Road Tips

Contemporary Hawaiian Music

Spending a lot of time in the car as we did on both the Big Island of Hawaii and on Maui, we found a lot of different types of music can be found in Hawaii.  Most of it is traditional Hawaiian music - ukulele or slack-key guitar-based music with words in the native Hawaiian language.  But we did find one station - KLHI, also known as Native 92.5 - that introduced us to a new style of music that we certainly weren't familiar with - Contemporary Hawaiian.  I'm not talking about traditional Hawaiian music by Don Ho or by Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwoʻole, but new age Hawaiian by groups and artists such as Rebel Souljahz, Rushouze and Amy Hanailai'i Gilliom.   

FM radio stations don't cover as much ground as AM stations, mainly because their broadcast radius is determined by the height of the antenna and how much power they use to transmit.  Their signal is categorized as "line of sight", meaning that if you have clear access to the tower and the broadcast signal is strong enough, you should be able to get the station.  KLHI transmitted from a hillside on the southwest side of Maui, not far from where we stayed in Wailea.  We were able to pick it up pretty well on the Big Island, especially if we stayed on the northwest side of the island.  However, once we got up into the hills around Waimea the signal would rapidly diminish.  Even on the east side of Maui, we would have trouble getting the station in because of the high terrain between us and the station. 

We found ourselves sort of getting sucked in by this Hawaiian Contemporary Music that Native 92.5 played.  The musical stylings feature strong elements of reggae.  And they even had a name for this style of music - "Jawaiian" - because it closely resembled Jamaican music structures.   But in this style of music we also heard bits of soul, hip-hop, jazz and even Mexican Tejano.  There was a strong brass element in many of the songs with trumpets covering many background fills.  But the key to songs were the strong harmonies on nearly every tune.  Hawaiians have some great voices. 

The music was infectious, but not overpowering.  It was the type of music that you'd suddenly sort of start to bob your head to the beat.  We heard some religious songs, but not many.  We also heard some political songs, such as "The Warrior" by the Polynesian artist Fiji where he sang about the civil rights abuses that still exist in parts of that region on earth.  But for the most part, many of the songs were either original songs by Hawaiian artists, or reworked 70's and 80's soft-rock songs that were given a native Hawaiian signature.  A number of artists used the vocal effect known as "auto-effect" such as was used in Cher's 1990's hit, "Believe".  Native 92.5 would rotate 25 to 30 songs on a daily basis.  To see the current song list of what they're playing, click here.

Contemporary Hawaiian Music is relaxing and not taxing like some music can be.  Reggae can be sort of tedious and monotonous, but I didn't really find anything repetitive about "Jawaiian" music.   Some of the better artists we heard on Native 92.5 included The Green (formerly Next Generation), Sean Na'auao, B.U.B.Z., Ooklah the Moc and Inik (pronounced E-nick).  Of course, the station also featured true reggae artists such as Bob Marley, his son, Ziggy Marley, Third World and Jimmy Cliff.  They even played music from the innovative Jewish/Reggae artist Matisyahu.  There was really nothing better than cruising down a seaside highway with Native 92.5 cranked up in the car.  It brought the whole Hawaiian culture that much closer to what we were trying to experience.

You can get Native 92.5 on your computer and I suggest you give it a try.  Click on this link - Native 92.5 Listen Live - and it will take you to a front page.  If you have a high-speed connection, click on the 64K button.  If you don't have one already, you'll have to do a quick download of an Abacast plug-in player for you computer, but it's safe and quick.  It's worth the minimal effort to listen to some great music from the Hawaiian islands. 

There's not much that we could bring back from Hawaii that really helped capture the essence of what life out there was all about.  But closing my eyes and listening to Contemporary Hawaiian Music on Native 92.5 gives me that soothing sense of a Hawaiian lifestyle that we enjoyed for a couple weeks during our visit.

2010 Indianapolis 500 Preview

My friend, Steve Somermeyer (left), is the head of safety in the garage and pit area of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  (Click here to see my entry on the time Steve took me behind the scenes at the race track.)  Each year, he sends out a little preview of what to expect from the annual Indianapolis 500 race, which just happens to be running today.  It's very informative for race fans and Steve gives his synopsis of who the favorites will be for the race. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changes, Changes, Changes....

 

- Qualifying Procedure:  Lots of changes both in time frame and how cars qualify.

- One Weekend:  Instead of the traditional 2 weekends of qualifying, it was compressed to just one weekend which was preceded by a solid week of practice.  This significantly affected the time that drivers and crews had to get their cars dialed in.  As qualifying played out, it seemed that several teams spent too much time working on their race set-up and not enough in qualifying trim.  The weather also played a major factor as most the practice time was cool (60's) while the qualifying weekend got hot. 

-  Pole:  The new procedure allowed all eligible cars to try to qualify with the 24 fastest making the provisional field after the first day.  This phase ended at 4 pm and then the 9 fastest cars would then have their speeds erased and they would 're-qualify' to determine the Pole as well as the top 9 order.  As the fastest qualifier, Helio chose to go out first and blew away the other 8 cars by averaging almost 288 mph and easily won the $175,000 Pole Award.

 

The rest of the 90 minutes were consumed by the Target Gianassi, the two other Penske cars, and Alex Tagliani vying for the rest of the spots in the first two rows.  Penske would have really liked to occupy the entire front row but Dario Franchetti pushed Ryan Briscoe to 4th while 3rd Penske driver, Will Power, will start along side Helio.  Tagliani will start on outside of row 2. 

 

- Bump Day:  For the second day in a row, Tony Kanaan crashed which put Andretti Racing in a big pinch.  There were lots of qualifying attempts and a number of bumps and voluntary withdrawals (to attempt to re-qualify with a faster speed).  For the second day in a row, the decent crowd stayed until qualifying ended at 6.  As I walked back to the garage area from the Pagoda, the fans leaving was the heaviest at the end of a qualifying day in many years. 

 

Easily the biggest name left on the outside of the field looking in was Paul Tracy.  Even when working with a well-established (and mature) car I think it points out how difficult for a team and driver to get things sorted out just for one race.

 

The new qualifying procedure was a clear success.  Perhaps the only obvious tweak would be to invert the Top 9 qualifying order to have the fastest car go out 9th for the first opportunity.

 

Row 3 - Overachievers, at least for Qualifying:  The starters in Row 3 are Graham Rahal, Ed Carpenter, and Hideki Mutoh.  Rahal and Carpenter are racing in their first race of the year so it was really a surprise to see them do so well.  Mutoh is with a new team this year, Newman/Haas, so his speed was also impressive. These three went faster than a lot of better financed teams.  btw, Townsend Bell, driving for another small team, Sam Schmidt Racing (with assistance from Ganassi), barely missed the top 9 shootout.

 

How Far has Andretti Racing Fallen?  The third of the best financed teams, Andretti Racing, fastest qualifier was Marco Andretti at 16th.  Normally all four drivers - Marco, Kanaan, Danica, and Ryan Hunter-Reay - would be serious contenders for the top 9 and even the front row.  All of them expressed concern and criticism (check out Danica's "It's not my fault." statement after qualifying) over the looseness of their cars - they just wouldn't stick well going through the corners.  Instead of the top 9 the four cars qualified 16th, 17th (Ryan) 23rd (Danica), and 33rd (Kanaan).  They have had a number of engineers and mechanics leave the team over the past several years but so far this month, the team's performance can only be deemed dismal. 

 

Girls, Girls - 4 out of possible 5 made the race:  Rookies Ana Beatriz and Simona de Silvestro qualified faster than Danica in 21st and 22nd with Sarah Fisher 29th.  Milka Duno failed to make the field this year.  To hope that one of them cracks the top 10 finishers is that - just a hope.  Danica has shown in the past that she can challenge at Indy but unless her car suddenly starts to handle well, she'll be a mid-pack racer.  It would be great publicity for the sport (and erase her critical post-qualifying comments) for the sport but it probably won't happen.

 

Driver-Owners:  I read in one of the track media releases that out of the 17 race team owners here at the Speedway, 11 of them are either current or past drivers here at the 500.  It's certainly a way to continue involvement with the sport but perhaps it a sign of the times that drivers today have to be almost as good as securing sponsorship as driving a race car fast. 

 

Race Day Bits:  Robin Roberts from Good Morning America will be driving the Camaro Pace Car to start the race and Jack Nicholson will be waving the Green Flag.  I've heard that ticket sales are ahead of last year so there should be a big crowd to be entertained Sunday.  A bit trivia:  Helicopter tape:  The high-tech tape was developed to protect the leading edge of helicopter blades and teams use it to seal the seams between the body parts and also to protect the leading edges of wings and scoops from debris.   Every team uses it extensively but it's pretty expensive 'duct' tape at upwards of $300/roll.

 

A short bit from Carb Day Practice:  The top speed in the one hour practice Friday was in the mid-225 with most drivers in the 222-221 mph range.  The 225's may well have benefited from a "tow".  The draft of a leading car is good for at least 1 mph and the trailing car can benefit from being within a couple hundred feet of the leading car.  These speeds are in contrast to Helio's Pole Speed of 227.9.  With the temperature expected to be in the mid- to upper-80's, I would expect race leading speeds in the 223-224 range, maybe even slower.

 

Push-to-Pass:  This will be the first 500 that drivers can utilize the push-to-pass engine feature.  The engine management software is modified to deliver a 18 second burst of extra horsepower when the driver pushes a button on the steering wheel.  Each driver can use this 15 times during the race.  The 'push' isn't enough by itself to assure a pass - the driver still has to have the draft set-up and be in the right position.  This will be a major strategy point if there are several drivers are competing for the lead late in the race.  How many 'pushes' does each driver have left?

 

Who's Going to win? Helio seems to have everything going his way so he's clearly the favorite to win his fourth 500 and joining A.J., Al Unser, Sr., and Rick Mears in that select company. Of course there are many twists and turns during each race which are out of control of any driver so just being the clear favorite doesn't assure victory.  It seems much more likely that a driver from either Penske or Ganassi will win.  Helio, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe from Penske and Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon from Target Ganassi occupy 5 of the top 6 qualifying spots which one would expect from the 2 biggest budget teams.  These teams can afford to do more testing, wind tunnel work, more computer simulation than others and it shows.  They've won every oval race since mid-2008 and that streak will continue Sunday.

There are plenty of very good drivers that are talented enough to win but the resources backing them probably isn't enough to to win. 

 

Drivers who, at some point of the race, may well challenge for the lead include Dan Wheldon, Alex Tagliani, Townsend Bell, Tomas Scheckter, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Bruno Junqueira, and Graham Rahal.  Dan is a former Ganassi driver now driving for Panther Racing which is easily the best single car team in the league.  He's excellent driver and seldom makes a mistake so a top-5 finish or better would not be a big surprise.  Tagliani is a part-owner for the FAZZT team and his been very impressive so far this month but it's a new team so one has to wonder how they will deal with the sudden changes and opportunities during the race.  Townsend is driving for Sam Schmidt but has technical support from Ganassi so one has to keep an eye on him.  Tomas Scheckter is always very fast, especially early in races but this is a one-race deal so it's been awhile since he's driven in traffic.  The same limitation holds for Bruno and Graham.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of these drivers are near the front but it's going to be tough to beat Penske or Target.

 

40 years: This will be my 40th as member of the Safety Patrol.  Time really does fly by.  I did it the first year as sort of a lark because I was intrigued by the mechanical complexity of the cars.  Over the years my focus has moved to more of the people side.  It's a fascinating laboratory to watch how different folks response to pressure, extreme highs and lows in a matter of seconds sometimes.  I've been very fortunate and still get excited at every race start.

 

Let's go Racing!!

Steve

Maui

For the second part of our trip to Hawaii, we spent some time on Maui - the garden island.  The only problem is that much of Maui was brown and dry during our visit, primarily due to a strong El Nino pattern that had cut off most of the moisture the island depends upon to make it the lush tropical paradise it's been known to be.  Still, there were parts of the island that still had some intense tropical forests, some beautiful scenery and a more contemporary feel than the Big Island. 

The difference between the Maui and the Big Island is evident from the start as you land at Kahului Airport.  While the Kona Airport is more like a series of tropical huts, the Maui airport is modern and comfortable with jet bridges (compared to having to use stairs or ramps to get on and off planes at Kona), wide concourses and nice shops.   The area around the Maui airport is more urban (there's a Costco just past the entrance to the airport) than the Kona airport which is basically out in the middle of a lava field north of Kailua-Kona. 

With all that, there's also a lot more traffic on Maui.  That was sort of a pain at times, but it wasn't anything that we hadn't run into before.  We found Maui to be more touristy than the Big Island.  We spent some time in Lahaina and as a friend told me after we came back, "It's sort of like Estes Park, isn't it?"  Meaning, they had all these shops that catered to tourists - many of which sold t-shirts (like "I Survived the Tsunami - 2010), fake lei's and other schlocky overpriced items.  We spent about two hours in downtown Lahaina - and that was about an hour too long.  Easily, the Lahaina-Kaanapali resort area of Maui was the most touristy area we encountered during our visit to Hawaii.  The downtown area of Kailua-Kona rivaled Lahaina's downtown in terms of shops and restaurants that catered to tourists, but Lahaina was more blatant about it.

Our hotel was the Grand Wailea in Wailea-Makena on the southwest side of Maui.  Now, that place may have been the most fancy - and the most expensive - place we've ever stayed.  The hotel was on 40 acres of beach front property that had splendid views of the western hills of Maui, as well as the Hawaiian islands of Kahoolawe (including the crescent-shaped Molokini crater) and Lanai.  The ocean-view top floor room we stayed in normally went for $699 a night.  Like I've said before, if I didn't have the Hilton Honors points there was no way we would have been able to spend even a night at the Grand Wailea.  It was a beautiful place. 

We had some great meals, although I have to say that I thought the restaurants on the Big Island - overall - were better than the ones on Maui.  We took a day long road trip to Hana, we watched surfers try their luck on the huge waves on the north shore of Maui, and we went whale watching out in the Pacific just off the Maui coast. 

Before we made plans to go to Hawaii, we had talked to a number of people who had been there before.  We wanted to know what island would be the better place to go to - Maui or the Big Island of Hawaii.  We heard good things about both, so Cindy said, "Can't we go to both islands?"  After spending nearly a week on both islands, I really can't tell you which island I liked better.  Both had some interesting aspects that I liked, while both had a few things that I didn't like.  But the "likes" of both places easily outnumbered the "dislikes" of both places.  I could easily live on either island.  But I'd have to be making 10 times the amount of money that I do now just to be able to afford the Hawaiian lifestyle. 

But I will say that I think we didn't spend enough time on Maui.  There were places that we were discovering on our last day on the island.  I do think if we went back, I'd want to spend more time on Maui  

La Flama - Moline

As I've pointed out in many posts regarding Mexican food restaurants in the Quad Cities, we are blessed to have a number of very good places that serve authentic Mexican cuisine.  One that has been around for over six years is La Flama in Moline.  They recently moved to a larger spot in downtown Moline - one that used to house the former Brown Bottle restaurant.  We went there recently on a Sunday night when neither of us felt like cooking.

Juan, Alex and Martin Garcia moved from Mexico to the Quad Cities in 1998 and worked in various restaurants around the area.  In 2004, the brothers opened La Flama in a small building on 5th Ave. in Moline.  It became one of the more popular places for authentic Mexican food in the Quad Cities.  A couple years ago, the brothers opened Papi's Bar and Bites on Kimberly Road in Bettendorf, not far from our house.  They bring in food from La Flama and serve it on the menu there.  We drive by it all the time, but have not yet gone in. 

The Garcia brothers (right) moved to their new location (see map) just a block down the street from their old location in January of this year.  Their old location had seating up to 100 patrons, but the new location effectively more than doubles the capacity.  Friday nights is La Flama's "Salsa Dance Night" with a D.J. who plays salsa, merengue, and cha-cha-cha music.  The basically move the tables out of the way on the floor and turn it into a dance club.  We've gone by the place on Friday night and it's usually packed. 

A City of Moline parking ramp is located directly behind La Flama and you can park there for free after 5 p.m.  There's a rear entry to La Flama coming out of the parking garage.  We got into the restaurant around 7:30 that one Sunday evening and we didn't realize that they closed at 8 p.m. on Sundays.  We got a hostess to seat us and she gave us menus to look over.  Both Cindy and I ordered margaritas.  It wasn't long before a young guy brought us chips and salsa. 

The food found on the menu at La Flama is typical of what you find with other authentic Mexican restaurants around the Quad Cities.  One thing that is rather unique is their selection of soups, including pozole - shredded pork in a red chile broth with hominy.  It's topped with lettuce and onion and served with tortilla chips.  They also feature the Mexican staple, sope.  They take a large hand-made tortilla and fill it with beans, deep fry it and then top it with anejo cheese, sour cream and guacamole.  You can also add chorizo and potatoes or steak and onions to a sope, as well. 

La Flama also features lengua - basically beef tongue.  They boil slices of beef tongue in herbs and spices, then top it in tomatillo salsa.  You can also get lengua tacos, as well.  I'm not quite that brave enough to try beef tongue, although the Mexicans rave about the stuff. 

Cindy was certain that we'd eaten at the original La Flama before.  She may have eaten there at some point, but I was overly certain I had not.  She said, "I don't think you liked it.  That's why I was surprised that you wanted to come here tonight."  I assured her that I had never eaten at La Flama before. 

Our waitress brought out our margaritas and took our order.  We had eaten heavily for breakfast and it was one of those lazy Sunday days where we really didn't do much to work up much of an appetite before dinner.  I was pretty basic - I went with an order of beef tacos, although I almost went with the pork carnitas tacos.  I wasn't overly hungry, so I thought three small tacos would be fine.

Cindy ordered up a single beef and bean burrito, topped with melted colby cheese.  We figured between the chips and salsa and what we ordered for dinner, we'd be fine.

And the chips and salsa was pretty good at La Flama.  It didn't stick out as anything remarkable.  It was pretty much about the same as you find at other Mexican restaurants.

But the margaritas - hoo boy!  Were they packed with tequila!  Cindy took a drink of hers, sputtered, opened her eyes real wide and said, "Oh, my God!  These things are lethal!" 

I took a drink of mine and was taken aback by the amount of tequila in mine.  I like tequila, but this was almost overpowering.  I said, "I'm glad I didn't order a double shot in my margarita.  It would have been like drinking tequila on the rocks!"

It was getting close to closing time, so they got our food out to us in a hurry.  The tacos were soft flour tortillas with beef and what appeared to be potatoes mixed in.  They were topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and anejo cheese.  I took a bite and realized that, yes, it was small chopped potatoes in with the beef.  The beef had some strange seasoning, as well.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly was in the beef, but it was - well - different.  I'm not certain that I liked it all that much.  I was suddenly wishing that I'd gone with my first impulse and gotten the pork carnitas tacos. 

Cindy said her beef and bean burrito was "OK".  She said, "This is pretty basic and quite honestly that's all I really wanted this evening." 

But everything was reasonably priced, including the margaritas.  With a tip for our very helpful waitress, the bill came to just over $20 bucks.  I'm not overly certain that I liked La Flama as much as I do some of the other good Mexican restaurants in the Moline area.  But a lot of people must like it as they had a good crowd up to closing time on that Sunday night.  And the place is doing great business since they moved to their new location.  I may have to go back and try their carnitas taco at some point.  Then I can determine if I really like the place or not.

Merriman's - Waimea, HI

Chef Peter Merriman's signature restaurant - Merriman's in Waimea, HI - may have been the first place in Hawaii to address the concept of Hawaiian Regional Cuisine.  When it opened in 1988, Merriman concept was to use home-grown, organic foods found on the islands, along with grass-fed beef from the ranches around Waimea, and to incorporate only the freshest caught fish into his daily menu.  For over 20 years, Merriman's has been popular with tourists and locals alike seeking the finest in Hawaiian Regional Cuisine - a cuisine that didn't really exist 25 years ago.

For years and years, the term "Hawaiian food" meant the stuff tourists got a traditional lu'au - kalua pork, lomilomi salmon (grilled salmon with onions and tomatoes), chicken lu'au (chicken with spinach, onion and garlic), and, of course, poi, which is basically the paste from pounded taro roots.  When Merriman arrived in 1983 to be the chef at the Mauna Lani Resort, he found the island had a bountiful harvest of food to choose from.  He found ultra sweet corn that was grown by farmers on the east side of the Big Island, there were coconut trees near the hotel that he would climb to get coconuts for a special coconut sauce he used on fish, and he began a relationship with a number of organic farmers and growers on the island.  

Merriman and his wife, Vicki, opened Merriman's with the idea of fusing all these great home-grown foods into a menu that showed off the best of what Hawaii had to offer.  In the meantime, he used his relationship with the ranchers, farmers and fishermen to ask them to try different types of things to grow and catch.  This led to different types of fruits and vegetables, as well as interesting and new species of fresh fish to show up on his menu.  Merriman's suddenly became a gourmet heaven with the burgeoning "foodie" population.  

After our lunch at Merriman's Market Cafe, not far from our hotel, I did a little research into Merriman's place in Waimea.  As I said in my earlier post on his cafe in the Kings' Shops shopping center in Waikoloa Beach, Merriman also has a handful of other restaurants that he's involved in, including a Merriman's on both Maui and on the island of Kauai.  It sounded like the Merriman's on Maui was an exquisitely upscale restaurant from some of the things we were reading about.  But the one in Waimea could be described as upscale casual.  On our last night on the Big Island we decided to go to Waimea for a good dinner at Merriman's.

I had a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian shirt on that evening, Cindy had a nice top and chinos when we went out.  It was warm when we left the hotel, temps were in the upper 70's, but we knew up in Waimea it would be cold and rainy.  It was.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees and there was a light rain by the time we pulled into the restaurants parking lot on the west end of town (see map).  

The decor of Merriman's is contemporary Hawaiian - it has a high ceiling with narrow wood beams across the room.  There was subdued lighting along the edges of the ceiling, with dimly lit chandeliers hanging toward the middle of the room - bright enough to allow you to easily read the menu.  Small palm trees in large pots were interspersed in the dining room that sat about 80 people.  The tables and booths along the walls were all adorned with heavy linen table cloths.  It was a nice place to say the least.

It was about 7:30 when we got there and there was one table open - a large six-seater near the open kitchen and the small bar area.  Actually, I can't even really call it a bar as much as it was a station where the bartender mixed drinks and put them on a five foot long pick-up bar.  The hostess took us to the table and while it was large for two people.  It was either that, or the hostess said it would be about a 20 minute wait for a regular table.  Cindy thought it would be fine, so we sat there and she gave us the menus for that evening.

We were told that Peter Merriman doesn't work all that much at the restaurant any longer, he's running the small empire of restaurants from his home on Maui.  The executive chef of Merriman's in Waimea is Neil Murphy (right) who has a long resume of working in fine restaurants before he joined the Merriman's staff.  Prior to coming to Hawaii to be the chef at Merriman's, Murphy worked at a number of high-end New York City restaurants including Aureole and Symphony Cafe.  He was the chef de cuisine at the famed Park Avenue Cafe for eight years before coming to the Big Island.  

Our waitress - wait a minute - *waiter* for the evening came out to great us.  Her name was Robyn and she was a short blond, 20-something gal who grew up in Alaska.  As we found out later on, Robyn had a degree in forestry, but decided to come to Hawaii to just bum around for awhile a few years ago.  One thing led to another and she ended up as a waiter at Merriman's.  All the waiters - both men and women - are called just that.  Each was dressed snappy in black trousers covered with heavy aprons, white button down shirts with ties.  In fact, each of them were given the title of "Professional Waiter", as it showed on the business card Robyn gave me before we left that evening.  I'd never had a waiter or waitress give me a business card before.

I looked thorough the impressive wine list Merriman's had to offer.  Robyn said apologized about the shortness of wine list - the book was ten pages. "I know our wine list isn't as extensive as other places," she said.  "But we have a great sommelier here and he can give you some recommendations on some of the wine."  

I told her, "I don't think that would be necessary, but you shouldn't sell this wine list short.  Compared to some other fine restaurants I've been to, this is pretty impressive."  Since we were in the middle of ranching country on the Big Island, I figured I get a steak that evening.  Cindy was, no doubt, going to get seafood, but she said she wanted to go with a red wine for the evening.  I ended up picking out the Castillo Labistada Rioja Reserva, a 2001 varietal from Spain.  Actually, the prices on their wine list were pretty reasonable.  A 2005 Jordan Cabernet was $99 bucks - I've paid up to $120 for that on the mainland.  They also had a Whitehall Lane 2005 cab for $89.  But the Castillo Rioja was a little over-priced at $64 bucks.  But I like a good Rioja and the Rioja Reservas are aged for three years in oak barrels compared to just one year for regular riojas. 

The menu at Merriman's is eclectic, to say the least.  While there's not a lot to choose on it, there's a lot of diverse and interesting items to choose from.  As I said, Merriman's features grass-fed Hawaiian-raised beef, fresh fish from the ocean, and organically homegrown, and when possible - chemical free - vegetables and fruits.  They have an interesting list of appetizers including a kalua pig and sweet Hawaiian onion quesadilla; macadamia encrusted grilled shrimp; and their house cured smoked bacon served with sweet bread French toast with a Kona coffee barbecue sauce.  How wild is that!

For dinner, as I said, I was looking for some grass-fed beef and they had a few things to offer including a filet; a bone-in New York strip with Szechuan pepper sauce and herb butter, and their version of Steak Diane with sauteed Hamakua mushrooms.  Man, it all sounded good.

Cindy, of course, was looking at their seafood offerings which included Merriman's original wok charred Ahi tuna - charred on the outside, but rare inside.  I almost jumped at that, honestly.  They also had a prepared Ono fish, as well as a ponzu (a fruity sauce found primarily in Japanese cuisine) marinated mahi mahi that was sauteed with sesame seasoned shiitake mushrooms, hearts of palm and sweet Maui onions.  That sounded great, too. 

What I should have done is ordered Merriman's Mixed Plate - a small tenderloin medallion with the mahi mahi and the ahi tuna.  But Cindy beat me to it.  I was sort of surprised that she went with that as she had been disdaining beef all week long during our first few days on the Big Island.  But Robyn said, "Oh, you'll like that."  

Cindy smiled and said, "Oh, I know!"    

What I ended up getting was the large (12 oz) grass-fed beef tenderloin filet with a tomato, sweet onion and beet chutney on the side.  However, before that I ordered Merriman's tomato salad with fresh basil, blue cheese, anchovy, capers, lime and olive oil.  As good as the tomatoes were on the burger I had previously at Merriman's Market Cafe,  I could only imagine how good this salad would be. 

I said, "Cindy, that has mushrooms with the fish."

She said, "That's OK, I'll just put 'em off to the side and let you have them." 

For her starter, Cindy got the Hawaiian grown lettuce salad with Maui sweet onions in a house-made balsamic vinaigrette.  She thought about getting the Caesar salad, but opted to go with the basic salad instead.

And just as I hoped it would be, the tomato salad was out of this world.  I don't know if it's the soil on top of volcanic rock or the long growing season or what, but Hawaiian tomatoes were absolutely the best I've ever had.  I grow some pretty good tasting tomatoes back home, but these were just unbelievable in their taste.  They didn't have that overly acidic taste that some tomatoes can have.  They're almost sweet and very juicy.  If the state agriculture department didn't scan bags and suitcases for vegetables and fruits, I would have smuggled home a dozen or so.  Along with the fresh anchovies, blue cheese and the fresh basil - which is grown outside of Merriman's in their own herb garden - it was a taste explosion in my mouth.  It was just unbelievable. 

Robyn and another waiter brought out our main entrees later in the evening, setting them in front of us at the same time.  I had ordered my filet rare and it was a little over-cooked.  Actually, it would have been a little over-cooked as a medium-rare.  But it was tender and juicy.  Grass-fed beef doesn't have the same taste as the corn-fed beef I'm accustomed to back in Iowa.  But as Cindy pointed out, they probably aren't injecting the cows on steroids or whatever out in Hawaii.  Still, it was pretty good. 

However, Cindy's mahi mahi, wok charred ahi and the filet medallion was "the bomb".  She gave me little bites of the fish and it was just heavenly.  She said, "Honey, this is just unbelievable.  I'm so spoiled on fish here in Hawaii I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat fish when we get back home." 

The Castillo Rioja Reserva was a great complement to the meal.  I love a good Rioja and the Castillo was a pleasant surprise.  It wasn't overpowering or bold, but had a nice finish that lingered for a moment.  It went well with the seafood, as well. 

As we finished up our meal, Robyn came around to see if we wanted dessert.  When she talked about the passion fruit mousse, I asked, "Is that the same thing as lilikoi?" 

She said, "Passion fruit is from the same family as lilikoi, very similar, but not as tart." 

We were sort of full from dinner, but I decided to give the passion fruit mousse a try.  Shortbread macadamia nut cookies came on the side.  I was sort of "eh" when it came to macadamia nuts before I got to Hawaii.  However, we found some in a can - the Mauna Loa brand of macadamia nuts - and I was hooked.  But, oh!  Macadamia nuts are so rich!  I could only eat a handful before my stomach would say, "Whoa, hang on there!"  (We brought four cases of six cans of the Mauna Loa brand macadamia nuts back home with us.) 

The passion fruit mousse was light and not as tart as the lilikoi as she said.  It was very good.  And the shortbread macadamia cookies were killer.  I said, "Cindy, we need to find the recipe for these cookies."  (We did - see it here.  We haven't made them yet, but I want to wait for a special occasion.)

The crowd had filtered out by the time we were finishing up, so that afforded Robyn some time to visit with us.  She asked how dinner was and I told her that we've had some outstanding meals with great service on our visit to the Big Island and this was no exception.  I said, "My steak was a little over-cooked, however."

She said, "Well, why didn't you say something?  I would have gotten you a new steak."

I told her it was more medium-rare-medium than rare-medium as I usually like my steaks.  "It was no big deal," I said.  "I wasn't going to quibble over meat temperature tonight."  She apologized again and said, "Well, next time you guys come back, I'll give you free desserts."  (What is it with these places giving out free desserts?  I know tourism is down in Hawaii, but that was the second high end restaurant that offered to pick up our dessert if we came back.)

Cindy said, "Unfortunately, this is our last night on this island.  We're going to Maui tomorrow." 

Robyn took out her card, put "Free desserts w/purchase of entrees" on the back of it and handed it to me.  "If someday you ever make it back to the Big Island, please do stop in and see us again."

Yes, if we ever do make it out to the Big Island again, we will stop at Merriman's.  It was expensive, but we have a tendency to splurge on vacation.  I don't know if it was the finest meal we had while on the Big Island, but it was very, very good. 

Tako Taco - Waimea, HI (Big Island Brewhaus)

The last full day we were on the Big Island of Hawaii, we took a road trip up to the northern part of the island to scout for places to take pictures later in the evening of the full moon rising out of the ocean.  However, much of the north and northeastern part of the island was shrouded in clouds that were producing some heavy rains along with some strong winds.  It's amazing that we could drive about 10 miles north of our hotel along the coast and the temperature would drop and it began to rain.  All the while we could look in the rearview mirror and see sunshine behind us. 

We eventually ended up in Waimea and went to a place that we'd read about in some travel books - Tako Taco.  Actually, we'd read in a couple books that Tako Taco had closed, but a couple others said that it had re-opened.  I figured a Mexican food place in Hawaii ought to have some righteous fish tacos, so we decided to give it a shot.

From what I could gather from doing some research on Tako Taco was that it was originally a small taco shop in Waimea that offered what would be called "Hawaiianized Mexican Food".  Actually, their food was a fusion of Mexican, Island and Asian cuisine.  A lot of travel books we had read on the old place raved about the inventive nature of their Mexican food.

Tako Taco opened around 2002 and moved to their present day location in 2007 (see map). But they soon went out of business - much to the dismay of locals and tourists, alike.  That's when Tom Kerns, a former brewmaster from Oregon, came into the picture.

Kerns' (pictured right) career in the restaurant business began when he worked at McNemamins, a chain of brewpubs in the Pacific Northwest.  Kerns eventually landed in the Phillipines where he helped open a brewpub there.  Liking the south Pacific lifestyle, Kerns came to Hawaii and opened up the Fish and Game Brewing Company on the island of Maui about 11 years ago.  It quickly became one of the more popular destinations for food and beer in the Lahaina area. 

Kerns also became a hero to many beer enthusiasts on the Hawaiian Islands when he drafted legislation that would allow brewpubs to sell growler containers (one gallon jugs of beer) and kegs directly to their customers.   We noticed a small shack directly outside the Kona Brewing Company that was selling growlers to people when we were there earlier on our visit.   

Eventually, the Maui Brewing Company was looking for a brewpub/restaurant to feature their beer and they bought out Kerns and turned the Fish and Game Brewing Company in the Maui Brewing Co. brewpub.  Kerns "retired" with his wife to the highlands around Waimea looking for his next opportunity.  His goal was to open another brewpub and looked at a number of places around his home in Waimea for a place to do so.

When Tako Taco went out of business, the wheels began to turn for Kerns and his wife, Jayne.  The Kerns bought the building and resurrected the old cantina style restaurant with an eye on serving the same style of healthy Mexican/Island food, along with serving some of his own beers.  The Kerns bought what was an old motorcycle shop behind the Tako Taco building and began to put brewing equipment in the building.  The capacity of brewing in the building isn't huge - their 10 barrel system will brew about 500 barrels of beer annually.  But Kerns hopes to grow that part of the business in the future.   

Kerns image of taking Tako Taco and turning it into a brewpub came to fruition in August of 2008.  However, the signage is sort of confusing as it's both called Tako Taco and also Big Island Brewhaus.  Turns out the official name of the place is Tako Taco Taqueria Big Island Brewhaus.  Sort of wordy for name of a resturant, don't you think?  Either way, the place is open and they offer pretty much the same menu as the old Tako Taco and a number of different in-house brewed beers. 

Actually, we tried to get into Tako Taco earlier in the afternoon, but there was no place to park in the rather small parking lot.  Given that it was raining, we didn't want to park the car across the road and walk to the restaurant.  We decided to drive around for a bit and then come back.  When we did get back just after 2 p.m. there was a place to park. 

The outside of the building features a bamboo fence that houses a beer garden the Kerns built to help give the restaurant sort of a neighborhood brewpub feel.  But walking into the restaurant, it was far from a brewpub atmosphere.  It was like they had taken a Mexican cantina and dropped it in the middle of the Pacific.  There were a number of tables and chairs all through the place, a small bar upfront with a multitude of beers on tap - not only their own beers, but beers from the Kona Brewery, Stella Artois and Heinekin.  For some reason, Heinekin is big in Hawaii.  It's sort of an island staple like Spam.

 

We took a seat at a table near the front counter.  Above the counter is the menu for the place (click on the picture for a closer look at their menu).  It's not an extensive menu, but it offered a lot of different variations of Island-Mex food.  We didn't know if there was waitress service, so we sort of sat there for a moment.  Finally a girl behind the counter said, "You have to order up here."  Oh, OK.  That's fine. 

We weren't overly hungry, even though it had been nearly five hours since we'd had breakfast.  I really just wanted to try some of their fish tacos.  Their fish tacos are fresh catch, usually ono, spearfish or some other light white fish.  They came with cabbage on the side and a homemade black bean salsa on the top.  I ordered a couple of those. 

Cindy always loves chile rellenos, so she ordered one of those.  She also wanted some chips and salsa, but unlike most Mexican restaurants on the mainland, Tako Taco charges for their homemade ships and salsa.  But that was OK - the chips were very good and very fresh, while the red and green salsas they provided were excellent as well.  Both had a hint of heat to them, the green more so than the red. 

For drinks, something caught my eye - lilikoi margaritas.  Instead of the regular margarita mix, Tako Taco uses lilikoi juice in this variation of the margarita.  Since lilikoi was like heroin to me, I had to try one.  Cindy follwed suit and ordered one, as well. 

And the margaritas were out of this world.  I don't know what it is about the taste of lilikoi, but I was absolutely hooked on it.  I quickly down my margarita and went back up to order another one.  By that time, our food was brought out to our table. 

While the tacos weren't overly huge, there was a lot of grilled fish on the double corn tortillas.  The cabbage was fresh and went well with the fish.  What grabbed my attention was the black bean salsa they put on the fish.  Man, it had a spicy peppery taste to it.  It almost overpowered the taste of the fish, but it had a really good spicy finish on the tongue.  About the time I really needed to take a drink, the girl behind the counter came out with my second lilikoi margarita.  The combination of the lilikoi and the spicy black bean salsa was a taste sensation like no other I'd ever had.

Cindy was sort of confused with her chile relleno.  Unlike most chile rellenos she's had in the past, it didn't come with a tomato-based sauce on the top.  There was chopped lettuce topped with a mild salsa served on the side.  She just used some of the red salsa that was provided for our chips.  She seemed to like the chile relleno calling it "different".

Between the chips and salsa, the two lilikoi margaritas and the two fish tacos, I was pretty stuffed.  I got up to look around the place and I noticed an autographed picture of Elton John on the wall.  Turns out he had eaten at Tako Taco at some point in time.  I don't know if it was during the current incarnation of the restaurant or if it was back during the previous owner's tenure.  Either way, I thought it was sort of ironic that I had eaten in at least two places that Elton John has eaten at before, the other being Raja in Atlanta.

 I don't know if the food at Tako Tako was really good or if it was just really different as compared to the usual Mexican food we get back on the mainland.  The fish tacos were good, but not overly outstanding.  Cindy said her chili relleno was good, but she's had better.  The lilikoi margaritas were outstanding - I wish I could find lilikoi juice on the mainland.  And the homemade chips and salsa was above average.  I liked the atmosphere of the place, but I thought the people working there were a little distant.  Overall, it was a good experience at Tako Taco.  I don't know if I'd go back there for the food, but I'd crawl back there for the lilikoi margaritas.

(Update - Since our trip to Tako Taco, Kerns has opened his brewpub - Big Island Brewhaus - that also serves the same Mexican food.) 

Kamuela Provision Company - Waikoloa Village, HI

Staying at an all-inclusive resort has never appealed to us.  We like to explore the areas where we stay, and that usually means looking for good restaurants.  We've heard reports from friends who have stayed at all-inclusive places and we've all heard the food isn't bad, but it's not great.  It's generally sanitized and dumbed-down for the tourists.  While our hotel - the Hilton Waikoloa Village - wasn't an all-inclusive resort, it did feature a number of restaurants to choose from.  We were sort of thinking that we should spend some bucks in at least one restaurant for dinner during out stay there and we chose the Kamuela Provision Company.

Actually, we almost didn't go to the Kamuela Provision Company.  We really didn't know about it until we stumbled upon the place during a walk around the property at the resort one afternoon.  It was situated about as far from our room as you could get at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.  We were walking around the pool at the Lagoon tower and we sort of stumbled into it along a path that traced the rocky, black lava cliff that jutted out into the Pacific.  It had a wonderful little patio that looked out onto the sea and the sound of waves crashing up against the rocks gave it a great tropical sea feeling.  And it was a popular place for dinner when the sun would set into the sea.  We stopped to look at one of their menus they had posted by the front of the restaurant and it featured primarily steaks and seafood.  Cindy said, "Well, this place certainly looks interesting." 

We had been thinking of going to an Italian restaurant at the Hilton that we'd heard about - Donatoni's.  The restaurant wasn't far from our room in the Ocean tower, but we noticed that there was a two-sided sign out in front of the restaurant.  On one side it said, "Donatoni's", but you could spin it around and it said, "Bella Vista".  One day the sign would say, "Donatoni's", but later in the day or the next day, we'd see "Bella Vista" on the sign.  We were sort of confused about that.  But we'd read so many good things about Donatoni's that we really wanted to give it a try.  But once Cindy saw the Kamuela Provision Company, her choices of hotel restaurants began to waver. 

After a long day of doing nothing - the perfect type of day for me on a vacation -  we decided to hit the Malolo Lounge for a couple drinks before dinner.  Our favorite waitress, April, was asking us what we were going to do for dinner that evening.  I said, "I think we're gonna try Donatoni's for some Italian tonight."  

She sort of stopped and said, "Oh!  Donatoni's is closed."

Cindy said, "Closed?!"

April said that it had been closed for about a year.  "Their lease ran out with the hotel," she explained.  "That space is now used for like private parties and private dinners, primarily for the weddings that we have here."  

I said, "Oh, that explains the double-sided sign that said 'Donatoni's' on one side and 'Bella Vista' on the other."  

April said, "Yeah, I don't quite understand why they do that or why they even have 'Donatoni's' still on the sign."

Cindy turned to me and said, "Good!  Then we can go to the Provision Company for dinner."

April replied, "The Kamuela Provision Company here on the property?  Oh, that's really good."  And she smiled and said, "And it's really romantic."  Cindy was hooked. 

We asked April if we needed reservations and she told us that there wasn't a lot of people staying at the Hilton, so we probably didn't need to worry about that.  We had noticed that all week long that it appeared there wasn't a lot of people staying there the week we were there.  April said, "I think our occupancy rate has been way down because we've been slow here in the lounge all week long.  But it's supposed to get busy starting this weekend." 

(Clayton Homes out of Tennessee - which is also a Berkshire-Hathaway company - was scheduled to begin a convention of sales managers the next week and each sales manager could bring their family with them.  A lot of them were coming in on Friday and Saturday.  I think they brought something like 800 people.) 

April said that the Kamuela Provision Company is usually packed with diners on the patio right about sunset.  "But if you want to wait and eat later, you should be able to get right in."

We went back to our room to freshened up and change clothes and we took a leisurely walk through the lush tropical grounds of the hotel over to the Kamuela Provision Company, stopping to watch the sunset dive into the ocean.  Hawaiian sunsets are just spectacular. 

We checked in at the hostess stand and she asked if we wanted to eat inside or out.  Cindy wanted to eat outside and the hostess said we'd have about a 15 to 20 minute wait.  We sat at the bar and Cindy got a glass of white wine while I enjoyed a couple of - you guessed it - Kona Big Wave Golden Ales.

It wasn't quite 20 minutes when the hostess came and got us at the bar.  The dining room at the Kamuela Provision Company was sort of cozy, but the two main rooms weren't small.  The lights were subdued and the motif was sort of a high-end tropical theme.  But there was - maybe - four tables filled in the dining room.  All the action was, indeed, outside on the patio. 

We were seated outside at a table that looked out onto the ocean.  The sky was becoming a deep violet with the last light of setting sun on the horizon and a bright moon rising above Mauna Kea to the east.  We noticed there were about four tables for two people set up on what was the walkway that we had passed on our first journey past the Kamuela Provision Company.  Even though it had an unobstructed view of the ocean, people could easily just walk past, just inches from their table.  Cindy said, "God, I'm not certain I'd want to be sitting out there with people walking past all the time."

Turned out that not a lot of people were out walking along the point at that time of the evening.  And only two fof the four tables along the walkway were occupied. 

We were looking through our menus when our waiter for the evening, Oly, came to introduce himself.  He was a personable young guy who was born in California to Samoan parents.  He was a pretty well built guy and said that he was a pretty good football player in high school.  "I had about a dozen scholarship offers to some big schools, but I blew out my knee in my second game of my senior season.  I never played football again," he told us later that evening. 

He said his father and mother had divorced when he was young.  After high school he moved out to Hawaii to live with his dad and go to college.  "College lasted about six months and I moved out on my own soon after that," he told us.  "That was about 11 years ago.  Now I have a wife and two beautiful daughters and I can't imagine doing anything else than what I'm doing right now."   He certainly seemed to like his job. 

We started off getting a bottle of the Grgich Hills Fume Blanc that was reasonably priced at around $55 bucks.  We noticed wine prices in Hawaii were about 10 to 15 percent higher than what we'd see in restaurants on the mainland.  But we sort of expected that when we were in Hawaii.

Oly came back to explain some things about the menu.  He said all of the seafood was fresh catch, usually earlier that day.  The steaks on the menu featured Hawaiian grass-fed beef, or they would fly fresh beef from the mainland and cut their own steaks two or three times a week.  Their featured entree was an 8 oz. grilled beef tenderloin filet with tempura lobster.  They had a number of appetizers and salads to choose from, as well.  

He gave us the specials for that evening and one was a striped sea bass, caught fresh that morning, fileted and grilled in a butter sauce, then topped with sauteed butterfly shrimp and finished with a light cream sauce.  Cindy perked up when she heard that.  Buttermilk mashed potatoes came on the side.  Or Oly said that we could substitute the side with any one of their signature sides they offered such as sweet potato hash, wilted spinach or edamame succotash.  Cindy ordered the special with the buttermilk mashed potatoes.

I was sort of thinking either steak or seafood.  I asked Oly, "What's the most popular seafood item on the menu?"

He didn't hesitate when he answered, "The KPC ocean platter."  It featured the catch of the day, which was ono that evening, along with oysters, shrimp and scallops.  And you had your choice for either grilled or fried seafood on the plate.  He said, "Get it grilled and we put this house made remoulade sauce on top of everything.  It's my favorite."  I ordered that with a side of sweet hash potatoes.  

A salad came with the dinner - Cindy got a small traditional Caesar salad, while I asked Oly if I could substitute my salad for the KPC tomato salad - locally grown heirloom tomatoes with sweet Hawaiian onions, topped with crumbled feta cheese and a white balsamic macadamia nut vinaigrette.  He said there would be a slight up-charge, but I didn't care.  Hawaii had some of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had in my life.

And my tomato salad was excellent.  There's something about the taste of tomatoes while we were in Hawaii that just set me off.  They were juicy and flavorful, not acidic like tomatoes on the mainland can be.  I really liked the white balsamic macadamia nut vinaigrette, as well.  It was a great compliment to the tomatoes and sweet onion slices.  

Cindy said her Caesar salad was very good, as well.  The Caesar dressing was very good and definitely house made.  The lettuce was crisp and crunchy, the way Cindy likes her salad greens.  

While we waited for dinner, we noticed the tables had begun to turn over to new diners.  A lot of the people who were there earlier for the sunset had begun to leave and a number of Japanese diners came to the patio deck to enjoy their dinner.  The Hilton Waikoloa Village catered to Japanese tourists with signage and menus printed in both English and Japanese.  We were suddenly a minority on the patio with Japanese diners, but that was no big deal at all.  Cindy said, "Maybe Japanese people are like Europeans and like to eat later in the evening."

Oly brought our food out and I was sort of surprised with the size of the plate for the KPC ocean platter.  It was larger than what I expected.  The ono was grilled with a seasoning and butter sauce, and there were five large butterflied shrimp, about the same number of grilled oysters and about a half dozen medium sized grilled scallops on top with the cream sauce poured over all that.  And it was just excellent.  The ono was light and flavorful, and the cream sauce went very well with the seafood, especially when I squeezed some lemon juice on top of everything.  The sweet potato hash was *OK*, but I was much more interested in the seafood.

Cindy's striped sea bass was also very good.  We exchanged bites of our food and I think I liked her sea bass better than my ono.  As we were eating, Cindy said, "God, Will, I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to eat seafood when we get back home.  This is just so fresh and flavorful.  We'll never get anything like this back in Iowa."  

After we finished our meals, Oly came out to tempt us with dessert.  He was talking about their coconut cream pie and I told him I didn't like coconut all that much.  I love the smell of coconut, but not the taste.  Cindy does like coconut and she was interested in that.   He said, "Listen, I never really liked coconut either until I had this pie when I first started here about 8 years ago.  Now it's my favorite."  

He described a few other desserts and I stopped him when he was described their Hawaiian lilikoi cheesecake served with passion fruit.  I said, "Ooooo... That sounds great.  I really like lilikoi and anything that has lilikoi in it."  We ordered that with two forks.  

When Oly came out with the dessert he had the cheesecake - and a piece of the coconut cream pie.  He said, "Look, I'm not gonna charge you guys for the coconut cream pie.  I just want you to try it.  If you don't like it, leave it and enjoy the cheesecake."  

Well, I did try the coconut cream pie and it was very good.  It didn't have the overpowering coconut taste that I've had in similar pies in the past.  But I have to tell you - the Hawaiian lilikoi cheesecake was just outstanding.  Oh my God!  Lilikoi, to me, was fast becoming like heroin to a junkie.  There's just something about the sweet fruity taste of lilikoi that sends me over the edge.  

After we finished, Oly came back to the table to talk with us for a few minutes.  I told him that the coconut cream pie was surprisingly good, but the Hawaiian lilikoi cheesecake was to die for.  He told us, "Look, I know there are a lot of great places to eat around here, but I'd really like you folks to come back before you leave.  Even if it's just for dessert.  And dessert will be on me, my treat."  He said he didn't work Sunday or Monday nights, so he said we could come back on the weekend and he'd take care of us. I couldn't pass up a chance at another piece of that Hawaiian lilikoi cheesecake.

Unfortunately, that Saturday was the tsunami warning and after the hotel let guests back on to the property none of the restaurants were open.  They had a free buffet in one of the ballrooms to feed people who didn't want to leave the property to go get dinner.  So we never went back to see Oly and get our free dessert.

The food at the Kamuela Provision Company was very good - surprisingly good for a hotel resort restaurant.  Oly's service was very personable and efficient.  He was a talker, but he knew when to let us enjoy our food and the surroundings.  We were overly happy with our meal and Cindy said, "Geez, could you imagine if we'd gone to Donatoni's instead of this place?  I'm glad Donatoni's was closed or we wouldn't have found out how good this place was."

We dawdled a bit after dinner, enjoying the waves crashing onto the rocks, easily visible from a nearly full moon coming up from behind us.  Oly wasn't in any hurry to kick us out to turn the table, we had spent a lot of money with him and gave him a handsome tip for his service.  And it was a great, relaxed and slow walk back to our room well across the resort property.  Life couldn't get much better than that evening in Hawaii.   

Merriman's Market Cafe - Waikoloa Beach, HI

One day for lunch, we ventured over to the Kings' Shops shopping place near our hotel at the Waikoloa Beach Resort looking for a place to eat.  We decided to try Merriman's Market Cafe, a casual restaurant that specializes in Mediterranean cuisine using locally grown produce and meat, and featuring freshly caught seafood.   

Merriman's Market Cafe is part of a family of restaurants owned by restaurateur/chef Peter Merriman.  Merriman arrived in Hawaii in the early 80's to become the executive chef at a resort on the Big Island of Hawaii.  He quickly found that traditional Hawaiian food left a lot to be desired, considering most of the native food was found at traditional lu'aus.  And it wasn't all that great.  He began to experiment with innovative dishes that featured the bountiful harvest of what the island could produce, both on the land and from the sea.  His combination of taste sensations from locally grown foods garnered him a following with burgeoning "foodies".

 

In 1988, Merriman (right) and his wife, Vicki, opened their first restaurant, Merriman's, in the middle of ranching country in Waimea.  Merriman developed a relationship with local growers and ranchers to get the finest foods available for his restaurant.  Merriman's quickly became a destination for tourists and locals who were looking for the best in Hawaiian regional food.  It was one of the first gourmet restaurants on the Big Island.

In 1991, Merriman and 11 other Hawaii-based chefs got together to establish what is called Hawaiian Regional Cuisine.  Instead of distorting Hawaiian cuisine with frozen, flown-in food from the mainland to appease the taste buds of tourists, Merriman and his fellow chefs combined to come up with recipes that featured the best of what Hawaii had to offer - from the soil, from the ranches and from the sea.  Suddenly, Hawaii Regional Cuisine meant more than kalua pork and lomi salmon served buffet style at a lu'au.  The concept has allowed these innovative chefs to make Hawaii not only a beach paradise destation, but a food destination, as well.

In the early 90's, Merriman teamed with the TS Restaurant group to open the Hula Grill on Maui.  They opened a second Hula Grill in Honolulu after that.  Merriman's Market Cafe opened in 2003.  And in addition to his Merriman's restaurant on the Big Island, he also has Merriman's locations on Maui and Kauai. 

Merriman's Market Cafe has a nice little dining room, but a spacious outdoor dining area with tables under large umbrella's that shade diners from the intense Kohala Coast sun that shines over 300 days a year.  We took one of the last available tables outdoors when we went that one afternoon.  Our hostess gave us our menus and a waiter was over quickly to take our drink orders.

The lunch menu at Merriman's Market Cafe isn't all that extensive, but it was interesting, nonetheless.  The dinner menu is much more lengthy with pasta dishes, ribs, gourmet pizza, and grass-fed beef.  They also feature nightly seafood and beef specials, along with a pretty good selection of tapas for appetizers. 

At lunch, they also feature a couple of specials.  One of the specials that day was a Greek salad topped with a freshly caught spearfish that is grilled in a Moroccan tagine-roasted marinade of garlic and ginger.  That's what Cindy ordered.  

I'd been sort of hankering for a good burger since we got on the island, but I soon found that good burger joints are really tough to find in Hawaii.  Merriman's had a 1/2 pound Market Cafe cheese burger that was topped with white cheddar cheese.  I went with that.  The waiter asked me, "Would you like bacon and sauteed ali'i mushrooms on that?"  I asked him what ali'i mushrooms were and he said they were a Hawaiian grown mushroom.  He said, "They're really good grilled and put on top of the burger."  How could I say no after that?  

It was a great afternoon, nice and warm with a gentle breeze blowing through the outdoor seating area.  I was enjoying a few cold Kona Big Wave Golden Ales while Cindy was sipping on a glass of one of their very dry white house wines.  I should have found out what it was as she offered me a sip and it was very good.  

 

Our food came out and I was surprised by the size of the burger and the amount of bacon and mushrooms they put on top.  There was a large leaf of fresh lettuce and a large, juicy tomato under the fresh sourdough bun.  My God, it may have been the best tomato I've ever tasted!  Everything about the burger was just great.  It was one of the finest gourmet burgers I've ever tasted.

Garlic and chive seasoned french fries came with the burger.  I usually don't go for fries all that much, but these were too good to pass up.  I was having an exceptional lunch at Merriman's Market Cafe.

Cindy's Greek salad with the grilled spearfish was also wonderful.  She gave me a couple bites of her salad and fish in return for some french fries.  The fish had a great taste to it, light and flaky.  And the Greek salad dressing was so overly flavorful, yet not overpowering.  We were having a great lunch.

After lunch, our waiter was trying to tempt us with treats from their dessert menu.  Merriman's Market Cafe featured their own gelato cart just outside the outdoor seating area near the mall's promenade.  Cindy wanted to try some gelato, but only if I'd help her eat some.  I only wanted lemon gelato and it turned out they were out of the lemon flavor.  We ended up passing on the dessert, although I do have to say the chocolate Grand Marnier creme brulee sounded pretty interesting.

But quite honestly, we had enough food to satiate us until dinner later that evening.  Cindy loved her salad and my burger at Merriman's Market Cafe was outstanding.  In fact, when we were talking to our favorite bar waitress back at the hotel, April, she told us she thought everything that Merriman's Market Cafe had to offer was wonderful - including the burger.  "I think it's the best burger on the island," she told us after we'd been there.  That was the only burger I had when I was on the Big Island and if that was the best in the eyes of a local, that was fine with me.

After our experience at Merriman's Market Cafe, we made a conscious effort to have dinner at Merriman's primary restaurant in Waimea.  We did and look for our experience there in an upcoming Road Tips post very soon.

(Update - Although we probably would have never had the chance to go back to Merriman's Market Cafe, I'm still somewhat bummed to find out that it closed in 2014.  I'll never forget the taste of the fresh tomato on the burger - a taste of a tomato that I may never find again.)  

Buzz's Sand Trap - Waikoloa Village, HI

While on the Big Island, for dinner one evening we stayed close to the hotel and had a meal at Buzz's Sand Trap, a restaurant  at the Beach Golf Course which is part of the Waikoloa Beach Resort.  We had seen a sign for the place, but figured that it was not much more than a "19th Hole" bar and grill since it was part of the golf course.  We soon found out it was far from that.   

Buzz's Sand Trap opened in August of 2009 in what was the old Beach Grill restaurant.  The owner, Richard "Dickie" Furtado, comes from a long family line of restaurant owners with restaurants on The Big Island, Maui and Oahu.  Furtado's father, Dick, ran the famous Big Island restaurant Bobbie's Steak and Lobster that was on the waterfront in Hilo for years.  Dick Furtado's daugther, Bobby Lou, opened Buzz's Original Steak House in 1959 on Oahu with her husband, Raymond "Buzz" Schnieder.  Dickie Furtado's sister, Julie, also owned a restaurant.  And he has a niece and nephew in the restaurant business, as well.

While attending the University of Hawaii, Dickie Furtado worked at Buzz's Original Steak House and decided to head to San Francisco to learn how to become a chef.  Dickie Furtado eventually came back to Hawaii and opened three restaurants in Maui.  He sold all three just after the turn of the century. 

An opportunity arose to open a restaurant in the Waikoloa Beach Resort property and Dickie Furtado decided to capitalize on the popularity and longevity of the "Buzz's" name by naming his new restaurant Buzz's Sand Trap.  The restaurant specializes in kiawe (sort of a Hawaiian mesquite) wood-grilled meats and seafood.  Although it does have some of the same specialties from Buzz's Original Steak House, Dickie Furtado has a number of his own recipes for Buzz's Sand Trap. 

Buzz's Sand Trap was highly recommended by our favorite concierge at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, Rick.  I'm tellin' ya - the guy never steered us in a wrong direction when it came to restaurants.  He told us that Buzz's Sand Trap was "literally just over there," pointing just to the south and east of the property.  Rick said it was walking distance, but a little bit of a hike.  We thought we'd just drive over to the place since we really didn't know where we were going.  It turned out that Rick was right - it was an easy walk from the Hilton (see map).  Buzz's Sand Trap is part of the clubhouse at the Beach Golf Course at the Waikoloa Beach Resort and it has a spacious parking lot. 

We got into the place around 7:30 and the hostess met us at her stand just outside the door.  She asked if we had reservations and I asked back, "Do we need them?"  (That's a minor pet-peeve of mine when it comes to restaurants.  I know that their first instinct is to ask if a patron has a reservation if they have some on their books.  But why can't they ask, "Two for dinner?  Do you have a reservation?")  She said we didn't and she went inside to check what sort of seating we could get.  She came back and took us past the small bar area up front to a table over in a corner of the restaurant near the front of the dining area and gave us our menus.  The restaurant was about 1/3 full. 

Buzz's Sand Trap opens at 3:30 each day for happy hour.  They feature a number of "pupu's" - the Hawaiian term for appetizer - including hot or cold artichoke hearts, escargot and ahi tuna ceviche (a lime-juice marinated tuna that cooks in the citric acid of the juice).  Buzz's Sand Trap also has a short list of beers and wines to choose from, as well as just about any drink you want to order.  

The entree menu at Buzz's Sand Trap isn't all that extensive, but it did have some interesting choices.  Of course, they had steaks and seafood, but they also featured lobster, rack of lamb, and baby back ribs.  They had a light meal menu - the "short course" - that featured clams and meatloaf. 

Our waiter came over to let us know the "catch of the day" was mahi mahi and they prepare it three different ways - poached Oriental style with garlic, ginger sauce, green onions and peanut oil; dredged in a panko flour and sauteed; or grilled over kiawe wood.   I don't know if Cindy heard him say anything after that.  She was getting the kiawe grilled mahi mahi. 

I was sort of torn as to what to get.  I kept hearing these great stories about the grass-fed ranch beef they grew on the Big Island.  And Buzz's Sand Trap featured a ribeye, a strip steak and a tenderloin filet on their menu.  And you could get your choice of sauces to go with them, if you want.  One sauce was called "Sinatra Style" - a favorite of Frank Sinatra's when he would visit Buzz's Original Steak House on Oahu.  It was olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, capers and chopped garlic.  It sounded interesting.  They also had a peppercorn sauce that was Worcestershire sauce, cognac and whole peppercorns.  I'm a sucker for a good peppercorn sauce. 

But something caught my eye - the kiawe-grilled rosemary garlic encrusted bone-in pork chop.  I don't get to eat pork that much at home - Cindy has some sort of weird thing about grilled pork at home - so I like to get it when we go out to eat.  The rosemary encrusted pork chop sounded good for me. 

With our meals, we had our choice of soup or Buzz's Sand Trap's salad bar.  With her kiawe grilled mahi mahi, Cindy got a bowl of the Portuguese vegetable bean soup.  I went with the salad bar.  We also decided to get a bottle of the Parducci sauvignon blanc.  I got a Big Wave Golden Ale to start off (I'd had a couple mai tai's and a couple beers back at the hotel before we came over). 

Our waiter brought out Cindy's soup and she offered me a bite.  It was basically a vegetable soup with black beans.  And it was pretty tasty.  I finished up my beer as the waiter finally brought the bottle of wine to the table.  I waited for him to open it before I went to the salad bar.  Buzz's Sand Trap's salad bar wasn't overly big, but it did have enough different items to choose from to make a good sized salad plate.  One of the homemade dressing choices they had was their Hawaiian dressing - a lilikoi-infused French dressing that was very, very good. 

The atmosphere at Buzz's Sand Trap was very relaxed, let sort of elegant.  The dress code was not overly casual - you still needed to wear a collared shirt to be seated.  But it didn't seem stuffy in the least.  The lighting was subdued and conversations didn't carry in the dining area.  It was a pretty romantic place, actually. 

We did notice, however, that the service was a little spotty.  Our waiter was distracted a couple times and didn't get our bottle of wine to our table very quickly.  I was just finishing up my salad when our entrees came out.   And Cindy needed something after our dinner was served, but we couldn't find our waiter.  I don't care for waiters or waitresses who don't check back within five to ten minutes after you've been served.  Sometimes they come too soon to ask how the food is and you haven't even taken a bite. 

When my plate was placed in front of me, I was surprised to see not one rosemary garlic encrusted pork chops, but TWO!  I thought, "How can I finish both of these?"  But from the first bite I made up my mind that I was going to give it the old college try.  The pork chops were moist and not overcooked.  The rosemary was a little overpowering as I really couldn't taste much garlic on the meat.  But the kiawe-mesquite flavor was very good.  On the side I had a pile of garlic-mashed potatoes and a stir-fried vegetable medley.   I had a couple bites of the garlic-mashed potatoes and they were very good.  Not as full of garlic that I like, but they were still very good.

Cindy offered me a bite of her grilled mahi mahi.  It was very light and flaky, cooked medium-rare and had that good kiawe flavor to it.  I liked it very much, as did Cindy.  She got a side of steamed cauliflower, broccoli and snow peas along with her meal. 

We were enjoying our dinner when another couple was seated at the table next to us.  They were looking through the menu and shaking their head somewhat disapprovingly of what they were finding.  When our waiter - who was their waiter - came to greet them, the lady asked, "Is this the same as the Buzz's Steak House in Honolulu?"

The waiter said this place was owned by the brother of the owner of Buzz's Steak House, but that was really the only affiliation.  The waiter stepped away - not coming to our table, of course - and suddenly the couple fell into a heavy discussion.  Suddenly, they both stood up, placed the their napkins on the table and left.  I looked at the menu for Buzz's Steak House on line afterward and it didn't seem to be much larger - all that different, for that matter - than Buzz's Sand Trap.  But they left anyway.

And, quite honestly, it was their loss.  I thought the food at Buzz's Sand Trap was very good.  I liked the pork chops and was able to finish the bulk of the meat on the bones.  Cindy's mahi mahi was cooked wonderfully and she enjoyed them immensely.   Other than the spotty service (the waiter didn't even ask us if we wanted dessert), the whole experience was pretty enjoyable.  Rick the concierge had told us that the prices were pretty good at Buzz's Sand Trap and he was spot on with that, as well.  It was a lot of food for the money we paid, quite possibly one of the best bargains while we were in Hawaii. Buzz's Sand Trap was a good place to get a meal at a good price on the Big Island. 

La Primavera Restaurante - Moline, IL

As I've said on a couple of occasions when writing in "Road Tips", the Quad City area is blessed with an abundance of authentic Mexican food restaurants. One place that just opened recently is La Primavera in downtown Moline (see map). Actually, La Primavera is also the name of the grocery store run by Yolanda and Angel Vargas just down the street from the restaurant. They had a little 20 seat restaurant in the back of the store where they served tacos and tortas. They became so popular that they opened up a full service restaurant a few doors to the west. (Photos courtesy of the Quad City Times)

As a little girl, Yolanda Vargas sold chickens from a road side stand in her native Mexico. She immigrated to the U.S. in the 80's and settled in Chicago. She eventually made it to Davenport to work in a friend's Mexican grocery. In 1989, Yolanda opened her first small store in Moline. Within three years, business was so good that she moved to a larger location. In 1999, the business expanded again and moved to its present day location on 6th Ave. in Moline (see map). Actually, the second location for the store was right next to where La Primavera restaurant is today.

Not only does Yolanda Vargas have a wide variety of Mexican foods in her grocery store, she also sells items such as clothing, Mexican-made goods and magazines. She also has a thriving distribution business for her fresh produce that she delivers to other stores and restaurants around the Quad City area. We go over there from time to time to get tortillas, authentic cuts of Mexican meats, limes and fresh produce when we're going to have a good homemade Mexican dinner.

La Primavera restaurant is run by Yolanda's and Angel's daughter, Claudia, and their son, Erick. It's housed in an old corner building that was once the very popular Glenn Moore's supper club years ago. Most recently, it was a Mexican restaurant called Chino's. I didn't care for the place all that much, but Cindy seemed to like it. She always wanted to go there, but I always balked at going back. Eventually, it went out of business a couple years ago.

The Vargas family came in and renovated the interior of the restaurant and painted the walls in festive colors. A huge old picture of the corner of 15th St. and 6th Ave. showing the building is on the wall. They replaced the spartan and shabby tables and chairs that were in Chino's with new booths and sturdy tables and heavy chairs. There's a small bar area toward the back of the restaurant.

We took a seat in one of the booths and the menus were on the table. The lighting is somewhat subdued in the place and I didn't have my glasses with me. I could hardly read the menu. The print was small and it was a red colored font against an orange background. I told Cindy, "I can't read this." My eyes finally focused enough that I was able to make out some of the things on the menu. Cindy, who wears contacts, wasn't having any problem reading the menu.

A waiter brought a basket of chips while we waited. Another waiter, who we figured to be Erick Vargas, came over to take our drink order. I got a Sol beer while he coerced Cindy into one of their special margaritas. "It's not overly sweet like other places," he said. "We don't use all that syrup in our margaritas."

It must have been a made from scratch margarita because it took quite a while for him to bring Cindy's to the table. By the time he got back with it, we were ready to order our food. Cindy ordered the steak especial, a thin slice of grilled beef steak with sides of grilled veggies, Mexican rice and refried beans. Cindy also has a soft spot for chile rellenos and she asked our waiter if she could get one ala carte. He said it was no problem.

I ordered the combination - a taco with your choice of meat, an enchilada and a tostada. I also ordered one "perna" taco - perna (Pee-air-na) is a type of pork that is marinated and cooked in mild juices and spices. I had to give that a try. For my taco with the combination, I ordered carne asada.

I will say that Cindy's margarita was worth the wait. It wasn't as sweet and syrupy as you find at other Mexican restaurants. It had a refreshing tart taste and had a generous amount of tequila. I sort of wondered what their special margaritas were like considering this one was pretty damn good.

We had finished our basket of chips and another waiter came over to see if we wanted any more. I hesitated, knowing that we'd be having a lot of food coming out in a short bit. But Cindy said, "Yes." He brought more chips and a second bottle of salsa. He told us, "You look like people who enjoy the hotter stuff. This is a little more spicy than the first bottle."

I wouldn't say it was overly more spicy than the first bottle, but it did have a little zip with a spicy aftertaste. I liked it immediately.

Not long after that, our waiter brought out Cindy's chile relleno. He explained that it was an authentic chile relleno from an old family recipe they got from relatives in Guadalajara. It was adorned with an avacado slice on top. Now, I forgot to bring in my new camera phone so I could get a picture of it, but it was worthy of a pic. Cindy used to chastise me for bringing my old Blackberry into restaurants, so it was by force of habit that I didn't bring my phone in with me that evening.

I will say that Cindy's chile relleno was very good. Cindy went so far as to call it "the best chile relleno I've ever had." It was a hefty poblano pepper with a very good brown sauce on top. I had a couple bites and it was very good.

Actually, I'm glad that we had the second basket of chips and that I had a couple bites of Cindy's chile relleno because it was quite some time before the rest of our food showed up at the table. Business was steady at the restaurant, but it wasn't overly busy. From the time we initially ordered our food, a couple came in, sat down, ordered, ate their food and left all before our main order showed up. I thought it to be a little strange that they brought out the chile relleno well in advance of the rest of the order. But quite honestly, we were in no hurry. It was a pretty relaxing environment.

When our food finally did show up, well there was a lot of it. Cindy's steak was pretty good sized, not all that thick, but it covered a large portion of her plate with the grilled onions and peppers on top. She said, "My God, I'm not going to be able to eat all this!"

The waiter had forgotten my carne asada taco and he went back to get one for me. In the meantime, I had the perna taco. Their version of tacos come with the meat, chopped onions and chopped cilantro on a couple small soft corn tortillas. No cheese. It was pretty good - a little dry, but still OK. The carne asada taco, after he brought it out, was similar. It wasn't bad, but I can't call it the best I've had.

My enchilada was a rather pedestrian cheese enchilada and the tostada was topped with refried beans and white cheese. Once again, it was OK, nothing special. I determined that if we went back, I wouldn't order the combination again.

Cindy's steak, on the other hand, was flavorful and tender. One thing that I liked about the waiter is that he would explain some of the dishes to the customers. He told us the steak is marinated in juices and spices (sort of like the "perna" pork) before grilling. Cindy thought the steak was just wonderful. But as she said it was way too much food - especially after a chile relleno and a couple baskets of chips. She didn't touch her rice or refried beans and hardly touched her grilled onions and peppers. And she wasn't able to finish the whole steak.

While our waiter was a nice guy, service was pretty slow. We were finished for quite some time before we were able to get his attention to get us our bill. He said, "Ah! We have it up front." I also thought that to be sort of weird as he was giving checks to other tables. OK, that's fine.

For all we got, including three beers and an a margarita, the bill came to just over $40 bucks. I thought that to be rather high for a Mexican restaurant. At first I thought they'd miscalculated, but after further review the bill was correct. Cindy's steak was $11.99 and her ala carte chile relleno was $4.50. My combination was $6.95 and my ala carte taco was $2.50. I guess it adds up fast when you order a lot of food to try.

All in all, La Primavera was good, but not outstanding in my book. Cindy, however, loved the food, loved our waiter, and loved the decor. We'll go back again and I'll have something different the next time around. Hopefully, it will be better than what I had on my first visit.

(Update - We noticed that they have shut down this location during a trip over to Moline late in 2011. However, they are still preparing food in their little restaurant in the La Primavera store just down the street on 6th Ave. We've eaten there once. Tacos are OK, but the menu is limited.)

The Aftermath of My Visit to Pi

Following my recent review on the upscale pizza place in St. Louis - Pi - my experience that I had that one evening has caused a little bit of a ruckus within the cyberworld community.  My entry raised voices both pro and con as to my attitude I took toward the place and my review of the pizza.  It's one of the most commented on entries I've had in my years of doing Road Tips - both on this site and also on a popular restaurant forum on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch web site. 

A number of months ago, a regular reader of this blog linked a review of a St. Louis eatery to the restaurant blog Eat at Joe's, a forum where St. Louis area residents talk about restaurants and other food stuff.  The forum is moderated by Joe Bonwich, the Post-Dispatch's food and restaurant writer.  Since then, Road Tips has been linked a number of times to the forum, primarily when I write about St. Louis area restaurants that I've visited.  I've garnered somewhat of a small following from the St. Louis area thanks to the occasional links to the Eat at Joe's forum and for that I'm eternally grateful. 

However, it was rather interesting reading some of the comments that I received on my blog site as well as the comments from people on the Eat at Joe's forum.  One of the more interesting comments was from Chris Sommers, the owner of Pi.  Here's what he wrote after my review of his restaurant was linked to the forum last week:

"Wow! He WAS very kind about our product after what reads like a complete disaster by my staff.

Truly embarrassing, and certainly will be discussed at our shift meetings for a while.

We certainly appreciate his kind words about the pizza.  But no one should have to suffer through such mayhem with an order.

Sincerely,

Chris Sommers Owner, Pi"

It was pointed out to me by the gentleman who posted the link to my review on that the reply by Chris Sommers was the first ever post by the Pi owner on the Eat at Joe's forum.  The gentleman who also posted the link informed me that he then got a letter in the form of an e-mail from Chris Sommers who thought he was the one who wrote the original post on Road Tips.  He told me, "Chris Sommers left me a message at STL.today believing I was you."  Here is a portion of that letter:

"I really appreciate you taking the time to visit and write about your experience at Pi.

But I am extremely sorry and embarrassed at your experience. My staff at that location is generally most professional and service oriented, so this particularly frustrates me.

You could have been much worse on us! Thanks for understanding and looking on the brightside around the pizza.

As I mentioned in my public reply, my staff has already been informed of this, and will be discussing this for the next week in their pre-shift notes. There are lots of things to learn from this experience, and I'm very sorry it happened to you.

Would love to have you back in the restaurant some time to get a pizza delivered quickly and correctly, leaving you some time for dessert.

Thanks again for the review and for going as easy on us as you did.

Chris     Owner, Pi"

Chris Sommers also included an invitation to come back to Pi and enjoy a pizza and a few beers on him.  I was planning on going back to Pi at some point, but I'll take him up on his generous invitation probably sooner than later. 

The other interesting thing through all this were the number of comments on both the Eat at Joe's forum and after the post on Road Tips.  The majority of people thought that I was too lenient and too forgiving for the service I received at Pi.  Quite honestly, other than the bacon bits on the pizza and the room temperature sauce on top, the pizza was very good.  Yes, they did screw up my order and they didn't bring me a beer in a timely fashion, but I wasn't going to get all up in arms about it.  I may have bitched a little more about the place if they hadn't taken the pizza off my bill or didn't apologize each time the screw up occurred. 

Unless the restaurant has absolutely no clue that they screwed up or becomes confrontational with me during the process of telling them how they screwed up, I'm not so willing to give them a pass.  I think the actions of the staff and management at Pi that evening and after the ordeal shows they were sincere in trying to make a wrong a right.   

There's really no use in pitching a fit in the restaurant over poor service or poor food when you're there.  That's what a blog is for... 

My Top Ten Favorite Burgers - 2010

I've needed to update my list of my favorite burgers for quite sometime.  Considering I've had a couple pretty good burgers over the past year that needed mention on the list, here is my updated Ten Ten list of my favorite burgers along with some honorable mentions -

1. Duffy's Cherry Cricket - Denver.  Still the best.  I almost got burnt out on them last year when we went there a couple three times while we were in Denver for the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, but they still make the best burger of any place I've ever been. 

2. Krazy Jim's Blimpie Burger - Ann Arbor.  My mouth is still salivating from our visit there a few years ago.  The place was a real dive, the lady cooking the burgers was a real character, and the burgers were excellent.  Too bad I don't get back to Ann Arbor very often, as in never.

3. Monk's Bar and Grill - Wisconsin Dells.  Still a strong number 3 on my list.  This bar/burger joint in the Dells is a treat to stop at when I have the opportunity to drive past.  The burger is tasty, the beer is cold.  I just wish I had more opportunities to go there.

4. The Thurman Cafe - Columbus, OH.  This place jumped right into my Top Ten list after our visit there last fall.  Not only was it an interesting place and they had a great staff there, the burger was outstanding.   I know I've only been there once, but it was still one of the best I've ever had.  Unfortunately, I probably won't be back out to Columbus any time soon so I won't be able to savor the taste of another Thurman burger for awhile. 

5. Booches - Columbia, MO.  A recent visit to Booches reinforced my belief that Booches deserves a Top Five mention on my list of favorite burgers.  Booches is truly a burger joint and the consistency of their burgers each time I visit there reinforces my belief that you don't screw with tradition. 

6. Sobleman's - Milwaukee.  After my visit to Sobleman's last summer, I went back to Solly's, which previously held the number 4 slot on my list.  While the Solly's burger was still good, the meat, the bun, the toppings on a Sobleman's burger clearly won out.  It's a great place to have a burger, too. 

7. Solly's - Glendale, WI.  If Solly's burger wasn't so basic, it wouldn't have dropped from 4th to 7th on my list.  Their "butter burger" is flavorful and juicy.  The place is truly an institution in North Milwaukee and they've got a loyal clientele.  But I believe Sobleman's is a better burger.

8. Louie M's Burger Lust - Omaha.  I'm still kicking around the idea of starting a second blog based only on burgers and calling it "Burger Lust".  What a great name for a blog and an even better name for a burger joint.  Lou Marcuzzo's funky little place south of downtown Omaha features about 20 specialty burgers and can make about anything you want to order up.

9. The Burger Barge - East Peoria, IL.  I dropped these guys from number 7 on my last list due to some consistency issues.  It seems like 4 out of 5 times I go there, the burgers are just killer.  That one time of out five just keeps me from ranking them higher.  And The Burger Barge is truly a joint, but a joint that has very good burgers.

10. Smoking Harry's - Creston, IL.  I've eaten there a couple three times now and Harry's flat grilled 3/4 pound cheeseburger is surprisingly good.  Good enough that I have to give it a Top Ten mention.  If you can get past the stale smoke smell in the place and the fact that the place only seats a handful of people, you'd agree with me that Harry makes one helluva burger.  

I have to give a high honorable mention to these burgers.  While they may not have made the Top Ten list, you can be assured that you won't be disappointed in these places:

Starlite Room - Cedar Rapids.  Was just in there recently and it confirmed to me that their flat grilled Super Cheeseburger could easily be a Top Ten pick if I hadn't had 10 other outstanding burgers listed before this place.  This place has the best burger in Eastern Iowa. 

Dotty Dumpling's Dowry - Madison, WI.  Would have been a Top Ten pick, but they've been inconsistent on the past few occasions I've been in.  And they certainly aren't as good as they were when they were in their original location in downtown Madison. 

Blue Moon - Madison, WI.  At one time, no one could touch Dotty's in Madison.  Now, the Blue Moon gives them a run for their money.  I still think Dotty's is a tad better, but not by very much. 

Green Gables - Hudson, IL.  Another place that has suffered from inconsistency, but the Green Gables has made a little surge over the past couple of years.  I've heard that the people who bought the place from the original owners are no longer there and the new management has gone back to making burgers like they used to.  The last couple times I was in, the burgers were just as good as the first time I was in.   

Creekside Bar and Grill - Davenport, IA - Stephen has been putting out some consistently good burgers.  We continue to experiment with combinations.  I do like the ham/egg/cheddar cheeseburger, as well as that delicious Mushroom/Bacon/Swiss Cheeseburger.  The jalapeno/pepper jack cheeseburger is pretty good, too. No one visited from the Iowa Beef Council for their Best Burger in Iowa contest, like I suspected they wouldn't.  And while they may not get the recognition for having one of the best - if not THE best - burger in the Quad Cities this year, someday they will. 

Lion's Tap - Eden Prairie, MN.  It's been quite sometime since I've been to the Lion's Tap, but they have, what I think, is the best burger in the Twin Cities.  I need to go back sometime soon and give a report on the burgers.

Newt's - Rochester, MN.  Newt's burgers consistently win "Best of Rochester" honors and have been mentioned as one of the top ones in the state of Minnesota.  I haven't had all the burgers in Minnesota yet, but they make a damn fine one at Newt's. 

O'Connell's Pub - St. Louis.  I've been sampling burgers in the St. Louis area over my past few visits and while there are a number of good ones in the area, "Oc's" burger is still one of the better ones I've encountered.  The old-time pub feel alone is worth going to and hanging out.

Paradise Pup - Des Plaines, IL.  Prepare to wait in line for these juicy char-broiled burgers that they top with creamy cheddar cheese.  But the wait is worth it. 

Two Mits - Elkader, IA.  Steam grilled burgers made in a little trailer on a corner lot in downtown Elkader.  Just the beauty of the area is worth the drive to Elkader.  Two Mits is a must stop when you get there. 

Jack's Locust Street Tap - Davenport.  Don't let the "Warm Beer" and "Lousy Food" signs in the window fool you.  They may have the best burgers in the Quad Cities.  But go only on Tuesday thru Friday during the day when Karen's cooking.  The other times, the burgers can be pedestrian, at best.  Karen's got the touch. 

Hackney's - Glenview, IL.  Their Hackney burger is served on dark rye bread and is one of the best in the Chicagoland area.  I've had Hackney burgers in five of their six locations.  Each time at each place, the burger is exactly the same.  It's consistently very good. 

The Nook - St. Paul, MN.  The Twin Cities are known for their "Juicy (or Jucy) Lucy" cheese-stuffed burgers and the Nook is the best I've found - so far.  I know there are some others out there that I need to try, but The Nook easily beats the more established places in and around the Twin Cities for their cheese-stuffed burgers.

Stella's - Bellevue, NE.  Stella's has been around for over 70 years.  The old-timers in the Omaha area say the burgers are just as good today as they were when Stella was cooking them up in the 50's. 

Maid-Rite - Newton, IA.  I'm partial to loose meat burgers and while many will argue with me that Taylor's Maid-Rite in Marshalltown is better, I still think the oldest existing Maid-Rite that I grew up loving is the best of them all.

The following establishments don't fit the "burger joint" title as they're more upscale with both their decor and their burgers.  But they deserve a mention:

Jack Fry's - Louisville.  Jack Fry's is a little pretentious and snooty, especially the time I went in just to order one of their cheeseburgers for lunch.  But the taste of their burger more than made up for the snobbishness I encountered on my visit. 

Alfie's Inn - Glen Ellyn, IL.  Alfie's has the feel of an old time supper club, mainly because that's what it is.  And they have a damn fine sirloin burger and they serve a lot of them.

The Kitchen - Stillwater, MN.  A surprisingly good burger at a contemporary American restaurant in the tourist village of Stillwater, just east of the Twin Cities on the east coast of Minnesota.  Their burger may have been the best of all the upscale places I've been to.

Burger Bar - St. Louis.  Chef Hubert Keller's foray into gourmet burgers.  I had the Kobe burger on my first visit, then had the regular Black Angus burger my next time in.  I think I liked the Black Angus burger better. 

Ted's Montana Grill - Various Locations.  Ted Turner's restaurant chain has a very good buffalo burger that is actually pretty juicy for as lean as the meat is.  Their special grilling technique is the key, but the spices they add to the buffalo burger helps, as well.

Merriman's Market Cafe - Waikoloa Beach, HI.  Look for my review on this place in the coming days.  They have a great burger served on a sourdough bun with tons of bacon and grilled mushrooms, topped with white cheddar cheese and what could have been the best tomato slices I've ever had. 

The Broiler - St. Peters, MO.  I just had a burger at The Broiler during a recent trip to the St. Louis area.  The place is still classy and the burger is still very good.

My All-Time Favorite Chain Restaurant Burgers - 

In 'n Out Burger - The west coast classic.  Absolutely the best of all the chain burgers. 

Five Guys Burgers -  The east coast classic.  Gives In 'n Out a run for their money.  And they're expanding westward as we're starting to see more Five Guys locations around the Midwest. 

Schoop's -  From my first couple of visits, I can see why they've been in business from 1948. 

Whataburger - I still love getting a Double Meat with cheese when I come across a Whataburger. 

Meatheads - A blatant rip-off of Five Guys burgers, but I certainly like the ones I've had there.  I just wish they'd come to the Quad Cities.  That is, if Five Guys doesn't make it here first.  

Don and Millie's - Probably the closest thing to the old King's Food Host burgers that I grew up loving in the 60's. 

Runza - If Don and Millie's doesn't have the closest thing to an old King's burger, then Runza is right there, too.

Fuddrucker's - Even though the one here in the Quad Cities went out of business, when I need a burger fix and there's a Fuddrucker's close, I'll stop in.  I'm not certain if I've ever had a bad burger at a Fuddrucker's. 

Sonic Drive-In - One of the toughest things to do while I'm trying to watch my weight is to stay out of the two or three Sonic's they built here in the Quad Cities over the past couple years.  And I've been doing a fine job at that, thank you very much.   

 

Hilton Garden Inn - Overland Park, KS

The Hilton Garden Inn on College Boulevard in Overland Park, KS (see map) has become my de facto "home-away-from-home" when I'm in the Kansas City area.  Not only is it close to one of my key dealers in the market, it's not very far from some pretty good restaurants in the area.  I recently had an experience at another hotel - literally right next door to the Hilton Garden Inn - that made me appreciate the Overland Park H.G.I. even more.

With Cindy and I off to Hawaii recently, I had been really trying to garner as many Hilton Honors points as possible when I was on the road.  95% of my stays last year and early this year were in Hilton properties.  I'm also a Marriott Rewards member, but I don't get points toward stays with Marriott - I get their points applied to my airline points.  That's another reason why Cindy and I were able to fly for free, round-trip to Hawaii, as well.  Earlier this year, I got a communication from Marriott saying that they wanted more of my business.  (I'm not certain, but I think these hotel rewards factions share information as to who their members are.  I've been signed up by Ramada, Holiday Inn, Choice Hotels and a couple others without ever soliciting their memberships, but after I've stayed at a given property.)  The letter said that if I stayed at 10 nights at Marriott properties by March 31, I would maintain Gold Level status - something that Marriott Rewards members attain after, I believe, 30 stays in a year.  I thought, "OK, I can stay in 10 Marriott properties by March 31, even if we go to Hawaii for nearly two weeks."  

The first Marriott property I booked into to start my trek to 10 nights was the Courtyard Inn in Overland Park.  Although I'd never stayed there before, I was very familiar with the Courtyard Inn as I could see it just across the parking lot from my north side room windows when I'd stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park.  As is usually the case at the end of a day when I'm on the road, I have a number of e-mails to return, orders to check on and other things that I have to do with the use of my computer.  Having a high-speed connection is critical for me as I can hook up directly to our computers to our main office outside of Montreal and get real time information on invoices, inventory and projected dates when product will show up at our warehouse.  This particular day, I had an abnormal amount of work to be done on the computer before I could go out and enjoy some barbecue that evening. 

I got into my room at the Courtyard and fired up my computer.  I found a wireless signal from Ibahn, the company that provides Internet service for Marriott properties.  Except I couldn't get on to the network.  After about five futile attempts, I realized that I was probably too far away from the wireless network transmitter and called the front desk to see if I could get another room, lower and more close to the center of the hotel. 

When I explained my plight to the lady at the front desk, she said, "Oh, well, we don't have wireless Internet service in our rooms.  We do have wireless service in the lobby area.  You have to use the cable that is provided in the room to receive your Internet access." 

A cable?  Seriously?  Hooking your computer up to an Ethernet cable for high speed Internet is so... so... so, 1990's!!!  Quite honestly, I can't tell you the last time I had to hook up my computer to a cable to gain Internet access. 

An Ethernet cable was on the desk, hooked up to an input on the wall.  I plugged it into my computer and waited for the connection to start.  And I waited.  And I waited.  And I waited.  My computer never did see an Internet connection with the Ethernet cable. 

Well, I'm not going to get into the sordid details of what transpired over the next 90 minutes, but after two calls to Ibahn Support, changing settings on my computer, then a change of Ethernet cables and enough teeth gnashing to grind my molars down to stubs, I finally gave up.  It was ninety excruciating minutes of my life that I'll never get back again.  I was getting hungry and tired when I called the front desk and I said, "Look, Internet access is important to me and if I can't get it here, I've got to go somewhere else."  

She front desk agent, who was as pleasant as pleasant could be during all of this ordeal, said, "I'm sorry we couldn't accommodate you, sir.  Let me call the Sheraton (across the street, next to the Overland Park Convention Center) to see what they have for rooms."

I said, "I'd prefer the Hilton next door, if you could."

She called me back in about three minutes and said, "The Hilton next door has rooms, sir.  They can accommodate you and they do have wireless Internet."  Well, that I knew as I'd stayed there many times before.

I dropped off my keys and apologized to the lady at the front desk for her troubles, but she still stayed very pleasant with me.  Hey, it didn't work out for this particular guest.  No use being mean spirited about anything.  I drove over to the Hilton - a distance of about 200 feet - and went to check in.  

Normally, I don't like to spend more than $129 a night for a room when I'm on the road.  Sometimes the Hilton Garden Inn either hits or exceeds that level.  But it is one of the better Hilton properties that I stay in, so I usually fudge a bit on my self-imposed rule when it comes to the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park.  When I went to check in, the guy at the front desk was someone I wasn't familiar with.  In the past, I've dealt with a very likable, but smart-assed lady agent who would always flip me good-natured shit when I would arrive.  "Oh, you're back AGAIN?  Don't you ever stay home?"

At other times, I had a guy who recognized me from my Iowa Hawkeye sticker that I have on the side of my suitcase (all the better to be able to see it quickly on baggage carousels at airports) and he would always ask me about Iowa sports.  He was from Kansas City, but he was a huge Iowa fan.  At least, that's what he always said.  He may have been doing that to make me feel more welcome, but he did have a pretty good grasp of what was going on with the Iowa Football team during our conversations.   

The "new" guy at the desk didn't recognize me as a return guest and he asked if I'd stayed there before.  "Oh, God, many times," I replied. 

He said, "Oh, great!  Then welcome back!"  He asked me what my rate was over at the Courtyard and I told him that I couldn't remember.  He said, "Well, I can get you into a room for $129 tonight." 

I said that was fair enough and asked if I could get a room on the first floor.  He said that was no problem.  I gave him my Hilton Diamond level number - a nine-digit number that I have burned into my memory.   He looked up my account and said, "Oh, OK.  Yep, there you are!"  For my long-time commitment to Hilton properties, the guy gave me a room upgrade to a junior suite on the first floor.

(I usually get rooms on the first floor, mainly so I can get easy in and out access to my car when I'm there.  I've been told that most seasoned hotel guests will want to stay on the top floor of a property - you don't have the chance that some heavy-footed oaf will be stomping around in the room above you.  I learned years and years ago to get a room on the first floor.  It just saves time when you come and go.  The only time I'll ask for a high floor is when I'm at a hotel that has more than three floors.  I like to get up and look out around the neighborhood.  Or when I'm at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Chicago, like the recent time I was on the 23rd floor - the top floor - looking out over downtown Chicago, high enough to not hear the street traffic below.)

Everything about the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park feels like home to me.  They always give me a couple bottles of complementary water, at night they have fresh baked cookies, and I get a complementary breakfast with omelets made to order to get my day started.  That, right there, is worth $10 to $12 bucks before a tip to the wait staff.  Even though it's a free breakfast and I usually carry my own plate to the table after I get the omelet, I always tip the wait staff at a Hilton Garden Inn a couple three bucks for just being around and asking if I need anything. 

If Hilton properties are my first choice of places to stay at while I'm on the road, Hilton Garden Inns are the first choice of Hilton properties for me.  The one in Overland Park is clean, modern, has a great staff, is easy in-and-out from College Blvd.  And, as I said, it's close to many great restaurants and shopping in the Overland Park area.  It's a little bit of a haul to the attractions around K.C. such as Worlds of Fun, the Truman Sports Complex, Downtown Kansas City and The Plaza, but I think I'd rather stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park and make the drive to those places.  This recent adventure with the Courtyard next door confirmed my belief that the Hilton Garden Inn in Overland Park is my home-away-from-home when I'm in Kansas City.

And, oh, by the way - I guess I lost my Gold status with Marriott as I didn't stay in even one Marriott property up to March 31.  Oh well.  I'm going to work on getting more points with Hilton properties for another trip at some point in a year or two where we can stay at a Hilton property in some exotic location for free for a week. 

Starlite Room - Cedar Rapids

One of the very first posts I wrote about on "Road Tips" when I first started out over four years ago was on the Starlite Room in Cedar Rapids and their 1/2 pound "Super Cheeseburger".  As this blog evolved over the years, I decided to add some background on the places I eat at (when I can find the information).  And now that I have a camera phone, I can take pictures of the things I'm served.  I made a decision a while back that I needed to get back up to Cedar Rapids to visit the Starlite once again and do a more in depth report than the short one I did a few years back.

The Starlite Room - or simply known as "The Starlite" by the locals - has been around since the 50's.  In 1959, a young Jim Aossey was working in his father's grocery store in the Kenwood neighborhood of Cedar Rapids when he was approached with an opportunity to run the Starlite.  Although Aossey didn't know anything about the restaurant/bar business, he decided to give it a go.  Aossey eventually bought the Starlite and brought in his sister, Lucille, to help run the place.  Aossey, now nearing 80 years old, is still running the place.  In fact, he was in there the day I was there recently. 

In the 60's, one of the big things Aossey (pictured at right) decided to do is come up with a half-pound burger.  Called "The Superburger" it quickly became a novelty to the patrons who came to give it a try.  A lot of skeptics scoffed at the idea of a huge burger, but Aossey quickly converted a number of people who have enjoyed "Superburgers" for years and years. 

Over the years, Aossey added onto the Starlite, buying up a couple spaces next to the original bar and eventually demolishing a building to make way for parking out front.  A few years back he put a nice little awning in front of the building for outdoor dining.  The interior of the place is broken into two areas - the original bar area and the dining room, shown here.  There's also a little party room that is used for overflow when the place gets packed. 

The Starlite is sort of tucked back in a small strip mall just behind a Dairy Queen on 1st Ave. NE in Cedar Rapids (see map).  I had a meeting with a dealer in nearby Marion one recent day and decided to stop in to have a Super Cheeseburger before I made my way home.  Looking into the dining room (left), I noticed all the booths were taken.  I took a seat in a booth in the bar area.  The bar area has a pretty good sized bar, a number of flat panel televisions and a pool table that I've seen used - maybe - once or twice during my visits to The Starlite over the years.  The lighting is also subdued in the bar area compared to the brightly lit dining room.

 

  
 

 

I first found out about The Starlite from a couple guys who I met on a Iowa Hawkeye sports list serve group nearly 15 years ago.  These guys, Eric Van Fossen and Kevin Gertsen - who have since become pretty good friends - grew up in Cedar Rapids. They found out that I was a burger fanatic and said that I had to go there to try a burger.  When I asked my wife, who is a Cedar Rapids native, about The Starlite, she said, "Oh, God, yeah!  The Starlite makes a great burger!"  On our next trip to Cedar Rapids, we stopped in and had a Super Cheeseburger.  Grilled on a flat grill, the oval-shaped burgers are thick and juicy.  It's very good.  Kevin told me one time that he ate three Super Cheeseburgers in a sitting.  I've had two before and thought I was going to blow up.  He immediately became my hero for eating three.

I met Eric there for lunch one time when he was back from Atlanta visiting his mom.  That's when I was introduced to the concept of putting mustard on french fries by Eric.  He said, "I don't know.  There's something about that vinegary taste on The Starlite's french fries that I like."  Since then, I've met guys who work for Cambridge Audio in England who put vinegar on their french fries.  I'm guessing the mustard thing is similar.  I've tried mustard on fries a few times since, but it hasn't quite tripped my trigger like it does for Eric. 

Over the years, I've eaten at The Starlite many times.  There have been times in the past where we've gotten in the car on a Saturday and driven the nearly 90 miles to Cedar Rapids to have a Super Cheeseburger with any one of Cindy's family members who still live in the area.  We haven't done that much lately, but it's still one of our favorite places to stop when we're in Cedar Rapids. 

I ordered a Bud Light and though the waitress gave me a menu - which isn't very extensive past the burgers, the Starlite's tenderloins (breaded and unbreaded), fries, onion rings and other deep-fried goodies - she asked me if I knew what I wanted, as they seem to do with everyone that comes in.  That's because probably 80 percent of the people will order a Superburger.  I ordered a Super Cheeseburger, everything.  And everything is ketchup, yellow mustard, onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato and mayo.  I told her to hold the mayo. 

It wasn't overly busy when I was in there that day.  It was past the noon rush and only a few late lunch diners were in the place.  It didn't take overly long - about 15 minutes - for my burger to show up.  And from my first bite, I knew it was a Super Cheeseburger from their signature taste.  Juicy and big, the Superburger has won a number of "Best of Cedar Rapids" awards over the years.  The light and fluffy bun is slightly toasted and stays together very well with the juiciness of the burger.  

It's easy to see why The Starlite has stayed in business for over 50 years under Jim Aossey's leadership.  The burgers are great, it's a wonderful neighborhood bar and it's served generations of Cedar Rapidians.  The Starlite doesn't quite crack my new Top Ten list of burgers that I'll be publishing very soon, but they deserve a high honorable mention.  It's one of the best burgers in Eastern Iowa and it's always a treat to stop there when I can. 

Pi - St. Louis

An influx of readers from the St. Louis area have given me a handful of suggestions of places to try when I'm in St. Louis on business.  One place that a couple people had suggested to me and I really wanted to try at some point is Pi - an upscale pizza restaurant with now three locations in the St. Louis area.  I have a good friend, Tom Kakert, the editor of the popular Iowa Hawkeyes internet site - Hawkeye Report - who ate at Pi recently with his wife (a St. Louis native) and her family.  He said the pizza was "excellent".   While I was in St. Louis recently, I decided to try out Pi.

 

 

 

Chris Sommers is the man behind the Pi concept and sort of the "face of the company" (picture right courtesy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch).  He grew up living on St. Louis-thin crust style pizza, but fell in love with Chicago and San Francisco deep-dish style pizza as he got older.  With a degree in finance, Sommers teamed with partners Frank Uible and Ryan Mangiarlardo to open a unique pizza restaurant in the St. Louis that focused not only on fresh ingredients and a unique crust for their pizza, but would also focus on a more "green" concept by heavy linen napkins, china plates and serving beer on tap.  They made a concerted effort to reduce their environmental footprint in the restaurant.  And even before the city voted to ban smoking in restaurants starting in 2011, Pi was smoke-free from the first day it opened. 

The team found a location on Delmar near the Loop in University City in December of 2007 and set about to open their restaurant.  The working title of the project was called "pi", sort of an inside joke since pizza is round and pi is a mathematical constant.  Plus the rounded off numerical value of pi is 3.14 - the same area code of St. Louis. 

Sommers, Mangiarlardo and Uible opened the door of their first Pi restaurant on Delmar (see map) on - you guessed it - 3.14.08.  The place became an immediate hit with pizza lovers and critics alike.  What helped make the pizza so flavorful was not only the fresh toppings and chunky tomato sauce, but the crust.  Sommers fell in love the corn meal crust at Little Star Pizza in San Francisco.  Sommers, Mangiarlardo and Uible bought the rights to bring the pizza crust to St. Louis. 

Pi also made the national news during the presidential campaign in 2008.  Barack Obama was in St. Louis and during a speech he raved about the virtues of a Pi pizza.  Sommers had met Obama at a fund-raiser about a year earlier, then arranged for Obama to get some of their pizza before he made his campaign speech.  Obama liked the pizza so much that he continued to rave about how good the pizza was even after he was elected President of the United States.   He asked Sommers to come to Washington last spring to make pizza for Obama and his staff.  Sommers, Mangiarlardo and pastry-maker Anne Schuermann flew to Washington and made 10 deep-dish and 10 thin crust pizzas in the White House kitchen for Obama and approximately 50 staff members.

This caused a fire storm in Obama's hometown of Chicago - the home of the deep dish pizza.  Newspaper columnists and pizza owners in Chicago were outraged that Obama had a St. Louis deep-dish pizza restaurant come to Washington to make what is an icon in Chicago culinary circles.  Sommers became embroiled in a little hot water himself as he had to fend off some criticisms of spending tax payer dollars to fly he and his small staff to Washington to make pizza.  It turned out that Sommers and his crew flew to Washington on their own dime and didn't accept a penny for the pizzas.  The storm blew over quickly, although I understand there's a simmering rivalry between some pizza afficiandos in St. Louis and Chicago as to who now has the best deep dish pizza.

With the notoriety of his Obama connection, along with the fact that it was a unique restaurant to St. Louis that served very good food, Pi opened a second location in Kirkwood on Manchester near Lindbergh (see map), and a new location in the trendy Central West End section of St. Louis.  The Central West End location also features a coffee house that opens at 6 a.m. daily to serve gourmet coffees and upscale pastries.  

I was staying near Forest Park one evening recently and I decided to go to the Central West End Pi for a small deep-dish pizza.  The restaurant is located on the northeast corner of Euclid and McPherson (see map) and there's really only street parking near the place.  There is a pay lot just up the street on Euclid that charges $4.00 for unlimited parking.   

Pi was hopping with a number of Gen X to Gen Y people congregating around the spacious bar just inside the front door.  I've heard that the wait to get into Pi was as much as 45 to 60 minutes some evenings.  But tables were available around 8:30 p.m. on this visit.  I was tempted to sit at the bar, but the host told me, "It's pretty loud around the bar.  You may want to sit in the dining room."  He took me to the dimly lit part of the restaurant and I picked out a small table near a light where I could read my St. Louis Post Dispatch.  Quite honestly, it wasn't much quieter in the dining area. 

The building Pi occupies most recently housed the Sapphire Pan Asian restaurant.   They gutted the restaurant and gave it an old-time feel to the place with large wood beams, large windows that open to the street, and an upper floor area that works as an overflow cocktail area.  No wonder it was so loud.  

As I quickly perused the menu on the table, my waiter for the evening - Bob or Jim, I couldn't remember his name - came over to ask for my order.  He looked at me and said, "Man, I envy you.  You're gonna sit here and read the sports section and drink a beer.  That's what I want to do."  

I ordered a Budweiser - hey, when you're in St. Louis.  But he informed me that they only served Schlafly or Bell's products on tap.  I perked up and said, "Oh, well great!  I'll have a Bell's pale ale!"  I also ordered my pizza when he was there.  I got a small (9") deep-dish sausage (they use natural Berkshire pork sausage, no fennel Italian sausage - a minor strike in my book), pepperoni and mushroom.  He didn't write down the order, but I trusted him to remember.  

That was a mistake.  

Deep-dish pizzas take a while to bake, so about 25 minutes and a couple beers after I placed my order, a young lady brought my pizza to the table.  She asked, "Bacon, pepperoni and mushroom, sir?"

I said, "Nnnnoooo, I had a sausage, pepperoni and mushroom." 

She sort of looked at the pizza and said, "Let me take this back and check for sure."  

My waiter came back about two minutes later and he apologized.  "Sorry for the screw up.  We're gonna make you another pizza as soon as possible."  I didn't mind, actually.  I wasn't in any large hurry, although I was kind of tired.  But I figured for their screw up I was going to - at least - get a couple beers for free.  

He then asked me if I wanted to try some of the mis-made pizza, "just to see if you like it."  I declined.  Now, bacon does taste good on a lot of things, but two things I cannot handle very well is bacon on pizza and on salads.  I don't get heartburn very often, but I do get it when I have bacon on pizza and salads.  Don't know why, but it just happens.

About 10 minutes later, another waiter brought out another pizza.  He asked, "Pepperoni and mushroom?"  Nooo...  I had sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  He retreated back to the kitchen. 

My original waiter came back out and said, "I'm so sorry, man.  We're tryin' here."  He got me another beer while I waited.  

Finally about 10 minutes later a sausage, pepperoni and mushroom deep-dish pizza finally showed up on my table.  I thought, "That was sort of quick for a deep dish pizza."  But, I was ready to eat.

I'm not a huge fan of corn meal crust, but the pizza toppings trumped the taste of the corn meal.  The sauce was chunky and the mozzarella was stringy, but there was something sort of weird about the pizza.  It wasn't piping hot like you'd expect a pizza to be once it came out of the oven.  In fact, the sauce was sort of - well, room temperature.  But the chunks of sausage were large and plentiful, the fresh chopped mushrooms were small and there didn't seem to be a lot of pepperoni on the pizza.  It was good, but there was still something weird about the pizza.

I ordered a fourth beer from my original waiter and started on my third piece.  After I bit into that slice, I finally figured out what was so weird about the taste.  There were still bacon chunks on my pizza.  Then I figured why it got to my table so quickly and wasn't piping hot.  All they did was take the original pizza, tried to scrape off the bacon bits and then put sausage and new sauce on top.  That explained the near room temperature sauce on the pizza.  But the bacon chunks they couldn't get off the pizza were embedded into the crust.

I quit eating the pizza right after that piece.  I was hoping to take a couple three slices back to my room with me to have for breakfast the next day.  But I can't handle bacon on pizza.  I wasn't going to make a big deal about it, but they were going to end up making things right. 

I finally realized as I kept sitting there that the waiter had completely forgotten to bring my beer.  That was fine, I was ready to go.  10 minutes after I ordered my beer, another waiter brought my glass over to me and I said, "You know what?  I ordered that about 10 minutes ago and you're just getting it to me now.  I really don't want it."  (Yes, I know that has to shock some of you - I turned down a beer.)  But, quite honestly, I was tired and my first experience at Pi was going from unpleasant to bad in a hurry. 

He asked me if I wanted the remaining pieces of pizza boxed up and I said, "No, you guys screwed up my pizza from the get-go and there's bacon chunks still on this pizza.  I don't want it."  He apologized and took away the beer and the pizza.

Suddenly, I was the 800-pound gorilla in the room.  The staff knew I wasn't happy and there was a long pregnant pause of about five minutes before my original waiter came over and handed me the check.  He said, "Sir, we're not going to charge you for the pizza.  I'm so sorry for the inconvenience."

I said, "Well, I appreciate that.  But it appears that you guys took my original pizza, tried to get the bacon off of it, then put sausage and new sauce on top."

He said, "Oh, sir, we'd never do that."

I picked up the bacon bits I'd picked out of my mouth and out of the crust of the pizza that I had put on my plate.  I said, "OK, then, explain why these bacon bits were on the pizza and the sauce seemed to be more room temperature than piping hot out of the oven?"  I really wasn't trying to be difficult, because he was a good guy and it wasn't his fault.  But I thought it was sort of a shoddy way for whoever in the kitchen to try to make a wrong a right.

He had no answer for me when he grabbed my credit card so I could pay for the three beers.  I didn't care - free pizza or free beers, at least they took care of me.

He came back with my card and printed receipts and apologized profusely to me.  He said, "One of the managers would like to speak with you before you leave."

Shortly after that, a young lady named Kristy came up and introduced herself as one of the managers.   She said, "Sir, I understand that we fouled up your order tonight.  I'm so sorry for our mistake."  She asked me if I wanted a free dessert to help compensate for my problems, but I declined.  And I understand that Pi's desserts are pretty good.

She said she hoped my experience that evening wouldn't cause me to not come back in the future.  No, I don't think it will.  I'll give Pi a shot again.  They really did bend over backward to appease me, even though I did figure out they tried to hide a second mistake from me. 

I mean, other than the bacon and the room-temp sauce, the pizza was pretty good.  It definitely rivaled some of the finer places in Chicago - most notably Gino's East, which also features a corn meal crust.  I liked Pi better than Gino's East, but not as much as Lou Malnati's, Burt's or Pequod's Pizza - three of my favorite deep dish places in Chicago (but not necessarily in that order).   In any event, people in St. Louis don't have to drive nearly 300 miles north to experience good deep dish pizza any longer. 

(Update - Chris Sommers literally bent over backward to get me to come back and enjoy a pizza at Pi.  Read about that experience here.)