Road Tips

Jake's Pizza - Mount Prospect, IL

I was staying in the northwest suburbs of the Chicagoland regiion on a recent visit there.  I wasn't familiar with many of the places to eat in the area, so I found myself driving around trying to figure out what to get for dinner in Mount Prospect.  I went past an interesting looking place that had a number of beer signs in the window and decided to head back around the block to check it out.  I pulled up next to the place - Jake's Pizza - and did a quick Urbanspoon search on my smart phone.  It appeared to have good reviews all around, so I grabbed my Chicago Tribune and went inside.

Jake's Pizza is a small chain of pizza restaurants that were once part of a chain of over 50 locations.  The original Jake's Pizza opened in October of 1961 when 24-year-old John "Jake" Flowers opened his first restaurant in Mount Prospect (see map).  He sold his first local franchise in Jake's Pizza in the mid-60's and at one point there were 15 Jake's Pizza locations in the greater Chicago area.  

In the seventies, Flowers brought on a partner, Samuel V.P. Banks.  Banks was a Chicago lawyer of note and at one time a prosecutor who brought obscenity charges against 60's comedian Lenny Bruce.  Banks then became a high-powered defense attorney for mob-linked and corruption defendants.  His brother, William Banks, was a long-time and somewhat powerful alderman representing the 36th ward in Northwest Chicago.  

Flowers and Banks set up a corporation - Jake's Pizza International - and began to expand franchises.  At one point, there were Jake's Pizza restaurants in North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Arkansas, Arizona and Nevada.  In the early 90's, the company signed on television personality Vanna White to be a spokesperson for the company and to appear at some restaurant openings.  It wasn't long afterward that the company offered an initial public stock offering.  And it was also about that time that John "Jake" Flowers retired from the company, but maintained a seat on the company's board of directors.  

That's when things began to unravel.

The company raised over $3 million on its IPO, but under-financed franchisees and a hefty price-tag they had to pay to Vanna White caused the value of the stock to dive.  The stock price sunk to a low of around 30 cents a share and the company eventually had to declare bankruptcy protection.  Flowers came back out of retirement and dissolved the partnership.  From what I understand, it was a pretty acrimonious breakup between Flowers and Banks.  Flowers eventually bought the company back from the bankruptcy court in 1997 for just a tad over $250,000.  

Today, there are 10 Jake's Pizza restaurants around the Chicago area, primarily in the northern and western suburbs.  I'm not certain if they're still franchise-owned or if John "Jake" Flowers owns the restaurants.

So, the one in Mount Prospect is, indeed, the original Jake's Pizza.  I wasn't sure of that until I found some bankruptcy information on line regarding Jake's Pizza International.   I'm sort of surprised that I'd never heard of Jake's Pizza before my first visit there.  

It was around 8 p.m. when I walked into a nearly deserted Jake's Pizza.  Not necessarily a good sign, I thought, but I'd pretty much committed to eating there.  I was greeted by a middle-aged lady who was also going to be my server that evening.  She asked me where I'd like to sit and I took a look at the bar area to the left as you come into the place.  They had a ball game on one of the televisions, but I wasn't interested in that. I ended up sitting in a booth with a hanging light above it so I could relax and read my paper. 

The inside of Jake's Pizza was well lit with a series of high-backed wooden booths and a number of tables with ice-cream parlor style chairs throughout the room.  It was nice, clean and modern.  I'm guessing the dining room had been added on as the bar area looked a little dated.  A satellite radio station playing an eclectic mix of classic rock, blues and modern rock played in the background.

My waitress gave me a menu to look over and in addition to pizza at Jake's they have appetizers, salads and sandwiches.  But pizza is the prime menu item at Jake's.  They have both thin crust and deep dish pan pizzas along with a handful of specialty pizzas that include toppings such as shrimp, chicken (made with their homemade alfredo sauce), and pizzas made with barbecue sauce.  I'm pretty predictable when it comes to my pizza, especially when it comes to trying new places.  I have to try a sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza and that's exactly what I ordered from the lady when she came back to take my order.

Since it wasn't busy in Jake's Pizza (although there were a handful of "to-go" orders that were picked up while I was there), I got my pizza pretty quickly.  It looked and smelled very good.  It was cut into party slices like a good Chicago tavern-style pizza.  There was a plethora of fresh mushroom slices on top and the sausage and pepperoni were swimming beneath the slightly caramelized mozzarella cheese.   

           
The crust was thin enough - sort of crispy to the bite, but not overcooked.  The taste of the pizza overall was delicious.  Surprisingly delicious!  The sausage had a nice little bite to it, the pepperoni slices were plentiful and very flavorful, and I really enjoyed the somewhat forward pizza sauce.  It wasn't too sweet, but had a nice spicy flavor to it.  It was a superb pizza all around.  

I hadn't eaten all day long and was very hungry.  Since it was a thin crust pizza I was able to finish the whole thing.  And one of my keys of a good pizza is whether or not it tastes good with a cold beer.  Jake's Pizza was an excellent combination with a beer.   

Sometimes finding a pretty good restaurant out of the blue helps add to the experience.  I was absolutely impressed with the pizza at Jake's Pizza in Mount Prospect.  I'm wondering if the other Jake's locations are as good as the original one.  Sometimes that's not the case, but I'm guessing they've got to be pretty close.  Now that Jake's Pizza is on my radar, I'll be more open to trying another one of their locations at some point.    

(Update - I drove by the Jake's Pizza location in Mount Prospect on a recent visit to my dealer just down the street and saw a large "Building for Sale" sign.  Looks like Jake's Pizza is no longer open.)

The Corner Grill - Blue Grass, IA

When growing season started earlier this year, Cindy and I decided to hitch a ride with our neighbors Dave and Steve out to a greenhouse between Davenport and Blue Grass.  After spending an abundant amount of money on plants and flowers, Dave suggested we go to a spot in Blue Grass called the Corner Grill.  Dave is an electrician and he helped wire and place lighting fixtures in the building when it was rehabbed into the Corner Grill about two years ago.  He said, "I was in that place working for a couple weeks, but I've never eaten there."  We had wanted to try the place out, as well, as we like going to Jeff's Market just across the street from time to time to get meat from their butcher counter. (see map)  (Photo courtesy Quad City Times)

The Corner Grill is owned by Joe and Roseanne Sampson who happen to live in Blue Grass.  The Sampsons, who are involved with their own family construction business, bought the building in the fall of 2009 after it sat empty for a while.  Given that there were no full service family restaurants in Blue Grass, a combination bedroom community and agricultural-based town of about 1500 people located 10 miles west of Davenport, the Sampsons decided to rehab the building and put a bar/restaurant in the place.  

The building in which the Corner Grill sits is over 100 years old and has been a bar and/or restaurant for all those years.  The original owners of the building, Joe and Kate Mohr, opened their tavern in 1900 and ran it until 1918.  After that it was owned by a number of people over the years before it closed in the early part of 2009.  Joe Sampson, who along with his brothers in the family construction business, has extensive remodeling experience for both restaurants and houses in the Quad City area.   Linda Sampson brought some restaurant know-how as her father and uncle owned a number of McDonald's franchises.  After extensive remodeling, they opened the restaurant in April of 2010.  

The orginal building was around 1500 square feet and an additional 1500 square feet were added in the 1940's.  There is a room in the back of the Corner Grill that can be used for private parties or overflow on busy nights. The high tin plated ceilings have a number of antique-like light fixtures hanging from them.  "Those are heavy bastards," Dave told us.  "They were a bitch to hang!"  The Sampsons did a good job in making the building look like it may have 100 years ago without taking away the modern conveniences.   

The large bar is "L"-shaped and features a number of televisions high on the wall behind the bar.  The day after we at at the Corner Grill I was telling my friend, Scott, that we needed to go out there to meet our friend, Tom Kakert from Hawkeye Report, for lunch sometime.  Tom lives on the south side of Blue Grass and he always comes in to Davenport to have lunch with us from time to time.  I told Scott that we needed to reciprocate on going out to Blue Grass sometime so Tom didn't have so far to travel.  

It was just past 7:30 when we got into the Corner Grill and there was a good crowd on hand.  We were seated by a young hostess in a corner booth in the front part of the restaurant.  As we were seated, I decided that I needed to go to the restroom to clean my hands after handling all the plants.  I walked into the restroom and the first thing I noticed was a two-way mirror with a flat panel television in the middle of it.  I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't come out all that well with the reflection in the mirrow.  Now, I've seen mirrors with televisions in them before, but mainly in higher-end houses where dealers that I work with have put in extensive whole house audio and video systems.  But I'd never seen one in a bar/restaurant before.  It was actually kind of a nice little touch.  A guy I encountered in the restroom later in the evening said, "This is great!  I can just bring my beer in here and watch the game on the TV and wouldn't have to miss any of the action if I had to get up and go pee!"  He certainly had a point.

I went back to the table and we started to go through the menu.  The menu at the Corner Grill is your basic pub fare food with burgers, sandwiches, appetizers and a few entrees including chicken, pork and steak.  I was thinking about trying their breaded pork tenderloin until I glanced at the booth across from us where a young lady had half a burger sitting on her plate.  It looked big, thick and juicy.  I was torn between the two, but decided upon getting the burger.

Dave was telling us stories of working the place as we waited to give our orders.  After about 10 minutes, I turned to Cindy and said, "Notice anything about this place?"

She said, "Yeah, we haven't been waited on."  She was correct.  After the girl dropped off the menus, no one came over to even greet us after that.  In fact, a couple seated at the booth behind us had came in after we were seated, were greeted by a young waitress, got their drinks AND placed their food order in that 10 minutes span.  

I told them that I'd wait another five minutes.  Dave asked, "Then do what?  Get up and walk out?"

Cindy said, "We've been known to do that!"  

Another five minutes went by and I noticed that a couple waitresses were just hanging up by the front hostess stand jabbering away with the young hostess.  What appeared to be a manager walked up and was talking to them, and when he turned around in our direction I waved him over. He said, "How can I help you, sir?"

I said, "We've been sitting here for 15 minutes, at least, and no one has waited on us.  And I could use a beer."  He apologized profusely and went over to one of the waitresses standing there and told her to go over and take our drink order.  A waitress came over and it was obvious she had an attitudinal problem with waiting on us.  Her posture, tone and cold look on her face told us she would rather be anywhere else than right there at that moment.  She said, "You guys need drinks?"

I shot back, "Well, yeah, for about the last 15 minutes."  She took our drink orders and left to go get them.  Steve said, "What was her problem?  She really had an attitude, didn't she?  I won't stand for that if she's our waitress the rest of the evening."  

After a bit, another waitress came over with our drinks and she introduced herself as Rachel.  Steve asked her, "Are you going to be our waitress?"  She said she would be.  Steve said, "Good.  We didn't care for the other girl's attitude. That was uncalled for."  

Rachel said, "I'm sorry about her, you guys.  I didn't know she was getting off at 8 and this was supposed to be her table.  But then she told me that she was leaving and she wanted me to take it over."  Rachel was lively, bubbly and fun.  We all immediately liked her. 

Since we'd been sitting there for better part of 20 minutes, we were all ready to order our food.  Cindy ordered what she thought was going to be the lemon-pepper cod dinner entree.  She got a choice of side with that which included the usual fries, cole slaw, cottage cheese, veggies or something called "rabbit food".  Cindy said, "All right, I have to ask.  What's rabbit food?"

Rachel said, "Oh, that's just carrots and cauliflower and we serve them with ranch dressing.  We call it rabbit food to make it fun."  

Cindy said, "Oh, I'll just take the cole slaw." Then she stopped and asked, "Is your cole slaw good?"

Rachel replied, "I think it's pretty good.  I like it.  It's creamy and has a good taste to it.  It isn't too vinegary, though."   

I ordered the mushroom/Swiss cheese burger and for a dollar extra I got bacon slices.  I got fries as my side.  Dave ordered the Corner Grill Special which was an Italian beef sandwich served on a hoagie bun and topped with grilled onions and green peppers.  

Steve was still trying to figure out what he wanted (even after all this time) and he finally ordered the Henny Penny chicken.  Henny Penny is an Ohio company that makes rotisserie pressure cookers and chicken friers for restaurants.  I want to also say that they provide the chicken for "Henny Penny" chicken, as well.  I believe I've seen Henny Penny chicken restaurants here and there in my travels, but I may be mistaken.  For his sides, mashed potatoes and gravy came with the chicken and Steve ordered the vegetable for that evening which was green beans.  Since Cindy ordered cole slaw, Steve thought that sounded good and he asked Rachel if he could also get some cole slaw.  She said there would be an upcharge, but Steve said it was all right.    

About 25 minutes after we ordered - a little longer than we all anticipated getting our food since much of the restaurant had cleared out from the earlier dinner rush - Rachel and another girl showed up with our food.  Cindy's cod was actually on a hoagie bun (below left).  She said, "I didn't know it was a sandwich.  I'm not going to eat the bread."  

I said, "I thought you ordered the lemon pepper cod entree.  She must have gotten you the cod sandwich instead."  Cindy said that she'd eat it like that.    

Steve's chicken consisted of two pieces of dark meat like he ordered, a scoop of mashed potatoes slathered with a brown gravy and some limp looking green beans.   The cole slaw was in a bowl.  Actually, the chicken looked pretty good.  

Dave's Corner Grill Special sandwich also looked pretty good (below left).  It had mounds of tender Italian roast beef on the hoagie bun.  A large pile of fries accompanied the sandwich.

My burger was placed in front of me and I noticed that it was missing the bacon.  I said to Rachel, "Hey, kiddo, I think you forgot my bacon." 

She sort of looked down at it, scowled and then said, "Oh!  Look under the hamburger."  Sure enough, there was the bacon.  Aha!  Usually, the bacon is draped across the top, but not so at the Corner Grill.  The bun was a nice fluffy kaiser roll bun.  The burger, itself, didn't look as thick as the one the girl who was seated across from us had.  In fact, it was a little overcooked.  Actually, a lot overcooked.  I didn't tell Rachel how I wanted it cooked because she didn't ask.  If I get a burger there next time, I'll have to make sure they don't overcook it.  Nonetheless, the burger was pretty good, the bun helped out a lot.  But for $9.95, I thought it was pretty pricey for what it was.  The fries were your typical krinkle cut fries that you find at any nondescript restaurant.  Although the burger was big, I didn't think it was that great of a value. 

Cindy said the cod was "pretty good".  When I asked how the cole slaw was and she said, "Eh!"  She said she could take it or leave it.

We were eating and making conversation when Dave said out of the blue, "This sandwich is damn good."  It looked damn good. I don't care for grilled onions or peppers.  I like the taste, but they don't like me during the digestion period.  Dave was overly happy with his sandwich.

Steve plowed through the chicken.  He said it was also very good.  He also didn't think much of the cole slaw, however.  And he didn't think the potatoes tasted like they were real.  "I'm guessing they are, but it's like they're too dry or something."  And he said the green beans were as lifeless in taste as they were looking on his plate. 

For our first trip to the Corner Grill I'd have to say that it was just all right and nothing special.  I certainly didn't think the food was all that much of a good value and wondered if they'd be able to sustain a restaurant with these types of prices in a small town like Blue Grass.  But given the number of people that were in there for dinner that evening, I'm sure they do pretty well.  Other than the hiccup of not being waited on for the first 15 minutes while we were there, I have to say that Rachel more than made up for it with her work that evening.  She got a nice tip from us all.  As I said, I'll probably go back out there at some point to have lunch with my buddy, Tom.  But I doubt if we'll purposely drive out to Blue Grass for dinner again, unless we were also going to stop at Jeff's Market and get some meat.   

Another Good Bye to an Old Friend...

I've had two very good and old friends pass away over the past week.  Today, I take a step away from our regular programming to salute a great guy - Rob Vonk.  Rob and I had known each other since our mid-teens.  We hung together quite a bit throughout high school, and after he went off to college we'd hang together in the summertime when he came home.  And when I finally went to college in Iowa City at the age of 24, Rob was in the College of Nursing at the University of Iowa on his way to becoming an anesthesiologist.  Together, we had many great nights out over those next four years, much to the consternation of his wife.

Robbie's family lived in large house on First Avenue in Newton, IA - the main drag through town.  His house was the defacto "ground zero" for kids to congregate and hang out.  (Kenny Brown's house, about two blocks away, was the other place to go if no one was at Vonk's, which was rare.)  Rob, along with his older brother, Rick, his younger brother, Rodger, and his sister, Rayleen, all had friends who would come over to the house and hang out in their pretty cool basement.  I have to think that their parents, Dick and Lorraine, actually did like the kids coming over.  They were great to sit down and talk with - even when none of the kids were around.  

Once Rob went off to college at Iowa State, we'd still stay in touch - either with me going up and hanging with him and other friends from Newton, or when he came back in the summertime.  Some of the best times happened when we would go down to the Des Moines River below the Red Rock dam and caught white bass as fast as we could get the hooks in the water.   They were so small and so many that we got to a point that we would just chuck 'em up over our shoulder back onto the bank to let the raccoons eat the fish.  

When I moved to Iowa City, Rob had been married for a couple years and we'd go out for beers with many of his nursing student friends.  We had a couple of years of great times - as I said, much to the consternation of his wife, Deb.  I know she didn't care much for me coming around and being a bad influence on Robbie.  But it was sure a large time.  

After Rob did his internship at the University of Iowa Hospitals, he went off to become an anesthesiologist taking courses at St. Mary's University in Minneapolis.  Now, I knew Rob was a smart guy - surprisingly smart considering that we used to call him "Erratic Rob" when we were growing up - but when he first told me that he wanted to become an anesthesiologist, I was taken aback.  But he became one and was a good one, becoming the Director of Anesthesiology at the Washington County Hospital in Washington, IA and had a house in Muscatine and a lake home on Lake Ponderosa.  Robbie did very well for himself.  I was certainly proud of his accomplishments.  

He also worked a lot - tremendous hours at times.  He actually lived in the Washington hospital at times because he was on call a lot.  It also took a toll on his marriage.  Deb and Rob had been separated for 17 years, but never divorced.

Rob and I would run into one another at class reunions and on occasions when I was in Iowa City.  We'd always try to make time to get together, but it was difficult to do so.  It was when I found out he was ill that we finally did make the time to get together for a few beers.

I had heard about 2 1/2 weeks ago that Rob was possibly ill.  I contacted our good friend, Wes Ver Woert, who contacted our friend Kim Yeutsy, who dated Rob back in high school, trying to find out if anyone had heard anything.  When it got back that no one knew, I just decided to call Rob.

He answered the phone, "Well, hello there!"

I said, "Are you all right?"

He sort of chuckled his little Rob chuckle and said, "No, not really."  

Robbie began to tell me that he had prostate cancer that had gone too far before it was caught.  It metastasized to his brain and he said, "I've been on some pretty aggressive chemotherapy and it's not working.  It's only a matter of time."  

We made plans to get together later in the week.  I had to go to Iowa City for business and I met Rob over at his wife's house.  She had taken him in when she found out that he had cancer.  And in typical Rob fashion, he never let anyone know that he had cancer.  He'd known for about six months before his hair started falling out.  That's when his wife, and his children - daughter Davis, 20, and son, Darien, 18 - knew something was up.  Rob told our friend Kim, "I didn't want people to treat me any differently, so that's why I didn't tell anyone that I had cancer."  

Before we went out for a beer, I reconnected with Deb and met his two kids for the first time.  Rob and I ended up going out for a few beers and caught up.  He was especially proud of his smart and beautiful children.  Davis was studying to be a neuropsychologist and Darien was getting ready to enter Iowa to study biology with an eye toward medical school.  Rob said, "Dari got a 35 (out of 36) on his ACT's.  And he was cocky about it!  He said, 'I know what I missed.  I could probably take it again and ace it.' "  

Rob was in the process of making plans to travel with his kids to go look for white-faced monkeys in the jungles of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.  He had just gotten back from Jamaica - his 20th visit over the years - and was looking forward to going back again later in the fall.  He was fully expecting to make those trips.

We spent a couple hours together and I lamented that we had been so close growing up and that we lived so relatively close that it was a shame that we didn't get together more often.  Rob said, "Aw, I learned long ago that people have their lives and it's tough to fit everyone in."  It was such a great afternoon that we decided to meet up with some other people at his lake home the following weekend, which would have been last Saturday.   If I'd known our time together was going to be our last, I would have stayed longer.  But he was getting tired and needed to rest.  We hugged one last time and promised each other that we'd catch up the next weekend. 

A week ago, I began to call Robbie to see if we were still on for getting together at the lake.  A number of our friends - thanks to my big mouth - now knew that Rob had cancer and a few of them wanted to come to see Rob at the lake if we made it over.  But I got Rob's voice mail and left him a message to see if he was still up for getting together.  I didn't get a return phone call.

I called again on Thursday, same thing.  Friday, the same.  I remembered that Rob told me that after the aggressive chemo sessions that he was usually physically zapped for a couple weeks afterward.  I figured that was the case this time as I was getting no answer or reply.  I wasn't going to press the issue and told my friends the same thing.  Imagine my shock when I received a phone call from a friend on Monday morning who told me Robbie had passed away on Sunday night.  

Rob was always so close to the chest when it came to anything that involved him.  He never wanted to be a burden on anyone and just wanted to live his life as normal as he could in his final days.  As Kim and I were talking on Monday, she said, "Rob was so much like that when we were together years ago.  It wasn't like he was keeping secrets, he just didn't talk much about himself.  He probably knew that it was a lot further along than he was letting on, but I guess we'll never know."  The way he was making plans with trips and getting together with friends, I knew he was optimistic of his chances.  Sadly, it turned out that he really was on borrowed time.   

About 40 years ago, Rob's great aunt, Alice Vonk, won a contest through the Burpee seed company for coming up with the first white marigold flowers.  And his mom, Lorraine, loved Mandevilla vine flowers.  Rob, I hope you're lying in a bed of white marigolds with pink and red Mandevillas climbing around you.  I'm glad we got to spend a little time together toward the end.  

Viceroy of India - Lombard, IL

I'd had a long day calling on accounts in Chicago recently and got back to the hotel around 7:30.  I was sort of hungry, but didn't really know what I wanted.  I decided to check Urbanspoon to see what was in the area and I came across an Indian restaurant in Lombard by the name of Viceroy of India.  I hadn't had Indian food for awhile and the reviews of Viceroy seemed to be positive, so I ventured over to the restaurant on a cool, blustery evening. 

The Viceroy of India in Lombard is the second of two locations for owner Surinder Kumar Jain.  The primary location is in Chicago on W. Devon Ave. in an area some of the locals refer to as "Little India" because of the number of Indian restaurants and stores in the immediate area.  Jain opened the original Viceroy of India in 1986 and also has interest in an Indian restaurant by the name of Shakira in Downers Grove.  

It turns out that I had been past the Viceroy of India location in Lombard many times as it's just down Roosevelt Ave. from one of my favorite beer and liquor stores in the area, Famous Liquors.  I pulled into the restaurant with the neon band around the top of the building about two blocks east of Famous Liquors right around 7:30 (see map).  

As I pulled in, I noticed there were an abundant number of cars in the parking lot and I wondered if the place was packed.  I happened to look into a window on the west side of the building and saw a large room packed with people listening to a speaker.  I momentarily thought about going somewhere else, but then turned back toward the door when I smelled the Indian spices emanating from the building.  I had to go in to get some Indian food.

It turns out the large room with all the people was the banquet facility for Viceroy of India.  I understand a number of groups use the room for meetings and presentations on a regular basis.  The well-lit and comfortable dining room was about 1/3 full of guests when I was seated in a booth along the wall.  The host gave me a menu and I started to figure out what I wanted.

As I was looking over the menu, another waiter brought this basket (above right) of very thin, tortilla-like bread with two sauces - one a green sauce that had some unbelievable and indescribable Indian herbs in it, and a brown sauce that was sort of sweet and sour.  I'm still not much of an expert on Indian food so I can't tell you what this is, but I loved it.  It's akin to getting chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant as the large, folded very thin bread (probably deep fried) broke off into chip size bites.  The green sauce was absolutely fabulous.  

Looking through the menu at Viceroy of India, I thought about broadening my horizons once again.  I thought about getting the Rogan Josh, small cubes of lamb meat cooked in an onion and tomato sauce.  I thought about the Keema Curry - lamb in a similar sauce as the Rogan Josh, but enhanced with garlic.  But I'm just not that big on lamb.  I thought about getting the Viceroy Special Biryani - basmati rice with large chunks of chicken, lamb and shrimp cooked with herbs and spices with bell peppers and tomatoes.  I wasn't overly sold on the bell peppers and tomatoes, however.  

I wimped out and went back to the chicken dishes on the menu and the butter chicken caught my eye - tandoori baked chicken chunks cooked with an onion and tomato cream sauce infused with special imported  herbs and mild spices.  That really sounded good and I was going to order it until I decided at the last moment to go with the chicken curry.  I also got some garlic naan to go along with it.   

I had just finished my first Kingfisher beer when the food showed up at the table.   The waiter dropped off the chicken curry and the garlic naan and I noticed that he didn't bring any rice.  I found out later on that rice was considered an extra at Viceroy of India - three bucks for a bowl of rice if you wanted it.  I thought that to be very strange for an Indian restaurant considering rice is so cheap.  The chicken curry on its own was $12.95, so I figured rice woud come with it.  

I ended up putting some of the chicken curry on some of the garlic naan and ate it that way.  The chicken was a little tough and overcooked.  The curry sauce was fine enough, but not overly flavorful like I've had with other curry sauces in the past.  Actually, it was pretty bland compared to other curry sauces I've had.  

The garlic naan was exceptional, however.  It was very pungent and flavorful with a lot of garlic laced throughout the leavened bread, so much so that Cindy swore to God that she smelled garlic on me when I got home the next day.  Dipping the garlic naan in the curry sauce was the highlight of the meal.

I don't know if Viceroy of India was all that good of a value.  And based upon my limited knowledge and background of Indian food, I would call their food average, at best.  I wasn't all that enamored with my chicken curry, but the garlic naan was exceptional.  The service was very good - a plus considering a handful of Indian restaurants I've gone to in the past have horrible service - and the dining room was rather comfortable.  But I think I'm going to try other Indian restaurants in the area before I head back to Viceroy of India.  

Dickey's Barbecue - Davenport, IA

When a Dickey's Barbecue restaurant opened in Davenport toward the end of 2008, my long-distance, yet local friend Burt Gearhart predicted it would close within a year.  Burt lived for a long time in Texas and frequented the original Dickey's Barbecue places in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  He told me after visiting the one in Davenport, "It's nowhere near the quality of the original Dickey's.  And I even told them that when I was in there."  

Burt's premonition about Dickey's not lasting long grew some teeth when locations in Cedar Rapids and a location in Coralville (Iowa City) all closed within a couple years of opening.  The Coralville location was only open months before it was forced to close.  I  held off going to Dickey's on Utica Ridge in Davenport (see map) for well over three years, figuring that it was probably going to close at any moment.  However, business keeps going on at that location and the local franchisee opened a second Dickey's location in Moline in 2011.  So it appears that the Quad City Dickey's locations aren't going away any time soon.  One day earlier this spring, I had to go out to a tree farm on Utica Ridge and decided to stop in to Dickey's for lunch. 

The original Dickey's Barbecue started in Dallas in 1941.  Founder Travis Dickey, Sr. had a single goal when he opened his doors: "Serve the best tastin' barbecue imaginable, just the way people like it. And don't make 'em wait too long to get it."  The original Dickey's started out as a one room operation and served beef brisket, ribs, and pulled pork.  In later years during Thanksgiving and Christmas, Dickey began to smoke hams and turkeys, as well.  Dickey's also made their own barbecue beans, cole slaw and potato salad.  

Dickey's two sons, T.D. and Roland, took over the operation in 1967.   Two years later they opened two more small locations around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.  By 1972, Dickey's was the largest barbecue chain in Texas.  In 1994, the brothers decided to start franchising the Dickey Barbecue concept and began to sell franchise rights.  Today, there are over 170 Dickey's locations in 39 states.  The company bills itself as the largest "fast-casual" restaurant in the nation.  "Fast-casual" means that you order at the counter, they give you a number, you go sit down and they bring the food to you.  

Local owners Bruce and Judy Norden opened the Utica Ridge location in November of 2008, then with partners (and General Manager) Bill Jensen and Chris Banks, they opened the Moline location in May of 2011.  A kitchen fire at the Moline location toward the end of December closed that location until March of this year.  But it's back up and running with full bore barbecue.  

It was around 1:30 when I got into the Dickey's on Utica Ridge.  There are a number of tables and booths throughout the place.  The colors on the walls were subtle earth tones and the large windows on the east and south side of the building gave it a bright and appealing atmosphere.  A couple was seated at one table and a group of construction workers were seated at another table - all of whom were drinking from one of Dickey's "Big Yellow Cups", a large 32 oz. fully recyclable and reusable fountain drink cup that has become somewhat of a signature item for Dickey's over the past few years.  

I went up to the counter, not fully knowing what was going on and took a look at the menu that was sitting on the counter in front of me.  One of the guys in the back said he'd be with me in a minute.  That gave me time to go through the menu to figure out what I wanted.  

I usually get a sampler plate when I try a barbecue place that I'm not familiar with and Dickey's only had a two meat plate on their menu - and you couldn't order ribs as one of the two meats.  You had your choice of chopped or sliced beef brisket, pulled pork, ham, sliced turkey breast, marinated smoked chicken, Polish sausage or something called spicy cheddar sausage, which is sort of a Dickey's signature item.  You could order ribs, but they were only available on their own platter.  

When the guy came out to take my order, I ordered a two meat plate of sliced brisket and the pulled pork.  He said, "You get a couple of sides along with that."  The sides included barbecue beans, waffle fries, okra, jalapeno beans, mac and cheese, and green beans with bacon just to name only a few of what they offered.  I went with the barbecue beans and the mac and cheese.  

He asked what I wanted to drink and I sort of looked around for a beer cooler.  When I didn't see one, I just said, "Oh, I'll just have water."  

The guy must have read my mind and he said, "We have beer, too."

Well, I LOVE beer with my barbecue.  I got a couple beers to go along with the meal.  After I paid, he gave me a number and said, "We'll bring it out to you when it's finished!"

I found a seat in a booth in the center of the restaurant.  It wasn't more than five minutes when one of the other guys brought out my plate of food.  There were ample portions of pulled pork and sliced beef brisket on the plate, covered with a generous amounts of Dickey's Original barbecue sauce.  The mac and cheese and the barbecue beans were in small containers.  And, quite curiously, along with sliced pickles, there was a raw onion ring on the platter.  A biscuit-style roll came with the meal.    

Once again, not knowing the drill at Dickey's, I found that I didn't have any silverware.  I went over by the front counter and found the silverware - along with small vats of Dickey's regular, spicy and sweet barbecue sauces.  I grabbed one little tub each of the barbecue sauce, grabbed a fork and a knife and headed back to the table.

From my first bite of the beef brisket, it was fully apparent that I didn't need the knife.  The thick sliced brisket fell apart when I put a fork to it.  It was very tender and I immediately liked the original Dickey's sauce, although it was a little too runny for my liking.  I tried some of the sweet sauce next with the brisket, but I couldn't really tell a big difference between the original and the sweet sauces.  But when I tried the spicy Dickey's sauce, that got my attention.  It had a nice kick to the taste, lingering on the tongue for a moment with a subtle hot spice flavor.  Once again, other than it being a little too runny for me, it was good.  I liked it a lot.  

The pulled pork was equally as moist and tender as the beef brisket.  I ended up going back to get more of the spicy and sweet sauces and I poured the spicy tub container over the pulled pork.  It was pretty damn good.  

The barbecue beans were just OK, even after I popped more of both the sweet and hot barbecue sauces in with the beans.  They were very runny - something that I don't care for in barbecue or baked beans.  But they were OK, nonetheless.  The surprise of the meal, though, was the mac and cheese.  I don't know why I get mac and cheese at places like this because it's usually not very good.  But I have to say the mac and cheese was well above average.  It was thick and cheesy, and had a very good taste quality to it.  I couldn't eat it all, but I was pleasantly surprised with the mac and cheese at Dickey's.

The roll was actually pretty good, too.  I found myself dipping it into the barbecue beans and sopping up some of the extra sauce on my platter.  The roll was sort of light, but chewy.  Quite honestly, I couldn't find anything to bitch about with my meal.  I was pleasantly surprised with my barbecue platter at Dickey's.

Another tradition at Dickey's is free soft-serve ice cream.  I don't know how I could have enjoyed any ice cream after the lunch I had.  I did finish the meats on my platter and made a serious dent into both the barbecue beans and the mac and cheese.  The roll was very good dipped in the barbecue sauce.  After all that food and a couple beers, I was stuffed.  

I have to say that I was very impressed with my first visit to a Dickey's Barbecue.  Look, I'm sure the family run locations around Texas are probably better, and I'm sure that's what my friend Burt is basing his opinion of the Davenport Dickey's upon.  But I've eaten at a lot of barbecue places (as you can see by the number of barbecue places I've visited around the Midwest) and I think I know what is good and what isn't.  Even for a chain, I was impressed with Dickey's Barbecue.  As you know, I'm pretty much down on chain restaurants, but I understand that even though there is a standard menu for all Dickey's franchises, each local franchise owner gets to put their own little stamp on the food.  The meat was tender and flavorful, and I did dig the mac and cheese at Dickey's.  I think I'd go back to Dickey's before I'd go back to a place like Famous Dave's, which, too, isn't bad barbecue for a chain. 

(Update - Due to "underperforming" sales, this Dickey's Barbecue closed in the summer of 2014.  There is still a Dickey's on Avenue of the Cities in Moline, but I've never been to it.)

A Goodbye to a Great Friend...

If you'll please indulge me this morning, I'd like to say goodbye to an old friend and colleague Jim Mitchell who passed away in his sleep earlier this week. 

I've been in the audio business since 1980 and I have made a lot of friends in the industry.  A lot of good friends.  But I will say that Jim was one of my best friends.  

Jim was an interesting dude.  After high school, he hitch-hiked across Europe, living in Amsterdam for awhile before going down into Morocco and Egypt.  He wandered around Mexico, just trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.  He ended up getting a degree in broadcasting from U. Missouri/Kansas City, but just like most of us who studied broadcasting in college, he didn't go down that path.  Instead, he followed the call of the audio industry and he worked for some stores and representative firms around the Kansas City area since the 70's.  

I first met "Jimi" at a Consumer Electronics Show back in 1994 when he was working for a manufacturers representative company called Audio Etc.   When I met Jim for the first time, he was cordial with a quick smile, had some good quips, and was immediately likable.  

When I began to work with Audio Etc. in 1995, I joined Jim and our colleague, Randy, in Los Angeles for some manufacturer training sessions as my first duties for the company.  Then we took a day to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping along the way at Hearst Castle, Nepenthe in Big Sur, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park with its stunning views and large Redwood trees, and had dinner in Monterrey on Cannery Row before going on to San Francisco for the night.  That was a killer trip - not only for the things we did and saw, but for how it completely burnt us out from the drive.

Jim and I experienced a lot together in the next few years we worked together.  He had an affinity for sushi long before I did.  And even after I began to eat sushi, he would go to the extreme by ordering eel, octopus, smelt roe, squid - the more disgusting it looked, the more he loved it.  I swear to God, he ate that stuff just to see if he could get his eating partners to gag on their tuna rolls or smoked salmon sushi.  

We had great times on the road together, primarily at trade shows and for manufacturer meetings.  We took a driving tour of Stanford University when we were in Palo Alto for a meeting one time, ending up the evening eating at a great sushi place called Fuki Sushi in Palo Alto.  We purposely mispronounced the name which was actually "Fookie" for a number of years when we'd reminisce about the place.  

Jimi and I had a free day in San Francisco one time.  After watching the parade of beauties trying out for San Francisco 49er cheerleaders in a ballroom at the hotel at which we were staying, we ended up driving up to the Napa Valley and experienced a few wineries.  We ended up heading to a small town near Healdsburg called Jimtown, just because it was his name.  There we found the Jimtown Store which has turned into a gourmet destination for food enthusiasts.  We were there long before it became as famous as it is today.  

I turned Jimi onto hurricanes in New Orleans one year.  As in hurricanes, the drink.   Hurricanes are primarily a rum and fruit drink that are sweet and go down pretty quickly.  The next thing you know, you have a couple three of them and you're on your ass.  We had a day to kill in New Orleans before a trade show about 12 years ago and I took Jimi to Pat O'Brien's for a hurricane.  We had one and then another.  We found out that we could trade the tall glasses for a plastic glass and take the hurricanes with us as we walked along the streets of the French Quarter.  We went bar hopping, but not before I had to pull Jim by the back of his belt when he began to wander into a leather gay bar.  He later ended up going back to the hotel, sitting in the bathtub and passing out.  The next morning, he exclaimed at breakfast, "What in the hell is in those hurricanes?  Heroin?"  

During our time in New Orleans, the remnants of a real hurricane - as in the storm - hit New Orleans and dumped nearly 15 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.  Streets were flooded.  Electricity was off in part of the French Quarter.  We were driving between meetings at hotels in downtown New Orleans trying to circumnavigate the flooded areas when we were stopped at a stoplight.  There was a man who was walking across the street just getting pummeled by the wind, turning his umbrella inside out.  Jimi said, "That poor sap..."  Then he started to chuckle.  His chuckle turned into a hearty laugh.  The hearty laugh turned into a gut cluching convulsion.  He had tears coming out of his eyes.  "Poor f***ing guy," Jimi finally said.  For some reason, he got a major kick out of this guy's misfortune.  

Oh, there were other great times together - the time we were rooming together in Miami and we got drunk and forgot our room number.  Picture two middle-aged guys drunk on their ass trying to convince the front desk agent at a nice hotel that they couldn't remember their room number at 11:30 at night.  The credit card-style keys didn't have the room numbers on them.  We were used to staying in hotels like Super 8's and Comfort Inn's that had actual keys with the room numbers on them.  

We had a great weekend in Baltimore one time biding our time before a manufacturers training session, going to a great sushi place, taking in the Inner Harbor and then a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards.  It was a great trip until Jimi accidentally backed into the back of a car with a rented SUV at the hotel.  Only he didn't know he hit it until one of our other guys, Shannon, told him at the airport when we dropped the SUV off that he really crunched the crap out of the back of the parked car.  We had a couple mars on the bumper of the SUV that we easily removed by wiping with our hands.  So, yeah, I'm busting Jimi on this deal, but after 14 years, I doubt they'll come looking for him.

Jimi is survived by his wife, Deb, who is a character in her own right; and by his son, Eddie, who was the light of Jimi's life.  Jimi was overly proud of Eddie, about how grounded he was in life, how he'd gotten a degree in accounting at Kansas University, how he'd gotten a killer place to live in the Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City.  Jimi always talked about Eddie and his accomplishments, but not in a way that was boring or overbearing.  He was more amazed about what Eddie was doing or was accomplishing.  "Man," he told me one time, "he certainly has it more together than I did at his age.  And he may have it more together than I do today!"  I don't know many guys where their sons are their best friends, but Jimi and Eddie were truly best friends.  

Jim left our company in 2000 for another manufacturers representative firm, but we still stayed in touch.  When I got my present job ten years ago, if our schedules worked out we'd try to get together on my trips to Kansas City.  We would always seek each other out at trade shows, taking at least 15 minutes out of our busy schedules to just stand and talk about whatever.  The business had gotten harder for Jimi over the past few years.  Commissions were getting cut by manufacturers, expenses were sky-rocketing.  Over a couple margaritas and some Mexican food in Kansas City earlier this year, he told me that he was thinking that may have to do something else.  "I'm barely breaking even now," he confided in me.  "I'm not going to start losing money in a job that I really like to do."

Jimi was one of the hardest working reps in the business.  Over the years I knew him, he had a never ending series of Ford vans that, seemingly, always had over 200,000 miles on them.  He'd pack the back with samples and literature, and when he'd stop at a dealer's location, he was always talking about the main lines he sold them along with the little stuff he had in his bag of tricks.   He was a night owl, and he was famous among dealers in his territory for sending out faxes, then later on, e-mails on product information at 12:30 in the morning.  He endured long and lonely trips to outposts in Nebraska and Kansas for years, loving the life he was leading on the road.  I admired his work ethic with a streak of jealousy mixed in.  

Jim and I had a lot in common - music, audio, food, drinking, NTN Buzztime trivia when we were in bars that had the NTN trivia.  We had the same sense of humor, looking at things a little differently and always finding the fun in bad situations.  We commiserated about the audio business and how it has changed and not for the better over the past few years.  And we helped each other out with leads or information when we could.  

So long, Jimi.  You're gonna be missed, my friend.  Keep on truckin', buddy...

B-Bop's - Urbandale, IA

B-Bop's is a seven location local burger chain based out of Des Moines that actually got its start a number of years ago as part of a concept that came out the old Mr. Quick fast food restaurants from the 70's and 80's. It had been quite sometime since I'd had a burger at B-Bop's, and as I was driving along I-80 recently I decided to get off at the NW 86th St. exit and head south to the corner of Meredith Drive and 86th to the B-Bop's located there (see map).

The man behind B-Bop's is Illinois native Bob Johnson who first worked at a Mr. Quick fast food franchise in Princeton, IL beginning in 1971.  Working his way up to assistant manager in a short period, Johnson caught the eye of Mr. Quick management back at the company's headquarters in Moline, IL.  He was offered a franchise partnership for a Mr. Quick location that was opening just off of Interstate 80 in my hometown of Newton, IA.  Johnson moved to Newton after Mr. Quick was built and began his career as a franchise partner with the company.  Johnson eventually put in Mr. Quick locations in Muscatine, IA and Fairfield, IA before he split with the Mr. Quick organization in 1983 and renamed his restaurants Sizzlin' Sam's.

Here's the personal part of the story - I lived right behind the Mr. Quick location in Newton for about four years in an apartment building that was separated by an open field that is now a Super 8 motel.  I can't tell you how many times I walked across the weed-strewn field to get a burger or a hot ham and cheese sandwich at Mr. Quick.  (Photo at right courtesy RoundAmerica.com) 

There were many quirky things about Mr. Quick, as well.  I knew some people who worked for Bob Johnson and he insisted that the workers address him as "Mr. Johnson".  Line cooks and counter workers were also expected to address store managers and assistant managers as "Mister" as a sign of respect.  I thought it all was very pretentious on the part of Bob Johnson and used to somewhat make fun of it when I'd talk to others about Mr. Quick.  I had some friends who worked there over the years and they all thought it was rather strange and somewhat demeaning to have to refer to ownership and management in such a stiff and formal manner.   But, hey, sometimes kids need that sort of structure in their lives, so who am I to judge?

The other thing that I used to get a kick out of was the unique language Mr. Quick workers used when the counter workers would shout back the orders to the line cooks.  For example, an order that consisted of a double cheeseburger with extra ketchup and no pickles with an order of fries was yelled out, "Double CB, extra K, hold the p, and one!"  The "one" being the fries.  Onion rings were "golden o's".  Milk was called "Grade A".  When the line cooks didn't hear the order clearly, they'd yell out, "Echo! Echo!"  I used to laugh when they'd do that.  (And I still do, just thinking about it.)  It was somewhat overblown pomposity in nature. 

I had a friend who was rather smart - and who was somewhat of a smart-ass at times - who used to work at Mr. Quick in high school.  I liked to go to Mr. Quick with him and he'd order in the Mr. Quick language to the counter workers.  They'd look at him like he was from Mars before they'd catch on that he used to work at Mr. Quick.  I had to stifle outright laughter when he did it.

In the late 70's and early 80's, a number of hamburger places - primarily in the Southwest part of the U.S. - began a concept of double drive-thru lanes at their restaurants.  Generally, there was no indoor seating like you found at a place like Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's, and a walk-up window was available for those who either rode bikes, motorcycles or simply walked up to the location.  Bob Johnson saw this concept as the future of fast food business and started the first B-Bop's near the corner of NE 14th and Euclid Ave. in Des Moines in 1988.  That location is still there today (see map).   

Johnson uses the same cooking procedures at B-Bop's that he had in place for years at Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's.  The burgers are cooked on a Neico gas flame automatic broiler that rotated a metal grated treadmill over and under an open flame that cooked both sides of the burger as it passed through.  There was a separate rotating metal treadmill at the bottom to toast buns.  It was a quick and efficient way to cook burgers.  Quite actually, the burgers at Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's, and subsequently at B-Bop's, were not necessarily of the fast food variety as burgers were made to order and were never cooked before and set in warming bins like you found at places like McDonald's or Burger King.  That's what helped make the Mr.Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's/B-Bop's burgers a little more desirable compared to other fast food places.

The B-Bop's concept took off and quickly became one of the favorite drive-thru burger joints in the greater Des Moines area.  Johnson ultimately sold off or closed down his three Sizzlin' Sam's locations and focused primarily on the B-Bop's restaurants that he was opening or franchising in the Central Iowa area.  Today, you'll find 4 B-Bop's in the greater Des Moines area, a location in Ankeny, a location in Altoona and a B-Bop's in nearby Ames.  

All the B-Bop's offer the same menu of burgers, pork tenderloins (called "fritters" at B-Bop's), fried or broiled chicken sandwiches, a fish sandwich, and something known as a Sloppy Joe Slider - a loose-meat burger with a tomato-based sauce mixed in served on a small bun.  And interestingly while B-Bop's has French fries and chicken nuggets on their menu, they don't have onion rings.  The onion rings at the old Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's were actually pretty good.  But the breadth of the menu items at B-Bop's is significantly smaller than what was offered at Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's.  

Pulling up to the B-Bop's in Urbandale, you have your choice of either going to the right for driver side service, or to the left for passenger side service.  That works well when you have a passenger who can order from that side, be able to pay for and receive the food as it comes out through the window.  But because most people coming into B-Bop's are alone, the line to the right is usually longer.   

The menu board is located at the entrance of the drive-thru lane.  A two-way speaker system is located on top of the menu board.  I didn't want much that day so I just ordered one of the 1/4 pound cheeseburger deluxe burgers - basically a quarter pound cheeseburger with all the regular condiments along with shredded lettuce, a slice of tomato and mayo added on.  It's literally the same thing that I was having at Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's back in Newton 30 plus years ago.

Because you can't go inside, I don't know if they use the same language to shout out orders at B-Bop's as they used to at Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's.  I'm guessing with the success Bob Johnson has had over the years, the language probably hasn't changed in any of his restaurants.    

Because of the long line of cars in front of me, by the time I made it to the window and handed over my money for the burger, it was sitting in a sack on the counter.  The window guy who took my ordered handed me the sack.  There's a parking lot for a strip mall behind B-Bop's and past experiences dictate that I needed to be stopped and parked if I was going to be eating the deluxe cheeseburger.

One of the signatures of a Bob Johnson-corporate restaurant over the years is that they serve the burgers in a styrofoam container.  I'm sure Mr. Johnson has his reasons for this, but B-Bop's may be the only fast-style burger place that still uses styrofoam that I know of.  I don't think this styrofoam container is bio-degradable or recyclable, but I may be mistaken.  In any event, it didn't have any signs of being recyclable on the outside of the container. 

The burger was basically similar to the taste of the old Mr. Quick/Sizzlin' Sam's burgers.  It had a pleasant charbroiled taste to the meat and it was loaded with an almost excessive amount of lettuce and mayonnaise.  The sesame seed bun was toasted enough that it had a good flavor and it held the burger together very well.  However, with each bite globs of shredded lettuce and mayo would fall from the sandwich - some of which didn't hit the styrofoam container if you catch my drift.  Thankfully, B-Bop's include at least three napkins in each sack per burger.  You'll need them for a deluxe cheeseburger.

I see from time to time that B-Bop's gets local awards for having the best burgers and fries in Central Iowa as voted upon by their customers.  Compared to other fast food restaurants, I would rather eat at a B-Bop's than a national chain.  It's more "fast food as ordered" than what you find at a typical fast food chain.  But I certainly can't say that the burgers at B-Bops are all that great.  They're certainly good for what they are and it's worth a stop if you're in a hurry and need a burger fix.    

Bob Mele's Little Villa - Des Plaines, IL

It's always fun to find new places that I didn't know about before. On a recent visit to Chicago, I asked a dealer if he'd like to go get dinner somewhere.  He said, "Do you like Italian?"  I love Italian.  He said, "It's nothing fancy, more of a spaghetti and meatballs kind of place.  But I like it."  We got in the car and he directed me to a restaurant just south of the corner of Wolf Road and Central Ave. in suburban Des Plaines (see map).  

I pulled in to the parking lot and said, "Oh!  Little Villa!"  

My dealer said, "No, Bob Mele's Little Villa!"  

I'm sure I've probably driven by the place in the past as Bob Mele's Little Villa has been around since 1959 serving home style Italian food and pizza.  Little Villa's ingredients are always fresh and never frozen.  It continues to be a family run business with Bob Mele's daughter, Barb, running the business today.

(By the way, there is a Little Villa Pizza place on S. Elmhurst Road in nearby Mount Prospect.  I'm not certain that there's any connection between the two Little Villa's, but this is the Bob Mele's Little Villa restaurant in Des Plaines.) 

It was around 7:45 when we got into Little Villa for dinner.  The brightly lit dining room was inviting and comfortable with a number of tables and booths in the room.  Little Villa also features a nice bar area with bar and table seating, as well as a basement banquet area for meetings, parties and receptions up to 75 people.

Our waitress for the evening, Barb, greeted us and dropped off dinner menus for us to look through.  In addition to pizza (three styles - thin crust, pan pizza and stuffed), Bob Mele's Little Villa features entree dishes consisting of veal, chicken, steaks and chops, along with a long list of pasta dishes and house specialties.  For the lighter fare, Little Villa also features a number of appetizers, salads, soups and sandwiches.  Their lunch menu is what I would call as significantly different from their dinner menu with more of an emphasis on sandwiches, wraps, salads and panini sandwiches. 

Because the menu is so extensive, I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to have.  My guest, Jim, told me that he'd never had a bad meal in the place and that everything he's ever had was good.  They had a number of different pastas to choose from - from spaghetti to mostaccioli to fettuccine to tortellini to...  You get the picture.  But they also had a number of choices of sauces to go with the pasta such as a meat sauce, marinara, alfredo, pesto, creamy vodka and a pomodoro sauce with crushed plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and basil.  

I wasn't certain I wanted pasta that evening, so I was focusing more on the veal or chicken dishes.  But I have to tell you - a couple guys seated in a booth near us got a thin crust pizza that looked damn good.  I wanted something more substantial than pizza that evening and always figured that I could come back at some point and get one.  

The veal dishes featured the usual piccata, marsala, parmigiana and Vesuvio - sauteed in wine, garlic and olive oil with a hint of tomato, then served with broasted potato wedges.  The chicken dishes featured the same four styles along with chicken cacciatore, risotto with chicken, artichoke hearts and asparagus tips cooked in butter and white wine; and an Italian-style 1/2 chicken - your choice of fried or baked.  

Jim told me that their lasagna topped with their meat sauce was "excellent".  I looked over some of the other house specialties at Little Villa and saw that they had their own homemade manicotti stuffed with a flavored cheese, then topped with their meat sauce and mozzarella and baked.  Ummm....  That sounded REAL good, too!  And, of course, they had their own seafood fettuccine alfredo with shrimp.  To make matters worse for me, I saw that Little Villa also offered combination dinners - your choice of two items from either Chicken Parmigiana, lasagna, manicotti, eggplant parmigiana or ravioli.  The lasagna and manicotti were both screaming, "Pick me!  Pick me!"

But once again, I was looking more at the veal end of things.  I ended up selecting the veal piccata - veal medallions sauteed in white wine and lemon with capers.  I got a pasta side - mostaccioli with my choice of the meat sauce or marinara (I got the meat sauce).  And a choice of soup or salad.  I got the salad with the homemade oil, vinegar and herb Italian.  

My guest, Jim, got the chicken parmigiana with the meat sauce on his pasta.  He got a salad with their homemade garlic dressing.  

Like an old time Italian supper club, we were brought a bread basket and a small relish tray.  Jim smiled broadly as they put the relish tray down on the table.  "Isn't this just great?  An old school Italian restaurant with a relish tray!"  The bread basket featured homemade crunchy breadsticks, as well as soft Italian bread with sesame seeds and a couple rolled Italian breads.  Olive oil and parmesan cheese were provided on the table to dip the bread in.   

The relish tray featured a three bean salad, pepperocini's and - to my surprise - pickled beets.  I wasn't interested in the beans at all, but I couldn't wait to dig into the pickled beets.  The beets had more of an Italian dressing taste to them rather than the sweetness that I've grown to like with pickled beets I've had in the past.  Actually, they were pretty good.  They didn't have an earthy taste to them and I sort of liked the vinegar aftertaste.  

Our salads were brought out and I have to say my salad was good, but was nothing special.  The homemade Italian dressing was serviceable, but it was your typical run-of-the-mill Italian restaurant salad with fresh lettuce, onions, sliced cherry tomatoes and the like.  Fresh ground pepper would have livened it up a bit for me.

Our entrees came out not long after we finished up with our salads.  My veal dish (below left) featured three good sized veal medallions swimming in a wonderfully aromatic pool of the white wine and lemon sauce with capers.  I couldn't wait to dip some bread into the sauce.   

Jim's chicken parmigiana was a substantial portion that filled up a good portion of his plate.  The melted mozzarella covered the top of the chicken that already had been slathered in marinara sauce.  

My veal was very good.  The veal was tender and very flavorful, but the sauce that came with it was the real winner.  It had a great lemon taste with a thick consistency to the sauce.  And I was right - dipping the Italian bread in the sauce was a secondary treat.  I was overly happy with my veal piccata.  

The mostaccioli with the meat sauce was good, too.  I did like the meat sauce they have at Little Villa - it was thick with the right combination of meat and tomato sauce.  

Jim said that his chicken parm was very good, too.  "It's so rich," he said.  "There's no way that I can finish it."  But he made a significant dent into it, leaving probably three or four bites left before he said, "No more!"  

Our very efficient waitress, Barb, asked us if we had room for homemade tiramisu or a cannoli.  Oh, God! I was tempted, but I was so stuffed and satiated from the meal.  I had overdone it with the bread, but I could not stop sopping up the piccata sauce that came with my veal.  It was so very, very good.  

I went back on my own on another trip into Chicago to try Little Villa's pizza.  I ordered up a small sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  They have both thin crust and deep dish pizza, so I got the thin crust.  

It didn't take long to get my pizza out the table.  (My server that evening, Kristen, was very good and efficient.)  The pizza was loaded with cheese and toppings.  The sausage was mild, the mushrooms fresh and there was plenty of pepperoni slices on the top.  The crust was crispy with a little snap to it.  While it wasn't the best pizza I've had in the Chicago area, it was still very good.  A good rule of thumb for me is whether or not it tastes good with a beer.  Little Villa's pizza certainly did.  

So I've now tried the veal piccata and the pizza at Bob Mele's Little Villa.  But I'm also intrigued by their lasagna and the maniccoti, too.  There will definitely be more chances to visit the place.  I was overly happy with my veal and the pizza on my initial visits to Little Villa.  Barb and Kristen were both very good waitresses and the atmosphere was friendly. Bob Mele's Little Villa was a great find.  

Coney Island Wiener Stand - Fort Wayne, IN

While in Fort Wayne late last year, I was talking with one of the sales guys at Sweetwater, a large pro music equipment and instrument dealer who we do business with, about unique places to eat around Fort Wayne.  He was telling me of a little hot dog shop in downtown Fort Wayne that had been open for nearly 100 years - Coney Island Wiener Stand.  He raved about the chili dogs at the place. Since I love a good chili dog, I made a note of it. On a recent trip to the area to meet with a potential new dealer, I stopped at Coney Island and had lunch.

This history of Coney Island dates back to 1913 when it first opened its doors (some accounts have it opening in 1914).  A large contingent of Greek Macedonian immigrants had come to Fort Wayne to find a better life in the early 1900's. Many of them opened restaurants in the area.  Thanks to the 1904 Lousiana Purchase Exposition, commonly known as the St. Louis World's Fair, the wiener on a bun was suddenly one of the most popular items for Americans to eat. Three of those immigrants, Harry Dorikis, James Samaras and Stilos Papas came up with the idea to open a wiener grill in downtown Fort Wayne.

Three years later, one of the three orginal owners sold his portion of the business to Vasil Eschoff, a Macedonian immigrant who came to the United States without his family.  Vasil Eschoff worked at the restaurant for 14 years before he brought his family to the United States.  I understand that was a common practice among Greek Macedonians to come to America alone, then send for their family once they got established during the early 20th century. 

The remaining two original owners eventually sold their interest in Coney Island to Jack Geroff and Russell Litchin and moved back to Greece.  Eschoff and Litchin eventually bought out Geroff and continued to work in the restaurant each day over the next 30 plus years.   

In the late 50's, failing health forced Vasil Eschoff out of the business.  His son-in-law, Russ Choka (pictured at right), also a son of Macedonian immigrants, took over Eschoff's portion of Coney Island.  Choka had married Eschoff's daughter, Helen, a dozen years prior.  Two years later, Russell Litchin left the business and turned his portion over to his son, Chris.  

Russ Choka worked at Coney Island every day, seven days a week, for the next 40+ years.  There were stories of how he would open the restaurant in blizzards just because he had no reason not to be there.  Choka was the longtime face of Coney Island and his son, Michael, came into the business at a young age to help out.  Cancer took Michael's life in 1993 at the age of 42 and his sister, Kathy, and their brother, Ron, stepped in to help out.  Russ Choka was said to have a gruff exterior, but had a heart of gold.  He mentored a number of young kids during the years he worked behind the 16 seat counter at Coney Island.  Kathy Choka said that her dad was the only father figure that many of the Coney Island employees had in their lives.  

Sadly, in December of last year, Russ Choka was climbing the stairs at his house to go to bed one Friday evening and his heart gave out.  "This is the way he would want to go," Kathy Choka told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette after her father's death.  "He didn't suffer."  

Kathy Choka took over her father's part of the business and continues the tradition of Coney Island today.  "It's all about the continuity," Kathy Choka told the local newspaper. "The product is not going to change."

The hot dogs at Coney Island are grilled on a flat grill located by the front window that looks out onto West Main Street in downtown Fort Wayne (see map).  Between 1500 and 2000 hot dogs are cooked on the grill on a nearly daily basis at Coney Island.  They steam the buns at Coney Island and the bun steamer is just behind a glass partition next to the counter where there's a food preparation area.  

The restaurant, itself, is in a long narrow building with tables on one wall opposite the counter.  Old pictures of Fort Wayne from years ago along with some whimsical signage adorn the walls.  The stools at the counter look like they are the original ones from when the place first opened years ago.  Even there is a front door to the place, a number of people use the backdoor entrance to go through the small kitchen in the back to the dining area of the restaurant.  It's one of those things that only the locals know it's all right to do.

The menu at Coney Island is pretty basic.  Along with hot dogs, you can get burgers, chili, baked beans, homemade pie and chips.  Their baked beans must be pretty good as they had those available for carry-out in either a bowl-size or a pint-size container. I took a seat at the counter and knew I was going to get a couple Coney Hot Dogs - basically chili dogs. - with onions.  

A young girl came over to greet me and I ordered up two of the Coney Hot Dogs from her - with onions. I was hoping the ginger Altoids I had in my car would kick in before I had to meet with my prospective dealer later in the afternoon.  I got a glass of water to go along with the meal.

It didn't take long at all for a couple coney dogs to be placed in front of me.  The dogs and buns were long and narrow, not very big at all.  Three of these would have been fine with me.  It had a layer of their homemade Greek style chili with a ribbon of mustard underneath a copious amount of fresh onions.  From the first bite, I liked the taste immensely.  They reminded me of my long-time favorite hot dog shop in Sioux City, IA - George's No. 1 Hot Dog Shoppe.  The chili had no beans in it and had a wonderful and flavorful spice to it.  It wasn't a hot spicy taste, just a nice smooth complimentary taste that went will with the grilled taste of the hot dogs.  I do like a good flat-topped grilled hot dog.  It's tough to beat a good steamed hot dog, but the taste of the old grill at Coney Island was clearly evident on their hot dogs.  The steamed buns gave them a nice light and chewy taste. It was simply an outstanding hot dog.  

I did have my meeting at my prospective dealer later in the day and they did agree to carry some of our products.  I had to do an event at Sweetwater the next day and I had planned on telling the guy from there about my visit to Coney Island.  Shockingly, I found out that he had passed away from leukemia a month before.  Now each time I come back to Fort Wayne, I'll have to stop at Coney Island and have a couple three coney dogs in his memory.   It's plain to see why they've been in business for nearly 100 years.  Coney Island is one of those great little slices of Americana in the heartland of the U.S. 

Oddfellows Burger Kitchen - Ames, IA

After eating at - and doing background research on Pazzesco Pasta and Chophouse in Ames, IA (see my entry on that place here) - I found that the owner was also a partner in a new gourmet burger joint in town, Oddfellows Burger Kitchen.  I was in Ames recently calling on a dealer and I found that Oddfellows wasn't far from his office.  I stopped in for lunch that particular day just to see if their burgers were as good as advertised.

(Update - Pazzesco closed their doors in March of 2012, not long after I visited their restaurant.  They say on their web site they're looking for a new location, but as of the fall of 2012, they appear to still be closed.) 

The owner of Pazzesco, Chris Patterson, partnered up with Sai Kiojai, to open Oddfellows earlier this year in the old Cafe Shi location in the Northern Lights shopping center, just north of the North Grand Mall on Wheeler Avenue just off Grand Avenue on the north side of Ames (see map).  Patterson is a native of nearby Nevada, IA and attended Iowa State University.  He had a long history of working at, managing and owning a number of restaurants around the country before moving back to Ames a couple three years ago to open Pazzesco.   Patterson saw a need for an upscale burger place in Ames and came up with the concept of Oddfellows.  

The decor of Oddfellows can easily be described as colorful and funky.  The walls are painted in bright pastel colors and covered with movie posters, odd-ball antiques and concert posters.  Most of the posters are tacked up with staples and I'm wondering how long it will be before some of them are torn off the wall.  There's a main dining area and a bar area.  The main dining room was still full just after 1 p.m. when I got in there, so I took a seat in the bar area.

A large group of workers from Iowa State University was finishing up their lunch when I was seated near a window in the bar.  There are a number of flat screen televisions in the bar area and it looks like it would be a good place to watch a sporting event.  But I would stop short of calling it a sports bar.  

The young man who directed me to my seat dropped off a menu and told me my waitress would be with me shortly.  I took a look through the menu as I waited and found that Oddfellows did, indeed, have some interesting burgers on their menu.  They grind their beef fresh each day and feature fresh ingredients for their toppings.  Their signature Oddfellow burger features a burger that uses a split donut instead of a bun.  The Elvis burger is topped with bananas and peanut butter (editorial comment: "Yuck!"), and they had a grilled cheese burger that is basically a double grilled cheese sandwich made with four slices of Texas toast and a burger in the middle.  They also had burgers, one topped with crab meat, another with beef brisket.  They also had a number of appetizers including bacon-wrapped dates.  I'm not big on dates, but it's pretty hard not to like a food that is wrapped in bacon. (Although I recently did have bacon-wrapped braunschweiger that almost made me gag.)

I had been there for about three minutes and the young guy who seated me came over and said, "Sorry she hasn't been here to take your drink order.  She's a little busy finishing up with this big group.  What can I get ya?"  I ordered a bottle of beer and continued to look over the menu. 

My waitress came over to me and dropped off my beer.  She had the unique name of Kearstin and profusely apologized for not coming over sooner.  I told her I fully understood.  She had a large group that all paid individually and she and another waitress were doing their best to keep up.  By that time, I'd had enough time to look over the menu and I had decided to get the green chile burger, topped with pepperjack cheese, cooked medium.  I had my choice of sides like fries, rings or macaroni and cheese.  For funsies, I got the mac and cheese.

Less than 20 minutes after I ordered, Kearstin cheerfully dropped off my burger at the table.  The pepperjack cheese was melted over the green chiles, holding them on top of the burger patty.  Actually, I don't know if I would call the green chiles as "fresh" - they looked like they had just come out of a can.  That didn't matter to me all that much.  

The burger, itself, was cooked exactly as I like with a little bit of pink in the middle.  Too many times I encounter grill chefs who don't quite understand that a burger cooked all the way through is not medium.  The meat did taste fresh and had the nice flat griddle taste to it.  The bun was light and fluffy, lightly toasted and a little chewy.  It held together well with the juiciness of the burger.  The only problem was that the chiles kept falling off.  It made for a messy burger and they need to put more napkins on the table when they serve a burger like this.  I went through the napkin I had on my lap rather quickly and had to reach across the table and steal the napkin wrapped around the extra silverware.  

While I can say the burger was above average, the mac and cheese was "eh!"  It was pretty basic and lifeless.  Trader Joe's mac and cheese out of a box was much better than the mac and cheese at Oddfellows.  I just had a couple bites before I decided it wasn't worth eating any more.   

While the burger was very good, it was also a little expensive ($9.00).  I don't know how a place like Oddfellows will do in a smaller university town in the Midwest like Ames, but I'm hoping they do make it.  Kearstin did a nice job in taking care of me and I hung around a bit taking a look at some of the posters and memorabilia they had on the walls at Oddfellows.  All in all, I give Oddfellows Burger Kitchen a "thumbs up".  A little expensive, but still pretty darn good.       

Barrio - Minneapolis

Earlier this year, Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor made a substantial commitment to carry Cambridge Audio products for me and I made the trek up north to Minneapolis to do some training for them and to take the staff out to dinner afterward.  Since the staff at the Needle Doctor are all fun people, I asked one of the salespeople, Rachel, to pick out a "fun" restaurant for dinner that evening.  She immediately suggested an Italian place called Bar La Grassa, whose executive chef, Isaac Becker, recently won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in the Midwest. But when she found out that they couldn't accommodate a group of 10 or more with less than a week's notice, she had to go to plan B.  She then suggested a hip Mexican restaurant with ties to Bar La Grassa in downtown Minneapolis by the name of Barrio.  

Barrio bills themselves more as a tequila bar offering more than 150 different types of tequila to choose from.  Since August of 2008, the little restaurant on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis (see map) has served top shelf tequilas to go along with their variations on eclectic street-style Mexican food.  Barrio was founded by partners Tim Rooney and Ryan Burnet, both veterans of the Twin Cities restaurant and hospitality scene.  Burnet and his father helped develop the trendy W Minneapolis and Le Meridian Chambers boutique hotels in downtown Minneapolis.  The young Burnet is also a realtor with his father's Burnet and Birkeland realty firm and is somewhat famous in the Twin Cities for selling the mansion of the late banker and Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad in just over 30 days.     

Rooney is a partner in his own development firm, Metropolitan Development, that also helped develop the W and Le Meridian Chambers hotels in Minneapolis with the Burnets.  In addition to the hotels and the Barrio location in downtown Minneapolis, the younger Burnet and Rooney also helped develop Bar La Grassa with Isaac Becker in 2009.  

Pictured right - Ryan Burnet (courtesy BizJournals.com) 

Barrio in Minneapolis was an immediate hit when it opened in August of 2008 garnering "Best New Restaurant" in the Twin Cities in 2008 as named by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine.  Barrio opened a second location in St. Paul in 2009 and opened a third restaurant - Cocina del Barrio - in the upscale and trendy 50th and France neighborhood in Edina in late 2010.  

Bill Fairbanks is the executive chef for the Barrio restaurants.  A Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, Fairbanks has been a chef for over 20 years including a stint at the Stillwater, MN location of the upscale La Belle Vie restaurant.  When Rooney and Burnet opened their first Barrio restaurant, they tabbed Fairbanks as their executive chef.  Fairbanks immersed himself into the Mexican culture, learning about their cuisine and added a European flair to the Latin food.    

Over the past few years, a number of Mexican restaurants have come into existence after the owners garnered a following of people who sought out the food trucks in which their food business started.  Barrio did it sort of backward.  After opening two restaurants, Barrio established a food truck business that goes around to events in the Twin Cities and offers nearly everything the regular Barrio restaurants have to offer in terms of food.  Most of the time, you'll find the Barrio food truck at the corner of 1st Ave. N and 4th St. Monday thru Friday just east of the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis (see map).  

I parked in a $5.00 parking lot a block away from Barrio near the corporate headquarters of Target.  Although it was a cool and pleasant Spring evening in Minneapolis, the Nicollet Mall was not as thriving as I thought it would be.  I walked to Barrio and noticed that no one was seated outside on the patio.  Even with as warm as it had been in the Twin Cities in the late Winter and early Spring, it was still too cool to sit outside. I went inside and found Rachel and some of the guys in the back corner of the main floor of the restaurant.  Rachel told me she had hoped that we could have been seated upstairs, but that didn't happen.  We were a little cramped by the time everyone showed up, but we were fine.  

The interior at Barrio in Minneapolis has sort of a gothic feel to it.  It was dark inside with subdued lighting from candles and chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling.  Rather curiously, they did have a large screen projection television beaming picture onto a screen on the wall opposite the bar.  

The bar area, itself, was rather interesting with a high mirrored wall full of shelves of bottles of tequila.  The real high dollar tequila (including Gran Patron Burdeos Extra Anejo at $133 a shot) sat on the very top shelf.  It was an impressive line-up of tequila, to say the least.  But I started off with a Surly Furious beer while others started with one of Barrio's exquisite margaritas.  

The dinner menu at Barrio is pretty basic, but very interesting.  They have a series of small plates that are served sort of "tapas" style for appetizers.  These include red snapper ceviche with avocados, radishes and oranges; a small plate of pork belly served with a red mole sauce, watercress and apricots; and grilled meatballs with a chile de arbol salsa, pickled carrots and a cheese queso sauce.  They had made-to-order guacamole served with homemade corn chips.  We ordered three of those to start out.  

The guacamole was outstanding, by the way.  It was served in a stone bowl with bits of radish and cilantro mixed in. It was extremely fresh.  Kenny from the Needle Doctor said that it was very had to get fresh avocados in Minnesota.  "We just don't have avocado farms in Minnesota," he half-jokingly said.  We made quick work of the guacamole, which was also served with a small portion of a spicy salsa mix.

Most of the Mexican fare at Barrio consists of interesting tacos and enchiladas.  While they do have entrees such as a seared ahi tuna with a tomatillo-avocado salsa, or a pan-roasted Amish chicken chimichurri served with a spicy black bean and mango salad, the bulk of the main food items are the tacos and enchiladas.  

They had a Taco Lengua - beef tongue - on the menu, along with a pork belly taco with a habenaro salsa and pickled onions.  Those were two that I wasn't willing to try.  I did find a seared ahi tuna taco served with grilled onions, avocado and an arbol-tomatillo sauce.  They had a red chile chorizo enchilada that was served with a fried egg.  Oooooo....  That sounded real good.   There was a pork carnitas taco, a "gringo" taco with ground beef, lettuce and cheese, a spicy shrimp taco with tomato-mint pico de gallo mixed in, and a soft-shell crab taco with watermelon-tomatillo, avocado and watercress.  Mmmmm....

I had finished my Surly beer and decided to get a margarita.  One of the guys had ordered the Trinity - a silver label tequila with Cointreau and a lime sour mixer.  He said it was pretty good.  I ordered one of those and Kenny, who was seated across from me, ordered the Macho Camacho - a blood orange margarita made with anejo tequila and a splash of Cava, a Spanish wine.  Wedges of orange and lime were included.  He said it was pretty damn good.  I made short work of my Trinity margarita and had our waitress, a lovely young Asian woman by the name of Chi - who took great care of us all night long - get me a Macho Camacho for my second margarita.  Kenny was right - it was good, and very interesting.

We began to order up our food and many in the group began to order up tacos and enchiladas, served individually on a plate.  A couple guys got entrees including the Creekstone Farms natural ribeye served with chile-lime tequila butter and fried yucca.  For tacos, I had to go with the ahi tuna taco and the red chile chorizo enchilada right off the bat.  I also decided to try one of the Creekstone Farms natural skirt steak tacos with poblano chile strips (rajas in Spanish), as well as a pork carnitas taco.  I came damn close to ordering a soft shell crab taco instead of the carnitas taco, but was happy with my choice.

After a few moments, waitresses helping Chi that evening were bringing out individual plates of tacos.  The first round to the table where for the people who ordered the skirt steak tacos, the pork belly tacos and the carnitas tacos.  The skirt steak taco was inside a deep fried shell that was light and flaky.  The carnitas were on double  small flour tacos (below left).  A wedge of lime was included with both plates.  The skirt steak was moist, juicy and flavorful.  The roasted poblano pepper strips had a nice smoky taste to them and went well with the beef.  The carnitas were equally as good, but a little more well-done than the skirt steak.  A serrano chile salsa was served on top of the pork and it helped with the taste. 

The food kept coming out.  It was coming in waves of individual plates.  Beef tongue tacos, chorizo enchiladas, shrimp tacos - each came out individually as soon as the kitchen finished them.  My second round consisted of my chorizo enchilada and the ahi tuna taco (above right).  Actually, the portions were pretty good sized and I was thinking I may have trouble finishing what I had in front of me.  But at the first bite of the ahi tuna taco, I knew I would have make short work of this thing.  The avocado with the arbol-tomatillo salsa just helped the already wonderful taste of the seared ahi tuna.

I was a little leery of the chorizo enchilada.  I had a bad experience a number of years ago with chorizo - food poisoning, I'm guessing - and I've pretty much stayed away from chorizo ever since.  But this chorizo wasn't greasy in the least and had a great flavor.  The fried egg went absolutely perfect with the chorizo in the enchilada.  I was getting full, but the taste sensation of the chorizo and egg was stupendous.  It was just outstanding.  

After dinner, a handful of us ordered a shot of tequila - the El Jimador anejo that was moderately priced at $8 bucks a shot.  It was smooth and was a nice nightcap.  But it was also the last thing I needed to drink that evening.   

Barrio was definitely an experience.  Everyone raved about their food and we all had a great time - two things that I like to have when I go out to a restaurant with a group of people.  It was a great experience and one that I'd like to enjoy some time down the line.  Actually, I've been wondering about those soft shell crab tacos ever since that night at Barrio.   

The Standard - Elmhurst, IL

I hadn't been to the Elmhurst area just west of Chicago for dinner for quite sometime.  There have always been a number of wonderful dining options in Elmhurst, but this particular evening I wanted to try something new.  Sitting in my hotel room, I found a place that I wasn't overly familiar with on Urbanspoon - The Standard - and it appeared that it was just down York Road in the Elmhurst City Centre, Elmhurst's downtown restaurant, shopping and entertainment district.

The Standard is owned by Steve Syregelas and opened in May of 2007.  Their concept is to take classic American food and offer a fresh and modern approach.  The food is all made with the freshest ingredients and made from scratch each day.  I likened it to higher end comfort food.  They also have a full service bar where they make a large assortment of specialty drinks and martini's using fresh fruits and seasonal ingredients.   

The Standard is actually just off York Road on Schiller on the ground floor of a public parking garage (see map).  I was able to find a parking spot on the street just across from the front of the restaurant.  I went in and was greeted by the bartender, Christopher, who was also wearing the hat of host for that evening.  The bar area looked rather interesting with a backlit wall showcasing their various bottles of liquor.  No one was seated at the bar and I asked Christopher if I could sit there.  He said, "Absolutely!  I could use some company!"  

The dining room was also rather interesting. It's sort of a stylish and modern take on a classic American diner.  The dining room was designed by SYRE Design, which, I'm guessing, is probably connected to owner Steve Syregelas.  The key component of the dining room are the large modern light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  While the restaurant was not bright, it certainly wasn't so dark that you could read a menu.  

Christopher sat a dinner menu down in front of me and I began to go through what they had to offer.  He came back a moment later and asked me if I wanted anything to drink.  They had three beers on tap - the Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat beer (which is one of the very few wheat beers that I like); another beer that while I can't remember what it was, I wasn't interested in getting it; and a beer whose spigot I didn't recognize.  I asked Christopher what the other beer was and he said, "Oh, that's the Magic Hat 9.  It's out of the Magic Hat Brewery in Vermont." 

I wasn't familiar with it and I asked what kind of beer it was.  He told me that it was a pale ale.  I immediately signed up for that.  And I'm glad I did.  It wasn't as forward or as heavy as some pale ales can be.  It was a very smooth drinking beer.  It turns out that it's been available in Illinois for quite some time, but I wasn't familiar with it.  I'm certainly familiar with it now.  

Looking through the menu, I found The Standard to have a wide variety of interesting salads, sandwiches, appetizers and specialty entrees.  They also had a handful of steaks and seafood dishes to choose from.  A waiter came over to talk to Christopher and Christopher said, "Hey, what's the special tonight?  Maybe this gentleman would like to hear about it."

The waiter proceeded to tell me about a chicken entree where they take a grilled chicken breast and add ham and Swiss cheese and some other ingredients.  It sounded like their version of a chicken cordon bleu.  It was tempting and I kept that in the back of my mind.  

On their web site, the picture of their burger looks fantastic and they had a handful of different variations to choose from.   All the burgers are 1/2 pound patties and cooked over a wood-fired grill.  Their Classic cheeseburger had American cheese with all the garden fixing's.  The Backyard burger had cheddar cheese with bacon and barbecue sauce.  And they had a Maytag burger featuring Maytag blue cheese and caramelized onions with lettuce, tomato and pickles.  I almost pulled the trigger on that.

But I had been on the road for a while and every now and then I get to a point that I need a good comfort food dinner.  The Standard's specialty entrees featured a roasted turkey dinner with cranberry/orange sauce along with apple stuffing, smashed potatoes and homemade gravy.  They also had a meat loaf dinner that caught my eye.  For fish, they had a sesame encrusted sushi grade ahi tuna with Thai peanut sauce, baby bok choy and rice.  And they also had a wonderful sounding Steak Diane - beef filet medallions in a mushroom madiera sauce and their smashed potatoes.  I was having a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted.

I had narrowed my choices down to the Maytag burger and the meat loaf served with a mushroom bordelaise sauce and topped with onion straws and served over a bed of smashed potatoes.  Christopher came over and asked if I was ready to order.  I told him that I was torn between the Maytag burger ("Just had one of those earlier," he said), and the meat loaf.  He said, "Oooo...  That is a tough choice.  Our meat loaf is very good."  

I did a mental coin flip in my head and it came up meat loaf.  He said, "Either way, I don't think you'll go wrong."

Less than 10 minutes after I ordered, a waitress brought out my meat loaf and sat it down in front of me at the bar.  It featured three medium sized slabs of meat loaf that appeared to be slightly grilled, then placed on the smashed potatoes, then topped with a liberal amount of the mushroom bordelaise sauce.  I was expecting onion straws on top of the meat loaf, but I was instead served with what appeared to be two small homemade onion rings.  Fresh parsley was then sprinkled over the top.  The presentation for a meat loaf dish was very nice.  

The meat loaf was firm, yet easy to cut with a fork.  Along with the mushroom sauce, it tasted very good.  The herbs and seasonings that were in the meat loaf added to the taste sensation of the sauce and the meat together.  

The smashed potatoes were, well, smashed potatoes.  They were fine, but nothing outstanding.  Actually, I wish I would have gotten more than just two of the onion rings as they were delicious.  The batter was fresh and flavorful, and the onions cooked inside had a great sweet taste to them.  Surprisingly, I didn't find the onion rings anywhere on the menu, not even for an appetizer or a side.  I thought they were excellent. 

For a first time dining experience at The Standard, I was very impressed.   The menu was very interesting, the meat loaf entree was very good, and Christopher's service was excellent.  They weren't overly busy that evening so I was able to get his full attention when I needed it, but nonetheless it was exemplary.  As I said, Elmhurst has a number of good to very good dining establishments and I'm glad that I was able to try The Standard on this particular evening.  Next time - the Maytag burger! 

(Update - I didn't get the chance to make it back to get a Maytag burger.  The Standard closed in May of 2013.)

East Side Bakery - Davenport, IA

My wife wanted to go to this small bakery she'd read about in the local Radish Magazine to get some bread one Saturday morning - East Side Bakery. When we pulled up in front of the place, I was amazed that I hadn't noticed it before because it's less than 5 minutes from our house, located just to the west and up the hill from the Village of East Davenport   In addition to great artisan breads and wonderful pastries, they also do pizza at East Side Bakery. We went there one night and got a pizza to go and we wanted to tell you about it today.

(Update - March 2014 - East Side Bakery has moved to a new location in the Hilltop Campus Village area of Central Davenport on Harrison Street.  (see map)  It's a smaller space, but the exposure is greater.  They've been baking double the amount of goods since the move and are selling out more quickly.  Since they're east of Main Street in Davenport, they're still technically on the east side of the city.)

The owner of East Side Bakery is Nikki LaTray, a Montana native who moved to the Quad Cities nearly 15 years ago with her job with the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern railway. She worked for the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern division of the DM&E until 2008 when the parent company was sold to Canadian Pacific Railways and LaTray was asked to move to South Dakota to continue working for the company. LaTray was reluctant to uproot her sons who were around high school age at the time and decided to do something on her own. She had always cooked and baked since a little girl on the highland prairie of Western Montana and she decided that she wanted to open a bakery. LaTray took all of her life savings and invested it in a building and baking appliances.

Nikki LaTray, pictured right, courtesy of The Radish Magazine. 

The building she picked out was not far from her home in the Mount Ida neighborhood of Davenport. Quite honestly, the previous business - Cases and Kegs - drew an undesirable element to the neighborhood. It sort of became the defacto place to hang out in the cross-cultural neighborhood. Once Cases and Kegs closed up, the building became available to LaTray.

Actually, the building has a long history as a neighborhood grocery store and meat market long before the supermarkets came onto the scene. Over 120 years ago, it began as the Mount Ida Meat Market, but more recently - and before it was Cases and Kegs - it was the home to the Holst Meat Market which longtime Davenport residents have told me had the best meat in town. The original Holst Meat Market sign is still on the front and side of the building. If it weren't for the "bakery" flags in the front window, you would still think it was a meat market.

The inside of the building is sparse, but always changing artwork lines the walls of the bakery, which LaTray calls "The Bakery Gallery". The gallery is actually run by Joseph Lappie, an art instructor at St. Ambrose University. The Bakery Gallery is an unusual and alternative place for local artists to show their work, something that Lappie was looking for when he initially approached LaTray, who admittedly had no background in art, whatsoever.

The East Side Bakery is not open on Sunday and Monday, but is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. the rest of the week. In the evening when LaTray is home resting (as her days usually start in the bakery at 4 a.m.), her sons, Justin and Quentin Schutter, run the business making their homemade pizzas and calzones.  Because it's such a small bakery, LaTray usually takes orders on her oven-baked breads in advance and people can pick up their orders after 11 a.m.  We were lucky in that she had an extra loaf of Italian bread and a baguette loaf that first visit.  When asked about the pizza at East Side Bakery, LaTray told us that it was unlike any pizza she's had in the Quad Cities.  She said it was a homemade crust that wasn't thick, nor was it cracker thin.  "Just the right thickness, in my opinion," she told us.  We told her that we'd give it a try sometime.   

It was on a Friday evening when we decided to call up East Side Bakery to get a pizza to go. When I called in our order, not fully knowing what exactly they had in both sides and toppings, I decided to just order a large pizza with sausage and pepperoni. The young man on the other end of the line told me it would be ready in 30 to 35 minutes and with that, he hung up. He didn't take my name or ask for a phone number. I told Cindy, "I hope to hell he had caller ID!" 

When we ended up getting there about a half-hour later, we went in to get the pizza. The same young man who had answered the phone, I believe it was Quentin Schutter, greeted us. I said, "We ordered a large sausage and pepperoni pizza, but you didn't take our name or number."

He said, "Oh, I have a pretty good grasp as to who is ordering what."

I pulled out my credit card and he said, "Uh, actually, this is a cash only business. We don't take credit cards."

I said, "Oh! OK, well, that's certainly no problem."

Cindy was looking through the pastry case and she wanted to get a couple of the cannoli-style creme horns they had. The total bill with the creme horns came to $20.71. I gave him $21 bucks and said to keep the change. Big spender, I know.

When we got the pizza home and opened it up, we were heartened to see that it wasn't a Quad City-style pizza that we usually don't care for.  The pizza also had a wonderful Italian herb smell to it.  The toasted basil and oregano was a wonderful addition on the top of the cheese.  Plentiful amounts of what looked to be a homemade sausage was on top and, as we found out when we started to chomp into the pizza slices, the pepperoni had a great salty and spicy taste and were also plentiful under the generous amounts of mozzarella on top of the pizza.  The sauce was not overly sweet, but pretty tangy.  

The cool thing about the pizza is that they use a braided crust at East Side Bakery.  And it was filled with garlic and Italian herbs, giving the crust a distinct flavor.  A wonderful flavor.  I'm usually not big on crust with pizza, but the East Side Bakery pizza crust was some of the very best I've ever had.  It was like eating an artisan bread with Italian herbs and spices mixed in.  In fact, I wished that I had a side of marinara to dip the bread into.  I almost got up and got some olive oil to put on a plate to dip the crust into.  It was absolutely wonderful. The only drawback is that it tasted a little salty.  I don't know if it was because they used regular salt or garlic salt in the dough.  But I'm a person who doesn't use salt very often and my taste buds pick up salt in food more easily than other people.  It wasn't a deal breaker on the crust by any means. 

We were able to eat just half of the large pizza that evening keeping it for lunch the next day and into Sunday.  Cindy looks at the staying power of a pizza based solely upon how well it tastes heated up in the microwave a day or two later.  She wasn't disappointed in her two pieces she had for lunch on Saturday.  "I think it almost tastes better the next day," she said.  I didn't quite agree with her, but it did taste pretty damn good both on Saturday and again on Sunday morning when I finished off the remaining two pieces for breakfast.  Ummm....  Pizza for breakfast.      

We're always on the lookout for good pizza in the Quad Cities, which has some pretty horrid pizza places in my opinion.  But the East Side Bakery didn't disappoint.  Oh, and the creme horns?  Outstanding.  They had a great sweet taste to the pastry dough and the creme filling was outstanding.  They were a great dessert to go along with a very, very good pizza.  East Side Bakery is worth the trip from anywhere in the Quad Cities to get a quality pizza to take home and enjoy.