Road Tips

J Peters - Murrells Inlet, SC

During our stay in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina just outside of Myrtle Beach, we had a number of choices of restaurants to pick from in the area.  Known for their seafood restaurants, we were looking for a place for lunch where I could get a burger and my wife could get a salad with some protein on it.  Now, some of the places in the area, I just didn't care for their names - no matter how popular or good they may have been.  I wasn't going to eat at the Dead Dog Saloon, Creek Ratz, or Drunken Jack's.  The names alone just seemed to be too touristy for my taste - even if they really weren't tourist joints.  But there was one place that we had passed a number of times that both from the name and from the outside of the building I thought would be a bit more upscale than some of the other places with the funky names.  We pulled into J Peters Grill & Bar on the MarshWalk to have lunch one afternoon.  

Jon Peter Angell was a native New Yorker who made the move to South Carolina a number of years ago to help out his brother, Dan, who was helping to open restaurants in Charleston and Myrtle Beach.   Jon's brother first employed his younger brother as a dishwasher before he rose through the ranks of various restaurants and bars his brother was managing.  After a few years, Jon decided to get completely out of the bar business and found other lines of work in the meantime.

In the meantime, Dan Angell had met another lifetime restauranteur, Jason McDowell, during his rounds of working at restaurants in Columbia, SC.  McDowell was working on a concept for a casual upscale restaurant, something Jon Angell had been thinking about, as well.  Dan Angell put the two together and in January of 2010 they had opened their first restaurant - J Peters - in Anderson, SC on the western side of the state.  

From there, the partners - along with Dan Angell - opened a number of J Peters locations across the state and into Georgia and North Carolina.  At one point, there were 14 J Peters locations run by the Angells and McDowell with two locations of another concept - The Rusty Anchor restaurant and Catfish Johnny's bar.   

In 2019, McDowell approached Jon Angell about a proposition to buy him out of their partnership while maintaining ownership of some of the J Peters locations.   Angell and McDowell had an amicable separation allowing McDowell to rebrand four of the J Peters restaurants in the greater Columbia area to J.R. Cash's Grill & Bar (the initials of his two oldest children with the "Cash" coming from his youngest child's name).

That same year, Angell and his brother opened their second Myrtle Beach-area location on the MarshWalk along Business Route US 17 in Murrells Inlet.  (see map)  That was the location that we went to for lunch after spending a large portion of the morning at Brookgreen Gardens just south of Murrells Inlet.    

They have a very nice patio at J Peters.  We had the option of sitting on the patio, but we had just spent over 3 hours out in the South Carolina coastal heat and humidity, so we decided to sit inside.  

The view from the patio looking out over the MarshWalk and the marsh beyond that was actually quite nice.  Palmetto trees bordered the walk way and the water left over from the tide that had gone out earlier was a deep azure in color.  It would have been relaxing to sit on the deck, but it was also pretty hot.  

The main dining room at J Peters featured a number of large booths.  This is where we sat during our visit to J Peters.  Our server that day was a lady by the name of Bethany.  We chatted with her during part of our time there and found that she was originally from Cromwell, CT.  "Lower taxes, lower prices, better place to raise my kids," she told us as to how she found her way to South Carolina.  "It's a great place to live."  

The bar at J Peters was off to the side of the dining room.  It wasn't all that large and could seat about 15 or 16 people.  Brush aluminum plating was the edging around the bar with accent lighting on the back bar.  It was a full service bar and my wife was able to get her Tito's and cranberry juice with a lime, while I went with an Air Bruch hazy IPA from the Grand Strand Brewing Company up the road in Myrtle Beach.   

J Peters had an upstairs area for overflow dining or for groups.  The upstairs dining room looked out over a glass partition down into the main dining room on one side and out over the patio and marsh on the other.   

Looking over the menu, J Peters featured a wide variety of sandwiches, appetizers, soups, salads, aged Midwestern steaks, and entrees such as blackened chicken alfredo, fresh Atlantic salmon, and hand-breaded deep-fried flounder filets.  Prime rib was available every day at J Peters as was a prime rib sandwich.  

My wife wanted to try J Peters version of the she-crab soup, something that we saw on a lot of menus in restaurants during our time in South Carolina.  Originally made in the early 1900's in Charleston, she-crab soup is called that as the crab roe from female crabs was one of the main ingredients in the soup.  Lump crabmeat is the main ingredient in most of the she-crab soups we saw during our time there.  The J Peters version was a very creamy and buttery bisque with generous chunks of crabmeat in the soup.  It was simply wonderful in flavor.   

For her lunch selection, my wife ended up with the blackened steak Caesar salad.  It featured chunks of blackened sirloin steak on romaine lettuce with shaved parmesan cheese.  A hearty Caesar dressing came on the side.  Her steak salad also came with J Peters' signature freshly baked honey-butter croissant.  They're so popular they're included in the appetizer section of the menu.  My wife was very happy with her selections for lunch. 

I thought about getting the prime rib sandwich, but in the end I went with the house burger.  It was a 10 ounce blended ground beef patty with the full complement of dill pickles, red onions, sliced tomatoes and lettuce on a toasted bun.  I had my choice of cheese to go on the burger and I went with Monterey jack.  The burger was delicious - juicy and full of flavor.  It was a multiple napkin burger as the tomatoes were very fresh and the burger was oozing the cooked-in marbling from the beef.  The bun held together very well with all that messiness.  Fries came on the side and they were also very good.  They had that great crispy outside shell with an almost creamy potato inner core.  This was an excellent lunch all the way around.  

J Peters is the perfect antidote to the "catchy" named tourist destination restaurants that you find on the MarshWalk in Murrells Inlet.  It was a stylish place without any pretension or snobbish-nature.  The food we had was very good, as was the service from Bethany.  If you're looking for a little more of an upscale atmosphere from the bars and grills on the MarshWalk, J Peters fits the bill.   

Soul & Smoke - Evanston, IL

I was in Evanston, IL checking in with an old account I had worked with a number of years ago and it was around 1:30 in the afternoon when I was finished up with my visit.  I was looking for a brewpub to have lunch at and I was heading toward Double Clutch Brewing Company north and west of downtown Evanston when I was at a stop sign.  Looking to my right, I saw a sign that said, "Soul & Smoke".  The semi-vine covered brick building looked like it was in a state of flux with a series of somewhat crudely drawn arrow signs showing the way to an entrance.  Somewhat intrigued, I turned the corner and followed the signs.  It turned out it was a barbecue joint!  Man - barbecue sounded good to me!  I took a right turn and parked on the street next to Soul & Smoke.  

D'Andre Carter's life while a young boy on the south side of Chicago seemed to evolve around cooking.  He could always remember his grandmother and mother cooking - his grandmother taught him how to make peach cobbler in her kitchen.  Cooking was a big deal in Carter's family, but it was a full-family celebration when they would get together to barbecue in his grandmother's back yard on Sunday.  Carter was the oldest grandchild and he was tasked with helping with the barbecue and in his grandmother's kitchen.  

Carter enjoyed helping in the kitchen so much while growing up, it was almost a given that he decided to go to culinary school.  After graduating from the (now-closed) Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in 2008, Carter entered the professional chef world as a cook for Blue Plate Catering, an events company in Chicago.  While at Blue Plate Catering, he got a job as an intern at Moto, an upscale restaurant in Chicago's Fulton Market District.  Moto was famous for their avant garde and scientific approach to food preparation where the chefs would use centrifuges, Class IV lasers, and liquid nitrogen for flash freezing some foods.  

After a short time at Moto, Carter was elevated to a sous chef and one of the chef's he worked with was Heather Bublick. The two hit it off and soon they were a couple.  Bublick left Moto in 2010 to become a sommelier at Tru, a French-style restaurant in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood run by Rich Melman's Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group.   

Pictured right - D'Andre Carter and Heather Bublick.  Photo courtesy Chicago Tribune.  

The two had many conversations about opening their own restaurant over a long period of time before they decided to jump ship from their respective restaurants in December of 2012 and do their own thing.  

The couple figured that at some point they'd own their own restaurant. But they really didn't know what kind of restaurant.  In the meantime, they began to cater small pop-up dinner parties at their home and at homes of people they knew around Chicago.  On the strength of these pop-up dinners, people began to ask Carter and Bublick to cater events.  In 2013, Carter and Bublick opened Feast & Imbibe, a catering company that focused on weddings, parties, corporate events and other gatherings.  To help the couple out, they hired friends and family members to give them a hand in the kitchen and serving the food.    

But Carter remembered how much of a celebration it was when his family would barbecue and he wanted to incorporate barbecue into the mix at Feast & Imbibe.  In 2015, the couple created Soul & Smoke as a more casual alternative to the mixed tasting plates they would do for Feast & Imbibe.  

Just as he did with the menu at Feast & Imbibe, Carter drilled down to the smallest detail in coming up with rubs, side dishes and cooking techniques - even trying a number of different types of smokers before he settled upon using a Cookshack smoker.  But Soul & Smoke took a backseat to Feast & Imbibe for five years before a couple big things happened in Carter and Bublick's life.

In February of 2020, the couple purchased an old bus depot in a small industrial area in Evanston.  The building was about 100 years old and needed some serious upgrading.  They had a room in the front of the building that they could use for an event space, but much of the building was without flooring, electrical or HVAC.  Then in March of 2020 - of course - the pandemic hit.  

And because they had so much food for upcoming catering events, they had to do something with it.  On March 17 of 2020, Feast & Imbibe offered 40 free meals from their carry-out window - no fee requested.  Then when a shelter-in-place order was given less than a week later, Carter and Bublick began to deliver meals to those in need.  Less than a month later, the couple was delivering up to 300 meals a day, mainly through a non-profit community emergency food-relief organization that was helping feed the homeless and unemployed during the pandemic.  

In the meantime, Soul & Smoke had opened a pick-up window at their building allowing people to get barbecue to go.  In the summer of 2020 when the pandemic was gradually lifting, Carter and Bublick bought a food truck and would take it to neighborhoods for pop-up events.  

Word of mouth on Carter's barbecue began to run rampant throughout the greater Chicagoland area.  In 2021, Carter and Bublick opened a ghost kitchen on Spaulding Ave. in Chicago for to-go orders only and using Uber Eats and DoorDash to reach more people that way.  In 2022, the couple opened their first sit-down restaurant in the Rockwell-on-the-River event center in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood partnering with (the now-closed) Metropolitan Brewing, Judson & Moore Distillery, and Metropolis Coffee Company.  A Soul & Smoke counter opened not long after that at Soldier Field, while a location in the Accenture Tower in Chicago's West Loop opened earlier this year.  

The Evanston location (see map) was "sort of" a sit down venue when I was there.  There were some picnic tables outside along the sidewalk and the street.  A pick-up box for free meals was located near the front door of the facility.  A colorful awning hung over the door on the side of the building with the slogan "Keep it Saucy & Soulful" on the bottom of the awning.  

Inside the building, there was a long, narrow dining area with picnic tables on artificial turf.  With racks and containers along one wall, it sort of looked like it was a storage area with some picnic tables - sort of something like what a break room would look like for a grocery store or a big box store.  But in the same vein, it was sort of homey and welcoming.  

It's counter service at Soul & Smoke and I was met by a guy by the name of Greg who asked if I had a to-go order.  I said, "Umm... No, I was driving by and wanted to stop in to get some lunch.  Can I eat here?"  

Greg said, "Oh, yes!  By all means!"  He handed me a menu to look through.  A couple other people were milling about behind the counter and I later realized that one of them was Heather Bublick.  

The smoked meat selections at Soul & Smoke was almost overwhelming.  They had prime brisket, pastrami, spare ribs, 'Nduja (andouille) sausage, pork rib tips, and smoked jalapeño/cheddar sausage links.  They also had down-home soul food including smoked chicken gumbo, grilled wings, Cajun shrimp and grits, and grilled jerk chicken.  Pulled pork and smoked brisket sandwiches were on the menu, and well as sides which included cornbread, sweet potatoes, grits, red beans and rice, apple slaw, and - for an upcharge - collard greens.  This turned out to be a promising experience!

While I was looking through the menu, a couple people came in to pick up to-go orders.  All the while I was there, there was a steady presence of people picking up to-go orders or waiting to get their orders they had placed earlier.  I was going to be the only one eating in at Soul & Smoke and I was fine with that.

Once I was able to get back to the counter to place an order, I ordered up the half-pound prime brisket.  For my side I ordered the dirty rice.  "Great choice," Greg said after I ordered the side dish.  They had a few craft beers available and I ordered up an Insufficient Clearance hazy IPA from the Sketchbook Brewing Company in Evanston.  

When I placed my order, Greg explained that they no longer take tips at Soul & Smoke, but they do add an 8% service charge for counter orders.  He said that instead of tips, they just redistribute the service fees to all the employees at the restaurant whether they work in catering or back in the smokers.  He said that he would waive the fee for first time customers, but I told him that wasn't necessary.   

After taking a seat at a picnic table, it was about 10 minutes when someone from the back brought out a small cooking sheet with wax paper with paper boats of the prime brisket and the dirty rice on it.  Greg wanted to know if I wanted fatty or lean brisket when I ordered and I asked him if I could get both.  "That's no problem," he said enthusiastically.  The brisket had a nice bark on the outside and a visible smoke ring around the edges.  

And the brisket was delicious.  It didn't take much to cut into it as it was very tender.  The smoky flavor wasn't overpowering and the spices used on the outside gave the bark a great taste.  The brisket was outstanding.  

The dirty rice was also very good.  It had chunks of meat - don't know if it was pork or brisket - mixed in with it.  I hadn't had dirty rice for quite some time and I'm glad I got the dirty rice from Soul & Smoke.  

For sauces, they had a wide variety of five different sauces.  The original sauce that D'Andre Carter came up with years ago is a medium-thick tomato-based sauce that had a complex flavor to it.  Carter uses 22 different types of artisanal ingredients in his original sauce that gives it a somewhat sweet and citrusy taste with a bit of a spicy back end.  I used that sauce mainly because I wasn't keen on some of the other sauces including a North Carolina vinegar-style sauce that would have been good on pulled pork.  Soul & Smoke had a bold mustard-based sauce made with pineapple juice and chopped jalapeños; a Jamaican jerk sauce made with citrus juice, soy sauce, chili peppers and spices that would have gone well with some of their smoked or grilled chicken offerings; an a spicy and tangy version of a Buffalo wing sauce.  

But, quite honestly, the brisket was great on its own.  I didn't use much barbecue sauce and I would have liked to have had some Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce to put on the dirty rice.  But that really wasn't needed, either.  

For stumbling on to Soul & Smoke, I'd have to say I was a pretty lucky guy.  While their temporary space inside their soon to be revamped building in Evanston was sort of strangely fun to eat in, I can't wait to see what they're going to have when they get up and going full bore with their barbecue restaurant.  The brisket I had was outstanding as was the dirty rice that I had as a side.  They have so many different types of barbecue on the menu, as well as a large number of sides to choose from, I can't wait to get back to sample some of their barbecue once they get their space revamped.  Then again, I like Soul & Smoke so much that I may have to get back there before their remodeling is finished!

Cōsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar - Murrells Inlet, SC

On our last night in Murrells Inlet, we wanted to eat at someplace nice - and not at a seafood-centric restaurant.  There's a number of options in the area, but we decided to make reservations at an Italian restaurant by the name of Cōsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar.  (Pronounced CO-sta with the long "o".)  Pasta sounded pretty good to me after stuffing myself with seafood most of the week.  

Jimmy Pronesti grew up in an Italian family where there were a lot of cooks.  Working restaurants in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pronesti ventured down to Myrtle Beach about 25 years ago for a family vacation.  He loved the area  so much that he ended up moving there and opening up his own restaurant in 2002.  After closing that restaurant in 2008, Pronesti opened an upscale Italian restaurant - Caffe Piccolo - in Pawley's Island just south of Murrell's Inlet in 2010.  

In 2016, the restaurant attached to the Inlet Sports Lodge in Murrells Inlet - Bliss - closed their doors.  The landlord was looking for another restaurateur to come in and take over the place and contacted Jimmy Pronesti.  With Caffe Piccolo doing well just down the road, Pronesti took over the for Bliss space and established Cōsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar.  

We had a 7 p.m. reservation, but we decided to go a bit early and have a drink at the bar.  There was a parking lot in front of and on the side of the building at Cõsta, but all the spots were filled.  Down the side street off Business U.S. Highway 17 next to Cõsta, we found a spot to park on the street.  (see map)

When we walked in and checked in with the hostess.  We explained we told her we knew we were early.  She said that we could wait in the bar or on the patio outside.  We decided to hang out on the patio which was really nothing more than a landing with a couple high-top tables and some high-back chairs that were at a narrow ledge that looked over the Inlet Sports Inn's pool.  There was a fire place at one end of the patio, but since it was a warm evening it wasn't going.

We realized after about 5 minutes of hanging on the patio that there was no waitstaff service out there.  We went back in to the bar area to get a drink.  The bar was packed.  There were a couple tables and booths in the bar area where people were eating, and there were people eating at the bar, as well.  The bar was bathed in a deep blue light with light fixtures with Edison lighting directly over the bar.  

It took some time for us to get the attention of one of the two bartenders they had working that night because not only was the bar packed, but they were full up in the dining area, as well.  Finally, one of the bartenders - a sassy lady by the name of Beth - came over to our little corner of the bar.  "Sorry folks," she said somewhat breathlessly.  "It's been a madhouse over the last half hour here."  My wife ordered up an Absolut very dirty martini, while I ordered a Tito's and lemonade.  They had a handful of craft beers available at Cõsta, but I wanted a Tito's and lemonade that evening.  (I've found in the South that a lot of places have pink lemonade which tastes completely different from regular lemonade.  But Cõsta had real lemonade as I watched Beth pour it out of a carafe.)  

It was finally about 7:30 when a table opened up and the hostess came over to take us to our seats.  We were seated in a corner of the dining area with banquette seating along the wall next to the kitchen.  It wasn't the most ideal spot, but at least we had a table.  Wooden beams hung over the dining area that was primarily booths in a well-lit room.  The dining room had sort of an upscale, yet rustic beach joint feeling to it.  

After menus were placed in front of us by the hostess, our server that evening - Trent - came over to say "hello".  My wife was still sipping on her dirty martini, so I got a West Coast IPA from the Revelry Brewing Company in Charleston.  

The menu featured a number of Italian or Italian-inspired dishes including pasta, chicken or veal entrees, and seafood items.  Appetizers included calamari, sausage-stuffed banana peppers, and little neck clams sautéed with Italian sausage and Calabrian peppers in a light tomato-basil sauce.  They had a handful of specials that evening including a steak and shrimp combo dinner, and diver sea scallops that were served on a bed of roasted corn risotto.  

My wife and I both decided to forego any of the appetizers since we'd had a pretty hearty lunch earlier in the day, so we both got the Caesar salad to start out.  It featured crisp romaine lettuce, shaved pecorino romano cheese, and house-made croutons mixed with a hearty Caesar dressing.  It was a very good start to the meal.  

I was sort of up in the air as what to get for dinner.  I saw a couple at the bar sharing a bowl of the bolognese with pappardelle egg noodles that looked very good.  They had chicken parm on the menu, and they also had a seafood fettuccine alfredo with shrimp available.  The veal piccata was also something that got me intrigued, as did the  linguine with scallops in a white wine, butter and lemon sauce.  The whole menu at Cõsta was interesting to me.  

My wife asked Trent to re-explain the "fresh catch" special that evening.  He described it as a broiled halibut filet topped with artichoke hearts, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes topped with lemon, wine and butter sauce and served on a bed of linguine.  That had my mouth-watering from his description alone.  She ended up getting that and she was more than happy with her choice.  The halibut was tender, flaky and very fresh in flavor.  The combination of the artichoke hearts, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes on the lemon, white wine and butter sauce gave the dish a number of different flavors.  She also got a glass of the house pinot grigio to go along with her seafood pasta special.  

Confused and somewhat in angst over what to get, I was still up in the air when Trent asked me what I wanted.  In the end, since I had seen it earlier while we were at the bar, I went with the bolognese and pappardelle pasta.  However, when Trent brought it out, it was bolognese with linguine with a meatball.  I said, "I'm not certain I ordered this."  He looked puzzled and I said, "This looks like my wife's linguine noodles and I wanted the pappardelle pasta with it."  

Trent looked at the dish and said, "Oh, you wanted the egg noodles!"  Well, yeah - that's what was in the description on the menu and with no mention of a meat ball.  He seemed somewhat embarrassed over all that and offered to take it back.  I waved him off and said that I would eat this.  The bolognese sauce was very good, but I know the whole bowl of pasta would have tasted much better with the more thin and pliable pappardelle noodles.  

To make up for the gaffe that either came from the kitchen or on his part for not having the right pasta with my meal, Trent offered us a couple free desserts.  Well, we were both stuffed from what turned out to be a very good meal, so I sort of groaned when he made the offer.  My wife, however, wasn't going to pass up at least one free dessert and she ended up ordering a slice of the limoncello cake.  It was a white cake with limoncello liqueur added in, topped with a lemon frosting, with sides of house-made whipped cream, then topped with a raspberry drizzle and powdered sugar.   And the taste was heavenly.  There was enough of a lemon flavor in each bite.  And coupled with the real whipped cream and the raspberry drizzle, this was a terrific dessert to end the evening.  

Even with getting linguine instead of the preferred pappardelle pasta to go with the bolognese sauce I had ordered, I'd have to say that was probably the only thing that was wrong with our visit to Cõsta.  While I was disappointed, it turned out to be fine all around.  My wife was more than happy with her broiled halibut on linguine special she had that evening, and we both raved about the wonderful limoncello cake we got gratis for the mix-up on my pasta selection.  The atmosphere was laid back and had somewhat of a beach restaurant vibe.  Cõsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar was a great meal to close out our time in Murrells Beach.  

Canal Bistro - Indianapolis

My wife and I ventured out to Indianapolis for a long weekend to celebrate a combination birthday/retirement party for the husband of my wife's good friend.  Since the party was going to be a surprise for him, my wife and I were used as a ruse to keep him off the trail of his surprise that was to happen the next day.  Because he knew we were going to be in town, my wife and her friend decided that we all needed to go out to dinner the night before.  They had eaten at a Mediterranean restaurant in Indianapolis' Broad Ripple neighborhood on a previous visit my wife had out there and they thought it would be great if we would all meet at Canal Bistro for dinner.  

George Hanna is a native of Egypt and was born into an extended family that ran restaurants.  Immigrating to the U.S. a number of years ago, George's father ran restaurants and also owned a number of Baskin-Robins ice cream stores in malls around Indiana.   Following in his father's footsteps, George bought into the sweetFrog premium frozen yogurt franchise.  But it was his wife Mona who convinced him to take a different direction in running a restaurant.  

Mona grew up in Lebanon and moved to the U.S when she was 23.  She had been around Mediterranean cooking all her life and brought a number of family recipes with her when she came to America.  Seeing a need for an authentic Mediterranean restaurant in Indianapolis, they settled on a building in Broad Ripple along the start of the Indiana Central Canal.   After months of renovations and redecorating the inside of building, the Hannas opened Canal Bistro in November of 2014.  

We were to meet our friends at the restaurant around 7 p.m. on a Friday night.  Friday and Saturday night in Broad Ripple - well, actually most nights - can be a pain if you're trying to find parking.  Canal Bistro is a block away from a former account that I had in Indianapolis and I contemplated just parking in his lot in front of his building and then walking back through the alley to Canal Bistro.  But it turned out that a car was leaving a spot in a parking lot just across Guilford Street from the restaurant, so we ended up taking that space.  (see map) 

We went into the restaurant and were met by George Hanna at the front desk.  The reservations were in our friend's name, but they weren't there yet.  The kitchen was just beyond the host stand and you could easily see in to watch the staff do their magic.  It was a warm and muggy evening and we contemplated sitting out on the patio they had in front and on the side of the building.  But my wife thought it may be two hot for all of us to sit outside.  We decided to sit inside and George had a young lady take us back to our table.  

The dining room at Canal Bistro is a long, hall-like room with a bar dissecting the two portions of the dining area.  Alcoves with paintings and knick-knacks were along the walls on one side while the other side were a series of windows looking out onto the patio.  The ceiling was painted a sky blue with billowing clouds so it appeared you were seated outdoors.  Wooden slats spaced about 15 inches apart ran the length of the restaurant's ceiling.  There was a large gathering of women in the front of the dining room for a surprise 60th birthday party and the place was loud with the women trying to talk over one another before the guest of honor showed up.  

The focal point of the bar area in the middle of the room was this colorful Turkish lantern that was directly over the center of the bar.  I took a number of pictures of the beautiful globes from different angles trying to get the beauty of the light, but this was the best I could get given the contrast of light and dark in the room.

We were seated in the far back area of the dining room at a table with four wooden chairs.  More alcoves were in the back dining area with colorful scenes and figurines were on the lower shelves.  It was still pretty warm in there, but we figured it was better than sitting outside.  

We weren't seated for more than a minute when our friends showed up.  We laughed because he initially thought it was a surprise birthday party for him as he just turned 60, as well.  "When I came into the room, I saw all the '60' balloons and thought, 'Surprise party!'", he said.  "But then I didn't recognize anybody!"  

Our server that evening was the greatest waitress on earth - a smallish young lady by the name of Reema.  And when I call her the greatest waitress on earth, she was absolutely the best.  She had a great sense of humor, she was on top of any request we had all night long, and had some great suggestions for all of us.  Reema dropped off menus for us to go through.  She wanted to know what we wanted to drink and my wife ordered an extra dirty martini.  Our male friend said, "Hey, that sounds good!  I'll have one of those!"  His wife ordered an amaretto sour, while I got a Mythos Hellenic Lager.  

Reema brought out some pita bread with a bowl of olive oil infused with herbs.  The pita was warm and fresh and the olive oil had a wonderful flavor.  

My wife thought it would be great to get some hummus.  Believe it or not, she has sort of got me going on hummus at home.  Canal Bistro makes all their hummus from scratch in-house with pureed chickpeas and tahini with lemon juice.  The hummus was topped chopped parsley and diced tomatoes.  I'm not certain I've ever had hummus that tasted so good and fresh.  

My wife had never had saganaki before - the Greek flaming cheese delicacy that is flambéed at table side.  Our male friend thought that was a great idea and we ordered one up from Reema.  Not more than a couple minutes later, one of the guys from the kitchen came out with a pan of Greek cheese powdered with flour.  He had a small container of the Greek liqueur Ouzo that he poured on the cheese pan and then lit it.  "Opa", he shouted the traditional Greek exclamation.  My male friend and I followed suit with our own, "Opa!"  My wife didn't know what to think.

The saganaki was outstanding.  It had just a thin crust on the outside while the warm goodness of the Greek cheese was oozing out from the sides.  It was so wonderful, but - oh! - so rich!  I was worried that I wouldn't be all that hungry when we finally ordered up our food for the evening.  

We started out with salads and my wife got the Tabouli salad - finely chopped parsley with diced tomatoes, chopped onions, mint and bulgar wheat instead of rice.  I thought it was a somewhat odd choice, but she seemed to like it.  She offered me a bite and I just thought it was way too much parsley for my liking.  

At first, I ordered a dinner salad and just before Reema left the table, I said, "Man, what am I thinking?  I'll take the Greek salad."  She kind of laughed and said that she thought I was more of a Greek salad kind-of-guy rather than a regular house salad.   The Greek salad featured fresh romaine greens, chunked tomatoes, chopped onions, cucumber wedges and kalamata olives topped with feta cheese and a wonderful balsamic vinegar that pulled it all together.  

After the pita bread with hummus, the saganaki and the Greek salad, I wasn't certain I was going to be all that hungry.  But along with our lady friend, I got the gyros platter.  It featured large chunks of rotisserie lamb meat with a block of rice, some lettuce greens and tzatziki sauce.  Reema came out after our food was delivered to the table with additional tubs of the tzatziki sauce.  "I figured you would want more," she said as she put them on our table.  The gyro meat was tender and flavorful with the right amount of seasoning on the meat.  But, man - there was a lot of gyro meat on my plate.  I knew there was going to be no way I could eat all of it.  But I have to tell you - it was so good that I just sort of kept picking up a chunk or two from time to time well after I knew I should have stopped.  

Our other friend got something that I thought about getting - the moussaka.  My wife asked what moussaka was when he ordered it and I said, "It's like a Greek lasagna."  Our friend said that was a pretty fair description.  It's layers of eggplant in between ground beef in a tomato sauce - like lasagna, only with no pasta.  My wife said that she would have to try that at some point down the road.  He said the moussaka at the Canal Bistro was outstanding.  And I could tell as he ate the whole thing!   

My wife wanted a kabab, but was torn between the chicken kabab or the lamb kabab.  Reema said, "You can get a mix, if you want."  And that's what my wife ended up ordering.  The only problem was is that she didn't care for it.  The chicken was overcooked and hard to chew, while the lamb meat didn't have much flavor, something I confirmed by taking a couple chunks of both.  I let her have some of my gyro meat as I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish it.  

Now, by this time, I was full.  And I mean stuffed!  Satiated!  Had I been wearing a belt, I would have unbuckled it.  But Reema came out with a dessert menu and my wife saw that they had tiramisu.  She asked Reema if they made it in house.  "We do, yes," she replied.  Then she said, "It's the best in the state of Indiana."  Well, that was enough for my wife.  She ordered up the tiramisu with two forks.  

When Reema brought out the tiramisu, my eyes widened.  It was a huge piece of tiramisu, basically a double cut the size of a normal portion of tiramisu with a chocolate sauce drizzle.  I just shook my head.  Reema said, "C'mon, now.  You can do it."

From the first bite, I knew my wife hadn't made a mistake in ordering the tiramisu.  It was tremendous, some of the best tiramisu I've ever had.  It was moist, tasty and very rich.  Even though I was full past the point of feeling somewhat ill, I still ate my fair share of the tiramisu.  

When Reema came back to see how we liked it, I said, "I'm not certain that I've even had tiramisu in the state of Indiana before, but I doubt I'd be able to find any better if I were to try."  

Next to Canal Bistro, George Hanna put in a gourmet ice cream parlor - Canal Creamery.  And some of the items on the dessert menu that Reema brought us were ice cream dishes from Canal Creamery.  They ordered up something that I was sort of interested to see, the baklava sundae.  They take baklava, put it in a bowl, top it with a couple big dips of vanilla ice cream, then top that with whipped cream, then drizzle hot fudge over the top of all that, then sprinkle nuts on to the whole thing before finishing it off with a couple cherries.  Now, THIS was a huge sundae!  More than once they offered us a chance to take a bite of the sundae, but we declined each offer.  I mean, I was miserable - but in a good way - after finishing the last bite of the tiramisu.  But that didn't matter as our friends killed the whole thing!  Our man friend kept saying, "I'm so full, but I can't stop eating this!"  

Reema allowed us to take our time to digest everything and to finish up visiting with our friends.  When she came over to give us our check for the meal (which our friends graciously picked up), she asked if there was anything else she could get us.  I said, "Do you have a two-wheeled cart to take me out to my car?"

She laughed and said, "We do have big portions here.  And you guys had a lot of food."  

Reema may have been the highlight to our visit to the Canal Bistro.  She was one of the best servers I've ever encountered.  She was funny, yet professional.  She was helpful with her suggestions, and we loved the playful banter back and forth with her.  About the only thing that wasn't very good to great at Canal Bistro was my wife's lamb and chicken kababs where the meat was woefully overcooked.  But I had enough of a large portion of gyro meat on my plate that she was able to eat some of that to help her get filled up.  As we were headed back to the hotel that evening, I told my wife that I needed to seek out more Greek/Mediterranean restaurants when I'm on the road.  My wife lamented that she just wished we had something like Canal Bistro back home.   

Swig & Swine - Charleston, SC

There's a handful of very good to excellent barbecue places in and around the greater Charleston area.  One place I wanted to try - Rodney Scott's BBQ - was a James Beard Award winner in 2018.  But we were told by someone deep in the "know" about local eateries in Charleston that Rodney Scott's had "passed their prime".  "If you want to go stand in line for good barbecue, that's fine," we were told.  "But if you want the best barbecue in Charleston, you need to go to Swig & Swine."  Now - believe it or not - I had heard about Swig & Swine before.  But not for their barbecue.  One evening while in Charleston, we headed out to Swig & Swine for dinner.  

Now, believe or not, I had heard of Swig & Swine before we had gone to Charleston.  But not for the food, per se, but because for the past couple of years they have sponsored a college baseball classic at Shipyard Park in North Charleston.  The University of Iowa baseball team played in the series last February, and being a fan of the Iowa baseball team I had to look up as to what Swig & Swine actually was when the Hawkeyes played there.  The classic usually features teams from the northern part of the U.S. who come south to get a few games in at the start of the season.  (Iowa went 2-1 in this year's Swig & Swine series with wins over Seton Hall and Ball State, but losing to Lehigh in their final game of the weekend.)   

But the founder/owner of Swig & Swine didn't start out thinking that he was going to be the owner of a barbecue joint.  It took some time before New Jersey-native Anthony DiBernardo figured out what he really wanted to do.  DiBernardo always figured he'd end up as a cook somewhere.  He started out at the early age of 14 working as a line cook for a banquet restaurant.   

After graduating high school, DiBernardo joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned to a 1970's-era submarine that was based out of Charleston.  He was the lead cook for the submarine and had to make 4 meals a day for a crew of 135.  The kitchen was tight for him - the ceiling was six-feet, five-inches and DiBernardo stood 6'5".  

Pictured right - Anthony DiBernardo.  Photo courtesy Charleston Food+Wine.

After a four-year stint in the Navy, DiBernardo stuck around Charleston rather than going back to the Philadelphia area.  He caught on at Blossom, a popular and hip southern/seafood restaurant in Charleston's French Quarter.  (Blossom closed in 2020 after 27 years, a casualty of the pandemic.)  In 2002, DiBernardo was then recruited to become the head chef at Jasmine Porch, a Low Country-style restaurant at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, a luxury seaside resort on Kiawah Island south of Charleston.  

It was at Jasmine Porch where DiBernardo was introduced to whole hog barbecue techniques.  As a teenager, DiBernardo had helped his father - who was a butcher - smoke hams and roast whole pigs.  But barbecuing was a whole new thing for him.  The resort had a weekly beach barbecue where a whole hog would be slow-barbecued on the beach.  When he left Jasmine Porch to become the chef at the popular Mustard Seed restaurant in Mount Pleasant, SC, he included barbecued meats on the wide and varied menu at the restaurant.  

When the Halls Restaurant Management Group was looking to open a new American restaurant in Folly Beach, SC, they turned to DiBernardo to be the chef and managing partner in the new restaurant.  DiBernardo left the Mustard Seed and went to run Rita's Seaside Grill for the group.  He incorporated smoked meats at Rita's including smoked chicken wings, pulled pork, and hickory-smoked pork belly.  

By 2013, the barbecue bug was deep inside DiBernardo.  At that time, there was a dearth of good barbecue places around Charleston and there wasn't any of them who were doing whole hog, low-and-slow cooked barbecue.  He turned to brothers Steve and Jonathon Kish from the Queen Street Hospitality Group (82 Queen, Florence's Low Country Kitchen) to help him establish a barbecue joint of his own.  

The group found an old car wash in Charleston's West Ashley neighborhood and began renovating the building into a barbecue restaurant complete with a smoker and full kitchen.  In May of 2014, Swig & Swine opened to the public offering whole hog barbecue once a week (the smoker was too small to do one every night), along with a long list of bourbons and whiskeys, as well as a number of locally-brew craft beers.   

The days DiBernardo did his whole hog barbecue became the busiest times for Swig & Swine. In order to help sustain that momentum, DiBernardo had to come up with a way to have whole hog barbecue available each day.  He designed larger smokers with offset wood boxes that would allow for whole hogs and other meats to be barbecued all at once and had a company in North Carolina make them to his specifications.  Once the new smokers were in place, DiBernardo hired more crew members to help smoke the whole hogs, pork shoulder, brisket and other meats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

The West Ashley Swig & Swine was an absolute hit with the eating public.  It wasn't long before DiBernardo and the Kish brothers were looking to expand.  Four more Swig & Swine locations have popped up over the past 8 years in the South Carolina cities of Summerville, Myrtle Beach, Moncks Beach and Mount Pleasant.  In 2019, DiBernardo was able to buy the shares of the Kish brothers to become the sole proprietor of Swig & Swine.  

It was about a 10 minute drive from our hotel out onto Savannah Highway to the Swig & Swine location in West Ashley.  (see map)  Parking was limited in front of the restaurant, but there was a strip mall just to the east that was home to a Whole Foods grocery store and some other businesses.  We parked along the side of the strip mall and walked a short distance over to Swig & Swine.  

As we crossed over into the parking lot, there was this painting of a pig on the side of the building with the Swig & Swine logo and the phrase, "horrifying vegetarians since 2013".  I got a chuckle out of that and knew that I had to send a picture of it to my colleague in Montreal who is a vegetarian.  Moments after I sent the picture to him, he replied with three 😆 emojis.  He's a good sport when it comes to acknowledging his vegetarianism.  

Inside Swig & Swine, it's your typical barbecue joint.  It was clean, but nothing fancy.  A row of booths lined one wall, while the other wall had banquette seating with small tables.  Garage door windows that opened to a patio seating area in front of the restaurant were next to the booths.  It was a warm evening and the windows were closed up and the air conditioning was on full blast in the restaurant.  Off to the side of the patio in front of Swig & Swine was a screened in area that housed their industrial smokers.  And true to form, they were in use and billowing wood smoke.  

The bar area was off to the side.  They had red metal stools - the type of metal stools that I find uncomfortable - along the short bar and at high-top tables near the bar.  Baseball games were playing on the televisions in the bar area.  They had a number of bourbon and rye whiskies available on their liquor shelf.  

We were seated at one of the tables along the wall with the banquette seats.  The tables along that side of the wall weren't close together, so it didn't seem like the tables were on top of one another like I detest at some restaurants with banquette seating.  After we were seated and menus were put on the table, our server for evening stopped over to greet us.  Her name was Kirby and she was a black woman with short blonde hair.  She was friendly, loud, and sassy - we immediately liked her.  Starting off with drinks, my wife got her usual Tito's and cranberry, while I got a Hop Art IPA from the Coast Brewing Company in nearby North Charleston.  

The menu consisted of meats by the half-pound or pound, as well as barbecue meat plates with brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey, smoked chicken and pork belly.  Smoked sausage was also available as both an entree or by the link.  Sandwiches included a spicy fried chicken sandwich, a beef brisket and cheese sandwich, and a chopped prime brisket sandwich.  Appetizers including pork rinds - either with nachos, or pimento cheese, or with Tabasco honey and blue cheese; as well as a chopped pork and smoked jalapeño appetizer; and jalapeño smoked pimento cheese served with Ritz crackers.  

My wife likes fried pickles and they had them on the appetizer menu at Swing & Swine.  They were breaded and deep-fried dill pickle spears with a side of honey mustard and served on paper on a small cookie sheet.  The breading was sort of falling off the spears, but it there was enough on the pickles that we were able to get a taste of both the pickle and the breading.  

We wanted to try a little bit of everything and my wife got the two meat combo with prime beef brisket and pulled pork.  For her two sides she got the mac & cheese and pickled veggies with okra, cauliflower, collard greens, onions and pickles.  Pickled onions and dill pickle slices came on the side with the meat.  

I got the 1/3 rack of ribs for us to share.  The ribs had a thick layer of bark on them and were very tender and meaty.  For my sides I got baked beans and I ordered the vinegar slaw.  I thought vinegar slaw wouldn't be creamy, but their slaw was creamy AND vinegary.   It was actually pretty good.  They had five different types of sauces on the table at Swig & Swine - a mustard sauce, a white Alabama-style sauce, a spicy jalapeño sauce, a tomato vinegar sauce (that tasted great on the pulled pork) and a sweet tangy sauce.   I've never liked any type of mustard barbecue sauce or the white Alabama-style sauce.  But the sweet and tangy, and the jalapeño sauces were excellent.    

My wife gave me one of the small slabs of brisket to try and it cut easily with a fork.  And when I put it into my mouth, it literally melted in my mouth, it was so tender and flavorful.  Kirby came over to check on us and I told her that I wanted to get a half-pound of the brisket, it was so good.  Moments later she came out with a platter of a couple thick slices of the prime brisket.  It wasn't as tender as the first smaller piece I had, but I could still cut it with a fork.  The bark on the outside of the brisket and the ribs had a wonderful smoky and somewhat spicy flavor.  

My wife really liked the pulled pork and the two ribs that I shared with her.  I thought the baked beans were very good on their own and probably didn't need any additives, but I added some of the jalapeño sauce and the regular sweet sauce to the baked beans to zip them up.   My wife offered some of the mac & cheese and I thought it was a little dried out.  My wife agreed with me, but she loved the pickled vegetables.  

I could hardly finish the second helping of the prime beef brisket and I still had some on my plate when Kirby came over one more time.  "Are you gonna be able to finish it off," she asked.  I told her that I was going to give it a try.  While it was all I could do to finish the last couple bites, I was able to do it.  And when Kirby tried to tempt us with dessert with included a banana pudding, cobbler coconut pie, and chocolate bourbon pecan pie, I had to throw in the towel.  I was so damned full after finishing the last bites of the brisket.  

Swig & Swine was the only barbecue place we tried while we were on vacation down in South Carolina, but I can't imagine any other place being as good or better than the meal we had that evening.  The brisket was just excellent and the pulled pork and the ribs were very good, as well.  And we really enjoyed our service from Kirby.  She was a ball of fire and fun to banter with.   Although I was thoroughly stuffed when we left Swig & Swine, I was far from unhappy.    

Barrett's Quality Eats - Coralville, IA

Last fall, my wife and I were up in North Liberty visiting family and I noticed a new restaurant off Highway 965 just south of the Hy-Vee grocery store.  "What's this place," I asked as we drove by the building with a packed parking lot.  My wife wasn't familiar with it, so she called her dad whose place we had just left.  

"Oh, yeah," he said.  "That's that new place.  We had breakfast there not too long ago.  It's pretty good!"  

Since then, my wife has been back in the area and had been to the restaurant a couple times with other people.  However, we were recently in North Liberty and before we left town I suggested we get something to eat.  "Hey, let's try that one new restaurant," I said.  My wife wholeheartedly agreed and we set off to have lunch at Barrett's Quality Eats.  

Cory Barrett grew up in the small town of Oak Harbor, OH about halfway between Toledo and Sandusky in the northwest part of the state.  As a young boy, he was would help his mother and grandmother in the kitchen as they prepared large meals for the family.  Barrett caught the culinary bug and decided to pursue a degree in culinary sciences at Baker College in Muskegon, MI.  While in collage, Barrett focused on pastry and savory baking techniques.  

In 2004, Barrett's first job out of culinary school was as the head pastry chef at Tribute, a highly popular restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills.  It was at Tribute when Barrett met chef Michael Symon who was the owner of the trendy and acclaimed Lola restaurant in Cleveland.  Barrett and Symon became fast friends and kept in touch as each other's career evolved.

Pictured right - Cory Barrett.  Photo courtesy the Des Moines Register.   

In 2005, Barrett moved to Las Vegas to be the head pastry chef at Okada, an award winning Japanese restaurant in the Wynn.  But in February of 2006, Michael Symon convinced Barrett to join him as the pastry chef at Lola which had moved from its original location in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood and reopened in downtown Cleveland.  During Barrett's time at Lola, Symon won the Food Network's Iron Chef America contest in 2008 becoming a household name with food enthusiasts across the country.  

After working with Symon for four years, Barrett took on a new challenge as the head pastry chef at The Herbfarm, a sustainable, farm-to-fork restaurant in the Seattle suburb of Woodinville, WA that served nine-course tasting meals.  But after a year working in the Seattle restaurant, Symon was able to coerce Barrett to come back to Cleveland to be the head chef at Lola where he did that for a few months before deciding to move on to be an instructor at his alma mater Baker College.  During his stint as a pastry chef at the various restaurants he worked at, Barrett was a James Beard Award semi-finalist three times in the pastry category.  

As an instructor at Baker College, it gave Barrett more freedom to explore and learn from other restaurants around the nation.  It also gave him the time to participate as a sous chef in 19 episodes of Iron Chef America. In 2016, Barrett moved on to Kalamazoo Valley Community College as a faculty member.  While at Kalamazoo Valley, Barrett participated in - and won - the Food Network's Spring Baking Championship in 2018.   

During his short stint at The Herbfarm out in Washington state, Barrett met a sous chef by the name of Ben Smart.  Smart eventually moved to Iowa to become the head chef at Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA.  Smart and Barrett kept in touch over the years and Smart kept telling Barrett the virtues of running a quality restaurant in Iowa.  In January of 2020, Barrett was named the co-director of the culinary arts program at Kalamazoo Valley while also maintaining a side business as a caterer and teaching private classes.    

But by 2021 after the throes of COVID, Barrett was ready to take the plunge.  In the summer of 2022, Barrett moved his family to the Iowa City area to look for sites for his restaurant.   In late 2022, he found a plot of land on the far north side of Coralville.  Construction on the restaurant's building started in early 2023 building from the ground up.  In late June of 2023, Barrett's Quality Eats held a soft opening with a full opening on July 5, 2023.  

Also known as Barrett's All Day, the restaurant specializes in hardy, yet eclectic breakfast items, as well as deli sandwiches and salads up to 3 p.m.  For dinners, Barrett wanted to bring a different level to what Iowans call "comfort food" such as sautéed walleye, a dry-rubbed pork chop, braised short rib with celery root purée and carrots, and a crispy fried half chicken served with creamed corn, celery and Maytag blue cheese.  And on Friday and Saturday nights, Barrett's Quality Eats offers rotisserie prime rib dinners.

While people may say that Barrett's Quality Eats is in North Liberty, as I thought it was, it's just inside the Coralville town limit on Crosspark Road.  (see map)  It was about 1 p.m. when we went into Barrett's.  It's counter service at the restaurant where you order and they bring your food to you.  The menus were in a basket next to the cash register where we placed our order.  The young lady at the front counter was very accommodating with our order that we ended up splitting.  And to entice you even more, the fresh basked croissants, muffins, breads and pastries were in cases in the front on a half-wall of green and white tiles.

Opposite the main ordering counter was the coffee stand where a barista made fresh coffee, espresso, mochas, and teas.  My wife ordered an iced tea and the young lady got it for her at the coffee counter.  Barrett's Quality Eats has partnered with a Sioux City-based coffee wholesaler - Stone Bru Coffee - to provide the beans for the coffee drinks served at the restaurant.

It was a nice day and we considered sitting outside in Barrett's spacious patio.  When we looked on the patio, all the tables with umbrellas were taken.  And my wife wasn't really looking to be sitting in the sun baking in the summer heat.  Unfortunately by the time we were leaving, a handful of tables with umbrellas had opened up.  

There are two inside dining areas.  Above right is the larger dining area in the far back of the restaurant.  It featured an array of windows that allowed natural light to come in and make the room bright even without the help of lighting.  Wooden plank banquette seating was along the wall in front of the windows while across the room large booths lined that wall.  

In between the front ordering/coffee/pastry area and the back dining room was a smaller dining area that also had banquette seating along a wall that was adorned with decorative bundt cake pans.  Tables with either two or four seats were along the wall with floor to ceiling windows.  A decorative tile floor gave the room sort of an art-deco scheme.  It matched the tile motif on the front of the main counter and the coffee counter in the main entry way up front.  Music from a diverse mix of artists such as Ringo Starr, Hollis Brown, Kings of Leon, R.E.M., and a surprise play from G. Love and Special Sauce was playing in the background.  

They did have beer offered at Barrett's Quality Eats and I got a can of the Easy Eddy hazy IPA from Big Grove Brewery.   Barrett's also offers specialty cocktails including a special dirty martini that my wife didn't order because it was too early in the day.  A number of white and red wines - mainly from the west coast, but also varieties from New Zealand, Italy and France - were available either by the bottle or glass.  

While standing waiting to order food, I had to peruse the bakery case to check out the pastries and desserts they had at Barrett's.  And I found a blueberry custard muffin that just jumped out at me.  It was a custard filled muffin with blueberry compote throughout the muffin with a dollop of blueberry compote on top.  And it was FABULOUS!!! OH MY GOD!!! This thing was one of the best muffins I've ever tasted.  And it was - OH! - so rich!  But it wasn't cheap - $4.50 for the muffin.  But it was so good that I didn't care.  I would crawl back for a blueberry custard muffin at Barrett's.

I didn't want to get anything heavy for lunch as I knew we would be eating a larger meal later in the evening.   The avocado B.L.T. looked good to me and my wife had said that she got the tuna sandwich on one of her earlier visits.  She proposed splitting a sandwich and getting a salad.  I thought that was a good idea.  The young lady at the front counter said that she would split both the sandwich and the salad for us.  And that's how it was presented to us.  The sandwich was sort of small for what they charged for it ($14.95), but it was pretty good.  The garden salad was also a bit pricey ($12.95) with mixed greens, cucumber slices, chopped tomatoes, carrots and radishes mixed in.  She ordered the red wine vinaigrette to go with the salad.  I will say that it was a lot of greens on the plate to go with the sandwich.  

I'm really hoping that Barrett's Quality Eats makes it.  I thought it was a little expensive for what it was - our lunch with the muffin was over $40 bucks before tax and a small tip for the counter service.   To uproot your family and move 500 miles to open a restaurant at a time when there's market volatility for eateries is quite the gamble on Cory Barrett's part.  While I thought that the food was good for no more than what it was (tuna salad sandwich, mix greens salad), I also thought it was sort of expensive.  But the blueberry custard muffin was well worth the $4.50 we were charged for it.  I don't know if Iowans will pay more for eclectic comfort foods, deli items, and artisan breakfast selections.  Only time will tell...

The Obstinate Daughter - Sullivan's Island, SC

My wife and I went out to Sullivan's Island just north and east of Charleston one day to hang out at the beach.  As she is wont to do, my wife thought she needed something to eat before went out to walk in the surf and sand.  As we were driving up a main north-south road on Sullivan's Island, a restaurant to my left caught my eye, mainly because of the interesting name - The Obstinate Daughter.  Remember how my wife's daughter was at an early age, I got a chuckle out of that.  But I thought that might be a nice place to have lunch.  We parked down the street and walked back up to eat at The Obstinate Daughter.

A couple nights before, we had dinner at the Wild Olive on Jones Island not far from Charleston.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Wild Olive.)  Going into The Obstinate Daughter, we had no idea that the two restaurants were connected.  Doug Godley and Jacques Larson had been joined at the hip since 2009 after Larson was recruited to run the kitchen at Wild Olive.  The two were wanting to incorporate more of a "farm-to-fork" concept with a new restaurant they had in mind with an ever changing menu that consisted of seafood, Italian, French and Spanish specialties made with locally-sourced items on a year-round basis.  

There was a long time restaurant on Sullivan's Island by the name of Atlanticville that had sort of a rickety side porch with dark dining areas complete with tired decor.  Godley and Larson had a chance to take over the property and they set about a massive renovation of the building turning it into a modern, sea-theme restaurant that people who had gone to Atlanticville in the past wouldn't have recognized the restaurant.  In March of 2014, The Obstinate Daughter opened for business.

The restaurant is not named after one of Larson's or Godley's female children, but is a historic nickname that stems from the Revolutionary War.  General William Moultrie was in charge of the garrison at Fort Sullivan (later re-named Fort Moultrie).  When the British armada - numbering over 2000 soldiers and sailors - came to take control of the city of Charleston in June of 1776, the 435 soldiers at Fort Sullivan fought the invaders off.  Later that year, a London newspaper published a political cartoon depicting the defenders of Charleston as "Miss Carolina Sulivan (sp), one of the obstinate daughters of America, 1776."  The Obstinate Daughter is a revered name in the history of Charleston and South Carolina.  And it's a great name for a restaurant.  

When you drive out to Sullivan's Island, the main road - South Carolina state highway 703 - brings you into the heart of the island.  If you take a left turn at the stop sign at Middle Street, the highway continues up the coast to Isle of Palms.  But if you take a right turn and drive a couple blocks to the south, you'll find The Obstinate Daughter on the left.  (see map)

We were a little confused at first as there were a handful of people who were seated in front of the building where The Obstinate Daughter was located.  It turned out that they were there for BeardCat's Sweet Shop which is one the ground floor of the building.  The stairs to get up to The Obstinate Daughter were located on the side of the building.  

The restaurant isn't all that large - there's a dining area complete with a community table next to an open kitchen.  It had a nautical theme to the decor including square light fixtures with Edison lights hanging by  large ropes from the ceiling.  Being that it was the noon hour, the place was very busy when we got there and no tables were readily available.  

We ended up seated at the L-shaped bar and were greeted by the bartender, Lauren.  The bar area had a low ceiling made from wooden planks and a row of booths and tables were along the wall.  Lauren gave us a couple menus to look over.  I got a blonde ale that they had from Edmund's Oast Brewing Company in Charleston.  Music from artists such as Anderson East, The Teskey Brothers, and John Mayer was playing in the background.  

The lunch menu was pretty limited with just a couple three sandwiches, some pasta dishes, a couple salads, and oysters-on-the-half shell along with peel & eat shrimp available.  They had artisan pizzas on the menu, but they were not available until after 3 p.m. when the lunch menu ended.  I wasn't exactly certain what to get given the paucity of items listed on the menu.

My wife wanted something light and she ended up getting the shrimp roll.  The Obstinate Daughter sources their shrimp from the Tarvin Seafood Company which has two shrimp trawlers based out of nearby Mount Pleasant, SC.  The shrimp was mixed with a mayo base and served on a hollowed out crispy bread roll.  On the side, 4 potato "sticks" made from potatoes sourced from Marsh Hen Mill Low Country produce came with the shrimp roll.  She thought the shrimp roll was delicious, but a little more rich for what she wanted for lunch.   She gave me a bite of one of the potato sticks to try and it was very good.  It was crunchy on the outside with a flaky potato core.  My wife concentrated more on the shrimp roll even for as rich as it was.  

Now, remember that I had no idea there was a connection between The Obstinate Daughter and Wild Olive where I had a wonderful pasta dinner a couple nights earlier.  So, it was sort of weird that I decided to go the pasta route and I ordered the Strozzapreti pasta with a fennel sausage ragu.  When Lauren set the bowl of cavatelli-style pasta in front of me, I knew I had made a mistake.  Not that the pasta dish was bad - it was just huge!  This was a dinner-sized portion served at lunch.  There was no way that I was going to finish all of this.   But it was so good that I made a serious dent in the amount that was served to me. And there was just too much pasta.  Lauren asked if I wanted to have my lunch boxed up, but I told her we were traveling and it wouldn't have been as good warmed up as it was when it first came out.

After lunch, we went out to the beach on Sullivan's Island to walk off all the food we just ate.  The tide was out and there was a brisk wind coming off the ocean.  We were still both stuffed as we walked a couple miles along the beach watching the windsurfers maneuvering in the sea waves.  It turned out there were a couple instructors with three or four students learning windsurfing techniques.  We walked past one of the students who was grappling with her windsail trying to reel it in after getting out of the water.  She told us that she had moved from New Jersey a couple years ago and wanted to learn how to windsurf.  "I'm getting the hang of it," she told us as she struggled with her windsail.  "This is the worst part, though."  We continued on back down the beach as she moved her windsail toward an area where the other windsurfers were also trying to reel in their windsails in the stiff breeze coming off the ocean.  

Lunch at The Obstinate Daughter and our visit to the beach highlighted our day trip to Sullivan's Island.  The food we had was very good, but very rich and filling.  My wife loved her shrimp roll and thought the potato sticks were very good.  I have to agree with her on the potato sticks as I tried a couple bites of one.  My Strozzapreti pasta with fennel sausage ragu was also very good, but there was just too much of it for a lunch entree.  Lauren was efficient as our bartender/server, and the atmosphere and decor at The Obstinate Daughter was very soothing and somewhat interesting.  Even though the lunch menu is pretty limited, I don't know if there's anything better on Sullivan's Island than The Obstinate Daughter.  

Legal Sea Foods - Hingham, MA

I was supposed to have dinner with the owner of one of our new accounts near the south shore of Boston when I was out in New England a few weeks ago, but he got hung up on a job he was doing in Nashville and couldn't make it back in time to meet with me.  Suddenly with an open night on the docket, I started to look around at restaurants in the suburbs south of Boston.  I was looking for a seafood place (naturally, since I was in New England for a week) and one sort of jumped out at me - Legal Sea Foods.  There was a Legal Sea Foods location not far from hotel so I headed over there for the evening.  

In 1904, Russian-immigrant Harry Berkowitz opened a grocery store in the Inman Square neighborhood in Cambridge, MA, near Harvard University.  He named his store Legal Cash Market signifying to his customers that he gave out Legal Stamps - one of the first types of trading stamps that grocery stores have out for years over the first 3/4's of the 20th century.  The grocery store was the core of the neighborhood for over 40 years before chain stores came into Cambridge and started to drain away customers from the Berkowitz family grocery store.  

In 1950, Harry's son George opened fish market next to the family's grocery store and called it Legal Sea Foods.  It featured a counter of fresh-caught fish as well as making available fish and chips that were sold as a to-go item.  Legal Sea Foods became a favorite place for people in and around Cambridge to buy fresh seafood. 

In 1968, George Berkowitz - along with sons Marc and Roger - opened the first Legal Sea Foods sit-down restaurant next to their seafood store.  Featuring a choice of fried or broiled fish all served on paper plates in a no-frills atmosphere where patrons sat communal-style on picnic tables, Legal Sea Foods began to gain a following of faithful seafood fans around the greater Boston area.   

Pictured right - Marc, George and Roger Berkowitz in front of the Newton, MA Legal Sea Foods restaurant circa 1979.  Photo courtesy Boston.com

A second Legal Sea Foods opened in Boston's wealthy Chestnut Hill neighborhood in 1975 featuring more of a restaurant setting with individual tables, and a third location opened in Newton, MA in 1979.  In 1980, a fire destroyed the original Legal Sea Foods location in Cambridge.  But later that year, the Berkowitz's opened their flag ship location in the Boston Park Plaza building in downtown Boston.  The first stop for clam chowder that many tourists wanted to make was at Legal Sea Foods.  And since 1981, Legal Sea Foods clam chowder has been served at every presidential inauguration in Washington D.C.  

Roger Berkowitz took over as the CEO from his father in 1992.  Under Roger Berkowitz, Legal Sea Foods began an aggressive expansion.  The first of now four Legal Sea Foods locations opened in Boston's Logan Airport in 1994.  From there, Legal Sea Foods opened more locations around the greater Boston area.  Today, there are 24 Legal Sea Foods - mainly in Massachusetts, with two in the Washington D.C. area, and one each in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.  A 25th Legal Sea Foods - and the first one outside of the Eastern Time Zone - is slated to open in Chicago's Marina City later this year.  In addition to the Legal Sea Foods restaurants, the Berkowitz family also operated other concepts such as Legal Test Kitchen, Legal C Bar, Legal Fish Bowl (all of which were victims of the pandemic), and Legal Sea Bar, in addition to a handful of other Legal concept restaurants.  

In 2020, Berkowitz sold Legal Sea Foods to PPX Hospitality Brands, a Boston-based restaurant group that also owned Smith & Wollensky steakhouses with locations in such places as Boston, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, London and Taiwan, as well as Strega Italiano with two locations in the greater Boston area.  PPX Hospitality is looking to expand Legal Sea Foods to possibly Las Vegas, Florida and possible international locations in the future.  

The Legal Sea Foods in Hingham is located in the Derby Street Shops just off Massachusetts State Highway 3, the expressway that takes you down to Plymouth and then on to where the road meets up with U.S. Highway 6 that goes out to Cape Cod.  It's located on the west side of the shopping center situated between a Talbots and a Williams-Sonoma.  (see map)  I was able to find a parking spot in front of the restaurant.  

I wouldn't call the decor elegant at Legal Sea Foods, but more of an upscale modern.  Circular LED lighting hung in a lounge area next to the bar complete with a large fish mural on the back wall.  There were actually two bars - a high top rectangular bar, and a low-slung long bar in the lounge.  Music by artists such as Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews, and Hootie & the Blowfish played in the background while I was in there.  

The front dining area featured a line of booths along the wall and double-sided banquette seats with tables in the middle of the room.  The atmosphere was light and comfortable.   

There was a back dining area that was closed off that evening.  There was a partition that separated the two dining areas.  The back dining area had a wall of banquette seating with 4-seater tables interspersed in the area.  

I ended up seated at the high-top bar up toward the front of the restaurant.  The bartender that evening was Thomas, a good guy who made sure that I was noticed and taken care of from the start.  I asked him what hazy IPA they had to offer on tap and he said they had the Legally Hazy IPA from Night Shift Brewing in Everett, MA located just north of Boston.     

I wasn't really that hungry as I had a pretty big lunch earlier in the day, but I knew I needed something.  Thomas has provided me with a menu and I took a quick look to see what they had for appetizers.  They had sushi and specialty rolls on the menu, but then I got to thinking, "Why wouldn't I just go to a sushi bar?"  They had fish tacos as part of their "Starters" menu, but I wasn't certain I was looking for fish tacos that evening.  Main entrees included swordfish cooked with 7 spices, a chili-encrusted yellowfin tuna, linguini and clams, and grilled scallops from the coast of Maine. I was told that Legal Sea Foods shift their chefs around the various locations in the greater Boston area to offer each place a different interpretation of what the restaurant chain has to offer. 

I was sort of in a food funk by this point in my trip to New England, but I still wanted to get some seafood.  I ended up getting some oysters-on-the-half shell and to go along with them I got a bowl of the lobster bisque.  The lobster bisque was very good - it was creamy to the taste and literally melted across the tongue.  The only problem was that there didn't seem to be much lobster meat in the bisque.  Nonetheless, it was a very tasty start.  

The oysters were also a bit disappointing.  Actually, nearly every place I had oysters-on-the-half while I was in New England didn't seem to have very meaty oysters.  A couple of the oysters that were served to me were pretty small and didn't have a lot of meat to them.  But two of the other oysters were possibly the biggest of the ones I had while out East.  Still, I didn't think the oysters at Legal Sea Foods were that great of a value.  

I was still sort of hungry and I was leaning toward the blackened yellowfin tuna filet, but when I told Thomas that I was up in the air even with that choice.  He said, "If you're interested in the blackened tuna, you need to get the Tuna Tataki."  It was on the starters part of the menu and he said it was the best thing they had on the menu at Legal Sea Foods.  

He explained that they blacken a two ounce tuna filet with wasabi and slice the tuna.  Then they add a sesame chili vinaigrette and a citrus soy sauce and then given a quick hit with a heat gun.  It's finished off with a seaweed salad and ginger on the side.  The presentation was excellent and so was the taste of the tuna slices.  With each bite it was a taste explosion.  I think it was definitely more than a two ounce filet, but by the time I was finished I was satiated.  Thomas was correct - even without trying anything else on the menu, I'm not certain there would be anything better than the Tuna Tataki.  

I was a bit apprehensive going to a Legal Sea Foods given that it's a chain.  But it's mostly a regional chain and seems to be still popular with some of the locals.  And there was nothing bad about my visit to Legal Sea Foods.  The lobster bisque - even though it was light on lobster meat - was very good, but the oysters were a bit disappointing.  However, the Tuna Tataki was one of the best seafood items I've ever eaten.  I know I had options for seafood along the south seashore of Boston, but I was more than happy with what I got at Legal Sea Foods.  

Bumpa's - Charleston, SC

One evening during our stay in Charleston, my wife and I decided we needed a good ol' cheeseburger.  We did some checking on line to find who had a good burger in the city and we decided to go to an Irish pub that was located in the city's French Quarter, a family-owned place by the name of Bumpa's.  

Dan and Conor Sullivan grew up in Pittsburgh watching Cheers on Thursday nights.  They loved the fictional Boston bar and especially liked the bar's proprietor Sam Malone.  Dan Sullivan was the first one who said to his brother a number of years ago, "We're going to open a bar someday."  

As the brothers grew older, the talk about running their own bar became more serious. Both had gone into the corporate world after getting out of college.  But when they would get together at family gatherings they both worked on food menus their dream bar would serve.  After 10 years of prodding by his brother, Dan moved to Charleston in 2019 to look for a place they could use for their Irish pub.  

After finding a spot that was originally a warehouse built around 1830, the Sullivans hired a team of renovation experts to do a complete overhaul of the building.  The renovation took about 10 months from start to finish, but during the process the contractor discovered the original windows of the building that had been buried under layers of brick.  The building was completely stripped down to the original brick walls before the revisions began to turn the building into an Irish pub.  

Naming the Irish pub was a no brainer to the Sullivan brothers.  They named it after their paternal grandfather who was given the name of "Bumpa" by a cousin of the Sullivans.  The Sullivan's grandfather was a playful guy, a great story teller, and - according to Dan and Conor - a pretty good boxer.  

Nearing the opening date, Conor had moved down to Charleston, but kept his sales job.  The staff had been hired and were on board after training.  Their projected opening date was going to be March 17, 2020 - St. Patrick's Day.  Then - of course - the world stopped.  

During the early months of the pandemic, the Sullivans continued to pay their staff and gave them homework for the restaurant.  Other restaurants in the area worked with one another as support to keep everyone from going under while they couldn't be open to the public.  By May, to-go orders were allowed to help restaurants sustain some sort of business during the early throes of the pandemic, and by mid-June restaurants in South Carolina were allowed to open with distanced dining.  Bumpa's finally opened on June 22, 2020.  

Parking can be a pain in downtown Charleston, especially in the French Quarter, so we took an Uber from our hotel down to Bumpa's.  The driver let us off at the corner of E. Bay St. and Cumberland and we walked a few steps up Cumberland to the front door of Bumpa's.  (see map)  

Just inside Bumpa's, we found a refurbished space where the builders tried to stay true the original architecture.  The wooden ceiling slats gave the pub a rustic atmosphere.  There was an interesting mix of people sitting at the bar where just one television hung on the back bar.   Prominently displayed on an exposed brick wall near the bar was a portrait of the original "Bumpa" - Dan and Conor Sullivan's grandfather. 

We were seated at a high top table along a side part of the bar that had some booths.  After we had menus dropped off, our server came over to greet us.  Her name was Kassidy and she informed us a few moments later that she was a little uncertain about something we asked her about on the menu as it was just her 3rd day on the job.  But she actually did a good job while we were there.  

Looking over the drink menu, they had a number of specialty drinks and a list of beers on tap and in bottles.  Many of the beers they had on tap were from South Carolina breweries, but they also had beers such as Guinness, Pacifico and Miller High Life available on tap.  I ended up getting a Pixels hazy IPA from Seminar Brewing in Florence, SC.  

My wife ended up getting a Malibu rum with pineapple juice and a shot of Jaegermeister.  I sort of recoiled in mock horror when she ordered the drink.  "Hey," she said in a matter-of-fact manner.  "I'm on vacation, dammit!"  

We had pretty much made up our mind that we were going to get burgers for dinner, but the menu at Bumpa's featured some other interesting items such as a fried green tomato appetizer, traditional fish & chips, a crispy chicken breast sandwich, and a beer-braised short rib sandwich.  But the highlighted item at Bumpa's were their fries that I could categorize as poutine on steroids.  

The fries were offered different toppings and sauces, and available in two sizes - a "case" with two toppings included in the price that could be shared between two or three people; and a "keg" with three toppings that could be shared with a larger group.  And the toppings included sauces such as beef gravy (of course!), butter garlic, creamy mustard, barbecue, and truffle oil.  Veggie toppings included sautéed mushrooms, chopped onions, pickled jalapeños and bread & butter pickles, while meat toppings included chili, grilled chicken nuggets, braised short rib, and a spicy Cajun sausage.  Cheese toppings featured a melted beer cheese, parmesan, crumbled blue cheese, and cheddar cheese.  (But, somewhat surprisingly, no cheese curds.)  I got the photo on the right from Bumpa's Instagram page just to see what one of the concoctions would look like.  

Since we both decided on getting burgers before we went to Bumpa's, we stayed true to form with our choices from the menu.  My wife got the Southpaw burger - two smashed patties, topped with Bumpa's secret sauce, pickled red onions, lettuce, tomato, onion and your choice of cheese.  She asked Kassidy if she could substitute a side salad instead of the fries that came with the burger.  Kassidy said there would be an upcharge, but my wife said that was fine.  

I ended up with the bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries.  The burger came with a peppered fried egg and I asked Kassidy if the chef could make it hard.  I don't like the mess of an over-easy fried egg with my burger.  Pickled onions came on the side.  Our burgers were both fine, a bit over-cooked on the patties, but still good.  Bumpa's uses locally-sourced blended-beef for their burgers and grind the beef in-house.  

For what Bumpa's was, it was fine with us.  The restoration of the early 19th century warehouse was extraordinary and really added to the rustic ambiance of the pub.  They had a good list of craft beers and a full bar with a number of specialty drinks, and the burgers we had were good.  And even though it was only her 3rd day on the job, Kassidy was a wonderful server for us that evening.  For a nice little neighborhood pub to hang out at, Bumpa's would be a great place to visit when you're in Charleston.  

 

 

Field Brewing - Westfield, IN

Out in the Indianapolis area recently for a surprise birthday/retirement party for a friend of ours, after the party was over and the clean-up had finished, we went with the couple to the wife's chiropractic clinic in Noblesville to drop some things off.  My wife and I didn't have any plans for dinner and we sort of figured that our friends would be hanging with his family who had come to the party earlier in the day.  "My family all went home," he said as we finished putting stuff away in the garage at the clinic.  My wife suggested we do something for dinner.  I had mentioned a place that I had eaten at near a lake and they thought that sounded good.  We went ahead of them as they had to go home and drop off some more things leftover from the party.  But when we go to the place, there were three things that were wrong - 1) This wasn't the same place that I was thinking about; 2) My wife went in and checked on the place and found that it was packed; and 3) Their air-conditioning was on the fritz and it was hot in there.  

Looking for a quick Plan B, I remembered a brewpub in nearby Westfield that we had passed by earlier in the day and my wife did a quick look-up on the place.  My wife called them up to see if they had a full bar (they did) and if they had food (they did).  When she asked if they had room for 4, she was told they could get us in right away.  We called our friends and pulled a 180 on dinner plans.  They were up for a visit to Field Brewing.  

Greg and Jackie Dikos aren't your typical brewery/restaurant owners.  Greg is an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoIndy, a large orthopedic medical facility that partners with multiple hospitals and surgery centers in and around Indianapolis.  Jackie is a clinical dietician who is also a marathon runner who participated in the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic trials.  After Greg graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis in 2008, he took an orthopedic trauma fellowship in Germany for a year.  In 2010, he took another orthopedic trauma fellowship position at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.  

Pictured right - Jackie and Greg Dikos.  Photo courtesy Towne Post Network.

While living in Seattle, Greg and Jackie found a new love for craft beer.  Greg had a degree in biochemistry and had been brewing his own beers at home for a few years.  But the craft beer industry in Seattle was on another plane well above the brewpubs they had experienced in the Midwest.  Most of the brewpubs there offered artisan foods that was much better than the regular pub-style food they found back home.  And there seemed to be a sense of community with the Seattle-area brewpubs where kids were welcome to dine with their parents.  

Moving back to the Indianapolis area in 2011, Greg and Jackie found themselves with two boys and getting settled into the community.  By 2016, the couple realized they could build a brewpub that was similar to the ones they remembered in Seattle with good beer with a dedicated brewer; good food with a dedicated chef; and a place that fit within the community.  

Westfield was a growing area north of Indianapolis nestled in between Carmel to the south, Fishers to the east and Noblesville to the northeast.  They found a piece of ground at the corner of E. Main Street (Indiana State Highway 32) and Cherry Street in Westfield in early 2017. (see map)  The couple had hoped to begin building their brewery/restaurant operation by mid-year and open in early 2018.  But the local city council had some concerns about the brewpub including the fact that they would only have 13 parking spots for the business.  After all concerns were countered by the Dikos, work began on the building in late 2017.  

Hoping to offer a variety of foods from local sources, the Dikos brought in Alan Sternberg who had been a chef consultant after a stint as a head chef.  And to head up the brewing operations, Rian Umbach was hired as the head brewer.   Umbach had been an associate brewer at the Moerlein Lager House in Cincinnati.  Through a couple more delays, they were able to open Field Brewing in early October of 2018.  In 2019, Indianapolis Monthly magazine named Field Brewing the best new restaurant in greater Indianapolis.  (After getting the kitchen up and running, Sternberg left later that year for another job and today Scott Atkins is the head chef at Field Brewery.)  

Initially, the brewpub opened at 7 a.m. and offered grab-and-go breakfast items, as well as gourmet coffee, espresso, and breakfast drinks.  That part of the operation was closed up during the pandemic and didn't start up again.  However, they do offer coffee and espresso for after an after dinner choice.  

Parking is definitely a problem at Field Brewing with just a handful of spots.   There was a parking lot across the street, but it said that it was private parking.  (That didn't stop some people who came into Field Brewing later from parking there.)  But there was a parking lot south of Field Brewing that had signage designating space for patrons of Field Brewing.  That's where we both ended up parking when we got there.  

As you enter Field Brewing, the bar is off to the side.  It wasn't very long - about 8 seats total - and was partitioned off with a half fence to keep minors from coming up to the bar.  The list of current beers was on the wall near the bar.  

The main dining area was part of the large room that contained the bar.  A number of tables with mismatched chairs - many of them were repurposed from old schools in the area - were scattered across the dining space.  It was very well lit with both large windows allowing natural light to come in and large light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  Light sconces on the wall allowed for additional lighting above banquette seating.  The tables could be easily moved on the concrete floor for larger groups.  To be quite honest, the atmosphere was rather sterile at Field Brewery.   

There is a large outdoor patio/game area just off to the side of the dining area.  Just beyond the outdoor patio was a smaller building that is used for groups, parties or private events.  It had rained earlier in the day and there was still a heaviness to the air with all the humidity.  Other than that, it would have been a nice night to sit on the patio.    

Before we were seated, I decided to go to the restroom and wash up.  Walking back toward the restroom, I was able to see into the large open kitchen they have at Field Brewing.  The kitchen was bustling when we first walked in, but by the time we were getting ready to leave it around 9 p.m., it was pretty quiet.  

We were seated at a table in the center of the dining area and given food menus to look over.  It wasn't long before we were greeted by our server that evening, a really laid-back guy by the name of Mitch.  Mitch was a great server for us all night long.  He asked us what we wanted to drink and I was sort of surprised our male friend ordered a Bull Pen Bavarian Pale Ale.  He and his wife aren't big drinkers and I'm not certain if I've ever seen him drink a beer.  His wife ordered an Amaretto sour, which didn't surprise me as she had the same thing the night before when we went out to dinner.  My wife got her usual Tito's and cranberry juice, and I ordered their Camshaft hazy IPA.  

Our male friend didn't think much of the Bavarian Pale Ale - he was hoping to get a German-style wheat beer, but they didn't have that on tap that night.  Mitch suggested that our friend get a beer flight.  Our friend thought that would be a great idea and he told Mitch what he liked.  Moments later, Mitch came back with five samples - the Luna White IPA (an American IPA and Belgian wheat beer combo); the Cream of the Crop cream ale; the Dopple Dribble doppelbock; the du Champ Ouest (French for West Field) saison beer; and the Red Handed red ale/IPA combo.  While he didn't care for the Luna White IPA or cream ale, he really liked the saison best.  And he declared that it was probably a tie between the doppelbock and the red ale/IPA as his second most favorite.  He ended up getting a snifter of the saison.  

While the food menu wasn't extensive, it was pretty interesting.  Field Brewing's menu changes seasonally depending upon what local food sources they can get hold off.  Appetizers included wings, a soft beer pretzel, loaded fries with parmesan ranch and beer cheese, and a fried chicken salad served on flat bread with bitter greens and herbs, with black pepper, lemon and topped with a Spanish koji fermented hot sauce.  They had burgers made with quality beef from Fischer Farms, a marinated grilled chicken sandwich, and a couple three pasta dishes that included a rigatoni pasta with marinated grilled chicken in a feta cheese/vodka sauce.  That one sounded pretty good to me. 

Our male guest got the Lime Leaf Curry Rice Noods - a complete vegan dish consisting of noodles and rice with a house-made coconut lime/greens curry, stir-fried mushrooms, chopped eggplant, broccoli, and baby bok choy.  He thought he'd better go vegan since his party was catered by one of my favorite Indian restaurants in Indianapolis, Amber Indian Cuisine in Carmel and he'd had a lot of curry chicken and butter chicken earlier in the day.  Our friend thought his noodle/rice dish was outstanding.  

My wife and our female friend got the same thing - the Denver Steak Frites.  It featured an 8 ounce Fischer Farms sirloin steak cut into strips sitting on a bed of hand-cut steak fries drizzled with a smoked house-made Thousand Island dressing.  My wife got a side of grilled Brussels sprouts.  My wife ordered her steak medium-rare and it came out what I would call rare-plus.  But she ate it and she was more than happy with the steak.  I had to try some of her steak fries and they were great - they had a nice puffy inner core with a crisp outer shell.  

I, too, had eaten a lot of Indian food at the party (and there was a lot left over), and I really wasn't certain what I wanted - or even if I wanted anything.  But there was one thing that just jumped out at me when I first looked at the menu - the chile verde meatloaf sandwich.  It came with a spicy tomato mayo and pickled jalapeños.  I thought that would be good without the bread, so I asked Mitch if I could just get the meatloaf on its own.  I also had my choice of sides and I had my choice of mac & cheese, fries, Brussels sprouts or soup.  I really didn't want any of those and was still demurring about even getting a side when my wife said, "Can you just get a side salad for a side?"  Mitch said that would be no problem.  

And I have to say the meat loaf was outstanding in flavor.  The green chile sauce was grilled onto the slice and it was topped with mild pickled jalapeños.  The beef was tender and juicy, and the zippiness of the michelada spicy tomato sauce helped wake up my taste buds.  I would have no problem getting that again if I went back to Field Brewing.  

Knowing that Field Brewing had A) amaretto; B) an espresso machine; and C) vanilla ice cream on their dessert menu, I contemplated getting an affogato for after dinner.  But given all the food I had eaten that day, I wasn't certain that I could eat another bite.  But I would have to think that having affogato with amaretto after having the spiciness of the meat loaf would have just exploded on my taste buds.  Oh well... Next time...

And I hope there is a next time at Field Brewing.  It thought the hazy IPA I had there was very good, and the green chile meatloaf was outstanding.  The service we had from Mitch that evening was exemplary, and everyone loved the food they got.  I can't think of one negative thing about our visit to Field Brewing.  This is definitely an upscale brewpub that focuses on a community feel, something that other Midwestern brewpubs could learn from.  (Photo courtesy Field Brewing Facebook page.) 

LoLo's (Locklear's on Little Oak) - Folly Beach, SC

On our way out to Folly Beach south and east of Charleston to enjoy some sun, sand and surf, we had passed what looked like a little fish shanty along Folly Beach Road.  It turned out that the place - Locklear's on Little Oak, known to the locals as "LoLo's" - was on a list of recommended restaurants given to us by a longtime restaurant server at Amen Street in Charleston.  One afternoon during our time in Charleston, we decided to head out to LoLo's to have some seafood for lunch.   

Kris Kincaid owned Locklear's Beach City Grill that was located on the Folly Beach Pier in Folly Beach.  In addition to owning the popular Beach City Grill, Kincaid also owned Anna Bell's in North Charleston.  Kincaid shut down Anna Bell's in 2014 to concentrate on the Beach City Grill.  But in October of 2016, Kincaid lost his lease at the pier when a large developer wanted to come in and repurpose the building.  Despondent, Kincaid considered getting out of the restaurant business altogether.  

However, about a year later Kincaid became involved with two partners to open Betty Lou's Bistro in Charleston's Ashley Harbor neighborhood.  And at almost the same time, another opportunity near Folly Beach came into play.  

A longtime restaurant by the name of the Anchor Line which was located along Little Oak Creek just northwest of Folly Beach came available.  Kincaid signed a lease on the building, but found that some support pilings on the waterfront along Little Oak Creek were in need of replacement.  The time it took to replace the pilings gave Kincaid some added opportunities to work on the Betty Lou Bistro's location.  Once the pilings were in place, Kris Kincaid opened Locklear's on Little Oak - simply known as LoLo's - in early July 2017.  

Going eastbound on Folly Beach Road into Folly Beach, LoLo's is located on the south side of the road just before the bridge over Little Oak Creek.  (see map)  The building that houses LoLo's is a small shanty with colorful murals and paint schemes on the outside of the structure.  The parking lot is gravel and it's sort of a "park where you can" attitude with people who go to LoLo's.   

Walking into LoLo's, you'll find the small bar area.  Party lights were strung around the beams over the two-sided bar.  They had metal stools - the kind that I find sort of uncomfortable to sit on.  They did have a full bar including wine, domestic and import beers, and a nice list of local craft beers to choose from.  

The dining area was off to the side with banquette seats along the walls and an open space in the middle.  It wasn't very big - the dining room sat, maybe, 28 to 30 people.  Colorful artwork hung on the walls provided by local artists.  Price tags for the artwork were attached to the paintings.  Given that there were a couple three open spaces on the wall, I'd have to say that some of the artwork had recently been purchased. 

We decided to sit out on the screened-in patio.  It had picnic tables with a few two-seater tables.  It was pretty rustic and laid back out in the patio.   

The creek next to LoLo's was bordered by low country marshes.  LoLo's is less than a mile from the ocean as the crow flies, but is about 2.5 miles by boat down the creek and into Folly River which goes out into the ocean.  

Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Madison.  She gave us menus to look over and asked what we'd like to drink.  They had a smoothie machine in the bar area filled with a couple different types of frozen drinks.  One was a Bahama Mama and my wife got one of those.  I got a 16 ounce can of the Bound by Time hazy IPA from the Edmund's Oast brewery in Charleston.  I had a few Edmund's Oast beers while we were in Charleston, but never did visit the brewery.  

Looking over the menu, we saw a number of interesting items starting with LoLo's She-crab soup - a South Carolina staple that is similar to a New England-style clam chowder.  They also had a smoked pimento cheese dip with crackers, as well as a number of fried items - fried green tomatoes, fried buffalo shrimp, fried okra, fried crawdad bites, and fried Brussels sprouts.  The fried Brussels sprouts sounded intriguing to my wife as they were mixed with chimichurri and bacon-bits and topped with a roasted garlic dijonnaise and crumbled bleu cheese.  But when Madison told her that it was a pretty large bowl - and I told her I probably wouldn't help her eat that much of it - she decided against it.  

I wanted seafood and it turns out that LoLo's gets their seafood fresh daily from a seafood market/wholesaler just up the road from them - Cosby's Fish & Shrimp Co.  They had peel & eat shrimp by the pound at LoLo's fresh off the shrimp boat from Cosby's.  The shrimp were large and meaty, and delicious!  We plowed through a pound of the delectable boiled shrimp before I ordered a second pound for myself for lunch.  

But I wanted something else to go along with the peel & eat shrimp.  They had grilled mahi mahi tacos available on the menu and I got those.  The mahi mahi was topped with a cabbage/carrot/scallion slaw and the taco shells were lined with an avocado purée.  The tacos were absolutely scrumptious.  

Flounder is plentiful in the ocean waters near Folly Beach and my wife got the fresh flounder filet with grilled scallops.  The fish and scallops came in a lemon butter sauce.  She couldn't rave enough about the freshness of the seafood.  She said some steamed vegetables would have been good with the flounder and scallops.  But I thought they missed the boat by not providing some crusted bread to go along with the fish to dip into the lemon butter sauce.  That would have made it perfect. 

After finishing up with lunch, we hung around a bit talking with Madison about the restaurant.  We were told that they've been wanting to add on to the building, but there's a tenant who lives on the second floor who has right of first refusal on any upgrades or additions to the building as long as he's living there.  "We do pretty well with what we've got," she said.    

Locklear's on Little Oak came highly recommended and we were not disappointed with our visit.  While the place was a step above being classified as a dive, the rustic nature of the restaurant displayed the laid-back vibe it had.  The seafood we had was fresh and delicious.  And Madison was a fun server for us that day.  LoLo's is not fine dining, but it's great seafood dining.  

The Original Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana - New Haven, CT

When I started to plan my trip to New England, I decided to fly into Hartford, CT and start from there.  My first meeting was going to be a breakfast meeting with an account that I had just outside of New Haven, CT.  One of the places that I've always heard about and really wanted to try was a famous pizza place in New Haven that many people think is one of the best - if not the best - pizza place in all the United States.  I drove from Hartford to New Haven in a driving rain storm to experience the Original Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana - or simply known as Frank Pepe's.  

Frank Pepe was born in Maiori, Italy in April of 1893.  The foothills around Maiori - located along the Amalfi Coast - featured some of the best land for growing grapes, tomatoes and other produce.  Pepe's family eventually moved to nearby Naples and lived by modest means.

In 1909, Frank Pepe immigrated to America entering through Ellis Island with no money and no understanding of the English language.  The young Pepe was sent to New Haven, CT to work in factories alongside other Italian immigrants in New Haven's Wooster Square neighborhood which eventually became the city's "Little Italy" section.  

When Italy entered World War I against Austria-Hungary in 1915, Frank Pepe went back home to Italy to fight in the war.  When the war ended in 1918, Pepe went back to Maiori and met a young lady by the name of Filomena Volpi.  The two married in September of 1919 and it wasn't long after that when the young married couple made their way back to America to work and raise a family.   

Back in New Haven at the start of 1920, Frank started to work in a pasta factory before moving on to work at a bakery on Wooster Street in Wooster Square.  It was during his time at the bakery that he started to make his version of a homeland staple of baked thin-crust bread topped with tomato sauce, grated pecorino romano cheese, garlic, oregano and olive oil, and - at times - anchovies that was baked in a large coal oven at the bakery.  Known as "apizza", but pronounced "Ah-Beets", Frank began to sell the baked tomato pies at the nearby Wooster Market walking among the vendors and crowd with a special headdress that held several pizzas on his head.  He eventually bought a wagon where he could walk the streets of New Haven selling his pizzas.  

Pictured right - Frank Pepe.  Photo courtesy Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana website.  

By 1925, Frank had saved enough money to buy the bakery from the Boccamiello family and established "Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana" selling his tomato pies. Frank still didn't know how to read or speak English, but Filomena did.  She stepped in to do most of the administrative work at the pizza place while Frank started the coal oven every morning like clockwork.  

And it was truly a family business as Frank hired a number of relatives who had come over from Italy to work in the bakery including his half-brother Alessio and Alessio's son, Mac.  Also working in the bakery was his cousin Tommy, and two nephews, Salvatore and Tony Consiglio.  In 1938, Salvatore Consiglio left Frank Pepe's and started his own apizza place just down the street - Sally's Apizza.  To this day, there are people who have their favorite between the two family competitors.

In 1936, the Boccamiello family came back and said they wanted the building back from Frank.  Frank only bought the bakery business from the Boccamiello's, but the Boccamiello's still owned the building.  Undeterred, Frank bought the building next door, a two-story building where he put his pizzeria on the ground floor and the Pepe family lived on the second floor.  The Boocamiello's then opened their own pizza place and named it "The Spot".   

Frank Pepe's new location was huge.  It was said that the seating capacity of his pizzeria made it the largest restaurant in the United States.  Eventually his daughters, Elizabeth and Serafina, his younger sister Rachel, and Elizabeth's husband Ralph Rosselli joined the family business.  The word of Frank's pizza reached far and wide with famous faces showing up to have a Frank Pepe's pizza when they were in New Haven.  Frank's famous White Clam Pizza - made with fresh clams that were shucked at Frank Pepe's, along with olive oil, garlic, oregano and grated Pecorino Romano cheese - quickly became the go-to for pizza aficionados who came from near and far to try Frank Pepe's signature pizza.   

Frank was known as a giving person, helping out the neighborhood when needed with monetary donations or free pizzas.  He continued to work in his pizza place daily up until he passed away in 1969.  His daughters took over the business and they brought in their children to help out at the restaurant.  In 1977, Elizabeth and Serafina bought the Spot next door from the Boccamiello family and decided to renovate the place.  In 1981, the original Frank Pepe's location was opened as "Frank Pepe's - The Spot", basically an annex to Frank Pepe's pizzeria that had the same menu as the main restaurant next door.  

Frank's daughters retired in the early 1990's and passed the business along to their sons and daughters.  The seven Frank and Filomena Pepe grandchildren continued with the pizza place with an eye on expansion.  In 2006, the first Frank Pepe's location outside of New Haven opened in Fairfield, CT and a second one opened in Manchester, CT - a suburb of Hartford - a year later.  Expansion continued into the 2010's and early 2020's.  Today, there are 16 Frank Pepe's locations - mainly in Connecticut with two locations in the Washington D.C area, two in Florida and three in Massachusetts.  

Each of the Frank Pepe's locations has a 14' X 14' custom made brick oven that is similar to the original bread oven Frank Pepe used in the small bakery back over 100 years ago.  The mold for the original cast iron doors on the ovens is used to forge the large doors for the front of the oven and the coal chambers.  The pizzaiolos who man the ovens at each Frank Pepe's location are extensively trained to cook the pizzas properly to make sure that the pizza you may be eating at the Frank Pepe's in Yonkers, NY is the same as the one you're having in New Haven.  

After getting my rental car at the airport in Hartford, I took off south out of the city to head to New Haven.  It was raining hard at times with the car hydroplaning on Interstate 91 on a couple occasions.  By the time I got to New Haven, the rain had let up to a light shower, but it was cold with a temperature in the upper 50's.  I pulled up to Frank Pepe's on Wooster Street and saw that there was a line - even around 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. (see map)  Parking is definitely tight in the neighborhood as there are a number of restaurants up and down Wooster Street.  However, I was extremely lucky as there was a car pulling out of the first spot in the parking lot just to the west of Frank Pepe's.  I quickly took a left turn and pulled into the open spot.  

I didn't pack a coat with me on my trip out to New England because the weather forecast was to be sunny and warm most of the week.  Well, with the exception of Sunday when I flew in and drove down to New Haven.  In a short-sleeved polo shirt standing in line at Frank Pepe's, I was a bit chilled.  And I was getting a little wet from the light rain.  Luckily, the line moved quick enough after a few minutes where I found myself under an awning in front of Frank Pepe's.  

A young lady was canvassing the crowd standing in front of the pizzeria checking to see how many were in their respective groups.  When she came to me and I told her that it was just me, she said, "I may have a solution for you.  Hang on."  

She went inside and came back out to call for a group of 4.  Then she came up to me and said, "I have a table in the building next door that you can have.  It's a table for two."  She told me to go around the corner of the building and through the parking lot next door to the building in the back.  I lucked out again as I was going to be dining in the original building where Frank Pepe started his pizzeria almost 100 years ago.  

Just inside the door, I was directed to a small table in a small room near the kitchen.  A larger dining room had been added off to the side of the restaurant a number of years ago.  It featured white-washed brick walls with historical pictures on the wall, a sky-light and about a dozen tables in the dining room.  The small area between the big dining room and the kitchen where I was seated had - if I remember correctly - five or six tables.  

A cute young lady by the name of Ashley was my server that day.  I have to say right off the bat, she was great.  She was patient with a first timer at Frank Pepe's, she had a good sense of humor and she gave me some good recommendations.  The first good recommendation she gave me was the Fuzzy Baby Ducks New England IPA from the New England Brewing Company from the New Haven suburb of Woodbridge.  

The menu was printed on a laminated sheet that was on the table when I sat down.   All they do at Frank Pepe's is pizza. And the pizzas are all 12" in diameter.  They do have salads available, but that's it.  Now, my former co-worker who traveled New England for our company for a number of years told me a long time ago that Frank Pepe's signature pizza - the white clam pizza - was just to die for.  I was texting him while I was at Frank Pepe's and told him that I was here.  "The clam pizza is legendary," he texted back.  

I was apprehensive about getting the white clam pizza on my first visit, so I turned to Ashley's expertise in the matter.  "We do sell a lot of the white clam pizzas," she told me after bringing me back another beer.  "But I'm sort of partial to our tomato pie pizzas."  After she left me to continue to go back and forth as to what pizza I would get, I began to notice that a lot of pizzas coming out of the kitchen were with tomato sauce.  I'm not certain I saw a white clam pizza come out of the kitchen while I was there.

And because of that, I went with my standard sausage, pepperoni and mushroom with mozzarella cheese.  It was presented resting on wax paper on a cookie sheet - not a fancy presentation, but it worked fine.  The outer crust had char marks and the pizza had that great charred taste to it.  The mozzarella was sort of runny - like Provel cheese on St. Louis-style pizza - and not stringy.  But the pizza was very good.  Was it the best pizza I've ever had?  No, I don't know if I can say that.  But it would have been in my Top 10.  

And because the pizza crust was so thin, I had no problem finishing the whole 12" pizza.  Ashley came over to check on me when I had one piece left to eat and asked if I wanted a box.  "No, I think I'm going to finish it off," I said.  "This will be my lunch and dinner in one meal."  

As I was getting ready to leave to head out to my hotel, I went toward the front of the original Frank Pepe's building to see if I could get a look at the big brick oven.  A lady standing up at the front said, "Sure, if you want to get a picture of the oven, come on in!"  She escorted me into the kitchen on the far side and I was able to snap some photos of the original brick oven that has been working for over 100 years.  It was pretty cool to see.

Walking back to my car, I was walking past the main building at Frank Pepe's.  I decided to take a couple steps back and walk in.  The lady at the pick-up counter asked if she could help me and I said I wanted to take a couple shots of the inside of the restaurant.  She was more than happy to allow me to do so.  I didn't go back and around the corner into the main dining area at the restaurant, but I got a shot of the original dining room from the second "main" location for Frank Pepe's.

I detest the notion of a "Bucket List".  But Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana has long been on my list of places to visit since I started a list on my Google Maps a number of years ago.  The history - alone - is worth the visit to Frank Pepe's, but the pizza was excellent.  It was not disappointing in the least.  I had great service from Ashley and they had a nice list of craft beers to go along with their famous pizza.  I'll probably head back to New Haven at some point as I have an account in the area.  I don't know if I'll try Frank Pepe's again, or maybe I'll head down the street to Sally's is see which of the two are better.  Given the history and the length both have been in business, I have a feeling that you couldn't go wrong with either one.      

Bub City - Rosemont, IL

I had driven into Chicago from Fort Wayne, Indiana and was a bit early for my first appointment.  I was sort of hungry for barbecue and I remembered a barbecue place in Rosemont that wasn't far from my hotel.  I got off the Tri-State Tollway at Balmoral Ave. and pulled into the Rosemont Entertainment District to have a late lunch/early dinner at Bub City.  

Bub City is the second location of a reincarnation of the original Bub City restaurant that was opened in 1989 in what was then an industrial area just south of North Ave and west of Halsted Street in the Clybourn Corridor neighborhood.  The 30,000 square foot restaurant/bar/entertainment facility was co-owned and managed by Rich Melman's Lettuce Entertain You empire of restaurants.  The original Bub City was designed to be a barbecue joint, country-western, shit-kicker-type bar with Melman wanting a restaurant/bar that would scare the yuppies away.  But because it was a Lettuce Entertain You establishment that served barbecue, yuppies still came there in droves to the restaurant.  And because of that, other restaurants and bars soon sprang up in the area.  Melman and his partners in Bub City decided to shut down the restaurant in the mid-90's.  

In 2012, Melman's sons RJ and Jerrod decided to reincarnate Bub City with a new location on Clark Street in Chicago's downtown River North area.  It was 1/6th the size of the original Bub City, but continued to focus on barbecue, country music and a beer-driven drink list.  It still featured live country music three times a week.  

The late country star Toby Keith established a chain of large honky-tonk restaurant/music venues across the U.S. called "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar."  Financial mismanagement in terms of unpaid rents and unpaid back taxes forced many of them to close in 2015 into 2016.  One of those locations was in the Rosemont Entertainment District.  With a big space to fill, the developers of the district reached out to the Melman's to see if they would be interested in taking over the space.  While the restaurant and bar area had a small stage, there was a larger venue next door that was part of the complex they weren't interested in.  However, they went to Ed Warm and Tom DiSanto who owned Joe's on Weed Street, a live music venue not far from where the original Bub City was located.  The Melman's and Warm and DiSanto partnered to open Bub City with Joe's Live next door in March of 2016.   

Parking is available in a ramp directly behind Bub City, but I was able to find parking on the one-way road that goes around the entertainment complex.  (see map)  In front of Bub City is the outdoor stage for periodic live events held during the warmer months.  In the winter months, the artificial grass on the Great Lawn is transformed into an NHL-sized skating rink with festive lighting strung above and around the rink area.  The live acts that play on Thursday nights during the summer months are mostly tribute bands playing the music of bands and artists such as The Who, Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd and Elton John.  Free zumba, yoga and Powerhouse Pilates classes are held at various times on the Great Lawn.  

Bub City is basically one large dining space with tables in the middle of a line of booths.  Colorful Christmas lights were strung across the ceiling going in various directions.  In the middle of the dining area up toward the front was a stage area where country artists will play music Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, usually starting at 9:30 to 10:00 p.m.

There are two bars at Bub City, one if more beer centric with some liquor options, while the other is more whiskey centric with a few beers to choose from.  They're on opposite walls in the main space at Bub City.  Music was piped in via the restaurant's sound system and while I was there I heard songs by the likes of country artists Brothers Osborne, Tyler Childers, and Rvshvd.

On the wall next to the stage were a number of pictures honoring Hall of Fame members of the Windy City Smokeout barbecue contest that has been held annually in Chicago since 2013.  (The 2024 edition of the Windy City Smokeout begins today near the United Center in Chicago.)  Members of the Hall of Fame pitmasters honored on the board included Myron Mixon, Carey Bringle from Peg Leg Porker in Nashville; Scott Roberts from Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, TX; and the late Mike Mills from 17th Street BBQ in Murphysboro, IL.  The Windy City Smokeout is one of the top barbecue contests in the U.S. and one of the five largest of its kind.  

I ended up seated at the bar.  The center piece of the bar was a large American flag that was made out of beer cans.  As soon as I sat down a bartender by the name of Mark came up and dropped off a food menu for me.  The beer menu was on a QR code on a drink coaster on the bar.  I perused the beer list for a moment and I ended up ordering a B.C. Haze, a hazy IPA made especially for Bub City by the Noon Whistle Brewing Company in nearby Lombard, IL.  Other beers which they had on tap were provided by local breweries such as Spiteful Brewing, Mikerphone Brewing, Maplewood Brewery, and Pilot Project Brewing, an incubator for fledgling brewers with locations in Chicago and Milwaukee.    

Figuring that this would probably be my only meal of the day, I decided to look more at the entrees.  They had baby back ribs in 1/2 racks or full racks, pulled pork shoulder and brisket on their menu.  They had a combo of all three for about $43 bucks, but I thought it would be too much food.  I really wanted to do a combination of pulled pork and brisket, but they didn't have that available.  They also had fried chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches, as well as burgers, and a pulled pork or brisket sandwich. Bub City also had mac & cheese available either plain, or with pork or brisket added in.  

Two things that they had on the menu that I really wanted to get were the burnt ends and the smoked prime pastrami sandwich.  However, the burnt ends were only available Friday through Sunday, and the prime pastrami sandwich was available only on Friday and Saturday and I was a day early.  Well, poop!  

Since they didn't have the combination plates I wanted, or the burnt ends, and the prime pastrami sandwich wasn't available, I went with the brisket dinner.  Mark asked me if I wanted fatty, lean or half-and-half.  I went with the half-and-half, but Bub City's idea of half-and-half was 3 pieces of lean brisket and one piece of the fatty brisket.  Pickled onions and jalapeños came on the side along with a half-slice of toasted Texas bread.  For my sides, I got the cole slaw and some of their spicy baked beans.  

The thing that sort of got me was that they had just one style of barbecue sauce and it was served in a small ceramic tub on the side.  I caught the attention of the guy who brought the food out to me and asked if I could get another tub of sauce.  The sauce was OK - it was rather neutral to me.  It wasn't overly sweet, nor was it all that spicy.  It had a tomato/vinegar base and - to me - was more like a barbecue ketchup rather than a sauce.  

The brisket was good.  The fatty slice was really flavorful and was very tender.  A fork easily cut through the piece of meat.  The lean brisket was also very good.  The bark on the outside had a distinctive flavor that was enhanced with I would dip a bite into the sauce.  

The sides went from "meh!" to very good.  Unfortunately, the spicy baked beans were the disappointment.  They were not all that spicy - even with sliced jalapeños on the top.  But the cole slaw was outstanding.  Sweet and creamy, I wish I would have had more of the cole slaw than of the baked beans.  

I know a lot of people like Bub City.  It's a popular spot in the city and now out in Rosemont.  But I thought it was a pretty middle-of-the-pack barbecue joint.  They didn't really have much to offer outside of ribs, brisket and pulled pork.  They had no selection of sauces.  The sides were pretty pedestrian - although I will admit that the cole slaw was pretty damned good.  And the service was fine.  As a big party destination - complete with live music in house, next door or outdoors - it's tough to beat.  But if you're just going there for the food, there's other options to try before you try Bub City. 

Wild Olive - Johns Island, SC

During our first full night in Charleston, SC recently, we had been given a list of recommended restaurants in the area by a waiter at Amen Street.  One of them that he highly recommended was a place on Johns Island south and west of Charleston, an Italian restaurant by the name of Wild Olive.  One evening we decided to head out to Johns Island and try Wild Olive for dinner.  

Jacques Larson was an Illinois native who went to school at the University of Iowa studying English and history in the early-to-mid 1990's.  Larson had worked in an Italian restaurant while he was in high school and he worked in various restaurants in Iowa City while going to school.

After graduation, Larson moved to Charleston in 1996 and a year later he helped start up the Peninsula Grill, an upscale eatery in the heart of Charleston's French Quarter.  For seven years, Larson served as the sous chef at the restaurant.  

Larson didn't think that he wanted to be stuck in a kitchen and he began making plans to go to a college on the west coast to get his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting.  He left Peninsula Grill at the age of 30, but was sidetracked by joining an Italian restaurant in North Carolina.  The restaurant was headed by Jimmy Noble who has a number of restaurants under the Noble Food and Pursuits banner in the greater Charlotte area.  Even though Larson worked in an Italian restaurant as a high school student, he never really cooked in one.  It was working with Noble at the Italian restaurant that Larson fell in love with Italian cooking.  

After working in Charlotte for a couple years, Larson decided to immerse himself in all things to do with Italian cooking.  He tried some of the better Italian restaurants in New York City eventually landing a job in one.  He traveled to Italy to learn more by cooking in a restaurant where he also started to learn about Italian wines.  By the time he moved back to Charleston around 2007, he was fully onboard for all things Italian.  

Pictured right - Jacques Larson.  Photo courtesy Charleston City Paper.  

Larson had worked at a restaurant in Charleston for a couple years before he decided to move back to the Midwest and open a restaurant in either Iowa City or Madison, WI.  A week before he was scheduled to leave Charleston to scout locations in the Midwest, Larson was recruited to a new restaurant that had opened just a couple months before to help run the kitchen.  Fred Neuville and Doug Godley had opened Wild Olive in 2009 as an Italian restaurant.  But when Larson joined the kitchen staff, he found that there was only one dish that consisted of pork - a pork chop - when pork was a staple of the Italian diet.  He slowly incorporated more pork based dishes into the menu at Wild Olive.  

In 2010, Neuville and Godley dissolved their partnership in Wild Olive and the restaurant went under Godley's Frankie's Fun Parks corporate umbrella.  Frankie's Fun Parks is a chain of amusement parks with locations in South Carolina and North Carolina.  Under Godley's ownership, Larson flourished in the kitchen and Wild Olive became one of the top food destinations in Charleston.  In 2014, Larson and Godley opened The Obstinate Daughter on Sullivan's Island just north of Charleston offering more of a Low Country menu with Italian mixed in.  

We had made reservations for 7 p.m. at Wild Olive.  Actually, we drove out a little early thinking that maybe we could get a drink at the bar while waiting for a table to open.  And it was probably a good thing that we did go early because we passed the entrance to Wild Olive twice before we realized that it was tucked back off Maybank Highway (State Road 700) just nine miles from downtown Charleston.  (see map)  A small sign in front was almost impossible to see when you were driving by as it was set back from the roadway and it was understandable that you could miss it if you didn't know where Wild Olive was.  

The parking lot in back of the Wild Olive is shared with its neighbor, Low Tide Brewing.  Wild Olive featured a handful of Low Tide beers including an IPA that I got for my first beverage at Wild Olive that I thought was very good.

Upon entering Wild Olive, the main dining room is off to the right side.  Wood paneled walls held a number of historical pictures from the Charleston area while a series of LED lights were pointed at the wood planks on the ceiling diffusing the light in the room.  The kitchen was off to the side of the main dining room and through a double wide opening you could see the hustle and bustle going on in the kitchen.  

In the back corner past the lounge area was another dining area, smaller than the main dining room.  Banquette seating was along the wall with a number of table in the middle of the room.  It was a cozy room with the same lighting scheme as the main dining room.  

Since we were still a little early, the young lady at the hostess stand said that it would probably be about a 20 to 25 minute wait for a table in the two dining rooms.  But she said that she had a high-top table in the lounge.  The lounge was actually very nice - a large communal table under a rack of faux grapes were hanging over the table.  The bar wasn't very big, but it also had a nice cozy feeling to the room.  Music by Jack Johnson, Bonnie Raitt, The BoDeans and others played in the background during our time there.  

The hostess took us into the lounge and pointed to a table around the corner and tucked in the back part of the lounge near the bar.  My wife and I looked at one another, sort of shrugged our shoulders in approval and decided to sit there.  It was actually kind of nice as it wasn't in a high traffic area and there weren't any other tables around us.  Our server that evening was a helpful and fun guy who was introduced by the hostess as Christopher.  But as the night went on, he insisted that we call him Chris.  

The menu will vary depending upon seasons and availability of locally-sourced products.  But most of the main items on the menu stay intact most of the year - Lobster risotto, "Sunday-gravy" lasagna, baked penne pasta with sweet sausage, as well as chicken parm, veal scallopine, and something that I found pretty interesting - a grill elk loin.  I've had elk in the past and it's some of the better game-style meat I've ever had.  

The choices for appetizers were pretty slim, but they included fried calamari, a Caesar salad, and something that jumped out at me - grilled octopus with chopped creamer potatoes, pancetta, capers and spring onions.  The octopus - while not many of them on the plate - was charred and chewy with a great flavor.  There were too many potatoes on the plate for my liking, but it was still a nice little start to the meal.   

Eschewing a salad, my wife got a cup of the lobster bisque.  Creamy and hearty with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar added to the top, my wife declared the bisque to be wonderful.  She offered me a spoonful and I also thought it was very good, as well.  

That evening, Wild Olive had a fish special - a locally-caught wild grouper filet pan-seared and placed on a bed of grilled vegetables with a risotto sauce on the base of the plate.  She got a house Pinot Grigio to go along with the meal.  My wife thought the grouper was outstanding - it had a butter-char to the outside and was light and flaky on the inside.  She especially liked the grilled vegetables as she decided to eat somewhat healthy that evening.  

I went the pasta route with Tagliatelle pasta with a bolognese sauce.  I've been getting really deep into meaty, hearty and creamy bolognese sauces recently, especially paired with wide egg noodles. (I also have made some bolognese sauce at home recently with San Marzano tomatoes in a tomato-cream sauce which turned out pretty damned good, if I say so myself.)  And the tagliatelle pasta noodles with the ground veal/ground pork bolognese sauce was also outstanding.  I had a light lunch earlier in the day because I figured that we'd be eating pasta that evening, so it was no problem for me to finish the whole delicious plate.  For a wine pairing that evening, I got a glass of the house Super Tuscan red they had available.  

For dessert that night, we had to get a slice of their tiramisu.  Freshly baked, the tiramisu was very good.  But it was also very rich.  Still, we somehow made it through the whole piece.  

But there was something else on the dessert menu that screamed my name - the affogato.  It featured their house-made vanilla gelato with double shot of espresso and a slice of biscotti on the side.  But the clincher was that for a $3 upcharge, I could get a shot of Ramazzoti liqueur to dump on top.  I've had affogato many times in the past, but none have been offered with a liqueur before.  And it was dynamite.  The espresso with the gelato was good enough, but the sweetness of the syrupy Ramazzoti liqueur made it even better.   

Everything that I expected Wild Olive to be in a farm-to-fork/locally-sourced Italian restaurant more than exceeded my expectations.  The food was exquisite, the atmosphere was calming and cozy, and the service was exceptional.  We ended up lingering for a few moments to savor the meal we had just experienced and talked with Chris about some other restaurants in the area.  We ate at some very good restaurants while we were in Charleston, but none of them were better than the meal we had at Wild Olive.  (Photo courtesy Wild Olive Facebook page.) 

Surf Seafood - Nashua, NH

Spending the night in Nashua, NH recently, I was on a quest for some really good seafood.  Being in New England for the first time in about 30 years made me want to do nothing but find fresh seafood while I was there.  At the hotel I stayed at, I asked the bartender what seafood place he'd go to if he had a choice.  He didn't hesitate.  "Surf Seafood in downtown Nashua," he said.  A guy seated not far away said, "Oh, yeah.  Surf if probably the best in town."  Going on their recommendation, I headed to downtown Nashua that evening for a meal at Surf Seafood.  

Michael Buckley grew up in the Boston suburb of Brookline, MA.  At the age of 13, he started working at a restaurant washing dishes.  He loved the restaurant business so much that he told his parents that he was going to own his own restaurant someday.  And he would name it Michael Timothy's incorporating his middle name into the name of his dream restaurant.  

During high school in the late 70's into the early 80's, Buckley was an industrious kid.  During the summer months he'd paint houses during the day, work as a grill chef in the afternoon into the evening, then make cider over the weekends.  After graduating from high school in 1981, Buckley ended up working on an eastern Oregon ranch that was owned by his neighbor's brother.  Buckley worked on the ranch from May until December flying back home when his services as a ranch hand were no longer needed during the winter months.  

When Buckley returned, he started to work as a grill cook at the restaurant he'd been working at during his high school years.  He soon went to work as a line cook at The Pearl, an upscale restaurant in Nashua.  From there, Buckley went to work in the kitchen at a now closed Italian restaurant in Nashua.  

Figuring out that he'd have to learn how to work the front of the house since he'd been working in restaurant kitchens since he was 13, Buckley took a second job to wait tables another restaurant in Nashua.  But not long after all that, he heard of a new restaurant that opened in nearby Amherst, NH - Lord Jeffrey.  The restaurant's owner was German and he had a German head chef in charge of the kitchen.  Buckley got a job as a line cook at the restaurant.

While other chefs got their start going to culinary school, working at Lord Jeffrey turned out to be culinary school for Buckley.  The German chef that Buckley worked under taught him the basic foundations of European cooking from making stocks, what to look for in seafood and how to handle fish, and how to butcher meats.  On his off day from Lord Jeffrey, he would go work in a Swiss restaurant where his boss was a co-owner to learn classic German, Swiss and Austrian dishes.   

During this time, Buckley was dating a young lady by the name of Sarah who - when she wasn't going to school at the University of New Hampshire - was waiting tables at Lord Jeffreys.  They had a co-worker who was from Germany and she had worked in restaurants there before coming to New Hampshire.  She had told them of a restaurant where she formerly worked at in Gaggenau, located in the southwest sector of Germany near the border with France.  The German co-worker told Michael and Sarah that she could get them a job at that restaurant if they were interested in going to Germany.  

Not long after that offer was made, the owner of Lord Jeffrey decided to sell the restaurant.  Both Buckley and Sarah decided to make the leap and went to Germany with their German co-worker.  They made it to Gaggenau and went to the restaurant where they were introduced to the chef - a 27-year-old Certified Master Chef.  They weren't hired right away, but one evening while dining in the restaurant, the chef's assistant - who was a 14-year-old boy - ran out of the kitchen crying.  Exasperated, the chef came out to Buckley and asked when he could start.  

The young chef Buckley worked under specialized in both made-from-scratch French specialties to classic German fare and people from miles around came to his little restaurant.   The young chef was a taskmaster in the small kitchen which consisted of the chef, Buckley and a dishwasher.  But Buckley thrived under the demanding pressure in the kitchen calling the experience one of the best of his culinary career.

After working in Germany for four months, the new owners of Lord Jeffrey contacted Buckley and pleaded with him to come back.  The head chef had quit just before Christmas and the new owners were desperate.  They offered to pay Buckley and Sarah's moving expenses to come back and handed him a large cash bonus when he showed up on the first day back at the restaurant.  In 1985 at the age of 21, Michael Buckley was finally the head chef at a restaurant.  

Two years later, Michael and Sarah tied the knot and it was also time for Michael to move on to his next culinary adventure.  He ended up at an upscale restaurant in Merrimack, NH, just north of Nashua to work with a friend who was the head chef.  When the head chef left in 1989, Buckley was elevated to the position.  

Pictured right - Sarah and Michael Buckley.  Photo courtesy NH Business Review.  

In all, Buckley worked at the restaurant in Merrimack for over 7 years.  By this time, he was working on a deal to be a chef at a new brewpub.  But when that fell through he decided it was his time to open his own place.  He left the restaurant in Merrimack and found a spot on Main Street in Nashua in a building that once housed an insurance agency.   The young Buckley family - now with two kids and a third one on the way - pulled out their life savings, cashed in anything worth money, and put down a deposit.  

With the help of his brother and Sarah's father, the trio worked day and night over a four month period to convert the former insurance agency office space into a restaurant.  With more help from friends and family, along with some thrifty purchases of furnishings, the Buckleys opened Michael Timothy's in August of 1995.  He was 31 years old and had been involved with restaurants for 18 years bringing the dream of owning his own restaurant by the name of Michael Timothy's full circle.  (At one point, Michael Timothy's rebranded into MT Local featuring a menu of locally-sourced food.)  

The restaurant was a hit right off the bat and Buckley found himself working long hours to oversee even the most minute detail.  He hadn't even thought about opening a second restaurant, but in 2002 a chance to buy the restaurant right across the street from Michael Timothy's fell into his lap.  Instead of letting someone else come in and buy the restaurant, he negotiated with the owners to take over the space allowing him to work on a concept that would be different from the bistro-style fare he served at Michael Timothy's.  

Even though New England was a hotbed for seafood, there were only a few restaurants with a creative menu that catered to a more discerning clientele.  In late May of 2002, Surf Seafood opened their doors.  It was also the first time in his life that Buckley realized that he couldn't be in two places at the same time.  He learned to delegate responsibilities to make two restaurants work.  It also gave him some much needed time away from the restaurant business for some family time at home.  

From there, in 2005 Buckley opened Buckley's Great Steaks in Merrimack, NH in a restored early-1800's tavern.  After that, more restaurants popped up under the Michael Timothy's Dining Group umbrella - a second Surf Seafood opened in Portsmouth, NH in 2011, Buckley's Bakery and Cafe opened next door to Buckley's Great Steaks (a second location opened in Hollis, NH not long ago), Mike's Italian Kitchen in downtown Nashua was rebranded from MT's Local in 2023, and a new Surf Seafood location opened in Woburn, MA in 2023.  And earlier this year, Buckley - along with his son, Ian - opened Lost Cowboy Brewing Company, 30 years after he almost became involved in a brewpub before owning his own restaurant.  

It was about a 10 minute drive from my hotel to downtown Nashua.  I pulled up to Surf Seafood around 7 p.m. at 207 Main Street (see map).  The parking spots along the street were filled up, so I went down the street to a bank parking lot that appeared to allow cars to park there after business hours.  

Walking back up the street and into Surf Seafood I was met at a hostess stand by a young lady.  The restaurant was semi-partitioned into two parts - a bar area and a dining area.  The bar was a large U-shaped structure in the middle of that part of the restaurant.  There were tables off to the side with banquette seats from the half-wall between the bar area and the dining room.  More tables were off to the opposite side of the bar.  In the back of the bar area was a raw bar/sushi bar that featured seating at its bar, as well.

The dining room was well lit and featured larger tables for bigger groups.  The restaurant was very nice, but not stuffy.  It wasn't a place for a one person diner, so I opted for the bar.  I was lucky - I got the last open seat at the bar.  It was a popular place and they were busy that night.  

There were three bartenders working the bar that night - two men and a young woman.  The young woman was the one who brought a menu over to me and she asked me what I would like to drink.  I asked her what hazy IPA's they had available and she had to go ask one of the other guys what they had.  She came back and said they had the Cloud Candy hazy New England IPA from the Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. in Waltham, MA.  I have to say it was a very good beer.  

The menu was an interesting mix of small plates, sandwiches, sushi, and raw bar items such as smoked salmon, oysters on the half-shell, and tuna pokè.  They had an extensive list of main entree choices such as a flambéed lobster, shrimp tikka masala, Korean BBQ scallops, and a ramen dish with slow-braised bacon, miso-marinated salmon, with pickled vegetables in a broth with noodles.  The pepper-encrusted ahi tuna sounded especially delicious.  

The raw bar with the oysters on the half-shell sounded good to me, so I asked the young lady to put an order in for me.  I found out later on that they had a variety of oysters to choose from.  A couple had sat down next to me later in the evening as I was almost finished with my meal and one of the male bartenders came over to greet them.  He went through a list of different types of oysters they had that night at the raw bar, then he talked about two or three specials they had off the menu - all of which sounded very interesting.  I was sort of pissed that the girl never gave me any options on the oysters.  The ones I had were OK.  They weren't very big or meaty, and they were a bit gritty.  It was $3.50 per oyster for a four-count of oysters that were served to me.  

I also had to get a bowl of clam chowder while I was there - and I was glad I did.  It had a thick and creamy base with large chunks of clams and diced potatoes mixed in.  It was very rich and it nearly filled me up on its own.  But it was also pretty expensive it was $12 for the bowl.  

I had a lot of options for dinner that night.  As I said, I thought about the pepper-crusted ahi tuna, and the blackened shrimp tacos sounded good to me, too.  The cold lobster roll also was tempting.  But in the end, I went back to the raw bar and got two items - the tuna pokè and two ounces of the pastrami smoked salmon.  

The smoked salmon was served on a small plate with crostini bread, capers, chopped red onions and served with a creamy horseradish sauce that I never used.   The smoked salmon literally melted in my mouth and when pared with the crostini, capers and onions, it was absolutely marvelous in taste.  The smoked salmon was simply outstanding.

The tuna pokè wasn't far behind in terms of both flavor and freshness.  It consisted of a mixture of yellowfin tuna, scallions, chopped avocado, a sweet tamari sauce, wasabi mayo, a spicy mayo, seaweed salad, all of which sat on a bed of sushi rice.  It was formed in a tower and served with light and puffy shrimp chips.  The pokè with its mix was out of this world.  I just couldn't believe how great this all tasted.   

Other than the young lady bartender not filling me in on different choices of the oysters they had that night, nor giving me the off-the-menu specials that evening, my visit to Surf Seafood was off-the-chart.  The clam chowder was excellent, but a bit expensive, I felt.  And it would have been tough to beat both the smoked salmon and the tuna pokè that I had from the raw bar for my main meal.  Surf Seafood was a winner all the way around and I let the bartender back at my hotel know that when I went back for a nightcap later that evening.  

The Breakfast Club - Ankeny, IA

My cousin had come back from North Carolina for our class reunion recently and we decided to reach out to a friend of ours who we had known since we were all in kindergarten.  While our friend couldn't make it to the class reunion, my cousin and I decided to go see her in Ankeny, IA.   I called our friend up the day before and said that we wanted to meet her and her husband for breakfast - with the caveat being that we needed to go to a place that had bloody marys or mimosas.  She didn't even hesitate.  "Oh, The Breakfast Club," she said immediately.  My cousin was staying with her brother in Des Moines, and on a Sunday morning my wife and I picked her up and we drove up to Ankeny to meet our lifelong friend and her husband at The Breakfast Club.

Tom and Anne Baldwin are the owners of the Dark Side of the Spoon hospitality group which owns a number of Des Moines area restaurants such as Annie's Irish Pub, 1908 Draught House, Wellman's Pub and the famous Peggy's Tavern near Drake University.  The Baldwins came up with a concept for a breakfast cafe for adults complete with boozy drinks and innovative twists on traditional breakfast classics.  

At the time, the Baldwins were working with Gusto Pizza co-owners Joe McConville, Tony Lemmo and Josh Holderness, along with venture capitalists Ted Hawley and Tommy Bornstad to put in an Italian restaurant at a to-be determined location in West Des Moines.  The pandemic in March of 2020 scuttled those plans, but the Baldwins shared their vision of an adult breakfast restaurant with the Gusto Pizza owners.  It turned out that McConville felt the downtown was underserved in regard to breakfast cafes.   

Backing off on their plans to open an Italian restaurant, the group found a space that formerly housed a restaurant in the East Village neighborhood in Des Moines.  The changeover to a breakfast cafe was relatively quick given that the nation was still in the throes of the pandemic in late 2020.  However, the restaurant was ready to open in February of 2022 and their opening coincided with the rescinding of the mandate that people must wear masks in public places.  

With McConville as the managing partner, the first month of business saw brisk sales and good crowds.  The Breakfast Club soon had lines out the door with patrons willing to wait for tables to open through the week and especially on the weekends.  The group then looked back west to the West Glen Town Center mixed use complex where they were originally looking at opening an Italian restaurant in West Moines.  The second Breakfast Club location opened in June of 2022.  

With the population growth happening up in Ankeny, the group set it sights on opening a 3rd location in the District of Prairie Trail shopping and entertainment complex.  The Ankeny location opened in November of 2023.  It wasn't long after that when the fourth Breakfast Club location opened in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood.  

We were running a little late when we picked up my cousin.  She had already called our friend and told her that we're going to a coming in about 15 minutes late.  The problem when we got to the District of Prairie Trail, we really didn't know where The Breakfast Club was since none of us had ever been there before.  After driving around the property, I took a turn and saw the restaurant on the left.  (see map)  We parked in the lot across the street where a movie theater was located.  

The front dining area was kind of a mixture of modern contemporary decor with some 50's art deco art work mixed in.  Chairs in bright colors were parked at tables that seated four to six people.  The outside dining area just beyond the glass garage doors was a popular place that morning.  

Our friend and her husband were already seated in the large dining room off to the left of the first dining area.  It also featured brightly colored chairs, acoustic panels and large paintings of 80's icons Bruce Springsteen, Billy Idol and Madonna.  My wife - who notices loud dining spaces - noted that for how big and open the room was, the acoustical treatment was helping keep the noise down.  

The bar area was as equally colorful as the main dining area.  Rich pastel colors dominated the counter and light fixtures.  A Tex Avery cartoon was playing on the flat screen on the wall behind the bar.  

After getting caught up on things, we motioned for our server to come back over to take our orders.  Hailie was her name and she was pretty neutral in her demeanor during our visit.  I ordered up a bloody mary, but I noticed that they didn't have any beers to have as a chaser.  It was probably good given that I had never met my friend's husband before and we hadn't seen her in a long time.  Best to let them slowly notice that I'm a latent alcoholic rather than removing all doubt with a bloody mary and a pint of pale ale with breakfast.  

Looking through the menu, I saw a bunch of things that sounded pretty interesting.  In fact, from the top of the menu, I got a bit of a kick out of the offerings.  Starters included breakfast corn dogs which consisted of sausage links deep fried in a maple pancake batter and served with maple syrup and a strawberry glaze.  The Breakfast egg rolls were filled with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon bits and cheddar cheese.  The Totches had a Mexican flair consisting of tots, chorizo sausage, black beans, with a queso sauce with a salsa verde.  And they had a breakfast poutine with fries, gravy, cheese curds and bacon, topped with an over-easy egg with chopped green onions.  And those were just the starters!  Yow!!

The main entrees featured variations of eggs Benedict including poached eggs on crab rangoon and poached eggs on a cheese papusa with pork carnitas and salsa verde.  (I seriously thought about getting that!)  For main plates they had diverse selections such as a Cajun hash with andouille sausage and a gumbo sauce; hash browns with kimchi and a sriracha sauce; S'mores pancakes topped with Nutella, toasted marshmallows, graham crackers and a chocolate sauce; and a chicken cordon bleu skillet with ham, fried chicken, Swiss and gouda cheese with fried eggs.  

The Breakfast Club also had a cheeseburger, a chicken Caesar wrap, and a BLT for those who didn't want breakfast.  And for those who didn't want an exotic breakfast, they had staples such chicken fried steak and eggs; a breakfast burrito; and chicken and waffles.  There was a lot of stuff that caught my eye that sounded pretty interesting and delicious.

My wife, our friend and her husband all went for the Basic B - two eggs over easy, ham on the side (choices included ham or sausage), and hash browns.  My wife thought toast came with the breakfast, but she was told by the person who served her that toast was not included.  She asked if she could get some sourdough toast and he said it would be no problem.  The only problem is that her sourdough toast never came out.  When Hailie finally showed up to check on everyone, my wife pointed out that she hadn't gotten her toast.  Well, the kid who served the meal to the table neglected to either put the order in or to let Hailie know that she wanted toast.  It was a minor hiccup, but it sort of perturbed my wife a bit.  

My cousin ordered what was basically the avocado on a bagel with two fried eggs and crumbled bacon on top.  Chopped tomatoes and green onions came with the avocado on the toasted bagel.  My cousin neither raved nor said anything bad about her meal.  She was too busy catching up with our friend.  

I decided to go the sweet route for my breakfast.  I really wanted to try the maple battered corn dogs, and the Dutch apple cheesecake French toast looked good (I don't care for apples, but I thought I could just push them off), but I ended up going with the blueberry and cream pancakes.  The pancakes were made with a cinnamon swirl batter and topped with a cream cheese frosting with fresh blueberries in a blueberry sauce.  The pancakes were thick and fluffy - I'd rather have them a bit more thin - but they were fine.  It wasn't quite the picture of the pancakes, cream and blueberries that is depicted on their web site, but it was still all right.  I could only eat about half of the pancakes as they were very filling and very rich.  

My wife wasn't too happy with her breakfast.  The sourdough toast finally did show up, but she thought her breakfast was sort of "meh!"  "I wasn't impressed with The Breakfast Club," she said as we made our way home.  

Me, I thought that The Breakfast Club was pretty interesting.  The food was OK, but the descriptions of some of the were pretty tantalizing.  The only complaint I would have is that they didn't offer any craft beers to go along with some of their breakfast cocktails.  The service was a bit choppy, but I chalk that up to it being a busy Sunday morning.  I would probably go back to The Breakfast Club to try something else at some point - I'm still thinking about the breakfast corn dogs.  But they had some other sweet and savory items on the menu that sounded good to me.  

Rise 'n Roll - Fort Wayne, IN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Camille's - Providence, RI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Peacock - Charleston, SC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

India Masala House - Brattleboro, VT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

McCarthy's Irish Pub - New York City

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen Street - Charleston, SC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Paddy's Public House - Newton, MA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

South Carolina

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dam Tacos - Davenport, IA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Utsav Indian Bar & Grill - New York City

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

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

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

Pictured right - Nandita Khanna.  Photo courtesy Virtual Gourmet.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clemson Brothers Brewery - Middletown, NY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cafe Tacuba - Cedar Rapids, IA

Up in Cedar Rapids one Sunday afternoon to visit my wife's father who is in a care facility in the area, we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at a Mexican restaurant she had been to before.  We invited her sister to come along to join us at Cafe Tacuba in the New Bohemia district just south of downtown Cedar Rapids.  

Cafe Tacuba co-owners Ozzy Aguirre and Ariel Barrios are no strangers to Mexican cuisine in Eastern Iowa.  Barrios helped start the popular Cedar Rapids Mexican eatery La Cantina in 2011, while Aguirre started Mas Margaritas in 2019 while also involved with La Casita Breakfast Cafe which opened in 2021.  The two have also been instrumental in the start up and ownership of Mexican restaurants in Vinton and Anamosa near Cedar Rapids.  Along with third partner Raul Gomez, Cafe Tacuba had a soft opening in December of last year and opened full time in March of this year.  The restaurant's name was taken from the Tacuba neighborhood in Mexico City where Ozzy Aguirre's family is from.  

Aguirre's vision of Cafe Tacuba was to offer authentic Mexican dishes from recipes that were in his family for generations.  In order to capture the intricacies of true Mexican cuisine, Aguirre flew his grandmother, mother and aunt from Guadalajara and Mexico City up to Cedar Rapids to teach the staff how to make the authentic Mexican food he grew up with. 

Cafe Tacuba is located in the former Suchy building which was originally built in 1906, but extensively renovated in 2012.  (see map)  Before Cafe Tacuba went into the two-story brick building, Des Moines-based Fong's Pizza was a tenant for over 4 years before deciding not to renew their lease in 2022 citing uncertainty in the market.   The space sat vacant for over a year before Cafe Tacuba took over the building.  Everything was set up for them in terms of kitchen, bar and dining spaces, it just needed a special touch of Mexican artwork. 

Entering the restaurant, you'll find a large mural centered on Mexican artist Frida Kahlo along the long wall of the front dining area.  Faux strands of flowers and vines hung from the ceiling in the room.  A large party was in the restaurant when we got there taking up most of the tables with banquette seating along the wall.   

The bar area was pretty small, but featured a well-stocked back bar of tequilas.  In addition to the usual Mexican beers, Cafe Tacuba also had a good selection of local and regional craft beers to choose from.

In the rear part of the restaurant was a larger dining area with more artwork and murals on the walls.  It was here where we were seated and given menus by our server George.   The room featured a wall covered with fake turf, another large mural, and wall segments painted in different colors.  

On a couple of the walls were a couple of phrases in Spanish.  I had to get my translator application out on my phone to see what they meant in English.  One roughly said, "They wanted to bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds."  The other translated to, "Rip me off and wherever you put me I bloom."  It was a guess that the owners of Cafe Tacuba felt they were slighted or disrespected at some point in getting this venture going.

It wasn't long we sat down when a basket of warm chips and some salsa showed up at the table.  The salsa had a nice cilantro and onion flavor along with a bit of a spicy bite.  We plowed through a couple baskets of chips and salsa.  

We also started off with margaritas.  This is the Ozzi margarita which featured top-shelf silver tequila, fresh lime juice, and an orange liqueur garnished with an orange wedge.  The margaritas were very good.  I only had one and then switched to a Dos Equis Ambar beer they had on tap.  

Cafe Tacuba is a full-day restaurant with an extensive breakfast menu of both American and Mexican items along with a whole gambit of coffees, teas, and juices, along with alcoholic beverages such as mimosas and bloody marys.  The lunch and dinner menu is more Mexican with tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, chimichangas, burritos and quesadillas.  Entrees included grilled chicken and steak dishes, pork chile verde, and a number of seafood offerings including ceviche, crab and shrimp enchiladas, and octopus marinated in a garlic and pepper sauce.  Both the breakfast and lunch/dinner menus feature a number of vegetarian items, as well.  

I looked long and hard at the grilled Mahi tacos, but I ended up getting the carnitas verde enchiladas.  On the menu, the verde enchiladas come with chicken, but I asked George if I could get them with the pork carnitas. He said it would be no problem.  The enchiladas were topped with chopped lettuce and red onions.  Rice and beans came on the side, and the beans weren't your usually refried bean mush.  These were real beans in a sauce topped with chihuahua cheese.  I asked George if he could bring some extra chile verde sauce to go along with the enchiladas.  He was very accommodating throughout the meal.  

My sister-in-law also got enchiladas - the enchiladas rojas (red sauce) with chicken.  My wife went with the chile rellenos - cheese-stuffed poblano peppers dipped in an egg batter and deep fried.  The rellenos were covered in a red sauce and cheese.  

My carnitas enchiladas were delicious.  I slathered them in the green chile sauce.  The salsa verde had a bit of a spicy flavor, but it wasn't salty like I've found some green sauces to be at other Mexican restaurants.  The carnitas were juicy and tender, easy to cut with a fork.  I'm not big on refried beans, but the beans in their sauce had a great flavor.  

My wife really enjoyed her chile rellenos, as well.  But there was no way that she could eat them both so she offered me a bite. They were rich in flavor, full of cheese and the red sauce gave them a nice little zippy taste.  

As I was enjoying my enchiladas, I said, "My god, these are delicious!  They're so fresh and flavorful and very authentic!"  

My wife's sister said, "Isn't this place good?  I think it's the best Mexican restaurant in Cedar Rapids!"

I haven't eaten at many Mexican food joints in Cedar Rapids, but I can't imagine others out there that are much better than Cafe Tacuba.  Everything about the place - the artwork, the cozy environment, the friendly and accommodating service, to the specialty margaritas and selection of craft beers was very good.  And that's not even including the fresh and authentic Mexican food that we had.  The carnitas verde enchiladas were outstanding and everyone simply enjoyed their meals at Cafe Tacuba.  If my wife said that we were going back to Cedar Rapids to go to Cafe Tacuba again at some point, I would have absolutely no problem in doing so.   

Ceci Italian Cuisine - New York City

It was a rainy Saturday night in New York City when I was there earlier this spring.  I was going to get together with a former colleague for dinner, but Uber rides were backed up due to the heavy rain and surge fees were driving up the cost of trips on the ride share app.  After a quick conversation, we decided to bag trying to get together and do something on our own.  Just a few doors down from my hotel was an Italian place that I had passed on my way to the trade show - Ceci Italian Restaurant.  I decided to head there for dinner on my own that night.   

Now, within a three square block area around the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square North hotel that I stayed at, I've counted no less than 27 Italian restaurants.  There was, of course, the Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant at the hotel, and another couple Italian restaurants across 46th St. from the hotel.  As my former colleague who traveled to New York City for work when we both worked together years ago said to me one time, "There are so many choices of Italian restaurants in Manhattan that if one isn't good, it will go out of business sooner than later."  So, you can literally swing a cat by the tail in any direction in New York City and find a good Italian restaurant.  

Marcello Papa is the managing partner in Ceci Italian Restaurant which has been open since 2010.  In the heart of the Theater District and Times Square, the restaurant caters to theater goers and tourists who flock to the area.  However, when COVID 19 hit in March of 2020, Ceci took a devastating hit when the theaters closed down for 18 months.  Like all the restaurants in the area, it took some time for Ceci to recover.  At first, they had specials that could be picked up at the restaurant with a 15% discount for ordering on-line.  As time went on and vaccines kicked in, Ceci Italian Restaurant came back as strong as ever and continues to thrive today.  

The downpour was not letting up when I left the hotel to go to Ceci Italian Restaurant just a few paces to the west on W. 46th.  (see map)  Thanks to some scaffolding over the sidewalk (there seems to be scaffolds everywhere in New York City), I was able to dip out of the heavy stuff for a moment before darting into Ceci.  

The restaurant space is long and narrow with a bar up front and a dining area with a low-slung tin-tiled ceiling in back.  The exposed light fixtures spread a bright hue around the dining room.  There was a guy seated at the bar who turned out to be Marcello Papa and he asked me how many there were in my party.  When I just said it was myself, he took me back to a small two-seater table in the corridor between the dining area and the front bar.  I immediately felt that I would be uncomfortable dining alone at this table, so I asked if I could sit at the bar.  "No problem, sir," Marcello said as he did an about-face and took me back to the bar.  

I ended up sitting at the head of the bar next to a large screen television that was showing a replay of a Serie A league soccer game from Italy.  Marcello got me set up with a menu and the bartender soon followed up with an inquiry as to what I wanted to drink.  I ordered up a Peroni to start.    

The food offerings at Ceci Italian Restaurant consist of a number of classic Italian pasta dishes, as well as chicken, beef and seafood entrees.   Pasta dishes consisted of lobster ravioli, fettuccine alfredo, linguine carbonara and a penne pasta dish in a tomato cream sauce.  They had a New York strip steak on the menu served with fresh steamed vegetables.  Seafood dishes included a seared grappa-marinated tuna steak, shrimp risotto, and a broiled salmon filet.  Lamb chops, pork osso bucco, and a chicken marsala entree were also available.  Appetizers included baked stuffed clams, fried calamari, and roasted peppers with goat cheese, basil and anchovies.

I ordered up my food and I got a house salad to start out.  It consisted of fresh lettuce greens tossed in a vinaigrette along with chopped cherry tomatoes and black olives and topped with crispy onions.  A basket of fresh warm bread came with the salad.  It was a great compliment to the salad as the bread was soft, chewy and very delicious.   

I ended up ordering the orecchiette pasta with a bolognese sauce.  Orecchiette pasta is shaped like little cups, but look sort of like small ears.  And orecchiette in Italian means small ears.  The bolognese was a blend of beef, pork and veal with a tomato cream base.  Along with my pasta dish, I got a glass of a Valpolicella red blend they had a house wine.  

And the pasta was excellent.  The bolognese sauce was hearty and a perfect meal for a cold rainy evening.  I was able to finish all that I had in the dish.  I was full, but not uncomfortably full.

I was having such a good time just mellowing out at the bar that I didn't notice that they were closing up around 9 p.m.  After Marcello turned away a couple who were hoping to get a meal right at closing time, I said to him, "Oh, man.  I'm sorry.  I'll finish up and get on my way."

He said, "Oh, no.  You take your time.  Maybe you'd like to have some dessert."  

Dessert did sound pretty good and the bartender brought over a dessert menu to look over.  I got the tiramisu and also signed up for a double espresso.  I knew deep down inside that ordering a double espresso would be trouble given the heightened caffeine in it.  (I call espresso "liquid cocaine".)  But I thought it would be fine with the dessert.

When the tiramisu was brought out to me, I saw that it was served in a plastic cup with a base.  I sort of looked at it funny and immediately thought this was definitely not made in-house.  And from the first bite, my speculation was correct - it was a pretty weak tiramisu.  Given how great my meal was, the tiramisu was a disappointment.  But I was right about the espresso - I didn't get to sleep until well after 1 a.m.  I felt a little rough then next day.  

Getting past the pretty "meh!" tiramisu, I really can't say anything bad about my experience at Ceci Italian Restaurant.  The atmosphere was cozy and comfortable, the service I received from the owner Marcello and the bartender was very good as both were very attentive and welcoming to me, and the food was simply outstanding.  The orecchiette bolognese was an excellent down-home Italian meal that helped take the chill off my bones on that cold and rainy evening.  There's tons of Italian restaurants in New York City, but if you find yourself in the heart of Times Square, venture over to Ceci Italian Restaurant and you shouldn't be disappointed.  

Le Steak Frites St-Paul - Montreal

During my recent trip back to Montreal, my French colleague was asking me what I wanted to do for dinner one evening.  I told him that I could be up for about anything.  Like most European people that I know when they come to North America the siren call of a good steak is an urge that can't be denied.  He mentioned that he saw a steak house just down the street from our hotel, about halfway back from the venue where our trade show was going on.  I mentioned that it had been a while since I'd had a good steak in a restaurant, so after we finished for the day we hoofed it on over to Le Steak Frites St-Paul.  

George Despatie was a somewhat famous restauranteur in Montreal, not only known for running his Steak Frites St-Paul steakhouses, and his Giorgio Ristorante Italian restaurants, but he was also the father of the most celebrated aquatic diver in Canadian sports history, Alexandre Despatie.  The young Despatie was a two-time Olympics silver medal winner in 3 meter springboard diving, and he was also a three-time winner in springboard diving in the World Aquatics (formerly FINA) championships.  He also won numerous championships and place medals in the Pan American Games and the Commonwealth Games.  

George Despatie opened his first Le Steak Frites St-Paul on St-Paul Street in Old Montreal in 1986.  The first Giorgio Ristorante opened in 1989.  The restaurants were unique in that they had a "Bring-your-own-wine" (or beer) concept that proved to be very popular.  By 1995, there were 30 Giorgio Ristorante's either owned by Despatie or franchised out.  At the same time there were about a half dozen Steak Frites St-Paul restaurants in the Montreal area that were owned by Despatie and franchisees.  

By 2005, a decline in the restaurant business had forced a number of Giorgio franchisees to go out of business.  The Steak Frites St-Paul chain, however, was still doing very well with up to 10 locations, many owned by franchisees.  Despatie reworked the franchise structure for the Giorgio Ristorante chain which was down to just 7 locations.  

Despatie ended up keeping the Giorgio restaurants on life-support while Steak Frites St-Paul was still doing very well.  He ended up changing some of the Giorgio locations to beer-centric restaurants or small-plate restaurants.  By 2015, he saw the handwriting on the wall and he started to sell off some of the properties in anticipation of retiring.  

In 2016, the MTY Food Group began negotiations with Despatie to purchase the 6 Giorgio and 9 Steak Frites St-Paul locations.  MTY owned a plethora of restaurant chains including Papa Murphy's, Village Inn and Famous Dave's in the U.S., and Turtle Jack's, Big Smoke Burger, and Baton Rouge Grillhouse & Bar in Canada.  In 2017, MTY purchased both Giorgio and Steak Frites St-Paul for less than $500,000 Canadian (about $350,000 U.S.) in what could be viewed as a fire sale for the slowly declining chain restaurants.  Today, MTY owns nearly 60 chain restaurants in Canada and 36 in the United States.  

Now, when I first came to Montreal in 2002, the first meal I had during my interview process with my old company was at a place called Steak Frites in the Montreal suburb of Anjou.  Our company would put up guests at a hotel across the freeway from the restaurant which was situated in a strip mall.  Steak Frites sort of became a de facto company restaurant for us.  That is, until someone came in and bought the strip mall and tore the building down putting Steak Frites out of business.  

However, that Steak Frites was probably not related to the Steak Frites St-Paul.  First of all, they had wine at the establishment with the wine list written on chalk boards hung on the wall.  And Steak Frites had their menu written out in chalk on another chalk board on another wall (in French, of course), while Le Steak Frites St-Paul is more of an upscale steakhouse with proper hand-held menus.  But seeing the Steak Frites St-Paul name on the front of the building when we walked up brought back many good memories of the original Steak Frites restaurant I went to years ago.  

Today, there are just 3 Le Steak Frites St-Paul locations - one in Terrebonne on the northeast side of the city, one in Laval just north of Montreal, and the downtown location we went to on Rue St-Antoine Ouest (W. St-Antoine St.) in downtown Montreal.  (see map) 

We got into Le Steak Frites St-Paul a little after 6 p.m.  It was a 10 minute walk from the Hotel Bonaventure where we had finished setting up for a trade show earlier in the day.  The steak house not a large place, but very nice in its decor.  There was an upstairs eating area that was closed off that evening that could be used for private parties or overflow dining.  There wasn't that large of a crowd in the place, so there was no chance of them opening that room that evening.  The only drawback with the restaurant is that they had metal chairs that were somewhat uncomfortable.  I figured they did that on purpose to keep the tables turning over on a nightly basis so people wouldn't linger after their meals.  

Our server was a young man by the name of Maxime who went simply by Max.  It was then that I found out that Le Steak Frites St-Paul was an alcohol-free/B.Y.O.B establishment.  Somewhat crestfallen that I couldn't get a beer to take the dust out of my mouth or a glass of wine with my meal, I figured that I could get by without an alcoholic beverage for just one meal.  

Max had dropped off menus for us to look over.  Steaks ruled the menu with a New York strip, two different sizes of beef tenderloin filets, a 14 ounce ribeye steak, and a flank steak available.  They also had the traditional steak frites - a shoulder cut steak that isn't as tender as most of the traditional cuts, but is a good value and something that Quebec families cooked in place of the higher priced cuts a number of years ago.  

In addition to steaks, Steak Frites had a number of seafood selections including scallops, a salmon filet and a sesame-encrusted tuna steak.  A slow-roasted lamb shank and a grilled pork loin was also available on the menu.  Many of the appetizers sounded very good including the fried calamari, the braised beef ravioli, the grilled octopus (I suggested that, but my colleague wasn't too keen on that), and the garlic escargot au gratin - garlic-infused snails topped with bread crumbs and cheese.  They also had beef, salmon and tuna tartare in 3 ounce and 6 ounce sizes.  

While I couldn't get my friend to jump on any of the appetizers because he wanted a steak and wanted one bad, we both started out with a Caesar salad.  It was a basic Caesar salad, but instead of bacon bits scattered on the salad, they put a single crispy strip of bacon across the top.  The greens were crisp and fresh with a tangy Caesar dressing with croutons finishing out the salad.  For good measure, a lemon wedge was provided to give the Caesar dressing a bit of a citrusy bite.  

For our steaks that evening, we both got the 10 ounce filet.  While my colleague got his medium-rare, I got mine rare.  I remarked that most French people I've been with get their steaks rare.  He said, "I'm not like most French people."  The steak sat on a bed of green beans and a large amount of fries came in a miniature colander on the side.  I had Max bring me out a side of the au poivre creamy peppercorn sauce, but I was sort of taken aback when he said they didn't have horseradish - either fresh or creamy.  But the au poivre sauce was a fine dipping sauce for my steak.  

The steak was tender, juicy, flavorful and very good.  I was impressed with the cut of meat - they use Canadian Prime beef, the highest grade of the 13 different levels of Canadian graded beef.  And the chef cooked the steak a perfect rare for me - warm on the outside, cool in the middle.  

The fries were the traditional Belgian fries served with both ketchup and mayonnaise.  My former Canadian colleagues got me hooked on fries with mayo a number of years ago and I always forget to ask for mayo on the side with my fries when I have them in the States.  But mayo is regularly brought out with fries in Canada.  

And these fries were scrumptious.  Crispy and light, they were a great complement to the steak.  But I couldn't eat all my fries, so my colleague asked if he could have some of mine.  I was amazed that he had finished his steak and nearly all of his fries.  For medium-sized French guy, he can really pack away the food.  I remarked that I saw poutine on the side menu and wondered why he didn't go for that.  "I thought about it, believe me," he replied.  I had about half of what I had served to me left when he grabbed a handful and put them on his plate.  

We were both impressed with our meal at Le Steak Frites St-Paul.  Our filet steaks were excellent and the Belgian fries that came with them were also superb.  The appetizers also sounded scrumptious, but I couldn't get my colleague to partake in any of them with me.  That wasn't a deal breaker, however, nor was the fact that Steak Frites was alcohol-free and I couldn't enjoy a glass of a hearty red wine with my steak.  Nonetheless, I was able to enjoy the meal without imbibing for just one evening.  Other than the chairs being uncomfortable, it was a nice place to have a meal.  And Max's service was top-notch.  If I go back to a Le Steak Frites St-Paul location on upcoming trips to Montreal, I'll be sure to pick up a bottle of wine to go with the meal.    

Grilled Cheese Bar - Davenport, IA

Down in the Village of East Davenport, a small subterranean restaurant with a rudimentary name caught my eye when it first opened in October of 2021.  It was a little place that specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches.  And when I found out that they also had a full bar in the place, I was really wanting to try the place out.  However, my wife has really been trying to limit the amount of cheese intake over the past couple three years and she just wasn't quite as enthused about giving the eatery a try as I was.  I almost had her convinced to give the place a try when a catastrophe on New Years Day in 2023 almost put the place out of business.  But after it came back from what would have been terminal for most businesses, I still couldn't get my wife to give the place a try.  With my wife out of town for a couple days earlier this year and me not wanting to cook for myself one evening, I made the trek down the hill to give Grilled Cheese Bar a long-awaited try.  

Natalia Mulica was a 2020 graduate of St. Ambrose University in Davenport.  Her dream to own a specialty restaurant that served grilled cheese sandwiches.  That dream came to pass in 2021 when she found a spot in the Village Market Place in the Village of East Davenport.  By October of that year, Grilled Cheese Bar opened and became somewhat of a hit with the younger crowd in Davenport.  But older people who loved the assorted styles of grilled cheese sandwiches the little restaurant had to offer, as well.   Before long live music was also a part of the Grilled Cheese Bar on weekends.  

On the morning of January 1st, 2023, my wife and I had gone out to get coffee (I get espresso) from one of our favorite drive-thru coffee places - Coffee Revolution.  We decided to drive through downtown Davenport as it was a nice day and then head back along River Drive to go through the East Village to take us back up the hill to our house.  However, as we tried to turn onto Mound Street, we found it was blocked by City of Davenport utility vehicles.  What appeared to be a main break had water gushing between River Drive and 11th Street on Mound.  "Uh oh," my wife said as we slowly drove past the parking lot at the corner of River Drive and Mound Street.  "This doesn't look good."

And it wasn't.  Mud, sand and water had run down into the restaurant.  Even the concrete floor had buckled under the weight of the mud and water.  The restaurant had to be closed while the clean up from the mess was started.  But in the ensuing days, Mulica found that the insurance on the business didn't cover flooding since it was a fire service line that broke.  And the City of Davenport wasn't liable for the break, nor was the local water company Iowa-American Water.  

Mulica was determined to come back from this and she started a GoFundMe page where she asked for $20,000 in donations to get the restaurant back on its feet.  The local outlet for Raygun - known for their irreverent and sometimes pithy messages on t-shirts - even came out with their own t-shirt which is pictured on the right.  

Within weeks, Mulica had raised the funds and then some.  After a complete makeover of the restaurant, Grilled Cheese Bar reopened on March 4, 2023 - almost two months to the day after she almost saw her dream literally go down the drain.  

It was a Monday evening when I decided to head down to Grilled Cheese Bar and I found plenty of parking in the lot in front of the establishment just north of River Drive on Mound St.  (see map)  It was a few steps down to the patio just outside of the restaurant.  Although it was a rather nice evening for late winter, there were no patrons sitting outside.

And when I went inside, I found just one table filled with people toward the back of the restaurant opposite the bar.  But it was still pretty early - around 5:30 p.m. - and it was a Monday night - not one of the more popular nights to go out to a restaurant.  

But the restaurant was quaint.  It was a long narrow space with spoked light fixtures hanging from the ceiling and a dark hardwood support beam along one wall.  With southern exposed windows, a lot of natural light filtered into the restaurant.  Off to the side in a little nook area were a number of games and coloring utensils that kids could play with while they were there with their parents.  There was a large floor-standing Connect 4 game included with the board games.  

I ended up sitting at the bar that evening.  It featured six low-backed bar stools with a wooden support intersecting the bar.  They had a fully stocked bar and a good selection of craft beers available in cans and bottles.  They had my beer of choice - Kona Big Wave Golden Ale - available and I immediately liked the place.  Music playing in the background was a mix of 60's and 70's classic rock from the likes of Foghat, Iron Butterfly, and Blondie, but also funk tracks from the likes of Rick James and even some blues music from artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins and Koko Taylor were interspersed with the classic rock songs.  

Katelynn was wearing two hats that evening - she was the bartender and the waitress for the restaurant.  She gave me a menu and I ordered up a Big Wave to enjoy.  In addition to different variants of grilled cheese sandwiches with protein added, Grilled Cheese Bar also features macaroni bowls with a choice of chipotle chicken, barbecue pork, steak or a chicken/bacon/ranch combination.  Sides included fries, potato salad, pasta salad, and mac & cheese.  

They had some interesting grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu including a Buffalo chicken grilled sandwich with American and muenster cheese; a pepperoni grilled sandwich with provolone cheese and a red pasta sauce; a bacon with macaroni grilled sandwich with American and muenster cheese; and a grilled sandwich with artichoke spread, tomato slices, fresh spinach and provolone cheese.  I thought my wife would enjoy that sandwich.  And, of course, they had a basic grilled cheese sandwich with American and muenster cheese called "The Monster".  

I ended up getting the Monte - a monte cristo sandwich with ham, provolone cheese, dijon mustard and mayo on egg-dipped fried bread.  Parmesan cheese was sprinkled on top of the sandwich before it was cut in half diagonally.  A tin cup of Cuban fries came with the sandwich.  

The sandwich was pretty good.  The provolone cheese was oozing out of the sandwich with each bite and it had a very good flavor combination with the dijon mustard and the mayo added to the ham and cheese.  The combination of the cheese, ham and condiments were all balanced in taste along with the nice crispy shell of the bread.  The fries were also good with nice crispy snap to them.  

I have to say that I was sort of surprised at how nice the Grilled Cheese Bar was in terms of both decor and the food that I had.  It was a comfortable and cozy little subterranean place and Katelynn's service was friendly and competent.  And their selection of craft beers coupled with a full bar made it appeal to me even more.  I've tried to get my wife to go with me to Grilled Cheese Bar - even for just a Friday night drink at the bar.  But so far she's resisted.  Hopefully after reading this, she'll be a bit more open to try Grilled Cheese Bar with me.  

The Sandlot - Park Ridge, IL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poutineville - Montreal

Poutine - basically French fries mixed with cheese curds and covered in a brown gravy - is the provincial cuisine of Quebec.  Traveling to Montreal many times over the past 20+ years, I had only had poutine - maybe - two or three times over that period because my former boss usually took us to places that were decidedly non-poutine places.  Having to go back to Montreal a couple months ago for a trade show, our international sales manager from France was going to come over to attend the show, as well.  He studied in Montreal for a year 25 years ago and he fell in love with poutine when he lived there.  We met up at Montreal-Trudeau Airport after our respective flights, and on the Uber ride into the city I turned to him and asked, "Poutine tonight?"  He heartily agreed with that choice for dinner.  I had picked out a couple three places in advance and with the help of our Uber driver, we settled on a place called Poutineville.   

Kosta Kariotakis and Camillo Fresco both grew up in the Saint-Michel neighborhood of Montreal.  Kariotakis' mother would take the leftovers from the previous night's meal and mix it in with classic poutine for his friends.  Kariotakis loved the memories of those meals and thought about wanting to share some of his mom's poutine concoctions on the public at some point.

Kariotakis was in the restaurant supply business while his friend Camillo Fresco owned his own body shop.  Even though there was a 17-year age difference, the two had a good friendship and talked about Kariotakis' dream of opening his own poutine restaurant.  That dream came true when Kariotakis and Fresco opened the first Poutineville in April of 2011 on Beaubein Street in northeast Montreal.

Pictured right - Kosta Kariotakis and Camillo Fresco flank Tom Bountis who helped the two to eventually expand Poutineville to multiple locations.  Photo courtesy Poutineville Facebook page.   

Poutineville was such a hit with their various styles of poutine where patrons could choose from 20+ different featured dishes, or could build their own poutine from 9 different types of meats, along with a like number of choices for vegetables or cheese toppings.  Less than a year after opening, Poutineville opened a second location in downtown Montreal.  

After opening a third Poutineville in Montreal in 2014, Kariotakis and Fresco decided to do something bold by going into the Toronto market and opening an upscale Poutineville with high-end additives such as fois gras, lobster, grilled lamb chops and braised beef.   The Toronto location opened in July of 2014, but upscale poutine didn't quite light a fire under the people of Canada's largest city.  After just over two years of being in business in Toronto, Poutineville closed in September of 2016.  

Also in 2016, Kariotakis and Fresco franchised their first Poutineville to three partners who opened a restaurant in Montreal's Mile End neighborhood.  Today, there are 10 Poutineville locations including one in Trenton, ON, and one in Quebec City, QC.  

The newest of the Poutineville locations is on Bishop Street (rue Bishop) just west of downtown Montreal and near the campus of Concordia University where my dining partner had gone to college for a year 25 years ago.  Bishop Street is well-known for the restaurants that line either side of the street for two or three blocks. It was a 15-minute Uber ride from our hotel on the east side of downtown Montreal to the Poutineville on Bishop Street.   (see map)

At first, we weren't certain Poutineville was open as the outside lights weren't on, but I went up the steps and opened the door and went inside.  We found a small place with a lively and colorful mural on the wall and tables with banquette seating below.  The server that night was a young guy by the name of Billy.  He told us we could sit anywhere - and we were the only people in the place.  That sort of unnerved my French friend who was thinking that maybe - just maybe - Poutineville was not a popular place.  However, as time went on while we were there, more people came in - both to dine or to take food to-go.  60's and 70's classic rock and soul music was playing in the background while we dined.  

After giving us our menus, Billy asked us what we wanted to drink and my colleague got a water - he doesn't drink alcohol.  And that's fine with me, and he's fine with me having a beer or three with dinner.  I ended up getting an Archibald Matante ("aunt" in English), a nice blonde ale from a local microbrewery that was light and refreshing.   

While they have over 24 different types of poutine at Poutineville, the restaurant also features burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, grilled or fried chicken sandwiches, and sub sandwiches.  For people who may have been forced to go to Poutineville and didn't want to eat unhealthy items, they also had salads on the menu.  

But we were there for the poutine and my colleague from France got the basic poutine - fries and cheese curds covered with gravy.  From his first bite, he was in heaven.  "Man, I have been dreaming about poutine for the past two weeks," he said between bites.  

The funny thing is that he is also on somewhat of a dietary restriction and cheese isn't on his list of foods he can (or will) eat.  He literally ate all the fries with the gravy and left a pile of cheese curds in the bowl.  I said, "Why didn't you order the poutine without the cheese?"

"I like to cheat every once in a while," he said with a slight grin.  "I do have a few, but not all of them."  

Even with over 24 different types of poutines on the menu, I pretty much knew what I was going to get in advance.  They had a list of "World Poutines" including an Indian poutine with butter chicken, an American poutine with seasoned ground beef and American cheese, a Chinese poutine with crispy "General Tao" chicken on the regular poutine, and a Greek gyro poutine with feta cheese.  Some of their signature poutines included the "Hat Trick" topped with hot dogs, bacon and ground beef, the pulled pork with brie cheese and roasted red peppers on poutine, and for those who can't get enough cheese in their diet, Poutineville has a four-cheese poutine topped with cheese curds, Swiss, brie and goat cheese.  That just binds me up just thinking of it.  

I got the "Montrealer" - fries, cheese curds, gravy and Montreal "smoked meat" (basically a pastrami or corned beef) with melted Swiss cheese along with mushrooms and topped with a fried dill pickle.  Of course, I was stupid and got the large size.  There was no way that I was going to even eat HALF of this!  It was a wonderful mixture of a magnificent culinary mess of artery hardening goodness.  I dug in and the taste was just out of this world.  "You can tell this is so bad for you because it tastes so great," I exclaimed between bites.  

I did get through about half the bowl - my French colleague called me weak for not finishing the whole thing.  But he wasn't going to shame me into trying to put more into my mouth.  I didn't want to see another bowl of poutine for at least a year.  However, my colleague had poutine TWO MORE TIMES during his visit to Montreal.  "What can I say," he said as I was with him at a restaurant three night later where he ordered poutine.  "I love the stuff!"   

There's a lots of place to get good to great poutine around Montreal.  I'm sure there are some better than Poutineville, but if you're a poutine rookie, I'd say give Poutineville a try first.  They have a lot of different types of poutine and their regular poutine is pretty good according to my colleague.  My smoked meat and Swiss cheese poutine was also pretty good, but - oh! - so filling.  With Poutineville locations all around the Montreal area, you aren't far from any of their spots for poutine.  

The Dirty Shirley - Rock Island, IL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Havana Central - New York City

In New York City recently, I was walking between my hotel and the place where the trade show was going on in Times Square.  Across the street, I saw a large neon sign with a palm tree and the name "HAVANA" on the side of the sign that stuck out from the front of a building on W. 46th St.  The sign intrigued me so much that I had to go across the street and check out the menu on the front of building.  While I didn't have time to stop in that day, I made it a point to go back to Havana Central for lunch the next day.  

Jeremy Merrin was an e-commerce entrepreneur who was riding high during the dot-com bubble period in the late 1990's.  Getting out of the game before the bubble burst in the early 2000's, Merrin was looking to do something else for his next venture.  He loved going to a Latin restaurant near his home in New York City where he could get a big plate covered with black beans, rice and chicken for not a lot of money.  He started to talk to a Hispanic friend of his who confirmed that while there were a lot of Mexican restaurants in New York, there weren't a lot of Latin restaurants that catered to Hispanics. 

Pictured left - Jeremy Merrin.  Photo courtesy Medium.com

Merrin did some research into restaurants - especially Cuban restaurants.  He had dated a Cuban girl in high school and was fascinated by their food. He found that there wasn't a nationwide presence of Cuban restaurants and choices in New York City - and other large cities, for that matter - were scant.  It was then when he decided to go forward with a Cuban restaurant concept.  

The only problem was that he didn't know the first thing about A) starting up and running a restaurant; and B) how to prepare Cuban food.  Merrin teamed up with Arlene Spiegel, a restaurant consultant and former restaurant owner to help him come up with his concept.  Over the next 9 months Merrin and Spiegel put together a game plan on a Cuban restaurant, as well as hiring a food engineer who came up with the initial menu for Merrin's Cuban restaurant.  Just before opening his restaurant, Spiegel hired his first employee, a chef by the name of Stanley Licairac who learned the art of cooking Latin food from his mother.  

In 2002, Spiegel bought a former deli with counter service on 17th St. near Union Square in Manhattan.  On June 24, 2002, Havana Central opened for business.  Lines formed out the door and down 17th Street for the first few months, even without people being able to sit in the restaurant.  Merrin was able to get the space next to him that allowed him to open a small dining room with a bar area.  When Merrin started to see the sales of alcohol go through the roof, he knew it was time to find a bigger spot.  

In 2005, Merrin opened a second Havana Central location in Times Square, and in 2007 on the Upper West Side on Broadway near 114th Street.  Both restaurants were appreciably larger than the original Union Square location with seating for over 200 people.  In 2011, a 4th Havana Central opened on Long Island in Garden City.  But when the lease on the Union Square location came up in 2012, Merrin decided to close that location because of its size, or lack of it.  A New Jersey location opened in the town of Edison in 2015, but the Upper West Side location closed not long after the pandemic began to subside in 2021.  Today, the Times Square location, the New Jersey location and the Long Island location are the only three Havana Central locations still in business.   

The Manhattan location of Havana Central is located just east of 7th Ave. on W. 46th St.  (see map)  It was just after the lunch time rush when I left the trade show and wandered over to the restaurant.  The burnt orange facade with the ornate gating above the entrance gave it sort of an old world Havana vibe right off the bat.  

Entering Havana Central, the decor continues to send one back in time to the Havana of the 1950's.  Painted plaster walls with art deco posters hanging from them, ornate antique lights hanging from the ceiling, and large urns with palm plants gave the dining area that old world pre-Castro atmosphere.  It was sort of elegant, yet very relaxing.   Salsa music from artists such as La Supreme Corte Orquestra, Grupo Galé, La Sonora Ponceña, and the late Frank "Paquito" Guzmán played in the background giving the restaurant even more of an authentic Cuban feel.  

I ended up seated at the bar which featured an exquisite dark wood back bar.   Lantern-style light fixtures hung just above the bar area.  The bartender that day was a young lady by the name of Isaias who seemed to be more interested talking with two men further down the bar from me.  When she finally came down to greet me, she brought a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  Even though they had a good selection of rum which was used to make Caribbean-inspired drinks, they also had a number of Mexican-style margarita drinks on the drink menu.  

But I was more in the mood for a beer and they had Hateuy in bottles.  Hateuy (pronounced "ah-TWAY") was Cuba's first premium beer, first brewed by the Bacardi family in their Modelo brewery nearly 100 years ago.  Hateuy beer was the favorite beverage of choice among commercial shippers and sailors who sailed in and out of Havana in the 40's and 50's.  Americans soldiers and naval personnel stationed around the Caribbean during World War II fancied Hateuy over other libations that were offered.  

In the early 60's, Fidel Castro's new communist government took over the Modelo brewery.  The Bacardi family fled the island after Castro's takeover and abandoned all property including the brewery.  Bacardi resurrected the Hateuy brand in the mid-90's thanks to a Cuban refugee by the name of Eduardo McCormick.  McCormick worked at the Modelo brewery in the 50's and he had the original recipe for Hateuy with him.  Hateuy was marketed as a specialty beer rather than a Cuban beer when it was re-introduced in 1998, but discontinued less than 10 years later.  

In 2011, Bacardi announced that Hateuy would continue as a micro-brew under a licensing agreement with Thomas Creek Brewery in Greenville, SC.  It was first introduced to South Florida beer aficionados a couple years later (due to the large Cuban ex-pat population), then was launched in new York City in 2014.  It was a very smooth golden lager that - I felt - had a great flavor.  I immediately liked it.  

The menu at Havana Central featured empanadas, fried calamari, jerk-spiced wings, masitas de cerdo (fried chunks of pork), and maiz estelo Havana - small cuts of corn on the cob dusted with spices and cheese.  There were also soups and salads available including the ensalada de aguacate - avocado slices on a bed of mixed lettuce greens with sliced red onions, sliced green olives and chunky tomatoes finished with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Just reading the description of the salad on the menu made me pause for a moment.  

I've eaten at a handful of Cuban restaurants over the years, but I can't say that I'm much of a Cuban food expert.  Pork, beef and chicken dishes are the main ingredients in many of the Cuban-style entrees at Havana Central.  A couple combinations of salmon and/or shrimp dishes were on the menu, as well.  And they had a couple vegetarian options including a pimento cheese-stuff bell pepper with rice.  I was really eying the pernil asada - slow-roasted marinated pork garnished with pickled red onions and served with a side of rice.   

I learned a long time ago that the wonderful Cuban sandwiches I've had in Miami years ago aren't available anywhere north of Tampa.  I have yet to find the soft sweetened bread that makes the Cuban sandwich what it is anywhere other than Miami.  Most "Cuban" sandwiches I've had feature a panini-style French bread with a crusty outer shell.  It's just not the same.  (Think of Cuban bread as similar to King's Hawaiian rolls and bread.)

But I had an idea that the Cuban sandwich at Havana Central had to be similar to the ones in South Florida because they categorized the bread as "Cuban".  When I finally got Isaias' attention that I was ready to order lunch, I asked her if the Cuban sandwiches were similar to the ones in South Florida.  "We've been told our Cuban sandwiches are very good," she said in a thick Cuban accent.  Hoping for the best, I ordered the Cuban sandwich.  

When the sandwich was brought out to me by someone in the kitchen, I immediately saw that it was the same pressed panini-style French bread with a crunchy outer layer that I could get at any restaurant that had a Cuban-style sandwich in the Midwest.  It was chock full of pulled pork, thick slices of Swiss cheese, shaved ham, and finished with dill pickles and yellow mustard.  

And the sandwich was very good.  Although the bread wasn't the sweetened Cuban bread that I fell in love with years ago.  The pork was very tender and juicy, it overpowered the taste of the ham, but the Swiss cheese was a great compliment to the overall taste of the sandwich.  Still, I was sort of kicking myself for not getting the pernil pork entree I had originally been looking at.  

The great thing about New York City is that there is just about any cuisine available in any given square mile of the city.  And they have to be pretty good or they're going to be going out of business pretty quickly.  And the quality of the food at Havana Central will ensure that it won't be going out of business anytime soon.  Although I was disappointed that the Cuban sandwich wasn't the same as the ones in Southern Florida, it was still very good with the large chunks of tender pulled pork on the sandwich.  Isisah's service was subpar - as I said she seemed to be more interested in entertaining two guys down at the other end of the bar than paying any attention to the fact that I wanted another Hateuy beer at any point of my visit.  But the elegance and charm of Havana Central gave it the feeling like you were really in a restaurant in pre-Castro Cuba in the 50's.  When I get back to New York at some point and am near Havana Central, I'd like to stop back in and get something even more authentic for a good Cuban meal.  

Mac's Speed Shop - Charlotte, NC

Traveling through the Carolinas recently, I had a meeting with an account just outside of Columbia, SC.  (By the way, I wholly recommend Tavern on 6 in Irmo, SC.  I went there with my account and his staff, but I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of the food and the restaurant since it was my first time being with them.  I will say the fettuccine bolognese was outstanding.)  I told my dealer that I had eaten at Midwood Smokehouse when I was in Charlotte and was planning on going back to try a brewpub when I was ending up back there the following evening.  He said, "We have a Midwood Smokehouse here, too.  It's OK.  But if you get back to Charlotte, you really need to try Mac's Speed Shop."  He explained to me that despite its name, Mac's Speed Shop had - in his estimation - the best barbecue in Charlotte.  So, when I got back to Charlotte the next evening, I had a couple of brewpubs in mind that I had picked out in advance.  But Mac's Speed Shop stayed on my mind.  I liked Midwood Smokehouse, but if he said he liked Mac's better, well, I just had to give it a try.  

Wynn Davis and Hall Johnson (I just love how family surnames become first names for males - and some females - in the south) admittedly didn't know the first thing about running a restaurant, let along a barbecue joint.  But the two did know that there was a dearth of good barbecue in Charlotte in the early 2000's.  They wanted to do their own barbecue place that had an automotive theme, a place where bikers could come in for good food and live music, but also a place that could host a business lunch.  

They found an old building in central Charlotte that was a car wash/garage back in the 1940's.  The name of the car wash/garage was Mac's Speed Shop, so it was a fitting name for Davis and Johnson's new barbecue concept.  Mac's Speed Shop opened their doors in May of 2005 and it wasn't long before more Mac's Speed Shops opened around Charlotte.  

Davis and Johnson later established the Mac's Hospitality Group which oversaw the growth of Mac's Speed Shop outside of the greater Charlotte area.  The Mac's Hospitality Group also developed other restaurant concepts such as SouthBound, a Southern California-inspired Mexican restaurant (NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson is a partner in the SoundBound restaurants); BackStage Lounge, billed as a neighborhood speakeasy; The Studio event space; and The Music Yard, an small outdoor live music/event venue.  

I ended up going to the Mac's Speed Shop in Charlotte's South End neighborhood just north of the corner of South Blvd and Ideal Way.  (see map)  There's a small covered parking area off to the side and I was able to snag the last available parking space when I got there.  

Walking inside, I saw a front bar area that was unmanned at the time when I walked in.  Large garage doors on the front of the building opened to an outdoor patio that was open during the warmer months.  They did have outdoor heaters on the patio, but even though the weather was nice for December, there was no one enjoying the evening on the patio.   

The main dining area with the main bar are located in the rear of the building at Mac's Speed Shop.   A row of booths were opposite the long bar with high-top tables in between.  The music playing in the background was pretty loud with Ten Years After on the sound system when I walked into the main dining room.  Actually, the music they played during my visit was an eclectic and diverse mix of classic and contemporary rock along with some blues mixed in.  I heard songs from Blackberry Smoke, Samantha Fish, and Otis Rush while I was there.

I took a seat at the bar and was helped throughout my visit by three different young ladies who were tending the bar that evening.  One of them gave me a food menu to look through while another asked what I wanted to drink.  I took a look at their beer menu and I saw that they had Wicked Weed beers on tap - we had visited Wicked Weed when my wife and I were in Asheville, NC a few years ago.  I ordered up a pint of the Wicked Weed Perni-Haze, a very good hazy IPA.  

The top of the menu featured Mac's Speed Shop's appetizers and it was a decidedly southern mix of offerings.  Hush puppies were the first thing on the appetizer menu followed by nachos with a choice of either pulled pork or pulled chicken.  Other southern-style appetizers included egg rolls stuffed with pulled pork, cole slaw and mac & cheese; deep-fried pimento cheese; pork rinds, and deviled eggs with bacon and pickled jalapeños.  They also had hickory-smoked wings as part of the appetizer menu.  

There were a number of sandwiches on the menu including a smoked brisket dip, a smoked turkey club sandwich, and a chopped brisket wrap.  They had about a half-dozen burgers on the menu including a bacon jam bison burger.  And they had southern barbecue twist to Mexican favorites including a smoked brisket taco and a smoked chicken quesadilla.  The blackened shrimp tacos sounded really good, but I was there for the barbecue that evening.  

And since Mac's Speed Shop is primarily a barbecue place, smoked meat platters took up most of the main entree menu.  Brisket, pulled pork, St. Louis-style pork ribs, turkey, chicken and sausage were all smoked in-house, and there was also a cedar-plank smoked salmon and corn meal-coated shrimp available as well.  I really wanted to get a sampler platter, but their only option featured a sampler of a choice of 4 meats.  That sounded like a lot of food.  Maybe if someone else was going to eat with me, I would have gotten it.  

In the end, I decided to get the burnt ends appetizer and the pulled pork platter.  I got a choice between a number of sides such as marinated red cole slaw, regular cole slaw, chili (?!), fried okra, and mac & cheese.  I got tater tots and barbecue beans with the meal.  Housemade pickles with pickled onions can on the side along with a couple half slices of grilled Texas toast.  

They had 3 different types of barbecue sauce available at Mac's Speed Shop - a Western Carolina sweet and tangy sauce, an Eastern Carolina vinegar sauce, and a South Carolina mustard sauce.  I've never cared for a mustard barbecue sauce and I'm sort of half-and-half on barbecue sauces with a vinegar base.  Some I've had are very good, some are sort of "meh!"  Mac's Speed Shop's vinegar sauce was sort of in the middle between "meh" and "OK".  It was all right with the pulled pork.  But the sweet and tangy sauce was very good.  I wished that they would have had something like the sweet tangy sauce with a little more spiciness added in.  Especially for the baked beans. 

The burnt ends had the sweet barbecue sauce on them already.  They also came with a side of the housemate pickles.  The burnt ends were tender, easy-to-cut with a fork and very delicious.  

The pulled pork was also tender and very juicy.  The mixture of the vinegar-based and the sweet barbecue sauce with the pulled pork were a good combination of flavors.  Barbecue pork is the main type of barbecued meat in the Carolinas and the places I've tried the pulled pork have all been very good.  

As I said, the baked beans could have used a little more of a zip to the taste, and the tater tots were good.  They even had Cholula so I could give the tots a little bit more of a spicy shot.  

I have to say that I was glad to have passed on going to a brewpub and went to Mac's Speed Shop on the recommendation of one of my accounts.   The pulled pork and the burnt ends were both very good, they had a great selection of craft beers to choose from, the ambiance was sort of fun and funky, and the three bartenders who tag-teamed on waiting on me that evening were friendly, outgoing and very helpful.   The barbecue places I've been to in North Carolina have been very good and Mac's Speed Shop was no exception.  

Puesto - Anaheim, CA

Out in Southern California for the NAMM Show earlier this year, my vegetarian colleague from Montreal was raving about a Mexican restaurant not far from the Anaheim Convention Center.  "Oh, man," he said effusively.  "I can't remember the name of the place, but I've eaten there 3 or 4 times.  Great food and great margaritas."  We had passed the place walking from our rental home to the convention center earlier in the day, and after we finished setting up our booth, we walked back to Puesto to get a late lunch.  

Eric Adler grew up a 2nd-generation Mexican whose father was originally from Monterrey, Mexico and his mother hailed from Guadalajara.  After the Adlers were married, they moved to the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista where Eric and his brothers Alexander and Alan grew up eating traditional Mexican food.  The family eventually moved to La Jolla before Eric headed out east to go to college at Babson College in suburban Boston.  Babson is noted for their entrepreneurial programs and Adler was hoping their business school would give his post-college career a kick start.  

After graduating in 2006, Adler first thought he'd get into real estate and he studied for his Masters in Real Estate back at San Diego State University.  But then he thought sports management might be a good thing to get into, so he headed back east to study at Georgetown University.  As Adler pursued his Masters in Sports Industry Management, he also interned as an event coordinator for D.C. United in the North American Soccer League.  He later interned for the Washington Wizards of the NBA as a hospitality suite coordinator.  

Pictured right - Eric Adler.  Photo courtesy San Diego Magazine.  

By 2010, Adler eventually got into real estate back in San Diego and was settling in on a career selling commercial properties when his entrepreneurial juices got to boiling.  Invited to a function with his brothers, they were munching on tacos made by caterer/chef Luisteen Gonzales.  The tacos that Gonzales made were definitely more upscale than what you would get from a neighborhood taqueria.  He was making his own corn tortillas and was topping them with marinated steak, wild mushrooms and huitlacoche - also known as corn smut which is a delicacy in Mexican culinary circles.  Gonzales would also make costras – griddled cheese that is wrapped around meat or vegetables, then topped with his own unique style of salsa.  

Over a short period of time, Adler attended a number of events where Gonzales catered the food.  He was struck how his tacos reminded him of the food he and his brothers ate while growing up.  While he wasn't initially thinking about opening a restaurant, he began to talk with Gonzales about teaming up to do sort of an upscale taqueria.  Gonzales had absolutely no interest in running a restaurant - he just wanted to cook and do catering.  Adler figured that he probably had enough business acumen to be able to run the day-to-day operations while allowing Gonzales to work his magic in the kitchen.  

With his brother Alan helping out, Eric Adler wanted to have a restaurant where patrons would think they were in Mexico City.  Adler commissioned a well-known muralist from the San Francisco Bay area to create a mural similar to ones he had seen in taquerias in Mexico City.  In February of 2012, the first Puesto - which means "stand" (as in taco stand) - opened in the Mission Valley neighborhood of San Diego.

As the original Puesto was humming along, Adler brought in his brother Alex and two cousins to be partners in the endeavor.  Adler had always thought about expansion - his business model was built on expanding Puesto's locations - and in 2013 he found a great location on West Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego.  From there, locations opened in La Jolla, two in Irvine, up in Northern California in Concord and Santa Clara, and the location in Anaheim we went to which is right across the street from Disneyland and next to the Anaheim Convention Center in the Westin Anaheim Resort.  (see map)

It was around 2:30 when we walked into Puesto.  Although the restaurant was well past the noon rush hour, it took us a few minutes to be seated.  We hung out in the bar area which featured a rectangular bar with a hanging island full of tequilas, mezcals and agave distilled spirits on shelves.  Drop down metal ladders were spaced about six feet apart which allowed the bartenders to climb up to the upper shelves to retrieve the bottles.  

Off to the side of the bar was a small lounge area.  The little corner of the bar featured an ornate leaded glass wall with hanging panels with LED lighting.  

The restaurant seating areas was just past the bar area.  It was comfortably upscale with plants that gave the dining area a bit of character.  

There was another back corner to Puesto that featured elegant LED light fixtures, alcove booths, and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall.  I thought they'd put us in that area, but they seated us at a table toward the back of the restaurant with banquette seating on one side of the table.  

Even though my co-worker from Montreal raved about the margaritas, I was afraid that one margarita would lead to two which would lead to a nap.  However, we found that Puesto also has their own brewery.  The brewery is located in their Mission Valley location under the lead of head brewer Doug Hasker.  They had six different beers on tap including their award winning Puesto Negra beer, a dark Mexican-style beer which won a silver medal at the Great American Beef Festival.  They also had a light Mexican-style lager, a Mexican amber beer, an IPA, a Mexican pilsner, and a seasonal winter bock beer.  I got the amber beer, my boss from Germany got the pilsner, and my colleague from Montreal got the Puesto Clara, the light Mexican-style beer.  My colleague from France no longer drinks, but he has no problem when people around him do.  

As we looked over the menu, we decided to get some guacamole to go along with the chips and fire-roasted molcajete salsa that was brought to our table.  The guacamole was freshly made and featured chunks of avocado, chopped onions and cilantro with fresh squeezed lime and orange juice mixed in.  The guacamole was excellent and I really liked the smokey taste to the salsa.   

The menu was mainly taco-centric, but they did have entrees such as a short rib birria platter and a shrimp platter.  The short rib enchiladas caught my attention and they also had a chicken chile verde enchilada on the menu.  Appetizers included three different types of ceviche including one served with a chile verde sauce (I almost ordered that), one with a citrus pepper salsa, and a shrimp ceviche with passionfruit, mango and avocado chunks.  Actually, I wouldn't have minded to try all three different ceviches.  

I ended up getting 3 tacos - the pork carnitas taco, the ribeye steak taco and the shredded short rib beef birria taco.  They had a Baja fish taco that featured a beer-battered filet that was deep fried, as well as a chicken al pastor taco.  They also had a pork pozole taco and a shrimp taco on the menu.  The most interesting taco was the Maine lobster taco that was mixed with a jalapeño pico de gallo and a black bean sauce.  

But the tacos I had were very good and had some interesting taste sensations.  All the tacos at Puesto come on a blue corn non-GMO tortilla.  From left to right in the photo - the short rib birria taco topped with a Jalisco salsa and guacamole; the ribeye taco topped with avocado chunks, an asada pico with a tomatillo-árbol salsa, and finished with queso fresco - fresh goat cheese; and the braised pork carnitas topped with a tomatillo sauce and an avocado slice.  All three were very delicious.  

My Montreal co-worker is a vegetarian and he was able to find a couple different tacos on the menu - a mushroom taco and the verduras which featured crispy melted cheese, vegetables, sliced nopales (cactus), and avocado.  The mushroom tacos featured garlic-braised mushrooms along with pickled onions and a stone-fruit serrano salsa.  

While my boss from Germany got a couple tacos - the filet mignon taco and the chicken al pastor taco - my colleague from France got the carnitas bowl.  It featured braised pork along with rice, black beans, pickled onions and a vegetable slaw.  A bit of guacamole came on the side and the black beans were drizzled with a tomatillo sauce.  "This is exactly what I needed," he said between bites.  Everyone was more than happy with their meals.  

Between the guacamole, chips, salsa, along with the 3 tacos, I was more than full.  In fact, I was full the rest of the evening and didn't even think about having dinner.   The food at Puesto was outstanding.

We walked past Puesto a number of times during our stay in Anaheim for the NAMM Show.  I thought about stopping in for some of their ceviche and a margarita a couple times, but I could see the place was packed with the after-show crowd.  Nevertheless, the one visit we made to Puesto was enough for me to figure out that the food was excellent.  The tacos I had - the carnitas, the short rib, and the ribeye - were all delicious and each had a distinctive flavor and zest to each bite.   There are tons of taquerias in Southern California, but the tacos at Puesto were remarkable in their ingredients and taste quality.  

The Playwright Irish Pub - New York City

When I was in New York City, there was still a lot of college basketball to be played and I was hoping to be able to watch some of the Iowa women's basketball game one night.  The University of Iowa I-Club has a number of chapters around the United States and I looked up on their web site to see if there were any Iowa game watch sites in New York City.  It turned out that there was an Irish pub about 10 blocks from my hotel that was a game watch site.  I would have walked to the restaurant, but it was spitting rain and rather cool out.  So, I took an Uber down to The Playwright Irish Pub on W. 35th Street between 5th and 6th avenues in Manhattan.  (see map) 

Frank Dwyer was born and raised in County Leitrim in the northern part of Ireland.  At the age of 19, he immigrated to the U.S. and settled in New York City working as a carpenter in building construction and renovations.  For the next 20-plus years Dwyer worked on a number of bars and restaurants in various places across New York City.  By the time he was in his early 40's, he decided that he'd rather run his own restaurant/pub that build them.  

Dwyer had just finished building two pubs for Pete Fitzpatrick near Times Square - McGee's Pub and Connolly's.  Dwyer let Fitzpatrick know that he was interested in having his own pub and the last restaurant he built for Fitzpatrick was going to be his first restaurant as a co-owner of a tavern/restaurant.  In 1995, Fitzpatrick and Dwyer opened the first Playwright Tavern and Restaurant at the corner of W. 49th Street and 7th Avenue.  Three years later, the two opened a second Playwright Tavern on 8th Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets.

From there, Dwyer and Fitzpatrick opened a number of other pubs and restaurants in New York - Jack Demsey's, McHale's, another Connolly's location, Legends, and Hurley's Saloon just to name a few.  Dwyer and Fitzpatrick also own a hotel near Times Square, as well as restaurants/pubs in New Orleans and West Palm Beach, FL.  And around the turn of the millennium, they opened their third Playwright Irish Pub on W. 35th St.  

My Uber driver pulled up in front of the restaurant/pub with a red facade situated underneath a series of scaffolds that seem to be omnipresent in New York City.  Walking into the bar, I found a two story facility with a packed downstairs bar area.  It was definitely an Irish/sports bar with multiple televisions on the wall behind the bar.  

In the back of the downstairs bar area was a smaller room with a low ceiling that was even more packed with Iowa fans getting ready to watch the Hawkeyes women's game.  There was no place to sit and I didn't feel like standing for the next two-plus hours, especially if I wanted something to eat.  I decided to check out the rest of the place.

I ended up heading upstairs and I found a large bar area with more televisions interspersed around the room.  There was a nice dark wood bar along one wall with a number of tables and chairs along the opposite walls.  It was much less crowded upstairs than down, and I ended up seated at the bar in front of a television set.  

The bartender that evening was Michael - at least, that's what I thought he said it was.  He had such a thick and genuine Irish brogue that it was sort of hard to understand him, especially with music by the likes of Republic of Loose, Måneskin and The Lumineers playing in the background.  Michael - I'll call him that - gave me a food menu to look over and he started to change the televisions for the Iowa women's game coming on in a bit. 

I ordered a Smithwick's on tap to start.  It tasted flat, but I ended up drinking it.  Later on, I got a Founders IPA on tap - and that tasted horrible.  I was able to choke it down, but it was pretty bad.  I've had the Founders IPA before and this one didn't taste close to the ones I've had.  Then I got a Goose Island IPA draft - and THAT tasted bad.  I finally said something to Michael and asked him if I could just get a Bud Light they had on tap.  And the Bud Light tasted bad - not because it wasn't a craft beer, but because it just tasted weird.  I figured out later on that they really needed to clean their lines out for the upstairs bar.  

Another couple came and sat down by me.  They were also from Iowa - from Altoona - and they were in New York for a long weekend.  They also wanted to watch the Iowa game and they did the same thing as me - looked up to see where a watch site would be and found The Playwright.  The lady ordered a Corona and her husband followed suit.   I saw that they had a number of bottled beers in an enclosed cooler under the bar.  I had already downed about the equivalent of 3 beers and I saw that they had Bud Light in bottles.  I figured that if I was going to sit there and watch a game, I'd better go to a lighter beer.  

We watched the Iowa women play - they won handily 95-62 over Penn State - and found that we had some friends in common since I grew up in Central Iowa and still had a bunch of friends there.  They were good people to hang with while we watched the game.

After the game finished up, I decided I wanted to get something to eat before I went back to the hotel.  It wasn't an extensive menu, but it had a number of appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, and salads available.  I thought about getting the wings for a moment; the burgers sounded good, but I wasn't in the mood for a burger; and the filet mignon sandwich that sounded more like a Philly cheesesteak sandwich with carved beef tenderloin.  

I got it down to one of two things - the pastrami and Swiss on rye, or the shepherd's pie.  I ended up going with the shepherd's pie.  

It was a traditional Irish casserole with a mixture of ground beef, peas, and carrots in a rich brown gravy topped by ropes of golden brown mashed potatoes on top.  This was the real deal in terms of a shepherds pie.  The dish was hearty and robust in taste.  The mashed potatoes - it looked like they had been placed in a tube and pushed out into little squiggly ropes on top of the ground beef mixed with the veggies and gravy.  This meal was a definite spot-hitter and more than made up for the crappy tasting beer they had on tap.

There are hundreds of Irish pubs in New York City, many of which are combination sports bars/Irish pubs.   And the Playwright Irish Pub didn't really do much of anything to distinguish themselves from any of the other places.  They really needed to clean out their beer lines going up to the second floor bar, but other than that it was a good place to hang out and watch an Iowa women's basketball game.  The shepherd's pie was excellent and the service I had from Micheal was good.  The Playwright Irish Pub was a good place to hang for a couple three hours watching sports and having some pretty good food.  

 

San Marcos Mexican Restaurant - Raleigh, NC

During my visit to the Carolinas late last year, I spent a night in Raleigh.  Since it was my first visit to the area, I really didn't know places to eat near my hotel.  I was sort of in the mood for Mexican food and I asked the young lady at the front desk when I was checking in if there were any good Mexican restaurants in the area.  She mentioned that one of her favorite places was San Marcos Mexican Restaurant and it wasn't very far from the hotel.  After getting settled into my room, I ended up heading toward San Marcos to get something to eat that night.

It turns out that San Marcos is a small chain of restaurants that was started in 2005 by José Hernandez.  The first location was in Burlington, NC just east of Greensboro.  A second location opened a few years later in Smithville, NC, just south and east of Raleigh.  So, it was a natural decision to open a third San Marcos Mexican Restaurant in Raleigh in 2016.  Today, there are six San Marcos locations including one in the small town of Mayodan, NC north of Greensboro near the Virginia border, one in Danville, VA just across the border from North Carolina, and another one just north of Danville in Chatham, VA.  

The San Marcos in Raleigh is located in the Crabtree Valley section of the city.  I didn't know what to expect when I set off from the hotel and my GPS took me down a hill and crossing over a creek onto a road that was directly behind the Crabtree shopping mall.  A quick left up a small hill put me in front of San Marcos Mexican Restaurant along Homewood Banks Dr.  (see map)  There was a spacious parking area just to the east side of the restaurant and it was slowly filling up with evening diners when I pulled in. 

From the outside, it appeared to be an upscale Mexican restaurant.  Stepping inside, I could easily tell that this was a nice place.  There was a large dining area with brightly colored walls with Mexican artwork between the molding and the ceiling.  

The other dining room was also part of the bar area at San Marcos.  Faux vine walls decorated the step-up seating area along with ornate columns and large painted vases.  More faux vines hung from the ceiling in the area next to the bar.  

I ended up seated at the bar and was greeted by Catalina who was one of the ladies working as a bartender/server that evening.  The bar room area was highlighted by a large mural that cover the wall above a stone wall.  Accent lighting under the bar set off a warm deep blue glow on patrons seated around the bar.  The only problem was that the Mexican music they were playing in the bar area was really loud.  There weren't a lot of people in there when I first got in there, but it filled up as time went along.  While the music was good, they just had it cranked up a little too loud for the type of restaurant San Marcos was.  

Catalina gave me a menu and I took some time to look through it.  They had a little bit of everything on the menu at San Marcos - steaks and beef dishes, pork, chicken and seafood entrees, enchiladas, big burritos, variations of nacho plates and street tacos.  I knew I'd have no trouble finding something to eat there that night.  

Of course they brought out chips and salsa.  I asked for a green tomatillo sauce and it was brought out warm a bit later on.  The chips were fresh and crunchy, and the salsa had a wonderful flavor with fresh tomatoes, chopped onions and cilantro mixed in.  The tomatillo salsa also had a great flavor with a spicy bite on the back end.  

I also ordered up a Cadillac margarita to start out with.  It was served on a small platter with an Astroturf base. I forget which top-shelf tequila they used, but it was made with fresh-squeezed lime juice, and a shot of Grand Marnier.  The shot of the Grand Marnier actually hung on the side of the glass - an interesting sight that I had never experienced before.  I had to take a couple sips from the glass in order to add the shot of the Grand Marnier.  The Cadillac margarita was garnished with a smoked lime slice.  It was a killer margarita - and, man, was it packed with liquor!

I considered a couple three things for dinner that night - the Carnitas platter sounded pretty good to me, as did the beef enchiladas and the chicken & beef fajitas.  But in the end I went pretty simple.

San Marcos had a number of street tacos on the menu made with choices of grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, steak & chorizo, beef birria (marinated beef short ribs), and even grilled lengua (beef tongue).   And the great thing is that San Marcos allowed me to pick and choose which tacos I wanted instead of having to order 3 of one kind of taco that I've run into at other Mexican places in the past.  

I ordered up a grilled fish taco, a carnitas taco, and a carne asada (steak) taco.  The tacos came with a side of Spanish rice and refried beans set in a deep-fried taco shell.  A garnish of chopped cilantro and onions along with radish slices came on the side along with a spicy red sauce and more of the tomatillo sauce.  I got a Dos Equis Ambar to go along with the meal. 

The fish taco was interesting in that it was a full filet placed inside the grilled tortilla.  When I've had fish tacos in the past, they're usually chopped up before going into the tortilla.  And this was a generous sized tilapia filet in this taco.  The fish was light, flaky and had a nice seasoning on it.  With the cilantro, onions and a dose of the tomatillo sauce, it tasted wonderful.

I didn't think the other two tacos would come close to the flavor of the fish taco, but I was wrong.  The carnitas taco was fabulous, as well.  The pork was crunchy, yet juicy and full of flavor.  The tomatillo sauce was a nice additive with the carnitas taco.  

And the steak taco was also very good.  The chopped steak still had some pink on the inside and was very tender.  I used some of the spicy red sauce on the carne asada taco and it was a pretty zippy flavor with each bite.  

I really didn't know what to expect when the young lady at the hotel told me that she really liked San Marcos Mexican Restaurant.  Based upon her recommendation, I'm glad I gave San Marcos a try.  It was more upscale than most Mexican restaurants I've tried in the past and the food I had was excellent.  And their Cadillac margarita was also one of the better ones I'd had.  Catalina and a couple of the other ladies working behind the bar and in the lounge area that evening took very good care of me on my visit.  If any of the other five San Marcos locations are as good as the one in Raleigh, it's easy to see why it's one of the more popular Mexican restaurants in the area.  

The Crab Cooker - Newport Beach, CA

While we were out at the NAMM Show earlier this year, the father-and-two-sons team from Maag Audio were right behind us with their booth.  My boss from Germany had known the owner who started the business for a number of years and I had the pleasure of meeting the guys the day before the show started.  They even had one of their guys - more of a friend of the two sons - there who worked part-time in their factory.  Of course, we got to talking about food and the guys were effusive of their praise of a seafood restaurant over in Newport Beach.  On Thursday, they invited the four guys from my company out to dinner the following evening.  One of our guys is vegetarian and seafood isn't on his menu, and the one of the other guys from France has dietary restrictions which discourages rich food like seafood.   A quick look at the menu on-line pretty much told him that there wouldn't be anything that he would be able to eat.  So, after the day was done on Friday, my boss from Germany and I piled into their rental van for the 30 minute drive from Anaheim out to Newport Beach for dinner at The Crab Cooker.   

In 1926, Bob Roubian was born to an Italian immigrant mother and an Armenian immigrant father in Pasadena, just north of Los Angeles.  After graduating from high school in 1944, Roubian joined the Navy Seabees seeing action in the Pacific while building bases ramping up to the end of the Pacific Theater of World War II.  After coming back home, Bob helped his father in his construction business.  On the weekends, they'd go deep sea fishing.  They'd cook their catch over an open flame using leftover wood pieces that Bob's father would bring home from construction sites.  Bob learned from his father that frying fish cooked out all the flavor.  

In the late 40's, Bob Roubian was working on a building that used to be a Bank of America branch whose new owners were turning it into a fish market.  Three years later when the opportunity to buy the place came up, Bob jumped at the chance to own his own business.  

Pictured right - Bob Roubian.  Photo courtesy Orange County Register.

Even though there were more than a dozen competitors in the area serving fresh caught seafood.  With the ordinary name "Seafood Varieties" Bob not only cooked the fresh caught seafood, he sold it from counters in his store.  Bob started out frying fish since that's what his competitors did.  But when he returned to his roots by steaming or grilling his seafood, people began to notice.  He set up a steamer in front of the store and cooked crab or locally caught lobster.  It got to a point that people would say, "Let's go to that place with the crab cooker."  The name stuck and Roubian changed the name to The Crab Cooker in 1954.  

To say that Bob Roubian was an interesting guy is an understatement.  Bob was called a "renaissance man" by his family after he passed away in December of 2017 at the age of 91.  Bob was a craftsman who hand-carved the restaurant's front door.  He was a sculptor who made some of the figurines and decorations for his restaurant.  He became a photographer who took a number of photos that hung on the walls in the restaurant.  And he also took up painting with many of his works of art were on display at the restaurant.  He also became a collector of art with much of his collection decorating the walls of The Crab Cooker over the years.  It was said that he sold some of his collected artwork right off the wall to Hollywood stars such as Ray Milland and James Cagney.  

But Bob was also well-known in the 1950's as a songwriter/performer who wrote songs and recorded 45's for Capitol Records.  In 1955, Roubian teamed with country musician Cliffie Stone to co-write and sing a novelty hit "The Popcorn Song" which turned out to be a national hit eventually reaching No. 14 on the Billboard charts.  The royalty income from the song allowed Bob to pay off all debts - including a mounting back-tax bill -  on The Crab Cooker.  

Bob continued to write, record and perform music and even went out on tour to promote his songs with his wife Helen and their two children Robbie and Rhonda (Ronnie) running the restaurant.  However, by the end of the 50's, he'd had enough of the travel and gave up the music business to fully concentrate on The Crab Cooker.

The Crab Cooker was a very popular place to eat.  It was common to see lines form out the door and around the building.  In addition to James Cagney and Ray Milland, celebrities and politicians such as John Wayne and Richard Nixon frequented the restaurant.  There was a time when Nixon was president in the early 70's that his advance team came to The Crab Cooker during the height of the evening rush asking Roubian to find space for the president to eat.  Bob reportedly said, "He can wait in line with the other people waiting to eat, as would any president who wanted to get in."  

Jim Wasko was a 1984 graduate of the Naval Academy and he eventually married Ronnie Roubian.  As a reconnaissance pilot for the Navy, the Wasko family moved from base to base for his assignments.  When the Waskos moved from Guam to a new assignment at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugo near Oxnard, the family finally got to spend more time at The Crab Cooker.  In 1990, Jim Wasko left the Navy and entered into a partnership with his father-in-law to run The Crab Cooker.  

Wasko adopted many of Bob Roubian's tried and true methods of cooking fish and running the restaurant.  Cooking the seafood over mesquite and lightly - or never - seasoning the fish was a key to the success of the restaurant.  In 1993, Wasko opened a second Crab Cooker location in Tustin, about 12 miles northeast of Newport Beach.  It, too, became an instant hit with people who didn't have to make the drive out to Newport Beach to enjoy The Crab Cooker.

Pictured left - Jim Wasko.  Photo courtesy Medium.com

In 2014, a new condominium building was being built next to The Crab Cooker in Newport Beach.  Construction workers accidentally damaged the foundation of the 76-year-old building.  City of Newport Beach engineers said that the building was safe for occupancy, but it turned out that they couldn't restore the building's foundation.  The restaurant stayed open for four more years even as the building began to list to one side.  It was determined that it would be better to evacuate the building and rebuild a new Crab Cooker.  Wasko closed the doors to the restaurant at the end of September 2018.   

Wasko estimated that it would be a year - 18 months tops - to have the old building razed, then rebuilt on the same spot.  But plumbing issues caused by foundation problems effectively pushed back the new opening by 8 months.  After an intensive re-engineering of the foundation (it was found the foundation was in unstable sand rather than bedrock), it was late 2019 when the foundation was poured.  Then, of course, the pandemic hit in March of 2020 causing logistical problems with workers in the space.  No more than 10 workers could be on the property at any time and all had to be spaced apart appropriately.  But by the summer of 2021, everything was back in place - including the hand-crafted door and the 12-foot long mounted great white shark that had been caught off the Newport Beach pier in 1960 - and the Newport Beach location of The Crab Cooker reopened for business.  

We finished the day at the NAMM show and one of the guys from Magg Audio had left early to go get their rental van and to meet us at a lot near the Anaheim Convention Center.  It was about a 20 minute drive from where we were picked up and the front of The Crab Cooker located at the corner of Newport Boulevard and 22nd St.  (see map)  We were let off at the front door while our driver took off to find a space to park in just around the corner on 22nd St.  

There was a line that stretched back to the door when we walked in.  But it seemed to be moving fast.  As we stood in line I noticed all the fresh seafood they had on sale in a case by the front door.  And the seafood wasn't cheap.  Large salmon and mahi mahi filets were $19.95 a pound.  Whole Dungeness crabs were $25.95, and King crab claws were $74.95!  

When one of the guys checked in at the hostess counter, he asked if we could have Caroline as our server.  They had been there a couple days before and Caroline waited on them.  Turns out Caroline was a perky blonde with a great sense of humor.  She was more than accommodating and very patient with six guys who were constantly changing their minds or asking for something after they forgot to ask for it before.  

We were seated at a long table in the front dining room.  It was an interesting mix of artwork, photographs and kitsch with the great white shark hanging from the tin-plate ceiling.  The shark was facing my boss who looked up at one point and said, "Jesus, he looks like he's coming after me!"  

Behind windows in the front dining was the kitchen area where a large kettle grill that was used to cook the seafood.  I couldn't tell if it was one of the Weber industrial kettles that I've seen at one of their Weber Grill restaurants, but it was definitely at least 42" across.  A flattop grill next to the kettle grill was in use making their famous Romano cheese mashed potatoes.  The potatoes are put on the grill to give them a crispy edge maintaining the fluffy inner core of a combination of potatoes and cheese.

The back dining area was bigger than the front and not quite as gaudy.  More historic photographs, artwork and stained-glass windows were on display in the room.  It also seemed a little more quiet in that room, probably because it had a vaulted ceiling with wooden beams over the dining room.  

Caroline had given us menus to look over and a couple of the guys already knew what they were going to get - the lobster skewer.  But they also had other seafood varieties on skewers - shrimp, scallops, and oysters all cooked over mesquite.  They had a salmon filet that tempted me, but I knew I couldn't eat cooked salmon.  They did have a smoked salmon appetizer that I damned near ordered, but we were guests and I didn't want to appear to be taking advantage of our host's hospitality.  Crab cakes, King crab legs, and soft-shell crabs were also part of the dinner menu.  

Appetizers on the menu included the aforementioned smoked salmon, but they also had smoked albacore tuna, as well.  Shrimp cocktails, oysters and clams on the half-shell (I'd never had clams on the half-shell), and calamari were also part of the appetizer portion of the menu.  But our host insisted that we try The Crab Cooker's clam chowder.  It was a Manhattan-style clam chowder in a rich and somewhat spicy tomato broth.  I spiced it up even more with a few shakes of Tabasco into the chowder.  It tasted wonderful and went very well with the Hazy IPA from the Harland Brewing Co. out of San Diego.  Some of The Crab Cooker's famous Fisherman's bread had been ordered and I dipped some into the broth after spooning out the meaty clams that proliferated the chowder.  Crispy bread sticks, crackers and these little bread bites also came with the chowder.

After we all had ordered, Caroline had come out with paper plates and plastic utensils for us to use.  Now, this thoroughly confused my boss from Germany who had probably never eaten on paper plates and used a plastic fork or knife at a sit down restaurant before.  I had to assure him that a lot of the seafood "shacks" I've eaten at in the past were like this.  It wasn't like I had to talk him down from a ledge, but I told him to just go with the flow.  Once he understood what was going on, he was good with it.  

When our food came out, I don't think anyone cared what they were served on.  I went with the wholesale recommendation of the lobster skewer.  Two sides were also included in the meal and I went with the Romano cheese potatoes and the cole slaw.  The cheese potatoes were excellent, but cole slaw was sort of "meh!"  I also had the choice of rice pilaf or sliced tomatoes.  I should have gone with the tomatoes.  

And the lobster skewer was everything the guys raved about beforehand.  The grilled lobster meat had a bit of a char on the outside, but it was tender and juicy on the inside.  It was about 8 to 10 ounces of lobster meat and it was great, but it was - oh! - so rich.  I was definitely full after I finished the skewer and the potatoes.  (And I continued to load up on the Fisherman's bread.  It was killer.  They make about 600 loaves of it a day.)  

One of the other guys got the shrimp and scallops skewer.  I looked long and hard at that on the menu before I made my final choice of the lobster skewer.  It featured pieces of shrimp and scallops that were spaced apart by little slices of bacon.  "I've had the lobster skewers before," he said.  "But this is out of the world.  The bacon just adds some kick to the overall flavor of the shrimp and scallops."  A small tub of melted butter came on the side with the skewers.  We had Caroline running back to the kitchen to get us all more butter about halfway through our meals.  

Of course, Caroline tried to tempt us with dessert, but by the time we were done we'd all thrown in the towel.  The richness of the seafood skewers just put us all back in our chairs patting our stomachs.  It was an outstanding meal.  We were all pretty quiet as we drove back toward our rental house where they graciously dropped us off and continued on to their hotel for the night.

The next day, we profusely thanked our hosts who took us to The Crab Cooker the night before.  They were ecstatic that we liked it so well.  How could we not?  The Crab Cooker is one of the more popular seafood places in Orange County, the food was outstanding and the service we received from Caroline was A+.  It was no wonder those guys asked if she could wait on our table after she had taken care of them a few nights before.  The Crab Cooker turned out to be one of more memorable visits to a restaurant I've ever experienced.

 

Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant - New York City

In New York City recently for a trade show, I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on West 46th Street.  (see map)  Attached to the hotel was an upscale Italian restaurant that definitely caught my attention - not only for the name on the restaurant, but for it being an Italian restaurant in New York City.  I had been traveling for a good portion of the day and I didn't feel like going far from the hotel for dinner that evening, so I ended up going downstairs and having dinner at Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant.

You've probably seen Chazz Palminteri in any one of a number of films or television programs over the past 30 years.  His breakout movie role was in his own screenplay adapted from a one-man stage act he wrote and performed - A Bronx Tale.  He was nominated for an Academy Award for his co-starring part in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.  And he also starred in on my all-time favorite movies - The Usual Suspects.  

Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri was born and raised in New York City to second generation Sicilian immigrants.  At the age of 9, young "Chazz" Palminteri witnessed the murder of a Mafioso in front of his apartment building in the Bronx.  Questioned by the police, Palminteri maintained that he didn't see anything.  Much of his upbringing in the Belmont section of the Bronx was the impetus for him writing A Bronx Tale.  

As a young man, Palminteri was a singer in a band, a bouncer at night clubs, and dabbled in acting in New York.  Once working as a doorman at a night club that was hosting a private party in honor of Hollywood super agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, Palminteri denied Lazar access to his own party because Palminteri didn't know who Lazar was.  Lazar had the club owner fire Palminteri and the 36-year-old actor found himself out of a job and broke.

Pictured right - Chazz Palminteri.  Photo courtesy Tampa Bay Times.  

Within a year, Palminteri had written A Bronx Tale and moved to Los Angeles to perform the one-man play at a theater there.  The play got tremendous reviews and within months Palminteri was getting offers of upwards to $500,000 for the screen rights to the film.  After making friends with Robert DeNiro who sought out Palminteri after seeing him perform A Bronx Tale, the two made the movie with Palminteri writing the screen play and DeNiro in his directing debut with both men playing lead roles in the film.  At the age of 41, Chazz Palminteri had finally made it as an actor and screenwriter.  

But it was a friendship with Frank Sinatra that inspired Palminteri to open his own restaurant.  Sinatra used to tell Palminteri about the great New York restaurants of the 50's and 60's.  Sinatra once told Palminteri, "You always need a place to go and eat when your friends are in town." Palminteri's vision of a restaurant featured classic Sicilian dishes served in an elegant, yet casual setting where the customers may initially come because of Palminteri's name, but come back again and again because of the food. 

It was in 2011 that Palminteri and a couple partners opened Chazz: A Bronx Original in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood.  The restaurant was in business for 4 years before Palminteri pulled the plug saying that he overestimated the city's love for authentic Sicilian cooking.  

It was also in 2015 when a trio of brothers who owned steakhouses in the New York City area approached Palminteri with a chance to be an investor of a restaurant that rivaled some of the New York haunts Sinatra told Palminteri about.  And when he was told that the restaurant would have his name on it, Palminteri jumped at the chance.  The first Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant opened on 2nd Avenue in New York City in 2015 before moving to its present location in the Times Square area three years later.

The three brothers behind Palminteri's restaurant - Russ, Jack and Jeff Sinanaj - were immigrants from Montenegro.  Russ was the first to leave the country and immigrate - albeit illegally - to the United States to live with relatives in New York City.  Not long after, his younger brother Jack also entered the United States on a stolen passport.  Younger brother Jeff took over a year to get from Montenegro to the U.S., also illegally crossing the border in Texas after stops in Germany and Cuba.  

Pictured left - (from left) Chazz Palminteri, Russ Sinanaj, Jeff Sinanaj and Jack Sinanja.  Photo courtesy Forbes Magazine.   

Russ and Jack lived with 8 other relatives in an apartment in New York City where Russ found work as a busboy at Manhattan Grill, an Italian steakhouse.  Jack soon went to work there as a dishwasher and a busboy, but was promoted to bartender within 6 months.  Jack had previous cooking and restaurant experience back home helping his mom cook family meals and helping out in the family's restaurant in Montenegro.  

While at Manhattan Grill, Jack learned the ins-and-outs of what running a kitchen at a steakhouse was all about.  And while Russ eventually left the restaurant business to go into commercial real estate, Jack continued his restaurant career by opening a small pizza place in 1993.  Two years later, Jack sold the pizza joint and got a job as a waiter at the legendary Peter Luger Steak House in Manhattan.  

Jack Sinanaj soon got his younger brother Jeff a job starting out as a busboy before eventually becoming a waiter at Peter Luger.  Before and after their shifts, Jack and Jeff picked the brains of the chefs in the kitchen to learn the proper way to cook steaks, how to season them, and the best temperature to serve the steaks.  The brothers also learned the ropes when it came to running a steakhouse from the management team.  Jack Sinanaj viewed his time at Peter Luger as a masters course in how to run a top-notch steakhouse.    

In 2005, Russ, Jack and Jeff Sinanaj pooled their financial resources along with their cousin Ben to open Ben & Jack's Steakhouse on E. 44th St. in a building that Russ Sinanaj found as a commercial real estate broker.  From there, the Sinanaj family opened a second Ben & Jack's Steakhouse (now closed) in 2008. 

In 2010, the Sinanaj brothers opened their first Empire Steakhouse under the ESH Restaurant Group umbrella.  A second Empire Steakhouse opened in 2012 and the brothers opened a third one in Arizona (now closed) in 2014.  Today, ESH Restaurant Group owns two steakhouses in New York, as well as an Empire Steakhouse in Tokyo.  In addition to the Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant in Manhattan, the group opened a second Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant in 2021 near both Palminteri's and Jack Sinanaj's homes in suburban White Plains, NY.  And in 2022, ESH Restaurant Group opened the Empire Burger House on E. 50th Street in Manhattan.  

(As an aside - all three Sinanaj brothers are legal U.S. citizens gaining their citizenship after initially being granted the ability to stay in the country after declaring for political asylum due to the hostilities in the civil war that was going on in their home region.)  

The small lobby area at the Hilton Garden Inn was downright plain and simple compared to walking into Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant.  The main dining room was in the back of the small restaurant.  The tables were all covered with linen tablecloths with paintings of the New York skyline and scenes from Sicily hanging on the wall.  

On the walls of the bar area were publicity pictures and stills from some of the movies and television shows Palminteri has been in.  There was a small dining area in the front bar area along with outside seating in front of the restaurant.  It was definitely too cool to be seated outside that evening.  

I ended up taking a seat at the bar.  The chairs were low-backed and I have to say they weren't all that comfortable. There were two female bartenders working that night and the one that greeted me was Nora.  Nora had a heavy Eastern European accent and I had a bit of trouble making out what she was saying at times.   I heard Nora talking to a lady just down the bar later in the evening and Nora told her that she was originally from Albania, right next to Montenegro.  Nora told the lady that a large number of people from Albania had immigrated to the New York City/New Jersey area and a lot of them worked in the hospitality industry.  

Nora asked me what I wanted to drink and I saw that they had Stella Artois on tap.  I took one of those for the time being, but I switched up to a Ruffino Modus Primo super Tuscan red for dinner.  She gave me a menu to look over while I heard some interesting music playing in the background of the restaurant.  They were playing soft music covers of 70's rock songs such as "Right Down the Line" (Gerry Rafferty) by Scuba and Dinah York; "Behind Blue Eyes" (The Who) by Amazonics, and "Love Hurts" (Nazareth) by Sarah Menescal.  I sort of got a kick out the soft-rock versions that were playing of those rock classics.  

I started off getting a Caesar salad - hearts of romaine lettuce tossed with a house-made Caesar dressing topped with croutons and shaved parmesan cheese.  It was a pretty good salad, but it was expensive - $17.95.  Then again, I was in New York City where prices are usually outrageous anywhere you go.  It came with a small basket of crusty Italian bread served with an olive oil/garlic spread, Italian olives and chunks of parmesan cheese.  The olive oil/garlic spread with the bread was outstanding.  

There were a lot of good things on the menu to choose from.  And I'm not saying that the menu was expansive - it just had a lot of Italian specialties that I was interested in.  

They had a lot of pasta dishes, main entrees included seafood dishes and steaks, they had Italian specialties such as a chicken breast rolled and stuffed with eggplant, prosciutto and provolone cheese, a chicken parm entree, and veal marsala.  Some of the pasta entrees included a spinach fettuccine alfredo, bucatini carbonara, lobster ravioli in a brandy cream sauce, and linguine with clams.  There was a lot of great choices.  I could have gone in any different direction and been happy with what I got.

I ended up getting the pappardelle pasta with a hearty bolognese sauce.  It was simply sensational.  The hearty meat sauce was tangy with a bit of spiciness.  The large pappardelle pasta noodles were fresh and I could easily taste their flavor through the sauce.  This was truly a great Italian dinner.  

I wasn't certain that I wanted any dessert - they had cheesecake, cannoli, creme brûlée, panna cotta, and a chocolate mousse among many things on their dessert menu.  But Nora told me that all their desserts were made in-house and with that I couldn't pass up getting some of their tiramisu.  It was served on a plate with criss-crossed chocolate syrup and cocoa powder with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.  Just like the meal, the tiramisu was fantastic.  It was so good that a couple nights later I stopped by the bar for a nightcap and I couldn't help but order up another slice of tiramisu to enjoy before retiring for the night.  

Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant wasn't cheap - it was $150 bucks with tax and tip.  But it was truly an outstanding meal.   Although I had the pappardelle pasta with the bolognese sauce, it appeared that anything I would have chosen from the menu would have been great.  The Caesar salad for starters was good, and the tiramisu for dessert was a great ending to the meal.  Nora and the other bartender were both very helpful and accommodating throughout my visit.  I learned that you don't go to Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant because it's co-owned by a celebrity, you go there because the food is outstanding.  And that's all Chazz Palminteri was looking for in having his own restaurant in New York City.  

Tapas Barcelona - Evanston, IL

As my wife and I are wont to do around her birthday, we ended up in Chicago.  Last year, I took my wife to a casual French restaurant (which I never wrote up on Road Tips because it was sort of during my between-gig hiatus) and she was keen to go back again this year.  But I also remembered the tab for the dinner (upwards to 3 large bills) and sort of coughed a bit when she mentioned going back.  I thought it may be nice to try something completely different and out of our element when it came to her birthday dinner.  I looked for ideas on-line, especially in the northern lake shore suburbs of Chicago.  And one place sort of jumped out at me - Tapas Barcelona in Evanston.  We had never really been to a true tapas restaurant in our travels together (although my wife had been to a handful of tapas places when she was visiting her daughter in Spain a number of years ago).  

Actually, I had been to a tapas restaurant in Chicago a number of years ago.  A friend of mine took me to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant developed by Rich Melman.  It's said that Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba was the first tapas restaurant in Chicago when it opened in 1985.  

(A side note - after going to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, I was telling my late father that I had gone to a tapas bar with a friend.  Knowing that my friend was a woman, he said, "Why in the hell would she take you to a topless bar?"  Dad, no - a TAPAS bar, not a topless bar...)  

Tapas bars caught on quickly in the greater Chicagoland area after the success of Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba and today there are over two dozen places that specialize in Mediterranean small plates in the region.  But Tapas Barcelona may be the most authentic.

Giovanni "Gio" Garelli grew up in his parent's tapas restaurant in Seville, Spain.  His parents were both of Italian ancestry, but moved to Spain and ran a tapas bar for nearly 50 years.  Garelli wanted to see the world, so he struck out to America and ended up in Chicago in the 1980's.  Garelli worked in some of the finest restaurants in Chicago in the 80's and 90's before becoming involved as the managing partner in Grappo, an upscale Italian restaurant, in the early 90's.  

At the same time he was working at Grappo, he came up with a concept for an authentic tapas bar of which small plate restaurants were still sort of a novelty in Chicago.   Using recipes from his family's tapas restaurant in Spain, all he needed was a spot in which to put his restaurant.  He found a space in downtown Evanston not far from Northwestern University that had seating for 100 inside, and seating for another 80 people on the wide sidewalk patio in front of the restaurant in warmer months, similar to many tapas restaurants found in Spain.  Garelli opened Tapas Barcelona in 1995.  

Garelli continues to travel to Spain two or three times a year to come up with more ideas and recipes for Tapas Barcelona.  But his staples on the menu haven't changed in years.  Garelli's goal is to transport his patrons back to Spain and to have a true tapas experience without leaving Evanston.    

We had reservations for 7:00 p.m. and we pulled up in front of Tapas Barcelona just before that.  (see map) We found some parking just down the street on Chicago Ave. and went inside.  

They had our table ready for us and the hostess put us next to one of the windows at the front of the restaurant and she dropped off a couple menus.  It was a pretty cold evening and the windows on the front side of Tapas Barcelona are designed to open in warmer weather.  And the metal panes weren't sealed all that well, especially at the bottom.  We ended up putting our coats on the ledge under the window to keep the cold air from seeping in.  But it was still chilly in there.  

The restaurant was quite cozy with the tables in close proximity.  Banquette seating with tables were along one wall.  The floor was a series of checkered tiles with a lot of wood accents for half-walls and trim around the room.  

The bar area faced the front as you walk into Tapas Barcelona.  We didn't notice a lot of people hanging at the bar while we were there.  But there was a steady crowd that was coming in and out of the restaurant.  We took that as a good sign considering it was a mid-week night when we went.     

Our waitress came over to greet us and to take our drink order.  She had a heavy accent and I thought that she said her name was Claudia, but when I got the bill later on that evening it said her name was Clara.  She rolled her "r" so effectively that I thought she said "Claudia".  She looked like a young Salma Hayek and she was definitely Spanish.  I got a glass of their house-made sangria while my wife ordered the "Trip to Spain" - vodka and Grand Marnier mixed with cranberry juice.  

There were so many interesting sounding items on the menu at Tapas Barcelona that I really didn't know which way to go.  We just decided to jump in and start ordering things until we got full.  After we finished our drinks, we ordered up a bottle of the Bodegas Faustino VII Tempranillo, a hearty red from the Rioja wine region in Spain.   

The first thing we got was the Hojaldre Catalan - a Catalonian puffed pastry with sautéed salmon, scallops and chopped tomatoes in a garlic butter sauce.  This was absolutely scrumptious.  The puffed pastry was light and a nice complement with the sautéed seafood with the chopped tomatoes garnishing the dish.  

The other item we ordered right off the bat was the Pulpito a la Plancha - grilled baby octopus with charred endive (escarole).  This wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was still very tasty.  The octopus had a forward charred taste to it and it cut apart very easily.  

Our 2nd round consisted of the Salpicon de Mariscos - basically a Spanish ceviche with chunks of lobster, shrimp, calamari and octopus marinated with lime and served with some olive oil and lemon wedges.  Chopped green, orange and red bell peppers came with the ceviche.  That, too, was excellent.  

My wife thought she needed some grilled vegetables, so we ordered up the Vegetables del Tiempo.  They consisted of sliced tomatoes, asparagus spears, zucchini and egg plant and were served with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil.   I let my wife concentrate on that plate as I was trying to eat most of the ceviche.  

We thought we'd better go with some meat items for our next round and I ordered up the Chuletitas de Cordero - baby lamb chops in a red wine sauce served with couscous on the side.  The lamb chops were tender and easy to cut.  They were cooked to a perfect medium and the sauce just enhanced the taste of the lamb.  My wife likes couscous and she concentrated more on that than the lamb - which left more for me!  

The other meat plate we ordered was the Pincho de Solomillo - grilled beef tenderloin skewers served caramelized onions.  A whipped horseradish sauce came on the side with the beef skewers.  The beef skewers were cooked to a medium rare temperature and very tender to the bite.  It was tough to say which I liked better between the baby lamb chops and the beef tenderloin skewers.  

There were a couple other things that we were thinking of getting - the Chipirones a la Plancha which were grilled squid with lemon, garlic and olive oil; the Albondigas con Tomate - beef meatballs with potatoes in a tomato sauce; and the Queso de Cabra Con Tomate - baked goat cheese in a tomato sauce.  My wife thought about the Pollo al Whisky - grilled chicken with roasted potatoes in a roasted garlic sauce.  But we decided that we'd had enough and wanted to get some dessert.

They had a vanilla flan with a light sugar syrup on the dessert menu that we selected.  A mint leaf came as a garnish on the flan.  Spongy, soft and creamy with a thin layer of caramelized caramel on the top, it was a great compliment to the meal. 

But they also had a Bizcocho Borracho in the menu - basically a tiramisu with a cream sauce.  Since we couldn't make up our mind which one to get, we got both.  I will say that the flan was much better than the tiramisu.  

Going to a tapas bar had been something my wife and I had wanted to do together for a long time.  And Tapas Barcelona turned out to be the perfect time for us to enjoy tapas together.  The food options were all interesting and what we had didn't disappoint us - maybe other than the Spanish tiramisu.  But the seafood selections, the lamb and beef dishes, even the grilled vegetable dish that my wife had was very good.  Clara was certainly patient with us as we navigated the menu trying to figure out what we wanted to get during our time there.  Tapas Barcelona was a great diversion from our usual restaurants and one that was a very good choice for a birthday dinner for my wife.  

Midwood Smokehouse - Charlotte, NC

I took a recent trip to the Carolinas and flew into Charlotte.  I got in around 10:30 a.m. and before I got my bag and rental car, I needed to do some office work.  After about 20 minutes of computer time, I thought that I'd get something to eat before I left Charlotte and headed up to Winston-Salem.  I quickly looked up barbecue places near the Charlotte airport and found a place that looked pretty promising - Midwood Smokehouse.  Once I got my bag and got situated in my rental car, I poked in the address for Midwood Smokehouse and took off toward the place.  

When my wife and I were in Charlotte about six years ago, we ended up going to an Italian restaurant Mama Ricotta's.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Mama Ricotta's.)   It turned out that Mama Ricotta's was under the umbrella of the FS Food Group and its owner and founder Frank Scibelli.  Scibelli had worked as a consultant in Charlotte after getting his degree in business from Wake Forest, but armed with old family recipes he opened Mama Ricotta's in 1992.  

The success of Mama Ricotta's propelled Scibelli to work on other restaurant concepts including Paco's Tacos, Calle Sol, and Little Mama's classic Italian restaurant.  But the one thing that Frank Scibelli felt was missing from the Charlotte food scene was good old-school barbecue.  

15 years ago, Charlotte was known more as a soul food/southern diner type of town.  Fast food restaurants and a fried chicken place that closed at 6 p.m. were the most popular places to eat in Charlotte.  To find good barbecue, you had to look pretty hard to find it.  The barbecue shacks that served great - and cheap - barbecue that you could find in the rural areas of North and South Carolina, you just couldn't find in Charlotte.  Real estate was - and is - at a premium in Charlotte and you needed some space to have a barbecue joint.  

That didn't deter Frank Scibelli in his quest to bring good barbecue to Charlotte.  After he found success with Mama Ricotta's, he decided there wasn't a good Mexican restaurant in the area.  So, he opened a Mexican cantina.  Then he found that there weren't any good burger places in Charlotte.  So, he opened a great burger joint.  When he thought the city lacked a good Tex-Mex restaurant, he went out and opened one up.  It was a foregone conclusion in his mind that he would open a barbecue joint since Charlotte didn't really have great barbecue at the time.   

Before he started Mama Ricotta's, Scibelli was a business consultant and some of his trips would take him deep in the heart of Texas.  He frequented Otto's, a barbecue/burger joint in Houston that had been open since 1951.  He visited a number of barbecue joints across the state talking with some of the pit masters about their techniques.  Scibelli decided that he would do Texas barbecue with a Carolina twist.  

The Carolina twist had to do with the sauces he would offer.  One region of North Carolina was famous for their sweet and spicy vinegar-style sauce.  Another region has a sweet tomato-based sauce, while other regions go for a mustard-based sauce.  Scibelli found a pit master and all he needed was a building.  

He found a building in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood just south and east of downtown that was perfect for is barbecue joint.  Taking the name of the neighborhood, Scibelli opened Midwood Smokehouse in 2011.  

Of course, it was a hit right off the back.  Two more Charlotte locations came some time down the road and another was opened in Huntersville just north of Charlotte.  Scibelli opened Midwood Smokehouse locations in Raleigh, NC and Charleston, SC.  And just last year, a Midwood Smokehouse opened at Charlotte International Airport.  

I put the address for the Midwood Smokehouse location off Park Road at Brandywine Road in the Park Road Shopping Center.  (see map)  When I pulled into the shopping complex, my GPS showed that I had taken a right turn too early and I had to maneuver around the parking lot to get back onto Park Road and take what was nothing more than an alleyway behind the main building.  In a small strip of businesses behind the hardware store in the complex, I found the Midwood Smokehouse at that location.  It was coming up to the noon hour and the place was filling up fast.  

Inside the door, I was greeted by a man with a thick southern accent who was at the stand by the door.  He asked if I was there for some gathering that they were hosting over the noon hour, but I said that I was just there for lunch.  The bar was next to the host stand and I settled in over there.  There were booths and tables behind me in the upper part of the dining area with a the kitchen open through a serving window to my right.

Toward the back of the restaurant on a lower level was another room that was a bit larger than the upper section of Midwood Smokehouse.  This is where the lunchtime gathering was taking place.  The decor of the restaurant was sort of "Americana-Rib Shack", but it wasn't a dump.  Still, it was down-home enough to have rolls of paper towels instead of napkins on the tables.  

I had to use the restroom before I got started and when I walked into the men's room I was somewhat taken aback by the cheesecake posters of 1970's pin-up icons that included Farrah Fawcett, Loni Anderson and Carrie Fisher.  Not that I was offended, far from it.  But I certainly didn't expect to see photos of late-70's teenage boy fantasies in ANY men's bathroom.  I chuckled thinking that there may have been times that a teenaged boy went to use the restroom at Midwood Smokehouse only to linger a bit longer than usual.  

At the bar, I was greeted by a lady who was working behind the counter during lunch.  She gave me a menu and I took a look at what they had for beer selections.  I do love a good beer with barbecue.  I ended up getting a the Juicy Jay hazy IPA from the Legion Brewing Company with 4 locations in the Charlotte area.  

For a barbecue joint, Midwood Smokehouse had an expansive menu featuring a number of appetizers, salads, sandwiches and barbecue plates.  And some of their appetizers were pretty interesting - smoked meatballs made with USDA prime brisket, Pimento cheese fries, corn bread baked in a black iron skillet, and guacamole that is made table side.  Sandwiches included a brisket sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich, and a Pimento cheese burger.  They also had Tex-Mex tacos including brisket tacos with a pineapple pico de gallo and a marinated pulled pork al pastor tacos.  

But I was there for barbecue and they had the main types of meat you'd find at a barbecue joint - pork, beef and chicken.  They also had a seared salmon filet seasoned with an achiote spice, and Yucatan pork ribs all with the achiote spice rub.

And they also had combo plates, the thing I like most about visiting a barbecue place for the first time.  The problem was that they were big.  Well, they had a "Well-Fed" combo and a "Pig-Out" combo that included your choice of 4 different types of meat and two sides which included baked beans, cole slaw, bacon-wrapped jalapeños, mac & cheese, and crinkle-cut fries.  That was going to be too much for me.  

I did see, however, that I could get any one of the barbecue plates and add on ribs, burnt ends or jalapeño cheese-smoked sausage.  I ended up getting the pulled pork plate - the small size - with the burnt end add-on.  I got a choice of a side with the plate (the large plate gives you a choice of two sides) and I got the baked beans.  Along with the pork, burnt ends and baked beans, a side of hushpuppies came with the meal along with a house-made dill pickle slaw with pickled red onions.  

For sauces, they had Midwood's original vinegar/sweet sauce, but they also had a somewhat spicy Eastern Carolina vinegar sauce that went very well with the pulled pork.  In addition to those two sauces, they had a Carolina mustard sauce (I don't like mustard-based barbecue sauce) and a spicy habanero sauce (that I was reluctant to try).

The pulled pork was very good - tender, juicy, full of flavor even without the barbecue sauce.  And the burnt ends were equally as good - the USDA prime beef was succulent and could easily be cut with a fork.  And I really liked the dill pickle slaw they had on the side.  The baked beans were fine - I zipped them up with a combination of the spicy vinegar-based sauce and the vinegar/sweet sauce - but the hushpuppies were just sort of "meh!"  I'm not a big hushpuppy fan and these didn't do anything to make me think differently.   

It could be said that Frank Scibelli started a barbecue renaissance in Charlotte when he opened the first Midwood Smokehouse about 13 years ago.  And my experience at this Midwood Smokehouse was very good.  The barbecue was tasty, they had a great selection of craft beers to choose from (and a full bar of mixed cocktails) and the service was very good.  The restaurant was clean and comfortable, and the it was sort of a funny surprise to see the posters of 1970's sex-kittens in the men's restroom.  I like going to barbecue places in North Carolina and Midwood Smokehouse was a good find on this trip.  

 

El Compita - Davenport, IA

With dozens of good to great places to have Mexican food in and around the Quad Cities, there's three or four that have become our favorites that we put into a rotation when we have a hankering.  However, one that opened near our home in early 2023 has risen to the top of our No.1 go-to for Mexican food - El Compita.  We had been to El Compita a handful of times before I decided to do a Road Tips entry on the place. 

In early 2021, my wife had been hearing from friends who lived out in the Blue Grass/Buffalo area just west of Davenport that a Mexican restaurant had opened in September of 2020 in a spot on a frontage road along Highway 61 near West Lake Park.  (see map)  My wife had suggested going out there a couple three times, but we just never did.  When El Compita (loosely, a Mexican phrase for "buddy") opened along E. Kimberly Road in early 2023, it took us a while before we figured out that it was the second location of the same restaurant we had discussed driving out west to try at some point.  Driving three minutes to get Mexican food was much better than driving 20 minutes.  

The El Compita location at Eastern and Kimberly (see map) has been a number of different things since I first moved to the area in 1991.  There were four businesses in the complex including a Kwik Shop, an audio/video store, an optometrist, and Dudley's Pizza Works.  Full disclosure - I moved to the Quad Cities to be the general manager of the audio/video store and most Monday nights after we would close at 9 p.m., I ended up at the bar at Dudley's conversing with the owner Dudley Burback on a number of occasions about a number of different topics.  Dudley was this bombastic guy, kind of a braggart, but still a likable guy.  He told me that he used to play basketball with legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian at California State - Fresno (now Fresno State) back in the 50's.  And the first few times he'd drop Tarkanian's name when talking about sports, I figured he was full of shit.  

But it turned out that Dudley DID play with Tarkanian for a couple years in college and they WERE still friends who would converse during Tarkanian's years at Nevada-Las Vegas.  Once I found out that Dudley was telling the truth the whole time, the grain of salt that I had to take when talking to him went away.  Well, plus the fact that his deep-dish pizza - $1.00 slices at the bar on Monday nights - was pretty damned good.

Dudley sold his share in the restaurant sometime in the mid-1990's - after I had moved on from working at the audio store - and it was still a pizza place called Davenport Pizza Works.  But that didn't last long and the owner turned it into Montana Jack's Steakhouse.  After putting in a second location over in Moline near the airport, the Davenport Montana Jack's closed down around the turn of the 21st century.  

Since then, the spot has been a number of restaurants or bars.  An Italian place had opened up in there, but it didn't last long.  It's also been a chicken place, another Mexican restaurant, a couple bars, and a couple other concept restaurants.  A buddy of mine from Iowa City had purchased the building a few years prior and there were two or three times when he would call me up and ask me to go down and check on the property to see if the restaurant or bar was open or looked to still be in business.  It was just a bad location for a restaurant.  

So, when we saw that El Compita was going into the space in late 2022, we were weary that another restaurant would work in that building.  But we also didn't know that it was the same El Compita on the far west side of Davenport that was getting rave reviews.  A buddy of mine who lived out west of Buffalo, IA told me one day last year that the El Compita out on the far west side of Davenport and the one that opened up at Kimberly and Eastern in Davenport were the same people.  And with that information, we decided to give the place a try last summer.  We liked it and went back again.  Suddenly El Compita rose to the top of our list - not only because it was close to our house, but because the food was good and the service was fast and friendly.  

It was about 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night when we walked into El Compita.  We've been in there enough times over a period of time that we instantly get recognized as returning guests.  This time we were seated in the larger of the two dining areas at El Compita.  This room has a number of high-backed booth with thick pleather backs and seats.  The dining areas at El Compita are well-lit - almost TOO well-lit as it always seems to be overly bright in there from the light fixtures with LED bulbs.  

The smaller of the two dining area features about six booths and a number of tables.  The high-backed chairs at the tables have the El Compita logo on the back.  We had normally sat in the smaller of the two dining rooms on our previous visits.  

The bar area is up front just as you come in.  It was similar, yet very different to the bar that I used to belly up to on Monday nights after work so many years ago.  Three flat-screen televisions hung on the wall behind the bar with accent lighting under the stone-top bar.    

After we sat down, a basket of their complimentary chips and salsa were dropped off.   They have excellent chips and salsa at El Compita, but they also have a killer tomatillo green salsa there.  I always ask for a bowl of that.  It's not too spicy and give the food a different dimension of taste when I use it.  

Our server that night was someone new who we had not seen in there, a lovely lady by the name of Sarahy.  She told us that she was relatively new and was still trying to pick up on the system they had.  She got me a Sol beer in the bottle while my wife just went with water as she'd had a couple drinks at our neighborhood bar previously.  It was our guess that even though Sarahy was a rookie at El Compita, it was evident that she'd had experience as a server before.  

Since we had eaten there a handful of times, we were pretty well-versed in what El Compita had to offer.  I will say that their carnitas platter is outstanding.  I've also gotten al pastor tacos in the past and they are also very good.  The green chile enchiladas with a choice of ground beef, chicken or cheese (I get the ground beef) have also proved to be very delicious.   And the braised pork chili verde is - I think - the best of its kind in the Quad Cities.  

This visit to El Compita, I tried something that I had seen on the menu, but had never tried before - the fish tacos.  I had been kind of eating on the light side trying to lose more weight and these turned out to be the perfect choice.  The tacos featured grilled tilapia topped with fresh cilantro, chopped onions and a house-made pico de gallo.  They were served in street-style small corn tacos with limes, a side of the tomatillo sauce and a spicy pepper salsa that has a bit more of a bite than I usually like, but is still pretty good.  

The grilled tilapia tacos were fresh and not fishy in taste with that wonderful grilled butter taste you get from good Mexican restaurants.  It was just as good as any meal I've had at El Compita in the past.  They were truly delicious and a very nice light meal.

My wife also went with something that she had never had before - the chile relleno.  They had a choice of one or two on the menu and knowing the size of the chile rellenos at other restaurants in the Quad Cities (not big), I figured that my wife would want two.  I tried to talk her into getting two and that's what she ended up ordering.  However, Sarahy came back after we had ordered and said that they only had one chile relleno left.  Since it came with refried beans and rice, my wife thought it would be fine for her.

When Sarahy brought the plates out, my wife's eyes almost jumped out of her head.  "Oh, my GOD," she exclaimed when the were put down in front of her.  "I wouldn't have been able to eat TWO!"  The Poblano pepper they used was very large and filled with cheese.  It was covered with a red sauce and a blend of Mexican cheese was melted on top.  There was more than enough food for two people to eat.  Since I ate light, I did have a couple bites of her chile relleno.  The cheese-stuffed relleno was very good and their red enchilada/relleno sauce was a great complimentary flavor.  

There's little to nothing not to like about the Davenport location for El Compita.  We've not been to the one just west of Davenport, but it's a good guess that it's just as good as the one not far from our house.  Every time we've been there the food has been excellent, as has the service we've had from the friendly and efficient staff there.  Sarahy - who was a newby for the business, but was probably a seasoned restaurant server - was fun and on top of things.  We love the fact that El Compita is so close to our house and given the track record of restaurants/bars that have gone in and out of that location over the years, we can only hope that El Compita sticks around for a long, long time.  

Turtle Jack's - Etobicoke, ON

When I was up in Toronto for a trade show last fall, my Canadian colleague got a late start coming in from Montreal for our set up and instead of showing up around noon as he initially planned, it was going to be closer to 4 p.m. when he was going to get in.  I thought, OK, well, I guess I can go get something to eat.  I was at a hotel near Toronto Pearson airport and their restaurant didn't open until 5 p.m.  I took a look on line for restaurants around the immediate area where I may be able to go get something for lunch and I found a restaurant just across Dixon Road that had craft beer.  That's all I needed to know and I set out for a quick walk to Turtle Jack's.   

Officially, the restaurant's name is Turtle Jack's Muskoka Grill.  Muskoka is a popular vacation destination about an hour's drive north of Toronto.  And, I had an idea before I went to Turtle Jack's that it was a chain restaurant.  Turns out I was correct.  

Jim Lishman and his family used to vacation in lakeside cabins in Muskoka in the summer time.  The Lishman's had an idea about a cottage-style lakeside restaurant that served great food in a relaxed atmosphere that catered to the vacationers in the area.  In 1992, they opened the first Turtle Jack's Muskoka Grill in Lake Carling, ON.  The summer-only restaurant was an instant hit with the vacationers coming up from Toronto, especially those who had boats and could hook up to the dock on the lake and enjoy food and drinks on the patio overlooking Muskoka Lakes.  

The concept was so much of a hit that the Lishmans decided to expand into the urban areas where their summertime guests lived year round.  Their latest location opened in Niagara Falls, ON in May of 2019.   Turtle Jack's Muskoka Grill now has 19 locations primarily in the Toronto and Hamilton areas in southern Ontario.

The Turtle Jack's I went to was just across busy Dixon Road from my hotel.  It's located in the Doubletree Hotel at the corner of Dixon Road and Carlinview Dr. in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke (pronounced uh-toe-BE-coe).  (see map)  I considered staying at the Doubletree since I'm a Hilton Lifetime Diamond member, but the Embassy Suites I stayed in was on the same side of Dixon Road as the hotel the trade show was in and less than a 5 minute walk between the two.  

It was well after the lunch rush when I got into Turtle Jack's.  Stepping into the restaurant, I found a nice space with a lot of wood accents throughout the restaurant.  A line of tables with banquette seats were along one wall with a smattering of tables in the bar area.  A number of televisions were mounted for viewing from different areas in the restaurant.  Cross-cut reclaimed wood flooring gave the restaurant a touch of classiness.  

The bar was the most prominent feature of the restaurant.  The horseshoe-shaped bar featured high-top chairs and sat approximately 20 to 22 people when filled up.  While much of the ceiling had finished wooden 2 x 8's, the bar had a floating ceiling with recessed lighting giving more of an intimate feeling when seated at the bar.   

Toward the back of the restaurant was smaller dining area that featured six booths and a handful of tables for overflow dining.  A small glass-enclosed patio area was off to the side of the smaller dining room.  Based on aesthetics alone, the restaurant was very slick and spiffy.  I was just hoping the food would follow suit.

I ended up seated at the bar.  The lady bartender had a heavy northern Minnesotan accent when she greeted me and handed me a menu.  I asked her later on if she was from Minnesota and she said that, no, she was born and raised in Toronto.  When I told her that she had a heavy northern Minnesotan accent, she said, "Well, I have relatives in northern Minnesota and we have gone to visit them a few times.  I do have trouble understanding them, 'ey?"  I got a kick out of her.  

After ordering up a Hop Valley IPA from the Tenth and Blake Brewery - a craft beer subsidiary of Molson Coors - I looked through the menu to see what Turtle Jack's was all about.  Most of the food they offered was your usual upscale family restaurant types - appetizers that included chicken or beef nachos, fried calamari, and chicken wings; soups and salads, sandwiches and burgers, as well as steaks, a bison meatloaf that I highly considered, a chicken parmesan entree, and a blackened Basa fish served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley.  Turtle Jack's also has what they called "award winning" pork ribs available in either half or full racks.  

I wasn't all that hungry, but I didn't know when I would be having dinner.  I ended up thinking something light would be good and I found that they had ahi tuna tacos on the menu.  That was a no-brainer.  The ahi tuna was seared and chopped and placed into soft flour taco shells and topped with a cucumber mango salsa, a cilantro slaw and finished with green onions, a sriracha mayo and Japanese furikake seasoning.  I had a choice of a side with the tacos and I got the garlic Caesar's salad with the tacos.  

The tacos were very good.  There were a lot of flavors going on with each bite.  There was a bite of a spicy flavor, a sweet flavor, a fruity taste, and the combination of cilantro and green onions.  The ahi tuna was fresh and had great texture.  With the sriracha mayo, it also made for a somewhat messy meal.  

While I concentrated on the tacos, I did have about half of my salad.  The garlic added to the traditional Caesar's dressing was an interesting - and delicious combination.

I didn't have any problem after the fact finding out that Turtle Jack's Muskoka Grill was a chain centered around Toronto and for over 30 years they've served upscale family-fare-food that keeps people coming back.  The ahi tuna tacos I had were delicious and because it was just me and another couple seated at the bar, our bartender did a great job of making sure my beer glass was filled when it should have been.  She was a friendly person and when I settled up with her before I left to go back to my hotel, she said, "Have a nice day, 'ey"!  Turtle Jack's is definitely a step-up from the sit-down chain restaurants and one that I'd go to over one of those restaurants.  

 

Countryside Saloon - Des Plaines, IL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hinterland Brewing - Green Bay, WI

It had been awhile since I was up in Green Bay and quite sometime since I'd spent the night there.  Most of my previous visits have been day trips up from Milwaukee and back again.  But this time I had a morning meeting set up with my account up there and I spent the night before near Lambeau Field.  Since it had been a while since I had been around Lambeau Field, I found that they had really built up an area just west of the stadium into a mixed use area for residential, commercial and a large entertainment area - especially for before and after football games.  The cornerstone of the complex was a restaurant with a brewery that I had been familiar with for quite sometime.  I went in to have dinner at Hinterland Brewing.  

Bill Tressler thought he was going to end up being a journalist.  He had graduated from Creighton with a degree in journalism, and along with his new wife Michelle they headed to San Francisco after Bill landed a job as an assistant editor on the city desk at the San Francisco Chronicle.  But Tressler also had a couple of other passions - music (he was a drummer in a band) and craft beer.  

Not long after he started at the Chronicle, the paper went on strike.  Needing a job pretty quickly, Tressler took a job as an editor at a magazine that focused on the burgeoning phenomena of craft brewing.  Although he was a home brewer, Tressler found that he didn't know much about the full process of commercially brewed beer.  Looking to learn more about brewing craft beer, he enrolled in the extension program on intensive brewing science for practical brewing at the University of Calfornia-Davis.

Tressler jumped feet first into the course work and immersed himself about all things brewing beers.  After he had completed the extension courses, Dr. Michael Lewis, a well-renown professor who started UC-Davis' brewing program in the early 60's, had started a new school called the American Brewers Guild.  Tressler enrolled in the brewing science and engineering program at the school and after he graduated he decided that he wanted to have his own brewery.

Pictured right - Michelle and Bill Tressler.  Photo courtesy Hinterland Brewing Facebook page.  

In 1995, Michelle and Bill moved back to their hometown of Green Bay and bought a small building outside of Denmark, WI that had been a cheese factory.  With limited funds, hard work and a drive to produce some of the best beer available, the Tresslers established Hinterland Brewing.  They named it Hinterland because of all the trips across country they made in their Volkswagen van while Bill was drumming in a band.  

1999 was a crucial year in the craft beer movement.  There had been a significant number of craft breweries that had popped up over the previous 8 years and there was a lot of price pressure on the small brewers to maintain low prices on six pack bottles.  Hinterland had outgrown their small 7 barrel facility outside of Green Bay and moved into a new facility with a tap room in downtown Green Bay in 2000.  Even though they had their own bottling facility, they could not compete with other craft breweries who were selling beer at $4.99 to $5.99 a six pack.  Tressler decided to go to draft beer only effectively shutting down his bottle line making Hinterland's beer available only in their tap room.  It turned out to be a good decision as a number of the small breweries trying to keep up with larger, more established breweries with low priced beers went out of business.  

Hinterland hung in there and when craft breweries started to go to $7.99 a six-pack, Tressler felt that he could compete with six-pack bottles of his own.  The only problem is that they had sold off their small bottling operation and had to contract with another brewer to bottle Hinterland beers.  That turned out to be a disaster, so Tressler went out and got a new bottling line for his brewery.  Not only did Hinterland grow their business in the early years of the 21st century, they also grew their distribution network.  By 2015, Hinterland was distributed in 10 states.  

Also in 2015, the Green Bay Packers announced they were developing a mixed-use entertainment, commercial and residential space across the street from Lambeau Field that would be named the Titletown District.  It would have a hotel, restaurants, bars, office space and a large park that would be both a combination walking mall/playground and a regulation size football field complete with artificial turf.  The goal was to have the first phase of the project finished by the start of the 2017 season.  

The Tresslers saw a great opportunity to grow the Hinterland brand even more by signing on to be a large component of the Titletown District.  The 24,000 square foot facility nearly quadrupled their brewing capacity from 5,500 barrels annually at their downtown brewery to 20,000 barrels of beer (at the new facility near Lambeau Field).  The new Hinterland brewery also had a taproom/beer hall and a restaurant, as well as two private dining/entertainment rooms, and a heated outdoor beer garden.  Ground was broke for the facility in the spring of 2016 and Hinterland moved into their new digs in April of 2017.  

A good friend of mine who died unexpectedly in 2016 was a huge Green Bay Packers fan and Hinterland beer was one of his favorites.   Green Bay was part of his territory for a handful of years and he loved coming to the city and hanging out at a bar drinking Hinterland beer.  It was only natural for me to head to Hinterland that evening as I think of him often when I get up to Green Bay and to drink a beer in his honor and memory.  

Hinterland is located just across the street from Lambeau Field and is located near the corner of S Ridge Road and Lombardi Avenue.  (see map)  Titletown has a large courtyard behind it that opens into a regulation size football field, a playground, an outdoor gaming area and - in the winter - a skating rink and a tubing hill.  The man-made hill and slope is a built on a three-story building that has a restaurant/bar - 46 Below - on the first level and an event center on the second level.   The Titletown commons area is packed before and after Packers games.  

Inside Hinterland Brewing, their brewing facility is visible behind a large glass window.  Tours of the brewery are available on Saturdays starting at noon.  Above the brewing facility was a party area that hosted parties and events.  There was something going on up there the night I was there and there were a lot of people heading up and down the steps while I was there.  

The large great room that houses the main beer hall features wood-burning fireplaces at each end.  Full-bodied deer mounts and moose head mounts were part of the decorations on or near the fireplaces.  Small tables and comfy chairs were near the hearths on either end of the dining room.  

The beer hall featured a combination of brick and glass walls with an angled ceiling.  It was large, yet the reduced lighting in the room gave it a cozy feel.  

I ended up seated at the bar planting myself in front of one of the two flatscreen televisions showing a basketball game that evening.  There were three bartenders working that evening although it wasn't all that busy in the brewpub area.  The kitchen for the restaurant was located directly behind the main floor bar.  

One of the bartenders, a young lady who went by the name of Koko, came over to greet me and drop off both a food menu and a beer menu.  There was a lady who was seated to my right and she immediately said, "You really need to try the maple bock beer!"  After I told her that I'm not into either dark or sweet beers, she said, "I don't either, but it's great!" 

Not taking her recommendation, I saw some interesting beers and I asked for a taste of the Jamaican Haze - a seasonal New England-style hazy IPA; as well as a taste of their year-round Saving Gracie hazy IPA, and another seasonal Citrus haze they had that evening.  After trying a taste of all three, I settled on the Jamaican Haze.  I gave Koko my credit card to hold as I started a tab for food and beer at that point.  

The menu at Hinterland Brewing features a number of sustainably and locally grown items that can cause the menu to change from day-to-day depending upon availability.  Seafood is flown in on a regular basis from both the Pacific Northwest and New England, as well as from Honolulu.  Hinterland supports local farmers and specialty artisans from across northeastern Wisconsin supplying the restaurant from everything from beef, pork and poultry, heirloom vegetables and hand-foraged mushrooms to artisan breads and cheese.  

The food menu at Hinterland wasn't all that big, but it did have some interesting items to choose from.  Wood-fired oyster mushrooms, garlic & lemon hummus with olives and garlic naan bread, and a smoked-salmon spread were all things off the appetizer part of the menu that caught my eye.  They had a tuna poké bowl as part of the salad offerings, and wood-fired pizzas were available as well.  The steakhouse burger featured Hook's white cheddar cheese and Nueske's bacon on it.  And they had a handful of main entrees including a wood-fired halibut, a wood-fired grill ribeye, and beef short ribs braised in the maple bock beer the lady seated next to me early on had raved about.  

But I saw something else on the menu that made my stomach do jumping jacks - the prime beef and foraged mushrooms stroganoff.  It came with wide egg noodles and a brown beef gravy.  I was ready to order, but Koko was nowhere in sight.  I noticed that she had been conversing with a guy three seats down from me, but when that guy paid his bill and left, Koko disappeared.  I had to get the attention of one of the other bartenders to take my order.  

The only problem was that he came back to me moments later and said, "We're out of the beef stroganoff.  Just sold out."  I groaned noticeably as he handed me a food menu to look over.  I didn't want the burger, and I wasn't going to get a pizza.  I sort of shrugged my shoulders and ordered up the braised beef.  

And I have to say that it wasn't a bad second choice.  It came on a bed of smashed garlic potatoes with a medley of braised carrot slices and green beans.  It was covered in a mushroom gravy - possibly the same gravy they had for the stroganoff.  The beef was tender and pulled apart very easily.  The mushroom gravy was rich in taste and went extremely well with the braised beef.  While it wasn't what I originally wanted, my appetite was sated with this dish.  

After I finished up dinner, one of the bartenders - Koko was still missing-in-action - came over to clear my plate.  He asked me if I wanted any dessert that evening.  I asked what they had to offer and he said that they had a pumpkin cheesecake.  Oooo... That sounded really good.  So I told the bartender that I'd take a slice of that.  He acknowledged my order when he took away my plate.  

The only problem was that he forgot to put the order in.  And it was a good 15 minutes before the other bartender came over and asked me if I wanted another beer.  I said, "Well, I had ordered a piece of the pumpkin cheesecake from your partner behind the bar and I haven't seen it."  

The other bartender was in earshot from our conversation and when he heard me say that, he said, "Oh, shoot!  I forgot to put that in!"  I told him that I no longer wanted it and to just give me my check.  

When he handed me the check, he sort of stood there waiting for me to throw the credit card on top of the receipt.  Only I didn't have my credit card.  I told him that my card was behind the bar somewhere, that I had given it to the girl to start my tab and she never gave it back.  "And she's been missing-in-action for the past hour or so," I said sort of in a snarky manner.  I didn't care, I was half-way pissed off at the service at this point.   

It became panic mode behind the bar as the two bartenders searched for my credit card.  Finally, one of them found it next to the cash register at the far end of the bar.  They ran my card and gave me my check and I got out of there.  

Other than the poor service I received from the 3 bartenders - well, really the two bartenders after the first one ran off - my experience at Hinterland Brewing was positive.  The food was excellent, I really liked the Jamaican Haze hazy IPA that I got (I even rebuffed efforts by a fellow diner on her recommendation of the maple bock), and the atmosphere - for a beer hall-type of establishment - was warm and cozy.  It wasn't all that busy that night so I can't figure why the service was so bad.  But everything else about my visit to Hinterland Brewing more than made up for the poor service.  

Parantha Palace - Etobicoke, ON

When I found out that I was going to Toronto for my first time ever this last fall, one of my former colleagues who was also going to be there the same time told me that there were a large number of Indian restaurants in the greater Toronto area.  "There's so many good ones that you almost can't go wrong with any of them," he told me.  We took a stab at one place that wasn't far away via Uber - Parantha Palace.

Parantha - also known as Paratha - is an unleavened flatbread that is popular in Indian cuisine as well as in southeast Asia and parts of the Caribbean.  It's a little more thick than naan bread and is usually stuffed or topped with meats, vegetables, chiles, and cheese.  I guess you could call it a type of Indian pizza.  

Parantha Palace has been in business since 2007 in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke (pronounced eh-TOE-bi-koh) providing different types of paranthas as well as Indian specialties.  In 2021, a second Parantha Palace opened in Mississauga, ON.  

The Parantha Palace we went to was the original one on Rexdale Boulevard in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke west of downtown Toronto.  (see map)  It was about a five minute Uber ride from our hotel and it was around 8:30 p.m. when we pulled into the parking lot.  From the outside, we were both a little hesitant - the building looked like it may have been a convenience store at some point, the parking lot was lit up like a used car lot, and there were bright neon signs and large pictures of Indian food in the front windows.

But when we opened the door to walk in - WOW!  The succulent smell of curry, masala and those great Indian spices just enveloped us.  My buddy turned to me and simply said, "Oh, yeah..."  And the other thing we noticed in the dark restaurant - we were the only Anglos in the place.  And we both knew that meant the food had to be great.  Funky Desi music videos by artists such as Arjan Dhillon, Jordan Sandhu, and Navaan Sandhu were playing on the flat screen televisions and on the sound system of the place.  

We took a booth toward the back of the place with the pick-up/to-go counter not far away from us.  The menu was on the wall behind the counter and there was a glass enclosure with bottled drinks available.  A young lady came over with menus for us to look over and we both ordered Kingfisher beers as they were on the menu.  However, the young lady said that they were out of Kingfisher - and had been for some time.  (Kingfisher is even tough to find in Canada!)  We each ended up ordering Stella Artois from her.    

Just over the counter was a man whose only job was to make the parantha.  It's similar to naan bread in that it's an unleavened flat bread but made with wheat flour where naan is made with a white flour.  And whereas naan is baked, parantha is applied with ghee and cooked in a frying pan called a tava (or tawa).  Traditionally, it's more of a breakfast item topped with butter - sort of like toast.  But some people will add toppings such as vegetables, meats or even sweeteners to the parantha.  We watched him make a handful of them and he was certainly keeping busy.   

The menu was similar - yet somewhat different - to many of the Indian restaurants I've been to.  They had lamb, goat, chicken and shrimp dishes.  Vegetarian dishes such as paneer tikka masala (fried cheese in a spicy sauce), bhartha (egg plant), and bhindi do piayza (mainly okra and lots of onions) were also on the menu.  I was mindful of that in case I wanted to bring my vegetarian colleague back to Parantha Palace at some point.  

We started out getting a couple samosas off the appetizer part of the menu.  The deep-fried pastries were light and flaky on the outside, but had a great spicy flavor with the potatoes, onions and peas inside.  A traditional plum sauce and a side of creamy mint chutney - more thin than the mint chutney I've experienced in the past - came with the samosas.  The plumb sauce had a nice spicy kick to it.  It was so good I almost drank it directly from the serving cup.  

For our main courses, I pretty much knew what my friend was going to get - the butter chicken, the same thing I think he's always ordered every time we've gone out for Indian food together.  The butter chicken had a deep orange color to it and my friend said the taste was outstanding.  

I got the lamb masala.  It was a traditional lamb masala with the bones still in the stew.  I had to be careful of that fact so I didn't accidentally swallow any of the joint bones.  It was absolutely off the chain.  The lamb was so tender and full of flavor.  I could taste the lamb through the excellent masala sauce that had a bit of a kick on the tongue.  We got a couple orders of garlic naan and I used mine to dip in the great masala sauce as well as in the spicy plum sauce.

Man, I was absolutely stuffed when I finally finished.  But my buddy said that we should get one more entree to share or - at least - another appetizer.  I said, "No way!  I'm so full right now that I don't know if I can get up out of this booth!"  My buddy finally decided to throw in the towel, as well.  

After we paid our bill at the counter, the young lady who had been waiting for us came over with a treat.  They were two gulab jamun - an Indian dessert sort of like donut holes dunked in a sugary syrup.  "For you!  For you," she said excitedly.  I protested saying that I was so full, and my buddy said that we had already paid our bill.  "No, no," she implored.  "Free.  You were nice.  I'll get bowl for you."  She came back out with two gulab jamuns in a small container covered in a light sugar syrup.  

We Ubered back to the hotel and went to the bar for a nightcap.  My buddy opened the container and pulled one of the little ball-like cupcakes out and took a bite.  "Holy shit," he said with his eyes widening.  "This is going to give me a sugar rush!"  And he was right, the little ball of deep-fried goodness could put someone into a diabetic coma if they ate too many of them.  Even though I was still stuffed from dinner, I couldn't help but inhale the scrumptious treat she had given us for being absolute gentlemen to her while she waited on us.  

Finding a place like Parantha Palace and having a meal like my friend and I had makes traveling and being away from home on the weekends somewhat more tolerable.  First of all, the service we had from the young lady was outstanding.  She was cheerful and her happiness to wait on us was evident throughout the meal.  But the food was just off the hook.  The lamb masala I had was so good that I overate.  My buddy absolutely loved his butter chicken.  The sauces with the meal and with the samosas we got were all just out of this world.  I think we have a pretty good Indian restaurant back home and I've eaten at some other good ones in my travels, but Parantha Palace was off-the-chart excellent.  

The Old Man River Restaurant & Brewery - McGregor, IA

During a road trip up the Mississippi River last fall, we ended up in the river town of McGregor, IA.  My wife was starting to feel a tad peckish and we decided to find someplace locally to get something to eat.  We decided to go to a place that we'd been to a couple times before - The Old Man River Restaurant & Brewery.  

The building that houses Old Man River dates back to the 1880's and was once the offices of "Diamond" Jo Reynolds, an entrepreneur who owned grain elevators, steamboats, and mines along the upper Mississippi River.  The building has been a brewing facility since 2008 when Dave and Marci Strutt realized their dream of operating their own brewpub.  Joining the Strutt's was brewmaster Jake Simmons who was a quality control team member at the Schlafly brewery in St. Louis.  Simmons was actually going to school for his PhD in biology, but realized that he'd rather be brewing beer than finishing his doctorate.  

In 2011, Schlafly came to Simmons and asked if he could brew some specialty beers for them for distribution into Iowa, northern Illinois and Wisconsin.  Simmons readily agreed, but it turned out that Old Man River was at full capacity and had no room to add more brewing vessels.  Dave Strutt and Simmons' father James financed a new brewery on the Iowa River Landing in Coralville, IA as - at the time - there were no active breweries in the greater Iowa City area.  

The new venture was called Backpocket Brewery (click here to read the Road Tips entry on Backpocket) and it was large enough to make not only their own German-style beers, but to make the specialty beers for Schlafly.  (Backpocket brewed a very excellent American Pale Ale for Schlafly for a few years.)  Even though The Old Man River and Backpocket shared ownership and a head brewer, they were two separate entities.  

Because they were focusing more on the Backpocket Brewery, the Strutts and Simmons sort of let Old Man River Brewery go by the wayside.  It closed in the fall of 2015 and sat empty for a couple years.  In August of 2018, Duane and Diane Vorwald purchased The Old Man River, but it needed some work on the place before it could reopen.  They were finally able to reopen in March of 2019.  My wife and I had stopped in on our way back from a weekend trip up to Decorah in the fall of 2019 and we just had beer that trip.  This time, however, we were going to get something to eat.  

We pulled into downtown McGregor around 1:30 and pulled up to the two-story stately brick building with arched windows on both floors at the corner of Main and A streets.  (see map)  In the park across the street, there was a re-enactment of some sort going on.  We stood there for a moment watching people in 19th century garb doing something and it was obvious that we were late to the party and didn't know what was going on.  

We went inside Old Man River and found that the place hadn't changed since the last time we were there. Exposed wooden beams with exposed ductwork were above us while a refinished wooden floor was below.  Large wooden beam supports were placed around the middle of the dining area.  The 3-sided bar area is right up front as you come in the door from A St.  

The sign up front said, "Please Wait to Be Seated" and we stood there for a few moments before a lady with a couple plates of food whizzed by us.  "Sit anywhere, folks," she called back over her shoulder.  It was evident that they were understaffed that day - they had just two people waiting tables and serving beer at the bar.  Later on, I saw that they put a hand-drawn sign over the "Please Wait to Be Seated" sign that said, "Please Be Patient as We're Understaffed."  

It was a cold day and the patio area out back was empty.  It's actually a nice patio with metal chairs and tables attached to the west side of the building.  We've never been there when the weather is warm enough to be able to sit outside, but it looked like it would be a great place to hang out.  Below the decking on the outside of the patio were water troughs filled with dirt that held hop vines.  There were still some hops on the ropes going up the outside of the patio.  

We found a seat at a table near the north entrance of the establishment and we had to tell a couple people who came in that way later on who also waited to be seated to just find a seat on their own.   And it was cold in there - my wife is usually chilly in most places, but even I thought it was cold in the place.  There were a number of people seated at tables and at the bar who kept their coats on.  In the corner behind us was a small stage that is used for live music from time to time 

The menu at The Old Man River Restaurant & Brewery is your basic bar food - burgers, sandwiches, wraps, appetizers, soups, salads - nothing fancy.  Entrees such as steaks, stuffed pork tenderloin, seafood and stuffed ravioli were available after 4 p.m.  A prime rib special was available on Saturday nights.  They also featured pizza with a 14" regular flour thin crust or a 10" gluten free crust available.  

When one of the two ladies running around the dining room finally got to us, I ordered up an IPA they had on tap and my wife ordered some green tea to warm up from one of the ladies.  She brought my wife's tea, but forgot to get my beer.  I finally did get my beer about 10 minutes after I ordered it.  I did cut them both some slack because the place was about half full or more and they were working their asses off.  

I wasn't all that hungry and my wife thought she needed some soup.  I suggested that I order a sandwich and get some fries with it that we could split and she could get a cup of soup to help her warm up.  There was a caldron of tortellini tomato soup on a table near the door out to the patio.  My wife finally deduced that it must be self-serve.  She sort of shrugged her shoulders and went over to ladle out a cup of the soup.  

I ordered a reuben sandwich with the Thousand Island dressing on the side.  We also asked for an extra plate.  When it was brought out, there was no dressing on the side, no ketchup, salt or pepper for condiments, and no side plate.  My wife went up to the same table where the soup caldron was and picked up a small plate that is used to put the soup cups on.   I knew that we wouldn't be able to get either the side dressing or ketchup to go with the fries.  I gave my wife half of the sandwich and we decided to just eat up and cut our losses at that point.  

The sandwich was fine, a basic reuben with oven-roasted corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.  They did have some Thousand Island dressing on the sandwich so it wasn't a complete loss.  The fries were very good - crunchy on the outside and flaky warm on the inside.  They would have been better if they would have had some black pepper on them and some ketchup to dip them in.  

Now, my wife and I are pretty understanding and patient when it comes to situations like this where the restaurant is understaffed by one or two people - especially since COVID.  But there were a couple ladies at a table next to us who were not.  They were pretty vocal with their displeasure of slow service and one of the ladies working the floor said, "Ladies, we're sorry.  We are short-staffed today.  We're doing the best we can."  

It was one of those moments when I just wanted to get up, walk over to the table and say, "Just shut up and eat!"  I mean it wasn't fine dining.  

While there were a few problems with our visit to Old Man River Restaurant & Brewery, I was more than satisfied with the food and the beer we had that day.  Service was choppy only because they were understaffed.  And it was sort of uncomfortably cold in there.  It's a neat place - the restored building has some distinctive character and an interesting vibe.  But like a lot of restaurants and brewpubs fighting to hang in there these days, it's got some problems.  If you can get past all that, you'll find that The Old Man River is a good destination to hang out for a while.  

The NAMM Show - Anaheim, CA

For years, one of the most famous shows for professional sound has been the annual National Association of Music Merchants, or the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA.  My company had shown at NAMM in the past in conjunction with their former North American distributor - the former company I worked with for nearly 20 years.  We decided last year that we needed to make our presence known at the show this year to let everyone know that we were now on our own in North America.  I had never been to a winter NAMM Show, so I was sort of excited.  (I'd been to a couple of the summer NAMM shows in Nashville.  The summer show is much smaller than the winter NAMM.)   

The NAMM show is one of the oldest trade shows of its type in the world.  The origins of the show date back to 1902 when the National Association of Piano Dealers of American - NAPDA - had their first convention in Baltimore.  10 years later the association changed their name to the National Association of Piano Merchants of America and the show changed its name to the NAPMA Convention.  

By 1919, the rise of early jazz and marching band music forced the organization to change their name to the present day National Association of Music Merchants. The NAMM Show was held the next 50 years alternating between Chicago and New York City.  In 1937, the show required people to register in advance for the first time.  237 attendees and 86 manufacturers ranging from piano manufacturers and distributors, to music publishers, to radio and phonograph manufacturers were at the show in New York.  

In 1970, NAMM added a west coast show that was alternately held in either San Francisco or Los Angeles.  It moved permanently to Anaheim in 1979 under the name Winter Music & Sound Market while continuing to have a summer show in Chicago.

By 1990, the summer NAMM Show at McCormick Place in Chicago had lost its luster - it was so poorly attended that people referred to that year's show as "The Wake by the Lake".  In 1993, the summer show moved to Nashville and was more of a guitar and recording studio show.  20 years later, the Anaheim convention was renamed the NAMM Show and in 2018 the show expanded into the new north hall at the Anaheim Convention Center.   

The pandemic meant some changes in the NAMM Show which saw a record attendance of 115,000 attendees in January of 2020.  The show was cancelled in 2021 and it was moved to the summer in 2022 with just over 46,000 in attendance.  The 2023 show was held in April last year and moved back to its regular date in late January this year.   However, attendance was still about 40% lighter than their record year in 2020 and about 15% lower than anticipated attendance by show organizers.  

Our company debated back and forth about the merits of going to NAMM this year.  Talking with many of our accounts in North America in the previous months, they all thought it would be a good thing if we had a presence at the show.  But showing at NAMM is expensive.  We decided to do a small booth - a 10' x 10' foot print in the north hall.  I have to say that my colleague Stef from Montreal did a stellar job spearheading the plans for our appearance at the show.  

One of the other things we had to deal with was housing.  I suggested that we stay at a hotel and rent a car to get us back and forth.  But being the rookie in our group at NAMM, that was roundly shut down.  We decided to rent a house in the area through VRBO.  

The house was a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house about a mile walk from the Anaheim Convention Center and about 3/4's of a mile from Disneyland.  In fact, the house was set up more for families than for 4 conventioneers as it had a game room, multiple strollers, tricycles and kiddie bikes, bunk beds, extra smaller beds in the bedrooms, and a large common area for families to gather for dinner or whatever.  The funny thing is that we only found 2 of the 3 baths that had showers in them - 3 of us shared that one while our boss from Germany took the big room with the private bathroom.  

It was after we had all gotten home that I realized the 3rd shower was in the pool house next to the garage that had been converted to a game room.  Our international sales manager from France had the bedroom that had doors that allowed him to walk out to swim in the pool - which he did numerous times during our stay - and he noticed the small building at the far end of the pool next to a covered patio.  "I never even thought to look in there," he said later on.  "But who would want to walk out to another building just to take a shower in the morning!"  

The back patio area was very nice and relaxing with a covered patio with a gas grill, a hot tub, a seating area with a table-top gas heater, and there was an orange tree from the neighbors next door that my Montreal-colleague - who is about 6'4" - could reach up and grab oranges to eat off the tree.  We were close enough to Disneyland to be able to watch the fireworks they would shoot off at night.  

It was about a 30-minute walk one-way between the house and the convention center and the weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were there.  We were lucky - our stay was sandwiched between two large storms that wreaked havoc on Southern California the week before and the week after we were there.  It rained lightly one morning while we were there, but by the time we left the house to walk over to the convention center, it had cleared off and was just a bit muggy.  My colleague from Montreal said, "I've come to NAMM for 12 years and that was the first time I ever saw it rain here."  

We made dinner on our own a couple times - two of our guys Ubered over to a grocery store nearby, while a liquor store near us actually delivered a bunch of beer, wine and liquor to our house.  The other nights, we did Uber Eats - two nights sushi and two nights Thai.  And it was way too slick.  I passed around my computer for the guys to order what they wanted, I clicked on the "order" button and each time it was less than 30 minutes and the Uber driver was pulling up to the house with the deliveries.  And the sushi and Thai food were excellent - the Thai was still warm when delivered, and the sushi was fresh and very good.  I overate the whole time we were there as there was also a great burrito place in the food court at the Anaheim Convention Center.  I think I gained 10 pounds while I was there.  

After we all got home, we were talking during a Zoom meeting about how well we all got along during our time together.  "No drama, no problems, no hard feelings," our guy from France said.  "I don't get along with my boys as well as we all got along in Anaheim."

And it was a good show for us.  We were situated in an area where a number of friends in the industry were also showing.  Good friends of mine from my previous job were showing their gear just across the aisle from us, a company from Utah that makes similar gear as we do - but we're friendly with - was directly behind us.  A Southern California headphone manufacturer that uses our headphone amplifiers and digital-to-analog converters to display their wares was just down the aisle.  We made new friends with some of the other small booths surrounding us.  

It wasn't the epicenter of celebrity-sightings - the musicians and performers were hanging out in another hall with manufacturers such as Gibson, Fender, Marshall and other companies.  But we did have the "who's-who" of recording engineers and producers such as Bob Clearmountain (Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis and the News, Bon Jovi); Gentry Studer (Bush, Ryan Adams, Metallica), Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Beck, Paul McCartney), and Michael Romanowski (Alicia Keys, Peter Frampton, George Strait) who stopped by to say, "Hi!" as all of them use our gear in their studios.  

Each year, the NAMM TEC Awards are given out in 24 categories ranging from studio monitors to microphones to signal processing to wireless technology.  Our company had 4 products in the finals this year - the most we had ever had in nearly 15 years of showing at NAMM.  But our boss was convinced that we would not win.  ("We don't spend enough money to win like the big companies do," he said with a shred of sarcasm.)  So, we didn't go to the awards on Saturday night and hung out at the rental home eating sushi, drinking beer and wine, and watching basketball - all the while wondering if we really WOULD win an award.    

The next day, a mastering engineer from Brazil who we were friendly with came by and told us that he had gone to the awards banquet the night before and said that we had won for our stereo image enhancer that is one of - no, it is - the best selling product we have.  We couldn't verify it and we were skeptical, but later in the day I was able to bring the TEC Awards site up on my phone and - sure enough - we did win!   We were absolutely floored!  We thought that maybe the same people who came around with our table placards touting our products that had made the finals would come by with our award.  Nope - never happened.  And trying to get the award from the TEC Award people in the days and weeks after the show was over turned out to be quite the ordeal.   

For our first big trade show after going direct in North America, I'd have to say that it was a rousing success all the way around.  Four 50-year-old-plus men in a house didn't have any problems being around each other for hours on end.  We ate some good food and probably drank more than we should.  We reconnected with people and made our presence known in the professional audio industry once again.  But it was expensive to show at NAMM - booth costs, transportation costs and housing costs were well over $25,000 - a chunk of change for our little company from Germany.  The jury is still out if we're going to go back to the NAMM Show in 2025, but if we do we've already said that we'll probably have to send one guy to the awards ceremony because - who knows?  We may win another award!