Road Tips

La Morelia - Muscatine, IA

My wife and I were down in Muscatine recently and as it was around the lunch hour we decided to find one of our favorite little Mexican restaurants.  As we pulled up in front, we noticed another small place that appeared to be attached to a automotive repair shop.  Now, there are a lot of great Mexican places in Muscatine and we've been to many of them, but not this one.  We decided to go in and try the food at La Morelia.  

La Morelia is a family-run restaurant that got its start over 15 years ago in Muscatine when Maria Guzman originally opened the restaurant.  The Guzman family was from Morelia in the state of Michoacan in Mexico - the same place where hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies migrate to each year, hence the monarch butterflies on the La Morelia logo.  Like many Mexican restaurants, the family was urged to open a restaurant by other family members and friends.   Maria Guzman's son Julio and his wife Carmen head up the restaurant today and are helped out by many other Guzman family members.

Michoacan cuisine is one of the most diverse in Mexico - because of its location along the Pacific Ocean, you'll find a number of seafood dishes.  However, because of its rural inland, you'll find chicken, pork and beef dishes in many variations.  Michoacan regional cuisine is one of the more authentic Mexican types of food that you can find.  

Well, it actually turns out that we had probably eaten at La Morelia before.  Years ago, we found a little place that was in the back of a Mexican grocery store in a strip mall along Oregon Street on Muscatine's south side.  We absolutely loved the food there, but when we went back a few years ago the store and the restaurant were gone.  In doing some research for this blog entry, I found that La Morelia was located in the same building on Oregon Street before they had moved to their present day location on Mulberry Street near downtown Muscatine.  (see map)  I'm not certain when they made the move, but we had eaten at El Olmito next door a couple times and I had never noticed La Morelia before.  (Then again, my wife says I'm not very observant.)  

La Morelia is not very big.  It seats - maybe - 30 people in its small dining area.  The walls were painted an earthy pastel orange and colorful paintings of the Michoacan region hung on the walls.    

We took a seat at a table along the wall and our server, a pleasant young lady who said her grandmother started La Morelia, came over to drop off menus along with a basket of warm fresh chips and salsa.  We asked her if she had any salsa verde and she brought out a large squeeze bottle full of the green salsa.  The red salsa had a sweet tomato taste, but the salsa verde had a sneaky spicy taste on the back end that we liked tremendously.  

The menu was basic, yet interesting with a number of taco and enchilada plates, burritos and tortas.  They also had Carne al a Tampiqueña on the menu - grilled skirt steak topped with grilled onions and jalapeños, and served with rice, beans, a quesadilla, an enchilada and guacamole.  I was told that if a Mexican restaurant serves Tampiqueña in the U.S., it's the real deal.   

We decided to go with tacos for lunch - always a safe bet when you're trying a Mexican restaurant for the first time.  La Morelia featured a number of different meats from steak, beef, pork, chorizo, chicken, lengua (beef tongue) and tripe.  On the weekends, they also have braised beef barbacoa and carnitas.  They also make all their own corn taco shells in house, as well.  My wife got al chicken taco and a barbacoa taco topped with chopped cilantro and onions with rice and beans.  While she really liked the taste of chicken taco, she wasn't too whippy on the barbacoa taco.  

I also got a barbacoa taco that I thought was outstanding.  In fact, it rivaled the braised beef barbacoa tacos that I love so much at Los Primos in Davenport.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Los Primos.)  It had a bit of chopped cilantro along with chopped onions and Chihuahua cheese on top of the taco.  I also got a pork taco - they marinate the pork and slow roast it.  The pork taco was also very good.   About the only thing I would have done different would be to get it without the white Chihuahua cheese.  But they were both very good.

Something on the menu caught my eye and I wanted to try it - the Taco Costeño.  It was a pressed quesadilla-like corn taco that was filled with steak, poblano peppers, sour cream and a white queso sauce.  Now, THIS was absolutely outstanding!  The flavors that melded together were wonderful.  Out of the three things I had I'd say the Taco Costeño was the best, but the barbacoa and the pork tacos were certainly close behind.

We were talking with the young lady for a moment before we left.  She said they were probably going to open a second and larger location out toward Park Ave. in Muscatine. I asked if they were going to keep this location open and she said she didn't know for sure.  I said, "Whatever you guys do, you HAVE to keep this location open."  The small cozy atmosphere was on par with how great the food was.  (See update below.)  

As I said earlier, Muscatine certainly does have some outstanding authentic Mexican restaurants and La Morelia was absolutely no exception.  Don't be fooled by the location next to a garage, La Morelia serves some of the finest and most authentic Mexican food that we've come across.  While my wife loved her chicken taco, I thought the braised beef barbacoa and the pork tacos were outstanding.  But topping those was the Taco Costeño that was basically a flat pressed steak taco with poblano peppers, sour cream and a queso blanco sauce.  We're hoping that they keep this location open when they open their larger location sometime this year, but if they don't we'll still go to the new location as I'm sure the food won't be any different from what we experienced on this visit. 

(Update - Closing their small restaurant, La Morelia moved from their small location to a new - and larger - location in early April of this year.  Their new location is 810 Park Ave. in Muscatine (see map).  Same great food and they now have a liquor license for margaritas and beer!  They are open Monday thru Saturday, closed Sunday.)

Crane & Pelican - LeClaire, IA

My wife's recent birthday happened on a Monday and we had to cancel plans to go into Chicago for a long weekend due to inclement weather and me getting stuck for an extra day in Montreal.  So, we were home for her birthday, much to her consternation.  But I decided to take her out to a place that she had been wanting to go to for quite some time.  I made reservations for us to have dinner that evening at the Crane and Pelican in the quaint river community of LeClaire, just up the Mississippi from the Quad Cities.  

Daniel Dawley was a riverboat captain along the Mississippi in the mid-19th century and in 1851, Captain Dawley built a magnificent home for his wife and their nine children on a hillside in LeClaire.  The house was very well maintained by families who lived in it over the years and in 1979 the house was put on the National Register of Historic Places.  

When Amanda "Mandy" Harvey was looking for a unique place to start a restaurant, she found that the Dawley house - which had been a funeral home for a number of years - was available.  She asked the LeClaire city council to rezone the building for a restaurant with a liquor license, and in the spring of 2009 - with some opposition by nearby neighbors - the city approved the Dawley house rezoning.

Harvey then supervised the transition of the house to a restaurant along with her step-father who headed the build-out effort.  The former garage in the house was transformed into a commercial kitchen, much of the original woodwork was restored, and the large rooms on the main level were made into dining areas while the bedrooms upstairs were turned into a gift shop and art galleries.  Crane & Pelican opened in the fall of 2009.  

Mandy Harvey had a long career as a mixologist before opening the Crane & Pelican.  While working at Steventon's in LeClaire (click here to read the Road Tips' entry on Steventon's), she met Marvin Kane who started his kitchen career when he was still in high school.  Starting out as a dishwasher, Kane worked his way up in a handful of kitchens in the LeClaire area before joining Harvey as the executive chef at Crane & Pelican a few years back.  With meals made from scratch by Kane, Harvey pairs many of the entrees with different wines as the menu changes.  

We had made reservations for 7 p.m. at the Crane & Pelican, but it turned out that we really didn't need to do that.  When we pulled into the parking lot next to Crane & Pelican located at the northeast corner of Dodge and S. 2nd in LeClaire (see map), it turned out that there were only two other vehicles in the parking lot.   We entered the building and found an ornate entry way with a winding staircase that led the way up to the gift shop and galleries on the second floor.  It was still during the holiday season and the rooms were adorned with festive lighting and decorations.

We were greeted by a young lady  were taken to the dining room toward the back of the place - or for some people who live along the river, it's known as the front as there is a deck on the east end of the Crane & Pelican that offers a nice river view in the summer months.  As we walked into the room, we were surprised to see a friend of ours - Nathan - that I work with at summer events around Davenport and his parents.  His birthday was the previous day and his dad's happened to be that day - the same as my wife's.  It turns out that his parents live just a couple blocks away from the Crane & Pelican and dine there on a regular basis.  "We love this place," Nathan's mom told us.  "It's convenient for us to come to."  

Nathan and his parents were seated in a booth along a short wall next to the small bar in this room.  The dining room was just off the kitchen.  The antique-style wall lights hanging on a mustard-colored wall gave the room somewhat of a yellowish hue to the room.  The atmosphere was very laid-back, but still had an old-time charm to the place.  It was a place where you could wear a coat and tie or a pair of jeans and a sweater.  

We were seated at a table in the corner of this dining area and given menus to look over.  I started off with a  Daytrotter, a limited release pale ale from the Exile Brewing Company in Des Moines that was named after the Daytrotter music studios and live music venue located in downtown Davenport.   My wife got a glass of the La Crema chardonnay to start off with.  

We started out with a Caesar's salad and a cup of the asparagus/red onion soup to share.   The salad was pretty small and it was probably overpriced at $8.95.  I would have to say the salad was pretty basic for a Caesar's salad.  

The asparagus/red onion soup was actually very good.  It was rich and creamy with a hint of asparagus and fresh onion with each taste.  We decided that we should have both gotten the soup other than splitting the salad and the soup.  

For dinner, I was torn between a number of things.  They had a pan-seared meat loaf entree that was topped with a red wine and mushroom demi-glace.  They had a sautéed chicken breast topped with a mushroom Marsala wine sauce.  And they had a lobster mac & cheese entree with chunks of lobster with pasta shells with mushrooms and roasted red peppers in a cheddar and smoked Gouda cheese sauce and topped with panko bread crumbs.  

I did end up going the pasta route with the tortellini Alfredo - cheese-stuffed tortellini pasta shells in a cream Alfredo sauce with chopped mushrooms, chopped asparagus and andouille sausage.  Some house-made beer bread came with the pasta on the side.  I also got a glass of the Massimo sauvignon blanc to go with the meal.  

Now, I normally don't care for cheese-filled tortellini, but this was excellent.  The sauce was thick and rich, the tortellini were large and stuffed full of cheese.  It was one of those kind of meals where you look at the portion size and think, "Wait a minute..."  But the dish was so rich and filling that it turned out to be the perfect size for dinner.  The taste of the asparagus was prevalent, but not overpowering, as was the flavor of the mushrooms in the sauce.  This was an outstanding meal and I didn't regret getting any one of my the other things I thought about that evening.  

After thinking about getting one of the pasta dishes, my wife went with the pan-seared Atlantic salmon topped with a béarnaise sauce.  Seasonal vegetables came on the side, but she asked our server if she could get just a side of pasta noodles to soothe the pasta hankering she was having.  The chef was able to accommodate her on that request for a slight upcharge.  She thought the salmon was fabulous with the béarnaise sauce which had a slight vinegary taste that went extremely well with the salmon.   The cooked vegetables had a lot of natural flavor and the crispness hadn't been cooked out of them.  My wife was extremely happy with her meal.  

Our friend Nathan and his parents started to leave about halfway through our meal, basically leaving my wife and I as the sole diners in the place that evening.  Before they left, they told us that we needed to get the orange crepes for dessert.  "Sometimes I'll just come down here for the orange crepes," his mother told us.  We couldn't say no for a recommendation like that.  But I also saw that they had a housemade blueberry pie on the board when we first came in.  I had to have a piece of that.  

And I'm glad I did.  The crust was thin, light and flaky.  The blueberry compote filling was thick, tart and a little sweet.  This was one of the better blueberry pies that I'd ever had and I was surprised it was so good for that time of the year.   

But the orange crepes were to absolutely die for.  There were two orange créme filled crepes criss-crossed over one another and drizzled with a warm orange caramel pecan sauce.  Oh, my GOD!  These were so sinfully great.  The tangy orange taste with the sweet caramel and pecan sauce was a heavenly combination.  The blueberry pie was excellent, but the orange crepes were out of this world.  I messaged Nathan later on to thank him and his family for the recommendation.  "Aren't they great," he replied in what was a severe understatement.  They were incredible.    

My wife felt this was on of the most memorable birthday dinners she has ever had.  The food at Crane & Pelican was very good to outstanding.  My wife felt her salmon dish was delicious, while I was more than happy with my tortellini Alfredo.  I thought the Caesar's salad was a little bland and well-overpriced, but the cup of the creamy asparagus/red onion was very good.  And the desserts - especially the out-of-this-world orange crepes were both fantastic.  I was sort of apprehensive about going to the Crane & Pelican, but after our experience there I will have to say that it has gone into the top 3 of our favorite Quad Cities-area upscale restaurants.  

Stacked Burger Bar - St. Louis

"So, let me get this straight," a friend of mine from St. Louis was asking me one night over the phone.  "How many times do you come to St. Louis each year?"  I told him four or five times.  "And you've never been to Stacked?"  I admitted that I hadn't.  He chastised me for my oversight and told me that the next time I came to the city that I needed to go there to get one of their burgers.  "They're the best in St. Louis," he said as he admonished me.  I promised him that I would give Stacked Burger Bar a try.  And on a trip to St. Louis earlier this year, I was able to stop in.  

Matt Windisch and Sam Siebenman grew up in the Carondelet neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis which dates back to 1767.  After graduating from St. Mary's High School in St. Louis, Windisch went on to Webster University in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Grove and Siebenman went to school at Missouri State University in Springfield.   Both took different paths in college - Siebenman was a business major at Missouri State, while Windisch was an audio production and engineering major at Webster.  Windisch was also a standout soccer player at Webster and a drummer who toured from time to time with other musicians.  

After graduating from their respective colleges, Siebenman and Windisch decided to open a small bar along Ivory Ave. near the "Ivory Triangle" of shops, bars and restaurants in Carondelet.  The two young men opened the S&M Bar and Grill in 2012, but less than a year later a larger spot that used to house the Ivory Coast Bistro just up Ivory Ave. became available.  The two recruited chef Laura Borghardt to come up with a cuisine plan which included a number of featured gourmet burgers and ones that customers could design with various toppings and condiments.  Stacked Burger Bar opened for business in late June of 2013.   (Stacked in St. Louis is not affiliated with Stack'd Burger Bar in Milwaukee, a place Road Tips visited in the summer of 2012.) 

It was around 1:30 when I got into St. Louis and was able to find Stacked at the corner of Ivory and Schirmer Streets.  (see map)  I parked just south of the restaurant on Schirmer and went in.  The front part of the place was smallish, but well-lit from the natural daytime lighting.  Classic 80's rock music was playing at moderate levels throughout the room.  There is evidently another room toward the back of the place for additional seating.  

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by Jamie, a pleasant young lady who dropped off a menu for me.  She asked what I would like to drink and I saw that they had the Schlafly pale ale from an ever changing selection of tap beers.  I got one of those while I looked through the menu.   

They had a list of about a dozen signature burgers on the menu.  Stacked sources the beef for their burgers from Boeckmann Family Farms, a turkey, beef and pork farm in central Missouri.  Their South Poll Beef is grass-fed and naturally raised on the Boeckmann farm.  (The South Poll breed of cattle was developed in the early 1990's by Teddy Gentry, the bass player in the famous country band Alabama.)  Some of the burgers were pretty interesting - the Wet Nap featured a burger patty topped with chopped barbecued brisket, a three-cheese sauce, and crispy onion straws.  The En Fuego burger was topped with a combination of pepperjack cheese, roasted corn guacamole, fried breaded jalapeños, and a chipotle aioli.  They had a goat cheese burger, a BLT burger and some health-conscious burgers featuring ground turkey or a black bean burger.  

They also had some interesting appetizers on the menu including mac and cheese balls - homemade mac and cheese, breaded and deep fried; guacamole bites that featured a roasted corn/guacamole mix that are wrapped in wontons and lightly fried; and a roasted red pepper hummus served with pita bread and veggies.  Stacked also had a handful of salads on their menu, as well.  

Not on the menu, but on the bar in front of me was a small pad with "Think You Can Do It Better?" at the top.  It allowed customers to build their own burgers first choosing the type of patty for your burger, then you choose from different variations of buns or bread (or no bun or bread).  From there, you can go hog wild by choosing 9 different types of cheese, a handful of veggies (lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions), and a number of different sauces and mustards.  For a slight upcharge from 50 cents to a dollar, you can go even more crazy with toppings such as bacon, slaw, pickled veggies, roasted tomatoes, artisan jams, and chili.  I checked off a number of items on the list and handed it to Jamie.  It took about 15 minutes for my burger to come out to me.  

I ended up building my own burger with grass-fed ground chuck beef, cooked medium.  On it, I got pickles, red onions, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed red peppers, bacon and a slice of pepperjack cheese.  It all came on a brioche bun with a side of fries.

The burger was thick and juicy and the brioche bun was light and spongy.  The burger patty was covered with a thick slice of the pepperjack cheese.  It sat on the sautéed mushrooms and red peppers, the dill pickle slices and a slice of what turned out to be a very fresh red onion.  Thick smoked bacon criss-crossed the burger patty.  

From the first bite, I went, "Mmmm..."  With each bite, I could tell this was a fabulous burger.  The burger patty was flavorful and even with all the stuff on the burger, I could get a great beef taste with each bite.  The burger was overly juicy and I used a number of napkins as I made my way through the burger.  The brioche bun held together very well with the messiness of all that was going on with the burger.  This was an outstanding burger.  

Usually, I don't have many of the fries - especially with a big burger like the one at Stacked.  But on the condiment caddy they had a spicy ketchup that I tried on a couple of the fries.  The taste literally knocked my socks off.  It had the basic sweetness of ketchup but had a wonderful spiciness on the backside of the taste that had me wanting more.  I asked Jamie about the spicy ketchup and she said they made it in house.  "It's basically a mixture of sriracha sauce and ketchup," she told me.  "I don't know the exact measurements.  But it's good, isn't it?"  Oh, God!  It was great!  I almost stole the bottle of spicy ketchup to take with me.  

A day or two later, I called my buddy in St. Louis and told him that I went to Stacked for a burger.  "You didn't let me know you were coming in town," he whined into his phone.  "Well, that's all right - I was out of town all week."  I thanked my friend for turning me on to what was an excellent burger at Stacked.  Everything about the burger was outstanding - the moist and juicy grass-fed beef patty was cooked to a perfect medium.  The fresh and tasty toppings such as the sautéed mushrooms and red peppers, the very fresh red onion slices, the thick cut smoked bacon and the thick slice of the pepperjack cheese all contributed to a wonderful overall taste of the burger.  The spongy brioche bun that held together very well in what was a multi-napkin burger was the perfect choice, as well.  And I would be remiss in not mentioning the spicy sriracha ketchup that was some of the best ketchup I've ever tasted.  I think I just found a new favorite burger joint in St. Louis in Stacked.  

Moody's Pub - Chicago

Last summer, I saw a post from a friend on Facebook where he said he was having adult beverages at the outdoor beer garden at Moody's Pub in Chicago.  I asked him later on what he knew about the place.  "Best beer garden in the city in the summertime," he told me.  "And they have excellent burgers."  I put Moody's on my "Restaurants to Visit" list and while in Chicago awhile back, I was able to stop in and have lunch at Moody's Pub.  

Moody's Pub dates back nearly 60 years when partners John Kahoun and Ray Zago opened their little tavern on North Ave. just west of where the new Northwest Expressway (now the Kennedy Expressway) was being built.  The place was named after Kahoun's maternal grandmother who had a farm in Iowa.  After that place burned down, Kahoun and Zago moved to a new location further east on North at Larabee Ave. in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.  

After a second fire caused Moody's Pub to close in 1967, John Kahoun bought three parcels of land along N. Broadway that were formerly used car lots and had a new building built to house the new Moody's Pub.  Kahoun had a buddy from college design the building complete with the signature high arch over the front door.  An apartment over the pub housed the Kahoun family for a number of years.  

Kahoun built the bar and the booths in the place, as well as building the fireplaces that were a signature part of Moody's Pub.  And once the new Moody's Pub opened in 1969, Kahoun purposely kept the lights low so that people would have a feeling of intimacy.  

With a wrought iron fence around the property, Kahoun put in a beer garden - an idea he got when he was in the service in Germany and a holdover from his second location - and it became a hit with the Edgewater neighborhood residents and with students at nearby Loyola University.   Business was so good at the new pub that within six months Kahoun was able to pay off the loan he took out to start the place.  Moody's Pub has been going strong ever since relying upon an affordable menu that Kahoun once said was "recession-proof".  Now into his 80's, Kahoun turned the reins of Moody's Pub over to his son, Jake, a number of years ago.  

It was around 1:30 when I pulled up to Moody's Pub on a cold and cloudy day.  (see map)  I was able to find on-street parking just around the corner from Moody's and went inside.  I found a place with wooden beams across the ceiling and a combination of wood, stucco and brick along the walls.  Now, when they say they keep the lights low for an intimate atmosphere, they aren't kidding.  Even with using my flash to take pictures, the place was still dark, to say the least.  I don't know how one could get a feeling of intimacy with the lights that low, unless you were going to neck with your sweetheart in the place.  I had to use the flashlight app on my smart phone just to look through the menu

There were two fireplaces burning brightly in the place giving it somewhat of a cozy atmosphere.  But with even the lighting level so low in the place, the flicker of the fire was evident in the back of the restaurant.  I took a seat near the back fireplace and picked up a menu to look through.  My server for the day - Eduardo - came over to greet me and asked what I would like to drink.  I was sort of surprised to see a lack of selections for draft beers.  They did have Anchor Steam on tap and I got one of those.  However, the beer that was served to me was a little warm and a little flat in taste.  

I did take a gander out into the beer garden that, of course, was closed up for the winter months.  What I saw were a pile of tables and chairs pushed together in a corner and a number of trees with small brick walls around them in a courtyard.  I found this picture on the Moody's Pub web site and saw why my friend likes going to their beer garden in the summer time.  With leafy trees and an inviting space that defies the fact that its in the heart of a major metropolis, it's easy to see why Moody's is such a popular place in the warm months.  

Burgers rule the roost on the menu at Moody's Pub.  But they also have other sandwiches such as a grilled chicken breast, a fried fish sandwich, and even Moody's own Sloppy Joe sandwich.  They also have a couple steaks on the menu, as well as pork chops, chicken, fish and fried shrimp.  

I ended up with the Moody Burger - a half-pound beef patty cooked over an open-flame grill that is next to the bar area.  I asked Eduardo to add some Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms to the burger.  It was presented to me open-faced with a gob of sliced mushrooms on top of a burger that was blanketed in Swiss cheese.  I leaf of lettuce and a tomato slice came with the burger, but I discarded them and put the sesame-seeded crown on top of the burger.  A large side of fries came with the burger, too many for me to even think about eating all of them.    

The burger was big, thick and juicy.  For a flame-grilled burger, it had a wonderful taste and it was not overcooked at all.  The bun was spongy and held together very well with all the juices coming out of the burger.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.   The taste of the Swiss cheese was prevalent in each bite and the sautéed mushrooms had that great earthy flavor that went very well with the burger.  My buddy was right - this was certainly an excellent burger.  

Established in 1959 and at their N. Broadway location for nearly 50 years, Moody's Pub was one of those great finds for an excellent burger served in an old-world pub setting.  I was sort of dismayed with the selections of beer on tap and the Anchor Steam was a little warm and a little flat in taste, but I couldn't complain about my burger or the large quantity of very good fries that came it.  The service was prompt and efficient, and the atmosphere was, well, dark.  But I guess that's part of Moody's allure and one that's been a winning combination along with their burgers for years.  I may have to go back in the Summertime to spend some time in their beer garden.  

Gasthaus - Louisville, KY

In Louisville to see a couple of dealers earlier this year, I was needing some kind of a "stick-to-your-bones" type of meal.  Indian food has sort of become my "go-to" for comfort food over the past year or so, but this time I was looking for something different.  German food sounded kind of good and I looked on-line to see if there was anything in the immediate area of my hotel on the east side of the city. Well, it turned out that there was only one German restaurant - in the whole city of Louisville.  I sort of shrugged my shoulders and looked for it on the map.  It turned out that it was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel and in moments I was on my way to the Gasthaus for some German food.  (Photo courtesy Trip Advisor.)

Louisville has a deep German heritage, similar to a lot of Middle America cities that saw an influx of German settlers in the mid-to-late 1800's.  Just before the start of the Civil War, 35% of Louisville's population were German immigrants and the German language was taught along side English in grade schools.  After the Civil War, Germans were in integral part of the meat packing industry in the city as the population of Louisville rose to over 100,000 people.  By the turn of 20th century, nearly 30% of the population were direct descendants of German settlers.   

During World War I, anti-German sentiment was high and there had begun a de-emphasis of German culture around the city.  German churches turned into English churches, German books were removed from the shelves of public libraries, German newspapers quit publishing and by World War II, the German population in Louisville were more identified as Americans than of German heritage.  

Today, one-third of Louisville's population has some German ancestry in their lineage and one would think that there would be more than just one German restaurant in the city, especially with the Germantown neighborhood being one of the oldest in the city.  Over 20 years ago there were over a half-dozen restaurants that served German cuisine.  However, when Erika's closed in December of 2013 it left only the Gasthaus serving German food in Louisville.

It turned out that the owners of the Gasthaus, Michael and Annemarie Griepel moved to Louisville about 25 years ago with the expressed intent of opening a German restaurant.  They found a space in the Brownsboro Center shopping complex and opened the doors to the Gasthaus in December of 1993.  The family - the Griepel's five children were involved in the business, as well - was on a shoestring budget and many of the items they used in decorating the restaurant came from their home.  

Initially, the Gasthaus sold only sandwiches and sausages, but the Griepel's eventually started to include German foods made from family recipes.  Michael Griepel was the head chef of the restaurant and was soon joined in the kitchen by Jason Malone as the restaurant's executive chef.  The Griepel's sons Nico and Robert helped in the kitchen while daughters Simon, Viki and Nina worked the front of the house with their mother.  

The Gasthaus is located just off the Henry Watterson Expressway on Brownsboro Road on Louisville's east side.  (See map)   During the warmer months, they brings some tables out front for outside dining.  And even though it was an unseasonably warm evening for that time of year in Louisville, the tables weren't out front.  

I went in to the restaurant and found a place that was highly decorated with pictures, plaques, old world German knick-knacks and antique light fixtures.  An older lady with pink streaks in her stylish hair - it turned out to be Annemarie Griepel - jumped up from behind the counter to greet me.  Telling her that it was just me for dinner, in a thick German accent she told a young girl to take me to a table in the dining area of the restaurant.   

Just past the front counter, there was a back bar area that was used for staging the desserts the Gasthaus is somewhat famous for.  Desserts such as chocolate eclairs, Black Forest chocolate cake, lemon rolls and an Irish creme torte were on display on a table along the walkway going back to the dining room.  It was a great way to tempt people before they ordered their dinner.

I was taken to a small table in the back corner of the restaurant complete with a red and white checked table cloth on top and given a menu.  I immediately ordered a Warsteiner pilsner beer from the young lady who sat me.  The lighting in the dining area was subdued, but somewhat eerie in the shadows that it projected.  I needed the flashlight application on my phone to read the menu.  

The dining room featured paintings, German state flags, and old-time pictures on the walls.  Two small rooms - they call them the chalet rooms at the Gasthaus - featured tables for larger parties or overflow dining.  One of the chalet rooms had a number of teddy bears in the windows on either side of the door that entered the open room.  

My very pleasant waitress came back with a half loaf of fresh baked bread.  It came with a small tub of herbed whipped butter.  And I thought I could tell there was a bit of cream cheese that was blended in with the butter.  The bread was delicious.

Each night, the Gasthaus features a dinner special and a special salad.  That night the dinner special was a chicken breast schnitzel dish and the special salad was, if I remember correctly, a beet salad.  I decided to look deeper into the menu to see if there was anything else that I could find to eat.  

The Gasthaus featured a number of different types of German fare consisting of chicken, beef, pork and veal dishes.  But the first thing that I noticed were the prices.  The Gasthaus wasn't cheap.  I think the lowest priced entree was around $17.50 for a chicken breast dish.  Two bratwurst sausages with sauerkraut and pan-fried potatoes were $18.00.  Whoa!  This food had better be of the knock-your-socks-off quality, I thought to myself.  

It was between a couple dishes - the Zigeuner Schnitzel which featured breaded pork cutlets that were topped with a sweet and sour mushroom, onion, pepper and bacon sauce; and the Stroganoff - tender beef filet tips cooked in a creamy sauce consisting of mushrooms, beets, onions and pickles.  I ended up with the Stroganoff.   

The Stroganoff came with spaetzle noodles and it featured a half plate of the beef with the heavy brown sauce with mushrooms prominently displayed with the beef.  The meat was tender, but not tender enough to be fully cut by a fork. The overall meal had a good taste quality, but I thought it was somewhat overpriced for what it was.  This was a $25.00 plate of food in front of me.  I guess I didn't realize that German food was that expensive and I didn't think it was that good of a value.  

But it was filling and I passed on getting any of the Gasthaus' delectable desserts that evening.  With the beers I had that evening with my dinner, my bill was already approaching $40 bucks before tax and tip.  

The stroganoff dish that I had at the Gasthaus was fine enough, but I thought it was on the low side of value for what I got.  The bread and herb-blended butter was very good, the taste of the stroganoff was good, but not outstanding, and the service I received that evening was very good with a very pleasant young lady waiting on me.   Tastes are changing and its getting tougher to find good German restaurants in the middle part of the U.S.  The Gasthaus - to me - was fine for what it was, but not the most outstanding German meal I've had.  

Sriracha Thai Bistro & Oyster Bar - Moline, IL

There's a new-ish development - The Mills at Riverbend Commons - along the river front east of downtown Moline that we've driven by a couple of times in the past few months.  There's a couple three restaurants on the ground floor of the complex that also has condominiums on the upper floors.  One of the places that we've seen has piqued our interest, and one recent evening we decided to head over to try the Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar.  

Jun Ling Zhang - who goes by the American-ized name of Kevin Zhang - is the man behind the Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar.  He also is the guy who owns one of our all-time favorite places for Thai Food - Tantra Asian Bistro in Davenport.  (Click here to read Road Tips' entry on Tantra - which is pretty sparse in words since I wrote it over 10 years ago.)   Kevin is a friendly guy who grew up on Mainland China before heading to Switzerland to attend a hotel and restaurant management school near Lucerne.  

After school, Kevin moved to Los Angeles to learn the English language and to work in a number of American and Chinese restaurants.  He ended up in Davenport in 2001 and opened the Fuji Japanese Steak House.  He soon settled on Thai food and opened Crazy Wok in Davenport about 13 years ago.  He changed the name to Tantra Asian Bistro soon after opening a second location in Dubuque about 8 years ago.  (The Dubuque location is closed, but Kevin Zhang is still involved with the Tantra Thai Bistro in Muscatine.)  

The Mills at Riverbend Commons started accepting tenants for both business and residential about a year ago.  Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar opened in October of last year.  Zhang named the restaurant after - of course - the ever popular hot sauce that originally hailed from the coastal Thailand city of Si Racha.  Sriracha sauce dates back to the 1930's and was said to be concocted by a Thai housewife to use on seafood.  I've been told that the Sriracha sauce used in Thailand has a different texture and is not as hot as the Sriracha sauce found on store shelves in the U.S.    

There was plenty of parking on a cold winter's evening when we pulled up to Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar along River Drive in Moline.  (see map)  We entered the building and immediately saw a refrigerated case with seafood and oysters.  We like oysters on the half-shell, but they only had a couple of different varieties in the case that evening.  We talked about getting some, but decided to pass on this visit.  

The bar area was stylish with contemporary lighting and low-back seats at the bar.  We decided that we'd come back some time to get some oysters-on-the-halfshell and mai tai's at the bar.  

The dining area was elegant and contemporary in its design.  Chandeliers hung near the front of the dining area and along the windows while the side and back are of the restaurant featured reduced lighting.  It was very similar to the look and feel of Tantra Asian Bistro over in Davenport.

In fact, the young lady who waited on us that evening used to wait on us at Tantra.  My wife recognized her and asked if she was the same person.  "I sure am," she exclaimed.  "I remember you guys, too!"  She said that when Kevin opened Sriracha Thai that she jumped at the chance to move over to that restaurant.  "It's a lot closer to my home over here than it was for me to get over across the bridge to Davenport," she explained to us.  We ordered up a couple of mai tai's to get us started that evening.  

The menu at Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar was also similar to the one at Tantra with the notable exception that there seemed to be more fresh seafood available at this place.  It featured authentic Thai dishes as well as grilled lamb chops, grilled duck breast, and a number of stir-fry dishes.

And that's what my wife and I did that evening, we went with a couple of stir-fry entrees.  She went with the black pepper garlic with beef strips.  It featured a bed of garlic seasoned cabbage, broccoli and carrot cuts in a tangy brown sauce.  The brown sauce is the key to the dishes at Tantra and she said that this was just as good.

I went with my staple broccoli and beef dish that I get almost every time I go to Tantra.  However, it didn't have much of the brown gravy sauce with this dish as what I normally get at Tantra - or what my wife got.  I don't know if they forgot about the sauce or if they serve it this way at Sriracha Thai, but I was mildly disappointed in the dish.  The beef was tender and lean, and the broccoli was cooked perfectly with a bit of a crunchy snap with each bite.  I only wish that I would have gotten more of the delicious brown sauce that makes the broccoli and beef at their sister restaurant in Davenport so very, very good.  

So, other than the lack of the brown sauce provided on my broccoli-beef stir-fry, I felt our initial experience at Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar was pleasant enough that we'd like to go back again at some point.  My wife enjoyed her black pepper garlic with cabbage, carrots, broccoli and beef.  The service was very good and the atmosphere was elegant, but comfortable and unpretentious.  Sriracha Thai and Oyster Bar is a wonderful addition to the restaurant landscape in the Quad Cities and it gives us another option for Thai food, even though it's similar to its sister restaurant Tantra Asian Bistro. 

Farmers Gastropub - Springfield, MO

Springfield, MO is one of my more favorite places to travel to for my work.  I've enjoyed going there for over 30 years and I've found a number of interesting restaurants during my trips there.  One place that sort of caught my eye during a visit a couple years ago was a small farm-to-fork pub on the city's southeast side - Farmers Gastropub.  I had looked at their menu on-line thinking that I may go there on one of my visits there.  It turned out that I was in Springfield recently and decided to go there for lunch.  

Bill Griffiths had a large appreciation for locally grown foods that were the staple of his diet while he was growing up in the United Kingdom.  An engineer by vocation, Griffiths eventually became the top executive for a British manufacturer of adhesives that were primarily used in the automotive industry.  

After selling his shares in the company, Griffiths moved to the U.S. to work in the British Consulate in Chicago as a trade and investment officer.  He had married a woman from Springfield, the former Christina Fugitt, and after his time was up at the consulate, they moved to Springfield, MO.  

Christina and Bill Griffiths actually met in France when both were working there for a couple of years.  During Bill Griffiths' time in France, he took the time to study under the legendary Roger Vergé who was the father of the French nouvelle cuisine movement.  Mssr. Vergé's Moulin de Mougins restaurant located in the French Riviera region was a longtime Michelin 3-Star restaurant.  

While running a consulting business in Springfield, Griffiths decided to pursue his dream of opening a British-style gastropub that featured foods that were locally-sourced.  The Griffiths thought their restaurant would be more of a personal passion to show that made-from-scratch meals featuring local sustainably raised foods could be good for everyone.  In 2009, the Griffiths opened the Farmers Gastropub in the Wilhoit Plaza in downtown Springfield.  

Pictured right - Bill Griffiths.  Photo courtesy 417 Home Magazine.  

In 2012, readers of the Daily Telegraph - sort of the United Kingdom's version of USA Today only with more of a world view and better writers - voted Farmers Gastropub as the top British restaurant outside of the U.K.  With this award, Griffiths found that many tourists - British and others - who were driving the famed Route 66 highway would stop in for food along the way.  It became evident that the little pub was bursting at the seams and in 2013 the Griffiths moved Farmers Gastropub to its present (and 3 times larger) location in the Brentwood North shopping complex along S. Glenstone.  (see map)

There happened to be another British ex-pat who was also working in kitchens in the Springfield area.  Andy Hampshire had been working in kitchens since he was 15 years old starting out at the famous Boars Head hotel and restaurant in his hometown of Middlewich, Cheshire, U.K.  Hampshire eventually went to culinary school - not just to learn how to cook, but also to study all that takes to run a restaurant from front-of-house and back-of-house management to kitchen management to butchery and fish mongering.  After graduating from culinary school at the age of 19, Hampshire got an internship at the Big Cedar Lodge owned by Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris in the heart of the Ozarks resort country south of Branson.  

Hampshire eventually worked his way up through the ranks at the various kitchens at Big Cedar Lodge before he landed a spot in the kitchen at Johnny Morris' Top of the Rock opulent rustic resort.  From there, Hampshire became the head chef at the high-end Level 2 steakhouse in Branson.  He then moved on to be the executive chef at the Highland Springs Country Club, a private member golf club located just outside of Springfield.  He was still in is early 30's by the time he had made the rounds of the Ozarks area restaurants.

Pictured left - Andy Hampshire.  Photo courtesy Springfield Business Journal.   

Andy Hampshire had met and got to know Bill and Christina Griffiths over a five year period.  The Griffiths were now in their 60's and were thinking of slowing down and possibly selling the restaurant - preferably to a Brit, as Griffiths had told Hampshire at one point.  By the summer of 2015, Hampshire and his wife, Misty - a financial officer for a local hospital - decided that it was time for Andy to either buy his own restaurant or to move on to other pastures away from Misty's hometown of Springfield.  One day during that summer of 2015, the Hampshires walked into Farmers Gastropub and made Bill and Christina Griffiths the proverbial offer they couldn't refuse.  By November of that year, the Hampshire's had taken over the Farmers Gastropub keeping the nearly two dozen staff members and continuing to source foods from local growers, livestock ranchers and fish farms.  

It was the start of the noon hour by the time I made it in to the Farmers Gastropub.  There was some construction going on in the parking lot in front of the building, so I parked up next to the fence that blocked off the construction site.  The Union Jack was flapping in the brisk Spring wind out in front of the restaurant.  For a moment, the location brought back a memory of a pretty good Italian restaurant that used to be in the Brentwood North strip center a number of years ago, quite possibly in the same spot in which Farmers Gastropub is housed.    

I was greeted by a young hostess just inside the front door.  I could see into the bar area and I saw the bar was pretty wide open.  I asked if I could sit at the bar and she said it would be no problem.  There were a number of little nooks with booths in the place, as well as a larger room that could be used for larger groups or overflow.  Farmers Gastropub also had a nice patio on the side of the building that looked like it was set up and ready to go for outside dining.  But it was a cool and blustery day - even with the brilliant sunshine - so no one was out there.

The bartender that day was a laid back guy by the name of Bob.  I took a seat right in front of the line of spigots for their draft beer and he asked me what I'd like to drink.  They had a number of English and Irish beers on tap including Old Speckled Hen and Murphy's Irish Stout.  I found a local beer on tap that I like - the Springfield Brewing Company Greene Ghost IPA - and I ordered up one of those.  

Looking through the lunch menu, I was trying to find something that I had seen when I initially checked out their menu on-line a few weeks prior to me coming in.  They had some pork tacos that sounded really good on the on-line menu, but I couldn't find them on this menu.  Well, it turned out that they had recently changed up the menu and there were no pork tacos on this one.  Hmmmm....  OK.  Now what? 

The menu had a strong English influence to it - battered cod, bangers and mash, a their "Farmer's Pie" that was their version of a Shepherd's Pie were some of the items that were featured on the menu.  They also had a Southern U.S. influence with fried chicken livers, a pulled pork sandwich and slow-cooked spare ribs.  Farmers Gastropub also had an organic burger on the menu, as well as a number of vegetarian and gluten free offerings.  Soups, salads, appetizers and naan flatbread with toppings rounded out the menu.  

I sort of had my mind set on the pork tacos, however.  Having to change direction, I decided that I didn't want a burger.  And I wasn't certain that I wanted the rock shrimp and andouille sausage plate with cheddar cheese grits.  The fried cod tacos were out, as was the sausage and egg sandwich.  I was in a quandary as what to get.  

I ended up getting the Farmer's Pie that featured 12-hour beer-braised grass-fed beef along with peas and carrots in an ale gravy and topped with mashed potatoes.  A house salad consisting of fresh greens topped with cranberry raisins, almond chips, goat cheese and a house Vinaigrette dressing.

The Farmer's Pie serving wasn't all that large - the bowl was small in circumference and depth - but it was chock full of braised beef, carrot slices, peas and the brown ale gravy.  The mashed potatoes had a crispy top to them.  The meat in the dish was mostly tender, but there were some chewy chunks that I found.  But the overall taste was very good, rich and hearty.  It was a good "stick-to-your-bones" type of meal.  

But the Farmer's Pie at Farmers Gastropub was also expensive, in my opinion.  It was $14.95 for a small bowl of the Farmer's Pie and the house salad side.  The taste was very good, however, and the service I had that day was also prompt and friendly.  They had a great beer selection at Farmer's Gastropub and the overall atmosphere was like you walked into a pub in the middle of Great Britain.  Other than what I thought were excessive prices for my lunch entree, I liked everything about Farmers Gastropub.  It's another of a long list of unique restaurants that I've found in Springfield.  

Friendly Tavern - Zionsville, IN

Indiana is a state where the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is a staple in most restaurants.  After I had gone through Huntington, IN to try the pork tenderloin sandwich at the famed Nick's Kitchen (click here to read the Road Tips' entry on Nick's), I got an e-mail from Sara L. who told me that she thought the pork tenderloins at the Friendly Tavern in Zionsville, IN were the best in the state.  Zionsville is sort of on the way for from the Quad Cities to the north side of Indianapolis, so I stopped off there one recent evening to have dinner at the Friendly Tavern.  

The Friendly Tavern is located along N. Main Street in downtown Zionsville (see map) in a building that was built in 1875.  The building was originally built as a dirt floor carriage and wagon factory.  The foundry for the factory was on the first floor, hence the dirt floor, and the assembly was on the second floor where the finished carriages and wagons were rolled down a ramp to a railroad loading dock.  

Of course, with the advent of the automobile, the carriage works eventually went out of business and in 1936 a local plumber by the name of Charles Russell bought the building and turned it into Russell and Son Plumbing Co.  His two sons, Hearn and Earl, worked with Charles Russell in the business.  After Charles' death, Hearn decided to close down the plumbing business and open a tavern/liquor carry-out.  In 1958, the Friendly Tavern opened for business.  

Hearn Russell owned the business until 1973 when he retired and sold it to the first of what turned out to be a stretch of four owners between then and 2002.  That's when current owner Scott Barnes and his company South Main Holdings bought the Friendly Tavern.  Over the years before Barnes bought the Friendly Tavern, the place had a reputation for having a large St. Patrick's Day celebration.  After Barnes bought the restaurant, he was reminded by nearly every patron who came in that this was THE place for St. Patrick's Day in Zionsville.  He embraced the tradition and each year the celebration has grown.  Each St. Patrick's Day, the Friendly Tavern staff cooks over 1200 pounds of corned beef for the celebration. 

I had never really been through downtown Zionsville before and I found that there were a number of interesting places that I put on my list to try as I was driving around looking for a parking spot at the Friendly Tavern.  I was able to park just down N. Main Street from the stucco and brick corner building and went in.

The main dining area had a small bar along with a number of tables throughout the room.  It was packed just after 6 p.m. when I walked in.  I was met by a gentleman who welcomed me to the restaurant and shepherded me to my table.  

I was taken to a step up dining area off to the side, seated at a small table and given a menu.  The room was cozy, but cramped.  I was literally a foot and a half from a table of four people and it was like I was part of their on-going conversation.  But, I suppose that's their M.O. at Friendly Tavern where they say you're only a stranger once. Me?  It was just a little too close for my taste and I didn't care to hear the conversations of the people near me.  

I was greeted by Susanna, a very pleasant young lady who asked me what I would like to drink.  They had Bell's Two Hearted on tap and I got one of those to cut the dust while I looked through the menu.  

Even though my heart was set on getting a tenderloin, the rest of the menu is loaded with choices.  In addition to a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu, the Friendly Tavern features steaks, fish, chicken and pork chops with prime rib served Thursday thru Saturday nights.  You'll find the typical appetizers, as well as soups and salads on the menu there.  

But on this trip, I went with the breaded pork tenderloin.  And it wasn't one of those novelty breaded tenderloins where they're pounded out within an inch of their flavor into the size of a hub cap.  This was a nice-sized tenderloin that actually had some thickness to the cut of meat.  It was lightly breaded and deep-fried to a golden brown color.  It was served with dill pickle slices and sliced red onions.  Yellow mustard was available on the table.  

The tenderloin protruded slightly over the sides of the lightly toasted split top bun they provided.  However - to me - the tenderloin was very salty in taste like they used too much salt in the mixture of the breading.  But the tenderloin was moist and easy to chew.  The breading had a nice crunchy texture, but it was just too salty for my liking.  That was somewhat disappointing because other than that, it was a very good breaded pork tenderloin.  

Kettle chips usually come with their sandwiches and burgers, but for a dollar upcharge you can get fries.  I did that and they were thick cut and very good.  But I just couldn't get over the saltiness of the tenderloin and how I would have liked it even more had it not been that way.

Other than how salty the pork tenderloin was - and the fact that you are literally sitting on top of one another in some places in the dining area - I'd say that my overall experience at the Friendly Tavern was very favorable.  Some people may like the saltiness of the tenderloin more than I did, but I couldn't deny how moist and tender the pork was in the sandwich.  The service I had was attentive, friendly and prompt.  I couldn't ask more for my experience at the Friendly Tavern other than less salt in the breaded pork tenderloin. 

The Great Quad City Organic Market Battle

The big news around the Quad Cities the past couple three weeks has been the addition of two new markets that cater more toward those who seek better choices for more healthy and fresh foods.  Natural Grocers based out of Colorado opened on April 19 in Davenport and a week later Fresh Thyme Farmers Market based out of suburban Chicago also opened in Davenport.   Both places were predictably packed with shoppers in their first few days of business, but on a Sunday morning we got up and went first to Fresh Thyme and then over to Natural Grocers.  

It drives my wife absolutely crazy that I'll go to the store nearly every day I'm home to pick up something for dinner that evening rather than planning days in advance what we're going to have and having the food on hand.  I grew up in the country and we went to the grocery store maybe once a week - sometimes twice.  But I can't tell you how many times that I wanted something simple like milk and we'd be out of it.  Now, THAT would drive me crazy!  We live almost equidistant between a Hy-Vee and a Schnucks, so if we're out of anything, or I want to cook something fresh that evening, it's a two minute drive to either one of those stores.  To me, it's heaven.  To my wife, it's maddening.  Now with Fresh Thyme in the mix - also a two minute drive from our house - it gives me a third option in our immediate area.  

The Davenport Fresh Thyme location is in the newly renovated (well, and it's still being renovated) Kimberly Crossing shopping plaza on E. Kimberly Road.  (see map)  It's housed in the space that was formerly an Eagle Country Market grocery store (before Eagle declared bankruptcy in 2000 and went out of business a couple of years later), then the space was an Incredible Pizza franchise for a couple years before going out of business in 2012.  A couple years ago, a Florida investment group bought the shopping plaza - formerly called the Spring Village Shopping Center - and began an extensive renovation that included demolition of out-buildings and a complete overhaul of the strip center's facade.  The Davenport location of Fresh Thyme is the 60th store in 10 states, and the second in the state of Iowa.  

The first Fresh Thyme opened in suburban Chicago in 2014, but the management group that heads the fast growing grocery chain actually has deep roots in organic markets.  CEO Chris Sherrill worked for Colorado-based Wild Oats Marketplace for nearly ten years before becoming the head of Arizona-based Sunflower Farmers Market in 2003.  After Sunflower merged with Sprouts Farmers Market in 2012, Sherrill looked at the untapped Midwest marketplace for the next round of organic-based markets.  

With the financial backing of the Meijer grocery store chain based in Grand Rapids, MI, Sherrill opened the first Fresh Thyme Farmers Market in Mount Prospect, IL.  Originally based in Phoenix, Sherrill eventually moved the corporate offices for Fresh Thyme to Downers Grove, IL with the plan of opening 50 stores in five years.  However, they had 16 stores by the end of 2014, 28 by the end of 2015 and 48 by the end of 2016.  With the success of the Fresh Thyme concept - which many people consider a melding of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods - their amended goal is to have 70 stores open by the end of this year.     

It was around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning when we walked into Fresh Thyme.  The layout is similar to other Fresh Thyme's I've been in before with the deli that will make pizzas and fresh sandwiches along with the salad bar off to the right side corner of store.  Part of the deli is an artisan bread bakery where breads are baked fresh daily.  The deli primarily features Boar's Head meats in their cases.  

Fresh Thyme has a wide variety of "quick-pick" items that allows customers to get food on the go for a quick meal.  They also had a pretty impressive cheese island that featured a number of Boar's Head cheese items. I picked up a wedge of Pecorino Romano cheese for a future batch of fettuccine alfredo at home.  

The produce section was also impressive with a number of organically grown vegetables and fruits.  Since it was also their grand opening, they had a number of specially priced items in the produce aisles.  But even at the regular prices, we felt the produce they had to offer were on par with every day produce prices we see at Schnuck's and Hy-Vee.  The Fresh Thyme crew was busy restocking the produce section when we were there, so it was a little tricky navigating around the carts and boxes in the aisles.  

Fresh Thyme also puts an emphasis on bulk items in the store with bins and bins of natural and organic grains, nuts and spices.  They also had an area with an assortment of small batch coffee bean available in bulk.  And they had bulk candy such as gummy bears, and different types of trail mix to choose from.   

The meat counter wasn't very big, but it featured a number of selections of hormone-free, naturally raised beef, pork and chicken.  There was a good variety of sausage and brats that are made in house daily.  They had a small seafood section and the salmon they had didn't look bad, but it was still early in the morning and they were replenishing much of the items in the case.  

I wandered down toward the dairy section of the store and found what was their juice station.  While they don't offer individual juices by the glass, they have a number of fresh juices that they bottle in pint, quart and half-gallon bottles.  The young lady who was bringing out bottles of fresh juice told us that they make it up in 8 quart batches and the juices have a short shelf life of only three or four days because there are no additives or sugars included.  (They do make fresh lemonade with sugar added.)   

We started down the aisles to see what they had to offer.  While you'll find many organic brands, Fresh Thyme also features a number of nationally-known labels on their shelves.  Surprisingly to me, I found that they carried HP Sauce in their condiment section.  I usually have to get HP Sauce at World Market stores in larger midwestern markets, but I was happy to find that Fresh Thyme carried it.  HP Sauce goes great with barbecued or roasted pork.  

The supplement and vitamin aisle was of high interest to my wife.  There were literally thousands of bottles and containers of all different types of vitamins, supplements and health aids in this aisle.  I'm not big into vitamins or supplements, but my wife is and she spent a long amount of time seeing what they had to offer.

The natural body care section was a little different from ones I've encountered in Chicago and the Twin Cities.  In those stores, the body care section is in an aisle, while the one in Davenport has its own corner of the store.  I noticed that natural body care products were also expensive.

The two wine aisles at Fresh Thyme featured a somewhat impressive selection.  The only problem was that the prices were high - even with the grand opening specials they were running.  The refrigerated beer case had some craft beers available, but the selection wasn't all that great.  I did find a bottle of Malbec wine from Argentina that I've had in the past and I grabbed that.  They I remembered that it was Sunday and I looked at the time.  In Iowa, you can't buy liquor, beer or wine before 8 a.m.  But it was 7:55 a.m. and we wouldn't be checking out until after 8.  

When we got up to the checkout counter, the young lady checking us out stopped with the wine bottle was scanned.  She said, "I'm sorry. We can't sell this. It's too early."  

I was incredulous as I looked at the clock on my phone.  "It's after 8," I said.

"We can't sell it until after 10," she explained.  "It's flagged on our register as not being able to sell until 10 a.m."  

I was mildly irritated and I said, "Look, I can go over to Hy Vee right across the street and buy liquor right now."  

An older lady who was sacking our groceries said, "Well, in Indiana, you can't buy wine or beer on Sunday."  

I said, "Well, this isn't Indiana.  In Iowa, you can buy wine and liquor starting at 8 a.m."  

Another Fresh Thyme employee was standing there and she said, "In Omaha, you can't buy until noon." 

"Once again," I said in a somewhat testy manner.  "This isn't Omaha."  

I asked if this was a store policy for Fresh Thyme.  No one could give me an answer.  And no one offered to get a manager for a clarification.  I just sort of waved off the bottle of wine and we paid for the groceries that we got.  

My wife chastised me in the parking lot for my surly behavior toward the Fresh Thyme staff, but then she said, "But I'm very surprised that they wanted to argue with you and not have a manager involved."  The more she got to thinking about it, the more incensed she got about the situation.  (We'd just had a couple of service issues over the past couple of nights with a couple of restaurants that we like to visit and those experiences were still sticking in her craw.)   

She even went as far as calling the Fresh Thyme store and asked to speak to the store manager a couple three hours later.  Once she did talk to the manager and told him of the situation, he told her that he'd heard about our ordeal after a man had tried to buy a bottle of champagne to go with the freshly squeezed orange juice he'd picked up for mimosas.  Evidently, the guy who was denied the sale of the champagne was a little more vociferous in his protests than I was.  It turns out that since Fresh Thyme is an Illinois-based company, their internal computer system for the Davenport store was set up for Illinois laws.  And you can't buy liquor in Illinois until 10 a.m. on Sunday.  He assured my wife that getting the glitch in the system to allow for liquor sales at 8 a.m. on Sunday's would be fixed first thing Monday morning.  

After taking our groceries home and getting an espresso at one of our local coffee bars, we decided to head over to Natural Grocers to check that place out.  Now, my wife had been to Natural Grocers for a brief visit about a week before, but didn't really look around that much because the place was very busy.  We walked in just as they opened at 9 a.m.

Philip and Margaret Isely settled in the Denver area in the early 50's and started to raise a family.  After the birth of their second child, Margaret became chronically ill and nothing seemed to be help her shake her malady.  She turned to two pioneers of natural and nutritional healing - Adelle Davis and Roger Williams - to help nutrionally guide her back to health.  After a miraculous recovery, Philip and Margaret were more than convinced that natural foods were a key to better health.  

In 1955 after borrowing $200 from Margaret Isely's mother, the couple began to bake whole wheat breads and went around to homes in Golden, CO door-to-door selling the bread and offering pamphlets of nutritional and natural recipes for healthy eating.  Of course, most people thought they were crazy given that white bread was a staple in nearly every American house.  But the Isely's persevered and they opened Vitamin Cottage in 1958, a small shop that sold vitamins and supplements.

To say that they Isely's were ahead of their time is an understatement.  They were activist hippies long before anyone knew what a hippie really was.  They were pacifists - Philip served time in prison during World War II for being a "conscientious objector" - and they formed an independent political party called the "Conservation of Life" party.  Philip ran unsuccessfully as a U.S. Senator candidate in 1958 while Margaret also unsuccessfully ran for a state representative office in Colorado the same year.  

The Isely's were also involved in a concept called the World Parliament that was a worldwide non-military government based on peace initiatives and solving environmental problems.  Philip Isely was the lead author on the organization's constitution - The Earth Constitution - that outlined the ideals of a worldwide government.  After a local newspaper branded the couple as communists, their neighbors picketed their house.  The FBI eventually investigated the couple but found that they were merely pacifists working for a better planet.  

The Isely's eventually had seven children - all with unique names such as Zephyr, LaRock, and Lark -  and all of whom were raised on natural foods free of sugar and unhealthy by-products.  The kids all helped out at the Vitamin Cottage while they were growing up, and as more and more people became health conscious the little business began to grow.  By the mid-70's, the Vitamin Cottage had become profitable and more stores opened around the Denver area.

With Philip Isely focused on the World Parliament movement, Margaret was working on growing the Vitamin Cottage business.  The two eventually divorced and remarried to other spouses.  Margaret passed away in 1998 at the age of 75 while Philip Isely died in his sleep in 2012 at the age of 96.  In each Natural Grocers store is a picture of Margaret Isely hanging prominently on the wall.  And in another touch, each Natural Grocers stores close at 9:06 p.m. (7:04 p.m. on Sundays) because Margaret Isely didn't think it was kind to stop people from shopping right at closing.  

When Margaret Isely passed away, her children took over the day-to-day operation of the business.  This is when they decided to be bold and expand their business to other states.  By 2005, the family had changed the name of the stores to Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage in the Denver area, and each new store was branded as a Natural Grocers in other markets.  In 2012, the family took to company public, but they still hold nearly 60% of the stock in Natural Grocers.  

Each Isely child involved in the business brought a special talent to the table.  Brothers Kemper and Zephyr are co-presidents of the company with Kemper overseeing business development and site acquisitions, and Zephyr running the company's point-of-sale, ordering, and Internet Technology divisions.  Their sister Heather is the product manager overseeing the majority of produce, health and food items that the stores sell.  And very interestingly, their brother LaRock's ex-wife Liz Isely is in charge of the company wide store facilities.      

The Natural Grocers location in Davenport is along the busy 53rd Ave. corridor and sits on a spot where a Ruby Tuesday restaurant once stood. (see map)  Ruby Tuesday closed down a number of locations in the Midwest in 2012 and the building sat empty for four years before Natural Grocers came in and bought the building and surrounding property in 2016.  After demolishing the restaurant, work began on the property in the fall of last year.  Initial reports were that Natural Grocers were looking to be open by the summer of this year, so it was a surprise when we heard that it would be open by the end of April.  As I said, they opened on April 19.  The Davenport location is the 142nd Natural Grocers in the company - the fifth one in Iowa - and the furthest east of any of the Natural Grocers locations spread across 19 states.  

The floor plan of the Natural Grocers store is much smaller than Fresh Thyme.  And all products sold in the store are 100% organic.  There is no bakery, no butcher counter, and no national brands sold at Natural Grocers.  And a wide array of gluten-free products are found in their stores.  

The produce section was prominently featured as you walk into the store and it was surprisingly small.  But it had a wide array of fresh organic fruits and vegetables.  Natural Grocers only offers produce that adheres to standards of organic growing by the United States Department of Agriculture.  

The vitamin and supplement aisle rivals and probably surpasses the one at Fresh Thyme.  My wife spent a good amount of time perusing what they had to offer as she's big on supplements.

I wandered ahead of her as I don't do vitamins or supplements and I found a little cubby hole toward the back corner that was an area that had a number of books on nutrition, organic cookbooks, and general health.  This was Natural Grocers Nutritional Library.  When I pointed this out to my wife, she immediately stopped what she was doing and began to look through the books.  They had a chair next to the shelves of books and I remarked that this was like a mini Barnes and Noble for the health conscious crowd.  I went off to wander around the rest of the store and ten minutes later my wife was still looking through the books they had.   

The dairy section offered milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt, and a number of other products that are certified as coming from non-confined cattle.  Cattle who produce dairy products for Natural Grocers come from organic certified farms, are grass-fed, and are free from GMO grains and forages.  Dairy products from grass-fed cattle usually have more of the good fatty acids like Omega-3 and CLA (conjugated linoleic acids), and more vitamins than confined dairy cattle.  

They didn't have a bulk bin area at Natural Grocers like they do at Fresh Thyme, and most of the items are housed in a refrigerated case.  Natural Grocers feels that their customers shouldn't have to measure out the bulk seeds, oats, nuts or flour, so they do it for them at a production facility and deliver the bagged items to the stores.  Gluten-free products are also found in this section of the store.  

Of course, Natural Grocers has a wide array of health and body care products.  My wife is into essential oils and they stock a vast assortment of oils at the store.  Cosmetics, skin care, oral hygiene, bath and body products, and even gluten-free body care products can be found at Natural Grocers.  

Even though they don't have a meat counter at Natural Grocers, that doesn't mean that they don't stock different types of beef, pork and poultry at the store.  Natural Grocers has strict guidelines on how the livestock they eventually have for their meat department is raised - no confinements, grass-fed, organic vegetable and non-GMO forage diets, and the animals are hormone and anti-biotic free.   

The prices reflected the care and attention that goes into raising the livestock and poultry for Natural Grocers.   Ground bison was somewhat reasonable compared to other places around the Quad Cities that sell bison meat.  They were selling it for $10.79 a pound, but we've gotten it from a bison farm at the Freight House Farmer's Market for $8.99 a pound.   

The pork prices were - in my estimation - sky high.  A 1-1/3 pound pork loin was $15.71.  I saw an 8 ounce package of chicken tenders for $6.69.  And THAT was a sale price!  I'm sorry.  I'll continue to take my chances with industrially-raised meats and poultry.   

The juice aisle featured a number of fruit and vegetable juices, as well as a number of detoxification juices.  Many of the juices were gluten and sugar-free and there was a large number to choose from.  

Probably what amazed me the most at Natural Grocers was the large number and different varieties of whey protein they had to offer.  I don't understand the benefits of whey protein, per se.  But my wife does.  Natural Grocers employ nutritional health coaches in their stores to help customers with coming up with the right balance of healthy foods to eat.  

There is no deli at Natural Grocers, but they do have a "grab and go" case that features salads, burritos, sandwiches, wraps and other quick and healthy meals for lunch or dinner.  They also have a wide selection of ethnic foods at the store including basic items to make Mexican, Asian or Indian foods.  My wife and I are fans of Indian food and we looked at some of the items that they had to make the base sauces and spices for Indian dishes.  I'm still not convinced I can make Indian food at home as good as we get it at one of the area Indian restaurants we like in the Quad Cities.  

 
After checking out - we had about five or six items and Natural Grocers is a "no bag" establishment (we bought a reusable Natural Grocers bag for 99 cents) - I wandered into a room just by the check-out counter.  Each Natural Grocers has a demonstration room where they hold free seminars on healthy cooking, wellness guidance, and nutritional information.  Each seminar lasts anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes and features either in-store consultants or outside representatives giving demonstrations and/or talks on a healthier lifestyle.  My wife picked up a sheet listing the upcoming seminars and actually went to one a couple nights later.

The biggest impact of both Fresh Thyme and Natural Grocers coming to town will probably be felt most at Davenport's longtime organic health food market Greatest Grains.  While the presentations at Fresh Thyme and Natural Grocers are modern and slick, Greatest Grains has the look and feel of an old time market that is stuck in the 70's.  I'm sure that they'll maintain a segment of their loyal clientele, but one can't help but think that Greatest Grains' overall business could suffer with these two organic market chains coming to town.  

For years, people around the Quad Cities have been clamoring for a Trader Joe's to come to the area.  Trader Joe's has a minimum threshold of diverse economic and populace criteria they use to determine whether they'll put a store in a given area.  They're currently building a Trader Joe's in Coralville, right next to Iowa City, so at least they're getting closer to the Quad's.  With the announcement that Costco has a strong interest in coming to Davenport,  it appears that we may be getting closer to the day when we have all the trendy places to shop for groceries.  But with the opening of both Fresh Thyme Farmers Market and Natural Grocers, the Quad Cities area has taken a big step forward in the number of choices we now have for quality food grocers.    

The Cider House - Fairfield, IA

Earlier this week, the Iowa Beef Industry Council in conjunction with the Iowa Cattlemen's Association named their "Best Burger in Iowa" for 2017.  That was awarded to Smokin' Hereford BBQ in Storm Lake for their 8 ounce hand-pattied flame-broiled Hereford beef burger which means I'll have to stop there sometime in the near future to give that burger a try and post about it on Road Tips.  In the meantime, there have been 7 previous winners that date back to 2010.  Up to a few weeks ago, I had visited all of them except for one, the Cider House in Fairfield.  On a recent warm Saturday afternoon, my wife and I made the pilgrimage to Fairfield to try the Cider House burger.  

The concept for the Cider House began with two couples who were good friends - Clint Stephenson and Hopi James, and Cole Fishback and Annalisa Thompson.  One of the hobbies the couples had was making hard apple cider, usually during times that they were cooking burgers on the backyard grill.  Friends would come over to try the cider and to enjoy a burger made from locally-raised beef.  Once during a cookout with friends, Stephenson, James, Fishback and Thompson decided that they needed to open their own burger place in Fairfield - a place where people other than their friends could try the cider and burgers they were making at home.  

The group found an old building that used to house Ron's Barber Shop west of the square in Fairfield.  With the help of local wood and metal craftsmen they spent months gutting and renovating the building into a small restaurant, and in October of 2014 they opened the Cider House.  The group then began to produce and market their signature cider simply called Fishback and Stephenson.  

(Pictured at right - Clint Stephenson, Hopi James, Annalisa Thompson and Cole Fishback.  Picture courtesy Fairfield Ledger.)

Using fresh ground beef sourced from Tony Adrian, an old friend of Stephenson's, the Cider House burgers were getting rave reviews.  (Ironically, Stephenson was a vegetarian before he started making burgers with Adrian Family Farms beef).  The cattle at Adrian Family Farms are grass-fed, then finish with a steady diet of corn.  Less than six months after they opened, they were nominated for the Best Burger in Iowa contest and were named finalists in March.  They were subsequently named the winner of the contest in May of 2015.

The Cider House is located on N. 2nd St. on the west side of Fairfield's downtown area.  (see map)  They open at 4 p.m. (closed Sunday and Monday) and we got there around 5:30 p.m.  There's a parking lot across the street, but it was full.  We ended up finding street parking on E. Briggs Ave. and walked the short block to the restaurant.

The Cider House is not a large place.  It may seat 50 people and that may be a stretch.  There's a front area when you first come in that has tables and the bar area.  The walls were made from reclaimed barn boards.  It was cozy, but not really cramped.  

The bar area was pretty nice.  It was a full bar that featured a number of liquors and libations including artisan beers and, of course, a selection of hard apple ciders including the Fishback and Stephenson hard cider.  Clint Stephenson was tending bar and holding court with a small group of patrons seated at the bar that evening.  

We were greeted by Hopi James and she asked if we wanted to wait for a table to open in the front, eat on the deck or have a seat in the backroom.  It was a warm and windy day, but also rather dusty in the air.  We decided to sit in the back.  

The back room wasn't all that big - I think there was seating for 18 people in there.  And it, too, was cozy - probably too cozy.  We estimated that our bedroom at home was bigger than this room.  I wouldn't say that we were on top of other tables, but we were in very close proximity making it somewhat like community dining.   

Hopi dropped off a couple menus for us and it wasn't long before one of the other owners, Annalisa Thompson, came over to greet us.  I ordered up a Stone IPA that they had and my wife had a glass of the house Malbec wine.  

The menu isn't big at the Cider House - it featured six burgers (seven, if you count the vegetarian burger), as well as a handful of appetizers including chicken wings, sautéed green beans, and a Jewish rye cheddar and American grilled cheese sandwich with housemade pickles and housemade pickled jalapeños.  Sides included thrice-flashed French fries and a housemade potato salad.  Their signature burger is the Das Kraut burger that's topped with sauerkraut, grilled pineapple, pickled jalapeños and Swiss cheese.  

I ended up getting the bacon/American cheese burger with a side of fries.  The burger was on a toasted sesame seed bun and served in a waxed paper basket.  I got a side of both the housemade pickles and jalapeños with the burger.  (It said on the menu that there was an upcharge for extras for the burger, but I didn't seem to get charged for the jalapeños.)  I would have liked to have gotten some mushrooms to go on the burger, but they didn't offer mushrooms on any of their burgers which was a bit disheartening to me.  

The burger was flat-grilled and much smaller than the bun. It was topped with a couple small pieces of applewood-smoked bacon and curiously just a single slice of American cheese that wasn't melted onto the burger.  

My wife had the Barber Shop Special burger - named after the business that used to be in the building that now houses the Cider House.  It, too, came on a toasted sesame seed bun and was topped with caramelized onions, a caper aioli, and Boetje's mustard.  For her side, she got a shaved carrot salad that was mixed in olive oil with fennel seed, red onions and parsley.  

The 6.5 ounce burger is cooked medium-rare - unless you ask for it prepared another way. It looked pretty rare both in person and in the picture below.  But the leanness of the beef held it together very well and it didn't have that uncooked hamburger taste or messiness that you sometimes get from an undercooked burger.  It was like they had taken a tenderloin filet and ground it into burger meat.  

The burger may have been small on the bun, but it was thick.  As the beef was very lean, it wasn't all that juicy - sort of like bison meat.  But it had a good burger flavor to it.  I was sort of amazed at how well it stayed together for a medium-rare cooked burger.  The quality of the beef was outstanding giving the burger an equally superb taste.  The pickles had a great vinegar taste, and the pickled jalapeños - while not all that hot - gave the burger a bit of spicy bite.  

Now, I know that some people are starting to detest others who take pictures of their food in restaurants, something I try to be discrete in doing.  But the room was darkish and I needed to change to the flash feature on my phone camera.  I was taking some pictures of our burgers when a lady at the larger table in the small room remarked in somewhat snarky manner to her dining partners, "Maybe we should take pictures of our nearly eaten burgers."  Because of the close proximity of the tables, what was supposed to be a table joke for them was pretty much broadcast around the room.  My wife shot the lady a glance that reminded me of the look she gives me when I do something something stupid in public.  It was another reminder of just why I married this woman nearly 23 years ago.  

The larger party got up and left - I believe they were on motorcycles as there were a number of them parked across the street in the lot as it was a nice day - albeit a little breezy - to ride.  We were talking with an older couple next to us and the lady told us that they lived about 30 miles away and had never been to the Cider House before.  "My niece works at the one who won the best burger contest in 2013," she told us.  

I said, "The Chop House in Mediapolis?  That place has been closed for a couple years."  

"No, she works for the Front Street Grille in Keosaqua," she replied.  I told her that while I had heard of the Front Street Grille, they certainly didn't win it in 2013.  "Well, maybe it was 2014," she said.  

No, that would have been the Brick City Grill up in Ames.  "The one in Keosaqua has been named one of the 10 finalists a couple times, but has never won it,"  I explained to her that I had a restaurant/travel blog and I had now eaten at all seven (up to that time) of the Best Burger winners in Iowa.  She asked what my favorite one was.  I told her that while I could tell her that a couple of the winners I had a really hard time believing that they were even finalists, let alone winners.  I said, "I like the Rusty Duck out in Dexter and Brick City Grill very much, but I have to say that this is an outstanding burger on its own."  

Another older couple had just been seated at the other table in the room when we conversing with the first couple and the man chimed in that they were from Fairfield and had never been to the Cider House before.  "We've always heard this place had a good hamburger," he told us.  

My wife said, "I don't think you'll be disappointed."  

Now having tried all seven of the Best Burger winners in Iowa (2010-2016), I would have to say that the Cider House is more than worthy of their 2015 honor.  The burger meat was lean and very flavorful, and we thought the whole meal was a pretty good value.  $12 bucks for a gourmet burger and a side, $4.00 for a bottle of Stone IPA (usually a buck or two more in other places), and $6.00 for glass of a good Malbec wine.  Fairfield is sort of off the beaten path, but if you're in the area Tuesday thru Saturday after 4 p.m. I would highly recommend stopping in to try one of the burgers at the Cider House.  

Tinner's Bar and Grill - Sioux Falls, SD

I had an early morning meeting in Sioux Falls recently and I got in the night before on a brutally cold Upper Midwest evening.  After getting settled into the hotel that night, I started to look around for place to have dinner that night.  I found a place on the southeast side of the city not too far from my hotel that sounded pretty good.  Unfortunately, when I walked into the place it was packed to the hilt and there didn't seem to be anyone getting up anytime soon.  Somewhat crestfallen, I went back out to the car to see if the GPS would turn anything up for dining options in the area.  Other than some national chains that I don't like to go to, I didn't really find anything.  Thinking that I was going to have to head over across the road to a Beef O'Brady's, I finally found a place that sounded promising and wasn't too far away - Tinner's Bar and Grill.  

Darwin and Maria Cade opened Tinner's Bar and Grill a number of years ago.  It was a family affair with Maria running the front, Darwin running the kitchen and Maria's brother Tom Trimble helping out in the kitchen.  Last fall, the Cade's retired and the place assumed new management.  It was evident that changes were taking place as there was some renovations going on in the place the night I was there.

Tinner's Bar and Grill is located in a strip mall at the corner of S. Minnesota and W. 69th St. in Sioux Falls in what is called Waterfall Plaza - so called because of a working waterfall located in the corner of the strip mall. The waterfall was obviously not working that evening as the temperature hovered just above 0 (F).  (see map)

The main entrance to Tinner's goes into a vestibule that offers doors to a Deuces Casino to the left and the restaurant on the right.  Going into the restaurant I was greeted by a young lady who said that I could sit just about anywhere.  I looked for a place at the bar, but there were no seats.  I ended up taking a high-top table near the bar and was given a menu to look through.  I got an Odell IPA in a tall glass to enjoy while I decided what to get for dinner that night.

The place had a number of flat screen televisions and would be probably categorized as an upscale sports bar.  Even with the renovations going on, I could see that it was a nice enough place - a place where women would be comfortable in going to for lunch or dinner.  (Tinner's Bar and Grill also serves breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.)  

Tinner's serves hand-cut Creekstone Farms steaks, as well as pasta, fish and seafood dishes.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, they serve ribs after 4 p.m.  They also feature a number of your standard pub fare such as sandwiches, wraps, burgers and salads.  Wings, quesadillas, beer-battered onion rings and flat-bread pizzas round out the appetizer part of the menu.

It was just one of those evenings where I really didn't know what I wanted.  Actually, I wanted to relax and have a beer more than anything else.  It had been a long day on the road in some brutal wind and extremely low temperatures.  A good beer was exactly what I needed at that point.  

My server had come by a couple three times to see if I was ready to order anything.  Nothing was really jumping out at me.  They had a Cuban sandwich on a pita flatbread that I guessed would taste like every other Cuban sandwich I've had in the Midwest.  The prime rib French-dip sandwich sounded good, as did their reuben.  I wasn't certain I really wanted a burger - until I saw something that tripped my trigger.  

I ended up ordering the Tinner's Pub Burger - a Creekstone Farms black angus beef patty served on top of a piece of Texas toast, topped with Swiss cheese, mushrooms and beef gravy.  My server asked me what side I wanted with it and I said, "Well, mashed potatoes, of course!"  She told me it was a wise choice.  

While it didn't look like much in the picture, this was the quintessential "spot-hitter".   The thick brown gravy was slathered over everything and tied in nicely with the burger, mushrooms and cheese it laid on top of.  The mashed potatoes were made from real potatoes and they tasted very fresh.  The was a good meal for a cold night when nothing else really sounded all that good to me.

I was happy enough with my meal at Tinner's Bar and Grill.  The Tinner's Pub Burger was a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal with the burger patty topped with Swiss cheese and mushrooms with a side of mashed potatoes all covered with a thick and tasty brown gravy.  The service was very good as my server made me feel comfortable and didn't rush me at all during my visit.  Tinner's Bar and Grill isn't anything fancy, but it's fine enough for a sports bar/grill when you're just looking for more than just your basic pub food.