Road Tips

Wally's Chowder House - Des Moines, WA

A preamble to this Road Tips entry on Wally's Chowder House -

I've been a map nut ever since I was a real little kid.  I'd look at maps, study them, got to know the state capitals by the time I was 5 years old.  (My parents used to bring me out at parties and have the guests ask me what the state capital of New Hampshire was; or the state capital of Montana.  It was a pretty good parlor trick for my parents friends.)  I think I had a bit of wanderlust at an early age looking at the map and wondering what it was like in New England, or in the Southwest.  

But I was also enamored with names of cities - especially realizing that there were multiple states with cities of the same name including the towns of Kellogg and Newton near where I grew up.  Iowa's state capital of Des Moines was a pretty unique name and there weren't a lot of places called Des Moines - actually just 3 places.  There's a Des Moines, New Mexico - a small village in the northeastern part of that state; and there's a Des Moines, WA located just south of Seattle.  I'd always wanted to go to Des Moines, WA (the locals pronounce it "deh MOYNZ" instead of the "duh MOYNE" pronunciation we Iowans use) and on a recent trip I was able to do just that as I had lunch at a spot called Wally's Chowder House.  

Mike Nordean has been associated with restaurants since he was a teenager.  He started out busing tables at a Doubletree Hotel restaurant while he was in high school.  He continued to work at the restaurant through his college years eventually becoming a bartender and the catering manager.  During his time in college, he met his first wife and they were married in 1978.  

However, tragedy struck just after he graduated in 1979 - his wife was killed in a car wreck.  A few years later, Nordean met and married his second wife Judy, but Nordean continued to be close to his former in-laws.  In 1991, the opportunity came about for Nordean and his former in-laws to buy a restaurant - Wally's Drive In - in Buckley, WA, a small former logging and coal town southeast of Seattle that sits at the foot of Mount Rainier.  

In 1992, the Nordeans and his in-laws opened a second restaurant - Wally's Chowder House - in the Seattle suburb of Des Moines.  Nordean eventually bought out his in-laws making Judy and him the sole owners of both restaurants.  

The political and cultural upheaval that started in 2016 has given Wally's Chowder House some unfortunate notoriety.  Mike and Judy's son Ethan literally grew up in the restaurant business.  By all indications, he was a good kid growing up helping at the restaurant while Mike Nordean taught him how to ski and ride ATV's.  Ethan and his step-sister - Judy's daughter from a previous marriage - were destined to take over the family's restaurants at some point.  

Out of high school, Ethan joined the Navy hoping to become a Navy Seal.  However, it turned out that he couldn't make the cut during training.  After washing out of the Navy, Ethan became disillusioned and in 2017 he ended up joining the Proud Boys, the extreme right-wing all-male faction that has been labeled as a hate group by law enforcement officials.  Ethan continued to work at the restaurant, but his views became extreme and well-known amongst people in the community.  When Ethan was prominently caught on camera fighting with left-wing protestors in Portland, OR in the summer of 2018, Mike was forced to fire his son from the restaurant.

However, community backlash continued against Wally's as Mike was deemed guilty by association even though he publicly disavowed his son's societal stances.  As Ethan grew more prominent in the Proud Boys organization, the boycott by some in the community against Wally's Chowder House continued to grow.  It didn't help that Judy Nordean seemed to back some of the rhetoric that her son exposed.  She used social media as a platform railing against gays, left-wing activists and Muslims.  Local civic organizations either dropped Wally's Chowder House for membership, or outright banned city events to be held at the restaurant.

Hoping to get his son set straight, Mike Nordean rehired his son to be the assistant manager at the Wally's Drive In in Buckley.  He had hoped that putting him there would get him away from the influences of the Proud Boys.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.   Ethan Nordean became more radicalized and became one of the leaders of the Proud Boy faction.  

In 2019, Nordean was forced to fire his son once again.  Ethan Nordean's wife - who was a waitress at Wally's Chowder House - was also let go.  And he persuaded his wife Judy to take down her Twitter account and quit espousing right wing views.  He hired a communications crisis management company to come in and help soften the image of the Wally's restaurants hoping to bring customers back.  

Ethan's troubles came to a head when during the January 6th insurrection of the U.S. Capitol in 2021, Ethan was one of the first persons who stormed the building that day, leading a group of about 100 Proud Boys past barricades and into the Capitol.  Because he was known to law enforcement officials from being front and center at previous rallies, Ethan Nordean was also one of the first to be arrested for leading the insurrection.  The FBI raided his home in Auburn, WA and took him into custody.  In September of 2023, Ethan Nordean was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release.  

Mike Nordean used to be the first person you saw when you went into Wally's Chowder House, but he has kept a low-profile over the past couple years as the community still has hard feelings about his son's and his wife's views.  Now in his late 60's, Nordean lives primarily in Arizona.  Business had been tough during the pandemic, but with Ethan Nordean now in prison and the Nordean's no longer running the day-to-day operations at the Wally's restaurants, the crowds have started to come back.

Now, let me say that if I had known all that before I found Wally's, it would have given me pause.  But I will point out that when I went there, I followed a black couple into the restaurant.  There were two Hispanic girls at a table near me, and an Asian lady was part of a group of four women seated at a table in the dining room when I got up to leave.  It appears that some in the area have strong feelings against the Nordeans and still boycott Wally's, but it was apparent to me that there was some diversity in the restaurant when I was in there.

Wally's Chowder House is located on Marine View Drive S., the main north-south road through the city of Des Moines.  (see map)  It was tough to miss the restaurant with massive petunia arrangements hanging from baskets and in planters around the perimeter of the building.  I went in the wrong entry way taking an entrance to the north of the restaurant into a parking lot with signage all over the place that said that was NOT parking for Wally's.  But that lot emptied into an alley way that allowed me to get into Wally's parking lot just to the south.

The main dining area is just past the host stand.  It was rustic in decor with reclaimed barn boards paneled on the wall.  Antique light fixtures and fans hung from the low slung ceilings.  It wasn't a big place and was rather cozy.   

I asked if there was seating at the bar and the young man at the front desk said that I could go back.  However, as I was walking toward the lounge area, the young man was told by a lady, "The bar is full and she's really slammed back there,"  The lounge looked like it had been added onto from the original building with a much higher ceiling with recessed lighting and a large contemporary fan hanging from the ceiling.  There was a half-wall partition between the dining area in the lounge and the bar itself.

The bar wasn't very big and it sat just six people.  It was, indeed, full when I caught a glimpse of it when I walked into the lounge area.  There were three televisions one the walls - two directly behind the bar and one off to the side.  The Seattle Mariners were playing in Oakland that afternoon and they had the game on one of the TV's.

There was a table just off the bar in the patio on the side of the restaurant.  It had full view of all three TV's, so I took a seat there.  The patio wasn't all that large and featured seating for 14 to 16 people.  It was a warm day for Seattle-area standards - upper 80's into the low 90's.  But the humidity was low and the ceiling fans and additional fans moving the air made it tolerable inside Wally's Chowder House.

My server that day was a young man by the name of Bryden.  After getting a menu to look over, he asked me what I would like to drink.  I asked if they had any hazy IPA's available and he said they didn't, but they had a local IPA on tap.  I said I'd take that.  Moments later, Bryden scurried past the table and said, "Sorry.  We just blew the keg.  I have to go change it."  

He reappeared and dashed behind the bar.  A couple minutes later he brought me out a cold glass of Manny's IPA from the Georgetown Brewing Company located just south of downtown Seattle.  "It's on the house," he said.  "Sorry you had to wait."  Now, that's called good customer service.  

It was a pretty lengthy menu at Wally's, but most of it was geared toward seafood.  Appetizers such as fresh dungeness crab from the Pacific Northwest, shrimp cocktail, clams, and calamari were on the menu.  Entrees such as fish and chips were on the menu - salmon, halibut, Arctic cod, and local Ling cod were the choices for fish.  Platters with deep-fried prawns, shrimp, clams, scallops and oysters were also available, each with bottomless French fries.  

Specialty plates of a blackened salmon filet, almond crusted halibut, and fresh crab cakes were part of the menu, and they also had a USDA prime cut New York strip and a garlic-marinated grilled chicken breast to choose from.  Pasta dishes such as a seafood fettuccine and a cioppino pasta plate were also available.  There sounded like a lot of good things to choose from.  

Wally's Chowder House also featured a lunch menu with smaller portions of a handful of items on the menu.  They also had sandwiches and burgers, a kid menu, and daily lunch specials.  It would have been very tough to not find something you like on the menu. 

Since it's called Wally's Chowder House, I had to start out with a cup of their house-made New England-style clam chowder.  It was topped with parsley flakes and a couple small bags of chowder crackers came on the side.  The chowder was thick, creamy and very rich - and very delicious.  It left sort of a buttery taste on the tongue.  It was some of the best clam chowder I had ever had.  

For lunch that day, I ended up getting the fish tacos.  I had a choice - Arctic cod, local Ling cod, halibut or prawn tacos.  The seafood could be either grilled, breaded and fried, or blackened.  I got the blackened halibut tacos on soft flour tortillas.  (Corn tortilla shells were also available.)  The tacos were topped with a house-made chipotle crema with cilantro, and fresh house-made salsa came on the side.  The chunks of halibut were big, but they were light and flaky inside with a crispy shell of blackened spiced on the outside.  They were simply excellent.  

The food and service at Wally's Chowder House was very good.  I can't say enough about how good the blackened halibut fish tacos were, and the house-made clam chowder was some of the best I had.  Bryden did a good job of making sure I was taken care of while I was there.  Family issues have helped drive a wedge between the Nordean family and some in the community, but from the looks of the crowd that was in there for lunch on a weekday, it seems like many have gotten beyond those past problems caused by Mike Nordean's son and wife.  I would have no problem recommending or going back to Wally's Chowder House.    

By the way, the capital of New Hampshire is Concord, and Helena is the capital of Montana...

 

Lighthouse Grill & Bar - Fairport, IA

My wife and I were invited to a birthday party for the mother of a friend of hers on a recent Friday night.  It was going to be held at a place we'd been to numerous times before, but I had never talked about it on Road Tips.  One of the reasons I wanted to go is because it's a fun place and right on the Mississippi River outside of Muscatine - the Lighthouse Grill & Bar at the Fairport Marina.  

When I first moved to the Quad Cities over 30 years ago, I had heard about the Fairport Marina and a little bar/restaurant that was there from a buddy of mine.  We went down there in the fall on a Sunday afternoon and had a great time.  I was enamored with everything about the Mississippi River at that point being new to the area and the little shanty-style restaurant being right on the river was sort of exciting to go to.  

After my wife-to-be moved to the area in 1994, we used to go out to Fairport Marina on occasion and have margaritas and appetizers as we watched boaters come in off the river.  One time, friends of our invited us to go with them in their boat from up river in Princeton, IA through two locks and dams and ending up for a late afternoon/early evening dinner before we went back up the river - through two locks and dams - getting back to their place just before midnight.  That was a memorable day.  

The restaurant has gone by a handful of names since it first opened in the early 80's, but was known as the Charthouse when Tim Schoenthal bought the marina and restaurant in 1999.  Along with his girlfriend - and now his wife as of 2015 - Annette, the two have operated the marina and restaurant for 25 years and live in the house right next to the restaurant.  

A few years ago, the Schoenthal's received a cease-and-desist letter from the corporate lawyers for the Chart House restaurant chain demanding that they no longer use the Charthouse name.  There was a small lighthouse at the marina at the time - I can't remember if it's still there or not - and the Schoenthal's changed the name to the Lighthouse.  (The Lighthouse in Muscatine is not affiliated with The Lighthouse Inn supper club outside of Cedar Rapids which suffered a devastating fire earlier this summer.)  

The Lighthouse is a seasonal business, naturally.  They generally open in April and run through the end of October open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, then utilize their boat storage units for the winter months.  While the snow flies in Iowa, the Schoenthals are hanging out in sunny places like Florida or Hawaii.  What a business model!  

Then again, they have to contend with the river from time to time.  Flooding can shut down their operations in the spring and into the summer months if they're having a lot of rain up in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  And they ran into that earlier this year when the Mississippi went out of its banks from mid-June into mid-July.  While the marina was shut down, the restaurant was able to stay open since it's built up.  The problem was that the parking lot was underwater and people had to park up over the train tracks to get down to the restaurant.  But at least the restaurant and bar were still accessible.  

The Fairport Marina/Lighthouse is located just about 3 miles just east of Muscatine along Iowa State Highway 22.  (see map)  Since it was a Friday night, the parking lot was pretty full.  However, a car pulled out of a parking space on the concrete section of the lot and we pulled in there.  

The view from the deck at The Lighthouse gives one a panoramic view of the Mississippi River over to the Illinois side.  The river runs east to west along this stretch from just up the river from Davenport to Muscatine before it turns south.  This is the longest distance the Mississippi runs east-west on its trip from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.  

The skies had been cloudy all day, but the clouds parted late in the day and the sun was just coming out when we got there.  The orange hue of the sun was hitting the trees just before sunset giving the view a more colorful aspect on a beautiful evening.  My wife noticed that the marina was no longer selling gas for boats.  I guess I hadn't noticed that on recent previous visits, but I do remember gassing up at the marina for the long ride back up river all those years ago.  

The party was in the screened-in patio on the front side of the Lighthouse.  There were a fair amount of people there, both for the party and for people coming out to have dinner on a Friday night.  The Lighthouse features a prime rib dinner on Friday and Saturday nights and a number of people take advantage of the good prices.  Colorful rope light gave the rather rustic room a bit of sparkle and character.  

There is a partition that separates the front patio.  I was sort of surprised that they didn't have the party on the west end of the patio as the east side has the main door into the restaurants.  But that didn't seem to faze the people who were there to celebrate an 87th birthday party.  There was a mix of people in the place - boaters coming in for dinner, farm people from around the area, townies like my wife and me, and bikers who were out on their motorcycle on a warm, but pleasant evening.  

The main bar area has been a "must-see" for a number of years based upon the vast beer can collection that is on display along the long wall in the main dining room.  Thousands of beer cans are in a lighted case behind plexiglass and there are some pretty classic cans in the collection.  It's worth a 15 to 20 minute perusal to check out some of the cans on display.  A small stage for live music is off to the side of the beer can display.  But, quite honestly, I can't remember seeing live music at the Lighthouse.  But, then again, I'm only out there a couple times a year.  

Also on display opposite the beer can collection were a number of lighted beer signs.  I'm a beer sign kind of guy as I've collected some neon and fluorescent beer signs over the years and the colorful array of signs always gets my attention, no matter how many times I've seen them on the wall.  

Above the beer refrigerators along the wall behind the bar was another collection on display - this one a number of beer steins.  It's a little difficult to get up close to examine the steins since they're up high behind the bar, but I could see a few commemorative steins that the Schoenthal's have picked up over the years.  It's a pretty impressive collection.  

My wife was ready for a drink and I was ready for a cold beer having just gotten home from a trip earlier in the day.  It's counter service at the Lighthouse and I waited in a short line to order up something from the overworked bartender that evening.  But there was a football game on the only television in the place behind the bar.  Plus they have a couple large aquariums embedded into the wall behind the bar that catches most people's eyes as they order a drink.  My wife got her usual Tito's and cranberry juice, while I noticed they had Easy Eddy in cans from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA.  It was $5.75 for my wife's drink and a can of Easy Eddy - a great value, if you ask me.  

It's also counter service for food.  The menu is on the pine board wall above the entrance to the kitchen.  It's mostly bar fare, but they do have ribeye steaks, breaded jumbo shrimp dinners, and the aforementioned prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights.  Appetizers include a lot of fried vegetables, wings, calamari, and chicken strips; while sandwiches include a reuben sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich, and a French dip sandwich.  Burgers, deli sandwiches, breaded or grilled chicken sandwiches, and salads round out the menu at the Lighthouse.  

Just down from where you order food is a glass-enclosed counter filled with colorful tie-dye t-shirts and sleeveless shirts with the Lighthouse logo on them.  Since the place is definitely retro in decor, so should their shirts be retro.  I used to wear a lot of tie-dye shirts a number of years ago, and I've considered getting a shirt at the Lighthouse over the years.  But my wife is always there as the voice of reason as to why I shouldn't be getting a tie-dye shirt in the 2020's. 

The line to order food was long when we got into the Lighthouse.  That offered us time to visit with people at the party and to just unwind after a long week for both my wife and me.  We were there about an hour before the line had subsided to where it was just a couple people deep when I went to the counter to order.  When our food was ready, they called out a number that I received after I'd ordered from the lady at the counter.

My wife went with a patty melt and fried cauliflower.  It was a basic patty melt - chargrilled burger patty topped with grilled onions and Swiss cheese and served on toasted marble-swirl-rye bread.  It was a nice and light meal, but just enough for her that evening.  The fried cauliflower was, well, fried cauliflower.  It's tough to screw up fried cauliflower.     

I was kind of hungry since I hadn't had any lunch and it was well past 8 p.m. when we ordered food, so I went with the double mushroom/Swiss cheese burger.  I had them add bacon to the burger.  It featured two quarter-pound chargrilled burger patties topped with sautéed mushrooms, a couple strips of bacon and two thick slices of Swiss cheese.  The cheese was oozing out of the burger and it was a minor mess to eat.  The bun was light, but held together very well with all the juiciness and the dribbling cheese from the burger.

I also got onion rings as a side.  They were the basic previously-frozen food-purveyor type of onion rings and they were fine.  I had no problem sharing them with my wife who seemed to like the onion rings better than her fried cauliflower.   

There aren't a lot of places right along the Mississippi River where you can get a drink, some food, and relax while watching the river lazily stream by.  And because of that, the Lighthouse has been a popular place for over 40 years - even through name and ownership changes over that period.  I thought my burger was very good, my wife was happy with her patty melt.  We got a lot of food for under $30, and the drinks and craft beer were very reasonable in price.  The place isn't fancy, there's no wait staff, there's no air conditioning so it can get a bit warm, but they have enough fans to move the air around.  For about six months, the Lighthouse is a great place to be during the warmer parts of the year.   

Baratta's - Des Moines

My wife and I had finished up hanging out at the Iowa State Fair and faced a 2.5 hour drive home.  I asked her if she wanted to eat in Des Moines before we left, or break up the trip and eat around Iowa City on the way home.  She thought for a moment and said, "I'd like to eat here."  I suggested an Italian restaurant on Des Moines' south side that I hadn't been to in over 20 years - Baratta's.  She thought it sounded good and we headed over the Baratta's for an early evening dinner.  

In the early 1920's, Antonio Baratta and his wife Filomena immigrated to the U.S. from their small town of Scala Coeli (which roughly translates to Stairway to Heaven) in the Calabria region of Italy.  They settled in Des Moines and opened a successful tavern in the downtown area after the end of Prohibition.  They raised four children - three boys by the names of Charlie, Mike and John, and a daughter Frances Madonia.

In the 1950's, Antonio bought a house at the corner of S. Union and Kirkwood Avenues on the south side of Des Moines, a heavily Italian neighborhood.  The people who owned the house - the Berard family - once had 10 people living in the small house.  The Baratta family put up a building in front of the house and Antonio and Filomena opened up a small neighborhood grocery store.  It was a true family affair as their children - and sometimes their children's spouses - would work in the grocery store.  

Frances Madonia Baratta owned a small tavern - The Last Chance Tavern - at the corner of 3rd and Locust in downtown Des Moines.  Her older brother Charlie - who had been known as "Charlie Cat" since high school - had made some money has a competitive boxer in his early 20's and he was a natural to be the muscle of the tavern as he managed the place for his sister.  One summer evening in 1950, an unruly customer had picked a fight with another patron and Charlie bum-rushed him to the door.  As the man turned to confront Charlie, "Charlie Cat" hit the man twice and literally put him in the hospital.  Two days later, the man died of his injuries caused by the fight with Charlie.  

Charlie Baratta was eventually charged with the man's death and was convicted of 2nd-degree murder.  When Frances Madonia's liquor license came up for renewal, the city of Des Moines would not extend it due to her relationship with her brother.  The Last Chance Tavern was forced to go out of business.  

Baratta eventually appealed the conviction and a second trial in 1952 exonerated him.  However, legal fees and a wrongful death lawsuit brought forth by the man who died of his injuries in the fight left Charlie in debt over $30,000.  He was forced to declare bankruptcy.  

To get back on his feet, Charlie went to work in the family's grocery store along with his brothers, his sister and their spouses.  He had married a young lady who also went by the name of Frances.  In 1958, Antonio Barrata turned part of the store into a small restaurant.  However, Antonio Baratta applied for a license to sell beer at his establishment in 1958, he was denied because Charlie Baratta worked there.  Charlie had to disassociate himself from the family business for a number of years.  

When health reasons forced Antonio to retire from the business in the late 60's, Charlie Baratta - who was now back in the good graces of local authorities - took over the grocery store/restaurant.  When Antonio died in 1972, Charlie and his wife Frances converted the remaining space of the grocery store into a restaurant.  He eventually connected the Baratta family home that his mother was still living in to the restaurant and expanded the footprint.  He built an addition to the home that he turned into an apartment for his mother to live in.  Filomena Baratta died in 1984 and Charlie turned her apartment into more restaurant space.

Pictured right - Charlie "Cat" Baratta.  Photo courtesy Baratta's web site.  

By all accounts, "Charlie Cat" Baratta found his calling in life.  He enjoyed being a restaurateur and held court each night at Baratta's.  He became a loved and respected south side character in Des Moines restaurant lore.  

In 1988, Charlie Baratta passed away.  He willed the restaurant to his brother Mike and Mike's wife Marge.  Although they had helped out in the restaurant from time to time - Marge was instrumental with recipes and helping out in the kitchen - they had other jobs as Mike worked for the city of Des Moines and Marge worked for an insurance company.  After taking over the restaurant, they quit their day jobs and went to work in the restaurant full time.  And they didn't have far to go to work - they lived directly behind the restaurant! 

However, both Mike and Marge were both nearing retirement age when Charlie died and running a restaurant is a hard job.  By 1993, they were looking to sell the place and they turned to the son of friends of theirs who - as a high school student - was a busboy at Baratta's working for Charlie.  

Pictured left - Marge and Mike Baratta.  Photo courtesy Baratta's web site.  

Joe Gatto was a south-sider who went to school at Lincoln High School.  As a high school freshman, Joe went to work for Charlie clearing tables and learning the restaurant business from the ground up.  Gatto eventually went over to work for Bob Tursi and the Latin King restaurant on Des Moines' east side.  There, he had two classmates - Lisa Wing and Curt Kruger - who worked in the restaurant with him.

Lisa Wing went off to college at Iowa State, but on the weekends and in the summer she would come back to wait tables at the Latin King.  Gatto and Curt Kruger did a little bit of everything at the Latin King from working in the kitchen, to bartending, to waiting on tables.  

After Lisa Wing graduated from Iowa State in the late 80's, she took a job with Richman Gordman, a department store retailer that was similar to what Kohl's is today.  She was there for about 7 months when Bob Tursi called her out of the blue and asked her to come back to the Latin King to manage the restaurant.  At the time, Joe Gatto was managing the kitchen and Curt Kruger was managing the bar area.  Lisa Wing jumped at the chance to get back into the restaurant business and left Richman Gordman just weeks before the retailer declared bankruptcy and closed their doors.  

Not only were Lisa and Curt one-time high school classmates and co-workers, they had become a couple over the years and eventually married.  It was just 3 months after they wed that they got an offer that would change their lives.    

When Mike and Marge Baratta decided to sell their business, they turned to the energetic trio of 25-year-olds who were basically running the Latin King for Bob Tursi.  With Tursi's blessing, they took over Baratta's on a nothing more than a wing, a prayer, a contract with Mike and Marge Baratta, and a few thousand dollars they were able to raise from their parents.  The one thing that the Baratta's asked was for Gatto and the Krugers to keep the name of the restaurant.  That was fine with the trio - they didn't have the money to change the sign out front!  

Officially, Gatto and the Krugers took over Baratta's on May 1, 1993.  For the first week, they were closed as they tried to sort out everything from ordering from food vendors to figuring out the menu to seeing what was going where in the kitchen.  

They turned to family and friends to help them out including Danny Gatto - Joe's brother - who was their first pizza chef.  While the trio didn't do away with everything the Baratta's had on their menu, they did bring some specialties over from the Latin King, as well as coming up with new dishes, and also relied upon Marge Baratta's expertise in helping Danny Gatto with the pizza.  Danny Gatto turned out to be a blessing for his brother and the Krugers in the early days of them owning Barattas.  He continued on to be the long time general manager of the restaurant.  

Their first night was a Saturday night and they hadn't done any advertising other than printing up a few fliers they distributed around the neighborhood.  They had hoped they would have 40 people on their first night.  However, 220 people showed up at the restaurant stretching them very thin.  They were scheduled to be open for brunch the following morning, but couldn't open up because they had run out of food.  The support they had was beyond their wildest expectations.  

It turned out that all three worked well as a team.  Gatto ran the kitchen and was the guy who understood finances, Curt Kruger was the marketing guy who came up with great advertising ideas and ran the bar area, and Lisa Kruger ran the front of house and dealt with the help.  For the first couple years, none of the owners took a salary as they tried to put the money back into the business.  Lisa Kruger had to take a second job working at US Cellular in the daytime selling cellular phones.  She did that for 7 months before they decided to open for lunch at Baratta's forcing her to quit her job and work 100% at the restaurant.  

Baratta's was basically in a residential neighborhood and was hard to find.  In the 90's, they ran ads on the local television stations that played up the fact that they were hard to find, but worth the quest.  The tag line was "Come to Baratta's! (If you can find us.)"  Lisa Kruger even did hand-drawn maps to show people how to get to the restaurant from certain points in the city.  

In 1999, Baratta's began to deliver pizzas to customers on the south side of Des Moines.  It more than doubled their pizza business and proved to be a great addition to their already growing clientele.  

But the restaurant business can put a lot of pressure on people, especially if a husband and wife are involved.  Lisa and Curt Kruger eventually split and Gatto and Lisa bought his shares as part of the divorce.  Curt Kruger went on to start his own construction business while Lisa Kruger and Joe Gatto continued on with Baratta's.  

Pictured right - Joe Gatto and Lisa Kruger.  Photo courtesy Baratta's Facebook page.   

In 2005, Baratta's opened a smaller second location - Cafe Baratta's - on the 3rd floor of the State Historical Building as a lunch-only restaurant.   (That location is temporarily closed as the building is being remodeled.)  Five years later, they took over the catering duties at the Forté Banquet and Conference Center in downtown Des Moines.  They continued catering weddings, banquets and meetings until the venue closed in 2023.  

Joe Gatto became involved in the south side community serving on a committee to help revitalize the Southwest 9th Ave. corridor and serving on a county public works committee.  In 2014, Gatto ran in a special election for the Des Moines City Council 4th ward seat and won.  He's been re-elected 3 times, even amid some kerfuffles regarding his residency and political stances, plus a high-profile case where he got the interim police chief to throw out a ticket for going 78 miles an hour in a 60 mph zone on Interstate 235.  The new police chief reinstated the ticket and Gatto acknowledged that he should have paid it to begin with.  

It had been over 20 years since I was last at Baratta's which was one of the favorite restaurants of one of my old accounts and we dined there on two or three occasions.  In the old days before GPS, getting to Baratta's was a bit of a pain.  As their old commercials said at the end - "... if you can find us." - rang true with me.  The only way I would have been able to find the place was to follow my client to the restaurant.  This time, equipped with a GPS, we had no problem and we pulled up to Baratta's at the corner of S. Union and Kirkwood Ave. just after 5 p.m. (see map)  

The front of Bartata's features the bar and lounge.  This was part of the old Baratta's grocery store back in the day.  The bar area is well-lit, yet comfortable and welcoming.  I seem to think it's been updated since I was last in there over 20 years ago.  

Just behind the bar in the front of the building is one of three dining areas they have at Baratta's.  This area, too, was part of the old grocery store and was understatedly elegant.  

The other dining areas are in the back of the restaurant.  The main room is about twice the size of the front dining area.  I remember eating in this room in the past.  Photos of the Baratta family over the years, as well as pictures of Kruger and Gatto were on the wall between the two dining rooms.  

We were seated in the front dining area and given menus when we sat down.  A few moments later, our server - Debbie - came over to greet us.  I started out with an Exile Citra Sky hazy IPA while my wife got water to start out, but ended up with the house pinot grigio when she got her meal.  

The menu at Baratta's has a little bit for everybody.  The appetizer part of the menu features their house-made onion rings, Cajun shrimp, Buffalo chicken tenders, and cheese-stuffed/panko bread encrusted mushrooms.  They have a handful of salads on the menu, all of which can have protein items such as chicken, shrimp, steak or salmon added to them.  Sandwiches such as sliced capicolla with mozzarella, Italian beef, and a grilled or breaded chicken breast are available; and all-time favorites such as baby back ribs, fried chicken, and an 8-ounce beef tenderloin filet were on the menu.  A Des Moines classic - steak de burgo - was on the menu, as well as chicken livers.  I immediately thought of my sister who absolutely loves chicken livers.  

Italian specialties on the menu include Mike Baratta's peppersteak - sirloin strips with bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, mozzarella and topped with a house marinara; and Chicken Amaggio, a longtime Baratta's favorite that consists of a breaded chicken breast served on linguine with roasted red peppers and mushrooms, then topped with Baratta's Amaggio sauce.  And there was also a classic chicken parmesan on the menu.

Pasta dishes include fettuccine alfredo (shrimp, chicken or salmon can be added), beef and sausage-filled ravioli, penne pasta in a tomato cream sauce, and classic lasagna.  Seafood items include jumbo shrimp scampi served with fettuccine alfredo, broiled salmon, and Seafood Genovese - basically an Italian fruitti de mare consisting of crab meat, black tiger shrimp and sea scallops sautéed in butter and served over pasta.  And, finally, they had pizza - thin crust pizza available in either 10" or 14" sizes.  And a Kid's menu with small portions of pasta dishes, as well as grilled cheese and fries, fried chicken and fries, and macaroni & cheese available.  

We started out with salads and we both got the basic Barrata's dinner salad.  I got a balsamic Italian dressing for mine, while my wife got the creamy garlic dressing on hers.  The garlic dressing wasn't overpowering and I enjoyed the tanginess of the balsamic dressing on my mine.  Freshly made croutons topped out the bed of fresh greens.  

My wife went with the Amaggio pasta with grilled chicken.  My wife asked Debbie what the Amaggio sauce was and she explained it consisted of olive oil, white wine, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, garlic and basil.  It was served over a bed of linguine with sautéed mushrooms and roasted red peppers on top of the grilled chicken.  My wife said the chicken was tender and the Amaggio sauce really had a nice flavor.   

I was sort of up in the air as to what to get.  I thought about the ravioli with marinara sauce, and the Cajun chicken breast with a side of fettuccine alfredo sounded good.  But I ended up getting the cavatelli pasta with the bolognese sauce.  I also had Debbie add mozzarella cheese to it, so the dish was covered in cheese and put in the broiler for a moment to melt and caramelize the cheese over the pasta and meat sauce.

And it was very good.  The problem was that there was a LOT of the cavatelli pasta shells in the dish.  After eating the cheese and the meat sauce with some of the pasta, there was still about 2/3rd of the dish covered with cavatelli pasta.  Debbie came over to check on our progress and saw that I had a lot of pasta left over.  "Wow!  That IS a lot of pasta left.  Do you want more meat sauce," she asked.  I told her that it wasn't necessary as I was pretty stuffed from what I ate.  She offered to get more meat sauce to add to the pasta, but I declined as I told her that it probably wouldn't be as good warmed up at home as it was there in the restaurant.

After Debbie took our dishes away, we were sort of getting ready to get on the road to head home.  However, Lisa Kruger came over to our table and apologized for my meal.  I told her that it was no big deal, but she insisted on giving us a couple desserts to make up for the abundance of cavatelli with the absence of meat sauce.  Once again, we said it wasn't necessary as we were pretty full and still had a 2.5 hour trip back home.  But she insisted.  "You can take what you don't eat back home," Lisa said.  "We can box it up for you."

My wife ended up getting the tiramisu topped with a chocolate drizzle with fresh made whipped cream on the side.  The tiramisu was wonderful, but very rich.  As stuffed as we were from our early dinner, we could stop eating the tiramisu.  

I saw they had lemon cannolis on the menu and I got that for my dessert.  The ricotta cheese had a lemony flavor and chewy lemon candies were on each end of the cannoli.  Fresh made whipped cream came on the side.  We finished one of the cannoli and had Debbie box up the other one.  As we left Baratta's, Lisa Kruger was up front behind the bar and we thanked her again for the desserts.  "We want you to come back," she said.  I told her that it had been 20 years since I was last in there, but promised that it wouldn't be another 20 years.  

It had been way too long of a time for me to get back to Baratta's.  But it was just as good as I remembered it to be.  The food was very good, the portions were more than plenty, and the service - including the customer service - was impeccable.  While it was nice that the co-owner comped our dessert because I had a lot of cavatelli pasta leftover in my dish, it was highly unnecessary.  We were both happy with everything at Baratta's.  With all the choices of Italian restaurants in the Des Moines area, Baratta's should be high on the list of places to visit if you're in the mood for some pasta, pizza or Italian specialities.  

 

Creative Signature Cuisine - Silvis, IL

Our neighbor's tree that partially hangs over our yard had been getting to the point where it needed a good trimming.  They had hired a tree service to come over and trim up branches - mostly on our side of the fence.  We were told that our power was going to have to be dropped while they did the trimming since most of their work would be above our main power feeder line from the transformer pole to our house.  My wife suggested that we get out of the house since we wouldn't have any power and head over to a breakfast place she had been reading about on social media over the past few months.  As soon as the tree trimmers showed up, we took off to head across the Mississippi and over to Silvis, IL to have breakfast at Creative Signature Cuisine.  

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.  

In July of 2020, La Michoacana opened in Silvis.  Paired with a bakery - La Canasta - it was the first Mexican-style ice cream parlor in the Quad Cities.  La Michoacana's are found throughout Mexico and there are some disputes going on between three different entities in the country as to which La Michoacana is the actual one.  But it seems that all three co-exist across the country.  American-based La Michoacana franchises began to pop up around the US with many opening in the Chicago area.  Quad City resident Gerardo Chavez felt the area was needing Mexican pastries and ice cream treats.  But a series of delays that included getting equipment that was manufactured in Mexico kept pushing back the opening date for Chavez.  And when they were finally ready to open in March of 2020, the pandemic hit.  

La Michoacana was a big hit as were the pastries at La Canasta.  However, La Canasta owner Lidia Gonzales was looking to cut back after working in the bakery for a couple years and Lisbeth was interested in taking over the space.  Creative Pastry moved into the old La Canasta in April of 2023.  By September of last year, they had fully opened as Creative Pastry and Coffee, a small coffee shop that served pastries, cookies and cakes.

While Lisbeth worked in the bakery, Jorge was coming up with his own menu of foods to serve alongside the pastries and coffee they sold.  They were soon open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but serving salmon wraps and steak sandwiches confused many of their customers who thought it was just a small coffee shop/bakery.  In March of this year, Lisbeth and Jorge changed the name to its present Creative Signature Cuisine.   

The restaurant is located on 1st Avenue in downtown Silvis, which is also Illinois Highway 92.  (see map)  Actually, I drove by the place because I was confused by the big La Michoacana sign that was on the building.  When we realized that Creative Signature Cuisine was in the same building - but their sign still said Creative Pastry and Coffee on the front of the building - we stopped and parked in front of the restaurant.  

The restaurant was small, cozy, and well lit.  it featured a couple booths and some tables.  Playing in the background was music from 70's soul artists such as Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder and Al Green. The place was clean and had a homey and friendly vibe.  

To the right when you come in the front door is the counter for La Michoacana.  We took a look at the menu and found some interesting ice cream drinks such as a Mangonada which is a pureed drink with mangos and and a sweet, spicy and tangy chimoy tirola sauce.  They also had Tostidos or Doritos with pork skins, pico de gallo, sour cream, cotija cheese, and chopped avocado.  It was definitely a true Mexican ice cream shop.  

Up front was a display case that a young lady - who I determined later on was Lisbeth Verduzco - was filling with cookies and pastries.  Off to the side, she was packaging cinnamon rolls in individual containers.  The pan of cinnamon rolls looked delicious.  It was all I could do from taking one home with me.  

Lisbeth gave us our menus and told us we could sit anywhere we wanted.  We sat at a four-seater table and settled in.  There were two ladies seated behind us who were eating large portion breakfasts.  I immediately said to my wife, "Expect to get a lot of food."  She suggested that we split something and I wasn't too certain I wanted to do that given the interesting menu they had.  

Creative Signature Cuisine featured traditional American and Mexican breakfasts, but also had some items with an international flair.  The chicken poblano omelet was interesting, as was the chilaquiles with shredded chicken.  They had French toast, waffles and leches pancakes.  Fruit bowls, croissant sandwiches and avocado toast with a sunny-side up egg were featured, as well.  Lunch items featured barbacoa burritos and tacos, chorizo toast, chicken wraps, and a shrimp burger - a beef burger patty topped with shrimp, cheese, mixed greens, and a garlic aioli.  They also had penne pasta in an alfredo sauce with a choice of chicken or shrimp.  There were so many interesting items on the menu that I wanted to come back to try some of the things.  

We started out getting a coffee for my wife and a quad-shot espresso for me.  The espresso was very good, had a bit of a bitter taste that some raw sugar was able to smooth out.  We also got a glass of orange juice to go with our breakfast.  

My wife was having a tough time figuring out what to get.  She finally settled upon the breakfast croissant sandwich - black forest ham with arugula, tomato slices, sliced onion, American cheese and a folded egg omelet.  And it was huge!  She had to cut it in half just to be able to eat it.  But she said it was wonderful.   

For a side, we shared the breakfast potatoes.  They were seasoned potato wedges topped with arugula.  They had some fried onions mixed in.  The seasoning on the potatoes gave them a bit of a spicy flavor and they were also very good.  My wife felt a little guilty about eating the potatoes and she asked Lisbeth if she could get a small dish of fruit to go along with her sandwich.  

As we were looking over the menu, the ladies seated behind us got up to leave.  "The French toast is to die for," one of them said as they passed our table while we were looking at the menu.  I was looking at the French toast that was served with mixed fruit berries and a baked meringue with a mixed fruit berry syrup.  Man, that sounded wonderful, but I was looking for something more savory that day. 

I went with the Madame Croque Sandwich - it featured Black Forest ham with Swiss cheese and bacon on toasted sour dough bread topped with two over-easy eggs and a hearty and creamy béchamel sauce.  Parsley flakes and shredded red cabbage straws finished the presentation.  This was an outstanding sandwich.  The béchamel sauce was rich in flavor and had a hint of herbs and nutmeg.  There was a lot to this sandwich and I was almost certain that I wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing.  But it was so good that I couldn't stop.  I was so stuffed at the end of the meal that any notion of getting a cinnamon roll to go went out the window.  

I don't know if I can adequately paint how surprisingly good our breakfast was at Creative Signature Cuisines.  It's a great "mom-and-pop" kind of place run by a young couple chasing their dreams.  The menu was so interesting and the food we had was outstanding with huge portions.  This is the kind of place where I would come back time and time again just to support Jorge and Lisbeth.  Our next visit may be for dinner at some point in the near future.  

Stella - Iowa City

My wife and I were heading back to the Des Moines area recently and decided to stop off in Iowa City for lunch.  We threw around a few places that we knew would be open on Sunday, but most of them had brunch up until about 2 p.m. with set menus.  My wife threw out a place that she had been to a handful of times over the years - Stella.  I asked if that was the one along Melrose Ave. in Iowa City near Kinnick Stadium.  She said that it was and we headed over to Stella to have lunch.

In 1999, Kevin Perez and his brother Derek started the acclaimed One Twenty Six French bistro in Iowa City.  The brothers sold the restaurant in 2006 and a year later they founded (the now-closed) Mama's Deli and Catering.  Derek Perez sold his share of Mama's Deli in 2007 and founded El Banditos, then opened Billy's High-Hat Diner in 2017.   (Both businesses closed during the COVID pandemic of 2020, as did Mama's Deli.)  

In 2008, Perez along with partners Dan Ouverson and former U of Iowa football star and NFL placekicker Nate Kaeding, opened Short's Burger & Shine in downtown Iowa City.  It became an instant hit with many, but I was not too thrilled with the place.  (Click here to read my entry on Short's Burger.)  And subsequent visits to the downtown Iowa City Short's location and their east side burger joint (which opened in 2012) have not been much better.  In fact, I ate at the east side location about six weeks ago and I vowed I would never eat at a Short's Burgers again.  The burger was overcooked and lifeless.  I don't know how people can eat a burger that way and I can't figure out how they stay in business with the inconsistency I've experienced at Short's over the years.  

However, I digress...

In 2010, the three partners - along with Perez's wife Lisa - opened Stella, an American-style bistro in the building that used to house the legendary Melrose Market.   The burgers were similar to the ones that were at Short's with pizza, sandwiches, salads and Cajun specialties such as jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice.  In 2014, Perez and Ouverson opened a pub-style place on Iowa City's south side called Hudson's Tap whose menu mirrored the one at Stella.  

We were able to find parking in the lot on the north side of Stella.  (see map)  This had been the first time I had walked into the building since it was Melrose Market, a great neighborhood grocery store that featured a bakery, a meat counter, and a real homey feel to the place.  (I lived six blocks from Melrose Market when I was going to school at Iowa in the early 80's.  I had a Sunday morning tradition of getting up, going to Melrose Market to get one of their fresh baked cinnamon rolls and the Sunday Chicago Tribune, then go back home and put on the headphones and crank music while I read the paper and enjoyed the cinnamon roll.  Ah!  For those days again...)

Walking into Stella's, well, let's just say it was a far piece from what the old Melrose Market looked like.  It was dark, yet far from dingy in the place.  The low slung ceiling over the booths and tables in the dining room gave it a cozy feeling.  

There is a small bar area next to the front patio at Stella.  They had a number of craft beers on tap and a full bar available.  Tucked back into a corner, the bar sat, maybe, 10 to 12 people and looked more like an afterthought in the design in the floorpan.  

We were seated out on the patio on the side of the building next to Melrose Ave.  The stop sign for the corner of Melrose and Golfview Ave. was right there and it was a little noisy and busy with all the traffic - even for a Sunday afternoon.  

We were given menus by a young lady who said that our server would be with us shortly.  The problem was that no one showed up at our table for nearly 10 minutes.  We were seriously thinking of bagging the place and going somewhere else when a young man by the name of Quan came out to our table.  We guessed they were understaffed that day and as pleasant a guy Quan, we immediately cut him some slack.  He asked what we wanted to drink and my wife got a Tito's dirty martini, while I got a Witch Slap hazy IPA out of Clock House Brewing in Cedar Rapids.  Unfortunately, it took nearly 10 more minutes for our drinks to make it out to the table.  

We could have easily ordered food when Quan brought our drinks out to us, but he hustled off to do something else.  The service was pretty choppy.  

And the items on the menu didn't thrill me all that much.  The burgers on the menu were - item by item - the exact same as Short's Burgers.  As soon as I saw the burgers on the menu, I was about ready to bail.  "Oh, that's right," my wife said to me once I realized that this was just an extension of a place that I had just recently said I would never go back to again.  But I knew they had other things to offer on the menu.  

They had 9" personal thin crust pizzas at Stella, but I didn't want a pizza for lunch.  The Cajun dishes got my attention and I came very close to getting either the gumbo or the jambalaya.  They had grilled chicken breast sandwiches named after Iowa counties including the Appanoose which was topped with capicola, provolone cheese and a muffuletta spread.  That sounded really good to me.  

Stella also had a list of specials that day including a Cajun seafood linguine with shrimp, pollock and crawfish on linguine with a tomato cream sauce.  That got my attention, as did the reuben sandwich.  Stella also had a Sriracha pulled pork sandwich on their specials list, as well as a breaded lemon chicken with a cream sauce and mashed potatoes. 

My wife went with the special menu and got the beet salad.  She had a choice of protein with the salad and she got grilled chicken.  She had considered the fish and chips on the specials menu, but decided she wanted to go lighter.  It featured lightly roasted beets, sliced zucchini, pistachio nuts and feta cheese with grilled chicken on a bed of mixed greens including arugula and finished with a lemon oregano vinaigrette.  My wife declared it was all very fresh and very delicious. 

I wasn't all that hungry and I knew we would be going out to dinner that evening, so I decided upon the smoked salmon tacos - a simple concoction of smoked salmon on soft flour tacos with pico de gallo and a chipotle sour cream on the side with mixed greens.  The smoked salmon tacos were surprisingly delicious.  They were more grilled than smoked, but they weren't fishy in flavor.   And the pico de gallo and the chipotle sour cream gave the smoked salmon tacos an extra "oomph!" in taste.  They were light and filled me up to the point where I knew I had something for lunch, but it wasn't hanging in my stomach.   

I have mixed feelings about Stella.  The service was somewhat erratic and it took us probably 20 minutes longer to eat there than it should have taken us.  But Quan was a nice guy and we gave him the benefit of the doubt during our visit.  While I completely avoided the burgers because of the connection to Short's Burger (as I recently swore off Short's forever after another bad burger on a recent visit), I really enjoyed the smoked salmon tacos.  And my wife was more than happy with the roasted beet salad with grilled chicken as an addition.  I would like to go back and try some of the Cajun offerings at Stella at some point just to see how good it is.  

Eatery A - Des Moines, IA

My wife and I took a couple days out of our busy work schedules to get away to Des Moines for a long weekend and the Iowa State Fair.  We stayed with a friend of ours out in the northwest suburb of Johnston and we were trying to figure out a fun place with good food, good drinks and a good craft beer selection on a Sunday evening.  Our friend was no help.  "I don't go out and eat all that much," she explained.  "The only time I try new places is when you guys come to town!"  I did some searches on line and found a number of places were closed.  But of those that were open that evening, a Mediterranean restaurant by the name of Eatery A kept coming up.  I knew I had either been to Eatery A or had heard of the place, but I couldn't quite figure it out.  I made the executive decision to head to Eatery A for dinner that evening.  

Now, what our friend said about her not knowing much about restaurants isn't quite true because she turned us on to one of our favorite breakfast/brunch places in Des Moines - Motley School Tavern.  (Click here to see the Road Tips write-up on Motley School Tavern.)  And there is a connection between MST (what the locals refer to the place as) and Eatery A.  And that's where I had heard of Eatery A before.  

Jason Simon is the longtime owner of the upscale American restaurant Alba located in the East Village of Des Moines.  When he opened in 2008, a young sous chef by the name of Nic Gonwa was working with him in the kitchen.  It wasn't long before Alba was one of the more popular culinary destinations in the greater Des Moines area.

In 2013, Simon started to seek out locations for a no-frills/straight-forward Mediterranean-style restaurant that Gonwa and he had been talking about doing.  On Ingersoll Ave. along a stretch of the street known for restaurants and bars there was a former Blockbuster video rental store location.  Due to bankruptcy by the parent company, Blockbuster shut down over 900 stores in 2010 including the one along Ingersoll Ave.  In 2011 into late 2012, the building was used as the Iowa headquarters for the re-election of Barack Obama.  After the election was over, the building sat vacant until early 2014 when Simon took over the location for his new restaurant.  

Simon installed Gonwa as the head chef of the new venture - Eatery A - which opened in late summer of 2014.  Gonwa's take on Mediterranean cuisine along with wood-fired pizzas made Eatery A a popular destination right from the start.  In 2015, Nic Gonwa was nominated as a James Beard Award recipient as a Rising Star Chef.   

In 2018, Simon and Gonwa had come up with a new concept for a restaurant, sort of an adult "after-school" place that had comfort food and a laid-back vibe.  After taking over the Chef's Kitchen location in the Beaverdale neighborhood at the end of 2018, Simon and Gonwa opened Motley School Tavern in early 2019.  They named the restaurant after the "motley" bunch of characters Gonwa and Simon had come across in their restaurant careers. 

Gonwa moved over to Motley School Tavern and Simon had to reach out in the chef ranks around the area to replace Gonwa as chef at Eatery A.  He found such a person in Andy Sayre, a veteran of restaurants such as (the now-closed) Baru 66, Echo Valley Country Club, and the acclaimed Mirabelle at Beaver Creek outside of Vail, CO.  A native of Jefferson, IA, Sayre was a graduate of the culinary arts program at Des Moines Area Community College.  Sayre continued Eatery A's unique stylings on Mediterranean cuisine under Simon's leadership and with help from Gonwa.  

I had made reservations for us through Open Table at 7 p.m.  I underestimated the time it took to get from our friends place in Johnston into Des Moines to get to Eatery A and we showed up about 25 minutes early.  Ingersoll Ave. was torn up in front of Eatery A, but we were able to get into the parking lot through a temporary opening.  (see map)  Even for a Sunday night, the restaurant was packed and we were lucky to get the last parking spot in the lot.  

We walked inside and went to the host stand at the very front just inside the door.  I explained to him that we had reservations for three at 7 p.m., but we were early.  As he took a look as to where he could put us, I looked over to my right at the three-sided bar with the large wood-fired oven behind the bar area.  

The bar was actually pretty cool.  It featured reclaimed barn wood and the corners were curved.  The bar top was thick block wood and very elegant looking.  I would have been happy just to belly up to the bar to have dinner.  

There was a dining area in the back of the restaurant area. It also featured reclaimed barn board walls with a series of tables and booths.  Upscale Edison light fixtures hung from the ceiling giving the room a warm glow.

Out front looking through the large windows, there was the patio area.  It was elevated from the street so there wasn't the constant noise from vehicles going by.  It was a beautiful evening and the patio was packed.  The host said that he couldn't sit us out there, but he had a booth next to the bar that was available.  We were more than fine with that.  

After we were seated, our server for the evening came over to greet us.  Her name was Destiny and everyone at our table went, "Ohhhh!  What a great name!"  She thanked us for that and dropped off menus for us to go through.  

Destiny asked if we wanted to start off with something to drink and my wife ordered a Tito's dirty martini.  I got an Easy Eddy hazy IPA from Big Grove Brewery, and our friend got an old fashioned.  "I don't know why I ordered a bourbon drink," she said.  "It just sounded good!"  Eatery A also has an extensive collection of wines from Italy, Spain, Argentina and California.  

The dinner menu featured pasta dishes such as cavatelli with a duck ragu, bucatini with meat balls, and fettuccine with shredded cheese and black pepper.  They had items such as a hanger steak, a duck breast with seared polenta, and skewers of seafood, beef or chicken.  Salads, soups, and appetizers such as calamari, bacon-wrapped dates, and beef kibbeh - basically raw beef carpaccio - were also available.  A charcuterie selection of meats and cheese was also on the menu for an appetizer.  And their wood-fired pizzas featured all the regular toppings, but they also had gyro meat, Italian capicola, Genoa salami, and Moroccan beef kofta available as toppings.   

We started out getting some house-made hummus.  It came with warm pieces of sumac flatbread and featured chickpeas and chermoula blended together with tahina yogurt drizzled on top with fresh parsley flakes.  The hummus was excellent - some of the best I've had and I haven't been eating hummus all that much until, well, just within the last couple of years.  But my wife - who has been eating hummus much longer than that - also said that the hummus was some of the best she ever had.  

We also got three of the oven-baked sides to go along with our meal as either an appetizer or as a side as they came out first.  I ordered the roasted mushrooms - button mushrooms topped with fine bread crumbs and a mixture of herbs.  They were sensational in flavor.  My wife ordered up the warm olives with chopped artichoke hearts.  They were served with marinated tomatoes and thyme with a hint of orange added in.  They were also fabulous in taste.  And our friend ordered the Brussels sprouts.  They were drizzled with a pomegranate syrup and fine breadcrumbs, then roasted in the oven.  All three of the side/appetizer dishes were outstanding.  

For our main course that evening, our guest ended up getting the chicken shawarma.  It was grilled with marinated cucumbers and served with hummus, yogurt and flat bread.  It was finished with some cilantro leaves.  Our friend declared it to be "wonderful".  "The chicken is crispy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside.  This is awesome!" 

My wife went with the sirloin tips skewer.  It featured four chunks of beef cooked to a medium rare to medium and served with a peach and almond tabbouleh salad, herbed lebnah yogurt, all topped with a roasted tomato vinaigrette.  The presentation in the bowl was spectacular.  "I hope it tastes as good as it looks," she said admiring the food before she ate it.  Spoiler alert: She said it was as good as it looked.  

As soon as we started to look at the menu, my wife saw something that jumped out at her.  "Oh, look, honey," she exclaimed.  "They have grilled octopus!"  I thought momentarily about the lasagna with the beef and pork bolognese, but I kept going back to the octopus.  It was a no brainer.  It was Spanish octopus with ground chorizo, Yukon gold potatoes, and a parsley/anchovy bagnetto verde sauce.  The octopus was cooked perfectly and I shared a bite with my wife and our friend.  My wife remarked that some octopus she had with me in the past had been too rubbery.  Our friend said that she never cared for octopus for the same reason.  "I never liked the texture of octopus," she said.  "But this is actually very good!"  And it certainly was.     

We had shared the hummus, the sides and bites of each of our dinners with one another that evening, sort of a Mediterranean-style family-style experience.  Destiny came out with a dessert menu and I sort of groaned as I was already pretty full.  They had affogoto - espresso with vanilla gelato, but for some reason I didn't get that.  My wife eyed the Meyer lemon cheesecake made with a red wine and blueberry glaze and powdered chocolate.  She ordered that with three forks.  It was also remarkably delicious.  But I was stuffed after all of that.  

We really didn't know what to expect when we went into Eatery A, but it turned out to be one of the more memorable dining experiences we'd had in a long time.  Weeks after our visit there, my wife and I were still talking about how good it was.  The food was fabulous, the decor and ambiance with remarkable, and Destiny's service was top-notch.  Our friend - who had also never been to Eatery A before - said, "You know, I could just come back here, sit at the bar, get a drink and order up the hummus and pita bread and I'd be set!"  There's a number of interesting items on the menu at Eatery A that I would have no problem heading back there in the future to try something else.  

The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden- Nashville

In Nashville recently, I was seeing an account in the East Nashville neighborhood.  After getting out of the meeting around 12:30 in the afternoon, I decided to find something to eat in the area.  I did a quick look on my phone for restaurants in the area and I had a choice between a Mexican restaurant and a burger joint that were across the street from one another.  The Mexican place was a little taco joint and it was packed.  That gave me the option B for the burger joint.  I found a parking space behind The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden and went inside.  

Cees Brinkman was born in the Netherlands and decided to move to Nashville in the early 90's.  Brinkman owned a couple commercial rental properties in East Nashville and in one of them he was housing some surplus restaurant equipment.  Brinkman put an ad on Craigslist to see if he could make some room in one of the properties and a local bar manager by the name of Terry Raley reached out to him as he was thinking of opening his own restaurant.  

Raley came by the property on McFerrin Ave. and met with Brinkman.  While he was looking over the equipment and telling Brinkman how he wanted to own a restaurant at some point, Brinkman was telling Raley that the building they were in - an old daycare center that had a patio - would be a great place for a restaurant.  Brinkman missed the neighborhood restaurants he remembered back in The Netherlands that were social focal points with pub food and a great beer selection with large gardens where people would meet up on nice days.  He told Raley the building they were in would be perfect for a restaurant like that.  

The two formed a 50-50 partnership and started work on the building that had elements of an old time soda fountain as well as an old-school American steakhouse along with a European-style pub with a foliage covered beer garden.  Brinkman had collected antique apothecary bottles from an old pharmacy building he owned just up the street and they decorated the restaurant with many of the bottles giving the restaurant it's name - The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden.  In December of 2011, the restaurant opened its doors.  

In early 2015, a business dispute over a new restaurant Raley had opened without Brinkman involved put the business partners at odds.  Brinkman took over the day-to-day operations of The Pharmacy Burger at that point.  A series of suits and countersuits made their way through the courts before a judge ruled in favor of Brinkman in 2020 and damages were awarded.  After the court battle cleared, it allowed Brinkman to open a second Pharmacy Burger location in 2021 in the Assembly Food Hall in downtown Nashville.  And after a renovation and expansion of the Nashville International Airport, a third Pharmacy Burger opened in the terminal in 2023.  

Pictured right - Cees Brinkman.  Photo courtesy LinkedIn.

The original Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden is located along McFerrin Ave. between W. Eastland Ave./Cleveland St. and Chicamauga Ave. in East Nashville.  (see map)   Parking is a little "iffy" (as in, the lack of it) in the area, but I was able to find a parking space just behind the building.  

Inside Pharmacy Burger, the decor hearkened back to an early 1920's pharmacy or retail establishment with exposed beams and antique light fixtures hanging from squares of tin panels.  The long and narrow room had a community table down the middle with dark wood paneled supports running the length of the building.   Exposed ductwork also ran the length of the restaurant.  Sconce lighting fixtures were above tables along the wall.  Without the lighting in the place, it would have been dark and somewhat dingy.  

The L-shaped bar had the old style wooden stools on swivels.  A row of tables along the wall provided more seating in the bar area.  70's R&B/Funk music from the likes of Chaka Khan, Parliament, Ben E. King and the J.B.'s (James Brown's back-up band) was playing in the background in the restaurant.  

Out back is the beer garden.  It featured low-slung bushes bordering the walkways and the individual patios in the beer garden.  The leafy trees over the beer garden provided abundant shade in the hot and humid Nashville midday weather.  It was definitely a popular place, but I didn't feel comfortable taking up a table by myself with groups of people coming in.  

Just between the beer garden and the main building at Pharmacy Burger is a step-up covered patio with picnic tables.  On the backside of the building was a bar with a concrete top that had some stools in front of an opening to the inside bar.  

I ended up sitting at the inside bar and was greeted by a pleasant young lady who handed me a food menu.   She asked what I wanted to drink and she handed me a beer menu.  They had a pretty impressive menu of craft beers and imports including beers and ciders from Belgium, Spain, Germany, France and the UK.  On tap, they had Duvel Golden Ale, the only bar/restaurant in Tennessee that had the beer available.  They also had the Gaffel kölsch on tap and I considered getting that.  But I saw that they had my new favorite beer from the Bearded Iris brewery in Nashville - the Homestyle hazy IPA.  I made it a point to stop at a liquor store before I left Nashville to get a couple six packs of the Homestyle beer.  

After she placed my beer in front of me, I asked the bartender if this was really an old pharmacy.  "This was a day care center," she said.  "There was a pharmacy up the street and the owner salvaged a bunch of old pharmacy bottles out of the place."  She pointed to the wall behind me and showed me a row of antique pharmacy bottles on a wooden shelf above the mirror.   

Burgers were the main item on the menu, but grilled chicken sandwiches, kielbasa and wursts were also available.  Ground turkey, ground chicken, black bean and impossible burgers were also available for the beef/meat averse.  They had some interesting burgers including the stroganoff burger with a mushroom bechamel sauce and sour cream topping with Swiss cheese.  The Slap burger was topped with American cheese, a chipotle/avocado aioli and grilled jalapeños; and the White Oak BBQ burger was topped with a house-made Coca-Cola barbecue sauce, smoked barbecue onions, bacon, onion straws and provolone cheese.  

The wursts they had on the menu were all ground, cased, and smoked in house.  The jagerwurst pork sausage was mixed with coriander, garlic, mustard seed, nutmeg and ginger.  If I wasn't in the mood for a burger, I may have gotten that.  

They had a couple specials that day - burger tacos and a cream cheese burger.  I got a chuckle out of the cream cheese burger special as it reminded me of the time a colleague of mine ordered a cream cheese burger at the Cherry Cricket in Denver a number of years ago and I rode him unmercifully for that - well, ever since then!  The burger tacos were just that - burger meat in tacos topped with lettuce, tomato and a pico de gallo.  

I settled on getting the Pharmacy burger - a half-pound burger patty that was cooked medium-well, topped with yellow cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, a tomato slice, onions, pickles and yellow mustard.  Sides available included hand-cut fries, cole slaw, German potato salad, and pasta salad.  But, of course, I got tots to go along with my burger.  They didn't have Cholula at Pharmacy Burger, but they had Crystal hot sauce and that worked fine on the tots.  

The burger was good - not great, but good.  I mean, it didn't seem like it was anything special to me.  The bun was a little dry and the toppings made it a mess, but the bartender/server provided me with a pile of napkins to help clean up.  I had to go to the restroom afterward just to wash my hands from all the mess on them the napkins didn't quite catch.  The tots were a great complement to the burger - crispy on the outside with a soft flaky inner core.  

While I enjoyed the experience at Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden, I thought the burger was just all right.  It was nothing that really grabbed hold of me and made me go, "Mmmmm...." after the first bite.  The service I had from the bartender that day was very good as she was friendly and efficient.  The beer garden at Pharmacy Burger is top-notch and it would be a great place to go to hang with friends on a warm afternoon to get a burger and a cold beer from a great selection of craft and imported beers.  Pharmacy Burger was a good find for a burger and beer joint on Nashville's east side.  

 

3 Mile House - Hazel Green, WI

Just over the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River from Dubuque, IA are a handful of supper clubs, the backbone of rural-style casual-fine dining restaurants in the Badger State.  My wife and I have tried nearly all of them - most notably the Village Bar Supper Club in Kieler, and Chop's Kall Inn Supper Club in Hazel Green.  But there is one that dates back to the 1930's that we have wanted to try for some time and that one is 3 Mile House in Hazel Green.  We took a bit of a road trip one Saturday afternoon in August and ended up having dinner at 3 Mile House.  

As I said, the 3 Mile House lineage dates back to the 1930's when supper clubs were starting to be entertainment and dining destinations that grew out of rural speakeasies from the 1920's.  By the 40's and 50's, supper clubs in the upper Midwest had gotten away from entertainment and had gone to more of a casual upscale dining experience.  

Originally called the High Hat, the building that housed the original supper club was destroyed by fire in the late 1940's.  The owners at the time rebuilt the restaurant and placed it further back from Wisconsin State Highway 35 to allow for more parking in the front.  It was at that point it was named the 3 Mile House as it was exactly 3 miles from the U.S. Highway 20 bridge over the Mississippi River between Dubuque, IA and East Dubuque, IL  

Ownership of 3 Mile House changed over the years but stabilized in 1980 when Paul (Red) and Velma Moor bought the supper club in October of 1980.  It was a family affair as Red and Velma's son Jeff - also known as "Chop" - helped out along with his brothers Julius (also known as "Jube") and Chris, and his three sisters, Peggy, Paula and Audrey.  Shortly before Red and Velma had purchased 3 Mile House, Jeff started dating a young lady by the name of Julie.  Julie also went to work at 3 Mile House as a waitress and it wasn't long after that she married "Chop" Moor.  

When Red and Velma decided to retire in 1997, they sold 3 Mile House to Jeff and Julie who continued to run the restaurant for 20 years before "Chop" decided he wanted to sell the restaurant and do something else.  In late 2017, two friends who had worked together at restaurants around Dubuque - Jesse Elliott and Mark Giunta - came forward to purchase 3 Mile House from the Moors.  ("Chop" was eventually coaxed out of semi-retirement in 2019 by the new owners of the nearby Kall Inn supper club to run the place for them.  They even renamed the supper club Chop's Kall Inn.)

Jesse Elliott had experience working at Ground Round and Red Robin in Dubuque.  While he was at Red Robin, he met Mark Giunta who later left to open his own restaurant.  The opportunity to buy 3 Mile House was just too good for them to pass up and the pair took over ownership on January 16, 2018.   The pair also welcomed long time bartender Will Pearce as a minority owner in the business.  Pearce's daytime job was as a financial planner, but he had worked nights and on weekends as a bartender at 3 Mile House since 1992.  Last year, Pearce bought out Guinta and became a full partner with Elliott in the supper club.  

My wife and I were relaxing on our deck on a beautiful Saturday morning when she made the suggestion that we go up the river to Bellevue and sit outside on the patio by the Mississippi River at River Ridge Brewing.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on River Ridge Brewing.)  Then she suggested that we continue on up the river after that and go have dinner at 3 Mile House.  She and a friend of ours went up to Dubuque about a month earlier to go to Jubeck New World Brewing's 10th Anniversary celebration.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Jubeck's.)  After hanging there for awhile, my wife made the suggestion that they go have dinner at 3 Mile House.  (This is the second instance of my wife going somewhere with our friend to a new place we hadn't been to before.  See the entry on the Dizzy Horse for the first time that happened.  And they both happened on the same weekend!)  

As we were seated on the patio at River Ridge Brewing, my wife thought it might be best to make reservations for 3 Mile House.   "We were lucky when we went," she said as she was looking up 3 Mile House's phone number.  "We went early and the place was packed.  But they were able to get us in."  3 Mile House opens at 4:00 p.m. and she made reservations for us at 5:30.  

After having a couple at River Ridge, we drove up the Great River Road to Dubuque and decided to have a beer at Jubeck Brewing.  It was getting close to 5 p.m. and my wife suggested that we get over to 3 Mile House to make sure that we can get in.  I sort of scoffed at the notion of going early, but we drove over the US Highway 151 bridge into Wisconsin from Dubuque and got off at the first exit in Wisconsin.  A right turn at the highway and a quarter mile down the road found us at 3 Mile House located at the corner of Wisconsin State Highways 35 and 11.  (see map)   

When we pulled in, I was flabbergasted.  The parking lot was packed and the restaurant had been open for just over an hour.  We were able to find what was the last parking spot in the lot in front of the supper club and went inside.  The lounge was packed with people either waiting for a table or just hanging out.  My wife went over to tell a guy - who turned out to be Jesse Elliott - that we had made reservations.  He said that it would be a few minutes for a table.  We hung out in the cozy bar area and ordered up a couple drinks - a very dirty Absolut martini for my wife and a Pseudo Sue pale ale from Toppling Goliath in Decorah, IA for me.  

Almost as soon as we placed our orders with Will Pearce at the bar, Jesse Elliott called my name for our table.  Will said he'd have someone bring our drinks out to our table.  The dining room also had a low-slung ceiling with wooden beams criss-crossing the room.  The tables were sort of small and cramped, but it wasn't like people at tables in close proximity were on top of you.  

Our waitress that evening was a tall young lady by the name of Emily.  She was so tall that I had to ask her if she played basketball or volleyball.  She sort of laughed and said, "I used to play volleyball and basketball in high school when I went to East Dubuque."  She said that she's going to Northern Iowa now and plays both in intramurals.  Emily had worked at 3 Mile House since she was in high school.  "Sometimes I'll come back on weekends," she said.  "And, of course, I'm here in the summer time."  

When we sat down and were given menus, there was already the customary relish tray on the table.  It featured chopped veggies on a plate with cheese spread, ranch dressing and braunschweiger (liver paté) in little tubs.  A basket of crackers was off to the side.  We both dove in to the basket and plate to devour the pre-dinner snacks.  

It was a bit later when Emily brought our drinks to the table and she asked us if we had any questions on the menu.  We really hadn't taken a look through it as of yet and she said she would check back.  The menu was expansive and featured appetizers such steak bites served with horseradish and blue cheese, stuffed mushrooms, fried pickles, and - of course, since we were in Wisconsin - deep-fried cheese curds.  Steaks, chicken entrees, ribs, pork chops, seafood and pasta dishes were also available.  3 Mile House also had sandwiches, burgers and seasonal features such as a stuffed lemon herb chicken entree or mahi mahi served with a mango salsa.  Combo dishes such as a beef tenderloin filet with either shrimp or lobster were also available.  

Starting off, we both got a dinner salad before our meal.  My wife got the Caesar dressing while I went with French dressing.  They were both basically the same salad greens with croutons and shaved carrots.  It was your typical supper club-type salad and was good for what it was.  

My wife ordered the 8 ounce beef tenderloin filet for her dinner.  She ordered a side of hash browns with fried onions and melted cheese on the top.  The filet was butterflied and broiled.  The cheese on the hash browns looked more like a cheese sauce rather than melted cheese on top of the fried potatoes.  My wife thought they were just OK.  

They have prime rib on Friday and Saturday night at 3 Mile House and I was leaning heavily that direction.  But when Emily asked me what I wanted, I blurted out, "I'll have the 12 ounce filet. Rare."  That sort of stunned my wife and made me pause for a moment after Emily walked away.  My wife said she thought I was going to order the prime rib.  "So did I," I said.  "I don't know why I ordered the filet."   For a moment, I contemplated getting Emily's attention to change it to the prime rib, but in the end I went with my choice.

But it all turned out well.  The filet was cooked a perfect rare for me and it was tender and tasted great.  Emily was able to round up some ground horseradish for me.  And after I had eaten about half the steak, I saw someone at a table next to us get a New York strip with some sautéed mushrooms.  Man, sautéed mushrooms would have been great!  Oh, well, the filet on its own was excellent.  

For my side, Emily was talking about the au gratin potatoes when she was going through the specials they had that evening.  I figured they must be something special if they highlighted them with the specials that evening and I ordered a side of those.  And they were fine - cheesy potatoes with bread crumbs were basically what they were.  I was more interested in getting through the very good steak I was having.   

I love supper clubs as the food is usually very good, the staff is friendly, and they're homey and cozy little places.  And 3 Mile House checked all three of those boxes for me.  My steak was delicious and cooked perfectly rare with a cool red center.  The au gratin potatoes were a good side to go with the filet.  My wife loved her 8 ounce butterflied filet and she was happy enough with her hash browns with cheese and grilled onions.  Emily was a top-notch server for us that evening, friendly, efficient and fun.  Add 3 Mile House to the list of excellent Wisconsin supper clubs that we've visited.    

Over/Under - Paducah, KY

I don't know what it is about Paducah, KY.  I really like the quaint little town that sits along the Ohio River about two hours west of Nashville.  My wife and I have spent some time in the city and the downtown area has a number of good to great restaurants, pubs and stores.  On my way between Nashville and St. Louis earlier this summer, I decided to get something to eat in Paducah.  I got into the downtown area and was looking for a burger and beer place.  I found something that sounded pretty interesting - a double-story sports bar/restaurant by the name of Over/Under.  

Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun were longtime friends and business partners who owned a commercial construction company.  They were hired to do a total renovation of a space that would eventually become Grill 211 in downtown Paducah.  (To see the Road Tips entry on Grill 211, click here.)  While doing the renovation, Hardin and Calhoun fell in love with the vibe downtown Paducah exuded.  They thought that maybe they could do something else in their lives at some point - like possibly owning their own restaurant in downtown Paducah.  

The owners of Grill 211 also owned an Italian restaurant just up the street - the Italian Grill on Broadway - before closing that restaurant in 2019.  While still doing commercial renovations around Paducah, Calhoun and Hardin finally made the decision to plunge into the restaurant business taking over the former Italian restaurant during pandemic in 2020.  The first thing they did was to sit down with a friend - Chris Johnson, who was managing the local Buffalo Wild Wings - to make up a wish-list of what they wanted in a restaurant.  Having it be a sports bar was one item on the list, having the best burger in town, having eclectic tacos, and having a number of signature cocktails available from the bar.  

Pictured right - Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun.  Photo courtesy Paducah Life Magazine.  

With Johnson onboard as the restaurant manager, Calhoun and Hardin did the renovations on the two-story establishment.  They brought in their own chef - Kevin Dowdy - to oversee the kitchen.  With everything in place, Over/Under opened on St. Patrick's Day in 2021.  (After opening and getting Over/Under up and going, Hardin and Calhoun renovated a historical building in downtown Paducah into an upscale tavern by the name of Stella's.  Stella's opened in the fall of 2022.)  

It was around 1:15 p.m. when I pulled up in front of Over/Under located along Broadway, a one-way street in downtown Paducah.  (see map)   There is a common door to a handful of businesses that one goes in to get to Over/Under.  The "under" part of the bar was closed off that day as the main restaurant and kitchen are upstairs.  It featured a small bar with a concrete top and a corrugated tin front.  The walls were made from distressed bar boards with shadeless Edison lighting hanging from the ceiling.  Many of the private parties that Over/Under hosts are usually held on the ground floor of the restaurant. 

There was a sign on the ground floor to go to the elevator to go up to the second floor to the "over" part of Over/Under.  There I found a larger bar with a long, narrow and well-lit dining area.  There was a hostess who greeted me and I asked if I could just sit at the bar.   It, too, was a concrete-topped bar with distressed barn board inlays just below.  Given the renovations that took place, it was a rather impressive little space.  

Toward the front of the upstairs dining area was a small room off to the side that featured a number of high-top tables that sat up to six people per table.  It featured flatscreen televisions on an exposed brick wall with plenty of light coming in from the large windows on the front of the building.  

The bartender/server that day was a young lady by the name of Stephanie.  She handed me a food menu to look through and asked what I wanted to drink.  They had a pretty short tap list and a rather uninspired list of canned and bottled beer.  I ended up ordering a pint of the Cigar City Jai Alai India pale ale they had on tap.

The food offerings at Over/Under included the normal bar appetizers - nachos, wings, jalapeño poppers, and vegetarian cauliflower "wings".   Sandwiches, burgers, wraps, tacos and salads were also on the menu.  I contemplated getting the fried Buffalo chicken wrap for a moment, but I decided to go the burger route.

I ended up getting Over/Under's Smash burger, a 1/2 pound blend of ground short rib, chuck and brisket beef smashed on a flat-grill and served on fresh-baked Texas toast from the venerable Kirchhoff Bakery in Paducah.  (To see the Road Tips entry on the Kirchhoff Bakery and Deli click here.)  The burger patty was topped with American cheese, grilled onions and a special house-made sauce.  I had a choice of sides and - of course - I got tots to go along with the burger.  They didn't have Cholula to go with the tots, but they had some other off brand Louisiana-style hot sauce instead.  

And the burger was very good.  It was more like a patty melt, but it had the consistency of a good smashed burger.  The blend of different cuts of beef gave it a great flavor and it was cooked perfectly.  As I said, it was a very good burger, but it was very expensive for what it was. I know restaurant prices have gone up dramatically over the past couple of years. but $16 bucks for what was a glorified patty melt and a side of tots was a big extravagant, in my book.  

Over/Under was a nice way-station for lunch on my trip between Nashville and St. Louis.  While the menu is typical for a sports bar and doesn't really have anything that sticks out, the smash burger I had was very good.  But I thought it was sort of expensive, and they didn't have that good of a beer selection.  The sports bar atmosphere was very nice and I really liked what they did with the building to transform it from a longtime Italian restaurant into the space that it is today.  Over/Under would be a go-to to watch a sporting event while in Paducah.  Just make sure you bring some extra cash.  

Dizzy Horse - Milan, IL

We've been fans of chef Toby Christianson since he started out as the managing partner/chef at the Woodfire Grill in downtown Davenport in 2008.  The enigmatic Christianson unexpectedly did a 90-degree turn from a casual upscale restaurant to turn it into an artisanal taqueria by the name of tacobar? in 2020.  We liked tacobar? a lot.  (Christianson got the idea for the name of the restaurant from the retort he would instantly get when he'd tell people what he wanted to do with Woodfire Grill.)  But in the summer of 2022, my wife and I went there a couple times only find out that tacobar? was sold out of some of their smoked meats that went on their tacos.  We sort of wondered what was going on, so it was no surprise that Toby Christianson shut down tacobar? in the fall of 2022.  Last fall, we heard he surfaced again to run a restaurant over in Milan, IL, just south of Rock Island. Of course, we were intrigued.  We heard some good things and we heard some bad things about his new restaurant, a chef-driven concept/upscale dive bar that he named the Dizzy Horse.  We made our way over to Dizzy Horse on a recent Saturday evening.  

Toby Christianson grew up in a small Minnesota town and went to school at Minnesota State - Moorhead.  After college he got into the restaurant business and worked at places in Fargo, ND, Grinnell, IA and Muscatine, IA.  When Centro - which had opened in 2004 in downtown Davenport - transitioned over to Woodfire Grill in 2008, Christianson came to the Quad Cities and never left.  

Pictured left - Toby Christianson.  Photo courtesy Quad City Times.  

During his hiatus from tacobar?, Christianson helped out his friend Amanda Kernan and her Girl + Food by Cafe Fresh food truck.   But the bug to run his own place came back in the spring of 2023.   Christianson was looking to find a location that was much smaller and more chef-driven Midwestern/Americana fare than what he had at Woodfire Grill and tacobar?.  The owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill in Milan, IL announced in May of 2023 that he wanted to put his restaurant up for sale.  Christianson eventually took it over last summer and transformed the place into his vision of an upscale dive bar.  

What to name the place was another task that Christianson had to do.  Next to his new location was a storage building that used to be the home to a Western-wear store.  The store had a sign with a horse on the top that turned in a circle and could be seen for blocks away.  After the store went out of business and the new owners turned it into storage units, they kept the sign with the horse on top.  Of course, the horse got dizzy from turning in a circle 24/7 and that's where Christianson came up with the name.  

After getting his business and liquor licenses from the city of Milan last November, Christianson started out slow having "pop-up" nights on Fridays and Saturdays for the first couple months.  Food selections were limited, but they were interesting such as smoked pork fried rice, jalapeño/bacon wontons, smoked brisket tacos and his famous meatloaf that he carried over from his Woodfire Grill days.  By the end of the year, Christiansen expanded the menu and opened up for longer hours over a four day period each week.

Word on the street about the Dizzy Horse sent throngs of people into his little restaurant.  There were times people would have to wait for a table and by the time they got an open table, Christianson announced that he was out of food for the night.  This happened on a semi regular basis to the point where people were getting upset and giving his restaurant one star on Yelp and trashing it on social media on Facebook and Twitter.  But his most ardent fans knew that Christianson had a vision and made his foods in small batches and smoked pork, brisket and chicken on two small smokers in the back.  As the one star reviews and social media bashing continued, Christianson took it as a badge of honor.  He figured the ones who were giving such a bad review for his place, they didn't know the difference between chef-driven, menu-changing cuisine and heading to a chain restaurant for a meal.  Earlier this year, Christianson came up with a logo of a horse head with a single star at the bottom to signify that he really didn't care what some people thought of his little restaurant.  

We had been wanting to go over to Dizzy Horse for some time.  One evening when I was cooking steaks for a golf outing for a friend, my wife and a friend of ours from Des Moines who was over visiting for the weekend decided to head out to Dizzy Horse for the first time.  My wife brought home half of a smoked pork chile verde burrito that she couldn't eat.  The next day, she was out with our friend and I was looking for something to eat in the fridge.  I found the burrito and I called my wife to see if she was saving it for herself.  When she told me that I could eat it, I warmed it up in the microwave and sat down to eat it.  Oh, my god!  It was outstanding!  The smoked pork with the chile verde sauce was just heavenly.  

A week later on a Saturday night, my wife and I were sort of trying to figure out someplace to go have dinner. We were going to head over to Coal Creek Inn in Coal Valley, IL to get a burger, but just before the I-74/I-280 exit my wife said, "Hold it.  I have a better idea."  She turned onto westbound I-280 and then took the Airport Road/U.S. Highway 67 exit that takes you into downtown Milan.  She pulled up to a parking lot just across the street from the Dizzy Horse around 7:30.  (see map)   

To get into the Dizzy Horse you have to pass a covered patio with patio lights hanging from the rafters.  There are some four-seat tables on the patio, but - quite curiously - they also had lounge chairs with coffee tables that people were eating off of.   

The inside dining area also had sort of a living room motif with comfy chairs and low-slung tables in the middle of the dining space.  I just found it sort of weird that they would have people eat that way in a restaurant.  That's one thing that has rubbed people the wrong way about Dizzy Horse, the seating arrangement with just a few conventional tables and a bar area to sit at to eat if you don't want to have to be bending over to try and eat like you're in someone's living area.  I sure as hell didn't want to eat at one of those tables.  

Since all the conventional tables inside and out were taken by people (and why wouldn't they?), we decided to sit at the bar.  There was a young lady behind the bar that looked familiar to me and she immediately recognized me.  It was Dallas, a perky blonde who has worked the bar area for Toby first at Woodfire Grill, then again when it transformed into tacobar?.   We've known Dallas for years before she started to work for Toby.  My wife said, "I thought that was you when I was in here with my friend last week, but I didn't want to say anything."

Dallas said, "Well, I thought that was you last week, too!  I should have said something."  Dallas gave us some menus to look over and she asked us what we wanted to drink.  They had Kona Big Wave on tap and I took a pint of that.  My wife had Dallas make her an extra dirty Absolut martini.  

Since the menu changes periodically - and Dizzy Horse doesn't have a dedicated web site - you're kind of at the mercy of what Toby has to offer on any given evening when he's open.  And since he changes his menus at the drop of a hat, some item that someone really liked the time before, he may not have it the next time they come out.  And THAT pisses people off on social media, too!  

That evening, Toby was featuring his jalapeño bacon won tons, crispy Brussels sprouts, calamari, and elote corn "ribs" - fresh sweet corn that is grilled and powdered with a chili-lime concoction, and topped with grated parmesan/romano cheese and served with a chipotle aioli.  

The food menu that evening absolutely blew me away.  Toby had a number of delectable items to choose from including a wok-seared Mongolian Beef with fire-grilled cabbage rice; a bourbon-glazed grilled salmon; spicy red chili garlic noodles with wok-seared jalapeño chicken; and his drunken noodles with wok-seared bulgogi beef in a bourbon glaze.  He also had his Dizzy Burger - 3 quarter-pound smashed burger patties with cheese (x 2), bacon and a garlic aioli.  And if you didn't think you had enough cheese on the burger, a side of melted cheese came with the burger to dip it in.  

My wife - for some reason - thought it would be good to start out with an appetizer.  She ordered up some of the crab rangoons.  They were large, crispy creamy crab-filled rangoons served with a somewhat spicy sweet and sour sauce on the side.  I believe there were 8 in basket and they were large.  And they were also very rich and filling.  I had two and said, "No more!"  I didn't want to spoil my dinner.  We ended up taking 3 of them home as Dallas gave us more dipping sauce to go with them.  

They had the same pork verde burrito that night that my wife had the week before.  But this time she went with the barbecue brisket tacos.  They were topped with a cole slaw pico de gallo and chimichurri.  Served on a small cookie sheet on paper, a large amount of fries came with the two tacos.  Even though she said they were great, my wife was able to eat only one of the tacos.  

I was really up in the air as to what to get that evening.  The Oklahoma-style burger sounded great - in Oklahoma, they smash onions directly into the burger patty as it cooks on a flat-grill.  I contemplated the Navajo bread "puffy" brisket taco, and the drunken smoked pork tacos with a bourbon sauce, cider slaw, cilantro and pickled onions also sounded great.  But something I saw on the menu brought me back to the days when Toby ran the Woodfire Grill - the meatloaf grilled cheese.  

The meatloaf at Woodfire Grill was some of the best I've ever had in a restaurant.  I don't think Toby would give me his recipe, but I'm happy with the way I make my meatloaf at home.  I've found that some restaurants don't do meatloaf the way I like it, but Toby's meatloaf was always great.  When Dallas brought the sandwich out to me, I couldn't believe the size.  A bowl of tomato bisque came on the side and another large portion of fries came on their own container boat.  

I cut the sandwich in half and the cheese was just oozing out from underneath the thick-cut house-made bread.  The wonderful flavor of the meatloaf came through all the cheese and the bread just fine.  I dipped the sandwich in the tomato bisque a couple times, but I didn't think it did anything to enhance the already wonderful taste of the sandwich.  

Toby came out of the kitchen as things were slowing down for the evening and we talked for a bit.  I said, "Toby, thank god you are still making the same meatloaf you had at Woodfire Grill.  But, man - this is a huge sandwich!"  

"That's is a big sandwich," he said with a laugh.  "But that's how we do it here!"  

And - oh, man!  Was it filling.  With two crab rangoons, a couple beers and half a sandwich in my belly, I threw in the towel.  And that's not to mention the copious amount of fries that my wife and I were both served.  We ended up taking one of her tacos, half of my meatloaf grilled cheese, the three crab rangoon, and a whole container of fries.  We carried three containers out of Dizzy Horse that evening.  I joked with Toby, "I'd hate to see what your monthly budget for to-go containers is."  I was able to get two meals out of half of the meatloaf sandwich that I took home.  

It was great to finally get to try the Dizzy Horse.  My wife is now a certified veteran as this was her second visit.  I do want to try one of Toby's burgers at some point, and a fresh made smoked pork chili verde would also be on my list of things to try on a return visit.  It was great to reconnect with Dallas who did her usual good job of taking care of us at the bar.  And it was great to talk with Toby again.  His vision of a restaurant is more of a pop-up variety with changing menus of fresh-sourced ingredients, smoked meats, and large portions.  To stay on top of what's going on at Dizzy Horse, when they're open and what they may be featuring on any given day, follow them on their Facebook page.