Road Tips

The Toasted Frog - Bismarck, ND

Instead of going directly home after the annual CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis this past September, I was asked to squire around Jean-Philippe Fontaine, the International Sales and Export Manager for Focal Loudspeakers for a few days.  J.P. and I had both left our homes on September 3rd and we both weren't due to be back home until the 14th.  Only his trip was a little more arduous.  He started off in France, flew to China for a couple days, then flew all the way to Indy from Shanghai via Detroit.  After the Expo ended, we took off on Sunday afternoon, first stopping at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a tour of the museum and track (something J.P. wanted to do and I was glad to oblige), then up to Chicago and a couple days of meetings with dealers.  Given that we're doing a lot of business up in North Dakota, my boss suggested that we fly up there for a couple three days seeing our dealers in Fargo and Dickinson.  It's a four hour drive from Fargo to Dickinson with not a lot to see.  I told J.P. before we left, "We're either going to be best of friends at the end of this trip, or we're gonna hate each others guts."  On our way back from Dickinson, we stopped in Bismarck to have dinner at the Toasted Frog. 

I had wanted to eat lunch at the Toasted Frog earlier this summer with my dealer in Bismarck, but it turned out the restaurant is closed for lunch.  We ended up eating at the Blarney Stone (click here to see that entry) and that was exactly where J.P. and I dined for lunch on our way out to Dickinson earlier in the day.  I had eaten at the Pirogue Grill in Bismarck in the past (click here to see that entry), but wanted to try the Toasted Frog location in Bismarck.  I've eaten at the Toasted Frog in Grand Forks (click here to see that entry) and wanted to try their Bismarck location that opened in December of 2010.   Owners Jon Holth and Shawn Clapp bought the building on the southwest corner of Broadway and 4th Street (see map) in the heart of Bismarck's downtown core district.  Previous tenants of the nearly century old building included a couple of department stores and a cosmetology academy. 

Since it was the height of the dinner hour, we had to park in a public ramp behind the Toasted Frog.  (Getting out of the garage was pure Upper Midwest small-town Americana - there was no attendant on duty after 6 p.m., so you were on the honor system to place your money into a slot in the exit booth.)  We walked in and a hostess was in deep discussion with a man who had evidently got a dinner to go, but was bringing it back because he was less than thrilled with how it turned out.  It was an awkward moment for us and the hostess as the guy DEMANDED to see the manager and wanted his money back.  Fortunately, another young lady came up to greet us and seated us at a table opposite the bar.  

The Toasted Frog is situated in a long narrow building with high exposed ceilings with massive air ducts just below.  The tables and chairs are sort of a contemporary metal styling that were somewhat high, but actually pretty comfortable to sit in.   Our waiter came over to greet us and we ordered up a couple beers as we looked through the menu which is virtually identical with the Toasted Frog location up in Grand Forks.  

We had eaten eclectic Italian the night before, the night before that we had steak and seafood, and the night prior to that we had steak at Morton's near O'Hare (click here to see my entry on my visit to Morton's).  J.P. was sort of in a quandary as to what to get.  They don't have the same beef in France as they get in the U.S., so J.P. is always a little more prone to order steaks when he's in the states.  But at Toasted Frog, they only have a tenderloin filet and a New York strip on their menu.  I told J.P., "You know, the Midwest is also famous for their pork," pointing out the grilled pork tenderloin topped with a port wine craisin demiglace and served with your choice of potato and the vegetable of the day.  

He said, "That's it!  That is what I'll have!"   He got the French fries for his potato and fried zucchini was the veggie du jour.  

At the top of the menu, something caught my eye right off the bat.   They had grilled mahi mahi fish tacos served with a sour cream cabbage slaw, avocado slices, tomato and mango salsas, with chopped green onions and flour tortillas.  If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I'm a sucker for grilled fish tacos, even in a land-locked location such as Bismarck.  I didn't even consider anything else on the menu. 

It took about 20 minutes for our food to reach the table, time enough for another glass of beer from the list of beers the Toasted Frog had to offer.  J.P.'s  grilled pork chop was swimming in the port demiglace sauce.  He took one bite of it and had this look of astonishment on his face.  "Oh, my God," he exclaimed.  "This is so good!"  Midwestern pork won over another visitor to our country.  

My fish tacos came on two separate plates - one with the grilled mahi mahi filet on it with all the fixin's, and a small plate with the tortilla shells.   They grilled the tortilla shells to make them pliable and tender, giving them a nice charred taste, as well.  Putting a little bit of everything on to the top of the tortilla shell took a little while, but the time it took was worth it.  The mahi mahi was fresh in taste and not fishy in the least.  The sour cream cabbage slaw was a nice taste along with the salsas and fresh avocado slices.  The fish tacos were very good - surprisingly good for Bismarck, ND.  

J.P. ate up every last bit of the grilled pork tenderloin and swirled the last two pieces in the port demiglace.  He said, "Yes, we have pork in France.  But like your beef, the pork isn't as good as it is here.  This is some of the best pork I've ever had in my life."  And this is coming from a guy who travels all over the world for Focal.

I know it's sort of hard to screw up fish tacos, but the salsas and the sour cream cabbage slaw were a wonderful complement to the mahi mahi.  Let's say I've had worse grilled fish tacos in much larger cities.  And J.P. was more than happy with his grill pork tenderloin entree.  We were best of friends when we got back to the hotel in the Fargo area around 10:30 that evening, having spent over 8 hours in the car that day.  And I have to think that dining at the Toasted Frog in Bismarck helped.

Smokin' Jakes - Arnolds Park, IA

While on vacation in the Lake Okoboji region, my buddy, Craig Evert, told me about a place that he really likes called Smokin' Jakes in Arnold Park. (see map)  "They have great brisket, man," he gushed over drinks one night when we were at their house.  "It's the best barbecue in the lakes region."  Heck, we found out Smokin' Jakes may be the ONLY barbecue in the area.  One afternoon for lunch, we decided to give Smokin' Jakes a try.  

Smokin' Jakes is owned by Linda Geske, who also owns the Table 316 steakhouse and cabaret in Arnolds Park (one of the few restaurants in the area we didn't try on our vacation).  It opens at 11 a.m. and stays open until - sometimes -  4 a.m. for the late night bar crowd looking for an early breakfast - and they're kind of famous for their early, early morning breakfasts.

Smokin' Jakes isn't much more than a glorified corner tavern with a bar, tables and booths.  It's not fine dining, but you wouldn't expect that from a place that serves barbecue and late night/early morning breakfast.  Actually, I didn't see much evidence that there was any smoking apparatus on site.  I figured they must smoke the meat elsewhere and bring it in to the restaurant.  Antique pots or jugs were on shelves above the booths on the west wall of the place.  I never did figure out the significance of those while we were there.

We took a seat at a table along the short wall in the middle.  Our server that day, Julie, was also the bartender.  I got a beer and Cindy got iced tea.  Looking through the lunch menu, I was sort of disappointed to find out that they didn't offer any type of a sampler platter, or even a choice of a barbecue platter - it was basically sandwiches only for any barbecue.  (The dinner menu does offer a variety of barbecue plates including ribs, smoked pork chops, brisket, chicken and turkey.)  I was a little disheartened when I realized that I couldn't try a couple of different barbecued items.  They did have what they called "rib morsels" on the menu, basically rib appetizers, but I didn't feel like getting any of those.

In addition to the sandwiches at lunch, Smokin' Jakes also has a number of soups, salads and appetizers including their "chicken drummies" - small chicken legs with your choice of 10 different types of sauces.  Their sandwiches included grilled chicken, a smoked club that featured smoked ham and turkey (that really did sound interesting to me), and a BLT with smoked bacon.  Oooo....  That almost had me.  

I finally decided upon the brisket sandwich - I figured that I could just east the brisket on its own with out the bun.  I got an order of fries with it.  Cindy ordered the Philly Chicken sandwich - a smoked chicken breast with sauteed onions and green peppers and topped with Swiss cheese.  (You can also get the Philly Beef sandwich with brisket.)  She got a side of cole slaw.  

Our sandwiches came out less than 15 minutes after we ordered.   My sandwich featured three layers of somewhat thick cut brisket lying inside a hoagie bun with a small container of barbecue sauce in between. The fries were thick cut steak fries, so that was a plus.  But the presentation wasn't much.   

Cindy's  Philly Chicken sandwich was almost as boring looking as my brisket sandwich.  The cole slaw was in a small bowl off to the side of the smallish sandwich.  

The taste of my brisket was good - nothing special.  The meat was tender and juicy, but it tasted more like an oven roasted beef than a good smoked brisket, somewhat confirming my fears that they may not have a smoker at all.  The thick barbecue sauce had a sweet and smoky flavor to it.  It was good, but I wouldn't call it outstanding.  The toasted hoagie bun was used more to tear off pieces and dip it in the barbecue sauce.  I asked Julie for more sauce as I also used it on the steak fries, which had the perfect crunchy outside and soft inside.  

Cindy said her Philly Chicken was "good".  She said the breast did have a smoked flavor to it, sort of like how I do chicken breasts on the grill at home with indirect heat and a little bit of mesquite or cherry wood smoke.  The cole slaw, which I believe was homemade, was "eh!" in Cindy's book.  "I've had better, but it's not bad," she said.  

Although I was disappointed that I couldn't try something other than a sandwich for my barbecue choice for lunch, Smokin' Jakes was all right.  If it's the only barbecue in the lakes region, then its fine for what it is.  But any type of competition that would come in with good barbecue would give Smokin' Jakes a run for their money.  Compared to other places I've tried in larger cities, it's average, at best.  But for Arnolds Park and Lake Okoboji, it's fine.  Just don't expect world class barbecue when you go in.   

Amore Victoria - Minneapolis

Cindy loves the Uptown shopping and entertainment district in Minneapolis and on our trip to the Twin Cities during our vacation this summer, we found ourselves in Uptown around lunch time.  Trying to figure out where to eat, Cindy's eye caught an Italian restaurant on W. Lake Ave. - Amore Victoria.  (see map)  She said, "Italian sounds good for lunch, don't you think?"  I sort of shrugged my shoulders and drove back around the block and found a parking spot in front of the restaurant.

Actually, Amore Victoria was a shot in the dark for us.  But after eating there and doing some research on the place, it turns out that its one of the more popular Italian restaurants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.  Chef Alex Victoria and his wife, Jenna, run the corner bistro combining an old world flair for both decor and recipes with a strong neighborhood appeal that welcomes locals and visitors alike.  It's a warm and inviting place.

Chef Alex does his best to source local organically raised foods and meats for his menu.  The chicken Amore Victoria uses is always fresh, never frozen.  The beef is naturally-raised and hormone free.  Their seafood is from the wild and not farm-raised.  The food changes through the seasons due to availability, but Alex Victoria maintains a constant progressive Italian cuisine served throughout the year.   

We walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a hostess who asked us if we wanted to eat on the roof patio or inside.  It was a pretty warm day and we decided to eat in the restaurant.  She took us to a plush maroon booth along the north wall with a large window looking out onto Lake Ave. and dropped off a couple lunch menus.  

The main dining room of Amore Victoria features a large bar across the east side of the room with tables and chairs in the middle on the hardwood floor.  Maroon banquette seating goes along the west wall with antique light fixtures hanging from a white-painted tin ceiling.  The large windows allowed a flood of natural light to enter the room giving the restaurant the feeling that you were in an old world Italian bistro. 

 
There is a smaller room off the main dining room that has a brick wall along the west side with a number of tables and chairs throughout the room.  A stairwell down to the basement and Amore Victoria's wine cellar is along the west wall.  

Our waiter for the day, Diego, came over to greet us.  He told us of a couple lunch specials and wanted to know what we wanted to drink.  Cindy got a glass of their house chardonnay and I got a Peroni.  I don't remember what the specials were because I had seen something on their menu that had caught my eye right off the bat.  

They had this dish - Tortellacci All Panna - that was a homemade pasta pillow stuffed with veal with mushrooms, prosciutto and parmesan cheese in an organic cream sauce.  Yow!  I didn't even have to look at anything else on the menu.  

They had a number of chicken entrees on the menu, and Cindy was taking a look at some of theme.  But she said in anguish, "They all have mushrooms with them!"  She doesn't care for mushrooms at all.  The only one or two things that make us incompatible in our marriage.  I'd cook with mushrooms each night, if I could.  

She turned her attention to the pasta dishes and saw the Pasta Creazione at the top.  It featured your choice of five different types of pasta, then you could top your pasta with Bolognese sauce with meatballs or Italian sausage (or Bolognese plain), a pesto or creamy pesto sauce, a pomodoro or marinara sauce, or the aglio olio (garlic, red pepper, olive oil). 

Down below that she found Amore Victoria's fettuccine alfredo - house made fettuccine noodles in a cream sauce with parmigiano cheese and garlic.  For an extra $3 bucks, she could get grilled chicken chunks with the pasta.  Cindy ended up taking that for lunch along with a small house salad with the homemade Italian dressing.  

After we ordered, Diego brought out a small basket of homemade bread along with Cindy's salad.  The bread was just out of this world.  The bread was soft, chewy and over-the-top in taste.  With a little bit of olive oil, parmesan cheese and black pepper mixed together for dipping, the bread was fantastic.  I had to make sure that I wouldn't gorge myself on the bread for fear of not being able to eat my pasta.

When Diego brought out the pasta dishes, I was sort of surprised at the size of the lunch portions they served.  I thought, "Whoa, this is a lot of food!"  The size of the bowls were a little deceiving, however.  Quite actually, the rim of the bowls were pretty wide and they weren't very deep.  It looked like a lot of food, but I would have to say I had seven or eight of the tortallacci pillows stuffed with ground veal swimming in a wonderful parmesan cream sauce with chunks of prosciutto and mushrooms.  In a word, it was outstanding.   

Cindy's fettuccine alfredo with the chicken featured wide, but thin egg noodles in a rich alfredo cream cheese sauce.  Small chunks of grilled chicken were throughout the bowl with the pasta.  She said, "Oh, my God!  This is so good, but it is so rich!"  She knew she was going to have trouble finishing the whole meal.  She made a significant dent in the fettuccine before declaring she was full.  Then she had a couple more bites.  Cindy said, "This is so good that I can't stop eating it."  She finished the chicken and left only a couple of mounds of fettuccine noodles at the bottom of the bowl.    

I was able to finish all of my tortallacci with the mushrooms and prosciutto.  If I ever get back to Amore Victoria - which I will - I will get the tortallacci stuffed with veal.  Again and again.  I know they probably have a number of wonderful things on the menu, but the tortallacci was unbelievably great.  

Diego's service was good, but then again, we were only one of three tables that were occupied in the place as it was nearly 2 p.m. when we got there.  Still, he was attentive and on top of things for us.   

After we finished up and took care of the check, we asked to see the upstairs roof top dining area.  The hostess told us to go out the back into the parking lot and up the steps in back.  Hold it, there's a parking lot at Amore Victoria?  There sure is!  It's a pretty big one, too.  Guess we didn't need to park on the street out front and give the city of Minneapolis $1.50.  

We walked up the wide stairs to the roof and came across a nice little area with approximately two dozen tables, a bar area, a skylight in the middle and an herb garden on the far side.  It was hot on the roof and the waiters working the area were all dressed in black shirts and pants.  We were glad we decided to eat inside as even with the shade from the umbrellas it would have been somewhat uncomfortable up there.  Cindy asked one of the waiters, "Aren't you guys hot up here in those black shirts?"

The waiter said, "Oh, yeah.  You just keep moving and try to find the shade when you can.  And we drink a lot of water."  

I asked the waiter how long the rooftop seating had been in place.  He said they opened it up a year ago in the summer.  "Rooftop dining is the rage now in the Uptown area," he explained.  "One of the councilwomen for this district wanted to limit the amount of places that do rooftop dining, but we just went ahead and did it anyway."  Evidently, she was worried about noise from the rooftop would disturb people living in the area.  But I don't know how they could hear people talking on the rooftop at Amore Victoria over the street noise from Lake Ave.  

I just found a new favorite Italian restaurant in Minneapolis.   Amore Victoria was a wonderful find and one that I will definitely be back to in the future.  I get a hankering for good Italian food when I'm in Minneapolis, but I haven't found a place that knocked me for a loop like Amore Victoria did.  Probably the last good Italian restaurant I ate at in the Twin Cities was Pronto in downtown Minneapolis - a place that is long gone.  But now that Amore Victoria is on my radar, I'll be back.  I can't wait to get the tortallacci again and again and again... (Photo at left courtesy Amore Victoria's Facebook page.)

Koffee Kup Kafe - Arnolds Park, IA

Our last morning in the Lake Okoboji area found us having breakfast at another place we passed many times during our time at the lake, the Koffee Kup Kafe.  Located on the main drag through Arnolds Park, we decided to give it a try before we hit the road.  

The Koffee Kup is one of the many seasonally open restaurants in the Lake Okoboji area.  It opens in early May and closes in late September. Hours are a little strange - they open at 7 a.m. daily, but close at 1 p.m.  Owned by Rhonda Revland-Nelson, it's one of those places that fits in well with the political conservatives in Northwest Iowa as they continue to have Freedom Toast on their breakfast menu instead of French Toast.  (Interestingly, they have French Fries on their lunch menu.)   

The Koffee Kup shares its parking lot with Okoboji Middle School just north of the corner of Highway 71 and Broadway  (see map).  It was just after 9 a.m. when we walked into the restaurant and found the wooden booths and most of the tables were full on the north side of the restaurant (below left).  We finally found a small table up against the wall.  

The south side of the restaurant features counter service and a handful of booths (above right).  That's where the kitchen is, as well.  I'm guessing the north side of the restaurant had been added on to the building at some point.  

A waitress came by and dropped off a couple of breakfast menus for us to look through.  Breakfast is served during the six hours the Koffee Kup is open, so you can get a late breakfast at 11:30 a.m. if you like.  Most of the items on the menu are the standard breakfast fare - eggs, omelets, pancakes, French toast - excuse me, FREEDOM toast, Belgian waffles and their homemade cinnamon rolls that are baked fresh daily in a large pan.  The large cinnamon rolls are the same ones the Koffee Kup have had for over 20 years and are a favorite of both locals and vacationers to the lakes area.

Another thing they have on their menu is a fruit-based French Toast - sorry, I just can't get that right - FREEDOM Toast.  (Note to Koffee Kup - let it go!)  The apple or blueberry flavored bread is made fresh daily at a local bakery.  The Koffee Kup also features some breakfast skillets they call "Browns".  Basically, it's a large order of hash browns with a number of different additives such as meats, veggies and cheese, but no eggs added.  You may be able to get some eggs added, but I didn't ask.

I was sort of intrigued by some of the omelets they had on the menu.  The "Boji" omelet was loaded with ham, green peppers, onions, mushroom, hash browns and cheese, then topped with bacon and more cheese.  Whoa!  They also had the "Bottom of the Lake" omelet - ground beef, sausage, ham, bacon, tomatoes, green peppers, onion, mushrooms, and black olives, all topped with cheese.  Double Whoa!  Or you could get the "Meatlovers" omelet with ham, sausage, bacon and, for a buck more, the seasoned ground beef and cheese.  

But I was also thinking of something along the line of the blueberry Belgian waffle or the blueberry French toast. (I'm sorry, I'm not going to call it Freedom toast.)  When it came time to order, I almost pulled the trigger on a sausage, mushroom and cheese omelet, but I decided to get the blueberry Belgian waffle instead.  Cindy went basic - again.  She just got the one egg - over easy - with hash browns and bacon breakfast.  She also got some white toast with it.  She had been thinking about getting a waffle, as well, but decided against it.  "We ate so much, so late last night," she explained.  Yeah, but we were on vacation!  

While we were waiting for our food, two couples came in and were seated in a booth near us. After a bit, I heard one of the guys ask a waitress, "So, what's Freedom toast?"

She said, "It's basically French toast."  

He said, "You're kidding me.  You guys still call it Freedom toast?"  She sort of shrugged her shoulders.  I was thinking along the same lines as the guy.   

Our breakfast came out and the Belgian waffle was basically a waffle with fresh blueberries and a pop of whipped cream on top.  The waffle was light and fluffy, and the blueberries had that great tart taste to them.  It was a good waffle.    

Cindy's breakfast was pretty basic.  The bacon was crisp as she likes it, there were a nice pile of hash browns on the plate, and the toast appeared to come from homemade bread.  She said the breakfast was good, but nothing truly outstanding.  

Still the breakfast at the Koffee Kup was a pretty good value.  Of all the places we had breakfast at during our visit to Lake Okoboji, I'd rank them this way - 1) Family Diner; 2) O'Farrell Sisters; 3) Koffee Kup; 4) Dry Dock Galley and Lounge.  But that may not be very fair because they were all pretty darn good for what they had to offer.  We weren't disappointed with our breakfast at the Koffee Kup in the least.  We'd give it a good recommendation for breakfast.  

BRU Burger Bar - Indianapolis

While in Indianapolis for the annual CEDIA Expo in early September, we had a company meeting one day that took us deep into the middle of the afternoon before we broke for lunch.  We had dinner reservations at 7:30 p.m. at El Sol de Tala, one of my all-time favorite Mexican places, but after having lunch at 3:30, when 7:00 p.m. rolled around none of us were much hungry.  But about 8:00 p.m., a few of us began to get a little rumble in the stomach.  Suddenly, I had to find a place that could accommodate 10 of us - and quick.  I remembered hearing about a new gourmet burger place near the downtown area - BRU Burger Bar.  I called over there to see if we could get in right away and the young woman on the other end of the line said, "Sure!  We can get you in!"  I told her we'd be there in less than 20 minutes.

BRU Burger Bar is the newest restaurant concept for the Cunningham Restaurant Group (CRG), headed by Cincinnati native Mike Cunningham.  Since 1997, CRG has developed Indianapolis-area restaurants such as Boulder Creek Dining Company, Charbonos, Mesh, and Stone Creek Dining Company with six locations in the greater Indy area.  CRG opened BRU in December of 2011 in the Mass Avenue arts and entertainment area on Massachusetts Avenue just north and east of the downtown Indy area, not far from its sister restaurant, Mesh.  

It was a 15 minute walk from our hotel to BRU Burger Bar located at the corner of Mass Avenue and Alabama.    (see map)  We entered the stylish and contemporary restaurant and were greeted by a hostess.  When I told her that we had just called for a table for 10, she pointed to a long table that was along the wall near the stand.  Banquette seating was along the wall with chairs on the other side.  It was perfect for our group.  

BRU has an outdoor seating area, but they couldn't accommodate a larger group outside.  There was a nice bar area and a smaller dining room (right) that was off the bar and going out to the patio.  The restaurant had a very appealing and festive vibe to the place.  

The concept behind BRU Burger Bar is simple - gourmet burgers and craft beers.  The menu consists of a number of classic and eclectic burgers made with hormone-free natural beef from Creekstone Farms in Kansas.  The beef is a house-made mix of sirloin, chuck and brisket ground fresh by BRU each day.  In fact, everything is made in house at BRU, from the ground beef, to the buns, to the ketchup, and even the mayonnaise.    They also feature a number of appetizers and salads on the menu.  And for those who aren't looking for beef, BRU features Amish-raised chicken sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, a mahi mahi sandwich, as well as a veggie burger, a turkey burger and an ahi tuna burger.  

Their beer menu is very eclectic featuring a number of Midwestern-based breweries such as Boulevard, Bell's, and Founders.  They also featured a handful of local microbrews with a number of Belgian beers on the menu, as well as the usual domestics and imported beer.  Beer was welcome at our table, as it normally is when our company gets together.  

Our server for the evening, Jackson, was a lively girl who grew up in Oregon, but made her way to Indianapolis to follow a boy.  "Surprise, huh," she playfully asked us after we asked her what brought her from the Oregon coast to Indy.  She was fun and did a great job with us all night.  

Jackson told us the signature burger on the menu was the BRU Burger - a half-pound patty topped with Taleggio cheese, bacon, homemade tomato jam, caramelized onions, lettuce and tomato.   But they had some other interesting burgers such as the Garlic Three Cheese burger topped with roasted garlic and truffle aioli, and Swiss, American and mozzarella cheese.  The one that caught my eye was the Bourbon Burger that had a peppercorn-bourbon glaze on the burger, then topped with bacon and horseradish/Havarti cheese.  Mmmm...  Then this one popped out - the Blazing Saddles consisting of toppings such as mozzarella cheese, roasted jalapenos, chipotle remoulade, and lettuce and tomatoes.  BRU's Classic Burgers featured a Swiss and mushroom burger; a classic bacon cheeseburger; or just the plain old "Beginning" burger with American cheese, with homemade ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, onions, lettuce and tomatoes.  

Most of the people at the table ordered the signature BRU burger, while a couple ordered the Blazing Saddles.  My colleague, Todd, whose tastes for burgers are usually out of kilter with most of us, had the Mexicali Barbecue burger - a burger topped with white queso cheese, roasted chiles, guacamole, fried onions, lettuce and tomato, and finished with BRU's homemade barbecue sauce.  I looked at him when he ordered it and said, "Really?  I saw that on the menu, but I just thought there'd be too much on it and it would be too 'busy'."  

Todd said, "That's what made it interesting to me!"   

I ordered up the Bourbon burger and asked Jackson if I could get green chiles added to it to go along with the bacon and horseradish/Havarti cheese.  "Absolutely," she cheerfully replied.  For my side, I got an order of their homemade onion rings.  Jackson warned us that since the burgers are made from scratch, it takes a little longer than normal burgers.  We didn't care, we were having fun.  

About 20 minutes or so later, Jackson and a couple other servers brought our burgers out to the table.  The presentation was very nice with the burgers and sides on rectangular China plates.   Homemade pickles were stuck to the top of the homemade buns with a toothpick.  Below left is Todd's Mexicali burger.  He said, "Uh, I think I'm gonna need a few more napkins to eat this thing."  Toppings were just oozing off the top of the burger onto the plate.

Above right is the signature BRU burger.  As I said, most of the guys ordered the BRU Burger and from the grunts of approval, they all seemed to like what they were eating.  A couple of my colleagues at the far end of the table got the Blazing Saddles burger with the roasted jalapenos.  I asked one of them how it was - since it was a close second in my choice that evening - and he said, "Excellent.  Great burger."    

This is my Bourbon burger with the horseradish/Havarti cheese, green chiles, and bacon.  It was a big burger so I needed to cut it in half just to be able to manage it.  

The burger was cooked to a perfect medium for me with a little bit of pink in the middle.  The meat was flavorful, juicy and had a great consistency with the combination of brisket, sirloin and chuck beef.  I couldn't taste much of the bourbon or peppercorns on the burger, but that was all right.  The bun was light, fluffy and full of air holes - it was a great complement to the burger.  As were the toppings - the horseradish/Havarti cheese wasn't too forward in taste, but offered a little bit of that "zip" that you get with the taste of horseradish.  The bacon was delicious and the green chiles gave the burger a little more overall flavor that I was looking for.  It was simply an outstanding burger. 

But like most gourmet burgers, the ones at BRU Burger Bar aren't cheap. But compared to other gourmet burgers I've had, the price is actually a pretty good value.  Most of the burgers run 8 to 11 bucks and adding a side of fries is $2 extra, while adding onion rings, like I did, was a $3 up charge.  (But my onion rings were very good - it was worth the extra 3 bucks.)  I believe everyone in our group thought BRU was pretty damn good.  The burgers were great, Jackson did a good job of taking care of a big group who were constantly running her toward the bar for more beer, and we really enjoyed the fun and casual atmosphere at BRU Burger Bar.  BRU was a hit!

Yesterday's - Arnolds Park, IA

During our vacation up at Lake Okoboji this past summer, I was talking to our friends, Craig and Kathy Evert, about a place they took me to when I was traveling through the area about six years ago.  Kathy said, "Oh, we took you to Yesterday's."  I remember it being very nice and I asked if it was still open.  She said, "It sure is.  We were just there a couple weeks ago."  I wanted to take Cindy there for dinner one evening during our vacation and I did just that. 

Duane and Marilyn Zahradnik have owned and operated Yesterday's for nearly 30 years.  Duane runs the kitchen and Marilyn is the one who runs the front of the house.  The little place went through an expansion in the mid-90's by upgrading the bar area and adding another section of seating.  They added a Teppanyaki grill along the way and I believe Duane is the Teppanyaki chef for the restaurant, as well. 

It was around 7:30 when we walked into Yesterday's on Broadway in Arnolds Park. (see map)  With the summer vacation season winding down, we didn't think we needed a reservation.  Unfortunately for us, the place was still pretty full.  Marilyn Zahradnik met us at the front and told us that if we wanted to wait in the bar area we should be able to be seated in about 15 minutes.  

The bar at Yesterday's is an art deco design, something that was inspired from restaurants near the Zahradnik's winter home in Florida.  The "V"-shaped lighting frames a mirror over the back bar.  It was actually pretty cool to see.  We ordered a couple drinks and waited for about 15 to 20 minutes before a table in the original front part of the restaurant opened up.  

Marilyn directed us to a high-backed booth along the east wall of the place.  It had been a few years, but I vaguely remembered the cozy atmosphere of Yesterday's with the wooden walls and comfortable seating.  We looked through the menu that evening and after a bit our waiter for the evening, Charlie, came over to greet us.  He told us of a couple of the specials that evening including one called the "Cheese wheel".  I didn't quite understand the premise of it as he explained that it was steaming fettuccine noodles placed in a large ruggiano parmesan cheese wheel, mixed up with the cheese, then served with your choice of grilled shrimp or chicken, or nothing at all.  But later on, someone at the table next to us got the cheese wheel and I saw what it was all about.  It was intriguing, to say the least. 

We figured we were probably going to do seafood that evening as the menu at Yesterday's skews more toward seafood selections.  However, they do have a number of steak, pork and chicken entrees on the menu, as well. I looked through the wine list at Yesterday's and found a somewhat reasonably priced bottle of Ferrani-Carano Chardonnay.  

One of the appetizer specials that evening was a tuna carpaccio with a cucumber wasabi dressing.  I had Charlie re-explain that one to me when he came back to see if we had any questions.  I ended up ordering that  to start out while Cindy and I tried to figure out what we wanted.  

The tuna appetizer came out a few minutes later and it was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it.  Thin slices of rare tuna on a plate of cucumber straws and greens with a drizzle wasabi cream dressing is the best of how I can describe it.  The tuna was fresh and not fishy in taste at all.  

I was torn between a couple things on the menu.  The pork medallions were calling my name - two boneless pork chops served on bed of mashed potatoes, then drizzled with a red wine reduction mushroom sauce.  Mmmmm....  I also thought about getting the scallops as the ones Cindy got a couple nights before at Maxwells Beach Cafe were very good.  But then I saw the cheese wheel come out again for someone else and it just intrigued me so much that I had to end up ordering that with the grilled shrimp. 

Cindy was looking for a shrimp dinner to have that evening and she decided upon the shrimp scampi - sauteed shrimp served with brown rice and a vegetable.  That evening the vegetable was broccoli.  We also both got Caesar's salads.  "Throw a couple anchovies on your salads," Charlie asked.  Absolutely!

The Caesar's salads were good with Yesterday's homemade Caesar's dressing.  The greens were fresh and crisp.  We made short work of the salads before the main courses came to the table.  

A few moments after our salad plates were taken away, Duane Zahradnik wheeled out a cart to our table with a large cheese wheel that was hollowed out in the middle.  A metal cooking bowl full of steaming fettuccine noodles sat at the side along with about five or six grilled shrimp in another small bowl on the side.  Duane took the fettuccine noodles and placed them in the cavity of the cheese wheel and placed the bowl over the top.  He let it sit for a few moments before opening it up and began to stir the pasta around the inside, melting the inner walls of the cheese on the noodles.  

He then added the shrimp to the pasta in the cheese wheel and continued to stir and toss the two inside the hollowed out cavity.   When the cheese had come to a gooey consistency with the pasta and shrimp, he pulled it all out with a pair of tongs, placed in on a plate and served it to me.  I asked him,"So, how many meals can you get out of a cheese wheel."  

Duane thought for a second and said, "You know, I've never really counted. I'm guessing probably 175 to 200 per wheel."  I asked him how many wheels he'd go through in a season (they're open late April until late September), and he said, "This year we've gone through six or seven.  Since we're going to be closing here for the season in about a month, this will probably be the last one we do this year."  That's a pretty popular dish.

I asked him what he did with the cheese he used to hollow out the cheese wheels and he said, "We grind it up and put it in these bowls to use," pointing at one of the parmesan cheese bowls on the table. Oh, yeah.  Well, duh!  

The ruggiano parmesan fettuccine and shrimp had sort of a somewhat pasty texture to it.  The shrimp had a flavorful crusty outside to them, probably grilled in butter, I was thinking.  The taste was excellent.  The ruggiano parmesan had melted throughout the entree and each bite was this delightful cheesy taste.  I also got a side of broccoli crowns with my pasta and I added a couple to the dish to get that cheese taste on the veggies.

Cindy's shrimp were more grilled than sauteed.  There were six large and plump shrimp that were on her plate with a bed of brown rice and a small bit of broccoli off to the side.  There was a drawn butter dipping bowl in the middle.  Cindy said, "Oh, these are good."  

The fettuccine I had was simply wonderful, but - oh! - so rich.  I was getting full, but I couldn't stop eating the ruggiano parmesan cheese sauce.  I knew I was probably going to regret it when I stepped on the scale when we got back home, but it was so good.  And it was very popular - while we were there, I counted no less than 10 times that Duane had to bring the cart out from the back to serve the cheese wheel special.  

Charlie came back around and asked us if we wanted any dessert.  I sort of let out a groan because I was simply stuffed.  But he went ahead and began to name some of the desserts they had.  When he said, "We have a key lime pie that's pretty good," Cindy stopped him and ordered that with two forks.  

Actually, the slice of key lime pie was pretty good.  It had a very creamy texture to it along with a very forward and sweet citrus taste.  Cindy said, "Yeah, this is pretty good, but I think you make a better one at home."  Thank you, dear!   

I remember the food being well above average on my initial visit to Yesterday's so many years ago and this time was pretty much the same.   The cheese wheel was certainly unique to me and it offered some pretty good taste sensations.  Charlie's service was impeccable and we spent some time visiting with Marilyn Zahradnik before we left. (Cindy was intrigued by the bags made out of old sail cloth that she had on display in the restaurant - it turned out her daughter sold them at a shop not far away from there.)   It would be tough to say who had the better meal between Maxwell's and Yesterday's.  Both were very good for what they were.  I don't think you'd go wrong with either place if you were looking for a nice meal at Lake Okoboji.  But if I had to pick between the two, I'd go back to Yesterday's first.  

(Papa) Georgioz - Colfax, IA

My niece was getting married back at the family farm near Kellogg, IA over Labor Day weekend.  The night before, my sister and the mother of the groom had a reception for both families, but woefully under estimated the amount of food needed because of the number of people from the groom's family who showed up.  I didn't eat, but Cindy did a little bit.  I told her, "Hey, don't eat too much. I've got an idea for dinner."  I'd heard about a place over in Colfax called Papa Georgio's and wanted to try it out.  We left around 8:30 and high-tailed the 20 miles over to Colfax to find the place. 

Georgioz (they have appeared to dropped the "papa" and changed the spelling) is a little pizza/sandwich place just as you cross the railroad tracks coming from Interstate 80 on the north side of Colfax on Highway 117 at Front St. (see map)  The building in which Georgioz is housed used to be various bars and even a strip club a number of years ago.  Pam and Andrew Weigle bought the building, fixed it up and opened for business in 2003.  Pam's father, George Dickerson, whom I knew years ago, helped out with financing on the place, hence the "Papa Georgio's" name when it first opened.  From all indications, it's simply known as Georgioz these days.  

(Pictured right - the front of Gergioz.  Photo courtesy Waymarking.com)  

Not knowing how late they stayed open, we pulled into the parking lot just before 9 p.m. a few cars including a couple larger boats behind pick-up trucks were in the parking lot.  As we were getting ready to walk in, I looked in the window and a long line of people were approaching the door to leave.  We stood as about a dozen of them came out.  One of the guys held the door for us and said, "There were 18 of us, so you may be running into a few more on your way in."  

Sure enough, the rest of the people were coming toward us as we turned the corner.  A young waitress, Brooke, came up with the final people leaving the place and I asked her, "Are we too late to get some food?"

She said, "Oh, not at all!  We're open until 11!"  She grabbed a couple menus and took us down a narrow passage that also had some tables along the wall, past the open kitchen on the left that housed a large Baker's Pride pizza oven (below left) and into a larger dining area.  She said, "You can take your pick.  You guys are the only ones here!"  We took a table opposite the side where the large party had just finished.  


The dining room at Georgioz could be categorized as "industrial chic".  The walls were a bright red with what appeared to be metal truck liners (that's what Cindy said they were) about three feet up around the walls. Contemporary art work adorned the north and west walls with windows along the east side.  All the tables had metals tops and padded metal chairs.  

Brooke asked us what we wanted to drink as we looked over the menu.  I got a beer, but Cindy was surprised to see that they offered a number of wines by the glass - including a malbec that she promptly ordered.  Frankly, I was sort of surprised with what they had for wines, as well.  It appeared that Georgioz had their own private label house red and house white wine available.    

Pizza, sandwiches, and appetizers and salads are the main fare at Georgioz.  They have a number of specialty pizzas including a Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza that's topped with ground beef, onions, dill pickles, bacon, and mozzarella AND cheddar cheese; a Bleu Cheese pizza that is topped with a garlic butter sauce,  seasoned chopped chicken, red onion and garlic, then finished with bleu and feta cheeses with olive oil and a blend of mozzarella; and the Rueben pizza - instead of a pizza sauce, they use Thousand Island dressing, then it's topped with corned beef, sauerkraut, and mozzarella.  It sort of sounded equally disgusting and interesting to me.  

Cindy was looking hard at their salads and determined that she wanted to get one of their Greek salads.  The only problem was that the 1/2 Greek salad was only a buck cheaper than a full one.  When she asked Brooke how big the half was, she said, "Well, I certainly have trouble finishing one."  Cindy asked me if I'd help her eat it, but I was set on getting a pizza.  

Georgioz has a "create your own pizza" segment on their menu and you can choose between over two dozen toppings including mandarin orange, breaded chicken, fresh spinach and yellow peppers.  Going back to my standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom, I ordered a medium - 14" - pizza, figuring that we'd have a refrigerator in our room for leftovers back at the hotel that we hadn't checked into as of yet.  (Note - we didn't.)  I was also pleased to see that Georgioz used Graziano Brothers sausage, some of the finest Italian sausage in the Midwest.  I asked Brooke if the pizza crust was thin and she said, "Well, it's not cracker thin, but it's more thin than other pizzas around here."  

About 20 minutes later, Brooke brought the Greek salad and pizza out to the table for us to dig into.  I would have hated to see what a full Greek salad consisted of because the half was pretty big on its own.  For a buck more we could have gotten the full Greek salad just to see, but it would have been a waste of a lot of food.  Cindy's Greek salad had ample amounts of feta cheese, chopped black olives, red onions and tomatoes.  Cindy had their homemade Greek salad dressing served on the side.  After the first couple of bites, Cindy said, "Oh, this is very good.  Exactly what I wanted!"    

The pizza was cut into party squares, exactly how I love a good thin crust pizza.  The toppings were thick and plentiful.   Most places that use Graziano Brothers sausage usually finely grind their meat before they put it on the pizza.  It appeared that the sausage on the Georgioz pizza is not quite as finely ground as there were some larger chunks of meat on the pizza.  After letting it cool down for a bit, I bit into the first piece.  The sauce had a tangy sweet taste, the cheese was heavy and stringy, and the toppings were excellent.  Georgioz uses fresh mushrooms on their pizzas and these mushrooms had a wonderful taste.  The hallmark of a good pizza to me is if it tastes good with a beer.  Georgioz pizza tasted GREAT with a beer.  

We finished what we could and Brooke came over and asked if we needed boxes for the leftovers.  Cindy said, "No for the salad, but yes for the pizza."  When Brooke came back with the pizza box and the check, we got to talking to her about Georgioz and about her life.  It turned out that her aunt and I went to school together over in Newton from junior high through high school.  She told us how she had lived in Italy for awhile, then in New York before moving back to Iowa to finish her schooling.  When Cindy asked her where she lived in Italy, she said, "I lived in Florence."  When Cindy went to Europe to meet up with her daughter who was studying in Spain about four years ago, the most favorite place she visited was Florence.  So, those two carried on for about 15 minutes talking about Florence.  

I'd heard from others who told me Georgioz had good pizza and I had to find out for myself.  Let's say I wasn't expecting much from the place and I was pleasantly overwhelmed by the restaurant, the service and the pizza. I told Brooke that Georgioz would beat anything any of the pizza places in the Quad Cities had to offer.  She said, "We hear the same thing from people who come over from Des Moines."  And Des Moines has some pretty fine pizza places.  But Georgioz can stand up to any of them.   

Dry Dock Galley and Lounge - Arnolds Park, IA

While on vacation in the Lake Okoboji area, we had dinner one evening at the house of our friends, Craig and Kathy Evert.  Beer and wine flowed all evening long and it was 11:30 p.m. before we made our way back to the Pioneer Beach Resort.  The next morning I was a little hungover.  Thinking that bloody mary with a beer would set me right, I remembered a place that Craig was telling me about the night before - the Dry Dock Galley and Lounge.  (Actually, he also told me about O'Farrell Sisters as another place around Lake Okoboji where you could get a bloody mary with breakfast.)  We decided to try the Dry Dock for breakfast that particular morning. 

The Dry Dock Galley and Lounge is part of the Four Seasons Resort hotel on West Lake Okoboji (see map).  While it shares its name with the highly exclusive and elite Four Seasons hotels, it's far from being a similar property.   Dean Mitchell of the Mitchell Investment Group is the long-time owner of the Four Seasons Resort in Arnolds Park.  The place was actually sort of nice.  We had looked at staying there, but for some reason we didn't pull the trigger.  We did take a look around the property after breakfast and determined that even though we liked the rustic charm of Pioneer Beach Lodge, we'd probably stay at Four Seasons the next time we came up.   

We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant around 9:30 on a nice weekday morning.  We went inside to check the place out. There are two parts of the Dry Dock Galley and Lounge - actually three, if you count the outdoor patio that was closed for cleaning that particular morning.  You initially walk into the lounge area with a sloping ceiling toward the bar.  Like a number of other restaurants/lounges on the lake, the place had a nautical theme to it.  

We were seated in a hardwood paneled dining room with a polished teak wood ceiling and large windows looking out over the patio and lake.  Heavy tables and chairs were spaced throughout the smallish, yet cozy dining area.  A large party of older women took up two of the tables near us and they were all enjoying a bloody mary before they ordered breakfast.

Yes!  A bloody mary!  That's what I ordered when our waitress came over to drop off a couple menus for us.  I asked for a beer chaser with it and she said, "Oh, the bloody mary automatically comes with a beer chaser."  When she brought it out, however, I was disappointed in the size - both with the bloody mary and with the beer chaser.  The bloody mary was in a 10 oz. tumbler and the beer chaser was in a 6 oz. plastic cup.  It wasn't even filled to the top.  And this all cost $5 bucks.  I said, "You got to be kidding me!  This will be gone in two minutes!"  And just like that, it was.  I got a second one when we ordered breakfast and the second beer chaser was, maybe, half full. While the bloody mary was pretty good, it was not a very good value, to say the least. 

 We looked over the menu to see what we wanted for breakfast.  The had the usual stuff for breakfast including something called the Eggs Benedict Arnold - a play on the Arnolds Park name.  It was, basically, eggs Benedict on ham and an English muffin with a side of hash browns.  I ended up ordering that along with a side of bacon.  Cindy wasn't as adventuresome - she just got a egg over easy with a side of hash browns, bacon and toast.  

Our waitress brought our breakfast out to us after awhile and I was pleasantly surprised with the portions.  While they skimped on the bloody mary and the beer chaser, they certainly made up for it with the breakfast.  The poached eggs were large and swimming in a hollandaise sauce atop a large slab of ham that eclipsed the English muffin underneath.  I got four pieces of bacon with the eggs Benedict and an ample amount of hash brown potatoes. 

Cindy's breakfast looked a lot larger than it read on the menu.  The egg was large and covered nearly half her plate.  It rested on a portion of her hash browns and she had three pieces of crisp bacon, just as she likes her bacon.  

Quite actually, the breakfast was pretty good.  The eggs Benedict were very good with the rich hollandaise sauce on the top.  Having the slice of ham was a nice surprise versus having just a couple slices of Canadian bacon like you normally get with eggs Benedict.  After the eggs Benedict and the bacon, I hardly made a dent in my hash browns.

Cindy said her breakfast was good, but nothing special.  "I don't know how you can make eggs, bacon and hash browns be anything special," she said.   

The Dry Dock Galley and Lounge also serves lunch and dinner with steaks, chops, seafood and sandwiches on the menu.  If we do get back to Lake Okoboji next summer as we've been talking, we'll probably end up at the Four Seasons Resort and back at the Dry Dock Galley and Lounge for breakfast and probably dinner.  While I felt somewhat cheated on the size of the bloody mary and the beer chaser, the portion and flavor of the breakfast more than made up for it.  At first I was skeptical, but I ended up being happy with our visit to the Dry Dock Galley and Lounge.  

Manny's Steakhouse - Minneapolis

We had some nice meals during our vacation this summer, but none finer than the dinner we had at the famous Manny's Steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis.  On the Saturday night we were in the Twin Cities, we walked down the street from The Marquette, a block and a half away, to Manny's at the corner of 9th and Marquette (see map).  

I had eaten at Manny's a couple times previously, but never at its new location as part of the W - Foshay boutique hotel in the historic Foshay Tower.  Originally, Manny's had been in the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis.  After 20 years sort of hidden away on the second floor mezzanine at the Hyatt, they moved the restaurant to its new location in 2008.  Highly visible and standing majestic at the corner of 9th and Marquette, Manny's has maintained its crown of being the quintessential steakhouse in the Twin Cities.  (Manny's also has a location in Miami.)

Manny's continues to be part of the Parasole Restaurant group located in suburban Edina.  In addition to Manny's, the holding company also owns and manages restaurants such as Burger Jones (click here to see my entry on Burger Jones), Pittsburgh Blue (Manny's little brother steakhouse that uses the same beef supplier, but is lower in menu cost), Salut Bar Americain, Mozza Mia, Chino Latino and five other establishments.  Parasole began in 1977 with the partnership with Phil Roberts and Pete Mihajlov and the opening soon thereafter of Muffaletta in St. Paul.  They followed that in 1981 with the opening of Pronto, a Northern Italian restaurant that was one of my all-time favorite Italian restaurants.  (Unfortunately, Pronto closed in the mid-to-late 90's.)  

Roberts was also the man who started a small chain of local Italian eateries, Buca Little Italy.  Five years later, Buca di Beppo was a national chain and spun off into its own entity.  It was eventually purchased by the Planet Hollywood International group.  Roberts and the Parasole group also developed the Oceanaire Seafood Room, an upscale seafood restaurant with 12 locations across the U.S.  Oceanaire was also spun off with Landry's Restaurant Group taking over the management operations.  

On the weekend, Manny's can be pretty hard to get into and a few days before we were scheduled to be in Minneapolis, I called up their reservation desk to see if we could get in on the Friday or Saturday night we would be in town.  The lady on the other end of the line said, "Well, I have a 5:45 (p.m.) seating and one at 9:30 for Friday night.  And it looks like the same for Saturday."

Then she paused and said, "Well, I have an 8:15 opening for seating in the bar on Saturday night."  

Knowing Cindy's disdain for eating in the bar at fine restaurants, I sort of went, "Ohhh... the bar, huh?"

She came back and said, "Oh, our bar seating is very nice.  The booths are high-backed and very comfortable.  You wouldn't be eating at the bar, but in the bar area."

I said, "Absolutely!  That sounds wonderful!  We'll do that!"  

When we showed up at Manny's just before 8:15 on that particular Saturday night, the bar area was packed.  There were at least two bachelorette parties and a handful of other people milling about in the host area.  We gave the maitre d' our name and he said, "We'll have a table for you shortly."  I've heard that before at fine restaurants.  They usually want you to run up a nice bar tab before they seat you.  But moments later, even before I could even think about getting a drink at the bar, a young lady came up to us and said, "We can seat you now."  

She shepherded us through the crowded bar that was packed with people in suits and nice dresses, as well as people in jeans, shorts and polo shirts.   Manny's does not have a dress-code and does not look down on people who do come in with shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, like me.  We came to a sort of T-intersection with the dining room to the left.  She steered us to the right and showed us to a nice large booth with a red and white-checkered table cloth along the west wall of the bar area.  It wasn't long before our server for the evening, Allen, came over to greet us.    

(Pictured right - Manny's bar area.  Photo courtesy Minneapolis.org) 

All of Manny's steaks are USDA-certified, dry-aged (with the exception of their tenderloins, which are already pretty darn tender on their own), and center cut by hand.  And they're not small either.  You can get a 48 oz. double Porterhouse steak for two - or one, if you can eat a steak that big.  They have something called the "Bludgeon of Beef" - a 50 oz. bone-in rib eye steak with the long bone still attached.  Manny's calls it "part meal - part weapon".  None of the steaks on Manny's menu are cheap.  

Manny's is also famous for their humongous sides - hash browns that can feed four or five people, huge stalks of steamed asparagus, and their "loaded" mashed potatoes that have bacon bits, chopped green onions, sour cream and cheese mixed in.  We saw many sides go by our table that evening that had hardly been dented by people who had ordered them, but couldn't eat because they were so full.  

Manny's also has an extensive wine list featuring over 300 bottles of wine in their regular list.  They also have a reserve wine list that I've looked through before and it, too, is pretty impressive - with equally impressive - as in HIGH - prices. One wine that I saw on the regular list that I felt was reasonably priced was a bottle of the Dry Creek Meritage.  We ordered that when we ordered our dinners.

Presentation is the big thing at Manny's and it's one of the those places where they bring out the meat cart and show you the cuts of meat, fish and the live lobster.  Allen brought out the meat cart and explained all the steaks and main entrees they had that evening.  After explaining everything to us, including the sides, he handed us menus to look over.  They get your mouth watering, then get your eyes bulging by the prices of their steaks.  The bone-in tenderloin is $69 bucks, a large (12 oz.) tenderloin filet is $55, as is the 16 oz. New York strip.  For funsies, the double porterhouse is $100 dollars and the "Bludgeon of Beef" is $86.  Allen truly did have a live lobster on the meat cart - $35 bucks a pound.  He said that he had a number of lobsters between 3 and 4 pounds.  (Photo courtesy Miami.com)

Even the salads are huge and we decided to order a wedge salad to split.  I ordered the 24 oz. bone-in rib eye steak - rare.  Cindy got the 8 oz. tenderloin filet - medium.  I let Cindy pick out the side to get and she said she didn't know what to get.  I said, "How about the garlic creamed spinach?"

She brightened up and said, "That's what I wanted to get, but I thought, 'Naw, he wouldn't want that.' "  Actually, I figured that's what she would want, but I really wanted to get the loaded mashed potatoes.  But I also knew that would have been a waste of food.  

Allen brought out our wedge salad and it was like a half of head of lettuce.  The blue cheese dressing was fresh and flavorful with large chunks of bacon bits and a slew of chopped tomatoes on the large, cold and crisp iceberg lettuce wedge.  It was a great start to the meal.

Our bottle of wine was half gone by the time the steaks showed up to the table.  My rib eye nearly cover the plate.  It was marbled and tender to the touch with a fork.  When I cut into it, the meat was perfectly rare.  The only problem was that there was so much marbling in the meat that a lot of it didn't get cooked out because I wanted it rare.  I should have ordered it medium rare because it was a chore to cut through the marbled parts of the steak to get the meat.  

Cindy's filet looked small on her plate, but it was still a generous 8 ounces.  She cut into it and she said, "Either this knife is really sharp or this steak is really tender."  She took a bite and said, "Oh, my God.  It's really tender."  She simply loved her filet.  

The garlic creamed spinach covered the full plate.  We knew there was going to be no way we'd be able to finish even a quarter of what was on the plate.  And, you know, it was all right.  I think Cindy was probably more disappointed in it than I was, but I wasn't expecting much.  I didn't get much of a garlic taste within the spinach, which was still a little bitter to my taste buds.    

After we finished what we could, Allen asked if we were interested in dessert.  I sort of groaned when Cindy said, "Sure, we'll look at the dessert menu."  Manny's is famous for their huge Manny's brownie and for their Maker's Mark whiskey bread pudding.  Actually, I wanted to try the bread pudding, but I knew that would be way too rich.  Cindy decided on getting a slice of the Key Lime pie - with two forks - and a coffee for her.  When Allen brought the dessert out, it looked like it was a quarter slice of one pie sitting on the plate.  It wasn't the best key lime pie we've had, it tasted a little TOO sweet.  I said, "I'm glad I didn't get an espresso because I'm sure I'll be up for awhile with a sugar buzz."  

Although it had been probably 8 years since my last visit to Manny's, it was still the same wonderful dining experience as I encountered on my two previous visits.  Manny's continues to be a top-rated restaurant on Zagat and many other top-steakhouse lists across America.  I liked the new location over the one that was formerly in the Hyatt.  Allen's service was efficient and professional, yet he personable and wasn't snobbish in the least.  I wouldn't want to eat at Manny's on a regular basis - nor could I afford to.  But it was a wonderful treat to end our vacation this past summer.  

Arnolds Perk - Arnolds Park, IA

When you're on vacation, you need to cut loose and pamper yourself from time to time.  One morning after we did a "his and hers" pedicure session at a salon in Milford called "Just Teaz'n", we decided to head back into Arnolds Park and look up a little coffee shop which, we were told by our friend Kathy Evert, has gourmet cupcakes to die for.  The name of the place - Arnolds Perk - is a cute play on the nearby Arnolds Park amusement park name.  It was about 11:45 when we walked into Arnolds Perk to get a gourmet cupcake.  

Established in 2000, Arnolds Perk is owned by Shannon Dunham, who, along with Darcy Rossow, also owns Dukes Burgers - a hamburger stand right next to Arnolds Perk on West Broadway Street in Arnolds Park (see map).   Arnolds Perk is a seasonal business - as are many other businesses in the Lake Okoboji region.  They open on Memorial Day weekend and close after Labor Day.   Hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday thru Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.  

After looking through a couple art galleries close by on Broadway, we went into Arnolds Perk.  The smell of the fresh coffee was almost intoxicating.  I love the smell of a rich, robust coffee, but I don't like what it does to me.  It makes me jittery and anxious.  Oh, I'll occasionally have a cappuccino or an espresso after a nice meal - as long as its earlier in the evening.  Too many times I've enjoyed an espresso with my colleagues after a nice meal that finished at 10:30 at night and I had trouble getting to sleep.  I said, "That smells great!"  I turned to Cindy and I said, "If I get a cappuccino, will you help me drink it?"  

She looked at me like, "Who is this man standing next to me and what have you done to my husband?"

Arnolds Perk is a small, narrow establishment with a tin roof ceiling.  There is a long front counter full of cupcake and pastries with a small kitchen toward the back corner.  Because they offer free wi-fi at Arnolds Perk, there were three people in the place - all working on their computers while enjoying a coffee.  '

In addition to coffee, espresso and cappuccino,  Arnolds Perk also features cold coffee frappes, fruit smoothie drinks, tea and Italian soda drinks.  They have a light breakfast menu that features their famous cinnamon rolls (you get your choice of caramel or cream cheese frosting - can I have both?), muffins and pastries, scones and croissants, a granola parfait, and something called the "Power Breakfast Sandwich" - two eggs with bacon or ham, with your choice of cheese and bread.  Something told me that we should have tried Arnolds Perk for breakfast.  Well, we can the next time we come up for vacation.

They also have a lunch menu that features a couple of salad items, and a number of sandwiches including pressed paninis.  They have five different types of bread to choose from, along with four different types of cheese to go with either ham or turkey.  They also have a Caprese Melt - sliced fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil pesto and olive oil toasted on sourdough bread.  That all sounded good, but we were there for the cupcakes.  

The cupcakes come in three sizes - Babycakes, Mamacakes, and Papacakes (cute, huh?) priced respectively at $1.00, $2.00, and $3.00 each.  They had 10 different types of cupcakes to choose from - The White Out was a vanilla cake cupcake topped with a vanilla butter cream frosting and glitter; The Black Out was a chocolate cake cupcake topped with chocolate butter cream frosting and mini chocolate chips.  They had the Red Velvet that consisted of a mild chocolate red cupcake with cream cheese frosting and mini white chocolate chips.  Oooo....  That one just about got me.  

That is until I saw the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcake -  a vanilla cake cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting which is mixed with chocolate chip cookie dough and Chocolate chip cookie chunks, and drizzled with chocolate frosting.  Oh man!  That was too much!   Then the Cookie 'n Cream cupcake jumped out at me -  a chocolate cake cupcake topped with Oreo cookie cream cheese frosting, then topped with Oreo chunks drizzled with white frosting.  My head was spinning. 

The one I ended up getting was the Lemon cupcake - vanilla cake cupcake topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and powdered sugar.  It didn't quite sound as exciting as the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cookie 'n Cream cupcakes, but I'm a sucker when it comes to anything lemon.  Cindy, too, was having a difficult time figuring out what she wanted until she finally decided on the Coconut cupcake - a vanilla cake cupcake topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting, white chocolate mini chips and shredded coconut.  I don't care for coconut at all, so I'm sure she got that so I wouldn't hound her for a bite.  She got the Babycakes size, while I got the Papacakes size.  I also ordered a large cappuccino.  The lady behind the counter said, "I think he's just finishing up working on the espresso machine."  She pointed to a guy down the way who was servicing the machine.  He said he would make my cappuccino to make sure the machine was working properly.  

My lemon cupcake was everything Kathy told us it would be.  It was fabulous.  The cake was light, moist and had a great vanilla flavor.  But the lemon cream cheese frosting was to die for.  It had a great citrus taste and didn't taste like it was made with a lemon juice substitute.  Yeah, this was the ultimate in guilty pleasures for me.

Cindy said her coconut cupcake was "wonderful", but she was upset that she didn't get the $2.00 Mamacake size.  "That went kind of fast," she said.  I'll say.  I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it.

The cappuccino was also very good.  It took about three or four minutes for him to get it to me - our cupcakes were long gone by the time I walked up to the counter to get the cappuccino.   I took a couple sips and I thought it was pretty darn good.  Cindy took a sip and she said, "Oh, yeah."  She's somewhat of a coffee snob and she knows what's good and what isn't.  "This is very good.  They use very good coffee beans."  

The guy who serviced the machine said, "Does it taste good?"  I told him it tasted great.  He said, "Great!  I did my job!"

I didn't expect to write this much about Arnolds Perk, but it was one of those fun experiences that sort of snowballed as it went on.  We really would like to get back to Lake Okoboji for another week next year and I can see us having a couple visits to Arnolds Perk possibly for breakfast and for another cupcake.  (I also need to get back and try a Dukes burger, too!) 

Fisherman's Wharf - Okoboji, IA

We had passed a place called Fisherman's Wharf on the north end of the Highway 71 bridge that goes over the waterway between East and West Lake Okoboji a number of times during our vacation in that area earlier this summer.  It looked intriguing with its deck dining and nautical theme.  We decided to have lunch there one day during our vacation.

Known as simply "The Wharf" to the locals and regulars, the restaurant has been a staple for residents and vacationers in the Lake Okoboji area for years.  It was originally on the west side of the road until the Iowa Department of Transportation had it condemned in the mid-90's for the construction of the new bridge.  The owner at that time, Jeff Kurth, moved the restaurant across the highway into what was an old Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  He added on to the restaurant putting in a bar, a three-season dining area and an outdoor deck that overlooked the marina next door.  

Before Kurth bought the place in 1994, it was known as Harold's Fisherman Wharf.  I was talking to a lady in Arnolds Park about Fisherman's Wharf and she told me that there was a man - Harold - and his wife - Margie - that originally owned the business.  When I asked what their last name was, she said, "Hmmm...  You know, I don't remember.  I just remember when I was a little kid and my parents would just say we were going to Harold and Margie's for dinner."

And long before it was known as Fisherman's Wharf, the site on which the building stands was home to the Okoboji General Store.  In the early 1900's, the Okoboji General Store was the one-stop shop for residents and vacationers looking for supplies, fishing licenses and also served as the local Post Office.   

In 2010, a series of winter storms caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to docks and storage buildings at Mau Marine, located next to Fisherman's Wharf.  When Jerry Kurth decided to retire that same year, the owners of Mau Marine, Julie Andres and her sister, Susan Mau, decided to buy Fisherman's Wharf so they could control all the land on that corner of East Lake Okoboji.  

Now, I went to school with a Julie Mau at the University of Iowa.  And I seem to remember that she was from Ida Grove, IA.  It turns out that this Julie Mau Andres' father and mother, Dick and Donna, were from Ida Grove and the family used to vacation at Lake Okoboji in the summertime.  So, I'm guessing that the Julie Mau I went to school with at Iowa and the Julie Mau Andres who co-owns both Mau Marine and Fisherman's Wharf is one and the same person.  

Boating was a passion for the Mau family and Dick and Donna decided to buy the old Wilson Boat Works in 1988.  Wilson Boat Works was also an iconic business in the Lake Okoboji region tracing their history back to the late 1800's when it was originally known as Wilson Boat Works which included a marina, boat yard, manufacturer and a livery stable.  Wilson Boat Works made row boats at first, but then their boat manufacturing evolved into steam-power cruisers and wooden skip boats.  After World War II, the popularity of pleasure boats exploded and Wilson Boat Works became a dealer for both Chris Craft and, then later, Sea Ray.  

An aerial photo of Mau Marine and Fisherman's Wharf.  Photo courtesy of Boating Industry.com 

Dick and Donna Mau continued that tradition of selling both Chris Craft and Sea Ray up until the time in 2003 that they decided to retire and sell the business to their two daughters.  Julie Andres and Susan Mau are an extremely rare commodity in the boating business - they are one of the very few boat dealerships and marinas owned by women.  In fact, the Mau sisters have been instrumental in incorporating boating classes for women and including women in the process of buying a boat.  

After the Mau sisters acquired Fisherman's Wharf when Jerry Kurth retired, they kept on two longtime workers - Shawn Jeffrey and Tootie Stellmach - to run the business.  It was Tootie Stellmach who greeted us when we got into the restaurant around 1:30 on a weekday afternoon.  It was a very windy day and Tootie told us that the deck (below left) was closed, but the three-season porch (below right) was open - but it was still a little breezy in there.  We ended up sitting at a table in the bar area next to a window that looked out to the marina.  She dropped off a couple menus and told us that Melissa would be taking care of us.   

The bar area (below left) wasn't all that large, but it was certainly a nice area to sit.  The large windows let in a lot of natural light.  The bar, itself, had about 10 seats around it and had a long shelf that ran directly above.  The nautical theme to Fisherman's Wharf was consistent throughout the restaurant and bar area.  

The main dining room (above right) was also well-lit and had a cozy feeling, as well.  It had a number of tables - high and regular sized - and some of the tables featured bench seats.  When we got into the restaurant, the dining room was nearly full.  When we left - when we took this picture - is was nearly deserted.  

The menu at Fisherman's Wharf is a mix of steaks, seafood, chops, chicken, sandwiches, burgers, salads and appetizers.  We weren't going to be eating a lot since we'd had a large breakfast about five hours earlier, but we wanted something to tide us over as we were scheduled to have a late dinner that evening.  Cindy was intrigued with the po' boy sandwiches they had to offer at Fisherman's Wharf - most especially the walleye po' boy.  She ended up ordered that from Melissa when she came around to take our order.

I thought about getting a burger, but the breaded tenderloin sounded interesting.  When I asked Melissa about it, she said, "It's one of our most popular sandwiches."  I ended up getting that and instead of fries for a side, I got a cup of their French onion soup.

Our food made it out to us in about 15 minutes.  The French onion soup had a load of shredded Swiss cheese on the top - it wasn't baked in like you normally see with French onion soup.  And I have to say that it was very good.  It had a good onion flavor to the soup, the broth was also tasty and the cheese had melted in with the broth after a minute or two.   

My breaded pork tenderloin had some thickness to it and it hung over the sides of the bun just by a little bit.  The first bite yielded a wonderful pork taste that the breading didn't overpower.  The pork was tender and juicy - it was a very good breaded pork tenderloin.  The kaiser bun was also light and fluffy and stayed together with each bite.  I was extremely happy with what I had ordered.  

I suppose Cindy's sandwich could be categorized as a po' boy.  Actually, it was a fish sandwich on a toasted hoagie bun.  The walleye filet was breaded and deep fried.  I've usually seen po' boy sandwiches where the fish or meat is shredded or chopped.  Cindy took a couple bites of the sandwich and said the fish was good.  But after that, she opened up the top of the bun and began to just eat the walleye filet without the bun.  She offered me a bite of her walleye, but I don't care for deep fried fish all that much.  I'll eat it from time to time if someone is having a fish fry, but normally I won't eat any restaurants deep fried fish or seafood.    

For lunch, yeah, Fisherman's Wharf was pretty good.  It would have been nice to sit outside (we saw the deck was packed with diners on many occasions through the week when it wasn't windy), we were happy with sitting in the bar area.  Melissa did a find job taking care of us and the food was above average.  And it seemed to be a pretty good value. We were talking about coming back to Okoboji for a vacation again next year, especially after we'd been there for a couple days and getting acclimated to the area.  Fisherman's Wharf would be one place where I'd like to go back and have dinner if we have the chance.   

(Update - Fisherman's Wharf closed in the fall of 2014 as the landlord decided not to renew the year-to-year lease on the place.)

Keys Cafe and Bakery - Minneapolis

The last morning of our vacation earlier this summer, we checked out the continental breakfast at The Marquette, the boutique hotel we were staying at in downtown Minneapolis.  It was the usual fare - bagels, toast, pastries, that sort of thing.  Cindy wanted something a little more substantial for breakfast so I immediately thought about Keys Cafe, a local iconic restaurant in the Twin Cities.  Given that there are 9 Keys Cafe locations around the area, I figured one had to be close by.  I took a quick look on-line to see where the nearest Keys was and, to my surprise, there was a location - Keys Foshay - down Marquette Avenue a couple blocks and a half block to the south on 9th Street. (see map)  We took our bags down to the car in underground garage to put them in the trunk and then walked over to Keys Cafe for breakfast.

I have eaten at a Keys Cafe location a couple three times in the past, but it has been quite sometime since I was last in one.  A friend of mine from the Twin Cities, George Miller, turned me on to Keys Cafe when we were talking about comfort food one time a number of years ago.  Every once in a while when I'm on the road, I'm tired of burgers or steaks or pasta, so I need some comfort food - hot beef sandwich, meatloaf, roast pork and mashed potatoes with a big glass of cold milk - to set my body right.  Keys Cafe has been one of my go-to places for comfort food in the past, but it had been quite sometime since I was last at a Keys Cafe.

The first Keys Cafe opened in 1973 in St. Paul.  Barbara Hunn was the mother of four children and a licensed practical nurse when she decided she needed a change in her life.  Along with a friend, Beverly Oien, they looked at buying a restaurant on Raymond Ave. in St. Paul, Mr. D's.  Only Hunn didn't have much experience in a restaurant.  Her parents had briefly owned a bar on a lake in north central Minnesota, and Hunn had worked as a counter person at a Dairy Queen that Oien owned.  But they forged ahead, buying Mr. D's. and putting Hunn in charge of the place while Oien took off to live in Florida.  They changed the name to Keys Cafe - known to the locals as Keys on Raymond - and the story goes is that it was named Keys as it was going to be the closest that Hunn would ever get to the Florida Keys.  

At right - Barbara Hunn with former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

The former owner of Mr. D's gave Hunn three days of training and then said, "You're on your own!  Good luck!"  She toiled over the next 10 years, refining, changing and improving the original Keys with the help of family members.  Hunn then opened a second Keys Cafe in suburban New Brighton, MN in 1983.  As I said, today there are 9 Keys Cafe locations in the Twin Cities areas, all run by Hunn (now Hunn-Miesen - her third marriage) and her children - Carol, Jean, Celine and Roy - and their spouses and children.

The Keys Cafe and Bakery is located in the historic Foshay Tower - the first skyscraper built in Minnesota.  Topping out at 29 stories, the Foshay was the tallest building in Minnesota from 1929 to 1972 when the IDS Tower was built.  The art deco designed building was added to the list of National Register of Historic Places in 1978.  About six years ago, developers Ralph Burnet, his son Ryan Burnet, Tim Rooney (the young Burnet and Rooney are co-owners of the Barrio Mexican restaurants that I've written about here and here) and the Ryan Companies development group bought the Foshay and turned it into a 230-room boutique hotel - the W - Foshay.   The famous Manny's Steakhouse is located at the corner of Marquette and 9th, just up the street from Keys Cafe and Bakery. (Look for an upcoming entry on Manny's in the coming days.)  

We got into a somewhat crowded Keys Cafe around 9:30 on a late summer Sunday morning.  It's different from the other Keys Cafe's I've been in - but I've only been in two others.  It features a bar area serving beer and mixed drinks, a bakery counter up front and a number of hardwood tables and chairs in the front part of the restaurant.  There's also sidewalk dining at Keys, but it was sort of a dreary morning outside so we decided to sit inside.  We were taken to the back part of the restaurant, up a couple steps to a little alcove where the sign said, "Section Closed", but it obviously wasn't.  There were a row of tables with banquette seating on the wall in the little room.  Cindy took the banquette seat and I took the chair opposite her.  The hostess dropped off menus and soon thereafter, our server, Monica, came to great us.  

Breakfast is served all day long at Keys and there is a lot to choose from.  Pancakes, cinnamon French toast, omelets, eggs any way you like, and their famous caramel or cinnamon rolls are the big breakfast draws at the restaurant.  They also have toast made with their homemade bread at Keys.  I had only gotten comfort food on my previous visits, so I was sort of looking forward to trying their breakfast.   

By the time Monica came back around to take our order, I was wrestling in my mind over the blueberry Belgian waffle or getting an omelet.  I decided to get a sausage (pork sausage, they also had Italian sausage as an option), mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet.  Cindy went the simple route, saying that she needed something more substantial that what the continental breakfast at the Marquette had to offer, but was still somewhat full from our meal the night before.  She ended up getting a couple eggs over easy with hash browns, bacon and a couple pieces of Keys homemade toast. 

Now, here is another story as to why I hate banquette seats in restaurants.  To me, you're sharing a booth or a bench with someone.  The tables with banquette seating are relatively close and it seems that conversations from the other tables carry more easily with banquette seating.  Just after we ordered, a middle-aged couple were seated to my immediate left.  The guy looked a little scruffy and he was seated in the banquette seat next to Cindy, and on the opposite side of him was the hallway that went down to the restrooms.  The man announced rather loudly when he sat down, "Oh good!  Right next to the restrooms!  I'm incontinent!"  A sophomoric joke that I probably would have laughed at if I were at a dive bar, but not at Keys Cafe.  

The guy and the girl began to have a conversation and no matter how much Cindy and I tried to carry on our own conversation, the guy's vocal tone and volume always interrupted us.  It turned out that they were probably on a first date, the guy was a recovering drug addict and he was describing his on-going treatment regimen to the lady.  We also believe the lady was a recovering alcoholic as she was telling the guy that she was living her life one day at a time, trying to keep the temptation of having a drink at a distance.  I'm sorry, but it was not hard to hear their conversation.  Thankfully, the table on the other side of us stayed empty during our visit.  

Monica brought out our breakfasts about 15 minutes after we ordered.  The picture I took of my omelet didn't turn out.  (I was having trouble with the camera and the lighting in Keys Cafe - a lot of the pictures of the bar area and the dining room didn't turn out.)  But it was a thin omelet that covered a good portion of the plate.  It was loaded with ample amounts of sausage and mushrooms, and was oozing with cheese at each cut into the omelet.  It was very, very good.  I don't know if it would have been better than the blueberry Belgian waffle, but it was pretty damn good for me that morning.  

Cindy was amazed at the food on her plate.  One thing Keys doesn't do is scrimp on portions.  Her hash browns covered half the plate and the slices of bacon that she had were not as crisp as she'd like, but she still ate them.  The highlight for her was the homemade toast.  The toast was thick cut, but light and airy in taste.  She loved eating the toast more than anything on her plate.  I tried a couple bites from her bread and it was better than the 12 grain toast that I had with my omelet.  

The Keys Cafe and Bakery location in downtown Minneapolis was just as good as the other Keys locations I've been to around the Twin Cities.  Unfortunately, most of the Keys locations are on the east side of the Twin Cities and I just don't get over there all that often any longer.  It was great to reconnect with Keys after not having been to one for quite sometime.  It's no wonder the Keys Cafe's are so popular - good food, generous portions and a great back story of a woman who didn't know what she was getting into nearly 40 years ago making it all come together for a true American success story.   

Election Day - 2012

It is Election Day across America and it couldn't have come quickly enough for me.  I had the same giddiness about Election Day this year that I had as a kid at Christmas time.  It's not because I was looking forward to executing my civic duty.  I was looking forward to the end of the incessant political ads and phone calls to our house.  Living in Iowa, we've been inundated with political pressure ads since last year because of our state's "First in America" status with the Iowa Caucus.  And because Iowa is a "swing state", we've had more than our share of ads and appearances by the candidates.  And because where I live is a "swing community" in a "swing state", the political process has been exacerbated fivefold.

I've laughed at some of the television ads that have been completely wrong on both sides of the ball for both state, congressional and national candidates.  And even after the ads have been proven to be wrong, the political groups (not the candidates) that funded the ads CONTINUE to run the SAME ONES!  I'd just sit there and laugh at the ads and I'm still chuckling about some of them as I write.  

Look, I'm a pretty apolitical person.  I've lived long enough to know that change will never come, no matter how much a candidate says it will.  There's a number of things that have to happen to make change happen and the first thing is to get the block-headed dolts on the extreme right and the sanctimonious self-professed intellectuals on the extreme left to soften up and take the blinders off.  I see good and bad on both sides of the issues.  But I also know that my perfect world will never happen with today's divisive political scene.  

The other thing that has gotten me sort of confused this year is the concept of voting early.  For a guy like me who travels, voting early is a convenience.  But this year, I blocked out Election Day on my travel schedule to be able to have the chance to go with my wife to vote tonight after work.  I read a report this past week that with the 32 states and the District of Columbia that allow for early (not absentee) voting, more than a third of people in those states have taken advantage of voting before November 6.  I don't anticipate a long line of people when I vote tonight around 6:30 p.m., not like those people who stood in line for a couple hours waiting for the polls to open in Iowa at 7 a.m.  I sort of dig voting on Election Day.  I mean, if you vote early and it turns out the guy you voted for had been outed as a serial child molester a couple days before the election, wouldn't that make you feel a little foolish?

The Slakingfool retweeted a link to a post by Jane Burns, a Wisconsin woman who writes the irreverent "Sneezing Through the Roundabouts" blog.  It sort of hit home with me in a couple of ways as she talked about waiting to vote on Election Day and about the diminishing numbers of "church ladies" who run the poll places.  Losing my brother-in-law recently, the husband of my niece remarked that getting food from people brought out to my sister's house was all good and well, but what we really needed was some "church lady food" - that comforting, "stick-to-your-ribs" homemade food that church ladies back at his home in Western Iowa had made up in pans and brought to grieving families after the loss of a loved one.  

This picture at the end of her blog post said it all.  The caption is "You know all these Church Ladies had some awesome potato salad recipes."  If you're over the age of 40, you remember these church ladies.  Unfortunately, we don't see these matronly old bags all that much any more.  Life does change, but it's still the status quo at statehouses across America and at the Capitol in Washington.  What a strange dichotomy that is.  

Do yourself a favor - first of all, don't forget to vote today; and secondly, click here to read Jane Burns blog entry on the winning combination of church ladies and poll workers.  

O'Farrell Sisters - Okoboji, IA

During our vacation up at Lake Okoboji late this past summer, I was talking to my buddy, Craig, who lives in Spirit Lake.  He was filling me in on a couple breakfast places we needed to try, one of them being O'Farrell Sisters in Okoboji.  He said, "And you can even get a bloody mary with breakfast!"  His description of O'Farrell Sisters sounded intriguing enough even without the tease of having a bloody mary for breakfast, so we sought the place out for breakfast one morning.  

The history of O'Farrell Sisters begins back in the late 40's when sisters Edna Mae and Arlene O'Farrell bought a little restaurant on the north side of the Highway 71 bridge between East Lake Okoboji and West Lake Okoboji.  The restaurant had been owned by Ike Kissinger who sold the business to the O'Farrell Sisters after he decided to run for - and subsequently, won - the sheriff's job in Dickinson County.  Their sister, Ferne, joined the sisters in the business and other family members chipped in to help from time to time.

The O'Farrell Sisters restaurant was open seven days a week and business was booming.  Their Sunday night fried chicken dinners were so popular that people would line up around the building to wait for a seat.  There were times the line would be so long that they've have to lock the doors because they had run out of chicken.

The O'Farrell Sisters were also known for their delicious homemade pies.  Made fresh daily, people would come into O'Farrell Sisters just for their pies.  That's a tradition that has continued over the years.   

In 1959, Arlene and her husband, Furman Henderson, moved to Tallahassee, FL.  Not long after, Edna Mae and Ferne moved the restaurant to its present day location on Lake Shore Drive in Okoboji (see map) up the hill and away from the lake waterfront.   They built the building on land that had a garden and a chicken coop, which was moved across the road.   

It was business as usual for the O'Farrell Sisters until Ferne passed away in 1974.  Four years later, Edna Mae passed away.  Arlene still owned part of the restaurant even though she still lived in Florida.  She sold the  restaurant to her nieces (daughters of both Ferne and Edna Mae), Joyce Gapinsky, Jo Ann Anderson, Charlotte Sarvie and Cheri Peterson (pictured right).  Now a seasonal business open from May through September, the nieces successfully ran the restaurant from 1973 thru 2003, even though Jo Ann passed away in 1997 and Cheri in 2002.   

Joyce and Charlotte decided to sell the business after the 2003 season and it was bought by a family named Anderson who wanted their daughter to run the restaurant.  However, before they opened for the season, the Anderson family decided they'd rather build a summer home on the site instead.   This is when Leo "Butch" Parks, Jr. stepped in.  

Butch Parks is a local marina owner and saloon owner.  Parks owns the infamous Barefoot Bar at his marina, Parks Marina.  Parks is sort of a polarizing figure around the Iowa Great Lakes.  He has been a thorn in the side of local municipalities challenging rules and laws that inhibit him from serving liquor on the lake, but is also known as somewhat of a philanthropist giving to various charities around the area.  It was Parks who stepped in when the Anderson family decided to tear down the restaurant and build a vacation home.  He called O'Farrell Sisters an "institution" around Lake Okoboji and he bought the property from the Anderson family.    

Parks hired two daughters of Ferne O'Farrell - Linda Sealey and Sharon London (pictured at right, courtesy of Sioux City Journal) - to run the place for him.  The sisters were involved in their own restaurant - O'Farrell Foods - that also served lunch and dinner, but Parks was insistent on the sisters running his restaurant.  Sharon London left the business in 2008, but was asked by Parks to return to the business in 2011 because, as Sharon told us when we visited the place for breakfast, "He told me that the place never ran as good after I left.  So I came back."  

When Parks bought the business in 2004, he was denied a liquor license because the property had been rezoned in 1978 after the death of Edna Mae O'Farrell.  The city of Okoboji was afraid the restaurant would be sold outside the family and turned into a bar.  Parks eventually sued the city of Okoboji, but lost a district court decision challenging the legality of the rezoning ordinance for O'Farrell Sisters.  Parks and his lawyer successfully argued before the Iowa Court of Appeals that the lower court ruling didn't take into consideration that serving alcohol at a restaurant still made it a restaurant.  That decision was upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court in 2008 and Parks was allowed to sell liquor at O'Farrell Sisters.  That's how I was able to get bloody mary with my breakfast on our visit.  

It was after 9:30 when we got into O'Farrell Sisters.  It was a little tough to find as Lake Shore Drive doesn't really start near the lake, but more up the road from the Highway 71 bridge.  We found a place to park on the street across from the iconic restaurant with the large neon fish sign on top of the building.  

Walking in to O'Farrell Sisters, it was like walking back into the 60's.  The restaurant isn't that big with a handful of tables and booths in the larger section of the dining room.  A high counter bar was in front of the kitchen.  There is a small bar area on the west side of the restaurant that is filled with pictures of the original O'Farrell Sisters. Interestingly, Ferne was only in one or two photographs, mainly in the background.  "Mom never liked getting her picture taken," Sharon London explained to us later on.  "You can see her back in the kitchen in this picture, and I think that's her hand in this one."    

We took a table in the smaller of section of the restaurant near the small bar and surrounded by the pictures on the wall.  A young lady brought us menus and I ordered up my bloody mary and asked for a beer chaser. The waitress asked Sharon for a beer chaser and Sharon told me over the bar, "We don't have draft beer, hon. Only cans."  

"Oh, OK," I said.  "That's fine, I'll take a can of Bud Light to go with the bloody mary."  Cindy sort of gave me that look of "It's 9:30 in the morning!"  But, yeah, we were on vacation!  

O'Farrell Sisters are famous for their pancakes using a homemade batter recipe that has been handed down through three generations.  The restaurant serves breakfast daily until 2 p.m., but after 11 a.m. they begin to  serve burgers, sandwiches and appetizers including their famous chicken wings with your choice of five different sauces made in house.  And because there are "no rules" at O'Farrell Sisters, you can get a slice of their homemade pie at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.    

I pretty much knew I was going to get blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon, but Cindy was sort of torn between getting pancakes or the egg combo that came with your choice of bread for toast, an English muffin or biscuit, hash browns and your choice of meat.  But she ended up getting an egg over easy, ala carte, along with a couple pancakes and toast.  She likes her pancakes well done, something she got from her grandmother who would cook them for her in an iron pan when Cindy was little.  

Our breakfasts showed up about 15 minutes later, just after I finished my bloody mary and beer.  The blueberries were folded into the pancake batter - the way blueberry pancakes should be made.  Too many times, restaurants put blueberries - or even worse, blueberry pie filling - on top of the pancakes.  I think they should be inside the pancake batter, the way O'Farrell Sisters do it.  

And the pancakes were very good.  Now, I think my wife makes the best pancakes in the world.  I have yet to come across pancakes anywhere that rival Cindy's pancakes.  But the pancakes at O'Farrell Sisters came close.  The flavor of vanilla was prevalent in each bite.  The blueberries were fresh and they were cooked thin and not fluffy, just as I like them.  Cindy felt her pancakes could have been more dark than what they were, but she was fine with what she had.  Cindy said, "These are good pancakes.  I can see why they come in for these."  

After breakfast, it gave us some time to visit with Sharon London.  She told us of working in the restaurant as a little girl.  "In the summertime, it would be unbearably hot back in the kitchen, before this place was air conditioned," she said.  "When my sister and cousins would get a break, we'd run down to the lake, jump in and cool off, then come back up the hill to go back to work."  

Of all the places we had breakfast while up at Lake Okoboji, O'Farrell Sisters was the most unique place.  I think the pancakes were very good and having a bloody mary before breakfast was a fun thing to do.  The staff was friendly and efficient, and we enjoyed visiting with Sharon London who gave us some insight on the history of O'Farrell Sisters.  Butch Parks is right - O'Farrell Sisters is an institution around Lake Okoboji.  It's a great place for breakfast - or for just a piece of homemade pie.

Los Pueblos - Arnolds Park, IA

At first glance, there seemed to be a lot of Mexican restaurants in the Lake Okoboji area.  When we asked our friend, Kathy, who lives in Spirit Lake, she simply said, "Well, there's a lot of Mexicans living around here!"  That makes sense - there's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities because there are a lot of Mexicans who live there.  For lunch one day on our vacation, we decided to try a Mexican restaurant, mainly because I thought a margarita would sound good.  We picked Los Pueblos on the main drag through Arnolds Park (see map).

It was well after the noon time rush when we went into Los Pueblos.  The owner, Florencia, greeted us as we came in.  She was a small woman with a big smile and bubbly personality.  Florencia asked us if we wanted to sit outside on the patio in front of the restaurant.  It was warm outside and a nice day, but we decided to take a booth along side the windows that look out onto the patio.  

The interior of Los Pueblos was brightly lit by the natural light that came in through the windows on the north and west sides.  The walls were painted in light pastels and adorned with Mexican art work.  A number of tables were in the middle part of the restaurant while booths with high walls separating them took up the wall space along the windows.  

Florencia had dropped off a couple menus for us to look through and she asked, "Can I get you something to drink?"  

I replied, "I've been dying for a margarita."

She asked, "Do you want a big one?  The grande?"

"Sure," I said.  "What the hell."

Florencia looked at Cindy and said, "And you?"

Cindy said, "Sure, a big margarita."  

That was a mistake.  Here is a picture of the grande margarita at Los Pueblos.  Cindy couldn't believe it when Florencia brought them out to us.   Cindy said, "Oh, my God.  You're going to have to wheel me out of here!"  

Florencia didn't say how big they were, but I'm guessing we were drinking 48 ounces - at least - of margaritas.  

The menu at Los Pueblos was rather interesting.  In addition to the Mexican food they had, they also had an "American Food" part of the menu that featured burgers, chicken strips, a steak sandwich, and, interestingly, fettuccine alfredo.  I thought it was sort of funny that they'd have fettuccine alfredo listed under "American Food".   

Florencia told us that because it was just before 2 p.m., we could still get something off the lunch specials list.  The lunch specials are smaller portions of normal sized dinner entrees they serve at Los Pueblos.  Cindy ordered the chicken chimichanga with rice and beans, and I ordered the Pueblos lunch special - two beef chimichangas with lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole.  

While we waited for our food to come out, we munched on the homemade chips and salsa that one of the guys brought to the table.  There were two different salsas - one mild and another one that had a roasted taste to it.  The roasted salsa looked hot and it appeared to have a lot of black pepper in it.  But it was rather mild to our tastes.  But the salsa and the chips were good, but we made sure not to over eat on those.

Here's our lunch specials that Florencia brought out to us. Cindy's chimichanga wasn't all that large, but they put a boat load of rice and refried beans on her plate.  She said, "I won't even begin to be able to eat all this." Cindy said her chicken enchiladas were "delicious".   

My chimichangas were cut into halves and placed in the corners of the plate around the lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole.  The beef was shredded and moist.  It had a pretty good flavor, too.  I added a little salsa to the chimichangas, but they probably didn't need it.  Mine, too, were very good.  

Cindy was having troubles finishing her margarita.  Florencia came by to pick up our plates and I was helping Cindy finish out her drink.  Florencia said, "Happy hour started at two.  Half price drinks.  You want another one?"

Cindy laughed and said, "Oh, goodness, no!  I really wouldn't be able to walk out of here!"

Here's a picture of Cindy with her new friend, Florencia.  Yeah, I know it looks like Florencia is holding Cindy up, but she may have had a little buzz going.  Me, on the otherhand, well, I needed a nap after having lunch and more than one huge margarita at Los Pueblos.  

We liked the food at Los Pueblos.  Our friends told us later in the week that Los Pueblos was probably their favorite Mexican restaurant in the area.  We were happy with our meals.  I wish I would have asked how big the "grande" margarita was, however. They were $11.95 each, once again making our liquor bill higher than our food bill.  But we were on vacation and we were having fun.  The food was your typical Mexican fare, Florencia was fun to deal with, and it was a comfortable place to eat.  I can't say anything bad about our experience at Los Pueblos.