Road Tips

The Dubliner - Kansas City

During a trip to Kansas City earlier this year, I ended up staying downtown near the Power & Light District.  I really hadn't spent much - if any - time in the restaurant and entertainment district that opened its first restaurant over a dozen years ago.  One evening, I decided to walk up to the area to check out some restaurants near the Sprint Center.  Just across the street from the large arena was an Irish bar that caught my eye - The Dubliner.  I decided to go in and see what they had to offer for food.  

When The Cordish Companies - a Baltimore-based developer - proposed a mixed-use area in downtown Kansas City, it was met with civic enthusiasm to help revitalize an area that had gone downhill in the years leading up to the turn of the 21st century.  Named after the famed Kansas City Power & Light building that has stood majestically over downtown Kansas City for nearly 90 years, the Power & Light District became a $5 billion dollar project to bring restaurants, entertainment, housing and office space to a nine-square block area.  The Sprint Center opened in October of 2007 and a month later the first restaurant - McFadden's Sports Saloon - opened in the new Power & Light District.  The Power & Light District was soon filled with a number of national chain restaurants and entertainment venues that helped make downtown Kansas City a destination once again.  

One of the first restaurants that was opened in the Power & Light District was an Irish pub that was literally in the shadow of the Sprint Center - Raglan Road.  The 10,000 square foot restaurant featured two bars that were handcrafted from salvaged materials found in bars in Ireland.  The parent company was from Ireland and had a Raglan Road location in Orlando.  The restaurant - which cost a reported $2 million to build out - featured authentic Irish food and live Celtic music.  

After a couple three years, the new-ness of the Power & Light District began to wane - especially when there were no events at the Sprint Center to continue to bring people to downtown Kansas City.  Occupancy rates of condos that had been built for residents weren't as high as projected as the economy was struggling to get back to pre-2008 levels.  People who worked in downtown Kansas City weren't staying downtown after work.  Business fell off for many of the restaurants and venues.  Raglan Road was one who felt the pinch and they tried to mix things up with adding more types of live music other than Irish bands.  But it was evident that things weren't working and they soon got behind in their lease payments to The Cordish Companies.  

But that was happening to a number of other places in the Power & Light District, as well.  A number of restaurants and venues without major corporate financial backing were forced to file bankruptcy and shut down because they couldn't pay rent to the landlord.  Raglan Road's corporate arm was sued for back rent by The Cordish Companies in the summer of 2011.  But the end of August of that year, the corporation overseeing Raglan Road's operations was forced to declare bankruptcy and they closed the doors on August 31.    

Seeing an opportunity, a local investment group that called themselves Downtown Irish Pub took over the space that Raglan Road had left just months before.  The group reached out to KC Hopps, a local restaurant group that oversaw the operations of O'Dowd's - another Kansas City-area Irish pub - and other restaurants such as Barley's Kitchen & Tap, Blue Moose and the venerable Stroud's to help run the new restaurant.  The newly renamed Dubliner opened in time for the Big 12 men's basketball tournament in March of 2012.  

It was a bumpy 18 months for The Dubliner as they tried to find a niche in the market place.  More condos were being built and more people were living downtown, but The Dubliner was on the virtual far-end of the new high-rises being built in downtown Kansas City.  The group ended their relationship with KC Hopps (even though a couple of the investors with The Dubliner's corporate arm were still associated with KC Hopps) and brought in a new general manager to try and fix things.  More Irish foods were added to the menu, the new manager marketed the place as an Irish bar with something for everything, and business began to stabilize.  The Dubliner has held its own in a crowded restaurant and entertainment market in downtown Kansas City.  

I found The Dubliner at the corner of E. 14th St. and Grand Blvd. across the street from the west entrance to the Sprint Center.  (see map)  The modern brick facade on the building gave way to a front bar area with a lot of dark wood accents.  The front bar - which was dubbed the Whiskey Bar as they feature over 40 different types of Scotch and Irish whiskies - was sort of cluttered up with what appeared to be some sort of a remodel situation going on. 

I made my way through the restaurant and found a larger back area that featured a long bar and a two-tiered dining room.  It was a very ornate room that reminded me more of a German restaurant than an Irish one.  But it was certainly the fanciest Irish pub I'd ever been in.  High-top tables were in the main dining area with high-tops with banquette seats along the wall opposite the bar.  

There was an outdoor patio area at The Dubliner that featured a handful of tables.  The patio was next to a large courtyard that is actually known as KC Live!, the Power & Light District's main entertainment venue.  It's the main hub of a number of bars that face the courtyard that hosts live concerts from national touring acts, parties, and corporate events.  

I ended up going back inside and sitting at the bar.  A small crowd of afterwork people had come into the place, but the place was pretty quiet.  The bartender on duty, Elliott, came over to take my drink order and to drop off a food menu.  I got a Harp lager that they had on tap.

Traditional Irish food at The Dubliner included bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, and a Tipperary stew made with lamb and root vegetables simmered in a red wine.  They had a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu, as well as a number of salad dishes and appetizers such as poutine (not very Irish, but still good) and fried artichoke hearts.  

For some reason, the corned beef and cabbage sounded good to me.  They also had a Guinness-braised brisket on the menu, but I went with the corned beef.  It featured chunks of corned beef brisket along with chunks of cabbage and sliced root vegetables.  They put a mustard sauce on the corned beef that was actually pretty good.

I didn't concentrate too much on the root veggies, but the cabbage was pretty good.  It didn't have a bitter taste like you can get with some cooked cabbage, and it cut pretty easily.  

However, the corned beef was sort of all over the place.  Some of the chunks of meat were tender and easy to cut - others were tough and very hard to chew.  I had to pull a couple pieces out of my mouth because I knew my teeth weren't going to win the fight.  But the pieces that were edible were actually pretty good.  It was just the ones that weren't that put a damper on the meal.  

My initial reaction upon leaving The Dubliner was one of "eh!"  It was all right, not bad, not great.   The corned beef was just all right. Elliott's service was fine.  It was a nice place with nice surroundings and decor, but I didn't get that intimate Irish pub-type vibe to the place.  I sort of wish I would have gotten something other than the corned beef and cabbage - maybe the Guiness-braised beef or the Tipperary Stew.  But I probably wouldn't search out The Dubliner again unless I was in the immediate area at some point and was looking for some Irish food.  

Big Grove Brewery - Solon, IA

I've been wanting to go to the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA for quite sometime.  They have been getting rave reviews not for their beers - I especially like their Easy Eddie Hazy IPA - but their food was supposed to be very good, as well.  My wife and I went on an extended drive on back roads on Sunday afternoon and we found ourselves not too far from Solon.  Instead of heading back toward the Quad Cities, we took a right and headed west toward Solon.  

Matt Swift literally grew up in the restaurant business.  His mother, Faye, was the owner of Slugger's, a sports bar/restaurant that was located on the strip in Coralville, IA.  Swift started out bussing tables and washing dishes, but eventually he moved up the ladder to work as a cook and eventually became the manager of the restaurant.  

In 2007, Faye and Matt Swift opened Blackstone, a bistro-style restaurant on Iowa City's east side.  (I've eaten at Blackstone a handful of times over the years and I'm sort of surprised I don't have a Road Tips entry on the place.)  But a year later, the Swift's faced a major crossroads with their Coralville restaurant.  

The historic flood of 2008 inundated the Coralville strip and it wiped out Sluggers.  Rather than rebuilding, Faye Swift decided to close up for good and the Swifts opened a new restaurant in North Liberty called Red's Alehouse.  The success the Swift's had at Red's prompted Matt Swift to look for new opportunities in other start-up restaurants in the area.  

Doug Goettsch was a native of the Calamus/Wheatland area of eastern Iowa who first got into the restaurant field working as a dishwasher while he was going to junior college in Clinton, IA.  After graduating with a food service degree from the now-closed Marycrest College in Davenport, IA.  Goettsch worked as a representative for an eastern Iowa food distributor before heading out to California to study at the Culinary Institute of America.  He became a certified chef de cuisine from the C.I.A. and he eventually became the director of corporate relations for the school.  

While he was in California working at the C.I.A., Goettsch came back to Iowa in 2012 and he started to look up some of his former accounts in the Iowa City area to catch up.  Goettsch called on Faye Swift 20 years earlier when she owned Slugger's in Coralville and he went up to Red's Alehouse to see her and her son.  Matt Swift was telling Goettsch that he and the beer specialist at Red's Alehouse - an old Swift family friend by the name of Bill Heinrich - were thinking about opening a brew pub somewhere in the area.  Heinrich had cut his teeth in the brewing trade first at the Millstream Brewery in the Amana Colonies before moving out to Reno, NV to be the head brewer at a microbrewery there.  

When Matt Swift had hired Heinrich to come back to Iowa to be in charge of beers at Red's Ale House, Heinrich stopped off in Colorado and picked up a small brewing system that he had packed into a rental trailer.  Heinrich had been experimenting with different types of beers at this home before he and Swift started to come up with an idea for their own brewpub.  Telling Goettsch about the potential brew pub, Goettsch got excited about the possibilities of partnering with the Swift's and Heinrich in the venture.  

It was less than a year later when Goettsch decided to move back to Iowa to help open the brew pub.  The group found a location in Solon, IA and began to renovate the space into a brewery and a gastropub.  The building used to house Joensy's which was famous for their large pork tenderloin sandwiches.  Faye Swift's brother, George Pappageorge, was an architect in Chicago and he was called in to design the space that had become available after Joensy's closed in 2012.  

They knew they needed a quality chef to head up the kitchen and Goettsch and the Swift's knew just the guy - Benjamin Smart.  After Smart had graduated from culinary school at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, the Swift's hired him to work in the kitchen at Slugger's in Coralville.  Smart quickly outgrew the sports bar food served at Slugger's and eventually became the executive chef at The Herbfarm, a celebrated and award-winning farm-to-fork restaurant in the Seattle area.  It was sort of serendipitous when Goettsch - who also knew Smart - reached out to him to see if he would be interested in coming back to Iowa to head up the kitchen in their new venture.  Smart and his wife had been thinking about moving back to Iowa to raise their young children.  Seeing this as the perfect opportunity, Smart immediately signed up as the head chef at the new brew pub.  With everything in place, Big Grove Brewery opened in February of 2014.  

Big Grove quickly became a destination restaurant for their food and their beers started to gain status among beer connoisseurs in east central Iowa.  By 2016, it became apparent that they were running out of space to brew their beers.  Goettsch, the Swift's, and Smart partnered with former NFL and Iowa football player Nate Kaeding - who also owned Short's Burger and Shine - to develop an Iowa City location that would allow Big Grove to brew up to 20,000 barrels annually, along with a large pub space for people to eat and drink.  The Iowa City Big Grove location opened in March of 2017.  

(The Swift's and Goettsch are also involved in Pullman Bar & Diner, a bistro in Iowa City; while Matt Swift, Goettsch, Smart and Kaeding are behind St. Burch Tavern, an upscale bistro that opened in downtown Iowa City in April of 2017.  Matt Swift is also involved with others in 30hop, a burger/craftbrew-centric restaurant with locations in Coralville, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.  Click here to see the Road Tips entry on 30hop.)  

We pulled into Solon around 1:30 p.m. and parked catty-cornered from Big Grove on the street.  (see map)  We entered and found a place that had been significantly transformed from what was a dingy, small-town bar during the days of Joensy's into an impressive modern-rustic style brew pub.  High ceilings with wooden trusses crossed over both the bar area and the dining room.  A mix of contemporary and antique-style lighting hung from the trusses.  A brick wall back-bar with liquor shelves and flat-screen televisions were the focal point in the bar, while a large fireplace in the middle of a wall of reclaimed barn board was the center feature of the dining room.  

That particular Sunday, the weather was sort of all over the place.  It was warm, but the fluffy cumulus clouds were billowing up and spotty showers would break out at any time.  We thought about sitting outside in Big Grove's beautiful patio area, but we didn't want to risk getting rained on during one of those pop-up showers.  We ended up taking a booth near the fireplace in the dining room.  

Our server that day, a nice young guy by the name of Tiber, came over to drop off a couple of menus.  My wife wasn't all that familiar with their beers, so I suggested we get a sampler flight of beers.  As I said, I was familiar with their Easy Eddie Hazy IPA and I suggested getting one of those in the flight.  We also got the BGB India pale ale to try, the Red-headed Stranger - an American red pale ale, and the Boomtown Premium, Big Grove's golden ale beer.  After giving them all a try, she decided upon the BGB IPA while I stayed with the Easy Eddie Hazy IPA.  

The food served at the Big Grove location in Solon is not like your normal brew pub/tavern fare.  Ben Smart has put together an eclectic mix of locally-grown Midwestern favorites, pasta specialties, interesting flat-bread pizzas, and some interesting shared plates such as crispy salmon spring rolls, braised pork shoulder with pickled onions and mustard seeds, and a burrata cheese and tomatoes appetizer that features roasted garlic, summer squash, and zucchini confit with herbed focaccia bread.   Smart's reputation for having interesting foods at Big Grove led to him being named as one of the 30 top chefs to watch in the U.S. by Plate magazine in 2016, and two years later he was named Iowa Restaurateur of the Year by the Iowa Restaurant Association.   

We weren't looking for a lot of food, but just needed something to tide us over until dinner later that evening.  My wife went on the light side with the Korean salmon salad they had as a special that day.  It featured a small piece of grilled salmon with vegetables, Korean noodles and what appeared to be smoked hard-boiled egg.  She said it was simply delicious and was more than happy she ordered that.

I wasn't too certain what I wanted to get.  I was hungry, but not THAT hungry.  I thought about getting the Big Grove burger made with locally-raised black angus beef, or the prime rib French dip that was topped with a creamed Wisconsin white cheddar cheese and horseradish aioli.  But I kept going back to the pastrami sandwich they had on the menu.  

And that's what I got.  It featured thick slices of house-smoked pastrami topped with Swiss cheese, house-made sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing.  The sandwich came on lightly toasted rye bread.  A side of battered French fries came with the sandwich.  I thought the meat tasted more like a traditional brisket than a seasoned smoked pastrami.  But that's a very minor quibble as the meat was tender and had great flavor.  The house-made sauerkraut gave each bite a nice kick and the Swiss cheese wasn't overpowering.  Even the battered fries were very good.  My wife and I shared nearly the whole pile of fries and that was remarkable because we generally never eat many - if any - fries if they're served as a side.  

Now that we finally made it to Big Grove Brewery in Solon, we're sort of kicking ourselves for not getting there sooner.  The food was top-notch compared to many other brew pubs I've visited in my travels.  And the beers served at Big Grove is well worth the visit on their own.  The pastrami sandwich I had was very good - as were the fries served on the side - and my wife simply loved her Korean-style grilled salmon salad.  The service was friendly and efficient, and the decor was a wonderful mix of modern Americana.  We were sorry we didn't sit on the beautiful patio as it turned out that it didn't rain while we were there, but there's always next summer. 

Ruby's Pub and Grill - Stuart, IA

My wife and I spent a few days in August at Lake Panorama, a large private association property about an hour's drive west of Des Moines.  My sister's fiancee was gracious enough to allow us to hole up in his lake home and we just chilled for three or four days.  One day was rainy and there wasn't much to do or go see, so we decided to go have lunch somewhere.  I had been told awhile back by Jim Zimmerline, the owner of Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair, IA, about a good burger place in Stuart, IA.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Zipp's Pizzaria.) It turned out that we were about a 15 minute drive from Stuart and we ended up heading to Ruby's Pub and Grill for a burger and some beers.  

The Ruby behind Ruby's Pub is Ruby Waltz who owned the place - known as the Waltz Inn, but everyone referred to the place as "Ruby's" - for 56 years.  She retired in 2013 at the age of 86, selling her bar to Cindy and Devon Wright who officially changed the name of the place to Ruby's Pub. (Thanks to Shonna Wolfe for that info.)  The Wright's, in turn, sold Ruby's to local resident Nate Westre who, after a couple years of ownership, decided to put in a kitchen.  Westre enlisted the help of Jim Zimmerline for both kitchen equipment and help with a menu.  Westre opened the kitchen at Ruby's Pub in September of 2016.  

Westre ended up selling the business about a year later to another local Stuart resident, Austin Vanlandingham.  Vanlandingham had the place for about 18 months before he ended up selling the place to two local ladies - Misty Beane and Jaime Shoesmith.  

The two ladies basically shut down Ruby's for a period of time to spruce the place up - giving it a woman's touch, so to speak - and they upgraded the kitchen equipment allowing for an expanded menu.  With the new decor and equipment in place, Beane and Shoesmith - with the help of their friend Donald Teague - re-opened Ruby's Pub on June 1 of this year.  

We pulled up to Ruby's Pub along NE 2nd Street in the downtown area of Stuart.  (see map)   Upon entering the restaurant, we found a bar with a tin corrugated panels on the front, a number of high top tables along the opposite wall, and shorter four-seater tables in the middle.  Historical pictures of Stuart were on the brick wall opposite the bar above tin corrugated wainscoting.  Interestingly, there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.  We got in there about 2 p.m. and it was sort of quiet.  For a small town bar, it was a clean little place.  

We took a seat at one of the high-top tables along the wall and a lady by the name of Amanda came over with a couple menus for us.  I told her that I had heard that Ruby's had great burgers.  "Oh, yeah," Amanda asked back.  "Who told you that?"  When I told her that it was Jim Zimmerline from Zipp's Pizzaria, she laughed and said, "Zipp's my cousin!"  She asked us what we wanted to drink and I noticed that they had the Easy Eddie Hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA.  I got one of those and my wife got a cranberry and vodka - "Light on the cranberry," she told Amanda.   She was definitely on vacation.

In addition to burgers, Ruby's has sandwiches and appetizers.  They also serve pizzas from Zipp's Pizzaria that Jim Zimmerline freezes and delivers to Ruby's.  Lunch and nightly specials exist through the week.  And a number of kids items are available at Ruby's, as well.  

My wife and I both ordered cheeseburgers - she got the regular cheeseburger with fries, I got the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings that Amanda talked me into.  The burgers were flat-grilled and placed upon a lightly grilled bun that was light and spongy.  Thick American cheese was melted over the patties and the burgers were garnished with thick-cut dill pickle slices, sliced onions and tomatoes, and finished with a fresh lettuce leaf.  

My burger was fantastic.  It was thick, juicy and had a great burger taste.  The fresh veggie garnish gave the burger a wonderful flavor accompaniment.   The juiciness of the burger made for a multi-napkin situation.  But the bun held together very well - a sign of a very good burger.  

My wife thought her burger was equally delicious.  "This was worth the trip," my wife said before she took another bite of her burger.  

However, Amanda oversold me on the onion rings.  They were available for an upcharge, but they were basically a throw away.  The fries were just all right, but they were better than the onion rings.  The burgers were big enough to make us forget about the so-so sides we ordered.

I was told Ruby's Pub had a very good burger and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Everything about the burger - from the robust tasting and juicy beef patty, to the fresh veggie garnishes they put on the burger, to the light and spongy bun that held up very well.  They had a surprisingly good selection of local craft beers, but the fries and onion rings we had were basically throw-aways.  Amanda's service was prompt, friendly and efficient with a side of sass thrown in.  For a small town Iowa bar, Ruby's was a nice place.  If you're traveling between Des Moines and Omaha, and it's around lunch time - or even dinner time - get off I-80 at the Stuart exit, head north into the downtown and have a burger at Ruby's. 

American Legion Post 537 - New London, MN

During our trip to West Central Minnesota earlier this year, our options for restaurants in the Spicer/New London area where we were staying were pretty limited.  We had heard from a couple locals that the American Legion posts in both Spicer and New London had pretty good food.  We had gone into the American Legion in Spicer one rainy afternoon to get a drink and an appetizer and it looked pretty nice in there.  We were up at a small brew pub in New London one evening, but their kitchen was closed.  A couple seated at the bar next to us was telling us about the American Legion Post 537 a couple blocks away.  "I know it sounds strange," the lady told us.  "But they have pretty good food over there."   We decided to be like the locals that evening and we went over to the American Legion for dinner.  

American Legion posts like the one in Spicer and New London are the backbone of small communities in the Upper Midwest.  They're membership driven, but their restaurants (if they have one) and lounges are usually open to the public.  Quite actually, we found the two American Legion posts in Spicer and New London to be clean, spacious and well kept.  They were two of the nicer places we were in during our vacation.  

We could have walked from the brew pub to the American Legion in New London as it was just a couple blocks away.  (see map)  We found parking on the street in front of the place which looked like it had been added onto over the years to expand their dining area.  

Going inside, we found a nice lounge area with a spacious dining room off to the side.  We realized that we came in the lounge door, but there was a entry way that took you into the dining room on the north side of the building.  Nevertheless, we went into the dining room and were greeted by a woman by the name of Kathy who ended up seating us at a table and giving us a couple menus to look over.  Kathy had a very pronounced Minnesota accent, but was cheery and welcoming.  She asked if we wanted a drink and my wife got a cranberry juice and vodka.  I wondered what they had for craft beers available and Kathy said they really just had the regular domestics.   I got a Budweiser and called it good.  

It turned out that it was Steak Night at the American Legion that evening - an 8 ounce sirloin with a baked potato for $5.95.  How's that for a small town deal?  Except Kathy informed us that they had already sold out of potatoes by 7:30 p.m.  "We get a big crowd in early for the steak nights," she said almost apologetically.   

The menu at the American Legion in New London featured a little bit of everything for the family - appetizers like egg rolls, chicken wings and mini tacos; sandwiches and "build-your-own" burgers, wraps, and a number of entrees including an herb and butter-stuffed chicken breast, a classic fettuccine alfredo, a 14-ounce ribeye, and a honey-glazed grilled ham steak.  A kids menu is also available.  

My wife did the steak special that evening.  And since they were out of baked potatoes, my wife went with the staple of Minnesota side dishes - tater tots.  My wife ordered her steak medium and a couple quick cuts into the meat saw that it had a hint of pink throughout.  She said it was very tender and had a great flavor to it.  For $5.95, it was one helluva deal.

I went with the broiled walleye that evening.  Kathy said that for 75 cents more they could put Cajun seasonings on it.  I took her up on that offer.  The walleye was a little mushy - I figured that the walleye was probably frozen after it was caught and filleted.  But it was still very good.  It was still light and flaky with that great walleye taste.  I also got tater tots to go along with the walleye.  Adding some Tabasco to the potatoes gave them a little more of a zip in taste.  

The American Legion posts in small towns across the Upper Midwest are the community gathering place and many of them have restaurants that are open to the public.  And the American Legion Post in New London was typical of many of those places.  It was a very nice place to dine and the service we had was very thorough and friendly.  I thought my walleye was a bit expensive - $21.75 with the Cajun seasonings added.  But you couldn't beat the $5.95 8-ounce sirloin steak special my wife had that evening.   The meal we had at the American Legion post in New London was a pleasant surprise and I would have no problem recommending this place if you're in the area. 

Twisted Oak Tavern - Agoura Hills, CA

We were called for a weekend meeting out in California earlier this summer and many of us got in on Saturday afternoon.  I met some of my colleagues at one of the rental car places and we took a drive up to Agoura Hills, north and west of Los Angeles where the meeting was to take place.  After checking into the hotel, we were hungry and we found out that we were sort of on our own for dinner that evening.  It was late in the afternoon, but with many of my colleagues coming in from the East Coast and Midwest, we were sort of famished.  It turned out that there was a restaurant - Twisted Oak Tavern - just down the street from our hotel, literally walking distance from where we were staying.  We decided to head there for a late lunch, early dinner.  

It turns out that Twisted Oak also houses a brew pub - the Lab Brewing Company.  Co-owner and brewmaster Roger Bott had a number of years of home-brewing experience as he worked in the biotechnology field.  Co-owner Jeff Walker also had a background in brew pubs before the two got together to open their own brewery on the site of a former dance lounge in the Agoura Hills Town Center in November of 2011.  

Sensing a need to re-brand after three years in business, Walker and Bott temporarily closed Lab Brewing Company just before Christmas in 2014.  They came up with a new concept that promised a "fresh twist" on a gastro/brew pub.  They reopened about a month later under the name Twisted Oak Tavern.  The Lab Brewing Company continues to operate out of the facility and in addition to supplying Twisted Oak with a variety of craft beers, Lab Brewing also distributes to a handful of restaurants in the Agoura Hills/Thousand Oaks area.  

A group of us made the very short trip over to Twisted Oak around 2:30 on a brilliantly sunny Southern California Saturday afternoon.  (see map)   We found a high-top table for 8 in the bar area.  A young lady working behind the bar came out to give us some menus and to take our drink orders.  In addition to the 8 beers on tap made in house by Lab Brewery, Twisted Oak also has a number of other craft beers on tap primarily from California.  I got a local IPA that was made with hops from New Zealand.  It had a somewhat hoppy, yet smooth taste to it.   

The three-sided bar wrapped around the front and into the dining room.  Recessed away from the large windows that let in natural light on the other side of bar, the dining area was more dark and cozy with a number of booths along a wall of reclaimed barn boards.  Tables with banquette seating lined the east side wall of the dining area. 

Off to the side of the dining area bathed in a soft purple light were fermenting tanks used by Lab Brewing Company.  There were also a number of tanks behind a glass wall across an entry way in the brewery area.  The entry way exited out to a nice little patio where a reunion party was just getting started when we got there.  

We really didn't want to eat too much as we figured we would be going out for dinner later on that evening - after 8 p.m. in true European fashion.  While Twisted Oak has burgers and sandwiches, they also feature a handful of entrees served during the dinner hour in the evening such as stout beer braised short ribs, a miso salmon dish, and an oven-roasted pig's head that is brined over night and available on a limited basis each day.  They also have flatbreads, salads and a number of appetizers.

We sort of focused on the appetizer part of the menu deciding to get a little bit of everything to share at the table.  I also got a dinner salad with a raspberry vinaigrette to start out on so I wouldn't overeat so much on the appetizers as It was getting close to 5 p.m. body-time and I was pretty hungry.  

My choice for an appetizer were the mahi mahi fish tacos.  The tacos featured large grilled chunks of mahi mahi topped with great tasting creamy chile verde sauce on flour tortilla shells.  Shredded cabbage and lettuce along with chopped tomatoes were part of the toppings on the tacos.  I'm a sucker for good fish tacos and I have to say these were pretty damned good.  

We also got a couple double orders of chicken wings for the table.  Someone ordered the habanero-spiced wings that I didn't think were all that spicy.  And we also got the tandoori chicken wings that I felt tasted like something you'd get at Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The chicken wings were pretty underwhelming to me.  

Finishing out the food order at the table was a large plate of the loaded chicken nachos.  It stayed down on the other end of the table, and that was fine with me.   Between the salad, a couple chicken wings and the fish tacos, I'd had enough food to keep me going for the next 5 hours until we had dinner.  

While we really didn't do anything other than appetizers on our visit to Twisted Oak Tavern/Lab Brewing Co., I have to say that I was very happy with the fish tacos, but that was about it.  The chicken wings were pretty pedestrian.  I will say the IPA made from New Zealand hops that I had was very good, and the service for a lazy Saturday afternoon was fine.  Twisted Oak was a nice little place to hang out with some of my colleagues when really none of us wanted to give up a summer weekend for a meeting in California.  

T-Bock's - Decorah, IA

Last spring, my wife and I spent our anniversary weekend in Decorah, IA.  We were downtown and got caught in a downpour that forced us to seek shelter in a local watering hole.  (Imagine that!)  It turns out this was a place that friends of ours who went to Luther College frequent when they go back for annual weekend gatherings with friends.  When my wife and I went on vacation in early July, we took backroads up to northeast Iowa and later into southeast Minnesota.  We ended up in Decorah in time for lunch and we decided to give the same bar - T-Bock's - a try.  

Mike and Dominique Bockman have been in charge of T-Bock's since they bought the place in 1994.  There's not many places for people to gather in Decorah for parties and receptions, but T-Bock's has a downstairs banquet area that will handle up to 60 people for a sit-down event, and an upstairs area that will accommodate up to 200 people for private parties, corporate events and conferences.  According to our friends, it is probably the most popular bar for people of all ages in downtown Decorah.  And they have over 20 different types of beers on tap, including local and regional craft brews.  

On this visit, it was a much nicer day than the previous visit we had to downtown Decorah.  It was a beautiful day and we parked down the street from T-Bock's  to walk up and down Water Street.  Since it was a Sunday, most of the shops were closed, but T-Bock's was open. (see map)  We walked into the place and found a booth that was open up in the front part of the bar.  There's a backroom on the main floor of T-Bock's that was closed off that day.  The atmosphere at T-Bock's is lively with a number of flat-screen televisions, beer signs and sports memorabilia on the brick walls of the restaurant.

It was a tag-team effort for the waitstaff at T-Bock's that day.  One young lady came over with menus for us, another one came by to take our drink order.  A bloody mary and a Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue sounded good to me and I ordered both of those up.  The server said, "We have our bloody mary bar going just around the corner."  Oh!  Sure, I can go do my own bloody mary.  

My wife is one of those people who has to have three square meals a day.  Me, I'm pretty happy with snacking through the day and having a big meal in the evening, so I wasn't looking to get much of anything.  T-Bock's has a lot of your typical bar foods - appetizers, burgers, salads, and sandwiches such as a French dip, a reuben, and a sandwich called the Captain's Sandwich which featured thin slices of roast beef topped with melted pepper jack cheese and served on marble rye bread with a side of Country Bob's steak sauce.  

Continuing the tag team service, a male server brought our food out to us - I'm guessing he was the manager that day.  My wife got the Greek chicken wrap - a locally-raised organic chicken breast that was chopped into smaller pieces, chopped tomatoes and onions, sliced black olives, feta cheese and a Greek vinaigrette in a tortilla wrap.  It wasn't big, but it wasn't small.  She thought it was pretty good and it satiated her appetite.

I went the appetizer route with a plate of T-Bock's chicken wings.  I was supposed to get just a half dozen, but it was deemed by the person making them in the kitchen that they were pretty small so I got 8 instead.  The wings also come from locally-raised organic chickens and I had them toss them in T-Bock's house-made Buffalo sauce.  I also got the beer-battered onion rings that my wife helped me eat.  The chicken wings were much better than the onion rings - I guessed the onion rings were probably from a food purveyor as they didn't have the texture or taste of in-house onion rings.  The Buffalo sauce gave the wings a nice little zip in taste.  

T-Bock's is pretty basic when it comes to food selections.  But that's fine if you know going in that it's a sports bar with an average menu.  My wife enjoyed her Greek chicken wrap, while I thought the chicken wings were very good.  The onion rings were average, at best.  The tag team service we received was prompt and friendly, and the atmosphere is what you'd find at any typical sports bar.  There's a few places to eat in Decorah, but if you're looking for a burger or a sandwich for lunch - along with a good selection of craft beers - T-Bock's is fine and dandy for that.  

Murray's - Minneapolis

Toward the end of our vacation, my wife and I decided to head back to the Twin Cities and civilization - a marked departure of the laid-back atmosphere we experienced during our staying in and around Spicer, MN, 100 miles west of Minneapolis.  We booked a room at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis with the expressed plan of eating at an old-time high-end steakhouse/supper club nearby where we had a drink at the bar during a visit a few years ago.  This post is about our visit to Murray's in downtown Minneapolis.  

And when I say Murray's is an old-time supper club, well, it's just that.  Started in 1946 by Milwaukee natives Art and Marie Murray, the building that houses Murray's dates back to the 1880's and is one of the oldest buildings in Minneapolis.  Art Murray wasn't a restaurateur when he and Marie were married in the 1920's.  He was a carton salesman and made frequent trips to the Twin Cities.  Marie had been a server at the toney Palmer House in Chicago and moved back to Milwaukee to work the dining room at the then prestigious Schroeder Hotel (now the Hilton City Center).  Occasionally, he would take Marie with him to Minneapolis and the couple fell in love with the city and the area.  

The Murray's eventually moved to the Twin Cities in 1933 and two years later they bought a small restaurant on Minneapolis' north side that had gone out of business during the Great Depression.  The couple called their restaurant the Red Feather Cafe, and by 1939 they discovered they needed more space for their ever growing clientele who enjoyed the high quality food they served.   The couple decided to move their restaurant to a hotel in downtown Minneapolis and they continued to run it all through World War II.  But in 1946, the opportunity to do something different in a space that had opened up a couple blocks from the Red Feather Cafe.  

Pictured at right - Art and Marie Murray.  Photo courtesy Murray's.

Delaney's, a bar that boasted the longest bar in Minneapolis, closed up not long after the end of World War II.  Prior to that, the long, narrow building housed the Winter Garden Ballroom, a banquet facility and live music venue that hosted a number of performers during the big band and jazz era prior to World War II.  And prior to the Winter Garden, the second and third floors of the building was the home to the Hankow Cafe which was billed as "the finest Oriental cafe in the Northwest."  But the Hankow Cafe was also somewhat infamous for the murder that happened in its kitchen between two men who had been rivals in China years before.  

Wanting to have an upscale steakhouse that would serve memorable meals to their patrons, the Murray's took over the building in 1945, gutted, redesigned and rebuilt the tired interior, and transformed the drab facade into a sleek Streamline Moderne architectural design.   The Murray's opened their eponymous steakhouse in August of 1946.  Murray's upscale dining was an immediate hit with both the locals and public figures who came to Minneapolis to perform or push for votes.  The "Who's Who" of screen, stage and politics all dined at Murray's. 

Marie Murray was the one who did most of the menu planning during the time the building was undergoing renovations.   Art Murray enlisted the help of Marie's cousin, Alois Schirle, to come from post-war Germany to be the master baker for what turned out to be Murray's famous toasted garlic bread and their delicious pies.  Things were going very well for the Murray's and they got even better when a man by the name of Maurice Dreicer showed up at their place.

Maurice Dreicer was a bon vivant who was a radio entertainer and producer in the 1930's and 1940's before becoming a food and wine columnist.  He was a published author with a book on what his expectations for fine dining in a restaurant.  He was the self-described founder of the Order of the Golden Dozen (world's greatest chefs), the Order of the Great Drinking Establishments (world's best bars), founder and president of both Cigar Smokers United, and the Ale League of the World.  He may have also been the world's first - and possibly only - caviar tester.  He even put out a recorded verbal manual on how to mix drinks.  But more than anything, he was a connoisseur of fine steaks.  And he found a niche in which he was able to exploit his love for steaks into what turned out to be a pretty good scam for a number of years.  

Starting in the mid-40's, Dreicer began to visit restaurants to find the perfect steak.  Dreicer was a colorful man, to say the least.  He would wear high dollar suits, smoke large Cuban cigars, and had a resounding voice that immediately garnered the attention of waiters and diners alike in any restaurant he entered.  He always carried a large black bag - similar to a doctor's bag - that contained a number of items to help him judge each steak served to him.  

To perpetuate the illusion of him being an expert on steaks, he ordered up one and a half pound steaks to be served to him - cooked rare with absolutely no seasoning.  Then to continue his pompous perception, he would give the waiter a wooden bowl in which to serve the steak after the bowl had been heated in an oven.  Dreicer said that it was because the oak wood in the bowl would enhance the flavor of the meat.  And because the bowl would be so hot, he would also provide a pair of gloves for the waiter to transport the bowl from kitchen to table.  

Once the steak was served, he would wear a monocle while first inspecting the served steak.  He would then take out a meat thermometer and insert it into the steak to see if it was at the desired temperature of 120 degrees (F).  After that, he would take out a large magnifying glass to check the contour and marbling of the steak.  Finally, he would ceremoniously pull out a gold butter knife and cut into the piece of meat.  If it did not cut the meat, he would send it back.  

As he continued his quest to find the perfect steak, Dreicer began to reward those restaurants who were close - but not quite there - to the perfect steak.  He came up with an award called the Silver Butter Knife Award given to restaurants who had very good steaks.  He also had a Golden Butter Knife Award that he gave to restaurants who he felt had exceptional steaks.    

In 1951, Maurice Dreicer came to Murray's to have their 28 ounce sirloin steak designed to serve two people.  He liked it enough to give Art Murray his Silver Butter Knife award - basically a cheap certificate with a miniature silver butter knife attached.  He came back in 1956, this time having the porterhouse steak big enough for four people to enjoy, and then awarded Murray with a Golden Butter Knife certificate.    

Pictured left - Art Murray (left) receives his Golden Butter Knife certificate from Maurice Dreicer.  Photo courtesy Minneapolis Star Tribune.

It turned out that it wasn't all that exclusive of a club for the Silver Butter Knife award.  Dreicer handed out awards to nearly 250 other steakhouses across the United States including three more in the Twin Cities area.    

Maurice Dreicer played this pomposity to the hilt -  eventually referring to himself as a "Professor" - and parlayed it into a 40 year quest where he traveled to 60 countries where he was able to get some free dinners and drinks out of some establishments.   He had planned to write a book about the world's perfect steak, but he claimed he never did find it.  (The closest, according to his widow, was a Kobi beef steak he had in Tokyo.)  Dreicer eventually got into some trouble with the IRS for some six-figure deductions taken in the course of research for the book that was never written.  Dreicer passed away at his Florida home in 1989 at the age of 78.  

The number of awards given out by Dreicer didn't phase Art Murray in the least.  He started an advertising campaign touting Murray's as home to the "Silver Butter Knife Steak."  Even after garnering the Golden Butter Knife Award, Murray continued to tout his restaurant as home to the "Silver Butter Knife Steak", mainly because it was easier to market a steak for two people rather than one meant for four.  Many of the steakhouses who received awards either went out of business or eventually saw through the charade Dreicer was perpetrating, but Murray's continues to tout their award nearly 60 years later.  

Pat Murray grew up in the restaurant business with his parents washing dishes at Murray's.  He once acknowledged that the only job he'd ever had in his life was working at Murray's.  After graduating from high school in 1958, he went to work for his parents full time.  Two years later, he married his childhood sweetheart Joyce, and the same year he took over the day-to-day operation of Murray's.  Pat and Joyce Murray had five children, three of which followed their father into the family business.  Pat died at his home in 2012 at the age of 72.  Today, Pat and Joyce's sons James and Tim Murray, along with their sister Jill Kummings are the third generation owners/operators of Murray's.  

The distinctive neon sign out in front of Murray's is hard to ignore as we walked up N. 6th Street toward the restaurant, just a couple three blocks south of Target Field, home to the Minnesota Twins.  (see map)  The sign has survived a building demolition gone wrong from across the street where a steel girder came inches from crashing into it in 1979.  Nearly 20 years later, the Murray's had signed a letter of intent to sell the building to make way for a parking garage and for them to move to a larger location.  However, a few months later, the deal fell through and the Murray's - and the sign - stayed put.   

We entered Murray's and made our way down a hallway toward the hostess desk.  We passed a number of pictures on the wall of members of the Murray family standing with entertainers, athletes, politicians and other noted figures who have eaten at the restaurant.  Some of them I recognized - like Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS - but many I did not.  Pictures of Art, Marie and Pat Murray were prominently displayed amongst the pictures of celebrities.

We were met by Tim Murray at the stand up front.  We didn't have reservations and we figured we'd have to wait for awhile for a table.  But Tim Murray said that we could probably be seated in less than 10 minutes.  He asked if we'd like to wait in the bar area until they called for us.  

The bar area we were familiar with because we had been in there before having a drink after a Twins game a handful of years ago.  Back then, I thought the place was pretty cool and I wanted to come back for dinner after looking over a menu during our first visit.  Actually, it's not a large lounge area with a three-sided bar that seats less than 15 people.  There were some high-top tables along the wall.  The tile floor was the original floor for Delaney's Bar that Art Murray kept in place as a nod to the establishment who was in there just before he bought the place.  My wife got a cranberry vodka and I got a Surly Furious IPA while we waited for a table. 

True to Tim Murray's word, it was less than a 10 minute wait when we were finally called to get seated.  The dining room was a somewhat stunning scene that was both modern and retro.  High-backed plush booths, tables topped with thick table cloths, a mix of contemporary and art deco lighting in a room with white accents defined the dining area.  I felt somewhat underdressed in a pair of shorts and a polo shirt, but Murray's is one of those "come as you area"-type of places that caters to people before and after sporting events or concerts in downtown Minneapolis.   

We were seated in a table near the front of the dining room, given menus and were soon greeted by our server that evening, an outgoing and personable young man by the name of Anthony - but he asked us to call him Tony as the night wore on and we got to know him a little better.  He gave us some time to relax and to look over the menu.  

Naturally, steaks are the main item on the menu at Murray's.  In addition to their time-honored Silver Butter Knife steak for two, they have a steak flight for two that consists of a 10-ounce New York strip, an 8-ounce ribeye, and a 6-ounce filet.  They also had an 18-ounce bone-in Kansas City strip on the menu, a 10-ounce bacon-wrapped filet topped with blue cheese, and a 28-ounce porterhouse that could be shared or had by someone with a big appetite.  For the non-beef eaters, Murray's also featured seared scallops, a cracker crust fresh-lake walleye, a loin rack of Colorado-raised lamb, and a lemon-herb chicken entree.  Appetizers included a tuna poke, hickory-smoked shrimp, oysters Rockefeller, and a 16-ounce Australian lobster tail that could be shared by up to 8 people at the table.  

Tony brought out a basket of bread to start us off.  It was a mixture of fresh baked breads that are still baked in-house in Murray's second-floor bakery.  The pumpernickel was especially good. 

We started out by sharing a wedge salad.   It was a little smaller than I anticipated - we probably could have both gotten a wedge salad and it would have been fine.  The wedge salad featured a small chunk of iceberg lettuce topped with gorgonzola cheese crumbles, real bacon bits, red onion rings, chopped tomatoes and finished with a combination of Roquefort and French dressing.  Along with the bread, it was a nice start to our meal.  

For her dinner that night, my wife got the beef tournedos Oscar.  It featured two 3-ounce beef tenderloin medallions with grilled asparagus topped with a béarnaise sauce resting on a crab cake.  Murray's has their own in-house butcher who has worked there for over 35 years and they age their steaks 28 days before preparation.  My wife's tenderloin medallions were tender with a great beef flavor. She was very happy with her choice.

I was a little more undecided about what to get.  I thought about getting the peppercorn strip sirloin as I like a nice pepper coating on my steaks.  But then I looked down further on the menu and found that for an uncharge I could get any steak with a peppercorn crust.  I ended up ordering the 10-ounce tenderloin filet - rare.  It came out loaded with cracked peppercorn on the top, but the peppercorns didn't deter from the overall great taste of the steak.  Just like my wife's tenderloin medallions, my filet was tender and easy to cut.  I had switched from beer to a house Malbec they had that went very well with the steak.  Ten ounces was more than enough considering we had to have something on the side, as well.

Murray's has a number of sides to go along with the steaks they serve.  And in typical steakhouse fashion, the sides are made to be sharable.  In this case, we got the loaded hash browns as a side.  It was literally served in a loaf that was loaded with cheese and grilled onions.  The taste was wonderful and it was very filling.  I could only handle just a few bites of the cheesy hash browns with the onions mixed in.

After we finished our meal, Tony came back with the dessert menu to try and entice into stuffing our already overloaded stomach's even more.  Many of the desserts - if not all of the desserts - served at Murray's are made in house and include such sinfully decadent items like the mango/coconut bread pudding, their signature raspberry pie that is made fresh daily, and a s'mores chocolate truffle cake.  We thought about getting the creme brûlée, but ended up getting the key lime pie.  It was very good with a great tart lime taste and a crumbly graham cracker crust.  A dollop of whipped cream with lime zest sat majestically on top of the slice of the pie.  It was a great end to a great meal.

After we finished up, my wife was asking Tony about his life outside of working at Murray's.  He said that he liked to travel and that he was looking forward to an upcoming trip to Hawaii with his daughter.  Well, once he said "Hawaii", my wife had to quiz him as to which island he was going to.  He mentioned both Maui and Kauai - our two favorite places in Hawaii - and my wife told him about the Road Tips blog to give him some ideas of what to do when he got out there.  He gave me his e-mail address to pass along the Road Tips url, but unfortunately I lost the slip on which he put his address.  So, Tony, sorry man.  I didn't want to think I had blown you off and hopefully you found the blog on your own.  

Murray's was pretty much everything we expected it to be - charming and elegant without the pretension that sometimes work its way into venerable steakhouse/supper clubs.  On our way out, Tim Murray asked us how our meal was and we told him it was excellent.  And it was.  Our steaks were tender, flavorful and cooked precisely the way we ordered.  The service we received from Tony was professional, yet personable, and he handled every request that we had with a "no problem" attitude.  The ambience was classy without the stuffiness that you may find at some big city steakhouses.  Murray's has evolved over the years and have changed with the times with a "come-as-you-are" attitude toward their patrons.  But one thing hasn't changed from when they first opened in 1946 - the basic philosophy of offering some of the best in-house, aged hand-cut steaks that you'll find anywhere.   

Johnny O'Neil's - Spicer, MN

During our mid-summer vacation up in Spicer, MN, the places to eat dinner in the area were pretty limited.  We could have driven a few miles into Willmar for dinner, but we found that our choices there were pretty limited as well.  Just down the street from our hotel and across from a little park that featured a deck that looked out onto Green Lake, there was a pretty nice restaurant called Johnny O'Neil's.  We went there for drinks a couple times and stayed for dinner one evening.  

Actually, the official name of the place is Johnny O'Neil's Green Lake Social, and with the 1950's-style logo they have I'm always somewhat dubious of places named after a fictitious figure.  But I was told by one of the bartenders in the place one day that Johnny O'Neil was a real person, the original owner of O'Neil's Food and Spirits in Spicer.  The original building dated back to the turn of the 20th century and had been added on to a couple of times.  Jon Olson and a partner bought the business in 2000, and a few years after Jon Olson bought out his partner, he and his wife, Michelle, decided to renovate the restaurant in 2013.  One of the original buildings was razed and the main building had been gutted and completely re-done into a modern bar with a dining room.  They added an events center for parties and receptions, and also added an outdoor patio for dining and live event.  The renovation more than doubled the number of patrons they could serve.  

It was a short walk from our hotel down Lake Ave. to Johnny O'Neil's.  (see map)  As I said, we liked to go there because my wife really liked their "perfect" margarita that was seasoned with a filbert (hazel) nut, while I was happy to see that they had Kona Big Wave on tap along with a number of other good craft beers from not only in Minnesota, but from around the U.S.  And Johnny O'Neil's was just across the street from Pirotta Park which had a great composite deck with sliding rocking chairs in which we would sit for long stretches of time at various points during our stay just to look out onto Green Lake.  It was really one of the more relaxing vacations I've had in a long time.  

That evening, we decided to head into the dining room to have dinner.  The dining room featured a number of booths along the south wall, large wooden tables in the center for larger groups, and smaller tables along the other side of the room.  The hostess who sat us asked if we wanted to sit outside, but we decided to stay inside - and away from the clamor of the bar area that was filled with locals and vacationeers alike.  

After we were given menus, our server for the evening, a young lady by the name of Hunter, came by to say hello.  "I notice that you already have your drinks," she said.  "Can I get you started out with any appetizers?"  We hadn't even opened our menus yet and my wife was kind of taken aback by her question.  She asked Hunter to give us a minute to look through the menu.  My wife immediately had a problem with her that sort of escalated through the dinner.  

While most of the main items on the menu were your typical lake country fare - burgers and sandwiches, soups and salads, flat breads and pizzas - they also had some pretty interesting appetizers to choose from.  The habanero jack cheese sticks where actually the cheese folded into a wonton and deep fried.  They also had those with provolone cheese, as well.  They had fish tacos on the menu, albeit breaded and deep-fried (not to my liking for fish tacos), and they had steak tips with pearl onions and wild mushrooms.   They also had "wet or dry" chicken rings, and beer-battered onion rings.  Some of the items on the appetizer part of the menu sounded like they could be main entrees rather than appetizers.

I saw something in the appetizers that quickly caught my attention - the Minnesota poutine.  It was Johnny O'Neil's take on the Quebec-diet staple with crinkle-cut fries topped with mozzarella instead of cheese curds, and with real bacon bits added along with a thick and zesty au jus gravy.  Chopped green onions were added to the poutine to give it an added kick in taste.  It was a gooey and decadent mess - and it was excellent.  We both shared in the poutine, me much more so than my wife.

For dinner that evening, I wasn't really certain that I wanted a burger or a sandwich.  They were short of entrees on the menu - they had a 6 ounce sirloin steak that I thought was unreasonably priced.  They had a pork loin dinner available, as well as a parmesan garlic pasta alfredo with a choice of either chicken or shrimp.  I thought for a moment about their prime rib dip sandwich and their reuben.  And I considered getting their rendition of the Juicy Lucy - the Twin Cities-style stuffed cheese burger.  But there was one thing that I saw on the appetizer portion of the menu that really caught my eye.  Actually, after eating a good portion of the poutine, I wasn't certain that I needed anything else. 

But I did...

I ended up getting the sea salt and pepper ahi tuna appetizer.  Like I said, there were some things on the appetizer menu that could have easily been entrees.  It was a good sized yellowfin tuna steak that was grilled rare and "dusted" with sea salt and cracked black pepper.  It came with a tub of wasabi - a lot more wasabi than you'll ever be served at a sushi restaurant - along with a mirin sake sauce that was both sweet and sour, similar to a teriyaki sauce, and some pickled ginger.  Flatbread crackers came on the side.   The tuna was - in a word - fabulous.  It was not fishy in taste, it was seared perfectly and the tuna had a deep red color to it.  The wasabi was potent, too.  It cleared my head a couple of times.  They didn't need to bring a nearly full tub of wasabi, but there it was.  But the tuna was surprisingly outstanding.  

My wife got the battered redfish sandwich.  Real hashbrowns came on the side with the sandwich.  She didn't use the top piece of bread and gave it to me to have along side my seared tuna.  The redfish was lightly breaded and fried to a golden brown color.  It was flaky with big chunks of the fish slicing off easily with a fork.  My wife said the redfish was delicious.

As I said, my wife was having problems with Hunter through the course of our meal.  She had run out of her "perfect" margarita and wanted a second one, but Hunter was nowhere to be found.  The dining room was a little busy, but it wasn't packed.  Finally, Hunter rushed by the table, saying as she ran by, "How's the food, folks?"  She continued past before we could even answer or to get her attention to get my wife another margarita and another cold Big Wave for me.  Actually, she did come back and get our drink order, but it was a long time before we got our drinks.  I literally stopped eating until she brought me my beer - well more than five minutes after we had ordered our second round of drinks.  Then later on, she did the same thing as she breezed by the table - "How's the food, folks?" - not stopping to inquire, but as she was rushing past.  My wife guessed that this was Hunter's first job as a server.  "She's not going to last long if she keeps this up," my wife said between bites of her redfish.  

Other than the problems we had with our server - who may or may not have been all that experienced - I can't complain about much of anything with our meal at Johnny O'Neil's.  The seared tuna appetizer that I had as my main dinner that evening was top-notch.  My wife really enjoyed her battered redfish and the Minnesota-style poutine was a great start to the meal.  We had chances to go back to Johnny O'Neil's for dinner again during our stay in Spicer, but we ended up just going for drinks in the nice bar area.  Within Spicer, Johnny O'Neil's is the best bet for a more upscale meal, even though it really isn't upscale food.  

 

City Limits - Rock Island, IL

My wife and I have been on a search for bars in and around the greater Quad Cities area that have good burgers and sandwiches.  A place I had been to a number of years ago, but I hadn't been to with my wife is City Limits Saloon & Grill in Rock Island.  On a warm Saturday afternoon earlier this summer, we made the trek over to City Limits so I could reacquaint myself with the place.  

The origins of City Limits date back to World War II when the Green Forest Tavern opened on the far south side of Rock Island, just north of Milan, IL.  The restaurant went through an ownership change - as well as a name change to "Dickie Joe's" - in the 50's before brothers Bob and Carl Anderson bought the place in 1961.  The Anderson brothers changed the name back to the original Green Forest Tavern and the two brothers co-ran the small bar until Bob bought out Carl in 1972.  

Bob Anderson, Jr. joined his father in the business in 1979, and a year later the Anderson's petitioned the state of Illinois to change the name to City Limits Saloon.  Up until then, it was against Illinois law to have the term "saloon" in the title of a business that sold alcoholic beverages.  But the place looked like an old west saloon, complete with swinging doors and deer heads mounted on the walls.  A year later, they put in a small grill and added that to the name to become City Limits Saloon and Grill.  

Bob Anderson, Jr. eventually bought the business from his father in 1993, but just two years later a fire destroyed much of the interior of the bar & grill.  Determined to keep the business going, Anderson rebuilt and renovated the interior of the place and added a full kitchen to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week.  A 600 square foot addition added more than four times the original seating in 1999, but a kitchen renovation along with  large addition including a back porch in 2011 gave City Limits its current 132 seat capacity inside with an additional 32 seats on the outdoor porch.   

City Limits is sort of set back behind a gas station just off Highway 67 near its intersection with Illinois Highway 5 on Rock Island's southwest side.  (see map)  There's a large parking lot on three sides of the building and we parked in what I deemed is the back of the building.  Going in the doors off the porch, we encountered the large dining area that was added about 8 years ago.  I had not been in the place since this room had been added on.  It was a nice room, nothing fancy.  But it was well-lit and had an openness to the room.

The bar area is just past the back dining room and features more of a cozy, club-like atmosphere.  There was a small after-lunch crowd in the place and we were greeted in the bar area by a server who asked where we would like to sit.

It was really the first warm and sunny weekend of the summer when we were at City Limits that day and my wife said she thought she'd like to sit out back on the porch.  The server - a very pleasant and friendly young lady by the name of Aleah - said, "Sure!  I love to serve people out on the patio!"  She led us back out to the back porch and dropped off a couple menus for us to look through.  She was a very accommodating server and gave us some good recommendations during our visit.  My wife liked her very much.

They had a number of craft beers listed on a chalk board in the bar area and I made a mental note of some of them.  I told Aleah that I'd take a pale ale they had listed, but she came out a little later to say that they were out of that beer.  She came out with a beer list and I saw another one that I'd like to have.  She went in to get that for me and came back out moments later with a forlorn look on her face.  "We're out of that, too," she said apologetically.  I just decided to cut my losses and ordered a light domestic as I figured that they had to have that.  

My wife was looking through the appetizers on the menu and she saw something that really caught her eye - the portabella mushroom planks.  They took large portobello mushrooms and cut them in strips, then they were breaded and deep-fried.  A half-pound came in a basket and were served with a side of ranch dressing.  Oh, man!  Were they great!  And they were also very rich.  But I was a little shocked with the cost - $12 bucks!  I didn't realize they were that expensive until I went to pay the bill.  My wife felt bad about it because she didn't really notice the price before she ordered them, either.   And because they were so rich, we left a number of planks in the basket.  Three or four people could easily share the portobello mushroom planks. 

They have a number of burgers on the menu at City Limits including a number of specialty burgers made from chopped steak.  The Green Bay burger was topped with cheese, beer-caramelized onions and sauerkraut, then finished off with cheese curds.   The Brooklyn burger consisted of their chopped steak burger on grilled rye bread, topped with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, corned beef and a Thousand Island dressing.  And for the big appetite, the Viking burger featured two chopped steak patties topped with both cheddar and Swiss cheese, a honey mustard dressing, and finished off on top with onion rings and bacon on a pretzel bun.

My wife was looking at the sandwiches and wraps section of the menu more than the burgers.  They had a number of your typical sandwiches - a reuben, a breaded pork tenderloin, and a turkey club.  They also had their "Ultimate" grilled cheese sandwich featuring three different types of cheese along with bacon strips and sautéed tomato slices on parmesan-encrusted bread.  City Limits signature sandwich is the "Outer Limits" - an unbreaded pork loin that is liberally seasoned with an in-house blend of spices, then grilled and topped with bacon strips and cheddar cheese.  

My wife opted for the spinach artichoke grilled chicken sandwich without the bun.  It was topped with Swiss cheese, a tomato slice and a spinach artichoke sauce.  It was served on a bed of lettuce and, somewhat surprisingly to me, my wife got a side of the tater tots.  She rarely orders tater tots when we're out.  Fries, seasoned chips, potato salad, cole slaw and onion rings were also available for some of their sides.

On my initial visit to City Limits a number of years ago, I got the tuna melt sandwich which I thought was very good.  However, on this visit I decided to build my own burger and I went with my usual bacon, mushroom and cheese burger.  Only on this burger I got pepper jack cheese instead of my normal choice of Swiss cheese, and they had sautéed portobello mushrooms instead of the regular sliced mushrooms.  After asking Aleah about the onion rings (she said she thought the tater tots were better), I also got a side of the tots and I asked Aleah if she could bring out some Cholula hot sauce to put on the tots.  

My wife thought her grilled chicken breast was very good.  It was cooked perfectly and was juicy and flavorful.  She was happy she got it without the bun considering she was still munching on the portobello planks.  Along with a few tots, she was pretty full after finishing most of the breast.  

My burger was, in a word, outstanding.  It was juicy and gooey - a multi-napkin burger in its grandest form.  The pepper jack cheese wasn't overpowering, the bacon was a nice complement, but the sautéed portobello mushrooms were a great taste combination with the burger.  The lettuce leaf and a slice of red onion helped round out the wonderful taste of the burger.  The bun was lightly grilled and never was in danger of falling apart from all the juice coming from the beef patty.  

We may have a new leader in the clubhouse in our quest to find a great bar burger in the greater Quad Cities area.  The burger at City Limits was one of the better ones I've experienced in the area and my wife was impressed with the taste and quality of her grilled chicken breast.  Two quibbles, however.  We thought it was a tad expensive - especially the $12 portobello planks appetizer.  And I was a little miffed by the lack of the craft beers that they showed on the menu, but didn't actually have.  But the food, the great service, and the comfort of eating on the back porch on a warm day more than made up for those minor transgressions.  We really liked City Limits, but we also wished it wasn't so far of a drive from our home.