Road Tips

Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger - Ann Arbor, MI

Before going on a trip to Ann Arbor for the Iowa/Michigan football game last fall, I read about a little burger place there in Bob Wood's book that takes a look at the communities around the Big Ten Conference, Big Ten Country.  From the description of the place, I couldn't wait to try Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger.  We were with our friends, Scott and Marcia Schroeder, and Dave and Pat Heusmann, and since the game started at 3:30, it was a must to go to Blimpy Burger before the game.  (Picture courtesy onesixtyk.com) 

Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger was opened back in 1953 by Jim Shafer, a guy who had run a small burger stand in downtown Ann Arbor.  Shafer was called "crazy" by another store owner because he was selling hamburgers for 20 cents each.  When the opportunity to move to a former corner grocery store just off the fringe of the University of Michigan, Shafer jumped at the chance.  He decided to call his new place "Krazy Jim's" and had a drawn cow as a mascot.  His motto for his burgers was "cheaper than food" because it was almost cheaper to have a hamburger than to make something at home.  His place became a food haven for U of Michigan students who lived nearby in rental houses.  

In 1969, a young student by the name of Rich Magner came to work flipping burgers at Krazy Jim's.  Magner had some artistic talent and Shafer asked him to re-do the restaurant's cow mascot.  Magner told Shafer, "I don't draw cows, I draw bears."  So the sitting bear holding the burger in the logo came to be the new mascot for Krazy Jim's.   

Pictured left - Rich Magner working the line at Krazy Jim's.  (Picture courtesy mlive.com - Ann Arbor Business Review.) 

Magner left Krazy Jim's in 1974, but returned in 1992 buying the business from the then-retired Jim Shafer.  He and his wife, Chris, whom he met while both were working at Blimpy Burger in the early 70's, changed the menu from the basic "burger, pie, coffee" place to one that featured your choice of one to five burger patties per burger, your choice of a regular bun, an onion bun, a pumpernickel bun, or a kaiser bun (with or without sesame seeds), then a myriad of toppings including six different types of cheese, and a slew of extras including a fried egg, bacon, green olives, salami or banana pepper rings.  A University of Michigan math student once calculated that there are 2,147,483,648 different combinations you can have with a Blimpy Burger.  

We arrived at the corner of S. Division and Packard (see map) right as Krazy Jim's opened for the day at 11 a.m.  For the uninitiated in Krazy Jim's ordering procedures, there is a protocol one must go through in order to keep the line moving - a line that will sometimes stretch out the door during busy periods.  The menu at Crazy Jim's is pretty straight forward and being one of the first in line that day gave us a little time to figure out what we wanted.

The inside of the restaurant is very small and sort of void of any real character.  They have a few tables and chairs in the place.  (The chairs were bought by Jim Shafer for $1.75 each from a department store that had gone out of business.)   The flat grill is behind the counter and a couple three people are whirling behind the counter cooking the burgers and fried foods.  (Pictures above courtesy Ann Arbor.com)

The shtick for the people working the counter and grills at Krazy Jim's is to have a fast mouth and a tart tongue.  Before ordering, we had to withstand the playful taunts of the counter crew regarding our Iowa sweatshirts and jackets.  A little black lady working the grill shouted out, "You Iowans been here before?"  When we said we had not, she yelled out, "Hey, we have some Blimpy virgins in the crowd today!"

Since the burgers are only 1 1/2 ounce balls of fresh chuck beef ground daily at Krazy Jim's, you can easily order four for a burger, which makes it a 6 oz. burger.  That's what I ordered - a quad.  Actually, the protocol is that you order how many patties you want, they throw the round balls on the grill and mash them down.   Then you get asked the type of bun you want (I got the onion bun for about 50 cents extra).  The next question is what do you want grilled with it - bacon, onions, and mushrooms is what I ordered.  And then right before the burger patties came off the grill, the little lady asked me what type of cheese I wanted on it.  "Swiss, darlin'," I replied.

She said, "Sweet talkin' me ain't gonna get you this burger any faster."  She, alone, was worth the price of admission.  After the burger came off the grill, that's when you were asked what kind of condiments you wanted and I ordered ketchup, mustard and pickles.  "Don't like puttin' ketchup on our burgers," the little lady yelled out.  "But we'll do it for you Blimpy virgins!"    

The burgers were placed on individual trays and the lady yelled, "Now, you do not take the burger off the tray.  Keep 'em on your tray.  When you're done, bus your own tables."  

Here's a Krazy Jim's double burger (picture courtesy of A Hamburger Today.) 

The burger, I have to say, was just magnificent. It had that great flat grilled taste to the meat, and the burger, itself, was very juicy.  The grease from the meat was just dripping onto the wax paper with every bite.  That's also probably why they don't want you taking the burger off the tray, so they won't have to come out and wipe up the grease that soaked through the wax paper.  In fact, about the time we were finished with our burgers, a couple near us had the audacity to take their burgers off the trays and put them on the table.  The lady screamed, "Do NOT take the burgers off the tray!  Don't make me come out there and nail you up 'side the head!"  

Everyone loved their burgers.  Some of the people in our group got the onion rings - they're homemade and it's a three-day process of making.  The first day, they're peeled and put into a cooler to draw out the excess moisture in the rings.  The second day, they're sliced into rings and placed back into the cooler to dry out some more.  The third day, they're battered and fried.  They turn out to be sort of a misshapen mish-mash of deep fried onions.  I was offered a couple and they were outstanding.  Cindy got the French fries which are really just big, thick steak fries.  They were crisp on the outside and mushy in the middle - perfect.   

Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had.  Period.  There are very few burgers that will ever top the taste of the burger I had at Krazy Jim's.  But I'm going to keep on trying to find them.  And that's what a good part of this blog is all about.  (Picture at right courtesy Ann Arbor.com)  

(Update I - In August of 2013, Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger was forced to close their doors due to expansion of the nearby University of Michigan campus.  Rich Magner had leased the building from Jim Shafer's widow and she sold the building when the college wanted to expand.  The Magner's had been looking for a place that was reasonable in price for them to buy and relocate the restaurant.  As of the end of December 2013, that still hadn't happened.  If I hear that they've reopened, I'll let you know.)

(Update II - Rich Magner found a place in downtown Ann Arbor and signed the lease of April of 2014.  His official re-opening of Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger was on Friday, October 3, 2014.  The original tables and chairs from the old place are at the new place and the same menu favorites are available.)

Weekend Hotel Tips

Everybody has to get away to the big city for a weekend every once in a while.  If you can plan far ahead; or if you don't mind a little drive, you can usually find rooms in 4 star hotels at 2 star prices. 

There are a number of web sites on the internet that say they can get you the best prices on hotels.  Sites like Priceline.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com usually only get a block of rooms from hotels on a nightly basis that they can choose from.  More often than not, if you know the dates you're going to travel, you can usually go directly to the hotel's - or the chain's - web site and book at lower prices than what you'd get on some of the travel web sites. 

I fall into this problem from time to time as I usually don't know where I'm going any more than a week or two in advance.  I sometimes have trouble finding affordable rooms at the hotels I like to stay in because I don't book very far out in advance.  But if I know that in a couple of months I have to be in, say, Kansas City for a dealer meeting or event, I'll go ahead and book that far in advance and be able to get a pretty good price.

Here's another tip that you can do when you are going to be staying over on weekends - and you usually don't have to plan that far in advance.  Look for hotels near major airports.

Case in point - Earlier this year, I had to go to Los Angeles for a long weekend on, basically, three days notice.  Given that the Golden Globes were going to be given out that weekend, I knew that I would have trouble finding an affordable hotel that wasn't a Super 8 or Motel 6 stuck out in El Segundo.  I looked up the Marriott hotel web site and found the Renaissance Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport had rooms for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at $94 a night!  Their rooms through the week START at $214!  The place was great, the rooms were large and spacious, it had a great view of the city, the coast line up to Malibu, the planes coming and going.  $94 a night. 

I know the Renaissance at Lambert airport in St. Louis has had rooms for as little as $69 a night on weekends!  And their rooms start at $159 through the week. 

The Spring Hill Suites at O'Hare in Chicago have rooms as little as $79 a night and there's an Outback Steakhouse attached to the place. 

Another area to look for deals on the weekend are hotels that are situated near large corporations or corporate parks.  The Hilton in Overland Park, KS usually starts out at $139 a night through the week, but Friday night comes and you can get rooms there for as little as $69 a night. 

The Hampton Inn and Suites in Lincolnshire, IL starts out at $129 a night through the week and I've booked a room there for $62 a weekend night - on the morning of the night we were going to stay there! 

And we just stayed for a weekend at the Courtyard near Westport in St. Louis last summer for $62 a night, too!  Normal rates through the week begin at $139.   

You usually can't find these kind of weekend prices in the downtown areas of the large cities, but it doesn't hurt to give it a shot.  But if you don't mind a little driving, you can usually find some pretty good prices in the outlying areas.  And for what you save in room prices, splurge and have a nice dinner somewhere.

Whitey's Ice Cream

Started in 1935, Whitey's Ice Cream is a guilty pleasure of many people here in the Quad Cities and over in Iowa City/Coralville for a number of years.  They're just too damn convenient as they have locations all over the place here in the Quad's. 

Whitey's is so popular that there isn't a Baskin-Robbins in the Quad Cities.  About the only thing that rivals it's popularity is Dairy Queen and it's just not the same as Whitey's.

Whitey's has a Lemon Custard that they have only during the spring and summer months that is to die for.  It is the most scrumptious ice cream in the world.  And in the fall, they do a Pumpkin ice cream that is very, very good, too. 

When anyone comes to visit from out of town, the big thing is to take 'em to Whitey's.  But, seriously, I had to really limit my Whitey's intake this last summer.  I was there way too much the year before.

But there's really nothing better on a hot summer's night than a cool treat from Whitey's...

My Horseradish Encrusted Salmon

My Horseradish Encrusted Salmon for Two

A healthy and tasty meal that can be done on a Weber Grill with indirect heat, or in an oven in a baking dish with a little bit of a lemon juice/water mixture in the dish. 

1 - 12 to 14 oz Salmon filet
3 tablespoons Atomic Brand Garlic Roasted Horseradish or similar fresh ground horseradish
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon dill weed
1/8 cup chopped cilantro

In a small sauce pan, combine the butter, chopped garlic, lemon juice and Tabasco sauce and cook until the butter is melted.  Mix well.  Set aside and let cool.

When butter mixture cools sufficiently (about 10 to 15 minutes) pour over the top of the salmon.  Sprinkle the dill weed over the salmon.    Place salmon in a container that you can close.  Let sit in refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.

If available, soak a cedar plank in water for 30 to 60 minutes before cooking.

Place the briquettes around the outside of the Weber grille for indirect cooking.  Place a pan of water in the middle and start the charcoal.

Just before cooking, spread the horseradish thinly and evenly across the top of the salmon filet. 

When the temperature hits 325-350 (F), place the salmon on the wet cedar plank (or directly on the grille if plank is not available) directly above the water pan.

Cook for 30 to 35 minutes at 325 (F) to 350 (F).  Remove from grille and/or plank when finished.  Cut in two to desired size (you can remove the skin at this time, but it's not necessary).  Garnish with chopped cilantro.

The Town Pump - Clear Lake, IA

The Town Pump in Clear Lake, Iowa (see map) is one of my more favorite places to stop and get a burger when I'm traveling to and from the Twin Cities. It's in downtown Clear Lake, just north of the lake, itself. It's kind of an older place, sort of rustic, but the place is clean, a lot of locals eat there, and the burgers are good.

They went through a change of ownership in 2004 and even though the burgers are still pretty good, I don't think they're as good as when the previous owners ran the place. Under the previous regime, the burgers would come with a little condiment holder where you could generously dish on as much onions or pickles as you like. The new owners just throw an onion and a couple pickles on when you order it with everything.

Not that there isn't anything wrong with that. Like I say the burgers are still good. One thing I did notice after the new owners took over is that the buns don't seem to be as light and fresh as they were before. A lot of people don't realize that buns are what really make a good hamburger. And for the longest time I thought the Town Pump had the best burgers I'd ever tasted. They're still good but not the best.