Road Tips

The Cut Handcrafted Burgers - Irvine, CA

When I was out in Southern California earlier this year, I had finished up with a morning meeting and was heading back to the hotel to do some office work before heading over to help set up for a trade show I was attending.  I didn't have breakfast and was feeling a bit hungry, so I decided to find someplace for lunch.  I was looking for a good burger/beer place and one came up that I wasn't too far away from.  I ended up heading to The Cut Handcrafted Burgers for lunch.  

Orange County, California has long been a destination for Korean immigrants dating back to the early 70's.  Irvine has the third largest U.S. population of Korean nationals living within its limits and because of that there are a number of Korean food restaurants in the area.  But it turned out that Koreans also tried to blend into American culture and that's something Steve Kim did when he opened up his burger-centric food truck in 2014.  The Cut Handcrafted Burgers became a popular food truck parked in parking lots and at events around Orange County based on Kim's philosophy - Quality, Freshness and Tradition.  He used only the finest beef for his burgers, freshly ground in his food truck.  The freshness of the beef was key as it was never frozen and always made available to him before each day.  And the tradition of a good burger - hearty cheese, fresh toppings and unique condiments - were probably the most important aspect of his burgers.  

Kim's concepts paid off and in 2015 his food truck was named as the Best Food Truck by the food critics of the Orange County Register.  And in 2016, The Cut was a finalist for the Best Burger in Orange County.

Pictured right - Steve Kim.  Photo courtesy The Cut Handcrafted Burgers web site.

As it happens with many food trucks, The Cut became so popular that Kim's customers clamored for a brick and mortar restaurant.  He found a space in a strip mall in Irvine and opened The Cut Handcrafted Burgers full service restaurant in 2017.  The Cut first focused on burgers, craft beers, wine, and specialty cocktails, but in 2018 they added a weekend brunch as the little restaurant started to transform into something more than a burger and beer place.

In 2020 just before the COVID pandemic hit, Kim opened Cluck Kitchen, a chicken-centric restaurant located near John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana.  Saddled with two restaurant locations during the height of a pandemic, Kim decided to shut down his food truck in 2021.  However in 2022, Kim brought in a chef partner - Ryan Yi - to oversee the menus at both The Cut Handcrafted Burgers and Cluck Kitchen.  In July of 2022, Kim and Yi opened a second Cluck Kitchen in Redlands about halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.  And in October of 2023, the partners opened The Cut Modern American Eatery & Bar in Rancho Cucamonga at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains just west of San Bernardino.  The Rancho Cucamonga location featured a more diverse menu with shareable plates and entrée selections in addition to burgers, sandwiches and salads, as well as having a full bar.  

It was just after 1 p.m. when I pulled into the Westpark Plaza strip mall along Alton Blvd. in the heart of Irvine.  (see map)  There's a community patio in front of The Cut which it shares with a Chinese restaurant on one side and a Mexican restaurant on the other.  The small dining room at The Cut opens in the front to the patio when the weather is nice.  And it was certainly nice out that day.  The inside dining area at The Cut has a row of tables with banquette seating along the wall, a community table in the middle, and assorted tables throughout the space.  Music by Pears, Tofer Dolan, and Lady Gaga (who sang a soulful version of The Carpenters' hit Close to You that got my attention) played in the background while I was there.

I took a seat at the small bar that is part of the dining area.  Franco - he introduced himself as Frank - was the bartender that day.  They had a dozen beers on tap that included 3 hazy IPA selections - a Boat Shoes hazy IPA from the Karl Strauss Brewing Company; a hazy IPA from the Harland Brewing Company both of which are out of San Diego; and the hazy IPA from the Unsung Brewing Company out of nearby Anaheim.  Frank gave me a taste of the Karl Strauss hazy IPA and the Unsung hazy IPA (I'd had the Harland hazy IPA before, but wasn't familiar with the Unsung or Karl Strauss variety).  I chose the Unsung hazy IPA.  

Frank gave me a food menu to look over while he poured my beer.  The menu was definitely more than just burgers as they had a number of interesting appetizers including poutine with braised beef, smoked shishito peppers, and cheesy tots with spicy nduja sausage.  Sandwiches included a fried buttermilk chicken breast sandwich, a reuben sandwich, a Nashville-hot chicken sandwich, and a sliced-ribeye truffle cheesesteak sandwich.  For people looking for non-burgers or non-sandwiches, they had a grilled skirt steak with chimichurri, as well as salads.

The burger part of the menu was pretty interesting.  They had a $40 signature burger - The Cut - which was made from in-house ground 60-day dry aged ribeye steak, topped with 2-year aged white cheddar, and served on a black and white sesame seed potato bun.  More modestly priced burgers included the Savory burger with Swiss cheese and a bacon relish; the Blue Cut with blue cheese and bacon; the Sweet & Spicy with bacon, pepper jack cheese and a honey Sriracha; and the Truffle & Brie which was what was on the burger - brie cheese with a truffle aioli.  

But I went basic for my first visit to The Cut Handcrafted Burgers.  I got the OG burger - a single patty burger with American cheese, with pickles, lettuce, tomato and a choice of grilled or raw onions.  I asked Frank to have the chef put raw onions on the burger, but it came out with caramelized onions on it.  It wasn't a deal breaker for me, but I think I would have liked it better with raw chopped onions.  For my side, I had a choice of fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, a black truffle mac & cheese side, or tots.  Well, of course, I got tots!  I asked Frank if he had Cholula, but all he had was Tabasco.  Once again, not a deal breaker, but I prefer Cholula over Tabasco with tots.  

The burger was cooked perfectly - just a shade under medium with a nice light pink color.  And the burger dripped with cheese with every bite.  It was a messy burger, to say the least, and they had linen napkins at The Cut.  I had to ask Frank if I could get another napkin about halfway through the meal because it was such a wonderfully messy burger.  And the tots were a great complement to the burger.  

For a gourmet burger joint, The Cut Handcrafted Burgers did not disappoint.  They had a pretty good selection of craft beers, the menu was more than just burgers, but the burgers they had on the menu all sounded delicious.  And my OG burger was fantastic - cooked perfectly, gushing with American cheese, and having a bun that stayed together very well for such a messy burger.  And Frank's wonderful and friendly service was just the icing on the cake during my visit.  The Cut more than exceeded my expectations going in.  

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.   

 

Stella - Iowa City

My wife and I were heading back to the Des Moines area recently and decided to stop off in Iowa City for lunch.  We threw around a few places that we knew would be open on Sunday, but most of them had brunch up until about 2 p.m. with set menus.  My wife threw out a place that she had been to a handful of times over the years - Stella.  I asked if that was the one along Melrose Ave. in Iowa City near Kinnick Stadium.  She said that it was and we headed over to Stella to have lunch.

In 1999, Kevin Perez and his brother Derek started the acclaimed One Twenty Six French bistro in Iowa City.  The brothers sold the restaurant in 2006 and a year later they founded (the now-closed) Mama's Deli and Catering.  Derek Perez sold his share of Mama's Deli in 2007 and founded El Banditos, then opened Billy's High-Hat Diner in 2017.   (Both businesses closed during the COVID pandemic of 2020, as did Mama's Deli.)  

In 2008, Perez along with partners Dan Ouverson and former U of Iowa football star and NFL placekicker Nate Kaeding, opened Short's Burger & Shine in downtown Iowa City.  It became an instant hit with many, but I was not too thrilled with the place.  (Click here to read my entry on Short's Burger.)  And subsequent visits to the downtown Iowa City Short's location and their east side burger joint (which opened in 2012) have not been much better.  In fact, I ate at the east side location about six weeks ago and I vowed I would never eat at a Short's Burgers again.  The burger was overcooked and lifeless.  I don't know how people can eat a burger that way and I can't figure out how they stay in business with the inconsistency I've experienced at Short's over the years.  

However, I digress...

In 2010, the three partners - along with Perez's wife Lisa - opened Stella, an American-style bistro in the building that used to house the legendary Melrose Market.   The burgers were similar to the ones that were at Short's with pizza, sandwiches, salads and Cajun specialties such as jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice.  In 2014, Perez and Ouverson opened a pub-style place on Iowa City's south side called Hudson's Tap whose menu mirrored the one at Stella.  

We were able to find parking in the lot on the north side of Stella.  (see map)  This had been the first time I had walked into the building since it was Melrose Market, a great neighborhood grocery store that featured a bakery, a meat counter, and a real homey feel to the place.  (I lived six blocks from Melrose Market when I was going to school at Iowa in the early 80's.  I had a Sunday morning tradition of getting up, going to Melrose Market to get one of their fresh baked cinnamon rolls and the Sunday Chicago Tribune, then go back home and put on the headphones and crank music while I read the paper and enjoyed the cinnamon roll.  Ah!  For those days again...)

Walking into Stella's, well, let's just say it was a far piece from what the old Melrose Market looked like.  It was dark, yet far from dingy in the place.  The low slung ceiling over the booths and tables in the dining room gave it a cozy feeling.  

There is a small bar area next to the front patio at Stella.  They had a number of craft beers on tap and a full bar available.  Tucked back into a corner, the bar sat, maybe, 10 to 12 people and looked more like an afterthought in the design in the floorpan.  

We were seated out on the patio on the side of the building next to Melrose Ave.  The stop sign for the corner of Melrose and Golfview Ave. was right there and it was a little noisy and busy with all the traffic - even for a Sunday afternoon.  

We were given menus by a young lady who said that our server would be with us shortly.  The problem was that no one showed up at our table for nearly 10 minutes.  We were seriously thinking of bagging the place and going somewhere else when a young man by the name of Quan came out to our table.  We guessed they were understaffed that day and as pleasant a guy Quan, we immediately cut him some slack.  He asked what we wanted to drink and my wife got a Tito's dirty martini, while I got a Witch Slap hazy IPA out of Clock House Brewing in Cedar Rapids.  Unfortunately, it took nearly 10 more minutes for our drinks to make it out to the table.  

We could have easily ordered food when Quan brought our drinks out to us, but he hustled off to do something else.  The service was pretty choppy.  

And the items on the menu didn't thrill me all that much.  The burgers on the menu were - item by item - the exact same as Short's Burgers.  As soon as I saw the burgers on the menu, I was about ready to bail.  "Oh, that's right," my wife said to me once I realized that this was just an extension of a place that I had just recently said I would never go back to again.  But I knew they had other things to offer on the menu.  

They had 9" personal thin crust pizzas at Stella, but I didn't want a pizza for lunch.  The Cajun dishes got my attention and I came very close to getting either the gumbo or the jambalaya.  They had grilled chicken breast sandwiches named after Iowa counties including the Appanoose which was topped with capicola, provolone cheese and a muffuletta spread.  That sounded really good to me.  

Stella also had a list of specials that day including a Cajun seafood linguine with shrimp, pollock and crawfish on linguine with a tomato cream sauce.  That got my attention, as did the reuben sandwich.  Stella also had a Sriracha pulled pork sandwich on their specials list, as well as a breaded lemon chicken with a cream sauce and mashed potatoes. 

My wife went with the special menu and got the beet salad.  She had a choice of protein with the salad and she got grilled chicken.  She had considered the fish and chips on the specials menu, but decided she wanted to go lighter.  It featured lightly roasted beets, sliced zucchini, pistachio nuts and feta cheese with grilled chicken on a bed of mixed greens including arugula and finished with a lemon oregano vinaigrette.  My wife declared it was all very fresh and very delicious. 

I wasn't all that hungry and I knew we would be going out to dinner that evening, so I decided upon the smoked salmon tacos - a simple concoction of smoked salmon on soft flour tacos with pico de gallo and a chipotle sour cream on the side with mixed greens.  The smoked salmon tacos were surprisingly delicious.  They were more grilled than smoked, but they weren't fishy in flavor.   And the pico de gallo and the chipotle sour cream gave the smoked salmon tacos an extra "oomph!" in taste.  They were light and filled me up to the point where I knew I had something for lunch, but it wasn't hanging in my stomach.   

I have mixed feelings about Stella.  The service was somewhat erratic and it took us probably 20 minutes longer to eat there than it should have taken us.  But Quan was a nice guy and we gave him the benefit of the doubt during our visit.  While I completely avoided the burgers because of the connection to Short's Burger (as I recently swore off Short's forever after another bad burger on a recent visit), I really enjoyed the smoked salmon tacos.  And my wife was more than happy with the roasted beet salad with grilled chicken as an addition.  I would like to go back and try some of the Cajun offerings at Stella at some point just to see how good it is.  

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.  

 

Over/Under - Paducah, KY

I don't know what it is about Paducah, KY.  I really like the quaint little town that sits along the Ohio River about two hours west of Nashville.  My wife and I have spent some time in the city and the downtown area has a number of good to great restaurants, pubs and stores.  On my way between Nashville and St. Louis earlier this summer, I decided to get something to eat in Paducah.  I got into the downtown area and was looking for a burger and beer place.  I found something that sounded pretty interesting - a double-story sports bar/restaurant by the name of Over/Under.  

Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun were longtime friends and business partners who owned a commercial construction company.  They were hired to do a total renovation of a space that would eventually become Grill 211 in downtown Paducah.  (To see the Road Tips entry on Grill 211, click here.)  While doing the renovation, Hardin and Calhoun fell in love with the vibe downtown Paducah exuded.  They thought that maybe they could do something else in their lives at some point - like possibly owning their own restaurant in downtown Paducah.  

The owners of Grill 211 also owned an Italian restaurant just up the street - the Italian Grill on Broadway - before closing that restaurant in 2019.  While still doing commercial renovations around Paducah, Calhoun and Hardin finally made the decision to plunge into the restaurant business taking over the former Italian restaurant during pandemic in 2020.  The first thing they did was to sit down with a friend - Chris Johnson, who was managing the local Buffalo Wild Wings - to make up a wish-list of what they wanted in a restaurant.  Having it be a sports bar was one item on the list, having the best burger in town, having eclectic tacos, and having a number of signature cocktails available from the bar.  

Pictured right - Dru Hardin and Blake Calhoun.  Photo courtesy Paducah Life Magazine.  

With Johnson onboard as the restaurant manager, Calhoun and Hardin did the renovations on the two-story establishment.  They brought in their own chef - Kevin Dowdy - to oversee the kitchen.  With everything in place, Over/Under opened on St. Patrick's Day in 2021.  (After opening and getting Over/Under up and going, Hardin and Calhoun renovated a historical building in downtown Paducah into an upscale tavern by the name of Stella's.  Stella's opened in the fall of 2022.)  

It was around 1:15 p.m. when I pulled up in front of Over/Under located along Broadway, a one-way street in downtown Paducah.  (see map)   There is a common door to a handful of businesses that one goes in to get to Over/Under.  The "under" part of the bar was closed off that day as the main restaurant and kitchen are upstairs.  It featured a small bar with a concrete top and a corrugated tin front.  The walls were made from distressed bar boards with shadeless Edison lighting hanging from the ceiling.  Many of the private parties that Over/Under hosts are usually held on the ground floor of the restaurant. 

There was a sign on the ground floor to go to the elevator to go up to the second floor to the "over" part of Over/Under.  There I found a larger bar with a long, narrow and well-lit dining area.  There was a hostess who greeted me and I asked if I could just sit at the bar.   It, too, was a concrete-topped bar with distressed barn board inlays just below.  Given the renovations that took place, it was a rather impressive little space.  

Toward the front of the upstairs dining area was a small room off to the side that featured a number of high-top tables that sat up to six people per table.  It featured flatscreen televisions on an exposed brick wall with plenty of light coming in from the large windows on the front of the building.  

The bartender/server that day was a young lady by the name of Stephanie.  She handed me a food menu to look through and asked what I wanted to drink.  They had a pretty short tap list and a rather uninspired list of canned and bottled beer.  I ended up ordering a pint of the Cigar City Jai Alai India pale ale they had on tap.

The food offerings at Over/Under included the normal bar appetizers - nachos, wings, jalapeño poppers, and vegetarian cauliflower "wings".   Sandwiches, burgers, wraps, tacos and salads were also on the menu.  I contemplated getting the fried Buffalo chicken wrap for a moment, but I decided to go the burger route.

I ended up getting Over/Under's Smash burger, a 1/2 pound blend of ground short rib, chuck and brisket beef smashed on a flat-grill and served on fresh-baked Texas toast from the venerable Kirchhoff Bakery in Paducah.  (To see the Road Tips entry on the Kirchhoff Bakery and Deli click here.)  The burger patty was topped with American cheese, grilled onions and a special house-made sauce.  I had a choice of sides and - of course - I got tots to go along with the burger.  They didn't have Cholula to go with the tots, but they had some other off brand Louisiana-style hot sauce instead.  

And the burger was very good.  It was more like a patty melt, but it had the consistency of a good smashed burger.  The blend of different cuts of beef gave it a great flavor and it was cooked perfectly.  As I said, it was a very good burger, but it was very expensive for what it was. I know restaurant prices have gone up dramatically over the past couple of years. but $16 bucks for what was a glorified patty melt and a side of tots was a big extravagant, in my book.  

Over/Under was a nice way-station for lunch on my trip between Nashville and St. Louis.  While the menu is typical for a sports bar and doesn't really have anything that sticks out, the smash burger I had was very good.  But I thought it was sort of expensive, and they didn't have that good of a beer selection.  The sports bar atmosphere was very nice and I really liked what they did with the building to transform it from a longtime Italian restaurant into the space that it is today.  Over/Under would be a go-to to watch a sporting event while in Paducah.  Just make sure you bring some extra cash.  

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.  

The Sandlot - Park Ridge, IL

For over 15 years, I've been driving along Touhy Ave. into downtown Park Ridge.  At the corner of Greenwood Ave. and Touhy is a little restaurant by the name of The Sandlot.  (see map)  It's a basic place, no frills, no liquor or beer service - just a little neighborhood burger joint.  My problem is that I kept passing the place and not giving it a try.  Earlier this year, I had an appointment in Morton Grove and I was heading from my hotel toward the appointment.  It was after 1:00 p.m. and I was a little hungry.  I had some time to get some lunch so this time I stopped in to The Sandlot.  

The Sandlot started in 2012 when Brandon Shapic - who ran a Checkers restaurant in the Detroit area for 10 years - moved to the Chicago area six months prior.  Shapic teamed with Tom Marabanian to open their little burger joint in what was originally a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  After the KFC went out of business, the building housed a couple fast food-style restaurants, but nothing stuck.  The building sat empty for a few months before Shapic and Marabanian took it over and turned it into a small sports-themed fast-casual restaurant named after the movie with the same name.  In fact, Shapic and Marabanian had to get an agreement with Paramount Pictures to use The Sandlot as the name of their burger joint.  In addition to fresh (never frozen) ground beef burgers and hand-cut fries, The Sandlot also offers hand-breaded chicken sandwiches, hot dogs and they're also famous for their malts and milkshakes.   

There's not much to the inside of The Sandlot.  Just to the right of the order window is a poster of the movie.  But other than that the decor is pretty neutral in the little restaurant.  The place had a few tables and chairs along the side and probably sat around 24 people, tops.  

It was after 1:30 in the afternoon, but there was a pretty good flow of customers coming and going from the restaurant.  A number of people had called in orders in advance, but a few were waiting on orders that they'd placed at the window.  

The menu is pretty basic with burgers (single, double, triple and even a quadruple burger!), a chicken sandwich, a double bacon BLT, and a hot dog for main items.  Fries are the only side option, while they have pop, bottled water and milkshakes or malts available to drink.  From what I could gather from some of the people coming in, the milkshakes were a hot item.  

The Sandlot is the closest thing to an In-N-Out burger I've ran across in all my travels across the Midwest.  Their "Two-N-Two" is a credible knock off of In-N-Out's "Double-Double" - a flat-grilled burger smothered with American cheese and served on a bed of fresh lettuce and a tomato slice with a choice of grilled or raw onions (I went for the raw onions) and finished with a mayo-based concoction that they called "Sandlot Sauce".  The burger was served in a foil wrapper where melted cheese stuck to the inside of the wrapper.  

The burger was very good.  The bun I didn't care for all that much - it was a bit more hard than I prefer.  But it didn't detract from the taste of the burger and actually held together pretty well with all the cheese oozing off the burger patties.  

I got an order of fries just for the hell of it.  The fries were the thick cut variety and I could tell they used fresh cut potatoes at The Sandlot as the color of the fries was a dark golden hue.  The fries were pretty good, but there was a lot of them.  By the time I finished up the burger, I was pretty full and ended up eating just a few fries.  

I'm sort of kicking myself for not giving The Sandlot a try before this.  For as many times that I've passed the place in the past, it took me this long to finally stop in.  The burger was very good and very reminiscent of an In-N-Out burger found out west.  The fries were OK, but the burger was definitely worth the stop.  The Sandlot is a no-frills, window-service restaurant that has found quite the following in the near northwest suburbs. 

The Dirty Shirley - Rock Island, IL

My wife and I had been interested in trying a place over in Rock Island since it opened in late 2022.  We wondered if it could be one of our rotational joints where we would go out for bloody Marys and burgers on Sunday.  We just hadn't made it over on a Sunday to try it out.  One recent evening, we didn't feel like cooking at home, so we drove over to The Dirty Shirley to check the place out. 

Steve and Jen Thomas had grown up in Rock Island, but both had been living in Colorado since 2014 working in the hospitality industry.  They had always wanted to run their own restaurant and had come up with a concept of serving "dirty" food - recipes infused with alcohol or beer.  The original "dirty Shirley" is a vodka-added variation to the kiddie cocktail that has lemon-lime soda (7Up or Sprite) with grenadine and with a big red cherry to finish it off.  

Steve and Jen moved back to Rock Island in 2022 and leased a small building that had housed a number of restaurants and/or bars over the years.  They started working on some of the food and drinks they were going to feature in the fall of that year and just before Christmas they opened the doors to the Dirty Shirley.  

It's been a tough year for the Thomas family.  They realized that maybe running their own restaurant wasn't the best thing for them.  In December of 2023, a post on Facebook announced that the Thomas' were looking to sell their restaurant, even helping with the financing if the new owner would put down 50% of the asking price.  The Thomas' still own the Dirty Shirley, but recent social media posts have been dire in trying to keep the place open.  

The Dirty Shirley is located on 16th Avenue at the corner of 41st St. in Rock Island at 41st St. (see map)  When I pulled up in front of the place, I immediately recognized the building as it had been a couple other restaurants where I'd had meals at in the past.   I had a memorable burger there when it was called The Cave a number of years ago.  And later on when it was a breakfast place after that - The 14th Avenue Waffle House - I remember the food being pretty good.  

The restaurant is a very small place with a small bar along the west wall with tables and chairs along the east wall.  Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Nicole.  She was pretty indifferent to us, at first.  We figured it was because she had to be bartender and waitress at the same time.  But later on in the evening, she came out to serve us our food and she was wearing an arm sling.  She told us that she had torn the labrum in her shoulder and was hoping rest could help mend the tissue rather than getting an operation.  We figured that she had to be in some discomfort adding to her un-sunny disposition.  

And compounded on all that for Nicole and her physical problems, a big infrastructure problem developed later on. After we finished our meal, my wife had gone in to use the restroom before we left.  She used the facilities and washed up in the sink before coming out.  As we were getting ready to leave, we heard a crash coming from the bathroom areas toward the back of the building.  A lady came out and exclaimed, "The sink just fell off the wall!"  She had turned on the faucets and the porcelain sink promptly fell off the wall.  As if Nicole wasn't having a tough enough night...

We started off with getting a couple drinks.  Since I wanted to find out if The Dirty Shirley could be in our rotation of burgers, beers and bloody Marys on Sundays, I got myself a bloody Mary with a pint of the Kona Big Wave they had on tap.  The mix was house-made and was a little thin on both texture and flavor.  It was just OK.  My wife got her usual Tito's and cranberry.  

The menu at The Dirty Shirley wasn't all that long, but had some interesting items.  Appetizers included their signature dirty balls - whiskey-infused ground beef and sausage meat balls; as well as stuffed mushrooms and stuffed jalapeños.  Sandwiches included their pickle wrap grilled cheese - The Dirty Shirley's dill pickle wrap mixture with dill pickles on a grilled cheese sandwich.  The Dirty Pig consisted of beer-braised pulled pork with a choice of a house-made barbecue sauce or a house-made Southern Comfort-infused apricot sauce.  And they had a black bean burger option for vegetarians.  

I was there for the burger and I got their signature Dirty Burger that featured a 1/2 pound patty topped with smoked cheddar cheese and bacon, and topped with whiskey-sauteéd onions.  I had a choice between baked beans and house-made chips on the side and I went with the chips.  I could sort of tell they were on a shoestring budget at The Dirty Shirley as they only provided a basket of ketchup and mustard packs rather than condiment dispensaries.  

My wife got the patty melt.  For her side, she asked Nicole if she could substitute the chicken curry soup they had that night.  Nicole said that there would be an up-charge for the soup as a side, and my wife said that was fine.

My burger was very good.  Juicy, full of flavor and somewhat messy, the burger was top notch.  The chips were very salty, but I concentrated on the burger and sort of forgot about the chips.  My wife tried a couple and even she said they were too salty.  

My wife said her patty melt was also very good.   "For a patty melt, this is above average," she said to me.  We were both impressed with the burgers we got.

We're hoping that The Dirty Shirley hangs on or finds a suitable party for new ownership.  It's a nice little place that has a good burger and some interesting items on their menu.  We knew Nicole was having a tough night coupled with her torn labrum, so we definitely cut her a large amount of slack when she was a little late on getting drinks out or getting more napkins for us.  The Dirty Shirley is a cozy little place that has a nice little vibe going for it and we hope it continues. 

 

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.  

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.   

Bump's Restaurant - Iowa City

A couple three times a year, I meet up with old friends from my days at the University of Iowa to get caught up on life, to drink a few beers and to talk about University of Iowa sports.  We used to meet at a spot in Coralville until they closed up just after the pandemic.  We've tried a couple other places and weren't too impressed with the outcomes of our meals.  This time, one of my buddies suggested we try a new place - Bump's Restaurant in the clubhouse at the Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City.  I initially had it in my head that Bump's was private dining, but my friend assured me that since Finkbine was open to the public, the restaurant was open to the public.

The University of Iowa-owned Finkbine Golf Course was first opened in 1955.  Throughout the late 60's and into the 70's, the golf course was deemed one of the best - if not - the best golf course in the state of Iowa.  Not only was it home to the University of Iowa men's and women's golf teams, but it also was the host course for the annual Amana VIP Classic which paired PGA players with celebrities and executives from Amana Corporation, makers of appliances - most notably the microwave oven.  The Amana VIP Classic ran from 1967 to 1990 and attracted thousands of spectators - the largest one-day event on the PGA circuit.  

The original clubhouse at Finkbine was pretty small and in 2017, the Iowa Board of Regents voted to provide money for a new and larger clubhouse on the golf course.  With the help of a donation from the Nagle family who owned Nagle Lumber in Iowa City until it was sold in 2016, the new clubhouse more than tripled in size and offered an in-house dining area and bar replacing the one at the old clubhouse that sat about two dozen people, tops.  The Nagle Family Clubhouse opened in April of 2020 at the height of the pandemic, so it was about 15 months later before the new restaurant - named after longtime Iowa Athletic Director Chalmers "Bump" Elliott who ushered in the modern era of University of Iowa athletics from 1970 through his retirement in 1991 - opened in July of 2021.  

The restaurant suffered some hiccups along the way before new General Manager John Cafarelli and executive chef Dan Naso came on board in September of 2022 offering Midwestern smokehouse favorites such as St. Louis-style baby back ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork and smoked andouille sausage.  In additions to barbecue, Bump's also offers burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads and appetizers.  

The Nagle Family Clubhouse is located just off Melrose Ave. on the west side of Iowa City.  (see map)  I was early and the first one in our group to arrive.  There's no signage for the restaurant on the building outside, but going into the clubhouse on the main level, it's tough to miss.  The entrance to Bump's is just inside the main level of the clubhouse with the golf pro shop and lockers one floor below.  There was no hostess at the stand in the lobby of the clubhouse, so I took a look around the bar area while I waited. 

The bar area was expansive with a three-sided bar as the focus point in the room.  High-top tables were available for bar seating and dining.  Pictures of Iowa sporting events and teams hung on the wall and a flat-screen television was on the brick wall behind the bar.   

One of the servers who ended up helping us that night saw me hanging around the bar and asked if I needed a table.  It told her that I had three other buddies showing up and that we'd probably sit in the dining room.  It was a slow night and she took me into the dining area adjacent the bar area.  Two-seat tables, four-seat booths and six-seat tables were the options in the dining room.  I took a booth next to one of the many windows that looks out onto the golf course.  Our server dropped off menus and I took a quick look at their beer list to see what they had to offer.  Actually, they had a very good assortment of craft beers as well as the old standby domestic beers to choose from.  I ended up going with one of my old reliable choices, the Easy Eddy hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery.  

My buddies began to show up one by one and it turned out that I was the only one who had not been to Bump's before this visit.  "Isn't this nice," my one friend who set up the meeting place said to me.  "The food here is surprisingly very good.  This is one of the best kept secrets in Iowa City."  

And the menu was interesting, to say the least.  Appetizers included Wagyu beef sliders, brisket and cheese flatbread, andouille sausage and cheddar hush puppies, and smoked chicken lollipop wings.  There were a number of burgers and sandwiches on the menu which included a smoked prime rib sandwich, a donut burger served on a grilled glazed donut (uh... no thanks), and a pressed turkey and cranberry sandwich on a sourdough hoagie bun.  

But their main menu focus was on the barbecued meats they had to offer - sliced brisket, wet-cured pulled pork, smoked chicken drums, smoked andouille sausage, and a dry-rubbed smoked pork tenderloin.  My buddy raved about the ribs at Bump's and that's what he got - a half-slab of the St. Louis-style ribs that were dry-rubbed, hickory-smoked, then glazed at the end with their house-made sweet and tangy barbecue sauce.  The ribs were large and meaty with six or seven bones in the rack.  For sides, my buddy got the sweet corn and the cole slaw.  "These ribs are really underrated compared to other barbecue places in the town," my buddy told me between bites.

I ended up going the barbecue route, as well, getting the sliced brisket.  It featured three thick slabs of brisket that were sort of fatty, but had a nice smoke ring around the edges.  They're rubbed with a proprietorial combination of spices and smoked for 12 hours.  I had contemplated getting the smoked prime rib sandwich, but I was glad I took the brisket.  It was tender and flavorful, and the dry rub concoction gave it a bit of a bite on the tongue.  For my sides, I got fries and baked beans.  Mixed vegetables and a roll also came with the meal.  The fries were good, the beans were better and the whole meal was very good.  

My other two buddies went for burgers that night.  One got the Nagle burger - named after former Iowa football coach Ray Nagle - that consisted of a basic cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle.  My other buddy got the one burger that initially caught my eye, the mushroom-Swiss cheese burger.   The Swiss cheese was just oozing off the top of the burger patty that was on a thick-spongy bun.  Fries came with the burger.  It was a lot of burger and I made a mental note to have that at some point in a future visit to Bump's.  

 

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the food at Bump's - especially the barbecue.  It's not quite fine dining, but it's more of an upscale burger/sandwich/barbecue joint.  I was a little leery of the barbecue recommendation my friend gave me, but I have to say the brisket I had at Bump's was very good.  The service we had was friendly and efficient, the beer selection was more than adequate, and my friends were all very happy with the meals they got. I will be heading back to Bump's to try a burger - or the prime rib sandwich - or more of their barbecue offerings.   

 

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.  

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. 

Brandt's of Palatine - Palatine, IL

In the northwest suburbs of Chicago this past summer for a trade show, I decided to get out for some lunch one day to take a break from talking with people.  I was looking for a basic burger/beer joint that wasn't far from the venue and I did a quick search on Google to see what may be in the area.  A quick review of this place said, "If you want a great burger and cold beer, this is the place."  I punched in the address for Brandt's of Palatine and set off to get a burger and a beer.  

Brandt's is located at the corner of Northwest Highway and N. Quentin Road in Palatine.  (see map)  I pulled into the parking lot and spied what appeared to be what was originally an old farmhouse.  It turns out that the building has a lot of history behind it - and some of it involves a somewhat shady past.  

The original building was built in the 1870's and it was originally on a farm in what would be modern day Inverness, IL known as the Wilson Farm.  It was at the start of Prohibition in the United States that a Chicago car salesman and part-time taxi driver by the name of Roger Touhy found that making illegal beer was more lucrative than selling cars.  He joined a local bootlegger by the name of Matt Kolb who Touhy had sold a car to.   After moving to the northwest suburbs in the 1920's, Touhy and Kolb had the water in the area tested by a chemist and it was found that it was much better than the water found in Chicago at that time and that was critical in making good beer.  Touhy found a water supply in a nearby stream from the Wilson Farm and turned one of the barns into a brewery.  

Kolb and Touhy's beer became famous amongst the gangsters in the Chicago area and it was said that Al Capone and other gang leaders at the time bought barrels of Touhy's beer to sell at speakeasy's in the greater Chicago area.  It was said that at its peak in the mid-20's, the brewery was capable of making 1,000 barrels (55 gallons each) of beer a week and they realized a profit of about $50 bucks each - about $850 dollars in today's money.  Touhy used much of the profits to pay off local authorities for protection and to look the other way.  

The brewery was discovered in 1928 by federal agents who raided the place.  It was said that $50,000 worth of brewing equipment was destroyed in the raid (that's about $850,000 in today's money), but there have been disputes that Touhy may have been able to pay off local authorities before the equipment was destroyed.  It was the largest illegal operation found in Cook County during Prohibition. 

In 1930, the Maple Grove Inn which stood at the present day site of Brandt's was destroyed by fire.  Touhy and Kolb bought the property and moved the farmhouse to the spot of the former Inn.  It served as a speakeasy up until the end of Prohibition in 1933 and as a casino after that.  Roger Touhy and Matt Kolb were a small-time gangsters compared to the operations Al Capone had in the city and suburbs.  The business relationship between the two had soured and Capone started to make a move on Touhy's small operation in the far northwest suburbs.  Kolb was eventually killed by Capone's henchmen in 1932 outside his club in Morton Grove, IL.  

Touhy was able to convince local authorities that he needed protection from Capone's gang and it was in their best interests to keep Capone out of the northwest suburbs.  Several attempts to take over Touhy's operation were made by Capone's squad, but they were repelled each time by off-duty police officers assigned to guard Touhy and his business.  

Pictured right - Roger Touhy in his mugshot from Stateville Prison

Capone was finally able to get the best of Touhy by framing him in a set-up kidnapping of Jake Factor whose brother - Max Factor - had become a multi-millionaire with his line of make-up and beauty products.  However, Jake was part of Capone's gang and they set-up the kidnapping to make it appear Touhy was the mastermind.  After the $50,000 "ransom" was paid by Jake Factor's wife, Capone was able to plant evidence from the kidnapping to make it appear that Touhy was behind the abduction.  Touhy was found guilty of kidnapping and was sent to prison in 1934.  Capone's gang was able to come in and take over Touhy's operation after Touhy was sentenced.  

(Touhy was eventually pardoned and was set free in 1959.  He was killed by what was described as remnants of Capone's old gang less than a month after he walked out of prison.)  

Federal pressure on gangs, Capone's own conviction on tax evasion and World War II brought much of the criminal enterprise in the Chicagoland area to an end.  After the war, Nick and Al's Friendly Inn occupied the building and later on it was known as the Pickwick House and later the Hob Nob Restaurant.  It was in 1969 when the Brandt family took over the restaurant.  

Joe and Romelda Brandt moved from Detroit to the northwest Chicago suburbs in 1946.  The Brandts opened their first restaurant The Highway Inn soon after they moved to the area.  The Highway Inn eventually became Brandt's Restaurant and Lounge with their daughter Patricia helping out in the business.  In 1964, the Brandts bought the Hob Nob Restaurant and turned it into Brandt's Little Cafe.  Patricia Brandt eventually married George Grisco and the couple took over ownership from Joe and Romelda Brandt in the 70's.  

Patricia Brandt Grisco passed away in 2001 and it became a struggle for George Grisco to keep up the restaurant.  Property taxes in Palatine - which annexed the area around Brandt's Little Cafe in 1987 - were skyrocketing with more people and businesses moving into the area.  In the early 90's, property taxes were about $1000 a month.  20 years later, they were nearly $5000 a month.  George Grisco got behind in his property taxes and Cook County foreclosed on the business in 2011.  It was set to go on the auction block in early 2013 when two Palatine residents stepped up to buy the place.  

Jimmy Iuorio and Walt Oswald grew up in Palatine and went to Brandt's with their families starting in the 70's.  Both had forged out lucrative careers - Iuorio was a futures trader and Oswald has a longtime executive at Motorola who had just recently opened his own information technology consulting firm.  The two paired up to pay the back taxes and other bills that Grisco no longer could take care of and bought the place in January of 2013.  

Pictured left - Walt Oswald and Jimmy Iuorio.  Photo courtesy Palatine Patch.   

Because of George Grisco's situation, the old building was in need of some serious repairs.  Oswald and Iuorio renovated and updated much of the restaurant over a 3 month period.  They hired back about 70 percent of the staff that George Grisco employed up to the end of 2012, and hired some former staff members who had been there previously.  In April of 2013, the rebranded Brandt's of Palatine reopened under the ownership of Oswald and Iuorio.  The pair continue to own the restaurant to this day.  

I pulled into the parking lot at Brandt's around 1:30 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  The outdoor patio next to the main entrance had a wooden roof with plastic roll-down coverings if it started to rain.  There was a patio with tables with umbrellas behind the building.  In the back of the covered patio was a 7-and-a-half-foot tall bottle cap folk art figure that was built by Walt Oswald's brother and given to him just before Oswald and Iuorio opened Brandt's of Palatine.  In the winter months, the large bottle cap figurine holds court in one of the inside dining areas.  

Just inside the front entrance is a small 3-sided bar with a small dining area off to the side.  The dining areas inside and out were packed as motorcyclists, bicyclists, and everyday people were at Brandt's enjoying lunch on a beautiful day.  There was room at the bar and that's where I parked.  

One of the bartenders that day was a lady by the name of Linda.  She worked part-time at Brandt's, usually on the weekends and at night to help out when they were short-staffed or going to be busy.  Linda plopped a menu down in front of me and asked me what I wanted to drink.  They had the Revolution Anti-Hero India pale ale on tap and I asked Linda for one of those.  

I was definitely in a mood for a burger, but I took a look over the menu to see what else they had to offer.  In addition to their burgers, Brandt's is known for their Chicago-style fall-off-the-bone ribs, as well as their chili which is served in the colder months.  Sandwiches included a corned beef sandwich and a reuben.  They had a handful of chicken wraps on the menu as well as grilled cod tacos.  If I wasn't so hellbent for getting a burger that day, I may have gone with the fish tacos.  Shareable appetizers such as cheese curds, potato skins, firecracker shrimp (served in a sweet and spicy boom-boom sauce), and bone-in and boneless chicken wings.  

The burgers at Brandt's consist of 1/2 pound fresh, never-frozen 75% ground chuck and 25% ground loin beef.  You have your choice of six different types of buns or breads to hold the burger, and a lettuce wrap burger is available for people who need a gluten-free option.  8 different types of cheese are available for burgers, as well.  Slider burgers are available, as well as a black & blue burger consisting of a blackened patty and blue cheese.  The Sunrise burger on the menu comes with a fried egg, bacon and cheddar cheese.  

I went with the basic burger with Swiss cheese on a butter bun.  I asked Linda to throw some sautéed mushrooms on the burger, but they didn't make it on the burger.  I reminded her after I had a couple bites and she offered to get me some from the kitchen.  I told her not to worry about it and to make sure I didn't get charged for them.  Lettuce, tomato and a choice of raw or grilled onions came with the burger.  I got a slice of raw onion with mine.  

The sides consisted of a choice of potato - fries, steak fries, sweet potato fries or house-made potato chips - and a choice of either cole slaw or baked beans.  Linda talked me into the baked beans and the steak fries.  

The burger was outstanding.  It had great beef flavor, it was juicy and delectable.  It was one of those burgers where I bit into it and went, "Mmmmm...."  The butter bun was light and fluffy, yet held together very well.  I saw that they had dark rye bread available for their burgers (as well as a pretzel bun or potato bun), but I was happy with getting the butter bun.  

I will say that I made a good choice in getting the baked beans.  They had a great sweet barbecue taste to them and were very good.  The steak fries were OK - not the best I've ever had, but they were fine.  But the star of the meal was the great burger.  

Brandt's of Palatine turned out to be a great find for me.  The Swiss cheese burger I had was outstanding and the sides were good.  They had a good selection of beers at Brandt's and the place had a homey and cozy feeling.   The people in and around Palatine have to thank Walt Oswald and Jimmy Iuorio for keeping Brandt's of Palatine going after all these years and for hopefully years to come.  I'm definitely going back at some point.  

 

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. 

 

Darkbird Taphouse - Peosta, IA

Our local newspaper - the Quad City Times - has downsized their news staff over the past few years which means fewer stories with a local angle.  These days, the bulk of the the newspaper is filled daily with articles from other news outlets around the state of Iowa and the Midwest.  One article that they had back in early December was from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald on a new craft beer and wine-centric restaurant in the fast growing town of Peosta, IA - a bedroom community located just about 15 minutes south and west of Dubuque off U.S. Highway 20.  My wife had a Friday off and was sort of in the mood for a little road trip.  We took off going north out of Davenport and I made it over to Peosta to search for this new restaurant.  After some confusing twists and turns trying to get to the place, we finally pulled up in front of the Darkbird Taphouse to check it out.  

It had been less than a month since Darkbird Taphouse had opened their doors.  And that went against our usual 90-day start-up period we try to give restaurants to try and work the kinks and newness out of their system.  But the article intrigued me enough where I wanted to go to a place that wasn't a brewpub, but a place that highlighted craft beers from across Iowa, parts of the Midwest and beyond.  We weren't even really thinking about food, but if they had food we'd certainly consider it.  

Jeff Burds is the man behind the Darkbird Taphouse.  The local entrepreneur helped start Dimensional Brewing Company in Dubuque along with co-owner/co-founder Tom Rauen in November of 2018.  Living out in Peosta, Burds saw the potential for a modern-style taphouse that he wanted to build on a greenspace area in southeast Peosta.  Burds went to the Peosta City Council in March of last year with his plans for a $2 million dollar building that would be the focal point of other development in the area.  Work started on the site later in the spring and the building was finished in late October.  After a handful of soft-opening dates which featured live music, Darkbird Taphouse opened around Thanksgiving of last year.  

To run the place, Burds called on his daughter-in-law Amanda Burds to manage the day-to-day operations.  To run the kitchen, Burds hired Andrew New.  For the previous five years New worked in the kitchen at Brazen, an upscale bistro in downtown Dubuque that my wife and I have wanted to go to for quite sometime.

We sort of knew where Darkbird Taphouse was, but it was so new that it didn't show up in our GPS.  My wife used her phone to direct us back onto Highway 20 eastbound from Peosta and we saw the building just north of the divided highway on a frontage road.  We got off at Thunder Hills Road and then took a left onto Thunder Valley Drive, the frontage road that goes in front of Darkbird Taphouse.  (see map)  As I said, it was a little confusing for our first visit, but will now know how to get there on subsequent visits.  

We were lucky the day we went to Darkbird Taphouse - they fully open (bar and kitchen) at 11 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  They open at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, but the kitchen doesn't open until 4 p.m. those days.  They're closed on Monday and Tuesday.  There was a large parking lot in front of the building.  

Going inside, we found a large open space with a high ceiling with exposed ductwork and ceiling fans, polished concrete floors, and large southern exposure windows that let in an abundance of natural light.  Two garage doors were on the east end of the space that could be opened in warmer months for access to an outdoor patio.  

We took a seat at a booth along the west wall of the tap house.  It's counter service at Darkbird Taphouse and beer and food menus were available via a QR code that we could easily scan with our phones.  

I was sort of intrigued by some of the beers they had available on tap.  Of course, they had beers from Dimensional Brewing Company out of Dubuque, but they also had beers on tap from breweries such as Exile Brewing out of Des Moines, and brews from 3 of our favorite microbreweries -  Pulpit Rock out of Decorah, Wake Brewing from Rock Island, and Contrary Brewing out of Muscatine.  I was also surprised to see beers on tap from breweries from different parts of the country including Weldwerks out of Greeley, CO.  

They had four or five hazy IPA's to choose from on tap and I went up to the counter to see if we could get some samples.  It turned out that Amanda Burds was working the bar area that day and I asked her about samples or some flights.  She told me that they did have flights of 4 available, so I picked out 4 of the hazy IPA's they had on tap.  My wife and I agreed that the Juicy Bit's hazy IPA from Weldwerks was the best of the bunch.

It was a limited menu for the time being during our first visit to Darkbird Taphouse.  (We were told the menu would expand as time went on.)   There were appetizers such as fried pickles, a beer house pretzel, cheese curds and a charcuterie board that were available.  Chicken tenders, a reuben sandwich and three different burgers were available.  Frozen pizzas from Chad's Pizza - which is out of Cedar Falls, but has an outlet in nearby Dyersville - were also available. 

We had a beer and my wife started to think that maybe a burger didn't sound too bad at that point.  We made our choices and I went up to the counter to order them from Amanda.  About 15 minutes later, Andrew New came out of the kitchen with our two burgers and served them to us.  

My wife went with the beer cheese burger.  They make their own beer cheese sauce at Darkbird Taphouse.   Fresh lettuce, sliced tomato and red onions, and pickles came with the burger.  Battered fries came on the side.   

I went with their regular cheese burger that came with Muenster cheese as well as the battered fries.  It was a generous slice of Muenster that they put on the burger which sat on a lightly toasted bun.  The burger patty was thick and juicy.  

And it tasted very good.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good the burger tasted.  The condiments were fresh, the bun was soft and spongy, and it held together well with all that was going on with the burger.  The battered fries were also very good.  They had the right amount of crunch on the outside while maintaining that nice feathery potato texture and taste on the inside.  

We had finished up our burgers and Andrew New came out to check on us.  As he was was clearing our plates, he asked how the burgers were.  There were absolutely no complaints on the burgers from my wife and I, and we were both very happy we ordered them.  

After finishing up our lunch, we decided to go up the stairs and check out the second floor mezzanine area.  There was a small bar up there and a door that went out onto a deck that overlooked the patio below.  A number of tables with chairs were in the space and you could look out over a heavy railing onto the taproom below.  

Sitting up at the small mezzanine bar with an open laptop computer was a guy who we had noticed running around the place earlier.  I asked him if he was the owner and he said, "Well, I pay the bills here."  It turned out that it was Jeff Burds and we were able to talk with him for a moment.  

I told him that we were from the Quad Cities and we had read the article from the Dubuque paper in our local paper.  Jeff was sort of surprised that the article made it into the Quad City Times.  "I know it was in the Waterloo newspaper," he said.  "But I didn't know that it was in the Times."  

I asked him what the relationship between Dimensional Brewing Company and Darkbird Taphouse was.  "Well, I helped start Dimensional," he said in a vague fashion.  "Other than that, there's no real relationship other than we have some of their beers."  I thought it was kind of odd that he was being somewhat evasive about the relationship, figuring that possibly he wasn't part of the ownership at Dimensional any longer.  

We were asking him about some of the beers he had on tap, including the Weldwerks hazy IPA that we liked so much.  "There's a beer wholesaler up in Wisconsin that we've been working with who will get tanks of some beers from around the nation from time to time," Jeff Burds told us.  "That's where the Weldwerks comes from."  

When I asked him about the beers from the Quad Cities area and he said, "I have a son who has a girlfriend down in the Quad Cities."  Burds chuckled and said, "He's my runner for the beers from down there."  

There wasn't much - if anything - to complain about during our initial visit to Darkbird Taphouse in Peosta.  The place had been open for less than a month, but it seemed that there were no operation kinks or service problems new restaurants tend to experience during their first 90 days.  The beer selection was interesting, the burgers we had were very good, it was a nice atmosphere in the place, and the service we had was very friendly.  Although it's a bit of a haul from our home up to Peosta, we figured that it would be another place where we could go for a weekend drive once the weather warms up again.   Well, then again, it would be a nice place even before springtime hits.  

 

Twisted Tail - Beebeetown, IA

Since 2010, the Iowa Beef Industry Council has sponsored the Best Burger in Iowa contest.  Bars and restaurants across the state vie for the annual crown through a initial voting system (re: creative ballot box stuffing) and then the top 10 vote getters are visited by a panel of judges who determine which place has the best burger in Iowa for that year.  Over the years, I've been to all of the places who were named as having the best burger in the state, save for 2019 winner Wood Iron Grille in Oskaloosa and this past year's winner, Bambino's in the small town of Ossian near Decorah.  (Click here to see the previous Road Tips entries on the Best Burgers in Iowa.)  The 2020 winner is located just about 25 miles north and east of Omaha, and on a recent trip out there I stopped into the Twisted Tail in Beebeetown, IA to give their award winning burger a try.  

Now, if you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I like to think of myself as somewhat of a burger connoisseur.  I have over 300 entries in my Burger Joints category alone, so I think I have a pretty good grasp of what makes a good burger.  And I have to say that a couple three of the Best Burger in Iowa contest winners I've tried over the years were, well, not very good.  And some that were winners, well, I thought they were good, but not what I would call an excellent burger.  So I always went to a place who had been named as having the Best Burger in Iowa with a bit of skepticism.

And that's how I was when I pulled up to the rustic Twisted Tail which is located about a mile north of Interstate 880 - which connects I-80 and I-29 in extreme western Iowa - in the unincorporated village of Beebeetown.  (see map)  The place wasn't all that fancy from the outside and the small lot in front was packed with a combination of SUV's and pickup trucks.  I actually had to park down the street a bit from the Twisted Tail before I made my way into the place.  It was good that it was a popular lunch spot.  

The Twisted Tail has been around since 2011.  Local real estate broker/auctioneer Ed Spencer and his wife Ruth bought the building and resurrected the old steakhouse that had been on that corner for a number of years before.  Two of their children - Luke Spencer and Hannah Spencer-Johnsen - manage the restaurant for the family.  On weekends when the place gets really crowded for the Friday night ribs or the Saturday night smoked prime rib, you'll see Ed and Ruth's grandchildren bussing tables and sweeping the floors.  

Over the years, Ed and Ruth Spencer have accumulated a number of antiques rifles and historical pictures of the surrounding area.  Many of those antiques and pictures were on display on the knotty-pine walls of the restaurant.  Hardwood floors and a tin ceiling gave the Twisted Tail sort of a hollow-sounding feel, but with the waning lunch crowd it wasn't all that loud in there.  

I ended up seated at the small bar toward the front of the long and narrow restaurant.  I took a seat and the bartender that day just happened to be Hannah Spencer-Johnsen.  She seemed to be distracted and somewhat agitated.  She greeted me curtly and offered me a menu to look over and walked back into the kitchen.  I just figured she must have been having a rough day.  

She came back moments later and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  I saw that they had a number of beers on tap including craft beers.  They had the Toppling Goliath Psuedo Sue out of Decorah on tap and I ordered up one of those while I looked through the menu. 

I was definitely there for the burger, but they had a number of sandwiches, salads and appetizers available.  Their dinner menu served in the evenings featured steaks, seafood, and the aforementioned ribs on Friday night and smoked prime rib on Saturday night.   The Twisted Tail is also sort of locally famous for their Philly cheesesteak sandwiches including a Buffalo chicken Philly topped with pepper jack cheese, grilled onions, green peppers and jalapeños.  Just reading that on the menu made my stomach go "burp!"  

Hannah came back a little more composed than she was before and took my order.  I ordered the mushroom/Swiss cheese burger made with the locally-sourced beef having an 80-20 lean-to-fat ratio.  I had a choice of sides and they really only had French fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings.  I thought a bit about what side I could get and was a bit apprehensive about the onion rings.  But I ordered them anyway.  But that quickly changed when Hannah came out of the kitchen with a bit of exasperation in her voice that they were out of the onion rings.  OK, no problem.  So, I went with the French fries.  

About 20 minutes later, a young lady brought my burger out to me.  It was served on a small baking sheet pan with checkered wax paper on the bottom.  The fries were the battered kind that can be good or can be iffy.  Fortunately, these fries were the good battered fries - nice and crispy on the outside, and warm and flaky on the inside.

But, unfortunately, I couldn't say that about the burger.  Although it looked pretty good at first glance, I started to notice some things.  First of all, the bun was too dry.  With the veggies, ketchup and yellow mustard on the burger, the bun literally disintegrated by the time I was halfway through the burger.  And burger patty, itself, was woefully overcooked.  There was absolutely no juiciness to the meat and even with the veggies and the condiments it was a pretty lifeless burger.  I did all I could do to finish the last bite of the burger, but I was highly disappointed with what I got.  

A number of years ago, I had to go to Sioux City and I took Highway 20 across the state from Waterloo to get there.  The very first winner of the Best Burger in Iowa contest (2010) was the Sac County Cattle Company restaurant in Sac City, IA and I stopped by there on the way out to try their burger.  It had been 4 years since they had been awarded for having the best burger in Iowa but if you read the Road Tips entry here, you can read about how a horrible of a burger it was.  

The same thing happened when we went to Mediapolis, IA to the 61 Chophouse to have the 2013 winning burger.  My wife and I were both underwhelmed with the award winning burger there.  In fact, a couple locals we talked to after our experience were sort of incredulous that the place won the best burger contest.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the now closed 61 Chophouse.)  

I would have to say the burger I had at the Twisted Tail was probably right in between the burger at Sac County Cattle Company and 61 Chophouse.  The burger patty was overcooked, there was no juiciness in the burger that was supposedly an 80-20 blend, and the bun was dried out.  I'm giving Hannah the benefit of the doubt regarding my initial impression of her as she seemed harried and somewhat frustrated.  A lot of restaurant managers and owners have been feeling that lately.  But, once again, I have to question the people who go around and judge the burgers for the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  I would hope that a place that was named the top burger place by the organization would have some consistency in what they serve.  The burger at the Twisted Tail was woefully lacking in any quality taste or texture.  It was highly disappointing.

Amsterdam Tavern/The Dam - St. Louis

I was in St. Louis recently and was in the mood for a burger.  I had a place on my "Restaurants to Visit" list for quite some time - The Dam - but digging more into more info on the place, I found that it was carry-out only.  However, I found out that The Dam was part of a trio of establishments that featured a Mexican restaurant and a sports bar that allowed food from both the Mexican restaurant and The Dam to be brought in.  I ended up heading over to the Amsterdam Tavern for a couple beers and a burger from The Dam.  

Jeff Lyell wasn't much into soccer when he partnered with brothers Matt and Rob Stelzer to open the Amsterdam Tavern in 2008 to cater to soccer fans in the city.  Lyell quickly found out that soccer fans of teams from around the world - and primarily the Premier League in the U.K. - would come to the little tavern to watch matches of their favorite teams.  St. Louis may be known as a baseball town, but it has a deep base of soccer fans as there are a number of youth to adult programs in and around the area and have been for years.  

As the Amsterdam Tavern's reputation grew, it built a back beer garden with flat screen televisions.  On some of the bigger matches - especially during the World Cup - the Amsterdam Tavern will sometimes get permission to close down the street in front of the establishment and show the contest on a large projection screen.  

But the Amsterdam Tavern didn't have a kitchen and fans who would come to watch the soccer matches would sometimes want food.  Matt Stelzer had a friend and former high school classmate - Michele Coen - who knew her way around a kitchen.  In addition to a catering company she was just getting off the ground, she had worked at a handful of restaurants over the years.  A space next to the Amsterdam Tavern had opened up and Stelzer and Lyell teamed up with Coen to open a little counter-only/take-out burger joint.  The Dam opened in August of 2013.  

Michele Coen had most recently worked at a popular burger joint in the Delmar Loop - Big V's Burger Joint - before it closed down in 2008.  One of the people who worked there with her was a young guy by the name of Matt Galati.  Galati and Coen had also worked at Onesto and the Mad Tomato Italian Kitchen, and Galati was doing some chef work with Coen's catering company.  Coen brought Galati with her to The Dam and the two worked on the food offerings that they would serve at the restaurant.  

(Earlier this year, Lyell and Stelzer - along with Locoz Tacos food truck owner Tyler Garcia - opened Tres Equis (Three X's), a full service Mexican restaurant next door to The Dam.  The Amsterdam Tavern and Tres Equis share the same outdoor beer garden for al fresco dining.)

The Amsterdam Tavern is located on Morgan Ford Road just south of Tower Grove Park.  (see map)  I was able to find parking just a block south of the tavern and walked back up the street and went in.  The Amsterdam Tavern is not a big place with a bar on one side and a handful of high-top tables on the opposite wall.  When I walked in, their sound system was playing a cut by The Cult.  I immediately liked the place.  In fact, their music selection during the time I was there was stellar with songs from the likes of Steely Dan, Smashing Pumpkins, K-Smoove and Cream.  

The Amsterdam Tavern is decidedly a soccer bar with colorful flags, pennants, and banners tacked to the walls of the place.  Jerseys encased in glass frames were prominent on the wall.  The St. Louis Cardinals were playing baseball that evening on the flat screens around the bar, and with the time in Europe well past midnight, no soccer games were being telecast.  I understand that if there's a soccer match on at the same time a Cardinals game is on, the soccer game will take precedent.  

Co-owner Matt Stelzer was working the bar that evening and I took a long hard look at the selection of beer they had on tap.  The Amsterdam Tavern featured the usual suspects of European imports as well as a number of American and locally brewed craft beers.  I found that they had 16 ounce cans of Citywide American pale ale from the 4 Hands Brewing Company located in St. Louis.  I ordered one of those from Matt.  

I ventured out to the beer garden to take a look around.  It was a much larger space with a bar, covered patio, and a number of flat screen televisions throughout the patio.  A few people were hanging out at the picnic tables enjoying a very nice evening.  

I made sure it was OK to leave my beer at the bar to go order food next door.  Matt told me that he'd watch it for me.  I went next door to The Dam and found a brightly colored small space with a small counter and a kitchen in the back.  The kitchen at The Dam also serves as the main kitchen for Michele Coen's catering business.  

The menu was on the wall and I took a few moments to check it out before ordering.  Burgers were the main focus at The Dam.  All of the beef used for their burgers is locally-sourced, anti-biotic, and hormone-free.   They featured a number of specialty burgers including The Animal - a triple hand-pattied burger with American cheese, grilled onions, jalapeños, bacon and a barbecue sauce.  The Animal migrated from Big V's Burger Joint with Coen and Galati as it was a extremely popular burger when both worked there.   Other specialty burgers included a single patty burger with pepper jack cheese, chili, jalapeños and a fried egg, and a Belgian burger with smoked Gouda, bacon, cole slaw and a house-made Belgian sauce.  They had "build-your-own" burgers at The Dam with toppings such as seven different types of cheese, sautéed mushrooms, avocado slices, and lettuce and tomato.  

The Dam also featured their version of fish and chips for the English soccer enthusiasts next door, as well as a BTLA - a bacon, tomato, lettuce and avocado sandwich. (I make something similar at home only I add fresh basil to the sandwich.)  They also had a grilled chicken sandwich on sourdough bread.  And The Dam also had a handful of hot dogs including a Chicago-style hot dog, a chili-cheese dog, and a bacon-wrapped hot dog that is deep-fried and topped with shredded cheese, grilled onions, tomatoes and jalapeños.  

I went with one of the specialty burgers - the Magic Mushroom.  It featured two beef patties on sourdough bread topped with a combination of Swiss and Gouda cheese, then finished with a mushroom mix with garlic mayo.  I also got a side of their hand-cut Belgian-style fries.  The fries were thick cut, crispy and came with a choice of dipping sauce.  They had about a dozen different sauces to choose from including a curry and onion sauce, a sweet-chili mayo sauce, a caper-relish mayo sauce, and a cheese-ale sauce.  I ended up getting the garlic mayo sauce, just like I had on the burger.  

Taking it back to the Amsterdam Tavern and settling in at the bar, I pulled the burger and the fries out of the bag and set it up on the bar top.  The burger was very good - the sourdough bread was grilled to a light golden hue, the burger patties were moist and juicy, and had a great flavor.  The combination of the Swiss and Gouda cheese, along with the mushroom mixture with the garlic mayo dressing made it a pretty messy burger.  I'm glad I grabbed about a half-dozen napkins at The Dam as I pretty much used them all.  

The fries were crispy with the skin still on the outside, but nice and moist - and greasy - inside.  The garlic mayo sauce was fine - I thought it could have been a little big more forward with the garlic, but it was OK for what it was.  This was a huge burger with a lot of fries and I found that I couldn't eat the whole thing.  I left a couple bites of the burger and a handful of fries in the bag for Matt to toss out when I was finished.  

I had wanted to try The Dam for their burgers for some time, but didn't want to do the carry-out.  But when I found out that I could take the food to the Amsterdam Tavern next door and eat there, I was happy that I finally took the time to head over there for a burger.  The Magic Mushroom burger on sourdough bread was very good, and the Belgian-style fries were good, as well.  The Amsterdam Tavern had a fine selection of beers and had some pretty interesting soccer memorabilia on display.  Both were fun and funky little joints, and while I'm not much of a soccer enthusiast, I can see why people will drive upwards of 80 miles one way to hang out and watch soccer matches at the Amsterdam Tavern while being able to get a good burger next door at The Dam.  

Prodigy Burger & Bar - Carmel, IN

Over in Indianapolis for some account meetings, I had finished a long day of traveling and decided to find some place that was close to my hotel in Carmel to get something to eat for dinner.  I was in the mood for a burger and some craft beers to throw down and I found a place on the Internet that seemed to fit the bill.  I ended up heading up the road to Prodigy Burger & Bar in the Clay Terrace shopping mall just south of 146th Street.  (see map)  

The Prodigy Burger & Bar is one of 5 locations around the greater Indianapolis area with another location in Kokomo.  The concept for a family-friendly burger and bar came from local restaurateur Jeremiah Hamman who brought the high-end steak franchise, Mo's - a Place for Steaks, to Indianapolis and Carmel just after the turn of the century.  After breaking from the investment group behind Mo's, Hamman eventually rebranded his two restaurants as Prime 47.  (Hamman was also a partner in the short-lived CharBlue Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis and is a partner in a company that currently manages the concession stands at the Grand Park Sports Complex in nearby Westfield, IN.)  

When a Ted's Montana Grill closed at Clay Terrace in late 2016, the space sat vacant for a few weeks.  Hamman contacted the management of the outdoor mall and inquired about the former Ted's space.  While there were already a number of restaurants in the immediate area, Hamman envisioned a sort of neighborhood pub where families and friends could gather for craft burgers, sandwiches and libations.  The first Prodigy Burger & Bar opened on November 2nd, 2017.  

During the restoration/re-development of the Markland Mall in Kokomo, IN - 35 miles to the north of Carmel - Hamman saw an opportunity for a Prodigy Burger & Bar in the new mall lay-out.  He opened the second Prodigy in the fall of 2018.   

Both Prodigy Burger & Bar locations were going strong when Hamman decided to sell his interest in his two restaurants to O'Reilly's Holdings led by Keith Reilly and a handful of other investors.  The deal was struck in February of 2020 and O'Reilly's took over ownership of the two restaurants soon thereafter.  (O’Reilly’s Holdings also owned three other restaurant brands - O'Reilly's Irish Bar with locations in Indy, Fort Wayne and Speedway, as well as TwoDeep Brewing Co. in Indianapolis, and Detour American Grill - which later became a Prodigy Burger & Bar - in the affluent Geist area on the far northeast side of Indy.)   

Expansion was on the mind of O'Reilly's Holdings as they were looking at putting Prodigy locations in some of the former Stacked Pickle sports bars which had closed in March of 2020.  O'Reilly's opened a Prodigy location on the far south side of Indianpolis in Greenwood in August of 2020, then opened a second Carmel location on 106th St., and the fifth Indy-area Prodigy Burger & Bar opened near the IUPUI campus north and west of downtown Indianapolis.  

It was about 6:30 when I pulled into the Clay Terrace outdoor mall and found a parking spot in a lot behind Prodigy Burger & Bar.  They had a nice outdoor patio with wrought iron tables and chairs, but no one was seated outside.  It was a somewhat nice night - cloudy, but pleasant.  I was sort of surprised that no one was outside.

Color me even more surprised that there were just a handful of people in the restaurant when I walked in.  It was a nice place - wood floors, brick accents on the walls, a collection of booths and tables in the dining area.  But there were just three tables filled when I walked in just after 7 p.m.  I was starting to think this may be a bad idea.  

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by Melissa who looked like she was pulling double duty as a server and a bartender.  She plopped down a menu on the bar top and asked what I would like to drink.  I saw that they had a Space Dust IPA from the Elysian Brewing Co. out of Seattle.  I signed up for one of those while I looked through the menu.  My first drink told me that the beer had gone flat.  But there was no one at the bar to let them know.  I just drank it.  

Burgers were, of course, the main selection at Prodigy Burger & Bar.  They had a list of about 12 burgers that featured flat-grilled beef.  For a $2.00 upcharge, you could get wagyu beef; for $5.00 more, you could get a bison burger.  They even had the vegetarian Beyond burgers available for a $2.00 upcharge.  Prodigy had four more burgers made with a proprietary blend of locally-sourced beef that were about $4.50 to $5.00 more than a regular beef patty.  

Some of the burgers on the menu included the Duke which featured two patties, pulled pork, bacon, smoked gouda, and BBQ sauce.  There was the Heavy Metal that had two patties, pepper jack cheese, chili and a Sriracha sauce.  And the Mac & Cheese burger featured two patties topped with American cheese, then topped again with house-made mac & cheese and bacon with a garlic aioli.  One of their top-end burgers was the "G.O.A.T." inspired by former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning who loved bacon cheeseburgers.  This burger featured a single half-pound special blend patty topped with cheddar cheese and four strips of thick cut bacon.  It was finished with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions and a house-made sauce before going onto a sesame seeded bun.  

For people not looking for burgers, Prodigy had pork tenderloin sandwiches, various chicken breast sandwiches, a smoked beef brisket sandwich, fish and seafood entrees, and three different styles of mac & cheese bowls.  Prodigy also had gourmet hot dogs on the menu, along with a number of kids selections.  Appetizers including wings, loaded chili and cheese tots, beer-battered shrimp and beef brisket nachos were also available.  

A guy who I thought was the manager came out to work at one of the cash registers at the bar and he asked me - in a heavy British accent - if I was ready to order anything.  I couldn't tell him that my beer was flat - I had drank half of it already waiting to order.  So I placed my order with him.  

I ended up getting the Mushroom-Swiss burger and asked if I could some bacon on it, as well.  I had a choice of sides and I ended up getting panko-breaded onion rings.  The burger came on the "house" bun and had a healthy slab of Swiss cheese, a load of sautéed mushrooms and bacon that I wouldn't classify as thick cut.  

The burger certainly looked good when I looked it over.  But the first bite told me otherwise.  The burger was woefully overcooked and the bun was dry.  There wasn't any juice in the meat to drop onto the wax paper covering the cooking sheet that they used for a plate.  I started to pull the bun off the burger just to be able to get to some of the things that weren't dry - like the sautéed mushrooms.  They were the only saving grace for this burger.

The onion rings were also bland and over-cooked.  The panko-crust sort of flaked off with each bite - of which there weren't many of those, either.  I threw in the towel early and let Melissa know that I was through.  

Prodigy Burger & Bar had so much promise when I pulled up in front of the place.  It looked nice from the outside and I had high hopes for the experience.  However, not seeing anyone on the patio, then seeing the place nearly empty at 7 p.m. told me that I should have just done an about face and walked out.  But I stayed and had a burger that sucked, beer that was flat, and onion rings that were disappointing.  The service I received from Melissa and the manager, however, was friendly and efficient.  Sometimes when places get taken over by holding companies, things have a tendency to go south.  It appears that may be the case with Prodigy Burger & Bar, I'm sorry to say.  So much potential, so much disappointment.

Farren's Pub & Eatery - Champaign, IL

Years ago, I was in a subterranean restaurant/pub in Champaign and I remember having a pretty good burger there.  Of course, this was 15 years ago when I first started Road Tips and that was the first and last time I was in there.  I was interested in getting a good burger while I was in Champaign recently and I went past the subterranean place set back along an alley from N. Randolph St. - whose name I couldn't remember - but there was no sign on the front of the place.  Still hankering for a burger, I then ended up looking up "Best Burgers in Champaign" on my smart phone and topping the list was a place called Farren's Pub & Eatery.  Once I sat down to write this entry showcasing my recent visit to Farren's Pub & Eatery, I realized that it was one and the same place I had originally written about in June of 2006.  (Click here to see that post.)  It turned out they had moved to a new street-level location in the summer of 2019 and I didn't realize at the time I was there a few weeks ago that it was one and the same place. 

When I first started out writing this blog in 2005, I didn't have a voice or a formula for my entries for the first handful of years.  I also didn't have a worthy camera on my phone to take pictures to include in my blog until about 2008 or 2009.  I found that including the history of an establishment is usually a key component that can tell stories upon stories of a restaurant and how it came to be.  I didn't do that with my original post on Farren's Pub and I wanted to include that in this post.  

Carolyn Morton grew up in the Chicago area and ended up going to the University of Illinois to study biochemistry.  During her time in college, Carolyn worked various positions in bars and restaurants in the Champaign/Urbana area.  After school, she worked as a wine consultant, then became general manager of Silvercreek, an upscale restaurant in downtown Urbana.  The restaurant business was about as far away from biochemistry that one can get.

While at Illinois, she met Brian Farren and the couple eventually got married.  Looking to do something different with their lives just before the turn of the 21st century, they found out that a small subterranean bar in downtown Champaign - a place called Creamy's - was up for sale.  The couple took over the place in 1999 and renovated the place while adding a kitchen and turned it into a restaurant/pub.  Farren's Pub opened their doors for business in February of 2000.  

From the start, Carolyn Farren had a menu that was a little upscale including seafood and pasta dishes.  But she also had a burger on the menu that made from ground beef that was locally-sourced from a butcher/meat shop in Champaign.  Farren's Pub quickly gained a reputation for their burgers and in 2007 they garnered their first recognition by being named as one of the 3 best burgers in Champaign/Urbana by a local publication.  

When people started to come in to Farren's Pub to try the burgers, Carolyn Farren decided to go to a more burger-centric menu and do away with some of the nightly specials and more upscale items they had served.  Within a couple years, the burgers at Farren's Pub topped a number of local "people's-choice" lists, then started to gain national attention from publications such as Trip Advisor.  For not wanting to have a burger-centric restaurant when they first opened up, Carolyn Farren was more than happy for the recognition she was getting.  

Toward the end of 2018, a popular Spanish-style bistro by the name of Radio Maria closed their doors on the corner of N. Walnut and Taylor St. in downtown Champaign.  In February of 2019, Carolyn Farren announced that Farren's Pub would be moving to the former Radio Maria spot giving them a larger bar and more seating than the original location.  The Farren's re-opened in July of 2019.  

After finding the location for Farren's Pub, I found a parking space just down the street on N. Walnut from the restaurant.  (see map)  It had been raining hard off and on for about and hour, but by the time I parked my car and walked a block or so to the restaurant, the rain had eased into a drizzle.  

As I got into Farren's, I was greeted at the hostess stand by a lady with a British accent by the name of Michelle.  She was bubbly, overly friendly and outgoing, and she made me feel quite welcome as a single diner.  The dining room was full and Michelle told me that it would be a 5 to 10 minute wait.  I asked if I could sit in the bar and she said, "That would be a great thing most any other night, but unfortunately we're holding a private event in there this evening."  

She asked if I'd like to sit on a chair at the entry way between the dining area and the bar to wait for a table to open up.  She gave me a menu to check out while I waited and said, "I can even get you something to drink while you wait."  I saw on their beer menu that they had the Triptych Brewing Dank Meme available on tap.  I had been out to the Triptych Brewing facility earlier in the evening and had a couple of the very good hazy IPA beer at its source.  I signed up for one of those.  

From what I understand, the dining room didn't change much from the days of Radio Maria.  It still had the hardwood floors, the support poles in the center of the room and and exposed brick wall along one side.  Large windows that looked out on the north and east side of the dining room gave it a bit of natural light.  Plants and vines were placed along top of the wall on one end, while potted plants dotted the floor which had plexiglass partitions between tables.  I sort of liked the partitions as it gave each table in the dining area a bit of intimacy.  

The bar area is also somewhat of a holdover from the old Radio Maria.  The bar features a semi-circle at one end with blue-light accents under the bar top.  They added some paint to the exposed brick walls opposite the bar and kept the unique lighting accessories hanging from the ceiling.  It was too bad the bar was closed off for a private event that evening.  I would have loved to have had a chance to eat in the bar area.  It was pretty cool in there.

About 15 minutes after Michelle told me it would be a 5 to 10 minute wait, she came to me and said, "I have a table right here for you."  She showed me to a table right by the entrance to the bar area.  I had mowed through my pint of the Triptych Brewing Dank Meme and she got me another one going after I sat down.  

I was definitely in the mood for a burger that evening, but some of the other things on the menu caught my attention while I was checking it out waiting for a table to open.  They had tacos on the menu, including a blackened tuna taco.  Chicken, ground beef and steak tacos were also available, as well as a black bean taco for the vegans in the crowd.  

Farren's Pub also featured a number of sandwiches and they've also won local awards for some of their sandwiches, as well.  The grilled chicken breast with sautéed mushrooms topped with Swiss cheese was intriguing to me, as was the "Mother Clucker" which was basically the same sandwich only with a bleu cheese sauce added to it.  But in the end, the burger won out.  

Michelle had turned me over to Michael, a nice guy who was soft-spoken, after I was seated.  Michael was giving me some pointers on their burgers and he said that the Russell burger was their award-winning burger. "It's named after a guy named Russell who used to order it every day over at our old place," he explained to me.  They also had a sautéed mushroom burger with your choice of cheese, and the green chile burger topped with pepper jack cheese sounded like a winner.  But Michael basically talked me into getting the Russell burger.  I asked could get some of the green chiles on the side, as well.  He said it would be no problem.  

Someone from the kitchen brought my burger to me and I was sort of confused with the chiles on the side.  I was expecting green chiles, but they were more like a roasted red chile.  That was fine with me as it helped enhance the overall flavor of the burger.  

The Russell burger features a half-pound flat-grilled whole beef patty topped with sautéed mushrooms, bacon and pepper jack cheese.  The bleu cheese sauce is also supposed to go on the burger, but I asked Michael to put that on the side, as well.  Onions and pickles came on the side as did a side of skinny fries.  

While I didn't realize it until much later, I had ordered a Russell burger on my initial visit to Farren's Pub & Eatery over 15 years ago at their old location.  Except that I think they gave me the Motherlode instead that featured Swiss cheese instead of pepper jack cheese, and the bleu cheese sauce with sautéed mushrooms.  Nonetheless, I was getting a true Russell burger on this visit.  

The burger was, well, a spot-hitter.  It was just excellent with all the flavors going on.  But the quality beef in the burger shined through all the toppings and condiments that I put on the burger.  It as juicy, flavorful and savory.  The lightly toasted bun held together very well with all the juices, peppers and cheese on the burger patty.  The fries were actually pretty good, too.  They had a crisp outer shell with a flaky core.  The burger was a lot of food and I was able to finish all that and had just a few of the fries by the time I threw in the towel.

As I was waiting on my check from Michael, Michelle walked by the table and I flagged her down, asking her where the restrooms where.  "Down that hallway and first door on the left," she said as she pointed to the far corner of the dining room from where I was seated.  So, I got up, made the trek to the restroom.  I walked down the hall and took the first door on the left - just as Michelle said.  But what she did was direct me to the WOMEN'S restroom!  Sure, for Michelle, the first door on the left down the hall would be the restroom she would use.  She meant the second door on the left for the men's restroom.  

And, of course, there were two ladies in the restroom when I walked in.  They were just standing there and understandably startled when I walked in.  I stopped, said, "Oh, shit!"  Then I quickly exited heading to the next door down the hall.  It was sort of embarrassing.  

After I went to Farren's Pub & Eatery, I didn't realize that I had gone to their original subterranean location over 15 years ago.  I did remember how good their burger was and I went back to the old location - not remembering the name of the place - but it was closed down.  However, I did find the "new" Farren's Pub location not realizing until starting my research for this blog entry that it was the same place as the one I was looking for earlier on.  And the burger I had on this visit was just as good as I remember from the visit years ago.  The staff at Farren's Pub were friendly and accommodating, I was made to feel comfortable as a single diner, and the atmosphere was laid-back and relaxed.  I'm hoping it won't be another 15 years before I make it back to Farren's for one of their burgers.  

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. 

Anchor Bar & Grill - Orange Beach, AL

During our vacation to the Gulf Coast of Alabama, my wife and I had come out of our flu (or food poisoning) episode sort of wobbly and still a bit queasy in our stomachs.  We had a little bit to eat during the day after we had the stomach ailments, but we were looking for something substantial to put in our guts.  My wife ruled out seafood as she thinks she got sick from the oysters a couple nights before.  I said that I needed something sort of like a good ol' greasy cheeseburger to put something substantial in my stomach. Somewhat to my surprise, she agreed.  

We were seated at the bar at the area's only craft brewery - Big Beach Brewing Company - and I asked one of the bartenders where the locals would go for a good ol' cheeseburger in the area.  They mentioned a couple places - one was literally around the corner from our hotel - and then one of them mentioned the Anchor Bar & Grill.  "It's not anything fancy, but they have deck seating and great view of the back bay," one of the bartenders said.  After finishing our beers, we headed over to the Anchor Bar & Grill.  

Jonathon Kastner was a Louisiana native who ended up going to Chicago for culinary school.  After getting his degree from Kendall College - one of the more premier culinary and hospitality schools in the U.S. - Kastner moved back to Louisiana in 2007 where he was worked as a chef for the City Club, a private restaurant in Lafayette.  Kastner also worked at Bella Figura, a now-closed upscale Italian restaurant, as well as at the upscale Cafe Vermillionville in Lafayette.  Kastner also worked as a culinary life coach coming up with low-carb/low-fat/gluten-free meal plans for people who wanted to lose weight and get healthy using primarily locally-grown and organic ingredients.  

Pictured right - Jonathon Kastner.  Photo courtesy AL.com

Two friends of Kastner's - Bryan Jewell and Ryan Trahan - knew of his penchant for looking for locally-grown foods and came to him with a business plan for a restaurant they wanted to open in Lafayette and beyond.  The restaurant - Brick and Spoon - was going to be a breakfast/brunch/lunch spot that Jewell and Trahan were looking to franchise out for other locations around the South.  Kastner helped develop the menu and the first Brick and Spoon opened in Lafayette in May of 2013.  

Two years later, Jewell and Trahan sold their first franchise to Eric Beech who was going to put his restaurant in Orange Beach.  (There are now 13 Brick and Spoon locations in six states in the South.)   Kastner and his girlfriend, Sarah Arceneaux, went to Orange Beach in August of 2015 to help Beech open his restaurant.  Kastner and Arceneaux fell in love with the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area and told Beech that they'd like to live there at some point.  It turns out that Beech knew of a restaurant opportunity at a local marina and said that Kastner should look into it.

Kastner met with Hudson Marina owner Rodney Jones who had an empty waterfront restaurant space that was available.  The agreement was made almost instantaneously, and within two months Kastner and Arceneaux had moved to Orange Beach and the Anchor Bar and Grill opened in October of 2015.  

Kastner kept the menu simple, but with more of an upscale twist to just regular bar food.  The brisket tots that he came up with - whiskey-smoked brisket beef on tater tots - were an instant hit.  The chicken wings were an ever-changing item as Kastner would experiment with brining his wings in things such as lemon zest and fresh thyme, or even brining the wings in whiskey.  The Anchor Bar & Grill was famous for their Cuban sandwich, their burgers, and their Philly Cheesesteak sandwich made with braised beef belly.  Kastner continually fidgeted with the menu adding and subtracting some items, and he became known for some of his unique nightly specials made with fresh locally-sourced ingredients.  

Now, every once in awhile, I'll go to a restaurant and it usually takes me six to eight weeks - or longer - to get around to write about it for Road Tips.  There have been a couple three times in the past where the restaurant closed from the time I was there to the time I started to write about it.  Well, from the time we were there and now, there's been a big change in the Anchor Bar and Grill.  

Late last year, Kastner - like many chefs his age - felt that he needed to do something different after five years steering the Anchor Bar and Grill.  Not long after he had opened the restaurant, Kastner had made friends with Craig Williams, a restaurateur from Tuscaloosa, AL who grew up in the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area.  Williams and his wife would vacation in the area and they began to hang out with Kastner when they would get to Orange Beach.  

Williams opened his first restaurant - the Avenue Pub - in Tuscaloosa in January of 2014.  It was an immediate hit with the locals and it allowed Williams to open his second restaurant - Central Mesa - a couple years later.  From there, he took over an Italian restaurant, then took over a specialty grocery store and delicatessan after that.  

When Kastner decided to make a change, he naturally told Williams of his plans.  Kastner eventually asked Williams to take over the Anchor Bar and in April of this year the handoff was made.   Williams ran the restaurant from afar for a couple months - including while we were there - but by June, he decided that he couldn't sustain Kastner's hands-on business model.   So, Williams decided to transition the Anchor Bar and Grill into an Avenue Pub location.  

The menu at the restaurant changed dramatically after Williams turned it into the Avenue Pub.  Gone were many of the food items that Kastner had made famous at the Anchor Bar.  But given that it's only been a couple months since Williams changed things over, it's my guess that they'll be adding more items along the way.   

We made our way down Canal Road and turned at the corner of S. Wilson Blvd.  We were familiar with the area as we had a late breakfast a couple days before at OSO Early right at the corner of Canal Rd. and S. Wilson Blvd. (Look for an upcoming Road Tips entry on OSO Early.)  We went down to the end of S. Wilson Blvd. and pulled into the parking lot across from the Anchor Bar and Grill and the Hudson Marina.  (see map)  As we started to walk toward the restaurant we heard screeches from an osprey that was in a nest on top of a pole near the parking lot.  It turned out that there was a family of ospreys in the nest and the parents were feeding their babies.  It was actually kind of neat to see.  

The front wood facade of the Anchor Bar and Grill that faces the parking lot is shaped to appear like a boat.  There were two different entrances to the place, both stair steps up the "bow" and the "stern" of the building.  We went up the "bow" side and found ourselves in the kitchen.  I sort of stopped and someone said, "No, no!  Come on in!"  We walked past the open kitchen and out onto the deck in the back of the "boat".  

The patio area consisted of a plank floor with a number of metal tables and chairs.  The sun was setting and there were some flimsy shades that didn't do much in keeping the sun out.  It was still very windy - as it had been all week - and we were having trouble keeping stuff on the table.  

This is the view off the patio at the Anchor Bar of Terry Cove, a small area that is part of Perdido Bay.  (Click on picture to enlarge.)  Centered in the picture is the Perdido Pass Bridge that connects Orange Beach with Perdido Key.  To the left of the bridge between the tall buildings is Cobalt, the Restaurant which we went to for our anniversary dinner.  (Click here to see the entry on Cobalt.)  To the right of the bridge in the large block house is the Orange Beach home of entrepreneur Art Favre - the owner of The Wharf at Orange Beach entertainment/retail/restaurant complex on the north side of Orange Beach.  (Favre is the uncle of former NFL legendary quarterback Brett Favre.)  To the right of Favre's magnificent contemporary house is his covered boat dock for his ocean going yacht.   In the foreground of the picture, you may be able to make out a pirate ship.  Hudson Marina does pirate ship cruises twice a day for families and groups paying homage to the 18th century pirates who hid out on Perdido Bay. 

Our server that day was a young guy by the name of Kevin.  He was laid back and very casual in his demeanor.  My wife decided she wanted a piña colada while I wanted to know if they had an IPA or a hazy IPA.  "Uh, yeah, I'm sure we have something like that," Kevin said.  "Let me go look."  

Moments later, he brought out my wife's piña colada and brought me a can of the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger V2K.  It was already opened.  I thought that was pretty presumptuous of him as I don't really care for New Belgium beers.  I thought he would have just come back and tell me what they had and I certainly wouldn't have ordered The Voodoo Ranger V2K.  But it was a hazy IPA, however it was a little too syrupy and citrusy for me.  I went ahead and drank it, and didn't complain to him about it. 

Kevin had dropped off a couple menus for us to go through.  While we were there for the burgers, they had some other interesting things on the menu.  The Philly cheesesteak sandwich wasn't on the menu, but the Cuban sandwich was.  The whiskey brisket tater tots were also on the menu.  Their rendition of wings that day were tossed in a candied jalapeño sauce.  They also had yellowfin tuna poké with avocado, tamari-pickled mustard seed and a chopped sweet onion.  And they had Gulf fish tacos - fresh caught gulf coast whitefish that was pan-seared and topped with a Cajun crawfish salsa, cilantro-puffed rice, and refried butterbeans and finished with an avocado créma.  Now THAT got my attention.

Despite the other temptations on the menu, we stayed true to our quest for a big, greasy cheeseburger.  And the one at the Anchor Bar didn't disappoint.  This is called the "More In than Out Burger" - Jonathan Kastner's version of the west coast classic In-N-Out Burger.  It consists of two mustard-seared Louisiana wagyu beef patties both of which were topped with American cheese.  Iceberg lettuce, caramelized onions and a house-made tomato jam were added on top.  The bottom bun was splashed with spicy mayo sauce.  I got tots as my side and had Kevin bring me a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce to add to the tots.  My wife got a side of their house-made cole slaw made with tzatziki sauce.  

From the first bite, we knew we had made the right choice.  The burger was juicy, flavorful and just outstanding.  We were using multiple napkins (the used ones we were having trouble with staying on the table with the brisk wind coming in over the bay) as the juicy goodness along with the gooey American cheese was dripping on our hands.  This was exactly what the doctor ordered after our bouts with the stomach flu.  

The only problem is that Kevin just disappeared.  He sort of copped an attitude about halfway through our visit and I would have like to have gotten another beer while my wife wanted some water after her drink was finished.  But he was nowhere in sight.  We flagged down one of the female servers to get us our drinks and, later, our bill.  (We did see him later on when we were leaving.  He was evidently on break having food at the counter in the kitchen area.  We walked past him and he didn't say a word.  We are still trying to figure out why he started to cop an attitude with us.  Or maybe he was pissed off at something else.)  

The burger we both had at the Anchor Bar and Grill was simply outstanding.  But, as I said, with the changeover to the Avenue Pub just a month after we were there, the More In than Out Burger is no longer available.  And that's a shame because it was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had.  And you can go through the Burger category on Road Tips and read about some truly great burgers I've had over the years.  Our server's demeanor went from laidback to cold to non-existent.  But the views of the bay and the harbor were great for Midwesterners like us.  Even though they don't have quite the eclectic menu at the Avenue Pub as they did when it was the Anchor Bar and Grill, just being able to have a meal on the water would be worth the trip there.  

Double D Diner - Davenport, IA

My wife and I like to go out on Sunday's from time to time to get a burger and a bloody mary.  There are a few locally-owned places that have that combination and we were telling a friend about looking for places that have good burgers and bloody mary's.  She told us, "Have you guys tried the Double D Diner yet?"  Then she raved about the burgers they had there.  We had heard about the place, knew its location in northwest Davenport, but we had not been there.  We've been there twice now - once for dinner and once for breakfast.  We've had the burger and the bloody mary separately and this Road Tips entry is the combination of our two visits.  

Double D Diner owner Dusti Reese has been in the concessions business for a number of years.  She founded Sunshine Concessions in 2000 and went to local fairs and events selling everything from grilled tenderloins to corn dogs to funnel cakes to fruit shake-up drinks.  For over 15 years, Dusti worked the local circuit with her crew and even did catering work for businesses in the area.  In 2019, she did a complete 180 degree change by opening a small women's clothing store - LillyPad Boutique - later that year.  She was located next door to a small diner by the name of The Kitchen that we had heard was sort of spotty with their food and service.  When The Kitchen closed in late 2019, Reese saw an opportunity as there were very few dining options on Davenport's northwest side.  

Reese opened the Double D Diner on February 29, 2020.  Two weeks later, she was forced to shut her doors to dine-in business due to the pandemic.  Reese thinks of herself as a pretty creative person, so she was one of the first to offer to-go dining for her restaurant and relied upon social media to let people know.  That kept her going up to the time that limited in-person dining was re-established last summer.  

Last August, a derecho hit the Quad Cities and left thousands of people without power for days and a number of restaurants were forced to close until power was restored.  Once again, Reese's creative side showed through as she rolled out one of her gas grills that she used for her concession business onto the lot in front of the restaurant and started to make burgers, ribeyes, brats, grilled chicken, and pork tenderloin sandwiches for people who were looking for something to eat.  It was a hit and by the early afternoon on some days while waiting for the power to go back on, Reese would sell out of some meat items.  Friends and family members helped out by running for more buns and supplies while Reese kept the grill smoking feeding a large number of people who saw that she was open.  

Picture at right courtesy Double D Diner Facebook page.

Cedar Rapids was hard-hit by the derecho and Reese ended up taking her outdoor grill up to that city a couple weekends later to make food for people who still had no power in their neighborhoods.  From time to time on nice days, she'll put the outdoor grill up on weekends in front of her restaurant to sells brats, burgers and grilled sandwiches. 

The Double D Diner grew in popularity due in part to the positive reactions Reese received in the local press and on social media after the derecho.  Wait times going into the fall and into the winter on some weekend days were reaching 30 to 45 minutes for a table.  While the diner was going gangbusters, her boutique was bobbing along on its own.  Reese decided in March of this year to close the boutique and use the space as a combination extra dining overflow/reception/private dining room.  By the end of April of this year, the boutique space had been transformed into part of the Double D Diner.  

One recent evening, my wife and I weren't in the mood to cook and we decided to head over to the Double D Diner to get one of their burgers our friend had told us about.  It was just after 7 p.m. when we got there and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. (see map) Dusti Reese was behind the front counter at the grill and we sat in a booth along the wall opposite the bar.  The bar was sort of a catch-all for the kitchen staff and you couldn't have sat there if you wanted to.  The main dining area - sans the bar - sits around 36 people.  

Marissa was our server that evening and she dropped off a couple menus to look over.  They do have a full bar at Double D Diner and I wanted a beer.  I saw that they had the Easy Eddy hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery on the menu and I ordered one of those.  Marissa came back and said that they were unfortunately out of the Easy Eddy.  I went with a safe pick after that and ordered a Bud Light.  She came back moments later and said they were out of Bud Light.  "Do you have Budweiser," I asked.  She said she did and went to fetch me one.  It was in a can and I was given a glass to pour it in.  The beer, however, was not as cold as I would have liked - probably in the 55 to 60 degree temperature range - and it didn't go down all that well.  

For a diner, it's a pretty short menu.  They serve breakfast all day - 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (they close at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday) - and about 2/3rds of the menu on one side is devoted to breakfast items.  Double D Diner specializes in omelettes, French toast, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and also has Mexican-style items such as eggs and chorizo, as well as a breakfast burrito.  

The lunch and dinner part of the menu features sandwiches, salads, and burgers, while full dinner entrees such as a bruschetta chicken breast, an 8-ounce Iowa pork chop, and a 10-ounce ribeye are available.  Double D Diner features daily lunch and dinner specials such as meatloaf, tacos and special pricing on pork tenderloin sandwiches.  Appetizers such as chicken wings, fried pickles, and sirloin steak bites served with a blue cheese fondue were also on the menu.  

We were there for the burgers and they have a "build-your-own-burger" part of the menu.  I went with my standard burger of Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms.  I could have gotten bacon on it, but I decided against it on my first visit.  I had my choice of a brioche or a pretzel bun and I went with the brioche.  I got a side of the fries to go along with the burger. 

In addition to the cheese and mushrooms, I got lettuce, a tomato slice, some red onions and dill pickles for the burger.  All together, the burger was stacked high when I went to take my first bite.

Now, I grew up in Newton, IA and there was a place there called the Cardinal Lunch that was a 24-hour place in its day.  They had burgers there where they used some sort of a butter sauce or batter that they would put on the bun and then grill the buns face down on a flat-top grill.  The taste was one of those things I cherished in my youth.  The burgers - especially the buns - tasted exactly like that at the Double D Diner.  In fact, Dusti Reese came over to talk to us after we finished and I asked her if she did anything special with the buns to get that taste.  "Oh, no.  Nothing special at all," she said.  "We just put butter on them, then put them on the grill to toast them."  I was hoping she would give me an insight to something really special about the type of butter or if she mixed anything with it, but she said it was just straight butter.  In any event, this was an outstanding burger.

My wife went the burger route, as well, getting a cheddar cheese burger with sautéed onions along with chipotle mayo and a garlic aioli sauce on the side.  For her side, she got Double D Diner's creamy cole slaw.  She also got lettuce, fresh onion, pickles and tomato with her burger.  

Each burger starts as a 1/2 pound patty and is flat-grilled in its own juices.  It has a crispy outer shell and both of our burgers were cooked perfectly inside to a medium with a hint of pink.  The brioche buns that we both got were light, but held up very well with the juiciness of the burger combined with the veggies, cheese and condiments that we put on them.  The garlic aioli that my wife got was especially pungent and forward in taste.  I dipped some of my fries into the garlic aioli because I knew that I wouldn't want to be around her later that evening if I didn't eat some of the aioli to counter what she had eaten.  I also dipped some of my fries - which were also very good, by the way - into the chipotle mayo.  It had a nice little spiciness to it, but wasn't overpowering in taste.  

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went back to the Double D Diner for breakfast.  This time, the place was packed and we had to wait a short while for a booth to open up.  This time, I got a bloody mary and it was pretty underwhelming.  They use Jimmy Luv's Bloody Mary Mix, a mix from a small company out of Milwaukee.  I've had the Jimmy Luv's before, but wasn't all that impressed with it.  (For a bloody mary at home, I prefer the Zing Zang mix for a number of reasons.  Then I usually doctor it up with ground horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, juice from a real lime and a lot of cracked black pepper.  Plus Zing Zang has the lowest amount of sodium compared to other mixes on the market.)  

For breakfast that day, I got a sausage, mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet.  It featured three eggs in the omelet and it was paper thin - the way I like my omelets.  Hash browns came on the side.  I asked our server that day for some Cholula hot sauce to go on to the omelet and hash browns to zip up the taste a bit.  On their own without any hot sauce, both the hash browns and omelet were good.  Not outstanding, but good.    

My wife went with the two eggs, bacon, hashbrowns with toast breakfast.  And as she usually does when she checks out a new breakfast place, she got a single pancake to try.  The pancake was a little more fluffy than she prefers, but it had sort of a crusty edge that she likes.  The eggs were ordered as scrambled, but they came out sort of like an omelet.  She just cut up the eggs like they were scrambled. 

My wife was happy with her breakfast.  She ate all her eggs, gave me a piece of bacon, and had a bit of the hash browns.  But she must have liked the pancake as she ate about half of it.  I tried a bite of the pancake and I thought it was fine.  

Our friend definitely did not steer us wrong on the burgers at the Double D Diner.  I will say it is one of the best ones I've had around the Quad Cities.  The breakfast at Double D Diner is also good - nothing special, but dependably good.  I wasn't too whippy on the their bloody mary, so that may take them out of our Sunday burger and bloody mary rotation.  But the service was efficient and friendly.  The Double D Diner isn't anything fancy, but it's far from a greasy spoon restaurant.  We would recommend giving it a try if you're in the area.

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.   

Slim's Bar & Grill - Bemidji, MN

During our trip to Northern Minnesota this past summer, we made a handful of discovery trips north of our home base of Bemidji during our time there.  On the north side of Bemidji, just off the old U.S. Highway 71 that is known as Bemidji Ave. N. was a cabin-type bar and grill that caught my eye, then caught my fancy.  One day while we were coming back into Bemidji from a short jaunt up north of the city, I decided to stop in to see what Slim's Bar & Grill was all about. 

In 1965, Ernie and Rosie Jacobson opened what was one of the very first pizza places in the state of Minnesota, Jake's Pizza, in Albert Lea.  Jake's was such a hit that with the help of Ernie and Rosie's son Larry, a second Jake's Pizza place opened in 1968 in Fairmont, about 60 miles west of Albert Lea.  Larry eventually sold his interest in that Jake's Pizza to his brother Mark in 1970 and ventured up to the Bemidji area to open up another Jake's Pizza.  Eventually, through family, friends and franchisees owning various locations, a total of 18 Jake's Pizza restaurants could be found throughout Minnesota and northern Iowa.  

Jake's Pizza had some competition in the Bemidji area when two other pizza places opened up in the 80's.  Larry Jacobson decided to turn Jake's Pizza into a new venture - L.T. Jacobs, and then opened a place called the Hard Times Saloon in downtown Bemidji.  L.T. Jacobs proved to be a rather unwieldy concept, so in 1989 Jacobson and his wife Connie opened Slim's Bar & Grill - basically a "slimmed" down version of L.T. Jacobs.  It turned out to be the right idea as it wasn't a large place, it was casual and homey, and above all, it was a profitable business.  

In 2005, Larry and Connie Jacobson sold Slim's to their son Karl and his wife Erin.  They continued to run the business up to Karl's untimely death in 2013.  Lisa Friese had been a longtime employee of the Jacobson family working in their restaurants starting in 1980 when she was still in her teens.  In 2014, Lisa Friese and her husband John bought Slim's from the Jacobson family.  The Friese family continues to run Slim's today.  

From the highway, you can see Slim's Bar & Grill through the trees just past the corner of Bemidji Ave. N and NW Anne St., just over a couple hundred yards west of Lake Bemidji  (see map)  I could see the Pabst Blue Ribbon sign on top of their entry way from the road and it looked like the quintessential northwoods dive bar. I mentioned something to my wife about the place on probably the fifth time I had seen it and she said, "Well, let's go back and have a beer!"  

It was a beautiful afternoon and we walked into the place.  It WAS the quintessential northwoods dive bar complete with a three-sided bar, knotty pine walls with deer racks, trophy mounted fish, pictures of hockey teams from Bemidji State University, and vintage artwork signs from the original Hamms brewery.  They even had Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap!  The smell of fresh made burgers wafted in the air.  

The bartender that day was a young guy named Chris who was personable and friendly.  My wife asked if we could sit out on the patio since it was so nice and he enthusiastically said, "You bet!  Go on out and I'll come out to take your order."  I protested that we could order inside and take them outside and Chris said, "Naw, go on out.  I'll be out there in a minute."  We immediately liked the guy.  

We went out and few moments later Chris came out to get our drink order.  I ordered up a Bemidji Brewing Company pale ale that they had on tap, while my wife got a Tito's and cranberry.  I downed the pale ale pretty quickly and Chris came out a few minutes later wanting to know if I wanted another beer.  My wife was still about halfway through her mixed drink and I said, "Yeah, I would.  I saw you had PBR on tap.  I'll take one of those."  I hadn't had a Pabst beer in a long, long time and it certainly tasted pretty damned good sitting on Slim's patio on a sun-drenched afternoon.  

When we were finished, we took our glasses in to the bar to drop off for Chris.  He protested, saying, "Aw, you guys.  You didn't need to do that.  I would have come out and gotten them."  I looked over in the corner behind the bar and saw that he had a couple burgers cooking on a flat grill.  I asked him if the burgers were good - they SMELLED good - and he said, "Best around.  We always get the Best Burger award that the local paper gives out."  

I also noticed that they had soup specials each day and the next day was going to be chicken and wild rice soup.  Wild rice soup was one of the main things that I wanted to have when we were in the northwoods, but no one seemed to have it.  I told Chris that we'd be back the next day for lunch.  

True to my word, we made it back out for lunch the next day around 1 p.m.  We had gotten there the day before after 3 p.m., so there wasn't much of a crowd in there.  However, we got in on the backside of a busy lunch hour.  Chris was there, as was owner Lisa Friese and another guy working the bar.  Chris saw us and his face lit up.  "Hey, you made it back," he said with a big voice.  

We took a seat at a booth along the wall opposite the bar.  The menu was on the table and we took a quick look to see what they had other than burgers.  Well, really, the main thing on the menu WERE the burgers.  But they also had Jake's Pizza on the menu - a nod to the Jacobson family's first Bemidji restaurant.  But curiously, they also had a couple selections of pizza on the menu under the heading of Dave's Pizza.  There's a Dave's Pizza in Bemidji and I thought it was sort of strange that they would have two different styles of pizza - or if Dave's Pizza delivered to Slim's.  I just didn't know.  

But that was just about it for food on the menu.  Slim's also had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the menu, as well as homemade chili, and nachos with various toppings available.  

The burgers at Slim's are made with beef from Stittsworth Meats from Bemidji.  (We found that many other restaurants in the area used meat from Stittsworth Meats.)  Their buns are sourced from Raphael's Bakery, a bakery/cafe in downtown Bemidji that we neglected to visit.  And they had bottles of Beer's Black Dog barbecue sauce on the tables.  "That's the owners brother," Chris explained to us as I was asking since they didn't seem to have barbecue on the menu.  "It's good stuff.  We sell it here, sometimes by the case!"  

I had to start out with a bowl of the chicken and wild rice soup.  It was a fair-sized bowl that was filled to the brim of a rich and hearty concoction of chicken, wild rice and chopped carrots.  It was simply outstanding.  And it filled me up rather quickly.  I was worried that I had spoiled my appetite for the burger.  But it turns out that it didn't.

My wife got just the regular cheese burger, while I went with the pepper jack cheese, sautéed mushroom and bacon burger.  A thick onion slice came with the burger (fried onion are available on request) along with dill pickles.  The bun was lightly toasted and the burgers came with a bag of potato chips - no fries or onion rings or wings at Slim's Bar & Grill.  The burger is a 7 ounce flat-grilled burger that was juicy and full of flavor. Multiple napkins were needed to go along with the burger.  It was an outstanding burger, to say the least.  

If I lived in the Bemidji area, I'd eat at Slim's at least once a week.  It was a great little northwoods bar with a great burger and a very friendly staff.  They have pizza available at Slim's, but that's about it - pizza and burgers.  Daily soup specials through the week complete the menu.  The beer selection was adequate and the chicken and wild rice soup was superb.  I liked everything about Slim's Bar & Grill, from the northwoods kitsch to the outdoor patio to the friendly service to the excellent burgers.  Slim's was one of my favorite places we visited on our trip to northern Minnesota this past summer.  

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.

Boozie's Bar & Grill - Davenport, IA

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt to dine-in options for restaurants and bars across the nation.  Travel has also been curtailed as social distancing practices have become the new norm for the time being.  If you've noticed a slowdown in my posts, that's pretty much why.  My wife and I have tried to do our best to support some of the local restaurants by getting food or craft beers to-go during the crisis, but we do miss having the option of heading out for dinner and relaxing with a couple drinks or beers with the meal in a restaurant.  

The night before the mandatory shutdown of restaurants and bars for dining in was to take effect in Iowa, my wife and I decided we had better go out somewhere and get something to eat.  Actually, I was to meet a couple three friends for burgers and beers that evening over in Iowa City, but that was canceled at the last moment.  I had been craving a good burger all day long and with that rug pulled out from underneath me, I still wanted a burger.  My wife suggested we give a place in downtown Davenport another try - a place we had not been back to in over 20 years before of, well, slow and indifferent service.  However, they stayed in business in spite of that - and I heard that they still had a pretty good burger - so we ended up going to Boozie's Bar & Grill that evening.  

Boozie's has been a staple in downtown Davenport since 1979.  Evidently, the first owner of Boozie's had a cat by the name of "Boozie".  That's why there's a cat on the logo.  I've never been able to find who the original owner of Boozie's was, but I do know that Mark McClintock became the owner of the place in 2007.  

Friends of mine who knew McClintock said that he was a gregarious and fun-loving person.  And he transformed Boozie's into a fun place and away from its former "upscale dive-bar" reputation that included slow service and an aloof waitstaff.  

Unfortunately, Mark McClintock is no longer with us.  A couple days after Christmas in 2018, McClintock was driving home at 2:30 in the morning after closing Boozie's for the night.  He veered off the road and struck a telephone pole.  He was found unresponsive by first responders.  Investigators surmised that he may have had a medical condition that caused the crash.

The Boozie's staff, clientele and McClintock's family were devastated by his death.  However, Boozie's was open again the next day because the staff knew that's what McClintock would want them to do.  Soon after his death, his sister Monica McKown took over the ownership of Boozie's.    

When I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991, I heard from many of the locals that Boozie's had the best burger in town.  They certainly won their fair share of "Reader's Choice" awards from local publications, but I had learned years before that usually means the owner is having employees, friends and family stuff the ballot box.  My wife and I finally did try a burger at Boozie's around 1994 - it was during a lunch break and we met at Boozie's and each ordered a burger almost as soon as we sat down.  The place was not very busy as it was after the noon lunch rush, but it took forever for the burgers to get to our table - as in nearly a half-hour after we had placed our order.  And my wife only had a had a half-hour for her lunch.  She had to end up taking hers back to her office to eat it.  She wasn't happy as she caught some grief from her boss for coming back 15 minutes late from lunch, PLUS having to eat her lunch at her desk.  

We thought we'd try them out again one evening a few months after.  The waiter we had was dressed in a snap-button tuxedo shirt with a crisp black vest - that's how they used to dress their waiters at Boozie's over 25 years ago as the owner at the time somehow tried to "class up" the joint.  Once again, we both ordered their signature "Boozie Burger" and, once again, it took nearly 30 minutes for the burgers to show up to the table.  The waiter was sort of condescending when we inquired about our burger order, intimating that they were busy in the kitchen.  Looking around the dining area, there weren't that many people in the place.  The burger was good, but the experience left a sour taste in our mouth.  

Our final visit to Boozie's occurred in 1998 on a drunken outing with friends on a Friday night.  We didn't eat there that night - we probably should have - but the place was packed with people of all ages enjoying the start of the weekend.  Since then, we just never thought about giving Boozie's a try.  Until this particular evening.  

We were able to find a parking spot in front of Boozie's on the north side of W. 3rd St. - the eastbound one-way street in downtown Davenport.  (see map)  Boozie's is easy to spot with their large awning out front and stairs that lead up to their front door.  

The building that Boozie's is in dates back to 1899 when it was initially used as the offices of the Davenport Water Company and a doctor's office on the street level entrance.  A livery stable and a brothel may - or may not - have been housed in the property at some point in time.  A construction company used the space for their offices a number of years ago and it also housed the Trio Restaurant.  By the 60's, the space was converted to a retail boutique, then it became an antique store.  In the mid-70's, the-then owner put in a tavern - the Ballister Pub - before the original owner of Boozie's bought the business and named his bar after his cat.  

It was pretty sparse in terms of people in Boozie's that evening - Monday nights are usually not a hot time for many restaurants.  And coupled with the growing uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, not a lot of people were out and about.  Boozie's main floor dining/bar area was festooned with St. Patrick's Day banners and bling for the annual celebration that happened to be the next day.  However, the announcements that all bars and restaurants would be closed came the next morning and very few revelers were out and about before the bars were shut down at noon.  

We took a table on the walk-up level close to the front of the building.  Boozie's also has an upstairs dining/party area and I understand that they also have a small outdoor patio area attached to their building.  It has to be in back because Boozie's is locked in by other buildings on either side.  

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Kelly.  She gave us a couple menus to look over and also said they had $3.00 23-ounce domestic draws that evening as part of their happy hour.  Not one to pass up a good bargain, I took one of those.  My wife went with her usual Tito's Vodka and cranberry juice.  

As I said, Boozie's is famous for their eponymous burger which starts with a grilled 1/3 pound beef patty that's topped with three different types of cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mayo and a house-made sauce.  It's served on a sesame seeded bun with a side of your choice.  But Boozie's also has a number of other sandwiches on the menu including a reuben, either a grilled or breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, a cheesesteak sandwich, and a BLT.  They also have wraps and salads on the menu.  Appetizers such as chicken wings, fried pickles, mozzarella cheese sticks, nachos and Santa Fe-style egg rolls stuffed with smoked chicken, black beans, corn, and pepper jack cheese were available, as well.  

My wife was thinking about getting an appetizer and she proposed getting a basket of the fried cauliflower.  But, quite frankly, I didn't really want any deep-fried appetizers that evening.  She ended up ordering a cup of Boozie's baked potato soup.  It was a creamy concoction with chunks of potatoes in a thick butter/cream base.  Chopped green onions, bacon bits and shredded cheddar cheese garnished the top of the soup.  She thought it was very good.  In fact, my wife raved about how good the soup was.  After a bit, she ended up offering me a bite.  And I will say that it was pretty good - rich and hearty with that creamy/butter taste.  She seemed to like it better than I did, however.

We both ended up going with the Boozie Burger.  My wife got the pasta salad that she thought was very good.  She offered me a bite of the pasta salad and I sort of recoiled at the taste.  It had somewhat of a fishy taste to it - at least it did to me.  My wife thought I was nuts as she thought it was some of the best pasta salad she had ever tasted at a restaurant.  It did nothing for me and I'm glad I didn't order it for my side.  

My Boozie Burger came with basic crinkle-cut fries.  (Cottage cheese, sweet potato fries and cole slaw were the other options.  A few more sides were available for an upcharge.)  I knew I wouldn't be interested in the fries when I first saw them. Like my wife's burger, American cheese was melted over the top of the patty.  The sesame seeded bun was lightly grilled and the crown was slathered with mayo.  A pile of veggies came on the side of the burger platter.  

By the time I was finished putting on the veggies and some condiments, the burger was piled high.  And my first bite told me that this was a pretty good burger.  The patty was juicy and had a robust beef taste that wasn't overpowered with everything on top of it.  Multiple napkins were needed as the juice and cheese oozed with each bite.  The bun wasn't really up for the rigors of the juicy and cheesy nature of the burger - especially with the mayo and the house sauce (which I really couldn't taste) adding to the mess.  The bun sort of disintegrated about 3/4's of the way through me eating it.  It didn't hold up well.  

On this visit, our service was impeccable.  The burger was served to us less than 20 minutes after we ordered, and that may have been because my wife had ordered a cup of soup to start out giving her some time to enjoy the soup without the burger coming out way too early.  Nonetheless, Kelly's service was friendly and prompt.  

Since it had been over 20 years since the last time we'd been to Boozie's some things changed and others didn't.  The biggest change we noticed was that service was much more quick and friendly than the previous times we'd been there (and chose not to go back because of it).  But what stayed the same was the atmosphere and the taste of the Boozie Burger.  I can't call it the best burger in the Quad Cities - things like that are all so subjective - but I did think it was very good.  My wife raved about the house-made pasta salad and the baked potato soup.  Either my taster was off that evening or her tastes are vastly different from mine as I felt the pasta salad had a fishy taste to it and the potato soup was good, but not as good as she thought it was.  Nonetheless, for our first visit back to Boozie's in over 20 years, we decided that we could put them back into our rotation for weekend afternoon burger joints that we like to visit.  

PrimeBurger - Las Vegas

During our recent meetings out in Las Vegas, we had a couple hours to do lunch wherever we wanted.  Our meetings were at the Mirage and I wanted to go across the Strip to the Venetian and have a burger at a place that I liked called I 🖤 Burgers.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on I 🖤 Burgers.)  However, when I got over there, I found that that place was closed.  (Restaurants change so much in Vegas.)  However, another place at the Venetian that I remembered from a few years ago - PrimeBurger - was still there.  I made my way up the Venetian's Grand Canal Shoppes and stopped in at PrimeBurger.  

PrimeBurger is under the umbrella of the Fifth Avenue Restaurant Group, a corporation that runs a number of franchise-style restaurants in food courts at Las Vegas area hotels and shopping complexes.  Fifth Avenue's owner Frank Bonanno grew up in New Jersey and got his love for food and cooking by growing up in a large Italian-American family.  After getting a culinary degree from the Culinary Institute of America and working in a handful of restaurants, Frank signed up for the armed services during the height of the Vietnam War in the late 60's.  

After serving a 3-year stint in the U.S. Army rising to the rank of lieutenant, Frank ended up in California and got a job with food purveyor ARA Services (now Aramark).  After three or four years there, he found his way back to Fairfield, New Jersey - about 25 miles to the west of New York City - where he partnered with two other friends to deliver food to school districts in the area.  The partners contracted with schools to make the food, deliver it, and take care of any things on the backside.  It turned out that they would work as much as 90 hours a week during the school year, but Frank and his partners liked what they were doing.  

In 1976, Frank and his partners started a new business called Fairfield Foods and opened up a number of cookie shops at shopping malls up and down the east coast to the Midwest.  The partners didn't even think about franchising the restaurants and they ran each one as a company-owned location.  After growing to 75 locations by 1984, Fairfield Foods sold out to Randy and Debbi Fields, the owners of the rapidly growing Mrs. Fields Cookies chain that was similar in concept to their cookie store locations.

A year before selling out, the partners decided to look into doing something else "just for fun."  They had studied the market place for an ice cream franchise and determined that Häagen Dazs was the best one out there.  The group opened their first Häagen Dazs franchise in 1983.  In 1989, the group opened their first Nathan's Famous hot dog franchise in Florida where Frank had moved to a couple years earlier.

Pictured right - Frank Bonanno.  Photo courtesy Franchising.com.  

Frank and his wife Betty used to travel to Las Vegas for vacations and it was during his 1993 trip to Sin City that Frank saw an opportunity to put in one of his franchises in the newly opened MGM Grand.  He met with MGM officials and worked out an agreement to put a restaurant in the food court at the MGM Grand.  One food court restaurant became two, two became four, and it wasn't long before Frank had restaurants in many of the hotel/casino food courts up and down the Strip in Las Vegas - restaurants such as Bonnano's New York Pizzeria, Häagen Dazs, Original Chicken Tender, and New York Pretzel.  

By 2002, Frank had bought out his two partners and named his new corporation the Fifth Avenue Restaurant Group.  Bonanno opened his first Johnny Rockets in 2007, then opened his first full service restaurant - Trattoria Reggiano - at the Venetian in 2009.  By 2010, Bonnano's Fifth Avenue Restaurant Group was running all the restaurants in the food courts at many of the Strip hotels/casinos.   

In 2014, Bonanno was looking to get into the gourmet burger business and he closed down one of his Häagen Dazs locations in the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and turned it into PrimeBurger.  He named it after one of his favorite restaurants when he was growing up - the longtime and famous New York City burger joint Prime Burger which was right across 5th Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Prime Burger had closed in 2012 after a 74-year run.  PrimeBurger in Las Vegas opened in early 2015.  

During the last three or four years that I attended the Consumer Electronics Show, our company would show products in rooms at the Venetian.  I was sort of familiar with the food court at the Venetian, so I just followed the pathway through the casino and back toward the elevators that went up to the rooms.  Just before the elevator entrance are a couple of long escalators that take you up to the food court area.  After some maneuvering, I was able to find my way right to PrimeBurger.  (see map)   

PrimeBurger is not a very big space - it's just a bit over 1000 square feet.  It featured a small bar, a handful of booths and some tables interspersed in the middle of the small dining area.  A hostess greeted me as I walked up to the stand in front of the restaurant.  She asked me if I wanted to sit at the bar.  Now, "the bar" featured only a couple seats, maybe three.  But there was a flat screen television on the wall behind the bar that was tuned to CNN or something like that.  I thought about it for a moment, then said, "Sure!  I'll sit at the bar."

One of the young ladies who was working behind the bar what also double as a kitchen area greeted me as I sat down.  Her name was Isabella and I was given a food menu to look over.  I ordered up a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA that they had on the beer menu.  PrimeBurger also has a number of eclectic alcoholic milkshakes to choose from, too.   

Of course, burgers are the main feature on the menu.  There are 10 burgers that PrimeBurger offers including the "Big Scorcher" topped with pepper jack cheese, fried jalapeño slices, onion straws and a sriracha mayo; the "Hawaii Five-Ohhhh" burger had pineapple (naturally), onion relish, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and a teriyaki mayo on it; the "Frenchie" had Swiss and Gruyére cheese, frisee lettuce, grilled onions, an onion relish, Dijon mayo and topped with a fried egg; and the "Oink, Squeal and Moo" had a PrimeBurger patty topped with pulled pork, bacon, cheddar cheese, onion straws and finished with mayo and a barbecue sauce.  All burgers came with a choice of a brioche bun, a pretzel bun or a gluten-free bun.  

PrimeBurger also had a handful of non-burgers such as a grilled chicken sandwich, a grilled Mahi-Mahi sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich with onion straws and barbecue sauce, and a couple of vegan offerings including a Beyond Burger.  After 4 p.m. PrimeBurger also offered a filet mignon entree and a New York strip entree.  A number of salads - both as entrees or as sides - were available.  And appetizers such as Buffalo wings, a tower of panko-bread crumb-encrusted onion rings, and bacon-cheese fries were also on the menu.  

I ended up getting the "Fungus Humongous" burger - a PrimeBurger patty topped with a grilled portobello mushroom, Swiss cheese, grilled onions and mayo.  I got it with the toasted brioche bun.  I asked my server/bartender if the chef could leave off the grilled onions and add bacon to the burger.  She said that would be no problem.  (I like the taste of grilled onions, but I don't like what grilled onions do to me in their aftermath of eating them.)  But it was a problem, the chef didn't leave off the grilled onions.  Oh well.  At least the bacon made it on the burger.

The burger was thick and juicy with a slab of Swiss cheese melted over the top.  The bacon was quality bacon - none of that thin and cheap cut bacon that you can get at many restaurants.  And the portobello mushroom was sliced thick, marinated and lightly grilled.  The brioche bun was spongy, lightly toasted and held together very well with all the juiciness of the burger. It was an outstanding burger.

One thing that I did not get at PrimeBurger were their hand-cut crafter French fries.  Isabella was really pushing them hard, even saying, "They're very good.  Some people come in here just for the fries."  They're fried in peanut oil and I'm sure they're good, but all I needed was the burger that day.

While PrimeBurger isn't cheap, it's still a quality burger.  Along with a couple beers and a tip, it was nearly a $40 lunch.  (There's no such thing as cheap beer at any of the casino/hotels along the strip any longer.)  I thoroughly enjoyed the "Fungus Humongous" burger topped with a portobello mushroom, Swiss cheese with very good quality bacon added to the burger.  I've had a lot of very good burgers over the years in my travels to Las Vegas, and the one I had at PrimeBurger was not disappointing in the least.  Just expect to pay a premium for one.

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.  

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.  

Bourbons Bar & Grill - Coal Valley, IL

For awhile now, my wife and I have been on a quest to find a place that has a good burger along with a good selection of craft beers in the Quad Cities.  She had mentioned a place clear over in Coal Valley, a small community on the far southeast side of the Quad City area.  I read up on it and on a Sunday afternoon we headed over to Bourbons Bar & Grill.  

Troy and Shelly Shehorn lived in the Coal Valley area and loved to go to a neighborhood bar there called Headquarters.   Shelly was an accountant by trade and Troy was self-employed.  A few years ago, Headquarters went up for sale and the Shehorn's thought it would be fun to own the bar.  However, after weeks of negotiations, the deal fell through.  

But the Shehorn's always kept an eye on the property and when it became available for sale in the fall of October 2016, they didn't hesitate this time.  They knew they could do something with the little neighborhood bar in terms of food and drink, focusing on Troy's love for barbecue and bourbon.  But first they had to do some renovations.

The building, itself, dates back to the 1890's with the original tin ceiling still intact.  The Shehorn's brought in over 10 tons of stone for walls and accents, and they installed cedar panels for walls and trim around the stone walls.  They renovated the kitchen and bar area, a meat smoker was installed in the back, and they put up about a half-dozen large screen flat panel televisions around the place.  By March of 2018, Bourbons Bar & Grill was ready to open to the public.  

It was around 2 p.m. when we pulled up to Bourbons which is located near the corner of 1st Street and E. 22nd Ave. A in Coal Valley.  (see map)  We parked in front of the building, but there's ample parking off to the side.   From the outside, the building is pretty nondescript with a couple beer signs in the window.  But upon entering Bourbons, we found a cozy and inviting space that featured a number of tables in the center of the bar with a nice three-sided bar off to the side.  The combination of the lights from beer signs and the glow of the televisions with some accent lighting along the walls gave the bar a colorful glow.

We took a seat at a table toward the back of the dining area of the bar.  Our server that day - a pleasant and helpful lady by the name of Jane - came over to greet us and to drop off a couple menus.  They had a pretty good craft beer list and I saw that they had Kona Big Wave.  I asked Jane if their bloody mary's were good and she said, "Oh, yeah.  We load 'em up."  I ordered a Big Wave and a bloody mary.  The "packed" bloody mary featured a thick and zesty mix served in a salt-rimmed glass.  A skewer of green olives, pickles, salami and cubed cheese came on top of the bloody mary glass.  And it was a very good bloody mary.  My wife got her usual cranberry juice and Tito's vodka - light on the cranberry juice.  

The menu at Bourbons wasn't all that large, but most of the items they had sounded pretty interesting.  Appetizers included jalapeño poppers, fried portobello mushrooms, and fried avocado wedges which caught the eye of my wife.  They had sandwiches such as grilled or breaded pork tenderloins, and a grilled chicken sandwich topped with bacon and a house-made bourbon barbecue sauce.  They had four different burgers on the menu, along with fish and chips, chicken strips, and a four-piece broasted chicken dinner.  Pizzas (I understand they're Quad City-style, which we don't care for) and calzones are also available.  On Thursday night, they have barbecued rib dinners as a special.  

My wife wanted to try their pulled pork sandwich.  They smoke the pork shoulders at Bourbons with hickory and it's slow-cooked and shredded.   The barbecue pork is placed on a toasted brioche bun and topped with their house-made bourbon barbecue sauce, cole slaw and an onion ring.  She had a choice of sides that came with the sandwich which included French fries, seasoned waffle fries, bourbon baked beans, or cottage cheese.  She ended up getting the macaroni salad.  She thought the barbecue pulled pork sandwich was very good.  

Of course, I was looking to try one of their burgers and I ended up getting their mushroom burger.  For some reason, I thought that I would be getting sautéed mushrooms, but the menu said the burger was topped with fried mushrooms.  They were portobello mushroom strips, similar to the ones they serve as appetizers.  The burger patty was topped with provolone cheese and an aioli sauce.  I asked Jane if I could get some bacon on my burger and she said that it was no problem.  I also got a side of onion rings for a $1 dollar upcharge.  

I ended up taking the mushroom strips off the burger and just having it with the bacon and cheese. The burger was very good.  It was juicy and flavorful, and the bun held together well for what turned out to be a multiple-napkin burger.  The onion rings were pretty good as well.  They had an abundance of beer-batter on them - almost too much, even if you like beer-battered onion rings - and I found them to be a little too salty for my taste.  

A few weeks after our first trip to Bourbons, my wife's son came to visit us on a Sunday.  He had just come back from Cincinnati for a factory training session he took part in, and he was telling us that the factory guys took the group out to a couple bourbon bars in Newport, KY, just across the river from Cincinnati.  We were telling him about Bourbons in Coal Valley and he is much more into bourbons than my wife and I are.  But he was intrigued enough that we took him over there for lunch.  

On this visit, he got to look at the over 120 different bourbons that they offer at Bourbons Bar & Grill.  In fact, we had a nice conversation with Shelly Shehorn about her husband's love for bourbon, the trips they have taken that have centered on bourbon-centric bars and restaurants, and she compared notes with my step-son on the more expensive bourbons that are out there.  Once again, I'm not well-versed on bourbons at all, but my step-son was telling her about a Pappy Van Winkle bourbon that one of the places across the river from Cincinnati he went to had for $500 a shot.  Shelly Shehorn said that she was familiar with that bourbon, but they didn't have that particular liquor at their bar.  "We're working up to it, though," she told us.  "We're slowly getting the reputation for good bourbons and we're starting to become a destination for some bourbon lovers."  She said that the highest priced bourbon they have is about $80 bucks a shot.

We've found some pretty good places over in the Illinois Quad Cities over the past few months that have good burgers, a good craft beer list, and good bloody mary's.  I'd have to put Bourbons Bar & Grill toward the top of that list.  The only problem is that it's about a 20 minute drive for us, and with the I-74 bridge work going on, it's even longer to cross the river to go back home.   But to us, it's worth the drive.  The atmosphere is cozy and comfortable, the service that we've experienced on our visits has alway been friendly and folksy, and the food is interesting and a step or two above your typical bar food in taste and quality.  I wish Bourbons was a lot closer to our house because it would be the kind of place where I'd like to hang out.   

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.  

A Return to the Rusty Duck - Dexter, IA

During our vacation on Lake Panorama where we spent a few days at my sister's fiancé's lake house, my sister and her fiancé came out to join us for the weekend.  We were trying to figure out dinner options on a Saturday evening and my sister's fiancé brought up The Rusty Duck.  He was amazed when I told him that I'd been to the Rusty Duck before, but it had been a few years since I was there.  My sister had never been to The Rusty Duck and my wife, of course, had never been there before either.  Both women were sort of excited as my sister's fiancé and I were comparing notes on the place.  I asked him how far a drive it was to Dexter and he said it was about 15 to 20 minutes.  That's nothing for those two as they'll sometime drive an hour one way for food when they're staying out at the lake.  Later that evening, we jumped in his truck and headed down the road toward Dexter and The Rusty Duck.  

The Rusty Duck won the 2011 Best Burger in Iowa contest that is sponsored annually by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  Once they were named, I made it a goal to stop there on my way to Omaha to give the burger a try.  However, the first time I went there, it turned out I was too early as they opened at 5 p.m.  And the second time I stopped, well, it turned out that they're closed on Monday (and Sunday).  When I finally got there to try the burger, I was somewhat amazed at how good it was.  (Click here to read about my 2012 visit to The Rusty Duck.)  

Brad Waldron (pictured at right) started The Rusty Duck about 15 years ago, but his restaurant career spans over 30 years now dating back to when he was a busboy at a now-closed Italian restaurant in Des Moines.  Waldron also had a burger-centric place in West Des Moines that I really liked called BW Burgers.  (Click here to read the Road Tips entry on BW Burgers.)  Unfortunately, Waldron - along with his son, Brandon, who ran the place for his father - were forced to close down BW Burgers in 2018 after three years in business when their lease was up, coupled with the lack of being able to find good help in the very tight Des Moines hospitality job market.  

Waldron went back to focusing on The Rusty Duck as he's the grill chef at the place which features steaks, the award-winning burgers, grilled pork loins, sautéed seafood entrees, pan-fried or grilled chicken dishes, pasta offerings, and a number of salads and steakhouse-style appetizers.   On nights The Rusty Duck is open you can catch glimpses of him through a small service window between the bar and kitchen working at the grill. 

As my sister's fiancé said, it was less than a 20 minute drive from the lake down to Dexter.  As we came into town from the north, we turned to the east and my sister exclaimed, "Oh my god!  This is where Drew's Chocolates are!  I've been here before!"  My wife and I were not familiar with Drew's Chocolates and my sister said that she used to stop there on the way out to Omaha years and years ago to pick up some of their chocolates.  Unfortunately, they were closed so we couldn't stop in to see what she was raving about.  

We pulled up in front of The Rusty Duck and parked just across the street.  (see map)  From the front of the place, well, it looks a little shabby.  It's not what you might expect from a popular Iowa steakhouse.  But inside, it's nice and cozy.  The low-ceilinged restaurant is L-shaped with the bar to the left as you come in.  Wood-paneled walls gave it a much more elegant look than the front of the building.  

We put our name in with the hostess and she said that it would be a bit of a wait for a table.  But as we were getting settled in to order a drink at the bar, she caught our attention and said that she had a table in front of the rock-mantled fire place.   The hostess gave us menus to look over, and after a bit a young lady came over to take our drinks order.  

One of the first things we had to get were the onion rings.  I saw another table with a big plate of them and I thought they looked good.  And they were.  Deep-fried in a light and flaky beer-battered coating, the onion rings at The Rusty Duck rivaled the onion rings of many other small town steakhouses I remember going to years ago.  We munched on those before we got our meals.

Now, my sister just loves chicken livers.  She said that she fell in love with chicken livers when she was working at a restaurant years ago.   And she says that finding chicken livers on a menu are tough to find.  (Her fiancé works for a company where one of their businesses deals with agricultural management and he said that the reason chicken livers are so hard to find is that companies will buy them up with other chicken parts to make pet food out of them.)  My sister was giddy when they brought them to the table.  They were big pieces of deep-fried liver and she decided after a couple that she was just going to have them as her dinner that evening.   

My wife had steak the night before and she was up for steak again this night.  She got the Italian ribeye, a 16-ounce ribeye marinated in Italian dressing, grilled and sprinkled with Italian seasonings.  She got sautéed mushrooms on the side with the steak and a rice pilaf.  It was a huge steak.  Before she cut into it, she said, "This may have been a mistake.  This is almost too much meat for me two nights in a row."  But she tore into it and said it was delicious.  She couldn't eat the whole thing and didn't take the rest with her.  "I already have a steak in the fridge to take home with me," she told our waitress.  

When comparing notes with my sister's fiancé before we got to The Rusty Duck, I was raving about the burger while he was raving about the steak.  He had to try the Ultimate Cheeseburger - the one that got the Best Burger in Iowa award in 2011.  Brad Waldron grinds pieces of beef that he cuts off of his steaks and uses that for The Rusty Duck's burgers.   The Ultimate Burger is 14 ounces and topped with grilled onions and peppers, mushrooms, American cheese and bacon.   It's a messy burger, but it's a good tasting mess.  He was really glad that I spoke so highly of it or he wouldn't have ordered it.  

While my sister's fiancé had never had the burger at The Rusty Duck before this, I never had the steak.  I got the 16 ounce rib-eye.  Onion rings came with the ribeye and had I known that I could get onion rings on the side, I probably wouldn't have ordered them as an appetizer.   I ordered the ribeye medium-rare and it came out cooked perfectly.  I made a huge dent in the steak, but there were a couple corners left when I finally threw in the towel.  It was a great cut of meat that was cooked to perfection.  

About the only quibble I had all evening is that our waitress was a little slow on the switch.  It had been busy earlier, but the crowd had thinned out considerably by the time we got our food.  I had asked for another beer and my sister got another drink.  The waitress brought my sister's drink out, but neglected to get my beer to me.  I saw it sitting on the bar and I almost went up to get it before she came back and I said something about it.  I also asked for some fresh ground horseradish and she put the order in with the kitchen.  I saw the small container up on the ledge by the grill, but she didn't bring it to me.  My steak was well over half-way finished before she finally realized the horseradish was sitting there.

But other than the small hiccups in service, I was still impressed enough with my second visit to The Rusty Duck.  The ribeye I had was thick, juicy and full of a great grilled beef flavor.  Everyone in our little party was more than happy with their food choices.   My sister was absolutely thrilled that A) they had chicken livers at The Rusty Duck; and B) they were excellent.  Her fiancé was more than impressed with their huge Ultimate Cheese burger.  And my wife really enjoyed her Italian ribeye.  The Rusty Duck ain't much to look at from the outside, but it's a nice little place on the inside with some great food.  

Ruby's Pub and Grill - Stuart, IA

My wife and I spent a few days in August at Lake Panorama, a large private association property about an hour's drive west of Des Moines.  My sister's fiancee was gracious enough to allow us to hole up in his lake home and we just chilled for three or four days.  One day was rainy and there wasn't much to do or go see, so we decided to go have lunch somewhere.  I had been told awhile back by Jim Zimmerline, the owner of Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair, IA, about a good burger place in Stuart, IA.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Zipp's Pizzaria.) It turned out that we were about a 15 minute drive from Stuart and we ended up heading to Ruby's Pub and Grill for a burger and some beers.  

The Ruby behind Ruby's Pub is Ruby Waltz who owned the place - known as the Waltz Inn, but everyone referred to the place as "Ruby's" - for 56 years.  She retired in 2013 at the age of 86, selling her bar to Cindy and Devon Wright who officially changed the name of the place to Ruby's Pub. (Thanks to Shonna Wolfe for that info.)  The Wright's, in turn, sold Ruby's to local resident Nate Westre who, after a couple years of ownership, decided to put in a kitchen.  Westre enlisted the help of Jim Zimmerline for both kitchen equipment and help with a menu.  Westre opened the kitchen at Ruby's Pub in September of 2016.  

Westre ended up selling the business about a year later to another local Stuart resident, Austin Vanlandingham.  Vanlandingham had the place for about 18 months before he ended up selling the place to two local ladies - Misty Beane and Jaime Shoesmith.  

The two ladies basically shut down Ruby's for a period of time to spruce the place up - giving it a woman's touch, so to speak - and they upgraded the kitchen equipment allowing for an expanded menu.  With the new decor and equipment in place, Beane and Shoesmith - with the help of their friend Donald Teague - re-opened Ruby's Pub on June 1 of this year.  

We pulled up to Ruby's Pub along NE 2nd Street in the downtown area of Stuart.  (see map)   Upon entering the restaurant, we found a bar with a tin corrugated panels on the front, a number of high top tables along the opposite wall, and shorter four-seater tables in the middle.  Historical pictures of Stuart were on the brick wall opposite the bar above tin corrugated wainscoting.  Interestingly, there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.  We got in there about 2 p.m. and it was sort of quiet.  For a small town bar, it was a clean little place.  

We took a seat at one of the high-top tables along the wall and a lady by the name of Amanda came over with a couple menus for us.  I told her that I had heard that Ruby's had great burgers.  "Oh, yeah," Amanda asked back.  "Who told you that?"  When I told her that it was Jim Zimmerline from Zipp's Pizzaria, she laughed and said, "Zipp's my cousin!"  She asked us what we wanted to drink and I noticed that they had the Easy Eddie Hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA.  I got one of those and my wife got a cranberry and vodka - "Light on the cranberry," she told Amanda.   She was definitely on vacation.

In addition to burgers, Ruby's has sandwiches and appetizers.  They also serve pizzas from Zipp's Pizzaria that Jim Zimmerline freezes and delivers to Ruby's.  Lunch and nightly specials exist through the week.  And a number of kids items are available at Ruby's, as well.  

My wife and I both ordered cheeseburgers - she got the regular cheeseburger with fries, I got the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings that Amanda talked me into.  The burgers were flat-grilled and placed upon a lightly grilled bun that was light and spongy.  Thick American cheese was melted over the patties and the burgers were garnished with thick-cut dill pickle slices, sliced onions and tomatoes, and finished with a fresh lettuce leaf.  

My burger was fantastic.  It was thick, juicy and had a great burger taste.  The fresh veggie garnish gave the burger a wonderful flavor accompaniment.   The juiciness of the burger made for a multi-napkin situation.  But the bun held together very well - a sign of a very good burger.  

My wife thought her burger was equally delicious.  "This was worth the trip," my wife said before she took another bite of her burger.  

However, Amanda oversold me on the onion rings.  They were available for an upcharge, but they were basically a throw away.  The fries were just all right, but they were better than the onion rings.  The burgers were big enough to make us forget about the so-so sides we ordered.

I was told Ruby's Pub had a very good burger and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Everything about the burger - from the robust tasting and juicy beef patty, to the fresh veggie garnishes they put on the burger, to the light and spongy bun that held up very well.  They had a surprisingly good selection of local craft beers, but the fries and onion rings we had were basically throw-aways.  Amanda's service was prompt, friendly and efficient with a side of sass thrown in.  For a small town Iowa bar, Ruby's was a nice place.  If you're traveling between Des Moines and Omaha, and it's around lunch time - or even dinner time - get off I-80 at the Stuart exit, head north into the downtown and have a burger at Ruby's. 

City Limits - Rock Island, IL

My wife and I have been on a search for bars in and around the greater Quad Cities area that have good burgers and sandwiches.  A place I had been to a number of years ago, but I hadn't been to with my wife is City Limits Saloon & Grill in Rock Island.  On a warm Saturday afternoon earlier this summer, we made the trek over to City Limits so I could reacquaint myself with the place.  

The origins of City Limits date back to World War II when the Green Forest Tavern opened on the far south side of Rock Island, just north of Milan, IL.  The restaurant went through an ownership change - as well as a name change to "Dickie Joe's" - in the 50's before brothers Bob and Carl Anderson bought the place in 1961.  The Anderson brothers changed the name back to the original Green Forest Tavern and the two brothers co-ran the small bar until Bob bought out Carl in 1972.  

Bob Anderson, Jr. joined his father in the business in 1979, and a year later the Anderson's petitioned the state of Illinois to change the name to City Limits Saloon.  Up until then, it was against Illinois law to have the term "saloon" in the title of a business that sold alcoholic beverages.  But the place looked like an old west saloon, complete with swinging doors and deer heads mounted on the walls.  A year later, they put in a small grill and added that to the name to become City Limits Saloon and Grill.  

Bob Anderson, Jr. eventually bought the business from his father in 1993, but just two years later a fire destroyed much of the interior of the bar & grill.  Determined to keep the business going, Anderson rebuilt and renovated the interior of the place and added a full kitchen to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week.  A 600 square foot addition added more than four times the original seating in 1999, but a kitchen renovation along with  large addition including a back porch in 2011 gave City Limits its current 132 seat capacity inside with an additional 32 seats on the outdoor porch.   

City Limits is sort of set back behind a gas station just off Highway 67 near its intersection with Illinois Highway 5 on Rock Island's southwest side.  (see map)  There's a large parking lot on three sides of the building and we parked in what I deemed is the back of the building.  Going in the doors off the porch, we encountered the large dining area that was added about 8 years ago.  I had not been in the place since this room had been added on.  It was a nice room, nothing fancy.  But it was well-lit and had an openness to the room.

The bar area is just past the back dining room and features more of a cozy, club-like atmosphere.  There was a small after-lunch crowd in the place and we were greeted in the bar area by a server who asked where we would like to sit.

It was really the first warm and sunny weekend of the summer when we were at City Limits that day and my wife said she thought she'd like to sit out back on the porch.  The server - a very pleasant and friendly young lady by the name of Aleah - said, "Sure!  I love to serve people out on the patio!"  She led us back out to the back porch and dropped off a couple menus for us to look through.  She was a very accommodating server and gave us some good recommendations during our visit.  My wife liked her very much.

They had a number of craft beers listed on a chalk board in the bar area and I made a mental note of some of them.  I told Aleah that I'd take a pale ale they had listed, but she came out a little later to say that they were out of that beer.  She came out with a beer list and I saw another one that I'd like to have.  She went in to get that for me and came back out moments later with a forlorn look on her face.  "We're out of that, too," she said apologetically.  I just decided to cut my losses and ordered a light domestic as I figured that they had to have that.  

My wife was looking through the appetizers on the menu and she saw something that really caught her eye - the portabella mushroom planks.  They took large portobello mushrooms and cut them in strips, then they were breaded and deep-fried.  A half-pound came in a basket and were served with a side of ranch dressing.  Oh, man!  Were they great!  And they were also very rich.  But I was a little shocked with the cost - $12 bucks!  I didn't realize they were that expensive until I went to pay the bill.  My wife felt bad about it because she didn't really notice the price before she ordered them, either.   And because they were so rich, we left a number of planks in the basket.  Three or four people could easily share the portobello mushroom planks. 

They have a number of burgers on the menu at City Limits including a number of specialty burgers made from chopped steak.  The Green Bay burger was topped with cheese, beer-caramelized onions and sauerkraut, then finished off with cheese curds.   The Brooklyn burger consisted of their chopped steak burger on grilled rye bread, topped with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, corned beef and a Thousand Island dressing.  And for the big appetite, the Viking burger featured two chopped steak patties topped with both cheddar and Swiss cheese, a honey mustard dressing, and finished off on top with onion rings and bacon on a pretzel bun.

My wife was looking at the sandwiches and wraps section of the menu more than the burgers.  They had a number of your typical sandwiches - a reuben, a breaded pork tenderloin, and a turkey club.  They also had their "Ultimate" grilled cheese sandwich featuring three different types of cheese along with bacon strips and sautéed tomato slices on parmesan-encrusted bread.  City Limits signature sandwich is the "Outer Limits" - an unbreaded pork loin that is liberally seasoned with an in-house blend of spices, then grilled and topped with bacon strips and cheddar cheese.  

My wife opted for the spinach artichoke grilled chicken sandwich without the bun.  It was topped with Swiss cheese, a tomato slice and a spinach artichoke sauce.  It was served on a bed of lettuce and, somewhat surprisingly to me, my wife got a side of the tater tots.  She rarely orders tater tots when we're out.  Fries, seasoned chips, potato salad, cole slaw and onion rings were also available for some of their sides.

On my initial visit to City Limits a number of years ago, I got the tuna melt sandwich which I thought was very good.  However, on this visit I decided to build my own burger and I went with my usual bacon, mushroom and cheese burger.  Only on this burger I got pepper jack cheese instead of my normal choice of Swiss cheese, and they had sautéed portobello mushrooms instead of the regular sliced mushrooms.  After asking Aleah about the onion rings (she said she thought the tater tots were better), I also got a side of the tots and I asked Aleah if she could bring out some Cholula hot sauce to put on the tots.  

My wife thought her grilled chicken breast was very good.  It was cooked perfectly and was juicy and flavorful.  She was happy she got it without the bun considering she was still munching on the portobello planks.  Along with a few tots, she was pretty full after finishing most of the breast.  

My burger was, in a word, outstanding.  It was juicy and gooey - a multi-napkin burger in its grandest form.  The pepper jack cheese wasn't overpowering, the bacon was a nice complement, but the sautéed portobello mushrooms were a great taste combination with the burger.  The lettuce leaf and a slice of red onion helped round out the wonderful taste of the burger.  The bun was lightly grilled and never was in danger of falling apart from all the juice coming from the beef patty.  

We may have a new leader in the clubhouse in our quest to find a great bar burger in the greater Quad Cities area.  The burger at City Limits was one of the better ones I've experienced in the area and my wife was impressed with the taste and quality of her grilled chicken breast.  Two quibbles, however.  We thought it was a tad expensive - especially the $12 portobello planks appetizer.  And I was a little miffed by the lack of the craft beers that they showed on the menu, but didn't actually have.  But the food, the great service, and the comfort of eating on the back porch on a warm day more than made up for those minor transgressions.  We really liked City Limits, but we also wished it wasn't so far of a drive from our home.  

The Depot - Donahue, IA

The lady who cuts my hair has been telling me about a place up in the small town of Donahue (population approximately 350 - and that may be stretching it) located north and west of Davenport that has some pretty good food.  Her daughter has been a server there off and on during her years at North Scott High School and she always talked glowingly about the food out there.  On a rainy Sunday earlier this year, my wife and I set out to go out the this place called The Depot.  

The building that houses The Depot was exactly that at one time.  The building served as Donahue's train depot in the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  It was then when the Keppy family - who had been running the general store in Donahue since 1883 - took over the building for their business.  The Keppy General Store was the central gathering place for people in and around Donahue for years.  The place sold everything from leather shoes and rubber galoshes, smoked cod and penny candy, and bicycles and shotgun shells.  People could buy coal from the basement in Keppy's General Store.  The original Donahue Savings Bank was located in the front of the store back in the 1930's, and up until a few months before third generation owners David and Charlotte "Chuck" Keppy closed the store in 1992, they ran a regular egg route for people around northern Scott County.  

Sam Fentress and his wife, Penny Callison, always liked to cook.  Fentress cooked for the Davenport Fire Department for years, while Penny was a wonderful cook on her own.  Both liked to use locally grown produce for their dishes and they thought they could translate their love for cooking into a restaurant.  They found that the former depot/general store in Donahue was available and there wasn't really a sit-down eatery for miles around.  They didn't necessarily want to have a bar that served bar food, but more of a fresh ingredient restaurant that just happened to have a bar.  Fentress and Callison bought the building in 2013, and after some renovations they opened The Depot in 2014.  In one of the corners of the restaurant, they added home supplies, snacks and treats as a nod to the original Keppy General Store.  

It was just starting to rain heavily when we pulled up to The Depot in Donahue.  (see map)  We walked into the place to find a combination bar area/dining room that featured a number of railroad-type paraphernalia with nearly a dozen flat screen televisions around the room.  There were a number of low-top tables with banquette seating along the wall with high-top tables in the middle.  

The bar area featured a wood and mirrored back wall with five flat screen televisions mounted at the top.  I immediately thought this would be a great place to come to for a football or basketball Saturday or Sunday with multiple games going on at the same time.  The place was clean and very comfortable.  

Behind the dining area was an addition that is used for parties or overflow dining.  It featured both wood and brick walls with pine supports in the middle of the room.  A large garage door opened to the outside for larger gatherings.  It appeared that there had been a party in there the night before as there were still remnants of cookers, party tables and a few decorations left over.  But it was still a pretty nice area for a reception or gathering.  

My wife and I sat at a high-top table in the center of the main dining area and one of the young ladies who were serving that day gave us a couple menus to look over.  They had a small selection of craft beers on tap, but they did have the Big Grove Easy Eddie Hazy IPA that I've grown fond of over the past few months.  

As I said, owners Fentress and Callison are into fresh ingredients for their food and they try to source many of the items locally.  Main entrees include a pot roast dinner, a meat loaf plate, and a country fried steak meal.  They have a number of sandwiches and burgers on the menu - or you can "build-your-own" if you like.  Appetizers include the regulars - chicken wings (bone-in or boneless), nachos, beer-battered mushrooms, and something called "Railroad Ties" that are potato wedges topped with bacon bits and a cheese sauce.  They serve a full breakfast at The Depot on Saturday morning from 9 to 11 a.m., and they also have a Hispanic lady by the name of Sofia who works in the kitchen who has come up with special Mexican food entrees on some nights.  (The lady who cuts my hair says the Mexican nights at The Depot are "to die for".)  

I had pretty much zoned in on one thing - the "build-your-own" burger.  I went with my standard burger with sautéed mushrooms, pepper jack cheese and bacon.  They have onion rolls available with the burgers at The Depot, so I put the burger on that.  The burger featured a 1/3 pound flat-grilled patty and the onion roll was lightly toasted.  I also got a side of their onion rings to go along with the burger. 

My wife ended up getting the cilantro lime sandwich without the bun.  The chicken sandwich came with two slices of bacon, pepper jack cheese, deep-fried avocado slices and was topped with a chipotle mayo sauce.   For her side she got The Depot's unique deviled egg that they've become somewhat famous for.  I gave her one of my onion rings so she could try it out.  She absolutely loved her grilled chicken breast.  She especially loved the fried avocado slices on top.  It was a lot for her to eat and it was a pretty large and rich-tasting serving.  

I really enjoyed my burger.  It was juicy and flavorful, and the beef was good enough that the toppings didn't mask the full taste of the beef patty.  The onion bun held together with all that was going on with the burger.  It was nice and soft, just as I like my burger buns.  The onion rings also weren't that bad.  I don't think they were made in-house, but they were still pretty good.  I think one of the reasons why my wife had trouble finishing her grilled chicken breast was that she ate about half of my onion rings.  But I was fine with that - I was concentrating on the burger. 

We lingered a little longer than we wanted because there were torrential rains coming down outside.  That was no problem with us as I grabbed another Big Grove Easy Eddie and we watched baseball on one of the televisions while we waited for the rain to let up.  On the way home, we ran into areas where creeks had overflowed into farm fields from the heavy rains.  But that was the story of our spring in Eastern Iowa - we had a lot of rain and the fields were pretty much saturated by that time.  

My wife and I love finding little places out in the middle of nowhere like The Depot.  It's a bit of a haul from out house - about a 25 minute drive - but it was worth it to finally get out there to try the place out.  I enjoyed my burger and my wife thoroughly liked her cilantro lime chicken breast with the fried avocados.  They seemed to have an extensive enough menu for anyone to find something they liked, but their craft beer selection was pretty limited.  The service was good and friendly, the place was clean and welcoming, and this is a place that we'll definitely be back to at some point.  We really want to try their Mexican nights sometime and we've subscribed to their Facebook page so we can find out when they'll have them.  

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. 

Flannigan's - Coralville, IA

I have some old friends from my time at the University of Iowa that I get together with to grab a burger or sandwich, drink some beer, talk sports and man-gossip, as well as trying to solve all the world's problems over a two hour period three or four times a year.  We've been doing this for years and we had been meeting at a number of different places in the greater Iowa City/Coralville area.  But about three or four years ago, we settled in for our quad-annual gatherings at Flannigan's in Coralville, IA.  One of my friends said, "You know, you should write this place up on your blog."  And he was right.  Flannigan's did deserve a write-up in Road Tips.  

Flannigan's is the bar area for the venerable Iowa River Power Company located next to the Iowa River at the corner of First Avenue and 5th Street in Coralville.  (see map)  Housed in a building that dates back to the turn of the 20th century, the Iowa River Power Company was exactly that for a number of years.  The original dam and building were built in the mid-1840's as a grist mill.  For over 50 years, the mill churned out flour until a fateful day in 1899 when an explosion killed three workers and demolished the building.  The dam was still intact and local officials looked at using the site as a new hydroelectric power plant.  The building was quickly rebuilt and it began to power parts of Iowa City by 1902.   

The power plant was closed in 1968, but the dam remained - and does so to this day.   The building stood empty for about eight years before three local businessmen - Allan Johnson, David Koenig, and Gary Huysman bought the building and surrounding land in 1976.  They renovated the building into a restaurant concept with a great view of the Iowa River and opened the doors in October of 1977.  It quickly became the top restaurant in the Iowa City/Coralville area.  (Although some people may argue that The Lark in nearby Tiffin was the best in the area when it was still in business.)  

In 1988, Huysman and another partner, John Fisher, bought out the financial interests in the restaurant from Johnson and Koenig.  They did a renovation to the restaurant and added on to the main dining room.  By 1996, Fisher had left and Huysman had become the sole owner running the restaurant until declining health forced him to sell the place in 2002.  A young couple by the name of David and Danise Petsel who were running a restaurant in the Quad Cities bought the restaurant and implemented a few changes - including eventually turning the old lounge area into Flannigan's, an Irish-themed bar that, to me, doesn't really seem much like an Irish bar, but more like an upscale sports bar.

The lounge at the Iowa River Power Company was well-known as a haunt for many of the more high profile people in the Iowa City area during my years at the University of Iowa in the early-to-mid 80's.  I'll admit that poured back a few beers in the lounge a few times when I was going to Iowa when I didn't feel like "slumming" in some of my preferred drinking holes such as the Deadwood, Mumm's or The Vine.  It was probably the most classy bar in Iowa City in its hey-day.   

These days, it's sort of more homey than classy in Flannigan's.  After entering the main entrance to the building, you go down a hallway lined with a curious mix of portraits of famous people - like Abraham Lincoln, Clark Gable and Gene Kelly - hung on barn board walls to the inside entrance of Flannigan's.

The restaurant, itself, is big and open with a nice bar area, a step-up level along the walls with booths, and a step-up level in the back with low-top tables.  A D.J. booth is set up in the corner of the back area, but I'm not certain they have any dance music playing there any longer.  As I said, there isn't much of an indication that it's an Irish bar other than the name as there are a number of televisions throughout the place tuned to sporting events.  

Service is always prompt, but very laid back at Flannigan's.  After we got our menus, we ordered up a round of beers.  They have the usual domestic beers on tap as well as a smattering of imports and craft beers available.  The servers that we've had over the years - both young men or women - have always been easy-going in their demeanor and are more than amenable to changing something or adding something to the food orders.  

Most of the food on the menu consists of your standard bar fare - a long list of appetizers including fried pickle spears, chicken wings, jalapeño poppers, and a spinach-artichoke dip with chips are the first things you'll find on the menu.  Sandwiches, burgers, wraps and salads are also a main part of the menu items.  Entrees such as pasta dishes, a top sirloin steak, and a grilled tuna fillet with balsamic vinegar are also on the menu.  But for a more upscale menu, you'll need to go next door to the Power Company.  

The first time that I ate at Flannigan's, I had their Flanburger - a half-pound open flame grilled burger that starts at $8.95 for a basic burger.  From there, you can add cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, or a fried egg for an upcharge.  Fries, chips or a baked potato come at no charge as a side, but I always get the onion rings, also for an upcharge.     

Quite honestly, the only thing I've ever ordered at Flannigan's over the past few visits over the last four or five years has been the Flanburger.   It also comes with lettuce, a tomato slice, dill pickles and sliced red onions that are all very fresh.  The bun is light and airy, but stays together very well with everything going on the burger.  It's definitely a multi-napkin burger.  

We all pretty much get the same thing on our visits - the Flanburger.   Oh, maybe once in a while someone in our group has ordered a reuben or a pork tenderloin sandwich, but I honestly can't pinpoint when that would have been. The Flanburger at Flannigan's is thick and flavorful with the Swiss cheese I usually get oozing off the top of the patty with each bite.  The beef is so good with that chargrilled flavor that all the toppings and condiments don't overpower the beef flavor.  

And I like their onion rings at Flannigan's, too.  They have a rich and thick coating over wide-cut onion rings that just seem to melt in your mouth.  They're some of the better onion rings I've come across in my travels.  

There's a lot of good burger joints in the Iowa City/Coralville area, but I'll have to say that - by far - the most underrated of them all is Flannigan's.  I'd put their Flanburger up against all comers in town, I think it's just that good.  But there's other things about Flannigan's that keep us coming back - the good, but laid-back service; the cozy and homey feeling of the place; the good beer selection; and a pretty varied menu that I've never strayed from my choice of their burger on each of my visits.  I always look forward to our group getting together 3 or 4 times a year at Flannigan's, not only for the camaraderie, but for the great Flanburger and onion rings they have.

Big Lug Canteen - Indianapolis

Out in Indianapolis earlier this spring, I was looking for a place where I could get a burger and a craft beer.  I happened to encounter a place that was tucked back in a strip mall near the hotel I was staying at, a place called Big Lug Canteen.  The name sounded interesting enough that I had to check it out.  

Ed Sahm is well-known around Indianapolis for many of his eponymous named restaurants in the area.  He opened his first restaurant in north suburban Fishers in 1986 (click here to read the Road Tips entry on Sahm's Restaurant in Fishers) and branched out to other locations around the city from then on.  In 2009, he was joined in the business by his son, Eddie, who focused on developing new ventures for the family's business.  (Today, the Sahm's operate 15 various themed restaurants in the greater Indianapolis area.)   

The Snooty Fox was a longtime English-style pub on the north side of Indianapolis.  It had fallen on hard times and in 2010 the owners agreed to be part of a makeover by the reality television program Restaurant Impossible.  The menu and decor were changed to be more like an English pub, but it became apparent after the makeover that the restaurant wasn't going to make it.  The owners closed the Snooty Fox in October of 2011 after 29 years of business.  The Sahm's took over the building about three years later and announced they would be putting in a brew pub/pizza place in the space that Snooty Fox vacated.  The second location of Sahm's pizza venture - Rockstone Pizza - and the new brewpub Big Lug Canteen opened side-by-side in October of 2017.  

The brewpub became a popular destination, but things weren't working out too well for the pizza place.  People who came in were looking for more than just pizza out of that location.  In the summer of 2017, the Sahm's revamped the Rockstone Pizza side of the business into Sahm's Ale House, a somewhat upscale craft brewpub with a more eclectic menu of food to choose from.  It seems to be working as when I was heading into Big Lug Canteen, I took a peek inside the alehouse to see the place nearly full that particular evening.  

Big Lug Canteen is located along E. 86th Street on the north side of Indianapolis, just west of Westfield Boulevard.  (see map)  It is located right next to the popular Monon Trail bike and recreation path that runs just over 18 miles from downtown Indianapolis to the far northern suburb of Sheridan.  Behind both Big Lug Canteen and Sahm's Ale House, there is a large outdoor patio that caters to the riders and walkers who use the path in the warmer months

The outside of Big Lug Canteen was a little confusing to me - it's a building with a metal facade and bright red accents around the front door entry way.  It didn't really look like a functioning business, let alone a brewpub.  But upon entering the place, I found a small, but lively spot with two levels.  Most of the patrons that evening where one the main level, but there were a few people hanging out at the upstairs bar area when I roamed around the place after I finished my meal.  The upstairs had many more televisions hanging from the walls than the downstairs space.  

The upstairs bar was much larger than the one on the main level, but I was able to find room at the downstairs bar.  One of the bartenders that evening came over with a food menu for me and I also took a look at the beer list to see what they had to offer.  It was a short list with just three full-time "house" beers on tap with another 7 or 8 rotating brews they offered.  They also had some guest brews on tap and I got a Wooden Tooth IPA that they had that evening.  

The food offerings at Big Lug Canteen were pretty basic for a brewpub.  They had an assorted selection of hoagie-style sandwiches, a half-dozen poutine dishes, small dishes including tacos or wings, a large selection of salad plates, and handful of burgers and sandwiches - available either in full size or slider-sized options.  For the health conscious and vegans in the crowd, Big Lug Canteen also had Impossible Burgers available for a $4 up-charge.  

I really didn't know what I wanted to get.  I almost pulled the trigger on the pork poutine - traditional Quebec-style poutine with fries, cheese curds, gravy and some pork belly mixed in - but I just wasn't feeling it that evening.  Really, none of the hoagies appealed to me, nor was I wanting a salad with a choice of chicken (grilled or Nashville hot), salmon or tuna and egg salad.  I was really in a food funk that evening.

I ended up getting one of the burgers they had on the menu, the Kevin Kline.  (The venerable actor Kline, who is one of my all-time favorite film performers, went to school at Indiana University in Bloomington before going on to study at Julliard in New York.)  The burger consisted of a Fischer Farms ground beef patty (no Impossible Burger for me) topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and American cheese finished with an herb mayo spread.  Sides were extra with the burger and I was sort of torn between two things - tater tots and a cup of their chili.  The bartender told me that their chili was outstanding, but the tater tots kept calling my name, as well.  In the end, I ended up getting both.  What the hell, huh?

The burger turned out to be pretty good.  The Fischer Farms beef was flavorful and really stood out amid all the toppings on the burger.  The lightly-toasted bun was soft, but not overly chewy, and held together very well.  It was a well-above average burger.  

The tater tots were fine - crispy on the outside and flaky inside.  The Cholula hot sauce that I poured on nearly every single tot helped kick up the taste.  And the bartender certainly didn't lie about the chili - it was excellent.  I got it loaded with corn chips, onions and sour cream, and I was somewhat sorry I didn't get TWO cups of the chili as I laid waste to the serving I had in a short amount of time.  

For the most part, I was happy with my visit to Big Lug Canteen.  Much of the food menu didn't appeal to me, and they seemed to have a somewhat short list of beers to choose from that evening, but that didn't really faze me all that much.  The burger I had was very good, the tater tots were also good, but the chili - I thought - was outstanding.  Big Lug Canteen is a nice little place, but if you're looking for a wider selection of both food and craft beers, you may want to try their sister restaurant - Sahm's Ale House - next door. 

Hy-Vee Market Grille - Davenport, IA

I've been sort of intrigued by these Hy-Vee Market Grille locations that have been popping up around the Upper Midwest over the last few years.  It's kind of an interesting concept - having a sit-down restaurant in a grocery store.  OK - it makes sense.  They can get the freshest ingredients from their meat and produce department.  But they also have a full bar with craft beers and specialty cocktails.  Now, I don't think of Hy-Vee as being a place where I'd go for dinner or to hang out for a beer or three.  But I'd heard that they had a very good burger at the Hy-Vee Market Grille.  And no matter how many times I'd suggested to my wife that we needed to go out to the Hy-Vee at 53rd and Utica Ridge on the northeast side of Davenport to try one of their burgers, she was less than enthusiastic with my proposal.  Finally, one weekday when I was home, I decided to head out there to try one of their burgers.  Without my wife.  

If you live in the states of Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota, you're very familiar with Hy-Vee grocery stores.  They are the largest grocery store chain in the Midwest with nearly 250 locations employing over 85,000 people with a combined annual sales total of over $10 billion.  The genesis of Hy-Vee began in the small town of Beaconsfield, IA in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, two men who owned a handful of small dry goods outlets in southern Iowa and northern Missouri.  The two combined over a dozen individually owned stores after the Great Depression into Supply Store locations with the town's name preceding the Supply Store title.  

In 1952, the company changed its name to Hy-Vee - a combination of the Hyde and Vredenburg names - and started a gradual expansion of both stores and services.  By the late 60's, under the leadership of co-founder David Vredenburg's son Dwight, Hy-Vee had grown to nearly 70 locations in Iowa and southern Minnesota.  But the company's serious growth spurt happened under President/CEO/Chairman of the Board Ron Pearson.  Pearson oversaw the operations of the grocery chain as they had expanded into more states and became the second largest employee-owned company in the U.S.  Stores of over 70,000 square feet became the standard footprint of new Hy-Vee stores just before and after the turn of the century.  

Hy-Vee has expanded their brand into gas stations, health and nutrition products, clothing boutiques, on-line grocery shopping, and partnering with actor/entertainer Mark Wahlberg on a line of sports nutrition products, as well as working with Wahlberg's brothers Donnie and Paul in franchising over two dozen Wahlburger locations in the Upper Midwest.  And just last year, Hy-Vee opened the first Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh convenience store not far from where I live in Davenport, IA.  Fast & Fresh offers many "ready-to-eat" meals-on-the-go including made to order wood-fired pizza, sushi, a craft beer station, full liquor and beer store, and a Starbucks on premises.  Unlike the main Hy-Vee grocery stores that are open 24 hours, 7 days a week, the Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh stores are open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.  (Look for an upcoming Road Tips blog post on the wood-fired pizza from Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh.)  

About 8 years ago, current Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker spearheaded an effort to bring full service restaurants to select Hy-Vee stores in the chain.  These would be sit-down establishments serving a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees, sandwiches, burgers and appetizers featuring craft beers, mixed drinks and a Sunday brunch spread that rivaled many other brunch places in certain cities.  The first Hy-Vee Market Grille opened in 2012 and it was met with a lot of skepticism from people.  Many of the locations floundered for the first couple three years they were open and in 2017 Hy-Vee scaled back a number of the Market Grille locations into Market Grille Express concepts with an reduced menu and counter-ordering only.  Today, there are nearly 50 Market Grille locations and another 75 Market Grille Express locations.  

My wife and I have also been a little leery of the Market Grille restaurants that we would see around the Quad Cities.  But a little over a year ago a friend told me that the Market Grille up on 53rd Ave. and Utica Ridge Road in northeast Davenport had pretty good food - including a great burger.  As I said earlier, I wanted to go try the burger there, but each time I suggested it to my wife, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea.  That's how I ended up going alone to the Market Grille location inside Davenport Hy-Vee #4 one afternoon for lunch.  (see map)

Walking into the Market Grille, I lingered up front by the bar area for a moment as I was waiting for someone to come to the hostess stand.  With a number of flat screen televisions hanging all over the place, it sort of looked somewhat like an upscale sports bar.  The space was well lit with natural light coming in from the wall of windows along the south side of the room.  

I greeted by a young lady who showed me to a booth back in the corner of the restaurant.  It was a spacious area with a combination of booths and tables, as well as banquette seating in the center of the Market Grille.  

I was given a menu and it wasn't long before my server, a pleasant young lady by the name of Bethanie, came over to greet me.  I got a light beer that was on tap - she asked me if I wanted a 16 or a 25 ounce beer. I got the 16 ounce beer because I needed to get back to my home office and do some work later in the afternoon.  

Even though I was there for the burger that day, I have to say that I was somewhat surprised at the food options available at the Market Grille.  They had pasta dishes including chicken parm and a chicken & asparagus carbonara, sushi rolls, Asian/Thai dishes, seafood items such as grilled salmon and blackened shrimp tacos (the Baja fish tacos really caught my eye - I may have to go back and try those some day), as well as steaks and pork chops. Sandwiches such as a reuben, a classic club sandwich, a spicy Buffalo chicken sandwich, and a gourmet BLT were also available.  A number of interesting appetizers including pepperoni pinwheels, and bacon/jalapeno won-tons, as well as flatbreads and a selection of salads rounded out the menu.  

They had seven or eight burgers on the menu including a California burger topped with guacamole, bacon and a sriracha honey sauce, a mac & cheese burger, a gourmet three-cheese patty melt, and a peanut butter burger (uh, no thanks).  For my first trip in to try a burger at the Market Grille, I went with their regular cheeseburger.  Six different types of cheese are available and I got the smoked gouda on mine.  I also asked Bethanie to put some bacon and some sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  

The burgers at the Market Grille are all cooked to order and my medium burger came out with a nice pink tint in the middle.  It was served on a toasted bun with a side of fries.  One thing that I noticed is that the only condiment they offered was a small metal container of ketchup.  (I suppose I could have asked for mustard or more ketchup if I wanted.  But I was happy with the burger the way it was.  

And the burger was... good.  Actually, it was surprisingly good.  In fact, it was astonishingly very good.  It was a multiple napkin burger because of the combination of juiciness and the toppings on the burger.  The smoked gouda oozed off the patty with nearly each bite, the bacon was thick cut and a delicious added flavor to the burger, and the sautéed mushrooms were fresh and earthy.  The bun even held together very well with all that was going on with the burger.  

The fries were more of an afterthought for me, but I thought they were pretty good.  Except they were too salty for my taste.  I only had a few of the fries because I was concentrating on finishing the burger.  Which I did.     

I have to say that any misconceptions or misgivings I had about eating at a Hy-Vee Market Grille sort of went away after this visit.  The burger was surprisingly very good, the restaurant, itself, was bright, clean, and comfortable, and I was more than happy with the cheerful and friendly service I received.  And there were some other interesting items I found on the menu that makes me want to go back and try at some point.  But what I really have to do is convince my wife that the burger is actually THAT good at the Hy-Vee Market Grille so she'll go there with me.   

Judy's Barge Inn - Buffalo, IA

There's a number of little towns up and down the Mississippi River that always seem to have one or two places that have good views of the river along with a serviceable food menu along with cold adult beverages.  My wife and I went out to Buffalo, west of Davenport, last summer to go have lunch at Judy's Barge Inn.  A buddy of mine lives out near Buffalo and he mentioned that we should meet out at Judy's for lunch sometime.  We finally got around to doing that during the holiday season late last year.  

Judy Van Blaracom and her husband, J.D., characterize themselves as "river people".  For years, the couple has lived on Enchanted Island, a small housing development that is right next to - and sometimes in - the Mississippi River on the southwest side of Davenport.  When a longtime restaurant in Buffalo became available a little over three years ago, Judy decided to jump in with both feet and buy the place.  She convinced her sister Terry Ruth to join her in the venture, and Judy's daughter Michelle soon joined up with her mom and aunt.  J.D. Van Blaracom is also involved in the business as sort of a "jack-of-all-trades".  Judy and her sister came up with the food menu with the same philosophy they had while growing up - make food that is good because they like to eat.  

I met my buddy at the bar around 1 p.m. on a weekday.  (Judy's is closed on Monday's.)  Judy's is housed in an old river house along Iowa Highway 22 that was originally built back in 1856.  (see map) There were a handful of locals milling about the bar area and into the attached dining area off to the side.  There's a back patio area that's open in the warmer months that also has a small stage for live music in the summer months.  There's also a smoker in the back patio area for barbecue specials Judy's runs from time to time.  During the summer months, Judy has a small produce garden in the back that she tends to for fresh vegetables and herbs, but also relies upon local growers to supply her with fresh produce year round.   

Judy's daughter Michelle was tending bar that day and recognized my buddy who is a semi-regular in the place.  She gave us a couple menus to look over and we both ordered a couple beers.  Judy's has mostly domestics, but they did have a few of the local Quad City-area craft beers to choose from, as well.  

It's not an extensive menu at Judy's - they feature a couple of burgers, a grilled chicken sandwich, a pork tenderloin sandwich and a sliced turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  Appetizers are your usual fare - chicken wings and tenders, spinach and artichoke dip with chips, pulled pork nachos, and house-made pretzel sticks.  Soups and salads are also available daily.  

When my wife and I first made the pilgrimage to Judy's last summer, I had the Judy's Barge Burger - a 1/2 pound Wagyu beef patty topped with onion straws, a fried egg, bacon, and American cheese served on a butter brioche bun.  Lettuce, sliced tomatoes, dill pickles and a slice of red onion also came on the burger.  When it was brought out to me, I was blown away by the size.  But the one thing that I remember was that the onion straws were outstanding.  I prefer onion straws over regular onion rings more times than not and Judy's are very good.

Except this time, I asked Michelle if I could also get a side of the onion straws.  Well, that was a mistake.  Not because they weren't very good - there was just a ton of them!  And there was no way that I could have eaten both the huge burger and the onion straws.  I got a side of Judy's house-made barbecue sauce on the side.

The burger was just as good as I remember it was when I first went to Judy's.  I took a lot of the onion straws off the burger and asked that the fried egg be made hard as I don't like a messy burger with a soft egg on it.  There was a hint of pink inside the burger patty and it was juicy with a great beef flavor.  Judy sources her Wagyu beef from nearby Geest Farms in Blue Grass, IA.  Geest Farms raise their beef naturally without inducing hormones or antibiotics into their cattle.  (My wife and I will get some of their frozen beef from time to time at the Freight House Farmers Market in downtown Davenport during the spring and summer months.)  

My buddy ended up getting the chicken quesadilla that was part of the appetizer menu.  A side salsa and guacamole came with the quesadilla.  It was stuffed with goat cheese and chunks of chicken, then pan-fried to melt everything together.  His eyes got huge when Michelle set it down in front of him.  "Damn," he exclaimed.  "This is going to be two meals for me."  He ate about half of what he was served and had Michelle box up the rest for him to take home.  

While we were eating, Judy Van Blaracom came into the restaurant.  She came over to my buddy and gave him a big hug.  He introduced me to Judy, who I had seen before not only in her place, but at events around the Quad Cities.  Judy's blonde hair is hard to miss and she has a bright smile with eyes that seem to dance when she talks to people.  She seems like a person who would be hard not to like.

Judy's Barge Inn doesn't have an extensive menu, but what they have seems to be very good, very fresh, and served in large portions.  Their motto - "Come in Empty, Leave Full" - is certainly an apt phrase for Judy's.  Both times I've gotten the Barge Burger from Judy's Barge Inn I've been more than happy with the quality and taste, as well as the size of the thing.  I've never been able to fully finish one in a single sitting.  Judy's Barge Inn is a friendly place where people can be comfortable just whiling away their time either in the bar area or out in back patio area in the warmer months.  One thing that I want to go back to Judy's and try is their bloody mary which is over the top like many of the food portion sizes they serve.  

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.  

Bud's Cafe and Bar - Sedalia, CO

I was somewhere last year and I was reading an article about a little tavern in a small Colorado town having a great burger.  I looked up on Google maps to see where Sedalia, CO was and found that it really wasn't that far south of Denver.  I was going to be on the south side of Denver for a few days for a trade show last October and I thought it would be kind of fun heading down to this place for a burger.  Along with a colleague who had gotten into Denver early in the day like me, we went down to have a burger at Bud's Cafe and Bar.  

Except, hardly anyone calls the place by its full name - it's simply known as Bud's Bar to many of the patrons who have come to the place over the past 60+ years.  There was a Bud - Calixte "Bud" Hebert - a Denver native who contracted polio as a child.  He tried to enter the service after studying journalism at Colorado State, but he was denied because of his earlier polio condition.  He joined the Civil Service and was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a torch cutter working on ships.  Hebert was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the base on Dec. 7, 1941.  Surviving the attack, Hebert ended up staying at Pearl Harbor for the duration of the war working on ships.  

After the war ended, Hebert returned to Denver and was looking to do something that was in line with his experience with all things mechanical.  He ended up buying a small garage in Sedalia - Herman's Garage.  The garage was slowly failing as more work was going to Denver just up the road.  But being a budding (Get it?  I know.  GROAN...) entrepreneur Bud sensed that the small town of Sedalia needed a roadhouse-type of establishment.  He renovated the old garage, put in a small counter with a few tables.  The kitchen was small - the grill was only large enough to cook four hamburgers at a time - and there was no room for a fryer.  He opened Bud's Cafe and Bar in 1948.  

Bud Hebert's little bar turned into the unofficial town hall of Sedalia and he was called upon many times by locals who had a dispute that needed to be settled.  Hebert's arbitration skills at the bar were well-noted, so much so that in 1964 he was elected as a judge for Douglas County just south of Denver.  

Hebert's wife, Helen, had passed away that same year.  The death of his wife, coupled with being a sitting judge at the county level, convinced Hebert that he had to sell his bar.  He didn't think that the owner of a bar should be a sitting judge and he turned to one of the bar's part-time workers to buy the place from him, Therman Thompson.

(As an aside, Bud Hebert served as the Douglas County judge until his retirement in 1976.  A couple three years later, he met Rosemary Canham.  Canham grew up in Rock Island, IL and was living in Dubuque when her husband passed away in 1977.   Rosemary and Bud were married in 1980 and ended up moving to Davenport, IA in 1992 to be closer to Rosemary's daughter.  Bud passed away in Davenport in 2000 at the age of 87.  Rosemary, who was a renown singer earlier in her life, lived to be 100, passing away in Davenport in 2015.)  

Other than working for Bud Hebert part-time for 9 years, Therman Thompson really didn't have much experience in running a bar.  A former Navy veteran, Thompson worked for the nearby Louviers Dynamite works, a DuPont-owned facility that produced over 1 billion pounds of dynamite over a 60-plus year period starting in 1908.  When dynamite production began to wane in the early 60's, Thompson jumped at the chance to buy the bar from Bud Hebert.  

Over the years, Thompson, and his wife, Mary Anne, transformed Bud's Bar into more of a social meeting place and not one where disputes between local residents were resolved.  Not only were the burgers good and the beer cold, but the locals would meet to discuss various local, state and national topics.  Some people - thinking that Thompson was the "Bud" of Bud's Bar - started to call him by that nickname.  He never corrected them and after awhile he became "Bud Thompson".  Good-natured, self-deprecating and the willing recipient of the butt of jokes from friendly patrons, Thompson ran Bud's Bar for 40 years.

Thompson loved to fly-fish up in Wyoming's Miracle Mile area along the North Platte River.   A fishing buddy by the name of Mike Steerman was with Thompson on a fishing trip in Wyoming in 2004 when Thompson said that health concerns were going to force him to sell the bar.  After talking it over with Steerman during the trip, Thompson sold Bud's Bar to Steerman who had to promise that he wouldn't change a thing to the place.  (Therman Thompson entered a nursing home in early 2005 and passed away in 2008.)  

Actually, Steerman had to break that promise almost immediately.  The floor to Bud's Bar was scuffed and worn out from years of wear and tear (including a few times local ranchers would ride their horses into the bar to play tricks on Bud Hebert) and he had to replace it.  Even though it looked just like a new version of the old wooden floor, Steerman thought it didn't fit in with the Western/Rancher decor that Hebert and Thompson had accumulated over the years.  It wasn't until a local rancher came in with a hot branding iron and seared his ranch's brand into the floor that Steerman felt that the place was returning to its old character.  

Mike Steerman continues to run Bud's Bar to this day.  Thanks to some national press over the years, lines to get into the place to try one of their burgers will sometime run down the street.  We were lucky the day we went - it was a weekday around 1:30 when we got in there and we were able to get in immediately.   

It was about a 20 minute drive down from the Tech Center area on Denver's far south side where we were staying to Sedalia which sits just off U.S. 85.  We pulled into town and literally drove through the place before we realized that we must have passed Bud's Bar.  We ended up circling back and found Bud's on the west side of Manhart Street in between two sets of railroad tracks.  (see map)  A diagonal parking spot was open just down the street from Bud's and we took that.   

Bud's isn't very big, the stone-facade building features a small dining/bar area that had booths along one side, the small bar with a knotty pine front opposite that with a number of tables in the middle of the space.  The walls were adorned with pictures, beer signs and a large flat screen television on the back wall.  

The kitchen area behind the bar is only big enough for a small grill and has no room for a fryer.  That's why the menu at Bud's Cafe and Bar features only burgers - single or double hamburgers, or single or double cheeseburgers.  "No French Fries, Damnit!" is prominently displayed on the bottom of the menu.  And you won't find craft or imported beers at Bud's - only the regular domestic heavyweights are offered.

While there was a lot of beer memorabilia on the wall, I had to take a closer look at a number of prints that were on the back wall of the dining room.  The Coors Collection, a series of paintings commissioned by the Coors Brewing Company outside of Denver, depicts a number of scenes involving cowboys.  Western Americana artist Gordon Snidow is the man behind the series of paintings who drew a total of 15 of them in the 70's and 80's.  These were obviously reprints, but the detail in each painting was rather remarkable.  

My colleague and I settled into a table toward the back of the room and took a quick look at the menu.  We both ordered up double cheeseburgers and a beer.  We were told that a small bag of potato chips came with the burgers.  Pickles and onions come on the side with the burgers at Bud's Cafe.    

The burger was delivered to the table in a plain plastic basket with wax paper.  The burgers are flat-grilled and I'm sure that grill has years of seasoning on it giving the burgers a distinctive taste quality.  They use a mix of 80-20 ground beef in the burgers and just before they serve them up, they put the burgers on the buns and cover them on the grill to make the bun even more soft.  

Bud's double cheeseburger was oozing with cheese placed on top of both patties.  And the taste was absolutely delicious.  The bun was pretty basic, but held together well with the juiciness and the cheesy nature of the burger.  The onions were fresh and very forward in taste, but not so overpowering that it killed the overall great taste of the burger.  It was one of those burgers where I went "Mmmmm....." as I took my first bite.  

I love little places like Bud's Cafe and Bar, especially ones that are pretty simple and down home in their nature.  They only do one thing at Bud's - burgers - and they do them pretty damn well.  It's nothing fancy, don't expect to see a big craft beer list, and there may be people waiting out the door to get in to get a burger on weekends.  For over 70 years, Bud's Cafe and Bar has been serving thousands who have made the trip to Sedalia.  And I'm pretty sure no one has left disappointed.  

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.  

All American Burgers - San Diego

When I was out in San Diego earlier this year for a trade show, it had been a long day on the convention center floor.  Coupled with my legs hurting and my throat sore from talking, my allergies had been kicking my butt almost as soon as I got into San Diego a couple three days prior.  While my colleagues in my company were going out for a group night at a go-cart track, I begged off saying that I felt like crap.  I just wanted to go out, get a burger and a beer, and call it an early night.  After having a couple beers in the hotel bar, I looked up to see if there was a burger and beer place near the hotel.  I had just gone to Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers a couple days before (click here to see the Road Tips post on CB-squared), so I was looking for some other place.  Another burger joint - All American Burgers - popped up in my search of restaurants near my hotel.  I clicked on their website and immediately decided to head there for a burger and a beer.  

Sean Shoja was born in Iran, but was raised in Montreal.  Montreal has a thriving Jewish community and Montreal-style bagels are the rage with Jews and gentiles, alike.  Sean Shoja got his first taste of working in a bakery/restaurant when he made bagels as a teenager.  He later moved to Miami at the age of 23 to open his first bagel bakery.  Sensing a need for good bagels on the west coast, Shoja moved to San Diego and opened Woody's Bagel Factory where his bagels were baked in wood-burning ovens.  Shoja ran Woody's for three years before he sold out and looked for something else to do.  

Sean Shoja set his sights on downtown San Diego and in 2005 he bought Café Lulu, reputed to be the oldest coffee shop in downtown San Diego.  He kept the coffee, but added a hookah bar and Mediterranean foods served in the evening.  Two years after he bought Cafe' Lulu, he bought another coffee shop at the corner of 5th and K Streets in downtown San Diego and turned it into Tuscana Café and Wine Bar.  (Tuscana was literally next door to the hotel I stayed at in San Diego the two visits I've been there, but I have yet to go there.)  

By 2012, Shoja decided to open a third restaurant in San Diego's Gaslamp District - a French-Asian restaurant by the name of the Red Light District.  The concept didn't go over very well - the name probably didn't help much - so a year later he rebranded the restaurant as ViVa Bar + Kitchen, a Latin-themed tapas restaurant.   

In 2016, ViVa Bar + Kitchen was changed over to a new concept - grass fed burgers with craft beers.  Shoja brought in longtime San Diego area chef Tom Miller to oversee the new restaurant concept, and over Labor Day weekend in 2016 All American Burgers opened for business.  

It was a five block walk up 4th Street from the front of my hotel to All American Burgers.  (see map)  It was a nice evening and even though I had been on my feet all day long, I was fine with the somewhat short walk.  After entering the front door, I found a cozy little place with a large three-sided bar in the center of the dining area.  Red lights underneath accented the front of the bar.  

I decided to sit at the bar and the stools were made out of metal, high and slick.  I damned near slid off the bar stool a couple times - and I was sober at the time!  I was soon greeted by my server/bartender, a young lady by the name of Allison who had a familiar looking face.  I couldn't quite place who she looked like, but it started to bug me as I tried to figure it out.  (Later on, a couple sat at the bar and were ordering drinks.  The lady turned to the man and said to Alison, "Oh, my God!  You look just like Madonna!"  I nodded my head in agreement, finally realizing who she looked like.  Alison said that she got the comparisons to Madonna all the time.)     

Alison dropped off a food menu and asked what I'd like to drink.  The beer menu was on a blackboard on the wall behind the bar next to some flat screen televisions.  It wasn't a big list, but it featured only San Diego area breweries.  I ended up getting the AleSmith .394 pale ale.  

Burgers are the main item on the menu at All American Burgers, but they do have appetizers, as well as a ground turkey burger, a grilled chicken sandwich, and a grilled ahi tuna sandwich for the non-beef lovers.  Salads and a veggie burger were also available.  All American Burgers gets their beef from Grass Run Farms outside of Greeley, CO., and all the beef is grass-fed with no antibiotics or hormones injected into the cattle.  All burgers come with a 1/3 pound patty and are served on a brioche bun.  

They have only 8 burgers on the menu and no way to be able to "build-your-own", so I was pretty limited in the combinations of items they placed on the burgers.  They had a burger with a fried egg and a beefsteak tomato slice on it - I don't like the tomato/egg taste combination.  They had a burger with avocado, tomato slice, white American cheese and bacon that sounded good, as did the Firehouse burger with fried jalapeños, pepper jack cheese, and a sriracha aioli.  But I was trying to find something where the toppings didn't overtake the taste of the beef.  

I ended up getting the mushroom and Swiss cheese burger.  Alison tried to talk me into getting a side of fries - they were double fried French fries that were tossed after cooking in kosher salt, chopped parsley and parmesan cheese, then drizzled with a duck fat truffle oil.  I don't know how I could have said no to those, but I've been really cutting back on potatoes and pasta over the past few months.  It was a personal victory for me to not order the fries.  (Or the pale ale-battered onion rings.  Yow!)  

The burger was brought out in a small baking sheet.  (My wife and I invested in about a half-dozen of the 9" x 13" baking sheets a couple three years ago and they're so versatile for everything from baking Italian sandwiches, to toasting bread in the oven, to serving food on the deck.)  The top of the brioche bun was branded with the All American Burgers logo.  I thought it was a nice little touch.  

The burger was delicious.  The beef was lean, but it was still juicy.  The Swiss cheese was melted over the top of the sautéed mushrooms, but neither took away the wonderful taste of the burger patty.  About the only problem I had with it was the brioche bun - there was too much of it.  I found myself tearing away parts of the bun while I was eating the burger because it was just too large and too much.  But that didn't take away from the overall good taste of the burger, itself.  

All American Burgers doesn't have a big list of burgers to choose from.  But most of them are pretty interesting with their combinations of the grass-fed beef patties and toppings.  The mushroom/Swiss burger that I got was very good, but the brioche bun was a little too much at times.  The cozy little space was also lively, as were the bartenders who did a good job of taking care of me that evening.  A good burger and a cold beer was all that I was looking for that evening and All American Burgers more than fight the bill for that. 

Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers - San Diego

While in San Diego for a trade show a couple months ago, our company just happened to stay at the same hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter that my wife and I stayed at when we took a vacation to the San Diego area a little over three years ago.  I pretty much knew that most of the restaurants and shops up and down 5th Ave. were touristy places.  But just around the corner from the hotel was a new place that definitely caught my eye - Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.  Well, I like cold beer and like cheeseburgers.  It seemed like a match made in heaven for a guy like me.  For a late lunch/early dinner one day while we were there, two of my colleagues went with me to first have some beers, then some food at Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.

Actually, Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers is a small sports bar chain that originated out of the Phoenix area.  It's parent company - Square One Concepts - has developed a number of concept restaurants throughout the Southwestern part of the U.S. for more than 20 years.  Restaurants such as Bourbon and Bones, The Funky Monk and Waisted Grain are mainstays in the Phoenix/Scottsdale and Tucson areas, while Square One Concepts has also developed Pacific Beach Shore Club and the Bootlegger in San Diego.  The first Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers opened in north Scottsdale in November of 2011 with a second location opening in downtown Scottsdale in January of 2013.  

From there, two more CB-squared (get it? CBCB.  Or, some call it CB&C) locations opened in the Valley of the Sun before Square One Concepts set their sights on a San Diego location in the Gaslamp District.  When the owner of Acqua al 2, a Tuscan-inspired restaurant, sold his business in early 2016, Square One Concepts immediately turned it into the fifth Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers location.  Today, there are 11 CB-Squared locations with another one opening in late 2018 and one more in early 2019 in the greater Phoenix area.  Square One Concepts has plans to open at least three more Cold Beers and Cheeseburger locations in the San Diego areas in the coming months.  

It was just after 3 p.m. when I walked out the back of my hotel and just around the corner to Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.  (see map)  The front windows of the restaurant were open to the patio along the sidewalk out front.  Large flat panel televisions were hanging throughout the place giving nearly every seat an opportunity to see multiple games if they were on.  I ended up seated at the long rectangular bar and was greeted by one of the bartenders, Scott.  I ordered up my current favorite beer - Kona Big Wave Golden Ale - one of the over 3 dozen beers they had on tap.  (They also have over 40 beers in bottles and over 20 beers in cans.)  Scott served the beer in a 19 ounce chilled mug and I quickly downed that one before the first of my two colleagues showed up about 20 minutes after I arrived.  By 3:30, my other colleague showed up.  Both like their beers and they were immediately impressed with the beer selection at Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.  

We sat around for about an hour before one of the guys mentioned something about getting food.  We didn't have lunch during the day and I said that if I get something to eat there, I won't be going out for dinner that evening.  My co-workers didn't seem to have a problem with that.  

Looking through the menu, well - of course - they have cheeseburgers at Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.  They had over 20 burgers on the menu, all starting out with a half-pound of certified black angus ground beef. From there, they had burgers such as the Ring of Fire topped with pepper jack cheese, Buffalo-wing sauce, jalapeños, and spicy mayo; the Denver burger topped with ham and cheddar cheese, along with grilled onions and peppers and finished with a fried egg; and there was the Rocky Point that had pepper jack cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, jalapeños and sour cream on it.  They had a peanut butter, jelly and bacon burger (uh...no, thanks), a mac & cheese burger, and their own interpretation of the Twin Cities-style "Jucy Lucy" cheese-stuffed burger.  They also had a Steakhouse burger with gruyere cheese, bacon, garlic aioli and a white truffle oil.  They also had a ground Prime Rib burger on the menu.  Appetizers (including mozzarella sticks, tater tots topped with beef chili and a roasted pepper sauce, and Parmesan truffle fries), salads, sandwiches, different variations of mac & cheese dishes, and char-broiled hot dogs were also available on Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers menu. 

I contemplated building my own burger before I ended up getting the All-American burger with onion rings as a side for an upcharge.  (Chips normally come with the burgers.)  The burger was topped with American cheese with lettuce, tomato and onion slices.  For good measure, I had Scott throw on some bacon onto my burger.  Pretty basic, I know - but sometimes too many toppings detract from the overall taste of the burger meat.

The burger was thick and juicy, cooked to a perfect pink middle.  The taste of burger was also very good - juice was dripping with each bite.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  The lightly toasted bun held together very well with the juicy nature of the burger.  The onion rings had a thick breading and were delicious, as well. This was a top notch burger through and through. 

My colleagues went the healthy route - one got the chicken Caesar salad, and the other got the ground turkey burger.  The salad featured chunks of grilled chicken on a bed of greens topped with a house-made Caesar dressing, reggiano cheese, and croutons.  He thought the salad was very tasty.

My other colleague wasn't so lucky with his turkey burger.  It was pretty mushy and tasteless to him.  "Horrible," he said when I asked him how his burger was.  He still ate it, but he wasn't happy at all.  "That's what I get for trying to eat healthy," he told me at the end of the meal.

We stuck around for another beer and I was getting ready to head back to the hotel after numerous beers.  However, our boss called one of my colleagues and inquired as to where we were.  After my co-worker told him where we were, he turned to us and said, "He's coming to join us!"  I decided to stick around and have another beer with the group.  

My boss showed and being that he's not much of a beer drinker, he ordered a Hendrick's gin and tonic.  He also ordered up the pastrami reuben on toasted sour dough bread to eat.  We stuck around with him having a few more beers while he ate his sandwich and a couple of gin and tonics.  He said his sandwich was also very good.  

I'm glad I didn't have far to go to get back to my room from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers.  After four and a half hours of mainly drinking beers, but having a very tasty cheeseburger along with the beer, I was feeling little to no pain.  While it's more of a sports bar than anything else, they do have cold beers - a lot of different beers - and cheeseburgers - also a lot of different types.  But there's other things there other than beer or cheeseburgers.  But having a name like Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers, well, they do both very well.    

Back Door Grill - Steamboat Springs, CO

When we checked into our hotel upon arrival in Steamboat Springs, we asked the very helpful front desk clerk for suggestions for lunch.  We were sort of looking for a brewpub or someplace like that.  "Unfortunately, most of our brewpubs don't open until around 4 and some have a limited menu," he told us.  But then he told us about a place that was named as having the best burgers in the United States by Trip Advisor.  Thoroughly impressed by that revelation, he gave us instructions on how to get to the Back Door Grill near Steamboat Spring's downtown area.  

(Well, it turned out that he oversold the award.  But it did turn out that the Back Door Grill WAS named one of the Top 10 burgers in the U.S. by Trip Advisor earlier this year.  Still, that's not too shabby!)   

Dave Eliason has been involved in restaurant management for a number of years.  He worked primarily in steakhouses counting Red Tracton's in San Diego and the Couloir in Jackson Hole, WY as two of the more high-profile restaurants he toiled in over the years.  When the LaRoche brothers (including former major league baseball player Dave LaRoche) decided to open a steakhouse in Steamboat Springs, they recruited Eliason to run the place for them.  Eliason's wife, Brandi, was a pastry chef at the Four Seasons hotel in Jackson Hole and he was able to get her a job at E3 Chophouse as the steakhouse's pastry chef.  (Look for an upcoming Road Tips post on E3.) 

E3 opened in late 2013 serving steaks from grass fed beef sourced from the LaRoche family farm in Kansas.  But both Dave and Brandi were missing a good ol' juicy burger, the kind where you can put different toppings on it to make it a signature burger.  They decided to open a small burger joint, but needed help in doing so.

The Eliason's initially partnered up with E3 to provide the grass-fed beef for their burgers, and with the Ghost Ranch Saloon, an event venue/bar facility with an old West theme in Steamboat that allowed them to use their kitchen in exchange for helping with catering for some events.  In an alley way next to the Ghost Ranch, there was a small walk-up window near the kitchen.  They put in some tables near the window and opened the Back Door Grill in June of 2014.  Brandi made the buns for the burgers and the breads for grilled sandwiches, and the couple used only naturally grown potatoes and onions for their fries and rings.  

Business boomed from the start and it appeared that the couple needed to keep the momentum going into the winter months.  That meant moving into a fixed building and when building housing Spostas World Sushi became available in the fall of 2014, the Eliason's jumped on that location moving in there in November of 2014.  The Eliason's eventually quit their jobs at E3 to focus on the growing business at the Back Door Grill, adding breakfast items to the menu in 2015.  (The Eliason's also own O'Neill's Tavern and Grill - an Irish pub/steakhouse - as well as the Cupcake Mini Bar - a boutique bakery - in Steamboat.  Their plan is to expand the Back Door Grill to other ski resort towns across Colorado.)  

It was just after 2 p.m. when we pulled up in front of the Back Door Grill on Oak Street near downtown Steamboat Springs.  (see map)  It was housed in a large gray stand-alone building that looked like it may have been an apartment or boarding house at one time.  There was a patio area in front of and on the side of the building.  

Entering the restaurant, we found a small area with a bar and a handful of tables and chairs.  The walls were covered with $1 dollar bills where people had written on them.  There was an upstairs dining area, but it was well past the lunch rush that we were able to get a table in a small room off to the side.  

We were met by our server, Jake, who gave us menus and asked us what we'd like to drink.  We both ordered up the Space Ghost IPA from the Equinox brewery in Fort Collins - one of the few breweries we didn't get to when we were there the previous couple three days.  

Burgers definitely rule the menu at the Back Door Grill.  They have a number of signature burgers such as the Mahalo burger that features pineapple slices, Swiss cheese and a teriyaki sauce (ham can be added to the Mahalo burger for an additional $2 bucks), the Afterburner that is topped with chili, cheddar cheese, jalapeños and sour cream, the G13 that is topped with a creamy Sriracha sauce and American cheese, and the Dirty Harry which is topped with peanut butter, a fried egg, bacon slices, hash browns, and cheddar cheese and served on a glazed donut.  (Uh.... no, thanks.)   They also have "build-your-own" burgers on the menu, as well as sandwiches such as a grilled chicken club sandwich, a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with shaved rib-eye steak and provolone cheese, and a seared mahi mahi sandwich.  

My wife got the Dennis Popper (no doubt a play on the name of the late actor Dennis Hopper), which consisted of a flat-grilled burger topped with pepper jack cheese, jalapeño poppers and an onion ring with barbecue sauce.  She asked to get the barbecue sauce on the side.  

The housemade bun was deeply toasted, but not burnt.   Back Door Grill switched to locally-raised all-natural beef when they moved to their present location in late 2014.  From the looks of char on the edge the burger patty, it appeared it was smashed on the flat grill to let it cook in its own juices.  

I ended up going with the Umami burger topped with Swiss cheese and mushrooms (and I added bacon for an upcharge).  The burger came with a sliced onion, a tomato slice and chopped lettuce.  

The burger was big and thick - and very delicious.  It was juicy and full of a great beef flavor.  The bun - which is the key to a great burger - was light and fluffy, but held together very well with the toppings and juiciness of the burger.  

My wife was very happy with her burger, as well.  She said that the poppers weren't all that spicy, but really helped enhance the taste of the beef.  She ended up not using any of the sweet barbecue sauce that Jake brought out on the side.  She said it would have detracted from the overall taste of the burger.  

For our first meal in Steamboat Springs, we couldn't have been happier with the Back Door Grill.  It was a great suggestion from the guy at the hotel and the burgers were great.  The atmosphere was a mixture of funky and cozy, and they had a great selection of craft beers from across Colorado.  The service was laid-back and casual, but also prompt and professional.  Sometimes my stomach does somersaults when I write about places we've been because the food was so good.  As I write this entry, my stomach is doing jumping-jacks wishing we could go back to the Back Door Grill for lunch today.

Smokin' Hereford BBQ - Storm Lake, IA

The 2017 winner of the "Iowa's Best Burger" contest was a barbecue place in Storm Lake, IA - Smokin' Hereford BBQ.  Now, I've been somewhat dubious of a couple previous winners of the annual contest put on by the Iowa Beef Industry Council since 2010.  Having a barbecue place be the winner of the Best Burger in Iowa contest last year sort of raised my eyebrows.  On a trip between Des Moines and Sioux City earlier this summer, I decided to take backroads through Northwest Iowa with a lunch stop in Storm Lake.  

Chad Hustedt and Nathan Jensen grew up together in Galva, IA, a small northwest Iowa town about 15 miles to the south and west of Storm Lake.  Chad Hustedt eventually became a coach at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, while Nathan Jensen took a different course in life.  He became a funeral director.

After graduation from mortuary school, Jensen came back to NW Iowa and worked in a funeral home in Storm Lake.  When the opportunity to own his own funeral home came up a couple three years later, Jensen bought a funeral home in nearby Sac City with smaller operations in three other towns in the area.  In 2001, Nathan and his wife, Nancy, merged their funeral homes with Craig Fratzke of Fratzke Funeral Home of Alta, IA.  In addition to the Alta location, the new Fratzke and Jensen Funeral Home also had a location in Storm Lake and three other smaller communities in the immediate area.  Craig Fratzke eventually retired and Nathan and Nancy Jensen continue to run all the funeral homes with the help of funeral director Tim Smith.  And one of their employees at the funeral home is Jennifer Hustedt, the wife of Chad Hustedt.  

The Jensen's and Hustedt's had thought about doing something as a side job and they came up with an idea of running a barbecue place.  There was a building that originally was an old train depot on the west side of Storm Lake that was available and the couples opened Smokin' Hereford BBQ in October of 2015.  At first, Smokin' Hereford offered a limited menu of barbecue.  But as their reputation grew, they added more items to the menu and in early 2016 they added a Friday and Saturday night burger special to the menu.

The seasoned and char-grilled burgers made with ground beef from Coon River Farms, a family-owned beef operation south and east of Storm Lake, became such a big hit with the locals that they added the burgers permanently to the menu later in the year.  When the annual nominations for the Best Burger in Iowa came up in February 2017, a local campaign was started to alert the Iowa Beef Industry Council of the great burgers at Smokin' Hereford.  Judges later visited the restaurant and determined they had the Best Burger in Iowa for 2017.  

It was just after 1 p.m. when I pulled into the dusty parking lot at Smokin' Hereford BBQ.  A big sign with "Smoky the Bull" mounted underneath greeted me as I drove up.  Inside the place, I found a pretty spacious dining room with a small bar area toward the front door.  It was decorated with antique agriculture company signs, neon beer signs, old highway and railroad signage, and a number of old license plates tacked to a cross beam in the dining area.  Contemporary country music was playing on the restaurant's sound system.  

I ended up taking a seat along the wall in what used to be an old church pew.  The seating for their "booths" were all made from church pews either cut in half or in thirds depending upon the size of the table.  The one I sat in was a 1/3-sized pew.  The floor at Smokin' Hereford was repurposed planks from an old high school gymnasium in the area.   

The menu was on the table and I was soon greeted by a young soft-spoken lady by the name of Anita.  I ordered a cold beer from her while I looked through the menu.  The food served at Smokin' Hereford consisted of barbecue items such as beef brisket, baby back ribs, pulled pork and smoked chicken.  They also feature a smoked prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights for around $23 bucks.  That has to be outstanding.

The menu also featured barbecue meat sandwiches and tacos, as well as some interesting appetizers that included gizzards (don't see that on an appetizer menu at most places), smoked andouille sausage bites (ditto on that), and fried banana peppers (don't know if I've ever seen that on an appetizer menu).  But two things jumped out at me on the appetizer part of the menu - the Mississippi Mud Skins and something directly below the appetizers called the BBQ Sundae.  

The Mississippi Mud Skins are potato skins topped with either pulled pork or smoked chicken (beef brisket is available for an upcharge), then the meat is topped with cheese and pico de gallo.  They encourage you to top them with barbecue sauce at the table.  The BBQ Sundae, I think I've seen at a couple other places in my travels over the year.  It consisted of a pint-sized Mason jar filled with Smokin' Hereford's spicy baked beans, then those are topped with a layer of cole slaw or their spicy mac & cheese.  From there, it's topped off with a choice of brisket, pulled pork, or smoked chicken.  It's for those kind of people who don't mind all their food touching one another.  

As tempting as the barbecue sounded to me, I was there to try their award-winning burger.  I had a choice of either a quarter-pound or a half-pound burger and I went with the half-pound.  "Pink or no pink in the middle," Anita asked.  Well, pink, of course!  I also had a choice of cheese - I went with pepper jack - and for a small upcharge I could get other toppings such as sautéed mushrooms, onion strings, jalapeño peppers, or a fried egg.  I went with bacon.  

The burger was delivered on a plastic basket with on a sheet of faux newsprint paper.  The bun was toasted - not lightly toasted, but toasted enough that there were burnt marks on the edges.  Lettuce, a tomato slice, dill pickles and sliced onions came on the side.  The bacon was criss-crossed on top of the pepper jack cheese on the burger. 

The burger was thick and juicy and was very delicious in taste.  The pepper jack cheese didn't overpower the taste of the burger, nor did the bacon or the toppings I placed on the burger patty.  The beef had a robust quality taste and it was a very good burger.  If there was one quibble with the burger was that there was a little  too much bun for my liking.  But with all that was going on with the burger - the oozing cheese, the juiciness of the burger patty, and the condiments on top - the bun held together very well.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.

I've had some very good burgers from past winners of the Best Burger in Iowa contest sponsored by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  But, I've also had a couple burgers that left me scratching my head and questioning the methods and criteria the judges use to determine the best burger in the state.  I know that it gets down to a popularity contest to come up with the 10 finalists for the annual contest, and I'm sure that some restaurants stuff the ballot box with help from customers.  But if that's what happened with Smokin' Hereford BBQ, they need to be commended for their effort. The burger I had there was very good - outstanding would be somewhat of a stretch because I think the bun was a little too big.  But overall, it was juicy and flavorful.  The robust taste of the locally-grown beef stood out even with toppings on the burger.  While I can't call it the best burger I've ever had, it was good enough where I didn't question the judging for the 2017 Best Burger in Iowa.  But if I ever make it back to Storm Lake and Smokin' Hereford, I'm going to try their barbecue.