looked into going back to Hawaii, but while plane fares were reasonable, the cost of hotels and restaurants since COVID has skyrocketed on the islands.  We thought about Boston for a moment, but we kept coming back to a place that we had been thinking about for quite some time - Sedona, AZ.  We had airline and hotel points stocked up and we took off for a week in the desert Southwest.  

We stayed at 3 places while we were in Sedona - well, actually just two places.  We had originally booked the Hilton Sedona Summit, but they pissed me off because I didn't realize that it was a time share property with no bar or restaurant; the room they had us in was huge, but had no view; and they kept trying to get us to attend time share sessions.  I already had a bad taste in my mouth from the pressure we got upon checking into the property, but then after looking at the room my wife and I determined that we weren't going to stay there.  

We saw a Hampton Inn along the stretch of Arizona Highway 89A in Sedona on the way out to the Sedona Summit and we ended up staying there for three nights.  Then one morning after a long and strenuous hike south of Sedona, we ended up in the Village of Oak Creek to have breakfast.  After breakfast, we drove around town and my wife saw a Hilton sign off in the distance.  "There's a Hilton property," she said as she pointed to the sign.  We drove around the property and determined that we wanted to get out of the Hampton Inn in Sedona and relocate to the Hilton Resort at Bell Rock.  

This is the place where we should have been staying at the whole time.  They gave us an upgraded room that overlooked the mountains east of the Village of Oak Creek, a full living room with a kitchenette and a balcony, a king-sized bed that was in its own room, and a full bath with a private shower room.  The staff was unfailingly helpful and pleasant during the three nights we were there, and it was close to some good restaurants.  

But the great thing is that it had a great pool area (with a bar), a nice patio off the main lounge area, live acoustic music at night in the patio, and one night they had a local amateur astronomer set up his telescopes behind the hotel to allow people to see far away planets and galaxies.  We saw a number of shooting stars and satellites in the clear desert skies. While we thought Sedona was too touristy in some parts, the Village of Oak Creek was green and lush, the people were laid back, and there were some excellent views of some of the rocks and buttes in the area.  

That's not to say Sedona didn't have many great vistas within the city.  There were some high spots that you could either drive to or hike to that offered some spectacular views over the city.  And we hit the weather at the perfect time the first two days we were there - bright blue skies, light winds and temperatures in the upper 80's with humidity levels at 15% or lower.  

We were able to make it to a viewing area near the airport in Sedona.  The airport is built on a mesa and you literally have to go up a winding roadway to get to the airfield.  Just before the airport is a scenic overlook that we went to first in the morning, then later in the day, then finally just before sunset.  While most people left just after the sun went behind the hills and buttes in the distance, we stuck around for a while longer to catch the colors of the sunset.  This is the video I took of the scene about 20 minutes after the sun set that day.  (Click on the square in the bottom right corner to enlarge the video.)

There were some interesting drives around the Sedona area including the Oak Creek Canyon road that went from just outside Flagstaff to the eastern edge of Sedona.  There was also another shorter drive that has a number of great views - the Red Rock Scenic Byway - that is on the far west side of the city.  It is the gateway to Red Rock State Park which we visited one afternoon doing a nice little hike and hanging out in the hummingbird garden they had there.  

While many of the areas majestic rock formations and buttes were visible along the 7.5 mile road, probably one of the more interesting views were of this house that was built near the top of one of the buttes about halfway around the loop.  This modern structure is owned by furniture designer Glendon Good who also designed the house and built about 25% of the building on his own.  

The 2,170 square foot home is only accessible by a gondola that makes the approximate 200 foot trip in just over 3 minutes.  Good bought the land that the house sits upon in 1999 for about $250,000 - a rock bottom (get it?) price because it was thought that nothing could be built on the property.  He started work on the house in early 2018 with much of the building material hauled up via a makeshift gondola or via helicopter and dropped down into place.  Good, his wife and their young son moved into the home in October of 2021.  (For more information and pictures, click here for a Wall Street Journal pictorial article on the home.)  

Another interesting home in Sedona is one that is known locally as the House of Seven Arches.   Built in 1978, it somehow became known as "Lucy's House" after actress  Lucille Ball, but it's a good probability that Ball never set foot in the house.  However, Ball and her brother Fred owned much - if not all - of the land in the immediate area as Ball vacationed in Sedona on a regular basis.  The main contractor on the home was Herb Wineberger with an assist by Ball Brothers Construction - relatives of Lucille Ball who owned a construction company in Flagstaff.  Wineberger then sold the house to someone in Ball's family, but it was sold a handful of years later.  Easily one of the most recognizable homes in Sedona, the property is now owned by author, playwright and composer Terrie Frankel.  Frankel is more well-known - along with her twin sister - as the original Doublemint Twins for the Wrigley Gum company.   There is a popular webcam site that runs a live-stream of scenery from the side of the House of the Seven Arches 24/7.  

One of the other more popular places to visit in Sedona is the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a small Roman Catholic church built on one of the small red rock mesas that permeate the area.  We went early in the morning - the church gates at the bottom of the hill open at 9 a.m. - and it only has spaces for 100 vehicles along a winding road that takes you to the top where the church is located.  We got there just after 9 a.m. and many of the spots were already taken, but we were able to find a parking spot up near the top of the road.  

The building was finished in April of 1956, but was beautifully maintained.  The chapel features a small congregation area with small benches and a stunning view just beyond the altar.  There was a gift shop in the basement of the building and - I swear - that space was larger than the floor space of the chapel.   My wife, who grew up a good Catholic girl, lit a couple candles while she was there.  We took in the great views from the outside of the church including Cathedral Rock, one of the more famous sandstone rock formations in Sedona.  


Just south of the small chapel were two of the more familiar rock formations in the Sedona area - Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  Those are the two rock formations in the picture above right with Bell Rock in the middle of the picture and Courthouse Butte to the left side of the photo.  (As always, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.)   

We took a major hike one morning not expecting to take a major hike.  There are trails out around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte that go from fairly easy to moderately hard to trails for experienced hikers only.  We ran into all three on what turned out to be a pretty aggressive hike one beautiful desert morning.  

Once we got deep into the hike and as it became more challenging, I sort of felt like the guy in the old joke who said he tried to swim the English Channel, got halfway across and decided he couldn't make it, so he swam back.  But the views were spectacular each time I stopped to look up at the rock formations.  You could walk 150 feet and get a whole new perspective of the buttes.  It took us two-and-a-half hours to make the 4.6 mile loop around both Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte and it almost ended our marriage two days after celebrating the milestone.  (That's what I would tell people, only half-jokingly then.  But more of a joke today.)  

We took some side trips to other areas around Sedona.  One day, we decided to get lost in the backroads outside of the town.  Paved roads became dirt roads which became non-maintained roadways that weren't much better than the paths we took when we hiked around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  But, once again, the vistas were spectacular along the way.  

We drove out to the Honanki Heritage Site, the former home of members of the Sinagua people who lived in cut out dwellings of the cliffs of the butte.  Well-preserved rock art and cliff homes are the big draw to the site.   It was quite the trip out from Sedona, but the place was pretty interesting.   

Another place we were told to go to was the small former copper mining town of Jerome, AZ.  Located about 30 minutes south and west of Sedona, Jerome - at one time - was a bustling city of over 5,000 people, many of whom worked at or relied upon the copper mines in the area for commerce.  Jerome was a notorious town due to the mines with a number of illegal speakeasy's and brothels during the height of the mining boom.  At one time, it was known as "The Wickedest Town in the West".  Today, it's a fun little hippie town with a laid-back vibe.  We liked it so much that we went back after visiting there earlier in the week.  

The small town was originally built on a hillside (Cleopatra Hill) above a vast deposit of copper in the valley below.  The first claims for copper mining were staked in 1876 and the small town grew from a tent city to a prosperous community by the turn of the 20th century.  Financiers from around the world bought billions of dollars worth of copper, gold and silver that were mined in the valley.  At least three times the city was devastated by fires, but continued to thrive after whole sections were rebuilt.  However, the fluctuation of mineral prices along with the Great Depression, labor unrest, and World War II caused uncertainty with the mines in the first half of the 1900's.  Jerome's final mine closed in 1953.  

From a population of nearly 5000 in 1930 to a population just over 200 people by 1960, Jerome became known as a ghost town and a number of years ago enterprising locals jumped on the notion that many buildings that had been empty for years were actually haunted prompting a slew of "ghost hunters" to descend on the town in search of spooks, ghouls and paranormal activity.  A renaissance of the town took place in the 1980's when a number of shops, restaurants and galleries came into the city making Jerome a great day trip from places such as Sedona, Prescott and Flagstaff.  

It has also become somewhat famous for being the home of Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of the progressive metal rock band Tool (and other bands over the years).  Keenan owns vineyards around the area, as well as a couple winery/restaurants in nearby Cottonwood.  He's a philanthropist for many causes in the area and has been called the catalyst for many of the positive changes in Jerome and Cottonwood.  

In Jerome, we were directed by a longtime resident to a shop that was touted as having the largest collection of kaleidoscopes in the world.  Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes featured over 200 of the eye-pieces on display and for sale.  Originally opened in 1988 by Mary Wills, she had been fascinated by kaleidoscopes after buying one in New York City in 1969.  After opening the store with another partner, Wills met Sally Dryer who was running a frame shop in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Dryer was a former child voice actor and was the voice of Violet in A Charlie Brown Christmas, and then became the voice of Lucy (and other characters) in subsequent Peanuts television specials and movies.  Dryer met Wills through a mutual friend and Dryer moved to Jerome to join Wills as a business and life partner.  The kaleidoscopes on display were fascinating and people were encouraged to view the changing images inside each kaleidoscope.  We spent a fair amount of time at Nelly Bly's one afternoon.   

I hate the term "bucket list" but one of the things in life that I've always wanted to see was the Grand Canyon.  We drove up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon one beautiful morning to experience one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  Everyone I've ever talked to who has gone to the Grand Canyon has said that any picture they've seen of the huge gorge doesn't capture what it's like in person.  

And they were right.  I took a lot of pictures and the interesting thing was that you could walk along the south rim for a couple hundred feet and see a completely different perspective of the canyon.  I don't think there was a view that wasn't breathtaking.  

But the big treat was taking off to the east from the main entrance to the south rim and heading along Arizona State Highway 64 through the park where there were four or five places where you could turn off the road toward the canyon and get a whole different - and equally spectacular - view.  The video below left was from one of the turn-ins along the east rim. (Click on the square in the bottom right corner to enlarge the video.)

I understand most people just go up to the main viewing area along the south rim and then turn around and head out of the park.  But the views to the east were just stunning.   Once again, I couldn't capture the superlative vistas we experienced while we were at the park.  At some point in the future, I'll have an entry on our trip up to the Grand Canyon on Road Tips complete with more pictures and videos.  

And with that our week-long trip to Sedona ended way too early.  While we ate at some very good restaurants, there were still some places that we didn't get into, a couple spots we neglected to visit, and some trails that we didn't take the time to explore.  While the start of our trip to Sedona was shaky, it turned out to be one of the more memorable places we've ever visited.  My wife and I usually don't like to go back to a place we've visited within a year or two after going there, Sedona is a place where I'd have no problem heading back to sooner than later.  

Fiorellino - Montreal

It was a Friday night in Montreal and I was on my own for dinner after a day working a trade show.  The trade show got over at 8 p.m. and I was looking for some restaurants that were in between the hotel where the trade show was being held and the hotel I was staying at about six blocks away.  I was especially looking for an Italian restaurant and I found one that wasn't far from either hotel called Fiorellino.  I walked over to have dinner at the restaurant after getting out of the show.

About 12 to 15 years ago, the concept of a "snack bar" restaurant took hold in Montreal, generally a place where people could gather and enjoy small portions of food along with drinks.  Three men with restaurant-owning backgrounds - Angelo Leone, Massimo Lecas and Roberto "Robbie" Pesut - decided to pool their talents and develop their own snack bar concept only with Italian food.  In December of 2015, Fiorellino (Italian for "little flower") opened their doors in central Montreal.  The concept went over tremendously well and the three owners looked for a second location for the snack bar/restaurant.  A barbecue place in the Outremont neighborhood of Montreal that was owned by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay had closed down and the trio jumped at the chance to take over the spot.  Using the same designer who did the renovation of their original restaurant, the trio decided to make the decor a bit more upscale than the original location due to the more sophisticated restaurants in the neighborhood.  Once the build out was complete, the second Fiorellino opened in 2018.  

The original Fiorellino is located on Rue De la Gauchetière Ouest (west), not far from the Montreal Convention Centre. (see map)  After the show ended, I stopped by the hotel bar to talk with a couple people I knew before I headed out into a cold Montreal evening for a 10 minute walk to Fiorellino.  

Upon entering Fiorellino, I was hit in the face with the pounding and pulsating sound of dance club music.  It was just before 9 p.m. and while there was no dance floor in the place, the sound of the music was overbearing.  The restaurant was very chic in its decor, but I just shook my head trying to figure out if people could actually hear the conversations they were having above the driving beat and the harsh cacophony of electronic music.  I momentarily considered just heading back to my hotel, but the restaurant/bar there was undergoing renovations and they had limited bar service and the food wasn't all that good.   

The bar area is right up front when you come into Fiorellino.  It's not a big bar - it sat six people - but it was definitely a full bar in terms of libations.  While it was loud at the bar, it seemed to be even more loud in the step-down main dining area.  

In the back of the restaurant was the food prep area including a large wood-fired oven for their pizzas at Fiorellino.  I saw a lot of pizzas come out of that oven while I was there.  They looked pretty good, but I had pasta on my mind that evening.  

There were three high-top tables next to the bar and one of them had a group of five young ladies.  One of them had taken a chair from the bar to sit at the table and the other five chairs at the bar were full.  The hostess told me that she thought one of the spots would open soon, and it wasn't more than a minute later when the five ladies all got up to leave.  The hostess moved the extra chair back to the bar and I was able to sit at the bar.  She dropped off a menu for me to look through.  

The bartender that night was a guy by the name of Patrick.  And I have to say right off the bat that Patrick was a good one.  He and another bartender were understandably busy all night long, but Patrick did a great job in making sure I was taken care of.  I noticed that they had a single tapper of Birra Moretti, the wonderful Italian beer, and I ordered up one of those.  However, instead of pouring me a glass from the spigot, Patrick got me a cold bottle out of the glass-front refrigerator behind the bar and poured it out into a glass for me.  

Checking out the menu, in addition to pizza and pasta dishes, they had salads and small-bite antipasti such as burrata cheese with sliced tomatoes; fried calamari with smelt and mussels (that sounded intriguing); grilled octopus with roasted potatoes; and a lamb chop with salsa verde.  Main entrees included a 12-ounce strip steak; a half-rack of lamb with an abbacchio sauce and an artichoke purée; and a sea bream filet served with puréed carrots and seasonal vegetables.    

But, once again, I had pasta on my mind and they had a number of pasta dishes on the menu.  They had a tagliatelle pasta dish with sautéed mushrooms and truffle paste mixed in; there was a rigatoni carbonara that I considered heavily; and - of course - there was a bolognese sauce with tagliatelle noodles.  It was down to the bolognese and the carbonara. 

Once I ordered, I also started out with a Caesars salad.  It featured fresh romaine lettuce with chunks of pancetta along with shaved parmesan and topped with a garlic/Caesars dressing.  It was a good salad with a very forward and delicious tasting dressing.    

Somewhat predictably, I ended up going with the tagliatelle and bolognese.  Shaved parmesan cheese was mixed in with the meat sauce and pasta.  I was sort of taken aback by the small size of the portion that was served to me, but that was all right.  I was able to get Patrick's attention and I ordered up a glass of wine.  I was looking for a full-bodied wine and he suggested a super Tuscan red blend that he had.  He poured a bit into a glass for me to try and it was exactly what I was looking for.  

I wasn't hungry after the dinner was over and when Patrick offered the dessert menu, I eagerly took it from him.  They didn't have affogato at Fiorellino, but they did have a lemon/blueberry custard pie that I couldn't pass up.  And this thing was sinfully delicious.  The blueberries were on the side with a couple on a small cream bed.  Puff pastries topped the custard in the pie shell.  It was rich and yummy with a wonderful fruity taste.  Quite honestly, it was the highlight of the whole meal.

The place had pretty much started to get less busy after I finished up my dessert.  But the music was still pounding and I had pretty much gotten used to it by the time I walked out the door.  I still just can't figure out how a place like that would have such loud music playing without a dance floor or D.J., and with people trying to carry on conversations over dinner.  It's still a mystery to me.  

Other than the incessant and somewhat annoying loud music (I know, I know - I'm showing my age.  But after listening to music all day long at an audio trade show, I really wanted some peace and quiet), Fiorellino was a nice little spot.  I can't say enough about Patrick's service all evening long, he really made me feel welcome as a single diner.  The bolognese with tagliatelle pasta was good, but not outstanding.  I did like the Caesar salad with the very tasty dressing they had on it, but the highlight was the lemon/blueberry custard pie they had for a dessert that evening,  I probably overspent my budget that evening with all that I had, but I thought I deserved being alone in Montreal on a Friday night.  I just wish that Fiorellino was a little bit more laid back of a restaurant.  

Creative Signature Cuisine - East Moline

Very rarely will I have a re-do on a restaurant that is less than 3 to 5 years from the original entry, let alone one that I first did in September of last year.  But one of our favorite breakfast spots in the Quad Cities - Creative Signature Cuisine - has moved to a new location that gives them more room, a chance to expand their menu, a full bar, and a nice outdoor patio.  And my wife and I went there to check out their new place one morning not too long ago.  

Being lazy once again, I lifted this from the original post on Creative Signature Cuisine in September last year - 

Fernanda Lisbeth Verduzco grew up in Poncitlan, Mexico, about 60 miles from Guadalajara, while Jorge Hortado Briseño grew up in the nearby Mexico town of La Barca.  The two met while going to the Valley University of Mexico (UVM) in south Guadalajara to study culinary arts at the Kendall College culinary program the college had there.  Lisbeth got her degree as a pastry chef, while Jorge got his culinary degree in international cuisine.  The couple first worked in Mexico - Lisbeth at a chain of restaurants, while Jorge worked in hotels.

The couple moved to the Quad Cities in 2017 - Jorge worked at various restaurants at hotels in the area initially, while Lisbeth became a pastry chef at Rhythm City Casino in Davenport.  When the pandemic forced the casino to temporarily shut down in March of 2020, Lisbeth decided to start selling her desserts, cookies and personalized cakes to keep an income flowing.  She was doing so well that when the casino called her back to work, she declined.  And as more orders for desserts and cakes came in, Lisbeth decided that she needed a bigger kitchen.

Jorge was looking to do something on his own, as well.  Jorge was trained as a classic chef with sauces, molecular structures and pairing ingredients.  The couple decided to find a spot to do a combination restaurant/bakery.  

Pictured right - Fernanda Lisbeth Verduzco and Jorge Briseño.  Photo courtesy Canvas Rebel.  

Lisbeth had a chance to take over a bakery that was paired with a Mexican ice cream parlor in downtown Silvis.  Jorge later joined her in the venture and the two opened a small restaurant featuring Lisbeth's pastries and Jorge's innovative breakfast and lunch items.  

While they had to share their space with the ice cream parlor, we had heard that Jorge and Lisbeth were looking for a larger place that would allow them to expand their menu offerings.  Late last year, we had noticed that there was a new multi-use building going up on 12th Ave. in East Moline near the Bend Experience campus.  Imagine our elated surprise when we drove by the building in February of this year and saw the Creative Signature Cuisine sign on the front of one of the spaces in the building.  On March 13 of this year, the couple opened the doors to their new place in East Moline.  For a short while after that, they kept both locations open, but eventually moved out of the Silvis spot they shared with the ice cream parlor.  

My wife and I had taken the day off one recent Friday and were over in Silvis looking for plants and flowers at an open-air garden center.  My wife made the suggestion of trying out the new Creative Signature Cuisine after leaving the garden center, so I drove over to 12th Ave. in East Moline. (see map - River Drive in Moline turns into 12th Ave. in East Moline just a couple blocks west of the restaurant.)  Some workers were erecting the supports for the patio awning that would be in the front of the building.  

Just inside the door was a display case full of Lisbeth's pastries and cakes.  The colorful assemblage of mouth-watering delicacies was almost too good to pass up.  But we were there to have a full breakfast that day.

I would have to say that the new Creative Signature Cuisine has more than doubled their seats with more space in the room to add more tables if needed at some point.  Similar to their spot over in Silvis, there was a service window for the kitchen and I noticed there appeared to be a small bar over in the corner.  

A young lady told us that we could sit anywhere, so we took a four-seat table along the wall near the bar.  Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Aneyeli.  I have to say right off the bat that Aneyeli was a sweetheart.  I asked her if they had a full bar and she said that they did.  "Mimosas and bloody marys on Sunday morning," I asked.  

"If you want one, we can do it," she said.  My wife asked if they could do margaritas and Aneyeli said that they could do those, too.  "We're open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday," Aneyeli told us.  "8 to 3 on Sunday and we're closed on Monday."  

After she gave us menus, Aneyeli asked if we wanted anything to drink.  While I was tempted to get a bloody mary and a beer, I just decided to have her get me four shots of espresso straight up.  My wife just got a regular coffee, black.  

The breakfast part of the menu looked similar to the one they had at their original place, but my wife said that it looked like they added skillet dishes and maybe some omelets to the menu.  Their lunch part of the menu featured a number of sandwiches, burgers and quesabirria tacos.  The main change on the menu was that they now had dinner served from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Some of the items on the dinner menu mirrored some of the selections they had for lunch, but they also had a penne pasta in a cream sauce (with a choice of either grilled chicken or shrimp for an upcharge), baked marinated tilapia, braised short ribs, and a smoked salmon served on a bed of creamy risotto topped with a poblano sauce.  I filed that one in the back of my brain for a future visit.  

I was thinking of a couple things - the brisket skillet mixed with hash browns, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and topped with American cheese and a choice of eggs; and the house-smoked salmon toast with cream cheese, sweet onions and capers.  But I remembered something when we first sat down over at their original location in Silvis where a lady told me that their French toast was excellent.  That's what I ended up getting.  

The presentation alone was worth the price of admission.  It featured two brioche bun slices that were dipped in a batter and grilled, then sat on a berry sauce base.  They're then topped with cookie crumbles, blueberries, a house-made mousse, and fresh mint leaves on the side.  Strawberries also came with the French toast, but I just sat them to the side since I'm allergic to strawberries.  I got a side of crispy bacon to go along with the French toast along with some orange juice.  

The French toast WAS excellent - the thick brioche bread was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.  It was easy to cut with a fork and the taste sensations were off the chart.  The thing that set it all off were the cookie crumbles - they were sort of like a brown sugar cookie in taste.  It reminded me of the crispy coconut rolls that I get as a snack at Costco.  I like to grind them up and put them on ice cream along with fresh blueberries.  I may do that with the next batch of French toast I make at home.  

My wife wanted to go vegetarian route and she got the veggie skillet - mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, arugula and chihuahua cheese on hash browns with a Green Goddess aioli drizzled around the perimeter of the plate.  Eggs were an option and she got hers scrambled.  She also had a choice of either toast or a pancake and she went with the pancake.  

She had eaten about three bites of her veggie skillet before she realized she hadn't gotten her pancake.  I flagged down Aneyeli and my wife said that she still needed her pancake.  "Oh, my gosh," Aneyeli exclaimed.  "I'm so sorry.  I'll be right back."  Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal, but she apologized profusely after bringing the pancake to the table.  I told her that if that was the worst thing that happened to her today, she was having a pretty good day.  

And my wife was thrilled with her breakfast.  "Everything is so fresh," she said between bites.  She offered me a bite of both her skillet and her pancake, but the French toast was so rich and filling that I had trouble finishing that as well as my bacon.  

We will definitely be back to Creative Signature Cuisine to have dinner at some point, but in the meantime it's become one of our favorite breakfast places in the Quad Cities.  And we just found out recently that they've determined that Jorge needed more room for his kitchen and Lisbeth needed more room for her baking business.  Their original plan was that they would keep their original location for the bakery, but decided to cut ties with that building.  We've found they've secured a second location at the west end of the same building that will be known as Bakehouse and will be the home for all of Lisbeth's baked goods and desserts.  And it will have a drive-thru so you can take the dessert home after dinner!  It was a great move for Jorge and Lisbeth, the new space is spacious and allows for expansion, the patio (now open) will be a great place to hang in the summer months, and I don't know how they can have anyone better than Aneyeli to work for them.  Creative Signature Cuisine is sort of a haul from our house, but it's the kind of spot that we want to support.  

B Side Pizza Bar - New York City

During a trade show that I was involved with in New York earlier this year, some friends of mine from one of the companies that I was helping out asked me if I'd like to get together with them for dinner on a Saturday evening.  I jumped at the chance as they said they were going to their favorite pizza place in midtown Manhattan - a little place called B Side Pizza Bar.  Here's my experience with this great little pizza bistro.  

When Jason Neroni was a 16-year-old kid growing up in Orange County, CA, he snagged a summertime job working at the original Club 33, a private restaurant at Disneyland in Anaheim that was established by Walt Disney in 1967.  One of the perks for Neroni's job was free passes to the park for himself and his family - the main reason he got the job at the restaurant.  But after one year of working at Club 33, he found himself mesmorized by the artistry of preparing meals by one of the chefs.  

Neroni - with absolutely no culinary training other than "on-the-job" experiences - then got a job at the prestigious Chez Panisse, a high-end restaurant in Berkeley, CA in 1990.  Working at the first "farm-to-fork" restaurant in the United States gave him some instant credibility that allowed him to expand his culinary horizons to some of the finest restaurants in the United States.  In his early 20's, Neroni was tabbed to help open the original Spago in Beverly Hills owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.   Neroni's reputation grew within the fine dining community and he was recruited to work in New York at prestigious restaurants such as Le Cirque, Blue Hill Farms and the Essex House.  

Based on his reputation in New York kitchens, Neroni landed the chef de cuisine position at the intimate Tasting Room located in the Hudson Valley about an hour north of New York City.  Not long after at the age of 27, Neroni was recruited to be the head chef at 71 Clinton Fresh Foods on the lower East Side of Manhattan.  

Someone within the Spanish gastronomic community was impressed with Neroni's abilities so much that he was extended an offer to be a culinary ambassador to Spain in his late 20's.  Neroni's experiences working in Spain at restaurants such as Arzak, Mugaritz, and the Michelin Guide three star restaurant El Bulli gave him the impetus to move back to New York and open his first restaurant - 10 Downing Food and Wine.  

Pictured right - Jason Neroni.  Photo credit Pascal Shirley/Los Angeles Magazine.  

The birth of Neroni's first child brought him back to California to do some consulting work for a couple restaurants, and in 2012 he partnered with chef Paul Hibler to open Superba Food + Bread in Venice, CA.  Hibler was the founder of the Pitfire Pizza locations in Southern California and Neroni found a new desire to open a pizza restaurant.  That opportunity came about a couple years later when his friend John Dempsey - the owner/chef of New York restaurants Hell's Kitchen (now A Side Pizza and Pasta - more on that later),  VYNL and El Centro - partnered with Neroni to open B Side Pizza and Bar near the corner of W. 51st and 9th Avenue in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.  (see map)  

(Neroni went on to open or be part of a number of restaurants in Los Angeles that were included in his Jaybird Hospitality portfolio.  But in 2023, he stepped away from the restaurant business citing "burn-out" and focusing on his artwork in both painting and photography, while hosting intimate dinners in the Los Angeles area with his wife Jennifer Horan that showcased not only his food preparation, but his artwork, as well.)  

The show finished up at 6:00 p.m. that evening and we made plans to meet up at the hotel bar for drinks before we headed over to B Side Pizza Bar.  After all of us met up around 6:30 and had a drink or two at the bar, we took off for about a 10 minute walk to B Side Pizza Bar.  There were about 12 to 14 in our party and I was told by a couple of the guys that we would probably have to split up as the restaurant was small and probably couldn't accommodate all the people in our party at one spot.  

And it wasn't big, at all.  The restaurant had a small bar, some thick block high-top tables that seated two people each, some seats on a ledge along the front window, and some banquette seats with tables along a brick wall.  It was a cozy little place and had a nice laid-back kind of vibe.

While most of people in our group took some of the tables along the brick wall and put them together to sit, myself and two of the guys sidled up to the bar and planted ourselves there.  One of the guys decided he needed a real drink and he ordered an Old Fashioned - Kentucky bourbon, Angostura Liqueur, Luxardo maraschino, dry Curacao, and finished with a simple syrup.   I smelled it and it made me cringe.   The other guy with us ordered a cider from the Shackbury Cider company located just south of Burlington, VT, while I got a hazy IPA from the Kings County Brewing Company (KCBC) located over in Brooklyn.   

The pizza oven was located in the corner near where we were sitting.  It was an imported Pavesi commercial brick oven  made in Modena, Italy and then shipped to the Fiero Forni Group for final assembly in America.  They had a couple pizzaiolos hand-stretching and hand-tossing pizza dough from scratch in the area.  And they were cranking them out.  

I had to go to the restroom and I followed a hallway toward the back of B Side Pizza down some stairs to the men's room.  After finishing up, I saw an entry way to the right that opened into another part of the restaurant.  I found out later that this was the A Side Pasta and Pizza Bar.  It turned out that B Side was making the pizzas for both places and that the kitchen for A Side was making the pasta dishes.  It certainly looked more like a true Italian restaurant on the A Side while B Side was more of a little hideaway place.  

The menu featured primarily pizza, but we also had access to the menu from A Side which was more on the order of pasta dishes, Italian entrees, salads and appetizers.  We decided to start off with an order of the calamari.  It was a generous portion of fried squid rings and tentacles served with a tangy sauce on the side.  The calamari was wonderful and a nice first step toward a great meal.  

 
My buddy who got the old fashioned wasn't in the mood for pizza that evening and he ordered the Rigatoni a la Vodka - large rigatoni noodles served in a creamy vodka tomato sauce.  The dish smelled wonderful when it was brought to him.  It really made me wish I hadn't ordered what I ordered.

But when the pizza I had ordered was put down in front of me, all second-thoughts of what I ordered went away.  I had ordered the Marge pizza - house-made marinara with fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, oregano, and finished with sea salt.  For an extra $8 bucks, I got pepperoni and prosciutto added to the pizza.  That made it a $26 dollar pizza.  But it was worth it.  The pizza crust was tender and chewy, and the ingredients were outrageously fresh including thick chunks of tomatoes in the marinara sauce.  There was enough of char on the outer crust to give it a smoky flavor.  It was an outstanding Neapolitan-style pizza.   

The other guy also went the Spicoli 2.0 - fresh fontina and mozzarella cheese, roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, and finished with parmesan.  He asked our server if he could get some fresh spinach on the pizza and that turned out to be no problem (or an upcharge!).  It wasn't exactly what I would call an appetizing looking pizza, but he seemed to like it tremendously.    

Much of the restaurant had filtered out of people by the time we were done allowing us to carry on a back and forth with the table that had the rest of our group.  One of the ladies asked me how I liked the pizza and I gave her a thumbs up.  "It's my favorite in New York City," she said.  And that's saying a lot considering there's a lot of great pizza places in the city.  (But, then again, she probably hadn't had many pizzas other than at B Side during her trips to New York City.)  

I popped for the meal since they were using our products in their booth and it wasn't costing us anything to display at the trade show.  It was $200 bucks for two pizzas, the pasta dish, calamari, a couple Old Fashioned's, a couple ciders and three hazy IPA's.  I didn't mind and my boss was more than happy to pay that amount when I turned in my expenses later that month.  

I should have just stopped right there, but the group decided they wanted to go have some more drinks at a bar down 9th Ave. at 39th Street called the Blue Ruin.  It was the quintessential New York City dive bar and I had two more beers there with the - by then - raucous group before I had to call it a night.  I considered calling an Uber to take me back to my hotel, but a quick mental calculation told me that I was probably a 10 minute walk back to my hotel.  Well, considering that I was staggering pretty good by that point in the evening, that 10 minutes walk became more like a 20 minute walk.  It was a fun night, but I knew by the time I got to my hotel that I had been over-served that evening.  

I'm not certain that I would call B Side Pizza my most favorite pizza place in New York City.  I'm still on the quest to find the absolute supreme pizza in New York City, and while I've enjoyed many of the ones I've tried, I still haven't had my socks knocked off.  But B Side Pizza Bar was a fun experience with friends of mine in the industry and if they asked me to join them again next year I would probably end up going.  Not just for the food, but for a repeat of the camaraderie and fun that we all had that evening.  

Fat Rosie's Taco & Tequila Bar - Schaumburg, IL

In the far northwestern suburbs of Chicago for a trade show, my colleague from Montreal and I ran into two former colleagues who were now working for another company.  It turned out that we were all staying at the same hotel and we decided to have dinner together one night.  There was a Mexican restaurant that was about a five minute walk from the hotel, so we all headed over to have dinner at Fat Rosie's Taco & Tequila Bar that evening.  

Scott Harris is what you would call a serial restaurateur.  But if his father had his way, Harris would have gotten into the family construction business in suburban Mokena.  From the summer after finishing sixth grade and continuing into high school, the young Harris would help his father lay brick, do cement work, and carrying wood for projects.  And he absolutely hated the work.  His mother, however, worked at a restaurant and when he wasn't working for his dad, he would help out at the restaurant washing dishes.  After a few months, the chef at the restaurant - a 400-pound bearded hippie with the name of Stretch - took Scott Harris under his wing and showed him the ins-and-outs of cooking in a restaurant.  Harris was hooked and by the time he was 17 he was manning the fry station at a concept restaurant on Chicago's far south side.  

After graduating high school, Harris got a job working at Commonwealth Edison, the local power company in Chicagoland.  However, that didn't work out and he decided to go to school at Joliet Junior College.  After talking with one of the school's counselors, the counselor didn't hesitate.  He told Harris that he needed to be in the school's culinary program.  

After getting his culinary sciences degree, Harris moved into Chicago and immediately got a job at the Signature Room at the 95th restaurant at the John Hancock Center.  From there, Harris moved to St. Croix Falls, WI just north and east of the Twin Cities to work in the kitchen at a resort.  After two years of doing that, he moved back to Chicago and began a journey that took him to some the more prestigious restaurants of the late 80's in Chicago - Ambria, Sole Mio, Avanzare, Chez Jenny and a handful of other upscale restaurants where he didn't make a lot of money, but he picked up valuable experience at each stop. 

Through all of this, he met a young lady by the name of Francesca Pignataro.  On their second date, she announced that if Harris wanted kids, then the two should just remain friends.  But Harris was in his late 20's, he was not making a lot of money and had no gumption to start a family.  Scott and Francesca married in 1990.  

In the meantime, Harris had the chance to become the head chef at Trattoria L’Angolo di Roma, a popular Italian restaurant located near Lincoln Park.  Harris had primarily worked at French restaurants, but he jumped at the offer from owner Franco Zalloni.  Using Zalloni's old-world Italian recipes, Harris found a new love for making Italian food.  

But Harris was tired of working for someone else.  He became friends with Michael Noone, the proprietor of Danny's, a Bucktown neighborhood pub where the Trattoria L'Angelo di Roma crew would go to after closing down for the night.  Along with Noone's partner Terry Alexander, Harris sat down with the two one evening and talked about running his own place.  Noone and Alexander liked Harris' concept of a restaurant that featured home-style Italian cooking in a homey and non-pretentious setting.  In 1992, the trio opened Mia Francesca not far from Trattoria L'Angelo di Roma.  Harris named the restaurant after his wife who also helped out in restaurant.  

Pictured right - Scott Harris

Within two years, Harris had opened two more Francesca locations.  It was a concept that revolutionized the restaurant world in Chicago - Harris would partner up with a young chef giving the chef 49% of the restaurant and control of the menu.  Soon there were well over a dozen Francesca restaurants around the greater Chicagoland area.  

(If you want a laugh, click here to see one of the very first Road Tips entries from nearly 20 years ago on the Francesca restaurants.  This was way before I came upon the formula that I've used for my entries that I've used over the previous years.)  

While growing the Francesca empire, Harris started his own company to oversee his expanding organization - Scott Harris Hospitality.  Over the years, Harris has opened a number of restaurants including Vasili's, a Mediterranean restaurant in suburban Naperville; DiSotto, an Italian restaurant in Highwood, IL; as well as a rebranding of the original Mia Francesca's in St. Charles, IL now called Mio Modo.  Harris and his now-wife Dana also run DaVanti Enoteca in the Little Italy neighborhood of her hometown of San Diego.  

Back in the mid-90's when Harris was just getting going with the Francesca restaurants, he took a trip to Mexico.  During his visit, he went to an agave farm and met a farmer who had a donkey that worked along side the man for over 20 years.  The farmer told Harris that the donkey was like part of the family and the two had developed an inseparable bond over the years.  Sampling some of the tequila that was made from the agave grown at the farm later that evening, Harris told the farmer that he loved how the man cared for his jenny donkey after all those years.  Harris promised the farmer that at some point in his life he would open a taco/tequila restaurant and name it after the farmer's donkey.  He did just that in 2015 when he opened the first Fat Rosie's Taco & Tequila bar in the far south suburb of Frankfort, IL.  

Since Harris had no background in Mexican food, he turned to his friend Dudley Nieto to join him in the endeavor.  Nieto, a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu cooking academy, had been involved in a couple upscale Mexican restaurants in Chicago - where Harris and he became friends - but Nieto was probably best known for being the head chef of the ultra-popular Dos Caminos with three locations in New York City.  In addition to being a sought after chef, Nieto is also a cookbook author of authentic Mexican cuisine.  

The second Fat Rosie's opened in Schaumburg in 2019 with a location in Naperville following later that year.  A fourth Rosie's was slated to open in early 2020 in the far northern suburb of Lincolnshire, the COVID pandemic pushed the opening date back to the fall of that year.  A fifth Fat Rosie's - this one the closest to the Chicago city limits - opened at the corner of Touhy and Lincoln Ave. in Lincolnwood in 2023, while a sixth Fat Rosie's opened in Rosemont in the Parkway Bank Park Entertainment District in October of last year.  

The weather had turned blustery during the afternoon with a wind-driven rain coming out of the northeast making a walk from the hotel to Fat Rosie's a messy affair.  So we decided to drive over instead.  Fat Rosie's in Schaumburg is located along N. Meacham Road just north of Woodfield Road.  (see map)  We were able to maneuver through some back parking lots to make it to Fat Rosie's from our hotel.  

Fat Rosie's is a pretty big place and it was packed when we walked in.  To the right is a large lounge area with community and high-top tables underneath wooden trusses with recessed lighting.  As many people that were in the restaurant, it wasn't all that loud and conversations at the table were easily heard.  

The centerpiece of the lounge area was a tree strung with white holiday lights.  A large mural of colorful donkeys was prominent along one wall.  There was a small room off to the side of the lounge that was used for overflow that evening, but could be shut off for private or group dining.  

To the left when you come into Fat Rosie's in Schaumburg is a large dining area that looks into the open kitchen.  Full trusses were supporting a high ceiling with interesting light fixtures hanging down.  The tables and booths were all conventional low-top wooden tables.  It was a lot less raucous on that side of the restaurant than it was in the bar/lounge area. 

Speaking of the bar, it spanned nearly the whole width of the lounge along one wall.  Flat screen televisions were mounted on the wall behind the bar and there were baseball and basketball games going on that evening.  There was a flurry of activity behind the bar with the bartenders trying to keep up with all the drink orders.   

We were seated in the lounge at a four-seater high-top table.  The hostess who seated us dropped off food menus for us to look through.  Moments later one of the server assistants dropped off some chips and salsa.  The salsa was thick with a smoky flavor to it.  Here's one my former colleagues not waiting for me to take a picture of the chips and salsa as he hadn't eaten since he had left Montreal that morning.  


Of course, we needed drinks and our server for evening, an effervescent young lady by the name of Melissa, came by to greet us.  I first asked her if we could get some salsa verde for the table and moments later a bowl of green sauce showed up at the table.  But drinks were the priority and I saw that their house margarita was basically the same margarita I make at home - tequila, orange liqueur, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and agave syrup.  I got one of those as did my colleague.  However, my former colleagues both got mugs of Dos Equis Ambar.  After I finished my margarita, I got a mug of the Dos Equis to go with my dinner.  The margarita was very good and very reasonable.  I think the large mug was around $12.00.  Overall, Fat Rosie's had nearly three dozen different types of tequila to choose from.  

My former colleague from Montreal spent time in Peru in the Peace Corps a number of years ago and he was speaking Spanish with Michelle.  After she left again, he explained to us that he had ordered some queso fundido - a melted mix of Mexican cheeses with sautéed poblano peppers and onions added.  She had asked my friend if we wanted chorizo mixed in and he asked her that if she could include the meat on the side.  My colleague also ordered up some guacamole for the table, as well.  The queso fundido was an excellent start to the meal.  

The food on the menu had a bit of flair.  In addition to appetizers, they had tacos, burritos (including a three-pound burrito), fajitas, enchiladas, and seafood items such as a grilled salmon served on a bed of grilled zucchini topped with a creamy poblano sauce.  Entrees and house specialties included an achiote-marinated slow-braised pork shoulder wrapped in banana leaves, a grilled skirt steak with a single enchilada, and a grilled salmon/grilled shrimp/skirt steak combination.

My Montreal colleague is a vegetarian and they had a number of vegetarian options to choose from.  He ended up getting a couple tacos - the sautéed mushroom taco and the fried cauliflower taco.  He seemed to like both of them very much.  He thought about getting a third taco filled with a black bean hash, but he had filled up on the queso fundido and chips to a point where he was pretty full after the two tacos.  

One of my former colleagues got the seafood paella entree they had a special that night.  It featured grilled salmon and grilled shrimp with pico de gallo on a bed of Spanish rice.  Small tortillas came with the entree.  My friend thought it was absolutely delicious.  

My former colleague from Montreal got the shrimp fajitas - a large sizzling plate filled with grilled shrimp and veggies.  Soft floor tortillas came with the shrimp and veggies.  He, too, thought what he got was very good.  

I ended up going the taco route with   I saw that they had a quesabirria taco on the menu, but when I tried to order one of those with other tacos Melissa said that it was only available as a trio.  I was really torn about that, but decided to get a combination of three different styles of tacos - the grilled mahi taco, the al pastor taco, and the carne asada taco.

Four days later after the show had ended, we finished packing up our equipment and displays, then headed back to the hotel to freshen up.  My colleague from Los Angeles was with us at that point and we had been telling him during our time at the trade show about how good our meal was at Fat Rosie's.  He said, "Dude, I am so down with Mexican food right now."  We decided to go back to Fat Rosie's that night.  This time, the weather was perfect and we were able to walk over for dinner.  

On this visit, my colleague from Montreal suggested we get the queso fundido again to start out.  And, of course, he and I had to get margaritas again.  (Our L.A. colleague doesn't drink alcohol.)  In fact, we both got TWO margaritas that evening.  We were both celebrating pulling off another trade show.  

My friend from Montreal was hungry since he didn't have any lunch earlier in the day and he ordered the veggie burrito.  When our server put the plate down in front of him, his eyes widened at the size of the burrito.  It was huge!  It was filled with refried beans, chihuahua cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream and avocado slices.  It was all he could do to finish half of it.  He ended up taking the other half back to the hotel with him for a late night snack or to eat before he took off for the airport the next day.  

My colleague from L.A. was having a medical procedure in a couple days and he had some dietary restrictions.  He got a couple tacos - a shrimp taco and a chicken taco - as well as some refried beans and rice.  For me, this time I did go with the quesabirria tacos - three crispy corn tortillas filled with guallijo chile-braised beef and chihuahua cheese.  As good as the tacos were the previous visit earlier in the week, the quesabirria tacos were simply outstanding.  I would crawl back to Fat Rosie's to have those again.  

And with six locations in the Chicago area, there are more chances for me to have a meal at Fat Rosie's.  The service we had both times we went to the location in Schaumburg was outstanding, the food was excellent - and a pretty good value, including the price of the house margaritas - and while it was a large and somewhat boisterous place, it wasn't loud where we were screaming across the table at one another.  It was pretty tough to beat Fat Rosie's all the way around.   

The Long Acre Tavern - New York City

During my time in New York City for a trade show, I snuck away on a Saturday afternoon to go find a sports bar that would have some college basketball to watch while I had a sandwich or a burger.  The only problem is that I've determined that sports bars in Manhattan tend to relegate college basketball to the third or fourth option - especially if soccer, lacrosse or rugby is available to watch.  Nonetheless, I was looking for someplace to get away to for lunch and I found at place on W. 47th St. off Times Square by the name of The Long Acre Tavern.  It looked good from the outside, so I decided to give it a try.  

Now, I was this day old (as I write) when I found out how Times Square came to be.  Up to April of 1904, the neighborhood was known as Longacre Square.  In early 1904, The New York Times announced a move of their headquarters to a new building that was being constructed in to Longacre Square.  Then-New York mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. signed a resolution that had been adopted by city alderman that the name of the area be renamed Times Square.  The new Times building was on a triangle that was bounded on the south by W. 42nd Street, on the west by 7th Ave., on the north by W. 43rd St. and on the east side by Broadway.  Even though the New York Times grew out of that building within 10 years, the Times Square name stuck.  Today, the former New York Times building is known as One Times Square, world-famous for being the epicenter of annual New Year's Eve celebrations.

And that's where the Long Acre Tavern got its name.  Co-owners Tom McCarthy and Kieron Slattery are both natives of Ireland - McCarthy from Cork and Slattery from Portmarnack.  McCarthy had moved to New York City before the end of the 20th century to work for his uncle Paddy at Nevada Smiths, one of the first soccer-centric sports bars in New York.  Slattery had moved to New York just after the turn of the millennium and caught on at an Irish bar in Brooklyn by the name of Fitzpatrick's.  Slattery eventually ended up as a bartender at Nevada Smiths and Tom McCarthy became a partner with his uncle.  

In 2011, a dispute between Tom McCarthy and his uncle over the firing of Slattery and one other bartender caused him to sell his shares of Nevada Smiths.  Both Tom McCarthy and Slattery had a loyal following of soccer fans - mainly Manchester United fans - and McCarthy decided to open another soccer-centric establishment  on 28th Street in Manhattan's Flatiron District.  Smithfield Hall opened in late 2011 with Slattery as the bar's manager and head bartender.  By 2014, Slattery became a partner in Smithfield Hall as business continued to grow with the boom in Premier League viewership in the States.  

In 2018, a space on W. 47th St. became available and McCarthy and Slattery jumped on that building.  They completely gutted the building and started a rebuild that took nearly a year to complete.  In late August of 2019, The Long Acre Tavern opened their doors.  

It was a short walk from the massive hotel ballroom where the trade show was taking place over to The Long Acre Tavern.  (see map)  The Irish pub is located just down from the stately and historic Palace Theater which was hosting the Broadway production of Glengarry Glen Ross featuring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean.   The flags of the U.S., England, Scotland and Ireland are prominently displayed in front of the pub.  

Like many of the establishments in the heart of Manhattan, The Long Acre Tavern is a long and narrow space.  Just inside the front door was a long L-shaped bar with five large flatscreens behind the bar.  Above the bar were four wooden beams that made a pocket-like ceiling.  Half-walls with round tables were along the wall opposite the bar with historical pictures of the Times Square area on the wall above the tables.  

The bar was long - it could seat about 20 or so people.  Just past the bar was a staircase that took you upstairs to a small area that could be used for private gatherings.  For a little pub, it was sort of a smart and sophisticated space.  Definitely not a beer and a shot kind of place.  

In the back on the main floor was a cozy area that had six more flat screen televisions, a couple large booths and some high-top tables.  The low-sling ornate ceiling gave it a bit of a warm and homey atmosphere.  

I ended up sitting at the bar and on the five televisions on the wall behind the bar they had two soccer games on two of the TVs, another soccer game on one of the TVs, a rugby contest, and a collegiate lacrosse game on the final one.  I just shook my head and decided to stay.  

The bartender that day was a young lady by the name of Nicole.  It's sort of interesting that most of the bartenders I've encountered in New York City pubs - either a man or a woman - spoke with some sort of an accent, whether it be a thick Irish brogue or an Eastern European dialect featuring some broken English.  Nicole had none of those linguistic characteristics.  She gave me a food menu, then followed that with a lengthy drink menu.  They had about 20 beers on tap including some private label beers made especially for The Long Acre Tavern.  They had another two dozen beers, sours and ciders available in cans.  The wine list featured four whites and six reds, and they had seven or eight specialty cocktails.  While they had Kona Big Wave on tap, I knew I had a bunch of that back home.  I wanted to try a local beer and they had the Almost Famous hazy IPA from the Torch & Crown Brewing Company in Lower Manhattan.  

The first part of the menu featured a lot of the same things you'd find at most sports bars - even those that were soccer-centric.  They had wings, nachos, flatbreads, and potato skins on the appetizer part of the menu.  There were salads such as a taco salad, a Caesar salad and a Greek salad available.  

But when you get to the main entree part of the menu, things change up a bit.  Mushroom ravioli featuring a blend of cremini, portobello, shiitake and porcini mushrooms stuffed into pasta pillows with a choice of parmesan cream sauce with truffle oil or marinara sauce jumped right off the menu at me.  They had a penne pasta in a vodka cream sauce entree, as well as a traditional shepherd's pie.  Sandwiches included a spiced chicken Mexican torte, a hickory smoked BBQ chicken wrap, a grilled sirloin and blue cheese wrap, and a ground lamb burger with mozzarella and a creamy sriracha sauce.  This menu was definitely getting my  full attention.

I hadn't had a burger since I was in New York City and I decided to look more in that direction.  They had some burgers with a lot of busy stuff on them including the Big Smoke that was topped with pulled pork and pepper jack cheese, and the 47 burger that was topped with Swiss cheese and a blackened ranch dressing.  In the end, I went with a Classic burger - only Nicole let me juice it up with some added toppings. For an additional upcharge, I added Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon on the burger.  

The burgers at The Long Acre Tavern feature a blend of ground chuck, brisket and short rib and they get all their beef from the venerable Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors who have been supplying the top restaurants in New Jersey and New York with high quality meat products for over 100 years.  

When Nicole sat the burger in front of me, I went, "Oh, man!"  The burger was served on wax paper in a small sheet tray with lettuce, onion, pickles and tomato on a brioche bun with the Swiss cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms on top of the burger patty.  I had a choice of fries or tots for a side and - of course - I had to go with tots.  They didn't have Cholula at The Long Acre Tavern, but they did have Tabasco.  

The first bite of the burger told me I had bitten into something special.  The flavor and the juiciness of the burger shown brightly through the multiple toppings on the burger.  The Swiss cheese had a nice mild flavor that didn't overpower the taste of the beef, and the bacon and mushrooms were great enhancements to the overall tastiness.  This was an outstanding burger.  

But it wasn't cheap - the Classic burger on its own was $18.  When you add in the Swiss cheese, bacon and mushrooms, it made it a $23.50 burger.  But the taste of the beef blend was outstanding.  This was one of the better burgers I had ever eaten.  

After finishing the burger and some of my tots, I lingered at the bar to have one more beer and ended up getting to watch some basketball games after all the other sports had finished up.  I probably had one more beer too many as I could sort of feel it walking back to the trade show.  I made sure that I didn't talk to too many people the rest of the day.  

The Long Acre Tavern was a great find and probably the best of all the Irish pubs I've been to during my trips to New York City.  Nicole was an absolute sweetheart for her service and attention, the atmosphere was one of an upscale sports bar (or maybe it was an upscale Irish pub?), and the burger I had was exceptional.  If you find yourself in the heart of Manhattan near Times Square, do yourself a favor and make a point to stop into The Long Acre Tavern for a drink and some food.  You won't be disappointed.  

The World has Become a Little Less Fun...

My sister called me last week with the news of the sudden death of a cousin who was like a brother to me.  My cousin Tom passed away sometime on the evening of May 5th and was found by a former neighbor the next morning.  He had been suffering from pneumonia, but for the last couple years of his life, we - my wife and I - had noticed that he had been slowing down, especially after he had retired full time.  This is the last picture I have of him when he, my other cousin, my wife and I had lunch at Noah's Ark in Des Moines about a year ago as an homage to our fathers who would eat there every time they went to the Drake Relays and drink vodka gimlets.  

Our families were very close growing up.  We were always celebrating something together - holidays, birthdays, graduations, or just getting together for whatever reason.  My cousins grew up in the small town of Kellogg, Iowa, while my family lived a couple miles outside of the town.  Tom was the same age as my brother who passed away nearly two years ago, while his younger sister was just 11 days older than me.  

Music always was going on at our respective houses - we would usually have the full playing albums of the British Invasion bands, while my cousins mainly had 45 rpm singles of the hits of the day.  As a pre-teen my cousin loved the song Norman, a top 10 hit for Sue Thompson in 1961.  He loved it so much that he played it incessantly and it earned him the nickname "Norman".  Pretty much everyone who knew him growing up and - well, the rest of his life - called him Norman or simply Norm.  He was known as Tom professionally and to some in his family, but he was Norman to a vast number of people.  People I knew thought his middle name or given name was Norman, but it was just a nickname.  I even saw someone comment on his obituary that she had hoped to see "Norman" this coming summer.  

Known as the "fun cousin" by my wife, Tom and I had a number of trips and adventures including a memorable car trip to Florida in 1978 to see the Gator Bowl (we had last row seats the night Ohio State head football coach Woody Hayes punch a player from Clemson), and we traveled on to see the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Years Day in 1979.  There were trips to Iowa City for football games, and we'd meet up from time to time to watch some Drake basketball games a number of years ago.  We had a fun trip with my wife up to Madison for another Iowa football game weekend, and there were a number of trips that we took with Tom to Milwaukee for Summerfest.  

A lifelong bachelor, Tom didn't lose his sense of family and was probably the most responsible for making sure other family members were seen or called on holidays and birthdays.  He made many trips to visit his siblings and their children over the years and was very close to his nieces and nephews.   I liked to call him the "Steward of Family History" because he knew where all the bodies and bones were buried in regard to our family's history - both the good and the bad.  An old soul at heart, he especially stayed in touch with some of the older members of our family and our parent's friends who were well into their 90's before passing on.  

While he was a computer payroll analyst for a couple hospitals in Des Moines most of his professional life, I remember him best for the his time as the manager of the Elks Club in Newton, IA.  He was hired to turn around an establishment that had been losing money and losing members.  Tom turned the Elks Club into a money maker by hiring the right people, bringing back food service for both lunch and dinner, and establishing a steady revenue stream while making the Elks Club one of the premier places for reunions, receptions, parties and gatherings in the area.  But there were some in the old guard who didn't like the changes he had implemented at the Elks Club and Tom was fired by the board at the height of the club's success.  It's somewhat ironic - as well as sad - that the Newton Elks Club shut down last year.  

Tom never forgot his roots in Kellogg coming back for celebrations and seeing many of the parents of friends he grew up with.  One time years ago, Kellogg was having a celebration day and my aunt volunteered my cousin to be a wandering clown who would interact with the kids.  I gave him good-natured shit about it, calling him "Krusty" after the clown on The Simpsons.  As I was seated in one of the bars in town that particular day, Tom walked in the door in his full clown regalia with the painted face and the bright red curly wig.  "Buy you a beer, Krusty," I asked as he walked up to the bar.  

He sat down next to me and said, "It is so f***in' hot in this costume..."  Somewhere I have a picture of him in his clown suit seated next to me at the bar, beers sitting in front of both of us.  It was great.  I haven't seen it in years and probably lost it somewhere in a move.  I'll have to see if my cousin finds a copy of it as she goes through his stuff.  

But the fun times we had with him at the Iowa State Fair, at the Drake Relays, for pizza at Chuck's, or just hanging out having a beer at a bar or someone's house will be the things that I remember most about my cousin.  And that really saddens me. And I know a lot of people whose lives he was part of will join me in missing him.  

It's just not going to be as much fun without him...

Stompbox Brewing - Davenport, IA

About four years ago, I did a Road Tips entry on Stompbox Brewing along with its contract kitchen called Kitchen Brigade.  (Click here to see that entry.)  But at the end of 2023, Kitchen Brigade owner/chef Chad Cushman announced that he would be leaving Stompbox to concentrate on his Kitchen Brigade location within the (now-closed) Fox Den Motel, a music venue in Dubuque.  The owners of Stompbox - James "Jamie" Prickett and Matt Erickson - decided to go out and get themselves a kitchen staff to put in place and less than two month after the Kitchen Brigade moved out, Stompbox's own kitchen opened to the public.  

To remind you a bit of the history of Stompbox, the brewpub grew out of a tragedy that had befallen the owners of Roam, the original restaurant in the building.  During the flood of 2019, a portable barrier designed to keep the Mississippi River at bay was breeched allowing millions of gallons of flood waters to pour into downtown Davenport.  The building and its parking lot were the first to suffer damage due to the flooding since it was right near where the break in the portable levee occurred.  (Click here to see a video of the instant the levee broke.)  Faced with a long road without being able to reclaim much of their financial investment in the building, the owners - two brothers - gave up the building and their dream of running a restaurant.  

In December of 2019, a group of investors - which included local music enthusiast/photographer Matt Erickson and Jamie Prickett, a cost analyst at the Rock Island Arsenal who is also a musician and homebrewer - announced they were taking over the spot to put a brewpub in.  It took over 6 months to renovate the space putting in a brewery operation and a kitchen area.  They started to brew and can beer in June of 2020 and officially opened their doors in early July 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic.  They called their new brewery "Stompbox" after an effects device a guitarist uses to control volume and tone that they step on with their feet.  The brewpub is located on River Drive in downtown Davenport, next to the popular Front Street Brewery, the oldest brewpub in the state of Iowa.  (see map)  I've often wondered if two good brewpubs could co-exist next door to one another, but both do just fine on their own.  

The spigots at the bar have stompbox effects pedals on top.  And the beers at Stompbox are some of my favorite - if not, my favorite - craft beers in the Quad Cities.  They have a rotating tap selection of all types of craft beers including some sours from local cider works.  They have a great hazy IPA with their dry-hopped Critical Mass.  They also have a great Mexican lager that is ironically called When the Levee Breaks.  But my favorite beer at Stompbox is their Chilly Nelson, a lower-ABV hazy IPA that has citrus hops giving it a smooth flavor.  The only problem is that Chilly Nelson goes in and out of the rotation from time to time, and if they don't have that, I'll get the Critical Mass.  Or the Levee Breaks.  They're all very good.       

The bar sits in the middle of the establishment with a number of semi-circular booths along the wall near the kitchen window and high-top tables in between the booths and the bar.  They have table service at Stompbox and food menus are readily available from the very good and very attentive waitstaff.  And they also have a great mix of music going on in the background at Stompbox.  

On the other side of the bar are a series of high-top tables including two community tables that can be used for larger groups.  There's a small patio with picnic tables off to the side of the building where the parking lot is located.  The brewing operation is located on the other side of a large glass window just when you come in the door at Stompbox.  Edison light fixtures with white holiday lights wrapped around the ductwork give the place a nice glow at night.  During daylight hours, the large windows that face River Drive and the Mississippi River just beyond offer a ton of natural light.  It's a really great place to have a beer or a mixed drink.

And that's why my wife likes it - they have mixed drinks at Stompbox so she can enjoy her Tito's and cranberry (with a lime) instead of filling up on beer.   But the liquor selection is limited and they don't have a lot of mixers.  The one thing that annoys me is that they don't have any type of mix for bloody marys so we can't enjoy our Sunday burgers, bloody marys and beers at Stompbox.  It's not a deal breaker - we still go down to Stompbox on some Sundays, but a bloody mary would go great with a beer and a burger there.  

Then Stompbox opened their kitchen, their menu was more extensive than what the Kitchen Brigade had to offer.  While the Kitchen Brigade had some more unique items on their menu (the chicken and green chile grits were interesting, as were their roasted olives and their charcuterie plate), it's more of a bar food type of menu with Stompbox's kitchen with appetizers such as truffle fries, fried pickle chips (that are pretty good!), wings, and a Mexican elote dip.  They also have a number of salads to choose from (more on that in a bit), and they have smash burgers along with sandwiches including a pastrami reuben and a cheesesteak sandwich.  

And Stompbox also has pizza - good pizza, at that!  It's more of a drier pizza - not a lot of sauce and cheese, but the toppings are always fresh and plentiful.  The crust isn't thin like a Chicago tavern-style pizza, but it's not a fluffy crust, either.  The edges are chewy and delicious.  While it's not my favorite pizza in the Quad Cities, it's in my top 3 or 4.  And the great thing - it goes very well with beer!  And another great thing - the pizza at Stompbox is excellent to take home and heat up for lunch the next day.  

My wife loves their salads at Stompbox.  Their Caesar salad is big enough for two people and features chopped romaine lettuce with shaved Parmesan Reggiano cheese, blistered cherry tomato, bacon lardon cubes, and finished with house-made croutons.  I usually have a couple three bites of the salad and I can attest it is very good.  She can fill up on the greens while I concentrate on having two or three pieces of the pizza.  

The burger they had from Kitchen Brigade was probably my favorite item on their menu, but it was just one burger with no other featured burgers.  They have five different burgers on the menu from the Stompbox kitchen including the mushroom and Swiss burger that is in the foreground of this photo.  They also have a classic cheeseburger that my wife ordered during a recent visit to Stompbox.  There's also a bacon jam burger with smoked gouda cheese, a sunrise burger topped with a fried egg, American cheese and bacon, and a "cheezy" burger topped with beer cheese and American cheese.  The mushroom/Swiss burger is outstanding - also one of my favorite burgers in the Quad Cities.  And they also have tots at Stompbox!  Fries are also available, but the tots at Stompbox are outstanding.  

Stompbox didn't miss a beat when they lost Kitchen Brigade in early 2024, and I think they even went up a couple notches with having their own kitchen with a more extensive menu of food.  The beer is always good at Stompbox, but their food is now an even draw with their beers.  Their pizza is very good and the mushroom Swiss burger it superb.  I do want to try some of their other sandwiches at some point - I'm guessing their pastrami reuben is very good, and even though I don't like Cuban sandwiches outside of South Florida, I'm willing to try the Stompbox Cuban sandwich.  Along with their great staff, Stompbox is one of the top brewpubs in the Quad Cities. 

India Foodie Lounge - Palatine, IL

While in Chicago for a trade show, we were finishing up the first day of the event and trying to figure out some place to go for dinner.  Knowing that my Montreal colleague is vegetarian, steakhouses, burger joints and seafood places don't come to the top of the list.  But Italian, Thai, and Indian restaurants are always doable.  I suggested Indian food and my colleague from Los Angeles - in his typical smooth L.A. vernacular - said, "Dude, I am so totally down with Indian food!"  My colleague from Montreal was also enthusiastic, even in his laid-back Canadian manner.  I did a quick search on line for an Indian restaurant nearby and one jumped out at me for two things - Indian food and they served alcohol.  After closing up shop at the end of the day, we took off to go up to Palatine and have dinner at a place with a unique name - India Foodie Lounge.  

Yagnesh Patel grew up in Nadiad, India - a city in the west central part of the country.  Nadiad is a relatively small town by Indian standards - about 215,000 people live there.  As a young man, Patel immigrated to the U.S. with other members of his family and settled in the far western Chicago suburb of Bartlett.  With a background as an Indian chef and in hospitality, he opened the first of now three India Foodie Lounge locations in Bartlett in 2019.  In addition to the Palatine location, there's also an India Foodie Lounge in suburban Streamwood.  Patel also runs a banquet facility that hosts a number of local Indian pageants and galas.  

It was about a 20 minute drive from where we were at for the trade show up to Palatine - it would have been 15 minutes had we not stopped for a train that was going through Palatine.  We took Meacham Road from Schaumburg up to Palatine where it turned into Plum Grove Road.  A left onto Northwest Highway and moments later we were pulling into a strip mall where India Food Lounge anchored the front corner of the property.  (see map)  

It was a beautiful evening and the restaurant was packed with people when we got there around 6:30 p.m.  There was also a brisk take-out clientele while we were there with a table full of sacks of food to-go.  The restaurant had a bar along the back wall and the place was well lit with both overhead lighting and natural evening light coming in from the windows on the north and east side of the building.   We were seated at a table underneath a painting of what looked to be an Italian seaside village.  I wondered if this location for India Foodie Lounge was once an Italian restaurant and they didn't update the decor when they opened this location in June of 2023.  

It turned out that the main person who waited on our table that evening was the owner, Yagnesh Patel.  First of all, I have to say that Yagnesh and his staff were so friendly and accommodating during our stay.  After he dropped off menus for us, I asked if they had Kingfisher beer.  "Yes sir, we do," Yagnesh replied enthusiastically.  All right!  Score!  I ordered up a Kingfisher as did my colleague from Montreal.  My colleague from L.A. doesn't drink, so he was fine with water.  I still get a kick out these guys - my Montreal friend is a vegetarian, but he drinks.  But my L.A. compadre will eat about anything that's put in front of him and doesn't drink.

Of course, we had to get a couple orders of the vegetarian samosas to start out.  I was famished as I didn't have lunch that day as we were too busy for me to duck out to get something to eat.  The deep fried samosas were served with a plum sauce and chutney.  I tore into one and devoured it.  It was very tasty and a great start to the meal.  My first Kingfisher went down like water and I had Yagnesh bring me a second one as soon as I finished my samosa.  

The menu at India Foodie Lounge was pretty extensive with a number of Punjabi, South Indian, and Indo-Chinese selections on the menu.  They had a number of lamb and chicken dishes, as well as seafood, rice and noodle entrees.  I was sort of hoping that they had butter lamb on the menu, but they did not.  I almost asked Yagnesh if they would make butter lamb as they had butter chicken on the menu, but I found something else that I could live with that evening.

I got the lamb tikka masala for my meal that evening.  We also got a couple baskets of the garlic naan for the table.  I ordered my lamb tikka masala medium and it had a bit of a spicy flavor to the dish.  Rice came with the meal and it was a wonderfully hearty meal.  The lamb tikka masala was just outstanding.  

My colleague from L.A. did end up getting the butter chicken, also medium as he likes spicy food.  He also ordered some lachha paratha, an Indian-style layered flat wheat bread that is more flaky than naan bread.  He thought the spice level of the butter chicken was a bit too hot for him, but he was able to make it through the meal with no problem.  (He said he paid for it the next morning.)  He also said that his food was superb.  

My Montreal friend was trying to figure out what to get.  He consulted with Yagnesh about vegetarian options and he was able to come up with three or four items from the menu.  The only problem is that he oversold my friend on the food, as in quantity.  Now, I've found in the past at some Indian restaurants they get you to over-order your food.  Like, when I order some garlic naan for my wife and me, and the waiter will say, "Two orders of garlic naan?"  That's sort of what happened when my friend was ordering from Yagnesh.  

"I'm not certain what I ordered," my friend said with a bit of a chuckle.  "But I guess we'll find out soon enough!"  

Yagnesh later brought out a bowl of the palek paneer - a spinach/curry dish that also had onions, paneer, herbs and spices.  That, alone, was fine with my vegetarian colleague.  Moments later...  

...Yagnesh then brought out a bowl of the vegetable korma and placed in front of my colleague.  "Whoa," my Montreal friend exclaimed.  "That's a lot of food!"  But he took it all in stride and did his best to finish at least one of the two offerings that evening.  He did most of his damage on the vegetable korma alternately dishing it out over a bed or rice or dipping his garlic naan into the bowl.  While he had a few bites of the vegetable korma, he decided to take it back to the hotel with him and he had it as a leftover lunch the next day at the show.  "I liked the vegetable korma better, but the spinach curry was very good, too." 

So, other than my friend getting somewhat duped on a double order of food, the experience at India Foodie Lounge was outstanding.  The owner Yagnesh and the rest of the staff were more than friendly, helpful (a little TOO helpful on the suggestions to my colleague), and they were all great guys.  We all thought our food was very good to outstanding, and the restaurant was clean and comfortable.  While India Foodie Lounge had a funky name, there was nothing strange about their food.