Road Tips

Gourmet Taco Company (Great American Taco Company) - Springfield, MO

On a visit to Springfield toward the end of 2015, I was staying on the east side of the city and I really didn't want to venture too far from the hotel for dinner that night.  Doing a quick check of the area's restaurants, I found a place not far away with an interesting name - the Gourmet Taco Company.  It intrigued me enough that I wanted to give this place a try. 

(Since this visit, the Gourmet Taco Company has not only changed locations, but changed its name.  It is now called the Great American Taco Company and has moved to a new location on E. Battlefield Road. ((see map))  The menu and basic idea of the original Gourmet Taco Company appears to be exactly the same under the new name at the new location.  Owner Pat Duran hopes to be able to franchise the Great American Taco Company concept.) 

Pat Duran was born and raised in Sante Fe, NM learning how to cook in his mother's kitchen.  The youngest member of a family of 12 children, Duran found an appreciation for the finer tastes in food helping his mother cook for his father and siblings.  After Duran got out of the nest, he joined the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper.  During his time in the Army he traveled the world and tried different types of food.  After getting out of the Army, Duran found that his passion for good food had heightened.  He ended up going to culinary school, became a chef and lived in different areas around the U.S. learning about foods indigenous to those given regions.  

Ending up in Springfield, MO, Duran became the owner and executive chef of the Metropolitan Grill on E. Sunshine.  Working with local growers and food purveyors, Duran (pictured right) formed a menu that focused on natural and the freshest possible ingredients.  Over the past 20 years, Metropolitan Grill has been one of Springfield's favorite upscale restaurants. 

But Duran remembered his Sante Fe roots and he came up with a concept called the Sante Fe Grill that featured more of a Southwestern style of cooking.  However, in a city that happens to have a number of outstanding Mexican restaurants, Duran knew that he'd have to dig deep into his Hispanic heritage to set his next concept apart from the rest. 

After closing the Santa Fe Grill, he opened a new restaurant just down the street from the Metropolitan Grill in what was first a pizza shop, then more recently had been a sandwich shop.  The Gourmet Taco Company opened in September of 2013.  (Duran is also involved with the Metropolitan Farmer, a farm-to-fork concept that features recipes from Springfield native Chef Wes Johnson whose claim to fame in the culinary world includes stops at The Shaved Duck and the former Salt restaurant in St. Louis.)

I pulled into the Gourmet Taco Company around 8 p.m. that particular evening.  There's a small bar area up toward the entrance.  There were a handful of people seated around the L-shaped and they were pretty boisterous.  I considered sitting at the bar to watch a game that was on the television, but decided against it.

My server for the evening, Nate, greeted me as I was looking in the dining area.  I decided to have a seat in that area and he told me that I could sit about anywhere as there were only about six or seven people in the dining room.  I found a table near the wall and he gave me a menu to look over.  I ordered a Dos Equis Ambar beer to start out. 

Nate brought out a small basket of blue corn and regular corn chips with my beer.  They make four different salsas from scratch at the Gourmet/Great American Taco Co., and I got two different types of thick salsa - a rustic salsa made with tomatoes roasted in a Bloody Mary sauce along with cilantro, chopped onions and some chili spices, and a bold salsa made with chipotle peppers, roasted tomatoes, pico de gallo, and sweet corn kernals.  The bold salsa had a great smoky taste with a bit of a spicy bite on the back side.  I liked them both very much.  It was tough to say which one I liked better. 

Looking through the menu, I found over 20 different types of tacos to choose from.   You can get just diverse tacos such as fajita steak or chicken, tortilla encrusted tilapia tacos, barbecued pork tacos, buffalo shrimp tacos, and chipotle seasoned sirloin steak tacos.  They also had a smothered Southwest burrito; a Frito pie with ground beef in a red and green chili sauce, chili beans, and a queso sauce; and spring roll enchiladas.  One other thing that I saw that I really wanted to try was one of their six different styles of guacamole.  The New Mexico guacamole was mixed with Hatch green chilies, chopped cilantro, pico de gallo, fresh chopped garlic, lime juice and chili seasonings.  But it sounded so rich and if there would have been someone else with me, I would have gotten that to go along with my tacos.

As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to get, I couldn't help but hear the commotion coming from the bar area.  The young lady who was bartending that evening was annoyingly loud.  She had a high-pitched laugh and she was carrying on with at least a couple guys sitting at the bar.  The two guys were equally loud and were throwing f-bombs around like they were sailors on shore leave.  Now, I'm far from a prude and my language is blue a good part of the time, but this was a little over the top.  The (then) Gourmet Taco Company seemed to be a more classy place than having some jackasses at the bar carrying on like they were at a frat party.  In fact, an older couple seated near me were clearly uncomfortable with the foul language coming from the bar area. 

I went with two tacos - the Sriracha tuna taco and the Hatch green chili shredded pork taco.  Nate asked me if I wanted corn or flour tacos and I went with the corn.  I wish I hadn't. 

I guess I thought the corn tacos would be small, soft and pliable.  Actually the corn tacos were hard and larger than normal tacos.  They sort of crumbled when I would bite into them.  It made for somewhat of a messy meal.

The Sriracha tuna taco featured seared ahi tuna drizzled with Sriracha sauce, grilled pineapple chunks, a cilantro citrus sour cream, feta cheese, baby spinach, and cucumber slices.  The fish was sort of fishy tasting.  The Sriracha gave it a bit of a bite, but the grilled pineapple chunks were a nice balance.  The taco was just, well, all right.

The pulled pork taco was much better.  It featured applewood smoked pulled pork topped with a Hatch green chili sauce, pico de gallo, shredded pepper jack cheese, and finished with chopped lettuce.  The green chili sauce had a bit of a smoky taste, but was mild on the back end.  The pulled pork was moist and very tasty.  This was a good taco. 

Other than the foul language at the bar - something I thought was a bit inappropriate for a nicer place like the Gourmet Taco Company - the tacos were, well, good.  I liked the pulled pork taco much more than the Sriracha tuna taco, mainly because the tuna had a fishy taste.  Nate's service was exemplary - he took good care of a single diner making sure that I was comfortable and that I had everything that I needed before, during and after my meal.  The only thing I would have changed is to get the flour taco shells instead of the too hard corn shells.  Now that they've changed to the Great American Taco Company, I'm sure the tacos are still good - not the best I've had - but still good. 

Dallas Chop House - Dallas, TX

During the CEDIA Expo in Dallas, we stayed at the new Hilton Garden Inn in the downtown area.  There was a restaurant in the building, but the hotel was so new that it hadn't opened yet.  So we were out a lot for meals while we were there.  It was the first night of the show and we had to go to a reception directly after the show.  After being there for about an hour or so, we all took off to find a place to eat.  About a block and a half from our hotel we decided to go to the Dallas Chop House for some beef.

There are a lot of very good to excellent restaurants in Dallas - especially steakhouses - and each one has to work hard to gain diners over the competition.  Mike Hoque found that out when after an 8 year career of running a limo company he had a chance to buy into the Go Fish Ocean Club, a seafood/steakhouse in the North Dallas area.  He was able to make a successful go with the restaurant and saw an opportunity to open a similar restaurant in downtown Dallas - the Dallas Fish Market - in 2007.

In 2009, Hoque and his restaurant group - Dallas Restaurant Group, or DRG Concepts - opened the Dallas Chop House to rave reviews.  One of the most popular items on the menu at the Dallas Chop House was the Chop House Burger, a gourmet blend of certified Angus beef that was a big hit with patrons.  In fact, the Chop House Burger was so popular that Hoque decided to open a restaurant by the same name next to the Dallas Fish Market a year later.  DRG Concepts also oversees Wild Salsa - a contemporary farm-to-fork Mexican restaurant in downtown Dallas, as well as a second Chop House Burger in the Arlington area between Dallas and Fort Worth.  

The Dallas Chop House is located on ground floor of the Comerica Bank Tower at the corner of Main and St. Paul streets in downtown Dallas.  (see map)  There's a nice bar area with a patio and that's where we hung out waiting for a table for 7 to get set up.  They had a number of specialty drinks on the cocktail menu, but I just went with an IPA from the Deep Ellum Brewing Company, located just east of the downtown Dallas area.  

I was standing around talking with a dealer of mine that I ran into at the bar and my colleague, Matt, came up and said, "Hey, have a sip of this."  It looked innocent enough - until I had a small sip.  I immediately started to feel a sting of spicy heat on my lips and tongue and had to take a drink of beer.  A couple of healthy drinks of my beer didn't cut the heat.  Matt said, "Yeah, that's how I was when I took my first drink.  I think I may have ordered the wrong thing."  It turned out that he had ordered a drink called "The Devil's Rope" - it featured fresh mango and pineapple juice and crushed serrano peppers mixed with vodka and Luxardo Maraschino liqueur.  The picture above right is how he left the drink.  "It's undrinkable," he said before he went off to get a beer from the bartender.  

In August of 2014, a fire broke out in the kitchen at Dallas Chop House and the restaurant sustained smoke and water damage.  They had hoped to be reopened by September 1, but it turned out that the damage was more extensive than first thought.  They re-built the kitchen and dining area, cleaning up other areas of the restaurant in the meantime.  The downtime also allowed DRG Concepts culinary directors to revamp the menu at the Dallas Chop House.  They reopened for dinner toward the end of October of 2014 and fully reopened for lunch after the first of the year in 2015.  

We were seated at a table in the middle of the dining room.  Our server for the evening, Darlene, a spunky lady who came to Texas from New England years ago.  The was a fun lady who did a fine job of taking care of a bunch of hungry guys.  

On the other side of a metal divider, you could see into a large picture window that looked directly into the kitchen.  After using the restroom, I walked down the corridor that separated the kitchen and dining room to take a gander at the operation.  I took a couple of pictures until I realized that I was getting some stern looks from the staff in the kitchen. Hey, if you're going to have a picture window looking into the kitchen, get used to it!  

The menu at the Dallas Chop House is pretty basic.  It's steaks, some seafood, pork chops, chicken, appetizers, soups and salads.  Sides include roasted wild mushrooms, mac and cheese, grilled asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts, and loaded twice baked potatoes.  Darlene brought out a couple three small plates of what looked like flower pot-baked buns.  Light and flaky, these things were delicious.  

They had a number of interesting appetizers on the menu at the Dallas Chop House including a prime steak tartare, rosemary roasted bone marrow with a bacon jam and a pickled shallot salad, and something they called "Bacon & Eggs"  - pork belly bacon served with a smoked egg emulsion and a maple-pink pepper caramelized sugar sauce.  They also had oysters on the half shell that evening.  I learned long ago from a Cajun man from Louisiana that you never order oysters from the Gulf of Mexico or the Eastern seaboard in a month that ends in a "ber".  He explained to me that oysters are bottom feeders and when the ocean gets churned up from hurricanes the oysters become gritty.  Since there wasn't a major hurricane in the gulf this year, these were probably safe to have.  But they were pretty small oysters versus the size of the shell.  

I got the wedge salad as a starter.  This was a large chunk of iceberg lettuce and it was topped with Maytag Blue Cheese crumbles and a creamy dressing along with sliced marinated cherry tomatoes, chopped real bacon pieces, toasted pecans, and watermelon radish slices.  The lettuce was cold, crisp, and fresh.  The pungent and flavorful Maytag Blue Cheese gave the overall taste of the salad a solid foundation.  It was a great start to the meal.     

Our main entrees came to the table.  A couple of the guys at the table split that evening's special - an 8 ounce filet along with grilled shrimp and grilled asparagus in a hollandaise sauce.  They had a late lunch that day and weren't all that hungry.  The kitchen actually split the filet into two pieces, cooked it as a 4 ounce steak, then covered it in hollandaise sauce, leaning a large grilled asparagus spear on top of the steak with two grilled shrimp on the side.  

For my main course, I got the 10 ounce filet - rare, of course.  It actually looked a little small for a 10 ounce steak, but there it was.  It was like a big ball of meat - tender, juicy, full of flavor, and outstanding.  I got some of the roasted wild mushrooms to share with others.  They were earthy and flavorful, a great complement to the perfectly cooked filet.     

One of my colleagues seated across from me got the 18 ounce bone-in New York strip steak.  Had I been a little more hungry, I may have signed up for that.  He's a big carnivore and he devoured the steak.  I joked with him that if he were at home he probably would have picked up the bone and gnawed at it.  He said, "No probably about it!  I WOULD be doing that right now!"  

There's a ton of very good steakhouses in the Dallas area and while this was the first one I've been to in a number of years, I have to say that the steak I had at the Dallas Chop House was as good as ones I've had at some of the best steakhouses throughout the Midwest.  Darlene's service was professional, yet she was very fun to kibitz with back and forth.  And the atmosphere of the restaurant was classy, yet relaxing.  The meal I had at the Dallas Chop House was one fine meal. 

The Beers - Lyon, France

On a recent trip to France, we stayed in Lyon which has the second largest metropolitan population in France.  It is also a cradle of chefs of culinary excellence and is known as the capital of French gastronomy.  But Lyon also offers a number of good little beer pubs.  After a long overnight flight from the U.S., a TGV ride from Paris to Lyon, and freshening up at our hotel, our group decided to take a walk on an unseasonably warm day before dinner.  One of my colleagues had a destination in mind for us to go to in Vieux Lyon, the old section of Lyon.  The name alone piqued his interest and when we walked up to the front of the place, I immediately fell in love with this place simply called The Beers.  

Now, it was somewhat ironic that my colleague, Ian - who doesn't really drink beer all that much - thought that this would be a good place to check out.  But the name "The Beers" was so great that he felt we all had to go there.  It was a 15 minute walk from our hotel across the Saône River to The Beers, located on Place Saint-Paul, a small back street in Old Lyon.  (see map)  

The Beers was not a large place, the downstairs area consisted of a few tables and a small bar that you couldn't belly up to.  There was some outdoor seating out front and there appeared to be another drinking area upstairs.  We found a table toward the front of the place for our group and started to look over the beer list.

On the wall, they had a listing of beers that they had on tap.  Many of the beers were available in centiliters - 25 cl is a bit over 8 ounces, 50 cl is basically a large pint (nearly 17 ounces), and - of course - a liter of beer is, well, a liter (or about 34 ounces).  They had 10 beers on tap, many of them Belgian-style beers that I wasn't familiar with.  I'm usually not big on Belgian beers, but I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and give them a try. 

They had a number of beers in bottles including some familiar beers from the USA from breweries such as Brooklyn, Flying Dog, and Anchor.  I contemplated getting an Anchor Steam for a moment, then remembered that I was in France and I can get an Anchor Steam at any time in the U.S. 

I thought about getting the Campus Gold they had on tap from the Brouwerij Huyghe, makers of the somewhat famous Delirium Tremens pale white beer.  But I ended up getting an IPA they had on the menu.  This Belgian IPA had an interesting taste.  It wasn't like a British or American-brewed IPA as it had a sort of fruity taste to it and it wasn't as hoppy or bitter as I normally like in a good IPA.  I wasn't certain that I cared for it all that much.   

My colleague Ian, who I have seen drink a beer once or twice in the nearly 14 years I've known him (he's a premium rum and Coke kind of guy), got the Noir de Dottignies, a stout Belgian beer with an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 9%.  He said it was very smooth and full-bodied. 

My colleague Francois, who is a beer connoisseur without being a pretentious asshole about it, picked the Moinette Blonde, a beer from the DuPont brewery in Belgium.  Francois - who is also an excellent home brewer - is very familiar with Belgium beers. (He was going to take a couple three days at the end of our trip to France to go meet some friends in Belgium and drink more beer.)  He offered me a sip of his beer to try and I thought it was interesting.  Interesting enough that when I was finished with my IPA, I ordered the Moinette Blonde for my second beer.

Our boss' wife had suddenly and tragically passed away while they were on vacation in New Zealand a few days before and her funeral just happened to be on the previous day.  None of us could attend since we already had our tickets booked for France weeks in advance and our boss didn't want us to .  She was an integral part of our company and we joked that she knew where all the bodies were buried because she had all the answers each time we had a question regarding invoices, shipments, procedures and other day-to-day items.  We had our own memorial service for her over a number of beers and snacks that The Beers provided to us.  It was a sad, yet cathartic time for us to remember a lady who we relied upon for so many things over the years. 

We each had a couple of beers as we didn't want to get too boozed up since we were all sort of on fumes from our trip across the Atlantic to get to France.  Plus we had dinner reservations for 7 p.m. and we thought we'd better head back toward our hotel to get ready.  The Beers was a great little pub with a great selection of beers.  As my colleague Ian said in a Trip Advisor entry on The Beers, "For a bunch of jet-lagged Americans, this was heaven."  

And it was...

Chili John's - Green Bay, WI

I don't quite remember how I happened to find out about Chili John's, a chili parlor that has been in business for over 100 years in the Green Bay area.  I thought that if a chili place can stay in business that long, they probably had some pretty solid chili.  I went into Chili John's to try a couple chili dogs on a recent visit to Green Bay. 

John Isaac was a Lithuanian immigrant who ended up in Green Bay in 1879.  A few years later he started to work as a cook at a bar in Green Bay and began to serve up what he called his Southwestern chili.  The chili was similar to what we call Cincinnati-style chili with spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and allspice mixed in the chili along with chocolate.

The chili became very popular with the citizens of Green Bay and John Isaac was convinced to open his own place.  In 1913, he found a small building next to the Main St. Bridge in downtown Green Bay and put a sign on the front of the place that simply read "Chili".  People who continued to enjoy John Isaac's chili dubbed him as "Chili John" and the name stuck and eventually became the name of his little stand.  Chili John's was open six days a week - they were closed on Friday's because of the Vatican's edict on "meatless Friday's" and a large number of Green Bay's residents were conservative Catholics. 

As time went on, the business outgrew its space not once, not twice, but three times.  Each time, John Isaac relocated his chili shop along Main Street in downtown Green Bay.  The third incarnation of Chili John's featured the longest counter in town. 

Pictured right - "Chili" John Issac

In the mid-40's, John Isaac's health began to fail and he passed away in 1947 just before the business was to move to a new location.  His wife continued to own the business, but her daughter, Lillian, was the one who ran the place.  Lillian became the sole owner of Chili John's upon her mother's death in the early 60's and the first thing she implemented was a new day off - Sunday.  With the Catholic Church's loosening of the "meatless Friday" restrictions, Lillian decided to close on Sunday's to give the employees at least one day off on the weekends.  

Lillian continued to run the business until she decided around 1970 that she wanted to step away from the place.  She immediately asked her brother, Ernie - who had moved to California to start his own Chili John's in 1946 (the Chili John's in Burbank is still there today) - and her five sisters if anyone would like to take over the business.  Her sister, Dorothy Hoehne, and her husband, Harry, ran a seasonal hamburger stand in Egg Harbor, WI called Harry's Hamburger Stand.  Harry Hoehne was a school teacher at a local Catholic high school and he thought that he and his wife could take over Chili John's and not have it interfere with his teaching duties.  The Hoehne's took over Chili John's in the early 70's and their son, Dan, began to work in the place soon after.  Dan Hoehne is still involved as the owner of Chili John's which is now located in a small strip mall near the corners of S. Military Ave. and W. Mason St. in Green Bay.  (see map)

I got into Chili John's just before the noon time rush one weekday after I had just left one of my dealers just down the road.  The interior of the place looked, well, like a chili parlor.  Antique-style parlor lights hung from the ceiling.  Parlor chairs and tables were placed along the walls.  They had a long counter on the opposite side of the dining area.  The counter is where I parked myself and I was given a menu when I sat down. 

The chili served at Chili John's is the exact same recipe that John Isaac came up with over 100 years ago.  The recipe has been passed down through the family and possibly less than a dozen people have ever known the exact recipe.  The meaty beef chili is served with or without beans, and in four levels of spiciness - mild, medium, hot, and extra hot.  You can get the chili served on top of spaghetti - ala Cincinnati-style with oyster crackers - and you can get the chili topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, jalapenos and/or chopped onions.

I saw on the menu that they were touting their "famous chili dog" - a 1/4" pound all-beef hot dog covered with my choice of chili, shredded cheddar and chopped onions.  I ordered up one of those thinking that if I wanted another one I could order it up after finishing the first one.

A dill pickle came with the hot dog and I got the chili without beans and "medium".  It had a little bit of spiciness and I'm guessing that hot would have been possibly a little too much.  The chili was tasty - I like a good Cincinnati-style chili from time to time - and the chopped red onions and the cheddar cheese went well with the chili.  The chili left a greasy residue on my fingers where I had to use multiple napkins while I ate it. 

But the hot dog - blaaah!  It was completely overcooked.  The skin was hard and shriveled making it tough to bite into.  The hot dog was absolutely horrible.  And that's too bad because the chili was very good.  Had the hot dog been cooked properly, it would have been a very good chili dog.  No, I didn't get a second one. 

So, the chili at Chili John's I thought was pretty good.  For a Cincinnati-style chili, it rivaled some of the better places I've tried in Cincinnati over the years.  But the hot dog that was part of the chili dog was absolutely overcooked, tough and horrid.  I honestly can't think that they cook their hot dogs that way all the time because the taste and texture of the hot dog detracted from the wonderful taste of the chili.  I may go back to Chili John's at some point to see if the first chili dog I had there was an anomaly.  But I probably won't go out of my way to do so. 

HoDo Lounge (Hotel Donaldson) - Fargo, ND

I had to go up to North Dakota for a couple days late last year and decided to fly in.  After landing in Fargo and grabbing a rental car, I met up with one of my dealers at his store and we decided to go out to grab a bite for lunch.  He asked me if I had any idea where I wanted to go and I told him that I've wanted to go to the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo for some time and have lunch in the HoDo Lounge.  He said, "Hey, that's fine with me.  Anytime we can go there for a meal, I'm happy!"  

I've been traveling to Fargo for over 10 years now.  It remains one of my favorite places to visit.  My dealer in Fargo has shown me that the Fargo/Moorhead area has some interesting and somewhat eclectic places to eat.  On my first trip to the area, my then-new dealer and I had dinner at a small place caddy-cornered from the Hotel Donaldson, a European-style boutique hotel in downtown Fargo.  After dinner, we went across the street to have a couple drinks in the lounge at the Hotel Donaldson.  It was that evening when I first learned the backstory of the "HoDo" (the local's pet name for the hotel) and the resurgence of downtown Fargo. 

Doug Burgum grew up on a farm outside of Arthur, ND, about 25 miles from Fargo. He was a graduate of North Dakota State University and later got his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.  After getting his Masters degree, he moved to Chicago to work for a large global business consulting firm.  However, he had the entrepreneurial spirit in his bones and he ended up moving back to Fargo in 1983 to start up a business software company.  Literally mortgaging the Burgum family farm to start his company, he founded Great Plains Software to address the accounting needs of small businesses.  Great Plains grew to be a large company that eventually provided all types of business software solutions to small to medium-sized businesses around the world.  Burgum took Great Plains Software public in 1997.

Pictured right - Doug Burgum.  Photo courtesy Fargo Forum. 

Microsoft felt they were well behind the curve when it came to business software and the decided the best way to jump into that line of software was to buy an existing company.  Great Plains Software had a stellar reputation within the small business world for their business friendly programs, and in 2001 Microsoft bought Great Plains for $1.1 billion dollars.  Yes, that's "billion" with a "b".  Burgum stayed on with Microsoft as an Executive Vice-President of Business Applications.   The Microsoft campus in Fargo is the largest Microsoft facility outside of the state of Washington. 

At the turn of the 20th century, Fargo established a Renaissance Zone to revitalize the downtown area.  Doug Burgum and his wife, Karen Stoker Burgum, decided that they wanted to put an emphasis on reestablishing Fargo's downtown to the vibrant community it was when they visited the downtown area as children. Doug Burgum established a foundation called the Kilbourne Group that was formed to help revitalize parts of downtown Fargo developing mixed-use properties.

The first thing that the Kilbourne Group did was to buy what was the abandoned Northern School Supply building in downtown Fargo.  Burgum's foundation bought the building in August of 2000 and donated it to North Dakota State University and pledged $1.5 million in renovations to the building.  Today, the former school supply building is called Renaissance Hall and houses NDSU's art and architecture schools along with offices in the 52,000 square foot building. 

Around the time her husband was selling Great Plains Software to Microsoft, Karen Stoker Burgum ended up buying the Hotel Donaldson, a run-down hotel in a building that was originally built in 1894, and had been a workingman's hotel since 1915.  When hotels near the Interstate began to pop up in the 1970's and 80's, much of the hotel's clientele dropped off.  It became more of an apartment building with a handful of rooms still available for nightly or weekly stays.

Karen Stoker Burgum put over $7 million dollars into the renovation of the place.  She turned the hotel into a European-style boutique hotel with 17 rooms.  She also established two eateries - the HoDo Restaurant and the HoDo Lounge.   Suddenly, downtown Fargo began to have a vision and path for taking old buildings, renovating them into housing, restaurants, retail and office spaces, much of it done by the Kilbourne Group.  

Pictured left - Karen Stoker.  Photo courtesy Fargo Forum. 

Karen Stoker and Doug Burgum divorced a number of years ago.  She continued to run the HoDo, while Doug Burgum remained an executive at Microsoft until he left the company in 2007 to focus on the Kilbourne Group and the continued revitalization of downtown Fargo.  In January of this year, Doug Burgum announced his intention to run for the Governor's office in North Dakota as a Republican.  (Update - Burgum was elected to the Governor's office with 77 percent of the total vote.)

Each room at the Hotel Donaldson features artwork from Upper Midwest-area artists.  Works from artists such as  Marley Kaul, Susan Morrissey, Gretchen Bederman and Jon Offutt are featured in individual rooms.    Paintings from two of Stoker and Burgum's three sons hang in one of the rooms, as well.  (Pictured below right.)  I've looked into staying at the HoDo on a couple of of occasions, but their nightly room prices skew a little higher than I'm willing to pay for a room in Fargo, ND.  Plus, I wouldn't get my Hilton Honors points.    

The HoDo Restaurant is the main restaurant in the hotel.  It features locally grown food when available and is the only AAA Four Diamond restaurant in the state of North Dakota.  But the restaurant isn't open for lunch, so that's why we went to the lounge.  We had a little trouble finding a parking spot near the hotel - located at 1st Ave. N. and Broadway (see map) - because of the number of people around the downtown area.  I asked my dealer what was going on with so many people downtown on a weekday, he said, "It's like this all the time, man.  It's just crazy down here." 

I was able to take a look inside the HoDo restaurant after we walked into the main entrance to the hotel.  The space had a somewhat contemporary and funky look to the place, and was filled with some interesting artwork. 

We were seated at a table in the lounge (above right) and given menus to look over.  Our server for the day - Jarad - came over to greet us and see if we wanted anything to drink.  I ordered an IPA from the Junkyard Brewery over in Moorhead, while my dealer got an Igor's Horn black IPA from the Drekker Brewery in downtown Fargo.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Drekker Brewery.) 

It's a decidedly eclectic, but not a broad menu at the HoDo Lounge.  Each day co-chefs Ryan Nitschke and Nick Weinhandl create a new lavosh - a leavened bread with toppings that is a North Dakota favorite.  The lavosh that day was a bacon, broccoli, and chopped tomatoes with cheddar cheese.  Shareable plates also included bison sirloin bacon fries, fried pickled green tomatoes, a duck confit taquitos - small tacos topped with a tomatillo and lime-habanero salsa.   

I started out with a cup of Knoephla (NIP-fla) soup - also a traditional staple of North Dakota dining.  It's a sort of potato dumpling soup that features a rich cream sauce and chunks of chicken.   Knoephla soup has been a favorite of generations of Upper Midwest residents whose ancestors from what is now Eastern Europe  settled in the region starting back in the 1800's.  This Knoephla was rich and hearty.  It was a pretty cold day outside and it was a nice start to lunch. 

I didn't really want to have an entree for lunch - they had a grilled bison hanger steak, a Norwegian salmon dish, and something called General's Chicken that was the chef's take on the Chinese/Hunan favorite General Tso's Chicken with crispy fried chicken, fried rice and a sweet and sour sauce.  I ended up getting the Grass-Fed Beef burger topped with Swiss cheese, fried prosciutto, a fried egg and fresh greens, served on a lightly grilled artisan bun with a miso butter spread.  The burger came with organic potato fries. 

The burger was thick and meaty with a thick piece of Swiss cheese covering the top and sides of the burger.  The fried egg is usually served over-easy, but I asked for mine to be over-hard because I didn't want to get too messy with the yoke.  The burger was good, very good, to be exact.  It was cooked to a perfect medium with a bit of pink in the middle.  The Swiss cheese was flavorful and added a great taste to the burger.  The bun was a little big for the burger, but it didn't overpower the overall taste of the burger. 

And I have to say the fries were also very good.  I would like to think they cooked them in duck fat because they had a distinctive taste, but I'm sure they just used a good oil in the cooking process.  I didn't eat many of the fries because the burger was filling enough.

My dealer went with the fish and chips - a mixture of deep fried walleye filets and prawns served with red kuri winter squash and deep fried green beans, along with the same organic potato fries that I got.  At first, he was a little confused because it didn't really look like it was fish and chips to him.  But when he finally realized what was what on his plate, he was fine with it.  It was served with a tartar sauce and a spicy Mexican-style crema sauce.   My dealer liked what he had.  The walleye filets looked meaty and the prawns were pretty good sized.  It was a lot of food for lunch. 

The food at the HoDo Lounge is definitely upscale for a lunch spot.  With the lunch, a couple beers each and a tip, the bill came to about $80 bucks.  Ouch!  That's a pretty stiff bill.  But I wanted to give it a try and while I was happy with the burger and my dealer was happy with his fish entree, I thought it was a little steep in price.  Still, there's not a lot of restaurants - or hotels - like what you find at the Hotel Donaldson.  I think the next visit to the HoDo Lounge will just be for drinks again.

Pizza Man - Milwaukee

"Hello, Pizza Man Pizza?  This is the King.  Uh, huh.  Elll-vis.  Send me over a large, no, make that an extra large cheese, no, make that two extra large cheese, no, make that two extra large double cheese pizzas."  (Singing)  "I'm young, I'm alone and I'm hungry..." 

That was a comedy bit I used to hear back in the mid-70's before Elvis Presley passed away.  I always liked the name of the place in the piece - Pizza Man Pizza.  So, when I started to travel to Milwaukee a number of years ago, I found that there was a popular place on the city's east side that was named Pizza Man.  I had tried to get in a couple times before, but the 55-seat restaurant was packed both times and it would have been an hour wait to get a seat.  Then, and quite unfortunately, it burned to the ground in January of 2010.  There was talk for awhile that Pizza Man wouldn't be back in business, but they did reopen in a new location in late July of 2013.  I finally had the chance to go try a Pizza Man pizza on a visit to Milwaukee in the late part of last year. 

Mike Amidzich was a mid-20's hippie entrepreneur who would take his barbecue wagon around to outdoor concerts in the Midwest in the late 60's and into 1970.  After a disastrous weekend at the Wadena rock festival in NE Iowa in 1970, Amidzich found himself completely broke and had to shut down his small enterprise. 

Coming back to his hometown of Milwaukee, Amidzich went looking for a job and was talking to someone about becoming a pizza cook.  However, that opportunity was pulled out from underneath him at the last moment.  But when Amidzich found that another pizza place had recently gone out of business, he got a small bank loan - co-signed by his parents - and bought the former Rudy's Pizza, a take-out place at the corner of North Ave. and Oakland Ave. on Milwaukee's east side, and opened Pizza Man. 

Initially, he used the recipes that were left from Rudy's Pizza, but found that most of the ingredients were frozen beforehand.  He decided that he wanted to use only the freshest of ingredients on his pizzas.  Customer's immediately noticed the better taste of the Pizza Man pizzas.

Amidzich embraced the counter-culture atmosphere that was growing in Milwaukee and decided to market to the people who liked what he liked.  Nearly all of the pizza places in Milwaukee at the time either closed at 10 p.m., or they didn't deliver.  (Or both!)  Knowing that people who liked to party late in the night usually meant that they had the munchies, Pizza Man delivered up to 3 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on the weekends.  And to help quench their customer's thirst, Amidzich provided free quart bottles of Pepsi products with each pizza.  Business got so good for Pizza Man that they became one of the largest independent Pepsi accounts in the state of Wisconsin - and they gave away the vast majority of the pop! 

A year after opening and with business booming, Amidzich asked the bike shop next door if they would mind moving to a larger location down the street so he could take over the space for a dining room.  Pizza Man started sit down service in 1971.  He built a small bar area and stocked the back bar with a number of higher-end liquors - Scotch, vodka, liqueurs, and appertifs, mainly.   But that didn't seem to go over well with the patrons eating pizzas.  He eventually took out the back bar liquor cabinets and put in wine racks.  Amidzich loved wine and he felt that it was a better companion with pizza than hard liquor.

Intially, Amidzich (pictured right - photo courtesy Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) turned to a wine sommelier to help him pick the wines.  California wines were beginning to become the rage and Amidzich and the sommelier picked out a number of wines to stock at Pizza Man.  Within a short period of time, he garnered an impressive collection of great wines one of the best in the greater Milwaukee area earning Pizza Man the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.  At one point in time, Pizza Man offered 600 different bottles of wine - all of them available by the glass.  Suddenly, Pizza Man became one of the largest wine bars, not only in Wisconsin, not only in the U.S., but in the world!

In July of 2010, a fire erupted next door at the Black and White Cafe destroying both the cafe and Pizza Man, along with a couple of other businesses and a number of apartments that were located on the second floor of the building.  (Photo at left courtesy Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)  Authorities eventually indicted the cafe's owner for setting the fire to garner over $100,000 in insurance money so he could move to a new location.  (Even though the cafe owner was acquitted by a jury in 2013, the judge in the case still gave him a 2 1/2 year sentence for probable cause.  That sentence was thrown out on appeal in 2015.) 

Amidzich lost everything.  Even the bottled wine stored in the basement had to be destroyed.  It was a low part in his life, but he decided he wanted to rebuild.  However, banks were unwilling to work with Amidzich regarding his financial needs to build a new Pizza Man restaurant.  Down in the dumps, Amidzich announced that Pizza Man would be no more, and that his wife, Deanna, and he would focus on their other business - Stinky Gringo pre-mixed margaritas. 

But Pizza Man was his number one love and toward the end of 2012, Amidzich announced that a group of Pizza Man fans had approached him about helping him reopen in a new location.  The funds from the private investors allowed Amizich to find a new building on Downer Ave. less than a mile from the original Pizza Man in what was the former Lixx Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt shop.  Amidzich worked with the progressive Milwaukee architecture firm Rinka Chung on the design for the new Pizza Man.

After extensive remodeling of the space including putting in an upstairs eating area with rooftop and deck seating, a larger bar with 12 taps and coolers for 50 different types of bottled beers, and the installation of the same-style of the huge barn-style wooden doors that were so heavy that they needed a counterweight to control their opening and closing, Pizza Man had a soft opening on July 30, 2013 featuring a limited menu.  However, thanks to a mix-up via social media, hundreds of people showed up for the soft opening overwhelming the staff.  Pizza man officially opened with a full menu a couple weeks later.

In the meantime, Amidzich - who is in his early 70's - opened a second Pizza Man location in the summer of 2015 at the Mayfair Collection, an upscale mall in west suburban Wauwatosa.  Both locations have about 250 different bottles of wine - all by the glass.  It's not quite the over 600 bottles of wine Amidzich had at the original Pizza Man location, but it's a nice start as he and his sommelier, Heather Korte, are trying to add about 10 new varieties a month. 

I was staying in downtown Milwaukee and I made my way up Prospect Ave., then after a couple jogs I was on N. Downer Ave. pulling up to Pizza Man which sits on the corner of Downer and E. Belleville Place.  (see map)  The parking around the place is primarily street parking and I was able to find a spot just down the street from the restaurant. 

Many of the tables and booths were filled when I got in around 8 p.m.  I asked the hostess if I could get food at the bar.  She said it was no problem.  She let me pick out my spot at the crowded bar - I think I got the last seat - and she left off a menu for me to look through.  My bartender/server that evening was a young man with the distinctive name of Eder.  I had a quick look through the beer list and I had him bring me a Lagunitas IPA while I looked through the wine list just to see what they had to offer.  It was an impressive collection of West Coast U.S. wines, most of them from California, but they also had a number of wines from Washington and Oregon. 

The inside of the place had sort of a rustic, yet urban look to the place.  The back bar was sent in an arch of bricks with a long tall bar in front.  There was a tin roof ceiling above the bar and the famous wine bottle Christmas tree at the old Pizza man has been replaced by a wine bottle chandelier that hangs above the staircase.   (Photo at right courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal.)

All the pizzas at Pizza Man start with a choice of thin crust, pan, or gluten free dough.  From there, you choose a sauce - the classic is Pizza Man's original red pizza sauce, the Italia features a red sauce made out of San Marzano tomatoes, the bianca is a white garlic sauce, and they have a pesto sauce base, as well.  The toppings start with a dozen different types of meat including spicy lamb sausage, pancetta and prosciutto from the La Quercia artisan meat company out of Norwalk, IA, and grass-fed ground beef.  Vegetable toppings to choose from number over 20 including raddachio, rappini, Brussels sprouts, Kalamata olives, Calabrian hot peppers, and caramelized pineapple.  And Pizza Man offers nearly a dozen different types of cheese including goat cheese, a 3-year-old cheddar, smoked provolone, gorgonzola, and cream cheese.  Of course, they have fresh mozzarella, parmesan and romano cheese. 

Pizza Man specialty pizzas - which number over a dozen - include the Atomic made with the San Marzano sauce, salami, pancetta, Calabrian peppers, red onions, smoked provolone, and oregano; the Greca has the white garlic sauce base, spicy lamb sausage, pine nuts, oregano and red onions; the Apugliese is topped with sausage, rapini, romano cheese, and an anchovy-garlic oil; and the Avantgardner is Pizza Man's vegetarian specialty pizza topped with grilled egg plant, rapini, red peppers, onions, oregano, ricotta cheese and a lemon oil. 

The one thing about it, because of the eclectic sauces, vegetable and meat toppings, the pizza at Pizza Man isn't cheap.  Many of the specialty pizzas started out at $17 for a small (12") thin crust pizza.  A small pizza made with the San Marzano sauce base starts at $12.  From there, meat toppings run $3 or $4 dollars each and vegetables run $2 each.  Additional cheese toppings run $3 bucks.  And it doesn't matter with the size of pizza - the price of the toppings is the same no matter the size (small, medium - 14", large - 18"), so getting a larger pizza is a better value.

I went with my old standby Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  I went with the thin crust - a small - and with the San Marzano sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese.  The sausage served on Pizza Man's pizza comes from Vinny's Sausage Company, a Milwaukee-based meat company known for their bratwurst, Italian, Hungarian and Polish sausage.  The pizza you're looking at on the left ran right at $23 bucks.  Ouch! 

So, it had better be great, right?  Well, it wasn't THAT great - I mean it was very good with the fresh toppings including the zippy pepperoni slices, the chunky and zesty Italian sausage, and the fresh and earthy sliced mushrooms.  The San Marzano sauce was difficult to decipher on the tongue - I would have liked to have tried the classic Pizza Man sauce to see if there was a significant difference.  The fresh mozzarella was very good, however.  And the crust had a caramelized ring with a soft, yet crunchy texture.   This was a very good pizza - but $23 bucks worth?  For a 12" pizza? Hmmm...  Tough to say.

I can see where some people would get sticker shock if they didn't know what to expect with the prices of the pizzas at Pizza Man.  And for those of you who haven't been there before - like me - that's why I'm telling you.  With my pizza and three Lagunitas IPA's (beers were $6 bucks each - double ouch!), my bill came to over $50 bucks with tax and a tip for Eder's fine job of taking care of me.  I mean, the pizza was very good.  I don't know if it was that good of a value, but it was different than most any other pizza in the Milwaukee area.  And given that the place was packed - and they've opened a second location in Wauwatosa - the people who go to Pizza Man realize that they're getting a better pizza and are willing to pay for it.  And that's what Pizza Man is evidently going for - a better and different pizza than what's available elsewhere.  I just don't know if it's worth it, though.  (Photo courtesy Milwaukee Business Journal.)

Wobbly Boots Roadhouse - Osage Beach, MO

A friend of mine had taken a motorcycle vacation down to the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri last year and he sent some pictures via Facebook from a place he was at in Osage Beach - Wobbly Boots Roadhouse.  I'd seen the signs for Wobbly Boots going through Osage Beach on my trips between Jefferson City and Springfield, MO a few times over the past couple of years and often wondered how the food was there.  When I saw my friend after he got back from his motorcycle road trip, I asked him out Wobbly Boots was.  "You haven't been there," he asked incredulously.  "I figured that as many times that you go down that way that you'd been there a couple times before."  Nope, I'd never been but on a subsequent trip between Jeff City and Springfield late this past year, I stopped into Wobbly Boots for lunch. 

The brother duo of Mark and Brian Barrett are the owners of Wobbly Boots.  They've been in the restaurant business in the Osage Beach area for over 20 years running popular restaurant/bars such as Dog Days on the Lake and Shorty Pants Lounge.  In 2002, the brothers bought out J-J Barbecue and the recipes of John Hangley who also owns the Dickie Doo Barbecue in Sedalia, MO.  Using J-J Barbecue as the basis of Wobbly Boots, they eventually closed that restaurant and opened Wobbly Boots in the summer of 2012.  Tom Livingston is the pit master for Wobbly Boots, which opened an Iowa location in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines, in late 2014. 

The Wobbly Boots in Osage Beach opened after the new Highway 54 Bypass opened in 2012.  Before the bypass, travelers had to lurch through Osage Beach passing shops, hotels and restaurants.  Now with the bypass, it shaves as much as 20 minutes of the travel time it took to get through Osage Beach to Camdenton - sometimes longer during the height of the vacation season in the Lake of the Ozarks.  In order to let travelers know that Wobbly Boots existed, the Barrett brothers had a plan - they put up Wobbly Boots billboards in both directions coming into Osage Beach on the new bypass.  It's those billboards that piqued my interest over the past couple of of years of traveling through the area. 

Getting off the bypass onto the Osage Beach Parkway just before the bridge, I had to double back to get to Wobbly Boots.  (see map)  It was around noon during the week when I stopped and the large parking lot was half full of cars.  Entering Wobbly Boots, I was greeted by a hostess and I asked if I could just sit at the bar which was part of the main dining area.  She gave me a menu and I took a seat at the bar.  Amy was the bartender that day and I saw that they had Schlafly beers on tap.  I got a Schlafly Pale Ale while I looked through the menu. 

In addition to barbecue at Wobbly Boots, they also feature a number of appetizers - award winning chicken wings, brisket quesadillas, and bacon-wrapped shrimp stood out on the menu.  They also have a number of burgers, wraps and sandwiches, as well as rib-eye steaks, a brown sugar teriyaki salmon dinner, and prime rib that is sold on Friday and Saturday nights. 

But barbecue is their big draw and they feature baby back and spare ribs, barbecued chicken, brisket, pulled pork, turkey, ham and smoked sausage.  I ended up getting the two meat combo plate - pulled pork and brisket.  I had a choice of one side to go along with the meat and I got the baked beans.  Had I gotten two choices I also would have the Texas fries along with the beans. 

The pulled pork - in my estimation - was great.  It was moist, tender and had a slightly-smoked pork flavor.  The brisket - though not as good as the pulled pork - was also very good.  It, too, had a subtle smoky taste to the beef.  The barbecue sauce that was given to me was robust with a bit of a spicy bite on the back end.  It went well with the pulled pork and brisket, which, quite actually, were very good on their own without the sauce.

Usually, I feel a need to zip up baked beans at most barbecue places with some of the sauce.  But the baked beans at Wobbly Boots were very good on their own.  They were thick and sweet with chunks of pork mixed in.  This was some pretty darned good barbecue in my book. 

I really didn't know what to expect with the barbecue from Wobbly Boots, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised with both the brisket and especially the pulled pork that I had.  The baked beans were good, as well, and the sauce was adequate.  It was a lot of food for the combo plate and I was definitely full when I finished.  The Osage Beach location of Wobbly Boots more than acquitted themselves admirably in the world and ways of barbecue.  With a number of barbecue places to choose from in the Lake of the Ozarks area, I don't think you can go wrong with Wobbly Boots. 

France 2016 (or Planes, Trains and Automobiles)

I was recently back in France for a few days visiting one of the factories that we work with in Saint Etienne.  It had been awhile since I had last been to the factory, so when the trip was proposed in late December of last year I was sort of looking forward to going again. 

Then trepidation set in...

I've been to France five times in my life.  Of those five times, I've gotten ill from a stomach thing on four of those trips, including my last trip to Paris nearly a year and a half ago when I lost nearly 14 pounds from a stomach thing that knocked me on my ass for nearly a day and a half.  I don't know if it's the rich food or if I pick up a virus or what.  But I was bound and determined to not get sick on this particular trip.

My boss and one of my colleagues are seasoned travelers, going to exotic places on Earth that I wouldn't even begin to think I would go to.  When we were in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, they were telling me about a drug they take before they go on long trips - Dukoral.  It's an oral vaccine where you take one dose about a month before you go, then take another dose a week before you leave.  "You can pretty much eat or drink anything," my colleague Ian told me.  "It makes your stomach iron-clad." 

I had to go to my doctor for a physical after I got back from Las Vegas and I asked him about Dukoral.  "Dukoral," he asked me back quizzically.  "I don't think I've ever heard of that." 

He looked it up in his computer and he found it.  "Nope, never heard of this before," he told me.  "But this is something Passport Health could probably get for you." 

Now, I'd never heard of Passport Health.  It turns out that it's the largest privately owned provider of travel medicines and vaccines in the U.S.  There are over 250 Passport Health clinics in the country - and there is one that, unbeknownst to me until then, is a three minute drive from my home.

My doctor referred me to Passport Health and I called them up for a consultation.  On the phone with the health professional at Passport Health I was informed that Dukoral was only available in Canada.  That made sense - my boss and my colleague are both Canadian citizens.  She told me that they could prescribe another drug that would offset any stomach problems that may arise on my trip to France.  But I had to go in for a consultation. 

The consultation lasted all of - maybe - 15 minutes.  Most of the consultations she did centered upon health problems that a traveler could encounter on their trip.  But she figured out when we talked earlier via phone and in the office that I was overly familiar with France and any health pitfalls that I may encounter.  $60 bucks later for the consultation fee, she called in a prescription to my pharmacist.

I don't think I had been home from the consultation any more than three minutes when the phone rang.  It was my pharmacist who asked me where I was going.  When I told him France, he laughed and said, "Man, the stuff they prescribed for you is for like going to the French Congo!"  He told me that he didn't have the stuff in stock, but it would take him a couple days to get it in.  I told him that was fine, I wasn't going for a couple three weeks anyhow.

Then he dropped the bomb on me.  "The other reason I wanted to call was to let you know that this drug has sort of a high co-pay," he said sort of matter-of-fact.  How much, I asked.  "$193 bucks," he replied.  I sort of gulped, then remembered laying on the floor of the small bathroom in Paris a couple summers ago with my body discharging disgusting fluids.  Suddenly, $193 bucks sounded like a bargain. 

The drug they prescribed for me was Rifaximin - or better known as its brand name of Xifaxan (zy-FAX-an).  Now, if you watched any amount of television in the U.S. over the past few months, you've no doubt seen the commercial featuring a cute little animated character made out of human intestines (wait a minute, on second thought maybe it's not that cute) that is holding its butt as it tries to find a public bathroom where the lines aren't at least 50 people deep.  (The Xifaxan commercial caused a minor eruption on Twitter after it was shown during the 3rd Quarter of the Super Bowl held last month.  Given the cost of a 30 second ad for the Super Bowl, it was no wonder that I had to cough up a $193 co-pay for the drug.)

The bottom line - so to speak - I didn't get sick on this trip. 

The automobile part of this trip consisted of a drive into Chicago to fly out of O'Hare to Paris.  If you remember this particular post from last year, this is where I vowed to never fly United Airlines out of the Quad City International Airport to connect to overseas flights ever again.  That post caught the eye of a United marketing person who tried to mollify my feelings toward the airline and caused United to follow the Road Tips Twitter feed.  It turns out that it's much easier to drive in rather than have long layovers to and from overseas destinations at O'Hare.  And for what I spend on gas and parking charges, it's cheaper, too. 

I was at O'Hare two hours before my flight.  I don't know why they tell you to be at the airport two hours before an international flight because I was literally at my gate 15 minutes after I checked in - thanks to TSA Pre-Check that I've had since last summer.  I had an hour to kill before they even began to call for boarding. 

After an uneventful flight to Paris, getting in around 9:40 a.m. Paris time (2:40 a.m. body time), getting through French customs in record time (less than 10 minutes), and grabbing my bag, I met up with my colleagues who made the trip to France at the coffee bar at the Sheraton Hotel in Terminal 2 at Charles De Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. 

We had a noon departure from the train station at CDG aboard the TGV - the high-speed train that took us down to Lyon.  A little more than two hours after we left the outskirts of Paris we pulled into Gare de Lyon Part Dieu, the main train station in France's second largest city in terms of metro population.  It was a cool, misty day when we left Paris - it was a brilliant, sun-shiny day in Lyon with temperatures in the low 60's when we arrived. 

I took a cab with a couple colleagues to the Hotel Carlton Lyon, a place I've stayed at before on a previous trip to France.  (Click here to see that entry.)  The hotel had been slightly updated - the quaint elevator was a little more automatic this time compared to some of the manual functions that you had to perform to get it to work, and the bathrooms - which had no shower curtains on my previous visit - now had half glass walls alongside the tub to keep water from splashing all over the place.  It still didn't keep all the water from splashing on the floor, but it was an improvement over what it was. 

Since the weather was so nice, we did a walkabout in Lyon going across the Saône River into Vieux Lyon, the old part of Lyon.  We had a couple of new guys in the group on their first trip to Lyon and we talked momentarily about walking up the hill to the Cathédral Saint-Jean Baptiste. But we quickly nixed that when someone suggested going to get a beer instead. 

It was a beautiful evening in Lyon with a nearly full moon rising above the French provincial-style buildings along the Saône.  We had a nice meal that evening - the first of many great meals during this trip, along with possibly the worst meal I've ever had in all of my travels to France. 

We spent a lot of time at two of the factories we visited, walked around the center of Lyon a couple nights, and had some good meetings before heading back to Paris on the TGV, but not before realizing that I left a nice linen sport coat in my hotel room closet at the Hotel Carlton-Lyon.  I called the hotel - yes, they had it.  They would send it back to me if I paid for shipping.  I gave them payment information, but they never sent it.  Although I really liked that sport jacket, it was probably for the best they didn't send it back.  I think I paid $125 for the coat plus another $30 to a seamstress when I accidentally ripped the lining after pulling it off a metal chair in a restaurant.  It probably would have cost me a "dumbshit tax" of at least $100 bucks to have it shipped from France to the U.S.  That's a nice down-payment on a new one. 

The trip home via United was uneventful.  The plane from CDG to O'Hare was - maybe - 1/3 full.  I had a lot of room to spread out during the eight-and-a-half-hour flight.  I was joking with one of the flight attendants that he had an easy job this particular day.  He looked around the cabin and said, "Yeah, we're not making any money on this flight.  But I'll remember this day when the flights to and from Paris in June are full."  Breezing through customs - the quickest ever for a flight back from Europe - grabbing my bag and taking the tram back to Terminal One at O'Hare to grab my car took all of 45 minutes.  I was pretty burnt out from jet lag for the next couple of days, but I managed.   Other than losing my favorite sport coat, it was a good trip all the way around.  

At least I didn't get sick...

(Update - March 17:  I had sent an e-mail to the Hotel Carlton on the 5th of March because I had not heard one way or the other if they had sent my sport coat via French post to the U.S.  And I did not get a reply, so I figured, "All right, well, so much for ever seeing that coat again." 

Last night, I got home from a trip and on my desk in my office was a notification from the United States Postal Service that they had tried to deliver a box to me, but no one was available to sign for the package.  I went to the main post office in Davenport this morning and, sure enough, there was a box from France.  It was my sport coat, a little wrinkled and dusty, but it wasn't anything the dry cleaners could spiff up.  I checked my credit card statement on-line after I got home and I saw that the Hotel Carlton did charge me a little over $41 to send it back.  I was all set to go out and buy another one, so $41 bucks is a little better than having to fork over at least $150 for a new linen sport coat.  Plus, I was fully expecting to pay at least $100 for getting the coat back, so I guess a "dumbshit tax" of $41 and change isn't that bad.)

Campisi's - Dallas, TX

When we were in Dallas for a trade show last fall, right across the street from our hotel was an Italian place called Campisi's.  One of my colleagues and I went in for a beer at the bar and reported back that both the place and the food looked pretty good.  So, for dinner that evening we - as a group - walked back across the street to Campisi's. 

It turns out that Campisi's has somewhat of a storied and notorious history.  It all started just after the turn of the 20th century when Carlo Campisi and his wife, Antonia, emigrated to New Orleans from Sicily.  He got a letter from a relative living in Dallas telling him of a grocery store that was for sale in that city for the price of $800.  The Campisi's moved to Dallas, bought the store and moved into an apartment above the business where they raised six kids.  All six kids worked in the store at one time or another.  

Just after World War II, Carlo Campisi - known as "Papa" to his family - got into the bar business after he bought a place called the Idle Hour.  A cousin visiting from New York suggested that Papa make pizza pies that were the rage in the Big Apple.  Armed with a recipe, Papa made the first pizza in Dallas.  His two sons, Joe and Sam were working in the bar at the time helping to promote the pizzas that the family were making.  

In 1950, the Campisi family bought a place on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas that was called the Egyptian Lounge.  After buying the place, the family didn't have enough money to fully change the sign out front so they called it Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant.  After the death of Papa and Sam Campisi, Joe Campisi took over ownership of the restaurant.

Pictured right - Joe Campisi

Joe Campisi transformed himself into a larger than life character who mingled with politicians and sports figures.  Through his political contacts, Campisi was able to get one of the first liquor licenses issued in the state of Texas since Prohibition when liquor by the drink was passed by the state legislature in 1971.  Passing liquor by the drink also meant the end to a growing amount of illegal liquor activity in restaurants across the state - some say that the Mafia was involved in massive amounts of bootlegging in the state up to 1971. 

Rumors that Joe Campisi was a powerful mob boss in Dallas circulated for years.  It was true that Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant seemed to be a gathering place of the more seedy side of society, and that Joe Campisi was close friends with New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcellos.  And the family today concedes that bookmaking activities did take place in the restaurant in the 50's and 60's.  But there was never any direct evidence that Joe Campisi was a mob boss as many said he was.

It's been said that Jack Ruby dined with Joe Campisi at the restaurant the night before the Kennedy assassination in 1963.  And it's been said that Joe Campisi gave Ruby the order to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald to keep him from talking about the Mafia's involvement in Kennedy's murder.  It got to a point that the FBI staked out the place taking pictures of people who entered the place.  They even tapped the phones of the restaurant trying to find any evidence of organzied crime going on.  But none of those allegations were ever substantiated and today the Campisi family actually plays up the notoriety of Joe Campisi's supposed Mafia ties.

Joe Campisi died in 1990 and Joe's brother, Corky, continued to run the original Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant.  David Campisi - who was the son of Marie Campisi, a daughter to Joe Campisi - went out on his own in 1993 to open the first of what are now 10 Campisi's locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.  David Campisi (pictured left) continues his family's legacy as the face of the Campisi's restaurants.  (David Campisi photo courtesy Dallas Business Journal) 

The downtown location for Campisi's is located on Elm Street in what was an old F.W. Woolworth building.  (see map)  We were actually pretty early for dinner because some of the guys had traveled in to Dallas that day and had missed lunch.  I was hungry, so it didn't matter to me that it was going to be an early dinner. 

The bar area wasn't all that large, but it was stylish and contemporary.  The bar, itself, was pretty small.

We were seated at a table near the bar in the dining area upfront.  (There's also a larger dining area toward the back of the restaurant.)  Large pictures of what I believe are Campisi family members hung on the walls in this area.  We were given menus and I immediately ordered up what I had at the bar earlier in the afternoon - a Lagunitas IPA. 

It's entirely Italian at Campisi's - pasta dishes, chicken and veal entrees, grilled salmon, and - of course - Campisi's famous pizza were featured on the menu.  Most of the menu was heavily Southern Italian influenced with a lot of entrees served with a red sauce.  However, they did offer a variety of sauces to go with their pasta dishes including an alfredo sauce, a creamy tomato sauce, a meat marinara sauce, and an olive and garlic sauce.

Someone was smart and immediately ordered up a couple plates of the fried calamari.  The calamari had a wonderful breaded batter on the outside and were served with some of Campisi's very good marinara sauce.  These were tasty little morsels. 

I had been on a ravioli with marinara sauce kick as of late.  I got the beef filled ravioli with the meat sauce.  And I also got a couple of meatballs to go along with the plate.  The meat sauce was thick, zesty, sweet and tasty.  The pillowy ravioli were thick and filled with a wonderfully seasoned beef.  Even the meatballs were a wonderful taste sensation - a mixture of beef and pork mixed with Italian seasonings.  This was a damned fine meal - and there was a lot of it.  The portions were generous, to say the least. 

My colleague Mitch went with the veal parmigiana.  It was a thick piece of breaded veal scallopini topped with cheese and served with a red sauce on the side.  Mitch followed my lead and got a single meatball to go along with his meal.  He said that the veal parm was excellent.  And, like me, he was having a hard time finishing the whole meal.  There was a lot of food on his plate. 

My colleagues Francois and Matt decided to try Campisi's "famous pizza".  We didn't know at the time that Campisi's probably had the first pizza served in Dallas.  The pizza is made in Campisi's signature oval shape and features a very thin crust.  They got the large "All the Way" pizza that was topped with sausage, salami, mushrooms, green onions and green peppers.  They offered me a bite when they were nearly done and I took them up on that.  I had a small corner piece and the tomato sauce was very good - it was sweet and tangy.  The crust of the pizza was crisp, but not cracker crisp.  I'm sure that I would have enjoyed getting a pizza, but I was happy with what I had. 

For really not knowing what to expect with Campisi's, well, I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with the meal that I had when we were there.  The ravioli with the meat sauce was very good and I really like the taste of the meatballs I got as an extra.  The fried calamari was very good, as well.  Everyone at the table seemed to be happy with their meals.  We had a couple waiters who we had hopping with our repeated requests for drinks and extra whatevers, and they were more than up to the task of taking good care of us.  If this Campisi's location is indicative of the other ones in the Dallas area, then any of them should be able to dish out with a great old world Italian meal. 

Kroll's East - Green Bay, WI

I've eaten at Kroll's West a three or four times on visits to Green Bay over the past 10 years or so.  (Click here to see my visit to Kroll's West.)  The burgers are pretty good and I've often wondered about the Kroll's East location.  During a trip to Green Bay recently, I made a point to go to Kroll's East to check things out. 

In the early 30's, Harry and Caroline Kroll started to serve meals at their downtown Green Bay hotel to help make ends meet during the Great Depression.  The burgers that they made - a quarter-pound beef patty topped with butter, onions, pickles and copious amounts of ketchup - became so popular that they opened a small burger stand in 1936.   Just before World War II, the Kroll's shut down their stand (since it was a seasonal business) and moved into the basement of the former Labor Temple Auditorium in downtown Green Bay so they could serve their burgers year round.  Harry and Caroline were then joined in their business by their daughter, Pat.

When World War II came along, the Kroll's were having trouble getting good beef to make their burgers.  Rationing across the nation during wartime was taking a toll on the nation's restaurants.  The Kroll's were able to keep going, but decided just after the war ended to sell the business to Harry Kroll's sister, Isabel Kroll Schauer and her husband, Dick.  In the meantime, Pat Kroll Van Der Perren took over the basement space for her own Kroll's restaurant. 

The Schauer's moved into a building on Main Street, just south and east of the downtown area and they opened their doors in November of 1945.  Isabel expanded the menu that included many of the same chili and soup recipes that are made in Kroll's East kitchen today.  Everything at Kroll's East - as it was when the Schauer's opened the doors in 1945 - is made in house with their own recipes. 

Behind the restaurant were a block of small cabins that people stayed in during the summer months.  Just beyond the cabins were open fields.  If heat was needed in the cabins, the tenants would use small kerosene heaters provided by their owner, Leonard Goeben.  Kroll's was a favorite place to eat for the people staying in the cabins. 

By 1969, the cabins were gone, and Dick and Isabel's son, Jim, came to work in the family business.  Less than three years later in January of 1972, Dick Schauer passed away.  Jim took over the day-to-day operations of Kroll's and began a remodeling project two years later that enlarged the bar area.  At the time of the renovations at Schauer's Kroll's location, Jim Schauer's cousin, Pat Van Der Perran was forced to move her downtown location due to urban renewal.  The Van Der Perren's moved to S. Ridge Road in the shadow of Lambeau Field to open Kroll's West. 

In the 1980's, Bette Schauer joined her husband in the business.  They were soon followed by their daughter, Jenny Schauer Smith, and two of their sons, Ben and Nathan.  The Schauer family continues to run Kroll's East today which is located at 1658 Main St. in Green Bay.  (see map)

I got into Kroll's East around 7:30 on a cool evening.  The original "Lunch Time" neon sign with a clock in the middle still stands on the front of the building facing Main Street.  I didn't really know the drill at Kroll's and I entered the place by the dining area by the kitchen.  There's a candy-caned shaped counter in the front of the area by the kitchen.  This definitely did not look like a bar area where you could belly up to and get a beer. 

Off to the side was a dining area that featured booths and tables.  It was a nice looking dining area - the only problem was that no one was in there.

That was the same situation with the long narrow dining room that connects the main dining area with the bar area. There were a number of small booths that looked like they belonged back in the 70's along the walls of this area at Kroll's East. 

Upon closer inspection of the long dining room, I saw that each booth had their own service button that you would push to summon a server.  In fact, the booths in the main dining room by the kitchen/front counter area had them, as well.  I almost kind of like that - you need something, hit the buzzer.  No need for a server to come around to ask you if you need something when you don't, but then when you do need something there's no one around to be found. 

I made my way into the bar are at Kroll's East.  It was a larger room with subdued lighting, flat screen televisions and a number of tables and booths.  Now, THIS is where it was all happening for the patrons that evening.  I took a seat at the bar looking at an ornate mirror with green and white tile around it.  It turns out that this was the original Italian-made mirror with the original tile from the original building before the place was renovated back in the 70's.  The bartender, an older gentleman who was having trouble getting around probably due to bad hips (I've had 'em), came over to greet me and to drop off a menu.  I ordered a Leinenkugel that they had on tap that evening. 

Of course, they're famous for their burgers at Kroll's East.  They still use a Black Angus blend of beef that is never frozen - the same way they did it back in the days of Harry and Caroline Kroll's ownership of the place.  The burgers are grilled over charcoal giving them a distinctive taste.  In addition to burgers, Kroll's East also features sandwiches and wraps, housemade soups and salads, and chicken wings, nuggets and tenders. 

I had to try the burger - this was a double cheeseburger topped with pepper jack cheese.  Similar to the burger at Kroll's West it was slathered in ketchup.  The cheese was also a gooey mess on top of the burger patties.  And as it is the Kroll's custom - East or West - the burger was cut in half before it was served.  The usual Kroll's burger comes with a toasted hard semmel (or Kaiser) bun, but you can also order it with a toasted soft bun.  That's what I did on this particular visit.  I also got a side of onion rings to go with the burger.  

From the first bite, I thought this burger was better than the one over at Kroll's West.  The ketchup wasn't as thick and slathered on like the last couple I've got at Kroll's West.  I like ketchup on a burger - many people don't - but sometimes it's too much.  I'd say that it was a lot of ketchup on this burger, but not overpowering in taste.  The pepper jack cheese, melted butter, onions, and pickles were a great taste combination along with the softer bun that stayed together very well with all the stuff on the char-grilled burger.  I usually prefer a flat-grilled burger over a char-grilled one, but this was a very good burger.

The onion rings, on the other hand, were just all right - nothing special.  They had a nice krispy outer shell, but they were sort of bland and greasy.  I don't know why I got onion rings other than the fact that they sort of sounded pretty good.  If it was a housemade batter, it was pretty pedestrian.  The greasiness of the onion rings didn't help the taste. 

I'm sure people in Green Bay have their favorites - Kroll's East vs. Kroll's West.  I seemed to like the burger at Kroll's East better than the last couple I've had at Kroll's West.  Both are good burgers - some people think they're the best in the state of Wisconsin.  I don't know if I'd go that far, but like anything that's a local institution, people are going to be more parochial in their choices.  You gotta like Kroll's East just for the history behind the place.  The burgers are a great draw, as well.  The only thing I can say is try both the Kroll's locations and find out which one you like better.  I don't think you can go wrong with either spot. 

The North End Barbecue and Moonshine - Indianapolis

On a recent trip to Indianapolis, I was staying out on the north side of the city.  I was sort of hankering for barbecue that evening and I did some looking around on line to see if there was anything in my immediate area.  I found a place that I wasn't familiar with - The North End Barbecue and Moonshine.  I thought that the name alone was intriguing enough.  When I saw that they billed themselves as a "regional" barbecue place, I decided this was the place I'd try that evening. 

One of the reasons that I hadn't heard about the place until this particular time was that it opened in June of 2014.  Owner/chef Ryan Nelson started his love for the finer aspects of culinary delights as a youngster in Minnesota going to Canada and Wisconsin on family fishing trips.  Walleye became the young Ryan's favorite and he later fell in love with seafood of all types and varieties.  

While attending the University of Minnesota, Ryan worked at the Italian-inspired Seattle-based Palomino restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.  (The Minneapolis Palomino is now closed, but there is one in Indianapolis.  Click here to see Road Tips' review on Palomino.)  After graduating from college, he moved to Indianapolis and got a job in the kitchen at the Oceanaire Seafood Room.  He worked his way up to sous chef, then eventually he was named as the executive chef and operating partner of the Indianapolis Oceanaire location. 

But Nelson - still in his 30's - was looking to have his own restaurant.  He wanted a menu that was based upon fresh sustainable food that changed seasonally.  Nelson wanted to use locally sourced foods when he could, and he built his restaurant out of reclaimed wood, bricks and stone sourced within a 500-mile radius from Indianapolis.  In 2011, Nelson and his wife, Laurie, opened Late Harvest Kitchen near the Fashion Mall at Keystone on Indianapolis' north side. 

Pictured right - Ryan Nelson

Bouyed by the success of Late Harvest Kitchen, Nelson and Late Harvest Kitchen chef Mitch McDaniel began to experiment with barbecue techniques in the kitchen.  There were barbecue places in Indianpolis, but Nelson didn't think they were to the standards of true "low and slow" techniques found in North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City or St. Louis.  Using a variety of spices on the meats during the smoking process, Nelson and McDaniel thought they had come up with a winning barbecue taste.  

After procuring a space that used to house Cafe Nora in north Indianapolis' Nora neighborhood, not far from Late Harvest Kitchen, Nelson installed two large Southern Pride smokers that could each handle up to 500 lbs. of meat.  After remodeling the space giving it a rustic, yet contemporary industrial look, The North End Barbecue and Moonshine opened in June of 2014.  In addition to traditional barbecue, the restaurant focuses on a large selection of eclectic bourbons - over 50 different ones I counted - and a nice variety of craft beers on tap and available in cans and bottles. 

It was around 7:30 p.m. when I walked into The North End Barbecue that's located in a small shopping complex off 86th St.  (see map)  It was an exceptionally warm fall evening and there were some people out on the patio and the bar area was rather packed.  I opted to get a seat in the dining room.

The hostess guided me to a table in the long, narrow dining room that featured some interesting rustic decor including some interesting circular light fixtures with Edison light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.  The crowd in the dining room was and interesting mix of families, couples and friends hanging out. 

I was looking through the menu when my server for the evening - Bobby - showed up to greet me.  I ordered a Stone Brewing Co. Delicious IPA from him to enjoy while I decided what I wanted to eat. 

As with other barbecue places that I'm visiting for the first time, I like to have a little bit of pork and beef to try.  However, The North End Barbecue didn't have a sampler plate on the menu.  They featured baby back and spare ribs, Carolina-style pulled pork, brisket, smoked turkey and Texas-style sausage.  Keeping in Ryan Nelson's wheelhouse of seafood, The North End Barbecue also offered a smoked salmon entree on the menu.  

I saw something on the menu that piqued my interest - the Texas Red Chili.  It featured chunks of brisket and house-made bacon with chopped spicy chiles.  I got the cup size of it to give it a shot.  It was topped with "The Works" - cheese, sour cream and chopped green onions.  It had a good spicy bite to the taste and it was some excellent chili. 

Since I couldn't get a sampler plate, I decided to get the Texas beef brisket entree.  I got two sides to go along with the brisket - baked beans and fries with bone marrow butter and jalapenos.  It was all served on a small baking sheet that are becoming increasingly popular to served foods in barbecue - and non-barbecue restaurants.  (And at our home.)

When I ordered the baked beans, Bobby told me that their baked beans weren't like regular basked beans.  "They're not the soft beans like other baked beans you've probably had."  I told him that I still wanted to try them.  "I like to let people know about the beans," he explained.  "We make 'em in house and soak 'em over night before we put them in the baked beans."  But it turned out that they weren't all that hard, but had a good texture and consistency. 

There were four different types of barbecue sauce available on the table.  They had a Kansas City-style sauce that was thick and sweet with molasses; a Carolina mustard sauce that I didn't care for (I don't like mustard sauces at all); a Texas Red that was supposed to be spicy, but it really wasn't; and a Classic barbecue sauce that was, well, pretty basic.  None of the sauces really jumped out at me as being significant in taste. 

The brisket probably didn't need much sauce to help enhance their taste.  It came with both sliced and chopped beef.  The beef brisket was moist, flavorful and had a hint of a smoky taste and it was very good.  Possibly not the best I've had, but admirable for a place like Indianapolis that really isn't known as a hot bed of barbecue. 

But the French fries with the bone marrow butter and jalapeno peppers were just outstanding.  The overall taste of the fries were heavenly combined with a spicy kick from the jalapeno slices.  I like to put barbecue sauce on my fries, but I didn't have to with these fries.  They were simply some of the best French fries I've ever had. 

About the only thing that went wrong with the meal was that it was supposed to come with fresh dill pickles and white bread - the proper way to serve Southern style barbecue.  Bobby came over to check on me and said, "Oh, my gosh!  I forgot to get your bread and pickles!"  I was nearly done with the brisket and I was filling up pretty quickly.  I told him not to worry about that.  It definitely wasn't a deal breaker. 

The North End Barbecue and Moonshine was an interesting place.  The brisket was good - not the best I've had - but good.  The chili was also very good with the brisket and house-made bacon chunks.  The baked beans were just all right, but the bone marrow butter French fries with jalapeno slices were simply excellent.  With a good variety of craft brews to choose from and Bobby's efficient service (even with forgetting the bread and pickles), The North End Barbecue and Moonshine was a wonderful find in my travels.  My only wish is that I could have had a sampler platter to try something else with my meal.  I guess I'm going to have to go back to try the ribs or pulled pork at some point.

The Rheinland Restaurant - Independence, MO

It was my last trip of 2015 and I found myself in the Kansas City area looking for a place for lunch.  It was sort of a cold day and I thought some "stick-to-my-bones" food would be good that particular day.  I did a quick search for German restaurants and to my surprise I found one in Independence, MO on the east side of Kansas City.  I had an appointment in Independence later in the afternoon, so I decided to go to the Rheinland Restaurant beforehand. 

I love good German restaurants, but for whatever reason they're slowly fading away from the Midwestern restaurant landscape.  The Rheinland Restaurant was the only German restaurant in the greater Kansas City area for a handful of years after the Berliner Bear in the Waldo neighborhood closed nearly 10 years ago.  A couple others have opened since, but the Rheinland has one thing going for it - their owners are actual German immigrants.  

Heinz and Rosie Heinzelmann (pictured right) left their hometown of Ruedesheim, Germany to immigrate to the United States in the early 80's.  They ended up in the Kansas City area and settled in Independence in 1986.  The Heinzelmann's became friends with Nina Anders who ran a Scandinavian furniture store in the historic Independence Square area of downtown Independence.  Independence Square had suffered since a large mall had opened on the far east side of Independence and there were a number of store fronts and restaurants that had closed down.  However, Anders was able to convince the Heinzelmann's to open a German restaurant in a building across the street from her store. 

The Heinzelmann's opened the Rheinland Restaurant - named after the Rhein (Rhine) River that flowed past their hometown in Germany - in 1991.  They cooked everything from scratch using recipes that had been handed down in Rosie's family to her mother and eventually to her.  The Rheinland became an instant hit with people from all over the Kansas City area coming to Independence to have authentic German food.  This year, they're celebrating their 25th year in business. 

The Rheinland Restaurant is located on N. Main Street in downtown Independence just south of Truman Road.  (see map)  I was able to find a parking spot on the street just down the way from the restaurant.  I went in and was greeted by a hostess who sat me at a small table along the wall in the main dining room.  Since it was the Christmas, the dining room was decorated for the season.  Tiffany-style lampshade fixtures hung from the ceiling. 

They also have a second dining area with a small bar window along the wall.  The dining rooms featured tin ceilings and more antique-style light fixtures.  The overall decor could be described as quaint. 

My server for the day - she had the unique name of Candrea - came over with a lunch menu for me to look through.  I ordered up a Warsteiner beer to get me started as I pored over the menu. 

Sandwiches such as reubens, boiled ham rolls, bratwurst, and knackwurst were available during the lunch time, but not on the dinner menu.   Main entrees such as jaegerschnitzel, wiener schnitzel, and kassler rippchen are available during the lunch time and in the evening. 

Everything sounded good to me, but then Candrea came back with my beer and told of the lunch special - roasted pork loin topped with gravy.  I signed up for that along with a side of the red cabbage.  Fried potato pancakes came with the meal along with a small bowl of applesauce came with the meal - I wasn't interested in the applesauce - and a couple of hard rolls were also included in the meal.

The pork loin was tender and easy to cut with the fork.  Along with the gravy topping, the taste of the pork loin was superb.  This was exactly what I was looking for on this particular day - a good hearty comfort food meal, but having it in a German restaurant was a plus. 

As good as the pork loin with the brown gravy was, I have to say the sweet and sour red cabbage was even better.  The flavor of the red cabbage was just outstanding.  But even BETTER than the red cabbage were the potato pancakes.  Now, I can usually take or leave potato pancakes, and had they not come with the meal I wouldn't have been unhappy.  Well, that was until I HAD the potato pancakes at the Rheinland Restaurant.  The taste was just out of this world.  I don't know how they prepare them or what makes them taste so good, but the potato pancakes - alone - were worth the price of admission.

For my first - and definitely not my last - visit to the Rheinland Restaurant, I was very happy with what I had.  The roasted pork loin with the gravy on top was very good, but the red cabbage and the potato pancakes were just outstanding.  The Rheinland is a nice place, nothing big, but cozy and comfortable.  The service I experienced was good and my server was on top of things the whole time I was there.  This was a very good little German restaurant and one of the very few that are left in many parts of the Midwest.  Here's hoping the Rheinland Restaurant sticks around for another 25 years and beyond.