Road Tips

Year End Updates

I wanted to bring you up to speed on some information that has changed from when I originally put it on my blog from earlier this year. 

One of our favorite restaurants here in the Quad Cities, Crazy Wok, a great little Thai restaurant, closed down earlier in the fall.  They recently re-opened under the name of Tantro Asian Bistro with the same ownership, same chef, but an expanded dining area with a new contemporary Asian decor and a new menu.  We went there for dinner a couple three weeks ago and they still had my all-time favorite Spicy Basil with Beef on the menu.  They've also added some contemporary Pan-Asian foods to the menu.   

The food was as outstanding as it was before, the expanded dining room gives you a little more room, but it's a very comfortable setting.  And as before the service is, well, let's just say there's some problems with communication with the wait staff who speak little or very choppy English.  Other than that, Tantro is a wonderful place to eat - one that I'd put up against other Thai restaurant in much larger cities.

We were upset to find that Hunter's Club in Rock Island shut down their kitchen operation earlier in the year after the owner called the restaurant unprofitable.  He opened up a psuedo-convenience store.  That venture didn't last long and Hunter's was closed for good.  In the summer, someone came in to rescue Hunter's Club and bring back what many called the best cheeseburgers in the Quad Cities.  Unfortunately, the new owners couldn't make a go of it, as well.  

I'd heard back in the fall that someone else was going to take over Hunter's Club and get it going again.  Little did we know when we went to Hunter's Club on a Saturday earlier this month that they had just opened up two days prior.  We got in about a quarter to two and took a booth along the wall.  The bartender was basically the wait staff as he told us that he had just sent the two gals who were working the lunch shift home just minutes before we walked in.  The hell of it was, we were the first of about four or five couples who came in for a late lunch.  He was running his ass off.  

We both tried a Hunter's burger and while it was good, I didn't think it was as good as the previous Hunter's burger we'd had about a year ago.  But, then again, we broke our cardinal rule of going into a restaurant that hadn't been opened for three months.  I figure that by the time March rolls around, it will be time to go back in and give it a shot again.

One of my all-time favorite pizzas in the world is The Flamingo in Cedar Rapids.  The brick-oven pizza was absolutely wonderful with it's light, flaky crust, the fresh toppings and the great sauce.  I was so happy when new ownership re-opened The Flamingo as the pizza was exactly like it was before.  

Unfortunately, the Great Flood of 2008 wreaked havoc on the city of Cedar Rapids.  And The Flamingo was right in the middle of the devastation.  They were flooded out in June and it appears they aren't going to reopen.  Here's a picture of The Flamingo during the height of the flood last summer.  A friend of Cindy's sent this to her.  What a major bummer this was to see.  

Once again, why don't they have pizza like The Flamingo in the Quad Cities?

And lastly, Leinenkugel announced in the fall that they would not be bringing back the Northwoods Lager this winter for a limited run like they did last year.  Instead, they brought out two new seasonal beers - the Fireside Nut Brown ale - and they'll be coming out with a seasonal Bock beer - the 1888 Bock.  While I've not tried the Fireside Nut Brown, I've been somewhat tempted to get a six-pack.  But, I don't know.  I'm sort of bummed they aren't bringing back the Northwoods Lager anytime soon.  

I'd been hoarding a couple three bottles of the Northwoods Lager in the beer fridge since last March.  I thought I'd better drink 'em up before they go stale.  I had the last Northwoods Lager a couple weeks ago.  I just love that stuff.  

That's it for the updates.  Here's wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! 

Nick's Hamburger Shop - Brookings, SD

Honestly, I don't know who it was who originally told me about Nick's Hamburger Shop in Brookings, SD.  All I know is that Nick's is literally a statewide institution in South Dakota.  And it was billed as a must-visit.  I was driving between Fargo and Sioux Falls last fall and I had time to stop in to Nick's to try a Nickburger. 

Nick's Hamburger Shop has a long and storied history.  In 1929, Gladys and Harold Nikalson (right) opened the door to their little 20-seat hamburger shop in downtown Brookings.  The method of cooking their burgers was called "tank-frying".  It's similar to the style that 2 Mits Burgers in Elkader, IA uses to cook their burgers - cooking them on a grill with water. 

The Nickburgers were a huge hit with the townspeople and the students at South Dakota State University located just blocks from the downtown area in Brookings.  The burgers were five cents each for the first 12 years Nick's was in existence, and people would pay for their burgers by placing coins in a tin can on the front counter as there was no cash register at Nick's.

When Nick went off to World War II, his son, Nick, Jr., began his career at Nick's Hamburger Shop.  Nick, Jr. eventually took over for his parents in 1947 and began to take Nick's to new levels of success.  Suddenly, business was booming as people would line up to buy Nickburgers by the sack full. 

In 1975, Nick, Jr. retired and he was bought out by Duane Larson, a long-time employee of Nick's.  Larson carried on the tradition of serving the Nickburgers on wax paper and selling them by the sack. 

When Larson was getting ready to retire in 2004, a local colorful character by the name of Dick Fergen bought Nick's.  Fergen was literally raised on Nickburgers as he was a native of Brookings and attended South Dakota State.  While Fergen says he has "big plans" for Nick's, he's committed to upholding the integrity of the burgers that have literally been the same since 1929. 

Many former students continue to come back to Nick's for a number of years long after they've graduated from SDSU.  For many people in South Dakota, Nick's Hamburger Shop is truly a destination.  In fact, Nick's is so famous, there is a book about the place (left). 

I got into Brookings around the noon hour and tried to make my way to the corner of 5th and Main in the downtown area (see map).  I was then surprised to see that Main Ave. was literally torn up, undergoing some major renovation and improvement.  I had to sort of find my way around the construction and was able to park on 5th St. just on the north side of Nick's building. 

My second surprise came as I walked up to Nick's front door.  They were closed.  As I looked in the window, it appeared they were undergoing a massive renovation.  Then I noticed a small sign - they were open next door, albeit serving Nickburgers out of a small trailer in the empty lot next to the building on the south side.  They had a number of picnic tables set up and there was a good sized line of people at the order window, and a number of people milling about waiting for their finished burgers. 

At the time, I didn't know Nickburgers were small - about the half the size of most hamburgers.  Only after reading about Nick's after I ate there, I then realized that's the reason why some people buy 'em by the sack.  

There isn't much on the menu at Nick's - burgers, chips, homemade pie, drinks and shakes.  You have your choice of a single or double hamburger, or a single or double cheeseburger.  I waited in line for a couple minutes, then ordered a double cheeseburger with everything.  I passed on Nick's famous homemade pickle relish, which uses the original recipe Harold Nikalson came up with in the 30's. 

As I waited for my Nickburger, more and more people began to come up to the small trailer to order burgers.  One was a family of four where the dad had been a former student at SDSU and he wanted to stop and treat his family to Nickburgers. 

After about 10 minutes, my double cheeseburger showed up at the window (you could tell I was a Nick's virgin as everyone else - including women - were getting two, three or four burgers).  I took a seat at one of the picnic tables and chomped into the double cheese Nickburger.  It was moist, flavorful, juicy - all the great adjectives that go with the taste of a very good burger. 

The double Nickburger didn't last long.  It was very, very good.  I wanted to get another one, but the line had now stretched 10 to 12 people deep, with a like number of people who were waiting for their burgers.  I thought, "No, I'll just head down the road and come back some other day.

And I will be back.  I need to eat in the new and improved Nick's at some point in the future.  The trip between Fargo and Sioux Falls is long and boring.  But a nice little short stop in Brookings to go to Nick's Hamburger Shop really breaks up the monotony. 

So Long to Jack

Jack Nelson of Jack's Locust Street Tap fame here in Davenport died yesterday after he suffered a debilitating heart attack on Tuesday evening and had slipped into a coma.  Jack had been in Florida for a few days and had come back to Iowa for Christmas.  He was out blowing snow on Tuesday evening when he came in and told his wife that he didn't feel very well.  He then suffered a major heart attack.  I was told that the paramedics had to bring Jack back to life as they transported him to the hospital.

It turned out Jack had some major blockage in his arteries.  They put three stents in him during emergency surgery.  However, Jack remained in a coma, only able to flutter his eyes a bit from time to time.  The heart attack was so massive, doctors thought there would be some permanent brain damage if he were able to live.  But yesterday, he died peacefully with his family at his side.

When I first moved to Davenport 17 plus years ago, one of the first places I frequented was Jack's Locust Street Tap (see map).  Not only was it a working class bar, but it was a working class bar with a great burger.  Jack was one of the first people I met when I was out scouting around for bars and the like.  Jack's - or the LST - became sort of a "home away from home" for me, much to the consternation of my wife who never cared for the place all that much. 

Jack also owned two other very popular bars in the area - the Gallery and the Mound Street Landing.  The Gallery (see map) catered more to the "middle-aged singles" crowd, while Mound Street Landing (see map) was a popular destination with the younger crowd, especially on the weekends when they'd host bands.  All three bars have been tremendous money-makers for Jack. 

While I'm not ever certain Jack knew my name - "How's it goin'?" was his usual greeting to me, But I'm not ever certain if I could have understood Jack if he DID say my name.  He had a very distinctive speech pattern that was sort of hard to understand.  In fact, they used to call it "Jackanese".  They have a plaque above the bar at Jack's Locust Street Tap that says "Jackanese Spoken Here."  He was a very fast talker and didn't quite form all of his words in the process.

But even though I had trouble understanding him, Jack and I would have conversations about Las Vegas (he loved going to Las Vegas), televisions (he knew I was in the AV industry), sports (especially his beloved New Orleans Saints), and our mutual self-professed love of a great chili dog.

It turns out that Jack's daughter, Gina, and her husband, Tony, live just down the street from us in a house that looks almost identical to ours.  The funny thing is that our street address is 2541 and Gina and Tony's place is 2514.  Same color of house.  Same long driveway with detached garage in the back.  Same sized picture window.  Same floor layout.  Most likely from the same builder.  Jack bought the house for Gina and Tony before they got married.  We hadn't lived in our house any more than a year before Jack bought that one.  So we'd talk about the neighborhood from time to time. 

58 is too young for a guy to die.  Jack wasn't a smoker, nor was he particularly overweight.  He was a very active guy.  You just never know when it comes to the heart, I guess.  He lived life to its fullest and always had a gaggle of friends around him when he'd sit at his bar and have a drink after a round of golf.  It's not going to be the same without Jack around.  He'll be missed. 

Impellizzeri's Pizza - Louisville

For over 17 years, Benny Impellizzeri served some of the best pizza - if not THE best pizza - in Louisville.  Suddenly, Benny closed up shop in early 2005 and was inactive on the restaurant scene for over two years.  In 2007, Benny and a partner, Wes Phelps, re-opened Impellizzeri's in The Highlands region on Bardstown Road (see map).  The small restaurant was almost immediately overrun with people who had massive withdrawals from one of Benny's pizzas.  Impellizzeri's pizzas are literally works of art - huge pizzas with tons of fresh toppings.  It is almost impossible to eat even a small Impellizzeri's pizza in one sitting. 

I was traveling to Louisville one evening earlier this fall and I had the On-Star Turn-by-Turn Navigation programmed to take me to the Bardstown Road location.  Along the way, I was talking to my sister, Nan, who lives in the Louisville area.  She told me, "Hey, I wanted to let you know, they've opened an Impellizzeri's not far from our house."  Nan told me it was on Old Brownsboro Road, which was also not far from the hotel I would be staying at for a couple nights.  I had On-Star re-program my turn-by-turn navigation for the new location (see map) and headed down the road. 

It was around 9 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at Impellizzeri's in a stand alone building in the southwest corner of a strip mall between Brownsboro Road and Old Brownsboro Road.  The building looks like it may have been an old Pizza Hut or some other type of pizza restaurant in the past.  I took a seat in the restaurant and looked through the menu.

Now, I have to say that this would not be the first time I had an Impellizzeri's pizza.  But it would be one that would be made under Benny's watch.  I had already visited Tony Impellizzeri's pizza restaurant a couple years ago (see my entry here).  Tony is Benny's brother and both got their start with their father, Tony, Sr., in the original Impellizzeri's back in 1978.  About 14 years ago, for whatever reason, Tony broke off from the family and opened his own pizza place on the southeast side of Louisville (see map). 

From what I understood, Tony Impellizzeri's pizza and Benny Impellizzeri's pizza were about the same.  But in doing some research for this entry, there seems to be more of an affinity for Benny's pizza than Tony's.  It may have something to do with Tony's surly attitude, such as what I encountered during my visit there.  Benny, from many accounts I've come across, is a pretty popular guy who used to sing in a local rock band back in the 60's.  Pizza from a surly guy definitely doesn't taste as good as one from a nice guy.  Or so it seems from what I've been reading.  

Impellizzeri's also serves traditional Italian food, but I was there for the pizza.  I pretty much knew what I was going to get - the standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza that I always get when I want to compare pizzas.  The waitress said it would be about 20 to 25 minutes, so she asked me if I would like to get an order of their garlic bread sticks to tide me over.  I understand Impellizzeri's is somewhat famous for their bread sticks.  I declined, knowing full well that I would have enough trouble eating a small Impellizzeri's pizza. I passed the time waiting on the pizza drinking a couple beers and reading my Chicago Tribune.

About 25 minutes later, here came my pizza.  It was loaded with big chunk sausage, spicy pepperoni slices and tons of fresh mushrooms.  The sauce was sweet and tangy, and the crust was thin, but not crispy.  The dough used in the pizza is made fresh everyday and it's made with a recipe Benny got from his grandmother years ago.   The pizza was everything I remember from Tony Impellizzeri's pizza.  Honestly, since it had been a couple years since I'd been to Tony's place, I couldn't readily say which pizza was better.  Both were just damn good. 

I was able to eat four of the six slices, cheating on the fourth slice by eating most of the toppings off of it.  I had them box up the remaining two pieces as I knew the hotel I was staying at would have a refrigerator in the room.  I ended up heating two of the pieces up for a late night snack after having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law at their house the next evening. 

I have a buddy, Randy Adams, whose step-dad used to make these homemade pizzas back when we were in high school.  He would start with a thin crust and then just slam on tons of meat, peppers, onions and tons of cheese on until the pizza was groaning from the weight of the toppings.  I've never encountered a pizza like that until I've had both Tony and Benny Impellizzeri's pizzas.  And the Impellizzeri's may go even more overboard with their toppings than Randy's step-dad did.  Impellizzeri's Pizza is nothing like anything else I've ever encountered in my travels.  It's wonderful and it's worth the price of admission. 

Venice Ristorante - Denver

Dominic Baker from Focal wanted to take the North American regional managers out to dinner when we were at the annual CEDIA Expo in Denver earlier this year.  We really wanted Italian with a great wine selection.  One of my colleagues, Ian, found a place - Venice Ristorante. 

Venice is located in the LoDo section of Denver (see map) just across from the historic Union Station.  Venice is just one of a number of great places that have sprung up in the LoDo area over the past few years. 

Chef Alessandro Carollo (right) grew up in Sicily learning the art of cooking from his grandfather.  At the age of 14, Alessandro went to culinary school.  For the next five years, he studied at the school while learning traditional Sicilian dishes.  He worked in a couple prestigious restaurants in Italy, but his dream was to someday cook in the United States.

Carollo ended up in San Diego and began to work at a place called Tuscany.  After two years, Carollo ended up at Il Fornaio, a chain of upscale Italian restaurants primarily on the west coast.  (For my entry on Il Fornaio in Las Vegas, click here.)  Within months of arriving at the restaurant, he was promoted to chef-partner, working at a number of Il Fornaio's locations. 

Carollo's work with Il Fornaio brought him to Denver.  Like most chefs, Alessandro's dream was to open his own restaurant.  After four years with Il Fornaio and with the help of his wife, Sara, they opened their first restaurant in suburban Denver, Chianti Ristorante, near the famous Denver Tech Center.  A couple years later, Alessandro and Sara opened the LoDo Venice Ristorante location, followed by another Venice near the Denver Tech Center, as well as a Venice Ristorante in the San Diego area. 

Each of the Venice Ristorante locations boasts one of the largest selections of wine available at any restaurant.  The downtown Venice claims over 7,000 bottles of wines to choose from.   And each restaurant even has unique wines for that location only.  And it's ever changing and Venice asks that you call ahead to see if a favorite wine is available that evening.

The Lodo Venice Ristorante is decorated in a combination of a contemporary look along with dark paneled wood, linen tablecloths and subdued lighting.  It's a very, very nice place to have a meal.  We had reservations for 7:30 and our party of 12 was seated just as soon as we showed up.  There were a number of people from the audio/video industry in the restaurant and it was great to stop and talk with a number of friends I've made over the years.  

The menu at Venice Ristorante is decidedly Sicilian with a number of seafood and tomato-based entrees.  There's also a number of specialties from the Campania and Lazio regions of Italy, as well.  The featured dishes included veal, steaks and chicken specialties.  It was a dizzying amount of choices of great food.  

I've learned that Focal doesn't quite mind if you pig out on their dime, so this was going to be a real treat for my colleagues and me.  After getting a couple bottles of wine brought to the table, we began to order our food.  I was really torn between three or four items - the Ravioli di Salsiccia - ravioli stuffed with Italian sausage and topped with a wine-blended tomato sauce; Scaloppine ai Capperi - veal scaloppine with capers and roasted artichokes and garlic; Scampi al Limone - sauteed shrimp with capers in a lemon-butter sauce; and the Gondole di Aragosta - lobster and shrimp-filled ravioli served in a creamy lobster sauce.  Man, all of those still sound great.  

I went with the veal scaloppine entree, but started out with an order of carpaccio that was served with baby arugula, capers and shaved Parmesan, then drizzled in a lime-truffle sauce, then I ordered a salad with their house-made Gorgonzola cheese.  I was able to get a side of their fettuccine Alfredo with my meal, as well. 

Well, the carpaccio was some of the best I've ever had.  The beef was tender and very rare and the lime-truffle drizzle was a great complement to the appetizer.  The Gorgonzola salad was also very good.  They used three types of lettuce in the salad and it was one of the better salads I've ever had.

And the main entree was, well, it was outstanding.  The veal was tender and moist.  And the roasted artichokes and garlic was a wonderful taste compliment.  Man, was it good!  The portions weren't overly huge, but I didn't have a stuffed feeling after I finished. 

Our waiter brought out the dessert menu for us to look through.  I wasn't certain that I wanted to have any dessert, but the menu items were sure tempting.  One of my colleagues and I shared a piece of Venice Ristorante's tiramisu.  I'm such a sucker for tiramisu - especially good tiramisu.  And it was very good. 

Venice Ristorante was one of my more pleasant surprises of any restaurant I've eaten in.  I went into the meal thinking that it would be another run-of-the-mill Italian restaurants in a growing tourist section of Denver.  But I went away very impressed, fully thinking it may have been one of the best Italian meals I've ever had.  I highly recommend Venice Ristorante which excelled in every facet of the dining experience. 

We Survived the "Big One"

This is a picture of a large chunk of ice that I chipped off my car yesterday morning after the winter storm that I talked about here came through and dumped freezing rain, sleet and snow on us Thursday evening into Friday morning.  As you can see, it's pretty thick.  Now imagine ice that thick on sidewalks, driveways and streets around the Quad Cities.  It's pretty treacherous out there.

I spent a good portion of the day yesterday trying to chip away the ice from our sidewalks, steps and driveway.  Even throwing a shit load of salt on the ice didn't help break it up.  It was a real pain.

And actually, through all of this, I'm very surprised we didn't lose our power. 

And we're looking at yet ANOTHER winter storm coming in later today that promises to bring about two inches of snow, followed by sharply dropping temperatures that will end up below zero, winds of up to 40 mph, dangerous wind chill values and blizzard conditions in outlying areas.  This will be the fourth winter storm we've had since last Sunday when it was a balmy 55 degrees before the first winter storm hit. 

I've said many times that nine months out of the year, Iowa is not a bad place to live.  But so far this winter - along with last winter - have been taxing me to no end.  So far this month, we've received more snow than during the same time last year - and last year was a near-record breaking year for snow fall amounts. 

You know, I can handle the snow.  It's the cold temperatures, gusty winds and ice that I can't handle.

French Meadow Bakery and Cafe - Minneapolis

When we were in Minneapolis this summer, Cindy found the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe on the Internet and wanted to try it for breakfast.  A quick look at the web site told me that it was a tofu and "sandals with socks" kind of place.  But whatever it takes to keep Mama happy, I'm game. 

The French Meadow Bakery and Cafe is in the Uptown section of Minneapolis (see map).  It is the retail bakery and restaurant for French Meadow Bakery breads, a brand of all-natural, gluten-free, and organic breads that has been in existence for nearly 25 years.  Lynn Gordon (right) was a teacher who taught cooking and life-style classes at the Traditional Center for Macrobiotics in St. Paul.  She began to market French Meadow breads in the mid-80's to provide a healthy alternative to breads that were available at that time.  The French Meadow bakery is the oldest certified organic bakery in the United States.  The breads are sold at a number of locations throughout the country. 

The French Meadow Bakery and Cafe is a funky little place with high ceilings and the brunch menus are on the wall on chalkboards.  There's a small parking lot next to the cafe and it's usually tough to find on street parking in front of the business.  The tables out front were all full with patrons having breakfast in the morning sun, so we found a table inside the restaurant. 

I really didn't know what to expect, but I should have known from just reading about the place on the Internet.  You weren't going to find any greasy spoon items on the menu at The French Meadow Bakery and Cafe.  Most of the items were uber-healthy with their signature item being Nut and Fruit pancakes.  Uh, no.  I don't think so.  One of the other interesting things was their Vegan breakfast - vegan sausage, hash browns and served with hemp toast.  Hemp toast?  What the hell? 

They also had the High Energy breakfast - high energy French Meadow Organic Men's Bread toast with organic peanut butter and organic bananas.  Ohhh... Yuck!  I couldn't even stomach thinking what that looks like. 

Of course, there was granola, organic oatmeal, and items served with eggs from range-free chickens fed with organic feed.  OK, I was stuck.  I had to make up my mind.  And quick. 

We went up to the counter and ordered.  I went with something pretty easy -  the Classic Egg Breakfast.  Two organic eggs (over easy), natural Duroc bacon, hash browns and sourdough toast.  I also got a bottle of what I thought was orange juice out of the cooler, but it turned out to be some foul tasting organic juice that immediately began to fight with the unhealthy elements in my body. 

Cindy got the Organic Eggs Benedict - two poached organic eggs, served on an organic English muffin, topped with Black forest ham, some organic mixed greens and a tomato-hollandaise sauce.  Actually, that sounded pretty damn good. 

We got our food in about 15 minutes.  I went and got a bottle of water to help kill the taste of the crappy juice that I was drinking before.  Cindy's breakfast - as it always seems to be - was much better than mine.  Oh, it wasn't that mine was bad - hers was just more exciting than a couple of organic eggs, hash browns, bacon and sour dough toast.  Cindy liked it, a lot.  She was in her element with the healthy eating.  My body was thinking of where we could get a greasy cheeseburger at lunch.  

Breakfast was expensive at the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe - it came to over $25 bucks with tax.  And I was still kind of hungry after I left.  It was all right, but nothing special for me.  But Cindy couldn't quit raving about how great it was.   

They also offer a full dinner menu at the French Meadow Bakery and Cafe, although the food doesn't sound all that exciting.  I'm sure they get their fair share of health-nuts who frequent the place.  It wouldn't be my first choice for a restaurant in Minneapolis, but it was cute and good enough for Cindy.  After eating large meals through the week during our vacation, I suppose just ONE healthy meal wouldn't kill me. 

And it didn't... 

Waiting for the "Big One"

We're expecting a major winter storm to hit the Quad Cities later this afternoon into tonight.  We could see 2 to 6 inches of snow along with freezing rain and sleet.  Honestly, I don't mind the snow all that much - it's the ice that scares the living hell out of me. 

We happen to be almost right on the edge of where a slight deviation in the storm track could nail us with 6 to 10 inches of snow, or we could see a half to three-quarters of an inch of freezing rain.  Being on the edge, we could get hit with both snow and ice.  That won't be fun.

The impending storm is the same one that shut down freeways in Southern California, dumped five inches of snow above Malibu, and hit Las Vegas with its most significant snowfall in more than 30 years.  McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas was shut down, as well as many roads around the Las Vegas area. 

We had a little ice storm on Sunday night.  Well, there's no such thing as a little ice storm.  It started out as rain on Sunday afternoon about 3 p.m. when the temperature was around 55 degrees.  Two hours later, the temperature was 36.  An hour later it was 27 - and still raining.  The only saving grace is that it turned to sleet and then to snow.  Then it got REALLY cold, so it wasn't easy to break up the ice with salt or a shovel.

Tuesday, I took off to go to Chicago to meet a colleague who was flying in for a meeting and dinner with one of our large national accounts.  I got about 20 miles into Illinois and decided to turn around and head back home.  It had taken me about 90 minutes to go about 40 miles.  Now, the Illinois Department of Transportation said on Tuesday morning that Interstate 88 was under "normal winter driving conditions".  Well, if "normal winter driving conditions" means that the left lane is a sheet of ice and the right lane is 25 to 50% ice covered, I wish they would have told me that in advance.  

On top of that, we got MORE snow on Tuesday afternoon - about five inches worth.  So I would have had to drive in that on the way home from Chicago on Wednesday morning.  It wasn't worth it.

Now we're looking down the barrel of a third winter storm this week that could drop up to six inches of snow on us, along with a quarter inch of ice from freezing rain.  Tomorrow is Cindy's birthday and I had planned on taking her somewhere for the weekend.  But it looks now that we'll have to cancel as the storm is scheduled to continue into tomorrow.  Oh, well.  We can always take off some other weekend.  

I'm just hoping that we don't lose our power. 

Tamarack Pizza - Portage, WI

Sometimes you wander into a place not exactly knowing what you'll get.  And then it turns out that you're so pleasantly surprised, you'd like to go back again someday.  We ran into a place like this in Portage, WI called Tamarack Pizza (see map).

Situated just of U.S Highway 51 and next to the Wisconsin River, we happened upon Tamarack Pizza when we were wandering across the state of Wisconsin during our vacation.  We drove by the place, thought it looked interesting, so we turned around and went back to give it a shot.

Tamarack Pizza's bar area is actually enclosed in what is an old railroad freight car.  Established in 1973, Tamarack Pizza has since expanded to accommodate about 100 diners in the restaurant.  Their pizza is called the best in the Portage area, but they also feature sandwiches, entrees and appetizers. 

We got into the restaurant about 6:30 on a Sunday evening.  A number of Wisconsin River boaters and partiers were finishing up the weekend with drinks at Tamarack Pizza.  We found a table off the bar area to sit at.  They were old wooden tables with wooden bench seats.  It was kind of cramped and loud in the area, but we managed to get through it all right.  

Although the menu showed that they had a pretty good burger, but after seeing the remnants of a thin-crust Tamarack pizza on a nearby table, I wanted to try the pizza.  I wasn't overly hungry from our earlier visit to 2 Mits in Elkader, IA, but once I saw the Tamarack pizza I knew that's what I wanted.

Cindy didn't want pizza.  She wanted the steak sandwich - a small rib eye steak on a toasted bun and topped with veggies.  Steak fries came with the sandwich.  I got a small sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza - the standard toppings I use in which to gauge all other pizzas.  And they had Point beer in bottles.  I liked the place already. 

We spent about 20 minutes mapping out where we'd like to wander to while waiting for our food.  I like those kinds of trips where you come to an intersection and say, "I wonder what's down this road?"  And you take the turn.  We knew we were going to have to find a place to stay for the evening at some point.  But that wasn't that large of a concern on a Sunday night.

When our food came out, I was ready to dig into the pizza.  The crust was crisp and flaky, but it wasn't cracker thin crunchy.  The sausage was fresh and it was the big chunks that I like so well.  The mushrooms were a little wimpy, but edible.  And the pepperoni was plentiful and flavorful.  It was a very good pizza.

Cindy really liked her steak sandwich with the steak fries.  She had trouble eating the whole thing because she, too, was stuffed from our trip to 2 Mits about 4.5 hours before.  The waitress asked if we wanted boxes for our food.  Cindy declined a box since we were traveling.  I initially said no to getting a box for the remaining three slices of pizza.  But Cindy said, "Oh, come on.  Bring it with us.  We can put it in the cooler until we get to the hotel.  Then we'll find a place that has a refrigerator in the room and we'll stick it in there."

Well, it turned out the hotel we found (The Ramada in downtown Fond du Lac) didn't have a refrigerator in the room.  Plus we were on the sixth floor and our car was parked in the parking ramp next to the hotel.  We had to literally go down the elevators, walk about 50 yards through the lobby, take another elevator up two levels, then walk about 50 yards to our car.  I wasn't going to haul the cooler in for one night.  The next morning, the ice had melted and the pizza was soggy.  It was tossed.

I don't make it up to the Portage area during my business travels all that much, but I would like to stop back in to Tamarack Pizza for another pizza at some point.  Maybe I need to try to develop some business up there.

National Corvette Museum - Bowling Green, KY

A good friend of mine, "Coupe" Underwood, once told me years ago when I began to travel for a living, "Always take a camera with you.  You never know what kind of stuff you're going to run across."  So, I normally take a camera with me.  And I did on my trip to Bowling Green, KY earlier this fall.  But on this trip, I didn't heed my own rule - make sure the battery is charged before you take the camera with you!  I found that out during my visit to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.

Actually, I wasn't planning on seeing much in Bowling Green.  I had a potential new dealer who was interested in our speaker line, so I went down there for a meeting.  But when I came up Exit 28 to Bowling Green on Interstate 65, I was surprised to see the National Corvette Museum (see map).  The museum is literally across the road from the plant where Chevrolet Corvettes are made.  The museum is a mecca for Corvette owners of all ages.

Now, there's an old joke - What's the difference between a porcupine and Corvette owners?  The pricks are on the outside on a porcupine.  But I've always thought Corvettes are neat.  It goes back to the early 60's when my dad would test drive a new Corvette for a day and he'd take my older brother and me along with him.  He had a friend, Jack Bailey, who ran a Chevy dealership in Newton, IA who'd let him take one out for a drive.  We'd always go around to the small towns in the area, but he'd open it up in between.  This was before the interstate was finished so we REALLY couldn't see how fast one of those could go.  I was, maybe, 4 to 7 or 8 when we used to do it.  My mother would have crapped on the spot if we told her we were hitting 110 on the straight-aways along some back road blacktop. 

I had some time to kill before I went to see my potential dealer.  I parked my car and grabbed my camera from the trunk.  I began to take pictures of the outside of the building.  Suddenly, my battery indicator light began to blink 'red'.  I thought, "Son of a BITCH!!"  For a moment, I thought I'd go back out to the car, get the charger and let it charge up for about 15 minutes in the museum.  But I thought I could get enough pictures out of it before the battery would let go. 

In hindsight, I should have taken in the charger and plugged it in at the front desk and wandered around in the Corvette Store gift shop waiting for it to get a better charge.  It turned out there was a lot to see at the National Corvette Museum. 

The building itself is 68,000 square feet.  They have over 75 Corvettes on display as well as engineering and design displays, motor displays and pictures of everything from cars to the men who designed the cars over the years.  As I was there, they were in the midst of building a 47,000 sq. ft. addition that was scheduled to be done on Labor Day of 2009. 

It cost about eight bucks to get in and the museum is open 360 days a year from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The first part of the museum that you enter is the atrium area where they have a number of Corvettes lined up.  Many of these Corvettes were either on loan or gifted to the non-profit museum.  They had Corvettes on display in the atrium from the 1950's up to this decade.  All were in mint shape and had to worth thousands and thousands of dollars.

The first Corvettes were built in Flint, MI and the body was made out of fiberglass - very revolutionary in it's day - mainly because of a lack of steel 7 years after the end of World War II.  This is a 1953 Corvette.  This was one of the first Corvettes ever produced.  Each car had a story board beside it, telling its history and how it made it to the Corvette Museum.  On the walls in the atrium area were a number of pictures of Corvettes and their owners.  There were also kiosks that showed videos of Corvettes in action over the years. 

From the atrium, you could go into the Chevrolet Theater which was playing a film on the history of the Corvette, or you could go into the Nostalgia part of the museum.  I skipped the film and went through the museum.  There, they had displays of old Corvettes from the 50's in a diorama.  This is a 57 Corvette sitting in what was an old Mobil gas station.  I think the price on the pumps was 29 cents for Ethyl (high octane).  

Here is, I believe, a 1955 Corvette.  A friend of our family, Howard Pelzer, had one exactly like this back in the 70's.  He used to drive it in parades.  One time at my aunt and uncle's house, he had the Corvette parked in the front yard.  His grandkids were playing in the car and, somehow, the emergency brake was disengaged and the car rolled down a short embankment.  It got hung up on a concrete retaining wall and broke the fiberglass along the bottom of the passenger side door.  Now, I would have been kicking those kids asses from here to Mars, but Howard was rather laid back about the incident.  "Aw, that's what insurance is for," Howard said,  But, then again, I think he'd had about 8 drinks in him by that time. 

The next part of the museum was the Performance area where they showed concept and proto-type Corvettes that Chevrolet worked on over the years.  This was a pretty neat area of the museum.  This area also included a number of displays on the men who designed the Corvette over the years, including Harley Earl, widely regarded as the "Father of the Corvette."  I wish I would have been able to get more photos of this area.   

From the Performance area, it was on to the Corvette Museum Skydome.  This housed a number of Corvette performance and race cars, including a number of Indianapolis 500 pace cars that were used during a number of races.  This is the last picture I was able to get before my battery went dead.  I just wandered around after that looking at all they had on display. 

Before I left, I went through the Corvette Store shop.  Actually, the exit from the museum takes you right through the gift shop.  So they try to get you one last time before you leave.  You can visit the gift shop without having to pay admission to the museum.

I think I spent about a half-hour in the National Corvette Museum, not as much time as I'd liked.  But it turns out that I put the dealer on in Bowling Green and I will be going back at least a couple times a year.  With the new part of the museum to open in September, almost doubling its size, I'll probably wait to go back to the museum next fall.  But this time I will make sure that my camera battery is fully charged.  I have a feeling that I'm going to get a lot of good pictures on my return visit. 

 

 

 

Jack Fry's (Revisited) - Louisville

I promised that I'd give my nieces, Amy and Sara Geiger, a shout out at some point in Road Tips.  And since Jack Fry's in Louisville is one their favorite all-time restaurants when they go back home to visit their parents, this is as good a time as any.

I first wrote about Jack Fry's here when I went out to eat there with my sister, Nan, when I was in Louisville last year.  She told me that Jack Fry's is somewhat famous around Louisville for having a great gourmet hamburger.  I made a note on that and promised myself that I'd give it a shot at some point.

After having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law, Vic, at their house the night before, I decided to give Jack Fry's burger a try before I left to head down to Bowling Green.  The Highlands area on Bardstown Road where Jack Fry's is located (see map) is always hustling and bustling.  Finding a parking spot in the small lot on the side of the restaurant is usually done by pure luck.  It just so happened that as soon as I was pulling into the lot to see if anything was available, a car was pulling out of a space. 

I walked in the side door and was greeted by a hostess.  I asked if I could sit at the bar for lunch and she gave me sort of a surprised look.  "Why, of course," she semi-exclaimed.  She took me to the bar and handed me the lunch menu as I sat down on a stool.

Actually, Jack Fry's is almost too nice of a place to have a bar.  But the place was established back in the 1930's just after the repealing of Prohibition.  Jack Fry was a reputed bootlegger and bookie who ran the place as a beer and shot kind of place.  In the 1970's, and under new management, Jack Fry's went through a metamorphosis into an upscale dining establishment.  It has been hailed as one of the finest places to eat in Louisville for a number of years.

The lunch menu isn't too deep in choices.  And quite honestly, I really thought about getting the pork tenderloin sandwich, roasted in spices and topped with a red peppers, onions and Havarti cheese on a toasted roll.  But I came for the burger and that's what I got.  I got it topped with swiss cheese and caramelized onions.  A side of hand cut fries came with the burger.  

As more people filtered through the restaurant during the lunch hour, I patiently waited for my burger.  I kind of got the notion from the bartenders that sitting at the bar was sort of gauche. The two guys behind the bar were efficient, but not very friendly.  When I was served my burger and fries, it was given to me with not much of a word from the server.

Getting over the rather chilly service, the Jack Fry's burger was everything my sister told me it would be.  The meat was fresh, moist and flavorful.  The bun - what I think makes a good burger - was light, flaky and wasn't chewy.  It was very, very good. 

But it should have been good given the level of cuisine served at Jack Fry's.  I probably would have given it five stars had I eaten it in a greasy burger joint with the smell of stale beer in the air.  But Jack Fry's food is top notch and no matter what you get on the menu it's going to be very, very good.  I don't know if I'll go back to Jack Fry's specifically for a burger, but any meal at Jack Fry's is a big treat. 

Beer Hunting in Kansas City

I picked up a number of good Oktoberfest beers this fall once again this year.  While I was in Kansas City a few weeks ago, I stopped at a number of liquor stores in the area. These are ones that I've been going to for a number of years and I just happened to hit them while I was in town for two or three days earlier this fall.

Gomer's has been around for over 30 years on the Missouri side of Kansas City.  I was first turned on to Gomer's when I would travel to Kansas City to see an old girlfriend in the late 70's, then again after I began to work for a company in the KC area in the mid-80's.  Gomer's was nothing like I'd ever seen before in regard to a liquor store that had such a great variety of beer, wine and liquor. 

There are four locations of Gomer's in Kansas City.  I first went to the Midtown location (see map) years ago and I went to the south location (see map) on my most recent visit.  While others in the area have passed Gomer's by in terms of beer selection, I still like to go in and take a quick look around to see if there's anything that I can't live without. 

Metcalf Discount Liquor in Overland Park (see map) is in the same shopping complex as one of my large dealers in the KC area.  This location is one of three in the company, which is basically a small family owned business.  They have a pretty good selection of eclectic beers and often at a very good price. 

Metcalf Discount Liquor has a single bottle "mix and match" program with an ever expanding selection of different brands of beer.  They had a great price on a case of the Boulevard Brewing Company's Bob's 47 Oktoberfest beer.  I couldn't resist the price - about $27 bucks for the case.  And I love Bob's 47 Oktoberfest beer. 

Lukas Liquor in Shawnee Mission (see map) is an 18,000 sq. ft. superstore that features the best selection of beer and wine of any store in the Kansas City area.  Founded in 1981, Lukas Liquor moved to its present location in 1995.  They also have three other locations, including one in suburban St. Louis that I've visited a couple times in the past. 

I never knew the one on in Shawnee Mission existed until a buddy of mine was telling me about it a couple three years ago.  When I found it (it's actually back off the street a ways in a strip mall), I was astounded at the selection of beers they had in the place.  I think I spent well over $50 bucks on my first visit and it's always a $20 bill or more each time I go into Lukas Liquor.  l was able to find a couple six packs of the Paulaner Oktoberfest and the Warsteiner Premium Oktoberfest beers

Berbiglia (pronounced Ber-BIL-ya) Wine and Spirits has the Missouri side of Kansas City covered with 11 locations.  Berbiglia is arguably the oldest liquor store in the area as it started as a grocery store in 1917.  Through the years, it morphed from an upscale grocery store during its day to more of a wine and liquor store that sold eclectic foods, as well. 

I visited two of the locations while I was in Kansas City - the main location on W. 103rd St. just east of State Line Road (see map), and the location at 79th and Wornall (see map), just down the street from a dealer I'm trying to land.  While the Berbiglia locations I've been to seem to cater more toward wine connoisseurs than beer guys.  I didn't really find anything that I absolutely really needed from Berbiglia's.

Royal Liquors is probably my favorite place to go looking for beer in Kansas City.  They rival Lukas Liquor in selection and price, but they seem to have more helpful and knowledgeable people who like to tell you about their favorites.  I stopped at the downtown location off of I-35 on Southwest Boulevard when I was in town recently (see map).  They categorize their beers in two levels - domestic and imports.  Actually, all the domestically brewed specialty and craft beers - including Boulevard, which is located just down the street from Royal Liquors - are classified as imports.  I have to say that Royal Liquors has the largest variety of EACH beer to choose from.  You can buy the different beer by the cases to kegs to 6-packs, 12-packs, singles, whatever.

They had a large selection of the Bell's Oktoberfest beer - one of my all-time favorite marzen style beers.  I had to get a couple sixers of that while I was there.  Plus, I was told to try the Ayinger Oktoberfest beer.  Ayinger is a German brewer and their Oktoberfest beer - although a little expensive - was very good.  I got a six pack of the beer and it was gone within days of getting it home.  I should have gotten another. 

Any one of the above places is very good to visit when you're on the hunt for beer in Kansas City.  Royal Liquors and Lukas Liquor are probably the best in terms of variety and price.  But you don't want to pass up the other places as you'll never know what you find. 

Sam's No. 3 - Denver

One morning during the recent CEDIA convention in Denver, we tried to get into the Corner Office Restaurant and Bar at The Curtis hotel where we stayed.  The hostess told us that it would be a 45 to 50 minute wait for a group as large as ours (10 in total).  One of our set up guys from Montreal had told us about a place just down the street from The Curtis - Sam's No. 3 - and he said it was a better breakfast and much cheaper than what they served at the Corner Office.  We thought we'd give it a try.

By the time we walked the half block down the street to Sam's No. 3 (see map), our group enlarged to 14 people.  We knew we were going to have trouble all sitting at one table no matter where we went for breakfast, so we all decided that it was catch-as-catch-can when we got in there. 

Sam's No. 3 is a very popular place for breakfast in downtown Denver.  They have won numerous People's and Critic's Choice Awards over the years for the food.  In addition to typical American food, Sam's No. 3 also serves Greek and Mexican dishes - many of which use the same original recipes from over 80 years ago.  

The original Sam's No. 3 opened in the mid-20's as the third of owner Sam Armatas' Coney Island restaurants.  Armatas, a Greek immigrant, opened five Coney Island restaurants with the one downtown being the most popular.  Coney Island - later known as Sam's No. 3 - stayed in business for over 40 years before closing in 1971.   In the meantime, Sam's son, Spero, opened the Newbarry's diner in southwest Denver serving a lot of the same items as the old Coney Island restaurants did. 

After talking about the possibility of reviving the Sam's No. 3 name, Spero Armatas' sons, Alex, Sam and Patrick (pictured at the right with their father), opened a Sam's No. 3 in suburban Aurora in 1998 (see map).  A few years later, they reopened the original Sam's No. 3 location in downtown Denver at 15th and Curtis.   It quickly became one of the favorite spots for breakfast and late night weekend eats for the citizens of Denver.

Sam's No. 3 has the look of an old time diner, but with a modern feel to it.  There's a number of seats at a counter with a lot of booth and table seats throughout.  Given that a large convention was in town, the place was packed before 8 a.m.  It was a 10 minute wait before the bulk of our group could get seated into the back bar area of Sam's No. 3.

My boss, Daniel, is big on making sure everyone has a big breakfast on trade show days, mainly because we don't have time to have lunch.  The menu at Sam's No. 3 is big enough to satisfy any hungry person's appetite at breakfast.  Three and a half pages of the menu are filled with breakfast items.  They have a number of daily breakfast specials, omelets, pancakes, waffles, burritos and skillet dishes to choose from.  It was almost overwhelming what they had to offer for breakfast.

I went with the Supreme Omelet - four eggs with diced ham, sausage, bacon, gyro meat, with Cheddar Jack cheese and a side of Sam's No. 3 famous green pork chili.  I got whole wheat toast and bacon on the side.  Hey, Daniel wants us to have a big breakfast - I'm getting a big breakfast.

The problem was that it was so busy and we had such a large group.  We only had one waitress working our group.  A couple of the guys were complaining that they didn't get coffee or they needed this or that.  I said, "Hey, cool out.  This woman's working her ass off.  It's one woman working three tables for 14 guys on one check."  One of the other guys in our group went over to the stand where the coffee was, took the pot and began to pour coffee for the rest of the group.  I don't drink coffee, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me.  But some of the guys I work with, they take their coffee intravenously.

It was over a half-hour before our food showed up and, for me, it was worth the wait.  The Supreme Omelet was big and hearty.  The combination of the sausage, bacon, ham and gyro meat with the jack cheese was excellent.  And they definitely didn't skimp on the ingredients.

After the usual impatient bitching, everyone in our group said their breakfast was very good.  I'm not big on breakfast, especially first thing in the morning.  But Sam's No. 3 was one of the best breakfast places I've ever eaten in.  In terms of selection, quality of food and ambiance, Sam's No. 3 was a true gem for breakfast.  This is the type of place that I try to find in my travels.  Good thing we had a chance to eat there.  I'll go back the next time I make it out to Denver.  There's too many interesting things on the menu that I'd like to try.

 

Making the Easy Transistion from Analog to Digital Television

The Fox Network has a great show on Saturday night - Talk Show with Spike Feresten.  It's on right after the equally wonderful MadTV at 11 p.m. Central time and, the recent Saturday Night Live successes notwithstanding, it's one of the best things to watch on Saturday night.  

With the federally mandated conversion from analog to digital television signals to begin on February 17, 2009, more than a few people are still confused as to what they need to do to get digital signals on their old analog sets if they don't have cable or satellite service.  Especially elderly people. 

In a great two minute public service announcement spoof, Talk Show with Spike Feresten tackles the issue and shows "how easy" it is to hook a digital converter box up to an existing analog television.  A big "thanx" to my buddy, Warren White, for sending this along. 

City Grill Bistro - Wausau, WI

On our trip across the state of Wisconsin during our vacation, it got to be close to lunchtime.  And when Cindy says she needs to eat, the world stops.  Thankfully, we were close to Wausau, WI and we ended up in the downtown area of that city in the historic River District.  We were driving around trying to find some place to eat and we came across the City Grill Bistro.

The City Grill Bistro is part of the Jefferson Street Inn, a full service luxury hotel in downtown Wausau (see map).  Although Wausau is part of my territory, I've never visited the city before.  I really don't think there's much business to be had, actually, as Wausau is primarily a manufacturing and mining area.  There are some paper and insurance companies in the area, but that's about it. 

It was around 1:15 when we found a parking spot and walked into the City Grill Bistro.  We were shown to a half table booth, the kind that I hate because it looks like you're on display, eating in front of everybody in the restaurant.  But there weren't very many people in the restaurant, so we just ended up staying there.  We got our menus from the hostess and took a look to see what they had for lunch. 

The City Grill Bistro had sort of a trendy, upscale look to the place.  It was contemporary and casual at the same time.  It had a nice bar area in the center of the restaurant and one wall of the place consisted of large windows that looked out into the downtown area around the restaurant. 

Service at the City Grill Bistro was unbearably slow.  It took us nearly five minutes before a waiter showed up to take our drink order.  And then it was another five minutes before he came back with the drinks.  He asked if we needed any additional time to look at the menu.  By that time, I'd pretty much memorized everything there was as the lunch menu featured only six sandwiches, about five salads and a handful of appetizers.  We ordered right away. 

Cindy ordered the turkey club with a cup of the tomato bisque soup, the soup of the day at the restaurant.  I ordered the Reuben.  I figured that was a safe choice.  Seasoned potato wedges came with the sandwiches. 

We waited and waited and waited for our lunch to come out.  Cindy finally got her cup of tomato bisque about 10 minutes after we ordered.  It was coming up to 25 minutes after we ordered that I decided to go to the restroom.  I said, "It never fails.  The food will show up while I'm in the bathroom." 

Well, it did show up by the time I got back to the table.  My sandwich was nothing special - just a regular Reuben with corned beef, swiss cheese and sauerkraut topped with 1000 Island dressing.  I always like to get a side of 1000 Island dressing to dip my sandwich in.  Unfortunately, I was in the bathroom when the waiter brought our food, so I couldn't order any right away.  I was nearly 3/4's of the way through the sandwich before he came back to check on us.  By that time, I didn't need the dressing any longer. 

Cindy liked her turkey club, but she, too, said it was nothing special.  We had finished our meals and waited another five minutes after we'd had our last bite before the waiter showed up and I immediately asked for our bill.  By this time, it was approaching over an hour since we'd first sat down. 

The bill came to about $23 bucks with tax.  I put out a twenty, a five and a one and left it on the table.  I wasn't about to have him take a credit card and waste another 10 minutes of our lives waiting for him to come back. 

For as nice as the City Grill Bistro looked on the inside, the food wasn't all that spectacular, the service was absolutely horrid and it just didn't live up to our expectations.  We'd been eating so well all week long that this was a step backwards compared to other places we'd visited.

I don't know if I'll be getting up to Wausau anytime soon in the future, but I'll be sure to look for some other place to eat other than the City Grill Bistro. 

The Mall of America

Here's a very healthy suggestion for those men out there whose wives or girlfriends say they want to go to the Mall of America:

Don't go. 

When we were in Minneapolis this past summer, we stayed at the Ramada Inn next to the Mall of America.  Cindy said, "I need to go to the mall to look for some clothes."

I said, "The mall?  As in, the big one right over there?"

She said, "Yeah, I want to go to the Mall of America." 

So, in order to keep Mama happy, we went to the Mall of America.  I bitched and pissed and moaned the whole two minute drive from the hotel to the parking garage.

Now, we'd been to the Mall of America before - back in 1994, two years after it opened.  At that point in time, we weren't very impressed with the selection of stores they had to offer.  Many of the stores they featured were stores that we had in our malls back home in the Quad Cities.  And there were even duplicate stores in some cases. 

Since that time, I'd personally been to the Mall of America about four or five times, primarily to eat at one of the restaurants.  I hadn't really poked around to see what stores they had to offer.  It turns out they've upgraded the offerings from when we were first there nearly 15 years ago. 

There are now over 500 stores in the Mall of America with a number of restaurants, entertainment venues and, of course, the huge amusement park in the middle of the place, the Nickelodeon Universe.  For the first 14 years the mall was in existence, the amusement park was known as Camp Snoopy.  Negotiations between the Peanuts organization and the Mall of America broke down in 2006 and the park was renamed The Park at MOA.  Nickelodeon, the cable channel that is geared toward younger viewers, took over the park in late 2007 and reopened the park as Nickelodeon Universe in March of this year.

At one point in time, there were a number of bars and restaurants on the east side of the mall where a guy could go and hang out while their wife or girlfriend went shopping.  However, now there's only a Hooters.  About three years ago, a number of the bars on the 4th level shut down, including Jillian's, Player's Bar and Grill, and America's Original Sports Bar.  Interestingly enough, all three were owned by the Dave and Buster's chain which has been having some financial difficulty in recent years.  However, others point to the local law which banned smoking in all public buildings for the demise of the bars and restaurants.  There used to be a Country and Western club on the 4th level, but that closed years ago.  So, unless you want to have a drink in the bar at Tony Roma's, Twin City Grill, or Famous Dave's, that's about it for a way to pass the time in a bar at Mall of America. 

Here are some other interesting fun facts about the Mall of America:   

• Mall of America is the largest, fully enclosed retail and family entertainment complex in the U.S.
• Seven of the old Yankee Stadiums would fit inside Mall of America.
• Mall of America’s 13,300 short tons of steel is nearly twice the amount in the Eiffel Tower.
• Walking distance around one level of Mall of America is .57 of a mile. Given that there are three main levels, with four levels on the east side, you can walk about 1 3/4 miles if you hit walk past all the stores and restaurants in the mall. 
• Spending 10 minutes in every store would take a shopper more than 86 hours to complete their visit to Mall of America.
• More than 4,200 couples have been married at Mall of America since opening in August of 1992. 
• There are 30,000 live plants and 400 live trees planted in Nickelodeon Universe®.

Something in the Nickelodeon Universe is a pilgrimage to me when I go to the Mall of America - it's the plaque that shows where home plate used to be in the old Metropolitan Stadium, which was razed to make way for the mall and the first place I saw a major league baseball game.  The only thing I hate about the plate-shape plaque is that it isn't even positioned correctly as to the direction it faced in the old Met.  The plate is facing south, while the home plate faced southwest in the old stadium.  I know, it's probably not a big deal, but being the old time "purist" for all things Minnesota Twins, I would have thought they would have paid a little more attention to that detail.

While Cindy was shopping for a new top, I came across this sort of neat display for the new Best Buy store they had just opened in the Mall.  It was next to the down escalator on the first level over by Nordstrom.  This is actually a two-dimensional video display, made out of transparent glass and only about a half-inch thick.  There were speakers embedded in the base of this and it really appeared like a Best Buy sales guy was standing there talking to you.  It was kind of funny to see people do a double take when they were walking by, noticing the person they just saw from the front had no back to him.  It was actually pretty neat to see. 

In addition to the over 500 stores throughout the mall, there's a number of kiosks on the first level selling everything from sunglasses to watches to toys to clothing for some of the restaurants in the mall to God knows what else.  It was American sales and marketing at its best.  It was just a retail overkill. 

Nintendo had it's hand in exploiting the Mall of America as it had a number of young girls doing demonstrations of the Wii Fit exercise program.  Given the lack of anyone coming up to give it a try while I was standing there for a couple minutes, I'm guessing Nintendo pissed away a lot of money on this display and for paying for the girls to help with the demos.  

They're talking about expanding the Mall of America to the north, putting in a waterpark, some more stores and restaurants, hotels and a Bass Pro Shops location.  There's already an IKEA on the land, but I understand further expansion has been held up due to lack of public funding for the developers.

Years ago, I used to think malls were the center of the universe when it came to American retailing.  These days, I just cringe when I have to go to a mall - fighting the traffic and parking, walking long distances to get to a store and seeing basically the same thing in each mall I go to.  Mall of America has actually done a good job of re-marketing themselves over the years and it continues to be a destination for hundreds of thousands annually who want to be over-stimulated to what America really has to sell.  If I had to choose 10 places to take a foreign person to show them what America is all about, Mall of America - for all that's good and bad with the country - would be on the list.

The Beginning of Winter

Argh!!  Well, like clockwork, it's the first day of December here in the Midwest and there's snow on the ground.  Even though the astronomical winter doesn't begin until December 21, the meteorological winter starts today.  The days will continue to grow shorter for the next three weeks.  I've always said the best thing about the first day of winter is that the days will get longer from then on out. 

The first snow is as pretty as it is pretty inevitable in the state of Iowa.  And like last year around December 1, it was the first one of the year.  Only this year, we didn't quite get dumped on like we did last year with a potpourri of snow and freezing rain.  We got a couple inches of heavy, wet snow beginning Sunday morning.  It wasn't all that tough to get around, but I could have waited until later in the month of December to see the first snow of the year. 

And in anticipation of the snow, I just finished covering up our 20 plus rose bushes earlier this past weekend.  Cindy was adamant to use the wintering methods prescribed by the Iowa State Extension service.  That was to put a bunch of black dirt around the base of the rose bushes, then cover them with straw, preferably by surrounding the rose bushes with wire cages.  Well, I put a big "nix" to putting wire cages around all of them. 

The straw is a mess to clean up in the spring time.  I wanted to use mulch, but Cindy wouldn't have any of that.  "Do what the Extension service said to do!  We spent too much money on those roses to have them die!"

Even after explaining to her that I used mulch on the rose bushes we had in the ground last winter and they all lived, plus the fact that mice and rabbits like to nest under the straw, it didn't faze her a bit.  It was put down the straw or pull up the roses.  Even when I explained, "Look, you don't have to clean up the mulch in the spring, you just spread it away from the bushes," it still didn't matter.  Oh well...   

It's not supposed to warm up all that much this week - highs will stay in the 30's with low's in the 20's.  The snow is probably going to stick around for awhile.   And with that, so will winter.  Last winter was a long, hard one.  It looks like this one is starting out to be another one...