Road Tips

Frank and Helen's Pizza - St. Louis, MO

On my culinary radar for quite sometime, I finally had the chance to try Frank and Helen's Pizza in St. Louis recently.  St. Louis has some pretty fine pizza places and Frank and Helen's has been in business for nearly 60 years.  It's one of those places where the older locals will tell you that Frank and Helen's was their first pizza.  After a day of travel and meetings, I sought out Frank and Helen's before going to my hotel to check in.

Frank and Helen's is really old school when it comes to their pizza.  In 1956, Julius "Jule" Seitz opened the door to his little pizza place at the corner of Olive and Midland in the St. Louis enclave of University City.  It was called "Jule's Pizza" and was on of the first pizza places in the city.  In 1959, Jule's brother, Frank Seitz, took over the operation of the pizza joint, helped by his wife, Betty.  A year later, Frank and Jule's sister, Helen Wetzel, joined Frank and Betty in the business.  The sign on the front of the building was changed to Frank and Helen's Pizza.  

Business was growing for Frank and Helen's and they decided they needed to move to a larger location.  Wanting to stay in the U City area, they found a business up the road on Olive that had once been a car wash, but had been converted into a food vending and catering company.  Frank and Helen's moved to this new location - their present day location - in 1967 (see map) while maintaining the original restaurant for a short while.  In 1968, they sold the original Frank and Helen's to Ennio Cardinale who put in his own pizza place, the now-defunct Pino's Pizza.  

Frank and Helen's was a favorite hangout for U City policemen and when the brother and sister were ready to hang up their aprons, they sold the business to former U City police officer Scott DePolito, and his wife, Mary.  The DePolito's continued the tradition of Frank and Helen's thin crust pizza and their famous broasted chicken.  In 2008, the DePolito's sold out to Patrick Horvath and his wife, Rebecca.  Horvath had also been a former University City policeman and he became the manager of Frank and Helen's in 2002.   

It was close to 6 p.m. when I got into Frank and Helen's.  I was greeted by a young lady who told me that I could sit anywhere.  I took one of the booths along the wall.  My server for the evening, Ashley, dropped off a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  I ordered a Budweiser.  When you're in St. Louis and in a 60's-style pizza joint, Budweiser is the beer you gotta have.  

It seriously looks like Pat and Helen's hasn't been updated since they moved into the place 46 years ago.  But it has a retro charm to the place - large glass-shaded lamps hang from the paneled ceiling.  Formica topped tables and curved-backed chairs were interspersed throughout the main area of the dining room.  In the booths, ornate fixtures with dimly lit faux candle bulbs hung from the wall.  

In addition to Frank and Helen's pizza and broasted chicken, they also feature sandwiches, soups and salads, appetizers - including the requisite toasted ravioli, and a handful of pasta dishes and entrees such as a top sirloin steak, chicken Spedini, and a lightly grilled grouper with your choice of lemon pepper, Cajun or garlic-butter seasonings.  

The pizza at Frank and Helen's comes in three sizes - 10", 16" and 18".  You can order the crust three ways - extra thin, thin and thick.  They have a choice of six different sauces that include a traditional red, a zesty marinara, and a barbecue sauce.  St. Louis-style pizzas feature provel cheese, but Frank and Helen's also gives you the choice of having mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan and gargonzola cheese on the pizza.  And they have the traditional ingredients to go on the pizza, but they also feature special ingredients such as artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled chicken and meatballs.  

When Ashley came back with my beer - served with a frosted mug - I was ready to order.  I ordered a small, extra-thin crust, Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza with the traditional red sauce and mozzarella.  Ashley asked, "Is that a 10" or the 16" pizza?"  I thought that was sort of a weird question to ask.  I told her the 10" pizza was the size I wanted.  I was curious as to why she would ask that question, but it was soon answered when I got the bill after I finished.  The 10" is listed as a "midget" pizza.  So, the 16" pizza must be the "small", and the 18" must be the "large".  

As I waited for my pizza, the place slowly began to fill up.  I also noticed that I was - by far - the youngest person in the place, save for the young grandson of a man who came in not long after I arrived.  And the people in the place all seemed to be regulars with the servers greeting customers by their names when they came in the door.  Frank and Helen's was truly a neighborhood gathering place.

The pizza showed up about 15 minutes after I ordered it.  Ashley got me another beer in the meantime and brought out a new frosted mug to go along with it.  The pizza was served on a pizza tin and compared to the round shape of the tin, it was almost oval in shape.  It was topped with an abundance of sausage, pepperoni and sliced mushrooms, and cut into party squares.   

After letting it cool for a bit, I took the first bite.  The chunks of sausage were like little meatballs and had a nice fennel taste.  The pepperoni was spicy and salty, and the sliced mushrooms were fresh and flavorful.  The traditional red sauce was tangy and had a hint of sweetness to it.

The crust wasn't cracker thin as I expected, which was fine.  Sometimes a St. Louis-style thin crust pizza will get too mushy in the crust and become limp.  The crust at Frank and Helen's stayed crisp, but was light and flaky.  It was very good.  

As I was eating my pizza, I heard one of the other servers talking to some regulars seated behind me.  She said in passing, "You know, we used to make our own sausage here, but stopped a few years ago.  But I think we're going to start making our own sausage in house."  I thought the sausage they were using was very good.  It had that great fennel flavor with a bit of a spicy bite.  I was thinking that it would be tough to make the Italian sausage on their pizza even better than what it was.

I loved everything about Frank and Helen's - the pizza was excellent, as was the service, and the retro charm of the place was wonderful.  There are some pretty good pizza places in St. Louis, but something about Frank and Helen's jumped out at me for the old school feel to the place.  The place wasn't slick or contemporary, and that's almost a welcome change for me some times.  I have three or four favorite pizza places in St. Louis, but Frank and Helen's may have become my most favorite pizza in town.

Edelweiss - Colorado Springs

After taking the Cog Train to the top of Pikes Peak during our visit to Colorado Springs, we got back to the hotel to change clothes courtesy of a late check-out provided to us.  It was around 1:30 and we were getting hungry.  We had thought about getting German food the night before, but we ended up getting Italian at Paravicini's (click here to see the entry on Paravincini's).  This time, we decided to go seek out a German place toward the east end of town - Uwe's - primarily because it was close.  But we got there just after 2 p.m. and they had already closed their lunch serving.  We then plugged in the address in the GPS for a place toward the south side of Colorado Springs - Edelweiss.  Pulling up there about 15 minutes later, we found that it was definitely open.

Edelweiss has been around since the 60's when Eric Grundel opened the restaurant in what was formerly an old two-room school house.   The school house, originally, was just up the street, but was moved to the present day location to be a residence.  The sub-terranean foundation of the building features three-foot-thick rock walls because it sits on land that used to be a pond before it was filled in with ash from a power plant in downtown Colorado Springs.  It had turned into a building for commercial use before Grundel bought the building and established Edelweiss in 1967.  

Two years after Edelweiss opened, German immigrant Helga Schnakenberg began to work at the Edelweiss as a waitress because she believed the place and the people made her feel more at home.  Trained in business and tax consulting in Germany, Helga soon got more responsibility within the restaurant, eventually becoming the general manager of Edelweiss in the 70's.  In 1979, Schnakenberg's husband, Gary, took a job in Montana and she left Edelweiss to follow him there.   But she stayed in touch with many people at the restaurant.

In the late 80's, the chance to buy the restaurant came up for the Schnackenbergs, and along with their son, Dieter (who had been born in Montana), they moved back to Colorado Springs and bought the restaurant in 1989.  The family lived in a small house next door to the Edelweiss on land that is now that parking lot.  Dieter Schnackenberg began his career at the restaurant as a young boy folding napkins and sorting silverware.  He became a dishwasher in the restaurant in his early teens, then eventually spent his summers as a line cook at Edelweiss.  Dieter then took a three-year culinary apprenticeship program at the prestigious Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs before returing to his family's restaurant.   Today, Dieter Schnakenberg runs the day-to-day operations of Edelweiss.  

Head chef Ana Perez, a native of Panama, was first hired by Helga Schnakenberg (when she was the G.M of Edelweiss) as a dishwasher in 1975.  Sensing that she had a good feel for food, Schnakenberg eventually paired Perez with Wolfgang Kaufmann, the first executive chef at Edelweiss.  Perez learned all there was to know about German food and preparation from Kaufmann.  

And head pastry chef, Alfred "Freddie" Hiltbrunner has been associated with Edelweiss off and on since the business opened in the 60's.  Hiltbrunner, a Swiss native who was trained as a pastry chef in his hometown of Zurich - where his father was a baker - is in charge of the delectable pies and pastries that Edelweiss has become famous for.  

Edelweiss is not on the beaten path, but it's a couple blocks off Nevada Ave, a main north-south street on the south side of Colorado Springs.  The GPS had us take a right on Ramona Street and we pulled up to the restaurant at the corner of Ramona and S. Tejon Street.  (see map)  We were greeted by a woman with a heavy German accent at the hostess counter and asked if we wanted to eat inside the restaurant or on the patio.  It was a glorious sunshiny day in Colorado Springs - one of the over 330 sunny days they see on an annual basis.  The patio featured tables with umbrellas and shade awnings to keep diners cool on even the hot days.  We decided to eat on the patio and enjoy the day.  

We were seated at a blue-checkered cloth-topped table near a thermometer on a post that showed the temperature at 91 degrees in the shade.  But with low humidity in the air, it felt wonderful.  Our server, Susanne, who also had a bit of a German accent, came to greet us and take our drink order.  I took a look at Edelweiss' beer menu and at the top was the Paulaner lager.   I ordered a stein of the Paulaner and Cindy got an iced tea.

Looking through the lunch menu, we saw a number of sandwiches, soups and salads available, along with smaller portions of favorite German dishes such as weinerschnitzel, jagerschnitzel and zigeunerschnitzel - a breaded and sauteed pork cutlet topped with a tomato, mushroom, onion and bell pepper sauce. I found the sauerbraten on the menu and decided that I was going to have that.  

Cindy was in a bit of a quandary.  She was hungry, but was afraid to go hog wild on lunch as I had promised her that I would take her to Chianti Ristorante near where we were going to stay in Denver that evening.  (Click here to see my entry on Chianti.)   She decided to get a sandwich and ended up ordering the reuben when Susanne came back to take our order.  She also got a dinner salad to go with her sandwich.  I got a couple sides with my sauerbraten - the red cabbage and the bacon potato dumpling.

Cindy's house salad consisted of a mix of lettuce greens, cold green beans, pickled beets and German potato salad.  She said, "Well, this is interesting."  A large tomato wedge rested on top of the German potato salad.  She said the concoction was very good.  She had me try a pickled beet and some of the German potato salad and I'll have to say that both had very good flavor.   

 
Susanne brought out our lunch plates and we were ready to eat.  Cindy's reuben was stacked high with thick cut corned beef topped with Swiss cheese and an ample amount of sauerkraut.  The light rye bread was lightly toasted.  From her first bite, Cindy was impressed with the sandwich.  "I wasn't certain I wanted a reuben," she said.  "But the meat is so tender and has a lot of flavor.  I'm glad I got this."  

My sauerbraten featured two cuts of their marinated beef and topped with a sweet and sour brown sauce that was delicious.  The meat was tender and I could easily cut it with a fork.  The red cabbage was wonderful with a nice sweet and sour taste to it, as well.  The two small bacon potato dumplings were good, but I couldn't get much of a taste of bacon with them.  

The first beer had gone down rather easily, so I ordered a second beer from Susanne to help close out my meal.  This time, I ordered a Warsteiner pilsner beer.  I like the taste of Warsteiner with German food.  And I have to say that I was more than impressed with the selection of German beers Edelweiss had at the restaurant, both on tap and in bottles.

The amount of food was just right for me and I wasn't stuffed, nor was I wanting for more.  But Cindy had designs of looking through the dessert menu.  Susanne brought out a dessert menu for us to look through and I immediately saw the bread pudding and the tiramisu - all made in house Freddie Hiltbrunner.  They even had a tray of both for $20 bucks, probably for large groups of diners.  Then I saw something else on the dessert menu - the lemon mousse torte, a multi-layered lemon cake from Freddie Hiltbrunner's in-house bakery.  Cindy saw they had a hazelnut torte, as well.  I told her that I really didn't want anything, doing my best to push away the dessert urge that I was having.  But then we compromised - Cindy suggested we get a piece of the lemon torte to take with us.  We had a cooler in the car and we had it later that evening after dinner.  It was absolutely and sinfully wonderful.    

Before we left, I wanted to take a look through the restaurant.  While Cindy went to the restroom, I popped my head into the west wing room of the restaurant (below left).  The ornate room featured some interesting woodwork on the ceiling in an elegant and cozy setting.  I then looked over into a room across from the west wing room - the middle room (below right).  Like the west wing room, the equally ornate middle room also had an interesting ceiling and a fire place.   

 
While I was browsing about in the middle room, a guy came out of the kitchen and asked if he could help me.  I explained that we had just eaten on the patio and I wanted to look around at the restaurant.  He said, "Be sure to go downstairs to take a look at our downstairs Rathskeller."  I took the stairs down to the Rathskeller area and it was dark.  But I found this picture (below left) of the downstairs lounge area on Edelweiss' web site (along with the other interior shots of the restaurant).  I wish I would have found a light switch because the lounge at Edelweiss looks like it would be a great place to have a beer while waiting for a table in the main dining area upstairs.  

 
Before we left, I took a quick gander into the large east wing room at Edelweiss.  Used primarily as a party/reception facility or overflow on a busy night, the room was set up that day with long tables like it was getting ready to host a banquet.  The brightly lit room was the antithesis to the other dining rooms at Edelweiss with light-colored walls and a high ceiling, but still possessed the same style of interesting ornamental artwork throughout the room.   

We loved a everything about our visit to Colorado Springs.  And Edelweiss was no exception.  The food was very good, the patio area was comfortable - even on a 90 degree day, and the service we received from Susanne was impeccable.  We were very happy that circumstances brought us to Edelweiss or we wouldn't have enjoyed one of the better meals we had on our trip to Colorado.  Edelweiss' great authentic German food and interesting decor is worth the visit.

D'Corazon - Denver

When my wife and I were in Denver in early September, we asked one of the bellmen at The Curtis, the hotel at which we were staying, who had the best Mexican food in downtown Denver.  He told us of a place on Blake Street - D'Corazon - about a six or seven block walk from the hotel.  Another bellman wholeheartedly agreed.  "There's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in Denver," he explained.  "But D'Corazon is probably the most authentic."  We had hoped to go to D'Corazon after a baseball game, but we found that they close at 9 p.m. through the week.  (A lot of non-chain restaurants in downtown Denver close at 9 p.m. on weekdays, we found.)  Three weeks later, I was back out in Denver for the annual CEDIA Expo and my colleague, Todd, was trying to figure out places to go for dinner.  He had brought up Mexican food and I told him about the recommendation from the two guys at The Curtis.  He made reservations for a large group of us to go try D'Corazon. 

D'Corazan (which translates into English as "the heart") opened in 2004 in suburban Lakewood.  Eddie Aguirre had been working for a small local chain of family owned Mexican restaurants - Las Delicias.   When one of the old Las Delicias locations became available in the LoDo District of downtown Denver a couple years ago, he opened the second D'Corazon on Blake Street.  (See map) 

We were staying at the Marriott City Center in downtown Denver and it was a pleasant evening so we thought we'd walk to D'Corazon.  There were about 8 people in our group and we were going to meet an additional 4 to 6 guys at the restaurant.  Todd had made the reservations for 7 p.m. and it was just after 7 p.m. when our group showed up.  A hostess pushed together 3 four-seater tables and she left menus on the table. 

The interior of D'Corazon features lively earth-toned walls, subdued lighting at night (I had to use the flashlight application on my phone to read anything), and the requisite Mexican artwork adorning the walls.  Two flat screen televisions on opposite ends of the dining area were tuned to baseball games.  On one of the walls was the phrase "La Perfeccion Tiene su Precio" which translated into "Perfection has it's price."  That pretty much means that you're going to have to pay to get good Mexican food at D'Corazon. (Photo courtesy Denver Post)

Margaritas were immediately ordered up (they don't have pitchers of margaritas at D'Corazon, much to our dismay).  Chips and salsa was brought to the table.  The chips were crisp and fresh, and the housemade salsa had a nice little bite to it.  While it wasn't overly spicy, it certainly got your attention.   

 
Someone had the foresight to also order fresh guacamole.  Each table had their own large bowl of guacamole placed on it.  The guacamole was also fresh and very flavorful - and very rich.  It was very filling, so I had to slow down or it would spoil my dinner.  But it was so good that it was difficult to stop eating it.  

When we had initially talked to the bellmen at The Curtis in early September, one of them was raving about the carnitas dinner at D'Corazon.  "The pork is so moist and full of flavor," he was telling us.  "It's about the only thing I get there any more and I've eaten there about a dozen times."  When I found the carnitas on the menu, it said that it was made with 28 different ingredients, of which 23 were one item.  I didn't quite understand it, but I was all in for the carnitas when I found that I could get it served with a green chile sauce.  In addition to the carnitas, they had the usual roll call of Mexican favorites - enchiladas, fajitas, tamales, burritos and chimichangas.  

We ordered up our food - everyone got a little bit of everything on the menu.  Some ordered enchiladas, a couple others ordered fajitas, and a few burritos were ordered.  One of my dining partners that evening was also intrigued with the carnitas "secret ingredients" and got that as well.

In the meantime, I thought the house margarita had sort of a funky taste to it.  My colleague, Matt, said, "Does the margarita taste funny or is it just me?"  It had sort of a bitter taste to it that settled on the tongue.  It wasn't sweet or syrup-y like some margaritas tend to be, but it had some taste that wasn't agreeable with me.  I saw that they had Sol on the menu and I ordered one of those from one of the servers who was waiting on us.  She said, "We don't have Sol."  When I pointed it out on the menu, she reiterated, "We don't have Sol."  I sort of shrugged my shoulders and ordered a Dos Equis Amber instead.  They did have that.  

Our food made it to the table.  When the waitress put my plate down in front of me, I noticed that the green chile sauce was more of a red color.  I got her attention and asked her if she had forgotten about the green chile sauce.  "That's the green chile sauce," she told me in sort of a dismissive tone.  Well, it was the first time I'd seen green chile sauce that was actually red in color.  

 
Fresh tortillas came with the carnitas dinner and I was able to make my own fajita-style meal out of what was on my plate.  The pork pulled apart very easily and was tender with an interesting flavor.   Adding some of the pork to the tortilla along with guacamole, refried beans, rice and some of the chile sauce made for a nice taste combination.  I was able to make two of the filled tortillas from what I had on my plate.

Below left is one of the enchilada dinners that one of my colleagues sitting near me ordered.  He got shredded beef in his enchiladas and he declared them to be very good.  

 
Above right is the chimichanga that one of my colleagues from France ordered.  He was having a problem with a tooth (he ended up having to get a root canal while he was in Denver) and he ordered his chimichanga with ground beef so it would be easier to chew.  He said the flavor was excellent and it was, indeed, easy to chew.

While I thought my carnitas were fine, I guess I was expecting so much more in the way of taste and flavor.  It wasn't that the pork carnitas were bad - far from it.  It was that I was expecting this taste explosion in my mouth.  It never happened.  I asked my dining partner who also got the carnitas what he thought of it and he sort of said, "Ahhh...  It was all right.  I guess I was thinking it would be this wonderful thing, but I didn't think it was any different from other carnitas I've gotten at other places."  I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

But that's not to say that we won't go back to D'Corazon when we're back in Denver next year for the 2014 CEDIA Expo.  I'd love to go back and try something else.  But I won't get a margarita, unless I get a special one and not the house margarita.  While I thought the carnitas were good, they weren't as good as advertised.  The carnitas are worth giving them a try and some people may like them more than I did.  But I expected more from the dish.  But everyone else raved about their food.  All in all, D'Corazon's food was good to very good.  I haven't tried any other Mexican restaurants in downtown Denver, but D'Corazon would be tough to top.

Michael's Pizza - Des Moines, IA

Des Moines has a surprising number of very good pizza places to choose from.  I was talking with one of my dealers on a recent visit and he was telling me of a newer place in the Beaverdale neighborhood - Michael's Pizza.  Well, he said the restaurant was new, but the pizza was an old recipe from a restaurant by the same name that started in the 70's.  I had to go give Michael's Pizza a try.

The original Michael is Micheal Baier, an Exira, IA native who moved to Des Moines in the mid-60's after a stint in the Navy.  After getting off work from his job as a meat cutter at a local grocery store, one of the places that he frequented was a small bar in Beaverdale called the Gin Mill.  Previously known as the Golden Hawk, it was a favorite hang-out of politicians and regular folks.  When he bought the place in 1973 and renamed it Michael's, it was just a lounge that was manned by Baier, his wife at the time, and a single bartender.  Even though he had no experience running a restaurant, Baier turned to a friend in the food service industry, Sam Cohen, who taught him the ins-and-outs of the business operation of a restaurant.

In 1975, Michael's began to serve soups, salads and sandwiches at lunch time, then seven years later he expanded the restaurant and began to serve dinners.  In 1994, he added a pizzeria - Poor Michael's.  Michael Baier was there 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.  Over the years, he was helped out by his son and daughter, but also had a staff of about 25 people that worked for him.  

In 2009, Michael Baier decided to retire and he closed the business.  A year later, two young guys who worked for him at Michael's - Drew Thelen and Jon Ingram, along with Ingram's mother, Patricia Hulting - bought the Michael's name and the pizza recipe.   After a couple of problems getting going, they opened the new Michael's in February of 2011 in a strip mall on the east side of Beaver Road in Beaverdale.  (see map).  The strip mall doesn't face the street and if you come from the north on Beaver Road, if you don't know where it is just past Urbandale Avenue, you can drive right past - like I did.  

Once I got there, I suddenly remembered seeing an entry on Slakingfool's blog site about Michael's Pizza.  I thought, "Ohhh, this is the place that I'd read about before!"  I was excited to give the pizza a try.   

Michael's is a small place.  It seats 24 people with 5 four-seater tables and 2 two-seaters up front.  Italian posters hang from the walls and contemporary industrial lights hang from the exposed ceiling.  It's cozy and very comfortable.  

I was greeted by a young lady behind the counter and I immediately ordered a small (10") pizza with my usual sausage, mushroom and pepperoni.  I got a beer to go along with it.  She immediately went into the back kitchen area and made up the pizza.  While she was making the pizza, I grabbed a menu to look over.  They have a number of specialty pizzas at Michael's including a number of different sauces to choose from including a basil pesto sauce, a Creole sauce and a Southwestern bean sauce.  They have 10 different types of meats to choose from including a spicy sausage and a garlic sausage.  I didn't specify what kind of sausage I wanted on my pizza, so I guessed that I was getting the garlic sausage.  Eclectic toppings included pineapple, artichoke hearts, and, interestingly, roasted apples and roasted pears.  Michael's Pizza also offers a handful of appetizers and salads, as well.

Just over 15 minutes after I ordered, she brought the pizza out to me.  The cheese was caramelized and looked creamy to me - sort of a cross between mozzarella and provolone cheese.  There were large chunks of sausage on the pizza - the way I like it.  Small discs of pepperoni and slices of fresh mushrooms were interspersed with the sauce, cheese and sausage.  

After letting it cool for a bit, I took my first bite of a Michael's pizza.  The cheese did have a creamy texture to it and had a great flavor.  The sausage wasn't spicy (it had to be the garlic sausage - they probably got it from Graziano Brothers) but it was very flavorful and held together well in its chunks.  The sauce was sort of sweet and tangy.  The crust was thin, crisp, but wasn't cracker-like in its consistency.  The pizza at Michael's easily passed my "Does it Taste Good with a Beer?" test.  It tasted great with a beer.  

I added some parmesan cheese and crushed red peppers to a couple of subsequent slices.  It helped zip up the taste without detracting from the overall taste of the pizza.  The pizza, on its own, was exceptional.  

I'm still amazed that a city like Des Moines has access to so many great pizzerias while my home area of the Quad Cities is woefully deficient in the number of good pizza places.  Des Moines is certainly a pizza town and Michael's Pizza is one that I'd put up against some of my favorites in the area that I've found over the years.  The dining area is cozy and quaint, and the pizza is top notch.  There's nothing that I could complain about my pizza at Michael's Pizza.  

The Wild Rose Food and Spirits Co. - Estes Park, CO

After our first day up in Rocky Mountain National Park during our trip to Colorado, we decided that we needed to get something to eat for lunch.  Not knowing much about the restaurant topography of Estes Park, we were driving around looking for places that didn't quite look like they'd be tourist traps.  Cindy saw a quaint little place along Elkhorn Ave. called The Wild Rose Food and Spirits Company.  (see map)  We parked in a free municipal lot behind the building and made our way around to the front entrance of the place.

The Wild Rose is owned and operated by Hubert "Hubi" Feldon, a European classically trained chef who has worked in a number of restaurants across Europe and the U.S. before settling in Estes Park.  There is a bit of a German touch to Feldon's dinner menu at the Wild Rose with wiener schnitzel, jagerschnitzel, and roasted pork loin available.  The Wild Rose also features a number of steaks and a signature Elk Chop entree that is available on a seasonal basis.  The restaurant also features a handful of pasta entrees, as well as seafood dishes on their menu.

It was mid-afternoon when we got into The Wild Rose, well after the afternoon rush.  We were greeted by a young lady - Olga - with a thick Eastern European accent.   She wanted to know if we wanted to eat in the bar area or in the dining room.  I took a look at the bar area - it was a warmly-lit, cozy room with pinewood paneled walls and a small bar.  It was actually very nice.

 
After a quick look at the bar, we looked in the dining room.  It was a well lit room with lot of natural light coming through the windows with a series of tables and chairs that gave it a more lively vibe.  We decided to sit in the dining room and were shown to a table in the middle of the room.  Olga dropped off menus for us and asked if we wanted anything to drink.  After a somewhat harrowing drive up and down Trail Ridge Road in driving rain and BB-sized hail, I needed a beer.  Cindy got a glass of the house chardonnay.  

The Wild Rose lunch menu included some of the dinner entrees in smaller portions and they also had a number of sandwiches and burgers to choose from.  They also had a number of soups and salads on the menu. I immediately saw the jagerschnitzel on the menu and thought that might be interesting.  But Cindy reminded me that because it was so late in the afternoon a light lunch would probably be better, especially since we were planning on going out to have a nice dinner that evening.  

I started to look through the sandwich portion of the menu.  They had a buffalo burger on the menu, as well as an elk burger.  I don't know if I'd ever had elk before, and I wasn't feeling adventurous.  Buffalo burgers - because of the leanness of the meat - can get overcooked pretty quickly.  So, I had it down to the Wild Rose burger or the reuben.  

Cindy was looking at getting a salad with some meat or fish with it.  They had a Caesar's salad at The Wild Rose where you could add chicken, blackened salmon or grilled shrimp to it.  She checked out the salad bar they had and thought about getting the soup and salad bar combo, but decided against it.  When Olga came to take our order, Cindy went with the Caesar's salad with the blackened salmon.  I was hemmed and hawed for a moment before I ended up ordering the Wild Rose burger.  I also got mushrooms, Swiss cheese and bacon on it for $1 for each additional topping.  I also had a choice of fries or onion rings for my side and I chose the onion rings.  

Since there was only a couple of other tables filled in the dining area, it didn't take long for our food to get out to us.  Cindy's salad was served in a large bowl and it looked just like any other Caesar's salad with chunks of blackened salmon in it.  She said the salmon was fresh and had a somewhat spicy taste to it, but not overpowering.

My burger was teeming with sauteed mushrooms stacked over a couple strips of crisp bacon and a thick slice of melted Swiss cheese on the patty.  The sesame seed bun was was lightly toasted and lettuce, onion and a tomato slice came with the burger.  The first taste of the burger was very good - it was cooked to my liking (medium with a hint of pink in the middle) and somewhat juicy.  It was a good gourmet burger - not the best I've ever had, but still very good.  

The onion rings were a little pedestrian.  I could tell that they were probably frozen, then deep fried.  I don't think they make their own onion rings at The Wild Rose.  They weren't bad, but they weren't great.  Still, it was a good diversion from French fries.

Cindy got a lot of salmon with her salad, so much so that she was having trouble finishing her salad.  She said, "I really didn't want a lot of food, but they really loaded this up with salmon."  She left a few bites on her plate.  It didn't help that she was sneaking onion rings off my plate.  That was fine with me.  I wasn't going to be eating all of them.

Our experience at The Wild Rose was very pleasant.  Olga was a very good server, the atmosphere was comforting and not pretentious at all, and the food was above average.  While it may not have been the best gourmet-style burger I've had, I would give the burger at The Wild Rose a B+.  With a number of places to eat in Estes Park, we'd tell you that The Wild Rose would be worthy of a visit if you get to Estes Park.

Bogart's Smokehouse - St. Louis

In February of 2011, a new barbecue joint opened in the Soulard neighborhood south of downtown St. Louis - Bogart's Smokehouse.  It is basically an off-shoot of one of my all-time favorite barbecue houses - Pappy's Smokehouse (click here to see my entry on Pappy's).  When we were in St. Louis to see some Cardinals games this past summer, we were down in Soulard on a Saturday and noticed a line of people out the door and around the building at Bogart's - and it wasn't even noon yet!  I put Bogart's on my "Restaurants to Try" list and I finally had a chance to go there for lunch earlier this fall.

The main force behind Bogart's is barbecue legend Skip Steele.  Steele was the driving force behind Super Smokers, one of the leading barbecue places in St. Louis for years.  Steele sold his share in Super Smokers in 2007 and moved to Las Vegas to work in a short lived barbecue joint in the Rio hotel and casino.  When Mike Emerson, Brian Scoggins and John Matthews opened  Pappy's Smokehouse just west of downtown St. Louis in 2009, they were able to coax Steele back home to become their chef and pitmaster.  

In late 2010, Steele and Scoggins, along with Pappy's catering manager Niki Puto and Michael Macchi - a restaurant veteran who got his "second wind" in the business working at Pappy's - left there and began to develop their own barbecue place in Soulard.  From the first day they opened, business has been off the chart.

Like Pappy's, Bogart's is open Tuesday thru Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and they close at 4 p.m. Tuesday thru Thursday, or 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday night.  Unless they run out of food, like Pappy's has been known to do, then they close.    

Bogart's Smoke House is located at the corner of Lafayette and 9th Street in Soulard, just across from the Soulard Market Park and down the street from the back end of the Soulard Farmer's Market. (see map)  I was able to find a parking spot across the street from the restaurant.  It was a nice, yet cool, fall day and a few people were seated outside on the picnic tables on the south side of the building.  

It was after the lunch rush when I got into Bogart's and found the menu board above the cash register.  The line was moving fast with a number of people getting orders to go.  The decor on the walls of Bogart's was a funky mesh of historic photos, signs and even a deer head.  It's nothing fancy, but good barbecue shouldn't be fancy.  Tex-Mex music provided by Alejandro Escovedo was playing in the background.  I immediately liked the vibe of the place.  

There's no combination dinners to order at Bogart's, save for either a half slab or a full slab of ribs with 1/4 pound of meat.  I wouldn't really call that a combination dinner, per se.  And the main plates - with your choice of either turkey, brisket, pulled pork, burnt ends, and even pastrami - come with two sides.  (Update - I didn't see this on the menu on the board, but I see on the menu on Bogart's web site that I could have picked two different meats.  I'll have to check on that the next time I go.) 

When I got up to the counter, I was greeted by an outgoing young guy who asked if my order was to-go or to eat there.  I told him it was to eat there and I wanted the brisket plate.  He said, "You get two sides, baked beans?"  

His voice trailed off and I said, "Yeah, baked beans." 

Then he said, "Potato salad?"  He was definitely pushing me in some direction, but I soon figured that the baked beans and the deviled egg potato salad were probably the most popular choices for sides considering the other choices were applesauce, cole slaw, barbecued pork skins and chips.  The deviled egg potato salad was interesting enough to me.  Just like Pappy's, Bogart's doesn't sell beer - which I really enjoy with barbecue - but it wasn't a deal buster.  I just got a cup of water.  

I found a table along the wall and it was about five minutes later when a guy came out from the kitchen area behind the counter and called out my name.  I was served a paper-filled basket filled with a mound of shaved beef brisket, the juices flowing from the meat.  Small four ounce styrofoam cups were filled with the baked beans and the potato salad.  And if someone wanted to make a sandwich out of the abundance of brisket in the basket, a bun was added.

Cutting off some of the brisket to give it a try, the first bite was wonderful.  The meat had a nice pink smoke ring around the edge, there was a bit of a crunch with the bark on the outside.   

I'm a sauce guy, but the meat was so good that I was tempted to not use any of the sauces they had in squeeze bottles on the table.  They had a sweet and smoky Kansas City-style sauce that was tabbed "Sweet Maegan Ann" sauce.  The hot sauce was called "Voodoo" sauce.  There was also a Carolina vinegar sauce and a barbecue sauce made with pineapple juice on the table.   I poured a bit of the sweet and smoky sauce on the paper in the basket and dipped part of the bun into it.  It was an interesting taste - sweet and smoky, definitely.  The "Voodoo" sauce was next.  It wasn't as hot as you'd expect.  For someone like me, who likes spicy food, it had a bite, but it wasn't overly spicy to me.  Mixed together, the two were excellent.  

The Carolina vinegar sauce was a little bland to me.  It could have had a little more of a peppery taste to it, but it probably would have been good to someone who likes a vinegar sauce.  I don't particularly care for a vinegar sauce.  And, quite frankly, I didn't even try the pineapple sauce.  The combination of the sweet and smoky sauce along with the "Voodoo" sauce was good enough for me.   

Like the meat, the baked beans were very good on their own.  When I added equal amounts of the sweet and smoky and the "Voodoo" sauce to them, they became excellent.  

And a quick word about the potato salad at Bogart's.  It, too, was very good. I don't usually care for deviled eggs all that much, but the taste combination with the potatoes was spot on.  It was some of the best potato salad I've ever had.

Overall, it was superb brisket.  And there was a lot of it for $12.99.  It was almost too much for lunch and two people could have easily shared the meal with the two sides.  I just had appetizers that night because I was still full from lunch. 

Since my initial visit to Pappy's, I've been back a couple of times.  I thought it was the best in St. Louis and it may well be.  But I was mightily impressed with what I had at Bogart's Smokehouse.  I'll have to go back to Bogart's a couple times to make up my mind which is better.  And it probably isn't something that I will be able to gauge, no matter how many trips I make back and forth.  While Pappy's is a "can't miss" when it comes to barbecue in St. Louis, Bogart's is right there with 'em.  

Paravicini's Italian Bistro - Colorado Springs

We made it down to Colorado Springs on our late summer trip to Colorado earlier this year.  After going through the Garden of the Gods and subsequently checking into our hotel, the historic Antlers Hilton, we decided we'd better start thinking about getting something to eat for the evening.  We thought about German food, but then I found an Italian restaurant on Urbanspoon that looked pretty interesting - Paravicini's Italian Bistro.  We set out toward the southwest side of Colorado Springs to go to Paravincini's.  

Paravincini chef Franco Pisani was born in Connecticut and raised by Italian immigrants.  He got his love of cooking from his mother, Mary, who taught him many of her families recipes that had been handed down through generations.  Franco ended up going to culinary school in Baltimore and worked in several Italian restaurants in his home state after his graduation.  

In the mid-90's, Franco visited Colorado Springs, and fell in love with the area.  (There's not much to hate about Colorado Springs - over 320 days of sunny weather, dry and temperate climate, stunning views.)  A week after he went back home to Connecticut, he moved to Colorado Springs for good.  

Pisani got a job as the food and beverage director when he first moved to Colorado, but hankered to work in an Italian restaurant again.  He found a job in a large Italian restaurant and that's where he met future business partner Ted Sexton, also a native New Englander from Boston.  In early April of 2003, Sexton and Pisani opened Paravicini's, which translates into "for the neighborhood."  In 2007, Sexton and Pisani opened a sister restaurant, La Zingara, just up the road in Palmer City.  However, they discovered that trying to run both restaurants was time consuming and they sold La Zingara (now closed) about three years ago.   

Paravicini's is located in the Old Colorado City national historic district in Colorado Springs.  Colorado City was founded in 1859 as the first settlement in what would eventually become Colorado Springs.  Colorado City was incorporated into Colorado Springs in 1917 and it eventually became Old Colorado City, a shopping and entertainment area.   

It was around 8 p.m. when we pulled up to Paravicini's Italian Bistro at the corner of W. Colorado Ave. and S. 28th Street.  (see map)  We found parking on the street next to the restaurant.  It was a slow night (the Denver Broncos were on television that evening) and we were only two of a handful of diners in the place.  

 
We were greeted by our server, Charlie, a pleasant woman who showed us to a window seat in the back corner in the main dining area of the restaurant.   The restaurant had subdued lighting from can lights that were suspended from a high ceiling.  The open kitchen in the back allowed diners to see the flurry of activity going on with Chef Franco and his staff.  There were a couple of smaller dining rooms off to the side of the main dining area, including one that paid homage to Frank Sinatra.  Music by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Vale and other 50's and 60's Italian crooners played in the background.  

Charlie came back over and asked if we wanted something from the bar while we looked through the menu.  I ordered a beer - some Colorado pale ale, I don't even remember what it was (I don't care for many of the Colorado beers) - and Cindy looked through Paravicini's wine list.   She found a chianti on the "wine by the glass" part of the wine list.    

The menu at Paravicini's Italian Bistro would have rivaled the menu at any authentic Italian restaurant I've been to in Boston, New York, Chicago or the Twin Cities.  Appetizers included fried calamari, deep fried mozzarella, and an antipasto plate of meats, cheeses and marinated vegetables.  Entrees included a plethora of pasta dishes, classic Italian entrees, and Paravicini signature dishes that were conjured up by Chef Franco.  Paravicini also had four different styles of New York strip steaks including their eponymous Paravicini New York strip steak that was topped with grilled shrimp and a tomato-basil cream sauce.  

When Charlie came back to check on us, she asked if we wanted to start out with any appetizers.  We hadn't eaten for quite awhile and Cindy was pretty hungry.  She asked if Charlie how big the plate of the fried artichoke hearts were.  She replied, "Well, it's more than enough food for two people."  

Cindy thought they sounded good and ordered up a plate of the deep fried artichoke hearts.  After Charlie put in the order, she came back (she wasn't very busy) and asked if we had any questions.  Cindy has recently been in the habit of asking servers, "What do you recommend?"   

Charlie said, "You know, our Veal Tuscany is very good.  It's probably my favorite on the menu."  The Veal Tuscany was under the Paravicini Originals portion of the menu and featured veal scaloppini sauteed with garlic, artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes, then topped off with a garlic cream sauce.  

Cindy said, "I was looking at that on the menu.  It was between that or the veal piccata."  She went with the Veal Tuscany.  

I was sort of torn between a couple things.  They had a cheese-filled tortellini with peas and prosciutto in a white cream sauce that sounded good to me.  But I was also looking at something called Fettuccini Gabriella - sauteed shrimp and scallops tossed with fettuccine pasta in a light cream sauce with garlic, onions, basil and Roma tomatoes.  Charlie said, "The Fettuccinni Gabriella is very good."  I went with that.  

After we ordered, Charlie brought out the fried artichoke hearts.  They were lightly breaded and served with a roasted garlic sauce that didn't have much of a garlic taste.  The fried artichokes were good, but there was sort of a bland taste to the breading.  They were fine, but I wouldn't order them again if I were to go back.  

 
We both got salads with our meals and it was served family style with a house-made Italian dressing.  The assorted greens were very fresh and crisp and the dressing had a nice tangy Italian taste.  After eating many of the fried artichoke hearts, we went pretty light on our salad portions.  We didn't want to spoil our main entrees any more than we had.    

Charlie brought our main entrees to the table.  Cindy's Veal Tuscany had an almost golden color to the garlic cream sauce.  Large chunks of artichoke hearts and chopped sun-dried tomatoes covered the veal scaloppini. Cindy took a bite and she said, "Oh, my God!  This is so good, but it is so rich!"  She said she had a winner on her hands.   

 
My Fettuccini Gabriella was visually underwhelming.  The scallops - what there were of them - were small and the shrimp were so small that they looked like they came out of a can.  The cream sauce was even lighter than light - it was almost runny.  The fettuccine noodles were cooked perfectly, however, and the overall taste of it was good.  I was a little upset that the seafood was so small and somewhat sparse.  If I were to grade my meal, I'd give it a C.  

Cindy's Veal Tuscany was an A+.  She gave me a couple bites of hers after I complained about mine (she always seems to get the better of the two meals when we try someplace new) and everything - the rich garlic sauce, the tender veal, the soft (but not mushy) artichoke hearts - were all very, very good.   She said, "Please eat more because there is no way I can eat all of this.  It is so rich!"  

After we finished, Charlie came over to see if we'd be interested in any dessert.  I didn't think I was, but Cindy said, "What do you have?"  Charlie left and came back with a dessert menu.  I was thinking of something more along the lines of an after dinner drink.  I asked what kind of Scotch they had to offer and she said, "You know, I'll have to go look.  A couple of the guys were raving about some Scotch they had the other day.  It was new for us.  Let me go look to see what it was."  

She came back moments later and said, "It was Balvanie Scotch."  Oh, yeah!  I like the Balvanie.  It was a Balvanie 12-year-old single barrel and I ordered that.  

They had a number of desserts on the dessert menu, but tiramisu was at the top.  Cindy asked if the tiramisu was made in house and Charlie said it was.  "The chef's mom was a baker," she said.  "It's a family recipe."  Cindy ordered the tiramisu with two forks.  

And the tiramisu was very good.  It was a large piece drizzled with chocolate syrup.  The taste was excellent.  It was one of the best tiramisu we've ever had.  Whatever is in the Pisani family recipe, they need to hold on to that for generations.  

As we were taking bites of the tiramisu, we were talking with Charlie about Colorado Springs, the weather and things to see while we were there.  She said she had moved out to Colorado Springs from Illinois a number of years ago for health reasons. When I asked where in Illinois she came from, she said, "Galesburg."  I told her that we were from the Quad Cities, specifically Davenport, which is 50 miles north of Galesburg.  She was amazed that she met someone who knew where her hometown was.  We seemed to meet or run into a lot of people who either still lived in, or used to live in or near the Quad Cities when we were out in Colorado. 

Charlie was a breast cancer survivor.  She said that she moved to Colorado Springs to escape the cold of Western Illinois.  "I had lived in Tucson for a few years before moving back home," she told us.  "Then I contracted breast cancer and I ended up moving out here on the recommendation of friends and family.  The weather is gorgeous nearly every day.  With a lot of support, I was able to beat my cancer and I've been cancer free for nearly 9 years."  She was actually very interesting to talk to. 

After settling up with Charlie for the evening, we took a self-guided tour through the rest of the restaurant.  Pictures on the walls in the back dining area and even in the restrooms were interesting to look at.  Paravicini's Italian Bistro had a great "old world Italian" vibe to the place.   

Even though I was somewhat disappointed in the preparation of my meal, it's easy to see why Paravicini's Italian Bistro continually wins the "Best Italian" category in local polls year after year.  The atmosphere was wonderful, the service was very good, and while I wasn't overly enamored with my dish, my wife's Veal Tuscany was outstanding.  If in Colorado Springs visiting and you're looking for good Italian food, you probably need to look no further than Paravicini's. 

The Original Red's Savoy Pizza - St. Paul

I'm starting to find some good pizza places in the Twin Cities.  Some of them are eclectic - Pizzeria Lola immediately comes to mind (click here to see the entry on Pizzeria Lola) - while some are old school, such as Fireside Pizza (click here to see the entry on Fireside Pizza). And then you have the fun places like Psycho Suzi's (click here to see the entry on Psycho Suzi's).  But a number of locals swear by the pizza at the original Red's Savoy Pizza in St. Paul.  On a recent trip to the Twin Cities, I sought out Red's Savoy in St. Paul to give their pizza a try. 

The original Red's Savoy opened on E. 7th Street in St. Paul in 1965.  Earl "Red" Schoenheider came up with a secret recipe for his pizza sauce that became a favorite of thousands of Twin City area pizza fans for years.  Over the years, fans of the pizza at Red's Savoy convinced him to open other locations around the area.  Not wanting to spread himself too thin, Schoenheider began to franchise Red's Savoy locations around the area and there are now 9 additional places to get Red's Savoy pizza in the Twin Cities (one is located just across the St. Croix River in Hudson, WI).  Interestingly, there is also a Red's Savoy Pizza in Omaha.  

In talking to some of the locals about Red's, I found that many think there is a distinct difference between locations.  There was some inconsistency between the different restaurants and Schoenheider brought in a franchise overseer a couple years ago to make sure there is a consistency between all the locations.  However, people still tell me the best is the original location on the east side of St. Paul.  

The original Red's Savoy Pizza is located at the corner of E. 7th and Lafayette Rd., just north of where U.S. Highway 52 meets Interstate 94, and just east of where I-94 and Interstate 35E meet.  (see map)  So, it can be said that all roads lead to the original Red's Savoy.  I found the place and parked in the parking lot directly behind the building (there's also a parking lot on the east side of the building.  Red's Savoy Pizza isn't much to look at - it's a squat building with windows that are dry-walled from the inside so no light gets in.  The facade features a wood shingle front that has "Liquors" and "Restaurant" flanking the Red's Savoy logo.  

When you walk into Red's Savoy, you encounter a low-ceilinged, dimly-lit bar area that looks like it hasn't been updated since 1970.  (All the interior pictures that I took of Red's Savoy Pizza didn't come out.)  The dining area at Red's Savoy is off to the side and features a colorful mural along the long wall of a Italian waterfront scene with gondola boats and a pretty Italian young woman holding a large pizza.  There were a couple seats open at the bar and I took a seat there.  They have a pretty good beer selection at Red's Savoy - both on tap and in bottles.  I had to get a Grain Belt Premium.  

The bartender, a nice middle aged lady with a bit of sass, got the attention of one of the servers and she brought me over a menu to look over.  They have two sizes of pizza at Red's Savoy - the regular (10") and the large (14").  In addition to their homemade pizza sauce, they also make their own Italian sausage at Red's Savoy.  In addition to pizza, Red's Savoy also has burgers and sandwiches at the 7th St. location, as well as your typical appetizers and salads.  

I ended up ordering my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza - a 10" regular size.  My server said it would be about 15 to 20 minutes.  While I waited for my pizza I took a look around the bar area and noticed that they had about 6 to 8 flat screen televisions.  At least three of them were tuned to security cameras in the parking lot.  The area around Red's Savoy Pizza in St. Paul is a little iffy, but I didn't feel threatened in the least.  It could also be that the cameras are in place because the 81-year-old father of former Minnesota U.S. Senator Norm Coleman was caught having sex in the parking lot with a 38-year-old woman about 7 years ago. 

Sure enough, less than 20 minutes after I ordered, my pizza came out.  It was a misshapen pizza, topped with copious amounts of sausage chunks, pepperoni slices, large slices of mushroom, and crowned with a slathered mass of caramelized mozzarella cheese.  The pizza was cut into square party cuts and served on a piece of waxy paper on an old-style cafeteria tray.  I got a large kick out of the way it was served.  I sent a picture out via Road Tips Twitter account and the guy behind the Slakingfool restaurant and food blog site replied, "What a glorious looking mess!"  The pizza did look great.  

The first bite of the pizza revealed a nice tangy sauce that had a little spicy bite to it.  It wasn't sweet at all like some pizza sauces can be.  It had a nice balance between Italian seasonings and the spicy flavor.  The sausage had a nice taste to it, as well.   

The crust on the pizza was thin, but not crisp.  Actually, it was pretty bland in comparison to the sauce and sausage.  And the mozzarella was rather pedestrian.  For as much mozzarella cheese they put on the pizza at Red's Savoy, I would have thought it would have had a little more pizazz.  But it didn't detract from the overall taste of the pizza.  

As I was making a significant dent in my pizza, a guy waiting to pick one up sat down next to me and had a beer.  He asked me, "Is it good?"  I said that it was.  It was very good.  He said, "It's the zest from the old pizza oven that they use here.  That oven has had tens of thousands of pizzas cooked in it and it each pizza picks up that essence."  I'm a big believer in the taste of pizzas that are cooked in old pizza ovens.  Those are usually the best.    

I was able to eat all but about three or four of the party cut squares.  The toppings and cheese were so massive that it filled me up rather quickly.  My server got me a small box and I took the remaining pieces back to my hotel room.  I put them in the fridge in my room and had them for lunch after a morning meeting the next day.  They warmed up nice in the microwave, but the crust had gotten a little soggy.  

Overall, the pizza I had at the original Red's Savoy Pizza was very good.  The sauce is an acquired taste, but I liked it.  And I liked the neighborhood tavern feel to Red's Savoy.  I'd be a little gun-shy to try a pizza at any of the other locations after having the original in St. Paul.  But if they have truly gotten their franchises in order to be more in line with the original, it may not be exactly like the original Red's Savoy, but it could be close.

T/aco - Denver

On our late summer trip to Colorado, we took in a Colorado Rockies game one evening.  Given the number of restaurants in the LoDo District of downtown Denver, we decided we'd go somewhere after the game to get something to eat.  The only problem is that through the week a lot of the non-chain restaurants in the area close around 9 or 9:30 p.m.  It was 9:15 when the game was finished and our first choice for food that evening - the very good Venice Ristorante Italian restaurant - was finished with their seatings for the evening.  (Click here to see my entry on Venice.)  Walking along Blake Street wandering back toward our hotel, we encountered a little taqueria called T/aco.  (see map)  We decided to go in and give the place a try.

There are two T/aco locations, the first one in Boulder opened in May of 2012, while the one in Denver opened in the fall of 2012.  Initially, the concept was a joint venture between TAG restaurant and TAG Burger Bar owner/chef Troy Guard and his friend, H/Burger owner Geoff Smith.  However, just before the Boulder location was to open, Guard stepped out of the partnership citing a difference of vision between H/Burger management and himself.  It may have also had something to do with a highly visible and messy divorce that Guard had just gone through.  

Before Guard left, he had recruited Matt Collier, the sous chef at The Kitchen, a trendy bistro in Denver.  Collier had a long resume of restaurants that he worked at in the Chicago area including the highly regarded Avec, Blackbird and the Publican.  (Click here to see my entry on the Publican.)  Previous to moving to Denver, Guard had worked at Big Star, the urban taqueria in Chicago.  (Avec, Blackbird, the Publican and Big Star are all under the same restaurant umbrella owned by chef Paul Kahan.)  After Guard left, Smith and his C.O.O. Whitney Olmstead decided to go ahead with Collier as their head chef at T/aco.  

 
Many of the copper top tables and booths were open when we got into T/aco around 9:40.  Our server for the evening, Jacqueline, greeted us and I asked if it was too late to get some food.  She said, "Naw, come on in.  We'll get you some food."  She led us to a booth along the wall and laid down a couple menus for us.  I ordered a Pacifico draft beer and Cindy got a margarita.  Cindy was hungry and asked for some chips and salsa.  Chips and salsa are not gratis at T/aco.  But Jacqueline brought us a big basket and some of their housemade tomato salsa.  She said, "This is a little more than they normally give you.  Since it's so late, they were probably going to throw some of these away.  So, you got a deal!"   

When I opened up the menu, I saw that they also had fresh made guacamole, and shrimp and red snapper ceviche on the appetizer menu, as well.  I hadn't had ceviche for quite some time and if it wouldn't have been so late I would have ordered some.  But I felt bad for the chefs and decided to go for the simple tacos.

Tacos and tacos is about all you can order at T/aco.  They have skirt steak tacos served with a sliced poblano pepper in a cream sauce, guacamole, with Cotija cheese.  The pork carnitas tacos had red onions, pineapple and cilantro on it.  The chicken mole taco had a chayote squash and red onion salsa on it along with a poblano creme sauce and lettuce.  And the braised pork belly taco had guajillo chili seasoned salsa, with pickled onions, Cotija cheese and cilantro.  They also had a vegetarian taco, a straight cheese taco and two fish tacos - a red snapper and an ahi tuna taco.  And if you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know I'm a sucker for grilled fish tacos.  

The only problem was that they didn't have the fish tacos that night.  Jacqueline told us, "I'm sorry guys, but we're out of the fresh ahi and the snapper tonight."  Hmm... Damn.  Oh, well, they had a few other things to choose from.  Not to waste any more time, Cindy ordered up two skirt steak tacos with soft corn shells and I got a skirt steak taco, a pork carnitas taco and a shrimp taco.  They marinate the shrimp in Mezcal before grilling, then they top the shrimp with a lime/garlic pico de gallo, guacamole, Cotija cheese, cilantro, and finished with a fresh salsa verde.  That had a lot going on with it and it sounded pretty interesting.    

Our tacos came out, served on a long plate.  From left to right on my plate were the pork carnitas taco, the shrimp taco and the skirt steak taco.  All were on soft corn taco shells.  

The skirt steak tacos were the first I tried and they were a little overcooked for my taste, but the seasonings they used were pretty good.  There was a chunk of fresh avocado - it wasn't guacamole like it said on the menu - but that was all right.  And the poblano cream sauce had a nice little kick to it.

I tried the pork carnitas next.  The pork was also a little overcooked and had sort of a hard bark to the outer side of it.  The red onions and cilantro were fresh and flavorful on the taco and the warmed pineapple chunk was a nice little touch.  But I was disappointed in the carnitas.  

The winner of the evening was the shrimp taco.  It had a lot of taste sensations going on.  The shrimp had a great grilled taste to it and even if they hadn't marinated it in Mezcal, I probably wouldn't have known the difference.  The cilantro, guacamole, pico de gallo and salsa verde each had a distinct taste to it.  It was simply wonderful.  

Cindy said her skirt steak tacos were good.  She said, "This is perfect.  I didn't want a lot of food this late in the evening.  This probably is a lot better idea than getting Italian at 10 o'clock at night."  

Before we left, Jacqueline asked if we were in Denver visiting.  When we told her we were, she asked where w were from.  After we said, "Iowa,"  she said, "Oh!  My sister is marrying someone from Pella!"  I told her that I grew up not far from Pella and I asked if her sister's fiancee was Dutch.  "Very Dutch," she immediately replied.  It's pretty good bet that if you're from Pella, you come from Dutch ancestry.  

So, our visit to T/aco was all right.  I'm sure that food suffered a bit from the lateness in the day.  The skirt steak and carnitas had probably sat around for some time before it was reheated and served to us.  But the shrimp taco was delicious.  Cindy was satisfied with her skirt steak tacos.  For a nice place to get some drinks and nosh on some tacos while you're doing it, T/aco would be a good place to try.  Just don't expect it to be a regular Mexican restaurant.   

(Update - This location for T/aco is closed.  However, their Boulder location is still open.)

Lorelei Inn - Green Bay, WI

Spending the evening in Green Bay recently, I wasn't certain what I wanted to have for dinner.  When you're on the road as much as I am, it gets to be a grind trying to figure out what you'd like to get on a specific day.  I did a quick Urbanspoon search for different cuisines in Green Bay and saw a place called the Lorelei Inn in the "German" category.  Reading up on the place that has been open for 60 years, I decided that I'd give the place a try.  

Tom Eschelweck founded the Lorelei Inn in 1953 offering a number of German food items from recipes he had.  David Eschelweck took over the family business in the mid-70's when his parents retired.  In 1983, David Eschelweck sold the business to Chicago native Leonard Hack and his wife, Marilyn.  The Hack's kept many of the original recipes the Eschelweck family had used striving to keep the food as simple, yet as good as it had been.  Hack's two children, Dave and Lynne helped out in the restaurant with their family before they eventually took over running the day-to-day operation from their parents.  Lynne's daughter, Meagan Colombo, a Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts-trained chef, heads the kitchen at the Lorelei Inn. 

Right smack at the epicenter of Green Bay Packers football, you wouldn't think there would be too many fans of the hated rival Chicago Bears.  However, Leonard Hack put up a Chicago Bears shrine in the dimly lit bar area of the Lorelei Inn after he took over the place and many Bears items still adorn the walls.   A couple years ago, Dave Hack (who happens to share the same name of a good friend of mine) brought in a new beer dispenser system and he has a revolving seasonal menu of eclectic beers on tap in addition to every day offerings such as Guinness, Stella Artois and Bass.  In addition to beers on tap, the Lorelei Inn has a number of imported and domestic beers to choose from. 

The Lorelei Inn - named after the mythological river mermaids on Germany's Rhine River - is actually located in the Green Bay neighborhood/suburb of Allouez on S. Webster.  (see map)  There's a parking lot on the south side of the small brick building and I was able to find a spot to park there when I pulled in around 7:30 p.m.  In addition to the bar area, there is a dining area off to the left of the bar area as you come in.  I was greeted by a lady who asked if I wanted to take a table in the dining room, but a quick look inside showed that it was nearly full.  Other than a couple three people seated at the bar, the bar area was nearly empty.  I asked if I could sit in the bar and she said, "Sure!  But, I just want to let you know there is no wait service for drinks if you sit in the bar area."  I looked at her a little funny and she said, "You have to order your drinks at the bar."  Ah ha!  I understand.  (Photo courtesy Green Bay Nightlife.com)

I found a table in the corner and she dropped off a dinner menu.  She said, "We have a special tonight.  It's called the Alpine Schnitzel which are two breaded pork tenderloins topped with a marsala wine sauce with onions and mushrooms."  I almost didn't open the menu after she told me that.  And she was nice enough to ask me if she could get me a drink, even though she originally told me that they didn't have wait staff service for drinks.  I looked at the chalk board above the bar and ordered up a Hacker-Pschorr lager. 

(Pictured right - The bar area at the Lorelei Inn.) 

In addition to German specialties at the Lorelei Inn, they also feature steaks, grilled salmon, chicken and beef liver on the menu.  They also have a large selections of sandwiches including reubens, burgers and something called the Sacher Sandwich - your choice of thin-sliced ham or a quarter-pound burger patty topped with sauteed bacon, mushrooms, onions and green peppers, then topped with Swiss cheese and served on a Kaiser bun.  

Quite actually, they only had a couple three German foods to choose from on the menu.  They had a Weinerschnitzel plate, as well as Sauerbraten.  They also had a "hot meat plate" that featured a pork loin and knackwurst steamed in sauerkraut.  The nightly special was sounding better and better to me, even though the Sauerbraten was calling my name.  

When my server for the evening came over to take my order, I decided on the Alpine Schnitzel special.  I got a choice of a couple sides and I got a potato pancake and some red cabbage.  I was told that I also got a dinner salad and she rattled off some of the housemade dressings they had.  When she said, "Creamy peppercorn...",  I stopped her right there.   

The dinner salad was piled high with fresh greens, carrot and radish slices, and a large slice of a fresh cucumber.  The dressing was creamy and had a nice peppery taste to it.  But the highlight of the salad was the pumpernickel dinner roll I got on the side along with a white bread dinner roll.  The pumpernickel had a great and intense flavor to it.  I almost asked for a couple more, but I was afraid that I'd eat too much of them and it would spoil my dinner.  

 
My Alpine Schnitzel came out not long after I finished my salad.  The breaded pork cutlets were covered with a thick marsala sauce teeming with sliced mushrooms and chopped onions.  The potato pancake was thin with a deep golden color to it.  

The schnitzel was a little overcooked in my book.  It was a little hard and chewy, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.  The marsala wine sauce was very good and very rich.  It helped the overall taste of the schnitzel and made it much more palatable.  

The potato pancake was crispy on the outside and had a creamy middle.  Actually, it was a little drab in its taste - some sour cream would have helped it - but it was still all right.  

But the sweet and sour red cabbage was outstanding.  The consistency of the cabbage was excellent - it wasn't overcooked and mushy like I've had from some other places.  The sweet and sour taste combination of the red cabbage was an exceptional balance.  It was the first thing I finished out of the three items I had for dinner.  

Finishing most of the very rich schnitzel and leaving a portion of the potato pancakes, I was stuffed at the end.  While I can't call the food at the Lorelei Inn outstanding, it was good enough to quell my hankering for German food for the evening.  I don't know if you can call the place a "German" restaurant because they really only have three or four German items to choose from, but it's a quaint little neighborhood place that has stood the test of time in Green Bay.  I'm definitely heading back to try one of their reubens at some point.  The diverse selections of beers would impress even the most demanding beer snob.  It's a cool little place that has above average food and a nice following in the Green Bay area.