We've been fans of chef Toby Christianson since he started out as the managing partner/chef at the Woodfire Grill in downtown Davenport in 2008. The enigmatic Christianson unexpectedly did a 90-degree turn from a casual upscale restaurant to turn it into an artisanal taqueria by the name of tacobar? in 2020. We liked tacobar? a lot. (Christianson got the idea for the name of the restaurant from the retort he would instantly get when he'd tell people what he wanted to do with Woodfire Grill.) But in the summer of 2022, my wife and I went there a couple times only find out that tacobar? was sold out of some of their smoked meats that went on their tacos. We sort of wondered what was going on, so it was no surprise that Toby Christianson shut down tacobar? in the fall of 2022. Last fall, we heard he surfaced again to run a restaurant over in Milan, IL, just south of Rock Island. Of course, we were intrigued. We heard some good things and we heard some bad things about his new restaurant, a chef-driven concept/upscale dive bar that he named the Dizzy Horse. We made our way over to Dizzy Horse on a recent Saturday evening.
Toby Christianson grew up in a small Minnesota town and went to school at Minnesota State - Moorhead. After college he got into the restaurant business and worked at places in Fargo, ND, Grinnell, IA and Muscatine, IA. When Centro - which had opened in 2004 in downtown Davenport - transitioned over to Woodfire Grill in 2008, Christianson came to the Quad Cities and never left.
Pictured left - Toby Christianson. Photo courtesy Quad City Times.
During his hiatus from tacobar?, Christianson helped out his friend Amanda Kernan and her Girl + Food by Cafe Fresh food truck. But the bug to run his own place came back in the spring of 2023. Christianson was looking to find a location that was much smaller and more chef-driven Midwestern/Americana fare than what he had at Woodfire Grill and tacobar?. The owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill in Milan, IL announced in May of 2023 that he wanted to put his restaurant up for sale. Christianson eventually took it over last summer and transformed the place into his vision of an upscale dive bar.
What to name the place was another task that Christianson had to do. Next to his new location was a storage building that used to be the home to a Western-wear store. The store had a sign with a horse on the top that turned in a circle and could be seen for blocks away. After the store went out of business and the new owners turned it into storage units, they kept the sign with the horse on top. Of course, the horse got dizzy from turning in a circle 24/7 and that's where Christianson came up with the name.
After getting his business and liquor licenses from the city of Milan last November, Christianson started out slow having "pop-up" nights on Fridays and Saturdays for the first couple months. Food selections were limited, but they were interesting such as smoked pork fried rice, jalapeño/bacon wontons, smoked brisket tacos and his famous meatloaf that he carried over from his Woodfire Grill days. By the end of the year, Christiansen expanded the menu and opened up for longer hours over a four day period each week.
Word on the street about the Dizzy Horse sent throngs of people into his little restaurant. There were times people would have to wait for a table and by the time they got an open table, Christianson announced that he was out of food for the night. This happened on a semi regular basis to the point where people were getting upset and giving his restaurant one star on Yelp and trashing it on social media on Facebook and Twitter. But his most ardent fans knew that Christianson had a vision and made his foods in small batches and smoked pork, brisket and chicken on two small smokers in the back. As the one star reviews and social media bashing continued, Christianson took it as a badge of honor. He figured the ones who were giving such a bad review for his place, they didn't know the difference between chef-driven, menu-changing cuisine and heading to a chain restaurant for a meal. Earlier this year, Christianson came up with a logo of a horse head with a single star at the bottom to signify that he really didn't care what some people thought of his little restaurant.
We had been wanting to go over to Dizzy Horse for some time. One evening when I was cooking steaks for a golf outing for a friend, my wife and a friend of ours from Des Moines who was over visiting for the weekend decided to head out to Dizzy Horse for the first time. My wife brought home half of a smoked pork chile verde burrito that she couldn't eat. The next day, she was out with our friend and I was looking for something to eat in the fridge. I found the burrito and I called my wife to see if she was saving it for herself. When she told me that I could eat it, I warmed it up in the microwave and sat down to eat it. Oh, my god! It was outstanding! The smoked pork with the chile verde sauce was just heavenly.
A week later on a Saturday night, my wife and I were sort of trying to figure out someplace to go have dinner. We were going to head over to Coal Creek Inn in Coal Valley, IL to get a burger, but just before the I-74/I-280 exit my wife said, "Hold it. I have a better idea." She turned onto westbound I-280 and then took the Airport Road/U.S. Highway 67 exit that takes you into downtown Milan. She pulled up to a parking lot just across the street from the Dizzy Horse around 7:30. (see map)
To get into the Dizzy Horse you have to pass a covered patio with patio lights hanging from the rafters. There are some four-seat tables on the patio, but - quite curiously - they also had lounge chairs with coffee tables that people were eating off of.
The inside dining area also had sort of a living room motif with comfy chairs and low-slung tables in the middle of the dining space. I just found it sort of weird that they would have people eat that way in a restaurant. That's one thing that has rubbed people the wrong way about Dizzy Horse, the seating arrangement with just a few conventional tables and a bar area to sit at to eat if you don't want to have to be bending over to try and eat like you're in someone's living area. I sure as hell didn't want to eat at one of those tables.
Since all the conventional tables inside and out were taken by people (and why wouldn't they?), we decided to sit at the bar. There was a young lady behind the bar that looked familiar to me and she immediately recognized me. It was Dallas, a perky blonde who has worked the bar area for Toby first at Woodfire Grill, then again when it transformed into tacobar?. We've known Dallas for years before she started to work for Toby. My wife said, "I thought that was you when I was in here with my friend last week, but I didn't want to say anything."
Dallas said, "Well, I thought that was you last week, too! I should have said something." Dallas gave us some menus to look over and she asked us what we wanted to drink. They had Kona Big Wave on tap and I took a pint of that. My wife had Dallas make her an extra dirty Absolut martini.
Since the menu changes periodically - and Dizzy Horse doesn't have a dedicated web site - you're kind of at the mercy of what Toby has to offer on any given evening when he's open. And since he changes his menus at the drop of a hat, some item that someone really liked the time before, he may not have it the next time they come out. And THAT pisses people off on social media, too!
That evening, Toby was featuring his jalapeño bacon won tons, crispy Brussels sprouts, calamari, and elote corn "ribs" - fresh sweet corn that is grilled and powdered with a chili-lime concoction, and topped with grated parmesan/romano cheese and served with a chipotle aioli.
The food menu that evening absolutely blew me away. Toby had a number of delectable items to choose from including a wok-seared Mongolian Beef with fire-grilled cabbage rice; a bourbon-glazed grilled salmon; spicy red chili garlic noodles with wok-seared jalapeño chicken; and his drunken noodles with wok-seared bulgogi beef in a bourbon glaze. He also had his Dizzy Burger - 3 quarter-pound smashed burger patties with cheese (x 2), bacon and a garlic aioli. And if you didn't think you had enough cheese on the burger, a side of melted cheese came with the burger to dip it in.
My wife - for some reason - thought it would be good to start out with an appetizer. She ordered up some of the crab rangoons. They were large, crispy creamy crab-filled rangoons served with a somewhat spicy sweet and sour sauce on the side. I believe there were 8 in basket and they were large. And they were also very rich and filling. I had two and said, "No more!" I didn't want to spoil my dinner. We ended up taking 3 of them home as Dallas gave us more dipping sauce to go with them.
They had the same pork verde burrito that night that my wife had the week before. But this time she went with the barbecue brisket tacos. They were topped with a cole slaw pico de gallo and chimichurri. Served on a small cookie sheet on paper, a large amount of fries came with the two tacos. Even though she said they were great, my wife was able to eat only one of the tacos.
I was really up in the air as to what to get that evening. The Oklahoma-style burger sounded great - in Oklahoma, they smash onions directly into the burger patty as it cooks on a flat-grill. I contemplated the Navajo bread "puffy" brisket taco, and the drunken smoked pork tacos with a bourbon sauce, cider slaw, cilantro and pickled onions also sounded great. But something I saw on the menu brought me back to the days when Toby ran the Woodfire Grill - the meatloaf grilled cheese.
The meatloaf at Woodfire Grill was some of the best I've ever had in a restaurant. I don't think Toby would give me his recipe, but I'm happy with the way I make my meatloaf at home. I've found that some restaurants don't do meatloaf the way I like it, but Toby's meatloaf was always great. When Dallas brought the sandwich out to me, I couldn't believe the size. A bowl of tomato bisque came on the side and another large portion of fries came on their own container boat.
I cut the sandwich in half and the cheese was just oozing out from underneath the thick-cut house-made bread. The wonderful flavor of the meatloaf came through all the cheese and the bread just fine. I dipped the sandwich in the tomato bisque a couple times, but I didn't think it did anything to enhance the already wonderful taste of the sandwich.
Toby came out of the kitchen as things were slowing down for the evening and we talked for a bit. I said, "Toby, thank god you are still making the same meatloaf you had at Woodfire Grill. But, man - this is a huge sandwich!"
"That's is a big sandwich," he said with a laugh. "But that's how we do it here!"
And - oh, man! Was it filling. With two crab rangoons, a couple beers and half a sandwich in my belly, I threw in the towel. And that's not to mention the copious amount of fries that my wife and I were both served. We ended up taking one of her tacos, half of my meatloaf grilled cheese, the three crab rangoon, and a whole container of fries. We carried three containers out of Dizzy Horse that evening. I joked with Toby, "I'd hate to see what your monthly budget for to-go containers is." I was able to get two meals out of half of the meatloaf sandwich that I took home.
It was great to finally get to try the Dizzy Horse. My wife is now a certified veteran as this was her second visit. I do want to try one of Toby's burgers at some point, and a fresh made smoked pork chili verde would also be on my list of things to try on a return visit. It was great to reconnect with Dallas who did her usual good job of taking care of us at the bar. And it was great to talk with Toby again. His vision of a restaurant is more of a pop-up variety with changing menus of fresh-sourced ingredients, smoked meats, and large portions. To stay on top of what's going on at Dizzy Horse, when they're open and what they may be featuring on any given day, follow them on their Facebook page.
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