Road Tips

Casa di Luigi - Rolling Meadows, IL

My two colleagues and I had finished setting up for our trade show at the Renaissance/Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg around 7:30 on a recent Thursday evening and we were tired, hungry and thirsty.  I suggested Italian earlier in the day and my two work friends - one from Montreal and the other from Los Angeles - were definitely down with that.  I knew of a couple Italian restaurants in the vicinity, but I did a quick search on the computer for alternatives.  I found a place that was about two miles away in Rolling Meadows - Casa di Luigi.  I wasn't familiar with the place and I'm always up for finding new restaurants along the way.  

One of the reasons I didn't know about Casa di Luigi was that it's less than two years old.  Husband/wife owners Luis Diaz Hernandez (the Luigi in the restaurant's name) and Susana Arceo Sanchez opened the restaurant in July of 2023.  Both were veterans of restaurants in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago and were able to find a small restaurant space on New Wilke Ave. in Rolling Meadows to open their own Italian eatery in a building that had previously housed Mexican restaurants for a number of years.  

It was less than 10 minute drive from the convention center to Casa di Luigi located just south of Algonquin Road/Illinois State Highway 62 at New Wilke Ave.  (see map)  We pulled into the parking lot and found a small building that looked like it may have originally been a Long John Silvers restaurant.  On the front of the building was an enclosed area that appeared to be a seasonal patio.  There was a heating tower in the enclosure, but I doubted they were using it with the structure closed up.  

 
The restaurant was small, quaint and cozy.  It sat - maybe 36 to 40 people, tops.  The restaurant featured a low-slung ceiling with two walls that had banquette seating.  An open kitchen was off to the side of the dining space.  Music from 60's Italian crooners such as Jerry Vale, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra played softly in the background.

It turned out that our server that evening was the co-owner Susana.  After she showed us to a four-seater table along a short wall and dropped off menus, my Montreal colleague and I immediately each ordered a Peroni.  My friend from Los Angeles doesn't drink, so he was fine with water.  Later in the evening, my friend from Montreal ordered a glass of the Capo Zafferano cabernet from Italy, while I ordered up an Italian Terredirai pinot grigio with my dinner.  

The menu wasn't extensive, but there were a number of interesting items to choose from.  Appetizers included fried calamari, crab cakes, and a pound of Mediterranean mussels served in a garlic, white wine and tomato sauce.  Salads included a carpaccio salad with beets, a gorgonzola salad, and a caprese salad, and for soups they had a seafood soup, a poblano pepper cream soup, and - quite interestingly - they had gumbo made with ground Italian sausage and vegetables.  

For main entrees, Casa di Luigi featured land and sea choices such as an 8 oz. beef tenderloin filet, chicken saltimbocca, veal scallopini, a Mediterranean sea bass, and an Atlantic salmon sautéed in olive oil, garlic and chili pepper flakes.  And they had a few pasta dishes including rigatoni with Italian sausage and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce, a tagliatelle pasta dish with shrimp and lobster meat, and a seafood risotto.  

I was sort of up in the air as to what to get.  I thought about getting the pappardelle pasta dish with a lobster tail and shrimp, and the homemade butternut squash gnocchi served with a beef short rib and mushroom ragout really sounded good.  But in the end I ordered the fettuccine alfredo with shrimp.  The ridge of the pasta bowl was sprinkled with paprika and there were a lot of shrimp included with the pasta.  And I mean a lot of shrimp.  There was at least 10 medium-sized shrimp included with the fettuccine alfredo.  Susasa provided some red pepper flakes to give the dish a bit more of a kick.  It was simple, yet delicious.  And the slightly-chilled Italian pinot grigio went very well with the meal.    

My vegetarian friend from Montreal got the risotto ai funghi - Italian rice mixed with mushrooms sautéed with shallots and garlic in a white wine demi glace.  It was topped with parmesan cheese and a truffle pesto.  He said that the risotto was "excellent".  And it was exactly what he was looking for.  But it was also very rich and he ended up eating all but about a quarter of the dish that was given to him.  

And my colleague from Los Angeles had a special order for Susana.  "I see that you have an arrabbiata sauce.  Can I just get some fettuccine noodles with the arrabbiata sauce?"  Susana asked him if he wanted some sausage or chicken included and he said, nope - just the fettuccine with the arrabbiata sauce.  

And that's exactly what he got.  His dish was also sprinkled with paprika on the ridge and garnished with a parsley.  After a couple bites, my friend stopped and said, "Oh, you guys.  This is hotter than hell!  But I love it!"  He offered me a single fettuccine noodle and put it on the ridge of my dish.  I twirled it up and ate it.  Oh man!  Was it EVER spicy!  I said that the chef had to dump at least a couple of tablespoons of spicy red pepper flakes in the sauce.  But, hey, my friend was happy with what he got.  (Although he said he suffered the next morning from the meal.)  

I have to say that Casa di Luigi was a good little find for us.  First of all, the service we got from Susana was impeccable.  She was accommodating, considerate and just a sweetheart all evening long.  We told her we were over at the trade show at the convention center and she gave me some of their cards to hand out to other people looking for a good meal while they were in town.  And I did!  I can't say that the food at Casa di Luigi was the best Italian food I've ever had, but it was well above average with plentiful portions.  Casa di Luigi is one of those great little family-run places that I love to find when I'm on the road.  

Beer Authority - New York City

After a night of food and drinks with some friends who were part of the trade show that I was attending in New York City recently, I walked back - more like, staggered back - to my hotel on W. 42nd from an Irish bar on 9th Ave. in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.  I was walking along W. 40th and got to the corner at 8th Ave.  I was waiting for the light to change and I happened to look up at the building behind me.  The name on the two sides of the corner building sort of took me by surprise.  I made a mental note of it - actually, I had to write it down when I got back to the hotel so I would remember it.  The next day, I took a lunch break and made it down to Beer Authority.  

Joe Donagher was born in New York City, but ended up moving back to his parent's native Ireland as a young man.  His father became the town commissioner in Ballyshannon, a small coastal town in northwest Ireland near the Northern Ireland border.   After college, Joe decided to move back to the states to look for work.  He found it in construction, which in the early 2000's was booming in New York City.  Within three months he was able to put a downpayment on a house.  By 2006, Donagher had saved enough money to open a little Irish deli/store in the Woodside neighborhood in Queens.  He would go in at 5:30 in the morning to get his employees started for the day, then he'd go off to work his construction job.  After work, he'd take a couple hours to himself at home, then go back to the deli around 5:30 to help out until the deli closed at 9:00 p.m.

A year later, Donagher opened a little bar in the Maspeth section of Queens - an area known for a large Irish population.  But with the downturn in the economy, a number of the Irish ex-pats in the area were moving back to Ireland to find work.  Donagher decided to sell both the deli, his little bar, and his house.  But what he did was more daring than throwing in the towel and moving back to Ireland like many of the people in the neighborhood.  He moved into Manhattan and explored opening a pub.   

Donagher had fallen in love with the burgeoning craft beer movement and wanted to have a place where he could have a variety of micro-brewed beers to choose from.  In late 2008, along with fellow Irish partners Liam Whyte and Eamon Donnelly, they opened Rattle and Hum on E. 33rd St  near Madison Square Garden.  The place featured Irish-inspired foods and over 60 craft brews on tap.  Named after the Irish-band U2's live album, Rattle and Hum was a huge hit.  In 2012, a second Rattle and Hum opened on W. 39th St. in Manhattan.  (The original Rattle and Hum closed in 2018 due to ever increasing rent hikes from the landlord.)  

Before opening the second Rattle and Hum location, Donagher and his partners were looking to open a similar bar with more refined Irish cuisine.  They found a two-story building across the street from the Port Authority bus terminal and began renovations in the summer of 2011.  Donagher and his partners brought in a chef from Belfast - David Gallagher - to prepare a menu of what Donagher described as "high-end gastropub" food.  Hoping to open their doors in late November of 2011, the group ran into snags that postponed the opening until April of 2012.  Donagher and his partners called their new restaurant/pub Beer Authority - not that they were authorities on the beers they served, but as a nod to their across-the-street neighbor who had well over two million people pass through the Port Authority on an annual basis. 

It was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel where the trade show was taking place down to Beer Authority sitting on the southwest corner of 8th Ave. and W. 40th St., technically in Hell's Kitchen.  (see map)  It was a gloriously bright and sunny day with a bit of a windy chill in the air that made the walk a bit brisk.  Entering the restaurant from W. 40th St., I found a small bar area that really didn't look like much.  I sat down at the bar and thought to myself, "Hmmm...  This doesn't look like much."  

I turned around and saw someone walking upstairs.  I asked the bartender if there was another room upstairs and he said in an Irish-accent, "Yeah, our main room is upstairs."  I apologized for sitting there thinking he was going to have another customer and he said, "No worries.  Happens all the time."   

When I got to the second level, I found this spacious area with a long bar along one wall and windows lining the east and north sides of the building allowing a ton of natural light to finish in.  Exposed ductwork hung from the ceiling and there were a number of flatscreen televisions around the room.  Despite the fact that there was a great college basketball game going on about six blocks to south at Madison Square Garden, all the televisions in the place were tuned to the Manchester City vs. Liverpool Premier League contest.  (I've learned that soccer is No.1 at all sports bars and pubs in New York.)   And the sound system at the pub had the British play-by-play announcers calling the game.  

The main room at Beer Authority featured a number of tables throughout the place.  There was a stairway that took you up to the third level beer garden.  Of course, being that it was late February, the beer garden was closed.  But I did see pictures of the area and thought that would be a great place to hang out on a warm day.   But the windows had a number of tables that looked down onto the streets below, a good place to "people watch" any day.  

As I normally do when I dine by myself, I planted my bottom on a bar stool at the 60 foot+ Mahogany bar.  The bartender that day was a young lady by the name of Anne.  She gave me a food menu to check out, and I got a beer menu to look through, as well.  They have nearly 50 beers on tap to choose from and many are there on a rotating basis.  And there was probably more than 60 different craft, domestic and imported beers available in cans and bottles.   Plus Beer Authority had a full bar with a number of specialty cocktails available.  I saw a couple beers on tap that I wanted to try - the Teenage Mutant Ninja Gerbils hazy IPA from Brooklyn's Kings County Brewing Collective (KCBC), and the Five Boroughs Tiny Juicy hazy IPA also out of Brooklyn that I had enjoyed previously on this trip to New York.  I ordered the hazy IPA from KCBC first, then ordered the Five Boroughs hazy for my second beer.  Both were very tasty.  

I would have to dispute the notion that the menu was "upscale gastropub" fare because it was very typical of similar pubs I've been to in New York.  The appetizers featured wings, calamari, a Buffalo chicken dip, different varieties of nachos, and a house-made guacamole served with tortilla chips and fried green plantains.  They also had tacos, sliders and three-cheese potato skins.  Beer Authority had a number of sandwiches and burgers, and they had a variety of 10" pizzas on the menu.  Other than salads and a kid's menu, that was about all they had to offer.  

I had pizza the night before and a burger the previous afternoon, so both of those things were out.  I didn't really see anything on the appetizer menu that tripped my trigger - although the steak tacos that were topped with a salsa trio blend of tomatillo, roasted poblanos, and a salsa roja caught my eye.  And they didn't really have a lot of sandwiches to choose from.  But at the bottom of the sandwich list, I saw something that I decided to get.

I went with the pastrami sandwich - thin-sliced beef brisket pastrami topped with melted Swiss cheese, pickled jalapeños and a green apple cole slaw all served on grilled marble rye.  The green apple cole slaw I was bit tentative on since I don't care for green apples all that much.  Well, not at all, that is.  I figured that if the taste of the cole slaw was too obtrusive, I'd just scrape it off.

But it turns out that I didn't have to worry much about that because the taste of the sandwich was fabulous.  The brisket pastrami was tender and flavorful.  The sandwich was lightly grilled and even with the cole slaw and Swiss cheese, the tastiness of the brisket really shined through.  The fries - served in a paper wrap in a tin can - were sort of "meh!"  But that was fine.  I wanted to concentrate on the sandwich. 

As I was enjoying my lunch, the Man City/Liverpool soccer game concluded and the sound from the television feed of the match was switched over to a mix of 70's disco and R&B from the likes of Abba, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tavares, and the Spanish female disco/pop duo Baccara.   Despite the fact that I usually don't listen to music like that, I didn't find the music annoying in any way.   Plus, they tuned some of the televisions behind the bar to the latter stages of the college basketball game being played just down the street.  But by that time the game was pretty much a foregone conclusion.  

And I'm sorry to say that Anne wasn't really on her "A" game that day.  I had finished my second beer and determined that I could probably have one more beer before I had to go back and hang for the final couple hours of the show.  But she was down at the opposite end of the long bar talking it up with someone.  And since I was the only other person seated at the bar, she wasn't coming back down my way anytime soon.  When she finally did come down, it was 10 minutes later and I was ready to go.  Yeah, I could have been an ass and said something like, "Hey!  I'd like a beer down here!"  But it was probably best that I didn't have another one.  

Other than Anne not paying attention to the other end of the bar when I really wanted another beer, I have no complaints about my visit to Beer Authority.  Well, plus the fact that they only had the Premier League soccer game on all their televisions and there were - maybe - 25 people in the place, when they could have been showing a great college basketball game going on at the Garden down 8th Ave., it was a fine experience.  Actually, I should have probably sat at one of the window tables looking down at either W. 40th St. or 8th Avenue to take in the vibrant New York City street scene.  My brisket pastrami sandwich was wonderful, they had a great beer selection, and the place had a nice little laid-back vibe.  I may have to be back in New York this coming summer and I may just go back to Beer Authority to have a couple beers on their third-level outdoor beer garden.  If I do, I'll take some pictures and add them to this post.  

Plus Saporis - Bettendorf, IA

Last fall, my wife had heard about a new Mediterranean restaurant that had opened in early September of last year near the "Bett Plex" sports and entertainment complex on the north side of Bettendorf.  I don't exactly remember what we were doing out that way one evening, but my wife pointed out the place - Plus Saporis.  It was a weeknight and just before 6 p.m. so we thought we'd stop in and check the place out.  We were met by a nattily dressed man at the host stand near the front door and he asked in a somewhat aloof tone if we had reservations.  I said we did not and he immediately said that it would be a minimum of an hour wait.  I looked past him and saw that the restaurant was nearly empty.  I thought he may offer to have us sit at the bar and wait until they were ready to seat us, but he didn't even do that.  It was sort of an awkward stand-off at the host desk.  He was so cold and somewhat haughty to us that we decided to just leave.  It wasn't that we were dressed bad - jeans and V-neck sweater with a T-shirt for me, jeans and a nice top for my wife.  We just couldn't believe that they couldn't seat us in what appeared to be a pretty good-sized restaurant with just a few people dining at the time.  

As we tried to rationalize why he couldn't - or didn't - want to seat us, we thought that maybe they were having a large group coming in later, maybe they only had a skeleton staff and couldn't take care of any more people coming in at that time, or maybe we WERE underdressed, but there was no indication or signage for a dress code.  But when we found later that the owner of Plus Saporis was the owner of the toney Hemispheres Bistro and a partner in the now-closed Food Affair Bistro, we realized that the place was probably going to be a bit snobbish and pompous.  

But, as I always tell my wife - our money spends just as well as the guy driving the Audi A8 that we parked next to in the parking lot.  And then we found out from a friend who had been there previously that they were still working out the kinks early on after their initial opening.  So, on a recent Friday evening, we had gone out for end-of-the-work-week drinks and decided to head over to Plus Saporis to see if they'd let us in this time.  And they did!  And they were very nice about it this time!

Now, I'm going to be lazy and lift this background information on the owner/chef from my previous entry on Food Affair Bistro - 

Aman Razdan grew up in Mumbai, India.  While he was a youngster, he worked in his family's restaurant before coming to the U.S. in 1998.  He settled in the Quad Cities and ended up getting into the culinary program at Scott Community College.  While going to school at Scott Community, Razdin got a job at Le Figaro, a now-closed French restaurant in Rock Island run by Rachid Bouchareb.  Learning under Bouchareb, Razdan did a little bit of everything in the kitchen to preparing salad dressings to preparing charcuterie boards and cheese plates.  

After graduating from Scott Community College, Razdan became the pastry and sous chef at the Red Crow Grill in August of 2002.  Razdan worked at Red Crow Grill until March of 2004 when he was hired to be the head regional chef for Holiday Retirement Corporation.  Working out of the Palmer Hills Independent Senior Living facility in Bettendorf, Razdan oversaw the kitchens for 16 Holiday Retirement properties in the Midwest.  

Pictured at right - Aman Razdan.  Photo courtesy Quad City Times. 

After nearly 3 years working with Holiday Retirement, Razdan was hired to be the head chef at the Best Western Steeplegate Inn in Davenport.  Three years later, Razdan went to work as an executive chef at a local hospital.  During his time at the hospital, Razdan - along with his wife, Martina - started to work on a business plan to someday own their own restaurant.

In 2015, the opportunity arose to buy the Red Crow Grill where Razdan got his first job out of culinary school.  Red Crow Grill had been open for 16 years and Razdan wanted to change things up and put his stamp on the restaurant.  Red Crow Grill closed on July 1, 2015 and over the next two months, Razdan spruced up the place and came up with a menu that he classified as "global fusion" focusing on Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Latin cuisines.  In early September of 2015, Razdan and his wife opened Hemispheres Bistro.  And after a 9 1/2-year run, Razdan announced last month that Hemispheres Bistro would be closing their doors on April 30th to concentrate on running Plus Saporis.  

And it's a true family affair at Plus Saporis, which means "more flavor" in Latin.  Aman Razdan's two sons help out in the restaurant.  Simon Razdan started out washing dishes in his father's restaurant at the age of 14.  Learning from his father, Simon Razdan has risen to be the chef de cuisine at Plus Saporis.  Simon's younger brother Arion is the general manager of Plus Saporis.  He starting out working at his father's restaurant at the age of 15 and runs the restaurant for his father while also helping out in the kitchen.  And Aman's daughter Mikhaela - who is now in her early-teens - helped with the wall decor and color scheme at Plus Saporis.   

It was a somewhat blustery, yet, warm day when we went to Plus Saporis.  For a number of days the local weathercasters on TV had been predicting a large storm coming through the area around 7 to 8 p.m.  That may have tamped down the number of Friday night diners who usually would have been out that evening.  This time when we went into Plus Saporis, there was no smart dressed man at the host stand, but a young man who greeted us when we came in.  I said, "Two for dinner, please."  And he grabbed a couple menus and led us to a booth in the dining room up front.  No pretension, no judging.  

The dining area at Plus Saporis features a wall lined with comfy booths, some four-seater tables in the middle and tables with banquette seating along a wall.  Large windows on the south side of the restaurant allowed in a lot of natural light during the day, while a garage door opens into a patio area on the west side.  The garage door was open slightly at the bottom allowing some of the late winter fresh air into the restaurant, but no one was seated outside as wind gusts approaching 40 miles an hour would have made al fresco dining almost impossible.  

On the other side of the wall from the dining area was the bar area with even more seating for dining.  We were sort of incredulous that we weren't offered to sit at the bar to wait for a table the first time we stopped into Plus Saporis as the half-circle bar could seat 10 to 12 people.  And there weren't 12 people in the whole restaurant the first time we were there.  The bar area/back dining space was well lit and accented with colorful prints on the walls.   

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Briza.  I'm going to say upfront that Briza was delightful all during our visit.  She was friendly, accommodating, and was very knowledgeable about the food - a hallmark of Aman Razden's restaurants over the years.  She gave us some great recommendations all through the evening.  Right off the bat she took our drink orders - I ordered a Kona Big Wave and my wife got a glass of a Lebanese red blend from the Chateau Musar winery.  

As we were just getting started looking through the menu, Briza brought out a complementary appetizer from the chef.  I don't know what it was called, but they were two small meatballs topped with a yogurt/tomato mixture.  Whatever it was, it was very good and a nice gesture to start off our meal.  

The menu at Plus Saporis was interesting, to say the least.  Appetizers included a daily shell fish offering at market price, crab ceviche, saganaki, and polenta fries.  They also had a few dips that were served with twisted pastry bread and crudités (raw vegetables).   Main entrees featured pasta dishes, seafood offerings, kebabs, and exotic dishes such as osso bucco, a stuffed duck breast, a short rib/chorizo/prawns paella, and moussaka.  Plus Saporis also featured pizza, sandwiches, and salads where proteins such as a marinated hanger steak, grilled chicken and salmon could be added to the salad.    

My wife saw that they had a couple things on the menu that she wanted to try.  Actually, I was in agreement with her on both appetizers.  She wanted to try their hummus.  It was served with cannellini beans and tahini along with two twisted pastry bread sticks and assorted sliced veggies.  The pastry bread was light and very delicious on its own.  And the hummus was exceptional.  

And the other thing we both saw on the menu was the grilled octopus.  It came with chopped garlic, fennel, and chopped cherry tomatoes in a red wine vinaigrette.  I have to say that the grilled octopus was sadly over-cooked - chewy and really sort of lifeless in flavor, even with the red wine vinaigrette.   

For our main entrees that evening, my wife got the lamb kebabs.  The two kebabs were accompanied by a rice tower, cacik (pronounced jah-jick) which is a Turkish sauce made with watered down yogurt and cucumbers; and harissa - a North African chile paste mixed with garlic, olive oil, citrus juice and assorted spices and herbs.  Unfortunately, my wife found the lamb kebabs to also be overcooked.  "Whoever is grilling the octopus and the kebabs needs to turn the heat down," my wife said between bites.  She still thought it was good, but was disappointed that it was somewhat chewy, dry and tough.  

I went with the 'Nduja sausage and tagliatelle pasta dish.  It was topped with a dollop of burrata cheese that made the dish even more rich in flavor.  The 'Nduja sausage had a nice little bite to the taste and clung very well to the wide tagliatelle pasta.  My meal was fabulous.  I offered my wife a couple bites of my dish while she gave me a bite of one of her kebabs.  She usually gets the better of the two meals we have when we eat out.  But this time she said mine was definitely better than hers.  

Briza came out with a very tempting dessert menu.  All of Plus Saporis' desserts are made by longtime Hemispheres Bistro pastry chef Jose Trigueros.  The desserts change weekly and on this visit we were intrigued by a couple different things.  They had blueberry compote in an edible pistachio pastry shell, and fresh blueberry ice cream with sweet crumbles mixed in.  We couldn't make up our minds as to which one to get, so we got both.  Both were spectacular.  My wife concentrated more on the ice cream with crumbles, while I eagerly ate much of the blueberry compote while chopping at the pistachio shell with my spoon.  It was a great ending to what - I thought - was a pretty damned good meal.

My wife, however, was disappointed in her overcooked lamb kebabs, and we were sort of dissatisfied with the overcooked grilled octopus.  But the rest of the meal was very good.  I loved my 'Nduja with tagliatelle pasta topped with a creamy burrata cheese.  And I thought the hummus was outstanding.  Briza was a gem all night long and she was a tremendous server.  And we didn't feel like the place was stuffy or pretentious unlike our first visit when we weren't even given an option to hang out until a table opened.  It was expensive, however, and not one that we would be able to put into our regular rotation of restaurants.  But it would be one that we'd go back to if we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice meal out at some time in the future.  

 

 

 

Bevo Pizzeria - Montreal

I was back up in Montreal recently for some meetings and a trade show.  Once night, I was on my own as my colleagues had other stuff going on.  I was told by a friend at the show about a pizza place in the Old Montreal neighborhood that wasn't that far from my hotel.  That night, I looked it up when I got back to the hotel and decided to head over to Bevo Pizzeria to get something to eat.  

Bevo Pizzeria is part of the Groupe Antonopoulos family of hotels and restaurants, most of which are in the Old Montreal area.  In 1970, Tony Antonopoulos immigrated to Montreal from Greece to work in a relative's restaurant.  In 1973, Tony opened his first restaurant "Le Coin" (coin is "corner" in French) in Old Montreal.  His brother Costa joined him in 1976 and the two started to restore abandoned buildings in the immediate area.  Many of the structures were turned into restaurants and later on they developed some boutique hotels.  

In 2014, Groupe Antonopoulos renovated a building on Rue Saint-Vincent in Old Montreal and after the work was complete, they started a new restaurant by the name of Bevo Pizzeria.  Giovanni Vella - who had been working as a chef at another Groupe Antonopoulos restaurant since 2012 - was tabbed to head the kitchen.  Bevo Pizzeria suddenly became one of the new "hip" hangouts in Old Montreal.

In 2022, Tony Antonopoulos retired from Groupe Antonopoulos and Costa Antonopoulos - along with his four children - took over from there.  The Groupe Antonopoulos brand was renamed the Gray Collection after the family's prestigious prime real estate holding, Hotel William Gray.   Bevo Pizzeria, Jacopo - an Italian-style trattoria, Maggie Oakes - a steakhouse just up the street from Bevo Pizzeria, and Perché - a California-inspired gourmet bistro, are also part of the Gray Collection family.  Also, Costa's son Dmitri formed an off-shoot company called Corner Collection that oversees the family's upscale boutique hotel properties which includes the renowned Hôtel Place d' Armes and the Hotel Nelligan, along with the restaurants and spas that are within those properties.  

I looked at how far of a walk it was from my hotel on Saint-Antoine Ouest (west) toward the south east side of downtown Montreal to Bevo Pizzeria.  I determined that I could probably walk it as Google Maps said it would be about a 13 minute walk.  I took off from the hotel and walked up a hill and took a left at the next block.  One more small block revealed the expansive courtyard in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica, probably the most famous church in Canada and one of the most beautiful churches in the world.  I had been in the cathedral a number of years ago after we had dinner at a nearby restaurant in Old Montreal.

(Photo at right courtesy Lonely Planet - Denis Roger photographer.  I didn't take a picture of the cathedral as the left tower in this picture was shrouded as they were working on some restorations.)

I did a diagonal cut through the courtyard and down a street just to the east of the cathedral for a couple blocks.  Turning right, I walked down a hilly street watching my step as the day had started out icy and there were still some pockets of ice on the streets and sidewalks.  As I came down the hill and passed a group of people that appeared to be waiting for a club or bar to open, I looked across the street.  Right in front of me was Bevo Pizzeria!  (see map)  I went across the street and into the restaurant.  

The repurposing of the old stone building in Old Montreal for Bevo was impressive.  The designers basically gutted the building of every piece of the original building save for the large stairs that goes up to a second level.  All the wood trim on the walls in the place was painted black to contrast it against the stone walls in the building.  A number of large smoked acrylic globes with 3-socket light fixtures hung from the ceiling on the main floor.  

Back in the corner of the main floor was the large wood-fire oven used for baking pizzas.  The facade of the oven was stainless steel as was the prep area in front of the oven.  Even the nautical-style lights above the prep area were stainless steel.  It all had a great style, but looked a little out of place with the stone walls next to the oven.  

Upstairs were two dining areas that featured wrought iron lanterns for the main lighting.  The support beams were a combination of wood and steel, but it gave the space a cozy feeling.  More exposed stone walls with LED lighting accents were part of the upstairs decor.  

The centerpiece of the upstairs - well, quite possibly the whole restaurant - was a large wrought iron chandelier that hung next to the stairway.   Faux candlelight bulbs gave the chandelier an antique look.  Diners on the second floor could look down on the chandelier while diners in the bar area could see if from below.

The bar at Bevo was a modernistic curving bar with LED lighting accents underneath.  More of the smoked acrylic lamp globes hung directly above the bar.  Shelves of liquor were highlighted by LED accent lighting that made the bottles shine.  There were a couple flatscreen televisions on the wall near the bar and they were both turned - naturally - to an NHL hockey match.  There were a number of tables in the immediate bar area along with a seating area with banquette seats off to the right side of the bar.  

There was an interesting mix of music being played in Bevo that evening.  I heard music from Hall & Oates, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Etta James, Amy Winehouse, Montreal singer/songwriter Michel Pagliaro, and an interesting 2007 remake of the song "Brother Louie" by the 1970's New York City-based band Stories.

Since it was just me, I took a seat at the bar.  One of the bartenders that night was a young lady by the name of Faith.  And let me tell you right off the bat - Faith was a sweetheart.  She was pleasant, friendly, efficient and had a level of wholesome charm to her.  She gave me both the food menu and the drink menu to check out.  Bevo Pizzeria had a number of specialty cocktails and choices of wine both by the glass or by the bottle on the menu.  They had a handful of imported beers and I was looking for what they had to offer in craft beers.  To my delight, they had six different offerings of beer styles from the Boréale Brewery in Montreal.  Boréale is one of the oldest breweries, not only in Montreal, but in Canada, established in 1987.  I fell in love with Boréale beers - especially their Blonde - a number of years ago during a visit to my old company.  I ordered up a pint of the Boréale Blonde from Faith.  "Good choice," she said before she went to pour me a glass.  

Pizza dominates the food menu at Bevo, but they also had a number of Italian entrees to choose from including pasta dishes, chicken parmigiana, and a salmon and bruschetta dish.  Appetizers and antipasti plates included charcuterie boards, Italian cheese platters, cured olive plates, meatballs made from veal, pork and beef in a marinara sauce, and fried calamari served with a sun-dried tomato pesto.  

With the pizza selections, they had a basic margarita pizza, as well as one with sausage, mushrooms, and a fried egg (that actually sounded interesting), and about six different varieties of vegetarian pizzas.  (My colleague would have loved this place!)  But I ended up ordering the salame (pepperoni) pizza that also came with oregano and mozzarella cheese.  For an upcharge, I could add any number of toppings from meatballs to arugula to goat cheese to black truffles.  I added sausage and mushrooms to the pizza.  After she took my order, Faith said, "OK, I have to tell you, our pepperoni is really spicy.  Is that OK?"  I told her that it was absolutely OK.  "OK," she said.  "I just wanted to make sure.  Some people are sort of surprised at how spicy our pepperoni really is."

I had taken about three sips of my Boréale Blonde when someone from the kitchen brought out my pizza.  "Wow," I exclaimed.  "That was fast!"  It was about five minutes from the time I placed my order with Faith and when it was placed in front of me.  

I asked Faith if she had any parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.  She brought over a small container of red pepper flakes and asked me if I had tried one of the pepperoni slices yet.  When I told her I hadn't, she said, "You may want to try one to make sure.  You might not need any pepper flakes."  I picked one off the pizza and put it in my mouth.  It was spicy and had a kick, but it wasn't overly spicy.  I told her to leave the pepper flakes.  

She then brought over a bowl of parmesan cheese and offered to put some on my pizza.  "Don't be shy," she said as she spooned some out of the bowl and sprinkled it onto my pizza.  She put about three spoonfuls of grated parmesan on my pizza before I told her that it was fine as it sat.  

The pizza was cut into quarters, not eighths.  And with no plate, it made for a rather unwieldy eating experience.  The crust was a bit floppy near the middle, but firm toward the crust end.  I ended up cutting the quarter pieces in half making them easier to handle.  

Now, one thing that I've noticed from my European and Quebecois colleagues when they eat pizza - they use a fork and knife when eating the pizza.  It's completely foreign to them to pick the pizza up by hand and eat it by the slice.  It's a guess that's why the pizza - about 25 to 30 centimeters in diameter (about 9.5 to 11.5 inches) - was cut the way it was.  The more sophisticated Quebecers are using a fork and knife and not their hands like those uncouth American diners.  

The pizza was superb.  As the pizza cooled through the process, the crust didn't sag as much as it did when it first came out of the oven.  Yeah, the pepperoni had a spicy kick, but it wasn't overpowering.  The red pepper flakes definitely zipped up the flavor of the pizza.  The sausage was crumbly, but not fully ground.  And the mushrooms were fresh and earthy.  The sauce had a nice tang to it, and the mozzarella cheese was proportioned evenly throughout the pizza.  But the crust, on its own, was delicious.  It had that great refined "00" flour taste like a great piece of Italian bread.  I almost asked Faith if I could get some marinara sauce to dip the pieces of crust into.  But, quite honestly, the crust didn't need any enhancements as it was delicious on its own.

The next day, I told the person who told me about Bevo Pizzeria that their recommendation was spot on.  "Isn't that a great place," he replied with a smile on his face.  Everything was excellent, the food, the atmosphere, and the service from Faith was top-notch.  She was such a great server and an even better person.  Bevo Pizzeria was such a great place and one of those instances where memories are made.  And I'll definitely want to go to Bevo the next time I get back to Montreal.

Stout NYC (Bryant Park) - New York City

In New York City recently, I had finished up some office work at the hotel before I was going over to help set up for a trade show I was helping at that weekend held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  I looked up on-line to see if there were any pubs or sandwich places in the near vicinity.  I found a place that looked like it checked off all the boxes for me - atmosphere, craft beers, sandwiches and burgers, and close to the hotel.  I walked from my hotel on 42nd Street down to 39th Street near Bryant Park to a place simply called Stout NYC.  

The son of Irish immigrants, Martin Whelan was born in Manhattan, but he grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens before his family moved to the Floral Park neighborhood on the far eastern side of Queens. His father and mother had started their own Irish pub - Maggie's Place (named after Whelan's mother) - in 1974 and the younger Whelan helped out in the restaurant when he could.  A gregarious, bearded man, Teddy Whelan loved to tell stories of celebrities who came into Maggie's Place, as well as at Downey's, an Irish pub he worked at in the 1960's in New York's theater district.  

Staying close to home to attend college, Martin Whelan attended St. John's University where he first studied accounting before switching his major to marketing.  During his time at St. John's, Whelan kept busy with two jobs - one at a liquor store stocking shelves, and another at a floral shop delivering flowers.  After graduating from St. John's in 1984, Whelan's first job was in the advertising sector at Ogilvy & Mather (now simply known as Ogilvy).  

However, Whelan soon grew weary of the rat race of the corporate world.  At the age of 25, a buddy of Whelan's at St. John's talked him into opening a deli in Queens.  The deli went over very well and the two partners opened a pizza place soon thereafter just down the block.  

In 1991, Maggie Whelan passed away.  Faced with running Maggie's Place alone, Teddy Whelan handed the reins over to Martin Whelan and moved back to his hometown in Ireland.  One of the first things Martin Whelan did was to recruit his brother Mark to come to the family's restaurant.  Mark Whelan was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and helped revamp the menu at Maggie's Place.  The brothers also did a major renovation of Maggie's before they reopened the restaurant in 1992.  

Pictured right - Martin Whelan.  Photo courtesy Crain's New York Business.  

From there, Whelan's portfolio of restaurants started to grow.  In 1995, Whelan and two friends opened Trinity in his home neighborhood of Floral Park.  In 1998, Martin and Mark Whelan opened St. Andrew's Pub in the theater district in Manhattan.  (That location later closed due to the high cost of rent.)  And in 2005, the Whelan's along with some minor investors opened the first Stout location just across from Madison Square Garden.  

Soon thereafter, Martin and Mark Whelan established Stout NYC Hospitality Group and started to expand their restaurant empire.  Today, in addition to Maggie's Place, Stout NYC Hospitality Group owns fourteen other restaurants in the greater New York City area including five Stout NYC locations, two Amity Hall locations, The Independent on W. 40th., The Long Room on W. 44th, and this year they will be opening their sixteenth restaurant The Splendid Sporting Club on E. 52nd Street.  

(Side note - Sadly, Mark Whelan passed away in 2019.)  

It was just after 1 p.m. when I got into Stout NYC.  There was a sign on the door that said Stout NYC would be closing at 4:30 for a private event.  At first I thought the sign said they would be closing at 1:30, but then I stopped and studied it for a moment.  Nope - they're still open for lunch!  

The main part of the restaurant featured a high ceiling with ornate crossbeams with accent lights.  A series of different shaped high top tables were situated on the stone floor of the pub.  There was an upstairs area in the back of the space.  It was spacious, yet it had a nice welcoming feeling.  

The bar featured a tall back bar with three flatscreens embedded in the intricate woodwork.  Shelves of liquor spanned the length of the back bar which was bordered by light brick stones.  It was a beautiful bar set up.  Classic rock music from the 70's played in the background during my visit there.  

I plopped down on one of the stools at the bar and was given a food menu and a drink menu by one of the bartenders Sara who had an Eastern European accent.  She asked what I would like to drink and I noticed they had Kona Big Wave on tap.  But I had a refrigerator full of Big Wave back home, so I focused on something local.  I found a beer from the Evil Twin Brewing Company over in Queens called "Our Most Popular IPA".  It was a hazy IPA that was a combination of hoppy and fruity.  It was a wonderful beer.  

The menu at Stout NYC featured a lengthy list of appetizers - many of which sounded delicious to me.  The buttermilk fried chicken fingers and the salt & pepper calamari were the two things on that part of the menu that jumped out at me.  The beef barbacoa tacos also caught my eye.  They had wings, sweet and spicy fried cauliflower, an artichoke & spinach dip with chips, and mac & cheese bites.  The main part of the menu featured burgers and sandwiches, fish & chips, chicken pot pie, and an Irish shepherd's pie.  They also had salads and thin-crust pizza, as well as a vegetarian bowls.  

After considering getting an appetizer or two for lunch, I decided to get a burger - the Stout burger consisting of a blended beef patty topped with lettuce, tomato and finished with kosher dill pickle slices pinned to the top of the bun.  I asked Sara to add smoked bacon, sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese to the burger.  A tin cup of fries came on the side.  

The burger was outstanding.  Great beefy flavor, juicy with each bite, it was a delicious tasting burger.  With the Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon on the burger, the tastiness of the beef really shined through.  And the bun held together very well with all that was on the burger.  

The fries were also very good - crispy outer layer with a soft core.  But the burger was so filling that I had a lot of fries left over when I threw in the towel.   

I can't say anything bad about my experience at Stout NYC.  It was a spacious and ornate pub, the burger I had was very good, and they had a great selection of local craft beers.  That's all I want out of a restaurant like Stout NYC.  Oh - and good service, and the help I got from Sara that day was efficient and friendly.  Stout NYC by Bryant Park was an excellent find during my trip to Manhattan.

Lucille's BBQ - Fort Wayne, IN

When I was out in Fort Wayne, I stopped off at a local liquor store one evening to do a little beer hunting for some local craft beers that I thought I'd take back home with me.  When looking for the liquor store, I noticed a barbecue place that had the same name as a barbecue place I found in Southern California a couple years ago.  Damn - barbecue did sound good to me, and after I finished up my morning meetings with our client in Fort Wayne and before heading on to Chicago, I went to Lucille's BBQ to have some lunch.  

It turns out the Lucille's BBQ in Fort Wayne is not related to the Lucille's in Southern California as their full name is Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ.)  And the SoCal Lucille's isn't named after a real person, but a fictional lady who supposedly introduced barbecue to the area in the 1940's.  The real Lucille for Lucille's BBQ is the grandmother of the wife of founder Chris Wilson who loved good barbecue.  

And Chris Wilson knew how to make good barbecue.  For 20 years, Wilson was a pitmaster for a Famous Dave's restaurant.  Wilson decided to move his family to his wife's home town of Fort Wayne and he started up a food truck/trailer doing barbecue for events and parties.  And has it usually turns out, Wilson was told that his barbecue was so good that he needed to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant.  Wilson - along with his wife Melissa - opened Lucille's BBQ in November of 2015.  Their son - Chris Wilson, Jr. - joined the family business and eventually became the head pitmaster at Lucille's.

Lucille's BBQ is also well-known for giving back to the community.  Working with a Kansas City-area non-profit group Operation BBQ Relief, they've taken their trailer to storm and hurricane ravaged areas and have given out thousands of free meals to National Guard soldiers, FEMA personnel, infrastructure repair workers, and local people affected by the disaster.  Since 2011, Operation BBQ Relief and their affiliated barbecue restaurants have given out over 13 million meals to affected people and relief personnel.   

Getting to Lucille's can be a bit confusing, especially if you're heading north on Lima Road on the far north side of Fort Wayne.  Since Lima Road has a median, you can't turn left into Grover Court that runs right next to the restaurant.  What I was able to do - and thanks to my GPS on this one - was I turned left at the light at the corner of W. Wallen Road and Lima Road.  Then it was a right turn onto Village Drive that took me to Grover Court where I was able to take another right, then an immediate left into the parking lot for the strip mall in which Lucille's BBQ is located.  (see map)  

I walked into Lucille's and sort of stood in the entry way as no one was up front.  I noticed some stuff on the wall with some pictures presumably of the original Lucille and some family pictures.  There was also a chalkboard explaining that sometimes they run out of meat because every thing is made fresh to serve to the public that day.  

Finally, a young lady came to the cash register and asked if I had a to-go order.  I told her, no, I was there to eat in.  Her name was Morgan and it turned out that she was also my server that day.  As Morgan showed me to the dining area - a large room with corrugated tin walls on one side, sky blue paint on the walls, and about a half-dozen or so large windows allowing a lot of natural light to fill the room - I asked her if this Lucille's was in any way related to the Lucille's in Southern California.  

"Oh, no," she said as she motioned me to sit anywhere.  "We've been asked that question before many times, but we don't have any affiliation with them." 

I took a table in the front corner of the restaurant.  Morgan dropped off a menu for me and asked me what I would like to drink.  "We have Coke products, iced tea..."  I asked if they had beer and she said, "No, I'm sorry we don't."  That was probably fine since I had a 3-hour drive to Chicago and a late day meeting.  I ended up getting a glass of water.  

As I was looking at the menu, I noticed that they were playing a lot of blues music from guys like Joe Bonamassa, Tab Benoit, Jimmie Vaughan, and Albert King.  And - quite curiously - on the television in the corner opposite me, they were showing the noon news (it was after 1 p.m. in Fort Wayne) from KMOV out of St. Louis.  The only thing that I could figure the connection would be is that Lucille's served St. Louis-style ribs.  But I was puzzled how they were able to get a station from St. Louis on their television over 300 miles away from Fort Wayne.  

Lucille's had about anything your heart would desire in terms of barbecue - the aforementioned St. Louis-style ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken, beef brisket, smoked pork steaks, smoked turkey, burnt ends, smoked ham and even a smoked meat loaf!   (I gotta try a smoked meat loaf at home someday.)  They also had sandwiches with all the smoked meats available, and they had a large selection of burgers on the menu including the Burrito Burger with a burger patty topped with white cheddar cheese with corn, pulled pork, rice, jalapeños, pico de gallo and finished with a cheese queso sauce.  That just sounded like a gut bomb to me!

Also on the menu at Lucille's, they had smoked meat tacos, smoked meat wraps, and specialty sandwiches including a grilled chicken topped with bacon and ranch dressing; and the 3 Pigs sandwich with pulled pork, bacon and smoked ham.  Salads with pulled pork or brisket were on the menu, as were nachos with a choice of pulled chicken, brisket or pulled pork added on.  

As I like to do at barbecue restaurants that I go to on my first visit, I wanted to get a combo plate to try a couple three different types of meat.  They had 2 meat, 3 meat and 4 meat combos.  I went with the 2 meat platter with brisket and pulled pork.  I had a choice of sides including fries, bacon & onion Brussels sprouts, cheesy potatoes, and cole slaw.  I went with the smoked poblano peppers mac & cheese, and the Wilson family's "famous" baked beans.  

When Morgan brought out the meal on a small cooking sheet, I couldn't believe the amount of food that was on the tray.  It was a mound of pulled pork that was easily over a half-pound, and four thick-cut slices of brisket.  The sides were in six ounce plastic bowels.  A piece of white bread came with all that.  I immediately knew there was going to be no way that I was going to finish all this.  

Lucille's had a barbecue sauce bar that featured six different types of sauce.  Their house sauce was thick and sweet; the Texas bold was similar to the house sauce with a bit of a bite; the spicy sauce was similar to the Texas sauce, only it had some red pepper flakes added, and they had a raspberry chipotle sauce that had a spicy kick to it.  Those were the four that I tried, putting the sauces into little 2 ounce tubs to carry over to the table.  (I saw someone get up and go over and just take some of the bottles directly to their table rather than putting the sauces into the small tubs.)  The other two sauces were a mustard sauce that I really didn't care to try, and a sweet spicy sauce that I didn't try because I was fine with the four sauces that I already had.  

Oh man - was this good!  The pulled pork was juicy and tender with some great flavor on their own.  I tried different sauces on the pulled pork and I really couldn't decide what I liked the best.  But the brisket was out of this world.  Go back up and take a look at the picture of the thick-cut brisket.  The outer bark on the brisket was delicious, the beef fell apart very easily, and it was moist and tender.  It was simply some of the best brisket I've ever had.  

The sides were also spectacular.  The baked beans had large chunks of pork mixed in.  I usually like to add some barbecue sauce to baked beans when I'm having them in a barbecue joint, but the Wilson family's "famous" baked beans were great as they were presented.  And the smoked poblano mac & cheese was also very good with a hint of a smoky and spicy flavor to the concoction.  

As I said, I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish the whole platter and since I was traveling I didn't want to take anything with me.  I concentrated on the brisket finishing all of that because it was excellent.  I left a few bites of the pulled pork and the majority of the mac & cheese and the baked beans.  I was so full that I didn't have dinner that night when I was in Chicago - which is quite rare when I'm in Chicago.  

Morgan dropped the bill off for me and I was supposed to take it to the cash register and pay afterwards.  When I got up to leave, Morgan and I got to talking about the place and some of the other things they have to offer.  "We also have cheesecake that is fresh baked from time to time," she said.  "And our smoked wings always win local awards for the best wings in town."  We talked some more for a couple minutes before I turned to leave.  Just as soon as I got out the door, I heard Morgan say, "Hey, sir!"  Then I realized that I hadn't paid yet!  I went back in somewhat embarrassed and settled up with her at the register.  After apologizing profusely, she said, "No worries!  We were talking and I know you have to get going."  

Fort Wayne has a surprising mix of good barbecue places.  I've eaten at three or four of them now and I have to say that Lucille's BBQ may be the best.  The brisket was some of the best I've ever eaten.  The pulled pork wasn't quite as good at the brisket, but it was still very good.  The sides I had - the smoked poblano mac & cheese, and the Wilson family recipe for baked beans - were also top notch.  And the house-made sauces that I tried were all great compliments to the excellent smoked meats.  About the only complaint I have is that they don't serve beer.  I like a cold bottle or two of beer to go along with my barbecue, but Lucille's is alcohol free.  But that shouldn't be a deal breaker for the fine barbecue they have to offer.   

 

Nino's 46 - New York City

When I was in New York last year, I stayed at a hotel on W. 46th St.  I had gone to an Italian restaurant on a rainy Saturday night that was nearly next door to the hotel.  The next day, I set out for the trade show I was working that weekend and I just happened to glance across the street and saw a restaurant by the name of Nino's 46.  It was my last day in New York and I didn't want to have Italian two nights in a row (although I wouldn't have minded doing it).  So I made a mental note of the restaurant for a return trip to New York City a couple months ago.  After helping set up for the trade show on Friday afternoon into the evening, I walked over to Nino's 46 to have dinner that evening.  

Gennaro Vendome immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970's and found work in Italian restaurants.  In 1982, Gennaro broke out on his own and founded Nino's Trattoria.  Along with his wife, Gennaro grew the business over the years.  And in the summer months, their sons Franco and Michael helped out in the restaurant.  And when they got older, Franco and Michael also got into the restaurant business opening (the now closed) Nino's AQ in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, and Nino's Beach in Port Washington on the north side of Long Island.  And when Gennaro was ready to retired in 2008, Franco and Michael took over their parent's restaurant, as well.  

In 2011, a devastating fire destroyed much of the interior of Nino's Trattoria.  Undeterred, the Vendome brothers decided to rebuild the restaurant in the same spot.  Signaling a change from the past, Franco and Michael Vendome reopened the restaurant in 2012 under the name of Nino's 46.  The Vendome family just celebrated 43 years of being in the restaurant business this year.  

Walking down 46th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, I remembered the cacophony of industrial noise that went on when I stayed at the hotel in the block last year.  This time, it was even more pronounced with a number of dump trucks and garbage trucks lining the street across from Nino's 46.  (see map)  The sidewalk on that side of the street was closed, as was the little Italian restaurant I went to on a rainy Saturday night a year before.  It was my guess that the building that housed the restaurant was undergoing a massive renovation as workers were hauling construction material out of a sort of alley way next to the restaurant.  

As I walked into I was a bit confused.  Up front to the right of the entrance was a small grill area with a flat grill, some burners, and fry bins.  But no one was working in the area.  I thought that was a bit odd for an Italian restaurant, but realized later on that the kitchen was in the back of the restaurant.  The restaurant, itself, was a long, narrow space with dark wood and brick accents, a small bar off to one side, and a very cozy atmosphere.  It was the quintessential New York City Italian restaurant.  

In the far back corner of the restaurant, there was a brick oven that was used to make pizza and to bake the bread Nino's 46 serves at the restaurant.  There was a pizzaiolo manning the station and as I was studying the brick oven, he encouraged me to come closer.  "Please," he said with a thick accent and he gestured toward the oven.  That thing was really putting out the heat.   

Most of the small tables were filled up, so I took a seat at the old ornate bar.  They had the old circular stools with no backrests on them.  At first, I thought they'd be uncomfortable, but the seat turned out to be fine.  Contemporary lights with circular shades hung directly above the bar.  The lights were dimmed enough where they weren't obtrusive, but bright enough to be able to read the menu.  They played an interesting mix of somewhat laid-back electronic music in Nino's 46 by artists such as Montreal's Niall Mutter, French artist Roman Kouder along with the nu disco/electronica group Patawawa, producer/electronic artist DUX, Σtella & Redinho, and a great song by Butter Bath & Jermango Dreaming, a collaboration between artists Toby Anagnostic and Jermaine Sakr.  Many of the songs I heard I immediately added to my playlist.  

There were a couple bartenders working behind the bar that evening, but the one that took care of me that evening was a young man by the name of Boyano.  He also had a thick accent, I couldn't tell if it was more Italian or Eastern European.  I figured I needed a beer and they had a very small list of beers to choose from.  Curiously, they didn't have any Italian beers such as Peroni or Moretti.  But they did have Founders All Day IPA - I was frankly puzzled as to why so many places I went to in New York City seemed to have a beer from Michigan as their IPA selection.  I got one of those while I looked over the menu.  

As I was looking through the menu, I was presented with a small plate of of their in-house baked Italian bread.  A small container of pepper-spiced olive oil came with the four pieces of bread.  The bread was superb - it had a crusty outer layer with a spongy inner core.  Along with the spiced olive oil, this was a nice little welcoming gift from Nino's 46.     

The menu wasn't large, but it was certainly interesting.  The first thing that jumped out at me was in the appetizers part of the menu - the charred octopus.  It came with a green mango/jalapeño puree and pickled red onions.  Yum!  Other appetizers included fried calamari, tuna tartare, a trio of meatballs in a San Marzano sauce, and deep-fried burrata cheese.  I came about *this* close to getting the charred octopus and tuna tartare appetizers as my meal that evening, but I was really wanting pasta.   

And, of course, since they have a pizza oven, they have a variety of pizzas on the menu including a traditional margherita pizza, a grilled chicken and vodka sauce pizza, and a pepperoni and hot Calabrian honey pizza.  Main entrees included a milk-braised beef short rib with fingerling potatoes, coffee-crusted skirt steak, a grilled Norwegian salmon in a smoked tomato sauce, and veal marsala.  Nino's 46 also had a handful of salads including an organic strawberry with burrata cheese salad.  

For pasta on the menu at Nino's 46, it was a short and concise list.  They had a spaghetti with San Marzano dish where you could add items such as grilled chicken, meatballs, sweet Italian sausage, or veal parmigiana.  There was a house-made gnocchi with heirloom tomatoes dish, as well as a fettuccine lobster or linguine with clams  And there was a "Kitchen Sink" pasta dish consisting of fettuccine, braised short rib ragu, shishito peppers, and mascarpone topped with a fried egg and chili oil.  

But in the end, I went with the fusilli pasta with the bolognese sauce.  It was a mixture of veal, pork and pancetta mixed in with hearty tomato cream sauce along with the soffrito trio of diced carrots, celery and onions.   It was definitely a very rustic, old-style Italian bolognese.  Along with dinner, I got a glass of their house cabernet from the Disruption winery in the Columbia Valley of Washington state.  

When Boyano set the bowl of pasta in front of me, I thought, "Man, there is no way I'm going to eat all this!"  But from the first bite, it was like I couldn't stop.  The bolognese ragu stuck to the cork-screw pasta very well and the earthiness of the soffrito gave the pasta dish an extra bit of flavor that I usually don't get from a good bolognese sauce.  Before I knew it, I was about 3/4's of the way through bowl of pasta with the bolognese sauce.  And when I finished, I hate to admit that I was literally cleaning the remnants of the sauce with one last piece of the great house-baked bread.  I was full, but very happy.  The walk back to the hotel about six blocks away allowed me to digest the meal even more.  

I'm certainly glad that I kept Nino's 46 in the back of my mind when I went back to New York this year.   My meal was outstanding.  The fusilli pasta with the very rustic bolognese sauce was delicious.  And the fresh baked bread that they served before the meal was also tremendous.  Boyano did a good job of taking care of me with his efficient, yet low key service.  Nino's 46 was everything I hoped a true New York City Italian restaurant would be.  Small, quaint, cozy and comfortable with tremendous food. 

Burnt Barrel Social - Sugar Grove, IL

Sugar Grove is a fast growing bedroom community on the far west side of the Chicago suburbs.  There is also a large complex of warehouses and small industrial sites just off Interstate 88 outside of the city.  My company's North American warehouse is located just outside of Montreal, but with all the silliness going on between the U.S. and Canada these days, it's been tougher and tougher to get packages shipped across the border without U.S. Customs dissecting each shipment and delaying transit times.  It's also caused us to not being able to ship products overnight or 2-day services for people who need equipment right away.  We've been scouting warehouse sites in the U.S. and friends of ours in the audio industry have been using a bonded warehouse outside of Sugar Grove as a third-party logistics center.  I had a mid-morning meeting with the guys who run the warehouse recently and on a couple previous meetings there, I noticed that there was a pretty nice looking restaurant right at the front entrance of the business park.  After I finished my meeting around 11:15 and before I hit the road to head home, I stopped in to the Burnt Barrel Social to check the place out and have some lunch.  

Jim Ratos grew up in the far western suburbs of Chicago helping his father in a restaurant the family managed, then later owned.  After graduating high school in 1973, Ratos had one goal in mind - to own his own business and control his own destiny.  He eventually owned his own restaurant in Ottawa, IL, but by 1982 he had moved back to the Sugar Grove/Yorkville area to plan his next venture.  

Ratos got into land development and construction, primarily building small apartments and some commercial developments.  In 1985, he started Parkway Development that eventually went into the construction of medial centers and parks in the area.  And his focus in providing office spaces for professionals when he began to design and develop buildings for lawyers and accountants who were moving into the far western reaches of Chicago.  

Ratos continued to develop other projects including a 10-plex cinema and a child care center, and he was one of the first Jimmy John's franchisees in the Chicago area.  Along with his sub shops, Ratos also started Legends Grill & Bar - today a three-location sports bar in the far western suburbs; and Lakeview Grille - a popular fine dining establishment in Yorkville.  

While Ratos raised four children, only his namesake - Jimmy - became involved in the restaurants.  Like his father and grandfather, Jimmy Ratos loved the restaurant business and was one of the managers at the Lakeview Grill.  But he wanted to run his own place and he teamed with restaurant veteran Matt Strong to come up with a new concept that focused on a wide selections of bourbons and whiskies, an upscale bar menu that focused on fresh ingredients, and all of which would be served in a comfortable and hospitable environment.  

Through Parkway Development, the new restaurant was built in a development on the northwest side of the intersection of Illinois State Highway 47 and U.S. Highway 34 in Yorkville in the late 2010's.  On March 12, 2020, Ratos and Strong opened Burnt Barrel Social to a strong first weekend.  However, four days later, the state of Illinois ordered all bars and restaurant across the state to shut down due to the COVID 19 pandemic.  

It may have been lucky for Burnt Barrel Social to be open for just a few days to get the kinks out of their system and to work on things during the shutdown.  When they were allowed to reopen in the summer of 2020 for to-go orders, it remained a popular place.  And when all restaurants were able to reopen for regular dining in 2021, Burnt Barrel Social became a hot ticket on the food scene in Yorkville.  

The Yorkville location became so popular that Ratos and Strong surveyed the area for a second location for Burnt Barrel Social.  They found a spot at the corner of Heartland Drive and Illinois State Highway 47 at the front entrance to the industrial/business park and construction of the building commenced in 2022.  In May of 2023, the second location for Burnt Barrel Social opened to the public.  (see map)  

When I walked into Burnt Barrel Social just before 11:30, the place was pretty empty.  But within five minutes of sitting down at the wood-carved, contoured bar, the place began to fill up quickly.  The front part featured a large dining space with flat screens on the wall that hid a beverage station.  It was sort of a strange layout with the host stand sort of sitting in the middle of the room near the bar.  But it was sort of elegant and homey at the same time.  

The rear of the restaurant featured a wing that had more tables and was highlighted by a large fireplace along the back wall.  There were a few high-top two-seater tables along the wall opposite the three-sided bar.  

There is a small room off to the side of the front dining area that could be used for overflow dining or private parties/events.  It appeared that this room was definitely not a main part of the restaurant.

Outside there are two patio areas - both are off to the side of the back wing of the restaurant.  This patio area featured an AstroTurf base where people could go out and stand when the weather was warmer.  The big patio on the other side, however, featured a large outdoor fireplace and would be used as an outdoor seating area in warmer weather.  

The bartender/server that helped me that day was a young lady by the name of Amber.  Or maybe it was Amy.  I don't remember because she was more interested in talking with some guys caddy-cornered across the bar from me.  I was given a food menu when I came in and I ordered up a Gummylicious hazy IPA from Noon Whistle Brewing in nearby Naperville and in west suburban Lombard.  It was probably a little too early in the day to have a beer, but what the hell.  Starting my weekend a little early.  

I noticed that they certainly had a large number of various bottles of liquor on the shelves on the backbar and I took a look at their drink menu to see what they had to offer just for the hell of it.  They had over 60 different bourbons available at Burnt Barrel Social, about 17 rye whiskies, and over a dozen varieties of Scotch.  Definitely a bourbon/whiskey place, they only had 8 different types of tequila to choose from.   

I was pretty hungry because I had a big lunch the previous day and didn't have dinner the night before or breakfast that same morning.   I eagerly looked through the menu to see what they had to offer.  The appetizers were interesting as they included a grilled sausage platter with bratwurst, knackwurst, and Polish sausage served with kraut and three different types of dipping sauce.  Fried calamari was on the appetizer portion of the menu, as were wings, sliders, and a blackened chicken/avocado flatbread.  

Soups and salads were available, as well as a number of sandwiches and burgers.  Main entrees included a parmesan-crusted grouper, a 12 oz. grilled prime rib, a bourbon glaze salmon, Greek chicken kabobs, and a bone-in cabernet-braised short rib served on a bed of gnocchi dumplings.  Now THAT sounded great!  

But I ended up focusing more on the sandwich/burger part of the menu including the 8 oz. steak sandwich, the bourbon barbecue slow-roasted pork sandwich, and the "build-your-own" grilled cheese sandwich with a choice of six different cheeses, and where you could add a number of items including grilled steak, grilled chicken, a fried egg, sautéed mushrooms, avocado and thick-sliced bacon.  I really thought about going that route.

But their description of "The Burger" on the menu sold me.  It was a 10-ounce hand-packed black angus beef patty with a choice of six different types of cheese, and toppings that included onion straws, jalapeños, avocado and a fried egg.  I got the burger topped with pepper jack cheese, thick-cut bacon, and sautéed mushrooms.  It was served to me on a small backing sheet on wax paper.  

I have to say the burger was dynamite.  The patty was thick and juicy, full of great beef flavor.  The pepper jack cheese oozed off the top of the burger patty, but it didn't overwhelm the flavor of the beef.  The mushrooms were definitely fresh and were a wonderful compliment to the burger.  And the smoky taste of the bacon helped blend all the flavors together.  Lettuce, tomato, onions and dill pickles came with the burger and with everything piled high, it was a messy thing to eat.  Nonetheless, the bun held together very well.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  And it was a spot hitter.

I do have to say that the fries were also very good.  They were a bit well-done, but didn't taste burnt.  They had a flavor that they had possibly been cooked in beef tallow.  There was a lot of the tray and I couldn't even come close to finishing half the fries after concentrating on the burger.  

Other than the slow-at-the-switch service thanks to the bartender who was bantering back-and-forth with some young guys who appeared to be regulars seated at the bar, the experience at Burnt Barrel Social was very positive.  First of all, the decor gives the place a homey feeling, the food I had was very good, and the spirits selections - especially the bourbons they had to offer - and the variety craft beers were top-notch.  It's sort of funny to find a place like this sort out on the outskirts of Sugar Grove.  But the way the area is growing, it will be surrounded by other businesses in a short amount of time.  

John's Pizzeria of Times Square - New York City

I was in New York recently for a trade show and stayed at a hotel near Times Square at the corner of Broadway and W. 42nd St.  In fact, you could see One Times Square from my hotel room window, complete with the pole where the infamous New Year's ball drop occurs each year.  When I was in New York last year, I didn't get a chance to go out and get a proper New York pizza.  This year, I was determined to find one that was near my hotel and I found one on W. 44th between 7th and 8th Avenues - John's Pizzeria of Times Square.  It's part of the famous John's Pizzeria restaurants in New York City that date back nearly 100 years.

Fillipo Milone was an Italian immigrant who moved to New York City in the early part of the 20th century.  He opened a pizza place on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village in 1915, one of the oldest pizza places in New York City.  Milone built the brick coal-fired pizza oven by hand.   

At another pizza establishment - Lombardi's, known as the first pizzeria in New York City - a young Italian immigrant by the name of John Sasso was employed as a pizza maker.  Filippo Milone was John Sasso's brother-in-law, and in the late 1920's John Sasso took over Milone's restaurant and renamed it John's Pizzeria.  In 1934, Sasso lost his lease on the building on Sullivan Street, but found a new location on Bleecker Street about five blocks away.  Sasso dismantled the brick oven and moved it to the new location - which is still in business today.  

What set John's Pizzeria apart from the other pizzerias in New York, he didn't sell pizza by the slice.  He only sold full-sized pizza - it was even imprinted on the brick walls in front of the restaurant.  And that business plan is still in place today.  

In the 1950's, John Sasso sold the restaurant to his brother who held on to the restaurant until the early 1960's when it was sold to Augustine "Chubby" Vesce and his wife Rose.  Working at the restaurant when the Vesce's took over was a young guy by the name of Peter Castellotti who was the great nephew of John Sasso.  Castellotti started out busing tables in the 50's before eventually becoming the manager of the restaurant by late 70's.  But by 1980, Chubby Vesce was suffering from poor health and he reached out to Castellotti to offer him a 40% share in the pizza joint to continue to run it for the Vesce family.  Castellotti took Vesce up on that offer and became a partner in the business in the early 80's.  

After Chubby Vesce died in 1984, Peter Castellotti purchased the remaining shares of John's Pizzeria.  One of the first things he did was to open a second location for John's Pizzeria on the upper East side of New York City in 1985.  In 1986, Castellotti had gone through a divorce and moved to Port Charlotte, FL and opened a John's Pizzeria complete with a brick oven.  He had turned the reins of the John's Pizzerias in New York City to his son Peter, Jr. and his daughter, Lisa Free.  

In 1993, Peter Castellotti, Jr. and Lisa Free opened a third New York location of John's Pizzeria, this time on the upper West side on W. 65th Street.  But it was their mother Madeline who became involved with the project that eventually became the John's Pizzeria of Times Square.  

After divorcing Peter Castellotti, Sr., Madeline Castellotti was working in human resources in a large law firm in New York City.  She held the majority of the assets of John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street along with her children, as well as the upper West side location.  (Peter Castellotti, Sr. held the assets of the John's Pizzeria on the upper East side of Manhattan, as well as the location in Florida.)  But it was a dilapidated old church near Times Square that caught her eye in 1994.  

Times Square had been a pretty seedy area for a number of years.  However the area in and around Times Square was undergoing gentrification as buildings were getting cleaned up and the porn shops and unsavory elements were being pushed out.  Madeline Castellotti had her eye on the old Gospel Tabernacle Church that had originally been built in 1888.  Empty since 1970, it was a graffiti laden, homeless encampment that was in dire need of a complete overhaul.  Madeline Castellotti wanted to take over the building, revamp and rehab the location, and turn it into what would turn out to be the largest pizzeria in the United States.  After months of renovations, John's Pizzeria of Times Square opened its doors in a spot that accommodated up to 400 people. 

John's Pizzeria is located on W. 44th Street just past the St. James Theater and 8th Ave.  (see map)  (Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Blvd. was playing at the St. James the night I was at John's Pizzeria.)   Just inside John's Pizzeria is a long entrance wall which on one side has framed prints and drawing designs of the old Gospel Tabernacle Church.  It was pretty interesting to see the architectural prints and pictures of the church that was built in the late 19th century.  

On the other wall were a number of posters of Broadway shows that had played in the various theaters in the area.  Many of the posters had been signed by the actors, actresses, directors and producers of the various shows.  

The main part of restaurant was the old chapel that had been turned into dining space.  The balcony also had a number of tables for overflow dining.  One of the things I noticed was that John's Pizzeria had holiday lights strung along the balcony's railing and also in the bar area.  But it was late February and the lights were still on display.  It was actually sort of a classy dining room for a pizza place.  

The dining area also had coal-fired pizza ovens in the corners.  Even though the place was far from packed, I noticed that 3 of the pizza ovens were in use.   The eye-catching part of the dining room was a large blac--and-white mural of Manhattan.  The intricate detail on the mural was somewhat mesmerizing.  

But the main feature of the dining room was the large stained-glass ceiling.  It looked pretty impressive at night, but I wish I would have been able to see it on a sunny day.  The stained glass had been restored from the original design in the 19th century.  It was pretty cool, even at night. 

In the lounge area in the front part of the restaurant was another seating area with another large black-and-white mural on the wall.  The lounge had a high-ceiling and a number of art deco-style wooden booths along the wall.  If you didn't know there was a large dining room in the back, you would have thought this was the main dining area at John's Pizzeria.

Opposite the lounge was the bar area.  The curved bar could seat about 15 people.  There were three flat-screen televisions on the wall with either basketball games or hockey matches being shown on them.  Music by Amy Winehouse, The Rolling Stones, Selena Gomez, and the French duo Modjo played in the background while I was seated at the bar.  

There were two bartenders who tag-teamed taking care of me during my stay.  One of them gave me a menu to look through and the other asked what I wanted to drink.  They had Founders All Day IPA on tap and I ordered one of those.  

Pizza, of course, is the main draw to John's Pizzeria, but they also appetizer such as fried calamari, pizza rolls, and fried ravioli to start out with.  They also had main entrees such as chicken parmigiana and shrimp piccata, as well as pasta dishes including linguine and calamari, chicken fettuccine alfredo, penne pasta in a vodka sauce, and baked ziti.  They also had sandwiches, salads and a daily soup special on the menu.  

They had three different sizes of pizza at John's Pizzeria.  There was a 10" gluten-free pizza, a small pizza and a large pizza.  The only problem was that the small pizza was a 14" pizza.  That created a bit of a dilemma as I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish a pizza that size in one sitting.  I figured that I could take the leftovers back to my room for a snack or even breakfast.  

I got my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  And it was very good.  The crust was thin, but it wasn't crispy.  It did hold up very well with all the toppings, sauce and cheese on the pizza.  The pizza sauce had a nice tangy flavor to it, and the large chunks of sausage had enough of a spicy bite to be noticeable.  The pizza went very well with a beer.  

The only problem - the pizza was $37.25!  Welcome to the big city, farm boy from Iowa!  The pizza started out at $23.50 for a basic mozzarella and sauce pizza.  Adding sausage to the pizza was an additional $5.25, pepperoni slices were $5.00, and the mushrooms were a relative deal at $3.50.  I've had some expensive pizzas in my travels, but I'm not certain that I've ever paid $37.25 for a 14" pizza.  But I did eat half the pizza and was able to take 3 pieces back to my hotel room.  I had one as a late night snack one evening, and the other two I had for breakfast another day.  So, I guess the leftovers did pose a bit of a bargain.  

High prices aside, my trip to John's Pizzeria was pretty memorable.  The pizza was great, but the restaurant was also very interesting with it being in an old 19th century church.  John's Pizzeria can easily handle large groups or single diners such as myself.  I'm still trying the find the quintessential New York pizza joint, but for now I'll have to say John's Pizzeria would be how I measure other New York pizzas I hope to try in the future.  

Solbird Kitchen & Tap - Fort Wayne, IN

I was out in Fort Wayne recently for meetings with our largest account.  I got into the hotel on Fort Wayne's far north side around 6 p.m., and after getting settled in, I looked up some restaurants in the area.  There was a Mexican taqueria that also specialized in serving locally-brewed craft beers that caught my attention.  It was about 3 miles north of where I was staying, so I took off to go find Solbird Kitchen & Tap.   

Jerry Perez grew up in Laredo, TX where as a young boy he acquired an affinity for street tacos.  As an adult, he moved to Fort Wayne and fell in love with some of the cuisine in town.  One evening, he was in downtown Fort Wayne and came across the Bravas food cart that sold tacos and hot dogs.  (Bravas eventually became a brick and mortar restaurant specializing in burgers.  Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Bravas.)  Perez was inspired by the Bravas food cart to come up with his own food cart concept that would sell street tacos like the ones he loved as a youth.  In 2012, Perez started his Sol Kitchen food cart and sold street tacos at a local farmers market.  He liked The Doors and fashioned his business' name after their song "Soul Kitchen" that was on their eponymous first album.  Only he gave the name of his food cart a bit of a Latin flair.  

The food cart turned out to be a hit and within a couple years Perez acquired a food truck and went around to different events and venues in his Sol Kitchen food truck.  It was during this time that he was introduced to a young man who had his own brewpub in Fort Wayne.  Ben Thompson was the owner of Birdboy Brewing, a small craft brewery that had opened in 2015.  Thompson was brewing beers in a facility on the north side of Fort Wayne and distributing the beers around the area.  He wanted to have his own taproom/brewpub, but needed to collaborate with someone on the food.  

Perez and Thompson hit it off and decided in 2017 to do a joint venture together.  Thompson was already working on a brewery/tap room with food from the great Joseph Decuis restaurant in Roanoke (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Joseph Decuis), and he and Perez announced they would open a brick-and-mortar restaurant with Thompson's beers and Perez's street tacos.  They announced their plans for their Fort Wayne venture in the fall of 2017, but the Roanoke project came about more quickly than anticipated.  That pushed back the Fort Wayne opening date by a few months.  

By the end of the food truck season in October of 2018, Perez - along with his wife Laurie - and Thompson were ready to open their collaborative venture - Solbird Kitchen & Tap.  The connection between Perez and Thompson continued for three years before Thompson sold his shares of Birdboy and the brewery was eventually closed.  That allowed Perez to focus on serving beers from other local craft breweries such as Fortlandia, Hop River and Mad Anthony.  

Solbird Kitchen & Tap is located in a strip mall near the corner of Lima Rd. and W. DuPont Rd.  (see map)  It's sort of tough to find - you have to go west on DuPont and turn into a roadway next to a Marathon gas station.  Solbird is on the end of a building with plenty of parking available.  

Walking into Solbird, the small place was packed with diners.  It was obviously a popular place as nearly every table was filled and there were just two or three open spots at the L-shaped bar.  The long narrow dining area was well-lit with strings of Edison lights below exposed HVAC ductwork.  Banquette seats lined the wall opposite the bar with a row of two-seater high-top tables were in between.  A really crappy sound system consisting of a shitty sounding sound bar on a shelf behind the bar was playing 70's and 80's classic rock way too loud as the place was already loud with all the conversations going on.  True to Jerry Perez's love for The Doors, a large photo of Jim Morrison hung on the wall by the open kitchen.  

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by a young lady by the name of Isabel.  She gave me a menu to look over and asked me what I wanted to drink.  There was a QR code on the menu that allowed me to download the beer list.  At the top of the list were the lagers and they had a dark Mexican lager from the Fortlandia Brewing Company - Dark Side of Pedro.  That sounded interesting to me, so I ordered that.  Isabel soon brought me pint and pushed it across the deep bar to me.  I took a sip of the beer and found that it was more of a coffee-style stout than a dark lager Mexican beer.  It was OK, but I went with the Hop Rivers Lasers in the Jungle IPA that they had on the list.  

To say the menu at Solbird Kitchen & Tap was interesting is putting it mildly.  They had the regular appetizers such as guacamole, salsa with chips, and chips with queso; but they also had shrimp ceviche and a shiitake mushroom/Mexican truffle quesadilla that sounded really interesting.  On Sundays, they served a number of brunch items such as breakfast tacos, a steak burrito, and a Mexican-style poutine with chorizo sausage gravy topping ancho-seasoned fries and cheddar cheese with a fried egg.  

While Solbird Kitchen is primarily a taqueria, they also had burritos, quesadillas, rice bowls (with or without protein), and las papas fritas - basically fried potatoes topped with different items including a Korean-inspired dish with fried potatoes topped with bulgogi beef and kimchi.  But I was there for the tacos.

And some of the taco selections were also very interesting.  They had a taco that was also a Korean-style taco with bulgogi beef and kimchi, as well as a shrimp taco marinated in Korean sauces and grilled.  They had an Indian/Mexican Chicken Tinga fusion taco with chipotle-braised chicken breast meat; there was an ancho-marinated grilled shrimp taco with a pineapple-mango sauce; and then there was "The Jazzy" - basically the same thing as the shrimp taco only with house-made chorizo sausage added.  

They did have pork carnitas tacos topped with the pineapple/mango sauce with green onions and cilantro, but I went with something they called "The Texican" - basically a beef blend of ground chuck, brisket and short rib that Solbird Kitchen sourced from a local farm, then topped with pico de gallo, a lettuce/cabbage blend, finished off with Tapatio hot sauce, cheddar cheese, and a single pickled jalapeño all in a crispy fried corn tortilla shell.  The presentation was pretty basic, but I really didn't care much about that.  

And the tacos had a lot of flavors going on - savory, spicy and, of course, beefy.  The beef blend really stood out even with the spiciness of the add-ons.  The corn flour shells were pretty brittle and much of the beef and toppings spilled onto the plate with nearly each bite.  But the tacos were very good and the Hop Rivers Lasers in the Jungle IPA went very well with the tacos.  

Really, other than the way-too-loud music being played on a crappy soundbar system (as a long time audio industry veteran who knows good sound, I was embarrassed for them), Solbird Kitchen & Tap was a great find.  The tacos I had were very good, and the rest of the menu seemed to be pretty intriguing.  Isabel did fine job of taking care of me and I felt bad because she was a short young lady who had a hard time placing things in front of me on the nearly 4 foot-deep bar.  Solbird Kitchen & Tap was definitely a unique experience.