Road Tips

Green Market Kitchen - Fargo, ND

Fargo remains one of my all-time places to travel to for my work. I have a good dealer there - Arctic Audio - and I wish I could get up there more often. But since it's 600 miles from my home in the Quad Cities to Fargo, it's not easy to get up there all that much. I could fly up, but Rod, the owner for Arctic Audio, is pretty easy going and he's not too needy. He's just thrilled that I make it up to see him just once a year. On this particular visit this past fall, I took Rod and his wife, Ellen, out to dinner at a place that she highly recommended - Green Market Kitchen in downtown Fargo.

Green Market Kitchen is a restaurant that features house made foods featuring locally grown and organic items. The chef, Andrea Baumgardner, believes in using quality ingredients with a flair for creativity and serving it to those with a passion good food. The menu features a number of house made breads and soups, local or Midwest area cheeses, meats, and produce. Green Market Kitchen also does catering for small parties and events.

Andrea Baumgardner is a native of Fargo who went away to learn how to be a chef. She returned in 2002 to become the chef at the Hotel Donaldson, a European-style boutique hotel in downtown Fargo. Wanting to return to her roots, so to speak, she was looking to do something more with organic foods. Peter Kelly was a childhood friend of Andrea's who had moved back to Fargo from New York City to care for his ailing mother. Together, the pair opened up the first Green Market Kitchen on NP Ave. (short for Northern Pacific, but all the Fargo locals just refer to it as NP Ave.) in 2006 and sold locally grown produce and meats. Still trying to find their way with their fledgling business, Andrea and Peter closed the doors of the NP Ave. business and looked for a new location.

The second incarnation of Green Market Kitchen was a deli at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo. Open six days a week from 11 a.m to 2 p.m., they quickly garnered a reputation for good tasting organic and locally grown foods. Andrea was also doing some catering at this point and more and more people began to clamor for the two to open a full service restaurant.

In 2010, along with partner Steve Heiland, the group opened the present day location on 4th Street North in downtown Fargo just a couple blocks from the Minnesota border (see map). It's not very large - it only seats around 40 people - and while Baumgardner does her magic in the kitchen, Kelly and Heiland are busy waiting on tables, cleaning up dirty dishes and making sure everything is OK in the dining room.

We came in and spied an empty four seater table in the middle of the dining room. We were getting ready to pull up a chair and Ellen looked down and saw that there was a "reserved" sign on the table. She said, "Oh! This is reserved!"

Peter Kelly (who is a neighbor and a good friend of Rod and Ellen's) came over and said, "Yeah, let me put you guys somewhere else." He scanned the room and all the larger tables were taken and the four-seaters that were empty weren't cleaned off yet. He said, "Yeah, go ahead and sit here. I'll put the reserved table at one of the others after I clean and set it up."

Rod and Ellen introduced me to Peter and he said, "Oh, wonderful! I hope you enjoy our food." He was immediately likable.

Ellen raved about the food at Green Market as we were perusing the menu. She said, "They have the most outrageous bread here. They have these flax seed crackers that are just to die for." She suggested we get a cheese tray to get as an appetizer.

I looked through the very small wine list and saw that they had a bottle of Jordan Cabernet for $65 bucks. Wow! $65 bucks? There are restaurants who have that same bottle for $120 to $130 bucks. I immediately signed up for a bottle of that for the table.

Peter brought out the cheese tray and it featured four different types of house made breads - including the flax seed crackers that Ellen raved about - and four different Midwestern cheeses. There were various fruits on the plate, as well. It was a nice opener to what promised to be a great meal.

Looking through the menu that evening - which changes almost daily depending upon availability - I noticed a number of interesting items including 28 day dry-aged/grass-fed North Dakota ribeye steaks, walleye cakes with a remoulade sauce, 1/4 roasted free range chicken, vegetarian lasagna and a lamb/turkey burger. There were a number of vegetarian and gluten-free offerings on the menu. Usually, I find the food at a place like Green Market Kitchen to be bland, but Ellen and Rod assured me that this was not the case with Andrea's cooking.

Peter came around and announced that the ribeye was sold out for the evening. It was only 7:30, but they had a big rush on it earlier. Well, that pretty much put a kibosh on what I was going to have, so I had to go to Plan B. He was telling me about the stromboli - a homemade Italian sandwich that featured Genoa salami, capacolla and prosciutto baked inside the bread with cheese. Along with the heirloom tomatoes, chard and thinly sliced parmesan cheese salad, I got that.

Rod opted for the lamb/turkey burger and got a bowl of the homemade lentil soup. Ellen got the walleye cakes with the remoulade sauce. She also ordered up a bowl of their homemade heirloom tomato soup. And for good measure she also ordered some of the homemade spaetzle and, on urging from Rod, she also ordered the duck fat potatoes. Oh, yeah - duck fat fried potatoes. She said, "The portions aren't that big, but big enough that we can all do some sharing. Sort of like tapas."

We blew through the bottle of Jordan while we were having our cheese plate and I ordered another one from Peter. He came back and said, "Ah, we are out of the Jordan. You took the last bottle." Somewhat crestfallen, I took a look at the small wine list and tried to decide what to get. Peter suggested a zinfandel from out in California somewhere. I'm not all that familiar with zin's, but we did get a bottle of that (appreciably cheaper than the Jordan) and it was good.

As Peter was opening the bottle of the zinfandel wine, he remarked, "Honestly, we've had that bottle of Jordan for six months. I'd marked it down to get it out of here." I appreciated the good deal on a great wine.

The salad was very good (below left). I guess I didn't know heirloom tomatoes could be small like cherry tomatoes, but I wasn't complaining. The greens were fresh and the thinly sliced parmesan was a delicious touch. So far, so good on the meal.

Rod said that he didn't care for his lentil soup, so he and Ellen traded. He liked the tomato soup better and they ended up just sharing back and forth. That was kind of the signature of the dinner.

Peter brought out the main entrees and I really didn't know what to expect from my stromboli. But the sandwich was cut into long slices with the ingredients embedded inside. An olive/caper/anchovy tapanade and a whipped tomato puree sauce was served with the stromboli. The tapanade was a wonderful topping with the moist and overly flavorful bread. I had more than enough to share with Rod and Ellen.

Ellen's walleye cakes were also very tasty. They were small, so a couple bites could finish them off rather easily. The remoulade sauce was homemade and some of the best I'd ever had. It was tangy, but didn't overpower the overall taste of the walleye cakes.

Rod's turkey/lamb burger was laid inside a focaccia bun that had been sliced as a pocket. He'd offered me a bite of it, but I declined. I'm not big on lamb and I don't care for turkey burgers. Besides, between the main entrees we had, it was more than enough.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the sides! How could I forget about them because they were probably the highlight of the meal. The duck fat fries aren't pictured here because we literally inhaled them after Peter brought them to the table. They were cut into small wedges and had that great duck fat taste to the outer shell with a great potato consistency inside. The spaetzle, also, was outstanding. It had chunks of fried potatoes (probably also cooked in duck fat) and fresh parsley throughout. It got to a point that we all were just using the spaetzle bowl as one large community offering.

Before we left, Andrea Baumgardner came out of the kitchen to talk with Rod and Ellen. She's strikingly tall and thin with close cropped red hair. We all liked our meals very much and she was overly happy.

Organic and/or locally grown restaurants are now the rage across the country. While I've eaten at a handful of "farm to fork" restaurants over the past year or so, I'd put Green Market Kitchen up against those I've tried in much larger metropolitan areas. That's one of the great things about Fargo - they have some interesting restaurants up there. It continually surprises me with how cosmopolitan the area can be and how good some of the restaurants are. I may have to start going up to Fargo two times a year. But never in the winter...

(Update - Sadly, I've been informed that Green Market Kitchen closed their doors at the end of March 2013.  It's my understanding that Andrea and Peter were burned out from the success of their restaurant that they needed to take a step back.  I hear a number of people in the Fargo area are bummed with Green Market Kitchen closing and I can fully understand.) 

Top Notch Beefburger Shop - Chicago

Since 1942, the Top Notch Beefburger Shop has been making great burgers for hundreds of thousands of hungry Chicago area people. The burgers have been praised in print and on film as being some of the best around. I had to find out for myself if what they said about Top Notch Beefburgers was true and when I was in Chicago recently, I made it a point to stop there.

Top Notch Beefburgers is located on W. 95th St. in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. Beverly is a picturesque community within the city with tree-lined streets, stately homes and a Norman Rockwell feeling to the place. The hard-scrabble businesses up and down W. 95th hide the beauty of the surrounding neighborhood. Top Notch Beefburger Shop has had a presence along W. 95th for nearly 58 years.

Armenian immigrants John and Asanette Soulian first opened their Top Notch Beefburger Shop on 47th street in Chicago in 1942. Along with their boys, Diran and William, the Soulians sold their burgers for 20 cents during the height of World War II. The young Soulian boys did everything from clean floors and tables to working the grill flipping burgers. The burgers were ground fresh everyday using chuck beef, a practice that they changed after the war to the more flavorful round steak. Top Notch continues to de-bone and grind their own round steak daily (they have their own walk-in cooler with hanging beef) and only uses salt and pepper during the cooking process.

After the death of their parents, the Soulian brothers took over the burger joint now on W. 79th St. in 1954 and eventually moved to a location on West 95th street. It was there for 30 years before moving to a larger place at its present day W. 95th St. location just east of Western Ave. (see map)

William Soulian passed away in 1994, but Diran Soulian is still there every day, puttering around behind the counter and greeting the regulars when they come in. Now in his early 80's, he's stooped over a bit, but Diran Soulian still has a vivid personality.

Top Notch had a satellite location for about 20 years further down 95th Ave. to the west in suburban Oak Lawn. However, that location closed up about three years ago due to dwindling sales. They also tried to open a location in far south suburban Orland Park in the mid-90's, but they had problems with the landlord and couldn't get that accomplished. But in doing research for Top Notch Beefburgers, I see an address for them with an Orland Park location, but I have found nothing to suggest that there is such a place. So, to my somewhat limited knowledge, I believe the only place you can get a Top Notch Beefburger these days is at the main location on W. 95th.

Parking along the stretch of W. 95th in Beverly can be a little tough, especially in the middle of the day when the breakfast crowd dwindles down and the lunch crowd ratchets up. I found a parking spot a block down the street from Top Notch Beefburgers and went inside.

Although the decor suggests it's been in there longer than 1984, the inside of Top Notch Beefburgers is very inviting. It's well lit and roomy with a number of tables and booths throughout the dining room. I sat at the counter and grabbed a menu they had sitting in a holder.

The kitchen area is behind the counter and somewhat open. They use a cast iron flat griddle to cook their burgers and since it's over 25 years old (at least, unless they moved the flat griddle from the old address) it has to have some great cooked in seasoning on it. The best burgers are made with old time flat griddles, I think.

They have three different sizes of burgers at Top Notch - the Regular (1/4 lb.), the Super (1/2 lb.) and the Super King (3/4 lb.). When you order a Super King, you don't get three quarter pound burger patties, you get one 3/4 lb. burger patty. That has to be very large.

For the diet conscious, Top Notch Beefburger has turkey burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches. They also have a pretty extensive breakfast menu that features omelets, pancakes and French toast. I understand the breakfasts at Top Notch are a big draw through the week.

Along with the burgers, you get a portion of Top Notch Beefburgers hand cut French fries, cut and soaked in water for 24 hours before they're fried up. Soaking them in water takes the excess starches and sugars out of the potatoes and they end up cooking more even in the fryer.

Behind the counter was Diran Soulian talking and joking with some of the waitresses. A waitress - a new one at Top Notch Beefburgers (I knew that mainly from the conversations she was having with one of the other waitresses behind the counter) - came over to take my order. I decided to get a 1/2 lb. Super burger with American cheese. Lettuce, tomato and pickles were available upon request, as well as either raw or cooked onions. I went with raw onions.

About 10 to 15 minutes after I ordered, the waitress brought the burger and fries out to me. It was definitely big. It was served open faced with the veggies off to the side. The bun was lightly toasted and a side of mayo was on the plate, as well.

After dressing the burger, the first bite was, well, interesting. The combination of the seasoned grill and the ground round made the taste of a Top Notch burger different from many other burgers I'd had in the past. I can't say the taste was bad, but it was different, and in a good way. The patty was full and flavorful, but it didn't taste like anything I've ever had in a burger. I wasn't certain that I liked it right off the bat, but as I went on with the eating process, I found it to be a wonderful burger. One that was lean, yet still juicy. The toasted bun was also very good, helping to keep the veggies and condiments on the burger without falling apart.

The French fries were very good, as well. Cooked to a perfect golden color, they had a great potato flavor without the greasiness you can sometimes get in fries. Taking a cue from my Canadian and French colleagues, I dipped some of the fries into the mayo. But to my dismay, I found that it was really Miracle Whip and not real mayo. (Yes, I can taste the difference.)

Concentrating on finishing the burger, I returned to taking a few more bites of the Super burger. The more I ate, the more I liked. It's like a taste sensation you've never had before, and at first you're not sure you like it. But after I finished the burger and left a few fries on the plate, I knew what people in the Chicagoland area have been raving about for nearly 70 years - Top Notch Beefburgers are, indeed, top notch.

Top Notch is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday thru Saturday and closed on Sundays. Up until a couple three years ago, they never took credit cards - it was cash only. But they take credit cards today. The burger and fries were around 7.95 and the new waitress got a $1.50 tip from me. She did a good job for what could have been her first day on the job. So, yes, I have had a Top Notch Beefburger - finally - and I fully understand what all the hub-bub is about. Ground round steak burgers are very flavorful and set Top Notch Beefburgers apart from others trying to come up with a great burger.

Red Ginger - Bettendorf, IA

It's been somewhat of a Christmas time tradition for Cindy and I to go out for sushi and then take in a movie on Christmas Eve.  Later this week will probably no exception as there's a couple movies I would like to see and there's some pretty good sushi in the area.  One place that we like going to from time to time is a newer sushi place about a mile from where we live - Red Ginger. 

Red Ginger opened up in the summer of 2010 and we've been there about four or five times since it opened up.  It's housed in a small strip mall on the spot where Duck Creek Tire used to be before they moved further out in Bettendorf, behind Bruegger's Bagels and right across the parking lot from the Burlington Coat Factory store (see map). 

The interior decor of Red Ginger is a very contemporary theme with a nice bar area, a medium-sized dining room and a couple sunken booth tables off to the side for somewhat authentic Japanese dining.  (They even ask you to take your shoes off when dining.)  

We like to sit at the sushi bar when we go to Red Ginger.  It only seats six or seven people and it can get kind of crowded if it's full.  But one of the good things about the sushi bar is that the sushi chefs will give you a treat right off the bat.  This particular night, we both got an appetizer that consisted of broiled eel strips topped with a tangy sauce, some bamboo chutes and parsley.  It was actually pretty good.  

The menu at Red Ginger is just more than sushi.  You can get teriyaki and tempura dishes, chicken or pork tonkatsu (cutlets that are deep fried), as well as soups and salads.  Cindy especially likes the miso soup at Red Ginger.  Not that it's much different from anyplace else, she likes the taste of it.

They have a number of specialty rolls at Red Ginger including their Crazy Tuna rolls.  They take spicy tuna, and avacado and other things and roll them all together, then top them off with some more spicy tuna and breaded crunchies (foreground, picture below left).  Oh, boy, is it good.  It's expensive ($12.75), but it's a wonderful treat when we go there.  We started off with a Crazy Tuna roll as well as a Spicy Tuna roll.  The Spicy Tuna roll is actually a pretty good value at $4.75.  Most other sushi places charge upward of $6 to $7 bucks for a similar sushi roll.

We also ordered up pieces of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, smoked salmon and red snapper sushi (above right).  The fish has always been fresh tasting at Red Ginger and this visit was absolutely no exception.  I especially love the smoked salmon at Red Ginger.  It literally melts in your mouth and has a great taste to the fish.  Sometimes, I'll find yellowtail to be a little fishy in taste from some sushi places, but I've never run into that with the yellowtail at Red Ginger.  Along with a couple of Asahi beers for me and green tea for Cindy, it's a great meal.  But at $1.99 to $2.50 a piece, it adds up quick.

Because of the price of sushi - and the fact that we usually pig out when do eat sushi - we don't go to Red Ginger as often as I'd like.  It's usually a $75 dollar bill with tip each time we go out for sushi, so our sushi adventures are few and far between.  But they do have a very reasonably priced lunch menu where you can get four pieces of sushi, six pieces of sashimi (sushi with no rice) and a chef's choice roll for $11.95.  Red Ginger has been a wonderful addition to the rotation of restaurants we like to go to in the Quad Cities.  And we're happy that it's close to home.  

 

 

CJ's Pub - South Bend, IN

I was out in South Bend, IN recently for a couple of meetings that required an overnight stay in the city.  I didn't really know where to go for dinner that evening, so after I checked into the hotel I started to do some on-line searches for restaurants in the city.  I didn't want anything overly fancy, but I didn't want fast food, either.  A burger sounded good and I started to look into burger places in the area.  I found one in downtown South Bend - CJ's Pub, famous for their 10 oz. burgers.  I immediately set out to find the place.

It turns out that CJ's Pub is sort of an institution in South Bend.  The idea for the place began in the early 80's when two sisters, Cindy Medich, a columnist for the South Bend Tribune, and her sister, Judy Gish, began to talk about opening a business together.  They settled on opening a tavern/burger joint on North Michigan Ave. in South Bend, near Memorial Hospital.  Of course, they named the place "CJ's" and it opened on Labor Day of 1984.  It quickly became a favorite of Notre Dame students and alums for their burgers, waffle fries, appetizers and cold beer.  They put in a number of televisions throughout the place that sat about 125 to 150 people, making it one of the very first sports bars in the Midwest.  

The sisters welcomed their brother, Frederick, also known as "Ricky Joe", to work at the business and he quickly became the "face" of the place.  Ricky Joe was described as an interesting guy who was a performing musician, a scratch golfer, a huge Notre Dame sports fan and a guy who welcomed all to his family's place in South Bend.   Ricky Joe was sort of a bon vivant, travelin' kind of guy before he decided to come back and settle in South Bend to help his sisters out.  

The original CJ's was nothing more than a hole in the wall that had a boat load of Notre Dame memorabilia on the walls.  It was popular with the college kids as it stayed open until 3 a.m. every day except Sunday when it would close at midnight.  The Medich family was in the location for 21 years before a freak accident almost brought their business to a close.

Workers were tearing down a six story building next door to CJ's Pub in January of 2005 when part of the structure fell onto the building.  Part of their building collapsed (four people were inside, including Ricky Joe, but no one was hurt), damage was extensive to the structure, including the infrastructure of electrical and plumbing.  After 7 months and $250,000 in repairs later, the family reopened CJ's Pub in time for the Notre Dame football season.  

However, another tragedy hit the Medich family - Ricky Joe suffered from pneumonia in the fall of 2008.  When being looked over by doctors, they found cancer in his lungs.  It quickly spread to his brain and lymph nodes and he died just over two years ago at the early age of 60.  His death devasted the Medich sisters - Cindy Medich couldn't bring herself to enter CJ's Pub after Ricky's death.  Judy was also having a hard time coming to work and in early 2010, they decided to close the original location.  But the spirit of Ricky Joe got them looking for a new location to put CJ's and the decided on a spot at the corner of Wayne and S. Michigan where the old Rumrunners bar was located (see map).  In fact, Ricky had talked about moving to that very same location before he died, so the sisters thought it was fitting that they move to that very building.  The sisters reopened CJ's Pub in August of 2010.  It's not much larger than the old location, but they are now in the heart of the downtown area of South Bend.  

It was around 7 p.m. when I got into CJ's Pub.  I took a seat at the bar and the portly bartender asked if I was there for the General Electric party.  I said, "No."  Then I stopped for a second and said, "Should I be?"  He sort of laughed as I took a seat at the bar.  He gave me a menu and asked me what I wanted to drink.  They had a number of beers on tap - including something called "House Light".  I asked what that was and he told me it was whatever light beer they got a special on that particular week.  It was Miller Light that week.  I told him I'd just take a Bud Light in a bottle.  And it was very, very cold.  

The inside of CJ's Pub is well lit and features a long wall of pictures and memorabilia.  I'm not a Notre Dame fan at all - I usually root for whoever is playing against them, much to the consternation of my former neighbor, George - but I do understand and appreciate the Fighting Irish's place in football history.  There were many pictures of Ricky Joe Medich with Notre Dame sports legends and famous alums.  A number of flat screen televisions were hung throughout the dining area and there was one behind the bar.  

Burgers are the main item on the menu at CJ's Pub.  The burger menu features a number of named burgers that start out with CJ's famous 10 oz. "Super Burger" patty including the Baja Burger that has pepperjack cheese and banana pepper rings, the Hockey Works that has Swiss cheese, mushrooms and Canadian bacon, and the Four Horsemen that featured Swiss, American, cheddar and pepperjack cheeses.  In addition to the burgers, CJ's Pub also has a handful of appetizers and sides, as well as soups and salads, and sandwiches, paninis and wraps.  

The large party for General Electric began to trickle in and it was apparent that the bartender was also the waiter.  My first beer was gone rather rapidly, thanks to the coldness of the beer, and I was ready for another.  But the bartender was taking orders for the large table.  Finally, another bartender and another waitress showed up for work and I was able to get my beer.  

The first bartender/waiter finally came back and asked me if I wanted something to eat and I just ordered up a Swiss cheese, mushroom and bacon burger.  Their waffle fries sounded good, but I knew that I would have more than enough to eat with the burger.  "Lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion on it," he asked.  Sure!  You bet!

Now, one of the best things I liked about CJ's Pub was the cold, cold beer.  It was flowing down the gullet pretty easily.  I love cold beer and the colder the beer, the easier I drink it.  I'd had about four beers before I realized that I hadn't gotten my food.  It was well past 20 minutes after I had initially ordered my food, but with a lot of people in there, not to mention a large party seated directly behind me, it was taking for ever to get my food.  

It was nearly 30 minutes after I ordered my burger when the second bartender came out with a big burger on a plate and a large plate of a combination of the waffle fries and onion rings.  He looked at the large bartender/waiter and said, "Did this guy have the works with the combo plate?"  

He said, "He had the works, but not the combo plate."

The bartender turned to me and said, "You had the works, buddy?"  I said, no, I had the mushroom/Swiss/bacon burger.  He said, "Yeah, that's what we call "The Works"."  Oh!  I didn't know the vernacular of CJ's Pub, but I learned part of it right then and there.

 The burger was, indeed, huge.  The patty was layered with an ample amount of Swiss cheese and mushrooms with two slices of bacon crossed on top.  A side of potato chips came with the burger, but I wasn't overly interested in those.   The burger, itself, was thick and juicy.  It had a great flavor and the toppings went along very well with it.  The bun was moist and helped with the overall taste.  With each bite, I found myself becoming more and more impressed with this Super Burger from CJ's.  I can see why they've been called the Best Burger in South Bend for years and years.  

And it was a belly buster.  I'm very glad I didn't get any waffle fries with the meal as I probably wouldn't have made any dent in those.  But the burger was top notch.  I'm going to have to do a lot of reshuffling when it comes to my Best Burger list in 2012 and CJ's Pub is going to get some serious consideration as either Top 10 burger or, at the very least, will garner a High Honorable Mention from me.  Given the history and tradition at Notre Dame and how great the hamburgers taste at CJ's Pub, I may be able to get over my disdain for all things Fighting Irish if I get back to South Bend on a regular basis.   

 

 

Blue Iguana - LeClaire, IA

Since last summer, we'd been hearing about a new Mexican restaurant that had opened in the small tourist town of LeClaire, IA, just up the river from the Quad Cities. The name, Blue Iguana, was interesting enough. And when we found out that the owners of the place were the same people who owned Steventon's just down the road, we were intrigued (see my entry on Steventon's here). Through the summer, we'd heard pros and cons on the food and service at the Blue Iguana and we finally decided to take the short drive out to LeClaire to see for ourselves.

Open less than six months, the Blue Iguana already had a little bit of national notoriety from earlier this summer when President Obama made a surprise stop in LeClaire during a bus tour of the Midwest. One of the places he stopped at to press the flesh with the little people was the Blue Iguana. The quaint little Mexican restaurant couldn't have had better free advertising, even without the President of the United States eating there.

Blue Iguana is located on the main drag of Cody Road in LeClaire, next door to the long established Sneaky Pete's steakhouse (see map). It was a beautiful fall afternoon when we took the drive out to Blue Iguana and hoped to get a place to eat on what turned out to be a busy afternoon in the little town.

The Blue Iguana features outside dining in both the front and the back of the restaurant. The front area is larger than the back deck, but the back deck offers views of the Mississippi River. We checked out the back deck to see if any of the four or five tables were open and they were not. There were a couple tables available out front, but we didn't want to dine with all the traffic going by on that beautiful fall day. We resigned ourselves to eating inside. And, actually, that wasn't a bad thing.

The dining room and adjacent bar area featured a high wooden ceiling, brick walls and a hard tiled floor. The front windows of the building were also large. Because of all those factors, the sound just booms and echoes throughout the place. So much so that we had a difficult time hearing our waiter, Nicholas, when he greeted us with menus. More than once during our visit, I had to ask him to say again what he just said because it was so loud in the place from the reverberation of conversations coming from a half filled room. I wondered how loud it would be if both the dining area and the bar were packed on a weekend night.

Nicholas brought out chips and salsa - there was a small bowl of homemade deep fried tortilla chips, holding about a dozen chips. We'd heard the first bowl was complementary, but you had to pay $4 dollars for a second bowl. Well, this bowl wasn't going to last long. And if I had to pay $4 bucks for a bowl of these, I would gone without.

He explained that the two salsa containers that he brought out were very different in taste. The green tomatillo salsa was the milder of the two, while the red sauce "was spicy". And he wasn't kidding. The red salsa WAS spicy, so much so that I really needed their signature Blue Iguana margarita that I'd ordered from him sooner than later.

The margarita, itself, was just OK. I didn't think I could taste all that much tequila in my drink, and that was probably OK considering it was 2 p.m. in the afternoon. I found out while we were there that they get the margaritas out of a machine, the bartender doesn't make the drink. I was a little disappointed in the drink, although there was a lot of it (22 oz.) for $6.50. I just wish there would have been more tequila in the drink. Getting a margarita out of a machine takes away the mystique of the bartender, but probably helps add to the bottom line. So after I finished that, I ordered a 24 oz. Dos Equis Amber that was a good value at $4.75 a glass.

The menu at Blue Iguana isn't overly extensive compared to other Mexican restaurants in the area. One of the first things that jumped out of the menu was their guacamole. $10 bucks for a serving of the guacamole at Blue Iguana. Holy guacamole! $10 bucks? It was made fresh and you could add anything from cilantro, lime juice, tomatoes or jalapenos to the mixture. For $10 bucks, it had better jump up off the table and kiss you.

One of the other things that I saw on the menu was their "Wanna Iguana" challenge. Spurred on by the uptick of food challenges, Blue Iguana has their own challenge in which they serve you a 6 lb. burrito and you have 30 minutes to eat it along with downing a 30 ounce beer. You get your name put into a Hall of Fame and get a Blue Iguana t-shirt. All that for just $30 bucks. I'll pass on that.

They had a handful of entrees including a charbroiled 1/4 bone-in chicken that is marinated in an herb citrus oil, an 8 oz. charbroiled skirt steak that you could either get plain or with poblano peppers, onions and sliced avocado, or large shrimp sauteed in their homemade butter garlic sauce. As it said on the menu, if you're a garlic lover, you'd love this dish. I do like garlic, but for lunch and at a $15 dollar price tag, I don't like garlic that much.

Cindy was looking at getting the chile relleno, but for $12 bucks all you got was one cheese filled poblano pepper. "That's ridiculous," she said. "One chile relleno pepper for $12 bucks? No way..."

We finally decided upon getting burritos. Actually, their tacos and burrito selections were extensive. For fillings you could get steak, chicken, beef tongue, fish (deep fried, unfortunately - at least that's what I think Nicholas told me, but I couldn't hear him very well), pork or chorizo. You can also get vegetarian burritos at Blue Iguana. I went with the pork burrito and Cindy had the chicken burrito.

When Nicholas brought the food to our table we were impressed with the size of the burritos. It was very large and Cindy immediately lamented that she should have just gotten the burrito by itself rather than with the rice and beans dinner.

The pork burrito that I had was interesting - it featured shredded pork slow roasted in Mexican spices. When I usually order pork tacos, burritos or enchiladas from Mexican restaurants, they usually come out with grilled pork chunks rather than shredded pork. But the burrito was very good, surprisingly good.

Cindy said her chicken burrito was very good, as well. "But this is a lot of food," she said. "I may not want to eat dinner tonight." (As a side note, we did not.)

Nicholas came back to see how things were going and he asked if we wanted more chips. Cindy said, "Sure", but I was worried that we'd have to pay $4 bucks for a small bowl. Considering we were halfway done with our meals and I was getting full, I would have liked to have more chips about 15 minutes before after we nailed the first bowl in about 5 minutes. But he brought another bowl and we didn't get charged. I have to say that even though it was very spicy, the red salsa at Blue Iguana was somewhat addicting.

We've started to do this thing with our neighbors once a month on Sunday nights where we pick out a Mexican restaurant to go eat. We'd talked about going to Blue Iguana at some point and we'll make the suggestion to go back and eat there. The burritos we had were very good. I really liked the chips and salsa (as long as I didn't have to pay for extra), but the margarita was a little disappointing. The ambiance of the place was nice, but Blue Iguana is a little loud for laid-back dining. For a nice Mexican dining experience, the Blue Iguana is above average. I think some of their prices are a little high, but the burrito was a very good value. I'm definitely going to try something else on my next visit.

Shanghai Boy - Lee's Summit, MO

Kevin and Chris used to work at an old dealer that I called on - Accent Sound - in Overland Park, KS. When the owner retired, no one stepped up to buy the business and the employees sort of scattered in the wind, ending up at other audio stores - or in Kevin and Chris' situation - they opened their own place, Soundbytes KC. One day when I was visiting earlier this year, Kevin came in with a cheeseburger. It smelled great. I asked, "Where did you get that, Kev?"

He said, "Shanghai Boy."

I said, "Shanghai Boy? That Chinese restaurant about a mile west of here?"

Kevin replied, "Yep! You wouldn't think a Chinese restaurant would make a good cheeseburger, but these guys do." I made a note to stop at Shanghai Boy at some point. Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity to do so.

The story I got from Kevin and Chris about the place was Shanghai Boy is housed in what was an old Dairy Sweet or something like that. It was a fast food restaurant with 10 letters in its name and they sold ice cream, hence the ice cream cone above the Shanghai Boy sign. The new owners bought letters to replace what was on the original sign and came up with the name of Shanghai Boy because, well, it had 10 letters in that name, too.

I took off down the street after leaving Soundbytes KC and headed west toward Shanghai Boy (see map). Actually, I accidentally passed Shanghai Boy - I passed the first entrance and when I realized I'd done that I tried to get into the second entrance, but that was blocked with a vehicle trying to get out onto busy SW 3rd St. Not wanting to hold up traffic, I went around the block and pulled into the parking lot.

The inside of Shanghai Boy is pretty non-descript. It looks like any fast food joint with cramped booths with two or four person tables. With the large windows letting in the sunshine and the fluorescent lighting, you could definitely say it was well lit.

The menu for Shanghai Boy is on a series of boards above the front counter. Interestingly enough, most of the prices of the food are either incomplete or missing on the menu. While most of the menu is Chinese food, there is board off to the side that had their burgers listed. A guy in front of me ordered Chinese, as did a couple directly behind me in line. But I followed Kevin's suggestion and got a double cheeseburger with everything. Everything is lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard and ketchup.

I got the burger and took it to the car. I found that I didn't have any water, so I drove down the street to a Quik Trip and got a bottle of water to have with the burger. I sat in the parking lot of the Quik Trip and unwrapped the burger.

It didn't look any different from most fast food burgers that are out there. It had a sesame seed bun that covered the two cheeseburger patties. The veggies and condiments were on the bottom bun under the patties. The taste of the burger was pretty good. The bun was woefully dry, however, and as I've said many times in the past, the mark of a great burger is the bun. You have a dried out or overly chewy bun and it really detracts from the overall taste of the burger.

But the smell of that burger is exactly what I remember from the one I smelled when Kevin brought it into his store - it had a that great, flat griddle smell to the burger and the patties were a wonderful taste. There was a little too much lettuce, but overall it was an above average burger. What kept it from being a truly outstanding burger is the bun. Too dry and that was too bad.

Shanghai Boy is a pretty good place to get a burger if you're not willing to patronize any of the fast food chains - like me. I don't know about their Chinese food, but the burger was better than you'd find at most fast food places. I'd rather give my money to a mom and pop operation than a big corporate chain any day. I just wish the buns at Shanghai Boy weren't so dry.

(Update - I was recently in Lee's Summit and drove past the Shanghai Boy location and found that it was no longer open.)

 

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine - Cape Girardeau, MO

Earlier this fall, I had to go to Cape Girardeau to do some training for the guys from Stereo One. I got in the evening before and I got hold of an old friend and former co-worker from years ago, Aaron, who works at Stereo One and wanted to see if he was up for getting some dinner and drinking some beer. He said he was and wanted to know where I wanted to go. I said, "Wow, man, I don't know.  This is your town." He said there was a great Cajun place in downtown Cape Girardeau by the name of Broussard's. I told him, "We're there!"

Broussard's Cajun Cuisine started in 1986 when Louisiana transplants Barron and Kathy Broussard moved to Cape Girardeau and opened up the restaurant in what was the site of the old Town Pump restaurant. Broussard also owned restaurants at one point up the road in St. Louis and out in Lodi, CA. Many of the foods that Broussard served in his restaurant in Cape Girardeau were from family recipes he garnered over the years.

The center piece of the restaurant was a tank with a live alligator in it. For years, Broussard's kept a small alligator in a fish tank for the customers to look at when they visited the place. I don't know what they did with the alligator after it got too big, but they do serve alligator dishes at Broussard's. The alligator had a name - Felix - and an alligator continues to be the prominent feature of Broussard's logo.

In 1991, Dennis Stockard took over the business and kept a lot of the touches Barron Broussard had put into the place. Dennis Stockard believed in a more professional approach, heavy upon customer appreciation. Broussard's began to gain a following throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Many Cajun aficionados said the food at Broussard's was as authentic as any Southwest Louisiana bayou restaurant.

Dennis Stockard retired in 1997 and turned the business over to his son, Shawn. He kept a lot of the same elements of the restaurant his father ran, but marketed the bar toward more of a younger crowd, all the while maintaining the dining room for Cajun cuisine. For years, Broussard's has hosted a number of local bands to play in the place during the weekends.

In 2004, former employee Hunter Clark, and his wife, Stephanie, bought the business from Shawn Stockard. Clark, who had a background in the restaurant business with both Shoney's and Captain D's, worked as a supervisor for Dennis Stockard at Broussard's from 1992 to 1994. Clark had been driving a truck before he and his wife bought Broussard's, but wanted to get back into the restaurant business. They took over and other than a few cosmetic changes to the place, Broussard's is pretty much the same as it was 20 plus years ago. Many of the items on the menu are still true to Barron Broussard's family recipes, and now Broussard's has garnered a national food following with their great Cajun food.

At one point, Cape Girardeau had an outstanding upscale Cajun restaurant - the Royal N'Orleans, but it shut down a couple three years ago. I had been there on a couple occasions and it was certainly a treat to have some excellent Cajun and Creole food from that place. I hadn't been familiar with Broussard's Cajun Cuisine because during my limited travels to Cape Girardeau, I'd focused on wanting to go to Royal N'Orleans. I made my way downtown - past the darkened Royal N'Orleans - and found a parking place in a lot just north of Broussard's.

Broussard's is housed in an 1890's building that is part of the Cape Girardeau Commercial Historic District and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places a couple short blocks from the Mississippi River (see map). I met Aaron near the front of the building and we went in.

The main entrance into Broussard's takes you into a vintage 50's style bar area with a long bar, blue neon lights circling the ceiling, and some booths along the wall. To the left is the gaming/music area of the place, and to the right is the dining area.

We were seated in a booth along the wall, just under one of the bright red neon crawfish lights. Our waiter came over with menus and we ordered up some beers. I wondered if they had any Abita beers, since it was a Cajun restaurant and Abita is out of Louisiana. The waiter said, "No, sorry. We do have them, but they're for catering only."

I said, "Wait a minute! Catering only?"

Aaron said, "Dude, you're catering to US!" We couldn't quite grasp our minds on how a place could have beer, but wasn't willing to sell it. We asked for other types of beers and the guy kept saying, "No, we don't have that either" to our requests. I just decided to cut my losses and order a Bud Light - they DID have that, and Aaron got a Sam Adams.

On the wall facing me, there was a big mural - one of many paintings in Broussard's - by local Cape Girardeau artist Scott Kelley. Each mural or painting has something to do with people who have either worked at Broussard's over the years or who have graced their doors with regularity. Some paintings are a tad twisted with animals depicting some of the people. This one was overly colorful - even with the bright red light from the glowing neon crawfish on the wall.

Aaron gave me the drill about Broussard's - everything he'd ever had there was great. They had four different variations of etoufee, they had shrimp creole, jambalaya, gumbo, and chicken creole parmesan in a spicy creole sauce over rice. They had ribs, steaks and sandwiches - including Po' Boys. They had boiled crawfish (probably from China), red beans and rice, frog legs and blackened catfish. My head was spinning from all the possibilities they had to offer.

Aaron suggested we split the four combo platter - crawfish etoufee, shrimp etoufee, alligator etoufee and jambalaya. Red beans and rice came with it and we both got a bowl of gumbo for good measure. Aaron said, "There's no way we'll be able to finish all of this food, but it will give you a good idea of how good all their food is here."

The waiter was a little slow with both our food and our beers. He didn't bring out our gumbo at first like we wanted. It came out with our combo platter. And he was a little lax on getting our beers to us after we'd ordered them. I think he was the only waiter in the place that evening, but it was only Aaron and I, with people at a couple other tables in the dining room. 

Aaron wasn't fooling about not being able to finish everything. There was a lot of food to sample sitting in front of us. The first thing I tried was the gumbo. It was simply outstanding. I zipped it up a bit with some Tabasco, but it was pretty zippy to the taste on it's own. The gumbo at Broussard's was some of the best I've every had.

We had asked for an extra spoon and an extra plate apiece to scoop portions of the platters for individual servings. The waiter was woefully spacey and we had to remind him again before he ran and got the spoons and a couple small plates.

I tried all three of the etoufees and the best of the three was the alligator etoufee. The taste sensation sent me to the roof. While the shrimp etoufee and the crawfish etoufee were very good in their own right, the alligator etoufee was just outstanding. It wasn't rubbery like I've found with some alligator I've had in the past, but was moist and easy to chew. The taste was a knock out. "When I come back here - and I WILL come back here," I was tellling Aaron, "I'll get the alligator etoufee on its own."

The jambalaya was certainly on par with the alligator etoufee. Big chunks of andouille sausage permeated the jambalaya and with a little zip from Mr. Tabasco, it was even better. And I was also surprised with the red beans and rice. Too often, places that serve red beans and rice don't do anything other than the beans and rice. At Broussard's, they put large chunks of andouille sausage in with the red beans and rice and it was some of the best I've ever had. I'd never had red beans and rice with andouille sausage. I don't know if I'll be able to get red beans and rice at any place other than Broussard's.

Later in the evening, I had ordered a beer and it was a good 10 minutes before I realized that I hadn't gotten it yet. I said, "I thought I ordered another beer."

Aaron said, "You did! I think our waiter is slacking."

I got up to go to the restroom and when I came back, the waiter was standing up by the host stand talking to the cute little hostess. I said, "Hey buddy, I ordered a beer from you over 10 minutes ago and I haven't gotten it yet."

We both looked up at the bar and there was a solitary Bud Light on bar, waiting to be picked up and brought to my table. He grabbed it and handed it to me. I said, "Man, this has been sitting up there for quite awhile. Can I get a cold one?"

He said, "That felt cold to me." Whatever... I just took it from him and went back to the table.

We certainly did have a pile of food left over and I told Aaron to take it home with him. He said, "That's great. Thanks. The kids love coming here and they love the leftovers."

The waiter came with a container for Aaron and he asked us if we needed anything else. As he was scooping up the leftovers, Aaron looked over at me with a devilish grin and said, "They have the most outstanding bread pudding here."

I groaned in agony, completely full from the excellent food we'd had, not wanting to have another bite of anything. I said, "You bastard! I LOVE bread pudding."

The waiter said, "We have great bread pudding."

Aaron looked at me and said, "They really do. It's probably the best bread pudding that I've ever had." I winced, shook my head and looked down at the table. Aaron looked up at the waiter and said, "We'll have a piece with two spoons."

That bastard!

And it took a long time for the bread pudding to come out. This time, I didn't mind because it gave my stomach time to digest the rich Cajun food I'd had. Over 10 minutes after he'd ordered the bread pudding, I said to Aaron, "What did they have to do? Go down to New Orleans to pick it up?" Quite honestly, as scattered the waiter was, I thought he'd forgot to put the order in.

The waiter finally came out with it and the bread pudding was sitting in a shallow bowl, drenched with a rich rum butter sauce with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. From the first bite, it was just simply divine eating. The bread was moist and flavorful. I had about four bites before I couldn't eat any more. Aaron, who is a pretty small guy, finished off what he could and there were still a couple bites left. We couldn't do any more damage to the meal than we had.

Our bill with the combo platter (which was $19.95), the bowls of gumbo, bread pudding and multiple beers came to $50 bucks. The waiter got a $5 dollar tip because, well, he was bad. And it's too bad because that was the only thing bad about our experience at Broussard's. The food was excellent, some of the finest Cajun I'd ever had in my life. I love coming to Cape Girardeau - it's a pretty neat little city - and I'm hoping that I can make it down to see the guys at Stereo One a couple times a year. And when I do - as I said - I WILL be back at Broussard's.

Hinkle's Sandwich Shop - Madison, IN

A Road Tips reader sent me a note earlier this year and said that I really needed to try a burger at Hinkle's Sandwich Shop in Madison, IN. I really have to apologize for not remembering who it was as I do like to give credit to those who steer me in the direction of interesting places when I'm on the road. Hopefully, whoever it was will read this and take credit for sending me there.

I had to look up where Madison, IN was because I wasn't familiar with it at all. It turns out that it's a peaceful little community nestled along the bluffs of the Ohio River just north and east of Louisville (see map). When I was in Louisville recently, I finished a morning meeting and decided that I had time to head up the road a bit and get a late morning burger at Hinkle's. It was a little out of my way to my next stop up in Indianapolis, but I had time as my next appointment wasn't until around 2 p.m.

Hinkle's is well-known throughout Southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky as one of the great old burger joints. It opened in the height of the Great Depression when Winifred Hinkle began to make burgers in his little place (that's right - Winifred is a man). Over the years, it became a destination for people looking for the flat grilled burgers topped with fried onions and cheese. Today, Jack LeGrand (who also owns a local trucking firm in Madison) and his daughter, Amber, own Hinkle's Sandwich Shop. People come from miles around for their burgers and on the weekends (Friday and Saturday) they stay open 24 hours a day. A word of warning, if you go there on a Sunday, Hinkle's is closed.

The drive up from Louisville up to Madison takes a little over an hour, first on Interstate 71 northeast out of the city, then up a winding two-lane Highway 421 that meanders through valleys of trees and running streams. Past the city of Bedford, Kentucky, the winding road goes past fields of tobacco, soy beans and corn. It was a beautiful drive on an early fall morning and the trees were already bright with orange and yellow colored leaves that contrasted against the green leaves on trees that hadn't turned yet, and the brilliant blue Kentucky sky. As you near Madison and the Ohio River, the road takes a deep pitch along the bluff down toward the valley below. There's a turnout for trucks whose brakes fail trying to slow down going down the steep grade. The road eventually ribbons around to a narrow bridge over the Ohio that made me nervous to travel on as it was so high and the road was hugging the rails.

Hinkle's Sandwich Shop is located on Main Street in downtown Madison (see map), a picturesque community with post-Civil War era buildings full of businesses and shops. I found a parking spot on the street down the way from Hinkle's and went into the place to get a burger.

Hinkle's is actually two separate places - the little sandwich shop with a counter and bar stools on one side (above left) and the dining room next door (above right) that looks more like an old time ice cream parlor than a greasy spoon restaurant. There were outdoor picnic tables with umbrellas for people who wanted to dine outside. And there were people seated there when I walked up.

I went into the smaller side, sat at the original counter and took a look at the menu on the wall. In addition to their burgers, Hinkle's also has breaded tenderloins (can't be a real greasy spoon in Indiana without having breaded tenderloins on the menu), breaded chicken sandwiches, as well as breakfasts such as biscuits and gravy, pancakes and French toast.

But the burgers are the draw at Hinkle's and they're cooked on an old time flat iron griddle that has, quite possibly, had a million burgers cooked on it in its lifetime. The burgers were cooked on one side and the fried onions on the other. There were already about two dozen burgers on the grill when I got there about 11:30 a.m.

The burgers at Hinkles come as singles, doubles or triples. I really didn't know how big the patties were - they looked pretty good sized on the flat grill when the cook popped them on. I ended up getting a double cheese burger with grilled onions. I like the taste of grilled onions, but my stomach doesn't care for them. I need to get my taste buds and my stomach on the same page one of these days.

When the waitress brought me the burger, it was smaller than I anticipated and was served on a small plate. Looking it over, it was more of a White Castle-style of burger than anything. The patties were bigger than a White Castle burger, but the bun was small and it was flowing with grilled onions.

The taste was also very similar to a White Castle burger. The grilled onions added a nice taste to the overall burger patty and the bun was light and airy, very easy to throw back. I made very short work of the burger and when the waitress asked me if I wanted anything else, I ordered another double cheese with the onions. I was still hungry (no breakfast that morning, still stuffed at 7:30 a.m. from my meal the night before at Lynn's Paradise Cafe) and the second one satiated my appetite. For someone with a big appetite, especially at 2 a.m., I can see where they could easily knock back three or four doubles and have room for French fries.

The burger at Hinkle's Sandwich Shop was good, although I can't really call it great. But the history and nostalgia that surrounds Hinkle's - along with its setting in a picturesque little river town - made it worth the while to make the drive off the beaten path to give it a try. It's a small town White Castle that is much better than a White Castle. The old time flat grill added a great taste to the burgers and, thankfully, the grilled onions didn't back at me the rest of the day. I can see why people flock to Hinkle's. In this case, it's not just the burgers, but it's the tradition and history behind the place.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Louisville, KY

I recently had a meeting in Louisville with a prospective dealer. I ended up spending the night in Louisville and had a number of options for food, but didn't exactly know where I wanted to go. My sister and brother-in-law had lived in Louisville for a number of years and my bro-in-law suggested a place they loved to go to called the Chick Inn for what he described as the best fried chicken in the world (my sister, however, said it wasn't as good as it was before they'd had a fire there a few years ago). The decision became moot, however, when I found out the Chick Inn had closed over a year ago. Another place that I'd heard about and wanted to give it a try was Lynn's Paradise Cafe. My sister, who now lives in Phoenix, told me, "Oh, you'll like Lynn's. It has good food and its sort of kitschy."

I don't quite remember where I first heard about Lynn's Paradise Cafe. All I know is that I had it bookmarked on my computer as a "Restaurant to Visit" in my travels. It could be that I saw it on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network, or it could have been a Man Vs. Food segment on Lynn's on The Travel Channel where Adam Richman tried to eat their Quadruple "B" French Toast that features black walnuts with a blackberry glaze and a bourbon meringue. Lynn's has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show (I probably didn't see that segment) and also on the Today Show (I possibly may have seen that). The restaurant has also been featured in articles in USA Today, the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Travel and Leisure, and Southern Living - all of which I will read from time to time. In any event, I knew I wanted to get to Lynn's at some point. And even though it was a 30 minute drive from hotel, I decided to make the trek to The Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, home of many very good restaurants and shops in the area (see map).

Lynn's Paradise Cafe began in the early 90's when Lynn Winter opened the doors of the restaurant. Lynn's original vocation was as a woodworker who custom built cabinets, bookshelves and armoires in Northern California and in Kentucky. When business got slow for her, she began to wait on tables in a restaurant. She loved the interaction with the customers, the fast pace and the different types of food. In 1991, she got rid of her woodworking tools and opened Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

From the start, Lynn Winter set out to have a fun place for visit, not only for the great comfort food with a twist, but also for the visual aura her restaurant strives to achieve. Lynn's Paradise Cafe is known for their breakfasts, served anytime during the day, as well as their Sunday brunch's where lines stretch out the door waiting for a table. But one thing that I was looking for was Lynn's version of the Louisville staple - the Hot Brown.

The Hot Brown is sort of tough to describe without pictures and actually eating it. It's an open faced turkey sandwich served on sourdough bread, then topped with bacon, tomatoes and a mornay sauce and cheese, then broiled in an oven. The origins of the Hot Brown go all the way back to 1926 when one of the chefs at the then new Brown Hotel, Fred K. Schmidt, came up with the concoction of food as a late night alternative to ham and egg dinners. Styled after Welsh rarebit, the Hot Brown quickly became the No. 1 item on the menu at the hotel's cafe with over 90% of the orders for the open-faced sandwich. One of the reasons was at that time, turkey was considered only for special occassions - such as holidays or anniversaries - and people loved the fact that they could get a hot turkey sandwich at any time at the Brown Hotel.

The Brown Hotel had its ups and downs for a number of years, finally closing in 1971. (They reopened in 1986 as a Hilton property, but the Brown is now owned by the upscale 1859 Historic Hotels corporation and is a 4-star boutique hotel.) However, by that time, Hot Brown's had become the signature dish at a number of Louisville restaurants. Like Kansas City and barbecue, or Chicago and deep dish pizza, the Hot Brown is synonomous with Louisville in terms of culinary delights.

Lynn Winter was actually featured on The Today Show with Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee Gifford showing how to make a Hot Brown. Click here to see that video (there's a short commercial at the start.

I got into Lynn's Paradise Cafe around 7:30 p.m. that particular evening. The building is back from the street a bit and there's a parking lot out front. Actually, it's rather tough to miss as along the sidewalk by the street is a large coffee pot that doubles as a water fall pouring water into a cup. That pretty much tells you what kind of place it is before you even go in.

There's an outdoor seating area just beside the main entrance to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (above right). It features a long row bench in an aquamarine color with brightly colored floral vinyl tablecloths and red metal chairs. It was a nice night, but no one was sitting outside.

As you enter, you find yourself in the "World of Swirl" gift shop, a throwback type of place that offers a lot of kitschy items and toys from the 50's. More on this place a little later on.

I was worried that the place would be somewhat small and popular enough that I may have trouble getting a seat right away. After entering the restaurant, I was surprised that it was even bigger than it looked in pictures I saw in the past. There was a host just outside the main dining room in the kitschy gift shop (more on that later), and he took me to a booth along the wall and dropped off a menu.

The dining room at Lynn's is, well, interesting. The room, itself, is a slight A-frame with a high wooden ceiling supported by steel beams. Kitschy lights are hanging from the ceiling, as well as light ropes wrapped around support poles in the center of the room. It looks like some sort of a 1950's designer's experiment gone terribly wrong. But it's also tastefully humorous.

Speaking of kitschy lights, each of the booths sport a hideous looking lamp on the table. It turns out that Lynn Winter has been sponsoring and judging an "Ugly Lamp" contest at the Kentucky State Fair each year since 1999. She had been asked previous to the beginning of the Ugly Lamp contest to judge Poultry Dressing (whatever that is) and she decided that wasn't an exciting thing to judge. She came up with the concept for the Ugly Lamp contest and put the judging into two categories - Born Ugly, for the lamps that were manufactured that way; and Made Ugly, by people who took a lamp and purposely made it ugly.

Many of the winners are on display on the table tops of the booths, including the one in the picture above right which was sitting on my booth table. Yes, that's really a lamp with the shade covered in tacky men's ties. And quite honestly, we may have a couple lamps sitting in our basement back home that we could enter in the contest .

My waiter for the evening came over and asked me if I wanted something to drink. I had read somewhere that Lynn's bloody mary was one of the finest you'd have anywhere - so good that they called it the "World Famous Bloody Mary". It had better be - they were charging $9.75 for it. I usually don't have a bloody mary after noon, but these sounded pretty good from it's description - a homemade mix made from scratch, vodka (Absolute Peppar for a more spicy bloody mary), then on a skewer they put cherry peppers, pepperocinis, green olives and black olives and dip it in the glass. I found out that they also had Bell's Pale Ale on hand at Lynn's. So for a starter, I ordered an Absolute Peppar bloody mary with a Bell's Pale Ale chaser. I don't know where I got on the kick of having a beer chaser with a bloody mary, but it's sort of a staple now when I get one.

The drinks were brought out and the Bell's Pale Ale came with a frosted boot glass. It was kind of a fun little touch to go along with the beer.

The bloody mary, I'm sorry to say, was over-hyped. It was actually pretty dull in taste and sort of watery, even with the Absolute Peppar. I just didn't think it was all that it was cracked up to be, considering what I'd read about it. I like my bloody mary's with a little more of a thick consistency and have some zip to the taste. I didn't find either in the bloody mary at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

Figuring that I was going to order a Hot Brown at Lynn's, I was thrown a curve ball by all the other things on the menu they had to offer. The jambalaya pasta jumped off the menu when I saw it - it had grilled chicken, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp mixed with fresh thyme, peppers, onions, tomatoes, celery, Cajun seasonings and a cream sauce. Yow! That sounded great. Almost on the other end of the scale in terms of description was Lynn's meat loaf - called Mom's Meatloaf - that was made from grass-fed Kentucky beef and topped with a spicy marinara sauce.

My wife would have liked the place as they featured fried green tomatoes as an appetizer. Green tomato slices, hand-breaded and fried, served with a spicy remoulade sauce. And another thing that I really wanted to try was the Kentucky Reuben Quesadilla. They take corned beef, Swiss cheese and fried cabbage and place it all between two tortillas. They serve the quesadilla with a side of a homemade bourbon, cayenne Thousand Island dressing. I just about came unglued when I saw that.

And, as I said earlier, you could get breakfast at any time at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. They had omelets, French toast, stone-ground cornmeal pancakes, biscuits and gravy - it was a Southerner's breakfast paradise.

But I decided to go with what I came for - the Hot Brown. I ordered that up from my waiter. When he brought it, I knew right off the bat that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. First of all, the bowl it was in was huge. Two slices of hickory smoked bacon crossed the top and chunks of chopped tomatoes were sprinkled over the caramelized cheese topping. My arteries were hardening as I looked at this thing.

And the taste - oh man! First of all, the bacon was excellent - and who doesn't like bacon. Then digging into the Hot Brown, there was a pile of sliced turkey breast laying just underneath the cheese. I found the sourdough bread under that and the combination of the bread, turkey, cheese and the mornay sauce (it's actually more like an alfredo sauce, only using pecorino romano cheese instead of guyere and parmesan cheese) was like money in the bank for my taste buds. I kept telling myself that there was no way I could eat all this, but I found that I kept going and going and going until I very ashamedly stopped with nearly the whole bowl empty. I wanted to cry because A) I was so guilty that I nearly ate the whole damn thing, and B) it tasted SO great! I knew I couldn't eat for three days after this.

After paying for the meal (sort of expensive at $43+ with tip, but the bloody mary and 2 Bell's Pale Ales added up for most of the bill), I spent some time back out in the World of Swirl gift shop just looking around and the fun and weird items they had to offer. In addition to the wacky hats they on for sale, there was just about anything and everything imaginable as far as retro toys, games, and doo-dads. And I'm sure they do sell a lot of things out of the gift shop. It was actually sort of fun to go through and see what they had.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe is not only a place to go for the good food, but for the visual stimulation, as well. It's a fun place, the atmosphere is laid-back and the service I received was very good. I'm not certain I'd order another bloody mary if I went back. To me, it certainly wasn't worth the price. But for my first experience for a Hot Brown, I'm afraid to get one any place else in Louisville because I'm sure it won't be as good as the one at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

(Update - I was saddened to hear that Lynn Winter shut down Lynn's Paradise Cafe in early 2013.  It wasn't initially known why she closed down, but it was revealed a few months later that she was suffering from shingles and had to close down.)

 

Road Tips is Now On Twitter - And Urbanspoon!

Get notifications of new posts from Road Tips by following us on Twitter!

And when you're traveling and need to look up previous Road Tips reviews of restaurants and eating places, we're now on Urbanspoon!  Here's the link -

http://www.urbanspoon.com/br/w/7115/road-tips

Schlafly Bottleworks - St. Louis

I don't get to St. Louis as often as I'd like to any longer.  With the closing of Ultimate Electronics earlier this year, followed by the closing of the American TV stores in the St. Louis area this past summer, then soon after that, the announcement of the closing of one of my independent retailers, St. Louis is suddenly a dormant market for me.  I was in town to try to convince a former dealer of mine to come back on board with us and I had a chance to have lunch at the Schlafly Bottleworks on the southwest side of the city (see map).  

I've eaten at the Schlafly Tap Room before (see that entry here) and I remember the food being pretty good.  The Schlafly beer is above average, but a little too sweet for me at times.   Still, I do like their pale ale and their Oktoberfest beers.  Since it was late September when I was there, the Oktoberfest beer was on tap and flowing.

The condensed history of Schlafly's is pretty interesting.  In the late 80's, local lawyer Tom Schlafly was instrumental in getting Missouri laws changed to allow brew pubs in the state.  Once that went through, Schlafly teamed up with a local St. Louis man, Dan Kopman (left - picture courtesy St. Louis Business Journal) to realize his dream of opening a brewpub in St. Louis.  Kopman had studied in Scotland during his college years and became enthralled with all things beer.  He worked for a time for the Wells and Young's brewery, first in production, then in export sales.   

After moving back to St. Louis, Kopman hooked up with Schlafly primarily to just start a microbrewery, not a brew pub.  When it became apparent that they'd need the food to help supplement the cost of building a brewery, they decided to do the brew pub concept.  They looked at a handful of buildings just west of the downtown area before settling on a nearly 90 year old structure that once housed a printing company, but had largely been vacant for about 15 years.  They named their company the St. Louis Brewing Company, hired their first brewmaster in Dave Miller, then opened up the brewery and the Schlafly Tap Room.  

The steady growth of Schlafly beer products, primarily the bottling process, necessitated a larger brewing facility.  They were approaching 10,000 barrels brewed annually and Schlafly and Kopman figured they needed a facility that could do three to four times that capacity.  Kopman found a building that formerly housed grocery store at the corner of Southwest Ave. and Manchester and the partners bought the property.  They spent over $1 million dollars in setting up and renovating the building and the Schlafly Bottleworks opened in 2003.  

The bottling line at the Schlafly Bottleworks -  

With distribution now approaching 10 states in the Midwest and South (we began to get Schlafly beers in Iowa earlier this year), the capacity of the Bottleworks is fast approaching its capacity of 45,000 to 50,000 barrels annually.  In the summer of 2010, Schlafly contracted with the Stevens Point Brewery in Wisconsin to brew and can their Summer Lager beer.  And earlier this year, Kopman announced that they had signed an agreement with Nashville-based Blackstone Brewery to brew Schlafly beers to increase distribution in the Southeast.  The head brewer of Blackstone Brewery is Dave Miller, who left the Schlafly brewery to head up the brewery at the Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery when it opened.  Blackstone just opened a new facility that features a 30 barrel brewhouse similar to the size Schlafly has in St. Louis.    

Stephen Hale is the current brewmaster for Schlafly's, which produces six year-round brews and over 40 seasonal or special brews.  Still known to many as "the other brewery" in St. Louis, Schlafly is celebrating their 20th year of business with a limited series of four commemorative beers including an Imperial Pilsner and a Citrus Witbier.  

I've been to the Bottleworks for beers a couple three times in the past, but had never gone there for food.  The food menu consists of locally grown natural foods and produce.  They also feature pizza at the Schlafly Bottleworks with toppings such as bison, goat cheese and a host of fresh vegetables.  Their appetizers are well-known throughout the St. Louis area for such eclectic items as their sausage platter that features lamb, salsiccia (sweet St. Louis-style pork sausage), and andouille sausages; as well as their bison nachos.       

Schlafly Bottleworks has a large bar area (above left) that features just bartender service for food and drink, along with a dining room with full waitstaff service.  In the warmer months, the Bottleworks has a very nice beer garden that offers dining al fresco (above right).  Even though it was a beautiful fall day when I was there, I decided to eat inside at the bar. 

The guy seated next to me at the bar was eating one of Schlafly Bottleworks pizzas - a 10" thin crust pizza that had multitudes of toppings on it.  Since I was going out for dinner with my dealer that evening, I quickly knocked the pizza off my list of possibilities.  

Another thing that completely caught my attention on the menu was their meat loaf entree.  It featured bison, ground beef and andouille sausage mixed together and topped with an oatmeal stout tomato sauce.  That sounded great, but it also sounded way too filling for lunch.  I've got to go back to Schlafly Bottleworks for that at some point.  

I ended up opting for the bison burger - an 8 oz. lean bison patty on a brioche bun.  For extra measure, I had them put some bacon and Swiss cheese on top.  Cole slaw came with the bison burger.  In the meantime, I had already ordered the seasonal Oktoberfest beer they had on tap.  

 Here's the bison burger as it was presented to me.  Most bison burgers are usually too lean and they dry out from the cooking process.  I have to say the bison burger at the Bottleworks was one of the better ones I've ever had - coming very close to the bison burger at the Ted's Montana Grills that I've visited in the past. It had great flavor and was definitely helped by the cheese and the bacon on top.  The brioche bun was also very good.  

The cole slaw - eh!  It was pretty bland and I only had one bite of it before I decided that it wasn't all that great.  But I definitely finished all of the bison burger.  

After I finished my lunch, I took a quick walk around  the Schlafly Bottleworks to check out the merchandise they have to offer (below left).  In addition to shirts, sweatshirts and other nice items to wear, the Schlafly Bottleworks also sell their beers - at the same price as local grocery and liquor stores so not to undercut their distribution.  However, like nearly every other brewery that sells neat clothing, it was way too expensive for me.   

In the bottleworks is also a small museum that commemorates the history of brewing in St. Louis (above right).  There were old time pictures of breweries and the people who were the pioneers and legends of brewing beer in St. Louis.  An audio/video presentation was playing on one of the flat screen TV's regarding Schlafly beers and their brewery.  

Brewery tours are available at the Bottleworks and it would probably be a fun thing to do at some point.  It isn't all that long and then you have the chance to have some of their good beer and very good food at the end of the tour.  Even if you don't want to do the tour, the Schlafly Bottleworks is a unique destination to have a good in-house brewed beer, good food made with natural ingredients, and a laid-back atmosphere that allows you to chill out and enjoy your food and beer.  Later that evening, my dealer signed up to come back on board with my company's products and I was happy about that.  I was also happy because their store is not far from the Schlafly Bottleworks.  I foresee a number of evenings quaffing a few brews and having some good food.