Road Tips

Cooper's Tavern - New York

Right next to - and attached to - the New Yorker Hotel is Cooper's Tavern, a somewhat upscale Italian steakhouse with an entrance at the corner of 35th St. and 8th Ave. (see map). Cooper's Tavern is a place that caters to tourists who stay at the New Yorker and to the locals after a concert or game over at Madison Square Garden. A couple three of the guys in our set up crew who came in early for the AES Convention went there for dinner and told us it was very good. We decided to go there for dinner one night while we were in New York City.

The executive chef at Cooper's Tavern is Julian Clauss-Ehlers, an English-born, French-trained chef who also co-owned and was the chef at Zitoune, a Moroccan restaurant in New York, as well as the former chef at the famous Monkey Bar on Manhattan's upper east side. Ehlers, as he was known before he was married, also ran the kitchen in a public house in Haddenham, England - The Green Dragon - before moving to the states to become the chef at Acacia, a former restaurant in Manhattan. He has been the chef at Cooper's Tavern since 2008 when the restaurant was reopened after extensive improvements and upgrades were made to the New Yorker.

Cooper's Tavern is sort of L-shaped with a large bar area up front and a longish dining area toward the back. Keeping with the art deco theme that is the architectural signature of the New Yorker, Cooper's Tavern has a number of art deco-style lights, with authentic art deco-style booths and tables. It was like walking back into the 30's and 40's when you went into Cooper's Tavern.

The menu that Clauss-Ehlers has come up with at Cooper's Tavern is an eclectic mix of steaks, pork chops, seafood and pasta dishes that tries to encompass what people who stay at the hotel and those coming in off the street would like to eat. The menu isn't all that extensive, but it also has Italian specialties such as veal piccata, chicken parmigiana, and a lamb shank braised in red wine and pancetta. But the guys in my company all went there for the steak and they said not only were the cuts of meat huge, they were also very good. (My company is known as big beef eaters. And when the factory guys from England and France come over, they almost exclusively eat beef.)

We sat at a large table toward the back of the restaurant and were greeted by our waiter who called himself "Johnny the Greek". Johnny the Greek was an older guy, probably well into his 60's, with a thick accent and a jovial nature. He worked his ass off for us, but at times was a little lax or slow in getting things out to us. Like drinks.

One confusing aspect of Cooper's Tavern is that they don't have a wine or beer list. We had to rely upon Johnny the Greek to try and remember what type of beers they had to offer. I asked him what kind of pale ales and he said they had Sierra Nevada. I took one of those, then found out after he brought my beer to the table that they also had Brooklyn Brewery products on tap. Brooklyn Brewery was one of the first micro-breweries on the east coast, opening in 1987. And they have one of the most eclectic listings of beer of any micro-brewery that I've come across. I've been starting to see Brooklyn beers in parts of the Midwest and I have to say their lager and their pale ale is pretty good. After finishing my Sierra Nevada pale ale, I got one of the Brooklyn lagers on tap.

I had said before I went to New York that I wanted to get an authentic New York style pizza from an authentic New York style pizza place. Not necessarily a place where you walk up and get a slice of pizza for a buck or two, but a nice, sit-down pizza joint. Well, my colleague, Ian, immediately put the kibosh on that idea asking if I were sane. "This is New York with world-class food," he chastised me. "Pizza is dull and you can get it anywhere." Obviously, Ian didn't want pizza when we were in New York.

However, Cooper's Tavern had pizza on their menu. I was overly tempted to get the margharita pizza, then you could get up to three toppings - perfect for my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. I looked around and didn't see anyone else in the restaurant get the pizza, so I couldn't see how good it looked.

Still, my colleagues who had eaten at Cooper's Tavern said the steaks were great. I figured I couldn't go wrong with that. For dinner, I ordered the filet - rare - with a beef carpaccio for my first course. Others ordered similar items, except for my colleague, Todd, who ordered something I thought about ordering before I went with the filet - the Skyscraper burger. More on that in a little bit. And quite surprisingly, Nicholas from Focal Loudspeakers - a Frenchman - ordered Cooper's Tavern's hand-battered North Atlantic cod with their oregano French fries. Well, so much for my point about European's eating steak every chance they can get.

Someone ordered some appetizers for the table. We had shrimp cocktail, calamari, oysters on the half-shell, breaded mussels and littleneck clams. All were very good with the notable exception of the clams which were sort of fishy to me. But the shrimp were large, meaty and very good. But I didn't want to gorge on the seafood appetizers because I knew I had a lot of food coming out later on.

The carpaccio was served with a topping of arugula, shaved parmesan cheese and topped off with a truffle oil. And there was a lot of carpaccio on the plate. The rare beef was tender and very flavorful. It was one of the best carpaccio plates I'd had in quite some time.

Johnny the Greek brought out my steak and it was not small. It was easily 16 ounces and cooked to a perfect rare - red in the middle with a cool temperature. A broiled tomato slice topped with seasoned bread crumbs came with the steak. Someone had ordered a couple three orders of French fries for the table because they said they were very good. The fresh oregano flakes on the fries were a great taste sensation. I'll have to try that on American fries at home.

My steak was tender and juicy with a great beef flavor. I thought about getting lemon butter capers on the top of it, but decided to go au natural and enjoy the steak as it was cooked. It was simply outstanding.

But the star of the meal was Todd's Skyscraper burger - a 12 oz. burger patty made with chopped and ground beef from Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, a wholesale meat cutting house just across the Hudson in New Jersey who also provides the steaks and chops to Cooper's Tavern. LaFrieda meats are found in over 500 restaurants in and around the New York City area. The burger was topped with onion straws, a portabello mushroom, smoked mozzarella and smoked bacon. It had a steak knife through the middle top of the bun because, quite honestly, you had to cut the thing in half just to eat it.

Here's a picture of Todd (above right), trying his best to take a bite of the huge burger. He said the burger was outstanding. He couldn't eat the whole thing, but he made a serious dent in it. I'm going to try the Skyscraper if I ever get back to Cooper's Tavern.

Nicholas from Focal proclaimed his fish and chips to be "very good". The batter they used on the fish was thick and fluffy. It did look very good and I'm not big on battered fish. But Nicholas said, "I've had great fish and chips in London and across southern England. I'd put this up against any of those, any day." We didn't know at the time that the chef at Cooper's Tavern was English.

You really don't know what you're going to get when you eat at a hotel restaurant. But Cooper's Tavern didn't have the feel of a hotel restaurant, if you catch my drift. The steaks were excellent, the appetizers and salads - including my beef carpaccio salad - were very good, and the atmosphere was wonderful. About the only drawback was the spotty service from Johnny the Greek who literally just up and left us after our food was served. Seriously, he came by and said, "That's it! I'm leaving for the night!" And another guy sort of came over later to give us our bill. But Johnny the Greek was a great guy, very personable and outgoing, offering a number of good suggestions when we ordered. So, we gave him a pass on his level of service. Cooper's Tavern was very good - surprisingly good. But if you're a restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, you have to be very good to survive.

 

 

Uncle Julio's - Lombard, IL

When I first ate at an Uncle Julio's location in Atlanta, I thought it was pretty good Mexican food (see that post here).  In doing research for that entry, I was surprised to find out that there was one in the western Chicagoland suburb of Lombard.  Since I'm in Chicago quite a bit, I knew that I wanted to go try the Uncle Julio's there at some point.  When Cindy and I were in Chicago earlier this summer, I took her there for lunch one afternoon.  

Although Uncle Julio's is a chain of now 16 locations, it's only found in five markets -  their home base of Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington D.C., South Florida, Atlanta and now two in the Chicago area including a new one in the city on North Ave. (see map).  The Lombard location is located in the Fountain Square shopping and entertainment area, in between Yorktown Center mall and the OakBrook Center mall (see map).  

Cindy had wanted to stop at Yorktown to look for some shoes at Von Maur and it was getting to the point that we either had to eat lunch or start thinking about dinner.  We had a lot of options for lunch in the area, but then I remembered that Uncle Julio's was just down the road.  I said, "Do you want Mexican for lunch?"  She said that was fine and we got to Uncle Julio's from Yorktown in less than five minutes.  

It was a beautiful afternoon, one of the best days of the summer, and there was next to no one in the Mexican hacienda-style dining room.  We had our choice and, of course, we decided to sit outside on the veranda.  

 The outdoor veranda had rolled up windscreens and heaters to keep the heat inside during the cooler days and evenings, but it certainly wasn't needed that particular day.  The hostess left off menus with us and later a waiter came by with chips and salsa.

The chips at Uncle Julio's are made fresh and in-house with their unique automatic tortilla maker.  They take flour balls and stick them in the top of the machine.  They're flattened, cooked and then cooled as they slide down a spiral pathway to the bottom.  While it takes the romance out of the way handmade tortillas are made, they can usually make a dozen of them in a couple minutes.  For a high traffic place like Uncle Julio's, that's a big time and money saver.

Our waitress came out and immediately began to pitch us on the lunch specials, margaritas, appetizers and some other signature items Uncle Julio's has to offer.  It was sort of a quick and hard sell on some items, but we did sign up for margaritas as it was a perfect margarita day.  

Knowing that we would be eating somewhere in downtown Chicago that evening, I didn't want to load up on food.  They had fish tacos on their lunch menu - the good kind where they aren't breaded.  It was not only a good day for a margarita (I downed the first one in about five minutes), but a warm Summer day is the perfect time for grilled fish tacos.

Cindy was torn between a couple things - one of the featured specials was "Camarones a la Parilla", basically shrimp fajitas.  The other thing she was looking at was something that caught my eye right off the bat, the El Campo, that allowed you to choose from either beef or chicken crispy taco and an enchilada with either beef, chicken or cheese.  Following my lead, she took the seafood route and went with the shrimp fajitas.

Like most Mexican food, it didn't take long to get the food to our table.  My fish tacos came with a spicy avocado sauce on the side, along with shredded red cabbage and black beans.  That was a nice touch, I thought.  Most fish tacos will come with regular cabbage and you usually get refried beans at most Mexican restaurants rather than black beans.  The fish was fresh, as were the tortilla shells.  With a little of the avocado sauce and some of the red cabbage, the fish tacos were delicious.  

Cindy was amazed at the amount of shrimp that she got with her meal.  She said, "Oh, my God!  There's like a pound of shrimp here!  I won't be able to eat all this!"  She made a significant dent in the pile of shrimp, however, and let me finish off what she had left.  The shrimp were grilled with a sort of cumin, chili spice that gave them a little bit of a spicy bite to their taste.  Actually, they were damn good.  

While we're not big on chains, I don't know if I can really classify Uncle Julio's as a "national" chain.  It's more of a local chain that happens to be in five areas of the U.S.   Like the one in Atlanta, the food was good - surprisingly good.  I thought the service was a little pushy toward some items on the menu - probably high profit products for them - but, overall, the experiece we had at Uncle Julio's was overly favorable.  While it's still more of an Americanized-Mexican restaurant, they do have some authentic Mexican dishes throughout their menu.  Uncle Julio's is a suitable Mexican restaurant if you want a little better food with a good menu selection.

Blanc Burgers + Bottles - Leawood, KS

I've been wanting to stop at Blanc Burgers + Bottles for quite sometime, ever since I first read about the place in a local Kansas City magazine a couple years ago.  They're known for not only their delectable gourmet burgers, but for their large and eclectic selection of beer and wine.  On a recent trip to K.C., I went to the south Kansas City Blanc Burgers location in the Mission Farms shopping area of suburban Leawood (see map).

Actually, the Blanc Burgers location in Leawood is one of three locations for Blanc Burgers.  The original location opened in Westport in 2008 when chef Josh Eans and three investors opened the doors.  The road Eans took to becoming a chef was not like other chefs.  First of all, he had no experience working in a restaurant growing up.  Many chefs either started out working in a restaurant or their family was in the restaurant business.  Eans had an academic scholarship to Arizona State University with hopes of becoming a doctor down the line, but dropped out after a year and moved back to Kansas City to re-evaluate his life.  It was during this time back in Kansas City when he met his wife-to-be, Abbey-Jo.  

(Josh Eans pictured at right) 

Living in a rental house in suburban Kansas City, Josh and Abbey-Jo talked about what they would like to do with their lives.  They talked about owning a restaurant and Abbey-Jo came up with the idea of going to culinary school together.  Josh and Abbey-Jo enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu/Scottsdale Culinary Academy in Arizona.  After graduating from there, Josh first worked at the Sea Island Resort in Georgia before getting a job as a line cook apprentice at Seeger's, a now-closed upscale restaurant in Atlanta.

Now married and expecting their first child, Josh and Abbey-Jo decided that back home in Kansas City would be a good place to raise a kid, so they moved back to the area.  Josh took a job on the line at the upscale 40 Sardines restaurant (which, too, is now closed).   

During his time at 40 Sardines, Josh met Ernesto Peralta, Jr. (pictured at left) who was a bartender for the upscale Capital Grille in Kansas City.  Peralta and his wife, Jennifer Price, were looking to do their own restaurant/bar and recruited Eans as a consultant in the project.  A co-worker with Peralta, Eddie Crane, was also one of the partners of the new restaurant which eventually became The Drop, an acclaimed bistro near the Westport area of Kansas City, MO.  Eans became the chef at The Drop as well as their sister restaurant, Martini Corner.  

As The Drop was developing into a new dining destination for foodies across the Kansas City area, Eans, Peralta and his wife, as well as David McMullin came up with the Blanc Burgers concept, seeing that there was a void in the market place for upscale burgers.  The four formed their own restaurant company, The Circle Restaurant Group.   

Josh Eans moved from The Drop to Blanc Burgers + Bottles to become the executive chef.  The first Blanc Burgers opened in the Westport area in March of 2008.  It was an immediate hit with people with their burgers made from corn/grain/alfalfa fed beef from California (the group found that customers didn't care for the grass-fed Kansas beef that was suddenly becoming the rage across the Midwest for natural beef foods).  The second location in Leawood opened in 2009 and a third location opened in January of this year up in Omaha. The group opened a more downscale burger joint in Lee's Summit, MO called B2, but it closed up after about a year in business.  It appears the upscale burger is what people want.  So much so that the group closed down their original Westport location and moved to a much larger building in the Country Club Plaza area in 2010.  

In addition to using natural beef in all their burgers, Blanc Burgers uses locally baked brioche buns, as well as locally grown produce and herbs.  Plus they make their own ketchup and their own pickles.  The one thing that will set Eans off quicker than anything is when a customer asks for store-bought bottled ketchup instead of his homemade condiment.  

The lunch rush had subsided when I made my first visit to Blanc Burgers.  I had my choice of sitting out on their patio as it was a lovely early fall day in Kansas City, or their narrow, but well-lit dining area, or at the bar.  The selection of bottles - wine, beer, liquor and pop -  behind the bar was intriguing to me, so I opted for a seat there.  The very personable and helpful bartender greeted me, gave me a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  The chalkboard behind the bar featured a number of beers and natural soda pops that Blanc Burgers rotates in and out on a seasonal basis.  One of my favorite Oktoberfest beers is Bob's 47 from the local Kansas City brewery, Boulevard.  They had just gotten them in and I ordered one of those.  

Bright and white is the interior design of the Blanc Burgers. The main walls are white as are the chairs and table tops.  Contemporary lighting with white lamp shades hung low from the ceiling.  Peralta's wife, Jenifer, came up with the color concept for Blanc, which, of course, means white in French.  

Blanc Burgers + Bottles has a very impressive roster of beers to choose from.   I was very surprised to see that they featured Capital Brewing Company's Supper Club beer - a beer you don't find that far away from their brewery just outside of Madison, WI.  It turned out that they were out of it that day or I would have gotten one just to have one.  Supper Club is one of my all-time favorite beers.  

And even though I'm not a pop drinker any longer, I was equally impressed with the list of soda pops Blanc Burgers had to offer.  Many of them were eclectic and made from natural ingredients.   They had a Thai basil and clove soda pop, as well as sarsaparilla, birch beer pop, and lemon-lime 7 up.  They also had bottles of Mexican Coca-Cola, the more sweet - and some say better tasting - Coca-Cola.  

The burger menu was intriguing.  Topping the list was an American Kobe beef burger served with a mustard/mayo aioli sauce, truffle butter and topped with watercress greens on a salt and pepper brioche bun.  They have the "Classic" burger that they top with aged white cheddar, lettuce, tomato and a red onion slice along with their homemade pickles, ketchup and mustard and served on a sesame-seed bun.  They also had the "Oscar" burger that is basically the same thing as a steak Oscar, only on a bun.  The take the American Kobe beef and top it with poached blue crab, asparagus and bernaise aioli, and serve it on a rosemary brioche bun.

In addition to the burgers on the menu, Blanc Burgers also features a ground pork burger, a chicken sandwich, a grilled mahi-mahi sandwich and a couple of vegetarian burgers.  They also feature a small list of salads and appetizers, as well as a number of handful of sides, such as hand-cut French fries, truffle fries, sweet potato fries and Boulevard beer-battered onion rings.  

Two burgers that caught my eye were the "Au Poivre" burger - a cracked black pepper encrusted burger, topped with a creamy green peppercorn sauce, grilled onions and watercress, then served on a salt and pepper brioche.  The other one - the "Bison" - featured a lean bison burger topped with a fried egg along with peppadew jam, peppadew havarti cheese, red onion, mayo and lettuce on a four seed brioche bun.  Oh man - both sounded wonderful.    

As I said, the bartender was very personable and was eager to answer any questions for me.  I told him that I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted and he immediately stopped me.  "The Au Poivre burger is, hands down, my favorite on the menu."  

I said, "That was easy.  The Au Poivre is one that I was looking at."  

He asked what the other ones were and I said, "Oh, just the Bison burger."  

"The Bison burger is very good, too," he said.  "But I just sort of like that little pepper 'pop' in my mouth with the Au Poivre."  

He asked if I wanted any sides and the Boulevard onion rings looked intriguing.  "But I couldn't finish a whole order," I told him.

The bartender immediately replied, "I'll put in a half-order for you.  How about that?"

Sold! 

When the burger came out, it looked scrumptious.  The burger had an ample amount of cracked peppercorns around it, the green peppercorn sauce wasn't drenched over the top, but rather subdued under the burger patty.  And the salt and pepper brioche was light and spongy.  From the first bite, I knew I had a winner.  The peppery taste of the burger was just exquisite.  The bun turned out to be a little chewy, but still light enough not to be a detriment to the overall taste.  I tried some of the homemade ketchup and it was sweet and had a more strong taste than regular ketchup.  It was very good. 

The onion rings were also very good.  The Boulevard beer batter was flavorful and flaky.  They were very, very good.  It was a tough lunch to beat.

After I finished up, my bartender asked, "So, how did you like the burger?"

I said, "Awesome!"

He said, "Yeah, it is, isn't it?  I just love all that pepper taste in my mouth with every bite I take."  

The burger at Blanc Burgers + Bottles was outstanding.  The beef was overly flavorful, even without the cracked pepper it in.  The natural taste of everything from the toppings to the beef to the bun was simply superb.  Josh Eans is looking to expand throughout the Midwest and I'm hoping that at some point he'll look at expanding into Iowa so Blanc Burgers will be closer to me than Omaha or Kansas City.  The burgers are a little more expensive than your regular burger joint, but not by much compared to chain restaurants.  And the burger is a helluva lot better.  Blanc Burgers is going to get a strong consideration when I do my Best Burgers List in 2012.  

 

 

Los Laureles - Des Moines

On a trip home one Friday a few weeks back, I found myself in Des Moines and a hankering for Mexican food. One place that I'd never been to, but had known about for over 10 years is Los Laureles on the east side of Des Moines, near the Iowa State Capitol building (see map). I popped in for a quick lunch around 1:30 that one afternoon.

Los Laureles is in the middle of a number of Mexican shops and restaurants in the East Grand and East 15th Street area of Des Moines. It is set back in a little strip mall that was built a number of years ago after the notorious 1536 adult movie theater was closed and the building razed. Los Laureles is also right across the street from what was the original location of Raul's Mexican restaurant, one of my all-time favorite places to get Mexican food in Des Moines. (Raul's has since reopened in West Des Moines. To see my entry on that, click here.)

The owner of Los Laureles, which roughly translates into "The flower wreaths", is Eufracio Mayorga. Little information is available on Mr. Mayorga other than he also owned a Los Laureles in Mason City, IA at one time. According to a number of Internet sites that list Los Laureles, the restaurant is famous for their huge portions, yet low prices, of authentic Mexican food.

I parked around the back of the little mall and went in to get a seat at Los Laureles. The girl behind the cash register told me I could sit anywhere and I took a seat in a booth near the front door. The only problem was that there was absolutely no padding on the seat and I literally sat on a board poking through the vinyl. I got up and moved to the other side of the booth and the seat on that side was unlevel and started to pop up in the back. I had to find a perfect balance so that I could sit there comfortably enough without tipping the seat over. I could have gotten up and gone to a different booth, but the rest of the ones in the place either had people sitting in them already, or weren't cleaned off from the lunch rush. There were a number of larger tables, but I would have felt funny sitting by myself at a table for six.

I had been seated - finally comfortably - for less than a minute when a waiter came and gave me a menu and asked if I wanted something to drink. Los Laureles is known for their margaritas, but I still had a little bit of a drive ahead of me. I knew I could have a couple beers and be able to navigate home OK, so I ordered up a bottle of Sol. He brought back the Sol and asked me if I was ready to order. The menu was pretty broad and had a number of truly authentic Mexican dishes to choose from. I told him I wasn't ready and he said he'd come back. That was a mistake.

Another waiter brought a basket of chips and three different types of salsa. The chips were fresh and the regular salsa had a nice little bite to it. The green tomatillo salsa was even a little more spicy and had great flavor. The third salsa had an even more spicy smoky chipotle taste to it. That one got my attention. The first Sol that I had went down pretty fast trying to stave off the burn from the hottest of the three salsas.

When I finally figured out that I wanted to get the shredded chimichanga dinner with a pork al pastor taco for a side, the eager waiter was nowhere in sight. I was really needing another beer to help wash away the spicy taste going on in my mouth. It was about another 10 minutes before another waiter finally came over and got my order.

Like most Mexican food places, the food didn't take long to get to me. They certainly weren't kidding about the size of the portions of the food at Los Laureles. There was a lot of food in front of me. The chimichanga was drizzled with white Mexican cheese. A large amount of refried beans and rice were on the plate as well as a very good guacamole salad that went well as a topping on the chimichanga.

The chimichanga was thin, but full of a very zestful tasting shredded beef. I'm guessing by the deep lines on the outer shell of the chimichanga that they put it in a holder and deep fried it that way. Overall, the chimichanga was very good.

But the highlight of the meal for me was the single pork al pastor taco that I got. Chopped onions and fresh cilantro topped the pork chunks on the small homemade taco shells. Surprisingly, and somewhat confusingly, it was also served with radish slices. I'm not big on radishes, so I didn't add those to the taco. But I did squeeze a little lime juice on the taco and added some of the green tomatillo salsa. The taco was simply outstanding. I really liked the chimichanga, but I wished afterward that I would have gotten three of the small pork tacos. Next time.

Once again, I was ready to get another beer and my waiter - the one who took my food order - was nowhere in sight. I eventually got full, leaving some food still on my plate, then decided I'd had enough and was ready to go. I waited for my bill over five minutes after I was done and I finally got up and headed to the front counter to pay. Hopefully, my waiter would show up and give me my bill. It turned out that he had been up front talking to some lady and was more interested in carrying on the conversation with her than taking care of me. He only got a $2 dollar tip on a $20 buck lunch.

The food at Los Laureles was very good, the seating was a little tired and the service was so-so. I can look past a lot of things if the food is good and since it was, it won't sour me for a return visit to Los Laureles at some point. There are a ton of Mexican restaurants in the greater Des Moines area and Los Laureles is one of the best.

Iowa's Best Burger Cafe - Kellogg, IA

At exit 173 off of Interstate 80 through Iowa is a little place with a very audacious name - Iowa's Best Burger Cafe.  It's part restaurant, part gas station, part convenience store and it also has a campground just to the east of the building.  It had been years since I'd had a burger from Iowa's Best Burger Cafe, so on a trip down I-80 a few weeks ago I decided to stop in and see how their burger stacks up against some I'd had in recent times.  

First of all, let me give you a little history and a disclosure about the gas station.  I grew up about 1.5 miles away from the place, as the crow flies.  When I was younger - as in grade school age - I would ride my bike out the station and just hang out watching the cars come and go, wondering where the people were from, where they were going.  I was envious of those people going east or west along I-80 and dreaming of traveling to someplace exotic beyond the borders of Jasper County.  Like Davenport or Omaha - exotic places like that.  Well, they were exotic to a 10-year-old kid who developed a bad case of wanderlust from reading encyclopedias and National Geographic's.  

The original gas station - a DX station - was opened in the mid-60's a couple three years after I-80 came through.  The first owner was a local garage owner, Lysle White (it was pronounced Lyle, but we used to joke around by calling him Ly-sell), and his wife, Nadine.  Lysle was a short, thin, white haired man who had some disorder where he shook all the time (Shakey was also a nickname many gave him).  Nadine was a portly woman who had a quick laugh and definitely wore the pants in the family.  After a couple years of going out to watch the cars come and go, Lysle put me to work doing menial jobs around the place, from washing windows on cars to picking up trash.  He'd pay me in pop and Slim Jim's because it was the law that you had to be 14 years old to work at an establishment along the interstate (or so he told me at the time).  Lysle told me one time, "When you turn 14, I'm going to really put you to work!"

By the time I got to 14, other interests in life had come to the forefront and it had been quite sometime since I'd spent an afternoon at the old White's DX station just off Interstate 80.  

Through the years, a number of people owned the place after the White's passed away.  I remember that an old neighbor when I was growing up by the name of Clinton (Biff) Gifford owned it for a while, calling the place Kellduff, a combination of the two towns the exit served - Kellogg and Killduff.  But I had completely lost track of who the owners were after Biff sold the business.  

I got off exit 173 and pulled into the parking lot of the place around 1:30 on a sunny afternoon (see map).  I went inside and it hadn't changed much - if any - from the last time I'd been in the place a number of years ago.  I couldn't remember the last time I was in there, but it had to be over six or seven years ago.  I don't get back to Kellogg all that often since my father passed away in 2003.  And if I do go, I'm there for a short time to see my sister and brother-in-law who now live in the house where we grew up.  

When I walked up to the counter, there was a large guy with a very familiar face taking the orders and working the cash register.  It was Connie Van Maaren, an old neighbor who grew up about a half mile away from our family.  Connie was older than me, closer to the age of my two oldest sisters, and had built a house just down the road and just over our property line about 40 years ago.  I recognized him and reintroduced myself to him.  He shook my hand and he said, "Boy, if you wouldn't have said who you were, I wouldn't have recognized you!"  We figured it was probably 30 years or more since we'd last seen each other.  

I asked him if he owned the place and he said, "No, I just work here.  Or I should say, they work me!"  He had worked at Maytag for years and had lost his job when they closed up the plants in Newton a few years ago.  He said, "I was lucky, I had enough time in so I was able to retire, but I still do things like this to keep me busy." 

Connie told me the owners of the place were Rick and Diane Wenndt who bought the place back in 1987.  The Wenndt's built a house across the road from the gas station and then put in a small restaurant with burgers and tenderloins, along with ice cream.  They also bought the land just to the east of the station and put in a pretty nice little RV/tent campground.  

The menu at Iowa's Best Burger Cafe is pretty basic with, of course, burgers, homemade tenderloins, chicken sandwiches and their homemade barbecue beef sandwiches.  They also have something called the Samson which is a quadruple cheeseburger (below left).  I understand that if you eat the whole thing in one sitting they will give you a t-shirt commemorating the event.  In addition to the food, Iowa's Best Burger Cafe also has a number of flavors of ice cream.  

I ordered up a double cheeseburger from Connie.  He said that fries and cole slaw come with the burger meal, but I passed on all that.  I just wanted a burger.  The way Iowa's Best Burger Cafe cooks their burgers is on a flame-broiled oven with a rotating rack.  I've had a number of burgers cooked this way and it's a no-frills, quick and efficient way to fully cook a burger on both sides with the juices dripping onto the lower fire and causing flare-ups that help enhance the taste of the burger.  Above right is Diane Wenndt pulling a burger patty off of the broiler.  She put my double cheeseburger in a foam container and handed it to me over the counter.     

I thanked Connie for the burger and told him it was good to catch up with him.  I went out to my car to see if Iowa's Best Burger Cafe actually had a the best burger in Iowa.

Although the burger patties start out frozen, they're thoroughly cooked with the flame broiler.  The cheese was melting on the burger patties as I pulled it out of the container.  A large amount of fresh veggies - lettuce, tomato and onions - were on top of the burger.  Actually, there was almost too much lettuce on top.  But the burger, itself, had a very good taste to it.  The bun was moist and helped with the overall taste of the burger.  While the burger was very good, I certainly can't call it the best burger in Iowa.  There are others I would certainly say are better.  But the one at Iowa's Best Burger Cafe could end up on as an honorable mention on my Best Burgers list when I update it in 2012.  It was, indeed, a very good burger.

 

As the name of this blog implies, I'm here to give you tips on out of the way places where you can get some pretty good food.  Although Iowa's Best Burger Cafe is not quite off the beaten path, it offers an alternative to the fast food chains for a very good and very quick burger.  Little places like Iowa's Best Burger Cafe don't stay in business for nearly 25 years by having mediocre food.  And the Wenndt's put their reputation on the line everyday with their very presumptuous name for their little burger place. So you've got to admire them for persevering and keeping it going.  It's a good burger.  Stop in and try one sometime.  

New Yorker Hotel - New York

I was back in New York last month for the 131st Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention at the Jacob Javits Center along the Hudson River in the Big Apple. When I was in New York four years ago we stayed at the stately Roosevelt Hotel (see that entry here). While it was in the heart of midtown Manhattan, the Roosevelt was a 15 minute cab ride to the convention center. Two years ago, my colleague Simon got smart and booked the guys in our company who attended AES in New York that year at the venerable New Yorker Hotel, a 15 minute walk to the Javits Center in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood on the west side (see map). This year, he booked our company into the New Yorker again.

The New Yorker is steeped in history. The hotel was built over a two year period just before the Great Depression. Developed and built by Garment Center owner Mack Kanner, the art deco building was designed by the architecture company of Sugarman and Berger and was one of the first designs of its kind in New York City. After the New Yorker opened up in January of 1930, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building opened a few months later cementing the art deco style of architecture in Manhattan.

In its day, the New Yorker was something else. It was one of the largest hotels in the world with 2500 rooms. It featured its own power plant of coal-fired steam boilers and generators that provided heat and direct current power throughout the building. In fact, the hotel was one of the few places in New York City that still had power during the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. In 1969, the hotel changed its power system from direct current to alternating current. (I'm guessing they had to provide power adapters to patrons who used items such as electric razors and the like.) And something very ironic about the New Yorker - the man who invented alternating electric current, Nikola Tesla, lived in suite 3327 in the New Yorker for a number of years up until his death in 1943.

The New Yorker Hotel was classy, stately and THE place to stay in Manhattan in the 30's, 40's and 50's. Their bellboys were legendary, described as being as "snappy looking as West Pointers" (meaning they looked like Army cadets). The most celebrated of the New Yorker bellboys was Johnny Roventini, famous for his legendary signature phrase "Call for Phil-lip Morrr-orr-resss!" If you're under the age of 60, you probably don't remember the Philip Morris commercials that ended with the diminutive Roventini walking through the lobby at the New Yorker calling out in his distinctive high-pitched voice for Philip Morris. I couldn't find a particular commercial, but I did find a sort of obnoxious underground music video with Roventini that says the familiar catch phrase again and again. After about 10 seconds of watching the video, you get an idea of what he sounded like.

Before, during and after World War II, the New Yorker was the place to see and be seen. Big Bands such as those fronted by Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman played in the large ballroom at the New Yorker. Movie actors, politicians, celebrities, athletes and society's elite all stayed and/or played at the New Yorker. The New Yorker was a magic name to many who dreamed about going to New York to rub elbows with the stars.

At its height, the New Yorker had five restaurants, ten private dining "salons" all tended to by 35 chefs. It housed the world's largest barbershop with over 40 chairs and 20 manicurists. They employed close to 100 "telephone girls" (they weren't called operators at the New Yorker) and 150 laundry staff. Their web site says that as much as 350,000 pieces of laundry would be washed on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, New York's declining stature and changing economy caused the New Yorker to decay. It was sold many times beginning in the early 50's, it was owned by the Hilton corporation a couple times, and had fallen into bankruptcy a like number of times. In 1972, after years of declining guest numbers and the advent of newer and more modern hotels being built in New York City, the Hilton corporation closed the New Yorker. It sat empty for nearly three years as many proposed projects to either resurrect the hotel or turn it into either a hospital or low income housing were bandied about. Finally in 1975, the Unification Church bought the New Yorker and turned much of the 42-story building into use for its church members.

Nearly 20 years later, the Unification Church decided to turn part of the building into a hotel again and the New Yorker Hotel Management Company was formed to take over operation of the hotel. Initially, only 178 rooms were available for hotel use. But after two extensive remodeling projects totaling nearly $100 million dollars in capital improvements which were finally completed in February of 2009, the hotel boasts 912 rooms and two large ballrooms totaling 33,000 square feet. They also restored the art deco architecture and charm the New Yorker possessed in its golden age.

(Right - The lobby at the New Yorker Hotel with its art deco chandelier and 1930's feel.)

The rooms at the New Yorker, however, were still pretty small compared to much newer hotels you can find virtually anywhere. But you did get a pretty good view of the city if you were up pretty high. Below left is a view out my hotel window. The Empire State Building is located to the right of the building in the foreground.

The New Yorker is close to a number of major attractions in New York City. Madison Square Garden (above right) is located a block down the street and is fully visible from the front side of the New Yorker. Macy's flagship department store is located down the street on 34th St., as is the Empire State Building. Penn Station, the busiest train station in North America, is located underground, caddy-cornered from the New Yorker. The New York Times is located up 8th Ave., and the main post office (zip code 10001) in New York is a block to the south, across the street from Madison Square Garden. Times Square is a short walk - a block over on 7th Ave. and 8 blocks up through the Fashion District to 42nd St.

The New Yorker boasts a couple restaurants - The Cooper's Tavern (look for my take on that place in an upcoming Road Tips entry) - and the Tic Toc Diner coffee shop (pictured above). New York is proliferated with diners and coffee shops that cater primarily to the breakfast and lunch crowds in Manhattan. The Tic Toc Diner has been renovated with art deco architecture with neon lighting inside and out. Actually, the breakfasts weren't bad - I had French toast one day and an omelet another time, and while the meals weren't spectacular, they were certainly good enough to get the day going.

Other than the rooms being small, the elevators being woefully slow (and packed) on the weekends, and the showers having trouble keeping a regulated temperature (they'd turn cold, then hot, then back again), the New Yorker was a pretty nice place to stay. It is centrally located for shopping, entertainment, restaurants and conventions. The service staff was friendly and helpful. The hotel had a very nice gift shop in the basement. (I was able to get an FDNY t-shirt for one of our neighbors and a really nice New York sweat shirt for Cindy at a very reasonable price.) The rooms offer good views of the city and beyond, and you can't beat the history or the architecture in the building. I'm getting a little bit more into the pro audio side of the business these days and I'm hoping that I get to go back to AES in a couple years. I'm sure that I'll be back at the New Yorker if I do get to go.

Johnny's Hickory House Bar-B-Que - Mission, KS

Thanks to one of my dealers in the Kansas City area who mentioned Johnny's Hickory House Bar-B-Que in passing during a conversation we had about barbecue caterers in the area, I had the pleasure of trying the place out on a recent visit to the arguable barbecue capital of the world. It's always great to find new barbecue places in and around Kansas City and I was eager to give Johnny's a try, considering I'd never heard of the place before.

The origins of Johnny's Bar-B-Que begins in 1977 in the southwest Kansas City suburb of Olathe when a young Johnny White opened his first restaurant. He ran it for five years before selling it. He decided to open a new location in a building on Broadmoor Ave. in Shawnee Mission (see map). That location is still going strong today. Johnny's Bar-B-Que also has a location back out in Olathe (see map).

It also turns out that Johnny's Bar-B-Que was featured on the Food Network program, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and host Guy Fieri visited the restaurant in early 2010 as part of his show on Kansas City barbecue restaurants. Here's the segment on Johnny's from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives -

Quite honestly, I didn't know that Fieri was there until I started doing research on Johnny's for Road Tips. Evidently, there is a big signed poster of Fieri and a "wall tag" that Fieri painted on the wall at Johnny's. I completely missed both on my visit there. But, then again, my wife says that I'm not a very observant person.

I programmed in my GPS to take me north to Shawnee Mission - which, in itself, it completely confusing to me as I hear people in K.C. refer to Shawnee, Mission or Shawnee Mission. But there is no reference to Shawnee Mission on my GPS which then made me have it search for Johnny's Bar-B-Que, which it immediately found. It turns out that Shawnee Mission is an area of towns on the Kansas side of the border mainly between Kansas City, KS and Overland Park. Mission is the name of the town that Johnny's is in. Johnny's is a little tough to find in that it's nestled back off Johnson Drive at Metcalf. I have driven by Johnny's Bar-B-Que for years without knowing it was even there. (Once again, back to what my wife says about being observant.)

The parking lot of Johnny's is behind the building off of Broadmoor. It was just past 7 p.m. when I got there and there weren't a lot of cars in the lot. Good, it wasn't packed, so getting a table would be easy. I went into the building and came upon the front counter area where hundreds of bottles of barbecue sauce from around the nation were on display along with some articles on Johnny's from over the years. The lady who was waiting tables told me I could sit anywhere I like and I took a seat in a booth in the corner just inside the dining room.

The dining area is brightly lit with a handful of televisions around the room. A large number of antique barn stars were on the walls. Booths bordered the dining room at Johnny's Bar-B-Que with a handful of four and six seater tables in the middle. The waitress gave me a menu and took my order for a beer.

The menu at Johnny's Bar-B-Que is not unlike many others around the Kansas City area. They feature burnt ends - when they're available. I'm not a big fan of burnt ends, but some people consider them a delicacy. Of course, they have have ribs, barbecued chicken, beef brisket, ham and pulled pork, all smoked in Johnny White's huge self-designed and homemade in-house smoke room. The sides at Johnny's include baked beans, mac and cheese wedges (whatever that is), cole slaw, onion rings and french fries - or you can get "frings" which is a half order of fries and a half order of onion rings.

I always like to get the combinations when I go to a barbecue joint, especially a new one for me. Johnny's offered a two-meat dinner where you had your choice between brisket, pulled pork, ham, sausage, turkey or chicken. But it didn't offer anything like a half or quarter slab of ribs in the combo. I really wanted to try some of the brisket and some of the ribs. Then I looked over and saw that you could "add a rib" to your meal for $2.99. I figured that I'd get the pulled pork and brisket, then get three pork ribs to go along with the meat. I ordered up a side of baked beans and a side of cole slaw.

When the waitress brought the food to the table, I knew I'd made a mistake in regard to the ribs. The pork ribs were huge! Plus the fact that the portions of the brisket and the pulled pork were generous, as well. Then, the sides were in pretty good sized serving cups, plus there were fries AND white bread slices served with the meal. The picture of the pork rib (above right) is after I'd taken a couple bites off the end of it. They were big, meaty, slathered with sauce and very good.

The brisket was lean, sliced thin and also very good. The pulled pork was OK - above average - but not as good as the ribs or brisket. The cole slaw, huh uh. I had a bite and it was pretty bland. Same with the fries. Nothing special there. The baked beans were very good, however. And even though they didn't really need it, I still added some barbecue sauce to them. I guess Johnny's has a couple three barbecue sauces, but only one was made available to me at the table. But that's OK - I was more than stuffed by the time I figured I could have asked for different sauces.

Overall, I'd have to say Johnny's Bar-B-Que was very good - a pleasant surprise to say the least. That was a lot of food for about $21 bucks plus a couple three beers. Next time I'll know not to order three ribs, but maybe only one. Still, there are dozens of barbecue places in the Kansas City area and I know I've only scraped the surface of the ones that are around. I found a couple others that were featured in the "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show that I'll have to try on future visits. Hopefully, they will all be as good as Johnny's Bar-B-Que is.

A Return to Vito and Nick's - Chicago

I've got to do a Best Pizza list of pizza places, similar to my Best Burgers list that is still one of the most popular entries on Road Tips.  If I ever do a Best Pizza list, Vito and Nick's on the south side of Chicago would be in my top three.  When Cindy and I were in Chicago on our extended weekend this past summer, we met up with my niece, Amanda, who was in town for business.  Although we were downtown and Amanda was staying on the far south side, we decided to get together at Vito and Nick's to expose Amanda to world-class pizza. 

I first wrote about my visit to Vito and Nick's over three years ago in this entry on Road Tips.  I also wrote this entry from early 2009 that included a video when the Food Network's Guy Fieri visited a couple three years ago.  That entry was after I took Cindy to Vito and Nick's for the first time.  The pizza that night wasn't as good as my first visit, but the service that evening was a lot better than the service I received on my initial visit.  

It turned out on my first visit to the older waitress I had dealing with me was Lee Musso, also affectionately known to the thousands who have gone to Vito and Nick's over the years as "Aunt Lee".   Lee Musso is the sister of the late Nick Barraco, the longtime owner of Vito and Nick's, and the daughter of original founder Vito Barraco.  Stooped over and still waiting tables after decades of working in the family restaurant, after I found out who she was, I quickly gave her a pass for the poor service I received from her on my first visit.  

It was a 30 plus minute ride out to Vito and Nick's on south Pulaski (see map) from our hotel in downtown Chicago.  If it hadn't been for the fact that Amanda was in town and was willing to drive 30 minutes up from the far south side we probably wouldn't have ventured out to Vito and Nick's that evening.  But I love to turn people on to great places that we've visited in the past and this was going to be a treat for not only Amanda, but for Cindy and me, as well.  

Amanda had just pulled up in the parking lot as we got there and we all went in.  There was no wait, thankfully, for that Thursday evening.  We took a booth along the wall and looked quickly at the menus knowing full well that we were going to get a beer.  Also, thankfully, we had a younger waitress help us out even though Aunt Lee was moving slowly about the dining area.  Nothing against Aunt Lee, she's just a little slow.  But, God love her, she's may be slow, but she's still moving.  

We decided to get a couple large pizzas - a sausage, pepperoni and mushroom, primarily for Amanda and me; and a sausage, pepperoni and garlic pizza primarily for Cindy.  Although, Amanda and I both reserved the right to grab some slices of the pizza.  I ordered a Bud Light, then I remembered that Vito and Nick's had Old Style on tap for something like $1.50 a glass.  The waitress said, "Why don't you just get a pitcher?  It's five bucks and you'll get more beer."  She must have known that I was going to drink more than one beer.

The pizza came out and we were ready to dig in.  Above left is the sausage/pepperoni/mushroom pizza, above right is the sausage/pepperoni/garlic pizza.  Cindy couldn't contain herself and took one of the corner pieces of the second pizza before I could get a snapshot.  The thin crust pizza was cut into party cuts and had that great consistency of not too brittle, yet not too soggy.  

Here's Amanda thoroughly enjoying a slice of Vito and Nick's pizza.  She was ecstatic about two minutes into the meal.  "This is AWESOME pizza, you guys," she exclaimed.  "Thanks so much for meeting me here!" 

The sausage at Vito and Nick's is top notch with a little bit of a fennel taste and a little bit of a spicy bite to it.  The garlic was strong, but it didn't take away from the overall taste of the pizza. The combination of the toppings, caramelized cheese and Vito and Nick's homemade pizza sauce makes their pizzas some of the best I've ever had. 

We couldn't finish both of the pizzas, but we made considerable dents in both of them.  We were amazed at how much we did eat between three people. But much like Salerno's on Grand in downtown Chicago, the pizza is so great that you just can't stop eating.  Cindy thinks it's the cheese they use at both Vito and Nick's and Salerno's that makes it taste so wonderful.  

Here's a picture of the kitchen area with Aunt Lee in the foreground.  This kitchen has produced tens of thousands - no, make that HUNDREDS of thousands of pizzas over the years.  The old gas ovens are completely seasoned and that is a big plus in the taste of each and every pizza that comes out this kitchen.

We've found that it's best to go to Vito and Nick's when it's not too busy.  While the wait for a table on the weekend can be over an hour, during the week it's not too bad to get in and get seated.  The pizza is consistently better when they aren't as busy.  As I said, this is world-class pizza and I'm really glad my niece got to enjoy it and report back to her husband, my sister and brother-in-law and her friends what they were missing out on.   If you truly love pizza and you're ever in the Chicago area, I cannot recommend Vito and Nick's strongly enough.   It's a wonderful treat to eat at Vito and Nick's.

Weber Grill - Indianapolis

One of the surprises we came across in Indianapolis during the CEDIA Expo was that they now had a Weber Grill restaurant that was about a half a city block from our hotel.  I've written about the Weber Grill restaurants in the Chicago area here, here and here and a couple of my colleagues have since eaten with me at a Weber Grill location.  Of course, they raved about it to others so when the opportunity for us to eat at the one in Indy we gladly signed up. 

For the uninitiated, the Weber Grill restaurants cook their meats and many of their veggies over charcoal on Weber grilles.  That's right, the Weber Grill restaurants are owned by the same Palatine, IL-based manufacturer of the popular backyard cooking apparatus.  Only, these grilles are not like the ones you find in hardware stores or large retailers.  The ones that the Weber Grill restaurants use are industrial 42" models.  You can actually buy consumer grade 42" Weber grills, but I've only seen them for sale at retail at one place - Smoke 'n' Fire in Kansas City, the huge barbecue store that I wrote about here.  And they sell them for $1099.  Now, having a huge Weber grill on my back landing would be awesome, but I'll settle for the two 22" grilles and my Weber "bullet" smoker for now.  

The ones in the Weber Grill restaurants are much more heavy duty with cast iron bowls, heavy duty grates and a large aluminum top.  Since these things get cooked on more in one week than an average Weber grill would get cooked on in 1 year, they need to be heavy duty to be able to handle the constant heat.  I'm sure these things cost much more than $1000 bucks. 

Since CEDIA hadn't been in Indianapolis since 2005 - plus the fact that I just don't get downtown all that often when I go to Indy for business - we had no idea the Weber Grill restaurant existed.  That's because it opened in 2006, the 4th Weber Grill restaurant to be opened.  The original one up in the north Chicago suburb Wheeling - the first experience I'd ever had at a Weber Grill restaurant - closed down a few years ago as the company was trying to change the image of their restaurants from a small family style place to more of an upscale steakhouse, complete with a large lounge/bar area.  The one in Wheeling was deemed too small after they built their second location in west suburban Lombard and they shut it down.  They built the one at the corner of State and Grand in downtown Chicago (the one I go to quite frequently, due to the fact that it's attached to the Hilton Garden Inn - a place I stay at when I'm in downtown Chicago), followed by the one out in Schaumburg, IL near Woodfield Mall.  

We almost didn't go to the Weber Grill restaurant because it was going to be the treat of Jean-Philippe Fontaine, the Export Sales Manager for Focal loudspeakers.  He had heard us talking about Dunaway's restaurant and some of the fine roof-top meals we'd had in the past during our previous visits to Indy.  We initially made reservations for Dunaway's after the last day of the show.  However, in checking with some locals and looking up reviews on line about Dunaway's, my colleague, Ian, and I were beginning to have second thoughts about going there.  It seems that Dunaway's had gone downhill in terms of food and service.  Even my local Indy friend, Steve Somermeyer, who knows more than a thing or two about fine wine and fine dining told me that he and his wife had stopped going to Dunaway's.  That was the clincher for us when he told me that.  The day before, we pulled the plug on our reservation at Dunaway's without having a dining option for a Saturday night in Indianapolis.  

Since there was going to be a number of Europeans in the party - and Europeans love Midwest beef - we decided to see if we could get in at the Weber Grill just north of the corner of Washington and Illinois in downtown Indy (see map).  Since it was the last night of the show, a number of people had already left town so they were able to accommodate our rather large group of 22.  

In the meantime, I had talked to Jason Ressler from Music Direct who was in town for the show.  I told him that we were going to the Weber Grill for dinner the next night and he sort of turned up his nose.  "I went there last night with a buddy," Jason told me.  "It wasn't that good."

He said the service was poor and the food was average, at best.  That gave me a momentary pause and then I asked him what he had.  He said, "I had the ribs (which I've had at a Weber Grill and the ones I had were pretty good), and my buddy had the lamb shank.  He said it was fatty and greasy."    

I said, "Jason, have you ever eaten at a Weber Grill in Chicago?"  He said he hadn't.  I said, "And you live in Chicago?  OK, we have to go to the one downtown some time when I come in.  You don't get lamb shank at a Weber Grill.  And ribs are only ordered when you've literally tried everything else on the menu.  You go to Weber Grill for steaks."

At least I was doing my very best to talk myself into keeping our reservation at Weber Grill.

We had a 7 p.m. reservation that evening, barely giving us enough time to pack up at the convention center, get back to our rooms to shower and change clothes, then meet in the lobby of the hotel for the half block walk down Illinois to the Weber Grill.  Although there were a couple large parties in the place, we figured we'd be able to be seated right away.  Nope.  I know it's a conspiracy with places like the Weber Grill to hold large groups in the lobby or in the bar area to run up a large drink tab before dinner.  Well, I wasn't shy about it.  While everyone else was grousing that we had to wait, I went to Smokey Joe's Bar to get a beer, followed closely by my colleague, Ian, who was dying for a rum and Coke.  I said, "While everyone is standing there bitching about having to wait, I decided to take the initiative and get a drink!"  

"That's what I like about you," Ian said.  "You're a 'take-charge' kind of guy."  We enjoyed our drinks at the bar before others in the party got the hint and came over to get something to wet their whistle before dinner.

When we were finally seated in the dining room after about 30 minutes, we had to use two tables - a large one that accommodated 18, and then four others sat in a booth along the wall.  The decor of the Indy Weber Grill location is rich in dark walnut paneling along the walls and booths.  The heavy wooden chairs at the table are comfortable and sturdy.  And the lighting is subdued, but not so much that it's difficult to read the menu.    

I had pretty much made up my mind even before I entered the restaurant that I was getting steak.  I'd have to say that about 90 percent in our party had pretty much the same idea taking an informal poll before we sat down.  Figuring out what kind of a steak to get would be the difference.  

I ended up ordering the 28 day aged 16 oz. New York strip - rare.  My boss, Daniel, who was seated next to me, got the 28 day aged 22 oz. bone-in ribeye.  And my colleague, John, who to my other side, also got the New York strip.  And everytime I get dinner at a Weber Grill I have to get their outrageously great whipped sweet potatoes with the bourbon maple butter.  The garlic mashed potatoes that come with the steaks are wonderful enough, but I always substitute out the whipped sweet potatoes.  They're orgasmic.  

I didn't bring my phone with me that evening so I wouldn't be tempted to sit there and try to catch up on college football scores and receive the wrath of my boss who flips me shit when I do just that.  So I don't have any pictures of my food.  But I have to say my New York strip was definitely above average that evening.  And the whipped sweet potatoes - oh MAN!  Daniel said that he didn't really like sweet potatoes all that much and I offered him a bite of mine.  "You'll love these," I told him in advance.

He took a bite and his eyes lit up as the whipped sweet potatoes were still in his mouth.  He swallowed and exclaimed, "Wow!  You're right!  Those are wonderful!"   I felt bad for him, however, as his ribeye was full of fat and he was having a tough time negotiating around the marbling to find the succulent pieces of meat.  

Even with a big group the service was above par.  They had two or three people taking care of our table that night and our requests were always met with prompt service.  Our wine glasses were seemingly never empty and we were all having a good time.  It was a great last night of the show.  

I was hesitant to write about the Weber Grill in Indianapolis, mainly because I'd written about the ones in the Chicagoland area in the past.  But it has been five plus years since I wrote about them and this entry is a little more in depth than what I wrote in the past.  I've had a lot of items on the menu at the Weber Grill restaurants, but steak is definitely the king.  It's very difficult to find anything wrong with the food or service at the Weber Grill restaurants and the one in Indianapolis is no exception.     

 

Gramma's Kitchen - Walcott, IA

The Iowa Pork Producers Association annually awards a restaurant across the state for having the best pork tenderloin sandwich.  This year's winner is Gramma's Kitchen along Interstate 80 north of Walcott, IA, at Exit 284, just west of the Quad Cities (see map).  We'd been to Gramma's in the past (it's been around since 1980), but had never gotten the pork tenderloin sandwich.  I had returned home after a long trip and Cindy wasn't up for making anything at home that evening (she was suffering from a cold), so I suggested we'd go out to Gramma's Kitchen and give their tenderloin a try.

Gramma's Kitchen is part of the Heart of America group of restaurants and hotels run by Quad Cities native Mike Whalen and includes The Machine Shed family style restaurants with six locations, Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport, Rockford and Pewaukee, WI, and Johnny's Italian Steakhouse with six locations (soon to be seven).  You can click here to see my entry on the Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in West Des Moines.  Gramma's Kitchen is the only stand alone restaurant of the Heart of America empire that stretches across six states in the Midwest.  

I've eaten at - and shared on Road Tips - the past three winners of the Iowa Pork Producers Best Tenderloin contest.  They are the 2008 winner Augusta in Oxford, IA; 2009 winner Goldie's Drive Inn in Prairie City, IA; and 2010 winner Buck's Bar in Mitchellville, IA.  (Buck's Bar closed up earlier this year.)  While I usually don't go out of my way to experience pork tenderloin sandwiches like I do with burger joints, if I come across one that I've heard is pretty good, I'll stop.  Thankfully, Gramma's Kitchen is only 15 minutes from our home.  

We entered Gramma's Kitchen around 7 p.m. that evening and it was far from packed.  Although the parking lot was over half full, many of the people who drove - or who walked over from the Iowa 80 truck stop (the World's Largest Truck Stop) - were in the attached Checkered Flag Bar and Grill.  We were immediately greeted by a hostess, then escorted through the gift shop area (similar to the gift shops you find at the Machine Shed restaurants) and seated in a booth in the spacious and well-lit dining area.

Our waiter for the evening, Eric, was young guy who was very friendly and was overly attentive.  He apologized for not coming around sooner (he was busy with other tables and it was less than five minutes after we were seated).  And by that time we were ready to order.

Most of the food on the dinner menu at Gramma's Kitchen is comfort food, but you can get steaks and some seafood at the place.  Actually, since Cindy was suffering from a cold, she almost got the Chicken Pot Pie, one of the king comfort food dishes you can find.  But at the last moment, she went with the battered pork tenderloin sandwich with a side of cole slaw. (Grilled pork tenderloin sandwiches are available, as well.  Make sure you know which one you're ordering when you order a pork tenderloin sandwich.)

I, too, went with the battered pork tenderloin with a side of fries.  And for good measure, I asked Eric if I could get a side of gravy for the fries.  He said, "Sure!  What kind of gravy?  Breakfast gravy, turkey gravy, pork..."  

I told him beef gravy and he said, "You bet!"   

It took about 15 minutes for the pork tenderloins to come out to us.  The pork tenderloins start out as 1/4 pound pork loins, slightly pounded out, then dipped in an egg and flour batter, then deep-fried to a deep golden brown color.  The best thing about the pork loins at Gramma's Kitchen is the term "slightly pounded out".  Some places that feature pork tenderloin sandwiches pound the living shit out of the loin and they end up being large and flat.  That also takes the moisture out of the tenderloin making it dry.  The second best thing about the pork tenderloin sandwiches at Gramma's is that they're battered - not breaded.  I'll eat a breaded tenderloin, but - to me - it's not as good a deep-fried, battered tenderloin.    

Cindy's pork tenderloin sandwich (above right) was a little larger than mine.   The tenderloin stuck out a bit from the toasted bun, but not so much like you find at other places.  The only problem I had was that there weren't enough pickles.  Only one long pickle slice came with the sandwich.  Eric came back with my drink and I asked him for some more pickle slices.  He brought out a plate with about 10 pickle slices.  He said, "We try to do everything big here at Gramma's Kitchen."  

The pork tenderloins were thick, juicy and very good.  The batter was a little salty in taste (then again, I hardly salt anything), but it was still very good with the pork loin.  I had contemplated getting just one and splitting it.  But as it turned out, we were both hungry - Cindy was especially hungry as she hadn't been eating well because of her cold - and I made very short work with my tenderloin, along with the fries and much of the gravy.  Cindy dawdled a bit, but she was able to eat all but a couple three bites of her sandwich.  She said, "Yeah, that was great!  I guess I was a lot more hungry than I thought!"  

For their winning this year's best pork tenderloin sandwich, Gramma's Kitchen was given a plaque and a $500 dollar check from the Iowa Pork Producers Association.   When Eric came back to get our dishes, he asked, "Well, how was it?"  

I told him, "You guys are much better than the last two winners (Goldie's and Buck's).  But I'm not certain that you're as good as the one over in Oxford that won three years ago.  It's close, but I'd have to go back there to see for sure.  And it certainly gives the one up at TC's Point After in DeWitt a run for the money.  That's a very good one, too."

But all that's not to say the pork tenderloin from Gramma's Kitchen isn't good.  It's very worthy of its standing as the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa for 2011.  Even though the plaque says "Best Breaded Tenderloin Sandwich", it's the batter on the pork tenderloin at Gramma's Kitchen that makes the difference.

Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen - Chicago

A shout out to my friend, Bes Nievera, at Music Direct in Chicago for directing me to Manny's Cafeteria and Delicatessen, an old-world deli in the south loop on the near west side of Chicago (see map). Manny's has served Chicago's famous and elite as well as the run-of-the-mill "Joe's" and "Jane's" since 1946. It was during our little "tourist" trip into Chicago that I had my first experience with Manny's Deli.

Manny's is the quintessential Jewish delicatessen featuring sandwiches piled high with kosher meats, and large portion hot entrees such as beef stew, liver and onions and corned beef dinners, soups, sides such as knish and kishke, and daily specials with such diverse items as stuffed cabbage, roasted tongue with mushrooms, fried smelts, and lamb shanks. It's truly a cafeteria where you get your tray at the start of the line, then go down and tell the guys behind the counter what you want. And you usually end up with a lot more food than you can eat.

The beginning of Manny's pre-dates 1946, but just four years before when Russian immigrant brothers Jack and Charlie Raskin opened their first deli using home-grown recipes they learned from their mother. The brothers split their business just after World War II as Jack wanted to be closer to the open air markets on Maxwell Street. He set up shop at a place that used to be called "Sunny's" at the corner of Roosevelt Road and Maxwell Street. Money was tight and Jack couldn't afford a new sign. He decided to call his place "Manny's" - after his teenaged son, known as Manny to family and friends - and it only cost him to change two letters in sign.

Manny had worked in his Uncle Charlie's deli prior to working at his dad's place and he was the first cook of the new deli. He had learned how to cook by watching his uncle cook at the old place. Manny eventually took over for his father and the location of the deli bounced around the area until it finally settled into its present day spot just north of Roosevelt on Jefferson in 1964. Manny styled the place after a New York-style delicatessen and business flourished.

Manny's son, Ken, started to work in the restaurant when he was a young kid and took over the place when Manny died in 1983. Today, Ken Raskin continues to run the place, but his sons Matt and Danny (all pictured at right) are involved with the day-to-day operation. Ken Raskin's wife, Patti, as well as their two other children, Stephanie and Jason, come around from time to time to help out when needed.

It was about 2:30 when we finally got to Manny's after a long and somewhat expensive cab ride from Navy Pier. I figured that it wouldn't be that busy at Manny's at that time and I was right. There was no one standing in line when we walked in.

The menu including the day's specials are up on the lighted board behind the counter. We made the rookie mistakes of not grabbing a fiberglass tray as we made our way down the line to see what we wanted to order. One of the line cooks asked us what we wanted and Cindy said, "Gee, I really don't know."

The cook said, "Well, we've got up until closing time for you to figure it out." And I sort of panicked as I took that to mean that they closed at 3:00 p.m. (They don't - they close at 8 p.m.)

I really didn't know what to get either, so I took a little time to figure out the menu. We finally just decided to get a corned beef sandwich. And I knew it would be huge, so I told the guy that we'd just split it.

They sliced the corned beef on the spot with the large industrial slicer (above right). And then they piled it high on a slice of rye bread, topped it with another piece of rye and cut it in half. For good measure, we got a potato pancake as a side and a couple kosher dill pickle spears along with some cole slaw. I got a bottle of water while Cindy got an iced tea.

The next thing you encounter at Manny's as you get to the end of the line is a lady at a cash register. Only she isn't the one who takes your money. She just comes up with the ticket that you'll use to go up and pay at the REAL cash register at the front door. I thought it was a little strange, but I'm sure it's something they've been doing at Manny's for years.

We sat in Manny's main dining area, a well lit room that had pictures of famous politicians and celebrities, as well as a number of articles about Manny's over the years from local and national publications. The formica tables and vinyl padded chairs at Manny's are all right, nothing special. They're along that style of sterile cafeteria furniture.

But we were there for the sandwich and I'm sure we could have zipped it up a bit more with some cheese and maybe some veggies (spicy mustard was available on the table, so that was a plus). But it was just plain, piled high sandwiched between soft rye bread.

The meat was lean, juicy and very tasty. It was, of course, too large to take a full bite. So we just sort of nibbled around the meat and the bread, forking up the tender morsels of corned beef that fell out onto the plate. It was salty (I ended up getting a second bottle of water), but the taste was very, very good. It was some of the best corned beef I'd ever had. And having it thinly sliced as they do at Manny's made it even easier to eat.

The cole slaw at Manny's is "eh!" Nothing really special. But the potato pancake was flavorful and had a nice crust on the outside. They make it with eggs and onions mixed in with the potatoes and then they fry it up. It, too, was a damn fine potato pancake.

Before we left, we looked at all the pictures, articles and memorabilia on the wall at Manny's. Chicago politicians from aldermen to U.S. government officials have descended upon Manny's for years. But no one is more famous than President Barack Obama who has come to Manny's for years starting even before his days as state legislator in the Illinois Senate. Obama visited Manny's days after he won election to the presidency in November of 2008. Here's a picture of him ordering corned beef sandwiches at the same spot where I ordered our corned beef sandwich.

After paying at the cash register on the way out, I sort of wished that we would have driven down. (Manny's does offer valet parking, but there are parking areas on the street and on the side of the building, if available.) It didn't appear any taxi's would be driving by any time soon. I looked to the north and I noticed a cab pulling out of a gas station and heading north. A moment later, I saw another cab pulling out of the gas station and heading north. We started to wander up the street and as soon as we made it to the corner just north of Manny's, I looked over and there was a cab company right behind the gas station. It was shift change just after 3 p.m. and the cabs were gassing up at the BP station and then heading out. We flagged a cabbie at the station, he told us to hop in and he gave us a ride back to our hotel in River North. That was kind of lucky.

It turns out that a corned beef sandwich and a potato pancake is the exact thing you should order if you're a Manny's Deli rookie, like we were. Regulars usually have a good idea of what they want as they go through the line. It's not good to hold people up who are behind you and who can probably recite the menu - along with the daily specials - off the top of their heads. The corned beef at Manny's was just excellent as was the potato pancake. Now that I know where Manny's is, what they have to offer and how the drill works I'm sure my next visit will go even more smooth. I just gotta remember to get that tray before I move on down the line...