We had a couple that used to live next door to us who we became very good friends with. To our dismay, they moved back to their hometown in Southeastern Iowa about six years ago. We still stay in touch and when our friend was having a significant birthday earlier this year, we went down to help surprise him at a bar in his hometown outside of Fort Madison. After we'd been there for about 90 minutes, we took off and started back home. However, we ended up in Burlington to go have dinner at a place we had tried to get into last summer, but it turned out they were closed on Sundays. This time we were able to get into The Drake for dinner.
Burlington is an old river city whose first permanent settlers date back to 1834. Just four years later, the city had grown precipitously and when Iowa was named a territory that year, Burlington was named the territorial capital. In 1841, the territorial capital was moved to Iowa City, but Burlington continued to grow thanks to river and rail commerce. One of the companies that was founded in Burlington was Drake Hardware. Dating back to 1864, Drake Hardware became one of the largest hardware distributors in the Midwest by the turn of the 20th century. In 1906, they built a large building taking up about a half a block along Front Street between Washington and Columbia along the river front in downtown Burlington. Drake Hardware continued in business until 1980 when they closed their doors.
In the early 1920's, Dan Riley and his brothers started an oil company in Burlington getting his product from Pennsylvania. Riley Pennsylvania Oil Company became regionally famous for their slogan, "Riley Brothers, That's Oil!" By the 1950's, the Riley Brothers had branched out to manufacturing paint for farms and homes. And by the 60's, the Riley Brothers were involved in selling industrial coatings to manufacturers around the Midwest.
In 1971, partners Sam Jennison and Ken Bartels purchased Riley Brothers and renamed the company Riley, Inc. When lightning struck their oil production facility in 1976 destroying the plant, Jennison and Bartels refocused their business with the paint operation renaming the company Riley Paint continuing to service home, farm and industrial paint needs.
The big building that once was the home to Drake Hardware had sat empty for five years before Sam Jennison decided to move the offices of Riley Paint into the building. But the large warehouse in the back was what Jennison really wanted to develop. The original thick brick walls were still in place throughout the space, the five-foot-wide foundation of the building was still solid, and the Southern white pine support posts and beams were in great shape. Jennison plotted out the floor plan of the restaurant so that every seat in the place would have a river view. Not all would have an expansive view of the Mississippi, but at least you'd see some water with every seat.
Pictured right - Sam Jennison. (Photo courtesy Iowa Restaurant Association)
In addition to being the owner of Riley Paint and The Drake, Sam Jennison is also on the board of directors for the Iowa Restaurant Association and is also an author, penning his book "This Way to Happiness" in 1978. Jennison is also an adventurer who once solo canoed on the Mississippi between Minneapolis and St. Louis. Jennison is currently semi-retired with his three sons now running Riley Paint, but there's a good chance you'll see him most nights at The Drake which is run by his son Jim "Jimbo" Jennison.
We got into The Drake around 8 p.m. on a Saturday night. We parked on Washington in front of the Riley Paint offices. (see map) We entered the door and no one was at the hostess stand. We looked around the lobby area and found a number of antiques and historical items that were on display.
We took a quick look around the corner to a large room that was evidently used for a banquet room. A smaller room was off to the side with a bar. While the banquet room was empty, there was a party going on in the smaller room.
A hostess finally showed up and she said there would be no wait for a table. We were taken past the open kitchen that featured the essence of smoked wood in the air.
Along the wall across from the kitchen were a number of plates on display with autographs of famous performers, politicians and personalities who had dined at The Drake over the years. We saw autographs from the groups Styx and Lady Antebellum, as well as politicians such as Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, and an autographed plate from the 2004 British Open winner Todd Hamilton who grew up in nearby Oquawka, IL.
The dining areas at The Drake are sort of split up into different areas. There was a step-up room across from the front of the kitchen that was sort of reminiscent of dining on a rail car. Along one wall of the restaurant were a number of booths for dining.
We were seated at a table along the north wall of the restaurant. It had a paper covering and crayons were supplied at the table. We played Tic-Tac-Toe a couple three times as we settled in. The exposed brick walls gave the restaurant an old-time feeling, yet it was comfortable. We were given menus to look through and it wasn't long before our server for the evening came over to greet us. She was a young lady with an even demeanor who looked like she may have been a bit overwhelmed. My wife ordered a glass of the house pinot grigio while I ordered up a beer while we looked through the menu.
There was an Iowa basketball game going on that evening and I got up to check the score in the bar. The bar area was also expansive with a number of tables and booths throughout. There is also a patio that is open in the warmer months that give diners a great view of the Mississippi.
I went back to the table and my wife asked what the score was. "I don't know," I said. "They didn't have the game on. They had the ESPN game on." I thought it was rather odd considering the vast majority of places in Southeastern Iowa would have had the game on.
Our server was serving our drinks as we were talking and she asked, "Are you talking about the basketball game?" I told her that I was. "Oh, our owner is a big Iowa State fan," she explained. "When he's here, the Iowa game usually isn't on the TV's in the bar." Well, that explained that!
The menu at The Drake consisted of a number of wood grilled meats, as well as ribs, seafood, pasta, sandwiches and even pizza. They featured a number of barbecued items such as burnt ends, smoked pork chops, wood-fired chicken, and a slow-smoked brisket. Steaks included ribeyes, tenderloin filets and New York strip cuts. Seafood featured on the menu included a Jamaican-jerk seared ahi tuna, grilled grouper, and an almond-crusted walleye. On Friday and Saturday nights they also feature smoked prime rib, but we were informed by our server that they had run out of the prime rib about a half-hour prior.
We ordered our main entrees and after basic dinner salads for openers, our food came out. I ordered the beef tenderloin filet with my customary rare temperature. It was 12 ounces in size and it came with a side of the Drake fries. I got a glass of the house cabernet to go with the meal.
The outer shell to the steak was rather dry and tough, but inside it was cooked to an acceptable temperature with a deep red center. There was something missing in the taste of the steak, however. It was very lean and not very juicy. It was almost like bison in its taste. I added some fresh ground horseradish to the outer layer of the steak to help with the taste, but seemed rather lifeless. For as dry as the outside was, I'm glad I didn't order the steak medium-rare as it probably would have been even more dry.
The Drake fries were - from my guess - nothing more than leftover potatoes that had been wedged and deep-fried. They, too, were just all right. I'm not a big potato guy, but these were dry and somewhat overcooked.
My wife ended up getting the 4 ounce grilled salmon with vegetables. She thought the salmon was fine, but once again it was a bit dry on the outside from the high heat from the wood grilling process. Her mixed vegetables she deemed to be just "all right". She said they were overcooked and sort of mushy.
We passed on dessert as we were both pretty full from our meals. Before we left, we took a look around the restaurant to see what it was all about. Actually, it was a pretty neat place. The decor and use of the original building gave The Drake a wonderful ambience.
As we were taking pictures of the place, Jimbo Jennison came over to see why I was taking pictures of the place. I didn't identify myself as a restaurant blogger, but I told him that I like to take pictures of interesting places where we've eaten. He was gracious and told us a bit about the history of the building, as well as about the outdoor deck that they have open in the warmer months. "You need to come back when the weather gets nice," he said.
While we really wanted to like our meals at The Drake, we just felt that they were slightly above average, at best. The beef tenderloin filet I had was sort of dry on the outside, but nice and tender inside. But it was sort of lifeless in its taste. The Drake fries were bland and also somewhat overcooked. My wife's salmon also had a tough outer shell, but the filet was flaky and wasn't fishy in taste. However, she thought her vegetables were mushy and overcooked. I couldn't complain about the service we had, although our server's demeanor was almost void of personality and robotic. But the ambience and decor at The Drake was worth the visit. I only wish our food would have lived up to the anticipation we had for the place. (Picture courtesy The Great Lakes Casual Traveler.)
Comments