When I found out that I was going to Nashville for the 2011 Summer NAMM show, my colleague Ian told me, "The first meal we have to go to is Neely's for barbecue." Well, that was certainly fine with me. Ian picked me up at the airport and we immediately went to Neely's, just north of the downtown Nashville area just off of Rosa Parks Blvd. (see map).
Neely's is a Memphis-based family-owned barbecue restaurant. After their father died, the five Neely brothers and their sister learned the art of slow-cooking barbecue from their uncle, Jim Neely, who ran his own barbecue joint in Memphis - Interstate Barbecue. After getting a $20,000 loan from their grandmother, four of the Neely brothers - Gaelin, Tony, Mark and Pat (below left) -opened their first restaurant in downtown Memphis in 1988. It was a small place with folding chairs and tables and only one barbecue pit. Through hard work and mostly word of mouth advertising, their business grew by leaps and bounds. In 1992, they opened a second location on the east side of Memphis that helped grow their business even more. In 2001, the Neely's expanded to the Nashville location and immediately became a favorite with the locals in Music City.
In the early 90's, Pat's fiancee, Gina, joined the brothers in the business. Pat and Gina (above right) were sweethearts in high school, but both married other people after they got out of school. However, both divorced their original spouses and hooked up again after running into each other at their 10 year high school reunion. Pat and Gina were married in the 1994 and are now the stars of the highly popular Food Network program, "Down Home with the Neely's." Earlier this year, Pat and Gina Neely partnered with New York City restaurateur Abraham Merchant - whose company, Merchant's Hospitality, oversees nine New York area restaurants - to open Neely's Barbecue Parlor on the upper east side of Manhattan. Compared to the other Neely restaurants, the New York City location is much more upscale and teeters on the edge of fine dining.
I was expecting to find something of a rib joint shack when Ian drove us to Neely's in Nashville. But I was sort of surprised to find a somewhat modern looking building in the midst of an office park called Waterfront Plaza. It's sort of tucked in a bit and you have to turn off of Rosa Parks Blvd. into a spacious parking lot and it's located right on the water of North Rhodes lake. There's a deck off the back of the restaurant that has a great view of the little lake. Part of the deck is covered for outdoor dining, but it was pretty hot and humid that evening so no one was seated outside. Inside, it looks like any typical barbecue place - heavy on the wood floors and paneling, many lighted beer signs, checkered plastic tablecloths. There were pictures of Pat and Gina Neely with nearly every other Food Network show host who has visited their restaurants.
The menu at Neely's in Nashville is on the wall behind the cash register. You order first, get a number, then sit down at one of the tables. The waitresses will bring your food out to you. Being that it was my first visit to Neely's, I really didn't know what I wanted. They had barbecue sandwiches, Memphis-style ribs, rib tips, smoked turkey, Texas-chunk style brisket and pulled pork. They even have Barbecued Spaghetti - a combination of a marinara and barbecue sauce on top of spaghetti pasta and pulled pork. Ian immediately signed up for his favorite - beef ribs. He got a side of cole slaw and fries with his dinner.
I was sort of stuck between the pulled pork and the brisket, then I saw the sampler platter - brisket, smoked turkey, pulled pork, or pork ribs with two sides and bread. I ordered the sampler, along with a side of baked beans and macaroni and cheese. The lady behind the cash register said, "I hope you're hungry. That's a lot of food. Usually, two people will get that and split it." I figured that I could probably put a good sized dent into it, but wouldn't be able to eat it all.
The cooking line at Neely's is right out in the open. One of the cooks hollered at me, "This your first time at Neely's?" I told him it was for me, but my colleague had been there a few times before. "Get ready to get a taste delight," he hollered back.
We sat at a table in the middle of the dining area, but near the front counter. Being that we're both in the audio/video industry, Ian and I immediately noticed that the televisions Neely's were using were old tube style TV's with one rather large rear projection television up on a high shelf. The picture quality on all the televisions was pretty bad. Ian said, "I don't think people come here to watch television."
It was at that point in time that my wife called from back home to inform me that our air conditioner had gone out. We knew we were riding on borrowed time with both our furnace (over 25 years old) and A/C (over 20 years old) and the blower motor died on the furnace. It was 82 degrees in the house and rising. The A/C at our house had been working almost non-stop for quite sometime trying to keep up with a stretch of hot weather, including three days in a row where the overnight temperature didn't get any cooler than 78 degrees with humidity percentages in the upper 80's to lower 90's at night. I told her to shut the A/C off as it was beginning to frost up outside the house and see if she could get hold of any repair people to come over to take a look at the blower. She was stressing and I was feeling overly guilty that I was getting ready to have barbecue in Nashville while she was simmering in 100 degree heat back home.
It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time before our food finally made it to the table. Maybe I was focused on worrying about what was happening back in Iowa, but it was about 20 minutes from the time we ordered until the food showed up. And the girl behind the counter was right - my combination dinner WAS a lot of food (below left.) It was a generous helping of beef brisket, pulled pork, pork ribs and the pulled smoked turkey. All but the ribs had a sauce on the top, the ribs were cooked with Neely's own Memphis-style rub on them. They didn't bring any extra sauce so I went up and got a couple small 2 oz. tubs - one mild and the other hot. Quite honestly, they didn't add much to the taste of the meat and were a little weak.
The ribs, to me, were a little dry. Oh, they pulled off the bone fine and dandy, but I found them to be a little chewy. I concentrated on the pulled pork and brisket more, though. The pulled pork was juicy and tender, and had a very good flavor to it. The brisket wasn't the best I'd ever had, and I wasn't sure I liked it served in chunks rather than cut into slices like I normally have. The outside of the brisket chunks were tough to chew, but inside the meat was more tender. It tasted good, but not great. And the smoked turkey, I think I had one bite of that and it was OK. I'm not big on turkey or chicken that is smoked, then pulled apart.
The two sides were also plentiful (above right). The mac and cheese had a little bit of paprika mixed in with it and it helped zip up the taste a bit. But the baked beans were worth the price of admission. Many times, I have to add barbecue sauce to baked beans I have at other barbecue places, but Neely's baked beans were just great as they were. They featured large chunks of beef in with the beans and it had a thick and deep smoky taste to each bite I had. The beans at Neely's were simply outstanding.
Ian's beef ribs were meaty, juicy and plentiful (pictured left). He, too, knew that there would be no way he would be able to finish his whole meal, but he made a gallant effort in doing so. His cole slaw, he said, we pretty good. But the French fries were just basic fries and nothing that was extraordinary.
I think I left a little bit of everything on my plate before I finally decided that I'd had enough. Dents were made in each of the meats, save the turkey. I'm not a big fan of dry ribs and even with the mediocre sauce that Neely's provide, it didn't help the dryness of the meat. But the brisket was above average and the pulled pork was the best of all the meats I tried. The mac and cheese was good, but the beans were, well, like I said, outstanding. They were some of the best baked beans I've ever had in a barbecue restaurant.
Overall, I'd have to say that Neely's was good, but not worth the hype I've heard about the place. It was a little expensive - $45 bucks for our two dinners and three beers. My sampler platter alone was $22.95 and I was able to eat a little more than half of the food I was served. I was completely stuffed as we went out on the deck to watch the school of catfish swim around the turtles treading water just under the deck railing. Ian said that he'd had better meals at Neely's in the past, so it may have been an off night. One of these days, I want to go back to Memphis for a long weekend and check out the Neely's there. Maybe I'll get a better impression of the place.
(UPDATE - I've been informed that the Neely's have shut down this location as well as their Memphis locations.)
Due to a scheduling screw up, I was stuck in the Chicago area for an extra night as I had to wait a day to help supervise the delivery of a pair of $90,000 Focal Stella Utopia EM speakers to a customer. I had gotten in the night before thinking that we were on for a 9 a.m. delivery by the freight company. I called my dealer first thing in the morning and he said, "You didn't get the call? They changed it to tomorrow morning!" Ugh! Since I suddenly had time to kill - and then some - that day, I decided to treat myself to breakfast at a place I've wanted to try in west suburban Downers Grove called Juicy O Pancake House.
Juicy O first opened in the fall of 2005 after partners Jimmy Banakis and Jimmy Bannos got together to open a family style upscale breakfast restaurant in the western suburbs of Chicago. Banakis and Bannos were no strangers to the Chicago restaurant scene - Banakis was a long time employee for Rich Melman's Lettuce Entertain You restaurants in Chicago (they include Shaw's Crab House, Twin City Grill, Maggiano's Little Italy, and Hub 51 - all of which have been reviewed on Road Tips). Banakis then worked for Connie's Pizza before striking out on his own in the mid-00's. Jimmy Bannos is the owner of Heaven on Seven, another favorite Road Tips restaurant with three locations in the Chicagoland area.
While Banakis never thought a breakfast place could be profitable, he soon found once he hit middle age that most of his contemporaries were going out for breakfast with friends rather than dinner. Along with Bannos, Banakis came up with a concept to have higher end offerings of breakfast items, along with a few lunch items, to serve in the restaurant. The Downers Grove location (see map) was the first to open, and they've since opened locations in far west suburban Naperville and in Willowbrook on the SW side of Chicago. Juicy O has proven to Banakis that breakfast can be profitable.
The menu at Juicy O is large and very diverse. They have nearly 20 different types of omelets, well over a dozen different types of pancakes (including potato pancakes and Southern cornmeal pancakes), a half-dozen different types of French toast (including the "Elvis" with bananas and peanut butter - Eeeyew!), crepes, frittatas, breakfast sandwiches, four different types of Eggs Benedict and scramblers and skillet items where you can throw just about any combination in the pan and cook it up. And, of course, true to their name, Juicy O has 10 different juices on the menu, from fresh squeezed orange juice, to pomegranate juice, to apple juice, to a spicy tomato juice, known as the "eye opener". Juicy O does not have a liquor license, so a little shot of vodka in the "eye opener" is not an option.
They also serve lunch at Juicy O with burgers, sandwiches, salads, wraps and hot toasted panini. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Juicy O is only open until 3 p.m., but they do private parties at their locations at night if you want to reserve the place for a party or gathering.
After I went out and got a change of clothes for the next day (I violated my cardinal rule in traveling - always pack for one day extra, because you never know), I got to Juicy O in Downers Grove about 10:30. I was shown to a booth in the back part of the well-lit restaurant. Even at 10:30 a.m., the restaurant was about a third full with people eating breakfast - some in large groups, others by themselves. There were at least two business meetings going on at tables around the dining area at Juicy O with men in business suits discussing whatever.
Whenever a menu is so vast and various as the one at Juicy O, I have a lot of trouble figuring out what to get to eat. I wasn't quite in the mood for either French Toast or pancakes, although they did have a stuffed blueberry and banana French toast where I thought I could just order them with the blueberries. I thought about the corned beef hash skillet with green peppers, onions, potatoes, two eggs and cheese mixed in. They had an Italian sausage skillet similar to the corned beef hash item. A steak and cheddar cheese omelet caught my eye. But then I decided to go with the "Lotsa Meat" omelet with cheddar cheese. It came with a side of homemade hash browns, and I also got a side of whole wheat toast, a small glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and a large milk to come with it.
On the walls at Juicy O, they have a number of whimsical sayings, quotes and pictures - even in the restrooms. There were sayings like, "Work is fine for killing time, but it's a lousy way to make a living." Or, "The secret to life is truth and honesty, and if you fake that, you've got it made." And this little ditty, "Time is money! Stop reading these stupid signs." It sort of reminded me of the Lettuce Entertain You 50's/diner-style restaurant Ed Debevic's. Banakis probably got the idea for some of these signs from Ed Debevic's. (Come to think of it, I haven't been to Ed Debevic's in years. I need to go there sometime when I get back to downtown Chicago.)
To many, the highlight at Juicy O's is getting donuts hot off their own in-restaurant donut maker (below left). They make small donuts and them roll them in sugar and serve them to the table warm and toasty. The only problem that day was that service was a little slow at Juicy O. The waitress I had was stuck in neutral and didn't seem to enjoy her job very much. I probably waited 10 minutes from the time I sat down until she finally came over to take my order. In fact, she never came around to offer me any donuts until I was fully done with my breakfast. By that time, there was no way I wanted any donuts.
The reason I didn't want any donuts had a lot to do with all the food I got. I was sort of taken back by the size of the omelet which covered half the plate, and the hash browns covered the other half (above right). I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the whole breakfast, but I knew I'd make a serious dent in it as this would be breakfast and lunch all in one.
The omelet was good, nothing outstanding about it, though. True to its name, it did have "lotsa meat" with chunks of ham and bacon throughout. I thought, however, they skimped a little on the sausage. There didn't seem to be a proportionate amount of sausage compared to the bacon and ham in the omelet. The potatoes were OK, as well. It's pretty hard to screw up fried potatoes. If I had to rate the breakfast I'd give it 2.5 stars out of five. It wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't bad. It was breakfast. Maybe if the service would have been better...
I'm sure Juicy O does stellar business with the breakfast crowd. My wife and I are sometime-breakfast eaters and if we lived close to a Juicy O we'd probably go there from time to time. Actually, it turns out that my wife and her sister had eaten at this very Juicy O restaurant a few years ago, not long after it opened when they were in Chicago for a weekend. I remember her saying that it was just OK and nothing special. And she's right - it was good, but certainly nothing spectacular. I think I'd rather seek out a Walker Brothers Pancake House before I'd go back to Juicy O.
At the recently completed 158th annual Iowa State Fair, a new food had fair-goers buzzing during the 11 day run of the fair - fried butter on a stick. Actually, fried butter is not anything new, it's sort of a Southern delicacy and Paula Deen has featured a recipe for fried butter balls on her cooking show. But the fried butter on a stick at the Iowa State Fair was different - they basically took about a half stick of butter, put it on a stick, then covered it with a batter, then deep fried it for 3 minutes. Cindy and I went to the State Fair this year and we had to stop and get the fried butter on a stick just to give it a try.
But before we went to get the fried butter, we had to stop for the Holy Grail of all foods at the Iowa State Fair - a gizmo from Carl's Gizmo right behind the Administration Building on the fairgrounds. We had been talking to some friends of ours the night before about Carl's Gizmo and they know Carl's daughter, Carla Wood, and her husband, Kirby, who now run the booth. They were telling us that for less than one month a year - 11 days at the Iowa State Fair and another 12 days at the Minnesota State Fair (which always occurs directly after the fair in Des Moines) the Wood family makes enough money to live on for a year. The Gizmo's are a combination of Italian sausage and beef, topped with seasoned marinara sauce and cheese. (To see an approximate recipe on the Gizmo, click here.) Jalapenos, such as on the one pictured at left, are optional. I have to get one each time I go to the fair. They are outstanding.
We went to the information booth at the Administration Building trying to find out where the place that sold the deep fried butter was. The lady told us that it was just east of there in the triangle at the corners of Grand, Rock Island and E. 33rd in the fairgrounds. After a little searching among the numerous food vendors set up there, we found the little trailer.
The line was already long when we got there around 11:45 a.m. We were in the short line of about a dozen or so people, while the other line had far more people. I don't know if some of the people on the other side knew there were two sides for the line to get deep fried butter on a stick.
Larry Fyfe is the man who came up with the deep fried butter on a stick for this year's fair. Actually, fried butter was first introduced at the Texas State Fair two years ago, but to Fyfe's knowledge, this is this first time fried butter has been made available on a stick. To make deep fried butter on a stick, they take an eighth of an ounce of stick butter and put it on a wooden stick. They roll the butter stick in a batter that has a lot of cinnamon and honey in it, swirl it around until it gets fully coated (above right), then they dip it in a deep fryer for about 3 minutes.
Fyfe, who is from Des Moines, is no stranger to trying out interesting things to put on a stick and then deep fry. He also has deep fried Milky Way or Snickers candy bars on a stick. They, too, are coated in a batter and placed in hot oil for 3 minutes. I'm not a big fan of either of the candy bars, but those who have tried it says they're pretty good.
After about a 10 minute wait in line, we got up to the window and Cindy ordered a fried butter on the stick. This is what it looks like when it comes out and after they drizzle some frosting over the top to give it a little bit of a sugar punch.
And above right is Cindy taking her first bite into the fried butter on a stick. Before she got the fried butter on the stick, a lady who just got one came back to grab more napkins. "More napkins," she said. "You'll definitely need a lot of napkins." On the first bite, the butter literally shot out of the battered encasement. Cindy said, "Oh, my God!"
I said, "Oh, my God, good; or oh my God, bad."
She said it was more "Oh, my God, how messy!"
When I asked if it was good, she said, "Here! Try it!" She offered me a bite and the first thing that struck me was that it tasted like a deep fried cinnamon roll with a shit load of butter on top. And, oh man, was it rich. And messy! A lot of the butter had been soaked up inside the batter, but there was enough of it oozing around in the little carrier it was served in.
Cindy had two more bites and then said, "You can have it." There were only a couple of bites left and by this time the thing had fully come off the stick. I used my fingers to sop up what was left of the butter and drizzled frosting with the cooked batter. Afterward, I had to go to the restroom to wash my hands. It was a combination of stickiness and greasiness. And about 15 minutes later, I needed a antacid. And I don't think it was from the Gizmo. Well, it could have very well been a combination of both.
OK, so we tried the fried butter on a stick. We know it was an outrageous hit at the Iowa State Fair, based upon the long lines we saw even after we tried one and from reports from all over the U.S. and around the world that featured the fried butter on a stick. Will we try one again if we go back to the state fair next year? Doubtful. But like anything in life, you've got to try it at least once - no matter how bad it is for you. (Picture at right courtesy KCCI.com)
One of my dealers in Milwaukee, Ultra Fidelis, moved out to Wauwatosa on North Avenue a little over a year ago. North Avenue is sort of a mish-mash of funky stores, little restaurants and blue-collar bars. One of the guys at Ultra Fidelis was telling me that there was this great little neighborhood bar on North Avenue a couple miles away from their store - McBob's Pub and Grill - that had one of the best corned beef sandwiches in Milwaukee. "Maybe even the world," he exclaimed. "It's a great sandwich." One evening with nothing to do in Milwaukee, I decided to seek out McBob's and give their sandwich a try.
McBob's is one of those old time neighborhood taps that permeate the Beer City. It has more of an Irish theme to the place, one a number of Irish pubs in Milwaukee. (For a city that is heavy in German heritage, they have an awful lot of Irish-style pubs in Milwaukee.) Of course, St. Patrick's Day is huge at McBob's with corned beef and cabbage, Guinness and bag pipes all mixed in.
McBob's is the nickname for the McRoberts family who started McBob's a number of years ago. However, for the 20 or so years, the place was run by Bob Rubner (pictured right, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), and his wife, Christine McRoberts (the daughter of the previous owner). In 1995, Brian Hunter came to work for Rubner and McRoberts and later became a partner in the place.
This is where the back story about McBob's turns a little strange.
In 1988, Bob Rubner was living in Vienna, Austria and he happened to come back to a family gathering at McBob's. There, he "re-met" his first cousin, Christine McRoberts, who was seven years younger than Rubner. According to McRoberts, it was love at first sight and two years later they were married in California - a state where it is legal for first cousins to marry. They came back to work at McBob's, eventually taking it over.
Rubner was instrumental in turning the place into a nearly authentic Irish/Scottish pub. He began to cook and came up with their famous corned beef sandwich. He also came up with a number of soups and the McBob's Chili which, I understand, is some of the best in the city of Milwaukee. Rubner also started making Irish breakfasts at McBob's. His "McRobert's Plaid" entree is pretty unique for breakfast - it's 3 eggs topped with peppers and onions, then topped with Swiss and American cheese in sort of a plaid pattern.
Rubner had a great sense of humor and told many stories about a mischievous fictional character "Seamus". Nearly every day, Rubner would come up with a new story regarding the exploits of Seamus. And he was a treasure trove of jokes that he would share with his customers.
Unfortunately, Bob Rubner was also an alcoholic which led to many physical issues. In March of this year, just before his beloved St. Patrick's Day, Rubner couldn't take it any longer and committed suicide. He was 58 years old. McRoberts and Hunter continue to run McBob's, but it's apparent that Bob Rubner is missed by all.
I found a parking space just across the street on busy North Ave. (see map) Like the neighborhood surrounding McBob's, the clientele is a diversified group of ethnic and socio-culture individuals. Young families, older families, young guys and girls with piercings and tattoos, yuppie couples enjoying a beer - McBob's was a literal melting pot of people from all walks of life. I immediately liked the place.
Like most Irish-style pubs I've been to, McBob's has a plethora of signage - both lighted and unlighted - and other paraphernalia on the walls. The lighting is subdued, but still good enough to allow me to read a copy of the Journal-Sentinel in the dining area. The bar took up the east wall of McBob's and it was evident that a number of the regulars were holding those places that evening.
Taking a table along the back wall of the place, a waiter came over to drop off a menu and to take my drink order. I ordered up a Smithwick's and looked over the menu. McBob's is also somewhat famous for their homemade tacos - made with beef or chicken in a 10" soft flour shell, then topped with cheese, onion, sour cream, lettuce, tomato and your choice of three different temperatures of salsa. It sounded tempting, as did the hot roast beef sandwich - comfort food on a chilly and rainy Milwaukee evening.
But I decided to get what I went there for - the corned beef sandwich. Actually, McBob's reuben sandwich isn't much different as they add Swiss cheese and sauerkraut to the corned beef. I had my choice of either marble rye or light rye bread. I took the marble rye. And since it was a Wednesday night, I could get a "deluxe" corned beef sandwich. That meant that I could get a side of french fries with a pickle spear, and a cup of soup. (They have their "deluxe" sandwiches on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's at McBob's.) The featured soup that evening, in addition to their chili, was a creamy chicken and rice - one of the soups that Bob Rubner came up with years ago. While I decided against getting fries, I did order up a cup of the soup.
The soup came out first and it was very good. It had large chunks of chicken and the creamy broth was very tasty. It was a nice start up to the meal.
Not long after I finished my soup, my waiter came out with my sandwich and fries. A generous amount of horseradish mustard was on top of the corned beef which was slow roasted, overly moist and literally falling apart on my sandwich.
The marble rye bread was a little dried out and it didn't take long for the juices from the corned beef to get sopped up in the bread. Because of that, the sandwich suddenly became a mess of soggy bread that was falling apart, large chunks of corned beef that dropped into the basket on top of the chips, and horseradish mustard oozing onto my fingers. I looked for my waiter to get a fork, but he sort of forgot about me. I did my best to not look like a medieval barbarian as I picked up chunk after chunk of corned beef by my fingers and put it in my mouth. By the time I was finished, the waiter finally came around. He asked if I needed anything else and I said, "Yeah! Napkins!"
But the corned beef was simply out of this world. I like a good corned beef sandwich from time to time and this was one of the best I had, exploding bread notwithstanding. The beef was succulent and flavorful. What ever they do to their corned beef at McBob's, I wish I could do with corned beef at home.
With a couple beers, tax and tip, my meal came to just over $22 bucks at McBob's that evening. The corned beef was as good as advertised, the soup was delicious, and while the service (I thought) was a little sub par, it was fully understandable as the waiter was a busy guy with a lot of people coming into McBob's to get food. As a place to hang out and have a beer with friends, McBob's would be a great place to do so. But the food is what makes the place unique. And even though he is no longer with us, the spirit of Bob Rubner lives on at McBob's.
The reason I went to Nashville recently was to work our company's booth at the Summer 2011 National Association of Music Merchants show, or simply known as NAMM. NAMM is an organization that, according to their web site, is a "not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the $17 billion global music products industry." The NAMM organization serves as a hub for those looking to find the newest in musical products, recording technology, and professional sound and lighting. Whether you're working in a small recording studio, a music store vendor, or a touring professional, NAMM is the organization that helps showcase the gear that keeps musicians in business. From amps to instruments, lighting to P.A. systems, publishing to promotions, NAMM allows companies to showcase their gear at two annual shows.
The Summer NAMM show in Nashville is significantly smaller than its winter counterpart that is held in early January in Anaheim, CA. The Winter NAMM is six times larger in terms of companies that show, and the people attending are, well, more colorful than the more conservative-minded people who attend the show in Tennessee. But there were some people at the Summer NAMM who were dressed rather flamboyantly, literally screaming, "Look at me! I'm trying to be somebody!" You could tell the "wanna-bes" who came to our booth by the number of big names they would casually drop in conversation trying to impress you with how important they are because they had had their picture taken one time with Elton, Reba or Phil. (I never did figure out which Phil it was, though...)
The Summer NAMM is housed in the Nashville Convention Center, just north of Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville (see map). The Summer NAMM, at one point, was a pretty good sized show with exhibits in both the convention center and in the arena. The show was expanding so fast that they needed more room to show exhibits. Summer NAMM moved to Indianapolis about seven years ago and attendance plummeted. A number of large exhibitors quit showing at NAMM during the years they showed in Indy because of poor attendance. The eventually moved the Summer NAMM to Austin, TX, but it was during the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009. With the show downsized by nearly 2/3rds, Summer NAMM moved back to Nashville last year. But even with it being back in Nashville, attendance is still down and a number of the large companies have not come back to Summer NAMM.
They are building a new and larger convention center to the south of Bridgestone Arena and it will more than triple the existing exhibition space that is in the current convention center. The new convention center should be open in time for Summer NAMM next year and show organizers are hoping the new facility will bring back some of the companies that have skipped the summer show for the past few years.
We were there showing products from Lauten Audio, a San Jose-based vendor of high-end studio and performance microphones; Vovox Cables, a Swiss manufacturer of high-end instrument, microphone and power cables; and Focal Pro, the leading near-field recording studio speakers on the market today. We were in a small booth - 10' X 10' - and it didn't give us much room to properly demonstrate products. At right is a picture of our booth with my colleague, Ian, doing some last minute clean up during set up the day before the show began. The only active demonstration we had was with a Wechter guitar and an Orange amp and bottom where we showed the difference between the Vovox guitar cables versus other cables that are more well-known name brands, including Monster Cable. Although it was tough to hear with all the ambient noise and other demos going on around us, those musicians who we did the demo for were overly impressed with how much better the guitar sounded with the Vovox cables. The rest of the equipment we showed was in static displays. You could look at the microphones and speakers, but you couldn't hear them. That somewhat hampered us in our efforts for people to stop in.
The Summer NAMM show was heavily skewed toward instruments that most country music people would use - mainly acoustic, electric and resonator guitars. Something I learned from the people at Wechter Guitars who were right across the aisle from us (pictured below left) was that the term "dobro" is a licensed trademark of Gibson, and other companies cannot call their metal topped guitars a dobro. Hence, they are called resonator guitars by the dozens of other guitar manufacturers who make that style of guitar. But even if they're not made by Gibson, dobro is still the common term for the guitars among musicians who play them.
Another thing that was interesting at the Summer NAMM were the number of vendors and distributors showing ukuleles (above right). There must have been six to eight different manufacturers/distributors showing everything from cheap, Japanese-made beginner ukuleles made out of bamboo, to hand-made exotic wood high-end ukuleles that fetched thousands of dollars. I was pretty amazed by the amount of uke's on display.
Now, if I haven't lost you already by this point, please bear with me just a while longer. I'm not going to get into the equipment at the show, but more the personalities that I saw, met and talked to.
Next to us was the Pigtronix booth. Pigtronix is a Long Island-based company that specializes in effect boxes for guitar players. David Koltai is the young owner of Pigtronix and he and a couple of his guys were on hand to demonstrate their "toys" to dozens of guitarists - both well-known and neophytes - who were in attendance at Summer NAMM. Pictured at left are two of David's guys who were pretty damned good guitarists in their own right. And David was no slouch on the fretboard, himself. Their booth was always busy - and loud. The NAMM officials came by about a half-dozen times during the show to tell them to turn it down. If they were hacks at the guitar, it would have been worse. But they were good players as well as good guys and were fun to be next to.
Between Pigtronix and Wechter guitars across the way from us, it was very difficult to hear our Vovox cable demo from all the playing going on between the two booths. It was actually sort of comical to watch some of the guys trying to hear the tonality and intricacies of a Wechter acoustic guitar while they had their ear right up next to the upper body of the guitar as they played.
This little kid below to the left is a young bluegrass performer from Indiana - Isaac Moore. He stopped by the Wechter booth on Thursday to play a little guitar for them. At first, I was a little skeptical, but once he sat down and started to pick out some songs, I was pretty amazed. He was there with his dad who looked like any other schlub from anywhere. But 8-year-old Isaac was playin' the part with his cowboy boots and hat, his pressed jeans and western shirt. I saw the kid the next day over at the Martin guitar booth in a western-style suit, complete with a matching cowboy hat.
Above right is a guitarist named Steve Hunter who stopped by the Pigtronix booth to try out some of the effects pedals. Steve Hunter isn't a household name, but he is very well known among guitar aficionados as "The Deacon" and is one of the very best in the business over the past 30+ years. He has played with a "whos-who" of musicians, performers and bands including Mitch Ryder, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Bette Midler, Lou Reed, Meat Loaf, Julian Lennon and David Lee Roth. My friend, Leo Kelly - a very good guitarist in his own right - told me that Hunter "ghosted" on guitar for Joe Perry from Aerosmith on the song "Train Kept a Rollin" on their "Get Your Wings" album. David Koltai from Pigtronix, standing in the black shirt to the right of Hunter, let him sit down with a guitar and have at it. It was about 20 minutes of jamming on Hunter's part, trying out each different effect box in Pigtronix's arsenal. When he was done, he ended up buying two of the effects boxes that he said he would use when he plays with Alice Cooper on his upcoming tour. Now, that was pretty cool.
Another cool thing for me was seeing one of my all-time guitar heroes at the Pigtronix booth, Adrian Belew. Belew has had a storied solo career, but I first knew of him from working with King Crimson starting back in the 80's. He also played with The Bears, a very underrated group from Cincinnati that Belew had produced their first album when they were known as the Raisins. Belew joined up with them, they changed their name, and their first album - simply called "The Bears" - is one of my all-time favorite albums. Belew has also played with Frank Zappa and David Bowie.
More recently, Belew had been playing with bassist Julie Slick and her brother, Eric Slick, in Adrian Belew Power Trio. And Belew was checking out new effects boxes at Pigtronix for his upcoming Power Trio/Stick Men tour that features Julie Slick, and King Crimson bandmates Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. Belew sat there as David Koltai played his guitar and went through all the different effects he had. Belew would lean back and laugh heartily when he heard something that he really liked. And he lauged a lot.
I had taken this picture of Belew as he was sitting with David. It wasn't a very good picture to begin with. He looked up and mugged for the camera as I went to take a second picture, but my camera phone's battery suddenly went low and it wouldn't let me take a picture. I cut David out of this photo because he was blurry. I was pretty upset that I couldn't get a better picture of Adrian Belew. But it was just sort of neat that I got to see him up close.
A few other guitarists that came through the Pigtronix booth included George Marinelli, the original guitarist for Bruce Hornsby, and who now plays with Bonnie Raitt. "Burnin' " Vernon Reid from Living Colour played guitars at both the Pigtronix booth and over at the HeliArc guitars booth that was about 30 feet away from us. I also saw Bob Welch, the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist before they got REALLY big in the 70's, and who also had a somewhat successful solo career in the late 70's. I'm sure there were many others who dropped by and played who I didn't know or recognize because there were a LOT of good guitar players stopping and playing guitars with effects at Pigtronix.
One guy that stopped in to look at the Lauten microphones was some guy named Eddie Reasoner. He was dressed like a tastefully aging rock star and immediately gave me his card and started dropping names. I thought this guy was a phony, but after going to his web site - NashAngeles Music - it appears he's a player in the music business of some significance. Or he's one helluva self-promoter.
But quite possibly the highlight of the show actually happened at a dinner that Lauten Audio founder and president Brian Loudenslager invited Ian and me to on Friday night. It took place at the Speakers Bistro at the Sheraton Nashville - a dinner that was so pedestrian I'm not even going to write about it on Road Tips. Brian also invited Grammy award winning engineer/producer Randy Kohrs and his wife, Ashley; and Mark Capps, a four-time Grammy award winning engineer/producer. Both Kohrs and Capps use Lauten microphones in their studios.
In the picture at left, from left to right is Randy Kohrs, his wife Ashley, Brian from Lauten Audio and Mark Capps. Ian took the picture and I declined to get in the shot.
It turns out that Kohrs is an Iowa native, so we had something very much in common with that. He grew up in New Virginia just south of Des Moines and began to play in a bluegrass band at the age of 15. He made it to Nashville and became known as one of the best resonator guitar players in town. He ended up playing for the likes of Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall, Dierks Bentley, Jim Lauderdale, and Hank Williams III. Kohrs also has a pretty good solo career going and has released six bluegrass themed albums in his career.
When he isn't performing music, he's behind the sound console recording and mixing other artists around Nashville in his home studio, Slack Key Studio. The recording studio is literally a good portion of the main floor of his home with Ashley and Randy living on the second floor. In fact, their kitchen is somewhat unique in that they decorated it with a diner theme. Randy told me that the hanging pot holder is actually the rear bumper of a 70's era Cadillac that they brought home with them from Iowa. The seats around the table are reconstructed backseats out of a 64 Impala.
Their kitchen is so unique that Randy was featured on Rachael Ray's showin a segment called "The Coolest Kitchens in America." Below is a short You Tube video that tours Slack Key Studios and shows the unique kitchen in their house.
Mark Capps has worked side by side with dozens of producers and has worked with an equally impressive list of performers. Ironically, three of his four Grammy awards were for engineering the best polka albums from 2005 to 2007. In fact, the list of producers and artists that Capps has worked with over the years is too numerous to mention. To see a list of all who has worked with, click here and scroll down.
Ashley Kohrs (pictured right with Randy Kohrs) is a very good musician in her own right. She played fiddle on a number of bluegrass albums and played with Randy's back up band, the Lites. She currently is a self-employed public relations person, but also runs the business side of Slack Key Studios and Randy Kohrs' Left of Center record company. She is also an accomplished vocalist who has appeared on Kohrs' studio albums. They just got married in late April at their studio/home in Nashville and are a very nice couple.
What struck me about listening to Mark and Randy compare notes about the music industry in Nashville is how competitive it has gotten. Not only with musicians, but with recording studios as well. Given Nashville's low cost of living, a number of west coast engineers and producers have relocated to Nashville over the past few years. Randy estimated there were now over 10,000 studios in the greater Nashville area. "Digital recording and Pro Tools has turned bedrooms all over Nashville into recording studios," he said. "The biggest problem is that a lot of these guys are only charging $15 bucks an hour to record musicians. And it's usually bad."
Randy said that he usually charges about $150 to $300 an hour for his sessions, depending upon what is needed, but he's getting severely undercut with a lot of the competition. He said that he's had musicians who have gone elsewhere after getting a lower quote for studio time, but end up coming back to him to fix the recording because it doesn't sound good. "I usually tell them that it will cost them $800 bucks for me to fix the recording," he told us. "But then I tell them, 'Or for $500 bucks, you can just bring the whole band into my studio and we'll record it and make it sound good right from the start." He said that usually gets them to come back.
Mark told stories of musicians coming back to him with their tails between their legs after they went elsewhere to record, only to have the sound be wrecked by an inexperienced engineer/mixer. "That's why Randy and I continue to be busy," Mark explained to us. "We do it right the first time and you aren't throwing good money at bad with us trying to fix bad recordings."
Both talked about the idiosyncrasies and egos of both producers and artists. Without naming names - except one, Mutt Lange (the iconic producer who was once married to Shania Twain) - they told some great stories of working with producers and artists. Mark said, "Mutt is Mutt. He has the magic and it's like his ears are attached to his fingers. But he can be pretty difficult to work with."
Mark told a story about how he was working with Lange on an album in the Bahamas and how he would work 48 hours non-stop once he got in the groove. "He'd call musicians at 1:30 in the morning, getting them up out of bed and say, 'OK, you're on!' ", Mark told us. "Mutt was an animal when it came to recording."
We were discussing the amount of name-dropping that goes on at shows like Summer NAMM. Mark said, "I'll guarantee you, the more names that a person drops in the course of the conversation, the more unimportant they are in Nashville."
Mark and Randy talked about how the big Nashville flood affected them last year. Randy and Ashley said they had about four inches of water on their ground level. They, along with a couple friends, kept bailing water - for twelve hours. Ashley said, "I finally turned to Randy about 11:30 at night and said, 'I don't think I can lift my arms any more.' They hurt so bad."
Soundcheckin Nashville is a very well known storage warehouse and rehearsal space for many of Nashville's top musicians. The facility was inundated with water from the Cumberland River with up to 4 feet of muddy sludge inside the facility. Mark was telling us about friends who lost a lot of gear in the floods, and of some artists, such as Vince Gill, who lost vintage guitars that he had stored at Soundcheck. Many were salvageable through time and hard work, but there were items such as vintage tweed covered Fender amps that couldn't be repaired or replaced. Mark said that while some of the musicians had insurance, many did not. He said, "I had a friend who heard that the river was rising and he went down to Soundcheck to get his stuff out. He got to the road that Soundcheck sits on and couldn't believe how fast the water had come up. Everything he had for equipment got wet. He was able to save his guitars, but not his amps and accessories."
Randy said, "Oh, yeah. It was a mess in there after the water went down. Snakes were coiled up inside the back of Fender amps, there was four inches of mud everywhere and the smell was just horrific. I know someone who works in the office there and she says she can still smell the stench of the flood waters in the place." He said they cleaned and disinfected the buildings, replaced the drywall and it looks brand new. "But she can still smell it," he said. "I can't, but it must be burned into her memory."
Both guys were down to earth, no pretensions between the two, provided a load of information about the recording industry, and Ian and I both learned a lot from just sitting there with them for nearly three hours. Although the dinner at the Speakers Bistro wasn't all that great, the conversation absolutely was. When we split up for the evening, Randy and Ashley both invited Ian and me to stop by their studio on our next trip to Nashville. Nashville is Ian's territory and I have a dealer who is only 60 miles away in Bowling Green, KY. I may just swing down to Nashville at some point and get hold of Randy to take him up on that offer.
Even though this looks like a big crowd at the Summer NAMM in Nashville, this was actually a picture of the attendees at the top of the escalator getting ready to go down to the exhibit hall at the convention center before the doors opened on the first day of the show. Traffic was light again and this year they decided to open the doors to the public on the last day of the show. For $20 bucks a head, the public could come in and take a look at all the neat instruments, amplifiers and other musical toys on display at Summer NAMM. Only about 1100 people paid to get in on the last day of the show, but compared to the previous two days, traffic was up significantly that one day. Still, it wasn't enough to convince us to come back to Nashville for the 2012 Summer NAMM. We'll just concentrate on going to the big one in Anaheim in January. And even though I'd like to do that show at some point, I'm sure that I probably won't have the chance.
I've made a conscious effort to broaden my horizons by seeking out Indian restaurants while I'm on the road. The food is generally fairly priced and there's a lot of it on your plate. During a trip to Chicago recently, I found an Indian restaurant in north suburban Niles - the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar. I decided to give that a shot one particular evening.
Unlike many of my colleagues who are well-versed on Indian food, I am still in the learning stages of what I like and don't like about the cuisine. My first encounter with Indian food over 20 years ago was not a pleasant experience and I stayed away from Indian restaurants like they were the plague. That was until my wife accidentally had Indian food one time with a friend of hers (they thought the sign said, "Italian" and not "Indian"), and after a couple outings with colleagues to Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Atlanta. (Click here for the link to previous Indian restaurants I've visited.) I decided that I liked some of the Indian cuisine that I've tried and wanted to have some more.
The Himalayan Restaurant and Bar opened in Niles in 2003. Partners Vivek Raj Kunwar and Kiran Byanjankar, along with Chef Bishnu Subedi, saw a need for Indian/Nepali food in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Subedi learned to cook Indian and Nepali cuisine in Kathmandu, Nepal. After moving to the United States in 1999, Subedi worked in a number of Indian restaurants in the Chicago area, first as a server, then as a chef. The partners opened a second restaurant in far west suburban Bloomingdale in 2008, and then followed up with a third location in far north suburban Gurnee.
The Niles location is located along Golf Road, near the intersection of Milwaukee Ave. in Niles (see map). It's set back in a strip mall and you have to do a little driving around to find the place. Actually, getting there from my hotel was sort of a chore as the power was still out in many sections of the north suburbs from a powerful storm that had hit the night before. Thankfully, the power was on at the Himalayan when I got there.
Entering the Himalayan, I found it to be similar to other Indian restaurants I've been in. The dining room is large, spacious and well-lit. Without some of the pictures on the wall, you may have thought it was more of an American-style family restaurant. I was seated at a table next to the wall and given a menu. A waitress soon came over to take my drink order. It had been a long day and I was ready for a cold beer. I ordered a tall bottle of Taj Mahal beer.
One of the nice things about the menu at the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar is that a number of items on the menu are designated as "kid friendly", meaning that children will usually find those dishes to be pleasing to their pallets. There are also a number of foods on the menu that are listed with a "G" which means they're good for groups or family style dining. And they also listed a "Spice-O-Meter" chart with one star being mild and three stars means you'll break a sweat.
Still being a neophyte when it comes to Indian cuisine, I was trying to remember some of the things that I'd tried in the past. I remember my colleague, Todd, talking about tandoori style food during our previous visits. Tandoors are clay ovens used to make breads at a high temperature. The first time tandoors were used to make food other than bread happened in the late 1940's in India when an Indian restaurant owner cooked seasoned chicken pieces in his tandoor. It became an instant hit. In fact, today, the original restaurant - Moti Mahal- is now a popular chain of restaurants in India.
Traditional tandoori chicken is marinated in curd and tandoori marsala sauce. It is usually much more spicy to the bite in Asia, but toned down considerably for Western tastes in the States. It is a deep reddish/orange in color, thanks to spices such as cayenne, chili powder and turmeric which are put on before cooking. The tandoori oven has to be red hot for the chicken to cook - up to 900F (480C) - helping seal in the juices of the chicken. Todd has told me that the chef has to watch the tandoori chicken to make sure it doesn't overcook. "30 seconds too long can make it dried out," he once told me.
I was interested in getting the tandoori chicken, but I also was interested in the chicken tikka - marinated chicken grilled and sauteed in a creamy onion tomato sauce. Chicken tikka is usually a safe bet when it comes to ordering Indian food for the uninitiated. I also took a quick glance at the chicken vindaloo, something I remember having - and liking - in previous visits to Indian restaurants. Chicken vindaloo is a dish with chicken chunks that are cooked in a creamy curry sauce. It's more spicy than chicken tikka, but I remember thinking that it wasn't all that spicy when I had it.
I decided upon getting the chicken tandoori. The waitress said, "Do you want a large order or a small order?"
Well, she had me there. I didn't know the difference. So, somewhat embarrassed, I blurted out, "Large!"
She said, "If you have any left over, you can take it home. Yes?" I also ordered some of the garlic naan bread - something I remembered as being REALLY good in previous visits.
A waiter came out with my beer and a small basket of flat bread, along with a couple bowls of an unknown sauce. The green sauce had a very strong herb taste to it and it was very good. The red sauce was a little spicy and I guessed that was some sort of a curry sauce. It wasn't overly spicy for me, but I can tolerate spicy flavors more than most people. Not long after that, the garlic naan bread came out. Cooked in the tandoor oven, this stuff is about as good as it gets. Brushed in melted butter, the naan bread is light and fluffy. And the garlic! Wow! But the problem is that it's so good that you have to watch yourself if you're eating by yourself or you'll pig out on the bread and not be hungry when your meal shows up. Oh man, garlic naan is great!
Suddenly, the waitress brought out this huge plate of chicken tandoori. Six whole pieces of chicken - a couple cut in half - were staring back at me. Now I know what she was talking about when she said I could take some leftovers home. There was no way that I'd be able to eat all of the chicken on my plate.
The outer skin of the chicken had a nice little spice to it, nothing that I would call outrageously hot (I believe it was listed a two-star entree on the "Spice-O-Meter"). But it did help zip up the taste a bit. The tandoor also gave it a nice smoky, charred taste to the chicken. However, like my colleague Todd warned me, chicken tandoori can get overcooked, even if you leave it in the tandoor a few seconds too long. Unfortunately, the chicken was somewhat dried out and tough to chew. A couple of the pieces were good, but the majority of the chicken was overcooked. And that was too bad because the couple of pieces that weren't were pretty good.
I ended up getting a box for the rest of the chicken and took it with me back to the hotel. Thinking for a second before I walked in, I realized that even though I did have a refrigerator in my room, I knew there was no way I'd eat any more of this chicken. So I tossed it out in the garbage just outside the door. I don't like to waste food like that, but I have to say that it was one helluva bargain for all that chicken tandoori. The entree, itself, was $12.95. The garlic naan was $2.65. My Taj Mahal beer was a little expensive at $7.50 a bottle, but there was a lot of beer there, even though it wasn't all that great of a taste. It was a 22 oz. bottle. I ate a helluva lot for under $30 bucks and a tip.
OK, so chicken tandoori isn't something I'll probably order on my next visit to an Indian restaurant. As Todd told me the next day, "Yeah, it's tough to find really good chicken tandoori." I'm gonna stick to the cream sauce entrees in the future, I believe. And I'm sure the Himalayan Restaurant and Bar has some great chicken vindaloo, something I'll try on my next visit.
Nearly four years ago, along with my wife and some friends, we stumbled in to the Yard House in Glenview, IL. (Click here to see that entry on Road Tips.) Yard House is a national chain of upscale beer bar/restaurants that features over 100 different types of beer on tap at any one of their locations. We had a couple beers in there that night after an awesome Mexican feast across the street at El Jardin Norte and I always wanted to go back and have a meal at the Yard House. Earlier this summer, I had the chance to do so.
The Yard House in Glenview (pictured right) is located within the Glen Town Center shopping and entertainment complex on what was the former Glenview Naval Air Station. After the naval base was closed in the mid-90's, it was developed into a number of shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and residential complexes. The Yard House is located in the heart of the Glen along Tower Drive (see map).
While Yard House could be classified as a national chain (they have over 30 locations in nine states with locations in Virginia and New York opening later this year), nearly every Yard House is located within an upscale shopping/entertainment complex. Not only do they feature a large and eclectic mix of national, regional, local and imported beers (click here to see the beer menu for Glenview), but their food menu features a wide array of foods from appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pizza, and entrees with steaks, seafood, pasta, and barbecued ribs.
To understand how the Yard House gets it's name, you have to go back to 17th century Britain where carriage drivers would have beer poured in yard long glasses while they drove dignitaries around the villages. A British yard glass held 1.14 litres, which is the same as about three plus bottles of beer. The Yard House features a number of yard glasses, but you have to pay a deposit on the glass in case you break one when you drink it. I've drank out of yard glasses in the past and while I am a quick drinker, I find the beer to get warm too quickly and the glasses rather unwieldy.
The original Yard House began in 1996 when former Denver resident Steele Platt (pictured at left) and a couple partners opened the first location in Long Beach, CA. Platt had earlier run a number of restaurants and clubs around the Denver area. In 1987, Platt closed the Boiler Room - a Denver dance club that specialized in serving a number of different brands of beer - after a rent dispute with the landlord and with local officials who had cited the club for excessive noise from dance music in the past. Platt had run the clubs and restaurants for about 15 years before pulling up stakes and moving west.
Financial hassles followed Platt to his new home in California. He bummed around Southern California, working at a car dealership and as a bartender before he came up with an idea to have 200 different types of beer on tap which incubated from his days owning the Boiler Room. At that time, Platt was emerging from bankruptcy, primarily from debts still owed on a house in Denver and for bills that were still open to vendors after he closed the Boiler Room.
In the meantime, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Investments had taken over the Shoreline Village shopping complex in Long Beach after the previous owner had defaulted on a loan they held. Looking for an exciting restaurant to go into the nearly empty shopping center, Platt, along with partners Carlito Jocson and Harald Herrmann walked into a meeting with Northwestern Mutual officials and pitched their idea of a place with 200 beers on tap. The group's concept was to offer good food, a great selection of beer and good music in the restaurants. The only problem was the group had no money and Platt had previously filed for bankruptcy.
Taking a large leap of faith, mainly because they believed in the concept and after they had thoroughly checked out Platt's history in Denver, Northwestern Mutual invested about $2 million dollars in the Yard House. The first Yard House had a two story keg room with five miles of beer lines going to the bar. At any given time, the Yard House could move 6,000 gallons of beer through its line system. That same delivery design is used in the other Yard House locations.
The first six months were the toughest - cash was tight and the group was under-capitalized. But they made it through the first bumpy months and the business took off. By 2003, Yard House was the 3rd largest privately owned restaurant group in Southern California. And today, Shoreline Village has full occupancy and is the premier shopping, eating and entertainment destination in Long Beach.
In August of 2007, the group sold a majority interest of Yard House to TSG Consumer Partners, an investment group from the San Francisco area. Platt and Herrmann are still is involved with the business as they continue to expand in the coming years. The company doesn't franchise any locations, keeping all of the Yard House locations under private control. Today, each of the over 30 locations average over $8 million dollars in sales annually. Yard House is doing pretty well.
It was a hot and very humid evening when I was lucky enough to find a parking spot just down Tower Drive from the Yard House in Glenview. A storm was brewing on the horizon, but a number of patrons were outside on the street side patio enjoying their dinner. The restaurant was packed, but the hostess told me that if I didn't mind eating at the bar, there were some seats open. I found one and parked my butt waiting for the bartender to greet me.
Being that they were very busy, I finally got a bartender's attention after a couple of minutes. I looked through the beer menu and saw that they had the Bell's Pale Ale on tap - one of my all-time favorites. I signed up for one of those and took a look through the menu.
I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening and the menu wasn't helping things. The Yard House has so much to choose from - jambalaya, garlic chicken and noodles, pan seared ahi tuna, lobster garlic noodles (I've heard those are just scrumptious), pepper-crusted beef filet, Cuban roast pork dip, pepperjack cheeseburger with roasted garlic aioli. I didn't know which way to turn. The Yard House is just not your typical chain like Applebee's or T.G.I. Friday's.
I had eaten pretty large the night before and I thought I would take a closer look at some of the salads they had on the menu. I looked very hard at the New York strip salad. They take a big bowl of lettuce greens, add roasted peppers, avocado, green beans, fried potatoes and a red onion, topped with a gorgonzola vinaigrette with beefsteak tomatoes and fried pickled egg. Then they put strips of steak with the salad. The bartender asked if I had any questions and I said, "Yeah, on the New York strip steak salad, how much steak do you get?"
He said, "It's a regular sized 12 to 14 ounce New York strip. Then they slice it into strips."
I said, "Can I get the steak rare?" He said I could. "Sold," I exclaimed.
The Yard House is not only a pretty good restaurant, but it's an upscale sports bar, as well. Dozens of flat screen televisions hang from the walls and around the bar area. A Chicago Cubs game was on and I was glancing at that from time to time while I looked through that day's edition of the Chicago Tribune.
My steak salad showed up in a little while and it looked outstanding. The steak was cut into deep red strips and the salad was a jumbled mass of veggies. And from the first bite it was outstanding. The steak was juicy and tender, the salad greens were fresh, including the veggies. The little bit of gorgonzola on top of the meat was a great taste sensation. It was simply wonderful. I was highly surprised and very happy with what I got.
As I was sitting there enjoying my meal, outside the storm front that had been brewing off to the west had finally hit. High winds and howling rain forced a number of the people who were outdoors eating their meals inside. Suddenly, the lights flickered and finally went out for a couple minutes. Emergency lighting came on for a moment, then the electricity came back on. As I left the restaurant later that evening, workers were picking up chairs, tables, umbrellas and other items that had been blown about by the storm. It turned out that gusts of over 75 miles an hour had hit the area knocking power out to hundreds of thousands of electrical customers around the Chicago area. The northern suburbs were especially hard hit with many people not getting their power back on for up to three days. It was a tough drive back to the hotel with all the tree limbs and power lines down along and in the major streets and roads. I was happy to find that my hotel in Skokie had power when I got there.
I really didn't know what to expect in terms of food quality at the Yard House. But I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and the taste of the food- as well as the seemingly endless eclectic selections on the menu - at the Yard House. I guess you'd have to call it "American Fusion" cuisine at the Yard House. They take a lot of basic favorites and add a little splash to bring out some wonderful taste sensations. I liked the Yard House a lot, not because they have a ton of beers to choose from, but more for the selection and quality of food. In fact, to me, the beer will almost be a secondary reason I go back to a Yard House in my travels.
But having close to 200 beers to choose from doesn't hurt...
After touring the National Brewery Museum in Potosi, WI, we had lunch at the Potosi Brewing Company brew pub that is attached to the museum. Actually, before we took the tour, we checked in at the brew pub's front desk and saw if we could make a reservation. The manager said, "We're going to be pretty busy today and we have a lot of reservations."
I told him that we were going to go through the museum and wondered if we could make a reservation for an hour later. He said, "I'm sure we can fit you in. Just come on back after your done and we'll get you in."
It took us about 45 minutes to fully go through the National Brewery Museum and we were a little early for our table. But it didn't appear that it was all that busy when we went back to the hostess stand and we were promptly seated at a small table near the front of the restaurant.
The Potosi Brewing Company was originally founded in 1852 when German immigrants Gabriel Hail and John Albrecht started a small brewery to serve beer to local farmers, fishermen and miners. In 1886, Adam Schumacher bought the brewery and 20 years later, with brothers Henry and Nicholas, they renamed their brewery the Potosi Brewing Company. At one point in time, the Potosi Brewing Company was brewing and marketing beers such as ("Good Old") Potosi, Holiday, Augsburger, and Garten Brau, and it was the fifth largest brewery in Wisconsin in terms of barrel production.
In 1972, Potosi Brewing Company ceased operations. But as I chronicled in my previous post on the National Brewery Museum, Galena, IL woodworking artisan Gary David came in and bought the run-down property in 1995. After years of renovation, the museum and brew pub opened in June of 2008.
Originally, the members of the Potosi Brewery Foundation - the non-profit group that oversees the brewpub and museum - turned to Steve Zuidema of the Front Street Brewery in Davenport (one of our favorite brewpubs in the Quad Cities) to become the first brewmaster for the brewery. Using the natural spring water that poured out of the bluffs above Potosi, Zuidema came up with a handful of beers to help get the brewery started.
After helping the brewery get up and running, Zuidema went back to run Front Street Brewery full time (his wife, Jennie Ash, had been overseeing the day-to-day operation in his absence) and the Foundation brought in former Bell's Brewery brewmaster Steve Buszka to run the brewery. Buszka was the brewmaster at Bell's (then known as the Kalamazoo Brewing Company) for ten years before going on to over see the brewing and distilling process at Liquid Manufacturing in Brighton, MI. After three years there, he joined Potosi Brewing Company in 2009.
Jeremy Culbertson was the original head chef at Potosi Brewing Company when it opened in 2008. Culbertson is now the sous chef at Caroline's Restaurant at the recently renovated Hotel Julien Dubuque in Dubuque, IA. In Culbertson's place as the head chef at Potosi Brewing is 24-year-old Jerry Hollis. A native of Freeport, IL, Hollis studied at the Sullivan University Culinary School in Louisville. After working at Brendan O'Shea's Restaurant in Louisville, and later at the Heidel House Resort in Green Lake, WI, Hollis took over the menu at Potosi Brewing Company earlier this year.
The main dining area of the brew pub was designed and built by Gary David utilizing the stone walls and implementing a high wooden ceiling in the room. The bar and back bar was also made by hand by David and the bar features inlaid depictions of beer glass complete with foam tops. The stools, we were told at the museum, were fashioned from old oaken barrels that were used to store beer in the old brewery nearly a 100 years before.
Our waitress came over to give us our menus and she noticed that we had yellow bands on our wrists - our "free beer" wristbands for going through the museum. We looked through the beer menu at the available beer and we both settled on getting the Snake Hollow India Pale Ale. We were given 10 oz. glasses (regular glasses are pints) for our free beer. And it was pretty good.
The menu at Potosi Brewing Company is a good mix of entrees such as honey glazed salmon, Potosi root beer glazed pork chops, walleye, some pasta and other Midwestern types of food. They have an extensive burger and sandwich menu, as well as a number of appetizers. One of their more famous appetizers is the beer cheese soup - a blend of their Potosi Pilsner beer and hearty Wisconsin cheddar cheese. We both got a cup of that, and it was very good.
I wasn't looking for any type of a big meal, but I thought a sandwich or a burger would tie me over. They had a burger on the menu that was topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce. Then they topped if all with a homemade pretzel bun. I thought that sounded good and I ended up ordering that. A side of fries came with the burger, as well as a cup of cole slaw.
My wife ended up ordering the grilled chicken and blue cheese sandwich, also with a side of fries and cole slaw. She didn't drink all of her Snake Hollow pale ale, so I finished that off and ordered another one for me.
Our meals showed up and the presentation was very nice, although it looked a little sparse on the large plates.
My burger was cooked perfectly to my taste. I ordered it medium, but it had a little bit of pink throughout. The bun, on its own, was fabulous. My wife ate her chicken breast with a knife and fork, eschewing the top of the pretzel bun. I ended up taking her bun top and tearing off pieces of it to dip in some of her remaining beer cheese soup. The bun was out of this world - one of the best buns I've ever had on a burger. It was slightly toasted, but the bun had a hard outer shell that was both chewy and flavorful. A great bun makes a great burger and this was pretty damn good.
The French fries were OK, but nothing all that special. And even with ample amounts of paprika on top of the cole slaw, I found it to be somewhat bland. I had a couple bites and called it quits with that.
My wife said her grilled chicken sandwich was very good, even without the bun. She said it was juicy and had a good charred taste to it. And the blue cheese topping was a nice compliment. She was overly happy with what she got.
The only bitch I had was that our waitress didn't write down our order and I had asked for the barbecue sauce on the side of the burger. Unfortunately - and as I feared would happen - it came with the barbecue sauce on top. I'm not as fond of barbecue sauce on a burger and I would have liked to have dipped my fries in the sauce. But she had three large tables in addition to us, so she was a little frazzled and I don't think she paid much attention to us. In fact, I had ordered a glass of the Potosi Pilsner when she brought our meal out and she completely forgot to bring it to me. My burger was 3/4's down my gullet when my wife finally got her attention as she was rushing back to remind her of my beer. By that time, I almost didn't want it. But she finally did bring it and it was very good.
After we finished our lunch and paid, we walked out onto the outdoor patio area. My wife said, "Why didn't we eat out here?" I said I really didn't know. They never offered outdoor seating to us when we first checked in. It was sort of a hot and humid day with hazy sunshine and the air was pretty still. And not every table had an umbrella to shade us from the sun. That may have been one of the reasons we weren't told of the outdoor seating option.
The outdoor beer garden had a nice little koi pond (above right) that was fed by the natural spring running out of the bluffs. It was a nice relaxing area that would have been nice to hang out in for both just a beer or for having a good meal at Potosi Brewing Company.
I'd heard the Potosi Brewing Company had good food and we were far from disappointed with both the food and the beer. It was a busy day and we thought it would be nice to come up to Potosi again at some point when it wouldn't be as busy. But the Potosi Brewing Company and the National Brewery Museum are destination points for people from all over Eastern Iowa, Northwest Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin. A lot of weekend motorcyclists were swarming into town along with the car loads of people from Madison, Dubuque and other points in the area. While there's not a lot to see in Potosi proper, the brewpub and museum are a great stopping point. It's about a 75 minute drive from our home and I'm sure we'll be back at some point down the road.
Years ago, Cindy and I used to take little weekend trips to get away from the little bungalow house with no air-conditioning that we lived in up until 9 years ago. These days, with a much nicer house, a deck in the back and a wonderful yard full of flowers and plants, it's a little tougher to get away from the laid back home life we've become accustomed to on the weekends. However, one place that I've wanted to visit for quite sometime is Potosi, Wisconsin - home of The National Brewery Museum. We took a Sunday drive up to Potosi to have a look around the museum and to have lunch at the attached Potosi Brewing Company brewpub/restaurant.
Potosi is a picturesque little community in Southwest Wisconsin (see map), about a 20 minute drive from Dubuque, IA. The small town has a significant history in brewing beer with the original Potosi Brewing Company - which brewed "Potosi" and "Holiday" beers - in existence from 1852 to 1972. The Potosi Brewery fell into severe disrepair over the years before Gary David bought the building in 1995 with the hope of restoring the property. David owned a woodworking shop in Galena, IL - Gary David Woodworks and Design - and is known nationally for his workmanship in restoring and making wood furniture, entertainment cabinets and handmade bars. After three years of restoration, David brought in his cousin, Denis David, and a friend, Rick Tobin, to help with the rebuilding process.
In 1999, spurred on by Denis David and his wife, Madonna, the group organized a town meeting with a group of people in Potosi to put it to a local vote to either demolish the building, or seek investors and grants to rehab the building into a museum and a functioning brewery/restaurant. The rehab vote passed and it led to the formation of the Potosi Brewery Foundation. Originally, the project was given a budget of $3 to $3.5 million dollars, but over time the costs ballooned to almost $7 million dollars. More money was raised and the museum/brewery opened in June of 2008.
In conjunction with the American Breweriana Association, the National Brewery Museum chronicles the history of brewing beer in America through displays of machinery, merchandise and marketing tools. Through private and corporate donations of memorabilia, the National Brewery Museum boasts one of the largest collections of beer cans and bottles, signage, advertising and paraphernalia in the world. The museum also has it's own research library on the premises.
The museum opened that Sunday at 10 a.m. and we were one of the first couples to go inside that day. On the main floor as you come in, there's a room to the side that shows the history of transportation for the Potosi Brewing Company's brands (below left). There was an old tail-finned Buick that had a wooden case of "Good Old Potosi Beer" in the trunk. There was an old time, horse-drawn beer wagon, as well as pictures and models of old beer trucks. There were interactive displays that told about the specifics of getting beer to the masses in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The room also featured a glass encased display of the various cans and bottles of beer that were brewed at the Potosi Brewing Company over the years. Many of these were either donated or lended to the museum from private collections. It was a pretty impressive display of bottles and cans.
We were met by a lady who was acting as the hostess that day. She asked us if we had been to the museum before and we said we had not. She said, "Well, the exhibits on the main floor are free. However, there are two more floors of self-guided exhibits above us and they have a $5 dollar admission fee. With that admission fee, you'll also get a free beer at the end of your tour in the brewpub next door." We immediately gave her $10 bucks and continued through the main floor exhibits after she put some yellow wristbands on our arms.
Of course, every place like this has to have a gift shop and the National Brewery Museum was no exception. Actually, it was more Potosi Brewing Company clothing, signage and chotskies than anything to do with the museum. And, of course, the shirts - while pretty cool - were outrageously expensive. There was a cool Potosi Brewing bowling shirt with the logo on the back that they wanted $60 bucks for. Cindy was actually cold - the air conditioning was really cranked up - and she was looking at getting a "hoodie" sweatshirt. But a cool looking one that she found was well over $50 bucks, as well. She decided she could handle the cold for that kind of money.
Just past the gift shop was the glass enclosed original brewery room for the Potosi Brewery in the 19th century (below left). Basically a cave, this is where the brewmasters gathered the spring water (that still flows today and is used in the new Potosi microbrewed beer) and added the hops and grains to make the beer. A number of the old machinery and apparatus to make the beer over 100 years ago is on display in the room.
In the room that allowed you to look into the old brew room, there are more displays of cans and bottles, not only from the old Potosi brewery, but from other old time breweries around Wisconsin (above center and above right). Once again, some of these were on loan to the museum from private collectors.
We took the elevator up to the second floor where the elevator opened into a stone-walled room that had a video presentation about the history of brewing in the State of Wisconsin. While we didn't watch much - if any - of the video, we turned our attention to the display cases that had more historical items for the Potosi Brewing Company.
One of the more interesting aspects of this part of the museum was the homage that was paid to the old Potosi Brewing Company's "Rolling Bar". (Pictured above right - this is not my picture, I found it on Flickr and do not know the photographer's name.) This relic of a long era where the brewery would take the rolling bar to events to serve their beer. Many a people rented out the rolling bar for weddings, parties, and other private celebrations. And because they couldn't get a specific beer license for the rolling bar, the Potosi Brewing Company had to give away the beer at public functions - the ultimate public relations venture for the brewery.
The rolling bar dates back to the 1930's when it was built on the frame of an old delivery truck and pulled to events throughout Southwestern Wisconsin. When the brewery went out of business in 1972, the rolling bar went into storage. I had hoped to see the restored rolling bar, but according to the lady at the start of the museum when we asked her later that day, she said it was still in storage and no decision had been made whether to restore and display the rolling bar. She said, "We really don't have any room to display it and it can't be used for events any longer because of laws and insurance purposes."
She added, "My parents rented out the rolling bar for our wedding nearly 50 years ago!"
Attached to the second floor room was a larger room that had one of the most impressive collections of beer signs I've ever seen (pictured above, left and right). This room displayed a number of beer signs from Wisconsin breweries, both current and defunct, that dated back well into the mid to late 1800's. Some had been restored, but many were in their original state. In addition to beer signs, there were lithographs that many of the breweries put out to show the buildings in which they brewed the beer. It was a pretty amazing and interesting collection.
Just up the stairs was the research library. Nearly any type of book that has been written about beer is in this library. Although I didn't want to get bogged down looking at every book, it was an impressive collection of books on the history of brewing, different types of beers from around the world, the process of making beer and information on breweries around the world, big and small. There was a computer desk and a large table that allowed people to peruse the books in the research library - for whatever reason. I understand the museum will also lend out books to people.
I've collected a handful of books related to beer over the years and I recognized many of those as part of the collection in the research library. They certainly take their beer seriously in Wisconsin.
On both the second and third floors of the National Brewery Museum, there are displays of old machinery that was used in the process of making beer back in the 1800's. There were hop presses, bottling devices and in the far back of the picture below left is a table (you can see it a little better if you click on the picture) that was used as a bottle dryer when they would sanitize the beer bottles before the beer was added. It was pretty medieval compared to the bottling process breweries go through today.
As things became more industrialized and automated, so did the bottling process. Above right is a machine from the early 1900's that allowed for simultaneous bottling of up to six bottles of beer. This kept the beer under pressure and cut down on the time it took to bottle each beer individually.
Naturally, there were more historical exhibits to see in the National Brewery Museum. Some of it dealt with what breweries had to go through in the height of Prohibition, while other displays focused on how the process of making mass quantities of beer. One of the more interesting displays were the dozen of on-wall beer medallions such as are found on the far wall of the picture below left. From the information I read, these were placed on walls of bars back in the 30's and 40's to signify that the bar was authorized to sell that brand of beer. For the kids, and for the young at heart, there was a model train exhibit on the third floor. Unfortunately, for the kid in me, it wasn't running that day.
The whole time we were in the museum, we did not encounter another person. So it was like our own little private self-guided tour through the National Brewery Museum. Even a person like Cindy, who doesn't drink a whole lot of beer any longer, found the museum to be pretty interesting. I found it to be very fascinating.
Near the exhibits on the 3rd floor was the small brewing and fermenting room that the Potosi microbrewery used for their brewing process. Even with the door closed and heavy windows between us and the tanks, the smell of hops permeated the air. Although it can smell like stale beer, there's something mentally intoxicating about the smell of hops.
There is a fourth floor to the building at the brewery/museum and it houses a little meeting room/banquet area called The Founders Room. It has audio/video equipment for visual presentations, as well as a little keg refrigerator and a small bar area. I wouldn't mind going to one of their meetings.
We went back down to the first floor and encountered the lady who sold us the admission. "Well, what did you think?"
I said it was one of the most amazing collections of beer memorabilia and history that I'd ever seen. I told her I would highly recommend it to anybody. Even Cindy said, "I don't drink beer almost at all any longer and I thought it was really interesting."
The lady told us before we left that we had to venture across the street where they have the Holiday Gardens banquet facility and to check out the old silo they made into a replica of an old aluminum Potosi can with a beer bottle top. The person who donated the land for the banquet hall stipulated that the old silo on the grounds had to be kept. So during the restoration process for the brewery, they got the idea to turn the silo into a big beer can, complete with a bottle top.
The lady told us that when they brought the top of the silo to Potosi on a flat bed trailer, it passed her house just up the highway. "It looked like one of those old space capsules," she exclaimed. If people didn't know that it was the top of the silo, they would have thought there was going to be a space launch or something!"
That was our trip to the National Brewery Museum. And we did get our beer when we went to the brew pub. And we had lunch there. I'll tell you about it in the next installment of Road Tips.
I recently had the chance to go to Nashville, TN to help work the 2011 Summer National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show. It had been years since I'd been to Nashville, and when I'd been there in the past it was just an in-and-out situation. I never had a chance to get to know the city, so on this trip I had some time to do a little sight-seeing and to have some good meals while I was in town.
Nashville, of course, is Music City U.S.A. and working the NAMM show, which is primarily geared toward professional music people, I had the chance to meet some music industry people, to learn more about the business side of what goes on in Nashville, and get some inside stories of some personalities who live and work in the Nashville area.
The trip to Nashville almost ended as soon as I got there. As we sat down for dinner after I landed in Nashville, my wife called to tell me that the blower motor on our ancient furnace (over 25 years old) had gone out. We knew we were living on borrowed time when it came to our furnace and air conditioner (which also was over 20 years old) and it just had to go out during the hottest day of the summer with heat indexes in the Quad Cities well into the 110's. Long story short, my wife was able to coordinate getting quotes, getting financing, and setting up the installation schedule on her own so I was able to stay in Nashville for the duration of my scheduled trip. I have to say that I was extremely proud of her for keeping it together during a stressful time. I came about *this* close to having to get back to help out, but she pulled through with flying colors.
The Summer NAMM show was held at the Nashville Convention Center, right in the heart of downtown Nashville (see map). After set up on Wednesday, my colleague Ian and I had some time to drive around the area and take a look at a few things in Nashville. As we walked out of the east doors of the convention center, I looked over and saw the iconic Ryman Auditorium, home of the weekly broadcasts of the "Grand Ole Opry" from 1943 to 1974. This is truly a mecca for country music fans and having some sense of history when it comes to music I was kind of like, "Wow! The Ryman! I didn't know it was right there!"
The building opened in 1892 and was originally known as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, built by Nashville entrepreneur Thomas Ryman. Ryman, a riverboat captain who also owned saloons in and around Nashville, built the building for influential evangelist/revivalist Samuel Porter Jones. It was said that Ryman went to heckle Jones at a revival meeting in 1885, but instead got "saved" that day. To show his appreciation to Jones, Ryman designed and built the huge church. After Ryman died in 1904, they changed the name to the Ryman Auditorium.
In addition to the weekly broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry, the stage at the Ryman Auditorium also hosted the Johnny Cash Show from 1969 to 1971. Cash's television program was groundbreaking in that it featured a diverse collection of musicians that crossed the boundaries of rock, folk, bluegrass, jazz and country music. As an early teen, the Johnny Cash Show from the Ryman opened my eyes to a wide array of music. Some of the musicians and bands that played on Cash's show from the Ryman included Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton), Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jose Feliciano, Ray Charles and about any "name" country music performer during that period. And that was just in the FIRST SEASON! If you're a true music fan, I suggest you run out and buy "The Best of the Johnny Cash Show" on DVD. It has some amazing performances on it. .
After the Gaylord Entertainment Corporation moved the Grand Ole Opry to its present day location east of downtown Nashville in 1974, the Ryman was used sporadically and fell into a state of disrepair and neglect. It wasn't until nearly 20 years later that a series of concerts by Emmy Lou Harris spurred an interest in renovating the 100 year old building. After a full renovation, the Ryman reopened in 1994 as a music venue and museum. The original pews of the Union Gospel Tabernacle are still used by people who watch shows at the small venue.
Driving out south toward Brentwood and Franklin, part of the high dollar housing area of Nashville, we were struck at how many large homes were for sale. My colleague, Ian, who travels to Nashville as part of his territory, told me how the city has hit hard economic times in all sectors. A lot of people think of Nashville as "Music City", but it's actually health care that makes up the largest industry in town. Over 250 health care related companies are located in and around Nashville. Nissan has a large plant in suburban Smyrna, and Vanderbilt University (pictured right) is the largest employer in the area with over 24,000 people working for both the school and the medical facility. With all that thriving business going on, you'd think the city would be in fine shape. But like any other place in America, the economic downturn of 2008/09 hurt Nashville, probably more than others. Over the past year, the unemployment rate in Metro Nashville has hovered between 8.5 and 9.0 percent. And with more people moving in due to Nashville's relative low cost of living, it puts more pressure on the private and public sectors to create more jobs in the area.
After touring parts of Franklin and Brentwood as Ian showed me where a handful of his dealers used to be before they went out of business, we made our way over toward Opryland, the hotel/entertainment and former theme park complex built by the Gaylord Corporation to showcase the Grand Ole Opry (see map). The Opryland USA theme park opened in 1975 and was a thriving entity until the mid 90's when it became apparent that it was running out of room to expand and to keep up with other theme parks throughout the Southeast. Limited on space because of its geography and the fact that it was a seasonal theme park, Gaylord Entertainment decided to shutter the park in 1997 when it determined that it needed the land to expand the Opryland Resort and Convention Center complex. After the turn of the century, Opry Mills, a single level mall with over 200 stores, opened on the spot of Opryland USA.
In 2010, a devastating flood hit Nashvilleafter a 13 inch rainfall over a 48 hour period. The Opryland Resort and Convention Center is located right next to the Cumberland River which rose to over 12 feet above flood stage, inundating the Opryland complex and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of guests that particular weekend. Parts of the Opryland hotel were under 10 feet of water for a long period of time. The flood forced the relocation of the Grand Ole Opry back to the Ryman Auditorium for a period of time. The hotel complex eventually reopened after six months of renovation and clean up, but plans to make Opryland the largest hotel/convention center outside of Las Vegas were put on indefinite hold due to the economic downturn and the subsequent flood.
Opry Mills is still trying to get back on its feet well over a year past the flood. Parts of the complex also saw flood waters as deep as 10 feet and the whole mall had to basically be environmentally remediated before construction could begin. In September of 2010, work completely stopped on much of the mall as insurance claim disputes ended up in court. Litigation drug out for months and it pushed back Opry Mills projected reopening from August of this year to some time in 2012. In the meantime, Bass Pro Shops opened a new store on the site that is seperate from the mall, itself. And many of the stores that were once in Opry Mills have either relocated temporarily - or in some cases, permanently - to other areas of Nashville.
One place that I wanted to see while in Nashville was the Parthenon - a whole replica of the Greek Parthenon that was built on the grounds of Centennial Park for the 1897 Centennial Exposition (see map). As the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece, once did, this Parthenon houses a huge statue of the goddess Athena. The Parthenon in Nashville also serves as the city's art museum with a number of paintings and sculptures on display inside.
We walked around the building and found the main entrance on the east side and we contemplated going in to look around. However, it was 4:20 in the afternoon and the museum closed at 4:30. We saved a few bucks, but just seeing the Parthenon up close was kind of cool. Large halogen flood lamps were positioned out from the corners of the building and it would have been neat to see it lit up at night, but we never made it back.
Ian also drove me down Music Square West, home of the world famous Music Row of publishing and production houses and recording studios. Nearly every major record label has an office and studio in the Music Row area (see map). There are also a number of recording studios including the famous RCA Studio B that recorded the likes of Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Jim Reeves. The studio is now leased out to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum for $1.00 a year and tours are available.
Right next to the Studio B museum is Starstruck Entertainment, the complex that houses Reba McEntire's offices and recording studio (pictured left). The recording studio at Starstruck is one of the most advanced in all of Nashville and a number of big name entertainers have recorded there.
As we were headed back to the hotel, Ian remarked, "You know, if someone put a gun to my head and said, 'You've got to move to Nashville', I could probably do it." Ian lives in Toronto, but simply loves the trees and rolling hills found all throughout Central Tennessee. We took a drive outside the city on Sunday before we both flew home and we came upon a vista that had small tree-covered mountains and a vast green valley before us, he said, "This is what I mean. I think this is just gorgeous."
This may have been my only trip to Nashville for business, but I wouldn't mind coming back for a visit at some point just to be able to check out more of the city. And, quite actually, I wouldn't mind going through the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum if I make it back. While country music isn't what I listen to, I still have enough sense of history to pay homage to the pioneers of the musical genre which is the most popular form of music in America today. Maybe one of these days...
As I noted in my earlier post on Smokey D's in Des Moines, the capital city of Iowa is quickly garnering a lot of attention from barbecue enthusiasts for the quality of barbecue places that have sprung up in the area over the past few years. While I can't quite put Des Moines in the same category as Kansas City, St. Louis or Memphis in regard to renown barbecue joints, my quest to find good barbecue places the city continued with a visit to Jethro's Barbecue, just west of Drake University on Forest Ave. (see map).
Jethro's is the brain child of Des Moines real estate developer Bruce Gerleman. Gerleman bought the old Pizza Hut building along Forest Ave. in 2007, and in the Spring of 2008 he opened the doors to Jethro's, named after the dim-bulb character, Jethro Bodine, in Gerleman's favorite television show, The Beverly Hillbillies. On Jethro's web site, Gerleman even came up with a story that took up after the Beverly Hillbillies were canceled in the early 70's. In that story, Jethro had grown tired of Beverly Hills and moved back east. He ended up in Des Moines, bought a 750 lb. smoker and opened his little barbecue place near Drake. Some of the original sandwiches he had to offer on the menu were named after other characters of the television program such as the Elly May, the Jed and the Mr. Drysdale.
Of course, it wasn't much more than six months after Gerleman opened Jethro's that he got a "cease and desist" letter from CBS Television, who still owned rights to the Beverly Hillbillies shows. To appease the CBS lawyers, he dropped the character names from the sandwiches, but kept the Jethro's name, complete with the strapping character in a plaid shirt, jeans with a rope belt, suspenders and boots. That didn't satisfy CBS enough, who continued to go after Gerleman by saying that using the hillbilly character in his logo was still infringing on their intellectual property.
Gerleman maintained that hillbilly character in the logo was a composite of 20 different characters conjured up by an artist he hired. While I couldn't find anywhere that the conflict had been resolved, the character in the logo now has a solid red shirt, but sans the rope belt that helped hold up the tattered jeans along with a pair of suspenders. Jethro's is still going strong, so I'm guessing CBS thought they were wasting a lot of time and money chasing after a restaurant that was somehow ripping off the Beverly Hillbillies nearly 40 years after the last show was aired on CBS - and before it went into perpetual reruns around the world, garnering CBS untold riches from a cheap form of entertainment.
Last fall, Gerleman, who also owns Splash Seafood restaurant in downtown Des Moines, opened a second Jethro's location - this one called Jethro 'n Jake's Smokehouse Steaks - in suburban Altoona near Prairie Meadows and Adventureland. According the "back story" on Jethro's web site, the Jake in the name is Jethro's bulldog (the mascot for Drake University is a bulldog). While Jethro 'n Jake's has the same barbecue menu as Jethro's original location, they also feature steaks and prime rib.
The Des Moines location for Jethro's is a laid back, quasi-sports bar that features a number of flat screen televisions throughout the restaurant. Lighted signs and memorabilia hang above the exposed wooden rafters, while many of the walls are adorned with Drake athletic pictures and posters paying homage to former stand out athletes and teams over the years.
Jethro's features a nice little outside patio eating area out behind the place which also had a couple flat screens to allow patrons to watch television while they eat or enjoy a cold drink. Both Jethro's locations feature 12 DirecTV satellite receivers so if there's a sporting event on, at least one television will be turned to it. Jethro's is a destination for fans who want to catch their favorite National Football League team.
It was mid-afternoon when I made it into Jethro's on my way to Omaha. I took a seat at the bar and looked over a menu. A television crew was just packing up when I was there and it turned out they were interviewing the manager about an ESPN contest Jethro's was participating in regarding their signature sandwich, the Adam Emmenecker. They throw a little bit of everything on the Adam Emmenecker, named after the former Drake basketball player who led the Bulldogs to the Missouri Valley championship three years ago. The sandwich, which weighs 5 pounds, features an Angus steak burger, a giant pork tenderloin, and Jethro's Texas-style brisket. And that's just the start. They then add spicy chicken tenders, fried cheese, bacon, MORE cheese and top it off with a toasted bun and a pickle spear. People voted on ESPN's web site for the best "Fanwich", a sandwich named after an athlete. (The Emmenecker got second, beaten out by a sandwich that was named after San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain at Ike's Place in San Francisco.)
Jethro's has a challenge for those who can eat a whole Adam Emmenecker sandwich in an allotted time. For a $25 dollar price, a number of people have tried to finish the Adam Emmenecker in less than 15 minutes, including The Travel Channel's"Man Vs. Food's"Adam Richman who visited Jethro's last year for the challenge. Here's a You Tube video of Richman trying to tackle the Adam Emmenecker -
Quite honestly, I didn't even know there was a "Man Vs. Food" episode on Jethro's, let alone one that featured the greater Des Moines area, until I visited Jethro's that particular day. While Richman wasn't able to finish the behemoth sandwich in under 15 minutes, a handful of people have. Just inside the front door of Jethro's is the "Hall of Fame" - pictures of the seven people (that was the total up to my visit) who have finished the Adam Emmenecker sandwich during the 15 minute time limit. (At the time of the taping of Richman's segment at Jethro's, only two people had been able to finish the sandwich. Nearly a year later, five more people had triumphed.)
Not to take anything away from those who failed to finish the Adam Emmenecker, Jethro's pays homage to those who tried with a "Hall of Shame" featuring hundreds of pictures of those who weren't up for the challenge.
Me? I wouldn't even begin to try it. Oh, maybe 30 years ago when I was younger and more stupid than I am today. It just doesn't sound appealing to me to eat a burger, some brisket, a 10 oz. deep-fried pork tenderloin, chicken tenders and all that cheese on a sandwich.
The bar at Jethro's continues the "shack" theme with what appears go be a tin culvert drainage tile that goes from floor to ceiling which also serves as the spigot holder for a number of Jethro's fine selection of draft beers. Flat screen televisions covered three sides of the culvert tile fixture.
It wasn't busy in the least when I was in Jethro's that afternoon. Knowing that this would probably be lunch and dinner for me, I decided to get a two meat combination dinner that came with two sides of my choosing. I had my choice between brisket, sliced smoked turkey, pulled chicken, smoked ham, pulled pork and smoked sausage. Brisket and pulled pork are my favorites, so I went with that combination.
For my sides, I had to get baked beans, but I was sort of torn between Jethro's hot coleslaw (I really wanted to try that, but chickened out), jalapeno creamed corn (also was going to pull the trigger on that, but didn't at the last minute), and the mac and cheese. I wussed out and got the mac and cheese.
Not long after I ordered and just in time for me to order a second beer, my barbecue platter showed up in front of me. The pulled pork was moist and had a nice smokey flavor on its own. The brisket was cut thick and was also very juicy and favorable. The baked beans - it looked like they used three or four different types of beans in the concoction - was pedestrian at best, even when I tried to kick it up a notch with one Jethro's barbecue sauces. And the mac and cheese was overly disappointing. One bite told me that it was bland and boring. In hindsight, I really wish I would have gotten the hot coleslaw.
Jethro's features five different types of barbecue sauces - their "secret" sauce that is thick and sweet, a Carolina sauce that is thin and vinegary, a Georgia mustard-based sauce that I didn't care for, and a hot barbecue sauce that featured seven different types of peppers in the mix. It was zippy, but not overpowering. (The fifth sauce - an Alabama white cream sauce - didn't look appealing to me.) Mixing some of the Jethro's Secret sauce with the hot sauce made for a nice combination to go along with the meat and the beans.
Overall, the barbecue at Jethro's was good, above average good. The meats were tasty and moist, but the sides were a little less than desirable. The combination of the two sweet and hot sauces was a great compliment to the meat giving it a nice "zippy" taste quality. Jethro's has become a favorite of many people around Des Moines and in their first year of business they garnered the "Best Barbecue in Des Moines" by the Cityview, the local free weekly newspaper. I can see why. It's a pretty cool place, even if you weren't there for the barbecue. While I wouldn't put it on par with some great barbecue joints I've eaten at in St. Louis or Kansas City, it's still very good.
My quest continues for good barbecue in Des Moines. If you have any ideas, send 'em my way!
