Road Tips

Timeout Sports Bar and Grill - Manitowoc, WI

I put on a new dealer in Manitowoc, WI last fall and I had owed them a product training session since then.  The winter weather got in the way of our plans a couple times along the way, postponing or cancelling planned sessions.  When the weather finally got a little nicer, we were able to get the training session in one evening.  As I do with dealers after a night time training, I ask if they want to go out for dinner.  The group of five guys were all up for that and I said, "OK, where's a good place to eat?  Where do the locals go for a good dinner?"

They all sort of looked at one another and one of them said, "Like what?"  

I mentioned steaks or something like that.  Once again, they all looked a little dumbfounded.  

One of the guys said, "Well, yeah, there's an Applebee's."

"No, no, no, no, no," I replied. "Isn't there like a supper club or a fine dining place that has steak, seafood, stuff like that?"  

Another guy said, "Well, there's places like that in Green Bay (30 miles away to the north) or in Sheboygan (25 miles away to the south)."  

I said to one of the owners, "OK, when your wife and you go out for dinner - like an anniversary dinner.  Where do you guys go in town?"

He sort of hesitated and said, "Applebee's, I guess.  I'm tellin' you, man.  There's not a lot of choices of places to eat in this town." 

Figuring out that this was going to be a losing proposition all the way around, I then switched gears and said, "OK, then.  Where's a fun place to eat in town?  Like a bar with a good burger or something like that?"

They all sort of looked at one another and one of them said, "Well, there's Timeout, a sports bar that has pretty good burgers and sandwiches.  But their kitchen closes at 9.  (It was 8:20 pm)  So, if we're gonna go, we better go now."  Within minutes, I was part of a six car convoy that drove toward Timeout Sports Bar and Grill at the corner of N. Rapids and Waldo Blvd. on the city's northwest side.  (see map)

Timeout Sports Bar and Grill has been in business since 2005 and is owned by Tom Peterson.  Cassandra Mrozinsky is the general manager of the bar/restaurant that has a spacious bar and dining area that has the requisite memorabilia on the walls.  They also have some interesting collages of equipment of sports activities that are found in the Manitowoc area - everything from hockey and baseball to soccer and skateboarding.  

The large rectangular bar was the centerpiece of the place.  I was told that they'll have bands in the place from time to time and that it's one of the more popular places for all ages in the Manitowoc area.  The have a large gaming area off to the side of the main entrance with pool and foosball tables, dart machines and other games for all ages.    

We walked in around 8:40 and immediately asked if A) the kitchen still open; and B) if we would be pissing off the kitchen staff by ordering so close to the kitchen closing.  The lady who met us at the hostess stand said, "Oh, sure the kitchen is still open.  And, no, they won't be upset you're coming in right now."  We promised we'd order fast.  

The menu at Timeout is your typical sports bar fare - appetizers, burgers and sandwiches.  They also have a number of fresh lake fish entrees and pizza at the bar and grill.  

They had a number of panini sandwiches at Timeout, but none of them sounded very appealing to me.  Actually, none of the sandwiches - save for the reuben - caught my fancy.  I took a look at the burger menu and a couple of them caught my attention.  The Brat burger was basically a burger with a sliced bratwurst on top of the patty.  Hey, we WERE in Wisconsin!  And, of course, they had a number of cheese options for burgers - the Olive burger was topped with cheddar cheese with sliced green and black olives; and the California burger was topped with mozzarella and pepperjack cheese, then finished with tomato, lettuce, guacamole and bacon and served on Texas Toast.  Actually, that sounded pretty good to me.

When it came time to order, however, I went with the mushroom/Swiss burger.  I asked if I could get some bacon put on top of it, as well.  One of the guys next to me went with the beef nacho plate, another went with the Rodeo Burger - a burger patty topped with cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, bacon and onion straws.  Another got the chicken wrap, and two others went with the Chicken Jack sandwich - grilled chicken tenders topped with pepperjack cheese and bacon and served on a grilled sourdough bun.  

Since we were the only ones ordering food at that hour, our food came out quickly.  My burger was piled high with crisp bacon, copious amounts of mushrooms and a slab of Swiss cheese that had melted down the sides of the patty. 

 
The bun was lightly toasted and had a nice spongy feel to it.  From the first bite, I found the burger to be very good.  It was juicy and not overcooked.  The bacon had a great crispy taste and the mushrooms were noticeable, but not over powering.  For a sports bar, it was a pretty damn good burger.

Seated across from me, the guy who ordered the Rodeo burger paused for a moment while I got a picture of his burger (below left).  It was piled high with crispy onion rings - the kind I like - and slathered with barbecue sauce and topped with the same crisp bacon that I had on mine.  He got the sweet potato fries to go along with his burger.  He told me, "I've had some of the other burgers here, but this one is my favorite."  It did look good. 

 
Above right is a snapshot of the massive nacho plate the guy next to me ordered.   It featured seasoned ground beef topped with shredded colby/jack cheese on a bed of red corn tortilla chips.  Sour cream and salsa came on the side.  I said, "Man, that looks like an appetizer that you'd share with four people.  How can you eat all that?"

He said, "Watch me."  And he proceeded to dig in and through the whole pile of nachos in front of him.  I remember when I was young and could eat like that.  

Because there is no fine dining place in Manitowoc, it's the only reason why I ended up at Timeout Sports Bar and Grill.  My burger was very good, the service was very good and the people were friendly.  Even though we got in late, we didn't feel rushed in any sense.  I was happy with my burger and would put it up against any of the ones I've had at any one of the numerous sports bars I've visited in the past.  I probably wouldn't drive across Manitowoc or stop in off the interstate from Green Bay just to eat there on my own.  But if my dealer says, "Hey, let's go over to Timeout for a burger and a beer," I'd do it.  

Omaha Prime - Omaha, NE

Last month, Cindy and I were getting ready to celebrate our wedding anniversary (18 years!) and we decided to take a long weekend to go somewhere to get away for awhile.  We contemplated going to Chicago (Cindy had just been in Chicago and I go there a lot for business), Minneapolis and Kansas City (too far of a drive - at least too far of a drive that I wanted to make), St. Louis or Indianapolis (I had been to both those cities just days before).  We ended up deciding on going out to Omaha. Now, I like Omaha and it's a little over a 4-hour drive across the state of Iowa.  I used some of my Hilton points to get us a room at the Embassy Suites in the Old Market arts and entertainment area in downtown Omaha.  And for our celebratory dinner for our anniversary that weekend, we went to one of the more famous steakhouses in town, Omaha Prime.

Restauranteur Mahood "Mo" Tajvar opened Omaha Prime in the Old Market 17 years ago this year.  It has been one of the "go-to" destinations in Omaha for power dinners for titans of industry and special occasions for locals and out-of-towners alike.  And in a city that has some pretty damn good steakhouses, Omaha Prime is generally regarded as the gold standard for their meat, service and decor.     

We had arrived on a Friday afternoon and were walking around the Old Market after we had checked into the hotel.  I pretty much knew that I wanted to eat at Omaha Prime the next evening and we were walking near the restaurant.  I told Cindy that I wanted to go and make a reservation for Saturday night, just to make sure that we would be able to get in to eat at a respectable hour.  (Creighton University was also holding their commencement ceremonies the next day and I figured that restaurants would probably be packed.)  We made our reservation for 7 p.m.

After a day of driving and hiking through the Loess Hills region in Western Iowa, we got cleaned up and made the short walk from our hotel to Omaha Prime. (see map)  The same young lady that took our reservation the previous day greeted us at the hostess stand.  The first floor room at Omaha Prime is pretty small and there is a small sidewalk seating area out front that we agreed that we would never want to sit in.  The main dining room is upstairs.  And there's no elevator to the second level, so if you have trouble getting up stairs or are handicapped, you're pretty much sentenced to eat in the small dining area on the first floor.  (Restrooms at Omaha Prime are also on the first floor, so if you have to go during dinner it's quite a hike to and from the restrooms.)  

We were led to a table in the main dining room (there was a dining room with a bar in the other area) on the second floor.  The dining room featured subdued lighting with artwork on the earth- tone walls.  Frankly, I was sort of surprised that the place was less than half-full at 7 p.m. considering all that was going on in Omaha that day.  

As we were looking through the menu, our server for the evening, Terry, came over to great us.  Terry was an interesting guy.  With his white waiter jacket, somewhat wild hair, big glasses and sort of scattered manner, he looked more like an absent-minded professor than a waiter.  He reminded Cindy and I both of someone who we couldn't quite place.  He was a likable enough fella, but he did seem a bit out of place for Omaha Prime.  (It turned out that Terry had been a veteran of fine dining serving for over 15 years.  He previously had been at Passport, an upscale Old Market restaurant that was also owned by Mo Tajvar.  Passport closed last year and Terry came over from there to Omaha Prime.)    

Terry asked us if we wanted anything to drink and Cindy ordered an amaretto sour.  I told him that I was going to look through the wine list to see if there was anything that tripped my trigger to go with our dinner.  After he left, Cindy was amazed I didn't order a beer before dinner.  She cringes sometimes when I order a beer in a fancy place.  

Looking through the wine list, I thought the prices were actually pretty good.  They had a Franciscan cabernet for under $50 a bottle.  But what caught my eye was the Catena malbec from Argentina - also priced under $50 a bottle.  I also saw that they had it by the glass.  When Terry came back with Cindy's drink, I apologized and told him that I wanted to get a glass of the Catena malbec.  He said it was no problem.  I wanted to give it try to see if it would be good to go with our dinner.  

Omaha Prime is a lot like other upscale steakhouses in that they bring a meat tray to the table to show diners what they have available that evening.   Terry brought over the tray and showed the usual cuts - tenderloin filet, porterhouse, ribeye, strip - but he said he also had a t-bone available that evening along with a bone-in filet.  Cindy was sort of interested in the lamb chops that were on the menu.  But once Terry mentioned the bone-in filet, he had her.  

I was sort of torn between the strip or the regular filet.  The porterhouse was a 24 ounce cut with both the strip and the filet.  I thought, "What the hell!"  That's what I ended up ordering - rare plus.  

For sides, they have a number of things to choose from including sauteed mushrooms, creamed spinach, Brussels sprouts with bacon, a huge baked potato, sweet potato fries, and sort of their signature side - blue cheese potatoes.  And they're all served family style at Omaha Prime.  I definitely wanted to try a taste of the potatoes, but I knew they'd be so rich that we couldn't finish them all.  But the mushrooms were calling my name, too.  And Cindy was sort of set on getting the creamed spinach.  So we ordered all three.

For starters, they had a number of salads and soups (as well as appetizers).   Cindy was sort of looking at getting the lobster bisque that they serve in a puffed pastry.  But she ended up getting the Caesar salad.  They had something called the Thunderbird salad at Omaha Prime.  I asked Terry what that was all about and he said, "It's a bed of greens mixed with chopped tomatoes and some other stuff."  In other words, he didn't really know.  Still, I told him I'd give it a try.  

And I did like the Catena malbec.  Terry had poured me a glass out of a new bottle.  Once it opened up, it had a great taste with a full body.  I ordered a bottle for us when we ordered our dinners.  

The salads came out first and they were pretty nondescript.  Cindy's Caesar salad was pretty basic, but came with a handful of homemade croutons.  Curiously, a lemon wedge came with the salad.  She said, "I've never had a lemon wedge with a Caesar salad before.  This is kind of interesting." 

 
My Thunderbird salad was pretty much what Terry said it would be - a bunch of mixed greens, chopped tomatoes, some shredded cheese and a special "Thunderbird" dressing that was oil-based.  It was all right, but nothing spectacular for $8.95.  Actually, I was sort of perplexed about the Thunderbird salad.  

It turns out that the Thunderbird is sort of a well-known salad in the Omaha area.  Now, I've been eating at steakhouses in Omaha since the mid-80's and I had NEVER heard of or even seen a Thunderbird salad on a menu before this visit to Omaha Prime.  Back in the early 60's, Peruvian-born chef Luis Villamonte came up with the salad and a homemade dressing at the Happy Hollow Country Club in Omaha.  Moving around to other restaurants in the area, he took the Thunderbird salad with him.  Today, the Thunderbird Salad is a trademarked name owned by Villamonte's son, Steve, who owns Villamonte's Cuisine - a local catering company.  In fact, in order to have a Thunderbird salad on the menu, the restaurants have to buy the "Thunderbird Dressing" from Villamonte.  I guess Thunderbird Dressing is available at a lot of places in Omaha from other restaurants to grocery stores to gourmet food shops.  But I'd never known about it before.  To me, it isn't anything to specifically seek out.  

It was time for the steaks and the sides.  Our steaks looked pretty good, but I was sort of intrigued by Cindy's bone-in filet.  There wasn't much of a bone on the steak.  Usually, I'll see bone-in filet's with a large bone around the meat.  This one had a little bone toward the back of the filet.  

 
My porterhouse was big, but it wasn't as thick as I remembered seeing it on the meat tray.   It nearly covered the whole plate.  The first cut into the filet side showed that it was cooked a perfect - for me - rare plus.  It was tender and flavorful without any hint of a seasoning.  There were grill marks on the one side and when I turned it over to get at the strip side of the porterhouse, there was none.  They cooked it very quickly on the underside of the steak to make it rare plus.  But they did it right.  However, I can't say that there was really anything outstanding about the steak.  It was a good USDA Prime Beef steak, but one that you can get from a dozen other places in Omaha.  

Since the sides came family-style, we had a shitload of food on our table.  The mushrooms were sauteed in a soy sauce giving them sort of a salty flavor.  I don't know if I cared for the soy sauce saute on the mushrooms, but they were good enough to go along with my steak.   Cindy even tried some, which I thought was remarkable for a person who doesn't care for mushrooms.  We finished about half the dish by the end of the meal.

 
The blue cheese potatoes were nothing more than taking a baked potato, cutting it into cubes, adding blue cheese that would melt during the warming process, and then adding some herbs before mixing it all together.  As I predicted, it was very rich, but it didn't taste too bad.  I had them all to myself as Cindy has been eschewing potatoes as part of the diet she is on.  Quite honestly, I think I only took three or four bites before I ended my dinner.

And Cindy's creamed spinach was the smallest serving of the three sides we got.  She offered me a bite and they were all right, but nothing to write home about.  

I was stuffed and about ready to pop after I finished the last bite of my steak.  When Terry came back to start clearing dishes away, I told him to get rid of the blue cheese potatoes and the mushrooms before I ate anymore.  We were sitting there letting our meal settle when Terry came back with the check.  Cindy looked at him funny and said, "Wait a minute.  Don't you have dessert and coffee?"

Terry sort of verbally fumbled and said, "Well, yeah, but you said you were stuffed and I figured you were done."

Cindy admonished him. "Maybe HE'S full," she said pointing at me.  "But I'm interested in the dessert."  

Terry began to become a little flummoxed at that point and he then told us about three or four desserts - I think he told us the same one twice, actually.  He mentioned that he had a frozen key lime pie that was made by a retired dentist whose hobby was to bake desserts.  "A dentist baking sugary desserts," Terry chuckled. "There's something wrong about that."  Cindy ordered a piece of the key lime pie and two forks.

The small piece of key lime pie was surrounded with a raspberry drizzle with a tuft of whipped cream topped by a raspberry.  The pie tasted funny - Cindy thought it was freezer burned.  It did sort of taste like that.  We weren't impressed with the key lime pie.  "You've made better key lime pies at home," Cindy said.  And she was right.  It wasn't very good.  

We had talked about getting an espresso, but decided to go grab one from one of the coffee houses that dotted the Old Market area.  It was a lot of food and we were done.   

My impressions of Omaha Prime - it was expensive, way over $200 bucks with a tip.  The steaks were good, not outstanding.  The sides were all right, but, once again, not outstanding.  The salads were "meh!".  The key lime pie was a throw away.  And Terry's service was a little choppy, but he did all right.  He was a little mentally scattered working with other tables in addition to ours.  I can think of two or three other steakhouses in the Omaha area that I probably like more than I did with Omaha Prime.  I can't really complain about anything specifically, but none of what we experienced was truly outstanding like we thought Omaha Prime would be.     

 

Black Ram - Rock Island, IL

A few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, a few of my neighbors got together at our house for a couple beers.  One of my neighbors suggested doing a road trip over to Rock Island's College Hill District to check out a nano-brewery that I'd wanted to go to for some time, Against the Grain.  As we parked in front of the small brewery, I looked over and saw a building that said, "Gendler's Wines."  I thought Gendler's had gone out of business years before and was amazed that it was still around.  My neighbor said, "I guess they reopened as a combination wine store and restaurant."  I was sort of intrigued.

For our usual Monday night date night two nights later, I told my wife about the Gendler's in Rock Island.  She told me that one of her co-workers had gone there for dinner with her husband and spoke highly of the place.  We drove over and parked in front of Gendler's, then walked around to the side entrance.  There we saw two doors - one, the entrance to Gendler's, the other, the entrance to the Black Ram restaurant.  After going into Gendler's to look around for a bit, we went into the Black Ram.  (see map)

I found that there's a history behind the Black Ram, but the restaurant has only been open since August of last year.  The gentleman who owns Black Ram, Dave Requet, Sr., is the son of a gentleman who owned and operated the old Italian Village restaurant in Rock Island.  The Italian Village in Rock Island was before my time, but I do remember an Italian Village in downtown Davenport.  Evidently, the two Italian Villages were related by family members - Dick Requet owned the one in Rock Island, and his brother owned the one in Davenport. We were told that there was a dispute between the brothers and Dick's brother moved over to Davenport.  

(I remember being in the old Italian Village and I kept telling Cindy that we had eaten there before.  But then I found out that the Davenport Italian Village closed in 1992 and Cindy and I didn't get together until 1993.  Oops!  Must have been another girl I was with!)

Dick Requet had worked at Eagle Supermarkets for a number of years before he opened the Italian Village in Moline in 1963.  He and his wife, Mary, and their children all worked in the restaurant with other family members.  In 1971, the Requet's moved their restaurant to the College Hill section of Rock Island, just up the hill from Augustana College.  In 1980, they added an ice cream parlor next to the Italian Village, then in 1986 they changed the name to ReQuette's.  Dick and Mary retired from the business in 1994, and their son, Rick, ran the place as R.T.'s Italian Village until it closed it in 2005.  

Dick's son - and Rick's brother - Dave Requet, Sr. bought the rights to the Gendler's Wine and Spirits name in 2007 not long after it closed its Moline location.  Gendler's was my place to go for wine and beer when I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991.  Jerry Zeffren, the longtime owner of Gendler's before he sold to Tom Getz in 2001, used to get Capital Beers for me when the closest place I could find some would be up in East Dubuque.  They'd cost a little more at Gendler's than what I could get them at liquor stores in Wisconsin, but at least I wasn't driving an hour and a half to buy them.  

Dave Requet and his wife, Lynda, had been planning on doing something with the old Italian Village space for a number of years.  Requet was an entrepreneur/developer by day and a wine enthusiast at night.  Requet is a member of the American Wine Society and the Requet's have taken numerous trips to Napa Valley to sample wines.  They decided to do a massive upgrade to the building and put in a wine store with an upscale restaurant.  They spent over $700,000 in renovations and opened Gendler's/Black Ram in late July 2012.  

However, almost as soon as they opened, they had to close again.  A crushed sewer line shut down the business until they could get a company to come in an fix it.  After another two-week-plus delay, the restaurant reopened in August.  (Pictured left - Dave and Lynda Requet.  Photo courtesy Rock Island Dispatch-Argus/QC Online)

Now, one thing I did not know was that the Black Ram is actually in two parts.  They have their main entrance behind the building from 30th Street with a large parking lot near the entrance.  The entrance we went in took us into the Grotto Bar.  My wife was telling me that her co-worker's husband was feeling a little uneasy in the restaurant and asked to be seated elsewhere.  When I walked into the Black Ram, I thought this was the restaurant.  I thought, "What could be so pretentious about this place?"  I didn't know they had a formal dining room on the other side.  

The bar area had a great cozy feeling to the place.  It had a rather neat curved ceiling with exposed beams that bent in tandem with the top of the room.  There was a nice bar and a number of small tables and some high top tables along the wall.  A nice fireplace was on the wall to the right of the bar.  A hostess got up from the bar to greet us and asked us if we wanted a regular table or a high top.  Cindy is a little uncomfortable at high tops, but the hostess said, "The seats at the high tops are more comfortable."  Sure enough, they were.  They had some nice padding on the seat and back.  She dropped some menus off for us to look over.

Our server for the evening, a pleasant blond lady with the interesting name of Donai, came over to greet us.  Cindy wanted a glass of white wine and I wasn't certain if I wanted a beer or a glass of wine, or even any alcohol at all.   I had my back to the bar and I asked what kind of beer they had on tap.  She gave me a quick rundown of about five or six beers, then she said, "And we have a new one.  It's a Hawaiian beer, but I can't remember the name of it."  I asked if it was a Kona Brewery beer and she said, "Yeah, I think so."

I turned around and walked over toward the bar.  They had the Kona Longboard Lager on tap.  I couldn't believe it.  I have such an affinity for Kona beers that I had to have one.  It wasn't my favorite - the Big Wave Golden Ale - but it was close enough.   

Chef Dean McCollum features a full menu of steaks, seafood, pasta and the old Village Inn recipe for pizza.   Actually, we were both in the mood for pasta that night and they had fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna and a couple other pasta dishes on the menu.  

We pretty much knew what we were going to get, but our waitress was nowhere to be found.  We noticed another young man who was a server who came into the bar area a couple times to get drinks, but that was sporadic.  Finally, our waitress showed up after we waited for about 10 minutes.  She was somewhat out of breath and ready to take our order.

My wife got the fettuccine alfredo with chicken.  Normal price on the fettuccine alfredo was $10.95.  With the grilled chicked added, it was an extra five bucks.  I also got the fettuccine alfredo, but with the shrimp added for an additional $8.  We both got the regular house salads - Cindy with oil and vinegar, I got the house Italian.

We waited patiently for another long stretch for our salads.  Finally, a man came over - it turned out it was Dave Requet, Sr. - to explain the delays for the evening.  "We have a big party next door, folks.  We're getting them served right now.  After that, things should get back to normal for us on the floor and in the kitchen."

I still hadn't put two-and-two together to realize there was another part of the Black Ram.  I expressed my amazement that I thought the bar area was the only part of the restaurant.  Dave Requet said, "Oh, no.  We have a formal dining room next door."  

Then my wife explained to me, "I was telling you that (her co-worker's husband) didn't feel comfortable in the dining room and asked to be seated in the bar."  OOOOHHHHH....  I see now...

(Skipping ahead - After we finished our dinner, we went back and took a look at the formal dining area at Black Ram.  Quite honestly, it looked more like a banquet room than a formal dining room.  I mean, it was nice in there, but it looked like it would be more suited for wedding receptions than fine dining.  I can see why the husband of Cindy's co-worker would be a little uncomfortable in the room.  I liked the lounge area much better at Black Ram.

 
Dave Requet, Jr., the restaurant manager, allowed us a look into the restaurant's wine cellar.  It was a climate-controlled room off the main dining room.  Dave, Jr. was a nice guy, giving us the run-down of the history of the Italian Village, the recipes that were handed down to the third generation of Requet's to work in the restaurant, and their short and long-range plans to develop the large outdoor area on the north side of the building.)  

Skipping back - Our salads did finally make it out and they were good, not outstanding.  And not long after the salads were finished, our server came out with our fettuccine alfredo.  Cindy's had a good amount of sliced grilled chicken breast on the top of her fettuccine.  There was also a good amount of fettuccine on her plate, so much so that she knew she wasn't going to eat the whole thing.  "I'll concentrate on the chicken and eat what else of it that I can," she said. 

 

Mine, however, featured just four morsels of butterflied shrimp scampi.  This was an extra $8 bucks?  Four pieces of shrimp?  You've got to be kidding me!  I buy shrimp at the grocery store and I know there's not way that four pieces of shrimp can cost a restaurant that much.  I was disappointed in the value of my meal from the start.  

The taste of the fettuccine alfredo was, well, different.  There seemed to be some sort of a chalky taste to the bite of the pasta and alfredo sauce.  It was like they had taken a handful of flour and added it to the sauce before it was served.  The overall taste of the sauce was OK, but I don't know if I've ever experienced this chalky texture on the tongue when I've eaten fettuccine alfredo in the past.  

The shrimp - what there was of them - were actually pretty good.  They had a nice chargrilled taste to them and were plump and meaty.  I just wish there would have been a couple three more for $8 bucks.  Cindy gave me a slice of her chicken breast and, it too, was good.  But the thing I liked most about the meal was the garlic bread- flat pieces of sliced Italian bread topped with garlic and herbs and toasted.  The bread was very good.  

We both couldn't finish our full helpings of fettuccine and when our server came back to check on us, she asked if we wanted the leftovers.  My wife explained that it's never as good when it's taken home and re-warmed.  

But our server didn't give up.  She said, "Any dessert tonight?"  I sort of groaned from being full and then she said, "We have homemade tiramisu, creme brulee..."  

Cindy stopped her, looked at me and smiled.  "Your tiramisu is homemade?  We'll take a piece with two forks."  

At first, I was upset with my wife for ordering the tiramisu.  But when it was brought out, whoa!  What a nice presentation!  It was a thick slice of tiramisu with the whipped topping sprinkled with cocoa powder.  From the first bite, I could tell it was one of the better pieces of tiramisu I've ever had - and I've had a LOT of tiramisu over the years.  It was just fabulous.  

Although I was disappointed in the taste and value of my fettuccine alfredo, I told my wife that I'd like to go back again sometime to get their Italian Village recipe pizza.  We were told that their pizza isn't like traditional Quad Cities-style pizza - which I don't care for - but a pizza that had a thinner crust and not the spicy-sweet style of sauce you find on pizzas all over the area.  They also grind their own blend of sausage for their pizzas at Black Ram.  We thought we may have found another alternative to the unbelievable number of Quad City-style pizza places in the area. 

We made our way back over to the Black Ram on a Saturday night about a month after we were there for the pizza.  Once again, we had a very nice young lady wait on us and we ordered up a pizza.  We figured we'd order up a large because we could take some home with us to snack on the next day when we would be out doing yard work.  

The only problem is that the large pizza (16") was $13 bucks - with only cheese on it.  For sausage it was an EXTRA FIVE BUCKS!!  I thought, "Wow!  Their homemade sausage must be REALLY good if it's that expensive to put on to a pizza.  For an additional $3.00 each, we could get pepperoni, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc.  So, if I got my usual sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom pizza it would have been $24 bucks.  I decided to save some money and just get the sausage and pepperoni.  For $21 bucks, it had better knock it out of the park.  

When the pizza showed up, Cindy and I looked at one another and sort of laughed.  It was cut in the manner of a Quad City-style pizza - long thin slices. And we could smell the pizza and we KNEW it was MORE of a Quad City-style pizza than not.  The sausage was ground up and the slices weren't more thin than a regular QC-style pie.  

From the first bite, we knew we'd been had.  It didn't taste very good.  I don't want to say that it tasted horrible, but it was one of the worst tasting pizzas I've had.  Nothing clicked on the pizza.  The sausage was dull in taste and it was mushy to the bite.  I had a hard time detecting any taste of pepperoni on the pizza, even when I would see a slice on the piece I was getting ready to bite into.  The sauce was "blah!"  I wanted to like their pizza, but I couldn't.  Did it pass my "Does it taste good with beer?" test that I use to measure against other pizzas?  This pizza wouldn't have tasted good with any kind of beer.

I know people who grew up in the Quad Cities who love this type of taste in their pizza, but I find it very unappealing.  I'm still amazed that there are only two or three places around town that do more of what I would call a traditional tasting pizza with chunks of sausage and a good tangy sauce.  The vast majority are Harris Pizza clones.  I still have a problem with the number of Quad City-style pizza places that are found throughout the area.  

Years ago, I tried a Harris Pizza and found it to be so disagreeable in taste that I threw out nearly 3/4's of the pizza.  (Even the critters who got into the garbage bag sitting on the curb that night didn't touch the pizza - it was that bad.)  That was the only time in my life I threw out a pizza.  Until now.  We had a little over half of the Black Ram pizza left and took it home.  We got it home and I tried another bite.  I couldn't handle it.  I told Cindy, "This will be the second pizza I've ever thrown out."  She didn't quibble with me when I took the pizza box out to the garage and threw it in the garbage.  

I really wanted to like the Black Ram.  I mean I REALLY wanted to like the Black Ram.  I loved the bar area and the fact that they had Kona Longboard Lager on tap.  The service was very good and the people were extremely friendly.  And their tiramisu was some of the best we'd ever had.   But I didn't think my fettuccine alfredo was all that great and the pizza was - to us - inedible.  And the value of the meals weren't very good at all.  $21 for a pizza - even if it would have been one of the best I'd ever had - was still a little steep.  $18 for pasty tasting fettuccine alfredo with four measly grilled shrimp was sort of outrageous, as well.  I don't know if they're going for more of an upscale crowd at the Black Ram or what, but they've lost a couple of customers who didn't think much for the food or the prices they were charging for it. 

Maharaja - Rosemont, IL

I've been staying at the Hilton Garden Inn O'Hare on a somewhat regular basis (that is, when the room rates aren't outrageous), and I've been exploring the area to see what the options are for restaurants.  I had a list of restaurants around the hotel that a girl at the front desk had given me and I found an Indian restaurant that was listed - Maharaja.  It was just down the road and around the corner from the hotel, situated in a strip mall on the south side of Higgins Road.  (see map)

According their website, Maharaja boasts a celebrity chef - Durga Prashad Bhatt.  I have no idea what makes him a celebrity, but he evidently has 25 years experience working in five star Indian restaurants.  I couldn't back up the claim to where he worked or if he was even some sort of a celebrity, but I'll tell you now that there were a number of people from Indian descent in his restaurant when I walked in around 7:30 p.m.  That's always a good sign, I think.  

I was seated at a table near the distressed glass wall in one of two dining areas.  There was a large buffet area along the wall opposite where I was seated for their daily lunch buffet.  As I looked through the menu as one of the wait staff dropped off some of the puffy Indian naan -style chips and a green sweet chutney and a spicy chutney sauce.  The sweet chutney was different from other green chutney's I've had - it didn't have the forward coriander taste and wasn't as sweet.  It was good, but more mellow than what I've had in the past.  I figured out later that they didn't put mint in the chutney like I've had at other Indian restaurants.  I actually like the spicy chutney a little better.  

The menu features typical Indian fare - tandoori, chicken, lamb, seafood and vegetarian entrees.  They also have a handful of southern Indian entrees, as well as a somewhat full Indo-Chinese menu.  If you were a little crossed-up as what to get at Maharaja, they offered a dinner special with a little bit of everything - tandoori chicken, seekh kebab, shrimp, chicken tikka, rogan josh, and dal makhani.  They also had the Maharaja mixed grill which had tandoori chicken, fish tikka, chicken tikka, dal makhani and butter chicken.  

I've been leaning toward lamb dishes during my past few visits to Indian restaurants.  The Rogan Josh in the mild tomato and onion sauce sounded good, as did the bhuna gosht - tender chunks of lamb cubes cooked in a tomato, onion, ginger and herb sauce.  There was a hot pepper next to the lamb vindaloo denoting that it was a spicy dish.  Most of the time I get my Indian food medium-hot and I've always been willing to kick it up a notch at some point.  Well, this was going to be the point.  I ordered the lamb vindaloo with some garlic naan bread.  I also got a tall bottle of Kingfisher beer.  

My meal came out in less than 15 minutes.  The lamb vindaloo was in a small bowl with chunks of lamb and potatoes.  I took a little bit of the garlic naan and dipped it into the vindaloo sauce to give it a try.

 
I have to tell you, from the first bite, it was HOT!!!  Holy crap, was it hot!  I couldn't drink enough Kingfisher or water to make the burn go away from my mouth.  But the interesting thing was, it didn't detract from the taste of the lamb.  The chunks were big, tender and flavorful.  But, oh my GOD!!! Was it hot!!

Then I didn't do myself any favors - I spooned what I thought was a piece of lamb out of the serving bowl and took a bite.  Only it wasn't lamb - it was a hot pepper.  OH! MY!!! GOD!!!!!!  I'm now swishing ice water and beer alternately in my mouth to try and get rid of the spicy taste.  What an idiot I am sometimes.  Served me right for wanted to step up to the big leagues of spicy Indian food.   

But I have to say that I actually liked it.  Spiciness aside, the lamb was flavorful, I liked the garlic naan and the service at Maharaja was good.  It was a pleasant experience all the way around.  I probably won't sign up for the lamb vindaloo the next time, but the bhuna gosht is in my crosshairs.   There's no telling if the chef is actually a celebrity or not - maybe he is in India.  But all I know is that he certainly got my attention with the lamb vindaloo.  

(Update - I've since been back for the bhuna gosht and it was outstanding.  Let me put it this way - Have you ever eaten yourself into a painful state, but you're still pissed off that the meal is over?  That was me with the bhuna gosht with garlic naan.)   

Erv's Mug - Oak Creek, WI

There's a place with a unique name in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek that has intrigued me for awhile - Erv's Mug.  I've passed it a couple times while traveling to the American TV store location in Oak Creek.  On a recent trip up to Milwaukee, I took the Ryan Road exit off of Interstate 94 and headed east for a mile to have lunch at Erv's Mug.

Erv Kazik was a longtime bartender in the Milwaukee area, gathering a legion of fans that followed him from places like Schneider's in downtown Milwaukee and De Salvo's Italian Restaurant in Cudahy out to the Oak Chalet at the corner of S. Howell and Ryan Road in Oak Creek.  Erv had an idea for a bar that he'd like to run.  He envisioned a bar that was open only through the week days, selling burgers and beer.  

Just to the west of the Oak Chalet was a dilapidated building that once housed the Oak Creek volunteer fire department.  In 1979, it came up for sale and Erv Kazik bought the building, complete with an attached apartment.  Erv and his wife, Barb, along with friends cleaned out the building and put in a bar and a grill.  Erv's Mug became a place for Erv and his friends to hang out through the week.  And when he was closed on Saturday's, his friends would still come by in the morning to play cribbage.  Invariably, one of them would be hungry and Erv would fire up the grill.  Seeing cars in the parking lot, more people would come in and Erv suddenly was forced to open up on Saturdays.  

(Pictured right - Erv Kazik and his daughter, Danielle.  Photo courtesy of onmilwaukee.com) 

A year after he opened, someone suggested to Erv that he do a Friday night fish fry.  Suddenly, Erv's was a destination for hundreds of south Milwaukee area residents on Friday nights.  But one thing that Erv did not waver from - he never opened on Sundays or holidays.  He believed that the people that worked for him needed to be with their families on those days.  

Erv and Barb never wanted their daughter, Danielle, to get into the family business even though she literally grew up in the place and they encouraged her to do something big in her life.  Danielle got her law degree in 1990 and had been practicing law in the Oak Creek area for a few years when Erv and Barb decided to retire.  Wanting to keep the family legacy going, Danielle took over Erv's Mug in 2004.  Retirement was a loose term for Erv and Barb - you'd find Erv in the place nearly every morning talking with friends and making sure people showed up for work.  Unfortunately, Erv passed away in late April of 2012.  I was told the memorial service at the church and the celebration of life get together afterward at Erv's were both "packed with people".  

Getting to Erv's from the west on Ryan Road is a bit of a challenge.  Oak Creek has a traffic control design that doesn't allow for left hand turns within what seems like a quarter mile of major intersections.  You have to either go east of S. Howell, do a U-turn and head back to Erv's, or do like I did - go south on Howell, do a U-turn, then take a left at the light back on to westbound Ryan, then to Erv's Mug that sits just past the Walgreen's.  In fact, the old Oak Chalet stood where the Walgreen's now stands.  (see map)   Getting out of Erv's if you want to go east on Ryan Road is also a hassle, as in you have to go west and do a U-turn to go east.  Thankfully, I just had to go west back out to Interstate 94 when I left.  

Pulling into the parking lot, there were a number of cars at 1:30 in the afternoon telling me it's a popular place.  I went inside and came into the bar area with a back bar with well over two dozen beer spigots on the wall.  Just one gentleman was seated at the bar, so I went back to the entry of the dining area.  I looked inside and noticed that most of the people in there were older - as of possibly retired-aged people.  The dining room looked friendly with a number of decorations on the wall and hanging from the ceiling.  I understand that Erv and Barb used to make regular trips to similar family-type taverns in the Chicago area to get ideas for their place including decorations.  

 
A hostess came up to greet me and I asked if I could get lunch at the bar.  She said,  "Oh sure!  You can get food at the bar."  I walked over to find a seat at the bar and she dropped off a menu for me to look at.  The bartender/server - Jason - came over to greet me.  He asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I took a long hard look at the over two dozen beer taps that were in front of me.  He said, "Here, we have a beer menu, too."  They certainly had a lot of eclectic beers on tap and in bottles at Erv's Mug.  But I found one of my favorites on tap that is tough to find outside of the state of Wisconsin - Wisconsin Amber from the Capital Brewery.  

 
The bar area at Erv's Mug had a lot of natural light coming in from the south facing windows and featured some interesting beer signs - many of them attached to the ceiling.  There was a nice old fireplace along one wall with a number of old beer spigots on a shelf rack over the mantle.  The bar area was cozy with some small tables and I could see where the place could get pretty packed some evenings with people waiting for tables in the dining area.  

The lunch menu at Erv's is somewhat different from the dinner menu that they serve after 5 p.m.  While both menus feature a number of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers, the entrees served at lunch are smaller in size and selection from their dinner entrees.  They do feature a filet steak at lunch, but they have five different types of steaks to choose from at dinner.  Ribs and a number of seafood and lakefish entrees are available in the evening, as well.  

As I was looking through the menu, Jason pointed out their special that day was something called the "Garbage Sandwich."   He explained to me that they take the leftover cuts of roasts, prime rib and steaks, cooking them in an au jus sauce with leftover chunks of vegetables, then serving them on ciabatta bread.  He said, "We call it the garbage sandwich because if we didn't make it this way, they'd just go into the garbage.  It's pretty good, one of our most popular sandwiches."  

I had been looking at either getting the reuben, the prime rib sandwich, or something that was called the Bavarian Triple Decker - cold turkey and corned beef topped with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and a creamy horseradish sauce and served on black Bavarian rye bread.  But after Jason described the sandwich, I couldn't pass it up.  He said, "It also comes with a side of our apple pecan baked beans."  Apple pecan baked beans?  I don't care for pecans much and I don't like apples.  But, what the hell.  I'd give it a shot.

Jason brought my sandwich out and it was cut in half flanking a small bowl of the baked beans.  An interesting barbecue-type sauce also came on the side - sort of a honey-mustard barbecue sauce.  The beef had been pulled apart and was more shredded than sliced.  The ciabatta bread was airy and spongy with a nice crisp outer shell.

The sandwich was, well, it was all right.  I mean, I guess I thought it was going to be some taste sensation that would blow me away.  The beef was tender, but not too flavorful.  The interesting barbecue sauce helped give the sandwich a little more zip in taste, but it wasn't spicy by any sense.  

I will have to say that I was surprised by the beans.  Although I don't like the taste of apples, there was a subtle and sweet apple taste to the beans.  I couldn't detect any taste of pecans in the beans, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.  They were actually very good and very different from any type of baked beans I've had at anytime.  

One of the cool things about Erv's Mug is that the third Tuesday of each month they have a "Beer Dinner".  They pair a number of eclectic craft beers with a menu their in-house chef comes up with.  It's a four-course dinner that starts with a beer-based soup, then it goes on to a salad with ingredients that go well with a specific beer.  The main course is usually a meat or seafood entree, then followed by a dessert.  Beer dinners at Erv's begin at 6 p.m. and I saw on the poster they had on the wall that reservations are strongly recommended.   

Even though the sandwich was just sort of average in my category, I enjoyed my visit to Erv's Mug immensely.  They had a great selection of beers, it looked like much of the items were made from scratch, and it was the type of place that I wished we had in our neighborhood back home.  It's easy to see why Erv's Mug is such a popular place and has been for nearly 35 years.  I probably won't go with a Garbage Sandwich on my next visit, but with as extensive of a menu that they have I'm sure I'll be able to find something that trips my trigger.  

Geneva Ale House - Geneva, IL

A little over a year ago, I got reacquainted with an old hometown friend, John Christensen, who happened to be in the Quad Cities for some training sessions.  John is a certified gemologist and currently works as a jewelry designer/consultant at State Street Jewelers in the far western Chicago suburb of Geneva.  Not long ago, John did some work for me on a piece of audio equipment that needed to have the brushed chrome finish polished and cleaned up a bit.  When I asked him how much I owed him, he told me, "Ah, just take me out to lunch sometime."  He had mentioned in conversations we've had over the past few months about a place in downtown Geneva that had great burgers and a great selection of beers - Geneva Ale House.  A few weeks ago, I met up with John at State Street Jewelers and we walked down and across the street to the Geneva Ale House.  (see map)

Geneva Ale House is located in what is known as the Fargo Theater building.  The restaurant is basically in the lobby area of the old theater that opened in 1924 and showed the first "talkie" movies in Geneva.  Five years later, the name of the theater was changed to the Geneva Theater featuring both movies and vaudeville acts.  The theater was equipped with what was then a state-of-the-art locally built organ.  A wide movie screen was installed in the mid-50's and many first run movies of the day were shown there in the 50's thru the 80's.  

The building has survived a bombing - in 1932 a bomb exploded that knocked down walls and blew out windows in the area; and a fire - a large fire in 1937 gutted the building.  In 1987, the large theater was cut into two sections allowing for two screens, but was subsequently closed in 2000.  For a number of years, a retail store operated in the space of what is now the Geneva Ale House. (Picture at right courtesy Cinema Treasures.org)

In 2009, Brian Harrington had enough of the corporate world.  Working as an Internet Technology engineer, he chucked it all away to open up a pub that featured over 140 different types of beers including over a dozen on tap and a menu featuring more than just your typical bar food.  Geneva Ale House has now been open for about three and a half years.  

It was just before noon when John and I got into the pub.  The entrance is located just under the old Geneva Theater marquee.  The long and narrow space features a rectangular bar in the back with high top tables along the wall and low top tables toward the middle.  There's a little alcove off to the side that features a couple tables.  The dark maroon walls featured a number of beer signs from eclectic and microbreweries that were available at Geneva Ale House.

 

We took a table up toward the bar area and John had handed me a food menu that they had on the table, then pointed out the beer menu after that.  While looking through the menus,  we were greeted by our server, Aimee, an immediately likable person with a sparkling personality.  She asked if we wanted anything to drink and I noticed that they had one of my all-time favorite beers on the list - Capital Special Pilsner.  John doesn't drink much beer so he ordered an iced tea.  Plus the fact that he had to go back and work on jewelry.  

John had eaten there a number of times with his wife, Cindy, and he was well versed with the burgers.  The burgers at Geneva Ale House are all 1/2 pound black Angus beef and coupled with a pretzel bun.  They had seven different types of burgers to choose from - eight, if you count their veggie burger.  John highly recommended two burgers - the Ale House Burger which featured a burger topped with applewood smoked bacon, sharp cheddar cheese, grilled onions and a fried egg; or the Stuffed Burger - a hand pattied burger that is stuffed with blue cheese, bacon and jalapeños.  Both sounded very good as did the Mushroom/Swiss cheese burger - I figured I could get some bacon added to it if I wanted for a small upcharge.  

Also on the menu, Geneva Ale House had a couple other things that caught my eye.  First there were the Fish Tacos described on the menu as "smoky seasoned seared East Coast Cod with warm corn tortillas, corn and black bean salad, red cabbage, pico de gallo and jalapeno vinaigrette."  If J.C. hadn't had me so wound up on getting a burger, I would have ordered the fish tacos.  The reuben with the house-made corned beef, along with house-made sauerkraut and topped with Swiss cheese and a house-made Thousand Island dressing also sounded damned good.  

When Aimee came back to take our order, John ordered the stuffed burger without a bun.  He had his choice of sides including fries, onion straws, or a small house salad.  He asked what the vegetable of the day was and Aimee told him it was Brussels sprouts.  He got those instead.  John's in great shape, much better shape than me, and he patted his stomach and said, "I'm trying to keep my girlish figure."  But then he blew it by asking Aimee after I ordered, "Hey, could you put a couple strips of bacon on my burger?"  I had to laugh...

I went with the Ale House burger on John's recommendation.  I asked if they could cook it "medium" and Aimee said it would be no problem.  For a side, I decided to try their onion straws.  I like good onion straws. 

While we were waiting on our burgers to show up, John and I were catching up on things.  He, too, has his own blog - My El Camino - that centers on the history of restoration and maintenance of his 1984 Chevrolet El Camino that he bought 21 years ago.  John is also a drummer and his former band, Jonesin', will be inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this September.  (Click here for the entry on my visit to the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)  Most of the guys in the band - including John's younger brother, Dave - were from our hometown of Newton, IA who found most of their success after moving out to Omaha.  So, that was sort of fun to talk about.  

(John's sister, Julie Christensen, graduated in the same class as me - John was a year younger - and she is a great singer.  Over the years, Julie has performed with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Robben Ford, Van Dyke Parks, Iggy Pop, and k.d. lang.)

Our burgers came to the table and it was a great looking burger in presentation that was put down in front of me.  The pretzel bun crown had split during the baking process.  There was a dill pickle spear that was speared to the top of the bun.   Lettuce, a tomato slice and fresh red onion rings were off to the side, but I had no intention of putting them on the burger.  The fried egg was laying on a couple of criss-crossed bacon slices on top of the cheddar cheese on the burger patty.  It was a pretty impressive looking burger.  But for as big as it was, it was nearly dwarfed by the shit-pot-full pile of onion straws that were on my plate.  Eating the burger was going to be tough enough.  Making a dent into the pile of onion straws might be another matter.  

 
John's burger patty laid passively on his plate looking lonely with out the bun.  Two crisp pieces of bacon made an "X" across the top.  His Brussels sprouts were in a bowl next to the burger.

The first bite of my burger told me that it was a very good burger.  John had been raving about the burgers to me since last summer and everything he told me about them were coming true in my mind.  The burger meat had a nice char-grilled taste to it, the pretzel bun was chewy and very flavorful, and the combination of the hard fried egg, the applewood smoked bacon and the sharp cheddar cheese gave the burger an overall fantastic taste.  I was completely impressed with the namesake Ale House burger at Geneva Ale House.  

Equally as good were the onion straws.  They had a light batter on them that was very tasty.  I'm a sucker for good onion straws and the ones at Geneva Ale House were very, very good.  I had trouble when I wanted to stop eating them because they were so good.   

John offered me a bite of his Brussels sprouts.  I declined as I don't care much for that vegetable.  He insisted, "No, no!  These have a smoky taste to them.  I don't know exactly how they cook them, if they roast 'em or what.  But they're actually very good."  

I tried one and I had to admit - they were very good.  They didn't have that Brussels sprouts taste that I don't care for, but more of a smoked or roasted flavor that was actually very pleasing.  I told John, "My wife likes Brussels sprouts and she's always trying to get me to eat them.  If she learned how to cook them the way they do here, I may eat them!"  

John did such a good job on polishing and cleaning up the amplifier that I told him that I owed him at least another lunch AND a dinner at Geneva Ale House.  I'd have no problem going back to Geneva Ale House for another burger, or to try the fish tacos.  Geneva Ale House was everything John told me it would be - very good food, great beer selection, good service, neat setting.  It's only a little over 2 hours to Geneva from my house in the Quad Cities.  I'd like to go back there with Cindy at some time on a nice summer weekend to have lunch again at Geneva Ale House.   

Backpocket Brewing - Coralville, IA

My neighbor, Greg, is a big beer aficionado.  He brews his own beer - and he does a pretty good job of it, too.  We have quaffed many a beer over the past few years hanging out at each others house.  Although our tastes vary a bit, we also have some ideas as to what both of us like.  For over a year, Greg has been raving about a new brewpub over in the Iowa City suburb of Coralville - Backpocket Brewing - telling me he knew that I'd like the place.  We've both been talking about heading over together at some point, but we haven't done it.  However, on a recent Sunday trip to Iowa City, Cindy suggested that we head to Backpocket Brewing to give it a try.  She knew that Greg and I had been talking about going to the place and he talked so adamantly about the beer and the pizza at the brewpub that she wanted to give it a try, as well.  

The background story of Backpocket Brewery is sort of interesting.  Well, to me, at least.  It starts out in the picturesque Northeastern Iowa river community of McGregor.  In 2007, McGregor natives Dave and Marci Strutt decided they wanted to build and develop the finest brewpub in the state of Iowa.  Dave Strutt was working with the Weitz Company - a large Des Moines-based construction company - as Sr. Vice-President/General Counsel.  Along with a Des Moines friend, James Simmons, the Strutts bought the somewhat famous "Diamond Jo" building in McGregor.  Built in 1888 by "Diamond" Jo Reynolds, an entrepreneur who owned steamboats, mines, grain elevators and other properties in a number of states, it housed his offices for his steamboat operation that ran up and down the Upper Mississippi River.  The Strutts and Simmons transformed the old building into a state of the art brewpub complete with a brewing operation that was built in Austria by the Salm company.  At the time, there were only two other breweries in the Western Hemisphere that were using Salm equipment - one in Canada and the other in Brazil.  

It so happened that James Simmons' son, Jake, was looking to get his start as a brewmaster.  Jake Simmons had a degree in microbiology and was going for his PhD at a college in St. Louis.  About three years into his program, he decided that he didn't really need his PhD, so he went to work in the private sector in biotech work.  The money was good, but his first love was homebrewing beer.  Simmons quit his job and worked as an intern for a couple years on the quality control team at Schlafly Brewery in St. Louis. He left there in 2007 and went to work for a brewery out in Maine.  When the Strutts and James Simmons opened the Old Man River brewpub in January of 2008, Jake Simmons was named the brewmaster.  Focusing on German-style beers, Jake Simmons wanted his beers to have a signature taste that wasn't overpowering.  

Jake Simmons still had ties at the Schlafly brewery and that company was looking to outsource some of their beers to help increase Schlafly distribution in the Midwest and Southeast.  In the summer of 2011, Schlafly signed an agreement with Simmons to produce some of their beers.  The only problem was that the Old Man River brewery was running at capacity and couldn't produce any beers for Schlafly.  Simmons knew he had to build a new brewery from scratch. 

Simmons looked at the Iowa City/Coralville area, as for a city with a major college - the University of Iowa - it had a large beer drinking population, yet no active brewpub.  With his father and the Strutts financing the venture, Simmons built a 15,000 brewery with a 25,000 barrel capacity complete with a tap room and a beer garden.  

Backpocket Brewing opened just over a year ago.  To help run the tap room, Simmons hired Bob Wagner, an Iowa native who had been running the Piece Brewpub in Chicago.  The concept for Backpocket - pizza and beer - is similar to what Wagner was doing in Chicago.  

The regular beers at Backpocket Brewery all have names of unique items that people have put in their backpockets over the years.  Their Slingshot is a German dunkel beer that is dark in color, but has a light lager taste.  The Wooden Nickel is a Scottish-peated ale with a German definition.  The Pennywhistle is a wheat-based beer with the spiciness of cloves and cinnamon.  The Jack Knife is a hoppy German-style of beer that is reminiscent of an India Pale Ale.  And the Golden Coin is a lighter German pilsner.  They also make seasonal beers at Backpocket including an Oktoberfest.  All the beers at Backpocket follow recipes based on the German Beer Purity Law that has been in place since the 1500's.    

Backpocket Brewery is located in the Iowa River Landing development at the end of East 9th Street in Coralville, in front of the Marriott hotel.  (see map)  There's a pay parking lot off to the side, but we went around the roundabout and parked on the street on the side of the brewery/tap room.  It was a warm, yet, windy day and the umbrellas for the tables in the beer garden in front of the brewpub were all put away.  Two young ladies didn't mind the wind as they enjoyed their beers in the warm Spring sunshine. 

There weren't too many people in the tap room at Backpocket.  As my wife always says, "Why would you want to be inside drinking beer on such a beautiful day?"  It looked like many people shared her philosophy.

 
We took a seat in one of the booths that were along a low brick wall that separated the dining room area from the bar area.  There are floor-to-ceiling tinted windows that let in a lot of natural light during the day.

The brewery was very visible with the large fermenting barrels in the back area of the tap room.  Backpocket bottles their own beer and has a large bottle capping machine.  A number of their beers are available at bars, restaurants and grocery stores in Eastern Iowa.  

Our server, Alex, came over to great us.  He asked if we'd been to Backpocket before and we told him, no, but we'd heard good things about the place.  Right off the bat, he told us that they were out of their Slingshot Dunkel and the Jack Knife German pale ale.  "We had a pretty good Friday night and Saturday," he explained.  

I ended up ordering a Wooden Nickle while Cindy got an iced tea.  "Iced tea," I asked incredulously.  "I thought you wanted a beer."

She said, "I know.  But they don't have a real pale ale on the beer menu.  Besides, I'm a little tired and if we get a pizza and I have a beer I'll get sleepy."  (Actually, they did have the Schlafly American Pale Ale on hand.  I'm guessing they're brewing it for Schlafly's.) 

The menu at Backpocket is pretty limited - pizza and salads.  They had something about a burger that is grilled on their outdoor patio circular fire pit, but Alex sort of explained, "Uh, yeah, that's not even going on yet.  We're gonna do that sometime, but we're not doing it today."  The pizza is a Neapolitan-style 10" pizza that is baked in a special oven that is heated to 900 degrees (F).  They have five or six signature pizzas including a margherita pizza and something called the "Meatza" - sausage, pepperoni and bacon.  We decided to get a "build-your-own" pizza - sausage and pepperoni.  It's $7 bucks for a plain cheese pizza and 50 cents for each ingredient.  $8 bucks is pretty cheap for a pizza.

Because the oven is so hot, it certainly didn't take long for our pizza to make it to the table.  The hand-tossed pizza had a thick and chewy edge-crust with slight charred marks.  But the inner crust was thin, but not crisp.  

I got to looking at the individual slices of pizza and I thought, "Wait a minute...  Where are the toppings?"  The sausage chunks were pretty small and there wasn't many of them.  And there were only two - or possibly three - slices of pepperoni per slice.   The pizza, itself, tasted very good.  It certainly passed the "Does it taste good with a beer?" test that I use for every pizza.  But we were sort of laughing over the paucity of any type of toppings.  I said to Cindy, "Well, I see how they can get away with pizzas for $8 bucks.  They don't put any toppings on them."  It could have been an excellent pizza had they stepped up and put some more toppings on it.  

We had no problem finishing the pizza and realized that we probably could have gotten two pizzas if we were really hungry.  But a half-pizza each was fine with us for a somewhat late lunch that day.  

Aside from the skimpy toppings on their pizza, I was impressed with the whole experience at Backpocket Brewery.  We had good service from Alex, the pizza did taste good as did the Wooden Nickel beer that I had.  Well, I guess I would have liked to have tried the Slingshot Dunkel, but I can do that on my next visit.  Or I can pick some up at a store or try some at a bar that has it available in the Quad Cities.  Backpocket Brewing is doing well and I think they'll be doing well for a long time.  

Burger Star - Omaha

I'm always a little leery when I pick up a local restaurant guide and see a restaurant that is named "Best of" in a poll of local diners.  To me, it usually means the restaurant has some sort of support organization that has the human resources to "stuff the ballot box".  (Like Pizza Hut for "best pizza", or "best seafood" to Red Lobster.)  So, I was a little intrigued by the "Best burger in Omaha" award that went to a one outlet burger joint - Burger Star - considering there area some excellent burger places in the Omaha area.  On a trip to Omaha recently, I stopped in for lunch.

In doing research on the background of Burger Star, I found that even though it's a one location restaurant, it is under the vast restaurant management umbrella headed by Omahan Greg Cutchall - Cutchall Management Company.  The company owns Sonic, Domino's Pizza, Rock Bottom Brewery and Famous Dave franchises in three states, as well as overseeing the franchise operations of Paradise Bakery Cafe locations in Texas, Utah and Nebraska, as well as Tin Star taco bar locations in the greater Dallas area.  The company also has entered the "breast-taurant" business with Twin Peaks locations in Omaha and Des Moines complete with girls in "Daisy Duke" shorts and tight tops tied under the breasts.  Like similar places such as Show Me's, Hooters, or Tilted Kilt, I'm guessing that you don't go to Twin Peaks because the food is outstanding.  (As an aside, my entry on the Tilted Kilt location in Peoria, IL is one of the most read entries on this blog.  Go figure...)

Cutchall Management Company took over an old Joey's Seafood location just off 72nd St., and just south of Pacific (see map) and opened Burger Star in 2008.  The initial year was a little rough for Burger Star as they initially used a machine to stamp out 1/4 pound burgers that were then grilled.  The public didn't go for the taste of the burgers initially, so Greg Cutchall replaced that burger making process with a 6 ounce, hand-pattied Angus beef 80-20 mix to make the burgers more juicy.  Also, they were getting their buns daily from their sister restaurant, Paradise Cafe.  But it was taxing the staff and infrastructure at Paradise Cafe, so they began to get their buns from Rotella Italian Bakery in Omaha.  Things turned around for the restaurant after those little tweaks.  

I walked into Burger Star around 1:30 on a weekday, just after the lunch hour rush.  The place was about a quarter full of customers finishing up their lunches.  A young lady greeted me as I was looking around at the rock and roll-themed decor and she said, "Is this your first visit to Burger Star?"  I told her that it was and she gave me the skinny on ordering.  She pointed to the menu board on the wall above and behind the counter and you had your choice of either a 6 oz "Burger Star" burger or a 12 oz "Rock Star" burger.  (They also have grilled chicken at Burger Star, and, interestingly enough, they have tacos including grilled fish tacos.)  After you choose the type of burger that you want, you get your choice of nearly 20 free toppings including all the regular stuff you'd get on a burger (ketchup, mustard, onions - grilled, fried or raw - pickles, lettuce, tomato, etc.)  They also have mushrooms and jalapenos available for free.  Some burger places will charge for mushrooms or jalapenos.  For .75 cents each, you can add smoked bacon, a fried egg and cheese to the burger. 

I was just going to get a basic 6 ounce burger and I added Swiss cheese, bacon, mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, raw onions and pickles.  After the young lady took my order, she put the order on a clip suspended on a line above her and slid the ticket over to the kitchen.  She asked me if I wanted any of their hand-cut French fries and I declined.  Burger Star doesn't serve beer, so I just got a bottle of water to go along with my burger.  She gave me a number and said, "Find yourself a seat, anywhere you like and we'll bring it out to you when it's done!"  

She took the order she had written, put it on a clip that was attached to a metal zip line above her head, then literally threw it over to the kitchen.  A cook grabbed the order and began the process of making my burger. 

I took a seat in a booth near the fireplace that had a framed guitar above it which was autographed by the Rolling Stones.  They had a number of rock and roll memorabilia on the walls throughout the place including a number of old concert posters (probably reproductions) and pictures of classic rock bands and musicians.  Playing on a television in the corner and piped through the sound system of the place was a Michael Jackson concert from probably back in the 90's.  To me, Burger Star reminded me of a stripped down Hard Rock Cafe.

After about 15 minutes or so, someone from the kitchen brought my burger out to me.  It was served in a basket on a checkered sheet of wax paper.  The burger was piled high with the toppings and condiments that I ordered with it and a toothpick held the top bun in place.  

The burger patty was sort of a misshapen chunk of meat that was flat grilled and stuck out from the sides of the bun.  I have to say that the burger certainly looked promising.  

But the first bite told me something else.  The burger was severely overcooked.  It was dry and almost tough to chew and subsequently swallow.  I'm guessing whoever was running the grill that day literally pressed all the juice out of the burger during the cooking process.  This was not the taste or juiciness that you'd find in an 80-20 mix of ground beef to fat.

The bun was very good, however, and had the burger not had the life cooked out of it, it would have been a very good compliment to the beef.  But even the soft and chewy Rotella bun couldn't save this burger.  And that's too bad.  

I suspect that the management group that owns Burger Star had a little bit to do with the place getting "Best Burger in Omaha" awards.  I've had some excellent burgers in Omaha over the years - Stella's, Louie M's Burger Lust, Dinker's Bar (click on the links to see my entries on those places) - and the burger I had at Burger Star wasn't close to any of those places.   I know I should give restaurants a second chance, and maybe I will with Burger Star.  But their burgers should be consistently good that whether it's your first visit or your 100th, they're the same.  I just have to say that I was disappointed in my burger at Burger Star.   

(Update - about six weeks after this post was published, the company that runs Burger Star closed this location down.  There must have had enough people like me who were disappointed in the burgers there.)

Smoke Box BBQ Cafe - Kansas City, MO

Years ago while working for a previous company, we had a series of trainings over a period of time at a hotel near the Kansas City International Airport.  For a lunch break during the trainings, my old boss and a couple three colleagues would venture over to a barbecue restaurant that wasn't far away - Smoke Box BBQ Cafe.  I remembered the food to be pretty good.  On a trip down Interstate 29 from Omaha to Kansas City last year, I happened to glance over to my left just past the airport and saw the sign for Smoke Box BBQ on the side of a building in a strip mall.  I made a mental note to make some time to stop in for lunch when I had a chance.  Well, that chance just came available recently when I stopped in for a quick lunch.  

Frank Occhipinto opened the doors to the Smoke Box back in 1994.  He had a second location over in north suburban Liberty, MO for a number of years, but they closed it down a number of years ago.  The original Smoke Box, located in the Executive Hills North office complex in suburban Tiffany Springs, is still going strong.  

Taking the Tiffany Springs Road exit off of I-29, going under the Interstate and then taking a left on Ambassador Dr. then another left into the parking lot of the strip mall, I found myself in front of Smoke Box BBQ once more. (see map)  It was a beautiful day in Kansas City with clear skies and temperatures in the upper 60's.  A number of motorcyclists were out and a handful of them had stopped in for lunch at Smoke Box.  The door to the restaurant was open, allowing for the fresh spring air to come inside.

I have to admit, I don't remember much about the Smoke Box since it had been, quite possibly, 12 years since I'd been into the place.  But the place was still in nice shape for being open about 19 years.  The front counter is where you order your food, then they give you a number and you take a seat in the dining room.  There are a number of tables and booths to choose from in the dining area that seats around 50.   

 
Taking a look at the menu, Smoke Box BBQ has just about every kind of barbecued meat covered.  In additions to ribs, they have smoked brisket, pulled pork, chicken, turkey, sausage, and burnt ends - a Kansas City delicacy that I have yet to warm up to.  Interestingly, Smoke Box also has some Italian entrees including fettuccine alfredo and chicken parmesan, as well as a meatball sandwich and an Italian steak sandwich topped with a homemade marinara sauce and provolone cheese.  I suppose with the name Occhipinto, they probably do some pretty good Italian at Smoke Box.  

As always, I was looking for a sampler to try two or three meats.  The guy behind the counter pointed out their lunch special - your choice of two meats with a couple sides for $7.25.  Ribs were not one of the meats and before I could figure out that I could have ordered a dinner platter for $13.99 that came with ribs and a choice of meat, I found myself order up the lunch special with pulled pork and brisket.  For my two sides, I had a choice between baked beans, cole slaw, cheesy corn, potato salad or French fries.  About the only thing that sounded appealing to me were the baked beans.  I got a double order of those.  I also got a beer and sat myself down at one of the booths along the wall.

Being back in the Smoke Box, it reminded me of a funny story during my last visit to the place.  We were having lunch and one of my colleagues at the time, a bright young guy by the name of Andy, was hitting on the rather cute waitress who was taking care of us that day.  Andy was putting the hammer down trying to impress the girl with his charm.  When she walked back into the kitchen, Andy made some sexist remark of what he'd like to do with the girl if he got his chance.  An older guy seated at the table next to us turned around and said, "Uh, son.  You may want to watch what you wish for.  I'm her daddy."

Sure enough, the parents of the girl Andy was putting the make on were seated next to us.  We all got a big laugh out of it - including her parents.  Andy was pretty contrite after that.  "I apologize, sir," he meekly said.  Then he said, "Sir, I hope you don't have a shot gun out in your car.  And if you do, I sincerely apologize for my behavior."  Maybe you had to be there, but it was a pretty hilarious situation where even the parents took it in stride.  They'd probably heard it before because their daughter was pretty damn good lookin'.  

Not long after I sat down, my barbecue was brought out to me.  The presentation wasn't fancy in the least - the brisket and pulled pork were sort of put together on a banquet-style paper plate with two pockets of baked beans on the side.  Traditional white bread and pickles came with the meal.  It wasn't a lot of meat for $7.25, I thought.  But that was fine - I was going to take a dealer out for dinner that evening and I didn't need a lot of food at lunch.

The pulled pork was fine - it featured thin strings of tender pork that had a nice smoky flavor to the meat.  The brisket was also fine - thin slices of smoked beef that was topped with some of Smoke Box's Kansas City-style barbecue sauce.  

The beans were, well... I don't know.  There was something sort of weird about the beans.  They had somewhat of a petroleum taste to them, at least that's what my taster was telling me.  I didn't know if I cared much for the beans.  Even when I hit them up with some of Smoke Box's barbecue sauce that they had on the table, I couldn't get that lingering taste out of my mouth or my mind.  

Baked beans aside, the barbecue at Smoke Box BBQ Cafe was fine.  Since my last visit to Smoke Box, the Zona Rosa shopping and entertainment district has opened nearby and it features a number of restaurants - including the Smokehouse BBQ - to choose from.  (Click here to see my entry on Smokehouse BBQ.)  The barbecue at Smoke Box has to be good enough to keep them in business all these years, especially with growing competition in the area.  I thought my barbecue was good, not my favorite in Kansas City, but not bad, either.  Smoke Box is one of those small family operations that I like to find and patronize from time to time.  I suspect they'll be able to hold their own against the competition.   

RAM Restaurant and Brewery - Rosemont, IL

On a Sunday night after the recent AXPONA high-end audio show that was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Rosemont, IL, we packed up the gear and by the time all the big stuff was put away, we were tired and hungry.  My colleague, John, and I stopped back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before we decided where we wanted to eat.  At the front desk, one of the ladies gave me a listing of area restaurants.  One of the places was the RAM Restaurant and Brewery.  I can't tell you the last time I'd been to a Ram, but there was one not far from the hotel.  We decided to head over there that evening.

Ram Restaurant and Brewery is a subsidiary of RAM International, a restaurant group that also oversees the operation of CB & Potts brewpubs in Colorado, and stand alone restaurants in Washington state and Idaho.  There are 18 Ram Restaurant and Brewery locations in Washington, Illinois, Idaho, Oregon, and Indiana.  RAM International is a family owned business that started in 1971 when two fraternity brothers from the University of Washington - Cal Chandler and Jeff Iverson, Sr - took over an old Shakey's Pizza Parlor in the Seattle suburb of Lakewood and turned it into the Ram Pub.  Chandler had left his position in the banking industry and Iverson had been working with a family business that did commercial property development.  

Friends and family thought they were crazy for leaving stable jobs and getting into the volatile restaurant business.  But before long, Chandler and Iverson had two more Ram Pubs in the Seattle area.  And when brewpubs became the rage in the 80's, they added brewing equipment to their restaurants and called their beer Big Horn Beer.  

30 years after starting the Ram Pub, Chandler and Iverson passed their interest in RAM International to their sons, Jeff Chandler, Jeff Iverson, Jr. and David Iverson.  Jeff Chandler sold his shares to Jeff Iverson, Jr. in 2006 and went off to do his own restaurant venture.  

The Iverson brothers resisted expansion of the RAM International empire in the mid-00's, especially when money was easy to get from banks for such an expansion.  However, when the banking crisis hit and the economy went into the toilet in 2008, they saw rival restaurants that had expanded during that time pull back or go out of business.  Once the economy came back, they made their move by adding three more locations in the Seattle area.   

The Rosemont location for the Ram Restaurant and Brewery is on Higgins Road, just west of River Road in Rosemont. (see map)  I've eaten at the Schaumburg location near Woodfield Mall and IKEA a number of years ago, and I may have even eaten at the one up in north suburban Wheeling along Milwaukee Ave. at one point a few years ago, too.  But, quite honestly, I can't remember.  I've been past the one in Wheeling enough that I figure that I've had to stop by at some point in time. 

It was well after 8 p.m. when we walked into the Ram and we were greeted by a hostess who asked if we wanted to sit in the bar area or in the dining room.  The bar looked like it could rival any type of sports bar I'd been to.  It featured a large projection screen above and behind the bar with four flat screen panels flanking either side of the screen.  That is my ultimate "man dream" to have a set up exactly like that in my house.  But I don't see that happening anytime soon, as in, forever. 

 
The dining room was more formal and elegant - and more quiet.  After listening to great music on great audio systems all weekend long, John said he'd like to unwind in the dining area.  We were seated at a table that had banquette seating on one side and a chair on the other.  She left off menus for us and our server for the evening, Marilu, came by to take our beer order.  After a quick gander at the beer menu, I decided on getting the 71 pale ale - obviously named after the year the Ram Restaurant and Brewery was founded.  John got the Big Red IPA - an American style India Pale Ale that isn't quite as forward or hoppy as traditional IPA's.  

They were having a promotion called "Burgerama" at Ram when we were there.  Each year, Ram chefs come up with unusual and interesting burgers that they trot out for a month and gauge people's interest in them.  During this Burgerama at Ram, they featured burgers such as the El Zorro Burger - a spicy-seasoned burger patty, grilled and served on a pepper jack Kaiser bun and topped with Wisconsin mozzarella, cilantro, guacamole, pickled onion, chorizo sausage and a chipotle-tarragon drizzle.  The Tumbleweed burger featured a seasoned beef patty, grilled and topped with onion crisps and Anaheim pepper strips, then finished with a spicy chipotle ranch dressing.  And the Rhinelander (pictured right) featured a burger and grilled bratwurst on a pretzel bun with a black jack aioli spread.  Then they added sauteed amber ale marinated onions, sauerkraut, red bell pepper, creamy havarti, and focaccia garlic butter, with horseradish cream.  Man, that sounded like one busy burger!

There were also a number of regular burgers on the menu at Ram including the Bourbon Black Jack - a cracked pepper encrusted beef patty topped with pepper jack cheese and a whiskey mustard with the standard burger veggies.  That sounded interesting, but I was looking more for something like comfort food that evening. 

Ooooo....  Something else caught my eye - blackened fish tacos.  You had your choice of blackened haddock or salmon served in soft flour tortillas and topped with chopped cabbage and a chipotle-tarragon sauce.  I almost pulled the trigger on that.  

But what ultimately made my stomach do jumping jacks was the Total Disorder Porter Meatloaf - Ram's variation of meatloaf made with ground beef, ground veal and ground sausage mixed together with chopped onions and green bell peppers with a dijon sauce.  It's baked, then char-grilled before serving.  It came with with cheddar mashed potatoes, a mushroom/tomato demi-glace sauce and onion straws.  (For my meatloaf that I make at home, I use a mixture of 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground veal, and 1/3 ground pork.)

John was thinking about a burger or a sandwich.  But after I ordered the meatloaf, he looked it up on the menu and said, "God, that sounds great."  He turned to Marilu and said, "I want that, too!"  

She said, "The meatloaf is one of my favorites."  I hear that from time to time from servers who are probably patronizing me into thinking what I ordered was great.  But Marilu seemed pretty passionate about the meatloaf when she was describing it to us.   

We were famished when Marliu brought our meatloaf entrees out to us.  When she sat the plates down in front of us, John and I just started to laugh.  John said, "There is NO WAY that I'll be able to finish all of this!"  

Marilu said, "Well, good luck and enjoy!"  

The meatloaf was buried under a mountain of crispy onion straws.  The meatloaf was sitting on a mound of potatoes that had been squished down because of the sheer size and weight of the slab of meatloaf.  The tomato/mushroom demi-glace had been drizzled on top of the meatloaf before the onion straws were placed on top.  Pushing some of the onion straws away from the meatloaf, I cut in to the thick cut of ground beef, ground veal and ground sausage.  The first taste exploded in my mouth.  Oh, my God!  Was it good!  I know there are ways to make meatloaf more appealing, but this was absolutely fabulous.   

I'm also a sucker for onion straws and the ones at Ram Restaurant and Brewery were pretty damned good.  They had a nice somewhat spicy outer layer to the straws and it was very flavorful and went well with the meatloaf.  

Have you ever looked at something and said, "There's no way I can eat this."  Then you end up eating nearly the whole thing?  That happened with both John and me with the meatloaf at Ram.  John said, "Great choice on the meatloaf, my friend.  This is just excellent."  I just couldn't stop eating it - the next thing I knew I only had a couple bites left of the meatloaf with a few onion straws left over.  I only had a couple bites of the potatoes - I didn't get much of a sense of any cheese in the potatoes - but that's OK.  I was concentrating on the meatloaf.  I was able to get the last two bites down my gullet.  I was so stuffed, but, OH!  It was so good.

Marilu came over to do the obligatory, "Save room for any dessert?"  

I said, "Oh, God!  Are you crazy?  There was enough food to feed an elementary school here!"  She laughed and said she'd bring the check.  She did a fine job taking care of us this particular evening.  

I guess I forgot how good the food was at Ram Restaurant and Brewery.  I've been staying more and more at the Hilton Garden Inn just up the road and I think that I could easily make the Ram as a "go-to" spot for food and watching sports when I'm staying in the area.  I wouldn't say the beer is great - it's good for what it is.  But the wide variety of food they offer at Ram Restaurant and Brewery can appeal to just about everyone.  I do want to try the blackened fish tacos at some point, and they did have a couple interesting sandwiches and burgers on the menu, too.  While I do abhor chain restaurants, Ram is small enough that they don't compromise their culinary standards, but big enough to be a known entity for good food and good beer. 

Palmer's Deli - West Des Moines, IA

Cindy and I were driving through the Des Moines area in the middle part of the day not long ago when I suggested we stop somewhere for a quick lunch.  She asked me what I had in mind and I immediately said, "I was thinking of stopping out at Palmer's Deli in West Des Moines."  She told me that I read her mind.  We hopped off Interstate 80/35 at the University Ave. exit and made our way to Palmer's.

Palmer's is one my favorite deli's in the Midwest and I had written about it about seven years ago in a small post on Road Tips before the blog found its compass and voice.  This time, I can do a much better job than saying, "It's a good deli.  Go eat there."  

Palmer's Deli began in 1989 when Gayle and Carol Palmer added sandwiches and salads to the menu of their small ice cream parlor in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale.  The Palmer's immediately garnered a following for their great sandwiches, fresh ingredients and made-from-scratch desserts.  They found they had to double the size of their location in Urbandale to handle the business.  

The Palmer's son, Joe, and his wife, Margaret, saw a need for a Palmer's location in West Des Moines.  The younger Palmer opened that location in 1995 and they have had to expand that location three times since, more than doubling the original floor space.  The Palmer's opened a third location in downtown Des Moines in the sky walk at Kaleidoscope Mall in 2002, a fourth location opened on Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines in 2004, and a fifth location opened six years ago in the northern Des Moines suburb of Ankeny.     

It was around 12:30 when we pulled into the Palmer's Deli location just north of the corner of Westown Parkway and 50th Street in West Des Moines.  (see map)  Predictably, the parking lot was full and we had to maneuver around to find a spot on the far end of the strip mall.  Walking in, there was a line to order at the front counter.  I was looking to get a sandwich while Cindy decided she wanted to get a salad.

I stood in line for a sandwich, having time to look over the menu on a chalkboard behind the counter.  I was sort of hungry for a good ol' pastrami and Swiss on pumpernickel rye.  But they had a board with the day's specials just as you walked in and they were featuring an Italian-style sandwich that had capicola, salami, pepperoni, ham and provolone cheese with lettuce and tomatoes on a hoagie bun.  That got my attention for a moment.  But I ended up getting the pastrami and Swiss on rye.  

 
Cindy stood in a line to my right to order up a salad.  My line had moved pretty quickly - they had four people taking orders and making sandwiches - and she was still waiting to order her salad.  She finally got to the head of the line and she ordered the Greek salad - romaine lettuce mixed with chopped kalamata olives, cucumbers and tomatoes, then topped with Palmer's housemade Greek dressing.  

While Cindy waited for her salad to be made, I got in line for some pasta salad.  Below left is the line for not only the pasta and potato salads, but for the cash register, as well.  For as busy as Palmer's was during the lunch rush, the wait was far from excruciating.  

 
Above right is a picture of the deli case at Palmer's that features their made-fresh-daily pasta salads, potato salads, cabbage salads, and meat salads such as chicken, ham, tuna and turkey salads.  Various sizes of containers are available and Palmer's does a pretty brisk "to-go" business from their deli case.

I ended up ordering a small container - about 4 ounces - of the tri-color cheese tortellini pasta salad.  Cindy met up with me at that point with her salad and we waited in line to pay at the register.  I got a bottle of water and Cindy got some tea.  As I was getting ready to pay, Cindy spied a chocolate-frosted brownie bar on the counter next to the register.  She couldn't help herself and had to get one.  I certainly didn't protest.

The one thing about Palmer's Deli is that it can get a little pricey when you load up on sides and desserts.  Our order came to $22 bucks - that's a little too much if you eat there on a regular basis.  But since we only get to Palmer's once a year - at most - I didn't have any problem paying the bill.   

We found a seat in the dining area that had been packed about 15 minutes prior.  Getting to the end of the lunch rush, parked ourselves at a four-seat table and were able to spread out a bit for our lunch.  

My pastrami on rye was served cold - I could have gotten the meat steamed, but I decided not to on this trip.  A thick slice of Swiss cheese was on top of a heaping amount of fresh and flavorful pastrami.  You don't get cheated with the amount of meat they put on a sandwich at Palmer's.  I got some yellow mustard to go on the sandwich and a dill pickle spear was included on the side.  

 
The bread at Palmer's Deli is made fresh daily by their Breadworks operation - their locally-based bakery that turns out fresh bread, desserts and salads on a daily basis for the five Palmer's locations.  I will have to say, however, that I thought my pumpernickel rye bread was a little dried out from what I tasted.  Still, it was far from deal breaker for another good sandwich at Palmer's.

Cindy's Greek salad was the smaller of the two sizes available at Palmer's.  And it was a lot of romaine lettuce doused with a liberal amount of the housemade Greek dressing.  A potato bun came on the side with her salad.  She said the romaine lettuce was very fresh and the salad had a great flavor.  We traded bites - she liked my pastrami sandwich, but was happy she got the salad.  And I enjoyed the taste of the dressing and especially the kalamata olives that were chopped up in her lettuce.  

But the highlight of the meal was the chocolate-frosted brownie that we split.  Oh, my God!  The chocolate frosting was so thick and sweet that it literally stuck to the roof of our mouths.   Cindy said it was too rich for her and she wouldn't have been able to eat the whole thing or she would have gone into a sugar coma.  It was a decadent ending to our lunch.  

The one thing I've found about Palmer's Deli over the years of going to either their Urbandale or West Des Moines locations is their consistency in quality and taste.  I've never been disappointed with any of the sandwiches I've gotten - even though I did have a small quibble with the dryness of their pumpernickel rye on this visit.  But if that's the only thing I have to complain about after eating at Palmer's for over 20 years, they're doing something pretty good.  As I said, Palmer's is one of my favorite deli's in the Midwest and they do a fine job.

North Branch Pizza and Burger Company - Glenview, IL

Staying in the northwest suburbs of Chicago on a regular basis, I'm always on the look out for new restaurants to try in the area.  I was talking to a couple guys at Abt Electronics about a new restaurant that popped up over the past year - North Branch Pizza and Burger Company.  They said the food was pretty good.  I decided that before I wrote about the place, I had to go there twice - once for a pizza and once for a burger. 

North Branch Pizza and Burger Company opened in the early summer of 2012 in a building that housed the former Gulliver's Pizza.  I had a Gulliver's Pizza a couple times and was wanting to do an entry on the place.  But when I went back in late 2011, it had shut down.  Restaurateur Nick Philippas - who along with his wife, Connie, ran Moon Wok in Glenview - took over the location and spent a lot of money updating both the dining and bar areas, changing the floor plan to make it more open in the place.  He hired Dan Mataragas as the general manager of the new restaurant and Raul Gutierrez was brought on to be the head chef.  Mataragas comes from a restaurant background - his family owns the Old Bridge Cafe in Schaumburg; and Gutierrez was associated with the Lettuce Entertain You umbrella of restaurants in the Chicago area.   

The restaurant gets its name from the nearby west fork of the north branch of the Chicago river.  North Branch Pizza and Burger Company has no connection to a former restaurant in the area - North Branch.  And even though they have "pizza" and "burger" in their name, their menu has much, much more to offer.  Raul Gutierrez stresses freshness in his cooking, using only fresh and no frozen in his foods.  Every meal ordered at North Branch Pizza and Burger is made fresh to order.  

In addition to pizza and burgers, the restaurant also has pasta and seafood entrees, as well as a skirt steak entree and chicken dishes including housemade Louisiana buttermilk chicken that has a little bit of bite to the taste.  They also feature a number of appetizers and a number of "two-handed" sandwiches including a pastrami sandwich, a French dip sandwich, and something called "the Snooki" that features housemade meatballs topped with a housemade marinara sauce and three types of cheese on a toasted French bread bun.

It was at night when I first visited North Branch Pizza and Burger just east of the corner of N. Milwaukee and W. Lake (Euclid) in Glenview, right next to the Courtyard Inn (see map).  Since the last time I'd been in - which was nearly two years previous - I could tell that they really did open up the place.  A couple walls had been knocked down to open up the dining room, and they changed the bar area around a little bit.  I decided that I wanted to watch some basketball in the bar and I the hostess if I could get food in the bar.  "Sure," she exclaimed as she led me past a motorcycle parked near the entry way and into the bar.  She said, "Pick out any seat that you like."  I found a high table and plopped down there.  

It had been awhile since I had pizza, so I was kind of zeroing in on that.  North Branch features both deep dish and thin crust pizzas with about two dozen different types of fresh toppings to choose from.  My server for the evening - Sandra - came over and asked if I wanted anything to drink while I looked through the menu.  I saw that they had Burning River Pale Ale from the Great Lakes Brewing Company out of Cleveland on tap.  I ordered a glass of that and when she brought it to me, she said, "That's a unique name for a beer, Burning River."  I asked her if she knew the origin behind the name and she said she did not.  I proceeded to tell her of the multiple fires over the years that they had on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland eminating from industrial pollution.  The last fire, in the late 60's, triggered a social consciousness across the United States to clean up waterways across the nation and to spur environmental acts such as the "Clean Water Act" and the creation of the "Environmental Protection Agency".  Sandra said, "Whoa!  I didn't know anything about any of that!  Now I have something to tell people when they order a Burning River!"   

I was ready to order up a pizza and I got a small, thin crust with my reference sausage, mushroom and pepperoni. She said it would be out in a jiffy.  About 20 minutes later she brought out the pizza.  It was cut into party slices and being pretty efficient, she scooped a couple pieces of the pizza off on to my plate before I got a chance to take a picture of the full pizza.  

The crust was definitely thin, but was somewhat fluffy, as well.  It had a nice, airy texture to the bite.  The pizza was topped with copious amounts of large sausage chunks, pepperoni slices and sliced fresh mushrooms.  It had an ample amount of mozzarella and the sauce was, well, it was pretty sweet.  In fact, almost too sweet for my taste.  The overall taste of the pizza wasn't my favorite, but it was far from a bad pizza.  I just wish the sauce wasn't so damn sweet.  I know it's personal preference, but I like a sauce that is more tangy than sweet.  It almost overpowered the taste of the other toppings.  

I stopped back into North Branch one afternoon a few weeks later to try one of their burgers.  They feature a dozen different types of burgers on the menu including some signature burgers as the Hilly Billy that was topped with pulled pork and barbecue sauce; the Double Napkin and Bib burger that had a blend of four cheeses, roasted jalapenos, pico de gallo and crushed tortilla chips; and the namesake North Branch burger that had rosemary aoili, gruyere cheese, and caramelized onions.  I was leaning toward getting the Farmer Brown - a burger topped with a fried egg, smoked bacon, crispy onion straws and cheddar cheese.  Then I saw under the burger menu that I could take a "plain 'ol burger', and add my choice of cheese and toppings.  I ordered up a pepper jack, mushroom and bacon burger.  I had my choice of a regular bun or a pretzel bun.  I got the pretzel bun.  Fries came with the burger on the side.  

 

My burger came out about 15 to 20 minutes after I ordered and it was this huge, thick 1/2 pound patty under a pretzel bun crown topped with a fried pickle slice.  That was a nice touch, I thought.  The bun had been grill toasted and the burger was swimming in melted pepper jack cheese.  The same mushrooms they use on their pizzas were on the burger, and the bacon slices on the burger crisp and flavorful.  The only problem is that nothing else came on the burger.  I guess I didn't ask for onions, ketchup, pickles or mustard.  Some people think ketchup is overrated on burgers, but I like the sweet taste from time to time.  I had a little container of ketchup that came with the fries and I scooped some out onto the bun.  

The burger was juicy, yet lean.  The overall taste of the burger was very good with the pretzel bun being a big part of the taste.  It was airy and a little chewy, but had a great taste.  I still maintain that the key to a good burger is the bun.  The bun on my North Branch burger was very, very good.

I do want to mention that the fries were, by far, the weakest part of the meal.  They were pretty nondescript and somewhat cold when served.  But that's all right - the burger was huge and there was going to be no way I would have been able to make any type of a sizable dent in the fries.  

So, my experiences on both of my visits to North Branch Pizza and Burger Company were positive.  Service was good and the pizza was good.  As I say, I wish the sauce wouldn't have been so sweet or it would have been an outstanding pizza.  The burger was also very good, but I need to order condiments with my burger next time.  For a family friendly experience, or a place to go with some buddies to grab a pizza and some beers to watch the game, North Branch Pizza and Burger Company is a good choice in the Glenview/Northbrook area.