Road Tips

Johnny Harris - Savannah, GA

I have to give thanks to Daniel Kim, who is a friend of a friend, and who used to live in Savannah, for giving me some good tips as to some of the better places to eat in Savannah while we were there.  I always have a hankering for barbecue and Daniel highly recommended Johnny Harris for their ribs.  Considering he was spot on with many of his other suggestions (and his suggestions coincided with other's suggestions), we took an evening to go to dinner at Johnny Harris.  

The original Johnny Harris barbecue restaurant dates back to 1924 when a local Savannah man, Johnny Harris, opened what amounted to be a roadside shack on what was the outskirts of town at that time.  Three years later, Harris was joined in business by Kermit "Red" Richardson.  While Harris concentrated on the barbecue and making the sauce, Richardson was the cashier, dishwasher, janitor and part-time cook. 

Business at Johnny Harris quickly grew and the old shack was soon to be too small.  In the mid-30's, Harris and Richardson moved into their present day location on E. Victory Dr. (see map).  Over the years, the restaurant has expanded with larger seating areas, a larger kitchen, plus a sauce production facility with a warehouse that ships over 800 cases of Johnny Harris barbecue sauce a month.

Johnny Harris died in 1942 and Richardson continued the business as a part-owner and manager.  Red Richardson ended up buying out Johnny Harris' part of the business from his family in the mid-50's.  Richardson died in 1969, but his wife continued to run the place with the help of their son, Phil, and their son-in-law, Norman Hecht.  Hecht developed Johnny Harris' catering business which has the capability to serve up to 10,000 people at a function.  

Today, Phil Richardson's daughter, Julie, and her husband, B.J., run the day-to-day operation at Johnny Harris.  The restaurant is the oldest continuous restaurant in Savannah.  That's saying a lot considering the age of the city (around 275 years).

It was after 8 p.m. when we made our way down to Johnny Harris.  Being the middle of the week, there wasn't a lot of cars in the parking lot.  We were seated in a booth in the large, somewhat circular dining room that featured a very high ceiling that went up to a point in the center.  Hanging from the apex was a huge ceiling light.  We were given menus by our waitress, Kim, a very personable and pleasant young lady who had a great sense of humor.

This booth was sort of isolated in that it was truly a booth.  It was like sitting in a little room where the only opening was the way in and out of the booth.  There was a window that looked outside.  One the wall under the window was a little button with a weathered sign that said "Service" beside it.   It looked like it had been pushed by a multitude of barbecue stained fingers over the years.  Cindy said, "Oh, it's an old service button.  I used to see these at old places back home years ago."  I was sort of incredulous, so when Kim came back with our drinks I asked her what the button was for.  She said, "Oh, well, that's to let me know that you all want somethin'!"  I asked if it still worked (it looked like it may have been put in back in the 30's), and she said, "Well, sho' 'nuff!  You all need anythin' at all, jus' push the button!"   We immediately liked her.  

Cindy said, "See?  You thought I was kidding you!" 

I just can't grasp the concept of having a button to call for service.  Kim said that the more important customers were seated in booths years ago.  She said, "So, you folks are all impo'tant tonight!" 

Ribs are the most popular item at Johnny Harris, followed by their chicken - which you can get either fried or barbecued.  They also feature fish and seafood on the menu - of which you can either broiled or battered and fried.  There were a number of different types of steaks and chops featured on the menu, as well.  And the appetizers included fried green tomatoes, fried mushrooms and fried asparagus.  Jeez, it's a large wonder why people in the south aren't all 400 pounds!

I wanted barbecue, as did Cindy.  They had a special that night - 1/2 slab of baby back ribs for $8.50.  She also got some cornbread and macaroni and cheese as her sides.  I wanted to try a couple different things so I got the combination 1/2 slab of baby back ribs/chopped pork butt.  I also got mac and cheese and got some Savannah red rice, which is basically rice with some veggies chopped up and added. 

The only barbecue sauce on the table was the Original Johnny Harris sauce.  I poured a little out of the bottle onto my side plate and took a little nip.  It was a true southern, mustard-vinegary blend, not sweet at all.   I'm not overly keen on this type of barbecue sauce, but it's very big in the south - especially the Carolinas.   It had the same deep red color that you find with other types of barbecue sauce.  But it was more runny than thick.  Here's Cindy in her capacity of a spokeswoman model for Johnny Harris' barbecue sauce.

Our food came out and I was given a generous portion of chopped pork butt and a smaller-sized half-rack of baby backs topped with a healthy ladle full of Johnny Harris barbecue sauce.  The mac and cheese along with the Savannah red rice came in small bowls sitting on a plate.  And in true Southern barbecue style, we each got slices of toasted white bread.

Now, the barbecue was good.  Not outstanding, in my book, but still very good.  I guess I'm used to the hickory smoked variety of barbecue with a more smokey, sweet tasting sauce.  While it was a different taste to me, I can see why some people who were raised on this stuff keep coming back for it.

For dessert, we tried a piece of their Key Lime Pie.  While it was nowhere near as good as what we had at Paula Deen's two restaurants the previous evenings, it was still good.

Before we left, we took a look around some of the corridors of the restaurant to see the pictures and autographs on menus of famous people who have eaten at Johnny Harris over the years.  I was especially intrigued to see a number of autographs and pictures of old time Southeastern Conference football coaches who have dined in the restaurant.  Oh, there were a number of celebrities who had autographed pictures or menus.  But there just seemed to be an inordinate amount of former SEC football coaches featured on the wall at Johnny Harris.  

When we were leaving, I looked at a case and found that they also had a hickory smoked barbecue sauce at Johnny Harris.  I wondered if I could have had my choice with the hickory smoked sauce.  I contemplated buying a bottle to try, but then decided against it.

After we got back from Savannah, I e-mailed Daniel Kim and thanked him for his suggestions of restaurants to visit in Savannah.  I told him that while we ate at a number of great restaurants while on vacation, I would have to say the worst meal we had was at Johnny Harris.  And I have to clarify that because the barbecue was very good at Johnny Harris, it's just that I'm not overly found of that heavy mustard-vinegar type of sauce.  It's just that we ate at some outstanding restaurants during our stay in and around Savannah.

But Johnny Harris is truly an institution in Savannah and if you are going to spend some time in the area, you really should give it a try.  The service was great, the food was good and we thought the prices were pretty reasonable.  You should go if nothing more for the historical aspect of the restaurant and to experience old-style Southern barbecue.

Fort Pulaski National Monument

Being somewhat of a history buff and always trying to expand my knowledge when we're on vacation, we stopped off at Fort Pulaski on our way back to Savannah from Tybee Island one day (see map).  Fort Pulaski, now a National Monument, dates back to the pre-Civil War days when a series of forts were built up and down the east coast to repel any foreign attackers.  During its construction, the fort was once under the command of 2nd Lt. Robert E. Lee not long after he had graduated from West Point.  

Fort Pulaski is named in honor of Kazimierz Pułaski, a Polish infantry man who served in the American Revolutionary Army under George Washington.  Pulaski is often considered to be the man who taught the basics of calvary attack to the American forces.  He also played a large role in the Revolutionary War battles at Savannah and Charleston, SC.  A handful of cities with large Polish populations, such as Chicago and Milwaukee, feature large celebrations on Pulaski Day. 

Fort Pulaski was finished in 1847, 18 years after construction began.  Just before the Civil War began, there were no troops and only two "caretakers" at the fort.  The governor of the State of Georgia decreed that the Georgia Militia take over the fort just after South Carolina succeeded from the Union in 1860.  The "caretakers" were in turn rousted by a band of 100 Georgia Militia.  When the Civil War started, the fort was designated as a Confederate fortification and occupied by Confederate troops.

About a mile across the channel from Fort Pulaski, Tybee Island was a remote and seemingly non-strategic island.   The fort was built to withstand cannons that project cannon balls up to 1/2 mile.  Confederate forces decided to abandon Tybee Island in early 1862.  This allowed Union forces to move onto Tybee Island and build garrisons on the northwestern shore of the island across from Fort Pulaski.  What the Confederate forces didn't know was that the Union possessed a new type of cannon - a rifled cannon - that was capable of firing projectiles 8 to 10 times further than conventional cannons. 

The Battle of Fort Pulaski began in April of 1862 after a plea to surrender by Union forces was rebuffed by the Confederates.  While the Confederates were certain they could hold back any infantry advancement due to the fort's thick wall and intricate moat system surrounding the walls, they were not ready for the new rifled cannon that Union forces used for the first time.   The bombardment began on the morning of April 10 and lasted for over 30 hours.  36 of the Union Army's new James Rifled Cannons fired numerous shells into the fort before finally breaching the southeast wall of the fortification.   Here is a picture of the wall on the east side of the fort with the remnants of damage from the Union forces shells.   

The Confederates were worried that the shells were getting too close to munition storage facilities so they reluctantly surrendered the fort.  Ironically, the new rifled cannons were decommissioned by Union forces not long after the siege of Fort Pulaski, mainly due to their lack of mobility.   But the siege of Fort Pulaski also demonstrated to armies around the world that a typical masonry fort was no longer impervious to cannon fire. 

After Union forces took over Fort Pulaski, all shipping in and out of Savannah stopped.  This severely crippled the Confederate war effort.  The Union forces repaired the fort and it became obvious as the war went on that the Confederates would have no way of being able to take back the fort.  As a result, only 250 Union troops occupied Fort Pulaski during the rest of the war, and the Union turned the fort into a prison for captured Confederate soldiers.  Over 600 Confederate soldiers were imprisoned at Fort Pulaski during the war.  Here is a picture of what was the prison part of the fort.

The fort was also a final stopping point of the Underground Railroad where slaves wanting to go to the North would gather before being escorted to freedom by Union soldiers.  After taking over Fort Pulaski from the Confederate forces, the fort's commandant had initially decreed that all slaves in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina be freed.  President Lincoln quickly rescinded that order, but came out with his first Emancipation Proclamation in September of that year which decreed that all slaves in Confederate States that did not rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863 would be free men.   

After paying a nominal $3.00 fee per person at the front gate that takes you over the bridge out to Cockspur Island, we parked in the very large parking lot near the Visitor's Center and looked at some of the exhibits they had on hand.  They also had a small theater that showed a 20 minute film on the history of Fort Pulaski.  We weren't too interested in that, so we wandered out the back of the center and down the sidewalk toward the fort.   This picture is of the moat surrounding what was an underground tunnel system where munitions were kept in bunkers.  The bunkers are actually outside the walls of the fort.

As we made our way around to the front entrance of the fort, this is what you see when you come to the drawbridge over the moat.  It was explained to us that they would keep a loaded cannon pointed at the front entrance ready to fire if the drawbridge was breached.  The drawbridge, the iron gate that was lowered into place and the moat around the fort gave it sort of a medieval feeling to the place.  

The fort has been a National Monument since the 1920's.  It had fallen into great disrepair since it really wasn't being used as a fort much after the 1880's.  But since then, the government has taken steps to restore the fort to the way it was just after the Civil War.  There were original furniture, bunks and furnishings in bunkhouses, the mess hall and officer's quarters.   Here's what one bunkhouse built inside the wall of the fort looked like with the old bunks, a table and a couple benches.  Most of the bunkhouses would sleep 10 to 12 soldiers.

One of the cool things about the fort was that they allowed you go up on the top of fort wall and look around out into the big courtyard and out over the wall.  This picture is of the view of the north side of Cockspur Island looking toward the Savannah River.  Across the bay is South Carolina.  

 

 

This picture is of the main courtyard of the fort.  This is looking southeast toward where the prison in the fort was.  Actually, I was pretty impressed by how big the actual area of the fort was.  It certainly wasn't dinky by any stretch of the imagination.

 

 

This picture shows the indent-ions made by the Union Army shells from the rifled cannons during the Battle of Fort Pulaski during the Civil War.  This is on the INSIDE west wall of the fort, so those shells had to be falling all around the fort and causing some major damage.  Those indentions, by the way, are about three feet in diameter.  I'm sure those Confederate soldiers wondered what was hitting them.  

 

I had Cindy stand next to one of the cannons they had on top of the fort wall.  These cannons weren't that small and I wondered how they were able to get them up on top of the wall during pre-Civil War time.  The cannons were on a pivot and could be pointed in about a 160 degree position.  While they had many of these pivot rails atop the fort wall, they only had a couple three cannons still on display along the wall. 

Fort Pulaski also has an interpretive center where volunteers will talk to groups about the history of the fort and offer demonstrations.  This is actually a young lady dressed up in a Union Army uniform talking to a group of people about the intricacies of firing a musket with gun powder.  She loaded the gun with powder and a ball, then fired the flintlock musket.  And MAN, was it loud!  She did it about five or six times.  The first time she fired it off, I wasn't ready for the loud noise and I almost pissed my pants.  They'll also do re-enactments of battles defending the fort, as well as shooting off a cannon.  Now, THAT'S what I really wanted to see (and hear). 

Before we left, we went out to the munitions bunkers under this mound just outside the fort's west wall.   It was during the Battle of Fort Pulaski that the Confederate commandant felt that the Union shells were getting precariously close to going through the bunkers that were primarily reinforced with Tabby.  That's when he decided to surrender.  There really wasn't much to see in the bunkers, just a bunch of brick and Tabby mortared rooms with some tunnels. 

 

While a visit to Fort Pulaski may not be for everyone, I sort of liked it.  We didn't have anything else to do and it was rather interesting.  I certainly didn't know the significance and history behind the fort, the role it played during the Civil War or how it was one of the last mason forts built in the world.  But it took about 90 minutes out of our vacation, so it wasn't all that bad. 

The Crab Shack - Tybee Island, GA

After our first visit to the beach on Tybee Island, we decided to have lunch at a place that many people told us was a great place to visit - The Crab Shack.  We were told it was a fun place with great seafood.  I wanted to do nothing more than eat a ton of seafood while we were on vacation and The Crab Shack promised the potential of having a seafood overload.

The Crab Shack sits on the bank of Chimney Creek on the west end of Tybee Island, just south of Highway 80 (see map).  The origins of The Crab Shack dates back to the 1930's when it was nothing more than a "fishing camp" where boaters could use the ramps and docks, buy bait and even camp overnight.  In the early 80's, the owners of the fishing camp put it up for sale.  Local native Jack Flanigan and his wife, Belinda, bought the fishing camp and moved back to the area.  At the fishing camp, the Flanigans found the bounty from the sea was plentiful and soon made friends with many other fishermen in the area.  Finding that a lot of their new friends wanted a spot to cook and eat their catch of the day, the Flanigans began to put tables and chairs around their bait shop.

The original Crab Shack was nothing more than a small shack that had six tables.  As the business grew, so did The Crab Shack.  You can kind of see how the hodge-podge architecture has evolved over the years as there really doesn't seem to be much of a structured lay-out to the place.  But that's one of the things that makes The Crab Shack interesting.

As you come up to the property, it looks rather shabby on the outside.  But we've found that many places that look like hell on the outside usually have great food.  We parked our car and walked past a small fenced in pond that housed a number of small alligators.  It was a warm afternoon and many of the gators were sunning themselves or immersed in the warm water.  The largest one was - maybe - 3 feet in length. 

We walked into the outdoor dining area and took a seat at a table with a hole in the middle of it.  On top of the hole on small stilts was a table that held condiments, plastic utensils and a ton of paper towels.  The hole in the table was there so one could easily throw shells, old drinks and other things into keeping the table as clean as possible.  If you're a seafood eater, you know it can get a little messy, especially if you're eating shrimp or crab.

The Crab Shack was one of the few places we found that had real lemonade (most of the places we encountered on our trip either didn't have lemonade, or they had pink lemonade).  And they had Bicardi Limon.  I ordered a Bicardi Limon and lemonade and quickly downed it soon after our waitress brought it to me.  In the meantime, Cindy had ordered The Crab Shack's version of a Mai Tai.  While her first one didn't go down as quickly as my first drink did, she did have a couple which is a lot for Cindy. 

The menu (click here for page 1; click here for page 2) was hand-written, sort of comical and fun to look through.  Seafood was the main fare with The Crab Shack's famous "Low Country Boil" being the most prominent item on the front of the menu.  A "Low Country Boil" is similar to a Wisconsin Fish Boil only they use shrimp instead of white fish, and add potatoes, corn and mix in some sausage on a plate.   While a lot of restaurants featured a "Low Country Boil", we never did try one.  

The waters around Tybee Island hold a lot of crab and The Crab Shack was featuring Dungeness Crab with a cob of sweet corn and some cole slaw.  Cindy was looking hard at that, but was also thinking about the Alaskan King Crab legs.  I talked her into getting something caught locally and she finally went with the Dungeness Crab.  The plate of crab came with some shell-crackers and Cindy was having some trouble getting her crab legs to crack.  I helped her out and I have to say having the hole in the middle of the table to throw away the crab leg shells was an ingenious idea. 

I ordered the 1 pound plate of peel and eat boiled shrimp.  The shrimp were large and sprinkled with a Cajun seasoning.  They were absolutely awesome.  We also ordered up a dozen of their oysters on the half-shell.  They were equally great when a little fresh-ground horseradish and Tabasco were added in.  I came about *this* close to ordering up another pound of peel and eat shrimp after I finished, it was that good.  But I wanted to save room for some dessert - most notably their Key Lime Pie. 

We were bound and determined to try as many varieties of Key Lime Pie while we were on vacation.  While The Crab Shack's Key Lime Pie was good, it was nowhere as good as the Key Lime Pie we'd had at Uncle Bubba's and The Lady and Son's.  It wasn't as creamy or flavorful as the pie we'd had at those restaurants.  But, as I said, it was still good.

 

After finishing lunch, we wandered around the grounds and went out to the alligator pond to take a look at the gators.  For a price, you could feed the gators pieces of chicken tied to a string on the end of a stick.  We looked around for someone that was in charge so Cindy could have a little fun with the gators, but it didn't appear they had any food available for the gators.  Still, it was sort of fun to watch them swim around the little pond.

 

 

 

Here's a couple of the bigger alligators they had in the pond.  They were definitely smaller than the alligator we encountered when we drove back into Savannah from Uncle Bubba's a couple evenings prior.   I sort of wondered what The Crab Shack did with the alligators when they got too big.  I don't remember seeing "alligator-anything" on the menu. 

 

 

Our visit to The Crab Shack was fun.  The food was outstanding, our waitress was a great server, the setting was comfortable and it was a fun place.  So far, all the places everyone told us to go to while we were in Savannah had turned out to be spot on.  If you like great seafood in a very casual setting, The Crab Shack is highly recommended.   

Leopold's Ice Cream - Savannah, GA

It seems like every place we visit, we come across an ice cream shop that is *the* local place to get ice cream.  It's generally a step above Baskin-Robbins or Dairy Queen in quality and taste.  And on our trip to Savannah, we found one such place in Leopold's Ice Cream.

The history of Leopold's begins in 1919 when Greek immigrant brothers - Peter, George and Basil Leopold - founded their first ice cream parlor in Savannah.  Peter had been taught the art of making high quality ice cream in Europe and brought with him a recipe for Tutti-Fruitti, an Italian specialty that was made with different fruits and cream.  The original Tutti-Fruitti recipe that the Leopold's started with 90 years ago is the same way it's made today. 

Peter's son, Stratton, took over the business after his father and uncles passed away.  Before he took over the business, Stratton was already gone from the Savannah area as he had gone out to Hollywood to work in the film industry.  Stratton Leopold has risen from a production manager to a producer to now being the Executive Vice-President of Production at Paramount Pictures.  He's truly a Hollywood heavyweight.  Stratton Leopold's producing credits include The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Mission Impossible III and The Sum of All Fears.  Stratton Leopold was also the producer of the critically acclaimed movie, The General's Daughter.  Here's a picture of Stratton Leopold behind the counter at his ice cream parlor. 

Because of Stratton Leopold's connection to the film industry, Leopold's Ice Cream parlor is decorated with film making equipment, along with a number of pictures of famous people and movie posters.  In the back of the place is a Panavision camera, some editing equipment and film reels.  The tables and chairs were authentic old style ice cream parlor furniture.  The place had a very "retro" feel to it and was a rather cool place to look around.

Leopold's Ice Cream offers nearly 50 different varieties of ice cream- about 30 available all the time and an additional 20 "seasonal" ice creams.  But their claim to fame is their Tutti-Fruitti ice cream which people literally crawl back to Leopold's to taste.  Leopold's ships their Tutti-Fruitti all over the nation to people who have visited the place, become hooked on the ice cream and then want it sent to them.  In addition to ice cream, Leopold's also has a short menu of sandwiches, soups and salads.

There was a good sized after-lunch crowd in Leopold's when we stopped in.   Leopold's featured a large counter with an old fashioned soda fountain.  The teenaged girls working behind the counter called out who they could help next while customers looked through the glass window down into the tubs of ice cream.  Leopold's even offered free small spoon samples to customers.  Cindy asked for a sample of the Tutti-Fruitti, as did a lot of other people while we were there.  From her first bite, Cindy was hooked.  She got a cup of the Tutti-Fruitti.

I'm a big Lemon Custard kind of guy and Leopold's had Lemon Custard, but with a small twist - they add bits of lemon candy in with the ice cream custard.  I had to have a cup of that.  And, oh my God, was it good.  I'm a big Whitey's Ice Cream fan back in the Quad Cities and I think Whitey's Lemon Custard is hard to beat.  But Leopold's may have surpassed it.  The chunks of lemon candy gave it more of a forward lemon taste.  It was absolutely fabulous.

 We tried to get back to Leopold's at least one more time while we were in Savannah.  But we got there just after 9 p.m. and they were closing up for the night.  Really, it took all the will-power NOT to muster another trip to Leopold's while we were there.  I'm still trying to watch my weight, but we also had a number of great desserts for dinner while in Savannah, so going to Leopold's usually never popped up after dinner.  But if we ever get back to Savannah - and we will - Leopold's will be a "must stop" on our itinerary.

Tybee Island, GA

Located 18 miles from downtown Savannah (see map), Tybee Island, GA is referred to as "Savannah Beach" by the locals in and around Savannah.  While the name "tybee" is an old Indian word for salt - which was in abundance in the marshes and low-lands surrounding the island - the locals casually call the place "Tybee", as in, "Y'all fixin' to spend your day out at Tybee?"  Well, we spent the good parts of two mornings out on the beach at Tybee. 

Now, I love the ocean.  I could just sit and watch the waves and tides roll in day after day.  And walking along the sandy shore getting your legs wet in the surf, well, there's not many better feelings on a warm, sunny day.  Because of my recent surgeries, I'm restricted as to being able to get immersed in water until later this summer.  But just walking along the beach with my flip-flops and shorts on was good enough for me.

Before we hit the beach on our first trip out to Tybee Island, we stopped off at the Tybee Island Light Station, a light house that dates back to the 1700's.  It was one of the first light houses in the nation and it showed the way to the mouth of the Savannah River for many of the sea-going merchant ships that came to Savannah years ago.  We thought it would be cool to go and see what it had to offer, but then we found that it was closed.  Yep, closed on Tuesday's.  Oh, geez.  Oh well. 

The current lighthouse was built in the late 1800's and still stands today.  It is only one of a handful of lighthouses built in the 19th Century that are still in operation today. 

We drove down the main drag of Tybee Island - Campbell St. - which consisted of some hotels, small businesses and a few houses or condos.  We had looked into staying out at Tybee Island before we ended up deciding to stay up on Hilton Head.  One of the reasons was that there didn't appear to be resort-type hotels on Tybee.  At the very least, there were no chains - not even a Days Inn, which, ironically, got its start on Tybee Island in 1970.   

We found a place to park in a spacious public parking lot near the Tybee Island Pier.  A guy who was packing up some metal detection gear near us said, "Say, I have some time left on my parking stub.  About an hour and a half.  It's yours if you want it."  He gave us this ticket and it showed that it expired at 1:10.  We thanked him, put it on our dash, and started to walk out on the beach. 

Then we discovered that we didn't have any sunscreen with us.  We found a beach side store and picked some up.  Considering it was late May and we were milky white Northerners, we definitely needed some sunscreen. 

Since it was a week day, there weren't a lot of people on the beach.  We took off in one direction just walking in the surf.  Cindy loves to look for seashells and she spent her time combing the beach for shells.  Here's a pic of her with one of her finds with the Tybee Island pier in the background.  Thankfully, I was wearing shorts that had extra pockets on them so she had some place to store the shells.  As you can see, it was a beautiful morning at the beach.  

We ended up walking about a mile and a half up the beach.  My doctor told me that I needed to take it easy when my body was telling me to take it easy.  My legs were still not 100%, less than two months after my second hip replacement.   But walking in the cool water of the ocean helped soothe the pain and stiffness that I was having.  And it just felt great having the warm sun shine on our bodies.  We'd had such a cool, wet Spring that we hadn't felt 80 degree temps until we went to Savannah. 

We got back to the pier and walked out to the end.  There were a few people fishing off the pier, catching some small fish while we were there.  We walked back to the pier's pavilion and I told Cindy that it was about time for us to head back to the car before our time expired.  It was $1.50 an hour to park in the lot, so that was pretty nice of that guy to allow us to use the rest of his time.  While it was great to be there, we knew we had other places to go see.

On the following Saturday, we went back out to Tybee Island around 10 a.m.  We're glad we went that early.  There were already a lot of people at the beach and more were coming in.  We found a parking spot in the same lot, but this time we paid for three hours of parking.  We did a lot more walking along the beach.  The tide was coming up and the beach was getting more narrow.  By the time high tide hit around 1 p.m., the beach was just packed with people enjoying a beautiful day at the beach.

The Tybee Island Pavilion and Pier has a rich history.  The original pavilion was built back in the 1890's and was a very popular day-trip-by-train destination for people from Savannah - sort of like it is now, only they just drive out.  The Pavilion hosted a number of big bands that would tour in the area during the 30's and 40's.  The Pavilion was destroyed by fire in the mid-60's and was rebuilt by the city of Tybee Island in 1996.  There's a stage where bands will play in the evening and a place to get drinks and food. 

Speaking of drinks, after an especially long two hour walk on the beach on that Saturday morning, I was getting pretty stiff and sore.  Cindy suggested ducking inside the pavilion to rest and so I could get a cold beer.  They had 16 oz. aluminum bottles of Bud Light at this little bar inside the pavilion and they were ICE COLD!!  Oh, my God, I don't know if a Bud Light EVER tasted as good as it did at that point.  It had to be 32.1 degrees in temperature.  I had to have a couple to help with my soreness and stiffness.  Actually, Cindy said I took this picture because of all the young girls in their bikinis.  While that's partially true, I wanted to remember this place for having the coldest beer - just a nano-degree above freezing - that I've probably ever had.

Before we left the pavilion and pier, there was this pole that showed the depth of storm surges for hurricanes.  I had Cindy stand next to it for a reference point for the picture.  A Category 1 hurricane would create a storm surge of about 4.5 feet, or up to Cindy's neck.  A Category 2 storm surge would put the depth up about 7 feet.  Tybee Island has been very lucky.  The last major hurricane to hit the island was back in the 1880's - a Category 4 hurricane - that swamped the island with a 20 foot storm surge and literally wiped out the entire island.  That's over 130 years of little to no hurricane damage.  I'm afraid to say they may be due at some point. 

I'm really glad we came out to Tybee Island when we did on that Saturday.  As I said, the tide was coming in and the beach was getting more narrow.  It was officially packed after 12:00 noon and there were still people coming in!  As we were driving back on Highway 80 toward Savannah, there was a constant stream of cars heading out to Tybee Island.  I read where they want to make Highway 80 a four lane road out to Tybee Island.  While that would cut down on the time it took to get out to the island, I don't know if the island could sustain many more visitors.  The one thing I liked about Tybee Island was a noticeable lack of what I would call "tourist traps" - the theme bars, hokey restaurants, and over-the-top attractions.  It was relaxing and had a small town charm to the place.  It was definitely what I wanted in a small beach town.  And it was truly tough to leave. 

B&D Burgers - Savannah, GA

During our walking tour around Savannah on the first day we were there, we took time out for lunch at B&D Burgers along Broughton Street in the heart of downtown Savannah (see map).  B&D Burgers caught my eye from one of the ads we saw in Savannah Magazine that had awarded the restaurant "Best Burgers" in Savannah every year since 2002.   Being the burger connoisseur that I am, I had to give them a try.

Dave Tonroe is the owner of B&D Burgers.  Tonroe, a former professional golfer in Asia and Europe, ended up in Savannah working for his father's environmental water waste disposal company.  Thinking that Savannah needed a good burger joint that catered to locals and the college crowd, along came B&D Burgers.  He opened a second location on the far south side of Savannah a couple years ago (see map).

A pretty good sized lunch crowd was in B&D Burgers when we walked in.  We were seated at a booth in the back and handed menus.  B&D Burgers boasts that they have 170 different types of burgers on their menu.  It turns out that they really only have five different burgers (1/3 lb., 1/2 lb., with cheese, veggie, and turkey) with 34 different combinations.  OK, I'll give them credit for that.  You can also mix and match toppings for your own style of burger.  In addition to burgers, B&D Burgers also has sandwiches, appetizers, salads and soups to offer.

B&D Burgers also boasts something called the "Bring it On!"  It's basically a triple-decked burger with three 1/3-pound burgers and a basket of fries for $25 bucks.  If you can eat it all in 40 minutes, you'll eat for free and your name will go on a "leader board" signifying your accomplishment.  The leader board was full of names, most likely young guys from the local colleges in the area.

I've long said the hallmark of a great burger is the bun.  B&D Burgers has an in-house bakery where they make their own buns each day.  They're light and flaky, perfect for a good burger.  Too many times the bun on some burgers gets to be heavy and chewy, taking a lot of the taste away from the burger.  The better the bun, in my book, the better the burger.

They also cook their burgers on a very hot grill - a minimum of 650 degrees - to help sear in the juices.  They are cooked to order from rare to well done.  I can almost imagine how quick it takes to make a rare burger on the grill at B&D Burgers.  I've been doing my burgers on my grill at home over high direct heat for quite some time.  It helps if you have a high fat content so the burgers won't dry out.  Or, for very lean burgers, you can add some water to the meat.  That helps keep it moist. 

The 34 burgers on the menu were named for local landmarks or streets.  The City Market boasted five different types of cheese, The Pulaski was topped with chili and cheddar cheese, The Troup Square had marinara, mozzarella, pepperoni and mushrooms on top, and the Reynolds had sundried tomatoes, bacon and mozzarella on it.   All the burgers are served with a fresh lettuce leaf, a fresh slice of tomato, a slice of red onion and thick sliced kosher dill pickle chips. 

I went with the 1/2-pound Chippewa - topped with jalapenos and pepperjack cheese.  Cindy went with a 1/3-pound burger called The Mighty Eighth - named after the famous World War II Eighth Air Squadron which has a museum just outside of Savannah - which consisted of sauteed onions and provolone cheese.  For a side I got an order of baked beans and Cindy ordered up a batch of deep fried dill pickle slices appetizers as a side.  I was sort of surprised she order that as I don't think I've ever seen her eat deep fried pickles.  

Our burgers came to the table about 15 minutes later.  This is what my Chippewa burger looked like when it was brought to the table open-faced, only with a side of baked beans.  Just like this picture, my burger had an ample amount of jalapenos on top of the pepperjack cheese. 

I have to say the burger was good, not great, but well above average.  The bun was very good and did help to make the taste of the burger very good.  The jalapenos were spicy, but not overwhelming.  But there was something sort of bland about the meat that I couldn't put my finger on.  It seemed to be a little too charred on the outside, but was a perfect light pink in the middle.  I can't imagine anyone who would want a well-done burger at B&D Burger (mine was medium).  The life would be completely cooked out of the burger.

I also have to say that my baked beans were so-so, but I had a couple of the deep fried dill pickle slices that Cindy ordered and I thought they were out of sight.  An unbelievable taste combination with the beer-batter and the tanginess of the dill slices.  Cindy hit a home-run in ordering those as a side.

B&D Burger was a little high priced and our waitress wasn't too enthusiastic (it was Memorial Day and she would have probably rather been out at the beach).  But the burgers were pretty damn good - Cindy really liked her Mighty Eighth burger.  Other than the service not being up to par and the fact that my one bottle of beer was far from being ice cold, the burgers at B&D Burger made up for any problems we had at the restaurant.  While it wasn't the best burger I've had - and probably wouldn't make my Top Ten List - B&D Burger was still good.   I'm glad we gave it a try.

A Cool, Wet Summer

It's been a cool and wet summer in many parts of the Upper Midwest and Northern States this year, as evidenced by this gentleman taking place in a nude bicycle rally in Seattle recently.  Here in the Quad Cities we've suffered through two days in a row where the temperature didn't get out of the 60's.  High temperatures for both Friday and Saturday were the lowest high temperatures recorded for those dates.  We also had record low temperatures for both Saturday morning and again this morning. 

The 4th of July was rainy and cool, severely impacting the final day crowd at the annual Blues Festival down at Le Claire Park in Davenport.  The John Deere Classic was held last weekend and we had torrential rains on Wednesday (2 inches of rain) that canceled the Pro-Am event, and again on Friday (2.3 inches of rain) that postponed the second round.  It's been a cool, wet summer so far.  And I'm all about having a good hot summer.

With all that said, the wet weather has allowed some of our plants and flowers to thrive this year.  I went out early yesterday morning to take some pictures of our yard before the clouds moved back in to make it another dreary weekend day.  Our back berm is nearly overgrown again with wildflowers.  Since we had a very wet spring, it was the end of June before the berm dried out.  But since we've had all the rain last week and cool temps the past few days, it's pretty wet again.   Cindy got some lilies from one of the neighbors to plant in the berm, but she doesn't know when it's going to be dry enough to dig back there.

Our tomato and pepper plants are doing well again this year, despite the lack of hot weather they seem to love.   I expanded the garden this year behind the garage and doubled it in size.  We could only plant either peppers or tomatoes in the garden - one or the other - because it was only 6' X 8'.  Now it's 12' X 8' and we were able to get both red peppers and tomatoes (Better Boys and Cherry) in the garden this year.  And for good measure, Cindy planted Brussel Sprouts.  They're literally taking over the pepper plants.  Our herbs in the pots behind the garage are also doing rather well.  I've got three different types of basil growing, as well as oregano and lime balm (for fun, primarily).  My parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme garden growing in the old wash tub by the deck is also going nuts this year. 

Because of the wet conditions, we haven't had to water too much this summer.  But the lack of heat has also hurt the growth of our rose bushes in the garden beside the garage.  We lost two of our rose bushes over the winter - not bad considering the amount of rose bushes we lost a couple years ago after a very warm March allowed the roses to prematurely bud, then a killing freeze for three days in a row in early April killed them off.  Actually, one of the bushes was eaten by a rabbit - which has been dispatched for his transgressions.  And it was a Mr. Lincoln rose bush that grew these big beautiful red roses.  I promised Cindy that we'd get another one, along with the Belami rose bush that we lost due to the cold weather.

Our flowers and rose bushes on the east side of the house are doing well, however.   We're sort of in between budding on the bulk of the rose bushes right now, but the bright yellow Sunsprite roses are really flourishing.  The east side of the house gets a lot of morning sun and it dries out the window box pretty quickly.  About the only thing we've had to water on a regular basis this summer are the potted plants, hanging baskets and window boxes.  With a recently proposed 25% boost in our water rates looming on the horizon, we're digging the rain we've had this year.

One of the great things about the wet weather has been how well the grass has been looking all summer long.  But it also means that I have to mow about once every three to five days.  We hire our neighbor, Steve, to come over and do the trim work on the driveway and sidewalks a couple times a year.  He did it this last week and I mowed Friday evening.  One of the things I wanted when I became a home owner was a nice yard.  It's looking pretty damn good this year. 

Oh, there are some parts of the yard that aren't too pretty - we've got an ongoing battle with growing grass on the west side of the house.   And because it's been so wet, the sump pump has been running constantly since March.  We've developed a swamp from the mouth of the drain pipe to the sidewalk, and then again in the parking area between the sidewalk and the street where the water will settle.  It's sort of embarrassing to see these tall blades of grass sticking up, but I can't get a mower in there while the yard is so wet or it would tear it up worse than what it is.  In order to cut the grass in that area, I have to get a weed whacker and skim it across the top of the ground, hoping that I don't make pock marks on the ground from getting the weed whacker too low. 

One benefit from the wet weather has been the growth of the wild flowers that Cindy has planted the past couple three years underneath our Maple tree in front of the house.   We've tried all different types of annuals under the tree, but found that we were just pissing money away.  Cindy decided to start planting perennial wild flowers, irises, Columbines and ground cover under the tree.  In fact, the ground cover was growing SO well that she had to go in and pull a bunch of it out about a week ago.  It filled up one of those 30 gallon yard waste bags that we have to use to recycle yard waste here in Davenport.

Here's a close-up shot of the back berm, once again.  With the new blooming crab apple tree that we planted last year, along with the lilac bush and a wegela bush, our ornaments are starting to get lost in the jungle.  It's tough to see the Mama Moose and her baby, and we've come to the determination that we'll probably have to move the windmill.  Cindy has already told me to get rid of the Mama Bear and her three cub cut-outs that we have along the back fence.  You can only see them in the winter time, now.  Our new neighbors who moved into the house behind us, Jesse and Amy, love to look over the fence from their pool at our backyard.  Amy is especially fond of the Mama and Baby Moose.  Except she said the other day, "I can't see them any more.  It's too overgrown!"

While it's been a cool, wet summer so far, I suppose I really can't complain.  We've only had to run the air conditioning about seven days in June and probably three days so far in July.  While it's somewhat hampering the growth of not only our plants and flowers, it's hampering the growth of corn and soybeans for the farmers.  At the local farmer's market yesterday, we saw the lady who we like to buy sweet corn from.  While other vendors had some sweet corn already, we like her "peaches and cream" variety the best.  She said, "It hasn't been warm enough for the corn to fully come to maturity.  I won't sell my corn until it's fully matured to the top." 

It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid 70's today here in the Quad Cities, with temperatures rebounding into the 80's the rest of the week.  I'm just hoping for great weather this coming weekend for the Davenport One Street Festival, of which I'll be working for the 12th year in a row.  And I'm hoping we see some dry, 80 degree days for a long period of time.  I love summer, but I don't like it when it's only in the 60's for highs.

Why Do These Things Always Happen to Me?

Here's a weird little story for you today.  It involves my 2008 Impala that I've had for right at a year. 

When I bought the car last July, I was told by the dealership, Bruce Foote Chevrolet in Monmouth, IL, that the wheels on the car were actually wheels from an Impala LTZ, the Impala with the sport suspension, and a step up from the LT model that I have.  It turns out an elderly guy bought an Impala LTZ, but liked the wheels on the LT better.  He asked if he could swap out the LTZ wheels for the LT ones.  The dealership said, "Sure, no problem." 

They explained to me the LTZ wheels are about a $1000 upgrade to my car, but they weren't going to charge me for it.  Fair enough, and I got some nice looking wheels on the car.

Everything was going along fine until recently when I took my car in to get the tires rotated and balanced.  I began to notice after a couple weeks that I was having a noticeable shimmy in the rear end at higher speeds.  I took it back to the tire place - Duck Creek Tire in Bettendorf - and told them about the shimmy.  They are good guys and they said it was probably a tire that had lost a balance weight.  They said they'd look at the car right away.

I sat and waited for a while before one of the guys came out and said, "Well, we've got some bad news.  You need a whole new set of tires."

Well, I was incredulous.  I had just over 28,000 miles on a set of high quality Goodyear tires that came on the car.  The guy at Duck Creek Tire told me that it could be that the car was severely out of alignment and that would have caused the inside of the tires to have extreme wear.  Extreme wear to the point of the belts beginning to show through the rubber.

I reluctantly agreed to get a new set of tires, but the same Goodyear's that were on the car weren't cheap - $1400 bucks!  Ouch!  He had a couple of other price alternatives including a set of Continental tires that would run about $875 before taxes and other fees.  I opted for the cheaper Continental's.  All the time, I was just completely amazed that I only got 28,000 plus miles out of a set of very good tires.

The guys at Duck Creek Tire had me come back in the next day to put on the tires.  The service manager, Matt, told me they'd do an alignment on the car to see if there was a problem with that.  He said, "If it isn't out of alignment, then you may have some bigger issues with the car.  Issues that the dealer may have to take care of." 

Well, they put the tires on and aligned it.  The rear was out of alignment, not significantly, but enough to warrant a complete re-alignment.  After a couple three hours, they were done and I drove back home. 

That evening, Cindy and I were on our way to a deck party at the house of a co-worker of hers.  We had the radio low and we were talking.  As I took a right turn to go to the house, I heard some rubbing coming from the left rear tire.  I said, "That's odd.  It shouldn't be rubbing."  I immediately wondered if they put the right tires on the car.  

When I took a look at the rear tires when we stopped at the party, I noticed right away that one of the strut coils was sitting directly on top of the tire.  On both sides.  Suddenly, it all became clear.  While the tires were probably the right ones, I had the wrong wheels on the car.

The Impala LTZ wheels are 18" wheels, the LT wheels are 17" in diameter.  I wondered if the LTZ suspension was significantly different from the LT suspension.  A trip back to Duck Creek Tire the next morning confirmed my suspicion.  

I told Matt the story of how they had swapped the LTZ wheels for the LT wheels.  Then I showed him the coil resting firmly upon the top of the rear tires.  He said, "Yep, the suspension on the LTZ is significantly different from the LT."

I said, "Can I put the LTZ struts on the LT?"

He said, "Nope, the suspension on this car wouldn't allow for it.  You need to get new wheels."  

Well, I also wanted to get reimbursed for four new tires that I suddenly didn't need on these wheels.  I asked Matt if he had my tires still around.  He thought for a second and said, "Yeah, we do."  I asked if I could have one to take down to the dealership to show the wear and tear.

He went in the back and about three minutes later he was rolling out one of the old tires.  It was one that had been on the left rear for about 25,000 miles and the belts were showing through.  I said, "This one is perfect."

I got in the car and drove directly down to Bruce Foote Chevrolet.  I like dealing with small town car dealerships, even though it appeared that Brad Deery Motors in Maquoketa didn't want to sell me a car.  (That's an incredible story that I should have told you about before - they literally didn't want to wait on me when I went in to buy a car.)  But the guys at Bruce Foote were great to work with and overly accommodating to me when I got the new and improved ROKNROL Impala.  

I walked into the dealership and immediately saw the sales manager.  I couldn't remember his name and I said, "You're the sales manager, right?"

He said, "Yes, I'm Mike.  And I remember you and the car but I'm sorry that I can't remember your name."  I told him and he said, "Oh, yes.  Of course.  How can I help you?"

I said, "Come take a walk with me."

He remembered that they had swapped the LTZ wheels for the LT wheels on this car.  I was telling him the story of having a shimmy, getting the car in to have the tires looked at and the surprise of them telling me that I had to get new tires, to the tune of over $900 bucks when it was all said and done. 

I opened the trunk and showed him the wear on the inside tread of the tire.  He said, "Whoa!  That is strange!"

I said, "This is why..."

We went around to the rear tire wheel well and I showed him the strut resting on top of the tire.  Again, he said, "Whoa!  Wow, that's not good!" 

Mike went and got his service manager who came out and looked at the one on the right side.  The service manager asked, "How long have you had this car?"

I said, "About a year.  Put over 28,000 miles on it."

Mike said, "Well, I'm certainly going to have to do my homework on this one..."

The service manager immediately spoke up.  "There's no homework to do on this one," he bellowed.  "This guy is not driving this car off this lot.  That's all there is to it.  It's a wonder he hasn't had a catastrophic blowout before this!" 

I said, "Well, I guess I'm going to need new wheels with new tires.  And I'd like to be fully reimbursed for the tires I just paid for yesterday."

Mike turned to me and said, "Well, those are all very valid requests.  But first, we're going to get you a loaner car."

I said, "How long will it be before I get this car back?"

He said, "I don't know.  A couple days, maybe."

I said, "Look, I've got to drive to St. Louis, then up to Des Moines, then up to Milwaukee."

He said, "Well, I can't give you a new car, but we'll give you something that will get you around."

He told me to gather up all the stuff in my car and he'd arrange for a loaner.  He came out after about five minutes and said, "OK, we're gonna put you in a car with a warranty on it.  Unfortunately, it's a Ford."

It turned out to be a 2009 Ford Fusion.  It had about 12,000 miles on it and I'm guessing it was a rental car.  It's an OK car, not as roomy as the Impala and only a 4 cylinder model.  But it had a sun-roof and a kick-ass stereo system.  In fact, there were some amenities in the Ford Fusion that I immediately liked that my Impala lacked. 

(As an aside - We had rented a Mercury Grand Marquis when we were on vacation in Savannah, and that car was very nice, as well.  We had asked for an Impala with the Hertz NeverLost system, but they didn't have one.  They only had the Grand Marquis.  It was roomy - much more roomy than my Impala - had some nifty creature comforts and was an impressive car.  I've been a GM man for well over 20 years after having a couple Thunderbirds in the 70's that didn't work out very well.  After driving the Montego and the Fusion, I'm starting to think that Ford definitely has their shit together in regard to their cars.)

As I was putting stuff from the Impala into the Fusion and I said, "Look, I'm going to be putting a lot of miles on this car over the next few days.  Maybe 1500 miles total.  Are you sure you want me to have this car?"

Mike said, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

No, he certainly did not.  I offered to bring the car back on Monday on my way to St. Louis and he said, "I don't think I can rectify the problem that quickly."  But he said he'd give me a call on Monday and let me know what was going on. 

As I got into the car, I noticed that it had Sirius Radio.  I asked, "Anyway you can activate the Sirius Radio for this thing?"

He laughed and said, "No, I don't think I can." 

I said, "Wow, I have to listen to regular FM.  I don't know if I can bring myself to that."  (I am literally hooked on listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage channel on Sirius XM.)

Before I left, he gave me a voucher for a free tank of gas for the Fusion.  That was nice of him.  I mean, I think he was embarrassed and realized that his service manager was probably right - they had dodged a huge bullet in that I didn't have a major incident with the tires before this.  He really was bending over backwards to take care of me.   

When I was driving back home, I was playing with the stereo system.  I hit the "Media" button on the steering wheel and it went from FM to Satellite radio.  It turned out the Sirius radio WAS activated!  Well, all right!  Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

While the Fusion isn't as roomy, it's still comfortable enough.  I passed a couple cars along the way home on a two-lane road and it was really poochy when I'd floor it.   After driving it home, I thought it would work, but I'd really rather have my Impala. 

Then I thought, "Wait a minute.  Why should I put miles on MY car when they're giving this one to me to drive for the week.  I'll just put the miles on THIS car!" 

A couple days later, the service manager from Bruce Foote called me up and asked if the tires on the car were brand new.  I said, "Brand spanking new, to the tune of $920 bucks." 

He then asked if the car had been aligned.  I said it had.  He said, "Well, we've seen on these Impalas that the back end can get out of alignment and that kind of tire wear can be possible on as little as 30,000 miles."

I said, "Look, let's cut out the bullshit.  You saw the strut laying on top of the tire when I brought it in.  I have one of the tires in the trunk that clearly shows the only wear on the tire is where the strut was rubbing.  Yes, it was out of alignment in the rear end, but it wasn't bad enough to cause the tire to have that type of wear where the belts are beginning to show through."

It went downhill from there.  He came back and said, "Listen, I don't appreciate you insinuating that I'm giving you some B.S. here."

I said, "I understand what you're trying to do.  To minimize the cost of what has to come out of your pocket.  I need new wheels, I need new tires and I would like to get reimbursed for the out of pocket expense on these tires that I just bought." 

He then said, "Do you think the tire place would be interested in trading these tires for new ones?  I mean, they only have Davenport to Monmouth mileage on them."

I replied, "That's going to have to be a conversation you're going to have to have with Duck Creek Tire.  All I know is that I just paid for new tires about a year before I had to." 

He said he was going to call up to talk to Matt at Duck Creek Tire and he'd get back to me. 

Well, he never did. 

24 hours came and went and I began to get sort of worried.  Cindy said, "Will, I think they're trying to give you the run-around on this deal."

I said, "Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing."

I placed a call to Mike, the sales manager at Bruce Foote Chevrolet and I said, "Hey, Mike!  I just have this sneaking suspicion that you guys are giving me the run around on this deal."

He said in a surprising tone, "How so?"

I told him of the conversation I'd had with his service manager and how he was trying to tell me that there were previous problems on Impalas with the rear end going out of alignment causing extraordinary wear on tires.  I said, "Mike, it's quite obvious that the cause of this was due to the larger wheels and the tires rubbing on the strut."  I told him that Robert was supposed to call me back on the progress of the situation, but never did. 

Mike said, "Well, here's what I know.  The new wheels are coming in today.  We're going to take the car back up to Duck Creek Tire to get the new tires put on, balanced and checked.  Then we'll bring it back down to Monmouth and wait for you." 

I said, "Oh!  Well, no one certainly told me that."  I then proposed that he just leave it at Duck Creek Tire and he makes arrangements to come up and get the loaner car.  He said, "Well, that would be two trips to Bettendorf.  I mean, if we have to come up and get the car and do it that way, I will.  But I think I'd rather have your car here so we can finalize the swap here at the dealership."

I thought it was sort of weird, but I agreed to do that.  Then I got to thinking - he wants to negotiate on the new set of tires that I had to pay for that I can't use. 

I got back from my trip that encompassed over 1300 miles in 4 days, cleaned out the loaner car and Cindy and I drove down to Monmouth to change cars.  The Impala was sitting in front of the dealership and Mike met me at the door.  It turned out that Robert, the service manager, needed my remote lock and start key fob to reset the tire pressure indicator for the car.  Don't know exactly why they needed to do that, but I handed him the key fob and off he went.  

Mike came back and I said, "OK, so what's the story."

He said, "Well, new wheels.  New tires.  The guys at Duck Creek Tires took back the ones you just put on.  You're right, they were good guys to work with."

I then said, "OK, so, what are we going to do about the new tires that I just paid over $900 bucks for." 

He said, "Well, we have new Continentals on your car.  The same kind of tire like you just bought.  This is what I'm going to propose.  You had, what?  20,000 miles on those tires?"

I hesitated for a second, fully knowing that I had 28,500+ on the tires.  I said, "Uh, yeah!  Yeah, 20,000 miles."   I'm such a shit, sometimes.

He said, "Why don't we say we give you $400 bucks for the tires."

I said, "Wait a minute.  Those were 70,000 mile tires on that car.  I wouldn't have needed new tires for another year or so.  If I'd gotten the same tires that were on the car, we'd be talking over $1500 bucks for the set, mounted and rollin' down the road!"

Mike looked at me with funny smirk on his face and he said, "Those weren't 70,000 mile tires on that car.  GM would never put those good of tires on a new car."

I said, "They sure did."

He said, "I can't believe it.  GM NEVER puts good tires on new cars." 

I said, "Well, they were on this one.  I've got the tire in my trunk, remember?"

We walked out to the car in a light rain and I opened the trunk and showed him the old tire.  I said, "See?  Goodyear RS-A.  They wanted something like $1440 for a set of fours."

He looked at me rather incredulously.  He exclaimed, "$1440 dollars for new tires?  Look, I don't want to tell you who to do your business with, but that seems exceptionally high." 

I said, "You're telling me.  I think $920 bucks is exceptionally high for Continentals!  But what was I supposed to do?  Tell 'em to put the tires back on and I'm going to go look around for a deal?"

He sort of chuckled and said, "Well, no, probably not." 

We went back inside and I made this proposal.  I said, "Let's take the mileage on the old tires and figure the percentage of mileage driven versus 70,000 miles.  Then we'll take that percentage and deduct that from $920 bucks and that's what you owe me."

Mike said, "That's fair enough.  Fax me the bill and we'll figure it out."

We shook hands and Cindy and I got into the car and drove off.  The first thing I noticed is that the mileage hadn't changed from the time I brought it in to the time I picked it up.  I said to Cindy, "Jeez, they put this thing on a trailer and took it up to Bettendorf for the new tires."

Cindy said, "Well, you said the service manager didn't want anyone to drive the car with the struts sitting on the tire!"

I said, "Yeah, that's true.  But they could have easily driven it up there and driven it back without trailering it."  I was sort of impressed they would do that. 

We stopped at a place to eat in Monmouth and I got to looking at the car.  I noticed that they had detailed the inside of the car.  I also noticed they had detailed the outside of the car, including getting all the tar off the sides and filling in the rock chips that were noticeable on the front hood.  I was just incredulous.  I told Cindy, "Jesus!  They even fixed the 'Service Engine Soon' light problem that I was having!"  (It had to do with a valve leak in some emissions control section.)  Suddenly, I felt like a complete heel for dicking around and not being truthful with Mike at the dealership.

That night, I went home and figured out that 28,500 is 40 percent of 70,000.  So, I figured that 60% of $920 is $553.  I faxed Mike a note with my figures along with the copy of the bill so he'd have it first thing in the morning. 

I waited and waited for Mike to call me the next day.  I never heard anything from him, so I gave him a call a little after 5 p.m.  I said, "Hey, Mike!  Did you get that fax I sent down?"

He said, "No, I sure didn't."

I told him I'd fax it again.  I did.  He called me back about five minutes later and said that it didn't go through.  "I got part of one page and then it was blank the rest of the way."  He asked me to try it again.  I did.

He called me back about 5 minutes after that and he said, "I don't think our fax machine likes your fax machine.  Just tell me what you came up with."

I explained to him the figures I came up with and he said, "Look, I'm just gonna take care of this right now.  We'll send you out a check next Monday for $553 dollars." 

I said, "Mike, this is why I like dealing with small town car dealers."

He said, "Well, when you're ready to trade, please come back to see me."

I told him, "Mike, I drive my cars into the ground.  However, my wife has her eye on a new Malibu. But I don't think we can afford one right now."

He laughed and said, "Don't be so sure.  There's some great deals on them right now." 

The all happened within the last 10 days.  All's well that ends well...

Hilton DeSoto - Savannah, GA

As I've mentioned in many of my previous posts from our trip to Savannah, we stayed at the Hilton DeSoto located in the heart of the Historic District (see map).  We had a lot of options for hotels, including many right downtown along Bay St., but we decided to stay in a more central location in the Historic District.  I'm glad we did for a number of reasons.  And as I've also pointed out, the Hilton DeSoto gave us nothing more than a 20 minute walk in any direction to the far reaches of the Historic District.  Towering above the neighborhood, this 14-story hotel didn't seem to be too obtrusive to the surrounding historic homes. 

The Hilton DeSoto has a rich history in Savannah.  First of all, it was named for the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto who was the first European to set foot in South Carolina, just across the river from Savannah.  De Soto may have also been the first European to discover the Mississippi River.  The original DeSoto was built in 1890 and was called one of the grandest hotels in the South.  It hosted a number of dignataries, both political and celebrities, as well as fancy balls, cotillions and formal parties for a number of years.  The hotel, in need of repair and in what was then a dying part of of old Savannah, closed in the 1960's.  The Hilton corporation bought the property and rebuilt the entire hotel in the late 60's.  The Hilton DeSoto had just undergone an extensive renovation within the last 18 months. 

The main lobby area was ornate and stately.  When we went to check in, the ladies at the front desk were overly friendly and recognized me as a Hilton Honors Diamond member.  The young lady who checked us in said that our room wasn't ready (it was around 2 p.m.).  She said, "You requested a city view room and that's what we'll get you."  She also told me that because I was a Honors Diamond member we'd get a free full breakfast each morning we were there (which was very good, by the way), coupons for free drinks in the bar; and that we had access to their valet parking for free.  That was kinda sweet.  All it cost me was a couple bucks in the form of a tip for the kid who would bring our car around. 

When we finally got into our room, we were greeted with a wonderful view of the heart of the Savannah Historic District.  The room was elegant and comfortable.  We had a cantilever deck that came out from the room.  It was a little uncomfortable to stand on the deck not seeing any type of brackets or supports under the deck.  I'm sure it was safe, but I'm not big on heights and when I would feel my testicles going back up inside me, that was the sign to go back in. 

We really didn't spend a lot of time in our room because of all the sight seeing that we did around Savannah.  What time we spent in the room relaxing, reading or napping was worth it.  The bed was overly comfortable, the chairs and furnishings were luxurious, and we had all the amenities we needed.   Here's a picture of Cindy enjoying some time reading a book with the sliding glass door out to the deck open.  She had a bigger problem with the deck than I did.  

This is the hotel's breakfast very spacious and ornate restaurant area where they made great made-to-order omelets for me each morning.  Cindy opted for the buffet which consisted of French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and, of course, grits.  I'd had grits a number of years ago, but was sort of ambivalent toward them.  But for some reason on this trip, grits mixed with a little butter tasted pretty damn good.  Cindy said it must have been the enchantment of the South and Savannah that made the grits taste good.    

But the one thing that made the Hilton DeSoto stand out was the outstanding customer service.  Any request, any favor, any help that we asked for, they were more than willing to help us out.  The bar and restaurant staff were overly accommodating.  The valet guys were quick and friendly.  Even the concierge was never put off when we'd ask for some help.  We not only loved Savannah so much, we loved the Hilton DeSoto, as well.  When we decided to fore-go our planned trip to Charleston, SC to come back to Savannah to finish our vacation, we wanted to come back to the DeSoto.  The only problem was that it was the graduation weekend for the Savannah College of Art and Design, plus the hotel was hosting two large wedding parties.  We were getting our room for $113 a night, but it was going up to $209 if we wanted to come back.

Before we left to go up to Hilton Head, I went down to the front desk and asked if they could give us a deal on a room for the weekend.  The lady at the desk said, "Well, we have four rooms left for the weekend.  What were you thinking?"

I said, "Well, we really didn't want to pay more than $139 a night." 

She sort of cringed and said, "Well, I'll tell you what.  Let me talk to our in-house reservation agent and I'll have her get back to you."

While we were packing up getting ready to check out, I got a phone call from the Hilton DeSoto's in-house reservation agent.  She said, "Mr. Veber?  I got your request here from the front desk and we're just thrilled that you want to come back and stay with us.   Since you're an upstanding member of the Hilton Honors Diamond VIP program, we can extend you the price of $139 a night for this coming Friday and Saturday night."  She was just overly appreciative for our business.  They were really bending over backwards for us.

When we got back in town after staying in Hilton Head, they had our room ready - a wonderful corner suite with another great view of the Historic District.  This room also had a deck, but it was much larger and on the corner where it wasn't so disconcerting.  We had a couple chairs out there with a little table.  We sat out there and read our books in the late afternoons and the local paper in the mornings.  We also got all the same perks - drink coupons, free breakfast and free valet parking - that we got when we stayed there earlier in the week.

One of the main reasons why it was so tough to leave Savannah was the service and hospitality we received from the people at the Hilton DeSoto.  I've stayed in a number of Hilton properties over the years and I have to say that, hands down, in terms of service, elegance and the perks they threw our way during our visit, the Hilton DeSoto was the finest Hilton Hotel I've ever stayed at.  And that's saying a lot as I've stayed in some nice Hilton properties over the year.  When we go back to Savannah someday - and we will - we'll be back to the Hilton DeSoto. 

Bier Stube - Le Claire, IA

The Bier Stube is - now - a three restaurant operation that was originally based just down the hill from us in the East Village of Davenport.   I say "now" because they recently opened their third location in Le Claire, IA - a picturesque community along the Mississippi just up river from the Quad Cities. 

(Update - The East Village location closed in December of 2011.) 

The first Bier Stube - the one in the East Village - opened about 8 years ago (see map).  Austrian native Dieter Rebitzer and his wife, Nancy, realized there really wasn't a true German restaurant in the Quad Cities that featured traditional German food and a great selection of beers.  They took a little restaurant in the Village and turned it into a beer lovers paradise.  In 2004, they opened a second location in downtown Moline (see map) that featured a much larger bar area, a larger dining room, a larger menu and a very nice beer garden outside.  After some delays with the Le Claire legal department, the Rebitzer's opened their third location in Le Claire (see map) earlier this year.  Rebitzer's sons - Mike, Ted and Bob - help with the day-to-day operations of all three restaurants. 

While we've eaten at the Moline one on a number of occasions, we normally only have beers on our visits to the East Village location (right) because the menu there isn't very extensive as they basically just have a small grill behind the bar.  My next door neighbor, George, loves the Bier Stube in the East Village.  He and his wife, Hanna, went out to the one in Le Claire a couple months prior to us going out.  George said, "The food's good, but if they're trying to call it an authentic German beer hall, it's like trying to say Bennigan's is an authentic Irish restaurant." 

We had a tough time getting out to Le Claire the night we went.  What is normally a 15 to 20 minute drive out to Le Claire became an hour trip of detours, back roads, and u-turns on Interstate 80 due to a horrific crash just west of the Mississippi River.  We finally got into the Bier Stube around 7:30 ready for a beer and some food. 

The new Bier Stube in Le Claire is part of a small strip mall that was recently built.  Walking in, I immediately saw what George was talking about.  While they did their best in trying to outfit the place with Bavarian flags, some signage and a few lights, it really didn't have an "old beer hall" feel to the place.  Still, the tables and booths were comfortable, there was a large bar and a great view of the river. 

The waitress greeted us and sat us at a booth.  She handed us a couple food menus and I ordered up a Warsteiner - one of their over 20 beers on tap - while Cindy had to look through the beer menu.  She ended up getting a pint of Samuel Adams, her old stand-by when she can't make up her mind as to what type of beer she'll have. 

After being in the car for a little over an hour trying to get out to the Bier Stube, I had to go to the bathroom.  I walked into the men's restroom and noticed right away that the large windows that were in the dining room extended into the men's.   In other words, there really was no privacy for a guy to go to the bathroom - either at the urinal, where the top of the urinal was just below the window ledge; or in the toilet stall where you could stand and look out at all the people on the beer deck overlooking the river.  I thought that to be a little odd.  

Our waitress brought back our beers and gave us a few minutes to look over the menu.  While the Bier Stube serves such German favorites as Jagerschnitzel, Sauerbraten, and an assortment of sausages, the Bier Stube also has an assortment of burgers, sandwiches and salads to choose from.  They have a wonderful corned beef reuben and I got that.  Cindy wanted something a little more substantial for dinner so she went with the Sauerbraten.  With both meals we got a choice of two sides - Cindy went with the Bier Stube's homemade red cabbage and a potato pancake; I went with a side of red cabbage and sauerkraut.  They also have a great German potato salad. 

About 15 minutes after we ordered, the waitress brought out my reuben sandwich.  She told Cindy, "Yours will be up in a little bit."  They could have easily waited to bring my reuben out with Cindy's Sauerbraten, but they chose to bring them out separately.  It was a couple minutes more before her meal came out. 

My sandwich was very good.  The homemade sauerkraut is a perfect complement to the slow roasted corned beef they use on their sandwiches.  I believe their 1000 Island dressing is also homemade.  I like to get an extra side of dressing to dip the sandwich into, but there was enough dressing on the sandwich where I really didn't need any extra.

Cindy proclaimed her Sauerbraten to be "good".  She said, "Ah, it's OK.  Pretty basic Sauerbraten." 

But both of us loved the red cabbage from the Bier Stube.  Cindy said, "They could bring a plate of the red cabbage out and I'd just eat that for dinner."   It is very good.

While the interior isn't quite the same as the other Bier Stube locations in the Quad's, the food was still edible, the service was adequate and the beer selection was well above average.  I think I still like the Bier Stube in Moline the best, just for the ambiance and decor.  But the Le Claire Bier Stube is a nice addition to the local restaurant scene. 

The Lady and Sons - Savannah, GA

One of the biggest reasons why Cindy has always wanted to go to Savannah is to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons.  Cindy is a big Paula Deen fan, even having met her at a book signing in Chicago a few years ago.  I also like Paula Deen for her down-home, Southern style recipes.  As Paula Deen has said many times - and it's a doctrine I follow - "I'm a cook, not a chef." 

With a couple popular shows on The Food Network, a number of cook books and regular appearances on The Today Show, Paula Deen's star has rocketed since she opened her restaurant in downtown Savannah in the mid-90's.  Her restaurant is packed for lunch and dinner nearly every day.  And because of that, she doesn't take conventional reservations like other restaurants do.  More about that later on.

The downtown area of Savannah was beginning to make a comeback 15 years ago when Paula Deen, helped by her sons Bobby and Jamie, opened her own restaurant after years of running a catering business out of her home.  The old building that the Deen's originally moved into proved to be too small after Paula was "discovered" by Gordon Elliott, who was hosting his own show on The Food Network.   In 1999, they moved to their present location in Savannah's Historic District at the corner of West Congress and Whitaker Streets (see map).  People from all over the world have visited the three-story restaurant that has dining areas on the first and third floors. 

With a little bit of trepidation, I also wanted to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant.  Like I wondered with her other restaurant that we'd eaten at the night before, Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, I feared the hype surrounding The Lady and Sons was going to raise my expectations to a level that I knew I'd be disappointed from my first bite.  But I was pleasantly surprised by Uncle Bubba's and I hoped I'd be as equally surprised with The Lady and Sons. 

Because of the overwhelming popularity of Paula Deen, The Lady and Sons does not take conventional reservations the way other restaurants will - either over the phone or via e-mail.  (We found out later they do take phone reservations for some holidays - Memorial Day was not one of them.)  In order to eat at the restaurant, a person has to show up at 9:30 a.m. each day and reserve a table in person for either lunch or dinner.  You have a choice of times - usually in 15 minute increments - so they can turn the tables a couple three times for lunch and as many as four or five times at dinner.  Most restaurants consider it a successful day if they get 1.5 to 2 table turns for either lunch or dinner.  The Lady and Sons is a rockin' restaurant.

The line outside the restaurant was very long, nearly stretching around the building to the west when we showed up just after 9:30.  We were wondering if we had a chance to get in for dinner because of the crowd of people.  But then we found a number of people around us in line were there for lunch and were then heading home because it was Memorial Day.  I think we stood in line for about 15 minutes before a lady with a clipboard made her way back asking, "Lunch or dinner?"  The people who said, "Lunch," and there were a lot of them, had to remain in the line to talk with the girls at the outdoor reservation desk.  Those of us who wanted dinner, the lady signed us up on the spot.  We got a reservation for 6:30 (dinner begins at 5 p.m. - we had our pick from between 5:00 to 9:30).  Then we peeled off and took our trolley tour around Savannah's Historic District. 

At 6:20, we showed up and checked in with the hostess.  She handed us over to another young girl who took us to the elevator that would take us up to the third floor.  We were sort of disappointed that we weren't going to eat in the open and airy first floor dining area that had large windows that afforded nice views out onto Whitaker Street.  But we thought the third floor would be nice.

It was nice, but it was dark, yet sort of cozy up there.  We were seated at what appeared to be an antique table with matching chairs.  While The Lady and Sons buffet is what made them famous, you can also order off a rather extensive menu.  While her other restaurant didn't have lemonade, The Lady and Sons did so I got a Bacardi Limon and lemonade for a drink.  Cindy ordered up an unsweetened Luzianne iced tea.   

Our waiter was a nice young guy who said he was a student at Savannah State.  He'd worked at The Lady and Sons for a couple of years.  He said it was a lot of hard work, but he said it was a good job.  He talked to us a little about the offerings on the buffet and then told us about a couple specials they had off the menu that evening.  One was a 9 oz. beef tenderloin filet topped with a m ushroom ragout sauce and caramelized onions and then served with five large scallops.  Garlic mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini slices and cherry tomatoes rounded out the plate.  Man, that sounded great.  I almost ordered that on the spot. 

The waiter invited us to go over and take a look at the buffet (which cost $16.95 per person, all you could eat) before we made up our mind whether we wanted to order off the menu or do some of Paula Deen's famous fried chicken.  The buffet had a large pan of fried chicken, beef stew, her famous "Mac and Cheese", garlic mashed potatoes, collard greens, corn casserole, yams, black-eyed peas, and other Southern-style foods.  The chicken looked great, but I didn't want to do the rest of the buffet.  

When our waiter came back with our drinks, I said, "Hey, is there any way that I can get a couple pieces of chicken off the buffet and pay you, say, a couple bucks a piece for them?  I want to try the chicken here, but I don't think I'm going to do the buffet."  

He said, "Well, my manager isn't here tonight and if you want to go up and get a couple pieces to try, I don't have a problem with that.  I won't charge you for 'em."  (Geez, I hope I don't get the kid in trouble for writing that.)  

I ordered up the beef filet special they had that evening.  Cindy ordered the crab cakes topped with a lemon dill tartar sauce.  The crab cakes came on a bed of black beans with rice with a pico salsa and a side of collard greens.  The waiter asked if we wanted a house salad or appetizers.  We passed knowing that I was about to steal a couple three pieces of chicken from the buffet.  He said, "OK, you can go get your chicken now.  I won't look."  

I went up and got a couple chicken legs and what I think was a thigh.  I'm over 50 years old and I still don't know what pieces of chicken are called other than legs and wings.  I don't know what is dark meat or white meat.  I just eat the chicken.  

Well, I made a monumental mistake.  I got the chicken from the bottom of the pan and it had been sitting there under the hot buffet light for quite sometime.  It was sort of warm, yet dried out.  It wasn't more than two minutes after I bit into my first chicken leg that Cindy said, "Oh, Will.  They're bringing more chicken out."

I looked over at the buffet and a cook was dumping steaming hot and juicy chicken into the buffet pan.  Well, I didn't feel right about jumping up and grabbing a couple other pieces.  We nibbled on the three pieces I grabbed.  While they were still good, I was disappointed not to get the fresh chicken directly out of the fryer.  

Speaking of the chicken, while Paula Deen's original recipe for fried chicken calls for peanut oil, the chicken had a distinct taste to it - sort of like my Uncle Jack's fried chicken that he cooked in lard and beef suet.  I would have guessed that her chicken was cooked in lard, which was fine with me.  Even though the chicken was sort of luke warm and a little dry, I wasn't going to complain because we got them for free.

Before our main course came out, Cindy got up and went to the restroom.  She came back and said, "There's a whole big bar area with more seating over on the other side of the floor.  It looks kind of neat in there!"  I went to the bathroom and took a look around the area.  It was pretty neat in there with a sort of large bar, a number of booths and kind of a cozy feel to the place.  Actually, I would have rather eaten in there than in the dining room.  And there wasn't really anything wrong about the dining room.

Our entrees made it to the table and mine looked great.  The beef filet looked to be a little larger than 9 oz, but it was cooked to the rare side of medium-rare - which I didn't mind a bit.  The scallops were huge and there was an ample side of garlic-mashed potatoes, which I knew I would sample, but potatoes are still not on my diet these days.  

From the first bite of my steak, the taste sensation of a perfectly cooked steak with the mushroom ragout sauce dropped any qualms I had about The Lady and Sons being an overrated tourist trap.  It was one of the finest steaks I'd ever had, rivaling some I've had at many of the Midwestern steak houses I've eaten at over the years.  It was just fabulous.

Cindy was equally thrilled with her crab cakes.  She said the lemon dill tartar sauce was a wonderful complement to the fresh mixed crab meat in the cakes.  We traded bites of our steak and crab cakes.  Cindy loved the taste of my steak and I thought her crab cakes were very good, as well. 

The crab cakes were very rich and filling for Cindy.  She was having trouble finishing the second crab cake.  She said, "But it's so good that I don't want to stop!"  She finally did finish off the second cake, but not before stopping a couple times to let the food settle. 

As waiters are supposed to do, ours tempted us with dessert.  They had four selections including ice cream, a decadent Chocolate Mousse pie, Paula Deen's famous Pecan pie and Key Lime pie - probably the same recipe from Uncle Bubba's.  I'm not much on Pecans and my taste for chocolate has waned over the years, so we went with a piece of the Key Lime pie.  Cindy also wanted to try a cup of Captain Michael's coffee, The Lady and Sons house coffee that's named after Paula Deen's husband, Michael.  

The Key Lime pie was nearly the same as what we had the night before - full of richness and flavor.  It was just excellent.  I wouldn't have cared if I found out the secret ingredient was dog urine, I would have still eaten the pie, it was that good.  Cindy declared Captain Michael's coffee as "good", but nothing that would have wanted her to buy a bag of it at Paula Deen's gift shop attached to the restaurant on the first floor.

Actually, we had gone through Paula Deen's gift shop earlier in the day when we were out and about looking around Savannah's Historic District.  The shop features all the type of touristy stuff that you'd expect from a place like that - shirts, coffee mugs, cook books (each of them signed by Paula Deen - but then you looked a little more closely and it turns out they were actually stamped with her signature), and cooking utensils.  We bought a couple of small knick-knacks, but nothing significant from the gift shop.

 OK - The Lady and Sons was NOT over-hyped and is NOT a tourist trap.  It is a legitimate place to dine in Savannah.  It was one of the best meals I've had in a restaurant.  We overtipped our waiter, mainly for allowing us to get some chicken from the buffet, and the fact that he was a good, hard-working college kid.  We're happy we didn't do the buffet as we'd heard from other people who have dined at The Lady and Sons that the buffet was, indeed, over-hyped and over-rated.  My advice to those of you going to Savannah - stand in line at 9:30 a.m., get in there for dinner and order off the menu.  The Lady and Sons is worth the experience.

Thai Orchid - Indianapolis

While starting out on my diet earlier this year, I was trying to find some alternatives to the usual burger, pizza or barbecue places that I normally find myself at.  I had to make a quick trip to Indianapolis to visit a couple of accounts just before my first hip surgery and I stayed out in Castleton.  It was late when I got in (you lose an hour when you travel to Indy from the west) and I was hungry.  To my surprise, just literally walking distance from my hotel was a new restaurant I'd never seen before - the Thai Orchid.

I normally like to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fisher's just up the road from Castleton.  But for some reason I couldn't get a reasonable room rate there this time (reasonable, as in under $119 a night).  The Hampton Inn in Castleton is sort of tired and I hadn't stayed there for quite some time.  But I was able to get in for $109 a night there.  There's a Charleston's next door that I've eaten at a couple three times, but I wasn't quite in the mood for that place that evening.  (I'm sort of surprised that I haven't written about Charleston's before, either).  Since it had been quite sometime since I'd last stayed at that Hampton Inn, I was pleasantly surprised they had built a small strip mall to the southwest that housed the Thai Orchid (see map).

I asked the girl at the front desk at the Hampton Inn about the Thai Orchid and if she'd been there.  She said, "I have not been there because they're closed when I get off work.  But I've heard from people who have stayed here and went over there and all of them pretty much said it was good."  I asked her how long it had been open and she said "awhile."  I didn't pursue a more formative answer than that. 

It was sort of spitting rain and sort of cold out, so I just drove the 100 yards over to the Thai Orchid.  It was 8:45 when I walked into the restaurant for dinner, just fifteen minutes before they closed up.  I stood at the door for a moment before a petite oriental lady came out to greet me.  I said, "Is it too late for dinner?"  

She said in somewhat broken English, "No, no.  Not too late.  Please come in, please sit down!"  

She put me in a booth and handed me a menu.  The menu was thick and had a lot to offer.  They had one full page of appetizers - everything from Thai chicken wings to shrimp tempura.  The next page was nothing but soups and salads.  And there were still four or five pages to go!

As I got deeper into the menu, it was very apparent that this was a very authentic Thai restaurant.  The fresh seafood entrees toward the back of the menu got my attention, but I didn't know if I wanted seafood that evening. They had over 50 entree items on the menu with different variations (beef, chicken, etc.) of nearly each dish.  I really wanted to delve deeper into the menu, but it was already 10 until 9 and I didn't want to be keeping them any later than they wanted to be there.  When the waitress came back to take my order, I immediately ordered the garlic and pepper beef - stir fried beef in a garlic and pepper sauce and placed upon a bed of cabbage and green onions.  A bowl of rice came on the side.   

It didn't take long at all for my meal to show up at my table.  The strips of beef were tender and plentiful.  The garlic pepper sauce was just wonderful.  The garlic wasn't overpowering, but was a nice complement to the beef.  It was all I could do to finish the beef portion of the meal. 

All the time, the waitress kept filling my glass of water and checking on me to make sure I was doing OK.  I didn't get the sense she was trying to rush me as much as she was taking a proactive approach in making sure my dining experience was a pleasurable one.  

Just before 9 p.m. a guy walked in the door and said, "Are you still open?" 

The same lady who came out to greet me said, "Sure, sure!  Come in, please.  Please sit down!"   I immediately figured out that the people at Thai Orchid were overly friendly and over accommodating. 

My bill for the garlic and pepper beef with tax came to about $11.75.  I gave the waitress a $4.00 tip for being overly attentive. 

The food at Thai Orchid was very good, the service was excellent and the staff was very friendly.  I don't know how long the place had been open, but they all had their act together from the hostess to the waitress to the cook.  When I got back to the hotel, I saw the girl at the front desk.  She said, "Did you go to the Thai place?"

I said, "I did and it was very good.  You can tell anyone who asks that it's one of finer Thai restaurants in the Midwest."

And it was.  And is.

 

Uncle Bubba's Oyster House - Savannah, GA

First of all, I have to point out this is my 1000th Road Tips post.  For a hobby, this has sort of taken on a life of its own.

One of the big reasons Cindy wanted to go to Savannah was to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant, "The Lady and Sons".  Well, it turns out that Paula Deen has quite the cottage industry in Savannah, including a second restaurant on the way out to Tybee Island called Uncle Bubba's Oyster House (see map).  It's named for her younger brother, Earl "Bubba" Hiers whom she cared for after their parents died when he was a teenager and Paula was in her early 20's.  While Paula Deen owns the restaurant, Bubba manages the place for her. 

I'm always sort of leery of high profile restaurants and whether or not they'd be up to snuff.  We asked one of the ladies bartending at the Hilton DeSoto whether she thought Uncle Bubba's was a good place to eat.  She said, "Well, I've never eaten out there, but I hear it's OK." 

We locked in the address to Uncle Bubba's Oyster House on the Hertz NeverLost and took off east of Savannah on the highway to Tybee Island.  I'm guessing that Uncle Bubba's had to be relatively new (it wasn't - it opened in 2004) as the NeverLost system tried to get us to turn left on Bryan Woods Road rather than go right.  I'm glad I saw the restaurant off to the right and over-rode the NeverLost, which, had I let it continue, would have gotten us lost.  Well, not lost, but it wasn't taking us to where we needed to go.  (I've found over the years that Hertz doesn't update their NeverLost systems all that frequently.)

We pulled up to Uncle Bubba's and encountered a nearly full parking lot with a ton of people milling about in front of the building.  Cindy went in and found that there was about an hour wait for dinner.  Since we'd eaten earlier rather late in the afternoon, that was fine with me.  We found a couple seats at the bar and I ordered up a couple beers for us - Sweetwater 420's. 

The place was absolutely packed.  We had to remind ourselves that it was Memorial Day weekend and Savannah was a popular destination for many people in the Southeast.  But the wait for a table also gave us time to look around the place. 

 

The interior of Uncle Bubba's is open and airy with a lot of wood paneling throughout.  The tables and chairs are vintage 1950's diner-style furnishings.  With a wood floor, lots of glass windows that look out into a Georgia low country bayou and a high ceiling that looks sort of industrial, it can get rather loud in the place.  

One of Paula Deen's television programs, Paula's Party, is filmed at Uncle Bubba's.  There's a beautiful outdoor seating area that features a number of cats lazily milling about the covered dining area.  All in all, it was a pretty cool place.

 

 

 

The bar area was actually kind of nice with a square bar and high-backed retro chairs.  I was looking for something a little more strong than a beer to drink.  Something a little more "Southern and Summery".  I ordered up a lemonade and a Bacardi Limon.  The bartender said, "I don't have lemonade."  I looked at him like he was from Mars.  EVERYONE has lemonade!  He suggested I try a sweet tea and Bacardi Limon.  He said, "Let me know what you think."

Well, I didn't think much of it.  I don't drink tea, for one thing.  Secondly, "sweet" was the operative term as there seemed to be so much sugar in the drink I almost went into a diabetic coma.  I had a couple drinks and asked the bartender for another beer.  He said, "Didn't like that?" 

I said, "No, not really.  I'm not much of a tea drinker and it was way too sweet for me."  So he gave me a Sweetwater 420 on the house.  He said, "I'm not going to charge you for the drink, either."  And he didn't. 

While we could have eaten at the bar as a couple a few years older than us did while we were sitting there, Cindy has some sort of an aversion about eating at the bar.  Me, I'm an old hand at it.  But Cindy said, "This is the kind of place where I want to sit in the dining room.  If we have to wait, we have to wait."  It wasn't much longer after that when they called our name for us to get a seat. 

They took us to a corner table in the far back of the dining area which afforded us great views of the bayou out back of Uncle Bubba's.  We were both given a menu and we took a quick look at everything they had to offer.  And it was a lot. 

The first thing that pops out at you are the appetizers which features Uncle Bubba's signature char-grilled oysters.  They take oysters and grill them half-shell side down until they're cooked through, then topped with cheese, butter and garlic.  We'd never had anything like that before, we've always just ordered raw oysters on the half-shell.  But Cindy wanted to try the char-grilled oysters, so we ordered up a half-dozen.   For good measure, I also ordered a half-dozen of the raw oysters on the half-shell. 

The waiter, a young kid who was pretty personable (almost too personable as he seemed to be carrying on long conversations at his tables when his other customers needed refills or something taken care of), also told us of a special that evening - their "Catch of the Day."  It was a fresh Shawhee fish, grilled and served with cole slaw and Savannah red rice.  (Now, I don't know if Shawhee is the name of the fish or not - I asked him what it was called again and he said, "Shawhee.")  He said it was a light fish not unlike a North Atlantic cod, but was caught in the local waters.  Cindy thought that sounded good and ordered that.  

I went with a pound of the peel and eat boiled shrimp.  And for good measure, I thought I'd try a cup of Uncle Bubba's gumbo.  

Not long after we ordered our food, the char-grilled and raw oysters came to the table.  From the first bite of the char-grilled oysters, we were in heaven.  I finished two and when our waiter brought my cup of gumbo to the table, I said, "We need another half-dozen of these.  Can we just get charged the dozen price versus the half-dozen price?"  ($12.99 versus $7.99.)  

He said, "Absolutely, sir!"  I liked the waiter.  He was a good kid.  

While the char-grilled oysters were out of this world, the raw oysters were some of the best I'd ever had.  When the waiter came back with the second half-dozen char-grilled oysters, I asked him if these were local oysters.  He said, "No, sir.  These are from Louisiana.  We get 'em flown in fresh, sometimes on the same day they're brought into port."

Well, I don't know if he was bullshitting me or what.  But all I knew is that they were big, meaty and flavorful.  

And I also have to say that Uncle Bubba's gumbo was top-notch.  It had large chunks of shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage in a very spicy tomato-based broth.  I should have gotten a bowl of the gumbo, but I was ready to dive into the shrimp.

The boiled shrimp and Cindy's fish showed up at the table soon after that.  Cindy's grilled fish was light and flaky, and it didn't have a fishy taste to it.  She was happy about that.  She said, "This is truly fresh."  She declared the cole slaw at Uncle Bubba's as "OK" and she liked the Savannah red rice, which is really nothing more than a southern style red rice recipe consisting of a tomato base, with bacon bits, onions, green peppers and some seasoning mixed in. 

How was my shrimp?  I was in heaven.  The shrimp was lightly seasoned with some cajun spices and they were big and meaty.  I hungrily devoured a pound of the shrimp and seriously thought about getting another half-pound to satiate my appetite for a seafood overload.  But I didn't.  And I'm glad I didn't.  I wouldn't have had room for Uncle Bubba's famous Key Lime Pie.  

It was well past the 9 p.m. closing time when the waiter asked if we wanted to try the Key Lime Pie.  I said, "Well, if you're trying to get out of here..."

He said, "Oh, no.  I'll be here for awhile.  Do y'all want one piece or two?"

Cindy said, "Bring us one piece and a couple forks."  She laughed and said, "If it's as good as you say it is, we may just have to get a second piece."  

About three minutes later, he brought out the piece of Key Lime Pie.  It was - in a word - outstanding.  Some of the Best Key Lime pie I'd ever eaten.  And it was SOOOOO rich!  Oh, my God, was it rich!  But it was just unbelievable.  We found the recipe for it on line.  You can click here to get it.  It's very similar to the Key Lime Pie I make, except they make the pie shell from scratch and use a LOT of butter in doing so.  But we've found that Paula Deen uses a ton of butter in everything.    

After dinner we walked around the outside area looking at the bayou and the covered outdoor seating area.  We took a look at a number of the old Hiers/Deen family pictures along the wall and then decided to head back to the hotel.  Cindy suddenly realized that she had forgotten her jacket at the table.  She went back and it was gone.  She went to the hostess stand at the front of the restaurant and asked if anyone had turned in a jacket.  The girl went to look and she came back and said, "No, ma'am.  I'm sorry." 

Cindy was disgusted.  "Why in the hell would anyone steal a jacket in a place like this," she asked to no one in particular. 

And almost as soon as she said that, our waiter came in from the outside, carrying her jacket.  He said, "Oh, THERE y'all are!  I thought you guys left already.  You left this at the table and I was out in the parking lot looking for y'all."  

And he handed a somewhat embarrassed Cindy her jacket.

I was worried that Uncle Bubba's was kind of an over-rated, touristy restaurant.  But I have to say the food was great, the service was very good (even though the guy did dawdle at tables a little too long), and the people were helpful and friendly.  It was a little expensive (over $100 bucks with a tip), but, hey!  We're on vacation!  It was a great first meal on our first night in Savannah.  And we even saw a 4 foot long alligator on our way back into Savannah!  We were truly in the South.

(Update - April 2014.  Paula Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, abruptly closed Uncle Bubba's citing an opportunity to develop the waterfront property.  However, Uncle Bubba's was the center of a sexual harrassment suit that led to allegations of racial discrimination against Deen and her brother which, in turn, started to crumble Deen's empire.  A spokesperson for Deen declined comment when asked if the lawsuit was tied to the restaurant's closing.  It was reported that Deen did not tell the employees before the closing of the restaurant and that severance checks were handed out to restaurant staff in the parking lot when they arrived for work on April 3.)

 

Six Pence Pub - Savannah, GA

We got into Savannah on a sultry Sunday afternoon around 1:30 p.m.  After getting our bags and our rental car, we got to our hotel - the Hilton DeSoto - about 2:15.  We went to check in and our room wasn't ready at that time.  The girl at the desk said it wouldn't be long and they could store our luggage if we wanted to come back in about an hour.

Cindy was getting kind of hungry and we asked if there was any place around to get something to eat.  The girl at the front desk said, "We have a restaurant here." 

 

I said, "Yeah, but we're probably going to be eating there while we're here.  Any place close where we can get a sandwich and a beer?"

She immediately said, "Oh, yes.  Just right over there (pointing over her shoulder to the northwest) is a great little English pub."   We went back out the front door and almost caddy-cornered from the hotel was a little pub called the Six Pence Pub (see map).   The place offered outdoor seating, but the tables were full.  We went inside and waited for the hostess to come and seat us. 

We were seated at a small table just off the bar area.  The place was about half full and they had the Indianapolis 500 on the television at the bar.  A few people were watching the race, but mostly they were in conversation with one another over a cold beer. 

The Six Pence Pub in Savannah is one of a family of three Six Pence Pubs in the Southeast.  There is one in the Charlotte area at Fort Mill, SC, and one in Blowing Rock, NC.  The menu is typical of what you'd find in an authentic English pub.  They had the usual "Bangers and Mash", Fish and Chips, and Shepherd's Pie.  They also had a series of burgers, sandwiches, soups and salads to choose from.  

And just as nearby Chippewa Square was featured prominently in the movie Forrest Gump, It turns out the Six Pence Pub was featured in a major scene from the 1995 Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid  movie Something to Talk About.  The front window of the Six Pence Pub was where Julia Roberts' character saw her husband, played by Quaid, with another woman and a confrontation took place on the street across from the Six Pence Pub.  I don't know if I've ever seen that movie, or if I did, I don't remember it. 

I wasn't overly hungry after having a big breakfast at the Milwaukee airport, but Cindy has to have three square meals a day or she can't function.  When our waitress showed up to ask us what we wanted, I just ordered a Smithwick's.  Cindy asked, "What kind of pale ale's do you have?"

I said to the waitress, "You probably have Bass, don't you?"

She said, "We do, yes."

Cindy said, "Bass is a little too heavy for me."

The waitress said, "We have a local beer out of Atlanta called Sweetwater 420.  That's a good pale ale." 

Cindy said she'd take that.

The decor in the Six Pence Pub features a lot of dark wood paneling along with an antique tin ceiling.  There are faux antique ceiling fans and lights hanging from the tin.  The main dining room was long and narrow, making for a cozy environment. 

As I said, I wasn't overly hungry so I went with the Tuna Salad salad - generous portions of tuna salad over a bed of lettuce.  You got your choice of dressing and I went with a basic vinegar and oil dressing combo.  Cindy also had tuna salad, only this was a sandwich.  She also got a cup of Six Pence Pub's Manhattan clam chowder. 

Cindy told me, "Take a drink of this beer."  I took a drink and deemed it to be "not too bad."  Actually, it was pretty good. 

I said, "What was the name of that beer?"

Cindy said, "I don't remember, but we need to find out."

When I finished my Smithwick's before our lunch came, I asked the waitress, "What is the beer my wife is having?"

She said, "Sweetwater 420.  It's a microbrew out of Atlanta." 

I said, "I want one of those."  It was very good.  It reminded me more of a good west coast pale ale, like a Sierra Nevada, and it was very good for a warm summer-like afternoon.

Our food came out and I have to say the portion of tuna salad and lettuce leaves were perfect.  It wasn't a lot of food, but enough to put something in my stomach.  We didn't have much of an idea where or even when we would eat that evening, so getting something in the gut before dinner was probably pretty smart. 

Cindy's tuna sandwich and Manhattan clam chowder was pronounced as "good".  She said, "This was all I needed."  Once Cindy gets to fading and needs food, she can be impossible to be around.  This kept her happy and good-to-go for the time being. 

The Six Pence Pub was a cool place.  I thought of my neighbor, George, because he's big on old English and Irish pubs.  I kept thinking that he would have loved this place.  I knew we probably wouldn't be spending much time in bars during our trip to Savannah - there was going to be too much to do and see.  But given the close proximity to our hotel, I knew we'd be back for a cold beer.  The funny thing was, we never did.  We found there were a number of good English and Irish pubs in and around the Savannah area for us to visit.  But for our first meal in Savannah, we certainly weren't disappointed with the Six Pence Pub.

The Tornado Steak House - Madison, WI

During my convalescing from my hip replacement surgeries, our company signed a deal with American TV in Madison, WI to carry some Focal and Cambridge Audio products in their 15 stores. My colleague, John Bevier, who had a previous relationship with American TV's new buyer, Gary Lahmers, when Gary was one of the senior buyers for the now-defunct Tweeter stores, got the ball rolling and we got some products placed in their main store in Madison. John made plans to go to Madison to do some training and I thought that since I was going to be the ones calling on all the stores, I'd better go up and participate in the training, as well. This was the first long trip for me, even before I got my "official" release from my doctor.

On my way to Madison, I was in contact with John who said that Gary wanted to go out to dinner that evening with us. John, who was in a layover in Detroit, said that he didn't know where Gary wanted to go, but said he'd call me as soon as he found out after he landed in Madison. Along about 7:30 p.m., John called me and said, "Well, Gary also has a couple of other guys with him. And we're meeting at some place called the Tornado Steak House in downtown Madison." Well, I'd been coming to Madison for years and I'd never heard of the place before. But knowing Gary Lahmers' penchant for fine food, I'm sure it had to be good. I punched up OnStar and had them direct me to the Tornado Steak House.

I pulled up in front of the Tornado Steak House, just southwest of the Capitol Square in downtown Madison (see map). John was standing out front, talking on his phone to his wife while waiting for me to show up. John hadn't seen me since January of this year and I'd lost 45 pounds since then. He was absolutely blown away when he saw me. He said, "You are such a skinny son-of-a-bitch!" Obviously, I'm still not skinny, but 45 pounds lost is beginning to be noticeable.

We went inside the Tornado and looked around for Gary and the other guys that were there with him. The Tornado has a large bar area in the back - which was packed; and a pretty good sized dining area with dark lighting, white linen tablecloths and knotty pine hardwood walls. It was the quintessential Midwestern steak house.

We found Gary and the two other guys - Dan and Adrian from Sonos, a company that makes wireless whole-house solutions - at a big table in what would be the front corner of the dining room. The waitress handed us our menus and asked if we'd like something to drink. We all decided that wine was going to be the drink of choice, so Gary picked out an Oren Swift Papillon red blend to try.

Steak is the king at the Tornado and their signature steak is a 20 oz. bone-in tenderloin. They also have a 28 oz. ribeye on the bone, as well. But they also have just regular tenderloins, a strip steak and a t-bone steak on the menu. They also had a special that evening - a 10 oz. grass-fed tenderloin filet topped with a creamy peppercorn au poivre sauce, placed in a bed of grilled mushrooms. In addition to steak, the Tornado has seafood including salmon, walleye and Alaskan king crab; and they also have an interesting mix of wild game such as duck breast, a venison filet and rabbit.

And the Tornado is also known for their appetizers which include frog legs, Oysters Rockefeller, and something called the Seafood Tower that features fresh chilled seafood on a layered server. The Tornado also features an appetizer that I don't see very often in the states - Coquille Saint Jacques. I had Coquille (Co-KEEL) Saint Jacque on my first trip to Montreal in 2002. It consists of poached scallops or shrimp in a white wine sauce, then placed in a dish with a cream sauce and covered with a layer of mashed potatoes, then broiled quickly in the oven. Oh, it's very good, but - OH! - so filling.

We decided against getting appetizers because the steaks were so big. I knew I couldn't go for the 20 oz. bone-in filet, that would be too much food. So I went with the 10 oz special filet they had that evening. Gary said they had a tendency to under cook the steaks at the Tornado, but I still went ahead and ordered mine medium-rare. If they're going to err on one side or the other, I'd rather have them under cook the steak.

Gary and Adrian went with the bone-in tenderloin filet, while John also got the 10 oz special grass-fed filet. Dan ordered up the 16 oz. New York Strip. You get your choice of sides such as either a baked potato, hash browns or steak fries; or you can order asparagus, brussel sprouts or green beans. I went with asparagus. A dinner salad with balsamic vinaigrette comes with the meal.

I found the wine to be a little heavy, yet sort of flat and lifeless. And being the wine-head that he is, Gary, obviously, felt so, too. He determined the wine was probably too young to drink and asked the waitress to see the wine list again so he could get something else. The second wine he ordered, which I can't remember what it was, was much better than the Oren Swift blend.

The conversation while we had our salad was wide and varied. It turned out that Dan and I had probably met before as he had been an audio-video industry veteran for a number of years. We knew a lot of the same people and we exchanged stories about some of the more notorious people we'd worked with over the years. And getting together with the guys from Sonos also opened a door to some merchandising ideas where we could team Focal speakers with their little kiosk displays.

Our steaks came out and my special grass-fed filet with the au poivre sauce appeared in front of me. It was fabulous looking and I couldn't wait to get a fork and knife into it. Now, grass-fed beef is making a big comeback in some Midwestern restaurants. It's generally sort of tough, but this piece of meat was very tender and the au poivre sauce was a great complement to the taste. And Gary was right - the medium-rare was more rare than medium. I didn't mind it a bit.

But the hit at the table were the Tornado's signature 20 oz bone-in filet. Adrian, who hails from Massachusetts, was floored when the waitress set his steak down in front of him. Here's a picture - albeit somewhat blurry - that Adrian took on his cell phone of his steak. It was truly a large hunk of meat. While a lot of the 20 oz. listed is in the bone, there's a lot of meat to eat. Adrian was able to eat the whole thing. He said, "We just don't get good steaks like this back home."

Although the waitress tempted me with dessert, I passed on the last course. A couple of the guys did order up a couple things - a decadent chocolate cake dessert and a cheesecake covered in raspberries. I just sat back, let my steak digest and finished up the wonderful wine in my glass.

John and Dan split the check 50-50 so both companies weren't saddled with a $400 plus bill with tax. I thought it to be a little high priced for Madison, but it was still very good.

For as many times that I've been to Madison, I still find that I'm rather in the dark when it comes to some of the more fine dining establishments the town has to offer - especially downtown. I learned on this trip, however, that there is more than one very good steak house in downtown Madison. And the Tornado Steak House is one of them. I'm looking forward to going back and trying a couple more of them out with Gary in future trips to Madison.

The Faithful Pilot Cafe - Le Claire, IA

Cindy and I recently celebrated our 14th anniversary with a meal at a place that we hadn't been to in quite some time, The Faithful Pilot Cafe in picturesque Le Claire, IA, just up the Mississippi River from Davenport (see map).  Actually, I wanted to go there for my birthday in April, but Cindy sort of way-laid those plans when she organized a small surprise gathering.  I was sort of upset we couldn't go to The Faithful Pilot that evening, but I was darn well set that we were going out there on our anniversary.

It had been a number of years since we were last at The Faithful Pilot.  I don't know how long it had been, but it had been too long.  The Faithful Pilot has been in business since 1991 when Steve and Nancy Rosetti first opened their doors.  The Rosetti's strive to have some unique menu items, ones that are made fresh each day and with local ingredients when they can find them.  Executive chef Robert Cook also contributes to some of the more interesting items on the daily menu.  In addition to dinner served each evening, The Faithful Pilot also has a wonderful Sunday brunch they serve between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.  

  The Faithful Pilot has garnered a number of great reviews over the years and was voted as both the Best Restaurant and Best Fine Dining Restaurant in the Quad Cities for 2009 by readers of the River Cities Reader.  My buddy, Shawn Eldridge, who works at the Reader, definitely knows good food and he and I were talking about The Faithful Pilot one evening before we went there.  He and his girlfriend, Kasey, just love the place. 

The Rosetti's are also noted wine connoisseurs and own the Rosetti Wine Shop, which is sort of part of The Faithful Pilot.  While there really isn't a retail store on the premises, the Rosetti's will deliver wine in the Quad City area, or you can make arrangements to pick up pre-ordered wine at the restaurant.  The Rosetti's also host a number of wine tasting events at The Faithful Pilot where they pair wines with different courses of a meal.  We've talked about doing that sometime. 

It was a beautiful May evening when Cindy and I drove out to The Faithful Pilot.  The restaurant is small and cozy with a number of old menus from famous restaurants on the walls, along with a number of paintings and other artwork.  There's two dining areas - a front area as you walk in, and a back area that consists of seven booths and a small bar.  We took a booth in the back area that afforded us a look out toward the Mississippi River. 

Since it was our anniversary (Number 14), I wanted to do it up right.  We both figured that we'd get seafood, so I took a gander at the wine list to see what kind of interesting white wines the Rosetti's had to choose from.  After looking through the wine menu for a moment, one that caught my eye was the La Crema Chardonnay, a little winery from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County in California.  Most of the wines we've ever had from the Russian River Valley have been excellent.  I'd never had the La Crema before, so I took a chance.  It was light, yet with a complex fruity aroma and taste.  It would go extremely well with our seafood.

For our main entrees, Cindy ordered the grilled salmon served on a bed of olive oil-infused mashed potatoes with sauteed spinach and an anchovy-rosemary cream sauce.  She also ordered a mixed green salad with The Faithful Pilot's homemade creamy garlic dressing.  I, on the other hand, was sort of torn as what to get.   

Although I initially wanted fish, I was torn between the grilled Iowa pork chop served with fingerling potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and fried sage leaves.  I hadn't had pork for a long time and that sounded great.  What also sounded great was the grilled sirloin in a smoked gouda cheese sauce, also served with fingerling potatoes and a medley of fresh vegetables they'd acquired at a local farmer's market. 

But, still being on the diet I went with the swordfish that is first marinated in citrus juice, then grilled medium-rare.  It was laid on a bed of finely mashed cauliflower and served with five asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto.   It sounded wonderful.  I also got a salad, however I had mine with the creamy Maytag Blue Cheese dressing that's made in house. 

Cindy's garlic dressing was unbelievably strong.  I had to have a bite of it just to be able to stand to be around her later that evening.  But the creamy Maytag Blue Cheese dressing was excellent, as well.  Sometimes the blue cheese can be a little overpowering, but the dressing was far from that. 

Not long after we finished up our salads, our entrees showed up at the table.  Cindy's salmon filet wasn't all that big, but it was adequate.  She said, "This is the perfect size.  Any larger and I don't know if I could finish it."

And my swordfish filet was a little bigger and a little more thick.  While I've had tuna medium-rare before, I'd never had swordfish cooked that way.  Sometimes if the fish isn't all the fresh, you get sort of a fishy taste to it.  Well, I certainly didn't get that with my swordfish at The Faithful Pilot.  It was very good and had a great taste to it. 

Our waitress that evening was on top of the ball, skillfully maneuvering between a couple other booths and our table.  She made sure that our wine glasses weren't too low and she was making sure that we were fully taken care of. 

Our food reminded us of why we used to go to The Faithful Pilot on a regular basis a number of years ago.  Cindy said, "It's been too long for us since we've been here and we've forgotten how good this is."  She couldn't have said it any better. 

After we finished our dinner, our waitress was clearing our plates.  She said, "Did you save room for dessert?"   She rattled off a couple three things before Cindy stopped her when she mentioned the tiramisu.  Cindy said, "Is the tiramisu homemade?"

The waitress said, "It's made fresh every day."

Cindy glanced at me and said, "We'll take that and bring a couple forks." 

I've turned into somewhat of a tiramisu snob over the years.  I can usually tell the good ones from the bad ones just by looking at what they've brought me.  Actually, it's been one of the toughest things to give up during my diet.  But it had been quite some time since I'd had a piece of tiramisu that I thought one piece wouldn't hurt me. 

And, once again, I'm glad Cindy had the waitress bring one out to us.  It was delicious.  It was moist, but not soggy.  It had a nice little coffee flavor, but wasn't overpowering.  I said to Cindy, "This is homemade?  This rivals anything I've ever had even in great Italian restaurants."   It was very, very good.

All in all, our anniversary dinner at The Faithful Pilot was an absolute hit.  We were full, but not gorged.  The food was excellent, the service was wonderful and the wine was outstanding.  The Faithful Pilot isn't cheap, but for a special occasion or for a birthday dinner it's highly recommended.  It's a little bit of a drive to Le Claire from anywhere, but The Faithful Pilot is worth it.  And we hope it won't be quite so long before we make a return trip to the restaurant.