Road Tips

Ristorante Da Emma - Montreal

While in Montreal earlier this year, my old boss suggested we get together with a group of others we used to work with.  I had him pick out the restaurant and he came up with 3 different ones.  I checked the menus of all three restaurants and decided upon one that offered seafood, pasta, and steaks - especially for my colleague who is a vegetarian.  I told my old boss to go ahead and make reservations at Ristorante Da Emma on the west end of the Old Montreal neighborhood near the St. Lawrence River.  Little did I know that it was one of the best and most famous Italian restaurants in Montreal.  

 

In the 1970's and into the 80's, the husband and wife team of Lorenzo Aureli and Emma Risa owned two popular Italian restaurants in their hometown of Rome (as in the one in Italy, not the one in Georgia).  Restaurants were in the blood of Aureli as his great-grandparents had been in the restaurant business since the 1920's.  One of the restaurants that Lorenzo and Emma owned was started by his grandmother after World War II.  

 

When their daughter Olga moved to Montreal in the mid-80's, they decided a few years later to pack up and move to Canada.  Since the early 1960's a burgeoning population of Mediterranean immigrants settled in the Mile End neighborhood of Montreal.  Italian and Greek restaurants sprung up and the area became a must-visit for locals and tourists alike for a good meal.  

 

After moving to Montreal in the early 90's, Lorenzo and Emma decided to open their own restaurant in the Mile End and found a building at the corner of St. Laurent Blvd and St. Viateur Street.  (See map)  Ristorante da Emma opened in 1993 with Emma's recipes she brought over from Italy.  Lorenzo and other family members worked the front of the house while Emma served up her delicious Italian specialties. 

 

Pictured right - Emma Risa in the kitchen of her eponymous restaurant.

 

Ristorante da Emma quickly garnered a reputation as having some of the best Italian food in Montreal.  The restaurant was full nearly every night and people had to make reservations weeks ahead just to get into da Emma.  It was evident that Lorenzo and Emma needed a bigger place.

 

They found a 19th-century stone building on the west end of Old Montreal that used to house a women's prison.  Lorenzo and Emma took over the basement of the building and transformed it into an elegant, yet cozy space for the new Ristorante da Emma that could handle up to 130 patrons.  They moved into their present day location in 1998.  

 

Emma continued to work in the kitchen up to her 80th birthday in 2021 before hanging up her ladle.  Today, Olga Aureli runs the restaurant with the help of her son, Luca.  Luca is the sixth-generation of the Aureli family who has been involved in the restaurant business.  

 

Since there were 6 of us for dinner, we were able to get an Uber XL from our hotel to Ristorante da Emma.  On a nice day, it would have been a nice 20 minute walk down toward the Lachine Canal locks on the St. Lawrence River toward the restaurant.  But given that it was a blustery Friday evening in Montreal, it was best we had a lift.  When the Uber driver pulled up to the stone building on De la Commune St., there wasn't any signage that indicated there was a restaurant in the place.  (see map)   But my former boss said that it was a subterranean restaurant with stairs off to the side of the building.  On a side wall of the building, a simple metal sign with laser cut letters simply saying "Da Emma" with an arrow pointing down the stairs showed the way to the establishment.  

 

While Emma was the star of her eponymous restaurant, celebrities of film, television, sports and music flocked to da Emma over the years for world class Italian food.  After coming into the basement restaurant with stone walls and a low ceiling with wooden rafters, there is a hallway toward the hostess stand that is populated with photographs of celebrities getting their picture taken with Emma.  Some I recognized, some I didn't - particularly some European celebrities and sports figures who have eaten at Emma's in the past.  I understand Ristorante da Emma is popular with Europeans visiting Montreal.  

 

The dining room at Da Emma was very cozy complete with linen table cloths on each table.  It was well lit in some areas and a little dark in the corners.  The bar area sat in between stone pillars holding up the wooden beams for the first floor of the building.

 

After settling in at a large rectangular table in a corner, our server brought out that evening's menu on a chalkboard and went through what they were offering.  There were a few specials off the regular menu, but da Emma is known for their pasta dishes - such as fettuccine with porcini mushrooms; their seafood - the whole grilled sea bass sounded tempting; and their meat offerings - the roasted piglet would have been interesting to see.  After our server was finished with going through the menu, complementary bruschetta was brought to the table for our group.  My former boss was in charge of the wine selection and he ordered up a couple bottles of the La Fortuna Brunello di Montacino, a hearty and bold red Tuscan Sangiovese.  It was a great choice.  

 

For starters, we all ordered up some appetizers.  I ordered the smoked salmon carpaccio which was topped with arugula and drizzled in olive oil.  I can't handle cooked salmon after I got sick on it in France over 10 years ago, but I can handle salmon sushi and smoked salmon.  And this smoked salmon was delicious.  The thin sliced smoked salmon literally melted in my mouth.  It was a great start to my meal.  

 

We had a friend from Europe who was in town for the Montreal Audio Fest.  Like most Europeans I know, they love red meat - especially rare steaks.  Here's a quick sidebar story on that -

 

About 8 years ago we had company meetings in Montreal and a number of people from our European factories showed up.  One night, we had a cook-out at my former boss' house along the St. Laurence River north and east of Montreal and I was charged with cooking filets for 30 people.  My friend from Europe was there and I asked him how he liked his steak.  "Blue!" was his simple, yet exuberant reply.  He wanted it seared on the outside and nearly raw in the middle.  I had never really done a blue steak before, but I knew of the concept.  I turned the heat up high on one end of the gas grill and turned the filet on all sides - these filets that my then-boss had picked up were 2.5 to 3 inches thick - for just about a minute to 90 seconds per side.  I let it sit for a moment and served it to him.  He cut into it, the juices flowed out of the nearly raw middle and he took a bite.  "Perfect," he exclaimed.  Europeans do love their beef rare!

 

Well, my friend ordered up the carpaccio with arugula and shaved parmesan.  It was a full platter of thinly sliced Canadian Prime (top-grade) rare beef that he dug into with reckless abandon.  I was concentrating more on my salmon carpaccio and when glanced over at his plate after a moment, most of the beef was gone.  I asked him if it was good and he simply said, "Oh, (expletive deleted)!"  

 

They normally have a sirloin steak au poivre - steak in a peppercorn cream sauce - on the menu, but this particular night they had a Canadian Grade AAA (a step down from Canadian prime, but not by much) ribeye au poivre as a special.  But then again, I was looking at the ground veal-filled ravioli in a ground veal ragú sauce.  Then the veal scaloppine in a pea and mushroom sauce sounded really good, too.  But it was down to the ribeye au poivre or the veal stuffed ravioli.  

It turned out that I ended up getting both.  I asked our server if I could get the steak au poivre with a side of the ground veal-stuffed ravioli.  He said that it would be no problem.  For good measure, he also brought out a small plate of fingerling potatoes that would normally come as a side with the steak.  I was set.

 

And it was a memorable meal.  The ribeye was cooked to a perfect medium-rare for me.  (I like to go rare on filets and on New York strips, but I want my ribeye steaks cooked a little longer due to the marbling.)  The meat was easy to cut and was very tender with each bite.  The creamy and peppery au poivre sauce was rich and robust in taste.  The steak au poivre was a great choice.  

 

But my "1-B" choice - the ground veal-stuffed ravioli - was also excellent.  The ground veal ragú sauce was thick and hearty with a great fresh tomato taste.  The ravioli pillows were packed with even more ground veal.  Between the two dishes, it was difficult to say which one I liked better.  

 

My buddy who I had worked with for years - and who now heads up our North America warehouse outside of Montreal - ended up getting the veal scaloppine with the pea and mushroom sauce.  It was a large plate of veal cutlets covered in a rich cream sauce with chopped mushrooms and some good sized peas.  We have had some memorable culinary experiences while traveling together for trade shows and events for a number of years, but I don't know if I ever saw him devour a plate of food so quickly.  The veal was so tender he could easily cut it with his fork.  When I asked him how it was, he gave me that trademark look of his that basically says, "You have to ask?"

 

But the evening was not over because we had to have dessert.  Actually, I tried to pass on dessert because I was so stuffed, but others at the table insisted that I try some of theirs.  My now-boss shared some of his tiramisu with me and it was fabulous.  But the highlight of the whole evening was the house-made lemon ice cream that my old boss shared with me.  It was rich and creamy with an exceptional lemon flavor.  And in the middle was a piece of lemon rock candy that popped with flavor above and beyond the lemony zest the ice cream had.  It was absolutely incredible.   

I really don't know if I adequately put into words just how fantastic my experience at Ristorante da Emma really was. The food was exceptional, the atmosphere was relaxing and charming, and the service was exemplary.  Da Emma was one of my more memorable culinary experiences in all the years (18 years now!) of doing Road Tips.  If you ever get a chance to go to Montreal, do yourself a favor and try to have dinner at Ristorante da Emma.  And thank me later. 

Malo - Des Moines, IA

A while back, we went to Des Moines to hang out with a friend of ours over a long weekend.  Since we were staying at her place, I felt we were sort of obligated to take her out for dinner a couple times while we were there.  There was one place that I wanted to try that I'd heard about in downtown Des Moines that had sort of an innovative take on Mexican food.  On a Saturday night, we ended up at Malo.  

Malo is part of the Orchestrate Hospitality Group which includes downtown Des Moines stalwarts such as Centro, Django, Zombie Burger (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Zombie Burger), and Gateway Market and Cafe.  The Paul Rottenberg/George Formaro partnership opened Malo in May of 2014 after 10 years of consideration by Formaro to come up with a pan-Latino restaurant concept.  Malo was located on the ground level of the Des Moines Social Club, a non-profit arts, market and entertainment venue which took over the space that housed the historic 1930's art-deco Des Moines Fire Department Headquarters/Fire Station No.1 up until 2013.  

In 2019, Des Moines restauranteur Todd Millang (RōCA, Johnny's Hall of Fame) bought into partial ownership of Malo and the restaurant closed for 10 days as the group spruced up the place and revamped the menu.  Two years later, the Des Moines Social Club closed after the group heading the project couldn't agree on the use of the building and the property was put up for sale.  A deal to sell the property was initially done with a Kansas City developer, but a couple months later the deal fell through.  Millang, Rottenberg and a third partner put an offer on the building in late 2021, and the group purchased the building in early 2022.

We had been bar-hopping in the downtown Des Moines area for a short while before I suggested we go give Malo a try.  We were able to find a parking space on Mulberry Street, just down from Malo at the corner of SW 9th St. and Mulberry.  (see map)  It was a nice evening and we decided to dine al fresco on Malo's patio in front of the restaurant.  

But if we were to eat inside I wouldn't have minded either.  The 3-sided bar featured a full selection of liquors including over 40 different varieties of tequila and over 2 dozen different types of mezcal.  Malo also featured three different types of sangria.  They also had a number of beers on tap including Midwestern craft brews and imported Mexican beers.  Next to the bar area was a long table in front of the open kitchen that allows patrons to watch the staff prepare food.  

The dining area featured a large open room with hard wood floors and windows along two walls.  For as much reflective surfaces in the dining space it was actually muted in volume thanks to a number of sound panels hanging from the ceiling.  The lighting scheme gave the dining room a laid-back and comfortable atmosphere.  

On one end of the dining room is a large mural of a Lucha-Libre wrestler complete with mask.  To not make the mural look out of place in a nice place like Malo, the artist put the wrestler in a 3-piece suit with a slight smile on his face.  I got a good chuckle out of the painting when I first saw it.   

Beyond the dining room is a large room that is used for parties, meetings, and other gatherings.  They were having a function in there that night and most of the people had left by the time we finished up with dinner.   The exposed brick on the walls told me that this was probably a former firetruck bay from the old fire station.  

We were seated out on the patio and given menus to look through.  Our server that evening was Tucker who turned out to be a good sport with 3 hungry and slightly inebriated people.  My wife and our friend ordered up a paloma made with 400 Conejo mezcal, fresh lime juice, ginger syrup, grapefruit juice, and Jarritos grapefruit soda.  I got the El Rey margarita that consisted of Patron Silver tequila, Grand Marnier and fresh lime agua fresca (fresh lime water with sugar).  The margarita was delicious.  I made quick work of the first one and was able to sip on my second one through the rest of the meal.

For starters, Tucker brought us out a plate of house-made corn chips with some salsa.  For an upcharge, they had a number of other salsas and cremas including a wood-fired tomato chipotle, charred jalapeño and serrano peppers, and a vegan crema.  They had a deal where you could get 3 different types of salsa.  We got the pico de gallo, the chipotle crema (sour cream puréed with lime juice and chipotle peppers), and the avotillo salsa - puréed avocados and tomatillos with fresh lime juice, cilantro, and serrano chiles.  We also got a bowl of their very good fresh guacamole.  The house salsa, the chipotle crema, and the pico de gallo were all outstanding.  The avotillo salsa, not so much as I felt it was very bland in taste compared to the other salsas.  Still, it was a great start for the meal.  

Beyond the usual chips and salsa, Malo offers up an eclectic mix of appetizers including shrimp ceviche, a pork belly pupusa, fried Brussels sprouts, seafood nachos, and seared rare tuna with a green chile and lime marinated jicama and cucumber mixture served with a spicy adobo sauce.  I found four or five things on the appetizer part of the menu that I could have ordered and I would have been fine with a couple three of those items for my dinner.

But the main part of the menu had enough interesting things that made me soon forget about the appetizers.  The spicy pork tamales immediately caught my eye, as did the slow roasted beef barbacoa.  The fajitas, enchiladas and burritos were all a step-up from regular Mexican restaurant fare.  And they had a number of street taco platters to choose from including carne molida (seasoned ground beef), pork carnitas, house-made chorizo, and a chile-marinated portobello mushroom taco plate.  

Man, there were so many interesting things on the menu that I was torn between three or four different items.  The grilled mahi mahi tacos definitely caught my eye, as did the chipotle-rubbed seared beef tacos.  But in the end I ordered the roast pork carnitas dish.  It featured a generous portion of marinated pulled pork with a Hatch green chile sauce and topped with pickled onions.  Refried beans and Spanish rice came on the side.  I asked Tucker if he could bring extra green sauce and he said it was no problem.

The carnitas were phenomenal.  The pulled pork was juicy and flavorful, the Hatch green chile sauce had a bit of a smoky bite that enhanced the taste of the roasted marinated pork.  Three corn tacos came wrapped in foil and I made my own combination tacos with the carnitas, rice and refried beans.    

My wife went the street tacos route and got a carne asada taco, a pork carnitas taco, and a chicken tinga taco made with shredded chipotle-seasoned chicken and topped with cabbage.  She had her choice between either a corn or flour taco shell and - as always - she took the corn tortillas.  (Lettuce-wrapped taco are also available.)  Chopped fresh onions and cilantro came on the side with the house-made salsa.  

Our friend got the pork belly tacos on corn tortillas.  It featured big thick pieces of roasted pork belly topped with a corn salsa and shredded cheese.  The ladies thought their tacos were delicious.  

About the only thing that was sort of "meh!" for Malo was the avotillo (avocado/tomatillo) salsa.  But everything else we had that evening was just outstanding.  My pork carnitas were an explosion of flavor.  The ladies loved their various tacos, and the margaritas and palomas were regular "spot-hitters".  From what all I had heard and read about Malo prior to our visit, I was more than satisfied with every aspect of our meal - from the food, to the drinks, to the service.  Malo lived up to my expectations - and then some!    

 

How COVID Changed My Hotel Experience

I haven't bought a bar of soap in over 20 years.  

Yep, you read that right.  I haven't bought a single bar of soap from a grocery store, a pharmacy, a big-box retail store - anywhere - for over 20 years.

But it doesn't mean that I haven't used soap over that time.  

(I once traveled with a guy for about three or four days who didn't - or said he couldn't - use soap because it made his skin break out.  Nice enough guy and he was forthcoming with his dilemma before we traveled.  But by Friday, he was getting to smell a bit gamey.)  

The reason why I haven't bought any soap is that I have been taking soap from my hotel rooms when I travel.  I used to take the little shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotel rooms that I stayed in, but you can usually only get a couple of washes out of those before they're used up.  And they're kind of a pain to get the liquid or cream out of them.  

Now, there's a number of people who feel that stealing toiletries from a hotel is dishonest and deceitful.  Hey, they're there for you to use, so why not use them at home, too!  Stealing towels, or pillows, or light bulbs (I've heard of instances of that from hotel employees), now that's dishonest and crooked.  And on multi-night stays, the hotel housekeeping staff would drop off more shampoo and soap each day they cleaned my room for me to take home.  (I have a soap bar container that I take with me on the road using the bar soap I have until I need to get a new bar from a hotel.  The unused "new" soap bars are usually in small boxes that I recycle upon using the bar.)  

After about 12 years of traveling and spending an annual average of over 100 nights in hotel rooms, my wife was a little concerned about my "hoarding" of soap and shampoo.  She showed me a stash of toiletries that had accumulated in a downstairs bathroom closet - about 9 or 10 hotel laundry bags full of assorted soap bars, shampoo and conditioner bottles, and even some skin moisturizers that I grabbed on my way out the door of many hotel rooms.  It was basically a lifetime supply of soap and shampoo that I had in those bags.  

One year, the Mississippi River had flooded and had wreaked havoc on a number of people up and down the river.  The American Red Cross had reached out to people to ask to donate household items including soap, shampoo, cleaners, etc.  I took 9 sacks full of soap bars, as well as shampoo and conditioner bottles to the Red Cross pickup point.  When I opened the trunk, the guy in charge of the pickup sort of reared back when he saw all the sacks of toiletries.  "Whoa," he exclaimed.  "Looks like you've been saving up for a time like this!"  

I had gone through the bags pulling out my soap of choice - Neutrogena bars that the Hilton hotels provided.  I liked the brand because Neutrogena soap moisturizes the skin, lathers up easily, and has a somewhat neutral scent without any perfumes.  I kept a bag full of Neutrogena soap bars.  

As I traveled more, I continued to nab some of the Neutrogena soap bars, but started leaving the Neutrogena shampoos and conditioners.  The Neutrogena shampoo and conditioners - while very good - had fallen out of favor with me at home.  (My wife didn't use the Neutrogena products that I would bring home as she used her own select soap and shampoo.)  I had accumulated 3 or 4 more bags of soap and some assorted shampoo that I would grab from time to time. 

In 2019, my wife was concerned once again about the growing number of bags full of soap accumulating in our basement.  I had watched a news story on a local homeless shelter asking the public for help in acquiring soap and shampoo for some of their homeless residents.  I grabbed 3 more bags filled with soap and took them to the King's Harvest Ministries.  I still had a bag full of Neutrogena soap where the bars would last a good 3 or 4 showers before I'd have to get a new bar.  And I was still going to be able to get more during my upcoming travels.  

The something happened in March of 2020.  The world basically shut down due to the pandemic.  I didn't travel for months.  My stash of soap bars was slowly dwindling down getting to a point that I thought for a moment - just a moment - that I was going to have to go buy soap.  But as travel slowly opened up, there was a noticeable change in how hotels dealt with housekeeping and sanitation in their rooms.

Housekeeping was now optional on multi-day stays.  They became stingy with the soap and shampoo.  And there was suddenly a move to get away from bar soap and bottles of shampoo.  Hotels started to go to dispensers for soap, shampoo and conditioners.  And the quality of the products they had were pretty crappy.  

The Hilton corporation has also gotten away from Neutrogena as a supplier of their toiletries.  I had this stuff - Not Soap Radio (below left) - at a Tru by Hilton in Fort Wayne.  The Tru brand is supposed to cater to the younger set with a "hip" and affordable "vibe".  I thought I'd give the hotel a try on a recent trip to Fort Wayne.  I'll never stay at a Tru again.  It's not that it was because I was out of their target demographic.  It was a cheap hotel in many ways.  And I didn't like the product. 

Some of the Hilton properties - notably the Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn brands - have gone to a new company - ZERO/o (Zero Percent).  It's made by Gilchrist & Soames, a London-based company that provides toiletries to upscale hotels around the world.  At Gilchrist & Soames, they subscribe to a company-wide philosophy of sustainability with making their products more environmentally favorable.

And that follows an edict that the Hilton corporation put forth in 2021.  By the year 2030, Hilton has vowed to not send used soap to land fills around the world.  So, really, I've been helping achieve that goal for 20 years!  But in doing so, there will be no more bars of soap available at Hilton properties in the coming years.  

Some Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton Inn properties still provide small 1 ounce bars of the ZERO/o soap for hand soap.  They actually work pretty well in the shower - they lather up much better than the body gel that is provided for shower use.  (And who doesn't like to work up a good lather?)  Plus they have a neutral scent that I favor.  

I detest the shower gel most hotels are going to in lieu of soap bars.  During the shower, you have to keep turning back to the dispenser to get more gel.  It takes me - on average - about 3 more minutes to shower when I use the gel.  And that's mainly because A) I have to keep getting more gel, and B) because it doesn't lather up as well.  It's a real pain.  

I know what I like and I like soap bars.  

But that is going to come to an end in the near future.  I will, at some point, have to buy bar soap for my home shower and for me to take on the road with me.  It won't be the end of the world, but I'm at the point in my life where I like what I like.  And I like bar soap and not shower gel when I travel.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Sugar Shack Dinner - Montreal

While I was attending the annual Salon Audio Montreal - the Montreal Audio Fest - the organizers always put on a dinner banquet for some of the exhibiting members of the audio industry.  The dinner is held in one of the large banquet rooms at the Hotel Bonaventure which also is the host for the audio show.  The theme of the banquet changes each year and this year's theme was an old-fashioned Quebecois-style sugar shack.  

When my colleague from Montreal was telling us that the dinner would be a huge sugar shack spread, I was completely in the dark as to what a sugar shack really is.  Sugar shacks - known as cabane à sucré in French Quebec - are dining halls on farms that produce maple syrup.  From late February until mid-to-late April, sugar shacks attract many people who get together to celebrate the end of winter and the running of maple sap.  

The sugary maple sap runs when temperatures get above freezing in the daylight hours, then freezes again at night.  As the first sap runs, the maple sap is lighter in color and isn't as flavorful or as rich in taste.  As the weeks go on, the sap begins to get thicker and darker and more robust in taste.  At the end of the season, the sap gets almost a dark amber in color and is very strong on the taste buds.  From what I understand, the dark syrup is usually the hardest to find and the most expensive of the four grades of maple syrup in Canada.

The sap is gathered and taken into a building where it's boiled down into syrup.  As much as 90% of the sap is boiled away to make the syrup.  It's a sort of festive thing to boil the syrup, and maple syrup farms have been hosting meals for the workers who help gather the sap for the boiling process for a number of years.  Those dinners expanded to family and friends of the workers, and then many of the farms built large halls with banquet-style seating for anyone to visit and enjoy the festive atmosphere sugar shacks became known for.  

Most of the foods at a traditional sugar shack involve the sweet and savory.  Usually, the meal starts off with a bowl of split-pea soup with chunks of ham, or a corn chowder.  From there, you'll see pickled vegetables such as onions and beets, fresh bread with jams, and cretons - a Quebecois-style minced pork paté that is spread on toasted bread.  After that, the main course of foods such as sausages, sliced ham and tourtière - a meat pie that is usually served for holidays and special occasions.  Pancakes are also a staple at sugar shacks and most of the main foods are slathered in fresh warm maple syrup.  

Sometimes, the food is a bit more upscale at certain sugar shacks with wild game such as duck and goose on the menu.  And that was going to be the case at the sugar shack banquet this particular evening.

After a cocktail hour and some mingling, we were instructed to take our seats.  We had assigned seating and I was at a table with my German colleague, as well as my Montreal colleague and his wife.  Also seated at our table were the husband and wife team who put on the Montreal Audio Fest (he was also a former co-worker of mine at my old job with the company out of Montreal), and another couple co-workers of mine from years ago who no longer worked there.  It was really like old home week for me seeing a number of people I have known for years for the first time in a long, long time.  

Also sitting in front of us at each of our seats was a liter can of real Quebec maple syrup.  My colleague from Germany was in a quandary - he had carried-on his bag on his flight from Brussels to Montreal and he was planning to do the same thing going back home.  They definitely wouldn't let him put a can of syrup in a carry-on, so he thought about just checking his bag just to bring home the maple syrup.  He said, "My bag was jam-packed on the way over.  I don't know how I would even get this can in there even if I checked my bag."  Our Montreal colleague promised that he would send over some Quebec maple syrup to him at some point.  So, I got a second can of syrup as I checked my bag when I flew to Montreal.  (It was the lighter amber maple syrup - not the best real maple syrup I've had, but not bad for a gift.)

The staff started to bring out the opening salvo of what appeared was going to be a lot of food.  The pickled vegetable/relish tray featured baby beets (which were wonderful), zucchini slices that had been charred and pickled, sweet red peppers, carrots and other assorted offerings.  They didn't have the creton spread, but they had pork rinds which were pretty good.

Also part of the appetizers was a hearty corn chowder with chopped ham.  The chowder had a rich and tasty base to it and it was also very good.  But the main choices hadn't shown up yet and I was starting to get a little full.

Then the fun started.  A server brought out a large platter of meat.  My Montreal colleague is a vegetarian, so I knew this would be a hard pass for him.  But for the others at the table, this was intriguing.  I asked one of my former co-workers what was in the dish and after a quick conversation with the waiter in French I was told it was duck breast, duck thighs and duck sausage.  Oh, my god...

More food came out and since we were at a long banquet-style table, there was not a lot of room on the table.  But we made room for the meat pie and the baked beans.  The meat pie was enveloped in a golden brown crust and looked pretty good.  The baked beans were your basic western-style campfire baked beans.  

I took a duck thigh, a slice of duck breast and some the baked beans.  The beans were just all right, but when I added some of the maple syrup they had at the table to them, they perked right up.  The duck thigh was pretty good, but the roasted duck breast was out of this world.  It was cooked to a medium-rare and was thick cut and juicy.  It was so friggin' rich that I wanted to die on the spot because I got so full, so quickly.  I didn't even bother to try a duck sausage or any of the meat pie because I was literally in pain from all the rich food that I had eaten up to that point.  

Oh, but then there's dessert - more rich and decadent stuff that I couldn't pass up the chance to NOT try just a little bit.  The first thing was basically a pancake in a cup with rich maple syrup covering it.  It was more like a muffin made out of pancake batter with powdered sugar on top.  It was one of those stupidly easy things to make, but I would have never thought about doing anything like this.  I could only manage two or three bites before I had to pull in the towel.  For some reason, I was starting to get the shakes from the onset of a sugar overload.  

Then someone brought over what looked like a misshapen lollypop.  In Quebec these are known as "tire d’erable", which basically translates into "snow toffee".  At a real sugar shack, they set up a snow-filled trough.   Then they drip the boiling maple syrup onto the snow.  As it slowly hardens, you put a popsicle stick in to the middle of the dripped syrup and roll it around in the snow until it gets hard.  Voila!  Snow toffee on a stick.  

And, oh my god, if I wasn't going into a diabetic coma at that point, I figured I never would.  Rich and sweet, the snow toffee was an excellent treat.  I had two of them, they were so good.  At the end of the night, I said to my German colleague, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to have a night cap at the bar.  It's almost like I need an artery flush to get all the sugar out of my system!"

And like traditional sugar shacks - and since it's a celebration of the change of the dead of winter into the rebirth of spring - they have to have music.  And this was a local Montreal band - Les Agités (The Restless) - which featured four members dressed in flannel shirts and jeans.  They started off playing traditional Quebecois music - sort of an Acadian/Cajun style of music with guitars, fiddles, and one of the guys playing the spoons as the rhythm section.  After about five songs, they switched gears and went rock-and-roll with a number of classic rock selections from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  The lead singer was the youngest member of the group.  It turns out that his father was in the group and used to be in a band/orchestra that played for Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas for a number of years.  (Cirque du Soleil was founded in Montreal in 1984.)  His son - the lead singer - was born in Las Vegas and he seemed to be proud to be from there.  He did a killer Elvis Presley imitation in singing "Jailhouse Rock" and "Suspicious Minds".  They were very good and we stayed right up to the end of their set at 10 p.m., full stomach and all.  

So, this really wasn't an authentic sugar shack that they have in Quebec (and parts of northern Vermont and New Hamshire in the states), but it was a good representation of what a sugar shack is all about.  It was a celebration of community and the coming of spring.  The food was interesting, much of it was very good, and there was a lot of it.  And the sugar overload was almost unbearable.  But how can you turn down such yummy food?  I doubt if I'll ever make it to an authentic sugar shack in the backwoods of Quebec, but at least I was able to experience something close to the real thing.

LC's Bar-B-Q - Kansas City

I've eaten at a number of Kansas City barbecue places over the years in my travels to the city that started in the late 70's.  Working for a company in the Kansas City area in the late 80's/early 90's opened my barbecue horizons to more than just the big names most associated with area barbecue joints - notably, Arthur Bryant's and Gates Bar-B-Q.  But there are still a number of places that I have yet to try out and I was able to knock one of those off my "wish-list" when I was able to finally get into LC's Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, MO.  

LC Richardson was born in Mississippi in 1934.  The oldest of 9 children, Richardson learned at an early age that he was going to have to fend for himself if he wanted to get ahead in life.  A born entrepreneur, Richardson found that he could make a few bucks by buying cotton seeds, planting them, then picking the cotton to sell at markets later in the year.  

The young Richardson also found that he loved to hunt and fish.  His love for outdoor sports followed him to Kansas City after he left Mississippi at the age of 19.  Two years after he moved to Kansas City, he married a local girl - Rosa Williams.  Rosa and LC would welcome a daughter, Tonya, to the world not long after they were married.

It turned out that LC was a pretty good cook.   He was never properly schooled in the art of cooking, but he picked up little things at each stop he made at restaurants in the Kansas City area.  By his mid-30's, Richardson's reputation of being a top-flight cook opened up many doors of opportunities for him as a head chef at some of the better places in Kansas City.  

In the mid-1960's, Richardson ended up getting a job as a corporate chef for Farmland Industries, one of Kansas City's largest employers.  Richardson headed up the corporate kitchen at the company until he decided to retire in 1986 at the early age of 52.  

Pictured right - LC Richardson enjoying a good laugh, something I understand that he liked to do a lot.  Photo courtesy LC's Bar-B-Q Facebook page.  

LC had a second chapter in life already planned.  An avid barbecuer at home, friends and family told LC that he needed to allow the general public to enjoy some of his great barbecued meats.  

Using his pension from Farmland Industries as a kick-starter, Richardson found a small open space next to a liquor store on Blue Parkway in east Kansas City, less than two miles as the crow flies from the Truman Sports Complex which housed his beloved Chiefs and Royals.  LC's Bar-B-Q came into existence in 1986 with a basic walk-up counter service with his meats getting smoked on a kettle tank behind the building.  

LC's Bar-B-Q started to get quite the following and when the building owner offered him the liquor store's space to take over, he quickly jumped on that offer.  This would offer LC's customers a place to sit down and enjoy his barbecue rather than having to take it away in styrofoam boxes.  

One of the first things he had added to the place was a new pit that was designed and installed by renown Kansas City pit-master Bill Chaney.  Chaney first worked at Arthur Bryant's when it was previously known as Charlie Bryant's and eventually built the brick smoker that restaurant still uses today.  Chaney designed and built a number of brick ovens at barbecue joints around the city, and Richardson reached out to Chaney to have him build an in-house smoker.  

LC Richardson's wife, Rosa, and their daughter, Tonya Hammett, helped in the restaurant, and they were often helped by Tonya's daughter, Tausha.  Barely tall enough to see over the cash register, Tausha started working in the restaurant at the age of 12, and by her high school years she would regularly work the weekends when her friends and classmates were out at sporting events or at the movies.  

Tausha fell in love with the business and wanted to learn all she could to help her grandfather out.  By her mid-teens she was beginning to take care of a lot of the day-to-day operations of LC's Bar-B-Q.  When it came time to go off to college, Tausha went to Tennessee State in Nashville where she studied business with a plan to go back to eventually run her grandfather's business.  

You could always find LC sitting in his "office" - basically a dining table on the side of the dining room piled high with sheets of papers, an organized mess, if you will.  Seated in his black padded and oversized office chair, LC would carry on with customers about anything, but mostly liked to talk about the Chiefs or the Royals.  LC's Bar-B-Q was closed most Sundays with the exception of Chiefs and Royals home games where fans would stop in before or after the game to get their barbecue fill.

LC Richardson passed away in February of 2021 at the age of 86.  His granddaughter built a shrine to his legacy with his "desk", his chair - turned around so no one will sit in it - and pictures of LC on the wall above the table.  

It wasn't that I hadn't tried to get into LC's Bar-B-Q before.  Even after they expanded over 30 years ago, the place still only seats 30 to 35 people.  And parking can be a problem with people having to park down the street from the restaurant once the small lot out front gets filled up.  One time I stopped by during the evening a few years ago and the line was out the door to get barbecue.  This time I had a plan. 

It was late morning and just before the noon rush when I pulled into LC's at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd/Blue Parkway and Sni-A-Bar Road.  (see map)  The place was pretty much empty save for a couple people waiting on to-go orders.   LC's isn't fancy dining, but it's clean and cozy.  It doesn't look like there's been any updates to the decor since LC took over the full building all those years ago.  

The menu is on an old Pepsi sign with removable letters - the type of menu board that you'd see in restaurants in the 1960's or 70's.  It added to the homespun atmosphere LC's Bar-B-Q has.  The drinks were off to the side in self-serve refrigerators.  I grabbed a bottled beer before I went up to the counter to order some barbecue.  

Behind the front counter is the large in-wall smoker that was built for LC's by Bill Chaney.  Not long after LC passed away, Tausha Hammett found that the smoker needed to be reworked.  She closed the restaurant down for a few days while the whole smoker underwent an internal "tune-up".  It was the first significant upgrade to the place since LC Richardson moved into the full building.  

The pit-master at LC's had the doors wide open when I got up to the counter and was beginning to pull meats out of the smoker.  The big metal doors on the smoker were blackened from years and years of smoking meats. The smell of hickory smoke which permeated the restaurant was making my stomach jump with joy.  

Ribs, smoked turkey, smoked chicken, smoked pork and smoked brisket were the mainstays of the menu.  LC's is sort of locally famous for their smoked chicken wings - always a favorite of fans who are heading to a game for a tailgate party.  LC's also had smoked pork burnt ends and brisket burnt ends.  Sides included fries, okra, spicy green beans, potato salad and fried mushrooms.  

I really wanted to try a couple three things, but their mixed plate for $23.99 didn't allow for a choice of brisket to go along with some ribs.  And I really wanted brisket that day.  I thought about getting a combo sandwich with beef and pulled pork, but then just decided to get the sliced beef brisket platter.  I got two sides to go along with the brisket, so I got baked beans and cole slaw.  Two slices of white bread came with the brisket.

The young lady who took my order misunderstood me and had it all in a plastic to-go sack when she handed me the food over the counter.  (For as many people coming in to get to-go orders while I was there, it turned out to be understandable.)   I took the meal to a table and opened it up.  

The sliced brisket was plentiful and slathered in LC's barbecue sauce.  I had never eaten at LC's before, but I have picked up some of their Kansas City-style sweet and thick sauce during visits to Smoke 'n Fire in Overland Park over the years.  If you don't like barbecue sauce on your meat, you'd better tell them beforehand at LC's.  

I don't mind barbecue sauce on my smoked meats.  However, this was a bit much.  I was able to mix some of the sauce in with the baked beans, which is something that I like to do with my baked beans.

The amount of sauce notwithstanding, the beef brisket was tender and had a great hickory-smoke flavor to each slice.  And they certainly didn't skimp on the portion.  There had to be a pound of beef brisket included in the box.  It was all I could do to finish most of it.

The baked beans were good, but a bit better (for me) after I added some barbecue sauce to them.  The cole slaw was just all right - nothing special.  The brisket was the main event in this meal and it was as good as I hoped it would be.  

It's been too long for me to have not tried LC's Bar-B-Q before this first visit.  It's a great little place - friendly people, great smells and excellent barbecue.  Don't expect a fancy sit-down experience at LC's, but that just adds to the legacy LC Richardson started when he opened his doors in 1986.  If you're looking for good, no frills barbecue in the Kansas City area, you have to absolutely consider heading to LC's Bar-B-Q.