Road Tips

Cincinnati Chili Dogs

Cincinnati style chili is different from other chili in that it doesn't have beans, it's a little more sweet than other types of chili, and it adds spices such as cinnamon and allspice with a dash of cocoa to the mix.  And it doesn't have any hot and spicy taste to it.  It could be described as "Greek style" chili because a lot of the origins of Cincinnati style chili come from the city's Greek immigrant community.  It's a different, yet acceptable taste when compared to Texas Style chili or Willy Chili.

Of course, there's a number of places in Cincinnati that have minor variances of the local style of chili.  And the way they serve it is also quite unique to Cincinnati.  Most places serve the chili as 3-way chili - spaghetti, topped with chili, topped with copious amounts of cheddar cheese.  Or you can go to 4-way chili by adding either red beans or onions.  Or go all the way to 5-way chili - adding both the beans and onions.

I'm sorry - chili and spaghetti just doesn't sound appealing to me.  But it's a staple in the diets of many people in Cincinnati. 

However, what I do like in Cincinnati are their Cincinnati style chili dogs.  Actually, the hot dogs and the buns they serve the hot dogs on are almost miniature in size.  Three healthy bites and they're gone, so it's easy to eat three of them at one sitting. 

Cincinnati style chili dogs, or "coneys", are topped with chili, mustard and onions.  You can add cheddar cheese to them, but I think the cheese really detracts from the taste of the chili dog. 

I've been to the three "big" places in Cincinnati to get chili dogs and I think I have a better idea as to who is the best. 

My third place finisher is Gold Star Chili.  Not that it's bad, I think it's good.  I just like the chili at my second place finisher Skyline Chili a little bit better.  Skyline Chili has been around for about 15 years longer than Gold Star has, and they have more locations in and around Cincinnati than Gold Star. 

Actually, it's like an arms race between Gold Star and Skyline - they're both putting up places right and left.  I think Gold Star has something like 100 total locations, Skyline may have about 120.  But Skyline is also available throughout Ohio and Kentucky, up in Indianapolis, up in Michigan, and now down in Florida. 

I found the Skyline chili to have just a little bit more of an agreeable taste than Gold Star.  The spice taste sensations were more abundant in the Skyline chili.  That may not mean that more people like it that way, but I did.  And I found the chili dogs at Skyline were a little more flavorful - both with the chili and the hot dog, itself. 

But my favorite place in Cincinnati for chili dogs is not a chain, but a single store location - Camp Washington Chili.  Camp Washington is a family run place that is styled after a 50's era diner.  The waitresses are friendly and sassy and make you feel welcome.  I like their chili the best of all the three "big guys", and they have the best chili dogs of all three.  When I go to or through Cincinnati, I always have to get off of I-75 at Hopple and go west about a quarter of a mile to Colerain and Camp Washington is there on the corner.  They're open all through the week, but closed on Sunday's. 

When in Cincinnati, I heartily recommend getting a couple chili dogs at Camp Washington. 

Caputo's - Addison, IL

One place that I frequent on my trips to Chicago is Caputo's Market in Addison.  Actually, the Caputo's in Addison is one of four in the Chicago area.  But this is the only one that I've ever been to.

I first heard about Caputo's from a friend who told me that Caputo's had the freshest produce, the best meat counter and a great old Italian bakery in the place.  I found that there was one just down the street from the hotel I was staying at in Addison.  So, I go down Lake Street and I keep going and going and I never see Caputo's.  I turn around and go back.  I still don't see it.  So I turn around and I sit at a stop light and sitting back about 150 yards north of Lake Street was Caputo's.  My wife says I'm not very observant and it shows.  Caputo's is a big building.  Caputo's is about 45,000 square feet and they use every bit of the space.

For an ethnic market, Caputo's is tough to beat.  But their produce is the best and freshest I've ever seen at any grocery store.  And they have tons of produce that you just don't see in Iowa. 

Their meat counter is huge.  Their deli meats are too numerous to mention.  They've got all the Italian meats you'd ever want.  Three or four different types of pepperoni, different hams, roast beef, etc.  They have about any kind of cheese you want.  It's just amazing to see.

They have fresh baked breads from local bakeries brought in daily, and their bakery - La Bella Romana - makes some of the best Italian desserts one can find in the Chicago area.  I'm particular to the Damato bakery bread they bring in; and the tiramisu, the orange cake and the lemon cookies from the La Bella Romana bakery is to die for.

In fact, Caputo's has a La Bella Romana line of pasta, condiments, olive oil, vinegar and spices that they sell at the store.  I recently picked up a jar of their giardiniera for my homemade Italian beef sandwiches.

If you're a cook and come into the Chicago area at any time, Caputo's is worth the stop.  Even if you AREN'T a cook, Caputo's is still a pretty neat place to visit.

Hampton Inn and Suites - Addison, IL

Probably my favorite place to stay in the Chicagoland area is the Hampton Inn and Suites in Addison.  Located just off of I-355 at the Lake Street exit, it's easy access to nearly every where in Chicago (it's near where I-355 and I-290 meet). 

The place has been open for a little over 2 years now and is still pretty new in it's feel and look.  The staff is always great to me and they usually put me in one of the suites on the main floor for the regular room price (which runs about $99 to $109 a night).  They have a pretty good breakfast bar in the morning with a lot of items to choose from.

Over the last few months, a number of restaurants have sprung up along Lake Street.  A couple years ago, there were a couple three restaurants to choose from.  There's now a Famous Dave's, a Giordano's and a Home Run Inn for pizza, there's Mexican, Italian, and family restaurants up and down Lake Ave.  And for the grown up kids, Dave and Buster's is right across I-355 south of Lake.  So there's a lot of places to choose from when you're hungry.

If you don't mind driving, the Hampton Inn and Suites in Addison is a great place to spend the night if you want to go into downtown Chicago for a day.  I highly recommend it. 

Chicago Chop House - Chicago

The Chicago Chop House is one of the finest, if not THE finest, steak houses I've ever been to.  First of all, it's in the heart of the River North neighborhood in downtown Chicago.  Secondly, it's housed in an ornate building on W. Ontario.  And third, it's probably more than a steak house, it's a great fine dining destination.

The Chop House has hundreds of historical pictures that are on the walls throughout the place.  There are pictures of famous (and infamous) Chicagoans, old restaurants and stores, the stockyards and other interesting photos that are fun to look at.

The appetizers are killer.  I especially like the cajun sauteed shrimp.  Spicy enough to zing your mouth, but not enough that you loose the overall flavor of the sauteed shrimp.

I've been to the Chop House twice - and thankfully, I didn't pick up the check either time.  The first time I went, I had the 24 oz. bone-in prime rib.  Man, it was killer!  You don't know how bad I wanted to put that bone up after I'd finished and gnaw on it like a dog in the backyard. 

The second time I went, I went big time and went for the 24 oz. New York Strip.  Oh, my GAWWWD!  It was heavenly.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and was juicy and flavorful.  I even went with their famous American Fries, which are slices of baked potatoes sauteed with garlic, onion, pepper, parsley and oregano.  Man, it was a pig out of biblical proportions.

The Chop House's wine list is also very extensive.  I remember they had a lot of French wines, but seemed to be a little shy on the number of American reds (the ones I was more familiar with, any way).   But the waiters were very well versed in the wines they served and can help you out with any questions you may have.

Like I said, I'm certainly glad I didn't pick up the check either time I was there.  The first time I went in the late 80's, we were 10 people and the bill came to well over $1000 with tip.  I went there with six others a couple three years ago and the bill was over $1000 again - thanks to four $125 bottles of wine that we had. 

If you have the money to burn, and you're in Chicago, and you want a great meal, the Chop House should be at the top of your list.

St. Louis Style Ribs

I was told one time by a butcher in St. Louis that there really was no such thing as St. Louis style ribs.  He said there are different interpretations as to what St. Louis style is.  He said that some butchers remove the bone next to the brisket and call it St. Louis style.  Others leave the bone and cut off the skirt steak part of the ribs.  Others take the bone and cut off excess of the skirt steak. 

He told me that others take the meaty portion of the spare ribs and use a dry rub while cooking, then slather on sauce before they serve the meat. 

Either way, finding "true" St. Louis style ribs is sort of hard to do, since there's so many different ideas and definitions as to what it truly is. 

However, there's a couple places in St. Louis that I think have great ribs.

Richard's Ribs in Kirkwood is one of those places.  Located on the southwest side of the St. Louis metro area, just west of Lindbergh, Richard's Ribs have a great flavor, the meat is always cooked right and the sauce is flavorful.  The place isn't much to write home about, but it is a typical good rib joint.

I've tried others in St. Louis, a lot of them are chains like Bandana's, Smokey Bones, and KC Masterpiece, but none of them stack up to Richard's or to Super Smokers. 

Super Smokers is some of the best barbecue I've ever had.  They've been around since the late 80's starting out in suburban Eureka, MO.  Since then, they've grown to 7 locations around the St. Louis metro area - all of them as good as the original. 

Super Smokers has the distinction of being the only St. Louis barbecue restaurant to garner World Championship honors at the annual "Memphis in May" rib festival in Memphis.  They have great sauces, including their World Championship sauce and their Texas Hot sauce.  I like the spiciness of their Texas Hot sauce.   

The ribs are always meaty with a wonderful smoky flavor, the beans are great (add a little Texas Hot sauce in with them), and the beer is always cold.

God, my stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about Super Smokers.

In my opinion, you can't go wrong with either Richard's or Super Smokers in St. Louis.

Sal's Beverage World - Addison, IL

I first went into Sal's Beverage World on Lake St. in Addison, IL about two years ago just looking for a six pack of beer to take back to my hotel room after a long day calling on dealers in Chicago.  I was pleasantly surprised. 

Sal's has a great selection of beer - domestic national and regional brewerys, as well as a number of foreign beers, including a large selection of Mexican beers.  One of the keys for me - they have Special Export in bottles, which has become hard to find outside of Chicago or Milwaukee.  And their prices are good, too. 

But they also have a good selection of wines, both domestic and foriegn, to choose from, as well.  And their prices I think are very reasonable. 

Sal's has more of a warehouse-type feel to it, it's definitely not as big as Sam's Wine and Liquor, but they have an impressive selection of beers and wine. 

They aren't as well known as some of the other liquor stores in Chicago, but they are more than competitive on price. 

Omaha Sports Bars

I first walked into a place in Omaha called "The Scorecard" in 1987.  I was out there for business and I was staying at a hotel just down the street.  I thought I'd go in for burger and a couple beers, but I soon found out that it was more than than a burger bar.

Behind the bar were two televisions showing two separate major league baseball games.  Above the bar were two more television showing TWO OTHER baseball games.  I sat down at a little table and I looked over to my left and on the wall was another television showing ANOTHER baseball game.  I was in heaven!

I'd been to Griff's in Houston a couple times before, but that place - at that time - was no where near the television and sports haven The Scorecard was.  It was more of an Irish bar that just happened to have some TV's hanging around the place.

As time went on, The Scorecard quickly became my home away from home.  I got to know a lot of the regulars in there, one of the bar managers, Randy, became a good friend.   Beer prices were higher than most other places (a whopping $1.75 a bottle back then!), but as Randy told me one time as he swept his hand around the bar, "Where else can you go and get all this?"

When the 1988 and 1989 NCAA basketball tournaments were played, I made sure I was in Omaha and planted at one of the choice seats at The Scorecard to be able to catch all the first and second round games.  Like I say, I was in heaven. 

As time went on and I quit traveling to Omaha, I longed for a place like The Scorecard in Davenport.  Halftime Sports Bar came about the closest, but they closed down a few years ago.  When I started to travel to Omaha again in 1999, one of my first stops was to The Scorecard.  Only it wasn't The Scorecard any longer.  It was now D.J.'s Dugout.  It looked the same, a little more tired, but it was about the same as it was before.  Food was still the same sports bar fare, and they had the same set up for televisions.  Compared to places I'd been in from the time I first walked into The Scorecard and when I went back in when it was D.J.'s Dugout, there were many others that had passed them by.

One of those places was not far from D.J.'s - The Ice House in NW Omaha is a larger place with more TV's - including individual 13" monitors in the booths on the east side of the restaurant.  If you want to watch what you want to watch, you can sit in one of the booths. 

The food at The Ice House is similar to D.J.'s Dugout, but The Ice House has pretty good calzones and pizza.  Not great pizza, but edible. 

The Ice House had two locations in Omaha when I first started going there, but they closed up their Ralston location on the far south side of Omaha a few years ago.  These days, The Ice House also has live entertainment some nights in the form of bands or comedians.  They also have a great Tuesday night celebration where it's a $5.00 cover charge and $1.00 beers and call drinks.  That REALLY brings the girls out.

Another place that is good to watch not only the sports, but watch the girls, as well, is The Arena on N. 90th in north Omaha.  The waitresses are all "Hooters" type girls who wear tight short t-shirts and shorts or tight pants.  The food at The Arena is standard bar food, but I do like their hot beef sandwich there, as well as a sandwich called the Nebraska Club - corned beef and roast beef piled high.   

One of the other places I like going in Omaha is Pauli's on Leavenworth just east of 42nd St. (see map).  Pauli's bills itself as the home bar for the College World Series held each June in Omaha.  It's a much smaller place than D.J.'s Dugout and The Ice House, but it seems to be more friendly and more intimate.  Pauli's definitely does not have the amount of televisions the other two places have, the food is regular bar food, burgers are good, not great. 

I understand there's a Pauli's now out at Eppley Airfield.  That would be a great place to hang while waiting for a plane in Omaha.

I'll never forget the feeling I first got walking into The Scorecard and looking at all the baseball games on TV at one time.  Since then, I've found some much better sports bars, but I'll never forget The Scorecard.

AAA or Not to AAA

With the plethora of roadside service programs available through car manufacturers these days, the argument has been waged as to whether or not AAA is worth getting any longer. 

If you travel a lot, then, yeah - it's worth the $60 bucks annually.   If you don't travel all that much, but find yourself in hotels more than 6 or 7 nights a year, it may still be worth it. 

AAA allows you to save up to 15% on selected hotel rooms including Hilton properties.  Sometimes, it's even more.  Case in point -

Cindy and I are going into Chicago right after Christmas for a couple of days.  We have to take my daughter to O'Hare so she can fly to the U.K. so I thought we'd stay downtown for a couple nights.  I got a room with my AAA discount at the Hilton on S. Michigan Ave. - with a lake view! - for $107 a night.  The rooms regularly start at $219!  Even with having to spend over $60 bucks in parking, it's still a helluva deal!

Each time I stay at a Hilton, Marriott or Holiday Inn property, they all have AAA rates that take any where from 5% to 10% - and sometimes up to 15% - off every day room rates. 

Also, AAA gives you other discounts that you can use at businesses and restaurants in your area.  We get a 15% discount on our cleaning with AAA. 

So, for a guy like me, AAA makes a lot of sense.  But it may make sense for pretty much about anyone who travels a little, likes to eat out, and uses some of their local services where AAA provides user discounts.

Rosebud - Chicago

Another place Cindy and I went to during her birthday weekend in Chicago was the original Rosebud on Taylor street in Chicago's Little Italy section. There are now a number of Rosebud's around the Chicago area, but we wanted to try the original.

And we're glad we did. It was about a 10 minute cab ride out from our downtown hotel. We had reservations and we got right in. The place just had the old Italy feel to it. There were pictures of Frank Sinatra all over the place - Frank liked to eat at the place when he'd come to town.

There was also kind of a Chicago Gangster feeling to the place, too. There were a couple guys eating next to us that could have been Mafiosos.

Cindy had the Veal Saltimbocca and I had the Fettucine Alfredo. Both were outstanding. Their wine list wasn't all that extensive, but they did have a Chalk Hill chardonnay that we shared. Of course, tiramisu and cappucino's for desert.

You want to experience a little bit of heaven and history in one place - go to the original Rosebud.

Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls DVD Release Party

I was asked to host the DVD release party for Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls last night.  I've worked with these guys (and gal) for - geez, I don't know how long it's been.  We joked that we've worked events together for 27 years, but it's more along the lines of five years now. 

The event was held at Rookies in Davenport and there was a pretty good sized crowd on hand for the evening.  Dan Videtich and Ryan Koning from Jim the Mule were on hand to support their friends.   There was an interesting age mix at Rookies, too.  Of course, there were the 20-something's who were out partying on a Saturday night, the 30 year-olds and friends of the band, plus there was a pretty good sized crowd of middle aged people - 40 and 50 year olds - on hand, too.  There was a contingent of people down from Dubuque, some people from Cedar Rapids, it was a pretty diverse crowd.  And that's the hallmark of the band - they appeal to such a wide variance of people. 

The band had a unveiling of their DVD, "Live at Circa 21", as part of a free beer and free pizza party before they took the stage.  It's pretty regular that a band has a CD release party, but this has to be the first DVD release that a local Quad City band has ever done. 

Actually, Dale Fisher of Jettson came back to the Quad Cities from his home in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles and opened for the band.  He and his buddy, Tim, played some of Dale's songs for about an hour.  Dale told me that Jettson's CD "Fast Food" was just named the runner up independent rock album at the L.A. Music Awards held recently in Los Angeles.

Leo, Bob and Greg took the stage around 10:15 and jumped right into "Bellyswirl" off of their first CD.  Now, about a month ago, I was listening to a sports talk radio show in Chicago and one of the songs they played as a "bumper" coming out of the commercial was "Bellyswirl".  Except, at the time, I couldn't remember who did the song or where I heard it before (I'd probably heard it 15 times in the past, not to mention on the CD).  So after the first break, I went up to Leo and I said, "Leo, who wrote the first song you guys did?"

He said, "Bellyswirl?  That's one of ours."

I proceeded to tell him that I'd heard it as bumper music on a sports talk show in Chicago - couldn't remember if it was the Score or on ESPN 1000.  He was blown away.  I said, "Man, I KNEW I'd heard that song a bunch before, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember where I'd heard it.  When you hit the opening riff, I thought, 'Holy shit!  That's the SONG!!' " 

Of course, I can't forget to say that Liz was her usual charming self with complete command of the stage and the crowd.  Her voice sounded great, as always.   Her husband, Brad, was on hand, too and it's always good to shoot the shit with him. 

It was a fun night and it's always good to see these guys play. 

Chalk Hill

Some of our favorite white wines are the ones from Chalk Hill from Sonoma County.  Owned by noted lawyer, avaitor and vintner Fred Furth and his wife, Peggy, Chalk Hill has turned out some great wines for a number of years.

We're partial to Chalk Hills Chardonnay's and their Sauvignon Blanc's, especially when we eat seafood dishes.  Their Sauvignon's are dry, but not too dry where you can't taste the fruit.  And their Chard's are smooth without the sour aftertaste that some Chardonnay's can have.

Chalk Hill Winery is in a hilly section of Sonoma County where the Furth's have used contour farming to use large amounts of their acreage for the grapevines.  Cindy and I tried to visit the Chalk Hill Winery on our trip to California a few years ago, but they weren't set up for visitors at that time.  It now appears that you can make reservations to go to Chalk Hill for tours, tastings and even a culinary tour and tasting. 

Chalk Hill wines are tough to find in the Midwest, but you can order directly from Chalk Hill on line.

Tailgaters

I'm not talking about the type of tailgaters who go to Iowa football games and party before and after the game.  I'm talking about an aggravating sector of the population that gets on your bumper - at any speed - and just hangs there.

And my scientific experiments have found that in about 95% of the cases of tailgaters, they are - horrors!  WOMEN!!

Women are the worst tailgaters on the road.  I have no idea what is in the head of some of these ladies who come up behind me on the interstate - I'm going 72 miles per hour, they're going faster - then they get up behind me about a car length and instead of passing me, they just sit there on my bumper for the next five miles!

Cindy was a horrible tailgater when I first started dating her.  I'd be riding with her and she'd be on the ass end of the car in front of her and I'd say, "Cindy, back off!  You're gonna smack this guy if he has to hit the brakes!"

So, a few days later, Cindy calls me up at home during her lunch hour.  She's in tears.  She said, "Oh, God!  I just ran into the back of a guy on my way home for lunch!  And you told me it was going to happen!" 

She doesn't tailgate any longer...

And women - here's another tip when you drive on the interstate - it's called a Cruise Control.  Learn how it works and use it.  I can not tell you all how many times I get passed by a woman, she pulls in the lane in front of me and immediately slows down.  I have to hit my brakes or go back out into the other lane and pass them.  The next thing I know, they're coming back up behind me, they pass and then settle into the lane ahead of me - AND SLOW DOWN!!!  And, once again, I have to pass them and it starts over again.

OR - I'm in the right hand lane going 72 mph.  A car comes up behind me going faster.  They pull into the left hand lane to pass - and then they just sit there going the same speed as me!  And, invariably, I get behind a semi or a slower car and I have to slow down and wait for the car on my left to get around me.  Just keep going the same frigging speed!   If you're going to be coming up behind me at 77 miles an hour, then pass me at 77 miles an hour. 

And it's nearly ALWAYS a woman, and hardly ever a man, who does this.  Cruise controls are the greatest invention for cars.  Nearly every car that comes out of auto makers these days has cruise control.  I think women should be asked every time they apply for a driver's license if they know how a use a cruise control.

Gallagher's Steak House - Las Vegas

A lot of new good restaurants have come to Las Vegas over the past 10 years.  Many are restaurants that started elsewhere - Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, New York.  One of the best of the new ones is Gallagher's Steak House in the New York New York casino/hotel.

Gallagher's is an off-shoot of the original Gallagher's Steak House in New York City.  They age their beef on the premises and do all their cutting there, as well. 

I've been to Gallagher's on a couple of occasions.  The first time, I had the prime rib which was cooked to perfection.  The second time, I had their center cut filet, which was also very good.  Their creamed spinach is excellent as well.

They have a pretty good wine list, can't remember much about it other than the prices were  what I would deem as reasonable.

It's not a cheap place, and it is kind of dressy.  The wait staff is great and attentive, the food is great and the atmosphere makes you feel like you're really in New York City. 

But you're not...

Montgomery Inn - Cincinnati

When Cindy and I spent some time in Cincinnati this last spring, she wanted to go to the famous Montgomery Inn for barbecue.  She said that she saw something about Montgomery Inn either on The Food Network or on the Travel Channel and wanted to check it out.

Montgomery Inn has a couple three locations, but we went to the Boathouse location down on the riverfront just south and east of downtown Cincinnati.  We got a table with a window view of the Ohio River and across into Kentucky.  Here's a picture of the place at night looking north across the Ohio at the restaurant.  

The place kind of reminded me of a tourist trap - they had a gift counter that included their Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce, shirts and other stuff.  And they were herding people in and out of the place right and left.   But it was nice, but pretty loud in there. 

I had the ribs/pork chop combination.  Cindy had a pulled chicken sandwich.  It was...  OK.  It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't the "World's Greatest Ribs" as they tout themselves.  The sauce was pretty sweet and almost too thick - something that I never thought I'd hear myself say as I usually do like thick sauces. 

I thought the prices were a little high, as well.  But all in all it was not the worst, but certainly not the best I'd ever tried.

I have a friend, Tony Jobe, who grew up in the Quad Cities and who now lives just outside of Cincinnati.  He told me one time, "You know how you can't figure out how people who grew up in the Quad Cities like Harris Pizza so much?  Well, I can't understand how people who grew up in Cincinnati like Montgomery Inn so much.  It's not that good, and it certainly isn't as good as other places I've tried." 

But it's famous enough that it is a destination for many people who come to Cincinnati.  It's always busy, so figure on a wait if you go at night.

Parking is available out front, including valet parking.  All major credit cards are accepted.  It's worth a visit.

The Case for Bud Light

You know, there's nothing worse than a beer snob.  You know the ones - they sneer at a person's choice of beer and belittle them for drinking the stuff.  Although there are some that I won't drink, I have to say that, yes, even though I fancy myself as somewhat of a beer connoisseur, I drink Bud Light.   

I like the taste of beer, but I don't believe I'm an alcholic by any stretch of the imagination (although my wife may think differently - and I DO salivate when a beer truck drives by).  And when I'm going to be sitting down in a social setting at a bar or at a football game party and I know I'm going to be pounding back the beers, I'll opt for Bud Light.   It's light enough that I don't feel bloated or full.  But it's got enough of a taste that I don't find myself longing for something a little more forceful. 

So, yes - I do drink Bud Light and I drink it pretty regularly.  But that doesn't mean I don't like a good pilsner or seasonal beer, too.  I just prefer to drink Bud Light when I'm going to slam back a few at a sitting. 

South Haven, MI

On the west coast of the state of Michigan, tucked nicely into the Blueberry region of the state, South Haven (see map) is a place that Cindy and I went to for a few days a couple three years ago.  I don't quite remember how Cindy came up with the place - she read about it on-line or something.  And it's not that far from Davenport - about a 4 hour drive if you hit traffic right going through the south side of Chicago. 

We found a place called the Lake Bluff Inn overlooking Lake Michigan just south of town.  Parts of the place are older, but they just added on a new wing that updated their facilities nicely.  We opted for one of the older suites - it was cozy, but dated.   And since we went so late in the season, they gave us the winter rates on the room, which knocked about 35% off the price compared to summer rates. 

South Haven bills itself as the "Blueberry Capital of the World" and they have a big festival celebrating blueberry harvests in late August.  We were a little late for blueberries from the big places that sold them, but we did find a road side stand just outside of South Haven that was selling very good blueberries. 

South Haven is a typical tourist town - and we're glad we didn't go in the summertime.  There are shops of all kinds in the downtown area.  Some are the typical tourist traps, but others are pretty nifty - Cindy especially like the Rambling Rose, kind of an artsy store along the main street. 

They have a number of good little restaurants, but nothing really outstanding.  However, a couple restaurants - Tello's Trattoria and Pigozzi's - did stand out.  Tello's is an old Italian supperclub just outside of South Haven that was very good.  And it wasn't overly expensive, either. 

Pigozzi's is located in the North Beach Inn - a little bed and breakfast on the north side of South Haven.  Actually, the owner of the Rambling Rose and her husband own the North Beach Inn and Pigozzi's.  We went to dinner there one night after meeting her and her husband at her shop.  Actually, the food was very good there.  We even went back for breakfast the day we left South Haven.  They took us on a tour of their B&B and Cindy and I both said that we'd like to stay there when we go back. 

Pigozzi's and North Beach Inn is open from March thru January 1.  They were telling us that they used to close in December, but South Haven has become such a neat destination for the Christmas season - and the fact that they are packed for dinner and the inn is full on New Year's Eve every year - they decided to stay open longer. 

South Haven is also just down the road from Saugatuck - a neat little artists community along the lake.  We went up there for a day and hung out, looking at the shops and other things.  And Holland, Michigan is just a little further up the road.  It's a nice midwestern community that has more of a larger city feel to it.  It's a Dutch community and they have a Tulip Time festival that rivals the one in Pella, IA. 

But I wholly recommend going to South Haven for a nice little getaway.  I know we'll go back.

Bass Pro Shops - Springfield, MO

There's a place that I have to go to every time I'm in Springfield, MO that is too neat to pass up.  The original Bass Pro Shops was big when I first visited in 1987, but they'd added on tremendously between that time and when I went back in 2004.

First of all, you don't have to hunt or fish or camp to enjoy the place.  There's a lot of interesting stuff  on display - both for sale and for show - that can lure you deeper into the rest of the store. The motif is decidedly northwoods with a lot of cozy cabin designs all through the store.  They have a large clothing area for both casual and sport apparel, hunting and fishing supplies and accessories, and an indoor shooting range.  They have household and camping supplies, as well as food stuff items.

They have both freshwater and saltwater aquariums, a little brook going through the downstairs area by the camping supplies, a three story water fall, a turtle exhibit, and a Wonders of Wildlife "zooquarium".  I haven't been in the Wonders of Wildlife exhibit because it costs $10 bucks to get in, and I usually end up spending too much time in the Bass Pro Shop, itself. 

Also in the building is a very good restaurant, Hemingway's Blue Water Cafe, on the third floor next to the water fall.  Hemingway's has good seafood (although their selection is not as numerous as it was when I first ate there in the 80's), beef and pork, as well as sandwiches and lunch specials during the day.  Years ago, I ran into an old boyfriend of one of my sisters, Jim Kahler, who lived in Springfield, and he was out drinking with a buddy of his, Arley Clark, who just happened to be the director of catalog sales for Bass Pro Shops.  Arley invited me in for a tour of Bass Pro and lunch at Hemingway's one day and I took him up on it.  I've had dinner at Hemingway's two or three times.  The seafood selections were very good - especially for a landlocked community like Springfield.

One other thing that Bass Pro Shops in Springfield has is a huge Tracker Boat showroom that is open 24 hours.  In fact, the showroom for Tracker Boats is in the area where the old catalog sales area was when I first went to Bass Pro in the 80's.  It's fun to go and and check out the fishing boats, the "party barges" and just to see what they're coming up with in the newest technology for boating. 

There are a number of Bass Pro Shops around the nation (click here to find a store near you), most of them are in the east and southeast of the US, but I see they're getting ready to open out in California very soon.  But I have to say that I've been to three or four of them around the Midwest and if any of the others are like those, they're impressive, but they don't hold a candle to the original location down in Springfield.

HP Sauce

Years ago, my mother used to get HP Sauce at the old Younkers gourmet food shop at their flagship store in downtown Des Moines.  I loved the stuff - it had a malt and vinegary taste to it that was great on pork (almost too overpowering for beef, however).  Growing up, it was a staple among the condiments in the Veber household. 

As I got older and moved out of the house, I didn't have access to HP Sauce as I didn't go to Des Moines  to the Younkers store downtown.  I remember, however, one year for Christmas, my mom did give me a couple bottles as a gift.   How sweet!

HP Sauce became harder and harder to find as time went on.  Whenever I'd find some, I'd always get a couple three bottles just to tide me over until I found more. 

One time, Cindy and I were on vacation in upper Michigan and into southwestern Ontario and we stopped at a grocery store in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and they had HP Sauce in there.  But not just ANY HP Sauce - they had HP BOLD!  Oh, my God!  I was hooked!  HP Bold had a little more spicy bite to it than regular HP Sauce - not enough to burn, but enough to have the taste sensation kicked up a couple notches.

So now, I'm on a mission to find HP Bold.  It turns out that it's not available any where but in Canada.  In the states you could find HP regular and HP Fruity (which kind of sucks - the fruit flavor doesn't go well with the vinegar and the malt).   

When I was hired by a company from Canada, I thought I'd be able to have someone from the office in Montreal to find HP Bold sauce for me and ship it to me.  No dice.  Obviously the Francophiles in Quebec didn't care for HP Sauce as much as the Anglos did. 

I did find *a* bottle of HP Bold when I was in Montreal a couple years ago.  Except I didn't buy it.  The reason?  I wanted THREE bottles of HP Bold.  I should have taken what I had found - I couldn't find any other HP Bold while I was there. 

Thankfully, one of the guys in our office, Simon - bless his heart - went out on a weekend long scavenger hunt for HP Bold for me earlier this year and found four bottles.  I'm on my third bottle in less than six months. 

But I won't turn down HP Sauce either - I found an 850 gram bottle (30 oz.) of HP Sauce at Jungle Jim's outside of Cincinnati earlier this year.  They actually had a 64 oz bottle there that Cindy wouldn't let me buy.

All I can say is that HP Sauce is the nector of the Gods when you throw it on some pork. 

   

Dunaway's - Indianapolis

Here's another secret place that we like going to Indianapolis.  It seems like only the locals know about this place because every time we go for the annual CEDIA trade show, we do not run into any other convention goers. 

Dunaway's is just on the SE fringe of downtown Indianapolis.  The inside has a cozy feel to it, somewhat reminiscent of a 50's style fine restaurant.  The roof top dining area offers a great view of downtown Indianapolis and is where we usually eat when we go to Dunaway's.

The thing that is most impressive about Dunaway's is their wine list.  I've seen some pretty good wine lists at other restaurants, but I've never sat at another restaurant for 20 to 25 minutes perusing the wine list - or in Dunaway's case, the wine "book".

Their appetizer's are wonderful.  The shrimp cocktail sauce rivals - and possibly surpasses - the hotness and the taste sensation you get at St. Elmo's.  They make a great crab cake appetizer, too.  Their main entrees include steaks and seafood, but I tried their smoked pork chops one time and they were unbelievably great.  They also make a lobster ravioli in a white sauce that is sinfully great, too.

Desserts are awesome - some of the best Creme Brulee I've had this side of France (and I ate about 10 Creme Brulee's when I was in France). 

Here's a picture of the view from Dunaway's roof at sunset.  It's pretty neat up there.

Understandably, Dunaway's is pricey, but it's worth it.  There's parking in a small lot behind the building and on the street.  Treat yourself if you're ever in Indy and go to Dunaway's

Tunnel of Trees - Michigan

Cindy and I took a trip to Michigan in the fall of 1997 and explored a number of areas along Lake Michigan.  One of the coolest areas we went to was the Petosky/Harbor Springs area of NW Michigan.  We had been told that north of Harbor Springs is one of the neatest drives in North America - The Tunnel of Trees - and we were hitting it at the right time.   

We first stopped in Petosky and watched the fishermen going after salmon as they were trying to make their upstream spawning run from Lake Michigan.  There was about a 10 foot falls in a little park in Petosky and there were fishermen on either side trying to catch fish below the falls.  Some would take the fish they caught and bring 'em back up above the falls and let 'em go.  Sometimes the fish were so tuckered out from trying to get up the falls that the force of the water coming downstream would take 'em back over the falls. 

We stopped off at a little deli in Harbor Springs and grabbed a couple sandwiches and went west out of town.  We hooked up with Michigan state road 119 and took off along the lake.  It was a gorgeous day and the trees still had some color on them for a mid-October.  They weren't brilliant, but they were still pretty. 

We got up the road a bit and found a clearing on a bluff overlooking the lake.  We stopped on the shoulder (M-119 is a one lane road, so we were over as far as we could get) and went over and sat on the grass and had our sandwiches.  It was just beautiful.  The blue water of Lake Michigan, not a cloud in the sky.  Where we were sitting we figured was probably private property as it was nicely mowed and there was a house sort of across the road, but we didn't give a damn.  It was too nice to not use. 

We continued up the road and we were going along and the lake was just down the bluff to our left.  Cindy said, "Oh, my God, Will!  There's a church down there!"

So I turned around and went back.  We found this little road that took us down the bluff and it opened up to a beach in front of us and an old church with a cemetary right next to it.  It was way cool.  We sort of hung out there for a while, walking along the beach, exploring around the church and cemetary and just taking in the beauty of the day.

We took off again and got up to Cross Village.  Actually the famous Legs Inn was in Cross Village, but we didn't stop as it was getting late and I wanted to get pictures of the Mackinac Bridge before the sun set. 

But it was one of the neatest drives I've ever taken in my life.  I know we have pictures around here and when I find them, I'll scan some and post them.

White Castle

I really do try to limit the intake of crappy food when I'm on the road, but I have to tell you, sometimes the taste sensations are so good and so tempting that the steering wheel of my car just takes right turns when it should be going straight.

One of my guilty pleasures is none other than White Castle.  I get the crave from time to time when I'm in Chicago, St. Louis or Indianapolis.  They have these Jalapeno cheeseburgers and I just love 'em. They're spicy and just addictive.

Except - they don't love me.  I get a somewhat upset stomach after eating them and I feel like crap for a couple hours after I eat there.  But something keeps me going back from time to time - not as much as I used to - but I'll still pull in and order a couple just to satisfy the crave. 

I'm glad we don't have one here in the Quad Cities.

Summerfest - Milwaukee

(Photo by Nicole Bruni) One of the best destinations to go in the summer is to Milwaukee and to the annual Summerfest celebration.  Held annually during the end of of June and into early July for 11 days on the Henry Maier Festival Grounds along the lakeshore in downtown Milwaukee, Summerfest is the largest music festival in North America (and possibly in the world!).   They've hit 1 million visitors a couple times and continue to draw over 900,000 people for the event.

The Summerfest grounds sports 9 stages, including the Marcus Amphitheater that seats around 18,000 and has room for 6000 more in the upper grass area.  The major touring bands will play there during all nights of Summerfest.  Local, regional and nationally known bands are spread out at the other 8 stages across the Summerfest grounds.   

It's about $12 to get in and that gives you full access to all the grounds stages with the exception of the Marcus Amphitheater.   However, with some acts, they'll hand stamp the first 6,000 people who come during the day who want to sit up on the grassy area at the top of the amphitheater. 

There's food and beer available every where across the grounds.  You have a taste for virtually anything, it's probably found at Summerfest.  From Mexican to ribs to gyros to Italian to burgers to something on a stick, Summerfest has it. 

Most of the beers are Miller or Leininkugel products, with small breweries and brewpubs such as Sprecher and Water Street Brewing Company having areas, as well. 

Summerfest opens at 11 a.m. each day and closes at midnight.  It's good to go down to Summerfest during the day through the week as the crowds aren't too bad.  The weekends and the 4th of July holiday usually draws the biggest crowds.  Actually, opening night is usually pretty busy as they have "The Big Bang" - one of the largest fireworks displays in North America. 

You can begin to see who is going to be playing at Summerfest on the Marcus Stage as well as the other stages as early as April.  Bands are usually booked by the end of May and the daily schedule is available on the web site. 

Cindy and I have been to Summerfest many times.  She's a little burned out on it, and I haven't been in a couple of years.  Longtime Summertime director, Bo Black, was ousted three years ago.  She stepped on a few toes along the way of making Summerfest what it is today.   

Actually, for those of us who went for years and years, the post - Bo Black Summerfest just doesn't have the same feel.  They're trying different things, new bands, and new ideas to help cut down on teenage and young adult rowdiness at Summerfest.  I think the band line-up has suffered since Bo left and the attraction to Summerfest isn't the same as it once was.

If you can't make it to Summerfest, the city of Milwaukee hosts a number of other ethnic festivals including Festa Italiana, German Fest, Irish Fest and Polish Fest.

Still, if you've never gone to Summerfest, or have been there only a couple times, it's worth a day to spend there. 

Conor O'Neill's - Ann Arbor

We were in Ann Arbor last fall for the Iowa/Michigan football game and sort of stumbled into Conor O'Neill's on Main Street.  It's typical of most American Irish bars, a lot of dark woods through out the place.  They have soccer shirts and homages to Irish poets adorning the walls.  We were in there on a Friday night before the game and it was a little too packed. 

Beers are what you'd expect from an Irish bar - Murphy's, Guinness, Harp, Bass, Smithwick's, Newcastle, Boddingtons, etc.  The guys behind the bar were pretty helpful in discussing the differences between some of the lesser known beers they had.   But I grabbed a Smithwick's from the get-go and stayed with that the rest of the night.

They do serve food there and we did eat there.  It was typical bar food, nothing outstanding.  They have about four or five entrees for dinner, but most of it is of the sandwich mode.  I had the Corned Beef Reuben and that wasn't too bad. 

I understand they have Irish bands that will come in and play from time to time.  But I'm sure it's more enjoyable to be in there when it isn't as crowded as it was that night. 

The Shanti Inn - Gunder, IA

The Shanti Inn in Gunder, Iowa, actually has a Postville, Iowa, address (see map). But it's one of those out of the way places that you need to go to just to experience a Gunder Burger. 

Actually, a Gunder Burger is too big to eat for most people.  Two people can even have problems with it.  I've had burgers that were bigger - those were more novelties than anything.  The Gunder Burger is big and it's good.  A local bakery makes the buns for the burgers and they're light and fresh - a perfect compliment for the burger.

And The Shanti Inn is the only place I've ever eaten at that features Country Bob's All Purpose Steak Sauce on the tables.  That's about my most favorite steak sauce on the market today. 

Cindy and I stopped in there one time during a drive through beautiful NE Iowa.  Cindy has family up there and we tried to go on a Sunday after we saw her grandmother in Volga, IA, but it turned out the place was closed.  So we drove up on a Saturday.  We were the only ones in the place and got to talking to the lady who was cook, bartender and waitress.  We noticed she had a Shanti Inn coozie and I said, "I'll buy one of those." 

She said, "Well, I don't have one to sell.  Some advertising guy came by and gave this to the owner to show him how one would look.  He never ordered any." 

I was kind of crestfallen about that, and she finally said, "Well, hell, here.  Just promise me you won't tell anyone where you got it."

That was about 8 years ago - I think the statute of limitations on keeping promises runs out after seven years...

The place is worth the drive, even just for the scenery in and around Gunder.

Lil' Nips Taco Village - Des Moines

Lil' Nips Taco Village (see map) was a bar on the east side of Des Moines.  The place was kind of non-descript - it was in a strip building next to a laundromat right beside a trailer park.  But they had some of the best deep fried flour tacos I've ever tasted in my life.

I was exposed to Lil' Nips when I was playing basketball with a group of guys from Newton and Colfax, IA in the late 70's (Yes - at one time I was in perfect athletic condition).  We played in a league in West Des Moines on Tuesday nights and afterwards we'd stop off at Lil' Nips for multitudes of beer and tacos. 

One night, we ordered up a heap of onion rings.  About two minutes later, a guy comes out of the kitchen with a bucket and goes up underneath the beer spigot with it and lets the beer pour.  We're sitting at the bar and my buddy, Tom Bowen, asked, "What are you doing?"

The guy said, "I'm getting the beer base for the onion rings."  Real beer battered onion rings.  FRESH beer battered onion rings.  They were like heaven.   

As time went on, Lil' Nips used to be a ritual for not only the basketball team, but for a buddy and I on Saturday nights.  My close friend, Brian Pease, and I would drive up to Des Moines on early Saturday evenings, slam back beers, eat Lil' Nips deep fried flour tacos, and eat their beer battered onion rings.  I'm still pissed that Brian didn't gain the weight that I did after all these years. 

I don't exactly know when Lil' Nips went out of business, but it was always one of the culinary highlights of my young adult life.
 

Hooter's

I used to really like Hooter's and I couldn't wait until they opened one up here in Davenport.  But after a while, the allure really went down hill for me.  Probably because I was married and the waitresses didn't appeal to me, but more so for the fact that the food at Hooter's sucks.

Oh, they make a good burger, and the wings are good, and the beer is cold.  But that's about it.  I can get a good burger and wings at a number of other places and not have to put up with the fakeness of the waitresses trying to pry more tip money out of you. 

The seats are uncomfortable, it's always loud in the place and it may be good for 25 year old guys, but I'm well past that. 

And I'm not talking about just the one in Davenport - I'm talking about ALL Hooter's.  They're the same where ever you go.  There are a lot better places to eat at in every town where there's a Hooter's.  Trust me.

My Meat Loaf

My Meatloaf

My wife used to make the meatloaf around the house.  After I got to experimenting with her recipe, adding in a few things, taking a couple things out, re-doing some others, she doesn't make the meatloaf any longer. 

1 cup of water

1 beef bouillon cube

2 lbs – Combination ground pork, veal and beef (or all ground beef)

Mixture -

1 ½ Cups of Unflavored Bread Crumbs

1 package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

1 medium onion – chopped

¼ cup chopped garlic

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1-Tablespoon Tone’s Liquid Hickory Smoke

1-Teaspoon Tabasco Sauce

1-Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Dried Sweet Leaf Basil

1 Tablespoon Dried Dill weed

1 Tablespoon cracked black pepper

½ Teaspoon Sea Salt

1 Heaping Tablespoon – Fresh Ground Horseradish (optional)

7 or 8 strips of bacon

½ -cup Cookie’s Western Barbecue Sauce

In the microwave or on the stove, heat the water with the bouillon. Let bouillon dissolve, set aside.

Add the mixture with the meat and mix thoroughly. When water has sufficiently cooled, pour in with meat and mixture and mix thoroughly. Place meatloaf the in a 10” X 6” X 2” non-stick baking pan (or spray with PAM before placing meat in pan). Cover and set in refrigerator for 1 hour.

30 minutes before cooking, remove meatloaf and allow to warm to room temperature. Preheat oven for 350. Place 7 or 8 strips of bacon on top of the meatloaf, fully covering the top of the meatloaf. Add another tablespoon of cracked black pepper on top of the bacon. Cook for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes, pull meatloaf out of oven and glaze the top (over the bacon) with ½ cup of Cookie’s Western Barbecue sauce (or your favorite barbecue sauce). Place back in oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pull meatloaf from oven when done and let sit for 10 minutes uncovered before slicing. Slice thickness as needed - a cut of an inch or so wide yields about 8 to 10 pieces.

BoDeans

My cousin, John Wehrle, turned me on to the BoDeans a number of years ago when he was living up in Milwaukee.  The BoDeans are from the Milwaukee area and are a local and regional musical phenomenon. 

The BoDeans are really two guys, Kurt Neumann (pictured at left), and Sammy Llanas (pictured below).  They met in high school in suburban Waukesha in the mid 70's and formed the BoDeans in 1983.  Bassist Bob Griffin joined the band in 1985 just in time for their 1986 debut CD, Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams, which is still one of the most underrated rock albums put out in the last 25 years. Over the years they've had a number of drummers play with them, most recently former John Mellencamp drummer, Kenny Aronoff, was playing with the band. 

We've seen the BoDeans at Summerfest at the Marcus Amphitheater six or seven times.  Actually, the last time we saw them in 2003, we were a little disappointed in the show and ended up leaving early.

Shoot ahead to 2005 - The River Roots Live two day festival was going to take place in Davenport and I was hired by Kristy Adams from the River Music Experience to do the announcements and to help out with stage production.  Initially, the headliner was supposed to be Johnny Winter.  But I was on the road one evening about two months before the show and I got a call from Kristy.  "This has been the worst day of my life," she exclaimed.  Turned out that Johnny Winter had to cancel due to slow rehabilitation from carpel tunnel surgery.  She was in a bind.

She said, "OK, here's two bands we can get.  We can get Robert Cray, or we can get someone that I know you'll flip out when I tell you."

I asked, "OK, who?"

She said, "The BoDeans." 

I said, "Well, Robert Cray would be great to see, but it would be cool to work with The BoDeans." 

So, they ended up getting the BoDeans.

For about 8 years, the BoDeans - read: Sammy and Kurt - had been in a major legal battle with their former manager, Mark McCraw, who maintained that he held all copyrights to The BoDeans song titles.   A judgment against McCraw was thrown out in appeal in the summer of 2005 and Kurt and Sammy were scheduled to go back to court to seek to overturn the appeal just after they played in Davenport.  Kurt was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that if the courts didn't reverse the appeal, the show in Davenport may be their last show as the BoDeans. 

So, it was going to be an interesting evening - this could very well be the last time we see Kurt and Sammy as the BoDeans. 

Now, my cousin's girl friend, Bonnie, is a HUGE BoDeans fan.  She says that Sammy makes her "moist".  She and John were coming up from St. Louis for the show and she was kidding me for weeks in advance that I had to get her backstage to meet Sammy.  I told her that I wasn't quite in charge of the backstage proceedings as I usually am with other events I work for the city of Davenport, but I'd see what I could do.

The BoDeans arrive on Friday evening and are milling around the backstage area.  I usually don't like to bother the musicians if I don't know them, but I did go up to Sammy and shake his hand and tell him that I really liked his music.  He was reserved and quiet, thanked me in shy-type manner and that was that. 

During Edgar Winter's set, I noticed Sammy was just kind of hanging around the backstage area and I thought, "OK, maybe I can make Bonnie's night."  So I go out in front of the stage and I get Bonnie's attention.  She comes over and I said, "Come with me."  And I take her backstage. 

Now, mind you, I'm am committing the number one sin in backstage, pre-show etiquette - taking a fan to meet a performer without asking them first if it's OK if I bring someone back.  Sammy is still standing there and I take Bonnie up to introduce her to him.

I said, "Sammy, this is a very good friend of mine and she has seen you a number of times and she wanted to come back to say 'hello'." 

Sammy kind of gave me this 'pained' look on his face and Bonnie - to my absolute horror - instead of shaking his hand or just standing there, she went up to him and said, "Oh, I've got to just give you a hug."  She tried to hug Sammy and he jumped back like she had 20,000 volts going through her body!  Oh, I was mortified.  First of all, I just committed the ultimate backstage infraction for bringing her back - which was very unprofessional on my part - and then she exacerbated it by trying to molest him!  It was actually kind of funny.  But I felt really bad. 

I apologized to Sammy about it after the show and he was pretty neutral about it.  But I could tell that he didn't like it at the time.  Oh well...

On the other hand, I was standing by the stage waiting for the equipment to get set up for The BoDeans and Kurt Neumann walks up.  We start talking about things, how nice the night was, how their show a couple nights prior in Oshkosh had gone (they had a severe thunderstorm come through in the middle of their show), and then I said, "You know, I really hope things go well for you next week in court." 

Kurt, matter of factly, said, "Well, I appreciate that.  I really do.  We were shocked when the earlier decision was overturned by the appellate court and if we can't get the appeal reversed, we can't fight this any longer.  We're out of money.  We've had two lawsuits in the past few years and we just don't have the money or the will to fight any longer."

I asked, "Two lawsuits?  What was the other lawsuit?"

He said, "The company who make Sam Adams Beer (Boston Brewing Company) made a bottled tea about six or seven years ago and called it 'BoDeans Tea' or something like that.  We had people coming up and asking us about our tea, and we didn't know what they were talking about.  So while we had a lawsuit against our ex-manager for copyright and trademark rights, we all sued the beer company for trademark infringement.  We won.  They don't make the tea any more." 

As Sammy was reserved and close to the chest, Kurt was outgoing, personable and self-effacing.  He saw me before he went on stage and said, "Well, let's go out and see if we can screw this up one last time!"  And he winked at me as we both laughed.

It was a good show, and I'm happy to say it wasn't their last.  They settled with their old manager out of court and they'll continue to be The BoDeans for many years to come.

Zia's - St. Louis

The Hill in St. Louis is the home to some of the best Italian restaurants in the United States. There's some very good ones, but the one that I'm fondest of the most is Zia's.

Zia's is probably not the best on The Hill, but it certainly isn't the worst. The thing I like about Zia's the most is that it's unpretentious, the service is good, the food is always solidly great, and you get great portions for what you pay.

They have their Zia's salad, which is their variant of an Italian chef's salad that includes two types of lettuce, black olives, artichoke hearts, parmigiana and provel cheeses, topped off with their sweet Italian dressing.

Their toasted ravioli is nothing special compared to toasted ravioli any where in St. Louis. But they have a very good marinara sauce in which to dip the ravioli's.

They have beef, chicken and veal dishes - their veal piccata is out of this world. Their veal carciofi is also very good, similar to their piccata, but with mushrooms instead of capers.

Pasta is outstanding, as well. I love their Tutti Mare - Linguine prepared in a rich garlic cream sauce with shrimp, sea legs, clams and mushrooms (see recipe). They also have a great tortellini dish, and their Capellini Carciofi is great, too. Capellini in a light lemon butter sauce with charbroiled chicken pieces, artichoke hearts, fresh broccoli, sweet red peppers and fresh sliced mushrooms, dusted with fresh grated parmigiana cheese

Zia's wine list is adequate, but not great. Their Budweiser is always cold. And they make their own tiramisu!

Zia's is one of the few places on The Hill that is open for lunch through the week. They take all major credit cards, and since The Hill is mostly in a residential neighborhood, there's only on street parking. Prepare to walk a little bit.

If you don't know which one restaurant on The Hill to try first, go with Zia's and then go from there. You won't be disappointed.

Snow on the Pumpkin

We got snow here last night.  Just a dusting, enough to make the ground white.  Places west and north of the Quad Cities got about two to four inches.  It was in the 70's here, last week, for God's sake!

But it's too early to snow.  And now we've got these high winds.  Sustained winds between 20 and 30 miles per hour with gusts to 40 and above.  We also will have falling temperatures throughout the day - it's 31 right now and we're expected to be in the mid-20's by tonight and into the teens by tomorrow morning. 

Iowa weather is crazy.  Tornadoes over the weekend, snow three days later.  People always ask, "If you bitch about the weather, why do you stay there?" 

Well, I like the fact that it takes me 3 minutes to get to the grocery store and not 45 minutes if I lived in Florida or California.  I like the change of the seasons, although the first wintery blasts always jolts me into thinking that maybe a 45 minute drive to the grocery store isn't quite that bad.  And, really, for nine months out of the year, this isn't a bad place to live.  But from December 1 to February 28, I may as well just hibernate. 

It's supposed to be back up into the 40's by this weekend, I can handle that...

Judd's Hill

One of our favorite wines for special occasions is Judd's Hill from just outside St. Helena, CA in Napa Valley.  They made a great cabernet sauvignon in 2001 that is rich and robust.  But, then again, I've never had a Judd's Hill wine that was that way.

We were first introduced to Judd's Hill when one of my manufacturers took Cindy and I out for dinner at The Captain's Table restaurant along the river in Moline, IL.  He had been to the winery before and ordered a couple bottles of wine.  It was great, to say the least. 

We found out that Gendler's wine shop in Moline sold Judd's Hill and we've been buying it there ever since.  It's a tough bottle to find - even Sam's in Chicago doesn't carry Judd's Hill.

When Cindy and I made our trip out to California's wine region in 1999, we stopped outside St. Helena and called up the Judd's Hill winery.  Bunnie Finkelstein - seriously, that's her name - answered the phone and we told her we were from Iowa and asked if we could possibly stop by the winery.  She told me, "Oh, goodness.  It's just me and a couple of our workers here today and we're out in the fields tending to the vines."  She said that any other day, we'd be welcome, but today was not good.

Here's a picture of Bunnie - Don't ya just wanna party with a lady who plays the tuba?

She asked where in Iowa we were from and how we ended up hearing about Judd's Hill as it was not available in Iowa.  I told her that we were from Davenport and she immediately said, "Oh, you get your wine at Gendler's!" 

I said, "Yes!  Do you know about Gendler's?"

She then told me that her husband, Art (at right, picture by Bill Hunter), grew up in Rock Island and moved to Los Angeles after college to become an architect.  She said that they both had a love for making wine and they decided about 25 years prior to move to Napa Valley. 

It turns out that Art was also instrumental in developing the Whitehall Lane winery with his brother.  Whitehall Lane is also one of our favorite wineries, too.   Art did some consulting work on the side and worked at the winery when time allowed.

They sold it in 1988 and Art ended up buying 14 acres near St. Helena to start up Judd's Hill.  Whitehall Lane was producing about 30,000 cases a year, Art wanted to produce only about a tenth of that annually.

Judd's Hill is named after their only child, Judd (left), and at the time we were there they were only producing 400 to 500 cases of wine a year.  It think their ouput is now close to the 3000 cases Art was looking to produce each year.

If you can find any of the Judd's Hill cabs, grab a bottle.  It may be a little pricey, but for special meals or celebrations, it's worth it.

Boetje's Mustard

One of the things that I found when I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991 was an instant infatuation with a locally made mustard called Boetje's (BOAT-jees).  They categorize Boetje's as Dutch stone ground mustard and the recipe is pretty simple - water, mustard seed, sugar, salt and distilled vinegar.

But a lot of people mistake it as a horseradish based mustard because when you take the top off a new jar of Boeje's and take a deep whiff, it cleans out your sinuses just like a good ground horseradish will.

I was first turned on to Boetje's on my first visit to the Belgian Village Inn in the Olde Towne area of Moline.  The taste sensation of the Boetje's Mustard with the VandeReuben sandwich was fanstastic.  I soon found that Boetje's was great on brats, ham sandwiches, and could be used in a number of dishes as an additive. 

Boetje's is available in 27 states, mainly in the Midwest or the Southeast.  For more information, see an article from 1998 here.

Le Francais - Wheeling, IL

I've eaten at a lot of very nice restaurants over the years, but Le Francais in Wheeling, IL is, by far, the nicest place that I've ever been.

Le Francais was started in the early 70's by noted chef Jean Banchet. A lot of people were wondering why he started a restaurant in Wheeling, which was 25 miles from downtown Chicago. However, it was an immediate hit and before too long a number of restaurants sprung up along Milwaukee Road in Wheeling.

Banchet sold Le Francais to Roland Liccioni (pictured here) in 1989 and Liccioni ran it for 10 years until he had to retire due to health reasons. Liccioni then sold the restaurant to Phil Mott, the brother of famed Chicago restauranteur Richard Mott, the owner of North Pond, Porter's Steak House in the upscale Hotel 71, and the former Jackson Harbor Grill; and to Don Yamauchi, who was the long time executive chef at Gordon Sinclair's signature restaruant Gordon in downtown Chicago, and who also was the executive chef at Carlos.

Yamauchi (pictured here) turned Le Francais' menu into an avant-garde array of neo-French/Asian cuisine that, even though it was still very good, turned off some of the old French traditional Banchet/Liccioni customers, and business declined.

Mott sold his interest to investors Michael Lachowicz (of Le Deux Gros in Glen Ellyn) and Mike Moran in 2001. In 2004, shouldered with a burgeoning resentment of all thing French in the wake of the Iraqi war and France's refusal to partcipate; plus a steep decline in people going out to eat during the uncertain times, Le Francais closed their doors. A few months later, Liccioni, now back in good health and fresh from opening up the Vietnamese/French restaurant Le Lan, took over Le Francois and reinstated the traditional menu that made the place famous.

I've eaten at Le Francais twice - once when Banchet ran the restaurant, and the other time was when Yamauchi was the executive chef. Both were truly dining experiences. The first time I went was in June 1988 with my boss, Mike Cannady and his wife, Becky; a co-worker colleague from Minneapolis, Kevin Leja; Charlie Santmire and his wife, Toni, from The Sound Environment in Omaha and Lincoln, NE; and Charlie's right hand guy, Jim Wichita.

I truly can't remember much other than it was the most elegant and unbelievable experience I had ever had at a restaurant up to that point in my life. And at that point in my life, I didn't appreciate the overall experience at a Five Star restaurant as I do now.

I remember the more recent experience much more as in December of 2002, as my boss, Daniel Jacques, came to Chicago and we went out to dinner with Steve Weiner from Abt Electronics. Steve sold a boat load of Focal.JMlab speakers for us that year and as a token of appreciation my boss flew in to Chicago to take him out to Le Francais. Steve has since become a good friend of mine and shares the passion of good food and good wine that I have.

It turns out that Steve and Don Yamauchi are good friends, part of a small group of people who get together and have food parties. Don wasn't working that night, but Steve had him come in and meet my boss and I, which was pretty cool. Don seemed to be a wonderful guy, he was dressed down in a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans and he sat and talked with us for a little while. I thought it was pretty cool to have a world-class chef sitting there in a casual manner and talking about his philosophy of food.

One of the things that Le Francais did while Yamauchi was the exec chef was a nightly seven course meal that was made up by the chefs that evening. And with each course you got a glass of wine to go along with it. I think it was something like $139 per person and the whole table had to do it. So we said, "Yeah, what the hell."

And it was great, the taste sensations were unbelievable. The wine was great, the service was impeccable, the experience was even more exciting than it was 17 years prior because I had a greater understanding and appreciation for the full experience of exquisite dining.

After leaving Le Francais, Don Yamauchi became the executive chef at Porter's Steak House at Hotel 71, then earlier this year he became the executive chef at the world class Tribute restaurant in Farmington Hills, MI.

I've eaten at some very nice places, but I don't think anything has topped the two experiences I've had at Le Francais.

Straub's - St. Louis

Straub's is one of those neat little eclectic grocery stores that is just fun to look around in for a half hour or so. 

There are four Straub's in the St. Louis area with the original one in Webster Groves.  I usually frequent the one on Clayton in Ladue.  They have a great selection of gourmet products, oils and wine.  But best of all they have a great butcher counter with excellent choice meats to choose from.  And they also make a lot of great pasta salads, sandwiches and they have a nice bakery, too. 

Straub's is an interesting place.  You need to check it out when you're in the St. Louis area. 

Weber's Meats

Weber's Meats started in Cuba City, WI as a meat processing plant.  They have a great selection of meat products to choose from in their shop on Highway 81 north of town.  I like to stop there when we would go out for drives in SW Wisconsin.

About three years ago - unbeknownst to me - the daughter of the owner of Weber's in Cuba City opened a Weber's Meats in Geneseo, IL.  And then two years later they opened up a branch in Bettendorf, IA.

Weber's has a lot of specialty meats and sausages to choose from.  They have great bacon and a very good jalapeno and cheese sausage roll that is very, very good. 

I don't know if they're better than Golick's in the cut of their meats, but they definitely have more specialty and processed meats to choose from. 

Bearchiladas

Bearchiladas

I've just sort of played around with making enchiladas over the years and finally fine tuned this recipe into a great meal.  They're so good I can't call 'em enchiladas, so they're BEARchiladas.  Hope you enjoy 'em!

1 – 3 lb. Beef chuck or rump roast

1 can (15 oz) beef broth

½ cup water

2 tblsp – chili powder

3 tblsp – ground cumin

2 tblsp – garlic powder

2 – 4 oz cans of green chiles chopped

1 medium white or yellow onion - chopped

1 -16 oz jar red Enchilada Sauce (Old El Paso or equivalent)

2 cups shredded Mexican (or Co-Jack) Cheese

2 large or 3 medium eggs

10 to 12 tortillas (taco size)

toothpicks (optional – but I use ‘em)

Step 1 – Pour one can beef broth into crock-pot. Place beef chuck roast in crock-pot and put on low. Cover beef roast with 2 tblsp garlic powder and 2 tblsp ground cumin. Cover crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.

Step 2 – After beef is thoroughly cooked, pull apart beef in crock pot. Beef should fall apart easily. Transfer shredded beef to stove top pan. Add ¼ cup water and 1 tblsp of garlic powder, 1 tblsp of cumin, 2 tblsp of chili powder, 8 oz of green chiles and the chopped onion with the beef. Let simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Step 3 – Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Crack open the eggs in a bowl and mix up. Pour the egg mixture on a full-sized dinner plate, being careful not to spill over the edge. In a 9” X 13” greased baking dish 2 inches deep, pour half of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish and spread with a spoon. In a low-heated, non-greased frying pan - heat a tortilla on both sides approximately 20 to 30 seconds. Take the heated tortilla shell and dip both sides in the egg mixture. Let excess egg batter drip back on to the plate. Place battered tortilla on another large plate and add the beef mixture (size depends on how much beef you put in). Fold over, close with a toothpick, if necessary, and place in baking dish. Repeat until baking dish is full.

Pour remaining enchilada sauce on top of enchiladas, spreading sauce across the top with a spoon. Spread 2 cups of Mexican cheese on top of the Bearchilada’s. Heat in oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Let sit for about 10 minutes before eating. 

Solly's - Glendale, WI

Solly's (see map) is in Glendale, WI, just north of Milwaukee, situated next to I-43 and just south of the Milwaukee River.  The Hilton hotel that I stay at in north Milwaukee is walking distance to Solly's just down Port Washington Road.  It looks more like a house than a restaurant.  And that's just part of their charm.

Solly's claim to fame is that they're the supposed originators of the "Butter Burger" - a burger cooked on a flat grille in butter.   Doing that gives the burger a unique taste - one that actually is pretty pleasing.  They're big and juicy and the cheese drips off the burger.  It's a five napkin burger, to say the least.

Now, do NOT confuse Solly's butter burgers with the (and I use the term loosely) butter burgers from Culver's - a midwest chain that is growing by leaps and bounds and I don't know why, because their burgers SUCK!  My wife loves Culver's, I can't stand them.  I'll elaborate on my distaste for everything Culver's at a later time. 

Even though I normally don't get fries when I eat a burger, I did try the ones at Solly's once and they're very good.  A good portion of fries, at that. 

Solly's is always busy during the noon hour and it's not a big place.  They don't take credit cards.  But they make a tasty burger.

Brocach Irish Pub - Madison

We just got back from Madison spending the weekend up there with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder, Dave and Pat Heusmann, and Tom Kakert for the Iowa/Wisconsin football game.  Madison is always a great time and a wonderful city. 

Before we left, Dave's barber told him that we had to go to this place called the Brocach on the state capitol square in downtown Madison.  He said it was a great bar.  Well, any bar that serves a lot of eclectic beers is on my agenda!

The Brocach is on the south side of the square, directly across from the Wisconsin State Capitol building.  Brocach, in Gaelic, loosely means a "Fox Den" or, more appropriately for Wisconsin, a "Badger's Den".  The crowd was mixed for a Friday night with a lot more college aged kids in the place than middle aged people like us. 

They have two bars in the Brocach - the main bar downstairs, and when it gets busy, they open up the upper bar.  We opted to go upstairs and go to the smaller of the two bars.  They had all the traditional beers on tap - Harp, Guinness, Bass.  One thing I liked is that they had Smithwick's on tap, a nice Irish brew that I first had last year in Ann Arbor.  Smithwick's (pronounced "Smitticks") has a good flavor to it and a nice little bite. 

The girls all opted for "foo-foo" drinks while the guys bellied up and went for the beer.  They had New Glarus Brewing Company's Spotted Cow on tap and Dave went with one of those.  Just like me, Dave didn't care for it.  In fact, I know that New Glarus is reknown for their beers, but I have never cared for the taste of most Belgian style beers.  It was all he could do to choke it down. 

They have food at Brocach, it appears to be a little more upscale than regular bar type food.  And they have a nice selection of Scotch's, as well.  The crowd is a little older through the day and early in the evening, and on the weekends it tends to skew more toward a younger crowd.  But if you're in Madison and have some time on your hands and want to get a beer downtown, I'd say this is the place. 

Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls

Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls is one of the premier bands - if not THE premier band - in the Quad Cities today.  They're good musicians, good entertainers, full of energy, they have great stage presence and are fun to watch.  And they've all become pretty good friends of mine along the way.

The band consists of Liz Treiber - the "Wicked Liz" of Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls - on vocals.  The Kelly brothers of Leo on guitar and Bob on bass stand with Liz on the stage, and Greg Hipskind anchors the group on drums.   

I think the first time I worked an event with them was at a Street Festival in, I believe, the summer of 2001.  I don't think they'd been together for long.  They were a little ragged, but you could tell there was some potential.  And the way Liz worked the crowd with her saucy, yet sweet, nature really told me this band had a chance to grow.

The next year, I noticed that a lot of younger girls would stand up in front and watch Liz.  I'm not talking about teenaged girls, but grade school girls.  I thought, "What in the hell is going on here?"  Then it hit me - Liz really appealed to these girls.  She talked to them from the stage, she encouraged them to come up front, she encouraged them to get into music.  I'm thinking, "Jesus, if these guys get any better and more people come to hear them, it's going to be a madhouse at these things."

Jump ahead to Street Fest 2004 in downtown Davenport.  I had been lobbying for Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls to play the headline spot on the Saturday night billing, but Mark Holloway, the Director of Events for Davenport One, was new to the job and was getting a lot of input from other sources as well.  One of those people was Ellis Kell who convinced Mark to put his band in the headline spot.  Nothing against Ellis' band - they're very good in their own right - but the crowd on Saturday night for Street Fest is much younger and Wicked Liz would have held them longer. 

As a compromise, Mark stuck Wicked Liz in the 7:30-9:30 time slot.  The place was PACKED!  Liz and the boys did a great job and had the place rockin'.  When they went off the stage, the crowd went, too.  The object for festivals is to have entertainment that holds the crowd.  Ellis and his band did a great job - probably the best I'd heard them play to date - but he didn't hold the young crowd.

About 11 p.m., Mark Holloway came up to me and said, "You were right.  We should have had Wicked Liz on at 10 p.m." 

So, they headlined for the Street Fest in 2005.  Here's a picture I took from behind Greg with Liz looking out over the crowd.  I think they did a very good job in holding the crowd that night, as you can well see...

At Rib Fest 2005, I had my dream line-up for the Thursday night show - Spatterdash opening up, Jim the Mule coming next, and Wicked Liz playing the headline spot.  Since school at the area colleges was just back in session, we billed it as a "College Night" and we were expecting a big crowd.  We weren't expecting rain.  We shut down Jim the Mule around 9:30 and there were more people on the stage than in the crowd and Wicked Liz didn't get to play.  But I did get this shot with some wet members of Wicked Liz with The Bear.

Bob Kelly has asked me to come host their DVD release party coming up at Rookies here in Davenport on November 26.  Their good friend from L.A., Dale Fisher, will be opening up doing some of his Jettson songs and will be playing with them on stage, as well.  It should be a great time.

St. Elmo Steak House - Indianapolis

St. Elmo Steak House in downtown Indianapolis is an expense account buster from the word go.  And in my opinion, it's vastly overrated. 

I've been to St. Elmo's on three occasions.  The first time was on a busy Saturday night and I went with a couple co-workers while we were in town for a trade show.  The place is elegant, tuxedoed waiters, a great wine list and a lot of good imported beers to choose from.  Even though we had 7:30 reservations, we didn't get seated unti a quarter to nine - which I thought was a little ridiculous. 

The first thing they do is push their signature - and, no doubt, big profit maker - shrimp cocktail on you.  The cocktail sauce is very spicy.  They say the grind their own horseradish into the sauce, but they will never tell me where they get their horseradish roots.  The sauce IS spicy - almost Atomic Brand spicy. 

They have a very extensive wine list, too.  And they're pretty proud of their prices.  A bottle of Whitehall Lane Cabernet that I'd paid something like $30 for in a restaurant earlier in the year was around $85 at St. Elmo's. 

The first night I was there I ordered the large filet (14 oz) and the creamed spinach.  Our food took forever to get to our table.  It finally got there a little after 10 p.m.  The steak was good, not the best I'd ever had, and certainly not worth the $39.95 they charged for it.  I'd had filet's much larger and a lot less in price than what St. Elmo offered and they were much better tasting. 

With a bottle of wine, a couple of beers and after dinner coffe/expresso, the bill for four people came to just under $400 with tip.  My boss at that time just about shit a brick sideways when I presented THAT bill to him on my expense account.

I went back to St. Elmo's with my boss at the time, a couple colleagues and a dealer and his wife the next year we went back to Indianapolis for the trade show.  That night, I had the 32 oz. bone-in prime rib and came no where close to finishing it all.  However, the dealer, who made ME look small, had the same thing and he was literally gnawing on the bone trying to get the last morsel of meat off the thing.  It was very good, but it was too big and stupidly expensive (about $40 again). 

I will have to say that night St. Elmo was not busy, it wasn't crowded.  Our party of six was seated promptly.  The distaste for the place left after that night.  Only to return earlier this year.

I've worked for my present company for over three years and these guys like to have a couple nice meals when we all get together.  On the first night (a Tuesday) we were in Indianapolis for the trade show, my boss wanted to go to Dunaway's - a wonderful restaurant on the east side of the downtown area of Indianapolis.  But Dunlavy's was sort of a tradition for our end of show meal and we were going there on the following Sunday night.  So I suggested St. Elmo's, since no one else had ever been there. 

And I'm sort of sorry I did.

There were 10 of us in the party and we were seated promptly in the basement at our reserved time of 7:30.  But the basement is so friggin' loud, a lot of walnut paneling on the walls just reverberates the noise down there. 

We had drinks, shrimp cocktails, a couple three bottles of wine (Jordan Sonoma Cab 1999), and steaks all around.  This time I had the 16 oz New York strip for $35 bucks.  Ouch!  Glad I wasn't paying for the meal.  It was - OK.  I can't say it was the best I ever had, but it certainly wasn't the worst. 

I know our meal had to be over $1200 with tip.  And I actually apologized to some of the guys because they were complaining that they thought everything was too high priced for what it was. 

Would I go again?  Yeah, sure, why not?  As long as someone else is paying and there isn't a convention in town.

The Blue Moon - Madison

When I first heard of the Blue Moon, I immediately thought it would be a gay bar.  Not so.  In fact, they make one of the better burgers in the Midwest.  I've known about the Blue Moon for quite some time, but just never sought it out.  I was in Madison recently and didn't know what I wanted for dinner, so I decided to hit the Blue Moon.

Located on University Ave. near the UW-Madison campus, the Blue Moon is classic neo-art-deco in it's interior design.  It has a main floor and an upper loft that is open to the main floor.  There's a nice bar up front and the grille for the burgers is situated just to the left of the bar.  There seemed to be a younger, college age crowd in there - even for a Tuesday night.  I did, however, see a family with small kids in the place, too. 

I had "The Best Burger in Town" selection and had them throw some pepper jack cheese on it.  The burger was good, good toasted bun, great flavor.  I don't know if it was the best in town, but I know it would give the new Dotty's a run for their money.  The Blue Moon doesn't offer the condiments or "fixin's" that Dotty's does, but it's still a very good burger.

And their beer selection at the bar was very good, as well.  I had a Capital Oktoberfest to go along with the burger and everything was all right in the world.

There's parking in a lot just to the west of the Blue Moon or on the street.  They don't take credit card so bring cash.  A burger and a couple beers came to about $12.50 with tip.

Who's better - Dotty's or Blue Moon?  Once again, I'd have to have them side by side but I think Dotty's is a tad better.

My Lasagna Recipe

My Lasagna Recipe

I've made a lot of things over the years, but up until about three years ago the one thing that I had never made was lasagna. 

Actually, one of the reasons why I never made lasagna is that the old 1940's era bungalow we used to live in over on the west side of Davenport had an unbelievably small kitchen  It's amazing that I could make anything in that place. 

Our kitchen at our house that we've lived in for over three years now is not that big, but it's spacious compared to the other place.  And I finally have enough counter space and table space to make lasagna.

First of all, I talked to friends who have made lasagna for me in the past, then I consulted "the Cook's Bible" - the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook.  I made notes, added stuff, and went at it.  It came out perfect.  The second time I made it, I played around with combinations of noodles, meats, cheeses and basically screwed it up.  So the next time I made it, I went back to the original recipe that I had written down when I put it all together the first time, tweaked a few things here and there, and it came out even better that time.  So I said to myself, "OK, don't SCREW with this!"

And it has turned out the same ever since...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound bulk ground Italian sausage
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 tbs fennel seed 
• ½ cup water
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
• 4 tbs olive oil 
• 1 can (28 ounces) whole or peeled tomatoes
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 tbs Italian Seasoning mix
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 - 16 oz. can tomato or pasta sauce
• 6 to 8 oz. beer  (American lager, such as Budweiser)
• 1 small can tomato paste  
• 10 to 12 lasagna noodles
• 2 cups grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (for topping at end)

 

Cheese Mixture

• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup Cottage Cheese - dranined
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 tbs Italian Seasoning mixture
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 16 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

PREPARATION:

In a large pan, add 2 tbs of olive oil and heat on medium high.  Add the fennel seeds and let them get warm, but not hot.  Stir a couple times.  After about 3 to 5 minutes, add the ground sausage and mix.  Add 1/2 cup of water and add ground beef.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Brown sausage and beef slowly; drain off excess liquid when browned.  Set aside in a bowl.

Drain the can of whole or peeled tomatoes in a bowl and mash up the tomatoes with a fork.  Set aside. 

In a 4 quart stove top pan, add two tbs of olive oil and heat to medium high.  Add chopped onion and garlic and sauté for three to five minutes, stirring occassionally.   

Back the heat back down to medium low.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasonings, sugar, salt, and beer.  Simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occassionally and adding a little more beer if too thick.  (Good tip - don't drink the leftover beer until you're sure you don't need to add more!)

In a bowl, combine ricotta cheese, drained cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, eggs, 1-teaspoon salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly.

In a baking dish large enough for the lasagna noodles to fit in, fill with lasagna noodles and add hot tap water and let sit for 15 minutes.  Noodles should be pliable but not cooked all the way through.  It's best to use a good pair of tongs when getting the noodles out of the water.  Make sure not to tear the lasagna noodles.

Spread a thin layer of tomato or pasta sauce on the bottom of a greased 14 x10x2 lasagna pan or baking dish.

Place a layer of noodles in bottom of the baking dish or lasagna pan over sauce. Cover with a layer of tomato sauce, then spoon 1/2 of ricotta mixture. Cover with mozzarella. Spoon the combination sausage/beef over the cheese and spread out.  Repeat for second layer. Be sure to leave some mozzarella for the top, and top off with Parmesan cheese. 

Cover with aluminum foil and set in refrigerator for two to four hours (can be in for up to 24 hours). Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking (up to one hour if in for more than 4 hours).

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake covered with aluminum foil for 25 minutes, pull covering off and continue baking for 20 to 25 minutes.  Allow lasagna to sit for 15 minutes before serving.

(Note - you can also freeze this for later use.  It lasts in the freezer up to six months if you have it wrapped tightly in aluminum foil.)

Raul's - Des Moines

After 40 plus years, one of the most popular and one of the best Mexican food places in Des Moines closed their doors in October.  Raul's on E. Grand was a staple of the restaurant scene in Des Moines for years, serving up authentic Mexican food to thousands of patrons since 1962. 

Raul's served some of the finest Mexican food in the Midwest.  Their chile rellenos were absolutely outstanding.  And their deep-fried flour tacos were equally excellent.  A typical meal for me would be a chile relleno - ala carte (no beans or rice), and two flour tacos.  Bring on a couple Dos Equis Amber Lagers and I was in heaven. 

Raul's opened a west Des Moines location and made a go of it for four or five years.  It was good, but it still wasn't as good as the one on East Grand in east Des Moines.  The westside location finally closed up around 2004.

In October of 2005, Raul Hernandez, the 77 year-old owner of Raul's, decided he couldn't compete with the number of low-budget and very good taquerias that had opened up on the east side over the past few years and he shut the doors to Raul's.  What a shame.  I'm really gonna miss Raul's.  There will be nothing like it.

Capital Brewery

A small independent regional brewery in Middleton, WI, the Capital Brewery produces some of the finest beer in the German tradition made today.  Kirby Nelson is the head brewmaster and he brews some of the best beers in America. 

I first came across Capital beers in the late 80's on a trip to Madison.  I was so taken back by the taste quality of the Capital Bavarian Lager that I had to take some back home to Iowa with me.  That beer didn't last long and I was tempted to drive back to Wisconsin from Central Iowa just to get some.

After I moved to Davenport, I was on a quest to try and find Capital Beers.  I would drive to East Dubuque to Van's Liquor Store just to pick up beer.  And their selection was spotty, at best. 

Gendler's, which used to have a store in Rock Island before moving to Moline, used to be able to get Capital beer in for me, but then the distributor quit carrying it as I was about the only customer for Capital beers they had in the Quad Cities.

Along about 6 years ago, Capital became available in Iowa.  It was like heaven had opened the door.  But now that I travel regularly to Wisconsin for business, I have a garage full of different types of Capital Beers. 

My favorite of all the Capital beers is the Special Pilsner - it may be my most favorite beer of ANY beer.  It's full-bodied, it has a smooth taste, a nice little bite to it and it tastes great with red meat.  I love the stuff.  It tastes great with steak or pork chops and is wonderful if you have some spicy foods, as well.  I don't know if there is any other beer out there comparable. 

Another good one they make is the Capital 1900.  In 2000, small breweries across the state of Wisconsin had a contest to make the best beer possible based upon a 1900 recipe that eventually became the basis for the Old Style beer recipe.  Capital won the contest, hands down, and they decided to make the beer available to the public.  I'm glad they did.

Capital also has four seasonal beers, the Maibock, Fest, Oktoberfest and Winter Skal.  I really like the Winter Skal, it's kind of a hoppy amber beer that has a smooth taste to it.

They also have four limited release beers, including three doppelbocks.  And they just introduced a new wheat beer - Island Wheat - but I'm not too keen on wheat beers.

A trip to the Capital Brewery in Middleton is a good time, especially on the weekends in the summer.  They have a large beer garden and usually have entertainment through the early evenings on Friday and Saturday nights.  And in the winter time, they have a cozy indoor "bier stube" that's open on evenings until 9 p.m. from Wednesday thru Friday, and on Saturday afternoon.  They also have a nice gift shop there, too, that sells clothing, Capital beers, drinkware and other neat items. 

There are a lot of regional independents out there, but not many finer than the Capital Brewery.   

Italian Beef in Chicago

Italian Beef sandwiches and Chicago are synonymous.  There's a number of places from chains to hole-in-the-wall joints that sell the things.  For those who don't know, Italian Beef sandwiches are shaved pieces of roast beef that's been cooked in italian spices (primarily oregano/basil/garlic based) and served on a hoagie style bun with either mozzerella or provelone cheese, sweet green peppers or spicy giardiniera (kind of a spicy pickled vegetable concoction) - or in my case, with all three.  And I like mine dipped in the broth of the meat, knows as "gravy'" to Chicagoans. 

I've eaten in a few of them and here's my take on a couple three -

Mr. Beef on Orleans street in downtown Chicago is not affilated with a couple other Mr. Beef's around the city.  But it is probably the most famous of the Italian Beef places in Chicago.  It's not a big place and there's scant parking around the place.  I've been lucky in that my visits have been during the middle part of the afternoon and there have been parking places out front that were open. 

A lot of celebs come to Mr. Beef when they come to Chicago - Jay Leno being the most prominent who always talks about Mr. Beef. 

Actually, compared to others around town, I think Mr. Beef is good, but somewhat overrated.  I don't think it is as good as Johnnie's Italian Beef out in Elmwood Park (see map).  Johnnie's is a pretty plain place, too, but I like their sandwiches better than Mr. Beef.  Their peppers and giardiniera are better than Mr. Beef - more of a spicy, pickled flavor that I like.  And their bread is more soft than Mr. Beef's, too.

Of the chains in the Chicago area, the two that stand out are Portillo's and Al's #1 Italian Beef.

I like Portillo's better than Al's in that I think Portillo's bread is fresher and more soft, their beef is more tender and they have better peppers and giardiniera than Al's.  Actually, I think Portillo's is even better than Johnnie's OR Mr. Beef, believe it or not.  And it's tough to beat Portillo's Chicago style hot dogs. 

I've been told the original Al's down on Taylor Street in the heart of Chicago's Little Italy area is the best of the Al's.  I haven't been there, but I'll have to make it a point to give it a shot some time that I'm in there.

But, really, if you think you have access to good Italian Beef sandwiches where you're from, I'm more than sure that any one of these places I've mentioned is BETTER than the Italian Beef sandwiches you have in your area. 

Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's is a California based chain of eclectic grocery stores that offer great food and beverages at great values.   I picked Trader Joe's to review first because it was really the first store of it's kind that I was exposed to that offered neat food items that you just can't get any where else. 

We were turned on to Trader Joe's by my sister from Phoenix who brought back some Trader Joe's salsa to Iowa when she was visiting in the mid-90's.  When we went on our trip up into the Sonoma wine region in 1999, we stopped at the Trader Joe's in Santa Rosa and got some munchie foods for the road.  We were amazed at the amount of sauces, salsas, juices, wines, soups, prepared foods, organic foods, kosher foods, meats, breads - a WHOLE ton of neat stuff to look at.  Things that we never saw at HyVee back in Iowa. 

As we became more aware of Trader Joe's after that, we found that they had a number of stores in the Chicagoland area.  Each time that we'd go into Chicago we'd have to stop and get things.  Cindy likes the Trader Joe's tuna and I have to agree.  It's better than a lot of other tuna's in a can that you can get.  They also have an extensive selection of low sodium soups that I really enjoy (except they recently discontinued their vegetable beef soup that I liked so well).  Their chicken noodle soup is the best of any I've had out of a can.

Their salsas are great, the frozen products are great.  In fact, we get their frozen green beans, frozen artichoke hearts and frozen asparagus all the time.  They're wonderful when they're cooked up - they taste just as good as if we went to the produce store and picked 'em up fresh that morning.  And they have a frozen stuffed salmon that is very good, as well.  However, do stay away from the frozen stuffed flounder (too fishy) and the frozen brocolli (too mushy when cooked up).  Also, stay away from the lobster bisque soup.  Eeyew...

They have great cookies and desserts - a very good frozen cheesecake and key lime pie.  I really like their Sugar Lemon cookies when they're available in the winter time, and their Key Lime cookies are so frigging sinful, they're so good. 

Cindy's really likes their coffee selection.  They have a ton of different ones to choose from.  I don't drink coffee, but they certainly do smell good. 

They have a number of wonderful appetizers and snacks that work great with any party.  We're particular to their chile lime tortilla chips and their party salsa. 

And, of course, Trader Joe's is famous for having "Two Buck Chuck" - Charles Shaw wines that sell for $1.99 west of the Rockies and from $2.99 to $3.39 east of the Rockies.  For a table wine, it's OK.  Can't say that I'd buy cases of it at a time like I see people do when I go into Trader Joe's, but I suppose at either $24 or $36 bucks a case, it's a pretty good deal.  I like to call it the Meisterbrau of wine.

Trader Joe's has a monthly flyer - the Fearless Flyer - that has a lot of information on new products, specials and what's happened at Trader Joe's.   The flyer is available either on line or at Trader Joe's stores.

I'm glad to see that Trader Joe's has opened in St. Louis and in Indianapolis.  I wish they'd open here in the Quad Cities, but I know this area is not ready for a Trader Joe's.  And that's kinda sad...

Sam's Wine and Spirits - Chicago

No place that I've ever been to can beat Sam's Wine and Liquor superstores in Chicago's Bucktown area and in suburban Downer's Grove.  Sam's is not to be confused with Sam's Club whose wine, liquor and beer selection - and pricing - pales in comparison to Sam's Wine.

I was turned on to Sam's by my friend, Steve Weiner, who told me if it's a good wine from any where in the world, Sam's has it.  I went to their Bucktown location near North and Sheffield Avenues for my first visit and I was literally in awe of the selection - and prices - they had on their wine.  They had wines from all over the world, including some hard to find wines from California such as Judd's Hill and Albini wines.

I was equally impressed with their selection of Spanish wines and their great prices on very good table wine such as one of my favorites, Santa Rita out of Chile.  In fact, I've seen Santa Rita sold regularly at $9.99 to $10.99 a bottle at Sam's (I find it in the Quad's at $13.99 a bottle), and on one occasion, they had it on sale in their Downers Grove store for $4.99 a bottle!  (Not surprisingly, they were sold out!)

They had a great domestic and imported beer selection, as well.  I was just amazed at the selection of beers they had from all around the world.  I must have spent 30 minutes just looking at the beers they had for sale.

The one thing that sets Sam's apart from a lot of other liquor and wine stores is that they have a staff that is among the most knowledgable about ANYTHING they sell in their store.  The staff just isn't a 25 year old girl working the cash register and a bunch of pimply faced kids stocking shelves - these guys are seasoned veterans who have worked at Sam's for a number of years and they taste the wine, they know the story behind the wine, they probably know the name of the guy who corked the wine.  And if someone doesn't have the answer, they can usually find someone running around who does. 

The only problem I have with the Sam's in Bucktown is that there's not enough parking and the store is rather cramped.  The Downers Grove location is more spacious, both in the parking lot and in the store, but they don't seem to have the selection the Bucktown location has to offer.  Maybe it's just that the store is so much bigger in Downers Grove and it doesn't appear that it's as full. 

Both Sam's locations have a gourmet market - Marcey St. Market - that has eclectic cheeses, condiments, vinegars, oils, pasta, olives, teas, tons of neat things to look at and to buy for any ocassion. 

It's always a 100 dollar bill every time I walk into a Sam's.  I just can't get out of there without If you're in the Chicago area at any point and time, you've got to go check out Sam's.

Lucca Grill - Bloomington, IL

For the longest time my buddy, Jim Kellogg, was bragging about how great the pizza at Lucca Gril in downtown Bloomington, IL.  I had to try it for myself.

The Lucca Grill is a corner building, long and two stories high.  In fact, I was in the place probably a half dozen times before I realized it had an upstairs.  The dining space isn't that big, but it's cozy.  The big old oven is up front to the left of the bar - which is amply stocked with a lot of great beers to choose from. 

The pizza is thin crust, light and crispy.  The sausage is great, the sauce is great.  The pizza is very, very good.  Some of the best pizza I've ever had.  I'm sure a lot of it is because the oven is old.  It looks like it is the same one they installed when the place opened in 1936.

One night, I was sitting at the bar having a small A La Baldini - the house specialty - which consists of sausage, pepperoni, ham, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperocini's.  It's killer.  A guy next to me was having Lucca's fettucine alfredo and it smelled out of this world.  I commented to the guy that the fettucine smelled great and he said, "It IS great.  I like it better than the pizza."

Well, I really like Lucca's pizza, so this guy likes the fettucine better than the pizza I'll have to try that sometime, too.

Atomic Horseradish

If you like horseradish, there is none better than Atomic Horseradish.  It is truly nuclear in its flavor.  I've never had anything clear out my head the way Atomic Horseradish does.  This product from Southern California's Morehouse Foods has been around for over 50 years and the not-so-secret reason for its hot taste is that they grind parsnips into the horseradish which controls the natural bitterness in the taste bringing out more of the heat in the horseradish.  The result is a mind-numbing, nostril-clearing explosion with each bite.  

Of course, there's personal stories behind Atomic Horseradish.  And I've got three of them to tell you.  

The first time I was exposed to Atomic Horseradish, I was eating at The Steakhouse in Circus Circus in Las Vegas.  I have to tell you - if you ever get the chance to go to Las Vegas, take the time and go to The Steakhouse at Circus Circus.  I know, I know.  Those of you who have been to Vegas and are thinking, "Circus Circus?!", the Steakhouse is like an anomaly, an oasis of great food in a sea of the crappy side of Las Vegas. 

I was out there for the Consumer Electronics Show in the late 80's and having dinner with my boss at the time and a colleague.  My colleague got the prime rib that evening and the waiter brought out creamy horseradish.  He asked the waiter if he had any thing more potent - not the stuff you give to tourists.  The waiter brought out a small bowl of pure ground horseradish.  My co-worker took a dab, slathered it on the piece of prime rib he just cut off, and took a bite. 

His eyes immediately got wide, his face got red and he started making this "mmmmMMMMM!" type of noise.  He had just gotten a full hit of horseradish.  He asked the waiter, "This is the most POTENT horseradish I've ever had in my life!  What is the name of it?" 

The waiter said, "Atomic Horseradish, sir." 

My colleague said, "No, really, is that the name of it?  Or is that what you call it?" 

The waiter said, "No, sir, that's the brand name.  I'll get a jar and show you." 

So the waiter goes back into the kitchen.  In the meantime, I'm having a filet tenderloin that is, literally, a 3" cube of meat.  It's so thick that in order to make it medium rare they had to char the outsides.  And it's cooked perfect.  So I asked if I could try some of the Atomic Horseradish and he slides the bowl over toward me.  He warns me, "Take it easy, it's lethal!"

I put a little nickel size dollop on the piece I just cut and took a bite.  OH-MY-GAWD!!!  It was like a taste explosion in my mouth.  My eyes started to water, I lost my breath for a second, my nose cavity had drained, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. 

In the meantime, while I'm trying to recover, the waiter comes out with a jar and right on it, it said, "Atomic Brand Horseradish".  We were just stunned. 

So, suddenly, I'm on a hunt.  I look everywhere for the stuff.  We had to stop in grocery stores all over Las Vegas.  Couldn't find it.  Turned out that it was only available in restaurants in Las Vegas.  I was bummed. 

Jump ahead to 1994 - Las Vegas again.  This time, I was working for another manufacturer's rep firm and we were invited to dinner by one of our manufacturers to the venerable old Phillips Supper Club, a place that was one of the finest places to eat for years in Las Vegas.  (Since Las Vegas has been overrun with five star restaurants over the past 10 years, the old 60's style supper clubs like Phillips Supper Club have gone out of existence.  According to a friend who had been living in Las Vegas since the early 80's, Phillips, at one time, was THE place to eat in Las Vegas.) 

There were some other things going on that other people in our company had to attend, so a co-worker and I went as representatives of our company.  We sat at a table with 6 other guys who were with a representative company out of New York.  And, of course, being from the Midwest, they were picking on us all night.  "Hey, Iowa!  If you order the steak, does that mean you can butcher the cow yourself?"  Stuff like that...

I had eaten at Phillips Supper Club a few years before and remembered the prime rib was outstanding, so I ordered that.  When it came out, I asked the waiter for some high octane horseradish.  The loudmouths from NYC started in again, "Hey, farmboy!  Whattsa matta?  You can't handle the horseradish?"

I said, "No, I'm looking for the hotter stuff." 

So the waiter brings out a little container of fresh ground horseradish.  I put a dollop on a piece of prime rib and took a bite.  Immediately, the taste sensation that I remembered from about six years prior came back.  And my face turned red, my eyes watered and the guys from New York were having a good laugh at me.  "What's the matter, Iowa?  Can't handle the high octane stuff they gave you?"

I said, "Oh, no!  That's great stuff.  I wonder if it's Atomic Horseradish?"

One of the guys said, "Atomic Horseradish?  What the hell you talkin' about?"

I said, "I've had this stuff out here called Atomic Horseradish.  It's almost lethal.  I wonder if this is the same stuff." 

Another guy said, "Oh, now the farmboy can tell differences in horseradish.  That's something I've never seen.  Do they teach you how to tell horseradish apart in the Future Farmer's club?" 

I ignored that guy and waved down the waiter.  I said, "Is this Atomic Horseradish?" 

The waiter said, "I don't know.  But I'll check for you." 

One of the NYC guys goes, "Yeah, go check so you put his mind at ease, would ya, buddy?  I don't want the midwest boy to fret over his horseradish." 

So the waiter leaves and comes back with a quart jar of - yep, you guessed it - Atomic Horseradish.  The eyes of the guys from New York all got real huge when they saw the jar.  "Holy shit!  There really IS shit called Atomic Horseradish!  Jesus!  The guy knows what he's talkin' about, here!" 

I said to the waiter, "You know, I've been trying to find some of that stuff for a long time, but I guess it's not available in stores.   I'd like to get some if you know where I could get it."

The waiter reached across the table and handed the jar to me.  He said, "It's yours!" 

I had to keep it on ice the rest of the time I was out there because you can't let it go unrefrigerated for up to 60 hours at a time.  It loses it's power. 

Oh - and the guys from New York?  They left me alone the rest of the night.

My wife and I took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway around 1997.  We stopped in Ventura, California, the home of Atomic Brand Horseradish, to see if it may be available in stores there.  Nope.  Still only available in Las Vegas restaurants.

Finally, one time around 2000, I was perusing the internet one night and put in a search for Atomic Horseradish and found a place in California named Smith and Smith that was selling 6 oz. jars of the stuff.  I immediately ordered six jars and a couple days later showing up on my doorstep were the six jars of Atomic Horseradish.  I was in heaven! 

Cindy thought it was a little too strong at first, but she got used to it. (Nowadays, when we have steak or any beef product, she lays on the Atomic Horseradish.  And I've got a great recipe for Horseradish encrusted Salmon that is to die for. 

By the way, the place I was buying Atomic Horseradish from - Smith and Smith - was bought out by a guy who ran a site called Chile Head Salsa.  He had even more varieties of Atomic Horseradish.  He had Onion Atomic Horseradish, Mustard Atomic Horseradish and my favorite, Roasted Garlic Atomic Horseradish.  He also had Atomic Brand Shrimp Sauce.  I bought one of those one time and got a half pound of shrimp to eat one night when my wife was gone visiting her sister or something.   I dipped a grilled shrimp into that stuff and HOLY SHIT!!!  Now, I can handle hot stuff, but this was FREAKING HOT!!! It was so hot it was inedible.

Unfortunately, the company who was making the Atomic Horseradish sold out to another company.  The new owners informed Chile Head Salsa that they were not going to make the Atomic Horseradish available to sell over the internet any longer.  Not to be deterred, the guy from Chili Head Salsa, Ron Ellis, went out and found a purveyor of horseradish that he could package as his own.  This became Nuclear Horseradish.  I'm not kidding you - I've got the jars in the my fridge in the garage. 

I asked him via e-mail if the Nuclear was better than the Atomic and he wrote back and said, "I think it is."

I wrote back and said, "Well, I wouldn't expect you to say anything to the contrary."  So he sent me out a three pack of the Nuclear regular horseradish, the Onion and the Roasted Garlic.  They did seem to have a little more of a head clearing kick to them.  So I ordered up a case of Roasted Garlic (they make wonderful little gifts for friends and clients). 

Just the other day, I went through another jar of the stuff and I went out to the garage to get another jar.  Whoops!  I'm down to TWO left?  Holy crap!  I'd better look into ordering more.  So I go to the Chile Head Salsa site.  Not there any longer.  I e-mailed Ron Ellis.  The e-mail got bounced back to me.  In a panic, I tried a Google search for Chile Head Salsa.  Nothing.  Uh, oh...

So I did a search on Atomic Horseradish and it took me to a couple places.  The one that looked the most interesting (because they were selling other sauces and condiments on the site) was Cosmic Chile out of Bozeman, MT.  I e-mailed the place to make sure this was one and the same Atomic Brand Horseradish and Eric Vinje wrote me back and said that yes, indeed, this was the same stuff that Smith and Smith was selling up to the time that Chile Head Salsa took over the web site. 

He told me he didn't know what happened to Chile Head Salsa, but his business has picked up since they went away. 

(UPDATE November 2015 - Since it's been 10 years since I wrote this entry, there's now a number of places to buy Atomic Horseradish on-line.  True Natural Taste out of Agoura Hills, CA has it available by clicking here.  Or it's also available from Amazon by clicking here.  It's best to do the two-day option - as I said, it can't be out of refrigeration any more than 72 hours.  When I order it to be delivered to my home, I do it in the winter time so the jars will at least be cold in the trucks.)     

(UPDATE April 2016 - Late last year, my wife took me to Lucky's Market in Iowa City, a specialty grocery store chain based out of Boulder, CO.  We were looking around and I remembered that I needed some fresh ground horseradish.  When I got to where they had the fresh horseradish in the refrigerated section of the store I couldn't believe my eyes.  They had Atomic Horseradish!  Then a couple three weeks later, my step-son sent me a picture of a jar of Atomic Horseradish and asked if this was the stuff that we liked to get.  I told him it was and he said that he found it at The Fresh Market in Cedar Rapids, part of a chain of upscale grocery stores based out of North Carolina.  If you have a Lucky's Market or a Fresh Market location near you, you may want to check it out.)

One final story on Atomic Horseradish - Earlier this year, my company is out in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.  We're all eating in a restaurant in the Golden Nugget and I ordered a steak and asked if they could bring out fresh ground horseradish with it.  They brought out my steak and the horseradish, I took one bite and immediately knew it was Atomic Horseradish.

One of my colleagues ordered the prime rib and he asked to try it.  I said, "Have you ever had this stuff before?"  He said he hadn't.  I said, "Don't take too much."

So he put a fingernail sized chunk of Atomic Horseradish on a piece of the prime rib.  He took a bite and he immediately got red in the face, he started coughing, he was gasping for breath.  He said, "That shit is LETHAL!" 

Lethal seems to be the term most used in conjunction with Atomic Horseradish.

I took about three times the size he used on his piece and put it on a piece I'd just cut on my steak.  My co-worker said, "Oh, there's no way.  You're just showing off, now." 

I said, "No, I'm used to this stuff.  I've been eating it since 1988 and regularly for five years at home." 

I took a bite, and - as usual - my face went red, my eyes started watering, my nose cavity cleared, I lost my breath.  I'm pounding on the table trying to get my senses back to square one and when I finally did, I looked up and everyone is sitting there with a big smile on their faces.  I said, "Now, that's the way to eat Atomic Horseradish, boys..." 

Major Goolsby's - Milwaukee, WI

Located in downtown Milwaukee, next to the US Cellular Arena, up from the Midwest Airlines Convention Center and down the street from the Bradley Center, Major Goolsby's is probably more of a sports bar that happens to make good burgers than a burger place that is a sports bar. 

The walls are a museum of Milwaukee sports history and it's always fun to look around the place.  They have tons of TV's to watch games and lots of great beers to choose from. 

But the draw for me to Goolsby's is their burgers.  1/3 pound char-broiled burgers cooked over an open flame pit.  There's really not much to 'em - they don't have a load of condiments to put on (mustard is in packet rather than in bottles).  But, oh, man!  Are they good!

We first had a Major Goolsby burger at Summerfest, the annual music festival held on the Milwaukee lake shore, a few years ago.  The burgers at Summerfest are as good as the ones they make downtown.  And after a full day of drinking beer, they're great to pick up on the way out of the grounds for the ride home.