Road Tips

Creekside Bar and Grill - Davenport, IA

A good friend of mine who I grew up with in Newton, IA, Randy Adams, owns Creekside Bar and Grill in Davenport. For the longest time, he's been working on trying to get a great burger to serve at his place. Knowing my penchant for cheeseburgers, he enlisted my help in trying to find the right combination of meat, bun and toppings. And with the help of Stephen, the head cook at Creekside, I think they may have got it close to being an outstanding burger.

Randy moved to Davenport in 1982 for work and we'd stay in touch from time to time. When I moved to Davenport in 1991, we hooked up right away and picked up our friendship like we'd just seen each other for the last time just a couple days prior. Randy ended up getting a job at the Rock Island Arsenal, then later on at John Deere. But he always harbored the idea of owning his own bar at some point.

Randy's second wife, Kristy, was also keen on the idea of opening a bar and the two set out to find a place that would be in near move-in condition for their bar. What they found was an old McDonald's location at the corner of George Washington Blvd. and Brady Street (see map), right next to Duck Creek in Davenport. The place had been closed for over three years and it was pretty dire on the inside. It took about nine months of a lot of hard work and remodeling by Randy, Kristy and a number of friends and contractors before they finally opened the doors in July of 2006.

What is interesting about the building Creekside is housed in, it was the first McDonald's franchise to open west of the Mississippi River. In 1959, McDonald's opened the doors of their first restaurant in Iowa. Of course, like other McDonald's, it was an immediate hit. It was also the place to work if you were in high school. In fact, a former C.E.O. of McDonald's, Jim Skinner, worked there while he was going to high school in 1962.

This McDonald's location was also first in a couple of other things - it was one of the first McDonald's anywhere to have indoor seating. Also, it was one of the first - and it may have been the first - McDonald's to have a drive-thru window. The drive-thru lane was literally made out of the bank of Duck Creek above the bike path. The old drive-thru lane is now Creekside's beer garden.

The Creekside is also a popular place for live blues music and has become well-known in the Quad Cities as a place to have over-21 birthday parties, celebrations and retirement parties. While they do have a large screen projection television, it's not really known as a sports bar. Still, they do pack people in to watch sporting events from time to time. At one point, Creekside was one of the few places where you could watch Iowa sports on the Big Ten Network as they've had DirecTV since they opened up.

From Day 1, Randy wanted to have a great burger at the place. They featured hand-pattied, never frozen burgers, grilled over an open flame. I tried one and it wasn't very good. Kristy experimented with adding Lipton's Onion Soup mix to the meat. That made it even worse. They tried different types of ground beef. It still wasn't very good.

Randy and Kristy eventually split up and divorced. Randy got the bar in the settlement. In the meantime, an old girlfriend of Randy's, Lorrie Brekke Ricketts, came back into his life and she became involved in the bar. As time went on, Lorrie took over most of the day-to-day operations with the bar while Randy continued to work his full-time job at John Deere. Lorrie's sons Ryan and Stephen started to help out as cooks, and her daughter, Morgan, tends bar from time to time. To make things even more interesting, Lorrie's dad, Randy, is one of their best customers and one of Randy Adams' - and mine - good friends here in the Quad's. Here's a picture of Lorrie and Randy.

(Update May 2012 - Lorrie had been battling health issues off and on for the past couple of years.  She survived Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma about 8 years ago, but as it happens with many survivors, the cancer finds its way back into your system in some other way.   A mass on her heart was discovered and she had been having trouble breathing.  When a specialist was called in for surgery on Lorrie, he found a golf ball sized tumor on her heart.  Then he wanted to check what appeared to be a clot in her lung and found that her lungs were ravaged with cancer.  There wasn't much that could be done for her at that point and Lorrie peacefully passed away on Monday, May 21.  Click here to view her obituary.)

It took finding the right type of ground beef and a little ingenuity on Stephen's part to come up with what I finally call a suitable burger to write about on my blog - the Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger. Last fall, Stephen came up to me and said, "Hey, we got a new burger patty. It's pretty good."

Randy told me, "Yeah, it's pretty good. Except we've got to get rid of the burgers we have before we can start selling 'em."

I asked Randy if I could try one now and he said, "Well, yeah, sure." So, Stephen made a cheeseburger up for Randy Adams, Randy Brekke and myself. And it was pretty good. Much better than any burger I'd had up to that point. But there was still some work to do.

Actually, I hadn't been eating the burgers when I'd go in. They had a pretty good grilled pork tenderloin that they'd top with cheese, onions, pickles and jalapeno peppers. And they also featured a 12 oz, 10-inch-long chargrilled hot dog they called "The Homewrecker". And they'd top it with Creekside's homemade chili along with chopped onions, cheddar cheese and jalapenos. It was a gut bomb from the word go, but it tastes pretty damn good.

Randy, Lorrie and Stephen were still working on finding a good bun for their burgers, as well. Stephen finally found one that he liked and he butters them up and toasts them on a grill for a minute or so to give them a little crunchiness. And the bun doesn't fall apart.

I've been somewhat hesitant to make blog entries on friend's restaurants. Up to this point, I'm not certain Randy would have liked what I would have written about his burgers. But they finally found the right kind of combination of meat, bun and toppings to make a very good burger.

Last winter, I was in one day and I asked Stephen if they were into the new meat yet. He said, "Oh, yeah. We're going strong with it, too." So I ordered up a cheeseburger. He said, "I made up a Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger the other day. It was pretty damn good. You want me to make you one of those?"

Man, that did sound good. And it was. Stephen would saute the mushrooms and cook Applewood smoked bacon on the flat grill. The burger was big and juicy and it was very, very good.

However, the next couple times I came in to get a burger, well, it was overcooked and not as good as the one Stephen made for me. That was the one thing that Randy was trying to get through the head of his employees - consistency. He said, "That's sort of why we have the chili made the same way, why we have our Bloody Mary's made the same way. We need to have our burgers consistent, too. We can't have 'em be great one day and so-so the next."

 

One day not long ago, I was in Creekside with our next door neighbors, George and Hanna. I asked Stephen if he could make one of his Swiss-Mushroom-Bacon cheeseburgers. He went back to the grill area to make it. When it came out it was so thick and juicy that it actually looked like a double cheeseburger. George thought the same thing and I had to show him that it was the large chunks of bacon and generous sauteed mushrooms on the burger. And it was outstanding. It was juicy and succulent with each bite. The new toasted bun that Creekside has had a nice little crunch to it, but helped soak up the juices that didn't drip on to the plate. Stephen had cooked up a winner.

Stephen (shown at the right cooking at the grill) is pretty consistent with his burgers now. In fact, I told him that I needed to have two good burgers in a row to be able to be confident to write about the burgers at Creekside. When that happened, I wrote this entry.

In addition to writing about the Creekside Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger on this blog, I also nominated the burger for the Iowa Beef Council's new "Best Burger in Iowa" contest. I figured that Stephen's Mushroom-Swiss-Bacon cheeseburger was worth a shot. I took some pictures of the burgers (some of the same that you're seeing here in this entry), and sent the entry form into the Iowa Beef Council. As I write this entry, we're still waiting to see if representatives from the organization show up for a burger. It was dependent upon the number of nominations Creekside would get on the burger. Only the top five nominations in numbers would get visits to try the burger. And I'm sure there's going to be some ballot box stuffing from a lot bigger restaurants.

Since then, I had Stephen made a cheddar cheese burger and top it with ham and a fried egg - medium. He's even tried it with the Applewood smoked bacon instead of the Canadian bacon. Now that Creekside has been getting their act together on the burgers, it's suddenly become on of the better places in the Quad Cities to get a burger. Consistency is the key and Stephen has been doing a good job of showing his brother, Ryan, and the other part-time cooks his way of doing burgers. While Creekside may not win the title of "Best Burger in Iowa" in the near future, they have an even better shot of winning the title of "Best Burger in the Quad Cities" even sooner.

(Update - Creekside Bar and Grill was sold to a group in February of 2015 and they are planning on turning it into a sports bar.   They are planning on changing the menu and revamping the building to be more of a sports bar/restaurant.)

Day Trip to Hilo, Hi

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Ever since I was a little kid, I had some sort of a weird hankering to go to Hilo, HI.  I don't know why.  I always had some sort of a wanderlust even as a little kid.  I used to look through atlas's and encyclopedias and for some reason Hilo always fascinated me.  We were on the Big Island and up in Waimea, so we decided to head further down the road to Hilo along State Highway 19, also known as the Hawaii Belt Road.

As I said in my original post about the Big Island (click here to see that entry), you can find 11 of the 13 microclimates found on Earth on the island.  Just east of Waimea, it turned into a hilly, farmland/forest area with lush green hillsides, clouds that hugged the hills and tree-lined roadways that reminded us of Door County in Wisconsin.  The weather was cool - temperatures were in the upper 60's as we drove toward the east coast of the island.   But it was sunny and pleasant.  Much nicer than what it was back in Iowa. 

When we got to Honoka'a, we screwed up.  We should have taken a backroad up to the lookout overlooking the Waipi'o Valley.  The Waipi'o Valley, we found out later during our trip, is not only breathtaking in its beauty, it has a historical reverence among native Hawaiians.  It was in the Waipi'o Valley that Kamehameha the Great was proclaimed ruler of all the Hawaiian Islands in 1780.  In fact, the Waipi'o Valley is known as "The Valley of Kings" as many of Hawaii's rulers lived in the Valley during their reign.  We did get back up to Waipi'o Valley a few days later, hoping to find a site to take a picture of the full moon rising out of the ocean.  But it was raining tremendously that day - and evening - and we weren't able to take the pictures or take in the spectacular views of the valley.  That's probably the biggest regret I have about our visit to Hawaii. 

Heading past Honaka'a, the road turned south along the eastern coast of the Big Island.  The weather had turned warmer, but was still somewhat breezy.  As we were heading along, we'd turn off on sideroads just to see where they'd go.  More often than not they'd lead to nowhere, but sometimes there would be a little seaside village at the end of the road.  One little village we visited was Paauhau, a little place that had really nothing more than a post office and a few small houses.  This is the view of the sea on the steep hillside road going down to Paauhau. 

Hawaii State Highway 19 from that point south follows what was an old sugar train route that would transport sugar cane to facilities in Hilo to get processed and shipped out.  It was a nice road, albeit somewhat heavily traveled.   

 

Along the highway to Hilo, there were a number of little scenic turnouts that looked out over the ocean.  We just happened to stop at one such turnout just to check out the view.  What we got was a pleasant surprise - a humpback whale frolicking in the ocean.  At first, Cindy and I were the only ones there.  But our pointing and our picture taking must have garnered some attention as the parking lot quickly filled with cars.  And we got quite a show.  While the whale never fully breached the surface, its tail - known as a fluke - popped up from time to time.  It went on for about five minutes.  It provided quite a thrill for Cindy who just loves watching the whales.

There was a row of houses just below the scenic overlook.  I heard a guy down below say, "It's quite a sight, isn't it?"  I looked down and there was a guy, probably in his 60's, looking out at the same thing we were seeing with a pair of binoculars.  "That's really something else," he said as he put the binoculars back up to his face. I figured that if a resident of Hawaii thinks seeing the whales play in the ocean is a neat sight, it must REALLY be a neat sight! 

The scenic overlook along the highway looked down to what appeared to be a park area down by the coastline.  We tracked back about a mile and came across an access road that took us down to the open area bounded by black volcanic rocks that went into a small bay.  The open area was a small park that once housed a school house where a number of school children and their teachers were swept away by the April Fools Day tsunami in 1946.  There is a memorial near the shoreline with the names of those who lost their lives that day. 

 

But there was something sort of surreal about the point.  There really wasn't a beach, but there were young kids swimming in the pools shielded by lava rock.  The waves were coming in and pounding the rocks, but the pools close to shore were relatively calm.  The grass and vegetation in the park was overly green, given that we were on the windward side of the island and they received a lot of rain annually.  But that day was beautiful with temps in the mid-70's. 

 

 

We got back up on the main road to Hilo and headed south.  A few miles north of Hilo, we saw a sign that directed us to a side road that was designated as a scenic roadway.   Called the Pepe'ekeo Scenic Drive, it's a four mile stretch of roadway through a jungle of African Lilly trees and other tropical foliage.  Along the way there was the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens.  We were told this was one of the "must see" things while we were in Hawaii as the gardens feature natural waterfalls, over 2000 species of plants and flowers, and a beautiful view of the ocean.  Admission was $15 bucks, which wasn't a problem, but Cindy was sort of looking for a beach to go to.  We passed on the Botanical Gardens not knowing what we missed, or if we really missed anything.  I mean, we had seen a lot of lavish flowers and plants at our hotel.  What more could we see?

 

At the start of the Pepe'ekeo Scenic Drive on the north side was this little general store.  We stopped in so we could get some water.  They had a map of the U.S. with pins in the cities from people who had visited their store.  Davenport, IA was already pinned. 

Cindy got to talking with the two 20-something sisters working the store with their like-aged brother.  Cindy remarked to the girls, "You know it's a shame when a pack of cigarettes ($6.99) was cheaper than a gallon of milk ($8.79)."

One of the girls said, "I know, everything is horrendously high priced in Hawaii."

The other girl asked, "How much is gas where you're from?"  I told her that I paid $2.79 a gallon just before we came to Hawaii.  She exclaimed, "$2.79 a gallon?  Oh, I wish we could get gas for under $3.00 a gallon here!"   

Cindy ended up getting an iced coffee instead of a water.  She said it was very good.  Hawaiian coffee did smell wonderful, I have to admit. 

The scenic drive reconnected with Highway 19 just about four miles north of Hilo.  We drove a couple miles down the road and we passed a cemetery with this huge banyan tree right in the middle of the property.  It looked perfectly proportioned and Cindy had me go back so she could get some pictures of it.  The cemetery was sectioned off in plots for Korean, Japanese and Hawaiian families.  It was sort of interesting.  With the big banyan tree and the ocean in the background, it was a beautiful final resting place.  We lingered in the cemetery for awhile before we headed into Hilo.

 

 

Hilo was not really what I expected.  Actually, I expected a somewhat modern tropical paradise.  It was far from that. A good portion of the downtown area was destroyed with the tsunami of 1960.  But it looked like they hadn't done any updating since 1960.  Store fronts and buildings had an older look to them, sort of like a land where time had been forgotten.  I remarked a couple times that downtown Hilo looked like pictures of Havana, Cuba that I've seen.  It looked stuck in the 50's and 60's.  It wasn't that it was bad, but we certainly didn't think it was worth getting out to walk around the downtown area. 

Residential areas weren't much better.  There were a number of houses that I would categorize as "shacks" with metal roofs and thin walls.  I do have to say the area around and on the University of Hawaii-Hilo campus was very nice, however.  It sort of looked like a nice place to go to school.  I'm sure any place on Hawaii would be a nice place to go to school.

We ended up on the Hilo Bay waterfront as Cindy wanted to go out and walk on the beach to look for shells.  The Hilo Bay beach is, well, it's not that nice of a beach.  It's a ruddy, black sand beach where it's more rocky pumice than sand.  It was somewhat muddy, as well.  We were the only people on the beach, so that probably should have told us something there.  It had begun to cloud over and the wind was coming in pretty strong off the sea.  Much to Cindy's dismay there were little to no sea shells to be found.  But she did find some interesting clear green and brown glass-like objects on the beach.  When she showed them to me, I said, "Cindy, that's glass from broken beer bottles."

She went, "Ee-yew," and threw them down. 

 

 

We drove around Hilo for a bit before heading out of town back toward our hotel on the other side of the island.  We decided to take Saddle Road back across the island.  One of our guide books was describing Saddle Road as a "rugged former Army road built during World War II to ferry troops across the island between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa".  But it also cautioned that much of the road was in such bad shape and dangerous that some rental car agencies wouldn't permit their cars on the road.  We never got that warning from Hertz. 

When we stopped at the general store on the Pepe'ekeo scenic drive, Cindy asked the people about driving on Saddle Road.  The young guy said, "The first few miles out of Hilo are a little rough, but then they're working on the road around the 12 mile mark.  For about seven miles, you'll be in road work and the going will be slow.  But after that the road is new and you can go pretty well on it.  But on the western end, it goes back to the way it used to be - very narrow roads, tricky curves on hills and pretty rough."  He also said to look out for the locals who drive the road on a daily basis and they know every turn, twist and pot hole.  "And they drive it fast!"  Cindy was sort of hesitant to go on it, but we decided to give it a try. 

Saddle Road was everything the young guy said it was.  We started a steady climb up Highway 200 west of Hilo and encountered a lot of road construction along the way.  They were either resurfacing existing road surfaces or where constructing a new road that wouldn't be as winding with a lot of blind curves as the old road was.  A few miles further down the road, it turned into a wonderful road with wide shoulders, plainly marked lanes and a smooth ride.  Then almost as suddenly just past Mauna Kea, the road turned into this rough, narrow patch of roadway with difficult sight distances.  It continued that way to the western terminus just south of Waimea.

The weather was fluid, as well.  The temperature dropped as we continued our climb and we encountered rain showers.  Almost as quickly as we ran into rain, it stopped, the clouds parted and the sun came out.  They always say in Iowa that if you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes.  Well, on the Big Island you can drive 15 miles and go from cold and rainy to warm and sunny.  Or in the case on Saddle Road from cold and rainy to cool and sunny.

Saddle Road goes right in between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.  It basically goes on the "saddle" between the two mountains.  The GPS we had with us showed that at its highest point Saddle Road was 6,831 feet above sea level.  And the temperatures were in the upper 50's at that point.  This is a picture of Mauna Loa, which in the Hawaiian language means "Long Mountain".  (Mauna Kea is Hawaiian for "White Mountain" because of the snow that caps the peak at times.)  I tried my best to get a picture of Mauna Loa.  Of course, after I took this picture, I realized that our new camera that we bought before we went to Hawaii had a program with it that allowed you to take a chain of shots and the program would fuse them together into one panoramic picture.  That's why I got more of the road instead of the mountain in this picture.  But you get the idea of how long the mountain is. 

We were damn happy to get off Saddle Road at it's western junction with the Highway 190, the main road between Waimea and Kailua-Kona.  We were still about 3,000 feet above sea level and about 12 miles from our hotel.  We had just been buzzed by natives in their trucks, taking the narrow curves at over 35 miles and hour.  We had to navigate around pot holes, drop offs on the side of the road and one-lane bridges where it was a life-or-death contest to see who would get the right of way.  I can see why some car rental agencies wouldn't let their cars on Saddle Road before the construction began.  It's sort of weird that they're now working on the east end of the road, and the middle part is as nice of a highway that you find anywhere.  But the last 10 miles of the west end of the road appears to have no maintenance or upkeep since the original gravel road was paved in 1949.  We needed a couple stiff mai-tai's back at the hotel to calm us down upon our arrival. 

I understand they're now doing environmental studies on the feasibility of reworking the last 10 miles of Saddle Road on the west side of the island.  Those studies should be complete sometime this year.  The goal is to have Saddle Road completely done by 2012 offering a safe and quick way for people to go from Kailua-Kona to Hilo rather than around the southern or northern sides of the Big Island. 

While we didn't experience the 11 of the 13 microclimates found the Big Island, we certainly were in a lot of different types of weather on our trip that day.  There was a lot of great scenery and we're certain we missed a lot of other things that we could have stopped to see if we'd just taken the time.  We didn't really plan the day out that well - we should have left much earlier in the day.  We never really decided to take off for Hilo until after we had breakfast at the Hawaiian Style Cafe in Waimea.  And it was nearly 11 o'clock when we finished there. 

But as far as the overall drive was concerned, it was beautiful going along Highway 19 on the eastern shore of the Big Island.  While I really wanted to have some time to sit by the ocean and chill out at the hotel, I'm really glad we took the day to go explore the eastern side of the island.  My advice would be to rent a car for at least a day (most of the resorts on the west side of the island have car rental agencies on site) and go explore the island.  It was certainly one of the highlights of our trip to the Big Island.

 

Harbor Grill - Kawaihae, HI

 

When the Tsunami warnings were issued when we were on the Big Island, it basically screwed up our plans of having breakfast that morning at Harbor Grill in the northwest coastal village of Kawaihae (Ka-WHY-hey), just up the coast from our hotel in the Waikoloa Beach Resort.  Harbor Grill had come as a top recommendation for both breakfast and dinner from Rick, the concierge at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.  Since we couldn't make it for breakfast earlier in the day, we decided to go up for dinner instead that evening.  It was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel to Kawaihae on a beautiful Hawaiian evening.

The Harbor Grill is one of two sister restaurants side-by-side just off the highway coming into Kawaihae (see map).  The more casual Seafood Bar occupies the upper floor above a handful of small businesses just to the south of the Harbor Grill.  The Harbor Grill is the more elegant of the two with a somewhat antique nautical theme to the decor of the restaurant.  The owner of both restaurants - James "Popeye" Brisson - is sort of a local character around Kawaihae.  Brisson and his wife, Carolyn, have collected a number of old nautical artifacts and pictures and have done a wonderful job in incorporating them into a 1930's Hawaiian style building.

It was far from busy that evening at The Harbor Grill, quite possibly from the fall out of the tsunami warning earlier in the day.   The Harbor Grill had a few tables on an outside patio, but it looked more inviting inside.  We were seated at a table back in the corner and given menus to look over.

The chef and manager of the Harbor Grill, Darcy Ambrosia, features a number of fresh seafood dishes along with grass-fed Hawaiian-raised beef.   While the menu isn't extensive, it's interesting with pasta, steaks, ribs and, of course, seafood cooked in many different ways.

Our waiter came out and introduced himself.  I was sort of surprised when he said his name.  I asked again and he said what I thought he said the first time.  His name was "Lurch".  Lurch, like in the Addams Family.  I said, "Really?  Is that a nickname?"

He said, "No sir.  That's my given name."

I said, "Really?"  I didn't mean to be incredulous, but I'd never heard that name given to a person before.  I asked him, "Are you German?"

He said, "Well, I grew up outside of Cincinnati, but it is a German name."

Cindy said, "That's kinda neat!"

Lurch said, "Yeah, well, it's a great conversation starter with the ladies."

Lurch told us that he had been in Hawaii for 13 years.  He said that even though he gets back to the mainland from time to time to see his family, "this is home." 

We immediately ordered up a shrimp cocktail and I wanted a mai tai.  Lurch said, "We have the best mai tai's on the island.  Guaranteed."  I had to sign up for one of those.  Cindy wanted wine, so she ordered a glass of the Renato Pinot Grigio.

When Lurch brought the mai tai out, it was the deepest, darkest color for a mai tai that I'd seen on the island.   Cindy thought they put Grand Marnier in their mai tai, but it was the real 151-proof dark rum.  Lurch told me that along with the pineapple juice, they put lilikoi juice into their mai tai's.  It was absolutely as good as promised.  But you've really got to watch your intake with mai tai's.  This one was very good and a second one was almost ordered, but I decided to back off and get a Kona Big Wave Golden Ale after I finished the mai tai.

We were sort of stuck as what to get.  Lurch brought out the shrimp cocktail and told us of the special that evening.  They had a shinomo fresh-catch that evening.  Shinomo is sort of a broad-nosed swordfish that's lighter and more flaky than swordfish.  He said it could be grilled, steamed or grilled with cajun seasonings and served with stir-fried veggies and smashed potatoes.  That sounded pretty good.

Cindy was asking about the Red Thai Seafood Curry that was on the menu.  Lurch explained that it was a combination of a fresh-catch fish - that day it was ono - along with scallops, mussels and Thai veggies in a slightly spicy red curry sauce.  Cindy said, "Oh, that sounds good.  That's what I'm gonna have."

I was torn between getting a steak or seafood and I asked Lurch to re-describe the fresh catch special that evening.  When he got to the cajun seasoning part, I said, "Sold.  That sounds great." 

It was a 20 minute wait between our order and getting the food to or tables.  That afforded me another chance to have a Big Wave Golden Ale.  I was probably going to get a glass of wine with dinner, but the Big Wave Golden Ale was so light and refreshing as a beer that I couldn't pass up ordering another before the meal came out.

Lurch brought our meals out and I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the shinomo that was on the plate.  It was covered with tons of cajun spices - just as I like - and served with a creamy lilikoi sauce.  From the first bite to the last, it was just outstanding.  The taste sensations that exploded in my mouth were intense, but not overpowering.  The creamy lilikoi sauce knocked some of the spiciness out of the fish, but didn't detract from the overall taste.

Cindy said that her Red Thai Curry Seafood was equally wonderful.  We traded bites back and forth and I just loved that slightly spicy curry sauce they used on her entree.  The ono was light, yet had a lot of flavor.  We were in culinary heaven with this meal.

Lurch came out and offered us a dessert menu.  We were pretty full from dinner, but one thing caught my eye - a frosted lemon shortbread bar with a side of vanilla ice cream.  Cindy sort of protested, but when I reminded her we were on vacation, she said, "OK, bring us that and a couple spoons or forks or whatever."  And it, too was very good.  The lemon bar was very rich, but really had a great forward lemon taste.

Our meal at the Harbor Grill was one of the finest we had during our time in Hawaii, and we had a lot of great meals.  Not only was the food top-notch, the atmosphere was elegant, but relaxed, and our waiter - Lurch - was overly attentive, but knew when to leave us alone.  We did get one of their breakfast menus to take with us and I'm sort of upset that we never took the time to try out their Hawaiian sweet bread French toast with orange zest.  We'll just have to come back and try it at some point in the future, I guess.

(Update - In doing some research for linking some of the Road Tips entry to Urbanspoon, I found that Harbor Grill is now closed.  I hope Lurch found a job at another restaurant.)

Via Veneto - Chicago

I love finding old restaurants that are well known by the locals.  During a recent trip to Chicago, I took a dealer of ours out to lunch at Via Veneto, a place that he was familiar with.  Located on Lincoln Ave. in the far northwest side of the city in the Lincolnwood neighborhood (see map), I figured that I'd probably driven by the place a few times but had never really noticed it. 

Tony Barbanente is the owner and head chef at Via Veneto.  The restaurant has been in business for over 20 years, first with a location on Peterson Ave. and then in its present day location.  The Barbanente family is involved in a number of upscale Italian restaurants in the Chicago area including the former La Donna restaurant, Amore Mio in Hoffman Estates and a new Mexican restaurant, Deseo, that will open this spring.   The Barbanente's hail from the southeastern coast of Italy from the village of Mola di Bari.  Many of the recipes they use in their restaurants come from their grandmother who was Sicilian.  The ingredients they use at Via Veneto are fresh and they make their own pasta each day. 

Parking for Via Veneto is available on the side streets off of Lincoln in a comfortable residential area.  It was just after noon when we pulled up to Via Veneto and had to park a long block away from the restaurant.  It was about a two minute walk to the restaurant from where we parked.

We were seated in Via Veneto's main dining room, a comfortable room with natural light coming through the windows.  The sturdy tables were covered with white table cloths and the chairs were heavy and comfortable.  We were given lunch menus by the hostess and a basket of fresh bread.  Parmesan, oil and vinegar were available on the table.

Our waitress, a pleasant middle-aged woman, came over to ask us if we wanted any thing to drink.  I asked my guest, Ricardo, if he wanted any wine with lunch.  He said, "No, I'd better not.  Wine will make me sleepy and I've got a lot of stuff to do this afternoon."

Ricardo warned me that the portions at Via Veneto were generous.  I'd had a pretty good sized breakfast that morning, not thinking that we'd be going out for lunch.  I really didn't want any pasta, even though some of the pasta dishes sounded pretty sweet.  Actually, the lunch menu had a lot to choose from.  The dinner menu at Via Veneto isn't much different from the lunch menu.

Ricardo, who is Phillipine by birth, ordered first and he got an appetizer of Carpaccio del Polpo - or in plain English, Octopus.  He said, "Oh, man.  This is good.  You've got to give it a try."  I wasn't too hopped up about eating cooked octopus, but I told him I'd give it a go.  For his main entree, he got the mostaccoili lunch special - homemade mostaccioili pasta in Via Veneto's homemade marinara sauce.   I ended up ordering one of their house salads and I got the veal piccata.    I figured the veal - although plentiful - would be easy enough to eat after the big breakfast I had.

Our waitress brought out my salad and Ricardo's Carpaccio del Polpo.  Well, it was certainly unlike anything I've ever seen in my life.  It was swimming in a sauce of garlic, parsley and olive oil.  Ricardo cut off a chunk and put it on my bread plate.  I ate a couple bites and while it wasn't bad, I just don't overly care for the rubbery texture of octopus.  Ricardo, however, was in heaven.  "Oh, man!  This is so good.  This is exactly like what we used to have when I was growing up."

While my salad wasn't quite as interesting as Ricardo's octopus appetizer, it was still pretty good.  I was happy with the basic oil and vinegar Italian dressing they had on the salad.  Along with the homemade bread, it was a nice start to the meal.

Our entrees came out and Ricardo certainly wasn't kidding when he said the portions were generous at Via Veneto.  I had three good sized pieces of veal topped with a lemon piccata sauce and capers.  A broccoli and cauliflower crown along with sliced carrots garnished the plate.  Before I took my first bite, I could tell this was going to be pretty damn good as it smelled just wonderful.  And after my first bite, I knew that it was good.  Very good.  No, it was excellent.  It was some of the best veal piccata I'd ever had.  The veal was tender, the lemon piccata sauce was pungent, but it wasn't overpowering to the taste.  The veal piccata was certainly a surprising pleasure.

Ricardo proclaimed his mostaccioli to be "excellent" as well.  He said that he really liked their marinara sauce at Via Veneto.  He said, "I don't quite know what they do, but it's great.  I've tried to replicate it at home, and I can get it close.  But they're using some things that I can't quite figure out."

All in all, my meal at Via Veneto was outstanding.  I told Ricardo that this was the kind of place my wife would like to go to.  We're both big on old world style Italian restaurants, run by real Italians who know how to cook.  I told him that I'd have to bring my wife back to Via Veneto at some point.  It's a hidden gem that I'm happy to have finally found.

Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company - Columbia, MO

I'm in the process of putting on a new dealer in Columbia, MO, a great Midwestern college towns.  In fact, Columbia has been one of my favorite destinations since I began to travel in the mid-80's.  I had a meeting with my new dealer recently and I thought we were going out to dinner.  But his partner was out on an install and he had a meeting with a doctor later in the evening, so he begged off until next time.  That afforded me the chance to go back to one of the better brew pubs in the Midwest, Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company. 

Located on the west end of the downtown area and near the University of Missouri campus (see map), Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company opened in 1994 and is housed in a building that was built in the late 1920's.  It was the first brewery in Columbia since 1841.  The business is named after Flat Branch creek that flows not far from the building.  Years ago, the building was the home to the local Hudson automobile dealership.  The building features a unique curved barrel roof and they've kept the original brick walls and hardwood floors intact.  The brewery is on the premises and it's headed by Larry Goodwin, who has been at Flat Branch for about 10 years.  Plus, there's a great outdoor beer garden on the south side of the restaurant.  It's a very popular place for people in and around the Columbia.

I got into Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company around 7 p.m. and was met with a large crowd milling about in the lobby area.  The hostess told me that it would be approximately 30 to 45 minutes to get a table.  I noticed there were a couple places to sit at the bar and I asked if I could eat at the bar.  She said, "We have full menu service at the bar, yes."  The bar, itself, is sort of unique in that it has a couple of short 90 degree angles and I sat in a spot where I could easily lean up on the bar to my right.  It was sort of cumbersome for the bartenders to work around, but they managed.  

My bartender gave me a menu and I ordered up one of their pale ales - the Katy Trail Pale Ale.  It's an American-style pale ale made with Cascade hops.  It's not as forward of a pale ale like I normally like, but it was OK for that evening.  Flat Branch may have the largest beer list of any brew pub I've ever encountered.  They have a minimum of 10 different types of beer to choose from at any point in time.  However, Goodwin and his brewery crew have an arsenal of over 90 different types of beers they can brew.  They use hops and grain from all over the world including Germany, Belgium and New Zealand to make their special beers.   

In addition to their beers, Flat Branch Pub features one of the largest and most impressive Scotch selections in the Midwest.  And not only do they have a ton of great Scotches to choose from, they also have a fine selection of Bourbons, as well.   My colleagues Todd and Chris are big Scotch and Bourbon aficionados, respectively, and I thought about them as I looked over the whiskey menu.  I could see spending an afternoon in Flat Branch just trying the different Scotches they have to offer.

The food at Flat Branch Pub is a nice mix of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers and what I would characterize as upscale bar food.  They feature a rib eye steak, a pasta dish (Bayou chicken and sausage pasta - I've had it and it's great), ribs, chicken dishes and even brick oven pizza.  One thing that caught my eye was the Buffalo Stout meatloaf - they mix ground beef and lean buffalo meat and mix in some of their stout beer.  They top a couple slices with a barbecue bourbon glaze and you get your choice of one side.  I signed up for that and I got their dirty rice for my side. 

I had finished my Katy Trail Pale Ale and I was looking to try something else.   Most of the beers Flat Branch serves are unfiltered beers.  One that caught my eye was their Green Chili beer - a mild beer that is hopped up with Serrano and Anaheim peppers.  I asked my bartender for a sample of that.  She brought me a small 6 oz glass that was about half full.  It has a peppery smell to the beer and mildly spicy aftertaste.  But I decided to try their American Pale Ale - an American style pale ale that was actually a little more forward in the taste of the hops and bitters.  I liked it better than the Katy Trail Pale Ale. 

A waitress brought out my dinner and sat it in front of me at the bar.  The slabs of buffalo/beef meatloaf were about 3/4 inch thick and very lean.  They were sort of dry - I think they may have thrown them on the grill for a bit before they were served to me.  But the meatloaf was still good and I did like the sweet Bourbon barbecue sauce they had with the meatloaf.  The dirty rice was also very good with a nice spicy aftertaste to it.  Overall, the meal wasn't overwhelming, but it was good. 

The Flat Branch Pub and Brewing Company is one of the finest brew pubs I've encountered in my travels.  It has a great atmosphere, a number of above average beers, and the food isn't bad.  The beer garden is a great place to have a cool beer on a warm Missouri Summer afternoon.  While it may not be quite the place to go to impress a client, the food is still serviceable for a brew pub.  It's a great place to go for a quick bite with friends or by yourself. 

Kona Brewing Company - Kailua-Kona, HI

The Kona Brewing Company in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island is one of the more famous brew pubs in the U.S.  It was at the top of my list to try when we got to the Hawaiian Islands.  On our first full day on the Big Island, we went there for lunch and a few beers.

The Kona Brewing Company has been around since the mid-90's when the father and son team of Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa moved back to the Big Island from Oregon to start a brewery which featured beers that were to be made with "spirit, passion and quality".  Their first beer, Pacific Golden Ale, was released on February 14, 1995.  It became a hit and within three years they introduced their second beer, their famous Longboard Island Lager.  More beers came along the way and today the original brewery in Kailua-Kona brews 10 beers and puts out over 10,000 barrels annually.  

Five of their beers are bottled and made available all over Hawaii.  However, Kona Brewing Company has a brewing agreement with Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland, OR and with Redhook Ale Brewery in Portsmouth, NH to brew and bottle their Longboard Lager and Fire Rock Pale Ale, as well as their seasonal Pipeline Porter and Wailua Wheat Ale.  Although Kona Brewing Company says they maintain strict brewing control over their mainland brewed beers - even down to the mineral content of the water that goes into making their beers, locals told us they're not the same.  Anheuser-Busch has an agreement with Kona Brewing to distribute the beer in select markets in the U.S. mainland.  I've never seen any around the Midwest.  The closest distributor is in Colorado.

Today, in conjunction with their west coast and east coast brewers, Kona Brewing Company is the 14th largest craft brewer in the nation quickly approaching 100,000 barrels of beer sold annually.  But, quite unfortunately, neither of the two mainland breweries brew and bottle what turned out to be my favorite Kona beer - Big Wave Golden Ale (the original Pacific Golden Ale became Big Wave Golden Ale a few years ago).   More about that beer later on. 

We slept in on our first morning on Hawaii and had a late breakfast at the hotel.  We took off in our rental convertible with the top down and the sun shining down on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island.  It was a beautiful day with the temps in the low 80's.  We had driven around the downtown are of Kailua-Kona earlier that was teeming with tourists from a cruise ship moored out in the bay.  A lot of the restaurants and shops were tourist trap joints, beckoning people to come in and spend their money.  It was really too much for us. 

As we tried to drive away from the touristy area, I got the idea.  "Hey, I want to find that Kona Brewing Company!"  Cindy asked if they had food and I said, "Oh, yeah.  And I guess it's pretty good."  I put the name of the place into my GPS and it came right up.  Turned out we weren't very far away. 

The Brewpub at Kona Brewing Company is right next to the original brewery just north of the intersection of Kuakini Highway and Palani Road (see map).  The brew pub opened in part of the brewery in 1998.  At the time, Cameron Healy brought in Mattson Davis from Oregon to oversee the restaurant's operation.  Today, Mattson Davis is the President and CEO of Kona Brewing Company.

The menu consists of a number of varieties of fresh seafood and homegrown produce from the Hawaiian Islands.  The brew pub is also famous for their varieties of gourmet pizzas in which they use a garlic-infused olive oil base in their dough.  Davis had worked for a Portland, OR-based small chain of gourmet pizza restaurants - Pizzicato.  He kept the gourmet pizza concept with Kona Brewing Company's brew pub menu, but also added a number of appetizers, sandwiches and entrees that highlighted the Hawaiian grown concept behind the menu.

It was around 2:30 when we got to the front hostess stand just outside the outdoor seating area of the brew pub.  True enough, there was a working brewery right next door, right down to fork lifts maneuvering pallets of keg beer around an outside, fenced-in holding area.  It had kind of a weird industrial, yet tropical feel to the place.  It turned out that a lot of people were having a late lunch that afternoon and our wait was going to be about 20 minutes.  There were a handful of people sitting on benches near the hostess stand.  I asked the hostess if we could go in and get a beer from the bar.  She said, "Sure, but the 'beepers' here don't work in the bar for some reason, so you need to be outside to get 'buzzed'."  

I was hoping their beer would give me enough of a buzz.  

We went into the bar and the smell of their pizza hit us like a brick oven.  Oh, my God, it smelled wonderful!  We sort of looked at one another and Cindy said, "Oh, God, Will!  Smell that!  I don't know if I want a pizza, but that smell is so tempting!"   We picked up a menu while we were standing at the packed bar waiting to order a beer.  We took a look at the prices of their pizzas and that was probably the first time we realized restaurants in Hawaii weren't going to be cheap.  Just a basic 10" pepperoni pizza was $12 bucks.  OK, well, we're on vacation in Hawaii.

It took us a little while for the bartender to get over to get our beer order.  She was really working her tail off.  In addition to five bottled beers, Kona Brewing also has five beers on tap.  We both ordered up their Castaway India Pale Ale.  Actually, it's more of a mild American Pale Ale that does have some subtle hoppiness, but isn't as forward as most India Pale Ales.  We grabbed our glasses and went back outside to enjoy the day.  

While we were waiting at the bar, I noticed a number of posters on the wall of the inside of the brew pub touting shows that Kona Brewing Company had put on in the past.  They had shows that featured the likes of John Mayall, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson, Jonny Lang, Walter Trout, and Everclear.  It appeared that many of the shows were part of some blues festival that Kona Brewing Company evidently sponsored.   When we went back outside, we ended up at the counter of the Kona Brewing gift shop, just near the hostess stand.  We got to talking with the young guy working behind the counter.  

I asked him about all the shows on the posters in the main restaurant and asked where they had them.  He said, "Oh, we'd have 'em right here at the brewery.  That fenced in area was the backstage area, we put a stage in front of that and then people stood or brought lawn chairs in the parking lot."  

I asked when the last show was and he said, "Oh, geez, I don't know.  2004 or so.  It's been awhile."  He explained that they would have to shut down both the brewery and brew pub for two or three days to pull it off.  He said, "We can't afford to do that any longer."   He did say that they still sponsor much smaller shows that feature lesser known or local artists, but the days of the bigger shows are pretty much over. 

He explained that even before the economic downturn, business has been down at both the brewery and the brew pub due to a tourism slump in Kailua-Kona.  He said, "See that big cruise ship out in the harbor?  We used to have three of them come a couple times a week.  Now we only get one a couple times a week."  He said the place used to be packed with tourists - some days, the wait for a table would be 90 minutes.  "These days, we're just holding on with what we get."  

It wasn't much longer when our pager buzzed and we were taken to a table deep in the outdoor seating area.  We were seated at a table right next to a sea turtle sculpture that was pretty neat.  The late lunch crowd had begun to sort of filter out and our waitress came right away to check our drink orders and to drop off a couple menus.  I was almost done with my pale ale and I asked if I could get a Big Wave Golden Ale.  She said, "Oh, I'm sorry.  We're out of that today." 

I said, "We're at the brewery and it's one of your most popular beers and you're out of it today?"

She gave me a pained look and said, "Yeah, I know.  I'm sorry."  I decided to try one of the Longboard Lagers.  She said, "I know we have that today."  The Longboard Lagers are a little more full-bodied than most American Lagers.  It had sort of a Germanic lager taste to it.  But it was very good.

Cindy and I had ruled out getting a pizza.  She was on a mission to have some fish and since most of Kona Brewing Company's seafood is freshly caught, she decided on getting the Lawai'a Special - a sandwich that featured the fish of the day, grilled and put onto a homemade bun and topped with lettuce, tomato and a special sauce.  Ahi tuna was the catch of the day and she asked to have hers cooked medium rare. 

I was still thinking of getting at the very least a calzone, but I saw something on the menu that sounded great - Uncle's Fish Tacos.  I'm a sucker for fish tacos, especially if they're grilled and not breaded and deep-fried.  (That's like eating fish sticks on taco shells.)  I asked our waitress how the fish in the fish tacos was prepared and she said, "We season the fish with cajun spices, then we bake the filets in the oven.  Then we pull the filets apart when we serve them on the taco shells."  I happily signed up for that.

The outdoor seating area was very casual and very laid-back.  Each table had a huge umbrella that kept the hot sun off the tables and it was nice and cool.  There was sort of a garden area off to the side and Cindy pointed out this one plant to me.  She said, "What is that?"  I took a look and immediately recognized little flower clusters of fresh hops growing in a planter near the building.  Only I'd never seen hops that color before.  They were kind of the normal green at the bottom, but were sort of a deep red at the top.  I figured it must have been some sort of a tropical hop plant.  I guess I should have asked. 

When she brought the fish tacos out, I was overly surprised at the presentation.  They were topped with fresh island-grown cabbage and a salsa that included black beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, green onions and cilantro. And the fish was topped with a chipotle yogurt sauce with avacado aioli - a avacado/sour cream sauce that also has lemon and lime juices, with minced garlic, fresh basil and jalapenos.  It was outstanding.  I've got to make that for my fish tacos at home. 

Cindy also declared her Ahi tuna fish sandwich as being outstanding.  The chunk of tuna was the perfect size for a sandwich and it was cooked perfectly to her liking.  She ended up taking the ahi tuna off the bun about half-way through the meal to savor the taste of the fish.  She gave me a little bite of the tuna and it was excellent.  And I let her have a bite of my fish tacos and she got this look on her face of "Oh my God!"  She said with a mouthful of food, "That's great!"  And it was great. 

Lunch wasn't overly cheap - with our food and four beers (I went back to the Castaway Pale Ale for my last beer and Cindy had the same) the bill came to just over $50 bucks before tip.  And our waitress was very good so she got a 20% tip on top of the bill. 

Before we left we stopped at the gift shop and Cindy got a Kona Brewing Company visor that she could wear in the car when we had the top down.  And I picked up a Big Wave Golden Ale t-shirt.  It wasn't until later in the day when I was able to try a Big Wave Golden Ale back at the hotel.  I'm not big on fruit beers, but the fruit taste in the Big Wave Golden Ale was so subtle that it wasn't really noticeable.  The combination of the flavors in the beer made it a very refreshing taste sensation, especially on those warm Hawaiian days.  It immediately became my beer of choice when we'd go out for dinner or when we'd stop off at the bar at the hotel.

 

Of all the things that I probably miss most about Hawaii is the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale.  I was hoping that it would be available on the mainland, but it isn't.  I actually looked up on line to see if I could get Big Wave Golden Ale shipped to me in Iowa.  I found a wine store in Kailua-Kona that would sell me a case of Big Wave Golden Ale for $47.96.  Getting it to Iowa from Hawaii (as we found when we shipped a couple boxes back home) ain't cheap.  It would cost $95 bucks to have it shipped regular FedEx Ground.  But I'm not kidding you - I'm still thinking about it. 

The food at the Kona Brewing Company was excellent.  We loved the outdoor seating area and the coziness of the indoor bar area.  The beer was equally excellent.  We had entertained going back to the place to get a pizza at some point, but just like many other places we really liked on our visit to Hawaii, we never made it back - mainly because of all the options available to us.  But even if we don't ever make it back to the Big Island, I'll always have great memories of the beer and the great fish tacos at Kona Brewing Company. 

Smoke 'n Fire - Overland Park, KS

While Smoke 'n Fire would be a cool name for a barbecue joint, you can't eat at the place in Overland Park, KS (see map).  It's a superstore for barbecue smokers, grilles, inside and outside fireplaces, and barbecue accessories along with spices, rubs and sauces.  I had seen their ad on TV when I was in Kansas City recently and I took the time one day to run out there to check the place out.

Jim and Joan Cattey first opened Smoke 'n Fire in 1998.  How they got into the business is rather interesting.  They used to run a farm feed and seed store in Northern Missouri.  Through a number of sales contests, they ended up winning some barbecue grills.  They had a friend who was selling wood-fired stoves and they sort of partnered up in selling fireplaces, stoves and grilles.  The location on 151st St. in Overland Park is the third location Smoke 'n Fire has been in - each location more than doubled the size of their previous site. 

Jim Cattey (right) is sort of a local celebrity in that he has a half-hour barbecue show - Xtreme Barbecue Radio - on WHB radio from May thru October each year, plus he stars in his own commercials that air on TV.  Cattey has also authored a book called "Backyard Grilling" along with his wife and chef Richard McPeake.  In fact, Richard McPeake conducts a number of barbecuing and smoking classes at Smoke 'n Fire.  When you buy selected smokers or barbecue grilles at Smoke 'n Fire, they'll throw in a basic class for free. 

McPeake also has authored a couple of books on his own on backyard smoking including "Backyard Barbecue - The Art of Smokeology".  He's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and is a certified judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society.  He has conducted over 300 classes for over 9000 people in his association with Smoke 'n Fire.  He is also the guy behind the great barbecue web site, Rib Stars, where he sells copies of his books and his own barbecue rubs.

I'd finished a morning meeting at a dealer I've been chasing off and on in the Overland Park area and it turned out that Fire 'n Smoke's location was not far from the dealer's store.  Being the grilling and smoking nut that I am, I wanted to go over and check out this place. 

As I walked in the door, I was met by two of the new style Weber "Bullet" Smokers.  One was the regular 18' size, but they also have a new 22" smoker that's available for $399.  The biggest difference between the Bullet smoker I've had for about three years now and the new style is that the new ones have a built in thermometer - my biggest bitch when it came to my smoker.  It also appears to be a heavier gauge of metal in the new ones.  I immediately wanted one. 

In addition to the two Weber smokers and a large array of Weber grilles, they also had a wide variety of smokers and grilles including some pretty heavy-duty, industrial style smokers that I wouldn't mind having.  But the prices certainly weren't cheap at Smoke 'n Fire.  The quality of the grilles and smokers they had were top-notch.  They featured a large selection of grilles and smokers from Lynx, Beef Eater, Primo and Ducane.   They also had one of the famous Big Green Egg ceramic grill and smoker.  Those things are not cheap.

The place was just huge.  I was walking around in a literal daze just looking at everything they had to offer.  It was a barbecue paradise for me.  They had everything you needed to make any type of backyard grilling a success.  My head was spinning at each turn looking at some of the neat accessories they had to offer.  There were little knick-knacks like aprons, mitts, thermometers, grilling tools, cleaning tools and cleaning brushes.  They had knife sharpeners, meat marinators and tenderizers, grid lifters (I almost got one of those myself), and something called "Grill Floss".  It cleaned the underside of your grill grate.  That's a little anal for me. 

I was back in the corner of the store and I found their area that featured a number of rubs, sauces and spices.  I took a quick picture of the area and a lady popped around the corner and she said, "Sir, we don't allow pictures or videos to be made in the store."

I was incredulous.  "Really," I asked.  "Why's that?"

She said, "The owner feels that it's his intellectual property and he doesn't want someone coming in here to take pictures so they may get ideas for their own place." 

I said, "Oh, OK.  Sorry.  I live up in Iowa and I wanted to show some of my friends this place.  You've got a mecca for grilling and smoking here." 

I went back into another corner of the store and I found shelves of wood chips in all sizes of bags - from 100 lbs. down to 10 pound bags.  They had all different types of wood from mesquite to hickory to alder to cherry to...  Well, if you can think of a type of wood that you can use to smoke with, they had it at Smoke 'n Fire.  They even had different varieties of flavors within some of the wood chips they sold.  I had to get a picture of this, so I snuck one last picture.

I was still wandering around when I heard the lady who initially accosted me about taking pictures with my cell phone say to another guy, "Yeah, that's him back in the corner.  He says he's just looking around."

This guy came up to me and asked if he could be of any assistance.  As I told the lady before, I told him that I was a big barbecue aficionado and that I saw their ad on television the night before and wanted to check the place out.  He asked me where I lived and I told him I lived back in Iowa.  He said, "Well, before you leave, give us your name so we can put you on our mailing list."  He said it with sort of an untrusting tone of voice.  I mean, I guess I can see why they would be worried about people coming in and taking pictures to get ideas.  It was a helluva business for them.

I did give my name, e-mail and mailing address to the lady at the counter before I left.  I'm not certain she actually added it to the list as I've not seen anything from them either via e-mail or regular mail, and it's been awhile since I've been in.  In the back of my mind, I think they probably wanted to take down my name and address in case they found that I was going to open my own style of Smoke 'n Fire store so they could sue me at some point in the future.  I'm now probably labeled as an "undesirable" in their system. 

And as I left I did see a sign near the front door that said, "No Photo or Video Cameras".  I may or may not have seen that when I came in...

But Smoke n' Fire is truly a mecca for those of us who are heavily into barbecuing and smoking.  I didn't buy anything this trip, but I'll be back to Kansas City in a few weeks and I'll have to block out an hour or so during the day to come in and look for some stuff.  The only problem is that they close at 5:30 every day so I can't spend some time some evening there.  But that's OK - I'd rather be eating good barbecue at that time rather than looking for stuff to buy.

  

Booches - Columbia, MO

I've been to Booches in Columbia, MO, geez, I don't know, maybe three dozen times since I first found the place back in the 80's.  Since then, I haven't found many other places in my travels that makes a cheese burger as good as the one at Booches.  I had a meeting in Columbia recently and purposely came to town early to get a couple of their small cheeseburgers one afternoon.

Booches was established in 1884 - yep, that's right, 1884 - by Paul "Booch" Venable.   For over 90 years Booches was a male-only establishment.  That was pretty hard to believe when I first heard that, considering the Columbia area is one of the more progressive and liberal areas in the Midwest.

In 1976, three friends - Mick Jabbour, Jerry Dethrow, and Bob Rappold - who all shared a love for creative writing and poetry, bought Booches and transformed it into what is the present day incarnation of the place.  They quickly became known as having a killer cheeseburger and became a favorite lunch-time hangout for University of Missouri students and professors.  Over the years, I've had a number of people from the St. Louis area tell me about how they used to get Booches burgers when they were going to school in Columbia.

Running Booches gave the three friends time to dabble in their love of poetry and they ended up publishing five poetry reviews called "Review La Booche" that featured work from local writers.  Rappold eventually left the trio in the mid-80's and opened a small cafe with his wife near Booches.  Dethrow eventually bought out Jabbour's share of Booches in 1993 and he ran the place until 2004.  He then sold Booches to longtime managers Charlie Kurre and Rick Robertson who continue to run the place today.

For years, Booches was primarily a pool hall featuring a number of full-sized pool, snooker and no-pockets billiard tables.  Jabbour, Dethrow and Rabbold moved two or three tables out of the building to make room for a dining area up front near the bar.  First and foremost, Booches is still a pool hall that hosts a number of specialty tournaments.  But the massive draw continues to be their cheeseburgers.  In 2000, USA Today called Booches one of the Top 10 burgers in the nation.  The little secret that a lot of area residents knew about for 24 years suddenly became a national phenomenon.  But notoriety hasn't changed Booches one bit and the burgers are still consistently great.

Booches is located in downtown Columbia, not far from the University of Missouri campus (see map).  It was about 1:30 when I got into Booches on a cold day recently.  There was still a pretty good sized lunch crowd in the place at that time.  And it was very diverse in ages.  There was a large group of college-aged students seated at a big table up front, an elderly couple was seated near the bar, and a number of middle-aged men and women were having Booches burgers for lunch.  Now that Columbia bars and restaurants are smoke free, there's no longer any of that gray haze that lingers over the place from the number of pool players who smoked while they played.  I've been told the smoking ban has hurt Booches' billiard business, but they've more than made it up with the amount of people coming in for their burgers.

Booches menu is located on the wall opposite the old ornate bar.  In addition to burgers, Booches also has grilled chicken sandwiches, pork loin sandwiches, hot dogs and chili dogs, and breakfast sandwiches.  It had been a couple years since I was last in Booches and I noticed they'd raised their prices a bit.  Their cheeseburgers are now $3 bucks apiece.

In addition to the menu on the wall, there's a number of vintage pictures and a lot of St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia.  Actually, the amount of St. Louis Cardinals pictures and memorabilia on the wall is pretty impressive.  A Cardinals fan could easily spend a half-hour just looking at all the stuff they have on display.

I took a small table near the front door.  Each time the door opened, a blast of cold air came up my back.  It was sort of uncomfortable, but I didn't mind it all that much knowing that a couple Booches cheeseburgers would be worth waiting for in the occasional cold.

Booches cheeseburgers are not all that big.  Two can easily be eaten in one sitting.  I did see one of the college-aged girls seated near me order three.  And she wasn't that big of a girl.  I'm sure I could have had three, myself, but I was going out for dinner with a prospective dealer later in the day and I didn't want to spoil my meal.

I ordered up a couple cheeseburgers and a beer.  And don't think just because the burgers are small they're gonna be out quickly.  The grill Booches uses isn't all that big and it's located next to the bar.  It took nearly 20 minutes (and a second beer) for my two cheeseburgers to show up.

Booches cheeseburgers are served on wax paper, just as they have been for years.   Everything on a Booches burger is ketchup, mustard, raw onion slices and pickles.  The cheese is on the bottom of the burger as it's served.

The bun helps Booches cheeseburgers.  It's light and fluffy and stays together as you eat the highly juicy Booches burger.  As small as they are, it doesn't take long to devour one of the burgers.  From the first taste to the last, a Booches burger is still one of my all-time favorite burgers.

As soon as I finished the second burger, I damn near came close to ordering a third one.  I had the time, but I reminded myself that I didn't want to overeat - still trying to watch the waistline and keep the weight off.  So two Booches burgers were enough for me that day.

 

 I'm in the midst of "fine tuning" my Top Ten burgers list.  But, Booches remains firmly ensconced on that list.  Their burgers are consistently very, very good to great.  I view it as a treat each time I have the opportunity to go to Booches.  Now, if I can land this new dealer in Columbia I'll have more chances to visit Booches in the future.  If you make the trip to Columbia over a weekend for a Booches burger at some point, be sure to take note that Booches is not open on Sundays, or as the sign says, "Closed on Sunday - See you in Church."  I'm guessing that's a tradition Booches has had from the days of being a men only establishment.  And Booches is one of those places where you don't have to worry about traditions being changed.   

Sansei - Waikoloa Village, HI

A guy who works for one of my dealers in the Chicago area spent some time in Hawaii a few years ago and he gave me some good suggestions of where to go and where to eat.  One of the places he told us to visit while in/on Hawaii was Sansei Seafood and Sushi Restaurant.  There are four Sansei's in Hawaii - one on Oahu, two on Maui and one on the Big Island.  It turned out the one on the Big Island was in the Queen's Marketplace shops near our hotel in the Wiakoloa Beach Resort area.   We had hoped to be able to get to Sansei the night we arrived in Hawaii, but a delay at the rental car agency (thanks to a very stupid person in line ahead of us) and a long detour to our hotel pretty much ruled out getting there before they closed.  So our first full night on Hawaii we went to Sansei.

Sansei is part of the D.K. Restaurants group that also features d.k Steak House, Hiroshi and Vino - all highly acclaimed restaurants throughout the Hawaiian Islands.  "D.K." are the initials of Dave "D.K." Kodama, the founder and owner of the D.K. restaurants.  Kodama is a native Hawaiian who left the University of Hawaii in 1979 and ended up as a bartender in Seattle.  Kodama fell in love with the restaurant business and thought it would be a more fun profession than being an engineer.  

After 3 years in Seattle, Kodama ended up in Aspen, CO, working at a number of restaurants, learning the business and getting valuable culinary training on the job.  He ended up moving back to Hawaii in 1996 and opened his first Sansei in the Kapalua Resort north of Lahaina on Maui.  Sansei specializes in fresh seafood and serving locally grown foods.  It's sort of a contemporary Pan-asian seafood restaurant that also has sushi.

It was about a three minute drive from the Hilton Waikoloa Village hotel to the Queen's Marketplace shopping center (see map).  Sansei is located on the far east end of the open air shops.  We had a short wait while the hostess took a phone call, but we were in no hurry.  We asked if we could just sit at the sushi bar and she happily took us over to the bar, seated us and gave us menus.

The restaurant, itself, was a nice mix of contemporary Hawaiian and Asian themes.  It wasn't a huge place, but there was a dining area off to the side of the main room.  The main dining room featured the sushi bar.  The atmosphere was relaxed, upscale casual and sort of romantic. It wasn't overly busy at the restaurant, which was sort of nice. 

 

We figured we'd just do sushi for our visit, so I asked for a sushi menu.  Our sushi chef was a native mainlander who had been in Hawaii for about 15 years.  During our trip to Hawaii, we talked to a lot of restaurant workers, waiters, hotel valets, salespeople, etc. who were obviously not native Hawaiians just to see what their story was and how they ended up in Hawaii.  We heard all different types of stories from guys who followed girls out to Hawaii, guys who came out for a couple months and just stayed for the past 19 years, and from people who needed to start their lives over.  As one waiter told us one evening, "Hawaii is really full of misfits, people who may not have fit in back home on the mainland, or who are getting away from whatever problems they faced in their past.  This is the ultimate "misfit island." 

The sushi chef at Sansei was no exception.  He had worked at the original Sansei on Maui after coming out from the mainland "to drink and stay tan".  He moved to this location three years ago when it first opened.  He said, "My life is pretty simple here.  If I'm not at work, I'm usually in a bar somewhere.  And if I'm not at work or at a bar, I'm sleeping.  That's my life."  While some people may think that was sort of sad, I secretly envied the guy.  No concerns, no worries, no responsibilities. 

We immediately ordered up a spicy tuna roll and something that Cindy wanted to try something called the "69 Roll".  It's a California roll (crab, avocado, cucumber) rolled inside out and topped with unagi (fresh water eel) and salmon roe.  It was interesting, to say the least.  The spicy tuna rolls were much better. 

We had regular salmon and smoked salmon sushi, along with tuna and sweet shrimp sushi.  The prices weren't bad - averaging around $3.50 to $4.00 for two pieces of sushi.  The tuna was a little more expensive - I believe it was $8.00 for two pieces of sushi.  But that was still cheaper than many mainland sushi restaurants. 

And the fish was so fresh that...  Well, I have to say that I'd never had tuna - any type of tuna sushi - that tasted that good.  It was like they had caught the fish, filet'ed it out on the boat and served it - all within 15 minutes.  It literally melted in our mouths.  And the smoked salmon was - by far - the best smoked salmon I'd ever had.  We ended up ordering two more pieces of the tuna and smoked salmon, along with another spicy tuna roll for good measure.

We figured we'd eat at Sansei a couple more times when we were on both Hawaii and on Maui, but for multiple reasons - such as too many good choices of restaurants - we never did.  But the place certainly served our sushi craving needs.  It was some of the best sushi I've ever had.  No, I'll go even further and say it was the best sushi I ever had.  And it wasn't all that expensive.  With a generous tip for the sushi chef and our waitress that served us our drinks, it still came to under $100 bucks.  It was just excellent.

Brewburgers - Omaha

A few months ago, I was told by a friend who worked at an audio store in Omaha that I had to try out a relatively new place called Brewburgers.  I happened to be out in Omaha recently and stayed at a hotel right next to Brewburgers.  It was an easy walk across the parking lot to the restaurant.  I even met up with an old friend who was working just down the road from the place and he joined me for a sandwich and a few beers. 

Brewburgers pretty much sums up what the restaurant is all about - burgers and brews.  They have a somewhat extensive beer list at the restaurant and feature over a dozen specialty burgers including a "build your own" burger where you can name your own toppings, cheese or sauces.  But their most famous sandwich is called the Old Fashioned - Montreal-style Jewish smoked beef brisket, thinly sliced and piled on Rye bread.  You can also get either Havarti or Swiss cheese on it if you like.  

Brewburgers is housed in what was the old Nebraska Beef steak house - a place that I ate in many times in the past, but hadn't been in there for quite a while.  The steak house closed in 2005 and the building sat idle for over two years.  Montreal native Yves Menard bought the building in 2007 and renovated the restaurant into somewhat of a sports bar/restaurant.  Menard is well-known in the Omaha area as he is the chef/owner of Charlie's on the Lake, a nice upscale restaurant that I've been to a couple times before, but, once again, have not been there for a number of years.  

Growing up in Montreal, Menard remembered the great smoked brisket sandwiches the Jewish deli's would make - places like Schwartz's Deli and the recently closed Ben's De Luxe Delicatessen.  He always wanted to bring that style of sandwich to Omaha.  Brewburgers opened in October of 2007 and the sandwiches were an immediate hit.  They cure the brisket for up to five days in a combination of water and spice brine.  They then smoke the brisket for an hour and a half every day in their smoker behind the building, then they put it in the oven at 250 degrees for three hours.  After that, they put it back in the refrigerator to cool overnight and then they serve it the next day.     

Brewburgers is very well lit, but other than a number of sports logos and a few televisions put on the walls, it didn't look much different from the old steak house.  The hostess seated me in a booth - a very uncomfortable booth that looked like it had been chewed up by a knife.  The bar area was close by and there was a local loud-mouthed idiot doing his very best "Larry the Cable Guy" impression.  Only, I don't think it was an impression as much as it was the guy just being an idiot.  I had a couple three Boulder Buffalo Gold beers while I was waiting for my buddy to show up as he got off work around 8:30.  My waitress asked me if I wanted to get any appetizers while I was waiting, but even though some of the things on the menu looked interesting, I was fine with the beer.

My buddy showed up and he said, "This is the first time I've been in here."  I told him that another guy I know had told me about this place and I had to try the Old Fashioned sandwich.  He looked at the menu for the description and he said, "Oh, that's sort of like a reuben.  I think I'm going to get a burger instead."  

He ordered the Maverick burger - they take chopped onions and mix it in with the beef patty - then they top it with jack cheese.  He got cole slaw as his side.  I got the Old Fashioned with swiss and got a side salad with peppercorn ranch.  

 It wasn't long before his burger and my sandwich came out.  Actually, there wasn't much to my sandwich.  It was a basic beef brisket sandwich with swiss cheese on rye.  But the taste was very good - I could taste that they cured the beef brisket in all-spice which gave it a sort of sweet taste, similar to a good corned beef.  The meat was very lean and juicy and it was very tender.  I made rather quick work of the sandwich as it wasn't all that big.  

My buddy said his burger was "good" and it looked interesting.  I decided that I needed to come back sometime to get a burger - something that I could make from the listing of toppings, cheeses and sauces they offer. 

 

 

 

I thought the Old Fashioned sandwich at Brewburgers was good, but a little expensive ($8.95) for what it was.  While doing some research for this entry, I found that Guy Fieri from The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" visited the place and had a segment on Brewburgers Old Fashioned sandwich.  You can see it on You Tube by clicking here.  He was impressed with the sandwich, but I don't know if the one he had was as the same sized as what I had.  But overall, Brewburger's Old Fashioned sandwich was pretty good.  I will try the burger the next time I'm in.  If it's good, I'll be sure to let you know.

One Year Anniversary of My Hip Replacements

Today marks the one year anniversary of the second of my two hip replacements I received.  Had I not looked on the calendar and figured it out a week ago, I probably wouldn't have noticed.  The anniversary of having my left hip replaced in early March went by without so much of a fanfare, probably because we were in Hawaii at that point and we didn't even know what time it was much of our visit, let alone the date.  But life is about as back to normal as it can be for me one year after my second surgery. 

Back to normal is a relative term because I don't know what normal really was with all the pain I was having before my hip replacements.  I do notice that I have increased mobility and flexibility in the legs and hips compared to the months before the hip surgery.  But I've also had to learn that I can't move certain ways in fear that the hip socket will pop out.  And when I go through security at an airport, it's always an extra 10 to 15 minutes as TSA personnel have to give me a thorough once over with a hand held metal detector and pat me down.  I've just learned to live with that when I travel by air. 

A friend of mine told me that it would be almost a full year before I'd feel "normal" and could get around with no pain.  She was just about right with that.  I'm still having some problems time to time with my right upper quad and groin muscles.  Those were the ones that were giving me fits of pain off and on since the surgery a year ago.  Every once in a while I'll tweak the groin muscle but stubbing my toe or getting my foot caught while I'm trying to walk and it will literally immobilize me for about 3 minutes.  But the pain subsides and I can go back to what I'm doing.  But the muscle is still somewhat weak and I have trouble lifting my leg to get in a car, to put my pants on, etc. 

I also get a somewhat sharp pain in my left hip from time to time.  I don't know if it's weather related or what the deal is.  My sister told me that after her hip replacement she would get some tinge of pain from time to time if the weather changed.  Cindy has been on me to go back to see the doctor to get it looked at, but I just haven't made the time. 

Interestingly, the left hip continues to make sort of "ratchet" sound when I walk up and down steps.  When it's quiet and I walk up and down our basement steps, I can clearly hear what sounds like a little ratchet wrench working in my left hip.  It used to freak Cindy out at first, but now it's just a normal - and accepted - sound coming from my body.  I had asked the doctor's assistant about it during some follow-up exams last spring, but he said, "Aw, it's just normal."  Funny that my right hip isn't making the same sound. 

Today also marks the one year anniversary of the last taste of soda pop.  I completely cut out pop as part of my diet last year and, quite honestly, I haven't missed it in the least.  That's probably been the biggest change in my life style and Cindy noticed it, as well.  She doesn't drink pop all that much any longer, either.  In fact, I'm not certain we have any pop around the house at this point. 

I ended up losing about 45 pounds last year and I was doing well to keep it off - then Christmas came.  Between the cookies and other goodies that abound that time of year, I ended gaining about 10 pounds back.  I've fluctuated losing five pounds, then gaining five pounds back since then.  I'm not happy that the pants that I bought last year after my weight loss are getting tight again, but I know that I can lose the weight if I really try.   Now that I know how to lose 40 pounds, I know I can do it again.  And keeping it off wasn't all that hard.  Sugar is what really kills me on my weight. 

My knees are the ones that are beginning to talk to me now.  I've noticed recently that I'm getting some stiffness and pain in the knees.  I've been taking chondroitin and glucosamine off and on when the pain flairs up and that seems to help.  My biggest worry is that eventually I'll have to get my knees replaced.  And from what I've heard and what I saw during my rehab last year, I don't want to do that.  It's ten times worse than a hip replacement.  But I'm not getting any younger and they're really perfecting these procedures these days.  Who knows?  If I have to get knee replacements in ten years, maybe the recovery time will be reduced like it has been for hips.  But I'm not looking forward to it. 

Oh, and yes, that's an x-ray of my new hips at the start of this post...

Stella's - Bellevue, NE

 

One place that I hadn't been to for quite sometime was Stella's in Bellevue, NE, a suburb of Omaha.  I first went to Stella's back in the 80's when one of my dealers told me about the place.  Since then I've been to Stella's a number of times, but I figured that I've not been back for about five years.  I remember trying to find it one time a couple three years ago, but didn't have the right address - or I didn't go to the right place.  I thought it may have gone out of business, but I found out that it was going strong during a recent trip to Omaha.

Stella's has a long and rich history.  In 1930, Estelle "Stella" Sullivan and her husband, Al, moved to Bellevue to open a gas station.  They lived in a small, three-room house not far from the station.  In 1936, Stella wanted to open Bellevue's first tavern.  It was basically one of their rooms in their home - a 12" X 15" foot room that was so small patrons often had to take their beers outside to drink.  She called her little tavern "Francois and Sullivan" (Francois was her maiden name).  But most of the locals referred to it as "Grandma's", as in "I'm going to Grandma's house tonight."

A couple years later, a second tavern opened up in Bellevue and the owners had a tough time making a go of it.  It closed down in 1939 and the owner of the land which the tavern was on persuaded Stella to move her operation to the building.  She changed the name of the place to simply "Stella's" and began to serve her famous cheeseburgers at that time.

Unfortunately, the same year Al Sullivan died and Stella was forced to run both the gas station and the tavern, all the while raising her four children by herself.  But she persevered and hung in there.  She eventually sold the gas station and with the money she got for the station she tried to buy the land on which the tavern set (she owned the building, but not the land).  The landlord would not sell the land, so Stella eventually found a plot of land that was part of an old dairy farm.  That plot of land is the site of Stella's today.  Back then, it was located next to a race track and a drive-in movie theater.  She had her building picked up and moved to the site and business began to boom.

Over the years, Stella remarried and she continued to run the business.  A stroke in the mid-70's made Stella cut back on her workload at the tavern and the day-to-day operations were taken over by her son, Al, and his wife, Mary.  Stella lived until 1985 and her son eventually retired in 2007.  Al and Mary sold the business to his cousin - Stephanie Francois - who was also Stella's great, great niece.

With Offutt Air Force Base in close proximity to Stella's, hundreds of thousands airmen have eaten Stella's great burgers over the years.  Stella's became famous around the world as airmen who transferred out of Offutt would rave to others at air bases in other countries about how great Stella's burgers were.  There were a number of Air Force personnel who would make Stella's their first stop when they were transferred to Offutt.

I knew a guy back in the 80's - a former Air Force man who ran a small stereo shop in Omaha - who was in the Air Force Reserve.  He used to fly as a passenger between Offutt and Nellis Air Force Base just north of Las Vegas from time to time.  He had buddies who were out at Nellis who would ask him to stop by Stella's to grab a dozen burgers, put them in a baggie and then into a cooler and bring them out to them.

Stella's is one of those places where an Air Force colonel could be seated next to a construction worker at the bar, who is seated next to a banker, who is seated next to a farmer, who is seated next to an itinerant sales guy.  I know that for a fact because I was the itinerant sales guy seated at the bar.  Stella's brings all types of people to the place for their great burgers.  It's one of those great places where all walks of life co-mingle over the common denominator of their burgers.

Stella's secret is in the juiciness of the burgers.  No, let me rephrase that - the greasiness of the burgers.  Stella's is not shy about calling their burgers greasy.  They serve them on napkins with the grease fat dripping off the patty when it comes to your table.  Stella's serves hundreds of burgers each day.

I got to Stella's off of Galvin Road (see map) around 1 p.m. one day when I was in Omaha recently.  I was able to find a booth in the corner in the nearly packed place.  Even though no one was seated at the bar, I wanted to sit in a booth so I could get a picture of the place.   A few things have changed since I was last in - a couple flat panel televisions have been placed behind the bar replacing a couple tube televisions.  It looks like the facade in front of the bar is different, and they've changed the lighting in the place.  Other than that, the grill is located right next to the bar so the great smell of a Stella burger was prevalent as I opened the door to the tavern.

Stella's is also famous for their hand-cut French fries, but I just wanted a Stella burger.  The waitress came over and I ordered a burger with pepper jack cheese, along with lettuce, tomato, onions and a raw onion slice.  Ketchup and mustard were on the table.  I also got a beer to go with my lunch.

It wasn't long before she brought over my burger, served, as always, on a napkin.  Just as I remember, the grease was oozing out of the burger onto the napkin.

Now, I've found over the years that there's a signature taste to burgers out of Omaha.  It has a very appealing ground pepper taste to the beef.  I first noticed it when I used to have King's Food Host burgers years and years ago.  I encountered it again when I first had a Runza burger back in the 80's.  And I found that taste in a Don and Millie's burger when I first went there in the 90's.  Stella's has that type of taste, as well.  However, I honestly cannot recall that taste on a Stella's burger.  But it definitely had that black pepper taste to the meat and I liked it.

However, the bun was rather dry and sort of detracted from the taste of the burger.  I should have probably smashed down the burger to make the bun a little more wet with the juice - excuse me - the GREASE from the burger.  The toppings were fresh, but the cheese was pretty weak where I couldn't really taste the pepper jack.  But that was OK as the overall taste of the burger was just about as good as I remember.

 I'm not certain that Stella's is as good today as it was when I first visited over 20 years ago.  But the burger is still good enough to warrant an honorable mention in my Best Burgers list that I'm going to re-release shortly.  Just the history alone of Stella's helps make the burgers taste good.  And I'm hoping Stephanie carries on the tradition of great burgers that Stella began over 70 years ago. 

 

Hawaiian Style Cafe - Waimea, HI

Breakfast is big on Hawaii.  Nearly every restaurant we encountered served breakfast - even at some of the more fancy places we dined.  On the recommendation of Rick, a concierge at the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort, he directed us up into the "hill" country on the north side of the Big Island for breakfast one morning at Hawaiian Style Cafe in Waimea.  He said, "Be prepared, the portions are huge!"

As we were leaving the hotel, one of the valets brought our car around and he asked, "Where are you headed today?"  I told him we were going up to Waimea to go have breakfast.  "The Hawaiian Style Cafe," he excitedly replied.  "Oh, man.  The pancakes up there are the size of hubcaps!  And they're really good!  I'm so jealous!"

It's about a 20 mile drive up to Waimea from the Hilton resort (see map).  And up is the operative term here.  After driving along the shoreline up to the intersection, you turn right and immediately begin a gradual ascent into the hills.  After a couple miles a sign along the side of the road informed we were at an elevation of 500 feet.  A couple more miles we came across a sign that said we were at 1000 feet.  This went on until we got on the outskirts of Waimea where a sign told us that we were at 2500 feet, nearly a half mile above sea level.  And the temperature had changed, as well.  We had the top down on the way up - the temperature was in the lower 80's when we left the hotel.  But when we got to Waimea, it was a cool 69 degrees.  Cindy had turned on the heat as we pulled into town.  

We found the Hawaiian Style Cafe on the main road coming into Waimea (see map) in a small old-style strip mall that featured a travel agency and a motorcycle shop.  We were able to find one of the few parking spots in front of the restaurant, but we also found out later that there was parking in the rear of the building.  

The restaurant is owned by Guy and Gina Kao'o, who also have second jobs in the area.  Guy oversees the food for lu'aus at a couple local hotels, including the Marriott Waikoloa Village resort next to the Hilton; while Gina is a local realtor in Waimea.  The restaurant opens at 7 a.m. and serves breakfast and then lunch until 2 p.m. - or when they run out of food.  

 

 

 

It was a short wait (we had to put our name on a list just inside the door) while we got a booth in the corner in the front area of the restaurant.  The place is truly a hole-in-the-wall joint with a three-sided bar, small back eating area, one bathroom for the restaurant (it also serves as a laundry room), and a number of local pictures and magazine covers adorning the wall.  The waitress gave us our menus and pointed out the specials on the wall near the kitchen.  The place was a flurry of activity with people coming and going and large portions of food on plates being brought out from the kitchen.  It was almost dizzying.  

We weren't overly certain what to get.  They had a number of Hawaiian dishes for breakfast including something called a Loco Moco.  We found that most Hawaiian breakfast places had their own style of a Loco Moco.  The legend of the Loco Moco began in the late 40's at the Lincoln Grill in Hilo.  A bunch of hungry young men came into the restaurant one day, but told the owner, Nancy Inouye, that they didn't have a lot of money.  She had a lot of rice left over and fried up some hamburger patties.  She put the hamburgers on the rice, then a fried egg on top and, for good measure she put brown gravy on top of all that.  It was a hit and immediately became a great "pig-out" food whether it be at 7:30 in the morning or at 1:30 in the morning when the bars were closing up.  

Another thing that was on the menu that I wasn't familiar with was Portuguese sausage.  It's sort of like chorizo, seasoned with onions, garlic and paprika.  It's rather mild and somewhat bland compared to the pork sausage I'm used to back in the Midwest.  They featured a number of items on the menu paired with Portuguese sausage.  

Spam is also huge in Hawaii.  I don't quite understand why, but it is.  Spam is a staple on the breakfast menu of many restaurants.   I thought, "Well, while we're in Hawaii I have to try SOMETHING with Spam in it."  And the Hawaiian Style Cafe featured a Spam, mushroom, grilled onions and cheese omelet.  I ordered that.  With it came a side of hash browns and then I got my pick of an additional side of either pancakes or fried rice.  I took the pancakes.  Oh, and I also got a side of whole wheat toast.  I knew this was going to be a lot of food just from what I was seeing coming out from the kitchen.

Cindy ordered more simple - she got a couple eggs over easy, but then she also got a side of kalua pork hash.  Kalua is a slow-roasting method that is indigenous to Hawaii.  Usually, the pork butt is seasoned with salt and wrapped in leafs from a ti plant.  It's placed in the ground, usually over lava rocks, and slow-cooked until it's tender and the meat begins to fall apart.  Kalua pork has sort of a fruity taste to it, probably from the ti leaves.  And it's served at lu'aus.  But it was difficult to find at many restaurants in Hawaii.  The waitress at the Hawaiian Style Cafe told us that they'll have a Kalua pork special from time to time, but they didn't have any that day, other than in the hash.  Cindy also got a side of fried rice that had ham and egg in it.

 

It didn't take long before our food came out to the table.  And I'm sure the expression on our faces when the waitress set our plates down in front of us wasn't the first time she'd seen the bulging eyes and heard the "Oh, my GOD!!" expression.  The portions WERE huge!   The pancakes were as advertised - almost a foot in diameter.  I knew immediately there was no way in hell that I'd ever finish even HALF of what they served me. 

I tried some of Cindy's Kalua pork hash.  It was very good.  The Kalua pork had sort of a sweet and fruity taste to it.  The pork was tender and excellent.  (I found out later on that they make Kalua pork omelets.  I was kicking myself for not getting one of those.)

 

 

 

We did make a significant dent into the food.  The Spam omelet was, well, interesting.  It wasn't bad, but I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Spam.  But when in Hawaii, do as the Hawaiians, I guess.  They fried the Spam and chunked it up when they put it in the omelet, sort of like how they'd do it with sausage.  But it was an interesting combination in the omelet along with the mushrooms and onions.

The pancakes weren't bad, either.  They were a little more thick that what I like, but they were still pretty darn good.  In addition to maple syrup, they also had lilikoi syrup.  Lilikoi is sort of a Hawaiian passion fruit that I fell in love with while we were there.  They put lilikoi in everything from syrups, juices, jellies, and even a mixer in drinks.  We had some awesome desserts with lilikoi while we were in Hawaii, as well.  On the pancakes, the lilikoi syrup was sort of sweet and fruity.  I should have gone to a store to look for some to take back home with us.  

And quite unintentionally, we made it back to the Hawaiian Style Cafe on the day we were evacuated from our hotel during the tsunami warning that I talked about earlier.  We were looking for this other restaurant we were told about by Rick at the Hilton, but with the traffic in and around Waimea that day, we just decided to cut our losses and go back to the Hawaiian Style Cafe.  This time, in keeping with my "do as the Hawaiians do" theme, I ordered a Loco Moco.

I can see why some people like the Loco Moco.  It's definitely a "stick to your ribs" type of meal.  I can't say that it was my favorite, but it was interesting.  The hamburger patties were a little overcooked and dry, but the gravy helped get them down.  The Loco Moco sort of reminded me of something that is served at Ross' Restaurant in the Quad Cities - the Magic Mountain.  They take a couple pieces of Texas Toast, top it with loose hamburger meat, then top it with French fries or hash browns (your choice), then they top it with cheddar cheese.  And if you want a snow-capped Magic Mountain, order onions on the top.  For the truly adventurous - like me - you can get a Volcano at Ross'.  Instead of topping the plate with cheese, they top it with their spicy chili.  But Ross' is another story for another time.

This time, Cindy went to the "specials" board they had on the wall and ordered the 12 oz. Rib Eye steak.  She said, "I don't know if we'll get back to the hotel tonight and a lot of places may be closed up if the waves do hit this islands.  This may be my last meal until sometime tomorrow."  True to form, she couldn't eat all of her steak along with the two eggs and fried rice on the side.  This time they boxed up Cindy's steak.  We figured we may have to share what was left later on, but thankfully, we didn't have to.

All in all, the Hawaiian Style Cafe was very good and very interesting.  I really wanted to try the Spaghetti omelet, but figured that would be a little weird.  It was probably the most authentic Hawaiian restaurant we ate at when we were visiting the state.   Overall, the service was great, the food was interesting and if you don't mind a little wait from time to time, it's an excellent place to get breakfast on the Big Island.  The Hawaiian Style Cafe was one of our favorite places while we were in Hawaii and more than once since we've been back we've remarked how cool it would be if we could go to Hawaiian Style Cafe for a quick breakfast.  But we'd have to be in Hawaii to do that.  Ah, the memories...

By the way, bring cash if you go to the Hawaiian Style Cafe.  They don't take credit cards, but they do have an ATM machine in the restaurant.

Hilton Waikoloa Village - Waikoloa Village, HI

Thanks to accruing hundreds of thousands of Hilton Honors points over the past few years, we were able to stay at a couple Hilton properties for a number of free nights during our recent trip to Hawaii.  The place we stayed at on the Big Island of Hawaii was the Hilton Waikoloa Village - an expansive 64-acre resort that featured a number of restaurants, bars and a lot of things to do for those who didn't want to leave the facility.  We stayed there for the first six nights of our vacation in Hawaii.

Even though the address for the Hilton Waikoloa Village is listed as being in Waikoloa, but as far as I can tell there's no Waikoloa.  It's actually near a small unincorporated village called Anaehoomulu (see map).  There is a Waikoloa Village, HI, but it's about five miles up into the hills north and east of the area where the hotel is (see map).  So you can see it can be pretty confusing if you don't know exactly where you're going.

The Hilton Waikoloa Village is part of a much larger complex of other resorts, villas and condos, golf courses and small shopping centers known as the Waikoloa Beach Resort.  It was initially built a number of years ago on land that had been once part of the huge Parker Ranch, which was then licensed to the U.S. Navy as an artillery range and a training ground for Marines.  After World War II, the Navy gave the land back to Parker Ranch, but had to clean up the land.  One account I read said that a number of unexploded ordinances could still be buried under the land and a restricted area is fenced off south and east of where our hotel was.  

In the 1980's, a Japanese development company, Nansay, came in and bought up parcels of land in the Hawaiian islands to develop into golf course resorts.  Two of those parcels became the planned community of Waikoloa Village and the other was the Waikoloa Beach Resort area.  One of the first resorts that was built and opened in 1988 was the present day Hilton Waikoloa Village.  However, the original tenants of the property was the Hyatt corporation.  Hilton took over the property about 15 years ago.  

The land where the Hilton Waikoloa Village is on was once a marshy area embedded in the surrounding lava rock.  I would have loved to have seen pictures before the land was developed.  It's sort of interesting and strange at the same time that they were basically able to create this lush green oasis surrounded by this forbidding lava rock field. 

The Hilton Waikoloa Village is segmented into three different hotel buildings - the Lagoon, the Palace and the Ocean.  When I had made reservations last fall, my free points would only get us a room in the Palace building.  But for $25 bucks a night, we could upgrade to the Ocean tower rooms for a more scenic view.  (The Ocean tower is the building in the foreground that looks like three loops.)  That was a no-brainer.  And I purposely asked for a top floor room.  While our room didn't give us a direct view of the ocean, I sort of liked our view better because we got a full view of the small bay, the ocean in the not-so-long-distance, and views of the top of Mauna Kea and the smaller, but closer, Hualalai dormant volcano.  A bulk of the Hilton property was visible from our balcony, as well.  

In doing some editing for this post, I just chopped about six paragraphs.  I'm not even going to go into detail like I originally had regarding our arrival on the Big Island because re-reading the whole ordeal brought my blood to a boil.

After we landed at Kona around 9:30 local time (1:30 a.m. body-time), it's somewhat of an understatement to say we had some difficulty getting our rental car (due to a very stupid person in line in front of me) and getting to the hotel (a normal 20 minute drive from the airport took over an hour as the main road was closed due to a traffic accident).  It was about 11:30 when we finally got our room keys.

After we checked in, we waited for the tram to take us to the Ocean tower.  We learned as time went on that the trams were not the best option when it came to going to the Ocean tower which was the farthest building on the property from the lobby. 

The trams they used at the Hilton Wiakoloa Village were designed in Switzerland and replaced the original trams that were in use since the property opened in the late 80's.  They weren't fast, but were efficient.  As I said, if you caught them right, they were good.  If you had to wait, it was excruciating.  We waited 15 minutes for a tram to show up that evening and it was midnight - 4:00 a.m. body-time - when we got into the room.  We'd been up for 24 hours straight traveling to Hawaii.  Ugh! 

 

 

 

Also, the Hilton Waikoloa Village had a Disney-designed open-aired boat and canal system that ran between all the hotel buildings.  The boats were powered, but they ran on an underwater track so they wouldn't bang into anything.  It seemed to be a little more efficient than the tram and was sort of fun to ride.  But it would fill up quickly and you could only get about 15 to 18 people on a boat.  Cindy said the first time we rode the boat back to the room that it reminded her of the time she went to Disneyland and went on the "It's a Small World" ride.  When I found out that it was the same type of boat system as what Disney had at Disneyland, each time Cindy would get on the boat she'd sing, "It's a small world, after all.  It's a small world, after all..."

 

When we didn't make the tram or the boat - which was the vast majority of the time - we would walk through a series of corridors that contained millions of dollars of Asian, Polynesian and Hawaiian artwork including pottery, statues, paintings and even samples of indigenous clothing used by islanders.  Actually, it was pretty cool.  In addition to the art walk, there was a number of Hindu statues all over the resort grounds.    

 

This is the large Buddha at Buddha Point on the far side of the hotel grounds.  Buddha Point was a great place to watch the sunset and to see humpback whales off in the not-so-far distance during the early morning sunrise.  This was one of Cindy's favorite places to go first thing in the morning before breakfast.  

Speaking of breakfast, the Hilton Waikoloa Village featured five or six restaurants (depending upon what you classified as a restaurant) along with a handful of bars.  The breakfast area was in a large room that featured a buffet, omelet bar and a number of cereals to choose from.  Breakfast was a little expensive - $26.95 per person.  But being a Hilton Honors Diamond member, we were able to get a $10 cut per person on breakfast making it a more palitable $16.95.  And it was pretty good.   The breakfast area was good for families, of which there seemed to be a lot of at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

Actually, much of Hilton Waikoloa Village is geared toward families.  We were sort of surprised by that, but then we really shouldn't have been.  We usually stay away from places that have a family atmosphere because there's nothing better than some little kid throwing a temper tantrum at the table next to you while you're trying to eat - as what happened at breakfast one morning.  Quite honestly, Cindy and I were amazed at the number of young families who had their pre-school kids with them at the resort.  If I were a young father, the last thing I'd want to do is bring the kids to Hawaii with me. 

One of the big things for families was the Dolphin pool.  Actually, there's no dolphin shows as the dolphin pool at the Hilton Waikoloa Village is just a training facility for dolphins.  The five salt water pools that hold the dolphins are fed directly by the Pacific Ocean.  There are a team of biologists/trainers who work with the dolphins.  I'm not certain what they do with the dolphins after their "trained".  That was one question we forgot to ask a young - and enthusiastic - intern who came over to where we were standing watching the dolphins one afternoon.  She was overly helpful in letting us know about the dolphins and the training they were going through.  In fact, the Hilton had a program that would allow you to "swim" with the dolphins.  We saw one of those sessions and it did look pretty interesting.  

 

Thankfully, there were areas where you could get away from kids.  One of which was the adult pool that was in a lagoon-type courtyard inside the Ocean tower.  This is the view from outside the front door of our room looking down across the lagoon into the adult pool area.  There was a bar with wait-staff service and it was a nice respite from the screaming little kids who were having fun in the water slide area on the other side of the building near the bay.  And even though we didn't try it, the bar area also had their own sushi bar.  It was a popular place at night.     

And the Hilton was also "gay-friendly" - which is pretty much the norm for the whole state of Hawaii.  The night we arrived, we immediately saw a couple of gay males nuzzling each other on one of the benches waiting for the tram.  The next morning, we shared our tram car with an elderly German man and his younger black partner.  Nice guys, but they made for a interesting couple.  Not that there's anything wrong with gay people - we have neighbors who are gay and they're great guys.  But it would be a little difficult to explain to your five-year-old son why those two men were holding hands as they looked at the artwork in the corridors.  

Talking about bars again, they had the Malolo Lounge (Malolo is a volcanic island near Fiji) just off the open-air lobby at the hotel.  After a long day on the road out exploring parts of the Big Island, we wandered into the bar for a snack and a mai tai.  Our waitress, April, was a young native woman and she was great to talk with about the culture, the happenings and what was going on around the hotel.  She confessed that business had been pretty slow lately - the hotel during our visit may have been one-third occupancy - but she was hoping things would pick up soon.  She said, "Some of the regulars that would visit us every year haven't been here for a couple years now."  She did say more corporations were having retreats or conferences at the hotel, however.  She said a big one with over 700 people was going to be starting that weekend.  

Cindy asked April about the lu'au the hotel put on.  April told us that they used to do the lu'au four times a week.  Now they only do it twice a week (Tuesday and Friday nights).  She said her husband used to be in charge of some aspects of the lu'au, but they had to do some cutbacks and he had to find another job.  She said, "Now we share the same musicians and entertainers with the Marriott next door.  So if you miss a lu'au here some night, you can just go next door to the Marriott and see it on Wednesday or Saturday night."

Also, the concierges at the hotel were wonderful with us, as well.  Each tower had their own concierges and the first night we met the afternoon and evening concierge, Rick, who was just great with us.  We told him that we knew their object was to keep people on the property, but we were the adventurous types who liked to try the local fare.  He was overly helpful with his suggestions.  And each of them were spot on good.   

All in all, the Hilton Waikoloa Village was a nice place to spend some time while we were on vacation.  We weren't in the rooms all that much, but the decor was very nice, the beds were comfy and the room was sort of big.  And the staff all treated us extremely well during our visit.  The only downside I'd have to say is the place can get overrun with children and it's sometime difficult to find a quiet area to enjoy a book or to take a nap by the ocean.  The grounds are beautiful and well-maintained.  There were exotic birds in the lobby and in the lagoon area of the Ocean tower.  They had a number of places to shop at on the property.  They had a spa.  But like a lot of Hawaii, nearly everything involved with the hotel is expensive.  The room we stayed in would normally run about $429 a night.  And our incidentals (breakfast, bar tabs, other charges) came to an additional $700 bucks over six days.  Like I said, it was very nice, but there's no way we'd be able to afford to stay there had we not had the free points.