Road Tips

Exile Brewing Company - Des Moines

A new brewpub opened in Des Moines just over a year ago - Exile Brewing Company.  A couple friends had been telling me about the place and they seemed to be pretty excited about it.  I wondered if they had food and I was told that they did.  On a recent trip to Des Moines, I decided to stop in and have dinner and a couple beers at Exile Brewing Company.  

Bob Tursi is a somewhat famous name in Des Moines restaurant circles.  For 30 years he and his wife, Amy, have owned the venerable Tursi's Latin King Italian Restaurant on Des Moines' east side.  (Now THAT'S a place I haven't been to in a LONG time.)  Tursi bought the restaurant from longtime owners Jim and Rose Pigneri when he was 21.  Tursi had worked in restaurants since he was 16 and the business was in his blood.  

Tursi's son, R.J., had worked in his parents restaurant since an early age.  After graduating from Notre Dame, the younger Tursi spent time at a family winery in Calabria, Italy learning about wine.  Becoming a certified sommelier, R.J. Tursi came back to Des Moines to work in at the Latin King where he revamped their wine selection.  

Bob and R.J. Tursi had discussed opening a new restaurant somewhere in Des Moines, but they decided that it couldn't be another Latin King or a wine bar.  Bob Tursi then came up with the idea of opening a craft brewery and R.J. Tursi was intrigued.  Making wine is somewhat similar to brewing beer and the younger Tursi was soon learning the beer making process with Kansas City brewer James Hudec who is the head brewer for the Gordon Biersch locations in the greater Kansas City area.  Hudec was Tursi's lead consultant on acquiring brewing equipment and looking for a head brewer for the new business.  R.J. Tursi selected John Woodward, a chemistry major at Iowa State University who got his masters in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, as his head brewer.  

The two found a building on Walnut Street on the west side of downtown Des Moines that used to house the F.W. Fitch soap company that had opened in 1929.  The area around the building had been cleaned up and Western Gateway Park - a mixed use area of green space and commercial buildings - was just a block north.  The Tursi's opened Exile Brewing Company in August of 2012.  

The Tursi's came up with the Exile Brewing Company name partly due to their Italian heritage.  Bob Tursi's father, Joe, immigrated from the family's home in Terrevechia, Italy in the 1920's.  They came upon Exile Brewing because Joe Tursi went through Ellis Island, right next to the Statue of Liberty - known as "The Mother of Exiles".   A replica of the Statue of Liberty's crown adorns the southeast corner of the building.  (Photo courtesy Jack of All Brews.)

I pulled into the parking lot in the 1500 block of W. Walnut Ave. around 7:30 p.m.  (see map)  They have an outdoor dining area with a small bar area.  Inside, Exile Brewing Company has a large dining area known as their "beer hall".  It was a nice evening and I decided to take a seat in the outside bar area.   

(None of the pictures I took of the dimly lit beer hall came out.  But it was unlike a true German beer hall with it's sleek and contemporary industrial design with large windows that overlook the brewery area.) 

I took a seat at a table in the outdoor bar and a waiter by the name of Sam came over to drop off a menu.  He asked me if I wanted a beer.  I looked through the list of what they had to offer and their main beers are all German-style brews named after women.  For example, the Hannah is a Bavarian-style wheat beer, the Ruthie is a Munich-style golden lager, the Gigi is a Munich-style dunkel, and Betty is a honey-blonde lager.  R.J. Tursi said that he wanted all of his beers to have a German signature in taste so they'd be easy to drink.  It turned out that they had a seasonal Czech-style pilsner that evening - the Nadia.  I ordered one of those from Sam.

The menu at Exile Brewing Company has a number of main entrees ranging from lasagna, salmon pasta, a 14 oz. ribeye steak, fish and chips, and a German food plate consisting of veal schnitzel and sausage links served with red cabbage.  I got to looking at some of their sandwiches they had on the menu and they had four different types of burgers including the "Uncle Buck" that consisted of a hand-pattied burger topped with bacon, pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions and roasted red peppers.  I almost got that.  But the thing that jumped out to me the most was the Italian Stallion - salami, ham, capicola, provolone, arugula, tomato, onion, roasted red pepper aioli, with Italian dressing on artisan garlic focaccia bread from the South Union bakery.  You can order it either cold or warmed up.  When Sam came back to take my order, I signed up for the Italian Stallion - warmed up.  I got a side with the sandwich and Sam suggested the German potato salad - warmed potato cubes served in a vinegar sauce.  I took his advice and went with that.  

I really enjoyed my pilsner at Exile Brewing Company.  I like the sharpness of a good pilsner and the one they brewed at Exile was very good.  It was light and left a nice aftertaste.  When Sam brought out my sandwich, I was ready for another beer.

The sandwich was piled high with ingredients on a full piece of focaccia cut in half.  It was warm, but not hot.  There were a lot of taste sensations on the sandwich, some overpowering, some not so much.  The capicola was spicy and very tasty, but I couldn't taste the roasted red pepper aioli so much.  The focaccia bread was spongy and held together very well with all that was on it.  It was a good sandwich and just enough for dinner.

I will say the German potato salad that Sam recommended was a little "blah".  It didn't jump out at me liked I hoped, but it was all right for what it was.  Besides, I wasn't focusing on the potato salad as much as I was on the sandwich.  

Des Moines is starting to turn into a little "beer mecca" with the number of brew pubs and craft beer bars the city has to offer.  I think there are now four brew pubs in the downtown Des Moines area and each of them has their own signature for beer and food.  The Exile Brewing Company is a welcome addition to the beer landscape of Des Moines and with their good beer and good food - and Sam's good service work - the Tursi family has done it right.  Again. 

D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub - Park Ridge, IL

Venturing out from my hotel near O'Hare International Airport in Chicago one evening, I was on the hunt for someplace new to eat.  One place that I've seen and always wondered about is a pizza place on Higgins Road where the Cumberland North off ramp from the Kennedy Freeway ends up - D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub.  I decided to give that place a try that night.

It turned out that D'Agostino's is a small chain of five pizzerias in and around the greater Chicagoland area.  It began in 1968 when Joe D'Agostino and his wife, Jan, opened their first pizzeria in the Wrigleyville neighborhood just down the street from Wrigley Field.  It suddenly became a hoppin' place before and after Chicago Cubs games with many of those fans coming back to "Dag's" during the off-season.

Along with his son's, Jeff and Scott, Joe D'Agostino thought it would be good if they expanded their reach with new locations.  A second D'Agostino's was open in Chicago's River West neighborhood on N. Ogden, while a third location soon came in Glenview, IL near the Glen Town Center shopping and entertainment district.  Scott ran the River West location and Joe ran the Glenview D'Agostino's.  In 2010, D'Agostino's opened their Park Ridge location; and in 2012, the family opened their fifth pizza place in far north suburban Wheeling in a building along Milwaukee Ave. that had previously housed one of the Hackney's locations in the Chicago area.

It was after 8 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at D'Agostino's Park Ridge location.  (see map) The restaurant was about half-full with a few people sitting out on an enclosed patio and others in the main dining room.  I opted for a booth in the well-lit main dining room that featured a small gauge train set that orbited on a suspended shelf along the perimeter of the dining room.  

My server for the evening, Tyler, came over to see if I wanted anything to drink while I looked through the menu.  I ordered up a Bud Light and took a look at what they had to offer.  Not long after Tyler walked away to get my beer, I looked up and saw that they had Lagunitas India Pale Ale on tap.  It was too late - he was bringing back the Bud Light in a tall frosty glass.  

D'Agostino's is supposedly famous for their thin crust pizza, but they also offered Chicago-style deep dish and stuffed pizzas, as well.  In addition to their pizza selections, D'Agostino's also features pasta dishes, sandwiches and burgers, appetizers and salads, and barbecued ribs, as well as broasted or grilled chicken.

I was up for a thin crust pizza, so I ordered my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. Tyler said he'd get it right out.  And it didn't take long - about 15 minutes after I ordered he brought my personal (10") pizza to the table. And this time, I ordered up the Lagunitas IPA to go along with it.  

The pizza had the thin crust that is firm, but not too crispy - the kind I like.  It featured chunks of Italian sausage, lots of pepperoni slices and a fair amount of sliced fresh mushrooms.  After letting it cool down a bit - and Tyler bringing me my Lagunitas IPA - I took my first bite of a D'Agostino's pizza.  

And, you know, it was good.  It probably wasn't the most outstanding thin crust pizza I've had - definitely not in the Chicago area - but the sausage had a little bite to the taste, the pepperoni was salty and also had a good spiciness, and the mushrooms had a very good fresh taste and good consistency.  It was well better than average and I thought they acquitted themselves very well.  

My first experience at a D'Agostino's won't be my last, especially if I get a hankering for pizza and don't want to venture too far from my hotel near O'Hare.  The place was clean, Tyler did a good job of taking care of me, and the pizza was a B+ pizza.  I can easily see why D'Agostino's has been around for 45 years.  They make a fine pizza.   

Chava's - St. Louis

During our trip down to St. Louis earlier this summer with our friends Scott and Marcia to see the Cardinals play baseball, they raved about the food they had at a Mexican restaurant in the Soulard neighborhood - Chava's.  After a Cardinals game on a Saturday night, we were all up in the air about a place to eat.  I finally whipped the car around and pointed us back toward Soulard.  If Scott and Marcia were raving about the food at Chava's, I wanted to try it. 

Mike and Min's was a destination bar in the Soulard neighborhood since just after Prohibition was repealed in the 1930's.  It was, quite possibly, THE name bar in a neighborhood of bars and eateries over the years. And it was a real dive bar.  Even though Mike and Min's ownership changed hands numerous times over the years, it endured with nights of drunkenness, rowdy behavior and loud music.  I liked Mike and Min's - especially their bloody mary's - but I will admit that the place could get a little out of hand at times.  

When the ownership of Mike and Min's shut down the place for the last time about seven years ago, it opened the door for Chris Ybarra to leave his job as manager of the popular Chuy Arzola's Tex-Mex restaurant in St. Louis' Dogtown neighborhood (south of 40 Highway/Interstate 64 from Forest Park and north of Manchester Ave.) after 14 years.   Ybarra refurbished the old space and opened the doors to Chava's toward the end of February in 2006.  He named the place "Chava's" after his grandfather, Salvatore.  "Chava" is the nick-name for men named Salvatore in Mexico.

It was after 10 p.m. when we pulled into Soulard.  Since it was a Saturday night, we knew we'd be in for a little bit of a search for parking on the street.  However, there's a parking lot across from Chava's at 10th and Geyer (see map) and there was one spot open.  We were lucky.

Chava's closes promptly at 10:30 on Saturday nights and we were warned when we sat down that it was last call on drinks and that we had to make our minds up quickly on what we wanted to eat.  I realize after a busy night the kitchen and bar staff want to shut down quickly and I'm sure they weren't happy when a party of four came in the door of the ornate restaurant at 10:15.   

There were still a smattering of people in the place.  Some people were seated at the bar.  I vaguely remember the bar at Mike and Min's was on the opposite side of the one at Chava's.  The tin ceiling and the exposed brick walls made it look more like an old-time saloon than a Mexican restaurant.

 
There's an upper seating area (above right) that had a group of loud women, no doubt enjoying the margaritas Chava's makes with fresh-squeezed fruit juices such as pineapple, oranges, limes and mango.  It's hard for me to describe the decor of the upper level other than they made it look like a basement cantina.   

Our seating area on the main level featured a number of rustic furnishings and Mexican artwork.  With the tin roof and the hard wood floors, even with a small group of people in the place, we knew it could get loud in the small confines of the dining areas.  

The menu at Chava's is short, concise and really to the point when it comes to Mexican food.  Sure, they have the usual Mexican fare - tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, etc. - but they also had stuffed peppers, tamales and flash fried tacos.  For the vegetarians who want to venture into Chava's, they feature three vegetarian dishes to choose from.  

Munching on the chips and the salsa - which had a subtle kick to it - we knew we were up against the clock when it came to choosing what we wanted to eat.  I thought about getting the stuffed peppers with ground beef, but then I saw they had pork chimichangas topped with the green salsa verde, guacamole and sour cream.  I signed up for that.  Scott got the pork enchiladas - you can get beef or chicken enchiladas with the corn tortilla wrap, but the shredded pork enchiladas come with flour tortillas.  

Cindy ordered the "El Mireko" - two flash fried chicken burritos topped with chile con queso and guacamole.  Marcia decided to go the light route since it was so late in the evening and she ordered the chicken tortilla soup combo with a fish taco. 

Since we were the last people to order food, it didn't take long for our orders to make it to the table.  It was around 10:35 when the food arrived - five minutes after closing time.  When the server brought our food out to the table, I asked if I could get another beer.  He said, "Sorry, sir.  The bar is closed."  

I was sort of incredulous as people were still seated at the bar, until Cindy said, "Didn't you hear him?  He said it was last call when we sat down."  Well, yeah, I heard him, but I didn't think it was "last call, last call".  That's OK, I had enough beer in me for the day.

My chimichanga wasn't big, but it was fat - full of seasoned chunks of pork in a green salsa verde.  It was actually very good.  The salsa verde wasn't spicy and it helped with define the taste of the pork in the chimichanga.  But what I was most impressed about my meal was the refried beans.  Most of the time, you'll get mushy refried beans warmed up and sprinkled with shredded cheese on the top.  The refried beans at Chava's appear to be made in house.  I mean, you could really see the beans and they had some body to them as you ate them.  I'll have to say they may have been the best refried beans I've ever had at a Mexican restaurant.  I usually only take one or two bites of refried beans at other places, but I finished the whole batch that was on my plate.  

 

Cindy's El Mireko chicken burritos (above right) also had a side of the refried beans with rice.  A little spicy chile con queso was ladled onto the top of the burritos, which by being flash fried gave the tortillas the chicken was wrapped in a flaky and light texture.  She said her burritos were very good.  

Scott's enchiladas (below left) had a load of melted cheese on top.  The three flour tortillas were filled with seasoned shredded pork that he declared as "delicious".  The shredded pork he had did look good and tender.  While I was happy with my pork chimichanga, I made a mental note to look hard at the shredded pork enchilada if were to come back to Chava's at some point.  

 
And Marcia's chicken tortilla soup and fish taco looked like a lot of food.  She said, "Oh, boy.  I don't know if I can finish this."  The soup had chunks of chicken and homemade tortilla chips in a tomato base.  The fish taco was deep fried - something that I don't care for all that much.  But Marcia informed me that it was lightly breaded and didn't taste like fish stick tacos that I've had at other places.  "They've obviously breaded this fish here, themselves," she explained.  "The breading is light and the fish doesn't taste like it had been breaded and then frozen."  She thought I'd like it, but I'm still partial to grilled fish for tacos.  

For my first visit to Chava's, I was thoroughly happy with my meal.  I understand that "last call" means "last call" at the place, but the waiter was a good guy about it.  For making him stay a little later, I gave him a couple extra bucks on the tip than I normally would.  All of us enjoyed our food, and Scott and Marcia were certainly spot-on when they told us earlier in the day that Chava's food was very good.  Although I've yet to try the newly reopened and relocated Arcelia's a couple blocks away from Chava's in Soulard, I think I may have just found my new favorite Mexican restaurant in St. Louis.    

Behind the Scenes at River Roots Live - 2013

 The 9th annual River Roots Live music and rib festival was recently held in Le Claire Park in downtown Davenport.  I've worked as stage manager and announcer for 8 of the 9 River Roots Live and all of the Rib Festivals from  1999 to 2006.  After a River Roots Live financial fiasco in 2006 - the one I didn't work - the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce stepped in to bail out the event.  Seeing that River Roots Live could benefit from having rib vendors on hand, the Chamber took over the festival to combine it with the highly popular Rib Festival.   They asked me if I'd stay on for the combined event and even though I have said I'll never do them again directly after the event is over in late August, I always say, "Yes!" when they ask me in March. 

Once again this year, Jason Gilliland - the Director of Events for the Downtown Davenport Partnership, a division of the QC Chamber of Commerce  - oversaw the event.  Also working with me behind the stage this year was Tom Swanson - the director of the River Music Experience - and his wife, Katie.  Katie's parents, Mike and Michelle Monfort, provided catering for the bands and backstage crew.  Kate Benson from the River Music Experience helped out again this year with her stellar work of advancing the bands and being the contact person.  Her boyfriend, Brett Dale, was one of our van runners, as was Brett's step-dad, Bill.  Jay Allison came back to work as a runner this year, and Tim (Red) Roberts lent an experienced hand behind the stage again this year.  And, of course, I have to mention the stellar job the crew from Rexroat Sound did once again this year.  Scott Rexroat, Eric Kranz, Tony McKinney, Nathan Judd, Tom Salata, Patrick Rifley, Donald Bird, Jr. and others with help from Joe Murphy of Murphy Sound from Iowa City did a great job in setting up the two stages, the massive sound system, the ever growing number of lights on the stages, and made sure that every band sounded good when they played.  And I can't help but thank my wife, Cindy, who helped out on both Friday and Saturday nights.  

The headliners at this year's event were Shooter Jennings (the son of legendary country singer Waylon Jennings, pictured right) and the new incarnation of The BoDeans on Friday night, with the Wallflowers (led by Jakob Dylan, the son of the also legendary Bob Dylan) and the up-and-coming hot band from Los Angeles - Vintage Trouble - headlining on Saturday night.  We also had a number of local and regional acts on the River Roots Live stages including Busted Chandeliers, Chicago Farmer, Magic Box, Old Shoe, and Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts.  Nielsen is the son of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen.  A couple of other artists that came in from further than the Midwest were David Mayfield and his band, Parade, and The Gallery - a band that started out in Massachusetts before heading to Florida for a few years before ending up out in Los Angeles.  Finishing out the festival on Saturday night was upcoming Detroit R&B singer Jessica Hernandez.  

But even more important than the music were the barbecue vendors that came to River Roots Live again this year.  They included Uncle Bub's from the Chicago suburb of Westmont (click here to read about my visit to Uncle Bub's); Porky Chicks from Farmington in the Northwest part of Arkansas; Big Boned Barbeque from Charleston, SC; Texas Thunder from Phillips, TX; Chicago BBQ from, well, of course, Chicago; and two local rib vendors - Steve's Meat Market from Montpelier, IA; and a place I'd never heard of before, John's Rib House.  

(Picture left courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com. As always, click on the photo to make it larger.) 

I was able to sneak away from my duties for a bit on Friday afternoon to enjoy some brisket from Big Boned and Uncle Bub's with Jason Fechner of WQAD-TV, and Greg Hipskind, owner of the QC Rock Academy and the drummer for Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls.  The guys from Big Boned recognized me from the past and they piled a boat load of tender beef brisket in a container for me.  The owner insisted that he give me the brisket for free, but I had my eight bucks already out.  When he wouldn't take my money, he said, "Well, give it to my guys, then."  I threw the $8 bucks into the tip jar and I got a cheer from the guys working in the back.  Big Boned had three different sauces - a sweet sauce, a mild sauce that had a smoky taste, and their hot sauce.  Actually, a combination of the sweet and the hot sauce was a great combination.  The brisket was tender and flavorful.  Along with trying some of Uncle Bub's brisket, which was almost like chunky beef in comparison to the shaved beef from Big Boned, that was the only barbecue I had all weekend.  It's one of the pitfalls of working the stage area for River Roots Live.    

The weather going up to and including River Roots Live weekend was just gorgeous.  Even though we needed the rain, the skies were clear and the temperatures were in the low 80's making it one of the most weather perfect weekends we've ever had for all the River Roots Live.  

Friday - 

Starting off the Friday evening portion of River Roots Live was an all-female group from the Quad Cities by the name of Busted Chandeliers.  Mo Carter is one of the members of the band and she is the wife of the Executive Director of the Downtown Davenport Association, Kyle Carter.  Believe me, Busted Chandeliers didn't get the gig because of Mo Carter being Kyle's wife.  They've been playing together for about two years now and have developed a good following in the Quad Cities area.  Their 30 minute set was a great showcase for them.  

The next band on the schedule was a Los Angeles-based band, The Gallery (pictured right). The band started out in Massachusetts a few years ago before settling in Florida.  After working around the Southeastern part of the U.S. for about three years, the band relocated to L.A. about 18 months ago.  They played songs from their album, Restless, that was released earlier this year.  The guys were extremely impressed with the festival and they put on a great show.  

Following The Gallery, the David Mayfield Parade took the bandshell stage.  The band is the vehicle for singer-guitarist David Mayfield who looked like a bookworm nerd when I first met him when they arrived.  He had thick black horn-rimmed glasses that he took off when he went on stage to put on his high energy show.  Being the stage manager, I don't get to see many of the acts, but I did catch some of David Mayfield's act and the guy threw himself into the show, literally.  He was on his back playing guitar on the stage floor and the crowd loved it. 

(Pictured left - the David Mayfield Parade on the bandshell stage at River Roots Live.  Picture courtesy Brian Barkley at Barkley Photo.com) 

A brewing crisis with the BoDeans curtailed any further viewing of David Mayfield's Parade.  I was walking back into the backstage area when Jason Gilliland and Kate Benson were talking with each other and I could tell something was wrong.  About 20 minutes before, I had heard from my wife - of all people - that she heard the BoDeans leader Kurt Neumann throwing a hissy fit because the BoDeans were going to be playing on the north stage to the side of the bandshell.  Jason called me over and confirmed that Kurt Neumann was refusing to play on the smaller (not by much) of the two stages.  He said, "They said they want to play on the bandshell stage or not play at all."  

(I had a minor problem with Jason Boots, the road manager for the BoDeans, earlier in the day when the crew showed up to set up the bands equipment.  He said that they were prepared to do a 90 minute show.  We had them for a 75 minute show on our schedule.  He insisted that it was supposed to be a 90 minute show.  I pulled out the contract and saw that it called for a 75 minute show plus an encore.  I said, "Oh, an encore.  So that would be, what, about 80 to 85 minutes total, then?"  

Jason said, "Well, the encore would be about 15 minutes."

I came back and said, "Look, I've seen enough BoDeans shows in my life to know that they'll play 'Closer to Free' for the encore and get off the stage.  And that song doesn't take 15 minutes."  

He kind of sheepishly looked at me and said, "Yeah, you're probably right."  And that was that.  Actually, they didn't play Closer to Free for the encore, but it was only a one song encore.)   

Jason decided to bring Kyle Carter into the discussion about moving and we were soon joined by Jason Boots.  Jason was a very nice guy and it was only the third gig that he worked with the BoDeans.  He was clearly caught in the middle of a negotiation between a petulant band leader and a group of somewhat seasoned festival organizers.  Jason Boots basically said, "He won't play unless you move all their stuff to the other stage."   He said that Kurt Neumann felt the BoDeans deserved to be on the bandshell stage because of their co-headlining status.  Plus the bandshell stage had the seats in front of it.  I said, "Oh, those seats don't even come into play this time of night.  In fact, they're kind of a pain in the ass.  People don't sit in them and they're just in the way.  You'll get just as big of a crowd in front of the other stage."  

We contemplated the logistics of moving their gear from the north stage - where it was already set up - to the south stage, where it would be set up in front of Shooter Jennings gear.  We have two stages at River Roots Live to keep the music flowing, not allowing much more than 15 minutes - tops - between acts.  We figured that it would take about 45 minutes to move the BoDeans from the north stage to the bandshell stage, do line checks and get them up ready to play.  And then we figured it would take about 45 minutes after that to remove their equipment, do line checks for Shooter Jennings (which can be done while the BoDeans would be playing on the north stage) and get his band ready for their 9:45 time slot.  If the BoDeans cancelled, it would leave us with a 90 minute void in music.  If we moved the BoDeans to the bandshell stage, it would put us behind schedule plus we'd have 90 minutes of dead time.  Either way we looked at it, there was going to be a lot of time with no music that evening.  

By this time, the acting agent for the BoDeans had contacted Jason Gilliland on his cell phone and was threatening court action if the band wasn't moved to the bandshell stage.  Jason G. was a little perturbed with the guy and said to me after he got off the phone with him., "This isn't even the same guy who I've been dealing with.  This is just some guy who works in the same agency as the guy I used to book the BoDeans."

As with most of the bands that we book for River Roots Live, a deposit is sent to them at the time of the booking.  This deposit is usually 50 percent of the total contract for the gig.  The deposit that was paid to the BoDeans was deep into four figures.  I asked Jason Gilliland, Kate and Kyle if we were ready to eat the price of the deposit and not pay the BoDeans the remaining 50 percent if they didn't play.  Jason kind of stood there and said, "Well, yeah.  Absolutely."  Kyle said, "Uh, yeah, I guess.  Sure."  Kate chimed in, "Oh, absolutely.  You can't pay them the balance if they don't play."    

Jason from the BoDeans came back over to us and we told him that there would be no way that we could get their equipment off the north stage, transfer it to the bandshell stage and get them up and going for at least 45 minutes.  Then it would take 45 minutes to get their stuff off the stage, get Shooter Jennings equipment in place and do line checks.  We basically said, "You either play on the north stage or don't play at all."  

I said, "Look, we're prepared to eat the (deposit) and not pay you guys the remaining balance. We'll announce that due to unforeseen circumstances that the BoDeans had to cancel at the last moment and we'll be professional about it.  But the story will come out early next week that the reasons the BoDeans didn't play was because Kurt Neumann had a hissy fit because he didn't want to play on what he thought was the lesser of the two stages.  But we need to know your intentions within the next 10 minutes."   

With that, Jason Boots left and Jason Gilliland got a call from the agent again.  Jason Gilliland told him, "Look, we just told them that if they don't play, they don't get the balance of the contract."  When the agent began to threaten him with legal action again, Jason said, "Look, I can't talk to you now if you're going to act this way."  And with that, he hung up on the guy.  

While this was all going on, I got a call from my wife.  She said, "Hey, the band (BoDeans) is up on the stage.  It looks like they're getting ready to play."  

I ran over to the north stage and, sure enough, there was the band up there plugging in.  I went over to Tony McKinney and Tom Salata who were working the monitors for that stage and I asked, "Are these guys ready to go?"

Tom and Tony sort of looked at one another and said, "Yeah, as far as we know."  

And at 8:15 - precisely on schedule - the BoDeans took the stage.  Since co-founder Sammy Llanas left the group in what I've heard was a conflict with Kurt Neumann's wife - who is also the BoDeans business manager - they've gone to more of an American-roots rock sound.  Oh, they still played some of their more well known songs from the 80's and 90's, but Sammy was the lead singer on many of those songs.  A lot of BoDeans purists view the group the same way some die-hard Pink Floyd fans looked at that group after Roger Waters left the band.  It's not the same to them.

But you couldn't convince the 10,000 or so fans that were in LeClaire Park that evening.  As I predicted, the crowd in front of the stage filled in quickly and it was packed.  The BoDeans put on a spirited show and all was forgiven regarding the earlier contentious negotiations.  As I handed the remaining balance in the form of a check to Jason Boots of the BoDeans, I shook his hand and said, "No hard feelings.  It actually turned out pretty well."

(Pictured right - the BoDeans and the massive crowd they generated.  Picture courtesy Brian Barkley from Barkley Photo.com) 

He seemed a little embarrassed over the whole affair.  "Like I said, this is only the third time I've worked with these guys," he said to me.  "I don't know them very well.  The agency that I work for handles the BoDeans and they just told me to go out and work these shows until they find another full-time road manager for the group."  

And on the BoDeans Facebook page early the week after River Roots Live, there were a handful of pictures of the crowd at River Roots Live when the band was playing with a caption, "Damnnnnn Davenport!  You know how to party!  Thanks for coming out!"  It was clear that everything Kurt Neumann thought would be wrong with the festival turned out all right.  Somehow, I'm hoping that he realized after the show that he didn't need to be such a petulant ass when dealing with us.  

After the BoDeans started to play, Jason Gilliland got another call from the acting agent for the BoDeans.  After Jason informed the guy that the BoDeans were, indeed, playing their set, the agent lightened up considerably.  Jason told me afterward, "Yeah, the guy suddenly was all friendly and nothing like the prick he was on the phone earlier.  I thought, 'You two-faced phony.' "    

Actually, I was sort of bummed that Kenny Aronoff wasn't drumming with the BoDeans.  I noticed when the road crew came in earlier in the day to set up the band's equipment that the drums cases had Kenny Aronoff's name on them.  But they had another drummer playing for them that night.  I've always enjoyed Aronoff's drumming style from his days back with John Mellencamp and more recently with John Fogerty.  No word was given as to why Aronoff wasn't with the BoDeans this particular evening, but I see on their Facebook page that he played with them since their appearance at River Roots Live.   

Shooter Jennings was up next after the BoDeans.  Initially, Jennings' road manager, Colin Cargile, had thought they were only going to play a 60 minute show.  But we had them down for 75 minutes.  But because the BoDeans insisted on a 90 minute set, we were able to negotiate with Colin for the 60 minutes he initially thought they would play.  

(Pictured left - Shooter Jennings and band on the bandshell stage at River Roots Live.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com) 

The big problem was that when Shooter Jennings hit the stage around 10:00 p.m., a lot of people had left the park.  We were having a record Friday evening in attendance and beer sales up to 9 p.m., but it fell off sharply after that.  I don't know if Jennings' style of progressive country rock clicked with many in the crowd, but the band was sure having a great time playing in front of an estimated 4,000 festival goers. In fact, they were having such a good time that they went past their 11:00 p.m. cut off.  As in, WAY past.  They kept going past 11:10, past 11:20.  I was getting a little antsy because I usually catch grief from the Davenport cops on site if we go past midnight with the music, and the last band of the night, Old Shoe, really wanted to play a 60 minute set.  

The guys from Old Shoe were getting restless and when Shooter Jennings jumped into another song at 11:20, when Matt Robinson, the lead singer and guitarist for the band had a meltdown.  "This is bullshit, man," he yelled at me.  "We're not going to get to play our set!" 

I quickly went over to Colin Cargile and said, "This has got to be it, man.  We have a hard curfew and we need to get the next band up.  You said that he only wanted to play 60 minutes.  It's going on 90."

Colin replied, "I know, man.  And I'm sorry.  This is the last show on the tour and the guys are having a great time.  They've never played this long in any show before.  They don't want to quit playing."  

I told him that I appreciated it, but we had more music we needed to get in.  I went back to the road manager for Old Shoe and negotiated a 12:15 a.m. stop time.  They were happy with that.  And as soon as Shooter Jennings stopped at 11:30, I got Old Shoe up and running.  When Dale Sievert, one of the two top cops that oversee security for the event for the City of Davenport, came over to see what was going on when the music was still going at midnight, I told him that we were going to 12:15.  He wasn't happy.  He screamed a four-lettered expletive at me and walked away.  I've known Dale for years and I consider him a friend, so I didn't take it personally.   He later apologized to me, but I told him he didn't need to.  He was tired and he had to be back on site at 7 a.m. for the Saturday show.

Old Shoe, an Americana-folk/rock jam band out of Chicago (pictured right) did get to play a 45 minute set.  Actually, they did a pretty good job of holding on to the remaining crowd that late in the evening.  Their music was reminiscent of a cross between hard rock, R&B and with some Little Feat element thrown in.  They were extremely happy with how their gig went.  Even Matt Robinson came up to me after they finished and apologized.  "We were worried that we weren't going to play," he told me.  "This was going to be good exposure for us and we didn't want to get squeezed out by Shooter Jennings playing all night." 

By the way, Shooter Jennings signed his song list and gave it to Kyle Carter.  At the bottom, he wrote, "This may be the best show we ever played."  

Saturday - 

I spent the night at the Radisson in downtown Davenport, a short drive back to the park.  I ran into Kate Benson, Scott Rexroat and Nathan Judd in the lobby area around 8:15 a.m. and offered them a ride over to the park.  Kate had to take one of the runner vans to go pick up the Wallflowers equipment guys and their tour manager, Scotty Haulter.  

Scotty (pictured left) was kind of an interesting dude.  He has worked in the music industry for over 20 years, first as a club owner in Louisville, eventually becoming a road manager for bands such as Smash Mouth, Fluid, The Cranes, and Rooney.  But he followed his dream a few years ago of becoming a clubhouse manager for baseball teams such as the old Rockford RiverHawks Frontier League team, the Norfolk Tides of the International League, and working as an assistant clubhouse manager for the Colorado Rockies for a couple years.  He continued to work in the music industry during the baseball off-season, but I think he's back in music full time these days.  He was pretty meticulous as Kate told us that he had to personally inspect each of the hotel rooms we had booked at the elegant Hotel Blackhawk in downtown Davenport for the Wallflowers to make sure they were up to their specifications.   

Most of the band and crew for the Wallflowers came in town on Friday. Scotty came down to the park on Friday night to check things out and he was very impressed with our set up.  We've found that a lot of tour managers are skeptical of the festival until they actually get to experience working with us.  The music industry is small universe with management teams, booking agencies and bands regularly talking back and forth.  Our goal with the first River Roots Live over nine years ago was to be as professional and precise in our actions so that the bands who played the event tell their management, who tell their booking agents, and who tell other bands that playing the festival is a large time with minimal hassles.  If that happens, it makes booking bands easier for us, there is less skepticism from management teams that the bands will be treated well, and there could even be times when bands contact us to play the event.  That's happened already with a number of regional bands who had heard about River Roots Live.  

After getting the Wallflowers up and going with their set up and sound check, we started the music at noon with Frank F. Sidney's Bandit Volunteers (pictured right), a sort of new wave/bluegrass band from Western Illinois.  OSG, a R&B band from Iowa City was up next, followed by The Multiple Cat, a Quad City area-based band of musicians who worked in recording studios around the area.  

At 3 p.m., Cody Diekhoff - also known as Chicago Farmer - took the bandshell stage.  Diekhoff usually is a solo act, playing American roots-style music on his acoustic guitar.  However, he had put together a band for River Roots Live that included Ed Anderson, formerly of Backyard Tire Fire, on guitar and some other musicians.  It surprised some of the Chicago Farmer fans who came out to see him that Diekhoff was being backed by a band.  He said during his show at River Roots Live, "This is only the third time this band has played together.  I think it's coming together pretty well."    

Ed Anderson's new project - Magic Box - was up next on the north stage at 4 p.m.  Anderson put Backyard Tire Fire - a Central Illinois-based American roots rock band with a nice following - on hiatus a couple years ago and started Magic Box with longtime friend and collaborator Scott Tipping.  The result of the new band is more of a harmony-based band with the same rock and roll edge that defined the music of Backyard Tire Fire.

Travis Egnor is a formerly Nashville, now Baltimore-based singer/songwriter who has been influenced by the likes of Tom Petty, Neil Young and Elvis Costello.  His first band, Travis Egnor and the Mighty Oaks, had more of a acoustic folk sound.  His new band, Dead Leaves, has more of an edgy rock sound quality.  They played the 5 p.m. time slot on the bandshell stage.

One of the bands that I really wanted to hear was Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts.  Miles Nielsen (pictured left - has been surrounded by music all his life and his sound is more of a roots-based sound than the pounding and melodic rock and roll written and produced by his father's band.  Miles was a very nice guy, soft-spoken and somewhat shy.  I wanted to listen to some of their music, but they played at 6 p.m. probably the busiest time for me as Vintage Trouble was showing up in their tour bus and we were having problems getting them parked behind the stage area.  

(Pictured left - Miles Nielsen.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley from Barkley Photo.com) 

Vintage Trouble has been together since 2010, a conglomeration of Los Angeles-based musicians that features a lead singer, Ty Taylor, who has been compared to soul legend James Brown.  In fact, one press release I was reading on the band earlier this year after they had been booked for River Roots Live said the band was like "James Brown meets Led Zeppelin."  They had a gig in Steamboat Springs, CO on Friday night and drove 1000 miles to Davenport for River Roots Live.  Their tour manager, David Klein, was a bit of a maniacal guy, understandably burnt out from traveling 16 hours on the road.  We had anticipated them getting in much earlier in the day, but it was just after 6 p.m. when they showed up.   Needless to say, David was a little dictatorial at first before he finally realized that everything was going to work out fine.  After that, he was a great guy to work with.   

As the Big Wu - a Minneapolis/St. Paul-based jam band who has been around for 20 years - played on the bandshell stage at 7 p.m., we were working feverishly to get Vintage Troubles equipment up on stage and get everything set up for an 8 p.m. start time.  I was able to catch some of the Big Wu's performance toward the end of their set and while I've heard some of their music on CD's before, I'd never heard them play.  They were all great guys and were somewhat overwhelmed by the scope of the River Roots Live festival.  I told them before they started to play that the 7 p.m. time slot on Saturday night was a sweet spot for bands.  They put on a great show playing their style of jam music.

(Pictured right - the Big Wu on the bandshell stage.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com) 

The anticipation of Vintage Trouble was thick in the air before they took the stage.  Social media had touted their appearance at River Roots Live as "the one band you've got to see".  Dressed in vintage clothing, the band took the stage to a backing track and then jumped right into their first song.  From that point on, Ty Taylor held the crowd in his hand.  Along with guitarist Colt Talle, bassist Rick Barrio Dill, and drummer Richard Danielson, they put on one helluva show.  I was able to go out to the front of house area where the sound boards are and caught some of the show.  I knew they were going to be good, but not that good.  

Jason Gilliland told me that we were able to book Vintage Trouble back in the spring because their management company is the same one who handles the Wallflowers.  He said, "If we booked them a month ago, their fee would have been three or four times what we're paying them tonight.  We got a great deal on a great band."
 
(Above left - Vintage Trouble on the north stage.  Above right - Vintage Trouble lead singer Ty Taylor wades through the crowd.  Photos courtesy Brian Barkley at Barkley Photo.com)

Vintage Trouble was suppose to play until 9:15, but for some reason they stopped at 9 p.m.  As with their tradition, the band jumped off the front of the stage and started to make their way through the crowd to go to the merchandise tent to sign autographs.  I was caught dumbfounded when they stopped at 9 and the Wallflowers weren't scheduled to go on until 9:30.  We had a set schedule that included a appearance by Chad Pregracke from Living Lands and Water and some other things that was supposed to take up the 15 minutes between the time Vintage Trouble was scheduled to stop and the time the Wallflowers were to begin.  We had 30 minutes we had to fill instead of 15.  But we ran recorded music for about 15 minutes and then got back on schedule around 9:20.  The crowd didn't seem to know the difference.

The Wallflowers (pictured left - photo courtesy Brian Barkley at Barkley Photo.com) took the stage just after 9:30 and were scheduled to play to just before 11 p.m.  This night, I was bound and determined to keep them on schedule so the next band - Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas - could start as close to 11 p.m. as could be.  I took Scotty back to the Wallflowers trailer that we had set up for them and settled up on the balance of their money owed.  I explained the situation to him about trying to stay on time and he said he had no problem with that.  "I'll tell you, man," he said to me, "this is a great festival.  You guys have it goin' on here!  I'm having the time of my life.  Everyone is so great and accommodating."  He later told Kate Benson that he was having so much fun that he wanted to come back next year and "be a runner or something."  

The crowd we had in LeClaire Park was, by far, the largest we've ever had for a Saturday night River Roots Live - even more than when we had Creedence Clearwater Revisited a couple years ago with free admission.  (It's free to get into River Roots Live before 5 p.m., but $5 bucks after 5.  Still $5 bucks is a great value given the talent that we had to offer this year.)   And the Wallflowers did a great job of mixing in some of their old 90's hits with songs from their new album, Glad All Over.

(Pictured right - part of the estimated 17,000 people at River Roots Live before the Wallflowers took the stage.  Photo courtesy of Brian Barkley from Barkley Photo.com)

As I was going about my business behind the stage, I noticed that the members of Vintage Trouble had made their way back to the backstage area and were standing around watching the Wallflowers do their set.  I was standing next to Ty Taylor and I introduced myself and told him that he did a great job for their show that night, and that I had been following the band's progress over the past few months.  He seemed genuinely appreciative of my comments and was a rather humble guy.  Definitely the antithesis of his stage persona.  I was also able to meet and briefly talk with Richard Danielson, the drummer for Vintage Trouble.  He, too, was a very nice guy.  

When it was just past 10:30 p.m., I asked Scotty from the Wallflowers where we were at in terms of their set list.  He said, "They do two more songs, then they do two encore songs."  I figured that would take us up to 10:55 p.m., plenty of time for Jessica Hernandez to do an hour set.  

(Pictured left - Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com) 

The first problem was that they played three songs and not two.  At 10:50, the Wallflowers ended their set and walked off the stage.  Along with their road manager, Scotty, they had a brief conference and then took the stage for their encore.   Scotty came over to me and said, "Well, they're having such a good time, they're going to play three encore songs."  

Quickly calculating time in my head, I figured that they'd be done at 11:10.  I went to Jessica Hernandez and told her that they would be starting a little later, but we'd do our best to give them their contracted 60 minutes. She was very accommodating.  "That's fine," she replied in a bubbly fashion. "Whatever we need to do for you.  We're just happy we're here!"  

The Wallflowers went through their three encore songs and then decided to play a fourth!  I looked up at Scotty who was standing on the landing near the side of the bandshell stage and I put both of my arms out, palms up with the universal body language pose of "What the f*** is up with this?"  He ran down the ramp and came up to me.  "Man, I'm sorry," he yelled to me over the music.  "They've NEVER played four songs for an encore, let alone three.  They're just having a great time up there."  

I said, "Scotty, I got to tell you.  This HAS to be the last song.  I'm up against a hard curfew at midnight and I don't want to get in trouble with the cops."  Actually, I don't have a hard curfew and the only trouble I get from the cops is the guff I get from them when they're scheduled to get out of the park at 12:30 a.m. after the crowd leaves.  If the bands play till 12:15 a.m., they have to stick around until 12:45 a.m. at the earliest.  He said he'd do his best in pulling the band off the stage when the song ended.

He didn't have to do it - the Wallflowers finished the song, did their bows and I immediately got Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas up on stage.  Dressed in a white blouse, tartan skirt, knee socks and work boots, she had the personna of a hard edged college school girl.  And she had a voice that just ripped out your heart.  Jessica put on a great show and ended her set just at 12:10 a.m.  

(Pictured right - Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas closing out the 2013 River Roots Live.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com) 

When most of the work was finished - with the exception of Rexroat's crew who were dismantling the stage, lights and sound system - many of the principals of the event stopped around 2:30 to relax, have a couple beers and to hash out our recent memories of the festival.  It was a record breaking year in terms of attendance and beer sales.  The rib vendors were very happy with the crowds they saw that weekend.  There was little to no problems with the crowds.  Really, the only problem we had was our last minute negotiations with the BoDeans.  And I'm a big BoDeans fan, but that left a bad taste in my mouth.  I said to the group of Jason Gilliland, Scott Rexroat, Kyle Carter and Kate Benson, "You know, even though it was pretty stressful at the time, the most fun I had all weekend was calling the BoDeans bluff."  Given the sour nature of the record business these days, deep down inside we knew that they weren't going to skate on a four-figured paycheck if they cancelled their appearance.  

(As an aside - after the festival Joe Murphy came up with a great idea.  We've been having trouble designating the north stage at River Roots Live.  In the past, we've called the Bandshell stage as Stage "A" and the other stage as Stage "B".  But we also knew that it would upset some performers - such as the BoDeans - to have to play on the "B" stage.  So we just started to call the stages the "Bandshell" and the "North", even though we don't really even use any of the Bandshell for the stage - the stage we use sits in front of the bandshell stage.  Murph said that from here on out we should refer to the North stage as the "BoDeans" stage.)     

(Pictured left - some of the thousands of people who came out for the 2013 River Roots Live.  Photo courtesy Brian Barkley of Barkley Photo.com)  

Plans are already in the works to make the 10th Annual River Roots Live the biggest and best ever.  And I'm sure I'll be a part of it.  In some ways, I can't wait. But I'm sure I'll be dreading the long days - and nights - in the hours leading up to the 2014 River Roots Live.  But when the last band finishes, it's like the weight of a thousand stones is lifted off my shoulders.  And without the help I get from the other River Roots Live staffers, that weight would be much greater.  

Olympic Gyros - Davenport, IA

Cindy found a little place on 53rd Ave. on the north side of Davenport that she likes to go to for lunch from time to time - Olympic Gyros.  Sometimes, I'll meet her over there for a quick bite and just to get out of the office for a bit when I'm not on the road.  Although it's probably not as good as a couple of other gyro places around the Quad Cities, we think it's a pretty good value.  

Olympic Gyros opened in late 2010 and is owned by Andy and Pete Hasakis.  The Hasakis family also owns the Family Restaurant near North Park Mall.  In addition to gyros, the menu at Olympic Gyros includes burgers, Italian beef sandwiches, breaded pork tenderloins, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and chili dogs.  They also have fresh cut French fries in addition to onion rings and mozzarella sticks.  Oh, and by the way, you can also get grilled chicken gyros, if you like.  

We've gone to Olympic Gyros about a half dozen times together - Cindy goes there on a regular basis just to get out of her office a few blocks to the north of the restaurant.  We usually meet up sometime around 1:30 pulling into the parking lot off 53rd Ave. near Menard's. (see map)  Well, that is until Menard's moves to their new location in far northern Davenport.    

The interior of Olympic Gyros is pretty simple.  There are a number of booths and tables in the small, well-lit place.  A television that is perpetually tuned to CNN is on in one corner.  Pictures of Grecian landmarks are on the walls with multi-colored Olympic rings as the center piece on the long wall of the restaurant.

 
The menu board is above the counter and our orders are usually pretty simple - a gyro and water.  Although, I have to admit - the flat-grilled burgers smell pretty good.  You place your order at the counter, pay, and then find a seat.  

There always seems to be a group of mailmen that are in there when we're there.  In fact, we see a number of the same guys in the place when we go in.  We're far from regulars in the place, but we seem to see a lot of mailmen in there about the same time we're in.  In fact, the staff seems to be on a first name, "flip-'em-shit" basis with the mailmen.  

It usually takes less than 10 minutes for them to bring out the gyros to us.  And there's a lot of gyro meat on the pita bread each time we've gone there. Chopped onions and bits of tomatoes accompany the gyro meat.  About the only thing that they need is more tzatiki sauce on the gyros.  But for an additional .69 cents you can get a tub of the sauce.  We usually do that.  

The meat is a little salty, but it isn't bad.  For a gyro, it's pretty damned good.  And for $5.95, it's damned good deal.  

There's not much to Olympic Gyros - gyros, burgers, a few sandwiches and salads.  And that's all right.  They've got a nice little niche, a nice little following and a nice little place.  It's clean, the food is good and it's one of our favorite little places.  

Jimmy Jack's Rib Shack - Iowa City

Four years ago, a friend of mine invited Cindy and I to watch an Iowa Hawkeyes football game from a suite in the skybox at Kinnick Stadium that was leased by his wife's grandparents.  Jumping at the chance, I immediately said, "You bet!"  In addition to the unlimited beer and the comfy accommodations, they also had food catered in from a local barbecue place called Jimmy Jack's Rib Shack on the eastside of Iowa City.  The barbecue, I thought, was fabulous.  I've been meaning to stop in to Jimmy Jack's to try their barbecue in house and on a recent trip where I was driving by Iowa City, I decided to stop in for some barbecue.

The owners of Jimmy Jack's are, of course, named "Jimmy" (James Adrian) and Jack (Piper).  James and Jack were lifelong friends who grew up in Burlington, IA with similar backgrounds.  Going to school at the University of Iowa they worked in restaurants and found themselves working in restaurants after getting out of school.  Adrian worked in New Orleans at the prestigious Commander's Palace.  Piper ended up working at the Stein Erikson Lodge in Park City, Utah.  Both Piper and Adrian ended up in Boulder, CO working at a restaurant before they decided to come back to Iowa City and open the Atlas World Grill (now simply known as "Atlas"), an eclectic restaurant featuring different recipes that both learned along the way. 

Adrian and Piper would subsequently travel to other citys to try other restaurants - preferably barbecue restaurants.   Their favorite destination was Kansas City and the plethora of barbecue joints in that city.  Both became judges associated with the Kansas City Barbecue Society and they decided to open their own barbecue joint in the barbecue barren Iowa City area.  They found an (I believe) old Long John Silver's location on Lower Muscatine Road across from Sycamore Mall on Iowa City's southeast side.  (see map).  They opened Jimmy Jack's Rib Shack in the summer of 2005 and it immediately became the place for area barbecue aficionados.  (In 2011, along with partner Brady McDonald, Adrian and Piper opened Basta Pizzeria and Ristorante in downtown Iowa City.)

It was after the lunch rush when I rolled into Jimmy Jack's.  The smell of hickory smoke was emanating from the building into the summer air.  You order at the counter and they'll bring the food out to you.  The menu is located on the back wall behind the order counter.  I was greeted by a younger girl who asked me if I knew what I wanted.  Since I hadn't been there before, I needed a couple minutes trying to figure out what I wanted. 

At barbecue joints that I'm not familiar with, I like to get a sampler plate of two or three meats.  The only problem is that Jimmy Jack's doesn't have anything like that.  They have sandwiches - barbecue brisket, pork or turkey, along with a smoked sausage sandwich, and a smoked portobello mushroom sandwich for the vegetarians who somehow may fall into the place.  Their main entrees of pork ribs and smoked chicken is, well, that's it.  There's not much to choose from on the menu.  

I decided to get the half-rack rib dinner that came with two sides.  I got baked beans and fries to go along with it.  I also got a couple bottles of beer.  I found a table along the window in the dining room and waited for my ribs to show up.

The dining room at Jimmy Jack's had a number of tables with individual bench seats.  There were bench seats attached to a tin wainscoting along one of the walls.  There was a condiment area along one wall along with a pop machine. 

 
The walls in the dining room at Jimmy Jack's were adorned with a number of antique woodworking tools.  I found out later on that Jack Piper's father was a lifelong woodworker and they used a number of his tools that he used over the years decorate the place.  Actually, it was kind of interesting to see some of the woodworking tools on display. 

About 10 minutes after I ordered at the counter, the young counter girl came out with my ribs and sides.  I went over to the condiment bar and saw that they had four different types of barbecue sauce - their original sauce that was similar to a Kansas City-style sauce, a Cowboy sauce that was a little more sweet than their original, a Carolina mustard sauce that tasted like honey mustard out of a jar, and a 4 alarm sauce that intrigued me.  It turned out that it was - possibly - a 2 alarm sauce.  At least to me, it wasn't all that hot.  Mixed with either the Cowboy sauce or Jimmy Jack's original sauce, it helped zip up the taste of both of those.    

The ribs were meaty and tender.  They had a great smoke ring with a tasty bark on the outside of the meat.  With the combination of either the Cowboy or original sauce mixed with the 4 alarm sauce, it gave the meat a little pizazz.  The ribs were very good.

The fries were sort of a steak-style cut potato and were also very good when dipped in the barbecue sauce.  The beans featured two or three different types of beans with chunks of meat.  I added some of the 4 alarm sauce to the beans to kick up the taste a bit, but they weren't all that spectacular even that way.  And the dried out honey corn muffin was a throw away for me.  

It was a lot of food and I was rapidly getting full from the ribs.  There were eight meaty ribs that were served to me and I was very satiated when I finished the last rib.  I was also all I could do to finish my second beer, I was so full.   

While I can't say that Jimmy Jack's is the best barbecue I've had, it's continually awarded the best barbecue in Iowa City by voters over the past few years.  I was very impressed with the ribs.  The sauces were all right, but nothing that were extremely good.  And it was a somewhat fun place to have some food.  I just wish they would have a few more things on the menu including sampler plates to try ribs, brisket and/or pulled pork at the same time.  While I won't crawl back to Jimmy Jack's, if I were in the area and hankering for some barbecue I'd go back.  

The Lowry - Minneapolis

I had set up a dinner meeting with one of my dealers in Minneapolis on a recent trip to the Twin Cities.  I asked him where he wanted to meet up and he said there was sort of a hip urban diner near the Uptown neighborhood not far from his house.  When he told me it was The Lowry, I immediately said, "I'll meet you there!"  I had driven past The Lowry a handful of times over the past couple of years and had wanted to give it a try.

The other reason I wanted to eat at The Lowry was that it's part of the Blue Plate restaurant group which includes the Edina Grill, 3 Squares, and the Longfellow Grill.  I had learned about the partnership between Stephanie Shimp and David Burley when I was doing some background work on the origins of the Red Cow gourmet burger/eclectic beer tavern in Minneapolis.  (Click here to see my entry on Red Cow.)  Red Cow owner Luke Shimp - Stephanie Shimp's brother - was the former C.F.O. for the Blue Plate restaurant group who went off on his own to start his own place.  Many of the Blue Plate restaurants sounded interesting, a few of them I knew about and have on my "restaurants to visit" list - most notably the Groveland Tap in St. Paul which I've heard has a good "Juicy Lucy" stuffed cheeseburger.  

Stephanie Shimp and David Burley had worked together in the restaurant business for a number of years before they decided to partner up and open their first restaurant - the Highland Grill - in a former neighborhood ice cream parlor in St. Paul.  The two then purchased the Groveland Tap and put their own imprint on the place.  

In August of 2011, Shimp and Burley (along with Luke Shimp) opened The Lowry on Hennepin Ave. in what was a former Hollywood Video location.   Even though "Burgers, Oysters and Eggs" are featured on the logo for The Lowry, they designed the business to be "drinks first" with a number of eclectic beers on tap, a number of bourbons, Scotches and whiskeys, as well as a unique wine-tap system that literally pumps wine out of bottles that are stored in a temperature controlled room below the bar.  

Technically, the Lowry is located in the Lowry Hill neighborhood in between Uptown and Downtown Minneapolis - hence, the name.  I pulled into the parking lot at 2112 Hennepin (see map) just before our 7 p.m. meeting time.  I had called my dealer just a moment before and said that I was almost there.  He said, "I live three minutes away.  I'm on my way."   I took a seat in a booth in the bar and my dealer joined me moments later.  

The bar area features a series of booths along the glass windows that look out onto Hennepin Ave. and a number of high tables between the bar and the booths.  The walls and ceiling featured dark wood paneling with subdued lighting.  It was sort of cozy in the bar area.

 
The main dining room was long and narrow with some high-backed booths along the window, two person tables in the middle and alcove-style booths along the other side.  It, too, featured a lot of dark wood paneling on the walls, floor and ceiling.  

When the hostess guided me to the booth, she had dropped off a couple dinner menus for us.  After settling in, we were sitting and talking and our server for the evening, an effervescent hipster-gal by the name of Bri came over to greet us and take our drink order.  I got a Bell's Two Hearted pale ale while my guest stuck with water.

The Lowry has an extensive breakfast/lunch menu that is served from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily.  Their evening menu begins at 4:00 p.m. and they serve up to and past 11 p.m. some nights.  However, The Lowry serves their buttermilk pancakes all day long, as well a number of breakfast items including an American breakfast plate with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon or ham, and toast; and a Spinach Frittata that came with, naturally, spinach, Brie cheese, herbs, roasted tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and a spinach and basil chiffonade with hashbrowns and toast.  But I was there for dinner that night, so I concentrated on the main entrees for the evening. 

But the oysters on the appetizer menu were calling my name.  I asked my guest if he liked oysters and he said, "Oh, absolutely!  They have some great baked oysters here, but I like the raw ones, too."  We ended up ordering a half-dozen each of the baked oysters with the pesto topping, and a half-dozen of the raw oysters that came with cocktail sauce and Tabasco.  

The raw oysters came out first and we devoured them.  So quickly that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the plate.  But I made sure that my camera was ready when the baked oysters came out.  They came out with a roasted half of lemon and had cooked down considerably form the size of the meaty raw oysters we had earlier.  They were good and tasty with a hint of pesto mixed in.  

We were talking business and Bri kept coming back to check on us and see if we were ready.  She ended up stopping back three or four times before we decided it was time we stepped up and figured out what we were going to get for dinner.  

The meat loaf plate jumped out at me as I perused the menu.  It came with mashed potatoes and green beans and was served with chipotle ketchup.  The braised-beef crepes also sounded good - it featured chunks of beef with a mix of veggies and potato croquettes with horseradish wrapped in a crepe.  But then I saw it - fish tacos.  The fish tacos featured blackened tilapia, sliced avocados, black bean and sweet corn salsa, and topped off with shredded cabbage.  My mine was made up.

My guest went with the meat loaf, although he was telling me their beer-battered fish was pretty good, too.  We apologized to Bri for making her come back so many times and she said, "Oh, hey.  No problem.  I'm here all night."   

When Bri brought our food out, I was ready to eat.  The fish tacos were hidden under mound of shredded cabbage and a drizzle of a chipotle-mayo sauce.  Finding the tacos under all that yielded three soft shells filled with chunks of blackened tilapia, slices of avocados and the bean/corn salsa.  The fish had a great flavor, but they put way too much cabbage on the tacos.  They were messy to eat and the cabbage was falling all over the place.  But the tacos, overall, were scrumptious.  

 
My guest's meat loaf told me that I wouldn't have gone wrong by ordering that.  It featured two slabs of meat loaf that had been grilled before serving with a pile of fresh green beans on a mound of mashed potatoes.  I didn't really need comfort food that particular evening, so that's why I leaned to the fish tacos instead of the meat loaf.  My guest said, "Oh, yeah, I've had this before.  This is a winner."  

I'd like to get back to The Lowry for breakfast at some point.  But their dinner menu was equally impressive.  Things worked out where I could have a good business meeting over a good meal at The Lowry.  And I have to say that Bri did an exceptional job of taking care of us that evening.  Even if you just want to go in for a drink, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the least.  

Players - Dickinson, ND

During my annual trip out to Dickinson, ND, I like to take my dealer and his guys out to dinner after we finish our meetings and trainings.  The only problem is that there are only a couple of nicer places - Applebee's and Sanford's (click here to see my entry on Sanford's) - that are open later than 9 p.m. in Dickinson.  However, on this trip they were telling me that there was a new sports bar called Players Sports Bar and Grill that had opened earlier this year.  Reviews amongst the guys were decidedly mixed - it appears that even a few months after opening the cooking staff was still working out some kinks and the food was inconsistent.  I said, "Well, hell, let's give it a try.  Maybe we'll get them on a good night."

The money behind Players comes from the Fisher family, owners of Fisher Industries in Dickinson.  The company is involved with road construction, heavy equipment, and sand and gravel pits with offices in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico in addition to their home office in North Dakota. The football field for Dickinson State University - Fisher Field - is named for the patriarch of the Fisher family who donated the money for the stadium.  The family hired Wayne Rau, who used to formerly manage Applebee's and Pizza Ranch in Dickinson, to run the restaurant for them.  The business opened toward the end of January of this year.  

Players is on the far north side of Dickinson, east of the main north-south route into town, North Dakota State Highway 22.  (see map)  We got into the place around 9 p.m. The restaurant is split into two areas - the sports bar (below left) and the dining area (below right).  We decided to eat in the dining room as most of the tables in the sports bar are high tables and we wanted to sit down and enjoy our dinner.   

 
There were flat-screen televisions throughout the building.  There wasn't a place anywhere in the dining room or the bar area where you couldn't see a television.  And, of course, they were all tuned to sports channels. 

We were given menus and one of the servers came to take our drink orders.  I saw that they had Alaskan Amber on their list of draft beers and I ordered up one of those.  The server came back a few moments later and said, "I'm sorry.  I guess we're out of Alaskan Amber on tap."  I looked through the beer list again and nothing else caught my eye.  I ended up getting a Bud Light instead, bummed that they didn't have the Alaskan Amber.  I was hoping that would be my only disappointment of the evening.

Most of the food on the menu at Players is your typical sports pub grub - sandwiches, burgers, appetizers, etc.  But they also had a handful of entrees including steaks, pork chops and pasta dishes.  For burgers, they had elk burgers as well as their own Twin Cities-style stuffed cheeseburgers, the Juicy Lucy.  I thought about getting a burger, then I got to looking at one of their pasta dishes - a spicy Cajun pasta dish that was tossed with a spicy churrasco-style sauce with sauteed shrimp.  Everyone else was getting the burgers or chicken wings, I went for the pasta dish.  I didn't know if I'd be sorry or not, but I was determined to find out how it would be.

Our meals came out and I was pleasantly surprised by the presentation.  The square deep dish was filled with linguine noodles, tossed with a creamy spicy sauce and about 8 sauteed shrimp.  A melted parmesan chip rested on top of the pasta.  I was impressed with how the Cajun pasta and shrimp looked.  If it tasted as good as it looked, I'd be very happy.  

 
A couple of the guys ordered the elk burgers - lean ground elk meat topped with cheese and sitting on a basic bun.  I've never tried elk burgers, but I've been told that they're very similar to bison burgers.  The two guys that got them said they were pretty good that night.  "I've had them cooked good like tonight," one of the guys told me.  "But then I've had them when they're overcooked and taste like shoe leather."  

One of the guys got the Juicy Lucy - two ground beef patties with cheddar cheese in the middle.  I warned him about biting into the molten lava of the cheese in between the two patties and he said, "Oh, I know.  It's squirted out on me once before.  I thought it was going to burn my arm."  I proceeded to tell the story of the time I was at Adrian's Tavern in Minneapolis and how the first bite into one of their Juicy Lucy's literally exploded all over me.  (Click here to see that entry.)  It's not a pleasant experience.  

Getting to my pasta dish, I was extremely pleased with the taste from the first bite.  The Cajun sauce was spicy, but didn't overwhelm the taste of the perfectly cooked linguine.  The sauteed shrimp were plump and meaty, and had a wonderful taste with the sauce.  I was happy with what I got.

As were the other guys I was with.  Each of them said that this was one night when the kitchen got it right.  "Maybe they've got it together with their food," one of the guys told me.  "This is much better than the time I was here a couple months ago."  I told them of my 90 day rule on visiting new restaurants - my wife and I will wait 3 months after a new restaurant opens to give them time to work out the kinks for food preparation and service.  But as one restaurateur told me, "If everyone had that philosophy, most restaurants would be out of business in 90 days."  

We finished our meals, then sat around talking shop and throwing back and forth marketing ideas until they kicked us out of the place just before they closed at midnight.  The servers were very nice to us and they got a nice tip from our table.   

I wasn't expecting much from my meal at Players Sports Bar and Grill.  I mean, it is Dickinson, ND and there isn't a lot of choices for upscale dining in the area.  But I have to say that the Cajun pasta with shrimp was very good.  Even if I'd had the meal in a much larger city, I still would have thought it was pretty damned good.  A lot of people in and around Dickinson think Players is a little overpriced - it was $22 for the pasta and shrimp.  And it probably is expensive compared to other places in the area.  But I thought every thing about Players was good.  You could pick the place up and drop it in any mid-major Midwestern city and they'd do fine there, too.  After all these years of traveling to Dickinson - probably eight years now - I'm happy to see some other casual dining place in town.  (Players exterior photo courtesy Foursquare.)

Monica's - Coralville, IA

Cindy's son had a birthday recently and we decided to meet him, her daughter and her grandson for dinner over in Iowa City.  Cindy let her son pick out where he'd like to go eat.  She mentioned a couple three places and then she mentioned Monica's Italian Bistro on the strip in Coralville.  He stopped her right there.  "Yeah, I'd like to try Monica's," he said.  On a Friday evening, we all met there for dinner. 

Monica's is owned by local Iowa City lawyer/restaurateur/high school basketball coach/summer basketball league commissioner Randy Larson.  Larson got his start in the restaurant business working in the summer for his uncle at the Maid-Rite in Newton back in the 70's.  When he moved to Iowa City to go to law school, he started a late-night small street cart that sold hot dogs and brats on the Iowa City pedestrian mall to hungry bar-goers.  In 1993, Larson and former Iowa basketball player Brad Lohaus, who was then playing for the Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketbal Association, bought the venerable Airliner in downtown Iowa City.  Larson sold his share of the Airliner to Lohaus in 2002 and started a pizza place called Bob's Your Uncle on the southwest side of Iowa City.  

Pictured right - Randy Larson.  Picture courtesy Cedar Rapids Gazette

Larson opened a second Bob's Your Uncle near the intersection of Iowa Highway 1 and Interstate 80 in what was once an old Howard Johnson's restaurant.  Not long after, he switched formats and the restaurant name at his original Bob's Your Uncle restaurant, making it an Italian restaurant and naming it after longtime manager Monica Meyer.  

In the summer of 2008, floods of historic proportions hit the Iowa City/Coralville area and one of the businesses that was severely impacted was Sluggers Bar and Grill on the Coralville strip.  After the floodwaters receded, the owners of Sluggers decided not to renew their lease on the building.  It sat vacant for over a year before Larson decided to lease the building and move Monica's in there.  Larson shortened the name from Monica's Italian Bistro to just Monica's after the move. 

(As an aside, I've known Randy Larson for over 30 years.  When he was working with his uncle, Dan Holtkamp, at the Maid-Rite in Newton, IA, we played summer league basketball on the same team for three years.  Larson had played briefly at Iowa State and was a pretty good basketball player.  I thoroughly enjoyed playing with him as he had a great court sense and was sort of the defacto coach of our team.  He basically led our team to the Newton summer league championship one year where we lost in the final game.  All I know is that he made me a better basketball player.

When I moved to Iowa City in 1980, I'd see Randy from time to time - mainly hawking hot dogs at 12:30 in the morning when I would come out of one of the bars in downtown Iowa City.  But our relationship after that was nothing more than, "Hey, how's it going?" when we'd run into each other.  

Larson ran with the elite crowd of Iowa basketball players - present and past - in the early to mid-80's.  He organized summer basketball pick-up games and was eventually asked by then coach Tom Davis to organize an NCAA-sanctioned summer league for college and high school players.  Randy told me some years ago that he used the basic idea of the Newton summer basketball league as his blueprint.   Earlier this summer, the Prime Time League celebrated it's 27th year of existence - the longest sanctioned summer league of its type in the United States.) 

Cindy and I pulled into the parking lot at Monica's around 6:30 p.m.  (see map)  Her son was there waiting for us and we went inside.  Randy Larson was standing at the hostess booth and he did a double take when I walked in the door.  After exchanging pleasantries, Cindy told him that her daughter had made the reservation for seven people at 6:30, but only five of us were showing up.  Randy was going through the reservation sheet and he couldn't find a name listed for any of us or any reservation for seven.  He said, "Ah, that's no problem.  I've got a place for you guys right back here."   He led us back to a large booth along the far wall of the restaurant.  He dropped off menus and we looked them over while we waited for Cindy's daughter and grandson to show up.  

The interior of Monica's was certainly upgraded over the sports theme that Sluggers had in their hey-day. One of their former servers, Lyndsi Benjamin, is now an interior designer in the Chicago area and she helped with the design of the new Monica's down to the lighting scheme, floor tile and woven grasscloth wall paper. Not totally abandoning the sports bar concept, Monica's has a number of flat screen televisions interspersed throughout the place. 

The executive chef at Monica's is Rod Bowman who was the former chef at the University Athletic Club in Iowa City.  Before that, Bowman was the head chef for the University of Iowa Memorial Union's catering and food service. 

A young waitress by the name of Ashleigh came over to let us know that she'd be waiting on us tonight.  She asked if we wanted anything to drink and Cindy got a glass of wine, her son got a draft beer and I ordered a Boulevard Pale Ale.  She brought the drinks back and as she walked away I noticed that she had brought me a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat.  I'm not big on wheat beers and I had Cindy flag her down to get me another beer.  Ashleigh apologized and said, "I thought I ordered a Boulevard Pale Ale, but this is what they put up on the counter for me."  It wasn't long before I had my right beer.  She also left off a basket of fresh Italian bread with a small container of cinnamon-honey butter.  It was pretty good on the bread.  But I liked going the olive oil/parmesan cheese route to dip my bread into. 

One thing that I noticed on the menu was a personal message from Randy Larson.  In part, it basically said, "If you have any suggestions, complements or complaints, do not hesitate to contact me."  And he gave his phone number and e-mail address.  I'll have to say that I don't believe I've EVER seen a restaurant owner give out both his personal phone number and e-mail inviting people to contact him for whatever reason.  I'll have to say I was pretty impressed. 

Cindy's daughter was 20 minutes late - a combination of getting off work late and having to deal with a three-year-old.  Before her daughter arrived, Cindy decided she wanted an appetizer.  She ordered the crab and artichoke al forno dip that came with house-made rustic flat bread.  The appetizer was showing up as Cindy's daughter and her grandson showed up at the table.  

The crab and artichoke dip was creamy and rich.  Fresh chopped parsley topped the dip.  With the housemade rustic flat bread, it was a good start to the meal.  

I wasn't really certain what I wanted to get that evening.  They feature wood-fired pizzas at Monica's.  A number of the specialty pizzas are named after former University of Iowa athletes.  The Nate Kaeding, named after the former Iowa football and NFL place kicker, was very close to my standard pizza of sausage, mushroom and pepperoni, but Monica's added onions to the toppings.  There were a number of eclectic toppings that you could choose for the pizza at Monica's including portabella mushrooms, Cajun-grilled chicken and roasted red peppers.  

When Monica's moved to the old Sluggers location, they garnered about 50 percent more floor space and a larger kitchen, so they expanded their menu to include American-style comfort foods including Grandmother's Meat Loaf; a boneless Iowa pork chop topped with a white-pepper gravy; beef stroganoff made with sirloin tips simmered in a sauce of mushrooms, onion, brandy, chicken and beef broth, then poured over egg noodles and finished with lemon and sour cream;  and a slow-roasted short rib pot roast.  Many of the comfort food items came with chef Rod Bowman when he switched from the University Athletic Club to Monica's.  

I was more into getting something Italian that evening and I was torn between the black fettuccine with lobster - chunks of Maine lobster and mushrooms that are sauteed in butter and then tossed with a lobster alfredo cream sauce; and the rigatoni bolognese - rigatoni noodles topped with a red sauce with a blend of ground pork and ground beef that also has a hint of the alfredo sauce.  Cindy's son said that he'd get the black fettuccine with the lobster and he'd let me have some.  I got the rigatoni bolognese.

Cindy got the parmesan encrusted flat iron steak and her daughter got the cedar plank-grilled salmon with a side of polenta.  She also asked our waitress if she could get a small dish of butter pasta for her son.  Our perky waitress Ashleigh said, "No problem!"   Both Cindy and her daughter wanted wine and I thought I'd have a glass, as well.  I ordered up a bottle of the Ruffino chianti from Italy.  

After finishing our salads, we got our food.  First of all, the pasta portions were pretty big.  My rigatoni bolognese was brimfull in a deep-dished, wide-brimmed bowl.  Chunks of ground pork and beef were swimming in the thick red sauce with large rigatoni noodles.  The taste was very good.  

 
Cindy's son had an equally large portion of the black fettuccine with the sauteed lobster chunks and mushrooms.  Actually, his pasta heaped over the top of the brim of his bowl.  He said, "There's no way I can eat all this."  That's what I wanted to hear because I wanted a couple bites of his.  

Cindy was a little confused by her flat iron steak that was surrounded by asparagus and a medley of vegetables.  She said, "Isn't this a little thick for a flat steak?"

I figured out that she confused the flat iron cut with flank steak.  I said, "No, no.  Flat iron is just the cut of the meat."  Flat iron steak aficionados say its the best cut of steak you can have.  While I think it's pretty flavorful, I don't think it beats a good tenderloin filet or a good New York strip.  Flat iron steaks are big in the U.K., but when colleagues from Great Britain come to America and go to a steak house with me, they aren't ordering a flat iron steak (called the Butlers cut in the U.K.).  

 
Cindy's daughter got her cedar-plank salmon.  It was topped with a honey-balsamic glaze.  The only problem is that Ashleigh forgot both her polenta and her son's butter pasta.  While she was nice, Ashleigh did seem a little overwhelmed and scattered at times.  Once that got resolved, we were ready to eat.  

As I said, I was extremely happy with my rigatoni bolognese.  Cindy's son told me about his black fettuccine and lobster, "Oh, man.  This is so rich.  But it's so good."  He eventually put some of his black fettuccine and lobster on my bread plate.  He was right - it was rich and very good.  He got full early and there was enough left in his bowl for Cindy and her daughter to try.  

Once Cindy got past the confusion about her cut of meat, she said that her steak was very good.  And Cindy's daughter said her salmon was equally as good.  She works down the road from Monica's and she's in there quite a bit for lunch.  She said she's never had a bad meal in the place.  But for what everyone had on their plates, we all said the black fettuccine with the sauteed lobster was the best.  

Now, Cindy's grandson does not have any of my blood in his body.  But he showed some promise that he somehow channels some of my family's traits when it comes to eating spaghetti.  This was a normal thing for my brother and I to do when we ate spaghetti when we were young, much to the consternation of my mother.  The kid can actually work a fork with pasta pretty well, but he found that it's much more easy - and fun - to eat spaghetti noodles this way.  It sort of embarrassed Cindy, but her kids and I got a large kick out of it.  

Always the perfect host, Randy Larson was making the rounds asking people at various tables how their meals were.  He stopped by for a bit and asked how we were doing.  I told him that I didn't think we'd be calling or e-mailing him anytime soon about the quality of the food.  He smiled and said, "Great!  That's what I want to hear."  

Quite honestly, there wasn't much to complain about with our meal at Monica's.  Our server, Ashleigh (she was one of many younger people working in the restaurant), was friendly and effervescent, but a little scattered at times.  I thought my rigatoni bolognese was very good and the bites I had of the black fettuccine with lobster were outstanding.  Everyone liked their food and everyone associated with Monica's were very friendly.  Before I left, Randy came over to shake my hand and thanked us for coming in.  I told him that we'd be back.  And we will. 

Maxwells - West Fargo, ND

The Fargo area continues to impress me with the number of very good to excellent fine dining restaurants.  During my annual trip to Fargo a few weeks ago, my dealer, Rod from Arctic Audio, and his wife, Ellen, suggested we try a place that has been open for about five years in West Fargo - Maxwells.  I'm always up for trying new places on the road, so it was off to Maxwells we went.

Mike Marcil is a Fargo native who was working for Internet companies in the Bay Area before getting into real estate development.  Along with some investors in California, The Marcil Group developed over 40 commercial properties on the West coast and across North Dakota.  One of the commercial properties that he purchased was a small bistro, wine bar and gourmet market called Littlefield's Bistro in West Fargo.  Marcil transformed the place into W.F. Maxwells.  (I'm guessing the "W.F." stood for West Fargo.)  Eventually, the name was shortened to just Maxwells.

Marcil brought in the husband and wife team of Eric and Sara Watson to be the executive chefs/managing partners for Maxwell's.  Both had extensive culinary experience working at some of the finer resorts in Colorado before moving to Fargo.  In 2012, the Watson's seized upon an opportunity to run their own restaurant in Fargo.  They sold their interest in Maxwell's and soon opened Mezzaluna in the space that housed the former Silver Moon restaurant in downtown Fargo.  

Today, the Executive Chef at Maxwells is Mike Wald.  As a teenager, Wald's infatuation with fine dining began when he worked in a small Italian restaurant in Bismarck by the name of The Walrus Co.  Wald eventually went to Bismarck State College to study restaurant and hotel management.  He interned at a fine dining restaurant in Bismarck - The Bistro - before becoming the saucier at the restaurant, but learned a number of various recipes using locally grown and sourced foods.  

Pictured right - Mike Wald 

Wald moved on to Fargo to study tourism and business management at North Dakota State.  He became the Executive Chef at Littlefield's Bistro in 2003 and stayed on when Marcil purchased the restaurant in April of 2008.  Wald's dedication to using locally sourced foods is the signature for Maxwells success.  

Rod and I drove over to Maxwells located in a strip mall on the west side of 9th St. E. in West Fargo. (see map)  Maxwells sits in a corner of the strip mall just south of the corner of 9th St. E. and 13th Ave. E.  Ellen was waiting for us and we were shown to our table by managing partner Ramon Sosa.  Menus, including a wine list, were already sitting on the table.  Our server that even, a young lady with the interesting name of Chanda, came over to ask Rod and I if we'd like to join Ellen in a pre-meal drink.  I asked for a beer and Rod got a mixed drink.   

Because of the availability of locally sourced food, the menu at Maxwells changes from time to time, depending upon the seasons.  Most evenings you'll find beef entrees, as well as lamb chops, pork entrees, and seafood.  Rod and Ellen were veterans of Maxwells and Ellen was raving about the appetizers including the bacon-wrapped scallops topped with lobster chunks.  

When Chanda came back from the bar with our drinks, we decided to order up a couple appetizers.  Of course, we had to have the bacon-wrapped scallops and I looked over the seared ahi tuna and ordered that.  

The bacon-wrapped scallops (below left) were everything Ellen said they would be.  Bacon-wrapped anything is a winner, in my book, but these were excellent.  They had small chunks of lobster on top along with fresh rosemary and drizzled in a pepper cream sauce.  Rod let Ellen and me have two of the scallops - what a guy!

 
The ahi tuna appetizer (above right) was served with wasabi, soy sauce and ginger.  But on their own they were fresh tasting and very good.  There was sort of a pepper/sesame seed crust to the ahi tuna strips.  The appetizers were an amazing start to the meal.

Chanda came back after we finished off the appetizers and wanted to know if we were ready to order our main course.  Rod asked her what the housemade soup was that evening and she told him it was a chicken, wild rice and cranberry soup (it sounded so Christmas-y!), and a pork/corn chowder soup.  Both sounded very interesting.  

Ellen ordered first and she got the Copper River salmon that came with purple Brazilian potatoes and asparagus.  She also ordered the mixed green salad with blue cheese for starters.  Rod ordered next and he got the lamb chops.  And he ordered the pork/corn chowder soup for his starter.  

I was having trouble between the lobster spinach fettuccine and the spicy glazed pork chops.  I finally decided upon the pork chops.  I also ordered the parmesan Caesar salad - I think that's what it was called.  Chanda explained that it was their version of a Caesar salad.  

For wine, I found that they had a good price on a bottle of the 2008 Jordan cabernet.  Chanda said, "You know, we had some of the 2002 Jordan cabs at a special price."  That immediately piqued my interest.  She asked if I wanted to find out if they still had them and at what price.  A few moments later, she came back and said, "I'm sorry, we're sold out.  I knew we had some last week, but we sold out of the last bottle over the weekend."  No matter, we took the 2008 Jordan cab instead.     

Chanda brought our salads and soups out to us.  When she sat Rod's soup down, she said, "Oh, darn it.  I brought you the wrong soup.  You ordered the pork/corn chowder soup, right?  I got the cranberry/wild rice and chicken soup instead (below left).  Oh, well.  I'll leave this here for you to try and get another soup for you on the house."

 
She brought out the pork/corn chowder soup (above right) and a couple extra spoons for Ellen and I to sample the one that Rod didn't want.  He said to Chanda, "Hey, don't worry.  I'll probably eat both."  I did sample the pork/corn chowder soup and it was very good with smoky pork chunks and sweet corn in a buttery creamy broth.  Rod said the cranberries helped zip up the taste of the chicken and wild rice soup which is a staple of Minnesota and North Dakota diets.  

Ellen's salad was combination of mixed greens topped with a blue cheese dressing and slices of strawberries in the corners.  It was a nice presentation.   

 
My salad was pretty interesting.  They took parmesan cheese and melted it into a thin layer.  They then forged the still warm parmesan cheese into a bowl and placed the greens, sliced tomatoes and more shredded fresh parmesan cheese on top.  Ellen said, "Oooh, that's good.  The bowl is edible and it's the best part of the salad."  My salad, on it's own, was very good.  But pulling off pieces of the hardened parmesan was a great complementary taste to the salad.  Ellen couldn't help herself in reaching over and cracking off pieces of the parmesan cheese bowl.  I was happy to share.   

Our meals came out and, once again, the presentation was very nice.  My pork chops sat on a batch of sweet potato wedges and had a sweet and spicy glaze ladled over the top of the entree.  The pork was tender and flavorful, even if it was a bit overcooked to my liking.  I didn't think the glaze was either too sweet or too spicy - both taste sensations seemed to cancel each other out.  Still, it was a very fine dish.   

 
Ellen's salmon was lightly grilled and served on a bed of sliced blue potatoes and asparagus.  Two different types of sauces - one was, I believe, a homemade mustard sauce - were drizzled on the plate to dip the salmon into.  The salmon was firm and flaky, not overcooked at all.  Ellen declared it to be delicious.

I'm not big on lamb chops, but I have to say that Rod's chops looked delectable.  They were cooked to a medium rare and stood in a tee-pee-type fashion over mixed vegetables.  The same sauces that were on Ellen's plate were on Rod's plate.  Rod thought the lamb chops were outstanding.  Looking back, I wish I would have tried them other than the pork chops - which were still very good.

After dinner, Rod fielded a call from a client of his and invited him over to Maxwells to join us for an after dinner drink.  After settling up with Chanda for dinner, we retired to the bar area at Maxwells and met up with Rod's client, Hari.  Hari was very interested in the new Focal Scala Utopia Be V2 speakers that we had recently released.  Rod wanted me to talk to Hari about the speakers and the quality workmanship that goes into them.  Over a couple three Scotches in the bar, I was able to do just that.  Hari was a very nice man and we had a great time with multiple nightcaps.  

Ellen had long left Maxwells and Rod and Hari wanted me to head to another watering hole with them, but I begged off.  I had a long trip out to Western North Dakota the next day and it was getting close to 11 p.m. by the time we finished up.  But the overall experience I had at Maxwells was exquisite.  Once again, I was surprised by another restaurant in the Fargo/Moorhead area that featured fine dining in a great setting.  The food was very good, the service we had from Chanda was excellent and it was a relaxing meal.  And having a few drinks after the meal was fun, as well.  I love going to Fargo and as long as Rod and Ellen turn me on to more restaurants like Maxwells, I can't wait to get back up there. 

Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant - Rock Island, IL

Earlier this year, my wife and her daughter ended up at a place in Rock Island by the name of Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant.  They talked highly of the little place that served American-ized Persian food including gyros and chicken kabobs.  On a Monday night date night earlier this summer, my wife and I decided to head over toward Sultan's so I could give it a try.  The only problem was that we had been experiencing some heavy rain over the previous days and we found they were closed due to flood problems. (It turned out it was a backed up drain that flooded their establishment.)  Two weeks later, we were over on the Illinois side doing some errands and decided to see if Sultan was open.  It wasn't - they were still dealing with damage and clean up from the flooding.  Finally, not long ago, Cindy suggested going to Sultan again.  I said, "Call over there first.  I'm not going to drive over just to see if they're open."  She did and they were open.  So, the third time was a charm for us going to Sultan for dinner.  

The owner of Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant is Ashkon Ajidh.  He comes from a background in the restaurant industry where his parents - originally from Azerbaijan - ran a number of restaurants in the Middle East, primarily in Pakistan and Turkey.  Moving the to the U.S. a few years ago, the younger Ajidh continued his family's legacy by opening Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant in September of 2011.  

His biggest hurdle was trying to figure out how to "American-ize" the Persian foods that he was so fond of.  A lot of it had to do with logistics - some Persian foods weren't available to him.  One of his favorite foods consisted of duck, walnuts and pomegranate paste.  Not many Americans are big on duck, and farm-raised ducks are expensive.  Plus, he couldn't easily find pomegranate paste on a regular basis.  Ajidh had to adapt to what he had available in terms of spices and herbs to come up with a menu at Sultan.  

Sultan is also a haven for vegetarians in the Quad Cities area.  In an article in the Rock Island Dispatch-Argus, Ajidh estimated that 40 percent of his clientele were vegetarians.  Sultan features Bell Pepper Dolmah - a baked green bell pepper filled with a mixture of split peas, cracked wheat, and basmati rice with a special blend herbs and seasonings; and a vegetarian sampler plate that features two falafel patties, kookoo sabzi (a Persian souffle) topped with cucumber sauce, cooked bell peppers, and hummus, all served with basmati rice topped with sumac.  

Cindy had brought home some gyro meat and a healthy helping of basmati rice after her first visit.  She said, "The portions were huge and I couldn't eat all of my gyro plate."  I heated the gyro meat and the basmati rice up in the microwave and I thought they were both pretty good.  Cindy said that they wouldn't be as good as served at Sultan, so I was eager to get over there to give it a try.  

Around 6:30 on a beautiful Monday evening a few weeks ago, we pulled into Sultan's parking lot located next to the K Mart on Blackhawk Road on the south side of Rock Island.  (see map)   We were greeted by a young man with tousled red hair behind the counter.  He asked if we'd been there before - of course, Cindy had and I hadn't - and he told her, "OK, well, you know the drill."

She turned to me and said, "We find our seats, look through the menu, then go up to the counter to order.  Then they bring the food out to us."  OK, simple enough.  

The small and cozy restaurant that seats about 40 people had a small crowd in there the night we were there.  There was a group of people toward the front, another group of people toward the back and we sat at a booth along the windows.  There's a bar in Sultan that Ajidh and friends built earlier this year that makes the place even more cozy - as in cramped.  But they have a full bar including a number of beers, mixed drinks and wine to choose from.  I noticed that they had three varieties of beers from the Lagunitas Brewery in California.  I was pretty impressed that they had Lagunitas beers.  

I pretty much knew what I was going to get - the same gyro plate that Cindy tried to eat on her own a few months prior.  For $9.99, it comes with gyro meat, sliced tomatoes, chopped onions, basmati rice, and tzatiki sauce with a single pita bread.  

Cindy was sort of torn between a couple things - one was the Shevid Baghali Polo, a skewer of marinated grilled chicken breast served with basmati rice mixed with dill, lima beans, and homemade special seasonings with a skewer of grilled chopped onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes.  But she ended up picking out the Adas Polo - a grilled marinated chicken breast with basmati rice mixed with lentils and special seasonings.  A skewer of the chopped onions, bell peppers and tomatoes came with it.  

We also ordered an appetizer of garlic hummus and pita bread for $3.99.  I ordered a Lagunitas India Pale Ale and Cindy ordered a house cabernet.  The only problem was that they had sold out of the cabernet over the weekend and we were told by Ashkon Ajidh that he doesn't get his liquor shipments until Tuesday.  She asked if he had a merlot and he said, "Oh, yes. I surely do."  

The pita bread and hummus came out first.  It turned out that we probably shouldn't have gotten the appetizer because of all the food that we were going to receive a little later on.  The appetizer featured two flat pita breads - piping hot - cut into quarter triangles.  A large bowl of garlic hummus with a pitted black olive on top sat next to the pita triangles.  I don't really care for hummus all that much, but I will say that the garlic hummus at Sultan was pretty damn good.  It had a great garlic taste, but not overpowering.  The hummus spread easily on the warm pita triangles.  It was a good start to the meal.

I had finished my Lagunitas IPA and went up to the counter to get another one before we got our food.  The young kid said, "Uh, you got the last cold Lagunitas IPA.  We forgot to restock the beer from the weekend."  He said that he had the Lagunitas Censored beer - the original name for the beer, Kronik, was censored by the bureaucrats at the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms because it was too close to an urban slang term for marijuana.  (Kronic is actually a marijuana-type plant that emanated from New Zealand which is legal to smoke in many places around the world.)  It's a very smooth copper ale that I like to drink from time to time.  

The young red-haired guy brought out my piping hot pita bread on a plate, then out came Cindy's chicken kabob with the seasoned basmati rice with lentils covering nearly all the plate and a small skewer of veggies (below left).  Then a moment later he came out with my gyros plate (below right).  

 
They certainly didn't skimp on either the gyro meat or the basmati rice.  Cindy immediately commandeered one of my small tubs of tzatiki, so I asked our server if I could get a couple more.  

I was going to make my own gyro, but before I began to put it together on the pita bread, I tried the gyro meat.  It had a very good flavor to the meat, slightly salty, but very tasty.  The onions and sliced tomatoes were very fresh and flavorful, as well.  

I made up my own gyro using only about half the gyro meat that was on my plate, while using all of the tomato slices and much of the chopped onions. After I was brought more tzatiki sauce, I scooped a couple containers full out on top of the gyro.  

The pita bread was soft, warm and chewy.  It was very good with a slightly toasty taste.  The combination of the gyro meat, veggies and tzatiki sauce was a wonderful taste.  The meat was salty - not as salty as the gyro meat at Uncle Pete's, but a bit more salty than the one I had at Dr. Gyros a couple three weeks before.  Overall, the gyro was very good.  It think it had something to do with the pita bread.  Like a bun can make or break a good burger, I think the same thing comes into play with how good the pita bread is with the gyro meat.  

After eating all of the gyro and the remaining gyro meat on my plate, there was no way that I would be able to finish my basmati rice.  In fact, I don't think there was any way I could even take three bites of the basmati rice, I was so stuffed.  From what I had, it was very good.  I ended up getting a small box to put most of the rice into to take home for leftovers.  

Cindy described her grilled marinated chicken breast as "delicious".  She had already stolen a couple long strips of gyro meat from my plate before she offered me a taste of her chicken.  The outside of the chicken was a little tough from the grill, but the inside was moist and very flavorful.  I had a bit of her seasoned basmati rice with the lentils and, quite actually, I couldn't really tell what the seasoning was or if it even heightened the taste sensation of the rice.  

The third time going to Sultan was definitely the charm for me.  I thoroughly enjoyed the food, I was impressed with their beer selections, the people were friendly, and even though it was a little cramped, I did like the cozy atmosphere.  Overall, it was an excellent value - we got a LOT of food for under $25 bucks.  Actually, probably too much food as I was really stuffed afterward and had food to take home.  Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant may not be authentic Persian or Mediterranean food, but it's close.  Damn close.  (Photo at left courtesy Trip Advisor.)

(Update July 2016 - My wife and I went over to Sultan one evening on a recent Monday night, but forgot that they were closed that day.   A little over two weeks later, we went over on a Friday evening and we were bummed to find a "For Lease" sign in the window and that Sultan was closed down.  Really sad to see this place close up.)

American Burger Bar - St. Joseph, MN

The last couple three times I've driven out of St. Cloud, MN on Country Road 75 toward Interstate 94 and on up to Fargo, I've passed an interesting looking restaurant in the small town of St. Joseph, MN just to the west of St. Cloud - American Burger Bar.  On a recent trip to the area, I decided that I'd stop in this time to the place to try - what else?  A burger! 

American Burger Bar is actually part of a three-restaurant operation that is under a corporate umbrella owned by partners Brad Ireland and Eric Sandrock.  Ireland Sandrock Systems, Inc. also owned McRudy's Pub and RumRunners Comedy Club in St. Cloud until they got into a situation with the city earlier this year when officials didn't want to renew McRudy's alcohol permit.  They also owned American Joe Coffee Shop before it was folded into one of their American Burger Bar locations.  But before all that happened, Ireland and Sandrock were the franchise owners in the Embers restaurant chain located around Minnesota.  At its height, Sandrock and Ireland owned seven Embers locations.  The last Embers - Barbara Jean's Embers American Cafe in Milaca, MN, north and east of St. Cloud - closed earlier this year. 

Sandrock's and Ireland's first foray into a dedicated burger joint was a place called American Burger Emporium in the east side Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, MN.  The place opened in 2008 and the concept went over extremely well.  Looking to expand, Ireland and Sandrock teamed up with chef Rino Baglio to open the first American Burger Bar in St. Paul in early 2009.  They took over a spot that housed the former Matty B's supper club.  The supper club was owned by former Minnesota Viking football player Matt Birk, who is a St. Paul native.   

Sandrock and Ireland, along with Baglio, came up with a concept of gourmet burgers including Kobe beef burgers and burgers made from bison and Certified Black Angus beef.  The place featured "build-your-own" burgers, as well as house specialities as the Juicy Klucy - a take-off on the cheese-stuffed burgers that are big in the Twin Cities, only this one is made with Kobe beef.  

After working with Baglio for a little over a year, Sandrock and Ireland parted ways with the chef.  Sandrock and Ireland said the split was amicable, but Baglio said he was terminated.  Either way, Sandrock and Ireland forged ahead with the American Burger Bar concept.  They opened their second location in St. Joseph, MN over Labor Day weekend of 2010.  The large stand-alone structure was made out of stone and formally housed a restaurant fittingly named The Stonehouse.  The St. Joseph location opens at 8 a.m. and also serves breakfast.  In the spring of 2011, a third location for American Burger Bar opened on Hennepin Ave. in downtown Minneapolis.  Later that year, they closed the American Burger Emporium in Woodbury to focus on their American Burger Bar concept.

The St. Joseph location for American Burger Bar is located just before the entrance ramp to Interstate 94 at the corner of Country Road 75 and 115th Ave./Collegeville Road. (see map)  The College of Saint Benedict and St. John's University are located just down the road from the restaurant.  It was around 1:30 when I got in to the place.  Interestingly, the place was void of customers with the exception of a lone figure sitting at the bar.  I was sort of standing there looking over the well-lit, yet empty dining room when a lady by the name of Chandra came out to greet me.  She said, "We're a little slow today with the rain, so you pretty much have the place to yourself."  I asked if I could sit at the bar and she said that would be great.  

 
The bar area was very nice with dark wood paneling, inlaid stone walls and a very nice rectangular bar.  I took a seat and she asked me if there was anything that I'd like to drink.  I noticed that they had the Bell's Two Hearted Pale Ale on tap and I asked for one of those.  She said, "We just got that in for the first time yesterday.  I haven't tried it yet."  I told her that she would probably be selling lots of it.  

Looking over the menu she gave me, I decided to just make my own burger.  I was going to get the basic Black Angus burger and then add on to that for an upcharge.  They had six different types of cheese to choose from, as well as a number of toppings such as spinach, jalapenos, grilled peppers, caramelized onions and grilled pineapple.  They also had premium toppings such as black truffles, peppered bacon, grilled crab slaw, and homemade chili.  I decided upon a Black Angus burger patty - medium - topped with sauteed mushrooms, jalapeno bacon with pepperjack cheese.  I had my choice of bun types and I got the onion bun.  For a side, I had my choice of American Burger Bar's skinny fries, or I could upgrade to tater tots, truffle fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings.  None of them sounded good to me - I was just there for the burger.  Chandra suggested a salad - yeah, I'll take a salad.  I ordered it with their Catalina dressing.  

The salad was all right, nothing really special.  The greens were fresh.  The Catalina dressing was good, but not the best I've had in a restaurant.    

Chandra brought the burger out and it looked very promising.  Two slabs of jalapeno bacon were on top of the burger patty that was covered by the pepperjack cheese.  A nice amount of sauteed mushrooms were included on the burger.  Red onion slices and dill pickles came with the burger.  

But I was disappointed in the onion bun.  It looked good, but I found it to be a little dried out.  It didn't have the spongy texture that you'd expect with a fresh baked bun.  

The burger, too, was somewhat disappointing.  The beef was unspectacular for Black Angus beef, it was pretty neutral in taste and it was a tad overcooked for a medium burger.  The jalapeno bacon was spicy and helped zip up the taste of the burger.  The sauteed mushrooms were a good addition, but with the spicyness of the bacon I couldn't really taste the pepperjack cheese.  I'd have to give the burger a "C" if I were grading it.  It wasn't bad, but I guess I expected so much more from a place with the name American Burger Bar.  

With the toppings and a couple beers, the bill came to over $20 bucks.  I didn't think the burger was all that great for the price.  Chandra did a great job in taking care of me, however, and I thought the place - especially the bar area - was very nice.  I may go to one of the other American Burger Bar locations in the Twin Cities to see how well they stack up next to the one in St. Joseph.  But I'll have to say that I went in with a lot of hope, but came out with some disappointment with American Burger Bar.