Road Tips

The Charcoal Grill - New Berlin, WI

The Charcoal Grill and Rotisserie is a nine location chain restaurant that specializes in cooking food in ovens and on grills over charcoal.  They also have a presence at the annual Summerfest music festival, as well as at the Wisconsin State Fair.  The restaurant specializes in burgers, ribs, rotisserie chicken, steaks, some seafood and a number of sandwiches.  Surprisingly, they also do a pretty good pizza at The Charcoal Grill.  I was in Milwaukee a few weeks ago and decided to give The Charcoal Grill in suburban New Berlin a try (see map).

The origins of The Charcoal Grill go back to the early 90's in Racine.  Dr. Constantine George, a local orthopedic surgeon, owned a restaurant in Racine that wasn't doing well.  He brought in a friend of his son, Jeff Marsh, to try and turn things around.  Marsh, who had a degree in hotel and restaurant management, took over the restaurant but was sort of floundering until one day he came up with a concept to change the restaurant into one that featured food that was cooked over charcoal.  "It seemed like everyone in Racine had a Weber Grill," Marsh explained.  To him, it seemed like a natural fit to transform the restaurant into a new concept.

Marsh turned the restaurant into the Charcoal Grill restaurant in 1993.  The concept immediately took off and a year later a second Charcoal Grill restaurant was opened in Kenosha.  In 1995, Marsh's longtime friend, and the son of Dr. George, Paul George, came into the company.  Paul George was developing a chain of vision clinics across the state of Wisconsin and took over the George family's stake in the company with the death of Dr. George in 1996.  In addition to running Wisconsin Vision, Paul George is the CEO of Char Grill, Inc., with Jeff Marsh serving as President.   

The New Berlin location has been a Charcoal Grill since 2003.  In 2000, Char Grill, Inc. purchased what was the old Zarder's restaurant at that location and turned it into a new fine dining concept, Timber Creek Grille.  The menu was categorized as "creative American cuisine" and featured wild game such as elk, buffalo, game birds and fish.   The restaurant never caught on and it was subsequently transformed into a Charcoal Grill after three years.  The New Berlin location also features a large banquet and catering facility. 

Actually, when I went to Charcoal Grill that evening, I wasn't looking to get a pizza.  I'd had their burgers before at Summerfest and they were "OK".  I sort of like Major Goolsby's chargrilled burgers at Summerfest better.  At the Charcoal Grill restaurant, they have a "fixin's bar" for the 14 burgers they feature on their menu where you can customize your toppings on your burger.  It was tempting, but I decided to look through the full menu before making up my mind. 

The ribs looked interesting, and I thought a nice rib-eye steak cooked over charcoal would be good, but my mind kept wandering back to the pizzasthey had on the menu.  While they called their pizza "woodstone" pizza, I'm guessing they were cooked over charcoal in a stone oven. 

I was seated at the bar in what was a large bar area that had a number of televisions on the walls and behind the bar.  I asked the very busy bartender (he and a waitress were the only ones working in the somewhat crowded bar and outdoor patio area) about the pizza.  He said, "You know, I only work here a couple nights a week through the week.  I've had the pizza a couple times here and it's good.  Actually, surprisingly good.  I like the Spicy Thai Chicken pizza."

Well, I wasn't going to get the Spicy Thai Chicken pizza, that's for sure.  Although they did have a number of eclectic pizzas, I decided to go with my reference Italian Sausage, Pepperoni and Mushroom in their 8" small size.  I also got a small house salad to tide me over until the pizza came out.  

I had just finished my salad when the bartender brought the pizza to the table.  From my first bite, I was surprised - pleasantly surprised.  The toppings were plentiful, they had the big chunks of sausage on the pizza just as I like.  And the crust was light, thin and crispy, but not burnt.   The sauce was tangy, but not too sweet like you can get sometimes on some pizzas.  The bartender came back a little later and said, "So, what do you think?"

I said, "Like you say.  Surprisingly, it's very good!"

He said, "Isn't it?  I wouldn't think that a place like this would have good pizza."  He told me that he was partial to their burgers, as well.  I told him I'd have to come back and try one at some point.  

While the name The Charcoal Grill doesn't conjure up a pizza place in one's mind, I have to say the restaurant acquitted itself very well with their pizza.  I can't really comment on the other things on their menu - especially since I've only had one or two of their burgers at Summerfest in the past.  But the rest of the food must be pretty good or they wouldn't have nine locations and been in business for over 16 years.  I'm going to try the burger the next time I'm in. 

(Update - I have gone back to various Charcoal Grill locations in SE Wisconsin to try a burger.  Read about one of those visits here.)  

(Update II - This Charcoal Grill location is now closed, but the others remain open.)

Smiling Buddha - Schaumburg, IL

 

A shout out to my buddy, Tony Jobe, who casually mentioned on his Facebook page one day earlier this summer that he really missed Smiling Buddha in Schaumburg, IL for Chinese food.  I quizzed him on it and he told me that he didn't live too far away from the place at one point and that he used to go there quite a bit.  "It's about as authentic of a Chinese restaurant you can find," he told me.  During a trip to Chicago a few weeks ago, I made it a point to find Smiling Buddha and give it a try. 

Originally opened in 1977, Smiling Buddha is a little tough to find (see map), nestled off of Golf Ave. and back off of Valley Lake Drive in a small shopping complex.  It looks like it could have been an old fast food restaurant or an old pancake house that they transformed into a Mandarin/Szechuan restaurant.  It's definitely nothing fancy on the inside as far as their decor is concerned, but it was comfortable enough to make the dining experience pleasurable. 

There weren't many people in the restaurant when I went there one evening.  There are two dining rooms at Smiling Buddha, one on the right as you come in, the other on the left.  I was seated in the room on the left that particular evening.  Unfortunately, there was a local guy sitting near my table pontificating about this and that with some of the people who evidentially worked there.  He was sort of loud and somewhat obnoxious in his observations about local schools, police departments and other topics that he felt were compelling to talk about.   I tried my best to shut him out as I alternately read the menu and a Chicago Tribune.

Tony was right about Smiling Buddha having authentic Chinese food.  Their selection of Mandarin and Szechuan dishes was rather impressive.  It was far from the same old "Beef and Broccoli" that you get at most homogenized Chinese restaurants.  There was something on the menu called General Tso's Chicken that is both sweet and spicy.  That was intriguing, as was their Moo Shu Pork, shredded beef with scrambled egg in a sesame seed oil and topped with mushrooms and a ginger sauce.  Mmmmm....

When my waitress came to my table - a very pleasant young Asian girl - I was torn between three or four items.  I ended up getting the Szechuan beef with mixed vegetables.  I also ordered up a couple of egg rolls and a Tsing Tao beer.  She took the order and in moments my beer was on the table in front of me. 

It wasn't long after that two very large egg rolls came to the table.  They were - by far - the largest egg rolls I've ever had in my life.  It was almost a meal in itself.  Unfortunately, the egg rolls were also way over-cooked.  The cabbage was mushy, the beef was dry and the shell was too crunchy.  It was a big disappointment.  I only finished one, not only because it wasn't very good, but because I wouldn't have been hungry for my Szechuan beef when it came out. 

My waitress brought out the Szechuan beef, a large plate of spicy beef with assorted veggies topped with a wonderful brown sauce that featured hot peppers and peppercorns.  From the first bite, I could tell this was no ordinary Chinese restaurant.  The peppercorn sauce left sort of a smokey flavor in my mouth.  I couldn't really tell if I liked it or not, it was just different.  It was a sort of pleasant shock to the taste buds.  The beef was tender and tasty, the veggies were far from over-cooked and the hot peppers also had a spicy and smokey taste to them.  All in all, it was very good.  Very authentic, that's for sure.  It was nothing like I'd had before in Chinese food. 

A couple days later, I sort of remembered the smokey taste sensation I'd had at Smiling Buddha.  It lingered in my mind for a few days after.  I'd never had a taste like that where it was pleasantly different.  Sure, it was kind of a burnt taste, but not a displeasing burnt taste.  It was something I suddenly craved. 

Smiling Buddha was everything Tony told it would be.  It is definitely on my list of places to go back to when I'm in the Chicagoland area and I have a hankering for very good - and very authentic - Chinese food.

(Update - A dealer of mine in the NW suburbs told me that Smiling Buddha was one of his favorite places to eat, but unfortunately it had closed.)

Nick and Jake's - Overland Park, KS

Unfortunately, I had a very good dealer of mine in suburban Kansas City - Accent Sound - close their doors after over 40 years of business.  The last three years of their existence was at a location that was near the very busy intersection at 135th and Metcalf in Overland Park.  The owner, Herb Mooney, had just turned 75 and decided to close the doors as he had no one that was in his family that would take over the business.  I worked many dealer events there and also conducted a number of meetings late in the day.  One of the reasons that I tried to be there late in the day was to take the sales staff across the parking lot to Nick and Jake's, a combination sports bar and steak house.

Kevin Timmons and Doug Watkins worked at separate restaurants in the Atlanta area.  Watkins was the manager of a theme restaurant, while Timmons was the manager of a steak house.  Timmons' restaurant closed earlier in the evening than the one that Watkins worked at, so Timmons would sometimes go to Watkins place to have a drink or two at the bar.  It turned out that both had an idea for a restaurant - a steak house and an upscale sports bar - so they decided they could combine the two into a unique concept.

Watkins was a native of Kansas City and they decided to move back to the K.C. area to open their new restaurant.   They named the restaurant after their respective sons - Nick and Jake.   They opened the doors in Overland Park in 2001 (see map).  A second location was opened in north suburban Parkville in 2004 (see map).  Timmons and Watkins brought in a third investor - Bill Oliver - to help run that location.

Watkins and Timmons also own and manage Wil Jenny's next to Nick and Jake's.  The name for the restaurant is taken from their two other children.  Wil Jenny's is described as an authentic Texas Hill Country restaurant that features steaks, barbecue and Tex-Mex specialties, food that Timmons was raised on in his native Texas.  I need to try that place out at some point.

The sports bar side of Nick and Jake's is state of the art with big screen televisions - nearly 30 of them - throughout the bar area.  The steak house side of Nick and Jake's is elegant with lots of wood paneling and subdued lighting, along with large booths and tables.  A couple of smaller rooms for private dining are available, as well.   Throughout the restaurant are a number of vintage black and white photos of the Kansas City area that Watkins has collected over the years.  I love to look at old photos like that and it adds a somewhat charmed angle to the restaurants.

I've been to Nick and Jake's on a number of occasions with the crew from Accent Sound, as well as with other colleagues in the industry.  About the only downfall the place has is that it can get rather loud at times, especially in the sports bar area.  It's a very popular place for people to gather in the Overland Park area.

The menu at Nick and Jake's is wide and varied.  I have to admit that I've eaten there a number of times and have tried many things on the menu.  They have great appetizers on the menu from their barbecued citrus shrimp to their chile crusted Ahi tuna.  Their Kansas City steak soup is absolutely fabulous.  And I really like their Italian Chop Salad, a generous portion of greens topped with chicken, pepperoni and salami, along with blue cheese crumbles, parmesan and a Tuscan vinaigrette.  It's more than enough food for one sitting.

Mama's Meatloaf is one of the better items on their specialty menu.  It's a large chunk of meatloaf with a ketchup top crust served with whipped potatoes and brown gravy.  It's a down home meal that I've had a couple times when I've needed to have a little comfort food.  Their steaks are always good - I'm especially fond of the Cowboy Chop which is a large bone-in ribeye steak.  Nick and Jake's jambalaya is above average, and their Pasta Limon with chicken and shrimp in a roasted garlic lemon butter sauce rivals some dishes I've had at stellar Italian restaurants.

Nick and Jake's also offer a number of side dishes with their meals.  One of the more interesting ones is one of my favorites, the Jalapeno/Cheddar grits - Southern style grits with chunks of jalapenos mixed in and cheddar cheese added.  It has a nice kick to it and is almost addictive.

Other than it can get to be a little loud at times, the only other minor bitch is that the beer menu is a little short.  It offers a number of the normal beers you'd find, as well as some of the local Boulevard beers on tap.  But that's about it.  However, Boulevard Pale Ale is one of my favorite beers, so that's not that big of a deal for me. 

The service at Nick and Jake's is always good.  I've never had a bad meal in the place and I've spent a number of long evenings with the good people from Accent Sound talking about this and that over a great meal and a number of drinks.  The atmosphere is comfortable and non-pretentious.  It's an elegant eatery with a casual style.  And the sports bar rivals any sports bar that you find across the Kansas City area.

It's too bad that I no longer have a dealer just across the parking lot from Nick and Jake's.  I did put on a new dealer about five miles north of the old Accent Sound location, so I'll continue to be in the area.  But I'm afraid I won't be going to Nick and Jake's as much as I used to.

Joe's O.K. Bayou - Louisville

It's a treat to find authentic Cajun food when I travel and while I was in Louisville recently I came across Joe's OK Bayou.  I truly love Cajun food and I wanted the whole Cajun experience, so I decided to try a little bit of everything at Joe's when I was in there recently. 

Joe's OK Bayou was started 14 years ago by Joe Wheatley, a native of Morganfield, KY.  Wheatley attended the University of Kentucky and worked for a small Cajun food restaurant in Lexington.  When his parents would visit, they would always go to the Cajun restaurant to eat.  Wheatley's parents, Malcolm and Leslie, became well acquainted with the owners of the Cajun restaurant, learning some of the recipes the owners brought with them from Louisiana years before.  In 1993, the Wheatley's opened their own Cajun/Seafood restaurant in Henderson, KY, on the Ohio River just south of Evansville, IN. 

In 1995, Joe Wheatley opened his first Joe's OK Bayou in Louisville.  He featured a full Cajun menu and decorated his small restaurant like an authentic Cajun shrimp shack.  As things were getting going for Joe in Louisville, his parents sold their restaurant in Henderson and opened a new restaurant - the Feed Mill Restaurant - in their hometown of Morganfield, KY, just south of where Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana all come together at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers.  The Feed Mill featured a more diverse menu including steaks, chops and barbecue in addition to the Cajun specialties the Wheatleys were becoming famous for.

As Joe's OK Bayou grew in business, Joe Wheatley added on to the original location in Louisville.  In 2005, he added a Joe's OK Bayou in Lexington, KY; and a year later he opened a third location across the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN. 

The original location was not far from the hotel that I stayed at during my trip to Louisville.  In fact, Joe's OK Bayou is located in the same little shopping complex that Perfetto Pizza resides (see map).  I was rather surprised to realize that both places were so close together.   The Colonial-style exterior of Joe's gave way to an interior that resembled a restaurant that you'd find in the heart of the Louisiana bayou. 

There are two parts of Joe's OK Bayou - the front dining area that has a nice bar that was packed with people, and a rear seating area that was much larger than the front.  I'm guessing that was the expanded part of the restaurant.  I sat at a table in the front part of the restaurant and was given a menu by the waitress.  I also ordered up an Abita Amber, a wonderful beer from Louisiana they had on tap. 

As I said, I really wanted to try a little of everything.  And they had it all on the menu.  Shrimp, gumbo, crawfish, oysters on the half-shell, all types and different Cajun dishes.  My head was spinning trying to grasp what I could get.  They had softshell crabs, gator tail and crawfish etoufee on the menu.  I couldn't figure out what I really wanted to get.

One of the specials they had that evening at Joe's was oysters on the half-shell.  I ordered up six of those while I looked over the full menu.  When they were brought out to me, I was surprised to see six of the meatiest and fresh oysters this side of any seaside town where I've eaten oysters.  They were great.  I was in feverish anticipation of other items they had on the menu.

After I finished off the very good oysters, I got the waitress to come by and explain some items on the menu.  The portions looked huge, especially if you ordered a dinner which came with two sides.  The smallest size of crawfish they had to offer was two pounds.  I asked if they could just send out a pound of crawfish.  She was pretty set in that it had to be two pounds.  All right, I saw that she wasn't going to budge on the negotiations, so I ordered up two pounds of crawfish (there's really not a lot of meat on a crawfish, so two pounds of crawfish is like a quarter pound of meat - if that).  I also ordered up a bowl of gumbo - no cup size was available.  And I ordered up some jambalaya, a small order.  (Many of the items such as gumbo and jambalaya are offered in up to quart-sized "to-go" containers.)

The crawfish was the next to come out.  They were a little fishy tasting and were more than likely frozen crawfish from China, but they still had some meat to them.  The Cajun spices helped them out, but I'd had better crawfish before.  

Next, came the gumbo and the jambalaya.  Both were generous portions of food.  I tried the gumbo and thought it to be OK, nothing special.  I've made better gumbo at home.   Although there were ample amounts of andoullie sausage and chicken in the gumbo, it still didn't have that "pizazz" that I look for - even when I doctored it up with some Tabasco sauce. 

Then I tried the jambalaya.  Ugh!  I'm sorry, but the jambalaya at Joe's tasted like it had been on the stove top for three days, simmering.  It was dry and flavorless, hopelessly overcooked.  Even Tabasco couldn't help the taste of the jambalaya at Joe's.  I was highly disappointed.  

While the meal started out very promising, as it went on it went downhill - and fast.  I was very happy with the service, the waitress was overly attentive and kept checking on me at the appropriate times.  But other than the oysters, the boiled crawfish were average, the gumbo below average and the jambalaya was almost inedible.  I was hoping to get a great meal at Joe's OK Bayou and from all indications they must do some pretty good business.  But if my meal is an indication of the day-to-day food they have at Joe's, the people of Louisville are still not being served very good Cajun food.  

I'm going to have to adopt a new policy in that restaurants that I didn't care for, I may have to give them a try again.  It's obvious from the amount of people that were in the place that evening, along with the longevity of the place, plus they've opened two other locations, that Joe's OK Bayou must be pretty good.  Maybe I did get a bad batch of jambalaya or not the best gumbo they've ever made.  I know some food critics will give a restaurant two or three chances before they declare it to be good or bad.  I just don't have the time to do that since I don't get to Louisville all that often.  But I will try Joe's again just to make sure and I'll let you know. 

(Update - I have been back to Joe's OK Bayou and once again the food was just... OK.  As far as Cajun goes, it's pretty pedestrian.  I'd look for another Cajun place in Louisville - if there is one - before I'd go back to Joe's.) 

Oakland Gyros - Milwaukee

A shout out to Bob and Kasey Kelly who gave me a number of suggestions of places to eat in Milwaukee.  Kasey, who is a Milwaukee native, and Bob came up with a suggestion sheet of places to eat when a number of out-of-towners came to the city for their wedding last May.  Even though I consider myself sort of well-versed with places to eat in Milwaukee, Bob and Kasey's list had a number of places that I'd never heard of before.  One of those places was Oakland Gyros at the corner of Locust and Oakland, near the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (see map).

Oakland Gyros is a favorite late night dining spot for young people who have been out partying earlier in the evening.  Lines form outside after 1 a.m. with people waiting to get in and have a gyro.  The portions that are served are big and the price is very cheap.  The menu features not only gyros, but burgers, beef and chicken shishkabobs, and moussaka - a Greek-style pot pie with lamb and egg plant.   

It wasn't much before noon when I got into Oakland Gyros.  There was a small line at the order counter and it was moving rather quickly.  I ordered up a gyro and a bottle of water.  It wasn't more than a minute later that I had my gyro and water on a platter.  But I didn't have any tzaziki sauce on the platter with the gyros.  I looked over at a counter top and saw a number of squeeze bottles of the stuff.  I was incredulous.  I've never - EVER - been in a Greek restaurant where they didn't charge you for extra tzaziki sauce on top of the little tub of sauce they give you for your gyro.  These guys give you your own 12 oz. squeeze bottle of the stuff!  And I LOVE tzaziki sauce. 

The lunch time crowd was coming in and I was able to find a small booth to sit and have my gyro.  And it was good - the pita bread was light and flavorful, the shaved gyro meat was also tasty.  But the tzaziki sauce was the key to the whole thing.  Before nearly every bite, I would squeeze a little more onto the gyro and chomp into it.

I had eaten about a third of the gyro and I had it sitting in the basket open faced.  I reached for the tzazaki sauce and accidentally knocked over my bottle of water.  Splash!  Right into the basket with the open gyro.  Oh man!  I just sort of folded the gyro up and let the water drip out of it onto the wax paper in the bottom of the basket.  I then took the basket over to the trash can and threw the water-filled paper out.  I then put the now soaked gyro back in the basket.  I considered getting another gyro, but then I thought it would be OK.  The pita bread was now sort of soggy, but the meat, onions and tomatoes were still good.  I just put more tzaziki sauce on it.   

 I can see why Oakland Gyros is one of Kasey Kelly's favorite spots to eat in Milwaukee.  As I said, the portions are huge - one gyro was a full meal in itself; and it was cheap - with a bottle of water, the total cost of the meal was under $6 bucks.  While the place isn't fancy, and the menu is pretty limited to basic Greek food, I thought Oakland Gyros to be a great value with good food.  I'm going to have to go back sometime in the future to get a gyro that I don't soak with water. 

Goodfellas - Carmel, IN

I put on a new dealer in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis recently and we went to have a bite to eat at a restaurant that he was familiar with in Carmel - Goodfella's.  He said their pizza was pretty good and they had a full selection of sandwiches and other Italian foods.  It sounded good to me and we went there for dinner.  

Goodfella's is actually a small chain of eateries that started on Staten Island over 15 years ago.  34-year-old E. Jay Myers was making $40,000 a year working as a regional manager for Estee Lauder.  One Sunday while he and his brother-in-laws, Scott and Marc Cosentino, were standing in line waiting for a Brooklyn pizza joint to open up, Myers decided that it was foolish to come all the way over from Staten Island to get a good pizza.   Myers, a Jewish boy from Albany, NY who knew nothing about pizza (other than he liked it), and who knew nothing about starting a restaurant, began to plan out a pizza parlor that featured people would remember. 

The Cosentino's (Scot was a carpet layer, Marc was an NYC cop) and Myers each ponied up $25,000 - Myers came on a loan from his father, who thought Myers was nuts - and they began to work on their pizzeria each night after they worked their day jobs.  The most important part of the pizzeria was going to be the authentic wood-fired pizza oven, something that wasn't in a lot of pizza places across the city.  They also did their own marketing surveys, asking people at the Staten Island Ferry terminal how much they'd pay for a pizza with fresh ingredients.  In 1993, after reading countless pizza trade magazines and a few books on the art of making a pizza, Myers and the Cosentinos opened their first Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza on Hylan Ave. on Staten Island in what was a former small office space.  It was an immediate hit. 

Within a year the Cosentinos and Myers opened a second location in Brooklyn before expanding their original location on Staten Island, doubling the seating (from 35 to 70) and putting in a second brick oven.  They began offering Goodfella's as a franchise with owners/operators starting in the late 90's.  A third location opened on Staten Island and another opened in Freehold, N.J.  Seven years ago, Mr. Abul Rahman bought a franchise and put it into far away Carmel, IN.  

Salvatore Russo is the head chef for the Goodfella's restaurants and works out of the original location on Staten Island.  Goodfella's has won numerous awards over the years including Best Pizza at the International Pizza Expo in 2001 and 2007.  While Myers left the business in 2007 to run a Bonefish Grill franchise in New Jersey, Marc and Scott Cosentino continue to run the day-to-day operations of Goodfella's.

It was around 7 p.m. when we got into Goodfella's, located in a small strip mall on Hazel Dell Parkway, just north of 131 St. (Main St.) on the east side of Carmel (see map).  The restaurant is partitioned into a dining room and a bar area.  Actually, the dining room was rather nice.  The booth we sat in was nice and roomy.  We were given menus and not long after we were seated a waitress brought out fresh bread and olive oil for dipping. 

My dealer raved about the pizza, which is thin-crusted and topped with many fresh toppings including homemade mozzarella cheeses.  They have a variety of sauces including a vodka tomato sauce that helped give Goodfella's their first Best Pizza awards in 1994 and 1995.  Their Sally Pie - which features lemon garlic chicken and roasted rosemary potatoes with a combination of fresh mozzarella, cheddar cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions, then topped with a cheddar/scallion cream sauce - won the Best Pizza award in 2001.  Their Smokin' Goodfella - which has smoked mozzarella, Italian sausage, roasted pepper sauce, roasted peppers and onions - won the award in 2007. 

In addition to their pizzas, Goodfella's also has a full Italian menu, along with sandwiches, salads and appetizers.  They also have a wood-fired steak and a wood-fired pork chop on the menu.  Goodfella's was far from being a basic pizzeria like it started out to be in their original location in 1993.

While I was in the mood for pizza, something caught my eye - the Goodfella sandwich.  It featured fresh prosciutto, salami, provolone, their homemade mozzarella and topped with oven-roasted red peppers and a cream Italian dressing, then warmed in the brick oven until the Italian bread is nice and crispy on the outside. 

Now, a confession - one thing that I really miss from my youth are the "Hoagies" from Pizza Hut.  The taste of the Italian meats, cheeses and that tangy Italian dressing was to die for when I was in my teens.  Unfortunately, Pizza Hut doesn't offer the hoagie any longer - it would be the only reason why I'd go into a Pizza Hut.  So, anytime anything that resembles a hoagie pops up on a menu, I have to give it a try.  Much to the protestation of my dealer, he said he'd get a small Smokin' Goodfella pizza - old world style with slices of fresh mozzarella -  while I got the sandwich.  The sandwich came with their homemade "house chips", but I asked the waitress if I could get a small dinner salad instead of the chips.  She said there would be a small up-charge, but I didn't care.  She asked, "Would you like some of our homemade mozzarella on the salad?"  How could I say no?

I wasn't half-way through my salad when she showed up with my dealer's pizza.  She said my sandwich was on its way.  There wasn't a lot of people in the restaurant that evening and it doesn't take much time for the pizza to be made in an 800 degree (F) brick oven.  About the time my salad was finished, my sandwich showed up at the table. 

The sandwich was sort large and bready.  It was topped with a lot of meat and cheeses, plus there was the tangy Italian dressing taste to it.  Other than it being a little chewy, it was pretty good.  I've had worse Italian-style sandwiches before. 

My dealer's pizza was interesting.  It actually reminded me of a pizza from Pinocchio's, a wood-fired pizza place in the Illinois Quad Cities.  The sausage was crumbly, not the big chunks that I like.  Still, it smelled pretty good.  But I was happy with my sandwich.

I was back in Indianapolis about three days later and I was out in the Carmel area again for the evening.  I decided to go give Goodfella's pizza a try.  It was around 8:30 p.m. when I got in there and I ordered a 9" personal size Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushroom with grated mozzarella and the regular tomato sauce.  Yeah, I should have tried the Smokin' Goodfella, but I need to have my standard pizza for my first visit.  Well, it wasn't my first visit, but it was my first visit to get a pizza. 

It took about 10 minutes to get my pizza and it was piping hot when it came to the table.  The pizza was OK, nothing great. The crust was light and crisp. But I've definitely had better pizzas.  I just don't like the ground sausage on a pizza.  I've read where some pizza makers prefer to do it that way so you get a taste of sausage in every bite.  I'd rather have the big chunks and the taste sensation the sweet Italian sausage gives off when you bite into it. 

I've already made a mental note to go back to Goodfella's and try a Smokin' Goodfella pizza at some point in the future.  The sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza was OK, but if the Smokin' Goodfella is as good as advertised, it could make up for the tepid reaction I had for a Goodfella's pizza. 

(Update -  Not long after my last visit to Goodfella's, they closed the doors for good.  The Italian hoagie sandwich was good, but the pizza was just all right.  I guess the Indiana translation of the self-acclaimed "Best Pizza in the World" didn't come out as good as the New York edition.)

Red Habanero Grill - Indianapolis, IN

For four years now, Red Habanero Grill in Indianapolis has served up their style of fresh Mexican food in their small northeast side location (see map).  I decided to give Red Habanero Grill a try when I was in Indianapolis earlier this year. 

The concept of Red Habanero Grill is pretty basic.  There is no wait staff service at the restaurant.  The menu is pretty basic.  You order at the counter and they make the tortillas on a hot press right before your eyes.  You then walk down the line of the counter and you choose what you want for fillings for your chimichanga, burrito, quesadilla or fajitas.  It's all made right before your eyes and within minutes of stepping into the restaurant, you have your food and are ready to eat.

The concept is similar to Panchero's, a restaurant chain based out of Iowa City that has over 50 locations in 19 states.  I had a friend from the east coast who used to travel to Iowa City a couple times a year who never missed a chance to eat at Panchero's.  He absolutely loved the huge burritos Panchero's has.  We have one not far from our house in Davenport and it's OK in a pinch for quick Mexican food. 

While both Red Habanero Grill and Panchero's are similar in their concept, Red Habanero Grill offers a selection of homemade salsa and hot sauce for customers to choose from at a "salsa bar".  Their hot sauces begin with a mild sauce that I would categorize as "hot".  It definitely had some steam to the taste, but it was far from over-powering.  They had an XX Habenero sauce that definitely got my attention when I took a little bite of it on a corn chip.  And they had a XXXX Hot Tomatillo sauce that, frankly, I was much too chicken to try. 

The other difference is that Panchero's is pretty much run by Anglo's, Red Habenero Grill has Mexican natives running the restaurant.  There's more of an authentic Mexican feel to Red Habenero Grill than there is to Panchero's. 

It was around 8:30 when I got into Red Habanero Grill.  The restaurant is nestled back into a strip mall right  next to the popular Moon Dog Tavern.  While there is ample parking in front of Red Habanero Grill, it was sort of tough to find a spot due to the crowd at Moon Dog Tavern. 

There was a light crowd inside Red Habanero Grill having a late dinner.  I went to the counter and took a quick look at the menu.  I was torn between the shredded beef burrito and the chimichanga with your choice of meat.  I ended up getting the steak chimichanga which was served with a side of refried beans and rice.  I also got a couple bottles of Sol beer to go along with the meal. 

The chimichanga was made before my eyes - the tortilla was pressed, the steak was added, and then it was folded and their homemade queso sauce was added on the top.  They call this "fresh Mexican", although I'm guessing a lot of the toppings had been sitting in their warming containers for a good portion of the evening. 

Along with some Cholula hot sauce, I doctored up the chimichanga with the "mild" sauce Red Habanero Grill provided at the salsa bar.  All in all, the chimichanga was OK, nothing special.  The steak meat was a little over-cooked due to it sitting on the line for awhile.  But the pieces of steak were small enough that were easy to chew and easy to digest.  And they were flavorful from the grilling process.  It wasn't a total washout of the meal. 

The hot sauce was pretty damn good, though.  I ended up downing my two bottles of Sol and going back for a third.  I didn't touch much of the refried beans or rice, but was able to finish the chimichanga and the basket of chips one of the guys brought out. 

With the three beers, my bill at Red Habanero Grill came to $17 bucks plus with tax.  The food was good.  Not outstanding, but good.  It may be better at peak times when they're switching out the food more often.  I've eaten at a couple three Mexican restaurants in Indianapolis that were much better and more authentic than Red Habanero Grill.  But for a quick Mexican fix that definitely a step above Taco Bell, and is a better alternative than a Chipotle or Qdoba, Red Habenero Grill fits the bill.

Frontera Grill - Chicago

Rick Bayless is a world-renown chef who has taken Mexican food to a gourmet level.  His two Chicago restaurants - Frontera Grill and the adjoining Topolobampo - have been favorites of food critics for years.  Bayless further cemented his rock-star status by winning the Bravo TV network's "Top Chef Master" title earlier this year.  And because of that, both of his restaurants are doing tremendous business.  While Topolobampo takes dinner reservations, Bayless reserves tables at Frontera Grill on a "first-come, first-serve" basis.  On a Saturday night, Frontera Grill's waiting list can run up to 3 hours or more.  Most people would say, "Screw it!", and go to Plan B.  But Cindy and I have eaten at Frontera Grill before and when we went there recently during our trip to Chicago, we happily waited over three hours to have some of Bayless' sensational food.  

(To view a recent Chicago Tribune article on Bayless, click here.)

Frontera Grill specializes in regional Mexican cuisine, something that Bayless studied long before he and his wife, Deann, opened their restaurant in 1987.  Bayless' reputation grew over the years and his little (65 seat) restaurant on N. Clark St. (see map) attracted visitors from all over to sample his ever changing menu.  Each year, Bayless closes down Frontera Grill and "Topolo" and takes his staff to a different region in Mexico to study and taste the different types of food that are offered there locally.  

Bayless is also a marketing machine.  He is host of the television program, now in its 7th season, "Mexico - One Plate at a Time". He has authored five cookbooks - three of which we own.  He has his own line of food products - Frontera Foods.  Plus, he is the head of the Frontera Foundation, a non-profit organization that benefits small organic farms in and around the Chicagoland area.  Through all of this, there are many nights you'll see Bayless in the kitchen helping out his two chefs, Richard James (Frontera Grill) and Brian Enyart (Topolobampo). 

We had a long day in Chicago, walking around the city, taking in the Shedd Aquarium, and just taking it easy.  Cindy wanted to take some time to go over to Nordstrom and do some shopping.  She stayed a little longer than I anticipated.  I wanted to get over to Frontera Grill around 6 p.m., but she didn't get back from Nordstrom until about 6:15.  She needed to tidy up a bit and by the time we were ready to take the short walk from our hotel to Frontera Grill, it was about 6:45. 

The place was predictably packed as we walked up.  The hostess told us it would be a 3 to 3.5 hour wait for dinner.  Cindy asked me, "Do you have a Plan B?"  Nope - Frontera Grill was my only option that evening.  As I said, we ate there once before about seven years ago on Cindy's birthday.  Oh, my God, was the food excellent.  We sat in the bar during that visit for a couple hours and we drank Blue Agave tequila like we were rock stars.  I honestly can't remember what I had that evening, but Cindy had a flank steak that had been marinating in lime juice and chiles for a couple days before being grilled.  The taste sensation was just unbelievable.  Once again, Cindy got the better of the two meals we ordered.  That's not saying mine was bad.  It's just that the chile-lime flank steak eclipsed my memory of exactly what I had. 

We put our name in and proceeded to the bar area.  Well, it was unbelievably packed.  While the bar's capacity says it can hold 30 people, there were, quite possibly, three times the amount of people packed in the bar area.  There was no way I could get to the bar to get a drink.  Cindy said, "Why don't we go over to Harry Caray's, get a drink, watch some baseball, then come back in a couple hours.  It should be cleared out by then and we can still wait for a table to open up." 

Capital idea, my wife.  We walked about four blocks over to Haray Caray's and sat at the bar and had a few beers while watching baseball and pre-season NFL football.  Although we were tempted to just say, "Screw it!", and eat at Harry's, we both realized we were bound and determined to eat at Frontera Grill. 

We decided to head back to Frontera Grill around 9:00 p.m.  Cindy checked in at the hostess stand while I went back to the bar to get a margarita.  The bar was still packed, although not as bad as it was before.  I was able to get a Blue Agave margarita and found Cindy standing in a corner.  She said, "It's still about a 60 to 75 minute wait."

Cindy is one of those people who grew up having dinner at 5:00 p.m.  She still wants to have dinner at 6:00 p.m. most evenings.  Me, on the other hand, grew up in a family that if we ate at 7:00 p.m., well, that was early.  During my bachelor years, I routinely would eat at 8 p.m. or later.  I still haven't been able to kick that habit.  (I usually eat after 8 p.m. while I'm on the road - the restaurants are usually not as busy at that time.)  Having dinner at 10:00 p.m. was usually grounds for divorce with Cindy.  But she knew how good the food was at Frontera Grill and she was willing to wait it out.  

And wait we did.  I was drinking Blue Agave margaritas 3 to 1 to hers.  And at 10 bucks a crack, the bar tab added up very quickly.  When we were finally called for our table around 10:20, I was gassed.  But it was a fun kind of gassed.  That was until they led us out to our table which was situated outside on the sidewalk under a canopy.

The whole weekend we were in Chicago, the high temperature had trouble making it into the low 60's.  Saturday night, a stiff breeze out of the north had developed and it was shooting right down through Clark St.  Cindy had a light jacket and capri pants, I had on a polo shirt and shorts.  I normally don't get cold, but I'm guessing the combination of no food and a lot tequila was making the cool wind seem a little more cold than usual.  

Since it was late and we were hungry, we had pretty much already looked at the menu when we were waiting in the bar.  Our waitress came out and we ordered up right away.  Cindy got the Creekstone natural black angus rib steak marinated in spicy red chiles, then wood-grilled.  It came with black beans, sweet plantains with sour cream and a side of fresh guacamole. 

I went with the wood-grilled Maple Creek pork loin that was served in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, fresh corn, chile guero (yellow chiles) and hoja santa (a Mexican sweet herb).  Rustic mashed potatoes and grilled summer squash came with the pork loin.  We hoped it wouldn't take very long.

As time went by, I continued to get colder by the minute.  It wasn't a pleasant experience.  Although we were close to the building and under the awning, we started to feel some mist falling on us from the wind that was whipping through the outdoor seating area.  Any other time, eating outside would have been the best way to go.  But it was getting too cold.

Cindy got up to go to the bathroom and it wasn't long after she left that a gentleman from the restaurant came out and said, "Is it getting cold out here?"

I said, "Yeah, it's getting a little nippy."

He said, "Come on inside.  I've got a table for you in there."

It turned out that when Cindy went inside to the bathroom, she happened to pass the hostess stand.  She casually asked if there were any tables that had opened up inside as it was beginning to rain and the wind was gusting pretty well at that time.  Wordlessly, the man standing next to the hostess quickly left.  Cindy didn't know that he immediately walked out to grab me and bring me inside to the festive and colorful dining room.  It turned out the dapper-dressed man was Rick Bayless' managing partner, Carlos Alfarez.

I sat down at a small table in the dining room, now about half-full of people, and they caught Cindy before she went outside and directed her to the table.  It wasn't much longer before our food showed up.  As the waitress was serving our food, Carlos Alfarez came over and asked, "Is this a little better than being outside?"

Cindy laughed and said, "Much!"  

We didn't have to be prompted to dig in.  My pork loin was just excellent.  There are so many different taste sensations in the tomatillo sauce that it's just so tough to describe.  The pork loin was tender and had a great wood-grilled taste to it.  I don't eat potatoes all that much, but the mashed potatoes were very good and the summer squash was equally as good.

Cindy's rib steak was just outstanding.  As much as I liked my pork loin, once again Cindy got the better of the two meals we had.  The spicy red chile marinade was a great complement to the wood-grilled taste to the meat.  Although I think its safe to say that it wasn't as good as the chile-lime marinated flank steak she had on our first visit, it was still a very good steak.

We hungrily devoured our meals, completely satiated, tired, and - in my case - pretty drunk.  Our bar tab was close to $90 bucks, while our food came to around $45.  A nice tip for the bartender and the waitress brought our overall bill for a night at Frontera to about $165 bucks.  And that's not including the beers and drinks we had while we were over at Harry Caray's. 

Bayless just opened a new restaurant - XOCO - a low-key counter to the Topolobampo and Frontera Grill restaurants just to its south.  XOCO (pronounced SHOW-co, and means "little sister" in Aztec) features a limited menu, akin to what one would find with street vendors in Mexico.  Long lines have been reported during the lunch and dinner hours as there is only counter service and no waiters or waitresses to wait on tables.  So far, XOCO has been a roaring success in its first five weeks of existence.

Word to the wise about Frontera Grill - get there early, especially on the weekends.  They were turning people away before 9 p.m. because the wait was so long.  But as Rick Bayless' star continues to rise in the "foodie" galaxy, it's always going to be tough to get into.  But it's damn well worth the wait if you go. 

A Travel Lesson Learned

I put on a dealer up in Dickinson, ND over three years ago, Blue Hawk Audio Video.  The owner, Mike Wilkinson, told me that if I came up to see him once a year, he'd buy product from me.  I agreed to do that and while he's not a huge dealer, they do enough business to warrant an annual trip up to see the store.  Plus the fact that Mike and his guys are great people.  Being that Dickinson is an 11 hour trip - one-way - from Davenport, and they're 60 miles from the Montana border, if they didn't do the business and weren't such great guys, I would have shit-canned them a long time ago. 

With that said, I agreed to do a product training on Focal loudspeakers for them on my next visit, along with taking the crew out to dinner afterward.  Given that Dickinson doesn't have any "high-end" restaurants, it was going to likely be sandwiches, appetizers and beer.  I knew that it would be a late night and I made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in Dickinson. 

Now, I usually go for Hilton properties (Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, etc.) first as I have well over 600,000 Hilton Honors points and am a Hilton Diamond V.I.P. member (the top tier of Hilton frequent traveler membership).  If a Hilton property is not available in the area, I'll then opt for a Marriott property (Courtyard, Spring Hill Suites, etc.).  If neither a Hilton or Marriott property is available, the third choice are Holiday Inns.  Dickinson does not have a Hilton or Marriott property, so I went with the Holiday Inn Express. 

After a very quick trip across the state from Fargo, I pulled into Dickinson at 6:15 Mountain Daylight Time.  (My territory is so huge, I have dealers in three different time zones.)  I drove into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn Express to get my room.  I went to the front desk and I gave the desk clerk my name.  He fumbled around for a bit, then went to his computer.  He said, "Ah, yes.  Here you are.   We have you coming in tomorrow night and, unfortunately, we are sold out for tonight.  And, also unfortunately, many of the other hotels in the area are also sold out." 

He offered to call a couple of hotels that he had not heard from that evening to see if they had any rooms.  He called two and both were sold out.  He said, "I don't quite understand what the deal is.  It's a Wednesday night and this is Dickinson.  There must be something going on in the area." 

He finally called a place that was across the interstate from the Holiday Inn - a hotel that I'm not even going to name because it will be disparaged at later points in this post.  He said, "They have rooms over there.  Do you want me to transfer your reservation over there?"

I told him I'd just go over and get the room on my own.  Instead, I took my bags back out to my car and drove over to Blue Hawk Audio.  As I pulled out of the Holiday Inn parking lot, I noticed a sign in front of an empty lot across the street from the hotel.  It said, "Coming soon - Hampton Inn".  A lot of good it was going to do me then. 

I went over to Blue Hawk and told Mike that I screwed up on the date of the reservation and that I was having trouble finding a room.   I told him, "I guess I can get a room at the (hotel name deleted).  Is that a nice place?"

One of Mike's guys, Jens, immediately piped up, "The Crack House Hotel?  No, man.  You don't wanna stay out there." 

Mike called a couple of the other - and nicer - hotels explaining to them that he had a good friend who needed a room for the evening.  Neither of them could help us out.  The closest hotel is 100 miles away in Bismarck.  I was going to go to Bismarck the next day to visit one of my dealers there.  I just decided to head back there that night after dinner.  It would be a late arrival, but at least I'd have a hotel room.  

I made reservations on my computer for the Hampton Inn in Bismarck, a nice hotel that I've stayed at before.  I got a confirmation number and that was that.  I did the training, we went out for a casual dinner and a few beers at an Applebee's (which, according to the guys at Blue Hawk Audio, is the best place to eat in town), then I drove to Bismarck.  I left a little after 11 p.m. Dickinson time.  About 30 miles to the east of Dickinson, you go back into the Central Time Zone.  Suddenly, it went from 11:20 p.m. to 12:20 a.m.  

I rolled into the Hampton Inn in Bismarck around 1:40 in the morning.  It had been a long day that started at 9 a.m. in St. Cloud, MN, gone on to Fargo, then out to Dickinson and back to Bismarck - a total of 575 miles driven.  I gathered my bags out of the trunk and walked into the lobby.  A young guy was sitting on one of the sofas in the lobby and he popped up and greeted me.  I said, "I have a reservation."  

He got behind the desk and said, "Well, I'm sorry to tell you that when your reservation came in, we had neglected to tell the Hilton reservations desk that we had actually oversold for the evening."

I was like, "What?"

He said, "Yes, I'm sorry.  But we had overbooked our hotel for the evening and we forgot to contact the Hilton reservation desk to tell them.  They still thought we had rooms.  We tried to contact you, but we couldn't get hold of you."

I said, "Wait a minute.  I had a reservation confirmation!"

He said, "Yes, sir.  I know that, but it was definitely our fault in not contacting Hilton and letting them know we were sold out for the evening."  

He explained to me that I had a room at a Country Inns and Suites, just around the corner.  He apologized to me and I trudged out the door to deposit my bags back into the trunk, get in the car and drive a half mile to the other hotel.  It was about 1:50 in the morning by the time I got there.  The lady behind the desk said, "You're my last one.  Can I put you down for a wake up call?"

Nope, I'm sleeping in.  

When I got up the next morning, I checked my voice messages back in my office.  Sure enough, there was a message from a lady from the Bismarck Hampton Inn.  She explained the same thing that the night desk clerk told me just hours before when I went to check in.  She told me that they did have a room for me at the Country Inns and Suites and to just go over there.  Well, while I check my office voice mail a minimum of three times a day while I'm on the road, I never check it after 6 p.m., but will check it first thing in the morning.  Yes, she made an attempt to contact me.  But I then figured out that I needed to have my cell phone listed in my Hilton profile - not my office phone. 

Although the Country Inns and Suites wasn't all that bad, I had just missed out on garnering more Hilton Honors points that are eventually going toward a vacation that Cindy and I are going to take next year to Hawaii.  I have enough points for us to stay nearly two weeks for free in Hilton properties in Hawaii.  And I have enough American Airlines points for us to fly round-trip for free, as well.   

I got on the Hilton Honors site and went to their customer service page.  I wrote a short letter via e-mail to them explaining that I had a reservation confirmation, but was told that the hotel was overbooked on my arrival.  I thought under the circumstances that I should still get the points for the stay.  I thought it was a reasonable request and didn't think more of it. 

A week went by and I finally got a reply from Hilton.  They said they were looking into the matter and that they would be in touch shortly. 

It wasn't any more than a couple hours later and I got this e-mail from the General Manager of the Bismarck Hampton Inn:

My name is Cheryl Dressler and I am the General Manager of the Hampton Inn in Bismarck, ND.  Your experience at the Hampton Inn of Bismarck is not ordinary and certainly not acceptable by my standards.  The Front Desk agent that handled this has been reprimanded and one more occurrence and she will not be employed her (sp) any longer.

I am awarding you more points than you would have received should you have stayed with us.  Again, please accept my apologies and we hope this never happens again.

Regards,

Cheryl Dressler, GM

Bismarck Hampton Inn

I immediately thought, "Wow!  That's nice."  Then I re-read the letter.  I thought, "Wow, that's kind of harsh for that girl who called me on my office line."  Really, it was sort of my fault, as well.  I should have had my cell phone be my primary telephone contact with Hilton.  (It is now, along with Marriott and Holiday Inn.) 

I felt compelled to write back to the Bismarck G.M:

Hello, Cheryl!

 

First of all, I'm not looking to get anyone fired over this.  I have my office number listed as my "go-to" number in my profile and it's probably just as much my fault as anything that she contacted my office number to explain the situation.  As I said in the communication to Hilton Honors, I usually don't check my office phone voice mail after 6 p.m. when I'm on the road.  I'll be changing my contact number to my cell phone on my profile.

 

With that said, all I was asking was an opportunity to get my points for a stay that I thought I was going to have at your hotel.  I thought it was a fair and reasonable request given that I did have a confirmation number and up until the time that I went to check in, I thought I had a room there.  I've stayed at your hotel in the past and there's a good chance I'll stay there again during my annual trip to North Dakota. 

 

I appreciate your kind gesture and thank you for your consideration. 

 

My best regards,

 

It came to pass a few days later that I happened to look up my points on Hilton Honors and I saw that I did, indeed, get my points from the Bismarck Hampton Inn.  However, I didn't get anything extra as she promised.  I do get my base points, then as a Hilton Diamond member I receive a 50% bonus on the points (1.5 points).  And for some reason, I also receive ANOTHER 50% in Hilton points (I haven't quite been able to figure that out, but I'm not complaining).  So for each stay at a Hilton property I receive, basically, double points.  That's exactly what I received for NOT staying at the Hampton Inn, even though she said she was going to add more. 

 

That's OK, though.  All of this wouldn't have started without me screwing up in the first place and making the reservation for the wrong day in Dickinson.  While I wasn't looking for any heads to roll in this matter, I was thoroughly happy with the way Hilton resolved the foul-up in Bismarck.  This is just another reason why I like to stay in Hilton properties first and foremost.  And once I use up our points next year for our trip to Hawaii, I'll probably continue to stay in Hilton properties as I travel.

Jersey Boys - Chicago

I'd been promising Cindy that I'd take her in to see the Broadway in Chicago production of Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons brought out on stage and in song.  During our late summer trip into Chicago, we took in a Sunday matinee at the Bank of America Theater. 

I grew up in a house with older sisters who listened to the Four Seasons and to this day I still like listening to Frankie Valli's falsetto voice when it pops up on the radio.  The soaring vocal harmonies brought forth by Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi complemented Valli's incredible range as a singer.  This was the kind of music I was brought up on - long before the Beatles stepped to the forefront in early 1964.

The story of the Four Seasons is rather compelling - four young street guys growing up in the hard scrabble, blue collar existence of New Jersey in the 50's, coming together to become a major singing group churning out hit after hit.  Jersey Boys intertwines stories of triumph and heartbreak, success and subsequent money problems, honor and betrayal.   There's associations with organized crime figures, petty thieves and some jail time for some of the Four Seasons.   But the core of the story revolves around the coming together and subsequent lifetime partnership of Valli and Gaudio - an legendary agreement cemented with a handshake. 

Normally, Dominic Scaglione, Jr. (right) plays the lead role of Frankie Valli in the Chicago production of Jersey Boys.  However, for some reason the role of Valli was played by Scaglione's understudy (and who plays Valli on Wednesday and Saturday matinees) John Michael Dias.  It would have been nice to see Scaglione as reviews of the Chicago production were overly gushing toward his portrayal of Valli, but Dias did a wonderful job that afternoon.  Dias' vocal range was very good, it didn't have that raspy quality you find in Valli's voice, but Dias' acquitted himself very well.

One of the more compelling performances in Jersey Boys was turned in by Michael Cunio who played the role of the street tough Tommy DeVito.  It was DeVito who "discovered" Frankie Valli only after the two were brought together by another neighborhood kid, Joe Pesci.  Yes, that Joe Pesci, the actor.  In one of the many story lines that I never knew about the Four Seasons before seeing Jersey Boys, DeVito got into severe money problems, owing mob operatives hundreds of thousands of dollars.  All of which the rest of the Four Seasons paid out of their collective pockets, but they subsequently kicked DeVito out of the group. 

Shonn Wiley and Michael Ingersoll turned in credible performances as Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi, respectively.  As with the original Four Seasons, the performers also played their own instruments during the course of the performance with a drummer moving on and off the stage before and after the songs.  All the actors in Jersey Boys were very talented performers.

But the show stopper of the performance was Craig Laurie (left) who played the outwardly gay Bob Crewe, the Four Seasons producer who helped penned a number of great songs with Bob Gaudio including the band's first number one hit, "Sherry".  Laurie's depiction of Crewe was over the top, but it wasn't a grandstanding performance.  Laurie stole many of the scenes with his mincing, effeminate vocal tones and mannerisms.  As the performers came forth at the end of the show, the biggest ovation was for Laurie. 

There were many things that I didn't know about the Four Seasons before I saw Jersey Boys.  It turned out that Gaudio had penned the 1950's teen hit, "Short Shorts" when he was 15.  I also didn't know the Four Seasons had a major problem getting their record label to release "Who Loves You", arguably their biggest hit.  And I certainly didn't know that Frankie Valli had lost a daughter, Francine, to a drug overdose.  That part of the performance was certainly sad and gut-wrenching. 

The language in Jersey Boys is salty and typical of the Four Seasons tough neighborhoods where they grew up.  A lot of "f-bombs" were dropped and it was sort of fun to see the 60-somethings in the crowd squirm a little bit when the R-rated language was used throughout the show.  Some of these older people were taking their grandchildren to see Jersey Boys, hoping to expose them the type of music they listened to during their youth.  But from the first nasty word, it was apparent the kids were going to get more than a musical education at Jersey Boys.

Aw, who am I kidding?  Kids these days hear language like that from pre-school on...

Overall, the Chicago edition of Jersey Boys was lively, upbeat and full of great songs.   But if you want to see it in Chicago, you'd better hurry.  It was recently announced that the Chicago production of Jersey Boys would end in early 2010.  We were so taken by the performance that we immediately said we'd love to see it again.  While tickets weren't tough to get for Jersey Boys when we saw them in August, I have a feeling they're going to be quite tough to get up until they end their run in early January.  If a Jersey Boys road company comes near your town, do yourself a favor and go see the show.  Even if you weren't brought up on music by the Four Seasons like I was, it's still one of best live stage performances I've ever seen. 

Winter Comes Early

We had the second earliest snowfall on record here in the Quad Cities on Saturday.  Although it was just a trace of snow, it still qualified as snowfall.  It began around 11 a.m. and quit about two hours later.  The picture at the left was taken about five minutes after the heaviest snow was falling - big, thick flakes coming down made for a rather neat contrast versus the green grass and leaves on the trees.

We had our first hard freeze on Friday night/Saturday morning when temperature got down to 27 (-2 C) here in Davenport.  Average first date of freezing temps around there is October 15, so that's not all that bad.  But the average first snow in the area is usually in late November or early December.  The little bit we had yesterday was a wake up call that winter is really just around the corner.  

I suppose we can thankful that we weren't 300 miles to the west.  Omaha got 3 to 5 inches of snow yesterday, and further west, North Platte had over a foot!  I was talking to a good friend of mine from Omaha, Denny Duncan, on Saturday morning.  He said, "Yes, I'm calling from the winter wonderland known as Omaha this morning."  I was completely incredulous that they had all that snow.  And while I was talking to him on the phone, I looked out to see the first snowflakes falling.  

The last two years, almost automatically, we had our first snow on or around December 1.  With temperatures that are 10 to 15 degrees cooler than normal forecast for the coming week, its going to feel more like late November than mid-October.  Some people love snow - I hate it.  I just hate everything about winter.  But I love living in Iowa.  I tell people, "9 months out of the year, this is a great place to live.  It's that stretch from December 1 to February 28 that you have to get through each year."

Now it looks like that stretch from October 10 to February 28 is what we'll have to endure this year. 

Perfetto Pizzeria - Louisville

I've been giving myself a treat once a week during my weight loss and subsequent "holding" of weight during this past summer.  Those treats usually involve a pizza.  Not a deep dish or thick crust pizza, but one where the crust is thin, light and crispy.  While in Louisville, I'd done a little investigative work and found a new place called Perfetto Pizzeria just off of I-64 at S. Hurstbourne in what appeared to be a sort of upscale strip mall. (see map)

Pizza in Louisville is an art form.  Aside from the two Impellizeri's places I've visited (read about Tony's place here, and Benny's place here), there's a number of other places that offer a "Louisville-style" which is basically "New York-style thin crust pizza and pile on the toppings".   Some of the better pizzas during my travels have come from Louisville.  Perfetto's doesn't really do anything different from the "Louisville-style" that I've had.  They just add to a growing list of pretty good pizza places already in the area.

Dan Heride was an automaker in Wisconsin - first working in an assembly plant in Racine.  When that plant was shut down, Dan and his wife, Cyndi, moved to Mineral Point for Dan to work in a factory that made auto parts.  That plant eventually shut down, as well.  The Heride's were without work and in their early 50's when they decided to move to Louisville to be closer to their daughter and her family.   They toyed with the idea of opening their own restaurant, but they had never worked at a restaurant before, let alone owned a restaurant.

 It turns out the Heride's had a connection in the food and restaurant community in Louisville.  Their daughter is Danni Waldridge who is the owner and chef of Divinity Fine Catering, one of the premier catering outfits in the region.  The opportunity arose for them to take over a small pizza parlor that had housed a couple of defunct pizza restaurants.  All the equipment was there - the oven, roller, prep tables.  It was nearly a turnkey operation for them.  The Heride's opened in the Spring of this year hoping that the third time for a pizza joint in the space would be the charm. 

The Heride's are basically the only people who work through the week at Perfetto Pizzeria (which gets it's name from the Italian word for "perfect").  Dan Heride told me that they're usually there at 9:00 to 9:30 in the morning Tuesday thru Friday (they open at 4 p.m. on Saturday - closed Sunday and Monday) to accept the shipment of fresh ingredients from the food purveyor.  They then turn on the ovens around 10:30 and begin to cook pizzas soon thereafter.  They sell pizza by the slice during the noon hours through the week and I understand it's a growing business.  

It was about 8:15 when I walked into Perfetto.  Two couples were seated at tables and I didn't know if I could seat myself or I needed to be seated.  Only Dan Heride was behind the counter - his wife nowhere to be seen.  I went to the counter and Dan asked if I needed anything.  I took a look at the menu and immediately ordered a 12" (which they call a "medium") sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza - my reference toppings for pizza.  I asked if it was too late to eat in and Dan said, "Oh, no.  Not at all.  We don't close for another 45 minutes."

I got a bottle of Bud Light from him and took a seat in the dining room.  Perfetto's Pizza is not a big place - it holds, maybe, about 35 to 40 people.  But it has sort of a "pizza parlor" feel to it with the checkered table cloths and the comfortable seating. 

While Dan makes the pizzas, sandwiches and other nightly specials, Cyndi wears the many hats of waitress, table busser, dishwasher, etc.  Dan told me that many nights they don't get out of there until 10:30 p.m. through the week and closer to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights when they close at 10:00.  He told me, "My daughter and grandchildren help out on the weekends.  We can get pretty busy." 

I immediately got the sense that I had breached protocol at Perfetto's by by-passing Dan's wife and ordering directly from Dan behind the counter.  She never once acknowledged my presence in the dining room.  I thought it to be rather odd considering that she was rushing past me every so often and she never did ask how I was doing or if I wanted another bottle of beer when my Bud Light was empty as I was waiting for the pizza.  I just figured that she was busy as all get out and Dan, on the other hand, would poke his head over the counter and ask if I needed anything.  He brought me out another bottle of Bud Light just before my pizza was ready.

When it was ready, Dan brought it out and set it on the table.  Already, I liked the looks of the pizza - big chunks of sausage, lots of pepperoni and mushroom and a ton of cheese that had caramelized magnificently in the oven.  There was going to be no way that I could finish this whole thing in one sitting. 

While the hand-tossed crust was a little thicker than what I'd refer to as "New York-style", it wasn't all that thick either.  Actually, the crust was about the only disappointment as it was sort of chewy.  But the toppings were fresh, flavorful and plentiful.  The sausage used at Perfetto had a nice taste to it and the chunks were good-sized, just as I like.  As I thought, there was no way I could eat the whole thing, so I had Dan box up the remainder as I had a refrigerator and a micro-wave back in my room.  Perfetto pizza could be a late night snack or breakfast during my stay in Louisville.

As I paid for dinner at the cash register - Cyndi Heride still never acknowledged my presence during my visit - we got to talking about how Dan had ended up in Louisville.  He said, "Well, the car industry had gone to shit.  I had about 30 years into it when the rug was pulled out.  We decided to do something different with our lives and control our own destiny."  

He said they'd been open about 3 1/2 months and that business was steadily improving.  He said, "We don't have a web site, yet.  We're not really doing a lot of advertising, so we're just sort of relying upon word of mouth to get people in."

Dan asked how I liked the pizza and I said, "Well, I'm from the Quad Cities and I wish you guys would have moved down from Mineral Point to Davenport because I'm telling you - this would be the best pizza in the Quad Cities." 

By this time, Cyndi Heride - who was putting chairs on the tables and sweeping up the tiled floor - came over to where we were talking.  She enthusiastically asked, "You really liked our pizza?"  

I said, "I'm not kidding, this would be the best in the Quad's." 

Cyndi said, "We considered moving to the Quad Cities, but we wanted to be closer to our grandchildren.  Be sure to stop back in the next time you're in town." 

While I don't know if Perfetto Pizzeria has the best pizza in Louisville, they do a fine job.  I'm hoping they'll work some of the kinks out of the process and eventually get to the point where they do have one of the best pizzas in the area.  I'll have to give them a few more months and try them again when I get down to Louisville next spring.  

At least, I'm hoping that the Heride's make a go of the place so they'll still be there for me to try next spring...

The End of Sam's Wines

The Chicago Tribune is reporting today that the controlling interest of Sam's Wines, a long time Chicago wine, liquor and beer emporium, has been bought by their major competitor Binny's.

(To see my earlier post on Sam's, click here.  To see my earlier post on Binny's, click here.)  

To see the article from the Trib, click here:

It's somewhat sad to see the demise of Sam's, one of the first wine and liquor superstores that I came across in the Chicago area.  My friend, Steve Weiner, was a big proponent of Sam's up until the Rosen family sold controlling interest in the four store chain to Arbor Investments, a private investment group, in 2007.  Sam's had been rumored to be in financial trouble for the past year.  Earlier this year, Sam's announced the closing of their Highland Park and their South Loop locations, concentrating their efforts on their original store in Lincoln Park and their store in Downers Grove. 

Over the past year, I noticed that Sam's seemed to be focusing on cheaper and more obscure wines in their on-line e-mail releases that I received on a nearly daily basis.  Steve Weiner told me that this was a conscious effort by the powers-that-be with Sam's to reduce overhead and inflate the profit margin.  It obviously didn't work.   

Binny's has 22 locations across Chicago (soon to be 24) and features a number of the same wines, liquors and beers that Sam's had.  In fact, I will say the selection of eclectic beers at Binny's was more impressive than what I found at the Sam's locations.  The only problem was price - Binny's was pretty proud of their stock and it was reflected in their higher prices.

In the long run, Binny's higher prices won out.  While you have to tip the hat to a company that has been in business for over 60 years, Binny's suddenly becomes the 800 pound gorilla in regard to beer, wine and liquor in the Chicago area.  I don't think there is anyone who can come close to them with their selection.  And that generally means higher prices for wine, beer and spirits.  I'll shop at a Binny's, but I'll miss the "warm and fuzzy" feeling that I got when I shopped at Sam's.     

Culpeppers - St. Louis

Culpeppers is an 8 location local St. Louis chain that features pretty good St. Louis style pizza, burgers, sandwiches, and other food.   Culpeppers touts themselves as the "favorite St. Louis grill and bar" and they have a loyal following that has continued since the first Culpeppers was opened back in the mid-30's right after the repeal of Prohibition.  It had been quite some time since I'd been at a Culpeppers, and I set up a lunch date with my former boss for whom I worked up to the point when I took my current job with Audio Plus Services over seven years ago. 

The original Culpeppers opened in 1935 at the corner of Maryland and Euclid in the Central West End of St. Louis (see map).  That original location is still going strong today.  My old company was out in St. Peters, almost equidistant from the Culpeppers in St. Charles (see map) and from the one in O'Fallon, MO (see map).  We seemed to eat at the one in O'Fallon more often because it wasn't far from my ex-boss' former home.   

Culpeppers is known for their good burgers, sandwiches and salads, but they're probably best known for having some of the best - if not THE best chicken wings in St. Louis.  The pizza is above average for a St. Louis style pizza and is a good choice if you're in the mood.  Culpeppers menu also features steaks, pasta and some seafood.  It's difficult to find anything that isn't appealing on their menu. 

I left my old company on civil terms, even though a messy divorce and other factors ended up closing the doors of the firm a couple years after I left.  I've stayed in contact with my old boss and he continues to work in the audio/video industry.  We like to get together to check notes, talk about industry trends and to help each other with leads and the like.  I was in St. Louis earlier this summer and I set up the lunch for around 1 p.m.  I had to go out to the St. Charles area for a meeting and called and left messages for my ex-boss to meet me for lunch at Culpeppers.  I got a cryptic text message back from him that said, "Culpeppers - fine". 

I got there around 1 p.m. and sat at the bar waiting for my ex-boss to show up.  I continued to wait for a half-hour.  I tried calling him a couple times, text messaging him, as well.  I even e-mailed him from my Blackberry to see if he'd possibly gone to the O'Fallon location.  I didn't hear anything back from him.  That wasn't overly unexpected - he has garnered a reputation for making appointments and not keeping them.  (He contacted me the next day and apologized, saying that he had an appointment that had taken a little longer than expected.) 

I ended up asking the bartender for a menu around 1:45.  It had been a number of years - probably well over seven or eight years - since I'd last eaten at a Culpeppers in St. Louis.  But I do remember their bacon cheeseburger was one of the better ones in the area.  I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with pepper jack cheese.  In place of either waffle or steak fries, I also ordered one of Culpeppers very good house salads - a generous bowl of chopped lettuce, cherry tomatoes, olives and red onion slices topped with Culpeppers' wonderful homemade Ranch dressing.  

A Culpeppers burger begins as a half-pound USDA Choice beef patty, charbroiled and then served on a sesame seed bun.  They're usually a meal in themselves.  It had been quite sometime since I'd had a burger from Culpeppers, but I certainly remembered the taste when I took my initial bite.  While the pepper jack cheese wasn't all that spicy, the bacon was flavorful and helped add to the taste sensation of the burger.  While it may not be the best burger in St. Louis (I'm having trouble finding a place better than O'Connell's Pub or Burger Bar), it's an above-average burger.  It works in a pinch when you need something for lunch or a casual dinner.

In all honesty, Culpeppers isn't much different than any number of national chains that permeate the landscape with their varied menus that are designed to whet the appetite of any diner.   And while I usually disdain those big, souless chains, I'd eat at a locally owned chain restaurant like Culpeppers.  They do everything pretty well, not great, but well enough to keep them in business for nearly 75 years. 

 

The Tavern - West Des Moines

 

One place that is one of my favorite pizza places in the whole world is The Tavern with three locations in the Des Moines area.  But The Tavern also does a good job of making one of my all time favorite sandwiches - the Grinder (a.k.a Gizmo's).  I was in Des Moines recently and decided to go to The Tavern not far from my hotel in West Des Moines.

The Tavern is an institution in the West Des Moines area.  The original Tavern began during the Depression of the 30's, not long after the end of Prohibition.  But it was the mid-40's when John and Mary Rilei bought the small tavern in the Valley Junction area of West Des Moines (see map).  It featured a pool table, a bar and a small seating area.  It wasn't long after they opened when they began to serve their own version of what was a Des Moines favorite of the time - the Guinea Grinder.  It wasn't much longer before the Rieli's added thin crust pizza to the menu.  The response was overwhelming.  Before long, the kitchen was expanded, the pool table was gone and more seating became available for the tons of people coming in to have John and Mary's food.

John Rilei passed away from cancer in 1970 and Mary decided to keep the business going.  She ran it another 18 years before selling it to long time friend Chuck Celsi, the son of Italian immigrants.  Mary Rilei continued to live upstairs overseeing the day-to-day operations with Chuck's blessing.  Chuck expanded the menu to include some of his mother's famous recipes and also expanded the original Valley Junction location a couple years later.  A second Tavern - The Tavern II - opened in West Des Moines in 1995 (see map); and Celsi opened a third location - The Tavern South - on Army Post Road in 1997 (see map). 

My first visit to The Tavern was a memorable one back in the late 70's when I was with a group of guys I used to play basketball with.  After an organizational meeting we attended for a men's basketball league in West Des Moines, we walked down the street to The Tavern for a couple beers.  We started off having beers only, then we saw someone bring out one of their pizzas.  Someone in our group said, "Hey, that doesn't look bad."  We ended up ordering a large pizza and a large order of their great homemade onion rings between the four of us and I've been hooked ever since. 

The Tavern features thin crust pizza with loads of fresh toppings including the big chunks of sausage that I like.  One of my favorites is their "Sting" pizza - seasoned Italian sausage, jalapenos and hot pepper cheese.  Oh man!  It definitely gets your attention!  They also feature a Grinder called the "Sting" that has jalapenos and is topped with pepper jack cheese instead of Mozzarella.  That, too, is one of my favorite sandwiches to have when I'm at The Tavern.

The Tavern II seats about 375 people so waiting is usually never a problem.  It's split into two large rooms with a small private room toward the back of the place.  As you walk in, there's a large bar area to the right and that's the room the hostess sat me in the night I was there recently.  I wasn't really in the mood for pizza, but I did think a "Sting" Grinder would be a spot-hitter.  I ordered one of those along with a dinner salad with The Tavern's homemade creamy Parmesan. 

For as extensive of a menu that The Tavern has, I haven't ever tried anything OTHER than the pizza, Grinder sandwiches or their great onion rings, and I've been going there for over 30 years.  In addition to pasta dishes, chicken Parmesan and beef Deburgo on the menu, The Tavern also has a number of sandwiches, salads and appetizers to choose from.  The Tavern is also offering Chicago "deep dish" style pizzas, too.  But I usually just go for the thin-crust pizza and the Grinders.  Both are very good.

After finishing my salad, my waiter brought out the "Sting" Grinder with a side of fries.  Over the years, I think the size of the Grinder at The Tavern has shrunk while the price has gone up.  But I've got past that long ago.  The "Sting" Grinder is cut in half and oozes cheese, seasoned Italian sausage and jalapenos.  While the jalapenos get your attention, they don't overpower the taste of the sausage which is the key to the sandwich.  The bread is sort of crunchy from the high temperature cooking process to melt the cheese, but not hard or burnt tasting.   It didn't take me long to devour the "Sting" Grinder.  And, as always, it was great. 

The Tavern is a good bet - at any of their locations - to have a good meal if you're in the mood for pizza or a Grinder.  Usually, people say the original location is the best, but I think all three Tavern locations do a fine job.  The Tavern is another example of good, down-home Italian food that you can find in the Des Moines area.   

Wrigley Field - Chicago

This is the final weekend of the 2009 regular season for Major League Baseball.  After this weekend, baseball is usually over for me.  Even with the Cardinals in the play-offs and an interesting down-to-the-wire division race between Minnesota and Detroit, my "give-a-damn" factor for baseball in October has waned once again.  I don't care for the multiple rounds of play-offs and the way television has taken over the post season.  While I can tell you who played in the 1967 World Series right off the top of my head, I have to stop and think who played in the 2007 World Series.   I don't like to watch the Fox Sports coverage of the World Series as they dumb it down to the lowest common denominator with over-analysis (and often getting it wrong) and explanations.  To me, it's unwatchable.

Baseball is summertime, beautiful blue-sky afternoons and warm, comfortable evenings.   I love to go to the ball park and watch a game, but I also get sort of bummed at the end of the game.  That's it.  It's over.  Go home.  There's no watching the scoreboard clock to see how much time is left.  It could go on and on, or the doubt of the outcome could be over by the 4th inning with the score 11-2.  There's something sort of serene and relaxing about watching a baseball game.  When it's over, it's a shame.  Even knowing there's another game in less than 24 hours, the initial disappointment at the end of the game lingers awhile for me. 

With all that said, I'm a baseball fan.  I don't really call one team "my favorite".  I've followed a number of teams closely over the years, but I haven't really been zeroed in on following one team over the past number of years.  I think it's rather silly for fans to hate a given team - although I will admit that I don't care for the Yankees all that much, mainly because of their big spending and the arrogance of some Yankee fans I've encountered.  But I certainly don't "hate" them.  One of the teams that some of my friends really hate are the Chicago Cubs.  While I'm ambivalent regarding my allegiance to the Cubs, the one thing that I really like about the team is their stadium - Wrigley Field. 

I had the chance to go to Wrigley Field twice this year.  Once with my friend, Al Kern.  And once again about a month ago with Cindy.  I've gone to Wrigley Field about six or seven times in total over the years.  And I have to say for all the Cub fans reading this entry - I've never seen the Cubs lose in person in Wrigley Field.  I don't think of myself as a good luck charm for the Cubs, I've just never seen them lose at Wrigley. 

While Wrigley Field is nearly 100 years old, there's still a very old time charm to the place.  OK, the concourses are still too narrow.  The scoreboard is pretty antiquated and is probably the worst in Major League Baseball.  The bathroom facilities are too small and there's not enough of them.  But Cubs fans and baseball purists have been able to overlook those minor details in an era where new and magnificent ball parks have been built over the past five to ten years.   Some of my friends - Cardinals fans - refer to Wrigley Field as "the world's biggest urinal."  I like the feel and vibe of Wrigley. 

Al and I drove into Chicago in June to see the Cleveland Indians play the Cubs in a noon-time starting game.  We had to make a quick stop in the Western suburbs of Chicago near Oak Brook to pick up a colleague of Al's from Iowa Public Radio - Jeff Schmidt.  Jeff has a girlfriend who lives in the Western suburbs of Chicago and he goes in to see her nearly every weekend.  After a quick stop to gather up Jeff, we took off toward Wrigley Field. 

Jeff is a Chicago White Sox fan more than a Cubs fan, while Al is a lifelong and long-suffering Cub fan.  I've gone into Chicago with Al on one other occasion to see the Cubs play.  The day we went in was in early May about four years ago.  When we left the Quad Cities at 7 a.m., the temperature was in the upper-50's.  We both had light jackets on.  When we got to Wrigley Field about three hours later, we were greeted by stiff winds out of the northeast bringing in cold air off of Lake Michigan.  The temperature at game time was 49 degrees, but the thermometer had to be inside a Wrigley Field bathroom, because it was much colder outside.  We were seated in the last row of the upper deck.  The wind was in our face.  We decided to move to a location under the grandstand and out of the wind to stand and watch the game the rest of the day. 

The temperature dropped throughout the afternoon that day, ending up in the upper 30's by the end of the game.  But we stayed.  We were frozen by the end of the game, which went into extra innings with the Cubs eventually beating the Mets 4-3 with a walk-off home run by the Cubs Derrek Lee, who hit the ball into the teeth of that cold wind and put it nearly 3/4's of the way up in the left center field bleachers.   

We didn't have to be worried about the cold weather on our trip into Wrigley in June.  The day was sunny, warm and just beautiful.  It was a great day to see a game. 

But, of course, before we went into Wrigley Field, we had to have a few morning libations at the famous Cubby Bear bar, just caddy-cornered across the street from the main entrance to Wrigley Field.  The Cubby Bear - and the equally famous Murphy's Bleachers located just across the street from the center field bleachers entrance at Wrigley Field - are the two main places where Cubs fans meet before and after each game.  Murphy's is usually packed to the gills before each game and it's rather tough to get around in there.  The Cubby Bear is more spacious and you don't feel quite as confined in the place as you do in Murphy's.  Still, both of them are a large time to visit before a game. 

Al had gotten us great seats for the game - just up from the Cubs dugout along the third base line.  The sun was just getting ready to get blocked out by the upper deck of Wrigley Field as we sat down just before first pitch.  I always try to get a picture of the first pitch, but I missed it thanks to some lady who was three rows in front of me and who decided to stand up and take a picture of the first pitch.  So here's the second pitch of the game.  Pitching that day for the Cubs was Ted Lilly, who actually turned out to be the ace of the Cubs' staff during the 2009 season.  That's remarkable considering I believe Lilly was the third pitcher in the rotation at the start of the season. 

Our seats were great in that we were close to the restrooms and concession stands.  Even though the concourses are small, they're very vibrant.  The bathrooms can fill up fast between innings, so being in close proximity to them allowed me to get in very quickly.  And you never know who you're going to meet in the bathrooms at Wrigley.  It turned out that I ran into a good friend, Gabe Terronez, while taking a whiz.  Actually, he ran into me. literally!  I knew Gabe and his girlfriend, Linda, were going to be at the game coming in on a bus trip from the Quad Cities.  But I didn't know they were going to be seated in our general vicinity. 

One of the big traditions at Wrigley Field is the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".  Since the death of the legendary Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, a slew of celebrities over the years have sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch.  Some of them pretty bad, others have done a surprisingly good job.  Today, the guest of honor was comedian George Lopez.  While I'm not a huge fan of Lopez's work, I do have to say that he did a great job singing the song.  He certainly didn't sing off-key or butcher the lyrics the way some other people have in the past.

As I said, I've never seen the Cubs lose at Wrigley Field.  But they sure make it interesting in the games I've watched there.  This game was no exception.  After giving up a run in the first and again in the fifth, the Cubs tied it in the bottom of the fifth on a Derrek Lee two-run homer.  This is a picture of Lee just before he swung and connected.  Actually, I had the picture of him swinging, but it was blurry, so I just tossed it off the memory card. 

Cleveland came back to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth before Micah Hoffpauir hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to allow the Cubs to take a 4-3 lead. 

The Cubs pitching didn't hold up - which was the story of the season for the Cubs.  The Indians scored the tying run in the top of the 7th on a bases loaded walk by Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol.  The game ended up going into extra innings.  This is a pic of the Cubs manager, Lou Pinella, making one of his many visits to the mound that day.  The Cubs ended up using 8 pitchers in total during the game.  At one point, the next day starting pitcher for the Cubs, Randy Wells, was warming up in the bullpen.  Had the game gone on longer, he would have probably had to pitch on Saturday and get scratched for Sunday's start.

The Cubs gave up a home run to the Indians' Luis Valbuena - his second of the day - in the top of the 13th.  Things didn't look good for my personal unbeaten streak as former Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood took the mound in the bottom of the inning to close out the game for the Indians.  But a single, a stolen base and a throwing error, then another single tied the score.  Another single put a man on third base for the Cubs and Wood uncorked a wild pitch to allow the winning run to score for 6-5 Cubs victory, sending the Cubs faithful to their homes a happy bunch.  I was happy the game was over because they don't sell beer after the 7th inning at Major League games and extra inning games cut into my beer drinking time. 

Cindy and I took a long weekend in Chicago at the end of August, hoping to get around to a number of places that are too cold to visit in the winter time when we've been in there.  It turned out that I had a chance to get a couple bleacher tickets for the Cubs/Mets game on August 28.  I actually found them on Stub Hub, a great ticket clearing house site for fans who are looking to either get rid of tickets they can't use, or for people - like me looking for tickets.  I'd never sat in the bleachers before at Wrigley and I thought it would be fun for us to go.  Cindy and I had been to Wrigley before, but sat in the grandstand along the third base line.  This time we took a seat in the center field bleachers below the scoreboard.

We stayed downtown at the Hilton in River North, one of our favorite places to stay in Chicago as it's in the heart of shopping, great restaurants and it's easy to get to.  It turns out that the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line has a station just next to and below the Hilton.  The Red Line takes you right up to Wrigley Field, one block east of the stadium on Addison.  In all the years that I'd been traveling to Chicago for business or pleasure, I'd never ridden the "El" before.  Cindy was absolutely amazed.  After some difficulty figuring out the payment system for a CTA card, we were able to take the train up to Wrigley and get there in plenty of time before the game. 

It was a cool, cloudy day in Chicago that late August day.  It definitely wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold either.  Just before the first pitch, a light drizzle began.  Not enough to make everyone wet, but enough that you noticed it.  With the wind to our back and being shielded by the scoreboard, we were comfortable enough - even though Cindy made me buy her a sweatshirt before we went into Wrigley.  

Speaking of the first pitch - here's the first pitch being thrown that day, ironically, by Ted Lilly once again. 

 

The bleachers at Wrigley have long had a reputation for being rowdy and one big party.  We certainly weren't disappointed nor surprised with what we encountered in the bleachers that day.  There was more of a party mood going on rather than people into the game.  There seemed to be a lot of younger adults around us who definitely were not focused on the field.  That was OK - we were having a great time along with them as evidenced by this picture of Cindy and I around the 4th inning. 

 

The center field bleachers aren't very comfortable.  When they redid the right field and left field bleachers a few years ago, they didn't do anything to enhance the seating in center field.  The steps are high and steep.  The concrete is crumbling and the place is definitely showing its age out there.  We decided to move to the left field bleachers at the end of the fifth inning to get another perspective of the field.  Not only are the left field bleachers nicer to sit in, but the crowd out there is noticeably more of the rabid Cub fans.  We saw a number of middle-aged and older people in the left field bleachers. And they were passionate, vocal and rather knowledgeable. 

Here is the Cubs left fielder, Alfonzo Soriano.  Many of the Cubs fans in the left field bleachers - well, and in the other areas of the stadium, as well - were really on Soriano that day.  Soriano misplayed one ball that he let fall in front of him.  He dropped an easy pop fly - so easy a good little leaguer could have hauled it in.  And in the top of the 8th inning he misplayed a ball hit to the left field wall that allowed the Mets to take a 2-1 lead, spoiling a great outing by Lilly.  But Soriano was able to redeem himself in the bottom of the 8th.

 

Another much-maligned Cubs player, Milton Bradley, led off the bottom of the 8th with a line drive double to left.  A fly ball to right sent Bradley to third before a single by Aramis Ramirez allowed him to tie score the score.  After a walk, Alfonso Soriano came to bat and drove an 0-2 pitch to the deep left center field bleachers, just to the left of where we were seated, for a three-run homer.  With one swing of the bat, Cubs fans completely forgot about his earlier transgressions.  Carlos Marmol came on to pitch the top of the ninth, characteristically giving up a walk to the lead off batter.  But he was able to get the next Mets batter to fly to right before striking out the final two batters for a 5-2 Cubs win.  Once again the Cubs fans went home happy.   

Like I say, I'm a baseball fan and there's a number of stadiums I'd love to visit at some point.  We met or ran into a number of people during our visits to Wrigley this year who are exactly like me.  They don't really care about the Cubs, they just want to go to Wrigley Field just to say they saw a game there.  I'm the same way about Fenway Park in Boston, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and - to a degree - Yankee Stadium in New York.  Well, actually, the old Yankee Stadium would have been something to see.  I'm not too certain I want to go to the new Yankee Stadium.  In any event, I'm sort of lucky to be pretty close to a place like Wrigley Field which gets a lot of exposure even for hosting a team that has an incomparable history of futility like the Cubs.  But, both days I saw them play this year - as in the past - the Cubs won.