Road Tips

The Shwack Beach Grill - Dana Point, CA

During our time in Dana Point, CA, we were looking for a place to get something to eat for lunch.  We had driven by a sort of funky looking place called The Shwack Beach Grill in the Del Prado Lantern District along the one-way (southbound) Del Prado Ave. in Dana Point.  (see map)  We had read that they had fish tacos and we decided to go there and give them a try.  

The funny thing about The Shwack, it's not on or even really near the beach at Dana Point.  But owner Max Fisher - who is a surfing aficionado - wanted sort of a beach theme for his restaurant that he opened in 2011.  The only problem was that Fisher was a general contractor and hadn't run his own restaurant before.  Fisher's father had been a corporate chef who decided to open his own restaurant - Cosmo's Italian Kitchen - in 1998, but that was the only connection to a restaurant that Max Fisher had.    Fisher wanted a place that sold good natural foods, offered a large number of craft beers, and had the feel of a beach shack.  

A former Starbucks location came open in 2010 and Fisher leased the site and began to build out his restaurant.  He used wood paneling and tile on the walls and in front of the bar, used distressed wood for his table tops, and decorated the place with surf boards and surfing-related items.  When he opened the doors in July of 2011, he called his place The Shwack - sort of a cross between "shack" and "schwack", the term surfers use for the sound of a surfboard hitting the water.  

They were working on Del Prado in front of The Shwack, so we found a parking spot behind the building and went in.  Initially, Cindy was a little apprehensive about eating at the place.  Quite frankly, we didn't exactly know what it was all about, but I think she was thinking the place would be a little more of a sit-down/server place.  But The Shwack is an "order at the counter" place with the menu on a chalkboard.  Cindy was hungry and I was getting exasperated and I said that we could just walk and find something else.  We started to walk out of The Shwack before she finally said, "That's OK.  We'll eat here."  I'm glad we decided to stay...

The Shwack serves naturally raised, hormone free ground beef for their burgers.  They feature chicken sandwiches with hand cut breasts from naturally raised, hormone and antibiotic free chickens.   They have a number of salads and healthy foods such as an ahi tuna burger, a veggie burger, and a ground turkey burger.  They also feature a number of eclectic appetizers - or "Shwackatizers" - on the menu.  The Shwack also serves breakfast and has a limited dinner menu in addition to the burgers, sandwiches and tacos.

But we decided to try the Shaka fish tacos - they also had steak, pulled pork and chicken tacos on the menu.  The fish tacos featured a house-made sauce (Shwack sauce) that had a little spicy kick to it, as well as an avocado cream sauce, pico de gallo and shredded cabbage on the side.  That's what we both ordered.  To my surprise - and delight - they also had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale 22 ounce bottles of beer.  I'd heard from a friend who was out in Hawaii a year or so ago that they had the 22 ounce bottles, but I had never seen them.  Until now.

We initially sat outside under an awning over the patio that faced Del Prado Ave., but cool winds off the ocean coupled with the unusually cool weather they were having at the time in Southern California (the temperature never got above 70 degrees F the whole time we were there) forced us back inside the small dining area at The Shwack.

It wasn't long before our tacos showed up at our table.  The fish was chopped into chunks, seasoned and grilled.  Pico de gallo, the Shwack sauce and the avocado cream sauce was mixed in with the fish.  The shredded cabbage was on the side that I eagerly added to my tacos.  

The combination of the Shwack sauce and the avocado cream sauce was a marriage between a spicy and a cooling, smooth taste.  The fish was light and tender, moist and not fishy in taste.  The pico de gallo featured fresh chopped onions, cilantro and tomatoes.  The cabbage was very fresh and went well with the multiple tastes on the taco.  These were very good fish tacos.

Cindy was happy with her fish tacos.  Any apprehension that she had going into the place completely disappeared with her first bite.  She gets a little owly if she hasn't had any food and we'd passed up a number of restaurants before we went to The Shwack, much to her consternation.  It must have been fish taco divine intervention that guided us to have lunch at The Shwack.  I was also very happy with the fish tacos I had.  I liked the funky decor, the casual setting and the large selection of craft beers they had.  It was a surprisingly good meal at a surprisingly nice place.     

Bambino's (on Battlefield) - Springfield, MO

A recent long day of driving to see accounts in Kansas City and Wichita ended with a trip to Springfield, MO.  I've done that trip from K.C. to Wichita to Springfield about three times now and I vowed after this time that I would never do that again.  The trip between Wichita and Springfield is taxing and I always get into that city way too late.  I stayed at a new Hampton Inn along Highway 65 at Battlefield Rd. and decided to go find a place to eat.  A Brazilian steakhouse was next door to the hotel, but I wasn't up for that much food.  (Plus Brazilian steakhouses aren't fun by yourself.)  I looked on the GPS to see what was in the area and not far from my hotel was an Italian place called Bambino's.  I took off to find the place.  

The Faucett family - Mary and her son, Andy - are the two main people behind Bambino's.  Mary started Nonna's Italian Cafe in 1996 continuing the tradition of some pretty good Italian restaurants in the Springfield area.  Meanwhile, at the same time Andy Faucett - along with business partner Brian Ash - decided to open their own Italian restaurant in Columbia, MO debuting Bambino's in 1996.  They added a managing partner, John Sweeney, to open a second location in Lawrence, KS in 2001.

The same year, they opened a third location in Springfield, and in 2006 Mary Faucett sold her interest to Nonna's to a group of investors and joined her son at Bambino's.  With capital raised from the sale of Nonna's, the Faucett's were able to renovate their little cafe near the Missouri State University campus.  (see map)

(Click here to see Road Tips' entry on Nonna's Italian Cafe.)  

Last year, Andy Faucett bought The Buzz coffee shop in the Half a Hill shopping center  on the southeast side of Springfield at the corner of E. Battlefield Rd. and S. Lone Pine (see map).  He continued to run the coffee shop until the winter time when the building underwent a full renovation to turn it into Bambino's on Battlefield.  The new location opened in March of this year.  (This was the location that I went to.) 

Bambino's on Battlefield is located in the back corner of the strip mall.  It was a sort of rainy evening and they had their small patio in front of the place pretty much shut down.  

Entering Bambino's, the small dining area up front featured some small parlor tables and chairs for people who want to come in and enjoy some coffee and gelato, but larger wooden tables were available for overflow dining from the main dining room in the back.  A number of pieces of artwork by local artists hung on the wall in the dining rooms of Bambino's - all of which were for sale.  

The main dining room is larger and features a number of sturdy wooden tables and chairs.  The tables can be easily moved together to accommodate larger groups such as the group of about 10 women who were finishing up their meal when I walked in around 8:30 p.m.  I was shown to a table in the dining room and given a dinner menu.  My server, a nice young lady whose name I accidentally deleted when I was purging notes on Bambino's, came over to greet me and take my drink order.  I ordered up a Boulevard Pale Ale to have while I took a look at the menu.  

The menu's at both Bambino's are exactly the same - appetizers, soups, salads, pasta entrees, and pizza were the prominent items that they serve.  I'd had pizza a couple nights earlier or I would have took a closer look at what they had to offer.  But I was in the mood for some pasta that evening and from the looks of what they had on the menu I knew that I had a lot of choices.  

Some of the things that caught my eye - the Tortellini Gorgonzola featuring cheese-filled tri-color tortellini served in a gorgonzola cream pesto sauce with broccoli and roasted chicken.  The Nonna featured linguine tossed with roasted chicken and red pepper slices in an alfredo sauce.  The Poppa had penne pasta, Italian sausage, and sliced mushrooms served in a spicy tomato cream sauce.  A lot of stuff sounded pretty good.  

I ended up ordering the Diana - fettuccine alfredo with shrimp, sliced mushrooms, and broccoli.  After I ordered up my food, my server brought out a loaf of fresh baked Italian bread along with some freshly chopped garlic.  Olive oil and parmesan cheese were already on the table.  Now, if you've ever had really fresh garlic it's actually somewhat spicy.  This garlic - when spread on the bread - had a spicy taste.  There weren't going to be any vampires hanging around me that evening.  

A dinner salad came with the meal that featured fresh greens topped with a house Italian dressing, parmesan cheese and finished with chopped red peppers, sliced red onion rings and sliced cucumbers.  The greens were very fresh - and plentiful - and the combination of the house dressing and parmesan cheese was very good.  This was turning out to be a pretty good meal.

When the main entree came out, I was a little taken aback by the size of the portion.  The fettuccine was served in a large and deep bowl and was swimming in a light cream sauce.  The broccoli was fresh - not mushy from being overcooked.  The shrimp weren't large, but there was plenty of them in entree.  The mushrooms were also fresh and tasted wonderful in the alfredo sauce.  I was amazed at how good the fettuccine alfredo at Bambino's really was.  And there was so much of it that I was having trouble finishing the dinner thanks to the delicious bread and the rather large dinner salad.  

Actually, the most amazing thing about all of this - my meal was only $9.99!  I had a couple of Boulevard pale ales which were $4.50 each, so my bar tab for two beers was about as much as the fettuccine alfredo - with shrimp, broccoli and mushrooms - that also came with fresh-baked bread and a good sized dinner salad.  I'll have to say that the value of the meal at had at Bambino's was excellent.  The food was very good and very plentiful.  And the service was also very good.  I'm amazed that I've come across so many good Italian restaurants during my many travels to Springfield.  Bambino's is one of the better ones - not only in terms of delicious food - but possibly the best value I've ever encountered for an Italian restaurant.   

Yolo Grill - Wichita

I was talking with my dealer in Wichita on a visit there late last year and he was telling me of a place over on the west side of town that had great reuben sandwiches by the name of the Yolo Grill.  I had to be back in Wichita a few weeks ago and I decided to seek out the Yolo Grill to get a reuben.  However, when I got there I found that they didn't have reubens any longer.  And here's the back story as to why they didn't have reubens on my visit.  

Aaron and Cindy Cline both had longtime jobs that began to bore them.  They decided that they didn't want to work for anyone any longer and they looked for opportunities to become their own boss.  They thought about opening their own little restaurant and looked at a small drive-in on N. West St. in Wichita.  (see map)   The building had originally been one of the first Sonic Drive-In franchises back in the 60's.  When the franchise owner closed down that location for a larger location, the building started on a long revolving march of restaurants that included a burger joint, a couple Mexican restaurants, a Chinese food restaurant and a place that specialized in Sloppy Joe's.  I'm not kidding.  So when the Cline's decided to lease the building for their endeavor, they were met by skepticism from friends who felt the building was cursed.  

I believe it was one of their children who came up with the Yolo name - an acronym for "You Only Live Once".  They opened their restaurant in August of 2013 and quickly became famous for not only their reuben sandwiches, but their flat grilled burgers, as well.  

Things went well for awhile, but suddenly Yolo would be closed for periods of time throughout the summer of 2014.  The Cline's finally closed Yolo in October of last year adding to the lore that the little building is cursed.  It wasn't long after the Cline's closed their door when one of their regular customers, Chris Byars, took a chance on the place and bought the kitchen equipment from the Cline's and leased the building.  Cline had no restaurant training - he calls himself a "home cook" - and after some cleaning and touch-ups, he reopened Yolo in December of last year.  

I got into Wichita around 1 p.m. and headed over to Yolo to get a reuben.  But, as I said, their menu doesn't feature any reuben sandwiches.  But they do have burgers and that's what I ended up getting.  They have fresh cut French fries and real homemade onion rings, but I just just went with the burger.  

Yolo Grill is not very big.  There's - maybe - six or seven tables in the place.  I took a seat at a table in the back room that had only four four-seater tables in it.  There was some artwork on the wall in sort of a hodgepodge way, but the place was far from spartan.  

The girl who took my order at the front counter brought my burger out to me.  It was a 1/3 pound flame-broiled burger that was topped with Swiss cheese, fresh lettuce, onion slice and a slice of fresh tomato.  This thing was tall on its own - you can almost imagine what Yolo Grill's gargantuan burger, the Tombstone would be like.  It features 6 of the 1/3 pound burger patties with cheese on top of them.  I saw a picture of it.  It looked huge.  

The taste of the burger was very good.  I'd rather have a flat-grilled burger over a chargrilled burger, but this was juicy and tasty.  The veggies on the burger were very fresh and crisp giving the burger a good outdoor/summery taste quality.  The bun was light and held together very well.  I was impressed with this burger.

Even though I went in with the idea of getting a reuben - even my stomach was craving a reuben - the consolation of getting a burger didn't dampen my feelings about my visit to Yolo Grill.  The place is pretty basic. The menu is basic, but everything is fresh and house-made, and it's a great place for a fast-casual meal without going to a chain restaurant.  I hope that the new owner is able to make a go of this quaint little place because he has a very good burger.

 

Two Brothers Tap House - Warrenville, IL

I met one of my dealers for lunch at Two Brothers Tap House on a recent trip into Chicago.  I had tried to go to Two Brothers on a couple of other occasions - one time I couldn't find the place, then the next time I went during the day when they weren't open.  They're open for lunch Friday thru Sunday and it was a Friday early afternoon when I met up with my dealer for lunch and a couple of beers.  

Two Brothers Brewing Company is one of the older brewing companies in the greater Chicago area.  Brothers (of course) Jim and Jason Ebel founded the brewery in 1996.  But before that, the two brothers spent a lot of time in Europe where the fell in love with the diverse tastes in European beers.  Coming back to the states, they soon found that they couldn't find the same quality of beers on a regular basis.  

The Ebels decided to go into business together selling ingredients and equipment for home brewers and wine makers.  The Brewer's Coop opened in Naperville in 1992.  But their plan was to someday open a brewpub.

Pictured right - Jason (left) and Jim Ebel (right)  

Jason went away to Colorado to get his feet wet, so to speak,  in breweries there and Jim was accepted to the DePaul University College of Law.  Jim kept The Brewer's Coop open with the help of family members, and when it got really busy Jason moved back to help out and to work in brewpubs in the area.  

When the brothers would get together they'd invariably talk about different types of beers.  It finally got so bad that their mother said that they had better just go out and open a brewpub because all the talk about beer was driving her crazy.  The brothers took that as a sign and began to plan to open their brewery.  

Jim and Jason figured that with limited financial backing and absolutely no background in the restaurant business that they'd open a production brewery instead.  Jason was the brother who ended up going to brewing school and he enrolled in the master  brewers program at Chicago's prestigious Siebel Institute of Technology.  After Jason graduated in S.I.T. and Jim graduated from DePaul Law School, the two brothers came up with a business plan for their brewery.  

After gathering modest financing from family members and a couple banks, the two brothers bought a 15 barrel system that was designed by Jason as a copy of the traditional 3-vessel breweries in Germany and made for them by a company in Vancouver, B.C.  For much of the other equipment they needed for the brewery, most of it was donated.  It turned out their grandfather was a retired dairy farmer who still had bulk milk tanks that were quickly turned into fermenting tanks.  Cream tanks became aging tanks.  Within months of getting up and going, the Two Brothers Brewing Company sold their first keg of beer in March of 1997.  

Starting out as a draft only brewery, they were able to procure an 8-head bottling line in 1998 that would do up to 16 bottles per minute.  Business grew quickly thanks to their own beer distribution company - Windy City Distributors - the brothers used to ship their craft beer (and others) to bars and liquor stores in Illinois and Wisconsin.  They replaced their 8-head bottling line was an upscale 20-head machine that was able to do up to 150 bottles per minute.  They moved into a new building - a 40,000 sq. foot facility in suburban Warrenville - in 2007.   It didn't take them any more than five months before they figured out that that building was too small and they had to expand again.  Multiple expansions and the sale of Windy City Distribution in 2012 have brought the brothers up to the present day as they continue to run the brewery as a family-owned entity.  

When they moved to the Warrenville location, they moved their retail beer and wine making operation to the new facility.  They eventually put in a brew pub - the Two Brother Tap House.  In 2011, the brothers bought the historic Roundhouse in nearby Aurora, IL.  The Roundhouse - which started out as a rail yard roundhouse in the mid-1800's - had sat empty for over 20 years before a group of investors that included former Chicago Bear Walter Payton bought the building and converted it to a brewpub, museum and open air pavilion.  That place eventually went out of business after Payton's death and the Ebel's re-opened the Two Brothers Roundhouse as a combination brewery, artisan bakery/cafe (by day), a brewpub (at night) and as a banquet/reception facility.  (Picture courtesy George Kite.)

(Earlier this year, the brothers opened a Two Brothers Tap House in Scottsdale, AZ on Scottsdale Road.  They also formed their own distribution company - Arizona Beer and Cider - to distribute their beer, along with beer from other small breweries that weren't not available in Arizona until now.  Today, Two Brothers beer is distributed in a dozen states, primarily in the Midwest and Southwest.) 

As I said, I couldn't find the Two Brothers Tap House the first time I went there.  It's tucked back in an industrial park near the intersection of Butterfield Road and Illinois Highway 59 in Warrenville.  (see map)  When I did finally find it - and found that the brewpub wasn't open during the day four Monday thru Thursday - there wasn't any significant signage on the building to show that there even was a brewpub on the property.  There's a door nearly in the middle of the north side of the two story building with a simple sign that says "Tap House Main Entrance".  That actually takes you into The Brewer's Coop.  A right turn takes you into the Two Brothers Tap House.  

The Tap House dining area has sort of a contemporary industrial look with earth-tone colors on the walls.  On weekends, they'll have a musician or a small combo play music in the dining area.  There's an outdoor patio on the far side of the dining area. 

I found my dealer at the bar that's off to the left side of the dining area and he already had a Two Brothers Wobble IPA in front of him.  I sat down next to him and a bartender dropped off a couple menus for us.  I ordered up a Wobble IPA, as well, and we discussed some business for awhile before we finally figured out what to get for lunch. 

It's an interesting menu at Two Brothers Tap House.  Much of the food they serve are sourced locally from organic farms and many of the herbs they used in the kitchen are grown on the roof of the brewery.  They have a number of appetizers that include a smoked salmon dip that sounded pretty damn good.  They had salsa verde nachos that you could add pork, chicken or beef to for $2 bucks more.  But my dealer had already ordered up a fried pickle appetizer before I got there featuring locally grown pickles dipped in a housemade beer batter featuring their Cane and Ebel (get it?) red rye ale and deep fried.  They were actually very good.  

I was looking at a couple things - the Tap House Burger featured organically grown beef from CDK Farms in extreme northwestern Illinois, ground, pattied and grilled, then topped with cheddar cheese, fresh roasted jalapeños and a red pepper mayo; and the Brewer's Reuben made with naturally-raised, slow-cooked beef brisket, topped with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, 1000 Island dressing and served on marble rye bread. 

Then something caught my eye toward the bottom of the menu listed under "Tap House Specialties" - the fish tacos.  The fish was sustainably-raised west coast Dover sole filets with soy-marinated cabbage, mixed shredded cheese, pico de gallo and a buttermilk ranch dressing on two flour tacos.  As soon as our bartender came and asked if we were ready to order, I said, "I was going toward the reuben, but then I saw the fish tacos."  

"We're pretty well known for our fish tacos," the bartender replied in an assured manner.  My dealer said that he had his eyes on the fish tacos, as well, and ordered those, as well.

And we were happy we did.  The dover sole filets were lightly battered - I'd rather that they just grilled them - but the batter wasn't obtrusive to the taste.  The marinated cabbage was a nice touch and thankfully they don't put a lot of the mixed shredded cheese on the tacos that can overpower the overall taste of the fish and other toppings.  The flour tortilla shells were sort of crispy, but held together well with each bite.  The taste of the tacos was very good.  I added some of the rice and some of the black beans - not the mushy black beans you get at most Americanized Mexican restaurants, but the real ones that have a little snap when you bite into them.   That helped give the tacos a bit more of a complex taste.  

I've never been a huge fans of Two Brothers beers.  I mean, they're fine and everything.  Some of the beers that I've had are sometimes a little too complex for my tastebuds.  But I really enjoyed the Wobble IPA.  In fact, I've since gone to Binny's and picked up a couple six packs of the Wobble to take home as I can't seem to find Two Brothers beer in the Iowa Quad Cities.  It's a good beer.

Other than it's sort of tough to find and then when you get there you don't exactly know where the entrance to the Tap House really is, the fish tacos that I had at Two Brothers were above average.  And I enjoyed the Wobble IPA enough to buy some at a Binny's later on.  They have an interesting menu and a good variety of beers to choose from.  Difficult to find, but worth the trip - that's Two Brothers Tap House in Warrenville.   

Arris' Bistro - Jefferson City, MO

I was in Jefferson City, MO earlier this summer calling on one of my dealers.  It was getting to be around 2 p.m. and my dealer said that he hadn't had lunch yet.  I hadn't either, so I suggested we go somewhere for a bite to eat.  He immediately said, "Let's go to the Bistro."  We got into my car and he directed me to a small strip mall near the downtown area of Jeff City.  When we pulled up in front of the place, I exclaimed, "Oh!  This is Arris' Bistro!"  I was familiar with the place as it is owned by the same people who owns the very good Arris' Pizza Palace across from the Missouri State Capitol building.  (Click here to see my entry on Arris' Pizza Palace.)  I was eager to go inside and give the place a try.  

Arris Pardalos is the "Arris" name associated with both the Arris' Bistro and Arris' Pizza Palace.  A Greek immigrant, Arris opened his first pizza place in Jefferson City in the early 1960's.  He was helped initially by his brother George, but the two split up when George went off to open a steakhouse.  A little over 10 years ago, Arris Pardalos was joined by his son, George in Arris' Pizza Palace.  George and his wife, Olga, eventually bought Arris' from his dad.  

George and Olga wanted to bring a bit of southern Europe to Jefferson City in the style of a bistro that featured Mediterranean cuisine, primarily Greek and Italian dishes.  In March of 2009, the Pardalos' opened Arris' Bistro.  It quickly became a favorite for the locals to get a quality and unique meal for lunch and dinner.  

Arris' Bistro is located in the corner of a small strip mall on a frontage road on the west side of U.S. Highway 50, just north of Broadway near the downtown area of Jeff City.  (see map)  We easily found a parking spot in front as it was well after the noontime rush.   

The restaurant is very hip-looking with LED lighting, modern-style tables and chairs, contemporary artwork and sort of a big-city lounge vibe to the place.  There was hardly anyone in Arris' Bistro when we walked in, so the hostess told us we could sit anywhere.  Our server, Floriana, came over to greet us and dropped off a couple menus.  She asked if we wanted anything to drink and we both thought a beer would be good with lunch.  She didn't have a beer list handy, so I walked over to the bar to see what they had on tap.  One of the beers they had was the Piney River Missouri Mule IPA from a relatively new, but quickly growing microbrewery in southern Missouri.  I got one of those and my dealer followed suit.  

The menu at Arris' Bistro is a cross between Greek and Italian fare with probably more of a Greek take on the appetizers, while most of the lunch time entrees have a decided Italian flair to them.  They have a dozen different types of salads on the menu, along with a number of pita bread pizzas merging Greek and Italian food into one.  But my dealer was raving about the sandwiches at Arris' Bistro - they have pita sandwiches and wraps, burgers and panini sandwiches.  After 5 p.m. the menu expands into steak, seafood and chicken entrees.

My dealer absolutely swore by the BLT that Arris' Bistro had on the menu.  It's a regular bacon/lettuce/tomato sandwich where they've also added fresh mozzarella cheese, except that he's come up with a couple of different twists - he asked Floriana to use French bread for the sandwich and to also put avocado slices on top.  He says that those are the two keys making it an excellent sandwich from merely a great one.  He got a side of the broccoli salad to go with the sandwich.  

I got the classic gyro - I love a good gyro and I was certain that they'd have a good one at Arris' Bistro.  And I was right.  The gyro meat was tasty and not all that salty, the sliced onions and the chopped tomatoes were very fresh.  Along with the tangy house-made tzatziki, this was a very good gyro.  

Floriana also did a good job of taking care of us.  She had a thick Eastern-European accent and my dealer asked her where she was from.  "Romania," she said.  Other than the thick accent, she spoke English very well.  She was pleasant and quickly accommodating with our requests.

I sort of figured that Arris' Bistro was going to be good and it didn't disappoint.   The gyro was very good, but I was also intrigued by the BLT with avocado on French bread that my dealer had.  Floriana's service was very good and the place had a unique and comfortable vibe.  As much as I liked Arris' Pizza Palace on my visit there, I equally enjoyed the meal I had at Arris' Bistro.   

Omaha Tap House - Omaha

I was out in Omaha earlier this spring and decided to stay downtown at the new-ish Hampton Inn and Suites just across from TD Ameritrade Park, home to the NCAA College World Series.  Not far from the hotel was a place that I'd been wanting to try for a couple years now - the Omaha Tap House.  It was a short drive from the hotel to the Omaha Tap House located at the corner of Farnam and S. 14th St. on the edge of Omaha's Old Market area.  (see map)

It turns out that I'm somewhat familiar with the restaurant group that owns the Omaha Tap House.  The Letnes brothers - Matt and Kent - also own the Boulder Tap House restaurants in Minnesota.  (Click here to see my entry on the Boulder Tap House in St. Cloud, MN.)  The brothers also run the Milwaukee Burger Co. locations in Wisconsin. After the Crane Coffee Cafe had closed their downtown Omaha location in early 2012, the Letnes Restaurant Group came in to take over the location and opened the Omaha Tap House in August of 2012.    

I found a parking spot on Farnum just down the street from the Omaha Tap House and went in to check the place out.  It was a lively place with a number of flat screen televisions with baseball games playing on them.  The bar area - although pretty small - featured a number of local and regional craft brews on tap.  

I found a seat in a booth in the L-shaped dining area and it wasn't long before my server, Cody, came over with a menu.  They had the Lagunitas IPA on tap and I ordered up a pint of that.  

Omaha Tap House calls itself a gastropub, but it's just a fancy term for what is really a sports bar menu with a few twists.  Burgers rule the menu - they have 16 Tap House burgers on the menu that include the Popper burger that is topped with sautéed jalapeños, cream cheese and jalapeño jam, finished off with brown sugar bacon slices. There's also the Fiesta burger topped with pepper-jack cheese, guacamole, tortilla strips and a chipotle ranch dressing, and for the strong of heart the Defibrillator features two burger patties topped with a choice of cheese, bacon, fried onions, garlic sautéed mushrooms, a house-made sauce and finished off with cheese curds.  Wow!

There were also sandwiches on the menu including the Southwest Spicy Chicken sandwich that featured a chicken breast topped with pepper-jack cheese with green peppers and onions, a chipotle ranch dressing, tortilla strips and tomatoes. (For $1 more you can get a slice of avocado on the sandwich.)  There was also the Steak-Cheese-Mushroom sandwich which featured grilled chunks of sirloin steak and topped with both mozzarella and cheddar cheese and finished with sautéed mushrooms and served on a soft hoagy bun.

The tacos on the menu got my attention - especially the blackened tilapia tacos topped with mozzarella cheese, lettuce, cabbage, pico de gallo and finished with a jalapeño tartar sauce.  They also had the Shrimp IPA tacos - two flour tortillas filled with grilled shrimp that had been marinated in an India Pale Ale beer, topped with lettuce, cabbage, and a house-made lime cilantro sauce.  

But I figured on getting a burger.  In addition to the select burgers on the menu, you can also build your own burger.  They start out with an always fresh, never frozen Black Angus beef patty and from there you get your choice of seven different types of cheese (they also had a smoked cheddar cheese - yum!), then a choice of toppings that included a fried egg, green olives, the aforementioned garlic sautéed mushrooms, and either thick-cut or brown sugar coated bacon.  I ended up ordering a Swiss cheese, sautéed mushroom and thick-cut bacon burger from Cody.  Fries came with the burger, but Cody said that I could substitute sides such as jalapeño fries, hot bleu cheese potato salad, onion rings or sweet potato fries on the side.  I went with the Cajun fries sprinkled with a Cajun seasoning.  

There's free wi-fi at the Omaha Tap House, but I was having trouble getting on with my cellphone.  When Cody came back with my second beer, I told him that I was having trouble getting on their network.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  Our network sucks.  But we've got permission from Cox Cable to be able to use their system.  I just have to go get the password."  Moments later he came back with a password and just like that I was on checking messages and my Twitter feed.   Cody was a good guy.  

And moments after that, Cody came back with my burger.  It was served on a small baking sheet with wax paper in the bottom.  The side of fries came in a small metal basket on the side.  At first glance, the burger looked very promising.  The crown of the bun rose high over the patty, but it was soft and spongy.  

The burger patty was topped wit the Swiss cheese with the thick-cut bacon criss-crossed across the top of the burger patty.  The garlic sautéed mushrooms looked to be fresh sliced and there were a lot of them on top of the burger.  But the first bite told me that the burger was overcooked.  It was cooked to the well side of medium well with no pink in the middle.  It was dry and not very flavorful.  The Swiss cheese and bacon helped the overall taste, but I didn't get much of a garlic taste in the sautéed mushrooms.  Quite frankly, the only thing that saved the burger was the bun.  It was a very good bun, one that stayed together very well with all the other stuff that was on the burger.  Light and flavorful, the bun was the best thing about an otherwise disappointing burger.

The Cajun fries were fine.  They were thin-cut and had ample amounts of Cajun seasonings on them.  They certainly didn't scrimp on the amount of fries they gave me and I was only able to eat about a quarter of what I was served.  

OK, so I was a little disappointed with the burger at the Omaha Tap House.  Overcooked and somewhat lifeless, I thought the saving grace was the wonderful bun it was served on.  I was impressed with the beer selections they had at the Omaha Tap House and Cody's service was very friendly and efficient.  The only other quibble I had was that I noticed a 35 cent "service charge" on my bill with no explanation as to what that could be.  Upcharge for the Cajun fries?  A nominal fee for using Cox Cable's internet?  I never asked.  But other than that - and an overcooked burger - the Omaha Tap House was a nice place to visit.  I only wish I had gotten the blackened tilapia tacos instead.   

Graystone Ale House - De Pere, WI

Up in Green Bay during an early spring day where winter was still trying to hang on, I set my sights on a place that came up on my GPS when I was pulling into town.  The name - Graystone Ale House - was intriguing enough for me to give it a try.  

The Graystone Ale House is part of a consortium of sports bars around the Green Bay/Appleton area owned by Jess Miller, Ryan Chernick and other partners.  These places include The Bar with locations in both Green Bay and Appleton, as well as the Hagemeister Park sports bar in downtown Green Bay that is named after the first field the Green Bay Packers played on when they became a football team in the late 1910's.  The modern day Hagemeister Park features a Packer motif and a large outdoor patio deck with a heated canopy.  It's a popular place for Packer game days, both when the Packers play at Lambeau Field or on the road.  

Graystone Ale House opened in late 2010 and is situated in a newer area of Green Bay in what is actually De Pere, WI just past the roundabout where Monroe and Dickinson Roads meet.  (see map)  There's ample parking beside and behind the building.  

Walking into Graystone Ale House you'll find a large square bar with a larger dining area off to the right and a smaller one in the bar area.  The place was very nice and very welcoming.  There were dozens of flatscreen televisions scattered throughout the building.  As I entered, one of the servers told me that I could sit anywhere I liked and I asked if I could just sit at the bar and get food.  She said it was no problem.  

My server, Jessie, came over to great me and dropped off a menu.  I got a Lagunitas IPA that they had on draft from one of the about two dozen spigots behind the bar.  It was served to me in a Mason jar.  

The food selection on the menu was extensive but it included some upscale items in addition to the normal burgers, salads, soups and appetizers you find at similar sports bars.  They had steaks and seafood on the menu including a 12 ounce New York strip steak and grilled Mahi Mahi.  Graystone Ale House also featured fettuccine Alfredo and a pot roast entree, as well.  

I looked over their pizza page for a moment before settling on either sandwich or a burger.   About the only sandwich that remotely appealed to me that day was their Black Forest sandwich - sliced turkey and ham topped with Swiss and cheddar cheese and served on marble rye bread.  I decided to concentrate on the burgers.

All the burgers at Graystone Ale House feature 1/2 lb. Black Angus beef patties.  There are some signature burgers such as the Graystone that is topped with Swiss, mozzarella and cheddar cheese; or the Bacon and Rings that is topped with, of course, bacon and onion rings.  You can also build your own burgers at Graystone Ale House starting with your choice of a white or wheat bun (or a pretzel or ciabatta bun for an upcharge), six different types of cheese, twelve different sauces or dressings, and toppings that include blue cheese crumbles, sautéed mushrooms, sliced pickles and Canadian bacon.  

I went with building my own burger topped with the sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and slices of bacon.  I went with the basic white bun - I'd been having bad experiences with pretzel buns lately.  It was lightly toasted and big enough to hold the large burger patty.  

And the burger was pretty good.  Actually, better than I thought it would be.  The Swiss cheese slathered over the top of the burger with a bed of sliced sautéed mushrooms under the cheese.  The thick cut bacon was criss-crossed on top of the burger and had a great complementary flavor along with everything else.   The bun held together well and was a great companion with the thick burger.  

The fries were average, but I didn't really care about that.  The big burger was filling and I didn't eat many of the fries.  In fact, I don't think I had dinner that evening because I was still full from the burger I had for lunch.  

Graystone Ale House - nice place, above average burger, great beer selection, tons of televisions and a good menu for a sports bar.  I couldn't complain about much during my visit there.  The service was good and I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.  It was one of the better sports bars I've visited in the upper Midwest.  

Harry's Coffee Shop - La Jolla, CA

On our recent trip to San Diego, we had an early morning flight out of Chicago - as in 5:30 a.m. early.  We had a brief layover in Denver and we found ourselves standing at baggage claim at the San Diego International Airport just past 9 a.m. local time.  After getting the rental car, we headed up to La Jolla to have breakfast at a place I had picked out from a quick search on the Internet - Harry's Coffee Shop.  It's been in business since 1960 and the founder has an interesting back story as to how he ended up in La Jolla.

Harry Rudolph, Jr. grew up in Brooklyn and was an avid fan of the hometown Brooklyn Dodgers.  He eventually became a bat boy for the Dodgers spending almost every summer day at Ebbets Field.  Deep into his 20's, Harry's beloved baseball team made the move west to become the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Instead of wallowing in pity for losing the Dodgers, Harry decided that he and his new bride, Cathy, would pull up stakes and move to Southern California, too.  

They arrived in the late 50's and Harry knew that he had to do something.  He scouted out locations for a coffee shop that he wanted to run that was patterned after some of the Brooklyn diners he grew up with.  Harry found a sleepy coastal town just north of San Diego that captured his heart as the quintessential California town.  He opened Harry's Coffee Shop in 1960.  

Harry was at the diner every morning at 3:30 a.m. getting everything ready for the day. When the diner was open, Harry would work the crowd making sure that they had enough coffee and that the food was good for his customers.  Harry and Cathy had nine children and all of them worked in the restaurant from time to time.  

In 2005, Harry decided to sell the restaurant to three of his children - Elizabeth (Liz), Harry III (a former professional golfer), and youngest son John.  Harry, Jr. had a stroke in 2007 and coupled with a fall not long after that, he had trouble getting back to full health.  Harry, Jr. died in May of 2009, a few weeks short of his 80th birthday.  

It was around 10:30 by the time we got to Harry's in downtown La Jolla.  (see map)  There's a parking lot in the rear, but it was understandably full when we pulled in.  A quick trip around the block and someone had moved their car, so we were able to find a place to park in the lot.  

From the look of the decor, I not certain much has changed since Harry Rudolph, Jr. opened in 1960.  There's a counter with the old style stools, booths with dark brown Naugahyde coverings, Norman Rockwell illustrations on the front wall, and some photos of Harry with sports figures.  It was cozy, but people didn't seem to be on top of one another.  

We checked in with the hostess up front and she said that it would be about a 15 minute wait if we wanted to eat inside, but there was immediate seating in the small patio out front.  It didn't matter to me, but my wife was leaning toward dining alfresco, so we decided to eat outside.  After we were seated at a table under an umbrella in the shade and a couple menus were given to us, it was immediately apparent that the breeze off the ocean about a quarter mile away was brisk and somewhat cool.  I had a short-sleeved shirt and shorts on, Cindy had a light top with chino jeans.  I was a bit cold, so I knew that Cindy had to be freezing.  (She's cold when it's 72 degrees outside.)  But she said she was fine, so we stayed outside.  

Our server, Ellen, a vivacious blonde lady whose naturally good looks belied her true age (when she told us later on how old she was, we refused to believe it) came over to greet us.  She got some coffee for Cindy and left us alone for a bit to look over the menu.  

The breakfast menu (there's also burgers, sandwiches, soups and salads on the menu) is very extensive at Harry's.  They feature about a dozen different styles of omelettes, pancakes, waffles, cheese blintzes, breakfast burritos and - as a nod to the local naval base - creamed chipped beef on an English muffin.  

I ended up getting the special thick egg dipped French toast topped with blueberries with a side of Harry's housemade corned beef hash.  Ellen wanted to know if I wanted whipped cream with the French toast and I couldn't say no.  And I'm glad I got the French toast.  I don't exactly know what they did with the batter, but it was some of the finest French toast I've ever tasted.  (And I make stellar French toast at home, if I do say so, myself.)  The egg batter just hung off the bread.  The blueberries tasted liked they had just picked them out back.  They were plump, fresh, juicy and - oh! - so tasty.  

Cindy was torn between the eggs Florentine or the eggs Benedict with the smoked salmon.  Ellen said, "Get the eggs Florentine with the smoked salmon."  And that's what she got.  The poached eggs sat on a bed of spinach leaves and smoked salmon slices on top of a couple English muffin halves.  A side of hash browns came with the eggs Florentine, but Cindy knew that she wouldn't be eating much of those.  "This is a lot of food, " she exclaimed.  

While the French toast was very good - especially with the fresh blueberries and the whipped cream - the corned beef hash was just sort of so-so.  I mean, it was good, but the menu completely oversold the corned beef hash.  I would have guessed that it was processed corned beef hash if they hadn't said it was housemade.  Oh well, it was still fine.  

We had swapped bites because Cindy was raving about the smoked salmon and I was telling her how good the French toast was.  The smoked salmon with the spinach, poached egg and the hollandaise sauce was very good.  I like good smoked salmon and this was right up there in taste and quality.  Cindy thought that the French toast was good.  But she said, "I think the French toast you make at home is better, though." It's a mutual admiration society - I think she makes the best pancakes I've ever had.  

Ellen came over to check on us and Cindy was almost finished with her eggs Florentine.  "Didn't I tell you those were good," she said to Cindy. 

"Oh, my god," Cindy said in amazement.  "They WERE good!  But they were so rich!"  

I told Cindy that was probably a good thing since we'd been up since 3 a.m. and we probably wouldn't eat again until that evening.  Ellen said, "3 a.m.?  Why would you be up that early?"  I explained to Ellen that we had just flown in from Chicago for breakfast, she was amazed and somewhat confused.  "So, you just came out here for breakfast?"  Then I told her that we had a 5:30 a.m. flight out of Chicago to get us into San Diego early in the day so we could have a full day in Southern California at the start of our vacation.  She understood fully, then.  Ellen was a great gal.

In doing research on Harry's Coffee Shop after we got back, I found that they were not only one of the top breakfast spots in San Diego, but some travel magazines called Harry's as one of the top destinations for breakfast in the U.S.  I'll have to attest, it was one of the better breakfasts I've had in all my travels.  Ellen's service was impeccable and the atmosphere - even outside - harkened back to a couple generations of when coffee shops ruled the landscape.  Many of those from the 60's are gone, but Harry's Coffee Shop lives on with a combination of great food, great service and a comfortable and laid back atmosphere.    

Marie's Pizza and Liquors - Chicago

I had a dealer who moved from downtown Chicago to the north side a couple of years ago and getting to their new location I sometimes go down W. Lawrence Ave. to get there.  On a number of occasions I've passed a place with a sign on a wall above it that simply says, "Stop here!  Marie's Pizza and Liquors."  Well, of course pizza and liquors are a winning combination anywhere, but I've never seen a place that sold both.  One evening before heading back out to my hotel, I decided to stop in to Marie's Pizza and Liquors and check the place out.  

Marie's Pizza and Liquors dates back to 1940 when Greek immigrant Theodore Karavidas opened a small tavern and a package store - sort of a combination liquor store/convenience store in those days.  Theodore came to the U.S. at the age of 16 and initially lived in New England.  He eventually made it to Chicago where he married a young woman who gave birth to a child.  When Theodore's wife was pregnant with her second child, she tripped in a hole and severely injured herself.  She miscarried and then died of her injuries.  

Distraught over losing his wife, Theodore sent a letter back to his home village in Greece explaining the tragedy and asked if they could send him a new wife.  Well, I guess that's how things were done in those days because the village did send him a new bride.  He drove to New York and met her on Ellis Island.  They married there and came back to Chicago.  Her name was Mary, but she is the Marie of the Italian restaurant owned by a Greek family.  

Theodore and Mary raised four boys and a girl, all of whom worked in restaurants that Theodore ran prior to opening the tavern/package store.  One of the sons, George, was serving pie and coffee to patrons before he was 10 years old.  George eventually went off to serve in the army toward the end of World War II.  When he was honorably discharged in 1948, he came back to Chicago and bought out Theodore with plans of expansion and a new direction for the tavern.  In 1950, George put in a pizza oven and systematically knocked down walls of surrounding buildings to expand his place.  

George and his wife Lillian had a son and a daughter.  The son went off to law school and became an attorney.  The daughter - Nadine - was a self-described "triple threat" of a singer/dancer/actor.  She lived in Las Vegas until her father fell ill in 1999.  She moved back to Chicago and took over when George died a year later at the age of 72.  Nadine still runs Marie's today and her mother, now well into her 80's, helps out as the restaurant's secretary.  

Marie's Pizza and Liquors is located in Chicago's Albany Park/Mayfair neighborhood.  (see map)  I was able to find parking on Lawrence Ave. across the street from Marie's.  The liquor store and pizza parlor share the same front door with Marie's to the right and the liqour store to the left as you walk in.  

Walking into Marie's was like taking a step back in time.  A 35 year step back in time.  The dining room, heavy on red vinyl trim and chairs, dark wood accents and a stained glass ceiling above the bar, looked a little kitschy.  But it looked like one of those places that had recurring neighborhood clientele.  I instantly fell in love with the decor.    

The pizza is made right up front as you walk into the restaurant/lounge area.  Since Marie's is on a corner, the pizza maker has two large windows that allows people walking by to get a good look at his craft.  

I took a seat in a booth next to the bar and my server for the evening, Susie, came over to great me.  I noticed that they had the Revolution Brewery's Anti-Hero IPA on tap and I ordered up one of those while I looked through the menu.  (Since the liquor store is next door, if you're looking for a type of beer or wine they don't have in the restaurant, Marie's allows you to go next door and purchase something to bring over.)

Even though I was there for a pizza, I did take a tour through the menu to see that Marie's also offered a number of pasta entrees, Italian favorites such as veal or chicken parmigiana, a number of sandwiches, soups, salads, and an extensive list of appetizers such as toasted ravioli, chicken wings, fried zucchini and pizza bread.  

I asked Susie how big their small pizza was and she was using her hands to show me the size.  "I don't know, 10 inches, I guess," she said with not a lot of conviction in her voice and a lot of movement with her hands.  I told her that I'd take one with sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  She got the order right in.

When Susie brought the pizza to me, it was served on a small tray covered with white paper.  I also found that she was a little off in her size description.  It was more of a 12" to 13" pizza, but cut into party cuts that I like so well.  My hotel room had a refrigerator and microwave so I figured I could always take back what I didn't finish and have pizza for breakfast in the morning.  

The crust was thin, but pliable.  The cheese was caramelized across the top of the pizza.  The first bite told me this was a great pizza.  The sauce had sort of a sweet tomato taste to it.  The sausage had a notable black pepper taste on the tongue.  The mushrooms were fresh and earthy, and the pepperoni had that salty and spicy taste.  This pizza definitely went very well with beer.  And there were definitely pieces left over when I determined that I was full enough.  

Quite actually, I thought the pizza tasted better after I let the remaining pieces sit and coagulate the taste sensations all together overnight in the refrigerator, then warming it up in the microwave.  Not that it wasn't that good when I was having it at the restaurant - it was still an outstanding pizza.  But Marie's pizza is one of those that you can be assured that it will taste as good - if not better - if you take it home and warm it up later.  Susie's service was straight-forward, personable with a bit of humor, and efficient.  I seriously liked the decor in the old place and you can't beat a pizza place that has a liquor store attached to it.  Marie's is worth the stop if you want to step back in time, but experience one of the better thin crust pizzas in Chicago.   

Bombay Mahal - Montreal

I had to go to Montreal for some meetings earlier this spring and when I made my plane reservations I found that if I went up a day earlier I would save our company about $500 bucks on a ticket.  Getting the OK from my boss that he would rather have me spend an extra night in a hotel in Montreal considering it was much cheaper than popping more money for a plane ticket, I flew into Montreal on a Sunday night.  My colleague, Todd, picked me up at the airport and we went directly to an Indian restaurant that he and many of our colleagues had talked highly about in the past - Bombay Mahal.  We met one of our colleagues, Francois, there for an evening of Indian food that they promised was some of the best in Montreal.  

There's not a large Indian population in Montreal, but Bombay Mahal is located in what is the Little India area on the west side of the city not far from Parc du Mont Royal (Mount Royal Park).  (see map)   We parked down the street from the place and found a table in the second of the two small and dimly-lit dining rooms that are in the place.  Francois showed up not long after we sat down.  

Bombay Mahal is a B.Y.O.B. establishment and Todd and Francois were kind enough to bring along some beer.  Todd brought his favorite beer - the St. Ambroise pale ale from the McAuslan Brewery in Montreal - and I had asked him in advance to pick up a six pack of the Boréale Blonde ale that is brewed outside of Montreal that I like so well.  He told me that he couldn't find any Boréale (I'm almost sure he didn't try very hard - it's all over Montreal), so he picked up a sixer of the Griffon Extra Blonde ale, also from the McAuslan Brewery.  It was all right, but not as good as the Boréale, in my opinion.  

Francois is a tremendous home brewer - I've had a number of his homemade beers in the past - and he brought along a pale ale that was very good, as well as a homemade pilsner that was more hoppy than bitter, but still quite good.  Francois may be the best home brewer I've ever encountered (with apologies to my neighbor Greg who used to brew some very good beers in the past).

Set with the beer for the meal, we took a long look at the menu decided to just order a bunch of stuff and divvy it up, family-style.  We ordered up the butter chicken entree, I insisted that we get some of the lamb saag, Todd decided on getting some of the spicy lamb chili to counter the mildness of the butter chicken, we ordered up some of the chicken madrasi, and we also got a plate of assorted vegetables to go along with the entrees.  Interestingly, basmati rice - which usually comes with entrees at Indian restaurants in the U.S. - was an extra cost order.   

We started off getting some appetizers that included naan bread - both regular and garlic - and vegetarian samosa.  The Vegetarian Samosa was a puff that is stuffed with diced potatoes and peas that were cooked in various spices and then deep-fried.  Along with some mint chutney to dip the Samosa into, this was a very good start to the meal.

We also got an order of the onion bhaji - basically Indian onion rings that are floured and cooked with chick peas and various spices.  I'd never had onion bhaji and I found the taste to be somewhat interesting.  But I felt the appetizer was left in the fryer a little too long.  

They started to bring out the food and it was overly apparent that we ordered way too much food.  The chicken madrasi (on the left in this photo) was a spicy dish cooked in a coconut-base sauce.  I didn't care for it all that much because I'm not big on the taste of coconut.  But the other spicy dish - the lamb chili (on the right in the photo) - was an attention-getter for me.  The lamb was tender and while the spiciness wasn't apparent at first, it really kicked in a few moments after savoring the taste of the lamb.  Good god, it was hot!  It just meant that more beer was going to be drank.  

Interestingly, the butter chicken - which Todd swore was supposed to be mild - was pretty spicy.  It was served in a rich cream sauce with coriander added, but they must have dumped in some curry with it, as well.  It was good, but more spicy than butter chicken should have been - or at least what we thought it should be.  

The highlight of the meal was the lamb saag.  The sauce had a deep green color to it and the lamb was tender and flavorful.  The spinach sauce was thick and savory - it tasted great as I scooped some of it out and placed it on the garlic naan that we had left over.  It was spicy, but not the "burn-your-face-off" spicy that the lamb chili turned out to be.  This was some of the finest lamb saag (or saagwala) that I've encountered at any Indian restaurant.  

We were completely stuffed by the time we finished trying a little bit of everything.  Todd - and many of my colleagues - had raved so much about Bombay Mahal over the past few years since I began to really get into Indian food as my new go-to "comfort" food that I was worried that my expectations would be too high.  Bombay Mahal met my level of expectation based on all the positive comments I've heard about the place. Trying a little bit of everything was absolutely fun, but I was almost uncomfortable as Todd drove me to the hotel.  My colleagues don't even consider any other Indian restaurant in Montreal.  Bombay Mahal is all they need.  

Las Canarias - San Antonio

I was recently in San Antonio - a city that I had long wanted to visit - for a week-long dealer conference.  I was there with a couple colleagues and we had some time to kill one afternoon and we decided to go have lunch along the famed River Walk in downtown San Antonio.  There are tons of "touristy" restaurants with mediocre food to choose from - Dick's Last Resort, Landry's Seafood and Joe's Crab Shack immediately come to mind - so we were looking for something that was a little better than that.  Walking along, we saw a place with outside dining called Las Canarias.  Thinking it was an upscale Mexican restaurant - and that a margarita sounded pretty good on a hot San Antonio day - we decided it give it a try.  

Before we went to the River Walk, we had to pay homage to the Alamo.  I've heard and read that the Alamo wasn't all that big so it was no surprise to me that the building itself is so small.  But it's a large symbol of the Texas spirit of independence and self-reliance, possibly the single most well-known attraction in Texas.    

The River Walk (see map) actually surprised me with how smallish it was.  While it was nice down by the water, it was also somewhat of a tourist trap with t-shirt shops, schlocky restaurants, and various bars.  What also surprised me was the narrow sidewalks that went along the canals - sidewalks that had little to no railings to keep people from falling into the water.  I questioned my two colleagues as to how many times on a busy Friday or Saturday night that they had to fish people out of the canal after falling in or getting knocked in by passing pedestrians.  Their guess - a lot.  

Most of the restaurants had nice looking young women out front trying to get people to come in for lunch and we stayed away from those places.  One of my colleagues had come in a day early to save on plane fares and he pointed out a restaurant that he ate at that he thought was pretty good, but we ended up finding Las Canarias that had a nice and laid-back outdoor patio with a Mexican name (basically "the canary") figuring that we'd get margaritas and some Mexican food.  

It turns out that Las Canarias was part of the Spanish-inspired Omni La Mansion del Rio hotel that sits along the River Walk and is one of four restaurants (plus a bar) that is part of the hotel. We took a table that was alternately in and out of the sun due to puffy clouds that would float by in the high Texas sky.  We were given menus and it wasn't long before our server, Antonio, came by to greet us.  My colleague John asked if he could make a good margarita, preferably with Herradura silver tequila.  Antonio said, "Yes, we have Herradura silver and I can add some Grand Marnier in with it, too.  How does that sound?"  We all signed up for one of those.  

The menu immediately told us that this was not a Mexican restaurant.  While they did have chips, guacamole and salsa, there were really only two items that were remotely close to Mexican or Southwestern food on the lunch menu.  One were beef short rib tacos, the other was an achiote-marinated chicken breast in a tortilla wrap.  That was it.  In fact, the menu was pretty limited - a cobb salad, a double cheeseburger, a salmon reuben sandwich, a vegetarian pasta dish and shrimp omelette were the main things on the menu.  

Antonio brought out the margaritas and they were spectacular.  Sipping these great margaritas on a warm (90 F) afternoon along the San Antonio River Walk was a nice touch for lunch and a real spot-hitter.

I ordered the double double cheeseburger - two patties topped with sharp cheddar cheese on top.  It came highly recommended by Antonio and after some wavering between the salmon reuben and the beef short rib tacos, I ended up getting the burger.  When it was presented to me, I started to laugh.  There were two cheese-topped burger patties, but they were the size of sliders.  

On top of one another, they were probably about four inches high.  But placed side by side on the bun, they barely - barely - went over the edge of the bun.  Oh, the burgers were tasty and the sharp cheddar went well with the burger but they had the audacity to charge $16 bucks for this burger - or double cheeseburger - and it was far from a good value.

One of my colleagues ended up getting the braised beef short rib tacos.  They were topped with fresh cilantro, avocado slices, chopped jalapeños, sliced tomatoes and pickled onions.  He was hopeful that they would be very good, but he was disappointed.  "They're so-so," he said to me.  "Not exactly what I thought they'd be."

My other colleague ordered the cobb salad.  However when our food was brought out (by another staffer, not Antonio) he was given the chicken wrap instead.  When he told the person that he had ordered the cobb salad and not the chicken wrap, the server became a little flustered.  "Go ahead and eat the chicken wrap," he said.  A few moments later the manager stopped by to apologize for the mix-up and that a cobb salad would soon be on its way to the table.   My colleague began to nibble at the French fries on the plate and when the cobb salad didn't make it in a timely fashion, he began to nibble on one of the half-wraps on the plate.  He had about half the wrap and good portion of the fries finished before his cobb salad showed up.  

So, the burger I had was good, but not a good value.  The braised beef short rib tacos were "so-so".  They screwed up my other colleagues order, but he basically got two lunches for the price of one.  The highlight were the margaritas and Antonio's good nature as a server.  But Las Canarias was vastly overpriced and not a good value versus the quality of the food.  The only thing that was worth the price of admission were Antonio's Herradura Silver and Grand Marnier margaritas.   Other than that, look elsewhere for food on the River Walk.  

Palomino Bar - Milwaukee, WI

During a visit with one of my dealers in Milwaukee recently, we decided to go out to dinner.  Always coming up with great places to eat, he asked me what I was in the mood for that evening.  I told him anything was fine and he asked if I was up for a bit of a drive.  "There's a place in Bay View called the Palamino Bar that my girlfriend and I really like."  I remember trying to go to the Palamino Bar for a burger for lunch one time, but found that the place doesn't open until 4 p.m.  I eagerly took him up on his suggestion and we ventured off to the Palamino Bar for dinner.  

The Palamino Bar is sort of an upscale neighborhood corner bar.  In fact, when it  opened in November of 2002, it took the place of Nellie's, one of the many names that adorned the sign out front since the building became a tavern in the 1950's.  When Leslie Montemurro and Scott Johnson - the people behind other Milwaukee establishments such as Milwaukee Fuel, Comet Cafe and the Hi-Hat Lounge on Milwaukee's east side - bought Nellie's, they didn't do much to the place before they opened up as the Palamino Bar.  They added some booths, put in a fake fireplace and changed some lighting, but that was it.  They selected the name Palamino because, well, they thought it was a cool name.  

About three years ago, the Palamino Bar closed for a few weeks for some updating in the dining area and kitchen.  It reopened with two new partners added to the ownership group to run the place, the brother and sister team of Adam and Valerie Lucks.  Adam Lucks had been associated with Montemurro and Johnson's MojoFuco Restaurant Group for a number of years and Valerie Lucks joined the team about 10 years ago to help run the Comet Cafe.  The Lucks also owned the Honeypie Cafe that featured made from scratch Midwestern-style foods.     

Palamino Bar is on the corner of S. Superior and E. Russell streets in Bay View, a couple blocks from Lake Michigan.  (see map)  My dealer and I drove separately and I found some parking just down the street while my dealer was lucky to find a spot in front of the restaurant.  

The interior of the Palamino Bar is a throwback to the old time neighborhood taverns that populate the greater Milwaukee area.  Low-ceilinged, soft lighting, a classic bar - there's even an old juke box with pool tables in the back.  A large portrait of a horse head hangs on the back wall. (Photo courtesy On Milwaukee.com)

My dealer is one of those guys who likes to belly up to the bar and I had no problem with that.  We were greeted by an urban hipster bartender who handed us a couple of menus.  I ordered up a Ballast Point Sculpin beer to go along with the vodka tonic my dealer ordered.

The food at Palamino Bar could be categorized as Americana with a flair for Southern-style cooking.  My dealer couldn't quit raving about how great their fried chicken is.  "I don't eat a lot of fried chicken," he told me.  "But theirs is the best I've ever had.  In fact, we were here just the other night eating the fried chicken.  My girlfriend loves it, too."  

I had been told a few years back that the burger at Palamino Bar was definitely worth the stop and I had my sights set on that.  But some other things caught my eye - the Cheddy Shredder sandwich featured pulled braised beef short ribs topped with a red onion jam, cheddar cheese and pickled chilies and served on a housemade pretzel roll.  And Palamino's take on a Cuban sandwich - the Ropa Vieja - featured Cuban-style pulled beef brisket topped with mayo, Swiss cheese, fried onions and served on a hoagie roll.  (Palomino Bar also has a vegan friendly menu and is highly regarded among the vegan community.)

But I went anti-vegan and ended up getting the Burger Deluxe featuring locally-raised grass-fed beef topped with bacon made in-house, American cheese, diced onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and a secret burger sauce and served on a brioche bun.  

The burger was fat and juicy, sitting on a bed of veggies with two pieces of thick-sliced housemade bacon on top.  I normally don't care for grass-fed beef as much as corn-fed beef, but the burger patty was extremely flavorful.  The brioche bun held together very well - the mark of a truly good burger.  I also got a side of the sweet corn with bacon that was sort of "meh!"  I had higher expectations for the sweet corn with bacon bits.  

My dealer got the fried chicken - again.  He truly loves the fried chicken at the Palamino Bar and he got the two piece dinner with a biscuit and a side - he picked the mashed potatoes topped with the sausage gravy.  He offered me a bite of the mashed potatoes and I immediately realized that I should have gotten that instead of the sweet corn and bacon bits.  My dealer also insisted that we get an extra side of the cabbage slaw to share.  It was also sort of "blah!" to me, but better than the sweet corn and bacon.     

But the burger was very good at the Palamino Bar.  I'll have to come back at some point and give the fried chicken a try upon the wholehearted recommendation of my dealer.  I liked the retro atmosphere of the place and the service was fine for sitting at the bar.  Yes, it looks like a typical corner bar on the outside and it looks like a typical corner bar on the inside.  But the very good food and excellent selection of beer and whiskey makes the Palamino Bar something special.  (Photo courtesy On Milwaukee.com) 

Pacific Beach Fish Shop - San Diego

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you'll know that I have a deep affinity for fish tacos, something that my brother and sister-in-law turned me on to about 20 years ago after they had moved back to the Midwest from San Diego.  San Diego has been the epicenter for fish tacos in the U.S. and while we were there earlier this summer we decided we had to have some good fish tacos.  Some in-depth research pointed us toward the Pacific Beach Fish Shop.  

Fish tacos originated in the 1950's in the Baja California port cities of Ensenada and San Felipe, Mexico.  Both cities lay claim to coming up with the first fish tacos, but neither can prove which had the first fish taco shop in their towns.  In 1974, a young San Diego State freshman by the name of Ralph Rubio went down to San Felipe for spring break and fell in love with the fish taco stands they found near the beach.  It became an annual ritual for Rubio and his friends to head down to San Felipe and eat nothing but fish tacos.

Just before graduation, Rubio was sitting at one of his favorite fish taco stands and he came up with a great idea - bring fish tacos to San Diego!  There was nothing like it back home and he went to his dad with his idea.  His father convinced him that he had no idea how to run a restaurant, but he came up with deal for his son - learn the restaurant business for a few years and Rubio's father would help him with his new business venture.

After working in restaurant management for four years, Rubio felt that he was ready for his fish taco venture.  He and his father found an old Orange Julius location in the Mission Beach area of San Diego, cleaned it up and repainted the outside.  In 1983, the first Rubio's fast-casual restaurant opened selling fish tacos.  Still going strong today as a regional chain, Rubio's has served 200 million fish tacos since they first opened.  Rubio's opened the door to the concept of fish taco cuisine along the west coast.  

So you can imagine that there are a lot of places to get a fish taco in the San Diego area.  In 2010, three partners - Billy Ramirez, Doug Sondomowicz and Eric Leitstein - came together to open the Pacific Beach Fish Shop in San Diego's Pacific Beach neighborhood.  All three were involved in other restaurants - Ramirez and Sondomowicz also owned The Duck Dive and Pacific Beach Shore Club in Pacific Beach, and Leitstein also owned the Pacific Beach AleHouse (currently closed as they rebuild from a February fire) and the Union Kitchen and Tap with locations in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter and up in Encinitas.  (We had drinks at the Union Kitchen in San Diego.)  Ramirez is the operating managing partner for the Pacific Beach Fish Shop.  There is also a Fish Shop in Hermosa Beach, CA, and in 2014 the group opened a Fish Shop location in Encinitas.   

It was around 2 p.m. when we pulled into the Pacific Beach Fish Shop along Garnet Ave. (see map)  It was tough to miss the small building with a 17 foot blue marlin hanging out front.  We went inside the small building to order.  Even though it was after the noon time rush, there was still a line of people at the counter ordering fish tacos.  

The Pacific Beach Fish Shop is truly a fish shop - they have fresh fish in the glass-enclosed counter that people can buy to take home.  You don't get seafood this fresh in Iowa, that's for sure.

The menu for the restaurant is on a board behind the counter.  There's a three-step process in ordering fish tacos at the Pacific Beach Fish Shop - first of all, you order the type of fish you want.  They feature rare-seared ahi tuna, albacore tuna, mahi mahi, locally caught halibut, red snapper, swordfish, yellow tail - about any type of fresh seafood you can think of including lobster, diver scallops and shrimp.  

Secondly, you order the marinade that you want on your fish.  Now, marinade is sort of a misnomer because it's more like a seasoning that they put on the fish.  They have blackening seasoning, a teriyaki sauce, a garlic butter or lemon butter marinade, a chipotle glaze, regular ol' salt and pepper, and something called Fish House seasoning that looked like it may have been a little more spicy than the blackened seasoning with chili powder mixed in.  Or if you don't want any of that stuff, you can get your fish plain. 

The third part of the order is whether you want your fish fried with a light batter or grilled.  We always prefer grilled over battered/breaded fish.  We've had some fish tacos where the fish tasted like they were frozen fish sticks shredded into the taco.  But we had some fish tacos during our trip to Southern California that were lightly breaded and very tasty.  

Because of all the decisions you have to make, it can take a long time for a Fish Shop newby to figure out what they want to eat.  A number of people were sort of standing outside the line looking at the menu trying to figure out what they were going to get.  Cindy and I were along with that group.  A young guy with an English accent came up to us and asked if we were in line to order.  Cindy said, "Oh, gosh, no.  Not yet.  There's too much to figure out!" 

The young guy said, "This is my favorite place to eat in San Diego.  I come here all the time."  

Cindy asked him, "So, what do you like to order when you come here."

The British guy sort of smiled and said, "Listen to me.  I'm from England.  I get the fish and chips every time."  We both kind of laughed as we let him past us to go order up his food.  

The Pacific Beach Fish Shop also has an impressive selection of locally brewed bottled beers and beers on tap.  One of our favorites is the Ballast Point Sculpin IPA and they had that on tap.  

After ordering, we had our choice of places to sit.  The inside was nearly empty and it featured a number of nondescript tables with padded bench seats.  It was small and somewhat cozy.  But it was a nice day outside and we wanted to eat on the patio.

We ended up sitting outside under the canopy at a long communal table.  In the shade, it was a tad coolish.  In the sun, it was really broiling.  So, we were sort of in the shade and in the sun depending upon whether we were getting too warm or too cool.  

The Fish Shop's signature taco is the locally award winning TKO - a grilled mahi mahi taco seasoned with the Fish Shop's seasoning and topped with a tropical salsa.  We both got one of those to try.  And I got a seared ahi tuna tuna taco with blackened seasoning on it.  Cindy's second taco was a locally caught halibut with the lemon butter marinade.  A lime wedge came with each taco and we both got fresh avocado slices to go along with tacos we'd ordered. 

For good measure, we also got a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell.  They were a tad fishy and a little gritty - too fishy and gritty for Cindy's liking.  She had a couple before she decided she didn't want anymore.  

But the fish tacos were far from being fishy-tasting.  They were simply wonderful.  The TKO taco had a big bold spicy flavor on the fish with a cooling taste of the tropical salsa with chunks of mango on the backside taste to keep the flavor even.  Fresh cilantro and a smattering of shredded cheese and a healthy dose of shredded cabbage rounded out the offerings on the corn tortilla shell.  It was fabulous. 

The seared ahi tuna taco with the blackened seasoning was also excellent.  The fresh taste of the fish came out tremendously with the somewhat spicy blackened seasoning - not as spicy as the Fish House seasoning, I thought.  The pico de gallo, shredded cheese and cabbage and the fresh chunk of avocado were all complementary in taste with the seared ahi tuna.  I was sitting there thinking, "Good god, I can make these at home!"  But I'll guarantee you the ahi tuna wouldn't be as fresh.  

Cindy thoroughly enjoyed her halibut taco with the lemon butter marinade.  She suggested doing a lemon butter sauce the next time we made homemade fish tacos.

Between the vast selections of fresh fish, the different marinades/seasonings that they offer and the fact that you can get the fish fried or grilled - depending upon your tastes - helped make the experience we had at Pacific Beach Fish Shop one of the more memorable meals during our Southern California visit.  We even contemplated going back for a quick lunch on the day we left San Diego to go back home, but decided against it considering how popular the Pacific Beach Fish House is and we didn't want to miss our flight.  I'm sure the locals all have their favorite fish tacos, but we were certain we couldn't find many better than the ones they have at the Pacific Beach Fish House. 

Nakamori Japanese Bistro - Edina, MN

Getting into my hotel in Bloomington, MN one evening after a long day on the road getting to the Twin Cities, I was in the mood for sushi.  Seeking out a place that I hadn't tried before, I found a place that not far away that had opened in the summer of 2014.  I took off to find Nakamori Japanese Bistro in Edina.  

When owner Meifang Zheng came up with the concept for Nakamori, he envisioned blending traditional Japanese food with French influences.  Dishes such as sea eel and foie gras, as well as lamb chops with a miso anti curbo sauce on the menu.  Nakamori features hibachi favorites as well as a number of cold or hot entrees.  

Nakamori Japanese Bistro is located in an upscale strip mall off S. France on Hazleton Rd., just south of the Galleria of Edina.  (see map)  It sort of looks out of place with the other stores in the strip mall, many of the spaces are home stores and Nakamori is located in between a bank and a Pella Window store.  

Nakamori's contemporary decor was comfortable and inviting with subdued lighting throughout the space.  The long sushi bar was bathed in a deep blue light from panels built into the front of the bar and with lighting from above.  I sat at the sushi bar and ordered up an Asahi beer from one of the young ladies who were working as servers that evening.     

I started off with some spicy tuna rolls that were big and meaty with a sort of crunchy outer layer.  The spicy tuna rolls were very good and a great introduction to Nakamori.  

Since I got in after 8 p.m., it turned out that it was "happy hour" with reduced prices on sushi.  Well, that was a pleasant surprise!  I started off with fatty tuna and some fatty yellowtail.  The fatty tuna was, well, huge.  It was wrapped in seaweed and had some crunchies on top.  It literally melted in my mouth - the seaweed was probably wrapped around it to keep it intact.  The fatty yellowtail - I don't think I've had fatty yellowtail before - was also "melt-in-your-mouth" good without any hint of a fishy taste that you can get from some yellowtail.  The fatty yellowtail was fabulous.  

I ended up getting some smoked salmon and some regular tuna next. The smoked salmon had a great smoky flavor and had a great consistency and texture.  I eagerly devoured the smoked salmon and asked the sushi chef for a couple more pieces because they tasted so good.  Unfortunately, he said that he had just run out of smoked salmon.  Well, actually, when he was cutting some up for me, he found a brown spot on the filet.  He showed it to me and said, "I don't think I want to serve this to you."  It was a pretty good sized brown spot on the smoked salmon.   No, I didn't want that.  I ended up getting two more pieces of the tuna which, on their own, were also excellent. In fact, the tuna was killer - some of the best tasting tuna I've had at a sushi restaurant.  

Thanks to the "happy hour" prices, the meal I had at Nakamori Japanese Bistro was a great value.  The sushi and spicy tuna rolls were excellent and I enjoyed the laid back feeling to the place.  I've eaten at a few sushi places in the Twin Cities over the years and Nakamori would rate among the top of those I've visited.  Nakamori has become my "go-to" for sushi on the south side of Minneapolis.