Road Tips

Yard House - Glenview, IL

After our meal at El Jardin Norte when we were in the Chicago area last fall with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder, and Dave and Pat Heusmann, we spied a place across the street in the Glen Town Center called the Yard House.  On their sign it said, "World's Largest Selection of Draft Beer".  I said, "OK, kids, I've got to go in and see this." 

Sure enough, the Yard House had over 130 spigots on a two-sided rectangular wall in the center of a large rectangular bar .  There were some duplications of the more popular beers on each side just because of their shear size of the bar area. 

On their web site, they list over 180 beers that they have at their disposal at their many locations.  Now, I've been to beer bars before where they may have over 100 beers available, but most of those are in bottles and not on draft.  It was truly amazing to see the rows of spigots with the different beers.  I had to take a slow lap around the bar just to see what they had. 

The original Yard House began in 1996 when former Denver resident Steele Platt opened the first location in Long Beach, Ca.  Platt had earlier sold his interest in the Boiler Room - a Denver bar that specialized in serving a number of different brands of beer.  Platt had run the Boiler Room for about 15 years before pulling up stakes and moving west. 

Platt's concept was to offer good food, a great selection of beer and good music in his restaurants.  The first Yard House had a two story keg room with five miles of beer lines going to the bar.  At any given time, the Yard House could move 6,000 gallons of beer through its line system.  That same delivery design is used in the other Yard House locations.   

In August of 2007, Platt sold majority interest of Yard House USA to TSG Consumer Partners, an investment group from the San Francisco area.  Platt still is involved with the business as they look to expand in the coming years.  There are now 18 Yard House locations in eight states with 3 more scheduled to open within the first part of 2008.  The company doesn't plan to franchise any locations, keeping all of the Yard House locations under private control. 

As it was a Saturday night when we were in there, the place was pretty packed.  We managed to find three seats at the bar for the ladies to sit on.  We took a look at the menu of available beers and I ordered up a Smithwick's.  I think Dave got the same.  I forget what Scott got, but the girls were able to talk the bartender in allowing them samples of some of the beers.

They did serve food, but I didn't study the food menu as I wasn't hungry.  But I thought this would have to be a place that I'd have to come back and try their food.  From looking at the menu on the web site, it appears they have some pretty interesting items on their menu. 

I was standing near the women and Pat asked me, "Are you familiar with all these beers, Will?"

Cindy just laughed.  "Oh, I'm sure he is, Pat."

So, I took a look at the beer menu and I went down the list of available beers and told Pat if I'd ever had them before or not.  They had about 110 beers listed and I have to say that I had sampled the vast majority of them.  Pat was amazed, but Cindy said, "I don't know if that's something I'd be proud of." 

Hey, I wasn't bragging - it was just a fact.

The Yard House had a number of televisions throughout the place, most of them turned to sporting events.  They also had classic 60's, 70's and 80's rock playing throughout the place.  And it wasn't at an ear-splitting level that made conversation all but impossible.  Actually, the music they were playing was pretty damn good.   

I was surprised to learn about the Yard House (which derives its name from the yard long glasses of beer handed to carriage drivers in England long ago when they'd make a stop at a rest house) as I'd never heard of it before.  We only stayed for a beer or two as everyone was still pretty full from dinner and it was getting late.  But I'm definitely going back for a meal sometime and I'll be sure to let you know how the food is.   

Winter Hits Back!

This morning, it was 50 (F) degrees at 9:00 a.m.  Right now at about 3:45 in the afternoon, it's 10 (F) degrees.  We're in the initial stages of a full-blown blizzard that isn't supposed to drop a lot of snow, but temperatures will plunge to well below zero again tonight with wind gusts close to 45 miles an hour.

After enduring sub-zero temperatures a few days ago, temperatures rose into the 40's and 50's on Sunday and Monday, essentially melting the 7-plus inch snow cover that we had.  But after a couple balmy days - for January - winter is hitting back and hitting back hard. 

We in the midst of a blizzard warning until midnight tonight.  We're just getting the wind and cold right now, but more snow is promised for this evening - one to three inches that will create tremendous amounts of blowing snow.  It's a good night to start a fire, open a bottle of wine and hunker down. 

God, I hate winter.  I'm ready for spring. 

Brick's - Chicago

While in Chicago recently, I took Cindy and our son, Eric, to one of the best pizza places in Chicago - Brick's in Lincoln Park (see map).  I originally wrote about Brick's in my synopsis of Chicago pizza places I'd visited in the past.  I thought it was definitely one of the top three I'd ever had in the city. 

I've eaten in Brick's once before in 1999.  A manufacturer we were visiting took us into the city for a Brick's pizza.  Bill Brandt opened Brick's in a funky little subterranean location in 1997.  His goal was to have great eclectic pizzas with an ever changing selection of eclectic beers.  The toppings are fresh and he uses cheese as diverse as gouda, goat cheese and Maytag Blue Cheese.  The pizza is a thin crust, no deep dish pizza is available at Brick's.  And, of course, the pizza is cooked in a brick oven, Neapolitan-style.

Brandt also runs a Brick's in Petaluma, CA, with a menu similar to the one in Chicago.  From seeing pictures and reading about the Petaluma location, it appears it's a lot larger than the one in Chicago.    

It was a warm Saturday evening just before Christmas when we went to Brick's.  We went down the stairs and down a dark hall (known as the "katacombs" on the sign outside) to the front door of the place.  There's a bar area up front that could easily hold 25 to 30 people comfortably.  I figured we'd be standing in the bar waiting for a table in the small dining room, as the first time I was there it was nearly an hour wait on a Wednesday night for a table for five.  We were greeted by a hostess and she seated us right away in the dining area.  The place holds, maybe, 45 people.  It's that small. 

Cindy thought she'd been there before, or at least in a place that was similar to the funky decor and artwork that hung throughout Brick's dining room.  But I doubt she'd been there before.  Heck, it hadn't changed much from the time I'd been in there about 8.5 years before.   

We looked through the menu while we waited for our waitress to show up.  They were mildly busy and they only had a couple of waitresses.  But they also had a couple busboys who were on top of things with water.  And we needed it.  We'd been out walking around downtown Chicago before we grabbed a cab up to Brick's.  Plus it was very warm in Brick's.  Believe me, if Cindy - who is perpetually chilled - says it's warm in a place, it's warm.

Our waitress came over and got our drink order.  They had the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale winter seasonal beer on tap and I had a mug of that.  Cindy got a glass of red wine and Eric got a pop.  She said she'd be right back to take our food order. 

Meanwhile, we were seated near a table of four couples.  One of the guys, who was a very big guy and went by the name of "Moose", was unbelievably loud.  You couldn't help but know what his name was as he was telling stories and calling himself "Moose."  Oh, it was bad.  I mean, it was just obnoxiously loud.  We had two guys seated at a table next to us and they asked to move to the other side of the dining room.  I wish we'd had asked first.

The waitress came back and got our order.  We told her we wanted to get different pizzas and asked if the 10" pizza was a lot of food.  She said 10" pizzas were usually for 1 to 2 people.  OK, we'll go with the 10" and take whatever we don't eat back to the hotel since we had a fridge in our room. 

Eric ordered the "Ditka", named after the former Chicago Bears coach and local icon Mike Ditka.  It was all the meat - sausage, ham and pepperoni loaded with cheese.  I told him I wanted to try a piece of his.

Cindy ordered the "Red Planet" - it had sausage, red pepper, red onions, tomato sauce and both mozzarella and goat cheese.  Sounded good, even though cooked peppers and onions don't like me too well.

I got my good ol' standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  I remember getting a big one of those the first time I came and I thought it was pretty damn good.

I was intrigued by their wedge salad - a hefty wedge of lettuce topped with their creamy garlic and Maytag Blue Cheese.  I told the waitress that I wanted to try one, but wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing.  Cindy said, "Oh, I'll have a couple bites." 

The waitress said, "I can divide the wedge into three's and bring it out to you that way."

OK, sure!  And I'm glad we did because the size was just perfect for all three of us.  I'm a sucker for a wedge salad with real Maytag Blue on it.   

Thankfully, "Moose" quieted down significantly when the pizza came to their table.  I know they were having a good time, but that guy was just too loud.  You could see a lot of people just turning their heads looking at him when he'd get really loud. 

About 25 minutes and a couple beers later, the pizzas came out.  The 10" was a perfect size.  The crust was thin, light and crisp.  Not a crispy crisp, but it did have some crunch to it when you bit in.  The sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms were unbelievably fresh.  The sauce and cheese was light and not filling.  It definitely didn't detract from the taste of the toppings. 

Cindy loved here Red Planet pizza.  Although she said it was very, very rich with the mozzarella and goat cheese combination. It was just slathered in toppings.  She was only able to eat three of the small pieces.

Eric's "Ditka" pizza was just loaded with meat and cheese.  It, too, was very rich with a ton of cheese and toppings.  He's a kid that can eat and he couldn't finish half of his pizza. 

Me - I made sure that I ate very lightly all day long so I'd be able to savor the Brick's experience.  I finished my pizza off, plus had bites of both Cindy's and Eric's pizzas.  They were right - they were both very rich and there would have been no way I would have been able to finish either one.  That's OK, we could take it back to the room and snack on it. 

The drinks weren't cheap - the three beers I had were $7.00 each and Cindy's wine was $8.00.  The three pizzas were reasonable - $32.00 for the three of them.  With tax and tip, the bill came to $78.00.

As we went out of Brick's to catch a cab (by the way, there's only street parking so it's best to take a cab there), I noticed a picture by the door of Mike Ditka flipping off the camera as he was walking off the field a number of years ago.  I'd heard about this picture, but never saw it before.  I just stood there and had to laugh as Ditka embodies the feelings of thousands of Chicagoans.

The awning over Brick's says it's "The Best Pizza on Earth".  I don't know if I fully agree with that, as it's tough to call anything "the best", but it's damn good.  It's still one of the top three best pizzas I've had in the Chicago area.  It's tough to beat.

The Shocking Truth about Hotels

About 8 months ago I wrote an entry here regarding bad hotels that people had stayed in.  It featured a link to MSNBC's web site that showed a number of pictures from people to substantiate their claims.

Thanks to Burt Gearhart who forwarded me a video that I'd seen a few weeks ago regarding the cleaning practices of some of the mid-to-upper scale hotels in the Atlanta area.  The report from last November was done by an investigative team from Fox 5 - WAGA in Atlanta after being tipped off on how the cleaning staff "cleans" glasses in guest rooms. 

Here's two videos that I found on YouTube regarding the story.  The first video is the original story by investigative reporter Dana Fowle:

The next video is the follow-up story by Fowle to the original story where they go to two upscale hotels and report their findings:

As an aside in the second story, I've stayed at the Renaissance Concourse hotel in Atlanta, and I did stay once at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta, but at the one in the Buckhead area and not the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta that's featured in the story.  But one would have to think their cleaning standards are the same. 

Still, it seems this practice is rampant among hotels in Atlanta - whether they be mid-priced to elite hotels.  And you can almost be certain it's happening elsewhere across the nation. 

At most hotels, I usually just drink out of plastic cups that have been wrapped in plastic, or I drink out of water bottles.  If a glass glass is available in a bathroom and I need to rinse my mouth, I'll usually just cup my hands and gather water that way. 

These are pretty compelling videos and it really makes you wonder.  If you know someone who travels quite a bit, direct them to this entry.  Hopefully they've seen these clips before, but if not I'll just say, "You're welcome!" 

Cafe Lucci - Glenview, IL

My boss, Daniel, and one of my colleagues, John, came into Chicago recently for a couple meetings and it happened that I was in town at the same time.  I met up with them and we went out to dinner at a good little Italian restaurant I've eaten at about four or five times before, Cafe Lucci in Glenview. (see map)

The Arifi family - Bobby, the operations manager; and Augie, the head chef (right); have run Cafe Lucci for nearly 13 years.  Chef Augie Arifi specializes in Northern Italian cooking, as well as conjuring up items that have both a Mediterranean and French flair.

Cafe Lucci also has an extensive wine list, one that has garnered Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence for the last six years.  It's one of the largest wine lists I've seen in the Chicagoland area. 

Cafe Lucci just underwent an extensive remodeling project and the interior, while very nice before, looks even more nice now.  The square bar area is still very nice, but the dining area features darker tones and colors compared to the lighter colors they had before.  The atmosphere is much more contemporary compared to the "old world" Italian theme they had before. 

It turns out the Daniel had eaten there before, back when we used to sell Focal loudspeakers to Abt Electronics, which is just down the street from Cafe Lucci.  He said, "Oh, yes, I remember this place.  They have a great wine list." 

Whereas I can remember how good the food is at a restaurant, Daniel remembers places for their wine.  That's the French Canadian in him. 

We got in just before 9 p.m. and we were seated immediately.  We got our menus and a basket of bread with olive oil.  Because it was so late, we really didn't want much of a heavy meal, but everything looked so good on the menu. 

Daniel ordered up one of the specials that evening which was a grilled sea bass and John got the Cioppino.  He said, "I'm a sucker for good Cioppino and I'll bet this place makes good Cioppino."  I ended up getting the Veal Scampi, lightly breaded veal medallions with grilled shrimp scampi cooked in a lemon wine sauce.  With our meals, we each got a small dinner salad with the house Italian dressing.   

For the wine, since everyone was getting something with seafood we picked out a 2004 Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc, reasonably priced at $36 bucks (although I can find it in stores for as low as $12.99).  The Ferrari-Carano wines are some of my favorites and the Fume Blanc is a wonderful and zesty dry white.

In short, our meals were very good.  Daniel liked the sea bass saying it was exactly what he was looking for in a light, but flavorful meal.  John declared the Cioppino as being "excellent, surprisingly excellent."  He said he thought it would be very good, but he said it was some of the best Cioppino he's had outside of San Francisco.  And my veal and scampi was also very good.  It was served in a light butter and wine sauce that was very flavorful.  And it wasn't filling so I knew I'd be able to sleep well that evening.

Eating dinner at Cafe Lucci isn't all that cheap - with the wine and a tip, the bill came to just under $150 dollars.  But every time I've eaten here, it's been very, very good.  If you find yourself in the North Shore area of Chicago and are looking for an elegant place to eat with great food, outstanding service and and a great atmosphere, I highly recommend Cafe Lucci.   

My God, It's Cold!

It's a little after 8 a.m. this morning and it's 19 below zero at the Davenport Municipal Airport just north of town (see map), and 11 below zero at the Quad City Airport in Moline.  This is just too cold for me.

I'm getting that "winter blah" feeling I usually get in February.  But we've had winter since December 1st around here.  I even missed the seemingly annual January warm-up they had here while I was in Las Vegas when temperatures topped out in the 60's.  Of course, when I got home it was cold and dreary again. 

Oh well.  It's living in Iowa in the winter.  Like I've said many times before, nine months out of the year it's a great place to live.  But with over five weeks before we see March, I'm tired of winter already.

Salerno's on Grove - Berwyn, IL

After my visit to Salerno's on West Grand near downtown Chicago a couple three months ago, I wanted to try out the original Salerno's in Berwyn.  I thought if the original Salerno's was as good as the one on West Grand, it had to be a top five pizza experience.  I had a chance to give it a try just before Christmas. 

Much of Chicago is a series of small towns that sort of grew together over the years.  Berwyn has been around since the 1800's, but wasn't incorporated as a city until 100 years ago.  It has a downtown area with little shops and restaurants like you'd find in many Midwestern cities.  Salerno's on Grove is one of those many little places.

Salerno's on Grove (see map) is the first of the Salerno's that sprouted up around the city after Arnie Salerno first began to make pizzas back in the 60's.  It has a nice bar area and a cozy dining room.  I'm sure the decor hasn't changed much since when Arnie bought the place. 

I got into the restaurant around 7:30 and took a seat at the long bar.  The dining area was about a third full.  The bartender gave me a menu and I ordered a beer.  Even though the menu featured a lot of Italian specialties, I went to the back of the menu where they had the pizzas.  I noticed that under the pizza list it said, "Thin Crust Available Upon Request".  I wondered how thick their original crust was, but I opted for the thin crust - a 12" medium - with the old standby of sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms. 

I noticed a couple other people had the pizza at the table.  I walked past one of those tables on my way to the restroom and they looked pretty good with a ton of toppings.

After about 20 minutes, the bartender brought out my pizza and it was much larger with a lot of cheese and thick toppings.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing in one sitting.  But I also knew that I had a refrigerator back in my hotel room, so it wouldn't go to waste. 

It was cut similarly to the pizza at Salerno's on Grand - in the squares and corner triangle party-style pieces that I like so well.  I tried a piece, but it was piping hot.  Much too hot to eat.  I let it sit for a few more moments before trying again.

From the first bite, well, I was disappointed.  First of all, the crust was well done.  Not quite burned, but enough of a burnt taste that it really detracted from the flavor of the pizza. 

Secondly, I don't know if the crust was really all that thin.  I thought, "Wow, I wonder what their original crust is like if this is the thin."  It was crispy and not chewy like I remember the crust over at the Salerno's on Grand.  And it was a little more thick than the crust at the other Salerno's. 

But the toppings were wonderful.  And there was a lot of them.  The cheese, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and sauce was very thick on the top of the crust.  I love pizzas like that.  But this one was too well done for my taste.

You know, I've got to give Salerno's in Berwyn another chance.  I'm thinking this pizza was an anomoly.  A place doesn't stay in business for over 40 years by having shitty pizzas.  I'll give them a try later on this year and let you know if the next pizza is a marked improvement. 

(Update - I found well after the fact that they screwed up that evening and gave me one of their "original crust" pizzas.  The thin crust is available at the Berwyn location.  But I have to say that I like the pizza at the Salerno's on Grand better.  Don't know why - they claim it's the same thing - but I think there's something different between the two.)

Cirque du Soleil - "Love - The Beatles"

I got an e-mail in December before Christmas from my colleague, Simon, up in Montreal.  Very simply it said, "I have a line on getting tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show 'The Beatles -Love' at The Mirage.  Are you interested in going when we're in Las Vegas?"

I immediately shot back, "You bet!"

It turns out that a number of my other colleagues were also interested in going.  So, my boss, Daniel, out of the goodness of his heart, popped for nine tickets in the second row for the 7 p.m. show on the Saturday night we arrived in Las Vegas.  And even though we had an "in" to getting the tickets, they were still $170 dollars each.  Yow!

How we had an "in" to the tickets is sort of a small world thing between my company and Cirque du Soleil.  Some of you may remember my blog entry from last year regarding the Cirque du Soleil show "Delirium" coming to the Quad Cities.  When Guy Laliberte started taking Cirque du Soleil on the road in the 80's, he hired a Montreal company by the name of Solotech to do lights and sound for the show.  One of the co-owners of Solotech is a guy by the name of Andre Riendeau, who just happened to be a co-owner of my company for a number of years.

As Cirque du Soleil evolved, Solotech was instrumental in providing the high-tech sound and lighting that adds to the magic of the Cirque performance.  And when Cirque began to have shows in Las Vegas, Solotech was hired to install the sound and lights in the theaters in which they performed.  They eventually opened a separate Las Vegas office/warehouse a few years ago.   

Solotech also was the company of choice for Celine Dion when she went on the road.  When Caesar's Palace built the 4,000 seat Colosseum for Dion's "A New Day..." show, Solotech was called upon to provide the sound and lights for the venue.  Andre told me there are 144 speakers in the Colosseum powered by about 150,000 watts of total power.  I understand it sounds magnificent in there.    

Andre is now in semi-retirement having sold his interest in Solotech to his partner a couple years ago, and he's in the process of being bought out of his shares in our company by my boss, Daniel.  But we still have contacts with the Solotech people in both Montreal and Las Vegas.  In fact, we used Solotech's warehouse to house our gear for CES before and after we showed the products at the Las Vegas Hilton this year.

So, in a nutshell, that's how we were able to get second row tickets on a Saturday night for Cirque du Soleil's "The Beatles - Love" show - even though we had to still pay face value for the seats.

The background of Cirque du Soleil's "The Beatles - Love" started with a meeting between George Harrison and Guy Laliberte nearly 8 years ago.  The two wanted to collaborate on a Cirque show that featured Beatles tunes.  After Harrison died a year later, negotiations soon began between Cirque du Soleil, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the widows of John Lennon and Harrison - Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. 

During this time, MGM Mirage was looking to replace their top drawing show - Siegfried and Roy - after Roy Horn was attacked by a tiger during one of their shows in 2003.  The company entered negotiations with Cirque du Soleil, the remaining Beatles and widows, and The Beatles holding company Apple Corps, Ltd.

Cirque du Soleil's Dominic Champagne wrote the initial script for "The Beatles - Love" and contacted George Martin, The Beatles producer, to remix a number of Beatles songs for the show.  After getting permission from McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, Martin and his son, Giles, went to work on a series of songs for the shows that included re-editing of songs, samples and outtakes from recording sessions.  The subsequent sound track was made into an album and released in November 2006.

"The Beatles - Love" opened to preview audiences in June of 2006.  McCartney and Starr, plus Lennon's and Harrison's widows attended the opening performance of the show on June 29, 2006 and all gave the show a hearty "thumbs up".  The show has been playing to sold out audiences ever since.

The theater that houses "The Beatles - Love" was rebuilt from the old Siegfried and Roy theater.  The seats are in the round and the farthest seat is only 90 feet from the front of the stage.  The capacity of the theater is a shade over 2000 seats, each of which has a built in rear channel sound system in the headrest of the back of the seat.  I didn't know that at first, but then Simon pointed it out to me after the show.  I was trying to figure out how they could do surround information in a theater in the round.  Simon told me, "The speakers were in the seats."  Man, I'm telling you - it sounded unbelievable. 

Like any Cirque du Soleil show, they feature what I read somewhere as a "wide-eyed every man" that seems to walk aimlessly around the stage during the show.  Delirium had a guy like that, as well, and I could never figure out what his function was.  Turns out that nearly every Cirque show features this type of character. 

And like every Cirque show, there's a lot going on all at once during the opening sequences.  Being close to the stage for a Cirque du Soleil show is not as good as sitting back.  We were straining our necks up to see the aerial performers.  And we also had to move our heads to see many of the projected images on screens that surrounded the theater. 

There's actually a storyline to "The Beatles - Love" - it follows the early days of the members of the band growing up through World War II, getting together, becoming world famous, embracing meditation, and then the subsequent break-up.  Interspersed through the show are the re-mastered songs by the Martin's, a lot of visual effects, great stunts and dancing, and a number of great aerial feats that Cirque's performers are famous for.

My favorite part of the show was when they wheeled out these huge sloping walls and a team of roller-bladers performed some amazing acrobatic skills to the tune of "Help!".   I'd seen a clip of this in the past and it was even more impressive in person.  Also, another segment I really liked were the trampolinist's performing to "Revolution".  It was pretty damn cool.

I found this video on You Tube that gives a two minute "teaser" of "The Beatles - Love".  It doesn't come close to capturing the experience live, but it does give you an idea as to what the show is about.

   

The show lasted just a shade over 90 minutes.  There were some head-scratching moments - just as you normally find at most Cirque du Soleil shows.  But overall, I have to give the experience and the show 4.75 stars out of five.  I would go back to see it again, but the $170 price tag is a little too steep for an out of the pocket expenditure.  Still, "The Beatles - Love" packs 'em in every night, so there's a lot of people who will fork over that kind of cash to see a great show.   

The Speeding Ticket

As of today, I'm a free man in the eyes of the State of Illinois.  I got a speeding ticket back in September - the first one I'd gotten in over 15 years.  But today, it got thrown out.  Oh, I still had to pay a fine, but nothing's on my record.  Here's the story: 

First of all, I'm a guy who drives 35,000 to 40,000 miles annually. The last speeding ticket I got was for going 36 in a 25 in Davenport in 1992.  So only one speeding ticket in over 15 years is pretty impressive, if you ask me.

One little caveat to my over 15 years of not getting a ticket - I have been stopped on a number of occasions over that time period.  A couple times I got stopped for going 74 in a 65 - once in Iowa and once in Illinois.  The time in Illinois, Cindy and I were going to Chicago for the weekend and it was a Saturday morning.  I had just gotten the Impala and we passed an Illinois State Patrolman as he was sitting in the median.  He came out to get me and pulled me over.  He told me I was going 74 and gave me a warning.  Then he asked me, "How do you like these cars?  They're talking about getting Impalas for us to drive for squad cars..." 

A couple times, I was stopped by a Davenport policeman that I knew from working all the events for the city of Davenport.  One time it was for going 72 in a 55 on the interstate, the other time it was for going 42 in a 25 on a residential street.  He let me off both times.  I was lucky. 

And I'd been stopped a couple three other times, but it was for nothing more than going a couple miles over the "alloted" limit most law enforcement officers use as a yard stick.  I was told one time most policemen say, "Under nine (miles an hour over the speed limit), you're fine.  Over nine, you're mine." 

An Illinois Highway Patrolman who my brother knew in Western Illinois told me one time that they usually won't bother you for going 72 m.p.h. on Illinois interstates.  So that's where I usually set the cruise control when I'm driving on interstate highways that have a 65 m.p.h. limit.  And I'll do 75 on ones that have 70 m.p.h. limits.

This recent little episode all started when I was leaving St. Louis to go to Champaign, IL one afternoon in late September last fall.  I had just crossed over the Mississippi River and was on the stretch of road where Interstates 55, 64 and 70 all blend together.  I was driving along with the traffic, going about 60 m.p.h. or so.  I was trying to find an Illinois map to determine if it was better to take I-70 to I-57 up to Champaign, or if I should take I-55 up to Springfield and take I-72 over to Champaign from there.  Honestly, I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings.

After I-64 split off from Interstates 55 and 70, I was passing the Gateway International Raceway just outside of St. Louis.  I was just tooling down the road at 65 or so - which was the speed limit at that point.  Suddenly, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a cop coming up behind me with his lights on.  I pulled over to the right lane and he pulled in right behind me.  I said, "Oh, he must want me.  Wonder what I did."

It was a city cop from Fairmont City, IL (see map) who had pulled me over.  I was still wondering what I did wrong when he came around to the passenger side window.  He was pleasant enough when he asked for my registration and my proof of insurance.  I reached into the glove compartment to retrieve both pieces of paper and I asked, "What did I do?

He said, "I clocked you at 67 miles an hour in a 50 mile an hour zone back there."

I said, "Where is there a 50 mile an hour zone?  Back by the (Mississippi) bridge?"

He said, "No, it's 50 miles an hour back there at the I-64 split." 

Well, I certainly didn't know that.  Or if I did know it, I surely didn't really notice it before.  In either way, he clocked me at 67 in a 50. 

I gave him my registration and proof of insurance card.  He handed me back my proof of insurance and said, "This one's expired."  So I pulled another one out of the glove box.  That one had expired, too.  I pulled a third one out - IT was expired.  I was just sweatin' bullets as I was feverishly pawing through the glove compartment looking for the current proof of insurance.  I must have pulled six of them out of there - all expired.  (I really need to clean out my glove compartment.)

Finally, he said, "Well, look, I'm sure you have insurance since you have all those old ones."  And he went back to his car.

I didn't know if he was going to write me a ticket or give me a warning.  I was hoping for the warning, but these "local yokels" have a tendency to pad the town's coffers with out of town money. 

He came back up to the passenger window and handed me the citation.  He wrote it up as 65 in a 50, saying it would save me some money.  The cop said, "Now, we just want you to take it easy through here.  Just make sure you pay more attention to the speed limits when you come through here." 

All right - he had me, dead to right.  I took the ticket, thanked him for knocking a couple miles off the ticket and took off for Champaign.  I tossed the ticket over in the seat and drove away. 

I got to looking at the ticket and I couldn't find the fine.  I thought, "Well, hell, maybe it IS a warning.  I can't find where the fine amount is on this thing."

Then I looked a little closer and saw it.  $85 bucks.  EIGHTY FIVE DOLLARS!?!  Holy shit!  I'll say they're filling their coffers in that little town.  But he said he did save me an additional $40 bucks by writing me up for 65 instead of 67.  1 to 15 m.p.h. over the limit is $85 dollars.  16 to 25 over the limit is $125.  Ouch! 

I got to looking closer at the ticket and it said that I could contest the ticket on November 20 at the St. Clair County courthouse in East St. Louis.  East St. Louis?  Are you kidding me?  The last place that most sane white people go to is East St. Louis.  No, they had me.  I was going to cough up the $85 bucks and present it with a smile to the Fairmont City treasurer. 

Now, the whole time I wasn't pissed at the cop or at myself.  It was pretty matter of fact.  But I liked the guy even more for not writing me up for going 17 over and tacking on an additional $40 bucks. 

About three weeks later, I sat down and was paying bills and I came across the ticket.  I gritted my teeth, wrote the check and started to put it in the envelope that was provided. 

Then I took a closer look at a flap on the envelope.  On the flap it said that if I signed my name on this line and sent in the fine, they would set aside the guilty plea for 90 days.  Huh?  I didn't quite know what they were getting at, but I thought, "What the hell?"  I signed it and put the check in the envelope.

About 10 days later, I got a letter from the City Clerk of Fairmont City, IL.  In the letter, I was informed that they did receive my check and they have set aside my guilty plea for 90 days.  However, if I got another driving citation in the state of Illinois before January 18, 2008, the city clerk would notify the Illinois Secretary of State of the moving violation, who would then inform Iowa officials, who would then inform my insurance company, who would then inform me that they have to raise my rates.  Well, it didn't say all that, but that's the logical progression after the city contacted the Illinois Secretary of State's office.

So, I read it again and it dawned on me - all I had to do was to keep my nose clean when I drove in Illinois for the next three months.  The only problem was that I had to be in Illinois about five more times before the 90 day period was up. 

I wasn't worried, though.  I just made sure that I watched my speed and rolled with the traffic.  I'd gone 15 years without a speeding ticket.  I could go three months.

And I did.  Today, the guilty verdict has been permanently set aside and nothing goes on my record.  It makes me want to go out and spin donuts in the mall parking lot. 

Oh, by the way - I had to go to St. Louis to pick up some speakers toward the middle part of November.  As I was driving westbound through the same area that I got pulled over, I saw a police car pulling over a speeder in the eastbound lanes of the interstate.  I looked over as I got across from the police cruiser and, sure enough, it was a Fairmont City policeman.  Those bastards.  They're just picking people off because it does go from 60 miles per hour to 50 in a small stretch of road where I-64 slices off from the I-55 and I-70.  They're just sitting there catching unsuspecting guys from out of state.  Like me.

There's a national speed trap web site - The Speed Trap Exchange - that lists a number of speed traps around the nation.  I've got some entries in there, especially with small towns that I've driven through in the past.  I didn't get tickets, but I saw where the cops were hiding and how much of a trap it is.  I looked up to see if the Fairmont City trap was listed.  It wasn't.  But after I sent in an entry to the site a couple days ago, it will be in a few days.       

The Downfall of HD-DVD

One of my colleagues from Canada just sent this to me.  This is a scene from "Der Untergang (The Downfall)" starring German actor Bruno Ganz as Hitler.  They've taken out the real sub-titles and replaced them with some amusing dialogue as if Hitler is the head of the HD-DVD consortium.

I thought it was pretty funny and rather clever.

CES 2008 - Las Vegas

I spent a good part of last week at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  By my calculations, this was my 22nd CES that I attended in Vegas.  I've certainly seen a lot of changes during that time, not only in the consumer electronics industry, but in Las Vegas, as well. 

First of all, I have to tell you this was the first year I took a direct flight to Vegas for the show.  I flew on AirTran, an up and coming airline based out of Orlando.  I normally fly on United or American, mainly because I have accumulated a lot of miles with both carriers.  But flying on either one of those two airlines means you have to change planes in either Chicago, Denver or Dallas/Fort Worth.  And flying in the winter is so iffy, especially if you have connecting flights in Denver or Chicago. 

Actually, booking the flight on AirTran was a no-brainer.  I checked prices to Las Vegas last October on both American and United and the fares were astronomical.  I believe United wanted something like $869 bucks for a round-trip flight from Moline to Vegas thru Denver.  Now, my company doesn't usually bitch about my travel expenses, but my Midwestern fiscal conservatism came through on this one and I checked out AirTran.

It turned out that they had seats for $99 each way from Moline.  And if I wanted a row with a little more leg room, it was an extra $10 bucks each way.  I opted for the leg room on the way out and took my chances on the way home.

The only problem is that with one flight out of Moline to and from Vegas four days a week, the travel times are kind of funky.  I had to leave at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and I didn't leave Vegas until 5:55 p.m. the day after the show ended.  I had a full day to kill in Vegas, but being there so many times before I really didn't want to stick around if I didn't have to. 

One thing to know about AirTran - they don't screw around when it comes to getting out of there on time.  I almost missed my flight home last Friday night in Vegas.  I was in the gate area, but never heard them call for the flight.  Finally, 20 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off, I heard the "boarding all rows of AirTran flight 730 to Moline."  So I got up, went to the bathroom, which wasn't far away, and then went to the gate.  Imagine my horror to see that there were no AirTran personnel at the gate, the door to the jet way was closed, and the plane's door was shut with the jet way pulled away from the plane.  It was 15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. 

I finally found an AirTran employee who was standing near the gate.  I showed her my ticket and she said, "Oh, you're going to Moline, too?"  She immediately tried to get someone on the radio, but to no avail.  She opened up the door and ran down the jet way.  I next saw her knocking on the pilot's window to get his attention. 

Sure enough, the jet way came back to the plane and the door opened.  She ran up the jet way to open the door for me.  I got on, they shut the door, I sat down and 30 seconds later, they were pulling away.  Five minutes before the scheduled departure. 

I figured out the next day that the Air Tran crew has the 7:00 a.m. departure the next morning.  And FAA rules state that a crew must have 8 hours of rest overnight.  The plane is scheduled to come in at 10:55 p.m. in Moline, giving them just a couple minutes over the 8 hours needed between the flights.  No wonder they wanted to get going.

But the bottom line is that my experience flying AirTran was very good.  The seats are roomy, they take credit cards instead of cash for alcoholic beverages - and they keep the credit card open in case you want more, and they have XM Radio at every seat.  And for a nominal fee, you can bump yourself up to Business Class for each flight if seats are available.  I'll fly them again if I get the chance.

Anyway, I digress from the subject matter at hand...

First of all, attendance at this year's CES was down nearly 10% from last year's high of 143,000 people.  Attendance would be down even more if the Consumer Electronics Association wouldn't allow consumers and end-users into the show like they did years ago.  The CEA says they're doing their best to keep non-industry people out of the show, but gauging the amount of baby-strollers reportedly seen on the main floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center they're not working all that hard to keep 'em out. 

Once again, our company showed our products in four suites on the 28th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton.  Most of the other high end manufacturers were over at the Venetian, but we like showing at the Hilton because it isn't overrun with consumers like the Venetian.  The Hilton suites are destination locations for dealers who come to see us.  We can have meetings, can take our time with them and not have to worry about some guy from Bakersfield interrupting us and asking for confidential price sheets on Focal loudspeakers.

The big buzz as CES this year had to do with the on-going format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Just after the first of the year, Warner Brothers Studios made an announcement that they would distribute only Blu-Ray format movies starting in June of this year.  They had been the only studio to distribute both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies.  Now with over 70 percent of movies in a high definition format available on Blu-Ray, two HD-DVD studios - Paramount and DreamWorks - were rumored to be looking at dumping their 2007 agreement with the HD-DVD camp.  However, both studios were vehemently denying any such action during CES.

Paramount, whose agreement with the HD-DVD camp ended on December 31, 2007, said they have not abandoned the HD-DVD format even though a new agreement is not in place and won't be in the foreseeable future.  However, rumors are that the Blu-Ray camp is putting financial pressure on Paramount in the form of subsidies and incentives to move to their format.

With the federally mandated cut-off date for the end of analog television broadcasts looming in just 13 months, LG and Philips showed their analog to digital broadcast converter boxes at CES.  These converter boxes will be necessary if you get your signal via an over-the-air antenna beginning on February 19, 2009.  The boxes will be available by this spring thru most of the big box stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City for $50 bucks.  However, vouchers for the converter boxes worth $40 dollars are available through the federal government.  If you get your non-HD television signal through a cable or satellite system, you won't need one of these boxes.

In the continuing saga of "Mine is Bigger than Yours", Panasonic unveiled a 150-inch plasma television at CES.  Panasonic showed a 103-inch plasma television at last year's CES and were stunned to sell over 3,000 units of that product last year.  Panasonic touts the 150-inch plasma as a digital home theater/promotional install product.  Price and availability of the monitor was not released.

Of course, the convergence computer and entertainment technology continues to be a big topic at CES.  A number of companies showed new products that tied in mobile computer capabilities with on-demand video content.  A year ago, these units were being called "Personal Viewing Devices" by the industry.  Now, the common phrase being used is "Ultramobile" devices.  While still not available with optimum capabilities, ultramobile content will get better in the next couple of years with the advent of WiMAX and Verizon's Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) network that is scheduled to come on line this summer.

Pioneer's Project Kuro television - a prototype plasma television that promises "absolute black levels" that will make for eye-popping pictures was unveiled at CES.  People who saw the television told me it was absolutely stunning.  Some industry pundits said the Pioneer Kuro television will make the current 8th generation plasma televisions obsolete before they fully reach the marketplace later this year.

Mitsubishi debuted their new "laser television" panels that promise double the color vibrancy of other models that will be released later this year.  Laser televisions, compared to plasma or LCD models, don't degrade in visual output over time, they have a wider range of colors promising more vibrant and stunning pictures, and they're about 50% less in price than most plasma or LCD units.  Plus, they weigh about half the weight of current plasma or LCD monitors.  Oh!  And they have a built in 3-D processor to be able to watch three-dimensional encoded programming with a pair of special glasses that come with the set.

My friend, John Smith, who is a regional manager for Mitsubishi, told me the first time he saw the panels he was just stunned.  I understand that many dealers who saw the debut at the Palms last week were equally stunned by how great the picture looked.

XStreamHD announced a new service that will allow customers to receive movies, games and other on-demand programming in a 1080 progressive format via a satellite and a receiver box.  The XStream HD will also feature 7.1 lossless surround audio, and either 4:3 or 16:9 screen size content. 

Actor Michael Douglas (right), who is also an investor in XStreamHD, was on hand at CES to introduce the product and service.  The XStreamHD box will be available for $400 through retail locations.  Also needed is a small satellite dish that will go outside the house with a hard wire connected to the receiver box.  There will be a monthly subscription fee for the content, but if everything they said XStreamHD will be comes true, it could be a major player in content distribution.      

Navigation devices, cellular phones, digital photo frames and digital cameras were also hot at CES.  I guess I didn't realize the intense interest in these digital photo frames.  But that segment of the consumer market place has just exploded over the past few months.  I've never really seen them or played around with the digital photo frames but there was a lot on display at CES.  While most of the digital photo frames are sized not much larger than 8X10 inches, Smartpants showed a 32" 16X9 digital photo frame at CES (left).  Geez, a 32" digital photo frame?  I wonder how good the resolution would be for that size...   

Some other fun things that came out at CES - Nikko Electronics came out with their R2-D2 projector.  Yep, it's a projector that's mounted in a replica of the Star Wars robot.  No, I'm not kidding.  Reportedly, it will run $2500 bucks, but the picture quality was supposedly not that good.  Still, if you're a Star Wars nut, this would be a fun thing to have.

There were some really "out-there" items shown at this year's CES.  There was the Electric Swatter; a mini-washing machine; and the "Guitar Hero Air Rocker" which consists of a small amplifier that attaches to a person's belt, along with a magnetic pick that sends impulses to the amplifier which will then play up to 10 different "riffs", depending upon the beat and motion the person is doing.  For more info on those and other weird items shown at CES, click here.

In conjunction with the Adult Entertainment Expo that goes on the same time as CES, FyreTV showed a set top box that promises to bring over 20,000 porn movies to your home for only $10 a month.  The box must be hooked up to an ethernet and promises to deliver high quality adult movies to your television.  Hey, it's better than renting the adult movies from Family Video, I guess.

Still, with all the glitter and glamour Las Vegas conjures up, there continues to be problems with the show.  Just before the show started last week, reports surfaced in a number of local media outlets in Las Vegas that the CEA was looking to move the show from Las Vegas after the current contract expires in 2012.

One of the big problems with CES is the high prices hotels charge in conjunction with the show.  Hotel rooms that are normally $99 to $159 a night go for $599 to $799 during the show.  Hewlett-Packard announced they brought 15% less workers to the show this year because of the high price of rooms and meals in Las Vegas during CES.

Some hotels reportedly charge larger corporations up front not only for the blocks of rooms they'll stay in during the show, but also for guaranteed food and beverage service in the hotel's restaurants and bars.  This guarantee for food and beverages is angering a number of companies who are reassessing their CES strategy for the short term.

CES organizers have reportedly talked to officials in Chicago and Orlando - both have venues and hotel space capable of hosting the show - about the possibility of a move.  I'm sure it's more of a leverage ploy than anything.  CES officials can't make hotels change their pricing policies, but they can sure threaten to move in a few years if action isn't taken.  After all, CES is the largest trade show in the U.S. and Vegas would take a noticeable hit if it were to move.

CES has lost its luster among the industry's heavy hitters for home audio and video.  Many of the companies in the audio field now show only at the annual CEDIA Expo.  I think I had - maybe - six dealers from my Midwestern territory show up for CES this year.  We're supposedly going back again next year to display our products, but it's up in the air after that.  Frankly, I'd rather not go to CES as long as the CEDIA Expo exists.  It's much more of a relevant show for my business.  Plus, I've had my fill of Las Vegas.         

Alcatraz Brewing Company - Indianapolis

A place that I've visited a few times before and stopped into during a recent trip to Indianapolis is the Alcatraz Brewing Company in the heart of the downtown area in the Circle Center Mall at the corner of Illinois and Maryland (see map).  I had a busy day and wanted to get a quick bite to eat.  I happened to be near downtown so I stopped in. 

Alcatraz Brewing Company came to Indianapolis in 1995 as part of a group of four A.B.C.'s that were under the California Cafe corporate umbrella.  The original Alcatraz was located in Orange, CA, while two more were in Tempe, AZ and Detroit, MI.  In 2003, California Cafe went bankrupt and the Alcatraz Brewing Companies in Indianapolis and Orange were bought by the Tavistock Restaurant Group, along with six California Cafe locations.  The A.B.C.'s in Detroit and Tempe folded in December of 2003.

Even though both Alcatraz Brewing Companies are under the Tavistock corporate umbrella, they are radically different in both their menus and the selection of beers they make.  Both have sort of the same decor - they're supposed to be reminiscent of the old Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay with steel bars and metal seats throughout the restaurant.  At first glance, you sort of think, "What the hell?"  But the concept works very well.

Omar Castrellon (right - picture courtesy of Indiana Beer) is the head brewmaster at the Alcatraz Brewing Company in Indianapolis.  Omar has been at A.B.C. in Indy since 2002.  Omar got his start in the brewing business working at the old Heidelberg brewery in North Carolina in the early 90's.  He did the grunt work at first before rising to the position of head brewer just before the brewery shut down.  He kicked around at a couple three brewpubs before getting the call to come to Indy.

Omar brews a number of annual and seasonal beers for the Alcatraz in Indianapolis.  He does a very good job at it, as well.  I'm sort of partial to their Pelican Pale Ale - an American pale that has a nice hoppy and citrus taste to it; and what they call The Devil's Ale - a very smooth beer with a light copper color to it that has a light hoppy flavor.

It was around 8 p.m. when I got into Alcatraz Brewing Company.  A couple people were at the host stand and I asked if I could eat at the bar.  Sure, no problem.  So I found a spot at the bar and ordered up a pale ale from the bartender.

I got a menu and began to look over what they had for that evening.  Alcatraz Brewing Company has the standard brew pub fare - appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and salads - but they also feature some nightly specials, as well as some interesting entrees.  The chef at A.B.C. likes to incorporate some of Omar's beers into his recipes such as the beer-battered fish and chips, smoked ribs with a sauce made of the dark ale beer they have, and beer-battered chicken strips. 

One thing that I've had before at the Alcatraz Brewing Company and I wanted it again was the Jambalaya Fettucine with blackened chicken, andouille sausage, and prawns in a spicy Creole cream sauce with fettucine noodles.  I got a house salad along with my order and I was set for food.

Sitting at the bar, you get a good look into the open kitchen area at the Alcatraz Brewing Company.  It was hopping with a lot of activity that evening.  On the wall behind the bar are a couple of flat panel televisions that had games turned on.  I was able to catch some basketball and read some of my paper at the same time. 

Before he brought me out my food, I asked the bartender for a glass of A.B.C.'s October Bock that was featured on the beer board behind the bar.  This Munich Maarzen style of beer had a very smooth malty taste to it.  I thought it would work well with my meal.

Soon thereafter, my bartender brought me out my bowl of the Jambalaya Fettucine.  I couldn't quite tell for sure, but I think my prawns were just plain ol' shrimp.  Of course, I can't really tell the difference between shrimp and prawns.  But they were still good, just the same. 

The andouille sausage was very flavorful.  The blackened chicken didn't have quite the spicy bite I normally expect with blackened food.  But the fettucine and the Creole sauce was very good.  It wasn't overly spicy, but it did have a noticeable bite to it.  It was a very large portion and after picking through the chicken, shrimp and sausage, I still had a lot of fettucine noodles to go through.  I left a few in the bowl.  The meal was a spot-hitter. 

Compared to other brew pubs that I've been to in the past, I have to say Alcatraz Brewing Company compares favorably to the best of them.  The food is good - consistently good.  The beer is also very good.  I think Omar Castrellon does a good job with the beers he brews.  The place can get loud with a lot of people dining and drinking.  But it's comfortable and casual and is a place that I'll continue to go to when I get the chance in the future.

(Update - Alcatraz Brewing Company, which had been in place since the mall opened in 1995, closed in early 2011.  It has been replaced by a California Pizza Kitchen.  I'll withhold my editorial comments on CPK at this time.)

Hampton Inn - West Des Moines

I've been meaning to write about the Hampton Inn in West Des Moines for quite sometime.  I have a number of choices for hotels in the Des Moines area, but my first choice is always the Hampton Inn just off Interstate 80 at Jordan Creek Parkway (see map). 

Probably one of the reasons I've been holding off in writing about the hotel is that it's so popular with business travelers that it can be incredibly tough to get into.  Reservations, sometimes, need to be made more than 10 to 14 days out.  I can't tell you how many times I've decided that I need to spend a night in Des Moines and tried to make reservations even a week out and haven't been able to get in. 

One of the big reasons it's tough to get into is that there are a number of corporate offices in the area, plus the big Jordan Creek Town Center mall and shops are about two miles away to the south.  But the other reason is that it's one of the nicer Hampton Inns I've ever stayed in. 

A number of Hampton Inns have been going to this "art-deco" decor in their rooms featuring furniture and lamps with a 40's and 50's theme to them.  The West Des Moines Hampton Inn was one of the first Hampton Inn's to have the art-deco style of furnishings in their rooms when they first opened in 2003.  It doesn't seem like a Hampton Inn, but it still has all the amenities you expect from a Hampton. 

Over the past year and a half, I've noticed that a lot of hotels have raised their room prices, some as much as 20%.  The Hampton Inn in West Des Moines is no exception.  Room rates average around $119 a night for a king-sized bed study room which is a little larger than the regular room for the same price.  AAA rates can give you a little bit of a discount when AAA rooms are available.  Hampton Inn's complementary breakfasts are included in the price.

About the only problem I have with this Hampton Inn is that there aren't many restaurants in the immediate area.  It's definitely a five minute drive, minimum, to find anything good that isn't a chain or a fast food place.  But for as comfortable the rooms and beds are at the Hampton Inn, it's a bit of a sacrifice that I can put up. 

So, if you're looking for a hotel room in the Des Moines area, try to get into the Hampton Inn in West Des Moines.  But please don't tell other people...      

Guido's Pizzeria and Tapas - St. Louis

Another one of those places that I've driven by many times and always wondered about is Guido's Pizzeria and Tapas on The Hill in St. Louis (see map). It looks like one of the many delightful neighborhood restaurants that The Hill is famous for. So one evening while I was in St. Louis recently, I thought I'd stop in and give it a try.

I walked in and looked at the small bar area wondering if I would be able to eat at the bar. But the seats - about 10 of them - were all taken. I was soon met at the host stand by Miguel Carretero, the owner. It was about 9 p.m. and I asked, "Is it too late to get dinner?"

He said, "No sir. We're open until 11 p.m. Come on in, we'll get you fed."

Miguel's father, Segundo, was from Spain and emigrated with his family to the U.S. in the 60's. After working for the upscale Tony's restaurant in downtown St. Louis for 18 years, Segundo Carretero opened up his own place - Guido's, which was Miguel's nickname his friends had placed upon him. (He was named Guido after the Saturday Night Live character Father Guido Sarducci whom Miguel supposedly looked like). Over the years, the Carretero's opened three Guido's around the city specializing primarily in Italian food.

In 2000, the Carretero's consolidated their restaurants into one Guido's on The Hill. Miguel Carretero decided that he'd like to introduce the Spanish bar food known as tapas to St. Louis to celebrate the family's Spanish heritage. Initially on Friday and Saturday nights, Miguel's mother, Genoveva, made the tapas. Now, the tapas are available on a nightly basis.

But I was more interested in trying their pizza. Miguel Carretero showed me to a table in their brightly lit dining room and gave me a menu. He said my waiter, Charles, would be with me in a moment.

There were a handful of people in the place, including a couple guys who were talking in Spanish with Miguel at a table, and a group of about 10 who were eating tapas and talking in Spanish at a table near me. I figured they may be Spanish natives as they were all eating tapas at the table.

I was sort of impressed with the variety of tapas they had on the menu. Our daughter, Sara, lived and studied in Spain for nearly a year and I knew she'd be impressed, too, with what they had for their tapas. Considering they only started out with about 6 or 8 items when they first began to offer tapas when they opened at this location, they had one whole menu page devoted to cold and hot tapas - about 30 items in all. The tapas were tempting, but I wanted pizza that night.

Guido's pizza is the thin crust variety St. Louis-style pizza is famous for. However, you have your choice of either using the St. Louis-style Provel cheese, or going with mozzarella. I decided that I'd go with a 12" (which is a medium size) Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom - my old stand-by - with mozzarella. Charles took my order and said it would be ready in about 20 minutes.

And right at about 20 minutes later, my pizza showed up. It had the bubbly, crunchy crust that I like. The sausage on top were the big chunks - just as I like it. The pepperoni and mushrooms were very flavorful and fresh - just as I like it. And the sauce was a wonderful blend of sweet and tangy, maybe just a little too sweet, though. It was a great pizza, quite possibly the best one I've ever had in St. Louis. It was no problem finishing the whole thing.

After I finished, as I was getting up to leave, Miguel Carretero excused himself from a conversation and walked over to me to see if everything was fine. I told him, "It was great. Your pizza was wonderful. The sauce is just a little too sweet for me, but I still like it."

He said the sauce was homemade and was from a family recipe his mother came up with. I wasn't going to argue with him. It was a minor quibble on my part.

He asked if it was my first time in and I said it was, but I'd driven by many times. He asked if I was from the area and I said, no, I was from Iowa. He said, "Iowa!? You in town on business?"

I told him I was and he said, "Well, I hope you come back to see us when you come back to St. Louis."

I said, "Well, as often as I make it to St. Louis, you'll probably see me in here a few times in the future."

Guido's Pizzeria and Tapas was just named the Best Cheap Italian Food restaurant by the Riverfront Times, the local St. Louis weekly entertainment paper. I'm glad I finally went in. The price of my pizza was reasonable, the taste was wonderful, the service impeccable and I really felt that Miguel Carretero cared about his clientele. Now that I know how good the pizza is at Guido's, I'll be back. And I may even want to try the tapas at some point, too.

(Update March 2012 - And I have been back to Guido's a number of times. Although the pizza sauce is still a little too sweet for my taste, the pizza and other food at Guido's continues to be top notch. And a good value.)

El Jardin Norte - Glenview, IL

During our trip last November into Chicago to see the Iowa/Northwestern football game with our friends Scott and Marcia Schroeder, and Dave and Pat Heusmann, we decided to find a good Mexican restaurant for our meal the second night we were there.   On a whim, I found El Jardin Norte, a little Mexican restaurant in The Glen Town Center - a residential and commercial subdivision that was developed on the former site of the old Glenview Naval Air Station. (see map)

El Jardin Norte is the outgrowth of the original El Jardin that's located on North Clark in Chicago near Wrigley Field (see map).  El Jardin has been in business since 1966 when three sisters from Mexico opened the restaurant.  They immediately found a large following of their family's signature Mexican dishes and great margaritas.  Over the years, they had to expand a number of times as their business grew.  Today, the grandson of one of the sisters, Augustine Quinondes, runs the restaurants. 

The El Jardin (which is "The Garden in English) restaurants are not only famous for their authentic Mexican food, but for their large selection of premium tequila's and world class margaritas.  Dave Heusmann is a connoisseur of fine tequila, so he was in heaven. 

I was a little worried about El Jardin Norte as from the outside it looked sort of large.  I'm of the mindset the smaller the Mexican restaurant, the better the food.  But going inside the restaurant, my fears dwindled as I saw a cozy little place with a nice bar and a not so large attached dining area.  The host, who was a very nice man, told us that it would be about 45 minutes to get seated.  Well, that just gave Dave time to walk over to the bar and check out the top-shelf tequila collection.

El Jardin Norte's margarita menu is pretty extensive with a number of interesting drinks.  The women got margaritas that had top shelf tequila, Grand Marnier or Blue Curacao in them.  I tried a Cadillac Margarita - Jose Cuervo Especial with Grand Marnier and lemon juice.  It was very good. 

During all of this, Dave was trying a couple of different tequila's.  I don't think there was one El Jardin Norte had that he hadn't tried.  I took a couple of sips of the ones that he got.  They were really smooth.

We were able to look over the menu while we waited.  The food listed was definitely authentic and it all looked yummy.   They're famous for their Carne Asada - a marinated skirt steak cooked over charcoal.  In fact, a lot of their main entrees came from the grill including pork and chicken.  They also had grilled red snapper tacos, as well.  I was leaning toward getting those. 

About 25 minutes after we got in to the very busy bar area, the host came over and said that he had a table for us.  A large party had left and they were setting tables up for us and a couple other groups.  The host was certainly accommodating and was very nice.   

We were seated toward the back of the restaurant along the wall.  We immediately got chips and salsa and ended up ordering their homemade guacamole.  The waiter came back out and said, "Oh, we just ran out of guacamole."  We were sort of bummed and resigned ourselves to the fact that we could just have chips and salsa. 

Suddenly, the host - who must have also been the manager - came back to our table and said, "Did you folks order guacamole?"  We said we did.  He said, "We had a batch hiding in the cooler in the kitchen.  We'll bring some out if you still want it."  And, once again, we said we did.  And I'm glad we got the guacamole.  It was very fresh and flavorful.

I was in a quandary as to what to get for dinner.  Everything looked great.  The pork tips in the green sauce was tempting, as were the red snapper tacos.  They had spicy enchiladas with a special spicy sauce from San Luis Potosi, the hometown of the three sisters who opened the original El Jardin.  Just the regular enchiladas sounded good. 

At the last moment, I saw they had a combination plate where you had your pick of three of either a taco, tostada, chimichanga and a burrito.  And you could pick your ingredients from beef, pork, chorizo sausage, chicken, etc.  So, I ordered a pork taco and burrito, and got the beef chimichanga.  Beans and rice came with the meal on the side. 

When our meals came a little later on, it was like Mexican heaven.  My pork taco and burrito was wonderful, the beef chimichanga was just as good.  Everyone's meal at the table was exceptional.  I don't remember what everyone got, but they all raved about the food.  It was simply excellent. 

Other than the high prices of the margaritas, I thought the food prices at El Jardin Norte were very reasonable.  It was a great find and it's a place that I'll definitely be going back to sometime in the future.   

Beef House - Covington, IN

Just inside the Indiana line east of Danville, IL is one of the more famous Midwestern steak houses - the Beef House.  The restaurant is just off of Interstate 74 at the Covington exit (Exit 4 - see map).  I was on my way to Indianapolis recently (I've been going to Indy a lot for business) and I stopped and had dinner at the Beef House.

I've eaten there a couple three times before my recent visit.  The Beef House has been around since 1964 when Warren Wright- a beef rancher in Western Indiana - opened a hamburger place as an outlet to use some of the beef he raised.  Warren's son, Bob Wright, graduated from Purdue three years later and joined his father in the restaurant.  By this time, steaks had been added to the menu and the restaurant had expanded.  In 1975, Bob designed and built the ranch-style Beef House at its present day location. 

The Beef House is not only famous for their steaks, but for their homemade yeast rolls.  I will have to say the rolls are pretty damn good.  You can actually buy the rolls and bake them at home.  I may have to stop in there sometime and grab some to bring home.

Having just crossed over into the Eastern Time Zone, it was 8:30 local time when I walked into the Beef House.  Walking past a huge meat case filled with cut steaks, I was met by a hostess who led me to my seat.  The main dining area was about half full with customers and they had closed the divider wall that cuts the main dining area in half.  The hostess sat me at a table and gave me the menu.

Of course, the drawing card at the Beef House is steaks, steaks and more steaks.  They're famous for their rib eye steaks and offer five different sizes in cuts from 8 ounces up to 20 ounces.  They have filet tenderloin cuts, strip steaks that you can either order marinated or plain, and a 20 oz. T-bone steak.  They also have pork chops, chicken, seafood and pasta.

I decided to go with their rib eye - the 16 oz size.  With that I got a side of rice and a trip to their salad bar, too.  And, of course, I got a basket of their signature rolls, as well.

After going through the large salad bar and eating one of their rather large rolls, my waiter brought out my steak and rice.  It was a very thick cut - over an inch thick - and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare.  It actually looked larger than a 16 oz. cut.  I knew I wasn't going to walk away hungry from this meal.

The steak was good, not outstanding, but good.  I've had better steaks at other places, including at my home.  But most of Beef House's beef comes from the Wright family cattle operation.  And everyone knows the best beef (and pork) is grown in Iowa and not in Indiana.  (That's a mild joke, but then again, it's not.  I'm sort of provincial when it comes to Iowa beef and pork.)

The Beef House wasn't cheap - with the steak, a couple beers and tip, the bill came to a bit over $45 bucks.  And I was offered to take the extra rolls in my basket home with me, but since I was traveling I didn't want to take them.

I will say the Beef House is good.  It's not the best steak house I've ever eaten at, but I can see why it's been in business for over 40 years.  It does a good job with what it is and it's a favorite destination for a lot of people.  If you get a chance to stop by the Beef House at some point, you've got to try it at least once.   

The Iowa Caucus

Iowa's "first in the nation" status for the 2008 Presidential election comes to a head tonight as a number of people travel to polling places across the state to pick their preference as to who they think they'd like as the next President in the Iowa Caucus.  After some date-jockeying and saber rattling by other states who wanted to cash in on Iowa's prestige as having the first test of the Presidential campaign, Iowa settled on January 3 as the day of their caucus.   And I'm glad it's finally here because the electioneering going on has been absolutely stifling. 

The Iowa Caucus does give Iowa some national - and some global - notoriety as candidates, election workers, volunteers, and reporters have descended on the state.  And they've been here for a long time - some have been here for over a year.  To me, it's all ridiculous. 

We've been bombarded with political ads, mailings, phone surveys, push polls, volunteers knocking on the door, the whole shebang.  While it's exciting to some, it's tiresome to me.  I'm a pretty apolitical person, definitely not wanting to wear my political allegiances on my sleeve.  A lot of this political posturing is usually pointless after all the dust is settled.  And this year, with a lot of states moving up the date of their primary elections, the dust will be settling by early March. 

But the length of time leading up to the Iowa Caucus is a boon to the state's media outlets.  I was told earlier this week that KWQC-TV here in Davenport took in a bit over $5 million in election ad revenue in 2007.   The candidates have spent a lot of money in this state and it's no wonder why other states would like to have a crack at being the first in the nation for the Presidential election.

One other thing that I won't miss are the numerous articles in weekly magazines, newspapers and on Internet sites that depict Iowans as hayseeds who live in a God-awful boring place.  Most of those writers are from the east and west coast who are sentenced to come out to Iowa to cover the campaigns.  Look, I know Iowa doesn't have the glitz of New York or Los Angeles, but it's a great place to live.  Well, it's a great place to live nine months out of the year especially with a hard winter like we've seen so far this season.          

I won't be going to either the Democratic or Republican caucuses tonight.  And I'll be happy when life in Iowa - as we know it - gets back to normal. 

Hunter's Club - Rock Island

Hunter's Club in Rock Island has been around since 1931 and is a historic icon in the Quad Cities.  They have been under new ownership for a little over a year now, but we hadn't been in since the old owners were in charge.  We decided to go over for lunch on a Saturday a while back and see what it was like.

Hunter's Club is famous for their hamburgers, garnering "Best of the Quad Cities" for a number of years in a row back in the 90's.  They would charbroil them on a grill just behind the bar and the smell of the burgers would just hit you when you walked in the door.  But the new owners did extensive remodeling on the place and the grill is now back in the kitchen area opening up more room behind the bar.

Bill Hunter, Sr., founded Hunter's in downtown Rock Island (see map) as a speakeasy toward the end of Prohibition.  When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Hunter's Club became the second establishment to receive an Illinois state liquor license.  The first bar was in Chicago, but it has long since gone out of business.  Hunter's now holds the oldest state liquor license in Illinois.   

(As an aside - if you saw my post on the old Berghoff restaurant and bar here, they were the holder of Chicago liquor license numbers one and two, but not the first two State of Illinois licenses.)

Bill Hunter, Sr., put the charbroiler in the restaurant in 1956 after visiting a restaurant in downtown Chicago that featured burgers cooked over an open flame.  It was the first flame-broiled burger in the Quad Cities.

Hunter's son, Bill, Jr., took over the operation and ran it until the mid-80's when it was bought by Todd and Debbie Mosenfelder.  The Mosenfelder's continued the legacy of the great charbroiled burgers and added other items to the menu including full dinners and new sandwiches.  They also started having live jazz music on the weekends featuring a number of local jazz musicians.

In 2002, the Mosenfelder's sold the business to Alan Mosley who ran the business for four years, slowly running it into the ground.  He eventually closed the doors of Hunter's Club in August of 2006, but the place was almost immediately bought by two Quad City men - Mark Polaschek and Ray McDevitt, who used to own Dalton's in downtown Davenport. 

Polaschek and McDevitt spent over $500,000 dollars in renovating Hunter's Club and it really needed it.  They cleaned the place up, replacing the old ceiling, putting in new windows and a better ventilation system.  They upgraded the entraces in front and on the side where the parking lot is.  And they revamped the kitchen offering more space in which to work. 

The one thing they didn't want to do was to screw with the success of the burgers, something that suffered with the previous owner.  I have to say that I was disappointed the last couple times I went to Hunter's to get a burger.  It was generally over-cooked and lifeless.  And I hadn't been back for nearly two years. 

We tried to go there one time last summer on a Sunday as they used to have burger basket specials on Sunday.  But the new owners decided to close on Sundays, so they're open from Monday thru Saturday.  I don't believe they do the live jazz music on weekends either as the area where the musicians would play is now full of coolers.

Cindy and I went in on a snowy Saturday afternoon around 1:30.  Hunter's Club was defintely cleaned up and much more bright and less smoky than the old place.  But the smell of burgers cooking on the grill wasn't as prevalent as it used to be. 

We sat in one of the old original booths the new owners kept in the restaurant and the lady waitress came over and asked for drink orders.  I got a beer and Cindy got a pop. 

I took a quick look at the menu, which had been revamped, but still prominently featured the burgers.  The Hunter Burger is a half-pound chargrilled burger that comes with lettuce, pickle, onion and tomato.  It's 50 cents more for cheese.  A buck more if you want bacon or sauteed mushrooms. 

Cindy just got the straight Hunter Burger, cooked well done (Yuck!  She just loves having the life cooked out of her burgers.)  I got a Hunter Burger - medium - with pepperjack cheese and sauteed mushrooms.  With the burgers, you get a basket of fries and a 2 oz. container of cole slaw. 

It wasn't more than about 15 minutes later and the waitress brought out our burgers.  The sauteed mushrooms were the canned kind.  They were OK, but I wish they would have been a little more fresh.

But, still, they didn't detract from the taste of the burger.  From the first bite, I was in heaven.  Hamburger heaven.  My burger was juicy and flavorful.  The bun was light and tasty.  The toppings - including raw red onions - weren't overpowering.  I couldn't get over how great this burger tasted. 

Cindy even thought her overcooked burger was very good.  I could smell the charred odor from across the table.  But she liked it and was happy with the taste.

The fries were OK, nothing special.  The cole slaw had kind of a fishy smell to them.  They could have easily added a few more fries and deep-sixed the cole slaw.  That would have been fine by me.

Well, I used to think Jack's Locust Street Tap had the best burger in the Quad Cities.  I still have an affinity for Jack's and their burgers, but I'm afraid I have to say that I don't think I've ever had a better burger in the Quad Cities than the one I had that afternoon at Hunter's Club.  I'll have to go back a couple more times to make sure they're consistent.  Then I'll make the final determination as to which one is better.

But right now, I have to say it's Hunter's Club.

Update - As I usually write these blog entries days in advance, a rather disturbing revelation came my way last Saturday.  I was in dire need of a good cheeseburger for lunch and I drove over to Hunter's Club.  As I walked up to the door, I saw a handwritten sign that said, "Hunter's Club Will No Longer Be Serving Food." 

I about crapped on the spot.  I wondered what the deal was.  Well, I found out yesterday in this article in the Quad City Times.  The owners felt the restaurant business was not profitable and their turning it into a sort of convenience store.  I'm really bummed because I wanted to try one of their cheeseburgers to see if it would be as good as the last one. 

So by default, Jack's goes back to having the best cheeseburger in the Quad Cities.  And I'll be having lunch there today.