Road Tips

Ten Mile House - Evanston, IL

My wife and I took a long weekend in Chicago not long ago and she wanted to go to the Spice House in Evanston to get some herbs and spices.  It was around 1:30 p.m. and my wife's stomach was starting to growl from lack of food.  I really didn't know what was in the area, but my wife looked up some food options in the area on her phone.  She mentioned a bistro that wasn't too far away, a place named Ten Mile House.  

As you can see in the logo to the left, it says that Ten Mile House was re-established in 2014.  The original Ten Mile House dates back to 1836 when Major Edward Mulford became one of the first settlers in the area after the Potowatomie Indian tribe was relocated by treaty to what would be present day Iowa.  The Green Bay Trail - a military trail that turned into a stagecoach trail after the Indian tribes had been located - had its southern terminus at the Chicago courthouse.  Mulford built a stage stop/post office/tavern at a spot that was 10 miles north of the start of the Green Bay Trail and called it Ten Mile House.  The city of Ridgeville evolved around the Ten Mile House and the building also became the first courthouse in the area, as well.  

Ridgeville existed until 1857 when the Illinois General Assembly decreed that the Township of Evanston would annex Ridgeville.  Ridgeville ceased to exist and Ten Mile House was no longer needed as a public building.  Mulford ended up building another house - the first two story house in Evanston - and sold the original Ten Mile House to James Kirk who renovated the building into a mansion.  The mansion was eventually bought years later, razed and today the St. Francis Hospital sits on its former site.  

In 2014, three Chicago restaurant veterans - Joe Krouse (Unite Urban Grill), Robert LaPata (La Petite Amelia and Omaggio), and Frederic Gale (Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group) - leased the corner spot on the ground level of the Central Station building near Ryan Field, home of Northwestern University's football team.  At first, they were going to call the new restaurant the Wood Shed as they were going to serve smoked meats and wood-fired pizza.  However, before they opened, the trio decided to change the name as a nod to Evanston's past and to connote the atmosphere of community gathering such as what occurred at the original Ten Mile House over 150 year before.  The re-established Ten Mile House opened in December of 2014.  

Ten Mile House is located at the southwest corner of Central Street and Eastwood Ave. north of downtown Evanston.  (see map)  We were able to find a metered parking space just down the street, just across from the Evanston Art Center.  

The restaurant is an open space with a lot of natural light coming in from the outside.  An open kitchen area is toward the back.  It had a sort of contemporary decor to the place with a high ceiling with LED lights.  But they had some interesting shelves with candle-style LED lights hanging at intervals across the restaurant.  

The bar area featured a small three-sided bar with a small back bar area and a couple of flat screen televisions on the wall.  

We were seated at a table next to a window that looked out onto Central.  We were given menus and found that they were in the midst of serving brunch and had a limited menu compared the lunch menu they have through the week.  We'd had a hearty breakfast hours before in downtown Chicago and I wasn't really wanting to get breakfast for a second meal in a row.  

The brunch offerings did entice, however.  They had a smoked corned beef hash that sounded good, as did the frosted-corn flake brioche French toast topped with berries and a blueberry maple syrup.  But I was there for a sandwich and they didn't have much to choose from.  

They had a number of salads on the brunch menu and that was fine with my wife.  She ended up getting the grilled salmon salad - an herb-crusted salmon that is grilled and placed on a bed of mixed greens with artichokes, asparagus, fingerling potatoes, and tomatoes mixed in.  It's topped with a French feta cheese and finished with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette.  She also got a glass of the Peyruchet blend of sauvignon blanc and semillion to go along with the salad.  She thought everything was very good.  

My choices were very limited, but all were good choices.  They had a grilled cheese sandwich that you could add smoked corned beef or bacon (or both!), a breakfast sandwich with eggs, ham, bacon, creamy poblano pepper strips and topped with a green chile hollandaise sauce, or the Cuban sandwich that I wasn't to whippy on getting.  

I ended up with the Ten Mile House prime burger - a half-pound wood-grilled prime beef burger served on Texas toast with a smoked tomato aioli.  For an upcharge, I was able to get some cheese on the burger and I asked our server if she could have the kitchen put some gruyere cheese on it.  Only, they forgot to put the cheese on it.  When I pointed it out to our server, she offered to take the burger back and get me a new one with the cheese.  But I'd already taken a couple bites out of it and it was fine enough without the cheese.   

While I think it would have been better with the gruyere cheese, the prime burger at Ten Mile House was very good.  It had a great beefy flavor, there was a hint of a smoky wood flavor from the cooking process, and I liked the Texas toast with the burger.  I had a pint of the American pale ale from the Brickstone brewery out of Bourbonnais, IL to go with the burger.  

For stumbling upon Ten Mile House in Evanston and not knowing what to expect, it turned out to be a pretty positive experience.  My wife was very happy with her herb-crusted grilled salmon salad.  And while I wanted more of a choice of sandwiches due to the limited menu that comes with their weekend brunch, I felt their prime burger was very good.  Other than forgetting my gruyere cheese on my burger, the service we had was very good, as well.  It was a nice, laid-back atmosphere at Ten Mile House and I would like to get back there again at some point to try more of their food without the restrictions of the brunch menu.    

The Beerhouse - Urbandale, IA

I got into my hotel in Urbandale on the northwest side of Des Moines around 8 p.m. one evening last December and asked if they had a list of restaurants in the area.  They gave me a sheet and I studied it as I took my bag up to my room.  One place sort of stood out for me on the list - a sports bar called The Beerhouse that was just over Interstate 80 from my hotel.  I decided to give The Beerhouse a try that evening.

The building that houses The Beerhouse actually started out as a third location for a popular local steakhouse called Jesse's Embers.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the original Jesse's Embers on Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines.)   The Jesse's Embers in Urbandale didn't last all that long as the area around it was far from being developed as it is now.  An upscale Italian restaurant took its place after Jesse's Embers closed in 2007, but less than a year later it, too, was out of business.

Jerry and Kim Cobb saw an opportunity in the building that housed the two restaurants that didn't make it.  The came up with a concept of a neighborhood place - a sports bar - that served good food at an affordable price.  Live music would be available at times and they wanted to have an outdoor patio where friends and families could congregate in the summer months.  They renovated the building and opened Overtime in 2009.  Their daughter, Kristi, was the general manager of the place.

In 2013, Jerry and Kim Cobb decided they wanted to retire to Arizona.  A few months later they sold the business to Cindy Barnes-Stone, who owned a small coffee shop/diner in Urbandale; and Ron Biondi, the owner Ron's Dawg House, a now-closed tavern on Hubbell Ave. in Des Moines.  Barnes-Stone and Biondi ran the business for seven months before they realized they couldn't make a go of the place and they gave it back to the Cobb's in late 2014.  

The Cobb's, now living in Arizona, really didn't want anything to do with the sports bar, but their daughter, Kristi, was interested in doing something with the place.  Along with business partner Nick Kuhn - who ran a couple of food trucks around Des Moines - Kristi Cobb bought Overtime from her parents and rebranded it into a beer-centric sports bar that featured nearly two dozen craft beers on tap.  They called the place Overtime Beerhouse, but shortened the name to just The Beerhouse a few months later.  

The Beerhouse is your typical sports bar - a lot of flat panel televisions, sports motif, community tables in the center of the dining room.  It was packed with people in to watch basketball that evening.  

I ended up sitting at the bar and the bartenders were pretty busy trying to keep up.  Finally, one of them - a young lady by the name of Jess - came up to me.  I noticed that they had a Kona Brewing Co. sign in the window above the front door when I walked up to the building, but when I ordered one of those Jess told me that they didn't have any Kona beers. Somewhat crestfallen, I saw that they had a Des Moines IPA from the Confluence Brewing Company in Des Moines and I got that.  She got my beer and brought me back a food menu to look over.  

The food menu is typical of most sports bars - burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, pizza, salads.  Nothing that was really out of the ordinary.  But I really didn't know what I wanted for dinner that night.  They did have fish tacos on the menu - blackened grilled tilapia with avocado and a mango salsa were one of the offerings.  They had a blackened ahi tuna sandwich available.  And they had lamb sliders with sliced gyro meat topped with tzatziki sauce, red onion, tomato and cucumber.  

The one thing that I kept going back to on the menu was the smoked brisket reuben sandwich.  Instead of sauerkraut, it was topped with cole slaw.  Instead of Swiss cheese, it was topped with smoked gouda.  And it came with Thousand Island dressing on grilled marble rye bread. And - as an added treat - I could get tater tots on the side.  And they gave me a load of tater tots.  When Jess asked me if I wanted sour cream or ranch dressing for the tots, I replied, "Sure!"  

From there, things went down hill.

The sandwich was, in a word, horrible.  The brisket was tough and dry.  And while it had a bit of a smoky taste, it was absolutely horrible in the overall taste.  Period.  I'm sorry.  I could not think of one redeeming thing about the brisket reuben.  I ate half the sandwich and forgot about the other half.  And, quite frankly, I'm surprised that I even ate that much of it.

The tater tots were cool, not cold, but they'd been sitting for awhile before they were put on the plate.  I also found that I like neither sour cream or ranch dressing with tater tots.  Give me a bottle of Cholula with my tots, please.  

And Jess was suddenly nowhere to be found.  I don't know if she went on break or what happened, but I would have liked to get another beer but there was only one other girl behind the bar.  And she was talking with a friend behind me at the L-shaped bar complaining about how busy they were that evening, calling it a "shit show" with all the people in the place.  Another male bartender came out from the back, I got his attention and asked for my check.  I just needed to cut my losses and get out of there.

With a sports bar with the name of The Beerhouse, I had high hopes of having a good sandwich along with a good selection of beers.  Well, the brisket reuben sandwich I had was absolutely horrid, and while they did have an adequate selection of beer, they didn't have the Kona Brewery beer they had advertised in the front window of the place.  My bartender/server started out good, but she disappeared on me when I wanted to get out of there.  I did not have a good experience at The Beerhouse and I'm hoping that it's an anomaly because it seems to be a pretty popular place.  But a lot of times, the first impression is a lasting one.  And I can't see any reason to go back to The Beerhouse at any time in future travels to Des Moines.  

Lazlo's Brewery and Grill - Omaha, NE

Years ago, I used to call on a dealer who was in an upscale strip mall on Lincoln's southeast side.  However, they have since closed that location and I no longer get over that way.  And that's a shame because one of my favorite brewpubs in the Midwest - Lazlo's Brewery and Grill - was located walking distance from my dealer.  (If you want to read one of the earliest Road Tips entries - this one back over 12 years ago when there wasn't a theme or focus to this blog site - click here to read about one of my visits to Lazlo's in Lincoln.  I think I can even say my writing has gotten better since then, but not by much.)  But I was staying out on the west side of Omaha on a recent trip out there and I found that there was a Lazlo's Brewery and Grill not too far from the hotel where I was staying.  Having fond memories of the food and beer at the Lazlo's I used to go to in Lincoln, I took off to go have dinner at the one in Omaha.  

The original Lazlo's was started in Lincoln's Haymarket District in 1991 by Scott and Brian Boles, Dr. Rodney Basler, and Jay Jarvis.  Along with brewmaster Rich Chapin, they had already been brewing beer under the Empyrean label for a year before they opened their brewpub in downtown Lincoln.  The group spun off Empyrean Brewing Company as a separate entity in 1997, and opened a second Lazlo's location in the former Stackwoods location off of Old Cheney Rd.  (Stackwoods was also one of my favorite places to eat in Lincoln prior to it closing.)   The west Omaha location on S. 192nd St. opened in 2006. (see map)  Today, only one of the original owners - Jay Jarvis - is associated with Lazlo's, but he has been joined in the business by Alex Dunn.  

The dining room at the Omaha Lazlo's is a wide open space with high ceilings with metal supports.  It kind of had a contemporary industrial look to the place.  It had a number of booths giving diners an intimate atmosphere.   

I ended up sitting at the bar and got a food menu from the bartender.  The bar was also open and airy with a couple of flat screens behind the bar.  They had a number of Empyrean beers on tap as well as a number of liquors on the shelves on the back bar.  I got a Watch Man IPA while I looked through the menu.  

The Lazlo's in Lincoln that I frequented a number of years ago always had very good food and it appeared that this Lazlo's location was no exception.  Their chicken marinated in a seasoned buttermilk, fried and topped with a country-style gravy sounded very good.   They had a number of burgers and sandwiches, as well as a number of steak and seafood entrees.  Appetizers, salads and soups rounded out the menu at Lazlo's.  

This evening, I went with the prime rib enchiladas - two braised prime rib enchiladas filled with black beans and corn in a flour shell topped with pork green chili, cheddar and Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, scallions and chopped tomatoes. It came with a side of refried beans topped with shredded cheddar and Mexican rice.  

The enchiladas were simply outstanding.  The braised prime rib was moist, juicy, tender and very flavorful.  Everything that went along with it - the cheese, sour cream, the pork green chili sauce - everything was a great taste combination.  The Empyrean pale ale was a wonderful tasting beer with a good hoppy flavor, but not too forward that it overpowered the taste of the food.  Along with the prime rib enchiladas, the beer was a great accompaniment.  

It was great to reconnect with Lazlo's after years of not eating at the one I liked so well on the southeast side of Lincoln.  The food at the Omaha location was just as good as what I remembered it to be in Lincoln.  The braised prime rib enchilada was outstanding - one of the better Mexican-Style foods I've had at a restaurant.  The Watch Man IPA was a great compliment to the meal and the atmosphere at the Omaha Lazlo's was open, friendly and comfortable.  They have a great food menu at Lazlo's and a very good selection of Empyrean beers to go along with it.  I think it probably doesn't matter if you're at the two Lincoln locations or the one in Omaha, it's probably going to be a good experience.    

Rudy's Cantina - Davenport, IA

One of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities is Rudy's Tacos with 11 locations around the area.  (There is also a Rudy's Tacos in Waterloo, IA.)  While there are a lot of Mexican restaurants in the Quad's - and some that we like a lot more than Rudy's - there's something about Rudy's food that makes us come back every once in awhile.  And now that they built the new Rudy's Cantina about four years ago down in the East Village of Davenport, which isn't all that far from our house, it gives us even more reason to go back.  

Rudy's Cantina in the East Village is located at 2214 E. 11th Street, the home of the original Rudy's Tacos that was opened in 1973 by Rudy and Marilyn Quijas.  (see map)  The original Rudy's was a small place - you could only get about 20 people in the place - but it became a very popular place in a very short price.  The Quijas' (pronounced KEE-hoss) family opened up a second Rudy's Tacos on Cedar St. on Davenport's west side in 1976.  (A quick aside.   My wife and I - as do a lot of other people we've talked to over the years - think the Cedar Street location for Rudy's is the best of all of them.)  In 1977, the Quijas' renovated the original Rudy's Tacos, tearing down the building and replacing it with a much larger building.  

Rudy and Marilyn Quijas divorced in the mid-80's with Marilyn taking over the operations of Rudy's Tacos.  (Rudy Quijas died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 55.)  In the 90's, Marilyn Quijas, with the help of her son, Kevin, started to franchise out Rudy's Tacos locations around the Quad Cities.  Kevin Seymour opened a Rudy's Tacos franchise in Eldridge, IA in 1997 and also owns the Milan, IL location.  Mike Kehl owns four Rudy's Tacos locations - including the one on Cedar St. in Davenport.  But the Quijas family continues to run the original location in the East Village with Kevin Quijas running the day-to-day operation.  

When the Quijas family decided that they wanted to expand about eight years ago, they took over the spot just to the west of their original restaurant.  They renovated the building to put in a bar, an upstairs dining/party area, and an outdoor patio on the roof of the original Rudy's.  During construction, they started to put up a river rock facade on the front of the new building of which the City of Davenport's Historic Preservation Commission immediately said they could not do.  The river rock facade was not in compliance with the historical architecture of the East Village.  Frustrated, the Quijas family had to take down the rock facade further delaying their opening of the new Rudy's Cantina.  

But they finally got it open about four years ago and we've been down there a couple three times to have some food and drinks up on the rooftop cantina that overlooks Lindsay Park and the Mississippi River beyond.  It's a very popular spot in the summer months.  

On this visit, my wife and I had been at a neighborhood Christmas party, then went to see the final performance for The Blue Band in the Quad Cities as they retired the band earlier this year.  We were driving home through the East Village around 11 p.m. and my wife said, "I'm sort of hungry."  I suggested stopping at Rudy's and she said, "Sure!  That sounds good!"  

Usually, parking along 11th Street in the Village on a weekend night is a tough ticket.  But we were able to find an open spot directly across the street from Rudy's Cantina and we went inside.  The only problem was that they were cleaning up in the original part of the restaurant.  My wife asked, "Are you open?"  

One of the young ladies cleaning up said, "Oh, yeah.  We're open until 1 a.m."  (Rudy's has winter hours that take place after January 1 where they close earlier for a couple of months.)  We went into the cantina area of Rudy's and took a seat at a booth with a large window that looked out at 11th St.  One of the girls brought us a menu and we both ordered up a margarita.  Chips and salsa were provided as we looked through the menu.  

I was looking at the extensive tequila menu they had on the wall and the bartender told me, "And that's not all that we serve.  We have over 130 different tequilas."  He said they ran out of room to list all the tequilas they had.  What they had on the wall was impressive enough.  

Rudy's serves up your typical Mexican fare - tacos, enchiladas, burritos, chimichanga, and fajitas.  They have specials from time to time - a couple summers ago, my wife and one of our neighbors had lunch on the rooftop patio and they had a carnitas platter that day.  It was very good.  

But we usually get the same thing when we go to Rudy's - their beef enchiladas.  And they're pretty basic - seasoned ground beef tucked into flour tortillas, topped with cheese, shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes.  But there's something about the seasoned beef that gets our attention. Well, that and the wonderful hot sauce Rudy's makes in-house.  It's a runny hot sauce with hot pepper flakes and seeds mixed in, served in squeeze bottles.  When my wife and I both get full orders of enchiladas (3 enchiladas in an order), we will usually use about 3/4's of a bottle between the two of us.  

This evening, we decided to split an order of the beef enchiladas.  I had some appetizers at the party earlier and my wife has this thing about eating late.  The kitchen at Rudy's were nice enough to cut them in half and serve them to us on individual plates.  

The enchiladas at Rudy's are big - on most evenings I can finish a plate myself, but my wife usually can only get about 1 1/2 to 2 eaten at a sitting.   These were no exception to the rule at Rudy's.  Even cut in half, the enchiladas were filled with a lot of ground seasoned beef with liberal amounts of melted cheese poured over the top.  And, like always, they were very tasty.  It was a good late night meal after doing a fair amount of drinking earlier in the evening.  

Rudy's Cantina in the East Village of Davenport carries on the tradition of the Quijas family that started the original Rudy's Tacos in that spot coming up on 45 years ago this year.  The decor and atmosphere of Rudy's Cantina is very nice and up to date, they have a nice bar area, a nice upstairs dining area/bar, and great little rooftop patio on top of the original building.  The food at Rudy's is different from the more authentic Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities.  Quite frankly, most of it is the American-ized version of Mexican food, and if you understand that going in, you won't be disappointed like some people would be.  But there's something about the beef enchiladas that keeps my wife and I coming back from time to time.  Well, the beef enchiladas with their very good hot sauce they serve at each table.  We'll have to put Rudy's Cantina in our rotation for places to have a drink now that we know they have a large selection of tequila to choose from.  And we may have to sneak in an order of beef enchiladas while we're there.   

Burgers and Bottles - Eagan, MN

Since I've been staying out near the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport the past few times I've been to the Twin Cities, I've been on the look out for places to eat that aren't too far from the hotel.  Unfortunately, many of those restaurants near the hotel are national chains or are in the Mall of America - or both.  I've had some places scoped out and marked on my "Restaurants to Visit" list and one of those places is a burger and beer place over in Eagan by the name of Burgers and Bottles.  I was coming back to Minneapolis from Eau Claire one afternoon and I decided to stop in there for lunch.  

Tony Donatell had started to work in the convenience store sector after he graduated from college.  He worked up to become the manager at a handful of Super America locations before he decided to open his own convenience store in 2008, Lone Oak Market on Lone Oak Road in Eagan.  In 2014, Donatell renovated the space and added a restaurant which evolved into a deli/bodega/smokehouse called Farmer's Grandson Eatery, named in honor of Donatell's grandfather who started what turned out to be a major dairy and potato farm in northwest Wisconsin.  

Lone Oak Market was attached to a small strip mall at the corner of Lone Oak and Eagandale Place in Eagan.  (see map)  In 2015, a spot just behind Lone Oak Market opened up in the strip mall and Donatell came up with a concept burger and beer place that he wanted to put in there.  Using the same kitchen that Farmer's Grandson Eatery had, Burgers and Bottles opened in the space in December of 2015.  Donatell also opened another restaurant late last year in Farmington, just south of Eagan, called Bourbon Butcher.  It features a smokehouse, gourmet burgers, a large selection of bourbons, and a number of local craft beers.  

It was around 1:30 when I finally made it to Burgers and Bottles.  I found a place that had hardwood paneling on the walls and ceiling with a number of booths and a small bar area.  On one of the walls was a large shelf displaying hundreds of colorful soda pop bottles.  In fact, the place - along with some interested electrical conduit piping and pop bottle lights on the wall - seemed to be more about showcasing soda pop than beer.  

Now, in the back of Burgers and Bottles is a second bar that is a "secret" bar called the Volstead House.  It's  behind a black curtain by the restrooms, but it doesn't open until 4 p.m. through the week.   Named after the Volstead Act, the informal name for the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution that outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages, the Volstead House is a modern day speakeasy and whiskey bar that has its own drink and food menu available.  It also has a weekend brunch that starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday.  Had I known the place was in the back behind a curtain, I would have gone in there to look around.  

I sat at the bar and was greeted by one of the bartenders, a pleasant and friendly young lady by the name of Taylor.  She gave me a food menu that also included a drink menu of beers, cocktails, milkshakes, and glass-bottled soda pop.  I ordered up a Traitor India pale ale from the Badger Hill Brewing Company in nearby Shakopee.  I hadn't had this beer before and I found it to be very flavorful with a hoppy, but smooth taste.  

Since the place is called Burgers and Bottles, it's a given they have a number of burgers to choose from.  They have about a dozen burgers on the menu that included a Brunch Burger with a fried egg, bacon and cheese; a white cheddar cheese curd and bacon burger, and the Fired Up burger with pepperjack cheese and fresh jalapeños.  They also have their own version of the Twin Cities burger staple, the Juicy Lucy, a two pattied burger stuffed with both Swiss and American cheese.  

They also have a number of sandwiches and wraps for those not looking for burgers, they have chicken tenders and a fish and chips basket, and they have a handful of appetizers including chicken wings, fried cauliflower in a Buffalo sauce, and even a poutine that has smoked brisket in with the cheese curds and fries all topped with gravy.  God, I love good poutine and that sure sounded good. 

I got the Mushroom/Swiss burger for lunch that day.  I asked Taylor if she could have them put bacon on the burger, and she said it would be a slight upcharge.  No problem with that, I said.  Nothing comes on the side with the burgers, but for an upcharge you can get fries, sweet potato waffle fries, battered fried green beans or cheese curds.  They also had beer-battered onion rings as an option and I went with those.  

The burgers at Burgers and Bottles are flame grilled and served two patties to a burger.  Instead of putting the toppings on the top patty, the make a "topping sandwich" with the bacon, cheese, and sautéed mushrooms between the two patties.  In fact, I thought they had forgotten the bacon, but I found it in with the cheese and mushrooms between the patties.  Lettuce and a tomato slice topped out the burger.   

The burger, itself, was very good.  The bun was fresh, lightly grilled and held together very well with the messiness of the burger.  It was juicy, had a great burger taste and I was very impressed with what I was eating. 

The onion rings were equally as good.  The onion rings are tossed in a beer batter made with the lager beer from the F-Town Brewery in Faribault, MN.  The batter wasn't heavy, but had a great batter taste that went well with the warm and pungent fresh-cut onions.  They were some of the better onion rings I've had in my travels.  

I thought the burger I had at Burgers and Bottles was very good.  Just as good were the wonderful beer-battered onion rings.  The flame-grilled double burger was juicy and had a great flavor to it.  The Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon helped enhance the overall flavor of the burger.  With a good beer selection and the "secret" whiskey bar in the back, Burgers and Bottles would be a great place just to go for a drink.  This is a good little burger bar that I'm glad I found on this trip to the Twin Cities.   

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. - Indianapolis

Calling on my dealer in the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indianapolis, I've driven by a brewpub by the name of Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company a number of times.  I always wondered what the place was like and after one visit with my dealer before I was getting ready to drive to Chicago, I stopped by Thr3e Wise Men to have some lunch.  

Indianapolis has a number of very good brewpubs throughout the city and I had seen some Thr3e Wise Men beers at some other places I've eaten at - mainly at the Scotty's Brewhouse or Scotty's Lakehouse restaurants I've been to in the past.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the now-closed Scotty's Lakehouse.)  It turns out the person behind Thr3e Wise Men is Scott Wise, the founder of the Scotty's chain of restaurants found around Indy and other parts of Indiana.  Wise had opened the first Scotty's Brewhouse in Muncie in 1996 and the popular concept soon spread to Indianapolis and around the rest of the state to the tune of 11 different locations - 7 of which are in the greater Indianapolis metropolitan market.  

Wise had always wanted to brew his own beer and when he was approached to take over the former Sunflower Market, an organic and natural grocery store in Broad Ripple, he quickly envisioned a space that could be a brewery/distribution center/office and restaurant.  He quickly moved on the place, renovated the space, put in a brewery and restaurant and named the place Thr3e Wise Men - for himself and his two sons.  Thr3e Wise Men opened in January of 2011.  A second Thr3e Wise Men opened in Muncie, IN in December of 2015.  

(In late 2016, Wise sold the holdings of Scotty's Brewhouse and Thr3e Wise Men to Due North Holdings, an Arizona-based private equity company who is planning on expanding the Scotty's Brewhouse concept across the United States.  One of the conditions of the sale was that Due North would keep all of Wise's management teams in place in the existing restaurants.  Today, in addition to the Indiana locations, you'll find Scotty's Brewhouse locations in places such as Champaign, IL, Punta Gorda, FL, Waco, TX and Oxford, OH.)

Thr3e Wise Men brewery is located along Broad Ripple Ave. right next to the popular Monon Recreational Trail (see map)  There was plenty of parking in the lot out front.  

The main room in the brewpub had kind of a contemporary industrial look to it and featured a number of picnic tables, along with wooden banquette bench seating along a low wall.  Much of the wood in the place looked like it was made out of knotty pine.  They have a nice sized outdoor patio that is opened during the warmer months.

The brewery tanks were visible on the other side of a glass wall from the dining room.  There were about a half dozen tanks ranging in size from 15 to 30 barrels in capacity.

There was a smaller room toward the back of the brewpub that is probably used for meetings, parties, or overflow dining.  Globe light fixtures hung throughout the brewpub to help accent the already bright areas thanks to the natural light coming in through the large outside windows.

I ended up sitting at the bar and was greeted by the bartender, Krystie.  She gave me a food menu and asked what I would like to drink.  The beer menu was on a chalkboard hanging near the bar and I ended up ordering a Kick Back Kolsch, a nice light summertime beer that they still had available.  

What I wasn't expecting was the somewhat small food menu at Thr3e Wise Men.  Pizza seemed to be the main item on the menu, but I didn't think I wanted to get a pizza.  (A couple guys near me had ordered the pizza and it looked pretty good.)  While they had a number of appetizers to choose from, they had a very short list of sandwiches to choose from.  I was kind of thinking about a reuben or something along those lines for a sandwich when I was thinking about lunch that day, I had to deep six that notion once I got to looking at what they had to offer at Thr3e Wise Men.  They had a Buffalo chicken sandwich, an Italian sandwich, a hot ham, bacon and cheese sandwich, a pizza sandwich, and a meatball sub.  They also had a calzone on the menu.  I wasn't really certain that I wanted any of those for lunch.

I finally decided to pick between two - the pizza sandwich which allowed me to pick two pizza toppings, then have it topped with mozzarella; or the hot ham and cheese sandwich.  I ended up getting the hot ham, bacon and cheese - sliced ham and applewood smoked bacon with provolone cheese, topped with lettuce, tomato and mayo.  House-made seasoned potato chips came with the sandwich.  For my second beer, I got the Rocky Ripple pale ale, a hoppy and citrusy beer that I liked better than the Kolsch.  And I really liked the Kolsch.  

Looking at the sandwich, I didn't have much hope for it.  But it turned out to be pretty good.  The hoagie bun was crisp on the outside, but spongy inside.  There was a nice amount of ham and smoked bacon on the sandwich, and the provolone was melted on top of both.  The lettuce and the tomatoes were also crisp and fresh tasting.  For not thinking that this was going to be much of a sandwich, it turned out to be surprisingly good.  

Although the menu was pretty light on offerings, I was happy with my hot ham, bacon and cheese sandwich at Thr3e Wise Men.  The menu is much more pizza-centric, and while they do have a number of appetizers to choose from, they only have about five hoagie-style sandwiches on the menu.  The beer, I thought, was very good.  The Kolsch was crisp and light, while the Rocky Ripple pale ale had a good forward hoppy front end with a nice citrus finish.  The service I received was very good and friendly, the atmosphere was laid back, and the space was very clean.  If you just want pizza and beer, Thr3e Wise Men would be the place.  However, if you're looking for a burger or a reuben to go along with your beer, you'll need to look elsewhere.  

Armored Gardens - Davenport, IA

We're always excited to get a new place to eat in the Quad Cities, especially one that features barbecue and a huge beer list - as in 100 beers on tap.  A new place like that opened up last fall and we finally got around to trying the place recently.  Here's what we encountered on our first visit to Armored Gardens.  

Armored Gardens is the third downtown project spearheaded by Dan Bush, a 30-something native of Davenport who also is a co-owner of Analog Arcade Bar - a grown-ups version of an arcade that features over 50 contemporary and classic pinball and video games; and the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar and Raccoon Motel - a live music venue and drinking establishment with an unnecessarily long and unwieldy name.  Along with his father-in-law Rich Cooksey - who has done the build-outs of the first two establishments, as well as the build-out of Armored Gardens - Bush is joined in ownership of his barbecue and beer establishment by Marc Kopcho who worked with Bush in some Jimmy John's outlets that Bush's family owned a few years ago.  The executive chef for Armored Gardens is Daniel Cuneo, a Connecticut native who got his culinary training in New York City before moving out to the Midwest to work at Black Dog Smoke and Ale House in Urbana, IL.  (When I read that about Cuneo in the local paper before the place opened up, it immediately piqued my interest in the place.  I thought Black Dog Smoke and Ale House is one of the finest barbecue joints in the Midwest. And if you click here, you can read the Road Tips entry on the place.)  

Armored Gardens is located on Pershing Ave. in downtown Davenport, between E. 3rd and E. 4th Streets, and across a parking lot from the Hotel Blackhawk.  (see map)  We were able to find some parking on Pershing just down from the restaurant.  The front of the restaurant looks elegant - it was designed to sort of look like a 1960's country club from the outside with large columns flanking the front door.  

The drill at Armored Gardens is that if you want food, they have a counter to the left as you come in.  The menu is on the wall and it consists primarily of smoked meats such as beef brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken, burnt ends and sausage.  You can also get ribs, but it's by the bone and not available in slabs or half-slabs.  Sandwiches and burritos are also available to order, as well as two different sizes of mac and cheese.  Sides such as fries, baked beans, Mexican cornbread, and blue cheese and bacon potato salad are also available.   

They have a small selection of beers on tap at the food counter.  However, if you want a much larger selection, you'll need to go to the main bar.  This is where they have 100 beers on tap including a large selection of local, regional and national craft beers.  The beer menu is shown on flat screens on the wall high behind the bar, and you order by the number, not the name of the beer.  The only problem was that they weren't in alphabetical order and it was sort of difficult to figure out all they had.  I probably stood there for two minutes looking over the beer menu before settling on a Kona Big Wave Golden Ale.  My wife ended up ordering a Dale's Pale Ale from the Oskar Blues Brewing Company.  I got a pint and the pint glasses at Armored Gardens are a heavy plastic.  My wife asked for a half-pint of her beer and she actually got a glass.  

The dining room features a number of community style picnic tables in the middle of the room with a few tables along the wall.  We took a seat at one of the tables.  It was a spacious area and I'm sure that it could get pretty loud if there were a lot of people in there.  

Out back, they have a very nice patio area that will, no doubt, be used very heavily in the warmer months.  It also featured a number of community-style picnic tables, but they also had fixed umbrellas that will probably cover tables.  There was also a small concrete stage for live music.  Yeah, this is going to be a very nice place to hang in the summer months.

Well, on to the food.  After we ordered at the food counter, got our beers from the main bar (which is sort of a hassle if you're paying by credit or debit card - you have to basically pay twice), and finding a seat in the dining room, our food was brought to our table.  We got a half-pound of the pulled pork and a half pound of the brisket.  We also got a side of their baked beans and my wife wanted to try their Carolina slaw.  

They had three different sauces at a sauce bar in the dining area - a sweet red sauce, a Carolina mustard sauce, and a Carolina white sauce.  I don't care for either mustard or white sauces with barbecue, so I got some of the sweet barbecue sauce.  It was all right - I would have liked for them to have another sauce that would have been a little more spicy.  

The pulled pork was tender and moist, but it was very bland in taste.  There wasn't much of a smoky taste to the meat.  Even putting some of the sweet barbecue sauce didn't do much in zipping up the taste.  The brisket was thick cut, tender and moist, but also lacking in taste.  Once again, there wasn't much of a smoky taste - it tasted like it was cooked more in a conventional oven than in a smoker.  My wife - being the more adventurous of the two of us - got some of the Carolina white.  She said, "Maybe this will help the brisket."  She tried it and immediately said, "Oh, no.  This won't do."  She didn't like the sauce and didn't like the brisket.

The baked beans were also just all right with a healthy amount of kidney beans mixed in with other beans.  There were chunks of pork in the beans, but the baked beans were just OK.  My wife liked the cole slaw at a couple barbecue joints we were at when we were in North Carolina last year.  The combination of the sweet and spicy nature of the Carolina slaw was what she really liked.  But the Carolina slaw at Armored Gardens wasn't all that sweet, but it did have a bit of a spicy bite.  Interestingly, it seemed to have more shaved carrots in the mixture than cabbage.  She decided she didn't care for Armored Gardens version of Carolina cole slaw.

I hate to say this, but we were underwhelmed with the barbecue offerings at Armored Gardens.  We felt the brisket and pulled pork - while moist and tender - were bland in taste.  The baked beans were basically just OK in my book, and the Carolina slaw had a nice spicy bite, but there wasn't a lot of sweetness to offset the spiciness and the shaved carrots overwhelmed the cabbage in the mixture.  Their sauces were more Carolina-centric with a white and a mustard sauce, and they only offered a basic red sweet barbecue sauce.  The beer selection is vast and impressive, but ordering can be a little tedious as the beers are not in alphabetic order on the beer menu board.  If I were invited to go to Armored Gardens to have a beer with friends - especially in the summer months when the wonderful beer patio is open - I would have no problem.  But I'd suggest that we go elsewhere if we want to have food.   

Tequila Harry's - Overland Park, KS

I started to travel for my work back in the mid-80's.  I first worked for a company located in Olathe, KS and I made many trips to the main office there for meetings during the years I worked for them.  I'll have to say that my boss there was the man who taught me a lot about culinary excellence and helped broaden my horizons in food choices, types of wine, and the way to savor alcoholic beverages rather than slammin' them back to get hammered.  (Which is still fun to do from time to time.)  One place that he and his wife liked to go to to have chips and salsa with margaritas every once in a while was a Mexican restaurant by the name of Tequila Harry's in Overland Park.  They took me there a couple three times over the years and I happened to remember the place awhile back. One night after a day of meetings in the area, I ended up going to Tequila Harry's for a nostalgic revisit to a place I probably hadn't been in for over 25 years.  

The Kanatzar family started Tequila Harry's in January of 1987 and one of the son's, Danny, continues to run the restaurant today.  It's still located right where they started it over 31 years ago in a strip mall just south of College Blvd. on Quivera Ave.  (see map)  

It was around 7:30 when I walked into Tequila Harry's.  I remembered that they always had a lively bar at Tequila Harry's from years ago, and it was no exception this evening.  I was hoping to be able to sit at the bar, but all the seats were full.  It appeared there were a number of regulars at the bar, as well.  The booths that are off to the side of the bar were also full.  So, I went into the dining room to take a seat at a table.

Well, I didn't know the drill - there wasn't a hostess stand that I could find at Tequila Harry's.  Or if there was one up front, there wasn't anyone there working at it.  It was a couple minutes before a server came over to greet me.  She dropped off a menu for me to look over and then disappeared.  It was a good five minutes before another server finally stopped back.  His name was Aaron and he was apologizing profusely to me when he stopped at my table.  "Oh, man!  I am so sorry.  Let me get you some chips and salsa."  

He came back a moment later with a basket of fresh and crisp chips, and a bowl of their salsa.  The salsa was thick, sweet and peppery in taste.  It actually brought back some memories of the good salsa we used to pig out on during visits to Tequila Harry's years before.   I also ordered a premium margarita with Herradura silver tequila. 

The food served at Tequila Harry's is your typical Mexican fare - fajitas, burritos, enchiladas, tacos, etc.  It's not as extensive of a menu like you may find at other Mexican restaurants, but there was a little bit of everything for most everybody.  I ended up getting the chimichanga - seasoned ground beef in a flour tortilla, deep fried and then topped with a chili con queso sauce.  It came with a side of Mexican rice and refried beans with cheese on top.  Guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream came with the meal.

The chimichanga was, well, it was all right.  It wasn't all that big and there seemed to be too much of the fried tortilla shell as it was double wrapped underneath.  The queso sauce didn't do much to enhance the taste of the chimichanga.  I did load it up with the guacamole and the salsa from the chips, and that helped a bit.  But it was pretty bland compared to other Mexican restaurants I've been to.

I would have to say the Mexican food at Tequila Harry's is more Americanized than authentic Mexican.  While I've grown up and past this style of food a number of years ago, I'm sure there are people who like Tequila Harry's food or they wouldn't be in business for over 30 years.  Once they found me at my table, the service I received was good.  It was a nice, clean place, and it brought back some good memories of going there back in the late 80's.  It was a nostalgic visit for me, for sure.  But I'm more used to more authentic Mexican food and I don't think that's what you'll find at Tequila Harry's.    

Nick's Restaurant - Des Moines, IA

Each year the Iowa Pork Producers Association awards the best pork tenderloin sandwich to a restaurant in the state.  I've eaten at a handful of the winners over the past few years including Goldie's in Prairie City, Gramma's Kitchen near Walcott, Larsen's Pub in Elk Horn, and Breitbach's in Balltown.  It had been awhile since I'd been to a Best Tenderloin in Iowa winner, there was one that I really wanted to try at some point.  And driving home from Kansas City recently, I decided to stop into Nick's Restaurant in Des Moines to give their 2016 award-winning pork tenderloin sandwich a try.  

Nick Iaria grew up on the south side of Des Moines where many Italian families have lived for years.  As a young man, he perfected a technique for homemade Italian beef and breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches.  Friends used to ask for Iaria's sandwiches and encouraged him to do something with his culinary talents.  

A few years later in his mid-30's, Iaria and his friend Joe Madonia decided to do a food truck where they could sell Italian beef and pork tenderloins.  They parked in a lot along Army Post Road and quickly gained a reputation for their sandwiches.  They also drew the interest from the City of Des Moines who cited the pair for violations of regulations regarding food truck operations in the city.  One of the regulations was that Iaria and Madonia had to move their food truck every 24 hours.  The only problem was that they didn't have many other places that allowed them to park their truck.  And when they did move their truck, they didn't have sophisticated social media in place yet to allow their customers to know where they would park on a specific day.   

After fighting with the city over regulations off and on, Madonia and Iaria decided that they couldn't beat city hall and they shut down their food truck operation in 2009.  But Iaria continued to harbor the notion that he could make a go of a restaurant and in 2012 he took over what was a former Maid-Rite on SW 9th in Des Moines.  

Pictured right - Nick Iaria (Photo courtesy Iowa Food and Family Project.)

Iaria kept the menu simple at his restaurant - mainly tenderloins, Italian beef and sausage.  The space wasn't large, but it's booths and counter were full with customers most of the time.  It was tough to get into the parking lot at times and Iaria saw that he had a good problem on his hands.  Too many people wanted to get in to have his food and he didn't have the room.  

In 2014, Iaria was able to find a larger space - the former Tavern restaurant along Army Post Road.  He moved there and suddenly had triple the seating in the place and a large parking lot.  Nick's Restaurant grew in popularity and was soon selling over 1000 pork tenderloin sandwiches a week.  About 3 out of every 4 customers coming through the door were ordering the tenderloins.  When Nick's won the best pork tenderloin sandwich in 2016, business spiked at the time and has remained steady for the past 18 months.  In December of last year, Iaria opened a second location - Nick's Town House Tenderloins - in the West Glen Town Center in West Des Moines.  

I pulled into the parking lot at Nick's around 1:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.  It's located just west of the intersections of SW 9th and Army Post Road. (see map)  They have a bar area as you come in, with dining in there, as well as a larger dining area off to the side.  When I walked in the door, a lady told me that I could sit anywhere.  I ended up sitting back in the corner of the restaurant.  She brought me over a menu and introduced herself as Amber.  I ordered a beer while I checked out the menu.

I knew I was going to get a tenderloin, but I wanted to see what else they had to offer at Nick's.  Of course, they had the Italian beef sandwiches that are arguably equally as famous as Nick's tenderloins.  They have burgers on the menus, as well as a club sandwich, a reuben, a chicken sandwich (breaded or grilled), and they had another staple of Des Moines Italian cuisine, the grinder.  

But tenderloins are the key item on the menu at Nick's and they had different variations of the sandwich to choose from.  They had two sizes - the King and the Queen.  You could get them plain, or add marinara and mozzarella cheese to make it an Italian tenderloin, and you could get it topped with Swiss cheese and bacon, or for the more adventurous they had a chili and cheese tenderloin.   You could also get the tenderloin grilled if you didn't want the breading on it. 

I ended up getting the Queen-sized tenderloin - I would have never been able to finish a King.  Amber talked me into getting fries on the side, but they were the crinkle-cut kind and I may have had three or four of the fries.  And they were pretty bland.  I was much more concentrated on the pork tenderloin sandwich. 

The pork tenderloin is cut thick, then it's double-dipped in the breaded batter, similar to a technique by another Best Pork Tenderloin in Iowa winner, the Town House in Cedar Falls.  (Another place that I've been meaning to try since they moved from Wellman to Cedar Falls a few years back.)   The only quibble I had with the sandwich was that I got just a couple pickles and just one sliced onion ring.  I like my tenderloins with yellow mustard, lots of raw onions and dill pickles.  

The tenderloin was tender and juicy, and I really liked the breading on the outside.  It gave it a nice crunchy outer core, but didn't detract from the taste of the pork.  It was completely manageable in size - I didn't have to cut it in half to pick it up to eat it.  It was a very good pork tenderloin.

As much as I liked the taste of the tenderloin at Nick's Restaurant, it didn't like me.  I had a case of heartburn for awhile after I ate the sandwich.  But that shouldn't be an indication that the sandwich was bad - it was very good.  It compared very favorably to other Best Pork Tenderloin winners I've had around the state of Iowa.  Nick's Restaurant isn't all the fancy, but if you're flying into Des Moines and looking for a good pork tenderloin sandwich for your first meal in town, take a right out of the airport on Fleur, take a left at Army Post Road and head down the street to Nick's.  You'll be glad you did.