Road Tips

Rise 'n Roll - Fort Wayne, IN

We were doing some training at our account in Fort Wayne recently and my colleague suggested that we go get some donuts for the staff.  One of our former colleagues used to bring donuts in for the staff when he called on them years ago.  I texted him and said, "What's the name of that place that had the good donuts here in Fort Wayne?"  Seconds later, he texted back, "Rise 'n Roll."  I had just driven by Rise 'n Roll earlier that day and I noticed the sign on the front of their building.  The next morning, we went over to Rise 'n Roll to pick up a bunch of donuts.  

Orvin and Viola Bontrager ran a cedar cabinet shop in Shipshewana. a small Amish community in far northern Indiana about 20 miles from Elkhart.  Viola had a family recipe for donuts that had been passed down through generations which included a cinnamon/sugar donut and a caramel-frosted donut.  Orvin asked Viola, "Why don't we combine the two?"  The cinnamon/sugar-caramel donut was born and Viola began to sell them and other baked goods from her front porch in Shipshewana in 2001.  

It wasn't long before word of Viola's amazing donuts and baked goods got out and people flocked to her house to buy up all the donuts and pastries she had to offer.  They moved their baking operation to the basement of the cabinet shop which didn't have electricity or refrigeration.  Everything was made by hand including mixing the ingredients - made with no preservatives, cutting the donuts and storing them on racks that would be sold later in the day.  

Business got so good that the Bontragers were forced to move to a baking/retail facility about 7 miles away in Middlebury, IN in 2004.  That facility also did not have electricity, gas or any modern technology and no preservatives were included in the recipes that expanded to candy crunch, apple fritters and peanut butter-filled danish.  Busloads of tourists would converge on the Rise 'n Roll location in Middlebury on any given day.  

In 2009, a non-Amish family made the Bontragers an offer they couldn't refuse and purchased Rise 'n Roll with an eye on expanding the business via franchising.  The new owners kept Orvin Bontrager on the payroll as the company's quality control director.  

The first thing the new owners did was to build a bigger bakery outside of Middlebury along US Highway 20.  This facility brought Rise 'n Roll into the modern world with industrial mixers, large refrigeration units, and a donut maker that pushed the donut rolls out rather than having them hand cut.  The consistency of the donuts changed, but Bontrager made sure that the recipes were tweaked to carry on the traditional Amish flavors that made the Rise 'n Roll donuts so famous - still without using preservatives!

To get the word out, Rise 'n Roll and started to do pop-up shops in South Bend, Chicago and Indianapolis.  The cinnamon/sugar-caramel donuts were by far the favorites of people in the urban areas and they quickly gained the nickname of "Amish Crack" donuts.  Of course, the people involved with Rise 'n Roll didn't like the term for their delicious donuts, but decided that they couldn't really do anything about it.  

In the spring of 2016, Orvin Bontrager left Rise 'n Roll and along with his wife and another lady they opened an Amish gift shop - Rise 'n Shine - located about a mile-and-a-half north of Rise 'n Roll.  The ownership group for Rise 'n Roll used a corporate headhunter to find their next director of the bakery and found him in Russ Crawford, a graduate of the baking sciences program at Kansas State University and the American Institute of Baking.  

After a stint working for Donut (Doughnut) Corporation of America - the company who made the mixes for chains such as Krispy Kreme, Donutland, and Dunkin' Donuts - Crawford was overseeing the operations of the bakery and deli locations for a chain of grocery stores in North Carolina.  When the opportunity to come to Indiana to work for a real bakery came about, Crawford didn't hesitate.  Rise 'n Roll had grown to a 20,000 square foot bakery with over 60 Amish or Mennonite workers cranking out donuts, pastries and candy crunch pouches starting at 12:30 a.m. six days a week.  Crawford was instrumental in coming up with new mixtures and toppings for the donuts and pastries.  

Rise 'n Roll franchises began to pop up around the state of Indiana with Phil Reiman opening the first Fort Wayne Rise 'n Roll location in the late summer of 2014.  The Rise 'n Roll bakery would bake the donuts and pastries in the early morning hours and trucks would deliver them to the franchises in places as far away as Indianapolis, nearly 3 hours from Middlebury.  Most of the franchises offered baked goods and Amish-made gifts and crafts, while others offered deli sandwiches for breakfast and lunch.  Today, there are 15 Rise 'n Roll locations mainly around northern Indiana.  

We pulled up to the Rise 'n Roll location on West Illinois Road west of downtown Fort Wayne around 8:00 a.m.  (see map)  (There is a second Fort Wayne Rise 'n Roll on the city's far north side.)  I didn't really know the drill about getting donuts and I tried to see if I could order in advance on their web site, but it didn't give me the option.  It turned out that I didn't have to worry about that as there was no line to get donuts.  

There were three ladies - all cheery and effervescent in their demeanor - behind the counter that day.  My colleague had eaten the "Amish Crack" donuts before and said that our former colleague would just get nothing but the cinnamon sugar/caramel donuts.  But looking through the case, I saw a lot more donuts that I wanted to try.  

They had a lemon cake donut, a blueberry cake donut, powered sugar donuts, caramel frosted donuts, maple bars, caramel frosted creme-filled danish, and other assorted donuts and pastries that looked delicious.  My mouth was watering just looking at all the fresh baked goods they had to offer.

I figured we were going to get about 75 to 80 guys to come to our training sessions and I knew that not all would be walking in early in the day.   Still, it's tough to say "no" to a good donut at any part of the day.  I ended up asking the ladies to give us an assortment of 5 dozen donuts.  We took a dozen and a half of the cinnamon sugar/caramel donuts, but had the ladies pick out three-and-a-half more dozen donuts including the caramel frosted donuts, the lemon cake donuts and some of the frosted bars.  My colleague fancied the powered sugar donuts and we got three of those.  All in all, we walked out with about $85 bucks worth of donuts, pastries and other baked goods.

We had a couple folding tables in our training room and I used one to put the donuts on.  I had to have one of the caramel frosted donuts to start out.  Oh, my GOD - it was one of the best donuts I ever had!  The caramel frosting was sweet and smooth, and the donut was light, airy and almost melted in my mouth.

I knew that if I had another donut, I might have gone into a sugar coma.  As people started to come in for the training sessions, more and more of the donuts started to disappear.  Then, some genius came in with a plastic knife and cut one of the caramel frosted donuts in half.  What a great idea!  I didn't have to eat a full donut - I could cut off portions and try them that way!

I did that with the lemon cake donut and the blueberry cake donut.  Both were very good with a bit of a crunchy outer shell.  I wondered why Rise 'n Roll didn't combine the lemon and blueberry cake donut together.  

Of course, I had to try some of the cinnamon sugar/caramel "crack donuts".  Now, a couple bites of that almost sent me over the edge.  I swear that I started to get hives on my arms because I was having a reaction to the sugar overload I was experiencing.  The donuts were very delicious and almost sinful to eat.  

As the day wore on, I noticed something - nearly all the other types of donuts other than the cinnamon/sugar and caramel donuts were gone.  At one point, all we had left were 10 of the "crack donuts" (out of 18 that we originally got) and two of the three powered sugar donuts that my colleague had requested.   He looked at the box with the remaining donuts, sort of laughed and said, "I guess I was the only one who likes the white donuts!"  We surmised that these guys probably have access to the cinnamon/sugar and caramel donuts all the time from other people bringing them in for trainings that they wanted to try other flavors.  

At the end of the day, we had 3 of the "Amish Crack" donuts left.  My colleague offered them to the crew that was sent in to help us tear down and pack up our equipment.  The two young ladies and the young guy on the crew were more than eager to finish off the remaining donuts - even at 4 p.m. in the afternoon.  My colleague said, "Wow, man!  When you ordered five dozen donuts, I was like, 'Really?  Five dozen?'  But you were almost spot on!"  

The Urban Dictionary has an entry for Rise 'n Roll's cinnamon/sugar and caramel donuts - "Amish Crack".  It's a name that Rise 'n Roll's ownership/management group has embraced as a loving tribute by their fans and customers.  While the cinnamon/sugar and caramel donuts could be called addicting, it turns out that Rise 'n Roll has so much more in terms of donuts, pastries and other baked goods that I think surpass and possibly eclipse the "Amish Crack" donuts.  Now that I know about the allure of Rise 'n Roll, I'm sure I'll be stopping by again and again on trips out to Fort Wayne.  

 

Camille's - Providence, RI

I recently spent the night in Providence, RI and beforehand I had casually told one of my accounts in Vermont that I was going to be there for an evening.  "Oh, we love Providence," he told me enthusiastically.  "They have a lot of great Italian restaurants there."  When I asked him which of the ones he liked the best, he said, "You can't go wrong with any of them."  After checking into the hotel, I started to do some investigating of some of the Italian restaurants in the area.  It turned out that they were all in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, just across Interstate 95 from my hotel.  While many of them sounded great, one of them stood out - a restaurant that was celebrating 110 years of being in business and situated in an old mansion that was walking distance from my hotel.  I went to Camille's to get an old school Italian dinner that evening.  

Federal Hill - known simply as "The Hill" in Providence - was settled by a number of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century into the early 20th century.  While the neighborhood has evolved over the years, there are - by my count - about 20 Italian restaurants in the neighborhood along with Italian markets and some businesses that have been there for nearly 100 years.  Atwells Avenue is the main street through the neighborhood with a number of restaurants and shops up and down the street, or on side streets on either side.  (see map)  

At the east entrance to Atwells Avenue is a gateway arch known as La Pigna.  Often mistaken as a pineapple, La Pigna in Italian is "the pine cone" which is a symbol of hospitality and quality in Italian society.  The arch over Atwells Ave. is next to Garibaldi Park which up to the mid-70's was the home to a bathhouse that Italian immigrants used in the early 20th century.  The bathhouse had become dilapidated over the years and community activists came in on their own to destroy the building prompting city officials to commemorate a park named after Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi who was instrumental in the reunification of Italy in the 19th century.  

(Photo at left courtesy Kevin Vine.  The Hilton hotel that I stayed at is in the background and was probably one of the worst Hilton properties I had ever stayed in.  I had to change rooms twice after the first room smelled like a locker room and the second room didn't have a television that worked properly - after I was told by a service engineer that was probably normal at that hotel.  It was a pretty tired property, although the bar was nice.)  

Just down from La Pigna on Atwells Avenue is DePasquale Square.  The large plaza area features a fountain that is the central theme of an area that was a large part of commerce between Italian immigrants in the early 1900's.  Another pine cone sits on the top of the fountain in DePasquale Square.  The park is described as the "beating heart" of the old world Italian neighborhood where apartments mixed with markets and restaurants during the Italian immigrant boom of the early 20th century.  (Photo courtesy Boston Globe.) 

One of those restaurants was a small eatery that was founded by Pasquale Parolisi in 1914.  He named the restaurant Marconi's after Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraph system which was the precursor to modern day radio transmissions.  In 1919, Prohibition had been enacted in the U.S. and Parolisi moved the restaurant to a mansion along present day Bradford Street in Providence.  It was said that booze and beer were made in the basement of the business and served to patrons in coffee cups.  A major renovation of the building added a kitchen and a larger dining space to the restaurant in 1926.  

As a bootlegger, Parolisi's restaurant also caught the attention of Mafia crime families who would patronize his restaurant well past the end of Prohibition in 1933.  I read that Camille's Roman Garden - renamed after Jack Parolisi's wife when he inherited the restaurant after his father's passing in 1952 - was one of the most notorious Mafia hangouts in the U.S.  Reputed mob boss Raymond Patriarca was a regular visitor to Camille's and was said to hold business meetings in the booths at the restaurant.  Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross and Bob Hope, as well as politicians such as John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter dined at Camille's over time.  

Camille and Jack Parolisi had no children, but Gary Mantoosh was Camille Parolisi's beloved nephew.  As a 15-year-old, she put him to work as a dishwasher at Camille's in 1971.  Over the years, Mantoosh rose from working in the kitchen to running the front of the house before buying the restaurant from his aunt in 1996.  However, by 2001 Mantoosh had enough of the restaurant business and was working on selling the property to a developer whose plans were to tear down the building and put up a residential space in its place.  

However, Frank Zammillo came in at the last moment and bought Camille's to keep it open.  Zammiello's Top of the Hill Trust corporation put a lot of money into the renovation of the restaurant and eventually hired restaurant veteran George Kilborn, Jr. to be the manager and wine director of Camille's.  With the exception a a short stint away from Camille's from February 2012 to October 2013, Kilborn has been in charge of Camille's since 2007.  Today, Camille's is said to be the oldest continuous restaurant in Providence.  

In what should have been a five minute walk to Camille's from my hotel, I took the wrong bridge across I-95 and headed down Broadway instead of Atwells Ave.  After walking for about 3 blocks and realizing that I was nowhere close to any Italian restaurants, I looked up the location on my Google Maps app on my phone.  I then walked up Dean Street, then over to Federal Street before coming to Bradford Street and seeing Camille's to my left, just a half block south of Atwells Ave.  (see map)

Valet parking was available out in front of the restaurant and I was greeted by a couple of the middle-aged valets as I walked into Camille's.  A few paces inside the front door was the host stand where George Kilborn, Jr. was stationed that evening.  He asked me how many there were in my party and I told him that it was just myself.  He offered seating in the dining room which turned out to be an elegant setting of a combination of booths and tables all with linen table cloths. Chihuly-style glass artwork adorned the pillars in the dining area.  I don't want to say I was underdressed in a pair of jeans, a polo shirt with my company's logo on it, and a pair of Cole Haan leather tennis sneakers, but there were some people who were more formally dressed in the dining room.  

I decided to sit at the bar and George was more than happy to escort me to a spot around the rectangular bar.  More Chiluly light fixtures hung from the tin-roof ceiling in the bar area.  Music from Italian artists such as Bruno Martino, Gianni Morandi and Sergio Cammariere, as well as 60's standards from Frank Sinatra and Keely Smith played in the background while I dined there.   After George dropped off a menu for me to look through, the bartender/server that evening - a pleasant young lady by the name of Linsey - came over to greet me.  She had a noticeable New England accent which I found to be perfect for the setting.  To start out, I ordered up a local hazy IPA from a brewery that I completely forgot to note during my visit.  

To say the offerings at Camille's were old school Italian favorites would be an understatement.  Gnocchi dumplings, rigatoni with eggplant, and pasta with a choice of meatballs or Italian sausage (or both for an upcharge according to Linsey) were the prominent pasta dishes on the menu.  Chicken and veal dishes jumped out at me - especially the chicken parm and the veal sautéed in a lemon/white wine/butter sauce sounded delicious.  

The sea scallops baked in garlic and white wine butter with jumbo lump crab, topped with mozzarella cheese and seasoned bread crumbs were mouthwatering in their description.  I had a lot of seafood earlier in the week and I wanted something with some tummy-filling sustenance.   They had steaks, veal chops, and a number of pasta entrees on the menu.  Appetizers included baked clams in seasoned bread crumbs, char-grilled octopus with a toasted hazelnut arugula salad, and fried calamari.  I read somewhere that Camille's may be the originator of fried calamari.  

I started off with a classical Caesar salad - crisp and cool greens with house-made focaccia croutons topped with a hearty Caesar dressing with parmesan cheese.  I love a good Caesar salad and this had that rich lemon/garlic taste with a bit of the salty bitterness from the anchovy paste.  With parmesan cheese mixed in, this was a wonderful Caesar salad.   

I really wanted pasta that evening and the pappardelle pasta with a tomato/cream bolognese sauce pretty much fit the bill.  It was served in a bowl with a sprig of basil and powdered parmesan cheese. When the meal came out to me, I ordered up a glass of the 2021 Carpozo Rosso di Montalcino from the Tuscany region of Italy.  Full-bodied with a with a warm and buttery palate, this was a great paring for the meal.  

To say that this meal was delicious is an understatement.  The wide pappardelle egg noodles had a great flavor and the bolognese sauce clenched onto the pasta.  It didn't look like a lot of food, but it was very rich in body and I was satiated by the end of the last bite of the pasta.  

Of course, I wasn't going to get out of there without having some dessert.  They had the regular choosings - tiramisu and cannolis.  But they also had something that almost made me come out of my skin - affogato with vanilla ice cream, biscotti and brandy.  Oh, hell yes!  I had to have that for my dessert.  I don't know what kind of brandy they had, but I didn't much care at that point.  Now, I've had affogato before WITHOUT the brandy before, but when Linsey asked if I wanted a shot to go with the affogato - well, how in the hell could I not say yes?  

And it was orgasmic in its flavor.  The biscotti melted when I threw the espresso and the brandy on the concoction.  Thank god I only had to walk back to the hotel because I was half-assed plowed and zipped-up by the time I finished the affogato with the brandy.  Even though I was half-assed in the tank when I finished up, this was a very memorable meal.  

With all the Italian restaurants around "The Hill" in Providence, could it be possible that I picked the best one out of the batch?  I have to say that the meal at had at Camille's was one of the best Italian meals I've had in my life.  The pappardelle with bolognese sauce was simply magnificent.  The Caesar salad was a great start to the meal, and I have to say the affogato with the biscotti and brandy was tremendous.  I should have stayed at the bar at Camille's and continued to enjoy the evening, but I could tell it was better to be closer to the bar at the hotel than it would be to stagger back when I finished up at Camille's.  A historic restaurant, a memorable meal - Camille's was a Top Ten meal in my book.

 

The Peacock - Charleston, SC

On our first full day in Charleston, my wife and I had made it downtown to take in some of the sights and to get acclimated to the area.  After walking around for about a couple hours, my wife said that she thought she needed something to eat.  We found ourselves on East Bay Street and there were a number of restaurants along the street and each had a menu out front for people to look through.  One place we stopped at was The Peacock.  After a quick look at what they were offering, we decided to go in and get something to eat.  

Michelle Van Jura was a successful public relations executive in New York City.  She first visited Charleston a number of years ago and fell in love with the city and the surrounding Low Country in South Carolina.  In 2013, Van Jura moved to Charleston to live full time while still running her public relations firm back in New York.  While Charleston had a number of excellent restaurants, Van Jura felt the city needed a place where people could go to have a fun experience with a combination of entertainment, upscale food and specialty cocktails in an elegant spot.  

Van Jura partnered with restaurant and hospitality veteran Zach Dennis who had moved back to Charleston after managing a restaurant in Toronto for a few years; and local chef Matt Greene, a New York City native who studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY before going on to Chicago and eventually moving to Charleston in 2009.  The trio found a three-story, 12,000 square foot building on East Bay Street and began to transform it into Van Jura's dream entertainment/restaurant destination.

Pictured right - Zach Dennis, Michelle Van Jura and Matt Greene.  Photo courtesy Charleston City Paper.   

In September of 2023, the group opened The Habit with a main dining area and lounge on the first floor, with the Peacock Lounge on the second floor for live entertainment with an outdoor dining area on the third floor of the building.  Expectations were exceeded and The Habit became a hot spot for live music, comedy, and good food in elegant 1920's-style art deco surroundings.  

Less than five months in business, the partners decided to rebrand the restaurant from the curious name "The Habit" to a more fitting moniker "The Peacock".  Nothing really changed with the business other than the name and I have to say that "The Peacock" is a much better name than "The Habit".  

It was just after noon when we walked into The Peacock located on East Bay Street between Market Streets (north and south) and Cumberland.  (see map)  A young lady was stationed at the hostess stand just inside the door.  She asked us if we wanted to sit inside or up on the roof.  The bar/dining area was off to the right and featured a long rectangular bar with banquette seating along the wall opposite the bar.  Gilded framed mirrors hung on the wall with art deco light fixtures hanging from exposed ceilings.  I was OK with sitting inside because it was sort of hot and humid out with lingering showers in the area.  But to my surprise, my wife said she wanted to sit on the roof terrace.  

Even though there was an elevator, my wife and I took the two flights up to the rooftop dining area.  It was very nice up there - it had views out onto the Charleston Harbor, as well as the historic United States Custom House just across the street.  There were already a number of people up on the rooftop terrace when we got there, but there were still open tables available.  There was a small bar off to the side of the rooftop terrace.  

We were shown to a table near the entrance to the rooftop dining area and given brunch menus to look over.  Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Katie who had come from Florence, SC to work in Charleston.  She was a wonderful server and was engaging and helpful with suggestions.  Since we were on vacation - and it was a Sunday - I ordered up a bloody mary and a Wicked Weed Pernicious India Pale Ale that they had on tap.  Wicked Weed was one of the craft breweries we went to when we were in Asheville, NC seven years ago.  My wife saw something  on the drink menu that caught her fancy - a peach mimosa.  She had to order one of those to start out.   

Since it was brunch, we found the menu to be similar to The Peacock's lunch menu with a couple three breakfast items thrown in.  They had cinnamon French toast with the bread crusted in Frosted Flakes and served with a blueberry syrup.  Now, THAT caught my attention.  I thought about the smash burger they had on the menu, as well as the Italian sandwich that featured Calabrese salami, soppressata, topped with provolone cheese, pickled peppers, lettuce, and mayo on a toasted Italian bun.  And they had a breakfast sandwich that came with a choice of applewood bacon or house-made sausage with a fried egg with white American cheese on a brioche bun.  There were a lot of options to choose from.  

My wife asked Katie what she thought was the most popular thing on the menu and she didn't hesitate.  "The Bad Habit is a very popular choice," she said.  "It's one of my favorites."  The Bad Habit - no doubt named after the original handle of The Habit - was a mishmash of fingerling potatoes, crispy chicken tenders, white American cheese, applewood-smoked bacon and tasso ham gravy topped with a fried egg.  She thought that sounded good, but in the end she got the Local Farmer's Salad.  It started with a bed of red quinoa mixed with locally-sourced bibb lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, orange scented carrots, spiced corn, pickled peppers, chopped applewood-smoked bacon and finished with goat cheese, toasted almonds and a citron vinaigrette.  My wife wanted to add some protein to the salad, so she got the grilled chicken that was sliced into six or seven pieces.  She couldn't stop raving about how good the salad was.  

With all the choices in mind, I kept coming back to one thing on the menu - the smoked Atlantic salmon plate.  It featured thin-sliced pieces of smoked salmon served with a lemon dill creme fraiche with mixed capers and shallots, and sliced cucumbers.  The cucumbers were so fresh that I could smell them as Katie was walking up to our table with our brunch selections.  Two slices of a lightly toasted French bread came with the plate.  

Now, I have to say this was all fabulous.  If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I can't eat cooked salmon due to getting sick on it when I was in France over 15 years ago.  But smoked salmon - I could eat that all day.  There were nine or ten rolled up pieces of the smoked salmon and I figured out a system where I would cut off a piece of the French bread, top it with a roll of the smoked salmon, and then top that with the creme sauce and the capers and shallots.  The bread was light and airy, and it was delicious on its own.  Each bite I had of the salmon with the toppings and the bread was ecstasy.  It was absolutely delicious all the way around.  

Almost as soon as we paid and started to make our way downstairs, the rain came down pretty hard.  People on the rooftop began to scatter as Katie and the rest of the staff quickly cleared tables.  Some people stuck it out underneath the umbrellas nearly each table had on the rooftop while others moved down to the first floor dining room/bar area.   My wife said, "We couldn't have timed that any better."  

I truly wanted to return to The Peacock at some point in our trip mainly because I saw some things on their dinner menu that intrigued me - the ahi tuna and salmon pôkè bowl being one of them.  But there were so many great restaurants we wanted to try in Charleston that we never made it back.  But it was a memorable visit to The Peacock.  I thoroughly enjoyed my smoked salmon plate - it was one of the better meals I had during our stay in the city.  And my wife raved about her salad that featured locally-sourced greens and vegetables with some grilled chicken on top.  Katie was a great server and she chatted with us a bit as we were finishing up our meal.  The Peacock was a great experience all around.

 

India Masala House - Brattleboro, VT

I stayed the night in Brattleboro, VT during my trip out to New England a few weeks ago.  I don't know why I chose Brattleboro, but it was about 50 miles from my last appointment of the day.  However, it was about an hour away from my first appointment the next morning down in Springfield, MA.  In hindsight, I probably should have stayed in Springfield, but it was my first trip ever to Vermont and I wanted to take in some of the sights.  Turns out that Brattleboro wasn't all that exciting and it also proved that it didn't have a lot of dining options on a Tuesday night.  I had gone out to a restaurant on the outskirts of town to have dinner, but that place was closed.  As was another place I had looked up that was downtown.  On the way back out to my hotel on the north side of town, I passed an Indian restaurant that was tucked inside a hotel/inn.  I decided to cut my losses and go get Indian food at India Masala House.  

Madan Rathore is a veteran of the restaurant industry opening an Indian restaurant in Greenfield, MA in that mid-1990's.  Rathore found that a number of people were driving from Keene, NH - about a 45 minute drive - to get the Indian food at his restaurant.  In the early 2000's, Rathore decided to open a second location in Keene.  Rathore moved to Keene and managed the restaurant there while a partner oversaw the restaurant in Greenfield.  

By 2016, the Keene location was going strong, but the Greenfield location began to have problems with local health officials over a series of citations the restaurant received.  Finally, the city shut down the Greenfield location and Rathore had a falling out with his partner over the ordeal.  

Wanting a fresh start, Rathore sold his restaurant in Keene in 2017.  He looked at opportunities in Santa Fe, NM, as well on Long Island, but he felt at home in the area and he started to look at spaces in Brattleboro to open a restaurant.  He hired a young chef who specialized in French and Italian cuisine and in May of 2018 he opened India Masala House as a fusion restaurant/bar in the Quality Inn in Brattleboro.  

Less than 5 months later, India Masala House was forced to move after the temporary closure of the Quality Inn.  Just down the road was another hotel - the Colonial Inn & Spa - that had a restaurant attached to it, Tavern at the Inn.  That business had just closed, so the move for Rathore was a natural.  The new India Masala House opened in October of 2018.  

The pandemic weighed heavily on a number of restaurants in Southern Vermont and the chef who contributed the French and Italian items to the menu left India Masala House.  Rathore went back to the basics and went with an Indian-exclusive menu.  And that menu continues to this day.  

It was just after 6 p.m. on a sunny New England day when I pulled into India Masala House located along Putney Road just south of the intersection of Vermont Highway 9 which takes you across the Connecticut River into New Hampshire.  (see map)  I went inside and the place was empty.  There were a few people on the patio in the back, but out of the sun it was a bit cool outside.  The main dining room was somewhat elegant with wooden beams and supports along the ceiling.  The late afternoon sun was streaming in the windows adding long shadows in the dining area.   

Moments after I walked in, a lady came out from the bar area.  She asked me where I'd like to sit and I sort of looked around the dining room, then I looked into the bar.  "You have your choice," she said cheerfully.  "I'll be your server wherever you decide to sit."  I told her that I would sit at the bar and she said, "Oh, that makes my job easier because I'm the bartender, too!"  

After I sat at the bar and she gave me a menu, she told me her name was Cindy and later on she told me that she had grown up in Brattleboro, but moved to Austin, TX just out of high school in the early 80's.  "Austin grew too quickly for me," she said.  "I moved back here after living there six years and been here ever since."  I told her that I had a couple friends who had moved to Austin in the early 80's and moved out about the same time because they felt it had grown so quickly.  

The great thing about India Masala House is that they had a number of craft beers from the state of Vermont to choose from.  Brews from the Rutland Beer Works in Rutland, VT, Upper Pass Beer Company in South Royalton, VT, and Switchback Brewing Company from Burlington, VT were on their beer menu that was on a chalk board next to the bar.  India Masala House had a hazy IPA from the Fiddlehead Brewing Company in Shelburne, VT on tap and I got one of those to start out.    

The kitchen was directly behind the bar, so the smell of Indian spices was wafting through the air.  Man, I was getting hungry just from the smells coming from the kitchen.  India Masala House had chicken, lamb and goat dishes - all of which are locally sourced for freshness.  They had biryani dishes on the menu as well as Chicken Tikka Tandoori.  

I'm not much of a fan of goat for my Indian food (I have a former colleague who loves goat, but I can't bring myself to try it), but I do like lamb.  But the only lamb they had on the menu was lamb saagwala - which is good, but I wasn't up for lamb and cooked creamy spinach that evening; and the lamb curry - which I did consider, but finally passed on in favor of the butter chicken.  It featured large chunks of chicken breast in a creamy and slightly spicy (as I ordered) butter/tomato sauce.  I also ordered a side of the garlic/cilantro naan bread and Cindy asked me if I wanted butter on my naan.  I was sort taken aback by the question - I thought that all naan bread had butter brushed on it.  But, then again, maybe not.  Well, of course I wanted butter on my naan bread! 

The chicken chunks were tender and easy to cut with a fork.  The butter/tomato sauce had a slight kick, but didn't overpower the overall flavor of the sauce or chicken.  I used the naan bread to dip into the sauce and it was delicious, as well.  The food was a complete "spot-hitter" for me at a point where I needed some comfort food during my week in New England.  

Having limited dining options in Brattleboro, VT that evening turned out to be somewhat of a blessing as I probably wouldn't have gone to India Masala House and had what was a very good Indian meal.  The butter chicken was delicious and I was happy that they had a slew of craft beers from Vermont breweries to choose from.  Cindy turned out to be a fun person and was a very good server.  While I don't know if I will ever be back to stay in Brattleboro in the future, I'll never forget the great meal I had at India Masala House.

McCarthy's Irish Pub - New York City

In New York for a trade show recently, I had hit it pretty hard the night before and I needed a good greasy cheeseburger to set my stomach right.  I had walked past an Irish pub on my way back and forth between my hotel and the trade show venue and I thought it might be a good place to go there for lunch, plus catch some of the Iowa women's basketball game that was slated to start at 12 noon that day.  I snuck out of the trade show and went across Times Square and ended up at McCarthy's Irish Pub on W. 46th St.  (see map) 

McCarthy's is a relatively new restaurant/bar in the land of multiple Irish pubs in the five boroughs of New York.  It opened in April of 2022 and is owned by a group of investors headed by managing partner Kieran Greene.  A native of Falcarragh on the northwestern coast of Ireland, Greene and his partners are also involved in Gossip, an Irish-American bar located on 9th Ave between W. 49th and W. 50th streets in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.   

I got into McCarthy's a bit after noon and I was looking around at the long narrow space for a television that might have the Iowa women's basketball game on.  But each television had the Liverpool FC/Manchester City Premier League game on.  And soccer rules over any other sports in most New York City Irish pubs.  While the place wasn't packed, there were enough people who were into the game where I didn't think I could ask someone to change the channel on one TV.  I was able to get the women's basketball game on my DirecTV application on my smartphone, so I sat at the bar and watched it there.  

There were a trio of bartenders working that day.  The main bartender who first approached me had a heavy Irish brogue when he dropped off a menu and asked me what I wanted to drink.  McCarthy's had their own beers on tap - an IPA, an amber and a lager - in addition to the usual suspects of Guinness, Harp and Smithwick's along with about a dozen other beers on tap.  I thought I'd try the McCarthy's IPA and I got a pint of that.  It was OK, but for my second beer I went with Merman IPA from the Coney Island Brewery that was better than the McCarthy's house IPA.  

For food selections at McCarthy's, there were a number of Irish specialties such as Shepherd's Pie, an Irish Beef Stew, fish & chips, bangers & mash, and an Irish chicken curry dish with vegetables and rice in an Irish curry sauce.  Other entrees included a pan-roasted chicken breast, rigatoni pasta in a pesto cream sauce, grilled salmon in a lime/butter sauce, and lobster ravioli in a cream sauce.  Appetizers such as margherita flat bread, fried calamari, beef nachos and chicken wings were also on the menu.  

My stomach was still a bit queasy from too many beers the night before, but I needed something to eat to settle it down.  I figured a burger would be good, but McCarthy's basic burger - an 8 ounce black angus burger with lettuce, tomato, and onion with fries was $19 bucks.  I knew I was in New York City, but I just couldn't see paying $19 bucks for a basic burger.  They had a steak sandwich and a pastrami panini on the menu, but I went back to burgers.  I ended up getting the Gaelic burger with fries.  

The Gaelic burger featured an 8 ounce black angus patty topped with Irish bacon (basically ham or Canadian bacon) with sharp cheddar cheese and sautéed onions on a sesame-seed bun with fries on the side.  The ham/bacon was sort of dried out and the burger was slathered in cheddar cheese so much that it was difficult to taste the flavor in the beef.  The burger was just OK.  Even though I was in the mood for a burger when I ordered it, I really wished I would have gotten something else a couple bites into the burger.  

McCarthy's Irish Pub is one of hundreds of Irish pubs in New York City and it was fine for what it was.  Good beer selection, food was OK, lots of televisions tuned to soccer matches - it was your typical run-of-the-mill Irish pub.  It was really nothing special, but it was also nothing bad.  If you're in the Times Square area and in need of an Irish pub fix, McCarthy's Irish Pub would be a good stop.

Amen Street - Charleston, SC

On our first night in Charleston, it was our anniversary.  We wanted to go somewhere nice - preferably someplace that had seafood.  We did some looking on the internet for restaurants in Charleston and one kept coming up - Amen Street.  My wife remembered seeing Amen Street when we were out walking around earlier in the day.  We decided to go to Amen Street for dinner that evening.  

Like most buildings in Charleston's French Quarter, the building that houses Amen Street was built in the mid-19th century.  It was originally a mercantile firm along what was originally called Amen Street up to just before the building was built.  In 1865, William M. Bird bought the building to house a supply house used for building materials to help rebuild homes and businesses in Charleston after the Civil War.  The William M. Bird Company was the building's tenant for nearly 90 years, even surviving a devastating earthquake that struck the region in 1886 damaging much of the building.  

Since the mid-50's, the building underwent a number of owners and different businesses before a restaurant by the name of East Bay Crab Shack went into the space.  Like many restaurants, that establishment went out of business during the recession of 2008.  Two local businessmen and restauranteurs - Richard Stoney and Keith Jones - bought the building in early 2009 and spent a good part of that year renovating and updated the space into a new restaurant spot.  In November of 2009, Amen Street opened its doors taking the name of the former street that was on the south side of building before it was constructed.  

Richard Stoney sold his share of the business to Keith Jones a few years later and Jones is now the principal owner.  Frank Wright - who started as a fry chef at Amen Street in 2012 - rose through the ranks over the years and is now the executive chef at Amen Street.  

Even though we had a rental car, we had experienced some parking problems when we first went to downtown Charleston and decided to take an Uber from the hotel.  It had been raining rather heavily in Charleston earlier in the day and our Uber driver apologized that he was going to have to take an alternate route to Amen Street.  "When it rains here, the water collects in low-lying areas," he explained to us.  "They've shut down some of the streets on the short route to where we're going, so we'll have to take the round-about way there."  

We had reservations at Amen Street at 6:30 p.m., but our Uber driver pulled up to the front of the place on Bay Street about 15 minutes early - even with taking the long way to the restaurant.  (see map)  After going to the hostess stand, we were seated at a booth near the front of the restaurant.  We had been seated there with our menus for a while before our server Michael came over to greet us.  "I'll be with you folks in a moment," he said quickly before he hurried off in another direction.

The restaurant was actually very nice.  The exposed walls appeared to be the original bricks and the wooden plank floor was worn and weathered underneath the glossy varnish.  The main dining area was a long narrow room with recessed lighting.  Individual spots highlighted the photos and artwork on the brick walls.  But the highlight of the room were the five oyster shell-imbedded light fixtures down the center of the room.  I'd never seen anything like them before and they were pretty cool.  

The bar area was opposite from the booths in which we were seated.  It featured a dark wood bar with dark wooden cabinets behind the bar.  While they had a full bar for cocktails, beer was available in cans and bottles.    

The raw bar was at the corner of the bar just as you come in the front door.  Just to the right of the raw bar case was a smaller room for overflow dining.  The case had five or six different types of oysters and the shucker was busy all evening with orders that were coming in right and left.  

A quick word about our server Michael - we were looking to get something to drink, but he was chatting it up with the people seated directly behind me in another booth.  He was chatty with us, too - maybe a little too chatty at times.  But he turned out to be a good server and a good guy.  A restaurant industry veteran in the Charleston area for a number of years, Michael had a list of restaurants to visit while we were there.  "Don't go to the places all the guide books and Yelp tell you to go to," Michael said as he allowed me to take a picture of his list of nearly 30 restaurants to choose from.  "These places are the ones you want to check out."  

I mentioned that I didn't see Amen Street on the list and he laughed and said, "Well, that goes without saying!" He took our drinks order and my wife got a very dirty Stoli martini and I got a Juice Bomb hazy IPA from the Sloop Brewing Company from the Hudson Valley in New York.  In fact, I had four during our time at Amen Street because I knew I wouldn't be driving that evening.  

Of course, we had to have oysters-on-the-half shell.  Michael gave us some recommendations of the oysters to get in groups of four.  Two of the selections were from South Carolina - the Bird Island Selects and the Roddy Rocks; and we got four of the Fortune oysters from Nova Scotia.  The Fortune oysters were the biggest of the group and Michael explained that South Carolina oysters had been over-harvested and that there had just been recent efforts to help rejuvenate the oyster beds in the Low Country.  "They're still good, but they just don't have much size," he said.  They had a house brand vinegar-based hot sauce on the table that I mixed with some fresh ground horseradish.  The hot sauce wasn't as peppery as a Tabasco sauce, but still had a bite.  (I found out later on that I could have purchased a bottle of the sauce while we were there.  I wish I would have known that before we left.)

The menu was heavily weighted toward seafood, but that's what we wanted for our anniversary dinner.  Appetizers included peel-and-eat shrimp, tuna tartare, mussels, and fried oysters.  For people who didn't want seafood, they had a burger and a blackened "cut-of-the-day" steak available.  Salads included a Caesar salad, a farm-to-table greens salad, and a roasted beet salad.  That's what my wife wanted to get to start out.  She ordered it with a cabernet vinaigrette dressing, but after a couple bites she determined that there was no dressing on the salad.  Or if there was some dressing, there wasn't a lot of it.  My wife tried to get Michael's attention to ask him about getting some more dressing, but he was busy a few tables away chatting up the customers.  She just ended up eating the salad as it was.  

For our main entrees my wife got the bourbon-glazed salmon on a bed of smoked-bacon-braised collard greens, whipped potatoes and thinly sliced green apples.  My wife got a glass of an Italian pinot grigio that they had for a house wine.  She was in heaven with each bite.  She said the salmon was fresh tasting and the glazing gave it a bit of a charred taste.  She offered me a bite, but I still can't eat any type of cooked salmon.  Raw salmon, smoked salmon - yes.  But my stomach still turns from getting sick on salmon when I was in France over 15 years ago.   

My choice that evening was the blackened mahi mahi of which I asked Michael to tell the chef to "step on it" with extra Cajun seasonings.  The mahi mahi filet rested on a bed of jambalaya with chunks of andouille sausage.  Grilled broccolini came on the side.  The mahi mahi was outstanding and the Cajun seasonings gave it a spicy flavor that didn't overpower the taste of the fish.  The jambalaya was also very good and I could have probably had the jambalaya on its own.  

I was sort of stuffed after the mahi mahi and jambalaya, but when Michael came around with dessert suggestions my wife couldn't say no to the key lime pie.  The tart filling with the sweet graham cracker crust was also outstanding.  Light, yet rich, the key lime pie was a great close to what had been a great dinner.

Michael lingered with us after our meal as we talked about some of the restaurants on his list.  One of the restaurants we had on our list was a James Beard Award-winning restaurant.  Michael wasn't too crazy on that restaurant and said that he thought another similar-style restaurant was much better.  "I think they lost their edge once they won the James Beard (award)," he said.  I will say that the other restaurant he recommended was outstanding.  In fact, each of the restaurants he suggested that we tried while we were in Charleston were very good to outstanding.  

But the best meal that we had while we were in Charleston was probably Amen Street.  I usually don't like to lead off with the best place we visited when I'm going to write a series of entries about restaurants in a given area, but Amen Street was better than we could have expected.  The seafood was tremendous and even though Michael could be a bit too chatty, he was a good server and had a load of knowledge about the restaurant scene in and around Charleston.  Amen Street was another memorable anniversary meal for my wife and me.  

 

Paddy's Public House - Newton, MA

On my first trip back to New England in about 30 years, I was going to be in the Boston suburbs but not in the city.  Before I went out, I told a former colleague of mine who had Boston as part of his territory when we worked together that I would be in the Boston area.  He said, "Nearly every time I went to Boston, I'd stop at this Irish pub west of downtown.  One time, I took (another colleague we worked with) there for lunch and it was so good he wanted to go back for dinner that night.  And we did!"  He was so enthusiastic about the place that I had to check it out when I was in the Boston area recently.  Here's the story of my visit to Paddy's Public House in Newton, MA.  

Curt O'Hara was born in Chicago and eventually found himself in the Boston area in the Coast Guard during the Korean War.  It was there that he met a young lady - Gretchen - whom he eventually married.  Curt O'Hara had previously worked for Sears Roebuck in Chicago and after the two were married they moved back to Chicago.  However, after a year, Gretchen convinced Curt to move back to the Boston area where they settled into the town of Waltham, MA where Gretchen was from.  Curt then took a job at the popular Finnerty's Country Squire restaurant in Wayland, MA in 1954.  Curt continued to work at the restaurant for the next 31 years, eventually becoming the manager of the restaurant.  

Curt brought in some of his sons to help out at the restaurant.  John O'Hara cut his teeth in the restaurant business at Finnerty's as did his younger brother Karl.  John eventually went to college, got his degree and had a job with International Harvester Credit Corporation until the company went out of business in 1985.  Curt O'Hara had always wanted to run his own place and with John and Karl he opened O'Hara's in Newton Highlands later that year.  In 2002, the former Troubadour restaurant in Newton became available and the O'Hara's jumped on the location to open their second restaurant - Paddy's Public House.  It was named after Curt's middle name Patrick (or "Paddy" in Ireland).  

While the names of the two O'Hara family-owned restaurants were different, they were basically the same restaurant.  People used to say the food was better at O'Hara's, or it was better at Paddy's - but the food menus were basically the same between the two places.  While O'Hara's drew in more of a professional crowd from businesses around their area, Paddy's drew more families as it was more in a residential section of Newton.

Pictured right - John and Karl O'Hara.  Picture courtesy Boston Voyager.  

Curt O'Hara had semi-retired from the restaurants in the early 2000's not long after Paddy's Public House had opened, but continued to come in from time to time to play the host and to see regular customers.  Curt O'Hara passed away in 2016 at the age of 84.  

John and Karl O'Hara continued to run both restaurants and oversaw an expansion to O'Hara's in 2012.  However, John O'Hara fell ill a couple years after his father passed and he also passed away in 2018 at the age of 61.  Karl O'Hara continues to oversee the two family owned pubs to this day.  

Years ago, I worked as an independent rep for three or four companies around the greater Boston area.  I was living in Newton, IA at the time and I remember a conversation I had with one of the ladies at one of the companies.  She asked me where I lived and I said, "Newton."  

"Newton," she exclaimed excitedly.  "I live in Newton!"  Well, it took us both a few moments to figure out that she lived in Newton, MA while I was living in Newton, IA.  So, I had wanted to go to Newton, MA at some point and going to Paddy's I got my chance.  

I had stayed up in Nashua, NH the evening before and drove down to Woburn north of Boston for a morning meeting.  I had an afternoon meeting down in Hanover south of Boston so it was almost halfway between the two meetings for me to stop into Paddy's to have lunch.  

Paddy's Public House is on Elm Street in Newton, MA just north of the Mass Turnpike and about a mile east of Interstate 95 just west of Boston (see map).  There is usually parking on the street in front of the restaurant, but they were redoing the sidewalk in front of Paddy's and they had the street down to just one lane with no parking on the west side of the street.  There was a Newton cop in front of the restaurant directing traffic around the workers.  There is a public parking lot just across the street from Paddy's and it cost something like 75 cents per hour to park there.  I ended up parking in there and paying at the kiosk just across from Paddy's.  

The front door was closed off at Paddy's due to the sidewalk work in front of the place, so I was directed by the cop to go to the side door which was the handicap entrance to the restaurant.  Upon entering that door, I found the main dining room with booths along the walls and tables in the middle.  Pictures were hung on the mahogany walls with a low mahogany accented ceiling with recessed lighting.  It was a cozy and comfortable place.    

I decided to go sit at the bar and there were a few people in there just as the noon rush was beginning.  Comfortable high-backed chairs were at the mahogany bar and a few booths were along the wall facing the bar.  After I sat down, I was greeted by Alaina who was bartending that day.  I heard her tell someone that she had gone to another restaurant over 20 years ago and shadowed a waitress on a shift.  "Then they never called me back," she said.  "I came over here and got hired and been here ever since!" 

Alaina dropped off a menu for me and asked me what I wanted to drink.  They had a full bar as well as a number of domestic and craft beers on tap.  I had a meeting later in the afternoon so I thought having a beer wouldn't be that bad.  They had a Clown Candy hazy IPA from Fam's Brewing Company (ironically out of Charleston, SC) on tap and I had a pint of that.  

My former colleague raved about the clam chowder at Paddy's when he was telling me about the place.  I started out with a bowl of the clam chowder.  Since it had been over 30 years since I'd been to Boston, I really hadn't had good New England-style fresh clam chowder for years.  This was very good. The clams were big and meaty, and the creamy broth with potato chunks was simply tasty.  It was a great start to what I hoped would be a good lunch.  

Looking through the menu, I found a number of things that I found interesting.  They had pan-seared haddock tacos with a sweet corn and black bean salsa, greens and a chipotle sauce on grilled flour tortillas.   The grilled blackened shrimp tacos also caught my eye as they were topped with a mango pico de gallo and a lime sour cream drizzle.  They had sautéed chicken curry medallions on the menu, as well as a Shepherd's pie.  Handheld offerings included burgers such as the Montreal burger which was seasoned with Montreal steak seasoning and topped with cheddar cheese and applewood smoked bacon.  A grilled reuben was on the menu as well as a tuna salad sandwich that was served on multi-grain bread.  I truly considered each one of those items on the menu.  

But in the end I got the O'Brien's sandwich - pastrami steamed in Guinness beer, topped with Swiss chees, sautéed onions, and a creamy horseradish sauce served on a roll.  I was a little leery as to what constituted a roll at Paddy's, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a soft roll - more of a soft bun.  And it was piled high with the braised pastrami that was tender and fall-apart stringy.  And I mean it was piled high.  Bread and butter pickles came on the side.  I had a choice of either French fries or onion rings.  I couldn't really make up my mind and Alaina offered me a half-and-half of the fries and onion rings.  The fries were good, but the onion rings were better. 

The sandwich was delicious.  The pastrami was tender and was so flavorful.  There wasn't much of a horseradish flavor from the cream sauce, and the Swiss cheese was more of an afterthought.  But I didn't care - the pastrami was some of the finest I had ever tasted.  (I'm going to have to smoke a brisket at some point and then braise it in Guinness.)  It was a great sandwich.  

My friend didn't steer me wrong - Paddy's Public House was as good as advertised.  The pastrami sandwich was one of the better ones that I ever had, and the house-made clam chowder was also outstanding.  Alaina was a great server/bartender and I thought Paddy's would be just a great place to hang for more than just a meal.  I don't know how often I'll be back in the Boston area, but I found enough on the menu to make me want to go back to Paddy's to try something else.  There has to be hundreds of Irish bars/pubs in the greater Boston area but I don't know if many are much better than Paddy's Public House.  

South Carolina

We recently celebrated our wedding anniversary and as we usually do during the time of our anniversary we take a pre-Memorial Day trip - somewhere.  Last year we kept it simple and went down to St. Louis - mainly because I was getting back on my feet again from my off-on-off-on-again job situation.  Since I was unemployed (but soon to be employed) in 2022, we stayed home.  And in 2021 we took a trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast - our gold standard for the worst vacation we have ever experienced.  

This year, I had enough Hilton points and - I thought - enough United points to take a trip somewhere nice.  My wife and I had talked about going up to Montreal - she's always wanted to visit Montreal ever since I worked for a company up there starting over 20 years ago.  She wanted to meet my former colleagues and hang out in the city.  We even talked about going up to Quebec City which is even more European in nature than Montreal is.  However, I figured wrong on United points and found out that I was going to be short.  And by a lot.  If we had used points and paid for the difference, it was still going to cost us about $800 bucks to get us up to Montreal.  (I don't know why, but in my travel experiences to Montreal over the years, it's ALWAYS expensive to fly up there.)  

Less than a week before we were supposed to go on vacation, we sat down and started to look up flights to places where we could use the points and - if we had to - a bit of out-of-pocket money to get there.  We talked about going to Austin/San Antonio, and even back out to San Diego.  Then I remembered from last year - we had talked about going to either Charleston, SC or to New Mexico for a late summer vacation.  On a mental coin flip, we opted for New Mexico.  

And we were lucky as the remnants of Hurricane Idalia - which hit the northwest coast of Florida and continued as a tropical storm up through Georgia and South Carolina - dumped heavy rain along the coast causing flooding in low-lying areas of Charleston and high winds which spawned tornadoes around the greater Charleston area caused significant damage.  The city was effectively shut down for two to three days with many businesses and restaurants closed during that period.  

A number of years ago, we had taken a trip to Savannah, GA and spent some time up on Hilton Head Island.  We were going to head up to Charleston for a couple days, but we liked Savannah so much that we bagged our plans to go to Charleston and went back to Savannah to finish out our vacation.  Since then, we had heard so many great things about Charleston - the history, the architecture, the restaurants - that we knew we had to get there at some point.  This time, it all worked out.  

Charleston turned out to be a wonderful city.  Founded in 1670, the city has a French Quarter with beautiful colonial style houses and buildings along cobblestone streets.  Stately buildings and churches are featured throughout the French Quarter with parks along the waterfront.  One of their largest parks - The Battery - was partly closed down due to the rebuilding of the sea wall in the park.  The walkway along the wall of the battery was also shut down to pedestrians who regularly walk the 2 mile route.  The sea wall was damaged last year when water from the remnants of Hurricane Idalia rush over the wall flooding much of downtown Charleston.  

The tallest structure in the French Quarter is St. Philip's Episcopal Church along Church Street.  The street bends in front of the church to allow the structure to have three separate Tuscan-style porticoes facing three different directions along Church Street.  The church was built from 1835 to 1838 and was the first Anglican church south of Virginia.  St. Philip's was damaged during the Civil War, but restored in the 1870's.  

Waterfront Park was a busy place the day we were.  A cruise ship was docked at the port and a number of workers from the ship along with a number of sight-seers were hanging out.  There were a couple three fountains in the park including the famous Pineapple fountain.  

 
Wading and splashing in the fountains were encouraged, but signs around fountains warned that there were no lifeguards on duty and people were at their own risk wading in the fountains.  They were "cover-your-ass" signs put up by the City of Charleston to guard against litigation, no matter how insipid it may be.  

Across the bay from Waterfront Park was the USS Yorktown, the 10th aircraft carrier built for the Navy.  The Yorktown (named after the original USS Yorktown which was sunk in 1942 during the Battle of Midway) was part of the fleet during World War II up through the Vietnam War before it was decommissioned in 1970.  The Yorktown was part of the Naval & Maritime Museum at Patriots Point across the bay from Charleston in Mount Pleasant, SC.  Off to the right in the bay was Fort Sumter, now a national historical park.  Fort Sumter was the United States garrison that was first fired upon by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861 which started the Civil War.  

Another part of the French Quarter in Charleston featured the City Market.  The market was established in the 1790's, and the main building was built in the 1840's.  Today, it encompasses four city blocks in the heart of Charleston.  It is recognized as the oldest market of its kind in the U.S.  

The City Market vendors set up each day and many booths are devoted to art and craftwork.  We did see a number of booths that were selling Sweetgrass Baskets, a tradition that was started in Africa and was brought to America by slaves in the late 1700's into the early part of the 1800's.  Bulrush grass that was once plentiful in the low country around Charleston down to Savannah, GA is the prime ingredient in the woven baskets that can fetch up to four figures depending upon the design and size.  And that's one of the reasons why Sweetgrass Baskets have gone up in price over the years.  Bulrush grass has been wiped out in some areas due to urbanization and land reclamation.  My wife's father told us that he remembered traveling through the Charleston area some 60 years ago and seeing dozens of Sweetgrass Basket stands along roadways.  

While in Charleston, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn - Charleston Waterfront.   Before our arrival, Hilton upgraded us to a waterfront room that overlooked the Harborage at Ashley Marina thanks to my status as a Hilton Lifetime Diamond member.  (On top of that, United upgraded us to first class on the flight from Chicago to Charleston - the first time my wife had flown first class!)  The hotel was nice, it had free parking and a very accommodating staff.  There was a rooftop bar that overlooked the marina and parts of the  campus of the Medical University of South Carolina.  It was a great place to relax after a long day of sightseeing in the area or a day at the beach.  

Speaking of beaches, we visited five beaches during our time in South Carolina.  The three beaches around the Charleston area - Folly Beach, Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island - were all flat, hard-packed and great to walk in.  (We tried to get to the beach at Kiawah Island, but we found out when we drove down there it was private and only open to residents and people staying on the island.)  

 
Each day at the beach was warm and sunny with light winds coming off the ocean.  We walked a minimum of 2.5 miles each time we went to a beach in the Charleston area.  Each of them reminded us of the wide, flat and hard-packed sand beaches on Hilton Head Island when we went there a number of years ago.  

As my wife and I seem to do when we go on vacation, we try to seek out microbreweries and brewpubs.  On this trip we visited exactly ONE microbrewery and it was the Folly Beach tasting room of the Revelry Brewing Company based in Charleston.  Located down a long hallway off the main road coming into downtown Folly Beach, the Revelry Brewing Company location there was just a small space with an open wooden framework ceiling for shading, but not for keeping the elements out.  Even though we didn't visit any other brewpubs or microbreweries while we were there, many of the restaurants we went to featured craft beers made in the Eastern South Carolina area from the likes of Edmund's Oast, Seminar Brewing, COAST Brewing Company, and Low Tide Brewing Company.  So, it was sort of like we went to microbreweries only with really good food.  

While we really liked Charleston, we thought we'd like to venture out of the area for a couple days and either go up the coast toward Myrtle Beach, or down the coast back toward Hilton Head Island.  We had figured out that Myrtle Beach was sort of a touristy area and we weren't too certain we wanted to head there.  My wife and I were talking with the bartender on our first night at the Hilton Garden Inn and discussing other areas to go to.  The bartender said that she didn't care for Myrtle Beach and all the traffic from the tourists.  

A group of ladies were seated near us and one of them perked up when she heard us talking about Myrtle Beach.  She said that she moved to Myrtle Beach thirteen years prior because she fell in love with the area over many of the visits she had taken there.  But then she gave us this caveat - "You don't want to go to downtown Myrtle or to the beach areas.  There's a couple places either north or south of the city that you'll want to visit."  

Those places were North Myrtle Beach, near the North Carolina border; and the small town of Murrells Inlet about 10 miles south of Myrtle Beach.  Over the next couple three days, we did some looking on-line at the Murrells Inlet area and decided to trek up there for a couple days.  

Murrells Inlet is part of what is known as the Hammock Coast in South Carolina.  It is known as the "Seafood Capital of the World" mainly because of the bounty of seafood the ocean pushes into the backwaters between the outer banks of the town and the inland marshes.  Shrimp, oysters, clams, and seasonal fish - such as flounder, which seemed to be plentiful during our stay there - are pushed into the backwaters twice a day by the tides.  Fishermen then harvest the seafood and sell to local restaurants and fish shops.  

And because of the large amount of seafood available in the area, there are a number of restaurants in the area along the Murrells Inlet MarshWalk - a half-mile long wooden boardwalk that borders a saltwater estuary called Main Creek.  The MarshWalk featured bars and restaurants with live music, some great views and a lot of seafood.  Up and down Business Route 17, there were a number of restaurants ranging from seafood, Italian, wood-fired pizza and steaks.  

And there were a couple beaches in the area that we were able to visit.  The beaches in the Murrells Inlet area - Garden City Beach and Surfside Beach - weren't as nice as the beaches down near Charleston.  Especially Garden City Beach.  My wife fell into a sink hole along the beach at Garden City Beach and I fell in trying to help her out.  It took another couple sitting nearby to help us get out.  It was a pretty harrowing experience for my wife.  She was pretty much done with Garden City Beach after that.  

Just south of Murrells Beach is Brookgreen Gardens - a former 19th century rice plantation that now features gardens, ponds, sculptures, art museums, interpretive centers, and a zoo featuring natural habitats for native animals as well as an enclosed butterfly garden.  During our research for the area leading up to going to Murrells Beach, my wife was reading up on Brookgreen Gardens and she said that we definitely had to set aside time to go out there.  

Brookgreen Gardens stretches out over 9000 acres - about 15-and-a-half square miles - with walkways that take you to floral displays around elongated ponds, through a grove of centuries-old live oaks complete with Spanish moss hanging from the limbs, and along marshes where rice was grown by slaves in the early 19th century.  There were area in the sun, areas in the shade, and there were museums with sculptures, paintings and other works of art where you could get into the air conditioning for awhile to beat the warm South Carolina day.  According to my wife's pedometer on her phone, we walked over 3.5 miles around the grounds of Brookgreen Gardens.  And we still didn't see all of it.  

So, that was the Cliffs Notes version of our recent trip to South Carolina.  We really enjoyed Charleston and felt very comfortable in the city.  Driving around Charleston was a challenge and you could easily get lost if you don't have a GPS.  And even with a GPS we still took some wrong turns resulting in some lengthy detours to get back to where we wanted to go.  Other than a 24 hour period over the first couple days we were there when it rained off and on, the weather was great.  Murrells Inlet was an interesting place as it bordered on the schlocky tourist attractions that we detest, but more than made up for it with some of the great restaurants we ate at while we were there.  We rarely travel back to a spot that we've visited in the past during our vacations, but I would have no problem going back to Charleston at some point.  For as long as it took for us to get there, I hope it isn't too long before we can get back.  

Dam Tacos - Davenport, IA

After a long and somewhat stressful week, my wife and I headed to downtown Davenport to get a couple beers/drinks at one of our favorite brewpubs, Stompbox.  (They have a new kitchen staff and menu at Stompox and we need to try their food there at some point.)  After I had probably one beer too many, I told my wife that I needed to get something to eat.  We ventured over a couple blocks to a restaurant that had been on our radar for sometime, but had never been to until that evening.  Here is the story of our visit to Dam Tacos.  

Dam Tacos is a joint venture between Bill Sheeder - who along with his wife Stephanie has owned a handful of restaurants in the Quad Cities area (but none that lasted more than a couple three years); and Marc Van Severen - who is the guy behind Van's Pizza & More with locations in Davenport and LeClaire (and formerly in Bettendorf).  Van Severen bought the Dam View Inn, a popular, yet small hole-in-the-wall dive bar that is right next door to Dam Tacos.  The building that houses Dam Tacos was previously the home to two popular retro-style stores - Trash Can Annie that specialized in vintage women's clothing and styling, and Ragged Records which was (and still is) a great place to go look for new and used vinyl records.  After the flood of 2019 devastated downtown Davenport and forced the move of Trash Can Annie and Ragged Records to new locations, Sheeder and Van Severen took over the building in 2021.  They spent nearly the whole year of 2022 renovating the building and getting it back in working order.  

The premise of Dam Tacos was basically a "grab-and-go" concept where street-style tacos would be served in containers that could be eaten in the restaurant or taken to-go, as well as a full bar serving top quality margaritas.  Anticipation for the opening of Dam Tacos was high given Sheeder's and Van Severen's background in restaurants.  Finally on May 5th, 2023 - Cinco de Mayo - Dam Tacos opened their doors.

Initial reports and reviews on Dam Tacos were mixed.  Friends who had been there thought the tacos were good, but very overpriced.  "$15 bucks for 3 tacos is a bit much, man," a friend of mine told me after he went there not long after it opened.  

But another friend thought the tacos were outstanding.  "They're tough to beat," he told me.  "Everything is very fresh."  

Dam Tacos is located on 2nd Street on the far east end of downtown Davenport, just before the north entrance to the Government Bridge just up stream from Lock and Dam 15 on the Mississippi River.  (see map)  The road in front of Dam Taco and the Dam View Inn has been shut down for a couple months due to roadwork at the mouth of the Government Bridge where the city is putting in a round-about.  Parking in the lot directly behind the Dam View Inn and Dam Taco is readily available when on-street parking is not available.  A rear door entrance to Dam Tacos is off the rear parking lot.  

Inside the restaurant we found a lively space with colorful santa meurte murals on the wall.  The main lighting was provided by barrel band light fixtures with faux candle light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.  The three-sided bar was the focal point of the dining space and featured a corrugated tin face under the bar.  High-top tables were along the walls and up toward the front of the restaurant that was also naturally well-lit from the large windows up front.   

We ended up sitting at the bar and were greeted by T.J., a bartender we had run into at other establishments in the Quad Cities over the years.  He was a seasoned barkeep and was somewhat famous for his mixed concoctions.  He was telling us that the street work shutting down 2nd Street was putting a damper on the walk-in business.  "We've done what we can to try to stay open," T.J. was telling us as we settled in.  (As this blog post comes up on June 7, 2024, Dam Taco appears to be temporarily closed down due to the road construction in front of the place.  Road construction is scheduled to continue into July before the roads are reopened.)  

T.J. had given us some menus to look over as he made up a couple margaritas for us.  We decided to try the "Trio" appetizer that gave us the option of picking 3 of the 4 dips or queso in the "starters" part of the menu.  We took the queso, guacamole and the salsa which is made by Lobo's Salsa over in East Moline.  We'd tried some of the Lobo's salsa at the local farmers market, but this was the first time we had more than one little sample scoop.  It was pretty good with a nice fresh taste and a bit of a bite on the back end.  The guacamole was topped with ground black pepper and garlic powder and was very good.  But the queso was the best out of the three.  It was creamy and had a smooth taste with a little spiciness in each bite.  The chips were just OK - I could tell they weren't made in-house and when I went back to the men's room later on to use the facilities I saw that they were just using regular Doritos chips out of a bag.  

Even though I really didn't need one after a couple three high ABV beers at Stompbox, I had T.J. mix up one of his signature margaritas.  It was made similar to the ones I make at home - it started off with Herradura silver tequila, then some Cointreau was mixed in.  I usually add lime juice and some agave syrup along with a splash of water before mixing it up on ice in shaker.  After adding the tequila and Cointreau, T.J. added orange juice and lime juice.  But instead of adding agave syrup as a sweetener, he added raspberry syrup.  "I like the balance raspberry syrup adds to the overall flavor," T.J. explained as I tried a sip of his margarita.  It was good, a bit more complex in overall flavor than what I normally like, but it was definitely drinkable.  It was much better than the soda mix-infused margaritas that most Mexican restaurants around town will make.  

The menu isn't very extensive offering about 10 different types of tacos including a breakfast taco (served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.), a basic ground beef or chicken taco, a breaded and deep-fried shrimp taco, and a "Philly" taco with a choice of steak or chicken topped with poblano peppers and a queso sauce.  They also had a rice bowl with a choice of chicken or beef, quesadillas, nachos and beef or chicken burritos.  And the prices appeared to be lower than what they were when then first opened.  Most tacos were 8 to 9 dollars for 3 tacos up to $12 for 3 steak or carnitas tacos.   

My wife and I got something similar - the verde tacos.  She got the chicken verde tacos, while I got the carnitas verde tacos.  Dam Tacos does offer a "taco flight" of up to three different types of tacos, but we decided to just go with three of one type.  The tacos were topped with shredded cheese, onions and a chile verde salsa and served in a paper-based deep plate.  My wife thought her chicken tacos were fine, but nothing special.  


The carnitas were dried out and they really needed to have more salsa verde on them.  I asked T.J.  for some more salsa and he brought out a couple small tubs.  The extra salsa helped with the overall taste, but the carnitas were chewy and too dry.  I wasn't impressed.  

I really tried to like Dam Tacos.  It was a little lame that they were using Doritos for their chips with salsas and dips, the carnitas tacos I had were too dry and overcooked, and my wife thought the chicken tacos that she had were just OK.  I did like the margarita that T.J. made me and he was a good bartender/server while we were there.  If Dam Tacos can survive, they need to have a little bit more consistency in the kitchen and stop using off-the-shelf chips to pair with the very good Lobo's Salsa, their great guacamole and their excellent queso dip.   

Utsav Indian Bar & Grill - New York City

My last night in New York City, I was needing some comfort food given that I had gotten a little out of hand with some beer and wine that night before.  After finishing up at the trade show earlier in the day, I thought some Indian food would be a spot-hitter.  I remembered seeing an Indian restaurant during my walks to and from the trade show venue.  I did a quick search on line and decided to have dinner at Utsav Indian Bar & Grill.  

Nandita Khanna comes from a restaurant family.  Her grandparents - Shoji and Emiko Kothari - had both Indian and Continental restaurants in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India in the early 1960's; and her father and mother - Rajiv and Malti Kothari - started one of the first Indian-Chinese restaurants in the city, BAR-B-Q.  In 1968, Nandita's grandparents immigrated to her grandmother's homeland in Japan and opened a chain of Indian restaurants in Tokyo by the name of Maharaja.  At one point in time, there were 19 Maharaja restaurants in the greater Tokyo metro.  A few years later, her brother also moved to Japan to open up his own chain of Indian restaurants.  So you can say that the restaurant business is in her blood.

In 1998, Nandita accompanied her grandmother to New York City for a visit.   Her grandmother was so taken by the city that she decided to come back and open an Indian restaurant.  Nandita came with her grandmother again and helped out with the opening and learning the restaurant business.  Utsav - which means "festival" is Sanskrit - opened in 2002.  Emiko Kothari ran the restaurant for nearly 15 years before turning it over to Nandita.  

Pictured right - Nandita Khanna.  Photo courtesy Virtual Gourmet.  

One of the first things Nandita Khanna did when she took over was to shake up the traditional Bengali cuisine at Utsav.  She hired consultant chef Hari Nayak who brought the restaurant into the 21st century with modern Indian cuisine.  Nayak grew up in the coastal city of Udupi, India and came to America to study at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.  Nayak has established restaurants all around the world from New York City to Dubai to Bangkok and the Maldives.  Nayak helped with Utsav's change to modern Indian cuisine adding seafood dishes and while incorporating new flavors into traditional Bengali food.  Through Nayak's guidance, Utsav chef Avtar Singh oversaw the change in the food that Utsav offered.  

In 2022 just after the 20th anniversary of Utsav, Nandita Khanna oversaw another big change to the restaurant.  She brought in Kolkata-born chef Mangal Seal to add Indo-Chinese cuisine to the restaurant's fare.  Kolkata is known as the culinary epicenter of Indian-Chinese food and Seal had been trained in Indo-Chinese restaurants in the city.   

Although Utsav is listed as having a 6th Avenue address, the entrance is actually in a connector walk-way between W. 46th and W. 47th streets.  (see map)  If you didn't quite know where you were going, you wouldn't readily find the front door to the restaurant.  The connector features three statues by local sculptor Jim Rennert which depict different aspects of the everyday life of an average New Yorker.  Originally on display at Grand Central Station, the statues were moved to the connector in 2021 and had originally been slated to be moved again in 2023.  But they were still there as of March of this year.  Just outside the window where I sat at Utsav was the statue "Timing" which depicts a man looking at his watch relating "to the various aspects of business life and the daily struggle between yourself and others" according to Rennert.

Entering the front door of Utsav, I found a small bar area - more of a lounge than a bar.  I thought it would have been nice to eat in the bar, but the bartender told me that the bar was just that and invited me to head upstairs to the dining area.  

Going up a flight of stairs, the restaurant is on the second floor.  It was an elegant setting with windows on both the north and south sides of the restaurant overlooking the connecting space between 46th and 47th streets.  The lighting was subdued, but bright enough where I didn't really need to use the flashlight app on my phone to check out the menu.  The thing that made me feel 100% good about the place was that there were a large number of Indian diners in the restaurant.  

After being seated in a banquette seat near the window, I was greeted by a young lady by the name of Apolina.  She was soft spoken and sort of meek in her mannerisms, but she was friendly enough and made this single diner feel at ease.   Apolina asked me what I'd like to have to drink and I noticed that they had Kingfisher.  I definitely got a Kingfisher to go with my meal.  

The menu was sort of interesting.  First of all, there were a lot of choices of traditional Indian food - butter chicken, lamb saagwala, and biryani dishes.  For Indo-Chinese offerings, they had noodles, different types of sauces with proteins added, and fried rice entrees.  The Bengali items on the menu featured items such as Chicken Rezala in a Moghlai curry and cashew sauce; Kosha Mangsho - slow-cooked goat meat in a mustard oil and assorted spice sauce; and Bhetki Machur Paturi - white fish marinated a combination of ground mustard seeds, green chiles, turmeric and mustard oil, then steamed in a banana leaf.   Quite actually, I wouldn't have minded to try a bite of that just to see how it tasted.  

I'd made my decision as what to have that evening, but the place was filling up quickly.  Apolina was off in different directions waiting on tables of new diners who had walked in after I had.  It was a good 10 minutes before she was able to get back over to me to take my order (and to get me another Kingfisher).  I got the lamb rogan josh with some garlic naan bread on the side.  She asked if I wanted rice with my meal and I said, "Sure!"  

This the food as it was presented to me.  The smell of spices from the rogan josh - the combination of the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves - was an overwhelmingly great pungent aroma.  Apolina asked if I wanted the rogan josh mild, medium or hot and I went with medium.  While it wasn't all that spicy hot, it certainly had a bit of a kick in the flavor.     

And the lamb rogan josh was great.  All the spices combined in the wonderful sauce with the tender chunks of lamb was just an outstanding culinary experience.  I dipped parts of the garlic naan in the sauce and it had a great garlic and cilantro flavor while being light and airy.  

But it was a lot of food and I tried to concentrate on finishing up most of the lamb rogan josh rather than adding more rice.  I was able to finish all of the lamb and sauce, but I was so full afterward that I needed to take a bit of a walk before heading back to the hotel.

When Apolina brought me the bill, I noticed two things - first of all, they charged me for the side of rice.  Usually at most Indian restaurants I've been to, rice is included in the meal.  At Utsav, they charge for it.  That's probably why she asked me if I wanted rice.  Secondly, they had already posted an 18% tip on the bill, but still provided a spot for a tip after the total on the bill.  Now, to me, that's just downright dishonest.  I learned a long time ago from a guy I worked for to go over the bill they bring you with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that you A) are getting charged for what you got; and B) there's no hidden charges like what Utsav pulled on me that evening.  I just sort of shook my head and laid out my credit card.  While Apolina was a good server, she didn't deserve more of a tip from me that what they had already charged me.  And I usually tip at least 20% before tax.  

Other than the somewhat underhanded way they charged for the tip before the full price of the meal, I had to say that I enjoyed my meal at Utsav Indian Bar and Grill.  Their name is somewhat of a misnomer - they did have a bar and they probably do have grill for some of their foods, but it's not a bar & grill in the sense of what I think a bar & grill really is.  Apolina was a nice young lady, a bit tardy with getting back to me at times, but she was also busy waiting on other tables during what turned out to be a busy evening for Utsav.  For an Indian restaurant that also features Bengali and Indo-Chinese fare in the heart of Manhattan, I think Utsav is a well-above average place.  If you're into Indian food and you're near Times Square, it would be tough to beat Utsav. 

Clemson Brothers Brewery - Middletown, NY

I had put off going to New England to call on accounts we have across the region for nearly a year.  But it became apparent that I needed to get out there to get some face time with some of our better dealers.  On my first full day after meetings in the New Haven, CT area in the morning, I swung over to Middletown, NY, about a 2-hour drive from New Haven to see one of our better accounts there.  That evening, I decided to stay in Middletown and found that there aren't a lot of dining options on a Monday night in area.  I was able to find a brewpub that was open and decided to have dinner there.  This is my visit to the Clemson Brothers Brewery in Middletown.  

Kenan (pronounced KEN-an) Porter was a budding entrepreneur when he was in college.  Not even old enough to legally consume alcohol, he came up with a vodka/fruit punch drink concoction that was stored in sippy pouches.  Porter went around to bars and liquor stores, but found that he couldn't legally sell his product without proper licensing.  After graduating college, he started marketing a line of aloe water drinks becoming somewhat successful in doing so.  Within a short time, his aloe water line was being distributed in 18 states, primarily on the East Coast.  He was quickly running out of space at his warehouse, so he heard through the grapevine that the town of Middletown, NY was looking for companies to take over spaces in buildings the city owned.

Porter went to check out some of the properties in Middletown and one of the buildings was a large brick building that dated back to the late 19th century.  It housed the Clemson Brothers company which invented and patented the hacksaw in 1898.  The Star hacksaw was one of the most versatile tools of its day and revolutionized how saws were used on construction sites in the early 1900's.  

The building had mostly sat empty for a number of years and the city of Middletown had been trying to find tenants for the property.  Porter took one look at the property and the wheels started to turn.  He looked at the building - which then housed three small businesses - as a multi-use property.  He envisioned a new concept - a brewpub/restaurant.  Now, people who start brewpub or microbreweries are usually seasoned home brewers or craft beer aficionados.  But Porter rarely drank beer.  And his father - who was a successful real estate developer in nearby Warwick, NY - was more of a Coors Light kind of guy.  But his father also saw the potential of the building, and investors and bankers were bullish on microbreweries at that time.  The Porters bought the Clemson Brothers building in 2012.  

It turned out that finding a brewmaster for the new venture wasn't all that tough.  Porter's brother-in-law Paul Pacheco was a home brewing enthusiast.  Just after the Porters purchased the Clemson Brothers building, Paul and Kenan started to experiment with test batches of beers at home.  Needing to learn more about small and large batch production, Pacheco volunteered to go off to apprentice at Foley Brothers Brewing Co. in Vermont to immerse himself in the art of brewing.  While Pacheco was away for a couple years, Porter went about turning the main floor of the building into a brewery and restaurant.  There were a number of hiccups along the way in the design and restoration of the building, along with procuring the needed apparatus to brew the beer.  

Setting up a restaurant as well as a menu was also something Porter had no idea what to do.  He brought in Tony Tello whose family ran a couple Mexican restaurants in the area to help with the kitchen set up.  By the time Paul Pacheco's apprenticeship at Foley Brothers came to an end in early 2015, the brewery/restaurant started to come to fruition.  Naming the brewpub was a no brainer for Porter - a history buff who was determined to keep the Clemson Brothers legacy alive.  Clemson Brothers Brewery finally opened in October of 2015.  

Each month set a record in terms of sales for the brewery and restaurant.  The 10-barrel system was quickly overwhelmed and it was determined that Clemson Brothers Brewery needed to expand their operation to keep up with demand.  In early 2017, a 40-barrel system was put in place to up the output of the brewery.  

Clemson Brothers Brewery continued to grow and expansion into other towns in the area came up on the horizon.  Porter had initially set his sights on his hometown of Warwick, NY for a second Clemson Brothers brewpub, but snags occurred during the developmental process.  In 2019, Porter bought the Gilded Otter, a longtime brewpub in New Paltz, NY about 30 miles north and east of Middletown.  After spending $4 million dollars to purchase and update the restaurant and brewing system, the brewpub was renamed Clemson Brothers at the Gilded Otter.  

In late 2019, ground was broke for a third Clemson Brothers location in Pine Island, NY - about 15 minutes south of Middletown and where Kenan Porter was living.  However, when the pandemic broke in March of 2020 all construction on the project stopped.  They had hoped to get the construction project back up and running eyeing a summer 2022 opening, but so far nothing has happened with their third location in Pine Island.

The pandemic dealt a blow to a number of restaurants and event centers causing many to go out of business.  A nearby wedding event center that was very popular was one that couldn't sustain the effects of the pandemic and was forced to close.  Porter saw an opportunity and expanded both the Middletown and New Paltz locations into event centers for both weddings, corporate meetings and parties.  Both Clemson Brothers event centers opened in 2023.  

Today, Clemson Brothers produces about three dozen different varieties of beers including year-round, seasonal and special occasion beers.  All their beers are made in small batches ensuring the freshest taste possible for their beers.  

It was just after 6 p.m. when I went to Clemson Brothers.  I was able to park in a lot on the north side of the complex off the street.  I was a little confused as to where the front door was and I went to the original front door of the stately three-story building at the corner of Railroad Ave. and Cottage St. (see map).  After I discovered that the door was locked, I went around to a smaller building off to the side and found that THAT door was the door that opened into the brewpub.  

The pub part of Clemson Brothers is a somewhat large and open room with the brewing facility just past a glass wall on the north side of the room.  The pub featured exposed brick walls with a hard wood floor and metal beams across the ceiling.  Selections of music from artists such as Corey Kent, Marshmello, Hardy, Whiskey Myers, and Tyler Childers was playing in the background.  

I had to use the restroom after a bit and I found an interesting apparatus for getting water to the sink.  It was a coiled-copper water line that went up and over the mirror and down into a funnel that put water into a copper sink.  It was a guess that the original Clemson Brothers factory used a lot of copper in their manufacturing process.  

As I usually do when I'm alone at a brewpub, I saddled up at the bar.  The bartender that evening was a young lady by the name of Mariah.  She was pretty neutral in her demeanor the whole time I was there, but she was on top of things when I needed a refill or an extra napkin.  She gave me a food menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  Their current tap menu was on a board on the wall behind the bar.   In addition to a number of beers on tap, Clemson Brothers Brewery also features a full bar with a number of specialty cocktails available.  After trying a couple different beers, I decided upon the Trinity Test TR-3 hazy IPA.  It was a very good beer with a smooth taste and an ABV of 7%.  I ended up taking a 32 ounce can/crowler back to the hotel with me.   

The food menu at Clemson Brothers was pretty interesting.  Their appetizers included perogies - something I don't see on menus around the Midwest all that often.  They also had truffle fries, pretzel sticks, and something called Black Dirt Onion Dip - sour cream blended with French onion spices and mixed with scallions and bacon served with house-made chips.  

They had a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu making up the bulk of the selections.  Sandwiches included a reuben sandwich, a grilled portobello mushroom sandwich, and a cheese steak sandwich.  Burgers included the Big Bad Wolf which had bacon, ham, a bacon aioli and smoked Gouda cheese; The Hacksaw that was topped with beer cheese, bacon, jalapeños and onion straws; and the Cuatro Caliente which featured jalapeños, pepper jack cheese, a honey Sriracha sauce, and a chipotle aioli.  

I was intrigued by a couple three items on the menu.  They had fish tacos on the appetizer menu, as well as short rib tacos.  But I ended up going the burger route and ordered the Star Victor burger - it was topped with button mushrooms, Swiss cheese, stout beer caramelized onions, and a garlic aioli.  It was served on a brioche bun.  Fries came on the side with the burger.  But something else that I saw on the menu also piqued my interest - the jalapeño cole slaw.  I asked Mariah about the cole slaw and she said, "Yeah, it's pretty good.  People like it."  She didn't do a very good job of selling the cole slaw, but I ordered it anyway.  

The burger was very good - flavorful, juicy, and a bit messy.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  The brioche bun held together very well with all the toppings and the juiciness of the burger.  The fries were also very good.  They had a nice crunchy outer shell with a warm, flaky inside.  But the winner in the bunch was the jalapeño cole slaw.  Mariah completely undersold the cole slaw as it was a combination of sweet, spicy and a cool creamy flavor.  It was outstanding, some of the best tasting cole slaw I ever had.  I really wanted to see if I could get the recipe of how they make their spicy cole slaw so we could try to make it at home.  

As Mariah was preparing my crowler of the Trinity Test TR-3 for me to take with me, I decided to look around the beer garden area.  There was an outside bar area with a number of picnic tables scattered around a brick floor courtyard with an awning over a portion of the garden area.  It had been a late spring and the leaves were just starting to come out on the small trees in the beer garden.  It was a nice space to hang, but a little too cool that evening for people to sit outside that evening.  

Off to the side of the beer garden was a building that was the Clemson Brothers game room.  This room featured a couple pool tables, video games and a corn hole area.  This was part of the Clemson Zone which features axe throwing - I get a kick out of mixing dangerous weapons with alcohol.  Clemson Brothers touts ax throwing as a great exercise for "your core and shoulders" (whatever your core is), and as a great stress reliever.  That made me chuckle.  They also have football bowling at the Clemson Zone - it's exactly as it sounds, bowling with a football.  I understand that football bowling started in Detroit and Clemson Brothers brought it to New York.  In addition to games, Clemson Brothers also features comedy nights in the Clemson Zone.   

Clemson Brothers Brewery is one of the better brewpubs I've encountered in my travels.  The beer and food were both excellent.  The renovation and repurposing of the former factory was exquisite.  And while Mariah had a neutral disposition, she was still a good bartender who was attentive to my various needs that evening.  I just love finding spots like Clemson Brothers Brewery and I hope the people of Middletown and the surrounding upstate New York communities understand how good of a brewpub it really is.  I'll probably be back in Middletown because the large account that I have there and I will definitely be back to Clemson Brothers at some point.