Road Tips

3 Corners Liquor - Owatonna, MN

There's something to like about a lone liquor store that's situated in the middle of a busy retail, hotel, truck stop and restaurant sector along an Interstate highway.   3 Corners Liquor outside of Owatonna, MN is just that kind of liquor store.  I was surprised, however, at the amount of great beers they had to choose from at one point.  But, sadly, they don't have quite the selection today that they once had. 

Situated along Interstate 35 at exit 45 (see map), 3 Corners Liquor is literally in the middle of a number of businesses including a large Cabela's store, a Famous Dave's barbecue place, a couple of hotels, other restaurants, a couple truck stops and a Russell Stover outlet store.  It's also just down the road from the large Medford Outlet Mall, located just three miles north at Exit 48.

During trips to and from the Twin Cities, I found myself stopping in at Cabela's to look around at things.  One time, I decided to stop into 3 Corners Liquor just to see what they had to offer.  I was surprised to find a number of shelves of single beers where you could mix and match six-packs.  And there was a lot to choose from, well over 100 different types and brands of beer including some Upper Midwest brews that we didn't get in Iowa, to some eclectic import beers that looked sort of out of place in a liquor store in South Central Minnesota.  I always found something to take with me whenever I would stop in.  The selection they had was very impressive. 

One day coming back from the Twin Cities, I stopped into 3 Corners Liquor to do a little "beer hunting".  As I walked in, blaring from the stereo system in the store was a blistering blues number by Tommy Castro from his "Live at the Fillmore" album.  I said to the guy behind the counter, "Is this Tommy Castro?"

His face immediately lit up and he said, "It sure is!  You have this album?"

I said, "Yeah, I do.  In fact, one of Tommy Castro's band guys gave me a copy." 

To make a long story short, the guy behind the counter, Mark, was sort of an impresario in the Owatonna/Austin/Rochester area when it came to producing blues shows and booking bands.  I began telling him about my work with the annual Rib Fest (now River Roots Live) in Davenport, along with some work I'd done for the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.  It turned out that he knew a number of people I knew from working the gigs over the years.  Suddenly, we were like two long lost brothers.

It turned out that Mark was the manager of 3 Corners Liquor and he was the one responsible for the vast selection of beers they had to offer.  The guy really knew his shit about beer.  He turned me on to a number of good brews on subsequent visits to 3 Corners Liquor.  He remembered who I was and he would usually greet me with, "Hey, man!  I've got something you've got to try!"  More than once he would open a bottle in the store and offer a taste.  I was in love with the place.

However, about two years ago I stopped into 3 Corners Liquor and the selection of eclectic beers and even the amount of liquor and wine on their shelves was about 1/3 of what they normally had.  A lot of the good beer that Mark had turned me onto was no longer found on their shelves.  I asked the guy on duty if Mark was around and he said, "Mark no longer works here."

I said, "You're shitting me!  When did that all happen?"

He said, "Oh, he hasn't been here in, maybe, four months."  

I was sort of devastated.  The guy was pretty reluctant to talk about Mark or where he was.  The only thing he said was, "Mark has some issues that he has to take care of."  

So, while the large selection of great beers is no longer available at 3 Corners Liquor, they still have a nice selection of beers if you need a twelve-pack after buying a gun at Cabela's and you're going out hunting.  At one point, 3 Corners Liquor was one of the best places to buy some interesting beers.  Today, it's just another liquor store with an adequate selection of beers.  On their web site, they say they have a bunch of different types of tequila, rum and vodka, but no mention of any vast array of beers to choose from.  I stopped in last summer just to see what was going on and if they had the 600 different wines, over 100 different tequilas and over 50 different types of rum they advertise having, they had them well hidden.   

Come back, Mark!  Please! 

(Update February 2012 - I've been back to 3 Corners a handful of times on trips to and from the Twin Cities.  My last visit there, it looked like the place was on the verge of going out of business.  They didn't have half the beer selection they've had in the past.  The liquor shelves were about half full and there didn't seem to be much of a wine selection any longer.  I honestly don't know what's happened to 3 Corners, but it's not the same place as it was.)

 

Rigazzi's - St. Louis

I'm not certain, but I may have eaten at Rigazzi's one time long ago when I first started to travel to St. Louis for business back in the mid-80's.  I remember going to a restaurant that was right next to Kingshighway and then going upstairs to dine.  Well, Rigazzi's is right next to Kingshighway just south of Interstate 44 (see map) and they do have an upstairs dining area.  But it was so long ago that I can't remember if this was the same place. 

But on my continued quest to find all the good Italian restaurants in St. Louis, I decided to give Rigazzi's a try one evening a couple months ago after I got into St. Louis from Springfield, MO.  I popped off the Kingshighway exit on I-44 and took a quick right and then a left.  I drove a block and Rigazzi's was right on the corner of Daggett and Boardman St.  I was able to find parking on the street, right in between two cop cars.  I hoped they were in there for dinner and not on a call.

Rigazzi's has been around since 1957 when Lou Aiazzi and John Riganti combined their names to form a restaurant partnership on the Hill in St. Louis.  Riganti eventually left the business and Lou Aiazzi and his wife, Josephine, ran the restaurant.  Lou Aiazzi died in 1974 and his 18-year-old son, Mark, stepped in to run the family business.  Mark Aiazzi continues to run Rigazzi's today, helped along with long-time chef Jim Murphy.  Josephine Aiazzi continues to come into the restaurant nearly every day. 

Rigazzi's suffered a devastating fire in 2000 losing a lot of sports memorabilia and other historic items in the process.  Aiazzi rebuilt the restaurant and tried to keep it's old world feel to the place.  There's a lot of sports memorabilia back on the walls at Rigazzi's celebrating the local sports teams in the St. Louis area.  

Rigazzi's has sort of a "beer hall" feel to the place.  In the large dining area on the main floor, there are a number of booths along with a handful of long tables that can accommodate up to 12 people at some tables.  Smaller tables can be pushed together for even larger groups.  Actually, it seems a little cramped with all those tables in the dining area. 

It was about 8:30 when I finally got into Rigazzi's.  I was seated at a booth in the dining room and given a menu by my waiter.  He automatically asked if I'd like a "frozen fishbowl" of beer - Rigazzi's trademark drink.  It's actually a large beer schooner - 32 ounces in size - that's frozen and filled with beer.  I thought that sounded pretty good so I had him bring me one with Budweiser in it. 

While I was still trying to diet, I knew I could have one night of gluttony a week.  This was going to be the night.  While I still didn't want pasta, I took a look at a number of their entrees before I ordered my food.  Rigazzi's is famous for their chicken dishes including a mouth-watering Grilled Garlic Chicken Mozzarella, as well as their Chicken Parmiciano - two chicken breasts topped with a red meat sauce and mozzarella, then baked.  I also took a quick gander at the Chicken Pepperoni - chicken breasts in a marinara sauce, topped with pepperoni slices and mozzarella.  They all sounded great. 

But just before I was getting ready to order, a couple next to me had a pizza delivered to their table.  Ohhhhh, it looked great!  Suddenly, I got to looking at the pizza menu instead of chicken.  Rigazzi's pizza was the thin St. Louis style and you could get it with Provel or mozzarella cheese.  I was beginning to get torn between the pizza and the Chicken Parmiciano. 

When the waiter came back to the table I did a mental "coin flip" and decided to go with the pizza.  A small Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  He took the order and ran off.  Suddenly, I realized that I hadn't specified mozzarella cheese in place of Provel.  I kept looking for my waiter to see if I could get that changed, but he never came back.  About five minutes later he showed up and I flagged him down.  I said, "You know, I forgot to say I wanted mozzarella on my pizza instead of Provel.  Is it too late to change?"

He said, "I'm sure it is, but I'll check any way."

He came back a couple minutes later and said, "Sorry, it's in the oven."

I said, "Oh, that's OK.  I'll eat it with Provel this time." 

About fifteen minutes later, the pizza came to my table.  It had the big chunks of sausage that I like.  And they didn't spare the pepperoni or mushrooms either.  The sauce was very good, a little sweet, but still good.  And the Provel, while more creamy than a good stringy mozzarella, didn't detract from the overall taste of the pizza.  Some people don't care for Provel cheese.  I don't mind it and sometimes get a hankering for it.  But I really wish I would have gotten the pizza with mozzarella.  Next time. 

I wasn't able to finish the whole pizza.  I had the waiter bring a "to-go" box for the five or six pieces I had left.  My waiter was efficient, but somewhat robotic.  It was my opinion that the wait staff needed one or two more people working the room.  But it was the middle of the week and there seemed to be a lot of families coming in for dinner - even for as late as it was.

Before I left, I hung around the bar area of Rigazzi's to look at the sports pictures, jerseys, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia on the walls.  Rigazzi's is one of those places where I wouldn't mind having to wait for a table because I could be easily entertained by all the stuff they had on display in the bar. 

Well, we're going back to St. Louis this summer for our annual baseball trip and I'm sure I can talk the group into a pizza at Rigazzi's some night.  I would like to go back and try one of the chicken entrees at some point. But I think on my next visit I'll be getting a pizza again, only with mozzarella this time. 

Hamburger Mary's - Cincinnati

(During my semi-hiatus from hip replacement surgery, I'm bringing back a few of my more memorable Road Tips posts from the past.  This was originally posted in January of 2006 when I talked about our trip to Hamburger Mary's in Cincinnati.  While Hamburger Mary's is no longer in business in Cincinnati, I have to say that it was one of the finest cheeseburgers I'd ever had.  But we also found out that Hamburger Mary's had an edge to the place.  It was certainly an eye-opener for a couple of corn fed kids from Iowa.

As an aside, they've since opened a Hamburger Mary's in Cedar Rapids a little over a year ago.  While we haven't been to that location, my sister-in-law has and she proclaims their burgers as "very good.")

Cindy and I spent our 10th anniversary in Cincinnati last spring.  Actually, before you exclaim, "Cincinnati?!", it really is a nice city.  We stayed at the wonderful Netherland Hilton in downtown Cincy for four nights, caught a couple Reds games and had some wonderful meals during the time we were there. 

One night after a Reds game, we stopped in for a beer and something to eat at O'Malley's in the Alley (see map) between Vine and Race Streets in downtown Cincinnati.  Turned out that we got there a little late for food, so we finished our beer and decided to go back to the hotel and order room service.

On the way back, Cindy said, "Hey, let's go see if that hamburger joint that was next to Scotti's (where we ate the night before) is open."  We went back to the hotel, looked up the place - Hamburger Mary's - and found that their kitchen stayed open to midnight.  Since it was 20 to midnight, we had to high step it up the street. 

We got in about 10 minutes later and we were greeted at the door by a guy who turned out to be the manager.  We asked if we could still get a burger and he said, "Sure!"   He took us to a table in the dining room.

Hamburger Mary's is split into two rooms - a spacious bar that has an art deco signature to it, and the dining room that is heavy on dark wood paneling.  The place was comfy.  We decided to order as quick as possible to get the order in before midnight and we both ordered the Hot Momma - burger with jalapenos, cajun spices and pepper jack cheese.  And we got an order of their seasoned fries to give a try. 

I asked to keep the menu because it looked pretty interesting.  In fact, the whole place was kind of interesting.  Noticed that there was a lot of kitsch on the walls, including a wall that was devoted to pictures of famous "Joan's"  (Joan Crawford, Joan Rivers, Joan Fontaine, Joan Jett, Joan Lunden, etc., etc.).  And there was one "Joan" on the wall that looked a lot like John Candy in drag.  I thought it was kind of funny.

Looking around and out at the bar area, there seemed to be a lot of guys in the place.  Nice looking guys, but, well, a little flamboyant for Cincinnati.  Well, they would have been flamboyant for West Hollywood, too.  Suddenly, coming around the corner was the "Joan" that I saw on the wall - an obvious cross-dresser.  I said to Cindy, "I don't think we're in Kansas any longer." 

I got to looking at the menu and some of the things on the menu - "Queen Mary" and "Bleu Boy" - sort of made me stop and think for a moment.  Then right before we got our burgers, I looked out into the bar and saw a guy lean across the table and KISS another guy on the lips!  I said, "Cindy, I don't have a very good 'gaydar', but I think we've stumbled into a gay hamburger joint!"

After about 20 minutes, the manager brought out the burgers to us and they were great.  Big and juicy, full of flavor.  The cajun spices added a little zip to the taste, but it wasn't too spicy so you couldn't taste the flavor in the meat.  The jalapenos were a perfect compliment to the taste of the burger.  And the spicy fries were pretty good, too!  Cindy said to me, "God, I can't believe we're eating this stuff at 12:15 in the morning!" 

While we were eating, the manager was standing near us at a wait station and a guy came up to him and said, "I don't know, but I think John just broke up with me!"  This guy was in obvious distress and the manager took him to a back booth and sat down with him.  Cindy looked at me and she just burst out laughing.   "No, I think you're right, honey.  This is a gay burger joint," she said.

We left a little after 12:30 and laughed all the way back to the hotel.  When we got there we went to the Hamburger Mary's Cincinnati web site and looked up some of the pictures they have in their scrapbook page.  They were taken from the Oscar party Hamburger Mary's threw earlier in the year.  Yeah, the pictures pretty much confirmed what we already knew - Hamburger Mary's is a gay hamburger joint.

Turns out that they have Hamburger Mary's in L.A., San Diego, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and a handful of other places across the country.  They seem to be franchise owned as all of them seemed to be a little different from one another and there wasn't a main Hamburger Mary's web site.   But the one thing they had in common, they're all gay burger joints.

And not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.  The burgers were absolutely great.

A Return to Japonais - Las Vegas

One of the best - and most expensive -meals I've ever participated in was our big dinner at Japonais at The Mirage in Las Vegas at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show.  The bill came to around $2000 and it surprised my boss, Daniel, so much that all he could do was laugh when he was presented the bill.  He continued to make jokes about it all during the show. 

On the final day of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Dominic Baker from Focal Loudspeakers announced to us that he'd like to take us out for dinner that evening.  He said, "Let's go to that place that you guys all talked about last year.  The place that had the sushi and Kobe beef." 

I said to Dominic, "Are you sure?  That was two large bills for the dinner last year."

He kind of shrugged and said, "Sure?  Why not?"

I love the European manufacturers we work with.

Japonais' Las Vegas location is the third to open since the original location opened in Chicago in 2002.  Japonais specializes in contemporary Japanese cuisine.  Their locations are very chic and contemporary in look and design.  The Las Vegas location is a pretty cool place.  To check out our visit to Japonais in 2008, click here. 

We began to pack up our demo products around 1 p.m., hoping to be packed up and the gear transported to the warehouse to be shipped out by around 6 p.m.  The plan worked pretty well, considering one of my colleagues, John, was in bed with a monster cold.  And the fact that I had also caught a monster cold that morning and was fading fast during the day.  By the time we got the rental truck back to Penske and we got back to the hotel to clean up, it was around 7:00 p.m.  I was absolutely beat, so much to the point that I was seriously contemplating not going out to dinner.  But it was Japonais - one of the most exquisite places I've ever eaten.  

John stayed in bed and nine of us went to The Mirage for dinner.  We got right in at 7:30, the restaurant was far from full on a Sunday night.  We sat at a large, rectangular table in the middle part of the restaurant.  Right off the bat, drinks and appetizers - including loads of sushi - were ordered.  My colleague, Ian, picked out a couple great bottles of Italian wine - a red one and a white one.  We were tired, hungry and thankful we'd survived another show.   

One of the appetizers I ordered was "The Rock".  They bring out a heated stone (to about 500 F) along with thin slices of tender New York strip steak meat.  You put the meat on the stone for however long you want it to cook and then eat it like that.  About 15 seconds a side was almost too done for this steak.  But it was just as wonderful as I remember.

Another appetizer I ordered was the Smoked Kobe beef.  It was slices of smoked American-raised Kobe beef served on a skewer with a ginger wasabi sauce.  Oh, man!  I remembered how great it was the first time I had it.  I had to have it again.  And it certainly didn't disappoint the second time around.  

Oh, and the Kobe beef carpaccio.  That was the highlight.  Thinly-sliced very rare pieces of Kobe beef.  I had a couple of those slices and they literally melted in my mouth.  The taste sensation was just unbelievable. 

And I ordered a number of different types of sushi items as appetizers, as well.  By the time it came to ordering up a main entree, I was literally full.  But I wanted to try something on the menu - the Japonais Tuna Steak.  It's a cut of sushi grade tuna, grilled to a perfect medium rare and served over a roasted potato puree mixed with scalliions, tempura maitake mushrooms with a wasabi glaze.  It sounded heavenly.  

Dominic Baker and my colleague, Ian, went with the American-raised Kobe beef rib-eye - at $72 bucks a pop.  It's similar to the smoked Kobe beef entry, but in a full 10 oz. rib-eye.  Dominic said, "I don't care if it's American-raised Kobe beef.  It still has to be better than anything we get in Europe."  

Well, my tuna steak was just excellent.  It wasn't a large tuna filet, so I was able to eat most of it on the already full stomach that I had.  It was just fantastic.  The tuna had some fat to it, so the flavor was just exquisite.  Oh, man!  My stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about how great that tuna steak was.  

But the Kobe beef rib-eye was the highlight at the table.  From Dominic's first bite, he was in heaven.  He said, "This may cost me $2000 bucks for this meal, but this alone is worth it."  He offered me a bite of his steak - cooked rare in the fine European tradition.  I quickly took him up on his offer.  I have to say that it was very, very good.  The taste of the meat was just outstanding, but the texture of meat was unbelievable.  Like the Kobe beef carpaccio, it literally melted in my mouth.  Both Dominic and Ian were using steak knives, but both said they probably didn't need to.  

Between all the food, the wine and the growing intense cold in my system, I started to fade pretty quickly.  I had an early morning flight back home and I needed to get back to The Hilton to finish packing and to get some rest.  My boss, Daniel, could tell I wasn't feeling the best.  He said, "Why don't you take a cab back to the hotel?  Don't worry about having to stick around if you're not feeling well."

I took him up on that offer and one of our guys from Montreal who came to help out at the show this year, Michael, left with me as he said he was starting to fade, as well.  We thanked Dominic profusely for his hospitality and for picking out such a great restaurant.  

On the cab ride back to the hotel, Michael (who wasn't with us in Las Vegas last year) said, "Oh, man.  When everyone came back from the show last year and kept talking about this Japonais place, I thought, 'Man, what a time to miss out on a show.'  I'm glad I got to experience it this year.  That may have been one of the finest meals I've ever had."  

Michael's right on - Japonais is one of the nicest places I've ever eaten at and both times were definitely Top 10 meals in my life.     

Update #3 for Hip Replacement #2

It's approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday and for the third consecutive night, I can't sleep due to a throbbing pain in my left big toe.  Thanks to almost simultaneous suggestions from my wife and Mr. Coleman, a long-time "Road Tips" reader, I looked up the symptoms of toe gout.  It turns out that is exactly what I have.

My doctor concurred that the symptoms - which are many, but include recent surgery, taking aspirin (twice a day as an anti-coagulant), dieting, and the fact that I'm a middle-aged, somewhat overweight male (but quickly losing weight again) - were pointing toward gout.  Gout has to do with a build up of high levels of uric acid in the body that crystallizes in the joints.  I've had small bouts of gout before - it feels like I've sprained my big toe - but it's never hurt like this.

One other cause of gout is something that I can safely say is not the cause of this major bout - drinking beer.  Alcohol - especially beer - reduces the body's ability to process the uric acid.  I haven't had a beer since two days before my surgery - about 12 days ago.  As one of my friends told me on Friday, "Maybe a beer is what you need!"  

Right now, I'm taking another anti-inflammatory drug that is designed to help with gout.  So far, it's not working.  I can sit up and the pain somewhat goes away.  But once I lay down, the throbbing, burning pain in the big toe area comes back.  I fell asleep downstairs in a chair in the family room, but woke up an hour later because my hips and back were so uncomfortable.  But the pain in the foot was nearly gone.  I went back upstairs, jumped in bed and almost immediately the dull throbbing began.  I wasn't in bed anymore than 90 minutes before I had to get back up and retire to the office.  What a pain in the ass this has been.

Cindy has been - as always - a complete saint through all of this.  She sincerely feels bad for me not only for the pain in my foot, but for the fact that I can't sleep.  And I know I've been somewhat of a bear to her lately because I've been so tired and she - bless her heart - knows that and takes that into consideration.  

In the meantime, my diet consists of a lot of liquids - primarily cherry juice - and healthy items such as blueberries, cantaloupe, celery and other foods that will help the body process the uric acid in my system.  I can't eat red meat, seafood, asparagus, mushrooms and some other staples in my normal diet for the time being. 

The pain has been so intense that it's actually helped mask some of the pain that I'm having in my new hip.  But I'm ready for the toe pain to go away and go away quickly.  This is really a bitch.

Update to the Update for Hip Replacement #2

While I'm not quite clicking my heels as the illustration shows, I'm simply amazed at the progress I've achieved over the past couple three days in regard to my new hip.  I sort of figured my right side would bounce back more quickly than the left hip, mainly because I had a lot more strength in my right leg than my left when I had the hips done.  But I didn't think I'd bounce back quite so quickly. 

I have to tell you - the excruciating pain I was in on Thursday and Friday of last week was five times as bad as what I experienced when I had my left hip replaced in March.  I couldn't get in and out of bed without help, the hip flexor and side muscles were so painful that even heavy dosages of pain pills couldn't mask the tremendous pain. 

Saturday afternoon, I was able to gingerly get in and out of bed on my own - but it was a painful chore.  By the time Sunday rolled around, Cindy decided that I was good enough to leave me alone for the day while she went to celebrate Easter with her family in Cedar Rapids.  I got out of bed and decided to make a couple eggs in the kitchen after she left.  I was maneuvering around the kitchen pretty well without my walker and I got to thinking, "Hey, maybe I don't need the walker any longer."

I took it to the back room, folded it up and grabbed my cane.  I started using my cane exclusively on Sunday morning.  That was just remarkable given how much pain and how little mobility I had just 48 hours before. 

Monday was my first session of physical therapy after the second hip replacement.  Both Nicole and Aaron agreed that we needed to take it easy on my left leg muscles as I was continually pulling the quad and hip flexor, quite probably because I was having to use the left leg as my "good" leg all of the sudden. 

Nicole thought that I had enough flexibility and strength in my leg to allow me to drive.  On Tuesday night, Cindy and I got in the car and I drove around for a bit.  I drove myself to physical therapy on Wednesday morning. 

Late yesterday afternoon, I took a walk down the block and back - about a quarter mile total.  While I carried my cane, I didn't use it at all.  As I was walking, I got to thinking, "Geez, right now, one week ago today, I was on the operating table getting a new hip.  Five days ago, I was in such tremendous pain that I would have never thought I'd be able to be doing this today." 

While I'm still black and blue and somewhat stiff in my groin area and around my butt, and the fact that I've gained about 10 pounds from water weight gain and the accompanying swelling associated with the surgery, I have to say that I'm doing exceptionally well.  Much better than I hoped (and thought) I would for the second surgery.  The weight is going to slowly peel away, just as it did after the first surgery.  I don't know if I'll hit my goal of losing 50 pounds by June 1, but I hope to be in the ballpark. 

I'm still not out of the woods yet, given that I still can't fully bend over and pick things up off the floor.  And I've developed a somewhat severe case of "turf toe" on my left foot, undoubtedly from pushing off the left foot to get up and walk around.  But I'm off the Hydrocodone - a generic version of Vicodin - and am down to just taking a couple Tramadol three times a day.  I hope to be down to one Tramadol a couple times a day by this weekend.  But if this "turf toe" keeps up, I may have to stay on the pain pills longer.  Right now, it's more annoying and painful than my leg muscles are. 

Once again, thanks to everyone who e-mailed, called or left comments on Road Tips.  I hope to be fully well and back on the road again by late May. 

Ocean Deck - Daytona Beach, FL

During my recovery for my first hip surgery, I decided to recycle some of the older entries from Road Tips. I didn't really want to do it, but I got a lot of positive feedback from people, so I thought, "What the hell?"  This original entry was posted in February of 2006.  As you'll find, I don't quite go into all the details of my visit like I do in most of my recent entries.  But it still captures one night of frenzied seafood eating in Daytona Beach, FL.

I was in Orlando on business about four years ago and I came in early so I could go up and see relatives in the Palm Coast area.  I got in on a Saturday evening and went up toward Daytona Beach.  On the advice of a good buddy, James Harned, he told me to go eat dinner at The Ocean Deck in Daytona Beach (see map).

The Ocean Deck is a funky little beachfront bar/restaurant that is famous for their seafood selection.  They have live music downstairs every night featuring local reggae bands.  The atmosphere is very relaxed and they encourage people to "come as you are".  In fact, no shoes and no shirts (for the men) are encouraged. 

I sat at the bar on that Saturday night in late March (my seat was actually that stool at the corner of the bar in the picture to the right).  I was seated next to two guys from Minnesota who were in town vacationing for a long weekend.  The NCAA Men's Hockey National Championship game was on TV, the beer was cold and they were happy. 

I told the bartender that I wanted a "seafood overload".  I've only accomplished that about four or five times in my life where I've eaten so much seafood in one sitting that I thought I was going to explode.  He suggested getting The Shipwrecker - a plate of steamed peel and eat shrimp, scallops, oysters and clams in the shell, rock shrimp and crab legs.  All of that for $17.95. 

The bartender brought that out to me and I dug in.  After about 5 minutes I was done.  I said to the bartender, "Listen, I want a seafood overload.  That was just an appetizer."  He suggested the Gulf Shrimp - a half pound of peel and eat shrimp for $10.00.  I said, "Bring it on!"

He brought that out and I ate those in about five minutes.  The guys from Minnesota were just sitting there in amazement.  I said, "Hey, I'm from Iowa.  You guys should know just as well that we don't get this good of seafood back in the Midwest."

The bartender came up and said, "Have you hit the overload yet?"

I waved my hand at him in kind of a "bring it on" fashion and I said, "Bring me another Shipwreck."

The guys next to me about fell off their chairs. 

It took me a little longer to polish off the the second Shipwreck.  Oh, God!  Was it great!  The bartender said, "Listen, if you want any more food, I'll pay for it.  That's some eatin', cowboy!" 

I told him I appreciated the fine gesture, but, no, I had hit the wall.

The guys from Minnesota bought me a beer and we watched some more of the hockey game.  Suddenly, we looked up and the place was overrun by cheerleaders - high school and collegiate cheerleaders.  Turned out the National Cheerleading Championships were being held just down the street at the Ocean Center arena.  I had to stay around for a couple other beers after that.

The Ocean Deck was everything I was told it would be.  Great food, cold beer and the best place to go to in Daytona Beach to achieve seafood overload.

Hip Replacement #2 Update

A quick update as to my right hip replacement that happened on Wednesday.  I don't want to say that I'm doing great, but I'm far from having one foot in the grave. 

I got into the surgical center around 2:30 p.m. and everything was sort of different.  I don't quite know what it was, but it was, well, different.  There seemed to be more of a sense of urgency from the time I arrived.  I was scheduled to be the last one of the day, but the prep nurse told Cindy and I that the doctor was actually ahead of schedule and it was very hectic around the center that day.  I asked her how many people were in today and she said, "There's five of you today.  It's a full house." 

Coming up to this second hip replacement, I was trying to be cool and matter-of-fact about the procedure.  The first one, well, I went into it wide-eyed not really knowing what to expect.  The second one, I had a good idea what to expect.  You would have thought that would have been to my advantage, but in all honesty, it made me much more apprehensive and anxious.

I've gone through about four weeks of physical therapy.  Although I'm seeing tremendous improvements in the strength of my left leg, I also have a lot of pain in the quad and hip flexor muscles.  It's almost like I'd been overdoing the therapy work to get my left leg strong.  As one of my physical therapists told me, "For about two weeks your left leg is going to be your strong leg."  

Well, knowing that my left leg isn't even close to being 100%, I knew it could be pretty tough for me after the surgery.  So, that made me even more anxious and stressed going into the procedure.  

When the prep nurse took my blood pressure it registered 167 over 87.  I was just freaking out.  I didn't want to have a stroke on the operating room table.  But she told me, "I'm sure you're a little stressed out from thinking about the operation.  You'll be fine."  

They got me into a small room and put an IV in me with antibiotics.  They came to get me for the operation around 4 p.m.  Unlike last time when they waited until the antibiotics were fully in my body, they went ahead and took me in to the operating room.  The anesthesiologist came in, marked on my back where the spinal tap was going to go and then gave me the "happy juice" and I don't remember a thing until they woke me up a little before 6 p.m.  Just that quickly, I was back in the room watching the 6 p.m. news

After the first hip replacement, it felt like someone had hit me in the left butt cheek with a 95 mile an hour fast ball, and that a horse had kicked my left thigh.  This time, I didn't have any pain in the thigh, and it felt like someone had hit me in the right butt cheek with a hard thrown softball.  Maybe my hope that the right one would go better was coming to fruition.  That was until I got up to walk around 10:30 that evening. 

Almost immediately, my knee buckled inwards when I put weight on the leg.  I had little to no strength in the side to side movement of my leg.  When I was able to keep the leg straight, I seemed to be fine.  But then when I would make any side movement to the leg, the knee would buckle in or out.  And that frigging killed me!! 

When I got back to bed, I had trouble moving my right leg onto the bed.  The got me strapped back in to this foam brace they put between my legs and gave me a couple of Tylenol.  I had a fitful night of sleep - the third night in a row where I didn't sleep well.

After working with the physical therapists for a little bit and being able to scoot around the surgical center with my walker, I was cleared to go home at 9:30.  They took all my vitals and my blood pressure was more like me - 117 over 73.  Cindy came to pick me up about 9:45 and I was home at 10 a.m.  Amazing.

But from right off the bat, I knew I would have trouble getting in and out of bed.  The muscle pain in the right leg was excruciating - even more so than the first hip replacement.  I couldn't pick my leg up or move it across the bed when I tried to get in or out of bed.  It was much more pronounced in my hip flexor.  In fact, it's very black and blue in my groin area. 

And to top it off, I pulled my quad muscle in my left leg yesterday when I tried to move too quickly when a sharp pain shot through my right leg muscles getting out of bed.  Suddenly, I have two very sore legs.

After the last surgery, Cindy's sister, Anita, came to sit with me on that Friday while Cindy went to work.  Actually, it turned out at that I really didn't need her.  I was getting in and out of bed *OK*, still some pain in doing so, but I was able to get around OK.  Today, I made Cindy stay home.  She has to literally lift and move my legs with sideways movements to get them on and off the bed.  It's real hell compared to the first go around. 

But, if this is the worst I have to endure, I'll be fine.  I just hate being a burden on on Cindy but she's been a real trooper through all my complaining, yelling and screaming.  I hope by Sunday the excruciating pain in my leg muscles merely turns into a manageable dull pain.

Hip Replacement - Round 2

Today is the day when I go for my second hip replacement.  I've been getting along pretty well lately with the new hip on my left side, other than my left leg is 7/8's of an inch longer than the right one.  But that will get rectified later today when they put the new titanium hip joint in my right side.  I was told by my doctor that they usually don't pay much attention to the leg length on the first hip replacement, but they take extra care in making sure the two legs are as close to equal length with the second hip replacement. 

I was getting used to walking around with the weird little "hop" to my step with one leg being longer than the other.  It's kind of funny showing people how I can keep my right leg perfectly straight and have a bend in my left leg at the knee and I'm standing straight. 

Physical therapy is going well.  I feel like I'm getting stronger all the time in my left leg.  The two physical therapists - Nicole and Aaron - have been great to work with.  I usually do all the exercises on my own with the help of a P.T. assistant, Megan.  Then Nicole or Aaron work on stretching my muscles in the leg to help with increased flexibility and mobility, as well as some resistance exercises.  Lately, they've been working me a little harder, adding more exercises, more weight, and more repetitions.  I'm actually kind of looking forward to not having to go to physical therapy for a week just to help rest my left leg.  Sometimes, I feel just wiped out and really sore after the therapy. 

But strength and flexibility in the leg is what I need.  Because they actually cross your legs to dislocate your hip to take it out of the socket during the procedure, you're not supposed to cross your legs after the surgery.  When I asked the doctor at the post-op exam when I can begin to cross my legs, he said, "Never." 

Never again.  Well, in order to put on my socks and shoes, I have to cross my legs.  Right now, I have to have Cindy put on my left sock.  I've been working on putting on the right sock without crossing my leg and I can do it pretty well.  But with little flexibility in the left leg, I can't even come close to being able to put on a sock.  That's really disconcerting because I don't know how the hell I'll be able to put on socks and shoes if I'm on the road by myself.  I told Cindy she may have to go on the road with me just to put on my socks.  She said, "I'll do it!" 

Unless I get about a 50% raise in the next couple months, that's not going to happen.  And with business as slow as it is right now, any raise is not going to happen anytime soon.

But I've also been told that some doctors are overly cautious when it comes to the hip replacements.  One of the physical therapists where I go told me that in all the years he's been involved in hip replacements, he's never seen a hip dislocate after surgery.  In fact, my doctor told me that one lady in her 40's who had a hip replacement came in for her post op exam and  excitedly told him, "I can do the splits again!  Do you want to see me do the splits?!"

He said he was horrified,  He said he told her, "No, no, no!!  I don't want to see you do the splits!  You shouldn't be doing the splits!  No matter if you can do them again, don't do them!"

But I'm guessing that lady was still doing the splits showing off how great her hip replacement was. 

I've lost nearly 30 pounds since I went on my diet a little over three months ago.  I'm a little behind on my schedule as I got to about 28 pounds down for over a week, then fluctuated up and down a couple three pounds.  I really wanted to be down 35 pounds by the second hip replacement.  I'll gain some weight back with the swelling over the next couple of days, but I hope to be down 40 pounds by May 1.  Hopefully, the weather will turn nice in the coming days that will allow me to get out and walk three or four times a week during my recovery. 

Most of the weight I've lost has been in my upper body.  My neck has lost an inch.  I've noticed that some shirts are beginning to hang on me a little bit.  Cindy said that she's noticed that I've lost a lot of weight around my shoulders.  I can tell that many of my shirts aren't quite so tight on me. 

I had bought a couple pair of larger waisted jeans back in the fall.  I can't wear them without looking like I'm some sort of a rap star.  They now fall down when I walk up or down stairs.  I put on my old *smaller* jeans last week.  They haven't fit that well since, well, I don't know if they've ever fit that well.  They were always sort of tight on me to begin with.  But buttoning them up and pulling up the zipper was the easiest I've ever had with them.  So I guess I am making some progress. 

The one problem through all of this is something my doctor cautioned me about before my first hip replacement - that the pain in my left hip has been masking the pain in my right hip.  He said, "You may begin to feel some pain in your right hip after we take care of the left one." 

Well, he was certainly right.  I notice - especially during physical therapy - the right hip has that same dull pain in it that the left one had a couple three years ago.  The doctor told me the right hip wasn't too far behind the left hip in deterioration.  That's why he decided to do both of them five weeks apart.  "You're going to eventually need to do the right hip," he told me during my initial visit with him last December.  "We may as well get them both taken care of and out of the way." 

I'm anticipating the recovery for the right hip replacement will be a little easier and quicker than the recovery time for my left side.  Because of the muscle atrophy in my left leg from favoring my hip - plus severely pulling my quad and hip flexor muscle in a slip in a St. Louis hotel bathroom over a year ago - my left leg had little to no strength before the surgery.  As the physical therapists have told me, the longer the leg has had little to no strength, the longer it's going to take to get the strength back.  But I will say that I'm able to lay flat on my back and do straight leg lifts - 3 sets of 10.  Even though I can't do them with any weight on them, it's still a long way from a couple weeks ago when I couldn't lift my leg an inch off the table.  Yes, it's still a bitch, but I have this sense that things are getting better every day.

As my cousin in Los Angeles told me after my first hip replacement, "Hip replacements are becoming the tonsillectomies of the 21st Century.  Everyone's getting them."  Well, I don't know if everyone is getting them, but the procedure and recovery seem to be almost too easy.  Even though there still is some periphery soreness from time to time, plus I don't have full flexibility as of yet, I certainly didn't think I'd be doing as well as I have.  I'm hoping to be done with physical therapy by mid-May.  That would be sweet.

The Joy of DirecTV

Today is Opening Day for the 2009 Major League Baseball season.  Even though there was a game played last night, today is generally regarded as Opening Day as there will be 13 games played in both the American and the National Leagues.  For me, Opening Day is sort of like the first day of Spring.  The weather is getting warmer (although you couldn't tell it with the wintry weather we had across the state on Sunday with blizzard conditions in parts of Northern and Central Iowa), the grass is turning green, and the trees and flowers are beginning to get buds on them. 

Just in time for Opening Day, we recently made the switch from Mediacom to DirecTV.  I was paying $191.00 a month for cable and high-speed Internet.  I'd been contemplating the switch for quite sometime, considering Mediacom was slow to get more HD programming (they only have something like 25 HD channels available).  DirecTV advertised over 130 channels available on HD.  I decided to pull the trigger just before my first hip replacement a little over a month ago. 

I'm not going to get into the sordid details of the initial problems we had with the local installer, Quad City Satellite (they blew off the initial installation appointment), but they made up for it a couple days later by doing a nighttime install and offering to pay for the 3rd and 6th month invoice of my DirecTV billing.  They didn't throw in some programming they said they would for free - actually I'd heard the place was sort of shady and rough, so I wasn't really expecting them to follow through on their promise.  It will be interesting to see if they don't keep their promise of paying two months of my bill. 

Other than the problems with getting DirecTV installed, ever since then I've been in television heaven.  The signal on DirecTV is so much better than anything we ever got on Mediacom.  The HD channels are much more clear and vibrant.  And there's much more of them on DirecTV than Mediacom - one of the big reasons why I pulled the trigger on the deal.  We seem to be enjoying the Samsung TV in the family room a lot more.  

One of the things that I wanted was to have high-definition satellite receivers in four locations, downstairs in the family room (along with a DVR - I'll talk about that a little later), one in our four-season room (also known as "The Lodge), one in our bedroom and one in my office where I could record television programs directly onto my desk top computer.   I can edit out commercials and make DVD's of my more favorite shows and watch them on the portable DVD player I have.  The video quality isn't great (they don't look good on larger televisions), but they do OK for my little Panasonic portable DVD player that I bought a year or so ago.  

Speaking of recording - we went with the Digital Video Recorder option for our family room.  A number of years ago, the company I worked for distributed Tivo in the Midwest.  I sold the first Tivo units to many dealers in the market place.  I got to play with the Tivo on many different levels and thought it was a pretty nifty.  The only thing I didn't quite care for was the monthly charges (I believe it started out at $12.95 - which, I believe, went down to $9.95 - or a one time lifetime subscription fee of $299).  And the other limitation was that it only had about a 15 gig hard drive, giving you only about 12 to 14 hours of recording capability.  Nonetheless, Tivo gained in popularity and today there are people who could not live without their Tivo's. 

The DirecTV DVR is much more advanced than the Tivo's I dealt with nearly 10 years ago.  You can record up to 100 hours of standard definition programming - about 35 hours of high def programming.  There are two tuners in the unit so you can record two shows at once, or you can record a program while watching another program on the television.  You can program your DVR from a remote location via either phone or computer (I haven't quite figured that function out as of yet), and you can use the DVR to pause a show or sporting event you're watching, then you can watch the program without missing any of the action.  

The quality of the recordings - especially in high-def - is tremendous.  I'm overly pleased with the quality of the playback.  Supposedly, there's some way that you can network the DVR to play in other places in your home.  And, also supposedly, there's some way to be able to hook up a computer to the DVR to download the programming onto a hard drive and - possibly - be able to make DVD's of that programming.  I just haven't taken the time to figure out how to do all of that.   

Along with the DVR service (which costs $5.95 a month - I can live with that), we have access to DirecTV's On Demand service that offers over 4000 movies and other programming.  Some you have to pay for, some you can get for free.  The only problem is that it takes a long time to download content onto the DVR - a lot longer if it's in a high-def format.  We've found that if there's something we want to see, we'll begin to download it 15 minutes or more before we sit down to watch it.  You can watch what's already been downloaded onto the DVR while it continues to download.  If you start to watch as soon as you download, the program playback is often faster than than the download - and I have the capabilities of downloading 20 megabits per second from the Internet.

(As an aside, we kept our Mediacom high-speed Internet just because it was so fast.  But paying for it on it's own without any other Mediacom services is sort of high - $74.95 a month.  Still I need it for my work and I can pull up information from our main office so much quicker than if I had to use a phone company high-speed service.  As much as 12 to 15 times more quick.)

The one thing that has become painfully obvious with the addition of DirecTV and all the high-def channels is that we need two new televisions - one in our bedroom and one in our "lodge".  And I also need a new 16X9 monitor for the office.  Our old analog televisions in the bedroom and "lodge" just aren't cutting it.  They work OK, but we have to crop the image and we end up losing a lot of the high-def picture.  I'm looking for a couple of low-priced 26" televisions to put in those two rooms.  I've got the money, but I just haven't pulled the trigger yet. 

But the amount of channels to choose from is now overwhelming.  Cindy's big on the "Do-it-Yourself Channel", something that we didn't have on Mediacom.  And she also digs the fact that we get all the movie channels - HBO, Starz, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. - on EVERY television in the house now, and not just in the family room downstairs.  This lets her lie in bed and fall asleep to some movie she lost interest in. 

(Another aside - when we signed up for Mediacom's Digital Tier programming, we got all the movie channels which included both the Eastern and Western feeds.  About 8 months ago, Mediacom took away all the Western feeds, effectively halving our movie channel choices.  And do you think they lowered our monthly bill?  HA!  DirecTV gave us back many of the West Coast movie channels feeds.  You miss a movie on the Eastern feed?  Wait a couple three hours and it will pop up on the Western feed.  Gotta love the options available from DirecTV.)

The one big interest I had was all the regional sports channels from around the nation.  The owner of Quad City Satellite, a sort of hard kind of guy, gruffly told me, "Ah, you don't want those channels.  All they show is soccer and stuff like that."

Well, he should know his program content better than that - a lot of the regional sports channels carry local sports, including college basketball and football.  I was especially interested in getting some of the collegiate conference basketball tournaments from around the nation.  With the cock-ups that went on during the installation process, Quad City Satellite told me that they'd let me have the regional sports channels for free for a couple months to see if it was something that I may like to have.  Well, the first few days of service came and went and we still didn't have access to the sports channels.  I tried calling the guy at Quad City Satellite three or four times and he wouldn't return my calls.  Once again, I wasn't surprised.  As I said, they're a little goofy over there, in my opinion.  

I just ended up calling up DirecTV directly and signed up for the sports channels as well as the extra HD channels (most of the HDNet channels) for $8.95 and $4.95 a month.   I thought, "What the hell?  I can always drop 'em if I don't like them."  So far there's nothing not to like.

Which brings us back to Opening Day of Major League Baseball.  One of the big reasons I wanted DirecTV was for the MLB Network, Major League Baseball's own network that Mediacom had refused to pick up. (Well, that and the NFL Network, which the cable provider had also decided not to pick up.  Oh, and the NBA TV network that Mediacom hadn't...  Well, you get the idea.)  And a lot of the regional sports networks provided spring training games all through the month of March, so there was another reason to sign up for those channels. 

But we would have been blacked out for channels showing teams other than the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the St. Louis Cardinals and some Kansas City Royals contests.  I wanted to see some games from the East Coast and West Coast, too.  In order to do that, I had to sign up for the Major League Baseball Extra Innings package of games.  I can get up to 80 out of market games a week, and many of them will be available in high-def.  It's costing me $189 (split up in 4 payments), but I want to see if it's worth it.  I'm hoping it is, especially catching some West Coast teams like the Angels and Dodgers. 

I already sprang for the NCAA Men's Basketball March Madness package last month.  It cost me $69 bucks, but I was able to get every NCAA tournament game live.  And, to me, it was worth it.  First of all, I didn't have to go to a sports bar and pay for overpriced food and $2.75 beers to watch the games.  Secondly, I could watch what I wanted to watch without having to constantly glance at other games.  And last, I got to do it in the comfort of my home with my high-def television.  I'm sure I caught all or bits of every NCAA tournament game this year.  I may do it again next year. 

Coming up this week is The Masters from Augusta, GA.  I didn't even think much about it until I realized that it's starting the day AFTER my second hip replacement.  I don't think I'll be able to get up and down the stairs very easily to be able to watch much of the tournament in high-def.  That's kind of a bummer because I know that some of the most beautiful shots in sports come from The Masters.  Maybe I should go out and buy a new TV for the bedroom before I go in for surgery on Wednesday.

And to add to this, DirecTV is offering enhanced coverage of The Masters on a multi-screen channel in both standard definition and high definition.  The screen will be split up to allow for the viewer to get up to the minute stats and scoring, another split will be the action that's either being shown on ESPN or CBS, another split shows golfers on the famed "Amen Corner" of the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National, and the fourth split screen will show golfers getting through the 15th and 16th holes, probably the two toughest holes at Augusta.  

Geez, I may need to have Cindy set me up downstairs so I can catch all the action.  But if I can't, hey, that's why we have a high-def DVR!  

Meatheads Burgers and Fries - Naperville, IL

A Road Tips reader from the Chicago area, Tim Schmidt, sent me an e-mail right around Christmas.  Tim has turned me on to a number of burger places in the Chicagoland area over the past couple of years and he informed me of a new place that had opened in late November in Naperville by the name of Meatheads Burgers and Fries.  He said, "It's a little bit of a drive for me, but I heard it was good so I wanted to check it out.  I was not disappointed."

I'd initially heard about Meatheads Burgers and Fries before from friends down in the Bloomington/Normal, IL area.  Meatheads began in Bloomington in late 2007 and is situated in a strip mall off of Veteran's Parkway (see map).  The managing partner, Tom Jednorowicz, was instrumental in the development and growth of the Potbelly sandwich shop chain.  A local Bloomington entrepreneur, Kurt Petterle - who owns a number of Qdoba Mexican food outlets in Iowa and Illinois - hooked up with Tom Jed, as he's known to his friends, to open a burger joint that makes fresh, made-to-order burgers and crisp hand-cut fries.  And brought in to help secure property for the new venture was Doug Reichl, president of the Tartan Realty Group in Chicago.

The success of Meatheads Burgers in Bloomington fueled plans to expand the business into other cities, most notably Champaign, Springfield and the Chicago suburbs.  So far, I believe the only two locations are in Bloomington and in Naperville on the far west side of Chicago. 

Located on 75th St. near Route 59 in southwest Naperville (see map), Meatheads Burgers was off my regular route on my way home during my last trip before my first hip replacement.  But I wanted to give it a try just to see if the burgers were as good as advertised.  In the midst of strip malls that seem to be going up on a weekly basis along 75th St., I was able to find Meatheads on the corner of one such mall.  I was able to get parking right up front and I walked in.  The place was packed for lunch. 

Immediately, the place reminded me of a Five Guys Burgers place - it had the big menu board on the wall behind the counter, the kitchen was open and they were making a big deal of using a manual potato cutter for the fresh cut french fries.  The seating area wasn't as large as the Five Guys Burgers I was at recently in the Kansas City area, but it had some booth and bench seating, as well as a window ledge with high back chairs.  (Photo at right from the Bloomngton Meatheads location.)

And very much like Five Guys Burgers, Meatheads has a number of toppings you can add to your burger.  And just like Five Guys Burgers, Meatheads has the thin french fries that you can order regular or Cajun style.  Hmm...  Both offer hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches.  I'm starting to see a monumental rip-off of the Five Guys Burgers concept.

About the only thing different is that Meatheads features five or six eclectic burgers on their menu.  Burgers, such as, the Philly - a burger topped with American cheese, roasted red peppers, grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms and Mayo; or the Californian - Monterrey Jack cheese, avocado, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato and Wasabi cucumber sauce.  A couple of the featured burgers - like the Cajun Surprise (bacon, Cajun seasoned fried egg, Monterrey Jack cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, tomato topped with a blue cheese dressing) sounded kind of good.

Actually, the toppings offered were rather tempting.  But I thought I needed to just try the basic Meatheads burger - two patties on a toasted bun topped with ketchup, yellow mustard, Mayo, lettuce, tomato and your choice of raw or fried onions.  So I ordered up The Meathead, sans the Mayo, and had them put a slice of Swiss cheese on the top.  I decided to try their regular fries, although I knew that I wouldn't eat all of them.  And I ordered a bottle of water.  I hadn't had a soda pop in well over two months. 

You could tell a number of people had never been to Meatheads before as many in front of me were all standing and looking at the menu board not knowing what to get.  Finally, the person at the cash register said, "If anyone is ready to order, I'll take your order." 

I stepped up past two or three couples or groups and made my order.  I paid at the register and they gave me a number to take with me so they could bring my order out to me when it was done. 

I waited a little less than 10 minutes before my food came out.  The burger, wrapped in  paper, was oozing cheese and condiments and smelled wonderful.  The fries were thin and crisp and I detected a little amount of seasoning on them.  Nothing overpowering, but pleasant to the taste.  (Picture at left courtesy LTH Forum.)

From my first bite of my Meatheads burger to the last, I was impressed. OK, so it was a solid rip-off of Five Guys Burgers.  But I was able to get around that with each bite.  The meat and toppings were fresh and flavorful.  It was a very good burger, to say the least.

While I was eating lunch, a manager came over and asked, "How's everything tasting?"

I said, "It's good, thanks."

He said, "You've been in here before, haven't you?"

I replied, "No, this is my first visit.  I live out in the Quad Cities."

He said, "The Quad Cities?!  That's quite a way to come for lunch, isn't it?"  He was obviously joking.

I said, "No, I've been in the area on business for the past few days and wanted to stop in and give you guys a try."

He asked, "So, what do you think?"

I said, "I think you guys need to put one in the Quad Cities before someone puts a Five Guys Burgers there."

He said that expansion plans were underway, but he didn't know the exact time table or where they would be popping up next.

He then said, "So, I take it that you've eaten at a Five Guys Burgers before.  How do we compare?"

I was honest with him.  "This is a good burger," pointing to my half-eaten Meathead burger.  "It's very similar to Five Guys.  In fact, the whole place and menu is very much like Five Guys.  I don't want to accuse you guys of ripping off the Five Guys concept, but you've done a very good job of emulating their system."

I was impressed with Meatheads Burgers.  Yes, it's a blatant rip-off of the Five Guys Burgers concept, but it will do well until Five Guys garners a foothold in Illinois.  As I told the manager in Naperville, I will be back.  And I want to try a Meathead burger topped with a fried egg, jalapeno, roasted peppers, sauteed mushrooms.  And bacon.  Can't forget the bacon.  I may not be able to taste the burger meat, but I'm guessing the overall taste sensations will be wonderful.