Road Tips

Primas Mexican Grill - Springfield, MO

I had driven through off-and-on freezing drizzle from Kansas City down to Springfield earlier this year making it a pretty stressful 3-hour-plus drive.  When I finally got to Springfield, I decided that I just wanted to get something simple to eat along with a couple drinks at an Italian restaurant not far from my hotel.  I pulled into the restaurant and the parking lot was packed, so I decided to go to Plan B.  But I really didn't have a Plan B.  

I drove up S. Glenstone Ave. looking for someplace to stop into when I saw a Mexican restaurant off to my right that I had driven past numerous times over the years - Primas Mexican Grill.   There's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in the greater Springfield area and I thought I'd give Primas a try to see how they stacked up against some of the other good ones I've had in the past.  Plus, I knew I could get a margarita.  

Martin Hernandez grew up in a family with 14 siblings in the community of San Miguel de Allende in the central Mexican state of Guanauato, about a three hour drive north and west of Mexico City.  With such a large and extended family, Hernandez and his siblings were often called upon to help out with the family meals.  It was there where he found a love of preparing fresh foods with a work ethic that stayed with him after he moved to the United States.  Hernandez started the first Primas Mexican Grill in Springfield in 1983 and today he has three locations in the greater Springfield area, the most recent one opening in the suburb of Ozark earlier this month.  

I passed the entrance to Primas from northbound S. Glenstone and had to double back to pull up in front of the restaurant.  (see map)  It was sort of icy out and there was a glaze of ice on the railing as I walked up the steps.  I was greeted by a young lady who took me back into the bar area and gave me a menu to look over.

The dining room at Primas had a couple of segments.  The dining room up front was bordered by a low wall from the bar area.  There was also a long and narrow dining room off to the side that had a series of four-seater and two-seater tables in it.  The bar area had a small three-sided angled bar with a number of booths and tables under a vaulted ceiling.

My server for the evening was a nice young lady by the name of Sarai who bought me a basket of warm and fresh chips and a bowl of red salsa.  I asked if she had any salsa verde and she said, "We do, but it's spicy."  She brought some out and while I thought the red sauce was sort of bland, her idea of spicy and mine on the green sauce was different. She brought me a water, just in case, but I really didn't need it.  I mean, it had a kick, but it wasn't as spicy as I took her description to be.  I also ordered up a Cadillac margarita which I made short work of on the first one.  I got a second one and the bartender completely packed it with tequila and Grand Marnier.  That one got my attention.  

The food at Primas is fresh and made from scratch with a wide variety of items on the menu.  I almost got the fish tacos, and the beef and cheese-filled chile rellenos were certainly interesting, but I ended up getting the Primas Enchiladas dinner.   They featured three enchiladas with a choice of chicken, ground beef or pulled brisket.  Naturally, I took the brisket.  A side of Mexican rice came with it along with a choice of refried or black beans.  Black beans.  Always black beans.  And I got a Dos Equis Amber that they had on tap to go with my meal.  

The Primas Enchiladas were topped with a house-made enchilada sauce, then baked in the oven with melting cheese.  And they were pretty good.  I asked Sarai if I could get some more of the salsa verde and she said, "You like that stuff, don't you?"  She asked if I thought it was hot and I told her that it did have a kick, but not as hot as I expected.  Putting some of the salsa verde on top of the enchiladas, rice and black beans really helped zip up the overall taste of the meal.  The brisket also had a great flavor in the combination of the salsa verde, the house-made sauce and the melted cheese on top.  

There's a lot of very good Mexican restaurants in the Springfield area that I found over the years.  And for a place like Primas Mexican Grill which has been in business for over 35 years, they have to be good.  I thought the meal I ordered had a very good and unique taste quality.  The pulled brisket enchiladas were well above average and I really enjoyed the somewhat spicy salsa verde which helped pump up the taste of everything I used it on.  The service was exemplary at Primas and they made me - as a single diner - feel welcome and taken care of.  And hats off to the bartender who gave me a couple of generous pours on the Cadillac margaritas.   While I can't say it is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Springfield, but having been in business for over 35 years with three locations, I think it's the favorite of many in the greater Springfield area.  

Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse - Montreal

When we were up in Montreal for a company meeting a few weeks ago, it was our last night in town.  Many people had taken off already and a handful of both long time and new colleagues had morning flights as I did. Trying to figure out what to have for dinner, one of our new colleagues came up with a brilliant idea - a good ol' Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich.  Now, I had been to Schwartz's Deli, probably the most famous of the smoked meat places in Montreal (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Schwartz's Deli), and I've had a sandwich from the Main Deli Steak House which is literally across the street from Schwartz's Deli (click here to see the entry on Main Deli Steak House).  But our new colleague was told by one of the local Montreal guys we work with that the best smoked meat place in downtown Montreal was a place called Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse.  And it wasn't far away from the hotel.  There were eight of us who made the walk over to Reuben's Deli for dinner that evening.  

Constantin Tzemopoulos immigrated from Greece to Montreal in 1955 at the age of 18.  His first job was working in a restaurant in Montreal, something that hooked him for the rest of his life.  Learning the restaurant business while working at different levels at various restaurants for the next 20 years, Constantine and his wife, Gloria, decided to open their own restaurant that featured both smoked meat sandwiches and steaks.  In 1976, the couple opened Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse, a welcome addition to the smoked meat scene in Montreal, but adding steaks, ribs, chicken, burgers, and seafood items to the mix.  

The Tzemopoulos family also had three boys that helped out in the restaurant - Dimitris (Jim), Tony, and Adam - all three eventually becoming a large part of the operation.  The sons also opened two other restaurants near Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse - DeVille Dinerbar, a refined, yet casual urban neighborhood restaurant, and Anton & James, a chic upscale cafeteria that features breakfast, sandwiches, wraps, salads and pizza.  Constantin Tzemopoulos was still a daily presence in Reuben's up to his unexpected and sudden death in 2016 at the age of 82.  The three Tzemopoulos boys continue to run Reuben's Deli, as well as the two other restaurants under their RD3 Restaurant Group umbrella.  

There are actually two Reuben's Deli along St. Catherine St. W. in what is called the Golden Square Mile of downtown Montreal.  There's one at 888 St. Catherine St. W. that is a subterranean restaurant, but I understand it was the original Reuben's Deli.  However, we went to the one at 1116 St. Catherine St. W. - a street level restaurant that was more modern in appearance.  (see map)  I'm not certain the two are related any longer.  

Since we were in a large group, we had a bit of a wait to get a table.  There was a small bar area toward the back, but there were only a couple of seats available and it was sort of a high traffic area as it was located just off the kitchen area.  We ended up congregating toward the hostess stand up front.  

The front deli counter displayed a number of items including pickled peppers and other veggies, along with different types of meats and cheese.  There was a large upright glass display case near the front door that held dozens of smoked and cured beef.  The wonderful smell in the place was almost intoxicating.

It was about 10 minute wait before we were able to be seated at a larger table toward the very back of the dining room.  It was a cozy area with banquette seating along a short wall.  We had a couple of waiters who came over to introduce themselves, drop off some menus and take our drink orders.  Reuben's has their own private branded India Pale Ale and I ordered up one of those.  

Smoked meat is sort of an ambiguous term in Montreal.  It's basically smoked brisket with seasonings, at least from what I can tell.  It's sort of like pastrami, but more like corned beef.  I had a former colleague who was a unique eater - I can't call him picky because he would eat some pretty interesting things, but he was particular in what he ate - and he refused to eat a smoked meat sandwich in Montreal because no one could - or would - tell him what the meat really was.  Well, from the first time I had a smoked meat sandwich in Montreal, I was hooked.  They had four different types of their smoked meat sandwich at Reuben's - a 7 ounce "76" sandwich; the Super Sandwich, which was their most popular; the Big Bang Sandwich, which was the Super Sandwich piled with more smoked meat; or the Builder's Platter where they just bring out a pile of smoked meat and some rye bread and you have at it.  

In addition to smoked meat sandwiches, Reuben's also had a number of other sandwiches, burgers, and "piled-high" club sandwiches.  Since "steakhouse" is in their name, Reuben's also had a number of steaks on the menu including a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye steak, sautéed tenderloin beef tips that were marinated in whisky, and a 16 ounce ribeye topped with a house-made chimichurri sauce.  They also had seafood, chicken, pasta and ribs on the menu at Reuben's.  

We started out getting some appetizers to appease our stomachs since we had a small lunch around noon, then a hearty walk in the woods near the Mont Tremblant ski resort area afterward.  We got a spinach and cheese dip, some thick-cut onion rings that were stacked high on a plate, and someone ordered up the chopped beef liver.  Deep-friend onion straws came on the top of the chopped liver, but I refused to try some.  I'm not big on liver, period.  

But the one appetizer that I really wanted to try was the smoked meat poutine.  When I found that you could get that as a side for an up-charge, that's what I ordered along with my Super smoked meat sandwich.  This was a decadent kind of meal.  The chopped smoked meat along with the cheese curds and gravy poured on top of some crispy French fries were a heavenly combination.  The smoked meat sandwich was more than enough with 10 ounces of thin-sliced meat, crispy on the edges, topped with Swiss cheese on a wonderful rye bread.  I normally don't eat this much food, but it was so damned good that I didn't care that I was going to have to revert back to a massive diet once I got back home.  (I gained six pounds during this trip to Montreal.  That's sort of normal as we always eat well when we go there.)

Most of us ordered the smoked meat sandwiches, but one of my colleagues with with Reuben's center-cut tenderloin beef filet.  He got blue cheese on the top and it came with sautéed mushroom caps and was served in a reduction sauce.  He was trying to eat healthy, so he got a side of grilled vegetables on the side.  He thought the steak was very delicious and was happy with what he got.  

Another one of my colleagues went with the ribs.  They were big meaty smoked beef ribs slathered with a house-made barbecue sauce. It was a pile of ribs and he liked them so much that he almost finished off the whole plate.  Toward the end, he was offering a couple bones to people around the table, but most of us were so full from the wonderful smoked meat sandwiches - and the great smoked meat poutine that I had.

I've now tried three different smoked meat houses in the downtown Montreal area and I'll have to say that out of all of them I liked Reuben's Deli & Steakhouse the best.  I'm sure there are others to try, but the lean smoked meat at Reuben's was tender and full of flavor.   The smoked meat poutine was just an epicurean delight, and I while I was a little remorseful from the absolute gluttonous display I put on, it was worth going on a crash diet directly after I got home.  The wait staff was attentive and professional, and the whole atmosphere at Reuben's was cozy and inviting.  If you're going to be in Montreal and want to try a smoked meat sandwich, you can go stand in line for 30 minutes plus at Schwartz's deli, or you can get a great sandwich in a nice setting at Reuben's.  Or you can do both!

Jack Stack Barbecue - Kansas City

I first started traveling on the road in the mid-80's working for a company out of Kansas City.  Now, I had been to Kansas City many times previously because I had a girlfriend who lived there for a number of years before distance just made it too hard for us to stay together.  But during my trips to see her during our time together, I was too young and culinarily naive to realize that Kansas City had an outstanding barbecue scene.  On my first trip to Kansas City working for my new company in the mid-80's, my boss and his wife treated me to a meal at the Jack Stack Barbecue in Martin City, MO.  It was the first of what would be many meals I've had at the original Jack Stack location.  Over the years, Jack Stack has expanded to five locations around the greater Kansas City area.  Staying in downtown Kansas City for a couple days recently, I found that I was walking distance from my hotel to the Jack Stack location in the old Freight House.  I decided to head over there for dinner on a cool and somewhat rainy evening.  

Years ago before I found a format or a voice for this blog, I had a couple small posts on the Jack Stack location in Martin City, which was actually called the Smoke Stack when I first went there in the mid-80's.  But the constant through the history of the Smoke Stack - and then later on with what became Jack Stack - is the Fiorella family.  

Russ Fiorella was one of 14 children who grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Kansas City.  His parents, Italian immigrants, were originally farmers on the far east side of Kansas City until they were forced to find another line of work when farm prices fell in the 1930's.  Like many of his brothers, Russ ended up running a small neighborhood grocery store and worked as the butcher.  Russ loved to barbecue the meats he cut, and nearly every Sunday you'd find him smoking brisket, ribs, or pork shoulders for the Fiorella family.  

Pictured right - Russ Fiorella standing in front of his neighborhood grocery store/butcher shop.  Photo courtesy Jack Stack Barbecue.  

As larger grocery stores started to take over, Russ knew that his little neighborhood grocery store couldn't survive.  The story goes that Russ took his wife, Flora, to the hospital to give birth to the couples' sixth child.  Instead of hanging around the hospital, Russ went over to a small roadhouse on the south side of Kansas City called The Lucky Inn and bought the place.  The purchase surprised everyone around Russ, including Flora who had no idea he was even thinking about owning his own restaurant.  Russ turned The Lucky Inn from a roadhouse tavern into a barbecue place and named it Smoke Stack BBQ.  

The only hitch was that in order to buy The Lucky Inn, Russ Fiorella had to sell the family's seven bedroom, seven bathroom home and move the family - three boys and three girls - into the small apartment above the restaurant.  But business started going well for the Fiorella's and by the time the seventh child came into the world around 1963, Russ was able to move the family to a larger home.    

A fire destroyed the building in 1966, but the Fiorella's rebuilt and it wasn't long before business started to come back from the devastating fire.  By the early 70's, three of Russ' children opened their own Smoke Stack locations around Kansas City with Russ' help, with oldest son Jack opening his place in Martin City, a small town on the far south side of Kansas City just inside the Missouri state line with Kansas.  

Jack's location was next door to the famous Jess & Jim's Steakhouse - a destination restaurant that has garnered international fame over the years (and, as a personal side note, I think is overrated) - and that certainly didn't hurt his initial presence in the area.  In fact, the location was such a huge success that Jack Fiorella and his wife, Delores, moved to its present day location at 135th and Holmes Road in 1978.

Pictured left - Jack Fiorella.  Photo courtesy the Fiorella family and the Martin City Telegraph.

With business up and going at his barbecue place, Jack Fiorella soon opened a second restaurant in Overland Park, KS called Hatfield and McCoys that offered some of the barbecue items that the Smoke Stack restaurants had along with an expanded menu.  However, tough economic times in the early 80's forced the closure of that restaurant.  In the meantime, Jack had neglected the Martin City barbecue location enough that business was down and they weren't even open for lunch any longer.  Crestfallen by his failure at another restaurant and over a half million dollars in debt, Jack directed all his efforts to his barbecue restaurant in Martin City.  He came back to the restaurant full time with a small sign outside the restaurant that simply said, "Jack's Back!"  People started to come back in droves to his barbecue place and within a couple of years he had paid off his debts from his failed restaurant.  

Delores and Jack had always envisioned a more upscale barbecue restaurant compared to the other sit-down barbecue joints that were all over the Kansas City area.  They had been one of the first barbecue places in the area to smoke meats with hickory wood after they opened in 1974, and Delores brought a woman's touch to the menu adding items such as seafood, chicken, lamb and steaks.  They expanded the Martin City location putting in two additional dining rooms and it became just as popular of a destination restaurant as Jess & Jim's just down the road.  

(Russ Fiorella passed away in 1986 and two of his daughters continued to run the original Smoke Stack location until 1999 when they closed the restaurant and the building was torn down soon thereafter.  Flora Fiorella was still involved with the business up to the time that it closed and she passed away in 2008.)  

By the mid-90's with an eye upon expansion, Jack and Delores had officially changed the name of their business to Fiorella's Jack Stack and opened a second Jack Stack restaurant in Overland Park in 1997.  In 2000, a third Jack Stack opened in the renovated Freight House in Kansas City, and a fourth location opened in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City in 2006.  In 2016, a fifth location in Lee's Summit, MO was opened.  After eating at the one in the Freight House, I have now eaten at all five locations in the greater Kansas City area.   

Jack and Delores Fiorella's son and daughter, Kevin and Jennifer, also helped in the business as it grew.  Catering and private dining were introduced in the early 90's at a facility just down the street from the Martin City Jack Stack, and by 2000 the company had started a mail order business to ship ribs, burnt ends and other barbecued meats around the United States.  In 2009, Jack and Delores retired selling the company to their daughter Jennifer and her husband Case Dorman who is the CEO of the Jack Stack empire today.  A fourth generation Fiorella family member, Case and Jennifer's son Keaton, works in the catering department for Jack Stack.  

The Freight House in Kansas City is located in the Crossroads Art District, a collection of unique boutiques, restaurants, studios and art galleries on the south end of Kansas City's downtown area.  Originally built in the late 1880's, it was used for storage of freight and dry goods that came in on dozens of trains that stopped in Kansas City each day.  As the advent of truck freight and outlying warehouses came into being in the 1950's, the Freight House began to see a significant drop in usage.  By the 1980's, it was all but closed down and fell into disrepair.  

In 1995, a group of investors bought the dilapidated property and began a three year process of repurposing the building into usable space.  The owners envisioned three restaurants in the space.  Celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich opened the first restaurant, the eponymously named Lidia's, in 1998.  The Fiorella family opened Jack Stack in 2000, and a restaurant by the name of City Market opened in 2003.  City Market closed in 2010 and was replaced soon thereafter by Grunauer, an Austrian/German restaurant owned by famed chef Peter Grunauer.  (Look for an upcoming post on Grunauer at some point in the near future.)  

As I said, it was a very short walk - less than five minutes - from my hotel to the Jack Stack BBQ location in the Freight House.  (see map).  I had never been to that location and as I walked through a vehicle entry way between Lidia's and Grunauer, I walked into a large parking lot that faced Union Station just across the multitude of tracks between that and the Freight House.  It was sort of surprising to me that I had never been to this place in all the years I've been coming to Kansas City.  

Since I was a single diner, I tried to get a seat in the bar area.  But the bar was packed including the sit down areas.  I went to the hostess stand to see if I could get a seat in the dining area.  She sort of hesitated and said, "Well, we really don't have a booth at this time."  I didn't think I heard her correctly and I looked out at the dining area and saw a sea of tables in the center of the room.  I said, "I don't really need a booth."  She looked at a four-seater table in the center of the room that was empty and asked if I could have that.  She escorted me right there and dropped off a menu for me to look over.

The main dining room at the Freight House Jack Stack BBQ is pretty impressive.  It's a long and narrow space with a vaulted ceiling with wood truss supports.  From the supports were faux candle lighting hanging down above the middle of the dining area.  The brick walls had pictures of trains that used to stop at the Freight House and Union Station.  There was a large room toward the back of the dining area that could be used for private dining or large groups of up to about 20 people.  A statue of the bull depicted in the Jack Stack logo was the centerpiece on the large table.  

My server for the evening was a young lady by the name of Tara.  She asked me what I would like to drink and I ordered up a Boulevard Pale Ale which is made less than a mile away from the Jack Stack at the Freight House.  Then I settled in to take a look at the menu.

Actually, I've eaten at Jack Stack locations so much over the years that I really don't need a menu.  The primary barbecue offerings haven't changed much over the years - pork ribs, lamb ribs, beef ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken, burnt ends, brisket, as well as smoked ham, turkey and sausage are the barbecue staples of the place.  They have a number of sandwiches to choose from with all their smoked meat offerings, as well as a grilled French dip sandwich made with sliced prime rib beef, and a chicken chipotle club sandwich.  And, of course, since it is Kansas City, Jack Stack also offers hickory-grilled steaks, pork chops, and seafood entrees.  One thing that I've been very tempted to try at some point is their hickory smoked prime rib.  I'm guessing that just has to be outstanding.  

But like always, I went with the combo barbecue platter.  I got the three meat combo with sliced brisket, burnt ends, and pulled pork.  Fries come with the meal, but you also get a choice of two sides.  The hickory pit beans are always a must, and I really like their cole slaw at Jack Stack.  The cole slaw is creamy with a somewhat sweet and somewhat spicy taste with a dash of paprika added.  

They have two different types of sauces at Jack Stack, both are served warm.  One is a conventional Kansas City sweet and smoky sauce, the other is a hotter sauce that has more of a peppery taste.  They don't really emphasize the sauces at Jack Stack and that's OK because the meats are usually very good.

And on this visit, it was not exception to the rule.  The pulled pork literally melted in my mouth with each bite.  The brisket was tender, lean and full of a great smoky beef flavor.  And the burnt ends were done to perfection - large, chunky and tender.  I've had some pretty suspect burnt ends around Kansas City over the years, but the ones at Jack Stack have consistently been very good over the years.   

The visit to the Freight House Jack Stack BBQ completed my scorecard of eating at all five locations in the Kansas City area.  A lot of barbecue places have popped up in the Kansas City area over past twenty years that have tried to emulate the Fiorella family's success in the quality of their meats, the foods other than barbecue that they offer, and the more upscale dining settings that have long defined what Jack Stack is all about.  I know there's a lot of choices for barbecue in Kansas City - and I will say that there are a couple three that I may like better than Jack Stack.  But if you're going to Kansas City and looking for a starting point where to try barbecue for the first time, I would say start at Jack Stack BBQ and go from there.  The consistent quality of the barbecue is one of the reasons why I keep going back time and time again.  

Hy-Vee Market Grille - Davenport, IA

I've been sort of intrigued by these Hy-Vee Market Grille locations that have been popping up around the Upper Midwest over the last few years.  It's kind of an interesting concept - having a sit-down restaurant in a grocery store.  OK - it makes sense.  They can get the freshest ingredients from their meat and produce department.  But they also have a full bar with craft beers and specialty cocktails.  Now, I don't think of Hy-Vee as being a place where I'd go for dinner or to hang out for a beer or three.  But I'd heard that they had a very good burger at the Hy-Vee Market Grille.  And no matter how many times I'd suggested to my wife that we needed to go out to the Hy-Vee at 53rd and Utica Ridge on the northeast side of Davenport to try one of their burgers, she was less than enthusiastic with my proposal.  Finally, one weekday when I was home, I decided to head out there to try one of their burgers.  Without my wife.  

If you live in the states of Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota, you're very familiar with Hy-Vee grocery stores.  They are the largest grocery store chain in the Midwest with nearly 250 locations employing over 85,000 people with a combined annual sales total of over $10 billion.  The genesis of Hy-Vee began in the small town of Beaconsfield, IA in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, two men who owned a handful of small dry goods outlets in southern Iowa and northern Missouri.  The two combined over a dozen individually owned stores after the Great Depression into Supply Store locations with the town's name preceding the Supply Store title.  

In 1952, the company changed its name to Hy-Vee - a combination of the Hyde and Vredenburg names - and started a gradual expansion of both stores and services.  By the late 60's, under the leadership of co-founder David Vredenburg's son Dwight, Hy-Vee had grown to nearly 70 locations in Iowa and southern Minnesota.  But the company's serious growth spurt happened under President/CEO/Chairman of the Board Ron Pearson.  Pearson oversaw the operations of the grocery chain as they had expanded into more states and became the second largest employee-owned company in the U.S.  Stores of over 70,000 square feet became the standard footprint of new Hy-Vee stores just before and after the turn of the century.  

Hy-Vee has expanded their brand into gas stations, health and nutrition products, clothing boutiques, on-line grocery shopping, and partnering with actor/entertainer Mark Wahlberg on a line of sports nutrition products, as well as working with Wahlberg's brothers Donnie and Paul in franchising over two dozen Wahlburger locations in the Upper Midwest.  And just last year, Hy-Vee opened the first Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh convenience store not far from where I live in Davenport, IA.  Fast & Fresh offers many "ready-to-eat" meals-on-the-go including made to order wood-fired pizza, sushi, a craft beer station, full liquor and beer store, and a Starbucks on premises.  Unlike the main Hy-Vee grocery stores that are open 24 hours, 7 days a week, the Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh stores are open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.  (Look for an upcoming Road Tips blog post on the wood-fired pizza from Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh.)  

About 8 years ago, current Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker spearheaded an effort to bring full service restaurants to select Hy-Vee stores in the chain.  These would be sit-down establishments serving a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees, sandwiches, burgers and appetizers featuring craft beers, mixed drinks and a Sunday brunch spread that rivaled many other brunch places in certain cities.  The first Hy-Vee Market Grille opened in 2012 and it was met with a lot of skepticism from people.  Many of the locations floundered for the first couple three years they were open and in 2017 Hy-Vee scaled back a number of the Market Grille locations into Market Grille Express concepts with an reduced menu and counter-ordering only.  Today, there are nearly 50 Market Grille locations and another 75 Market Grille Express locations.  

My wife and I have also been a little leery of the Market Grille restaurants that we would see around the Quad Cities.  But a little over a year ago a friend told me that the Market Grille up on 53rd Ave. and Utica Ridge Road in northeast Davenport had pretty good food - including a great burger.  As I said earlier, I wanted to go try the burger there, but each time I suggested it to my wife, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea.  That's how I ended up going alone to the Market Grille location inside Davenport Hy-Vee #4 one afternoon for lunch.  (see map)

Walking into the Market Grille, I lingered up front by the bar area for a moment as I was waiting for someone to come to the hostess stand.  With a number of flat screen televisions hanging all over the place, it sort of looked somewhat like an upscale sports bar.  The space was well lit with natural light coming in from the wall of windows along the south side of the room.  

I greeted by a young lady who showed me to a booth back in the corner of the restaurant.  It was a spacious area with a combination of booths and tables, as well as banquette seating in the center of the Market Grille.  

I was given a menu and it wasn't long before my server, a pleasant young lady by the name of Bethanie, came over to greet me.  I got a light beer that was on tap - she asked me if I wanted a 16 or a 25 ounce beer. I got the 16 ounce beer because I needed to get back to my home office and do some work later in the afternoon.  

Even though I was there for the burger that day, I have to say that I was somewhat surprised at the food options available at the Market Grille.  They had pasta dishes including chicken parm and a chicken & asparagus carbonara, sushi rolls, Asian/Thai dishes, seafood items such as grilled salmon and blackened shrimp tacos (the Baja fish tacos really caught my eye - I may have to go back and try those some day), as well as steaks and pork chops. Sandwiches such as a reuben, a classic club sandwich, a spicy Buffalo chicken sandwich, and a gourmet BLT were also available.  A number of interesting appetizers including pepperoni pinwheels, and bacon/jalapeno won-tons, as well as flatbreads and a selection of salads rounded out the menu.  

They had seven or eight burgers on the menu including a California burger topped with guacamole, bacon and a sriracha honey sauce, a mac & cheese burger, a gourmet three-cheese patty melt, and a peanut butter burger (uh, no thanks).  For my first trip in to try a burger at the Market Grille, I went with their regular cheeseburger.  Six different types of cheese are available and I got the smoked gouda on mine.  I also asked Bethanie to put some bacon and some sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  

The burgers at the Market Grille are all cooked to order and my medium burger came out with a nice pink tint in the middle.  It was served on a toasted bun with a side of fries.  One thing that I noticed is that the only condiment they offered was a small metal container of ketchup.  (I suppose I could have asked for mustard or more ketchup if I wanted.  But I was happy with the burger the way it was.  

And the burger was... good.  Actually, it was surprisingly good.  In fact, it was astonishingly very good.  It was a multiple napkin burger because of the combination of juiciness and the toppings on the burger.  The smoked gouda oozed off the patty with nearly each bite, the bacon was thick cut and a delicious added flavor to the burger, and the sautéed mushrooms were fresh and earthy.  The bun even held together very well with all that was going on with the burger.  

The fries were more of an afterthought for me, but I thought they were pretty good.  Except they were too salty for my taste.  I only had a few of the fries because I was concentrating on finishing the burger.  Which I did.     

I have to say that any misconceptions or misgivings I had about eating at a Hy-Vee Market Grille sort of went away after this visit.  The burger was surprisingly very good, the restaurant, itself, was bright, clean, and comfortable, and I was more than happy with the cheerful and friendly service I received.  And there were some other interesting items I found on the menu that makes me want to go back and try at some point.  But what I really have to do is convince my wife that the burger is actually THAT good at the Hy-Vee Market Grille so she'll go there with me.   

Les 3 Brasseurs - Montreal

Up in Montreal for a company meeting in late January, on our first day there we broke for lunch and as a group we walked a couple three blocks from our hotel to a place that is one of 19 locations of a brewpub concept that are scattered across Quebec and Ontario by the name of Les 3 Brasseurs - The 3 Brewers in English.  I was told by a couple guys who live in the Montreal area that I would like this place as they know how much I like going to brewpubs in the U.S.  It was a cold walk for about 10 minutes up three blocks and across a couple more to Les 3 Brasseurs.  (see map)  

It turns out that the original concept of Les 3 Brasseurs started in Lille, France in the mid-80's.  Back in the mid-19th century, three local brewers in the north of France banded together to brew beers together.  Time and death broke up the allegiance of those brewers, but descendants of the three brewers got together to open a brewery/restaurant in 1986 - a venture that is still going strong today.  There are over a dozen Les 3 Brasseurs located in France.  In addition to the Canadian locations, there are also Les 3 Brasseurs locations in Brazil, French Polynesia, Tahiti, New Caledonia and on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.  

The Canadian operations of Les 3 Brasseurs started in Montreal in 2004 and quickly spread across the province before opening an Anglo version - The 3 Brewers - in Toronto in 2008.  There are seven Les 3 Brasseurs locations in and around the greater Montreal area at this time.  

The main floor of Les 3 Brasseurs featured a long bar area with booths off to the side.  Large screen televisions hung on brick walls throughout the space.  There was a lively lunch time crowd in the place when we got there.

Upstairs was an area for overflow seating, as well as an area where they could put large parties - like ours.  I normally don't like dining in a large group, but they actually had it arranged pretty well up there for us to spread out on not be on top of one another.

Also upstairs were brewing tanks for the beers they made on-site.  They have five beers that are their full-time selections - a white, a blonde, a brown and an amber ale, as well as an India pale ale.  They also have a brewers featured beer and a seasonal beer on tap.  Each Les 3 Brasseurs has their own brewmaster on site which gives each location their own unique take on their core beers.  

Usually in a large group, we have a fixed menu, but this time they allowed us to order directly off the food menu.  They had a wide variety of food to offer at Les 3 Brasseurs including sandwiches, flatbreads, as well as entrees such as steaks, salmon, pork shanks, a barbecue Cajun chicken dish, and a Quebecois version of cassoulet - a casserole with white beans with sausage, duck, pork belly, and root vegetables.  

I had my eye on the mussels and frites - Prince Edward Island mussels steamed in a broth of blonde beer with tomatoes, onions and garlic.  But just as soon as I was getting ready to order it, the waitress announced that they were out of the mussels that day.  Damn!  I had my heart set on the mussels to go along with the India pale ale that I was drinking.  

After finding out the mussels weren't an option, I had to decide on something else.  One of my colleagues had ordered the avocado burger without a bun and a side salad.  That sounded good to me, only I wanted a bun with mine.  Well, as it usually happens with a large group they can foul up the order.  I got the burger without the bun like my colleague had ordered.  I didn't put up much of a bitch about it because I knew I'd probably tear a lot of the bun off.  The avocado burger at Les 3 Brasseurs featured a thick high-grade beef patty that was flat-grilled.  It was topped with deep-fried avocado slices and a smoked gouda cheese.  Pico de gallo and a guacamole mayo came on the side.  Actually, even without the bun, it was very good.  It was cooked to a perfect medium with a bit of pink in the middle.  Along with the salad, it was pretty filling.  

One of my Canadian colleagues seated across from me got the classic chicken wings from the appetizer menu.  He had them prepared with the barbecue beer sauce and they came with a side of blue cheese dressing.  I've been on somewhat of a chicken wing craze over the past couple three months and those looked really good.  And he said that they were very good.  

Another one of my Canadian colleagues went with the Savoy Diots - sausages from the Le Savoie region of France on a bed of macaroni and aged white cheddar.  The sausages are in a combination of beer, white wine, onions and beef stock.  The two sausages were large and there was a lot of the white cheddar and mac underneath them.  He's not a big guy, but he finished off both sausages and put a serious dent in the mac and cheese, so it must have been really good.  

One of my American colleagues went the healthy route and got the lemon-parsley butter salmon that was served on a bed of steamed fresh vegetables.  But to balance out the good with the bad, he also got a side of fries with his meal and it was a load of fries, at that.  The fries were served with a dijon-mayo on the side - I've always liked the idea of mayonnaise with French fries, something that I picked up years ago during some of my first visits to Montreal.  He gave me some fries to try with the dijon-mayo sauce and they were very good.

My Canadian colleague from the Vancouver area says that he gets enough seafood out there and he decided to get the ribs.  He got the half-rack size of meaty pork ribs and those come with cole slaw, onion rings AND fries.  He offered one of the ribs to me, but I declined as I was pretty full from my burger and stealing more fries from my colleague.  But I did take him up on his offer of an onion ring.  They had a great flavor with what appeared to be a beer-battered coating on the outside.  He told me the ribs were actually pretty good for what they were.  

As I said, most of the time with large groups there tends to be some foul-ups and one of my American colleagues from the Pacific Northwest has been on a vegan diet for the past few months.  He ordered one of the flatbread pizzas with just cheese.  It came out loaded with pepperoni on the top.  He refused it - and I don't blame him.  He had to sit there waiting for his cheese flatbread while we all dug in, but he was a good sport about it.  When he ended up getting the right flatbread, he said the wait wasn't worth it.  He was pretty disappointed all the way around.  

But other than that - and that they didn't give me a bun with my burger - I have to say that I was pretty happy with the food, the beer and the service at Les 3 Brasseurs in downtown Montreal.  They had 3 people taking care of a party of about 35 people and they were prompt on getting beer orders filled, food requests out, and make wrongs right again.  I thought my burger was fine, but I did like the fries and the onion ring that was offered to me.  For a chain of brew pubs - each one is supposed to have its own unique signature - I thought Les 3 Brasseurs did a pretty good job.  

Dudley's Pizza & Tavern - Omaha

I was staying in the Aksarben Village area of Omaha on a recent trip out to that fair city, a city that has always been one of my favorite places to visit.  They had been getting a lot of snow in the area this past winter and I had just driven around the city for a good portion of the day after they had gotten five to seven inches of heavy, wet snow earlier in the day.  Walking distance from the hotel is a pizza place that I've noticed on previous visits to the area - Dudley's Pizza & Tavern.  I decided to head over there for dinner on a cold evening when I wished I was home instead of on the road.  

When I first moved to the Quad Cities over 25 years ago, there was a long-established pizza place next to where I used to work called Dudley's Pizza Works.  Knowing that the Dudley from that place had retired a number of years ago and moved to the mountains of south-central Colorado, I didn't think the same guy - or his family - would have a stake in this place.  Turns out that they don't.  The place is named after Dudley Smith, an Omaha resident in the late 19th century who coined the phrase "Aksarben" - Nebraska spelled backwards.   And it was two brothers - Tim and Rob Malm - who came up with the name. 

The Malm brothers took over the old Mojo Smokehouse & Ales location in the Aksarben Village in 2013.  They initially called their venture Railyard Pizza and Tavern.  But confusion over affiliations with other businesses in Omaha and Lincoln that had similar names caused the brothers to shift directions and name it after the man who originally came up with the "Aksarben" name.  They opened Dudley's in late 2013.  

The Malm brothers eventually sold their shares in Dudley's Pizza and Tavern in 2015 to Bill Barstow, the owner of a number of movie theaters in Omaha and Lincoln including the Aksarben Cinema next door to Dudley's Pizza.  Barstow installed Tony Digilio to run Dudley's for him.  (The Malm brothers have resurfaced in Omaha with a new Mexican taqueria concept - Hook & Lime - located on the north end of Omaha's downtown area.)  

I walked through the parking garage next to the hotel, over and around to Dudley's Pizza and Tavern.  (see map)  It's set back from the street a bit, but still pretty visible if you approach it from Center Road up S. 67th in Aksarben Village.  Mounds of snow from previous snowstorms - including the six-plus inch dumping from earlier in the day - were piled up on the patio that probably would have been filled with al fresco diners if the weather was much more warm.  

Inside Dudley's, I was sort of surprised to see how small it was.  In fact, it appeared that they were in the midst of downsizing the space they were in.  High-top and regular tables were in the center of the room with booths along a short wall on one side.  A local artist by the name of Chris Saub - who goes by the stage name of Christopher Raven - was playing guitar in the dining area during the latter part of happy hour.  The music was very good and very relaxing.

I ended up seated at one end of the three-sided bar toward the front of the restaurant.  A couple of flat screen televisions hung over a set of beer spigots with a glass-front refrigerator was off to the side.  I was greeted by one of the bartenders, a young lady by the name of Kat, who gave me both a food menu and a beer menu.  Nothing on their tap list tripped my trigger, but I did see that they had the Cardinal Pale Ale from the Nebraska Brewing Co. in a 16 ounce can.  I ordered that from Kat while I looked over the menu and listened to the music.   

Pizza is definitely the main item on the menu at Dudley's with a choice of either a thicker braided-crust pizza or a thinner "tavern-style" pizza.  (Gluten free crust is also available at Dudley's Pizza.)  But they also had burgers, sandwiches and wraps on the menu, along with a number of appetizers including chicken wings, fried dill pickle spears, truffle-salted pub fries topped with Romano cheese sprinkles, and sausage-stuffed fried ravioli that was also topped with grated Romano cheese and served with both a pesto and a marinara dipping sauce.  I thought about just getting the ravioli and calling that my meal for the evening.

But the tavern-style pizza was calling my name and I ordered up a small - 10" - sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza.  When it was brought out to me, I was sort of surprised on a couple three fronts.  First of all, tavern-style pizza - to me - is cut into the square pieces.  This was cut into triangles.  Secondly, the crust wasn't all that thin - at least not as thin as I was expecting a thin-crust pizza to be.  And lastly, I wish I would have had a ruler with me because it looked like the smallest 10" pizza I've ever seen.  I just sort of shrugged my shoulders and let the pizza cool down while I got another Cardinal Pale Ale.  

Quite actually, the pizza at Dudley's wasn't all that bad.  In fact, it was surprisingly good for what it was.  While the crust wasn't all that thin, it was crispy enough that it had the consistency of a thinner crust pizza.  The toppings were all fresh and very good.  I especially liked the sauce - it wasn't too sweet, nor was it too tangy.  It was a good mix of tomato sauce and paste - something I have trouble with in making sauce at home from time to time.  Yeah, I wish it were a little larger, but I was fine with what I had when I finished the pizza, which wasn't all that hard to do.  

The pizza I had at Dudley's Pizza and Tavern was good - not exactly what I was expecting in a "tavern-style" pizza - but good enough that I enjoyed the taste of it.  They had a good selection of craft and domestic beers to choose from, and other than a minor hiccup when I needed a couple more napkins and no one was behind the bar for five minutes, the service was pretty good, as well.  And Christopher Raven's music was a nice relaxing touch at the end of the day.   Over all the years I've been traveling to Omaha, I've only found maybe one or two pizza places that I thought were really good.  I wouldn't put Dudley's into that category of "really good", but it was serviceable pizza that didn't suck.  

(Update - April 2020 - I understand that Bill Barstow bought out his partners in the Dudley's venture and closed the place down.  He replaced it with the Backlot Taphouse, a craft beer/Detroit-style pizza place.)