Road Tips

Monarch Kitchen + Bar - Davenport, IA

 My wife has a December birthday close to       Christmas.  When it falls on or near a weekend, we usually go into Chicago to celebrate.  (Well, even if it's in mid-week, we'll still go into Chicago for a couple three days to celebrate.)  But, of course, not this year.  And being that her birthday was on a Saturday this year, it was difficult to find a local restaurant that was A) a nice place; and B) had seats available for dining in the evening.  With restrictions in place, most of the good restaurants in the Quad Cities were either closed (Illinois side) or down to 50% capacity (Iowa side).  

We decided to sort of wing it on dinner that night and we started out with mid-afternoon drinks at R Bar, a small wine bar/martini bar that my wife likes to go to from time to time.  We were talking with Rochelle, one one of the bartenders there, and she was coming up with different ideas of where we could go to dinner.  Then she said, "Have you guys tried Monarch yet?"  We said, no - in fact, we had never heard of the place.  She said, "Oh, it's this great place that just opened near the Davenport/Bettendorf border on E. 53rd."  The more she got to talking about the place, the more we wanted to go.  

I called to make reservations, but I was told by the person at Monarch Kitchen + Bar that they were sold out for seating in the restaurant for the evening.  "But, we have high-top tables in the bar area and you can sit at the bar and have dinner, if you like," she explained.  "It's first-come, first-serve in the bar area."   It was getting to be just past 5 p.m. when we decided to head over to Monarch and check the place out.  

Monarch Kitchen + Bar is just north of 53rd near Falcon Ave. and you have to take one of the side streets off 53rd to get into their parking lot.  (see map)  The building sort of sits at an angle and people driving eastbound on 53rd have a better view of the front of the restaurant than those heading west.  We had just driven by the place - heading westbound - the night before and realized that we had probably driven past Monarch at least a half-dozen times since it had a soft-opening in October.  And they were still in their soft-opening phase the night we were there so we were able to snag a high-top table in the bar area.  

The bar area is sort of tucked back in a corner of the restaurant and features a three-sided bar with a full bar back.  Martini's seemed to be their specialty and the 3 bartenders were scurrying around mixing drinks for patrons.  Above the bar area was a floral-patterned acoustic tile that hung down from the ceiling.  They had a couple three more around the restaurant to really keep the noise in Monarch to a dull roar.  It wasn't obtrusive, but the background noise was still notable.   

The highlight of the bar area is the infinity fireplace that stands between the bar and the dining area of Monarch.  Only it's not a real fireplace - it's cool water vapor that comes up from the grates and is illuminated by 3 different colors of LED lights.  The stone facade held a shelf for people to stand near the vapor "flames" and have a drink.  It was actually kind of cool looking.  

Our server that evening was a personable and fun young lady by the name of Jamie.  Dressed in the Monarch Kitchen + Bar's staff's standard mode o' day navy blue and white gingham shirt, Jamie was also one of the bartenders at Monarch.  She asked us if we had been to Monarch before.  "I hadn't even heard of the place until about an hour ago," I told her.

We had our menus in place and she was going through the menu to talk about some of the items.  Many of the foods they serve are locally-sourced and everything is made from scratch in the kitchen.  She pointed out the burger they had on the menu and I said, "Oh, yeah.  I saw one go by our table a few moments ago.  It looked good!"

"It's great," Jamie said excitedly.  "When our chef was in Arizona, he got a Top 5 national award for his burger..."

I said, "Hold it.  The chef is from Arizona?"

"Yeah," she said.  "He came here a few years back because his wife was from here."

"And he was going to open a restaurant down at the Freight House or the old depot in downtown Davenport," I said in a questioning manner.

"That's him," Jamie replied.  "Do you know the chef?"

Well, no - we didn't know the chef, but we definitely knew of him from a conversation I had with one of my sisters over four years ago.  And here's that back story -

My two oldest sisters live in the Phoenix area.  My oldest sister and her husband are fine food enthusiasts like my wife and I, but my brother-in-law's world travels have taken them to some very fine restaurants.  When I was at their house in Scottsdale in December of last year, they were showing me the collection of menus from some of the more memorable restaurants that they had matted and framed to hang on their wall in a hallway between two bedrooms.  I was immediately jealous and also smacking my head thinking of some of the more memorable places we had been to over the past 25 years where we could have easily asked for a menu to do exactly the same thing my sister and brother-in-law had done.  

One of their favorite restaurants in Phoenix is a little bistro/tavern/wine store by the name of Tarbell's on E. Camelback Road.   They casually knew Tarbell's chef/food and beverage manager Matt Fenton from their visits there after they had moved down a few years ago from Louisville.  One day a little over four years ago, Fenton told my sister and brother-in-law that he was moving to the Quad Cities to open up a restaurant in an old train depot in downtown Davenport.  As I said, his wife was from Bettendorf and they wanted to be closer to her family back in Iowa.  My sister was excited to tell me about Matt Fenton's new venture in the Quad Cities and we had to check it out when he opened.  

The problem was, however, he never opened.  In the summer of 2017, there was talk of two new restaurants going into the old Union Station building across the tracks from LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport.  However, a few days before work was to begin on the project, Fenton pulled out of the venture.  (One of the spaces eventually became the home to Taste of Ethiopia.  Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Taste of Ethiopia.)  

My sister had asked me a couple years ago if anything ever came about with Fenton's restaurant in Davenport.  I told her that I don't know what happened and I didn't know if he even stuck around the Quad Cities.  But, as it turned out, Matt Fenton was, indeed, the chef/proprietor of Monarch.  

Matt Fenton was always fascinated by cooking.  As a young boy, he took cooking classes at a local public library, then continued to learn how to cook through his high school years.  Working through an organization called Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, Fenton earned a scholarship at Johnson & Wales University, a college known for their culinary arts program.  After graduating with a degree in Food Management Service, Fenton worked in restaurants in the Denver area before moving to Phoenix to work with chef Mark Tarbell who Fenton considers his biggest mentor.  Tarbell, a Paris-trained chef, moved to Phoenix when he was 23 and was the youngest food and beverage director at any 5-diamond resort in the world.  In 2007, Tarbell also gained notoriety as the champion chef on the Food Network's Iron Chef America show.  While working with Tarbell, Fenton had the opportunity to prepare a meal at the James Beard Foundation house in New York City, an honor for any chef or restaurant.

While working at Tarbell's, Fenton also became an accredited sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, a Napa Valley-based organization that focuses on educating members on the intricacies of wine.  Fenton found that he had as much a passion with wine as he did with food from his years of culinary studies and mentorships.  

Pictured right - Matt Fenton.  Photo courtesy Monarch Kitchen + Bar Facebook page

After the restaurant venture at the old Union Station in Davenport fell through, Fenton kept busy doing a number of different things in the Quad Cities.  He did catered events for private parties and organizations, he helped out as a brewer's assistant at Bent River Brewing Company over in Moline, and he worked on Sundays as an omelet chef at the Hyatt Place hotel part of The Bend complex in East Moline.  Things started to come together on his dream of opening his own restaurant late last year and finishing touches were put on the restaurant in early October.  There's been no mention locally in the press or on TV about Monarch's opening and all of their business so far has come from social media or word-of-mouth - sort of how we found out about the place.  

Well, all hell broke lose when we told Jamie that we knew of Matt Fenton's work at Tarbell's in Phoenix.  It wasn't more than about five minutes later that Fenton appeared at our table and said, "I heard you've eaten at Tarbell's in Phoenix."  I had to explain to him that we hadn't, but my two sisters and my brother-in-law had and had told us that he was moving to the Quad's over four years ago.  "Yeah, that was supposed to be two restaurants in the old depot downtown," he said.  "Sort of glad that it never happened down there with all the flooding they've had the past couple of years."  

I jokingly said, "And instead, you decide to open during a pandemic."  

He sort of laughed and said, "Yeah, well, the wheels were turning with this place long before we knew there was going to be a pandemic."  He looked around at the rapidly filling restaurant and said, "But it hasn't turned out too bad..."

After Matt thanked us for coming in, he went back to the kitchen.  On the hallway to the restrooms, you could look through glass plate windows directly into the open kitchen area.  It was a beehive of activity with Matt Fenton and his kitchen crew cranking out meals for patrons on a Saturday evening.   

The main dining area isn't all that large, but it features a handful of booths including three large booths with curved high-backs along the far end of the restaurant.  Tables with banquette seating were along the other window wall with tables and booths finishing out the dining area.  It was sort of chic modern decor with some interesting artwork on display in the bar and dining area.  There is also a private dining room off to the side of the main dining room at Monarch.  Streamline Architects of East Moline - who is quickly getting a reputation for some unique designs in restaurants in the area - were the designers of the lay-out of Monarch Kitchen + Bar.   

My wife and I ordered drinks while we checked out the menu.  She had had a couple three martinis at the R Bar before we came over and she was feeling no pain.  She ordered a cosmopolitan from Jamie while I ordered up a Pseudo Sue from the Toppling Goliath brewery up in Decorah, IA.  

The menu wasn't vast, and I was sort of happy to see that.  They had a number of interesting items including some pasta dishes, a roasted chicken entrée, grilled salmon, pan-roasted walleye, and a Ramen-style bowl of noodles that featured assorted pickled vegetables, sliced soft-boiled eggs and a house-made ponzu sauce.  You could also add grilled chicken, shrimp, or salmon to the noodles for an uncharge.  In addition to the main entrees, Monarch also featured a few salads - protein could be added to the salads - and a beef Wellington for 2 could be ordered with a two-day notice.  And they even had caviar on the menu!  Don't know if I've seen caviar on a menu in the Quad Cities area before.  And nearly all the items on the menu were listed as gluten free.  

They also had a number of interesting shareable appetizers on the menu at Monarch Kitchen + Bar.  My wife was interested in the house-made hummus, while the "Better Than Prime Beef" carpaccio caught my eye.  Spicy Thai chicken lettuce wraps and hand-pulled mozzarella stuffed with lemon ricotta, cured tomato and pesto, and served with pieces of crostini.  

But there was one thing on the appetizer part of the menu that I had to try - the spicy tuna tartar.  It was made with sushi grade tuna placed on top of a piece of deep-fried sticky rice, then topped with an apple ponzu sauce and seaweed salad with a spicy aioli drizzled around it.  Oh - my - GOD!!  It was unbelievably tasty.  The tuna was tender and flavorful, and the spicy aioli wasn't all that spicy to my taste.  I told my wife that I could eat three of the spicy tuna tartar and I'd be a happy guy for dinner.  

For our entrées that evening, my wife was torn between three things - two of which were the lobster and gnocchi that came with locally-grown oyster mushrooms; and the roast leg of lamb which came with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted locally-grown root vegetables.  At first, she did order the lamb, but then had a change of heart because she wanted steak for her birthday dinner.  She changed her mind to the filet and crab - a six ounce Iowa tender beef filet with fresh lump crab meat.  Buttermilk-mashed potatoes with demi-glace and creamed spinach came with the steak and crab meat.  

I was torn between the pork and beef ragu with house-made Pappardelle pasta, or the oyster mushroom Tagliatelle in a garlic cream sauce.  Jamie said, "Oh, the ragu is excellent.  I would take that over the Tagliatelle.  I took her recommendation.  

I also wanted to get a glass of cabernet for dinner.  They had two - the Broadside cabernet and the Justin cab, both from the Paso Robles area in California.  Jamie said, "The Broadside is five dollars cheaper by the glass, but I like the body and richness in the Broadside better."  Since I wasn't overly familiar with either one, I took her recommendation once again.  My wife got a glass of the Pascual Toso reserva malbec from Argentina.  

Another waiter brought our meals out and they looked delicious.  As we were getting settled, my wife realized that she didn't have a steak knife.  She was just turning to see if she could get someone's attention, Jamie came over to the table with a silver platter of assorted steak knives on a napkin.  "We offer our customers their choice of steak knives," she said.  "It's kind of a neat little thing we do here at Monarch."  My wife picked out a pearl-handled steak knife.  Jamie remarked, "It sort of reminds me of a French folding knife."  I've been presented with steak knives in wooden boxes at restaurants before, but nearly all the steak knives were different at Monarch.  It was a nice little touch in presentation, I thought.  

My wife was a bit apprehensive when she cut into the steak.  She had ordered the steak medium, but the first bite was well overdone.   However, I took a look at the steak and it was misshapen, and she had cut into the tip of the steak.  "I'm guessing that once you get to the other end, it will be fine"  She turned her plate to cut into the fatter end of the steak and it turned out to be a perfect medium, still pink and juicy in the middle.  

The steak came with five or six chunks of crab meat that swam in the demi-glace.  The steak rested on a bed of spinach and my wife remarked that there were a lot of excellent flavors going on all at once with each bite.  "This is perfect," she said, fully happy with what she ordered.

My beef and pork ragu turned out to be a hearty and wonderful Italian comfort meal.  Jamie told me when she came over to check on us that the meal normally didn't come with crostini bread, but she had them put some on the plate because "that's how I like it," she explained.  "I like to clean the sauce out of the bottom of the bowl with bread."  She had been spot on with her recommendations all night long and the bread sopping up the thick and meaty ragu after the wide-cut Pappardelle noodles were gone was a perfect ending to the meal.  

And she was spot on with our wine, as well.  The Broadside cabernet was bold, full-bodied, sort of a spicy black pepper to the taste, and went great with my meal.  This is what could have easily been called an Italian comfort meal.  My wife was happy with her malbec, as well.  A few of the wines on the wine list I was familiar with, but there were some interesting red blends and some New Zealand sauvignon blancs that I wanted to learn about.  I made a mental note to try and find some of the Broadside cabernet for our home collection.  

The meals we had featured generous portions, but not enough where we felt completely full or bloated after we finished.  And since it was my wife's birthday, we had to get dessert for her.  Jamie gave us a dessert menu and they also had their whiskey and cordial menu on it.  I took a look at their single malt scotch list and sort of cringed at some of the prices.  I told Jamie when she came back to take our dessert order that I was thinking of getting a scotch, but I was sort of alarmed at the prices.  The cheapest scotch was 15 bucks.  "That's five dollars higher than what I can get the same drink for at a lot of places around town."

Jamie said, "OK, well, we pour a generous drink here.  Most places will pour two fingers, we go two-and-a-half to three fingers."  She still couldn't convince me, and besides, we were going for a nightcap at a new bar and restaurant in downtown Davenport that was having a soft opening that night and we were told by friends of ours who are co-owners of the place to go check it out.  

Just like the food menu, the dessert menu at Monarch Kitchen + Bar is pretty compact.  They had a crème brûlée that immediately caught our attention.  There was a "decadent" chocolate mousse on the menu, as well an apple crisp served with cinnamon ice cream.  My wife was waffling between the chocolate mousse and something called "Chef Emma's EVOO Cake" that came with whipped lemon curd.  

Jamie came back and we told her of my wife's quandary.  "She can't decide between the extra virgin olive oil cake or the chocolate mousse."  

Jamie perked up and said, "Hey, that's good!  Most people don't know that EVOO stands for extra virgin olive oil.  I've had people order the 'EEE-vuuu' cake before."  We got a laugh out of that one.  

My wife first ordered the chocolate mousse, but ended up changing her mind to the EVOO cake with the whipped lemon curd after I had ordered my dessert.  She was happy with it, but she said she wished she would have gotten the chocolate mousse instead.  I tried a bite of the cake with some of the lemon curd and I thought it was delicious.  I told her that we could always come back and get the chocolate mousse on our next visit.  

All night long, Jamie had been giving me excellent recommendations and I said, "Well, you haven't gone wrong on the beef and pork ragu, and you certainly didn't go wrong with the win.  What do you recommend for dessert."  She immediately said to get the cheesecake with the salted caramel sauce.  They make the cheesecake in-house at Monarch and she said it was her favorite dessert on the menu.  And, once again, she didn't steer me wrong.  The cheesecake was rich and savory, and the salted caramel sauce gave it even more of a sweet and succulent taste.  It wasn't a big piece of cheesecake, but it didn't need to be.  It was so filling and sinfully good, even in a small portion.  

For completely winging it on my wife's birthday this year, we were amazed at how well things turned out by going to Monarch Kitchen + Bar on a whim from a recommendation we got earlier in the day.  And it was rather serendipitous that chef Matt Fenton was the guy my sister and brother-in-law knew in Phoenix who they told us was moving to the Quad Cities over four years ago and to be on the lookout for his new restaurant.  It took some time for him to settle in to get his new restaurant, but the wait was worth it.  I'd have to say that we loved everything about our first visit to Monarch - the food was excellent, the staff was very friendly and accommodating, Jamie did a great job with her food and wine recommendations, and we got a chance to meet Matt Fenton who came out to our table to talk with us.  The burger at Monarch Kitchen + Bar intrigues me very much and I can't wait to get back out there to give it a try in the very near future.  But Monarch has just jumped to the top of our list for special occasion meals in our family.  

Salt & Lime - Steamboat Springs, CO

During our vacation out in Steamboat Springs earlier this year, my wife and I had just come back from a morning outing to one of the beautiful lakes found in the area.  It was just after the lunch hour and my wife - who has to have three squares a day - was famished.  She said, "I know exactly where I want to go for lunch."  She had me stop the car and park just down the street from Salt & Lime, a taqueria in downtown Steamboat.  (see map)

Salt & Lime is part of the Rex Family of Restaurants owned by Rex Brice and features local Steamboat Springs restaurants such as Mazzola's Italian Diner (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Mazzola's), as well as Rex's American Grill & Bar located in the Holiday Inn on the southside of town.  Brice - a trained chef and former restaurant consultant - also has restaurants such as Big House Burgers and Bottle Cap Bar, Lil' House Country Biscuits & Coffee, the Laundry Kitchen,  and Creekside Cafe in and around Steamboat.  

For 13 years, the very popular Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant occupied the spot where Salt & Lime is today.  "The Rio", as it was known to the locals, was famous for their margaritas and roof-top dining.  In August of 2015, ownership of the Rio Grande decided that it was too far to manage from their main restaurant in Fort Collins and closed the place much to the dismay of the locals.  However, Brice stepped in to turn the full-menu Mexican restaurant into a taqueria while continuing the tradition of great margaritas at the restaurant.

For help at his new restaurant, Brice turned to Vicki Connacher who had been the chef at both The Laundry Kitchen and Rex's American Grill.  Connacher came over to Salt & Lime to fashion a menu consisting of regionally-sourced ingredients combined with traditional Mexican cooking techniques.  Many of her ideas for tacos at Salt & Lime come from numerous trips to New Mexico in the years past.  Connacher - who was named Colorado Regional Chef of the Year in 2019 - is helped out in the Salt & Lime kitchen by Chad Whitaker, who is locally famous for his award-winning Smokey Colorado Chili.  

In April of 2019, a kitchen fire caused extensive damage to the restaurant and it was shut down for a few weeks for clean-up and remodeling.  The restaurant came back as strong as ever and announced earlier this year that it would be taking over the space next door that housed a longtime gift shop/local-artist cooperative until this past October adding another 2,000 square feet of dining space to Salt & Lime, effectively doubling their seating capacity in the restaurant.   

It was just after the lunch hour rush when we walked into Salt & Lime.  We had noticed that on nice days they had an outdoor patio area with a walk-up window where people can order street tacos and burritos at the Burrito Bar right next to the main building that houses Salt & Lime.  However, that and the rooftop patio were closed that day as it was a little brisk and it was a weekday lunch crowd - as in, not too busy.  The restaurant's tables were spread out for COVID-19 restrictions and every other booth was open.  

We were greeted by a hostess who showed us to a small table along the back wall of the dining area and gave us a couple of menus.  Our waiter for the day brought out a couple glasses of water and almost immediately I moved the table with my elbow and found that it was wobbly.  As in, unstable.  The top part of our water glasses spilled all over the table and onto the floor.  The waiter came back and I said, "Well, this table is pretty wobbly.  We need to put something under one of the legs to steady it."

He sort of looked at me and said, "OK, yeah." 

I was trying to be nice about it and I said, "Yeah, if you have any beer coasters or napkins or something that can be put under one of the legs to keep it from wobbling.  I mean, we've already spilled our water glasses from it."  

The waiter couldn't have been more indifferent.  He sort of acted like it wasn't his problem.  He found some napkins and laid them on the table.  We cleaned up the water spill on the table with the napkins and he just sort of stood there watching us do his work.  Then I said, "Can we get more napkins or something to stick under the table?"  I jiggled the table a bit to show that it was definitely unsteady.  

"Uh, sure," he said in sort of an uncaring tone.  

He brought back more napkins and laid them on the table.  The waiter started to walk away and I said, "Can you help me with this?"  I was starting to get a little pissed at this kid.  

I held the one leg of the table up as the waiter put the napkins under the point.  It was clear that there weren't enough napkins as the table continued to wobble.  The waiter sort of disgustedly said, "I'll get more."

I said, "Hold it!  Wait a minute.  Let's be smart about this.  Take the napkins out, fold them in half and see how that works."  I held up the front of the table again, he folded them over in half and put them under the suspect point.  Voila!  It worked!  Then the waiter walked away again.  My wife was incredulous.  "Now where's he going," she asked with a bit of exasperation in her voice.  "I want a margarita!"  

They had a short, but interesting bar drink menu at Salt & Lime including margaritas, specialty cocktails, beer - local, domestic and Mexican imports - and wine.  When our waiter finally did come back, my wife had changed her mind.  She got a Paloma - Dulce Vida grapefruit tequila (I didn't know there were flavored tequilas, but there are.), along with lime juice, grapefruit bitters and grapefruit soda.  I ended up getting just the house margarita made with blue agave tequila and triple sec with a bit of lime juice mixed in. I thought about getting a shot of Grand Marnier on the top of my margarita, but decided against it at the last moment.  My wife thought her drink was great and I thought mine was very good.  I'm glad that I didn't get a shot of the Grand Marnier because it would have been a waste as the margarita was already top notch.  

After we got our drinks, the hostess came by and said, "Didn't you guys get any chips and salsa?"  I told her, no, and decided to throw our waiter under the bus. 

"He's been a little indifferent with his service," I told her.  She sort of looked over at the waiter lingering at the computer screen inputting orders and I could kind of tell from her facial expression that it probably wasn't the first time she'd heard that - probably today.  She offered to get another server for us, but I said, no, it wasn't necessary.  She then went over to speak to our waiter who stood there impassively while she talked to him.  He disappeared for a bit and came back with a basket of chips and some salsa verde.  He laid them on the table without saying a word or asking how our drinks were.  

(No more dwelling on our service while at Salt & Lime - you get the picture.  Spoiler alert - it didn't get any better.)   

The chips were warm and crisp, and had a seasoning on them to make them a little zippy in taste.  But the salsa verde covered that spiciness with its own bit of lively seasonings that was sneaky spicy on the back end.  The chips and salsa were very good.  

The tacos menu at Salt & Lime is also pretty short, but also rather interesting.  They had nine different tacos to choose from, as well as a chicken enchilada or a barbacoa quesadilla.  They had chicken burritos and a bison burrito also on the menu.  Salt & Lime also featured a family-style menu with a choice of tacos or enchiladas for four people.  

My wife settled on a couple tacos - the Chicken Tinga where the chicken is marinated and cooked in a combination of tomatoes, onions, garlic and a chipotle or adobo sauce; and the grilled fish tacos.  The Chicken Tinga taco came with an avocado slice, pickled onion & cabbage, cotija cheese, cilantro and topped with a dollop of lime mayo, while the grilled fish taco was topped with a house-made slaw, pineapple pico de gallo, and also finished with the lime mayo.   

I was not all that hungry after a pretty hearty breakfast earlier in the morning, but figuring the tacos were small I decided to give a couple a try.  I was torn between the ground bison taco, the al pastor taco, the grilled fish taco, the carne asada or the barbacoa tacos.  In the end, I went with the grilled fish taco and the al pastor - grilled pork in an adobada sauce, topped with a salsa verde, fresh pineapple, and lime cream topping.  

Like my wife, we were both underwhelmed with the grilled fish tacos we got.  We thought they were just OK, but didn't seem to have much pizzazz to the taste.   The slaw was sort of basic and the pineapple pico sort of overpowered the taste of the fish - of which there didn't seem to be much flavor in the fish.  

But the Chicken Tinga and the al pastor tacos were both off the hook in flavor.  The pork on my taco had a wonderful flavor with just enough spiciness on the back end to get your attention.  The chopped pineapple was a nice compliment and gave a cooling taste versus the somewhat spicy al pastor.  It literally stomped all over the fish taco in terms of flavor and zest. 

My wife thought the same thing about the Chicken Tinga.  It really jumped on her taste buds and released a lot of flavor.  She didn't think it was all that spicy, but there was something definitely in the Tinga sauce that made her taste buds stand up.  We both were sorry we didn't try something other than the fish tacos.  

Quick synopsis of our visit to Salt & Lime - very good margarita and paloma, good chips and salsa verde, great chicken or pork tacos, disappointing grilled fish taco, and a waiter who either didn't want to work, or had absolutely no clue as how to wait tables.  Service with a smile is always appreciated, helping a customer with a problem - this time a wobbly table - is a no-brainer.  But this guy had nothing in the tank when it came to even a modicum of service.  And that was a shame because Salt & Lime was the perfect lunch spot for us.  It wasn't too filling, the tacos were interesting, and it was a nice place to hang for a little while. If you make it to Steamboat Springs and want a nice light lunch consisting of some interesting tacos, Salt & Lime would be a good stop.  I just hope you don't get the indifferent waiter on your visit.

Guanella Pass Brewery - Georgetown, CO

A few weeks ago, I had a post on the brewpubs of Steamboat Springs.  (Click here to see that entry.)  At the time I included a microbrewery we visited in Georgetown, CO, about an hour's drive west of Denver.  Then I realized after the fact that it probably needed its own entry.  The brewpub was fun and fascinating, and the back story of how it came to be was also pretty interesting.  

Situated at just over 8500 feet above sea level and a few miles east of the Continental Divide off I-70, Georgetown is a historic, yet touristy town that reminded me a lot of Galena, IL.  My wife and I stopped in Georgetown to look around and we found a brew pub near the downtown area called Guanella Pass Brewery.  The brew pub takes its name from the high mountain pass of the same name located about 10 miles south of Georgetown on a scenic road that is open from Memorial Day to the end of November.  

Steve Skalski got his start in the business world working for EchoStar, the Denver-based company that operated Dish Network.  Skalski was in charge of EchoStar's interests in China for a number of years before moving back to the U.S. in 2011.  He eventually became the head of a company that designed and installed interactive entertainment and business systems in Hyatt hotels across the country before going to work for another communications company in California.  

One thing that Skalski loved was craft beer.  He started to brew his own beer at home and became friends with his neighbor Jon Strother who also brewed his own beers.  The two would brew beers together before Skalski decided that he wanted to get serious about it.  With the blessing of his wife, Skalski quit the corporate world, grew his hair long and grew a beard.  He then enrolled at the Siebel Institute in Chicago and their prestigious brewmaster course.  In the meantime, Strother got some advanced brew-training at Regis University in Denver.   

Skalski and his wife, Stacey, began to look for a building that would house their microbrewery.  But they found real estate around Denver to be cost prohibitive.  However, one day Steve found a building for sale in Georgetown - it was built in 1943 as a gas station, but had been an antique shop for a number of years.  The building was in a sad state of disrepair and the price was right.  The Skalski's bought the building, rehabbed it into a brewery and brought in Jon Strother to help with the operation.  They opened Guanella Pass Brewery in the late summer of 2017.  

As we were driving back to Denver from Steamboat Springs, we stopped in Georgetown to use the restroom.  My wife wanted me to drive toward the downtown area to check the place out.  We found the main street through the heart of downtown was closed off.  We were guessing they did that for the loads of people who come out from Denver - 45 miles to the east - on the weekends.  We walked around to a few shops, but I became quickly bored seeing knick-knacks, trinkets, and figurines.  My wife dangled the carrot of finding a brewpub after she was finished going through some of the stores.   

Getting back to the car, we did a quick search for breweries in the area.  The first one that came up was Guanella Pass, just a block off the main shopping street in town.  We pulled into a parking lot across from the brewery and went in.  (see map)  

Guanella Pass Brewery is not a big place.  It sort of reminded me somewhat of Storm Peak back in Steamboat, only much more cozy.  It seemed that we were right in the middle of the brewery operation enjoying a fresh beer.  There was a small bar area where you placed your order for their beers.  They had 12 beers on tap and we decided to taste 4 of them to start out.  


There is a patio off to the side of the building, but it was pretty brisk in the mountains that day so we ended up at a bench near the window.  We're glad we came in when we did because they got pretty busy.  The place seated - maybe - 18 people inside.  

We tried four beers - the Clear Creek hazy New England IPA that was delicious, a wheat and rye IPA that was all right, an Oktoberfest Märzen that I liked, and the Liquid Gold double IPA that was also very good.  I decided on getting a pint of the hazy IPA.  My wife took a half pint of the same beer.  

They also had pizza by the slice at Guanella Pass.  They opened a second location with a pizza kitchen in the town of Empire about 7 miles away from Georgetown in April of this year and they would ship their Detroit-style pizza over to warm up in a pizza oven.  My wife thought she should have something to tide her over until dinner in Denver that evening and we both got a slice of their pepperoni pizza.  It was thicker than Detroit-style that I've had in the past - more like the crust-less deep dish pizza that we both love from Pequod's in Chicago.  But it was very good.  The pepperoni was salty and spicy, which went well with the beer.  And the sauce was sweet and tangy.  I would have been happy having a couple more pieces along with a couple more beers and not eating dinner that evening.  But we needed to move on to Denver.   

It turned out that Guanella Pass Brewery was a great find on our trip to Colorado earlier this year.  Their New England-style hazy IPA was a great beer, their Detroit-style pizza - although made in the kitchen of their sister brewpub and brought over to the Georgetown location - was very good, and the small cozy atmosphere with the seating within the brewing was a nice touch.  We never did venture out to the patio, but if we would have been dressed for it better, it would have been a great place to hang.  If you're headed west from Denver and have the time to stop into Georgetown, don't forget to stop in to Guanella Pass Brewery.  

Freshies Restaurant - Steamboat Springs, CO

During our trip to Steamboat Springs earlier this year, the weather took a decidedly ugly turn from summer to winter in less than 24 hours.  One day, it was sunny with temperatures in the low-80's.  When we woke up the next morning, the wind was blowing hard with gusts close to 60 miles and hour, it was snowing and 33 degrees.  Not wanting to have the breakfast at the hotel, my wife said she would rather go out.  We happened upon a restaurant that we had noticed on our first visit to Steamboat Springs over two years ago that was walking distance from the hotel we stayed at back then.  But the place was always packed.  This morning, however, with the weather so bad - and only stupid people like us being out in the elements - there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot.  We pulled into the parking lot at Freshies Restaurant to have breakfast.  

Freshies has been around for 17 years when original owners Scott and Kristy Fox took over a building that was originally a Tastee Freez which had been converted into an Arby's on the south end of Steamboat Springs. The Fox's were already seasoned restaurateurs - they owned the popular Winona's Restaurant and Bakery in downtown Steamboat.  The Fox's started the little breakfast and lunch spot in 1993 in a building that used to house a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  They named the restaurant after the wife of the building's owner at the time.  

Winona's was a huge hit with locals and tourists with breakfasts and lunches made with locally-sourced foods and ingredients - long before it was fashionable to serve locally-grown foods.  They also made a name for themselves for their giant cinnamon rolls garnering national attention from publications such as Bon Appetit magazine.  

The small restaurant - which is still there - was always packed and the Fox's were looking to expand.  They were sort of landlocked in downtown Steamboat, but a building on the south side of town had become available when the Arby's franchisee closed the restaurant down.  The Fox's took over the building and renovated it into a new restaurant that took the locally-grown breakfast and lunch concept a step further.  They hired a chef that had been trained by the Culinary Institute of America and had him come up with a dinner menu for the new restaurant.   In the summer of 2003, Freshies opened for business.  

The Fox's sold their interest in Winona's a year later and concentrated fully on Freshies.  After a while, they decided that having a dinner menu wasn't all that lucrative in a growing field of restaurants that catered to evening dining in Steamboat and went back to what they did best - breakfast and lunch.  Freshies underwent a full renovation in the fall of 2010 adding an outdoor patio and a new entry way that could accommodate people who were waiting for tables.  (And when we were there two years ago, people were ALWAYS waiting for tables when we would go by the place on our morning walks.)

By 2019, the Fox's had been in the restaurant business for over 25 years and they decided they needed a break.  They hired a broker to see if they could sell the business.  The broker contacted some other restaurateurs in the area and business partners Seann Conway and Scott Buchler were immediately interested in Freshies.  Conway and Buchler owned the popular Ore House at Pine Grove steakhouse, a restaurant that is housed in a barn which was originally built in the early 1900's and had been open since 1971.  They viewed the opportunity to buy Freshie's as an extension of the Ore House with the same tradition of locally-sourced foods and friendly service both restaurants were known for.  Conway and Buchler took over Freshies in October of last year.  

It was an extreme shock to the system as we made our way to our car that morning.  The 50 degree temperature drop was accompanied by snow (that didn't accumulate very much) and gusty winds.  Due to the high winds that day, we had to dodge some birch trees that had fallen along Lincoln Avenue going into Steamboat Springs from our hotel on the outskirts of town.  We pulled into Freshies around 9:30 after checking to see if they we open. (see map) We had never seen so few cars in their parking lot.  But there weren't a lot of people out and around that day either.  Not having a lot of cars in the parking lot allowed us to get a full look at the colorful mountain scene mural that's painted on the side of the building near the entrance.  

We got inside just after another couple walked in.  Due to social distancing guidelines for the pandemic, seating was limited to 50% of total capacity at Freshies.  We had to wait while the first couple was seated and it was another five minutes before a table had opened and fully cleaned for us to sit down.  

We were shown to a booth with a window that overlooked the outdoor patio and parking lot at Freshies.  The dining room was a lively and well-lit space, but had kind of a homey feeling to it, as well.  A bar area was upfront toward the kitchen and the walls were painted with bright pastels.  

Our waitress that day was a fun and very friendly young lady by the name of Amanda.  She came over with breakfast menus for us to look through.  One thing that I was happy to find out was that they had liquor at Freshies!  I was on vacation, I may as well go for it.  I also found out they had espresso.  I love a heavy duty espresso to get me going in the mornings.

I ordered a bloody mary, a Storm Peak Brewing Chowder New England hazy IPA and an espresso.  Amanda was laughing at the combination.  "I can't say that I've ever had anyone order those three things together before," she said laughingly.  

My wife said in a somewhat disapproving manner, "Well, this isn't first time I've seen him order that before."

Amanda came back moments later and said, "I'm sorry, but we're out of the Storm Peak IPA."  I said they probably didn't have the Butcherknife IPA either since that local microbrewery had been closed down due the coronavirus.  "No, we're out of that, for sure," she said.  I said that I didn't need a beer, I guess.  My wife was somewhat relieved with that news.

But moments later, Amanda came back with a fresh squeezed orange juice and a coffee for my wife, the bloody mary and espresso, and she also had a can of the Chowder hazy IPA.  "I found one," she said excitedly.  "We had one left.  Do you still want it?" Sure! I don't think my wife was happy that Amanda found the can, but she was resigned to the fact that I was going to enjoy my vacation day.  

The bloody mary was very good.  It had a zesty taste with a bit of a spicy bite on the back end.  It was garnished with a dill pickle spear, green olives and a strip of bacon across the top.  The Chowder hazy IPA - which I fell in love with on our visit out here and even smuggled some back home via UPS - was a great combination with the bloody mary.  And the espresso zipped me up enough that I was buzzing the rest of the morning.    

My wife, on the other hand, went head over heels for the coffee they had at Freshies.  She asked Amanda what kind it was and she said it was from a local coffee roaster - Steamboat Coffee Company.   My wife liked the coffee so much, we went to Steamboat Coffee afterward to check the place out.  However, they don't sell their coffee over-the-counter retail, just mail order.  But we were told they have many different varieties of their coffees at shops around Steamboat.  It turned out that our hotel sold different flavors of the Steamboat Coffee Company 12 ounce bags at the front desk.  My wife bought some to ship home with the beer and other things we had picked up on our trip to Steamboat.  

The breakfast menu was pretty interesting.  They had protein and vegetarian bowls, Mexican-style breakfasts, omelets and egg scrambles, pancakes, French toast, and specialty items such as smashed avocado on wheat toast with eggs any style, and European-style croque sandwich with garlic/basil eggs topped with white cheddar cheese in between sourdough bread.  Of course, they had their famous cinnamon roll, but they were so big that we would have had to have two other people with us to help eat it.  Vegetarian options were available, as well.  

My wife went with one of the protein bowls they had at Freshies - the Popeye.  It consisted of scrambled egg whites with spinach, diced green and red peppers, and green onions.  Black beans came with the eggs along with avocado slices on a bed of greens.  My wife took one look at the bowl and said, "Perfect!"  She always tries to eat healthy a couple times a day.  The Popeye protein bowl was right in her wheelhouse and she loved it.

One pass through the menu and I had already made up my mind.  I got the Sedona Omelet - shredded beef with aged white cheddar cheese and avocado slices.  What tripped my trigger on the breakfast was that it was all topped with pork green chili.  And for my side I had a choice of home-fried potatoes or pork green chili grits.  Well, of course I took the grits topped with pork green chili!  My world stops for good pork green chili and what they had at Freshies was exceptional.  

Actually, my whole breakfast was exceptional.  The shredded beef had a bit of a spicy zip to the taste, and the combination of the chopped avocado with the white cheddar cheese was a great complement to the beef and eggs.  The pork green chili just made it even better.  

After driving or walking by Freshies on our visits to Steamboat Springs, we finally made it in.  And we're glad we did because the food was great, the service was great, the atmosphere was homey, and they had beer, bloody mary's and espresso - a winning combination to start any breakfast with.  My Sedona Omelet was simply outstanding in taste and preparation.  My wife was thrilled with her Popeye protein bowl as something that tasted that good isn't supposed to be good for you.  Freshies is an institution in Steamboat Springs and I would recommend a visit there for breakfast - even if you have to wait a while to get a table. 

Piccolo Sogno - Chicago

(As COVID-19 restrictions continue, travel has been curtailed for much of this year for me.  My wife has a December birthday and we usually spend a long weekend in Chicago to celebrate.  However, this year with quarantines in place and restaurants shut down across the state of Illinois for dine-in service we won't be going into the city this year.  

I wanted to repost this memorable meal and evening that we had for her birthday about five years ago.  This Italian restaurant came highly recommended to us by an acquaintance who is well-connected in the Chicago food scene.  Please enjoy this encore edition of our evening at Piccolo Sogno.)

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My wife and I went into Chicago for her birthday a few weeks ago and I knew I wanted to take her somewhere nice for her birthday dinner.  I got hold of Judith Dunbar Hines who has taken us on a couple of culinary and cultural tours of Chicago neighborhoods (click here and here to read about those wonderful tours) before we went in.  Judith is deeply connected in the restaurant community in Chicago and I asked her what she would recommend for a place to take my wife.  I told her, "Italian is a safe bet with my wife.  She loves good Italian food."  Judith immediately told me about Piccolo Sogno and gave it a glowing recommendation as her "go-to" for modern Italian cuisine.  I made reservations there for a Saturday night.  

Piccolo Sogno executive chef and co-owner Tony Priolo grew up on the northwest side of Chicago near the corners of Harlem Ave. and Waveland Ave. in a typical Chicago-style brownstone home.  His grandparents - both of whom came from Sicily - lived in the basement of the house and after Tony grandfather passed away, his grandmother cooked meals for the family to pass the time.  Priolo's parents both worked and his grandmother would look after Tony after school.  When Tony was 8 years old he began to help his grandmother in the kitchen.  He and his grandmother would take numerous buses from the northwest side to the Little Italy neighborhood that centered around 26th St. and Wentworth Ave., south and west of downtown Chicago.   It was the only place at the time where Tony's grandmother could get imported Italian items to make her authentic Italian foods. 

Tony's love of working of working in his grandmother's kitchen sent him on a life of culinary education.  His first job at the age of 16 was as a prep cook at an Italian restaurant near his home.  Tony went on to the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, which later became Le Cordon Bleu/Chicago culinary school.  (Sadly, Le Cordon Bleu announced they would shut down all of their U.S. locations after the last class graduates.)  Tony graduated at the top of his class in 1989 and went out into the world of Italian restaurants in Chicago. 

Pictured right - Tony Priolo

In 1997, Tony opened Coco Pazzo Cafe, a smaller and more casual counterpart to the more upscale Italian restaurant, Coco Pazzo.   As the executive chef at Coco Pazzo Cafe, Tony's rustic Tuscan-style menu caught the eye of critics and diners in the Chicago area.  After a year there, he ended up as the executive chef at Coco Pazzo, eventually becoming a partner in both restaurants. 

It was at Coco Pazzo where Tony met Ciro Longobardo.  Longobardo, a native of Naples, Italy, had extensive restaurant experience across Europe focusing on the selection of wine and spirits.  He eventually made his way to the United States and was hired by Coco Pazzo Cafe and quickly moved up the ladder to become the general manager.  He ran Coco Pazzo Cafe for five years before he was hired on as the Italian wine specialist for a national wine distributor. 

After moving on to another national wine distributor, Longobardo was contacted by Priolo who reminded Ciro of his little dream of opening his own place at some point in time.  That point in time was at hand in 2008 when Priolo left Coco Pazzo and enlisted Longobardo as his partner in the new venture Piccolo Sogno, which is Italian for "little dream." 

(Pictured left - Tony Priolo and Ciro Longobardo.)

Now, most people would think that opening a restaurant in the midst of a staggering recession isn't the best business plan.  But this didn't deter Priolo and Longobardo who found the perfect spot for their venture - a space that housed the former Thyme/Timo restaurant in the River West area west of downtown Chicago.  It had a large kitchen, a nice bar area, ample seating for dining - including a beautiful outdoor patio area for warm weather dining - and a large wine cellar that Longobardo stocked full of Italian wines.  Piccolo Sogno opened for business in July of 2008.

The success of Piccolo Sogno allowed the partners to open a second location - Piccolo Sogno Due - in the River North neighborhood in the summer of 2012.  They had tentatively planned on opening an espresso/bakery cafe - Piccoletto - next to Piccolo Sogno Due last year, but they put those plans on hold while they continue to focus on their restaurants.  Currently between the two restaurants, Priolo and Longbardo employ around 200 people. 

Piccolo Sogno is located on Halsted, just south of where that street meets up with Milwaukee and Grand. (see map)   There is valet parking at Piccolo Sogno, so that was a plus on a cold December evening.  I went to make reservations on line via Open Table, but the earliest they could get us in would have been 9:30 p.m.  Having a birthday just before Christmas - and on a Saturday night - has always been somewhat of a problem for finding nice places to take my wife on her birthday.  I ended up calling the restaurant directly and I thought it might help if I dropped Judith's name and explaining the situation of my wife's birthday.  The person I talked on the phone was more than accommodating and they were able to get us in at 8 p.m.

After a short wait in the bar area, we were seated toward the back of the dining room near the kitchen.  The dining room looks like something directly out of an old Italy restaurant - arched ceilings with accent lights shooting up from the soffit gave the room a nice indirect light glow.  The only problem was that the room was extremely loud.  We had a table behind us where the ladies were literally screaming to be heard across their table. 

The kitchen area is open to the dining room and was a beehive of activity.  I read somewhere that Tony Priolo called his kitchen "organized chaos."  The chefs didn't seem to mind people standing to look in to see them work, as long as you didn't get in the way of the servers going in and out of the kitchen area. 

They had a prep table near the entrance of the kitchen that featured oven-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, red and yellow bell pepper strips, zucchini and other prepared vegetables they were using that evening for salads or antipasti plates.  Tony Priolo only uses fresh ingredients that are available to him locally, so the menu will change seasonally.  He imports his fish from the Mediterranean Sea - including sea bass, which is the most popular dish at the restaurant - he imports authentic "00" flour from Italy, and he gets his San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella cheese directly from Naples.  

We were given menus for the evening and I was given a large wine list to look over.  Actually, it was more of a wine book as it featured hundreds of Italian wines - wines that I had little to no idea what to choose.  My colleague Ian is well-versed in Italian wines and I thought about texting him to see if he had any suggestions.  But then I decided to just wing it and possibly ask for suggestions. 

The menu at Piccolo Sogno is very rustic - cornish hen, braised rabbit, roasted duck, they were all on the menu.  I was taken aback at first by the menu, but soon realized that this was what made Piccolo Sogno so special.  They did have pasta dishes, but they were well past the "spaghetti and meatballs"-style.  Mascarpone and thyme filled tortellini, pasta noodles with wild mushrooms, asparagus, and black truffles, and green and white ribbon pasta topped with a veal ragu were some of the items available that particular evening.  

We decided that we were going to go with seafood-style dishes that evening.  They had a couple of interesting specials that night, but I had a hard time understanding our server Miguel just because it was so loud in there.  Once we figured out what the specials were, I ended up ordering a bottle of the Pinot Grigio Collio DOC from the Livio Felluga winery that is located in the far northeastern area of Italy, near the Slovenia border. 

Starting out with salads, I went with the caprese salad that featured oven-dried tomatoes and fresh imported buffalo mozzarella.  Fresh leaf basil with drizzled olive oil finished the salad.  The mozzarella with the dried tomatoes were excellent, and the fresh basil gave it a nice, summer-style taste.  I love fresh basil.   

My wife went with the beet salad - mixed beets with shaved fennel with imported buffalo ricotta cheese.  A citrus-infused oil was drizzled on the plate.  She said the beet salad was delivious.

The salads were served with house-made bread and they had a small bottle of balsamic vinegar and a bottle of extra virgin olive oil on the table.  It turns out that Piccolo Sogno has both their vinegar bottled for them in Modena, Italy, and their olive oil is bottled in Sicily and sent to Chicago.  We appreciate a good 15-year-old balsamic vinegar and the stuff they had on the table at Piccolo was some of the best we've ever had.  I used the balsamic vinegar on my caprese salad and it just heightened the already forward taste of everything on the salad plate.  (I've since found out that the balsamic vinegar used at Piccolo Sogno is available at Sunset Foods throughout the greater Chicagoland area.)  

Our main entrees came out and I got one of the specials that evening - it was a seafood risotto dish that had mussels, shrimp, squid and calamari mixed in.  And there was a lot of the seafood in the dish, especially squid and calamari.  The risotto was wonderful - fluffy and flavorful in a seafood broth.  It was an extremely rich dinner - I was full by the time I threw in the towel with a pile of risotto still in the bottom of bowl.

My wife ordered the other special that evening - a grilled salmon on a medley of chopped veggies.  The salmon was light and flaky, grilled perfectly and - according to her - not even a hint of "fishiness" in taste.  It was a large slab of salmon and she, too, was having trouble finishing the dish.  The portions were generous at Piccolo Sogno. 

Quite honestly, we were pretty full from our wonderful dinners, but Miguel came back to tempt us with desserts.  One of the desserts that he described was a hazelnut double chocolate cake with a scoop of hazelnut gelato.  That's what my wife ordered, and when they brought it out to her they made a big production of it for her birthday.  I guess I did tell the person on the phone when I made the reservation that it was her birthday.  "Happy Birthday" was drizzled onto the plate with chocolate sauce and a small lit candle was in the middle of the hazelnut double chocolate cake. 

We could have easily shared my wife's dessert, but I'm not that big on chocolate.  I ended up getting the egg-less custard dessert that came with an assortment of fresh berries and finished with a drizzle of caramel sauce.  The berries tasted great - especially the blueberries.  Even though I was completely full from the meal, I put a serious dent in the custard and berries.

Everything about our visit and meal at Piccolo Sogno was excellent.  The only problem we had was that it was excruciatingly loud in the place at times.  We had trouble conversing across the table when the volume levels around the dining room got to be real loud.  But that was more than offset by the wonderful food, the exemplary service and the subtle and laid back decor in the place.  Afterward, I had to contact Judith to thank her for the suggestion.  Piccolo Sogno is a great restaurant for an alternative to your rank-and-file Italian restaurants.  Chef/owner Tony Priolo really thinks outside the box when it comes to the Italian food he serves at Piccolo Sogno.  It was one of the more interesting experiences I've had at any restaurant I've visited over the years.

Bésame - Steamboat Springs, CO

During our time out in Steamboat Springs earlier this year, we had time to check out many of the restaurants that we had seen during our visit two years prior, but didn't get a chance to visit.  When we were first in Steamboat, we noticed a new-ish restaurant that specialized in Latin-fusion cuisine.  That was on our list to try when we made it back to the area earlier this year.  Here's our visit to Bésame.    

Bésame - which means "kiss me" in English - is the result of a collaboration between two chefs who made their way to Steamboat Springs and a local developer who has helped the chefs carry out their dreams.  The backstory is pretty interesting and if you'll indulge me for a few moments, here's how Bésame came to be.  

Hannah Hopkins was a noted chef and caterer who lived an hours drive north of New York City.  She had been featured on the Food Network program Chopped and developed a following of food enthusiasts who would come to the small town of Mahopac, NY to dine at her restaurant - Dish Bistro and Wine Bar.  About 10 years ago, her husband, Kevin, was eyeing a job opportunity in the Steamboat Springs area to work as a consultant and legal counsel for a company specializing in environmental projects.  He took it on himself to send out a number of Hannah's resumes to restaurants in Steamboat Springs, and one clicked - an Italian restaurant by the name of Mambo.  Hannah Hopkins sold her restaurant and her catering business, packed up the family and moved to Steamboat Springs in 2011 where she became the executive chef at Mambo. 

Pictured at right - Hannah Hopkins.  Photo courtesy Bésame

In 2015, the opportunity came about for Hannah Hopkins to buy Mambo, but she needed some financial backing.  Local developer Jeremy MacGray was a big fan of Hopkins' style of cooking at Mambo and he became a partner in the venture which allowed Hannah to run the restaurant as the managing partner.  

Joe Campbell was a native of Minneapolis who started cooking at the age of 14.  He went to culinary school and graduated at the top of his class at the Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts in Minneapolis.  He worked for a couple high-end restaurants in the Twin Cities before ending up in Steamboat Springs in 2013 to be the executive chef at Ragnar's - a Norwegian-influenced restaurant at the top of Mount Werner in the Steamboat Springs Ski Resort.

Campbell left Steamboat Springs in 2017 to become the head chef at the upscale Madeline Hotel in Telluride, CO.  But after a short time there, Hannah Hopkins was able to convince him to come back to Steamboat Springs.  One of the reasons Hopkins was able to get Campbell to come back was because she and Jeremy MacGray were working on a new restaurant concept just down the street from Mambo.  And she wanted Campbell to be the executive chef of both Mambo and the new restaurant.

Pictured at left - Joe Campbell.  Photo courtesy Bésame

The Cantina was a longtime Mexican restaurant in Steamboat, opening in 1973, but the restaurant closed in the fall of 2017.  Hopkins and MacGray took a look at the property and thought that it would be a great place to open their new restaurant.  However, the building - which was originally built in 1918 - was in need of some upkeep as the previous tenants really didn't do much to the place during their nearly 45 year run.  The hardwood floors were stripped and refinished, the exposed brick walls were cleaned, painting helped spruce up the place, and then Cuban artwork from an artist in Miami, as well as reproductions of paintings by Pablo Picasso went up on the walls.  Bésame was open for business in the early Spring of 2018.  

The restaurant was a hit right off the bat.  The flavors of Spain, Cuba, and South America garnered the attention of the James Beard Foundation which invited Hopkins and Campbell to their headquarters in New York City to prepare a five-course meal to highlight a Latin-fusion evening the Foundation hosted in September of 2019.  Preparing a meal for a James Beard Foundation dinner is a high honor among chefs across the United States.  

We had made reservations for 7 p.m. at Bésame on the Open Table application on my smart phone.  We pulled up to Bésame which is located on Lincoln Ave. in the heart of downtown Steamboat just before 7.  (see map)  We're glad we made reservations because the place was nearly full and there were people waiting to be seated.  There are tables for al fresco dining in front of the restaurant, but it was too chilly that evening for outside dining.  Tables inside the restaurant were spaced out due to pandemic restrictions and we were shown to a table with four seats along the wall in the main dining area.  We had plenty of room to spread out.  

Bésame is a bustling place with incandescent lights criss-crossing over the dining room, colorful artwork on the exposed brick walls, and lively Latin music from artists such as contemporary Columbian singers Manuel Turizo and Sebastian Yatra, and Massachusetts-born and Puerto Rican-raised Nick Caminero, known professionally as Nicky Jam.  With the wood floors and brick walls, we were surprised that it wasn't too loud in there, especially with all the people in the place when we first got there.  

The bar area was interesting in that much of the lounge area was underneath a low ceiling that was actually the floor of an upstairs dining/reception area.  I wouldn't have been upset if we were forced to sit at the bar and have a drink while waiting for a table at Bésame.  Rena Day is the mixologist behind the bar at Bésame and she features a number of Latin-inspired cocktails on the drink menu including sangria, mojitos and caipirinhas.  A full liquor bar is also available for those wishing to have more traditional cocktails.

We got our menus for the evening after we were seated and it wasn't long before we were greeted by our server that evening, a nice young lady by the name of Kat.  She talked about the items on the menu - many of which were Spanish-style tapas, or shareable plates.   They also had main entrees such as a lamb shank, ancho chile-glazed baby back ribs, and a roasted half-chicken mole.  Some of the items on the tapas part of the menu were pretty interesting and I was already zeroing in on a couple of choices.  

To start out, I ended up getting a pint of the Russell Kelly Mosaic IPA that they had on tap from the Telluride Brewing Company.   (Russell Kelly was a Telluride resident who was friends with the owners from Telluride Brewing Co., as well as many others around the ski resort town.  He tragically died in a car wreck in 2004 when he was on his way back home from a three-week kayaking trip to Siberia.)  It was a forward hoppy, yet very enjoyable India pale ale.  

My wife was in the mood for wine and she ordered a glass of the Vina Sastré Tinto Ribera del Duero Tempranillo, a wonderful wine from Spain we've had a couple times in our home.  The only problem was that they were out of it.  Kat suggested a Guímaro Ribeira Sacra Mencia instead, a hearty red from the Galicia area of Spain.  My wife liked it immensely.   

The tapas part of the menu was mouthwatering with a number of interesting things to choose from.  Ancho chile-rubbed duck wings, smoked shishito peppers, pork belly with a plantain puree, and patatas bravas - fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce.  We could have just gone down the list and tried any number of tapas they had on the menu.  

My wife thought she better start off with a salad to get her greens in for the evening.  She had been on a kick where she felt she needed at least one green food item for dinner each night.  There weren't a lot of green vegetables that were part of the tapas plates or the entrees, so she thought the simple greens salad consisting of spinach and lettuce leaves mixed in with chopped cucumbers, cilantro and pickled scallions would do the trick.  A combination of lime juice and extra virgin olive oil was drizzled over the salad.  She was happy with the taste and structure of the salad.  

The first tapas plate that we ordered was the grilled octopus.  I talked my wife into this and she was happy that I did.  The octopus was chile glazed and came with kalamata olives, garlic, crisped orange and oregano.  It wasn't all that big for the price ($20 bucks), but it was damned good.  It wasn't rubbery like you get from overcooked octopus.  The char from cooking it and the chile glaze gave it a hint of a smoky taste.  I would have loved to have gotten a big plate of just the grilled octopus and I would have been happy with that for a full meal.  

From there we ended up getting the Camarones ala Plancha - prawns sautéed in garlic, lemon, oregano, smoked paprika, and served in lobster butter.  These were fabulous.  The prawns were big and meaty, and I wanted to take the lobster butter sauce they were swimming in and drink it.  Thankfully, a piece of grilled Cuban bread (it wasn't the same style sweet Cuban bread that I've had in Miami) came with it to dip into the sauce.  

And because the sauce was so good and there was only one piece of grilled bread, I ordered up a plate of the grilled Cuban bread from Kat.  The bread was spread with a garlic butter concoction along with EVOO before it was grilled.  It came with a side of the spicy tomato bravas sauce.  Between the bravas sauce and the lobster butter sauce from the prawns, we made short work of the rest of the bread.  

We were contemplating what else to get.  We were sort of full, but not that full.  My wife thought we needed something else.  I asked if she was thinking about more tapas, but she seemed to have her eye stuck on the paella.  She asked Kat about the portion size of the paella at Bésame and Kat said, "Oh, it's more than enough for two people."  

Before she brought out the paella, I ordered a glass of the Bodegas Urbina Crianza Rioja Tempranillo since they didn't have the Vina Sastré Tempranillo.  Well, guess what?  They were out of that, too!  Kat explained to me that they've been having trouble getting Spanish wines lately, probably due to the worldwide pandemic.  I asked her if she had the Catena Malbec and she said she knew they had that.  I would have liked the Rioja a bit better with paella, but the Catena Malbec is a nice Argentinian wine that we've also had many times over the past few years.  

Not long after I got my wine, Kat brought out the bowl of paella.  It was definitely enough for two - actually, probably more than enough for two.  (They have paella for 8 on the menu at Bésame for family-style Spanish eating.  That would have been interesting to see!)  It was chock full of chicken, mussels, chorizo, shrimp, and calamari mixed in with saffron, smoked Spanish paprika and Bomba rice from Spain.  We had individual plates to scoop the paella onto.  

The paella was - in a word - killer.  I've had paella before, but this was absolutely stunning in taste.  Everything was so fresh and the saffron just helped the ingredients explode on the tongue.  It wasn't all that hot as Spanish paprika can be, but it helped zip up the overall taste with every bite. 

Now, I have to tell you - I was a little apprehensive seeing that the paella came with chorizo.  I got sick on chorizo at a Mexican restaurant a number of years ago - over 20 years ago, actually - and I have shied away from the stuff ever since.  It's sort of like with baked or grilled salmon - I got sick on it in France a number of years ago and I can't even begin to be around salmon that's been cooked.  (Salmon sushi, I'm OK with.  Go figure...)  But this chorizo was probably the best chorizo I've ever tasted.  It had a bit of a spicy and smoky flavor and the texture was moist and tender.  There wasn't anything bad in the paella.  But with all the tapas we had before we ordered the paella, it was a little too much for us.  We made a significant dent in the serving bowl before we had to throw in the towel.  

Kat tried to tempt us with some of their desserts that evening, but we had to pass because we were so full.  The Cuban bread pudding sounded especially interesting, as did the lime churros with a chocolate dipping sauce.  But, once again, we were just so stuffed from all the great food we had that evening.   

As I said, we had Bésame on our list of places to try if we ever got back out to Steamboat Springs.  And I have to say that after we did have a chance to go there, it didn't disappoint.  Like any restaurant of its ilk in Steamboat, it wasn't cheap in the least.  But the food was simply outstanding.  The grilled octopus and the prawns in the lobster butter sauce tapas were out of this world, but the paella was some of the best I've ever had.  Along with great service from Kat, this was one of the more memorable meals we've had in our travels.  We can't recommend a trip to Bésame highly enough if you make it out to Steamboat Springs. 

Don Jose Mexican Restaurant - Decorah, IA

We spent a Sunday evening in Decorah, IA a few weeks ago on a trip to NE Iowa to check out the fall foliage.  We'd had lunch at Mabe's Pizza earlier in the day (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Mabe's), and we had planned on eating at Rubaiyat that evening.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Rubaiyat.)  Well, we found out that Rubaiyat - as wall as the bulk of restaurants in the Decorah area - were closed on Sunday nights.  Options were slim for dinner, but we had noticed a Mexican restaurant on previous visits to Decorah and this time the place had set up patio seating in their parking lot for outdoor dining.  Figuring that we needed to cut our losses since really nothing else was open, we ended up going to Don Jose Mexican Restaurant in downtown Decorah.

Martin Pena opened Don Jose a little over 10 years ago and along with his family has built the business into the "go-to" place for Mexican food in Decorah.  Don Jose features a full slate of traditional Mexican food specialties and a full bar offering margaritas, imported Mexican beers, wine and non-alcoholic drinks.  

It was an unseasonably beautiful evening that night in Decorah.  We parked catty-cornered from Don Jose located at the corner of E. Water and State streets in the downtown area.  (see map)  Since they were only offering outdoor seating at the restaurant, there was a bit of a wait.  We were greeted by a young man who turned out to be Martin Pena, Jr. who told us there would be about a 10 to 15 minute wait for a table.  

I did go inside to use the restroom while we were waiting for a table.  It appeared that the restaurant was nice and cozy, well-lit and somewhat colorful.  High-backed padded booths were through the dining area, all of which were taped-off due to pandemic restrictions the restaurant had in place.  Mexican artwork told some of the sterility out of the atmosphere in the place.  

True to his word, Martin Pena, Jr. sat us at a meshed-metal table with matching chairs less than 15 minutes after we checked in.  He dropped off a couple of menus for us and it wasn't long before his father, owner Martin Pena, came over to greet us and drop off some chips and salsa at the table.  He was a short, stout man with a friendly demeanor.  He asked us what we would like to drink and I got one of their Cadillac margaritas - Jose Cuervo and Grand Marnier in a house mix.  My wife - sort of surprisingly to me - ordered a tequila sunrise.  It was made with a house tequila, blackberry liquor, orange juice and grenadine.  It was surprising to me because I can't remember the last time - if ever - that she ordered a tequila sunrise.  She said she wanted a change-up and she was happy she got it.  

Don Jose Mexican Restaurant features a little bit of everything in terms of Mexican food.  You'll find the typical Mexican appetizers and staples of Mexican foods on the menu - enchiladas, burritos, tacos and chimichangas.  Beef, chicken, pork and seafood items were available in many of the specialties they offered.  Some of the more interesting items on the menu included a shrimp dish with a parmesan cream sauce, crab-stuffed enchiladas, chicken molé enchiladas, and Tacos Adobo - chopped pork marinated in an adobo sauce served in soft corn tortillas and topped with a red sauce.  There were a lot of good things to choose from on the menu.  

We had ordered our food and passed the time eating some of their very good chips with the house-made salsa.  It had grown colder after the sun went down and they had to turn on the outdoor heating lamps they had in the patio area.  We'd gone through a basket of chips and it seemed to take a little longer than we figured for our food to show up after we had ordered.  We had finished our drinks and I tracked down Martin to order a Sol beer to have with my dinner.  He came back with the beer and apologized for the delay in the food.  "We have a lot of to-go orders," he explained.  There certainly were a steady stream of people coming to pick up food to-go.  After about 20 minutes, our food showed up at the table.    

My wife ended up going with the Pollo Don Jose - sautéed chicken breast strips mixed with rice and topped with a white queso sauce.  She wasn't all that hungry, but the portion was huge.  She said there was going to be no way she could even eat half of what she had on her plate.   

I thought long and hard about getting the steak fajitas as someone at a table near us had that brought to them for their dinner.  But I ended up getting the chile pork verde - chunks of pork in a green tomatillo sauce and served with refried beans and Mexican rice.  Flour tacos came on the side.  And for good measure - and I don't know why looking back - I ended up getting a beef taco just to try.  

My chile pork verde was interesting in taste.  It tasted like one of the main spices was all-spice, something that I found somewhat enjoyable.  The pork was tender and easy to cut with a fork.  I made a couple tacos out of the chile pork verde and added rice and beans.  It was good - not great - but good.  

I had a couple bites of the beef taco and it was pretty undistinguished.  It was bland and basic - a typical Americanized taco, if you will.

My wife thought her chicken and rice dish was also just "OK".  She made a taco out of it and added some salsa to it.  She sort of shrugged her shoulders and said, "Ah, it's all right."  That's one of the problems we've found when we've had Mexican food in smaller towns in our journeys.  We're so used to some of the good to very good Mexican restaurants we have in the Quad Cities and it's tough to find ones that are on par with those places in small towns like Decorah, IA.

Nonetheless, the food was good enough for what we wanted that evening at Don Jose Mexican Restaurant.  It certainly wasn't finer dining that we had hoped for at Rubiyat, but it was better than just getting sandwiches or greasy appetizers at T. Bock's down the street.  Martin's service was very good - after all, he is the owner.  And it was sort of nice to be able to eat outside one last time for the year.  (A cold front with rain came through overnight and it was probably the last night Don Jose would be offering outdoor seating.)   Our options were pretty limited with Sunday night dining in Decorah and Don Jose Mexican Restaurant turned out to be an OK - not a great, but OK - choice for us.