Road Tips

Sweet Baby Ray's - Elk Grove, IL

Since 1985, Dave Raymond has been making his distinctive barbecue sauce that was gleaned from a long time family recipe.  In the mid-90's, along with Raymond's brother and a close friend, they began to market the sauce, called Sweet Baby Ray's, a name that Raymond's older brother gave him during pickup basketball games when they were younger. 

Over the years, Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce showed up on grocery shelves across the Midwest.  It has now grown to be the second best selling barbecue sauce in the nation.  To be quite frank with you, Sweet Baby Ray's sauce is pretty middle of the road, if you ask me. 

However, a few years ago, Raymond sold the sauce business.  He continued to do catering, and participated in the annual "Taste of Chicago" food festival in Grant Park.  In 2005, Raymond opened his first barbecue place - Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue - in suburban Wood Dale, IL (see map).  A couple years later, Raymond opened a second location in suburban Elk Grove (see map).

Raymond employed chef Paul Papadopoulas to oversee the menu at his restaurants.  Papadopoulas worked as an intern at NoLa,
Emeril Lagasee's famous New Orleans restaurant.  Papadopoulas eventually made his way to Chicago and worked as a chef at the Heaven on Seven restaurants.  When he hired an intern who turned out to be Raymond's nephew, he found out that Raymond was looking to open a barbecue restaurant.   Papadopoulas contacted Raymond and became the executive chef for Sweet Baby Ray's.  Papadopoulas brought along a number of Cajun recipes with him to go with the barbecue menu. 

It was a weekday evening when I was in the western suburbs of Chicago recently.  I was looking for someplace new to give a try and I remembered seeing a Sweet Baby Ray's when I was driving near the hotel.  Even though I'm not a big fan of their sauce, I wanted to give their barbecue a try.  I ended up at the Wood Dale location and went inside for some food.

Sweet Baby Ray's Wood Dale location is pretty small, it only seats 36 people.  (As an aside, I understand they've purchased property next to the Wood Dale location and are looking to expand the restaurant.)  You order from the menu at the front counter and they'll bring it to your seat. 

In addition to their barbecue platters, Sweet Baby Ray's sells a number of specialty sandwiches, including a burger, pulled pork sandwich, a shrimp po' boy, and a Cuban sandwich.  And some of their side dishes were pretty interesting.  In addition to the normal sides you find at most barbecue places, they also had red beans and rice, green chile macaroni and cheese, and a Cajun-style creamed corn dish. 

I ordered the combo plate of brisket and pulled pork with a side of their baked beans and cole slaw (although the green chile mac and cheese sounded interesting).   A piece of corn bread also came with the meal.  I'm not big on corn bread, but it came with it so I took it.  I got a cold beer while I waited at my table for the food.

About ten minutes passed before they brought out my dinner on a plate served on top of a tin tray.  I wouldn't say the portions Sweet Baby Ray's served were huge, but ample enough for that evening.  The beef brisket was tender and flavorful.  And I liked the pulled pork, as well.  The beans were OK, at best.  I added a little bit of the Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce to the beans to try to give 'em a little bit of zip, but it didn't help.  And the cole slaw was also OK, but nothing special.

Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue was good.  Not the best I've ever had, but it was acceptable for the Chicago area.  I don't know if they have any other flavors of Sweet Baby Ray's sauce.  Something a little more spicy would have given the food a little more flavor.  But on it's own, the beef and pork were good.  My recommendation is to give it a try, but not to go out of your way to do so. 

The Death of Paul Newman

The death of the great actor Paul Newman yesterday will leave a large void in the cinematic world.  I was a big fan of Newman and his movies and I watched him grow older on the big screen.  One of Newman's true passions in life was car racing and my friend, Steve Somermeyer, who is the Chief of Safety for the pits and garage area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, got to know Newman over the years working with the Newman/Haas race team at a number of Indianapolis 500's.  In the following post, Steve shares some memories he had of Paul Newman:

One of my favorite race car owners, Paul Newman, died yesterday from long bout with cancer at the age of 83.  I got acquainted with him years ago while I was working in the pits for the Indy 500.  While his co-owner, Carl Haas, was very visible and recognizable due to his large unlit cigar always in his mouth, Paul would be dressed in faded jeans and jacket with a cap and sunglasses on.  Because he was so small (5'7" or so and very slim) and just blended into the crowd, very few fans (and quite a few pit personnel) realized who he was.  

  

He was almost never asked for an autograph because no one knew he was there.  At several 500's his wife, Joanne Woodward, attended and many folks recognized her but Paul escaped attention even if he was standing beside her.

 

Of course, the time he showed up at the reception desk at Eli Lilly when discussing a car sponsorship deal with the company, the receptionist immediately recognized him, was awestruck, and could hardly speak.  Word spread quickly and I believe that he exited the headquarters through the freight entrance.

 

He was always followed the rules and never acted offended when a Safety Patrol member asked him for his credentials or to step back.  The racing community really respected him since he was a fellow racer.  Even at the age of 80+, he could still hustle a high-powered 'Vette or 'Z' around a course
.

I would chat with him during 'down times' and he was very down-to-earth.  Paul loved dirty jokes so I made an effort to always have a new one for him every day if I could.  The jokes would usually get a big laugh from him and then within minutes he'd be retelling it to a crew member or two.

 

When the IRL and CART split, missing him for a number of years at the Speedway was one of the worst outcomes of that racing disagreement.  Paul was very angry at Tony George over the split.

 

When he appeared this last May at the Speedway for just a couple of days, it was evident that he was ill.  He and Tony had made peace and I thought it was a nice gesture that the Speedway named Paul's Hole In The Wall camps the official camp of the Speedway.  I assume that the Speedway/Hulman-George family made a contribution to them.

 

Here is a link to some other racing memories of him from AutoWeek:

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080927/FREE/809279997/1508/newsletter02

 

Paul Newman left some big footprints on this earth.  He'll be missed.

A Return to 2 Mit Burgers - Elkader, IA

One of the first posts I had on the blog nearly three years ago had to do with 2 Mit Burgers in Elkader, IA, except I called it "Two Mits".  2 Mit is tough to explain other than it's a seasonal hamburger stand that steams the meat on a special grill, rather than fully frying the meat.  It makes the burger exceptionally most and flavorful.  And it's damn good.

Since 1980, 2 Mit burgers has been located in a small lot on the corner of Bridge St. and Iowa Highway 56 (see map).   It's nothing more than a little trailer and it's only open four days a week April to October - from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday; 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.   That's because the owners have full time jobs. 

Cindy and I hadn't been to 2 Mit for about 4 years, we figured.  It was the start of our vacation and we were at a small family reunion in Volga, not far from Elkader.  I purposely didn't eat much at the reunion because I knew that a 2 Mit burger was about 10 miles up the road.  

When we pulled into Elkader, Cindy said, "Where are we going?"

I said, "I want a 2 Mit burger."  She thought I was kidding.  I said, "No, I'm not.  That's why I only ate a couple things at the reunion."

Here's Cindy getting ready to order at 2 Mits.  We were there around 2 p.m. and in all the years we've been coming to the place this was the first time there was NO ONE in line.  Usually, we'll find a long line of people either getting ready to order their burgers or waiting to pick them up. 

This is the menu at 2 Mits.  It's not much - just burgers or cheeseburgers. They also have brats and hot dogs.  Actually, their hot dogs are pretty damn good.  I had one a few years ago and I was very impressed with it. 

When you order a cheeseburger, you say, "I'll take one mit."  Mit, I've been told by people who grew up in the area, is close to "with" in Norwegian, or it's what the Norwegian settlers in the area used to say instead of with.   Either way, we ordered "2 mit", with melted cheese on top of the burger.

How they cook the 2 Mit burgers is unique.  They have a grill in the front of the trailer and it a ridge around the front and sides.  The grill is covered with a concoction of water, spices and onions.  The burgers are them hand-pattied and tossed on the grill to steam in the water.  It keeps the burgers moist and juicy.  They usually cook a couple three dozen at a time because they're always people stopping in.

Now, I have to say that 2 Mits is not the first place I had this style of burger.  Year's ago, Cindy and I were in Prairie Du Chien, WI and she took me to Pete's Hamburger Stand.  It's very similar to 2 Mits, only bigger and older.  Pete Gokey began to serve steamed burgers in a small portable cart in Prairie du Chien in 1909.  Gokey passed away in 1971, but his place, which is now in a small permanent stand, lived on.  Cindy said she used to come up to Pete's with her parents when they would be visiting relatives in NE Iowa when she was younger.  I've tried the Pete's burger, then had the 2 Mits.  While Pete's may have the legacy and the history, I think 2 Mits is better. 

Here's our finished 2 Mit burgers.  They topped them off with the grilled/steamed onions and served on foil.  By the time we got our burgers, there were five more people waiting for theirs.  It doesn't take long for a line to form at 2 Mits. 

Since it had been over four years since we'd last had one, it was a great taste sensation.  Cindy was sort of mad at me.  "I'm not that hungry," she protested.  "I wish you would have told me this is what you were planning on doing so I wouldn't have eaten as much at the reunion."  She was able to eat a little over half of hers and I eagerly took the remnants of hers and wolfed it down.    

A 2 Mit burger is something that everyone should try if they get a chance to get to NE Iowa.   With fall coming on, the foliage is beautiful in that area and a 2 Mit burger on a Sunday afternoon would be a great reason to go see the changing leaves and to get a very good burger. 

Door County

I was all set to hang around home during my vacation this past August, but Cindy had other ideas.  She said she needed to get away for a few days and she suggested we go up to Door County in Wisconsin.  I looked into finding a place to stay and we took off for four or five days. 

Door County (see map) is the little "thumb" that sticks up and out of the state of Wisconsin with Lake Michigan on one side and Green Bay on the other side.  It's probably the number one vacation destination in Wisconsin with a lot of people from Chicago and Milwaukee having vacation homes in the area. 

Cindy and I spent a day in Door County just driving around once a number of years ago.  The area has a series of small towns and villages that feature shops, restaurants, and little inns and hotels.  We actually stayed in Sturgeon Bay at the base of the county and ended up driving the length of Door County nearly every day we were there. 

This time in Door Count, we ate at a lot of great restaurants, we witnessed an authentic Door County fish boil, and we did some shopping and looking around.  After we saw everything there was to see, it was time to go.  Cindy said she'd like to go back again sometime and just hang at a hotel or in one of the small towns for a few days. 

One of the places we went to during our trip to Door County was a re-visit to the Cana Island Lighthouse.  When we were in Door County about 11 years ago, it was during a vacation where Cindy and I were driving around the Great Lakes and taking pictures of lighthouses.  Cindy was studying art at the time and she wanted to paint pictures of lighthouses.  We took a lot of pictures of some pretty neat lighthouses and Cana Island was one of the best lighthouses we saw. 

When we were at Cana Island years ago, we parked at the end of a road and there was a shallow strip of water between the mainland and the island.  It was - at most - ankle deep.  There was a guy on an ATV who was charging people $5 bucks a head to go across to the island.  I was being cheap at the time and Cindy and I decided to walk in the water.  We both had a couple pair of old shoes in the car that we put on and we waded across.  Other than the water being a little cold, it was an easy walk.  And it also encouraged others to say, "Screw you!" to the guy on the ATV and walk across to Cana Island.

When we pulled up to the access to the island this time, we discovered that the water level of Lake Michigan had dropped over the years and it exposed the rocky causeway across to the island.  In fact, the level of Lake Michigan has dropped about four feet since we were there years ago.  It certainly put the guy on the ATV out of business.

The Cana Island lighthouse has been in existence since 1869.  It was automated in 1944 and was taken over by the Door County Maritime Museum in the early 70's and opened to the public for tours.  The United States Coast Guard maintains the light.  The Maritime Museum offers tour of the lightkeeper's house and allows people to go to the top of the tower.  It was kind of nice to be out there and we were the only people on the island (or is now a peninsula?).   Well, except for a family on bikes that came out and then left when Cindy threatened them.  (No, no, no...  She didn't threaten them directly, but she did voice her displeasure to me when they rode up and interrupted a very tranquil evening at the lighthouse.)

We walked around the rocky beach area behind the lighthouse getting pictures and watching the waves come in from the lake.  The weather was just gorgeous they whole time we were in Door County.  We saw a number of storms all around us during the week, including this storm that was off to the north of us that evening on Cana Island.  But we didn't get a drip of rain the whole time we were there.  Temps were in the mid-70's in the daytime and the low-50's at night.  It was great for mid-August.

Here's a shot of the lighthouse from the backside on the beach.  Of all the places we went to during our trip over 10 years ago to take pictures of lighthouses, we agreed the Cana Island lighthouse was the nicest.

Coming up, I'll give my impressions of some of the places we went to and ate at while we were in Door County.  It turned out to be a really nice experience and a nice place to vacation.

Carlton Hotel - Lyon

During our trip to France for Focal loudspeakers, they put us up in three hotels in the heart of Lyon.  Since I'm not a smoker, they put me in the Mercure Carlton Hotel, an ornate old hotel that caters to non-smokers.  The hotel sits right in between the Rhone and Saone rivers in the center of Lyon (see map).  The hotel is an Accor property, the largest chain of hotels in Europe.  Actually, I think I've stayed in nothing but Accor hotels on my trips to Europe. 

The Carlton, which was built in 1892, offers 83 rooms that range in price from about 89 Euros to 179 Euros a night (about $135 to $275 a night).  They had a list of a number of celebrities and dignitaries who have stayed at the hotel over the years.  I only recognized a handful of the names listed. 

I got a standard room with a small watercloset, a bed that literally filled up the room, and a large bathroom with a full bath and a bidet.  The air conditioner was lousy and I had to close off the doors to the bathroom and water closet just to get it comfortable in the room at night. 

One of the weird things about the bathroom at the Carlton was that the tub/shower had no shower curtain.  Here's the picture of the shower.  It was sort of tricky to not get water all over the bathroom.  The walls and floor had a very heavy tile on them and it could stand getting water splashed all around.  But it was all I could do to keep from making a big mess in the bathroom.  I was joking with one of my colleagues when I said I wanted to sell shower curtains to hotels in France.  I'd retire a multi-millionaire. 

The Carlton's lobby and bar area offers a lot of old world charm.  We spent a lot of time socializing in the bar and it was very comfortable and inviting.  The lighting was subdued, there was artwork and bunting on the walls and the architecture was pure French with a theater and opera theme to the room.  There was an old Yamaha piano in the bar that could either play pre-downloaded music, or could be played manually.  One of our dealers from Dayton, OH showed his prowess on the piano by playing a couple selections one evening.   It turned out that he had studied at Juilliard and had even played on stage at Carnegie Hall.  He was a very talented dude.     

One of the more neat old world things about the Carlton was it's elevator, or as they call it in Europe, the lift.  It was an open elevator and you had to manually close an outer door gate and then shut the two inside doors before the elevator would work.  The problem is that if someone got out on an upper floor and didn't close the outside gate to the elevator, the elevator didn't move.  That happened a couple times while we were there.  And it's a long walk up and down the Carlton's stairs.  The above picture is my colleague, Jon Baker, getting into the elevator and closing the outer gate. 

The bedroom area and the bathroom in my room had these floor to ceiling windowed doors that opened up and afforded a great view of the bustling street below.  It was really kind of neat to open the doors and get an outside feeling to the room.  It was like the room doubled in size when the doors were opened. 

Just down the street from the Carlton - actually in the same building as the hotel - is one of the most celebrated restaurants not only in Lyon, but all of France - Restaurant Nicholas Le Bec.  Chef Nicholas Le Bec is world renown chef whose seven course meals start at around $120 Euros ($175 bucks).  I actually had a chance to join John Barnes, the owner of Audio Unlimited in Denver, for lunch one day.  But I ended up passing as it would have been $100 bucks without wine and/or drinks, and would have probably been a three hour lunch. 

Still, the Carlton Hotel was in the middle of most of the main attractions in Lyon.   Other than some of the funkiness in the room itself, the hotel was a good place to stay.

Axel's Bonfire - Minneapolis

While I usually hate having layovers in airports, for some reason I really enjoy spending some time at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  One of the reasons is the good food at Axel's Bonfire, a restaurant in the main terminal.

The main terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul is sort of like the terminal at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.  There are a number of shops and restaurants throughout the building.  It looks more like a shopping mall than an airport terminal.  There's a trendy ladies clothing store called Radio Road, a Nevada Bob's golf pro shop, and a Harley-Davidson store.  And throughout the airport, there are nearly 50 different restaurants, cafes, deli's, fast food and specialty food outlets. 

It's been awhile since I'd been to Minneapolis-St. Paul International and I had a three-hour layover after coming back from France this summer.  After a night of about two hours of sleep, a 4 a.m. wake up call, a 4:30 a.m. trip to the airport in Lyon, then about 10 hours of being on a plane (with a layover in Amsterdam), I was ready for some good old American food.  The walk from customs thru the terminals to Axel's Bonfire is quite long, but it was worth it to me.  Although it was 12:30 in the afternoon in Minneapolis, it was 7:30 p.m. body time.  Food and beer is what I needed.

Axel's Bonfire at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport is actually part of a family of Axel's fine dining restaurants around the Twin Cities.  There are five Axel's restaurants, while there are six Axel's Bonfire restaurants in the area, not counting the one at Minneapolis-St. Paul International.  The Axel's Bonfire restaurants feature American-style cuisine with a touch of Southwestern flair.  Many of Axel's Bonfire's selections are cooked over an open fire using Mesquite.  They offer everything from steaks and seafood, to pizza and sandwiches.  If you can't find something good to eat on an Axel's Bonfire menu, you're probably not too hungry.

The history of Axel's Bonfire and Axel's restaurants began in 1996 when Linda Young and Chuck Burrows opened the first Axel's restaurant in Mendota - Axel's River Grille - which formerly housed the old Parker House restaurant that both Linda and Chuck used to work at years before.  Linda named the restaurant after her father Axel Young, who was a long-time maintenance man at the Parker House restaurant.  Later, Young and Burrows opened their second restaurant - Axel's Steakhouse - in the former Riviera restaurant, a long-time prestigious restaurant in the Twin Cities.     

Over the years, more Axel's restaurants opened and the Axel's Bonfire concept became a reality.  Young and Burrows began to franchise the Axel's restaurants, but continued to give direct support to the franchisees.  Earlier this year, Young and Burrows sold the Axel's restaurants and Axel's Bonfire locations, as well as as all franchise licensing, to the Twin Cities-based Nath Companies which is involved with restaurant, hotel and real estate holdings in the area.  

The Axel's Bonfire at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport was typically busy that early Sunday afternoon.  I found a place at the bar and the waitress got me a cold beer and a menu.  As I said, the offerings at Axel's Bonfire are plentiful with soups, sandwiches, seafood, steaks, salads, pasta, pizza - about anything you want.  I went with the old reliable - the Bonfire Burger - a 1/2 pound fresh ground burger topped with in-house smoked ham slices, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and swiss cheese.  I got an order of fries on the side.

It wasn't much more than 15 minutes later when my burger showed up.  It was cooked to a perfect medium and the roasted red pepper, smoked ham and mushrooms really added a great taste kick to the burger.  After eating rich and very good food in France the previous few days, it was good to get some good ol' American food in my gut.  

I've yet to eat at any of the other Axel or Axel's Bonfire restaurants in the area, but I'd really like to give them a try sometime down the line.  If they're as good as the one at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, then the food has to be top notch.         

 

Zorbaz on the Lake - Detroit Lakes, MN

I have a dealer in Fargo, ND who haz raved for almozt az long az I've known him about the pizza at Zorbaz on the Lake in Detroit Lakez, MN.  When I vizited him earlier this zummer, he took me on a 45 mile drive out to Zorbaz on the main lake in Detroit Lakez (zee map).

As you can already zee, I'm in the zpirit of Zorbaz az every time you use an "s" at Zorbaz, they turn it into a "z".  It'z a univerzal thing for the eight Zorbaz locationz acrozz Central and Weztern Minnezota.

The Zorbaz in Detroit Lakez is the original location of the eight in exiztance today.  Tom Hanzon opened the first Zorbaz in Detroit Lakez in 1969.  He decided to name it after Zorba the Greek, a popular movie in the 60'z ztaring Zero Moztel.  Like the Zorba in the movie, Hanzon wanted the place to be fun loving and care free.  Over the yearz, Zorbaz expanded to zeven other locationz on area lakez in Weztern and Central Minnezota.  Four of the eight locationz are opened year round.

We got out to Zorbaz around 8 p.m. and the outzide beer garden was packed.  There waz a band playing Zouthern rock clazzicz.  There were familiez having dinner and a number of zummertime partierz in the crowd.  The plaze waz kind of electric.

(I have to tell you - it'z a pain in the azz to change every "s" to a "z"!)\

We grabbed a table outzide and looked over the menu.  My dealer'z favorite pizza iz called, zimply, Zorba the Greek.  It conziztz of grilled chicken topped with a pezto zauze along with artichoke heartz, tomatoez, onionz, and olivez.   I needed to try my old reference pizza - zauzage, pepperoni and muzhroom.  Both of uz got a zmall.  And we each got a Zurly beer on tap, the firzt time I tried a Zurly.  Here'z a picture of one of the lovely bartenderz employed by Zorbaz.

While we wanted for our food to zhow up, we took a look around Zorbaz inzide zeating area.  It was pretty funky with a lot of ztuff on the wallz, along with zome video gamez back by the bathroom area.  The inzide of the bar area waz az packed az the outzide.  Zorbaz waz truly the place to be in Detroit Lakez.

Our pizza'z took about twenty minutez and were brought to our table by a nice looking young lady.  Actually, mozt of the girlz working at Zorbaz were pretty good looking.  I'm zure it'z a great zummer job for college ztudentz.

My pizza waz very good.  A light, crizp cruzt topped with chunkz of zauzage, pepperoni and muzhrooms.  The cheeze was plentiful and cooked to a nice golden brown on top.  Although I waz expecting more becauze of the way my dealer had been raving about Zorbaz over the yearz, it waz ztill very good.  Not the bezt I've ever had, or even pozzibly in my Top 10, but it waz very good.

He offered me a bite of hiz Zorba the Greek pizza.  The pezto zauze waz interezting on top of a pizza.  I can't zay I'd order a pizza like that, but it waz different.  He ended up ordering a large to take back home with him for he and hiz wife to munch on in the coming dayz.

Zorbaz alzo featurez Mexican food, az well az a very popular dockzide pickup for pizza'z and food.  With all the people coming and going, it waz a very buzy place.  I could have ztayed there all evening az it waz a very fun experience.  I juzt kind of wonder if it'z az fun and buzy in the wintertime.  But I'll probably never find out az I never travel to Minnezota or the Dakotaz pazt November 1.

La Tour Rose - Lyon, France

Everytime I've been to France, I usually end up with some sort of a stomach problem.  I think I've finally pin-pointed it to eating fish.  One of the meals we had while in Lyon this summer was at La Tour Rose and I had fish.  And the next day, I had stomach problems. 

I don't know what it is about the fish in France.  Maybe there's not enough mercury in the fish there, I really don't know.  Oh, the fish we had at La Tour Rose was very good, served with some vegetables with a cream sauce.  But each time I've had fish in France, the next day it's "Outta my way!  I gotta go!"

Once again, one of the major problems in traveling with a large group is that you usually don't get many - if any - choices for dinner.  It's usually a pre-determined menu that is offered for large groups.  This time it was either a choice of chicken or a sea bass filet.  Chicken just didn't sound good to me, so I went with the fish.  While the fish was very tasty, it was a bad choice. 

La Tour Rose is a combination hotel and restaurant in the old section of Lyon just over the Rhone River conveniently located on Rue Boeuf, or "Beef Street" (see map).  It has a wonderful bar area on the street level next to the check in desk for the hotel.  The restaurant is on the second floor and features a wonderful outdoor terrace.  Our group, due to its size, was seated in the restaurant and not outside.  Too bad as it was a beautiful evening in Lyon. 

The restaurant/hotel is housed in a building that was used in the 16th and 17th centuries as a textile manufacturing facility.  This is a picture of the tower where silk was made at the top and allowed to flow to the bottom.  I took this picture during my walkabout in the old city of Lyon in 2006.  This tower is where La Tour Rose (The Red Tower) gets its name from.  Little did I know that in a little over two years I'd be back here eating at the restaurant. 

Actually, the area in which La Tour Rose is located is populated with a number of great little cafes and restaurants.  As I've said before, Lyon is the gastronomic capital of France and Europe.  There are just hundreds of great little restaurants all over the city.  It's very difficult to find poor food in Lyon.

While the food at La Tour Rose was wonderful, the next afternoon I made a note to never have fish again when I go to France.  For me, it's better to go hungry than have to endure the stomach problems again and again from eating fish in France.

We're Soggy!

Thanks to a cold front that collided with very moist air, and the remnants of Hurricane Ike, we got a lot of rain in the Quad Cities over the weekend.  Officially, the National Weather Service office in Moline at the Quad City Airport received 7.09 inches of rain.  We're about 7 miles north of the airport, as the crow flies, and the rain topped out our rain gauge this weekend.

It began to rain around noon on Friday and really didn't quit until just before noon today.  We were away at my niece's wedding back in Kellogg, IA (which didn't get as much rain as we did in the Quad's), so we weren't here for the rain event.  But I understand that it really didn't rain hard, but just steady for nearly two days straight. 

When we got home around noon today, it had just stopped raining.  I went into the backyard to check the rain total in our gauge.  I was astounded to see it was full to the top.  As you can see in the above picture, our rain gauge measures up to 5 inches, but full is a little over 5.5 inches.  I tipped it a bit to take the picture so you can see the water line.

I guess the good thing is that we really did need the rain and the ground was getting pretty dry.  It's supposed to be sunny and beautiful the rest of the week, drying out most of the soggy yards and gardens.  Our sump pump is running nearly non-stop and probably will continue to do so until sometime tomorrow. 

While we've had some torrential rains earlier this summer, this rain event didn't cause as much damage as some of the earlier rains this year.  Some of the area creeks are running bank full, but it's not causing the problems like we had in June of this year.   Still, it's not every day - or weekend, for that matter - where you get a rain event that brings such high totals of rainfall.  All I know is our yard is really green and it needs mowed in a bad way. 

Redstone American Grill - Eden Prarie, MN

Earlier this summer, I put on a new dealer in suburban Minneapolis.  I did a training for them one evening and then took them out to dinner at the Redstone Grill in Eden Prairie (see map).  I was sort of familiar with the Redstone Grill, knowing it was a somewhat upscale place to eat, but I'd never been there before.  I looked forward to going there that evening.

The Redstone Grill got it's start in 2000 when Dean Vlahos, the man who started the Chammps Americana sports bars and restaurants, opened the first Redstone Grill in Minnetonka, MN (see map).  Vlahos incorporated an adventurous menu with a restaurant that featured both a north woods and contemporary theme to the decor.  There's a lot of stone and wood in a Redstone Grill, giving it sort of a rugged, yet romantic look.

In addition to the Minnetonka and Eden Prairie locations, Vlahos has expanded the Redstone Grill locations to five with one in suburban Chicago, one in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania.  A sixth location will be opening in Maryland in the coming weeks.  

It was around 8 p.m. when we got into the restaurant.  The Eden Prairie location has a good sized parking lot with valet parking, but nearly all the parking spots were taken.  We didn't have a reservation, but it only took us about 10 minutes to be seated.  We were taken to a table next to a screened in window looking outside to the patio.  There was a small combo playing music and a number of people seated outside enjoying the long days of mid-summer in Minnesota.  

We all decided to eat steaks that evening as the Redstone Grill is famous for their grilled beef.  I proposed a bottle of wine for the evening and asked one of the guys to pick out something from the wine list.  He came up with a bottle of the Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, a very fine wine that I'd had one time a few years ago.  It wasn't cheap - $140 for the bottle, but what the hell. 

As I said, the menu was sort of adventurous with a number of seafood entrees to choose from.  The Redstone Grill also features ribs and rotisserie chicken.  I understand their ribs are very, very good.  But beef is the king at the Redstone Grill with such tantalizing offerings such as a bone-in prime rib, dry-aged rib-eyes and strip steaks, and tender filets.  You can add either a sauce or a dried crust to the steaks for an additional charge.

All five of us went with steaks - four of us got the strip steak, while the other went with the rib-eye.  I ordered mine with the peppercorn cream sauce and a side of sauteed mushrooms.  I also got the garlic mashed potatoes as a side.  For a starter, on a recommendation from one of my guests, I got a bowl of the wild mushroom soup. 

As we were waiting for dinner, one of the guys told me the bathroom, which was right near our table, was the infamous bathroom in which Kirby Puckett, a former Minnesota Twins star and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, allegedly forced a woman into the bathroom and groped her.  The story made national news before Puckett was subsequently tried and acquitted on all charges.  

The story about Puckett served as a starting point for a conversation about famous people or athletes the dealer had served during the over 40 years they'd been in business.  The musician, Prince, is said to have bought his first stereo years ago from this dealer.  And a number of Minnesota professional athletes from the Twins, Vikings and hockey teams have bought systems from the dealer over the years.  It was good to have my gear in this store.

My wild mushroom soup came out with the other salads.  I have to say it was very good.  It was creamy, had a nice earthy taste to the mushrooms, but it wasn't heavy and rich.  It was a nice warm-up for the main entree.

It wasn't much more than 15 minutes later when our steaks showed up at the table.  My 16 oz. New York strip was cooked to a perfect medium rare.  The peppercorn cream sauce was a nice addition to the taste of the steak.  And the garlic mashed potatoes were very good, as well.  

One of my guests asked for his steak to be cooked rare, but it came out more done than my medium rare.  We got the waitress to take it back.  In the meantime, one of the managers came over to the table to apologize for the overcooked steak.  About 10 minutes after his first steak disappeared, a perfectly cooked rare strip steak showed up at the table.  The manager checked back to see if everything was fine with the second steak.  My guest was more than pleased with his correctly cooked steak.  

After dinner, we all decided to have a glass of the MacAllan 18 year old Scotch.  The MacAllen is one of my favorites and the 18 year Scotch is absolutely smooth and tasty.  The Scotch was great after a great dinner.

The bill with tip came to a little over $500 bucks, but I didn't care.  These guys were good people, I was happy to finally have a high profile dealer in Minneapolis and we were having fun connecting the dots of people in the AV industry that we all knew.  The Redstone Grill was everything I expected it to be - great food, great service, great atmosphere.   We were treated well at the Redstone Grill and although it was a little expensive, it was worth every dime dropped in there. 

The SunCom/T-Mobile Merger and Me

Earlier this year, T-Mobile USA, the European-based fourth-largest cellular provider in the United States, announced the takeover of SunCom, a regional cellular provider primarily serving the Carolinas, Tennessee and Georgia.  The cut-off date for the service switch of SunCom customers over to T-Mobile was to be this past Monday, September 8.  SunCom customers were given a toll-free number in which to call to talk to a service representative about billing issues that needed to be resolved before the change over deadline.  

Strangely enough, phone calls from SunCom customers began to come into my office while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago.  Many people just hung up when they got my voice mail, while a few left messages.  I have to say that in my voice mail greeting, nowhere does it say "SunCom" or "T-Mobile".  It's obvious from my greeting that I'm a one-person office with nothing to do with cellular telephones.  But that didn't stop some from leaving messages with their phone numbers asking me to call them back so we could discuss their bill.  And I have to say, many of those who left messages didn't sound very bright to begin with. 

The week after I got back from vacation, I was in the office all week long.  90 percent of the incoming calls that week on my office line were SunCom customers.  After the first 25 phone calls came in, I finally contacted someone at SunCom and told them that I had a lot of their customers calling up wanting to discuss their bill.  I said, "Look, it appears there must be a misprint somewhere for your customers as I keep getting phone calls from them wanting to talk to me about their bill."

The first SunCom person put me in touch with a supervisor and I told my story again.  The supervisor said to hang on, they wanted to check it out.  She came back on about five minutes later with a certainly plausible explanation.   It turns out that SunCom customers with past-due balances were given a toll-free number to call to talk to a representative to either make arrangements to pay or their service would be shut off on September 8.  T-Mobile was not going to take any SunCom customers with past-due balances. 

It so happened that the SunCom customer service number was exactly one number off from my toll-free number my dealers use to contact me in my office.  I told the supervisor, "I've been getting a lot of calls from your customers, some have left messages asking for me to call them back.  I just don't want anyone to think that I'm an agent for SunCom."

She said, "Well, if they're dialing the wrong number, and it's clear that they are, they have no one to blame but themselves."  She apologized for the inconvenience stating that the takeover date would be September 8.  "I will guarantee you the phone calls will stop after that date, because people who are past due with SunCom won't be able to use their phones."  

As the week went on, more phone calls came in.  It got to the point that I could look at the caller ID, see that it was a cellular caller from where ever, and not even answer the phone.   

I was in Denver last week for the annual CEDIA Expo.  While I was gone, the incoming calls from SunCom customers exploded exponentially.  I'm guessing from the messages left on my voice mail, these were people who needed to get their bill in order or face not having a phone on September 8. 

And some of the messages weren't too pretty.   I had indicated on my outgoing voice mail message that I would be out of the office until September 8, but that I would be checking my messages periodically.  One lady, who obviously came from a very low socio-economic background, left a filthy, trash-mouthed message on my voice mail because she was pissed off that I was out of the office until September 8 and she needed to talk to me about her bill before then or her phone would be shut off. 

Another lady left a tearful, pleading message for me to call her before September 8 because she couldn't afford to pay her bill, but wanted to work something out.  Many of the messages people left sounded more confused than anything.  I'm hoping those people realized they had called the wrong number.

Unfortunately for Cindy, the number listed by SunCom must have stated that it was manned 24 hours a day.  She said one night, late in the night, my office phone must have rang six or seven times.  Looking back at the caller ID, it was from the same person - obviously a SunCom customer who couldn't figure out they were calling the wrong number.  She told me the next morning, "I had to take the phone off the hook just so I could get some sleep."  (My office is just across the hall from our bedroom.)  She said she put the phone back on the hook before she went to work that morning. 

I checked my voice messages on Friday morning from Denver and it said that I had 42 messages.  I listened through them all, 39 of which were from SunCom customers inquiring about their billing.  It was just maddening.  When I got back on Monday, the ringer on my office phone was off - courtesy of Cindy - and my voice mailbox was full.  I had over 80 messages.  I just couldn't delete them all as I didn't want to miss a potential call that was really for me.  Turned out they were all from SunCom customers. 

Sure enough, as promised, the calls stopped on September 8.  But I really had to question the mental capacity of some of these people.  Sure, dialing a "5" instead of a "4" is an honest mistake most of the time, but some people called back again and again thinking they were dialing the right number.  It was aggravating after a bit and I'm sort of glad I wasn't in my office for over 10 days having to pick up the phone and tell someone that I wasn't with SunCom or T-Mobile.  

But as I also said, some of the people who left messages sounded like they had rocks for brains.  Sure, the majority of the callers said, "Oops!  Wrong number.", or just hung up when they got the outgoing voice message.  But the ones who went on and on about this and that regarding their bills, or who left nasty messages, or who were pleading with me to call them back so their service wouldn't be interrupted sounded so unbelievably stupid.  It was sort of funny at first, but it got to be tragic after awhile.

I know there's a common stereotype that some people in the South aren't too bright.  But did they all have to be SunCom customers?    

The 16 Dollar Burger - Burger Bar - St. Louis

Hubert Keller is a French born and educated chef whose claim to fame in the culinary world is the renown Fleur de Lys restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas.  However, Keller is also somewhat of an innovative man who jumped into the world of casual dining with the Burger Bar which opened in Las Vegas in 2004.  I'd heard about the Burger Bar in Las Vegas and had wanted to try it, but either never had the chance or the time to do so.

Luckily, for me, Keller's second Burger Bar opened late last year at the Lumiere Place casino and hotel along the riverfront in St. Louis (see map).  The St. Louis Burger Bar is a mix of casual and class with dark wood paneling, a nice bar area and cozy booths throughout in a mid-20th century motif.  I met a friend of mine for lunch at Burger Bar at Lumiere for a good burger one Friday earlier this summer. 

The Burger Bar at the casino is in the far southeastern corner of the place.  There is an entrance near the restaurant, but it's a long way from the parking lot.  If you go through the main doors of the casino, you have to walk all the way around the perimeter of the casino floor to get to the Burger Bar.  And when you do walk that way, you'll pass Keller's other restaurant on the property, the upscale SLeeK steak house.   

 

The overall concept of Burger Bar is not all that unique, but the meat, buns and toppings are somewhat unique.  You choose from various kinds of beef, turkey, lamb or veggie burgers.  They have five different types of buns and a dozen different varieties of cheese to choose from.  And they have interesting toppings from black truffles, to beet root pickles, to grilled lobster meat.  You can also get pan-seared foie gras, if you like.  One of the interesting beef burgers they have to offer is American-raised Kobe beef.  It is the best of the three beef offerings Burger Bar has on their burger menu. 

The only problem is that a Kobe beef burger at Burger Bar runs $16.00 without the toppings.  But as my guest said, "C'mon!  At least it's not the Rossini!"  He did have a point.  The Rossini is a Kobe beef burger with foie gras, truffles, a Madiera sauce.  It was *only* $60 dollars.   Quite honestly, I thought a basic Kobe beef burger would have been much more expensive.   

I ordered up a Kobe beef burger, medium, on an onion bun, topped with pepperjack cheese and jalapenos.  My guest got the Kobe beef burger on ciabatta bread, topped with Swiss cheese and chopped oyster mushrooms.  We both got fries - I got the skinny fries and my guest got the fat fries, basically Burger Bar's idea of steak fries.  And we both got a bottle of Budweiser to wash it all back. 

The waitresses were all young, good looking and hip.  It wasn't all that busy so the waitress we had was pretty attentive.  And it wasn't long before another waitress brought out our burgers and fries. 

My Kobe beef pepperjack cheeseburger was cooked a perfect medium.  And the burger had a good moist texture to it, as well.  The jalapenos weren't all that hot, but made for a nice little kick to the taste of the burger.  The fries - I should have gotten the fat fries.  The skinny fries were lifeless and not all that tasty.  But the burger more than made up for it.  Onions, a tomato slice and lettuce accompanied the burger on the side. 

My friend's Kobe Swiss cheese burger topped with the grilled mushrooms was reported to be also excellent in taste and quality.   I thought the ciabatta bread was a unique twist to the burger.  He told me it was fresh and chewy.  As much as I liked the in-house-made onion bun, the ciabatta bread on his burger did look good. 

With the pepperjack cheese and jalapenos, my Kobe beef burger ended up to be $17.45 before tax.   Now, you can get just a regular burger that sells for $8.00, or they have specially raised Black Angus beef burgers that start at $9.00.  But I'm glad I gave the Kobe beef burger a try.  I don't know if I'll have another one when I go back to Burger Bar, but it will certainly be tempting.  Hey, you gotta try it at least once.

(Update - After five years at Lumiere Place, Keller decided not to renew the lease for Burger Bar and the doors closed just before Christmas in 2012.  The Las Vegas location is still open and, I'm told, is doing very well.)

Le Passage - Lyon, France

Lyon is called the gastronomic capital of Europe.  More world class restaurants are in Lyon than any other place on the continent.  One of the best places to eat in Lyon is a place called Le Passage.  And we ate there one evening when we were over in France earlier this year.  

Le Passage is owned by Vincent Carteron and the head chef is Frederic Cordier.  Cordier is known for coming up with interesting dishes such as marbled foie gras with figs, lobster stew with cumin and a fricassee nut seafood casserole with thyme.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to try any of those items.

The main dining area of Le Passage is rather classy and ornate with heavy tables and padded red leather chairs.  Chandeliers hang from the ceiling and wonderful pieces of art adorn the walls.  Unfortunately, we didn't sit in the main dining room.  

Being that we were a large group of 30 people, we were seated in the private banquet facility on the second level of Le Passage, called Le Club.  And when you're dealing with that many people, your choices of food are limited.  Once again, it was a beef dish - a veal shank with a red wine sauce; and a seafood dish - salmon with a dill cream sauce.  Once again, I try to avoid fish like the plague while in France, so I went with the veal shank.

Before the main course was served, we were served a salad with a slice of foie gras on top.  The salad was OK, but the foie gras was fabulous.  I know some people have a problem with foie gras, especially by the way ducks are forced fed to enlarge their livers.  I don't have a problem with it.  Especially when I eat good foie gras. 

The veal shank wasn't great, it wasn't bad.  It was similar to "assembly-line" food that I've had in the states.  To help things out, we had a number of great wines from the Rhone wine region, of which Lyon is in the heart of.  I'm not as well-versed in French wines as I'd like to be, so I've been taking pictures of different the bottles of wine I've been drinking while in France.  It helps me remember what it was that I was drinking, plus I can see if a place like Sam's Wines has the wine.

I talked to a couple of colleagues who told me they'd eaten at Le Passage a couple times before.  They said the experience of banquet-style eating was nowhere close to the previous times they'd had dinner off of the regular menu.  The Michelin Guide gives Le Passage two stars which means "excellent cooking, worth a detour".  I would like to give it a shot sometime when I'm not involved in such a big group.  Hopefully, one of these days I'll have the chance.

Surly Beer

During a recent trip to Minnesota, I was introduced to a new beer that is brewed in the Twin Cities - Surly Beer.  I was sort of taken not only by the name of the brewery, but the names they call their beers - CynicAle, Furious Beer, and Bender.  And their beers aren't bad.

Like many other craft brewers, Surly Brewing Company started out when a home-brewer, Omar Ansari, began to brew his first beers in 1994.  His beers were exceptional for a home-brewed concoction.  When Ansari's first child was born, instead of birth announcements, he sent his friends some of his home-brewed Extra Pale Ale.  Everyone thought it was a great idea and many urged Ansari to make his own beer available to the public.

Ansari first began to brew Surly Beer in his garage, but the space needed for the brewing process, as well as the storage of grain prompted him getting a larger space.  Ansari educated himself in the art of beer brewing and he eventually hooked up with a friend from junior high, Todd Haug, who was a brewmaster for the Rock Bottom Brewery in Minneapolis.  Haug and Ansari both had a sort of "surly" attitude when it came to finding good beers, so the Surly Brewing Company name was born.  Above is a picture of Todd (on the left) and Omar at the Beer Advocate brewfest in Boston. 

The Surly Brewery is located in Brooklyn Park, MN (see map) and Ansari had to get the city council there to change local laws to allow a brewery in the town.  That didn't take long and by the end of 2005, the brewery was ready to begin production.  Within months, Ansari had signed up nearly 40 bars in the greater Twin Cities area.  Within a couple years, Surly had spread across the state of Minnesota and into the Chicago area.  For a list of bars and restaurants that serve Surly beers, click here. 

Surly beers are only available on tap, in growlers or in 16 oz. cans.  There are a number of reasons why Surly is only available in cans and not bottles.  Number one is that Todd Haug likes a full 16 oz. pour into his pint glass.  Plus he says cans are better for beer than bottles.   And Surly Brewing says the canning line they have at the brewery is PFC (which stands for Pretty F***ing Cool).  

Their two year round beers are the Bender and Furious beers.  The CynicAle is only brewed in the Summertime.  They have two other seasonal beers - Bitter Brewer (Spring) and SurlyFest (Fall).  Their beers are not filtered or pasteurized, so you're supposed to keep 'em cold.  I didn't when I got a couple four packs at Surdyk's when we were in Minneapolis recently.  But I haven't gotten sick from drinking the beer, so I'm thinking they're still OK.  

The CynicAle is a copper red beer that has a very malty taste to it.  It has a somewhat spicy bite to the taste and has a somewhat fruity aroma.  Now, I'm not big on fruit beers, but this one tastes pretty good.

The Furious is what I first tried when I found Surly Beer at a restaurant in NW Minnesota.  The malts they use in the Surly Furious are the same malts great Scotch distillers such as The Macallan uses in their premium whiskeys.  They then use four different varieties of American grown hops in the process.  It has a smooth, malty flavor with a very hoppy aftertaste.  It's a very good beer.  

I love finding little craft brewers like Surly Brewing.  And the beer is good to drink.  I like how they do some seasonal stuff, but keep the number of year-round beers to a minimum. I'm going to have to get some more of their beers when I get back to Minneapolis this fall.     

The End of Summer 2008

If you're a regular reader of this blog over the past three years, you know that I get melancholy and bummed out when September 1st comes around.  Even though the weather is still warm, it won't be long before the chill of autumn descends down from Canada and another growing season has passed. 

We've had a couple of different summers around here.  The first part of the summer the Midwest was inundated by floods and by stormy weather.  The second half of the summer has been dry and actually very comfortable.  As much rain as we received in May and June, I wish it would have spread out a little more as we've had a very dry August.  A lot of our plants and our yard suffered because of the lack of rain.  

Still our flowers came out very well this year.  We planted 14 new rose bushes after we lost nine the previous year due to a late spring cold snap that literally killed the roses after they had begun to bloom.  They told us not to expect too much out of this batch of rose bushes for the first year or so, but we were pleasantly surprised with the growth and the beauty of many of the new bushes this summer.  

Cindy didn't want me to take a picture of our back berm as it's still a work in progress.  It seems like every year she has to move something because of overgrowth or because something else didn't grow as it was supposed to.  I don't know if she'll ever be happy with the arrangement of plants and flowers on the back berm.  But that will keep her busy for the years to come.  

Our pepper plants were the best they've ever been.  We've gotten a number of large peppers off the plants this summer and they're wonderful to eat.  The sweet red pepper plant has been kind of the runt, but it now has three nice sized green peppers on it ready to turn a deep red in the coming days.  That is, if Cindy doesn't accidentally pick them before they turn red (like she did with one earlier this summer).  

Here are our basil pots.  I saw a restaurant in the Chicago area have a number of large pots with basil plants outside their door one time and I thought that must be the way to do it.  Our basil has never looked this good in pots, mainly because the pots were too small and the basil would get root-bound.  This year, I invested in some big pots and planted three different varieties of basil - sweet basil, lettuce basil and Genovese basil.  The Genovese basil has a slight licorice taste to it and it's wonderful on a tomato caprese salad.  The small pot in the middle is our oregano, which is outstanding this year.

Our herb tub is doing well.  The parsley had to be replanted about a month ago after a monarch caterpillar larvae ate the leaves off the whole plant after hatching.  It was one of those things where I was gone and Cindy wasn't paying attention to the dwindling leaves on the plant.  When I got back, I found the parsley stripped and a very fat and happy green caterpillar on one of the stocks.  I replanted and the parsley has come back very nicely. 

This is the east side of our house this year, over grown as usual.  The sun just bakes this side for about six to seven hours a day in the height of the summer so with a lot of watering the plants really grow.  The wave petunias in the window box are just huge.  They've taken over basically everything else that Cindy planted in there.

I wasn't happy with our front window boxes this year.  There's too much green and not enough colors.  Cindy even said she was going to have to re-think and make a new plan for the window boxes for 2009.   They just didn't look as vibrant as they have in the past. 

 But the perennials under the big maple tree up front have been doing very well, even with the big old tree sucking the water out of their roots.  After trying flowers and other assorted plants over the past few years, the perennials are taking hold and are spreading.  We'll take that. 

Here's something that was kind of cool to see.  This is a baby hummingbird feeding on one of the cigar flowers in a container Cindy has in the rose garden.  We were out looking at the roses and this thing flew up out of nowhere.  We noticed the mother was hovering around watching after the baby.  It's great that we keep getting more hummingbirds and now they're making babies of their own. 

I just can't believe how fast this summer flew by.  I don't know if it's a function of getting older or if I like summer so much that it seems it doesn't last as long as I wanted it to.  The weather earlier in the summer probably had a lot to do with it as it was colder and more wet than normal.  Still, it was a great summer.  Fall is nice, but it also means winter is on the way.  And I'm not a winter person.