Road Tips

Old Mexico - Rock Island, IL

I'd had a long day in the office trying to close some deals.   After a couple last minute deals fell through very late in the day, I decided I'd had enough.  I needed some food and I needed a drink.   Cindy had suggested going across the river for Mexican food.   I immediately got into the mood for El Mariachi, probably my favorite of all the Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities.  A couple of their margaritas and my mindset would be back to normal.

As we drove across the bridge to go to El Mariachi, I turned to head in that direction.  Cindy said, "Where are you going? I wanted to go to the other place."

"What other place," I asked.

"That place I read about in the paper," she replied.   Now, I don't remember us having a conversation about going to this other place.  In fact, she didn't even remember the name of it.  "I know where it is, just go this way," she said.

She guided me to place along the border of Moline and Rock Island (see map) and said, "This is it!"  I immediately recognized the place as a small Mexican restaurant that we ate at a number of years ago.

I said, "We've eaten here before."

She said, "Well, not since it's been called Old Mexico."  I just shrugged my shoulders and parked the car.  I just needed a margarita.

Old Mexico has been in business for about 10 years now, but we'd been to the location when it was known as Lolita's.   And we'd never been back for some reason. I really don't remember the visit other than it was in a building along the westbound one-way of 6th Ave. just inside Rock Island.  The Barajas family owns and operates Old Mexico, just as they owned Lolita's for a number of years before.

Lolita Barajas and her husband, Juanito, met in Mexico City in 1947 and were married soon thereafter. Juanito - who was actually born in Texas - came back to the United States in 1958, ending up as a waiter at the old LeClaire Hotel in downtown Moline.   In 1961, Lolita brought the rest of the family to the U.S. to meet up with Juanito.  Her first job was a cook at the original Adolph's Taco House in Moline. In 1965, the Barajas family opened their first restaurant - Lolita's - on 5th Street in Moline.  They moved Lolita's to the current location of Old Mexico in 1993.

Over the years, the Barajas family has owned and operated a total of 10 different restaurants along with a Mexican grocery store. George Barajas runs the Old Mexico location in Rock Island, while his sister, Delores, runs Lolita's Taco House in nearby Silvis.   However, even in their early 80's, Lolita and Juanito Barajas still show up to work at Old Mexico six days a week (they're closed on Sundays).   Lolita continues to cook much of the food at the restaurant and Juanito makes a lot of the sauces used daily.

The interior of Old Mexico is well lit with an ornate tin ceiling overhead.  A number of booths are along the side walls with tables in the middle.  A sparse crowed was in Old Mexico that evening, including a rather loud table of middle-aged to older ladies - one of whom had a piercing loud laugh.   More than once she made me jump with her quick and obnoxious high-pitched laugh.  When they got up to leave, we were certainly happy.

However, one thing that I noticed on the tables in front of the patrons - no sign of beer or margaritas. Sure enough, when the waitress brought around menus the only drinks listed were tea and soft drinks.   I just let out a heavy sigh and Cindy said, "Oh, boy. I screwed up on this one."   Seriously, I contemplated getting up and walking out because I wanted a margarita - just one - in a bad way.  But I decided to stick it out.  Cindy wanted to try this place and I was tired and hungry.  "You can have a margarita at home," she said.  But we had nothing at home to make a margarita with.  Oh well... I had a large glass of water instead.

The menu at Old Mexico is filled with a number of traditional Mexican foods - enchiladas, tacos, burritos, tamales, etc.  When I try a new restaurant, I want to try a combination plate.  They had about four or five combo plates on the menu.  The one that jumped out at me was the large combination - a taco, tostada, enchilada and a tamale.   Actually, I was looking rather hard at getting the pork tamales before I saw the combination plates on the menu.

Cindy found some chicken enchiladas on the menu that she wanted to try.  The chicken enchilada verde sounded very good to her.  We were ready to order, but there was only one young lady working the floor that evening.  Even though they weren't very busy, she was having to be the hostess, wait tables, answer the phone, be the cashier and help clean up.   We sat there patiently - well, no - not so patiently on my part to order food.  The lack of a margarita after a long day was still sticking in my craw.

The young girl finally came over and said, "You guys, I'm so sorry. Everything seems to get hectic all at once. What can I get you?"

We ordered up and fully expected food to show up in about 20 minutes, because that about the time it took a family of four seated near us to get their food after they'd ordered shortly after we walked in.  But in less than 10 minutes she came out carrying a tray with our food. It was a nice presentation.   The enchilada wasn't large, similar to the taco.   The tostada was covered in lettuce and cheese hiding the refried beans on the tortilla.  The tamale was sandwiched between a mound of Mexican rice and a large helping of refried beans.

Cindy's chicken enchilada verde consisted of three enchiladas topped with a green chile sauce and sour cream.   Lettuce and tomatoes were off to the side and an ample amount of rice and refried beans accompanied the enchiladas.

I tried the taco first.  The beef in the taco was rather salty.  Actually, pretty salty.  I don't salt much of anything so it especially stood out when I ate it.  It was all right, but I wasn't overly impressed by it.   The enchilada had beef and pieces of potato inside.   The beef was also salty and the enchilada sauce was rather bland.   I zipped the enchilada up with some of the homemade and above average salsa Old Mexico provides with chips.  It made it better.

The tostada was, well, a tostada.   It's pretty difficult to make variations of one when you're using the basics of refried beans, lettuce and Mexican cheese.  But when I got to the tamale, things went down hill rapidly.

I took a bite of the tamale and the taste was, well, funny.  It was unlike any tamale that I'd had anywhere.  I wasn't certain that I liked the taste of their variation of the starchy, corn dough of the tamale.   And the pork - I took a bite with the pork inside and there was something wrong with the meat.   I don't know if it was overcooked, but I'm guessing it was. It was tough to chew and I actually had to pull a small piece of hard, unchewable meat out of my mouth and place it on the plate.

I went back to eating my tostada for a moment before I went back to trying the tamale.   I took another bite of the tamale and immediately spit it out.  It was horrid in taste.  I had never had a tamale that tasted as bad as this.  There was something wrong with the pork.  Over cooked, probably.   Whatever it was, it tasted bad.  I was finished with my meal at that point.

Cindy kept trying to get me to try some of her chicken enchilada verde, but I just don't like chicken in Mexican food, unless it's grilled for fajitas or tacos - something like that.  She said, "This is very good. I'm sorry that yours wasn't very good."

As we left, Cindy knew I wasn't happy with my meal.  She said, "Aah! We gave that a try," fully knowing that I wouldn't want to go back anytime soon.

I really tried to like the food at Old Mexico.   I just love little family places like this, but the taco and enchilada were just OK, the tostada was nothing special and the tamale, well, the tamale was inedible.   I did like the sauce and the chips, but the lack of having margaritas, at least that evening, was a minus in my book.   I'd much rather patronize the smaller, family-owned places like Old Mexico, but - to me - there are much better Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cites that are similar to this place.  I really wanted the food to be good.   And the Barajas family have been in business for nearly 47 years now so a lot of people must really like their food.  It just didn't hit me like I'm sure it does others.   (Photo at left courtesy Quad City Times)

Bordenaro's Pizza - Des Moines

My buddy, Jeff (Burph) Versteegh continues to turn me on to pizza places around the Des Moines area.  One that he'd heard of, but hadn't been to yet, was called Bordenaro's Pizza on the far south side of the city.  I was staying at a hotel near the airport one evening recently and decided to find Bordenaro's and give them a try.  

While I grew up not far from Des Moines in Newton and lived there off and on until 1991, I had never heard of Bordenaro's before.  I'm not that surprised because there's a lot of old places in Des Moines that I wasn't familiar with until I began to write this blog six and a half years ago.  Bordenaro's has been in business since 1977 when Tom Bordenaro opened the doors to his little establishment.   The Bordenaro's family continues to run the restaurant with Tom's son Chris overseeing the day-to-day operations.  Chris' brother, Todd Bordenaro, is the general manager and director of operations for the historic Hotel Pattee in Perry, IA.  

Bordenaro's Pizza is located at the corner of SW 9th and Leland Ave. on the far south side of Des Moines.  (See map)  It was late when I got into Bordenaro's for dinner that one particular evening.  Even though it was after 9 p.m., there was a pretty good sized crowd in the main dining room. They serve up to 10 p.m. on weeknights, 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.  They serve lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Bordenaro's is closed on Sunday.   

The interior of Bordenaro's isn't anything fancy.  Booths line the long walls of the dining room with basic restaurant tables and chairs in the middle.  A larger table is back toward what used to be the front of the restaurant.  Bordenaro's expanded a few years ago to include a second dining room that can be used as a private room for parties and other functions.  And they also have an outdoor seating area for when the weather gets warmer.  I took a seat at one of the booths along the wall.  (Photo courtesy Des Moines Register.)

A short waitress with curly blonde hair framing her face came over to greet me as I pulled a menu out of the holder on top of the table.  She was sort of sassy and brassy from the get-go.  I immediately liked her.  I ordered up a beer and took a look at what they had to offer at Bordenaro's.  

The menu (pictured left - click on it to enlarge) is very basic at Bordenaro's.  In addition to their signature pizzas, they have basic pasta dishes, sandwiches, and a slew of appetizers.  I understand Bordenaro's onion rings are some of the best in Des Moines.  I saw a couple orders sitting on a couple tables that had been pushed together to accommodate a large group of people.  They looked good.  

But I was there to try the pizza.  Of course, I had to get a sausage, pepperoni and mushroom - my reference pizza.  Bordenaro's pizzas come in three sizes - 10", 12" and 14".  I got the 10" size.

Since it was late and the pizza at Bordenaro's is a very thin crust, it didn't take long for my waitress to bring my pizza to the table.  Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and dried oregano are provided on the tables for the pizza.  I'm beginning to really like putting dried oregano on my pizza.

I could tell from first looks that the mushrooms were canned and not fresh cut.  Not a deal breaker for me when it comes to mushrooms on pizza, but it is for some people.  There was an ample amount of large slices of pepperoni on top, along with a good amount of mozzarella cheese.  I began to look around for the sausage.  I realized that it was ground sausage.  Once again, not something that I like on a pizza, but I will still eat it.  

My first bite of a Bordenaro's pizza - as with any pizza - was void of any additives of parmesan, pepper flakes or oregano.  And the taste was a combination of a somewhat sweet pizza sauce and a spicy and tangy sensation on my tongue.  I sort of picked up the cheese topping and looked under there to check out the ground sausage.  They spiced the sausage up enough to give it a little kick on the taste buds.  The sauce was a little too sweet for me, but it still passed my test of tasting good with a cold beer.  

There are other pizza places around Des Moines that use ground sausage instead of the big chunks that I like on my pizza.  This is mainly due to many of the pizza places around Des Moines using Graziano Brothers sausage.  I guessed that Bordenaro's was no different from many of the others around the area.  But it was like they really souped up the spiciness to the taste of the sausage.  

A 10" thin-crust pizza is pretty easy to down for me.  The crust was crisp, but not cracker thin.  The overall taste of the pizza was good - very good, in fact.  Like I said, the sauce was a little too sweet for me.  But I have to say that for a little pizza place on the south side of Des Moines they do a pretty damn good pizza.

The total bill for the pizza a couple beers and a nice tip for my waitress was $20 bucks.  As I was leaving, the waitress thanked me for coming in.  I stopped and said, "Do you guys use Graziano Brothers sausage on your pizza?"  

She sort of shrugged her shoulders and looked toward a gentleman sitting at the bar by the kitchen.  It was Chris Bordenaro, the proprietor.  He said, "No, we do our own sausage.  We get our sausage from Brewer Meats.  They're a wholesaler and a lot of places get their meats from Brewer's.  In fact, that's where Graziano's gets their meat."

I said, "It was sure spicy!"

Chris Bordenaro beamed and said, "Thank you!  That's what we're going for!"  

While I prefer the pizza from Chuck's or from Noah's Ark more than the pizza at Bordenaro's, I would still have to say it was very good for what it was.  Once again, the sauce was a little too sweet for me and the ground sausage - while good and spicy - was, well, ground.  I still think chunky fennel sausage is the best to put on a pizza.  But that's just my tastes and likes.  I'm sure there are many people who think Bordenaro's is the best pizza around.  The taste signature is certainly unique and I'm sure that's what the Bordenaro family is going for.  

An Inside Look at This Year's Indianapolis 500

Road Tips has a friend in Indianapolis, Steve Somermeyer, who has worked the Indianapolis 500 in some capacity for nearly 40 years - in fact, I believe this could be Steve's 40th anniversary this year.  He started out working in the pits - unheard of for a rookie worker (most people who work the Indy 500 for the first few years start out directing traffic or parking cars), but Steve knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone who got him in the pits for his first race. Over the years, Steve worked his way up to be the head of safety for pits and garage area.  This year, they kicked him upstairs, so to speak, to become the Coordinator for the Pagoda Command Center.  

A few years ago, I was out in Indianapolis and Steve took me on a behind the scenes tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Click here to see that post.  Each year, he always sends out a pre-race memo that takes an in-depth look at the upcoming race. It's always informative for those who are into the Indy 500.  I thought I'd share it again this year. 

By the way - this could be the hottest Indianapolis 500 on record this year.  The warmest temperature for the race before this was 92 degrees in 1937.  It's hit 90 degrees on race day five times in the history of the race.  Temperatures today are forecast to hit the mid-90's, coming close to the all-time record high temperature in May for Indianapolis of 96 degrees.  Although it would be fun to be there again this year, I think being able to watch it in air conditioning will be fine with me. 

    With a new chassis named after last year's winner, the late Dan Weldon, and three different engine suppliers, this year's race should be exciting and unpredictable. However, many of the usual suspects are the favorites to win the 500 mile race.

     Dallara DW12: The first new chassis in years means that all of the learning's/data from previous years is of little value. This chassis was designed to accommodate different engines and aero kits (front and rear wings, sidepod fairings, etc.) and to be much safer. The drivers sit higher off the ground to allow some padding to minimize the back injuries that have happened in the past. The rear wheel is shielded from most wheel-to-wheel contact by the new body particularly in the rear. Ironically Dan Weldon was the original test driver for this new design and it very well could have prevented the airborne Las Vegas crashes, one of which claimed his life.

     With a lot of caution exercised by the drivers, there were only five wall-bangers during practice and qualifying with no serious injuries to any of the drivers. All of the drivers got out of their wrecked cars and were immediately cleared to return to driving. A couple of the cars' rear ends became slightly airborne after bouncing off the wall at an angle. Dalara determined that the lower rear wing support was too rigid so they're making modifications to all of them and they'll be ready to use during Carb Day practice. That's fast response to a issue. These cars to seem to be safer than the previous model - We'll know a lot more once this race is completed.

    Firestone tires: Obviously with a new car, there are new demands on the tire supplier, Firestone. It seems that while the tires seem durable, the 'grip' seems to change quickly. During qualifying runs, the speed declined with each lap. This is something to pay attention to during the race. The cars with the newer tires (more recent pit stops) will be much quicker through the turns. In the same vein, teams will change tires at every opportunity (until they run short of sets of tires).

    Honda versus Chevrolet versus Lotus: So far Chevy has won every pole and race so far this season and 9 of the top ten qualifiers for this 500 including the first 2 rows. Despite some controversy, Honda did get approval to get a redesigned turbocharger cover which was expected to improve it's performance although it wasn't evident during qualifying. The Honda teams seem to be able to turning laps equivalent to the Chevy powered teams in race trim so the race could be very competitive.    

    We'll get some indication during the 1 hour practice tomorrow on Carb Day but teams are really dialing in their cars with very little data since this is only the 5th race of the year and the first oval. Testing and practice laps have been very limited due to mileage limits on the engines and a limited amount of spare parts for the new chassis and engines.

    Lotus seems to be hopelessly behind the other two engine builders. They committed to the program several months later than Chevy and Honda and it seems that their resources are more limited than the others in that the numbers of engines available have been very small. Several teams have broken their contracts with Lotus when Honda and Chevy reluctantly agreed to supply several more engines to additional teams. Lotus is left with only 2 drivers - Simona De Silverstro and Jean Alesi - and they are starting next-to-last and last in the field. They'll probably need a year to become competitive (they hope).

    Pole by 9 inches: Penske's Ryan Briscoe won Penske Racing's record 17th 500 Pole by a very narrow margin over the new Go Daddy driver, James Hinchcliffe. The margin for the 4 lap - 10 mile qualification run was 0.0023 seconds or equivalent to 9.113 inches after 10 miles. As Briscoe quipped in the press conference "James should have ducked his head while going down the straightaways." btw, Winning the pole was worth $100,000.

    Drafting: The new car's aerodynamics create a much more significant draft or as the drivers call it - a tow. It starts to affect the trailing car much further away than the previous chassis - perhaps as much as several hundred yards. As the car behind pulls within 20-25 yards it is rapidly sucked up to within a couple of yards. Drivers have to be prepared for this surge or they risk running into the leading car. This strong drafting effect should lead to lots to passes throughout the field.

    Hot Weather: With perhaps record high temperatures (94 or so) expected Sunday, it won't only stress the fans - stay hydrated! - but also the drivers, their teams, and the relatively unproven engines. The sun will also heat the track surface making it slicker as the day wears on.

    Rookies: There is an above average number of rookies in the field this year with 8 drivers making their first 500 start. Two are veteran F1 winners - Jean Alesi and Rubens Barrichello - will make their first oval starts in IndyCar here - and one gal - Katherine Legge - who had a number of starts in the CART series. In addition to these rookies, 4 drivers are starting that didn't start in last year's race. So over a 1/3 of the field weren't in the race last year. There is some concern about how these drivers will handle the pressure of the start and can they maintain their concentration throughout the entire race? Quite a few of the late-race incidents usually include rookies because they aren't used to maintaining their concentration for that long a period of time.

    Single file restarts: In a change from previous years, restarts after a yellow flag will be in single file as opposed to the 2-wide restarts in the past. Drivers can attempt to pass another car as soon as the green light goes on. This should also facilitate more passing, certainly safer, on the restarts.

    Lotus and the Black Flag: IndyCar has a competition rule that says that cars must turn lap times within 105% of the leading pace. If the leaders are turning laps in the 218-220 mph range, it means that the slowest cars should be running in the 208-210 mph to comply with the rule. That's probably right at the top end of the speeds that the 2 Lotus cars are capable of racing at. Also the leaders will probably start lapping the end-makers in about 12-15 laps at which time Race Control will be observing how the speed differential is handled. Safety is the top concern but also one wants to give the teams a chance to show off their sponsors.

    Who's going to win: When assessing the favored drivers, one has to start with Roger Penske's team of Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe. They've won every pole and every race so far this year with Will Power winning the 3 races prior to May and all three are starting in the first 2 rows. To say that they're on a roll is an understatement so why should they stop winning now? If Helio wins he would become the 4th 4-time winner joining A.J., Al Unser, and Rick Mears in that exclusive club. A Penske win would extend the team's record total of 15 to 15 500 victories. Team Penske is the benchmark for quick, efficient pit stops and his team also wins the Carb Day pit stop contest almost every year.

    The next most impressive team here in Indianapolis this May has been Andretti Motorsports with the almost pole winner James Hinchcliffe leading the charge. Teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay will start on the outside of the first row with Marco Andretti next on the inside of row 2. So Andretti also has 3 cars in the first 2 rows. Hinchcliffe has been impressive in almost every practice session as has Marco. Hinchcliffe replaced Danica Patrick in the Go Daddy car so he's filling big media shoes - so far folks have been impressed with both his driving prowess and humor outside the car. Marco is a very fast racer but to date has tended to take some reckless chances - he's certainly a fast enough driver to win but does he have enough patience to win over 500 mile? The other Andretti driver - Ana Beatriz - doesn't seem to be in the same class as these three.

    KV Racing leads with Tony Kanaan who has finished second 3 times here at Indy and has led the race in 7 of his 10 starts. Starting in the middle of row 3, popular Tony may be the best driver among the current active ones to have not won here yet. Starting next to Tony is E. J. Viso with new teammate F1's Rubens Barrichello qualifying next on the inside of the 4th row. Rubens won a F1 race here at Indy on the road course along with 3 seconds but this will be his first oval race ever so it would be a real surprise if he even contends. A side note: he easily has the most Twitter followers among the drivers with over 1.6 million.

    A feel-good story is rookie Josef Newgarden driving for Sarah Fisher Racing. He had several daily fast times during practice this May and qualified on the inside of row 3 just inside of Tony Kanaan. This is the only Honda powered car in the top ten qualifiers. Sarah was one of the most popular drivers, has started her own team, and is building a new headquarters building on the Main Street of Speedway.    

    Who haven't I mentioned?? Target Chip Ganassi Racing is usually mentioned in the same breath as Penske.

    Last year's winner and season champion Dario Franchitti and former winner and teammate Scott Dixon. They qualified a disappointing 15th for Scott and 16th for Dario. Even their 'second' team of Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball qualified faster than they did in spots 12 and 14 respectively. The whole Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has struggled getting their drivers comfortable with the new car and Honda engines. If they solve the cars' balance by race day, they'll be challenging for the lead. If not, they'll try to compete through different pit and fuel strategies. They certainly have the resources to run up front so it's a bit of a surprise that they haven't been more successful to date.

    OK, my pick is Penske's Will Power - he's really on a roll and has arguably been the quickest driver over the last couple of years. Accidents and some bad luck has prevented him from winning a season championship. My next picks would be Andretti's James Hinchcliffe, KV's Tony Kanaan, and Will's teammate, Helio Castroneves.

    Racing luck always seems to play a pivotal role in the winning drive so the winner's circle could see any of the drivers that I mentioned above. It really should be an exciting and unpredictable race with questions about the durability of the engines and the small database/experience with the new chassis.

    

Let's go Racing!!

Steve

 

Goodbye to a Friend

It's been a pretty tough week for us as Lorrie Adams, the wife of my good friend Randy Adams - the owner of the Creekside Bar and Grill here in Davenport - passed away on Monday evening due to what was diagnosed as Angiosarcoma, a not so common form of cancer. Lorrie had been in declining health over the past few months suffering a minor stroke about five months ago and being in and out of the hospital as they tried their best to find out what exactly was wrong with her. After an M.R.I. and then a subsequent upper G.I. showed a growth on her heart, a specialist from Loyola Medical Center in Chicago was brought in to Trinity Health Center's Rock Island campus to work on Lorrie on Monday. No one expected anything less than another miracle of modern medicine, but it turned out that the growth on her heart was a golf ball sized cancerous tumor. After the doctor cut that off her heart, he began to look in her lungs as she had been having trouble breathing as of late and it appeared that a blood clot had developed. When the doctor opened her lungs, he found they were ravaged with cancerous tumors. There wasn't much he could do other than try to make her comfortable for the final hours of her life. She passed away on Monday evening. She was 42. (Click here to read her obituary in the Quad City Times.)

This has been especially tough on Randy, as well as Lorrie's father, Randy Brekke, who does the ribs at Creekside Bar and Grill. And it's been tough on me, as well. Seeing my friends grieve the way they have this week has been very hard. No one was expecting this, although Lorrie had been battling health problems for years.

She was a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma survivor about 8 years ago. She moved back to Iowa about five years ago and picked up a romance with Randy that began over 15 years ago. When they decided to get married, Lorrie asked me if I'd become an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church. I'm far from being a religious or spiritual person, but I thought enough of Lorrie and Randy to get my credentials and to perform the ceremony in the rose garden of Vandeveer Park in Davenport on September 18, 2010.

The Brekke/Adams link has been in place since Randy Adams and Randy Brekke met during an apprentice program at the Rock Island Arsenal 20 years ago. Many of those people in that class all became good and close friends, and even though I wasn't in the class, I became good friends with many of them, as well. When Lorrie came back to Iowa for a visit in the early 90's, Randy had just gone through a divorce and they sort of got together. Actually, their first date was a Billy Joel concert - they went to it with Cindy and I. I don't remember too much about the concert other than we all got drunker than hell on Leinenkugel Red that evening.

Lorrie eventually went back to California, Randy found a lady in Davenport and got married, then divorced about five years ago. When Lorrie decided to come back to Iowa to live, she found out that Randy was getting a divorce and they immediately hooked up for good. As Randy Brekke told me earlier this week, "They were just meant to be with one another."

After Randy got Creekside Bar and Grill back from his ex-wife, Lorrie immediately put her mark on the place. She changed the menu, changed the food purveyors, changed a lot of the staff and really whipped the place into shape. Her two sons, Stephen and Ryan, stepped in to work the grill and they came up with some interesting new menu items. Lorrie could be a little bull-headed and abrasive to some, but she was also a smart and determined person who knew what she wanted. Randy proudly called her a co-owner of the place, even after she went back to working as a unit secretary full-time at Trinity's Bettendorf location as the bar was beginning to burn her out.

Lorrie's memorial service is later today and it promises to be one filled with tears and laughter. Actually, Lorrie would be the kind of person who would be upset if people were crying over her demise. She had an infectious laugh and I'm going to miss that. In fact, I told both Randy's earlier this week that I really wished I would have had a recording of Lorrie's fast-paced cackling laugh. It immediately brought a smile to my face when I would hear it.

Randy and Lorrie were able to get away a few weeks ago to head down to Memphis and Tunica, MS for a few days. Randy said, "I'm glad we were able to do that. She'd wanted to do that for a long time. But I certainly didn't expect that to be our last trip together."

No one did. That's the precious thing about life. Lorrie will be missed by friends and family, but none more than Randy. And that's the toughest part for me seeing an old friend grieve the way he has. Time will eventually heal the hurt, but with Randy's love for Lorrie, it will take a long time.

Boneyard Barbecue - Champaign, IL

I had finished my morning meetings in Champaign on a recent visit there and I had contemplated stopping at The Burger Barge outside of Peoria for a burger on the way home.  The only problem is that by the time I would have gotten there it would have been close to 3 p.m., too late to enjoy a great burger if I was planning on eating with my wife later that evening.  I decided to go find a barbecue restaurant that I'd driven past on my way into Champaign the previous evening - Boneyard Barbecue.  I pulled in there around 1:30 and had missed the lunch rush. 

Boneyard Barbecue is located at 25 E. Springfield St. in what was the old Fireside restaurant.  (See map)  After a place called Rocks closed up in the summer of 2009, Anthony Donato teamed up with Eddie Geovanti's - owner of Geovanti's in Champaign - to open the Fireside, a contemporary bar and grill known for their wings, burgers and - for Springfield, IL natives - their own variation of the horseshoe sandwich.  

Donato eventually bought Eddie Geovanti out of both the Fireside and Geovanti's, but found that running both businesses was troublesome, considering he also ran a property and business management company on the side.  Enter George Dries.

Dries was the owner of BoBo's BBQ, which was basically a mobile food service that parked in lots around Champaign selling his Southern-style barbecue out of his food truck since 2008.  Bobo's was a popular destination for people in and around Champaign and he soon found that he needed a permanent place to sell his barbecue.  Donato was looking for a partner for the Fireside location and the two got together to change the bar and grill into Boneyard Barbecue in the fall of 2011.  

Dries and Donato updated the inside of the restaurant to make it more of a sports bar atmosphere that also sold burgers and sandwiches along with BoBo's barbecue specialties.  There is an outdoor patio (albeit along busy Springfield Ave.) and a large party room for private events.  The owners are also huge University of Illinois sports fans and the outside of the building is painted in the school colors of navy blue and orange.  Large "I's" for Illinois adorn the outside of the building.  For an Iowa Hawkeyes fan like me, it was a little galling to walk into the place.  

I took a seat along the north side of the rectangular bar with the windows looking out onto the patio behind me.  I was greeted by a bartender, Hannah, who was outgoing and chatty.  Rather chatty.  Actually, I noticed that with all the help at Boneyard Barbecue were chatty with their customers.  Not that there were a lot of customers in the place at that time of the day, but Hannah sure liked to talk.  

She gave me a menu to look through and, as always, when I go to a barbecue place that I'm not familiar with I like to go for a combination platter just to try a little bit of everything.  They had a handful of combinations - brisket and pulled pork, ribs and brisket, ribs and chicken, ribs and pulled pork.  Actually, what I really wanted was ribs, pulled pork and brisket.  I just decided to go with the brisket and pulled pork.  What was sort of interesting and rather peculiar was that you had to order your choice of barbecue sauce to go on the meat.  They didn't have sauce bottles or containers anywhere in the restaurant.  You had your choice of mild or hot, or a combination of the two.  I got mine with the combination.

Two sides came with the barbecue platter - I got baked beans and mac & cheese.  I had to pick between those two and fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, cole slaw, sweet potato fries, cottage cheese or green beans.  

After about 10 minutes, Hannah came out with my barbecue combination.  The mac & cheese, I could tell, was going to be pedestrian, at best.  And it was.  And the baked beans weren't much better.  I should have asked her for some sauce on the side to help zip up the beans because they were pretty weak on taste.  And that was another minor quibble on my part - there was no extra sauce available in bottles or containers. 

The brisket was more of a pulled beef variety rather than sliced.  However, it was moist, tender and tasted good with the smoky and very sweet barbecue sauce that Boneyard Barbecue had to offer. I forked some of the excess sauce on the plate in with a bite of the baked beans and it helped the taste tremendously.  

The ribs featured four bones slathered in the barbecue sauce.  I really wish I would have gotten the sauce on the side when I got to the ribs because I could tell that they had a unique rub on the outside.  The ribs were very meaty, also moist and tender.  The sauce was a little overpowering for the taste of the rib meat.  It was also so sweet it was sticky.  One thing that Boneyard Barbecue needs to offer is wet naps or at least a warm wet towel to use while eating the ribs.  I had to go into the restroom and "squeegee" my face and hands off after I finished the meal.  

Hannah came over to me and asked, "How was it?"  I told her the truth - it was good.  I can't say it was outstanding barbecue, but it was good.  I've gotten spoiled on good barbecue in Kansas City and in Des Moines, two places that, I feel, has the best barbecue in the Midwest.  But Boneyard Barbecue acquitted themselves very well and would have stacked up against many barbecue places I've eaten at in the past.  If I do get a chance to go back I'll try the ribs dry or with sauce on the side.  I want to taste the meat on the ribs without the interference of the sauce.  Not that there is anything wrong with the sauce, but it did overpower the taste of the meat.  And I've found that if barbecue joints do that with their meat, they're trying to hide something.  

(Update - In a growing eclectic barbecue market in Champaign/Urbana, it appeared that Boneyard Barbecue couldn't keep up.  They are now closed.) 

Maid-Rite (Mr. Dan's Sandwich Shop) - Newton, IA

 

 

If there's anything that causes more food arguments in the state of Iowa, it has to be Maid-Rites. Maid-Rites are, quite simply, loose meat beef sandwiches served on buns. It's like a hamburger, only the meat is steamed in bins and falls out on wax paper as you eat them. In the 1900's, nearly every town of any size in Iowa had a Maid-Rite and natives from each of those towns will swear that their local Maid-Rite is the best. I grew up in Newton, IA and the oldest continuous Maid-Rite-style shop is located there. And while the sign out front still says "Maid-Rite", the official name of the place is now Mr. Dan's Sandwich Shop. But to the locals in Newton, it's still the Maid-Rite.

The Newton Maid-Rite has a long and interesting history behind it. Here it is -

After he opened the original Maid-Rite sandwich shop in Muscatine in 1925, Fred Angell was looking for a location to put a second restaurant. He settled upon the Central Iowa town of Newton, home of the burgeoning Maytag Washer Company. Fred figured the workers would love his loose-meat sandwiches.

The Newton Maid-Rite opened in 1926 and it was originally known as the Maid-Rite Hamburg. The original building was a stucco and wood structure with two entrances on the front side. To get from one side of the counter to the other, patrons would have to walk out the front door on the one side and re-enter in the door on the opposite side.  There was a wooden sign out front cut in the form of a lady with a broom. I believe this may have been the Maid-Rite Maiden that Angell's wife used as the first logo of Maid-Rite shops. Angell ran the Newton location for six months before selling it to Gus Foster. 

Mr. Foster ran the Maid-Rite in Newton until 1937 when he sold it to Ethel Shelley, who was described as a "colorful lady." Some older people in Newton remember Ms. Shelley and fondly remember her running the shop in the late 30's into the early 40's.

Also in 1937, two years after franchising the Maid-Rite name (the first food franchise in the Midwest), Fred Angell decreed that all Maid-Rite's add a seasoning to their meat. Ms. Shelley and Cliff Taylor, who founded and owned the Marshalltown Maid-Rite location since 1928, decided that they didn't want to use the seasoning. I understand they fought Angell who finally backed down on his commandment. Actually, I believe every Maid-Rite that was franchised after 1937 had to use the seasoning, but the Newton Maid-Rite and Taylor's Maid-Rite in Marshalltown were "grandfathered" in to not having to use the seasonings.

In 1944, Cliff Taylor passed away and his son, Don, took over Taylor's Maid-Rite. Don Taylor then bought the Newton Maid-Rite from Ethel Shelley. A young man by the name of Quentin "Bud" Holland who worked for the Taylor family in Marshalltown was asked to move to Newton to run the operation there. Bud and his wife, Marty, moved to Newton where they raised two girls, Mardy and Chris.  Bud and Marty Holland eventually purchased the Maid-Rite in Newton from Don Taylor in 1958 and promptly renamed it Bud's Maid-Rite. 

In 1962, the front half of the Maid-Rite in Newton was reconstructed. While it was being built, patrons ate in a screened in room in the back of the building. The locals referred to it as "the shack in the back."  After the renovation, it became the present day building with a single entrance in the front.  

In 1964, Mardy Holland was a junior in high school and her younger sister, Chris, was a sophomore. Bud and Marty decided to add a room in the back of the building.  This became sort of the defacto "teen center" in Newton. It had a serving counter in back, a jukebox and booths for the teen-aged kids to hang out. With sisters who were Mardy and Chris' age, I remember this part of the Maid-Rite very vividly. It was the place to go if you were a teenager in Newton in the mid to late 60's. 

In 1970, Bud and Marty retired and sold the Maid-Rite to Dan and Pam Holtkamp. The Holtkamp's had moved to Newton in 1968 as Dan had taken a job as an accountant for the old Parson's Manufacturing. They fell in love with Newton and wanted to make the town their permanent home to raise their kids. The Holtkamp's jumped head first into the business. Dan had a degree in business and one of the golden rules in business school is not to tamper with success. The Holtkamp's did little to the Maid-Rite after they took over and the transition was smooth. In fact, for years people still referred to the Maid-Rite as just "Bud's".

About the biggest change the Holtkamp's did was to take out the teen room in the back, change that into a full service seating area and open a back entrance to the restaurant. They also put in a drive-up window for people to get their Maid-Rites, fries and shakes. The Holtkamp's also introduced a smaller Maid-Rite - the Joey Rite (named after their son) - for smaller appetites. The Danielle Special (named after their daughter) was a Joey Rite, small soft drink and ice cream. The Holtkamp's also put in the Jaarsma Connection, a small counter in the back of the restaurant that served fresh Dutch pastries from the Jaarsma Bakery in Pella, IA.

Today, the back room has pencil sketches on the wall above the booths of the four owners of the Maid-Rite since late 1926 (below left).

One thing that Dan did not do was change the way the meat was prepared at the Maid-Rite. He told me one time that he doesn't use any seasonings in his meats, the way his predecessors did in their day. And the key is that he buys his meat from the same supplier who Bud Holland was using for years before Dan became the owner. Dan continues to grind his own beef in the basement. The taste of the Newton Maid-Rite comes from the old steamer that is used to cook the meat (above right). The steamer has been internally seasoned over the decades that it's been used to make countless Maid-Rites. The only thing that is added is a little bit of salt added to the top of the meat before the Maid-Rite is wrapped up in wax paper.

In 1982, the Angell family sold the Maid-Rite franchises to a company in Des Moines. The Maid-Rite franchise company was eventually bought by a gentleman by the name of Bradley Burt who insisted that all Maid-Rite franchises have uniformity in the way they prepared their sandwiches. He wanted - no, demanded - that all Maid-Rites buy their meat from his company and prepare it in a specific way. Dan Holtkamp and Don Short, the grandson of Cliff Taylor, resisted the changes and were allowed to continue to do business they way they had.

However, in 2006, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals decided that the bins that the older Maid-Rites around the state used were deemed to be "unhealthy" as they allowed for the cooking of raw meat next to fully cooked meat. This is a process that Maid-Rites have used for well over 70 years, and they usually have a stainless steel partition in the bin to keep the cooked meat from the raw meat. Once the raw meat is cooked through, the partition is removed and the meat is all mixed together. As far as I know, no one has ever gotten sick from this type of cooking method.

Both Short and Holtkamp said that the changeover to new steamers would be cost ineffective for their businesses and Short led the appeal to the state of Iowa to overturn the ruling. However, it was determined that the original Maid-Rites were in violation of the administrative guidelines set forth by the Iowa Department of Inspections. But, both the Newton Maid-Rite and Taylor's in Marshalltown use the same old steamers and cooking process, so I'm guessing they were able to beat the ruling somewhere along the way.

The biggest change happened a few years ago when Dan Holtkamp silently changed the name of his shop to "Mr. Dan's Sandwich Shop". For years, Holtkamp's workers referred to him as "Mr. Dan" and the nickname stuck. Dan is still running the place daily, his big smile and friendly demeanor greeting customers as they come in. Dan told me, "You know, I'm 72 years old and I've owned this place for 41 years. If I'm able to - and I plan on doing it - in five more years I'll have owned this business in the same amount of years that all three of the previous owners owned it." I'm not betting against him.

Sadly, one of the biggest changes to Dan's business has been the downturn thanks to the closing of Maytag in 2007. Lunch time at the Newton Maid-Rite was an adventure and scene of much jockeying of seats throughout the place trying to get a Maid-Rite and get back to work at the office or factory. I learned a long time ago that you just don't go to Maid-Rite between noon and 1 p.m. on weekdays. Unfortunately, that isn't the case any longer. Business at the Newton Maid-Rite is still steady, but it's not at the same level that it was years ago.

During Newton High School reunion weekends, the Maid-Rite is overrun by former residents back in town for their class reunions. The blackboard on the east side wall has been there for years announcing food specials, game scores, events and even allowing patrons to post their own notes on the board. The menu boards on both walls, I have to believe, are the same ones that have been in the place since Bud Holland refurbished the place in 1962. The front part of the Newton Maid-Rite hasn't changed much - if any - since the building was reconstructed 50 years ago.

I was passing through Newton on my way home recently and decided to stop in and have a Maid-Rite. Actually, I like their Cheese-rites - basically a Maid-Rite with a slice of American cheese on top. And I love to drink milk with my Maid-Rites and/or Cheese-rites. Don't know where I got that from, but I always order a large milk when I have a Maid-Rite.

The Cheese-rites are wrapped in an outer wrap with yellow stripes to denote the cheese on the sandwich. When the Cheese-rite is unwrapped, the excess meat falls out. A spoon is provided to pick up the loose meat on the wrapper. In the winter time, the Maid-Rite also has chili and it's good chili. What I like to do is get a bowl of chili and pour the excess meat into the chili after I have the Cheese-rite.

Some people will ask for the Maid-Rite/Cheese-Rite moist. I like mine a little dry, just as ordered. Like the original Maid-Rites, everything is mustard, pickle and onion. I put a little ketchup and, surprisingly, a little more salt on my Cheese-Rites before I eat them. I hardly EVER put salt on anything, but I like my Cheese-rites salty. The buns that Dan uses are pretty basic, but it's never really been about the bun at Maid-Rite all the way back to the day of Bud Holland. The meat is the thing that keeps bringing me back to the Newton Maid-Rite.

It's sort of like the people in the Quad Cities who grew up eating Harris Pizza and thinking that it is the best pizza in the world. Being from Newton, I think the Maid-Rites from the Newton Maid-Rite are the best in the world. I will admit there are others who think Taylor's in Marshalltown is better. Of course, there are thousands of natives of Ottumwa who think the Canteen's at the Canteen Lunch are the best. People in Sioux City think the "taverns" at Miles Inn are the best. But I could easily be accused of being provincial when it comes to the Newton Maid-Rite, or more correctly Mr. Dan's Sandwich Shop. It's the oldest and, I think, the best.

Let the debate continue...

El Toro Restaurante - Champaign, IL

I spent the night in Champaign, IL recently, in town for a morning meeting the next day.  It was one of those evenings where I really didn't know what I wanted for dinner.  Being on the road so much, I sometimes get burned out on restaurants and don't know exactly what I would like to eat on a given night.  I had thought about Indian or barbecue.  There was a steakhouse just down the street from my hotel.  I decided to get in the car and head north on Neil Street toward the downtown area.  I passed William St. and I noticed a restaurant with a lighted and festive looking outdoor patio.  It piqued my interest, so I went back around the block to see what it was.  It turned out it was a Mexican restaurant - El Toro Restaurante. (See map) I debated with myself for a few seconds trying to determine whether or not I wanted Mexican food or not.  Then I thought, "You know, a margarita would taste pretty good."  So I pulled into the parking lot on the west side of the building and went inside.

El Toro is a 10 restaurant family-owned regional chain with three locations in Champaign/Urbana, and five more Illinois locations in Rantoul, Bloomington, Monticello, Danville and St. Joseph.  They also have El Toro Bravo restaurants in Cincinnati, OH, and Walton, KY on the southern edge of the Cincinnati metro area.  The original restaurant is on W. Springfield Ave. in Champaign.  In 1998, Victor Fuentes and his uncle, Manuel, opened their first restaurant, originally called El Torero.  It was a small place, seating only about 100 people, tops.  The Fuentes were joined by Victor's brothers and sisters, his wife and other family members in the business.  

The Fuentes family opened their second location - called El Toro I - in Urbana in 2002.  A third location on S. Neil Street opened in 2004.  Their growth continued with the purchase of a Mexican restaurant in Springfield, IL (since closed) and opening the St. Joseph location in 2007.  They moved from the original location to a space that was two and a half times larger on W. Springfield early in 2007.  Victor and his brother, Sammy, are the main partners in the El Toro chain today.  

Business at the S. Neil St. location had also grown tremendously over the years.  They ended up moving in February of 2011 to a new location at the corner of William St. and S. Neil, closer to downtown.  Even though the restaurant faces William St. and the main entrance is from the parking lot behind the building, the restaurant location maintains a Neil St. address.   

It was around 7:30 when I got into the place.  I was met at the hostess stand by a pleasant young lady who asked me if I wanted to eat in the bar or in the dining room.  I took a look in the bar area, a very nice bar area that had high tables, high backed chairs, a nice bar with a couple televisions on the back wall.  

There are two dining rooms in this particular El Toro - the middle room off the bar area that is well-lit, and the front dining room that features a fireplace, wooden beams across the ceiling and full-size windows looking out onto the patio on the south side of the building.  Since it was still winter, the patio was closed, but strings of lights illuminated the outside of the place.  

The hostess sat me at a table in the middle room off the bar area and dropped off a menu with a small menu listing their specials they had that night.  My server for the evening, Alfredo - a pleasant 40-something man - came over to ask me what I wanted to drink.  I told him that I wanted a margarita on the rocks, no salt.  

As I waited for the margarita, I took a quick look through the menu at El Toro.  Now, I've said for a number of years that there has to be some sort of a Mexican restaurant godfather who comes up with the menu items for Mexican restaurants.  A number of them - like Azteca in the Quad Cities and El Maguey in the St. Louis area - all seemed to have the same combinations and under the same number.  El Toro was another cookie-cutter Mexican restaurant when it came to their menu.  Combination number 23 on the El Toro menu is a taco, chile relleno and a tostaguac - which, I believe - is the number 22 on the Azteca menu.  The number 1 on the El Toro menu - a taco, two enchiladas with rice and beans - is, I believe, number 1 on the El Maguey menu.  Nevertheless, it's all good in my book.  It's like going into a McDonald's and knowing that the number 4 value meal is the same everywhere.  

Alfredo came out with my margarita.  Chips and salsa had been placed on the table by another server moments earlier.  He wanted to know if I was ready to order.  Since the menu was similar to many other Mexican restaurants like El Toro, you'd think I'd have an idea as to what I wanted.  But I really didn't.  They had a lot of seafood specialties on the menu - I was leaning heavily toward the shrimp tacos.  But I was thinking of getting a chimichanga or maybe some fajitas.  I told Alfredo that I needed a little more time.  

The chips were fresh and warm and the salsa was pretty average.  It was very similar to the other cookie-cutter Mexican restaurants where I've eaten. The salsa wasn't bad at all, just similar to others.  

The margarita, I have to say, was outstanding.  The mix was not overly sweet or syrupy.  It had an adequate amount of tequila in the mix - at least enough where I could taste the booze.  I made short work of the margarita.  

I had picked up the specials list for the night and saw something on there call the "Fajita burrito" - a large burrito filled with fajita meat (your choice - chorizo, chicken or steak) with grilled onions and bell peppers, then guacamole is added.  It's folded and then topped with a melted Mexican cheese.  When Alfredo came back I ended up ordering the steak fajita burrito.  Even though the margarita was excellent, I decided for my next drink to get a bottle of Dos Equis Amber beer. 

My meal took a little longer to get out to me than normal for Mexican restaurants of El Toro's type.  I'm sure they were cooking everything up from scratch on the grill and then placing it inside the burrito.  It was a huge burrito that covered the majority of the large plate that it came on.  There were some herbs - probably cilantro - that were mixed in with the Mexican cheese sauce on top of the burrito. 

The burrito was packed with a lot of meat and veggies.  The steak fajita meat was good and flavorful.  It wasn't outstanding or it didn't knock my socks off.  But it was typical of this type of Mexican restaurant.  Good and serviceable.  That's all I'm looking for in a Mexican restaurant like this.  

I couldn't eat the whole thing, so I ended up picking most of the steak out of the center of the burrito.  I dipped the steak in the salsa a couple times to help zip up the taste and that was good.  I ate what I could and left a good portion of the large burrito on my plate.  Alfredo wanted to know if I wanted a box, but I declined.  It was all I needed.

The fajita burrito special at El Toro was a great value - $7.95 for that big thing.  My bar tab for the margarita and the Dos Equis Amber was higher than my food tab (like that's a surprise).  As I said, the burrito was good - not outstanding - but good Mexican-style comfort food.  The margarita was well above average.  At a place like El Toro you know you're going to get a pretty good meal at a pretty fair price.  I'm sure there are other options for Mexican food in Champaign, but considering I sort of came across El Toro as I was driving down the street I was happy that I found it.  The margarita, alone, is worth the trip to one of their locations.  That is, if they make them all the same - and I'm guessing they do. 

Yats Cajun and Creole - Greenwood, IN

I had eaten at Yats Cajun and Creole restaurant in Indianapolis a few years ago and I thought the food was pretty good (see that entry here). On a recent trip to Indy, I had booked a room in the far southern Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood and I got into town late in the day. I was hungry and wanted something quick. Not far from my hotel at the corner of E. County Line Road and US Highway 31, across from the Greenwood Park Mall is a Yats location. (see map) I pulled in just moments before they were scheduled to close.

My initial visit to Yat's on Massachusetts Ave. (known as "Mass Ave." to the locals) just north and east of downtown Indianapolis was about six years ago. I had the gumbo on that visit and it was very good. I was sort of looking forward to trying something else on their limited menu of Cajun food.

I did some digging into the background of Yats for this particular entry on Road Tips and found that the owner/founder of Yats seemed to be a pretty interesting guy. Joe Vuskovich (pictured right) is a Louisiana native who learned the tricks of Cajun food as he worked in his family's oyster boat business. Yearning to strike out on his own, at the age of 19 he opened his first restaurant - Visko's Seafood - in Gretna, LA just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans. Helped out by family members, the young Vuskovich soon opened a second restaurant - The Steam Room - in New Orleans. Both restaurants were so successful that he was named the 1979 American Express Restaurateur of the Year, given out annually by the National Restaurant Association.

However, still being a young guy, Vuskovich felt that he was getting burnt out on the restaurant business. He ended up moving to Palm Beach, FL and taking up the game of polo. It had become somewhat of a passion for him in New Orleans and he decided to go head long into the game in what is arguably the polo capital of North America.

Vuskovich had an older brother who was a doctor in Florida who decided that he wanted to move to Lexington, KY and follow his passion for race horses. Joe Vuskovich decided to follow his brother up to Kentucky and began to grow herbs and spices in a green house where he would grind and package the Cajun spices and sell to restaurants and restaurant supply houses. It was in Lexington where he met his wife, Regina, who became his business partner.

Vuskovich opened his first Yats restaurant (the terms "Yat" is a New Orleans native's way of asking "Hey, were you at?" Only it comes out sort of like "Hah, where yat?") in Lexington in 1996. They continued to grow their herbs and spices to sell to Cajun restaurants. It was a good thing they didn't give up their Cajun seasonings business because the people in the heart of the Blue Grass State didn't take well to Vuskovich's authentic Cajun cuisine.

(Pictured left - Joe and Regina Vuskovich. Photo courtesy Indy.com)

In 2001, the Vuskovich's Cajun seasoning business faced a crossroads. A couple of their largest wholesale accounts went out of business and they'd lost a handful of restaurants that they would pre-packaged specific Cajun spice blends. On top of that, they were faced with a renovation of the dilapidated buildings the Vuskovich's had to grow their herbs and spices in. Trying to figure out something new to do, they took off toward Chicago to see what opportunities they might get into next. However, an overnight stop in Indianapolis showed the Vuskovich's that this mid-sized American city could use an authentic Cajun-style restaurant. The couple instantly fell in love with the place and opened their first Yats location on College Ave. in Broadripple (see map). It was a no-frills, counter service only restaurant that served the authentic Cajun specialties that Vuskovich grew up with in Louisiana.

The first three months were slow and the Vuskovich's wondered if Indiana was more of a "meat and potato" state. However, a good review of the place started to bring people in. Suddenly it was the hottest restaurant in Indianapolis. They opened their second location in the Mass Ave. Art District area of Indy and then opened locations up in Fisher's on 96th St. (see map) and down south in Greenwood. I understand the Vuskovich's are looking to put in a location in Bloomington near the Indiana University campus.

The Yats locations in and around Indianapolis are only open until 9 p.m. through the week and it was about 8:45 when I walked in. The menu in the restaurant is located on a chalk board near the front counter and it can change daily - and even hourly. When I got into the restaurant, it was practically empty of customers and a number of items on the board were crossed out. "We were pretty busy earlier," the young guy behind the counter explained to me.

One thing that Yats is famous for is their Maque Choux (roughly pronounced Mock Shoo), a traditional Southern Louisiana dish that combines corn, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, onion and celery that are braised in bacon fat, then cooked with a chicken stock before chicken, crawfish and/or shrimp are added later on. I was sort of upset to find that they were out of the Maque Choux that particular evening. "One of our more popular dishes," the young guy told me.

With not much on the menu to choose from - and I'm sure these guys were getting impatient with a late straggler walking in - I ordered a half and half order of red beans with andoiulle sausage and rice, and another Yats specialty, chili cheese etoufee with crawfish. They basically take chili cheese sauce, add crawfish in with it and spread it over rice. A half and half order is $7.95 and comes with a couple slices of Yats homemade butter toasted bread.

They don't have beer at Yats - about the only minus I can see in the place - so I just had water with my meal. It wasn't more than a couple minutes when I head the cook in the back yell, "Red beans and sausage, chili cheese etoufee half and half!" My plate was sitting on a ledge across from the soft drink dispenser which, in turn, was next to a shelf with all different kinds of hot sauce with little tubs that you can pour the sauce into. Since no one else was in the restaurant at that time, I just grabbed a bottle of Tabasco to take back to the table with me.

The red beans with the andoiulle sausage was good. It had large spicy chunks of sausage and the mixture was very good. Zapping it with liberal amounts of Tabasco helped zip it up even a little more.

The chili cheese etoufee was, well, interesting. To look at it sitting over the rice, it didn't look too appetizing. But the etoufee had a smoky cheese taste to it. Bite sized chunks of crawfish were interspersed throughout the mixture and with the help of Tabasco it was a pretty enjoyable concoction. I wasn't certain what I liked better - the red beans and sausage or the chili cheese etoufee. Both were good, not outstanding, but completely serviceable as a fast, authentic Cajun style offering.

And it was filling. I was having trouble finishing what I had on the plate. Both portions were more than enough for that late in the evening.

As I was eating my food, another couple came in to order food. "You guys still open," the guy asked the counter man.

"We're still open," he replied. "As long as the 'open' light is on and the door's unlocked, we're open!" He was a very likable guy, to say the least.

Suddenly a man walked in and he was there to pick up a to-go order. After he got his order, someone else came in to pick up another to-go order. I heard the cook in the back said, "We always seem to get busy right before we close."

I really liked Yats gumbo on my first visit to the Mass Ave. location a number of years ago. On my second visit to the Greenwood location I found the food to be good, above average compared to other Cajun places I've been to. It was quick and completely authentic Cajun food served in the heart of America. I can see why it has become such a favorite restaurant for those who live in Indianapolis. It's no-frills approach offers absolutely no pretension on the part of the Vuskovich's who, from the research I came up with, appear to be some fun-loving people. That fun-loving ideology is what helps make Yats so good. The menu may be limited, but it's guaranteed to be fresh each day. One of these days I will go back and I will try the Maque Choux. That is, if they aren't sold out that particular day.

Black Forest Inn - Minneapolis

A few years ago, a casual friend of mine suggested that I try the Black Forest Inn restaurant in Minneapolis, a German restaurant that has been in business for right at 47 years (as of next Tuesday). I kept it on my culinary radar for quite sometime until I had an appointment near downtown Minneapolis one day on a recent trip to the Twin Cities and I decided to find the Black Forest Inn and have a little lunch. I found it on the southeast corner of Nicollet and 26th Ave. just south of downtown and west of I-35W (see map).

Black Forest Inn is located along a mile and a half stretch of Nicollet that is known to the locals as Eat Street. There are literally dozens of restaurants along Nicollet featuring all different types of cuisine, most of them are cheap to moderately priced. Many of the restaurants are Asian-based, but you'll find a number of ethnic-based restaurants of all types along the stretch of Nicollet.

Erich and Gerhard Christ opened the Black Forest Inn on May 15, 1965. It was basically a small bar with an even smaller kitchen where Erich would make a handful of German specialties. Somewhere along the way Gerhard Christ departed and Erich was joined in the business by his new wife, Joanne, whom he married in 1968. In the mid-70's, the Christ's bought the property next to them, a dilapidated old building that they tore down and put in a German style beer garden along side the restaurant.

About 10 years later, the Christ's expanded their restaurant once again to put in an expanded kitchen which included a butcher area and a bakery. Black Forest Inn prides itself in the fact that they make everything on their menu from scratch in their kitchen and bakery. Within the past few years, the Black Forest Inn has added a breakfast menu that includes authentic German-style oven-baked apple pancakes.

It was just after noon when I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by Kelley, a young and cheerful waitress. She asked if I wanted a table or a booth. I went with the booth, which was old and wooden, probably from an old restaurant or pub that were probably moved to the Black Forest Inn a number of years ago. The first thing that struck me about the place was the smell of nutmeg that permeated the air. There's something about nutmeg and German food that I simply love.

The other thing about the place was the amount of artwork, ornate woodwork and antique lights throughout the place. There were two brightly colored antique gas light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, a ceiling that featured some equally brightly colored paneled artwork. From the front of the restaurant, throughout the two dining areas and into the bar, the Black Forest Inn is literally its own art gallery. Click here to learn more about the artwork and decorations throughout the restaurant.

The bar area features a an old wooden bar with a series of etched paneled windows along the back. Glasses hang from the ceiling above the bar and old world beer spigots come up from the front of the bar. The beer garden sits just beyond the bar area. Walking into the bar is like walking into a Bavarian country inn.

One of the most noteworthy pieces of art at the Black Forest Inn is a photograph by the famed portrait photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon was in Minneapolis in 1970 attending a showing of his work at the nearby Minneapolis Institute of Arts and frequented the bar at the Black Forest Inn during his time in Minneapolis. At the end of the exhibition, Avedon presented the Christ's a large photograph that he took of the Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution at a soiree they were attending in Washington, DC about 7 years prior. It surprised the Christ's as they didn't really know Avedon all that well, but they happily hung it on the north wall of the bar.

In 1986, a regular patron of the Black Forest Inn bar, a one Ellis Nelson, had a few German beers to drink one particular day and decided that the photograph annoyed him. He took out a pistol and shot at the photograph three times. Two of the shots hit the photograph - click on the picture to enlarge it - one hit a lady in the back left in the chest, the other hit a lady in the back right just above the eye. The third bullet hit the wall.

Of course, all hell broke loose inside the restaurant and Nelson calmly got up, went to the nearest police station and turned himself in. Nelson was charged with a misdemeanor, fined and had to give up his firearm. When informed of the attack, Avedon was said to be very upset. The Christ's looked into what it would cost to fix the photograph, but when informed the costs would be astronomical, they left it as it is. When Avedon passed away in 2004, the Christ's shrouded the picture with a black sash.

The lunch menu at the Black Forest Inn is basically a condensed version of their dinner menu with a handful of soups, salads and sandwiches added in. I was kind of in the mood for an authentic German dish and they had both a wiener schnitzel and sauerbraten on the lunch menu. They also had a bratwurst entree with the sausages made in house. I took a look at the reuben for a second, but decided that I was getting kind of burnt on reubens as of late. So, it was down to the schnitzel or the sauerbraten. When Kelley came back I mentally flipped a coin and it came up sauerbraten. I also got a side of their red cabbage to go along with the meal. I also got a pint of the Spaten Lager beer with my lunch.

Surprisingly, it wasn't all that busy so it didn't take long before Kelley came out with my food. The ample amount of sauerbraten came with a side of spatzle, made fresh daily, and a generous serving of gravy. I also got a couple of homemade German-style hard rolls with butter. While the beef sauerbraten was very tender, the taste of the meat was bland. Very bland. I couldn't really taste anything in the beef. And I was waiting for the tangy taste of nutmeg or ginger in the gravy, but there was none. It was highly disappointing.

The red cabbage was slightly better, but served at almost room temperature. It wasn't warm at all, but it did have some good flavor to it. It was much better than the sauerbraten, but was also disappointing in that it wasn't served warmer than it was.

I did finish the disappointing sauerbraten, bland gravy and all, and made a serious dent in the red cabbage and some of the spatzle. It's hard to say this, but the highlight of the meal was the Spaten Lager beer. Compared to a number of German restaurants that I've been to over the past few years, Black Forest Inn was at the low end of the scale. I was very disappointed in the food, although the service I received from Kelley was exemplary. It wasn't very busy at the Black Forest Inn during the height of the lunch hour and I wonder if that has anything to do with the food. Even so, the bar area alone would be worth going there for a couple beers and to see the Avedon photograph with the bullet holes and the rest of the artwork the Christ's have on display. I'm not certain I'd get the food.

Pazzesco Pasta and Chophouse - Ames, IA

I found myself in Ames, Iowa one evening staying overnight for an early morning meeting with a prospective dealer. Not knowing much about the culinary fare of Ames, I asked the girl at the front desk if there was a steakhouse or an Italian restaurant that she recommended. Her face lit up and said, "Yeah! Actually, you can have both at a place not far from here!" She recommended I try Pazzesco Pasta and Chophouse out on the western edge of Ames on Lincoln Way (see map).

Pazzesco (pronounced Pad-ZEE-sko), which roughly means "wild, crazy and fantastic" in Italian is the brain child of Chris Patterson, a native of nearby Nevada, IA (we Iowans pronounce Nevada as "nuh-VAY-da" with the long "A" in the middle). Patterson was a graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Industrial Administration and co-founded GNC Restaurants, a multi-concept restaurant group based out of Ames. He ran GNC for about five years before moving on to work for the Cracker Barrel restaurants.

After becoming a District Manager for Cracker Barrel, Patterson went on to work as a Regional Manager for Canyon Cafe, a Southwestern-cuisine restaurant chain based in Dallas. Patterson worked for Canyon Cafe for four years before the restaurants were purchased by AVADO Brands, a restaurant holding company that owned a number of Don Pablo's Mexican restaurants as well as a number of Hops Grillhouse and Brewery locations. (AVADO filed for bankruptcy in 2007.)

Soon thereafter, Patterson (pictured right) then went on to work with the Leeann Chin, a Twin Cities-based contemporary Chinese fast food chain. Patterson opened the first 3 Leeann Chin locations in Kansas City, eventually opening 7 total in the area. From Leeann Chin, Patterson went on to become the President and C.O.O. of Austin Grill, a multi-location Tex-Mex restaurant in the Washington D.C. area.

After Austin Grill was sold in 2008, Patterson decided that he wanted to do something else. He wasn't overly happy with the new owners and he was finding solace in music. He had formed an alternative country music group - Leaving, TX - in 2004 and the group had gained somewhat of a following in the Washington D.C. area and even toured parts of Europe. But the restaurant business was in his blood and he decided to move back to his roots in Iowa soon after Austin Grill was sold.

The Broiler steakhouse on the far west side of Ames was a popular place to eat for over 45 years. (Years ago I had a t-shirt with "The Broiler" on the front of it. Don't quite remember how I got it as I'd never been to The Broiler, but I used to wear it all the time when I played basketball.) The original Broiler closed for awhile around 2007, but reopened in the fall of 2008. It didn't last long, closing for good sometime in 2009. The building sat idle until Patterson came back to Ames and decided to open an Italian steakhouse in the place. Patterson literally gutted the place and formed the restaurant to his vision. Pazzesco opened in July of 2010.

(Pazzesco in Ames. Photo by Scott Dresmel, courtesy Ames.Patch.com)

Patterson is also a partner in a new gourmet burger place in Ames called Oddfellows Burger Kitchen - a restaurant on Ames' north side that opened earlier this year. I might have to try that place at some point. (Update - I did try Oddfellows very recently. Look for that entry on Road Tips in the coming weeks.)

Kellie Doyle is the chef at Pazzesco. Doyle's grandmother immigrated from Italy and many of the recipes used at the restaurant were handed down by her grandmother's ancestors. Patterson has also added some of his own recipes from working in Italian-style restaurants years ago. Doyle has been Patterson's chef since he opened Pazzesco.

Since it had been years since I'd been on the west side of Lincoln Way in Ames, I wasn't too certain where Pazzesco was. As I started to get out on the fringe of town, I saw a brightly lit side along the south side of the road just past the Boone County/Story County line. A handful of cars were in the lot when I pulled in.

A hostess met me at the front counter. She asked if I wanted to have a seat in the bar or have a table in the dining room. I went with the dining room option and she took me to a table along the wall near the front of the restaurant. The only problem was that a large family with two very loud and shrieking kids were at a large table just behind me. After a bit, I almost got up to go to the bar. But the adults were able to corral the kids and their loud screaming after awhile.

The main dining room was long and narrow with a number of old pictures on the wall. A fire place was at one end of the room with a number of tables throughout the subtle-lit room. It was cozy and inviting, even with the little kids still whining behind me.

The hostess had left me a menu and my waitress for the evening, Lindsey, came out to greet me and to take my drink order. I saw an Italian beer on their menu that I hadn't had in quite sometime - Menabrae. Menabrae is one of the oldest continuous breweries in Italy starting out in 1846. They had the lager and the amber Menabrae at Pazzesco and I got a bottle of the lager.

While I was waiting on my beer and looking through the menu, another person brought out a basket of bread and a plate with herbs and garlic swimming in garlic oil. The bread was halfway dried out and sort of bland, but the herbs and garlic oil made it taste a lot better.

Most of the items on the menu were your basic Italian entrees. They had veal and chicken parmesan, as well as chicken and veal piccata. They had pork piccata, too, and that sounded very interesting. I was going into the place thinking of getting a steak - they cook it either over a charbroiled grill, or they broil it in a concoction of better and garlic then serve it with a brown butter sauce. Oooo... I was so damn tempted to get a steak. But the veal piccata kept talking to me.

Lindsey came back and asked me if I had any questions. I asked her if the veal slices they had were large or more like medallions. She tired to use her hands to size the veal for me and she wasn't doing a good job of describing it. I said, "Wait, forget it. I'll make it easy for you and get the veal piccata." It was served on a bed of angel hair pasta with capers. I also ordered a house salad with their homemade garlic parmesan dressing.

The salad was a bunch of assorted greens with some croutons tossed about and the dressing on the side (below left). The dressing was a creamy garlic parmesan that was neither all that pungent in garlic nor parmesan cheesy. It was a pretty pedestrian salad. But the half-stale bread dipped in the olive oil and herbs was still getting my attention.

When Lindsey brought out the veal piccata (above right), I could tell from the looks of it that I was going to have trouble liking it. The veal had a heavy breading over it, then it looked like it had been stuck in a microwave to melt a bit of shredded mozzarella cheese. At first I thought it was a cracker and corn meal crust on the veal, but then I couldn't figure out what it was. The veal was stiff and tough - so tough that I had to ask Lindsey for a steak knife. Even with the steak knife, it still didn't cut very well. It was chewy and not very flavorful. The pasta under the veal was woefully overcooked and somewhat mushy. It didn't roll up very easily on the fork and the only spoon available at the table was a small one that made it difficult to roll the pasta on the fork. The capers were strong and forward in taste, but they were the only things on the plate that were. Still, the bread and the olive oil and herbs were saving the meal.

Looking back, I should have gone with my first instincts and gotten the steak. The veal was not very good, the pasta was overcooked and the salad was "eh!". But even with the nearly stale bread, the garlic herb olive oil dip was the highlight of the evening. That, and Lindsey's stellar service. Even though it was a good value, I can't really say that I was overly impressed with the food at Pazzesco. From reviews I've read on a handful of sites, it appears they do have a following and people do like the place. It could have been an off night, but the veal seemed like it was deep fried rather than pan-cooked. I probably won't be back to Pazzesco anytime soon. But if I do, I'd get the steak rather than the veal.

(Update - Interestingly, I may have had one of the last meals in Pazzesco.  I usually write my entries of places weeks in advance and it was mid-March when I was in there.  They closed on March 24 with a note on their web site saying they were looking for a new location.  So far, there is no indication that they've reopened.)

Pat's Pizzeria and Ristorante - Chicago

I still firmly believe that Salerno's on Grand on Chicago's near West side and Vito and Nick's on the city's South side are number 1 and 1A when it comes to the gold standard of thin crust pizzas I've experienced in my lifetime. But I'm always on the lookout for a new place that has great thin crust pizza. Sometime last year, I was talking with one of the salesguys at Abt Electronics during a recent visit and I was telling him about how great the pizza at Salerno's and Vito and Nick's really was. He said, "Oh, no. I've got a place that will beat both of those places hands down." It was an Italian restaurant on N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood - Pat's Pizzeria and Ristorante. Although he admitted that he had never eaten at Salerno's on Grand or at Vito and Nick's, he was adamant about how great the pizza was at Pat's Pizzeria. I immediately put it on my list of places to visit and I finally had a chance to do so a few weeks ago.

Pat's Pizza (as the locals call it) has been around since 1950 when Nicholas "Pat" Pianetto began to make and sell his homemade pizza out of his house on N. Sheffield Ave. It was truly a family affair with his wife, Janett, and their four kids helping out in the kitchen. Nick, Jr. began to work in the business full time when he was 17 and has spent over 45 years perfecting the pizza at Pat's Pizza.

There are some unique things about a Pat's Pizza that goes beyond your usual pizza place. First of all, in order to get the dough paper thin, it takes 5 days to make the crust. It's flattened, rolled and stored in the refrigerator until it's ready to be used. Pianetto changes his crust from the summer to the winter months because grain fed dairy cattle that are kept inside in the winter make the fresh mozzarella more greasy than range fed cattle. The more greasy content in the cheese causes the crust to saturate and begin to droop. Nick Pianetto, Jr. wants the crust to be consistently firm and crisp year round.

A homemade pizza sauce that the Pianetto family worked on for years to perfect is applied to the dough. Toppings, including homemade fennel sausage, fresh veggies and other offerings such as grilled scallops, goat cheese, prosciutto and barbecue chicken are added. The pizza is placed into an old Fauld's revolving pizza oven and cooked for 10 to 12 minutes. The result is a paper thin crust people topped with ample amounts of toppings and swimming in fresh mozzarella cheese.

Over the years Pat's Pizza has been named the best thin crust pizza in Chicago a number of times. About a year and a half ago, WGN-TV in Chicago named Pat's the best thin crust pizza and did a segment on the pizza. (Click here to see the video segment. The girl in the video is Brittney Payton, the daughter of the late, great Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton.)

Pat's Pizza moved to their present day location on N. Lincoln about three years ago. (See map) The corner building features a narrow dining room with booths on the long wall and a couple booths back in the corner on the opposite wall. Tables with checkered table vinyl cloths are in the middle of the restaurant. All the tables and booths have paper wrap on top of the table cloth and crayons are provided for those young and old who want to doodle on the paper while they wait for their food.

I was seated at one of the booths along the long wall of the restaurant by a cheerful hostess and given a menu to look through. Pat's Pizza has more than just pizza including a number of Italian specialties such as a seafood linguine in a wine and tomato sauce, Chicken Vesuvio, pork piccata (that sounded REAL interesting - I've had veal and chicken piccata before, but not pork piccata), as well as a large number of vegetarian and cheese-only pasta dishes. But I was there for the pizza - I had to go with a small Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza.

After I ordered my pizza, a little anti-pasto plate was set on my table that had black and green olives as well as slices of a hard Italian cheese. I knew it wasn't parmesan or mozzarella, but I couldn't put my taste buds on what exactly it was. All I know is that it was good as were the green olives. The black olives, however, were a little gamey in taste. I had one, but not the others.

Less than 15 minutes after I placed my order, my small pizza came to the table. One of the waiters had dropped off a red pepper flake shaker as well as a dried oregano shaker. Along with the parmesan cheese that was already on the table, I knew that I would use them all at some point. But for the first couple of pieces, I was going au natural.

The pizza at Pat's Pizzeria is cut into party squares. I later found out that in Chicago this type of thin crust pizza is referred to as "tavern style". I especially love the center "honey pot" cuts from party cut pizza. And the taste was very good. I can't say it was as good as the thin crust pizza at Salerno's on Grand or at Vito and Nick's, but it was certainly in the immediate neighborhood. The sauce was tangy and faintly sweet, the cheese was very fresh and flavorful, and the fennel sausage was outstanding. The mushrooms were also very fresh and I did like the pepperoni. It wasn't too salty, but still had a little zip to the taste. It was a truly a tavern style pizza - it went very well with a beer. And I love pizzas that taste great with a beer. Adding the parmesan cheese, dried oregano and red pepper flakes to some of the subsequent squares just helped heighten the taste.

While Salerno's on Grand remains my "holy grail" of thin crust pizzas, I have to say that the pizza at Pat's Pizzeria and Ristorante was certainly in Salerno's neighborhood. I don't know if I've had a thin crust pizza where so much planning and preparation goes into the making of the pizza. I was extremely impressed with Pat's Pizza and knew that I would be back again at some point. I can easily see where they've been named the best thin crust pizza in Chicago by voters a number of times over the years. The pizza is that good.