Road Tips

Jim the Mule

I'm in a quandary.  It's New Years Eve.  I have friends from Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls playing at Kelly's in Davenport tonight that want me to come and see them play.  And I have friends from Jim the Mule, a great eclectic rock band, wanting me to come see them play at Rookies here in Davenport, as well.

The only problem - I don't do New Years Eve.  It's amateur night.  I can't tell you how many times in the past when I'd be out on New Years Eve at the bars in Newton and you'd see guys in there with their wives and you just KNEW they would rather be anywhere else than sitting at a bar waiting for midnight to roll around.  The women would all be talking at the table, the guys would be looking at their watches.  When midnight would roll around, they'd drink their champagne, hit the noise makers a couple of times, then look at their watches and hustle their wives out the door.  It was actually pretty funny to see.

Once again, I digress...

I've known the guys from Jim the Mule for about four years now.  They've played at a number of events I've worked at, including kicking off the inaugural River Roots Live fest last August here in Davenport.  (All the guys will admit they didn't bring their A-game that evening.)  Jim the Mule's brand of music is sort of deep seeded with blends of 70's and 80's rock, and some modernization thrown in for good measure.

Tom Swanson is the leader of the band and plays guitar and does most of the lead vocals.  He's got an interesting idea as to which direction he wants the music for the band to go.  I sort of like the "free form" style of his guitar work and it works very well within the group. 

Jason Gilliland (left) and Ryan Koning knew Tom from their days at St. Ambrose University and the first incarnation of Jim the Mule was formed about six years ago.  Jason played the bass while Ryan played drums.  Tom ended up leaving town for a while, but when he came back, Ryan and Jason got together with him and decided to put together a serious band.

Ryan Koning

They did a couple of projects and cut a CD, but just after that, Ryan left the group.  I remember Jim the Mule had a different drummer for awhile, but I can't remember much about him.    

Along about the end of 2002, Tom was jamming one night at a place and he got into a hot guitar dual with a guy by the name of Dan Videtich.  Dan was a short guy with a blazing guitar and had to look kind of funny playing next to Tom's big frame on stage.  Dan and Tom hit it off tremendously and Dan soon joined Jim the Mule as the second guitar player.

Dan Videtich

One of the local stores that I call on here in the Quad Cities, Planet Audio, had a new guy that started to work for them about four or five years ago by the name of Steve Merritt.  I saw some pictures of a nice drum kit that Steve had put up on the wall next to his desk.  I asked one time, "Whose drum kit?"

Steve said, "It's mine."

I said, "Do you know how to play those things?"

He said, "Oh, yeah."

Steve Merritt

Turns out that not too much after that, Steve hooked up with the guys from Jim the Mule and he became their permanent drummer.  In the meantime, Ryan had rejoined the group as a percussionist and the band was complete a little over two years ago.

Jim the Mule is one of those bands that when I first saw them play a few years ago, I thought, "Boy, these guys need some help."  I'm happy to say they've gotten a LOT better over the years and have garnered a great following in the Quad City area.  And they're fun to hang with.  We had a great time hanging out at the Bier Stube in the Village of East Davenport after the Thursday night of the Rib Fest this last year. 

But sorry guys, I ain't coming to hang out with you tonight...

Hardee's

I'm averse to a number of fast food joints, and one place that I have given the "Lifetime Boycott" to is Hardee's.

I used to really like Hardee's years ago.  For a fast food burger, they had a pretty good taste.  What turned me off on Hardee's was not necessarily the food, but the service. 

I stopped in three different Hardee's over a four month period about four or five years ago and at each stop the service was slow and absolutely poor. One was in Hannibal, MO, another in Verona, WI, and the other was in Eldridge, IA.  The worker's "give-a-shit" factor in each place was extremely low, there were pissed off customers at each place, the food took forever and, frankly, it wasn't that good. 

So I figured, you know - if those three were shitty, the rest of the Hardee's have to be shitty.

They're tempting me to come in and get one of those Black Angus burgers they keep advertising, but I haven't succumbed.  I don't need the aggravation when I need something quick.

Christmas in Chicago - Redux

As I said in an earlier post - Cindy and I had to take our daughter into Chicago for a flight to England.  We stayed downtown for a couple nights and we went out and took a bunch of pictures of the night scenery around the downtown area.

Due to space constraints, I moved the pictures to the photo album section of the blog.

I love Chicago, but I'll tell you, we missed a lot of great photos because we didn't bring the tripod.  Cindy even said before we left, "Don't forget the tripod."  But I did.  Oh well.  It's not like Chicago is going away any time soon.

Can't wait to go back in the summertime for shots of Millenium Park and Grant Park. 

Checking Out TV's

Earlier this year, I had an inquiry from an acquaintance who was looking at getting a new HDTV rear-projection television.  We bantered back and forth about a number of different companies - most notably Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Mitsubishi.  I finally told him that I would take a closer look at the televisions when I went in to the Tweeter stores in the Chicago area for one of my once every six week visits to their stores.  This is what I found in looking at all the sets: 

The Sony SXRD LCD rear projection is a nice set.  The big problem I found with the LCD's over the DLP's is that the LCD's didn't seem to react to quick movement as well as the DLP.  I noticed a lot of digital break-up in the Sony, especially when scenes changed and when there was a lot of quick activity on the screen.  The color, however, I found to be a little more natural than the DLP units.  But I noticed a lot of digital artifacts and "picket fencing" when the camera would pan or when there would be quick motion on the screen.

The Samsung 78 series units, I still believe, have the best overall picture quality.  I think they have the best black levels, I think they have the best contrast ratios, the color is very, very good, there's little to no digital break up or digital ghosting.  It handles sports better than the Sony (the Sony, I was told, makes digital photographs shown on it look unbelievably great, but it doesn't handle motion that well).  There was little to no digital artifacts going on with the Samsung compared to how noticeable it was on the Sony.

The Toshiba 62" MX195 model was on display at Tweeter, too, and I thought the picture looked blurry, it was almost TOO bright and washed out.  I didn't like the black levels or the contrast on it.  It handled motion very well and there wasn't much of a problem with digital noise.  I liked it the least of the ones I looked closely at.

One of the guys from one of the Tweeter stores showed me the Diamond series 62" Mitsubishi (62827) and I came away very impressed.  I've always liked the Mitsubishi's, but a lot of their higher end Diamond series have extra gadgets included - like a DV recorder.  I think the DVR on the 62827 is a 160 gig hard drive on it.  I don't know why I'd want one built in to the TV, but you never know.

The Mitsubishi did everything well - handled motion, didn't have any artifact problem like the Sony did, the picture was softer and more "film-like" than the Samsung, I didn't get a headache watching it like I did watching the Toshiba the short time I watched it.  The contrast and black levels were not as good on the Mitsubishi was not as good as the Samsung.  I liked the sharpness in the picture on the Samsung, but some people do like the softer picture Mitsubishi employs.

Mitsubishi also has their famous "Mitsubishi Blue" color scale where they add a bit more blue into the picture to make it appear whiter - sort of like what All detergent does when they add little bits of blue coloring to their detergent to make it appear the clothes are "brighter".  All they did was to put a little bit of blue dye in the detergent. Mitsubishi sort of does the same thing.  Once again, it appeals to some and not others.

By the way - all of these sets were 1980 X 1080 pixel counts, full HD.

My informal poll of the guys I talked to ran about 8 for Samsung, 5 each for Sony and Mitsubishi, and none for Toshiba.

I would have to concur.  I liked the Samsung the best, Mitsubishi would be a close second (and possibly even closer if it didn't have a built in DVR) and the Sony a not so faraway third.  All of them are very good in their own right.  But it's like trying to pick between two or three $75 bottles of good wine - they're all going to be pleasing.  I don't think you'll go wrong with which ever one you choose.

Golick's - Davenport

The Quad Cities are blessed with a number of very good neighborhood butcher shops, but in my opinion none are better than Golick's (see map). 

Golick's is an old fashioned neighborhood grocery store caddy-cornered from the Genesis Medical Center East hospital.  Mike Richards is the owner and he looks like Barney Rubble, only with glasses and a beard.  In the spring thru early fall - and even on nice days in the winter - Mike will be outside during the noon hour firing up a grille and cooking steak sandwiches and chicken breast sandwiches on it. 

The pork I get from Golick's is the best I've ever tasted.  I've never had one piece of bad pork from Golick's.  And they have great beef and will stock veal, as well.  Mike's main cutter, Ronnie, can cut your steaks to any thickness you want.

About five or six years ago, a food critic from The Washington Post was back in the Quad Cities visiting family and he went over to Golick's to get some steaks for a cookout.  He was so mesmerized by the taste and tenderness of the steaks that he went back to Washington, wrote a story about how great the steaks were there.  Suddenly, Mike began to get phone calls from people in the Washington D.C. area wanting to order steaks direct. 

He would pack up a number of New York Strips, ribeyes, filets and t-bones and pack 'em with dry ice in a styrofoam container and ship 'em off.  He was getting something like $120 to $150 a pop for each order.  However, the Food and Drug Administration stepped in and said that in order for Mike to do that legally he had to have a full time FDA meat inspector at the store.  Since it was going to cost him a minimum of $40K to do that, Mike suspended his meat shipping business. 

Golick's also has a "meatloaf mixture" that I use to make my meat loaf that is a mixture of 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground pork and 1/3 ground veal.  I use the same stuff to make my meat balls.  It's not cheap - about $4.99 a pound, but it's great to eat. 

Golick's also carries Webster City Hams, probably the finest hams on the face of the earth.  My friend, Paul Zach, who runs The Avenue Bar in Madison, WI, told me that Webster City Hams are the only hams he serves on Christmas.  After having one for Thanksgiving one year, I have to agree with him. 

I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Golick's in you either live in the Quad Cities, or if you're planning on traveling here in the near future.  But bring your cooler!

Sullivan's Steak House - Chicago

My friend, Tom Kakert, was in Chicago one weekend a while back, but was staying out in the western suburb of Naperville.  He asked me if I knew of any good places to eat in the area.  I told him that I knew of many, but wasn't familiar with a lot of them.  I called up a dealer friend in the Naperville area and I asked him what he thought would be a great place to go eat.  He said, without hesitation, "Sullivan's Steak House."   

Turns out that he didn't disappoint Tom or the people Tom went with.  I thought, "I've got to try Sullivan's someday..."

Cindy and I were in Chicago this week and we were out looking at the scenery up and down Michigan Ave.  We weren't really hungry as we had eaten lunch in the middle of the afternoon.  But it was getting close to 9 p.m. and we thought we'd better eat something. 

We started off west down Grand and decided to try the Frontera Grill again.  When we got up to Dearborn, I looked down the street toward Hubbard and on the corner was Sullivan's Steak House.  I said, "Oh, boy!  We're goin' there!" 

Cindy didn't put up much resistance (although she really did want to go back to Frontera), and we went into Sullivan's. 

The place had a bar up front with live jazz (piano and upright bass) playing.  The hostess asked if we wanted to sit in the bar to listen to the jazz or eat in the dining room.  Just then I saw some guy come walking out of the bar area with a big cigar and I knew right away that Cindy would have a shit fit if we had to eat in a place where there was cigar smoke.  So I said, "Dining room, please." 

Sullivan's is a 1940's New York City style steak house named after the great boxer John L. Sullivan.  There are a lot of pictures of boxers on the walnut paneled walls on one side of the dining room and sort of a library motif on the other side.  There is an open prep area to the back of the room, and the wine cellar is easily seen through open glass walls on the opposite side.  The place was cozy, warm and comfortable. 

Since it was pretty late for a Tuesday night, Cindy and I were the only ones in the dining room for a good portion of our stay.  The waitress was very friendly, more than helpful and eager to answer any questions.

I went with the regular filet, medium rare, with a side of their green peppercorn sauce, and an order of their horseradish mashed potatoes.  Cindy got the small filet, medium, and asparagus with a bearnaise sauce.  I also ordered a bib lettuce salad with their homemade blue cheese dressing (made with Maytag Blue Cheese crumbles).   It was, in a word, outstanding.  It was really nothing more than a ranch dressing with blue cheese and we were trying to figure out what else they put into it.  The waitress overheard our conversation and came up and said, "Well, I know they put a dash of sugar into the dressing, but there could be some other things.  They'd probably have to kill me if they told me." 

The food came pretty quickly.  I ordered a glass of the Santa Rita 2003 Cab and Cindy had a glass of some cabernet that I can't remember what it was.  She chastised me later on - "Why do you get Santa Rita when you can drink that at home?  I like to get something that I haven't tried."  You know, she's absolutely right.

My steak was cooked perfectly.  It was very, very good.  Cindy's, too, was cooked spot on.  The horseradish mashed potatoes were a little limp, taste-wise.  But as Cindy said, we eat so much Atomic Brand Horseradish that any other horseradish added to food would be pretty limp.  The green peppercorn sauce was very good, and Cindy's asparagus with the bearnaise sauce was wonderful.  It wasn't much, but it was just enough considering we finished lunch at 3 p.m. earlier in the day. 

The waitress tried to tempt us with some dessert, but we declined.  Cindy didn't even have coffee as it was past 10 p.m. when we finished. 

We both had to go to the restroom and they were upstairs.  At the top of the stairs was a full blown cigar bar.  There must have been about 15 to 20 guys up there sitting in oversized leather chairs, smoking cigars, drinking single malts.  It looked fun, even for a guy who is anti-tobacco like me. 

The place was great and in doing some research about Sullivan's Steak House I was very surprised - and somewhat disappointed - to see that Sullivan's is an off-shoot of the North Carolina-based Lone Star Steak House chain.  Lone Star's are not bad, but I felt somewhat cheated finding out that Sullivan's wasn't A) a Chicago based restaurant; and B) there were 14 other Sullivan's around the nation.  My dealer friend told me the original Sullivan's was in downtown Chicago.  Now, I don't know if he meant the first one in the Chicago area, or if it was the first Sullivan's in the chain.

But then I got to thinking - I've eaten at Del Frisco's steak house in Orlando before and I found out that Del Frisco's was a six or seven chain steak house ALSO owned by Lone Star.  And, you know, Del Frisco's was pretty damn good, too (I'll have to do a review on that sometime soon).  So maybe Lone Star is on to something with these specialty steak houses. 

Sullivan's is very good.  I'd eat there again and try and forget that it's a chain.

Fuddruckers

I know I say I stay out of the national chains like they served the plague - but every once in a while a chain does it right.  And when you really only do one thing, it's hard to screw it up.  That's why I like going to Fuddrucker's in a pinch.  And they're quick, especially during the lunch hour (they usually have a ton of burgers cooking and just pull off what's ordered - I've gotten a burger in Minneapolis in less than two minutes one time!).   

The concept of Fuddrucker's is pretty low tech.  You order your burger, they make it up, you pick it up at the counter and then you go to a large condiment bar to add your ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, etc., etc.  And they have the cooking aspect down to a science so it's difficult to screw up the burger.

I usually go for the 1/3 pound burger, medium, with pepper jack cheese when I go in.  And the good thing about Fuddrucker's is that they're all pretty much the same.  Springfield, MO to Chicago.  Minneapolis to St. Louis.  Sioux Falls to Janesville.  You know what you're getting at a Fuddruckers.

They just opened one up here in Davenport about six months ago.  It's like the others with one big exception - the times I've gone in the cooking time is SLOOOOOW!  It's like they have to butcher the friggin' cow out back, grind the meat and then cook it up.  Cindy and I went in on Labor Day to get a "quick" burger.  25 minutes later, they finally called my name.  I'd been in there before and it was the same thing, but it was the middle of the afternoon so I figured it would be that way.  But Cindy and I were in around 1 p.m. and there were a number of people in the place.  Can't quite figure that place out yet.

But like I say, in a pinch, you know what you're getting with Fuddrucker's.  It's always good.

The Hilton - Chicago

Cindy and I had to take our daughter, Leah, into Chicago so she could fly to England to look at a school.  We decided to stay in town for a couple days, so I tried to find a good deal on a room downtown.  I had to look no further than one of the more historic hotels in not only the United States, but, quite possibly, the whole world.  And that was the venerable Hilton Hotel along Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago. 

I'm a Hilton Honors Diamond Club member - which basically means I stay at a lot of Hilton properties annually.  Right now, I have enough Hilton points and enough American Airlines points that Cindy and I could fly to Hawaii and spend a week at the Waikoloa Village resort on the big island - all for free.  And with being a Diamond Club member, sometimes they cut you some slack on a room at a high dollar hotel.  We got our room - one bedroom, king bed, lake and Grant Park view - for $107 a night.  It's normally $245 a night.  Nice bargain. 

I'd stayed at the Hilton years ago, but the room wasn't quite as nice as this one.  And I forgot how ornate the hotel really was.  And how historic it was. 

The Hilton started out in 1927 as the Stevens Hotel - at the time, it was the largest hotel in the world at 3,000 rooms.  John J. Stevens, who owned Illinois Life Insurance Company and the LaSalle Hotel, built the Stevens to be the grandest hotel in the world.  (Stevens' son, John Paul Stevens, is a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice.) With huge ballrooms, restaurants, retail shops and ammenities not seen in other hotels of its day, The Stevens was the crown of the big hotels that Chicago was known for in the 20's.  It was so big that it even had an 18 hole pitch and putt golf course on the roof! 

When the Great Depression hit, The Stevens - as did a lot of other large hotels of the day - went into receivership.  It stayed in receivership for a few years and was taken over by a group of investors in the late 30's.  Conrad Hilton purchased The Stevens in 1950 and designated it his "flagship" property of his rapidly growing chain of hotels. 

Conrad Hilton

The Hilton in Chicago hosted a number of dignitaries and luminaries over the past 50+ years, including Queen Elizabeth II, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton, as well as Kings, Queens and other foriegn leaders. 

As other premium hotel chains came into Chicago, the number one complaint about the Hilton was the size of its rooms.  Some rooms were such that shared bathrooms between two rooms were common.  In the early 80's, Hilton decided to upgrade the hotel and basically cut the number of rooms from nearly 3,000 down to the present day 1,544 rooms.   The rooms are still not huge compared to some of the other Hilton properties I stay at, but it was comfortable, nonetheless. 

Since I was a Diamond member, they put us on the Executive Floor, which has it's own little bar/restaurant - The Executive Room -  for people staying on the upper floors of the hotel.  Unfortunately, the Executive Room was closed so we didn't get to share in the free booze, appetizers, and free continental breakfasts.  But they did give us coupons to use for free appetizers in the bar (which we didn't use), and for a free continental buffet breakfast (which we did use). 

Here's one of the views looking out of our hotel window looking northeast toward Navy Pier.  That's Buckingham Fountain in the foreground and the dark looking tower closest to Navy Pier is Lake Point Towers - home of Oprah Winfrey and the former home of Sammy Sosa. 

As I said, the hotel is pretty ornate, including the Grand Ballroom on the second floor.  This is one huge room.  In fact, fans of the movie "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford will recognize the Grand Ballroom as the place where the climactic ending of the movie began. 

Another ballroom off to the side of the Grand Ballroom is the Normandie room.  The room is about 1/3 the size of the Grand Ballroom, and features a number of items including chairs, bars and woodwork from the great luxury liner "Normandie".  When it was built in the late 20's, it was the largest ship in the world.  The Normandie was taken over by the U.S. Navy in 1941 and renamed the USS Lafayette.  While docked in New York getting outfitted to be used as a troop hauler to Europe, it caught fire from a welding torch and partially sank. 

Thankfully, before the ship was damaged, a lot of the luxurious artwork and furnishings had been stripped from the ship and put in storage.  Hilton, who had a great love for the old luxury ships, bought a number of pieces from that ship, refurbished them and put them in this room.   Why not have something from what was the largest ship in the world in what was once the largest hotel in the world? 

Being that it was Christmas, the hotel was decked out in festive colors and decorations.  I'm kicking myself because the picture of the great Christmas tree in the main lobby didn't come out very well, but the picture of Gingerbread house - a REAL Gingerbread house - came out great.

Here's a shot of the Field Museum from our room at night.

Although the Hilton is no longer the largest hotel in the U.S., there's still a large sense of history in the place.  The Hilton is sort of out of the way, especially if you're wanting to easily get to The Magnificent Mile, State Street stores or Millenium Park.  It's a cab ride to and from the place anytime you want to go somewhere.  Parking is usually $38 bucks a day (you can come and go as you please), but I was able to get a bargain rate of $32 a day (whoopee!).  Ouch! 

I will have to say that I've probably stayed in nicer Hilton hotels and properties, but none that illicits the grandeur the Hilton still exhibits. 

The Berghoff is Closing!

Cindy and I were in Chicago for the past couple three days and we tried to get into The Berghoff on Tuesday afternoon for lunch after spending about 3 1/2 hours going through the museum at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The only problem was - well, the line was snaked clear out the door (the longest I'd ever seen it), and it was about 2:30 and when Cindy says she needs food, she needs food.  We ended up going someplace else.   

Tonight on our way home from Chicago, we were listening to the news on WGN radio and they announced that the Berghoff would be closing on February 28, 2006.  We were both in shock.  It turns out that Herman Berghoff, the grandson of the founder of the Berghoff, Herman Joseph Berghoff, is going to close the place up as his children - involved in a catering business - don't want to take it over.  Berghoff, 70, will continue to own the building and lease it to his children running the catering business. 

I'm bummed!  We didn't get a chance to eat at The Berghoff when we were in Chicago, and now we hear it's closing!  We've already said that we're going to go in to Chicago sometime here very soon and have one last dinner at The Berghoff.  I'm really sorry to hear of it's demise.

I guess I'll have to change my review from a few days ago from "Restaurants" to "Rest in Peace" sometime in March...

Valentino's

One of the better pizzas found in the Midwest is Valentino's based out of Lincoln, NE.  They have a number of dine-in and carry-out locations all around Lincoln, Omaha and across the state of Nebraska.  There are also one or two locations each in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas.

Valentino's (or affectionately known as "Val's" to the locals) started back in the early 50's by Val and Zena Weiler.  The Weiler's owned Campus Fruit Market, a small grocery store at 35th and Holdrege (see map) across from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus.  Knowing that growing supermarkets would enventually stamp out their "mom and pop" operation, the Weilers decided to start selling pizzas made from an old family recipe from Zena's side.  They soon had people lined up to get their pizzas, even drawing crowds of people who would stand on the sidewalk and watch their pizza makers make the pizzas in a big window. 

The Weiler's sold Valentino's in 1968 and the new owner's decided to try for a second location in south Lincoln at 70th and Van Dorn (see map).  Those two locations are still in existence today. 

I was first exposed to Val's when my cousin, Sarah, was going to school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in the mid to late 70's.  She would even bring home some half-baked pizzas to me when she would come back for visits.  I still love her for it to this day. 

The Val's pizzas are not too doughy, but they aren't thick, either.  The toppings are fresh and the sauce is light with a little bit of zip.  Their sausage is the big chunks that I like so well. 

Val's also makes pastas that are edible, but not much better than most fast food pasta places.  One thing they do make that I crave from time to time is a cold Spinach noodle pasta salad with chunks of ham, parmesan and olive oil.  I've tried to duplicate it at home, but there's something they're sticking in there that I can't figure out what it is. 

Debates rage among Nebraska natives about Valentino's Pizza and whether the original location at 35th and Holdrege makes a better tasting pizza than the other Valentino's locations.   Personally, I think they do.  There were rumors for years that the owners of Valentino's, and who have franchised out the restaurant to others across Nebraska and the Midwest, have held back some part of the original recipe so their pizzas at the 35th and Holdrege location will taste the best of all of them. 

There was a newspaper article in the Lincoln Journal-Star a few years ago that basically debunked those rumors.  The newspaper article said the reason the pizzas tasted different at the original location was to do with the old ovens they were using in the place - the same ones they've been using since the 60's.  I have to agree with that.  I know that the older the oven and the more they're used they develop an aroma that permeates the pizzas that are made in there.  Considering hundreds of thousands of pizzas have been made in those ovens over the years, it's no wonder they taste as good as they do.

Some of the Val's have buffets (including the original).  I still go in and ask for my own pizza to be made, but go through the salad bar just to get the Spinach noodle pasta salad. 

Val's isn't the best pizza I've ever tried, but it is certainly far from the worst.  It's worth a stop if you ever get to Lincoln. 

Goin' To the Movies

A Christmas Eve tradition for Cindy and me is to go to the movies.  This year we went to see "The Family Stone" with Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson.  The movie was OK, better than average.  It was a good comedy, a heavy drama and a chick flick all at the same time.  Pretty tough to pull off on paper, but it worked for me.  Cindy thought it was a little slow paced. 

But that's not what got me - when we first went into the movie theater, on the outside doors was a sign that said, "Absolutely NO outside food or drink may be brought in!"  Cindy remarked, "Well, that's certainly new."

Now, I'm one of those guys who is a sucker for popcorn and something to drink at a movie.  Cindy said, "Are you really going to get that old popcorn and the syrupy pop at the movies?"  I said I had to.

Well, after last night, I don't think I'll be doing that any longer.  A small bag of popcorn was $3.35 - I spill more popcorn than what was in that bag last night.  And a small Coke was $3.85!  Holy shit!  A 16 oz glass of syrupy pop that I couldn't finish it was so sweet that was filled to the top with ice - $3.85.  Jesus!  No wonder they don't want people bringing in outside food.  Once you're in there and you want something to eat or drink, they got you by the short hairs.

After paying $9.00 a ticket to get in and then spending $7.54 with tax on a small pop and an equally small bag of popcorn, there's no wonder attendance at movie houses across America is down. 

We only go once a year - sometimes a couple times if there's a movie that we want to see sometime other than at Christmas.  And at prices like that, we're only going to continue to go to one or two movies a year.  I'd rather rent the DVD, get the extra features, deleted scenes and director's commentaries; or wait for it to show up on HBO or Showtime.   

The Flamingo - Cedar Rapids

The Flamingo was one of the best kept secrets for pizza in Cedar Rapids.  Thin crust, big chunks of sausage, great sauce and cooked in an old brick oven, the Flamingo Pizza - at one time - was my favorite pizza in the whole world.  I would have crawled to the place for a pizza.

Actually, the first time I went there, Cindy and I were just beginning to date.  I wanted lasagna one night and she suggested The Flamingo.  So we went there and I noticed that they had some very good looking, thin pizza.  She said, "Oh, yeah.  They have pretty good pizza here."

So, I ate my lasagna that night, but the next time we went back, we got a pizza.  And MAN!  Was it ever good.  No, it just wasn't good, it was friggin' GREAT!!!  It tasted great with a cold beer and it was not too filling, nor was it too thin. 

The Flamingo also had great beer-battered onion rings, too.  When we'd go in there with Cindy and her family, we'd always get onion rings to start out, then get a couple pizzas.  When Cindy moved to Davenport to live with me in 1994, I really began to miss The Flamingo.  I can't tell you how many times I got pizzas to go from there to take back to the Quad Cities when I was in C.R. on business. 

Unfortunately, I began to notice the pizzas were a little uneven.  One time I'd get a great tasting pizza, the next time, well, there wasn't something right about it.  I think this was the beginning of the end for The Flamingo as not too long after that began to happen they went out of business.

I can still taste a Flamingo pizza as I sit here writing this.  They were truly the best.

Note - The Flamingo is back in business!  Check out my return to The Flamingo here.

Lion's Tap - Eden Prairie, MN

A dealer from the western side of Minneapolis told me about the burgers from Lion's Tap, so we went out there for a burger one evening.  The Lion's Tap is basically a road house situated in SW Eden Prairie, kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but soon to be engulfed by the ever increasing housing developments that are going on all over the Twin Cities.   

The decor is not much to look at, a bunch of paneling and a few things on the wall, but I was there for the burger - which was very delicious.  Piled high and very juicy, the Lion's Tap burger was a killer burger.  They actually have a pretty good selection of beers, too.  And I can't remember if they take credit cards or not, so bring some cash.  The burgers aren't cheap!

It's a little bit of a drive from any where in the Twin Cities, but it's worth the trip.

My Award Winning Chili Recipe

My Award Winning Chili

My award winning Chili.  Actually, I only entered it one time at a contest outside of Des Moines back in 1988 and I got 3rd place out of 16 different chili's there.  I think the contest was rigged because the two guys who organized the event got first and second place. 

I've been making chili for years and everyone says, "Man, that's great, but is it spicy!"  It does give you a nice slow burn, not a "burn your face off" type of chili.  But good chili takes two days - a day to prepare and let simmer; and a second day to warm up again after a night in the fridge gathering all the spices and flavors together.

Actually, for the meek of stomach, you can make "Billi Chili", named after my former college roommate, Billy.  He couldn't handle my chili so I always had to make a pot of Billi Chili for him.  Just use mild chili powder, don't use the Tabasco (or so much Tabasco), and don't put in the chopped jalapenos. 

Also, this chili is great with cinnamon rolls.  Growing up in Central Iowa the only time I would eat lunch at school is when they had their chili and they'd serve it with cinnamon rolls.  When I moved to the Quad Cities  and made chili for people here and had cinnamon rolls to go with them, people looked at me like I was from Mars.  But friends from back home who live in the Quad Cities now all know that the chili/cinnamon roll combination is a winner.  And we're not talking those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in a can, these are the big cinnamon sugar rolls you get at bakeries or truck stops.  I'm tellin' ya - it's killer!

1.5 lbs. beef stew meat – cubed

1.5 lbs. pork loin – cubed

1 – 30 oz can Tomato Sauce

3 – 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 – 11 oz can chipotle peppers

1 – 4 oz can diced green chiles

1 – 30 oz can chili beans

1 cup flour

2 Tbs – olive oil

1 – 12 oz can or bottle of beer (American Lager)

1 pint water

1 Tbs – unsweetened cocoa

2 Tbs – garlic powder

4 Tbs – cumin

4 Tbs – hot chili powder

1 cube – beef bouillon

1 Tbs – sugar

2 Tbs – Tabasco Sauce

2 Tbs – Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbs – ground allspice

1 Tbs – ground cinnamon

1 Large Onion - chopped

1 Large Red Bell pepper – chopped

1 Cup chopped jalapenos

4 cloves garlic – chopped

Cube the pork and beef into small pieces (no more than 1” cubed). In a large frying pan, pour in olive oil and heat to medium heat. Throw in the meat and add 2 tablespoons each of garlic powder, cumin and chili powder. Brown meat, stirring occasionally, and remove from heat when browned.

While meat is browning, in a large (6 quart) pan or crock pot, combine tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers, green chiles, flour, beer, water, 2 Tbs of cumin, 2 Tbs of chili powder, cocoa, beef bouillon, sugar, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, allspice, cinnamon, chopped onion, chopped red pepper, chopped jalapenos and chopped garlic. Set heat on low and stir occasionally.

When the meat is brown, transfer to 6-quart pan or crock pot and stir in. Let simmer for 4 to 6 hours on low, stirring occasionally. After chili has simmered for some time, turn off heat, let cool down and put in refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.

Put back on stove or in crock pot and simmer at low temperature for 4 to 6 hours. One hour before serving, add chili beans and mix in. Serves 8 to 10.

Garnish with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce and chopped onions. Great with cinnamon rolls.

Tabasco

I'm going to talk about something that I probably use every day that I cook - Tabasco sauce. 

Everybody knows about Tabasco - a dash or two will zip up any dish.  And it's been that way for over 130 years, ever since Edmund McIlhenny made his first Tabasco sauce at Avery Island, LA by allowing his peppers to ferment, rather than boiling his concoction. 

With the boom in spicy foods in the 70's and 80's, Tabasco became a condiment that rivaled ketchup and mustard in it's use.  And as more and more hot sauces came onto the market - other small or regional hot sauce makers, the novelty sauces with names like "Ass in the Tub", "Rectal Rocket Fuel", and "Colon Cleaner", and national purveyors who have entered the market with their own hot sauce - Tabasco has had to evolve to make itself more broad in it's appeal. 

In addition to the regular Tabasco sauce (of which we keep a 12 oz bottle in our fridge at all times), they've come up with a number of other spiced or seasoned sauces, condiments and marinades to broaden their appeal.

One new Tabasco product that I found not long ago that is quickly turning into one of my favorite things to put on or in food is their Chipotle Pepper sauce.  It's not spicy as much as it is sort of smoky in taste.  When I don't want to add heat to a dish, but want to give it a little bit of a smoky zing, I use the Chipotle Pepper sauce.  I've had a 5 oz. bottle around here for about a month and it's already half gone.  The taste of the Chipotle Pepper sauce is very smooth and adds a shot of that wonderful smoky chipotle taste to meats, poultry and seafood.  I'm hoping they'll begin to market the stuff in the 12 oz. bottles. 

Another new one that I found at Jungle Jim's during my last visit is the Tabasco Garlic Pepper sauce.  They use three different types of peppers in the Garlic Pepper sauce.  It's got some zip to it and it's wonderful in Bloody Mary's and as an addition to some beef dishes.   

Speaking of Bloody Mary's, Tabasco makes a Bloody Mary mix that is about as close to pouring and drinking as the original Bloody Mary recipe from Harry's New York Bar in Paris (see my review).  They mix up tomato juice, Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, and Tabasco sauce so all you have to do is get a glass with a shot (or two) of vodka and pour in the mix.  I like to spice mine up with a little more Garlic Pepper sauce and a dollop of Atomic Horseradish.  God, that sounds kinda good right now! 

In addition to those products, they also have steak sauces and marinades, and have partnered the great Tabasco taste with such diverse products as A-1 sauce, Cheez-it's, and Vlasic pickles. 

Tabasco just announced a new sauce - a sweet and spicy sauce that can be used on Chinese food.  I'm going to have to find some of that and take it with me to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants.

One of these days I'm going to go down to Avery Island and make a visit to the McIlhenny plant and tour the Tabasco factory.  I've talked to people who've done that and they said it is just great.  I understand that a Tabasco museum that was scheduled to open in New Orleans in 2006 has been put on the back burner due to on going issues with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

There's a lot of hot sauces out there, but none better than Tabasco.

Llywelyn's Pub - St. Louis

When I go to St. Louis, it's always a treat to kick back and have a bunch of beers at Llewelyn's Pub in Webster Grove.  I was initially turned on to the place by the guys at Music for Pleasure, one of my dealers who is not far from the place.  Llewelyn's is a wonderful Welsh tavern that has the feel of merry old England throughout the place.  The staff is friendly and attentive.  The food is good for a beer bar, and is somewhat interesting, at that.  And the beers they have to offer are an eclectic mix of some of the best beers in the world.

The food is a mix of traditional Welsh and Irish favorites, with a number of twists on some old American favorites.  Their burgers are good, as is their reuben sandwiches.  But what I like most is the tuna melt sandwich.  It's one of the best tuna melts I've ever had in any restaurant.  And if you're just going in to have a few beers and munch on some appetizers, try the Welsh potato chips, the stuffed crabcakes or the beer battered chicken strips. 

There are two Llewelyn's - the one on Moody in Webster Groves is the one I like going to, but they have another one in the central westend of St. Louis on McPherson that is equally popular.  Either place is good to go to and about as authentic of an old Welsh pub that you'll get in the Midwest. 

Fatburger

For over 50 years, Fatburger has been making some of the best burgers in Southern California.  Starting out as a small stand in Los Angeles in 1952, Fatburger has now grown to over 80 restaurants on the west coast, and now on the east coast of the U.S., as well.  They also have locations coming in Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and a number of other places. 

Fatburger is what it is - a fat burger.  It's big and juicy, cooked to order.  Never made in advance and stuck in a bin.  I've got to get one everytime I go to L.A. 

The other thing that is good about Fatburger are their onion rings.  They cut the onions fresh at each restaurant.  I usually don't go for onion rings at burger joints like this, but I do like their onion rings.

I see that Fatburger is planning on opening in Chicago sometime in 2006.  I'll have to severely limit my visits or I'll be as fat as the burger is. 

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Cleveland

Cindy and I went out to Cleveland a couple summers ago and one of the places that I most certainly wanted to visit was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum.  I grew up with rock and roll, I've played rock and roll, I still listen to rock and roll.  To me, it was like a pilgrimage to a shrine that I knew I had to visit one day.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located on Cleveland's lakefront, just east of the Cleveland Browns new football stadium.   It's a striking building with a glass pyramid look to it. 

Me in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cameras aren't allowed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they have a courtesy checkroom for your cameras if you bring one. 

One of the cool things that was going on when we were in Cleveland was the painted guitars on street corners and in front of businesses and restaurants all through the downtown area.  They had a bunch of them inside and outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  We were able to take pictures of some of them before we went in.

We got our tickets and went down a long escalator to the museum exhibits.  Man, my head was just spinning.  The permanent collection pieces were just unbelievable.  A whole section on Jimi Hendrix (including a theater with a 15 minute loop of some of his past performances), the suits John Lennon and Ringo Starr wore on The Ed Sullivan Show, guitars and instruments from famous rockers over the years, a "Music of Ohio" section that celebrated a number of rock stars and groups from the state, and a number of clothes and outfits worn by rock stars in the past. 

It was just overwhelming to me.  There was just too much to see.  It took us, probably, 3 hours just to go through the exhibits downstairs.  I was in a literal daze. 

One of the rooms had a display of a number of photographs shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.  It was pretty neat.  There were some famous pictures she shot for the cover of Rolling Stone, as well as a number of other obscure photos and some documentation with them. 

After we went through the downstairs exhibits, we went up to the second floor and they had a theater that did nothing but show the speeches of those presenting the inductees and the inductees (or their relatives) themselves.  We didn't stick around for that. 

We went up to the third floor and there was a special display of the clothing and gowns The Supremes used to wear back in the 60's and early 70's.  A lot of the stuff came from former Supreme Mary Wilson's private collection.  Cindy was into that pretty heavily.  I thought it was neat as they did have the pictures of the gals wearing the dresses next to the dresses on hanging racks or mannequins, but I wasn't as thrilled as Cindy was.

One thing that I was sort of disappointed in was that there was no section in the museum that celebrated the Hall of Fame inductees, either with pictures or plaques.  There was a tribute to some of the old radio voices that pioneered rock and roll, but nothing on the inductees themselves, other than the speeches in the one theater. 

But the thing that got me more than anything else was the Hall of Fame store.  Not so much for the crap they were selling at inflated prices, but for the large selection of hard to find CD's.  CD's of bands from the 50's, 60's and 70's that I thought would never make it onto CD.  I really wanted to spend a lot of time in there, but Cindy was getting hungry and tired (we spent nearly 5 hours in the place).

I'd really like to go back again some day and take a closer look at not only the exhibits, but at the CD's they have to offer.  I can't seem to find any of the ones they offered online, and they don't sell them from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site, so I'm going to have to take my time and peruse the CD's the next time I'm there.

Cleveland was a surprising city to us.  We'll go back again someday. 

BoDeans - Homebrewed DVD

I just picked up the BoDeans first DVD "Homebrewed - Live From the Pabst".  The first 7/8's of the DVD is the BoDeans performance from the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee from last New Year's Eve (2004).  The final part of the disc is part of their special performance this last August from the roof of the Pabst Theater celebrating their new studio release "Resolution". 

The BoDeans played the River Roots Live concert in Davenport this last August.  I had a chance to talk with Kurt Neumann of The BoDeans before the show.  The BoDeans had been embroiled in a longtime lawsuit with their former manager and "Resolution" was the first studio album they had in eight years.  The following Wednesday after their appearance in Davenport, they were scheduled to go back into court to face an appellate judge who threw out the original verdict that freed the BoDeans up from their contractual obligations with their former manager. 

Turned out that both parties came to an agreement about three months ago.  So, the DVD was just released and it appears the BoDeans are going to be out touring again beginning next week.

Kurt and Sammy at Summerfest in 2003.

By the way, I understand that drummer Kenny Aronoff will not be touring with the BoDeans, as he is currently touring with John Fogerty in Australia through December.  Former BoDeans drummer Kevin Leahy will be joining the band for their upcoming shows.  No word as to whether this is a permanent position for Leahy or not.

From what I see on the DVD so far, the video isn't that great, and the sound mix is a little less than desirable.  But if you're a big BoDeans fan, this is a must. 

Quad City Pizza

For the longest time, when people from out of town asked me what the best pizza was in the Quad Cities, I'd always say, "There's no such thing as good pizza in the Quad's." 

After a while, a couple three places opened up that gave me hope, but they're still not on the level of many other cities I've traveled to. 

Quad City style pizza, as I like to call it, consists of a pizza crust that is not thick and not thin, almost too chewy for the depth, pretty bland sauce, either processed sausage pellets (looks like rabbit food pellets) or ground sausage, and they cut the pizza down the middle, then make 2" cuts the opposite way. 

The Bad Ones -

Probably the most popular and famous pizza in the Quad's is Harris Pizza.  And I can't fathom why it is the most popular pizza joint in the area.  Once again, the sauce is bland, the dough is sort of in between deep and thin and too chewy for what it is.  They use the processed sausage pellets, for God's sake!  It's just horrible. 

But still, there are people who grew up here who would CRAWL to get a Harris Pizza.  I know people who have moved away and the first thing they have to do when they get back is get a Harris Pizza.  I just want to gag when I hear them talk so fondly of Harris Pizza. 

My Harris Pizza story - I had just moved to the Quad's in 1991 and everyone was telling me how great Harris Pizza was.  So one night on a Sunday night, it was getting kind of late and I decided to call for a Harris Pizza to go pick up.  I ordered my usual - sausage, pepperoni, mushroom - and I ordered a large so I could put some in the fridge and piece on it through the week. 

I ordered from the one on E. Locust and went and picked it up.  I took it back to my apartment and tried a piece.  Hmm, something with the taste isn't right here.  Ooo, what are these things on top?   Is this the sausage?  Where's the big chunks?  I finished that piece and got into the second piece.  It wasn't tasting too good.  In fact, it tasted pretty bad.  For the first time in my life, I actually threw away a nearly whole pizza. 

I got home late on the following Monday night from a meeting in Iowa City and remembered that trash day was the next morning.  I took the trash out to the curb around midnight and went in and went to bed.  The next morning, I had to be up for a 7:30 meeting at the store I was working at.  As I was driving out of the parking lot, I noticed that something had gotten into my garbage sack.  I stopped and kind of cleaned things up around the sack and noticed that the Harris Pizza box was opened - and not one piece had been taken!  The pizza was so bad, even the critter that got into my garbage thought it sucked and wouldn't eat it!  True story! 

Probably the second most popular pizza place in town is a chain called Happy Joe's.  Happy Joe's was started by Happy Joe Whitty back in the 70's and has branched out to a number of restaurants in the upper Midwest.  Happy Joe's pizza, in a word, sucks, too.  Same type of processed sausage as Harris Pizza.  Same type of doughy, chewy crust.  Sauce is bland.  It's just not very good.  But they do a big business here in the Quad's.  And they have over 70 places in the upper Midwest.  Unbelievable...

Actually, Happy Joe's is famous for being the originators of the Taco Pizza.  I was told the story of how the original Taco Pizza came to be by my good friend, Gwen Schroeder, whose son, Ryan, worked at Happy Joe's for a while when he was in high school. 

Over 20 years ago, Joe Whitty had a contest that was open to all Happy Joe employees to come up with a unique pizza that they may eventually sell.  One of the  guys who was working at a Happy Joe's, who was a recovering drug abuser and "ne'er-do-well" that Joe took on out of the goodness of his heart, came up with the recipe for a Taco Pizza.  It was a hit and has now been duplicated by pizza places all over the Midwest.  The guy that came up with the recipe eventually turned out to be the manager at the restaurant at which Ryan was working. 

(As an aside - I tell people from other parts of the country about Taco Pizza and they look at me like I'm from Mars.  I don't care for it, myself, but it is one of Happy Joe's biggest sellers.)

The Better Ones - But Not by Much

The next tier of pizza joints in the Quad Cities are all places that have taken the Harris formula and tweaked it a bit.  Two of the most notable ones are Frank's Pizza in Bettendorf (see map) and in Silvis (see map), and Wise Guys in Davenport (see map).  Same doughy, chewy crust, bland sauce, except they actually use crumbled ground sausage (a definite step up from sausage pellets).  Once again, people think Frank's and Wise Guys are great, but I really don't care for either one.

There's another pizza place on the west side that I think stacks up with the two I've just mentioned and that's Uncle Bill's (see map).   Also a Harris knock-off, it's OK, better than Harris Pizza or Happy Joe's, but I wouldn't go out of my way to order it again.

Now We're Talking Even BETTER Pizza - but Still Not Great

There are some places that have taken the Harris and Happy Joe formula and turned out pretty good pizzas.  My favorite of those is Sports Fans in Bettendorf (see map).  Sports Fans is a great sports bar that also has a good sandwich menu.  But I really do like their pizza.  I can't really call it my favorite pizza, but it is good.  The sauce is better than the other places and the ingredients seem to be better tasting.  Every time Cindy and I get a pizza from there, it's been consistently good.

One other place that has a good pizza on par with Sports Fans is Gunchie's on the West Side of Davenport (see map).  Gunchie's is a blue-collar bar that has burgers and other sandwiches, but they're well known for their pizza.  It, too, is almost always good. 

Not far from Gunchie's is another clone - and good pizza - Fat Boy's (see map).  It's also known as a "Meat Market" pizza, because Fat Boy's is connected to the Meat Market tavern.  They, too, make a good Quad City style pizza.  Not great, but edible.

And one other place that is almost the same as all three is Clint's Pizza over in Moline (see map).  Located in the Wells Fargo nightclub complex, Clint's former life was as a Harris pizza maker.  But he decided to deep six the ingredients and use the ones similar to Sports Fans, Gunchie's, and Fat Boy's. 

Out of those four, they're all good Quad City style pizza, with Sports Fans probably winning by a pepperoni.

The Ones That Stand Apart -

There's a couple three other places that go a little beyond the bounds of true Quad City style pizza.  The first one is Beaver's East in Bettendorf (see map).  They actually have a thick topping pizza that is better than most of the Quad City style pizzas.  The sausage is more chunky and more flavorful than a lot of the other places in the Quad's. 

They moved to a new building about four or five years ago after being in a little log cabin type building in east Bettendorf for years.  The new building is of a north woods motif, lots of moose and deer heads.  The pizza is pretty good, but still not the best I've ever had.

The Filling Station in Davenport (see map) is more of a sandwich place that happens to make pizza.  Their pizza can go from very good to disappointing - all within the stretch of two visits.  They, too, have pizza that has a little bit bigger chunks of sausage.  But as I said, you've got to catch 'em on a good night or the pizza can be a little on the poor side.

And the Rusty Nail (see map) - a lounge/restaurant on the west side - also has surprisingly good pizza for a Quad City style.   They're more of a soup/sandwich restaurant and night club, but they really do a consistently good pizza.

The Chains -

As far as the regional chains go - the three that still make good pizzas around here are Godfather's, Old Chicago, and, believe it or not, Casey's General Stores.

Godfather's originated out of Omaha in the 70's started by Willy Thiessen and grew to be one of the most popular pizza chains in the Midwest.  Their pizzas are very good for a chain, although the one close to us here in Davenport is OK, at best.  I haven't had a Godfather's for a while, so maybe I need to give them another shot sometime soon.

Old Chicago is a Colorado based pizza chain that tries to position itself as a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza joint with a lot of beers to choose from.  The pizza is better than average, but it seems that the beer selection is spotty, especially with the micro-brews or imports they list on their menu.  The one in Bettendorf seems to always be out of the beers that they highlight as some of their featured beers.  But that shouldn't distract from the pizza.  They used to have a cajun style pizza that had andouille sausage, big chunks of pepperoni and onion.  I wish they still had it on the menu. 

Casey's is the Midwest's high profile convenience store chain.  They have a number of stores that make pizza in house.  And, if you get 'em fresh and not in the food holder for more than 2 hours, they're pretty damn good.  They have the chunk sausage that pizza should be, although I think it's more of a pre-processed sausage than ground sausage placed on the pizza.  Still, their pizzas are tough to beat for what they are.  Good and cheap.   

The Best of the Quad's

The best pizzas in the Quad Cities still pale in comparison to pizzas that I've had in diverse places as Chicago, Decorah or Iowa City.  But the ones that are the best are:

Benny's - Benny's is in Milan on the extreme south side of the Quad Cities (see map).  In fact, it's almost not in the Quad's, it's that far out.  When we lived on the west side of Davenport, we used to make the 25 to 30 minute trip to Benny's because it was that good.  It's more of a Quad City style of pizza, but their sausage is better than any of the others that are similar. 

The one thing I really like about Benny's is that they have Anchor Steam on tap.  I was talking with the owner (who I'm guessing is Benny) one night and I remarked that I don't see a lot of places that have Anchor Steam on tap.  He said, "It's my favorite beer, so I have it on tap."  I see his point - I suppose that if I ran a place, I'd have Capital Special Pilsner on tap.

Nancy's Pizza - as I talked about in my Chicago pizza post, Nancy's is a stuffed pizza and they also make a pretty good thin crust, too.  For what it is, Nancy's is better than the vast majority of pizza places in the Quad Cities.  Tangy sauce, big chunks of fresh sausage, a good stuffed pizza and a very good thin crust.  It's sort of sad that one of the best pizzas in the Quad Cities is from a chain out of Chicago.  Well, then again, on second thought...

Centro's - Centro's is a Des Moines-based fine dining restaurant in the Redstone building in downtown Davenport (see map) connected to the River Music Experience.  They have an extensive menu that for the Quad Cities is very good, but compared to a number of places I've eaten at in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, etc., it is average at best.

They do have a very good pizza where they use fresh and natural ingredients, the dough is hand tossed and thin and crisp.  For what it is, it is very good.

Lunardi's - Located in a strip mall called Northtown Plaza behind the Northwest Bank tower and Hooters (see map), Lunardi's is one of the best Italian restaurants in the Quad Cities.  For years, Lunardi's had the best Italian food in the Quad Cities.  And with restaurants such as Trattoria Tiramisu, Biaggi's, and Antonella's Ristorante opening up within the past few years, Lunardi's may still be the best of the lot.  However, their pizza is their big secret.  A deep dish Sicilian-style pizza that is surprisingly very good and full of fresh toppings - including big chunks of sausage.  The pasta dishes at Lunardi's are what they're famous for - their pizza is the most under-rated in the city.

Pinocchio's - Also located in Milan, although not as far out as Benny's (see map).  Pinocchio's bills itself as a gourmet pizza and they do have some eclectic toppings.  Cindy likes the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic herb topping.  I think their sausage, pepperoni and mushroom is outstanding.

Pinocchio's bakes their pizzas in a brick oven that is fired by wood.  The temps climb to well over 600 degrees (they have a digital thermometor on the outside of the oven for all to see) and the pizzas are cooked fast, but evenly baked with a hint of woody aroma to them.  I have to say that Pinocchio's has the best pizza in the Quad's.

But, then again, that's really not saying that much.  There are better pizzas places throughout the Midwest and I'm frankly surprised that someone hasn't realized that the Quad Cities is such a vast, untapped market, starving for GOOD pizza.  I'm afraid that a lot of people who live here don't know what good pizza really is.

(UPDATE - Pinocchio's still has very good pizza, but I now believe Antonella's in downtown Davenport has the best pizza in town.  See my blog entry on Antonella's here.)

Friar Tuck's - Peoria, IL

One of the best wine and liquor stores I've ever been to is the Friar Tuck's store in Peoria, IL (see map).  Friar Tuck's is the size of most grocery supermarkets and they have an extensive wine area, a great liquor selection and a huge area for beers - domestic, micro-brews and imported beers. 

When you walk into Friar Tuck's you'll see a large wine section right in front of you.  They have wine from all over the world and I would have to say that it rivals the selection at Sam's in Chicago.  They may not have as many bottles of a given wine as Sam's does, but they do have a very large selection of wines to choose from. 

But their beer selection is one of the best I've ever come across.  They have one whole aisle with imports, domestics, regionals and micro-brewed beer on either side - the aisle is, I'm guessing, about 100 plus feet in length. 

And one of the cool things about Friar Tuck's is their "Mix a Six" area that allows you to take one or two of a given brand and make a six pack out of them for $5.99 a sixer.  This is great because it allows you to give a beer a try without having to commit to buying a full six pack.  If you don't like that beer, you don't have another five you have to drink. 

Friar Tuck's has a large liquor selection including a lot of great Scotch whiskeys and eclectic vodkas. They have ingredients on hand to make your own beer.  They also sell all the accessories to outfit a bar in your house. 

The staff has always been friendly and helpful.  There is a Scotch connoisseur at the Peoria Friar Tuck's and he's turned me on to a number of good Scotch's over the past couple of years.   

There are three other Friar Tuck's in Central Illinois - the original one in Springfield (see map), one in Champaign (see map), and a new one in Bloomington at 2401 Maloney Dr. (so new it doesn't come up with a map site).   

If you find yourself in anyone of those cities, it may be worth the time to stop in and see what they have to offer in libations.  I'm always spending at least 30 minutes and $50 bucks every time I got to Friar Tuck's.

Ozzie's - St. Louis

Located in the famous Westport Plaza shopping and entertainment area of west St. Louis, Ozzie's (see map) isn't as much of a sports bar with pretty good food as it is a shrine to the former St. Louis Cardinal Hall of Fame shortstop, Ozzie Smith. Ozzie's has loads of televisions, loads of memorabilia and loads of food on their menu.  It's a great place to spend an hour just looking around at all the stuff.

Ozzie Smith - #1 in your program and #1 in your heart.

You'll see a number of trophies and memorabilia from Ozzie, himself.  There are a couple of his Gold Glove awards on display. I believe he won 13 of 'em, so there's a few more rolling around somewhere.  There's bats, balls, plaques, pictures, headlines and other things that not only Cardinal fans would like, but baseball fans in general. 

Ozzie's has a big dining area and a spacious bar area.  The bar is a large square with televisions at about every viewing angle.  If there's a game on, they'll have it.

The food is not too bad for a sports bar.  They do steaks, ribs, pasta, the usual sports bar fare of burgers, and other fried food and appetizers.  They have an adequate beer selection (but I think Ozzie's needs to turn the temp on their coolers down about 10 degrees - the last couple of times I've been in there the beer has not been as cold as I would like). 

Ozzie's is definitely suitable for the whole family.  They have party and private rooms available.  There are video games if you don't want to watch sports.  But take the time to grab a beer and walk around and look at the memorabilia before or after you eat at Ozzie's.  It's one of those places that keeps you coming back.

Update - Ozzie's has moved to a new location in downtown St. Louis (see map).  I've been meaning to go to there on visits to St. Louis, but have not made it in yet.

Huber/Berghoff Brewery - Monroe, WI

I got to thinking of the Berghoff family of beers when I was writing about The Berghoff and I wanted to share with you my impressions of their great beer. 

I've been drinking Berghoff beer for almost 20 years now, first at The Berghoff in downtown Chicago, and then when I found that they sold it in stores throughout Illinois and Wisconsin.  It quickly became one of my favorite beers to drink.  When I moved to the Quad Cities, I could find Berghoff on the Illinois side of the river, but not in Iowa. 

I wanted to learn more about the beer and I found that it was brewed in Monroe, WI by the Joseph Huber Brewing Company, the original makers of Huber beer, Augsburger beer, as well as Wisconsin Select beer.  But when Cindy came home from an antique store one day with a beer tray that said "Berghoff Brewing Company, Fort Wayne, IN", I needed to look into the history even further.

Years ago, I used to represent a car and home speaker manufacturer called MTX.  Their headquarters at the time were in Monroe and I used to drive up there a few times a year.   I stopped into the Huber Brewery on one trip and I got to talking with a lady who was more of a secretary than anything (they didn't have a gift shop or tour coordinator at that time). 

She told me the loose history of the Huber/Berghoff Brewery.  The original brewery was started in 1845 on the same site where the present brewery sits today.  It changed hands over the years a number of times.  When Prohibition hit in 1921, the brewery began to make "near beer", soda pop and ice cream.  When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, they went back to making beer.

Also in the early 30's, a German immigrant by the name of Joseph Huber showed up in Monroe and began to work at the brewery.  Just before World War II broke out, the brewery was sold again and the owner asked Huber to run it for him.  Huber ended up buying the guy out and it became the Huber Brewery in the late 40's.

How Huber and Berghoff became partners is pretty interesting.  Herman Berghoff and his three brothers moved from Dortmund, Germany to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1870 with their parents.  Despaired over the lack of what the Berghoff's called good beer, or "Dortmunder" style, the brothers opened up a brewery in 1887.  Herman went to Chicago in 1893 to serve the Berghoff "Dortmunder" style beer to patrons of the Chicago World's Fair.  The sales were phenomenal and Herman decided to stay in Chicago and open a small cafe where he could sell the family beer for 5 cents a glass.  The Berghoff restaurant became a full service restaurant in 1920 and the Berghoff beer was one of the most popular brands in the Midwest. 

When Prohibition hit, the Berghoff's made "near-beer" and Bergo Root Beer.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, Herman Berghoff applied for - and received - the first liquor license issued in Chicago.  While this was going on, the Berghoff Brewery began to brew beer again and the brewing company grew steadily over the years.   

The Berghoff brothers were all gone by the early 50's and none of the sons were interested in running the brewery.  The Berghoff family sold the brewery to Falstaff in 1953.  When the Berghoff brewery was sold, the brewery had the capacity to make over 1 million barrels of beer annually. 

Berghoff Brewery - Fort Wayne

The Berghoff beer was then licensed out to a company in Colorado - the Walter Brewing Company in Pueblo - primarily for sale at The Berghoff restaurant in Chicago.  The sons of Herman Berghoff were not happy with the quality of beer being produced in the brewery.  So after the five year contract to brew Berghoff was up, The Berghoff family went looking for a small brewery that would be more attentive to their needs, and closer to Chicago.  The contract was awarded to Joseph Huber Brewing Company in 1960, whose son, Fred, was now running the company. 

Fred Huber eventually bought out the other investors and ran the company solo from 1977 to 1985.  He sold the company to two former execs from Pabst in 1985.  The two execs sold the Augsberger label to Stroh's, and in 1988 announced they were probably going to close the plant.  Huber and some investors came back in and bought the plant back and began to focus on the brewing and marketing of Berghoff beer. 

In the mid-90's, the Huber Brewery was making great strides in marketing the Berghoff brand - brewing more specialty beers under the label's name and beginning wider distribution throughout the Midwest.  It was then that they purchased the rights of the Berghoff beer name from the Berghoff family. 

Since the late 90's, the Huber/Berghoff Brewery has introduced Dempsey's Beer and re-introduced Wisconsin Club beer while continuing to make the Huber beers.

They now brew 10 year round and seasonal specialty beers under the Berghoff label.  Their original Lager beer is still one of the better beers they brew.  They also have a very good pale ale - much more smooth and not as hoppy as other pale ales.  If you think a pale ale is a little too much taste sensation, I think you'll find the Berghoff pale ale to be much more palatable. 

They also make a good dark and bock beer that is very flavorful.  They also make a red, an amber and a very good Oktoberfest beer that I like to get in the fall months.

But my favorite beer, especially this time of year, is their Hazelnut Winter Ale - a hazelnut flavored beer that is absolutely wonderful.  I'm not a coffee drinker, but I do love the smell of Cindy's hazelnut coffee when she makes it.  The Berghoff Hazelnut Winter Ale has a fabulous taste to it, has a nice lingering after taste and is very smooth to drink. 

They now have a gift shop and will do factory tours at the Huber/Berghoff Brewery.  And when you're done, you can go across the street to the west and have a beer at the Jailhouse Tap.  It's the old Green County jailhouse and it's ironic that a place where they used to put drunks behind bars in the past is now serving drunks in front of the bar today. 

Monroe is a neat little town to visit, anyhow.  It bills itself as "The Swiss Cheese Capital of the World" and has kind of a Swiss/Bavarian feel to it.  There are some great restaurants and places to shop in Monroe, too.  If you want to try a beer, try one of the beers that are brewed there - Berghoff beers. 

Savitri's - Davenport

For Cindy's birthday last night, I wanted to take her someplace nice, and preferably someplace that we've never been to before. 

There's been an upswing in fine dining establishments in downtown Davenport over the past few years and one place that we'd always heard about, but had never been to, was Savitri's. 

Savitri's is in the old Biederbecke building on West 2nd St. (see map), named after the 1920's jazz great Bix Biederbecke who was born and raised in Davenport.  It was built after the turn of the 20th century and has housed a number of businesses over the years.  The main floor is the dining room and bar, they have a basement for storage and for small parties, the second floor is a ballroom that can be reserved for receptions and parties and the third floor is the kitchen area. 

The main dining room is open and airy - almost too airy as they have a huge front door with no way to block the cold air from coming in when people come and go on a cold night.  It was a little too cold for Cindy.  But then, Cindy thinks that 70 degrees is too cold. 

Savitri's bills themselves as having "Progressive American Cuisine", whatever that means.  All I knew is that there probably wasn't going to be pot roast or ham steaks on the menu. 

We'd heard that Savitri's had good sushi, we tried a spicy tuna roll for an appetizer and I also had them make up a piece of both salmon and tuna sashimi style. The tuna rolls were very good, and the salmon and tuna were very fresh and the pieces of fish they cut were HUGE!!  It was a great deal for $2 bucks a pop. 

Before dinner, Cindy took the bib lettuce salad with blue cheese crumbles on it, and I had the prime rib soup.  Both portions were EXTREMELY small for the price, but they were good, nonetheless.  The prime rib soup had a red wine base to it with big chunks of beef and mushrooms throughout.  I wish I could have eaten more.

For the main entree, I had the Steak Diane, while Cindy had the New York Strip with a hint of a bearnaise sauce on the top.  While my steak was very tender, the portion was pretty small for $30 bucks.  The sauce was good and didn't detract from the taste of the meat.  Cindy's steak was a little too much toward the medium rare side of the medium that she ordered.  But it was very good, as well.  In fact, it tasted similar to steaks I've had at Ruth's Chris steakhouses in the past. 

Savitri's wine list was OK, but they had a reserve list where they were very proud of the selection they had.  And they had a price to match.  I did order a bottle of the Ferrari-Carano 2001 Siena for $60 bucks that I thought was a little over priced (I've seen that bottle in liquor and wine stores for around $21-$22 dollars).  It should have been $45 bucks, tops, in a restaurant. 

We both had dessert - Cindy had a chocolate cake and I had the pumpkin cheese cake.  Once again, my cheesecake was very good.  However, I'd like to get more than just four bites out of it, considering that it was $6.00 for the piece. 

I also made a big mistake and ordered an espresso with my dessert.  As a guy who doesn't drink coffee and who doesn't drink a lot of pop, I should know better than to have a shot of espresso after a meal at 8 p.m.  I woke up at 12:30 a.m. and didn't get back to sleep until after 4:30 in the morning. 

I've been hearing that Savitri's is having some trouble.  I wouldn't doubt it one bit.  Although I think their food was very good, I have to question the cost vs. portion size aspect of the place.  Whereas they may be able to pull this off in a Chicago or Los Angeles, I can see where fiscally conservative Midwesterners would probably think they got taken on their meal at Savitri's.  The total meal with tip came to just over two big bills for Cindy and I. 

I do enjoy fine dining, but this is Davenport, Iowa, not New York City.  I'd love to go back to Savitri's sometime, but I hope to do it when I take a client so I can use my company credit card for the meal. 

Note - Savitri's is now out of business.  Those high prices undoubtedly did 'em in.

The Berghoff - Chicago

One of my all-time favorite places to eat in Chicago - or any where, for that matter - is the Berghoff in downtown Chicago.  I first went there in 1987 and I usually try to get there a couple times a year for lunch or dinner.

The story of the Berghoff begins in 1870 when Herman Berghoff (shown here in 1933 holding the temporary license for the first liquor license issued by the city of Chicago) and his three brothers immigrated from Germany to Fort Wayne, IN with their parents.  The four Berghoff brothers began the Berghoff Brewing Company in 1887 brewing a style of beer they called "Dortmunder" after their home town in Germany, Dortmund.

In 1893, Herman came to Chicago to sell beer to the patrons at The Chicago World's Fair.  Encouraged by the response he had from fair-goers, Herman opened a small cafe (where the existing Berghoff Bar is now) and sold sandwiches and his family's beer.  When Prohibition hit in 1919, Herman decided to open a full service German restaurant in 1920 and moved the restaurant next door to it's present location in the mid-30's.

In the 40's, Herman passed the restaurant along to his two sons who ran it for a number of years.  Herman's grandson, Herman, and great-grandchildren are still running the place today. 

The Berghoff is just off of State St. on Adams (see map) and features some of the best German food I've ever had.  I'm partial to their Sauerbraten (with a great sweet and sour gravy), and their roasted pork loin, pan roasted in its juice with herbs and spices.  Oh, man!  Killer. 

I also like their hot beef sandwich for lunch (when they have it - it's on and off the menu).  The beef is tender and flavorful, they serve it with their homemade rye bread and heaping stack of real mashed potatoes covered with a ginger-based gravy.  Oh, my stomach's doin' jumping jacks just writing about it. 

The dining room is very ornate and elegant, but you can go in wearing jeans and a sweater or polo shirt.  The waiters have all been there for years and are dressed to the hilt in black tuxedos with red bow ties.  It's pretty cool.

I always like going into the adjacent Berghoff Bar to get one of their Berghoff Beers and to look at the first liquor license given out by the city of Chicago after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. They have it right on the wall behind the bar, prominently displayed.  The Berghoff was such a popular spot to drink before Prohibition that Herman Berghoff successfully lobbied for the first license. 

A little known fact - For a long time the bar didn't allow women to drink in the establishment.  When Prohibition ended, the bar began a policy of men only.  That continued for a number of years until the late 60's when a group of women's activists entered the bar, sat down and demanded to be served.  They were served, and the tradition of men only went by the wayside.

The Berghoff also has a cafe in the basement of the restaurant for food on the go or for a more casual lunch.  They also have a little place on the C concourse of the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare (picture at left).  That's the only reason I like to fly through O'Hare - to stop at the Berghoff and get a reuben sandwich and a cold beer at the bar.

I love the Berghoff, not only for their food, but for their place in Chicago's history.  For a place that has been in business for over 100 years, they must be doing something right.

Note - The Berghoff is now out of business

Fiorella's Jack Stack - Kansas City

There are a lot of great places to eat barbecue in Kansas City.  Some are good, some aren't.  Some are overrated and a couple don't get the recognition they deserve.  However, there's one barbecue place in Kansas City that stands out among the rest.  And that's any of the three locations of Fiorelli's Jack Stack Barbecue.

The orginal Fiorella's Jack Stack is located in far south Kansas City in a small town known as Martin City.  Martin City has been known for years as being the "mecca" for good restaurants in the Kansas City area.  The vastly overrated Jess and Jim's Steakhouse is located in Martin City, as is the vastly underrated Chiarelli's Pasta House (see map).  Chiarelli's is the first place I ever had fettucine alfredo and I haven't looked back since. 

Actually, I started going to Jack Stack when it was called "The Smoke Stack".  I don't quite know when they changed the name to Jack Stack, but the owner of Fiorelli's is Jack Fiorelli.  Jack Fiorelli's father had a barbecue place since the 1940's.  In the 60's, Jack and his wife took over the place.  With the glut of good barbecue places in Kansas City, Jack's wife kept saying that in order to succeed, Fiorelli's needed to take barbecue to a new level and to set themselves apart from the rest.

In the mid-70's, Jack bought the Hickory Wood Cookery in Martin City - a restaurant that cooked their foods in big brick ovens fired by hickory logs.  It was an eclectic restaurant, but it wasn't too successful.  After Jack bought the Hickory Wood Cookery, he changed the name to The Smoke Stack.  And instead of just doing ribs and brisket, he began to smoke hams, chicken, turkey, and other types of meat that no one else in the Kansas City area was doing. 

During a trip to Yugoslavia, Jack and his wife found that some of the seaside villages on the Adriatic Sea had restaurants that actually cooked seafood over hickory.  They went back to Kansas City and implemented their style of cooking seafood over hickory at The Smoke Stack.  Jack also perfected cooking steaks, pork chops and chicken breasts on his hickory fire grills. 

It's tough to go wrong with the baby back ribs at Jack Stack.  Their brisket is very good, too.  However, if you have the time and the money (about $25 bucks), you have to try their Crown Prime Rib short ribs.  Oh, man!  That is some of the best eatin' I've ever had.  They're smoked long and low and the meat is tender and tasty with a hint of hickory in every bite. 

Jack Stack is famous for their burnt end pieces of pork and beef that I don't particularly care for, but they're very popular - both as a meal and as an appetizer.  The burned taste is a little too much for me.  But like I say, a lot of people like 'em.

I always get a small pot of Jack Stack baked beans when I go and I throw some of their "spicy" sauce on top of them.  And if I go with a group, we always have to get a rack of their great onion rings.  They're big and thick and have a great taste to 'em. 

As I said, Jack Stack has three locations - the one in Martin City, a bigger place in Overland Park at 95th and Metcalf, and a new one just on the southern fringes of downtown Kansas City, MO.  I had lunch at the Overland Park location with a buddy when I was in Kansas City earlier this year and I had the Jack Stack sandwich - two meats of your choice on a French bun.  I had pork and beef on mine - one on each side of the sandwich.  It was very good. 

The beer is always cold and plentiful at Jack Stack - and you'll need it.  There's ample parking and they take all credit cards. 

Jack Stack is reknown for their barbecue throughout the United States.  In fact, Zagat's Travel Guide has named Jack Stack the best barbecue restaurant in America six years in a row!  Now, that's got to be saying something about the place right there. 

Either Jack Stack location is good, but I'm partial to the original one in Martin City.  Kansas City is a nice town. And if you go there, you've got to try Jack Stack at least one time. 

Santa Rita Winery

We used to drink a lot of Australian wines - that is, until the rest of the world found out the wine was very good at a cheap price and the demand went up.  And as the demand went up, so did the price.

I'm always in the market for a good tasting low-priced wine.  About three years ago on the recommendation of a friend in Omaha, he told me to check out Chilean wines.  Most notably the wines from the Santa Rita vineyards. 

Santa Rita wines are some of the best values I've found for a good wine at a low price.  The Santa Rita vineyards date back to the 1880's when French grapevines were planted on the grounds.  The combination of the rich Chilean soil and the mild year round weather contribute to great taste of the Santa Rita cabernet's. 

The Santa Rita Reserva Cabernet is one of my favorites.  It has a great flavor to it, fruity and full in taste, but the body is not too heavy.  I've had people tell me that it has a little bit of a spicy aftertaste, but I'm not certian I get that from it. 

The Santa Rita Reserva Cabernet is much lighter than their Merlot that has a much heavier body to it.  I like a heavy red from time to time and Santa Rita Reserva Merlot is a good one to try.

Santa Rita's white Reservas are very good, too.  Their Chardonnay is light and fruity, and has a hint of vanilla in its aftertaste.  It's wonderful with fish and chicken.  Their Sauvignon Blanc is drier than the Chard and not as flavorful.  Still, it's a great value as you can usually find bottles of the Sauvignon's under $10 bucks.

If you want to go up in price and flavor, Santa Rita makes a wine that is absolutely spectacular - one that I'd put up against any good California or French moderately priced cabernet.  Their Medalla Real Cabernet is robust, full bodied, and has a pleasantly lingering after taste.  We had their 1999 Medalla Real Cab a year ago and even though it could have used a couple more years of aging, it was still outstanding.

Santa Rita also makes a cheap "table wine" called 120.  The grapes for Santa Rita's 120 series of wines are grown in the central Chilean valleys, versus the lush and temperate Maipo Valley area for the rest of the finer wines.  The 120's are OK, they're a little more bitter and they don't have the smooth taste and the pleasant after taste of the Medalla Real's or the Reserva's.  Still, for around $6 bucks a bottle, it's a good table wine. 

Chile's Maipo Valley - fertile rich soil, temperate climate.

I like the Santa Rita wines, especially their Reserva Cab, an awful lot.  They're a great bargain with great taste. 

Phoenix Inn - Phoenix

I was in Phoenix for business about three years ago and I was traveling with a colleague from Seattle, Matthew Silberstein.  We were going to spend the night out in one of the SE suburbs of Phoenix, but Matthew said, "Hey, I know a place we can stay here in Phoenix.  It's cheap and the rooms are European style suites." 

So he directed me to a place off of 24th St. and near the Biltmore Fashion Park and south of Camelback Road.  We came to this place called The Phoenix Inn and it was a nice little hotel.  The lobby was large and inviting, the staff was attentive (Matthew had stayed at this place many times before) and they gave us rooms on the third floor.

I walked into my room and looked around - it was a suite!  And it WAS like a European suite, at that.  A couple of small rooms and then a bedroom with attached bath.  I called Matthew and said, "We paid HOW MUCH for these rooms?"

Matthew said, "$90 bucks. All the rooms are suites here." 

Well, I didn't know it until about a year ago, but the Phoenix Inn is actually a small chain of hotels that are primarily in the northwest - in Washington and Oregon.  I thought the Phoenix Inn was named after, well, Phoenix.  Hence, the Phoenix Inn. 

And all the rooms at a Phoenix Inn are suites.  They're comfortable, they're roomy and, above all, they're relatively cheap! 

I'd stay there again.  It was nice and nice surprise, at that...

The Map Room - Chicago

The Map Room in one of Chicago's more trendy neighborhoods - Bucktown - north and west of downtown Chicago.  It isn't a huge place, but the ambiance is cozy and it's a very friendly place to go to.

It's situated in a corner building that has a nice bar in the place.  Behind the bar are rows and rows of the current bottled beers they're carrying - when I was in there the first time there had to be over 150 different types of bottled beer.  And they had over 25 beers on tap, too. 

Of course, they had collages of maps on the wall.  There are shelves and bookcases full of maps, travel books and National Geographics.  The Map Room has a tin roof ceiling and a little stage for live music on the weekends.  Every once in a while, they'll have an International night where they have a restaurant bring food in and they feature food and beer from that given country. 

The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.  They offer information sheets on the beer that you are drinking or on any beer that you ask about. 

I like the Map Room.  I wish I had a neighborhood bar close to my house like that one.  It's a great place to get a beer.

B.B. King

As I said in an earlier post, Cindy and I won tickets to see B.B. King on December 16 here in Davenport.  We won them as door prizes as part of the kick off party for the annual membership drive for the River Music Experience.  I'd seen B.B. King three times already, and Cindy was going to be in Chicago with her sister all day Friday and coming home on Saturday night. 

I ended up giving the tickets to our good friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder as they had never seen B.B. King in person before. 

My Friday night was all planned out.  I had gotten a big T-Bone steak and was marinating it, I had a half dozen big mushrooms with the meat all dug out so I could do Italian sausage stuffed mushroom along with them.  The UNI Football team was playing on TV in the NCAA Division I-AA championships.  I had a garage full of beer, it was cold, I was hunkered down.

Along about 3 p.m., Kristy Adams called me and asked me what I was doing.  I said, "Nothing." 

She said, "Randy's sick.  He went home from work today.  He can't go to the B.B. King show and I need a date.  Will you go with me?"

Man, it was like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  I really didn't want to go, but Kristy was literally pleading with me to go with her.  Finally, I relented and said, yes, I'd go.  She was happy and I told her I'd call her later.

We met up at a new bar in downtown Davenport called Below Brady (see map).  Actually, the bar had been there for years, and no one could remember the name of the old place, but it was pretty nice down there.  Cozy, not crowded.  They had a Yamaha baby grand piano in the place as I understand that someone comes in a couple three times a week and plays the piano. 

We had a few drinks and went to the River Center around 7:10.  Ellis Kell and his band opened up for B.B. King and they were playing by the time we got there.  Kristy's seats were up toward the front at one of the tables they had set up in kind of a night club fashion.  We found an usher to direct us to the seats and it turned out that we were about 25 feet from the front of the stage.   Nice seats. 

Ellis and his band did a nice job, as always.  Ellis said it was the third time he and the band had the pleasure to open for B.B. King. 

They finished about 7:45, and there was about a 25 minute wait for B.B. King's band to take the stage.  They came out, did a couple songs, then B.B. King came out.  80 years old, diabetes, two bad knees - B.B. don't stand no more.  But, boy - he sure doesn't sound like an 80 year old guy when he sings and plays that guitar.  He still can sing and his chops on the guitar are still those of when he was playing 40 years ago. 

His band was tight, the music was good, B.B. told stories and played off the audience.  He said that he had now played in 80 countries around the world and he said that his goal in 2006 was to play in some countries that he'd never been in before. 

He finished about 10 p.m., no encore.  He thanked the crowd, stood up and was helped off stage. 

It was a good show, I was pleasantly surprised at how well he played and sang. 

Now, before the show, Kristy told me that there might be a chance that we'd be able to get backstage after the show and meet B.B. King.  That story comes up next in Meeting the King.

Drake Diner - Des Moines

There aren't a lot of comfort food places in Des Moines, but one that I like to go to from time to time is the Drake Diner (see map).

The Drake Diner is situated just off of University Ave., south of Drake University.  The ambiance of the place suggests it is a throw back to the 50's style diners and the food is typical of those type of places.

I like the Drake Diner's meat loaf and their hot beef sandwiches.  The meatloaf is very good with an oniony-sage taste quality to it.  Their hot beef sandwiches are piled high with meat and the gravy is definitely homemade. 

The Drake Diner has spawned two other diners around Des Moines - the West End Diner in Clive (see map); and the North End Diner on Merle Hay Road (see map).  I've eaten at the North End Diner before and even though it is more spacious than the Drake Diner, I have to say the food is a little better at the Drake Diner. 

The Drake Diner is not in a great neighborhood and I know a lot of people don't like going to it during the night time hours.  Still, if you're in the area and need some comfort food, it's a good place to go to.

Buona Sera - Wheeling, IL

Every once in a while, finding a good restaurant just by chance is one of the greatest things in life. That's what happened when Cindy and I stumbled upon Buona Sera.

Buona Sera is located on the famous Wheeling restaurant row in the north Chicago suburb of Wheeling, IL on Milwaukee Ave, down the road from Le Francais and across the road from Bob Chinn's. Cindy and I were in the northern suburbs one weekend and we decided to go down to Wheeling and see if there was any thing that we could get in to for dinner. Bob Chinn's was crowded (as usual), there was the Weber Grill, but we wanted to eat at some place new.

We saw the sign for Buona Sera and we turned in. The place, from the outside, looked like an old pancake place or something like that. We thought, "What the hell, let's give it a shot." Italian sounded good and I didn't want to go to Buca di Beppo down the street.

Man, I'm glad we found the place. It was absolutely fabulous. First of all, it turned out that Buona Sera WAS a former pancake restaurant. They bought the building and refurbished the place. It was cozy inside, but had a lot of windows that made it seem a little larger than what it was.

The food was surprisingly good. I had the veal limone with a side of fettuccine alfredo; Cindy had the seafood linguine. All of it was very, very good. I think Cindy liked my veal better than her seafood linguine, and I think I liked her seafood linguine a little better than my veal. That's how good the food was.

They had an adequate wine list, it was nothing special. I think we had a Kendall-Jackson chardonnay that was pretty good. Of course, the had all the desserts and coffee, cappuccino or espresso for after dinner.

We got to talking with the General Manager of the place and he found it intriguing that we were from Iowa and we just happened to stumble upon his restaurant. I told him we were very happy that we stopped and we'd be back some day.

We stopped back a few months later when we went back into Chicago for a night. The food, once again, was very good. The place was a little less crowded than the last time we were in there (actually, I don't think we got in there before 8:30). We were one of the last couples out that evening.

As we were walking out the front door and out to the parking lot, we heard someone behind us yell, "Well, you come back into my restaurant and you don't even say, 'Hello'?" We turned around and it was the General Manager. He remembered us from before. He said, "Well, you DID come back! We must have made an impression on you."

We told him that the meal we just had was every bit as good as the first time we were there. He seemed genuinely grateful and pleased that we came back.

Since then, I've eaten there on a couple three occasions, either by myself or with a client. It's always been good.

I see that they have a Buona Sera in the Westmont area of the near western suburbs of Chicago. I've yet to eat there, but I'm sure the food is just as good as the one up in Wheeling.

Tons of parking - they'll valet, too. All credit cards. Good service, good food, friendly people. We sure are glad we stumbled upon the place.

Note - Buona Sera is now out of business

New Glarus Brewery

New Glarus, WI is known as being a little bit of Switzerland in America. Located in the rolling hills of southwest Wisconsin (see map), New Glarus is a quaint little community that has nice little shops, restaurants and other tourist related things to choose from. 

One of the features of New Glarus is their little micro-brewery - the New Glarus Brewing Company.  Started in 1993 by Deb Carey as a present to her husband, Dan, who was a budding brewmaster, New Glarus beers are some of the more popular beers that are brewed in Wisconsin.

And for the life of me, I don't know why.  I can't stand any of their beers.

The New Glarus beers are brewed in a Belgian style - creamy and fruity.  There isn't a one that I can say that I really enjoy.  I'm not big on wheat beers, definitely not big on fruit beers and their Spotted Cow Ale just leaves me with an unpleasant aftertaste that I don't really care for at all.

Here's a picture of Deb and Dan Carey.  I met them one time a few years ago at the Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival held annually in Madison.  They seemed to be very nice people and very in tune with their craft, but I just don't care for the taste of their beers.

The New Glarus Spotted Cow beer is a full bodied and fruity tasting ale that comes out cloudy and leaves, what to me is, an unpleasant after taste.  But it's very popular - you see it on tap about every where you go in Wisconsin. 

Their Raspberry Tart and their Belgian Red beers have won countless awards at beer contests and festivals in America and in Europe.  But I don't like either one.   

I'd really like to enjoy the New Glarus beers, but I'm sorry, I don't.  I think the Carey's are fine people, and they obviously make a beer that is very pleasing to many people.  But, for me, it's one of those styles of beer that I just don't care for.

That's OK - the Carey's would probably think I'm a shitty writer...

Tea Steakhouse - Tea, SD

I was in Sioux Falls one night and I was hankering for a steak.  I went on line to Michael Stern's web site Roadfood.com and he suggested a little steak house in a small town just south and west of Sioux Falls - The Tea Steakhouse in Tea, SD. 

The Tea Steakhouse was actually sort of tough to find.  It's not on a main road in the little town of Tea.  I had to finally stop at a convenience store and ask the gal behind the counter where this place was.  She cheerfully said, "Oh, it's two blocks to the east and two blocks to the south."  Yes, I actually DID stop for directions, but I knew that given the size of Tea, I would have found it within five minutes. (see map)

The Tea Steakhouse was sort of rustic on the inside.  They had a bar area that was off the main dining room that was full of local yokels.  But the two dining rooms didn't look very inviting - typical small town restaurant metal chairs and tables with no table cloths.  I asked if I could eat in the bar (they had a game on the TV there) and the hostess said that was no problem.

The bar at the Tea Steakhouse is called "O'Toole's" (Jim and Lisa, your hosts).  I never did find out if it was owned by the same people who owned the steakhouse, but it appeared to be one and the same place. 

I ordered a KC Strip, medium rare and a side of hash browns (on the recommendation of the bartender, a nice lady, I'm guessing in her mid to late 30's, who was going through some personal problems with an underaged daughter who was pregnant). 

I got the steak and I have to tell you, I was highly disappointed.  HIGHLY disappointed.  The steak cooked to a perfect medium rare, but it was tough, it was chewy, it didn't have that good taste you normally get with good KC Strips.  I swallowed a small bite and I swear it scratched my esophagus.  It hurt to swallow food for two or three days afterwards.

I was deeply disappointed in my steak at The Tea Steakhouse.  I was also disappointed in that Michael Stern sent me to a place that I wasn't happy with.  That hadn't happened before. 

I don't know if I'll try the Tea Steakhouse the next time I'm up in the Sioux Falls area.  I didn't think it was much to begin with and I don't know if I'll be pleasantly surprised the next time around.

Discount Liquor - Milwaukee

Every time I go to Milwaukee, I have to make a trip over to the south side of town and stop in at Discount Liquors on W. Oklahoma (see map).

Discount Liquors is a great liquor store with a great selection of beers from Wisconsin and other micro-breweries around the Midwest.  They have an adequate wine department and they have a decent liquor selection. 

But the key to this place is the price - I can buy Capital Brewery products for a dollar or two cheaper than what I can get them in Iowa.  They have cases of Wisconsin Point Special beer in bottles for $10.99 - six packs in Iowa are $4.99.  Old Style 18 pack bottles for $7.99.  Special Export 12 pack bottles for $6.99.  You can't get Old Style or Special Export in bottles in Iowa, period.  And they have good prices on Leinenkugel beer, but they are sporadic as to the flavors they carry. 

It's always a $50 dollar bill when I go to Discount Liquor.  The place is kind of cramped, but that's only because they have a huge selection to choose from. 

Whataburger

Whataburger is a chain of hamburger joints situated primarily through the southern tier of states from Arizona to Florida. 

I first encountered Whataburger on my first visit to Phoenix in 1987.  I thought, "Man, they don't have any thing THIS good in Iowa!" 

So every time I go to Arizona, Texas or Florida, I have to find a Whataburger and get a double meat with cheese.  The burgers at Whataburger are juicy, hot, and delicious. I just can't tell you how good they can really be.

I'm glad that Whataburger isn't any where close to Iowa or the Midwest because I know I'd balloon to over 300 lbs. if there were.  I like 'em that much. 

The Perfectly Cooked Hot Dog

It kind of struck me as sort of strange - in a weird funny way - when I went to a chili party at a friend's house and the hostess didn't know how to cook hot dogs.  She's over 40 and didn't know how long to cook 'em on the stove.  She'd boiled the hot dogs for over 20 minutes and they'd split and lost all their juices and color.  They were pretty bad.

Then I found that in this day and age of microwave ovens and the like, a lot of people didn't know how to properly make a boiled hot dog on the stove top. 

After years of making hot dogs either on the grill, or in the microwave, or on the stove, I've found the best tasting hot dogs are the ones where the natural juices are still inside the casing after they cooked.  Too many times on the grill the hot dog will split and lose a lot of its juiciness while they're cooking.  In a microwave, you have to slit the hot dog before you cook it or it will explode in there.  But cooking in water on the stove top is the best way to keep the natural juice flavor from coming out.

Actually, I like to add something to the water - a beef bouillon cube.  Here's how I cook a couple hot dogs:

Pour 1 quart water into 2 quart pan

Add beef bouillon cube and turn heat to high and bring to boil

When water comes to boil, add two hot dogs.  Continue to boil for 5 minutes.

Pull from water after five minutes and eat 'em! 

It's that easy.  The beef flavored water gives the hot dogs an even better taste as it clings to the casing. 

Try it next time you make hot dogs.  Just don't cook the life out of them.

Johnny's Cafe - Omaha

Omaha is known for having some of the best steak houses in America.  And I have to say that my favorite of all the ones that are out there is Johnny's Cafe on the south side of Omaha.

Johnny's was a little saloon bought by Frank Kawa in the early 1920's.  It is still in their original location right next to the old Union Stockyards (at one time, the largest stockyards in the United States) just south of downtown Omaha.  They've added on over the years, but the basic building is still there.  And the Kawa family is still in charge of the place.

Union Stockyards, circa 1914.

When you first walk into Johnny's, you go into a big circular lobby that has a little bit of the history of the restaurant on their walls.  Included are menus from the 20's through the 50's (Prime Rib and baked potato in the 20's - 80 cents), pictures, reviews, commendations and there's a huge picture of Jack Nicholson standing with the present day Kawa family in the lobby of Johnny's.  Nicholson's picture, About Schmidt, was filmed in Omaha and the retirement party scene at the start of the movie was filmed in Johnny's banquet room. 

First of all, I have to say in all the years I've eaten at Johnny's, I've never had a bad meal there.  Ever.  Their prime rib is some of the best I've ever had.  Their steaks are cooked perfectly and have great flavor.  They also have some of the best au gratin potatoes I've ever tasted.  The food there is absolutely world class. 

I've always like going to Omaha, but it's certainly a treat when I eat at Johnny's.  It's a must if you ever travel to Omaha.

Tom Boy's

I was first turned on to Fairbury Meats "Tom Boys" by my friend Chuck Ellis at a football tailgate in Iowa City.  Chuck is the meat manager of the Hy-Vee store on 132nd St. in Omaha and he brought a couple packs out to cook on the grill after a game one time.  I had one and thought, "Man, these are GREAT!" 

Chuck told me that Fairbury Meats was a small company located in Fairbury, NE, south and west of Lincoln, near the Kansas border.  They make a number of meat products in the plant, but they're kind of famous for their hot dogs.  They make a red-dyed hot dog that is served at University of Nebraska football games.  That's what Chuck had, the red ones. 

During one of my travels to Omaha, I stopped off at Chuck's store and picked up a couple dozen of the hot dogs.  They're just great hot dogs.  All beef, no filler, tasty, juicy.  One of the best hot dogs I've ever tasted.  The problem is that I don't get out to Omaha all the often any longer and they're only available in the Hy-Vee's in Nebraska.  Chuck gave me a control order number to use one time to order here locally from a Hy-Vee, but I just haven't gotten around to doing that. 

But I'm now out of Tom Boys since my last trip to Omaha last summer and I think I have to order some up since I don't anticipate being in Omaha anytime soon. 

My friend, Craig Evert, who grew up in Nebraska, seconded my love for Fairbury's Tom Boys.  In fact, he sent me this picture of fine dining with a couple Tom Boys (it's the same picture for the opening blog in this category).  It really doesn't get any better than this.

Bohemian Cafe - Omaha

One of my favorite places to go when I'm out in Omaha for a few days is an old local favorite called the Bohemian Cafe.  Located just to the south of the downtown area of Omaha on the far east side, the Bohemian Cafe has been making great Czech food since the early 1920's.

My brother-in-law Vic used to drive with his parents about 30 miles into the Bohemian Cafe for Sunday lunch all the time when he was growing up.  I can't remember if he was the first one to tell me about the place, or if one of my old dealers out in Omaha turned me on to it in the 80's.  But I've been going there for years.

The seating area is pretty good sized with two big dining areas, a banquet/party area and a bar.  The building used to be a bank and a grocery store before they moved into the present location back in the late 50's. 

Actually, I couldn't make up my mind if the Bohemian Cafe would be classified as "Comfort Food" or under the "Restaurant" category.  I would probably have to call their food the ultimate in comfort food. 

I'm not big on liver, but they have a liver dumpling soup they serve as an appetizer that is just great.  It's a big ball of ground liver served in a chicken broth.  It's just outstanding.  Their rye breads are fresh and tasty, and I can't go without a Pilsner Urquell beer in a big stein when I'm there. 

They do a different dinner special every night of the week.  I love their Svickova, which is a type of sauer braten.  I get that with a side of sauerkraut and their Czech dumplings.  Absolutely great.  They also have a Jaeger Schnitzel that is outstanding as well.  I like their boiled beef with the creamy dill gravy over the top.  And I believe it was Tuesday nights when they would have their Burgundy Beef - tender slices of roast beef topped with a gravy made with Burgundy wine.  Ow!!!

Oh man!  I'm getting hunger pangs just thinking about the Bohemain Cafe. 

They also have a little Bohemian Cafe song that I've linked to that you can enjoy. 

I took Cindy there one night when we were in Omaha and she thought it was "OK".  My sister, Nan, who is married to Vic, thought it was "OK" when he took her there a few years ago.  Those women just don't know what good food really is.

They don't know what's good - and the Bohemian Cafe is good!

(Update - The Bohemian Cafe closed for good on September 24, 2016.  Click here for the Road Tips' entry on my last visit there before they closed for good.)

HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray

A lot of people are asking me what the deal is with the new DVD formats that will be coming sometime next year - HD-DVD and Blu-Ray technologies.  Is this going to be Beta vs. VHS all over again? 

Both technologies are expected to be on display at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.  Both will offer more storage on a video disc to allow for high definition quality playback, as well as added features on a disc.  Both say they're the best.  I'll try and sort it out.

First of all, Blu-Ray is the more popular - in terms of companies on board - of the two formats.  Developed and championed by Sony (which, ironically, championed the less popular Beta format for video tape recording years ago), and embraced by other industry heavyweights such as Philips, Pioneer, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and many others.  HD-DVD is backed by Toshiba, NEC, and, surprisingly, Microsoft. (However, scuttlebutt is that Microsoft is also developing a Blu-Ray format player just to cover its ass.)

Both formats use blue laser technology, which has a shorter wavelength than red lasers, enabling the laser to pick up smaller bits of information packed onto a disc.  The differences are that HD-DVD uses a double thick layer disc that allows up to 30 gigabytes of information (compared to up to 9 gigabytes of info in today's DVD's), while Blu-Ray uses a thin layer disc that allows up to 50 gigs of information to be stored upon it.  Sony is reportedly working on a disc that would allow up to 100 gig of information to be stored up on the disc.  Wow.

The advantages of Blu-Ray are many - More backers, more capacity, more recording capabilities.  And since Sony owns Columbia and MGM/UA studios; plus Twentieth Century Fox and Disney have committed to the Blu-Ray format bringing a wealth of movie and television libraries with them, the content initially available for Blu-Ray will be much better than HD-DVD. 

HD-DVD, on the other hand, has a more consumer friendly name, and the discs will be appreciably cheaper than Blu-Ray, as will the machines you'll play the disc with.  And HD-DVD claims their double thick discs can not be easily scratched enabling more plays than a thinner layer Blu-Ray disc (Sony denies this). 

It's my professional opinion that Blu-Ray will win out in the long run, but don't dismiss the HD-DVD format just yet. 

What does this mean to most people?  Well, right now, not much.  The HD-DVD machines will be lower priced initially.  But there won't be the amount of movies or television shows available on HD-DVD.  Most Blu-Ray machines will come in at a price point of between $1,000 to $2,000 dollars, the discs will be higher priced, but there will be much more content to view.

Are the electronics companies making you chose right away between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and will they make you throw away your collection of regular DVD's and make you buy an expensive player and more expensive discs?  Absolutely not.  The regular DVD format is versatile enough that you won't have to worry about deep-sixing those movies you bought three years ago, or having to toss out your DVD player anytime soon. 

Don't worry - by the time you really have to make a decision between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the format war will probably have ended with Blu-Ray claiming victory. (For once, Sony wins a format war!)  And you'll find that the price of both the players and the discs will have dropped appreciably from the initial prices we'll begin to see next year.

Runza

One of the biggest guilty pleasures I have is when I go to Nebraska. I have to stop and get a burger from Runza.

Actually, Runza is named after an old German recipe for a psuedo sandwich that is stuffed with beef and cabbage, and is then baked with the shell around it. The picture makes it look much better than it really is. It's not a pleasing taste to me, but with over 60 restaurants - primarily in Nebraska, but there are some in Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and Colorado - more than a few people must like 'em.

But the best thing about Runza are their burgers. Big, thick and juicy, Runza burgers are about as close to the old King's Food Host burgers that used to be around the Midwest in the 60's thru 80's. There's kind of a black pepper taste to 'em and they taste great for a fast food burger. In fact, the picture at the left is a good representation of how their burgers look when they take them off the grill, unlike many other fast food places whose hamburgers come no where close in real life as to how they look in their ads.

Probably one of the reasons Runza and King's burgers taste so much alike is that both started in Lincoln, NE. Runza started in the late 40's as a little stand in SE Lincoln. As they grew, they branched out all over Nebraska, which has a large German heritage population. When I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991, they had a Runza in Southpark Mall in Moline. But it didn't last long - I'm sure not a lot of people around here were brought up on the old German recipes and didn't like the Runza. But their burgers were sure good, but they couldn't survive on the burgers alone.

The Runza burger is one of the best fast food burgers out there, hands down. I don't get to Omaha as much as I used to, but it always means one stop at Runza when I'm there. I'm sorry, I'm guilty, but it's damn well worth it.

Culver's

Culver's = They suck.  Period.  I can't stand Culver's. 

There is an ever increasing number of Culver's around the Midwest and now down into Texas - over 300 of them.  It's like a plague and they've got to be stopped.

Started in Wisconsin in the early 80's, Culver's is famous for their Butter Burger.  But don't mistake their Butter Burger with the ones that are served at Solly's outside of Milwaukee.  They are no where close in thickness, taste or excellence.

In fact, I'm wondering if you could charge Culver's with false advertising.  In their ads they show these beautifully huge, thick burgers that look big and meaty.  However, every time I've gone to a Culver's and got a burger, it comes out as this paper-thin, lifeless, burnt tasting piece of meat that they stick on a bun that is too big for the burger and slather it with condiments and lettuce and tomatoes just to help hide the taste.  It's just horrible.  I defy ANYBODY to show me a Culver's burger that comes off the grill at ANY Culver's restaurant that looks any thing like the above picture.

The bad thing about Culver's is that they're consistent.  I'd been hearing about Culver's from a number of people for years and I tried a couple in Wisconsin and I wasn't impressed.  I tried a couple when they came to Iowa and was even less impressed.  I tried one out in Nebraska to see if the beef patty would be better and it wasn't.  It was still this thin piece of beef with the life fried out of it, looking nothing like the pictures in their ads.

The hell of it is - Cindy loves the place.  I can't understand why, I thought I taught her better than that.  I just won't go back to Culver's.  She can go all she wants, but I have eaten my last meal from Culver's.

Scotti's - Cincinnati

For our anniversary last May (our 10th!), Cindy and I went back to Cincinnati to spend a little more time there than we did on our last visit. On our anniversary, we went to a little romantic Italian restaurant in downtown Cincinnati called Scotti's.

Scotti's is run by a couple brothers and their sister - the DiMarco's - who are the fourth generation of the Scoleri family who first opened Scotti's in 1912. One brother, Marco, makes all the desserts; the other brother, Pat, is the chef; the sister, Rina, runs the business end of the place. They all three wait tables. It's pretty cool.

Pat DiMarco told us how Scotti's got its name. He said that years ago Italian restaurants were named after famous Italians or after Italian operas. Nearly 100 years ago, his great grandfather Salvatore Scoleri owned a restaurant in Philadelphia called "The European Restaurant". He encountered a somewhat famous opera singer of the day, Antonio Scotti, and they became friends. When Salvatore moved to Cincinnati to open up a new restaurant in 1912, he asked Mr. Scotti if he could name the place after him. Mr. Scotti obliged and Scotti's was born in Cincinnati.

Scotti's is not very big inside, heavy on the mish-mashed tile on the floor and walls. And, of course, the tables are topped with red and white checkered table cloths and candles with old Chianti bottles as holders with large build ups of multi-colored candle wax drippings on the sides. There are hundreds of old Chianti bottles hanging from the walls and ceiling. The light fixtures are old wine bottles that have been heated and reshaped into weird designs and have a light in placed in them. The wine bottle/lampshade that was over the steps on the way down to the bathroom had broken and it was almost too bright in there thanks to that one light. The atmosphere of Scotti's was helped by the recordings of Italian operas they piped into the dining area.

The food was very good - not the best Italian that I've ever had, but it was very good, nonetheless. You could tell that it was made from scratch and had that kind of homemade feel to the food. I had the veal marsala - I've had better, but it was still good. The pieces of veal were tender and cooked perfectly. I also had a side of fettucine alfredo just to get an idea of how their white sauce was. It was heavy on the garlic, just the way I like.

I can't remember what Cindy had, I think it was also a veal dish with a side of pasta. But I know she enjoyed it, too.

The wine selection at Scotti's is not much at all. I think we got a bottle of the only chardonnay they had on the menu - about $23 bucks for the wine. It was drinkable and went well with the meal.

I like places like Scotti's - small, not busy through the week, good food, good history behind the place. Pat was telling us as we were eating our tiramisu and canoli that they really have five generations now at Scotti's. His kids and his sibling's kids come in to help out during the weekends when it gets busy. Pat said, "And if you count my great-great grandmother who came here with my great-grandfather when he moved to Cincinnati in the early 19-teens, and who helped him out from time to time here at the restaurant, we've had six generations of Scolari's and DiMarco's working here."

Parking is on the street or at parking ramps nearby. They take reservations, but I was told you don't really need 'em through the week. They take most major credit cards. Scotti's is a neat place to try and one that I hope to get back to someday.

Maytag Blue Cheese

Blue Cheese is probably not a condiment, but it is a delicacy that keep around the Veber house from time to time.  And there aren't too many blue cheeses available on the market that are better than Maytag Blue Cheese. 

Maytag Blue Cheese (notice it's the Anglo version of the French "bleu cheese") is made just outside of Newton, Iowa.  E.H. Maytag, whose father, Fred, founded the Maytag Company, built the Maytag Dairy Farm in 1919 and raised Holstein cows not only for their milk, but to show at nationwide expositions.  In the 1930's, Maytag's Holstein's were recognized as some of the best cattle of their kind any where in the world. 

In 1941, E.H.'s son, Fred II, heard about a process for making blue cheese from dairy scientists at Iowa State University.  The process was time consuming, but through time, the Maytag Dairy Farm began to produce some of the best blue cheese in the world.  It wasn't long before the finest restaurants throughout America were using Maytag Blue Cheese as their exclusive blue cheese.

As a kid growing up and going to school in the Newton Community School District, you're sentenced to tour the Maytag Dairy Farm when you're in the fifth grade.  I think that's wrong - as a 10 or 11 year old, your "give-a-shit" factor about cheese is pretty low.  Other than the fact that you do get out of school for half a day, it was sort of pointless to send a bunch of kids through the place.

Then on top of it, you have to go through the room where they curd the cheese in these big vats.  The smell is not of this earth.   It's actually rather nauseating and disgusting.  At the end of the tour, they give the school kids a cracker with a dollop of blue cheese on top.  I knocked my blue cheese off in the garbage and ate the cracker, as did about 98% of the thousands of school children who have toured the place over the years.

The smell was bad enough to make me swear off eating blue cheese for years and years. 

One time, however, my old boss, Mike Cannady, ordered a salad at a great Italian restaurant, Villa Francesca, that we were eating at in Boston and he asked if they had blue cheese, explicitly, Maytag Blue Cheese.  Well, the restaurant did have Maytag Blue Cheese, and he ordered his salad with oil and vinegar with a bunch of crumbled Maytag Blue on top.  It looked good and it actually smelled pretty good.  So the next time I went to a restaurant and found that they had Maytag Blue, I ordered a salad the same way.  I've never looked back.

I especially like a grilled beef tenderloin filet topped with melted Maytag Blue Cheese.  I first had that combination at the Twin City Grill at the Mall of America in Minneapolis at the suggestion of my friend, George Miller.  It's a great taste combination.  There are also some places out there that make a good blue cheese burger, but more than likely they're not using Maytag Blue. 

Maytag Blue Cheese is still reknown worldwide.  People still order Maytag Blue, as well as their White Cheddar, their Edam, Swiss and cheddar spreads from all over the world.  I send a bunch to my boss and his wife in Quebec every Christmas - not because I'm looking for favors or buttering up the boss, but because I know they truly enjoy the stuff with a nice bottle of wine. 

Blue cheese is an acquired taste, for sure.  But once you have Maytag Blue Cheese, you'll want no other type of blue cheese.

Matt's Bar - Minneapolis

From the outside Matt's Bar isn't much to look at.  And on the inside, it's nothing but another neighborhood tavern.  But order up a "Juicy Lucy" and you'll see that it is nothing like any other place you've ever been.

The Juicy Lucy is unique.  It's basically a cheese stuffed burger.  Legend has it that a regular customer came in for a burger one time years ago and asked the cook to "surprise him".  The cook thought about it for minute, then took two burger patties and put cheese in the middle, closed them up together to make a pocket and the Juicy Lucy was born. 

You've got to be careful when you bite into a freshly served Juicy Lucy, that cheese is still friggin' hot!  I'm sure there have been many people who have had second degree burns on the roof of their mouths after an initial bite into a Juicy Lucy.  But they're still very good.

Christmas Trees

OK, it's Christmas time, right?  And, of course, we need to be getting into the holiday mood with all the decorations, the music, the scented candles, the cookies and everything else that goes into making Christmas what it is.

I grew up in a family that didn't believe in anything artificial when it came to Christmas.  We always had a real tree that we'd decorate at night and then sit there with the house lights off and the tree lights on looking at how pretty everything was. 

When Cindy and I got together and she moved in with me, she brought along an artificial Christmas tree.  Well, there was not going to be an artificial tree in our house.  That's that!  So, every year, we've gone out and gotten a nice Christmas tree - most of the time we'd cut it down ourselves out at Up North Pines, run by a friend of ours, Kim Kappeler. 

This year, it started to snow right after Thanksgiving and it's been pretty cold.  We didn't go out to Kap's to get a tree - I just didn't want to trudge through the snow, looking for a tree and then dragging the thing back to his barn to put in our car.  So today, we went around to some of the lots around town and looked at tree's.

Cindy wants a fir tree, the kind with the short needles.  The only problem is that everyone we went to wanted $55 to $65 bucks for a tree!  I said, "Look, I know that's what you want, but I am NOT about to play $60 bucks for a tree that we're going to have up for three weeks!"

Of course, Cindy doesn't want the long needled trees, the kind that I had growing up and the kind that we've gotten in the past.  It was a stalemate.  So we didn't get a tree.

Well, not yet, anyhow...

But I have to tell you - maybe I'm out of touch or something, but $65 bucks for a friggin' tree?  I don't know what the hell they're more expensive.  Is it because they don't drop needles like the other ones and you don't have to be cleaning up needles off the floor all the time?  I can't understand it.  It's not that we can't afford it.  I just think that for $60 or $65 bucks, the tree should be able to be replanted in our back yard after we use it as a Christmas tree.   

I don't know - maybe I'll break down and get her a fir tree.  They do smell good and they look nice, but I'm not in the mood right now to blow that kind of money. 

Besides, if I'm going to go that route, $65 dollars would be a nice down payment on an artificial tree...

Francesca's - Chicagoland Area

The Francesca's Italian restaurants throughout the Chicago area are a unique dining experience that has a neat background story to them. They're sort of a chain, but their not.

The original Francesca's - Mia Francesca - was started in the early 90's by Scott Harris, who was an up and coming chef in his own right. He'd worked at such restaurants including The Signature Room on the 95th on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Tower, Harry's Cafe and Sole Mio. Scott partnered with two other individuals to open Mia Francesca in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago.

Since then, Scott and other chefs have opened other Francesca's throughout the Chicagoland area. Scott and his partners maintain a 51% stake in the other restaurants, and the other 49% is owned by the chef of those particular restaurants. It gives each Francesca's a different taste and feel than the others.

I've eaten at Francesca's Amici in downtown Elmhurst, and Francesca's Campagna in West Dundee. Both are outstanding. The restaurants are cozy and relaxed, there is no pretentious atmosphere in the restaurants (something Scott Harris has tried to do with each location), and each restaurant has a little bit of the others in it, but the menus vary from place to place.

There are up to 16 Francesca's restaurants through the Chicagoland area with a new one to open in the far north suburbs in 2006. I like the concept. The chefs have enough of a financial stake in their individual restaurants to give them their own signature and to work hard to make a go of it. What a great opportunity Scott Harris has given a lot of very good young chefs.

If the 14 other Francesca's are as good as the one's in West Dundee and Elmhurst, then I have to rethink my stance on chains. But, then again, they really AREN'T chains, but maybe more of a franchise. But they aren't really franchises either. It's more like a family of restaurants. A neat concept, if you ask me.

Just go to any Francesca's. You won't be disappointed.

Spinach Cheese Guacamole Dip

We were invited to a "Christmas Cookie Exchange" party by the neighbor guys, Steve and Dave, who live caddy-cornered behind us.  The term "cookie exchange" is code for "Let's Party!"  The idea is to take some cookies and to take an appetizer.  My daughter Sara and Cindy did the cookies, and it was up to me to make an appetizer.  So I did some research and came up with this concoction that turned out pretty damn good. 

2 ripe avacados

1 - 8 oz. packages of Cream Cheese

4 oz - fresh or frozen spinach

1 package Guacamole mix

1 - 4 oz can chopped green chiles

1 medium tomato diced

1 cup green onions

1/2 cup cilantro

2 garlic cloves smashed

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons Tabasco Chipotle Sauce

If spinach is frozen, thaw to room temperature.  Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible.

Soften and cream the cream cheese in a mixing bowl.  About 2 minutes on medium. 

Halve the avacados and scoop out the meat into the mixing bowl.  Mix with cream cheese. 

Add spinach, guacamole mix, diced tomatoes, garlic, onions, chiles, lime juice and Tabasco sauce to mix.  Mix on low for one to two minutes.

Set in refrigerator for one hour.  Serve with tortilla chips. 

Bruna's - Chicago

Situated in the south Harlem area of Chicago's Little Italy, Bruna's was a pleasureable surprise when I first ate there.

Actually, my buddy, Big Ed Schenckloth and I went into Chicago for an Iowa basketball game in December of 2004.  He found a place on line that he thought looked interesting.  It was Bruna's.  So we gave it a shot.

We ate there about 3 p.m. so the cozy little place wasn't all that packed.  And we were kind of happy about that because we got some good attention from the waiters.  Bruna's has been in business since 1933 and is a Tuscany style restaurant. (A lot of Italians from Tuscany settled in the S. Harlem area in the early 1900's.) 

I had a creamy seafood pasta dish and Ed had a red sauce spagetti type meal.  Bruna's also has their own house wine that is not bad.  You can buy some at the restaurant to take home and Ed got a couple bottles. 

I was simply blown away at the place.  It was outstanding. 

Valet parking available and if I remember right, they do take credit cards.  But, as always, just in case, take some cash.