Road Tips

District Tap House - New York City

When I was in New York for a trade show recently, I had made an appointment to go see one of our larger accounts in midtown Manhattan.  Staying near Times Square, I determined that I could walk to the account - it was about 9 blocks away.  On the way back from the appointment, I took a walk along W. 38th St. and decided that A) I was in need of warming up (it was 29 degrees that day); and B) I wouldn't mind grabbing a sandwich for lunch.  I saw a place off in the distance that was a deli, but almost as soon as I saw that, I looked to my immediate right and saw a little pub that looked inviting.   They had their menu out in front of the place and with the extensive craft beer menu they had listed, I decided to step into District Tap House to have some lunch.  

Sean Marr was a native of Glasgow, Scotland and decided to get into the hospitality business in his late teens.  After graduation with a degree in Hospitality Management from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland, Marr moved to the U.S. just before the turn of the century and worked in a number of restaurants in various capacities learning the ropes and creating a network of contacts in the restaurant industry in New York City.  

In the early 2010's, Marr began to line up investors in a pub that he was looking to open in Midtown West in Manhattan.  Along with four other investors, Marr opened District Tap House in 2014.  He put Mike Geddes in charge as the managing partner of the restaurant while Marr and the investors opened two other pubs - Bedford Falls on E. 67th on the upper east side of Manhattan, and the now-closed District Social that was located a block south of District Tap House.  

It was around 1:30 when I walked into District Tap House situated almost halfway between 8th Ave. and 7th Ave. on W. 38th Street in Manhattan's Midtown West/Garment District.  (see map)  I had to maneuver around the seemingly endless lanes of scaffolds that dot the sidewalks of the city in front of many buildings.  I thought to myself that I'd love to run a scaffolding company in New York City because it seems like the city is incessantly working on their buildings.  

 
Just inside District Tap House, the dark mahogany bar ran for about 40 feet along one wall.  Globe light fixtures hung over the bar and flat screen televisions were spaced between shelves holding liquor on the back bar.  Hightop tables were along a dark wood paneled wall opposite the bar.  The place had a warm, comfy feeling - classy without any pretentiousness.    

Toward the back of the long narrow pub past the bar were some community tables and booths.  Just past the small dining area in the back was a partitioned area that looked like it could be used for private dining or gatherings.  It was well past the lunch rush, so all the patrons in the place were seated at the bar.  And that's where I plopped down to get some lunch.  

The bartender/server was a sassy lady by the name of Rayleen.  I remarked that I knew of only one other person in my life who had the name of Rayleen.  "It's not a common one, that's for sure," she said in a thick Scottish brogue.  "I only knew of one other Rayleen, a singer from Nova Scotia (the late Raylene Rankin).  Except she spelled it different from how I spell it."  I told Rayleen that the person I knew with the same name spelled it the same as hers.   

Rayleen had dropped off a food menu and asked me what I wanted to drink.  I asked if she had a drink menu and she sort of shook her head in disgust at herself.  "This might help," she said as she placed a drink menu in front of me.  They had over two dozen beers and ciders on tap and a like number of beers to choose from in bottles and cans.  I saw that they had a Mighty Squirrel Cloud Candy hazy IPA that I had up in New England when I was up there last year.  But they also had a local hazy IPA on tap - the Five Boroughs Gridlock - that I wanted to try.  And it was an excellent hazy IPA.  

The food menu at District Tap House wasn't all that extensive, but what they had was interesting.  They had appetizers such as tuna tartar, goat cheese croquettes, wings, ground lamb sliders, and corn tortilla nachos with braised pork.  Actually, they had a charred octopus appetizer with jalapeno chimichurri that I damned near ordered as my lunch.  

Also on the menu at District Tap House was pizza with artisanal toppings; chicken, carne asada or fish tacos; soups; salads and sandwiches including a Cubano sandwich and a hanger steak sandwich with a horse radish cream and chimichurri.  

It came down to three or four things - the charred octopus, the B.A.L.T. sandwich consisting of bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato (very similar to how I make BLT's with avocado and basil at home), the District Burger, and the braised short rib sandwich.  Actually, I pared it down to the charred octopus and the braised short rib sandwich.  In the end, I went with the sandwich.  

The sandwich featured slow-braised beef short rib that was pulled apart and placed on toasted ciabatta bread, then topped with Swiss cheese, a chipotle mayo and - interestingly enough - fried shaved carrots.    

And the sandwich was excellent.  The braised beef was tender and very flavorful on its own.  The chipotle mayo and the Swiss cheese were great compliments to the taste of the beef.  And the carrots added a bit of a crispy sweetness to the sandwich.  The ciabatta bread had a crunchy outer shell and a chewy core.  It didn't look big, but it was a hearty sandwich.  Fries came on the side and they, too, were very good.  Similar to the bread, a crunchy outer layer and a soft, potato-y core.  

I really wanted to linger for a good part of the rest of the afternoon at District Tap House, but I needed to get back to the hotel to do some office stuff on my computer.  Rayleen was a fun and accommodating server during my time at District Tap House.  The ambiance of the place was warm, cozy and comfortable, the kind of place where one would want to linger after dinner or lunch for another drink or two.  I've hit a few pubs during my trips to New York, but I have to think that District Tap House is No. 1 on my list, so far.

Jakes Burgers and Beer - Addison, TX

During my trip to North Texas for a trade show this past fall, I decided to go find a spot for lunch one afternoon.  Doing a bit of research on places in the area that would have burgers, sandwiches and craft beers, I stumbled upon a place that looked like it checked all the boxes - Jakes Burgers and Beer.  Here's my story on my visit to Jakes for a burger and a couple beers.  

Jacob "Jake" Keller seemed destined to be running his own burger joint at some point.  Growing up in San Antonio, his father operated the popular Flame Drive In restaurant.  While up in Dallas, his uncle Jack Keller was the proprietor of Keller's Drive In, a locally famous drive-in that had been in business since 1950.  

In his late 20's, Jake Keller moved to Dallas to set himself up in the restaurant business.  He patterned his restaurants more like his father's who had inside seating, but also used carhops to serve those outside.  With the help of brothers Marty and Greg Garvey, the partners opened the first Jakes Burgers in 1985.  It specialized in burgers, fries, onion rings, and shakes, and was locally famous for having one of the first spicy chicken sandwiches in the Dallas area.  

Jake Keller and the Garveys had grown the business to six locations around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and by the time he reached his mid-40's, he was ready to retire.  Keller sold his share of Jakes Burgers to the Garveys.  Over the next few years, the Garveys changed the Jakes Burgers into more of a sit-down restaurant complete with a full bar and a selection of craft brews.  They closed some original Jakes Burgers locations and relocated them to stand alone restaurants with a new name - Jakes Burgers and Beers.

In 2022, the Garveys sold their interest in the 10-location chain to the Dickey's Capital Group, the holding company that owns and franchises Dickey's Barbecue Pit restaurants, as well as Wing Boss barbecue/chicken restaurants; MAC Nifico mac & cheese restaurants; and Big Edna's Breakfast all of which operate as ghost kitchens at various Dickey's barbecue joints across the nation.  Today, there are 12 Jakes Burgers and Beers locations across Texas.  

The Jakes Burgers and Beers in Addison is located on Midway Road at the intersection of Beltway Drive.  (see map)   It was about 1:30 in the afternoon when I pulled into the parking lot and there was plenty of parking spots to be had.  

There are two dining areas in the Jakes Burgers in Addison.  The one dining room off the bar/lounge area was a nondescript room with blonde wood table and chairs, along with booths off to the side.  It was pretty neutral and bland for the decor.

The other dining room had a bit more character with greenish-blue banquette seating along one wall with the same style of tables and booths in the other room.  The main difference between the two dining rooms - other than the banquette seating - was that this room had flat screen televisions on the walls.  

The bar/lounger area dissected the two main dining areas.  The bar, itself, was small seating about 10 people on the three angled sides.  24 beers - domestic, imports and craft beers - were available on tap.  

There were some college football games on the televisions on the wall of the back bar and I settled into one of the seats to catch some of the action and get something to eat.  The bartender/server that day was a young lady by the name of Gaby.  She was friendly and efficient during my visit.   I saw that they had the Manhattan Project Half-Life hazy IPA on tap and I got one of those.  That quickly became my favorite beer when I was in the Dallas area and I really should have gotten some cans to take back home with me. 

The menu at Jakes was typical of sports bar/burger joint-types of place - but with a few interesting twists.  Appetizers included spicy hand-breaded mushrooms, stuffed jalapeños, battered and fried green beans, and Hatch green chile chicken quesadilla.  They also had a Frito pie on the appetizer menu with Fritos, chili and cheese.  

Traditional Texas meals such as chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken were prominent on the menu, as well as sandwiches and various types of salads.  Brunch is available on the weekends with huevos rancheros, French toast, avocado toast, and Texas-style eggs Benedict with a poached egg and sausage on a biscuit covered in sausage gravy.  (I've never been a big biscuits and gravy fan.)

But burgers rule the menu at Jakes, which isn't all that surprising.  They had over a dozen burgers on the menu with add-on options including bacon, avocado, a fried egg, and mushrooms.  The Jakes Special is topped with cheese and Thousand Island dressing; the Hot Hickory featured a burger patty topped with hickory barbecue sauce, double chipotle cheddar cheese, and jalapeño bacon; the Breakfast Burger had two beef patties, three pieces of bacon, grilled ham, and finished with two slices of American cheese; and the Works Burger featured double cheese with bacon, sliced tomatoes, pickles, onion, mayo, mustard and ketchup.  Jakes also had a turkey burger for the non-beef people, and for vegetarians they had a Beyond Burger and a black bean burger on the menu.  

I immediately picked out the mushroom/Swiss burger during my first glance at the menu.  I asked Gaby if I could get bacon the burger and she said it was no problem.  It came with two patties with Swiss cheese melted on both patties with chopped sautéed mushrooms on a poppy seed bun.  The bacon was criss-crossed on top of the burger patties with the meat on a bed of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions.  And, once again, the burger was served with a steak knife sticking out the top of the bun - one of my pet peeves with restaurants.  I got tots for my side and it was all served on a small cooking sheet with wax paper.   

I will have to say the burger was really good.  It was flat-grilled and had some great flavor - so much flavor that the mushrooms didn't detract from the robust beef taste.  The burger was messy - I had to get more napkins from Gaby just to keep from getting it all over myself.  But the bun held together very well with all the condiments and veggies on it.  

I asked Gaby if she had any Cholula to go along with the tots, but the only thing she came up with was a bottle of their house sauce, Saddleburn Pepper Sauce.  It was darker than Cholula or Tabasco and it had a nice peppery bite.  It was actually very good and went well with the tots.  They also had a Saddleburn ketchup that was also pretty good.  It was sweet with a smoky flavor - almost like a barbecue sauce - with a nice little spicy bite on the back end.  It reminded me somewhat of the Whataburger spicy ketchup that I like so much, only with more of a smoky taste.  

It turned out that Jakes Burgers and Beer was a pretty good experience.  I wasn't looking for anything more than a good burger and a good selection of craft beer, and Jakes had both.  The mushroom/Swiss/bacon burger was very good and Gaby's help during my visit was friendly and quick.  The restaurant isn't all that fancy, but it certainly wasn't a dive, either.  I'm sure there are other good burger and beer places around the Dallas area, but Jakes more than fulfilled my needs that day.  My only regret is that I didn't pick up a bottle of the Saddleburn pepper sauce to take home.  

Brews & Barrels - Gaithersburg, MD

Out in the Washington D.C. area for a trade show this past fall, the trade show was poorly attended and I was just wasting time hanging out there.  I thought that I could steal away for an hour or so and no one would miss me, so I looked for a craft beer place in the area.  Although it was about a 10 minute drive from the place where the trade show was going on, I took off to go to a place called Brews & Barrels for a bite to eat and a couple beers for lunch.  

It turns out that the group that owns Brews & Barrels are the same people which owns a couple other restaurants I visited in the Rockville/Gaithersburg area - Royal Tandoor (click here to see the entry on Royal Tandoor), and Creek Lodge Bar & Grill (look for an upcoming Road Tips entry on that restaurant).  I had not known that the restaurants were tied together until well after I had come back from Washington D.C.  Brews & Barrels opened in February 2020, but a month later had to shut down due to COVID 19 restrictions that were put in place across Maryland.  When restrictions were lifted a few weeks later, it became a popular destination for craft beer and bourbon whiskey connoisseurs.  Brews & Barrels is not affiliated with other places around the U.S. that are known as Barrels and Brews liquor stores in Tennessee and Arkansas, or Barrel and Bru in Edwardsville, IL.  

The restaurant is located in the Kentlands Market Square, a shopping/dining/entertainment destination in the "New-Urbanism" planned neighborhood of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg.  (see map)  This was the first location of Barrels & Brews to open with Neel Kamal as the managing partner.  A second Barrels & Brews opened in the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills in late 2022, but abruptly closed in May of 2023.  

I pulled into the parking lot next to Brews & Barrels around 1:30 one afternoon.  There was ample parking off to the side of the restaurant and I parked next to a lady who had an Iowa Hawkeyes license plate holder.  I startled her when I said, "Go Hawks!" as she was getting ready to get into her car.  But she told me that she was an Iowa grad and played field hockey for Iowa in the late 90's, early 2000's.  

As I got inside the door at Brews & Barrels, there was a large group waiting to get a table.  I heard someone say, "Don't climb on the bear, please," and I wondered what that was all about.  As I turned the corner into the dining area, there was a large stuffed brown bear in the corner and a couple young kids were enamored with it.  I thought there was a line to get in, but one of the ladies in the group told me that they were preparing a large table for them.  

The main dining room featured a two-sided bar with multiple flatscreens, wooden floor and reclaimed barn board walls.  A large sprocket chandelier with Edison lighting hung from the center of the room.  There were numerous high-top tables in the room with seating for either 4 or 6 people per table.  

Around the corner from the main dining area was a small dining room with some booths, some smaller tables and an alcove with banquette seating underneath a wall with circular wood cuts from trees.  The place was sort of rustic and had a backwoods motif.  Not certain what they were trying for in their decor at Brews & Barrels.  

I ended up seated at the bar and the bartender that day - well, I'm not going to give out his name because he was worthless.  He was much more interested in his phone and his body language pretty much told me that he didn't want to be there that day.  A co-worker had come in and sat a couple chairs from me and they had a spirited conversation about all that was wrong for working at Brews & Barrels.  I understand that not all jobs are great, but to carry on about working conditions at the restaurant they're working at - in front of paying customers - isn't a good practice.  

I was finally able to get a "What's up?" out of the bartender as I asked him for a food menu.   He asked me what I'd like to drink and I found that their craft beer selection was pretty light.  I thought that was odd for a place that has the name "Brews & Barrels".  The selection of Scotch and Japanese whiskies and Kentucky bourbons they had to offer seemed less than impressive, and they had - maybe - 9 or 10 craft beers to choose from on tap.  I asked him to pour me a Lone Oak Farms Haystack hazy IPA.  The beer tasted sort of flat and was pretty underwhelming in flavor.  

The lunch menu is substantially smaller than the dinner menu at Brews & Barrels.  For one, they didn't offer any appetizers on the lunch menu, while the dinner menu had a number of sharable starters such as grilled Brussels sprouts, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and Swedish meatballs.  It's just a handful of sandwiches, a couple burgers and a couple wraps on the lunch menu whereas the dinner menu features entrees such as braised short ribs served over mashed potatoes, grilled salmon, pasta dishes, barbecued meats and flatbread pizzas.  

Since I didn't have much to choose from between five sandwiches, two different types of wraps, or a lone burger selection, it was down to either the reuben sandwich or the steak sandwich.  I did a mental coin flip in my head and I ended up getting the steak sandwich.  And that was mainly because of the description on the menu.  

The menu stated under the steak sandwich, "There are sandwiches...then there are sandwiches.  THEN there are SANDWICHES.  This is the latter."  It featured chunks of mystery steak (they never indicated what kind of steak it was) along with sliced red onions, tomato slices, lettuce, yellow mustard, and a garlic aioli served on toasted rye bread.  The steak sandwich was completely unimpressive and was totally oversold on the menu.  The steak chunks were chewy and I expected much more out of what was supposed to be their signature sandwich.  The sandwich came with fries that were equally "just OK" that were served in a little basket.  Usually, I would have stuck around to have another beer.  But I just decided to cut my losses and get back to the trade show for the rest of the day.  

For a place with the name of Brews & Barrels you would think they would have a better selection of craft beers and an impressive selection of liquors and whiskies to choose from.  But neither was true about the place.  The food was average - at best - and not the experience the menu promised I would have when ordering the steak sandwich. And the service was downright deplorable and helped solidify my opinion that this was just a bad dining episode all around.   Too bad for Brews & Barrels that I was completely turned off by the food, flat tasting beer and the worker's attitude during my visit.  And that's sort of sad because the other places that were under the same ownership that I visited during my trip out to Washington D.C. (of which I didn't know about until much later) were actually very good.  But Brews & Barrels was not.  

Jerry's - LeClaire, IA

There was a new restaurant that opened up at Pebble Creek golf course that's technically in LeClaire, IA, just up the river from Davenport.  It opened in May of 2023 and my wife and I tried to get out there at least three times.  But the place - which isn't all the big to begin with - was always packed.  A few weeks ago, I had just taken a flight from the east coast with a quick connection in Chicago earlier in the day getting back home around 11:30 a.m.  My wife had taken the day off and I suggested earlier in the morning that we go out to lunch after I got home from the airport.  It was a nice day, so we took a little drive and ended up at the restaurant we had been having trouble getting into - Jerry's.  This time, we were finally able to get in.  

Jerry's is the collaboration of two local businessmen who have stakes in local restaurants in the Quad Cities.  Marc Van Severen is the owner of Van's Pizza, and was a partner in the (now-closed) Dam Tacos restaurant.  Mark Roemer is the owner of 5ive Cities Brewing, Central Standard, and has a couple Dunn Brothers coffee shops in the area.  Roemer was needing some extra space for 5ive Cities brewing production, so he built a building near the new clubhouse at Pebble Creek, a once popular local golf course whose future is in doubt after going on the market in the spring of 2024.  However, there are a number of upscale housing developments in the immediate area around Pebble Creek that Jerry's draws its clientele from.  

When Roemer built the building to house 5ive Cities brewing operation, he approached Van Severen to see if he would be interested in putting in a restaurant in part of the building.  Things got worked out between the two and Jerry's opened on May 13, 2023.  The restaurant was named after Van Severen's father Jerry who was a big influence on Marc's life.  

First, I made sure that Jerry's was open for lunch before we hopped in the car to head out there.  It's a bit of a drive from our house in Davenport out past Bettendorf and the TBK Sports Complex (known locally as the BettPlex) along Forest Grove Road which eventually turns into 195th Street.  Jerry's is located at the corner of 195th and SW 35th Street in LeClaire.  (see map)  Quite honestly, if you were coming from Davenport - as we do - it's almost easier to go out I-74 to I-80 eastbound and get off at the LeClaire exit and go west on Highway 67 to Valley Drive.  SW 35th St. intersects with Valley Drive and it's a short drive up the hill to Jerry's from there.  But the drive to Jerry's along Forest Road via 195th Street is much more picturesque.   

We pulled into the parking lot at Jerry's around 1 p.m.  The parking lot is shared with The Clubhouse at Pebble Creek, an event space that can be rented out for receptions, parties and gatherings which is owned by Roemer.  And three months ago in early October, Jerry's took over part of the space for a supper club concept - Jerry's Supper Club - that is open just three days a week (Wednesday thru Friday) from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  So far, it's a pretty short menu with items such as a honey-glazed salmon, a beef tenderloin filet, lemon chicken, and mahi mahi, along with a prime burger, a jalapeño chicken salad sandwich, and an extensive salad bar.

There's a nice patio in front of Jerry's and that place is usually packed on warm summer days.  It features a bar and some lounge style seats along with a few tables for dining.  We saw that in the fall they put up wind screens on the north and west side to be able to allow customers to sit outside when the weather is tolerable.  It was a beautiful day when we went to Jerry's, but no one was seated outside.  

Directly behind Jerry's is an indoor/outdoor golfing range called The Rock Pile at Pebble Creek.  It features 10 bays - 5 on the ground level and 5 on a second level.  Using Toptracer technology, the facility can be used for group outings, individual play, or for training.  

Inside Jerry's, you'll find a modernistic space with a small bar and a number of high-top tables with high-backed padded seating.  There's a small sitting space on an upstairs platform overlooking the seating area.  As I said, Jerry's isn't all that big with seating for - maybe - 36 to 40 people.


Off to the side of the dining room were floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed a look into the brewing facilities for 5ive Cities Brewing.   The new production facility allowed 5ive Cities to go from brewing about 10 barrels a day to over 90 barrels a day.  While I haven't been a big fan of some of the 5ive Cities beers in the past, they've added a number of beers since they've upped their brewing capacity.  

There was a high-top table in the corner that was open and we settled in there.  There was just one server working that day, a young woman by the name of Erica who had waited on us at a couple other places around the Quad Cities in the past.  She apologized to us when she handed off a couple menus and said she'd be back to take our drink order.  I looked through the beer menu and there were a number 5ive Cities beers on tap along with craft beers from Iowa breweries such as Big Grove and Toppling Goliath.  One of the 5ive Cities beers caught my attention - the Schwifty Hippie Hazy IPA.  As I said, I was not much of a fan of 5ive Cities beers - until now.  Their hazy IPA was excellent.  They have a full bar at Jerry's including a number of wines to choose from.  My wife said that she was going to get a glass of wine for lunch with her meal.  

The menu at Jerry's started off with appetizers such as grilled wings, poutine, ahi tuna crisps, and ribeye chunks topped with a garlic & herb boursin cheese and served on crostini bread.  The menu also included soups and salads, some specialty burgers including a blackened burger topped with blue cheese, and a number of sandwiches including Jerry's popular lobster roll, a blackened salmon with avocado sandwich, a BLT served on toasted sourdough bread and topped with a garlic aioli, and their Chopped Italian rolls - a combination of ham, salami, pepperoni, and prosciutto with provolone cheese along with lettuce, tomato, pepperoncinis and red onions topped with a red wine vinaigrette and garlic mayo, all served in split-topped Italian rolls.  That really sounded good.

Jerry's also had a handful of entrees on the menu including the same honey glazed salmon that is served at their supper club across the way, as well as a 10 ounce ribeye, and chicken marsala.  The beef bolognese served over cavatappi pasta also caught my eye.  I made a mental note of that if we make it out to Jerry's for dinner at some point.  

My wife was sort of up in the air as what to get.  She thought about the pesto avocado sandwich with a choice of either turkey or prosciutto, and she thought about the grilled chicken breast sandwich served without the brioche bun.  But in the end, she went with the reuben sandwich - corned beef slathered with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and 1000 island dressing, all served on grilled thick-cut marble rye bread.  

For her side, she had a choice of fries, house-made chips, broccolini, garlic mashed potatoes, potato salad, or cottage cheese.  She didn't seem to be too thrilled with any of the choices until Erica said that she could substitute a salad for a side for a small upcharge.  My wife was happy with that news and she got a Caesar salad for her side.  

She got a glass of the J. Lohr Los Osos merlot that they had available either by the glass or by the bottle.  My wife was more than happy with what she got.  The reuben was a gooey mess that required a number of napkins during the course of the meal.  

I ended up getting the mushroom/Swiss burger - a 1/2 pound USDA prime beef patty that was topped with sautéed mushrooms and a slab of Swiss cheese served on a toasted brioche bun.  I asked Erica if I could get bacon on the burger and she said that would be no problem.  Sliced dill spears, a slice of red onion, tomato and lettuce greens came on the side.  For my side, I got the fries.  

The burger was excellent - juicy with a rich beef flavor.  The juiciness of the burger combined with the generous amount of Swiss cheese on top of the burger made it a splendidly messy meal.  The hazy IPA that I had was a great complement to the burger's overall taste.  And the fries - which were plentiful - were also very good with a great crunchy outer shell.  It was not a cheap lunch, but it was well worth the price.  

Things had quieted down by the time we had finished our meal and we engaged Erica in conversation about Jerry's, the new supper club in the Clubhouse at Pebble Creek, and other endeavors Marc Van Severen and Mark Roemer were involved in.  We were primarily interested in the supper club given that we love the supper clubs up in Wisconsin.  "The event space was just sitting there," Erica said.  "We thought we'd do something different to see if it might go over.  It's only open for 3 nights now and we have a limited menu.  But if it takes off, who knows?"

After trying to get into Jerry's for over a year, it turned out the wait was worth it.  Even though it was an expensive lunch, I thought the value was worth it, as well.  By prime beef burger was delicious, and my wife was very happy with the thick, juicy and messy reuben sandwich.  For being the only server, Erica did a great job in taking care of us and about six or seven other tables while we were there.  Jerry's is a nice upscale tavern with some good and interesting items on the menu, along with a full bar featuring a great selection of craft beers, specialty drinks, and an acceptable wine list.  From our first experience at Jerry's, we can see why it is such a popular place to get into.    

Selma's Chicago Pizzeria and Tap Room - Ladera Ranch, CA

The trade show I was attending in Southern California got over on a Sunday afternoon and I was hungry for a pizza.  Most of the pizza places in the immediate area around Irvine I had found on-line were gourmet-style or to-go only places.  I wanted a place where I could get a good pizza and unwind with a couple beers.  I remembered that I had found a place last year that served tavern-style thin-crust pizza like I get in Chicago.  (That place - Rance's Chicago Pizza - was excellent.  Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Rance's.)  But in searching "Chicago Tavern Pizza" another place came up - Selma's Chicago Pizzeria and Tap Room.  It was in the town of Ladera Ranch about a 15 to 20 minute drive from where I was.  Since I'd already had Rance's tavern-style pizza, I thought I'd drive down to Selma's to see how good their pizza was.  

Michael Phillips grew up in Ohio and loved his mother Selma's cooking prowess.  When he moved to Southern California in the 60's to become a Los Angeles cop, he missed his mother's cooking and looked forward to his trips back home to have some of his mother's home cooked meals.  

By 1978 Phillips was tired of being a cop.  Phillips partnered with another fellow Ohio native Bill Cunningham to open a pizza joint that served Chicago-style deep-dish or tavern-thin crust pizza along with pasta dishes made from recipes from Phillips' mother Selma.  They initially named the business BJ Grunts, but were quickly hit with a federal trademark cease-and-desist letter by Rich Melman, the longtime restauranteur who owned the R.J. Grunts restaurants in Chicago.   Phillips and Cunningham quickly pivoted and renamed the restaurant BJ's Chicago Pizzeria.  

Over the next nine years, Phillips and Cunningham opened a number of locations from Los Angeles south to San Diego.  But when the stock market crashed in the fall of 1987, much of their regular clientele quit going out for dinner.  Contemplating bankruptcy, Phillips got a pep talk from his dad who told him that while bankruptcy would be the easy way out, he made commitments to the banks and his employees and he needed to stick it out.  While it was tough for Phillips and Cunningham - they still had to close one of their locations - the recession began to wane in 1988 and more people started to come back to their restaurants.   

By 1991, Phillips and Cunningham were wanting to do something else with their lives, the two partners ended up selling the local restaurant chain to their accountants.  The new owners eventually changed the name to BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse.  After the corporation went public in 1996, BJ's grew to a national chain.  

Michael Phillips, Jr. grew up watching his father become a successful restauranteur and learned the art of cooking great food and customer service while working under his father's wing.  When Michael Phillips, Sr. retired to Maui in 2003, Michael Jr. and a longtime buddy, Eric Miller, came up with a new Chicago-style pizza concept served with craft beers.  They named it after Phillips' grandmother and Selma's Chicago Pizzeria & Tap Room in the fall of 2003 in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  

Pictured right - Michael Phillips, Jr. and Eric Miller.  Photo courtesy Orange County Register.

Catering to families and craft beer enthusiasts, in 2007 Selma's opened a second location in San Clemente, then the Ladera Ranch location opened in 2011.  A fourth Selma's location opened in San Juan Capistrano in 2016.  However, just about a month or so ago, Phillips and Miller closed the San Clemente location of Selma's which had been open for 17 years.  

(By the way, Michael Phillips, Sr. "unretired" in 2009 and opened a fast casual seafood cafe by the name of Coconuts Fish Cafe.  Today, there are two locations on Maui, with other locations in Scottsdale, AZ, a couple locations in the greater Dallas area, and one that is slated to open in the Sacramento, CA area in the coming months.)  

The Ladera Ranch location for Selma's is located in the Bridgemark Plaza retail complex along Crown Valley Parkway, about a mile east of Interstate 5.  (see map)  There was parking available in the spacious lot that served the complex.  

The main dining room was a mixture of brick walls, reclaimed barn boards and large windows looking out to the front of the restaurant.  There were a number of large booths, banquette seating along one wall, and sturdy tables in the center of the room.

The beer list was posted on the reclaimed barn board wall.  They had 30 beers on tap including the cult favorite Pliny the Elder from the Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa, CA.  Well, let me back up - they had it on the wall, but I was informed they were out of it when I ordered it.  Most of the beers were local, but they also had some nationally distributed craft beers, as well as Guinness.  

The bar area was jam packed when I got into the place as many people were watching the end of the Los Angeles Rams game on the three televisions in the bar.  There was no way that I was going to be able to get a place to sit, let alone get served properly in the bar area.

Off to the side of the bar was the large patio area.  There were a number of people on the patio which was fenced in and topped with sail tarps.  Topping it off, there were a number of loud kids out there and I didn't want to listen to that as I just wanted to get some food, get some beer and just chill out after the trade show.  I continued to wander around the restaurant to find a comfortable area to sit. 

One of the rooms off to the side of the dining room was the "Chicago" room - a room that paid homage to the city of Chicago in pictures that were hung on the wall.  It featured banquette seating along one of the long walls and was probably used for small parties or group gatherings.  A painting of Selma Phillips with what I was told her great-grandchildren hung at the back end of the room.

Even thought it was loud in the dining room with families having pizza, I ended up seated at one of the four-seater tables in the room.  After a short bit I was greeted by a young woman by the name of Aliyah.  She was balancing about five tables at once and apologized for not coming over sooner.  She dropped off a menu for me and said that she'd be back.  When she did come back she took a deep breath and said, "OK, what can I get you to drink?"  When I asked for a Pliny the Elder, she gave this anguished look on her face and said, "Oh, I'm sorry.  We ran out yesterday and won't get more until tomorrow at the earliest."  I sort of grimaced and looked up at the beer menu.  There was a Mortal Bloom hazy IPA from the Founders Brewery back in Michigan that I got.  Even though it was good and I hadn't had it before, I was really looking for a Southern California hazy IPA as an alternative to not having a Pliny the Elder.  Oh well.  

Even though I was there for the pizza, I took a deep look through the menu to see what else they had.  They had a number of appetizers that appealed to families or large groups including chicken tenders, fried cheese sticks, and garlic-parmesan fries.  They had a number of salad choices on the menu - as in something like 12 or 14.  Sandwiches included a classic meatball with marinara and mozzarella cheese; oven-roasted turkey with avocado; and three or four different types of wraps.  Finally, they had a number of pasta selections including short rib-stuffed ravioli that came with a mushroom cream sauce.  Now, THAT gave me pause and made me reconsider my mindset of having a pizza.  

But in the end, I ordered a small pizza with my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  When Aliyah brought out the pizza I was stunned to see the size.  It said in the menu that small pizza's were 10" and this looked like it may have been an inch or two shy of 10".  I just sort of shrugged my shoulders and dug in.

I'll have to say that it was a good pizza.  I think I liked Rance's tavern-style pizza better, but this was still good.  It had a nice crispy crunch, the Italian sausage was flavorful, and the pepperoni was salty and slight spicy.  The mushrooms were fresh and plentiful.  This pizza could have easily been served in a pizza place in Chicago.  And it definitely passed my "Does it taste good with a beer" test that I gauge when I want to compare pizzas.  

Earlier before I got to Selma's, I had a somewhat distressing call from a former neighbor of mine and with some somewhat upsetting news.  My mind was sort of elsewhere for the whole meal and I knew I had a couple phone calls I had to make after I finished.  I was a bit discombobulated when I left the restaurant.  (Everything turned out fine...)  

Later that evening, I was at the gas station near my hotel filling up my rental car to get ready to take back the next morning.  As I pulled up to the pump and got my wallet out to put into the pump, I realized that I didn't have my American Express card.  In a bit of a panic, I had to mentally retrace my movements earlier in the day.  I thought, "Geez, did I leave it at Selma's?"  I got back in the car and made a phone call to Selma's.  I explained to the young lady that I think I left my card at the restaurant.  She asked me who my server was and I did remember Aliyah's name.  

She put me on hold and moments later Aliyah got on the phone.  "I have your credit card here," she said.  "I saw you get up and walk to the restroom and I checked the folder to see if you had signed the receipt.  And you hadn't.  I just figured that you would come back to sign it after you went to the restroom."

"So, I didn't even sign the receipt," I asked as I started out back toward Selma's.  She said that I hadn't.  "Geez, I'm an idiot.  OK, I'm on my way."  

20 minutes later, I got to Selma's.  It was just before 9 p.m. and the place had cleared out substantially.  I walked in and the young lady at the front hostess stand greeted me.  "I think Aliyah has my credit card," I said.  Seconds later, Aliyah came out from the back holding the folder which held my Amex card and the receipts I hadn't signed.  I told her that I was a bit out of sorts when I was there, but everything was fine now.  Except that I had to drive all the way back to get my card.  

"I just thought it was sort of strange that you left your card and didn't sign the tab," she said.  

"I know," I said in an exasperated tone as I signed the receipt.  "I'm an idiot."

I then reached in my pocket and pulled out a $20 bill.  Her tip would have about $8 or $9 bucks if I put it on the receipt, but I handed the folder back to her along with the $20 bill.  "Here, this is yours, too.  Thanks for holding on to this."  

Her face lit up and said, "Thank you!  It wasn't that big of deal.  I was just more concerned that you might not come back and get your card before closing tonight."  I told her that if I hadn't stopped to get gas before going back to my hotel about 30 minutes earlier, I would have probably gone back to Iowa without my credit card.  

I probably should have given her double the tip for being trustworthy and holding on to my card for me.  Aliyah's service the whole time I was there was efficient and she was such as sweetheart.  I thought the Chicago tavern-style pizza was good - not great like some places I like in Chicago - but good.  Good for Southern California, let's put it that way.  The place was a little loud for me, but I got past all that.  And even though they were out of Pliny the Elder, I was impressed with the beers they had on tap.  I would have to say that if you're in the southern part of Orange County and have a hankering for Chicago pizza, Selma's Chicago Pizzeria and Tap Room is a good place to go.  

Buckley's - Seattle

Out in Seattle for a trade show earlier this year, the trade show turned out to be a bust.  I pretty much did everything and saw everyone I needed to see on Friday, and I went back on Saturday morning just to see if I missed anything.  I hadn't.  As a big Iowa Hawkeyes football fan, it turned out that Iowa was playing that day and I wanted to watch the game.  I looked up the list for Iowa Club Game Watch locations across the nation and found that there was a sports bar near downtown Seattle that hosted Iowa watch parties for their televised sporting events.  Wanting to watch the game with like-minded Iowa fans, I headed to Buckley's on Queen Anne in Seattle.   

Tim Buckley was a longtime pub owner in Seattle running the popular Belltown Pub since 1980.  In 2003, Buckley lost the lease to the pub's spot and was forced to find a new location to set up shop.  He decided to change a few things up and become more of a sports bar and grill.  In 2004, he found a location on Queen Anne street about six blocks west of the Space Needle. (see map) He recruited many of the same employees that he had at Belltown Pub and opened Buckley's on Queen Anne in June of 2004.  

In 2008, new ownership of a building forced the lease holders of a restaurant not far from Buckley's original Belltown Pub to vacate the premises.  Tim Buckley saw an opportunity to get back into the Belltown neighborhood that he loved so much and took over the spot at the corner of Battery and 2nd Ave. (see map) The  Buckley's in Belltown opened in late 2008 mirroring the decor at the original Buckley's on Queen Anne.  Buckley continues to oversee both restaurants to this day.  

There was a parking garage just next to Buckley's on Queen Anne street and I parked in there for a flat fee of around $10.50 for four hours.  I really didn't know how long I'd be there, but I figured $10.50 for four hours near downtown Seattle was a pretty good bargain.  

The place was already raucous a half hour before kickoff.  A lot of Iowa fans were in Buckley's ready to cheer the Hawks on.  The bar was already full and the bulk of the tables in the restaurant were taken, as well.  There was a couple who was getting up from a high-top table in a back corner by the bar and I asked the hostess if I could grab that table.  "I would suggest you get it as soon as you can," she nearly shouted at me as more people poured in behind me.  

The bar was elevated from the back dining area and featured four flat-screen television hung on the wall behind the bar.  There were two dining areas in Buckley's, the lower dining area behind a half wall by the bar and another area off to the side of the bar.  Looking around at the full pub and the increasing amount of people coming into the place, I knew I had scored a prime spot for the house.   

I was seated there for a few moments and one of the bartenders came out from behind the bar to wait on me.  Her name was Lauren.  And Lauren was working her butt off.  She handed me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I didn't see a beer list, but Lauren pointed at the beer bottles and cans lined up on the back wall high above the back bar.  I immediately saw they had cans of Rainier beer.  "Oh, Rainier," I halfway exclaimed.  "Yeah, I'll have a Rainier!"  I hadn't had a Rainier beer in probably six years - the Old Style of the Northwest.  And it was just as good as I remembered.  

The game started and I held off on ordering food for a while.  Buckley's has "Blunch" on Saturdays and Sundays starting at 9 a.m., but it was after noon when I was there.  Blunch features at Buckley's include classic breakfast items such as eggs Benedict, a Denver omelette, and a breakfast burrito.  French toast, pancakes, and a deep fried chicken with gravy, two eggs and hash browns were part of the Blunch menu.  

Buckley's had the prerequisite bar appetizers - wings, nachos, and deep-fried cheese curds.  But they also had Thai short ribs, a chicken quesadilla, and deep-fried calamari for appetizers.  They had soups, salads and tacos which included shredded chuck steak, blackened chicken, shrimp or Alaskan cod with cheese, lettuce, cilantro and chopped onions.  After 5 p.m., Buckley's has a buttermilk fried chicken entree; a penne alfredo with chicken or salmon; and the Pub Steak - a 10 ounce Black Angus beef tenderloin that is marinated in Worcestershire sauce, herbs and spices.  

I was looking at a couple three things on the burger/sandwich side of the menu - the prime rib dip was enticing, as was the Reuben sandwich.  In the end, I got the mushroom/Swiss burger.  I asked Lauren if they could put bacon on the burger and she said, "Absolutely!"  And they had tots on the menu - you know me, I to get the tots.  But they also had sweet potato tots on the menu.  I had to give those a try.  Also, a small tub of a creamy peppery sauce came with the burger and tots.  

The burger was very good.  With all the Swiss cheese and an aioli sauce on top, the bun didn't fare too well.  It literally collapsed and fell apart after about four or five bites.  But, still, I can't complain about the quality and the taste of the Swiss cheese/mushroom/bacon burger.  

The tots were interesting.  They did taste like sweet potatoes with a crunchy outer shell.  The creamy pepper sauce had a bit of a spicy bite and I used it to dip the tots into.  I didn't finish them all as I was getting full after the eating most of the burger.  (A lot of the bun was discarded on the side by the time I was done.)  

As I was eating, a couple was sort of standing near the bar watching the game.  I had two stools open at my table and I offered them the seats.  Turns out that they were from Ames, but he went to school at Iowa and was an Iowa fan.  They were out in Seattle and he said that he did a Google search to see if there was an Iowa Hawkeye bar in the area.  "First place that came up in the search was this place," he said.  "We didn't know what to expect when we got in here.  I guess we should have gotten here earlier."  I told him that I got the last open table a half-hour before the game started.  They were both thankful that I offered them the stools that he ended up buying me a couple Rainier beers while we watched the game.  

I also didn't know what I was getting into going to Buckley's, but I was more than happy with the burger and tots that I got.  The place was rocking during the game and it was a wonder that Lauren was able to keep up with all the orders at the bar and taking care of the tables just in front of the bar.  And it was fun drinking Rainier beer again.  Buckley's was a cozy, yet fun place with a good burger.  

Beacon Tap - Des Plaines, IL

I've been staying in the Des Plaines area of the Chicago suburbs for a number of years and I've eaten at a bunch of area restaurants.  I'd been looking for a place to be able to hang out and watch sporting events on TV when I'm in the area and I was a little surprised that I had never had been to a place which is billed as the oldest bar in Des Plaines - the Beacon Tap.  I had a chance to go have lunch there on a recent visit to Chicago.  

Actually, the building that houses the Beacon Tap dates back over 100 years as it was originally built as a grocery store back in 1910.  During the height of prohibition, a number of "legitimate" businesses in the small towns near Chicago turned into speakeasy establishments allowing bootlegged alcohol and beer to be served.  In 1926, a man by the name of Joseph Scharringhausen bought the grocery store and turned it into a drinking establishment.  He named it the Beacon Tap Room and was able to stay in business due to friendly local law enforcement officials who turned the other cheek when it came to selling alcohol in the late 20's and up to the end of Prohibition in 1933.  

After Prohibition ended, the Beacon Tap Room was a popular destination for workers who worked at the nearby rail yards.  The original wooden bar was soon replaced by a marble topped bar, and the building was expanded to include a dining room.  After World War II ended, a man by the name of George Sontag bought the Beacon Tap Room and renamed it "Sontag's Beacon Tap".   Sontag expanded the food selection and made the place more accommodating for locals and tourists coming into Chicago to fly in and out of nearby O'Hare Airport.  

Sontag was also a big sports fan and he added televisions for sporting events that were shown on local and national broadcasts.  A big fan of boxing, Sontag was said to have a projection system brought in for big prize fights.  

Sontag sold the Beacon Tap in 1955 to a new owner.  That owner - and subsequent owners in the 60's into the 80's - did their own renovations and expansions to the original building.  A new kitchen and expanded dining room made the Beacon Tap more family friendly.  In 2014, the owner expanded the bar even more, added a large outdoor patio, and renovated the exterior of the building to give it more of a sleek, modern look while keeping the interior charm of the restaurant.  

But by early 2017, the owner ended up having problems paying for the renovations and much-needed electrical upgrades to the building.  The Beacon Tap closed its doors at the end of February and sat vacant for a number of months.  

In stepped local restaurateur Joe Calabrese into the picture.  Calabrese owned a handful of restaurants in the northwest suburb including the excellent Zia's Trattoria (now Zia's Social) and Cafe Touché in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Zia's Trattoria from nearly 10 years ago.)  Calabrese liked to unwind at the Beacon Tap and thought it would be a nice investment for his Calabrese & Sons restaurant group portfolio.  

Before they could reopen the restaurant, the building underwent some much needed upgrades to the interior decor and ecosystem.  A new wood floor, barn-board walls, and exposed brick walls from the original building were part of the interior upgrades to the building.  New flat-panel televisions were hung in strategic places around the inside of the building, as well as outside in an expanded patio.  A new and updated menu was also put into place.  In the fall of 2017, the Beacon Tap reopened to a welcoming community who immediately noticed the changes and embraced the updated restaurant and its new ownership group.  

I had a Zoom meeting that lasted for a couple hours and decided to head out for lunch to the Beacon Tap before I went to see a couple accounts in the afternoon.  I had probably driven past the Beacon Tap on Lee Street numerous times before, but had never really paid attention to the place.  It was right at noon when I pulled into the spacious parking lot on the south side of the restaurant.  (see map)  

Going into Beacon Tap, I found a large dining area with exposed beams with white holiday lights hanging from the beams.  Large flat-screen televisions hung from the barn-board walls, and a number of hardwood-topped tables were placed around the room.  Music from country artists such as Blake Shelton, Cole Swindell, Lainey Wilson and Jordan Davis was playing in the background.  

The large oval bar hasn't been touched during all the renovations, save for the steel bed kick-panels on the bottom.   Eight large screen televisions hung over the center of the bar and block-glassed windows along the back wall allowed light from the outside to come in.  

Outside, there was a large patio with umbrella-covered tables.  It was an unseasonably warm day in Chicago (we had a late summer in the Midwest) and there were a few people who were seated outside.  It was a bit too windy for me, so I was going to eat inside.

The outdoor bar - the Tap Room - is used for special events or overflow on game days in which the inside space is filled up.  There was a large slab off the patio for people to congregate.  Flat-screen televisions hung from the walls and space heaters hung from the ceiling of the outside bar to keep people warm on those chilly fall days or evenings when they're watching football.   

There were a number of tables open, but there were only a couple people seated at the bar when I got in there, so I took a seat there.  The bartender/server that day was a spunky young lady by the name of Amber.  She handed me a menu and I asked what they had available for beers.  "Oh," she exclaimed.  "Let me find a beer list."  She turned back around and rummaged around on the bar's island and came up with a beer menu for me to look over.  After a quick glance, I ended up getting a pint can of the Maplewood Brewery Son of Juice hazy IPA.  

The menu at the Beacon Tap is what I would call upscale bar food.  And that's what Joe Calabrese was going for when he took over the restaurant seven years ago.  They had a number of salads to choose from - all of which could have protein items added.  Appetizers such as smoked wings, pulled pork quesadilla, chicken & waffle bites, and blackened shrimp were available.  Sandwiches, wraps, burgers and tacos were also available.  And - most importantly, to me - they had a Chicago tavern-style thin-crust pizza on the menu.  I wasn't going to get the pizza that day, but it was close enough to the hotel that I stay at where I could come back in the future to give it a try.  

Three or four things jumped off the menu at me including the smoked corned beef reuben sandwich; the Sicilian brisket sandwich - Beacon Tap's take on the Italian beef sandwich; and the Texas rodeo which consisted of smoked house brisket, pulled pork, andouille sausage, and spicy Southern-style cole slaw all served on Texas toast.  All of them sounded great and I immediately wanted to come back to try one (or all) of them at some point in the future.  

But in the end, I ended up getting the Beacon Burger - two-4 ounce patties flat-grilled and topped with Merkts cheddar cheese, a spicy and creamy garlic sauce (think Guy Fieri's Donkey Sauce), lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion and served on a garlic-buttered grilled brioche bun.  Sriracha onion strings also came on the burger, but I asked Amber to put them on the side so I could savor them without all that was going on with the burger.  A choice of a handful of sides came with burger and they had tots.  That was a no-brainer.  But even better, they had Cholula available to put on the tots!  

The burger had a lot going on.  The oozing Merkts cheddar cheese made it a multi-napkin burger, and the brioche bun - while it was soft and spongy - held together very well with all the messiness of the cheese, sauce and the veggie toppings.  The two patties were perfectly cooked, still juicy and tender - not overcooked in the least.  This was an outstanding burger.

I started to stay in the Des Plaines area over 15 years ago as it seemed to be centrally located to the accounts I had in the greater Chicagoland area and with easy access to the express ways/toll ways in the area.  I really thought I had found most of the good places to have food and hang out over that time, so I have to say that I'm kicking myself for not finding the Beacon Tap earlier than this.  With my current position, I don't get into Chicago as often as I used to, but the next time I am in there, I'm heading back to the Beacon Tap.  The place had a wonderful neighborhood-friendly vibe, the service was very good, they had a great selection of craft beers to choose from, and the burger was outstanding.  I definitely want to try their tavern-style pizza at some point, and some of their sandwiches sound delicious from the description on the menu.  I really wish I would have discovered the Beacon Tap sooner than this.   

 

Chicago Culinary Kitchen - Palatine, IL

On a recent trip into the Chicago area, I was out in Palatine seeing an old account I used to call on with my old company.  After the visit, I decided to drive over to a barbecue place not far from their store that they had talked up on a couple previous visits when I was there.  This was going to be my first visit to a barbecue joint with an unlikely name for a barbecue joint - Chicago Culinary Kitchen.  

Greg Gaardbo grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and joined the Marines after he graduated from high school in 1981.  After 9 years of duty in which he saw action overseas, Gaardbo came back to the Chicago suburbs and opened his own business, Shockwave Promotional Apparel in early 1991.  The company provided embroidery and screen-printing services for hats, shirts and jackets for corporations or small businesses.  

Gaardbo soon found a love barbecue and the rapidly growing craft beer scene.  But it wasn't until around 2009 when he finally found his muse to help him take his love for barbecue and beer to another level.  At his neighborhood gym, he met a spunky blonde by the name of Kristina who had grown up in Palatine, but had moved to Atlanta to become a veterinarian's technician.  While she enjoyed working with animals, she felt her calling would be more suited to helping humans.    

Kristina moved back to Chicago and entered the nursing program at Harper College, a vocational school in Palatine.  Kristina got her degree in nursing and immediately found herself working at an acute care facility in the area.  She really enjoyed working with her patients who were mainly in short term/concentrated rehabilitation programs.  But that fateful day at the gym when she met Greg Gaardbo eventually changed her course in life.  

Greg and Kristina found that they had a lot in common - they were in to tattoos, craft beers, heavy metal music, and, most importantly, food.  Kristina found Greg's business fascinating and ended up quitting her nursing job and went to work for Greg at his specialty apparel business.  In July of 2011, the couple married and Kristina became Greg's partner - not only in life, but in his business, too.  

Since the time they had met, Greg would host barbecue parties in his backyard.  He specialized in the Brazilian-style of barbecue - churrasco - with meat cooked on skewers.  Over time, the backyard celebrations grew in number and after Greg and Kristina were married, their friends convinced them to purchase a food truck to showcase Greg's expertise with barbecue.  In 2012, the couple started up Rockin' Rodizio and began a catering company out of their food truck.   

Pictured right - Greg and Kristina Gaardbo.  Photo courtesy Certified Angus Beef Cattle web site.

As business grew on the barbecue side of things, Greg and Kristina started to explore other types of food to offer.  To immerse themselves in different cuisines, they started to travel to places to learn how to properly make Texas barbecue, or to learn the delicacies of traditional Spanish fare, or trips to Mexico to learn from chefs and regular people the art of authentic Mexican food.  

By 2016, the Gaardbos felt they were ready to take the next step with a weekend-only barbecue joint in Palatine.  They found an open spot in a run-down strip mall along N. Quentin in Palatine and opened Chicago Culinary Kitchen focusing on Texas-style barbecue later that year.  Right from the start, the place was a hit.  They would open at 11 a.m. on Saturday and sometimes they would be out of meat by 2 p.m.  

In the meantime, Kristina enrolled at the Siebel Institute of Technology to learn more about the different styles of beers served around the world, and what kind of beers can be paired with what they were serving at their weekend restaurant.  She received her Cicerone certification from Siebel in 2019.  

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Chicago Culinary Kitchen had to shut down for a while before reopening for take-out only.  Business really never suffered as their legions of fans kept coming back on the weekends to grab their delicious barbecue.  Realizing that they could really go places with their barbecue business (all the while still running their promotional apparel business), the Gaardbos started to look for a larger place where they could open more than just the weekends.  

They eventually found a space in another strip mall at the corner of N. Hicks Rd. and Lake Cook Rd.  (see map)  On July 3rd, 2021 - 10 years to the day the Gaardbos got married - they opened their present day location of Chicago Culinary Kitchen.  The business is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday thru Sunday.  And they still do some catering events from time to time such as the Lake Zurich, IL "Rock the Block" festival that was held this last September.  

It was around 1:30 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall where Chicago Culinary Kitchen is located.  It's on the far north end of the strip mall and as I walked up to the building, I saw a prominent sign that said, "ATTENTION: If you're offended by the following: Meat, Beer, Tattoos, Skulls, and Rock & Roll, (and there is an endless list of other things), THIS IS NOT YOUR KINDA PLACE!"  And at the very bottom it said, "Have a nice day!"  I had a very good feeling about this place.  

The first impression I had of Chicago Culinary Kitchen was one of mild surprise and a bit of a shock.  Classic rock music was playing in the background - not blaring, but definitely pronounced.  The lighting was a mix of purple and red lighting, and a skeleton riding a motorcycle hung from the ceiling.  I immediately liked the place when I saw the Rush poster on the wall.  

The tables were community style with heavy metal chairs that are just too uncomfortable for me.  Texas barbecue signage was on a corrugated tin wall and guitars hung on the wall near the bar.  There was also a collection of lava lamps behind the bar.  The place really had the feel of a true "joint".  

The outdoor patio featured an open air concept with bar-style seats for eating along a counter.  More community tables were on the patio which looked like it could be closed up by plastic coverings over the open spaces in colder weather.   

There is a walk-up window for ordering, but I was told that I could sit at the bar and order directly from the bartender on duty.  The bartender that day was Jay, who also holds the title of operations manager for Chicago Culinary Kitchen.  I took a seat along the bar near the kitchen.  I could see into the kitchen and was able to catch glimpses of the tufted-haired Kristina and her equally inked-up husband Greg who looked like he was no one to reckon with if you crossed him wrong.  

Jay gave me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I asked what he had for hazy IPA's and he suggested the Yesterday Tonight from the Solemn Oath Brewery in Chicago.  It featured Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops and had a very smooth taste.  It was going to be perfect to pair with barbecue.  

The barbecue offerings included sliced brisket, pulled pork, St. Louis-style ribs, Texas-style smoked sausage, and something they called sticky ribs that were topped with honey and Egyptian-style dukkah - a combination of nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.  Sandwiches included a Buffalo chicken breast sandwich, an Oklahoma-style smashed burger, and the "El Jefe" which had brisket, pulled pork and smoked sausage.  Appetizers included a sweet & sour pork belly, Buffalo-style shrimp, and Spanish-style potatoes Bravas.  

Jay was an easy-going guy and kept checking with me to see if I was ready to order any food.  I asked if they had a sampler plate and he said that the closest thing would be the "El Jefe" sandwich without the bun.  But they had 1/2 pound of pulled pork and 1/2 pound of sliced brisket on the menu, so I ordered one of each of those.  (I almost got the 1/2 pound of smoked pastrami they had that day, but went with the pulled pork instead.)  I had a choice of a side and they had a number of interesting things to choose from including Mexican street corn in which Hatch chiles and cotija cheese were mixed in with the corn; a barbecued bacon and ranch pasta salad; creamy red potato salad; and CCK's famous "F'n Mac & Cheese" that is topped with hot Cheetos and panko bread crumbs.  I almost went with the "old school" cole slaw, but instead opted for the 18-hour slow-baked pit beans with bacon.  

It wasn't more than 5 minutes after I ordered before Kristina Gaardbo brought out a small cookie sheet with the sliced brisket, pulled pork (topped with marinated red onions), and the pit beans on a piece of wax paper.  House-made dill pickle slices and a piece of white bread came on the side.  

True Texas barbecue doesn't need sauces, and while the brisket and the pulled pork were very tasty on their own, I'm a sauce guy.  They had four different types of sauces available - a chipotle apricot that was very good, a mustard sauce that I never tried (because I don't like mustard-based sauces for barbecue, a vinegar-based sauce that went well with the pulled pork, and a Legacy barbecue sauce that was a combination of sweet and a bit spicy that was excellent.  

The portions of meat were very generous and the brisket came with four slices.   It was easy to cut, it was juicy and flavorful, and had a bit of a spicy bark with a pronounced smoke ring around the top of the brisket.  The pulled pork was also very juicy and had a wonderful smokey flavor.  And the pit beans were thick and smoky, and even though they really didn't need it, I added some of the Legacy sauce in with them to give them more of a zippy taste.    

While I was eating, Kristina brought out something from the kitchen for Jay to try.  He had a few bites of what looked like a sausage link on the tray, and he turned back toward the kitchen and gave her a "thumbs-up".  He told me that they were always experimenting with different things back in the kitchen for specials from time to time.  I believe he said that was some andouille sausage they had smoked for a possible New Orleans-style dish they were going to make at some point.  

After I left Chicago Culinary Kitchen, I called up my former account and told them that I had a great lunch at the barbecue joint.  Everything was very good to excellent -  the brisket was tender, as was the pulled pork.  The beer selection was top-notch and the service from Jay was incomparable.  The funky atmosphere just added to the overall experience at Chicago Culinary Kitchen.  I don't get out to the Palatine area all that much any longer and that's a shame.  But the barbecue at Chicago Culinary Kitchen would be worth the drive just to go there again at some point.   

The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden- Nashville

In Nashville recently, I was seeing an account in the East Nashville neighborhood.  After getting out of the meeting around 12:30 in the afternoon, I decided to find something to eat in the area.  I did a quick look on my phone for restaurants in the area and I had a choice between a Mexican restaurant and a burger joint that were across the street from one another.  The Mexican place was a little taco joint and it was packed.  That gave me the option B for the burger joint.  I found a parking space behind The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden and went inside.  

Cees Brinkman was born in the Netherlands and decided to move to Nashville in the early 90's.  Brinkman owned a couple commercial rental properties in East Nashville and in one of them he was housing some surplus restaurant equipment.  Brinkman put an ad on Craigslist to see if he could make some room in one of the properties and a local bar manager by the name of Terry Raley reached out to him as he was thinking of opening his own restaurant.  

Raley came by the property on McFerrin Ave. and met with Brinkman.  While he was looking over the equipment and telling Brinkman how he wanted to own a restaurant at some point, Brinkman was telling Raley that the building they were in - an old daycare center that had a patio - would be a great place for a restaurant.  Brinkman missed the neighborhood restaurants he remembered back in The Netherlands that were social focal points with pub food and a great beer selection with large gardens where people would meet up on nice days.  He told Raley the building they were in would be perfect for a restaurant like that.  

The two formed a 50-50 partnership and started work on the building that had elements of an old time soda fountain as well as an old-school American steakhouse along with a European-style pub with a foliage covered beer garden.  Brinkman had collected antique apothecary bottles from an old pharmacy building he owned just up the street and they decorated the restaurant with many of the bottles giving the restaurant it's name - The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden.  In December of 2011, the restaurant opened its doors.  

In early 2015, a business dispute over a new restaurant Raley had opened without Brinkman involved put the business partners at odds.  Brinkman took over the day-to-day operations of The Pharmacy Burger at that point.  A series of suits and countersuits made their way through the courts before a judge ruled in favor of Brinkman in 2020 and damages were awarded.  After the court battle cleared, it allowed Brinkman to open a second Pharmacy Burger location in 2021 in the Assembly Food Hall in downtown Nashville.  And after a renovation and expansion of the Nashville International Airport, a third Pharmacy Burger opened in the terminal in 2023.  

Pictured right - Cees Brinkman.  Photo courtesy LinkedIn.

The original Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden is located along McFerrin Ave. between W. Eastland Ave./Cleveland St. and Chicamauga Ave. in East Nashville.  (see map)   Parking is a little "iffy" (as in, the lack of it) in the area, but I was able to find a parking space just behind the building.  

Inside Pharmacy Burger, the decor hearkened back to an early 1920's pharmacy or retail establishment with exposed beams and antique light fixtures hanging from squares of tin panels.  The long and narrow room had a community table down the middle with dark wood paneled supports running the length of the building.   Exposed ductwork also ran the length of the restaurant.  Sconce lighting fixtures were above tables along the wall.  Without the lighting in the place, it would have been dark and somewhat dingy.  

The L-shaped bar had the old style wooden stools on swivels.  A row of tables along the wall provided more seating in the bar area.  70's R&B/Funk music from the likes of Chaka Khan, Parliament, Ben E. King and the J.B.'s (James Brown's back-up band) was playing in the background in the restaurant.  

Out back is the beer garden.  It featured low-slung bushes bordering the walkways and the individual patios in the beer garden.  The leafy trees over the beer garden provided abundant shade in the hot and humid Nashville midday weather.  It was definitely a popular place, but I didn't feel comfortable taking up a table by myself with groups of people coming in.  

Just between the beer garden and the main building at Pharmacy Burger is a step-up covered patio with picnic tables.  On the backside of the building was a bar with a concrete top that had some stools in front of an opening to the inside bar.  

I ended up sitting at the inside bar and was greeted by a pleasant young lady who handed me a food menu.   She asked what I wanted to drink and she handed me a beer menu.  They had a pretty impressive menu of craft beers and imports including beers and ciders from Belgium, Spain, Germany, France and the UK.  On tap, they had Duvel Golden Ale, the only bar/restaurant in Tennessee that had the beer available.  They also had the Gaffel kölsch on tap and I considered getting that.  But I saw that they had my new favorite beer from the Bearded Iris brewery in Nashville - the Homestyle hazy IPA.  I made it a point to stop at a liquor store before I left Nashville to get a couple six packs of the Homestyle beer.  

After she placed my beer in front of me, I asked the bartender if this was really an old pharmacy.  "This was a day care center," she said.  "There was a pharmacy up the street and the owner salvaged a bunch of old pharmacy bottles out of the place."  She pointed to the wall behind me and showed me a row of antique pharmacy bottles on a wooden shelf above the mirror.   

Burgers were the main item on the menu, but grilled chicken sandwiches, kielbasa and wursts were also available.  Ground turkey, ground chicken, black bean and impossible burgers were also available for the beef/meat averse.  They had some interesting burgers including the stroganoff burger with a mushroom bechamel sauce and sour cream topping with Swiss cheese.  The Slap burger was topped with American cheese, a chipotle/avocado aioli and grilled jalapeños; and the White Oak BBQ burger was topped with a house-made Coca-Cola barbecue sauce, smoked barbecue onions, bacon, onion straws and provolone cheese.  

The wursts they had on the menu were all ground, cased, and smoked in house.  The jagerwurst pork sausage was mixed with coriander, garlic, mustard seed, nutmeg and ginger.  If I wasn't in the mood for a burger, I may have gotten that.  

They had a couple specials that day - burger tacos and a cream cheese burger.  I got a chuckle out of the cream cheese burger special as it reminded me of the time a colleague of mine ordered a cream cheese burger at the Cherry Cricket in Denver a number of years ago and I rode him unmercifully for that - well, ever since then!  The burger tacos were just that - burger meat in tacos topped with lettuce, tomato and a pico de gallo.  

I settled on getting the Pharmacy burger - a half-pound burger patty that was cooked medium-well, topped with yellow cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, a tomato slice, onions, pickles and yellow mustard.  Sides available included hand-cut fries, cole slaw, German potato salad, and pasta salad.  But, of course, I got tots to go along with my burger.  They didn't have Cholula at Pharmacy Burger, but they had Crystal hot sauce and that worked fine on the tots.  

The burger was good - not great, but good.  I mean, it didn't seem like it was anything special to me.  The bun was a little dry and the toppings made it a mess, but the bartender/server provided me with a pile of napkins to help clean up.  I had to go to the restroom afterward just to wash my hands from all the mess on them the napkins didn't quite catch.  The tots were a great complement to the burger - crispy on the outside with a soft flaky inner core.  

While I enjoyed the experience at Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden, I thought the burger was just all right.  It was nothing that really grabbed hold of me and made me go, "Mmmmm...." after the first bite.  The service I had from the bartender that day was very good as she was friendly and efficient.  The beer garden at Pharmacy Burger is top-notch and it would be a great place to go to hang with friends on a warm afternoon to get a burger and a cold beer from a great selection of craft and imported beers.  Pharmacy Burger was a good find for a burger and beer joint on Nashville's east side.  

 

Black Dog Pub - Fort Wayne, IN

My colleague from Montreal and I were out in Fort Wayne earlier this year to do some training sessions and we had spent a good portion of the day setting up for the trainings.  We had some running around to do to pick up some items that we would need for the presentations and to ship the products back to our warehouse in Montreal after we finished the next evening.  My colleague is a vegetarian and I have to be cognoscente of his dietary needs when we're together.  But it turns out that he can pretty much find something on the menu at any place we go to.  After our last stop, it turned out there was an Irish pub not too far away from us.  A beer and a bite of food sounded good for the both of us, so we drove a short way to the Black Dog Pub.

Brothers and restaurant veterans Jeff and Dave Hamilton established the Black Dog Pub in 2002 and it quickly became a neighborhood favorite for people living on Fort Wayne's west side.  The restaurant is located in a strip mall near the corner of W. Covington Rd. and Getz Rd., not far from where Getz and W. Jefferson Rd meets up.  (see map)  

We were able to find a parking spot just down from the Black Dog Pub in the lot for the strip mall.  There was a shaded patio area in front of the brick facade building, but it was a very hot day and there was no way that we'd want to be seated outside.

There appeared to be two doors into the Black Dog Pub and we took the one on the right.  That took us into the lounge area.  It featured a bar on one side of a well lit room with green and white checkerboard tile on the floor.  The opposite side of the bar featured some booths and high-top tables.  The bar area was an interesting mix of blue collar workers, duffers just off the golf course, older people enjoying an early evening drink and young ladies who looked like they just came from the office.

We found the last booth that was open in the dining room next to the bar.  The dining room was also well lit and had a faux brick wall on one side with flatscreen televisions on the walls.  My colleague was keen to watch some of the replay of the Euro 2024 soccer match from earlier in the day that they had up on one of the screens in the bar.   He was able to get someone to turn the channel to the game on one of the televisions near where we were seated.

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Ciera.  She dropped off a couple food menus for us to look over and there was a beer menu on the wall.  They had about 20 different beers and ciders on tap at Black Dog Pub.  I wanted to get one of the hazy IPA's they had listed from a brewery in Indianapolis.  Ciera went and checked on that and she said that they were out of that beer.  I then asked about the IPA that GnomeTown Brewery in downtown Fort Wayne makes for them.  Well, they were out of that!  I ended up cutting my losses and got a pint of the Two Hearted India pale ale from Bell's Brewery out of Kalamazoo, MI.  My buddy ended up getting the same thing.  

The menu at Black Dog Pub isn't all that dissimilar to other pub-style restaurants.  Appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches, burgers, wraps and entrees such as ribs and an 8 ounce beef tenderloin filet were prevalent on the menu.  They also had pizza and calzones on the menu, as well as submarine sandwiches.  

My colleague went with the Beyond Burger with a plant-based patty that I've actually wanted to try at some point (but have been too chicken to order).  He said that the Beyond Burger's are pretty good, but he doesn't get them all the time because of how highly processed they are.  "Even though they are vegetarian, they aren't all that good for you if you have one more than once a week," he said.  The things I learn from a vegetarian.  

I had seen a pizza going out to another table and that's what I ended up getting - a small (10") thin-crust with sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms. I'd had a big salad for lunch earlier in the day and this was really all I needed to eat.  It was a tad overcooked and there was a dearth of sauce on the pizza, but other than that it was fine.  Not the best I've had, but it was still good.   

The Black Dog Pub was fine for what it was.  My old neighbor would have probably hated the place because he's the kind of guy (full Irish) who rails against restaurants or bars who go into a strip mall, put up an Irish flag in the corner, and call themselves and Irish pub.  And in this case, he's probably right.  About the only authentic - or near authentic - thing they had on the food menu was fish and chips.  No shepard's pie, no bangers & mash, no corned beef & cabbage - none of that was found on the menu at Black Dog Pub.  But what they did have to offer was fine for pub fare.  It worked for us that evening.  

M.L. Rose - Nashville

I got into Nashville after a long day of driving - most of it through Central and Southern Illinois in a heavy rainstorm from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl - around 6:00 p.m. one recent day.  I had set up a dinner get together with a former colleague who lives in Nashville.  He asked me what if I wanted to go somewhere upscale or casual.  I said, "Hey, man.  This is your town.  But you know me, casual, good food, beer."  He immediately said, "We're going to M.L. Rose."  

Austin Ray grew up in Nashville, the son of Davidson County's first female sheriff Gayle Ray.  When he got old enough to look for a job, it didn't hurt that his mother had a lot of connections in the community.  Ray's first job at the age of 13 was washing dishes and making sandwiches for a catering company.  Later on, he went to work in the kitchen at The (now-closed) Mad Platter, a trendy restaurant run by Craig and Marcia Jervis located in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood.  After graduating from Hillsboro High School on Nashville's southwest side in 1997, Ray wanted to go to college that had a strong hospitality program.  He chose Boston University in Boston, MA.  

Pictured right - Austin Ray.  Photo courtesy M.L. Rose website.  

While in college at B.U., Ray worked in bars and restaurants learning the trade on the side.  When he got his degree in hospitality from Boston, he was immediately set up to work for a large corporation.  But after a while, Ray found that the corporate lifestyle wasn't his thing, so he moved back to Nashville in 2002 to look for opportunities there.  

Living in an apartment in Nashville's tony Oak Hill neighborhood, Ray started a small catering business using his small kitchen as the main facility.  But it wasn't too long after he started his catering business when he met Benjamin Goldberg, a young man who also had the same drive and vision Ray had in wanting to chart his own course in the restaurant/bar business.   

Ray and Goldberg collaborated on a new upscale nightclub - Bar Twenty3 - which opened in 2004 in Nashville's Gulch neighborhood.  And when two popular live music venues were shut down due to urban development in the fast-changing downtown Nashville area, the two opened City Hall, a live music event space.  But by 2008, Bar Twenty3 had fallen out of favor with new night spots opening up in The Gulch, and City Hall's lease had expired.  Ray and Goldberg closed the bar and the live music venue and went their separate ways.  (Goldberg and his brother Max eventually founded Strategic Hospitality overseeing Nashville restaurants such as The Catbird Seat, Bastian, and Henrietta Red, as well as eateries at local landmarks and venues such as the Nashville International Airport, First Horizon Park, and GEODIS Park.)    

By this time, Ray was now living in the Melrose neighborhood of Nashville and he wanted to have a neighborhood bar that was the antithesis of Bar Twenty3.  While Bar Twenty3 was trendy, upscale and sort of elite, his next project was going to be more of a drinking than eating establishment where every day regulars would show up and enjoy themselves.  

Ray purchased a former gay bar in Melrose - The Chute - and started renovations.  He quickly realized that the building was in bad shape and needed a lot of work.  There were times when Ray questioned his decision to open a bar in the neighborhood, but then he realized that the neighborhood was changing from a seedy section of Nashville into a more gentrified area.  Ray opened the Melrose Pub in 2008.  

Just across the street from the Melrose Pub was a place simply called The Melrose.  It had been there since 1944 and was a dingy dive bar/pool hall.  In fact, it had been there so long that some people thought the neighborhood was named after the pool hall!  With The Melrose just across the street from the Melrose Pub, it soon became evident that when people were going to meet friends at the Melrose Pub, some thought they were to meet at The Melrose across the street.  It got to a point where people would refer to The Melrose as "the dirty Melrose", and the Melrose Pub as "the clean Melrose."  

But some people continued to think the Melrose Pub was the same thing as The Dirty Melrose pool hall and refused to go there.  Austin Ray knew he had a small personality problem on his hands and around 2012 he changed the name from the Melrose Pub to the present day M.L. Rose.  (Ray got the last laugh in the whole deal - he bought The Melrose pool hall in 2016 and spiffed the place up taking a lot of the dinginess out of the place and making it more of a 1940's-style, art deco drinking establishment.  It's still referred to as "The Dirty Melrose", but it is far from that these days.)  

About the time Ray changed the name of his establishment to M.L. Rose, he opened a second location in the Sylvan Park neighborhood.  In 2017, Ray opened a third M.L. Rose location in the Capitol View residential, entertainment and commerce district on the north side of downtown.  In the meantime, he also opened a German-style sausage house and beer hall - Von Elrod's - in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood.  M.L. Rose has seen steady expansion over the years and it is projected that there will be 7 M.L. Rose locations in and around Nashville by the end of this year.  All of the M.L. Rose restaurants, along with Von Elrod's and the Dirty Melrose are under the A. Ray Hospitality banner.  

It was the Sylvan Park location just south of Interstate 40 in West Nashville where my buddy and I were going to meet up. (see map)  I took an Uber to the place because I've sort of learned over the times I've been coming to Nashville that some places either don't have any available parking nearby, or it costs to park with an app on your phone you have to download and enter a credit card for payment.  It turned out that there was sufficient parking in a couple lots near the Sylvan Park M.L. Rose location.    

Out front of this M.L. Rose location was a retro-fitted A-frame patio area that looked like it was added on well after the building had been erected.  It was a good-sized area which may have been larger in capacity from the inside dining area.  Flatscreen televisions were hung in the corners for sporting events.  It was actually more of an "inside" patio.  

Just inside the front door I ran into the main dining area.  It was sort of kitschy, but not to the point of being repulsive.  It was a lively atmosphere in M.L. Rose that evening and all the booths along the wall were full.  It was going to have to be a high-top table in the dining room or near the bar for seating as it was muggy outside from a recent rain shower in the area.  

The bar area was on the long wall of the "L"-shaped restaurant.  It featured a long bar with high-backed chairs and large televisions on the wall on the back bar.  It was sort of packed in the bar when I first got there, so I ended up taking a four-seat high-top table just inside the front door.  

I was greeted by a young guy wearing a Caitlin Clark t-shirt who let me know he would be taking care of me that evening.  I told him that I had a buddy showing up, so we needed a couple food menus.  He dropped the menus off and asked me what I wanted to drink.  I fumbled around looking for a beer menu before the guy pulled one off a holder behind the condiment holder on the table.  They had about 3 dozen beers, ciders and sours available and I was looking for a hazy IPA to try.  While my server patiently waited for me to give him my order - I apologized a couple times while I was perusing the tap menu - I finally settled on a Tunnel Vision hazy IPA from the Bearded Iris brewery in Nashville.

My buddy showed up not long after I got my first beer.  After exchanging pleasantries, our server came back over to take his beer order.  He got a Music City Light from the Music City Beer Company in Nashville.  When he brought my buddy's beer to him at our table, I had to ask the server if he was a big Caitlin Clark fan.  He told us that he was born in Iowa City, but moved to Minnesota as a young boy.  But he went to college at the University of Iowa and I said, "So did I!  I'm from Davenport now!"  My buddy - who is a huge Illinois sports fan - just had to sit there was we talked about how great going to Iowa was.   

The menu at M.L. Rose isn't all that deep.  They have the usual appetizers - wings, pretzel bites, fried pickles and peppers chips, and waffle fries topped with cheddar and jack cheese with bacon bits, diced tomatoes and chopped green onions.  But most of the rest of the menu was devoted to burgers and sandwiches.  I was definitely going to get a burger, but the crispy Buffalo chicken wrap made me pause for a moment.  

My buddy had been to M.L. Rose many times and he said he didn't even need a menu as he knew what he wanted.  He got the Crunchwrap burger - a burger patty topped with a cilantro creme and cheddar and jack cheese tucked inside a tortilla which is then fried.  Shredded lettuce and pico de gallo came on the side along with a chipotle ranch dressing with salsa.  I thought it was pretty interesting and he offered me a bite, but I declined.  "It's like a Mexican hamburger," he said between bites.  "I think it's great!"  

I got the ANM.L.-Style burger with waffle fries.  It's M.L. Rose's take on the famous In-n-Out "animal-style" cheeseburger featuring two smashed burger patties topped with American cheese, stout beer-braised onions, shredded lettuce, tomato slices, dill pickles and finished with M.L. Rose's mayo-based "awesome sauce".  The cheese just oozed out from the sides of the burger patties.  It was a great burger and very messy.  It was at least a five napkin burger.  But the bun held together exceptionally well with the gooey cheese and the dripping sauce on the burger.  

My buddy and I lingered after dinner for a couple more beers getting caught on things in our industry.  He told me that he had just bought a Rivian R1T electric pick-up truck - he had mentioned the last time I saw him when we ran into one another in Fort Wayne earlier in the summer that he was thinking about getting one.  I had to see it and we went out into the parking lot so he could show me his new truck.  I was going to Uber it back to my hotel and he said, "Nonsense.  I'll take you back."  I've always liked the looks of the Rivian trucks when I've seen them on the road and I was pretty impressed with the features - and the power - of my buddy's truck.  

M.L. Rose was exactly what I was looking for - a casual restaurant with a good beer menu, good beers and a laid-back vibe.  Our server that evening - whose name I missed getting - was a good guy, especially for wearing a Caitlin Clark t-shirt.  But he was very attentive and on top of any request or need we had.  While the menu isn't all that big at M.L. Rose, there's enough of a variety for basically anybody.  (There's a Kid's Menu for families, as well.)   It's easy to see why M.L. Rose is one of the more popular burger joints in the Nashville area.  

Countryside Saloon - Des Plaines, IL

Sometime last year, I was stuck in traffic on Dempster Ave. in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines.  There was a wreck and traffic was backing up before the Tri-State Tollway.  I decided to take a bit of a cross-country trip through some back streets where I ended up on Ballard Road.  As I was driving along just before the Tri-State Tollway bridge on Ballard Road, I passed a roadhouse restaurant that I was unfamiliar with.  I was like, "Huh!  I've been coming here for years and never knew this place existed!"  When I got around the traffic jam and back to the hotel a little later on, I looked the place up on the internet.  Turns out the Countryside Saloon had been around since the days of Prohibition and they were a local favorite.  Well, I like finding places the locals like to go to during my travels and I put the Countryside Saloon on my places to visit.  On a recent visit back to Chicago I made it my goal to get back to the Countryside Saloon and check the place out.  

It's rather ironic that a drinking establishment is owned by a guy named Bar.  Cornell Bar had his own construction business in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and was helped in his business by his wife Janet.  His sister Weslie was married to Joe Bellini whose family ran an Italian restaurant/pizzeria on N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.  In the mid-1980's, an old tavern along Ballard Road came up for sale.  The place needed a lot of work, but with Cornell Bar's background in construction, they already had that taken care of.  The Bars and Bellinis took possession of the place in 1986 and set about to give it a needed update.  

The remodeling took some time as the group put in new floors, raised the ceiling inside the building, built an outdoor deck, removed paint that was on the original pine wood walls inside the tavern.  New gables over the entrances, a new paint job on the outside and vines were planted that - word has it - were plucked from the outfield walls at Wrigley Field finished the exterior work.  With Joe Bellini in charge of the kitchen, Countryside Saloon opened in 1987.  

It was just after 5 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at Countryside Saloon.  (see map)  Going into the bar I found an array of festive holiday lights strung around the bar.  I was hoping to belly up to the bar, but all the seats around the square bar were filled with the after work crowd.

The bar had a number of televisions hung around the area.  I figured this would have been a great place to watch sporting events given the number of large flatscreen televisions throughout the bar.  The only problem is that they were a proud and unabashed Wisconsin bar and would showcase University of Wisconsin sports when they were on TV.  For an Iowa Hawkeyes fan, that would have been a bit difficult to stomach.  

Off to the side of the bar area was one of the two dining rooms in Countryside Saloon.  This was a cozy little room with more flatscreens hung along the four walls offering diners a chance to watch a game from different angles. 

I ended up sitting in the great room off the other side of the bar.  This room looked like it had been added onto the original restaurant building with a nice patio area outside.  There was a smaller room in the back of the great room that they were setting up for a group that evening.  

I was handed a menu and started to look through it.  I figured that I was going to get a pizza, but I wanted to check out what else they had to offer.  Of course, they had a wide array of appetizers including wings, fried pickles and a house-made stuffed artichoke with garlic, cheese and breadcrumbs.  There was a Italian restaurant in suburban Kansas City that I used to go to years ago that had a great stuffed artichoke and it brought back some good memories.  

They also had salads, soups and wraps on the menu along with a number of sandwiches including a grilled tuna sandwich, a classic Italian beef sandwich, and a pulled pork sandwich.  They had a full selection of burgers including turkey burgers, veggie burgers and Impossible burgers.  Main entrees included baby back ribs, a fried chicken dinner, and a grilled tuna steak.  

As the waitstaff's flurried activity of getting the back room ready, it was fully evident that they had forgotten about me.  That's one of the bad things about dining alone - you can get looked over pretty easily if you're seated in a dining area.  Finally, I caught the attention of one of the managers - who had passed me a number of times - to let her know that I would like to order up something to drink.  She apologized profusely and directed a young lady to come over to take my order.  

That young lady - Alexa - came over with a menu and saw that I already had one.  She asked if I wanted something to drink and I ordered a Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing IPA.  I also told her that I was ready to order something to eat - I figured it was best to get that out of the way sooner than later given how disjointed the staff was trying to get the room in the back set up.  She realized she didn't have her order pad with her.  She scooted away for a moment to grab something to write on.  

When she came back, well, of course, I ordered my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza.  I got a small 10-inch size (they also have 12", 14", 16" and 18" pizzas) and all their pizzas are thin crust pizzas.  It was cut in the classic Chicago tavern-style way.  The pizza was burnt on the edges - a trademark the Bellini family has had for over 30 years. And they had the holy trinity of oregano flakes, red pepper flakes and grated parmesan cheese on the table to go along with the pizza.  

The pizza itself was just OK, however.  The sauce was pretty bland, the Italian sausage was bland, as well.  I got a bit of a fennel flavor from time to time, but it wasn't that robust Chicago-style fennel Italian sausage taste that I crave.  The oregano flakes and the red pepper flakes helped the overall flavor of the pizza, but I was pretty disappointed in both the sauce and the Italian sausage.  

I was a bit disappointed in Countryside Saloon.  I thought that it could be a new hangout for me when I'm in the Des Plaines area, but the service was choppy and the pizza wasn't one of the best I've had.  And, you know, it may be a good place to catch a game if I'm in the area as they did have a pretty good selection of craft beers to choose from.  It seemed to be a popular place and they seemed to be carrying out a lot of pizzas to other tables, so maybe I need to give their pizza another try at some point.  But I can think of three or four other Chicago tavern-style pizza places in the area that I would probably go to before I go back to Countryside Saloon.   

505 Central Food Hall - Albuquerque, NM

During our trip to New Mexico last year, we found an interesting place not far from our hotel that was an urban food hall that housed 6 different restaurants, two bars/breweries, and a craft coffee shop.  For lunch one day, we decided to go check out 505 Central Food Hall and see what it was all about.   

Mark Baker didn't start out as a food hall owner or a coffee shop owner, but as an architect with an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma.  After working for a few years as a project architect, Baker moved to Los Angeles to work on his masters at UCLA.  While going to school at UCLA, Baker continued to work as a project architect in the greater Los Angeles area.  After graduating with his masters in architecture from UCLA in 2002, Baker moved to Albuquerque and started his own firm - Baker Architecture + Design.    

Baker had a number areas of interest - he was a musician and a part-time songwriter, he played tennis and founded Tennisopolis, the world's largest social network site for tennis players.  But he also loved coffee, especially craft coffee.  In 2014, Baker opened Humble Coffee, a small craft coffee brewer on Lomas Ave. in Albuquerque's Nob Hill neighborhood. 

But Baker also liked to travel and during his time in Europe and South America he noticed a number of food halls in place where people would congregate and have their choice of restaurants where to eat.  It was something that he visualized being in downtown Albuquerque.  So, in 2016 Baker bought the building at 505 Central Avenue just across the street from the historic KiMo Theatre.  The building had three floors each totaling approximately 13,000 square feet in floor space.  Baker planned on having a food hall on the main floor, offices on the 2nd floor, and condos on the 3rd floor.

Pictured right - Mark Baker.  Photo courtesy Albuquerque Business Journal.  

Baker moved his architectural company's offices into the building soon after he bought the building and began the task of designing a food hall similar to the ones he encountered in his travels.  Construction began on the food hall in 2019 and things were moving along nicely until the pandemic hit in March of 2020 basically shutting down all construction and commerce in Albuquerque.  

As the world slowly opened back up in the summer of 2020, construction on the food hall continued and by November the vendors were in place and 505 Central Food Hall opened to much anticipation on November 14, 2020.  9 vendors were in place including a second location of Humble Coffee and Moonwalk Bev - a brewery/distillery that was co-owned by Baker.  

505 Central Food Hall is actually the third food market in the greater Albuquerque area.  In early 2020, Sawmill Market opened on the city's west side near Old Town Albuquerque.  A second food hall - Tin Can Alley - opened in the midst of the pandemic in May of 2020 on Albuquerque's far north side.  A fourth food hall - tentatively named Highlands Central Food Market - has been in development for over 2 years along the Central Ave. corridor on the east side of downtown Albuquerque.  As of now, 505 Central Food Hall is the only one in downtown Albuquerque.  

We got into 505 Central Food Hall around 1:30 that particular afternoon.  It's located at the corner of 5th St. and Central Ave. in downtown Albuquerque, about a three block walk from our hotel. (see map)  The expansive food hall had some vendor booths in the middle and a courtyard of tables along the east wall that looks out on to 5th Street.  

Toward the back opposite corner from the front door was a common area with more tables.  It was a sunny and warm afternoon and there weren't a lot of people in the place so we were able to walk around and check out the vendors in the food hall.

In addition to Humble Coffee and Moonwalk Bev, 505 Central has a taco place (Tino's Tacos), a deli and sandwich shop (Stackt), a spicy chicken joint (KūKri), a ramen noodle place (Naruto Ramen), a pizza joint (Thicc Pizza Co.), and a sports bar/package liquor store (Packie's Bar).  

They also had a burger joint in 505 Central - Stackers Burger Company.  The man behind KūKri n the food hall - Basit Gauba - also owns the Tikka Spice food truck in Albuquerque.  Gauba is a James Beard Award semi-finalist and his food truck also won a local contest for the best green chile cheeseburger in Albuquerque in 2023.  Two spots opened up in the 505 Central Food Hall earlier in 2023 after the vendors didn't renew their leases, and Mark Baker convinced Gauba to open KūKri and Stackers Burger Company in those empty spots.  

And it was at Stackers Burger Company where we ended up.  They had a variety of burgers to choose from and we picked out a couple.  We got our order numbers and went over to Moonwalk to have a drink while we waited for our burgers to cook up.  Moonwalk has sort of a retro-70's vibe to it complete with a large moon on the wall near the bar.  We took a seat at the bar and my wife ordered up a Moonwalk-distilled vodka and cranberry, while I got a Moonwalk India Pale Ale.  I asked the bartender if it would be OK to eat at the bar and she enthusiastically said, "You bet!"

I ended up getting the Duke City Cheeseburger - the recent winner in the Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown contest in Albuquerque.  It featured two smashed burger patties topped with cheese, green chiles, and sautéed onions.  At that point during our trip to New Mexico, I was pretty burnt out on all things chile, but I had to try this burger.  And it was fabulous.  The green chiles had a smoky and earthy quality taste to them.  The burgers were juicy and full of flavor.  It was an outstanding burger. 

All of Stackers Burger Company's burgers come with two patties and my wife wasn't that hungry.  She asked the guy at the counter if she could get just a single burger.  He suggested the classic mustard grilled cheeseburger with just one patty instead of two.  That's what she ended up ordering and she also thought it was very good.  

We've been to food halls before, most notably in Milwaukee and Chicago where they're three or four times larger than 505 Central Food Hall.  But for downtown Albuquerque, this food hall is large enough with enough diversity to take care of people working in the area.  The burgers we had at Stackers Burger Company were excellent - the award winning Duke City Cheeseburger was a great value at $11.95 - and I thought the IPA from Moonwalk Bev in the food hall was very good, as well. The food hall/market concept is one that we're starting to see more and more of where old buildings are being repurposed.  And the 505 Central Food Hall was a good representation of just that.  

Tailor Public House - New York City

While I was in New York City for a dealer expo last year, I had a night to myself and decided to just check out the neighborhood around the hotel.  Not far from the hotel was an interesting looking place called the Tailor Public House.  I thought I'd go in and have a beer just to look around, then after a couple cold ones, I decided have dinner there. 

Since June of 2018, the Tailor Public House has been serving a mixture of English, Irish and American favorites.  The owner - Brendan Creegan - is a serial restaurateur with similar restaurants to the Tailor Public House under his ownership.  In addition to the Tailor Public House located in the Garment District on 8th Ave. in mid-town Manhattan (see map), Creegan also owns Jack Doyle's, an Irish bar just around the corner on 35th Street; and the sports/Irish bar John Sullivan's which is just a few steps to the east of Jack Doyle's.  

I had stayed in the neighborhood around Madison Square Garden/Penn Station on a previous trip to New York a number of years ago, so I was somewhat familiar with the area.  But the Tailor Public House wasn't around when I was last there some 12 to 13 years ago.  (I believe I had been in John Sullivan's before with one of my former colleagues, but I'm not too certain about that.)  

I had actually walked past the front door of the Tailor Public House and it was sort of obscured by a stack of scaffolding in front of the building.  There appeared to be an entrance on 35th St. under a large neon sign that hung over an awning.  However, that door was locked and now I was sort of confused.  I went back around to 8th Ave. and finally figured out that was the main entrance.  

The main entrance off 8th Ave. opened into the main bar are at the Tailor Public House.  There was a large oval bar with a lighted liquor island in the middle of the room with a number of high-top tables interspersed around the room.  Wooden-beamed ceilings with brick walls gave the place a nice cozy feeling.  A hostess asked me if I wanted a table and I told her that I would just sit at the bar.  

There were two or three bartenders working that evening.  One of them dropped a food menu off in front of me and another came by and asked what I wanted to drink.  Somewhat surprisingly, they seemed to have a pretty limited selection of beers on their drink menu - especially craft beers.  They had just 2 or 3 India pale ales available on tap that evening, one of which was the Lagunitas IPA. I really like to try something local when I travel, but the two local IPA's they had listed they were out of that night.  

The food menu featured an array of selections, but it wasn't too deep in each of the categories.  Appetizers included your run-of-the-mill chicken wings and chicken tenders to a poutine appetizer and blistered shishito peppers served with garlic, soy sauce and a lemon aioli.  Small plates such as fried Brussels sprouts, crab cakes and fried calamari were available, as well as a couple pastas dishes including a lobster fettuccine.  They had Irish favorites such as shepherds pie, bangers and mash, and fish and chips, and entrees such as a New York strip, a pan-seared salmon, and a chicken pot pie.  

I was sort of zeroing in on getting a sandwich and they had a few items to choose from.  They had a fried chicken breast with a chipotle aioli that sounded good.  And they had a roasted turkey sandwich and a basic burger on the menu.  But at the end, I decided to go with their reuben sandwich.  

The reuben sandwich at the Tailor Public House featured a half pound of thick slices of corned beef with a Russian dressing, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese.  It was your basic reuben on grilled rye bread.  At first, I wasn't too excited about the presentation as it looked like your run-of-the-mill reuben.

But picking up one half of the sandwich told me otherwise.  It was piled high with corned beef with thick cut Swiss cheese that was oozing with each bite.  It wasn't quite piled as high as some of the New York deli's that are known for their "mile-high" sandwiches, but there was a significant amount of corned beef on the sandwich.  The corned beef had that great seasoned flavor and it was moist and very tasty.  The toasted rye bread held together very well with all the messiness of the dressing, sauerkraut and cheese.  

The fries that came on the plate were seasoned and very good on their own.  They were perfectly cooked with a crunchy outer shell and a soft potato core.  They were the perfect compliment to an excellent reuben sandwich.

While I didn't think much about the presentation of the reuben sandwich when it was put down in front of me, I have to say that the first bite took away any apprehension I had.  It was an excellent reuben and the fries that came on the side were also very good.  I was sort of surprised at the lack of a selection of craft beers - especially locally brewed beers.  But the atmosphere was comfortable and the service I received from the trio of bartenders was efficient and almost robotic.  The Tailor Public House was a nice find as I was walking around the streets of New York City.  

Coal Creek Inn - Coal Valley, IL

My wife and I have a part-time ritual where we like to go out to a place on some Sundays and get a burger and a bloody mary.  We've found a few places around the Quad Cities that are open on Sundays (which aren't chains) where we can have a good burger and settle back with a bloody mary and a beer or two.  Some places that we had in our rotation suddenly either closed on Sunday after the pandemic, or opened later on Sunday.  But one place we've been to three or four times so far is toward the top of our list - and it doesn't even have to be on a Sunday.  This place is Coal Creek Inn in Coal Valley, IL.

When we first started to do our Sunday bloody mary/burger excursions, we liked going over to Bourbons in Coal Valley, a small town on the far southeast side of the Quad Cities.  However, after the pandemic, Bourbons was one of those places that didn't open until later on Sunday.  Across the park from Bourbons was a small steakhouse/supper club joint called Joe's Place.  We had always wanted to try the place, but it seemed to have sporadic hours and it finally closed during the pandemic.  

Local commercial realtor Pieter Hanson listed the property and he saw a lot of potential in the building that would help the surrounding areas of the small downtown area within Coal Valley thrive.  He turned to Nick Bowes, the managing partner at Bent River Brewing Company in downtown Moline, and Bent River's managing brewer Steve Ratcliff to join him in resurrecting the building and putting in a new restaurant/beer bar.  

The group bought the building in 2021 and renovated the whole building including the two apartments above the restaurant/bar.  New kitchen equipment, new tap lines, new electrical systems - basically a wholesale overhaul of everything was done to the building.  By spring of 2022, everything was in place and Coal Creek Inn opened their doors.  The restaurant/bar was named after the creek that flows behind the property in Coal Valley.  

My wife had a day off not too long ago and I told her that I was sort of hungry around lunch time.  She said she was sort of hungry, too.  "What are you hungry for," she asked me.  I told her that I was hungry for a burger and maybe we should go over to Coal Creek Inn and have lunch.  She was more than agreeable with that.  

It's about a 20 minute drive (sometimes less) from our house across I-74 into Illinois.  Coal Creek Inn is located just off US Highway 150 in Coal Valley.  (see map)  Head in parking on the street in front of the restaurant is usually available with a small side lot reserved for motorcycles in warmer weather.  Coal Creek Inn is situated in a two story building with the top floor as an apartment.  

Walking in the door is the bar area of the restaurant.  The room is small and cozy with bleached barn boards on the walls, corrugated tin facades on the bar with wooden floors and dark wood planked ceiling.  Seating is available at the bar or at high-top tables.  With the lighted signage and the flatscreen televisions, the dark room has a distinctive glow.   

There is a larger back room for dining.  It has some decorative wallpaper with a light blue paint scheme where the decorative wallpaper falls away.  We've sat in the dining room a time or two before, but we prefer to sit at one of the high-top tables in the bar area.   

Our server that day was a familiar face - Aubry who my wife immediately recognized from her waiting on us over at Central Standard in Bettendorf a few times in the past.  She was running the front of house at Coal Creek Inn and doing the hiring for all the help.  And because there's a connection between the bar and the brewery, I ordered up a Bent River IPA while my wife just went with water.  I thought about getting a bloody mary, but we were going to be traveling later in the day and I didn't want to get too far on the drinking before we had to leave.  

The menu at Coal Creek Inn is pretty simple, but features a number of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers.  Sides include cottage cheese, cole slaw, fries, tots, and mac 'n cheese.  They grind their own beef at Coal Creek Inn and it includes a blend of chuck, ribeye and brisket.  All burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches are served on a brioche bun.  

About the only thing that I have gotten when I go to Coal Creek Inn is the portobello mushroom/Swiss cheese double-smashed burger with tots.  It's so good that I see no need to even try anything else on the menu.  The burger patties each have a thick slice of Swiss cheese and large slices of sautéed portobello mushrooms laid on top of the double-smashed patties.  The bunch was spongy, but not thick, and it held together very well with the juicy nature of the burger patties.  Oh, man, is it ever a great burger!  And this one that particular day was no exception.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  

And I don't know what it is about the tots at Coal Creek Inn, but they are some of the best I've ever had.  I'm sure they get them from a food purveyor, but they have such a great crunchiness on the outside with a fluffy inside.  The only thing that they don't have at Coal Creek Inn is Cholula hot sauce, something I love to add to any type of fried or roasted potatoes.  But they do have Tabasco, so I was able to spice the tots up just a bit.  

My wife has tried the chicken breast sandwich and the fish and chips on previous visits to Coal Creek Inn.  They had a lunch special that day that consisted of a single flat-grilled burger with a choice of a side.  And that's what she got on this visit.  For her side, she got the cole slaw after Aubry told her that they made it in house.  The burger came with sliced red onions, a tomato slice, lettuce and pickles.  My wife thought the burger was excellent and she really liked the cole slaw, as well.  "They do make a good burger here," she said after downing a bite.  

And they certainly do make a good burger at Coal Creek Inn.  The place is not fancy, nor is it pretentious.  It is basically a great little neighborhood restaurant with a great beer selection, excellent bloody marys and great burgers, all in a comfortable bar setting that is suitable for youngsters.  It was great to get caught up with Aubry who continued her stellar service with us again.  It's a bit of a drive and a bit hard to find, but once you get to Coal Creek Inn, you'll be glad.   

Sedona Taphouse - Troy, MI

One of my largest accounts is located in the northwest suburbs of Detroit.  I was there to have a meeting with them recently and I got in the night before the meeting.  I was looking for someplace to dine that night - a place that had good food and a good beer selection.  After looking up a couple places that were close to the hotel, I settled upon a place that was just down the road a mile or so called Sedona Taphouse.  

I wasn't familiar with Sedona Taphouse and found out after the fact that it was a chain that was found more in the Eastern part of the U.S.  Dennis Barbaro is no stranger to the restaurant business.  The New York native was a director in the Chi Chi's organization when that restaurant was at its heights in the 1990's.  In 1995, he joined OSI Restaurant Partners which was the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's and Bonefish Grill.  He was the managing partner for some Outback Steakhouse franchises and later a Bonefish Grill in Williamsburg, VA.  

Pictured right - Dennis Barbaro.  Photo courtesy Chesterfield Observer.  

Barbaro had a love for craft beer and the foods of the southwest, and in 2010 he came up with a new concept restaurant that would focus on those two things.  The first Sedona Taphouse was opened in Midlothian, VA, a suburb of Richmond, in 2011.  Two years later, a second Sedona Taphouse opened in Charlottesville, VA.  A location in Connecticut was soon opened, along with one more in Virginia and one in New York.  The Troy, MI location opened in 2017.  Today, there are 16 locations in 8 states with a new one slated to open in Pennsylvania early this year.  In addition to the Sedona Taphouse restaurants, Barbaro recently opened a new concept restaurant - Napa Kitchen & Wine in suburban Richmond, VA - that focuses on fresh-sourced foods and wines from the Napa Valley.  

To get from hotel to Sedona Taphouse, I had to make some U-turn maneuvers that I hadn't encountered in my travels.  Big Beaver Road, which Sedona Taphouse is next to, has a series of light-controlled U-turn lanes rather than left-hand turn lanes.  After figuring out how to get across Big Beaver Road, I pulled into the Sedona Taphouse around 7 p.m.  (see map)  There's a large parking lot behind the restaurant and it was packed.  I finally came across someone who was leaving and I was able to park there.   

Inside the restaurant was a large dining area with a number of booths and tables with "Sputnik" Edison-light chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.  Just like the parking lot, the dining area was packed and there were people waiting for tables to open up.  I found out later that there is an upper deck outdoor patio and there were a number of people up there, as well. I figured that the place must be good if there's a crowd in there on a week night and people are waiting for a table. 

I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar and she said it was no problem.  The long bar had a few open seats and I was able to sit in front of the tappers in the middle part of the bar.  A brick facade with the Sedona Taphouse logo on it was just above the tappers.  Glass-front refrigerators on either side of the taps were filled with cans and bottles of craft and imported beers, ciders and sours.  

There were three people bartending and it was a tag team effort waiting on me that evening.  One of the bartenders, a young woman who was working pretty hard, came over with a food menu and a beer menu. They had 50 beers on tap and well over 150 different types of beers in cans and bottles including over 60 different types of India Pale Ale beers to choose from.  I was sort of surprised to see a couple IPA's from the Toppling Goliath brewery in Decorah, IA.  I didn't realize that Toppling Goliath had that far of a reach as Troy, MI is well over 500 miles away from Decorah.  

As I was looking through the beer menu, I was getting annoyed by a guy sitting next to me who was talking about work with who I deemed was a female co-worker.  He was loud, obnoxious and very obviously drunk.  He started telling the woman next to him some off-color and somewhat racist jokes.  After one joke that clearly crossed the line with her, she got up and said, "That's it.  I'm out of here."   The guy protested loudly and told her to come back.  But she didn't want anything to do with him.  It was at that point the lady bartender told him that he needed to pay his bill and leave.  He was sort of quiet and contrite after that.  He soon left and I had more room to spread out.  

I wanted a hazy IPA, but I certainly wasn't going to get a Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue as I can get that back home in Iowa pretty much about anywhere.  I saw a beer on the beer menu, a hazy IPA called Elephant Juice from the Eastern Market Brewing Company, a local brewery in Detroit.  I asked one of the male bartenders if I could get a taste of that.  The female bartender ended up bringing it to me and I took a drink.  I liked it and ordered that.  She went over to the spigot and started to pour the beer.  Right then the keg blew splattering her with foam.  

She came back to me and said, "I'm so, so sorry, but the keg blew."  The front of her shirt was splattered with remnants of the blown keg.  

"Yeah, I can see that," I said.  She said she was going to go check to see if they had another keg of it.  About two minutes later she came back and said that they appeared to be out of that beer.  I winced and sort of groaned.

One of the other bartenders was standing next to her and he saw my reaction.  "What's the matter," he questioned both of us.  She told him that the Elephant Juice had blown and they didn't have another keg.  "Oh, yeah," he said in a matter-of-fact manner.  "There's one back there.  I'll go get it and hook it up."  

The female bartender turned to me and said, "He must have it in a special place back there because I certainly couldn't find it."  Moments later, the male bartender came back out front, gave the female bartender the "thumbs up" and she poured me a fresh beer from the new keg.  And it was worth the wait.  It was an excellent beer and I should have gone to a beer store and looked for some to bring back home with me.  

The food menu featured a wide variety of dishes including wood-grilled steaks, pasta, seafood, burgers and specialty tacos.  The broiled mahi mahi tacos caught my attention right off the bat.  They were topped with avocado slices, sautéed onions, a pineapple mango salsa and a chimi aioli.  The fish tacos were finished with cilantro on top.  OK - I was keeping that open as an option.  

But they also had a Cajun pasta dish that had andouille sausage and shrimp tossed with fettuccine noodles and sautéed mushrooms in a spicy alfredo sauce.  Oooo...  That made my stomach do jumping jacks, it sounded so good.    

Under the "house specialties" section of the menu, they had a couple three things that I saw including a walleye piccata - lightly breaded and pan-seared walleye filets topped with a lemony piccata sauce with capers.  That sounded pretty good to me, as did the chicken marsala - an 8 ounce grilled chicken breast topped with a house-made marsala sauce with sautéed mushrooms.  Man, there were so many things on the menu that were tripping my trigger that I thought I couldn't lose with any of my choices.  

I did order something off the "house specialities" part of the menu and it came with a fresh organic greens dinner salad with sliced fresh tomatoes, heart of palm, and red onions.  The dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette that really popped on the tongue.  Combined with the freshness of the greens and veggies, the salad was a great start to the meal.

I got the barbecued beef short ribs - chunks of angus beef slow-roasted and then finished on a wood-fired grill topped with a sweet Kansas City-style barbecue sauce.  The beef chunks were resting on a bed of garlic-mashed potatoes and a side of a jicama slaw.  The beef was tender and very flavorful with a nice wood-smoked flavor that showed through the sweet barbecue sauce.  There was an ample amount of beef on the plate and it was so good that I devoured the beef down to the last bite.  The garlic-mashed potatoes were a great complement to the barbecued short ribs.  It was a fantastic meal.  

While I normally don't like going to chains, I would have no problem heading back to a Sedona Taphouse should I come across one on the road.  I understand that each location has a unique menu and what you get in Troy, MI may not be the same thing in, say, Charlottesville, VA or Nashville.  What I had at the Troy location - the barbecue beef short ribs - were simply outstanding.  And you can't beat the beer selection, both on tap and in cans and bottles.  With so many choices of beers and different types of beers, there's something for any beer aficionado.  And I also have to give a shout out to the trio of bartenders who worked as a team to make me feel comfortable and to take care of me that evening.  All those combinations made my visit to Sedona Taphouse a tremendous experience.    

City Works - Schaumburg, IL

Earlier this summer, I was in the northwest Chicago suburb of Schaumburg for a trade show.  Attached to the hotel where the trade show was held was a restaurant where I decided to have lunch at one day.  I took a break and sauntered over to City Works located next to the Hyatt Regency hotel.  

As I'd never been to City Works before, I found out after the fact that it's part of a 9 location chain.  The City Works Eatery and Pour House restaurants are part of the Bottleneck Management Group which got its start in 2001 when college buddies Jason Akemann and Nate Hilding opened Trace, a two-story rock and roll-themed restaurant in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood.  Akemann and Hilding ran the business for six years before they decided to expand their holdings with a new restaurant in the Wicker Park area.  In order to pull that off, they enlisted the help of another college friend, Chris Bisallion.  

Bisallion and Hilding grew up in a small town south of Chicago.  They both ended up at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL and that's where both met Akemann.  After college, Bisallion worked at an investment firm for a number of years working his way up to a regional vice-president.  With the company getting ready to expand, Bisallion joined Bottleneck Management in 2007 in charge of site acquisitions.  The group then opened the Boundary, a neighborhood sports bar that closed in 2019.

Pictured right - Chris Bisallion, Jason Akemann and Nate Hilding.  Photo courtesy Illinois Wesleyan University.  

From there Bottleworks Management opened Sweetwater Tavern + Grill along Michigan Ave. in Chicago in 2010.  (Many may remember the space as the old Bennigan's restaurant that had a high profile along one of the world's most famous streets.)  Other restaurants followed including the 2011 opening of South Branch in the Chicago Loop and Old Town Pour House in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood in 2013.  That same year, they opened a second Old Town Pour House location in Oak Brook.  Today, there are two other Old Town Pour House locations - one in far west suburban Naperville and another location in Gaithersburg, MD, the groups first foray outside of the state of Illinois.  

In 2016, Bottleworks Management opened the first City Works Eatery and Pour House in Minneapolis.  The City Works concept beyond what their Old Town Pour House restaurants offered.  It offered an upscale sports bar experience with 90 beers on tap - many that were from local breweries in the Twin Cities area.  A Philadelphia-area City Works came on line in 2016, while a third one opened near Pittsburgh in 2017.  Other City Works Eatery and Pour House locations opened in Doral, FL, Frisco, TX, and Fort Worth, TX.  City Works locations opened in Ohio, Florida, and Massachusetts after that.  

It wasn't until 2019 when Bottleneck Management brought the City Works concept to the Chicagoland area by opening the City Works in Schaumburg.  There are two other City Works Eatery and Pour House locations in the far northern suburbs of Vernon Hills and Wheeling.    

The dining area at City Works is a large open space with wooden beams across the ceiling.  A long bar with a number of flat-screen television hung on the wall behind the bar showing various sports, but primarily Chicago White Sox baseball that day.  A line of booths filled up about half the restaurant while tables and chairs were between the booths and the bar.  

They have outside dining at City Works, as well.   It looked like a nice area to dine or to hang out in the sun and I was sort of surprised that more people weren't taking advantage of the patio as it was nice weather that day.  I did notice that only a couple tables had umbrellas and they weren't open.  I would have thought more emphasis would have been placed on putting people on the patio.  

Since I was a single diner, I ended up sitting at the bar.  I parked myself in front of a large flat screen television with the baseball game on.  Three guys were working behind the long bar and it was a flurry of activity going on.  Finally, one of the bartenders with the name of Jason came over to greet me and to drop off a food menu.  He asked me what to drink and since they had 40 beers on tap, I had to take a minute to digest the beer menu.  

The beer list was on the wall on the far end of the restaurant area.  It featured a lit board with removable slats with the listed beers where they could easily change out for rotation purposes that was mounted to a decorative stone wall.   The majority of the taps are dedicated to local craft beers such as Metropolitan, Two Brothers and Short Fuse Brewing - all three that I have visited or have drank their beers before.  In the mood for a hazy IPA that day, I ordered up a Son of Juice hazy from the Maplewood Brewery and Distillery on N. Maplewood in Chicago.    

As I checked the menu, I immediately saw that they were in brunch.  Well, I didn't want brunch.  I wanted a burger or a sandwich or something completely different from the brunch offerings they had .  When Jason came over to take my food order, I told him that I wasn't in the mood for brunch and that I'd probably just finish up my beer and go grab lunch some other place.  "Wait a minute," he said as he pulled the brunch menu away from me.  "Let me see if I can get them to do something off the regular menu for you."  

He came back moments later out of the kitchen just off the bar and handed me a regular menu.  "Yeah, they said it would be no problem," he said.  I was more than impressed that he was able to accommodate me.  

And, man, did they have a lot of stuff on the menu to choose from.  They had a number of appetizers for single orders or to share with two or more people.  City Works also had a large variety of soups and salads for the offering, and they had a good number of burgers and chicken sandwiches to choose from.  They had pasta dishes and barbecued ribs on the menu, along with main entrées such as a bone-in center-cut pork chop, a peppercorn-crusted rare ahi tuna steak, and a grilled chicken breast served with a mix of white rice, andouille sausage and succotash with a creole butter/chile oil mixture.  They also had a few vegetarian options on the menu, something that I had suddenly been keen on seeing on menus because I work with a guy who is a vegetarian.  

The ahi tuna steak sounded really good, but then I saw the tacos section.  City Works had Chicken Tinga tacos, brisket tacos, barbecued pulled pork tacos, mahi mahi (albeit battered) tacos, and spicy shrimp tacos.  But the one that jumped out at me were the ahi tuna tacos.  I figured that these would tie me over until dinner that night where I was going to have a good ol' thin-crust REAL Chicago-style tavern pizza.  

The soft flour tacos were filled with poké-style ahi tuna and topped with an asian slaw mixture with pickled green chiles, chopped cilantro and served with a sesame ginger vinaigrette that had a cool, yet spicy bite to it.   The ahi tuna tacos were simply outstanding.  There were so many taste variations going on that I swear I must have said, "Mmmmm...." with nearly each bite I took of the tacos.  The homemade crispy tortilla chips on the side were more for decoration for me as I concentrated on the wonderful ahi tuna tacos.  

When Jason asked me how the tacos were, I had my mouth somewhat full and I gave him the thumbs up.  He was still in front of me when I swallowed my bite and before I took my next bite, I said, "These are a spot-hitter!"  

About the only sour aspect of my visit to City Works was this note at the bottom of my ticket: "Due to increased costs of operations, a 3% surcharge has been added to all checks.  This charge may be removed from dining room checks upon your request."  Look, I understand that profit margins in restaurants can be razor thin.  Alcohol is definitely a profit center for many of these restaurants while food costs continue to rise.  And I suppose that the 3% surcharge is cheaper than reprinting about 150 menus with higher food prices.  Still, I just see it as another sneaky fee - like credit card surcharges that are popping up all over the place - that restaurants are starting to implement.  I liken it to a baggage fee that airlines charge passengers.  

With all that said - I didn't ask for the charge to be removed.

Even knowing now that City Works is a small chain, I would have no problem heading back in for another meal if I were to find one in my travels.  The food selection was varied and interesting, the ahi tuna tacos that I had on this visit were outstanding, and the beer selection was top-notch.  And I have to give my bartender/server Jason a shout out for allowing me to order off the regular menu as they were in the midst of brunch and I didn't want brunch.  City Works was a pleasant find in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. 

Flight Bar + Grille - Huxley, IA

Coming down from Minneapolis on a recent trip to the Twin Cities, I decided to continue on toward Des Moines rather that taking the Avenue of the Saints cutoff that shaves about an hour of my drive back home.  The main reason was to stop in the small town of Huxley just south of Ames to try a burger at the 2023 Best Burger in Iowa contest winner, Flight Bar + Grille.  

Since 2010, the Iowa Beef Industry Council has held a contest for the Best Burger in Iowa.  Semi-finalists are determined by a voting campaign (the ballot box is usually "stuffed" by fans and friends of a particular burger joint), and the top 10 vote-getters are then visited by a handful of judges who try the establishments signature burger.  The judges then determine who they feel has the best burger out of the 10 they tried.  Some of the previous winners, well, I thought 2 or 3 of them were pretty bad burgers and I was sort of scratching my head as to why the judges thought that particular burger was the best in Iowa that year.

(As and aside - I've hit all of the winners (click here to see the Road Tips entries on the Best Burger in Iowa category), with the exception of 2 - 2019 winner Wood Iron Grille in Oskaloosa, and 2021 winner Bambino's in Ossian.  One of these days I'll get to those two places to try their burgers.)

The couple who started Flight Bar + Grill have a Quad City-connection.  Matt Pacha and his wife Marianne grew up in Eldridge, IA just north of Davenport.  Pacha got his start at Hy-Vee in Davenport and worked there during high school and into his first couple of years of college at St. Ambrose University.  He wound up as an assistant store manager at one of the Hy-Vee stores in Davenport, then was transferred to one of the Hy-Vee stores in Ames, IA in 2015 where he became the director of store operations, eventually becoming an assistant store manager.  

Pictured right - Marianne and Matt Pacha.  

When Matt was transferred to Ames, they settled in Huxley, IA, a fast-growing commuter town between Ankeny and Ames.  It was similar to Eldridge and they immediately felt an affinity with the town.  Their dream was to start a community-style pub where all ages could congregate over food, drinks and live sports on TV.  

The local high school were named the Bombers and had a B-52 bomber as part of their logo.  The Pachas wanted to use the flight theme for their restaurant and decided it would simply be called Flight.  Work on the restaurant began in the summer of 2021 and hired Katie Boughey as their executive chef.  Boughey and Matt Pacha had worked together at the east Hy-Vee in Ames.  Work progressed and by early March 2022, Flight Bar + Grill opened for business.  

And just a little over one year in business, Flight Bar + Grille hit the jackpot by having their double-smashed patty Foundation burger was judged the best burger in Iowa for 2023.  For each Foundation burger sold at Flight Bar + Grill, the Pachas donate $1 to the Ballard Education Foundation, a non-profit designed to "enhance the educational experiences and opportunities available to students of Ballard Community Schools."

I pulled into Flight Bar + Grill just about 1:30 p.m.  It's located in a strip mall on the far north side of Huxley just about 8 miles south of Ames. (see map)  It's a little strange to get to Flight as you have to pull into the Fareway parking lot and drive to the north side of the strip mal.  Parking was plentiful in the lot in front of the brick building that housed Flight Bar and Grill.

I had accumulated a number of e-mails on my drive between Minneapolis and Huxley and I needed a place to spread out and work on my computer while I had lunch.  It was a nice day and the hostess suggested sitting outside on the covered patio.  I didn't really want to sit outside trying to work, so I went for a table inside the main dining room which was well-lit by the large windows on the north and east side of the room with exposed ductwork in the ceiling.  The hostess seemed to be adamant about seating me outside, but I wanted a four-seat table in the dining area.  She reluctantly dropped off a menu at the table I picked out.  (Note to servers and host staff - Why can't I sit where I want to?  Especially when the restaurant is less than packed?)

My server that day was a nice young lady by the name of Alesha.  She was extremely pleasant during the duration of my visit to Flight.  There weren't a lot of people in the restaurant while I was there, but the high ceiling with no sound treatment, the big windows and the concrete floor told me that this place probably got pretty loud when it filled up.  Alesha asked me what I wanted to drink and I noticed on the drink menu that they had the Big Grove Easy Eddy hazy IPA on tap.  That was an easy choice for me.  

Burgers were the highlight of the menu, but they also had sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads and appetizers to choose from.  It wasn't an extensive menu, but there were enough interesting items to choose from.  

The Foundation burger had two smashed patties on a brioche bun topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, grilled onions and topped with a house-made ground mustard aioli.  Lettuce and a tomato slice finished out the burger.  That sounded good, but it also sounded like a lot of other flavors and I wanted to have a taste of the burger meat more than anything else.  

While the mushroom/Swiss cheese burger with a black pepper aioli sounded intriguing, I went with the Classic burger - a double smashed-patty burger topped with cheddar cheese and a garlic aioli.  I asked Alesha if she could put bacon on it and she said it was no problem.  For a side, I got their house French fries.  

There was a problem with my burger from the start.  First of all, there was no cheddar cheese on the burger.  I thought about asking Alesha to see if she could bring some cheese, but then I thought not.  A large dollop of garlic aioli was placed on top of the bacon which formed an "X" across the top of the burger.  

From the first bite I could tell the burger was over-seasoned.  Whatever salt concoction they put on the burger, well, it was way too much.  The bun was spongy, but there was too much of it.  I started to peel the edges off the burger with each bite.  The garlic aioli was overpowering and there was too much of it on the burger and combined with the over-seasoning, it really hid the taste of the beef in the burger.  It was sort of disappointing and turned out to be somewhat of a gut-bomb.  It sat in my stomach for a long time and I wasn't really hungry when I finally made it home later in the day.  

The fries, however, were pretty good.  They were of the battered variety and had a nice soft potato inlay.  But the burger was so filling that I only had a few before I finally threw in the towel.  

Once again, I have to question what the judges in the Best Burger in Iowa contest were thinking when they named the burger at Flight Bar + Grill as the best in Iowa for 2023.  The Classic burger I had wasn't too much different from the award-winning Foundation burger - other than the cook forgot to put the cheddar cheese on it.  I just wasn't all that impressed with it.  But I do have to admit that Flight Bar + Grill was a nice place and probably a very popular place with the people in the town of Huxley.  I have to hand it to the Pachas for putting something of that caliber in the small - but growing - town.  

Shellback Tavern - Manhattan Beach, CA

During my trip out to California earlier this summer, I was hoping to get together with a friend in Manhattan Beach for dinner the night before I was going to fly back home.  However, he had a family obligation that evening so we weren't able to get together.  Since I was already in the area, I asked him if he could recommend a place that I should go to for dinner.  "Knowing you, I've got the perfect place for you," he said.  "It's a great little dive bar near the pier called Shellback Tavern."  He was adamant that it was my kind of place.  With that, I took off to find the Shellback Tavern and check it out.  

In 1922, the great, great granddaughter of classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach opened Bach's Cafe and Bakery in a small building along the beach in what was just known at Manhattan, CA at the time.  (It became Manhattan Beach in 1927.)  Just after World War II, it became a bar - The Knothole.  The Knothole later became the Surf as a nod to the burgeoning surf culture in Southern California in the late 50's into the early 60's.  A few years later, the Surf morphed into the Shellback which eventually became the Shellback Surf Tavern.  By the turn of the 21st century, the bar/restaurant was known simply as the Shellback Tavern.  It was in 2003 that the iconic Manhattan Beach bar was in financial trouble and was in jeopardy of closing down.  This is where Bob Beverly came to the rescue. 

 

Bob Beverly owned a sports bar in Manhattan Beach and came from local political royalty.  His father, Robert Beverly, was the former mayor of Manhattan Beach and later became a California Assembly representative for Manhattan Beach, then a California State senator.  Bob Beverly sold his interest in Grunions Sports Bar to bail out the Shellback Tavern.  For the past nearly 20 years, Bob has been at the helm of the funky little surf tavern just steps from the Pacific Ocean.  

Pictured right - Bob Beverly.  Photo courtesy Easy Reader News.  

The weather in Southern California had been dicey all week long.  Cool temps, off and on rain, and brisk winds coming off the ocean had been the antithesis of what one would think weather in Southern California would be in the early summer.  But the weather on Friday afternoon had gotten somewhat nicer, although it was cooler at the ocean front.  I drove into downtown Manhattan Beach - which has become one of my more favorite Pacific Ocean towns - and found a parking space on Manhattan Beach Blvd.  

I walked down toward the beach passing a number of restaurants and watering holes.  Some of them looked pretty interesting and I stopped into one place to have a beer.  I contemplated staying at the bar because they had a great beer selection and an interesting menu.  But my buddy told me that I had to get to the Shellback Tavern.

The Shellback Tavern is located at the corner of Manhattan Beach Blvd. and Ocean Dr.  (see map)  It was around 6 p.m. and the Friday evening/end-of-the-week crowd had packed the place.  It would definitely fit in my category of what makes a dive bar.   It was a cacophony of noise in the small place with no seats open at any table.  I figured this was an "eat-at-the-bar" kind of place anyhow.  Classic rock was playing on the sound system and I got a large kick when the women in the bar were loudly singing along with the Toto song "Africa".  

The only problem is that the bar was also packed.  I found a spot at the far end of the short bar - literally the last seat available in the place - and I took it.  The bar had a few flatscreen televisions on the wall along with a lot of colorful signage.  Also colorful were the dozens of Shellback Tavern hats that hung from a line directly above the bar.  I guess the hats are extremely popular, but I didn't pick one up.

One of the bartenders came over with a menu for me to look over.  After ordering a beer - the Hazy A.F. from the Hermosa Brewing Company just a couple miles down the beach in Hermosa Beach - I got up to use the restroom.  Directly behind me was a window that looked out across Ocean Drive to a parking lot with the beach and ocean just beyond.  While it was cool out, the sun felt good and I made a plan to walk out onto the pier after finishing my meal.  

The menu was your typical bar fare - lots of appetizers, burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, wraps and salads.  They also had tacos, chicken tenders, and various sandwiches such as a BLT, a tuna salad sandwich, and a roast beef dip sandwich topped with Swiss cheese and green chiles.

At this point during my trip, I was in a complete and utter food funk.  Really, nothing sounded good to me and I contemplated drinking my beer and heading back up the street to the first bar I had stopped at.  But something on the menu kept popping out at me.  

I ended up getting the grilled mahi mahi tacos.  The tacos were small but loaded with chunks of lightly grilled mahi mahi, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, diced red onions and green chiles on 4 corn taco shells.  (The menu said that it was 3 to an order, but I got 4.)  And I have to say that they were very good.  They were light and not all that filling. They were fine, nothing great and not the best I've had.  But having grilled fish tacos at a place just steps from the beach was a definite plus that evening.

As I was eating my tacos, a tall guy came over to my side and was taking with the bartender.  The bartender said, "Hey, man!  I got some Busch Light for you!"  That immediately got my interest.  Not so much for the quality of the beer he ordered, but THE beer he ordered.  

After I finished my meal and went to the restroom once again, the guy was standing by himself a couple three steps behind where I was seated.  He was tall - at least 6'8" - and looked athletic.  He had a long elastic knee brace on one of his legs.  I went up to him and I asked, "So, where in Iowa are you from?"  

He was kind of taken aback and said, "I'm not from Iowa, but I'm from somewhere close to Iowa."  He wanted to know why I thought he was from Iowa.  I explained to him that Busch Light was, in effect, the state beer of Iowa due to its popularity in my home state.  

"No, I'm from the western suburbs of Chicago and I went to college in Wisconsin," he told me.  He was, indeed, a basketball player during his college years at a small Wisconsin college.   We talked for a bit and he told me that he actually worked for a company in Carroll, IA and was back there two or three times a year.  "The drive from the Omaha airport to Carroll can be a bitch," he told me.  I told him that I had made that trip a number of times in the past and agreed that driving along Highway 30 to Carroll could be tedious at times.  It was sort of fun to connect with a former Midwesterner at the Shellback Tavern.  

After settling up at the tavern, I wanted to walk out onto the Manhattan Beach Pier to enjoy some of the salt air and take in a bit of California on my last night there.  The clouds had thinned out above the ocean, but inland it was still a bit cloudy and somewhat dreary.  The wind coming off the ocean was cool and the temperature was in the upper 60's.  Yet, there were people swimming in the ocean and a lot of people were milling along the beach.  The cool temps didn't seem to affect them.  I have to admit I was somewhat chilled when I walked off the pier.  

My visit to the Shellback Tavern was interesting.  It had a funky party vibe to the place, a loud and active Friday evening crowd blowing off steam from a week of work.  They had a pretty good selection of beers and while their food menu was basically bar food fare, the mahi mahi tacos were good for what they were.  I'm really warming up to Manhattan Beach and am somewhat jealous that my buddy lives there.  The Shellback Tavern would probably be the kind of place that I'd like to hang out at if I lived in the area.  

 

Stout Burgers and Beers - Hollywood, CA

While staying in Hollywood while out in Los Angeles on a business trip earlier this summer, I had a long day of meetings and driving in between.  I guess I thought I was used to driving in big cities like Chicago or Minneapolis, but driving in L.A. just wore me out each day.  I needed something for dinner that night - something like a good burger and a good beer.  I did a quick search and found a place that wasn't too far away from my hotel - Stout Burgers and Beers.  That's where I decided to eat that evening.  

Charles Lew was born and raised in Scotland.  He ended up in Florida going to college in the late 90's and was accepted to law school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.  Lew traveled cross country in his pickup truck and worked a handful of odd jobs while going to law school in L.A., most notably as a bouncer at a bar where he met people from different walks of business life.  It was then where Lew found himself turning into a serial entrepreneur coming up with a number of different business ideas.    

After getting his law degree, Lew applied for a brokerage license to sell stocks.  However, the 2008 recession nearly wiped him out and he was forced to go into the legal profession.  He established The Lew Firm, a small law firm that represented people associated with the L.A. music scene, hospitality ventures, entertainment and sports.  But Lew and a friend had an idea of a craft beer restaurant that sold upscale burgers. 

Alex Kagianaris was a New York City native who was the son of Greek immigrants.  After graduating high school at 16, Kagianaris went cross country to do his undergraduate work at the University of California-Berkeley where he focused on communications with an eye on sports broadcasting and possible sports management.  After graduating from Berkeley, Kagianaris entered Loyola Marymount's law school and met Lew.  The two hit it off with their love of craft beers and late night cheeseburgers after an evening of partying.  

After graduating from law school, Kagianaris went to work as a legal counsel for a small independent record label with offices in L.A. and London.  From there, Kagianaris worked on the in-house legal staff at Warner Music Group.  While he liked his job at Warner Music, Kagianaris really wanted to do something that was more entrepreneurial in nature.  Many times he lamented the lack of good craft beer places in Los Angeles, at least compared to other large cities around the nation.  He talked about his dream of an upscale burger place with Charles Lew many times before the two decided to start their own place.

As the new venture was being formulated, Kagianaris hired a friend who was a trained chef to concoct the burgers for the menu.  The only problem was that Kagianaris wasn't too enamored with the burgers the guy was coming up with.  With Lew's blessing, Kagianaris decided to fire his friend the chef and work on the burger menu himself.  Working as an attorney during the day, Kagianaris would come home at night and work on meat blends and how the burgers tasted with different types of cheeses, condiments and other toppings.  

Pictured right - Charles Lew and Alex Kagianaris.  Photo courtesy LAVoyage.

Convinced they had a winning combination, Stout Burgers and Beers opened in Hollywood in 2009.  And it was a hit from the start.  Within a couple years, the two decided to open their second Stout Burgers in Santa Monica.  But before that happened, Kagianaris decided to quit his law practice and went to Le Cordon Blue cooking school to learn how to be a proper chef.  These days, Kagianaris goes by the nickname "Chef".  

Within a few years, Lew and Kagianaris opened more Stout Burgers and Beers across Southern California.  In addition to the Stout Burgers and Beers restaurants, Lew and Kagianaris - under the KAGLEW Consulting Group - have established the Boomtown Brewery and The Morrison Pub (named after Lew's mother's maiden name) with locations in Atwater Beach and in Burbank.  (Note - the Stouts Irish Pub locations in Clinton and Bettendorf are not affiliated with Stout Burgers and Beers.)  

The weather during my time in Southern California was far from what one would think summertime weather would be for the area.  Most of the days were damp with drizzle or spitting rain, cloudy skies and a brisk wind coming off the ocean.  Many of the locals said talked about the "June Gloom" where it's cloudy and damp in the mornings from the marine layer coming off the ocean, but it usually lifts late morning for sunny afternoons.  The only problem for the days I was out there, the marine layer hardly ever lifted.  While it was cloudy and in the low 60's in Los Angeles, out toward San Bernardido - 60 miles from L.A. - the weather was sunny and warm.  

And it was that way the evening I wanted to go to Stout Burger and Beers  It was only about a 3/4 mile journey from my hotel to the restaurant, but it was A) spitting rain; and B) I didn't want to walk by myself back to the hotel after dark as Hollywood is pretty chancy in some areas.  I found a parking spot just down the block from Stout Burgers and Beers located in an L-shaped strip mall at the corner of Selma Ave. and N. Cahuenga Blvd.  (see map) 

As I was walking through the parking lot of the strip mall, there were a couple other restaurants attached to Stout Burgers - 3rd Base, an upscale sports bar; and Trejo's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant owned by actor Danny Trejo.  The exhaust smell of burgers cooking on the grill coming from Stout Burgers and Beers trumped anything those two places had to offer.   

Now, I didn't know Stout Burgers was a chain when I walked into the building.  It looked like it was a small neighborhood brick-faced burger joint that had been there for years.  (Well, actually, they'd been there 14 years.)  Inside, it featured a mish-mash of tables that didn't match along with metal chairs at the tables.  Plastic covers were down over the usually open windows because of the cool temps and the off-and-on rain we were having in usually sunny Southern California that day.   And interesting mix of music from the likes of Shania Twain, Ice Cube, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pat Benatar was playing on the restaurant's sound system in the background.

The semi-circular stone-topped bar was prominent in the corner with a handful of spigots on the wall behind the brick-faced bar.  Those metal stools that I hate were what was all to sit on at the bar.  I thought to myself that anyone who uses bar stools like these really doesn't want their patrons to linger at the bar too long.  

I sat down at the bar and one of the bartenders was a lady by the name of Lauren.  She was very neutral in her demeanor when she came over to great me.  She was sort of doing two things at once when she picked up a table card with a QR code on it for the menu and plopped it down in front of me, pointing at it after she did so.  "Know what you want to drink," she asked hurriedly.  "Well, actually, no - this is my first visit," as I thought to myself, pulling out the my phone to take a picture of the QR code that took me to a web site with the food and beer menu.  

Normally, I would post a link to the menus on this post, but there is no website for Stout Burgers and Beers. That's sort of strange they don't have a website or much of a social media presence considering both owners have their own personal websites.

The menu had, well, burgers and beers.  I saw a hazy IPA from the Radiant Beer Company from out in Anaheim south and east of Los Angeles.  It was a great beer and I definitely had more than one during my visit.  I understand they have a guy who travels the country searching for interesting beers that they can serve to their customers at their restaurants.  Man, how do I sign up for THAT job!

They had about six or seven burgers on the menu including a basic cheeseburger and a spicy-style burger.  I seem to remember they had a couple of vegan burgers available, as well as a chicken sandwich.  My burger choice that evening was the Truffle Shuffle burger - a burger patty topped with brie cheese, sautéed mushrooms and a truffle aioli.  For sides I had choices of fries, onion rings and tots.  Of course I took the tots.  (I did note that they had loaded tots for an upcharge.  They were tots with mixed with crispy prosciutto ham, chopped chives and topped with a mornay sauce (made with greyère cheese).   And I was happy that they had Cholula to go along with the tots.  

The Truffle Shuffle burger was one of those where I took the first bite of the burger and I went, "Mmmmm...."   The burger was juicy and full of flavor.  The brie cheese was light and didn't mask the taste of the beef, the sautéed mushrooms were a nice complement to the beef, and even though I knew it was on the burger, the truffle aioli wasn't forward or pronounced where it didn't overpower the other features of the burger.  The bun held together with all the messiness from the cheese, aioli and the juiciness of the burger.  It was simply a great burger.  

The tots, well, they were tots.  They were fine.  There were way too many of them for me to eat given the size of the burger, but they were tasty.

Lauren's demeanor didn't change the whole time I was there - she didn't get friendly, nor was she snotty.  I encounter those kind of servers or bartenders from time to time and I'm OK with it.   It's tough as a single diner away from home, but as long as they take care of me and don't leave me hanging when I need something. I will say Lauren was efficient.

I wouldn't have guessed that Stout Burgers and Beers was a chain at any point during my visit.  I didn't find that out until I was doing some research on the place on-line.  But it was also tough to learn about the place as they really had no website or online presence.  But the burger I had and the beer selections available at Stout Burgers and Beers spoke loudly.  It was an excellent burger and one that was very memorable.  I'm glad to hear there's a Stouts Burgers in the Nashville area as I'll be back there sometime in the near future.  I'll have to check it out to see if it's as good as the original Stouts Burgers and Beers I tried in Hollywood. 

Gastro Pub and Grub - Waukee, IA

I was staying in the western suburbs of Des Moines on a recent trip through the area and I have to admit I'm not as up to speed with restaurants in the fast growing areas of Waukee, Grimes and Johnston.  I grew up 35 miles from Des Moines and the expansion - especially to the north and west of the city - has been somewhat mind-boggling to me.  I found a couple places that I wanted to try out, one was a sports bar located in a strip mall and it appeared to be packed.  I went with "Plan B" and that turned out to be a little place called Gastro Grub & Pub.  I wasn't too enamored with the name of the place, but I decided to give it a try.   

Sean Gleason and Andrea Cunningham were Iowa natives who ended up out on the west coast to further their culinary careers.  Sean graduated with honors from a one-year accelerated program at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena and went to work at the West Hollywood location for the Fig & Olive (now closed) Mediterranean restaurant.  Sean Gleason went on to become the executive sous chef at the now-closed Village Idiot on Melrose Ave in L.A.  Along the way, Sean learned how to butcher and was cutting chicken, pork and beef for the restaurant.   

Meanwhile, Andrea Cunningham was working in a sushi restaurant in L.A. and the two wanted to move back to Iowa to be closer to family.  Sean grew up in Des Moines while Andrea grew up just south of Des Moines in Norwalk.  They moved back to Iowa in 2014 and started up a food truck - Gastro Grub - a year later.   

Pictured right - Sean and Andrea Gleason.  Photo courtesy the Des Moines Register 

The Gastro Grub food truck made regular stops at local farmers markets and microbreweries, and soon garnered a reputation for having some of the best buttermilk fried chicken and deep-fried Brussels sprouts around.  A local entertainment news magazine - Cityview - named Gastro Grub as the runner-up for Best Food Truck in the Des Moines area in 2016. 

After getting married in 2017, the Gleasons were looking forward to opening their own brick and mortar restaurant expanding their food menu along the way.  Louie's Wine Dive, a Kansas City-based restaurant that specializes in locally-sourced food, was looking to move out of their Waukee building to a new location in the Des Moines city limits.  The space Louie's was giving up was perfect for the Gleasons to open their new restaurant.  

Things were progressing to an opening in the fall of 2017 when Andrea Gleason received some devastating news - she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of melanoma.  Work on their new restaurant ground to a halt as the Gleasons dealt with Andrea's treatments.  Her stage IV melanoma was not responding to chemotherapy and had spread to her lymph nodes.  Doctors felt her cancer was inoperable, but they decided to give surgery a try as a last ditch effort to stop the spread.  The surgery proved to be successful and doctors were certain that they got most of the cancer out of Andrea.  She began to receive radiation treatments soon thereafter.

With Andrea's cancer in remission - she is now cancer free - Gastro Grub & Pub opened in January of 2018.  The Gleasons continued to operate their food truck in the warmer months to help get the word out of their new brick and mortar location in Waukee.  

Sean Gleason focused on sourcing locally grown food for the restaurant.  A number of local breweries supplied beer to the restaurant and Iowa-based Templeton Rye played a big part of their spirit selection.  The Gleasons also decided to give back to the community where they donate a portion of their profits each month to a local charity or organization.  

I drove west on Hickman Road and found Gastro Grub & Pub in a strip mall on the south side of the street.  (see map)  The restaurant is located on the far eastern end of the strip mall with an open field beside it.  A nearly full moon was rising in the eastern sky as the sun was beginning to set.  

Gastro Grub & Pub had a contemporary theme for its decor.  A large open window into the kitchen was in the back of the space and there were assorted high-top and regular height tables in the dining area.

The bar area is off to the left as you come into the restaurant.  There's a garage door behind the bar that opens into a patio area on warmer days.  It was actually a nice night that evening with a few people sitting on the patio.  I had my choice of sitting at a table or at the bar.  I chose the bar.  The bartender/server that evening was a young lady by the name of Mary who was holding court with some other people seated at the bar.  It was evident through her conversations with them that they were regulars at Gastro Grub & Pub.  

I got a food menu from Mary and she asked me what I wanted to drink.  I saw that they had a hazy IPA from the Reclaimed Rails brewery in the Des Moines suburb of Bondurant and I ordered that.  However, Mary said that they were out of that selection at the time.  She gave me a sample of a couple others IPA's to try including one from the Nerdspeak brewery out of the Iowa Quad Cities that was way too sweet.  (Nerdspeak announced about six weeks ago that they were possibly closing.  It wasn't one of our favorites and we weren't surprised to learn they were thinking of closing.)   I ended up getting a West Eddy West Coast IPA from the Big Grove brewery in Solon and Iowa City.  

I had been on the road for a few days and I was sort of in a food funk.  I had a burger the night before in Omaha and didn't really want a burger even though they had a Wagyu burger on the menu with beef locally sourced from Lost Hills Farm in southern Iowa.  Their original Bacon Jam burger was on the menu, as well.  They had a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich as well as a short rib grilled cheese sandwich that looked interesting to me.  Entrees included a steak & frites plate, shrimp and grits, and a grilled chicken pasta in a Cajun-seasoned alfredo sauce.  I came real close to getting that.

But something on the appetizer part of the menu stood out for me - the steak Deburgo poutine.  It featured chunks of steak on a bed of fries covered in a creamy Deburgo sauce with white cheddar cheese curds and finished with fresh scallions.  It wasn't exactly like Quebec-style poutine, but it was interesting enough.

And it tasted pretty good, too.  And it was very rich.  I mean, really rich.  It was all I could do to finish even half of it.  I put a significant dent in the poutine before I finally had to throw in the towel.  Mary asked me if I wanted to take the rest of it in a to-go box, but I passed.  

 

I really didn't know if I would like Gastro Grub & Pub when I first looked through the menu, but I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the steak Deburgo poutine that I had that evening.  I would have liked to have tried one of their burgers, but being burnt out on burgers at that point I'm glad that I went with the poutine appetizer which was more than enough food.  Gastro Grub & Pub was a pretty good find and one I would recommend trying if you're in the western suburbs of Des Moines.  

The Flying Elbow - Marshalltown, IA

Traveling around Iowa for a number of years, I've always wanted to find some of the better burger places around the state.  In 2010, the Iowa Beef Industry Council has staged its "Best Burger in Iowa" contest.  I've had the pleasure of visiting many of the winners over the years (click here to see the entries) and while most have been pretty good, a couple three I've scratched my head and wondered how in the hell that particular burger got the "Best Burger in Iowa" award.  I recently had a chance to go to the 2022 winner of the Best Burger contest - The Flying Elbow in Marshalltown, IA.  But let me first tell you how this unique burger and beer joint with a pro wrestling theme came to pass.

Garrett Goodman was a Marshall County native who graduated from East Marshall High School in Le Grand, IA in 2004.  Goodman dabbled in a little bit of this and that after he got out of high school.  He's a musician whose music and voice have been heard on advertisements across the state of Iowa, he was an IT manager at Emerson/Fisher Controls in Marshalltown, and he worked along side his step-father in a restaurant kitchen.  It was while working in a kitchen at a small steakhouse in Laurel, IA where he found that he loved working in a restaurant the most.  

After accepting a voluntary severance from Emerson/Fisher Control in 2016, Goodman went into the restaurant business for himself starting up what turned out to be a very popular professional wrestling-themed food truck which mainly focused on unique styles of gourmet hot dogs but also served basic burgers.  Like most food truck vendors, Goodman hoped to open his own brick-and-mortar business and that time came in May of 2018 when he opened the first incarnation of The Flying Elbow in downtown Marshalltown.

Pictured right - Garrett Goodman.  Photo courtesy Marshalltown Times-Republican.

Two months to the day after The Flying Elbow opened, downtown Marshalltown was hit by a devastating tornado that tore the roof off the restaurant's structure allowing a torrent of rainwater to come in and basically destroy everything.  With his dream of operating a restaurant smacked down for the time being, Goodman helped with the relief efforts in the aftermath of the tornado by handing out free hot dogs from his resurrected food truck.  

Goodman continued out of his food truck until the pandemic hit.  Then five months into the pandemic, a derecho that raced across Iowa one August day caused as much damage as the devastating tornado two years prior.  Goodman's dreams were suddenly body slammed, but as Goodman "bridged" long enough to keep him from getting pinned, it allowed him to get his second wind and go in a different direction.

It was a chance invitation by a couple friends who owned a bowling alley/arcade/event space that put Goodman back into the restaurant business while he was looking for a new place to take the place of his now-demolished original Flying Elbow.  At Wayward Social in Marshalltown, Goodman oversaw a kitchen that made pizzas, wings, sandwiches and burgers.  It was at Wayward Social where Goodman first started to make his now signature smashed burgers.  

A local real estate agent came to Goodman with a spot on Marshalltown's 13th Street corridor, an area with bars, restaurants and shops on the city's northwest side.  Goodman jumped at the chance and opened a new and improved Flying Elbow in September of 2021 complete with its World Wrestling Entertainment design and motif.  

Gourmet hot dogs were still the focus at The Flying Elbow, but when business slowed down considerably in the winter months Goodman and his co-workers sat down to figure out someway to help grow the business.  They had joked on a couple of occasions that maybe they should add burgers to the menu.  Goodman knew how to make a good smashed burger from his time at Wayward Social, so one day he came in with new menus, handed them out to the staff and basically said, "We're gonna start doing flat-grilled burgers."  The staff was incredulous as they thought he was joking, but Goodman was serious about the pivot to burgers while keeping the gourmet hot dogs on the menu.

Goodman came up with a blend of ground chuck, brisket, short rib and Wagyu beef - a combination that Goodman believes is the only of its kind for a burger joint in Iowa - and added a new style of bun that wasn't too thick, but held together with all the various toppings on The Flying Elbow's burgers.  It wasn't long before word got out The Flying Elbow had a great burger and it caught the attention of the Iowa Beef Industry Council after the burger joint garnered enough votes just 3 months after starting to make their burgers to be named a finalist for the Best Burger in Iowa contest in 2022.  A month later, a panel of judges called The Flying Elbow's burgers to be the best in Iowa.  Sort of remarkable for a restaurant who had just been making burgers for less than 5 months!

Business doubled overnight after the announcement.  Goodman said that in 2022 alone the restaurant made over 65,000 burgers.  It looked like his decision to add burgers turned out to be the right one!

As a young boy, Goodman remembered the family significance of barbecuing and smoking meats on Sundays.  He had a small smoker at The Flying Elbow where he would smoke pork shoulders and experimented with making some barbecue specialties to sell alongside the burgers and hot dogs.  In late 2022, Goodman got more serious about his barbecue upgrading his small smoker to a 300-gallon wood fired smoker where he can smoke his pork shoulders the traditional way - low and slow over a combination of oak and cherry wood.  

Once again, Goodman struck lightning and earlier this year The Flying Elbow was crowned as having the best pulled pork sandwich in the state of Iowa by the Iowa Pork Producers Association.  So, in the space of 10 months, The Flying Elbow has the best burger and the best pulled pork sandwich in the state of Iowa!  Now, THAT, is truly a remarkable feat by any measure!

I was back in the Newton area seeing some friends and family a couple months ago when I announced to a buddy of mine that I was planning on going up to Marshalltown (about a half-hour drive north of Newton) to check out The Flying Elbow.  He wasn't familiar with the place, but after I told him that it had won the 2022 Best Burger in Iowa contest, he was up for a road trip.  With some detours caused by road work between Newton and Marshalltown giving us more of a 45 minute trip to get to the burger and beer joint, it was just after 1 p.m. when we pulled up in front of The Flying Elbow.  (see map)  

The first thing you see when you get inside the door at The Flying Elbow is a small bar with a selection of craft beers on tap and a selection of liquor on shelves on either side of the spigots.  Interestingly, there were a number of model characters of pro wrestlers from over the years.  My buddy was a big pro wrestling fan and he recognized a few of the figurines on the shelves above the liquor.  One of the televisions behind the bar was tuned to a classic professional wrestling match that featured WWE superstar Ric Flair.  

The dining area at The Flying Elbow is a short narrow space with a line-up of windows allowing a lot of natural light to come in and brighten the area.  There was a small eating bar along the wall and a smattering of wooden tables throughout the restaurant.  By my estimation, The Flying Elbow could hold up to about 24 to 28 people.   

The menu was located on a board above the window that looked into the kitchen.  A regular menu was available at the walk-up counter where you order your food.  Burgers, sandwiches and, of course, hot dogs were the main items on the menu. 

While at the ordering counter, I was able to catch a glimpse of the well-seasoned flat-top gas grill at The Flying Elbow.  There was a big guy who was the burger chef that day and I remarked to my buddy that it looked like he wouldn't have any problem smashing the burgers on the grill.  

Some of the specialty burgers on the menu included the "Nacho Man" burger that was topped with cheddar cheese, guacamole, jalapeños, salsa, nacho Doritos, sour cream, and finished with a nacho cheese sauce.  That burger, alone, would have been a 10-napkin burger.  The "Mr. Mac'Man Burger" had cheddar cheese, mac and cheese, green onions and sprinkled with Cheetos dust.   And the "Texas Rattlesnake Burger" featured pepper jack cheese, The Flying Elbow's housemade chili, chili/cheese Fritos, fried jalapeños, sour cream, and finished with red and green onions.  

Their featured sandwich that day was a smoked pulled pork on jalapeño cheddar corn bread with shaved ham, havarti cheese, Chico's BBQ sauce, and and finished with pickled red onions and dill pickles.  That sounded scrumptious.  And for fun, I looked at the 3:16 Chili Dog which featured The Flying Elbow's housemade chili with a choice of three different toppings including cheese, sour cream, chili-cheese Fritos, and nacho cheese sauce.  I would have probably just gotten the regular Coney-style with the chili dog topped with onions and yellow mustard.  

My buddy made me a deal - since I drove he said he would pay for our burgers while I would get the beers.  Fair enough, I thought.  As he ordered up our burgers, I went to the bar and got a Big Grove Easy Eddy that they had on tap.  My buddy wanted something light and I ordered up a Backpocket Gold Coin blonde ale for him.  The Flying Elbow also has a number of Iowa craft beers in cans to choose from.  

I had my buddy order up the Real American burger with two patties for me.  I thought about the Brisco burger that was served on Texas toast and topped with Swiss and American cheese, bacon and Roma tomato slices.  But I thought for my first burger at The Flying Elbow, I just wanted a basic burger to be able to enjoy the flavor of the beef.  I got a side of fries to go along with the burger which was topped with American cheese on both patties, along with grilled onions, dill pickles, ketchup and yellow mustard.  

My buddy got the "Vinnie" burger - two beef patties topped American cheese, and finished with shredded lettuce, grilled onions and dill pickles.  Thousand Island dressing usually comes on the burger, but he asked for it on the side.  He got a boat of The Flying Elbow's potato salad - one of the many sides that were available including smoked baked beans, fried cheese curds, creamy cole slaw and something they called "Vader Tots" which were housemade tots with a cherry-smoked ketchup.  

From the first bite, I knew this had to be an award winning burger.  The beef was so flavorful and juicy, the cheese just oozed off the top of the patties, and the sesame-seed bun was light and helped with the overall taste of the burger.  It was an outstanding burger.

My buddy was amazed with his burger.  "Wow," he exclaimed about three bites into his "Vinnie" burger.  "I'm glad you talked me into to coming up here with you!"  

There were a lot of fries in my boat and I offered some up to my buddy.  They were perfectly cooked with a crispy outer shell and a nice spongy interior.  He said that he wouldn't be able to eat all of his potato salad and I had a couple bites to try it out.  It, too, was very good with a great original taste.  

The Flying Elbow was more than worthy of garnering the Best Burger in Iowa award for 2022.  I've tried nearly every winner of the contest and I might have to say that the burger at The Flying Elbow is the best of them all.  The Real American double cheeseburger that I had had an outstanding taste quality.  The bun was light enough not to overpowering the quality beef taste, but was heavy duty enough to withstand the oozing American cheese and the juices from the beef patties.  My buddy was more than happy and somewhat surprised at how good his burger was.  (He's since gone back to The Flying Elbow at least one time since our initial visit.)  If you have the chance to get to Marshalltown at any point, do not leave town without trying The Flying Elbow and one of their award winning burgers.  (And their award winning pulled pork sandwich!)  

Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint - Nashville

With my new job, it appears that I'll be in Nashville three or four times a year calling on accounts who cater to the music industry in the city.  I have a former colleague who moved to Nashville a few years ago and we were able to get together at a burger and beer place near his home just north of downtown Nashville.  We made a date to meet at Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint.  

While I was not familiar with Jack Brown's, it turns out that it's a multi-location chain that started out in Harrisonburg, VA in 2009.  But long before they opened their first restaurant, Aaron Ludwig and Mike Sabin were pre-teen friends hanging out riding their skateboards around their neighborhood in Alexandria, VA.  And while they were out palling around on their boards, they started to collect beer cans.  They would find some along the roadways, or sometimes they'd dumpster dive behind bars to find other beers cans.  When their respective fathers would travel, the boys would ask them to bring home unique beer cans that weren't available in their home area.  

When the boys graduated from high school, the now-large beer can collection was stored in multiple boxes in the attic of their parents' homes.  The two teenagers went off in different directions - Ludwig to Radford University in his home state of Virginia, and Sabin went to Miami Beach to start on the bottom rung of a culinary career. They kept in touch over the years, even talking about one day opening their own bar.  

Ludwig eventually moved to Harrisonburg and opened up a ski and snowboard shop.  Sabin had worked his way up through multiple levels of the restaurant business eventually becoming an executive chef.  In the mid-00's, Sabin moved back to Virginia to become the sous chef at the prestigious Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA.  

One day in 2008, Ludwig had a particularly tough day at work and he called Sabin to vent.  The two started to talk about a change in their lives (both were in their mid-30's) and they brought up their longtime dream to have their own bar and restaurant.  Ludwig was now a proficient home brewer while Sabin knew the nuts and bolts of the restaurant industry.  Ludwig decided to sell his ski shop and Sabin left his job at the Inn at Little Washington and worked on opening their first place that focused on a large number of craft beers and high quality burgers.  In 2009, Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint opened their doors - the beer can collection that had been stored in their parents' attic was now on full display in their dive-bar-style joint.  

Pictured right - Mike Sabin (left) and Jack Ludwig (right).  Photo courtesy Virginia Living magazine.  

Now, you would think that Jack Brown was possibly an influential friend, mentor or family member for Ludwig and Sabin, but the two came up with the name as kind of a joke.  When they were younger and couldn't remember the name of a person, they would just call that person "Jack Brown".  It stuck with them over the years and it became a permanent part of their lives, now immortalized by naming their restaurant after the fictitious name they gave to people whose names they couldn't come up with.  

Ludwig and Sabin knew that having good meat was the key to a great burger.  They decided on using American Wagyu beef - a result of cross-breeding between Japanese Kobe cattle and American black angus cattle.  They found a ranch in Idaho - Snake River Farms - a family-owned operation outside of Boise that was one of the pioneers of American Wagyu beef.  Sabin and Ludwig contracted with Snake River Farms to produce the 73/27 beef to fat ratio that has a complex flavor and a buttery texture for their burgers.

Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint found huge success and the blueprint for the business was forged for future expansion.  After a few years, Brown and Ludwig expanded across Virginia and into the Carolinas.  Today, there are 17 Jack Brown's locations in six states in the south with 3 more locations slated to open before the end of 2023.  Each location features over 100 craft beers and a number of specialty burgers including the Shocker (burger topped with jalapeño and habenero peppers with pepper jack cheese), the Elvis (topped with peanut butter, mayo and applewood smoked bacon), and the "Greg Brady" (topped with mac & cheese, and barbecued potato chips).  

(In 2011, Ludwig and Sabin opened a new concept restaurant just a couple doors down from the original Jack Brown's - Billy Jack's Shack - a restaurant that combined some of the menu items from Jack Brown's and added chicken sandwiches, sliders and wings to the mix.  Today, there are 3 Billy Jack's locations - the original one in Harrisonburg, VA, one in Fort Lauderdale-by-the Sea, FL, and one in Charlotte, NC.)  

There are two Jack Brown's locations in Nashville - one in the Germantown neighborhood north of downtown Nashville; and the other in the Edgehill Village neighborhood near Vanderbilt University and Music Row.  My friend lives in Germantown and we decided to meet up there.  (see map)  

There's a small parking lot next to Jack Brown's Germantown location, but that was full when I pulled up.  There's a larger lot to the south of the restaurant that is owned by the City of Nashville and to pay you have to download an application, scan a QR code on a sign and pay via phone.  Well, that turned out to be an ordeal - especially if you don't have the app downloaded prior to parking.  It took me a good 12 to 15 minutes to negotiate the twists and turns of the app and assign a credit card to the payment.  Then snatching the QR code was a pain as I needed to keep a couple windows open on my phone to toggle back and forth to put in my vehicle information and to finally pay.  It drove me friggin' crazy.  

When I met up with my buddy later, he asked me where I had parked and I told him that I parked in the city lot to the south of Jack Brown's and how much of an ordeal it was to get set up to pay for the parking.  "But you did pay for the parking, right?"  I said that I had. "Good.  They're pretty militant about not paying in those lots."  And to that point, when we walked out to the parking lot after we had eaten, parked next to my buddy's 60's vintage Chevrolet pick-up was a vehicle with a Denver Boot on it.  "Oh, man.  Bummer," my buddy said.  "That guy was parked there when I pulled in.  Obviously, he didn't use the app."  

I was still trying to figure out the parking payment app as I walked into Jack Brown's.  It was an unseasonably warm evening (I left Iowa earlier in the day in rain and the temperature in the 50's and got into Nashville with sunny skies and temps in the upper 80's) and the place was packed with people.  There were no seats to be had at any of the tables inside the small dining area or in an enclosed patio on the side.  I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar as there were three or four seats open.  She said it was no problem and I took one of the seats with an open stool next to me for my buddy to have when he showed up.  One of the many bartenders at the bar came over and asked me what I'd like to drink.  I asked about a hazy IPA and she suggested a Hazy Jane from the BrewDog brewery in Columbus, OH.  BrewDog started in Scotland in 2007 and expanded operations into the US in 2015.  It was a very good beer and I was more than happy with her suggestion.

My buddy showed up almost as soon as I had my first Hazy Jane drained and sat down next to me.  We caught up on a few things and then started to look over the menu.  Each day, Jack Brown's features a burger on the menu and that day it was a burger topped with a sweet and hot Asian slaw mixture with smoked pork belly and a chili/garlic mayo blend.  My buddy said he likes coming on Friday when the featured burger is topped with fresh guacamole and applewood smoked bacon.  

All the burgers at Jack Brown's are cooked on a well-seasoned flat-top grill just behind the bar.  The smell of the wagyu beef cooking on the grill was sort of intoxicating, considering I really hadn't had anything to eat for most of the day.  Flat grilled burgers are - in my opinion - the best way to cook a burger.

My buddy didn't try to steer me in any direction in regard to what kind of burger I should get.  But he was adamant about the fries.  "The fries are really good," he said.  "You really need to try the fries."  OK - well, a burger with fries was probably a given for my first visit to Jack Brown's.  

One of the burgers on the menu was one with sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions that are cooked in a Guinness stout, applewood smoked bacon and Swiss cheese.  That was right up my alley.  But, I decided to go basic cheese burger - the Classic Jack that had caramelized onions, American cheese, sliced dill pickles, and something called JB's sauce that was a conglomeration of ketchup, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, a sweet chili sauce, finely chopped onions and a spicy brown mustard.  The ground Wagyu beef had me thinking that I really wanted to taste the meat for my first Jack Brown's burger and I thought the combination of bacon, Swiss cheese and sautéed onions and mushrooms would mask the flavor of the meat.  

The burger was presented on a simple napkin with the fries in a boat with checkered paper.  The burger was outstanding.  The fries?  Meh...  They were good, but they were a basic crinkle cut variety that didn't knock my socks off.  I was more interested with - and concentrated more - on the burger that had a robust flavor, juicy and tasty.  The beef literally melted in my mouth with each bite.  I was more than happy with my very first Jack Brown's burger.  

I'm always on the lookout for great burger and beer places during my travels and Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint was a definite spot-hitter.  It's designed to be sort of a dive bar, but with gourmet burgers and a long list of craft beers.  It was sort of hectic and loud in there, but it was still fun to get together with my buddy and slug back a couple three beers in addition to having a great burger.  When I get back to Nashville and my buddy suggests we get together at Jack Brown's again, I would have no problem with that. 

 

The Angry Goldfish - Des Moines, IA

Starting to travel for work on a regular basis again, I found myself looking for a good burger and a craft beer after a day of calling on accounts in the Des Moines area.  I had a list of a handful of places that I had gathered over the past couple years that reportedly had good burgers in the city.  One of those place was the Angry Goldfish on the south side of Des Moines.  

The building that houses the Angry Goldfish at the corner of SW 9th and Davis Ave. kitty-cornered from MacRae Park (see map) has been many things over the years - a bar/restaurant, a vacuum repair shop, a hardware store to name a few businesses.  It was in the fall of 2016 when Dan White and his wife, Stephanie, along with Stephanie's brother Clark Way and his wife, Renee bought the building and started an intensive restoration inside and out.  Clark Way wanted to have a place like some of the neighborhood bars that he visited with his father as a young boy - a place that would allow children inside (up to 9 p.m.) and be family friendly.

No one is quite certain how the name "Angry Goldfish" came about.  It was during one of their alcohol-fueled skull-sessions that someone in the group came up with the Angry Goldfish name.  And the name just sort of stuck. With the completion of the renovations, the Whites and Ways opened the Angry Goldfish Pub & Eatery in December 2016 with Clark and Renee Way as the managing partners of the restaurant.  

(In the fall of 2019, Clark and Renee Way took over the old Reed's Hollow in the Beaverdale area of northwest Des Moines and renamed the place the Dam Pub.  The bar is heavy in 1980's and 90's kitsch and features a number of vintage video games and a menu that somewhat mirrors the Angry Goldfish.)   

I pulled into the parking lot behind the Angry Goldfish and went in the side door just off the patio on the north side of the building.  Inside, I found a small bar area and a dining area with a number of booths and tables.  The lighting fixtures on the walls next to the booths were old whiskey bottles with light bulbs inside.  A couple old chandeliers hung from the ceiling near the back entry way.  

The walls featured a number of bright and natural colored pallets that made a sort of interesting color pattern.  Vintage beer signs hung from the walls.  The restrooms in the back (marked "sausage" and "eggs") featured a number of old Iowa vehicle license plates that Clark Way's grandfather had collected over the years.  

I found a seat at a table up toward the front door of the Angry Goldfish.  A guy working behind the bar came out with a menu.  (Click here and scroll down to see the menu.)  I took a quick look at their beer menu and ordered up an Easy Eddy Hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon and Iowa City.

I was sort of surprised with Angry Goldfish's menu.  It had some interesting appetizers such as poutine, fried pickles and their signature Sriracha-seasoned "angry" Goldfish crackers.  Sandwiches included a pulled-pork and a brisket sandwich, as well as a club sandwich on garlic focaccia bread.  Entrees included two pork medallions with a whiskey/honey glaze, meatloaf made with black angus beef and Graziano Brothers Italian sausage, and their beer-battered cod filets served with fries.  On Monday nights, the Angry Goldfish features lasagna or a vegetarian manicotti, and on Wednesday's they have a hot beef sandwich special with mashed potatoes and gravy.  

That all sounded great to me, but I had my heart set on getting a burger on my first trip to the Angry Goldfish. After almost getting the garlic and herb Boursin cheese burger.  I settled on the Merlot/Mushroom burger topped with Swiss cheese.  For my side, I had a number of choices including truffle parmesan fries, cole slaw and pasta salad.  But then when I saw that one of my side options was tots, I went with those.  (For a small upcharge, I could have gotten a small side of Angry Goldfish's poutine.  Next time...)  

The two burger patties were flat-grilled and both topped with Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms.  The top bun was festooned with an "AG" from the merlot aioli sauce they put on the burger.  I was eager to dig into this one.

And it certainly didn't disappoint.  The burger was full of flavors - the earthiness of the sautéed mushrooms, the pungent and creamy Swiss cheese, and the tanginess of the merlot aioli all added to the wonderful taste of the flat-grilled beef patties.  The bun was spongy and held together very well with the juicy nature of the burger meat.  This was a great burger.

I also have to say that the tots were also very good.  These didn't seem to be your run-of-the-mill food purveyor tots.  I was almost like they had a panko outer shell with a very fluffy potato inner core.  Along with some Cholula hot sauce, the tots were top-notch.  

After my first experience at the Angry Goldfish, I decided that I would definitely be back to try something else in the future.  It was a great little place with friendly service, great food and a cozy and inviting atmosphere.  The owners definitely achieved their goal of making the Angry Goldfish a quintessential neighborhood bar, one that I wish I had near me at my home.  The Mushroom/Merlot burger I had was spectacular and it certainly hit the spot.  My next visit to the Angry Goldfish will be for the Boursin burger.  Or it could be for their meatloaf.  Or it could be for their hot beef sandwich special.  Or it could be for their Sriracha goldfish encrusted pork tenderloin sandwich.  There's just too many interesting things to choose from at the Angry Goldfish. 

Iowa Taproom - Des Moines

My wife and I were headed back home from a weekend at my sister's fiancé's lake home along Lake Panorama in west central Iowa and by the time we got to Des Moines, my wife thought she needed something to eat.  It was about 3 p.m. and I told her that if I had something to eat in Des Moines that late in the afternoon, I wouldn't want any dinner that evening.  She said that was fine with her.  I had her do some searches on line for a good burger place in Des Moines and one of the first ones that came up was a place that I had been wanting to go to for a long time - the Iowa Taproom.  I popped the address to the Iowa Taproom in my GPS and we took off to go there.  

Jeff Bruning is the head of an ownership group called Full Court Press that has developed and owns a number of restaurants around Des Moines such as Fong's Pizza, Hessen Haus, Buzzard Billy's, El Bait Shop and the High Life Lounge.  It was Bruning who came up with the concept of the Iowa Taproom when he realized in 2014 that Iowa had over 50 craft breweries around the state.  (There are nearly 90 today.)  With the growing number of breweries, Bruning and his partners wanted to develop a restaurant that showcased the state's craft beer selection.   

Finding a spot that could house a restaurant/bar with enough room to store beer kegs for their distribution system would be critical to the concept and they found an old building east of the Des Moines River that they felt would fit their needs.  The building was built in 1882 and initially housed a factory that made retail store fixtures.  In the mid-1910's it was converted to a tire manufacturing operation - it was the first tire company in the state of Iowa and one of the first ones established west of Ohio.  

In the 1930's, the building was converted into two businesses - one was a printing company that ended up printing morale-boosting pamphlets and postcards during World War II; and the other was the Des Moines warehouse and distributorship for Old Style beer.  A fire destroyed the beer warehouse in 1949 and that part of the building was rebuilt in 1952.  The building then went through different variations of both retail and wholesale businesses until the early 70's when it was purchased by the Dilley Manufacturing which reverted the building to a printing plant that printed book covers and binders.  

After Dilley Manufacturing merged with another local printing company in 2014, the building was purchased by a local developer who renovated the building.  Bruning toured the building and found it to be perfect for the Iowa Taproom concept Full Court Press had been working on.  The restaurant group leased the property in 2015 and started a nearly year-long construction of the Iowa Taproom.  The new beer bar/restaurant opened in early March of 2016.  

(In October of 2020, Full Court Press opened Ken's Speakeasy, only the group calls it a "not so secret speakeasy".  It's located in the basement of the Iowa Taproom and is assessable via a set of stairs near the front door of the taproom.   Ken's pays homage to bootlegger Kenneth Sonderleiter who provided beer and spirits in the 1920's to a range of people that included pillars of society, captains of industry, politicians, members of the press, and guests in stately downtown hotels.  Ken was eventually caught and put in prison, but was pardoned by President Roosevelt in 1942.  Ken's Speakeasy features a number of repurposed fixtures picked up from around the state of Iowa, as well as photographs of gangsters and Prohibition-era memorabilia.  Many of the spirits served at Ken's are from a number of Iowa distilleries, which are growing in number like the number of craft breweries.)    

It was close to 4 p.m. when we pulled up to the Iowa Taproom located on E. 3rd St. between E. Walnut St. and E. Court Ave.  (see map)  The entrance way is the old elevator that went to the now non-existent 2nd floor from the part of the building that burned back in 1949.  We were greeted by someone when we came in and were shown to a table toward the front of the restaurant.

The open floor area of the restaurant features a number of sturdy metal and wood chairs and tables.  The table tops were made from repurposed barn wood.  Open beams across the ceiling with exposed ductwork gave it sort of a 1920's warehouse look.  There were a number of nostalgic and historical signs on the exposed brick walls with repurposed barn wood slats forming small half walls and the full wall along the back part of the restaurant near the kitchen.  There is a narrow outdoor dining patio on the north side of the restaurant that we walked through when we left

The main focus of the Iowa Taproom is the grain silo that was made specifically for the restaurant by .   Sukup Manufacturing.  The company is located in Sheffield, IA, and according to their web site it's the largest family-owned manufacturer of grain bins, dryers, and steel buildings in the world.  The specially made silo holds 120 taps and is situated behind a bar whose top is made from a repurposed counter top from a general store in Jewell, IA that dated back to the 1880's.  

Our server for the day was a young lady by the name of Brenna.  She was friendly and helpful in sorting out the beers they had to offer that day.  Iowa Taproom features a wide array of beers, sours, and ciders on their beer menu.  I was looking for something that I hadn't had before and Brenna suggested the Neon Hazy IPA from the Barn Town Brewing, a craft brewery and restaurant located out in West Des Moines.  The beer was very good and we put Barn Town Brewing on our places to try when we get back to Des Moines later this summer.  

The food menu at the Iowa Taproom consisted of a number of appetizers and salads, as well as 9 different styles of bone-in chicken wings served with Maytag Blue Cheese dressing.  Since we were drawn there primarily for the burgers, they also had sandwiches and a number of entrees including beer-battered fish tacos, a pan-seared Iowa pork chop, a barbecue meatloaf platter, and a sautéed chicken breast dish called Hunter's Chicken that is topped with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, shallots and tarragon, then finished with a porter demi-glace.  Smashed Yukon Gold potatoes and steamed broccoli came on the side.  That actually sounded pretty damned good.  

But the sandwiches they had were very interesting to me - so much that I started to waver on my original plan to get a burger.  Oh, the burgers sounded good, too.  The All-American featured two patties with American cheese, the Maytag burger was topped with Maytag Blue Cheese and honey-peppered bacon with blue cheese mayo, and the Morning Farm burger featured a patty blended with beef and sage-infused breakfast sausage, then topped with cheddar cheese, a slice of grilled ham, a fried egg, hickory-smoked bacon, onion straws and finished with a BBQ mayo.  That probably would have been the one I got.

The sandwiches at the Iowa Taproom seemed more appealing to me.  They had a barbecued meat loaf sandwich topped with cheddar cheese, onion straws and a bourbon barbecue sauce.  The Buffalo chicken Swiss sandwich featured a breaded chicken breast tossed in Buffalo wing sauce and topped with Swiss cheese.  The French dip sounded good, as did the reuben.  My wife took a long hard look at the lobster artichoke melt that featured lobster meat with artichokes, mayo, onions and parmesan cheese, topped with melted cheddar cheese and served on a garlic crostini.

My wife - who wasn't drinking after a fun weekend at the lake - felt she needed some greens and some protein to counteract all the decadence we experienced for the past couple of days. She got the Southwestern chicken salad, but instead of the chicken spiced with Buffalo sauce, she just had Brenna ask the chef to put the regular grilled chicken on it.  It appeared to be a full chicken breast sliced in strips, then placed atop a bed of mixed greens with pico de gallo, pepper jack cheese, sweet corn, black beans and crushed tortilla chips.  A chipotle ranch dressing normally comes with the salad, but she got just regular ranch dressing.  She thought the salad was fabulous and definitely what she needed for a late lunch/early dinner.

Man, I wavered back and forth between about four or five different things before I finally order the Italian grinder at the last moment.   Like most Italian grinders found at restaurants around Des Moines, it featured Graziano Brothers ground Italian sausage, then it's mixed with marinara sauce, grilled onions, along with Anaheim and sweet red peppers.  The mix is stuffed into a grilled Italian roll and topped with melted Provolone cheese.  A side of seasoned battered fries came with the sandwich on the side.  The sandwich was delicious - but I knew what would happen later on.  The peppers and onions talked back at me all the way back home to the Quad Cities.

The seasoned battered fries were excellent, as well.  They had a very crispy outer shell and a soft flaky core.  I shared some with my wife and she thought they were very good.  

I'm glad we finally got the chance to visit the Iowa Taproom for the first time.  I'd been wanting to check the place out for quite sometime.  And given the number of Iowa-based craft brews they have on tap, as well as some of the interesting food items on their menu, I know I'll be back again at some point.  Our server, Brenna, was accommodating and friendly during our visit and I was actually impressed with how well versed she was in the different beers they had.  The Iowa Taproom is a very unique place and one that should be checked out if you want to take a craft beer tour across the state of Iowa without all the driving.    

Boonie's on the Avenue - Muscatine, IA

The winter weather had finally broke and it was a sunny and unseasonably warm Saturday over a recent weekend.  My wife was suffering from cabin fever and was wanting to go for a drive down the Mississippi River to escape the last vestige of snow on the ground.  (We had over 60 days of continuous snow cover - the 5th longest on record for our area.)  I wanted to watch basketball that day, but as I learned a long time ago - a happy wife is a happy life.  While I wasn't looking to head as far as Burlington or Quincy, I decided to head down Iowa Highway 22 along the river and we ended up in Muscatine.  But I also had an ulterior motive.  I wanted to try a place called Boonie's on the Avenue that I had heard had good burgers.  Once we got to Muscatine, my wife was up for some lunch, so we sought out Boonie's to give it a try.    

Almost his whole adult life, Mike Kleist has been involved in the bar and restaurant business around the Muscatine area.  As a kid in high school, Kleist always wore a baseball cap that said "Boondocks" across the front.  His friends ended up giving him the name of "Boonie" because he wore the cap incessantly.  At the age of 22, Kleist opened Boonie's Basement, a small tavern in downtown Muscatine, and over the years Kleist ran other places such as The Loading Dock and Bootleggers in the area.  Kleist was also a semi-professional poker player who lived part-time in Las Vegas for over 15 years following his passion for the game.  So it was a natural gamble for Kleist when local businessman Tom Meeker approached him in 2012 with an opportunity.  

Meeker owned a building that housed the former MVP's Sports Lounge, but prior to it being MVP's, it was the location for Kleist's Bootleggers sports bar and restaurant.  Meeker wanted to do something with the space and talked with Kleist about opening a more upscale sports bar in the space.  At first, Kleist was hesitant - he'd already been through his sports bar phase with Bootleggers - but Meeker (who also owned The Button Factory restaurant at the time) was persistent.  Finally, Kleist agreed to take over the spot and Boonie's on the Avenue opened in April of 2013.  He was joined in the business by his son Cord who was just getting ready to graduate high school a little over a month later.  

(Mike Kleist and his wife Teresa also own Proof Social, a wine/martini bar in downtown Muscatine; while Cord Kleist and his brother Chance own Skinny's Barbeque in Muscatine.)

It was just after 1 p.m. when we pulled up to Boonie's on the Avenue on Iowa Ave., about 3 blocks from the Mississippi River in downtown Muscatine.  (see map)  Upon entering the place we realized that we had been in there before - probably when it was called MVP's a number of years ago when we were in Muscatine for a street festival on Iowa Ave. where a friend of ours was playing in one of the bands that night.  The inside of the sports bar featured exposed brick walls with corrugated tin sheathing on the walls of an elevated dining space in the back.  Tin tiles painted in sort of a rust color were on the ceiling.   The place was packed on that Saturday afternoon with tons of people also wanting to get out and enjoy the day.  

The bar area was to the right as you walk into Boonie's.  They had a number of craft beers on tap and a full bar selection.  Boonie's has 27 flat-screen televisions in the place, but curiously they only had two basketball games showing on the majority of the screens.  Knowing that there were at least six games available to watch at that time (remember - I was all set to watch basketball at home that day), I thought it was very curious that on the main wall of 8 televisions five of the TV's were set to one of the two games they were showing at the time.  

We were greeted by a hostess when we walked in and she asked us if we wanted to take the high-top table near the window just off the bar.  It wasn't cleaned off yet and looking around at the lack of available tables in the place at the time, we decided to take it.  Our server for the day, an energetic young lady by the name of Donnina, came over to wipe down and disinfect the table.  After she finished doing that and we sat down, she took a couple menus out of the condiment holder on the table and gave them to us.  She asked what we wanted to drink and I saw that they had the Easy Eddie hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City and Solon.  My wife got a tall Tito's vodka and cranberry.  

Donnina left to get the drinks and came back moments later.  "I'm sorry," she said. "We're out of the Easy Eddie."  I took a quick look at their craft beer list which featured 14 beers from various Iowa breweries such as Contrary Brewing in Muscatine, Exile Brewing in Des Moines, and Gezellig Brewing out of my hometown of Newton.  I opted for the Surf Zombies American IPA out of Iowa Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids.  They had that one.  

Most of the menu at Boonie's featured your typical sports bar food - appetizers, wings, sandwiches, burgers, soups and salads.  They also had a handful of entrees such as a grilled salmon dinner, an 8-ounce sirloin steak, and fish & chips.  The salads caught the eye of my wife who was intrigued by the Strawberry Spring salad - it was a choice of mixed greens or fresh spinach topped with fresh strawberries and a choice of grilled or popcorn chicken.  Sliced red onions, feta cheese, candied walnuts and a choice of dressing finished the toppings.  

Me - I got caught looking at the Ultimate Ham & Cheese sandwich -  ham, Swiss and American cheese, an over-hard egg and bacon on triple-decked wheatberry bread.  That sounded really yummy, but I wanted to try their burger.  

They had a number of specialty burgers on the menu including the Five Alarm burger with pepper jack cheese, jalapeños and a sriracha sauce.  The Breakfast burger was topped with bacon, a cheese sauce, an over-easy egg and hash brown potatoes.  The Sticky burger had peanut butter (no thanks!), bacon and cheddar cheese on it.  And the Coordinator burger was topped with pulled pork, jalapeños, barbecue sauce and onion straws.  Some of them sounded interesting, but I was probably going to opt for a "build-your-own" burger.  

My wife decided she wanted a burger, as well.  She got just a basic cheddar cheese burger that featured two beef patties that came with lettuce, tomato, pickles and sliced red onions.  She had a choice of a side and she decided to try Boonie's sweet pepper cole slaw.  There are choices for buns at Boonie's including a regular bun, a Ciabatta bun, an onion bun or a wheatberry bun.  She went for the regular bun.  

One of the interesting touches they do to the burgers at Boonie's is to brand the top of the bun crown with Boonie's logo.  "Soon to be World Famous" is Boonie's motto and that was part of the brand on the bun.  

My "build-you-own" burger consisted of my usual - pepper jack cheese, grilled mushrooms and bacon with a regular bun, also.  I thought a bit about the onion bun, but decided against it at the last moment.  I got the same lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickles on the side.  I was amazed at how ripe and fresh the tomato slices were for late winter.  For my side, I got tater tots - naturally.  Donnina provided Cholula hot sauce on the side for me to dip the tots in.  

After dressing the burger, I had to get a shot of the finished product.  It looks pretty scrumptious, doesn't it?  Well, as we all know, looks can be deceiving.  

The twin quarter-pound patties were woefully overcooked.  While the toppings were fine, they couldn't compensate for the tasteless burger patties.  And on top of all that (get the pun?), the bun was dried out and there turned out to be too much of it.  We speculated that branding the top as well as toasting it, the bun got dried out.  It was very disappointing, to say the least.  

My wife also remarked that her burger was overcooked, too.  She said, "Ah, I've had better burgers."  But she did like her sweet pepper cole slaw.  I tried a bite and it had a very unique taste.  I would have never thought about putting sweet peppers in cole slaw, but I didn't mind it a bit.  

Before we were served our food, I was ready for another beer.  I saw on the beer menu that they had the Big Grove IPA on tap and I ordered one of those from Donnina.  Except, once again, she came back to tell me that they were out of THAT as well.  I ordered up another Surf Zombies IPA - not my favorite, but it worked for me that day.  

Now, they were pretty busy in the place and I had gone through my second beer during lunch.  My wife still had half of her tall vodka and cranberry to go through after I finished my lunch and I wanted to order another beer.  Donnina came over to check on us and I ordered another beer.  Time passed.  And passed.  And passed.  My wife had all but finished her vodka and cranberry when I decided I had to go to the restroom.  We were ready to go by that time and as I walked toward the restroom, I caught up with Donnina who was coming out of the kitchen with some food for a table.  I said to her in passing, "Hey, we're ready to go and I don't want my beer that I had ordered."

"Are you sure," she said to me.  "I mean, it's sitting right here on the bar."

I said, "Yeah, I would have liked to have had it 15 minutes ago when I first ordered it.  But my wife is finished with her drink and we have to get going."  

"Well, I'm sorry," she said in a terse and somewhat protesting manner.  "We're very busy in here today."  I told her that I could see that, but we needed to get going and we just needed our check.  

I went back to the table and told my wife that I canceled my beer order - even though it was sitting on the bar.  And when Donnina came back with our bill, another person brought my beer - that had been ordered nearly 20 minutes prior to the table.  "Oh, he doesn't want it now," Donnina told the person.  

My wife felt bad for Donnina, but I didn't.  "I understand that they're busy in here and if they're understaffed, that's management's fault.  Waiting five minutes for a beer is understandable.  Waiting more than 15 minutes is not."  

When Donnina came back to get my credit card my wife asked if she had to pay for the beer.  "Oh, heavens, no," she said.  "I know some places will make the servers pay for drinks or food that someone skips out or changes their mind.  Not here."  Then she thanked us for coming in and said, "We are busy and I'm sorry I didn't get it to you."  We told her not to worry.  Besides, we were going to Contrary Brewing for a beer after we left Boonie's.  

My wife still felt sorry for Donnina and left her cash on top of the tip that I had put on my card.  "She is running her ass off," my wife said in a caring manner.  "She deserves this cash."  

I don't want to say our visit to Boonie's on the Avenue was bad, it was just disappointing that the burgers I had heard were so good weren't anywhere near what I was expecting.  While I admit they were busy and our server was having a hard time keeping up, I didn't expect to be waiting over 15 minutes for a beer that I had ordered.  I liked the decor of the place and even though they didn't fully utilize the capabilities of their 27 flat screen televisions they had throughout the place, I could see coming in to watch sporting events in Boonie's.  I don't know, maybe we'll head back down sometime in the future to give it another try - hopefully when they aren't as busy - because that Ultimate Ham & Cheese sandwich has been calling my name.   

The District Pub - Eau Claire, WI

My wife and I spent a night recently in Eau Claire, WI.  I have an account in Eau Claire and I usually just drive over from the Twin Cities (about 90 miles) and head back after I'm done with the meeting.  I've only stayed in the city a couple nights over the years, but one time it was at a boutique hotel in downtown Eau Claire by the name of the Lismore Doubletree.  We stayed there on this trip and looked for restaurants in the downtown area that were open for dining.  My wife was looking for a good ol' fashioned Wisconsin-style fish fry that evening.  The front desk had given us some suggestions, really pushing a couple restaurants a few blocks away.  But we didn't want to get back in the car, so we looked for places that were walking distance from the hotel.  One place that I found on-line sounded good - a little grill and pub about a two block walk from the hotel called The District Pub.  

Dave Zempel was a Seattle-area native who came to Eau Claire to study at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  He fell in love with the area and decided to stay in the Chippewa Valley once he graduated from college.  Zempel dabbled in a couple of things - he owned bars in the nearby towns of Menomonie and Altoona - and he also owned a wedding venue on an old farm about an hour drive north of Eau Claire.  But he also wanted to put in an upscale pub in downtown Eau Claire.  

In 2016, a sports bar in downtown Eau Claire by the name of Playmakers shuttered their doors.  The building was up for lease when Zempel found out about it and he jumped on it for his new restaurant concept.  Extensive renovations to the interior gave the tired building new life with large windows letting in natural light, a new bar area was put in place and a new kitchen installed.  By August of 2017, the District Pub was ready to open.  But extensive construction work in the downtown area near and around the District made it tough for patrons to get there.  Word quickly spread that the new place was nothing like Playmakers (or the previous restaurant, the Haymarket Grill) and people found ways to get to the District Pub.  

The District Pub is located at the corner of Graham and Eau Claire streets near where the Eau Claire River empties into the Chippewa River.  (see map)  Actually, we walked a block too far before turning to go to the District, ending up along the Eau Claire River.  We went around a building and walked back a block to the entrance of the District.  We went inside and checked in with the hostess stand on the middle level near the bar.  As we turned to walk back down the stairs to get a table on the lower level, we looked out and the sky had burst with heavy rain.  30 seconds earlier when we walked in there didn't appear to be any hint of rain.  But driving into Eau Claire that day, we ran into a handful of those late afternoon pop-up hard rains.  And downtown Eau Claire was getting one of those as we sat down.  

There are three levels at the District - the lower level is at street level and features a handful of booths and tables.  Coronavirus restrictions were in place in the dining area, so tables were spaced out and every other booth was closed off for seating.  It was cozy in there to begin with, so I can almost imagine how that little area would be if there weren't any restrictions in place. 

The bar is on the second level, just about five feet above the lower dining level.  Corrugated metal accents were on the face of the bar as well as on the back walls.  There were some high-top tables in the bar area, as well.  A number of flatscreen televisions were on the wall behind the bar - all turned to a Milwaukee Brewers game, mainly because, well, there aren't much sports going on these days.   The District had 30 beers on tap featuring both national, regional and locally produced beers.  

Just past the bar on the second level were some stairs that took you up to the third level.  We saw some people going up there, but there appeared to be a sign that said that level was closed.  We never did go up there to check it out while we were there.  

We took a table near the floor-to-ceiling window marveling at our luck of not being stuck in the downpour that was going on outside.  Our server for the evening, Ashley, came over with menus for us to look through. I ordered a Sierra Nevada hazy IPA while my wife got a vodka/cranberry to start out.  

Most of the items on the menu at the District are your typical sports pub fare - appetizers, wings, salads, sandwiches, and pizza.  One page was fully devoted to their burgers.  They had over a dozen specialty burgers on that page and at the bottom they had their "build-your-own" burger section.  I wasn't especially certain I wanted a burger that evening.

However, I didn't want pizza and the sandwich offerings - which included 8 different variations of grilled chicken sandwiches - were sort of sparse.  It looked like I was going to be forced to get a burger after all.

My wife was hell bent on getting the fish fry that evening.  That evening they were featuring deep-fried haddock along with a baked potato and cole slaw.  It was served on a tray with faux newsprint.  My wife was more than happy with the fish.  The batter was light and the haddock was flaky and delicious.  It was also very filling.  She had a few bites of the cole slaw, which she thought was pretty good, and a couple bites of the potato, which was on the small side.  But she didn't care - she was much more interested in the fish. 

I ended up getting the Swiss and mushroom burger.  I asked Ashley if they could put some bacon on the burger, too.  And the saving grace is that they had tater tots as one of the side choices.  I asked Ashley if they had any hot sauce such as Cholula, but the only thing they had were packets Frank's RedHot Sauce.  No condiments - not even salt or pepper - are on tables during the pandemic.  That worked out, though.  

The burger patty sat on a sliced tomato and some lettuce leaves.  It was cooked perfectly, a bit of pink on the inside and it was juicy and delectable.  It was a glorious mess (a nod to the Slakingfool) with the Swiss cheese and a house sauce they drizzled on top of the burger.  The Swiss/mushroom/bacon burger from the District was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  And the bun stayed together very well with all the messiness.  It was a very good burger.  

For a casual, bar-style meal that wasn't too far from our hotel, we were both happy with what we had at the District Pub.   They had a pretty good beer selection with a full bar, the menu was sort of typical of most sports bars with burgers, appetizers, and pizza - but they did seem to have an inordinate number of chicken sandwiches on their menu, and it was a nice little relaxing spot to have dinner and to watch some baseball.  If you make it to the District Pub at some point, I would recommend getting a burger and my wife would definitely recommend doing the fish fry, if it's available.

Floyd's Burgers & Sliders @ Wake Brewing - Rock Island, IL

For some time, I've had philosophical issues with food trucks.  When the food truck craze first hit four or five years ago, there just seemed to be this aimless attitude that food truck owners - and even municipalities - had in regard to where they could do business.  When owners of established brick-and-mortar restaurants complained - and rightly so - to local municipalities about the seemingly arbitrary regulations governing food trucks, local governments and health departments knew they had to reign in what was turning into a quickly growing - and a very unorganized - kitchen economy.  Some food trucks eventually fell by the wayside when rules, regulations, and permits came into play helping to level out the playing field.  But others began to prosper when they discovered a whole new venue where they could set up - the fast growing microbrewery sector.  While I have had a somewhat cynical approach to food trucks over the years, when they team up with local breweries to provide food while you can enjoy a craft beer - well, I'm all for that.  And one of the food trucks that we've discovered at one of our local breweries is Floyd's Burgers & Sliders.  And we went to have a burger at Floyd's one recent evening over at Wake Brewing in Rock Island.  

Austin Mills was one of those who saw an opportunity in the growing business of food trucks and started renovating his parents' 1978 Winnebago in the spring of 2016.  His main job was working at a Jimmy John's and he wasn't in any hurry to turn the camper into a burger joint on wheels.  However, in the summer of that year, the city of Davenport announced that they would sponsor a trial program for food trucks to congregate on evenings once a week for the month of September in public lots in the downtown area.  (A lot of downtown restaurants were, understandably, upset with this - and, at the time, I sided with the restaurants on this issue.)  But the trial was more of an experiment by the city to find out what they needed to do to regulate and weed out the ones that wouldn't comply with rules and regulations.

When Austin Mills found out the city was going to do this pilot program for food trucks, he quickly dove into the complete renovation of the camper into a food truck.  He missed the first week of the program, but was open for the second week.  Mills served his first burger as Floyd's Burgers and Sliders on September 13, 2016.  Over the years, Mills has expanded his menu to include vegan burgers and some interesting sandwich options.  Floyd's Burgers & Sliders has built up a loyal following in the community and Mills regularly posts his schedule and specials on their Facebook page.  

My wife had been to one of the local breweries with a friend when Floyd's was serving burgers.  She told me about it and pointed out to me that Floyd's would be at Wake Brewing that Friday evening between 5 and 8 p.m. - they're normally at Wake on Friday evenings through the spring, summer and fall.  We decided to head over to Wake - a place that we have been to many times to have a beer.  

Wake Brewing has been around since November of 2017 and is owned by the brother team of Jason and Justen Parris.  Jason had been working at Rock Island Brewing Company (RIBCO) as the events and booking coordinator, while Justen was an engineer at the Exelon nuclear power plant near Cordova, IL.   I know of both brothers through mutual friends, and Justen used to come to pool parties at our neighbor's house in the past.  

The brothers were musicians who started playing together in various bands about 25 years ago.  They toured with a couple bands, playing mainly on the East Coast, and also backed various hip-hop artists long before groups like The Roots were doing that type of thing.  While on tour one time, the brothers walked into a bar/pizza place in Athens, GA and innocently asked for a pitcher of Guinness for them to share.  The girl behind the bar looked at them funny and said that they didn't have Guinness, that the bar only specialized in craft beers.  The young lady suggested a beer they should try - a Grant's Perfect Porter from the new defunct Yakima Brewing Company in Yakima, WA.  The brothers immediately loved the beer and started to find more craft brews on their tour up and down the East Coast.  

After getting off the road and getting back to the Quad Cities, Justen Parris started to fiddle around with making his own beer at home.  About a year later, Jason got involved with his brother's hobby and the two networked with other home-brewers in the area.  They decided that the Quad Cities needed another craft brewery - there were only 3 at the time - and opened Wake in the fall of 2017.   Today, there is something like 15 craft breweries within a 30-mile radius of the Quad Cities.  And for a beer aficionado like myself, that's a good thing.  

Wake Brewing is located where Illinois 92 splits just east of downtown Rock Island, across from the Quad City Botanical Center and the QCCA Expo Center.  (see map)  Parking is available on the side of the building that houses Wake, but that night with Floyd's make-shift camper/kitchen in the lot, the only parking available was behind Wake.  

My wife and I went in to get a beer and they always have a lively selection of music playing at Wake.  A diverse selection of artists such as Ben Howard and Hippo Campus were playing that evening on the microbrewery's modest sound system that also pipes music outside to their beer garden in front of the building.  My wife and I got a double dry-hopped pale ale that they had on tap, one of the many rotating styles of craft beer Wake features.  

The tap room at Wake is pretty small - it doesn't seat many more than probably 30 people, and now less than that with COVID-19 restrictions in place - so we ended up seated at one of the all-weather picnic tables outside.  There had been a threat of rain earlier in the day, but by the time the line of storms came to the Quad Cities it had pretty much squeezed out all the rain, save for a few sprinkles that fell on us at Wake.  The cool air behind the front that came through was a welcome relief from the hot and humid weather we had been having.  

The Floyd's food truck has a colorful mural on the back side, but has a minimalist logo on the side where the order window is.  The logo is similar to the artwork Gerald Scarfe did for Pink Floyd's epic album "The Wall" over 40 years ago.  I immediately caught the "Floyd's Burgers & Sliders" and the "Pink Floyd" connection with the logo.  

The menu is located on blackboards on the ground next to the food truck.   Austin Mills has come a long way over the past four years as his initial menu only featured two items.  He has six different variations of burgers on the menu - including a veggie burger - as well as five different types of sliders (four per order).  The "Rhythm and Bleu" burger features bleu cheese, bacon and a chili garlic sauce; the "I'm Yer Huckleberry" is topped with cheese, crispy onions, jalapeños, bacon and a barbecue sauce; and the "Dyin' for Hawaiian" sliders consist of ham, cheese, bacon, pineapple, and Thousand Island dressing on four slider buns.  Floyd's also has grilled sandwiches including the "Foghorn" consisting of a roasted chicken breast, cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce; the "Basket Case" that features ham, cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and their garlic/chili sauce; as well as a classic grilled reuben sandwich.  

On this particular visit, they also had a special that evening - the Birria burger.  It consisted of slow roasted birria beef - a staple in authentic Mexico cuisine - on top of two burger patties finished with chihuahua cheese, a honey/hibiscus sauce, and came with a side of chipotle sauce.  I paused for a moment as I looked that over and thought that sounded really good.  

As I was waiting in line to order, I heard a voice call my name from inside the Floyd's food truck.  It was an old acquaintance who I used to work with at outdoor concert events in downtown Davenport a number of years ago.  Actually, we had come across one another just a week before when my wife, her sister and I went out to Crust to have some pizza one evening.  We hadn't seen each other for a long time and here he was back in my life working for both Crust and helping out Austin Mills from time to time in the Floyd's food truck.  

I almost got the Birria burger, but for the first time eating at Floyd's I wanted to go with the regular ol' cheeseburger - the "Royale with Cheese".  My wife said she wanted the same thing.  I also got a small order of Floyd's hand-cut fries for us to share.  About 15 minutes later, I went over to the food truck and picked up our order from my long-lost friend.

The burgers and fries were served in small paper food boats and condiments (mustard, ketchup, mayo) were available in packets next to the napkins.  The American cheese was oozing out from under a soft egg bun on top of the two flat-grilled burger patties.  The taste of the burger was fantastic.  The beef had the crispy edge that you get from mashing down the meat and having it cook in its own juices.  My wife had already experienced a burger from Floyd's and she said, "I knew you'd like their burgers."  I did - a lot.  They were juicy, flavorful and had a great flat-grilled beef taste.  And the fries were also very good.  They had a bit of a seasoning on them that didn't overpower the taste.  They were crunchy on the outside, but had that great flaky potato consistency on the inside.  

We had a recent experience with Floyd's again.  My wife and I had taken a few days off to travel for vacation and we got home on a Sunday afternoon.  Not really wanting to go to the store and find food to make at home that night, my wife suggested we look up where Floyd's Burgers & Sliders would be that evening.  It turned out that they were at one of our other favorite breweries in the Quad Cities, Crawford Brew Works over in Bettendorf.  (see map)  Crawford has been around since May of 2018 and features a number of very good beers that we like including their "Kinda-Kolsch" German-style summer beer, and their "Get Off My Lawn" IPA.  

Floyd's had set up their food truck there and we went out to have some food and a couple beers.  This time, their special was a cherry-smoked beef brisket topped with Boetje's mustard, pickled cucumbers and onions, and fresh dill.  I really wanted to get a burger from Floyd's, but I had to pull the trigger on this sandwich.

The sandwich was served on grilled rye bread and featured thick chunks of brisket that had a hint of a smoky flavor to it.  The Boetje's mustard gave the sandwich a nice kick, but the pickled onions and cucumbers helped balance out the spiciness of the stone ground mustard.  The fresh dill was hardly noticeable with all the other taste sensations that were going on.

My wife got the "Royale with Cheese" burger again and it smelled so good as it came off the grill.  We just got the sandwich and burger this time - no fries.  So, after I finished my sandwich, I determined that the smell of burger was too overpowering for me.  I had to go get one.  I got it to go, but it turned out that my wife wasn't quite ready to leave Crawford Brew Works.  So I ate the burger while having another beer.  It was a great ending to what had been a great vacation for us.  

I'm starting to come over to the side of the food trucks - especially when they camp out at any one of the microbreweries we have in the Quad Cities.  But I'll put Floyd's "Royale with Cheese" up against any cheeseburger I've had in the area.  It was a great burger and I'm sure that we'll be looking up on their Facebook page to see where they're parked some future evening.

The Walnut - Des Moines, IA

Growing up just 40 miles from Des Moines, I was really in tune with many of the more popular restaurants a number of years ago.  But not living there for nearly 30 years has made it so that I'm not that familiar with some of the newer restaurants in the area.  These days I have to rely upon recommendations from other people who live in the Des Moines area.  One of the Des Moines area blogs that I've followed for a number of years is the Slakingfool who delves into a number of interesting subjects including brewpubs and bars, some interesting restaurants, and travel (mainly by trains).  I happened to catch one of his recent posts on his Twitter feed and he re-tweeted a picture of a sandwich from a place in Des Moines by the name of The Walnut.  I wasn't familiar with The Walnut, but it piqued my interest enough that I made a mental note to go there for lunch at some point.  That point was last month when I was in Des Moines before heading out of town and I decided to head for The Walnut and have lunch.  

Ben Norris and Hunter Wilson were buddies who started out on the ground floor of the food truck revolution when they opened their mobile kitchen "The Spot" in 2013.  They specialized in sandwiches made with locally-sourced foods.  The Spot became one of the more popular food trucks over the first couple years of business.

As more and more food trucks came into existence, the two knew they had to do something that was unique compared to their competitors.  Visibility and having your regular customers find you are the two biggest keys to owning a food truck.  In 2015, Wilson and Norris rented space in a lot in downtown Des Moines at the corner of 12th and Walnut in which to put their food truck. 

Pictured right - Hunter Wilson and Ben Norris.  Photo courtesy the Des Moines Register.

Not far from where their food truck was located, a local developer had purchased a building that used to house a tire and battery company on the ground floor and a publishing company on the upper floor.  In the burgeoning days of automobile sales in Des Moines, the west end of Walnut Street in the downtown area housed a number of car dealerships, repair garages and other automobile related businesses.  The developers were turning the building - which was initially built in 1924 and added onto in 1928 - into commercial space on the ground floor and residential housing on the second floor.   

By 2017, much of the west side of the ground floor of the building was already leased and the landlords were looking for a possible restaurant to come in to take the other half of the building.  Norris felt Wilson and he had cut their teeth long enough in the food truck business to be able to run their own brick-and-mortar establishment.  After signing a lease on the 3500 square foot space just two blocks away from their food truck rented space, Norris sold the food truck to a couple in the Minneapolis suburbs.  The partners focused on the development of the restaurant that would continue to feature sandwiches that made The Spot one of the more popular food trucks in Des Moines, but expand the menu to include eclectic appetizers, burgers and salads.  Norris and Wilson brought in Justin Stokes as the restaurant's general manager and they opened the Walnut in October of 2017.  

I pulled up in front of The Walnut around 1:30 one recent weekday afternoon.  (see map)  Parking was abundant on the street in front of the building.  Upon entering the restaurant, I found an open floor plan with windows on the south and east side which allowed a lot of natural light to cascade on the dining area.  A small bar area was along the north wall with a handful of flat screen televisions affixed to the wall behind the bar.  There is an outdoor patio area on the east side of the building.  

The original garage doors from the tire and battery company were on the front of the building, and the concrete floor was restored to its original state when the building was completed over 90 years ago.  The windows were also restored with the original panes.  It was a nice mixture of a contemporary and antique industrial design in the building.  

I ended up taking a seat at the bar and a young lady came out to greet me.  She was very friendly and handed me a menu to get started.  She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and they had a number of Iowa craft beers from Exile Brewing Company, Big Grove Brewery and West O Beer.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that they also offered Kona Big Wave on tap.  I ordered up a Big Wave while I looked through the menu.  

As I said, many of the sandwiches that The Spot food truck was famous for migrated onto the menu at The Walnut.  The Royal Bird features a sage-rubbed grilled chicken breast with prosciutto, lettuce, tomato and onion, then topped with a red wine vinegar mayo and parmesan cheese.  The Tabasco Turkey Melt had an herb-rubbed turkey breast topped with pepper jack cheese and a Tabasco-infused butter.  And the Portobello, Pesto and Swiss sandwich was basically just that - grilled portobello mushroom with fresh pesto, Swiss cheese, with lettuce, tomato slices, and red onions.  

They also had burgers at The Walnut including a mushroom/Swiss cheese burger that I was looking very hard at.  Their Bacon, Blue and BBQ burger featured a burger topped with bacon, blue cheese crumbles and a barbecue sauce.  And their Al Pastor burger featured ground pork topped with grilled pineapple, white onion slices, cilantro, and a citrus aioli.  Appetizers such as stuffed mushrooms, Kalua pork sliders and burnt end pork belly were on the menu, as well as soups and salads.  And on Saturdays, The Walnut serves their own version of the Hawaiian Loco Moco bowl with a hamburger patty on a bed of rice topped with a fried egg, brown gravy and chives.  

As I said, I was leaning toward getting the mushroom/Swiss burger, but they also had a traditional reuben on the sandwich part of the menu.  I did see grilled mahi mahi tacos, but then the fine print at the bottom said, "Fridays Only"  I was sort of crestfallen at that, so it was down to the burger or the reuben.  I was in a quandary trying to decide between the two until my bartender/server came up to me and said, "We do have a special that isn't on today's menu."  

And as I mentioned in my opening paragraph of this post, a couple three days before the Slakingfool had retweeted a picture of a meatball sandwich from The Walnut.  It looked ungodly delicious.  Well, it turned out that the meatball sandwich was the lunch special AGAIN that day!  I didn't even hesitate when she told me that was the special.  

The meatball sandwich wasn't all that large, but it was filled with four meatballs, topped with a tangy marinara sauce with mozzarella cheese melted and carmelized on top of a soft and spongy hoagie bun that was cut in half.  Actually, the outer shell of the hoagie bread was sort of crispy from the cooking process, but it was still soft and chewy when you bit into it.  The sandwich wasn't much in terms of any exotic ingredients, but it was especially delicious.  It went extremely well with the second pint of the Kona Big Wave that I ordered before my sandwich was given to me.

After I finished up at the bar for lunch, I took a quick tour around the perimeter of The Walnut looking at a number of historical pictures of the downtown Des Moines area that were on the wall in a back alcove area of the restaurant.  I'm always interested to see buildings from back in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's that I remembered seeing when I was a little kid.  Some are still in use, others are long gone.  

The Walnut is one of those very comfortable and laid back places that I like to find during my travels.  The menu wasn't all that extensive, but it was interesting enough to have me be interested in three or four things.  Their craft beer menu also wasn't all that long, but the beers that they had were all very good and hit all the right tastes.  I can't say enough about the service that I received from the very nice bartender/server who seemed to be on top of my every need while I was there.  The owners did a very good job of turning what was a popular food truck enterprise into what seems to be a very good and thriving brick and mortar restaurant in The Walnut.  

BRGR Kitchen + Bar - Kansas City

Down in Kansas City for my last trip of 2019, I got back to the hotel near the Power & Light District after a long day of meetings in and around the city.  I thought about heading back over across the street to the Streetcar Grille & Tavern (click here to see the recent entry on the Streetcar Grille), but I found out that there was a BRGR Kitchen & Bar just a couple blocks from the hotel.  I had eaten at the original BRGR Kitchen + Bar in suburban Prairie Village about 7 years ago.  (Click here to see that entry on Road Tips.)  I remember that the place was nice, they had a good selection of craft beers, and the burger was good, but overcooked to my liking.  I thought I'd give them another try, so I walked up the street to have dinner at the downtown Kansas City location for BRGR Kitchen.  

The original group behind the concept and direction of BRGR was Bread and Butter Concepts, a restaurant holding company run by partners Alan Gaylin and Glynn Roberts along with Roberts' wife, Jean.  Alan Gaylin came from a long lineage of restaurant management, formerly as the Senior Vice-President for Business Development of the group that oversaw Bennigan's and the former Steak and Ale restaurants.  He then moved over to Houlihan's as the operations director before taking the same position at T.G.I. Friday's.  

Glynn Roberts didn't have much of a background, if any, in the restaurant business.  Roberts was the President and co-founder of Northstar Offshore - a Houston-based oil and gas exploration company now part of the Sanare Partners group.  But Gaylin and Roberts were middle school friends from Houston who partnered up to develop restaurant concepts in the greater Kansas City area where Gaylin had taken up residence.  It took them a little over two years from the time they started their Bread and Butter Concepts partnership to open their first restaurant - BRGR Kitchen + Tap - in March of 2010.  A little over a year later, they opened their second restaurant - Urban Table - that offers an eclectic mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner in a neighborhood-style corner cafe/market.  

In November of 2011, Bread and Butter Concepts opened what they called Kansas City's first "gastropub" - Gram and Dun.  The gastropub craze has hit most major markets combining an English-style public house with a restaurant that also focuses on food.  Gram and Dun goes a step further by offering gourmet-style offerings in a fun, casual and relaxing atmosphere.  

By 2012, a number of restaurants that initially opened when the Power & Light District came into being closed due to lack of business and high rents in the district.  One of those was a place called Fran's Diner, a Canadian-based upscale comfort food place that had opened in 2009 as the first American outpost of the restaurant.  Bread and Butter Concepts took over the space and opened their second BRGR location in July of 2013.  Three years later, the third BRGR Kitchen + Bar opened in the former Barley's Brewhaus location in suburban Leawood, KS.  

However, by the end of 2018, high debt forced Bread and Butter Concepts into bankruptcy and they were forced to sell off many of their assets.  The three BRGR Kitchen + Tap locations were bought by Whitney VinZant, the owner of the Kansas City-based Louie's Wine Dive, a rustic-themed wine and liquor bar/restaurant with 7 locations in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee and Indiana.  One of the reasons why VinZant bought the BRGR locations is because it was one of his family's favorite place to eat.  

The downtown Kansas City BRGR Kitchen + Tap is located at the corner of 14th and Main in the heart of the Power & Light District.  (see map)  It was a brisk walk against the wind up the street to BRGR from my hotel.  And upon heading into BRGR, I found it to be nearly deserted - similar to many other places I've been to in the Power & Light District when there's nothing going on during the week at the nearby Sprint Center or Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  Wood and brick accents were found throughout the place with subdued overhead lighting giving the place a cozy feeling.  

I ended up taking a seat at the large rectangular bar just inside the front door.  Basketball games were on the flat screen televisions that hung from the ceiling above the bar island.  One of the bartenders on duty that evening came by with a food menu and a beer list.  I remembered from my first visit to BRGR over 7 years ago that in addition to a nice variety of craft beers, they also had some down-home old-fashioned beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Hamm's, and Budweiser available in cans.  They also had cans of the Cigar City Jai Alai IPA that I've grown sort of fond of.  However, the bartender told me that they had their draft beers on special that evening.  I got a pint of the Hardway IPA from the Martin City Brewing Company located on the far south side of Kansas City.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Martin City Brewing Company.)  

Of course, burgers are the main attraction at BRGR Kitchen + Tap.  They have a handful of specialty burgers on the menu including the Fast Cow which is a coffee-encrusted burger topped with blue cheese and chopped bacon and served on a muffin; the Road Hoss that is topped with onion rings, cheddar cheese, bacon and a barbecue sauce; the Jalapeño popper burger topped with pickled jalapeños, bacon, jalapeño jam and a combination of boursin and cream cheese; and BRGR's take on the Twin Cities classic "Jucy Lucy" burger stuffed with American cheese.  Beef alternatives for burgers such as ground turkey and a "Beyond Meat" burger are also available.  Grilled chicken sandwiches and a grilled salmon sandwich were also available.  

On this visit, I got something that was new on the menu at BRGR - a portobello mushroom and Swiss cheese burger.  I asked the bartender if the kitchen could put bacon on it, too.  It was a quarter-pound burger patty with marinated portobello mushrooms on top with the cheese.  Bacon was criss-crossed on top of that and the toasted egg bun was brushed with a zesty piquant sauce.  

On my visit to the original BRGR Kitchen + Tap, the burger was pretty good, but it was overcooked to my tastes.  I ordered this one cooked medium and it came out as a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle of the patty.  It was oozing with juices with each bite and I had to get more napkins from the bartender.  This burger was much better than the first time I went to BRGR.

Also on my first visit, the person serving me was telling me about their truffle tater tots.  I didn't get them on that visit, but I had to try them this time.  The tots were served in a baking dish and sprinkled with truffle oil and some parmesan cheese.  They were absolutely fabulous.  I asked the bartender if he had any Cholula to put on the tots, but the only hot sauce he had close to that was Tabasco.  I would rather put Cholula on my tots, but the Tabasco worked fine enough.  They were rich tasting and filling - I was only able to eat about half the portion that was served to me.  

It had been sometime since I had been to a BRGR Kitchen + Tap location in Kansas City.  My first visit to one, the burger tasted good, but it was overcooked.  On this visit, however, the portobello mushroom/Swiss Cheese/bacon burger was cooked perfectly to my liking.  And the truffle tots were outstanding in taste.  The BRGR location in downtown Kansas City also had a good selection of craft beers on tap, in bottles and in cans.  It was also a nice spot inside.  It was comfortable for a single diner and the service I received from the bartender was friendly and efficient.  It also helped that there were probably only a dozen people in the place when I was there.  But, still, it was a good meal and visit to BRGR Kitchen + Tap.  

Streetcar Grille & Tavern - Kansas City

I was checking into my hotel near the Power & Light District in downtown Kansas City during my last business trip of the year for 2019 when I happened to look across the street at a place I hadn't noticed before.  I asked the guy at the front desk what was across the street with all the beer signs in the windows.  He said, "Oh, that's the Streetcar Grille."  I told him that I was sort of looking for a place to watch some basketball that night and maybe grab a bite to eat.  "Oh, yes sir," he replied.  "They've got televisions and good food.  The club sandwich is outstanding."  After getting settled in my room, I headed over across the street to the Streetcar Grille & Tavern.  (see map)  

Now, I had stayed at that hotel earlier in the year, but the reason I never noticed the Streetcar Grille before was because I was there in May and it didn't open until July.  And the reason why it's called the Streetcar Grille & Tavern is because the KC Streetcar has traveled a 2 mile-long course up and down Main Street since 2016.  Managing partner Kurt Oliver noticed the growth along Main Street after the streetcar started running and a number of hotels that had started to pop up in the area.  A space opened at the corner of 16th and Main that was the ground floor of a parking garage for a nearby hotel and Oliver and his partner took the spot over.

Oliver wanted to project an old time feeling in the place.  He decorated the space with historical pictures of downtown Kansas City - complete with pictures of old street cars - and was able to procure vintage beer signs from some of the breweries he would serve at the restaurant.  And as a nod to the streetcars that run past his new pub from downtown Kansas City to Union Station, Oliver named his place Streetcar Grille & Tavern.  

It was a cold night, but since it was right across the street from the hotel I didn't even bother to wear my coat.  (see map)  It was a slow night at the restaurant - but when nothing is going on in downtown Kansas City through the week, I've noticed that every place is pretty slow.  The dining room at Streetcar Grille had an eerie glow to it enhanced by the dozens of beer signs and the 18 flatscreen televisions that are hung on the wall throughout the place.  

I ended up taking a seat at the bar and was greeted by a convivial bartender who asked if I wanted a food menu when I sat down.  I asked him if he could get the Iowa basketball game on one of the televisions behind the bar and he said, "Oh!  An Iowa fan!  Are you from Iowa?"  I told him that I was and he said that he was a native of Clear Lake in the far northern reaches of the state.  He told me that he grew up an Iowa fan, but went to Iowa State to study hospitality management.  "One of the bosses here went to Iowa State, too.  I worked with him at a couple other places and when he came here to open this place up, he asked me if I wanted a job."  After all pleasantries were swapped, I ordered up a pint of the Boulevard pale ale which is made just down the way from the Streetcar Grille.  

The menu was decidedly upscale compared to other sports bars I've visited in the past.  The appetizers pretty much proved that with items such as mixed nuts glazed with a spicy agave seasoning, a charcuterie plate, seared ahi tuna lettuce wraps, and tater tots stuffed with smoked gouda and jalapeños served with a bacon aioli.  They had different variations of mac & cheese on the menu, as well entrees such as a salmon filet with a chili-sesame glaze, pan-seared jalapeño-mango chicken breasts, and chicken piccata.  Streetcar Grille & Tavern also had a number of unique burgers and sandwiches on the menu. 

I thought about getting one of the burgers, but I'd had a burger the day before with my wife at lunch.  So, it was down to getting a sandwich that evening.  The Conductors Club Sandwich is the one that the guy at the front desk suggested I get.  It came with smoked turkey, ham and pepper bacon for the meats with the usual lettuce, tomato and mayo, all served on a grilled sour dough bread.  It sounded just all right to me, but a couple other sandwiches were talking more directly to me including the roast beef sandwich with cheddar cheese and a horseradish-chive topping.

But in the long-run, I decided upon the reuben sandwich.  It featured house-made corned beef that was chopped up, topped with pepper jack cheese and a poblano-enhanced sauerkraut.  Of course, Russian dressing finished it off, and it all came on toasted marble rye bread.  A side of fries were served in a metal cup lined with parchment paper.  

The reuben was actually pretty good.  I didn't get much of a spicy taste out of the poblano sauerkraut or the pepper jack cheese.  But there was still a surprising "snap" on the tongue with each bite.  The corned beef was piled high in the sandwich and it was very good and very tender.  It was a messy sandwich with the cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing oozing out with each bite.  But they had a sufficient amount of napkins for me to use to try and keep clean.  

I contemplated going back to the Streetcar Grille the next evening, but I ended up walking up the street to another place just a couple blocks away.  I liked everything about the Streetcar Grille & Tavern - the atmosphere, the service, the large number of televisions, the beer selection and, of course, the very good reuben sandwich.  As business picks up in Kansas City and I stay downtown because it's centrally located for me to get around to my accounts around the city, I have a feeling that I'll be spending a few more nights at the Streetcar Grille.  

 

Northstar Tavern - Bloomington, MN

Up in the Twin Cities late last year, I was searching out a place to eat one late afternoon.  I usually stay in the Bloomington area on the south side of the Twin Cities, so finding new places to try can be sort of tough at times.  However, there was one place that I found that I hadn't been to before and it wasn't far from my hotel.  I drove over the Northstar Tavern to give the place a try.

Jon Norine grew up on the southside of Bloomington before moving away to work in the food service industry.  His wife, Ashley, also grew up nearby and she, too, had worked in restaurants.  The Norine's had always talked about owning their own restaurant and they decided to move back to their home base in the Twin Cities to scout out locations for their dream restaurant.  

The two scouted locations in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis before they finally came across a building in a shopping plaza that Jon Norine used to ride his bike to as a young boy.  The building formally housed a Famous Dave's barbecue joint and the Norine's signed the lease to the place in May of 2018.  

The next five months saw a complete build-out of a new restaurant space guided by one of their partners, Nate Hunt, who kept only the sinks and the refrigeration/freezers in the place during the renovation.  The Norine's brought in another partner to run their kitchen as the executive chef, Ryan Pasiuk, who previously was the executive chef at The Fremont, an upscale sports bar/dance club in Minneapolis's uptown neighborhood.  With everything in place, Northstar Tavern opened their doors for business in October of 2018. 

Pictured right - Ashley and Jon Norine.  Photo courtesy Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers - Minnesota.

It was a bit after 5 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at the Normandale Village shopping complex at the corner of Normandale and 98th Street in Bloomington.  (see map)  I went inside and sort of stood by the hostess stand for a moment before a server showed up and told me that I could sit pretty much about anywhere.  Well, I soon find out that "pretty much anywhere" didn't include one of the open high-top tables near the bar.  He came up to me and said, "This area is going to be reserved in less than an hour.  Are you going to be done by then?"  I figured that I probably wouldn't be - or didn't know if I would be - and I didn't really want to be rushed if I wanted to linger a bit longer to have another beer after dinner.  He moved me to a regular height four-seater in the dining area of the restaurant just past the bar. 

I had done a little on-line scouting of the place earlier on and I expected to find a nice little upscale sports bar/restaurant.  While it was comfortable and cozy, I sort of expected it to be a little more classy than it was.  There was a stone hearth fireplace in the dining room, but there was a corrugated tin awning with the Maker's Mark logo that was above a number of booths along the wall.  It was a popular place with the bar completely full and many of the tables and booths filled with people in for an early dinner - like me.  

My server for my visit was a young guy by the name of Aarin.  He dropped off a food menu and I asked what kind of beers they had to offer.  He produced a beer list that had their current selection of two dozen beers on tap.  Quite honestly, I was sort of surprised that they didn't offer more local beers on their beer menu as they had beers from Deschutes in Oregon, Goose Island in Chicago, and Boulevard out of Kansas City.  They even had Coors on tap.  I think out of the 24 beers they had on tap, only 9 or 10 were from Minnesota or Wisconsin.  I just ordered up a Lagunitas IPA and took a look through the food menu.   

The Northstar Tavern offered a variety of appetizers on their menu.  They had the normal fare - chicken wings, pretzels, and nachos - but they also had fried walleye fingers, a barbecued pork quesadilla, egg rolls that were stuffed with shrimp and candied cayenne-seasoned bacon, loaded sweet potato tots with ground turkey, jalapeños and an avocado cream sauce, and wontons stuffed with roasted jalapeños and an avocado cream cheese.  

They have a unique system of being able to order sandwiches or burgers at the Northstar Tavern.  You have a choice of a protein - grilled chicken, burger patty, grilled salmon, beer-battered walleye, etc. (vegan options were also available).  Then you have your choice of the "set up" which are the toppings on whatever you pick.  They had some suggestions like "The Teriyaki" that consisted of a teriyaki glaze, grilled pineapple, red onions, and a charred scallion aioli; "The Cream Cheese" which had an herbed cream cheese, red onion, cucumbers and mixed greens; "The Buffalo" which had a spicy buffalo wing sauce with a creamy blue cheese dressing, shredded lettuce and tomato slices; and "The Tangy California" which featured goat cheese and avocado slices, with lettuce, tomato, and red onion slices.  Then you had your choice of the "holder" which was a choice of a ciabatta bun, lettuce wrap, tortilla wrap, honey wheat bun, or a pita bread among some of the choices.  

Regular sandwiches such as a reuben, a Philly cheesesteak, and a slow-roasted barbecued pork sandwich were also available at the Northstar Tavern.  And they also had pizza available - both as a build-your-own or featured pizzas such as a meat only pizza with Italian sausage, pepperoni and a candied cayenne bacon spread; or a traditional margherita pizza, or the Vietnamese-style Banh Mi pizza with chopped pork carnitas, pickled onions, cucumbers, and carrots, along with jalapeños, cilantro, and finished with a teriyaki barbecue sauce, and an aioli drizzle that is mixed with Cry Baby sauce, a pickled jalapeño and garlic hot sauce that is made in Minneapolis. 

I have to say the menu was definitely interesting and a couple three things caught my eye.  They had some entrees that included a Cajun chicken and shrimp pasta, and a meatloaf platter with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I seriously contemplated getting the meat loaf almost breaking my rule of not ordering meat loaf away from home as I really could have used a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal that evening.  But in the long run, I ended up getting what amounted to the house burger.

The house burger consisted of a half-pound beef patty topped with a thick slice of smoked cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and red onion slices, and dill pickles on a toasted brioche bun.  It came with a side of fries in a metal cup and it was all served  on a small metal cookie sheet.   I asked Aarin if I could get some bacon on the burger and he said it was no problem.  

Quite actually, the burger was very good.   It was thick with juices oozing out of the beef patty as it rested on the bun.  The bun held together very well for what turned out to be a multi-napkin burger.  The veggie toppings were all fresh and didn't over power the great beef taste in the burger.  The smoked cheddar and bacon helped give it another gear in flavor.  I had asked it to be cooked medium and it was the perfect temperature when served to me with a hint of pink in the middle of the burger.

The fries were actually pretty good, as well.  I normally don't eat many fries when they're served to me, but the ones at the Northstar Tavern had that great crispy outer shell with a nice warm flaky potato inside.  It was pretty tough to stop eating the fries when I finished with my burger.  

Maybe I was expecting a little more in terms of atmosphere at the Northstar Tavern, but I have to admit that the surroundings didn't detract from the delicious house burger that I had while I was there.  The menu was very interesting, and even though I was a little underwhelmed with the selection of beers they had on tap, I was still able to find one that I enjoyed.  The service that I had at Northstar Tavern was quick, efficient and friendly.   The Northstar Tavern is a nice little place and it's easy to see how it's become a local favorite in their just under 18 month existence.  I'd say give it a shot the next time you're in the area.  

The Rock - Springfield, MO

Springfield, MO is one of my all-time favorite cities to travel to.  I've been going there since the mid-80's and it's always been a fun time on each visit.  I have a new account in the area that has been doing some pretty good business for me and I asked them if they'd like to go out to dinner.  One of them suggested a place that had opened in June of last year on Springfield's southeast side - an upscale tavern by the name of The Rock.  We all met up there after a short drive from their office/warehouse.  

The historic Galloway neighborhood of Springfield for years was known as sort of the "bottoms" of the city.  In and around Galloway Village was a large rail yard, a quarry, a fish hatchery and a park.   The rail yard and quarry went away a number of years ago, and much of the area was designated as a flood plain.  However, the city has made a significant upgrade in the area over the past number of years and in 2014 they declared a segment along S. Lone Pine Ave. as blighted opening the way for urban renewal projects.  A developer came in to put in housing, retail shops and restaurants that would be known as Quarry Town.  One of the spots that was available for a restaurant came to the attention of Tim and Jennifer Bair. 

In 2007, Tim and Jennifer Bair borrowed a combined amount of $140,000 from their respective fathers to open Bair's Sports Grille in nearby Republic, MO.  Failure was not an option for the Bairs who knew that it would financially devastate the three families.  Fortunately, things worked out for the Bairs and Bair's Sports Grille became well known for their great burgers.  The one location eventually grew to four around the greater Springfield area and the Bair's also added a spin-off sports bar called T-Bairz, and a little pub in Republic by the name of The Bent Penny Tavern.  The Bair's worked with the Quarry Town developer and opened up a more upscale restaurant to their Bair's Sports Grille locations.  The Rock Food & Friends at The Quarry opened on June 10 of last year, but most locals know it as "The Rock".   

I pulled into the parking lot of The Rock around 6 p.m. on a weekday evening.  (see map)  The parking lot is elevated behind the building and also is used by other businesses and apartments that are in the immediate area.  One of the more interesting vehicles in the parking lot was this 2007 Lincoln Crown Victoria police-issue car that had Beer Patrol decals all over it.  It appeared to be a rolling advertisement for either a local distillery or for drinking beer, in general.   We sort of marveled at both the ingenuity of the vehicle and the possible problems the driver could get into if he'd been drinking a little before getting behind the wheel to head to another bar.  "Only in Springfield," one of my guests mused looking over he car before we turned to walk into the restaurant.  

The Rock's decor is sort of a contemporary industrial look.  Wooden trusses lined a vaulted ceiling above the bar and dining area.  Limestone wall and corner accents were found around the room with a half-wall separating the bar area with high-top tables from the dining area that had low-tops.  Large flat screen televisions were placed around the room giving The Rock sort of an upscale sports pub feeling.  And there was a very nice deck out in front of the place, but it was sort of spitting rain so no one was using it.  

We sat at a table along the half-wall opposite the bar area and were greeted by McKenna, a young lady who would be our server that evening.  They had Kona Big Wave on tap - I immediately liked the place when I found that out - and I ordered one of those up.  One of my guests got the O'Fallon Hemp Hop Rye, a hoppy amber ale made by the O'Fallon Brewery located in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights.  

The menu at The Rock features a number of appetizers and sharable plates.  One of which was the buffalo cauliflower that came highly recommended by one of the guys.  They were about a dozen deep-fried cauliflower tops that were then rolled into a sweet Sriracha sauce.  Chopped celery, cilantro and scallions were mixed in with shredded gruyere cheese.  It was actually very good.  Other appetizers they had included an ahi tuna poké, and peppadew peppers stuffed with blue crabmeat and pork belly seasoned with Cajun spices and finished with boursin cheese.  Now, I really should have ordered that just to see what that was all about.  

The main menu at The Rock consisted of a handful of entrees including a blue crabmeat mac & cheese, lemon pepper chicken, seafood dishes, and steaks.  They had artisan pizzas made with cauliflower crust on the menu at The Rock in addition to a handful of burgers and sandwiches.   A la carte sides such as quinoa, sautéed zucchini sticks, cauliflower rice, and lo mein noodles were on the menu, as well.

One of my guests got the grilled ahi tuna - sushi grade tuna that was seared and served with two sides.  He got the steamed broccoli and the brown rice to go with it.  I didn't get a photo of that, but it looked pretty good.  But I did get a picture of my other guest's choice that evening - the Slab burger.  It was a 1/2 lb. beef patty topped with grilled ham, cheddar cheese slices, sautéed onions and finished off with an apple habanero barbecue sauce all of which came on a toasted brioche bun.  Fries were supposed to come with the burger, but he asked to substitute the steamed broccoli.  My guest had had the Slab burger before and he said it was already his favorite thing on the menu.  

I went with the ahi tuna tacos.  Fries also came on the side with them, but I wasn't interested in either eating the fries nor substituting them out for another side.  It was the same sushi-grade ahi tuna that my guest had and it was served in a soft flour tortilla with chopped tomatoes, a kale slaw, and topped with a garlic/sweet chile "Boom Boom" sauce.  Shredded cheddar cheese was supposed to come on the tacos, but I had our server hold that.   They were actually pretty good.  They had a very rich taste without a hint of fishiness from the ahi tuna and they were very filling.  They hit the spot very well that evening.  

I've eaten at a number of restaurants over the years in the Springfield area and I'm pretty impressed with many that I've tried. The Rock is a nice addition to the restaurant scene in the area, a nice spot for a meal.  I can't say the food was bad, far from it.  But many of the items were derivatives of popular foods found at many restaurants. I thought my ahi tuna tacos were fine, but my guests seemed to really like their meals.  The Rock has a pretty good craft beer list, and the environment was pleasant and comfortable.  I'd say, sure, check it out if you're looking for upscale barfood in a leisurely setting.  

Felix's Pizza Pub - St. Louis

One of my St. Louis accounts had mentioned something to me about Felix's Pizza Pub in the Dogtown neighborhood a few months ago.  I had driven by there a handful of times going to other restaurants in the area and I always wondered about the place.  When I was in St. Louis last fall, I offered to take a couple of guys from my account out for dinner and I suggested Felix's.  Both guys were enthusiastic because they liked Felix's pizza and their selection of craft beer.  Since I was staying at a hotel near the restaurant, we took two cars to have pizza and beers at Felix's.  

Actually, Felix's Pizza Pub has been around for a little over 15 years.  It was formed by a collaboration between two lifelong friends - Steve Kolb and Tom Galbraith - who met while in kindergarten.  In 2004, the two founded Felix's, a upscale pub in Dogtown. One of their first employees, Andy Roesch, decided that he wanted to become a chef and he left to head to the Johnson & Wales culinary school with its main campus in Providence, RI.  

In 2011, Kolb and Galbraith decided to re-brand Felix's into an eclectic pizza-by-the-slice place.  They were able to lure Andy Roesch back to St. Louis after his graduation who grudgingly accepted their offer of a partnership if he would run their kitchen for them.  Roesch had no training in making pizzas, nor did he have any desire to learn how.  Part of the curriculum at Johnson & Wales was a two week course on baking, so that was the only time he was exposed to baking breads.  However, when Kolb and Galbraith described some of the diverse and interesting toppings they wanted to include on their pizza selections, they convinced Roesch to go off to New York to do some research.  Upon returning, it took him awhile, but he was able to perfect the thin crust pizza that makes New York-style pizza so famous.  

In 2014, Kolb (who soon thereafter got married and changed his name to VanderKolb as a combination of his wife's maiden name - Vanderford - and his), Galbraith and Roesch had the chance to expand their place by moving literally across the street to the other corner establishment that once housed Latitude 26, a Tex-Mex restaurant that had recently gone out of business. They were able to expand the menu and the new digs gave them over 1000 square feet of more dining space along with an outdoor patio area.  On top of all that, they re-named their restaurant Felix's Pizza Pub.  

After meeting at their store, I followed the guys to Dogtown to go to Felix's.  (see map)  My past experience with parking in the immediate area reminded me that finding a spot can be dicey, but I happened to find a parking space just down the street on Tamm while the guys parked further down Clayton.   

Inside Felix's Pizza Pub, I found a three-tiered area with the upper level featuring a number of high-top tables, with a short wall that separated that area from the bar.  A number of flat panel televisions were hung on the wall behind the bar and the craft beer list hung at the end of the bar.   

A sloping walk-way went from the front door past the bar and into a lower tiered room.  This area was more cozy and not as lively as the bar area.  One of the guys was telling me that during the annual St. Patrick's Day parade that is held along Clayton, Felix's has a special deal that for $100 per person it's unlimited food, mixed drinks and beer from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with food served in this room.  "We did that the last couple of years and I think they've lost money on me both years because of all the food I've eaten and the drinks I've had," he told me.  

We sat at a high-top table on the upper tier.  I noticed that they had the Urban Chestnut Zwickel on the board and I ordered up one of those.  Our server, a young guy who had a very laid back demeanor, came back to apologize that they were out of the Zwickel.  Then I noticed that they had the Kona Big Wave on tap.  He said, "I know we have that.  I just served one of those to that table over there."  I immediately ordered up one of those.  

Naturally, pizza dominates the menu at Felix's.  But they did have hoagie-style sandwiches such as a braised beef with pepperoncini's and proved cheese, a blackened chicken with pepper jack cheese, and a pulled pork sandwich topped with a cumin cole slaw.  My friend who has been at Felix's for their St. Patrick's Day celebration said that they have great cheeseburgers available on that day only.  

We decided to get an appetizer to start out.  We considered getting the chicken wings that you could get with a choice of a sweet and spicy Thai chile sauce or in a traditional Buffalo wing sauce with a side of jalapeño ranch dressing.  The pulled pork mac & cheese sounded interesting, as did the caprese bread topped with fresh mozzarella, Roma tomato slices, red onion and basil with a balsamic vinaigrette drizzle.  

But we ended up with going with the good ol' St. Louis standby - the toasted ravioli.  Felix's gets their sausage and cheese-stuffed ravioli from Mama Toscano's - a venerable Italian market and deli located on The Hill in St. Louis that are famous for their ravioli.  The ravioli came in a sweet and tangy marinara sauce along with fresh chopped basil.  And they were very good.  

The pizza selections at Felix's are interesting, to say the least.  The Clayton featured smoked chicken, lettuce, tomato, green onions and feta cheese on a coconut red curry base and topped off with a jalapeño ranch dressing.  The Tamm Ave. also had chicken on it, but it was paired with spinach, pepper bacon and artichoke hearts on an alfredo sauce base.  The Art Hill (the pizzas were named for nearby streets, neighborhoods or locations) featured smoked meatballs with fresh basil, green peppers and a ricotta cheese.  

Pizzas were available by the slice for $5.99, or you could get a 12" or a 16" pizza.  I was sort of confused and I'm glad I was there on my first visit with two guys who knew the drill.  I asked if I could get a "make-your-own" slice or did it have to be one of the specialty pizzas to get a slice.  "Whatever you want," one of the guys said.  "They make 'em fresh by the slice, straight out of the oven."  I still couldn't quite wrap my head around that as most slice places that I've been to in my past only let you order what they've made and are under the heat lamp.  

I wanted to try my old standby - sausage, pepperoni and mushroom - but I was also intrigued by the Franz Park, which was Felix's take on a margherita pizza.  I ended up ordering both to start out with.

The sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza featured big chunks of Italian sausage with fresh mushrooms and somewhat zippy pepperoni slices.  The crust on the pizza wasn't limp, but it wasn't cracker thin and crisp.  It was a nice balance between crisp and limp.  The sausage, pepperoni and mushroom was good, and I thought about getting a second slice.  But when I took the first bite of the Franz Hill margherita pizza, I had a culinary epiphany.  

The combination of the sliced tomatoes, ricotta cheese, fresh basil and a balsamic drizzle had such a taste sensation that I suddenly didn't care about getting a second slice of the other pizza.  Everything was balanced out where you could easily make out the flavors of the cheese, tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinaigrette.  It tasted so fresh, so invigorating, and so wonderful that I immediately signed up for a second slice.  And after I had my second slice, I had to stop because I would have embarrassed myself in front of my guests had I ordered a third piece.  It was that good.  It completely overwhelmed the sausage, pepperoni and mushroom slice that I started out with.  

My guests both got a slice of the Dogtown - similar to my slice with Italian sausage and pepperoni, but it also had pepper bacon on it.  One of the guys also got a slice of the Murphy Pie - smoked chicken with blue cheese crumbles and green onions, topped with a Buffalo wing sauce and a drizzle of their jalapeño ranch dressing.  It looked pretty interesting, but I'm not big with chicken on a pizza.  My other guest ordered up slice that consisted of Canadian bacon, pepperoncinis, and mozzarella cheese.  The only problem is that the kitchen forgot to make that one up for him.  But he waited patiently and it wasn't long before he got his slice.  Our server told me that the slice would be on the house for the kitchen forgetting to get it made with the other slices.  

I've discovered three or four good little restaurants in the Dogtown area over the past couple of years and Felix's Pizza Pub is definitely in my rotation from here on out.  I can't stop raving about the Franz Hill pizza - their version of a margherita pizza.  It was so fresh and flavorful that I can't imagine having anything else but the Franz Hill on my next visit.  Felix's also had a very good craft beer selection with 21 beers on tap, but they were out of my first choice that particular evening.  Nonetheless, I was able to find another one of my favorite beers on tap to have.  Service was laid back, but professional.  The atmosphere was lively, yet comfortable.  I was happy to finally try Felix's Pizza Pub and I was not disappointed in the least.   

Republic - Minneapolis

I have an account in the Twin Cities who I like to go out to eat with.  He's turned me on to a number of restaurants over the years and when I told him that I wanted to go out to dinner on my upcoming visit to Minneapolis, I asked him to figure out a place we could go.  He picked out a place in Minneapolis' Seven Corners area of the West Bank called Republic.  He said it had a great craft beer selection and was one of his favorite places to eat.  We met up there on a cool fall Wednesday evening around 7 p.m.  

The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi River in which encompasses Seven Corners is a historically cultural melting pot of immigrants primarily from Scandinavia, but Germans and Eastern Europeans also moved into the area in the early to mid-20th century.  By the 50's, the area had gotten a little seedy with a number of bars lining the streets.  However, by the late 60's, Seven Corners sort of became the focal point of the counter-culture movement fostered by students at the nearby University of Minnesota.  More bars popped up in the area in the 70's that would cater to students and one of the more popular ones was a place called Sgt. Preston's.  Along with Bullwinkle's and Grandma's, Sgt. Preston's - famous for their 100 ounce "fishbowl" drinks and pizza buffet - Seven Corners was the place to hang on the West Bank if you were a college student.   

Developers, however, began to see the area as much more than a place for college kids to meet up.  Grandma's closed in 2008 and the building was demolished for condo's, Bullwinkle's closed in early 2011 (it reopened in 2016 under new ownership), and a handful of more craft beer-centric establishments began to pop up in the neighborhood.  Undergrads who frequented the bars were being replaced by young professionals and graduate students who were living in new housing that had popped up in the neighborhood.  A new owner had purchased Sgt. Preston's in 2008 and changed the name to Preston's Urban Bar.  The new owner tried to make it more of a craft beer bar, but the aged and tired place couldn't sustain the level of business needed to turn the tide.  But two guys who had been friends since high school - Matty O'Reilly and Rick Guntzel - saw an opportunity in the location when they bought Preston's in the spring of 2011.  

Matty O'Reilly was a good athlete growing up - he even felt he may have had a chance at a professional basketball career until a shoulder injury ended that notion.  He thought that he may become a teacher and a coach, but that really never came to fruition, either.  He had been working in restaurants all through high school and into his college years at Hamline University in St. Paul.  But his cousin, Tom Peterson, was really the one who opened up the restaurant world for O'Reilly.  Peterson had been in the restaurant industry for a number of years helping O'Reilly get jobs at places that Peterson worked for.  In 2004, Peterson and O'Reilly opened 318 Cafe, a small cafe/coffeehouse that also presented live musical performances from time to time.  From there, Peterson and O'Reilly opened Aster Cafe, a slightly larger restaurant and live music venue than 318 Cafe, but with the same m.o.  

Pictured right - Matty O'Reilly.  Photo courtesy Opentable - Open for Business blog site.  

When Preston's came up for sale, O'Reilly recruited his longtime friend, Rick Guntzel, to help him with the venture.  When the two took over the business, they had to do most of the work by themselves as they only were able to get about $25,000 each to put into the place.  O'Reilly and Guntzel took down the dozens of tacky looking beer posters, took out the video games, and the multiple flat-screen televisions that were tuned to sports from the time the doors were opened to the time they were locked.  They found that the original tin panels were still in the ceiling and left them exposed.  But after taking down a huge sign behind the bar touting Preston's pizza buffet, they found a beautiful multi-colored stained-glass window that they couldn't believe previous owners had kept hidden.  He did away with the huge fish bowl drinks that were popular with college students and put in a 32 tap system that would serve craft beers.   And with a new name and concept, Republic opened in June of 2011.  

Not everyone was happy with Republic's appearance at Seven Corners.  The clientele who had been coming there for years for fishbowls and to watch sports didn't like the changes.  O'Reilly and Guntzel had even kept the big game mounts of deer, beer and buffalo heads to kind of keep some reminder of Preston's, but it never really went over with the old regulars.  But it didn't take long for others to discover Republic who soon got a reputation as being a place where students, young professionals and every day people could come in and get a good meal along with a craft beer at a fair price.  And starting in 2013 and every year since, Draft Magazine named Republic as one of the top beer bars in America. 

(In 2016, Republic partnered with SSP America, which operates restaurants at nearly three dozen airports around the U.S. and Canada, to open a location at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.  Matty O'Reilly was (and/or, still is) also involved in other restaurants around the Twin Cities such as Red River Kitchen, Como Park Eatery (now called Spring Cafe), The Strip Club (steak and seafood), Bar Brigade, and Delicata.)  

I had a bit of trouble finding parking around Republic as there are a number of other businesses in the area.  (see map)   I was able to find some on-street parking on S. 3rd St. about a block and a half away from Republic.  When I walked up through the courtyard where S. 3rd., Cedar and Washington come together and past the outdoor patio, I saw my friend out front talking on the phone.  As I walked past him and gave him a fist bump, he mouthed, "I'm sitting at the bar."  

Once inside, I found a long walnut-faced bar with antique-style lights  overhead that they dimmed later in the evening - it was almost too dark in there to eat.  The very ornate back bar had the wonderful stained glass window toward the top.  A row of high-top tables were opposite the bar along a brick wall.  There was a back dining room and an upstair area at Republic.  It was a weeknight and there was a smattering of patrons throughout the place.  One of the larger tables toward the back had a party of 8 or 10 people who were pretty boisterous.  It was actually a very nice place with stately decor.  

I found where my guest was seated - the only empty seat at the bar with a beer in front of it, I guessed correctly.  He came in to greet me and our bartender came over to greet me.  He gave me a listing of beers they had on tap and I took a quick look through it.  The tap list was pretty extensive - it featured about 60 different types of beers, ciders, sours and seltzers available.  They had beer flights available if you wanted to try different types of beers.  Many of the beers were local or from Midwest craft brewers, but they did have beers on tap from Crooked Stave (Denver), Ballast Point, and Stone (both from San Diego).   

I asked if I could try just a couple and the bartender was amenable to that.  I got a small sample of the Lupulin Hooey IPA out of Big Lake, MN, a small town north and west of the Twin Cities.  I also tried the Bell's Official Hazy IPA which wasn't all that hazy.  But it was good.  I did like the Lupulin Hooey IPA, however.  (So much so, that I picked some up at Total Wine and More the next day to take home with me.)  My guest was drinking the Lulupin Hazy IPA that they had on special that evening for $4 a pint.  It was a seasonal beer and they were trying to get it out of their rotation so they could start putting in other seasonal beers for the fall.  

The food menu at Republic was varied, but it wasn't all that deep.  They had a number of burgers and sandwiches on the menu, as well as a handful of tacos including fish tacos and Korean-style barbecue duck tacos.  The short entree list featured grilled salmon, blackened walleye and a beer-battered fish and chips.  Appetizers such as chicken wings and poutine were available, as were a few salads including a steak salad and a Korean duck salad.

I was sort of intrigued by some of the burgers and sandwiches - the Wisconsin Cleanse Diet burger had cheese curds and melted beer cheese on top of a beef patty.  They also had a ground duck and pork burger on the menu, along with a bacon, fried egg, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  The Rodeo Clown burger featured a beef patty topped with pulled pork, cheddar cheese, an onion ring and barbecue sauce.  It was a pretty interesting menu, to say the least.  

My guest got the buttermilk fried chicken breast sandwich.  It was topped with a spicy cole slaw and served with an aioli on the side along with French fries.  He said the chicken breast was tasty and had a nice outer crunch with each bite.  

In the long run, I figured out that I didn't really want to get a sandwich or a burger, so I went with the pulled pork and rice bowl.  Curiously, however, there was no rice underneath the generous amount of pulled pork in the bowl.  Actually, it didn't really matter to me as the pulled pork was topped with corn strips, and a fried egg, with black beans, red peppers and poblano peppers mixed in.  A large slice of avocado came on the side.  It was actually very good.  The bartender said, "You probably want some Cholula with that," when I ordered it.  He definitely read my mind.  The Cholula added an additional flavor spark to an already yummy dish.  

I have to say that I was impressed all around with my visit to Republic.  Their tap list was extensive with a lot of variety, their food menu was concise and interesting, and the atmosphere was laid back and comfortable.  My guest thoroughly enjoyed his buttermilk fried chicken breast sandwich, while I have nothing but good things to say about the barbecued pulled pork bowl - even though it was advertised as having rice with it, but there was no rice in the bowl.  But that really didn't matter because - along with the corn strips, the black beans and peppers mixed in with a fried egg on top with a Cholula enhancement - it was still a very good meal.   My friend did it again - he turned me on to another great little place to eat in Minneapolis.  

G Mig's 5th Street Pub - West Des Moines, IA

During a visit to the Iowa State Fair this past August, I wanted to try what was voted as the People's Choice winner for best new food at the fair, a beef and cheddar jack wrap from the G. Mig's stand located near the Varied Industries Building.  (Click here to read about that experience from earlier this year.)  In doing some research on G. Mig's, I found out that they had a restaurant in the Valley Junction area in West Des Moines.  A couple weeks after going to the state fair, my wife and I were traveling through Des Moines.  My wife texted a friend of ours and asked if she would like to meet us for lunch.  I suggested going to G. Mig's and our friend texted back, "Oh, yeah! I like that place!"  On a cloudy and cool Sunday afternoon, we ended up at G. Mig's 5th Street Pub.  (see map)

George Migliero was the longtime chef at the Wakonda Club, an exclusive private golf club on Des Moines' south side.  After heading the kitchen there for 17 years, Migliero resigned his position to take over the 5th Street Pub in Valley Junction in 2012.  He renamed it G. Mig's 5th Street Pub and completely changed the menu into more upscale pub fare.  His food quickly gained the attention of a number of patrons and critics, alike.  In 2014, Migliero was named the Iowa Restaurateur of the Year.  Two years later, Migliero decided to put a stand out at the Iowa State Fair.  Each year since, G. Mig's was a finalist for "best new food" at the fair before winning earlier this year.  And just last year, G. Mig's won a state fair contest for salads featuring tofu.  (Seriously.)  And because of all that, I wanted to get to G. Mig's at some point to check the place out and see what else it had to offer.  

The place was packed just after noon when we walked into G. Mig's.  It turns out that they serve breakfast on Saturday's and Sunday's starting at 8 a.m. and guessing from the crowd in there, it's pretty popular.  Our friend hadn't shown up yet, but we were able to cram into a table on an upper level opposite the bar.  It wasn't long before a waitress came over with some menus.  I ordered a bloody mary that had sort of a barbecue sauce taste to it.  It was thick and different from bloody mary's I normally have, but in the end I think I liked it. 

Our friend showed up and we had to steal a chair from an adjoining table.  She mentioned that it seemed like the place was packed every time she had been in there in the past.  "But it's a fun place," she said as we caught up in conversation with her.  

G. Mig's menu features a number of appetizers, soups and salads, burgers, sandwiches and wraps.  G. Mig's also features both lunch and dinner specials through the week.  Appetizers include flat breads, quesadillas, mini seafood tacos, and chicken wings.  Sandwiches such as a classic East Coast pastrami and a grilled-chicken strip and provolone sandwich with sweet peppers, onions and mushrooms were featured on the menu.  And, of course, they had the winning beef and cheddar wrap available on the menu.  

I tried to talk my wife into the beef cheddar jack wrap (they also had a pork carnitas and cheddar jack wrap), but she decided she wanted to go with the cranberry chicken salad croissant.  Diced celery, and dried cranberries were mixed in with the grilled chicken that was served on a bed of shredded lettuce on a soft and warm croissant.  For her side, she got the cole slaw that was unceremoniously served in a small styrofoam container.  The presentation wasn't what I would call elegant, but it was functional.

Our friend got the turkey reuben with a side of the pasta salad.  Sliced turkey with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese were placed on a swirl-rye bread and grilled.  The pasta salad was pretty unique - it had chunks of green onion, celery, and tomatoes on top of pasta.  Both my wife and our friend were happy with their choices.  

I damned near got the pork carnitas wrap, but I ended up getting what was called George's Prime Rib burger.  Migliero uses ground prime rib for his burgers and then tops the grilled patty with Swiss cheese, a wild mushroom spread, and caramelized onions.  I asked our waitress to leave the onions off the burger - I love the taste of caramelized onions, but my stomach doesn't.  It came on a ciabatta bun with a creamy horseradish sauce on the side.  I also got the interesting pasta salad.  And for a couple extra bucks, I got bacon on the burger.  Only it was crumbled bacon bits (I didn't read the fine print on the menu) instead of bacon slices.  The burger was thick and juicy - a definite multi-napkin burger - and the bun held together very well.  About the only quibble I had with the burger was that the chef placed the cheese on the burger and didn't allow it to melt over the patty on the grill.  But other than that, it was a very good burger.  

After trying their award winning beef and cheddar jack wrap at the Iowa State Fair, I made it a point to go to G. Mig's 5th Street Pub to see what the place was all about and to try their food.  I was impressed with the prime rib burger with Swiss cheese, bacon bits and a wild mushroom spread.  My wife enjoyed her chicken cranberry croissant and our friend thought her turkey reuben was very good.  It was a very popular place, but I felt we were a bit cramped at a smallish table opposite the bar area.  All in all, I thought G. Mig's was a great little neighborhood bar with some good food.  But I do want to get back there to try their carnitas and cheddar jack wrap at some point.  

County Road Ice House - Kansas City

During a stay in the downtown area of Kansas City earlier this summer, I ventured up to the Power & Light District to find a place to eat.  After eating at an Irish pub across from the Sprint Center and walking back to my hotel, I passed a place that had a sign on a pillar out front which said "Award Winning BBQ by Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Cue".   But the sign above the door said "County Road Ice House".  I went in to take a quick look around the place it turns out that it was a beer bar that just happened to have barbecue from Joe's Kansas City in the place.  After a few moments of lingering looking around the place decided that I'd come back the next night for dinner.

Joe's Kansas City Barbecue - which was formerly known as Oklahoma Joe's BBQ - is a Kansas City institution in a city that has a number of world class barbecue joints.  I first went to Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City, KS over 9 years ago (click here to see that Road Tips entry, as well as this entry for their Olathe, KS location) and at the time I thought it may have been the best barbecue I've ever had.  I don't know if I can call it the best I've had now, but it would definitely make my Top 5 along with Q39 in Kansas City, Central BBQ in Memphis, and Bogart's and Pappy's, both in St. Louis.  The original Oklahoma Joe's was named after the brand of smokers designed and owned by Roger Davidson, a resident of Stillwater, OK.  Davidson was a regular on the barbecue contest circuit along with his brother Joe Don Davidson, and the brothers struck up a friendship with Jeff Stehney whose Slaughterhouse Five competition team won many awards for their smoked meats at contests around the Midwest and beyond.  

Stehney and the Davidson's opened the first Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Stillwater in January of 1996.  Stehney, who lived in the Kansas City area, wanted to open second location in Kansas City.   Stehney found an old gas station at 47th and Mission on the Kansas side of the state line and converted it into a barbecue joint.  The K.C. location for Oklahoma Joe's opened in August of 1996 with Stehney and his wife, Joy, as managing partners.  

Roger Davidson sold his interest in Oklahoma Joe's smokers the following year and moved to Texas and his brother soon followed.  With no one overseeing the management of the Oklahoma Joe's in Stillwater, it closed up in 1998.  However, the Stehney's forged ahead with their barbecue joint in Kansas City.  They bought out the Davidson's interest in the Kansas City Oklahoma Joe's and it quickly became one of the top places for barbecue in the area. 

The name Oklahoma Joe was confusing to a number of people who would travel to Kansas City to try barbecue.  The Stehney's had been thinking about changing the name for a number of years before slowly incorporating the Joe's Kansas City Barbecue name into the business.  They came out with a barbecue sauce in 2011 replacing Oklahoma Joe's with Joe's Kansas City in the brand name, and the next year they introduced a French fry/fried potato seasoning with the Joe's Kansas City Barbecue name.  In the summer of 2014, the Stehney's officially changed the name to the present day moniker, but most of the locals refer to it as just "Joe's" or "Joe's KC".  

The Power & Light District in downtown Kansas City has had its ups and downs over the years since the initial residential and entertainment concept was hatched just after the turn of the millennium.  After the Sprint Center was opened in 2007, the first restaurants and bars began to open the following year.  But the recession of 2008 slowed the building and development of apartments and condos in the downtown area adjacent to the Power & Light District.  Restaurants and bars came and went, many of them forced into bankruptcy protection due to high rents and spotty business.  Because the housing downtown wasn't coming up as quickly as planned, about the only time most of the bars were doing well was when there was an event at the Sprint Center.  And those events were sometimes few and far between.

One of the national chains that came into the Power & Light District was Gordon Biersch, the California-based brew pub that had over 30 locations in high traffic areas in larger cities around the U.S.   The Gordon Biersch in the Power & Light District was one of the original tenants of the Kansas City Live block area, opening in March of 2008.   But in a cost saving move by their parent company, a number of Gordon Biersch locations started to close in 2017 and continued into early this year.  The Kansas City Gordon Biersch closed in August of 2017.  However, a back-up plan was already in place for a new restaurant to come into the spot they were giving up.

Zach Marten and Bret Springs were friends who were living in Dallas in the late-00's.  They loved to go to a little pizza place called Coal Vines and they both talked about eventually getting back to Kansas City at some point.  Marten grew up near Kansas City and went to school at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, while Springs grew up in the KC suburb of Leawood.  The two became friendly with the owner of Coal Vines and talked him into letting them open a location in the Plaza area of Kansas City.  Marten and Springs moved back to Kansas City in 2009 and opened their version of Coal Vines in 2010.  

From there, the two came up with the Westport Ale House sports bar concept, as well as The Rockhill Grille, an upscale American bistro located on the south end of downtown Kansas City, MO.  The two eventually closed Coal Vines and rebranded the restaurant as Parkway Social Kitchen.  In 2016, Marten and Springs formed Back Napkin Restaurant Group to oversee their growing concept brands.

Stehney, Marten and Springs - along with Stehney's wife and Ryan Barrows, who was Joe's KC Barbecue's director of operations for their three locations - all collaborated in coming up with the concept for the barbecue/beer joint, similar to the old ice houses that were central meeting points for people in Texas long before there was widespread electricity or freezers.  Less than a week after Gordon Biersch closed their doors, the group announced that a place called County Line Ice House would open in its place.  

It took six months of reconstruction - over $1.3 million worth of renovations - before the new concept was ready to go.   Brew tanks were removed and outside patio dining was constructed.  Smokers had to be craned and lowered into the building.  But by the time the place was ready to open in early March of last year, the group had already changed the name to County Road Ice House.   

It was about a five minute walk from my hotel to County Road Ice House at the corner of 14th and Walnut on the southeast side of the Power & Light District.  (see map)  It was around 6 p.m. that evening and the place had a few people inside.  It was a big open space with the bar area in the middle.  A number of flat screen televisions hung around the bar area and along the walls in the dining area.  An open kitchen was located just behind the bar. 

I decided to sit at the bar and I pulled up a chair.  I was greeted by a young lady who was one of the bartenders.  She gave me a food menu and a beer list to look over.   They didn't have a lot of beers to choose from - at least compared to other places in the area - and they were pretty proud of the prices of the beers they had.  Bud Light drafts were $5.00 and Deschute Fresh Squeezed IPA was $6.00.  Also on the menu were cans of Kona Big Wave Golden Ale - but they were $6.00 each, also. I swallowed hard and ordered a can of the Big Wave.  

The food menu at County Road Ice House is similar to what you'll find at a Joe's KC - but, then again, it's not.  While they did have regular Joe's items such as ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket and smoked chicken, they also had appetizers such as smoked chicken wings and smoked brisket nachos.  Burgers were also on the menu along with tacos that featured barbecue pork or beef.  Salads such as a smoked chicken Caesar and a Southwest pork carnitas salad were available, as well.  

Burnt ends are available when they have them and I asked the bartender/server if they had burnt ends that evening.  She said she did, so  I ended up getting the two meat combo of brisket and burnt ends.  Basically the same thing, I know, but I really like the brisket and burnt ends that I've had in my earlier visits to other Joe's locations around Kansas City.  But it is a $2.50 upcharge for the burnt ends in the combo.

And these didn't disappoint, either.  The burnt ends were large chunks of point cut brisket that were tender and delicious.  The slices of flat brisket were equally tender and flavorful.  The brisket and burnt ends were served with toasted bread and they had both Joe's regular sweet sauce and one of my all-time favorite Kansas City area barbecue sauces - Night of the Living Cow, a sweet and spicy sauce that just pops in your mouth.  

Speaking of popping in your mouth, for my side I got the spicy cole slaw.  I took that option over Joe's classic barbecue beans and Joe's spicy mac & cheese - both of which are very good.  I've grown found of Joe's spicy cole slaw over the years and this was as good as what I've had at the other Joe's locations.  

Now, I have to say that the bartender who was waiting on me was completely inattentive nearly the whole time I was there.  It did take awhile for her to acknowledge I was seated at the bar.  And she didn't get the universal cue that when a person seated at the bar needs another beer or drink that they place the empty in the crease closest to the bartender.  I had to literally hail her on three different occasions to either order food or order beer.  It was pretty bad service if you ask me.  

I'm mixed on my visit to County Road Ice House.  It was nice that they had Joe's Kansas City Barbecue available in the place, but their beer selection was pretty slim.  And everything was pretty expensive.  My bill with a nominal tip for the bartender who didn't want to wait on me while I was there came to over $40 bucks.  Three Kona Big Wave Golden Ales at $6 each ended up more than my food tally.  I suppose someone has to pay for the expensive renovation and the high rents found in the Power & Light District.  But I was happy with the brisket and burnt ends that I had and it's tough to beat the spicy cole slaw that Joe's KC has.  My wallet took a beating for what I got at County Road Ice House.  It was a nice place with good food, but be prepared to pay premium prices when you're there.    

OB's Pub & Grill - Manhattan Beach, CA

During a business trip to Southern California earlier this year, I spent a night near Los Angeles International Airport as I had an early flight back to Iowa the next morning.  I have a friend who moved from Atlanta to Manhattan Beach, located just south of LAX, a few years back and I got hold of him in advance of my trip to let him know that I'd be in the area and wondered if he wanted to get together that particular evening.  He was excited to hear that I was coming and he quickly cleared his calendar so we could get together.  After picking me up at the hotel, he took me down to Manhattan Beach.  After a little driving tour of the area - I had never really spent any time in Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach during previous trips to SoCal, and after the 30 minute tour I'm sorry that I hadn't - we ended up in downtown Manhattan Beach so he could take me to one of his favorite little haunts, a little sports bar/pub called OB's Pub & Grill.  

My buddy explained to me that he lived a few blocks away and he has spent many weekends in the place watching games on one of the many flatscreen televisions found throughout the place.  OB's has been around since 1985 and about 7 years ago owner Steve Delk gave the place an updated cosmetic change.  My friend says that he loves to come up to OB's with his computer, sit in one of the booths with the open window facing the street and do some work over lunch and a couple of beers.

We parked just down the street from OB's along Highland Ave. just south of Rosecrans Ave., the two main streets into Manhattan Beach.  (see map)  The front of OB's had wood siding and large paned windows that were open on a beautiful summer's evening not far from the Pacific Ocean.  Inside the place, I found a cozy little joint with some booths and high-top tables.  Capacity in OB's probably wasn't more than 60 or 70 people giving it a nice little homey feeling.  I immediately told my buddy how I could see why he liked coming to the place.  

The bar wasn't all that big at OB's, but they had a number of California craft beers on tap and a well-stocked back bar.  We took a seat near the bar at a bench seat with a fixed table.  It was sort of in the corner by the bar and we were able to hang out and catch up on things in our lives.  The young lady behind the bar came out with a couple of food menus and a beer list that featured a number of domestics and imports alike.  My buddy got a pint of the 805 blonde ale from the Firestone Walker brewery up in Paso Robles.  I asked what they had for India pale ales's on tap and the bartender said she had a San Luis Obispo Brewery IPA.  I took one of those.  Actually, it was a very good beer and I had a couple that evening.  However, when I asked for a third one, the keg blew and she didn't have a replacement.  I ended up getting a Space Dust IPA from the Elysian Brewing Company out of Seattle for my last beer which was good, but not as good as the SLO Brewery IPA.  

The menu at OB's was pretty extensive for a place that size and featured a number of interesting appetizers such as jalapeño bottle caps which were battered and deep-fried jalapeño slices, calamari, cream-cheese filled jalapeños that they called Armadillo eggs, and fiery chicken fingers that came drenched in Louisiana Hot Sauce.  My buddy said that his son especially loved the deep-friend mac & cheese bites.  "He'll just order them instead of a sandwich or a meal," he said.  

I think our bartender/server came over to the table a minimum of four times asking if we were ready to order.  But we were catching up on things and really didn't look at the menu.  Finally, we decided after ordering our second beers from her that we probably needed to nose into the menu.  My buddy said that he's had a number of different things at OB's over the years and he assured me that while it wasn't fine dining, it was well-above average pub food.  

OB's offered over a dozen different types of sandwiches, a dozen variations of burgers, and main entree items such as a 12 ounce New York strip steak, bangers and mash, fish and chips, and their own meatloaf that had me sort of intrigued.  Soups and salads for the lighter fare were also available on the menu at OB's.  

I thought about getting one of their burgers - each of their burgers are 1/2 pound fresh ground chuck.  The Andrew burger featured grilled pastrami with Swiss cheese on top of the burger patty.  The mushroom/Swiss burger also caught my eye.  But their sandwiches also sounded pretty good.  The tuna melt topped with cheddar jack cheese on sourdough bread was tempting, as was the grilled pastrami sandwich with Swiss cheese on rye bread.  There were a lot of choices on the menu at OB's.  

The funny thing was that what my buddy ordered was exactly what I decided to order - the Julie's sandwich with tater tots as a side.  When he said what he wanted along with the tater tots, she came to me and I said, "Pffft...  Yeah, me too!"  My friend and I sort of chuckled over that.  "It's my favorite sandwich on the menu," he said.  

And it was very good.  Julie's Sandwich consisted of grilled roast beef slices with melted cheddar jack cheese served on toasted sour dough bread.  A cup of au jus came on the side with the sandwich.  The beef was tender and rich in flavor.  The cheese gave it a nice contrasting taste quality and it was tough to beat the flavor of the toasted fresh sourdough bread.  "I'm sort of surprised you didn't get a burger," my buddy said.  Me, too, I told him.  But I was far from unhappy with my selection of the Julie's Sandwich.  The tots with loads of Cholula hot sauce were a nice complement to the sandwich.  

My buddy probably could have taken me to any number of places in Manhattan Beach the one evening we were together.   He pointed out a number of nice restaurants up and down Highland Ave., but he knows that I especially like places like OB's Pub & Grill.  I was more than happy with the food, beer selection, the service, and the overall friendly and cozy ambience at OB's.  The Julie's Sandwich consisting of grilled roast beef and cheese on toasted sour dough was a very good pub-style sandwich.  The tater tots were also a nice little surprise for a side offering.  And they had a good selection of craft beers on tap, even though I literally drank them out of the beer that I really enjoyed.  I'm sort of jealous that my buddy can walk there to hang out for beers, watch games and to have some pretty good food for a little pub like OB's.  It's a great little neighborhood place.  

Zorbaz - Spicer, MN

During our summer vacation in the Glacier Lakes region of West Central Minnesota, we stayed in the small town of Spicer located on Green Lake, a 5400 acre lake that was clear and pristine.  There weren't a lot of food options in the area for us, but there was one place that I was somewhat familiar with.  They had a Zorbaz in Spicer on the lakefront that was walking distance from our hotel.  One evening, my wife and I walked over there for drinks and dinner.  

I had been to the original Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes, MN a number of years ago with one of my accounts from Fargo.  (Click here to see that Road Tips entry.  It's from over 11 years ago before I had a camera on my phone to take pictures of the place.  Plus it's sort of a cheesy post as I replaced all the "s" letters in the text to "z's" as Zorbaz does pretty much the same in all of their literature and menus.)  The one in Detroit Lakes was the first one of what ended up to eventually be 11 Zorbaz locations around Minnesota.  

Tom Hanson grew up in Detroit Lakes and graduated from high school there in 1963.  After graduating with honors from the University of Minnesota-Moorhead, he ended up back in Detroit Lakes as  a drama teacher and debate coach.  During the summers, he played a lot of golf, but decided that he needed a little side income, too.  Newly married in 1969, Hanson bought a little candy shop on the shore of Detroit Lake and turned it into Zorbaz at the Beach, named after one of Hanson's favorite movies Zorba the Greek.  

Pictured right - Tom Hanson.  Picture courtesy Forum News Service.

At first, Hanson and his wife, Terri Jo, had Zorbaz open only in the summer months selling frozen pizzas with Grain Belt beer on tap.  But Zorbaz at the Beach caught on enough that he quit his teaching and coaching jobs in 1973 to concentrate on Zorbaz in the summer, while going out to Southern California to work in restaurants there in the winter months.

It was in California where he met Rick Jansen who was a cook at one of the seasonal restaurants Hanson had in the mid-70's.  Jansen showed Hanson how to properly make pizzas from scratch using only fresh ingredients.  And Jansen learned how to cook some Mexican foods from some of the Hispanic cooks who worked with him in the kitchen.  It also turned out that Jansen and Hanson had a mutual interest in cars, especially antique and performance vehicles.  Hanson was so impressed with Jansen that he made him a partner in Zorbaz back in Detroit Lakes. 

It was in the late 70's when Zorbaz started with the whimsical "z" replacing the "s" in everything they published.  Now a year round venture, Zorbaz at the Beach became a popular place.  Hanson and Jansen knew they had to expand and that opportunity came up in 1983 when they bought the former Babe's Resort on Little Pine Lake in Perham, MN and opened the second Zorbaz.  As Zorbaz added more locations, they focused on areas that were in smaller towns that had a high tourist count in Northern Minnesota, mainly on or near lakefronts.  The number of Zorbaz eventually grew to 14, but not all of them were successful.  Actually, three of the Zorbaz locations - each of which were not on lake shores - closed down due to the lack of business.  

The Zorbaz in Spicer came on line in the spring of 2012.  It was housed in the former Melvin's on the Lake, a supper club owned by Dave and Mary Baker who ran the place for nine years.  Melvin's had a sort of up and down existence with the Baker's who were having problems making a profit with the restaurant before they instituted a series of measures - including cutting down on winter hours and coming up with a series of operation efficiencies - that brought the restaurant back into the black.  However, they were looking to sell Melvin's so they could concentrate on their other properties that included a hotel, an office building and other restaurants.  Zorbaz made them an offer and the deal was struck in late 2011.  The Zorbaz-Green Lake would be the 10th one with the 11th Zorbaz opening in Alexandria, MN in 2014.

Tom Hanson continued to be the center of all the Zorbaz locations, affectionately known as "Jumbo" to his friends and employees, not only because he was 6'6" in height, but because of the large fun times he always had.  Unfortunately, Tom Hanson - a man who never smoked in his life - was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006.  He fought the battle for nine years before finally passing in 2015 at the age of 70.  Once he was diagnosed with cancer, Hanson gave up the day-to-day operations of the Zorbaz locations - along with four other lakeside restaurant/supper clubs his Lake Life Hospitality Group had purchased over the years - to his son Cole who continues to run Zorbaz which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.  

It was a short walk from our hotel to Zorbaz on Green Lake in Spicer.  (see map)  The large parking lot in front was, maybe, 25% full when we walked up to the place around 6:30 p.m.  Since it was the middle of the week - and Spicer isn't really a tourist destination until the weekend - there were a handful of locals in the place and at least two vacationers.  The dining room was an open area with a number of tables that would seat as many as 12 or as few as 4.  

The bar area featured some flat screen televisions behind the bar.  We were greeted by one of the bartenders, a young lady whose attitude was about as neutral as can be - no outgoing effervescence, nor was she surly.   I would have to say she was pretty impersonal.  I asked her if she could make a mai tai and she sort of said, "Yeah, sure.  OK."  My wife got a margarita made with top shelf tequila.  Even though she had the personality of a wet rag, the young lady could sure make a good mai tai and margarita.   They also had a pretty extensive beer list that featured craft beers, domestics and imports.   They had Kona Big Wave on the beer menu, but as long as she kept making the mai tais the same way as the first one I had, I knew I wouldn't be ordering a beer that evening.  

The menu at Zorbaz featured the two things they're famous for - pizza and Mexican food.  They also had wings and salads on the menu, but that was about it.  They had a number of different varieties of pizzas and Mexican food items including enchiladas, tacos and burritos.  We weren't exactly certain what we wanted to eat - we sort of went in there with pizza on our minds, but my wife decided that she wanted some chips and salsa with a side of guacamole.  The chips were pretty basic and the guac and salsa came in small plastic cups.  It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't all that bad, either.

One thing that I noticed they had on the menu was Southwestern-style green pork chili.  I thought I wanted to give that a try along with getting a small pizza.  Food orders are taken at the bar and the same emotionless and disinterested young lady who was making the killer mai tais and margaritas for us took our order.  Well, our pizza made it out to us, but the green pork chili did not.  I went up to the girl at the bar and told her that I didn't get the chili.  "You've got to be kidding me," she replied in a caustic manner.  She went over to the order screen and said, "I put it in!"  I said, well, I never got it.  I went back to sit down and it was about three minutes later when a young guy from back in the kitchen brought the chili out to me.  

It was sort of worth the wait as the green pork chili was very good.  It featured melted shredded cheese on top with chunks of pork and green chiles in a nice peppery base.  It was as good as any green pork chili that I've had in my travels to Colorado.  

We got a small sausage, pepperoni, mushroom and jalapeño pizza.  (My wife likes a little bit of a spicy bite on her pizza.)  The pizzas at Zorbaz are thin crust with a sturdy crust.  The pizza sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste, but it was still a pretty good pizza.  I remembered the pizza as being pretty good from my first visit to the Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes over 10 years prior.

After dinner, we both grabbed a couple more drinks and headed out to the patio area that overlooks Green Lake.   The patio area featured a number of picnic tables, as well as a like number of regular tables and chairs.  It was a beautiful evening and we headed out to a bench near the dock area next to Zorbaz to enjoy the scenery and laid back atmosphere on the patio.

Zorbaz is also known for their merchandise and they had a large area off the dining area that featured t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, coozies, and other different types of tchotchkes that were available. My wife was interested in getting one of the t-shirts, but there wasn't anyone in the merchandise area.  She went up to the disinterested bartender and asked her if anyone was available to sell her a shirt.  The girl just sort of sneered and said, "I can take care of you up here.  Just go get what you want and bring it up to me."  

She was very cold in her tone toward my wife, so much so that my wife turned back to me and said, "Forget it.  I don't need a shirt that bad."  I offered to take her back a day or two later during the day to get a shirt and she declined.  "I just have a bad taste in my mouth the way that bartender acted toward us when we were there," she said.  My wife usually tries to see the best in people, but she didn't see anything good with our bartender that day.  

The somewhat indifferent and impersonal bartender notwithstanding, I think we enjoyed most of our visit to Zorbaz.  The food is fine - we thought the pizza was good, but the chips with salsa and guacamole were pretty basic.  The green pork chili was actually very good - as good as some of the ones I've had out in Colorado.  And even though she didn't have much of a personality, our bartender made some very good mai tais and margaritas.  I had four mai tais that evening, but since all I had to do was stumble and zig-zag back to our hotel, that was fine with my wife.  Don't expect fine dining at any one of the 11 Zorbaz in Northern Minnesota.   But do expect to have some fun - even if your bartender isn't having any fun.

Johnny O'Neil's - Spicer, MN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I did...

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

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

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

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

 

St. Brendan's Irish Inn & Pub - Green Bay, WI

Up in Green Bay earlier this year, I wanted to find some place unique for dinner.  Years ago, my wife and I went to a very good Irish pub in downtown Green Bay that has since closed up.  But an Irish pub sounded pretty good to me that night.  I did a quick check on the internet to see if there were any Irish pubs in the area and the search immediately took me to the web site for St. Brendan's Inn & Pub.  It was a combination boutique hotel and Irish pub on the Fox River not far from the hotel I was staying at in downtown Green Bay.  It was a cool evening and I decided to make the short drive down the way to St. Brendan's Irish Pub to check the place out.  

St. Brendan's Inn and Pub are part of group of hotels run by Harp & Eagle, Ltd. which is headed by Sheboygan native Cary James "Rip" O'Dwanny.  His first hotel - County Clare Irish Inn & Pub - opened in Milwaukee in 1996.  Other hotel/pub ventures popped up in Plymouth, WI and Kenosha before they bought the site of the old bus depot and public parking area in Green Bay in 2002 and built St. Brendan's Inn and Pub in 2008.

St. Brendan's Inn and Pub was located about six blocks from my hotel.  As I said, it was a somewhat unseasonably cool evening (we had a lot of those in the spring and early summer of this year) and I drove the short distance to the place.  (see map)   I pulled into the parking lot next to the large and stately three-story building that housed the inn and pub.  The entrance to the hotel takes you to a small lobby area, but the pub is off to the right side of the lobby.  

To the left of the lobby was a hallway that took you out to a patio area that looked out onto the Fox River.  It featured a number of metal woven tables and chairs, but it was way too cool of an evening to be sitting on the patio that night.  

The pub is segmented into a dining area and the bar area with a half-wall separating the two.  The dining room featured a wood ceiling with antique light fixtures hanging down.  But the most impressive part of the room were the large stained-glass windows that towered along the walls opposite the bar area.  It was elegant, yet somewhat homey in the dining room.

The bar area was modeled after a typical Irish public house with 15 beers on tap and a full bar featuring Scotch and Irish whiskies.  It was at the bar where I decided to park myself for the evening.  A couple bartenders were working behind the bar and one by the name of Luke asked me what I would like to drink.  I ordered up a Smithwick's to start out.  The other bartender asked me if I was going to dine with them and after answering in the affirmative, he gave me a dinner menu to look over.  

The food at St. Brendan's Pub was a fine offering of Irish culinary favorites - corned beef and cabbage, Shepherd's pie, a Guinness-gravy pot roast, and an Irish stew with braised beef and root vegetables.  They also had pork tenderloin medallions, as well as a lamb shank on the menu.  Sandwiches included a traditional corned beef reuben, a braised pot roast sandwich, a battered cod sandwich, and a black angus beef burger.  I literally had six or seven things that I was considering to have for dinner that night.  

The bar had a pretty sizable lip on the edge.  Just before my food was brought out, one of the bartenders set a plank down that was the same depth as the lip to allow me to bring my food closer.  I thought it was sort of a nice touch considering I've eaten at bars with similar features in the past and it's sort of a hassle to lean so far over to get to your plate that your face is nearly in the food.  

For dinner that night, I got the meat loaf with mashed potatoes and a vegetable combination of grilled Brussels sprouts, carrots, and zucchini.  Now, I broke my own rule of ordering meat loaf when I'm in a restaurant, but the description of the blend of meat they use - veal, beef and pork - was similar to how I make my meat loaf at home.  And my meat loaf is excellent.  But I should have known as this meat loaf was not as good as mine.  

The meat loaf was topped with a gravy sauce made with Worcestershire sauce and caramelized onions.  The gravy was good, but I needed more to go along with the meal.  Luke was able to bring some more out to me and it was needed.  The meat loaf was dry and sort of lifeless.  The mashed potatoes were rather lukewarm and sort of hard.  The Brussels sprouts were very sour in taste.  At least the Harp beer - which I ordered for my second beer - and the gravy kept the entire meal from spiraling out of control.  I was just kicking myself for not listening to my instincts and going with one of the other Irish-style favorites they had to offer.  

I know I ordered the wrong thing on my visit to St. Brendan's Inn and Pub.  The meat loaf was not that good, the mashed potatoes were cool, and the grilled Brussel sprouts were very sour in taste.  I'm sure that anything else I was considering - like the Shepherd's pie, the braised pot roast, or the corned beef and cabbage - would have been significantly better than the meat loaf.  Well, I HOPE that those offerings would be better than the meat loaf I had.  Oh, well.  At least the service and the beer selection was good.  And it was very difficult to beat the authentic Irish-style pub at St. Brendan's Inn.  If I make it back at some point - and I hope I can - I'll try something other than the meatloaf.  

The Tangled Wood - Bettendorf, IA

Earlier this year, one of the restaurants that we would go to from time to time - Governor's in Bettendorf - closed their doors and moved to a new location with a new concept and a new name called The Tangled Wood.  We were eager to try the place a couple months after they opened, but each time we would go there the place was packed.  My wife had a Monday off recently and I suggested that we go out for lunch somewhere.  Then I remembered that we hadn't been to The Tangled Wood as of yet, so we ventured out there.

Governor's in Bettendorf had been a main-stay for over 40 years before they closed their location late last year at the corner of Middle Road and Devil's Glen to make way for a Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh convenience store.  The ownership group - headed by Craig Wagner who also owns Steventon's and Blue Iguana out in LeClaire, IA - had announced nearly 2 years ago that they had outgrown the purpose for Governor's and were looking to put a new re-branded restaurant somewhere in Bettendorf.  They had already closed the Governor's over in Moline in 2016 (personal note - that was the place my wife and I had our first official lunch date in 1993), and were focusing their efforts on the new Bettendorf location.  They built a building just up the road from the old Governor's location at Devil's Glen and Tanglewood Road in Bettendorf (see map) and opened in January of this year.   

It was around 1:30 p.m. when we made it into The Tangled Wood.  We immediately were impressed with the dining area which featured a mixture of contemporary industrial fixtures and frames with some beautiful wood and brick accents.  It was definitely a step-up from the decor at Governor's which had grown tired over the years.  The atmosphere at The Tangled Wood was much more bright and lively compared to the dark wood accents and low lighting that people experienced at Governor's.  

We should have realized something was amiss from the start when two young ladies were standing at the hostess stand for a couple minutes before they even acknowledged our presence.  We had been sort of wandering around looking into the dining area and in the bar area before my wife went up to them and said, "Can we get seated for lunch?"  One of the young ladies said, "Oh!  I'm sorry.  I thought you were looking for someone."  No - we just wanted to check the place out since it was our first visit.

We had our choice of the bar or the dining room and we opted for a booth in the bar.  The brick walls featured a number of flat screen televisions hanging from them, a number of high-top tables in the middle, booths on one wall and low-top tables along the other wall.  A large outdoor patio/bar area - which was still under construction when we were there (but is open now) - was just beyond the large windows past the bar.  Even if the patio was open, we wouldn't have sat out there as we were having an extremely cold late spring in the Midwest.  And this day was no exception.

The bar, itself, featured three sides of seating with a large island of liquor shelves and taps in the middle.  Their beer menu featured 44 beers on tap, as well as another 30 cans and bottles to choose from.  Governor's always had a good beer selection, but nothing like the selection The Tangled Wood has.

After we were seated in the booth in the bar area, we were given food menus to look over.  A couple young ladies who were servers came over to greet us.  One explained that the other one was new and was in shadow training.  (Turned out the "new" waitress was a seasoned veteran server from other restaurants whose first day at The Tangled Wood was that day and probably could have shown the other one a thing or two about waitressing.)  I noticed that they had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap and I ordered a pint of that.  My wife just went with water for the time being.  It was great they had the Big Wave on tap, but I was disappointed as it tasted sort of flat.      

It's basically a whole new menu from the one they had at Governor's - well, sort of.  They still have a number of sandwiches, appetizers, burgers and salads on the menu - many that were available at Governor's only with a new name.  The Tangled Wood also features barbecued entrees such as ribs and brisket, they have 12" pizzas with a hand-tossed or tavern-thin crust, and they have some of Governor's old favorites like fish and chips, and their classic nachos on the menu.  

My wife went with the grilled chicken sandwich.  She asked for it without the brioche bun, but they put the house spread in a bowl on the side.  (Don't exactly know what the house spread was, sort of like a mayo/dijon mustard, I guess.)  She got the tomato-braised kale for her side.  

I ordered the mushroom-Swiss burger with bacon on it.  I also saw that they had onion straws for some of their sandwiches and I asked our waitress if I could get a side of those.  The onion straws turned out to be nothing like I would classify as onion straws but more like thin cut food purveyor-style frozen onion rings.  

On the menu, the grilled chicken sandwich was called "Tastes Like Chicken".  My wife said it did not.  It was overcooked, rubbery and void of flavor.  She surmised the reason they had the house-made sauce with it was to at least give it some flavor.  She was highly disappointed in the grilled chicken.  But she did say that she very much liked the tomato-braised kale.  

I had asked for some "pink" in my burger when the waitress asked how I wanted my burger cooked.  Pink went out the window long before this burger was served to me.  It was over-cooked and well-done.  It didn't help that the bun that came with it was also dry - and there was too much of it.  The grilled mushrooms were all right, and they slathered a lot of Swiss cheese on top of the burger to help give it some flavor.  But the bacon was too crispy and crumbled apart like bacon bits.  The onion rings were as I feared they would be - pretty dull.  We were not happy with the quality of our meal.

And our waitresses literally left us.  I like to be checked on, but not hovered over, during our meal and I really wanted another pint of Big Wave to help wash the dry food down.  But they never came back.  Finally, I was able to flag down the "new" waitress and she came over.  She thought the other waitress had been back to check on us, but we hadn't seen her.  She got me another flat tasting Big Wave, mainly because I didn't have their beer list and I wasn't going to go up to the bar to check out their tap handles.  

We had hoped that our first visit to The Tangled Wood was an anomaly and that we would like to go back again at some point to try one of their tavern-style pizzas.  But we've heard from a handful of friends who have gone out there since that they, too, were sort of disappointed in the food and service.  It's a nice place, don't get me wrong.  And I understand the outdoor patio/bar area is always packed during these summer months.  But the chicken breast and the burger patty we had were both woefully overcooked.  I really hoped The Tangled Wood would become part of our rotation of restaurants to visit when we'd go out on weekends with friends, but we're going to have to give it more time to figure things out before we'll go there again. 

Craftsman Table and Tap - Middleton, WI

I had a morning meeting in Madison and decided to head up the night before and I spent the night in a hotel in Middleton on Madison's northwest side.  I was looking for a place to eat that had an interesting food menu and a good selection of craft beers to choose from.  I found a place on line that sounded like it fit the bill - Craftsman Table and Tap.  It wasn't far from the hotel, so I took off to find the place for dinner.

Craftsman Table & Tap is part of the Food Fight Restaurant Group that was established in the early 1990's by restaurateur Monty Schiro and realtor/developer Peder Moren.  Schiro had a long history in the restaurant business starting as a dishwasher in his early teens at a restaurant in Madison eventually working his way up the ladder as a bus boy, a waiter and was a restaurant manager by the age of 21.  After graduating college with a degree in art history, Schiro moved to Minneapolis.   Like many people who get a degree in college, they usually end up doing something else in life.  The restaurant business was deep in Monty Schiro's blood and he opened his first restaurant at the age of 24 in the Twin Cities.

Schiro eventually moved back to Madison and managed a location of the popular local chain Ovens of Brittany for about nine years.  But suddenly finding himself in his mid-30's, he was wanting to run his own place again.  In 1990, Schiro started his first Madison area restaurant and his one restaurant soon became four independent eateries.  In 1994, he was looking for a place to put a new concept, Monty's Blue Plate Diner.  Schiro met Peder Moren who was showing a property that was an old gas station.  The two struck a deal and they eventually combined forces for future expansion of the Food Fight Restaurant Group.  Schiro had also studied architecture in college and he designed the floor plan, interior and exterior motifs in many of the restaurants.  

In early 2012, Food Fight opened Craftsman Table and Tap, a European-style restaurant that specialized in upscale rustic comfort food with a great craft beer selection.  Today, there are 20 restaurants under the Food Fight Restaurant Group umbrella in the greater Madison area.  In addition to Monty's and Craftsman Table, Food Fight also oversees restaurants such as Steenbock's on Orchard, The Cooper's Tavern, Johnny Delmonico's Steakhouse, Fresco, and Eldorado Grill, 

Craftsman Table and Tap is located in a complex of retail businesses and restaurants at the corner of Century Ave. and Donna Dr. in Middleton.  (see map)  There's a parking lot behind the place and it was full when I pulled in around 6 p.m. that evening.  However, one car was leaving on my second trip through the lot, so I was able to pull in there.  

The decor inside Craftsman Table and Tap is sort of a contemporary industrial motif.  Large windows let in natural light and the high exposed ceiling gave it a bit of a hollow sound with the many conversations going on in the place.  

I ended up seated at the bar and I was greeted by Ismael, one of the bartenders.  He gave me a food menu and pointed out the list of about 18 beers they had on tap on the wall near where I was seated.  I ended up getting a Moxee Gold IPA from the Stone Brewing Co. near San Diego.  They also had a handful of craft beers and ciders available in bottles, as well.  

Looking through the food menu I found a number of shared plate appetizers, soups and salads, burgers, sandwiches and a handful of entrees that are served after 5 p.m.  A few things caught my eye, literally.  A guy seated near me got the Southern-fried chicken breast sandwich and it was huge!  The coating on the chicken breast sitting opened-faced on a brioche bun looked delicious.  The guy who ordered it commented to the person he was seated with, "This is two meals!"  

On the other side of me, three people were seated together and they had ordered a shared plate of the Prince Edward Island mussels that they had on special that evening.  The meaty mussels were swimming in a garlic butter sauce and they made my mouth water.  One of the people also got a cup of chili that looked pretty good, as well.  (I also found out after my visit that Craftsman Table and Tap are somewhat famous for the cheese curds they serve.)

I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening.  The grilled chicken and applewood-smoked bacon was interesting to me.  I considered the Swiss cheese and mushroom burger, as well as the reuben sandwich.  I even thought about getting the tuna melt sandwich for awhile.  

I had been on the road a lot lately and I was just sort of wishy-washy about what to order that evening.  I ordered up one of the specials they had that evening - the braised pot roast.  It was served with a side of Yukon gold mashed potatoes and grilled Brussels sprouts.  The braised beef was tender and pulled apart easily.  I could cut it with a fork with very little problem.  I had a few bites of the potatoes, but I was pretty impressed with the grilled Brussels sprouts.  I don't like Brussels sprouts all that much, but sometimes my wife will toast some in the oven or pan fry them at home and I like them much better than steamed.  These sprouts were actually very good.  It was a good comfort meal that I needed at a time where I was getting into sort of a food funk from eating out so much on the road.  

I was impressed enough with my visit to Craftsman Table and Tap in Middleton.  They had a number of interesting items on the menu - both food and beer on tap - as well as some good specials, like the braised pot roast that I had.  It was a good, hearty, "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of a meal that was a spot-hitter for me.  It was a comfortable place and the bartender was attentive and quick on helping me with any small request I had.  Craftsman Table and Tap is a nice little neighborhood place that featured a number of upscale comfort food offerings. 

Brew in the Village - Davenport, IA

The Village of East Davenport is not far from where my wife and I live and we find ourselves down there quite a bit - going to the cleaners, picking up bird feed, having a meal at one of the restaurants, or hanging out having a cold one at one of the bars.  One place that has turned into one of our favorite spots is a small restaurant/bar by the name of Brew in the Village.  It's quietly turned into one of the more popular places to have breakfast on the weekends - mainly because they start serving Bloody Mary's on Saturday and Sunday mornings before 11 a.m., one of the few places that do that in the Quad Cities.  

The entity of Brew has been around since 2011, but the building that houses the little bistro dates back to around 1860 toward the beginning of the city of Davenport's existence.  The building was built as a blacksmith shop on one side and a hotel/saloon on the other side.  In the early 1900's, a gentleman by the name of Frank Boyler bought the blacksmith shop and changed the name to Boyler's Blacksmith Shop.  But Frank did a lot more than make horseshoes.  He eventually expanded the building to the north to put in a horse wagon and buggy shop where each one was handmade.  Boyler lived in the old rooming house upstairs and the basement of the building was a notorious speakeasy during Prohibition.  When cars began to become popular and people weren't needing horseshoes or buggies, Frank put in a gas pump with a holding tank beside the building and put a lift in the old wagon shop making it the first full service gas station in Davenport.  On top of all this, the colorful Frank Boyler was also the mayor for the Village of East Davenport for over 20 years.  

Frank Boyler passed away in 1949 and the business passed along to his son, Richard.  With all the blacksmithing equipment in place and the lack of need for a service station since a number of free standing gas stations had been built around Davenport over the years, Richard decided that he'd turn the business into a fabricated metal shop and eventually renamed it Boyler's Ornamental Iron.  Richard grew the business so well over the first few years that it had to expand into the old service garage next door.  By 1975, he had to move the whole business to a facility on State Street in Bettendorf.  

Richard Boyler used the original location in the East Village as a display showroom for a number of years after moving the bulk of the operations to Bettendorf.  Boyler's sons - Mike, Bruce and Doug - took over the business when Richard retired in 1983 and continue to run Boyler's Ornamental Iron today along with the help from their respective children making it 4 generations of Boyler's in the business.  The Boyler family still owns the original East Village building with a large "Frank W. Boyler" painted on the brick facade and they lease out the spot in which Brew is located, as well as Pete Peterson's Wild Bird Shop (where we get our feed for our bird feeders) and a hairdressing shop where the old service garage was located.  The former Boots country bar (it was called Bootleggers up to about year and a half ago before permanently closing earlier this year) was located on the west side of the building and there are still apartments on the upper floor of the building.  

I don't quite remember exactly when there started to be a bar/restaurant in the spot.  I remember seeing the Boyler truck there quite a bit moving things out of their showroom starting about 10 years ago.  The space eventually became a small coffee shop by the name of Brew that eventually expanded into being a wine bar with a convection oven to make pizza.  Quite actually, their pizza was very good, and my wife and I would get one of their pizzas to take home from time to time.  

The gentleman who owned the coffee shop and small bar in the East Village was also the general manager at another restaurant in the Davenport area called Pepperjacks.   But both Brew and Pepperjacks abruptly closed in late December of 2013 when he moved his family out of state.  We were sort of crestfallen as Brew was a great place to grab a coffee or espresso on weekend mornings.  The building stood empty for awhile before Bill Sheeder happened to walk by the place with one of the Boyler's standing out front one morning a few months after the original Brew closed down.  

Sheeder was the owner of a commercial cleaning company, but his partner, Stephanie Sellers, was running a small bakery out in LeClaire by the name of The Sweet Life.  We first got to know her when she was selling her gourmet cupcakes at the Freight House Farmer's Market in downtown Davenport a few years ago.  They had talked about running their own little bistro-style restaurant that specialized in craft beers and Sheeder saw an opportunity in the old Brew location.  Virtually everything was in place for Sheeder and Sellers to take over the spot, and by that evening they had signed the lease to reopen Brew.  And they did so in early 2014.  

There's no room for a full kitchen at Brew and Sheeder and Sellers felt constricted with what they could do with a menu at the restaurant.  They immediately got rid of the convection oven for the pizza, and they de-emphasized the coffee offerings to the point that the "Brew" in the name quickly became more associated with beer than coffee.  But Sheeder had his eyes on another building a couple blocks to the west that he could gut and shape into a restaurant/brew pub of his own design.  

Sheeder and Sellers bought that building in 2015 and ended up selling Brew to nearby neighborhood residents Tim and Jennifer Chen.  Tim Chen was the International Business Development Manager for HON Industries in Muscatine at the time while Jennifer ran The Plaid Rabbit, a small stationary/gift store in the East Village.  After gutting their new building and renovating it into a brewpub/restaurant/bakery/live music venue, Sheeder and Sellers opened Baked Beer and Bread Company in 2016.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Baked.)  

Since Tim Chen was traveling quite a bit overseas and Jennifer was deeply involved with The Plaid Rabbit, the Chen's turned to a neighborhood friend, Tracy Cameron, who had a background working as a bar manager at some more upscale restaurants around the Quad Cities area.  (My wife and I first met Tracy and her husband, Ed, when we moved into our house nearly 17 years ago as they lived just down the street from us for a couple of years before moving to the McClellan Heights neighborhood just up the hill to the east of the East Village.)  Tracy had stepped back from the restaurant business for awhile to focus on raising her two boys and was happy not to worry about the day-to-day operations associated with being a bar manager.  When Tim Chen approached her to manage Brew for them, she initially turned them down.  But the Chen's eventually got Tracy to agree to run the place for them and she continues to run Brew in the Village today.  

Brew in the Village is located at the corner of Jersey Ridge and 11th St. in the East Village.  (see map)  We got there early enough on this particular Sunday morning that we were able to park in front of the place on the street.  (Brew opens at 8 a.m. on the weekends and 11 a.m. throughout the week.)  There's a small patio area in front of the place that's popular for al fresco dining on warm days.  A small smoker where they make their own bacon out of pork belly sits in the corner of the patio.  Some days when I'm driving by or stopping by the bird shop, the smell of the smoking bacon can be somewhat intoxicating.  

It was sort of cool, but partly cloudy the day we were there that Sunday and we decided to sit inside the restaurant.   It's a cozy space with a long bar and a long, narrow space filled with high-top tables.  One of the regular servers at Brew, Jessica, came over to greet us and drop off menus for us to look over.  She clearly recognized us from earlier visits.  Not long after we sat down, Tracy Cameron came in to drop off some supplies and she stopped at our table for a "getting-caught-up" chat with us.    

In the corner of the restaurant next to the bar, there's a display of former items that were made at Frank Boyler's original blacksmith shop.  Horseshoes, harnesses and blacksmithing tools hang from the exposed brick walls in the corner at Brew.  On the menu is a small history of Frank Boyler and his business that was once in the same spot over 100 years before.  

One of the first things that I had to get was one of their Bloody Mary's.  I always like getting a beer to go along with my Bloody Mary's - even at 8:30 in the morning.  They have a number of Quad City-area and Iowa craft beers on their menu and I ended up getting a Raygun IPA from the Backpocket Brewing Company over in Coralville.  They load up the Bloody Mary at Brew by putting a pickle spear and green olives on a spear with a strip of their wonderful house-made bacon.  One of my neighbors and I have been known to stealthily roll down the hill to Brew from time to time on Saturday or Sunday mornings to have a quick Bloody Mary and a beer.  Or two.  

On the weekends, they have bottomless mimosas available until 2 p.m. for $14.95.  My wife likes a mimosa from time to time, but she isn't one to sit there for a long spell drinking them down.  They will just charge you for one mimosa at a time if you like and that's exactly what my wife ordered from Jessica. 

As I said, there's really not a lot of room for a kitchen at Brew in the Village, so their menu is pretty limited.  They don't have a fryer or a grill top, so if you're looking for a burger and fries, Brew ain't the place.  But they do have sandwiches, flatbreads and salads available.  Appetizers such as a charcuterie board of cured meats and local cheese, stuffed mushrooms, and red pepper hummus served with fresh vegetables or crostini bread for dipping are also available.  

I have to tell you, though - I've never been there for anything but breakfast since the Chen's and Tracy Cameron have been running the place.  My wife has met friends there for wine and appetizers in the evenings, but I've only been there for breakfast.  And their breakfast items are rather unique.  Once again, you won't find omelets, French Toast or pancakes on the menu.  But they do have breakfast sandwiches - big enough that my wife and I can usually split one - breakfast tacos, and biscuits and gravy.  On the weekends, they also bring in a waffle iron and make their variation of a cinnamon roll waffle that's served with cinnamon butter and a cream cheese icing.  

What my wife and I usually get, however, is one of the Brew breakfast bowls - a concoction of scrambled eggs and a varied choice of cheese, vegetables and meat to add into it.  They call this the Hulk Smash and it's served with a biscuit and honey on the side.  This morning we got the bowl with smoked gouda cheese (that appeared to be cheddar, but the chef at the bar swore to us when we asked about it that it was, indeed, gouda), spinach, ham, and avocado chunks.  Also on the weekend, Brew serves Tracy's wonderful cheesy potatoes.  We'd been trying to eat smart in the previous weeks, but the oven-baked cheesy potatoes are too good to pass up at Brew.   And we usually get a side of bacon with our breakfast, but for some reason I didn't order any on this visit.  

My wife and I usually split the breakfast bowl at Brew passing it on between us to nibble on for a bit before passing it back.  The cheesy potatoes - well, that's a free for all.  We try to position them where we both can reach them with a fork.  There's more than enough food in the breakfast bowl for us to easily split one.  And when you add in the cheese breakfast potatoes, we usually don't have to eat lunch that day.  

Brew in the Village isn't the restaurant you're looking for if you're thinking about getting a burger, some fried appetizers, or an omelet.  But for the space they have to work with, their small kitchen area behind the bar is efficient enough to offer a number of interesting items for breakfast and sandwiches.  They have a number of craft beers available, as well as wines and mixed drinks.  Their Bloody Mary's that they serve are usually spot-hitters for me on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  It's a quaint little space housed in a building that dates back to pre-Civil War days.  Brew in the Village is one of the best out-in-the-open hidden secrets in the Quad Cities.     

Cellar Peanut Pub - Newton, IA

My wife and I were heading back to the Quad Cities from a night in Des Moines last March and I wanted to stop somewhere to watch the Iowa/Tennessee men's NCAA tournament basketball game.  My niece who lives in Newton was telling us about a place that is owned by friends of hers that was part of the old Maytag Plant One complex in downtown Newton.  The place sounded so interesting and I'd heard other good things about the place from friends back in Newton that I wanted to stop in to watch the game.  This post is about our visit to the Cellar Peanut Pub.  

Marty Duffy grew up in New Jersey and ended up moving to Iowa at the age of 15.  His father owned a bar and Duffy helped his father out in his business.  Going to school at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Duffy hung out with his football playing buddies at a place called the Cellar Peanut Pub.  He was studying to be a physical education teacher and a coach, but when the opportunity for Duffy to take over the bar came about in 2002, he chucked college and bought the bar.  His bar-owning father thought he was absolutely nuts.  But Duffy loved the bar business so much that he jumped in with both feet and never looked back.  

It was at the Cellar Peanut Pub where he met his future wife, Betsy, who was going to school at William Penn.  The two eventually married in 2007 and continued to run the Cellar Peanut Pub that they eventually moved to the old Rock Island Depot in Oskaloosa.  Duffy was a craft beer enthusiast and he turned the little bar into a craft beer destination featuring an ever growing list of beers from Iowa microbreweries.  But Duffy also became famous for his Bloody Mary's that garnered him a number of regional and national recognitions.    

The Duffy's opened a second location in Pella, IA in March of 2016.  Now, this sort of shocked me as growing up around the Newton/Pella area, Pella was known as a "tea-totaling" town, even with Central College the most prominent feature of the area.  I understand that there was still some push-back from local officials that the Duffy's had to deal with to open the Pella location.  But they were able to grow their business and their efforts were rewarded as the Thrillist web site named the Pella Cellar Peanut Pub as the best small town bar in Iowa in 2018.  

In late 2017, the Duffy's lost their lease on the old depot in Oskaloosa and were forced to close down.  The couple then set their sights on Newton and the spaces that were being developed in the former Maytag administration building.  

The Maytag company was sold to Whirlpool in 2006 and the administration building and manufacturing facilities in Newton were soon closed leaving many who didn't transfer to other Whirlpool facilities out of work.  It was a tough time for Newton for awhile as population dropped, businesses closed up, and school enrollment dwindled.  However, the Des Moines Area Community College was looking to expand their campus in Newton and they took over a large amount of the former Plant 1 building in downtown Newton.  In 2016, the owners of the former administration building donated the property to DMACC and the college set about with plans to develop the area that was soon renamed Legacy Plaza.  

Officials with the city of Newton worked to find businesses that would be interested in taking up space in Legacy Plaza and they came upon the Duffy's who were getting a fantastic following of craft beer lovers around Central Iowa.  A large space on the west end of the building was open and the Duffy's decided to turn that into their new location.  In October of last year, the Duffy's opened the Newton location of the Cellar Peanut Pub.  

Quite actually, I wasn't exactly certain where the place was.  All the years I lived in Newton, I really didn't go to Maytag all that much.  I sort of navigated around the parking lot north of the old administration building where my uncle parked when he was the office manager at Maytag years ago and into a smaller parking lot next to the Cellar Peanut Pub. (see map)  We were the only car in the parking lot at 11 a.m. on a Sunday and we weren't even certain if they were open. We walked up to the door, gave it a tug and it opened.  It was empty inside, save for a single young lady behind the bar.  I asked, "Are you guys open?"  She replied with a cheery, "We sure are!  Come on in!"  

The decor in the Peanut Pub is could be described as early 20th century industrial.  The exposed brick walls were a prominent feature of the main bar area with large windows letting in natural light.  There was a small beer garden outside behind the bar area, but it was too cold to be sitting outside that day.  Heavy duty wooden tables with metal industrial-style chairs were all around the bar area.  Incandescent Edison lights were strung from the rafters throughout the place.  Baskets of unshelled whole peanuts were prevalent on nearly every table and on the bar top.   

We ended up sitting at the bar on the not-so-comfortable metal stools.  We talked with Mindy - the young lady who greeted us as we walked in - who said that she was a teacher during the week, but helped out at the bar on the weekends.  Each beertender - as they're called at the Cellar Peanut Pub - must undergo a thorough training through the Cicerone Certification Program before they can become a certified beer server.  The certification program features a 60 question test that focuses on proper pouring techniques, fundamental cleanliness of the bar area, and being able to talk with the customer about different beer styles and tastes.  

I asked Mindy if they had food as they had a couple menus on the bar from a couple of restaurants in the Newton area.  She said, "No, but we've worked out a delivery deal with Giovanni's for pizza and with Moo's Barbecue." (Giovanni's is the pizza I grew up with and I haven't been in there in years, while Moo's Barbecue had a downtown Newton location until about 3 years ago before moving to a larger building out by Interstate 80).  "But people bring in their own food all the time," Mindy said.  "Sometimes people will bring in crockpots and set them up on the table and have kind of a party buffet going."  

Most of the beers, ciders and sours on tap were from small breweries around the state of Iowa.  Local breweries such as Exile in Des Moines, Firetrucker in Ankeny, Big Grove in Solon, Peace Tree in Knoxville, and Backpocket Brewing Co. in Coralville were represented.  They also had beers on tap from the New Holland brewery up in Holland, MI, the Church Street brewery in Itasca, IL, and they had the Victory at Sea imperial porter from one of my all-time favorite breweries, Ballast Point in San Diego.  And as a nod to the Maytag family, they also had Anchor Steam on tap.  The great-grandson of Maytag founder Fred Maytag - Fritz Maytag - resurrected the Anchor Brewing Company in the 1960's and is widely regarded as the first craft brewer in the United States. 

As I said earlier, I knew that Cellar Peanut Pub was also somewhat famous for their Bloody Mary's.  They've twice been named as having the Best Bloody Mary in Iowa and have garnered awards at the New York Wine & Food Festival.  I asked Mindy if she could make me one and she said that would be no problem.  We also ordered a couple beers to go along with it.  She asked, "Are you guys wearing sweat pants?"  Well, no, we weren't, but we inquired as to why she would ask.  "Sweat pants Sunday," she replied.  "People who come in here wearing sweat pants on Sunday get a discount.  But you guys are first-timers, so I'll go ahead and give you the discount."  

As Mindy made my Bloody Mary, I took a look in the back part of the building.  I was amazed at how big the space was at the Cellar Peanut Pub - about 7000 square feet.  The back room featured games including pinball and bags boards, and had a somewhat homey, yet unfinished look to the room.  

By the time I got back to the bar area, my Bloody Mary was up next to my beer.  I had ordered a Drugstore Cowboy pale ale from the Franklin Street Brewing Company in Manchester, IA (the birth place of my wife).  It was a hoppy New England pale ale that had just enough of a citrus back taste to cut into the hoppy-ness without having an over-powering fruity flavor.  My wife got the Tank Puncher IPA from the ReUnion Brewery in Coralville - a place I've been meaning to try at some point.    

I was remarking to my wife about how big this place was.  Mindy told us that they have bands play in the back room from time to time.  "Duke Tumatoe was here just last night," she told us.  I was amazed that Duke Tumatoe would play in Newton and was sort of upset that I didn't get a chance to see him at the Peanut Pub.  That would have been a fun show to see.   

The Bloody Mary lived up to its billing.  They use a homemade tomato juice mix for their base, then load it with vodka, veggies and fruits.  It was a very rich Bloody Mary mix and it was somewhat filling.  I thought about getting a second one, but I didn't think I could finish it.  And my wife is usually only good for one or two sips from a Bloody Mary.  

As we were enjoying our beers and watching the basketball game on TV, Marty Duffy and another guy came in and went behind the bar.  Marty came over to talk with us and I introduced myself and told him that he and his wife knew my niece.  Well, it turns out that my niece is very good friends with the Duffy's.  After all the pleasantries were exchanged, I complemented him on his place.  "We've had a good run, so far," he said. He said that there were some locals who love Budweiser and Miller Lite who will never come in.  "And that's fine," Duffy said to us.  "There's plenty of other bars around town that can cater to that.  I'm just trying to expose people to the better beers out there."  (I've since been told by one of my local friends that they now have Schlitz on tap.)

The other guy behind the bar with Duffy turned out to be Grant Heuer, the head brewer at the Gezellig Brewing Company (pronounced "hezellig") that Duffy's wife Betsy was opening up just down the plaza from the Peanut Pub.  "We've been down there working to get it going," Duffy told us.  "We hope to be open by this spring."  (They officially opened for business on June 7.)

We had a couple more beers as more people came into the place on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  My niece even made an appearance and she hung out with us for a few moments before taking us down to the Gezellig Brewing Company across the plaza from the Peanut Pub to look into the window to see the work going on at the nanobrewery.    

I have to say that my wife and I both loved every aspect of the Cellar Peanut Pub.  What they've done with the repurposing of the Maytag facilities that have been closed for years is a pretty amazing thing.  Great beer selection, great Bloody Mary, great space - the Cellar Peanut Pub just gave me another reason to go back to my hometown more than I have over the past few years.  

1909 Taverne Moderne - Montreal

Of course, hockey is big in Montreal with the Canadiens (known as the "Habs" to the locals and hardcore fans around North America) recently finishing their 110th season.  Working for a Montreal-based company for over 16 years, my co-workers in the main office live and die with each game the Canadiens play.  And it was an agonizing season for Habs fans - the team finished just outside the top 8 Eastern Conference teams for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  It was the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons the Canadiens have failed to reach the postseason.  The team plays their games in the Centre Bell (the Bell Center), a modern new arena that took the place of the historic Montreal Forum toward the end of the 1995-96 season.  About three-and-a-half years ago, local officials announced the arena (originally called the Molson Centre when it opened) and the surrounding area would undergo a significant renovation.  And one of the renovations called for a huge upscale sports bar that they would call 1909 Taverne Moderne that was slated to be built in the 50-story Tour des Canadiens building next to the Bell Center.  One night while we were in Montreal earlier this year, my company took us out to 1909 Taverne Moderne to watch a hockey game that was being played in Centre Bell and to have dinner.  

In order for 1909 Taverne Moderne to become a reality, the Montreal Canadiens paired up with Cara Operations to come up with the concept for the sports bar named for the first year the Canadiens played hockey.  Cara Operations - now known as Recipe Unlimited - is the oldest full service restaurant corporation in Canada starting in the early 1880's as a company that sold confectionaries, newspapers and magazines at train stations.  They oversee the operations of 18 different restaurants or restaurant chains across Canada including Bier Markt, where we went to for lunch one day we were in Montreal.  (Click here to see the entry on Bier Markt.)  At the same time that they opened the one next to the Bell Center in downtown Montreal, they opened a similar 1909 Taverne Moderne at Place Bell, a smaller arena in the northern Montreal suburb of Laval.  The 1909 Taverne Moderne at the Bell Center opened at the start of the Canadiens 2017-18 season.  

Even though it was just three blocks from our hotel, it was a somewhat treacherous wintry walk to 1909 Taverne Moderne.  (see map)   The place is just huge - multiple bar areas, televisions everywhere, and a total floor area on 3 levels of over 27,000 square feet.  The bar area at the main entrance - the Plaza level - seemed to be somewhat subdued and I followed our group down a couple sets of escalators to a two-story subterranean level called the Concourse and the Mezzanine.  Turning the corner from the second down escalator I came onto the vast Concourse level  that was quite the sight to behold.

The hallmark of both 1909 Taverne Moderne restaurants are the huge large screen televisions - the one in Laval features a 33' wide projection screen, while the one we were at in Montreal features a 46' wide screen, easily the largest one in Canada.  It was sort of mesmerizing to a longtime audio/video guy like me.  My colleagues and I were sort of geeking out at the high definition projection units that were mounted in large housings on the Mezzanine level.  

The main level in front of the large projection television was a vast area of tables with two large bars.  There were a couple televisions that were turned to the Toronto Raptors basketball game that was going on at the same time, but nearly every television was tuned to the Canadiens game going on next door.  

Our group took a seat along the wall at a series of high top tables that sat 10 people each.  I immediately ordered up a Yakima IPA - a very good beer from the Le Castor microbrewery from the small Quebec community of Rigaud located about 40 miles west of Montreal.  I had discovered the Yakima IPA earlier on this visit as none of the places had the Boreale Blonde beer that has become my favorite beer on trips to the Montreal area over the years.  

The menu on the Concourse and Mezzanine levels at 1909 Taverne Moderne features a blend of traditional bar foods as well as more upscale offerings.  Appetizers ranged from nachos and chicken wings to smoked meat poutine, fresh oysters on the half-shell, and beef tartare.  Steaks, pork chops, rotisserie chicken and a seared salmon entree were on the menu, along with a variety of burgers and sandwiches.  The Montreal smoked meat grilled cheese sandwich especially caught my eye.  

One of the appetizers was a gravlax-style smoked salmon and I had to get that.  When our server brought it out for me, the guys seated around me at my table started to laugh.  It was a very small chunk of smoked salmon surrounded with fish roe, bread crumbs, candied shallots, and a dill cream sauce.  Quite actually, it was very good.  I only wish that it was a bigger piece of salmon.  

For dinner that night, I got the strip steak with a side of broccolini and frites.  I was able to get a side of the peppercorn sauce to go with the steak and I asked our waitress if she could give me some mayonnaise for the fries.  She sort of looked at the table and said, "I wonder why they didn't put any (mayo) on this tray with the fries?"  She went back to the kitchen and brought back a number of metal containers full of mayo.  Woo hoo!  I love mayo on French fries.   

And the steak was...  all right.  I mean it wasn't bad, but it wasn't a juicy, Iowa-style, corn-fed steak that I'm used to.  But it had a good enough flavor to it and the peppercorn sauce certainly helped zip up the taste a bit.  The fries - with the mayo - were very good, and the broccolini was warm, yet crisp.  Not overcooked in the least.  

One of my colleagues seated next to me got the tagliatelle pasta with polpeete - a variation on a true Italian meatball.  It came in an olive oil/tomato sauce and was topped with arugula.  My colleague leans a little bit more to the vegetarian side of the street, but he seemed to enjoy the pasta and small meatballs.  

We had some guys over from one of our factories in France and one of them got the salmon tartare - hand-cut salmon that was served Korean-style with pickled daikon and a sesame/soy vinaigrette.  It came with toasted crostini and a side of fries.  Now, this was actually an appetizer, but it was more than enough food for one person's dinner.  He said that he really enjoyed the dish.  

For dessert that evening, I got the bread pudding.  I had about half of it down before I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the dessert.  I remember it being pretty rich and that I probably shouldn't have had it.  I was definitely full and somewhat miserable by the time I wandered back to the hotel.  I always gain weight when I go to Montreal.  And I had to go on a major diet when I got back home to get my weight back down to where it was before I left to go there.   

1909 Taverne Moderne was a sort of pleasant surprise all the way around.  The food was definitely upscale for a sports-centric bar/restaurant.  I have to say the service was admirable as our servers did a good job of keeping up with requests from our large group.  And I definitely got my geek on with the huge projection screen on the Concourse level of the place.  I'm a casual hockey fan - more so during the Stanley Cup Playoffs - but it was sort of impressive seeing a match played on a screen that is larger than many movie theaters these days.  I'm a sports fan, I like good food, and I'm a craft beer enthusiast.  1909 Taverne Moderne checked off all the boxes for me that evening. 

Bier Markt - Montreal

Earlier this year, the company I have worked for for over 16 years was purchased by a capital investment group.  The good news is that I still have a job.  The bad news is that there's still some uncertainties and some figuring things out with the new company.  The other good thing is that my boss, the former owner of the company, was retained by the capital investment group to run the North America operations for the company.  The familiarity of working with the same people is a big plus, but even during the course of transition, there's still some apprehension.  To help get over the trepidation and uneasiness of this transition, my boss called for a company meeting in Montreal.  The only problem was that it was in late January.  And Montreal in January isn't as fun as Montreal in, say, August.  Still, I always relish the chance to go to the city as it has a lively and diverse culinary scene.  For lunch one day, a group of us went to a sort of sports bar/beer place by the name of Bier Markt.  

Bier Markt is a small chain of restaurants that started in Toronto in 2001.  A Toronto restaurant group, Prime Restaurants - which was founded back in the early 80's - was behind the original concept of the sports bar restaurant that featured a number of beers and upscale bar food.  The Montreal location opened in 2013 along Boulevard René-Lévesque West (see map) in what was the original location of Queue de Cheval - one of the best steakhouses in Montreal - before that restaurant moved to a new location in 2012.  

In 2013, Prime Restaurants sold their portfolio that included Bier Markt to Cara Operations Ltd., the oldest restaurant group in Canada which got its start in the early 1880's selling confectionaries and magazines in Canada Railway train stations across the nation.  Now known as Recipe Unlimited, the restaurant group owns and operates 18 different brands of full-service and fast-casual restaurants across Canada.  Today, there are 7 Bier Markt locations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and St. John's, Newfoundland. 

Montreal has an intricate labyrinth of passage ways under the city's center.  The Montreal Underground City is something I've heard about, but have never experienced - until this trip.  We were staying at the Hotel Bonaventure, a 70's-era hotel known for its rooftop pool that's open even in the dead of winter.  The Hotel Bonaventure is also somewhat well-known in rock music history as the place where members of The Who completely destroyed one of the suites after a show in Montreal.  Members of the group, as well as some of their entourage, were arrested and the band's management was forced to pay nearly $10,000 in damages to the hotel to get the band out of the pokey.  

The Hotel Bonaventure is connected to the underground walkways and since it was snowing out pretty good, we decided to take the Underground City passageway to Bier Markt.   We took a lot of steps down, a lot of right turns, a lot of left turns and then steps up before we found ourselves outside in the snow and just across the street from Bier Markt.     

For a pseudo sports bar/beer joint, Bier Markt is pretty nice.  Walking into the space, I saw a metal topped bar that curved around with lots of dark wood paneling throughout the place.  

The main floor was spread out with a number of tables that featured comfortable padded chairs and a large of number of televisions that could be seen from nearly every seat in the place.  It was a lively lunch crowd that was enjoying being out of the late January snow outside.  

Toward the back of the main floor was another bar area that featured a small bar with an area for grilling meats, primarily beef and sausages for small charcuterie plates.  This place was more like a bistro than a sports bar.  

We ended up going upstairs to a second floor dining area.  There was a small bar up there along with a large glass-front refrigerator that featured a number of bottles of beer they had to offer.  They offered a wide variety of beers on their beer menu including pale ales, stouts, ciders, amber ales, and radler beers - a half beer/half fruit soda concoction - that have become popular (but I don't care for) in Canada and parts of the U.S.  They did have blonde ales available, but unfortunately they didn't have the Boréale Blonde, a locally-brewed beer that I have fallen in love with on previous trips to Montreal.  But they did have the Yakima IPA from the Le Castor brewery located about 45 miles west of Montreal.  It was actually a very good beer and one that I had many times during my visit to Montreal.  

The food menu at Bier Markt featured a number of interesting appetizers including bacon poutine (it was all I could do to NOT order that), angus beef tartare, and beer-braised duck wings.  They had sandwiches, hand-tossed pizzas, pork or chicken schnitzel, P.E.I. mussels, grilled Atlantic salmon, and steaks including a 1.5 kilogram (a little over 3 pounds) bone-in tomahawk-style ribeye.  

I went pretty basic on my trip to Bier Markt - I got the burger with frites (fries).  It was served on a sesame-seed bun and topped with what was a surprisingly fresh slice of tomato, iceberg lettuce, kosher dill pickle slices, and shaved red onions.  The burger was, well, all right.  I thought I might have been more happy getting something else, but I was sort of in a mood for a burger that day.  

After I finished my lunch and went to the washroom, our server brought out a plate of warm powdered-sugar donuts drizzled in caramel as an after-meal dessert that Bier Markt is sort of famous for.  While I wasn't expecting anything after the burger I had, I have to say these were a nice touch at the end of the meal.  The donuts were light, but the sugar and caramel gave them a decadent quality in taste.   

I have to say that Bier Markt was a nice place, but the food was just sort of average.  They had a nice selection of beers - many of which I wasn't all that familiar with - but the atmosphere was that of an upscale sports bar.  I was impressed with the layout and the comfortable atmosphere in the place.  If you're in Montreal and looking for a place that has sports, a good beer selection, and an interesting menu with some upscale bar food, Bier Markt would be worth the stop.  

White Dog Black Cat Cafe - Green Bay, WI

During a previous trip to Green Bay some time ago, I happened to be reading in a local publication about a quirky little bar/cafe in the Broadway District of the city - White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I had put that on my list of places to go to and on a trip to Green Bay last fall before the snow began to fall, I headed over to check out what the place with a double dichotomy as a name was all about.  

White Dog Black Cat's Cafe owners - Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel - were both social workers in the area for a number of years.  About 20 years ago, Holly decided that she needed a change of scenery from the rigors of social work, so she moved out to Egg Harbor in Door County to work in a restaurant with some friends of hers.  It turns out that she enjoyed the restaurant work more than social work.  From her friends restaurant, she moved on to the popular White Gull Inn working as a cook for about a dozen years and learning the restaurant business.  (Click here to see an over 10 year old Road Tips post on the White Gull Inn.) 

Around 2003, Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel (pictured at right - photo courtesy Glidden Drive Association) decided to open their own restaurant in Green Bay.  Now, this is just a guess, but I believe they may have named their restaurant after the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia which was owned by entrepreneur/author/urban activist Judy Wicks whose restaurant was one of the first in the nation to feature locally grown and sustainable foods cooking and to promote responsible business practices including offering a living wage to its employees.  Wicks also ran the Black Cat gift boutique located next door to the White Dog Cafe which featured locally made goods and fair trade gift items.  (Well prior to her life as a restaurant/boutique owner/author/activist, Wicks co-founded the Free People store with her then-husband Richard Hayne as part of an entrepreneurial class at the University of Pennsylvania.  Hayne and Wicks divorced in 1971 and the store eventually evolved into Urban Outfitters of which Wicks has no involvement with today.)   

White Dog Black Cat Cafe featured artwork from local artists and garnered a following the Green Bay community offering craft beers, good burgers and a great place to hang out.  The success with their little bar/cafe in Green Bay prompted Fiorello and Hebel to buy a long time Door County establishment called The Hitching Post in 2015.  The two transformed the bar and grill into The Tin Plate that somewhat mirrored the vibe and menu found at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  Unfortunately, having a second location proved to be somewhat too much for Fiorello and Hebel and they closed The Tin Plate last July.  But they continue to run White Dog Black Cat Cafe today.  

I found White Dog Black Cat Cafe at the corner of S. Broadway and N. Howard near the Fox River.  (see map)  Much of that stretch of Broadway is made up of small shops, coffee houses, and restaurants.  I was able to find a parking spot on Broadway just past of Howard and walked back over to the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  

From the outside, you wouldn't think much about the place.  It's a nondescript block style building with a brick facade and pastel colors on the side.  But walking inside the building, it comes alive.  The restaurant is segmented into two parts.  The bar area along with high-top tables along the wall is to the left as you come into the restaurant.  The "L"-shaped bar featured high-backed chairs with a barn board facade.  

The burnt orange wall opposite the bar gave the room some vibrancy.  The sound system was playing an interesting mix of artists such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Police, and Jade Bird.  I immediately liked the funky vibe to the place.  

Off to the right side as you come in to White Dog Black Cat Cafe was a more common style dining area.  There was a certain funkiness to the space with the walls and curtains in pastel colors.  As with the bar area, some interesting art work - all of which, I understand, was available for purchase - was on the wall.  Chairs were mismatched, as were the lamps hanging from the ceiling.  An antique stove stood at one end of the dining area, while on the opposite end there was a lime green couch under the window with an antique coffee maker on one side and a small wood burning stove on the other side.  

I ended up seated at the bar and was greeted by my server/bartender James who had a soft-spoken, amiable and laid-back demeanor.  He gave me a food menu to look over and I ordered up a Fantasy Victory IPA from the Karben4 Brewing Company, a small brewery from Madison, WI that I wasn't familiar with.  I liked the beer immensely and had to pick up a couple six packs when I got to Madison later that evening.  

Burgers and sandwiches are the main items on the menu at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  On Fridays, they have a number of fish and seafood items that are added to the menu.  And on Saturdays and Sundays, the cafe has a popular brunch menu available.  Soups, salads and appetizers are also available.  

In the article I read about the place previously, it talked about how good their burgers were at White Dog Black Cat.  I had a burger the day before and I wasn't certain that I was going that direction two days in a row.  I considered the fish tacos or the muffuletta sandwich for a moment, but the White Dog burger is what I ended up with.

The burgers at White Dog Black Cat Cafe all come with potato chips, but I asked James if I could get a cup of the chili they had listed on the menu.  This was a thick chili, but not nearly-concrete thick, with beef and beans, then topped with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped onions.  It had a very noticeable and forward chili powder taste.  The chili was very good - a spot-hitter, if you will, considering there was a noticeable chill in the air in Green Bay that day.

The White Dog burger consists of a 1/2 pound of premium ground beef and served with lettuce, tomato and onions.  For an uncharge, you can get cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  I got all three - Swiss cheese, of course.  The burger was piled high with the toppings and it looked pretty impressive.  The Swiss cheese just oozed off the top and onto the sides of the burger.  

The burger, itself, was very juicy and very good.  Even with the load of toppings on the burger, I could still get the good grilled beef taste with every bite.  The only quibble was that there was too much bun.  The base was very thick and the crown - although light and spongy - was a little chewy.  I pulled away much of the bun using parts of it to hold as I ate the burger and the toppings.  Overall, it was a very good burger.  

If you're looking for a fun, laid-back and quirky place to eat in Green Bay, I would recommend seeking out the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I liked everything about my visit - the interesting artwork, the decor, the choice of music and I thoroughly enjoyed both the White Dog burger and the cup of chili that I had.  James, the bartender/server, was a nice guy, friendly and not pushy.  While there's not a lot to choose from on the menu, even if you want to go there to get a beer they have a good selection of local and regional craft brews.  This is the kind of place I wish I had in my neighborhood to go hang out at.  

Willy McCoys - Bloomington, MN

Up in the Twin Cities last fall, I was looking for someplace to go that would be showing playoff baseball where I could get a cold beer and some above average bar food.  I looked for places around the hotel where I was staying and I found a place that I wasn't familiar with - Willy McCoys.  I sort of cringed thinking that this was going to be one of those family-friendly "good-time-had-by-all" theme restaurants.  But then I found out that they had the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap - my beer of choice these days.  I thought, "What the hell.  If the food sucks, at least they'll have baseball on TV and Big Wave on tap."  I took off to go find Willy McCoys in Bloomington.  

Tom DeQuattro grew up on the East Coast and got into the restaurant business at a very early age.  He was running restaurants in Michigan and in the Miami area in his 20's.  It was in Florida where he met Korey Bannerman, a former gymnast at the University of Minnesota who was a partner in a company called Premier Restaurant Management.  Bannerman convinced DeQuattro to head to the Twin Cities to manage a restaurant called The Lodge.  DeQuattro didn't know how long he would be staying in Minnesota, but it wasn't too long after he moved to the state he met his future wife, Tracy.  Suddenly, the Upper Midwest became DeQuattro's permanent home.  

DeQuattro and Bannerman became involved in other restaurants, most notably the former Whiskey River Saloon that had locations in Madison and LaCrosse, WI, and a restaurant called The Pub also located in Madison.  (They have also opened a couple of restaurants in the Naples, FL area.)  In 2012, they decided to take over a former restaurant location in the far northwest Minneapolis suburb of Ramsey and open a new concept restaurant that would be family friendly - complete with its own PlayStation area for kids - as well as a sports bar with a number of craft beers available on tap.  They called it Willy McCoys and it became an immediate hit.  Today, there are six Willy McCoys in the Twin Cities area.  The Bloomington location that I went to opened in 2015.  

Now, most theme restaurants like this usually have a made up name with a made up story behind the name.  But it turned out that there really was a Willy McCoy - William "Bill" McCoy, to be exact.  McCoy and his brother were sea captains and yacht builders in Florida in the early 1900's.  When Prohibition took effect in 1919, McCoy became a bootlegger, or as they were known in the Caribbean a "rum runner", who would fill his boats with cases of rum from Caribbean islands and bring them to the United States.  He became proficient at the task earning millions of dollars for his efforts and becoming the darling of criminal folklore in the early 1920's.  The federal government finally caught up to McCoy in 1923 sentencing him to 9 months of prison time.  After serving his sentence in New Jersey, McCoy went back to Florida and invested his ill-gotten gains in real estate, living there until he passed away in 1948.  

Since I'd been experimenting with the OMAD (One Meal a Day) Diet that has helped me lose over 50 pounds, I'd been eating usually late in the afternoon.  And it was just after 5 p.m. when I pulled into the Willy McCoys in Bloomington located in a strip mall on the southwest corner of West Old Shakopee Road and France Ave. South. (see map) 

The Bloomington Willy McCoys has a large and open space with a bar area in the middle.  Overhead garage doors opened to a patio, but it was a cool fall afternoon when I was there and they were closed.  The place was packed with an after work/early dinner crowd.  I took a seat at the crowded bar, a couple young ladies scooched over to let me have some room.  Major League playoff baseball games were playing on the sets hung over the center of the bar area.  

Amongst the dozen of handles on the row of taps I saw the distinctive ocean blue Kona Big Wave Golden Ale tap handle.  I ordered one of those up and started to take a look through the food menu.  The bar area had a tin ceiling about it and it was enhanced by a blue light around the edge.  

When the bartender brought me my beer, he actually brought two beers.  I soon figured out that happy hour at Willy McCoys meant two-for-one beers.  So, I suddenly had two pints of Kona Big Wave sitting in front of me.  And that really wasn't that bad of a thing.   

Looking through the menu, I saw number of typical items that you'd find at a similar family/sports bar - appetizers, burgers, salads, sandwiches, flatbreads, soups and a few entrees.  But they were actually pretty different and rather interesting compared to menus at similar restaurants.  Appetizers at Willie McCoys included pot stickers that were pan-seared in a whiskey ginger sauce, blackened beef bites, and a Southwest-style shredded chicken dip that was made with a creamy concoction mixed with diced tomatoes, jalapeños, onions and sweet corn.  

The crispy buffalo chicken salad topped with blue cheese caught my eye, as did the beef brisket sandwich.  The blackened mahi mahi tacos on the list of entrees were a large possibility, but I was sort of intrigued by the Juicy McCoy burger - Willy McCoy's rendition of the Twin Cities staple stuffed cheeseburger.  But I had a burger the previous evening, so I didn't want to get into that rut.  Quite frankly, they had a number of interesting things on the menu where one minute I'd decide on something, only to have that trumped by something else I found on the menu.  

The two bartenders let me think about the four or five dinner items I had to choose from over a couple of beers.  When I ordered up another Big Wave - it was still happy hour, so I got two more pints - I was ready to order.  I first ordered a cup of Willy McCoy's house-made wild rice soup - a Minnesota staple.   It was thick, creamy, very rich and very good.  I probably could have gotten a whole bowl of the wild rice soup and been happy with that for my meal.  

I ended up getting the Jambalaya sandwich.  It had crispy buffalo chicken, sautéed shrimp, and andouille sausage mixed in with peppers, onions and tomatoes.  It was served open-faced on French bread and was drizzled with a creamy and spicy Cajun sauce.  I got a side salad with ranch dressing instead of a choice of fries, tater tots, waffle fries, cole slaw or other side items.  

I concentrated on what was on top if the bread - the crispy chicken, andouille sausage and sautéed shrimp covered in the cream and spicy Cajun sauce.  The sauce was spicy enough where it caught my attention on top of the already spicy crispy chicken and andouille sausage.  But it wasn't overpowering where I couldn't enjoy all the different flavors on the sandwich.  It was actually pretty good.

As I was seated there enjoying the sandwich, an older gentleman came in and sat down next to me at the bar.  The female bartender had a drink ready for him and called him by his first name.  Obviously a regular, he asked the bartender what the special was that evening.  She said it was open-faced sliced turkey sandwich topped with the wild rice soup.  Now, they never told me what the specials were before I ordered off the menu and I would have DEFINITELY ordered that!  Not that what I had was bad - far from it.  But an open-faced turkey and creamy wild rice sandwich would have been a spot-hitter.  

When they brought it out to the gentleman next to me, I couldn't help but comment on the sandwich.  I said, "I like what I got, but that looks delicious."  He said it was very delicious.  He said that he eats there on a regular basis - "probably too much," he said - and the food is always consistently good.  

Going in to Willy McCoys for the first time, I was a little worried that it would be one of those theme-restaurants that I usually despise.  But I have to admit, the food choices they had on the menu made it very hard for me to make up my mind.  While I settled on the open-faced jambalaya sandwich and a cup of the house-made wild rice soup, the open-faced turkey sandwich topped with the wild rice soup special they had that evening - which wasn't offered to me by my servers - looked like a winner.  Not that I didn't like the jambalaya sandwich, it was a true spot-hitter.  I just wish I would have had the special options given to me that evening.  Nonetheless, Willy McCoys has a wide and varied menu and a number of great craft brews on tap.  I'm sort of surprised I hadn't known about this place sooner than my first visit this past fall.  

Cafe Beaudelaire - Ames, IA

I've been somewhat dubious of the past winners of the Best Burger in Iowa contest which has been held since 2010 by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  Some of the ones I've tried were, well, not all that good.  But others have been great.  So, when this year's winner was announced back in May, I was even more skeptical that the Best Burger in Iowa was at a small Brazilian cafe in Ames by the name of Cafe Beaudelaire.  On a trip down from the Twin Cities to Des Moines awhile back, I decided to stop in to Ames and give the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire a try.  

About 30 years ago, Claudio Gianello came to Ames to visit his brother who was studying for his doctorate in agronomy at Iowa State University.  Claudio decided to stick around Ames for awhile and soon he met Kellie Jacobs, an ISU student from the west central Iowa town of Carroll.  The two fell in love, and while Claudio waited for Kellie to finish school he decided to open a restaurant in the Campustown area across from the Iowa State campus and featured Brazilian cuisine, but with an American flair.  Gianello got the name of the restaurant from a derivative of the name of the French poet Baudelaire as it somewhat translates to "Beauty of the Air".     

Even though it was a Brazilian restaurant, Gianello was welcoming of cultures from all over the world.  His little cafe soon became a gathering place for students from other countries.  And when the World Cup was held in 1994, Claudio put in televisions for foreign students to come in and watch the soccer matches at what locals and students referred to as "Cafe B". 

Pictured at right - Claudio Gianello.  Photo courtesy Iowa Beef Producers Council.  

Of course, burgers were a big item with students at ISU and Claudio knew that the Iowa-raised black angus beef was some of the best in the world.  He had burgers on the menu since they first opened, but he was always playing around with ingredients to add to the beef that was ground fresh in house.  A few years ago, he ended up coming up with a simple combination of salt, pepper, and ground oregano as a seasoning for his signature burgers.

For three years, Gianello had employed a young Iowa State student by the name of Lexi Romitti as a waitress.  Romitti was a student in Iowa State's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and she was looking to do a public relations campaign as a special project.  Working with a small group of other students, Romitti began a campaign to create more awareness among students about Cafe B.  When the Iowa Beef Industry Council announced their Best Burger contest in February, Romitti spearheaded efforts to bring students into Cafe Beaudelaire with "Burger Bashes" where they could vote for the burger as one of the best in Iowa.  

The efforts of Romitti and her team paid off as Cafe Beaudelaire was one of the top 10 vote getters in the Best Burger in Iowa contest.  Judges from the Iowa Beef Industry Council secretly came in to Cafe B to try the burger and they determined it was the Best Burger in Iowa for 2018.  Gianello's restaurant joined 2014 winner Brick City Grill to make Ames the only city in Iowa to have two Best Burger winners.  

I was able to find a parking space along Lincoln Way in front of Cafe Beaudelaire, and after some jostling between a tight space and heavy traffic I finally got settled in.  (see map)  Entering the small restaurant, I was greeted by a young lady by the name of Kayli who said I could sit anywhere.  I took a table in the middle of the dining area.  A small bar was along one wall with some flat screen televisions on the wall.  It was a colorful, funky kind of restaurant that made me feel right at home.  

Kayli had dropped off a menu for me to look over.  I knew already that I was going to get the burger, but I wanted to see what else they had to offer.  Actually, it wasn't that large of a menu.  They had variations of American and South American choices - many of the appetizers had a Brazilian flair such as empanadas, yucca fries, and something called Pac de Queijo - fresh bite-sized bread with parmesan and gouda cheese baked into them and served with a marinara sauce.  In addition to some burgers, they had a Cuban sandwich, a pita sandwich with a choice of either roast beef or chicken, and a popular Brazilian sandwich called the Bauru - it featured a beef patty and ham slices on fresh baked wheat bread topped with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, corn, peas, mozzarella cheese and a fried egg.  You could also get one with a grilled chicken breast or a spicy black bean patty.  Cafe B also had vegetarian options along with soups and salads.  They also feature a brunch menu on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I got the classic burger with cheddar cheese.  A fried egg and bacon strips were also available for toppings, but I didn't want a bunch of stuff on there to mask the taste of the burger.  They also had a half-chorizo/half-angus beef burger, a burger topped with Muenster cheese and grilled red and green peppers, as well as a Mexican-style burger topped with guacamole and gouda cheese.  A side of Brazilian potatoes came with the burger.  

The burger was flat-grilled and smash-pressed with a crispy outer shell.  The patty was misshapen from the grilling technique.  It was served on what I believe was a potato bun and came with a sliced onion, lettuce and a pickle.  The burger was actually too salty for my taste.  I don't put a lot of salt on my food and I immediately picked up on the abundance of salt in the patty.  There was too much bun, as well.  I found myself tearing away chunks of the bun because there was just too much of it.  

But other than that - and the burger being too salty - I thought the burger was very good.  It had a great beef flavor and it was very juicy.  I really wish they hadn't loaded it with so much salt.  

The Brazilian potatoes were basically seasoned wedge potatoes.  They were good with a crispy outer shell and a nice flaky inner core.  Once again, I wasn't all that interested in the potatoes, but for someone who does like steak-style wedge fries they would like these.

I'm now 9 for 9 in trying the Best Burger in Iowa contest winner and I'd have to put the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire somewhere in the middle.  While the fresh ground beef was juicy and flavorful, they seasoned it with too much salt.  The bun was airy and spongy, but there was too much bun for the size of the burger.  The Brazilian fries were basically seasoned potato wedges, but they were perfectly cooked with a good crispiness to the outer shell and a warm flakiness on the inside.  I couldn't quibble about the friendly service I received while at Cafe Beaudelaire.  While they seemed to have a good beer selection, I ended up just having water with my burger.  I'm happy that a place like Cafe B is the winner of the Best Burger in Iowa, but I have to think there were other burgers in the contest that may have been better.