Road Tips

Tursi's Latin King - Des Moines, IA

There's a lot of very good Italian restaurants in the Des Moines area and one that I hadn't been to for a long, long time is Latin King on Des Moines' east side.  I figured the last time I went there was over 20 years ago with my dad for lunch.  Things have changed dramatically at Latin King since my last visit.

Actually, it's officially known as Tursi's Latin King, named after owner Bob Tursi.  Tursi purchased Latin King in the summer of 1983 from founders Jim and Rose Pigneri who had opened the restaurant in 1947.  The Pigneri's and Bob Tursi's parents had come from the same small town in Italy.  Bob Tursi's father, Joe, was a well-known clothier on Des Moines' south side for years.  Bob Tursi had gotten his start in the restaurant business working at the old Crystal Tree restaurant on Fleur Drive at the age of 16.  He ended up buying Latin King in 1983 at the tender age of 21.  He and his wife, Amy, continue to run the business today.   

(Bob Tursi is also involved with the Exile Brewing Company in downtown Des Moines with his son, R.J.  The younger Tursi had spent time at a small family winery in Italy learning about wine before coming back to Des Moines and opening the brewpub with his father.  Click here to read my entry on Exile Brewing Company.  R.J. Tursi is also the sommelier at Latin King.) 

About 10 years ago, the Tursi's invested nearly $1.5 million into an expansion and upgrade of the restaurant.  New dining areas were added along with an upgrade of the bar area.  A new entrance on the north side of the building was built along with an expanded parking lot.  The outside of the building looks more like a small Italian villa complete with stucco and an old world look.  

The remnants of the original Latin King are still in evidence with the original dining room.  I remember walking into the building from the east side years ago.  That's all closed up now.  But the cozy nature of the dining room is still evident. 

 
The bar has more of a modern flair that what I remember about the old bar area.  Soft lighting, tiled floors and an elegant wood decor highlights the bar area with a fireplace along the north wall of the bar area.   

The middle dining room (below left) is, I believe, part of the original building.  But, once again, it's been so long since I was last in there that I can't remember.  The lower ceiling with can lighting gave the room it's signature cozy and comfy feeling.  

 

The newest dining room is just to the left of the new entrance.  Higher ceilings and a paint scheme to make it appear that you were eating in an old world Italian outdoor patio helped liven up the room.  

As it has been since 1947, the Latin King sits on Hubbell Ave. just north of E. University, right across the street from the Anderson Erickson Dairy and the iconic dairy cow statues that look out to the corner of Hubbell and E. University.  (see map)  The cow - Annie - has been in place since 1966, while the calf - Eric - joined her in 1977.  The two were damaged by vandals - the calf had to be completely replaced - in 2007.  If you see the cows, then Tursi's Latin King is just across the street to the west.  

I walked into the new waiting area with the bar off to the left.  It was around 8:30 and no one was there to greet me.  Finally, Bob Tursi popped his head around the corner and said, "Sir, has anyone helped you?"  I told him that they hadn't and I told him that I was by myself for dinner.  He grabbed a menu and took me into the new dining room and showed me a seat at a booth.  He said that my waiter would be with me shortly.

And shortly thereafter, my waiter - Phiz - came over to greet me.  I ordered up a beer while I looked through the menu.  (For larger parties, Tursi's Latin King also has a family-style dining menu that offers a number of appetizer and entree combinations.)   They're famous for their Chicken Speidini and Steak Duburgo at Latin King, as well as for their pasta and seafood dishes.  The Pepper Steak is also a longtime favorite with strips of beef grilled with a variety of peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes.  

I was thinking about getting some pasta that evening and while I remember their lasagna being pretty good, I was looking for something a little more daring.  The Penne Regine sounded like it would fit the bill for me that evening and I ordered that up from Phiz when he came back.

I also wanted to get some wine with the meal.  The wine list at Latin King was a little strange.  It was printed on a rather ratty looking piece of paper.  No wine book, nothing fancy.  For a restaurant that has a pretty extensive and impressive wine list, I thought the presentation of the list would be a little nicer.  My guess is that the wine list changes rather frequently.  Nonetheless, I found a 2007 Haras Maipo Valley cabernet from Chile that they had by the glass.  Phiz suggested that I get a half carafe of the Haras cab as it was cheaper if I was thinking about having more than one glass. ($6 bucks for a glass - $10 for a half-carafe.)  Actually, I wasn't thinking about having more than one glass until he suggested it.  (Great upselling on his part.)

A salad and a loaf of warm sliced homemade bread came with the meal.  The salad was all right with their house oil and vinaigrette dressing.  But the bread was absolutely delicious. 

 

The Penne Regine came out and it wasn't quite what I envisioned when I ordered.  The discription in the menu had the dish in a light cream sauce with brandy.  There was barely a sauce on the pasta.  However, there were ample amounts of prosciutto ham, fresh mushroom slices and peas along with slices of tomato mixed in.  It was a lot of food - there was no way I was going to be able to finish it.  But I tried.  The penne pasta was cooked perfectly, the prosciutto gave the entree a little kick, and the mushrooms and peas were a nice complement to the overall taste.  I probably ate 60 percent of what was in the bowl - including all the mushroom slices and prosciutto I could find - before I threw in the towel.

Bob Tursi asked me as I was leaving if my meal was satisfactory.  It was.  I told him that I hadn't been in the restaurant for over 20 years and complemented him on the changes in the place.  He sort of winced when I said it had been 20 years since my last visit and he said, "I hope you're from out of town."  I told him that I used to live in Newton but had been over in the Quad Cities since 1991.  He said, "Well, I hope it isn't another 20 years before you come back to see us."  I told him it wouldn't be.  As I said, there's a lot of very good Italian restaurants in Des Moines and Tursi's Latin King is among the best.  The food was good, as was the service.  Even though the wine list was rather ratty looking, it was an interesting blend of Italian and North American wines including a number of wines from the state of Iowa.  You probably won't go wrong if you want to get a good Italian meal at Tursi's Italian King.  

Katie's Kitchen - Des Plaines, IL

I have a dealer in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago and when I was in there recently, I got together with him for breakfast at a place he suggested in Des Plaines - Katie's Kitchen.  "It's a neighborhood place," he told me.  "And they have great breakfasts."  I was staying near O'Hare airport on the south side of Des Plaines and it was about a 20 minute drive from my hotel to Katie's Kitchen.  

Katie's Kitchen is a breakfast and lunch place that is open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. through the week, and 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on the weekends, and not long ago they began to serve dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Katie Kautz is the Katie behind the name on the restaurant and along with the help of her father, Michael Kautz, she opened the doors of the restaurant in October of 2008.  (Michael Kautz is the owner of Michael Kautz Carpets, a longtime flooring business in nearby Mt. Prospect.) A hands on owner, you'll often see Katie Kautz working the floor serving food and filling up coffee cups.

Katie's Kitchen is in a small strip mall on N. Wolf Road in between Rand Road and Central Avenue (see map). In fact, it is right across the road from one of my favorite little Italian places in the NW suburbs, Bob Mele's Little Villa (click here to see my entry on Bob Mele's).  I walked into the restaurant situated on the south side of the strip mall.  My dealer hadn't shown up yet.  I told the girl at the counter that there would be two of us, but that I'd wait for a moment to see if my guest would show up.  

The brightly light restaurant featured two dining rooms - the first dining room had a number of booths along the walls with tables in the middle.  The far dining room had a similar set up only with banquette seating along the walls instead of booths, but it also had a large fireplace that was conspicuously not lit on a cold Chicago morning.  

While I was waiting for my dealer to show up, I was reading some of the reviews that they had cut out on placed on the wall of the front waiting area.  There was an article from Chicago Magazine where they called the cinnamon swirl French toast at Katie's Kitchen the best in Chicagoland. I wasn't planning on having much for breakfast, but that was certainly intriguing.

My dealer finally showed up and we took a booth in the back corner of the first dining room.  Our waitress came over with menus and a couple moments later she came back with two small ginger muffins.  It was a nice little welcoming touch. 

As I said, Katie's Kitchen is famous for their cinnamon swirl French toast.  My dealer told me, "Oh, boy.  It's good.  But it is SOOO rich!"  I was looking at getting one of their breakfast sandwiches - the Wagon with corned beef hash, scrambled eggs and Swiss on grilled marble rye bread was my top choice.   They also had a meat lovers skillet with eggs, Katie's signature diced red potatoes, and bacon, sausage and ham that looked good.  She had also left off a separate "specials" menu that featured a number of items including a chili omelet made with Katie's housemade chili recipe.  

But I kept going back to the cinnamon swirl French toast.  They take housemade cinnamon rolls with a glaze of cream cheese on top, cut them flat, dip them in an egg batter, grill them up and top them with cinnamon sugar.  I just had to give 'em a try.  My dealer went basic - eggs over easy, red diced potatoes and ham.  

The breakfast came out not long after we ordered and I was served three hearty slices of the cinnamon swirl French toast.  The caramelized sugar glaze was oozing out of the swirls, there was an ample amount of cinnamon sugar on top, and it came with a small tub of chock full of butter and a small container of maple syrup.  

The taste was simply out of this world.  It was the most unusually great sweet breakfast taste I think I've ever encountered.  The roll/toast was somewhat chewy and had a nice crisp outer side to the face and back.  

But my dealer was very correct - they were VERY rich!  Oh man!  I've been watching what I eat lately - especially portion sizes - and thankfully I ate slow enough for my stomach to tell me that two were more than enough.  Sometimes when I eat fast, my stomach is slow to inform me that, "Hey! I've had enough, down here!"  The cinnamon swirl French toast is one of those things that is easy to devour when you're hungry at breakfast.  

Katie's Kitchen isn't just another breakfast/lunch diner that proliferates the landscape across Chicagoland and the Midwest, as a whole. It's one of those little neighborhood restaurants where the staff knows the regulars by name.  The service was fine, the menu was extensive and many of the offerings are very unique.  I'd wholeheartedly recommend Katie's Kitchen as a fine place to get breakfast in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago.  

Glenn's Cafe - Columbia, MO

I was in Columbia, MO recently and invited a dealer and his wife out to dinner.  My ulterior motive was to try the reincarnation of the famed Glenn's Cafe in Columbia, a long time culinary destination that had closed, then reopened in a small near Columbia a few years ago, then reopened in downtown Columbia as part of the renovated Tiger Hotel in 2013.  Glenn's had been one of my all-time favorite restaurants, one that a good friend of mine who lived in Columbia turned me on to years ago.  It was a special place for him, as well - his first date with his wife was at the second Glenn's on the corner of 9th and Cherry.

The first Glenn's was opened in the early 40's by Glenn Purdy and his wife, Tilley.  It was located along side U.S. Highway 40 on the north side of Columbia.  Basically a combination gas station and diner, the Purdy's ran Glenn's for over 40 years, staying open when Interstate 70 was built parallel to the highway.  The Purdy's changed the name from Glenn's Drive In to Glenn's Cafe to reflect the more upscale food the small restaurant was serving.

(Pictured left - The original Glenn's Cafe on what is now Business Loop 70 on the north side of Columbia.)   

The Purdy's sold their business and it went through a couple of owners before a young restaurateur by the name of Steve Cupp bought the place in 1985.  Cupp immediately put his stamp on the place by offering Cajun-stamped entrees featuring steaks, seafood, chicken and pork.  (This was the first time I was introduced to Glenn's Cafe.)  Looking to heighten Glenn's profile, Cupp moved the restaurant to downtown Columbia in 1988, just north of the University of Missouri campus.  

Citing a lack of profits, Cupp closed the downtown Columbia location for Glenn's in 2002.  I was told that he hung out in the Caribbean for awhile before moving back to Central Missouri in 2006 to open the 3rd incarnation of Glenn's Cafe in the newly renovated Hotel Frederick in Boonville, MO, about 25 miles west of Columbia.  

(Pictured left - Steve Cupp.  Photo courtesy L.G. Patterson from Inside Columbia Magazine) 

Cupp was approached to become the food and beverage director for the Tiger Hotel, an upscale boutique hotel in downtown Columbia that had undergone an extensive renovation in 2013.  He jumped at the chance to bring Glenn's back to Columbia as it turned out that 50% of his clientele would drive the 25 from the city out to Boonville to eat at his restaurant.

It was a young lady who greeted me at the 4th edition of Glenn's Cafe now in the Tiger Hotel at the corner of 8th and Cherry.  (see map)  The venerable and iconic Glenn's Cafe sign hung from the side of the building - the original Glenn's Cafe sign that was on the original building on the north side of town.  When Cupp wanted to hang the sign on the side of the Tiger Hotel, local leaders cited a city ordinance that restricted signs in the downtown business district.  A civic uproar ensued with locals - including the Columbia Historic Preservation Committee - calling on City Hall to allow the sign to be hung.  I heard that Cupp and the owners of the Tiger Hotel threatened to stop the development, but city leaders gave them an exemption earlier this year and the well-known sign was hung from the side of the building.

My dealer and his wife were already seated in the ornate and posh dining room at Glenn's Cafe.  The second Glenn's Cafe - a block to the east - had more of an art deco theme to it.  This was definitely more upscale than the old downtown Columbia location.  

 
Our waitress - Crystal - came over to greet us as we took a look through the menu.  She took our drink orders - I got a Dixie beer, my dealer got a Coors Light, and his wife got a cosmopolitan.  She brought my Dixie beer to me, but didn't have the Coors Light or the cosmo.  After about another 5 minutes, she brought out the cosmopolitan, but said that they were out of Coors Light.  My dealer said, "Well, OK.  How about a Busch Light?"  She said she'd get that right away.  Right away was another 5 plus minutes.  When she brought his beer, she apologized and said, "The bar (which is pretty small and in the connecting passage way between the hotel lobby and the restaurant - pictured above right) is slammed."  I immediately ordered a second Dixie figuring that it would be sometime before I'd get it.  

Many of the items on the menu were the same as when I was last in Glenn's with my wife, my friend and his wife sometime about 15 years ago.  The shrimp creole was always delicious, as was the spicy bronzed pork chops.  Their roasted prime rib comes with Yorkshire pudding, and the Cajun-Italian infused Pastalaya featured penne pasta mixed with shrimp, a house-made tasso ham, smoked duck and andouille sausage in a seafood reduction sauce.  Glenn's also had their famous gumbo on the menu.  I couldn't pass up getting a cup of the gumbo.  

My dealer and his wife talked about the cornbread at Glenn's, calling it the best they've ever had.  This, too, was their first visit to Glenn's since it reopened in Columbia and they were giddy to get some of the cornbread with their meal. This was probably the most important point they made to Crystal when they ordered their food. My dealer's wife ordered the Pastalaya and my dealer ordered the jumbo deep fried shrimp.  He asked if I wanted to get some oysters on the half shell as an appetizer and I couldn't say no.  He ordered a half dozen for he and I to split (his wife didn't care for oysters).  

I ordered the blackened redfish, not knowing if I would actually getting redfish anymore than some sort of seafish with Cajun seasonings.  And I got a cup of their wonderful gumbo.  

This is where things got a little discombobulated.  Service had been choppy up to that point - Crystal was taking care of a number of tables in our immediate area and we were doing a lot of talking up to the point of ordering our food.  We weren't in a large hurry, but we noticed that she would leave us alone for long periods of time.  After she took our food orders, we were sitting talking, waiting for the oysters and the gumbo to come out.  About 15 minutes after we ordered, our main entrees came out.  I said to Crystal, "Uh, hey.  We didn't get the oysters and the gumbo." 

She said, "Oh, they're right behind me."  A young man was carrying the oysters and the gumbo on another tray.  When I said that I had hoped we'd get the gumbo and oysters before the meal and not after the entrees had shown up, she apologized.  Suddenly, we had a table full of plates with not a lot of room to maneuver through our dishes.  

Well, at least the gumbo was there.  It was that same dark brown gumbo I remembered from Glenn's Cafe years and years ago.  It had a wonderful smoky flavor to it and was even better when zipped up with some Tabasco sauce. The oysters were meaty and plump with little grit.  They actually gave us seven oysters on the half shell and I let the dealer have the last one after I had already eaten three.  

 
Through all this, I was trying my blackened redfish while taking bites of gumbo and raw oysters.  It was a large filet with copious amounts of Glenn's Cajun seasonings.  The taste was very good and the fish was flaky and fresh tasting.  The zipped up taste of the seasonings was exactly what I remembered from the past.  

The redfish also came with some whipped garlic potatoes that were pretty good, and some sweet-glazed carrots that were also good.  I do like my carrots to be somewhat sweet if they're cooked.  

The Pastalaya was a large bowl of penne pasta, tasso ham, andouille sausage and shrimp mixed in with the reduction sauce.  My dealer's wife said that it was somewhat spicy, but not too bad.  She said, "You know, I can't remember if this was on the menu before, but it's very good."  

 

My dealer had the large battered shrimp that came with a side of creamy cole slaw and a berried rice.  It came with a small ceramic container filled with Glenn's sweet and sour sauce for dipping.  My dealer said that he normally doesn't care for battered shrimp, but "the batter here is pretty good."  He wasn't unhappy in the least with his choice.

However, my dealer and his wife were unhappy with the cornbread.  Their anticipation on the cornbread exceeded either of their entrees, but after the first bite into the cornbread they both looked at one another and agreed, "It's not the same.  They've changed it."  

A manager came over to our table during our meal.  "I understand there was a timing problem with getting your food," he said.  "What can we do to make it up to you?"  I suggested taking the oysters off the bill.  "Done," he said with authority.  But when my dealer and his wife commented that the cornbread wasn't the same, he said, "It should be the same as it's always been.  He hasn't changed the recipe of many of the items he originally had."  

My dealer said, "Maybe it's because we haven't eaten at Glenn's since it was first out in Boonville, but I remember the taste of that cornbread from 25 years ago.  To us (pointing to his wife), it doesn't taste the same."  The manager said he'd check with Steve Cupp to see if there was a change.  When he came back to let them know that it was the same recipe, my dealer said, "Maybe my tastebuds have changed as I've gotten older."

The one thing I remember from earlier visits to Glenn's Cafe was their great bread pudding.  It's served warm in a bourbon sauce and it's just to die for.  I hemmed and hawed about getting one, but I finally couldn't say no.  I asked Crystal to bring three spoons, but my dealer and his wife declined the offer.  Fine!  More for me!

And the bread pudding was everything I remembered it to be.  It was sinfully rich and flavorful.  The creamy bourbon sauce is a great complement to the sweet taste of their bread pudding.  My dealer's wife couldn't resist, especially after the look of bliss on my face after each bite.  She had a bite and said, "Oh, my gosh, that's rich."  

When Crystal brought out my bread pudding, she also brought out a small container that held extra pieces of the cornbread.  She said, "This is a little thank you and an apology for the service."  

My dealer's wife said, "I didn't have the heart to tell her we were disappointed that it wasn't the same."  My dealer said the cornbread wouldn't go to waste.

It always bums me out when favorite restaurants go out of business, but then come back - and it's never the same as it was.  To me, Glenn's Cafe was just as I remembered 20 plus years ago, only in a different spot a block away.  Yeah, the service was choppy, but they realized it and did their best to make up for it.  (I later found out that they had only been open for less than 90 days at this new location and were still working the kinks out.)   It won't deter me from going back at some point - always hoping that the blackened swordfish will be available on that visit. 

Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse - Davenport, IA

A Christmas Eve tradition in our household is to go out to eat sushi and to take in a movie.  We didn't do it last year, primarily because there weren't any movies that we really wanted to see.  This year, we wanted to go see Anchorman 2 (a funny film for about 3/4's of the way through, then they realized they didn't know how to end the movie) so it meant an early dinner at a new sushi place in Davenport - Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse. 

Actually, Ichiban is the upgraded version of the old Shogun Sushi and Steakhouse, the first place we went to years ago to start our Christmas Eve tradition of sushi and a movie.  The two owners, I've only known them as Henry and Tim, ended up selling Shogun a couple three years ago and I'd heard that it had gone downhill.  Quite honestly, we hadn't eaten at Shogun for the past couple of years because Red Ginger, a sushi place near our house, had opened up (click here to read about Red Ginger); and Osaka in Bettendorf - before their service began to suffer - had been our "go-to" sushi place in the Quad Cities (click here to read about Osaka).  In the summer of 2013, Shogun shut down and on trips by the building we noticed that they were gutting the place.  When they reopened in the fall of 2013, we heard that Henry and Tim had taken back the ownership of the business.  Probably wanting a fresh start after the bad press the old Shogun received after they sold it, they named their new and improved business Ichiban, which means "Number One" in Japanese.  

It was around 6 p.m. when we pulled into the parking lot of Ichiban at the busy corner of Brady and Kimberly, the two main thoroughfares in Davenport (see map - but you can only get into Ichiban's parking lot by either going northbound on Brady or eastbound on Kimberly).  They share their parking lot with Griggs Music, but there was only one other car in the lot when we pulled in.  Cindy was a little leery of going in even though the "Open" sign was on in the window.  She thought no cars in the parking lot in front of the building was not a good sign.  To me, it was a good sign because I knew we'd get our sushi fast.  

They had certainly upgraded the interior of Ichiban over the old Shogun, keeping the Japanese-style decor, dark velor wall covering with royal blue trim, and the large hibachi table in the middle of a side dining area.  The place was empty and we took a seat at the six-seater sushi bar.  As we were taking off our coats, we were greeted by the sushi chefs behind the counter - Lin was the main guy that night - and I immediately ordered up a spicy tuna roll.  A waitress came out and Cindy got a hot green tea while I ordered a tall bottle of Asahi.  She said they only had the 12 ounce bottles and that was fine with me.  (Picture below left courtesy QC Life.com)

 
It didn't take Lin very long to hand the spicy tuna roll over the counter to us.  I was ready to give it a try.  In fact, I took the picture above right after I'd scarfed down the first piece of the spicy tuna roll and then realized that I'd forgotten to take a picture of it.  While the roll wasn't big, it was packed with a savory and somewhat spicy tuna wrapped in a seaweed sheath and rolled in rice.  It was a great start to the meal.  

From there, we ordered up Maguro (tuna), smoked salmon and regular salmon, yellow tail and red snapper. I noticed on the menu that they had toro - the high grade fatty tuna.  I asked the sushi chefs behind the counter if they had toro that evening - some places show it on the menu, but many times they don't have it - and Lin immediately said, "Yes, toro! Yes!"  We got a couple pieces of that type of sushi.  

We soon realized that we weren't the only ones wanting sushi that evening as a few other people had wandered in by the time Lin handed the plate over the counter to us.  First of all the presentation was tremendous - the maguro was nestled on a bed of ornamental twigs sitting atop two small bowls that had alternating LED light embedded within.  A small orchid laid on top of the sushi.  Cindy said, "Oh my God!  This looks too good to eat!"  I made sure I took a number of pictures to make sure that I got a good picture of the presentation.  

The first thing we had to try was the toro.  And it was fresh, flavorful and literally melted in our mouths.  The price - $7.95 a piece - precluded us from ordering more, so we just let it savor in our mouths before we moved on.  

I like smoked salmon, but I'll have to say the smoked salmon at Ichiban was a little tough.  It had a good smoked flavor and all, but the consistency was stiff.  It was all right, but I'd had better smoked salmon.  The regular salmon, however, was absolutely killer.  It, too, sort of melted in our mouths yielding both a wonderful taste and a pleasing texture.  I immediately ordered up four more pieces of the salmon for us.  

I tried the hamachi (yellow tail) next and I was pleasantly surprised that the fish was fresh with no fishy aftertaste.  Same with the red snapper - if it really was red snapper.  I've been told that most red snapper sushi is usually some other type of sea fish that is similar to the red snapper.  But both were very good, great taste with the right amount of firmness.  The fish was all very, very fresh.  

Cindy was getting full and she didn't want to have any of the yellow tail or red snapper.  I told her that it was some of the best yellow tail I've had and she didn't want any more, citing that she was full.  However, she suddenly wasn't full when the waitress came back and asked if we wanted any dessert.  Dessert?  At a sushi joint?  Well, they also do hibachi, so I suppose dessert after grilled meat would be nice.  Cindy asked to see the dessert menu and the girl said, "Oh, we have a tiramisu..."

Cindy stopped her there.  She said, "Do you guys make it here?"  The waitress said that they did.  I was a little incredulous, but Cindy went ahead and ordered up some of their tiramisu.  

First of all, I thought we didn't need any more food. Secondly, I sort of wondered what kind of tiramisu they would have at a Japanese restaurant.  It turned out that it was more of an ice cream-based tiramisu with round patties of flavored ice cream sandwiched in between a bed or lady fingers.  The presentation looked great, but it wasn't very good.  I told Cindy afterward, "OK, new rule - no tiramisu at a Japanese restaurant."  She quickly agreed.

But that was the only black mark on what, otherwise, was a great experience at Ichiban Sushi and Steakhouse.  We always seem to go overboard when we do sushi and this was no exception.  The bill ended up at $90 bucks with a tip.  But we don't do sushi together all that much and Christmas Eve is a nice time to splurge a little on ourselves.  While we like the close proximity of Red Ginger, we've sort of fallen out of favor with Osaka because it has gotten too busy and the service has fallen off.  We were very pleased with both the sushi and overall scene of the new and improved Ichiban.  I think we'll be going there more often in the future.  (Photo courtesy Trip Advisor)

B&B Burger and Beer - Las Vegas

One early January morning as I was crossing the Las Vegas Strip from the Mirage over to the Venetian to go work our suites during the Consumer Electronics Show, I saw a digital billboard on the side of the Venetian touting B&B Burger and Beer - a new restaurant venture under the umbrella of the Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group headed by celebrity chef Mario Batali and his partners, Joe Bastianich, and Joe's mother - author, television host and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich.  Well, I got the chance to eat there not once, but twice in the same day.

B&B Burger and Beer opened in December of 2013, a full month before we visited the place.  Going there in early January went against my rule of never visiting a new restaurant for the first 90 days of its existence, but I didn't know that it had only been open a bit over 30 days until after my visit.  Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich - who also run B&B Ristorante and Otto Enoteca Pizzeria at the Venetian, as well as Carnevino in the attached hotel/casino the Palazzo - had announced in the summer of 2013 their intentions to open their burger place in early September of last year.  But a $900,000 renovation of the space that formerly housed the short-lived Rattlecan burger joint took a little longer than anticipated.  Batali and Bastianich opened B&B Burger and Beer in early December of last year.

Now, the Las Vegas burger scene is crowded with a myriad of burger joints owned by celebrity chefs - and some of them aren't too good.  Other high profile burger joints have opened over the past couple three years making Las Vegas a burger lovers destination.  It was with a bit of trepidation that I took my dealer and his salesguy to B&B Burger and Beer for lunch on the last day of the Consumer Electronics Show.  It was so new that I was having trouble finding the place on a map of the Venetian property. I finally asked a security guard where it was and he told me it was behind the poker room at the Venetian and directly across from the sports book.  My dealer had spent many an hour playing poker in the Venetian's poker room and I knew where the sports book was as I had slipped away from our suites to watch an Iowa Basketball game a year ago.  

Upon finding the place, we found that it has a separate outside window - B&B Burger and Beer 2 Go - along with a small indoor patio area that looks onto the sports book. (There's also an outdoor patio that butts up against Las Vegas Blvd., a.k.a. The Strip - but it was closed off that day.)  A long bar was off to the right hand side of the restaurant as you come in.  Nearly two dozen flat screen televisions tuned to sporting events are on the walls of the burger joint.  

 
We were seated at a table with a banquette wall seat along the back wall of the restaurant. Menus were left off with us by the young hostess.  In addition to burgers, the menu features hero-style sandwiches consisting of pastrami, meat ball, chicken, sausage, and lobster rolls.  Appetizers of unfried mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, fried oysters with remoulade sauce, and shishito peppers with a garlicky Romesco sauce were available, as well.  

We were greeted by our server, Jared - an earnest young man with a quick smile.  He took our drink orders.  I wanted a beer and the hostess didn't drop off a beer menu.  Jared went to get one.  It took him more than three minutes to bring one back.  That was kind of the fore-bearer of the level of service we'd see from him.  

On the Sunday night we all got into Las Vegas, after setting up a good portion of our suites we had a ritualistic dinner at I ♥ Burgers located in the Grand Canal Shoppes of the Venetian/Palazzo. (Click here to see my entry on I ♥ Burgers)  It was our third straight year we've gone to I ♥ Burgers because the burgers are good, they have a good beer selection and it's close.  The only problem this year is that we found they paired down - by more than half - many of the eclectic beers they offered at  I ♥ Burgers.  Well, B&B Burger and Beer has picked up the craft beer gauntlet (it can't say "beer" in its name if they don't have a good selection of beers).  While the beer menu isn't as extensive as I ♥ Burgers' used to be, it still features a number of local and California craft beers in bottles and on draft.

My neighbor back in Davenport, Greg, is a big fan of the Ballast Point beers out of San Diego and they had the Ballast Point Calico Amber on draft.  I ordered that.  My two guests ordered diet pop.  

Beer menu at B&B Burgers and Beer - click for larger size.

B&B Burger and Beer sources their beef from the same local purveyor that supplies their sister restaurant Carnevino Italian Steakhouse.  The beef is ground in house and hand-pattied into 6 oz. patties.  They use a variety of buns for their burgers - sesame seed, pretzel, ciabatta and even a potato bun.  You can build your own burgers using cheese selections such as Swiss, American, pepperjack, gorgonzola, Fontana and even goat cheese.  Toppings include pickled peppers, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions, avocado and chili.  They also feature a number of sauces including either a balsamic or chianti mustard, jalapeno pesto, or a truffle aioli.  

Their signature burgers include the Morning After with a fried egg, Fontana cheese, truffle aioli, and sauteed mushrooms.  The amusingly named Bottom Burner was topped with pepperjack cheese, Mario Batali's hot sauce, onion rings and jalapeno pesto.  And the Royale with Cheese featured Robiola cheese, a grilled Treviso raddichio, caramelized onions, and finished with a Parmigiano/Marscapone cream cheese spread. 

I built my own burger when Jared came back to take our orders.  I got the 6 oz. patty on a potato bun, and had it topped with Swiss cheese, Heritage Berkshire bacon, and sauteed mushrooms.  Jared asked how I wanted it cooked and I asked for medium.  My guests went simple - they both ordered the Drive-Thru burger - two 3 oz. burger patties on a sesame seed bun with American cheese.  One guy ordered it with the cheese, the other without.  We each ordered fries with our meal.

The burgers took about 20 minutes from the time we ordered to the time they showed up at the table.  Jared was a little slow with the drink refills during that time, as well.  We had to flag Jared down to get more pop and another beer.  And it took a long time for him to return with our drinks.  

Someone other than Jared brought out our burgers to us.  The fries were in a large metal cup with wax paper. They were thin and crisp.  A side of housemade ketchup came with them.  The burger featured a tall potato bun crown that sat on top of the burger and toppings.  Lettuce, a fresh tomato slice and red raw onion rings came on the burger, as well.  

I haven't had a burger with a potato bun for quite sometime, but the one at B&B Burger and Beer was very good.  It had a somewhat hard outer shell, but a nice chewy core.  It held together well with all that was on the burger giving the burger a very good complementary taste. 

The burger, itself, was flavorful and juicy on its own.  It was cooked to what I call a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle.  I liked it a little better than the burgers I've had at I ♥ Burgers, but the trade-off is that I like the toppings offered at I ♥ Burgers a little more.  

My guests both liked their burgers.  "Better than anything I've tasted back home," one of the guys told me.  

The fries were all right - nothing special.  They had a nice crisp taste and many had broke in half during the cooking process.  They went well with the burgers.

That evening, we were packing up our suites on the 29th floor of the Venetian after the end of the Consumer Electronics Show.  We were sort of at a standstill around 7:30 p.m waiting for our shipping crates to show up, so my boss decided that we'd go get something to eat.  There were 12 of us and we first tried to get into the Public House bar and restaurant at the Venetian.  When we found that they couldn't accommodate us, someone suggested that we go back to I ♥ Burgers.  Knowing that the beer selection at I ♥ Burgers was disappointing, I suggested B&B Burger and Beer.  Shrugs of shoulders to enthusiastic affirmations greeted my suggestion.  We walked over to B&B Burger and Beer and they were able to put some tables together back in the same area that I had eaten at earlier in the day to accommodate our group.

Our server that evening, Shiloh, was much better than Jared.  She was attentive, witty, and on the ball.  Two of the people in our group don't drink beer, but it turns out that B&B Burger and Beer has a small wine list that they pair with some of their signature burgers.  

On this visit, I built my own burger once again.  This time I got a burger - medium - on a pretzel bun and topped with pepperjack cheese, a hard fried egg and garlic aioli. I got fries again after contemplating getting either onion rings or their housemade salt and pepper potato chips.  I didn't figure I'd eat many of the fries as the burger would be more than enough for me - especially after having one at lunch.  I also got a Ballast Point Calico Amber ale to go with the dinner. 

The second burger I had at B&B Burger and Beer was just as good as the first one.  I liked the pretzel bun more than the potato bun, but both were pretty damned good.  The pepperjack had a nice spicy bite to it, the egg was a great complementary taste, but I couldn't really get much of a garlic taste with the garlic aioli.  Overall, everyone seemed to be happy with the burgers at B&B Burger and Beer.  At least no one complained and many were happy with the beer selection - limited, but a better selection of craft beers than I ♥ Burgers.

On my most recent Top Ten Burger List, another B&B Burger - the one from B&B Grocery in Des Moines - has consistently been in my Top Ten for the past couple three years.  (Click here to see my entry on B&B Grocery.)  The B&B Burger in Las Vegas was very good - one of the better "celebrity-gourmet" burgers I've had.  While I've found some "celebrity-gourmet" burgers to be vastly overrated, the burger at B&B Burger and Beer was pretty damned good.  The service we had in the afternoon for three people was below par, but the service by Shiloh in the evening taking care of 12 tired, thirsty, hungry and wise-assed guys was stellar.  Being that it is new, I'm hoping the signature burgers, as well as the craft beer selection, is a work in progress.  We may have found a new Sunday night burger destination when we get back to Las Vegas for the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show - B&B Burger and Beer.  (Photo courtesy Vegas Chatter.com)

Charlotte's Rib - Chesterfield, MO

During a recent trip to St. Louis, I stayed out in the Chesterfield Valley for a morning meeting the next day.  Searching for food choices for the evening, I came across a barbecue place that I wasn't familiar with - even though it had been in business for over 30 years - Charlotte's Rib.  I decided that I'd go over and try their barbecue in nearby Ballwin.  (Photo courtesy Pitch.com)

To people over the age of 50 in the St. Louis area, they all remember Charlotte Peters, dubbed the "First Lady of St. Louis Television".  Peters answered an ad looking for performers for a noon time variety show on KSD-TV (now KSDK) in 1947.  Even though she was late for the interview, her audition went so well that she was hired on the spot.  For seven years, Peters was part of the performing cast on a show that was geared toward housewives called "To the Ladies".  She was immediately popular with her singing and comedic skills.  When the original host of "To the Ladies" decided to quit, KSD named Peters the new host of the show and renamed it "The Charlotte Peters Show".  The show was largely unscripted, and being that it was live television it was totally unpredictable.  Peters, guests (which included Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Alfred Hitchcock and dozens of other notables of the day) and studio audience members - along with thousands watching at home - all went along with the intermittent chaos that a show like that could produce.  Peters' mantra before each show was "Let's just wing it."  

(Pictured right - Charlotte Peters)

A dispute with KSD management in the early 60's forced Peters to jump to rival station KTVI (along with a vast majority of her sponsors and viewers).  Peters continued the Charlotte Peters Show - still a live show - until the popularity of locally produced live variety shows began to decline.  Charlotte Peters hosted her last show in 1970.  She continued to work in local theaters and penned a column for the local paper after she retired from television.  Charlotte Peters died in 1988.

Not only did Peters have a highly successful television show, she was also a stage actress, columnist, and was an advocate for local St. Louis charities.  But above all, she was a mother.  Her son, Mike, became famous in his own right as the man behind the highly popular Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip.  And her daughter, Pat, used a barbecue sauce recipe that her mom came up with to be the impetus for what eventually became a barbecue joint called named after Charlotte Peters - Charlotte's Rib.  

Pat, and her husband, Herb Schwarz had a love for Kansas City-style barbecue and they opened their first Charlotte's Rib location in suburban Kirkwood in 1977.  The next year, the couple moved their business to a location out in West County on Manchester Road in Manchester, just west of Missouri Highway 141.  

Herb Schwarz began to enter the world of barbecue competitions using the name "Dr. Rollin' River" to hide his association with Charlotte's Rib. (I believe, at that time, professional barbecue chefs couldn't enter some barbecue cook-offs.)  In 1981, Schwarz/Dr. River won a regional barbecue cook-off to qualify for the American Royal Barbecue Cook Off in Kansas City - the World Series of Barbecue.  Schwarz/Dr. River won the Best Pork category that year and it soon solidified Charlotte's Rib as the barbecue joint to go to in St. Louis.  In 1982, Pat Schwarz used a family recipe that had been handed down in the Peters family to win a regional chili cook off in St. Louis.  In 1985, the Schwarz's began to market their barbecue sauce - Mild Hickory - through local grocery stores, and began to develop new sauces and their own barbecue rub.  

By the late 90's, the Schwarz's daughter, Lisa, and her husband, Scott Brown, joined Herb and Pat in the family business.  The same year that the Schwarz's retired from the business and handed the reins over to their daughter and son-in-law, Charlotte's Rib was forced to move to a new location thanks to urban renewal.  They moved to what is their present day location in Ballwin in 2001.  They thought it would be a temporary move until they found a stand-alone building like their location on Manchester Road, but they settled in and decided to stay.  

Their location is in a strip mall at the northwest corner of Clayton Road and Kehrs Mill Road. (see map)  Through the week (they're closed on Monday) Charlotte's Rib is open until 8 p.m. (9 p.m. on the weekends).  I got there around 7:15 and there was a light crowd in the place.  As you walk into the restaurant, you come face-to-face with the multitudes of awards Charlotte's Rib has accumulated over the years.  After Herb Schwarz's death in 2007, Scott Brown and Lisa Schwarz got back into local and regional competitions to pay homage to her father.  In 2008 they won second place in the coveted "Cook's Choice" category at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational.  They've also won a number of awards at local St. Louis area barbecue competitions since then.         

 
80's and 90's country music from Sirius XM was playing over the sound system in Charlotte's Rib. The decor in the place was sort of a Western/ranch-style theme. 

I found a spot in a booth toward the back of the place and was greeted by a young woman who gave me a menu.  She asked what I wanted to drink and I told her I'd take a Budweiser.  She brought me back the beer and asked me if I was ready to order.  I had only been there for a couple minutes and hadn't had the chance to figure out what I was looking for yet.  She told me that she'd check back and I said that was fine.  That was a mistake.  More on that later. 

Charlotte's Rib is famous for their hand-cut pork steaks.  They cut a steak out of pork shoulder (a.k.a. pork butt) and grill it.  It's been a signature menu item for over 30 years.  But I was looking for barbecue and they have St. Louis cut spare pork ribs, baby back pork ribs, brisket, pulled pork and chicken barbecue dinners.  They also have a slew of appetizers including Pat Schwarz's chili and a Southern-style Burgoo stew that consists of Beef, Chicken and a variety of vegetables in a chicken stock.  Burgoo is popular from about Central Missouri and Central Illinois south to heart of Dixie.  I've been to Burgoo festivals before and they're pretty fun.  

Charlotte's Rib also features pulled pork and brisket sandwiches, they have a handful of burgers on the menu, and they also have something called the C.B. Joe - a chopped beef and pork sandwich mixed with a combination of spices and topped with barbecue sauce.  Charlotte's Rib also has a kid's menu, has menu items for family gatherings and can do large catering jobs.  

They have a combo meal at Charlotte's Rib - 3 rib bones, 1/4 chicken, ham and beef brisket.  But I don't care for smoked chicken all that much and ham is great for holidays, but I find it to be rather boring for barbecue joints.  I found that I could just order different sizes of ribs and get a half pound of brisket.  They had two different sizes (small and large) of the sides they offer which included seasoned French fries, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw and chunky applesauce.    

I had finished my beer and I had figured out what I wanted - 1/3 slab of ribs, 1/2 pound of brisket and a small side of the baked beans.  I was waiting for the young girl to come back - and she never did.  There was another girl looking after a small group of people toward the front of the restaurant, but my server was nowhere in sight.  I walked into the restaurant just after 7:15 and it was now 7:25.  Then it was 7:30.  Then it became 7:35.  I was seriously thinking of just laying three bucks on the table for the beer and getting up to walk out.  Finally, nearly a full 25 minutes after I walked in, I got the attention of the other server.  "My waitress has forgotten about me and I've been ready to order for over 15 minutes."  

She apologized profusely and ran back into the kitchen to grab the other girl.  My server came out and she said, "Oh my gosh!  I am SOOOOO sorry.  What can I get you?"

I just sort of sat there, looking up at her.  I was just so incredulous that this happened to me in a restaurant - AGAIN!  Figuring that I made her feel guilty enough and didn't have to tell her "Don't forget about your customers" (my eyes and facial expression was doing a good enough job of that), I ordered up my barbecue and baked beans along with another beer.  She brought out another beer to me and said, "This one is on the house.  Again, I am SOOOOO sorry."  

She brought me out my barbecue about 15 minutes after I ordered and it was a hearty slab of meat on my plate.  She asked if I wanted any additional barbecue sauce other than the mild hickory sauce that they had on the brisket and ribs.  I asked what she had and she said, "Let me get you some more sauce."  She came out with a spicy Southern sauce and a Western blend sauce.  

I got more than a 1/3 rack of ribs, I'm guessing because of her forgetting about me, but probably more because it was the end of the rack.  The ribs at the end were a little tough, but toward the middle of the rack they were more tender.  The outer bark of the ribs was tasty, the ribs had a nice smoke ring under the bark, and they had a nice subtle smoky taste.  The ribs middle ribs were pretty meaty and pulled off the bone pretty easily.  They were pretty good.  

The brisket was also very good.  It was thick cut, tender and easy to cut with a fork.  The brisket was served on a slice of white bread and it, too, had a nice smoky flavor to it.  I think I liked the brisket a little bit more than I liked the ribs.  

The baked beans were very good on their own.  Most of the time, I have to add some barbecue sauce to some place's baked beans because they're usually drab in taste and they're too runny.  Charlotte's Rib baked beans had a thicker consistency and a very good overall flavor.  I did add some of the Southern spicy sauce to the beans, but they really didn't need it.  

The sauces were just all right, I thought.  The mild hickory had a nice sweet and smoky taste.  The Southern spicy wasn't all that spicy to me.  The Western blend was pleasant enough, but it wasn't ass-kicking in taste.  The sauces from Charlotte's Rib are all acceptable, but they weren't remarkable enough to the point where I wanted to run over to Dierberg's to buy some to take home.

I paid the bill and left a small tip for the young lady.  She didn't deserve a 15 percent tip and barely deserved a 10 percent tip.  As I was leaving, I was taking a few snap shots and a man came out of the kitchen and asked me how the food was.  I guessed after the fact that this was Scott Brown.  I told him that the food was good, but I was a little disappointed in the service.  He said, "Yeah, I heard about that.  I'm really sorry.  I had her back in the kitchen doing some stuff and she just forgot."  

A couple three weeks later, I was reconciling my expense report versus my credit card statement and I noticed that the tip that I had included on my credit card receipt was not on my statement.  I don't know if she refused it or if Scott Brown didn't include it after I signed the credit card receipt.  I thought, "OK, that's the way to do it." 

So, other than the poor service, the ribs and brisket at Charlotte's Rib were decent and respectable.  The sauces were all right, but unexceptional.  The decor, I thought, was a little too kitschy, but it was tolerable.  With a growing number of good to excellent barbecue places in St. Louis, Charlotte's Rib will have to work hard to maintain its long standing place in the market.   They just can't forget about their customers. 

Tuscano's - Schiller Park, IL

Sitting in the flight path of O'Hare International Airport along River Road in western suburban Schiller Park is an Italian restaurant that I've driven past a few times when I stay at a hotel in Rosemont - Tuscano's.  Their sign out front says that they're a Greek and Italian restaurant, a nice Mediterranean combination.  It was a cool rainy night when I checked into my hotel just up River Road in Rosemont and I decided to go down to Tuscano's for dinner.

For years, Giannotti's Italian Steak House was *THE* place in the near northwest suburbs for a great meal for families celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, for a guy trying to impress his date, or for a high-powered business lunch.  In the fall of 2009, Giannotti's suddenly closed "for remodeling".  That's usually the kiss of death for fine restaurants that had gone out of business.  The owner of the building, Sam Zarcone, had leased the space in a small strip mall along River Road to the Giannotti family.   After they went out of business, he decided to take over the space with his own Italian restaurant.  He partnered with Peter Jovanovic and rehired many of the staff of Gianotti's - including chef Javiel Villalobos.  They reopened as Tuscano's in early 2010.  

On weekends, Tuscano's can get packed.  They feature a piano player in the lounge area early in the evening.  Then after 9 p.m., they have everything from small bands to a singer who performs with a karaoke machine on a small stage with a dance floor in another part of the restaurant.  Tuscano's is one of those neighborhood places where regulars show up each weekend for food and dancing.  

It was a weeknight when I pulled into Tuscano's, just south of the Stephens Convention Center. (see map)  They have a sort of open dining area with low walls that allows a bit of privacy in some areas, but you can see across the room when you stand up.  The lounge area features a large bar and a number of tables with flat screen televisions on the wall.  The lights are very low in the lounge area and I took two or three pictures of the room with my camera on my smartphone, but none of them came out.  

A hostess asked me if I wanted to sit in the dining room or in the lounge.  They had basketball games on the flat screens in the lounge and I decided to go with that.  She dropped off a dinner menu and I waited for my server to show up.  

The bartender/server that night, Lisa, came over to greet me.  She asked me what I wanted to drink and I took a quick look at the taps behind the bar.  The lights were so low that I was having trouble making out what they had.  Finally, I saw the familiar Samuel Adams logo and I ordered one of those.  She came back out with the Sam Adams poured into one of the special Samuel Adams beer glasses that are supposed to be used to drink their beer.  I thought it was a petty nice touch and something that I've rarely seen at a bar or restaurant.  (Click here to learn more about the Samuel Adams beer glass.)

The dinner menu at Tuscano's features a long list of Italian favorites, Greek specialties, wood-fired ribs and pizza, veal, chicken and pasta dishes, steaks, lamb chops and seafood.  I'm always a little leery of places like this who have a large menu because while they can usually do everything just all right, they can't do it all very well.  

The veal picante - lightly breaded veal sauteed in lemon juice and white wine - sounded pretty good to me.  A choice of soup or salad and a side pasta dish came with the entree.  I thought a bit about the homemade fettuccine alfredo, but that seemed a little boring to me.  The linguine with clams in a white sauce was another thing that caught my eye.  But nothing really jumped out at me.  

I looked long and hard at their wood-fired pizza.  They had a basic margarita pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.  They also had the Diavola - spicy pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, black olives and red pepper flakes.  Suddenly, pizza sounded real good to me.  I hadn't had a good pizza in a while and I ended up getting the Rustica - Italian sausage and pepperoni along with fresh mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, housemade tomato sauce, onions and sweet peppers.   

While I waited for my pizza to show up, another waiter brought out a basket of warm bread slices.  Olive oil and parmesan cheese were on the table.  The bread was soft and flavorful, and dipping it into a combination of the olive oil, parmesan and black pepper was a great taste sensation.  It went well with the beer.  

I had finished my first beer and was looking for a second one when another server brought my pizza out to me.  Lisa was busy behind the bar and having to wait on patrons in the lounge area.  But after she got my pizza order, she just forgot about me.  I looked over and it appeared that she was talking with a couple guys who were probably regulars at the bar.  She just completely forgot about me.  I had water with my pizza.

The pizza was about 10" in size and the crust looked like it was pre-formed and not hand tossed.  The crust was thick toward the edge and thin in the middle.  

The toppings were a little disappointing.  There was little Italian sausage on the pizza, as well as only a few slices of pepperoni.  Strips of sweet red pepper were on the top of the pizza - a plus in my book.  Small slices of onion were prevalent, but not numerous.  Same with the mushrooms.  I could taste some of the fresh mozzarella, but overall I was disappointed in the pizza.  The crust did taste like a preformed crust - sort of lifeless and hard to chew.  This was a pizza that had a lot of promise, but didn't live up to the billing of a good wood-fired pizza.  I only ate 4 of the six slices before I called it quits. 

On top of all that, Lisa completely forgot about me.  She was still paying attention to people sitting at the bar so much that I thought I should go over with my pizza and just sit at the bar.  When the server who brought me my pizza came back to inquire if I wanted the rest boxed up, I declined and told him I'd just take my check.  I sat an waited for another five minutes or so and no one brought me that check.  I finally had to go up to the bar, interrupt Lisa and ask for my check.  I almost gave her a bad tip and with a note on the receipt "Don't forget your customers."  (I've done that a few times in the past.)  But I gave her what was basically a ten percent tip and called it good.

I do want to go back and try Tuscano's again at some point.  Everything started out so nice, but went downhill after the basket of fresh bread came out.  I'd probably go with my first instinct and get the veal picante or a pasta dish, but I was far from impressed with my pizza at Tuscano's.  I couldn't even give you an answer if it passed my "Does it taste good with beer" test because I didn't have any beer with the pizza thanks to Lisa forgetting about me.  Sitting in the dining room may be a better plan if I do make it back at some point.  I just hope the rest of the food is better than the pizza.

Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House - Las Vegas

During our company's annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, we're always happy to spend an evening with our friends from Cambridge Audio who treat us to a nice dinner.  To say that their choice of restaurants is interesting is an understatement.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes not - such as the place we went to with them last year, Austin's Steakhouse in the somewhat sketchy Texas Palace casino.  (Click here to see my entry on Austin's Steakhouse.)  Not only was it a long drive to Austin's Steakhouse, the food was mediocre, at best.  This year, they proposed taking us to a place that was even further away from our hotels on the Las Vegas Strip - Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House.  With much trepidation and a little bit of grumbling, we drove 30 minutes north of our hotel at The Mirage to be treated to a meal at Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House.

Bob Taylor was born in California in the early 1920's.  His father had wanted to open a small market in Los Angeles, but the Great Depression came and wiped out any hope for the family-run market.  The Taylor family moved to Kansas City and opened a small family restaurant.  His mother would bake pies in the early morning hours and they were so good that they were usually sold out of pie slices by 1 p.m.  It was at the small restaurant that the young Bob Taylor got his first experience in the restaurant business.  

The Taylor's eventually moved back to California, running small restaurants in Bakersfield, then in Ventura.  World War II came around and Taylor served in the Army Air Corps as both a mechanic and as an armored gunner in airplanes.  After the war, Taylor scraped together enough money to buy two properties - 80 acres of desert land north and west of Las Vegas, and a small get-away cabin in Jackson Hole, WY.  

Bob Taylor became a master skeet shooter and hosted many friends to come out to his Nevada property - where he'd built a small ranch house - for shoots.  After the shoots were over, Taylor would barbecue meat over mesquite wood that was abundant on the property.  Coaxed by his friends to open a restaurant, Taylor turned the small ranch house he was living in into a restaurant/supper club, opening in September of 1955.  Las Vegas' burgeoning tourist industry helped the initial growth of Bob Taylor's little supper club with people making the 20 mile drive out to have some of his steaks.  Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Elvis Presley and other Las Vegas casino performers loved to drive out to Bob Taylor's for a great meal and to get away from Vegas for a short time.  Taylor expanded his steakhouse in the 1960's to its present day size.  

For years, there was no telephone service to Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House.  He didn't take reservations and the only way people knew he was open was if a blinking light on his sign was on.  Taylor would tell his friends and good customers, "Come early or come late, but don't ever come at 8:00 p.m."  I'm guessing that was when he was at his busiest.  

Taylor was somewhat of a showman who once paid for a Chicago stockyards grand champion steer with a wheelbarrow full of silver dollars.  During the filming of "Viva Las Vegas", in the scene in which Presley and Ann-Margret were shooting skeet, it was Bob Taylor off-camera breaking the clay targets with his shotgun.  By the 1970's, Bob Taylor hosted one of the biggest trap shooting tournaments in the United States, hosting celebrities, pro football players, and the best trap shooters in the world.  

The one constant at the Ranch House supper club was Bob Taylor.  Nearly every night you would find Taylor cooking steaks over an open grill fired by mesquite, drinking Scotch and spitting ice cubes into the mesquite fire.  However, as Taylor grew older - and after multiple divorces that yielded no children - he began to sell off the surrounding property and slow down his involvement in the restaurant.  In 1980, Taylor sold the restaurant to the first of a handful of owners who went through management rather quickly.  The food suffered greatly and the solid foundation of local customers and entertainers who patronized the restaurant in the 60's and 70's quit making the trek to the middle of the desert north and west of Las Vegas.  

(Bob Taylor lived one day shy of his 88th birthday, passing away in March of 2010.  He developed emphysema, possibly brought on by years of standing over mesquite fires cooking steaks.  Between the time he sold the restaurant in 1980 and his death in 2010, he traveled the world with his wife, Dotti, hunting wild game in South Africa, seeing the sights of Europe and Australia, and taking an annual camping trip to a small bay in Northern Canada to salmon fish.  Throughout the later years of his life he continued his love for cooking, even catering his own 85th birthday celebration in 2007.)

In 1983, Bob Ratner bought the restaurant and started to turn things around.  With Las Vegas' outward expansion, business began to boom again with the restaurant serving upwards of 150 to 250 meals an evening.  However that progress ended up hitting Ratner over the head.  In the mid-90's, highway construction on nearby U.S. Highway 95 disrupted access to Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House.  Business began to fall off dramatically and Ratner was forced to shut the restaurant in 1996.  

Two young entrepreneurs - Jeff Special, who had a background in the restaurant business; and Steve Mikrut, who had no previous restaurant experience - bought the building and reopened Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House in October of 1997.  They kept the same Western-style decor, even adding some Western artwork on the walls of the restaurant.  Today, Jeff Special is the sole owner of the restaurant.  

My colleagues are somewhat enamored with my built-in GPS superpower I possess, but on the trip from the Strip to Bob Taylor's, my inner GPS had a hiccup.  It was because they were working on Nevada State Highway 215 and the exit I tried to take to double back to Bob Taylor's was closed.  (Hmmm... Wasn't that a previous problem with people getting to Bob Taylor's?)  However, with some backtracking and a couple of keen eyes we were able to pull up to the entry to the parking lot of Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House around the appointed hour of 7:30. (see map)  One van load of colleagues had already shown up, the first of two loads of Cambridge Audio people were already disembarking in the parking lot as we pulled up.  Five minutes later, the second load of Cambridge Audio people showed up.  In all, there were 20 of us that evening.  

After getting drinks at the bar and looking at some of the Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia on the walls (I'm guessing the owner must be a Steelers fan), we were taken into the somewhat Western-style, rustic dining room.  High beamed ceilings were prominent in the front dining room, while the back part addition had a drop-ceiling with tile.  A large fireplace was the prominent feature of the front dining room along with pictures, Western movie posters and other Western-style paraphernalia.   

 
Before we were seated in the back dining room around three large tables, we had to pass the open grill at the front of the restaurant.  The menu at Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House features steaks, ribs, pork chops, rack of lamb, seafood, and chicken entrees.  They're famous for their 16 oz. tenderloin filets, their bone-in rib eyes and their 32 ounce "Diamond Jim Brady" New York strip.  

Because of the size of the group, they decided to give us a fixed menu that evening.  The choices were all fine - an 8 oz. filet, the 12 oz. New York strip, or the rack of lamb.  With the filet came some grilled shrimp.  Baked potatoes were offered as a side.  

I was seated between two young ladies from Cambridge Audio - Emma, who grew up in Western Australia and was very familiar with good outback beef; and Rebecca, on her first trip to America and who grew up in Scotland in a family where everything was overcooked making sure there was no sign of life left in any meat.  Emma ordered the New York strip - medium.  Rebecca also ordered the New York strip - well done.  I looked at her in horror almost with as much horror as she looked at me when I ordered my filet rare.  She explained later on, "I just don't like the blood in the meat."  

When we - meaning the North American guys in my company seated at the table - explained to her that the redness in the meat was not blood as it was the colored juice of the meat, she began to waffle a bit.  My colleague, Ian, said, "You want to have some moisture in the meat.  That's what makes the steak flavorful."  Rebecca was beginning to get second thoughts at that point and it was somewhat serendipitous when our server came back out to the table to make sure she had the right orders for us.  It was then that Rebecca changed her steak temperature from "well-done" to "medium-well".  We felt it was a minor step forward in showing a young Brit visiting America for the first time the proper way to order a steak.  

The wine list at Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House is pretty limited.  I was asked by one of the guys from Cambridge Audio to pick out a red wine.  About the only thing that I saw that I recognized and was familiar with was the Clos du Val Napa Valley cabernet.  One of my colleagues concurred with me on the choice and they ordered bottles for the table.  

Starting out the meal, we were served a small serving dish of grilled shrimp in a spicy cream sauce.  It was actually very good.  The cream sauce had a nice little bite to it and it went extremely well with the four or five grilled shrimp that were dunked inside.  

A small dinner salad with their house dressing - a sort of creamy ranch dressing with a little pepper in it.  The salad was actually pretty non-descript, but it was a nice preamble to the meal.

Our steaks showed up at the table and the tenderloin was accompanied with a couple three grilled shrimp, a baked potato and an onion ring garnish on top of a small green lettuce leaf.  The presentation wasn't much, but it was pretty much similar to what you would find at most Midwestern supper club/steakhouses.  

 
The New York strip also came with a baked potato and an onion ring/lettuce leaf garnish.  This is my colleague Ian's New York strip cooked medium rare.  Notice the large amount of juice on his plate.  Rebecca's New York strip didn't have any of that juice on her plate.  

The evening before, some of us in our company went out to dinner at The Steak House at Circus Circus.  It's one of my all-time favorite steakhouses and it's turned into an annual treat for us when we get to Vegas.  (Click here to see my entry on The Steak House.)  I ordered a filet that night, as well - rare.  It turned out to be more medium-rare than rare.  However, the filet at Bob Taylor's Original Steakhouse was cooked perfectly for me.  It had a deep red tint with a cool center.  The steak was cooked nearly blue (almost completely rare), but it was very, very good.  It was easy to cut, easy to chew and had great flavor both from the meat and the mesquite smoke.  I was extremely happy with my cut of meat. 

Everyone else at my table had the New York strip.  From medium-rare to medium to medium-well, everyone raved about their steak.  Even Rebecca was happy with the juicy nature of her medium-well steak.  Too many times I've run into situations where the food suffers when there is a large party.  But the grill cook at Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House had it down perfectly.  It was a wonderful meal, much better than I anticipated or even hoped for.  We all agreed it was worth the long trip out to Bob Taylor's.

Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House is the billed as the oldest restaurant in Las Vegas.  Granted, a number of the old time Las Vegas supper clubs and steakhouses have given way to four star restaurants owned and operated by celebrity chefs from around the world.  And while Bob Taylor's is no longer surrounded by miles of desert, it still offers a very good meal at a great price in a setting that hearkens back to the 50's and 60's.  Even though it is a long way from the action in the heart of Las Vegas, I would have no problem making the 30 minute one-way trek to have another steak at Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House.  Its "old-school" charm is a complete antithesis to the glitz and over-done glamour of Las Vegas.  

Candicci's - Ballwin, MO

One of the very first entries on Road Tips over 8 years ago (Wow!  8 years?  Some blogs don't last 8 weeks!) was on a restaurant that was one of my favorite places to get Italian food in St. Louis - Candicci's.  A lot has changed since that original blog post - I finally figured out a format and voice to the blog, and Candicci's moved not once, but twice since I was last in for a meal.  I was staying out in the West County area of St. Louis on a recent trip to the area and I decided to go to Candicci's for dinner and do an updated entry for Road Tips.

Bob Candice (pronounced can-DEE-chee) got his start as restaurant owner when he bought the old Deli D'Italia in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton.  In 1980, he founded his own little Italian restaurant using a variant of his last name.  He designed the little restaurant to be similar to the small neighborhood Italian restaurants that he visited in New York.  Candice brought in Chef Rodney Ledbetter to oversee the menu.  It became one of the best Italian restaurants in St. Louis that was not located on The Hill.  

(Pictured right Bob Candice)

In 1995, Candicci's opened their second location at the Heritage Place Shopping Center along Olive Blvd. in West County. A couple years later, Candice sold the Clayton location to focus on the West County restaurant.  (Fortunately, I was able to eat at the Clayton location of Candicci's for a Christmas party right before he sold the place.  It was quaint, cozy and had an old world charm to the place.  Oh, and the food was outstanding.)  

We'd been to the West County Candicci's a number of times during the time I worked for a company in the St. Louis area from 1995 to 2002.  If we didn't go to The Hill for Italian food, we went to Candicci's.  And we were there more often than we went to The Hill.  It was one of my wife's all-time favorite Italian restaurants and we took a handful of friends to Candicci's at points along the way to turn them onto the very good Italian food at the place.  

When I took the job I have now in 2002, I had stopped into Candicci's a couple of times for dinner.  The food was still outstanding, full of flavor and garlic.  Wow - the garlic!  They love the garlic at Candicci's.  But I had begun to get deeper into this blog and I sort of made it my mission to seek out different restaurants on my visits to St. Louis.  Candicci's - sadly and stupidly - sort of fell out of favor.  

In 2006, Bob Candice closed down the Olive Blvd. location and about three or four months later he reopened a spot in Clayton.  Realizing that West County had a void of good Italian restaurants in a metro area that was known for Italian food, he ended up selling the Clayton location and moved out their present location in Ballwin in the late Spring of 2009. Chef Rodney Ledbetter is still in charge of the kitchen, assisted by his son, Zach.  

Candicci's is located off of Manchester Road on Holloway Road just east of the Target store on the north side of the road.  You can't see the building from Manchester, so you pretty much need to know where you're going if you want to go there.  I pulled into the parking lot and the lot was nearly full of cars.  I thought, "Oh, boy.  This place is gonna be packed."  When I went in to the restaurant, I was surprised to see that it was less than half full.  The larger location of Candicci's was very deceiving.  

I was greeted by a hostess and she showed me to a booth in what I deemed as the front dining area.  The front dining area had a step up bar and a number of tables and chairs in the middle of the room with a number of booths along the wall.  The back area was more quiet and featured a smaller number of seats and booths.  One thing that I've always liked about Candicci's is that they have televisions at the bar and there's always sports on them.  When I eat by myself, it's a nice little distraction.  They had a St. Louis Blues hockey match on the flat screens when I was in there that evening.  (Photo courtesy Yelp.com)

The hostess handed me a menu and after a bit my server for the evening, a pleasant young woman, came over to greet me and ask if I wanted anything to drink.  It's sort of a tradition for me to get a Budweiser for my first drink at Candicci's.  Hey, when in St. Louis.  (Later on, I got a glass of the William Hill chardonnay to go with my dinner.)

The menu hasn't changed much from the first time I'd been into Candicci's over 15 years ago.  I'm a big fan of their fettuccine alfredo - the alfredo sauce is always flavorful and full of garlic.  Chef Rodney Ledbetter doesn't skimp on the garlic in his dishes at Candicci's.  The linguine tutto mare with their homemade seafood sauce is outstanding, as well.  But the veal piccata with a lemon and white wine sauce with mushrooms is probably my favorite.  They also have a full complement of seafood, chicken, steak and pasta dishes.  They have a number of appetizers - including their great toasted ravioli - and a handful of salads including their house salad - the Candicci's Salad - that features chopped romaine and iceberg lettuce, provel and parmigiano cheeses, red onion slices, pimentos, black olives and Italian salami with a housemade Italian dressing.

That night, I decided to go with the Tortellini alla Carne - small tortellini shells stuffed with their special recipe ground and seasoned Italian meats, and served in a thick and zesty cream sauce with peas and mushrooms and topped with fresh parmigiano cheese.  I'm a sucker for a good meat filled tortellini and I remembered Candicci's tortellini to be pretty damned good.  I also wanted to get an order of toasted ravioli, but I knew that I would only eat three or four, at most.  They usually come 9 or 10 to a plate.  I asked my server if there was such as thing as a half-order of toasted ravioli.  She said, "Oh, well, tonight with each entree you get a free appetizer of two toasted raviolis."  That was perfect for me.  I also had to get the Candicci's salad.  

The toasted ravioli came out with two large toasted ravioli with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.  The toasted ravioli at Candicci's is larger than most other St. Louis area Italian restaurants and two were more than enough for me.  I would have left over a half-dozen on the plate had I ordered an appetizer of toasted ravioli.  The meat filling had a nice seasoned flavor to it.  The marinara sauce that was served with the ravioli was sweet and tangy.  I've always liked the marinara sauce at Candicci's.

 
The Candicci's salad was served with a small loaf of housemade baked bread and a plate of garlic oil and basil.  Wow!  The garlic in the oil was pungent and very flavorful.  It was a reminder that Candicci's likes garlic.  I like garlic, too, but this was such a forward taste that it was almost too much.   Dipping the soft and chewy bread in the garlic oil went well with the Candicci's salad.  Large chunks of salami were scattered on top of the chopped romaine and iceberg lettuce.  The sweet Italian dressing that Candicci's makes is a great compliment to the fresh lettuce, the zesty salami and the assorted pimentos and black olives on top of the salad.  It was also too big to finish.  I was only about half done when my server brought my tortellini out to me.

The portions at Candicci's are not small, but they're not over-the-top with their serving sizes, either.  The tortellini was plump, filled with the ground meat and served in Candicci's heavy white cream sauce.  Slices of mushrooms and peas were scattered in the tortellini that was finished with a topping of fresh parmigiano cheese.  I like fresh ground black pepper - lots of fresh ground black pepper (as you can see) - on any cream sauce dish that I order.  I told my server that she was going to get carpel tunnel from turning the black pepper grinder so many times.  She said, "Oh, I like pepper, too!"  

The first bite of the tortellini - WOW!  The garlic just jumped out from the first bite.  Now I know why my wife and I like Candicci's so much - the garlic is just stunning.  For some, it may be too overwhelming.  But my wife and I joke that we're garlic monkeys and there can never be too much garlic in a dish.  Well, Candicci's came close to hitting that threshold.    

The tortellini pasta was round and full, and the meat filling - similar to the same meat filling they use for their toasted ravioli - was very flavorful.   But the garlic almost overpowered the overall taste of the tortellini.  I just loved the white sauce, but even for a garlic hound like me, they could have backed off just a bit.  

It was great to reconnect with Candicci's.  It brought back many great memories of excellent meals in the past.  My server did a good job taking care of me, I liked the ambiance of the "new" location (even though it is double the size of the Candicci's on Olive Blvd.) and the food was, once again, very good for me.  If you live in (or are staying in) West County or out in the Chesterfield Valley, you don't have to drive all the way to The Hill to satisfy your Italian food craving.  Candicci's didn't disappoint once again. (Photo courtesy Foursquare.com)