Road Tips

How to Lose Over 50 Pounds as a Food Blogger

No, this isn't what I really look like these days.  But if the title of this blog post didn't get your attention, I thought the picture might.  (Photo courtesy The World's Greatest Physiques)

One of the battles most food and restaurant bloggers must endure is the inevitable weight gain - especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle like I've had for so many years.  Being on the road and trying out new places to eat - and subsequently blog about - has been a fun little hobby of mine for the past 13+ years.  But as time went on and my age started to advance, my body doesn't process food like it did 30 years ago.  The next thing you know, you're standing on a scale and saying, "Holy shit!"  And it's not an unexpectedly pleasantly surprised "Holy shit!" like when you find $50 bucks in a coat pocket.

However, over the past six months I've taken it upon myself to somewhat change my lifestyle without sacrificing certain things that I really like.  And earlier this month, I hit a milestone of losing 50 pounds since July 1.  I still had another 25 pounds to go to achieve my goal of losing 75 pounds - and I'm on my way as I've passed 50 pounds and counting.  

Now, I'm not looking for congratulations or well-wishing sentiments, I just wanted to let you know that it can be done.  If you want to learn more about how I did it, read on.  If not, well, have a Happy New Year.  

OK, so what did you do?

It all started last June when I went in to get a check-up with my new doctor.  My previous doctor had retired almost two years ago, but I would see him out and around from time to time at the grocery store or at live music events.  I always liked him - after most of my check-ups he would say, "For the shape you're in, you're in great shape!"

Running into him earlier this year and having a quick chat about my health, he encouraged me to reach out to his replacement - a female doctor - to have her do a check-up on me.  I was a little apprehensive about seeing a lady doctor, but he spoke glowingly of her abilities as he personally hand-picked her to take over his part of the practice.

When I inquired with the doctor's office about getting in to see her, I was informed that she may - or may not - agree to take me on as a patient.  I had known the receptionist at the practice for a number of years and I asked just what did that mean.  She basically said, "She had her own patients at her old office and many of them followed her over here.  She took on some of your former doctor's patients, but not all."  Then she told me that I had to come in, fill out a form and a questionnaire before the new doctor would even consider taking me on as a patient.  

Filling out the form and the questionnaire brought me back to my days of searching for jobs just out of college.  I forgot how much of a pain in the ass it really was to try and be sincere and forthcoming for what turned out to be essay question-style answers for my prior health history.  However, it must have worked as I got a phone call from the office later in the day saying the doctor would agree to take me on as a patient.

After jumping through that hoop, I finally got in to see the doctor in early June of this year.  She was a very nice lady, outgoing and full of energy with a quick laugh and an easy-going demeanor.  I immediately liked her. She ordered tests for me - blood tests and a visit to the heart center for a stress test.  Oh boy...

I went and had blood drawn and the results came back a week later.  I was told that I needed to come into the office to discuss the findings.  I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and hyperglycemia.  My A1C was at 6.3 - the cut off for Type 2 diabetes is 6.1, so it wasn't that bad, but it was still bad.  And my blood sugar levels were at 141 - they say you're hyperglycemic at 130.  The nurse who was going over the results with me said that I had to start taking medication for the diabetes - Metformin.   I asked the nurse, "Well, how long will I have to take the diabetes medicine."  

She looked at me with a frank stare on her face and said, "Well, the rest of your life."  

Wait a minute...

I've read stories where people have basically dieted and exercised their way out of Type 2 diabetes.  Maybe I could do that!  But with my lifestyle, I knew some changes would have to occur.  

Now, for years, my wife has been praying for the moment would come when I would get "the wake-up call".  My idea of what she thought "the wake-up call" would be me on a gurney in an ambulance after a heart attack or stroke.  Actually, I don't think she thought of anything that extreme.  Well, then again...

She thought I would have "the wake-up call" 10 years ago when they did an angiogram on me to see if I had any blockage in my arteries after the results of a stress test (done before I had my hips replaced) showed that there may be something in there.  However, I came out of that with flying colors - so much so that it sort of pissed off my wife because I know she wanted to say to the doctor, "I've seen what this guy eats!"  She thought the angiogram would find a double cheeseburger in one artery, a chili dog in another, a stick of butter in another artery, so on and so on.  But the doctor said that there was minimal plaque build-up in my arteries - especially for my age - and I went out to celebrate the next day by having a cheeseburger.  

While I didn't quite take the diagnosis of having Type 2 diabetes as my personal wake-up call, I did have to think about what I needed to do to change my diet.  We looked at a number of different types of diets and the foods you could have and the foods you couldn't.  Bread was a no-no - that would be a killer for me.  Even more so, milk was out of the picture - an even bigger killer for me as I drank a LOT of milk.  (If I were home for three or four days, I could easily drink a gallon of milk.)  Oh, yeah, and those delicious Hy-Vee chocolate chip cookies and the cream-filled maple long johns from Kwik St★r had to go off my rotation.  There were other foods that were deemed bad, but with all the diets we looked at - about five or six total - there were some that contradicted the others as to what was good for you and what was bad for you.  

But there was one "good" food that was consistent on each and every one of the diets that we saw...

Kale.

Now, my wife is big on kale and she makes kale smoothies, kale burgers, kale chips, kale cookies, kale-fried steaks, kale pesto, kale stir fry, scrambled kale, kale sticks with a side of kale tartar.  OK, it's not like that, but she's been extolling the virtue of kale for a number of years.  

I've tried kale.  I don't like kale.  I like cheeseburgers.  

Actually, before I get into the diet, let's talk about the stress test.  

When I had my previous stress test before I had my hips replaced nearly a decade ago, they pumped me up with adrenaline to be able to achieve the target heart rate.  That was because they were worried that my hips were so bad that I wouldn't be able to walk on a treadmill.  This time - with good hips - they wanted me to walk on a treadmill.  

I don't walk much - at least I didn't up to that point.  The most walking I did around home was mowing the lawn, or walking out to the garage to pull a cold one out of the beer fridge.  Actually, that's probably the most walking I get when I'm at home is going to the garage and back - a distance of 20 feet one way.  So, I got to thinking - I didn't want to keel over on the treadmill when I'm doing the stress test.  I told my wife about a three days before the stress test that I needed to go find a hill to go up to make sure that I wouldn't do a face plant during my test.  

We have a hill not far from our house that is long with a gradual incline.  We took off on a beautiful summer morning starting the walk by going down a long sloping grade near our house, walking around the neighborhood on a flat plain, then starting up the long hill that had a pretty good gradient on the climb.  As I'm huffing and puffing, sucking in air and wheezing, my wife is walking along like she's out for a neighborly stroll.  "Oh, look at how they have the flowers up by their house," she said pointing to a house along the route.  Or, it was, "Oh, what a great idea for putting hosta plants around that tree!"  Finally, I had to tell her that I was out for a walk and not sight-seeing around the neighborhood.  We can drive around and do that.  

Well, I made it - both days that we walked that hill.  I was confident that I wouldn't die on the treadmill.  I went in for the test at the heart center, my targeted heart rate was 134 beats a minute.  I got up to 136 beats a minute before they said I could stop.  My cool down period went great.  The two people who administered the test were very complimentary of the preliminary results and said that by their determination I passed with flying colors.

However, I got a call from doctor's office - from the same nurse who told me that I would be Type 2 diabetic for the rest of my life - and she told me that I had been diagnosed with having peripheral arterial disease.  Well, what's that?  It's a narrowing of the arteries, especially in the legs, probably from not enough exercise.  And because of that, I had to go see a cardiologist.  

I didn't have a regular cardiologist, so they made an appointment for me with one.  He was a young guy of Eastern Indian descent, a very nice and personable guy who, I deemed, knew his stuff.  He was looking over the chart on his computer and he said, "I see that you cut off your stress test after 4 minutes and 57 seconds.  Couldn't you go any longer?"  I told him, no, that I had achieved - and actually passed - my target heart rate.  He said in a somewhat surprised manner, "Oh! OK..."   And went back to looking at the chart.  He said my blood pressure was high, but other than that, he really didn't see why I was in there.  I told him, "Well, I was told that I have peripheral arterial disease."  

He said, "Everyone over the age of 50 has some sort of peripheral artery disease."  He just sort of brushed off my doctor's findings from the stress test.  He prescribed some blood pressure medication and that was pretty much about that.  

Finding the right diet proved to be somewhat tricky.

The diet aspect of things was one of those where there is no right answer with all the diets available.  I started out trying the Keto diet - an account of mine had lost over 75 pounds on the Keto diet.  But our neighbor lady - who is big into supplements - was horrified to learn that I was on that diet.  "Oh, that's horrible for your body," she exclaimed as were chatting over the fence in early July.  I had already lost about 10 pounds on that.  

But I was feeling rather funky on the Keto diet.  It was burning up the fat and carbs, but my body was feeling strange.  After seeing a segment on diets on The Today Show not long after that, I adopted a modified Keto diet that allowed me to add small amounts of carbs to the diet.  I felt much better after doing that.  But the key was maintaining a much lower consumption of food.  Watching the food intake made a huge difference.  

I read about another diet this past summer that had been adopted by a number of professional athletes - the OMAD diet.  OMAD stands for One Meal a Day and it basically says that if you eat all and anything you want once a day, it will help you lose weight.  This extreme fasting has its proponents and detractors, but I started to do it for a couple three weeks.  And it worked for me.  But getting to the point where having the one meal a day was sort of tricky.  

Prior to going on the OMAD diet, I felt I needed to have three square meals a day on the road - especially if my company was going to pay for it.  Now, my wife is also a subscriber of three squares a day and is also big on a variety offering of meats and vegetables or starches for evening meals.  Once I started in on the diet, however, I found that I could easily cut one meal out of the mix during the day.  I had to convince my wife that if I wasn't hungry, don't force me to eat.  "I don't care if you're not hungry," she would say, channeling her grandmother.  "You still need to eat something."  Well, no, not really.  Once she realized that I couldn't be badgered into eating if I wasn't hungry, she pretty much left me alone on that point.  And it wasn't long before I was down to having one large meal a day.  And I was losing weight.  

But exercise was also a big part of the puzzle.  

We have a number of great places to walk along the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois.  My wife and I started to walk three or four times a week, up to two miles at a time.  I would take breaks during the course of the day in the office and go out for long, circuitous walks around our neighborhood.  I felt stronger in the legs and the shortness in breath that I experienced early on in the process was slowly going away.  

By the end of August, I was down 30 pounds.  When I went back in for a 3 month blood test and subsequent follow-up with my doctor, my A1C had dropped to 5.7 - still not where she wanted me to be as it was just outside of the 4.5 to 5.6 A1C levels for Type 2 diabetes.  But my blood sugar was also down - 108.  She wanted me to be down between 70 and 90 for blood sugar levels.   (Spoiler alert - I got there.)  And I had dropped 35 pounds since my visit in June.  She said, "Whatever you're doing, keep it up!"  

Now, let me tell you another story that is sort of a ridiculous sideline to what I was going through with being diagnosed as being a Type 2 diabetic...

Federal guidelines for minimum healthy blood pressure readings, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, even obesity charts have dropped over the past couple three years.   Even if I were to lose 75 pounds, at my height and subsequent weight I would still be considered as obese by the Federal Government.  My friend, a pharmacist, told me that they recently dropped what are deemed the minimum levels of healthy blood sugar in your system from something like 120 to 90.  When I was told that I had Type 2 diabetes, I was told that I had to go into diabetic protocols that included having to go to a diabetic health coach, then have a separate meeting with a nutritionist.  

When a lady with the diabetes clinic that is connected with my doctor's practice called to set up appointments for me in June, I was told that because of the sudden number of people diagnosed as being Type 2 diabetic had swelled recently.  And it had something to do with the new government guidelines.  The lady told me that it would be late August before I would be able to see the health coach - over two months away!  And it would be sometime in mid-September before I could get in and see a nutritionist!  

As I lost weight in July and August, by the time I had to go in and see the health coach, I was down 30 pounds.  And I knew what was going to happen - I was going to get yelled at that I was a no-good so-and-so for letting my health deteriorate over the years and that I was going straight to hell for being a Type 2 diabetic.  Well, maybe not like that, but I could see - and feel - that I was on my way to righting the ship, health-wise.  

The day to go see the diabetes health coach came up and I reluctantly went over to the office after waffling back and forth about even going in the first place.  I still wasn't certain I was even going in when I pulled into the parking lot.  Sucking it up and heading in, I followed a somewhat attractive 30-something lady into the office thinking that she was probably a drug rep or something like that.  Nope, she was there to see the health coach, as well.  I guess that diabetes affects the in-shape as well as the out-of-shape.  

I had to give my drivers license and my insurance card to the receptionist who, in turn, gave me a three page questionnaire that I needed to fill out before I saw the health coach.  It was filled with questions like, "Who makes the menu decisions at your home?"  Or, "Who does the grocery shopping in your family?"  I could easily see where this was going after about 8 or 9 questions - and that didn't even encompass all the questions on the first page!  I got to the second page, read a couple more questions and those two little words popped up in my head - F*** it.  I thought to my myself, "There is NO f-ing WAY that I am going to go through with this."  I went back up to the receptionist desk, placed the clipboard with the questionnaire on the counter and said, "Nope, I'm not gonna do this.  I'll take my license and insurance card, please."  

She sort of feebly said, "Ooooh-kay, then" and handed me my cards.  I left, completely fuming over the whole ordeal.  

Later in the day, a friend of mine - who had dieted HIMSELF out of Type 2 diabetes three or four years ago - came over to the house and I told him of what I had been through.  He was standing there with a big grin on his face as I was recounting the story of blowing off the diabetes health coach earlier in the day and how I was definitely not going to see the nutritionist in a couple weeks.  

He said, "Man, I hear you.  You made the right call."  He said that the diabetes health coach basically lectured him about critical lifestyle changes making him feel like he had been called to the principal's office.  And he said that he and his wife had both gone to the nutritionist and he said that wasn't quite the waste of time seeing the diabetic health coach was, but it was information that he and his wife knew about the type of diet he needed to be on to help with his diabetes.  I viewed this little part of the whole story as nothing but an insurance money grab by a cadre of health professionals and was completely unnecessary.  At least, for me.  Others, it may have been very helpful.  But I knew I was on the right track by doing what I was doing. 

I suddenly realized that my body was getting smaller and I was slimming out of most of my clothes.  

At my weight before I started on the diet, dropping 35 pounds was not as noticeable because I was so big to begin with.  I made a point not to discuss how much weight I had lost in passing conversation with people other than family and close friends as I wanted to see if some people noticed.  Some people did - especially European colleagues who saw me at a trade show in San Diego in early September.  But many people did not.  However, once I got toward the 50 pounds down milestone, a lot more people began to notice.

With the weight loss brings a whole new set of problems - suddenly I have a closet full of clothes that are too big on me.  My old jeans looked like clown pants because I had basically dropped 3 sizes.  After wearing some way-too-big black jeans at the trade show in September, I had to go out and buy new casual dress pants at Duluth Trading so I'd have some something to wear for semi-dress up functions.  I kept taking a couple of my belts to the shoe repair shop so he could put more holes in them as I kept losing inches around my waist.  After getting down to the 9th notch with the end of the belts flopping about as they were clearly too long for me, I decided to go out and get new belts.  My wife talked me into getting one size of belt - I thought I needed a smaller size.  I'm now down to the last notch on those belts I bought two months ago.  

Not only have I dropped a significant amount of size around my waist, I've also found that my fingers have gotten more skinny.  So much so that I can't wear my wedding band any longer.  Well, I can, but it keeps falling off.  After it slipped off in a restaurant in late November - and I had to climb under a table to retrieve it - my wife told me to take it off and keep it off until I hit my target weight and then we'll have it re-sized.  It's currently sitting in her jewelry box patiently waiting to be worn again at some point.  

Shirts that I had grown out of years ago or were bought for me that were too small suddenly fit.  And even some of those are now too big on me.  My wife bought me a couple of UNTUCKit dress shirts for Christmas last year.  They were little too tight on me, but still wearable.  Now, they're really too big on me.  And that's a shame because I love the shirts.  (As an aside - she got me four more UNTUCKit shirts for Christmas this year in a smaller size.  Once again, they're a little tight on me, but they're a good incentive for me to continue to lose more weight.)  

I had bought a number of polo shirts and some pullover V-neck sweaters earlier this year that were on sale at JC Penney.  They were all a little tight - especially around the middle.  The sweaters fit almost perfectly today and I'm worried that come Spring the polo shirts will be hanging on me.  

I finally had to go and buy a couple pair of jeans earlier this month.  I'm not kidding you - one pair is already too big on me.  The other pair - made out of a different type of denim material - fit a little snug, but are still wearable.  The great thing about all this - I'm no longer buying from the Big & Tall section at Penney's.  Off the rack is so much easier to find stuff to wear.  And my long range goal in life is to never have to walk into a DXL ever again.

A dealer of mine gave me one of his company polo shirts to wear about 8 years ago.  I was really never able to wear it.  That is, until I tried it on this past August.  Good friends of ours got me a great Hawaiian shirt about 6 years ago.  It's always been way too small.  Today, I can button all the buttons, but it's still a little tight around the waist.  Once I can fully fit in that shirt, I'll be more than happy.

I have a dealer in Springfield, MO who dropped over 100 pounds about 10 years ago.  He noticed that I had lost weight when I saw him in October - I was down about 40 pounds at that point - and he asked what my goal was.  I told him that I wanted to get to 75 down and possibly see if I can drop even more from there.  His advice to me was, "Once you hit your target weight, wait six months before you go out and replenish your wardrobe."  He said that too many people hit their target weight and then gain much of it back.  

But I think I can maintain the weight I will ultimately lose.  I've been at the same weight - plus or minus five pounds - for about the previous six years before I started to lose all this weight.  

I continue to go in the right direction.

I just went in for a three month blood test a couple weeks ago and got the results from my doctor.  I have basically dieted and exercised myself out of being a Type 2 diabetic.  My A1C was at 5.4 - within the range of what they want to see (readings of 4.5 to 5.6).  My blood sugar - that day, for whatever reason - was at 98, but I tested myself before I went in and I was at 79.  I've been consistently under 90 for the past few weeks with occasional spikes just over 100, but those don't last.  My doctor took me off Metformin, but I'm continuing on the blood pressure medication as that's still a little high.  She said that from the time I first came in last June to earlier this month, her scale had me down 56 pounds.  I'll take that.  

When I recounted to my doctor that her nurse told me that I would have to be on Metformin for the rest of my life, she said, "That's because 99% of the people who come in here and get diagnosed with diabetes will just go home and not do anything about it.  We're kind of programmed to tell the vast majority of our patients that they'll need medication for life.   You are a one-percenter, and a one-percenter in a good way!"  

People ask me, "Do you feel better?"  Well, I feel different.  I feel better about myself.  I'm not so hesitant on having my picture taken and I will look at myself in the mirror more than I did.  I notice that I can get out of chairs more easily.  I can actually bend over and tie my shoes or pick up a good luck heads-up penny from the ground.  My joints - especially my knees - don't hurt as much.  And when I stand on the scale these days, I find myself exclaiming, "Holy shit!" in a pleasantly surprised kind of way as I've not seen numbers that low on there in a number of years.  

But one thing I've really noticed - I get cold much more easily.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the thermostat over the past few weeks and wondered if my wife had turned down the temperature.  Nope - it's sitting at 70 degrees, just like always.  I'm usually warm when I sleep - I like my bedroom cool at night - but I've been putting an extra blanket over me.  My wife says it's because I don't have as much insulation as I did.  She's probably right.   

A couple weeks ago, I had to replenish the salt in our water softener.  I picked up four-50 pound bags from Costco and as I was lugging one of the bags down the stairs to our basement, I thought out loud, "Wow!  This is about how much weight I've dropped!"  It was certainly an eye-opening realization for me.  

The weight is coming off slower as the colder weather has come on and I haven't been out walking as much as I had earlier in the year.  But we've dusted off the elliptical machine and I've started to use that on a limited basis trying to get up to speed again.  I have no doubt that I'll lose the 75 pounds I want to lose and I'll re-evaluate if I'd like to lose more once I get there.  

Oh!  The one sacrifice that I didn't make in my diet?  

Beer.  The hell of all this is - had I quit drinking beer, I'd probably be damn close to 75 pounds down by now.  I mean, I still have an occasional cheeseburger or share a small pizza with my wife every once in a while, but beer has remained a constant in my life over the past six months.  

But, I figure the way I'm going, 75 pounds down can wait a little while longer.  

Cafe Beaudelaire - Ames, IA

I've been somewhat dubious of the past winners of the Best Burger in Iowa contest which has been held since 2010 by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  Some of the ones I've tried were, well, not all that good.  But others have been great.  So, when this year's winner was announced back in May, I was even more skeptical that the Best Burger in Iowa was at a small Brazilian cafe in Ames by the name of Cafe Beaudelaire.  On a trip down from the Twin Cities to Des Moines awhile back, I decided to stop in to Ames and give the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire a try.  

About 30 years ago, Claudio Gianello came to Ames to visit his brother who was studying for his doctorate in agronomy at Iowa State University.  Claudio decided to stick around Ames for awhile and soon he met Kellie Jacobs, an ISU student from the west central Iowa town of Carroll.  The two fell in love, and while Claudio waited for Kellie to finish school he decided to open a restaurant in the Campustown area across from the Iowa State campus and featured Brazilian cuisine, but with an American flair.  Gianello got the name of the restaurant from a derivative of the name of the French poet Baudelaire as it somewhat translates to "Beauty of the Air".     

Even though it was a Brazilian restaurant, Gianello was welcoming of cultures from all over the world.  His little cafe soon became a gathering place for students from other countries.  And when the World Cup was held in 1994, Claudio put in televisions for foreign students to come in and watch the soccer matches at what locals and students referred to as "Cafe B". 

Pictured at right - Claudio Gianello.  Photo courtesy Iowa Beef Producers Council.  

Of course, burgers were a big item with students at ISU and Claudio knew that the Iowa-raised black angus beef was some of the best in the world.  He had burgers on the menu since they first opened, but he was always playing around with ingredients to add to the beef that was ground fresh in house.  A few years ago, he ended up coming up with a simple combination of salt, pepper, and ground oregano as a seasoning for his signature burgers.

For three years, Gianello had employed a young Iowa State student by the name of Lexi Romitti as a waitress.  Romitti was a student in Iowa State's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and she was looking to do a public relations campaign as a special project.  Working with a small group of other students, Romitti began a campaign to create more awareness among students about Cafe B.  When the Iowa Beef Industry Council announced their Best Burger contest in February, Romitti spearheaded efforts to bring students into Cafe Beaudelaire with "Burger Bashes" where they could vote for the burger as one of the best in Iowa.  

The efforts of Romitti and her team paid off as Cafe Beaudelaire was one of the top 10 vote getters in the Best Burger in Iowa contest.  Judges from the Iowa Beef Industry Council secretly came in to Cafe B to try the burger and they determined it was the Best Burger in Iowa for 2018.  Gianello's restaurant joined 2014 winner Brick City Grill to make Ames the only city in Iowa to have two Best Burger winners.  

I was able to find a parking space along Lincoln Way in front of Cafe Beaudelaire, and after some jostling between a tight space and heavy traffic I finally got settled in.  (see map)  Entering the small restaurant, I was greeted by a young lady by the name of Kayli who said I could sit anywhere.  I took a table in the middle of the dining area.  A small bar was along one wall with some flat screen televisions on the wall.  It was a colorful, funky kind of restaurant that made me feel right at home.  

Kayli had dropped off a menu for me to look over.  I knew already that I was going to get the burger, but I wanted to see what else they had to offer.  Actually, it wasn't that large of a menu.  They had variations of American and South American choices - many of the appetizers had a Brazilian flair such as empanadas, yucca fries, and something called Pac de Queijo - fresh bite-sized bread with parmesan and gouda cheese baked into them and served with a marinara sauce.  In addition to some burgers, they had a Cuban sandwich, a pita sandwich with a choice of either roast beef or chicken, and a popular Brazilian sandwich called the Bauru - it featured a beef patty and ham slices on fresh baked wheat bread topped with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, corn, peas, mozzarella cheese and a fried egg.  You could also get one with a grilled chicken breast or a spicy black bean patty.  Cafe B also had vegetarian options along with soups and salads.  They also feature a brunch menu on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I got the classic burger with cheddar cheese.  A fried egg and bacon strips were also available for toppings, but I didn't want a bunch of stuff on there to mask the taste of the burger.  They also had a half-chorizo/half-angus beef burger, a burger topped with Muenster cheese and grilled red and green peppers, as well as a Mexican-style burger topped with guacamole and gouda cheese.  A side of Brazilian potatoes came with the burger.  

The burger was flat-grilled and smash-pressed with a crispy outer shell.  The patty was misshapen from the grilling technique.  It was served on what I believe was a potato bun and came with a sliced onion, lettuce and a pickle.  The burger was actually too salty for my taste.  I don't put a lot of salt on my food and I immediately picked up on the abundance of salt in the patty.  There was too much bun, as well.  I found myself tearing away chunks of the bun because there was just too much of it.  

But other than that - and the burger being too salty - I thought the burger was very good.  It had a great beef flavor and it was very juicy.  I really wish they hadn't loaded it with so much salt.  

The Brazilian potatoes were basically seasoned wedge potatoes.  They were good with a crispy outer shell and a nice flaky inner core.  Once again, I wasn't all that interested in the potatoes, but for someone who does like steak-style wedge fries they would like these.

I'm now 9 for 9 in trying the Best Burger in Iowa contest winner and I'd have to put the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire somewhere in the middle.  While the fresh ground beef was juicy and flavorful, they seasoned it with too much salt.  The bun was airy and spongy, but there was too much bun for the size of the burger.  The Brazilian fries were basically seasoned potato wedges, but they were perfectly cooked with a good crispiness to the outer shell and a warm flakiness on the inside.  I couldn't quibble about the friendly service I received while at Cafe Beaudelaire.  While they seemed to have a good beer selection, I ended up just having water with my burger.  I'm happy that a place like Cafe B is the winner of the Best Burger in Iowa, but I have to think there were other burgers in the contest that may have been better.  

The Shaved Duck - St. Louis

A place that I've heard about many times during my trips to St. Louis over the past few years is a hip little barbecue spot by the name of The Shaved Duck that goes a step beyond many of the traditional barbecue places in "The Loo".  I have tried to go there a handful of times, but each time the place was packed with people waiting outside to get into the small restaurant.  On a visit to one of my accounts in St. Louis earlier this year, we lucked out and were able to get a table for 4 people around 6:30 on a weeknight.  Much to my wife's consternation, as she will be very upset when she reads this, I finally got a chance to try The Shaved Duck.

Alastair Nisbet grew up in Aberdeen on Scotland's north east coast.  It's not quite the hot bed of barbecue where one would cut their teeth on smoked briskets, ribs, or pork butt.  In his formative years, he worked in restaurants in Scotland.  That is, until he was in his early 20's when he met an American woman and eventually moved to the U.S.  It was during his first visit to the U.S. where he not only fell in love with the woman, but he also fell in love with barbecue.  The first time he tasted pulled pork, he was blown away.  It wasn't long after he moved to the States that he bought his first smoker.  

Ally - as he was soon known to friends in his new home of St. Louis - knew he wanted to open a restaurant one day, but he needed to save up some money and also get some health insurance since free insurance isn't available for ex-pats from the U.K.  He worked in sales for five years before he went to work at a restaurant to learn the ins-and-outs of the business.  Within a year, Nisbet had his plan in place to open a Scottish restaurant - his home away from his hometown of Aberdeen.  He found a spot in the Central West End of St. Louis and opened The Scottish Arms in 2005.  It featured common Scottish and American fare along with a wide selection of imported beers and live music.   

(Pictured Right - Alastair "Ally" Nesbit.  Photo courtesy Food Talk STL.  Click on this link for a wonderful audio/video/print feature on Ally Nisbet and The Scottish Arms.)

A lot of Scottish food is based upon using the land and sea for the best ingredients.  French cuisine is similar to Scottish food in terms of using the land for their food.  Once "The Arms" was up and going for a couple years, Nisbet turned his attention to a new concept - a restaurant that offered Americanized French (or French American) foods.  He teamed with a couple of young chefs to help out with the restaurant and hired a bar manager that brought in an eclectic beer selection.  Coming up with a name for the place proved to be a bit of a conundrum.  Sitting around trying beers one evening in a group, Nisbet came up with the non-sensical Shaved Duck name.  Everyone laughed at the absurdity of the name, but it stuck.  The Shaved Duck opened in the spring of 2008 in a building that started out as a neighborhood grocery store, but had most recently been a small restaurant by the name of Pestalozzi Place.  

From its start, The Shaved Duck was a hit.  Their beer selection was called by one local publication as the best in town.  Their butter-poached filet mignon, their duck confit, their curry tagliatelle, and their duck-fat frites (fries) had critics and food enthusiasts in St. Louis dancing in the aisle.  Unfortunately, the Great Recession of 2008 affected a lot of restaurants and The Shaved Duck was not immune from the downturn.  By the end of the year, Nisbet decided to pull the plug on the concept and regroup.  

Barbecue was still a passion for Nisbet and he thought that he could save The Shaved Duck by doing something along the lines of a barbecue place, but with little twists and by keeping some of the more popular menu items from the first incarnation of The Shaved Duck.  Nisbet's two chefs and his bar manager didn't agree with the direction of the new concept, so they ended up leaving before he re-opened The Shaved Duck in late January of 2009.

The re-incarnation of The Shaved Duck proved to be the right one for Nisbet.  The barbecue, traditional sides and holdovers like the duck confit brought people in the doors in droves.  The place was always packed when I went there three or four times in the past.  But tonight, we were lucky to get in right away.  

We pulled up across from The Shaved Duck located at the corner of Virginia Ave. and Pestalozzi St. in the heart of Tower Grove East in St. Louis.  (see map)  Going inside, there was a small bar area that sat six people and featured ornate glass windows behind the bar.  For being well-known for their craft beer selection, I was sort of taken aback at how small the bar area was.  

On the wall near the bar was a mural of significant St. Louis-area musicians over the past 100 years.   The Shaved Duck features live music in terms of a solo artist playing in a corner of the bar nearly every night.  The night we were there, a musician by the name of Pierce Crask was playing his guitar and singing in the bar.  

We were guided to the back area of the restaurant where the small dining area sits at The Shaved Duck.  It was pretty cozy in there, but we didn't really feel like the other diners were sitting on top of us. 

Our server for the evening, she was calling herself Claire Bear, came by and dropped off menus for us.  The current beer list was on a blackboard on the wall.  I got myself the Urban Underdog lager from St. Louis' Urban Chestnut brewery.  (I also like their Zwickel Bavarian-style lager very much, as well.)

Since my guests had been there before, but I hadn't, we decided to try just a little bit of everything.  The only problem was that the first thing we asked for - the duck confit - they were out of it that evening.  Claire said that they were out of the baked beans, as well.  Well, as long as they weren't out of anything else, that was fine with me.  

Since they do a little bit of everything from the South, they had gumbo on the menu.  It was served with a dollop of rice on the top along with some chopped green onions.  Chunks of seafood and andouille sausage were mixed in with the great tasting broth.  Although they said it was made with Habanero and Cascabel chile peppers, I didn't think it was all that spicy.  It was simply terrific, one of the better cups of gumbo I've experienced.  Frankly, I could have had a bowl of the gumbo and been perfectly content.

One of the guys couldn't quit raving about the walnut and brown sugar bacon appetizer.  We got three orders that.  They cure their own bacon in-house and topped it off with walnut chunks, brown sugar, and blue cheese crumbles.  Sliced pears come on the side.  It was very good, indeed, but also very rich.  

We also had to get the smothered fries they have on the menu at The Shaved Duck.  Those featured crisp hand-cut fries topped with pulled pork meat and a cheese sauce, finished with shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  The taste of this plate was rich and decadent.  I had a couple three bites of the smothered fries because I knew if I ate more after the gumbo and a couple strips of the candied bacon, I wouldn't want to eat anything else.  

One of the things on the appetizer menu was the brisket burnt ends, but I wanted some of those as part of my dinner offering that evening.  In addition to burnt ends, they also had smoked chicken, smoked meatloaf, smoked tri-tip, pulled pork and ribs that evening.  We all sort of discussed what we were going to get and we said we'd sort of share things family style.  

My plate consisted of the burnt ends, tri-tip and three of the pork ribs.  The burnt ends were rolled in The Shaved Duck's house-made barbecue sauce.  One of the guys said, "Oh, man, we screwed up.  I should have told you to get the burnt ends without the sauce."  I could see what he meant.  The sauce was a sweet and smoky sauce with some vinegar mixed in, I believe.  I actually didn't care for it all that much.  But the burnt ends were really tender and had a great smoked flavor to them.

The ribs were just so-so, in my opinion.  They were a little dry and the rub they used didn't really do much to enhance the taste of the smoked pork ribs.  But I will say that the tri-tip was outstanding.  Tender, a touch of a smoke flavor to go along with the juiciness of the beef, the tri-tip was worth the price of admission.     

One of the guys got the meatloaf on his plate along with the tri-tip and the pulled chicken.  I tried some of the meatloaf and it was also pretty good.  It was a little dried out, but it had a nice taste quality.  I've thought about smoking meatloaf at home, but I just haven't pulled the trigger on that.  The meat loaf at The Shaved Duck pretty much convinced me that I had to do it sometime.  

The pulled pork was also very good.  Moist with a slight smoke flavor, the pulled pork was very tender and easy to cut with a fork.  It tasted all right with their barbecue sauce - better than the sauce went with the burnt ends.  

The guys were also big on the sides at The Shaved Duck.  Since they didn't have baked beans that night, I had to settle for something else.  I got the coleslaw which was pretty bland.  They had also sold me on getting a side of the jalapeño cream corn for a small side and I didn't think it was all that great.  But two other sides that were great were the sautéed Brussels sprouts and the sautéed green beans.  I normally don't like Brussels sprouts, but these were pan sautéed in butter and had a nice roasted flavor to them.  The green beans were equally surprising - sautéed similar to the Brussels sprouts, they had a crispy outer shell and weren't chewy or overcooked.  I was sort of sad I didn't get to try the baked beans, but two of the four sides I tried were excellent.  

Unfortunately, we left a lot of food on the table when we were done with the meal.  But that was all right.  We ordered a lot of food for the four of us.  Some things about The Shaved Duck I really liked - the smoked tri-tip and the smoked meatloaf were both outstanding, as were the sautéed Brussels sprouts and the sautéed green beans.  And I can't say enough about the cup of seafood and andouille sausage gumbo I had to start out with.  I think I was oversold by my guests on the walnut and brown sugar bacon and the smothered fries, as well as the jalapeño cream corn - but they were all still good.  I thought the burnt ends would have been better had they not been in the house-made barbecue sauce, and the ribs I thought were just sort of so-so.  But the service we had was exemplary, as Claire took care of us very well with every request or add-on that we had.  The Shaved Duck has a great reputation for interesting barbecue, but I may have hit them on an off night with their ribs.  But if I would have gotten the meat loaf, the tri-tip, and the burnt ends without the barbecue sauce on them - and tried nothing else - then I would be completely in the bag for The Shaved Duck.

All American Burgers - San Diego

When I was out in San Diego earlier this year for a trade show, it had been a long day on the convention center floor.  Coupled with my legs hurting and my throat sore from talking, my allergies had been kicking my butt almost as soon as I got into San Diego a couple three days prior.  While my colleagues in my company were going out for a group night at a go-cart track, I begged off saying that I felt like crap.  I just wanted to go out, get a burger and a beer, and call it an early night.  After having a couple beers in the hotel bar, I looked up to see if there was a burger and beer place near the hotel.  I had just gone to Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers a couple days before (click here to see the Road Tips post on CB-squared), so I was looking for some other place.  Another burger joint - All American Burgers - popped up in my search of restaurants near my hotel.  I clicked on their website and immediately decided to head there for a burger and a beer.  

Sean Shoja was born in Iran, but was raised in Montreal.  Montreal has a thriving Jewish community and Montreal-style bagels are the rage with Jews and gentiles, alike.  Sean Shoja got his first taste of working in a bakery/restaurant when he made bagels as a teenager.  He later moved to Miami at the age of 23 to open his first bagel bakery.  Sensing a need for good bagels on the west coast, Shoja moved to San Diego and opened Woody's Bagel Factory where his bagels were baked in wood-burning ovens.  Shoja ran Woody's for three years before he sold out and looked for something else to do.  

Sean Shoja set his sights on downtown San Diego and in 2005 he bought Café Lulu, reputed to be the oldest coffee shop in downtown San Diego.  He kept the coffee, but added a hookah bar and Mediterranean foods served in the evening.  Two years after he bought Cafe' Lulu, he bought another coffee shop at the corner of 5th and K Streets in downtown San Diego and turned it into Tuscana Café and Wine Bar.  (Tuscana was literally next door to the hotel I stayed at in San Diego the two visits I've been there, but I have yet to go there.)  

By 2012, Shoja decided to open a third restaurant in San Diego's Gaslamp District - a French-Asian restaurant by the name of the Red Light District.  The concept didn't go over very well - the name probably didn't help much - so a year later he rebranded the restaurant as ViVa Bar + Kitchen, a Latin-themed tapas restaurant.   

In 2016, ViVa Bar + Kitchen was changed over to a new concept - grass fed burgers with craft beers.  Shoja brought in longtime San Diego area chef Tom Miller to oversee the new restaurant concept, and over Labor Day weekend in 2016 All American Burgers opened for business.  

It was a five block walk up 4th Street from the front of my hotel to All American Burgers.  (see map)  It was a nice evening and even though I had been on my feet all day long, I was fine with the somewhat short walk.  After entering the front door, I found a cozy little place with a large three-sided bar in the center of the dining area.  Red lights underneath accented the front of the bar.  

I decided to sit at the bar and the stools were made out of metal, high and slick.  I damned near slid off the bar stool a couple times - and I was sober at the time!  I was soon greeted by my server/bartender, a young lady by the name of Allison who had a familiar looking face.  I couldn't quite place who she looked like, but it started to bug me as I tried to figure it out.  (Later on, a couple sat at the bar and were ordering drinks.  The lady turned to the man and said to Alison, "Oh, my God!  You look just like Madonna!"  I nodded my head in agreement, finally realizing who she looked like.  Alison said that she got the comparisons to Madonna all the time.)     

Alison dropped off a food menu and asked what I'd like to drink.  The beer menu was on a blackboard on the wall behind the bar next to some flat screen televisions.  It wasn't a big list, but it featured only San Diego area breweries.  I ended up getting the AleSmith .394 pale ale.  

Burgers are the main item on the menu at All American Burgers, but they do have appetizers, as well as a ground turkey burger, a grilled chicken sandwich, and a grilled ahi tuna sandwich for the non-beef lovers.  Salads and a veggie burger were also available.  All American Burgers gets their beef from Grass Run Farms outside of Greeley, CO., and all the beef is grass-fed with no antibiotics or hormones injected into the cattle.  All burgers come with a 1/3 pound patty and are served on a brioche bun.  

They have only 8 burgers on the menu and no way to be able to "build-your-own", so I was pretty limited in the combinations of items they placed on the burgers.  They had a burger with a fried egg and a beefsteak tomato slice on it - I don't like the tomato/egg taste combination.  They had a burger with avocado, tomato slice, white American cheese and bacon that sounded good, as did the Firehouse burger with fried jalapeños, pepper jack cheese, and a sriracha aioli.  But I was trying to find something where the toppings didn't overtake the taste of the beef.  

I ended up getting the mushroom and Swiss cheese burger.  Alison tried to talk me into getting a side of fries - they were double fried French fries that were tossed after cooking in kosher salt, chopped parsley and parmesan cheese, then drizzled with a duck fat truffle oil.  I don't know how I could have said no to those, but I've been really cutting back on potatoes and pasta over the past few months.  It was a personal victory for me to not order the fries.  (Or the pale ale-battered onion rings.  Yow!)  

The burger was brought out in a small baking sheet.  (My wife and I invested in about a half-dozen of the 9" x 13" baking sheets a couple three years ago and they're so versatile for everything from baking Italian sandwiches, to toasting bread in the oven, to serving food on the deck.)  The top of the brioche bun was branded with the All American Burgers logo.  I thought it was a nice little touch.  

The burger was delicious.  The beef was lean, but it was still juicy.  The Swiss cheese was melted over the top of the sautéed mushrooms, but neither took away the wonderful taste of the burger patty.  About the only problem I had with it was the brioche bun - there was too much of it.  I found myself tearing away parts of the bun while I was eating the burger because it was just too large and too much.  But that didn't take away from the overall good taste of the burger, itself.  

All American Burgers doesn't have a big list of burgers to choose from.  But most of them are pretty interesting with their combinations of the grass-fed beef patties and toppings.  The mushroom/Swiss burger that I got was very good, but the brioche bun was a little too much at times.  The cozy little space was also lively, as were the bartenders who did a good job of taking care of me that evening.  A good burger and a cold beer was all that I was looking for that evening and All American Burgers more than fight the bill for that. 

Breckenridge Brewery - Breckinridge, CO

We got into Breckenridge, CO a little after 2 p.m. after taking a very scenic drive down from Steamboat Springs earlier in the day.  Actually, we had planned to stop in Vail for lunch, but the town was literally shut down due to a bicycle criterium that was going on that particular day.  (We thought it was strange to shut the main exits into Vail down for a mid-week bike race.)  We soldiered on to Frisco, stopped there for a moment, then headed down to Breckenridge.  Going along the main drag through town, we were somewhat horrified to see a number of stores and restaurants that seemed to cater to tourists.  But at the end of the strip, we found something that I wanted to try - the brewpub for the Breckenridge Brewery.  

In the late 70's and into the 80's, Richard Squire was a Rocky Mountain ski bum, but a renaissance kind of ski bum.  By day, he was flying down the mountain runs of Colorado and Utah, but at night, he would brew beers that he'd share with his friends.  While living in Breckenridge in the 80's, Squire came up with an Amber Ale that his friends thought was outstanding.  Laws were changing in Colorado allowing for on-site sale of brewed beers and a couple of brewpubs had already opened in the state and Squire thought the might like to do something in Breckenridge.  Encouraged by friends and family, Squire - along with two partners, Ed Cercovnik and Todd Usry - found a building in Breckenridge where he opened the Breckenridge Brewery in February of 1990 as - they claimed - the third microbrewery to open in Colorado.  (CooperSmith's in Fort Collins may dispute this - as would Odell Brewing Co. - which claim to be the 3rd and 4th microbreweries to open in Colorado after they both opened days apart in November of 1990.)   

From the start, Squire wanted his beers and food he served to be fresh and innovative.  Quality ingredients in both were a key to his rapidly growing reputation for having some good beers and equally good food.  Weekenders and vacationers to Breckenridge helped fuel the popularity of Squire's beers so much that in 1992 he and his partners opened a bottling operation in downtown Denver - the first microbrewery to do so in the state of Colorado.  By 1996, Breckenridge had grown out of their first Denver facility and moved a couple miles south into a new brewing facility.  

Squire was initially helped in his venture by a Denver lawyer, Ed Cerkovnik.  Cerkovnik had been practicing law in Denver since 1984, but ended up quitting his law firm in 1994 to oversee Breckenridge Brewing's rapidly growing business.  And one of Squire's first employees was a young delivery driver by the name of Todd Usry.  Usry eventually worked his way up through the company to become the Director of Brewing at Breckenridge.   

In 2010, Breckenridge Brewing Co. and the Wynkoop Brewing Co. merged their holdings in both breweries and restaurant properties under one umbrella - orchestrated by Cerkovnik whose specialty during his legal days were corporate mergers.  Between Breckenridge and Wynkoop, they were the 50th largest craft brewer in the nation - eventually distributing in 35 states - and they had nearly a dozen restaurants that they ran in Colorado.

As the Breckenridge and Wynkoop cooperative grew, Squire took more of a backseat in the day-to-day operations.  Usry had been the Director of Brewing for awhile and he announced that the company was going to open a large brewing facility in the Denver suburb of Littleton.  That facility opened in May of 2015 and was situated on 12 acres of land along the South Platte River.  It also featured the Farm House restaurant which became a popular destination for food and beer in the Denver area.  

When the Littleton facility was opened, the new facility had the capability of doubling the annual output of beers and poised Breckenridge to be distributed across the continental U.S.  But not all the partners of the Breckenridge/Wynkoop joint venture were on board with the growth spurt they saw in the future.  That's when The High End - Anheuser-Busch/InBev's craft beer acquisition group - came calling with an offer.  In early 2016, Breckenridge Brewery was sold to A-B/InBev for an undisclosed amount.  The High End was just interested in the Breckenridge Brewery and the original brewpub in Breckenridge.  Breckenridge/Wynkoop kept hold of its restaurant/brewpub properties which include one of my favorite - if not my favorite - burger joint, The Cherry Cricket in Denver.  

Located on S. Main in a building with a brick facade, a small second story terrace and a patio off to the side, we pulled into the small parking lot at Breckenridge Brewery.  (see map)  We were lucky to find one spot open and after maneuvering into the tight spot we went inside the restaurant.  We wondered how bad it would have been to find parking in the area during the lunch or dinner rush.  

Inside, we were greeted by a hostess at a front counter that featured a lot of Breckenridge Brewery swag and tchotchkes for sale along with shelves of t-shirts behind the counter.  The main bar area was to the left and featured large tanks behind the corrugated metal-faced bar.  There was a step up area that led to the outside patio and a small room off to the side of the bar.

We were seated in that small room at a table in the middle of the room and given food menus to look through.  Our server for the meal, a young lady by the name of Teresa who was pretty neutral with her personality came over to greet us.  She asked us what we wanted to drink and we told her we needed a minute on that.  

So, here's a full disclosure - I've never been that big of a Breckenridge beer fan.  Their original Avalanche Amber Ale is good, but it doesn't really trip my trigger.  Their Vanilla Porter is very popular, but I don't like porters all that much and I definitely don't like vanilla in my beer.  However, to our surprise, they had beers from other craft breweries available - most, if not all, were owned by the same High End craft beer section of Anheuser-Busch/InBev.  My wife and I each got an Omission pale ale, part of the Craft Brew Alliance that includes breweries such as Kona, Redhook, and Widmer Brothers that A-B bought 1/3 of their shares in 2010.  

The food selection at the Breckenridge Brewery wasn't all that extensive, but they had burgers, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and some hearty food items to choose from.  (Entrees such as a beef tenderloin filet, pork chops and pesto gnocchi are available after 4 p.m.)   I thought about getting the Las Vegas burger that was topped with Swiss cheese, smoked bacon, an avocado slice, and onion strings.  The reuben was also enticing, as was the steak melt sandwich that was topped with provolone cheese with sautéed mushrooms and onions.  I really didn't know what I wanted.  

My wife got the smoked salmon that was served on a bed of fresh spinach along with pecans, dried cranberries and goat cheese.  Grilled asparagus was also included in the salad.  She had her choice of dressings and she ended up with the balsamic vinaigrette. 

My eyes kept wandering back to a part of the menu that featured their larger portion "Brewhouse Favorites".  Something in that group piqued my interest - the elk meat loaf.  I'm always sort of enamored with elk meat since our trip to Estes Park a few years back and I thought I'd give it a try.  It featured two large slabs of elk meat loaf on a bed of mashed potatoes topped with onion straws and a brown stout gravy.  

Elk meat is pretty lean and can be sort of tasteless.  I'm sure that if it's baked in an oven, pretty much all the moisture that is in it can be cooked out.  Chopped portobello mushrooms and ground bacon were mixed in with the meat loaf and it was glazed with chipotle-berry concoction to give it a bit more flavor.  It appeared that the slabs were lightly grilled, as well.  But honestly, it didn't help.  It's not that it was bad, to me it was just all right.  I just felt it was lacking a bit in the overall flavor.  

My wife's smoked salmon was - she thought - very good.  It was a large smoked salmon filet that had a smoky outer shell with tender and moist salmon underneath.  We traded bites of the elk meat loaf and the smoked salmon and, as it always nearly happens, the ordered the better of the two choices.  

The portions were also huge.  There was no way that I was going to get through two slabs of the elk meat loaf along with the onion straws and the mashed potatoes.  My wife left a lot of greens in her bowl as she concentrated more on the tasty smoked salmon.  When Teresa came around to ask if we wanted boxes, we declined.  Actually, even if we weren't traveling, I probably wouldn't have taken the rest of the elk meat loaf.  

So, that was our visit to the original Breckenridge Brewery.  Portions were large, the service was neutral and efficient, atmosphere was the typical Colorado laid-back experience.  Parking was challenging, especially for the size of the place coupled with patio seating.  I know people really like the beers at Breckenridge Brewery, but I haven't been a big fan of them over the years. Even though Breckenridge Brewery is now owned by a large corporate entity, it was still a nice place with above average food and a good Colorado brew pub vibe.  

Roja Mexican Grill - Omaha

It had been a long day of travel for my wife and I as we drove from Colorado Springs to downtown Omaha on the back end of our vacation to Colorado earlier this year.  We checked into the hotel and scouted around for places to eat.  My wife was up for Mexican food - we had been talking about missing out on the opportunity for good Mexican food at the Hacienda Colorado location in Colorado Springs that we had passed by on the way out of town that morning - and we decided to look for someplace that was near the hotel.  I seemed to remember someone telling me about Roja Mexican Grill at some point in the past and it turned out it was just a five minute walk from our hotel.  We got into Roja in the Old Market area of downtown Omaha just before 9 p.m. on a Saturday evening.  (see map)   

Roja Mexican Grill is part of the Flagship Restaurant Group family of restaurants that consist of Blue Sushi (click here to see the Road Tips post on Blue Sushi), Blatt Beer and Table (click here to see the Road Tips post on Blatt Beer and Table), and Plank Seafood Provisions.  Five partners - 3 from Nebraska and 2 from Texas - started their first Blue Sushi restaurant in 2002, and today there are 13 Blue Sushi (or a variation of Blue Sushi) restaurants with most of the locations in and around Omaha, but other locations in Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Naperville, IL and Lexington, KY.  The first Roja Mexican Grill opened in southwest Omaha in 2004, with the one in the Old Market opening in 2010.  The emphasis is on Tex-Mex cuisine and they feature over different selections of premium tequilas which makes them locally famous for their margaritas.  

We walked in to Roja and we found ourselves in the midst of a number of people who were waiting for tables. This didn't bode well, I thought, and I turned to my wife and suggested we go to Plan B - of which we really didn't have a Plan B.  However, a hostess came up to the stand and we asked how long it would be to get a table.  "Oh!  I can seat you guys right away," she said.  "But first, I have to seat these people.  But I'll be right back."  She hollered loud enough for the large group of people to hear her command for them to follow her and they all filtered out of the area.

Roja is the Spanish word for red and the restaurant definitely had a reddish hue to the decor.  There was a rectangular bar in the front center of the restaurant.  A number of tables in the center of the room were pushed together for the large group that came in just before us.  High-backed art deco-style booths were in the back area of the restaurant.  It was in one of those booths the hostess sat us.  With the large group of 20-somethings not far from us, it was pretty loud in there. 

We were greeted by a young lady who dropped off a couple of menus and took our drink order.  We got a couple of Herradura margaritas sent out to us - STAT!  After a long day of driving, we really needed to have a good margarita.  And they were good.  They were tart and not sweet or syrupy like you'll find at most Mexican restaurant chains.  My first one went down pretty quickly.  

We also got some complementary chips and salsa, but we also ordered a platter of fresh-made guacamole.  Fresh chopped onions were immediately recognizable in the guacamole as was a hint of fresh lime juice.  Chopped tomatoes, sliced jalapeños and shredded lettuce came on the side with the guac if one wanted to mix it all together. 

The chips were thin, crisp, and very fresh.  The were warm and weren't greasy at all.  The fresh pico de gallo salsa had hints of cilantro, onion and garlic, and it was also very good.  

The menu at Roja featured a number of Mexican favorites - enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, tacos and combination plates.  They also had a number of vegetarian options, as well.  The menu also featured a handful of Tex-Mex specialties including a slow-roasted chipotle pork entree and a green chile/buttermilk marinated chicken breast.  A number of entrees were also available as combinations on the menu.  

My wife found something on the menu that intrigued her enough to order - the beef and cheese-stuffed chile rellenos.  They were two roasted Anaheim peppers that were stuffed with a combination of seasoned ground beef with Monterey jack and cheddar cheese.  They were then breaded and flash-fried for a crunchy outer shell.  They came with a side of runny refried beans, rice, chopped lettuce, sliced jalapeños, and a bit of pico de gallo  My wife thought they were fine - she thought the outer shell was a little too crispy like it may have been in the fryer a little too long.  

I was looking at a couple of things - the grilled Mahi Mahi tacos sounded good.  But I ended up going with the pork enchiladas topped with Roja's chile verde sauce.  Chopped onions were mixed in with the marinated pork in the enchiladas.  Along with the chile verde sauce, chopped cilantro and melted cheddar topped the two enchiladas.  The same sides that my wife got were on my plate.  I didn't pay much attention to the sides.

The pork was tender and had a bit of a citrus flavor.  The smoky chile verde sauce helped enhance the taste of the pork.  While I can't say they were the best pork enchiladas I've ever had, they were still pretty darned good.  I was more than happy with my choice.  

Omaha residents have been enjoying Roja for nearly 15 years with their mix of Mexican and Tex-Mex favorites, a wide variety of salsas and sauces to choose from, and a long list of premium tequilas for their very good margaritas.  It was a little loud in the place - thanks mainly to a large group seated near us - but the service was very good, the food was above average, and the margaritas really hit the spot.  I also have to mention that the chips and pico de gallo salsa were both very good, along with the guacamole.  Roja certainly fit the bill to squash the Mexican food craving my wife and I were having that evening.  

Americana - Des Moines

My wife and I had gone back to the Des Moines area to help celebrate a significant birthday for my younger sister.  We stayed in downtown Des Moines at the new Hilton Hotel and we had made plans with a friend of ours to meet for Sunday brunch.  I wasn't too familiar with many places that did a nice casual brunch on Sunday in Des Moines, so I did an on-line search for brunch suggestions.  One place that caught my eye was a restaurant on Locust Street by the name of Americana.  We made reservations for 10:15 a.m. and we met up with our friend one recent Sunday morning.

Scott Carlson had grown up all over the United States and in London thanks to a father who held in-demand jobs.  Family nights usually consisted of eating out in restaurants in each of the new cities he lived in.  He finally settled down in Des Moines to attend Drake University to work toward a marketing degree.  It was there that he met his future wife, Kristin, who was a Des Moines native.  When the two decided to marry, Kristin asked Scott if he would stay in Des Moines.  He said he would, only if he could find a job.  

Carlson had seen the future and it was in these new brewpubs where they brewed their own beer and served food.  Even though brewpubs were not a sure bet as they had become some years later, Carlson identified two new brewpubs coming to Des Moines and he went to talk to the owners of both brewpubs to offer his services.  Suddenly, Carlson found himself going from not having a job to having two job offers from the two new brewpubs in Des Moines.  He ended up going with K.C. Hopps, a Kansas City-based brewpub that was going to open shortly in downtown Des Moines.

Court Ave. had fallen on hard times.  After the devastating floods of 1993, Court Ave. had a number of old empty buildings.  But the owners of K.C. Hopps renovated a building that was originally built in the 1880's as a saddlery, but over the years it housed a glove manufacturer, a stove manufacturer, an ice cream cone maker, and eventually the Kaplan Hat Company where a small Jewish man by the name of Harry Kaplan sold every type of hat - from Little League baseball hats to fedoras to cowboy hats - either wholesale in batches or to the public.  After Harry passed away, the ground floor of the Saddlery Building (as it was known) became a restaurant - Kaplan Hat Company - that paid homage to the kind Mr. Kaplan.

After 19 feet of water inundated the building in 1993, it sat empty for three years before the franchise owners of K.C. Hopps - along with building owner Lloyd Linn - renovated the five story building and putting the brewpub into the space that formerly housed the Kaplan Hat Co. restaurant.  Scott Carlson was the manager of the brewpub - which changed its name to Court Ave. Brewing Co. not long after it opened.  Carlson held that capacity for three years before he moved on to work for a wine distributor in the Des Moines area.  

CABCO - as it was affectionately known to the regulars of the place - had fallen on hard times after Carlson left the business.  So, in 2001, Carlson came back to take over the restaurant along with Lloyd Linn.  They renovated the brewpub, Carlson recruited chefs from faraway places such as Mexico City and New Orleans, and he put a focus on the quality of food and service.  His idea was that with the growing brewpub trend in Iowa and across the Midwest, a person could get a craft beer and a cheeseburger at just about any brewpub. He wanted his place to be special and memorable.  

Hiring the right people was also a key element to Carlson's success at Court Ave. Brewing Co. and one of his hires was a young man who literally grew up in the restaurant business.  Mike Utley began to work in his uncle's bar and grill in the summer time when he was 12 years old.  He liked it so much that he kept working in restaurants after school and in the summer up and through his high school years.

Utley wasn't exactly certain that he really wanted to be in the restaurant business, so he went off to college to learn how to be a recording engineer.  After getting his degree from Full Sail University - a leading college for video and recording engineers - Utley came back to Des Moines.  When he needed a job to get by for the time being, he went to work at Court Ave. Brewing Co. in 2004.  

Carlson soon saw the talent in Utley and he quickly moved the young man up the ladder giving him more responsibilities until Utley was eventually named the General Manager of CABCO.  After a couple three years working together, Mike Utley decided that he wanted to do something on his own.  He talked with Carlson and the two came up with a concept of a new restaurant - a restaurant that served good old fashioned Americana food with a contemporary flair.  

They found a building on Locust Ave. toward the southwest edge of Des Moines' downtown area that housed an events space.  (Before World War II, the building used to house a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership.)  With investors, loans and out-of-pocket money from Carlson, the two overhauled the building into a 200-seat space complete with a full bar and mezzanine seating.  Americana was opened in May of 2011 with Utley as the managing partner.

On weekends, a parking lot that is used during the week by the Flynn Wright media company next to Americana is available for patrons to park in.  That's where we parked and we went inside Americana - which is located just across the street from the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines (see map) - to meet our friend.  She was there waiting for us at the appointed time of 10:15 a.m.  When I made the reservations a couple three days before, there was a stipulation that we had to vacate our table within two hours.  I thought it was rather strange - at first.  Then I realized that a party could sit there most of the day - brunch on Saturday and Sunday starts at 9 a.m. and runs to 3 p.m. - graze on the prix fixe food and not allow other patrons to have the table.  Two hours sounded sort of reasonable to me.

We were seated in the front corner of the restaurant at a table that featured banquette seating along the wall.  There was a large bar area and a mezzanine area upstairs.  The place was filling up fast with diners when we got there and by the time we left the place was packed with many people waiting for tables near the front door.  

Our server that morning was Hallie, a friendly young lady who told us the Bombshell Brunch served during the weekend morning and mid-day period at Americana was $20 per person.  While Americana's regular menu features a number of Midwestern favorites with a contemporary touch such as roasted chicken (I understand that Monday nights are a big hit with customers as it's "Endless Fried Chicken" night), bacon-wrapped meat loaf, and seared pork tenderloin medallions, the brunch menu features over 40 different items giving a wide variety of foods to try.  

Before we ordered food, Hallie offered up a couple of drink options.  For $30 per person they have bottomless mimosa's or unlimited Bloody Mary's during the Bombshell Brunch.  I didn't think that I would have more than one Bloody Mary, so I just ordered one.  My wife got a mimosa and our friend also opted for the Bloody Mary.

When Hallie brought back our glasses, she asked if we were familiar with the drill for brunch.  We were not.  She offered to take us on a tour of the place to give us a lay of the land.  The first stop was the "build-your-own" Bloody Mary bar that was stacked with different types of mixes and fixin's to add to the vodka set up she brought out in pint glasses.  All different types of things from sweet and dill pickles, stuffed olives, hot sauces, sausage wedges, etc. were available to add to your Bloody Mary.  I don't mind some things added to enhance a Bloody Mary, but some of the things available on the "make-your-own" bar were a bit over the top for me.  

Just across from the "build-your-own" Bloody Mary bar was the "Famous Grilled Cheese Station."  They had a couple of guys making grilled-cheese sandwiches where they had different types of cheese, meats and veggies that can be added and grilled.  The pizza grilled cheese sandwich sounded pretty good as it featured pepperoni slices, sliced mushrooms, and pepperoncini rings with mozzarella and provolone cheeses.   

Hallie took us into a side room where they had a number of dessert items, a loaded mashed potato bar, and a taco bar that featured items such as scrambled eggs with peppers, cheese and smoked brisket.  The brisket on its own was outstanding.  

In the far back was the kitchen area where Hallie said they would have special chef's table eating at time.  (She told me that they can accommodate gatherings of well over 100 people with the loft area and a banquet room upstairs.)  It was in this room where they had comfort food such as beef, cheesy potatoes, fried chicken, as well as breakfast items such as scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon.  It was really quite the spread throughout the place.

Once I made my Bloody Mary, I went through the line to try a little bit of everything.  As I said, the smoked brisket in the taco bar was outstanding.  The cream cheese potatoes were delicious.  The fried chicken had been sitting in the pan for awhile making it a little dry, but it was still very good.  The bacon was thick and delicious.  And while I didn't try one of the grilled cheese sandwiches they offered, they looked pretty damned good.  

A couple trips through the buffet trying this and that both times was more than enough for me.  It was a lot of rich food and I was thoroughly stuffed - so much so that I didn't have anything else to eat the rest of the day.  We sat and talked for awhile before I took a look at the clock on my phone and realized that it was just after noon.  Given the amount of people that were waiting for tables by the front door, we knew it was time to go and let someone else have the table.  

The Bombshell Brunch at Americana was the bomb - and then some.  While I'm not too big on buffets, the weekend brunch at Americana was very good.  The Bloody Mary bar was fine - I didn't care for some of the thicker tomato-based mixes they offered - but the food spread has a little bit of everything for everybody.  It was a nice space, and the service we experienced was outstanding - including the guided tour of the different brunch areas beforehand.  It was an overall pleasant experience and it's pretty easy to see why the weekend brunch at Americana is so popular.  But I'd certainly like to go back and try some of their contemporary Midwestern comfort food at some point.