Road Tips

Don Pablo's - Carmel, IN

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am dead set against going to chain restaurants when a local establishment will do for dinner.  Unfortunately, sometimes I have to suck it up and get a meal at a chain because A) I'm not familiar with the area; or B) It's late and I need to get something in my stomach.

The "B" scenario came into play recently as I got into Indianapolis late (and I lost an hour because of the time zone change).  I got to my hotel around 9:30 p.m. and asked if anything was open and serving food.  The desk clerk directed me to an area in the Carmel area north of Indy and he said a number of restaurants should still be serving food past 10 p.m.

He was right - there were a number to choose from.  There was an Applebee's, a T.G.I. Friday's and a few others.  But I saw a familiar building in the parking lot of a small mall area - Don Pablo's. 

Don Pablo's is a chain of "Tex-Mex" Mexican restaurants that started in Lubbock, TX in the mid-80's.  Although there are still a few in Texas and Oklahoma, most of the restaurants are situated in the eastern part of the country. 

In the mid-90's, Don Pablo's was bought by Avado Brands from Georgia.  Avado Brands went on an aggressive campaign to add more Don Pablo's restaurants, as well as developing the Hops Grill and Brewery restaurants along the east coast. 

Growing too quickly, Avado Brands had a financial set back which caused them to scale back or close a number of Don Pablo's and Hops restaurants a couple three years ago.  At one point there were 72 Hops restaurants in 16 states.  There are now something like 22 in seven states.  And Don Pablo's totaled well over 100 restaurants, but are now down to 95 restaurants in 19 states. 

I knew that the food would come quickly after I ordered, so I parked the car and went in.  I walked in at 10 till 10 that evening and they close at 10 p.m.  There was no one at the hostess stand.  Finally a bartender came over and I asked, "Is it too late for dinner?" 

She said, "No, as long as you order in 10 minutes."  I just walked over to the bar and sat down.  She handed me a menu and I quickly looked it over.  I ordered a Dos Equis Amber on tap and got one of their combo meals of a spicy beef taco (deep fried), a spicy shredded beef enchilada and a chile relleno stuffed with spicy beef. 

I feel bad walking into places like that 10 minutes before they are going to close up, but as many times that I apologized to the bartender, she would have nothing of it.  "I don't get out of here until about 11 o'clock anyway.  That's when I'd have to kick you out."

Another bartender brought my food out and it was a plate full. The chile relleno was big and cheesy, the enchilada had a lot of meat in it.  But I was disappointed in the "fried" taco.  I think they just take a hard corn taco shell and deep fry it before putting the filling in.  It was crispy, but the taste was nondescript.

But overall, the meal was good.  The food at Don Pablo's is somewhat Americanized, but compared to a number of other Mexican food restaurant chains I've eaten in, it's not bad.  The food leans a little more to the spicy end of the scale, which is fine with me.  The meal I had that evening, I wouldn't call it a spot hitter, but it worked that evening.  Total cost of the meal with one large Dos Equis beer (23 ounces) and tip came to about $16 bucks. 

Don Pablo's isn't great, but it's not bad for a chain.  Especially for something on the quick - and for a later in the night meal.  It is one of the few chains that I'll go to in a pinch.   

The Music I'll Miss

There's a lot of great music coming to the Quad Cities over the next couple of weeks.  And I'm going to miss them all with business obligations. 

Actually, I've known that these performers would be in the area for a long time.  I had my schedule sort of blocked out to make sure that I'd be around.  But some unforeseen circumstances came up that I just couldn't get out of or reschedule.

The first show is tonight - Little Charlie and the Nightcats are playing at the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf at a show sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.  Little Charlie and the Nightcats are based out of the San Francisco area and have been around for a number of years.  They're led by a great guitarist, Charlie Baty; and is fronted by showman extraordinaire and harmonica player/singer Rick Estrin. 

Estrin has a stage presence that is usually bigger than the stage the bands usually play on.  I've seen the band in small venues and at large festivals.  It doesn't matter the size of the crowd, Estrin always puts on a great show. 

But I'll miss them tonight.  I understand they're coming back for the annual Mississippi Valley Blues Fest in July, but it would have been neat to see them in a club like venue tonight.

Tomorrow night, the Redstone Room at The River Music Experience is hosting the return to the area of Junior Brown.  I worked with Junior Brown at the River Roots Live festival a couple years ago and he put on a great show.  He came back to play the Redstone Room last year and that was a great show.  Coupled with the excellent sound system at the Redstone Room, Junior Brown is going to be tough to miss tomorrow night. 

But the big show I'm missing will be Eric Clapton at The Mark of the Quad Cities next Tuesday.  I'll be traveling with Dominic Baker, one of the big honchos with my speaker company, Focal.  His schedule in coming to the states just so happened to coincide with Clapton coming to the Quad Cities next week.  Even though I bought the tickets back in January, my boss couldn't work Dominic's travel schedule around the Clapton concert date.  Or as he said, "Shit happens."  (Actually, he wasn't that cold about it.  He thoroughly apologized that he couldn't make the schedule work any other way.)

So, I have a couple tickets to the Clapton concert, but I can't go.  Cindy is going to take her sister, who I'm not too certain she's all that familiar with some of Clapton's work.  Then again, I'm not certain if Cindy knows much of Clapton's work over the years, either. 

Opening for Clapton will be the great blues guitarist Robert Cray.  I used to see Robert Cray back in the early 80's when he'd play from time to time at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City.  I like to tell people that I used to dance to Cray's music on a dance floor not more than four or five feet from where he stood.  I've seen Cray numerous times including the times in Iowa City and at other venues and concert sites.  The Clapton/Cray show will be a great one. 

But I've got to miss it.  Oh well...

One show that I did catch a little bit of recently was Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Altar Boys at the Creekside Bar and Grill here in Davenport (see map).  The Creekside is owned by my buddy, Randy Adams, and he was able to get Reverend Raven for a great price as they had played at Blues on Grand in Des Moines on Friday night and were looking for a Saturday night gig on their way back to Milwaukee. 

I've caught Reverend Raven two or three times over the years at Summerfest in Milwaukee.   The band consists of Reverend Raven - a southside Chicago native who has lived in Milwaukee for a number of years - on guitar and vocals.  They have a great harmonica player who goes by the stage name of Madison Slim.  The bass player, P.T. Pedersen, has played with the likes of Charlie Musselwhite, Pinetop Perkins and the late Sunnyland Slim; and Spencer Panosh rounds out the band on drums.

The band plays primarily traditional swinging and rocking Chicago Blues.  The music is upbeat and infectious.  They always put on a good show and last Saturday night at the Creekside was absolutely no exception.

So, there's a lot of great music coming to town that I won't get to see.  As Eric Clapton is getting up there in years, this may be the last time I have a chance to see him.  Yeah, I'm bummed, but what are you going to do?      

The Joys of Air Travel

I'm very glad I drive 95% of the time for my work.  I'm getting to the point where I wish I drove 100% of the time.  However, since it's almost stupid to drive from Iowa to places like Denver, Las Vegas or Montreal, I still have to get on a plane from time to time. 

Flying to Seattle recently reminded me why flying is such a hassle.  Going out was pretty uneventful - except I lost my boarding pass at the Denver airport.  But United was good about getting me another one.  Usually, I stick my boarding pass into my briefcase.  But my computer was in the shop and I didn't take a briefcase with me.  I went to the bathroom and set my boarding pass down.  I finished, washed up and left the bathroom.  When I got to the gate, I found I didn't have my ticket.  I went to the gate agent and told her my tale of woe.  She said, "Oh, believe me.  It happens all the time."

I showed her my ID and she kicked out a boarding pass just like that. 

So other than having to wait about 4 hours as the Seattle-Tacoma airport for the rest of my colleagues to show up, it was a pretty smooth trip to Seattle. 

On the way home, a different story.  I got out to the airport early to see if I could get an earlier flight home (I was scheduled to get back around 10:30 that night).  Turned out that all flights out of Sea-Tac to either Denver or Chicago on United were full that day.  OK, well, that's fine.  I'll wait. 

I boarded my flight to Denver and was seated in a row with a lady seated next to the window, her husband seated in the middle and I had the aisle seat.  During the time before and just after we took off, I noticed the woman was fidgety.  Her husband kept asking her if she was OK.  She kept saying she didn't know. 

About a half hour into the flight, I had dozed off (which is amazing since I can't sleep on planes very well).  Suddenly I was jolted awake by the guy next to me.  His wife was going bonkers and he said, "Sir, please, my wife is having a panic attack!  She needs to get out!" 

It's one of those things where you first wake up, but don't know where you're at.  So after about five seconds, I finally realized this lady was going nuts, breathing hard, writhing in her seat, and pushing at her husband to get out of the way.  I unbuckled and immediately stood up.  And as I did, I stepped on the foot of the guy seated directly behind me.  He was asleep and had stretched his right foot out into the aisle. 

So here's this lady who is hysterical, and now I've got the guy behind me screaming in pain.  Stewardesses are running toward our row and I'm just trying to get the hell out of the way. 

The lady is just going nuts and it's complete chaos in the back of the plane.  I finally got out of the way and the stewardesses got a hold of the lady and took her to the galley in the far back of the plane.  It turned out that she was having a major anxiety attack.  Her husband explained to me later that they had just flown from Laos and she was freaking out from being in a plane for nearly 24 hours.  (Laos to Honolulu to Seattle, then on to Denver before a final flight to New Mexico - yeah, I'd be climbing the walls, too.)

It was all the stewardesses could do to calm this lady down.  They finally took her up to the first class section of the plane.  Hmm, what an ingenious way to get a first class upgrade, I thought.  And it gave me more room in my aisle as her husband moved to the window seat. 

I'd definitely say that in all the years I'd flown that was the first time I'd ever seen that.

And the joy of flying didn't end on that flight.  On the trip between Denver and Moline, I was seated in a row with another woman and right behind a young mother with a 2 year old daughter and a 9 month old son.  Well, the young boy decided to take a humongous and very smelly dump in his diapers.  Oh, my God!!  The smell was horrendous.  It was like the kid had been eating corned beef and cabbage and was washing it back with Old Milwaukee's. 

She took the baby back to the lavatory to change him, but the damage was done.  The smell was so bad the lady next to me put a handkerchief up to her mouth and nose, it was that bad.

So, the next time I climb into my car for a five hour drive one-way, I'll certainly appreciate the nice wide seat, the lack of anxiety filled women, babies with smelly diapers and the fact that I don't have to go through security.  And for that, I'll truly be thankful I don't fly any more than I do.   

MorMor Bistro - Poulsbo, WA

We spent our first night in the great Pacific Northwest in the small town of Poulsbo (pronounced PAULS-bo), Washington (see map) on the Kitsap peninsula (thanx to Tom Miller for straightening me out on that one).  Poulsbo is known as the Norwegian capital of the Northwest as Norwegian settlers found the area to be similar to the fjords of their native country.

The downtown area is sort of quaint with a lot of Scandinavian architecture throughout.  There's not much to the town in terms of fine dining, but the one place that our hosts from Shunyata Research took us to was a small restaurant called the MorMor Bistro (see map).

Our hosts - Shunyata owner Caelin Gabriel, along with his significant other, Nina; Matt Reilly and his wife, Gina; and Mino Chrisante and his wife, Lucia - welcomed us to the restaurant.   We were warned beforehand by Mino that the MorMor Bistro wasn't probably the kind of haute cuisine guys like us were accustomed to.  We assured him that we'd play along nicely and to have no worries.

The MorMor is a quaint little place.  You walk in the door and there's a small bar area up front.  On the walls of the restaurant are a number of collages of newspaper articles tracing the history of Poulsbo.  One of the more interesting ones had to do with the rise and fall of a local grocery store over the years. 

The husband and wife team of John and Laura Nesby run MorMor.  John is the chef, while Laura is the business manager.  The menu is very health and organic oriented.  The MorMor offers lots of fresh seafood and a number of exotic nightly specials.  The menu changes daily based upon the availablity of fresh ingredients.  And the vegetables and salads are all organic. 

I sat at one end of a big table with Mino and his wife.  Both were very interesting people.  Mino is a semi-professional musician who plays small bars with a partner on the weekends.  Lucia is a stay at home mother who was somewhat bohemian in her nature.  They both were very fun people to talk with. 

The menu that evening was very interesting.  Interesting enough that I kept a copy.  They had some tough choices - a monkfish with cajun seasonings; a lamb Shepard's pie with winter vegetables; and a lobster stuffed ravioli in a white wine butter sauce.

We started out with a series of appetizers including MorMor's assorted organic artisan meat platter with assorted cheeses; lightly fried Dungeness crabs; and a warm spinach, Parmesan and cream cheese dip.  They were very welcome as we looked over the menu for our main course.   

I ended up going with the pan seared wild Sea Scallops on truffle whipped organic potatoes with grilled asparagus and a white wine sauce.  One of my colleagues across from me got the Alaskan Halibut "fish and chips" with garlic and parmesan homemade organic fries.  Mino and his wife both got the Alaskan Sockeye Salmon cooked on a cedar plank.  And one of my other colleagues got the Midwest aged top sirloin with whipped organic potatoes. 

We got a couple three bottles of a local Washington state red wine. It was very good.  Wish I would have gotten the wine list, but since I didn't make the choice I didn't see what they had to offer. 

When our dinners were served, the presentation was very nice.  Portions weren't too big, but they were enough. 

But it went downhill from there. 

My scallops were over-cooked.  They were hard and rubbery.  Mino and his wife's salmon were "OK, but not the best."  The steak one of my colleagues had was "not very good.  Over-cooked and chewy." 

However, the fish and chips my colleague across from me had were reportedly "excellent.  Some of the best I've ever had."  He said he really liked the fries and offered me a couple to try.  They were good.  I'm not big on fried fish, but he said the herbed batter they used on the fish was very good.

The MorMor Bistro is not that big of a place and I'm guessing that trying to deal out 15 meals all at the same time caused some of the meals to get overcooked.  Nonetheless, Mino was right - it wasn't all that great.  But compared to the other food fare in Poulsbo, it was the best they have.   

(Update - In December of 2013, the Nesby's closed the MorMor Bistro and reopened it as a classic diner concept restaurant by the name of the Green Light Diner.)

 

Beers of the Northwest

After a morning of getting up early and traveling to Seattle - and subsequently waiting at the airport for about four hours for the rest of my colleagues to get in to Seattle - a cold beer was definitely on my schedule after we got checked into our hotel in Poulsbo, WA. 

There was a "Liquor and Wine Store" just across the street from the Holiday Inn Express in Poulsbo.  I went over there to see what they had for regional beers.  Well, the sign on the store said, "Liquor and Wine Store" and that's just exactly what it was.  They sold no beer in the place.  Oh, they had a broken six-pack of Guinness bottles in a cooler, but that was it.

And their prices of wine were pretty good, too.  A bottle of the Chateau Ste. Michelle from Washington state that I find around here for $12 to $13 a bottle was $6.99 in the wine store.  But since I wasn't looking for wine, I didn't get any.  Still, it was one helluva price. 

I went back over to the hotel and coerced a couple of my colleagues to go with me down the street to an Albertson's grocery store to get some beer.  Albertson's did, indeed, have beer for sale, but the selection wasn't too large. 

One thing that I was amazed they had - as I was amazed by the number of signs I saw for the product at various bars and restaurants throughout the Seattle area - was a load of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.  P.B.R. is evidentially big in Seattle.  My buddy, Randy Brekke - who drinks nothing BUT P.B.R. - would have been in heaven. 

I found three six packs of beer to take back to the room.  One was a pale ale from the Full Sail Brewing Company in Oregon; another was a sixer of the pale ale from the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau, AK; and the other was an R.J. King Wingwalker Amber Ale.  I wasn't familiar with any of those breweries, so I thought I'd give them a try.

It turns out the Wingwalker Amber Ale is brewed by City Brewery in LaCrosse, WI - the old G. Heileman brewery, the former brewers of Old Style and Special Export.  It turns out that City Brewery contracts with a number of small breweries out west, including the brewery that makes R.J. King - Melanie Brewery Co. - to make a number of craft beers.  A quick search on the Internet shows that the Melanie Brewery is located in LaCrosse. 

Hmm!  You learn something new each day.

Actually, the Wingwalker Amber Ale wasn't all that great.  Drinkable, but I let my colleagues finish off that six-pack. 

However, the Full Sail pale ale was very good.  Fail Sail is a small, but growing brewery located in Hood River, OR.  Around since the mid-80's, Full Sail's beers are brewed in what was an old cannery along the Columbia River that had been abandoned in the early 70's.   

Brewmaster Jamie Emmerson's hand-crafted brews have won numerous awards including gold medals for their Amber, Wassail Winter Ale and IPA beers at the Beverage Tasting Institute's 2006 World Beer Championships.  The Full Sail pale ale received a silver medal at the championships, as well. 

The Full Sail pale was hoppy, yet smooth.  It was a wonderful beer.  I wish I would have gotten some to take home.  Maybe I can get the guys at Shunyata to send me some back to Iowa. 

The other beer I bought was the Alaskan Brewing Company pale ale.  Founded in the mid-80's by Geoff and Marcy Larson, Alaskan Brewing Company continues the fine brewing tradition that made the Juneau/Douglas area famous for their beers around the turn of the 20th century.  Alaskan Brewing Company has also won a number of awards over the past 20 years for their brews.

The Alaskan pale was also very smooth and flavorful.  I probably liked the Full Sail pale a little better - it had a little more of a forward flavor that I like in a good pale ale. 

But while waiting for my plane at the Seattle/Tacoma airport, I decided to do a little "terminal bar hopping".  I came out early to see if I could get on an earlier flight, but all United flights were full to Denver and Chicago for the day.  So I got on the tram and visited three different bars in the terminal. 

I was able to try the Alaskan Amber, which is Alaskan Brewing Co's flagship beer.  It was one of the more flavorful amber ales I've had.  It had a nice malt taste to it, with enough hops to allow the taste to linger.  The color was a nice rich reddish-brown and had a nice aroma.  It was a good beer.

All in all, as it was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, I did like some of the craft beers they had to offer.  I found the Full Sail and Alaskan beers robust, full of flavor and each had a smooth finish.  The Wingwalker, well, it's a good beer.  But not as good as the others.  I'll definitely try and find more of the Full Sail and the Alaskan when I go on beer hunts in the future. 

Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center - Springfield, MO

This story isn't much about the Holiday Inn North Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield, MO.  It's more about what happened when I stayed there one recent evening. 

Located just off Interstate 44 at Glenstone Ave. (see map), the Holiday Inn North Hotel and Conference Center is one of a number of John Q. Hammons hotel properties throughout the Midwest.  It's actually one of my favorite places to stay because the rooms are large and open.  They've always treated me well and usually give me an upgrade at no extra charge. 

The hotel has a 5-story atrium area in the center of the building.  The atrium hosts receptions, meetings and banquets.  There's also a convention center area attached to the hotel that can handle small trade shows and other meetings.   There's a bar off to the side of the atrium area called "The After Hours Lounge."  They have a couple televisions there to watch while you have a drink or two.

And although I've never eaten in there, the hotel has a restaurant - The Peppertree - that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The pictures of the breakfast and dinner entrees look good, but I've learned the pictures always look better than the served food. 

The day I was in Springfield, I had driven over from Wichita.  It was a wonderful late winter day in SE Kansas and SW Missouri.  It was sunny and breezy, the temperatures were in the 70's and I had the sun roof open and the air conditioning on.  By the time I made it to my appointment in Springfield, it had clouded up and the skies began to look ominous in the southwest.

It didn't storm through the early evening hours, but the weather report said that we were due to get severe storms sometime during the night.  They didn't know when, but the cold front that was pushing through would definitely spark off some big storms. 

I went to bed that night and didn't think anything of it.  Along about 4:20 in the morning, I heard what sounded to be the siren of a fire truck that wasn't too far away.  Except the siren sounded like it was stationary.  I said, "That's not a fire truck.  That's a storm siren."

I turned on the television and, sure enough, there was a tornado warning for the Springfield area.  A tornado had been sighted south and west of the city and the line of storms was moving to the northeast.  I was watching television for a bit, and suddenly the hotel's fire alarms began to blare.  The alarm was an obnoxious, pulsating buzzer sound that was loud enough that no one could sleep through it. 

Suddenly, through the hotel's alarm system there was an announcement that a tornado had been sighted in the area and we were to immediately go to the convention center main room in the basement of the hotel. 

So, I got up - threw on a pair of pants and t-shirt, put on a pair of tennis shoes and walked five flights down to the main floor.  (The elevators were purposely shut off.)  Once there, I looked around for the convention center.  I walked into the lobby with another guy looking for the entrance to the convention center.  The desk clerk  said, "No, gentlemen.  The convention center is down stairs one more flight."

We went back toward the stairwell and went down one more flight.  There, about 150 to 200 people were gathering to wait out the storm.  Thankfully, they had already delivered a USA Today to my room and I was able to read that while we waited. 

I text messaged Cindy and sent it.  About two minutes later my phone started to ring.  It was Cindy.  She said, "I haven't been able to sleep.  Then I saw your text message.  What is going on down there?" 

Honestly, I really didn't know.  Other than what I had seen on the TV before I came down to the basement, I had no idea if a tornado was barreling through Springfield or what. 

About 4:55 a.m., a worker came in to room to tell us that it appeared all the storms had passed, but it was their policy to not  allow us to leave until the "all clear" is sounded by the National Weather Service.  Finally at  ten after five, we were allowed to go back to our rooms.  The elevators were working again, but they were packed and the line was long.  So I hoofed it up the stairs.  Six flights.  I never realized how out of shape I really was.

Now, you would think this story is over at this point.  Huh uh.  As we were filing back to our rooms the fire alarm is going off, pulsating with a loud, ear grating buzz.  That was evidentially their signal for "all clear".  Turns out the fire alarm was malfunctioning and they couldn't get it turned off.

They finally got it to stop - for about 15 seconds.  Then it would begin again.  Then they'd hit a button and it would stop.  For 15 seconds.  Then it would start again.  This went on for about 25 minutes. 

Of course, I was back in bed, trying to salvage whatever sleep I could get before I had to drive to Kansas City that morning.  But the alarm kept going off, they'd stop it, and fifteen seconds later it would start again.

Finally, I called the front desk and got a hold of the desk clerk.  I asked him, "Should I just get up and get ready now because of this alarm, or is it going to stop sometime soon?"

He said, "Our maintenance man is working on the problem, sir.  We hope to have it fixed shortly."

I said, "I hope so."

It continued for another 10 minutes.  The alarm would start up, they'd stop it.  15 seconds later, there it went again.  Finally at twenty until six a.m., the alarm stopped for good.  I think I actually heard muted clapping and cheering from the other guests scattered throughout the hotel. 

In all my years of traveling - over 20 years now - I'd never been rousted out of my room in the middle night by an emergency.  I've had fire alarms go off, but they were always false alarms or pranks.  This was definitely a first.

But the staff was still courteous and hospitable.  Other than the friggin' alarm going off for about 40 minutes after we were allowed to go back to our rooms, it was still another pleasant - and safe - experience at the Holiday Inn North Hotel and Conference Center.  I highly recommend staying there when you travel to Springfield. 

Gorat's - Omaha

Gorat's Steak House in Omaha is one of the venerable "old-guard" steakhouses that have been around the area for years.  Located on Center St. in Omaha (see map), Gorat's is one of the best steak houses in Omaha. 

Started in 1944 by Louis and Nettie Gorat (pronounced go-ROT), Gorat's is fashioned after the old New York City Italian steak houses.  It has a large dining area with two main rooms, plus a pretty large bar off to the side.  Louis' son, Louis, Jr. - or affectionately known as "Pal" - took over the family business in the 1970's and now "Pal's" son and daughter are running the restaurant. 

Not only is Gorat's famous for their steaks, but they're also famous as being the favorite steak house of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.  Buffett frequently lunches at Gorat's and has dinner there a couple times a week. 

I was in Omaha recently and I decided to run over to Gorat's and have a steak.  I hadn't been to Gorat's for quite some time - the last time was when I was traveling with a sales manager about five years ago and he wanted to have dinner at Gorat's and possibly have a chance sighting of Buffett.  Nope, no Buffett sightings that night. 

And there were none again the night I recently went.  I pulled into the parking lot and it was about half full of cars, none of which were Buffett's brown Lincoln Town Car with the vanity license plates that say "Thrifty".  The area around Gorat's has deteriorated over the years and they have a full time security guy watching the cars in the parking lot.  Nonetheless, it's still a good place to go day or night. 

I went into the nearly empty bar area and sat down at the bar and asked if it was OK to have dinner there.  The bartender, a matronly woman in her late 50's, said, "Yes, it's fine.  Actually, we just started to allow people to eat in the bar about two months ago."

She went on to tell me that Louis Gorat and "Pal" Gorat never allowed people to eat in the bar - not even appetizers.  She said, "I'm the night manager here and I made the decision to let people eat in the bar.  I don't think even Mr. Gorat ("Pal's" son) knows we do that and I don't know what he'd say." 

Gorat's menu is typical of most Midwestern steak houses.  It features steaks and chops, along with chicken dishes and Italian specialties.  Gorat's makes their Italian sauces from scratch and they aren't too bad. 

Gorat's is famous for their T-Bone steaks, a large and thick cut of steak.  However, that night I went with the filet with a side of mostaccioli with red sauce and hash browns with onions and cheese on top.  The bartender said, "Ooo, I just remembered why we didn't serve people in the bar.  You make the bartenders hungry when you order food.  That would be the exact thing I would order." 

After a salad that was nothing special, the waitress brought me my steak.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and it was as tender as all get out.  The hash browns came with a slice of American cheese on top and not a lot of onions, so they were disappointing.  But in the scheme of things, the steak was the winner on the plate.  I ate more of the mostaccioli any way. 

The meal was just as wonderful as I remembered Gorat's from my previous visits.  Service continues to be outstanding and the experience continues to be just as outstanding. 

There may be better places to have a steak in Omaha, but for the money and the history it's tough to beat Gorat's.  I mean, come on, if one of the richest guys in the world likes to eat there on a regular basis, it can't be all that bad.

Seattle

A few years ago, I made a list of cities in North America that I wanted to visit, but never had.  Those cities were San Diego, Memphis, San Antonio, Montreal and Seattle.  Cindy and I went to Memphis for a long weekend about five years ago, so I got that city off my list. 

I started to work for a company out of Montreal 4 1/2 years ago, so I've been to Montreal four or five times so far. 

I've just crossed another city off my list.  I'm in Seattle today.  Actually, I'm coming home tonight.  I've been out here for a couple days going through training with Shunyata, a manufacturer of very high end power conditioners and cabling for esoteric audio systems.  We have partnered with Shunyata Research to represent and distribute their products in North America. 

The weather here is typical of what you hear about Seattle - cool and alternately sunny, then damp.  But it's still a wonderful place to come to. 

Actually, we spent Wednesday evening over on Bainbridge Island, as Shunyata is located in the small town of Poulsbo, WA.  We had to take a car ferry across Puget Sound to get to the island.  Even though the weather wasn't great, it was still pretty cool.

The Bainbridge Island area is just gorgeous.  I can't begin to tell you how lush and green it is.  I wished I would have brought my camera to take pictures.  But since we were out in Seattle for only two nights, I wanted to pack light.   

We spent last evening in the Lower Queen Anne section of Seattle, an area with a variety of eclectic shops and restaurants.   I'll have a report on one or two of places we ate at while we were out here in the coming days. 

I'm hoping we can come back out to Seattle sometime when the weather is nicer.  And even though the traffic sucks, the area is simply beautiful.

Alfie's Inn - Glen Ellyn, IL

A shout out to Chicagoan Tim Schmidt who suggested I give Alfie's Inn in suburban Glen Ellyn a try.  His e-mail to me a couple months ago said, "They have the best burger in the western suburbs.  You won't be disappointed in their sirloin burger." 

Alfie's is located on Roosevelt Road about 2 miles west of I-355 or the North/South Tollway in the west suburbs (see map).  They've been in business since 1967 and are famous for their burgers and ribs.  It's a family restaurant and a great place to take the kids for a meal.

After a long trip from St. Louis to Chicago one day recently, I pulled into Alfie's parking lot just after 2 p.m.  I was particularly surprised to see a large number of cars in the parking lot at that time.  The dining room as about 3/4's full of patrons, so I ducked into the bar to the side of the dining area.  In there, it was about as full with people having lunch or drinks. 

I sat at the bar and ordered an Old Style and took a menu. (Go to Alfie's web site and click on "menu" to view.)  It certainly was a full menu with appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches, ribs, steaks and chicken.  And the prices didn't seem to be too high for their main entrees.

Since I'd been told their sirloin burgers were very good, I went with a sirloin cheese burger with swiss cheese.  I had a side of fries with it - the other choice was cole slaw.  I didn't want either, so I just took fries.

Looking around at the interior of Alfie's Inn while waiting for my burger, it's probably not changed since the place opened 40 years ago.  Dark wood paneling throughout, kind of a "medieval" look to the place.  But it was comfortable and cozy, the kind of place that would attract a lot of people for lunch or dinner. 

My burger was brought out - a 1/2 lb. chopped sirloin burger cooked to a perfect medium with a little pink in the middle.  They gave you a slice of tomato, a couple dill pickle slices, a red onion and lettuce.  (You have your choice of grilled onions or raw onions - I love grilled onions, but they don't like me!)

From the first bite to the last, it was one of the better burgers I'd ever had.  Moist, flavorful, juicy - it was very, very good.  The burger was definitely a spot hitter. 

Thanks again to Tim who turned me on to Alfie's.  I'll go back there, that's for sure.  It certainly didn't disappoint.

(Update March 2012 - I've been back to Alfie's one more time since this entry was written and got an equally very good burger.  However, when I went to add an Urbanspoon link to this entry, the Urbanspoon page said that Alfie's was closed.  I drove by Alfie's not long ago - probably a month or so - and it was still open and the parking lot was packed around 1:30 in the afternoon.  Urbanspoon is the only place I can see where it says Alfie's is closed, so I don't know if they're still open or not.  I'd call ahead to make sure.)

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has finally sprung around here - albeit a week early.  Normally we have temperatures into the 60's around the Quad Cities as early as February, but this has been a pretty harsh and cold winter since January 1. 

As beautiful and warm that December was, January and February were downright cold and nasty.  Lots of snow, freezing rain, more snow, and sub-zero temps.  It was not a fun time in Iowa and Illinois during the dead of winter this year.

The weather finally broke late last week and a warming trend began that will continue through today.  The temperature here in the Quad's was 70 on Monday - the first 70 degree reading of the year; and it reached 75 on Tuesday - a new record high for the date.  The snow is melting - just a few piles are left; the ice layer is pretty much gone from the ice storm from a couple three weeks ago.  The trees are starting to bud.  Our yard is starting to turn green.  There's that clean "spring" smell to the air. 

It's still supposed to hit 68 today, but a cold front is coming through later on this afternoon that will bring some rain and colder temperatures.  It's supposed to cool down to "normal" highs in the mid-40's by this weekend, just in time for the big St. Patrick's Day celebration in the Quad Cities.  But it will warm back up into the 50's and 60's next week.

I know we always have "one more" big snow, but I'm hoping we've seen the last of the really messy stuff until next December.

God, I love warm weather...

The "Bullet"

Since I got an advance copy of the new Weber cookbook "Charcoal Grilling - The Art of Cooking with Live Fire", I've tried a few recipes and gotten ideas for a number more.  But one part of the book deals primarily with the smoking of meats - ribs, roasts, brisket, etc. 

I've always wanted to smoke a brisket, but have never done so.  One of the recipes in the "Charcoal Grilling" book is from a guy from the state of Washington, Jim Minion, who was profiled in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  He's famous for the "Minion Method" of smoking because you can cook the food up to 20 hours using the same briquettes you started out with.  Jim's recipe is "Jim's All-Night Brisket".  His cooking method allows you to start a brisket at night, go to bed and let it cook overnight, and be ready to serve it the next afternoon. 

Throughout the pork and beef parts of the "Charcoal Grilling" book, there's references to Weber's Smokey Mountain Smoker Cooker.  The Weber smoker has a porcelain coating over heavy duty grade steel.  It has two 18 1/2" diameter racks so you can cook two different items in the smoker.  There's a one gallon water bowl that sits just below the racks and a cooking bin for the charcoal in the bottom.  Weber smoker enthusiasts affectionately call it "The Bullet" because of it's cylindrical shape. 

I did some homework on smokers to see what else was out there.  I checked some web sites including a web site called the Virtual Weber Bullet, the best site on the internet for all things connected to the Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker Cooker.  All in all, I read enough to convince myself that I really needed a Smokey Mountain smoker. 

Now, I've had a smoker before.  My dad won what was called a "7 in 1" smoker one time years ago, and he gave it to me because he never used it.  But it was a gas smoker and a pain in the ass to work with.  It wasn't built very well and I was never happy with the results. 

My good friend, Dave Haack, offered to get me a smoker for a housewarming gift when we moved in our current house, but I turned him down.  I told him that I could do a lot of the same things on a regular Weber grill that I could with a smoker.

Well, I can and I can't.  The key thing with a smoker is that you get the direct smoke and steam from the water reservoir going directly into the meat.  Cooking indirectly on a Weber Grill allows you to add moisture while cooking, but it doesn't have the same effect as a smoker would. 

The next thing was finding a Smokey Mountain smoker, aka the "Bullet".  When I looked them up on the internet I was blown away to see these things retailed for $249.00!  Holy shit!  They're proud of these damn things!  I was expecting them to be about $79 bucks or so. 

Somehow, I found a web site called "Webergrillschicago".  They had a special going on for the "Bullet" and were selling them for $199.  It just so happened that I had to go into Chicago the next day with a rental van to pick up a pair of speakers and an audio rack from a couple of dealers, so I thought I'd call up the place and see if they still had the smokers.

It turned out the web site is run by a company called Waring Industrial Tools.  That's right, it's a tool company in the Lincoln Square area on the north side of Chicago (see map).  I called the place up and I asked the guy if he had any left at that price.  He said he did, but only a couple.  I asked him if he'd hold one for me and offered to give him a credit card number to do so.  He said, "Just give me your name and tell me about what time you'll be in and I'll hold it for you." 

So I gave him my name and told him I'd be in around 2 p.m. the next day. 

I walked into the place just before 2 and the guy behind the counter said, "You're Will from the Quad Cities, right?"

I sort of stopped, looked around the place, then looked back at him.  I said, "Yeah, how did you know?" 

He said, "I'm a good guesser.  Actually, you said you would be driving a van and be here around 2 o'clock." 

As he was writing up the ticket, I asked him how a tool dealership became a Weber Grill dealer.  He said, "Oh, just something extra to do." 

I asked him why they had such a great price on the Weber smokers.  He said they got a special price on them from Weber and decided to pass it along to the customers.  I asked him if they sold a lot of Weber grills.  "Oh, yeah.  We don't sell many this time of year, but come the season, we're shippin' 'em all over the place." 

Because the weather was so crappy for a couple weeks, I left the smoker in the box after I got it home.  Finally, it looked like the weather was going to get nicer a couple weekends ago, so Cindy went out and got some country-style pork ribs.  I put the smoker together in about 20 minutes (very easy to do), and we got things set up to do our first meal on the smoker. 

I did a rub for the ribs and got the smoker fired up.  I put them on around 3 p.m. and threw some hickory chips on the fire. Everything was going well, until I realized 4 hours later that the water had literally boiled out long before the ribs were done.  I forgot to keep putting water in the pan.  The ribs turned out too dry.  Close to the bone where there was still moisture, they were great.  On the ends, tough and dry.

Last Sunday, Cindy's dad, his lady friend and Cindy's son came down from Cedar Rapids for the day.  I went out and got a 5 lb. pork roast fully intending to smoke it in the "Bullet" that afternoon.  I prepped the roast with a rub of garlic, black pepper, kosher salt and Italian herbs and spices. 

This time, I made double damned sure I had water in the pan the whole time.  I smoked it for about 5 hours at around 225 to 250 degrees F using hickory chips.  I'm glad I didn't cook it any longer - the meat was tender, moist and had that great pink smoke ring around the outside and on the ends.  It was - in a word - outrageous. 

So now we're up to FOUR Weber grill products at our house.  Cindy is wanting me to give up one of the grills and I may just have to do that.  As you can see, it's getting crowded by the back door. 

My next goal is to do a brisket.  I don't know if I want to do the "all-night brisket" as I'm still sort of feeling my way with the nuances of this smoker.  There's some things I really like about the smoker and some things that I'm puzzled they didn't include (like a thermometer - I had to go out and get my own).  I think I need to smoke a few other things on it so I can make sure the brisket comes out perfect the first time I try to smoke one on the "Bullet".

Richard Jeni

I woke this morning to learn that the fabulous stand-up comic Richard Jeni died of an apparent suicide over the weekend.  The Brooklyn-native Jeni had been a staple on the comedy scene for a number of years, including starring in specials on Showtime, in his own television series, the great but short-lived Platypus Man, and appearing on countless late night television talk shows.

A number of comedians listed Jeni as their favorite comic.  But he just never got to the next level in the entertainment world of television or movie stardom.   

I've followed Jeni's career for a number of years since I saw him perform for a private function in Las Vegas in 1992.  It was the annual Alpine car audio dinner for their dealers and I was an Alpine representative at the time.  Jeni was just downright hilarious.  His observations and comedic body language had the house in stitches.

His show was mildly "R" rated, but he wasn't using the "F" word - at least not until late in his hour long routine.  He announced, "I was told that I would receive another $5000 if I would not say the word 'f***' tonight.  Well, I guess I just blew that five grand."

And he proceeded to tell some very blue stories using the "F" word liberally throughout.  The audience loved it.  The Japanese Alpine Electronics officials stood there, arms folded with a sour look on their faces.  Jeni literally thumbed his nose at his hosts for the evening.  I loved it. 

I've had a handful of friends and parents of friends who have taken their lives.  I've just never understood what could be so bad where someone would just want to end it all.  I suppose someone can be just fed up enough with life to put a gun to their head and pull the trigger.  Even though I'll still never fully understand the reason, I'm sure they had a good one to take their own lives. 

Sadly, Richard Jeni may have taken his life as he saw a number of his contemporaries make it big with their own television shows or on the big screen.  Jeni was a great talent who didn't get the ultimate big break.  And he may have figured that he wasn't going to get any bigger and he took the ultimate way out. 

To read tributes to Richard Jeni, go to his My Space site here. 

The world is just a little less funny now.  He will be missed.

Binny's Beverage Depot

Almost reluctantly, I have to tell you about Binny's Beverage Depot with 18 locations in the greater Chicagoland area.  Reluctant, I say, because Binny's may have the best selection of beer - domestic, imported and micro-brews - in the Chicago area.  And with that, they also have the highest prices. 

Binny's has been in business since 1949 and was one of the first liquor stores in the Chicago area to feature wines from around the world.  As they grew over the years, Binny's became synonymous with wine, beer and liquor to thousands of customers. 

As I said, Binny's doesn't have the best prices in town.  Their wine and beer prices are higher than you find at Sam's Wines or at Famous Liquors, but they certainly have, arguably, the best selection of beer in town. 

We were recently invited to a "Mardi Gras" dinner party at the house of a co-worker of Cindy's.  I wanted to take a Louisiana beer to the dinner, but couldn't find any at a number of places I looked previously in the Chicago area.  As a last resort I went to the Binny's Superstore in Schaumburg.  I was looking for either a Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager or something from the Abita brewery. 

I will say the guys at Binny's are very helpful.  I was told by a very knowledgeable beer guy there that the Dixie Brewery didn't survive Hurricane Katrina, but was scheduled to start shipping beer that was brewed under contract with another brewery in Louisiana.  And he found a couple different kinds of Abita beer for me - Abita Turbodog and Abita Amber.  But they weren't cheap - $8.49 a six pack. 

Even a six pack of Old Style that is usually $3.99 in most places is $4.59 at Binny's.  I don't understand how they can sell beer for those prices and get away with it. 

The guy told me the Schaumburg Binny's location had beer tastings for members of their beer mailing list on Friday and Saturday nights.  He told the guy who checked me out to get me signed up for the mailings.  When I told him that I lived in the Quad Cities, he said, "That's all right.  There may be something that you may want to come in for.  Let the wife shop at Woodfield (mall) and you come over here for the tasting." 

Like I say, Binny's may have the best selection of beer in Chicago, but if you can find your favorite beer elsewhere I can almost guarantee you that it will be much cheaper than what it is at Binny's.  The only thing is that Binny's has the hard to find stuff, and with that, they've got you over a barrel.

Maria's Mexican Restaurant - Springfield, MO

When I was in Springfield, MO recently, I had to stop and have dinner at Maria's Mexican Restaurant. It's one of my all-time favorite Mexican restaurants in the world.

Maria's is located in the heart of the downtown area of Springfield (see map) - the most non-descript downtown area of any city with a population of over 150,000 in the United States.  I'm not kidding. Downtown Springfield is not much - no large buildings, no distinguished features.  It's as "blah" as any Midwestern downtown area that you can see.

Maria's is run by Chris and Monica Guest (right). They started Maria's as a small "hole-in-the-wall" take out place in Springfield in 1996 using a lot of authentic Mexican recipes gleaned from Monica's grandmother.  Chris Guest (not the actor) had been in the restaurant business for a number of years and they moved Maria's in their present location in 2001. 

The decor of Maria's gives you the feel of an authentic Mexican cantina.  It's colorful and festive, and the lighting isn't overly bright so it's not to overbearing.  There's a small bar area that always seems to be packed with college students from Missouri State University, which is just down the street. Behind the bar is an impressive selection of top shelf tequila ready to pour. 

I sat in one of the spacious booths and ordered up a house margarita.  And as always, I have trouble figuring out what I want to eat at Maria's - it's all very good.  They have excellent deep fried tacos with your choice of ground beef, shredded beef, chicken or pork.  And their burritos and enchiladas also feature the above fillings. 

I ended up wanting to try their shredded beef burrito - downtown style.  That's a burrito topped with sauce and cheese for $1.29 extra.  And because I love them so much, I had to have a deep fried shredded beef taco.  Within five minutes, my order was on the table, fresh and hot. 

The burrito was HUGE!  One of the biggest burritos I've ever seen on a plate.  I let it cool down a bit and ate my shredded beef taco - which was excellent, as always.  I ate as much of the burrito as I could, which was a little over half.  And it was excellent, as well.  Next time, I'll have to bring a bigger appetite. 

By the way, Maria's Mexican Restaurant should not be confused with a small chain of restaurants - Maria's Mexican Restaurant - located in NW Arkansas and SW Missouri.  The Maria's in Springfield is a single location, much better and way more authentic than the other Maria's. 

I've eaten at Maria's about four times now and each experience was great.  The food is about as close to authentic Mexican that you can have in the U.S.  If you ever get down to the Ozarks, it's worth the visit to Maria's Mexican Restaurant.

Smokin' Guns BBQ - N. Kansas City, MO

When I was in Kansas City recently, I traveled one day with an outside sales guy with ADI, a distributor of electronic parts and products.  We went to see a dealer in North Kansas City and it turned out that he had an ulterior motive.  He wanted to take me to one of the hidden secrets of barbecue in Kansas City, Smokin' Guns BBQ.

Smokin' Guns BBQ is located in an industrial area that is populated with a lot of light manufacturing or warehouse firms (see map).  They're only open during the day through the week - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  The dealer we took to lunch told me that the place is packed from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. with people taking home barbecue.

For years, Phil and Linda Hopkins traveled the barbecue contest circuit piling up a number of awards.  In 1999, they were the overall winner (scroll down at the link site to see their point total) of the prestigious Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue.  Their overall point total "smoked" the competition that year.  Here's a picture of Phil and Linda with their two sons after the competition.

Friends and people they did catering for kept on them to open a restaurant.  Phil still wanted to do some weekend barbecue contests and cater parties.  When they finally opened up in the North Kansas City location in 2002, he made the decision not to open the restaurant over the weekend.  At least, that's what the dealer we had lunch with told me.  And since he's literally right across the street from Smokin' Guns and eats there all the time, he should probably know.

The menu at Smokin' Guns is typical of most Kansas City barbecue places.  They're heavy on the pork ribs and brisket, along with burnt ends, sausage, turkey and ham.   And the ambiance of the place is just like you'd find at any family owned barbecue joint.  You go into the place and place your order at the front counter.  You pay and then go get your drinks and sit down at these very basic tables.  A waitress will find you and bring your food to you.

I wasn't all that hungry because it was a quarter to 12 and I'd eaten breakfast not knowing if we would have time to eat lunch that day.  But the ADI guy knew that we would be ending up around this dealer's place around noon and he was starving for barbecue.  The dealer told me, "It's best to go early or wait until after 1:30.  It gets packed in this place during the lunch hour." 

I ordered up the large brisket sandwich on regular bread with no sides.  One of the dealer's guys was with us and he said, "Oh, man!  They have the best broccoli casserole and potato casserole in the world."  I told him that I'd had breakfast and didn't know we were going to do lunch.  He said, "Well, that was your first mistake this morning.  Your second mistake is not getting one of the sides of casserole." 

The guy from ADI got the burnt ends with the potato casserole.  And the other two guys from the dealer were good ol' Catholic boys and were observing Lent.  One went with the smoked Salmon and the other guy got the smoked catfish.

My sandwich was very good.  A lot of meat and the sauce they had with it was rich and sweet.  I went up and asked if they had any hot sauce and the waitress, who was well into her 60's, said, "We sure do!"  It was good and spicy, but could have been a little more hot. 

The ADI guy said that he was disappointed in his burnt ends.  One of the guys from the dealer said Smokin' Guns burnt ends are "hit and miss".  He just missed 'em this time. 

And the guys who had the smoked fish thought they were great.  And they kept raving about the potato casserole and the broccoli casserole.  OK, I told them.  Next time I'll get one or the other. 

My sandwich was $6.95 and the Burnt Ends were $10.95.  The smoked fish were both $8.95 with fries.  I didn't get fries (steak fries are two bucks extra with a sandwich) but that's OK.  A steak fry is a steak fry.

Yes, I'll go back to Smokin' Guns BBQ.  But I didn't want to pig out with a dress shirt on and in front of guys I hardly knew.  I'm looking at getting the three meat platter the next time I go to K.C.  

The only negative I see with Smokin' Guns?  They don't serve beer.  Damn...  How can you NOT have beer with good barbecue.  Oh, well.  Smokin' Guns is able to pull it off.

I Hate Wells Fargo

I hate phone companies, I hate cable companies and I definitely hate banks.  And Wells Fargo just did something to me recently that made me crawl right out of my skin.

If you read this blog regularly, you'll remember a rant I had against U.S. Cellular back in November.  To refresh your memory, I got thoroughly pissed at the company that I've spent well over $25,000 with in the past 12 years and it turned out they wanted to jack me around when I tried to get a new Blackberry at the promotional price.

Here's the latest story:

I work for a Canadian company and I'm paid in American funds drawn on a Canadian account.  When I'd take my check into one of the Wells Fargo branches in the Quad Cities, the tellers will stop, look my check up and down, have to get the bank manager, look something up in the procedures book and finally allow the check to be deposited.  The whole time, other people in line are looking at me thinking, "What is this guy trying to pull over on the bank?"

It would get so bad that I just started depositing my check into a Wells Fargo ATM.  That way I didn't have to stand there while they went through the motions of not knowing what to do with a Canadian check paying out in American funds.  I'd let some faceless, nameless person down the line figure it out.

It worked great for a long time - I've worked for the company for nearly four and a half years.  But a week ago, I got a rude awakening.

I was paying some bills and I wanted to transfer some money from my checking account to pay on my Wells Fargo credit card.  I got on the Internet for Wells Fargo on-line banking.  I was shocked to see that I had no money in my checking account and that my credit card had been charged nearly $2500 in overdrafts from my checking account. 

I saw that five days after I deposited my check, they reversed the transaction.  I immediately called Wells Fargo and talked to a young lady who told me that the situation was being handled by the Wells Fargo ATM division - a part of the company that is completely separate from the Wells Fargo banking division.  I was told I had to wait until 9 a.m. the next morning to call them up.

Promptly at 9 a.m. the next day, I got a hold of a lady with the ATM division.  She proceeded to tell me that my check is a foreign check and they don't allow deposits of foreign checks into ATM's.  I explained to her that it was, indeed, a foreign check (drawn on the Bank of Canada - the country's central bank, for God's sake!), but it was in American funds.  She said it didn't matter - it was still a foreign check. 

I said, "I've been depositing my checks from the same company into the ATM's for quite some time.  Why all of the sudden you decide to quit taking my check?"

She said, "We've never accepted foreign checks in the ATM system.  We do a series of random audits and you got caught this time."

"Got caught"!!??  She made it sound like I was a common criminal.  Well, that lit my fuse.  I said, "Why didn't you take the check and send it through the regular Wells Fargo channels?"

She said, "We're a separate entity from Wells Fargo banking."

I said, "Aren't you owned by Wells Fargo?"

She said, "Yes, we're a part of Wells Fargo, but we have nothing to do with the banking part of the business."

I was perplexed and dumbfounded at the same time.  I said, "So, let me get this straight.  You're a part of Wells Fargo, but not the banking side."

She sort of hesitated and then slowly said, "Correct." 

"And anything I do on the ATM side is not part of Wells Fargo banking."

She began to stutter and stammer an answer and I finally said, "Look, before you embarrass yourself further and make me more mad, just tell me what you did with my check." 

She said they sent it back to me on February 23 - two days after they reversed the transaction.  I asked, "Was it sent by regular mail or certified mail?"

She sort of stopped for a moment and replied, "Regular mail."

I exclaimed, "Regular mail?!"

She said, "I believe that's how it goes, yes."

I said, "So, let me get this straight.  You sent my check back to me via regular mail for (amount) that has been endorsed, one week after I deposited it, and two days after you turned it down and allowed a number of checks already written against the deposit to bounce." 

(Actually, they didn't bounce - as I said I have credit card overdraft protection, but that still costs money each time an overdraft kicks in.)

"Well, you shouldn't have used the ATM to deposit a foreign check.  It's against our rules." 

I explained to her that I didn't know that it was against Wells Fargo policy to deposit a foreign check.  "I've been doing it for so long, I didn't think there was any problem in doing so!"

Well, I knew I wasn't going to get any where with this lady.  And I know I just made her day calling her first thing in the morning and letting her have it.  I knew she couldn't do anything other than tell me about the company policy and that the check had been sent back to me on the 23rd. 

I still wasn't satisfied, so I went in to see the branch manager at the local Wells Fargo office near our house.  The manager, and I'll give him a shout out because he was a helpful and decent guy - Corey Martin - looked up my account and saw my predicament.  When I asked him if they really did have a bank policy about not being able to deposit foreign checks into an ATM, he sort of squirmed and began to hem and haw. 

I said, "Come on, just say it.  I'm a big boy.  I can take it."

He said, "Yes, there is a policy, but it's one of those 'fine print' policies that no one except for a handful of bank employees know about." 

He explained to me that, yes, the Wells Fargo ATM arm was under the same umbrella as Wells Fargo banking, but they were two complete different entities.  They have two separate company policies as to how to collect money from another bank. 

When I said something about why didn't they just send the check through the regular Wells Fargo banking channel, he said because they are separate entities they don't work together.  Not even in the least. 

Corey did tell me that as soon as the check showed up (if the check showed up) to deposit it through a teller and he'd take care of all the charges on my credit card and subsequent fees charged to my card for the overdraft protection.  He said, "Just call me or come over to my office if you come to this branch and I'll take care of it all right away." 

He commiserated with me in my disgust with the whole situation.  I was just incredulous at how callous the ATM side of Wells Fargo seemed to be.  Corey said, "You have to understand, we have a lot of fraud through ATM's.  It's our biggest problem.  People deposit a check for $10.00 and punch in $1000.00 for the deposit.  Sometimes it's a mistake, but most of the time it's someone trying to float some money in the system." 

He said that foreign checks are flagged because of Homeland Security rules.  He said, "I'm sorry that she said that you 'got caught'.  I would have used a better phrase, but with the amount of deposits that they have to process there's no way that we can fully catch and flag every foreign deposit that comes through."

He finished by saying, "Honestly, any check with a large amount should be deposited with a teller.  Yes, it may not show up in our system until the next day, but at least it's in the bank and not in limbo with an ATM.  If it were up to me, I'd outlaw all deposits in ATM's.  But they are so darned convenient." 

With that, I felt better.  And then I promptly left the bank and went on the road for the next six days.  I figured that if they sent the check on the 23rd from Arizona, it should show up by the 28th at the latest. 

The 28th came, no check.  March 1st came, again, no check.  Cindy called me about 5 p.m. on Friday night as I was getting ready to work a dealer event in Kansas City and she said, "Will, there's no check here." 

I said that if it didn't show up tomorrow, I'd have to call our accounting person in Canada and have her stop payment on the check and then issue me a new one.  I knew that would be a monumental hassle, but I'd have to do it.

It did show up on Saturday.  Fully intact.  Had a letter stapled to it that, in summary, said that it was against Wells Fargo policy to deposit foreign checks in ATM's.  The only problem?  The lady lied to me.  The letter was written on Feb. 23rd, but the post mark on the envelope said it was sent Feb. 26th.  Bastards.   

So, 17 days after I initially deposited the check, I will deposit it again today.  What a hassle.  Thankfully, it didn't kill me financially, but it very easily could have. 

But it's just another one of those things that banks can do - and will do - to make your life miserable and to find more ways to get money out of you.  As bank stocks continue to climb on record amounts of profits generated - all the while taking away more free services or coming up with inane rules to make working with them a disheartening experience - it's clear to me that banks are nothing but a cheerless and disheartening industry designed to crush your will to live.   All the while, they're smiling as they take your deposit over the counter as they rummage through your pockets for nickels and dimes. 

Orange-Ginger Pork Chops

Here's another recipe from Weber's new grilling cookbook, Charcoal Grilling - The Art of Cooking with Live Fire that will be available in April.  However, we got an advance copy for taking some surveys and contributing some recipes that were subsequently rejected for the book.  We tried this recipe a couple weeks ago and it was fabulous. 

Orange-Ginger Pork Chops

Prep Time - 10 minutes

Marinating Time - 1 to 2 hours

Grilling Time - 10 to 12 minutes

Marinade

1 cup fresh orange juice (squeezed from real orange)

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (available in most grocery produce areas)

1 teaspoon minced garlic (either fresh or bottled minced garlic)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Pork Chops

4 bone-in pork chops, each about 3/4 to 1 inch thick (we used only two, but that's OK - you'll have more marinade/sauce when you're done cooking and ready to eat)

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Olive or vegetable oil

1. In a medium bowl mix the marinade ingredients

2. Place the pork chops in a large re-sealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade.  Press the air out of the bag and seal tightly.  Turn the bag several times to distribute the marinade.  Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

3. Prepare a fire in a Weber Grill for direct and indirect cooking. 

4. After 1 to 2 hours, remove the pork chops from the bag and reserve the marinade.  Pat the pork chops dry on both sides with a paper towel, and brush off the bits of ginger, garlic and red pepper.  Lightly coat the pork chops on both sides with olive or vegetable oil.  Let sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before grilling.  Meanwhile, pour the marinade into a small saucepan, bring to a boil over a high heat, and boil for 30 seconds.  Remove saucepan from the heat.

5. Grill the pork chops over direct high heat with the lid closed as much as possible, 3 to 5 minutes per side turning once or twice and switching positions if needed for even cooking.  Move the chops over the middle of the grill for indirect high heat (400 degrees or higher) and cook until firm to the touch, but still slightly pink in the center - about 5 minutes total.  Baste both sides of the chops and let cook for another 2 minutes total.  Serve warm.