Road Tips

Ike's - Bloomington, MN

 I had an appointment with an account in Bloomington late one afternoon and I was looking for a place not too far from the meeting place for a late lunch.  I had noticed a restaurant in an office building that was set back from the road just north of 494 in Bloomington and decided to give it a try for dinner on a previous trip to the Twin Cities, but it turned out that the place was packed.  However, this day it was late enough that it was well past the noon rush. This time I was going to have lunch at the very popular Ike's restaurant with five locations around the Twin Cities.  

Gene Winstead worked for a vending and gaming machine company and worked with a number of bars and restaurants in the area over the years.  Gene epitomized the term "Minnesota Nice" as he was highly respected in Bloomington, a city that he had made his home back in the mid-70's.  He served on many civic and governmental commissions over the years, and in 1995 Gene was appointed to the city council in Bloomington.  In 2000 he was elected to his first term as mayor of the city.  Gene has been re-elected four times and continues to be a popular leader for the City of Bloomington.  

In the early 2000's, Winstead (whose sister Lizz Winstead is an author/comedienne/satire writer and co-founder of The Daily Show) partnered with restaurateur Carl "Chip" Isaacson to open the original Ike's in downtown Minneapolis.  Styled after post-World War II supper clubs, Ike's classy setting was also inviting and warm to patrons who would be going to and from shows and sporting events in downtown Minneapolis.  

After putting an Ike's location in the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport in 2005, Winstead and Isaacson set their sights on a location in Bloomington in 2008.  They had a signed a letter of intent to lease a location in the city, but that fell through at the last moment.  Isaacson was determined to put an Ike's in the suburbs of Minneapolis and he found a spot in what was the former Primo Italian restaurant.  Isaacson decided he wanted to focus fully on the Minnetonka location, so he sold his partnership in the downtown and airport Ike's location and opened the new Ike's in 2012 as a licensed franchisee from Winstead.  

Pictured right - Gene Winstead.  Photo courtesy Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine.  

Two MarketPointe is a multi-use office building along 78th St. W. in Bloomington.  Built in 2008, it houses a number of corporate offices and featured a seafood restaurant - Blue Point Oyster Bar - that went out of business in 2015.  Winstead hashed out a deal with the building's owners and took possession of the space in Nov. of 2015.  After months of renovations, the Bloomington Ike's opened in the spring of 2016.  (There is also an Ike's location inside the new U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.)  

There's a parking lot in front of the entrance to Ike's and I was able to find a spot in there.  (see map)  Walking into the lobby of the building, I found the interior entrance to Ike's.  A dark walnut facade with windows flanked either side of the entry.  A maroon canopy with the Ike's logo was above the front entrance.  

I walked into the restaurant and there was literally no one in there.  I waited for a moment at the hostess stand and finally a bartender came out of the back.  She asked if she could help me and I asked if they were open.  "Sure," she said enthusiastically.  "You can sit anywhere you like."  When I asked if I could sit at the bar, she said that was fine.  She introduced herself as Paige and gave me a menu to look over.  I ordered up a Schell's Oktoberfest beer, but I saw a picture of a bloody mary that they serve at Ike's that looked pretty good.  "It is very good," Paige said when I enquired about it.  I thought about getting one, but remembered that I had another appointment later that day.  

The bar area also featured a lot of dark walnut accents.  The bar was two sided with a number of booths along the walls and tables in the middle of the room.  A number of reprints of portraits and photographs were on the walls around the booths.  This looked to be the main dining area of the place.

There's also a dining area off to the left side as you walk into Ike's.  It is usually closed for the lunch hours, but is open at night for overflow dining.  

From what I could tell, the lunch menu didn't seem to be much different from the dinner menu minus some entrees that appeared to be only served in the evening.  It was heavy on salads, appetizers, sandwiches, burgers and small plate selections.  They also had a daily feature each day of the week and this particular day it was the house-made pot roast.  Mmmm....  That sounded yummy!

But so did a couple three other things on the lunch menu.  The wine-soaked sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese burger sounded very good.  As did the smoked turkey and bacon club sandwich.  And they also have the same steak sandwich on the menu that is a very popular item at the U.S. Bank Stadium.  

I was reading about their chili - they use three different types of meats, three different types of beans and three different types of peppers in their chili along with a proprietorial blend of spices and herbs.  I ended up ordering a cup of that.  It came with a side of cheese, chopped green onions and sour cream - just the way I like my chili served.  (I've also learned to like chili with chopped lettuce on top with the other stuff, as well.)  There were big chunks of meat in the chili, but it wasn't thick.  And I like a that isn't quite so thick where the place brags that you can stand a spoon up in it and it won't fall over.  No, I'd rather have some chili that is a bit runny, thank you.  And this was very good. 

I couldn't help it - I had to go with the pot roast special they had that day.  They braise the Angus beef in the pot roast all day along with vegetables in a mixture of herbs, spices, and a dark beer.  It was served on a bed of garlic-mashed potatoes covered with a beef gravy with a side of peas.  A side of creamy horseradish came with the pot roast, but I had Paige get me some fresh ground horseradish.  

The portion served was the perfect size for lunch, especially after having a cup of chili.  The pot roast was wonderful - tender, moist, flavorful.  A large steak knife came out with the plate, but the beef was so tender that I didn't need it.  This was simply a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs type of meal.  

After I finished, Paige brought out a chocolate chip cookie as a free signature dessert at Ike's.  It was warm and gooey and I mentioned that they needed to serve milk with the cookie.  Paige said, "Yeah, something like a shot of milk!  That's a good idea!"  Frankly, I thought she would get me a small glass of milk to go along with it, but she didn't.  And that was fine.  

I usually stay near the Ike's location in Bloomington and I made a mental note to put this place on my rotation of restaurants in the area.  There were a lot of interesting items on the menu - I'll have to try one of their burgers on my next visit - and they had a good craft beer list and, of course, a tantalizing bloody mary.  And I can't say enough about the professional and friendly service I received.  It didn't hurt that there was a very light lunch crowd when I was there.  Still, Ike's was a nice, laid-back place with what I would call a very upscale bar menu - one of the kind of places that I like to seek out when I travel. 

Flatted Fifth BBQ and Blues (and River Ridge Brewing) - Bellevue, IA

Last fall when I was working a event over a weekend, my wife decided to take a road trip on a warm fall day up along the Mississippi River in Eastern Iowa.  She ended up in Bellevue, IA and went to a little brew pub called River Ridge Brewing.  She talked about how good the beer was there and how friendly the people were.  On a cold and blustery Sunday a few weeks ago with nothing going on for us that day, we decided to get in the car and head up to Bellevue to try River Ridge Brewing.  And we ended up having lunch at the Flatted Fifth BBQ and Blues restaurant in the historic Potter's Mill in Bellevue.  

Potter's Mill is a former grist mill along Big Mill Creek not far from the Mississippi River.  The building - one of the oldest in the state of Iowa - dates back to 1845 and featured six large milling stones turned by water turbines from a dam on the creek.  E.G. Potter was the first owner of the mill and he had customers for his ground flour all around the Midwest and extending to the Eastern part of the United States and down to New Orleans.  Potter sold the mill in 1871 and it changed hands a number of times over the years before the Mill finally closed in 1969.  

The neglected property went up for auction in 1980 and it was bought by Dr. Daryll and Carolyn Eggers who had planned to restore the original mill.  However, that turned out to be a task that was unfeasible and, in turn, they transformed the property into a restaurant/gift shop.  Historical flooding on the Mississippi in 1993 caused the Eggers to close the restaurant.  They eventually opened part of the building as a bed and breakfast destination.  A couple parties bought the restaurant on contract from the Eggers, but both defaulted causing the Eggers to shutter the place for good in 2011.  The building was offered at a deep discount at auction and the City of Bellevue was offered the building at a low price, but it sat empty for three years.  

Mark Herman grew up in Mason City, IA and he and his wife, Rachel, were living in Rochester, MN for a number of years.  Mark was working as a business administrator for a local church after being a management consultant and owning his own landscaping business for a number of years while Rachel worked as a clinical nurse.  Both shared a passion for good food and good blues music, and the two had long harbored a desire to have a restaurant/music venue.  

Pictured right - Mark and Rachel Herman.  Photo courtesy Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.

Rachel's mother lived about an hour from Bellevue on the Illinois side of the river and the couple would pass through the small river town a number of times each year to and from her mother's home.  They always admired the Potter's Mill building and when they found out it was available, they jumped at the chance to buy the property.  

Retiring at the church, Mark Herman moved to Bellevue to oversee the building's renovation while Rachel stayed behind to work her job in Rochester, coming to join him on the weekends.  She eventually moved full time to Bellevue to live with her husband and the two opened Flatted Fifth in August of 2014.  Their chef since Day One has been Andrew Weis, a Bellevue native who was a bus boy at the original restaurant in Potter's Mill as a teenager.  After graduating from culinary school in the Twin Cities, Weis went to work at both the Hotel Julien Dubuque and the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque before joining the Herman's in the Flatted Fifth.  

As I said, our main idea going to Bellevue that day was to hit River Ridge Brewing, a nanobrewery that has been in business since September of 2016.  Two couples - Nick and Kelly Hueneke along with Kelly's brother Jeremy Roth and his wife Nikki - decided to start the brewery after years of experience both as home brewers and working in the industry.  Jeremy and Nikki Roth decided to divest themselves from the business in 2018 and the Hueneke's turned to one of their bartenders, Nic Hockenberry, to join them in the business.  

Nic's wife, Alison Simpson, also worked at the brewery and when they told Alison's father, Greg Simpson, and her step-mother, Amanda, that they were going to buy into the business, Greg Simpson jumped at a chance to buy part of the business, as well.  Greg Simpson had been a beer enthusiast and a home brewer for a number of years in addition to his normal job in as a health care professional and as a political operative in Dubuque.  Hockenberry and the Simpson's joined as owners in late summer of last year.

We pulled up in front of River Ridge Brewing around 1 p.m. on that blustery Sunday.  It's located on the main road through Bellevue.  (see map)  Nic Hockenberry and Alison Simpson were behind the bar with Greg Simpson standing at the end of the bar.  They welcomed my wife and I into the place, and Greg Simpson asked if we had ever been in the place before.  My wife recognized him from her first visit and she said, "Well, he hasn't, but I was here awhile back and talked to you just after you bought into the place."  He gregariously welcomed her back as we settled in at the small bar near the front.  

River Ridge is not that big of a place, the bar seats about six and there are tables and seating areas along the side and toward the back.  Down a hallway past the brewing room is an exit to a beer garden that is open during the warmer months.  

We got a couple of beers - the Iowa Bale Ale, a combination American pale ale and Indian pale; and the Oar What IPA that had a great hoppy taste to it.  River Ridge tries to buy local ingredients for their beers when they're available.  They don't serve food at River Ridge, but they do have two different types of beer cheese spreads and crackers that are available for $7.00.  They work with a local cheese maker to make a mild and a spicy cheese spread.  My wife thought she needed a little something to tide her over, so I sprung for the mild cheese spread and crackers.  The mild cheese spread had a bit of a spicy bite to it and I could almost imagine how more intense the spicy cheese spread would have been.  We had a few crackers with cheese and took the remainder home with us.  

After finishing up at River Ridge Brewing we made our way down to the historic Potter's Mill building to have something to eat at The Flatted Fifth.  (see map)  We went inside and were greeted by LouAnn, a friendly lady who showed us to a table on the upper level with a small stage was in the corner.  The Flatted Fifth hosts a number of local, regional, national and even international blues artists on their stage on most Saturday nights.  In fact, the restaurant/venue gets its name - Flatted Fifth (also known as the Devil's Interval or Devil's Chord) - from the fundamental chord structure and progression used by blues guitarists.  

The interior of the main dining area featured hand-hewn rafters and support pillars with stone walls.  Old grist mill machinery was on display in some areas.  It was warm, laid-back and cozy in The Flatted Fifth - so cozy that Food and Wine Magazine named the restaurant as the most cozy in the state of Iowa in 2017.  

Back behind the main dining area was a smaller dining room that was used for overflow in the restaurant.  This room had full stone walls with a handful of tables that could handle groups of 4 to 6 people for food.   

Since it was Sunday, they were featuring their brunch menu at The Flatted Fifth.  LouAnn said they had a special on bloody mary's that day and we had a choice between ones infused with Flatted Fifth's house-made barbecue sauce or a regular bloody mary mixture.  I took the BBQ bloody while my wife got the regular one.  I also got a pint of the Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue to go along with my bloody mary.  The BBQ bloody was thick and had a spicy taste, but the sweetness of the barbecue sauce was not something that I particularly liked.  My wife's bloody mary was also a bit spicy, but I liked the taste of their mixture better than the BBQ bloody mary.  

If we would have had access to the regular lunch menu, we would have found a limited selection of Cajun-inspired and barbecued meat sandwiches and some southern entrees such as red beans and rice, chicken pot pie and shrimp & cheesy grits.  The dinner menu opens up more choices, especially on the entree side of things including Cajun seafood pasta, chicken Tchoupitoulas, blackened catfish, and a Bourbon Street-style ribeye steak.  The brunch menu menu cut down on both the sandwiches and entrees, but featured chicken & waffles, pecan-crusted French toast, and a Cajun omelet stuffed with andouille sausage, shrimp and crawfish meat.  

One thing they had as an appetizer that day was a burnt end brisket platter that came with fries.  My wife and I decided to give that a try, but we didn't want the fries.  She got the cole slaw instead.   We were sort of surprised at the number of burnt ends that LouAnn brought out to us.  It looked more like a full meal rather than an appetizer.  But the burnt ends were very good.  They came with Flatted Fifth's sweet and smoky barbecue sauce that had a bit of a spicy kick.  The burnt ends were tender and lean, and had a wonderful barbecued/smoked taste quality.  

I wanted to try the jambalaya they had on the menu.  For brunch you can get a half portion or a full portion.  I took the half portion with a side salad that came with it.  One again, when LouAnn put the bowl down in front of me I had to ask if this was really a half portion.  "It sure is," she replied.  I remarked that I could almost imagine how big the full portion would be.  "We don't have many people walk out of here who are still hungry,"  LouAnn commented.  The jambalaya was a mixture of smoked chicken and andouille sausage in a creole sauce with the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers and celery on top of a bed of Cajun-style rice.  It was good - not the best jambalaya I've had - but it was still passable.  Especially when I got it a bit more spicy with some dashes of Tabasco sauce.  I concentrated mostly on the chicken and sausage sauce and left most of the rice.  Between the burnt ends, bloody mary's and jambalaya - not to mention some of the crackers and cheese spread that we had at River Ridge Brewing - that was pretty much all we were going to eat that day.  

After finishing up with our meal, LouAnn invited us to head upstairs to the third floor to the art gallery/coffee shop the Herman's dubbed "A Corner to Fill."  This used to be the bed-and-breakfast part of Potter's Mill years ago.  There's an elevator that we took up to the third floor that came out on a landing with a view of the mouth of Big Mill Creek with the Mississippi River just beyond.  

The third floor space features a cozy little combination gift shop/art gallery/coffee shop and seating area.  There was a young girl manning the area and we were the only ones in there.

The rooms featured a number of paintings and artworks by local artists.  Rachel Herman's mother and Mark Herman's sister both had a strong connection to the arts and they dedicated the area in Potter's Mill to the two ladies.

This is the type of place where my wife likes to linger and look around.  The area featured tables and chairs where people could enjoy coffee and pastries while playing board games.  We were kind of surprised we were the only ones there as it was sort of a nice little place to hang.

We made our way down the stairs to the second floor and walked into a large room that appeared to be used for private functions, meetings and receptions.  There wasn't really much to see in there other than some of the original woodwork in the room. 

It was certainly a good trip to Bellevue that day with a stop at River Ridge Brewing, then lunch at The Flatted Fifth located in the historic Potter's Mill building.  While we enjoyed the beers along with the beer/cheese spread at River Ridge, we were more than happy with the burnt ends and the jambalaya we had at The Flatted Fifth.  Potter's Mill is still a very unique place to visit, a place we'd been by many times over the years but finally took the time to visit on this trip.  If you're ever out on the Great River Road along the Mississippi south of Dubuque, take the time to stop for lunch or dinner at The Flatted Fifth, and then head over to River Ridge Brewing for a good craft beer.

Bud's Cafe and Bar - Sedalia, CO

I was somewhere last year and I was reading an article about a little tavern in a small Colorado town having a great burger.  I looked up on Google maps to see where Sedalia, CO was and found that it really wasn't that far south of Denver.  I was going to be on the south side of Denver for a few days for a trade show last October and I thought it would be kind of fun heading down to this place for a burger.  Along with a colleague who had gotten into Denver early in the day like me, we went down to have a burger at Bud's Cafe and Bar.  

Except, hardly anyone calls the place by its full name - it's simply known as Bud's Bar to many of the patrons who have come to the place over the past 60+ years.  There was a Bud - Calixte "Bud" Hebert - a Denver native who contracted polio as a child.  He tried to enter the service after studying journalism at Colorado State, but he was denied because of his earlier polio condition.  He joined the Civil Service and was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a torch cutter working on ships.  Hebert was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the base on Dec. 7, 1941.  Surviving the attack, Hebert ended up staying at Pearl Harbor for the duration of the war working on ships.  

After the war ended, Hebert returned to Denver and was looking to do something that was in line with his experience with all things mechanical.  He ended up buying a small garage in Sedalia - Herman's Garage.  The garage was slowly failing as more work was going to Denver just up the road.  But being a budding (Get it?  I know.  GROAN...) entrepreneur Bud sensed that the small town of Sedalia needed a roadhouse-type of establishment.  He renovated the old garage, put in a small counter with a few tables.  The kitchen was small - the grill was only large enough to cook four hamburgers at a time - and there was no room for a fryer.  He opened Bud's Cafe and Bar in 1948.  

Bud Hebert's little bar turned into the unofficial town hall of Sedalia and he was called upon many times by locals who had a dispute that needed to be settled.  Hebert's arbitration skills at the bar were well-noted, so much so that in 1964 he was elected as a judge for Douglas County just south of Denver.  

Hebert's wife, Helen, had passed away that same year.  The death of his wife, coupled with being a sitting judge at the county level, convinced Hebert that he had to sell his bar.  He didn't think that the owner of a bar should be a sitting judge and he turned to one of the bar's part-time workers to buy the place from him, Therman Thompson.

(As an aside, Bud Hebert served as the Douglas County judge until his retirement in 1976.  A couple three years later, he met Rosemary Canham.  Canham grew up in Rock Island, IL and was living in Dubuque when her husband passed away in 1977.   Rosemary and Bud were married in 1980 and ended up moving to Davenport, IA in 1992 to be closer to Rosemary's daughter.  Bud passed away in Davenport in 2000 at the age of 87.  Rosemary, who was a renown singer earlier in her life, lived to be 100, passing away in Davenport in 2015.)  

Other than working for Bud Hebert part-time for 9 years, Therman Thompson really didn't have much experience in running a bar.  A former Navy veteran, Thompson worked for the nearby Louviers Dynamite works, a DuPont-owned facility that produced over 1 billion pounds of dynamite over a 60-plus year period starting in 1908.  When dynamite production began to wane in the early 60's, Thompson jumped at the chance to buy the bar from Bud Hebert.  

Over the years, Thompson, and his wife, Mary Anne, transformed Bud's Bar into more of a social meeting place and not one where disputes between local residents were resolved.  Not only were the burgers good and the beer cold, but the locals would meet to discuss various local, state and national topics.  Some people - thinking that Thompson was the "Bud" of Bud's Bar - started to call him by that nickname.  He never corrected them and after awhile he became "Bud Thompson".  Good-natured, self-deprecating and the willing recipient of the butt of jokes from friendly patrons, Thompson ran Bud's Bar for 40 years.

Thompson loved to fly-fish up in Wyoming's Miracle Mile area along the North Platte River.   A fishing buddy by the name of Mike Steerman was with Thompson on a fishing trip in Wyoming in 2004 when Thompson said that health concerns were going to force him to sell the bar.  After talking it over with Steerman during the trip, Thompson sold Bud's Bar to Steerman who had to promise that he wouldn't change a thing to the place.  (Therman Thompson entered a nursing home in early 2005 and passed away in 2008.)  

Actually, Steerman had to break that promise almost immediately.  The floor to Bud's Bar was scuffed and worn out from years of wear and tear (including a few times local ranchers would ride their horses into the bar to play tricks on Bud Hebert) and he had to replace it.  Even though it looked just like a new version of the old wooden floor, Steerman thought it didn't fit in with the Western/Rancher decor that Hebert and Thompson had accumulated over the years.  It wasn't until a local rancher came in with a hot branding iron and seared his ranch's brand into the floor that Steerman felt that the place was returning to its old character.  

Mike Steerman continues to run Bud's Bar to this day.  Thanks to some national press over the years, lines to get into the place to try one of their burgers will sometime run down the street.  We were lucky the day we went - it was a weekday around 1:30 when we got in there and we were able to get in immediately.   

It was about a 20 minute drive down from the Tech Center area on Denver's far south side where we were staying to Sedalia which sits just off U.S. 85.  We pulled into town and literally drove through the place before we realized that we must have passed Bud's Bar.  We ended up circling back and found Bud's on the west side of Manhart Street in between two sets of railroad tracks.  (see map)  A diagonal parking spot was open just down the street from Bud's and we took that.   

Bud's isn't very big, the stone-facade building features a small dining/bar area that had booths along one side, the small bar with a knotty pine front opposite that with a number of tables in the middle of the space.  The walls were adorned with pictures, beer signs and a large flat screen television on the back wall.  

The kitchen area behind the bar is only big enough for a small grill and has no room for a fryer.  That's why the menu at Bud's Cafe and Bar features only burgers - single or double hamburgers, or single or double cheeseburgers.  "No French Fries, Damnit!" is prominently displayed on the bottom of the menu.  And you won't find craft or imported beers at Bud's - only the regular domestic heavyweights are offered.

While there was a lot of beer memorabilia on the wall, I had to take a closer look at a number of prints that were on the back wall of the dining room.  The Coors Collection, a series of paintings commissioned by the Coors Brewing Company outside of Denver, depicts a number of scenes involving cowboys.  Western Americana artist Gordon Snidow is the man behind the series of paintings who drew a total of 15 of them in the 70's and 80's.  These were obviously reprints, but the detail in each painting was rather remarkable.  

My colleague and I settled into a table toward the back of the room and took a quick look at the menu.  We both ordered up double cheeseburgers and a beer.  We were told that a small bag of potato chips came with the burgers.  Pickles and onions come on the side with the burgers at Bud's Cafe.    

The burger was delivered to the table in a plain plastic basket with wax paper.  The burgers are flat-grilled and I'm sure that grill has years of seasoning on it giving the burgers a distinctive taste quality.  They use a mix of 80-20 ground beef in the burgers and just before they serve them up, they put the burgers on the buns and cover them on the grill to make the bun even more soft.  

Bud's double cheeseburger was oozing with cheese placed on top of both patties.  And the taste was absolutely delicious.  The bun was pretty basic, but held together well with the juiciness and the cheesy nature of the burger.  The onions were fresh and very forward in taste, but not so overpowering that it killed the overall great taste of the burger.  It was one of those burgers where I went "Mmmmm....." as I took my first bite.  

I love little places like Bud's Cafe and Bar, especially ones that are pretty simple and down home in their nature.  They only do one thing at Bud's - burgers - and they do them pretty damn well.  It's nothing fancy, don't expect to see a big craft beer list, and there may be people waiting out the door to get in to get a burger on weekends.  For over 70 years, Bud's Cafe and Bar has been serving thousands who have made the trip to Sedalia.  And I'm pretty sure no one has left disappointed.  

Wasabi Tao - Des Moines

My wife and I had gone back to the Des Moines area to participate in a surprise significant birthday party for my sister this past fall.  We were going to stay in downtown Des Moines for the evening and we had planned on going to get sushi.  My sister's boyfriend said that we needed to go try Wasabi Tao.  "It's the best," he said.  "Oh, yeah," my sister said agreeing with him. "It's our favorite."  We had planned on going back to Akebono which we thought had great sushi.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Akebono.)  But from the conviction in their voices pretty much convinced us to go to Wasabi Tao that evening.  

Actually, I was somewhat familiar with the Wasabi family of restaurants since the 2011 opening of Wasabi Chi on Des Moines' northwest side.  Jay Wang was born and raised in the Fujian region of China which is known for having some of the finest culinary experiences in that country.  Wang and his friend, Tony He, both went to Japan to learn the art of Japanese cuisine before heading to New York City to work in restaurants there.  

Wang eventually ended up in Philadelphia before he came to Des Moines - how he ended up in Des Moines, I just don't know.  But along with partner Jimmy Zheng, they opened the first Wasabi restaurant with a focus on "New York-style" sushi, as well as variations on Thai and Chinese food.  It was an immediate hit with sushi lovers in Central Iowa and got a number of great reviews in local publications - not only for the food, but for the feng shui decor of the place.   

Things were going so well at Wasabi Chi that Wang was recruiting sushi chefs from both coasts.  His biggest recruit was his friend, Tony He, who was still a sushi chef in New York City.  Making He a partner in his new restaurant, Wang then opened Wasabi Tao in the former Zen - then Centro - spot in the Kirkwood building (home of the former Kirkwood Hotel) in downtown Des Moines.  

Wang expanded the Wasabi empire to open a third location - just named Wasabi - in the northwest Des Moines suburb of Johnston in the spring of 2016, while a fourth location - also called Wasabi - opened in west suburban Waukee about six months ago.  (Wang and his minority partners also own Teriyaki Boys, a fast casual Asian restaurant with locations in downtown Des Moines and at the new Outlets of Des Moines shopping complex near suburban Altoona.)   

It was after 9 p.m. when we pulled up to Wasabi Tao on Walnut Ave. in downtown Des Moines.  (see map) Walking into the place we found a sort of darkened space with a number of booths in the dining area.  Earthtone walls helped keep the brightness down in the space.  Some of the walls actually had fossil shells from the nearby Des Moines River incorporated into the surface.  

The bar area in the center of the restaurant was much more bright and vibrant.  Although there weren't a lot of people in the place at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, they had two bartenders handling drink orders.  But mainly, they were just passing time talking between themselves and a couple people seated at the bar.  There was kind of a weird "we don't really care" vibe going on with the staff as a whole that evening.  Even though they were open until 11 p.m., we just sort of got the idea that we were making somewhat of an imposition on the staff after we walked in.  

Across from the bar was the centerpiece of Wasabi Tao - a large statue of Buddha sitting majestically overseeing the restaurant.  Wang and He found this Buddha in New York City and had it shipped to Des Moines.  It reportedly cost $2000 just to ship it, and when it got to the restaurant they found that it wouldn't fit through any of the doors.  They had to literally pull out a window - as well as some of the wall surrounding the window - just to get the statue inside.  It's big and pretty impressive.  

We took a seat at the small sushi bar off to the side of the bar and we were given menus to look over (even though we pretty much knew what we were going to get).  Since it was a somewhat cold and raw night, my wife ordered a green tea and I ordered a Sapporo (only after finding out they didn't have Asahi). 

My wife also started out by ordering a Kani salad.  We also wanted to try the Salmon Toro tartar - diced salmon toro - the best part of the salmon - along with diced mango mixed with crunch and tobiko (flying fish roe).   It was served with yuzu miso (a citrusy Japanese sauce) along with a spicy momiji pepper sauce that really gave it a quick.  While my wife really enjoyed her Kani salad, I could have eaten four more of the Salmon Toro tartar appetizer - it was that good.  

We didn't think we'd be eating all that much, but we did get one each of the spicy tuna and the spicy salmon rolls.  Quite honestly, they were pretty average - at best.  They were good, but I guess we were thinking that we'd be getting some that that would just pop in our mouths.  But they were big and definitely well-stuffed with both the spicy tuna and spicy salmon.  I think I liked the spicy salmon just a little bit better.  

While I didn't think that I'd had enough, I wanted to try some of their nigiri sushi - the smoked salmon, the be exact.  At Akebono, they have a wonderful Tasmanian salmon on the menu there that is just to die for.  The smoked salmon at Wasabi Tao wasn't in the same ballpark in taste quality with the Tasmanian Salmon at Akebono (about six blocks away).  It was good, but - once again - it didn't knock my socks off, either.  

One thing that I learned after the fact about the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area is that there is a distinct difference in the levels of rice that sushi places use.  Just like how the best Italian restaurants use doppio zero (00) flour in their pastas and breads, there's sort of a top rice in Japan - Tamameshiki - that is a hybrid combination of Koshihikari and Yumegokochi rices. All the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area use Tamameshiki rice, but not a lot of places in the U.S. use that kind of rice.  And to make it even more enjoyable in taste, the Wasabi restaurants cook their rice in a seaweed dashi (broth).  Quite honestly, I'm not certain I could tell any difference, but it would be fun to focus on the rice the next time I make it to a Wasabi restaurant.

And I'll probably go back.  I need to give them another chance, given how my sister and her boyfriend talked up Wasabi Tao, plus all the glowing reviews I've read on their restaurants over the past five years or so.  I did think the Salmon Toro tartar was outstanding and my wife really thought her Kani salad was very good.  But we thought the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls were pretty average, and we weren't all that impressed with the smoked salmon sushi.  I'd like to go back and try some of their varieties of tuna sushi at some point, but until then let's just say we were oversold on Wasabi Tao after our first visit.  

Bristol Brewing Company - Colorado Springs, CO

During our trip to Colorado last year, we were having dinner at E3 Chophouse in Steamboat Springs.  (Click here to see the entry on E3 Chophouse.)  The server we had that evening was a young lady who had just moved up to Steamboat from Colorado Springs a few months before.  We told her that we were going to eventually end up in Colorado Springs and she gave us a tip on a brew pub there that she really liked.  "You have to try the Bristol Brewing Company," she said excitedly.  "It's located in an old school and the food and beer are really good!"  We made a mental note to look up Bristol Brewing Company when we got there.  Upon arrival later that week to Colorado Springs, and after a quick re-visit to the Garden of the Gods, we decided to find Bristol Brewing Company and have lunch there.  

Mike Bristol grew up in Fort Collins, CO and ended up going to his hometown college Colorado State University.  After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, he set off to Florida to work for Nissan, eventually becoming the District Manager for the company.  It was in Florida he met his wife, Amanda, who was the creative art director for an advertising company.  Mike Bristol started to play around with brewing his own beer at home.  Amanda was soon on board and they two began to share a passion that evolved into Mike building his own home-brewing equipment.

As Mike was becoming a fledgling home-brewer, a microbrewery revolution was beginning in his home town.  CooperSmith's, Odell and New Belgium were starting to make waves with their craft brews and it hit Mike Bristol, "Hey, I could do that, too!"  The only problem was that he knew he couldn't do it in Florida - it had to be in an area where the people would embrace craft beers.  After meeting with Jeff Lebesch from New Belgium, and Doug Odell from Odell Brewing, the Bristols came up with a business plan for a microbrewery.  After scouting different locales for a possible craft brewery, they picked out three cities that they believed could sustain a start-up craft brewery - Boise, ID; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Colorado Springs.  Mike Bristol was able to convince his wife to move back to his home state and they made the move in 1993.  

The Bristol's found a small space in an industrial park on the north side of Colorado Springs and opened Bristol Brewing Company in 1994.  Bristol was able to convince a handful of restaurants in the area to carry his beers and he suddenly found himself as a full-time brewer with absolutely no formal training in the art of brewing beer.  

Pictured at right - Mike Bristol.  Photo courtesy Colorado Springs Business Journal.

By 1998, Bristol Brewing had outgrown its small space and they moved to a new location on S. Tejon Street south of downtown Colorado Springs.  It was there that they did something almost unthinkable for most microbreweries - they put in a tasting room.  Other breweries would visit Bristol to see their tasting room, even though it was pretty bland in decor.  However, it appeared to be a hit with people coming to the brewery to sit and drink Bristol's beers.  Bristol's lead became the norm for many subsequent microbreweries to put in their own tasting rooms.  

Within a year, demand for bottled Bristol beers was high enough that the company bought a used Italian-made bottling line from a closed brewery in upstate New York.  They started to distribute their beers to grocery stores and liquor stores in Southern Colorado and demand intensified.  After a few years at the S. Tejon location, Bristol wanted to make another move.  

Ivywild Elementary School was built in 1916, a stately blond-brick building with ornate early-20th century architecture inside and out.  But declining enrollment forced the local school district to close the grade school in 2009.  Sitting there empty, Bristol saw an opportunity with the building that was literally walking distance from his brewery.  Along with restaurateur Joseph Coleman - owner of the (now-closed) Blue Star restaurant and a couple of other restaurants in the area - and architect Jim Fennell, the partnership group bought the former school with a plan to renovate it into retail and entertainment spaces.  

The idea of turning Ivywild into an entertainment destination came from a visit Bristol had to the McMenamins Kennedy School entertainment complex in Portland, OR.  Based out of Portland, McMenamins has over 60 locations in the Pacific Northwest, many of them former schools or public buildings.  The Kennedy School project features hotel rooms, a movie theater, several bars, a restaurant, and - of course - a brew pub.  Bristol, Coleman and Fennell wanted to do something similar with Ivywild, only without a hotel.  

The transformation took about three years and the group got a boost from the City of Colorado Springs who designated the building as an urban renewal project that allowed Bristol to put in a larger brewing facility and a warehouse.  When the Ivywild School project opened in 2013, it housed the Bristol brewery and brew pub, a coffee shop/bar, a bakery/cafe, a distillery tasting room and lounge, a small deli, a small retail shop, and spaces that could be rented out for events and celebrations.

It was around 2 p.m. when we got to Ivywild School and the Bristol Pub that is part of the Bristol Brewing Company.  We were able to find parking out in front of the building by the brewery.  (see map)  The stately old school had been modified with patios out front and the brewing facility was attached to the north side of the building.  

Inside the old building, we found a long hallway with ornate arches and a hardwood floor.  A sign at the top of the stairs directed us either direction to the coffee shop and bakery to the left and to the brewpub to the right.  We took a short tour through the building after we finished up at the brewpub.  

Ending up at the brewpub, we found a spacious area with a large bar in the middle of the room.  It was a combination of contemporary and early 20th century industrial decor.  Exposed wooden beams were on the ceiling, and there were large metal doors that hid a second room that is used for private functions or over-flow from the bar area.  The doors were repurposed from the old elephant house at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo just outside of Colorado Springs.   

Behind the bar were large windows that looked into the brewing facility at the Bristol Brewery.  The 34 barrel operation more than doubled the capacity of the brewery, and allowed for Bristol to brew more specialty beers.  The brewing operation has the capability of brewing 12,000 barrels annually with enough space to expand, if needed.    

We were greeted by a hostess and we were asked if we wanted to sit outside on the patio.  There were a number of people seated at metal tables with umbrellas and metal wired chairs, but there appeared to be a thunderstorm moving in from the mountains so we decided to sit inside.  

Our server was a affable young man who came over with a couple of food menus for us to look at.  The beer menu was also on the table and we decided to get a flight of beers to try.   The beers we tried were the Laughing Lab Scottish ale, the Red Rocket pale ale, the Kolsch, the Mass Transit ale, the Compass IPA, and another seasonal beer they had on tap that day.  In all, Bristol Brewing has nearly 40 flagship, seasonal and special beers.  I really liked the Kolsch and the pale ale.  There were a couple that we didn't care for all that much, but to each his own.  

Since it was later in the afternoon and we were planning on going out for a nice dinner that evening, we really didn't want anything really heavy for lunch.  At the Bristol Pub, they featured a handful of sandwiches, a couple three burgers, a number of shared appetizer plates, as well as some soups and salads.   I seriously thought about getting the burger that featured a beef patty topped with hickory smoked bacon, gruyere cheese, and mushrooms sautéed in whiskey from the Axe and the Oak distillery that's located downstairs from the Bristol Pub.  

But I decided to go lighter than that and got the Italian sandwich.  It featured sliced prosciutto and capocollo topped with provolone cheese, a pickled vegetable spread finished with lettuce and a garlic aioli on a toasted baguette.  Fries, chips, a vegetable medley or a salad came with the sandwich and I went with the salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  The sandwich was actually pretty good, a little too much bread for my liking, but it was still very good.   

My wife went with the Mediterranean BLT - hickory-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato and a pesto aioli on toasted semolina bread.  She got the roasted veggies medley for her side.  She was happy enough with her sandwich - it was light and it stopped any hunger pains she was having up to that point.  

After we finished up at the brewpub, we wandered the hallways of the old Ivywild school checking out the little shops and the cafe down the hall from the Bristol Pub.  Next to the pub was the Bristol Brewery swag shop featuring shirts and knick-knacks.  Down the hall was the Ivywild Kitchen, formerly known as the Old School Bakery and Cafe.  This was a pretty vibrant place that featured pretty much the same menu as at the Bristol Pub.  It was a decidedly younger crowd in there for around 2:30 in the afternoon with a number of people appearing to be studying at many of the tables.   And across the hall from there was a place called The Principal's Office that was a small coffee shop/cocktail/wine/beer bar.  We talked about coming back there the next day to get some coffee before we hit the road to start back home.  

The rain held off enough where we could have sat outside, but we were more than happy with sitting inside at the Bristol Pub.  The whole refurbishing of the old Ivywild school is a great concept and the Bristol Brewery and Pub are the centerpieces of the building.  It was one of the more unique destinations we've been to over the years and we told many of our friends about the place upon our return home.  The food was serviceable, some of the beers were very good, a couple others we didn't care for that much.  And the service we had that day was prompt, friendly and laid back.  There are over two dozen microbreweries in Colorado Springs and while we didn't try all of them on our trip there, I think we found the most interesting one.  I'd start out at Bristol Brewery and Pub and go from there if you're looking to do a craft beer tour of Colorado Springs.