Road Tips

Judy's Barge Inn - Buffalo, IA

There's a number of little towns up and down the Mississippi River that always seem to have one or two places that have good views of the river along with a serviceable food menu along with cold adult beverages.  My wife and I went out to Buffalo, west of Davenport, last summer to go have lunch at Judy's Barge Inn.  A buddy of mine lives out near Buffalo and he mentioned that we should meet out at Judy's for lunch sometime.  We finally got around to doing that during the holiday season late last year.  

Judy Van Blaracom and her husband, J.D., characterize themselves as "river people".  For years, the couple has lived on Enchanted Island, a small housing development that is right next to - and sometimes in - the Mississippi River on the southwest side of Davenport.  When a longtime restaurant in Buffalo became available a little over three years ago, Judy decided to jump in with both feet and buy the place.  She convinced her sister Terry Ruth to join her in the venture, and Judy's daughter Michelle soon joined up with her mom and aunt.  J.D. Van Blaracom is also involved in the business as sort of a "jack-of-all-trades".  Judy and her sister came up with the food menu with the same philosophy they had while growing up - make food that is good because they like to eat.  

I met my buddy at the bar around 1 p.m. on a weekday.  (Judy's is closed on Monday's.)  Judy's is housed in an old river house along Iowa Highway 22 that was originally built back in 1856.  (see map) There were a handful of locals milling about the bar area and into the attached dining area off to the side.  There's a back patio area that's open in the warmer months that also has a small stage for live music in the summer months.  There's also a smoker in the back patio area for barbecue specials Judy's runs from time to time.  During the summer months, Judy has a small produce garden in the back that she tends to for fresh vegetables and herbs, but also relies upon local growers to supply her with fresh produce year round.   

Judy's daughter Michelle was tending bar that day and recognized my buddy who is a semi-regular in the place.  She gave us a couple menus to look over and we both ordered a couple beers.  Judy's has mostly domestics, but they did have a few of the local Quad City-area craft beers to choose from, as well.  

It's not an extensive menu at Judy's - they feature a couple of burgers, a grilled chicken sandwich, a pork tenderloin sandwich and a sliced turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  Appetizers are your usual fare - chicken wings and tenders, spinach and artichoke dip with chips, pulled pork nachos, and house-made pretzel sticks.  Soups and salads are also available daily.  

When my wife and I first made the pilgrimage to Judy's last summer, I had the Judy's Barge Burger - a 1/2 pound Wagyu beef patty topped with onion straws, a fried egg, bacon, and American cheese served on a butter brioche bun.  Lettuce, sliced tomatoes, dill pickles and a slice of red onion also came on the burger.  When it was brought out to me, I was blown away by the size.  But the one thing that I remember was that the onion straws were outstanding.  I prefer onion straws over regular onion rings more times than not and Judy's are very good.

Except this time, I asked Michelle if I could also get a side of the onion straws.  Well, that was a mistake.  Not because they weren't very good - there was just a ton of them!  And there was no way that I could have eaten both the huge burger and the onion straws.  I got a side of Judy's house-made barbecue sauce on the side.

The burger was just as good as I remember it was when I first went to Judy's.  I took a lot of the onion straws off the burger and asked that the fried egg be made hard as I don't like a messy burger with a soft egg on it.  There was a hint of pink inside the burger patty and it was juicy with a great beef flavor.  Judy sources her Wagyu beef from nearby Geest Farms in Blue Grass, IA.  Geest Farms raise their beef naturally without inducing hormones or antibiotics into their cattle.  (My wife and I will get some of their frozen beef from time to time at the Freight House Farmers Market in downtown Davenport during the spring and summer months.)  

My buddy ended up getting the chicken quesadilla that was part of the appetizer menu.  A side salsa and guacamole came with the quesadilla.  It was stuffed with goat cheese and chunks of chicken, then pan-fried to melt everything together.  His eyes got huge when Michelle set it down in front of him.  "Damn," he exclaimed.  "This is going to be two meals for me."  He ate about half of what he was served and had Michelle box up the rest for him to take home.  

While we were eating, Judy Van Blaracom came into the restaurant.  She came over to my buddy and gave him a big hug.  He introduced me to Judy, who I had seen before not only in her place, but at events around the Quad Cities.  Judy's blonde hair is hard to miss and she has a bright smile with eyes that seem to dance when she talks to people.  She seems like a person who would be hard not to like.

Judy's Barge Inn doesn't have an extensive menu, but what they have seems to be very good, very fresh, and served in large portions.  Their motto - "Come in Empty, Leave Full" - is certainly an apt phrase for Judy's.  Both times I've gotten the Barge Burger from Judy's Barge Inn I've been more than happy with the quality and taste, as well as the size of the thing.  I've never been able to fully finish one in a single sitting.  Judy's Barge Inn is a friendly place where people can be comfortable just whiling away their time either in the bar area or out in back patio area in the warmer months.  One thing that I want to go back to Judy's and try is their bloody mary which is over the top like many of the food portion sizes they serve.  

Bier Markt - Montreal

Earlier this year, the company I have worked for for over 16 years was purchased by a capital investment group.  The good news is that I still have a job.  The bad news is that there's still some uncertainties and some figuring things out with the new company.  The other good thing is that my boss, the former owner of the company, was retained by the capital investment group to run the North America operations for the company.  The familiarity of working with the same people is a big plus, but even during the course of transition, there's still some apprehension.  To help get over the trepidation and uneasiness of this transition, my boss called for a company meeting in Montreal.  The only problem was that it was in late January.  And Montreal in January isn't as fun as Montreal in, say, August.  Still, I always relish the chance to go to the city as it has a lively and diverse culinary scene.  For lunch one day, a group of us went to a sort of sports bar/beer place by the name of Bier Markt.  

Bier Markt is a small chain of restaurants that started in Toronto in 2001.  A Toronto restaurant group, Prime Restaurants - which was founded back in the early 80's - was behind the original concept of the sports bar restaurant that featured a number of beers and upscale bar food.  The Montreal location opened in 2013 along Boulevard René-Lévesque West (see map) in what was the original location of Queue de Cheval - one of the best steakhouses in Montreal - before that restaurant moved to a new location in 2012.  

In 2013, Prime Restaurants sold their portfolio that included Bier Markt to Cara Operations Ltd., the oldest restaurant group in Canada which got its start in the early 1880's selling confectionaries and magazines in Canada Railway train stations across the nation.  Now known as Recipe Unlimited, the restaurant group owns and operates 18 different brands of full-service and fast-casual restaurants across Canada.  Today, there are 7 Bier Markt locations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and St. John's, Newfoundland. 

Montreal has an intricate labyrinth of passage ways under the city's center.  The Montreal Underground City is something I've heard about, but have never experienced - until this trip.  We were staying at the Hotel Bonaventure, a 70's-era hotel known for its rooftop pool that's open even in the dead of winter.  The Hotel Bonaventure is also somewhat well-known in rock music history as the place where members of The Who completely destroyed one of the suites after a show in Montreal.  Members of the group, as well as some of their entourage, were arrested and the band's management was forced to pay nearly $10,000 in damages to the hotel to get the band out of the pokey.  

The Hotel Bonaventure is connected to the underground walkways and since it was snowing out pretty good, we decided to take the Underground City passageway to Bier Markt.   We took a lot of steps down, a lot of right turns, a lot of left turns and then steps up before we found ourselves outside in the snow and just across the street from Bier Markt.     

For a pseudo sports bar/beer joint, Bier Markt is pretty nice.  Walking into the space, I saw a metal topped bar that curved around with lots of dark wood paneling throughout the place.  

The main floor was spread out with a number of tables that featured comfortable padded chairs and a large of number of televisions that could be seen from nearly every seat in the place.  It was a lively lunch crowd that was enjoying being out of the late January snow outside.  

Toward the back of the main floor was another bar area that featured a small bar with an area for grilling meats, primarily beef and sausages for small charcuterie plates.  This place was more like a bistro than a sports bar.  

We ended up going upstairs to a second floor dining area.  There was a small bar up there along with a large glass-front refrigerator that featured a number of bottles of beer they had to offer.  They offered a wide variety of beers on their beer menu including pale ales, stouts, ciders, amber ales, and radler beers - a half beer/half fruit soda concoction - that have become popular (but I don't care for) in Canada and parts of the U.S.  They did have blonde ales available, but unfortunately they didn't have the Boréale Blonde, a locally-brewed beer that I have fallen in love with on previous trips to Montreal.  But they did have the Yakima IPA from the Le Castor brewery located about 45 miles west of Montreal.  It was actually a very good beer and one that I had many times during my visit to Montreal.  

The food menu at Bier Markt featured a number of interesting appetizers including bacon poutine (it was all I could do to NOT order that), angus beef tartare, and beer-braised duck wings.  They had sandwiches, hand-tossed pizzas, pork or chicken schnitzel, P.E.I. mussels, grilled Atlantic salmon, and steaks including a 1.5 kilogram (a little over 3 pounds) bone-in tomahawk-style ribeye.  

I went pretty basic on my trip to Bier Markt - I got the burger with frites (fries).  It was served on a sesame-seed bun and topped with what was a surprisingly fresh slice of tomato, iceberg lettuce, kosher dill pickle slices, and shaved red onions.  The burger was, well, all right.  I thought I might have been more happy getting something else, but I was sort of in a mood for a burger that day.  

After I finished my lunch and went to the washroom, our server brought out a plate of warm powdered-sugar donuts drizzled in caramel as an after-meal dessert that Bier Markt is sort of famous for.  While I wasn't expecting anything after the burger I had, I have to say these were a nice touch at the end of the meal.  The donuts were light, but the sugar and caramel gave them a decadent quality in taste.   

I have to say that Bier Markt was a nice place, but the food was just sort of average.  They had a nice selection of beers - many of which I wasn't all that familiar with - but the atmosphere was that of an upscale sports bar.  I was impressed with the layout and the comfortable atmosphere in the place.  If you're in Montreal and looking for a place that has sports, a good beer selection, and an interesting menu with some upscale bar food, Bier Markt would be worth the stop.  

Abarrotes Carrillo - Davenport, IA

My wife and I happened to be over at Wake Brewing in Rock Island, IL one recent Friday evening, a nano-brewery that we like to go to from time to time.  As we were seated at the bar, a guy and a lady came into the place with some Mexican food they picked up earlier.  The bartender inquired as to where they got the food and the guy said that it was from a small Mexican grocery store over in Davenport.  "La Finca," I asked as I turned to him standing next to me.  He said, no, it was from another place on 3rd St. on a corner on the west edge of downtown Davenport.  He couldn't remember the name of the place, but he said they had excellent Mexican food.  My wife said she knew where the place was and that we should go there sometime.  

That sometime came less than 24 hours later as we tried to get into Los Primos, one of our favorite little Mexican places in the Quad Cities, for some lunchtime tacos.  But the place was packed and they changed the way you ordered food where instead of ordering at the counter, it was now wait service.  The only problem was that they didn't have enough staff on hand to wait on tables or to clear the tables off from previous diners.  We sat there for nearly 15 minutes with a half-cleaned table before we decided to cut our losses and leave.  Disappointed, we took off toward downtown Davenport and pulled up to the corner of W. 3rd and Warren Streets to go have lunch at Abarrotes Carrillo.  (see map)

Adrian Carrillo grew up in Guanajuato, Mexico and immigrated to Muscatine a number of years ago.  He and his wife, Rosa, raised a large family - six boys and five girls.  Seeing an opportunity to open a grocery store/taqueria on downtown Davenport's west side, the Carrillo's opened Abarrotes Carrillo (basically translated as Carrillo's Groceries) in 2014.  Many of their children help out in the grocery/meat market/restaurant.  

Entering the building, you walk right into the grocery store.  There's a large emphasis on vegetables and fruits at Abarottes Carrillo finding everything from tomatillos to sapodilla in the bins.  The meat counter in the back featured pork and beef cuts, and we also saw that they had fresh ceviche in the meat case.  The young man behind the counter told us that they make their ceviche each Friday.  Canned foods, spices, and other Mexican food items were found on shelves along the narrow aisles of the tienda. 

To the left of the grocery store as you're facing toward the back when you come in is the small restaurant.  Colorful and interesting piñatas hung from the ceiling in the dining area.  We especially got a small kick out of the piñata shaped like a minion from the Despicable Me movie franchise.   

The restaurant isn't all that large - it features four or five booths along the wall with a handful of tables in the center of the room and along a half wall on the side.  Some of the Carrillo children and a few of their friends were hanging out in the back booth of the dining area as it was Saturday when we were in there.  

To order at Abarottes Carrillo, there's a window that looks into the kitchen manned by one of the Carrillo sons. There were three women working in the kitchen preparing food, which my wife says is a great sign that this was going to be some outstanding and authentic home-style Mexican cooking.  Carne Asada platters, menudo soup, tortas, pork dishes, enchiladas, and chile rellenos were part of the menu at Abarottes Carrillo.  Breakfast is also available during the mornings on weekends.  I'm pretty sure you can't get a margarita there, but imported Mexican beers were available in a cooler near the front counter of the grocery store.  We ended up just getting water on our initial visit.

After ordering at the window, we took a seat along the half wall.  Not long after we sat down, we were given a basket of chips along with a bowl of salsa and a small bowl of a creamy avocado concoction.  We asked if they had any type of a salsa verde and the young man brought out two bottles.  "The salsa verde is kind of spicy," he explained.  "But the other sauce is muy caliente."  And he said that with an impish smile on his face.   The chips were fresh, thin and crisp.  The salsa in the bowl was thick and zesty with a great tomato, onion, garlic and cilantro flavor.  It was some of the better salsa we'd experienced in the Quad Cities.  

The salsa verde in the bottle was a bit more than we bargained for.  It was VERY spicy.  Well, not at first, but it had a deep spicy kick on the backside.  But it was very good.  We found that if we tried a chip with the green salsa, then had a chip with the cool and creamy avocado dip, it helped cut down on the overall spiciness. We were too chicken to try the red sauce in the other bottle.  We figured if he said that if the green sauce was categorized as "kind of spicy" - and it turned out to be more than that - then the red sauce had to be burn-your-face-off hot.  

My wife's daughter is married to a Mexican national who knows his way around a kitchen very well.  He told us a long time ago that you can tell if a Mexican restaurant is good just by ordering the tacos.  And that's what we did on our first visit to Abarottes Cabrillo.  I went with a couple shredded pork tacos and a steak taco.  My wife went with a shredded chicken taco and a steak taco.  We figured that since they cut, then cooked their meat in-house, the tacos should be pretty good.  

The tacos were served on soft corn shells, Mexican-style with chopped onions and cilantro.  A half-slice of lime came on the side along with roasted onions and a roasted jalapeño.  The pork was more like shredded carnitas with sort of a citrus taste and a crispy edge to it.  It was a little tough, but still tasted good.  But the carne asada (steak) taco was absolutely outstanding.  I don't know what they did with the cut of beef or how they cooked it, but the meat was tender with a wonderful steak flavor.  Coupled with the fresh cilantro and onion, along with a dollop of the creamy avocado dip and a quick squirt of the spicy salsa verde, there were a lot of outstanding flavors going on with the tacos.  

My wife very much enjoyed her shredded chicken taco - the meat was moist and tender.  Like me, she really liked the carne asada taco, as well.  And for funsies, we decided to take a bite of the roasted jalapeños that we both had on our plate.  It had a great grilled taste, but - man - the spiciness hit me and it almost took my breath away!  It was back to the cool and creamy avocado dip to quell the burning in my mouth.  

I've said many times that we're blessed living the Quad Cities with all the excellent and authentic Mexican restaurants at our disposal.  And Abarottes Cabrillo is one of those places.  The menu isn't all that extensive, you can't get a margarita there, and the place is not all that fancy.  But if you can get past all of that, you'll find good to excellent authentic Mexican food there.  The combination grocery store/meat market/restaurant is family-owned and operated, and we found everything we tasted to be fresh and authentic.  Oh, yeah - we'll be going back for more food, as well as produce, meats and especially the ceviche at Abarottes Cabrillo.     

Mamma Mia - Muscatine, IA

My wife and I had to take her car over to the dealership in Muscatine one evening so they could begin to do some service work on it the first thing the next morning.  Downtown Muscatine has undergone a number of renovations over the past couple of years and one of the bigger renovations is the Merrill Hotel and Conference Center and the renovated condominiums next door at The Pearl Building.  The developer of the project was looking for a tenant to take a restaurant space on the walk-up first floor of the Pearl and he was able to find two brothers who had experience in running Italian restaurants.  There are already some good Italian restaurants in Muscatine, but on this trip we decided to see how good Mamma Mia was in comparison to the others.  

Besim "Johnny" Qerimi and Gony Veseli were half-brothers who were literally raised in kitchens.  With a family tree that stretches back to Sicily and the Eastern Mediterranean, they were taught how to cook by their father and their grandfather.  Working in restaurants out east and down in Texas, Johnny and Gony ended up in the Cedar Rapids suburb of Marion, IA in February of 2011 to open an Italian restaurant/pizzeria by the name of Napoli's.  At first, the small place was a "bring-your-own" beer and wine place, but a bit over a year after they opened they decided to put in a full service bar and expand the restaurant.  Shutting the business down for nearly a month, Qerimi and Veseli renovated the restaurant adding a lunch menu and got a liquor license.  They reopened the new and improved Napoli's in April of 2012.

Feim Veseli was working in a family-owned restaurant down in Texas when an opportunity to move to Iowa to help out in his brother's restaurant came up.  The family scouted around Eastern Iowa for another Napoli's location and found a building that housed a former Maid-Rite franchise in Clinton.  Feim and Gony Veseli opened a second Napoli's in that location in April of 2016.  Unfortunately, the success the family had with their Cedar Rapids-area location didn't translate well into the dining patterns of people from Clinton and they closed that Napoli's in February of 2017.  

Undeterred, the brothers looked for a second location and found that Muscatine developer Tom Meeker was looking for someone to put a restaurant in a space he had in the Pearl Building, a building that was built in 1916 and Meeker had owned for about 15 years.  He had turned much of the building into condos, but had first floor space for a couple more restaurants to join Tantra Thai Bistro which had been in The Pearl for about 9 years.  The Veseli brothers brought in a chef they knew from Texas, Nick Lutvi, who learned the basics of Italian cooking working at his father's restaurant in New Jersey as a young boy.  Using many of the same "made-from-scratch" techniques that the brothers implemented at their Napoli's locations, they opened Mamma Mia in November of 2017.  Feim Veseli and his wife, Rina, are the managing partners of the Muscatine restaurant.   

The Pearl Building in which Mamma Mia is housed is located at the corner of Iowa Ave. and River Drive in downtown Muscatine.  (see map)  The entrance of Mamma Mia is up a flight of steps that leads to an entry way that is reminiscent of an old Italian wine cellar.  Through a large curved wooden door, you'll find a water wall embedded in a small stone wall between the entrance and the dining area.

To your right just inside the restaurant is the bar area.  It, too had sort of a wine cellar motif heavy on stone and brick.  The bar, itself, was small with a wooden arch above the bar.  A few tables were in the bar area that could be used for overflow from the dining area.

Inside the restaurant, there's an L-shaped dining area with windows on the north and east side.  During daylight hours, you can easily see the Mississippi River just beyond River Drive.  It had a very rustic Tuscan accent to the decor and we were impressed with how they were able to make it elegant, yet non-pretentious at the same time.  It was a cozy and laid back feeling in the room. 

My wife and I were greeted just inside the entrance by a lady with a thick Eastern European accent who turned out to be Rina Veseli.  She guided us to a table next to one of the windows on the river side of the dining area.  The place was about a third full - pretty good for a Sunday night, we thought.  A large group of guys who we determined were in town for meetings at Allsteel, the makers of HON office furniture, were at a table near us.  Rina dropped off menus for us to look over.  

Right off the bat, I was looking to get something with a red sauce that evening and the Chicken Parmigiana was calling my name.  However, they had a number of other chicken dishes that intrigued me including the Chicken Tetrazini that featured chicken breasts in a creamy brandy sauce with red peppers, and the Chicken Niccola that had chicken breasts stuffed with spinach, cheese and sautéed mushrooms in a cream sauce.  

They also had a number of Italian specialities on the menu such as Eggplant Parmigiana, lobster-stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce, fettuccine carbonara, and manicotti.  Mamma Mia also featured seafood dishes such as shrimp and scallops, shrimp alfredo, and a mussels and shrimp dish served in a spicy sherry marinara sauce.  They also feature pizza at Mamma Mia, as well as a number of appetizers including calamari, stuffed mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese sticks served with their house-made marinara sauce.  

At first, I thought I was pretty much going to go with the chicken parm, so I ended up getting a glass of Malbec wine when Rina came back to take our drink order.  My wife was pretty certain what she was going to get - something more toward a cream sauce - so she ended up ordering a glass of their house Pinot Grigio.  But the more I looked at the menu, the more torn I became as to what I really wanted to have.

After hemming and hawing about my choices, changing my mind three times before we finally ordered our main dishes, Rina brought out our salads as a precursor to the entrees.  It was a simply salad consisting of lettuce, a single ring of sliced red onion, a couple slices of cucumber and a smattering of croutons.  A house Italian dressing came on the salad.  The lettuce was firm and crisp and the house dressing was zesty, but not forward in taste.  A basket of fresh-baked braided bread came with the salads.  The bread was soft and warm and was easily pulled apart.  I could have sat there and just ate the bread the rest of the meal, it was that good.   

My wife ended up getting getting the Veal Florentine - veal medallions in a garlic cream sauce with sautéed mushrooms (I've finally gotten my wife to eat mushrooms as long as they're fresh and not canned), red onions and fresh spinach.  Fresh chopped parsley was spread over the dish to finish it off.  My wife thought that the veal was a little tough, but she really liked the overall flavors in the entree.  

As I said, I thought I was going to go with the chicken parmigiana, but at the last moment I ordered the Chicken Siciliana.  It consisted of small chicken breasts in a white wine/butter/lemon sauce served on a bed of angel hair pasta.  Since I now had gotten something with a white wine sauce, I finished up my glass of Malbec wine and ordered an Italian Orvieto they had on the wine list.  However, Rina said that they were out of the Orvieto and I ordered up a glass of the same Pinot Grigio that my wife had.  

The Chicken Siciliana was very good - the chicken breasts were tender and easy to cut.  Artichoke hearts and sautéed mushrooms were interspersed with the chicken giving the dish a nice balance between tangy and earthy flavors.  The lemon in the sauce was forward in taste, but not overpowering with the other flavors in the dish.  The more I had, the more I liked about about the meal.  

After finishing what we could - there was a lot of food - Rina tried to tempt us with some after dinner desserts, but we declined.  She offered to box up what we had left - most of mine was the pasta and my wife had pretty much eaten her veal medallions - but we told her that it was fine.  It never tastes as good re-heated as it does in the restaurant.  

For our first visit to Mamma Mia, I'd have to say we were mightily impressed and we made plans to come back again at some point.  My wife was happy with her Veal Florentine - even though she thought the veal may have been a little tough and overcooked - and I have to say that the more that I ate my Chicken Siciliana, the more I liked it.  And I liked it fine from the first bite.  The portions were large for what we paid, the service was friendly and efficient, and the rustic Tuscan-style decor was elegant, but still warm and inviting.  Muscatine has a number of good to very good Italian restaurants and Mamma Mia may arguably be the best we've had in the city.