Road Tips

Textile Brewing Company - Dyersville, IA

It was a nice Sunday in late January when my wife suggested that we get out of the house and get in the car to go somewhere.  I hadn't been traveling at all during January (and into February) and I thought that might be a good remedy for the cabin fever I was starting to experience.  I had been reading about a brew pub in the small town of Dyersville, IA - famous for the site of the movie "Field of Dreams" and the now-annual Major League Baseball game that takes place near original movie site.  Not exactly knowing where it was other than in Dyersville, and not exactly knowing if they had food or what kind of beers they served, we drove an hour and a half to check out the Textile Brewing Company.  

Tom Olberding was a native of Dyersville who left town after high school graduation to study horticulture at Iowa State.  But after getting through college, Olberding decided upon a different career path and entered the pharmacy program at Drake University.  After graduating from Drake, Olberding moved to Chicago and took a job with CVS Pharmacy.  Over a 25 year career with CVS, Olberding worked his way up the ladder and at one point he was managing nearly 20 different locations in the Chicagoland area. 

In 2015, Olberding's life took a turn when his father passed away.  Olberding and his wife Carol decided that small town living was something they needed to do and they moved back to Dyersville in 2016.  But in 2017, another change in Olberding's life came about - he started to make his own homemade beers.  

Starting out with a 5 gallon home-brew kit, Olberding didn't have the faintest idea what he was doing initially.  He bought John Palmer's "How To Brew".  And if Olberding didn't understand something in the book, he'd "Google" it.  And being a novice at home brewing, Olberding would sometimes go down rabbit holes looking for answers to questions that were generated three or four times prior to the answer he was looking for.  

Olberding got to be pretty good with his home-brewing prowess and he experimented with different styles of beers.  Friends and family members were telling Olberding that he needed to start his own brewery and there was a building in downtown Dyersville that was available that many thought would be perfect for a brewpub.  

For 100 years, a textile factory was in business in downtown Dyersville.  Originally built in 1906 as a factory that made gasoline engines, the building was taken over by the H.B. Glover Textile Company out of nearby Dubuque.  Since 1850, H.B. Glover had been making work clothes - primarily men's overalls - and wintertime outer wear.  In the late 19th century, the company began to make a line of pajamas for men and women.  The new venture proved so successful that the company needed to expand and they bought the gas engine building in Dyersville in 1910.  

Known locally as "The Pajama Factory", H.B. Glover was in business until the early 1950's and the textile factory continued to make sleepwear - primarily ladies nightgowns - until it finally closed in 2010.  The building - with all the sewing machines still intact - stood dormant until 2017.  That's when Tom and Carol Olberding got inside to take a look at the property thinking that it would make a good home for their budding craft brewery project.

The couple immediately fell in love with the space and went to the building's owner - the Dyersville Economic Development Corporation - and worked out a purchase contact on the property.  The Olberding's then got a $100,000 grant from the state of Iowa with help from the city of Dyersville and the Dyersville Economic Alliance to help with the renovations of the building.  When workers asked if they wanted to get rid of the contents of the old sewing factory, the Olberdings said, "Absolutely not!"  They wanted to repurpose everything they could in their brewery from old radiators to the iron bases for sewing machines down to the old thread cones that were left lying around.  

It took many months to transform the building into a brewery.  Doing much of the work on their own or with the help of friends and family, there were obstacles to overcome to make their dream work out.  When all the brewing equipment was delivered and unboxed in the basement of the building, there were no instructions as how to put it all together.  But with the help of two friends who were mechanically inclined, the brewing apparatus came together and by the summer of 2019, they were ready to open to the public.  Textile Brewing Company opened their doors on July 26, 2019.   

With over 20 different styles of beers and ciders made in house - along with wine from local vintners and guest beers from Iowa breweries - Textile Brewing Company became an instant hit with the local population and tourists coming to see the original "Field of Dreams" movie site north and east of Dyersville.  And with that success, in 2021 the Olberdings set up a second brewery - The Corner Taproom - in Cascade, IA 19 miles to the south of Dyersville.  (The Olberdings sold The Corner Taproom to their general manager about two months ago.)  

Textile Brewing Company's expansion continued with the May 2022 opening of the Textile TapHaus in the small town of Atkins, Iowa, located just west of Cedar Rapids.  And in November of 2022, they also bought one of the more popular brewpubs in Eastern Iowa - River Ridge Brewing - in Bellevue, IA.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on River Ridge Brewing.)  

We really didn't know where Textile Brewing Company was when we first got to Dyersville.  I had driven through or past Dyersville numerous times over the years, but I had never taken the turn into the downtown area before.  And it was the quintessential small town center with stores, restaurants and other businesses in the shadow of the majestic twin spires of the St. Francis Xavier Basilica.  As we made our way through the downtown area on 1st Avenue, I took a turn onto 2nd St. NE and on the left a couple blocks north of 1st Avenue we found Textile Brewing Company.  (see map)  We parked on the street just across from the brewpub.  

Entering Textile Brewing Compay, the space features an open seating area with a number of tables in the middle and high-top tables off to the side.  Support beams from the front to the back of the building partitioned the floor into thirds.  The original wooden floor had been refinished and helped with the retro decor of the brewpub.  A large party of about 15 adults and children were occupying a large community table in the center of the place. 

The square bar was toward the back of the brewpub.  That's where my wife and I camped out when we first got there.  The young lady behind the bar gave me a beer menu to look over.  They had a number of lagers, sours, stouts, red or dark beers, and India pale ales to choose from.  They also had ciders available from Wilson's Orchard in Iowa City and Crimson Sunset down the road in Cascade.  I asked to try two of the hazy IPA's they on tap - the Stream Weaver and the Seam Ripper.  I liked the Seam Ripper a little bit better and I got a pint of that.  My wife wasn't really up for getting a beer before noon, but they didn't have liquor for mixed drinks.  She ended up ordering a pinot noir from the Park Farm Winery located near the small town of Bankston about halfway between Dyersville and Dubuque.  

The kitchen area is back in the corner near the bar.  We took a look at the food menu to see what they had and it was mostly flatbread/pizzas and large Bavarian-style pretzels with toppings such as Swiss cheese, ham and sauerkraut, or pepperoni and mozzarella, and they even had a cinnamon-sugar pretzel that sounded somewhat intriguing to me.  They had no sandwiches or appetizers, so we didn't get anything to eat while we were there.  Well, that is, with the exception of some of the free popcorn they had in a popper next to the kitchen.

The brewery is located in the basement and there's a large opening behind the bar area that allows you to look down into the facility.  I've been noticing a lot more that many of the brewpubs I've visited have an open brewing facility.  And they don't smell like your typical microbreweries with the stale smell of beer and the warm hops.  The brewery at Textile Brewing was exceptionally clean, too.   


Out back of the brewery was a fenced beer garden that looked out over the north fork of the Maquoketa River and across to the stately spires of the basilica.  They had all-weather picnic tables and Adirondack chairs on the concrete-tiled deck.  It looked like it would be a great place to hang out in the warmer months.   

I had finished my first beer and ordered a second one when we decided to walk around the perimeter of the brewpub looking at the timeline display they had on the walls.  From the merchandise area in the corner near the bar around the walls of the brewpub were framed prints and reprints of old pictures and articles telling the history of the sewing factory.  

With the exception of the chairs and the bar top, everything in Textile Brewing Company was repurposed from items that were found in the building when the Olberdings took over.  The couple teamed with a local artist/shop owner to help design the lighting scones that are at each table along the wall, as well as designing the high-top tables that use the old radiators that heated the building as a base.  Some of the community tables used the iron legs that held old sewing machines in the past.  Even the tops of the tappers had old parts that were part of the machinery in the factory.  

The cabinets and wallboards were also made from repurposed wood.  On the front of the shelves in the merchandising area, they even used old yardsticks that were used to measure fabric in the old factory.  They had a number of wearables on sale at Textile Brewing along with glassware, hats and growlers to go.  

On display toward the front of the brewpub were a small selection of some of the old nightwear that was made at the factory.  Actually, the H.B. Glover company was the genesis of an idea for a novel that eventually turned into the Broadway musical "The Pajama Game".  The musical - which later became a movie - is based upon the book "7 ½ Cents" which was co-written by Dubuque native Richard Bissell.  In the early 1890's, a group of women went on strike against the company for a seven-and-a-half cent raise.  Bissell's father was the young president of the company at the time of the strike and had told his son of the story of the strike.  Thinking it was a great story, the younger Bissell co-wrote the novel that was eventually adapted into the Pajama Game musical and later the movie of the same name.  

I just had a couple beers and my wife finished up her glass of wine during our visit to Textile Brewing Company.  We had pizza a couple nights earlier and we decided to head toward Dubuque to get some lunch.  But I have to say that our visit to the Textile Brewing Company was one of the more memorable places we've encountered in going to microbreweries over the years.  The Olberdings did a phenomenal job in redoing the old factory and their work in repurposing nearly everything in the place was exceptional. If you're a looking for a good day trip to NE Iowa, I can heartily recommend a stop at the Textile Brewing Company in Dyersville.  

Dallas BBQ - New York City

I had just gotten into my hotel in the Times Square area of New York City when I took a look out my 36th floor window to get my bearings of what I could see in the immediate area.  One Times Square (the building from which the annual New Years ball drop occurs) was visible out my window as well as the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street.  But a big sign that said, "BBQ" was also visible just past One Times Square.  A quick look on my computer showed that it was the flagship location for Dallas BBQ, a local barbecue chain in New York.  I decided to make the walk down 42nd Street for some barbecue that evening.  

To get the full background of how Dallas BBQ came to be, you have to go all the way back to the mid-1930's when Carl and Grace Wetanson opened a little hot dog joint on 42nd Street near Times Square - Grace's Luncheonette.  A year after opening Grace's Luncheonette, Grace gave birth to their first son Herbert.  Three years later, the Wetansons welcomed another son - Errol.  Herb and Errol Wetanson literally grew up in the restaurant business helping their parents out with the day-to-day operations.  

In the late 50s, Herb Wetanson was stationed in the military out in California.  One day, he visited the original McDonald's hamburger stand in San Bernardino, still run by the McDonald brothers.  He saw this new "fast food" concept as the future of dining out and when he got out of the service in 1959, he and his brother started to scout for areas around metro New York City to put in his idea of a west coast burger joint.  The planned community of Levittown on Long Island reminded Herb Wetanson of San Bernardino and they found a small coffee shop in the town that had just gone out of business.  In late 1959, the brothers opened the first Wetson's - basically a knock-off of McDonald's that featured 15 cent burgers, 10 cent fries, and slogans such as "Look for the Orange Circles" - the color and shape theme for Wetson's that mimicked McDonald's "golden arches".  

In the mid-60's, Grace's Luncheonette was turned into a Wetson's location.  Wetson's continued to expand across the New York/New Jersey and Connecticut tri-state area eventually growing to 75 locations.  But competition from McDonald's, Burger King and other fast growing chains was starting to take its toll on Wetson's business.  In 1975, Wetson's merged with the Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs chain and 29 Wetson's locations were immediately closed.  By the early 80's, only a handful of Wetson's were in business with most closed down by the mid-80's.  

Soon after selling out to Nathan's Famous, the Wetanson's were already looking at another restaurant concept - barbecue.  Barbecue wasn't big in New York City, but Herb Wetanson envisioned a Texas-style barbecue place that offered large portions for a low cost.  The first Dallas BBQ opened on Manhattan's upper west side in 1978.  A second Dallas BBQ opened in the East Village in the early 80's, and Dallas BBQ took over one of the remaining Wetson's locations in Times Square soon after that.  Errol Wetanson was eventually bought out of his shares of Dallas BBQ by Herb's son Greg, and Herb's daughter Liza was also a co-owner for a time before becoming a realtor on Long Island.  

Today, there are 11 Dallas BBQ locations around the greater New York City area, mainly known as just "BBQ" to the local patrons.  Herb Wetanson continues to be an owner, but Greg Wetanson runs the day-to-day operations of Dallas BBQ along with his son Stuart.  In addition to owning Dallas BBQ, the Wetanson family also owns and operates Tony's Di Napoli, a family-style old school Italian restaurant with locations in the Times Square area and on the upper east side.  

It was about a five minute walk down 42nd Street between 7th Ave. and 8th Ave. to Dallas BBQ.  (see map)  Under the large BBQ sign on the front of the business, a set of revolving doors opened into a large lobby area on the ground floor.  There was a hostess station at the base of a long escalator leading to the second floor.  She asked me how many I had in my party and I said, "Just me."  She turned and said, "One on the way up" into a two-way communication device.

When I got to the top of the escalator there were three young ladies waiting.  The escalator opened into large room with an opening in the center of the room down to the main floor lobby.  The overall space of this Dallas BBQ location seats over 700 people and I would say it was well over half-full when I was there just before 6 p.m.  

One of the girls grabbed a menu and asked me to follow her.  I inquired about a bar area and she looked back at me and said, "We don't have a bar, sir."  I was shown to a table in a dining section away from the main dining area.  I was squeezed in at a two-seater table near the kitchen.  I was on the edge of the dining room, but there was another table about a foot away from me with a couple having dinner.  And almost as soon as I sat down, a contingent of waiters congregated at a six-seater table just a couple three spots over from me and began to serenade someone with a Dallas BBQ traditional birthday song.  I almost got up and left at that point.  But I stuck around and decided to see what they had to offer.  If I didn't see anything I liked, then I'd get up and go.

Some of the walls in the dining areas featured intricate wooden carvings of horses and buffalos in western settings.  Later in during my time there, I walked around the perimeter of the dining rooms to take a closer look at the detailed carvings that were hanging on the walls.  It was pretty interesting and rather remarkable.  

As I was looking through the menu, a server by the name of Asif came over to say hello.  Another server was with Asif and I thought at first that Asif was in training and was getting supervised.  But then I realized that Asif was the seasoned server and the new guy was shadowing him while going through training.  I asked Asif if they had a beer list and he started to go through the list of beers they had to offer.  I asked if they had any IPA's and he said they had a Founders All Day IPA.  I told him that I'd take one of those.  His "shadow" brought me out a plastic schooner of the Founders All Day.  (Turns out they had a QR code on the menu that gave the list of their beers - which turned out to be a pretty short list.)  

The menu turned out to be a pretty wide-ranging with appetizers such as wings, crab cakes, an onion loaf, chicken tenders and a choice of deep-fried or spicy shrimp.  Baby back ribs, barbecued chicken, and beef ribs were the primary items on the menu, along with fish tacos, burgers, and sandwiches with beef brisket, pulled pork or a fried chicken breast.  There was also steaks, seafood, and salads for those not wanting to load up on meat.  

I was looking for a combo dinner of barbecue items, but I didn't see it at first.  Finally, I found something on the bottom of "Combo" section of the menu that as mainly steak and seafood dishes.  They had a pulled pork, 1/4 rack baby back ribs, and beef brisket combo called the "Smokehouse Special".  I ordered that for my meal that evening.  And I got another Founders IPA to go along with the dinner.

When someone from the kitchen brought out the plate, I was sort of taken back by the amount of food on the plate.    There were about 4 or 5 very meaty pork rib bones, about a quarter pound of pulled pork with the sauce mixed in, and a pile of brisket on the plate.  The sliced brisket and pulled pork were both on a poppy-seeded bottom bun.  A piece of corn bread came with the smoked meats and I got a side of fries to go along with the meal.  And the price of all this was $24.99!  I could get 3 meat combos in the Midwest that would be $10 to $13 bucks more expensive!  

The ribs had a sweet and sticky sauce already on them.  As I said, the bones had ample pork meat on them and the meat pulled away from the bones rather easily.  The pulled pork was mixed with a mustard vinegar sauce that I really didn't care for.  They had some of their sweet house barbecue sauce at the table and I mixed some in with the pulled pork to help counter the taste of the mustard sauce.  Other than the mustard sauce, the pulled pork was tender and moist.

But the winner on the plate was the brisket.  Onion straws came on top of the brisket and the meat was very flavorful.  I used my fork to cut the brisket as it was that tender.  I added some of the barbecue sauce on the table to some of the bites of brisket, but in all honesty it wasn't needed.  It rivaled some of the brisket I've had in other barbecue hot spots I've visited over the years.  

And it was a lot of food!  I was having trouble finishing all the meat on my plate.  I made sure that the brisket and the ribs were all gone before concentrating on the pulled pork.  I did have a few fries, but they were not noteworthy.  And even though I don't care much for cornbread, I did pull a couple corners off the square piece just to try.  And I thought it was all right.  

After dinner, Asif brought the check along with this little frosted donut hole.  I thought it was a nice touch for an after dinner sweet.  It was actually pretty good!

When I looked at the bill, I figured out how they can keep the prices of their barbecue so low - they make it up on their beer and alcoholic drinks!  The schooners of beer were $14 each!  Ouch!!!  My bar tab with just two beers was more than my food tab!!   I also found out that they really push their frozen alcohol drinks - and those aren't cheap.  

Now, I had a co-worker of mine who we used to joke about our bar tabs being more than our food tabs sometimes when we were on the road.  But that was usually from having a burger and four or five beers at a bar.  This was a large plate of barbecue and two 20-ounce beers.  I just sort of shook my head in amazement and threw my American Express card into the check presenter with my bill.  

Maybe for New York Dallas BBQ was good, but other than the brisket I can't say that it matched up to the barbecue I've in places like Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, Dallas or Charlotte.  You can't beat the prices at Dallas BBQ - that was a lot of food for $25 bucks.  Even in New York City where prices are elevated everywhere!  But they got it back from me on the expensive beers they had.  Asif did a good job taking care of me and while I did feel a bit uncomfortable sitting at a table in the middle of a bustling dining area by myself, it was all right.  Dallas BBQ features good - not great - barbecue at a righteous price.  But remember - it costs a lot to drink in that establishment.  

The Palace Tavern - East Moline, IL

When I first moved to the Quad Cities over 30 years ago, I met a guy who lived over in Silvis who took me around to a number of eateries that he loved.  Some were really good, others were not.  One of the places that he took me to for Mexican food was a place called the Old Palace Tavern in East Moline.  I was sort of "meh!" on the place - it was sort of rundown and the food was just all right.  Of course, he loved the place, but that was the first and only time I went there.  Well, until recently, that is.  The original restaurant shut down in 2020, was bought by a local businessman who gutted the building and spruced the place up and reopened it as the Palace Tavern.  My wife had been intrigued by the place after reading about it, and she wanted to go over to check it out.  

The building in which the Palace Tavern is housed dates back to 1915.  The building has housed a pharmacy and a laundromat during the course of its history, but since the 1950's it has been a neighborhood tavern.  Different owners have been in charge of the bar over the years and in 2010 Stephanie Brandt became the owner of the Old Palace Tavern.  She ran it for 10 years before she was forced to shut her doors due to the lack of business during the pandemic.    

After the Old Palace Tavern closed, East Moline native and businessman Larry Anderson came into the picture.  Anderson's primary business is East Moline Glass, a business that was started by his grandfather over 60 years ago.  In addition to being the President at East Moline Glass, Anderson is also a developer who bought the land that the former Case/International Harvester factory sat upon in East Moline and turned that into a multi-use area called The Bend which features River Bend Park (formerly Murphy Park) - a wonderful outdoor event venue and green space - an events center, an apartment complex, and the Hyatt Place hotel.  

Just down the road from the old Case/IH plant was the former Moline-Knight Automobile building that was situated right next to East Moline Glass.  Anderson bought that building and was contemplating tearing it down to expand his company.  But he developed the old structure into a multi-use building with restaurants, office space, a brewpub, and a live music/event space called The Rust Belt.   In the summer of 2020, Anderson took over the Old Palace Tavern and renovated the tired old spot.  It took about a year-and-a-half for the renovations to be completed and in late November of 2022, the spot reopened as the Palace Tavern.

It was a Friday night when we decided to head over to the Palace Tavern to get some drinks and food.  It's located on 15th Avenue in downtown East Moline, not far from The Rust Belt and East Moline Glass.  (see map) My wife had been to the Old Palace Tavern a number of years ago when she was taking art classes at a studio just across the street.  She was sort of keen to find out how the place had changed.  As I said, I had been in the place once, but that was over 30 years ago and I don't remember much about it.

Going in the front door of the Palace Tavern, we were met by a young lady who said that we could sit anywhere.   We checked out the long narrow bar area with dark wood paneling along the wall opposite the bar.  A number of high top tables were in front of the wall with antique-style lamp fixtures hanging from a tin-paneled ceiling.  The bar area had a nice tiled floor and a classy looking bar and back bar.  Other than it was brighter than hell in the bar, and it was loud from all the people talking, I wouldn't have minded to have hung out in the bar.

The dining room off to the side of the bar was much more subdued in its noise level.  It featured a handful of booths along one wall with individual wall lights at each table.  Smaller 4-seater tables were along the other wall.  On the walls were a number of old pictures of East Moline over the years, and on the walk to the restrooms on the far end of the dining room was a case of memorabilia from the local high school United Township.  We ended up taking one of the comfy booths in the dining room.  

There's a large outdoor patio off the dining room.  Formerly a parking lot for the Old Palace Tavern, the patio features a number all-weather tables with chairs, as well as a stage area for live music in warmer months.  Strands of programmable colored lights hung across the patio - they were red for the upcoming Valentine's Day when we were there that evening.  But the centerpiece of the patio is a large mural on the side of a building that is also owned by Larry Anderson.  Local artist Atlanta Dawn was commissioned by Anderson to come up with a mural that depicts life around the Quad Cities.  She designed and painted "Midwest Mississippi Waltz", a 115-foot long, 11.5-foot high mural that shows the different cultures of music found in the Quad Cities toward one end, while the other end blends into scenic life on the Mississippi River.  (To see a video of the full mural, click here.)  With the help of other artists in the Quad City area, it took Dawn a little over two months to complete the mural.  

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Terrionna.  She gave us menus to look over and my wife ordered her normal Tito's and cranberry (with a lime).  They had a list of beers that were available in cans and bottles and I ended up getting a Lagunitas IPA.  (When we were leaving, we walked through the bar and I saw that Kona Big Wave on tap.  I would have gotten that had I known they had it.)  

It was a pretty full menu at the Palace Tavern including appetizers, soups & salads, burgers, sandwiches, pizza and calzones.  A kids menu was also available at the tavern.  I had just come off the road and had a pizza a couple nights before, so I was looking for something along the lines of a burger or a sandwich.  

My wife also wanted to eat light, so she went with the Palace Tavern Plantation salad.  The Plantation was an old steakhouse in Moline that closed 45 years ago, but is still fondly remembered by longtime Quad Cities residents.  They had a garlic dressing for their salads that a number of restaurants in the area have tried to replicate, but most people swear that no place has completely been able to match the flavor of the original Plantation salad dressing.  Since we never lived here when the Plantation was in business, we really don't know.  My wife asked Terrionna if she could add some protein to the salad and Terrionna said that they could add some grilled chicken to the salad.  That's what my wife ordered.  

Now, we've had Plantation dressing at other places around the Quad Cities and this seemed to be more like a Thousand Island/garlic dressing, which really wasn't bad.  My wife was happy with the Plantation/grilled chicken salad that she ordered.  Nice, light, and the chicken was properly grilled.

The sandwich side of the menu wasn't all that extensive.  They had a Nashville-hot chicken sandwich which was more of a Buffalo-style sandwich.  They had a grilled or breaded pork tenderloin sandwich that I considered for a moment.  And they had a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich on the menu.  I decided to just go the burger route and ordered the bacon burger.  I had a choice of cheese to put on it, and I went with the Swiss cheese.  For sides, I had choices including fries, fried potato salad (I seriously thought about trying that), onion rings, and cole slaw.  But they had tots and I had to get those.  

The burger was good - nice and flavorful served on a lightly toasted bun with a bacon/tomato jam.  Red onion slices, tomatoes and bib lettuce came on the side.  I asked Terrionna if they had Cholula for the tots, but all they had was Tabasco.  That was fine.  I concentrated more on finishing the burger than worrying about the tots - which were also good.  My wife even snuck a few tots over to her side of the table to munch on. 

The guy in the booth next to us had ordered a pizza and when the waitress brought it out to him, it went right by our table.  My wife and I both glanced at it as it went by and it looked interesting.  After the guy had finished what he could eat, he got a to-go box for the rest.  When he got up to leave, as he was passing our table, my wife said, "Hey, how is the pizza here?"  He said it was very good.  

"I come over here from Davenport," he said to my wife.  "I think it's the best pizza in the Quad Cities."  That was enough of an endorsement for us.  

So, we went back about a month later and ordered a pizza. We ordered our standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom.  The crust was spongy on the edges, but more thin in the middle.  It was cut into strips, Quad City-style, and had crumbled sausage, salty pepperoni, and fresh mushrooms.  We noticed that they went light on the cheese, which my wife appreciated.  

And it was a good pizza.  Not the type we like with large chunks of sausage and a thin crust all around, but fine for what it was.  It reminded us a lot of our favorite Quad City-style pizza at Sports Fans in Bettendorf.  We ate about half the pizza and took the rest home.  Warmed up, it was also pretty good as a leftover.  

For our two initial visits to the Palace Tavern in East Moline, we didn't really have anything to complain about.  The service was prompt and the staff was friendly, the food was good - but not transforming, and the ambiance was warm and welcoming.   The renovations they've done has turned a tired, dingy place into a nice little tavern that is comfortable and pleasant to visit.  We are definitely going back to the Palace Tavern at some point to enjoy the patio when the weather gets warmer.  

No. 1 Kazoku - San Gabriel, CA

San Gabriel, CA may have the largest per capita concentration of Chinese population/restaurants/businesses outside of cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.  I stayed in San Gabriel when I was out in California toward the end of 2024 as it was close to the home of my colleague who was driving me around during my visit.  We had originally planned on getting dinner together that evening, but my colleague called me around 7 p.m. and said that he was still full from a large lunch we had earlier in the day.  He begged off dinner that night and I told him that was fine with me.  I'm a big boy who has a credit card and I had noticed earlier that there was a sushi place just across the street from my hotel.  My colleague had been there before with his wife and he said that the sushi place - an oasis of Japanese cuisine in the midst of all those Chinese restaurants - was very good.  I ended up going to No. 1 Kazoku for dinner that night.  

 In Japanese, kazoku (家族) means "family".  And No. 1 Kazoku is truly a family operation.  Originally opened in late 2012 as R2 Kazoku, it was the second Kazoku restaurant owned by Freddy and Jeannie Yang.  Not long after they opened the San Gabriel location, they closed their original No. 1 Kazoku restaurant and transferred the name over to their newer place.  No. 1 Kazoku - known to the locals as simply No.1 - is also known for their Japanese charcoal grilled kushiyaki and yakitori - basically beef, chicken and/or seafood skewers - and their innovative specialty rolls served up by Chef Yamasan and his team of sushi chefs.  Tempura dishes - along with teriyaki favorites - also are available at No. 1 Kazoku.  

No. 1 Kazoku is located on Valley Blvd., just across the street from the Hilton Los Angeles/San Gabriel where I was staying.  (see map)  I had to walk over to the crosswalk to cross Valley Blvd. and back toward No. 1 Kazoku - about a two minute walk, tops, from the front door of the hotel.  Or I could have tried to cross Valley Blvd. and it would have been less than a 30-second walk.  But Valley Blvd. is too busy for a pedestrian to try and cross against the light.  

Just inside the front door to No. 1 Kazoku is a small entry way with a large hira daiko ceremonial drum.  I wondered how many times that thing had been banged on by people waiting for a table at the restaurant.  The restaurant was shrouded by a Kirin Ichiban curtain that was topped with a holiday season garland.  I thought it was odd to have a curtain at the entrance to the restaurant, but it's a guess that it played some significance other than being an ad for a Japanese beer company.

Brushing past the curtain into No. 1 Kazoku, I found a long narrow space with a long sushi bar on the right and a number of comfortable booths on the opposite side.  I also found out that the front door on Valley Blvd. wasn't the preferred entry point to the restaurant, but the back door was the most popular entrance because of the large parking lot behind the building.  Even though no one was at the sushi bar - my preferred place to sit - I was shown to a booth along the back wall of the restaurant.  An eclectic mix of music from artists such as Elvis Presley, Hall & Oates and Michael Bublé was playing in the background.

My server that evening was a tall young guy by the name of Nick.  Nick asked if I wanted the full menu or just the sushi menu.  I took the sushi menu from him and asked if he had Asahi beer.  "Asahi," he asked back.  "Sure, we have Asahi on tap!"  Wow!  Asahi on tap!  I'm not certain I've ever been in a place where they had Asahi on tap.  I got a pint to start off.  

Nick brought over the sushi and rolls menu.  They had about two dozen different types of sushi rolls and a number of different varieties of nigiri sushi.  What I liked about the menu was that they listed where the fish originated from.  The bluefin tuna selections they had on the sushi menu that evening came from Spain, their salmon came from Scotland, the yellow tail was flown in from Japan, and the amber jack came from Hawaii.  Plus they had the most succulent parts of the fish - the belly or toro pieces.  

I started out getting a spicy salmon roll.  The roll was sliced into eight pieces and the spicy salmon flavor, well, it wasn't all that spicy.  But, dipping the roll pieces into the wasabi with soy sauce was sinus clearing and the sliced ginger was very fresh.  I made quick work of the salmon roll and was ready to order some sushi.   

For sushi that evening, I got 2 orders of the Scottish salmon belly.  Tender and just bursting with flavor, the Scottish salmon belly was some of the best sushi I'd ever had.  It was simply outstanding.  I also got an order of the toro (tuna) belly.  Those pieces were also some of the best sushi I've eaten.  Between the salmon and the tuna belly, I couldn't tell you which one I liked more.  The fish was fresh like it was caught earlier in the day.  On top of the salmon and toro belly, I also got some of the yellow tail belly sushi.  While it was still good, the yellow tail belly was not as fresh in flavor as the salmon or tuna belly.  

After finishing off the plate of sushi, I was still thinking of getting a couple more pieces of the toro belly and another Asahi.  But they had gotten busy and I don't want to say that Nick forgot about me, but, well, Nick forgot about me.  A number of people had entered through the back door and Nick was running in a lot of different directions.  When I decided that I would just head back to the hotel bar to get a nightcap beer there, Nick dropped off my check.  

After my colleague picked me up the next morning, he asked me how No. 1 Kazoku was.  I told him that it was some of the finest sushi that I had ever had.  In fact, I was hoping to order two or four more pieces, but the waiter had sort of forgotten about me.  "Yeah, service can be a bit choppy at times," he said.  "But it's one of our favorite sushi places.  I feel bad that we didn't come out and have sushi with you last night."  I joked that it was just more for me to enjoy.  And enjoy I did!  I'm hoping there's a chance that I'll stay in San Gabriel again at some point and that would be an automatic revisit to No. 1 Kazoku.  

District Tap House - New York City

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thousand Oaks Meat Locker BBQ - Thousand Oaks, CA

My Los Angeles colleague and I had a meeting out in the Conejo Valley northwest of L.A. back in December.  We had some time to kill before we had our meeting and my friend said that maybe we needed to find a place to eat.  We were out in Thousand Oaks and he called up a buddy of his who lived in the area, but worked in L.A.  My colleague asked his buddy where the best place to have lunch in Thousands Oaks and he didn't hesitate.  "The Meat Locker," he told my colleague.  "Best barbecue for miles around."  Oh, yeah - I could be up for barbecue.  He punched in the address to the Thousand Oaks Meat Locker into his Google Maps and we took off for the place.  

Bruce Oxford was typical of the men of "The Greatest Generation".  He served in the armed forces during World War II and it during his time in the service that not only did he learn how to cook, but he also learned how to butcher meats that he ended up cooking for the troops in his battalion.  After the war ended, Oxford worked at various jobs before becoming a ranch hand on a property owned by then-actor Ronald Reagan in the hills above Agoura Hills and just north of Malibu.  (The ranch is now Malibu Creek State Park.)  Oxford bailed hay, rode the fence line and chased cattle that had gotten through some of the fencing on the hilly terrain.  

In the mid-50s Oxford left the ranch and began to work as a butcher at a local grocery store in what was then the sleepy ranch town of Thousand Oaks.  While working at the store, Reagan would come in and get his cuts of meat from Oxford where the two would discuss Reagan's herd of foriegn-bred, organically-fed cattle on his ranch. 

Pictured right - Bruce Oxford.  Photo courtesy The Alan Thicke Show.  

In 1957, Bruce Oxford opened his own butcher shop - Thousand Oaks Meat Market - and Reagan followed Oxford to his new shop.  Part of the building was a frozen meat locker where Oxford would store meat for Reagan - and others - and maintained a relationship with Reagan for years to come.  The locals came in for some of the finest cuts of meats available in the area and for Bruce Oxford's famous beef jerky.  

When Reagan was elected as governor of California in 1966, Oxford went into work the next day.  Looking out at the gate that he had in back, he noticed a car by the gate.  He immediately recognized that it was the Reagan family station wagon and Reagan was in the car.  When Oxford went out to open the gate, he looked in at Reagan and asked, "Sir, what are you doing?"  

Reagan got out of the car and told Oxford that he was getting away from the press who had camped out in front of his house.  "I knew you'd have good coffee here," Reagan told Oxford.  "And I just needed to get away to clear my head for a bit."

While hanging out in the back room of Oxford's butcher shop that morning, Oxford - whose politics never aligned with Reagan's throughout his political career - confessed to the governor-elect that he didn't vote for him.  Reagan laughed and said, "That's OK, Bruce!  I wouldn't vote for you, either!"  

Reagan continued to store his beef at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker into his presidency.  Reagan also tried to hide out at Oxford's butcher shop on Election Night of 1980, but the press had wised up to his movements and staked out the butcher shop.  Undeterred, Reagan spent part of the evening in the back of the shop with Bruce Oxford to get away from the bright lights.  As president, Reagan did stop in to pick up some of his meat on a couple occasions, but most of the time the Secret Service would stop by to pick up the meat for Reagan.  

In the early 60's Oxford set up a barbecue cooker in front of the butcher shop and began to smoke meats - tri-tip, ribs, sausage links, chicken.  It became a weekend only thing for the first few years until Oxford turned it into an every day barbecue restaurant in the early 70's.  

Bruce Oxford's son Wendell - known at Cobby - literally grew up in the restaurant.  Cobby Oxford would get a quarter a day to sweep the sawdust off the floor in the butcher shop.  Later on, he learned how to cut meat from his father and expanded the offerings of barbecue when he joined the butcher shop/meat locker/barbecue joint in the mid-70's.  

Cobby Oxford's wife Robin joined the family business in 1986 when she was pregnant with their first child.  After Bruce Oxford passed away, Cobby and Robin have continued to carry on the family business with help from their children and some longtime employees.  

In 2023, a fire in the barbecue smoker in front of the store caused the business to shut down.  It was determined the venting system above the grill was clogged with residue from years and years of barbecue smoke and grease from the cooking process.  Damage to the building was confined to the front and was minimal.  A few days after the fire, the Ventura County health department allowed the Oxford's to reopen the business with a new barbecue grill in the back alley behind the building.  

We pulled up to Thousand Oaks Meat Locker along Thousand Oaks Blvd. just after 1 p.m. on a beautiful Southern California afternoon.  (see map)  There was limited parking near the place and there was a gas station next door, so my colleague took a left at the gas station and we parked near a park about a block away from the barbecue joint.  As we were walking toward the front door, we passed an alleyway where they had their smoker trailer set up in back.  The smell of smoked meats just jumped into our noses.  "This ought to be good," my friend said as we walked toward Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  

We passed the old smoker grill in the front that looked sort of ramshackle now with some lattice fencing that had fallen down from the front.  Just inside the front door was a small area with a refrigerated counter with warming bins along a shelf behind the counter.  It was counter service at Thousands Oaks Meat Locker and the line was moving pretty quickly.  

Along the wall opposite the counter were a number of pictures of celebrities who have graced the doors of Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  There were signed photos and testimonials of stars such as Tom Cruise, Clint Black, Gary Sinese, Jonathon Winters, Jim Belushi (Jim Belushi? 🤔) and - of course - Ronald Reagan whose picture was a black-and-white still from a 1950's Western movie he was in.  A number of Western-themed movies were filmed in the Conejo Valley in the 50's and 60's.  

The menu was on the wall behind the counter at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  The menu featured beef and pork ribs, pulled chicken, smoked sausage, pulled pork, sandwiches and meat ordered by the pound.  There was no brisket or burnt ends, but the California staple of tri-tip was the answer to brisket.  Sandwiches along with sides such as baked beans, macaroni salad, cole slaw and potato salad were also available.   

I had to use the restroom while I was there and it was located down an open hallway to the back alley.  After using the facilities, I wandered down the hall to check out their smoker.  They were preparing a large catering order for sandwiches and the pit masters were also smoking pork ribs and tri-tip.  The smell of the smoked meat was almost intoxicating.

They have two seating areas at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker.  There's an outdoor patio that featured flimsy plastic fold-up picnic tables.  I saw a guy of medium build sit on the bench at one of the tables and the table wobbled considerably.  That was too bad because it was such a nice day and the patio had a bit of a shade thanks to trees on the property. 

I made an executive decision to sit in an enclosed room with a low-slung ceiling that I called "the Cowboy Room".  It had pictures of Western movie heroes such as Tom Mix and John Wayne along with other Western paraphernalia on the walls.  The tables and chairs were proper tables and chairs, solid and sturdy.     

My buddy and I got the same thing - the Manly Tri-Tip sandwich.  It featured over a half pound of sliced tri-tip served on a grill-toasted hoagie bun.  A couple small tubs of  a barbecue sauce came on the side.  With the sandwich we were able to get a couple sides.  My colleague went with a side salad and pesto pasta salad.  I went with the same pesto pasta salad and cole slaw.  I thought about getting some of the baked beans, but I was sort of worried that the aftermath of eating the beans would kick in during our meeting in about an hour and a half.  

The one strike against Thousand Oaks Meat Locker is that they had no beer to enjoy along with the barbecue.  We both ended up getting water instead of beer.  While it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, I would have loved to had a beer with my lunch.  

The sandwich was outstanding.  The tri-tip was tender, it had a wonderful rub that enhanced the overall flavor of the meat, and it had a nice, but not overpowering smokey punch.  I noticed that they sold their tri-tip rub at Thousand Oaks Meat Locker and I went back to buy some to take back home with me.  However, the line to order was now out the door (at 1:45 in the afternoon!) and decided to bag it.  I figured that after we opened our new account just down the road from the place that I could come back sometime in the future to grab some of the season.  

For the sides, the cole slaw was sort of "meh!", void of really any enhanced flavor.  But the pesto pasta salad was very good.  The large tubes of pasta had a generous coating of pesto that offered a zesty flavor to each bite.  

Our visit to Thousand Oaks Meat Locker was truly an enlightening experience.  It's an old Southern California institution that has obviously garnered a loyal following that started nearly 70 years ago.  It's great that the Oxford family has been able to keep Bruce Oxford's legacy alive.  I thoroughly enjoyed my tri-tip sandwich along with the pesto pasta salad that came with it as a side.  The cole slaw - not so much.  The charm of the old place overshadowed the fact that they didn't serve beer at the place.  But that didn't matter as the tri-tip was outstanding.  

Crawford Kitchen/Crawford Brew Works - Bettendorf, IA

One of our favorite places to hang on some Sunday afternoons or on evenings in the warmer momths is to go to Crawford Brew Works in Bettendorf to get a burger from the Floyd's Burgers food truck that is parked in front of the microbrewery.  (For the Road Tips entry on Floyd's Burgers click here.)  Floyd's, arguably, has the best burger in the Quad Cities.  But last year, Crawford Brew Works took out a common seating area in the corner of their brewpub and put in a kitchen.  They had a small area near the bar in the past where someone would come in and make pizzas, but this kitchen was going to feature appetizers, street tacos, flatbreads, burgers and sandwiches.  We had gone to Iowa City earlier in the day on a Sunday in December of last year, and when we got back home it was too late to start making something for dinner.  We decided to head over to Crawford Brew Works and have something to eat at Crawford Kitchen.  

The Crawford Company is a commercial HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical contractor that has been in business for over 70 years.  Based in Rock Island, the company employs about 350 people and has expanded their operations into metal fabrication, laser cutting and custom architectural products.  But for over 10 years, they've also been known as one of the top brewing equipment manufacturers in the U.S.  

In the early 2000's, there was an explosion in the craft beer industry.  Most start-up microbreweries had been buying brewing apparatus from overseas because of the lower costs.  But many brewers would find that there were modifications that had to be made that were driving up the costs of the brewing equipment.  Some local and regional breweries turned to the Crawford Company to modify and fabricate parts that would make the brewing equipment work better.  

Steve Zuidema helped establish the first brewpub in Iowa - Front Street Brewery - in Davenport in 1992.  Looking to expand his brewing capabilities with a new system that was going into the Freight House.  Knowing that Crawford Company had their own metal fabrication and laser cutting division, Zuidema approached engineers at the company with drawings and designs that were primarily on napkins and notebook paper for the type of brewing system that he wanted.

Once the Crawford Company finished the project and installed the new system in the Freight House building in downtown Davenport, Zuidema would host a number of people who were either established craft brewers or were looking to start up their own brewery.  Impressed with the quality of the tanks and brewing equipment built by Crawford Company, those brewers approached the company to see if they could build brewing equipment for them.  

With the sudden interest in building brewing equipment, Crawford Company heads Bob Frink and Jim Crawford, Jr., along with Frink's son, Ian, saw the potential to have a division that solely focused on manufacturing brewing equipment.  They established Crawford Brewing Equipment and opened their own division in Rock Island in 2013.   Some of the breweries around the country that Crawford has made brewing equipment for are Municipal Brew Works in Hamilton, OH; The Lucky Monk in S. Barrington, IL; Hot Plate Brewing Company in Pittsfield, MA; Springfield Beer Company in Springfield, IL; and Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard, IL.  

Zuidema was a great ambassador and erstwhile sales rep for the Crawford Company's brewing equipment and the execs came up with an idea of having a working showroom to show off their equipment.  They came up with a plan to build a microbrewery with access to demonstrate their brewing apparatus up close.  Crawford Company co-owner Bob Frink, his son Ian - who succeeded his father as Crawford Company president in 2017; Keith Gerks - who ran the Crawford Brewing Equipment division; Adam Issacson - who was Crawford Company's plumbing and piping manager; and Bruce Grell - who owns and runs the Healthy Habits bicycle shop that shares the building with the new brewpub - are the owners of Crawford Brew Works which initially opened in April of 2018.  The group installed Scot Schaar as the head brewer - he had previously been the distiller at Mississippi River Distilling Company.  

Relying upon food trucks to supply food for their patrons for the first few years of existence, the group had been planning to put in a kitchen at some point in time.  As I said earlier, they had put in a small area near the bar where pizzas were made available at different times.  But when we were in there on a Sunday afternoon last spring right after Floyd's Burgers opened for the season and we noticed that they were working on the area in the front corner of the brewpub.  We were told that it was going to be a kitchen and they were going to serve food Tuesday through Saturday.  I said, "Gonna keep Sunday's open for Floyd's, I see."  

"Oh, we aren't going to fool with Floyd's," the young lady said. "They bring in too much business for us."  

Before the kitchen opened in July - under the consultancy of longtime Quad City area chef Juan Hernandez (formerly at Blue Iguana, Steventon's, Twin Span Brewing Company) - it was announced they would be open five days a week.  But almost as soon as they opened, Crawford Brew Works decided to open Crawford Kitchen on Sunday, as well.  This created a situation where Floyd's Burgers was no longer going to be at Crawford on Sunday afternoon and evening.  

Pictured right - Juan Hernandez and Crawford Brew Works manager Tari Fisk.  Photo courtesy Crawford Brew Works web site.

Not having Floyd's at Crawford upset many of their ardent followers, so much so that a proposed boycott of Crawford Brew Works and Crawford Kitchen materialized on social media.  But the owners of Floyd's got on some of those sites and told people that they were OK with the decision.  They already had a new spot for Sundays worked out.  (Plus, we found out a couple months ago that Floyd's was working on a collaboration with Radicle Effects Brewerks on a brick and mortar restaurant in Rock Island that will eventually be called the Bruised Goose.)

We had been out to Crawford Brew Works a few times since Crawford Kitchen opened, mainly on Friday nights when we like to go out there and relax after a long week.  But it was on a Sunday evening just before Christmas when we decided that we really didn't want to make anything at home when I suggested we go out and try the food at Crawford.  

The brewpub is a spacious two-level facility with a nice patio off to the side.  There's a short wall between the bar area and some booths on the other side.  With the high ceilings and concrete floors, it can get a bit loud in there if there's a good-sized crowd.  Upstairs is a party/private event space that always seems to be full whenever we're in there.  We've seen everything from birthday parties to gender reveals to work events take place up on the second level when we've been there.    

The brewing facility is fully on display in the back of the brewpub.  There's no smell of roasting hops or stale beer in Crawford Brew Works which is remarkable.  It's a great showcase for the Crawford Company to show off their products to prospective buyers.  I have to say that while I like some of the beers at Crawford Brew Works, they're not my favorite beers of all the brewpubs in the Quad Cities.  Good beers, but not the first ones I would order if others were available.  

Crawford Kitchen is situated in the back corner to the right of where you come into the front door.  It's an open kitchen with a serving ledge in the front.  There used to be a den area in that corner with couches, a television and table games.  

We got into Crawford around 5:30 that evening.  We took a seat in one of the booths along the short wall by the bar.  My wife likes Crawford in that they have mixed drinks there.  She can get her usual vodka/cranberry while I can get a craft beer.  

There's usually a waitstaff at Crawford Brew Works, but this evening it was just an older guy working both the bar area and the dining room.  There weren't a lot of people in the dining room, but the bar was nearly full.  We sat in the booth for five minutes or so before I went up and stood at the bar to get us some drinks.  Once I got his attention, I got a vodka/cranberry (with a lime) for my wife, and I got the "I've Got a KRUSH on You" IPA.  They also have a "Get Off My Lawn" IPA that I'll get from time to time, but lately I've been getting the KRUSH.  

After he brought our drinks to me at the end of the bar, I asked the guy if we could order food and he said, "Sure!  I'll be over in a minute to get your order!"  It gave us time to look through the food menu that they had on the table.   

While it's not a big menu, it's good enough for a brewpub that is serving food as an afterthought.  Appetizers and shareables include homemade guacamole with chips; a warm pretzel with a beer cheese sauce, Boetje's mustard, and a chipotle cinnamon butter; wings; nachos; and jalapeño mac & cheese bites.  They also have salads and flatbreads; tacos; burgers and sandwiches.  

True to his word, the bartender came over.  He immediately apologized for the lack of service.  "They're having a staff meeting tonight and they put me in charge," he said in a kind of joking manner.  "I'm probably the last guy they should have entrusted in running the place tonight."  He was a good guy and we sympathized with his plight.

After we placed our orders, it was about fifteen minutes later when we saw a couple things come up on the pick-up counter in the kitchen.  The guy behind the bar was slammed with beer and drink orders there and the food just sat up on the counter.  Finally, I got up and went over to the pick-up counter and determined that the two items were our items.  I picked them up and brought them back to the table.

My wife got the Backyard Brisket Sandwich - slow-smoked beef brisket with some crispy pork belly in a barbecue sauce.  It's topped with some of Crawford Kitchen's crispy mac & cheese bites.  The sandwich comes with a toasted bun, but she got it without.  It was served on wax paper on a small cooking sheet.  My wife remarked, "I'm glad I didn't get it on the bun.  There's no way that I'd be able to pick it up without it exploding in my hand!"  A side of fries came with her smoked brisket/crispy pork belly conglomeration.  

I got the Mushroom/Smoked Gouda burger - two flat-grilled smash burgers topped with smoked gouda cheese, seared garlic, oyster mushrooms and a truffle aioli.  I also asked them to put bacon on the burger.   Fries also came on the side with my burger.  

My wife seemed to enjoy her sandwich sans bun.  The brisket was tender and the pork belly was juicy and easy to bite into. She said the mac & cheese bites were sort of rich, but had a good flavor.

The mushroom/smoked Gouda burger with bacon was very good.  I don't know - or I can't say that the burger was better than the burger Floyd's would make, but it was still very good.  Everything that went on the burger patties - the cheese, the bacon, the sautéed mushrooms, the garlic and the truffle aioli just all worked together very well.  This immediately moved into my top 5 favorite burgers in the Quad Cities.  Not as good as Floyd's, but it was in the ballpark.  

When the bartender came over to check on us, he said, "I see you went and picked up your own food.  Thanks for doing that.  I think we're a lot more busy on a Sunday night than they expected."  He said that he would give us a discount on the food for having to "serve ourselves."  It was nice gesture and given how expensive our meal was, we gladly accepted.  

While I'm sorry that Floyd's won't be making their weekly trip to Crawford Brew Works any longer, with the new Crawford Kitchen being able to come up with a similar burger that they can serve 7 days a week is a nice trade-off.  We thought our food was very good - a bit expensive, but still very good.  Crawford Brew Works has been one of our favorite hang spots since they opened nearly 7 years ago, and now with Crawford Kitchen it will probably be even more popular as a place to have some drinks and food on a given night.              

Reza's Restaurant - Evanston, IL

When my wife and I were in Chicago for her birthday just before Christmas, we stayed in downtown Evanston.  My wife was hellbent on getting Mediterranean food while we were in the area for a long weekend and I had heard of a place called Reza's Restaurant in downtown Evanston that had been in business for quite some time.  We decided to head over to Reza's for dinner one evening.  

Reza Toulabi and his brother John were both in Chicago in 1979 when the Iranian revolution broke out.  Told by family members to stay put in the city, the brothers found that there wasn't a lot of Persian or Mediterranean restaurants to eat in.  They decided to open their own restaurant using family recipes and hiring people who had fled the revolution to the U.S.  In 1983, Reza's Restaurant opened their doors in the Andersonville neighborhood on N. Clark Street in Chicago.  

At one time, Reza's was known as the premier Mediterranean/Persian restaurant in the greater Chicago area.  They opened up a second location in River North, and a third one in Lincoln Park.  A Reza's opened in suburban Oak Brook in 2004. 

Turmoil between the brothers caused the closing of the River North and Lincoln Park locations, but in 2021 Reza Toulabi opened another location in downtown Evanston in what was the former Pete Miller's Steakhouse that had closed in August of 2019.  Since the opening of the Evanston location, financial problems have forced Reza's to downsize their original restaurant on N. Clark.  

We took an Uber over to Reza's from our hotel.  We could have walked to their location on Sherman Ave., but it was a blustery evening and my wife didn't want to walk.  (see map)  Before we left, we called to see if we needed reservations and a man in a thick accent said that no reservations were needed if we came right away.  It turned out that we wouldn't have had to worry about reservations at any time that evening.  With Northwestern on holiday break and downtown Evanston was not very busy at all.  

It was tough to miss Reza's when we turned onto Sherman Ave.  The bright red wood-slat facade just jumped out compared to other buildings on the block.  I have to say that Reza's was a bit tired and a bit shabby.  It was like they had taken over the old Pete Miller's, moved a few things around, took some things away, and added some trim artwork to the place.  The bar wasn't really even a bar any longer as there were no chairs around the bar.  

The dining room was set up with tables in the front windows and some booths along the wall.  There was a large open area in the middle of the room, and there were two other dining areas - a step-up area in the back, and a small room on the opposite side in the back of the restaurant.  

Wassey was the one who greeted us when we came in and he showed us to a table by the front windows that looked out on Sherman Ave.  It was a bit cold by the windows, but - quite frankly - that was the only place they were seating people that evening.  By this time, I was starting to question our choice in restaurants.  

After he handed us our menus, Wassey asked what we wanted to drink.  My wife tried to order a Tito's and cranberry and Wassey said they had no hard liquor.  OK - that was interesting.  She ended up ordering a glass of William Hill cabernet that they had.  I asked what kind of beer they had and Wassey said, "Modelo."  That was it - no other beer other than Modelo!  By this time, I was really wanting to get out of the place.   But we decided to stick it out as my wife was really jonesin' for Mediterranean food.  

The food at Reza's is more Persian than fully Mediterranean.  There was little to choose from on the menu in terms of seafood.  There were a lot of beef, chicken and lamb dishes.  Appetizers included stuffed grape leaves, sautéed veggies, falafel, and roasted feta cheese.  For larger groups, Reza's featured family-style dinners that included appetizers, entrees and rice.  

My wife wanted some hummus and Wassey brought out a huge, but very thin piece of pita bread.  It was actually more like a tortilla than bread.  But we could tear it off and scoop the hummus onto it.  The hummus -which I've been getting into more and more lately - was very good.  A small relish plate with feta cheese, cilantro and chopped radishes came with the hummus.

And somewhat surprisingly, my wife also ordered the grilled mushrooms.  She usually doesn't like mushrooms, but she saw something in the description on the menu that intrigued her.  They were basically whole mushrooms that were topped with herbs and served a garlic butter sauce.  I have to say these were pretty damned good.  

After we ordered our entrees for the evening, we both had a choice of soup to start out.  I got the chicken barley soup - chunks of chicken in a heavy broth along with barley, leeks, dill and Persian spices.  It was also very good.  My wife went with the tomato lentil soup - it featured vegan cracked-bulgur wheat with lentils in a tomato herb broth.  

My wife looked at a number of options for food.  She thought about the lamb kabobs, and the salmon and shrimp entree sort of got her thinking.  But in the end she ordered the Filet Mignon Chengeh - beef tenderloin filet cubes that were marinated, then grilled.  It came with Persian rice (dill and fava beans mixed in), and roasted bell peppers.  The portion was HUGE!  First of all, there had to be over a pound of beef cubes on the plate.  And the rice portion was also HUGE!  There was no way my wife was going to finish even half of what she had in front of her.  

What she could eat, she liked.  The beef tenderloin cubes were tender and cooked to a medium temperature.  She concentrated more on the beef than she did on the rice.  But the few bites she had of the rice, she seemed to like.  

I really didn't know what I wanted, but there was something on the menu that intrigued me - the Kabob Makhsous.  It the same beef tenderloin filet that my wife had, that was stuffed in a roll of seasoned ground beef, then broiled.   And when it was brought to the table, I didn't really know what to think.  Now, I'm not a seasoned Persian food enthusiast, but I was expecting the meat to be on skewers.  This was like a big friggin' beef log that had the ground beef wrapped around the chunks of beef tenderloin.  I also got some of the Persian rice.  

The flavor and texture were interesting.  The beef had a seasoning that I couldn't quite place my taste buds on, but it tasted fine.  The ground beef flaked apart with each cut with my fork.  The chunks of beef tenderloin were caked with the ground beef.  It wasn't exactly what I was thinking I was getting from the description on the menu.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.  

We couldn't finish up the meal we had in front of us.  Had we shared one of the two plates we got, we STILL couldn't have finished all the food.  And when Wassey asked us if we needed boxes, we declined.  Even if we weren't traveling and staying in a hotel, I'm not certain it would have tasted as good at home.  

And when Wassey came with our bill, I pulled out my credit card.  He then asked me if I could pay with cash, or a combination of cash and credit card.  Well, I could have, but I didn't.  That was a major red flag with a business who asks for cash or a combination.  I guess it's a sign that they needed cash.  

We were sort of disappointed in our choice of restaurant in Reza's.  A few days later, I was talking with a friend of mine who lives on the north side of Chicago and told him that we had gone to Reza's for dinner when we were in town a couple weeks earlier.  "Reza's has lost its charm," he told us.  "Used to be a big fan, but they've gone through some changes."  While the food was fine - and the portions were huge - the place was gloomy and drab.  And with no liquor and a minimum variety of wine and just one beer to be offered, it appeared to me they were doing just enough to keep the place open.  If they didn't serve such huge portions, maybe they'd make more of a profit.  😉

Hawkers Asian Street Food - Nashville

On our last night in Nashville just after Thanksgiving last year, my colleague from Montreal, my colleague from Los Angeles, and myself invited two guys who we have worked with in promoting our studio products over time out to dinner.  To make it an even bigger party, we invited our former colleague who lived in Nashville to join us.  Not exactly knowing where to take a group of six people for a fun night of food and drinks in the city, our former colleague suggested a place that he called one of his favorite places in Nashville - and Asian-fusion restaurant by the name of Hawkers Asian Street Food.  After making reservations earlier in the day, we all met up at Hawkers in East Nashville around 7:30 that night.  

Allen Lo was born in Malaysia, but grew up in Cincinnati, OH working at his parent's Chinese restaurant.  During business hours the family would serve American-ized Chinese food, but when they would make meals at home they would make foods that were from their Malaysian homeland.  Lo asked his mother one time why they didn't make Malaysian food at the restaurant and she told him that Americans would never eat the food they made at home.  

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, Lo moved to Orlando, FL to pursue his masters in finance at the University of Central Florida.  After graduating from UCF, Lo opened his own lending firm in the greater Orlando area.  

Kaleb Harrell grew up in Central Florida and went to UCF to study finance.  But food was his passion and during his time in college he met Wayne Yung who was studying business management.  The two hit it off, especially with Yung's family's culinary background in authentic Chinese and Vietnamese "street" foods - quick bits that were generally hand-held in nature.  

Harrell and Yung formed a branding agency after they graduated from UCF and they accumulated an impressive list of clients ranging from the likes of Disney to Chevrolet to UPS.  Harrell and Yung had become friends with Allen Lo and during non-business hours the trio loved to try different types of recipes that were handed down from Yung's and Lo's families.  

Harrell, Yung and Lo had a 4th musketeer that became part of their group with Hong Kong-native Kin Ho. Ho had a lengthy resume in the hospitality and restaurant industry.  Once he got involved with Harrell, Yung and Lo, he introduced them to recipes he's picked up from places like Singapore, Japan and Thailand.  The group decided to open a restaurant that showed the different styles of Asian foods - foods that were very authentic and could be found in SE Asia, China and the Pacific Rim.  

Pictured right - Kin Ho, Allen Lo, Wayne Yung, and Kaleb Harrell.

The term "hawkers" is what street vendors in the far east are called - "hawking" their foods from carts in markets.  The group designed their restaurant to be a culinary adventure to different parts of Asia in one sitting.  In March of 2011, the group opened their first Hawkers Asian Street Food in Orlando.  

The concept of Asian street food caught on quickly and Hawkers began to expand across Central and Northern Florida into the Atlanta market, up to the Washington D.C. area, and into North Carolina.  In the fall of 2020, they opened their 10th location in Nashville.  Today, they have 15 Hawkers Asian Street Food locations in 7 states.  

Now, I have to say that I was pretty apprehensive after hearing what kind of food Hawkers had.  But my younger colleagues were more than up for going there.  Quite honestly, I didn't really care where we ended up that evening and I thought it would be fun trying something new.  

Hawkers is located on Main Street in East Nashville.  (see map)  There's a parking lot next to the building, but a larger one just west of the restaurant.  However, that parking lot is for Bolton's Famous Spicy Chicken & Fish up to 8 p.m. and there is a guy who is out there patrolling the lot making sure that people are going into Bolton's and not into Hawkers.  

I was driving and I went around the block to an alleyway behind Hawkers.  Just as we pulled into the curving driveway into their parking lot, there was a car that was getting ready to leave.  We ended up taking that spot and going into Hawkers.  

There's a covered patio area just before you walk into Hawkers.  But, of course, since it was early December - and it was 30 degrees outside - there was no one out there even with the overhead heaters.  

Just inside the front door was a large rectangular bar with a yellow face and matching yellow chairs.  They had a full bar at Hawkers and they had a number of specialty cocktails on their beverage menu.   They also had a number of domestic, imported and craft beers, along with wine, sake and non-alcoholic cocktails at Hawkers.  

Along the wall in the bar area were a number of booths with wooden-slat seating.  Posters and colorful neon lights were on the wall.  It was a relaxed atmosphere in the bar area and I wouldn't have minded sitting in there.  

But since there were six of us, we wouldn't have all fit in one of those booths.  A hostess showed us toward the back dining area at Hawkers where there were a number of tables, as well as tables along low-slung walls with banquette seating that could be configured for larger parties.  Like the front bar, there was exposed HVAC and piping with heavy cloth draped to help cut down on the reverberating sound in the area.  A corrugated tin wall along one side had another colorful neon sign with three soup bowls with the words, "Slurp Slurp Slurp" above the bowls.  

In the far back of the restaurant was the open kitchen.  It was controlled chaos around the kitchen with servers and kitchen staff talking loudly back and forth with one another.  The clanking of dishes added to the cacophony of sounds around the restaurant.  

They had moved three tables together along the banquette seating opposite the corrugated tin wall back near the open kitchen area.  My L.A. colleague had peeled off earlier with our former colleague and they were the first to show up.   One other person we were going to have dinner with that night was already at the table when my colleague from Montreal and I showed up.  Our final guest showed up a bit later on saying that he had to park a couple blocks away.  "It's always a bitch to park around here," he said as he sat down next to me.  

"That's because it's so good," our former colleague from Nashville said.  And the place was packed with a younger crowd.  Music from artists such as Canadian singer Lennon Stella; Jean Philip-Grobler's St. Lucia persona, Jet; and Portugal. The Man played from the sound system in the restaurant.  Later on in the evening, I went into the restroom and the music that was playing in there sounded like Chinese show tunes.  I did a quick Shazam search on my phone, and just as I thought the music was, indeed, Chinese show tunes from Yao Lee and Zhang Lu.

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Savannah.  The guys who were already there had gotten Sapporo beers and that's what I ended up getting, as well.  Even though Savannah had given us food menus, we were too busy talking to order food right of the bat.  But the beer was good and it was flowing, so Savannah did a good job of keeping up with our refill requests.  

Now, I'm not big on the food that they had on the menu.  It's not that it was bad, but this isn't the type of restaurant that I would seek out when I look for a place to eat on the road.  Noodle dishes were some of the main items on the menu, along with rice and curry dishes.  For my vegetarian buddy who I work with, they had a number of vegetarian dishes (proteins could be added), as well as meat dishes such as spicy lamb skewers, crispy pork belly, and bulgogi steak.  Dim sum appetizers such as spring rolls, crispy wontons, baos, and chicken dumplings were on the menu.  After Savannah checked with us for the 4th time, we thought we'd better order up some food.  

I really wasn't certain what I wanted.  None of the rice and curry, or the noodle dishes appealed to me all that much.  I didn't want to get any of the chicken wing dishes they had on the menu, and while I considered some of the dim sum appetizers, I really didn't know what I wanted to get.  

In the end, I went with the Hong Kong sticky ribs.  It was a half-rack of ribs that was coated in Hawkers' house-made char siu glaze. It was served with spicy dill pickle chips and fried bao buns.  The ribs were actually pretty good.  The char siu glaze was sort of sweet and had a bit of a spicy bite.  The six or seven ribs that were served to me were all meaty and very filling.  

Three of the guys at our table went noodle dishes.  One of our guests got the yaki udon - udon noodles with sautéed chicken, eggs, and veggies in a spicy savory sauce.  (Above right)  "This is so good," he said between bites.  "But, man!  My mouth is on fire!"   One of the other guys got the Singapore mei fun - thin rice noodles dusted with yellow curry that were wok-fired with chicken, shrimp, eggs, and veggies.  And the third noodle dish at the table was the curry duck noodles - shredded duck with five spices, mixed with egg noodles, fresh veggies, garlic, and Hawkers' signature curry sauce that came from a recipe handed down by Allen Lo's grandmother.

While my vegetarian colleague got the veggie pad thai with spring rolls, our other guest went sort of the route I was thinking by getting dim sum in the form of hot chicken bao.  It featured two bao buns filled with Hawkers' rendition of Nashville hot chicken with sliced cucumbers on top.  

He also got an order of the golden won tons - chicken, shrimp and mushroom filled won tons that were deep fried and served with a generous serving of a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce.  Now, that guest was - by far - the smallest of the six of us at the table and he made short work of his two hot chicken baos and the golden won tons.  

And the guy who got duck curry decided he was full with just over half of his meal eaten.  He was seated next to our guest who got the dim sum appetizers and he gave the rest of his noodle dish to that guy!  And he finished it off!  "Man, I was hungry," he said to me as I had an incredulous look on my face after he finished the duck curry noodle dish.  I joked with him that he could be a competitive eater!  

While Hawkers may be popular with Millennials, I sort of felt out of place with the style of food they had.  I was never a ramen noodle kind of person, and I never had this style of food other than run-of-the-mill Asian restaurants that I've gone to in the past.  My sticky ribs were fine for what they were, but everyone else seemed to rave about the food they had.  I do have to say that Savannah was a great server for us that evening.  She stayed on top of every request we had during our visit.  If I encounter a Hawkers in my travels at some point I may go back and maybe try some dim sum offerings.  But I'd probably end up going somewhere else.   

Firestone Walker Brewing Company - The Propagator - Venice CA

When I was out in Los Angeles just before Christmas for a meeting, I had a night free to get together with a buddy of mine who grew up in Iowa and is living in Manhattan Beach.  I was staying by Los Angeles International Airport as I had a morning flight the next day and my buddy and I made plans to get together for dinner that night.  He picked me up at the hotel and even though we had made plans to get together, we didn't make plans of where to go.  Knowing me the way my buddy does, he knew that a brewpub or a burger joint would be my preferred dining spot for the evening.  We drove up to Venice and pulled up to a brewpub that was an outpost of one of the oldest established breweries in California.  We were going to have dinner at Firestone Walking Brewing Company - The Propagator.  

David Walker was in the tech industry in his native Great Britain when he met an aspiring young actress by the name of Polly Firestone who was in a three-year study program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.  Polly Firestone was the granddaughter of Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber company.  Her father - Leonard Firestone - established the Firestone Vineyards along the central California coast in the early 1970's after he retired as president of the Firestone company.  

David and Polly eventually married and they moved back to California in the early 90's where David could advance his career in technology and Polly could pursue her acting career.  Helping his father at the winery, Polly's brother Adam Firestone found that he had a lot in common with his new brother-in-law - their love for craft beers.  The craft beer movement was still emerging with California breweries such as Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam and Karl Strauss showing the way for the burgeoning industry.  After finding that many of those beers weren't always available locally on a normal basis, David and Adam decided that they should try their hand at brewing beers and they set up a primitive apparatus in shed on the grounds of the Firestone Vineyards near Los Olivos.  

Whereas most breweries had gotten away from making and storing beers in wooden barrels, Firestone and Walker incorporated wine making techniques by brewing and fermenting their first beer in oak barrels.  Their very first beer they brewed in 1995 was a British-style pale ale which they called Double Barrel Ale.  Most of the other vintners in the area dismissed Firestone and Walker's little side project, but the two felt they were on to something with their brewing techniques.  They pursued the brewing venture to the point that they decided to open their own brewery - Firestone Walker Brewing Company - in 1996.  Their logo depicts the symbol of the Brit (Walker) as a Lion and the American (Firestone) as a Bear both in boxing pose.  

Compared to modern day microbreweries, the Firestone Walker Brewing Company was crude and rudimentary.  There weren't the companies in place to manufacture small brewing equipment like there are today.  They used old equipment from the vineyard bottling their beer in a similar fashion as to how the vineyard was bottling wine.  

By 2000, the number of craft breweries in the state of California had nearly tripled over a 10-year period.  And Firestone Walker Brewing Company had finally grown enough that they could get out of the shed on the Firestone property and move to their own brewing facility in Paso Robles, 90 miles to the north of the Firestone vineyards.  Looking for a brewmaster to run their new facility, Firestone and Walker experienced a massive stroke of luck when Matt Brynildson agreed to join the pair as their head brewer.  

Brynildson was a graduate of the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago and was the head brewer at Goose Island Brewery for five years.  Brynildson opened up a brand new horizon in beer making for Firestone Walker and the company took off from that point.  Their flagship 805 blonde ale became one of the best selling craft beers and Brynildson garnered four Brewer of the Year awards at the annual Great American Beer Festival and an equal number of Champion Brewmaster at the World Beer Cup.  

In early 2013, Firestone Walker expanded their facilities to open a barrel-aged brewing center in Buellton, CA near Santa Barbara.  The Barrelworks, as it was called, allowed Firestone Walker to expand its wild ales (sours and fruit ales) and barrel-aged program in a much larger space than what they had up in Paso Robles.

As some of the big breweries were starting to feel the pinch put on by some of the young upstarts in the craft brewing industry, a number of the microbreweries started to buy up some of the more popular and well-established craft breweries.  Firestone and Walker resisted the temptation to sell out until they got an offer from Belgium-based Duvel Moortgat to buy a majority stake in their brewery.  This gave Firestone Walker a stronger presence in the rapidly changing craft beer market, plus helping with greater distribution outside of California.  Adam Firestone and David Walker stayed on as minority owners in the brewery.  

One of the things Firestone and Walker was looking to do was to have a presence in the greater Los Angeles area.  They had been planning on a combination brewpub/gastropub/research & development facility at some point and with more capital on hand, they had the chance to see this plan come to fruition.  They had decided to call this facility The Propagator as it would serve as a place where theories and techniques could be propagated into different styles of beers.   After cutting through some red tape with local authorities, The Propagator opened in April of 2016.  

Technically, The Propagator is in Marina del Rey, but it's on the border with Venice along West Washington Boulevard just west of California State Highway One/Lincoln Boulevard/Pacific Coast Highway.  (see map)  It was a pleasant surprise when my friend pulled into the parking lot next to the brewery, but we were forced to drive around back to find a parking spot.  The brewpub was hosting a corporate event on their large patio that evening and we were lucky to snag the last parking spot in the lot.  

The courtyard/patio at Firestone Walker sits between the Propagator "research and development" building for the brewery and the brewpub, itself.  It was a large courtyard with a number of tables with bench seats, high-top tables and regular four-seater tables.  The patio area was packed when my buddy and I showed up, but by the time we left the even was over and there were just a handful of people hanging out on a cool Southern California evening.  

Just inside the brewpub was the bar area with a small lounge area off to side.  The bar had a number of large flatscreen televisions on the wall of the back bar with wooden beams overhead.  Ornate wooden lounge seating gave the lounge area a bit of a quaint old-English feeling.

Off to the side of the bar/lounge area was a larger dining section with the open kitchen along one wall.  This area also had high-top and regular height tables, as well as a circular seating area that looked like it was made out of beer vessel.  It was rather ingenious way for seating in a brew pub.

My buddy and I took a seat at a regular height table in the middle of the dining area.  It wasn't long before our server that evening - Rosa - came over with food menus for us.  She also had a couple beer menus for us to look through.   My buddy ordered a Waking the Fallen - a steam ale that was similar to the Anchor Steam beer.  They had a number of pale ales on the menu, as well as a handful of fruited ales and seltzers.  They also had three hazy IPA's on the menu including an imperial hazy IPA and an imperial juicy IPA.  I ordered the third of the hazy IPA's - the Mind Haze tropical hazy IPA.  It had a wonderful flavor and it was a smooth drinking beer.

The menu at Firestone Walker was similar to most upscale brewpubs with a number of appetizers and sharables, salads and protein bowls, burgers and sandwiches, pizza, and a handful of entrees including fish and chips, fish tacos, grilled salmon, chicken schnitzel, and mustard-glazed baby back ribs.  

The appetizers were pretty interesting and included ahi wonton tacos, shrimp boiled in Firestone Walker's 805 Cerveza Mexican-style lager along with lemon and garlic, and sweet and smoky Brussels sprouts.  I remarked that my wife would have probably ordered the Brussels sprouts along with the sautéed rustic vegetable appetizer and called it good for her meal.  My buddy suggested getting an order of the taproom wings.  We had a choice of 8 or 16 - we took 8; and we had a choice between traditional Buffalo wing sauce or a Nashville hot seasoning.  We took the traditional Buffalo sauce on them.  The wings were very meaty and had a nice spicy bite to them.

For dinner that night, my buddy went the sandwich route and ended up getting the tri-tip sandwich.  It featured sliced tri-tip topped with a house-made barbecue sauce, caramelized onions, arugula, and a rosemary aioli on a butter/grilled French roll.  It was served on a small cooking sheet along with fries.  My buddy said it was his favorite thing on the menu and he seemed to be happy with getting that again.  

My eyes were focused on the fish tacos until I saw that they were beer-battered with the 805 Cerveza.  The chicken schnitzel sounded delicious, but I was afraid that would be a lot of food.  I ended up going the burger route and got Firestone Walker's Bear Burger - a smashed angus beef patty topped with sharp cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, smoked tomatoes, and a rosemary aioli on a sesame seed potato bun.  The fries that came with the burger reminded me somewhat of the fries from In-n-Out.  While my buddy's meal was served on a try, I got mine on a traditional plate.  

I have to say the burger was very good.  It was a messy burger, but everything seemed to click together with the flavors.  The sharp cheddar didn't overpower the taste of the beef, and the tomatoes shone through with an interesting smoked flavor.  It was definitely a multiple napkin burger, but the bun held together very well.  

My buddy and I finished up our meals and stuck around to have one more beer while we continued to catch up on things before he was ready to take me back to my hotel.   My buddy definitely knows what I like - good brewpubs with good pub food and a fun atmosphere.  And Firestone Walker/The Propagator filled the bill that night.  I would be remiss in giving a shout out to Rosa who was on top of things all through our visit.   My visit to Firestone Walker/The Propagator was one of my more memorable visits to a brewpub.  

Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria - Moline, IL

I hadn't been traveling much after the holidays and my wife and I had been eating at home during much of the month of January.  It was a Friday evening and we were out having an after-work drink at a local watering hole when we decided to go out for pizza at one of favorite non-Quad City-style pizza joints, Smash Pizza in Bettendorf.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Smash Pizza.)  Smash doesn't take reservations and is available on a first come-first serve basis.  Despite seeing three tables open when we walked in, we were told it would be a 35 to 45 minute wait to get seated.  I immediately vetoed that idea and headed over across the river to downtown Moline to go to a pizza place we had been to over a year before, but had never gone back.  It's not that we didn't like it on our first visit, it's just that we never went back for whatever reason.   But this time, we were going to enjoy a pizza at Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria.  

Like my wife and I, Arturo "Art" and Guadalupe "Lupe" Salinas didn't grow up in the Quad Cities and didn't think much of Quad City-style pizza when they moved out to the area from Chicago.  And like me, they were sort of surprised that being so close to Chicago, there weren't a lot of places that served Chicago tavern pizza, Chicago deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs (without ketchup, of course) and a number of other foods that they missed from their native city.  

I've always been sort of surprised that with Chicago less than three hours away via car, there was never much of a Chicago-culinary presence in the Quad Cities.  Iowa City - which is an hour's drive further west - had more of a Chicago-food existence, mainly due to the number of Chicago-area students who went to school at Iowa.  The Salinas' obviously saw a need for some Chicago-style food when they decided to open their own Chicago-style pizzeria complete with Italian beef sandwiches, hot dogs, Polish sausage and Eli's Cheesecake.  They found a small spot in a strip mall along West Kimberly Road in Davenport and opened Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria in late 2015.  The Salinas' opened a second location over in Moline in 2019, but moved to its present day location in downtown Moline in September of 2022.  

Late last year, the Salinas family announced that it was taking over the old Ross' Restaurant building near the corner of 18th Street and 53rd Avenue in Bettendorf.  Ron and Cynthia Freidhof - the son-in-law and daughter of original owner Harold Ross - announced in the fall of 2023 that they would be closing the restaurant and retiring.  Less than three weeks after the announcement, Cynthia Freidhof passed away after a short illness.  

While the family had hoped to sell the building and move to a smaller location, that never materialized.  The Salinas' bought the building in October of last year and began to outfit the place for a new Tony's Chicago Style Pizza location.  They had hoped to have been open by the end of January, but I've seen workers still going in and out of the place during trips by the building lately.  By the time this post is published, there's a good chance that Tony's in Bettendorf is now open.    

As residents of the east side of Davenport, we don't make it over to the west side all that often.  And while we did know about Tony's location, we never made it over to get a pizza from the place.  And when we finally decided to head over one time about four years ago, we found that they had closed the Davenport location down.  We did make it over to Tony's in Moline in December of 2023, but there was a large Christmas party going on in the upstairs party/reception area and while we thought the pizza was fine, the service was choppy because of the large holiday party going on that even.  We decided that we'd go back and give them another shot at some point. 

And now that "some point" was this particular evening.  We pulled up to Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria around 7:45 that night, located along 5th Avenue on the west side of Moline's downtown area.  (see map)  We were able to park on the street that evening, but there is a lot directly behind Tony's with a back door access into the restaurant.  

Tony's took over the spot in which the Barrel House had a Moline location up until COVID hit in 2020.  After having to shut down due to restrictions, the Moline Barrel House never reopened when restaurants were allowed to.  It sat idle for nearly a year and a half until the Salinas family took over the lease and moved their restaurant to that location.  

And they didn't have to change much from when it was the Barrel House.  The same exposed brick walls were prevalent in the restaurant.  The long narrow space was well-lit (more on that in a bit), and there were just a few people in the place on that Friday night.  

The large bar in the center of the restaurant featured televisions hanging on the two long sides.  It was a full bar with liquor, craft beers and wine.  

There were three things that I remembered about our previous visit - two of them right off the bat.  First, the young man who greeted us at the front host station wanted to seat us in the upholstered booths along the wall.  I remembered from the first time we had gone there that the seats were very low and somewhat uncomfortable.  The table top came up to my chest.  And like our initial visit, I asked if we could be seated at one of the high-top tables along the opposite wall.

And the second thing I remembered from the first time we were there was that the lights directly above the tables shown down right into people's faces like high-intensity spot lights.  I had gone to the restroom and when I came back to the table, my wife was shielding her eyes from the intense light.  "Oh, yeah," I said.  "I remember this."  There weren't a lot of people in the place when we got in just before 8 p.m., so we moved to another high-top table.  That one, too, had a sharp light shining directly down on her face.  I had her move to the other side of the table and I took the chair she was in.  I took the bullet and sat in the seat with the arc light shining right down on my face.  It was tough to look up at the televisions above the bar because of the lights shining directly in my eyes.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why they don't diminish the intensity.  

Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Sami.  We had our menus already and my wife was "hangry" and needed something to eat right away.  She ordered a dinner salad with Caesar dressing.  Sami got the salad out to my wife pretty quickly.  It was an interesting salad - sliced mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, green pepper rings, sliced red onions, sliced cucumbers and shredded mozzarella that literally covered the greens in the bottom of the bowl.  My wife did enjoy much of the salad and that got her in a much better mood.

We encountered another problem after my wife had ordered a glass of the house cabernet at Tony's.  As she held it up to take her first drink, the spot light fully showed that there were smudges around the rim of the glass.  She ended taking it up to the bar since Sami was waiting on other tables and showed the bartender the three or four smudges around the top of the glass.  "Ee-yew," the bartender said.  "Let's get you another glass."  She poured out the wine and gave my wife a new glass with a generous pour.  

"I guess those lights come in handy," I said to my wife.  

One of the things that I like about Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria is their selection of craft beers on tap.  They had all different styles available and they also had Kona Big Wave on tap.  I ordered a pint of that from Sami.  

Pizza, of course, is the main draw at Tony's with a choice of thin-crust tavern-style pizza, or a Chicago deep-dish style of pizza.  But in addition to the pizza, they had the aforementioned Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago-style hot dogs and Polish sausage, as well as calzones, pasta dishes, and a number of appetizers such as wings, breaded deep-fried mushrooms, toasted ravioli, and fried calamari.  

But we were there for the pizza that evening and we got a large (16") tavern-style thin crust with sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms.  We figured we'd eat about half of it and take it home for leftovers.  Everything from the dough to the sauce is made in-house at Tony's.  

The third thing that I remembered about Tony's from our first visit was that while their crust, cheese and toppings were very good, their tomato sauce was too sweet for our taste.  Everything about the pizza was so similar to the Chicago-area pizza places we like to go to, except for the sauce.  It was sort of disappointing as it was the only thing that hindered the pizza from being a true Chicago tavern-style pizza.  

As we were starting to eat our pizza, a couple people were cleaning up around the bar area.  One of the young guys they had working that evening had brought out a bucket of some solution to mop the floors of the restaurant.  My wife immediately recognized the smell - it was a cleanser that is used in restaurants as a de-greasing agent.  Her daughter worked in Mexican restaurants while going to school at the University of Iowa - she's fluent in Spanish - and she got some of the same cleaning agent to take home for my wife to use.  My wife couldn't use it because even heavily diluted it emitted a smell that turned her stomach and burned her nose.  This was the same stuff.   

And they were using it in the restaurant.  During business hours.  When people were eating.  

Now, my allergies had been acting up and I was having trouble smelling stuff.  Even when I don't have allergies, my sense of smell is not very sharp thanks to, well, let's say, some indiscretions when I was younger.  But the smell was piercing.  And if I can smell it, my wife can smell it ten-fold.  (Do you smell that," my wife will ask when we're out somewhere or at home.  Then she'll say, "Of course not.  You can't smell anything.")  

We were completely incredulous that they would be cleaning - with heavy-duty industrial cleaners - while people were in the restaurant at 8:20 in the evening.  Even I couldn't handle the smell.  We decided to get our pizza to go.  

We motioned for Sami to come over and asked her for a box.  I said, "Look, I understand that you guys want to get out of here early (I thought they closed at 9:00 p.m., but they closed at 11 p.m.), but we can't handle the smell of the cleaner."

"I'm sorry," she said.  "We tell people around here that if you have time to lean, you have time to clean."   She wasn't flippant about it, but she sort of made it sound like it was a normal happening at Tony's.  

When my wife told her daughter about them cleaning with the cleansing agent in the restaurant, my step-daughter erupted.  "They used that IN THE RESTAURANT?!  WHILE PEOPLE WERE STILL EATING?!," she exclaimed in an unbelieving tone.  "That stuff is an industrial de-greaser!  We only used it in the kitchen and after we would close the doors for the night!  And sometimes they'd have to use a face-mask while using it!"    

The cleaning of the restaurant while there were still people in the place just put a cherry on the top of what turned out to be a disappointing visit to Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria. And it didn't need to be that way.  We could live with the strong lighting that was shining down in our faces at our table, and we could live with the sharply sweet house-made sauce that they use on their pizza at Tony's.  But cleaning the place over 2.5 hours before they closed with an industrial cleaner was too much for us.  We really want to support the people who own Tony's as they have the same regard for Quad City-style pizza as we do, and we want to try their new place in Bettendorf when they open.  But they need to figure out some of their other problems at their flagship restaurant in Moline.    

Yang's Kitchen - Alhambra, CA

Back out in Los Angeles before this past Christmas for a meeting with a potential new national account, I stayed in the Monterey Park area because that's where my colleague and his wife live.  Since he was going to be my chauffeur for a couple days, I thought it would be good to be close to his house.  I'd never stayed on the east side of Los Angeles before, so it was kind of interesting to see what the area was all about.  The neighborhoods around the hotel were all Chinese - even the hotel I stayed in had signs in Mandarin and employees who spoke the language.  The first evening I was in town, my colleague and his wife wanted to take me to an Asian restaurant up in Alhambra, just north of where I was saying.  They told me it was one of their favorite restaurants to dine and it just happened that night was their "burger night" - a once-a-month pop-up where they shut down their regular menu and serve gourmet burgers.  That sounded great to me, and after they picked me up at my hotel we ended up at Yang's Kitchen.  

Chris Yang grew up in the San Gabriel Valley town of San Marino, just south and east of Pasadena.  The son of a father who grew up in Hong Kong and a Vietnamese mother, he got interested in cooking at an early age.  In high school, he met a young lady by the name of Maggie Ho whose parents were Chinese/Taiwanese.  The young couple shared the love of dining out and cooking at home.  The two were inseparable and ended up going to the University of California - San Diego where they would continue their love of cooking and finding interesting restaurants.  Many times, Ho would send out pictures on social media of something Yang made in the kitchen and she would give it the hashtag #yangskitchen.  

Yang was studying management sciences and he participated in an exchange program with the University of Hong Kong.  Living in Hong Kong while in college opened his palate to new taste sensations.  And also while at UC-San Diego, Ho was also majoring in management sciences and was part of a study abroad program at Peking University where she got her first taste of truly traditional Chinese cuisine from her father's homeland.  

After graduating in 2012, Ho got a job at LeisureLink - a company that helped vacation rental companies maximize their marketing and bookings -  and Yang went to work at a restaurant owned by acclaimed Chinese/Singaporean chef Bryant Ng at The Spice House.  Up until then, Yang had only cooked in his kitchen at home.  But Ng took him under his wing and showed Yang the ropes of working in a professional kitchen.  Ng helped Yang expand his palate, learning from the talented chef about different recipes and new cooking techniques.  

Pictured right - Chris Yang and Maggie Ho.  Photo courtesy Eater L.A. 

At the end of 2013, Bryant Ng announced that he was going to close his restaurant leaving Yang without a job.  Undeterred, Yang and Ho took a five month sabbatical and traveled to China to learn more about traditional Chinese food.  During their trip to China, they decided that they wanted to open their own restaurant.  

Upon returning to Los Angeles, they went to work at Bryant Ng's new restaurant Cassia in Santa Monica.  While Yang worked in the kitchen under Ng's guidance, Ho worked the front of house as the two learned on the job how to run a restaurant.  

While working at Cassia, Yang and Ho were introduced to chef Joseph Marcos who worked at Pizzeria Mozza under James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton.  The couple told Marcos of their dream to open an Asian-fusion restaurant that would offer "pop-up" special nights where they would offer foods that were completely off the menu.  Marcos was so taken with the concept that he agreed to be a partner with the couple in their endeavor.  

The wheels started turning in early 2018 as the trio looked for a spot for their restaurant, they happened upon Los Angeles real estate investor Allen Liao who was intrigued by the young couple's vision for a restaurant.   A performance art theater had moved from a building on Main Street in downtown Alhambra and as a silent investor Liao helped secure the building for the new restaurant. 

At first, Yang was hesitant to open a fast-casual Chinese-American restaurant in the middle of the San Gabriel Valley - home to literally hundreds of similar restaurants in the area.  He knew in order to keep the quality of the food he served at a high level, he'd have to pay a premium on sourcing his food, and would have to pass that along to his customers.  Plus, he didn't want to have people nit-pic about whether or not his food was "authentic".  But in the end, he decided to go through with his dream.  It took about a year for the buildout of the space before they were ready to open the doors to Yang's Kitchen in August of 2019.  Yang and Ho were both just 29 years of age.  

Within the first 45 days of being in business, the crowds were almost overwhelming.  Their first weekend in business, it turned out that Yang's Kitchen was woefully understaffed.  As the crowds continued to grow each night, people were literally fighting over seats and the kitchen couldn't keep up with the demand.  It forced Yang's Kitchen to close for a short time while they caught their breath and regrouped.  Yang and Ho brought in people they knew from the hospitality industry around Los Angeles to give them pointers on streamlining the operation.  Once they were able to simplify their procedures, they didn't feel quite as overwhelmed.   

Adding to the growing pains of a first time restauranteur, some of Yang's styles of food were confusing to some of the customers.  They had a beef wrap on the menu and customers thought they were getting a Chinese beef roll with sliced braised beef, hoisin sauce, wrapped in a scallion pancake.  But Yang's beef rolls were made with a Mexican flair with seasoned beef and pico de gallo as a nod to growing up in Los Angeles.  

After awhile, patrons settled into Yang's culinary offerings and the restaurant garnered a lot of critical acclaim.  Their braised pork and braised beef soup made with house-made noodles were the popular items on the menu.  Things were going great for the first six months of business - and then COVID hit.  

Forced to shut down the restaurant operation for a few weeks, Yang and Ho turned Yang's Kitchen into a retail boutique that sold basic ingredients - noodles, rice, etc.  Once they were able to reopen for take-out only, they changed their menu to more of brunch offerings.  Initially only open in the evening, Yang's Kitchen opened for breakfast and lunch, closing in the early afternoon to change over to their dinner menu that began at 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and for brunch only on Monday.  

It just happened that I was coming into Los Angeles on a Monday and that was the day that Yang's Kitchen was having their burger night pop-up.  We found a parking lot off Main Street in downtown Alhambra behind the restaurant.  (see map)  It was around 7:30 in the evening when we got to Yang's Kitchen.  

The restaurant is not very big with just a few tables on a concrete floor.  Initially, they had counter service at Yang's Kitchen, but they've since gone to a waitstaff.   On the boards that used to show the menus for the restaurant, one board now has a message of thanks to family and friends who have supported Yang's Kitchen since day one, as well as thanking the Alhambra community as a whole, along with the customers who have kept the restaurant going.  Another board had a list of farmers, seafood purveyors, local bakeries, and organic food vendors that supports Yang's Kitchen.  A third board listed Yang's Kitchen's philosophy of using only locally-sourced, organically-raised ingredients in their foods with everything made from scratch, and that they pay their employees a livable wage while reducing their environmental footprint.  

The burger night pop-up is a popular event for Yang's and they suggest reservations are made in advance.  We didn't have reservations and the restaurant was full.  However, the young lady who was the hostess came up with an alternative plan for us.  There was a pizza restaurant next door that closed their doors.  (My friend told me that there was a chance that Yang's Kitchen would expand to that space.)  There was a little alcove that was in front of the entrance to the pizza joint that was off the sidewalk.  The hostess said that she could put is there.  I asked if we'd have heat as it was a bit chilly that evening and she said, "Oh, yeah.  We can light the propane heat tower for you."  After setting up the table, turning on some lights and starting the heat tower, we took our seats.  

Our server that evening was a nice young lady by the name of Sophie.  She gave us the menus for the burger pop-up that evening and took our drink orders.  I ordered an IPA from the Ohana Brewing Company that had a taproom just around the corner from Wang's Kitchen.  My friend's wife ordered a glass of the Chateau Grolet Cotes de Bourg, a red blend from the Bordeaux region in France.  Later on, she ordered a glass of the "mystery" wine they had featured that evening.  It turned out to be a 70% Cabernet/30% Merlot blend.  My friend - who doesn't drink alcohol - got a glass of sparkling fruit soda.  

Since it was the burger night, they weren't serving off their regular menu.  I asked Sophie for a regular menu to see what they had to offer and it was an interesting mix of food.  The menu started off with a mix of cold appetizers and hot appetizers.  The cold appetizers included a smoked fish dip, a chicken liver mousse, and raw oysters on-the-half shell.  The hot appetizers featured chicken wings, smoked pork jowl, and blistered sugar snap peas.  Main entrees on the menu included a braised duck leg, a lamb shank in house-made curry, and clay pot mussels in a chicken stock with chili butter.  As I called out some of the items on the menu, my colleague and his wife would go, "Oh, that's great!" Or, "That is so delicious!"  It looked like we were going to have to come back the next time I made it out to have dinner with their regular menu.  

That evening, they had the oysters on-the-half shell, and a ginger/scallion aged hiramasa (yellowtail sushi) as appetizers.  They had three different types of burgers available that evening along with a blue cornmeal fried chicken as an appetizer.  That was what my colleague/friend got for his dinner that night.  "I don't know," my friend said. "The fried chicken just sounded good to me."  It featured four pieces of misshapen chicken nuggets in a golden brown crunchy coating.  He said it was delicious and offered me a piece.  I had a small piece and I had to agree with him.  The chicken came with a spicy Szechuan-style "secret" sauce on the side. 

His wife ended up getting the Brie burger - a pasture-raised wagyu beef patty, topped with a triple-cream brie cheese with mushroom aioli, whole-grain mustard, and a shallot marmalade on a locally-baked light-and-dark sesame seed bun.  A side of cornichons (picked cucumbers) came on the side with the burger.  

My friend and I both got the Yang's burger - a wagyu beef patty topped with Widmer's brick cheese from Wisconsin, garlic aioli, caramelized onions, sliced organic mushrooms, and sliced cornichons, then finished with a slow-roasted tomato sauce on the sesame seed bun that was with his wife's burger.   We also got community fries to go with the burgers.  

Now, I have to say the burgers we had were just outstanding.  The Wagyu beef had such a wonderful flavor, and even with the very forward taste of the Widmer's cheese along with the garlic aioli and caramelized onions on the burger, the Wagyu beef just shined through with each bite.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger and Sophie was more than happy to bring more out to us during the course of the meal.

My friend and his wife have a sweet tooth and are big on desserts.  While I was pretty full from my burger and fries (and a small piece of chicken), they coerced me into getting desserts.  My friend got the organic vanilla soft-serve ice cream, while I ordered the orange sorbet soft-serve.  My buddy's wife went with Elaine's Purin flan - a smooth Japanese custard that was served with a chocolate drizzle.  Now, the orange sorbet was outstanding.  It had a very forward orange flavor with a silky smooth texture.  And - oh god - was it rich!  I had - maybe - five bites of the orange sorbet before I had to push it in the direction of my friend and his wife.  His wife raved about the Purin flan so much that I had to take a spoonful of it.  And it, too, was delicious.  I think I let my friend and his wife have as much of the orange sorbet as they could handle before I got it back for the last couple of bites.

While I would really like to get back to Yang's Kitchen to try some of the items they have on their regular menu, the burger night pop-up was a fun experience.  The burgers were great, the fried chicken appetizer was wonderful, and the service we had from Sophie was just outstanding.  She was fun, helpful and fully engaged with us all evening long.  I got up to use the restroom and realized that they were trying to close since it was past 9 p.m., Yang's Kitchen's closing time.  But we were having so much fun sitting and talking at our patio table that time got away from us.  I came back out when Sophie was talking with my colleague and his wife and said, "Hey, guys!  We probably need to let her go home.  It's after 9 o'clock!"  

Sophie said, "Oh, no need to hurry.  We're going to be here for awhile."  But we did leave quickly after that.  Yang's Kitchen was a great experience, one of the more fun and memorable meals I've had lately.  

Hay Caramba! - Park Ridge, IL

For a few years now, I've been driving by a restaurant when I venture over to Park Ridge to get dinner when I stay out near O'Hare Airport on my trips into Chicago.  It was a Mexican restaurant along Prospect Ave. that had a colorful sign and a facade that looked like it was the entrance to a Mexico mid-city square.  I don't really know why I hadn't stopped in before, but I was in the mood for Mexican one evening when I was in the area and decided to have dinner at Hay Caramba!.  

Bulmaro “Bull” Saavedra grew up in a small village in the Mexican state of Guerrero, about halfway in between Mexico City and Acapulco.  Admittedly a poor student while growing up, Saavedra had wanted to move to the U.S. since he was a youngster.  When he finally got the chance to move to the Chicago area in 1973, he ended up going to work at a tool & die/metal fabricator.  His bosses saw some potential in the young man and they sent him out to Triton Community College to take classes in the school's Machine Tool Technology Program.  The experience was nothing but positive for the formerly poor student.  Saavedra barely knew the English language when he first went to school, but the classes he took gave him a better grasp of the language and helped further his vocational education.

Bull Saavedra's girlfriend in Mexico - Josephine - followed him up to Chicago and in 1975 the two were married.  While he was getting a steady paycheck at the machine shop, he and Josephine would talk about running their own little Mexican restaurant at some point.  Their dream came to fruition in 1986 when the couple opened a small restaurant - Texco - on the northwest side of Chicago.  The couple really didn't know what they were in for running a restaurant with all the regulations, taxes, and health code hoops they had to jump through.  It finally took them six months of starts and stops to finally get to a place where they were able to keep the doors open on a regular basis.  

For the first three years, Josephine was the primary person in the restaurant and Bull continued to work in the machine shop.  He would help his wife out after work and on weekends in the restaurant.  But after about three years, business got to a point where Bull could quit his factory job and work in the restaurant full time.  

The couple wanted to start a family and they thought that living in Chicago probably wasn't the best place.  And with all the regulations of running a restaurant within the city limits, they felt a move to the suburbs would be for the best.  The Saavedra's settled in Morton Grove and found a spot for a restaurant in nearby Park Ridge.  In 1991, they opened a new restaurant in a small place in a shopping center on Euclid Ave. behind the famed Pickwick Theater in downtown Park Ridge.  Bull Saavedra named his new place "Hay Caramba!" which basically translates into English as "Holy Cow!" - the catchphrase used by Harry Caray, the television play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs, which was Saavedra's favorite team.  

Almost from day one in Park Ridge, the Saavedra's were making money in their new restaurant and before long there were lines of people coming out the door and lining up down the sidewalk on some evenings.  After 14 years in their little place, a larger space on S. Prospect in Park Ridge opened up.  The Saavedras moved Hay Caramba! to that spot in 2005.  (see map)  They now had two children - Marlene and Michael - who literally grew up in the restaurant business with their parents.  In fact, Marlene was the bartender/server the evening I was there!

I pulled up to Hay Caramba! around 7 p.m. on a weekday evening.  It was cold and had snowed the night before and parking spaces on the street were all full.  I circled the block and found an open parking spot on Courtland Ave. next to the Park Ridge Community Church.  It was a quick half-block walk from my car to the restaurant.  

Quite actually, the restaurant is rather nice, one of the most ornate Mexican restaurants that I've encountered in the Midwest.  It actually reminded me of some of the more upscale Mexican restaurants I've found in Phoenix and Southern California.  With numerous lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling, it was certainly well-lit in there.

The stately dining room featured plaid table cloths on the heavy wooden tables.  There was a a balcony that overlooked the dining room.  The vaulted ceiling in the middle of the room gave it a feeling that you were eating in an open courtyard.  

As nice as the dining room was, I figured the bar area would be more my calling that evening.  With subdued lighting and a more laid-back feeling, I took a seat at the bar.  As I said, Bull and Josephine Saavedra's daughter Marlene was manning the bar that evening and she welcomed me as I sat down.  She handed me a food menu and asked what I would like to drink.  I immediately ordered a margarita.  I have to say that the margarita wasn't all that great, at least for me.  I'm spoiled when it comes to margaritas as most of the ones that are made in restaurants feature a sweet and sour mix.  I make mine with a shot of top shelf tequila (we primarily use Herradura silver at home), a shot of Grand Marnier or Cointreau, one ounce of juice from a squeezed lime, some agave syrup, and a splash of water.  It's all mixed together in a shaker with that's filled about half way with ice cubes, then poured over ice in a glass.  My wife will not have a margarita unless she can get one made the way I make them at home.  And, unfortunately, if we're in a place where those types of margaritas are available, they're pretty expensive.  

Marlene did bring out a basket of chips and some salsa to go along with my margarita.  The chips were somewhat fresh and the red salsa was very good.  It had a cool taste on the front end and a spicy bite on the back.  

The menu at Hay Caramba! is what I would say is typical of Mexican family restaurants.  Enchiladas, taco plates, burritos (burros at Hay Caramba! because they're so big), and fajitas were the primary items on the menu.  They had skirt steak platters along with grilled chicken dishes.  Seafood items included grilled salmon or tilapia, and sautéed butterfly shrimp.  Some of the appetizers were interesting including a catfish ceviche; grilled shrimp, octopus and catfish served with a cocktail sauce and pico de gallo; and a house-made guacamole.  Hay Caramba! also had combination plates, Mexican-style soups, and egg dishes on the menu.  

Honestly, I looked at a couple things that evening - they allowed tacos to be ordered a la carte and the shredded beef birria and the pork al pastor tacos were enticing.  But I ended up getting the chile verdes enchiladas.  I had a choice between ground beef, chicken or cheese-filled enchiladas and I went with the ground beef.  A side of refried beans and Mexican rice came on the side.  I didn't want another margarita, so I got a bottle of Sol beer to go with my meal.    

And I have to say the enchiladas were good - not exceptional, but good.  I asked Marlene if I could get a side of the green sauce on the side and she said, "Absolutely!"  There was a lot of the green sauce on top of the enchiladas to begin with, but I ended up putting more on and then used what I had left to put on the rice and to dip my remaining chips into. 

I've had better Mexican food in the Chicago area, but the meal I had at Hay Caramba! was more than passable.  First of all, it was a nice setting - a very clean and elegant setting for the dining area.  The bar was nice and laid-back, and I have to give a shout out to Marlene Saavedra - the daughter of the owners of Hay Caramba! - for taking good care of me during my visit.  Hay Caramba! was good - not great - but good Mexican food.    

Southern Grist Brewing Co. - Nashville

On a recent trip to Nashville, my colleague from Montreal, as well as my colleague from Los Angeles and I met up with a mastering/recording engineer at his home studio in the fun and funky East Nashville area.  We did some promo videos with him and he showed us some of his equipment that he uses - including many of our studio mastering products - as well as a commercial cutting lathe for direct-to-vinyl recordings.  It was a fun time to hang with him.  After we were finished, we offered to take him out to lunch and he suggested a ramen/taco place that was a five-minute walk from his house.  It was brisk out and we were glad to make it to the restaurant after the short walk.  The problem was, the ramen/taco house had closed down.  There was a sort of gourmet coffee/sandwich shop in the building, but they were closing around 2 p.m.  Our new friend from Nashville pointed out a place across the street called Southern Grist Brewing Company.  Upon further inspection, we found out that it was a brewpub!  I was up for that, so we went across the street to have lunch and a couple beers at Southern Grist.  

Sometimes the back story of a place can really be interesting - one of the reasons why I like doing Road Tips and the back story of Southern Grist is one of the more fascinating of all the places I've visited over the last nearly 20 years.  It all starts with three guys who worked in the tech industry who all had a big interest in brewing their own beers.  

Jamie Lee grew up in the small town of Sturgis, Michigan, just over the border from Indiana.  After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Asian studies, he ended up moving to San Francisco and landed a position with ServiceSource, a small, but growing company that provided companies outsourcing and customer service solutions specializing in generating recurring revenue.  

It was at ServiceSource that Lee met Kevin Antoon, a Stuart/PalmCity, FL native who had moved to Chicago to go to school at Loyola University.  Antoon got his degree in political science and after graduation he found himself just hanging around his uncle's house in the Chicago area working at a Starbucks.  Low on money and without many job prospects, Antoon thought about applying for the Central Intelligence Agency.  But then his uncle told him of an opportunity with a growing company out in San Francisco.  Antoon interviewed with the company, got the position, then left Chicago and headed to the Bay Area to work at ServiceSource.  

Antoon and Lee hit it off right away.  They were both young and probably in over their heads in their new positions, but the challenge they faced made them grow up pretty quickly.  It became evident that the two were valuable pieces in the growth of ServiceSource.  But on the weekends, the two would brew their own beers along with other friends in San Francisco's huge home-brew and craft beer scene.  

By 2008, Antoon and Lee were team managers at ServiceSource and their immediate boss was tasked with coming up with a team he needed to take from San Francisco to open an office in Nashville.  Antoon and Lee were asked if they would like to move to Nashville and both jumped at the chance.  

A couple years later, ServiceSource hired Jared Welch to the Nashville team.  Welch's backstory is that he grew up in Wooster, OH and graduated from Ohio Northern University, a small school in Ada, OH with a degree in pharmaceutical business.  During college - like most college kids on a budget - Welch primarily drank everyday/run-of-the-mill beers made by big breweries.  That is, until his brother offered him a Magic Hat #9, a great craft beer to try if you're first getting into that kind of upscale-style beer.  Welch immediately liked it and sought out other craft beers to try.   Welch got so hooked on craft beers, he became a home-brewer coming up with some unique flavors and styles of beers.

After graduation, Welch headed to Nashville to work with a pharmaceutical company.  But after a short while, he found that the company didn't have their act together in the extremely competitive pharmaceutical marketplace.  After five months in Nashville, he left the pharmaceutical world to go to work for ServiceSource hoping to pad his resume for another sales job down the line.  

It turned out that Welch loved the positive atmosphere at ServiceSource and fit in with the growing team at the Nashville office.  On Fridays, it was a ServiceSource company-wide policy that they would stop work early and have small gatherings where they would get to know each other better.  Those gatherings usually were water and soda affairs until Welch brought in some of the home-brewed beer he made to the Nashville office socials.  

Lee, Antoon and their boss who all came from craft beer-centric San Francisco were just floored by some of Welch's home-brewed beers.  The styles he had were all unique and unavailable from the handful of Nashville breweries.   Lee, Antoon and Welch became fast friends in the office and enjoyed having a craft beer at one of the Nashville area brewpubs or at one of their homes with a home-brewed beer they concocted.    

Pictured right - Jamie Lee, Kevin Antoon, and Jared Welch.  Photo courtesy of The Tennessean.  

When ServiceSource went public in March of 2011, Lee and Antoon fell into some money as they had a small equity stake in the company.  Instead of blowing it on fast cars or expensive sound systems, they decided to sock the money away for a rainy day.  And when Lee, Antoon and Welch got together to brew beer, the conversation always swung back to opening their own craft brewery at some point.  

There were already some established craft breweries in Nashville - Yazoo, Jackalope and Blackstone were the main players in town.  But no one was doing hazy IPA's, fruit sours, or dessert-inspired beers.  Welch, Antoon and Lee were experimenting with those styles of beer at home - and with great success.  At first the conversations about the three opening their own brewery was more of a joke, but as time went on - and work at ServiceSource became more stressful - the conversations became more serious.  

One day, Antoon had had enough.  The story goes that Antoon walked into Lee's office and said to the effect, "That's it.  If I have to go through another conference call I'm going to hang myself with my headset cord."  They consulted Welch and he told the other two that he was up for it.  

The trio learned how to basically run a business working with other businesses they contracted with through ServiceSource.  Lee was the numbers guy of the group, while Antoon was the problem solver/visionary, and Welch would lead the brewing efforts.  They put together a business plan and it came to a point where they had to tell their boss of their plans.  

In mid-2014, during a craft beer bottle-share evening at their boss' house, the Antoon and Lee dropped the bomb and announced they were leaving ServiceSource.  At first, their boss thought they were joking - they were his most valuable employees.  But when he realized they weren't kidding, he was stunned.  They agreed to stay on during the start-up process to help with the transition to new managers.  

From mid-2014 to early 2016, Lee and Antoon worked on the start-up details including finding the spot for their brewery - a small building that used to house a neighborhood grocery store.  Lee ended up leaving ServiceSource in the fall of 2015 to oversee the installation of the brewing equipment and the build-out for the brewery and pub.  Two weeks before they were to open, the trio realized that Welch was going to be needed to brew beer full-time.  Welch quit his day job at ServiceSource in mid-January.  

Southern Grist - named after the assorted milled grains used in the brewing process - opened on February 2, 2016.  Because Antoon still had his corporate job, the brewery's tap room was open 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.  At first, Lee, Antoon, and Welch and their respective wives were the only employees of the brewery/pub.  

Antoon, hedging his bets on going full-time into the brewery, stayed on at ServiceSource.  He ran the numbers and told his partners that if they sold 12,200 pints of beer in their first year, he would leave ServiceSource.  But it turned out the little East Nashville neighborhood brewery that sat - maybe - 50 people total caught the fancy of beer drinkers in the city.  Within 6 months, the brewery had churned out over 100,000 pints of beer!  

One of the main reasons for their immediate success was that the trio didn't just focus on the male market of beer drinkers.  Their fruit sour ales were a big hit with the women imbibers.  They also had a gose wheat beer that was fermented with fruit flavors, too.  And they were one of the first places in Nashville to brew a fruity/floral hazy IPA.  Unlike other craft breweries, Southern Grist never had a line-up of flagship beers choosing to change up their beer selections on a regular basis. 

It became apparent that they were running out of brewing space at their original East Nashville location and within two years they opened a second location in The Nations neighborhood on Nashville's west side.  (see map)  The new location gave them 7,000 square feet of brewing space and another 2,000 for a tap room.  The new tap room included a small restaurant with a limited menu of food.  

Trying to brew beers for everyone's palate became an unwieldy business plan, especially when they started to distribute beer to local restaurants and retail stores.  So Welch decided to brew some everyday flagship beers which included Mosa, a mimosa-style sour ale; the Logical Fallacy IPA, and the Southern Crisp pilsner.  While continuing to offer interesting new beers, Southern Grist continues to regularly brew a number of what they call their "common" beers.  

The original East Nashville location had ceased beer production after The Nations Southern Grist location opened in 2018.  That location became a beer bar and served pizzas and pretzels for the patrons.  But parking was always a problem and the place was pretty small.  A building on Douglas Ave., about a mile and a half west of the original location, became available and the partners jumped at the chance to buy it.  It was a much larger space, they could put a kitchen in the building, it had plenty of parking and it was just off Ellington Parkway allowing for easy access to the location.  In late 2021, the new Southern Grist location opened.  (see map)

The kitchen was a separate entity from Southern Grist and the trio brought in chef Andrew Coins who had an extensive background working in restaurants in Charleston, SC and Nashville.  Coins, in turn, brought in sous chef Kenji Nakagawa who was well known in Nashville restaurant circles.  Coins was tasked with helping design the kitchen and was part of the planning process for the new building.  This freed up the owners of Southern Grist to concentrate on just running the brewery.  They named the new restaurant within the brewpub Lauter, a term brewers call the process that separates the mash into clear liquid wort and residual grain. 

So, when our recording engineer friend pointed out Southern Grist after trying to get into a ramen/taco place that had shut down, it was fortuitous that there was another place close by.  Our friend said later, "I knew Southern Grist was there, but I didn't know if you guys wanted to have beer with lunch."  I told him that it was obvious he didn't know us very well.  

The inside of Southern Grist features a bar and a retail area for to-go beer sales.  Just past a half-wall was the dining area for the brewpub.  The half-wall served as banquette seating for tables opposite the bar.  Three picnic-style tables with bench seating were in the middle of the room.  Ornate glass bowl lamp covers hung from the low-slung ceiling.  

The kitchen area - Lauter - was over another half-wall that also had banquette seating.  The dining room sat about 45 people comfortably.   It had a nice laid back vibe, yet it was contemporary in its decor.  

In addition to a front patio area that featured garage doors that Southern Grist would open during warm days, there was another patio off to the side of the dining room.  The windows from the dining room open up toward the patio and there's a counter inside the dining room along the windows where people could sit and enjoy a beer or something to eat.  Shade sails covered part of the patio.  

It was counter service at Southern Grist and since we hadn't been there before we took a while to go through both the beer menu and the food menu.   The bartender that day was Michael and he was a great guy all through our visit.  He told us not to worry and to take our time.  

They certainly did have a number of interesting beers on tap at Southern Grist that day.  They had 9 or 10 hoppy beers on tap and about a half dozen fruit sour ales.  They also had stouts and brown ales, as well as lagers and pilsners.  I tried one of their core beers, the Collide hazy IPA.  It was really good.  

The food selection from Lauter was, well, pretty basic and very compressed.  They had two burgers, a gourmet BLT sandwich, two types of battered fries, and a Caesar salad.  That was it.  The basic battered seasoned fries came with a delicious dill dip, while the Caesar fries featured the battered seasoned fries tossed with a Caesar salad dressing, grated parmesan cheese, and served with a spicy dill aioli.  

My vegetarian colleague got the BLT - minus the "B".  Only he could taste the bacon flavoring on the sandwich.  We figured that the cook put the bacon on the sandwich forgetting that it was vegetarian only, and then pulled the bacon off.  The sandwich was pretty nondescript with just grilled sourdough bread with thick cut slices of heirloom tomatoes and butter leaf lettuce with some mayo.  Still, my vegetarian friend said it was fine for what it was.  

I got the Americana burger - a 1/3 lb. aged beef patty cooked to a medium temperature topped with heirloom tomato slices, butter lettuce leaves, cheddar cheese, and finished with a smoked mayo dressing.  When we asked about the fries, Michael told us they were served in a good-sized bowl and that two people could easily share a bowl of fries.  We got three bowls for the table.  And the dill sauce that came with the fries was outstanding.  

The other three guys with us that day each got the Grist burger - basically the same burger as the Americana only with grilled onions, stone-ground mustard, and pickles.  (They did have a Beyond burger on the menu, but I can't remember why my vegetarian friend didn't get it.)  Like my burger, their burgers looked like they may have been put into a panini press and given a bit of grill mark on the top of the bun.  I thought my burger was very good, and the other guys all liked their burgers.  

Even though the menu was pretty shallow, everyone seemed to be happy with what they got at Southern Grist that afternoon. Southern Grist was a comfortable place to hang out.  We still had one more stop to meet with a new account on the south side of Nashville late in the day, or I would have stayed and had a couple more beers.  The Collide hazy IPA was a wonderful beer.  Michael was a cool guy who was more than laid back and really helpful with his food and beer suggestions.  I'm learning about a lot of great spots to eat and to hang on my trips to Nashville.  Southern Grist will be on my radar in future visits.  

 

Creek Lodge Bar & Grill - Rockville, MD

I had gotten into Washington D.C. in the late morning and by the time I got my rental car and drove out to my hotel in suburban Rockville I was pretty hungry.  I tried to check into my hotel early, but I was told that my room wasn't ready.  I thought I would go get some lunch in the meantime, so I did a quick look for places that were either brewpubs or had a selection of local craft brews.  A couple places came up and one really intrigued me - Creek Lodge Bar & Grill.  It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, so I took off to head there for lunch and a couple three beers.  

It turned out that Creek Lodge Bar & Grill is part of a group of restaurants owned by a group of investors and family members headed by former travel agent Sanjeev Gupta.  The group started up a taqueria in 2016 - Taco Daddy - with locations in Gaithersburg and Fredericksburg, MD.  However, the Gaithersburg location closed at the end of 2019 and the Fredericksburg location was closed the following year.  Since then, the group opened Brews & Barrels, and Royal Tandoor - two places that I happened to visit during my trip out to the Washington D.C. area last year and not knowing they were all connected until after I left the area.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Brews & Barrels; and click here to see the entry on Royal Tandoor.)  They also have an interest in Vine Alley, a small bites wine bar in the Kentlands Market Square.  

The group came up with an American tavern concept.  A barbecue place in the Rock Creek Village Center went out of business in late 2021 and the group took over the space to do heavy renovations.  In October of 2022, Creek Lodge Bar & Grill opened their doors heavy on a backwoods/Western mountain motif.

The Rock Creek Village Center is located along Norbeck Road in Rockville, and Creek Lodge is part of a complex of retail stores and restaurants anchored by a Safeway and a CVS Pharmacy.  (see map)  It was a nice fall day and the traffic between the hotel and the restaurant was light.  I was able to get a spot right in front of the restaurant in the large parking lot.  

The restaurant had sort of a mountain cabin motif complete with stuffed game animals on walls or on mounts.  Once I realized after the fact that Brews & Barrels and Creek Lodge were connected well after the fact, I can see the similarity in their decor.  There was a small patio area off to the side, but it was pretty cool out, so I didn't consider eating there.  The dining area was quaint, casual and comfortable.  

I took a seat at the bar which was on one of the far walls of the restaurant.  The bar was in front of a faux brick wall and sat about 12 people.  The bartender/server that day was a young lady by the name of Amy.  Or it may have been Amber because I can't remember what her name was.  She told me she had only been there a couple weeks and was still trying to get the hang of things.  After she handed me a lunch menu, I ordered up a Lone Oak Farm Haystack hazy IPA to wet my whistle.  

The lunch menu was pretty basic - sandwiches, burgers, salads, fish & chips, and flatbreads.  They had a special menu that day that featured a pepperoni pretzel and coconut shrimp for appetizers, a shrimp salad sandwich, chicken piccata, a steak salad, and a Tuscan salmon entrée with artichoke hearts and fresh tomatoes in a lemon, basil, white wine sauce served with asparagus and mashed potatoes.  

The dinner menu at Creek Lodge is far more extensive with a number of appetizers, a number of different salads to choose from, as well as flatbreads, sandwiches and wraps, burgers, and entrées that included a Cajun blackened chicken and shrimp pasta dish, beef short ribs with scalloped potatoes, baby back ribs, and grilled chicken in a teriyaki sauce.  

Since the pickin's for lunch were slim, I ended up going with one of their lunch specials that day - the hickory burger with fries.  A side salad also came with the lunch.  The burger consisted of a 1/2 pound black Angus burger patty topped with their house barbecue sauce (I asked Amy or Amber to have them hold the barbecue sauce), along with cheddar cheese, applewood-smoked bacon, along with grilled onions, a tomato slice, and lettuce leaves.  The burger was presented to me on a small sheet tray on wax paper with a knife sticking out of the burger.  I wish they would just put the knife off to the side and forget about sticking in the burger. 

Other than that, the burger was good.  I asked for the burger to be cooked medium, but it came out a little more medium-rare which was fine with me.  It had a bright pink middle and was juicy with each bite.  The bun featured a sort of crunchy outer shell, but nice spongy consistency with each bite.  The fries were coated with a light batter giving them a crunchy texture, but a soft inner core.  For a basic lunch, it was fine.  

For not exactly knowing where to go for my first meal in the Washington D.C. area, I can't say that I was disappointed in finding Creek Lodge Bar & Grill.  Even though the lunch menu was pretty minimal, it was fine for what I was looking for.  The burger was good, as was the service from Amber - or Amy, or whatever her name was.  And they seemed to have a good selection of craft beers to choose from.  Not a bad start to my visit to our nation's capital, if you ask me!

 

Dressel's Public House - St. Louis

Heading back home from Nashville late last year, I decided to stop off in St. Louis and spend the night.  I was staying over near the Central West End of the city and started to look for a place to have dinner that night.  I consulted my list of "Restaurants to Visit" in the St. Louis area and found one that had been on my list for quite some time, but I had never been to yet.  I took off to go have dinner over at Dressel's Public House.  

Jon Dressel was an English professor at Webster College - now Webster University - in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves.  Dressel was of German and Welsh heritage and wanted to open a restaurant that reflected his roots.  In 1975, he and partner Jack Brangle opened Llewellyn's Pub in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis.  While the pub was satisfying for Brangle, Dressel was looking for something a little more high-brow, a place where university types could sit and quaff a pint and have intellectuals carry on conversations about classic writers and poetry - something that Jon Dressel was renown for in international circles.  

Dressel sold his shares in Llewellyn's in the late 70's and he found a space for his new bar just down the street from the original Llewellyn's.  In 1980, Jon and Barbara Dressel opened Dressel's Public House, a pub that was more of a Welsh influenced setting with a bit of Germany mixed in.  Jon had collected busts of classical composers and had them on display above the bar.  Framed portraits of classical writers, poets and musicians were hung on the wall in the pub - many of those pictures hang in the present day Dressel's Pub.

Ben Dressel was just 15 years old when his parents started Dressel's Pub.  He followed his father's footsteps as an artistic-type and after studying at the University of Missouri, he studied at two schools in the United Kingdom.  A free spirit, Ben Dressel was both a surfer and a mountain climber before he decided to go home and help out his parents at the family pub.  

Pictured right - Ben Dressel

Not expecting to stay for very long, his parents were looking to retire.  They made Ben an offer that he really couldn't refuse to buy the public house and carry on the family name.  Ben Dressel officially took over ownership of the pub in 2004 at the age of 39.  

Business was up and down for Dressel's Pub under Ben's ownership.  He expanded the dining room and cleaned up the bar area.  In 2012, he brought in some kitchen consultants who revamped the menu and started a farm-to-fork/gastropub theme for the restaurant.  

Things started to turn around for Dressel - and then Guy Fieri showed up to film a segment on his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives program on The Food Network.  Suddenly, he had lines around the block trying to get into his restaurant.  It was a welcome - and somewhat unwelcome - change of fortune for Dressel's Public House.  People who were coming in looking for a burger or Shepherd's pie were suddenly seeing a menu that contained five different types of pork dishes.  While the food critics in St. Louis loved the change, their longtime clientele did not.  And Dressel could see it in the dwindling number of people coming through the door.    

The food consultants - who became chefs for Dressel during the gastropub period - ended up leaving and the sous chef took over the menu.  They were slowly going back to the pub favorites that made them famous.  

And then COVID hit...

Like many restaurants, Dressel's Public House was forced to shut down during the early days of the pandemic.  This gave Dressel a chance to do even more renovations to his business.  He wanted to open up the bar area, making it more open.  And he wanted to do something completely different with the restaurant.  

While on a climbing trip in Colorado, Dressel happened upon a brewpub in the small town of Ridgway in the southwest part of the state.  He talked with the owner who have him an idea of what it was like to run a small barrel brewery.  Dressel had been tinkering with the idea of adding a brewery to Dressel's Public House and the inspiration from the small Colorado mountain brewery owner gave him the impetus to follow through with that thought.  

In addition to adding a brewery to the lower level, the renovations to the main floor dining and bar areas were taking longer than expected.  Supply chain shortages forced Dressel to use repurposed items to finish the renovations.  Plus he also had to take an extended course in how to brew beer that was held by the small brewpub owner in Ridgway.   

The changeover took three-and-a-half years before Dressel was ready to open the doors in September of 2023.  But the brewery operation was not up and running just yet.  While Dressel wasn't going to change the name of the pub that his parents started over 40 years earlier, he did need to come up with a name for the brewery.  He called it Rock & Horse Brewing - after his love for climbing mountains and his family's love of riding horses.  The first Rock & Horse beer was brewed in collaboration with a small South St. Louis brewery in the fall of 2023.  And by the spring of 2024, Rock & Horse Brewery was operational in the lower level of Dressel's.  

It was about a 10 minute drive to Dressel's Public House located on N. Euclid in the heart of the Central West End.  (see map)  When I pulled up in front of the brick building (I believe I read somewhere that the building was built 110 years ago), I was a bit confused as there was a temporary sign above the front door.  Something was going on in the neighborhood that evening and there wasn't any parking to be had on the street in front of or around Dressel's Pub.  There was, however, a pay lot to the north of Dressel's that I was able to get into.  It cost $6 bucks and the parking attendant was a great guy.  

Dressel's Pub has a cozy dining room with a large community table and a number of four-seater tables.  It was somewhat busy in the dining room when I got into the place.  It turned out that there was something going on in the neighborhood that evening and people were coming in early before the event to get something to eat.

Just below the dining area and past a wire-framed half-wall was the Rock & Horse Brewing facility.  In fact, Ben Dressel was working in the brewery that evening.  It was sort of interesting that the brew works was open to the main floor of the restaurant.  But it didn't smell like most microbreweries that I've been to - that sort of stale beer smell that permeates the air that causes most craft breweries to close off their brewing room.  But that wasn't the case at Dressel's Pub.

I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar.  The bartender that evening was a large guy by the name of Marcus.  He had a ruddy face and seemed to have a nice demeanor toward a number of regulars that were in the place.  But he seemed to snub me for whatever reason.  It took him a long time to get me a menu.  He didn't seem to care if I was ready to order anything, and later after he wordlessly placed my dinner in front of me, he never came back to check on me. I did finally get his attention to order a beer about 10 minutes after I sat down.  They had about 12 beers on tap - 8 from the Rock & Horse private collection and 4 more beers that were from other small craft breweries in the St. Louis area.  I tried the Saddle Sore IPA and it wasn't that bad.  Not the greatest IPA, but certainly not bad at all.   

The menu at Dressel's was pretty small - appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, soups and salads.  The reuben sandwich featured house-brined corned beef brisket, and the Slagel Farms double cheese burger sounded good, too.  They had grilled fish tacos, but they coated the haddock in panko crumbs.  

I wasn't really knowing what to get and after Marcus finally got me a second beer and I told him I had a few question about the menu.  They had a chicken, sausage and rice soup that Marcus explained that it was "like gumbo, only it's not."  

When my wife is in a quandary as what to order in a restaurant she's not familiar with, she always asks what the place is known for.  So that's what I did with Marcus.  He said that Dressel's signature sandwich was the Porcetta Louie.  So, that's what I got.   

The sandwich consists of locally-raised pork that is slow-roasted in fresh herbs and citrus juice.  After it's shredded, the seasoned pork is placed on a toasted hoagie bun and topped with a blend of provel and mozzarella cheese, roasted kale, and pepperoncini rings.  I got a side of fries to go with the sandwich.  

The sandwich was good, nothing outstanding in my book, but still good.  I could see why some people felt this was a sandwich to die for, but it was all right.  It was a bit dry and I went through my second pint pretty quickly while I was trying to get through the sandwich.  I kept trying to get Marcus' attention, even putting the empty glass far away from my plate to try to give him the universal bar signal that I needed another beer.  But the snubs continued from Marcus up to the point that he wordlessly handed me my bill well before I was finished with my meal.  I don't know, maybe my cheery face that was salivating for a cold beer when I first sat down pissed him off.  But he was sure friendly to the regulars.  He seemed to develop a blind spot to my place at the bar.

The experience with Marcus sort of soured me on my initial visit to Dressel's Public House.  The food was just all right, as was their privately brewed beer.   It was a nice atmosphere and I'm sure that the regulars love the place.  But I sort of felt like the odd guy-out during my visit.  And for that reason, I probably won't go back to Dressel's if I have the chance to in the future.   

 

 

Jakes Burgers and Beer - Addison, TX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Velvet Taco - Nashville

During my recent trip to Nashville, we were doing videos with some mastering engineers who use our equipment in their studios.  One of the mastering engineers we did a testimonial video with was an old friend who was with us up in Indianapolis last summer.  His mastering studio is in the historic RCA Building on Music Row in Nashville.  He's using one of the old offices on the 3rd floor for his mastering studio and we got to hang out with him for a good portion of the day.  We decided to break for lunch and he suggested we go to a taco place not too far from Music Row.

He said it was a short walk from the studio, so we took off on a cool December day.  When we turned the corner and started walking toward the restaurant, I said, "Oh!  Velvet Taco!  I've seen this place before in Chicago, but I didn't realize it was a chain."  I'd always wanted to try the Velvet Taco in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and now I was going to get my chance, albeit in Nashville.  

I didn't realize how big of a chain Velvet Taco was (nearly 50 locations in 8 states - and growing) until I started to dig into the history of the restaurant.  The first Velvet Taco opened in Dallas in 2011, started by two restaurant industry veterans who were looking to have a fast-casual Mexican restaurant concept that catered primarily to adults, but would be OK for children to go to, as well.  

Pennsylvania-native Jack Gibbons started out as a server at Pappadeaux seafood restaurants in Houston as an undergrad at the University of Houston.  After getting his undergraduate degree, Gibbons became a general manager, then helped open Pappadeaux locations in Dallas and Chicago.  While working at Pappadeaux, Gibbons became friends with Randy DeWitt who was working for Pappadeaux's parent company Pappas Restaurants.  DeWitt eventually left Pappas Restaurants and was the co-developer of Twin Peaks, a sports-centric restaurant that competed with Hooters and Tilted Kilt in the fast growing "breastaurant" concept.  Over the years, DeWitt also developed a number of other restaurants including Rockfish Seafood Grill and Half Shells Oyster Bar & Grill.   

After rising to the C.E.O. of the Pappadeaux restaurants, Jack Gibbons decided that he needed a change of scenery.  After 25 years at the restaurant chain, Gibbons left in the early 2000's to study for his M.B.A. at the University of Dallas.   During his time at UD, Randy DeWitt heavily recruited Gibbons to join him in a partnership that would help develop restaurant concepts.  After getting his degree from Dallas, Gibbons joined DeWitt and the two established the Front Burner Society - now FB Society - restaurant group.  DeWitt and Gibbons sold off Twin Peaks and developed a handful of other restaurants over time including The Food Hall Company, Haywire, Ida-Claire, and Mexican Sugar Cocina.  

Gibbons and DeWitt lived near each other in Dallas' Highland Park neighborhood and all that seemed to be in the area were the usual chain restaurants.  The real estate market had taken a hit and there had been a number of commercial properties that were available in the area.  Gibbons and DeWitt had talked about coming up with a fast-casual taco joint that was a step above most of the fast food Mexican places in the area.  Someplace that was funky, yet fun, with high quality ingredients in the food.  

A Church's Texas Chicken location had gone out of business on N. Henderson Ave. and Gibbons and DeWitt took it over to open the first Velvet Taco location in 2011.  By 2017, there were four Velvet Taco locations around Dallas and Gibbons and DeWitt decided to up the presence of Velvet Taco locations.  

The same year, the duo invited the equity group L Catterton to join them in the expansion venture and they hired former Raising Cane's executive Clay Dover to spearhead future expansion plans.  Dover took over as CEO and continued in that capacity when Leonard Green and Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, purchased the majority interest in Velvet Taco in 2021.  Gibbons and DeWitt continue to have a stake in the Velvet Taco restaurants.  

Velvet Taco's entry into the Nashville market happened in 2022 when a small version of the restaurant with a limited menu opened in the Assembly Food Hall in downtown Nashville.  Later that year, a regular version of Velvet Taco opened in the funky and hip Midtown neighborhood in Nashville.  And in March of 2023, a third location opened in East Nashville on Gallatin Road.  As of now, all Velvet Taco locations are company-owned with some plans of franchising foreign locations and licensing of the Velvet Taco brand that will be found in airports around the U.S.  In addition to Dallas, Chicago and Nashville, you can find Velvet Taco locations in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, South Florida, and in Oklahoma.  

Before we get into our visit to Velvet Taco, a little bit about the historic RCA Building where our friend had his mastering studio.  The building was built in 1965 by musicians/entrepreneurs Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Bradley's brother Harold Ray Bradley.  It was next door to what became known as historic RCA Studio B that was built in 1957 - home to some 47,000 recordings by artists such as Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison and countless others.   The studio that was built in 1965 as part of the new building became known as RCA Studio A.  

Both studios closed in 1977 and the building was bought by Owen Bradley outright.  Bradley remodeled the studio and operated it until the late 1980's.  Another studio took over the property and eventually musician Ben Folds leased the building in the early 2000's.  

By 2014, a developer wanted to buy the building and tear it down to build condominiums.  However, a group of music industry heavyweights - including record company mogul Mike Curb - bought the building and began to lease the office spaces and the studio.  In 2015, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places joining the attached Studio B which had been given that designation in 2012.  

While Studio B is now operated by the Country Music Hall of Fame and used by Belmont University's Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business from time to time, Studio A is leased out to Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb who has recorded the likes of Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, and the rock group Rival Sons in the studio.  Posters of some historic recordings and some of the artists who recorded at both studios grace the walls of the hallway in the main building.  

Our friend who had his mastering studio in the RCA Building had hoped to be able to show us both Studio A and Studio B that day, but he couldn't get access from Dave Cobb (who lives outside of Savannah, GA), and the Country Music Hall of Fame had a private function going on in Studio B.  He told us that there had been times when he's walked in to go to his studio and there would be big-name musicians who had assembled in the main lobby by Studio A.  "It's kinda cool," he told us.  "They're all just hanging out, shooting the shit.  And they're all pretty nice guys, too."  He said that he's down some mastering work for Cobb, but the biggest name he had worked with was the heavy metal group Metallica when he re-mastered their entire music catalog.  "That took about nine months and a lot of conversations with (drummer) Lars Ulrich," he told us a few months ago.   

It was the Midtown Velvet Taco location that we walked to that day.  (see map)  Along the way, our friend pointed out longtime dive bars and new restaurants that dotted the neighborhood.  A couple of the places I would have rather gone into and I made some mental notes about visiting those places on upcoming visits to Nashville.  But, quite honestly, Velvet Taco was fine for lunch that day.  

The Velvet Taco isn't a big place and features a large community table in the center of the room under drop-ceiling frames.  There's a half-wall between the order counter and the dining area with banquette seating along that half-wall.  More high top tables and stool were near the front of the restaurant.  And just beyond the front windows was a covered patio that had about 10 to 12 tables.  But it was pretty cool that day and we ate inside.  Since all of us were involved with music, we were sort of taken by the selection of music that was playing at Velvet Taco that day.  It was an interesting mix of contemporary country music from Lainey Wilson, R&B/hip-hop from Amber Mark, pop music from Missouri-native Chappell Roan, and country-pop from Russell Dickerson.   We also heard musical selections from Welsh singer Cate Le Bon, Indie-rocker Stephen Dawes, and Irish artist Dermot Kennedy.   We were there for well over an hour having lunch and discussing things, so we heard a lot of different music.  

The menu for Velvet Taco was on the wall near the order counter.  There were about 20 different types of tacos to choose from made with chicken, pork, beef, seafood and veggie items.  They had a chicken & waffle taco, a Korean pork with fried rice taco, chimichurri skirt steak with buttered cilantro basmati rice, and a panko-fried shrimp taco in a sweet chile sauce.  They also had three or four off-the-menu tacos that were featured the month we were there.  

Sides included chips & queso dip, chips and guacamole, brisket nachos, and tots topped with a sunny-up egg, along with an herbed goat cheese, smoked cheddar, avocado crema, chile butter, peppered bacon, and scallions.  They even had red velvet cake as a dessert.  My colleague from Los Angeles got an order of chips with guacamole and roasted Mexican corn to start out.  

We all ordered at once, but my colleague from L.A. and our friend from Nashville had their orders come out first.  My L.A. friend got the Mexi-Cali shrimp taco - blackened grilled shrimp, topped with slaw, sriracha aioli, avocado slices, a roasted corn pico de gallo, and cilantro.  He also got the Chicken Tikka Masala taco - crisp chicken tenders topped with a spicy tikka sauce and buttered cilantro basmati rice, then finished with an Indian yogurt raita crema and Thai basil.  

Our friend from Nashville also go the Chicken Tikka Masala taco, as well as the fried goat cheese taco that was a special taco for the month.  He also got a grilled salmon taco that was topped with slaw, a citrus/lime crema, an avocado crema, pickled Fresno chiles, and a roasted corn pico.  He said, "I have to get the Chicken Tikka Masala every time I come here."  

My vegetarian friend got the fried paneer taco and the Nashville Hot tofu taco - fried tofu tossed in a Nashville hot sauce, topped with slaw, a cool ranch crema, and finished with house-brined pickles.  He had ordered the beer-battered cauliflower taco, as well.  But after we had ordered and gotten some Modelo beers to drink during lunch, the young lady at the counter informed him that they were out of the beer-battered cauliflower tacos.  He was fine with that he got. 

Our Nashville friend sold me on the Chicken Tikka Masala taco and I'm glad I got it.  It had a nice spicy bite to go along with the fried chicken tenders.  I also ended up getting the Cuban pork taco - slow-roasted citrus pulled pork topped with gruyere cheese, honey-baked ham, peppered bacon, mustard aioli, and the house-brined pickles.  I thought abut getting the Birria pork, but the Cuban pork sounded good to me.  And it was very good.  And I also got the brisket taco after vacillating between the brisket taco or the grilled steak and mushroom taco.  The brisket taco was a winner with slow-roasted barbacoa style beef brisket topped with a red chile aioli, avocado slices, roasted corn pico de gallo and finished with a white cheese sauce and cilantro.  All the tacos at Velvet Taco were in flour tortillas made in-house.  

The brisket taco was outstanding - by far the best of the three that I had at Velvet Taco.  There were a combination of flavors with each bite and it was killer.  The Chicken Tikka Masala was a close second in my ranking, and the Cuban pork brought up the rear.  Not that the Cuban pork taco was bad - far from it.  Even though it was very good, I thought I may have liked the Birria pork taco a bit better.

And if I come across a Velvet Taco in my travels in the future I'll be sure to try the Birria pork taco.  And maybe the chimichurri skirt steak taco.  And maybe another Chicken Tikka Masala taco.  There's so many interesting tacos on the menu to try that you could go to Velvet Taco five or six times and try a number of different-styles of tacos.  Everyone in our group liked what they got and I was more than stuffed when I finished.  Enjoying a couple Modelos while we were sitting around after eating lunch helped my meal settle very well.  I'm glad I finally got to try a Velvet Taco and it's a guess that I'll run into another one the way they're expanding across the nation.  

 

Left Coast Brewing Company - Irvine, CA

It was time for a lunch break from the trade show I was attending in Orange County in Southern California this past fall and I had my eye on a brewpub that wasn't too far away from the hotel where the show was going on.  I was somewhat familiar with the brewery - Left Coast Brewing Company - from some of their beers I'd had in the past.  It turned out that their brewpub was a combination distillery, brewing facility and smokehouse specializing in Kansas City-style barbecue.  With all that going on, I had to go to Left Coast Brewing Company for lunch.  

George Hadjis grew up an east coast kid - born and raised in Astoria, NY, he got his undergraduate degree at New York City's Pace University followed up with his Masters degree in Guidance and Counseling from St. John's University.  After graduating from St. John's, Hadjis' first job was at St. Demetrios Preparatory in Jamaica, NY, the same Greek-American school he attended as a youngster.  It was while he was at St. Demetrios that he met his future wife, Dora.  George and Dora were married in 1973 and decided to start their new life together on the west coast moving to Southern California not long after getting married.  George and Dora's two children - Estella and Tommy - were both born in California.

George Hadjis' brother John moved out to California for a change of scenery and the brothers tried a few different business ideas, but nothing really stuck.  George ended up getting his MBA from Pepperdine University in the late 80's and it was soon after that the Hadjis brothers came up with an idea for a sports bar/pizza place.  Oggi's Pizza opened in Del Mar, CA in 1991 right about the time that craft breweries started to pop up in the San Diego area like weeds in a pasture.  Of course, pizza goes good with beer and the Hadjis brothers wanted to get into the craft brewery craze by brewing their own beers on site.  

Oggi's Pizza (oggi means "today" in Italian) became very popular with their sports bar/pizza joint/brewpub concept.  As more Oggi's restaurants opened up, it became apparent that each location had logistical problems with brewing beer on the premises.  The Hadjis family looked for an off-site facility where they could brew and centrally distribute their beer.  They found a 5000 square foot building in San Clemente and determined that with a 30-barrel brewing capacity, that not only could they brew beer for the Oggi's Pizza locations, but they had the capacity to brew beers for distribution to other restaurants and to grocery/liquor stores.  

Being that the Hadjis were originally from the East Coast, they would jokingly refer to the West Coast as the "Left Coast".  The name for their brewery came from that family joke and Left Coast Brewing Company began in 2004.  Initially, they had just three different types of beers.  But all three turned out to be very popular and in the first year Left Coast produced about 110,000 gallons of beer - the equivalent of just over 7000 kegs.  The following year, the brewery came up with three more types of beer along with four more seasonal beers.  

Initially, even as popular that the Left Coast beers turned out to be, the Hadjis needed someone to go out and "pound the pavement" taking beers around to restaurants and stores to make it even better known.  They turned to John Hadjis' son Shawn who was installed as the company's Director of Sales and Marketing.  Shawn went out to a number of restaurants in the San Clemente area and was able to place Left Coast beers in a number of restaurants in addition to retail stores.  

George Hadjis' son Tommy was brought in to be the general manager for the brewing operation making it a true family venture.  (Dora Hadjis was the chief financial officer of the brewery, as well)  And under head brewer Jim Clarke, Left Coast Brewing Company has won over two dozen awards including gold and bronze medals at the Great American Beer Festival held annually in Denver.  

(Pictured right - George Hadjis, Dora Hadjis, Tommy Hadjis, Estella Hadjis Ferrera, John Hadjis and Shawn Hadjis.  Photo courtesy Pizza Marketplace.)

Tommy Hadjis had an eye on expansion with Left Coast and in 2017 the Irvine Company, a commercial/residential real estate development company, came to Left Coast Brewing and told them of a opportunity to go into a small shopping/entertainment complex not far from the company's flagship property, the Irvine Spectrum Center.  Tommy Hadjis wanted to not only have a brewing facility, but head brewer Jim Clarke was also getting into distilling spirits.  The brewing facility was going to be much smaller at the Irvine location than the one in San Clemente giving Clarke the spaces to put in a distillery.  

Food was also going to be served at the Irvine location (the San Clemente Left Coast location is just a tasting room), and Hadjis wanted to showcase barbecue at the new location.  It turned out that he had someone who worked at one of the Oggi's restaurants who was a Kansas City-area native and knew a little bit about Kansas City-style barbecue.  Jason Tsiames - who had worked at Oggi's for a little over 3 years - was installed as the head chef for the Irvine location.  In the summer of 2018, the Left Coast Brewery/Distillery/Smokehouse opened their doors.  

(On a sad note, George Hadjis passed away in January of 2023 after a bout of esophageal cancer.)  

It was a short drive from the hotel where the trade show was taking place to Left Coast Brewing Company in Irvine.  It's located on Irvine Center Drive just off Sand Canyon Road.  (see map)   I was able to find easy parking near the brewpub in the large parking lot that served the number of retail shops and restaurants near Left Coast Brewing Company.  

The interior of the tap room was sort of industrial in design.  It featured a concrete floor and an exposed ceiling.  There was a small glass-enclosed room off to the side by the bar that could be used for distillery tastings or private events.  

The bar was tucked back into a corner at Left Coast Brewing.  It had a corrugated tin facade and seated about 12 people.  The beer menu was on the wall behind the bar.  Interesting indie rock music from artists such as Ra Ra Riot, Coast Modern and Griff Washburn's Goth Babe persona played on the tap room's sound system.  

Off to the side of the tap room was a nice patio area.   It featured a short awning coming off the side of the building.  Other tables had umbrellas for shade.  It was a beautiful Southern California afternoon and the patio was packed with people.

I chose to sit at the bar and it was manned by two bartenders - a young man and a young woman.  The young lady gave me a food menu and I took a look at the beer selections they had on the beer menu.  I ordered an Offshore Haze hazy IPA that I've had before on recent trips to SoCal.  

The menu featured appetizers such as panko-crusted onion rings and fried pickles, chicken poppers, and brisket burnt end pieces.  Salads and three different types of mac & cheese offerings of which you could choose to add smoked meats such as pulled pork, brisket or chicken.  Left Coast had a ground brisket burger with gouda and provolone on the menu, as well as a smoked pastrami reuben that I seriously considered.  They had a smoked brisket sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich, a smoked chicken club sandwich, and a beer bratwurst to choose from.  I also fancied the South County tri-tip sandwich made with 24-hour marinated beef tri-tip and topped with onion straws.   There were a lot of interesting items on the menu to choose from.

In the end, I decided to get the slider combo - you had a choice of two of the following meats - tri-tip, smoked brisket, pulled port, ground brisket, or smoked chicken.  The lady bartender said that for a $5.00 upcharge I could get three sliders.  I sort of had my eye on the tri-tip sandwich, so I got one of those for a slider, then I got a pulled pork and a brisket slider.  Fries came on the side with the sliders.  It was all served on wax paper in a small sheet pan.  

 The sliders turned out to be perfect.  I really wanted to try different types of their smoked meats and the sliders were the perfect size - big enough with enough smoked meat on them to satiate my hunger.  I really couldn't tell you which one of the three I liked better because they were all very good.  The buns were toasted and had a bit of a crunch to the top.  

The fries were also very good.  I'm not certain what they cooked them in, but they had a wonderful flavor with a crispy outer shell.  They were a great complement to the smoked meat sliders I had.  

It would be tough to point out anything that was wrong with my visit to Left Coast Brewing Company's smokehouse, brewery and distillery.  The smoked meat sliders along with the fries on the side were very good, and I liked their hazy IPA very much.  The service was friendly and they did a good job of making sure I had what I needed.  If you're looking for a light lunch with a good selection of craft beers in the Irvine area, I'd definitely recommend a visit to Left Coast Brewing Company.  

That's Amore Grill - Rockville, MD

The weather during my stay out in the Washington D.C. area was cool, but rain-free.  That is, until the final day of the trade show after I left the site to head back to my hotel.  It was raining pretty steadily by the time I got back to my hotel and I really didn't want to venture out.  However, when I got back to the hotel, I found that the kitchen - and bar - were both closed Sunday night.  Faced with having to venture back out into the rain, I didn't want to go far from the hotel.  I did a quick Google search to find restaurants near me and there really weren't many - at least any that I was interested in going to.  However, there was an Italian restaurant just up the road from the hotel and I thought I'd go check it out.  It was literally pouring rain when I took off from the hotel to head to That's Amore Grill.  

Gennaro Ferrigno was born in Naples, Italy and worked in his family's bakery starting as a young boy.  In his mid-30's Ferrigno immigrated to the U.S. and ended up working as a chef in a family member's restaurant in Chicago.  Ferrigno eventually made it to the Washington D.C. area in the 80's working at handful of restaurants.  In 1992, Ferrigno and a partner started That's Amore Grill.  While Ferrigno retired and moved to Florida in 2003, members of this family continue to run the restaurant to this day.  

That's Amore is located along Shady Grove Road in Rockville, not far from the Washington National Pike/I-270.  (see map)  The rain had subsided by the time I pulled into the parking lot and I parked in front of the building.  There are two entrances with awnings - one is for the banquet facility on a subterranean level, while the other entrance is for the bar/restaurant.  

The main dining room is right when you walk in the door.  It was sort of fancy with a patterned carpet floor and back-lit stained-glass windows set into a wood paneled wall.  There were a lot of pictures of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra on the walls around the dining room.  

There is a second part to the dining room that can be closed off for private dining or events.  The ceiling featured ornate dark wood trim and the center piece to the room was a large tropical plant.  The few diners they had at That's Amore that evening were seated in this section of the dining area. 

The bar is to the right when you walk into That's Amore.  It featured a faux back-lit sky light and more back-lit stained glass behind the bar.  There were NFL football games on the TV's in the place and there were a few diners at the bar or at hightop tables in the lounge area.  

On one side of the bar/lounge was a small indention with lights above the little area.  That's Amore has live jazz music on Wednesday nights and I was also told that they used to have music in there on Sundays, but it didn't seem to draw the crowds.  

I took a seat at the bar and the bartender came over with a menu.  She introduced herself as Faith and she made sure she used my name when engaging me the rest of the visit.  She turned out to be a wonderful bartender/server and made me feel welcome and comfortable doing my time there.  

Faith asked me what I would like to drink.  I saw that they had Peroni on tap and I ordered one of those.  After getting my beer, moments later someone brought out a basket of focaccia bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese.  The focaccia bread was warm and delicious.  I was a bit famished since I hadn't had any lunch that day.  

The menu had a number of interesting items to choose from.  The appetizer part of the menu featured grilled calamari - a house specialty, as well as stuffed mushrooms, fried calamari, bruschetta, and mussels served with roma tomatoes and capers topped with herbs and red pepper flakes.  A number of salads were also available on the menu for starters.  

There were a number of pasta dishes on the menu including gnocchi with pesto, penne pasta in a tomato vodka sauce, fettuccine alfredo, and stuffed tortellini in an alfredo/parmesan sauce.  I asked Faith if the tortellini was meat-stuffed or cheese-stuffed and she informed me it was the latter.   Build your own pizza was also available at That's Amore.   

There were also a number of Italian specialties available such as veal or chicken parmesan, chicken or veal marsala, and chicken or veal piccata.  Lasagna, eggplant parmesan, and chicken Vesuvio were also on the menu.  There were also grilled or oven-baked items such as rack of lamb, a USDA Prime New York strip steak, and grilled shrimp and scallops in a roasted red pepper cream sauce available.  

Quite honestly, I wasn't really certain what I wanted that evening because a lot of the selections sounded good to me.  I kept going back to the pasta section of the menu and it was down to the fettuccine alfredo (Faith tempted me by telling me they could put grilled shrimp in the dish) or a pasta with bolognese sauce.  A choice of pasta came with the bolognese sauce and I asked Faith if they had tagliatelle noodles.  "No, I wish we did," she said.   I ended up ordering the bolognese with linguine noodles.  

The bolognese sauce was thick, meaty and had a bit of a spicy tomato flavor.  I didn't detect any cream in the bolognese sauce, but that was fine.  The flavor was good - not the best bolognese I've had, but it wasn't bad at all.  For a rainy Sunday night, it was a hearty and filling meal.  I thought about getting a glass of red wine with the meal, but I just stuck with Peroni to help wash it all down.

During my time at That's Amore, there were a number of to-go orders that were picked up at the bar. As I was finishing up with my meal, a customer came in the pick up a to-go order and he was drenched.  "It's pouring out there," he told Faith as he was paying for his order.  I thought that I'd stick around a little longer to see if the rain would let up.  (It never did.)  

I asked Faith if I could see the dessert menu.  They had a handful of items on the dessert menu including cannoli, bread pudding, a New York cheesecake served with a fresh berry compote, and a chocolate chip devil's food cake with a rich chocolate cream frosting.  Many of those sounded good to me, but I got the tiramisu.  Faith said that it was made in-house and I could tell by how fresh it was.  It was served with fresh cream, chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar.  The tiramisu was delicious - it was the highlight to my meal at That's Amore.  

That's not to say that the bolognese with linguine was bad - far from it.  It was a good wholesome Italian-style meal that was perfect for the weather outside.  Faith was a very good bartender/server and she made me feel comfortable while I was there.  For a suburban Italian restaurant, That's Amore Grill was definitely worth a try.  

 

 

Firewater BBQ & Brew - Elmhurst, IL

On a recent trip into the Chicago area, I was out in the west suburbs meeting with a social media reviewer.  I had a hankering for barbecue and I did a quick Google search for barbecue places in the area.  One place that seemed to be popular - and one that I wasn't familiar with - was an Elmhurst barbecue joint by the name of Firewater BBQ & Brew.  Hmmm...  Two of my favorite things - barbecue and beer!  I set the GPS for Firewater BBQ & Brew.  

Matt Weil grew up in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge.  Starting off at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL, Weil transferred to Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL and graduated with a B.A. in business in 2002.   Starting his career in business in 2004, Weil owned CityClub, a live entertainment night spot in Naperville.  Weil eventually joined his family's insurance business in 2011, but he was looking at doing something else - running his own barbecue place.  

Weil opened his first Firewater BBQ in south suburban Crest Hill/Joliet in 2013.  A barbecue joint in west suburban Lombard closed up in 2014 and Weil soon took that over for the second Firewater BBQ location.  A third location opened in far west suburban Geneva in 2018, and the Elmhurst location opened in November of 2021.  A location in suburban Alsip opened in 2023, while a location in the far northwest suburb of Lake Zurich has been in the planning stages for about two years, but still hasn't been opened.  (The Lombard location closed during the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020.)   In addition to the Firewater BBQ & Brew locations, Weil is also a partner in the Whiskey Hill Brewing Company in west suburban Westmont, IL; and the Strand Brewery & Kitchen, a seasonal brewpub in Dowagiac, MI. 

The Elmhurst location for Firewater BBQ & Brew is located at the corner of W. North Ave. (Illinois state highway 64) and Kingery Highway (Illinois state highway 83).  (see map)  The restaurant is situated in what was a former Mattress Firm location on the northeast corner of that intersection.  If you're going southbound on Kingery Highway, or eastbound on North Ave. (as I was) it's a little tricky to get into the parking lot for Firewater BBQ & Brew.  I had to go down North Ave., then do some turns to get back to the westbound lanes to be able to pull into the parking lot.  

Just inside the restaurant is the bar area.  The bar featured dark wood panels on the front of the bar, as well as on an awning above the bar.  When I walked in, there was a young lady behind the bar.  She nearly shouted, "Welcome to Firewater!"  Turns out that they do that for any customer who walks in the door.  And when the customers leave, they shout something like, "Thanks for coming in!"  

Off to the side from the bar was a room with corrugated tin walls, picnic tables and community tables.  Large windows that look out to the west and north sides were in the room giving it some natural light.  Industrial light fixtures with Edison lights gave the room a warm glow on a cloudy day.  A varied selection of music played in the background from musical artists such as Tom Petty, Dierks Bentley, and legendary bluesman Big Jack Johnson.  

Just past the bar was another dining area with pinewood panels and a handful of wood-top tables.  A half-wall with corrugate tin on three sides separated the dining space from a walkway that took you toward the back of the restaurant where the pop dispensers were located.  Split oak logs were placed on top of the half-wall as well as in a holder on the opposite side of the wall.  

Toward the back of the restaurant, the open kitchen area was in full view.  More tables were in the back part of the restaurant including a large high-top community table.  There weren't a lot of people in the place when I got in there just before 1 p.m. on a weekday.   

It's counter service for food and the menu for Firewater BBQ was on the wall behind the order desk.  A young lady was stationed at the counter when I came in and I was studying the menu since it was my first time there.  I apologized for taking my time and she said, "No problem.  I'm ready anytime you are!"  By that time, another couple had come in and I let them slip in ahead of me.  After taking their order, the young lady had to go back into the kitchen.

A guy came out from the kitchen area and he asked if I'd been helped.  I said that I had been looking at the menu and was ready to order.  After he took my order, I asked him if they had beer.  "Yes, we do," he said. "But I have to take care of that over at the bar.  I don't like it when restaurants have separate ordering for food and for alcohol.  But it seems like a lot of barbecue joints do that, so I guess it's just something I'm going to have get used to.  

The menu at Firewater BBQ featured a large number of smoked meats including the normal ribs, brisket, pulled pork and chicken.  But they also had smoked chicken wings, smoked bacon, smoked jalapeño cheese brats, and smoked sausage.  They had a few sandwiches including a pulled pork/beef brisket combination, a pulled chicken with smoked bacon and cheddar cheese, and the "Triple Porker" - smoked bacon over pulled pork and smoked sausage with cheddar cheese and a sweet barbecue sauce.  They also had a grilled burger topped with gouda cheese, pulled pork and smoked bacon. 

After ordering, I followed the guy over to the bar.  I asked him what kind of beer they had to offer and most of it was in cans.  He had a tub of canned craft beer on ice and he started to pull cans out of the tub to show me.  The second can he showed me was the distinct and easily recognizable yellow can with orange lettering of one of my favorite craft beers - the Loosey Juicy hazy IPA from the Short Fuse Brewing Company in Schiller Park, not far from O'Hare.   (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Short Fuse Brewing.) 

After he got me my beer - complete with glass - I asked him if it was OK to sit at the bar.  He said, "Sure!  I'll keep you company!"  He introduced himself as Joe and it's a guess he was a manager.  But he was a great guy who kept checking on me to see if I needed anything during my whole visit.  

Now sitting at the bar was a minor mistake as the seats were the high metal chairs with a low back that I think are absolutely uncomfortable.  But I wasn't planning on being there for the next three hours.  I was able to get through the agony.

And a lot of it had to do with the food.  I got the 3-meat combo platter consisting of sliced brisket, burnt ends and pulled pork.  One side came with the platter and I had a number of choices including fries, sweet potato fries, mac & 3 cheese, creamy cole slaw and a bacon & chive potato salad.  I thought hard about the bacon & chive potato side, but when I asked Joe about their baked beans, he gushed over them.  "I think the baked beans are the best of all our sides," he said.  He seemed pretty sincere about his recommendation, so I got the baked beans.  

They had a handful of various sauces available for the barbecue.  Joe said that he didn't think their meats needed barbecue sauce, and in some cases I agree.  But I do like to try the smoked meat without sauce at first, but add some to subsequent bites.  They had an Alabama white sauce and a Carolina mustard sauce that I had absolutely no interest in.  But they had a vinegar sauce that was good with the pulled pork, as well as a Chicago-style sweet sauce, and a spicy Texas Heat sauce that did have a bit of a bite on the back end. 

And I have to say that everything was very good.  The brisket was tender and cut very easily with a fork, the pulled pork was moist and had a wonderful flavor.  And the burnt ends were also tender and delectable.  And Joe didn't sell me short on the baked beans - they were delicious.  I usually like to add some barbecue sauce to the beans to zip up the taste, but - quite honestly - these baked beans with chunks of pork didn't need it.  Cornbread came on the side with everything else, but I didn't pay a lick of attention to that.  The smoked meats and the baked beans were what I was interested in and I did my best in finishing the whole platter.    

I have to be kicking myself for not knowing about Firewater BBQ & Brew before this.  There was nothing not to like about the place - the rustic setting, the great barbecue, the nice selection of craft beers (but none on tap), and the friendly and efficient service I experienced from Joe during my visit.  And one of the young ladies did shout, "Come back and see us!" when I was walking out the door.  

And I will...

 

El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar - Addison, TX

I had just finished helping set up for a trade show at a hotel in Addison and I was looking for a place to eat.  Mexican sounded good to me that evening and there seemed to be a plethora of Mexican restaurants in the immediate area not far away.  I had a seen a couple that had caught my attention, but I found one while doing an on-line search for Mexican restaurants that seemed to stick out more than the others - El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar.  I took off to find El Rincon and have dinner there that evening.  

Rick Na grew up in New Orleans and his parents ran restaurants in the Crescent City for a number of years.  His girlfriend - and later his wife - Susan Kuy also had parents who ran restaurants in New Orleans which she and her brother Steven would help out in.  All three wanted to get away from the restaurant business and Rick Na got his pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana, while Susan got her degree in business and Steven got his degree in political science.  

After graduating from Xavier University in 2008, Rick Na became a corporate pharmacist for CVS.  But after five years of doing that, it turned out that his wife and brother-in-law were looking to get back to their restaurant roots.  

Working in the corporate world in the myriad of office buildings around the greater Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, the group saw an opportunity to put establish delis in the office towers as there were few choices of close-by food places in some of the areas the group sought out.  In 2013, the trio opened the first of what turned out to be three Murphy's Deli locations in the Dallas area.  Leaning on their New Orleans roots, Murphy's Deli was well-known for their muffuletta sandwiches.  The deli's turned out to be a successful venture for the group and they set their sights on offering franchises.

To help guide them through the path to franchising, the Na's and Kuy ended up reaching out to Elite Food Group, a corporate entity that had started in Houston in the early 90's with a business plan of putting delis in office complexes in and around the Houston area that mirrored what the trio had accomplished in Dallas.  But it wasn't long before the group decided to sell the Murphy's Deli locations to Elite Food Group and the deal was transacted in 2016.    Elite Food Group began to franchise the Murphy Deli concept and today there are 36 Murphy's Deli locations primarily in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston areas.  

Wanting to stay in the restaurant business, Steven Kuy, and Rick and Susan Na had a non-compete where they couldn't start a deli-style restaurant for a period of time.  (Rick Na still owned a Murphy's Deli franchise as part of the deal to sell the delis to Elite Food Group.)  The trio pivoted toward the popular TexMex cuisine and sought out an area in the Dallas suburbs where they could open a restaurant that featured made-from-scratch food and cocktails.  They found a spot in historic downtown Carrollton on Dallas' north side and they opened El Rincon (The Corner) Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar in a corner building near I-35E on Carrolton's city square in 2016.  

Pictured right - Steven Kuy, Susan Na and Rick Na.  Photo courtesy Canvas Rebel.  

El Rincon turned out to be a substantial hit with the people in Carrolton with their upscale TexMex fare and the large number of high quality tequilas and cocktails they had available.  In August of 2019, the group opened a second El Rincon in Frisco, TX on the far north side of the DFW metroplex.  And a bit over a year later, the trio set their sites on a location in Addison Circle, a 10-acre park/entertainment/residential area in Addison.  They opened their third El Rincon in January 2020.  

Less than two months after opening, the COVID 19 pandemic hit causing restaurants to shut down all over the nation.  Concentrating on keeping the Carrolton and Frisco locations open, the Na's and Kuy decided to mothball the Addison location until things began to settle down finally reopening in the fall of 2020.  The Addison El Rincon never had an official grand opening because of the pandemic, so in January 2021 - their one year anniversary of that location - El Rincon had a grand re-opening.  In late 2022, the group shut down the Frisco location citing leasing issues and a downturn related to the post-pandemic restaurant business and looked to relocate to nearby McKinney, TX.  It took them over a year to find a spot and they opened the McKinney El Rincon in July of 2024.    

It was a very short drive for me between my hotel and El Rincon.  Addison Circle is a planned community space that features residential, retail, and dining spaces, as well as entertainment venues, and hosts a number of events including Taste Addison, Oktoberfest, and Addison After Dark which features live entertainment and food trucks on a periodic basis.  El Rincon is located just east of the Blueprints at Addison Circle sculpture at 5004 Addison Circle.  (see map)  There's on-street parking available, but being that it was a Friday evening all the spots were filled.  There are a couple free parking garages in the immediate vicinity and I parked at the one just north of El Rincon.  

Walking up to El Rincon, I found a patio area in the front that was bordered with pastel colored wood planters.  It was a nice evening and a few people were seated on the patio enjoying drinks and appetizers.  

Inside El Rincon, the dining room was just off to the right hand side of the front door.  The room was brightly lit and had decorative Mayan/Aztecan wall paper with portraits of 1920's era Mexican men on the wall.  It wasn't a big dining area - it maybe sat 40 to 45 people.  But it seemed comfortable.

 
The bar area was to the left as you come in the front door at El Rincon.  It had bright pastel accents with industrial light fixtures with Edison lights hanging from the ceiling.  The bar was small - it sat just 7 people - but there were a handful of high-top tables in the bar area. 

There was one seat open at the bar when I got there.  The bartender that evening was a young man by the name of José.  He was a tall guy - I guessed him to be 6'7".  There was a young lady who was serving the dining room and she had to be 6'3".  I wanted to ask if they were siblings.  But José turned out to be a good guy who referred to me as "boss" throughout my visit.  

I started off with a special margarita they had featured that evening.  It started with El Rincon's "Tequila-of-the-Month", the Titanium Reposado, mixed with Cointreau, agave syrup and fresh-squeezed lime juice.  That's exactly how I make my margaritas at home and I've spoiled my wife so much that she won't order margaritas in a Mexican restaurant if it's made with a mix or soda pop.  

She would have liked this margarita and it came with a tequila "side-sipperr" that was served in a champagne flute.  The margarita and the accompanying shot were a great start to the meal. 

The menu at El Rincon was very interesting.  It featured a number of appetizers such as house-made guacamole, bacon-wrapped grilled shrimp, brisket nachos, and queso cargado - queso with seasoned ground beef with pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole.  Their taco selections featured Baja shrimp tacos, brisket tacos and pastor tacos with adobo pork, pineapple, onions and cilantro with an avocado salsa.  Their Mexican classics part of the menu had fajitas, a pulled pork torta, beef or chicken chimichangas, and a 2.5 pound El Gigante burrito with grilled steak and a number of other fillers.

They also had a number of enchiladas to choose from including chicken chile verde, brisket, and traditional ground beef enchiladas.  And their especial section of the menu featured a 6-ounce beef tenderloin with grilled shrimp combo, beef tenderloin fajitas (that I seriously thought about getting), beef birria, and a dish called Mexi-Fried Rice - it was a mixture of beef and chicken fajita meat, along with grilled shrimp and chorizo with corn, carrots, and onions topped with an over-easy fried egg and a spicy serrano pepper sauce.  That dish also gave me pause as I was looking through the menu.  

I was really interested in the carnitas chile relleno, but I found out that it was served opened faced and had raisins.  I'm not big on raisins, but I'll bet it was very good.  The blackened tilapia fish tacos topped with Mexican slaw and an avocado/chipotle aioli was a big possibility.  The beef tenderloin fajitas and the brisket tacos were weighing heavily on my mind.  José asked me if I was ready to order and I told him my dilemma.   "All good choices, boss," he said.  "Did I give you our specials for the evening?"  

He handed me a list of three or four specials that evening and one of the items were chile rellenos stuffed with seasoned ground beef.  I usually don't find chile rellenos stuffed with beef at Mexican restaurants - most of the time they're stuffed with cheese.  So, once I saw those on the menu, I had to try them.

The beef-stuffed, deep-fried chile rellenos were topped with Monterey jack cheese and a sauce made from Guajillo peppers.  Mexican rice and refried beans topped with cotija cheese came on the side.

Now, my benchmark for beef chile rellenos are the ones I used to get all the time at the old Raul's Mexican restaurants on the east side of Des Moines.  Those were just fabulous.  (God, I miss Raul's...)  And these were pretty damned close.  The Guajillo sauce had a nice, yet subtle, spicy bite that really brought out the flavors of the beef chile relleno.  

I had a top-shelf house margarita to go with my meal, and after I finished I wasn't quite ready to go back to the hotel, so I had José pour me an El Chignón IPA from the Four Corners Brewery in Dallas.  It was a great after dinner beer and a nice cap to a very good meal.

I don't think I can say enough good things about my visit to El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar.  From the great margaritas, to the excellent food I had, to the great service from José, El Rincon was a great find.  There's a lot of good Mexican restaurants in the Addison area, but I would say to go to El Rincon first, then try the rest.  Then tell me if you found something better.  

Brews & Barrels - Gaithersburg, MD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pennyville Station - Park Ridge, IL

I was staying out near O'Hare during a trip into Chicago and I wanted to find someplace to eat in nearby Park Ridge.  I was initially going to have dinner at Harp & Fiddle, an Irish restaurant that I had visited a handful of times before that specializes in comfort foods.  (Click here to see the entry on Harp & Fiddle).  However, after parking the car and walking toward the Irish pub, a place next to it caught my eye - an American-style, farm-to-fork restaurant by the name of Pennyville Station.  It piqued my interest enough that I decided to have dinner there that night.  

Tino Antonacci was a serial restaurateur and owned the popular Basta Pasta Italian restaurant with locations in Chicago's far northwest Edison Park neighborhood and out in west suburban Oakbrook Terrace.  Antonacci's son Tony was literally brought up in the restaurant business learning how to cook in the kitchen and eventually becoming the general manager of the Edison Park location in his early 20's.  One day, a young lady by the name of Samantha came in to apply for a job.  She was going to school at DePaul University and wanted to make some money as a waitress.  Samantha was hired and it wasn't long until she and Tony Antonacci became a couple.  The two eventually married and settled in Chicago.

About 8 years ago, Tino Antonacci retired and closed the Basta Pasta restaurants.  Wanting to get out of Chicago, Tony and Samantha Antonacci set their sights on Park Ridge as a place to raise their three young girls.  But Tony Antonnaci had been wanting to run his own restaurant for years and he saw a potential restaurant in the making when a spot opened up on Main Street.  With the help of his father, Tony Antonacci opened Pennyville Station in June of 2019.  The original name of Park Ridge was Pennyville and the restaurant was located across from the Metra train station in Park Ridge.  

Walking into Pennyville Station the bar area is immediately up front and to the right.  The striking and ornate backbar features a Pennyville Station sign that is made out from thousands of pennies that Tony Antonacci received from various Park Ridge residents.  The wooden shelves holding liquor were flanked by two flatscreen televisions and small model train cars were across the top of the structure.  

The kitchen was just past the bar and featured another small metal-topped bar area where people could sit and watch the chefs at work.  However, I didn't see anyone sit there while I was in the restaurant.  The open kitchen featured a large Kamado Joe ceramic grill - something you don't normally see in a kitchen.  

Pennyville Station is a long and narrow space that features banquette seating along the long wall with booths in the back.  Elegant chandeliers and ornate light fixtures hung from the ceiling giving the brick-walled dining space an old time, yet classy sort of feel.  Historical pictures of Pennyville hung from the brick wall above the padded banquette benches.

In the winter of 2022/23, Pennyville Station redid the space next door that was called The Bar Car.  It was originally designed to be a live music and events area with space for restaurant overflow.  But Antonacci renovated the spot with stylish chandeliers hanging above and incorporated it into the restaurant adding up to 80 more seats.  Just from the decor alone, I really liked what I saw at Pennyville Station and felt very comfortable in the place.

At first, a hostess tried to seat me at one of the tables with the banquette seating along the wall in the main dining room, but if you're a regular reader of Road Tips you know how much I detest banquette seating.  As I turned back toward the front bar, a couple was getting up from their seats to leave.  I asked her if I could take one of the seats at the bar.  "Sure," the young hostess said cheerfully.  I plopped down in the recently vacated bar stool and was handed a food menu.  

A young man by the name of Jacob was one of the bartenders that evening.  He greeted me and asked what I wanted to drink.  I didn't really know what they had and he said, "Oh, wait.  Let me get you a drink menu."  The drink menu featured wines, specialty cocktails and a small beer list in the bottom corner.  The beer list had a number of domestic beers, a few imported beers, and a handful of craft beers.  I saw that they had the Maplewood Brewery and Distillery Son of Juice hazy IPA and I ordered up one of those.  

The menu at Pennyville Station wasn't deep, but they had a number of interesting items to choose from.  The appetizers featured fried calamari with sliced cherry peppers, a spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips, and a lemon & basil hummus with pita bread that I knew my wife would have probably enjoyed if she were with me.  

Pennyville Station has a prime rib special Wednesday thru Sunday evenings.  But I was there on a Tuesday night and it wasn't available.  The linguine with shrimp entree sounded good, but I had pasta the previous evening.  The pan-seared scallops sounded delectable, as did the bone-in Duroc pork chop served with feta cheese mashed potatoes.  There was a lobster roll, a Wagyu burger with cheddar cheese, and a panko-crusted fried chicken breast sandwich on the menu. 

In the end - and because I was thinking of some comfort food before I walked into Pennyville Station - I ordered the stout-braised short rib entree.  It was served over a mixture of barley, carrots and celery and then topped with a stout and beef stock reduction.  

From the first bite, I knew I had made the right choice.  The beef short rib was tender and easy to cut.  The stout and beef stock gravy gave it a hearty flavor with each bite.  The barley, carrots and celery were a nice complement to the braised short rib.  This was an excellent meal.  

A guy had taken the seat next to me not long after I ordered my food.  When someone from the kitchen brought it out and set it down in front of me, I could tell the guy was eyeing what I got.  After a couple bites, I may have said, "Mmmmmm..." loud enough for him to hear me.

He asked, "What IS that?"  I told him it was the braised short rib and that it was outstanding.  He put down his menu and said, "You sold me."  And he ordered the same thing from Jacob.   

I enjoyed every aspect of my visit to Pennyville Station.  From the grand and exquisite - yet not pretentious - decor, to the great service I received from Jacob, to the exceptional meal that I had, everything about Pennyville Station was top-notch.  The stout-braised beef short rib was phenomenal and a complete spot-hitter for me.  Park Ridge has a lot of good restaurants to choose from, but I think that Pennyville Station may have moved to the top of my list.  

Bankhead Brewpub - Farmers Branch, TX

I like to find good brewpubs and local craft breweries during my travels.  I had the Manhattan Project brewpub on my radar after having their beer on my first meal in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  But it turned out that my business travels wouldn't put me anywhere near their location south and west of downtown Dallas.  However, I did find a brewpub that wasn't too far out of the way from where I heading to an appointment one afternoon - Bankhead Brewpub.  I went there for lunch one day during my time in the North Texas Metroplex.    

The Bankhead Brewpub is the outgrowth of the Bankhead Brewing Company located in Rockwall, TX, about 25 miles to the north and east of downtown Dallas.  Kevin Lefere was a successful restauranteur in the town with his Italian/Mediterranean cuisine restaurant Zanata.  It was at Zanata where Lefere met Oklahoma native and beer aficionado Ryan Pyle.  Pyle bought his first home-brew kit when he was in his early 20's.  From there, Pyle became a known entity winning home-brewing contests held in north Texas.  Lefere liked Pyle's ideas on brewing techniques - primarily European-style beers - and the two began to talk about going into a partnership to have their own brewpub in Rockwall.

In 2015, Pyle met fellow home-brewer Chad Moshier at a home-brewing event in Irving, TX.  Moshier was working in the tech industry in California, but was deeply involved with the home-and-craft brewing community in the area.  He was a producer for the Brewing Network which produced podcasts and and other multi-media outlets pertaining to the craft and home brewing industry.  Moshier also had a hand in the brewing process for some San Francisco area brewpubs and became a certified cicerone.  

One of the reasons why Moshier was at the event in Irving also had to do with him looking to move back to the Dallas area for his wife's work and to possibly open his own brewpub.  When Pyle told Moshier that he was working on opening a brewpub in the east suburbs of Dallas, the two began to collaborate on some of the German and English beers that Moshier was planning on for the new venture.  Moshier became part of the team at the soon-to-open brewery/restaurant.  

Pyle and Lefere found a spot in Rowlett, TX across Lake Ray Hubbard from Rockwall and it took some time for the building to get transformed into a brewpub due to construction delays.  Opening in the late summer of 2016, they named the brewery after the Bankhead Highway, one of the first transcontinental paved roads across America.  The road had begun to be built 100 years before and was completed in the 1930's linking Washington D.C. with San Diego.  The highway branched off west of Little Rock, AR with the northern route going through southern Oklahoma, while the southern route went through north Texas - including right past Bankhead Brewing in downtown Rowlett.  

But as many partnerships evolve, the collaboration between Lefere and Pyle soured within three years.  With Moshier taking on more of the main duties in the brewery, Lefere and Pyle had a falling out that resulted in a lawsuit filed by Pyle against Lefere for squeezing him out of the business.  

Enter former Pabst Blue Ribbon executive Vivek Rajbahak.  Rahjbahak had climbed the ladder at Pabst's headquarters in San Antonio to become the Senior Director of Business Development, then Senior Director of Strategy.  After leaving Pabst in 2018, Rajbahak became the Senior VP for Business Strategy for Wanu Water, an Austin-based company that marketed nutrient-infused flavored water products.  When the founder of Wanu Water was forced out of his position due to misrepresenting the company's finances, Rajhahak became the CEO of the company.  

But Wanu Water was barely holding on and by 2020 Rajhahak had started his own brewing company (in name only) - Sherpa Brewing - and was looking to acquire a business that brewed beer.  With the situation between Lefere and Pyle reaching an untenable stage in 2019, Bankhead Brewing went up for sale.  In late 2020 Rajhahak bought Bankhead Brewing Company and took over on January 1, 2021.  

Immediately, Rajhahak was looking to expand operations and branch out to other areas of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.  It turned out that an opportunity dropped into his lap when the Fort Worth location of Deep Ellum Brewery's Funkytown Fermatorium shut down in the summer of 2021.  It turned out to be a turnkey purchase for Rajhahak as the brewery's operations were fully intact.  And it turned out that by coincidence, the brewery was a block away from the original Bankhead Highway.   The Fort Worth location of Bankhead Brewpub opened in October of 2021.  

In the summer of 2022, Cedar Creek Brewery closed their Farmers Branch location due to poor sales.  The location sat empty for about a year before Rajhahak purchased the building which still had the original brewing and kitchen facilities.  Even though it could have also been a turnkey operation for Rajhahak, he oversaw an overhaul of the two-story building redoing the bar area's floor plan on the main floor, revamping the brewery with new equipment, and swapping out furnishings to give the place a 1920's speakeasy feeling.  The Bankhead Brewpub in Farmers Branch opened in December of 2023.  

It was around 1 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot next to the Bankhead Brewpub.  It was part of a complex of stores and restaurants along Valley View Road near I-35E in Farmers Branch.  (see map)  The large two-story building was easily visible from the street.  

The main floor of the brewpub featured a five-sided center piece with banquette seating for the five tables.  Old barrels were on a platform in the center below a circular LED light fixture.  I guess you would call the decor modern industrial, but there were a few brick accents that made it look like the building had been a warehouse before.  There was an elevator and a stairway to the second floor where there was an outdoor patio in addition to another dining area that could also be used for parties or private events.  

I sat at the bar - I had the whole bar to myself.  The brick back wall had a flatscreen television over a row of taps along square shelving that held the liquor selection.  Windows off to the side looked into the brewing room.  While I sat there, music by a diverse selection of artists such as The Beatles, Devo, Belle & Sebastian, and Australian alt-rockers The Sleepy Jackson played in the background.   

The bartender that day was a young man who was a nice enough guy, but a little slow on the switch.  I patiently waited for him to get me a food menu and to take my drink order.  He seemed to be preoccupied during my visit, but I wasn't in a big hurry.  They had one hazy IPA on the beer menu - the Mile Marker 10.  And it was all right - maybe a little bland for my taste in hazy IPA's, but it was fine.  

Bankhead Brewpub describes itself as a "chef driven" establishment in regard to their food.  Some of the appetizers sounded pretty interesting to me.  The stuffed avocado was one.  It featured brisket cream cheese balls topped with cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, tortilla strips, and a chipotle aioli.  The Texas Twinkies were prosciutto wrapped jalapeños that were stuffed with brisket and cream cheese and topped with a house-made barbecue sauce.  My wife would have enjoyed the panko/beer battered fried pickles, and the Brussels sprouts that was served with maple-roasted butternut squash, candied pecans and dried cranberries, all topped with a maple glaze, grated parmesan cheese, and a balsamic vinegar drizzle.   But the one that really caught my attention was the tikka masala poutine - chicken in a tikka masala sauce, cheese curds, and roasted peppers over fries.  I came about 'this' far from ordering that. 

The menu also featured salads, wood-fired pizzas, and entrees such as a Cajun shrimp risotto that sounded good, as did the triple grind meatloaf made with veal, pork and beef.  The rigatoni with meatballs in a vodka sauce looked appetizing, as did the blackened red snapper caught off the Texas coastline.   They had a wagyu cheeseburger on the menu and a Cuban panini that I thought about for a moment.  

In the end, I decided upon the brisket grilled cheese sandwich.  It featured house-smoked beef brisket with a liberal amount of provolone cheese along with a bacon marmalade served on grilled sourdough bread.  Truffle fries and a house-sauce came on the side.  

And the sandwich was - well, it was just OK.  It didn't really have much of a pizazz in flavor - sort of like the hazy IPA beer.  It wasn't bad, but it just didn't have a lot of flavor that I had hoped I would get out of an in-house smoked brisket sandwich.  I dipped the sandwich into the sauce a couple times, but that really didn't do much to enhance the overall flavor of the sandwich.  The truffle fries were good - they had a nice and crunchy outer shell with a soft potato inner core.  

And that was my visit to Bankhead Brewpub.  Everything about my visit was neutral.  The hazy IPA was fine, but nothing special.  The brisket grilled cheese sandwich was all right, but it was not exceptional.  And the service from the bartender was also just OK.  I couldn't tell if he was laid-back or if his "give-a-shit" factor was low, but his service was pretty lackluster, colorless and mundane.  All that went into a pretty unforgettable visit to Bankhead Brewpub.  Maybe I ordered the wrong beer, the wrong food and caught the bartender on a bad day.  But my experience was as gray as the Texas skies that day.    

Maiz de la Vida - Nashville

My company has been doing a number of promotional videos with studio and mastering engineers who use our products and we had set up a couple of video shoots in Nashville with a couple mastering engineers.  My colleague from Montreal and another co-worker from Los Angeles were flying into Nashville on a Sunday and I drove down - primarily because it was the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and plane fares from the Quad Cities to Nashville were astronomical.   We all have a former colleague of ours that we used to work with in our old company who lives in Nashville and we made plans to meet up for dinner once we all made it in town.  Our Nashville friend suggested we go to a Mexican taqueria that he had always wanted to go to, a place called Maiz de la Vida located in Nashville's Gulch neighborhood.  

Like many restaurants that come into existence these days, Maiz de la Vida came from a food truck concept.  But even before all of that, Julio Hernandez's trek to becoming a chef was somewhat contradictory to the normal path one takes to become a chef.  A native of Tlaxcala, Mexico - located about 75 miles east of Mexico City - Hernandez's family harvested their own corn to make tortillas in their home.  However, young Julio never took an interest in how the food was made - he just liked to eat it.  

In fact, when Julio went to New York City as a teenager, it was the first time he even thought about working in a restaurant, let alone in a kitchen.  He started out working in a restaurant as a waiter, but Hernandez determined that he wasn't cut out to be a server.  Julio liked to hang out with the cooks working the line in the kitchen and decided that life as a prep cook was better than waiting on people.  

Pictured right - Julio Hernandez.  Photo courtesy StarChefs.com

Hernandez got lucky in that he got a kitchen job at Becco working under celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali.  He continued his culinary education on the job at Phil Suarez's Spice Kitchen working under chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.  Finally, he worked at the acclaimed Mexican restaurant Toloache alongside chef Julian Medina.  This was all before Hernandez reached his 21st birthday!

By 2011, the toll of working in high-intensity kitchens was getting to Hernandez and he sought out a much-needed change of scenery.  He settled on Nashville where he caught on in the kitchen at Hillwood Country Club, an ultra-private golf and tennis club on Nashville's west side.  This is where Hernandez was introduced to French cuisine with a Southern twist.  When he first started in the kitchen at Hillwood, Hernandez was asked to make a casserole from scratch.  He was stymied, he had never come close to making a casserole at any of his previous spots.  But like he did in New York, he learned on the job and eventually stayed on at Hillwood for 8 years.  

In 2019, Hernandez left Hillwood to join Nectar: Urban Cantina, a sort of underground taqueria located on Nashville's far east side.  Hernandez was hired as the head chef at Nectar, but the problem was that he even though he was a native of Mexico, he didn't know the first thing about preparing traditional Mexican food.  Once again, his education on-the-job came into play as he learned from his co-workers.  He also called upon his mother in Mexico to help him out.  He visited her on a couple occasions to learn how she made her tortillas.  He found that the secret was using heirloom corn that was ground down by a stone mill into a flour-like substance and hand-made on a flat grill with a tortilla press.  

When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, Nectar closed when public buildings were forced to shut down.  Sitting at home with his wife Emma, Hernandez decided to take a leap of faith with his new-found love for making tortillas.  With their stimulus checks, the Hernandez's invested in a stone mill and 200 pounds of heirloom corn imported from Mexico.  Then he handmade tortillas that he sold primarily through social media, delivering them to people up to 30 miles from his home, eventually setting up shop at local farmers markets and selling directly to Mexican restaurants in the area.  

In the meanwhile, Hernandez caught the eye of Andy Mumma who owned Chopper, a tiki bar in East Nashville.  Mumma convinced Hernandez to set up a little stand outside his bar to sell tacos to Chopper's late night crowd.  That went over extremely well and with his ever-growing tortilla business, Hernandez was able to buy a food truck.

The Maiz de la Vida - "Corn is Life" - food truck was found at a number of farmers markets around Nashville selling tacos and his tortilla shells.  On Sundays, it spent the day parked in front of Chopper.  The crowds that came to Chopper on Sunday convinced Mumma and Hernandez that the food truck needed to be permanently parked at the tiki bar.   

Things were really starting to explode for Hernandez.  His tortilla business was booming so much that he had to find a facility where he could commercially make tortillas.  Hernandez found a location in Nashville's Bordeaux neighborhood on the north side of the city and opened a facility which can produce about 3000 tortillas per hour.  The facility employs 12 people and also acts as a commissary where people can get food to go, buy tortillas, and as Maiz de la Vida's catering hub.  

But Hernandez's culinary shooting star continued to brighten when he was featured on the hit Netflix show "Somebody Feed Phil" with comedian and Nashville native Nate Bargatze accompanying Phil Rosenthal to try some of the Maiz de la Vida's food.  But the pinnacle of Hernandez's ever-growing career was when he was named a James Beard semi-finalist in the Emerging Chef category in 2023.  You don't find that happening with many people working out of food trucks!  

A brick and mortar restaurant was inevitable and Mumma agreed to partner with Hernandez in a Maiz de la Vida restaurant venture.  They found a spot in the Antiques Building that was part of the Paseo South Gulch re-purposed urban neighborhood.  Hernandez wanted to separate the food truck menu from the restaurant menu leaving only one item shared between the two spots.  

And Hernandez wanted to have a fusion between Mexican and Southern food - sort of a Mexico City meets Nashville in cuisine.  Dishes that included grits and sweet potatoes were going to be part of the offerings of the restaurant.  And Hernandez and Mumma went out and hired some key people to help run the restaurant.  Chepe Laredo had worked with Hernandez in the food truck and he was named the head chef of the restaurant, Obed Vallejo was installed as the sous chef, locally-renowned bartender Nick Dolan was hired as the general manager, and David Broomhead - who moonlights as a local musician - was brought in to run the bar.  In early October of 2024, Maiz de la Vida opened to much fanfare with reservations hard to come by for the first couple months of its existence.

Traffic was a bitch on the 8+ hour drive to Nashville for me.  Road construction in Illinois coupled with off-and-on standstill traffic between Clarksville, TN and Nashville on I-24 made for a somewhat stressful trip.  I was glad to get into my hotel near Vanderbilt University and I texted my Nashville buddy to let him know that A) I had made it to Nashville; and B) ask him what the parking situation was at Maiz de la Vida and if I needed to Uber.  His reply was, "Glad you made it.  I've never been there so I don't know what the parking situation is."  I've found in previous trips to Nashville that parking can be scarce and at a premium price for location.  

I called the restaurant to ask if they had parking in the vicinity.  The young lady who answered the phone told me that there was a parking lot next to the restaurant and that they validated for the first hour.  I thought that was good enough for me, so I set my GPS for the address on S. 8th Street in Nashville.  (see map)

There was a garage that, as it turned out, was part of the ParkMobile system in Nashville.  I had signed up for that app on a trip to Nashville nearly two years prior to this visit and it has turned out to be somewhat handy (yet, somewhat expensive).  The garage had a license recognition system and it automatically notified me via text that I had been recognized.  The validation provided by Maiz de la Vida took $10 bucks off the normal $25 parking cost at the garage.  A nice discount, but still an "ouch" on the wallet just for parking.  

After taking the elevator down to the ground floor from the second deck of the garage, the doors opened up to a courtyard that showed me a brick building facade with a mural painted on it and a large Andean condor symbol on the wall off to the side showing me to the front entrance to Maiz de la Vida.  Above Maiz de la Vida was the famous Carter Vintage Guitar shop - something that my guitar-playing colleague from Montreal immediately noticed when he was dropped off by an Uber as he came directly from the airport. 

I was the first one to the restaurant, walking in about 10 minutes before our 7 p.m. reservation.  Since it was a Sunday night, we really didn't need a reservation as the restaurant was about 1/3rd full.  Of course, my buddy from Nashville didn't know that and he played it safe by getting us reservations.  The interior of Maiz de la Vida is sort of modern industrial in appearance.  There were a number of booths along the walls, a few community tables and a bar area off to the side.  Classic rock music from artists such as Cat Stevens, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Billy Joel was playing in the background of the restaurant.  

The kitchen was open and looked out into the dining room across from the bar.  Stacks of plates were placed on the kitchen bar.  I don't know if those seats were for people to sit in them while they had dinner or if they were for Uber Eats people who were coming in to pick up orders for delivery.  

The bar was basic, but had a bit of character to it.  The back bar was shaped in what I thought mirrored the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.  It was a full bar with a number of different types of tequila, as well as other liquors and beers on tap.  

Our server that evening was Gavin.  He was a great guy and did a great job for us all evening long trying to herd in 4 hungry and thirsty guys through the visit.  While I was still waiting for my friends to show up, he came over with a drink menu.  I told him that I just needed their house margarita to start out.  He asked if I wanted any chips and guacamole to tide me over and I immediately signed up for that.  The house-made chips and guac came with a mild salsa verde, a fire-roasted salsa, and a creamy habanero sauce that had a nice kick to it.  

My friends started to filter in just after 7 p.m.  My friend from Nashville and my colleague from Los Angeles had met up earlier in the day and came in together.  My colleague from Montreal took an Uber directly from the airport to the restaurant and got in just around 7:20.  More chips, guacamole and assorted salsas were ordered for the table along with margaritas.  

I had made short work of my margarita and I asked Gavin what kind of beer they had on tap.  "Something's wrong with our tap line," he said in sort of a dejected manner.  "But we do have some beers in cans."  He started to give me a line-up of what beers he had in the cooler behind the bar and when he said that he had the Bearded Iris Homestyle hazy IPA, I stopped him there and ordered one of those up.  The Homestyle hazy IPA has turned into one of my favorite beers and I made sure I stopped at Corkdorks liquor store on the way out of town to pick up a few 4-packs to take back home with me.  

The menu at Maiz de la Vida was interesting to say the least.  There were duck carnitas on the menu, as well as a pork belly street taco, and a chicken tinga street taco.  They had a chicken breast that was rolled in cotija cheese and dried sage, as well as a grilled salmon dish topped with a serrano pepper masa-thickened sauce.  They had chicken salsa verde enchiladas on the menu that evening, as well as some vegetarian options for my friend from Montreal.

We just started to order stuff and it was brought to the table when it was made.  I started off with a "El Jefe" taco - grilled Gulf shrimp wrapped in a quesillo crust along with black beans, chopped peppers and onion and topped with a Morita chile sauce.  It was all served on a soft corn tortilla.  This was fabulous.  The melted cheese in combination with the shrimp, onions and peppers just popped with flavor.  The Morita chile sauce gave it just a bit of a spicy bite on the back end.  This taco was fabulous.  

  
My second taco was steak taco - grilled sirloin steak chunks topped with fried chimichurri straws on a soft corn taco shell.  The fried chimichurri straws were pretty unique.  I don't think I've ever had chimichurri other than in a sauce form.  The consistency was like little potato straws.  It was a great taste combination with the chopped steak chunks.  

Later on, my stomach had room for a third taco - the carnitas taco.  It featured pork carnitas that were topped with shredded greens along with sliced jalapeños and a Morita chile sauce.  The flavor sensations of this taco was off the charts.  I was getting full, but it was so tasty and delicious that I really couldn't stop.    

 
My friend from Nashville and my colleague friend from Los Angeles weren't that hungry - they had gotten a burger earlier in the afternoon after my colleague got in from L.A.  In addition to the chips, guacamole and salsa, my buddy from L.A. got the El Jefe shrimp taco like the one I had earlier.  Our friend from Nashville got the quesabirria - Maiz de la Vida's take on a quesadilla with Wagyu birria beef, onions, cilantro and cheese, flat-grilled, then served with the Morita chile sauce and another sauce which I didn't quite get what it was.  

My Montreal friend asked Gavin what kind of vegetarian options they had available and he came up with a couple.  One was the salmon flautas that Gavin said the kitchen could make vegetarian by taking out the salmon, but keeping in the potato filling mixed with requeson (ricotta cheese), and topped with a salsa verde and a lime aioli.  A green peppercorn salad came on the side.  My colleague said it was perfect for what he was looking for and was very good. 

In addition to the flautas, my colleague got the moletes - two quesillo cheese-stuffed plantains along with beans and shallots, then deep fried.  They were topped with pickled onions, a fresh crema spread, and grated queso.  No, my friend thought these were fabulous.  He said they were very rich, but very good.  He made short work of both.

After dinner, we took the time to get caught up and to have one more drink.  Just being able to sit back and savor the meal was another plus about Maiz de la Vida.  It probably wouldn't have been that way had they been more busy, but Gavin didn't seem to be pushing us along.  We ended up sticking around until well past their 9 p.m. closing time and it was only when my friend from L.A. glanced up and noticed that they were stacking up chairs on tables near us.  "I think they're possibly wanting us to leave," my buddy from L.A. said.  I settled up with Gavin and that was that.  

Maiz de la Vida was another great recommendation by my friend in Nashville.  So far, he hasn't steered me wrong on any of the restaurant recommendations that he's given me.  The food was very interesting and very good, the service we got from Gavin was excellent and he was a great guy who had a playful sense of humor.  We were lucky to get into Maiz de la Vida on a slow evening so we were able to take our time, figure out exactly what we wanted, enjoy the meal, and have some time to lounge back and talk after the meal.  Maiz de la Vida's brick and mortar location might be a bit hard to find, but it's worth the effort.   

Vasili's Kitchen - Gaithersburg, MD

I had a long day at the trade show that I was at in the Washington D.C. area last fall.  Initially, I had planned to go out to dinner with one of my former colleagues and one of his co-workers, but they ended up staying at the bar at the hotel where the show was being held to get a bite to eat there.  Suddenly on my own, I was looking for something sort of unique as a place to go have dinner.  I had been sort of craving Mediterranean-style food for a while and it turned out that there was a Mediterranean restaurant not too far from the hotel where I was staying.  I ventured over to Vasili's Kitchen in Gaithersburg to have dinner that evening.  

Since 1990, Vasilis "Bill" and Julie Hristopoulos have owned a number of restaurants in and around the Gaithersburg area.  In 2001, they opened Vasili's Mediterranean Grill on Main Street in the Kentlands planned urban neighborhood in Gaithersburg.  The restaurant was pretty small seating only 50 people maximum and featured primarily Greek-style food.  Truly a family-run business, the Hristopoulos' sons Theo and Yianni were part of the staff at Vasili's from a young age.  (The family also runs Sin & Grin Tacos in the heart of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg.)  

Known as a "New Urbanism" community, the focal point of the Kentlands was Kentland Market Square, an open-air retail and restaurant district that first opened in 1988.  In the mid-2010's, Market Square started to undergo a series of changes and one of the restaurants in the market - Star Diner - closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2014 citing economic hardships.  Having a restaurant in the former Star Diner location was paramount for the developers who were upgrading the open-air mall.  They approached the Hristopoulos family about moving their popular restaurant into the space.  

Logistically, Bill Hristopoulos knew he would need to change his restaurant's concept and he brought in his nephew John Mazarakis who was the Chief Operating Officer of the Seasons Pizza chain to help with the changes and the move.  Mazarakis reached out to Culinary Institute of America grad Yiannis Lucacos who was born in nearby Virginia, but was running his own restaurant in Greece - the critically acclaimed Psomi & Alta located in a suburb of Athens.  A close family friend to Hristopoulos and Mazarakis, Lucacos was looking for an opportunity to come back to the U.S. and Mazarakis wanted to upgrade the menu at Vasili's to more of a well-rounded and traditional Mediterranean offerings.  

The family took over the former Star Diner location in 2015 and it took over a year to transform the former 50's-style American diner into a modern rustic Mediterranean restaurant.  They had hoped to open in February of 2016, but that timeline was pushed back to September of that year.  They finally opened the doors to Vasili's Kitchen Fresh Mediterranean in January of 2017.  

It was past 7:30 when I found out that my former colleague and his current co-worker decided to have dinner at the hotel where the trade show was being held, so I was getting sort of hungry by that time.  It was about a 10 to 15 minute drive from my hotel to Vasili's Kitchen located nearly smack in the middle of the Kentlands Market Square.  (see map)  Parking was at a bit of a premium in the nearby lots, so I found parking on a side street just down from the restaurant.  

The inside of Vasili's Kitchen had a nice modern flair to it.  The long narrow dining room had the bar area up front with the kitchen opposite that.  The main part of the restaurant will accommodate about 90 people - nearly 3 times the size and capacity of the original Vasili's Mediterranean Grill.   

There's dining area off to the side that accommodates up to another 80 diners year round.  In the colder months, they put up plastic coverings that help keep the cold out with the help of heaters on the patio.  Edison lights were strung across the crossbeams and the patio had well-crafted brick flooring.  

I wanted to sit at the bar, but it was at its full 16-seat capacity when I walked in.  I hadn't been there more than a minute when a couple in the corner of the bar got up to leave.  I got the attention of the hostess to see if I could take one of the two seats.  She said, "Yeah, go ahead and grab one.  I'll bring a menu over for you."  

There were three bartenders who were working the bar that evening and they were constantly in motion.  They ended up tag-teaming me once I sat down.  After the hostess gave me a menu, one of the bartenders asked what I'd like to drink.  I asked if he had a hazy IPA and he said that he didn't.  He said the closest the had was an IPA from the Brookeville Beer Farm brewery located in nearby Brookeville, MD.  It was only available in cans, but the beer was good and I had a couple three during my time at Vasili's.  

There were so many things on the menu to choose from that I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening.  They had a number of delicious sounding appetizers (more on that in a bit), as well as a seafood pasta entree, a bucatini pasta and shrimp dish, a large broiled crab cake with oven roasted potatoes, and slow-braised beef with parmesan scalloped potatoes.  They had kebab's on the menu - chicken, pork or lamb; and they had pita sandwiches including a gyro that I contemplated getting.  

The appetizers are what really got my attention as they had lamb & beef meatballs in a house-made tomato sauce, spicy calamari, fried saganaki cheese, and fresh-made hummus with pita.  But there were two other things on the menu that I couldn't make up my mind to get - so I ended up ordering both.  

The broiled shrimp just jumped out from the menu at me.  It consisted of four butterflied jumbo shrimp cooked in a garlic/butter/olive oil/white wine mixture, then topped with herbs.  It was served with a couple pieces of toast garlic bread to sop up some of the heavenly sauce that came in a small iron skillet.  I made short work of the shrimp and eagerly soaked the garlic bread with the butter/garlic/oil/wine concoction to eat.  I swear to god - I almost tipped the skillet up and drank the remaining broth, it was so good.  

Along with the shrimp appetizer, they had a grilled octopus appetizer.  I love good grilled octopus and the appetizer at Vasili's was exceptional.  The chunked grilled octopus sat on a bed of pureed fava beans and was topped with a caramelized onions, crispy capers and finished with a heavy vinegar gel that was drizzled on the octopus.  Oh man - was that great!  But, oh!  So rich!  It was simply outstanding.  

I had kept one of the menus thinking that - just maybe - I'd get something else.  But, quite frankly, I was pretty full after the grilled shrimp and grilled octopus appetizers.  I don't know if anything else on the menu at Vasili's Kitchen would have matched the appetizers that I had that evening.  

I've found myself just getting a couple appetizers instead of a full entree on some recent visits to restaurants.  And I'm not certain that the two appetizers I had at Vasili's Kitchen weren't the best things on the menu at the place.  The broiled shrimp in the garlic/butter/white wine/olive oil combination was simply superb, and I thought the grilled octopus over pureed fava beans was even better.  The three bartenders that were working the bar that evening were very busy, but they all took care of me and made me feel welcome as a single diner.  If you're in the northern Washington D.C. suburbs and you're in the mood for Mediterranean food - or just looking for a good place to eat - I can't help but recommend stopping by Vasili's Kitchen. 

 

Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina - Costa Mesa, CA

Whenever I'm out in Southern California, I have to find a good Mexican restaurant.  And the good thing about it -  there are a number of them!  And because of that, Mexican restaurants in SoCal generally have to be good or they'll be going out of business sooner than later.  I was looking at Mexican restaurants near my hotel and there was one that I had passed numerous times over the past couple of years getting on and off the freeway to and from my hotel.  I decided to go have dinner at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina in Costa Mesa.   

Ray Marshall grew up in Denver, Colorado and as a teenager he developed an affinity for Mexican food.  After high school, Marshall made his way out to Los Angeles to work as a cook.  He eventually ended up as the night chef at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel in the mid-50's.  It was during his time at the Biltmore than he developed friendships with many Mexican immigrants who were working at the hotel, many of whom assisted Marshall in the kitchen.  

One of the perks of the job was to make meals for the kitchen staff and because many of them were Mexicans, Marshall ended up honing his skills in Mexican cuisine.  He would go to the homes of some of his assistants to watch them prepare Mexican food made from long-time family recipes, then Marshall would accompany others to Mexican restaurants in East Los Angeles to learn from some of the cooks there.  

Mexican restaurants catering to Anglos weren't the rage in 1960 when Marshall opened his first Acapulco y Los Arcos restaurant in Pasadena.  But by the mid-60's, some of his Mexican specialties began to catch the eye of every day families.  His original menu consisted of 8 pages of authentic Mexican food and twists on Mexican food including a crab meat enchilada which won a gold medal in a seafood competition held at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in 1970.  

Over the years, Marshall's recipes won numerous awards in North American and Europe, and he was cited by Restaurant Business magazine as establishing the very first chain of Mexican dinner-style restaurants with his Acapulco restaurants.  At one point, Marshall changed the name to Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina and had 31 locations in California and Oregon doing about $39 million dollars in total sales.  

In 1985, Marshall sold his shares of Acapulco to Restaurant Association, an East Coast-based holding company that had previously bought 39% of the total shares of Acapulco.  Restaurant Association paid Marshall about $7.7 million dollars (about $20.5 million in today's money).  

From there, Acapulco changed hands a few times over the next few years.  In 1998, a private equity group that had a stake in Restaurant Association bought the remaining assets of the company.  The private equity group used Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina as a starting point for their new venture - RealMex Restaurants.  In the coming years, RealMex purchased the assets for El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex, and a handful of other restaurants mainly in Southern California.  

In 2006, Sun Capital Partners bought the RealMex Restaurant group from the private equity company.  But by 2011, RealMex was in financial trouble and was forced into bankruptcy.  Locations were closed and the remaining assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2012 to a group of note holders.  However, in 2018, another group came in and bought the assets of the remaining restaurants.  That company - which became the Xperience Restaurant Group - today owns not only the Chevy's, El Torito and Acapulco restaurants, but they also own the upscale SOL Mexican Cocina (click here to see the Road Tips review on SOL), Cal Mex Cantina, Solita Tacos, and the venerable Los Brisas restaurant located on a cliff high above Laguna Beach.   

Today, there are four Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina locations and the one I went to in Costa Mesa is on Bristol Street just south of where the California 55 and 73 freeways meet up.  (See map)  The hotel I stay at in Orange County is a good starting place to go in either direction thanks to the freeways next to Acapulco.  The low-slung adobe-style building with a brick base looked nice in the daylight and I figured that it had to be pretty good place to eat.

It wasn't very busy at Acapulco when I got there around 7:30 in the evening.  The front foyer opened into a large dining room with exposed wood joists along the ceiling and wooden floors.  There were a few booths along the wall, but there were large tables in the middle with no chairs around them.  I don't know if they were getting ready for a large party in the room, but it certainly seemed a bit stark without any chairs around the tables.  Just behind the large room was the bar area.  I thought I about sitting at the bar, but decided to sit in the dining room.  

There was a smaller dining area off to the side where they were primarily seating people that night.  The booths had colorful seat backs and the tables had chairs with aqua-colored seats and decorative seat backs.  Decorative sea turtles and fish adorned a light blue wall that hid the kitchen area behind it.   Music from Latin American artists such as Leonardo Aguilar & Mario Bautista, Venesti, Los Bunkers, and Mau y Ricky played in the background while I was at Acapulco.  

Just beyond the big room was a covered patio with heaters hanging from the ceiling and a brick-tiled floor.  The metal chairs around the tables had colorful red, yellow or blue seat pads.  There were canvas roll-downs along the opening to the outside that allowed the room to be used on colder days and evenings.   

And just past the covered patio area, there was an open air patio for dining al fresco.  A brick gas fire pit was the centerpiece of the outdoor patio.  It was a bit of a cooler evening that night and no one was out on the patio.  Then again, they weren't very busy, either.

I took a seat in a booth of the corner of the smaller dining area.  After I was given a menu, my server for the evening - a wonderful guy by the name of Luis - came over to greet me.  Let me say that Luis was a great guy - outgoing, gregarious, and he made me feel welcome as a single diner.  I ordered up a Grand Compadre margarita - Maestro Dobel Silver tequila mixed with triple sec, a sweet & sour mix, and finished with a mini bottle of Grand Marnier that was held in place by a little plastic holder that attached to the side of the glass.  Chips and salsa were provided and I asked Luis if he could bring out some of their salsa verde to go along with the house-made red salsa.  The margarita was outstanding and a great way to start off the meal.  

The menu was pretty deep with a number of appetizers including guacamole, a queso dip with shrimp and spinach, and grilled chicken taquitos.  They also had a ceviche appetizer consisting of marinated shrimp and mahi mahi on a bed of guacamole mixed with a mango and pineapple relish.  I thought about getting that to start out, but there were a lot of other things on the menu that I was interested in.  They had fajita platters, seafood entrees, enchiladas, tacos and burritos on the menu.  And a lot of it sounded very good.  I was in a bit of a quandary as to which direction I wanted to go.  

Thankfully, Acapulco has a section of the menu where you can make your own combinations.  The combos allow you to pick either 2 or 3 items between enchiladas, tacos, a chicken tamale, a chile relleno, and chicken taquitos.  Enchiladas and tacos come with a choice of shredded chicken or beef, carnitas, or picadillo - seasoned ground beef with potatoes.  Rice and refried bean come on the side.  I ordered a shredded beef soft taco - I had a choice of either a soft shell or a hard shell - along with a shredded beef enchilada and a carnitas enchilada.  The shredded beef wasn't all that much shredded as it was more chunky in texture.  I asked Luis to have the chef put salsa verde on the enchiladas and he heartily complied.  I also got a pint of Dos Equis Ambar to go along with the meal.  

My food, in general, was fabulous.  The carnitas were tender and full of flavor, as were the beef chunks in both my other enchilada and soft-shell taco.  My taco was topped with shredded chihuahua cheese, chopped fresh tomatoes and shredded lettuce.  I added more of the salsa verde I still had from the chips to the taco to give it even more of a tasty punch.  There was nothing to dislike about the food I had at Acapulco.   

I had hoped that the food at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina would be good, but it surpassed my expectations.  The meal I had was simply excellent - the carnitas and chunky beef enchiladas topped with salsa verde were scrumptious, and the chunky beef taco was equally tasty.  I can't say enough about Luis' service during my visit.  He was friendly, accommodating, and made me feel more than comfortable during my time at Acapulco.  Like my food, there was nothing to dislike about my experience at Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina.  

D.L. Mack's - Dallas, TX

I've found that virtually any big city I've traveled to over the past couple of years has a Chicago-style pizza place where ex-pats or former visitors to the Windy City can enjoy either deep-dish or tavern-style pizza.  I prefer a good thin-crust tavern-style pizza to a wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, so I'm always on the lookout for the places that serve a good Chicago tavern-style pizza.  It turned out that there was a place not too far from where I was staying that offered a thin-crust tavern pizza.  I ended up going to D.L. Mack's in north Dallas.  

Hunter Pond grew up in the toney Highland Park neighborhood in Dallas.  At first glance, people who know the Dallas area would automatically surmise that Pond came from money, but his parents were far from wealthy, both working jobs to provide for the family and for Hunter's college education.  They were able to send Hunter off to Texas Tech University to study entrepreneurship and business.  He graduated from Texas Tech in 2009 and was planning on being a lawyer.  

However, Pond found that law school wasn't for him and he ended up dropping out and moving back home to Dallas.  His parents weren't too whippy about his decision to forego law school given the financial sacrifices they had endured to send him to college, and they told him he had to find a job to tide him over.  He became a dishwasher at Eno's Pizza Tavern and it looked like his life was going nowhere.  But what a lot of people didn't know was that Pond was working on a business plan for a sandwich deli that sold made-from-scratch foods.  

Even though his family wasn't as well-heeled as some of his classmate's families were while growing up in Highland Park, he had made a number of connections with people he knew while growing up in the neighborhood.  When it came time to raise money for his restaurant idea, Pond turned to those numerous connections to help him raise money for his venture.  It must have worked as he was able to raise the $400,000 needed to start his business.  In 2012 at the age of 24, Pond - along with his business partner Kyle Brooks - opened the first East Hampton Sandwich Co. in Snider Plaza in Dallas.  

From there, Pond and Brooks started a corporation - Vandelay Hospitality Group - to oversee the operations at his slowly growing chain of upscale deli's.  Not everything Pond did was right - he had to close a couple of underperforming East Hampton Sandwich Company locations, and he had a couple unfavorable leases that he had to try to renegotiate as time went on.  But by 2019, there were nine East Hampton Sandwich Co. locations in and around the great Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.  However, after the pandemic, Vandelay Hospitality Group pared the number of East Hampton Sandwich Co. down to just three locations.  

In 2017, the Vandelay Hospitality Group founded Hudson House billed as an East Coast comfort food restaurant that focused on burgers, sandwiches, and oysters on-the-half shell.  Hudson House now has three locations in Dallas, Houston and in Beverly Hills.  Other Vandelay Hospitality Group restaurants include Drake's Hollywood - an L.A.-inspired steakhouse that Pond was taken with some of the old SoCal steakhouses he visited on trips to Los Angeles; as well as Dallas area restaurants Brentwood, Anchor Sushi Bar, and Jack & Harry's. 

During the height of the pandemic, Pond and the Vandelay Hospitality Group came up with a new concept - bringing Chicago to Dallas in terms of Chicago-style pizza served in a space that sported reclaimed antique bricks from a Chicago building that had been built in the mid-19th century.  Reclaimed tin ceiling tiles along with reclaimed wall tiles that were originally in the Chicago Civic Center (now the Richard J. Daley Center) went along with reclaimed wooden floor planks that were first used in buildings built in the early 19th century.  Local Chicago touches such as archived photos of famous Chicago sports figures, along with benches on the outside patio that were inspired by the main terminal of the Chicago Transit Authority.  D.L. Mack's on Hillcrest Street in University Heights.  

A second D.L. Mack's opened in November of 2022 in the Preston Oaks shopping mall at the corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane on the north side of Dallas.  This was the location I went to as it was just about a 10 minute drive from my hotel in Addison down the Dallas North Tollway to Royal Lane.  (see map)  There turned out to be plenty of parking in the lot of the shopping mall lot - even for a Saturday night.  

Quite actually, I didn't really know what to expect before I walked into D.L. Mack's, but I have to say that I was somewhat taken aback at how elegant the place was.  I immediately thought, "Wow!  This is a pizza joint?  It looks more like an upscale steakhouse like you'd find in downtown Chicago!"  

Cream-colored slat walls with Chicago-centric pictures were on one end of the dining area, while the room was full of mahogany booths with leather-padded seating.  Dark wood-slat window coverings, brick columns and trim, along with off-white antique tin-ceiling tiles gave the room a cozy, yet elegant atmosphere.   The place was nearly full when I walked in and by the time I left there was a wait to get seats.   

The L-shaped bar was equally elegant with a dark wood top, wide padded stools and an ornate back bar.  Dark wood slatted ceiling with light fixtures hung over the bar.  The bar was also nearly full when I walked in to D.L. Mack's.

I was able to get a seat on the short side of the bar closest to the front door.  There were three bartenders working that night and the guy who took care of me for the evening was Joshua.  He handed me a menu and asked me what I'd like to drink.  I asked if they had any hazy IPA's and he said, "We have the Manhattan Project (Half-Life) hazy."  I gave him two thumbs up for that.  

The menu's main focus was the Chicago-style tavern pizza, but being that they call themselves a "true Chicago tavern", D.L. Mack's also features appetizers such as deviled eggs, mozzarella bites, and a spinach artichoke dip.  Salads included a Caesar and a Greek salad, and they had handhelds such as a cheeseburger, a tuna melt on sourdough bread, and a spicy Italian grinder with pistachio mortadella, pepperoni, genoa salami, smoked provolone, and a spicy giardiniera.  Entrees included cheese-filled tortellini in a marinara sauce, a chicken parm dish, Asian-glazed grilled salmon, and Greek chicken with peppers and mashed potatoes.  

But I was there for the pizza and I ordered my usual sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pie.  When I ordered, Joshua asked, "You want me to bring out some fries with that?"  I thought that was an odd question, given that I don't think I've EVER ordered fries with pizza.  I declined on the fries.  

However, a while later, a couple sat down next to me and ordered a pizza.  Joshua asked the same question, "You guys want me to bring some fries out for you?"  

The couple sort of looked at one another, and the man said, "Yeah!  We'll take some fries!"  I laughed and thought to myself, "Suggestive selling at its finest!"  But I have to say the fries - on their own - looked pretty good.  Maybe D.L. Mack's is known for their fries.  

Moments before the pizza came out, one of the other bartenders came over with a metal pizza stand, similar to ones that we see in pizza joints in Chicago.  Moments later, the pizza came out.  It was about 12 to 14 inches in size and featured large chunks of fennel sausage, ample amounts of spicy and salty pepperoni, and a fair amount of fresh mushrooms on the top.  The mushrooms were also sort of chunky in their size.  Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes were also provided along with the pizza.

After letting it cool down for a bit, I was able to take the first bite.  The crust was thin and crispy, and it didn't sag with all the toppings on each little square or triangle - the hallmark of a true Chicago tavern-style pizza.  The fennel sausage was bursting with flavor, the mushrooms were fresh and earthy, and the pepperoni was cupped from the cooking process.  It was a fabulous pizza.  Did it taste good with beer?  Oh, yeah - it certainly did!

Finding Chicago tavern-style pizza outside of Chicago is sometimes difficult to do.  But I'm starting to see more and more of these types of pizza places in my travels.  It's not that I don't like a good Neapolitan wood-fired pizza from time-to-time, it's just that I like that crunchy thin crust with ample toppings on my pizza.  And the one at D.L. Mack's was superb.  My only quibble was the price - it was $26 bucks for the pizza.  Just a base pizza with mozzarella and sauce at D.L. Mack's is $16, but you add Italian sausage ($5), pepperoni ($3), and mushrooms ($2), it adds up quick.  The sticker shock was the only drawback about D.L. Mack's.  Joshua did a good job of taking care of me even though he and his colleagues behind the bar were in constant motion the whole time I was there.  D.L. Mack's was a nice, upscale pizza joint, something that I wasn't expecting when I walked in.  And, unfortunately, the prices reflected that.  

Jerry's - LeClaire, IA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cattleack BBQ - Farmers Branch, TX

My first experience of having Texas barbecue for the first time in a number of years was not, well..., it was somewhat disappointing.  I wanted to have top-notch barbecue when I was in Texas and I looked up a number of barbecue places that were near me in the North Dallas area.  One barbecue place seemed to stick out mainly because of the number of positive reviews, that it was only open 3 days a week at lunch, and the interesting name.  And it turned out that it wasn't far from where I was at the trade show.  So, for lunch one day, I headed down the road to Cattleack BBQ.  

Todd David grew up in St. Louis and started to get into barbecuing when he was a teenager.  He continued to dabble with barbecuing meats when he was majoring in accounting at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University).  After graduating college, David moved to the Dallas area and started a business that restored other businesses and buildings that were damaged by water, fire or smoke.  On the weekends, he continued to dabble with smoking meats in his backyard.  

Along with his wife Misty, Todd David ran the restoration business for over 30 years.  During that time, David used to throw parties for some of his clients that included him making barbecue.  Of course, those clients would remark that David needed to open his own barbecue joint.  But he always said that he only did barbecue as a hobby.

That is, until Todd and Misty decided to retire from the restoration business.  Switching directions, the couple started a barbecue catering business in 2011.  At first, they liked doing the occasional parties, receptions and corporate gigs.  But it got to be too much for them and they wanted to cut back on the catering.  But they didn't want to stop doing the barbecuing.  The Davids found a building in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch and opened Cattleack BBQ in 2013.  It was open only two days a week - and occasionally on Saturdays - and it was a bring-your-own-bottle joint.  But their barbecue was so good that lines would form before they would open their doors and they were usually sold out around 2 p.m.  

Recognition came to the David's in 2017 when Texas Monthly magazine named Cattleack BBQ as the third best barbecue joint in a statewide poll.  The lines on Thursday and Friday before they opened at 11 a.m. became much longer and they usually sold out well before 2 p.m.  

In 2018, the Davids welcomed a new employee by the name of Andrew Castelan.  Like Todd David, Castelan studied accounting and got his degree from the University of Texas in 2012.  He immediately got a job at the prestigious EY (formerly Ernst & Young) accounting firm.  And like David years before, Castelan would barbecue on weekends as a way to get away from thinking about work.  However, it was during a visit to the venerable Franklin Barbecue in Austin where he met pitmaster Aaron Franklin when he really caught the barbecue bug.  During a 30 minute conversation with Castelan, Franklin was so taken with Castlean's passion for barbecue that he convinced the young man to buy a 500 gallon propane tank and build his own smoker.  

Castelan did just that, but after it was finished he immediately got into trouble with the home owners association who said that he couldn't use or keep the smoker on his property.  Castelan did what anybody would do in that situation - he sold his home and moved to an area where he could park his large smoker outside his house.  

The barbecue bug was too big for Castelan to bear, so he quit his corporate gig at EY and went to work at Ten50 BBQ in Richardson, TX, not too far from his hometown of Plano.  Castelan worked as a pitmaster for 10 months further learning the art of Texas barbecue.  After working at Ten50 BBQ, Castelan hooked on with Cattleack BBQ in 2018.  Castelan worked for David for six months prepping food before he was even allowed to work the barbecue pits at Cattleack BBQ.  

For the next five years, Castelan worked side-by-side with David whom Castelan claimed was a "tremendous mentor".  And when David decided in 2023 to retire, he made Castelan an offer he couldn't refuse - to take over the business.  Castelan jumped at the chance and purchased Cattleack BBQ in August of last year.  

Pictured right - Todd David and Andrew Castelan.  Photo courtesy Dallas Morning News.

David wanted someone who would continue the legacy that he and his wife started with Cattleack and provide what amounted to an "insurance policy" that the business would continue, not only for his employees, but for the customers who would regularly come through the door.  And David's "retirement" just meant that he wouldn't be working the day-to-day operations and manning the pits the night before they would open.  But he would still be working the line as a meat slicer when they would be open for three days a week after Castelan added Wednesday to the Thursday and Friday openings soon after he took over.  (Cattleack BBQ continues to open on the first Saturday of each month.)  

It was just before noon when I pulled up to Cattleack BBQ which is located in the midst of a neighborhood of office buildings and light industrial complexes on Gamma Road in Farmers Branch.  (see map)  Originally founded as Mustang Branch in the early 1840's, it was renamed Farmers Branch in 1845 because of the rich and tillable soil in the area.  During the 19th Century, city fathers advertised widely across the U.S. and Europe trying to entice people to move to the area.  

A large group of people - mainly firemen - had congregated in front of the restaurant and the small parking lot was full.  I had read that the restaurant could have lines out the door, but these guys were just sort of milling about around a covered area with a couple picnic tables underneath.  I found a parking space just north of Cattleack BBQ on Gamma Road and walked down the street.  

While there wasn't a line out the door just yet (the firemen milling about were waiting on more colleagues to show up), there were about a dozen people in line inside for the cafeteria-style order line.  The menu for the restaurant was on a chalk board on one wall, while another wall had photos of a number of local and national celebrities who had visited the barbecue joint in the past.  On a small shelf above the photos were a number barbecue sauces that either had been dropped off or collected by the Davids over the years.  

The line moved relatively fast and before I knew it I was ordering from one of the guys working the line.  The serving line featured a corrugated tin wall behind the prep line with a large beverage cooler in front of the wall.  Meat warmers were also behind the serving line.    

The dining room was just past the end of the cafeteria line.  It featured another large corrugated tin wall with signage on it along with a number of hats.  I didn't bother to look at much of the signage or hats, but I did notice a number of the large flags from local area college and professional teams hanging from the rafters above the dining room.  It was spacious enough where people weren't necessarily on top of one another.  

The original Cattleack BBQ was just the space where the cafeteria line was located.  In 2016, the Davids were able to take over the space beside them to turn into a dining area.  After shutting down for 2 weeks in June of 2016, they reopened in early July of that year more than doubling the size of the restaurant.  A series of Edison lights were strung across the dining room that featured a number of picnic tables underneath.  I don't usually like to sit at picnic tables - especially if they're going to be used as community tables.  But there was enough of them that I could sit by myself at one and not be bothered while I was eating.  

I ended up getting the Texas Trinity platter - a thick slice of brisket, a meat pork rib, and a choice of either smoked sausage or a Hatch chile cheese sausage.  Of course, I went with the Hatch chile cheese sausage that was sliced into 7 or 8 pieces.  For my side, I had a choice of a number of sides including a vinegar-based cole slaw, Hatch chile mac & cheese, and dirty rice with burnt brisket ends.  However, I got the burnt end brisket baked beans.  After placing my order for the food and walking down the line, a guy behind the counter asked me what I wanted to drink.  "Do you guys have beer," I asked.

"We do," he said enthusiastically.  He turned into the cooler behind him and pulled out a can of Lone Star Beer.  Score!!!  Lone Star Beer - the Old Style of Texas - and barbecue.  What could be better than that?  (Cattleack's web site says that you can also bring in your own beer, if you like.)  

Well, it did get better.  When I went to pay, the lady at the cash register said, "The Lone Star is on the house!"  Double score!!!  Wow!  I wanted to reach over the cash register and hug her!  

Now, the experience I had a couple days prior at an "upscale" barbecue restaurant was pretty disappointing.  But I can't say anything bad about the food at Cattleack BBQ.  The brisket slice was thick, moist and had a wonderful flavor.  The pork rib was thick and meaty with a great seasoning on the meat.  The meat fell off the bone very easily and was just wonderful.  They had a couple different types of sauce - a mustard sauce that I didn't care for, and a sweet and somewhat spicy barbecue sauce that I thought was outstanding.  The baked beans, on their own, were very good and really didn't need any additional barbecue sauce as I'm accustomed to do when I get baked beans at a barbecue place.  

But the Hatch chile cheese sausage link may have been the star attraction.  I'm usually not big on smoked sausage, but this was simply outstanding.  Smoked sausage is big in Texas - especially in Central Texas where German immigrants settled in the 19th century.  I've just had a hard time warming up to smoked sausage in the past, but the smoked Hatch chile cheese sausage they had at Cattleack definitely turned my head.  

My visit to Cattleack BBQ was just fabulous.  I don't care for cafeteria/counter - style ordering, but that seems to be the norm for most good barbecue joints in Texas.  And the term "good" is under-emphasizing how great the barbecue was at Cattleack.  The brisket was killer, the pork rib was perfect, and the smoked Hatch chile cheese sausage was an eye-opener.  Plus on top of all that - I got a FREE Lone Star beer out of the deal!  The only problem I had with the place is that they're only open for 3 days a week - once a month on Saturdays - and for just 3 hours, or until their barbecue runs out.  But the hit-or-miss cycle of the restaurant is worth the trouble if you're looking for great barbecue in the north Dallas area.  

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.  

Matchbox - Rockville, MD

I was at a trade show in the northern Washington D.C. suburb of Rockville, MD recently and the first day was sort of tiring.  I was told by a friend that the bar at the hotel where the trade show was held really needed to have their tap lines cleaned out as all the craft beers they had on tap tasted funky.  But he said there was a pizza place across the street that had good pizza and a good selection of craft beers.  I got out of the trade show around 5 p.m. and instead of heading back to my hotel and figuring out what I was going to have for dinner that evening, I just decided to head across the street and have pizza and some beer at Matchbox.  

From the sleek architecture on the outside of the building along Rockville Pike in Rockville, I should have guessed that Matchbox was a chain.  That's because it was - it started over 20 years in Washington D.C.  But the partnerships involved in the opening of Matchbox started years prior.  

In 1990, Ty Neal owned a restaurant in Huntington, West Virginia called Mycroft's.  It was near the campus of Marshall University and situated between the basketball arena and the football stadium.  Mycroft's could be described as a kitschy cross between Cheers and Hooters.  One day, a young man by the name of Drew Kim came in to apply for a job as a waiter.  Neal waved his hand around the restaurant to point out all the female servers at the place and bluntly told Kim that they only hired women as servers - something you could get away with nearly 35 years ago.  

But Kim was a persistent kind of guy and on his fourth time meeting with Neal to get a job, Neal hired him.  It turned out to be fortuitous for both men - Kim turned out to be a great server, then Neal moved him behind the bar to be the lead bartender.  He did so good running the bar that Neal named Kim as the overall manager of the restaurant.  Before long, Neal had made Kim a partner in the business.  Soon after, the duo opened an entertainment/cafe venue where up-and-coming bands would play.  

Neal and Kim ended up selling both ventures and then headed west to Chicago where they partnered up with Neal's brother Mark, and Ty Neal's longtime friend Perry Smith to open the Windy City's outpost of Polly Esther's - a 70's and 80's-themed bar/dance club chain that was a popular destination for bachelorette parties in the late 90's.  The group ran the place for five years before selling their interest in 2001 and heading back toward Washington, D.C.   

For their next endeavor, the group envisioned an upscale wood-fired pizza and craft beer bistro where families and couples could enjoy a meal.  The group found an abandoned warehouse in Washington's Chinatown district and started to work on the restaurant.  Because it was just them with no investors, they did everything by themselves and on the cheap.  The tables that were going to be used in the restaurant were made in Mark's basement, and the group did the full build-out of the restaurant.  

When it came time to open in mid-2003, Drew Kim was the bartender, Ty Neal worked the front of house, Perry Smith wore a number of different hats, and Mark Neal was the pizza chef.  They originally called the restaurant "Matchbooks" after the thousands of matchbooks the Neal brothers had collected from various restaurants over the years.  But they eventually changed the name to Matchbox and opened in July of 2003.

Pictured right - Drew Kim, Ty Neal and Mark Neal. Photo courtesy Washington Post.  (This photo was taken after Peter Green left the group in 2012.)  

At the time, Chinatown was not the trendy area of Washington D.C. as it is today and having a restaurant in an area that was years away from gentrification was a major risk.  But a positive review in the Washington Post not long after they opened caused the floodgates of people to open.  Within days, lines were stretched out the door and down the street.

The group formed the Matchbox Restaurant Group soon thereafter and planned to expand around Washington D.C. and beyond.  Approached by another restaurant from the West Coast, the group opened a second Matchbox location in Palm Springs, CA as a joint-venture.  It didn't end well and that Matchbox location closed less than two years later.  

Focusing on the Washington D.C. area, a second Matchbox opened in Washington D.C. in 2008 and their third location - the one I went to in Rockville - opened in 2010.  By this time, a number of investors including family, friends, banks and capital investment firms put money into the Matchbox Restaurant Group.  By 2015, there were six Matchbox restaurants around the Beltway, along with five Ted's Bulletin Bistro locations the group started in 2011.  Ted's Bulletin was more of an upscale diner focusing on farm-fresh American-style foods.  

As the group was gearing up for expansion, they hired Peter D'Amelio and industry veteran who oversaw the explosive growth of the Cheesecake Factory years before.  Hoping to branch out to put more Matchbox locations starting in Florida and expanding around the east coast with both company-owned and franchisee-owned restaurants, D'Amelio was brought in to forge a path of expansion for the group.  

But soon after D'Amelio was brought on board, a number of investors tried to oust the Neals and Kim citing a lack of direction in the expansion plans.  The group then sued a number of the investors to try to keep their positions within Matchbox Restaurant Group.  However, in 2017 the court ruled against the group finding that the lawsuit had no merit and threw out the suit.  

The Matchbox Restaurant Group was forced to raise money to pay off the investors and they sold controlling interest of Matchbox to Thompson Hospitality, a Washington D.C.-based restaurant holding group, and they sold off all assets of Ted's Bulletin to the Salis Holdings, another investment group whose Catalogue Co. arm oversaw the stewardship of restaurants such as Federalist Pig barbecue, Sidekick bakery, and Honeymoon, a upscale Southern-style fried chicken restaurant.  

It was a rocky two year period from 2018 to 2020 to begin with for the Matchbox Restaurant Group after selling off the majority of their assets.  But they were doubly smacked when the pandemic broke in early 2020.  Never able to recover from the downturn in business, Matchbox Restaurant Group was forced into bankruptcy in August of 2020.  Thompson Hospitality came in and purchased the remaining assets of Matchbox Restaurant Group for $11.6 million.  Thompson Hospitality continues to run the 12 Washington D.C. locations along with a single Florida location near Fort Lauderdale that was actually the first of what were to be many more Matchbox locations started by the Matchbox Restaurant Group just before the investor upheaval began nearly 10 years ago.  

The Matchbox is part of the Congressional Plaza shopping complex on the west side of Rockville Pike.  (see map)  It's located in a stand-alone building near the street with plenty of parking on all four sides.  The brick facade building had a nice patio out front - one of two patios at Matchbox.  It was a somewhat cool late afternoon and they had the overhead heaters cranking out the heat for the sparse crowd dining on the patio.

Inside the restaurant was a great room for the main dining area with brick walls, a fire place, and a number of booths and tables throughout the room.  There was an upstairs dining space that was used for parties or overflow dining.  

In the corner of the dining room were two wood-fired ovens for cooking thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizza.  The main kitchen area was sort of back behind the large brick ovens.  Even though it was just past 5 p.m., the pizzaiolos were busy making up a number of pies.

The bar area was just past the wall separating the pizza ovens and a row of booths in the bar.  The bar was busy - happy hour is 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the week.  I didn't really want to sit by myself in a nearly deserted dining room, but I didn't really want to be seated by myself at a table or a booth in the busy bar.  I ended up taking a seat at the nearly full bar, sandwiched in between a large guy who was obviously drunk already, and another guy who was too busy talking on his phone to acknowledge me when I asked if the seat was taken.  

There were two bartenders who seemed to be overworked and not very friendly.  Their customer service skills were not the best and one was almost contemptuous behind the bar.  I overheard him complaining to another Matchbox employee that he hadn't had a break since he came in to work at 9:30 a.m.  Both bartenders were not on top of their games in terms of taking care of people at the bar.  It took them quite some time to even acknowledge I was sitting there.  

Once I did get the attention of one of the two guys, I asked for a food menu and a beer list.  He said they didn't really have a beer list, but asked what kind of beer I was looking for a hazy IPA.  He said they had the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger hazy IPA, but I'm not a big fan of New Belgium beers.  I asked about an IPA they had on tap - a house brew called Matchbox Pro IPA.  I decided to get one of those.  And it wasn't bad.  I asked him later on who made it for them and he said it was by a local brewery called DC Brau.  I had a DC Brau hazy IPA later that weekend and I ended up buying a six pack at a local liquor store to take back to Iowa.  

Even though I was thinking pizza, they had a number of other items to choose from at Matchbox.  Pasta dishes such as a chicken fettuccine alfredo, a fennel sausage rigatoni, and a crab & shrimp fettuccine alfredo were highlighted on the menu.  They also had pan-seared scallops, a jumbo crab cake, and baby back ribs.  They also had sandwiches, burgers and a number of salads on the menu.  Appetizers included calamari, crab dip with chips, chicken wings, and a tuna tartare with guacamole and spicy aioli.  

My friend told me that he thought the pizza was good, so I decided to go that direction.  While they have a number of specialty pizzas on the menu, I wanted to make my own.  I got the fennel sausage and pepperoni.  Somewhat surprisingly, they didn't have mushrooms available at Matchbox.  They have two sizes - a 10 inch and a 14 inch pizza.  I got the smaller of the two and when I ordered, the bartender cautioned me that the pepperoni was spicy.  I sort of waved him off knowing that it couldn't have been that spicy to me.

Since it's cooked in a wood-fired oven, the pizza didn't take long to get out to me.  It was loaded with pepperoni slices on top and an ample amount of ground fennel sausage under the cheese with a puffy crust.  I will say the pizza was good, and the spicy and salty pepperoni made it go well with the IPA.  It wasn't a fabulous pizza, but it was far from inedible.  Let's just say that it worked for me at that moment.   

The pizza I had at Matchbox was fine for what it was - a good wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza with loads of pepperoni slices and a some savory fennel sausage.  I do have to say that the happy hour crowd at Matchbox was a bit overwhelming, and the bartenders were not on top of their game.  It seemed like a nice place overall, but there was just an overall negative vibe from the bartenders that didn't make it such a welcoming place.  Everyone has bad days and while the food was good, the service was a bit less than desirable. 

Mascot Brewery - Etobicoke, ON

I got into Toronto late in the afternoon during a recent trip up there.  I was on my own that evening as my colleague from Montreal was driving in later, and my colleague from France - who was on a France-Australia-Los Angeles-Toronto-France around-the-world trip - wasn't due from in L.A. until around 10:30 that evening.  I had it in my mind to find a brewpub for dinner that evening.  I ended up Uber-ing to one place near my hotel for dinner and some beers (more on that later on), but it turned out that only it had food at its downtown Toronto location.  However, the people at that microbrewery steered me to another place that they knew had craft beer and food - Mascot Brewery.  After getting another Uber to pick me up, I took off to head over to Mascot Brewery.  

Aaron Prothro is a native of Nova Scotia who moved to Toronto as a young man full of ambition, but really no clue as to what he really wanted to do.  Prothro was an athlete and worked out at a local fitness center.  He eventually got a job at the fitness center as a personal trainer and competed in local body-building championships.  

But he also had an interest in the hospitality industry and had some conceptual ideas of the kind of place that he'd like to run - a chic little restaurant with seasonal menu items and an extensive wine list.  Oh!  And a second-story bar above the restaurant that would feature artisanal drinks and a D.J. with a thumping sound system.  That dream of Prothro's came true when he opened Nyood Restaurant and Bar in February of 2008.  

While owning and running Nyood, Prothro and a friend came up with another concept - F-Stop - an EDM (electronic dance music) and hip-hop dance club.  But there was something brewing - literally - in his mind.  He became immersed in the craft beer community and as a black man he noticed the inclusivity and the laid-back vibe the growing craft beer scene was in Toronto.

Pictured right -  Aaron Prothro.  Photo courtesy Mascot Brewery Facebook page. 

Prothro especially liked the fact that craft beer seemed to bring people together and not try to divide them.  He didn't like the technical jargon that some microbreweries used to describe their beers and wanted a place where plain-speak in his beer's descriptions was the norm.   And he wanted a brewpub where people could gather and just chill out.  

Aaron Prothro sold his interests in Nyood and F-Stop to work on getting his concept of a brewery and taproom up and running.  He found a space in downtown Toronto and in May of 2015 he opened Mascot Brewery - the first black-owned brewery in Canada.  The original location for Mascot Brewery was on Mercer Street in downtown Toronto, but they moved to their present location on King Street West in 2019.  

Also in 2019, Prothro announced they would open up a second location in suburban Etobicoke complete with a brewing facility, tap room, patio and event space, along with a restaurant in collaboration with Matt Basile who owned the popular Fidel Gastro food truck.  The pandemic slowed down the progress of the buildout and the new Mastro Brewery location finally opened in June of 2021.  

As I said earlier, I set out to go to a brewpub that I thought had food.  The Uber driver dropped me off in front of Great Lakes Brewery (see map) and when I walked in, I sort of suspected that they didn't have a kitchen there.  After sitting down at the bar and ordering a beer, I asked the bartender if they had food.  "No, sorry," she said.  "Our downtown location does, but we don't.  This is our tap room and retail location."   They had a number of beers on tap, and cans of beers for sale in a refrigerator near a wall of wearables that were also for sale.  

But I ended up hanging out there for a couple beers talking with the two bartenders who turned out to be wonderful people.  Canada "Nice" people.  They had a couple hazy IPA's on tap and I tried them both.  I ended up getting the HazeMama New England-style IPA that is one of their year-round beers.  The place wasn't all that busy and I visited with the bartenders who were intrigued that a guy from Iowa had found their tap room.  They were also very helpful in their suggestion of a nearby brewpub that had food - which turned out to be Mascot Brewery.  

Getting an Uber from Great Lakes Brewery turned out to be a bit of a challenge as there was a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey match starting just down the nearby Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto.  It turned out that I had time for one more beer waiting for my Uber ride to show up.  As I said, it was a slow evening and the bartenders were happy for the company.  And they had great music playing in the background from artists such as Onra, The Herbaliser, and Ólafur Arnalds with Bonobo.  

Once the Uber driver showed up, it turned out to be less than a 10 minute ride through residential streets of suburban Toronto to the Mascot Brewery.  (see map)   I found an industrial building which housed some other businesses including a little coffee shop.  Mascot Brewery was toward the back of the building with a very nice wood-facade corner beer garden in front of the building.

Opening the door to Mascot Brewery, I found a small bar area with a concrete-faced bar and room for five or six chairs.  There were some tables in the bar area where some people were seated.  Music from the likes of Bob Marley, Jack Johnson and Red Hot Chili Peppers played on the sound system.  I immediately liked the laid-back vibe of the place. 

 
The on-tap brew menu was on the wall just to the left of the bar and very prominent when you walk into the small bar area.  There was no one behind the bar and I wondered if there was a dining area in the place.  

Just past the bar was a larger room with a larger bar.  There were a few people seated in this spacious room, but the bar was also unmanned.  A large garage door that opened onto the beer patio was the prominent feature of the beer hall.  

A guy came out of nowhere and asked if I needed any help.  I told him that I was looking for some beer and some food.  He said, "You came to the right place!"  I asked him if I could just sit at the bar and he said, "Yeah, I'm in the other room tonight.  We don't have this bar up and running tonight."  

Back in the smaller bar room, I took a seat at the bar.  The bartender's name was Ben and he turned out to be a great guy.  He gave me a food menu to look through and I wanted to know what they had for a hazy IPA that evening.  They had 16 beers on tap when I was there and Ben told me that that their hazy IPA was called the Juicy J.  I tried a sample and immediately signed up for a pint of that after a quick tasting.  

The menu at Mascot Brewery wasn't long, but it was certainly interesting.  They had grilled octopus on the menu that certainly caught my eye.  There was a fennel sausage and rapini dish, as well as a braised short rib served with fresh horseradish.  All three of those sounded great.  Appetizers included wings, charred Brussels sprouts, and "Bang-Bang" cauliflower bites.  And they had other items such as jerk chicken tacos, a chicken Katsu sandwich, and a beer-braised bratwurst plate.  

I really considered getting the grilled octopus - I just love grilled octopus.  But I ended up getting the Oklahoma-style (cooked with onions on a flat grill) smash burger with mild cheddar cheese and bacon.  A side of fries came with the burger.  The burger, itself, was very good.  It had the very crispy edge that you get with good smash burgers.  The cheese oozed out of the burger with each bite, and the grilled onions offered a great flavor complement to the crispy bacon on the burger.  I had absolutely no complaints with the burger.

The fries were also very good - while they weren't all that crisp on the outside, they had a wonderful flavor like they had been cooked in beef tallow.  The fries were delicious on their own.  

I had told Ben of my odyssey that brought me to Mascot Brewery that evening.  I told him that I like to find brewpubs during my travels.  "There's a lot of excellent brewpubs in the area," Ben told me.  And he proceeded to give me a handwritten list of some of his favorites that he suggested I try.  He had listed Rainhard and Shacklands breweries at the top of his list.  "They're next door to one another, probably about a 15 minute drive from here," Ben told me.  "Great beers, great people."  

He also mentioned and listed Blood Brothers Brewing which was northwest of downtown Toronto; along with Henderson Brewing Company that collaborated with the Toronto-based rockers Rush for a series of Rush-themed beers.  (I've had the Rush golden lager and it's a very good beer.)  Closing out his list, he had written down Halo Brewing which was just west of downtown Toronto; and finally he listed Nickle Brook Brewing Company, a brewery in Burlington, ON near Hamilton.  "Nickle Brook has a taproom just down the street from Great Lakes," Ben told me.  "I really like their beers.  They have a stout that I really like."  

I told Ben that I was in town for a trade show and I really didn't know if I would have time to get around to any of the breweries he had listed.  He said, "Well, hang on to this and when you come back you can check 'em out on your next visit."  I didn't know if I would be back in Toronto anytime soon, but it's a guess I'll be back next fall for the trade show.

It was past 9 p.m. and I figured I'd had enough and it was time to get an Uber to get back to my hotel.  However, I was having trouble getting a signal from Bell Canada on my phone outside Mascot to use the Uber app.  I had to go back in and get the wi-fi password from Ben to be able to get the Uber app to work.  He was more than helpful and commiserated with me on the pitfalls of having Bell Canada as a service provider.  

I was actually sort of sad when the Uber showed up at Mascot Brewing to take me back to the hotel.  The me of 20 years ago would have been taking the Uber to the next craft brewery on the list instead of heading back to the hotel.  But I knew we had a long day coming up and it was time to get back to the hotel to rest up.  But what a fun night this was!  I was able to go to two craft breweries in the Toronto area and have some good beers at both places served by typically friendly Canadians.  And the smash burger and fries I had at Mascot Brewing was a spot-hitter, to say the least.  I put the list of breweries that Ben gave me on my Google Maps of "Restaurants to Visit" listing for when I do eventually make it back to Toronto at some point.  But until then, I'll have great memories of visiting both Great Lakes Brewing and Mascot Brewing on this trip to Toronto.  

Oliver's Trattoria - Irvine, CA

Out in Southern California for a trade show this past fall, I had been sitting with a former colleague and his wife catching up on things at the bar at the hotel where the trade show was being held.  I offered to take them out to dinner, but they said they needed to head back to their home just north and east of Los Angeles.  I got back to my hotel and I was looking up some of the restaurants in the immediate area.  I was sort of in the mood for Italian (when aren't I?) and I found a place that looked sort of interesting - Oliver's Trattoria.  Getting the address plugged into my GPS, I took off to go have dinner at Oliver's Trattoria.  

Erik De Marchi was born and raised in Imola, Italy, about halfway in between Bologna and the coastal town of Ravenna on the Adriatic Sea situated in the Emilia-Romagna region of the country.  Emilia-Romagna consists of nine provinces and is very well known for their culinary and wine-making traditions.  Bologna's signature dish is pasta, while Ravenna is known for their seafood and rice meals.  De Marchi was exposed to the region's diverse gastronomy selections at a young age, especially loving his grandmother's lasagna.    

De Marchi eventually enrolled in the culinary sciences program that was part of IAL Emilia-Romagna, a service training academy located in Bologna.  After graduating from IAL in 2002, De Marchi made his way to Los Angeles to work under chef Gino Angeleini at his prestigious Italian eatery Angelini Osteria.  

From there, De Marchi made the rounds of some the better Italian restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area.  After 15 years working in various Italian restaurants in Southern California, De Marchi decided he wanted to do his own restaurant.

Pictured right - Erik De Marchi.  Photo courtesy Orange Coast Magazine.  

Making his way down to the Orange County coast, De Marchi found a spot in Laguna Beach.  He modeled his new restaurant after the osterias - simple cafes - that served locally-sourced foods and wine that were found near his home in Italy.  And while he was getting ready to open his restaurant, his wife was expecting a child - a baby boy that they had already picked out a name for.  In September of 2018 - the same day that his son Oliver was born - De Marchi opened Oliver's Osteria, named after his son.  

De Marchi's little Italian restaurant became an instant hit with residents in and near Laguna Beach.  Food critics praised the restaurant for its authentic Emilia-Romanga-style cuisine, along with its eclectic list of Italian wines.  In 2021, Michelin gave Oliver's Osteria a Bib Gourmand rating - sort of an honorable mention short of getting a star - in its Michelin Guide of Los Angeles restaurants that year.  

Before he got his Michelin mention, Erik De Marchi noticed that a lot of his customers were coming from the Irvine/Newport Beach area making the drive down to Laguna Beach.  In the back of his mind, De Marchi wanted to have a more modern restaurant that offered patio dining, wood-fired pizza, private event space, and sleek furnishings.  Already living in Irvine, De Marchi found an open spot in the Quail Hill shopping and entertainment center and in the fall of 2023, he opened Oliver's Trattoria.  He immediately found that the opening of the new restaurant in Irvine didn't fully take business away from his original restaurant in Laguna Beach.  So it was definitely a win-win situation for De Marchi by opening a second location!

It was about 8 p.m. when I pulled into the Quail Hill complex at the corner of Sand Canyon Ave. and Quail Hill Parkway near the 405 Freeway.  (see map)   The restaurant opened to a bar area and a well-lit dining area off to the left side.  This dining area was a mishmash of square booths, as well as 2-seat, 4-seat, 6-seat and 8-seat tables.  An outdoor patio was located just beyond this dining room.  But it was a cool evening and no one was seated on the patio.

There was a second and somewhat more cozy and subdued dining area past the bar.  It seemed to be a bit "Christmas-y" in the room with dangling white lights around the perimeter and a frosted white tree illuminated by spot lights in the middle, even though it was in the early fall.  A third dining area was in the back and it could be closed off for private dining or receptions.  

I ended up asking the hostess if I could sit at the bar.  There was one seat open on the curved corner of the two-sided bar.  The bar was sort of unique in that two or three of the seats were table-top height, while 7 or 8 chairs were high-top height.  I took one of the high-top chairs with a faux lighted candle in front of me.  The marble-topped bar had lighting underneath to illuminate the brick facade below.  Along the wall next to the bar and behind the hostess stand were a series of high-top tables where people were standing enjoying drinks.  

Once I sat down and was given a menu, one of the bartenders - Lorenzo - came over to greet me.  I had just finished up having a couple three beers at the hotel and I was looking to get a glass of wine to start.  After looking through the by-the-glass wine list Lorenzo gave me, I ordered a house Malbec wine they had.   

The dinner menu started out with a handful of salads and antipasti choices including beef carpaccio, roasted octopus, and fried calamari.  There was wood-fired pizzas on the menu, as well as a Mediterranean sea bass entree, lamb chops in a mint salmoriglio sauce (think Indian mint chutney), and an 8 ounce beef tenderloin served on a bed of arugula and baby artichoke hearts.  Pasta dishes included Oliver's Trattoria's house-made thick pasta noodles with roasted red cherry peppers, linguine and clams in a garlic-white wine sauce, and Tonnarelli ai Crostacei - house-made thick spaghetti noodles, with lobster meat and prawns, mixed in a slightly spicy cherry tomato sauce.  

One of the nice touches Oliver's Trattoria provides after you place your order is a plate of fresh house-made bread cubes with an olive and caper tapenade on the side.  The bread was a spongy focaccia with herbed toppings.  The tapenade was tangy and had great flavor.   

I was torn between a couple items on the menu.  The house lasagna - from the recipe Erik De Marchi's grandmother had made for him as a little boy - was tempting; as was the house-made pappardelle pasta with the wild boar ragu.  But in the end, I went with the tagliatelle pasta with the bolognese sauce.  I've been on such a bolognese kick - both at home and one the road - lately that it just sounded good to me. 

And it was great.  The robust flavor of the meaty bolognese sauce was complemented by the wonderful house-made pasta they served at Oliver's Trattoria.  Parsley flakes and parmesan cheese were sprinkled on the pasta and bolognese to give the dish a rustic appeal.   This was - in simple terms - a killer meal.   

And I've also been on a dessert kick at Italian restaurants on my last few visits and I've been especially keen on the affogato - vanilla gelato with espresso.  And I asked Lorenzo if I could get a shot of amaretto to go along with the affogato.  The affogato had chunks of chocolate on the top of the vanilla gelato and I needed to eat some of the dessert down before I could add the amaretto Lorenzo supplied to me in a small metal pitcher.  The affogato was rich, decadent and very delicious.  It was a great ending to what was a very memorable meal at a very memorable Italian restaurant.  

 

I can't say enough about the experience I had at Oliver's Trattoria.  First of all, Lorenzo was a great bartender - friendly and efficient.  He did a great job taking care of me on my visit.  The focaccia bread cubes with the tapenade spread was a nice touch the restaurant provided as a pre-meal appetizer.  And the tagliatelle pasta with the rich and hearty bolognese sauce was simply outstanding.   I like to find good Italian restaurants if I'm staying in an area for more than a couple days and Oliver's Trattoria surpassed my expectations of what I thought the restaurant would be before I entered the building.  This was a great Italian meal.  

Lane's OAK'D BBQ - Addison, TX

I got into Dallas-Fort Worth International late one afternoon and by the time I got my rental car and traversed to my hotel over in north suburban Addison.  I was in the mood for barbecue during my first night back in Texas for a number of years and it turned out that there was a barbecue joint just down the street that sounded pretty good from the on-line descriptions and reviews.  I walked into Lane's OAK'D BBQ just around 6:30 that evening.  

Clint Norton had a connection to good Texas barbecue - his brother Ed Norton was the owner of the famed County Line barbecue joint in Austin, TX.  Clint Norton wanted to eventually open his own barbecue joint and he learned from his brother that top cuts of beef and pork were key to great barbecue places.  It was a meeting in 2016 with chef/consultant Michael Lane that got the wheels put in motion toward the barbecue joint of Norton's dream.  

Lane was a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who worked in upscale restaurants in Houston, most notably The Annie Cafe and Pappas Bros. Steakhouse.  Lane eventually became a restaurant consultant and it was at that meeting with Clint Norton in 2016 where the initial "big bang" on a new barbecue restaurant began.  Lane was intrigued with Clint Norton's concept of an upscale Central Texas-style barbecue and came on board as the managing partner.  Lane's vision of "upscale" Texas barbecue centered on using the best meat, but also focusing on stellar sides and desserts to enhance the experience.  

Getting investors to buy into the concept was another thing.  Clint Norton and Lane were able to get a small investment group together which included local radio celebrities Allen Evans and his wife Kellie Rasberry from the nationally-syndicated Kidd Kraddick Morning Show.   The pandemic pushed the opening date of their endeavor OAK'D BBQ back to November of 2020 when it opened on Greenville Avenue in Dallas.  Texas post oak wood was used in the smoking process and two large post oak trees were on the property of the restaurant.  Lane locally-sourced the Wagyu beef that was used in the post oak wood pits.

Initially, Lane stayed in the background continuing to run his consulting business, but it came about in early 2021 that he needed to spend more time at the restaurant.  Finding help and the backside of a pandemic became increasingly troublesome, so he turned to family members - as in his children - to help out in the restaurant by bussing tables, washing dishes and sweeping floors.  

Pictured right - Michael Lane.  Photo courtesy Lane's OAK'D BBQ Instagram page.   

Things were going so good at the Greenville Avenue location that Norton, Lane and the investment team looked to the north Dallas suburb of Addison to add a second restaurant.  A popular seafood restaurant - Chamberlain's Seafood - didn't survive the fallout from the pandemic and its space became available in late 2021.  But it wasn't until the spring of 2023 before OAK'D second location would open.  And by that time, Lane had bought out nearly all the other investors and became the primary owner.  When Lane opened the Addison location in May of 2023, he had changed the name of his barbecue joints to Lane's OAK'd BBQ.  

It was less than a five minute drive from my hotel to Lane's OAK'D BBQ located along Belt Line Road in Addison.  (see map)  There was a hotel next door to the restaurant and upon entering it appeared that there were a number of people seated at the bar and in the bar area just to the right as you walk in the door.  There were televisions hung above the bar that were tuned to sporting events.  

The dining area consisted of a number of high-top community-style tables.  Cords of post oak logs bordered the area between the bar and the dining space.  

I ended up seated at the bar and took a quick look at the beer menu.  I saw that they had Kona Big Wave on tap and I took one of those.  However, later on I took a quick look at the beer menu once again and saw that they had a hazy IPA - the Half-Life hazy IPA from the Manhattan Project Beer Co. in Dallas.  (I really wanted to go to the Manhattan Project brewery when I was in Dallas, but it was south and west of downtown Dallas and I didn't have the time to get there.)  

I didn't really know the drill at Lane's OAK'D BBQ, but I soon found out that you had to go into a separate room and place your order and get served cafeteria style.  The menu was on the wall featuring Wagyu and USDA prime beef, Duroc pork, and house-made sides.  They also had a few sandwiches and a smashed ground brisket burger on the menu.  

The smokers and heating drawers were behind the counter and it was an assembly line of workers who put together the meals served on wax paper on metal trays.  The line actually moved along pretty briskly.  

At the end of the line before you paid for your food order, there were a number of desserts available.  This was a tenet when Lane helped put together the original order at OAK'D BBQ.  He felt having desserts that were made in house was an important part of an upscale barbecue restaurant.  Desserts such as cookies, cakes, apple pie and bread pudding were available, tempting patrons just before they paid for their meal.    

I ordered up some brisket as part of a three-meat combo and one of the guys pulled out a full brisket to slice for my order.  The outer shell was charred and slathered with spices.  When I saw the condition of the meat - as in, the lack of any juices coming out of the brisket when he sliced the brisket - I thought this might have been a mistake.

I ended up getting the 3-meat combo - the sliced brisket, brisket burnt ends and pulled pork.  They had steak fries, apple cider coleslaw, 3-cheese mac, red-skin potato salad and balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts among the house-made sides.  I seriously considered getting the roasted sprouts to go along with the baked beans, but the guy working the sides station on the line convinced me to get the braised collard greens.  They also had dill pickle slices, pickled onions, and banana peppers that they added to the tray.  They had two different types of sauces, but they weren't available on the tables or bars.  (I know that pure Texas barbecue joints don't believe in adding sauce to their smoked meats, but I'm a sauce guy and I like to have some bites with the sauce on them.)  They had a container that pumped out a couple small tubs of a sweet sauce that they had.

I went back to my seat at the bar and there were a couple guys with British accents sitting next to me who asked me what I got.  After pointing out what I got, one of them asked about the collard greens.  I explained that collard greens were more of a Southern U.S. food and that I was sort of surprised to see them at a Texas barbecue place.  It wasn't much later after that when they both got up to go get food from the line.   

My fears of the brisket being dry and overcooked came to light when I tried to cut into the meat.  It was woefully overcooked, lacking of any juiciness and flavor, and almost like chewing leather.  I got a handful of burnt ends and the majority of the burnt ends were also charred and overcooked.  Only three or four had any juiciness to the meat and were easy to chew.  The brisket and the burnt ends were highly disappointing.  

The Duroc pork pulled pork was very good, however.  It was juicy, full of great smoked pork flavor, and very delicious.  The Central Texas-style baked beans were fine, as were the collard greens which had a nice vinegary flavor with each bite.  But the sides were large and there was no way that I was going to be able to finish what they had dished out for me.  

For as promising that Lane's OAK'D BBQ was when I first found the place on line, it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment - mainly because of the nature of the brisket and burnt ends that I ordered.  They were overcooked, dull and lifeless.  But the pulled pork was very good, and the sides - the baked beans and collard greens - were all good.  Lane's OAK'D BBQ was a very nice place, the service I got from the bartenders was good, it's just that the brisket was so underwhelming that it put a damper on my visit.  It was just a dissatisfying experience.  

Barn Town Brewing - West Des Moines, IA

I had a dealer in the Des Moines area who had been on me since earlier in the summer to get over and see him as he was interested in talking to me about my line of consumer audio products.  I had been traveling so much since August that I hadn't been able to get over and to see him, even though it's a 2 hour 30 minute drive over from the Quad Cities. I finally made it over to have a meeting with him on a Friday morning, so I spent the night before on the west side of Des Moines.  I was looking for a brewpub to go hang out at and found a place that I had heard about before, but never been to - Barn Town Brewing in West Des Moines.  I took off around 7 p.m. to  go to Barn Town Brewing.  

Pete Faber grew up in Des Moines and graduated from the University of Iowa circa 2000.  Heading to Chicago to catch on in the restaurant industry, Faber opened his first sports bar/restaurant - Merkle's - in 2004.  The place was close to Wrigley Field and was a hang-out for Chicagoland Iowa fans who would congregate there to watch Iowa games on TV.  

Within 10 years, Faber owned or was a part owner in 4 Chicago area restaurants or sports bars.  But his wife Beth was thinking that she wanted to move back toward the Des Moines area to be closer to family who could help her raise their son and daughter.  In 2015, Faber sold his shares in his restaurants and moved the family back to suburban Des Moines.  With all the growth going on out on the west and north suburbs of Des Moines, Faber found an opportunity to open a brewpub in a new strip mall along W. University Ave. just west of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club.  

Faber's late father was a longtime employee of the John Deere plant in Ankeny and he wanted to pay homage to his dad by going with a farm theme to the restaurant.  He brought in Nebraska native Grant Brower to run the brewery and the brewpub opened in February of 2017.  Initially, Faber and Brower decided to experiment with a bunch of different styles of beers and would only have six of their own beers on tap at a time while rotating 14 other Iowa-made brews and ciders until they could figure out what their core beers would be.  (They currently have six core beers on tap and another nine seasonal beers, sours or ciders in addition to some guest taps.)   

The transformation of the space for his brewpub was an endeavor that Faber was deeply involved in.  The large open space features a well-lit room with lights hanging from wagon wheels.  Reclaimed barn boards accented the space with a number of booths along the wall and tables in the middle.  

The bar was pretty interesting in that the reclaimed barn board back wall featured a cutout of a 1955 Ford F-100 pick-up truck along with wood-carved American and state of Iowa flags.  Jug lamp shades hung over the bar and there were a number of flatscreen televisions hanging on the barn board wall.  

Along the south wall was a unique collection of beer cans that were inlayed into the barb boards with more reclaimed wood acting as a border.  It was the outline of the state of Iowa with "BTB" all in black beer cans.  This is something that Faber did himself and I have to say this is one of more clever and interesting things I've seen in any brewpub.  Antique metal farm signs hung around the border of the beer can mural.

It was a nice evening and a number of people were milling about near the front door of Barn Town Brewing waiting for a table to open up.  I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar and she turned and said, "Well, it looks like the bar is full."  Just then, someone from the end of the bar got up and left.  I said that I would take that seat.

There was a guy and a young lady who were tag-teaming on the bar that evening.  The young lady was my primary contact for service most of the evening, but the guy was quick on the spot when I needed more napkins or another beer.  The young lady told me that Barn Town's menus are on a QR code that I had to look up with my phone.  I don't care for QR code menus all that much, but I didn't have much of a choice that evening.  

They have six core beers at Barn Town that are available year round.  They have a number of seasonal or brewer's choice beers from time to time.  They had sours and gluten free selections on tap that evening, as well as ciders from the Jefferson County Ciderworks in Fairfield, IA.  Although I thought hard about getting the Banter West Coast IPA a seasonal beer that they had on tap that evening.  I ended up ordering a Neon Hazy, a wonderful hazy IPA that is one of their core beers.

The food menu at Barn Town could be described as upscale bar food.  They had a number of gourmet-style burgers including a Beef Wellington burger that featured two beef smashed patties topped with mushroom duxelles with prosciutto ham, and finished with dijon mustard and a red wine sauce.  All of that was on a puff pastry bun.  Now, THAT sounded great.  As did the French onion melt that was served on sourdough bread.  

Other items on the menu included sandwiches such as the bulgogi cheesesteak sandwich, birria brisket crunchwrap that was served between two tostadas, and they had grilled or fried chicken sandwich with a crab rangoon sauce.  Appetizers such as a brisket quesadilla tacos, deep-fried fresh Wisconsin cheese curds served with a chipotle aioli, nachos, fried pickle slices, and an onion straw "haystack".  I was hoping they had the onion straws as a side, but they didn't.  

It was tenderloin night at Barn Town and I was told that's why it was so busy in there that evening.  I saw a few tenderloins come out, but I wasn't interested in that.  In fact, I really didn't know what I wanted.  I had a burger the previous evening and even though some of their burgers sounded pretty good, I wasn't certain that I wanted to eat burgers on consecutive nights.  They had a burger called the '55 - named after the old Ford truck hanging on the wall behind the tappers - that was just a basic cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and red onion that I considered.  But then I thought that was stupid given some of the other tantalizing burgers they had on the menu.  

I homed in on the sandwich selections looking hard at the pastrami and Swiss cheese sandwich, the pollo diablo wrap with grilled chicken with black beans, giardiniera peppers and a chipotle aioli sauce, and the birria brisket sandwich topped with chihuahua cheese, cilantro, onion, and a cilantro/lime crema.  There were certainly a lot of food options at Barn Town.

There was a guy seated next to me and it turned out he was also from the Quad Cities.  He had ordered the braised brisket sandwich - house-braised beef brisket topped with Swiss cheese, sautéed onions, and fried banana pepper rings, and finished with a creamy horseradish aioli.  All that was served on grilled sour dough bread.  Between bites, he said, "This is the best sandwich.  I'm in Des Moines a couple times a week and I always come here and get this sandwich.  I really wish one of the brewpubs in the Quad Cities had a sandwich like this."  

That was enough of an endorsement for me.  I ordered same braised brisket he had just finished.  When the young lady bartender put this in front of me, I was salivating.  I had a choice of chips or fries to come with the sandwich - I also could have chosen from sides such as cole slaw, mac & cheese, and sweet potato fries for an upcharge.  I went with the fries.   

The sandwich was outstanding.  The shredded braised brisket was piled high in between the thick slices of sourdough bread and it was very moist and tender.  The fried pepper rings gave the sandwich a bit of a zippy flavor, and the Swiss cheese oozed out of the sandwich with nearly every bite.  The fries - served in a small tin cup - were also pretty good.  But the sandwich was so rich and filling that I didn't pay much attention to the fries.  

I have to say that Barn Town Brewing was a great find and one of the more memorable brewpubs I've found in all of my travels.  The decor was interesting, the beer I had was outstanding, and the braised brisket sandwich was top-notch.  I can't say enough about the service I received from the bartender tandem that evening and there wasn't anything that I could find at fault during my visit.  Oh, I'm going back to Barn Town Brewing on my next visit to Des Moines.  It was just a great experience all the way around.

 

 

Tandoori Masala - Etobicoke, ON

In Toronto for a trade show earlier this fall, my colleague from France and I were on our own for dinner one evening.  There are so many Indian restaurants in the Toronto area that you can't swing a cat by the tail without hitting one.  And because of that, they're all pretty good.  I convinced my European colleague to join me for dinner at one that was about a 10 minute Uber ride from our hotel, a restaurant by the name of Tandoori Masala.  

Tandoori Masala is actually found in two locations in the greater Toronto area.  The Brampton location opened in 2018 and the Etobicoke location opened in 2023.  Both locations are combination restaurant/nightclubs and open until 5 a.m.  But that seems to be the norm with the Indian restaurants around the Toronto area.  

The trade show got over about 6 p.m. and by 6:30 we were on our way to Tandoori Masala which is located in a strip mall along Queens Plate Drive near where Ontario Highway 27 and Rexdale Boulevard meet up.  (see map)  Before we walked inside, my colleague looked at the restaurant's closing times on the door and he said in a hesitant manner, "What kind of restaurant closes at 5 a.m.?"  I told him, "I've found that a lot of Indian restaurants in the Toronto area stay open that late!" (or that early)  In fact, the original Tandoori Masala used to stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

To the left as you walk into Tandoori Masala, there was a small den/lounge area for people to gather.  There was a spot for people to take off their shoes and literally climb over the short backrest into the rectangular den.  It was very South Asian in the feel of the space.  There wasn't a lot of people in the place when we got there - I think there were two other tables that were occupied in the restaurant.  And they only had one young man working as a server, so things were a bit slow while we were there.  

The "Funky Desi" decor continued into the main dining area with a number of decorative light diffusers over lighting on the ceiling.  A small bar toward the front of the had rows of LED light ropes that changed colors about every ten seconds or so.  And while other Indian restaurants I've been to that have flatscreen televisions on the wall that will play Indian movies, cricket matches, or Funky Desi music videos, the four television monitors at Tandoori Masala had rotating pictures of specialty drinks and cocktails on them.  


The LED lights on the front of the bar changed from red, to green, to blue.  And they were bright.  I sat on a banquette seat bench looking toward the bar for dinner and I have to say that it was kind of disconcerting after a while.  But it had a night club feeling to the place and there was Desi and Punjabi music from artists such as Satinder Sartaaj, Tegi Pannu, Manni Sandhu, and Amrit Maan playing in the background.  Not loud, but noticeable enough.   

We were brought out an offering of a couple crisp papadum wafers with a dual container of plum sauce (which had a spicy kick) and mint chutney (which did not).  I was parched and needed a cold beer and I asked our young server if they had Kingfisher.  "Kingfisher," he asked back.  "Kingfisher, yes sir."  Knowing how long it took him to get to our table in the first place, I immediately ordered two knowing that the first one was probably going to be gone in under five minutes.  

My colleague from France doesn't drink alcohol - not even French wine!  He's not religious, but more of a health nut who gave up drinking a number of years ago.  He stuck with water throughout our stay.  But because of the "nightclub" vibe Tandoori Masala gave off, they did feature a full bar with liquor, wine, beer, boozy shakes and "shooters" available to order. 

To say that Tandoori Masala has an extensive menu is an understatement.  It was like reading a large print novel from front to back as they had authentic Indian "street food" such as lamb-stuffed naan and a Bombay grilled sandwich made with spicy potatoes to start out.  Vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes proliferated the menu, along with noodle and pasta dishes (the pasta dishes turned out to be somewhat interesting to me), along with soups, appetizers, and a number of curry dishes.  True to their name, Tandoori Masala also had a wide selection of items with chicken, lamb and seafood made in a tandoori oven.  

The one dish that caught my eye was a mash-up of Indian and Italian cuisine - the butter chicken pasta.  I was intrigued by the meshing of the two cuisines - penne pasta tossed with a creamy butter chicken sauce.  I mean, it works with rice and noodles, why wouldn't Indian food work with pasta?  Everything else that I saw on the menu that I thought I would like to have, well, I could get that at basically any Indian restaurant that I've been to or going to be at in the future.  Indian food and pasta are two of my favorite types of food.  To complement the pasta and butter chicken dish, I got some garlic naan to go along with it.

I ordered mine as medium in spiciness, but the first couple bites I had told me that the chef's idea of medium and my idea of medium was a tad off.  I mean, it was spicy!  At least for the first three or four bites until my taste buds calmed down or warmed up or whatever they did to make the subsequent bites more palatable.  I killed two more Kingfisher beers during the meal to stave off the spiciness of the meal.  

And not that the spiciness detracted from the overall flavor of the butter chicken pasta - quite the opposite.  It was like the flavor of the butter chicken popped with each bite.  I was sitting there shaking my head and thinking, "Pasta with butter chicken.  Pasta with butter lamb."  Why didn't I think of it before this?  I wanted to go to our favorite little Indian place when I got back home and get some butter lamb or lamb saag to bring home and pair it with angel hair or tagliatelle pasta.  But what I had that evening, it was way too much food.  I had a bunch of pasta leftover by the time I threw in the towel.  

My friend doesn't like spicy food.  (We joke that he is the most boring Frenchman on the planet, but in all reality he's a great guy.)  He got the chicken tikka masala along with rice and some regular naan bread.  And he ordered the tikka masala as mild as the chef could make it.  It looked really good with a drizzle of cream mixed in along with some chopped parsley flakes.  But from his first bite, he was in trouble.  He started to sweat and said, "Wow!  This is spicy!"  I apologized for dragging him to the Indian restaurant and having his food turn out to be too spicy.  But he trudged through the meal continuing to mix the chicken tikka masala in with the rice, taking a bite, taking a drink of water, and then going, "Whoa!"

After a bit, I asked him if I could dip some of my garlic naan into the tikka masala sauce.  "Please do," he replied as he gestured toward the bowel.  I tore off a chunk of garlic naan and dipped it.  After I tasted it, well, I have to say that I didn't think it was spicy at all.  Then again, I had just tried about 10 to 12 bites of my butter chicken pasta that was going to be noticeably more spicy than the spiciness level of his tikka masala.  I guess I should have tried it earlier on as my taste buds had already wrapped themselves around the heat level of what I was eating.  But just like me, after a few bites my colleague had gotten use to the spicy nature of his tikka masala sauce and was happy with what he got.  

Other than my colleague thinking his chicken tikka marsala was too spicy for his liking, I have to say the meal I had at Tandoori Masala was excellent.  And in retrospect the next day, my friend said that he thought what he had was very good, too.  "Ooof..." he said in an exasperated manner.  "It was really spicy, though."  But his level of tolerance for spicy food is significantly lower than mine.  Tandoori Masala was a delightfully funky place, the butter chicken pasta dish that I had was surprisingly great, and the most important thing - they had Kingfisher beer !  But the service was pretty slow.  It didn't matter after we got our food, we had more than enough to keep us captivated for at least 20 minutes.  I'm just still amazed - pasta with Indian food!  It was just a great combination that I was so stupid to figure out until my visit to Tandoori Masala.   

Casa! Ristorante - Fort Wayne, IN

Out in Fort Wayne for a day-long seminar with our biggest account, we had invited a recording studio mastering engineer from Nashville to help out with the presentation.  After finishing the seminar, packing up and getting everything ready to ship back to our warehouse, I said it was time for a beer and some food.  Both my colleague from Montreal and our friend from Nashville were up for that.  Since my colleague is a vegetarian, he's always up for pasta and I remembered a place that we had passed a couple nights previously that I wanted to try out.  That evening we went to Casa! Ristorante.  

Tom Casaburo grew up in Highland, NY, located just across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie, about halfway between New York City and Albany.  After high school, Casaburo joined the Marines and had a 3-year stint in the armed forces.  After getting out of the Marines, Casaburo enrolled at Saint Peters College (now Saint Peters University) in Jersey City, NJ on the GI Bill and got his English degree.  Soon after he got out of college, Casaburo joined the FBI and was sent to Fort Wayne in 1968.  In 1972, Casaburo was hired as Fort Wayne's first Director of Public Safety, a post he held until 1976.

It was a chance meeting at a local bar with St. Louis-native Jimmy D'Angelo where Casaburo started to get an idea about opening an Italian restaurant in Fort Wayne.  It turned out that D'Angelo's cousins Vince and Joe Cunetto ran an Italian restaurant in St. Louis - Cunetto House of Pasta - using recipes handed down by their maternal grandmother who was also Jimmy D'Angelo's grandmother.  

After Casaburo resigned as the public safety director, Casaburo and Jimmy D (as he was known) went to St. Louis to learn the recipes from D'Angelo's cousins.  After immersing themselves in the kitchen and learning the made-from-scratch recipes from Grandma D'Angelo, the two went back to Fort Wayne to open their restaurant.  Casa Ristorante Italiano opened on Coldwater Road in 1977 and it was an immediate hit with the local populace.  

Pictured right - Tom Casaburo, Sr.  Photo courtesy Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

A second Casa location opened on Fairfield Road in 1980.  It was considered the flagship location for the Casa Restaurant Group in the early 80's.  The original Coldwater Road location closed and moved to a new spot on Parnell Ave. in the late 80's just across from Memorial Coliseum.  The Fairfield Road location closed in the early 90's, but was replaced by the restaurant on W. Jefferson in 1993.    

In 1993, Jimmy D decided to retire and Casaburo bought his shares.  Casaburo's sons - Tom, Jr. (known as T) and Jim started working at the restaurants as pre-teens, both busing tables and helping with kitchen prep.  In 1996, the Casaburo family opened their third restaurant on Fort Wayne's north side in 1996, and a fourth location opened on the northeast side of the city in 2002.  When Tom Casaburo, Sr. and his wife, Sharon, decided to retire to Florida, the two sons took over the business with Jim designated as the managing partner. 

It was the W. Jefferson location that we went to that evening.  Located on the main road into the heart of Fort Wayne from the southwest side of the city, it was about a five minute drive from our hotel.  (see map).  Going into the restaurant, we were greeted by someone at the host counter near the front door.  The man asked if we wanted to sit in the lounge.  It was a pretty big lounge with a three-sided bar.  Had I been dining by myself, I would have probably sat at the bar.  But the lounge was pretty busy and we decided to take a table in the dining room. 

On the way back to the dining room, we passed a large brick oven they've used since the early 90's to make their wood-fired pizzas.  The tile work and cowling on the brick oven was similar to the front of the fireplace in the lounge.   

We were led back to a table in the dining room.  The dining area was brightly lit with colorful paintings of old Italy on the walls.  A large flower decoration was the centerpiece of the room.  

After we were seated, we were given menus to look through.  And after a bit our server for the evening - Adreyn  - came by to greet us.  He asked if we had been to Casa! before and we told him that we were from out of town.  He asked where and I pointed at my colleague and said, "Montreal."  Then pointed at our friend and said, "Nashville."  And then I said, "And I'm from Iowa."

Adreyn perked up.  "Where in Iowa?"  I told him that I was from Davenport.  He said, "I grew up in Clear Lake!"  When I told him that I grew up in Newton, he was even more surprised.  Adreyn turned out to be a great guy and was really attentive and helpful during our visit.  

It was a pretty full menu in terms of pasta, sandwiches, appetizers, salads, and entrees such as rotisserie grilled pork chops, a grilled salmon filet, chicken parm, and filet tips kabobs.  But in terms of beer and wine offerings, it was a pretty short list.  There wasn't a lot of craft beers on the menu, but they did have Peroni on tap.  Each of us signed up for one each.  Later in the evening, I got a glass of the Catena Malbec they had available.  

None of us had eaten lunch, so we were pretty hungry.  I let my colleague and our friend pick what they wanted to start out with for appetizers.  My colleague got the bruschetta - it turned out to be a "construct-your-own" style of bruschetta.  A plate of toasted baguette slices was brought to the table with a cup of chopped tomatoes and basil leaves mixed with olive oil.  I thought it was a bit strange, but went along with it.  I thought the bread with the tomatoes and basil were very good, but my colleague - who I've found during our time together is a bit of a bread snob - didn't care for the bread.  (He makes his own bread at home.)

But after having what our friend ordered, I didn't worry about the bruschetta.  He ordered the garlic knots - bread dough tied into small knots, then deep-fried and served in a bowl of garlic butter topped with Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.  These were outstanding and very decadent in terms of being a healthy choice.  I had 3 of the garlic knots and completely forgot about the bruschetta to my left.  

They had a lot of choices for pasta dishes including baked pasta dishes such as eggplant Parmagiano, lasagna, and large pasta shells stuffed with a combination of three different types of cheese.  Regular pasta dishes included a fettuccine alfredo, meat-filled tortellini in an herb-butter sauce, penne pasta with sausage and pepperoni slices, and a seafood linguine.  One of the specials that evening was a spinach fettuccine in a cream sauce.  I could add chicken or shrimp to the dish.  I seriously considered that.

Our friend went with the penne bianco - it featured Italian sausage, mushrooms and spinach mixed with penne pasta in a Parmesan cream cheese sauce, then topped with provolone and mozzarella cheeses and baked.  When Adreyn put the dish in front of our friend, he exclaimed, "Oh, man!  That's a lot of food!  How am I going to finish all this?"  

He certainly made a dent in the dish, though.  He said it was extremely rich with the creamy Parmesan sauce and the provolone and mozzarella cheese on top of the penne pasta mixture.  But he also said that it was very delicious.  When he threw in the towel, Adreyn asked if he wanted a to-go box.  Our friend said that he didn't think it would travel very well back to Nashville.    

My colleague was happy to see that Casa! Ristorante had a significant vegetarian part of the menu including spinach lasagna, cheese-stuffed ravioli, pasta and marinara sauce, and cavatelli pasta with mushrooms and a choice of another vegetable. He thought about getting the pasta primavera, but he ended up ordering the risotto Alberto, sans the grilled chicken breast that came with the dish.  It featured wild mushrooms, zucchini, yellow onions and asparagus simmered in a rich stock, then mixed with arborio rice in a creamy white wine sauce and Parmesan cheese.  He thought it was good - not great - but he was happy that he got it.    

I was in somewhat of a quandary.  I really thought about the spinach fettuccine special they had that night.  The fettuccine carbonara was also interesting to me, as was the meat-stuffed ravioli.  And the meat-filled tortellini was another thing that I was thinking hard about.

When Adreyn came to me to give him my order, I was stuck.  "All good choices," he said after I told him what I was looking at.  "Let me suggest something that's one of our more popular dishes."  He then told me about the Lasagna Carne Amante.  "It's sort of like a 'meat-lovers' lasagna," he told me.  It was a large block of their lasagna only with Italian sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto and sliced meatballs.  It's topped with their house meat sauce and a cheese blend before it's baked in the oven.  I thought, "OK - that sounds like a challenge!"  

The meat-overload lasagna was just that - thick chunks of Italian sausage and sliced meatballs, spicy pepperoni slices, and thin-sliced imported prosciutto mixed in with lasagna noodles, a thick layer of cheese and a thick and hearty meat sauce.  It was just a lot of food.  I was able to finish just over half of the chunk of lasagna in the dish before I declared I was done.  Adreyn also asked me if I wanted to take what was left with me.  Had I lived locally, I probably would have.  But A) I wasn't certain a to-go box would fit in my hotel refrigerator; and B) I had a 5 hour drive back to Iowa the next day and I didn't have anything that I could keep it cool in.  

My colleague from Montreal was sort of neutral about Casa! Ristorante.  We had gone to another Italian restaurant in Fort Wayne - Salvatori's - last year and he seemed to favor that place over the other ones we had been to on subsequent visits to Fort Wayne.  But I thought what I had at Casa! Ristorante was very good, and our friend from Memphis thought what he was also way above par.  I can't say enough about our service from Adreyn that evening - friendly, efficient, just a great guy all around.  While my colleague might not want to go back to Casa! Ristorante any time soon, I'd have no problem heading back there on a future visit to Fort Wayne.  

Field Day Brewing Company - North Liberty, IA

A few months ago, I drove into North Liberty to see some family members and as I was coming into town off I-380, I looked over to my right and saw a huge building that I wasn't familiar with.  I went around the block and came back by the building which turned out to be a new brewpub - Field Day Brewing Company.  Since then, I had been back a couple times to have their beers, but on a recent trip to the North Liberty area on a Sunday, I decided to stop in and get something to eat at Field Day Brewing.  

Joe Selix was going to the University of Iowa about 15 years ago for his business degree and he ended up working as a bartender at BlackStone, an upscale comfort food restaurant on Iowa City's east side owned by Matt Swift and Brian Flynn.  After getting his degree, Selix stuck around Iowa City working at BlackStone as the front of house manager for a couple years before heading out to the Denver area to work various jobs including as a pet pharmacy sales rep.  But when Shewmaker, Flynn and Brandon Pratt wanted to start a new restaurant in the burgeoning small city of North Liberty, they turned to Selix to see if he would be a managing partner in the new business.  Selix came back to the Iowa City area and helped open Tin Roost in August of 2017.  

While Selix was at BlackStone, Flynn, Swift and Eric Shewmaker had formed the Craft Concepts Restaurant Group that either fully owned or co-partnered with other restaurants such as 30hop, Big Grove Brewery, Vesta, Iowa Athletic Club, and the venerable Joe's Place, a longtime favorite drinking establishment in Iowa City.  In addition to Iowa City/Cedar Rapids restaurants under the Craft Concepts Restaurant Group umbrella, the corporation also owned Lua Brewing in Des Moines, and had put a Big Grove Brewery in Des Moines, and 30hop locations in the Des Moines area, as well as in Omaha.  The group is slated to open two more 30hop locations in the Kansas City area early next year, and a Big Grove Brewery in Omaha is scheduled to open also in early 2025.   

After getting Tin Roost up and running, Joe Selix set his sights on a new endeavor - another brewpub for the greater Iowa City area, this time one in North Liberty - the growing city's first.  The problem was that he didn't know the first thing about brewing beer.   But his brother Scott - who is the co-owner of the Lua Brewery in Des Moines - was the president of the Iowa Brewers Guild and knew a number of people who were brewers across the state.  

Scott Selix got his brother in contact with Alec Travis, an award-winning brewmaster who had first worked at SingleSpeed Brewing Company in Waterloo, then at Lion Bridge Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids.   Travis agreed to come on as a partner in the venture and helped oversee the installation of a 15-barrel system into what turned out to be a 20,000 square foot facility in North Liberty.  With everything in place, Field Day Brewing Company opened on August 1, 2023.  

It was just after noon on a windy Sunday afternoon when I pulled into Field Day's expansive parking lot off W. Liberty Way, just south of W. Penn Ave, the main east-west road into North Liberty.  (see map)  Walking into Field Day, there's an expansive main hall with booths and community tables underneath industrial Edison light chandeliers.  

For just afternoon, the place was actually pretty full.  There were people waiting for booths or large tables when I came into the place.  NFL games were playing on the large screen televisions that were interspersed throughout the main beer hall.  

Just past the beer hall was an outdoor patio area that had strands of hanging Edison lights over a number of all-weather tables and chairs.  A few people were seated closer to the building as it was sort of out of the wind with the north and east sides of the patio open.  The outdoor patio area was almost the size of the beer hall inside.  Garage doors that open during more pleasant weather were on the wall that faced the beer hall.  

Just past the outdoor patio was a beer garden with picnic tables, Adirondack chairs and some fire pits.  It was definitely too windy to be sitting out on the crushed rock beer garden that afternoon, but it would have been a nice place to hang on a beautiful day.

Field Day promotes the fact that they cater to families.  Just beyond the outdoor patio and beer garden was a playground with curved jungle gyms, tractor tires cut in half to climb on, and a mesh catwalk.  The playground fixtures were on rubber pellets to soften the fall.  They weren't all that high off the ground, but I could see some dumbshit drunk out there trying to walk across the top of the jungle gym and falling to the ground.   

Back inside Field Day, there was another room off to the side with more community seating along with duckpin bowling lanes.  All four lanes were occupied pretty much the whole time I was in the place.  The game room had its own bar, a row of stools with a narrow bar behind the duckpin lanes, and flat-screen televisions on the wall.  The room could be shut off for private events and parties.   

As people were waiting to get tables when I walked in, I noticed a number of seats were opened around the three-sided bar.  Each side had 3 flat-screen televisions on the back bar wall and they also had NFL games on them with the exception of two of the televisions around the bar that had the current beer menu on them.  There were a couple ladies who were obviously big Green Bay Packers fans seated on one of the corners of the bar watching the game.  

There were two bartenders working that day.  Both of them were very friendly, attentive and great guys.  One of the bartenders came over and dropped off a food menu for me to look through.  I saw a brew on the beer menu that I had before on my previous visits to Field Day - the Juicy Belly hazy IPA.  I remembered it being very good and I ordered one of those.  

The food offerings were pretty basic - appetizers and small plates, street tacos and pretzels, sandwiches and salads.  The ladies a couple seats over from me were working on a plate of the Iowan fries - pulled pork on top of fries, topped with cheese and a ranch sauce.  A couple other interesting appetizers included the popcorn that was popped in duck fat, and the Nashville hot cheese curds.  

Although there wasn't a lot of foods to choose from on the menu, a couple three things stood out for me.  The seared mahi mahi tacos with topped with a cilantro-lime slaw and an avocado crema sounded really good, as did the green chile-braised chicken tacos.  The pastrami sandwich with Havarti cheese, sauerkraut and 1000 Island dressing also got my attention.  

But in the end, I decided to go the burger route and I ordered the Field Day burger - two flat-grilled smash burgers with thick slices of American cheese on top of each patty sitting on a bed of shredded lettuce, dill pickle slices, and finished with a house-made sauce.    Sides consisted of fries or chips & salsa, or for an upcharge you could get a side salad, pasta salad or a cup of soup.  I went with the fries since tots weren't available and nothing else sounded like it would go good with a flat-grilled burger.

I have to say the burger was very good - a "spot-hitter", in my book. The smashed patties still had some juiciness to them, the cheese oozed with each bite, and the bun was fluffy and light, but held together very well with all the stuff on the burger.  I immediately knew I was going to need more napkins after the first couple bites and when one of the bartenders came back to check on me I asked for some more.  "A lot going on with that burger," he said as he sat more napkins down in front of me.  The fries were also very good as they had a crunchy outer shell from the batter they used on them, and had a nice pillowy inlay.  

About the only quibble I have with Field Day Brewing Company is that their menu is a little short to my liking.  But what they have seems to be interesting enough.  I can't say enough about the flat-grilled smash burger I had along with the great battered fries.  I've never been disappointed in the beers I've tried on previous visits, and the tag-bartender-team who waited on me that day were great guys - friendly, efficient and very helpful.  For North Liberty's first brew pub, I think the guys at Craft Concepts Restaurant Group have hit it out of the park.  The next time I get over there, I'm trying the seared mahi mahi tacos.  

 

Burien Pizzeria (and 909 Coffee & Wine) - Burien, WA

As my trip to the Seattle area continued, I got to know the small suburban town of Burien pretty well.  Walking the streets in Olde Burien, I found a number of great little restaurants, bars and shops in the area.  The bartender at my hotel was telling me of a couple places that she thought had good pizza in Burien and one of the two she mentioned was a place I had scoped out after dinner a couple nights previously called Burien Pizzeria.  I decided to head there for dinner that evening.

Frank Ricci literally grew up in the restaurant business.  His father, Angelo, was a longtime engineer at Boeing who in 1957 opened a small deli in the blue collar village of Burien, about 13 miles south of downtown Seattle.  Along with Angelo's wife Armella, the couple expanded the deli in 1961 putting in seating.  Throughout the 60's, more expansion happened at the little restaurant including a new kitchen where Angelo and Armella would make Italian specialties passed down from their families in the old country.  

Angelo and Armella would eventually have eight children with Frank being the youngest.  Each of the Ricci children would work at the family's Italian restaurant with the two oldest brothers eventually taking over and expanding to a second location in the 1970's.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Angelo's of Burien.)

Frank Ricci started to work at Angelo's when he was 12 years old.  He did whatever he needed to do to fit - bus tables, sweep floors, wash dishes.  But what he liked to do the most was to work in the kitchen with his two oldest brothers who were the main chefs of the restaurant.  When his brothers Ron and Richard ran the family's second Angelo's location in Bellevue, WA, Frank would help out at both locations doing what he loved to do - cooking food.  

After 20 years of working in the family business - and it was truly a family business with his nieces and nephews also now working in the two Angelo's locations - he decided to do something on his own.

In May of 2007, Frank Ricci opened a little trattoria - Bistro 909 - in Olde Burien just a couple blocks away from his father's eponymous restaurant.  The restaurant evolved and it eventually became 909 Wine & Coffee that featured a short menu that featured some pasta dishes, steaks and seafood specialties.  

Danny House owned and operated the Tin Room Bar, Restaurant & Theater just a few doors down from 909 Wine & Coffee.  House was also locally famous for being Dan the Sausageman who originally sold summer sausage out of the trunk of his car starting in 1988 before opening a storefront a few years later.  Frank Ricci and House were good friends and they decided they wanted to do something together in a restaurant endeavor.

Pictured right - Danny House and Frank Ricci.  Photo courtesy Westside Seattle.  

(In 2013, Ricci opened 913 Spirits - The Place Next Door, a wine bar/short menu bistro located between 909 Wine & Coffee and Tin Room Bar.)  

In 2017, a space opened up next to 909 Coffee & Wine and the two partnered up to open a wood-fired gourmet pizza place.  The restaurant was designed to be family friendly, yet have a grown-up vibe with pasta dishes, signature cocktails, and craft beer.  In the fall of 2018, House and Ricci opened Burien Pizzeria at 907 SW 152nd Street.  (see map)  

It was a Saturday night when I headed to downtown Burien to eat at Burien Pizzeria.  There was an arts event going with a number of people walking the sidewalks of Olde Burien checking out some of the murals and artwork with lights on display.  I had to park in a small lot about two blocks away from Burien Pizzeria and walk over to the restaurant.  

The colorful facade of the restaurant came into view as I walked up SW 152nd Street.  There's a small patio out front with stools and a counter for people to eat on and watch the world go by.  It was a beautiful evening and there were a few people having pizza on the sidewalk patio.  

Inside Burrien Pizzeria, there was a bar off to one side, a handful of hightop tables with stool seats, and a few four-seater tables along the front window to the restaurant.  A display case of the wines they have at Burrien Pizzeria was along the brick wall opposite the bar.  Exposed ducts and crossbeams were found on the ceiling with industrial lighting hanging down.  It was a cozy place, but well-lit.  Classic 60's/70's rock and soul music from the likes of Dusty Springfield, the Rolling Stones, and Marvin Gaye played in the background.  

Out a back door to the restaurant, I found a canvas-covered patio with Edison lighting strung over the tables below.  There was a smoker out back, but I didn't see anything on their menu that had smoked meats.  That's where they stored the wood for their wood-fired oven.  


Back inside, behind a counter in the corner was the brick oven.  A copper plate facade with a brick trim around the opening.  The prep table was just beyond the small wall that separated the dining area.  They were certainly busy making pizzas while I was there as a seemingly never-ending line-up of people were coming in to pick up pizzas to-go.  

When I first came in, I was greeted by a lady by the name of Heather.  She said that I could sit anywhere, but at the time the bar was full.  I asked if I could sit at the table in the corner near the bar and front window.   Heather dropped off a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I got the Into the Haze hazy IPA from the Kulshan Brewing Company out of Bellingham, WA, the last city on the American side of the border between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.  (I have a former co-worker who lives in Bellingham and while I would have loved to have gone there to see him, it was just too far of a trip for me that weekend.)  

While I was there for the pizza, I took a look through the menu to see what else they offered at Burien Pizzeria.  They had a nine-layer lasagna, as well as a bucatini carbonara.  Small plates included beef and pork meatballs in a marinara sauce, and oven-roasted cauliflower.  They had a handful of salads on the short menu, as well.  

While they had a few specialty pizzas such as a margarita pizza and a butternut squash/prosciutto pizza, I went with the pepperoni pizza and asked Heather to add Italian sausage and fresh mushrooms to the pizza.   

The pizza had a fluffy crust and a bit of a saggy crust, but that was due to the big chunks of Italian sausage, the plentiful amount of fresh mushrooms, and the large number of salty and spicy pepperoni slices on the pizza.  The outer edges of the crust was blistered, but the cheese and sauce coagulated together for a wonderful combination in flavor.  It was a great pizza. 

And it should have been.  When I got the bill, I got a bit of sticker shock.  It was $19 for just the pepperoni pizza (about a 12" size), but it was an additional $8 bucks for the sausage and $7 for the mushrooms making it $34 dollar pizza!  Ouch!  I'm not certain it was worth $34 bucks, but it was still pretty damned good.  

The thin crust pizza didn't fully fill me up and I was wondering if Burien Pizzeria had any desserts.  Heather said, "We don't, but you can go next door to our sister restaurant 909 and they have desserts."  After paying up with Heather, I took the short walk next door to 909 Wine & Coffee to see what they had. 

It was getting close to closing time when I walked into 909 Wine & Coffee.  The restaurant featured a nice sleek decor with wood paneled walls and ceilings with recessed lighting.  A bar was toward the center back of the restaurant.  There were maybe two or three couples at tables finishing up dinner and Frank Ricci was talking with one of the couple at a table near the bar.  I took a seat at the bar and the bartender - a young lady by the name of Marina greeted me.  I said, "I understand that you have desserts."  She said that they did.  

"I know exactly what I want," I replied without looking at a menu.  Knowing they had coffee, they had to have espresso, and I guessed that they had vanilla gelato or ice cream.   "Can you make me an affogato," I asked Marina.  She said that it would be no problem.  And I asked for a shot of amaretto to go along with it.  

The serving size of the affogato was, well, it was huge!  It was a large coffee cup filled to the brim with espresso and a large scoop (or scoops) of vanilla ice cream.  I had to eat some of the ice cream and sip some of the espresso out just to add the amaretto.  Once the amaretto was added, the affogato was complete.  I promised Marina that I wouldn't be long, but she said to sit back and enjoy my affogato and amaretto.  It was a great end to the evening.  

While I thought the pizza I had at Burien Pizzeria was excellent, I also thought that it was pretty expensive.  $34 bucks for a 12" pizza was a bit steep in my book.  The toppings were fresh and plentiful, and the taste was outstanding.  It definitely went well with a beer.  And I can't say enough about Heather's service.  She was fun, helpful and made a single diner on a Saturday night feel at ease.  And the affogato with a shot of amaretto at their sister restaurant 909 Wine & Coffee next door was a nice finish to a fun night.  It's places like Burien Pizzeria and 909 Wine & Coffee that make for a memorable evening when I'm on the road.   

Royal Tandoor - Gaithersburg, MD

I was staying out in the Rockville/Gaithersburg, MD area on a recent visit to Washington D.C. for a trade show.  I was in the mood for Indian food one cool fall evening and I found a couple that were sort of near the hotel I was staying at.  The first one I went to was about a 10 minute drive south from the hotel.  However, it didn't have a bar or any alcohol to enjoy with the meal.  (I found that Montgomery County's liquor laws for restaurants and stores were rather, well, strange with different levels of licensing.)  OK, since I couldn't get a beer with my Indian food there, I went to my second choice that was about a 10 minute drive the other way from the hotel.  I punched in the address in the GPS and about 20 minutes later I found myself in front of Royal Tandoor Fine Indian Cuisine & Whiskey Bar.   

Royal Tandoor managing partner Sanjeev Gupta actually started out as a travel agent.  In 2012, he helped start an international executive travel agency that catered to business people, corporations, and people looking for unique destinations for weddings, honeymoons and sporting events basically in the Western Hemisphere (North, Central and South America along with the Caribbean).  But after the pandemic curtailed much of the travel business, Gupta wanted to do something a bit different - like run his own restaurant.  In May of 2021, along with a handful of partners and family members, Gupta opened Royal Tandoor, an upscale Indian restaurant complete with a whiskey bar.  That's something you don't see at a lot of Indian restaurants.  

Royal Tandoor is located in the Muddy Branch shopping complex - basically a series of businesses in a strip mall with a Giant Food grocery store anchoring the overall location.  It's located just off Muddy Branch Road near where I-270 and I-370/State Highway 200 meet up in Gaithersburg.  (see map)  There was plenty of parking near the front entrance to Royal Tandoor as it was approaching 8 p.m. on a week night.  

When I walked into Royal Tandoor, I was sort of taken aback.  I don't want to say the decor was garish, but it was, well...  It was pretty gaudy in there.  Lots of gold accents, pillowy high-backed booths along one wall, tapestries on the other wall above banquette seating along the wall.  There was a small bar at the end of the main dining area.

Off to the side of the main dining room was another dining area that featured another wall of banquette seating with decorative metal tiles along the wall.  A third room - the Royal Room - was in the back of the restaurant.  It's used for private gatherings or receptions.  I took a quick glance into the room as there were a few people in there having dinner.  It was quite as ostentatious as the two dining rooms, but there was still some items that jumped out such as the multi-trunked elephant painting on the wall.  

Sanjeev Gupta was behind the bar when I walked up to it.  There was already a guy seated at the bar eating a meal and I asked Sanjeev if I could sit at the bar.  "Please," he gestured to me to have seat.  Sanjeev was helped out by another guy Ameresh.  Ameresh looked Anglo but he had a heavy accent when he spoke English and was speaking Hindi with Sanjeev Gupta.  Both were very pleasant men and very helpful all night long.

Behind the bar on the wall were two televisions that were playing cheesy Bollywood movies from what appeared to be the 70's and 80's.  I immediately loved the place in that they had old South Asian movies playing in the restaurant.  There was a full bar with a number of whiskies, vodkas, rums and bourbons on the shelves.  I counted 17 different types of Scotch whiskies on the menu.  But to me, I was very happy to see that they had Kingfisher beer.  I ordered up one of those from Sanjeev as soon as I saw the bottle of Kingfisher lined up with other beers on the back bar. 

Ameresh brought out some complementary papadum lentil wafers for me, then moments later he brought out a mini Samosa with some mint chutney and some plum sauce.  It was a really nice touch and I appreciated the gesture. 

They had dropped off a menu for me to look through right after I sat down.  I have to tell you the menu was interesting and very authentic Indian.  They had a section that described "Delhi Street Food" including Pani Puri which were dough balls stuffed garbanzo beans, sweet chutney, and potatoes and deep fried.  Appetizers included a kabob platter, tandoori chicken wings, and Dahi ki Tikki - a potato patty simmered in yogurt.  

From there the menu went to a number of entrees including lamb, goat, chicken and seafood dishes.  They had ginger rosemary lamb chops on the menu, as well as Tandoori shrimp, chicken kabobs, and Afghani Trangri kabobs - chicken drumsticks marinated with cashew paste, yogurt, spices and grilled in their tandoor oven.  They had a number of biryani offerings as well as Indo-Chinese food such as chicken fried rice, Manchurian chicken or vegetables, and noodles with either chicken or veggies.   My vegetarian colleague would have been more than happy with the vegetarian part of the menu at Royal Tandoor as they offered more than a dozen different vegetarian dishes.

I was thinking about getting the butter chicken, and the goat curry was also interesting to me.  My former colleague loves goat - he married into a Jamaican family who makes goat quite a bit.  And he has ordered goat curry when we've eaten together at Indian restaurants in the past.  So many choices, but I ended up boiling it down to the lamb rogan josh with medium heat. I also got some garlic naan to go along with the lamb rogan josh.  A small caldron of basmati rice came with the meal.

From the first bite, I was ecstatic.  There was some spiciness to the rogan josh, but it was tolerable.  The chunks of lamb were tender and I could cut them with my fork.  The garlic naan had great flavor with the garlic and cilantro mixed in with the naan bread.  It was one of those meals where you have so much food and you think there's no way that you could eat everything in front of you.  But the next thing you know, you're using the last piece of garlic naan to sop up the last bits of rogan josh gravy in the serving bowl.  It was a fantastic meal.  

As I was sitting there savoring the meal I just had, Ameresh brought out a complementary gulab jamun - a deep fried dough ball dunked in a sweet syrup and sprinkled with powered sugar.  This reminded me of the Indian restaurant my former co-worker (who likes goat) and I went to in Toronto last year and they gave us complementary gulab jamuns to take back to our hotel with us.  Man, I was stuffed but the sweet and delectable dessert was too good to pass up.  

After I finished all that, I seriously considered getting a scotch for an after dinner drink.  But I had already had a couple Kingfishers and I needed to drive back to the hotel.  And since it was night and I wasn't familiar with the area, I thought it was best to pay up and head back to the hotel.  Besides, they were starting to close up for the night and I'm sure they didn't want me hanging out any longer than I needed to be there.  

Had the first Indian restaurant I had gone to had beer to go along with the meal, I would have never found Royal Tandoor.  I have to say, the food at Royal Tandoor was some of the best Indian food I've had in my travels.  It was also probably the most pimped-out Indian restaurant I've ever been in.  Well, that's probably harsh to some - let's just say that it was the most visually loud Indian restaurant I've ever been in.  I can't say enough about the hospitality shown to me by Sanjeev and Amaresh during my visit.  They did a great job of making a single diner feel comfortable and the little touches such as the complementary mini-samosa and the gulab jamun were deeply appreciated.  I tried to talk a couple friends I ran into at the trade show into go there with me a second night, but they declined.  It was their loss as Royal Tandoor was an outstanding - and somewhat lucky - choice.  

Zianos Italian Eatery - Fort Wayne, IN

During a trip back out to Fort Wayne to do a couple days of seminars for our largest account, my colleague from Montreal wanted to go out for some Italian food.  We had gone to Salvatori's, an Italian restaurant with six locations in and around Fort Wayne, on a previous visit.  (Click here to see the Road Tips review on Salvatori's.)  I suggested we take a look at some other Italian restaurants around the area.  I found a couple that weren't too far from our hotel and I did a mental coin-flip and settled on a place called Zianos Italian Eatery for dinner that evening.  

George Rongos grew up in the small village of Polykerasos, Greece and immigrated to the U.S. in 1954.  He ended up in Fort Wayne where relatives from Greece had moved to years before.  George was 18 when he got to the U.S. and couldn't speak English.  On top of that, George wasn't properly schooled in his home country and couldn't read or write in his native Greek language.  

Less than a year after George got to Fort Wayne, he got a job at a steel mill that was just west of the downtown area of the city.  George willed himself to learn how to speak, read and write the English language and turned out to be a quick learner.  In 1965, he married a Greek girl - Eleni - who had also immigrated to the U.S.

Just across from the steel plant was a small grocery store - Joe's Grocery.  George would go into Joe's Grocery on a regular basis and would half-jokingly say that he was going to own the place one day.  When Joe died in 1985, his widow wanted to sell the business.  By this time George Rongos had over 30 years in at the steel plant and was eligible for retirement.  George and Eleni bought the grocery store with an eye on changing a few things up.  

George and Eleni were frustrated that a grocery store in Fort Wayne didn't have some of the basics needed for traditional Greek cuisine.  They would go to Chicago to buy the foods and ingredients for the recipes Eleni had brought from Greece.  But they also realized that there wasn't a place that offered ingredients for Mexican food, for Middle Eastern food, for Eastern European food, and for Northern Africa cuisine - cultures that had settled in Fort Wayne in the 1950's, 60's, 70's and into the 80's.  

George would go to food purveyors in Chicago and buy all different types of international foods for his clientele.  If someone would come in and ask for something, George would do some investigating and would find a distributor who sold the item.  George's Grocery eventually turned into George's International Market.  

Pictured right - Eleni and George Rongos.  Photo courtesy Salsa Grille Facebook page.  

Eleni and George had five children - Judy, Mike, Jimmy, Chris and Jerry.  All five children worked in the grocery store growing up with the parents instilling an ethic of hard work and attention to detail into each of their kids.  When George and Eleni decided to retire from the business in 1997, Chris and Jerry Rongos took over the business from their parents.  That same year, George's International Market moved to its present day location just south of downtown Fort Wayne.  (Chris and Jerry Rongos eventually opened a fast casual Mexican restaurant - Salsa Grille - attached to the grocery store.  Using ingredients sourced from George's International Market and making their own line of various salsa, Salsa Grille became a popular destination.  There are now five Salsa Grille locations in the greater Fort Wayne area.)  

Jimmy Rongos got into the property investment business and became a partner in Liddell Investments, a Fort Wayne-based property management firm.  Some of the properties Liddell Investments owned were restaurants and night clubs.   In 2009, Jimmy took the plunge into the restaurant world opening Zianos Italian Eatery.  The restaurant became a local favorite for their family-friendly offerings at an affordable price.  Today there are three Zianos Italian Eateries around Fort Wayne.

The original one is on Covington Road on the city's southwest side.  This is the one that my colleague and I ended up when we went to Zianos for dinner.  (see map)  It's located on the corner of a strip mall just off Jefferson Ave, the main road into central Fort Wayne from that side of town.  It's not a big place on the inside and pretty generic looking in terms of the overall atmosphere.   We noticed a lot of people coming in to pick up "to-go" orders, including pizza.  The place seemed to be popular with families.  

We took a seat at a table on one side of the restaurant.  Our server that evening was a young lady by the name of Abbi.  After leaving us a couple menus, she came out a big later with a plate of complementary bruschetta for the table.  We both ordered a couple Peroni beers they had on tap to start out.  The bruschetta was very good and a nice start to our experience at Zianos.  

Looking through the menu, I was sort of taken aback by the pricing.  Not that it was outrageous, just the opposite.  It appeared to be a great value up and down the menu.  Appetizers such as baked ravioli, meatballs with mozzarella and marinara sauce, and garlic cheese bread were all under $7.00.  A small house salad was $2.99, pizzas started out at $10.49 for a 10" size, entrees such as chicken marsala, tilapia Florentine, and fettuccine alfredo with shrimp were all priced under $15.00, and pasta dishes such as spaghetti & meatballs, Fontanini sausage and peppers with penne pasta, and lasagna were all under $11.00.  And each night during the week there's a special meal offered that comes with a meal for $9.49.  No wonder it was a popular place for families!  

My colleague is vegetarian and Zianos had a handful of options on the menu including the pasta primavera shown below.  It was served to him piping hot as you can easily see the steam rising from the plate.  It featured a mixture of fresh broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms with penne pasta in a white wine butter sauce.  My buddy said that the veggies were cooked perfectly with a bit of a crunch and weren't mushy at all.  He said his meal was a spot-hitter.  

I ended up getting the meat (ground pork/beef) filled ravioli topped with a marinara sauce.  Along with the meal, I got a glass of the Seaglass Pinot Noir.  Grated parmesan and fresh herbs were sprinkled on the top.  I didn't really expect much from the looks of the dish, but from the first bite all apprehension went out the window.  The marinara sauce was tangy and a bit sweet, the pillowy ravioli were easy to cut and the meat inside the ravioli had a great flavor.  I was more than impressed with what I ordered and how well it tasted.  

And on top of that, it was all a great value!  Two beers, a glass of wine and two pasta dinners set us back just under $60 bucks with taxes and a nice tip for Abbi who was on top of things for us during our visit.  It's no wonder families gravitate toward Zianos Italian Eatery because of the great value of the food they serve.  The place is a little generic in atmosphere, but the food more than makes up for the bland surroundings.  We were both more than happy with what we got and did I mention that Zianos was a great value?  That's something you don't exactly see in restaurants these days.  

Scenes from the Road

Fall has always been a busy travel time for me.  Since I'm now the North American sales manager for a company out of Germany, I've been doing a lot more flying than driving since Labor Day.  (And that will continue into December.)  My travel has taken me to far flung places such as Southern California, Toronto, Dallas-Fort Worth, and - just recently - Washington D.C.  Over the years, people ask me, "Man, it's great that you get to go to all these places."  But people who travel for a living know that it's not all that great - eating alone in a restaurant, waking up in a hotel room not knowing where you are, not being able to take in sights like a tourist, etc., etc.  But there are times when I'm able to catch moments with my camera that will make the business trip more memorable.  I've got a few photos that I've taken on my recent trips that I thought I'd share with you today.  

Business travel does have its perks - hotel and airline points, eating in good restaurants, meeting with clients and making new friends.  But most of the time, it's airport, rental car, hotel room, restaurant, meetings, restaurant, hotel room, meetings, restaurant, hotel room, airport and home.  I don't get to really go and do and see like I would want.  But every once in a while, I do take the time to take a step back and enjoy my surroundings.  

When I'm close to the ocean, I like to go near the water and clear my head.  In this case, on a trip earlier this fall to Southern California, it was actually going OVER the water and heading out to the Newport Beach Pier after I had lunch.  There was parking nearby and I was able to get out to the end of the pier to hang out for a while.  

While it was a sunny day and warm inland, there was a cool breeze coming off the water.  When I got out to the end of the pier, I noticed a number of fishermen who were dressed more for late fall in the Midwest than a sunny day in Southern California.  I was in a polo shirt and jeans, and it was a bit nippy.  But being able to smell the sea air and take in the sights of the beach up to Huntington Beach and down to just north of Laguna Beach gave me a moment of zen that I need from time to time.  And water always seems to be involved when I have moments of zen.  

For September, the weather was a little strange.  In the months of May and June, the California coast line is usually inundated with low clouds and misty precipitation.  "May gray and June gloom" are the terms residents use when they have to put up with dreary weather in the mornings in late Spring.  But by 11 a.m., the clouds burn off and it turns into a glorious day.  That's what happened every day I was out in Southern California.  Locals said it was highly irregular for that time of the year.  Each morning, it was fog, low clouds and misty rain.  You certainly couldn't see the Santa Ana mountains east of Orange County.

But in the afternoon when I would get back to the room, the day had turned sunny, warm and beautiful.  The Santa Ana mountains were majestic off in the distance.  Days like this in Southern California always remind me of the deadpan weatherman (played by George Plimpton) giving the forecast in the movie L.A. Story - "Sunny, 72."  

Whereas, the equally expressionless anchor in the movie (played by Sam McMurray) says, "The next forecast will be in three weeks."  I said, "Sunny, 72" many times while I was out in Southern California a few weeks ago.  

Of course, when you're in Southern California, you have to go to In-n-Out Burger.  I snuck away from the trade show one day and tried to get into one near the show venue.  But the line was literally out the door and the drive-thru had something like 25 cars in line.  (And I don't think I'm exaggerating.)  So, I got up the next morning and went to one near my hotel in nearby Irvine right when they opened at 10:30 a.m.  And I have to say that I was NOT the first customer in that location that morning.  By the way, when I was in Dallas recently, there was an In-n-Out Burger near my hotel, but I never went.  Quite honestly, I would probably go to a Whataburger if the two were side-by-side.  (And they were close together, but I didn't go to either one when I was in Texas.)    

And as a longtime Iowa sports fan, it's always good to see like-minded people when you're over 1000 miles away.  I saw this license plate in the parking lot of a brewpub I had lunch in one day.  Hawkeye fans are truly everywhere.  

I had to go back up to Toronto for a trade show in October and when I got off the plane, I was on the interminable walk from the gate at Toronto Pearson Airport to Canadian customs.  I was discombobulated with my directions last year and always thought that downtown Toronto was northeast of the airport.  Actually, it's southeast of the airport and as I looked to my left walking to customs, I saw the skyline of Toronto complete with the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.  The tower was the world's tallest free-standing structure from 1975 to 2007, and the world's largest tower until 2009.  Since 2007, 9 other free-standing buildings or towers have been built that have all surpassed the CN Tower in height.

Last year when I was in Toronto, my hotel room faced the west.  So this year, I asked for a room at the same hotel with a room that faced the east.  When I got settled into my room and when I opened the shades in the living room part of my hotel space, I saw this spectacular view of the near-full moon rising over Toronto.  Pictures from the camera phone doesn't do justice of the remarkable vista, but it's still not that bad of a pic.   

Speaking of remarkable pics, nearly every morning had a glorious and colorful view of the pre-rising sun coming up over downtown Toronto.  (You can click on the pictures to make them larger.)  The clouds over Lake Erie to the south and east of downtown Toronto gave the sunrise a spectacular color scheme.  It was mornings like these that helped make the time away from home a bit more bearable.    

When I stayed in the same hotel near the airport last year, I had a view of a large transport plane that was sitting on the tarmac.  When my colleague from Europe and I were walking from our hotel to the hotel near the airport where the trade show was being held, I remarked that the plane was still there.  "It's Russian," I said.  "I can tell by the flag.  I wonder if it's been seized by the Canadian government after Russia invaded Ukraine." 

We were out to dinner that evening and I looked it up on my phone.  The plane - an Antonov an-124 super freighter aircraft - landed on February 27, 2022 loaded with COVID 19 supplies from Europe.  The next day, the Canadian Transportation Agency closed all air space to Russian aircraft due to Russia's incursion into Ukraine.  Two months later, the Canadian government started proceedings to seize the plane and convert the assets into proceeds for the Ukrainian government. 

However, that hasn't happened.  The plane has been parked for just over 1000 days - 1007 days, to be exact.  And the airport has been charging the plane's Russian owners - Volga-Dnepr Airlines - about $1100 Canadian dollars ($770 USD) a day since.  The total is now over $1.1 million Canadian dollars and about $775,000 in U.S. dollars.  Nothing has happened in terms of selling the seized plane or handing it over to the Ukrainian government, and it's been sitting so long on the tarmac that it's easily seen in satellite photos that are shown on Google Earth.  The Antonov an-124 entered service in 1986 and there were just 55 built.  25 remain in operation around the world - not counting the one still sitting in Canada.  The an-124 is the largest heavy-lift airplane in the world.  The previous largest - the Antonov an-225 - was destroyed in the opening days of the Russian/Ukraine war as it was being outfitted with new engines at an airport just outside of Kyiv.  Only one of the Antonov an-225's were built and it could carry a payload twice the amount a Boeing 747 cargo plane can carry.   

One funny picture picture that I got while staying at my hotel in Toronto was the one below right.  Marijuana is legal across Canada, but can't be smoked in public buildings including hotels, restaurants and other places that outlaw smoking tobacco.  And these signs were just outside the front door of hotel.  

And being a Hilton Lifetime Diamond member, the hotel had a goody bag for me when I checked in.  Two of the treats were these Nestle Aero bars that are only available in Canada.  Now, if I had smoked pot when I was there (I didn't) those candy bars would have been gone in 30 seconds.  But even without the help of marijuana, I devoured the first of the two candy bars upon arrival into my room since I hadn't had anything to eat all day long.  I've found over the years that there are many types of snacks (like ketchup potato chips) that are available in Canada, but not in the U.S.  These Aero bars were fantastic and it's probably a good thing they aren't sold in the U.S.  For me, anyway...

Renting cars on my travels has been an adventure since I gave up on Hertz earlier this year over a billing dispute that started in March of 2023.  (I lost a wheel cover on a Tesla 3 in Montreal and they wanted to charge me $331 Canadian dollars - $235 US dollars - for a wheel cover that costs $25 dollars US.  We negotiated down and I paid an amount in August of this year, but I told Hertz that I would never rent from them again because they ripped me off.  And I was a Hertz Gold Plus member for nearly 25 years.  They didn't care.)  

So, I've been using National and Avis - I still get a deal on renting cars through National on my old company's account; and I got a deal through Hilton hotels to be an Avis Preferred Plus member.  I have to tell you - I love National.  Their cars are nicer, lower miles and generally cleaner.  Avis - I don't care much for their selection process, whereas National you go to the Emerald lot and pic out any car.  And if they don't have the kind of car that you want - like a sedan - they'll make sure they get you one from the pool right away.  

I rented Avis in Dallas and I had my choice of five different vehicles on their app through an upgrade for being Preferred Plus.  The less pimp-ish of all five was this 2022 Chrysler 300S.  (I could have had the red two-door car next to it, as well.)  Actually, it was a nice ride, but it had 56,000 miles on it and it needed a deep wax job.  I had rented a 300S in Southern California a number of years ago and they're OK.  I just don't like driving black cars.  

Near my hotel in the north Dallas suburbs, I kept passing this store in a strip mall along Belt Line Road.  I was sort of amused by the store's name - Condom Sense - and I had to pull into the parking lot to get a closer look at the place.  From the outside it appeared to be a vape store, but when I looked it up on the internet after I got home, it turned out to be an adult shop - one of ten Condom Sense locations in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.  Founded in 1990 at the height of the AIDS crisis, Condom Sense started out selling safe sex products before morphing into a full-fledged adult pleasure store that their web site says welcomes couples of all persuasions in large, well-lit, clean store fronts.  Now, I don't know about if they sell vaping products like their signs said in the front window, but I didn't see anything on the web site that alluded to the fact that they sold vaping products.  

That was the extent of my sight-seeing during my trip to the Dallas area, but my next trip was going to be to Washington D.C. a week after I was in Dallas.  Plane travel these days is usually a hassle with full planes and people stuck in middle seats who aren't happy.  I usually take the window seat so I can rest my head up against the plane's wall.  A plus for me during plane flights is having the middle seat empty.  A double plus is having the whole row to myself, but that is few and far between.  (That happened to me on a flight back from Paris about 8 years ago.  It was great!)  But when you have your own row AND the row across the aisle empty, well, it's like having your own personal jet.  And that happened on my recent flight between Chicago O'Hare and Reagan Washington National.  It makes air travel more tolerable.  

As we were coming in for a landing at Reagan Washington National, we were coming in from the north on the final approach.  It was a beautiful clear day and I was on the left side of the plane facing Washington D.C.  It was my first ever visit to Washington and I was able to see Georgetown University, then the Capitol Building, the National Mall up to the Washington Monument.  Just before we landed, the Jefferson Memorial along the Tidal Basin was plainly visible.  I was like, "Shit!  Why didn't I have my camera phone ready to take pictures on the final approach!?"

Then divine intervention took over.  The pilot suddenly hit the throttle and we rose and turned away from the final approach.  I thought, "Wow, I haven't been part of a go-around for a long while."  

About 30 seconds later, the pilot came on the flight intercom - "Well, folks, as you've probably noticed, we're not on the ground.  We were coming in a little high and a little fast and we decided to go around and give it another shot."  

That gave me the opportunity to get my phone out and set up my camera with a bit of a zoom on it.  The picture below left is the campus of Georgetown University.  I didn't really know where Georgetown was, but it was further out to the northwest side of Washington D.C. than I realized.  If I were seated on the right side of the plane, I would have had a great view of Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon on final approach.  (I drove past the exit ramp for the C.I.A. on my way from the airport to my hotel in Rockville, MD.  I thought about getting off and going to see the entrance to the facility, but I thought better after a few seconds.)  

I completely missed the White House which is located north - or to the left in this picture - of the Washington Monument, and we flew almost right over the Lincoln Memorial so I didn't see that.  But I was able to get a shot of the Capitol Building, the National Mall and the Washington Monument.  The now-closed RFK Stadium is in the background of the Capitol Building.  

I particularly liked this photo (below left) where the Washington monument's reflection is shown in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and it is lined up perfectly with the Capitol Building.  (And with the Lincoln Memorial which would be out of the picture at the bottom.)  This picture was just dumb luck.  

Just past there, the Jefferson Monument loomed in the distance.  Jutting out into the Tidal Basin, the Jefferson Memorial was easy to spot.  I knew most of the memorials were close, but I didn't know how close.  From the air, they all looked within easy walking distance of one another.  But I'm sure that if I went on a walking tour, I'd be walking a long way in between the sites.  

During this trip, I was able to knock off two more states that I have visited or set foot in.  Reagan Washington National is in Virginia and I had never been there before.  And I visited an account up in Wilmington, DE - the first time I'd ever been in Delaware.  I'm now up to 47 states that I've been in - I'm only missing Idaho, Oregon and Alaska.  I was able to knock off a number of states - New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine - on a visit to New England earlier this year.  And I've now been to Washington D.C.  

I bagged the trade show early on Sunday and drove Connecticut Ave. down into the heart of Washington D.C.  I did see the White House off in the distance through some trees and barricades, and I did see the Lincoln Memorial off in the distance.  But they were having a parade that day and a lot of streets in the downtown area near the White House were closed off.  Or, maybe they're closed off at all times due to security issues.  It would be nice to spend some time in Washington D.C. at some point.  I know if I went to the museums, that would be four or five days, minimum.  

So, that's my photo dump for my most recent trips across America and into Canada.  Thanks for indulging me with my descriptions and explanations.  Sometimes you do get to spend some time looking at stuff when you're traveling for business, but it's not the same as if you're there to be able to go and do and see the sights in a given area.  Still, even a ten to fifteen minute stop to see something neat is worth it to me.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pane Vino Osteria - Addison, TX

If you've been keeping up with Road Tips, you've seen that I've been doing a lot of travel outside of the Midwest for the last couple months.  Next up on the list of "exotic" places was Dallas/Fort Worth for a hi-fi industry/headphone trade show.  The show was in the north Dallas suburb of Addison and I spent much of my time out there (save for a day trip over to Fort Worth to check out an audio dealer over there, and a foray into Dallas for dinner one evening).  Addison is lot like Irvine, CA - a lot of corporations are there and because of that there are a number of hotels and there are over 200 restaurants in about a five square mile area.  Of course, a lot of them are national chains - which I try to stay away from when I'm out and about - but I did find some single location restaurants while I was there.  About a mile away from my hotel was a little Italian place in a strip mall that I decided to check out one evening.  This is the story of my visit to Pane Vino Osteria.  

Joseph Ajro and his wife, Blerta, owned and operated a couple Italian restaurants before he opened Pane Vino Osteria in late 2015.  He wanted to do an upscale Italian place with a full-time chef and a sommelier.  Pane Vino Osteria stood out amongst the large number of corporate-owned restaurants in the Addison area.  

In 2018, the Ajro's sold the restaurant to one of their workers and went on to run a fast-casual Italian restaurant Pastaza that specialized in pizza, pasta and sandwiches.  I tried to find out who the owner was, but all I got out of one of the workers when I was at Pane Vino Osteria was that it was run by the chef whose name was Vinnie.  

Pane Vino Osteria is located in Addison Walk, a small upscale strip mall along Belt Line Road near the Dallas Parkway freeway.  (see map)  Addison Walk is a mixture of restaurants and shops, and Pane Vino is tucked in between a manicure/pedicure nail shop and a Korean BBQ.  (You gotta love the diversity in Texas strip malls!)   The restaurant was sort of tucked back into the mall building with a small outdoor patio in the front.  

Inside Pane Vino, I found a long narrow space with dark wood accents, a brick wall behind the bar, banquette seating along the wall opposite the bar, and a row of tables through the middle of the restaurant.  The lighting was subdued and music from artists such as Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, and Satin Jackets was playing in the background.  

Toward the back of the restaurant was an open kitchen where a beehive of activity was taking place.  I'm always sort of interested in seeing how restaurants run their kitchen and the one at Pane Vino was as open as any restaurant kitchen I've seen.

I ended up sitting at the bar.  A couple flatscreen televisions were on the wall and the bartender - Agri - tuned one to the Thursday Night NFL football game.  After a moment, he came over with a menu and a wine list for me to look over.  To start out, however,  I got a Yellow Rose IPA out of the Little Pint Brewery in the small town of Magnolia, TX located about 40 miles northwest of downtown Houston.  

The menu was pretty interesting, to say the least.  The first thing I found under the "Shareables" column was a Wagyu beef carpaccio with chopped red onions, a garlic aioli and shaved parmesan cheese.   They had shaved ribeye steak on oven-baked crostini, meatballs with an herbed polenta in a tomato sauce, and a chipotle chicken with goat cheese flatbread.  Two items on the appetizer menu - the pepper-crusted seared ahi tuna with pickled onions, cucumbers and a ponzu sauce; and the crab cakes in a white white/butter sauce - I seriously considered getting.  I've found lately that getting a couple appetizers instead of a main entree is sometimes more fun.  

Soups included a lobster bisque and a house-made tomato bisque.  They had a handful of salads on the menu including a buffalo mozzarella capresé salad.  And they had pizza on the menu including a traditional margarita pizza and "pizza di carne" with Italian sausage, meatballs and pepperoni that I thought about getting.    

Main entrees included an 8 ounce beef tenderloin filet served with crab-stuffed shrimp; seared scallops; and a seafood cioppino.  Agri told me that they still had a lamb osso bucco special left over from the weekend on the menu that night as a special.  I seriously considered getting that, as well.  House specialities included a wood plank salmon; blue crab-stuffed shrimp; and a parmesan-crusted chicken.  

Of course, they had pasta at Pane Vino including tortellini in a wine and butter sauce; a spicy pork rigatoni with peppers in a brandy cream sauce; and a lobster-stuffed ravioli with shrimp, sea scallops, and crab meat in a brandy lobster sauce.  All those sounded great to me.  

But I've been on a bolognese case over the past few months and they had my current favorite Italian dish, tagliatelle pasta with a bolognese sauce.  The bolognese was a mixture of ground beef and pork, as well as pancetta in a tomato cream sauce.  Fresh herbs were sprinkled on top of the pasta and sauce, and it was finished off with grated parmesan.  A couple slices of toasted crostini came with the pasta.  To go along with the meal, I got a glass of the house chianti - the Castiglioni chianti from the Frescobaldi winery in Tuscany that was bold and went extremely well with the pasta dish.

The tagliatelle with bolognese was simply wonderful.  The sauce was meaty and stuck to the tagliatelle pasta.  Each bite was filled with so much flavor and goodness that I had to stop a couple times and savor the zesty taste in my mouth.  This was a great meal.  

After dinner, Agri asked if I wanted to see if I wanted to see the dessert menu.  I was sort of full from the pasta dish, but I took him up on his offer.  And I'm glad I did because they had a blueberry bread pudding topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that made me melt.  But they also had a limoncello cake, as well as tiramisu and a creme brûlée.  One thing I didn't see on the menu was affogato - vanilla gelato with espresso and topped with a liqueur such as amaretto.  

I asked Agri if he could make an affogato.  Only thing, he didn't know what it was.  I asked if he had espresso, vanilla gelato and amaretto.  He said, "I have vanilla ice cream, but no gelato."  I told him that would work.  So, he brought out a small bowl of vanilla ice cream with an espresso.  He asked, "So, just a shot of amaretto?"  I told him that was perfect.  

He poured a shot, but the bottle was almost gone.  I saw that there was just a little left in the bottom, probably less than a shot and I said, "Just pour the rest of the bottle on top of the ice cream."  He did just that.  Then I poured the shot on the ice cream and finished it off with the espresso.  

"I've never had that," Agri said.  "That looks pretty good!"  I assured him that it was. 

And, of course, it was.  I mean, espresso with ice cream with amaretto?  Come on!  It's killer!  It's not heavy, it is sinfully delicious and is a great ending to a wonderful meal.

Years ago, I had a boss who was my first culinary mentor who loved Italian food.  He had a rule that any Italian restaurant in a strip mall wasn't worth visiting.  I've long since debunked that notion as I've had some very good meals in Italian restaurants located in strip malls.  And Pane Vino Osteria was absolutely no exception.  I love everything about the place, the laid back ambiance, the service from Agri, and the food was superlative.  Don't let the location fool you - Pane Vino Osteria was a first-rate Italian restaurant. 

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.  

Tustin Brewing Company - Tustin, CA

I was on my way back to my hotel after checking out a couple potential dealers in the Orange County area near Anaheim and decided to find a place for lunch.  A quick look for brewpubs in the area came up with one that wasn't that far away from where I was and it had a number of very positive reviews.  Moments later I pulled up in front the Tustin Brewing Company in Tustin, CA.  

Jason Jeralds was on the ground floor of the craft beer scene in Southern California when he was working at the Huntington Beach Beer Company in the early 1990's.  Jeralds did a little bit of everything at the brewery from running the front of the house to being a brewer's assistant.  Wearing multiple hats he learned that the key to running a brewpub was good beer, affordable food in a nice place people were comfortable coming to, and a place that people would want to come back to.   

Jeralds worked on getting investors for his dream.  Not that people were lining up to throw money at a start-up business, but it was at that point in the mid-90's into the 2000's when banks and capital investment companies were more receptive to putting money in brewpubs given the larger margins on the making and selling beer.  Once Jeralds got his capital in place, he found a corner spot in a strip mall in Tustin that was big enough to make 750 barrels of beer annually.  After procuring a brewmaster and assistants, along with front of house help, Tustin Brewing Company opened in the summer of 1996.  

Brewmasters came and went, but in 2009 brewmaster Jonathan Porter won a Gold medal at the renown Great American Beer Festival in Denver for Tustin Brewing Company's Golden Spike Light Ale.  A year later, Porter got a Bronze medal for Tustin Brewing Company's Blimp Hangar Porter (named after the nearby Tustin blimp hangar).  In all, Tustin Brewing Company's brewmasters have won over two dozen awards in various beer judging contests.  

It was just before 2 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot of Tustin Brewing Company located in a strip mall near the corner of Newport Ave. and Irvine Ave., not far from the California Highway 55 Freeway and Interstate 5.  (see map)  The tall turret in the corner attached to the building was prominent in the parking lot.  Even though it was well past the lunch rush, the parking lot serving the brewpub and other businesses was nearly full.  Thankfully, a car pulled out of a spot near Tustin Brewing Company's entrance.  

Upon entering Tustin Brewing Company, a number of their awards hung on the curved wall of the vestibule.  In addition to awards won at the Great American Beer Festival, Tustin Brewing has also won awards at the World Beer Cup that is held annually in Indianapolis, and the local, yet prestigious L.A. I.P.A. Fest.    

The vestibule opened into the large dining area.  Exposed brick walls were on one side of the room with an open kitchen area in the back.  The beer menu hung on the brick wall and they had a number of flat screen televisions on the walls throughout the dining space.

The bar was off to the side of the dining area with a small half-shelf made with reclaimed barn boards bordered the bar area.  The bar, itself, was also made out of barn boards with a somewhat narrow wood top.  It was a full bar with not only the beers on tap made by Tustin Brewing, but a line-up of liquor for mixed drinks.  

Behind the bar were the large vessel tanks Tustin Brewing uses during their brewing process.  The brewery expanded a few years ago to a capacity of about 1250 barrels of beer annually. Half-kegs were stacked next to the tanks and there was the faint smell of hops in the air.  The brewery had a very rustic atmosphere.  And on top of all that, classic rock music from the 70's played in the background while I was there.  

There is also an outdoor beer garden at Tustin Brewing Company.  Part of the outdoor patio was cover while the rest was covered with fabric sheets that allowed some sunlight to come into the area.  Faux veneer table tops with metal chairs were interspersed throughout the patio area.  

I ended up taking a seat at a table along the brick wall opposite the bar.  A replay of a Dodgers game was on one of the four televisions in a quadrangle in the corner.  I understand that Tustin Brewing Company is a hopping place on Sunday's in the fall as they have the NFL Sunday Ticket package that has access to all the league's games.

I was seated for over five minutes when I started to get a little twitch that maybe this was a bad idea.  But it turned out that they had just one server - a guy named José - who was taking care of the smattering of people in the dining area as well as out on the patio.  When José finally did acknowledge me, he turned out to be a great guy.  "Sorry for the wait, boss," he said as he sat down a food menu in front of me.  "Can I get you something to drink?"  

I turned toward the bar and tried to look at the beer menu they had behind the bar.  Then José pointed up behind me and said, "Here's the beer list, boss."  It was a huge beer list that I didn't see originally.  (My wife says I'm not very observant.)  They had a couple hazy IPA's on the menu, so I took the one with less alcoholic content - the Riwaka Wacka Wacka that they had on tap.  

The food menu turned out to be pretty interesting.  Appetizers included a shredded short rib quesadilla; chicken kebabs; Korean-smoked St. Louis ribs; and ahi poke served with a miso dressing with sliced avocado, onions, cucumbers.  There were seven different salads on the menu along with clam chowder and their "People's Choice" award-winning chili that was topped with chopped tomatoes and onions, along with cilantro and shredded cheese.  

Entrees included battered fish tacos (a hard no for me - grilled only, please); baked salmon with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes; pesto shrimp pasta; grilled chicken with penne pasta tossed in a spicy cream sauce; and a sausage platter with a tri-pepper sausage link, kielbasa and Bratwurst.  They had a couple burgers to choose from along with a rib-eye steak sandwich; a pulled pork sandwich with barbecue sauce; a pork carnitas sandwich (that got my attention); and a Cajun-grilled ahi tuna sandwich.

I contemplated getting a burger, but I had one the day before.  I ended up getting the short rib grilled cheese sandwich - shredded beef short rib topped with a combination of Monterey jack, cheddar and mixed cheeses, finished with caramelized onions and Sriracha sauce served on toasted sourdough bread.  For my side, I got tots, naturally.  And they had Cholula that I could put directly on my tots!  That was a plus in my book!  

The sandwich was simply delectable.  The toasted sourdough bread held together very well with the juicy short rib beef and all the cheesy goodness that was on top of it.  The tots had a crunchy outer shell with that wonderful flaky potato inner core.  Combined with the tasty hazy IPA, this was a spot-hitter of a lunch.  

About the only set back to the meal was that José was a little slow on his watch.  But I chalked that up to the fact that he was the only server for both the inside dining room and the outside patio.  However, the lunch I had was outstanding - the grilled shredded beef short rib with a mixture of cheeses was wonderful.  And the tots were a great side dish - especially since they had Cholula to go with them.  Tustin Brewing Company was a great place to have lunch, and their menu items showed a flair with pasta and seafood dishes.  This was a good find during my trip to Southern California.  

Piacere Trattoria - Burien, WA

While I was out in the Seattle area earlier this year, I literally fell in love with the suburb of Burien, located just about 13 miles south of downtown Seattle and about a 10 minute drive from SeaTac International Airport.  There were great little bars, shops and restaurants all through the downtown area of Burien.  It immediately became one of my favorite little towns to travel to.  One place that I tried one evening came highly recommended by the bartender at the hotel I was staying at - Piacere Trattoria.  On a Friday evening, I drove to Piacere Trattoria to have dinner.  

Michele Godina grew up in the small town of Recco, Italy, not far from Genoa along the Ligurian Sea in the northwest part of the country.  Recco is famous for gifting the culinary world two things - focaccia bread (primarily focaccia with cheese), and pesto.  As a teenager, Michele Godina got interested in cooking while working in the kitchen at his mother's restaurant using recipes that had been handed down for generations in their family.  

When Godina was old enough, he attended culinary school during the day, then worked in the restaurant's kitchen at night.  After graduating from culinary school, Godina was invited to join the kitchen staff at a new Caffé Milano along Miami's South Beach.  Godina was there for five years before he was asked to join friends of his from Italy who were chefs in restaurants in Peru.

Godina made it back to the U.S. to work at restaurants in Las Vegas.  After moving to Seattle to work in a restaurant there, he met a young lady by the name of Jeannette Bastidas and the two soon married.  Michele and Jeannette started on an odyssey that took them from Seattle, to Washington D.C., to the San Francisco area, then to the Houston area in early 2021 before an opportunity to buy a small restaurant in the Seattle area came about later that year.

Pictured right - Michele Godina.  Photo courtesy Piacere Trattoria Facebook Page.  

In 2015, Frank Genzele, his wife Sue, and Genzele's cousin Frank Yellam, Jr. opened a small bistro in downtown Burien called Frankie's B-Town Bistro.  Genzele was the owner of Frank's Quality Produce at the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, while Frank Yellam, Jr. was the proprietor Frankie Boy Produce that his father Frank, Sr. started in 1955.  Both Genzele and Yellam grew up in Burien and wanted to become part of the burgeoning food scene in Olde Burien.  Frank and Sue eventually bought out Frank Yellam, Jr., then in 2021 they decided to sell their restaurant.  

The Genzele's found a willing buyer in the Godina's who were keen to move back to the Seattle area.  Frankie's B-Town Bistro closed on February 19th, 2021 and the Godinas took over two days later.  It took about six weeks for the changeover and on April 1, 2021 (no foolin'!) Piacere Trattoria opened their doors.  Piacere is the Italian word for "pleasure" and that's what Michele Godina wanted his patrons to have on each visit to his small restaurant.  

It was around 7:30 when I walked into Piacere Trattoria.  I found a parking space on the street just a couple spots down from the restaurant.  (see map)  The hostess stand was unoccupied as the hostess was out front with people eating on the small sidewalk out in front of the restaurant.  It was a small dining room with a tile floor and faux candelabras hanging from the ceiling.  The open kitchen was in the back corner of the restaurant.  Michele Godina had come out from the kitchen to check with people at some of the tables in the restaurant.  He came up to the stand and asked how many.  "Just myself," I told him.  He grabbed a menu and led me to a small two-seat table in the far back corner.  As I turned to sit down facing the restaurant, I noticed a small bar at the front of the establishment.  

I asked Michele if I could eat at the bar and somewhat flabbergasted - but in a good way - he said, "Sure!  Absolutely!"  He led me back up to the bar and I took a seat on right end of the bar which had blue LED rope lights underneath.  A flat screen television on the back wall of the bar in front of me was playing a loop of scenes from Italy.  In the background, some excellent music from Italian-based artists S-Tone, Inc. (Stefano Tirone), Simona Molinari, Augusta Trebeschi, and the group Marchio Bossa played during my visit.

My server that evening was a young lady by the name of Mary.  She was pleasant and efficient all during the time I was there.  I got a bottle of Peroni beer to start off with while I looked over the menu.  Later in the evening, I got a house chianti to go along with my meal.  

Looking around the menu, I found a pretty interesting mix of items.  Starters on the menu included calamari, mussels in a white wine sauce, bite-size veal meatballs with a house-made marinara sauce, and a trio of bruschetta one with a traditional garlic and tomato-basil, one topped with smoked salmon, and one topped with a peperonata sauce and hummus.  Quite honestly, I seriously thought about getting the grilled octopus with a black olive sauce and the beef carpaccio for my meal that evening.

Main items on the menu included a braised lamb shank; grilled prawns, calamari and scallops served over a bed of sautéed arugula and spinach; and Caciucco - a Tuscan-style stew with prawns, scallops, mussels, clams, calamari and cod in a light, yet spicy tomato broth.  Pasta dishes included a seafood risotto; gnocchi with braised beef; and a pork rigatoni in a vodka tomato sauce.  They also had oven-fired pizza on the menu. There were a lot of great things on the menu and I was having trouble figuring out what to order.  

After I ordered my main dish, I got a mixed salad to start out.  It featured fresh mixed greens with sliced cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, a sliced avocado quarter, focaccia croutons, and shaved grand padano cheese.  It was finished with a balsamic vinaigrette.  It was an outstanding salad and a great start to the meal.   

I went with the tagliatelle pasta with a bolognese sauce.  The ground beef and pork in a tomato cream ragu was simply outstanding.  I've been on a bolognese kick over the past few months - even making my own at home.  But this was some of the best bolognese that I've ever had.  The bolognese stuck to the wide-cut tagliatelle noodles.  It was a one of those meals where I was truly sad when I took my last bite.  

After I finished my dinner, Mary came around with the dessert menu.  They had favorites of mine like tiramisu, and cannoli stuffed with ricotta cheese with candied orange slices and chocolate chips.  The Italian-style cream-filled donut with a warm blueberry compote on the side also got my attention.  But my new favorite Italian dessert - affogato - was on the menu.  I had to have one of those.

Affogato consists of vanilla gelato topped with espresso.  Additions such as whipped cream - as shown in the picture on the gelato - and either a shot of amaretto or the Italian brandy grappa can be mixed in.  I went with the amaretto.  With everything in the skinny glass mug, when I poured in the espresso, then the amaretto, it all almost went over the top.  I had to eat down some of the creamy gelato before I could finish putting more of the amaretto on the top.     

A couple days later, I had lunch at a taqueria next to Piacere Trattoria.  I parked in almost the same spot I was in during my visit to the restaurant, and as I was walking past Piacere Trattoria, Michele Godina was out front getting the patio tables ready for the evening opening.  I stopped and mentioned that I was in a couple nights previously and I had to tell him that his bolognese sauce was some of the best I had ever had.  And it was!  Everything about my meal at Piacrere Trattoria was excellent - the food, the ambiance, the service.  This was one of those memorable meals that I'm certain I'll never forget.   

Pho Fusion & Bar - Davenport, IA

My wife has seemingly been on a tear lately finding restaurants on her own - especially when she's out with friends or on her own when I'm out of town.  (Which has been a lot lately.)  A couple months ago, she noticed a new restaurant had taken the place of one of our local favorites who suddenly closed their doors in May of last year.  In a food funk one evening, she suggested we head over to give Pho Fusion & Bar a try.  "I've been there a couple times," she said.  "I think you'd like it."   

We had grown fond of (the now-closed) Combine over in East Moline, so we were thrilled in 2022 when they put in The Combine Grill in a spot that had housed a couple previous restaurants along Utica Ridge Road on the far northeast side of Davenport.  The menu wasn't as upscale as The Combine's main location, but it was still good.  But it was also pretty expensive.  And they had a brunch on Sunday that they wouldn't waver from when we would try to go in to get a burger and a bloody mary.  We went a few times, but we weren't surprised when that location shut down in May of 2023.

Michael Thach was one of the long-time servers at the former Tantra Thai restaurant.  When owner Kevin Zhang sold Tantra last year it opened an opportunity for Michael Thach and his father to take over The Combine Grill in the summer of 2023.  Thach's father used to own a Vietnamese restaurant about 30 years ago and he brought his recipes on board along with a number of Thai favorites that his son learned when he was at Tantra.  When we found out that it was going to be a Vietnamese fusion restaurant - traditional Vietnamese food fused with SE Asian cuisine - we were intrigued.  

The restaurant opened in late October of last year, but for some reason we just never tried it.  Well, I should say I didn't feel like trying it through the winter last year and into the spring.  Finally, my wife tried it with a friend of hers when I was on the road one time this past summer.  She said it was very good.  My wife had been back one or two times since and thought it was very good.  Hungry and not really knowing what I wanted to eat after coming home from a week on the road, I agreed to give Pho Fusion & Bar a try.  

Subtle changes were made to what use to be The Combine Grill, but not by much. They had some faux green vine leafs (I really don't know what it was) hanging from the ceiling over the bar and they still had the televisions up on the wall as The Combine Grill was trying to pass itself off as an upscale sports bar.   

The dining area was pretty much the same, as well.  Comfortable padded booths lined the two walls of the dining room with tables in the middle of the floor.  More televisions were on the wall above the booths, but no sports were on.  Three or four of the televisions had aerial videos of Vietnam including the Golden Bridge, various temples and beach scenes.  

We were led to one of the booths under the televisions and given a couple menus to look through.  They were fairly busy in Pho Fusion that evening and the bartender had to step out from behind the bar and help with tables.  Her name was Julia and she was friendly and helpful all night long.  She got our drink order - a very dirty Tito's martini for my wife and a Kona Big Wave for me.  My wife had a pretty tough day at work.   

Along with our drink orders my wife immediately ordered some of the pork and shrimp spring rolls.  They came with a hoisin dipping sauce with chopped peanuts on top.  The rice paper-wrapped rolls were filled with chopped pork, a single shrimp, lettuce and cilantro.  They were pretty big, but very tasty.  

In addition to appetizers such as the spring rolls, the menu featured salads, soups and - of course - pho.  The pho came in two sizes, a regular-sized bowl and a large bowl was available for $4 more.  Brisket, meat balls, short rib, and rib-eye round beef were available proteins to add to the pho.  Vietnamese specials such as a pork chop with vermicelli noodles; grilled chicken and noodles; and rice flour crepes filled with pork belly, shrimp, bean sprouts and scallions served with a fish sauce.  They had a number of wok items on the menu including fried rice dishes; spicy pad eggplant; and noodle dishes with choices of protein items or vegetarian options.  They also had curry soups and about a half-dozen seafood dishes.  

My wife ended up ordering the panang curry - a rich and creamy curry broth with coconut milk with chopped red bell peppers, mushrooms and sweat peas mixed in.  She had a choice of protein to add to the curry and she chose chicken.  She had a choice of either white rice or brown rice to mix in with the curry.  My wife said that it was a bit spicy, but excellent in flavor.  

I got the spicy basil noodles - wide-cut egg noodles mixed with sliced green and red bell peppers, scallions and egg with a lot of crushed red pepper in a basil sauce.  The noodles came with a choice of protein and I got beef to go along with it.  The first bite - WOW!  It was definitely spicy, but after a couple bites my tongue got used to the spiciness and I was able to enjoy a number of flavors between the noodles, basil sauce, scallions and peppers.  It was absolutely delicious.  It was sort of a mix between Italian and SE Asian cuisine.  And I love both styles.  

Once we finished up, Julia came over to clean the table.  I had eaten all of mine, but my wife still had some of her chicken panang curry with the brown rice left.  Julia brought out a small container for her to fill for leftovers.  "So what did you guys think," she asked as she handed me the check.  

"I've eaten here three times now and I've never had a bad meal," my wife replied.  I had to agree - even though this was my first time there, my spicy beef basil noodles were outstanding.  I especially liked the fact that they had Kona Big Wave available, but the food stood out.  With Tantra under new ownership (and a new name - Lotus Asian Bistro), this will probably be our "go-to" for SE Asian cuisine for the foreseeable future.