Road Tips

Four Day Ray Brewing - Fishers, IN

I put on a new dealer out in Fishers, IN last year and I've been spending a lot of time there helping them get up to speed with our products and to help with some of their planning on their new retail space in downtown Fishers.  I spent the night before a meeting with them in Fishers and decided to try out a brew pub that I had seen on a previous visit to the area, a place called Four Day Ray Brewing. 

Brian Graham was a longtime beer enthusiast who started to brew beer in his garage over 20 years ago.  He started out with a five gallon system to brew his beers, but as he became more proficient at brewing beers his vessels grew larger and he was brewing up to what amounted to a half-barrel of beer (15.5 gallons) with each batch.  In 2000, just a few short years after he started to brew his own beer, Graham won the Homebrewer Best of Show at the Indiana State Fair for his Belgian Wit.  

Mitch Ackerman was also a craft brewery aficionado who ended up working as a brewers assistant at the Thirsty Dog Brewing Company in his hometown of Akron, OH.  After working there for awhile, Ackerman ended up moving out to Lake Havasu City, AZ to be the head brewer at the Mudshark brewery there.  As much as he liked being the head brewer Mudshark, he longed to get back to the Midwest.

In 2007, Graham opened a gastropub along 96th St. in north Indianapolis called Hot Shotz, a place he sold relatively quickly after opening the place.  What Graham wanted to do was to have a combination restaurant/brewery - and not have it called a brewpub as he wanted to be able to distribute his beers to other places around the area.  He eventually met Ackerman who told Graham of his strong desire to move back to the Midwest.  The two teamed up on the concept of the restaurant/brewery and started to look for investors.  

The Indianapolis suburb of Fishers was going through a metamorphosis in their downtown area with the new Nickel Plate District coming to fruition in 2014.  Not only was the area - named after the historic Nickel Plate railroad line -  going to have new local government buildings, but it would also be the site for new office buildings, residential lofts and condos, as well as retail and restaurants spaces.  Graham and Ackerman got together with two of Nickel Plate's developers - Chris Welsh and Matt Troyer - to discuss their vision of a restaurant/brewery.  Welsh and Troyer were so intrigued with the concept that they partnered with Graham and Welsh to get their restaurant/brewery off the ground.  

The foundation for the new place was poured in February of 2016 and construction continued throughout the summer and into the early fall.   The group came up with a name for the restaurant and brewery - Four Day Ray - which was a nod to a nickname Nickel Plate railroad workers would give colleagues who habitually called in sick one day a week.  They also hired a seasoned chef - Andrew Miller - to run the kitchen.  Miller had stints at restaurants around the Indianapolis area as well as at the Maker's Mark Center Cut Steakhouse at the Indiana Grand Casino near Shelbyville, IN.  

By the fall of 2016, everything was in place for the opening.  Ackerman had already been brewing beers and distributing them to a small network of bars and restaurants around Indianapolis during the summer months, so there was already a buzz about the Four Day Ray beers around the city.  On October 20 of that year, Four Day Ray opened their doors and crowds were large right off the bat.  

Four Day Ray is located at the southwest corner of Lantern Rd. and North St. in downtown Fishers.  (see map)  It's housed in a two-story building with large windows showing the brewing facility and is very prominent among the other buildings (and construction sites) in the area.  Parking was a bit difficult, but I was lucky to find a spot that was literally in front of the large tanks of the brewery.  

The dining area was an expansive space with a high ceiling with dozens of Edison light fixtures hanging from varying heights from the ceiling.  Overhead doors along the walls could be opened during the warmer months.  There was a bar area with a short wall separating the bar and the dining area.  The short wall also functioned as banquette seating for a handful of tables.    

The brewery, itself, is to the left as you walk in the front door of Four Day Ray.  The large stainless steel tanks were gleaming in the light behind large glass partitions.   

The taproom is right next to the brewing facility.  The current beers on tap are shown on a flat screen television behind the bar.  This is a food-free area and one that is designed for people to sit and enjoy the beer in a quiet setting.  The taproom closes at 8 p.m. through the week and closes at 9:30 on Friday and Saturday.  

On the mezzanine above the main bar/dining area, there is a small bar area that can be used for overflow from downstairs.  There was also a private dining area up on the mezzanine that was in use the night I was there for a business function.  

I ended up sitting at the bar downstairs.  It was a three-sided bar with the beer taps and liquor bottles along a lighted back wall.  The place was packed and the bartenders were doing their best to keep up.  I sat at a seat where someone had just gotten up and the drink glass hadn't been picked up.  I sat there for a few moments when one of the bartenders came by and asked if I wanted another drink.  I told him that this wasn't my drink, I just sat down.  He apologized, cleaned up the bar area in front of me and gave me a beer menu to check out.  

And, man, did they have a lot of beers to choose from.  I think they had about two dozen beers on tap that they brew at Four Day Ray.  I had a lot of choices and I ended up getting the Hobo #3 India Pale Ale.  It was a hoppy and forward tasting beer, but it had a nice smooth finish.  I liked it immensely.  

The bartender had given me a food menu after he dropped off my beer.  I was in sort of a food funk from being on the road so much lately.  I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening.  I was hungry, but not that hungry.  They had a lot of interesting appetizers and I considered getting the seared ahi tuna appetizer for my dinner, but I wasn't certain I really wanted that.  

They had burgers, sandwiches, street tacos, and a number of salads on the menu.  Main entrees included a hickory-smoked chicken breast, fish and chips, grilled salmon, and center cut beef filet medallions.  I thought briefly about getting the pork tenderloin sandwich, but my stomach just wasn't up for that.  

I ended up getting some of the street tacos they had on the menu.  Actually, they were all very interesting and I got the tuna poke taco, a blackened fish taco, and the smoked pulled pork taco.  I almost got a carne asada taco, but I decided that if I were still hungry, I could order that later.  Turns out that I didn't need to. 

The tuna poke taco was served on a crispy corn taco and it featured tuna sashimi topped with a ponzu sauce, Kohlrabi slaw, and a ginger aioli.  It was a very delicious taco.  Had I gotten all three like that, I would have been very happy.

But I like variety in my street tacos and the blackened fish taco also turned out to be very good.  It was a blackened white fish topped with shaved red cabbage, pico de gallo, and a sriracha/avocado aioli.  This taco was also very flavorful and if you asked me which one I liked more between the tuna poke and the blackened white fish taco, it would have been a toss-up.

Unfortunately, the pulled pork taco came in a distant third in the taco poll that evening.  The pulled pork was topped with a salsa verde, a pickled red onion, and finished with cotija cheese.  This one looked great on paper, but it turned out that pulled pork had a distinct petroleum aftertaste - a telltale sign that they used too much smoke in the process of cooking the meat.  And that was completely disappointing as I thought the combination of the pork, the green salsa, and the pickled onions would be a winning combination.  

I'll have to say that Four Day Ray is a neat place for beer and food.  While I wasn't too enamored with the pulled pork taco I had, both the tuna poke taco and the blackened white fish taco were delicious.  I was impressed with the large selection of beers they brew and offer at Four Day Ray, and I was more than happy with my choice of the Hobo #3 IPA that I had that evening.  The three tacos were just enough food for me that evening, a night in which I wasn't really certain what I really wanted to eat that evening.  I'm going to be back in Fishers a handful of times in the near future and I'm sure that I'll be parking myself at Four Day Ray again.

LeadBelly - Omaha, NE

There's a place over in Lincoln, NE - LeadBelly - that one of my dealers out there was telling me about that I've had on my "Restaurants to Visit" list for awhile now.  The only problem is that LeadBelly is located in downtown Lincoln and I very rarely make it to the downtown area of Lincoln.  It was last year that I had heard that LeadBelly had opened a second location in the Midtown Crossing residential/entertainment area near downtown Omaha.  I wanted to give the place a try, so I went there for lunch on a recent trip out to Omaha.  

Tony Young and Mike Martin knew each other from working in restaurants in Lincoln's Haymarket district.  When Young and his wife, Wendy, started their own restaurants group - Red Herring Concepts - they invited Martin to participate in the endeavor with them.  Red Herring's first restaurant, a deli/coffee shop/burger joint/wine bar/craft beer place called Toast opened in 2009 on the northwest side of Lincoln.  But the Young's and Martin had a different concept in mind for another restaurant that featured gourmet burgers, eclectic sandwiches, street tacos, and an revolving list of craft beers.  

In 2012, the group was approached by the owner the historic Seaton & Lea building in the Haymarket district about a space that had a spotty track record for restaurants that were housed there.  Since 1998, the spot had housed six different restaurants, the last being the Capital City Grill.  The Youngs and Martin felt that their concept restaurant they had been working on for the past three years would work well in the space, but the building needed some renovations to make it workable for them.  They had to go in front of the Lincoln Historical Preservation Commission to give their renovation plans for the space.  Commissioners eventually voted for approval of the renovations and work commenced on the space in late 2012.  LeadBelly opened the day after Memorial Day in 2013.  

But even before they opened LeadBelly in Lincoln, the Red Herring Concepts group had been looking hard at the new Midtown Crossing development in Omaha.  No available spaces clicked there for Martin and the Youngs initially, but then when the developers came back to them in 2015 to let them know a corner building that used to house a pizza place called Ingredients had become available, the group jumped at the property.  They kept the pizza oven and the high-end grills in the place and changed some of the decor around.  LeadBelly in Omaha opened in April of 2016.  

The Omaha LeadBelly is located on the southeast corner of Farnum and S. 33rd St.  (see map)  It's tough to miss the building with the big sign on the corner and the large mural on the front of the building.  While there are parking garages in the immediate area, I was able to find a metered parking spot just down Farnum a few steps to the east of the restaurant.  

The inside of the restaurant featured a well-lit room both from the antique-style Edison lights and the natural light coming in through the large windows on the west and north side of the building.  There was a small bar up front with high-backed red vinyl chairs.  

There was a small half-wall that separated the bar area with some high tables and an area that had booths and tables along the west wall with windows that looked out onto 33rd St.  There were a number of diners in the place just after the noon time rush.  

I ended up seated at the bar where I was given a menu by the bartender.  She asked me what I'd like to drink and I took a long look at some of the craft beers they had on tap.  I ended up ordering a pint of the Founders All Day IPA.  

The menu at the Omaha location is significantly different from the Lincoln LeadBelly mainly due to the fact that when they took over the Omaha spot there was a pizza oven and an industrial grill-top that allowed them to do more entree-based foods such as chicken fried steak, a French onion flat iron steak, and fish and chips.  They have an expansive appetizer menu for sharing at the Omaha LeadBelly including barbecued pork sliders, a wide variety of street tacos, Newcastle beer-battered onion rings served with a sriracha aioli, and poutine with waffle fries, gravy and aged white cheddar cheese.  You could also get the poutine as a main dish by adding steak, chicken or smoked pork to it.  

They had a number of salads, different varieties of their "Grown Up Mac + Cheese", and a number of interesting sandwiches such as the "Dusk 'til Dawn Griddler" consisting of sausage, candied bacon, fried eggs, and grilled potatoes topped with Muenster cheese and sriracha sauce, and served on a toasted brioche bun.  Of course, since this was Omaha they had to have a reuben sandwich on the menu.  

But the list of their gourmet burgers was also long and interesting.  They had a burger called the Blackstone that featured a burger patty topped with pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, 1000 Island dressing and served on a pretzel bun.  The Hangover Helper featured a burger topped with a fried egg, candied bacon, fried potatoes, white cheddar cheese, poblano pepper, sautéed onions, LeadBelly's Bloody Mary sauce and also served on a pretzel bun.  But the most interesting one was the Full Leaded Jacket - a burger topped with chili, a queso sauce, tomatoes, onions, fresh jalapeños, corn tortilla chips and sour cream, all served on a fresh-baked cinnamon bun.  Now, THAT would be a mess!  

I ended up going the burger route and got the Cheese Mushroom burger - the burger was topped with a tarragon queso sauce, sautéed mushrooms, shredded lettuce and red onion slices.  It was served on a toasted bun and came with a side of crinkle-cut fries that I didn't pay much attention to.  

The burger was a half-pound of locally sourced beef, and was fire-grilled, thick and juicy.  The tarragon cheese sauce with the sautéed mushrooms were a great complement, as was the red onion.  Quite frankly, the shredded lettuce didn't really add much to the taste of the burger.  The bun held together very well with the juiciness of the burger as well as the oozing cheese sauce on top.   It was a very good burger.  

There's a lot of good burger places in Omaha, and LeadBelly is another one that I've come across in my travels there.  Their menu is extensive and varied with not only the gourmet burgers, but with a large selection of sandwiches, appetizers, salads, mac and cheese dishes, pizza and main entrees.  LeadBelly is the kind of place anyone can go to and probably be able to find something that you'd like to order.  It's a nice, clean space with parking in the area.  LeadBelly is a good place to hang for drinks or food with friends, family or work colleagues.  

ZZQ Smokehouse - Eagan, MN

Staying out near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport the last couple of times that I've gone to the Twin Cities, I was looking for a sit-down barbecue place one evening last fall.  I did an on-line search and found a place in nearby Eagan that sounded interesting to me - ZZQ Smokehouse.  I took off toward Eagan to find the place.  

Zak Zeug - the ZZ in the name of the place - grew up in a household where both parents worked full time and he was usually left to fend for himself when he was hungry.  He hated having to make his own food and he had absolutely no dream of working in a kitchen when he got older. 

However, as he grew into a young man, Zak started to experiment with barbecuing ribs.  The first few times he tried to make good ribs, they turned out not too great.  He was upset that he had spent all that time and effort to make ribs, but they weren't that good.  That's when he decided he'd study up on the art of making barbecue.  

Zeug went out and bought a smoker and he experimented with different types of meat - ribs, pork shoulder, brisket, and chicken, primarily.  He eventually became pretty good at smoking meats and cooking foods.  Suddenly, he found his calling - he actually DID like working in a kitchen.  And his dream became owning his own barbecue place.  The only problem was that he had absolutely no professional kitchen or restaurant experience.  He knew that he'd have to learn how to walk before he ran with his barbecue.  

In 2007, Zeug bought a concession trailer and he outfitted it for his barbecue offerings.  He didn't have the overhead of a regular restaurant while he was learning about the process of working in a kitchen, the costs involved, planning a menu - all the things that are needed to survive in the restaurant business.  The mobility of the trailer allowed him to be able to go to fairs and events in the area where he garnered a following for his barbecue.  By 2015, he decided it was time to take the plunge into a brick-and-mortar building and he found a place in south suburban Eagan that was attached to a convenience store/gas station at the corner of Yankee Doodle Road and Coachman Road.  (see map)  Zeug opened ZZQ Smokehouse in December of 2015.  

I had put in the address in my GPS and it took me right to the corner of Coachman and Yankee Doodle.  The only problem was the it was sort of hidden and I drove around buildings on both sides of Coachman looking for it.  I finally found it on the far side of the convenience store - I couldn't see it as I was coming from the west on Yankee Doodle, but it was easy to see if you were coming from the east.  

Inside ZZQ, I found a pretty nondescript place with an L-shaped dining room.  There were tables and chairs up front, but along the wall in the back there were some old-style booths that looked like they came out of a 1984 Hardee's.  There were architectural drawings of smokehouses and smokers on wall next to the booths.

The menu is located on boards on the side wall and behind the counter.   You order at the counter at ZZQ and they bring the food out to your table.  They had the staple barbecue fare - beef brisket, pulled pork, pork spare ribs, and chicken to choose from.   The brisket, pulled pork and pulled chicken were all available in sandwiches, as well.   They did have beer available at ZZQ, many of which were beers from local craft breweries.  I got a Heart of Glass, a blonde ale from the nearby Bald Man Brewing Company.  

I went with a combo platter - brisket and ribs.  I got two sides with the combo plate - baked beans that turned out to be pretty good, and fries that were basically a throwaway.  After I sat, I saw that the guy behind the counter preparing my meal had pulled out aluminum foil-wrapped meat from the refrigerated case behind the counter and heated the meat up on a grill.  I know some places will do that with their barbecue, but I'm not certain if I like that or not.   

They also had a sauce bar at ZZQ Smokehouse that offered eight different types of sauces.  They had sauces such as a garlic sauce, a Carolina-vinegar sauce, a Buffalo-style sauce, and a mustard dill sauce.  I took four sauces to the table with me - the hot (which wasn't all that hot, but had a noticeable bite to the taste), the spicy (which was was vinegar-based and nowhere as spicy as the hot), the smokey (sweet and not much of a smoke taste), and the sweet (that was pretty syrupy in consistency).  

The ribs were meaty, lean and very tender.  The only problem was that even with a rub on the outside of them, they weren't very flavorful.  The barbecue sauce certainly helped, but on their own they needed something to give them a little more excitement in taste.

The brisket was all over the place.  There was a lot of brisket slices on the platter, and some pieces were tender.  But other slices were tough, others were fatty.  And there was a distinct petroleum taste to the brisket that I noticed.  I've smoked enough meats, had enough barbecue in my day, and have judged a number of amateur rib contests over the years to recognize the fact that if the meat has a slightly petroleum taste, it's probably been in a smoker with too much smoke.  Frankly, the slight petroleum taste detracted from the overall flavor in the brisket.

The one good thing were the baked beans.  I usually like to season up baked beans that I have at barbecue restaurants with some of the spicy barbecue sauce.  But the baked beans at ZZQ Smokehouse didn't need any help.  They were sweet with a bit of a spicy bite to them.  

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed in the barbecue at ZZQ Smokehouse.  I really wanted to like it, but I found the ribs to not have that good of flavor even though they were meaty, tender and lean.  And the brisket slices I was served were alternately tender, tough or fatty.  And the brisket had the taste that they had too much smoke during the cooking process.  The different sauces - 8 of them - were a nice touch, but I can't say that any of the ones I tried really zinged my taste buds.  But the baked beans were delicious and they had a very good selection of local craft beers to choose from.  I'm hoping that it was an off-night for ZZQ Smokehouse because I really like to see places like this succeed. 

Twisted Tree Steak House - St. Louis

Just before Christmas, I was down in St. Louis and offered to take one of my dealers out to dinner.  We were sort of trying to figure out where to go and one of the guys suggested a steakhouse called Twisted Tree that had opened over a year before in the former Mile 277 restaurant in the Holiday Inn at the corner of Watson Road and Lindburgh Blvd. in the Sunset Hills area of St. Louis.  (see map)  He hadn't eaten there, but he had heard good things about the place.  I thought that sounded pretty good, so we ended up heading over there for dinner that evening.  

Kirk Syberg is the son of Richard and Sally Syberg, the co-founders of the popular small chain of restaurants in the St. Louis area - Syberg's.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Syberg's from 2013.)  Kirk now oversees the day-to-day operations of the restaurants that his father and mother started over 45 years ago, as well as the operations at the popular Helen Fitzgerald's Irish pub just down the road from the Twisted Tree.  Kirk Syberg has a farm in northern Missouri that he likes to go to to get away from business for awhile and one of his favorite places to eat while he was there was The Pear Tree, a fine dining destination restaurant located in the small town of Bevier, MO.  

Over the years, Kirk Syberg became friendly with Mike Abbadessa, who owned the Pear Tree along with his father, Al.  The Abbadessa family were well-known in northern Missouri for their restaurants, but none of them were as nice as the upscale, yet unpretentious Pear Tree.  (Side note - about 30 years ago I called on a dealer in Kirksville, MO and one of the employees working there was an Abbadessa.  He was a nice young guy and we got on very well.  He went on to run a couple three restaurants/bars in the Kirksville area for the Abbadessa family, but I have completely lost touch with him later in life.)

The Pear Tree opened in 1986 with just 75 seats in the restaurant.  However, it became so popular that it had expanded to over 200 seats by 2000.  Staff turnover was very low at The Pear Tree - it was said that only 12 waitresses worked in the place during the 25 plus years it was open.  But a fire in 2012 destroyed the ornate 19th century building in which The Pear Tree was housed and the restaurant was out of business.  

Well, for awhile, anyhow.  Al and Mike Abbadessa had opened a steakhouse/bar/grill in nearby Macon - A.J.'s Eat and Drink - a couple years prior.  Al's grandson and Mike's nephew, Wade, had joined them in the business working his way up from a dishwasher to become the manager of A.J.'s.  The Abbadessa family was planning to rebuild The Pear Tree from the ground up.  However, Wade was struck with Ewing's Sarcoma and passed away at the age of 26.  Suddenly not wanting to have to oversee two restaurants, Mike Abbadessa pulled the plug on the plans to rebuild The Pear Tree, and instead incorporated the restaurant's menu into the menu they had at A.J.'s.  They rebranded the restaurant as A.J.'s Eat and Drink - the Steakhouse.  (A fire in December of 2015 damaged parts of A.J.'s, but not to the extent where they could not salvage and rebuild the restaurant.)

Kirk Syberg's friendship with Mike Abbadessa was the catalyst for the chance to work together in a joint venture that eventually became the Twisted Tree Steakhouse.  The cross-pollination of kitchen and management staffs from The Pear Tree and Syberg family restaurants, as well as adding noted St. Louis chef Jimmy Kistro, allowed the families to feed off each other in coming up with a menu that features about 90 percent of what was on the menu at The Pear Tree including the delicious housemade salad dressings and their famous battered lobster.  Using a rustic motif as the basis of the decor to give the place a laid-back feeling even with a high-end food selection, the Twisted Tree opened in July of 2016.  

We made reservations through Open Table before we left and they were waiting for us to be seated when we all got into the restaurant about 30 minutes later.  We all met up in the bar area that was packed with diners and festooned with holiday lights and decorations.  

The bar and restaurant area also featured a number of old time beer signs from breweries that were - or still are - in St. Louis.  And the signs appeared to be truly antique instead of recreations of old beer signs.  There were many beer signs around the restaurant and bar and before I left I made it a point to check each of them out. 

There was a large dining off to the side of the bar area that looked like it was pretty nice.  When the host turned to take us to our seats, he didn't go into the dining room.  We were sort of surprised about that as there were open tables in there.  I told the guys that it could be that there were probably already reservations for those tables before we made ours just a half hour before.  

We were seated in a room off the bar area at a high top table.  Our server for the evening, a nice guy by the name of Todd, came over to greet us and immediately he said, "Hey, you guys.  Did you want to sit in here?  I think our manager was confused as to where you wanted to sit.  There weren't a lot of people in the room where we were and everyone was happy with sitting there.  We all started out ordering some of the craft beers they had available on tap and in bottles at Twisted Tree.  I got the Ballast Point Scuplin IPA for my beer.  

The menu was definitely steak-centric.  They did have seafood on the menu including the aforementioned battered lobster tail, as well as lobster ravioli, a bourbon-apricot glazed salmon, and an Alaskan halibut.  They also had a red grouper on special that evening.  They also had a pork chop on the menu, chicken dishes and a vegetable pasta for the non-carnivores in the crowd.  

But the steaks are the main item and Todd explained to us the different cuts of beef and the process they go about in aging their meat.  The strip steaks are aged for 130 days while the ribeye was aged 125 days.  "We only age our tenderloin for 54 days," he explained.  "It's pretty tender to begin with."  Me - I'm not a large fan of aged beef as I think that it zaps the flavor out of the beef in some cases.  

We started out with an appetizer, the beer-battered onion rings.  They were served with a spicy remoulade sauce on the side.  The onion rings, in a word, were spectacular.  They were some of the best I've ever had.  The onions were cut thick and the flaky beer-batter was light, but had a great flavor to it.  The remoulade sauce had just enough of a spicy bite to it to keep things interesting without overpowering the wonderful onion rings.  We made quick work of the onion rings and when Todd came around to take our food order, we said we needed another batch of the rings.  

The salad is served family style at Twisted Tree.  It featured a large metal bowl of fresh greens with croutons, sliced veggies and and was served with both the Pear Tree Vinaigrette or their French dressing.  I had some of both the French and the vinaigrette dressings and while I thought they were good, 

We noticed early on that the meat was served on a platter to a table near us.  It was a nice little presentation where Todd served the beef table-side onto large plates, while other servers brought out the sides we had ordered.  

I went with the prime rib - I was leery of the aged steaks and they had an 8, 12 or 20 ounce prime rib available.  I went with the 12 ounce cut - I just didn't think I could finish a 20 ounce prime rib - and asked Todd if he could bring out some sautéed mushrooms and a bowl of the peppercorn sauce with the prime rib.  Well, he brought enough sautéed mushrooms for not only our table but for a couple other tables, as well.  For a side that evening, I got the white cheddar au gratin potatoes.

The prime rib was wonderful.  I asked Todd to have the chef cut me off the most rare piece of prime rib he had in the kitchen and this one was what I would call rare plus.  It was tender, juicy, robust, and tasty.  The sautéed mushrooms and the the au jus on the beef were a great compliment on their own.  The peppercorn sauce was a bit underwhelming, so I had Todd bring me a bowl of their ground horseradish.  While not as hot or spicy as I would have liked, the horseradish really helped open up the taste buds allowing more of the great beef flavor of the prime rib settle on my tongue.  

The white cheddar au gratin potatoes were very good, as well.  They were layered with sheets of potatoes with the white cheddar in between.  The au gratin potatoes were superb.    

The rest of the guys got either the aged Kansas City strip steak or the beef tenderloin.  Two of the guys got the thick cut, 14 ounce strip steaks - they also had an 18 ounce strip steak available - while my other guest got the 8 ounce tenderloin.  (A 6 ounce and a 12 ounce tenderloin were also available.)  

One of my guests got the strip steak with a side of the lobster mashed potatoes.  Now, I've been burned on some mediocre lobster mashed potatoes in the past, but these actually had large chunks of lobster meat in with the potatoes.  It was just a four dollar upcharge for the poached lobster to be added to the mashed potatoes, but from all appearances - and his "thumbs up" when asked how they were - it was worth the upcharge and then some. 

The two guys seemed to like their strips steaks, but my guest who got the tenderloin wasn't as impressed.  "It's tender, all right," he said.  "But it's lacking in flavor."   Beef tenderloin doesn't have the flavor compared to a ribeye steak, but when you age it I think it takes even more of the flavor out of the steaks.  That was one of the big reasons I went with the prime rib and not the steak that evening.  

Overall, I'd have to say that the meal we had at Twisted Tree was very good to outstanding.  I really enjoyed my prime rib, the potatoes au gratin with the white cheddar cheese were wonderful, my guests liked their meals - with the exception of my guest who wasn't overly enamored with his beef tenderloin filet - and the onion rings that we had as an appetizer were simply outrageous in taste.  We had great service all night long, the presentation of the meat before the meal was a nice touch, and the overall experience was top-notch.  Twisted Tree is a great addition to the already great food scene in St. Louis.  

Verde - Fishers, IN

I was out in the northeast Indianapolis suburb of Fishers last fall working an event for one of my new dealers.  As the event ran down, I asked a couple of guys who worked there if they wanted to go out to dinner.  Both declined citing some work they had to do after the event finished up.  One of the guys asked me what I was hungry for as there have been a number of restaurants that have popped up in the immediate area around their Fishers location over the past few months.  I mentioned that Mexican sounded good and he directed me to a place not far from their location called Verde. 

Verde is actually an off-shoot of a small chain of family-owned Mexican restaurants mainly in the western suburbs of Chicago, Salsa Verde.  The Arechiga family moved to the United States from the Mexican state of Jalisco in 2003 bringing many family recipes from that region.  Initially, brothers Carlos and Abel Arechiga opened a small chain of Mexican restaurants called Friaco's.  (Friaco was the nickname of their father.)  There were a couple locations in the western suburbs of Chicago and one in Indianapolis.  

In 2012, other family members opened the Salsa Verde restaurants - now with four locations in the Chicago suburbs and one in Indianapolis.  The Indianapolis Friaco's location was in Fishers and it was run by Paul Arechiga.  Other Friaco's locations were closing and Paul Arechiga wanted to rebrand his location into a new concept offering a selection of foods from around Mexico.  He closed Friaco's in the spring of 2016 and reopened it as Verde - Flavors of Mexico later that summer.  

Verde is located along Commercial Drive in Fishers, just north of 116th St. (see map)  It's located on the end of a strip mall with a large semi-circular tower for the entrance and there was plenty of parking out front.   I walked in around 8:30 that evening and I was met by a hostess at the stand up front.   There weren't a lot of people in the place when I got in there and she took me to a table in the dining area.  There was a dining area along a long wall toward the rear of the place, too.  

I was looking through the menu when my server for the evening came by to greet me.  I ordered up a Mojito margarita that consisted of Patron Silver, triple sec, lime juice, a touch of sugar and fresh mint.  The margarita was actually pretty good - a spot hitter after a long day of travel and then working a dealer event that evening.  Even with the triple sec and sugar, it wasn't like drinking syrup like other margaritas you'd find at many Mexican restaurants and had an adequate amount of tequila.  A basket of chips and salsa came out before the margarita.  The chips were fresh and the salsa had a fresh taste of garlic, cilantro, onions and sweet tomatoes.  

The menu was something more than what I've also found at other Mexican restaurants.  There were the staples - fajitas, enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas - but they also had white fish or shrimp ceviche as an appetizer or entree, something that I don't always see at Mexican restaurants.   They had grilled tilapia fish tacos with a chipotle sauce that caught my eye, as well as an entree that included steak, shrimp, chicken, chorizo all mixed together in a molcajete bowl along with Cotija cheese, cilantro and a red sauce.  

I thought momentarily about the carnitas dinner - seasoned pork tips that were deep fried.  But the deep fried part turned me off.  I ended up getting three of the street tacos they had on the menu.  I got a pastor (marinated pork) taco, a carnitas (shredded pork) taco, and a fish taco they called Pescado a la Parilla - basically translated into grilled fish.  Turns out it was the same thing as the grilled tilapia tacos, only I could get just one.  While the two pork tacos were topped with chopped cilantro, onions, a radish slice and lime and served in corn tortillas, the grilled fish taco was topped with shredded cabbage, an avocado slice, pico de gallo and a chipotle sauce on a flour taco.  It also came with a couple of different types of salsa - one was sort of a spicy and fruity salsa - actually a thicker sauce, the other was a tomatillo salsa.   

I was needing another margarita, but my server was nowhere to be found.  I found her in a booth with a couple of other servers in a corner just sitting and talking.  It wasn't busy in the place at that point, but I had to get her attention to have her come over and take my order for another margarita.  Then the margarita took a long time to get back out to me.  So much so, that I was just getting ready to finish my final taco when she brought it to the table.  I almost told her to take it away.  

The tacos were all right.  Not great, but not bad.  The fish taco was a little fishy in taste, but I did like the chipotle sauce and avocado on it.  The pastor taco was tasty, but the shredded carnitas taco was a little dried out.   Like I said, not great, but not bad.  

But the service was starting to piss me off.  My server and the others had all disappeared and I was ready for my check.  It was a good five minutes before someone came out and I got their attention to let my server know that I was ready for my check.  That person disappeared and it was another five minutes of total inactivity in the dining area before another young lady showed up with my check.  I cut my losses at the spot and handed her my credit card without looking over the bill.  I didn't want her to run away and not show up for another five or ten minutes.  I'm getting to the point where I cannot tolerate service like that in any restaurant.  (Ask my wife about that.)  

  I'm very mixed about my visit to Verde.  It was a nice setting and the margarita was good, as were the chips and salsa.  The street tacos I had weren't bad, but not great.  But the service was pretty slow and when I start to have a slow burn regarding slow service in a restaurant that really puts a bad taste in my mouth.  All I ask is for someone to check on me in a timely fashion and to get my requests to me in a prompt manner.  If it's the fault of the restaurant, then that's a problem that needs to be rectified.  But if it's the fault of the server, maybe they need a change in vocation.  And, unfortunately, that's how I felt about my visit to Verde.  

The Garage - Chicago

I was at one of my favorite little pizza joints on the northwest side of Chicago last summer - Dino's Pizza (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Dino's) - having a pizza at the bar.  Some people seated down from me were talking about places in the area that they thought had a pretty good burger.  One of the guys mentioned a place that I had heard about, but had never been to - The Garage on Milwaukee Ave.  In fact, he was raving about how good the burger was.  One evening last fall, I decided to head over to The Garage to find out if the burger was as good as this guy was saying it was.  

Jesse Roman wanted to put a bar with good sandwiches in a spot along Milwaukee Ave. in the Gladstone Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Along with his wife, Lisa Kennedy, they partnered up with Tim Camastro whose family had a long history of running restaurants in the Chicagoland area.  At the time The Garage opened, Camastro was also running his highly successful made-to-order Italian sandwich shop in Evanston, Rollin' to Go.  Camastro came up with food items that initially included burgers, Italian beef sandwiches and chicken parmesan sandwiches.   

Camastro left The Garage to go back to running his sandwich shop full time (it eventually closed in 2013), and Roman and Kennedy carried on with tweaking the food at the bar.  In addition to owning The Garage, Roman and Kennedy also own Old 41 Saloon, a beer bar on the far west side of Chicago that opened last May.  

I was able to find a parking spot in front of The Garage on Milwaukee Ave. (see map) and went inside around 7 p.m.  The Garage appears to have been - at one time - well, a garage.  It was long and narrow with brick walls, a large garage door up front, a bar area toward the back and a number of flat panel televisions on the walls that seemed to be providing much of the lighting in the place.  I understand there is an upstairs deck that is open in the warmer months.

I ended up sitting at the bar and was greeted by Matt who gave me a food menu to check out.  They also had a large number of beers to choose from and he scrambled to find a beer list for me to look over.  They had about a dozen beers on tap and well over 100 different beers in cans and bottles.   I finally decided upon getting a bottle of the Stone Delicious IPA.  

While I was told the burger at The Garage was very good, I saw a few other items on the menu that caught my interest.  Even though they were listed as appetizers, the beef tenderloin sliders on small pretzel buns sounded pretty good.  They had a similar sandwich called The Uptown that had three beef tenderloin medallions and they were topped with crispy onion straws and it is served on an asiago ciabatta bun.  They had pork belly tacos, a New England lobster roll, a pot roast and Swiss cheese sandwich, and a sandwich called "The Dolly" - buttermilk-battered chicken breast topped with Merks aged cheddar cheese, spicy mayo and Sriracha pickles.  Actually, THAT sounded pretty good to me.  

They have a couple of specialty burgers on the menu, but you can also build your own and that's the route I took.  All the burgers at The Garage are 1/2 pound Black Angus patties and are served on a toasted butter bun.  I had it topped with Swiss cheese and bacon - I would have also gotten sautéed mushrooms had they had them available.  But the pleasant surprise was that they had tater tots as a side for a $3 dollar upcharge.  

The burger was thick and juicy, but I don't know if it was as good as what the people at Dino's were raving about.  I mean, it was good - definitely above average.  But it just didn't knock me off my stool like I thought - or even hoped - it would.  The tater tots were a nice little addition to the meal and they were cooked perfectly with that crisp golden brown outer shell and lots of flaky potato consistency inside.  

I really hoped for more when I was told they had great burgers at The Garage.  Don't get me wrong - it was a very good burger.  But the person who was telling me about their burgers had me so hyped up and convinced that it would be one of the better ones that I've ever had really made me overshoot my expectations.  Still, they had a lot of interesting things on the menu at The Garage.  And with a large number of beers to choose from, it's still one of the more interesting places I've found on my recent travels.  It's a nice little neighborhood bar and eatery, exactly what I like to find when I'm on the road.  

Pizza Lucé - Richfield, MN

I've been wanting to try Pizza Lucé in the Twin Cities for a number of years.  For some reason, I just never got around to doing it.  Staying in the south side suburbs of Minneapolis recently, I decided to head over to Pizza Lucé for dinner one evening last fall.  Only, I almost didn't get in.  The parking lot was full and I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to get in anyhow.  However, a parking spot opened up before I exited the parking lot.  I thought "What the hell?" and I went inside.  Luckily, I found an open spot - the only open spot - at the bar.  That's where I parked myself that evening to try a pizza at Pizza Luce.   

Joe Baier found a niche in life when he was working for a pizza place doing deliveries and making pizzas.  When that pizza place closed its doors in 1992, Baier felt he had enough knowledge about pizzas that he could do his own place.  In 1993, Baier opened Pizza Lucé in the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis.  Initially, it was a by-the-slice place, but after a couple of years Baier was able to expand the space with a dining area.  

The only problem was that Pizza Lucé was just treading water fiscally.  Baier needed someone with some business sense to come in and help right the ship, so he turned to a former co-worker at the defunct pizza place, Scott Nelson.  Nelson was able to turn Pizza Lucé around and they were able to open a second location in the Twin Cities.  

In 2001, Nelson and Baier were getting ready to open a third location in Duluth run by Nelson.  Baier's niece, JJ Haywood worked in food service while she was going to Brown University, then got her masters in public administration at Harvard.  She worked in food service at colleges and universities for 10 years running dining halls.  When her uncle called her to come out to Minnesota to help centralize his pizza business, she figured it would be a one year job and she'd be moving on.  However, Haywood found Pizza Lucé to be an interesting business and she eventually stayed on and took on the day-to-day operations as the CEO.   

One of the Pizza Lucé's first location managers, Laura Hansen, became instrumental in the expansion of the restaurant overseeing quality control, ingredients and human resources.  Haywood brought her into the corporate office and Hansen is now one of the co-owners of the restaurant chain.  There are currently 8 locations for Pizza Lucé - 7 in the greater Twin Cities area including a concession stand at Target Field for Minnesota Twins games.  An 8th location in the Twin Cities will open this year (if it hasn't already) in southwest suburban Eden Prairie.  

It was around 7:45 when I walked into Pizza Lucé and I found a nice dining area with contemporary decor.  One section of the dining area appeared to be set up for a large party.  The other part of the dining area by the bar was full of diners.  It was a pretty popular place.

I ended up getting the last seat at the bar.  The bar staff was very busy and it took them awhile to acknowledge that I was there and to get a menu.  I saw that they had Surly Furious on tap and once someone came over to drop off a menu I ordered up one of those.

One thing that stood out with the staff at Pizza Lucé, nearly every employee sported tattoos or piercings.  That's a culture that Pizza Lucé fully embraces and encourages the expression of body art by its employees.  The bartenders behind the bar - both male and female - all had tattoos and piercings.  So, if that kind of stuff is offensive to you, don't bother going to Pizza Lucé

In addition to pizza, Pizza Lucé features a number of specialty hot and deli-style hoagie sandwiches, some pasta dishes, appetizers and salads.  They have a number of vegan and gluten-free options on the menu, as well.  

But I was there for the pizza that evening and I ended up getting a small (10") sausage, pepperoni and mushroom, my standard toppings on a pizza.  The crust was thin, but not cracker thin, and was more pliable than crisp.  The cheese on top of the pizza was caramelized, and the toppings were plentiful.  

The Italian sausage had a bit of a spicy taste to it, the pepperoni had a good salty taste, and the mushrooms were fresh and earthly.  It had a good amount of mozzarella on the pizza tying all the tastes together.  It was a very good pizza, definitely one of the better ones I've encountered in the Twin Cities.  

OK, so I finally got to try a pizza at Pizza Lucé - what did I think?  Well, they say they have the best pizza in Minneapolis, but my favorite continues to be the one over at Pizzeria Lola.  But if you can't get into Lola and need a pizza fix, the first alternative would be Pizza Lucé.  I certainly liked their pizza topped with sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  The toppings and cheese were plentiful on top of the thin crust pizza and it went very well with a glass of the Surly Furious beer that I had with it.  Sure, I'd go back to Pizza Lucé and I will at some point.  

Wild Eggs - Louisville, KY

During our trip last year to Louisville to play "tourist" for a couple days, we had eaten one evening at a place called Wild Rita's, a contemporary Mexican restaurant with some very good food and interesting decor.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Wild Rita's.)  It turned out the gentlemen who owned Wild Rita's owned a breakfast place that had become wildly popular in the greater Louisville area.  And one was located a short walking distance from the hotel we were staying at in downtown Louisville.  Eschewing the free hotel food one morning, we took a walk over to Wild Eggs to have breakfast.  

J.D. Rothberg became the owner of the upscale Napa River Grill in Louisville in 1999, with Shane Hall as his general manager.  The two entered into a new venture together, a local breakfast spot called Wild Eggs in 2007.  It quickly became one of the hottest restaurants in Louisville and it wasn't long before there were three locations around the city.  The pair brought in Tony Estratiadis to be their executive chef.  

Pictured right - Shane Hall and J.D. Rothberg

In 2012, Rothberg sold his stake in Napa River Grill to local restaurateur and entrepreneur Junior Bridgeman to focus fully on the Wild Eggs concept.  Rothberg, Hall and Estratiadis all had a part in opening Wild Rita's in 2014, but Hall and Rothberg both relinquished the day-to-day operation of Wild Rita's to Estratiadis in 2015 after receiving capital from an investment firm to help grow the Wild Eggs brand.  Today, there are 16 company-owned and franchisee-owned Wild Eggs locations in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.  

The downtown Louisville location of Wild Eggs is located on S. Floyd Street between Main and Market.  (see map)  We got there around 10 a.m. figuring that we wouldn't have any trouble getting in on a weekday morning.  Well, we were wrong about that.  It turned out that we had about a 10 minute wait before we could get a table in the dining room.  We hung out up front near an area that had a small semi-circular breakfast bar.  

It was more like a 15 minutes wait (with more people coming in after us while we waited) before a young lady took us into the dining room and sat us at the table near the front of the building.  The dining room had a high ceiling with walls painted with light earth tones.  The dining room was open and airy, and very well lit from both the LED lighting from above and the natural light coming through the windows.

Now, I can usually remember the names of our servers, but for some reason the name of the young lady who waited on us that morning at Wild Eggs escaped me.  And I feel bad about that because she was a wonderful server.  She was outgoing, witty, chatty without being a nuisance, made some great recommendations for food and joked with me when I ordered espresso.  "Going for that morning jolt halfway through morning," she said.  "Well, there's nothing wrong about that."  My wife and I both also got glasses of their fresh squeezed orange juice.  

The breakfast part of the menu at Wild Eggs (they also serve lunch up to 2:30 p.m. through the week) was wide and varied from basic breakfast favorites like biscuits and gravy, to omelets, crepes, pancakes, waffles and French toast.   They had a number of egg dishes as well as an assortment of Eggs Benedict plates.   One that jumped out at me was the Smokin' Hash with housemade corned beef hash mixed in with peppers, potatoes and onions were served with two eggs any style.  Also, they had something called the Wild Chicken and Waffle that featured a seasoned chicken-infused waffle, a Nashville-style hot chicken breast, along with chopped bacon and a housemade buttermilk maple syrup gravy.  Many of the foods served at Wild Eggs are locally sourced and made from scratch in-house.  

They also had a number of breakfasts with a Mexican-influenced breakfasts including something my wife got - the Chili Verde Huevos Rancheros.  "Good choice," our effervescent server told my wife.  It featured two eggs any style - she got scrambled egg whites - and it was topped with pico de gallo, sour cream, green onions, and a green chili sauce served with a flour tortilla.  Black beans and potatoes came on the side.  My wife was in heaven with her breakfast.  She couldn't stop raving at how great it tasted.  

I did the Kelsey KY Brown - Wild Eggs' version of the Hot Brown dish that Louisville is famous for.  (You gotta try a Hot Brown in Louisville at least once in your life.)  It had roasted turkey, applewood smoked bacon, and a fried egg (over easy) on toasted sourdough bread, then topped with a white cheddar Mornay sauce and sprinkled with chopped tomatoes and smoked paprika.  I also got a side of 3 strips of applewood smoked bacon.  The Kelsey KY Brown was heavenly - full of flavor with a richness in each bite.  I knew that I wouldn't need to have lunch today after eating everything in the bowl down to the bottom.  It was simply outstanding.  

My wife and I found out first hand why Wild Eggs is growing so quickly with up to 16 different locations in four states (and more on the way this year).  Both our breakfasts were interesting and delicious, and the service was excellent as our service was attentive, friendly and chatty.  We were comfortable in the place and it was spacious enough that we didn't feel like we were on top of other diners in the place.  I would have no problem stopping back for breakfast at any Wild Eggs location I may encounter during my travels.  

Peacock Alley - Bismarck, ND

I had to fly up to North Dakota this past fall for a dealer event for one of my dealers in Bismarck.  Before I flew up, I contacted one of my former dealers who hit it big in real estate during the oil boom in North Dakota and who retired early to oversee his properties.  He told me this past summer that he wanted to get together with me the next time I came into Bismarck.  I called him up a couple days in advance and asked him if he'd like to meet me for lunch.  He suggested a place in downtown Bismarck called Peacock Alley and we met there for lunch shortly after I flew in.  

The history behind Peacock Alley is interesting - even with some embellishment in the story.  But one thing for certain is that the restaurant is located what was the former Patterson Hotel, the grandest hotel in the state of North Dakota for a number of years.  The hotel was built in 1910 by local businessman/political operative Edward Patterson who served two terms as the mayor of Bismarck.

Patterson owned the Sheridan House, later called the Northwest Hotel, in the 1890's before expanding his hotel empire by building a 7-story hotel - the Soo Hotel - in 1906.  At the time, it was the largest hotel and the tallest building in the city of Bismarck.  However, in 1910, Patterson decided to one up his glorious Soo Hotel and he built a 10-story 150-room hotel next door.  He named it the McKenzie Hotel after his friend Alexander McKenzie, a local businessman and former longtime sheriff of Burleigh County - and the strongest political operative in the state of North Dakota.  

Alexander McKenzie was instrumental in moving the Dakota Territory capital from present day Yankton, SD to Bismarck in the mid-1880's.  Bismarck would later become the state capital of the new state of North Dakota in 1889.  McKenzie's political group literally ran the government of North Dakota for a number of years.  Stories of intimidation of voters and political foes ran rampant around the state in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  After being jailed briefly for illegally taking over privately held gold mines in Alaska in 1901, McKenzie's political machine was eventually driven from office in North Dakota.  McKenzie would die in 1922 and out of reverence to his friend and mentor, Patterson kept the McKenzie Hotel name for five years after his death.  

During the height of Prohibition, the Patterson Hotel secretly served liquor with an elaborate alarm system in place if unwanted guests would show up.  It was also said that the Patterson Hotel was used as a front for both gambling and prostitution, but my friend in Bismarck said he couldn't confirm that.  

In addition to his business and political endeavors, Patterson was also an amateur boxer in his youth who befriended many of the great boxers in the early 1900's.  Gene Tunney, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey all stayed in the hotel.  But the Patterson also hosted a number of U.S. Presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.  Portraits of many of the famous people who stayed at the Patterson Hotel hang in the Peacock Alley restaurant.  

Once Interstate 94 was completed in the mid-60's, the main road into Bismarck shifted to the north side of the city instead of going right by the hotel.  Train travelers didn't stop at the ornate Bismarck station - located just across the street from the Patterson Hotel - that much any longer.  By the late 1970's, the Patterson Hotel had closed and in 1980 it was condemned.  In 1983, the building was sold to a company that renovated it, converted the building into senior housing units, and renamed it Patterson Place.  

In what was the hotel's original lobby and restaurant, a new restaurant went in there in 1984.  It was called Peacock Alley and as the date in the logo says it was established in 1933.  Well, I was a little confused about this when I was talking with my dealer friend who was giving me the real history of Peacock Alley.  "Peacock Alley was the name of some bar that opened just after Prohibition was over," he explained to me.  "But it closed, I don't know, maybe in the 60's."  The people who originally put the restaurant in the Patterson Place building decided to resurrect the Peacock Alley name.  "So, it's not the same Peacock Alley," my friend said to me.  "And they are taking liberty with saying that it's been around since 1933.  Let's just call it a marketing embellishment."  

The current owners of Peacock Alley are Dale and Melodie Zimmerman.  Dale Zimmerman was the United States sales manager for Natuzzi, an upscale Italian furniture manufacturer, and his work was keeping him on the road for over 3 weeks a month.  Wanting to spend more time with his family and wanting to keep them in the Bismarck area, the Zimmerman's explored business options around the city before finding that longtime owner Mary Barbere was looking to sell Peacock Alley.  She had been the manager of Peacock Alley when her brother Bill Hixson bought the restaurant from the original owners in 1988.  In 1998, Hixson sold Peacock Alley to Barbere who, in turn, sold it to the Zimmerman's in 2010.  

Peacock Alley is located on the northwest corner of Main Ave. and 5th Street in downtown Bismarck.  (see map)  I was able to find parking up the street on 5th and got there before my friend met up with me.  Upon entering the bar, I found a very nice long, rectangular bar in the center of a well-lit room.  This was the kind of place where I would have no problem bellying-up to the bar and have a drink and some dinner.  

My friend wasn't there yet, so I took some time to wander around the bar to look at some of the old pictures they had on the wall in the bar.  The woodwork throughout the bar area was elegant and ornate.  

My friend showed up not long after I got there.  The lady who would turn out to be our server immediately greeted my friend by name and showed us to a table in the main dining area off the bar area.  I immediately saw the portraits of the Presidents of the United States who had visited the old Patterson Hotel hanging on the wall in one section of the dining room.  She took us to a table that looked out onto 5th St. and gave us menus to look over.  The dining room had an old time feeling with the dark walnut paneling, mirrored walls, and the 1930's-style light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  This was a very nice place and I was somewhat surprised this was my first visit to Peacock Alley in all of my trips to Bismarck over the years.  

They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at Peacock Alley with the dinner menu featuring steaks, pork and chicken entrees, pasta dishes, burgers and sandwiches.  At lunch, the menu also featured burgers and sandwiches, as well as soups, salads and daily lunch specials.  Lunch sandwiches featured a four-cheese grilled cheese sandwich, a crab cake sandwich, seared ahi tuna sliders, and a one-pound pastrami sandwich. They had hoagie sandwiches, many with sliced beef sirloin, but the one that caught my eye was the "Meat Sweats" hoagie that featured pastrami, corned beef and sirloin slices.  Their burgers were all billed as 1/2 pound patties and very messy.  The one burger that caught my fancy was the Hot Gravy burger - a combination beef and bacon patty served on wheat bread with fries and covered with a brown gravy.  That sounded great, but possibly a little too much for lunch that day.  

My friend went basic - he got the caramelized chicken salad.  It featured chunks of marinated chicken that were grilled and caramelized on a bed of mixed greens along with grape tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and red onions, topped with gorgonzola cheese, toasted walnuts and a housemade plum/Dijon dressing.  Given other opportunities I've had to eat with my friend, he likes salads for his lunch.  

I ordered up the Brewben sandwich - corned beef that is brined in beer, topped with a housemade beer/sauerkraut, a roasted pepper aioli and Swiss cheese, and served on grilled rye bread.  That sounded really good to me.  After about two minutes, our waitress came back with a menu, handed it to me and said, "We're out of the corned beef today.  Actually, we're making it, but we don't have it."  

I was just getting ready to order the pastrami sandwich and she jumped in a said, "And we're out of pastrami today, too."  I was crestfallen.  I didn't want to get a burger, especially after my friend had gone the healthy route.  So, I ordered up the club sandwich.  The one saving grace out of the whole deal is that they offered tater tots as a side with the sandwich.  I asked if she could bring some Tabasco or Cholula out with my lunch.  

My eyes must have bugged pretty big when she sat the sandwich basket down in front of me.  The club sandwich at Peacock Alley is piled high with ham, turkey, Swiss and American cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce and mayo on toasted whole wheat bread.  This was a serious club sandwich and I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing.  But it was so good that I made a significant dent by eating two of the quarters and a good portion of a third one before throwing in the towel.  The tater tots were a nice surprise with the sandwich.  As I've said many times, if tater tots are an option for a side, I'll get those.  I may not eat them all - like on this visit to Peacock Alley - but even just a handful will satisfy my tater tot craving.  

Peacock Alley was a very nice place to have lunch.  There's a lot of history that surrounds the place - even though part of the history was categorized as a "marketing embellishment" by my friend.  And even though I couldn't get the Brewben sandwich since they were out of corned beef that day, I was more than happy with my piled-high club sandwich with my tater tot sides.  The atmosphere at Peacock Alley is elegant - old time classy - but it's far from a stuffy or pretentious place.  I really would like to make it back to Peacock Alley at some point to try the Brewben sandwich or one of their burgers such as the Hot Gravy burger.  But that will have to be sometime down the road.