Road Tips

Amsterdam Tavern/The Dam - St. Louis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boonie's on the Avenue - Muscatine, IA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corner Pub and Grill - Valley Park, MO

I had to head down to St. Louis earlier this year and I was staying out in the far southwest side of the city the evening before my morning meeting.  The food options around the hotel were mainly fast food or sports bar fare, and even though I wasn't that hungry I wanted something a little more substantial than that.  I did a quick look on-line to see what was in the area and there was a place that was about a five minute drive from the hotel that had a little bit more in terms of upscale offerings.  I ended up heading over to the Corner Pub & Grill in Valley Park.

Brent Baldanza was a 16-year-old kid going to Parkway West High School in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin when a friend of his asked him if he'd be interested in working at her dad's restaurant called Mike Duffy's that was just getting ready to open a second location near their school.   When that location opened in 1989, Baldanza was in the kitchen and helped prepare the first order that left the kitchen.  He fell in love with the restaurant business and found a mentor in Mike Duffy's owner Bruce Frailey.  

After college, Baldanza started to work at Cafe Napoli, a wonderful Italian restaurant located in the Clayton area of St. Louis.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Cafe Napoli.)  It was at Cafe Napoli that Baldanza learned the ins-and-outs of the restaurant business from owner Tony Pietoso starting out in the kitchen, working his way up to a server, then as a bartender before becoming the front-of-house manager for the restaurant.  With help from Pietoso, Frailey and his father, Baldanza was determined to open his own restaurant.  

Along with another high school classmate, Jon Fogarty, the two teamed up to open the first Corner Pub and Grill location in the far southwestern suburbs in 2007.  A second one came about a couple years later in Chesterfield at the corner of Clarkson Road and Clayton Road.  In 2010, the pair opened a higher end eating establishment - The Tavern - which was located in the same shopping and entertainment complex as the original Corner Pub in Valley Park.  

In 2012, Baldanza and Fogarty came up with a new concept called The Shack - a breakfast and lunch joint that catered more toward college students and young professionals.  It was located near St. Louis University and after some tough times starting out, The Shack became a local favorite.  

In 2004, Baldanza's daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  Baldanza and his wife, Heather, found that gluten-free items at restaurants were few and far between.  When he opened the first Corner Pub, he made sure to have a number of gluten-free options on the menu.  And each of the locations of the Corner Pub, The Tavern and The Shack have a number of gluten-free foods to choose from.  

Baldanza and Fogarty came up with a corporation called OG Restaurant Group to oversee operations of their restaurants.   In addition to The Tavern and two Corner Pub and Grill locations, there are now five Shack locations in the St. Louis area and two in the Kansas City area.  Another Kansas City area location was scheduled to open this Spring, but has been delayed due to the worldwide pandemic.  And there are plans to open two Shack locations in the Nashville area later this year, but those may be delayed due to the current events.

As I said, it was about a five minute drive between the hotel and Corner Pub and Grill.  I pulled into the Shoppes at Seven Oaks and realized that I had been there before.  (see map)  At the opposite side from the Corner Pub was Dalie's Smokehouse, a very good barbecue place that I visited about 3-and-a-half years ago.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Dalie's Smokehouse.)  A parking space just opened up moments before I got to the Corner Pub and was able to park near the front door of the brick building that's on the southwest corner of the shopping and entertainment complex.  

Inside the Corner Pub, it appeared to be a sports bar, albeit an upscale sports bar.  I wasn't really looking to go to a sports bar, but maybe a pub that had a few TV's.  The dining room featured a number of flatscreen televisions hung on the walls along with sports memorabilia.  Tartan upholstered booths lined the wall under the televisions in the room.

I ended up heading to the bar to have a seat in there.  The bar was full, but a guy was just getting ready to relinquish his seat and he offered it to me.  One of the bartenders that evening was a young lady named Ashley.  She greeted me with a menu and asked what I'd like to drink.  They had a handful of craft beers on tap and I noticed the distinctive Kona Big Wave handle on one of the spigots.  I ordered up a pint of one of my all-time favorite beers.  There was a good basketball game that I wouldn't have minded to see, but the St. Louis Blues were playing hockey that night and like their baseball compatriots, the St. Louis Cardinals, if there's a game on TV, most - if not all - of the televisions in St. Louis bars and restaurants are tuned to the game.  

I was hoping Corner Pub and Grill was different from the sports bars that I didn't really want to go to and I will say that the food there seemed to be a step up from the typical sports bar food.  Oh, they had appetizers, sandwiches and burgers on the menu at the Corner Pub, but they were sort of interesting.   Bacon-wrapped smoked shrimp, brisket nachos, cauliflower/parmesan bites, and - of course - toasted ravioli were part of the appetizer menu.  Burgers were all 1/2 pound in weight and bison meat was available as a substitute.  One of the burgers featured on the menu was the "The Tot & the Egg" - a burger topped with applewood smoked bacon, a fried egg, crushed tater tots, and cheddar cheese.  Sandwiches included a slow-roasted brisket sandwich, a smoked turkey sandwich, a short rib French dip, and a reuben sandwich with in-house made corned beef.  Hand-tossed pizza, wraps, soups and salads rounded out the menu.  

They had a special that evening - a fried chicken platter that the guy next to me got.  It looked good, but it was a lot of food as it came with four pieces of Southern-fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy.  I was not that hungry and that would have been a lot of food.  In fact, the guy ended up taking two of the pieces of chicken home with him when he was finished.  

Chicken did sound good to me, however, and I ended up getting the hot and spicy chicken sandwich.  It was a deep-fried chicken breast that was covered in a sweet and spicy Buffalo sauce, topped with bacon and blue cheese crumbles.  It was served on a brioche bun on a bed of shredded lettuce underneath.  I had a choice of numerous sides including fries, pub chips, veggie of the day, and onion rings (for a $2 buck upcharge).  But they had tater tots on the menu - actually, they also had sweet potato tater tots.  But I got the regular tots.  And Ashley was able to get me a bottle of Cholula to put on the tots.  

I ate the sandwich open-faced and the chicken had a nice spicy bite, but a sweetness that tamped down the overall spicy taste of the sauce.  The chicken breast had a nice breading on the outer shell and the chicken meat inside was moist and tender.  The bacon and blue cheese were nice complements to the sweet and spicy taste of the chicken.  And the tater tots were, well, they were very good.  But tater tots are ALWAYS good.  It was enough food that I couldn't eat it all, but there wasn't a lot left on the plate when I was finished.  

The Corner Pub and Grill was a nice choice that evening.  It was a nice comfortable setting, the service I received from my bartender/server was stellar all evening long.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet and spicy Buffalo chicken sandwich, and any place that serves tater tots as a side and Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap is a plus for me.  The Corner Pub is a nice little neighborhood joint that appears to be pretty popular with its clientele.  And on my visit it was easy to see way.  

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Draft Day Sports Lounge - Davenport, IA

My wife and I were invited to a gathering at the Rhythm City Casino on the north side of Davenport about a year ago for a going away party for one of her co-workers.  The party was being held in the casino's sports bar area - the Draft Day Sports Lounge.  While we didn't eat food out there that evening, I saw some of the things that other people had to eat and I always had it in the back of my head that I would like to try the place out at some point.  I went out one afternoon last summer to get something to eat, but found out that they open at 3 p.m. on weekdays.  However, one recent night when I was home and my wife was hosting a small gathering of women at our house, I was able to head out to the casino to have something to eat at the Draft Day Sports Lounge.  

When the Rhythm City Casino moved from its original home along the Davenport riverfront to the north side of the city near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Interstate 74 in June of 2016, it became a much larger facility along with a hotel and dining options.  I casually know the general manager out there and he's told me on more than one occasion to come out and he'd give me a tour of the hotel, restaurants and gaming areas.  I never took him up on the offer as I know he's much too busy to stop what he's doing during the course of the day to give me a tour, but my wife and I have gone out to look around at the place a couple times.  

A couple summers ago, my sister and her fiancé were in town and they took us out to Ruthie's, the casino/hotel's fine dining steak & seafood restaurant located on the top floor of the restaurant that offers wonderful views at sunset.  We thought the food and service were excellent.  (One of these days, we'll go back to Ruthie's for an in-depth look at the place.)  Ruthie's quickly became one of the top dining spots in the Quad Cities once it opened.  

But this time, I wanted to go try the Draft Day Sports Lounge.  It's almost a straight shot up Jersey Ridge Road for me all the way out to just south of Interstate 80 before turning right onto Elmore Ave. and the entrance of the casino/hotel.  (see map)  Here's a tip from Road Tips if you're going to the Draft Day Sports Lounge - or even to the casino.  Go around the west side of building to a smaller parking lot in back next to the Interstate.  There's a door back there and it takes you down a wide hallway to the front of the sports bar.  

There was a lady at the hostess stand and the place was about a third full when I walked up.  There was no one seated at the bar and I just told her that I'd sit at the bar.  However, it turned out there were no bartenders around, either.  After sitting there for a couple minutes, I went back to the hostess stand and told her that I'd take a table in front of one of the large flatscreen televisions along the wall that were showing different basketball games.  She took me to a table and dropped off a menu for me to look through.  My server for the evening was a young lady by the name of Piper who was being shadowed by another young lady who was experiencing her first day on the job.  I knew that they had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap at Draft Day from my previous visit, so I ordered one of those.   

The center piece of Draft Day Sports Lounge is their 360° television monitor that hangs from the ceiling in the middle of the sports bar.  18 other monitors hang from the walls in the sports bar including four behind the bar and individual ones at the booths along the north wall.  The lighting is subdued for maximum viewing enjoyment, and along with yellow, orange and red accent lighting, it gives the sports bar sort of a colorful and somewhat mellow glow.  About any type of sporting event - including all the big pay-per-view events - are available at the Draft Day Sports Lounge.  

Off to the side when you come into the sports bar, the Elite Sportsbook has a small area to place bets on sports.  Now, I used to gamble on sports a long, long time ago.  But I learned that it's a lot nicer to enjoy a sporting event either live or on television without the worry whether or not one team is going to cover the spread or if both teams are going to hit the over when you bet the under.  And with sports betting now a reality in Iowa since last August, they're making it much more easy to bet games.  But I have resisted, thank you very much.   Compared to sportsbooks that I've been to in Las Vegas, the sportsbook next to Draft Day is a closet.    

The menu at Draft Day consists of your typical sports bar fare - burgers, sandwiches, a slew of appetizers and sharable, salads and flat breads round out the bulk of the menu.  Entrees such as "build-your-own" mac & cheese, and fish & chips are available, as well.  They have a number of specials through the week at Draft Day including 50 cent bone-in wings on Mondays, and $2 bucks off on burgers on Thursdays.  Monthly, weekly and game-day specials are also available.  

I saw how good their burgers were on our visit to Draft Day about a year ago, but I was sort of burned out on burgers from traveling the previous couple of weeks.  I thought about the French dip for a moment, then the Buffalo chicken sandwich caught my eye.  But in the long run, I ended up getting their reuben sandwich.  Piper talked me into getting the onion rings for my side choice that evening.  

The reuben featured thick slices of corned beef that was grilled on a flat grill, then piled high on swirled rye bread with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and 1000 Island dressing.  The sandwich was then lightly grilled before being served.  It was a very good sandwich, to say the least.

The onion rings were just OK.  They were the frozen, food-purveyor type of onion rings and not freshly battered and fried.  But they were still edible.  

Now, I had been talking to some people about wanting to go out to Draft Day Sports Lounge over the past few months, but I had heard mixed reviews - mainly on the service.  But I have to say that the service I got from Piper and her shadow helper that evening was very good.  She was quick to get me another beer when my glass was low, when I asked for more napkins for the very good - and messy - reuben, she was there with more than I really needed.  It wasn't all that busy in the place that night, so that may have helped with the level of service.  But it was still very good.

I know sports bars aren't for everyone, but it you're looking for a place to watch a game and grab a pretty good sandwich in the greater Quad Cities, I would have to say that you have to give the Draft Day Sports Lounge a try.  The atmosphere is one of an upscale sports bar, the food - I thought - was very good, and the service was a lot better than I'd heard from other people who had been there at times in the past.  If you're into sports and want to enjoy some good food along with a good list of craft beers or specialty cocktails, it's tough to be the Draft Day Sports Lounge.   

Streetcar Grille & Tavern - Kansas City

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

T-Bock's - Decorah, IA

Last spring, my wife and I spent our anniversary weekend in Decorah, IA.  We were downtown and got caught in a downpour that forced us to seek shelter in a local watering hole.  (Imagine that!)  It turns out this was a place that friends of ours who went to Luther College frequent when they go back for annual weekend gatherings with friends.  When my wife and I went on vacation in early July, we took backroads up to northeast Iowa and later into southeast Minnesota.  We ended up in Decorah in time for lunch and we decided to give the same bar - T-Bock's - a try.  

Mike and Dominique Bockman have been in charge of T-Bock's since they bought the place in 1994.  There's not many places for people to gather in Decorah for parties and receptions, but T-Bock's has a downstairs banquet area that will handle up to 60 people for a sit-down event, and an upstairs area that will accommodate up to 200 people for private parties, corporate events and conferences.  According to our friends, it is probably the most popular bar for people of all ages in downtown Decorah.  And they have over 20 different types of beers on tap, including local and regional craft brews.  

On this visit, it was a much nicer day than the previous visit we had to downtown Decorah.  It was a beautiful day and we parked down the street from T-Bock's  to walk up and down Water Street.  Since it was a Sunday, most of the shops were closed, but T-Bock's was open. (see map)  We walked into the place and found a booth that was open up in the front part of the bar.  There's a backroom on the main floor of T-Bock's that was closed off that day.  The atmosphere at T-Bock's is lively with a number of flat-screen televisions, beer signs and sports memorabilia on the brick walls of the restaurant.

It was a tag-team effort for the waitstaff at T-Bock's that day.  One young lady came over with menus for us, another one came by to take our drink order.  A bloody mary and a Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue sounded good to me and I ordered both of those up.  The server said, "We have our bloody mary bar going just around the corner."  Oh!  Sure, I can go do my own bloody mary.  

My wife is one of those people who has to have three square meals a day.  Me, I'm pretty happy with snacking through the day and having a big meal in the evening, so I wasn't looking to get much of anything.  T-Bock's has a lot of your typical bar foods - appetizers, burgers, salads, and sandwiches such as a French dip, a reuben, and a sandwich called the Captain's Sandwich which featured thin slices of roast beef topped with melted pepper jack cheese and served on marble rye bread with a side of Country Bob's steak sauce.  

Continuing the tag team service, a male server brought our food out to us - I'm guessing he was the manager that day.  My wife got the Greek chicken wrap - a locally-raised organic chicken breast that was chopped into smaller pieces, chopped tomatoes and onions, sliced black olives, feta cheese and a Greek vinaigrette in a tortilla wrap.  It wasn't big, but it wasn't small.  She thought it was pretty good and it satiated her appetite.

I went the appetizer route with a plate of T-Bock's chicken wings.  I was supposed to get just a half dozen, but it was deemed by the person making them in the kitchen that they were pretty small so I got 8 instead.  The wings also come from locally-raised organic chickens and I had them toss them in T-Bock's house-made Buffalo sauce.  I also got the beer-battered onion rings that my wife helped me eat.  The chicken wings were much better than the onion rings - I guessed the onion rings were probably from a food purveyor as they didn't have the texture or taste of in-house onion rings.  The Buffalo sauce gave the wings a nice little zip in taste.  

T-Bock's is pretty basic when it comes to food selections.  But that's fine if you know going in that it's a sports bar with an average menu.  My wife enjoyed her Greek chicken wrap, while I thought the chicken wings were very good.  The onion rings were average, at best.  The tag team service we received was prompt and friendly, and the atmosphere is what you'd find at any typical sports bar.  There's a few places to eat in Decorah, but if you're looking for a burger or a sandwich for lunch - along with a good selection of craft beers - T-Bock's is fine and dandy for that.  

Sports Page Bar and Grill - Bloomington, MN

I have a buddy who travels to Minneapolis a few times a year and he was telling me of a sports bar in Bloomington that he liked to go to when he was there.  He said it was a good mix of locals and travelers, and he always felt welcome at the place.  I was in Bloomington earlier this year and I wanted to watch some of the NCAA men's basketball tournament one night and I took his advice and went to the Sports Page Bar and Grill.  

Located in a strip mall on S. Lyndale Ave. at W. 90th St. in Bloomington, The Sports Page has been around for over 35 years.  (see map)  It's one of those neighborhood places where families and friends have been heading to for burgers, sandwiches, pizza and appetizers. It's a place that's hosted parties - both celebration, work and sports watch parties - and has weekly trivia contests and karaoke every Thursday night.  (Note to self - stay out of the place after 9 p.m. on Thursdays.)  

But it was a Thursday evening when I was there.  I had just gotten back from St. Cloud and wanted to go to the Sports Page to watch some basketball.  When I got there just before 6 p.m., the place was packed.  But it turned out that there are two parts to The Sports Page.  I had walked into a small bar area.  It was a nice little room with a full bar and a number of high top tables.  It was packed and there was no place to sit in there.

I just happened to look toward the back of the bar area and saw a couple of glass doors that appeared to go into another room.  This area was much larger with some booths and low-top tables.  There was a small bar in the back and this room was also packed.  There were a lot of people who appeared to be socializing, while there were some tables that were filled with families with younger kids.  It turns out that it was opening day for the Minnesota Twins that day and a few of the people were in there after going the game.

I was lucky enough to snag a booth along the wall from a couple guys who were getting up to leave.  I sat there for a few moments waiting for one of the servers to at least acknowledge me.  It was well past 6 p.m. by now and the first of two NCAA basketball games had started, but most of the TV's were still on the local Fox Sports North channel from the earlier Twins game that was showing some fishing show instead of NCAA basketball.  

Finally, a lady server whizzed by me and said, "I'll be right with you, hon!"  The beer list was on the table and I was studying it when she finally came back.  She said her name was Chantelle as she dropped off a food menu and asked me what I wanted to drink.  They had the Surly Furious IPA on tap and I signed up for one of those.

It's mainly bar food at The Sports Page with appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, and wraps on the menu.  As I said earlier, they also had 10" pizzas on the menu and it appeared that they were probably pre-made as they only offered cheese, pepperoni, sausage, or a sausage and pepperoni combo.  They also had soups and salads available for lighter fare.  

Most of the sandwiches on the menu were pretty uninspiring - about the most exotic sandwich on the menu was a club sandwich - so, I focused on the burgers.  And it's not to say that the burgers were any works of art, either.  It was basically a choice between a single patty or double patty, and from there you could get cheese on the burger (American, Swiss, or Pepperjack).  They had bacon, mushrooms and jalapeños available on the burgers as well.

I figured out what I was going to get, but Chantelle was busy.  She was hurrying back and forth from the kitchen to tables and back again.  By this time, they still hadn't turned on any basketball and I was getting a little annoyed that a sports bar wouldn't have the focus to figure out that they're missing out on a huge viewing opportunity for their patrons.  But then I noticed later on when they finally did get the first game on some of the TV's that I was probably the only one that was interested in watching the games.  As I said, most of the people were socializing.  I thought to myself, "This is most un-sports sports bar I've ever been to."  And it took forever, it seemed, for them to realize that a second NCAA basketball game was underway at the same time before they finally changed the channel on another group of televisions.  

Chantelle finally did show up and I ordered up a double Swiss cheese, mushroom and bacon burger.  It came with a side of crispy fries and was served open faced with a light spongy bun.  The burger patties were flat grilled and it was hot and juicy when she brought it out to me.  

They didn't skimp on the toppings on the burger.  The Swiss cheese was thick and gooey on top of the burger patties.  The mushrooms appeared to be canned, but they were lightly sautéed in butter, and two thick pieces of bacon criss-crossed across the top of the burger.  The bun, as I said, was light and airy, but it held together rather well considering how messy this burger was.  It was a multi-napkin burger.   It wasn't anything fancy, but it was still a pretty fine burger.  

The fries were classic bar-food fries - skinny, crisp and flaky on the inside.  The double Swiss cheese burger with the sautéed mushrooms and bacon was more than a meal in itself.  But I did have a couple handfuls of fries and they were good.  

For what it was, I thought The Sports Page Bar & Grill was OK.  It's nothing fancy, it's more of a neighborhood hangout joint that just happens to have a lot of televisions on the walls, but they don't seem to emphasize the watching of sporting events probably other than the local teams.  My server was hurried and seemed to be overworked as the place was packed, but I wasn't in much of a hurry to leave as I stayed around to watch both basketball games that were on.  And as time went on, the place had pretty much emptied out by 7:30 p.m.  I don't know if The Sports Page would be my first choice to go watch a game that I wanted to see, but the burger was pretty good and that might bring me back in at some point.   

1909 Taverne Moderne - Montreal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dudley's Pizza & Tavern - Omaha

I was staying in the Aksarben Village area of Omaha on a recent trip out to that fair city, a city that has always been one of my favorite places to visit.  They had been getting a lot of snow in the area this past winter and I had just driven around the city for a good portion of the day after they had gotten five to seven inches of heavy, wet snow earlier in the day.  Walking distance from the hotel is a pizza place that I've noticed on previous visits to the area - Dudley's Pizza & Tavern.  I decided to head over there for dinner on a cold evening when I wished I was home instead of on the road.  

When I first moved to the Quad Cities over 25 years ago, there was a long-established pizza place next to where I used to work called Dudley's Pizza Works.  Knowing that the Dudley from that place had retired a number of years ago and moved to the mountains of south-central Colorado, I didn't think the same guy - or his family - would have a stake in this place.  Turns out that they don't.  The place is named after Dudley Smith, an Omaha resident in the late 19th century who coined the phrase "Aksarben" - Nebraska spelled backwards.   And it was two brothers - Tim and Rob Malm - who came up with the name. 

The Malm brothers took over the old Mojo Smokehouse & Ales location in the Aksarben Village in 2013.  They initially called their venture Railyard Pizza and Tavern.  But confusion over affiliations with other businesses in Omaha and Lincoln that had similar names caused the brothers to shift directions and name it after the man who originally came up with the "Aksarben" name.  They opened Dudley's in late 2013.  

The Malm brothers eventually sold their shares in Dudley's Pizza and Tavern in 2015 to Bill Barstow, the owner of a number of movie theaters in Omaha and Lincoln including the Aksarben Cinema next door to Dudley's Pizza.  Barstow installed Tony Digilio to run Dudley's for him.  (The Malm brothers have resurfaced in Omaha with a new Mexican taqueria concept - Hook & Lime - located on the north end of Omaha's downtown area.)  

I walked through the parking garage next to the hotel, over and around to Dudley's Pizza and Tavern.  (see map)  It's set back from the street a bit, but still pretty visible if you approach it from Center Road up S. 67th in Aksarben Village.  Mounds of snow from previous snowstorms - including the six-plus inch dumping from earlier in the day - were piled up on the patio that probably would have been filled with al fresco diners if the weather was much more warm.  

Inside Dudley's, I was sort of surprised to see how small it was.  In fact, it appeared that they were in the midst of downsizing the space they were in.  High-top and regular tables were in the center of the room with booths along a short wall on one side.  A local artist by the name of Chris Saub - who goes by the stage name of Christopher Raven - was playing guitar in the dining area during the latter part of happy hour.  The music was very good and very relaxing.

I ended up seated at one end of the three-sided bar toward the front of the restaurant.  A couple of flat screen televisions hung over a set of beer spigots with a glass-front refrigerator was off to the side.  I was greeted by one of the bartenders, a young lady by the name of Kat, who gave me both a food menu and a beer menu.  Nothing on their tap list tripped my trigger, but I did see that they had the Cardinal Pale Ale from the Nebraska Brewing Co. in a 16 ounce can.  I ordered that from Kat while I looked over the menu and listened to the music.   

Pizza is definitely the main item on the menu at Dudley's with a choice of either a thicker braided-crust pizza or a thinner "tavern-style" pizza.  (Gluten free crust is also available at Dudley's Pizza.)  But they also had burgers, sandwiches and wraps on the menu, along with a number of appetizers including chicken wings, fried dill pickle spears, truffle-salted pub fries topped with Romano cheese sprinkles, and sausage-stuffed fried ravioli that was also topped with grated Romano cheese and served with both a pesto and a marinara dipping sauce.  I thought about just getting the ravioli and calling that my meal for the evening.

But the tavern-style pizza was calling my name and I ordered up a small - 10" - sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza.  When it was brought out to me, I was sort of surprised on a couple three fronts.  First of all, tavern-style pizza - to me - is cut into the square pieces.  This was cut into triangles.  Secondly, the crust wasn't all that thin - at least not as thin as I was expecting a thin-crust pizza to be.  And lastly, I wish I would have had a ruler with me because it looked like the smallest 10" pizza I've ever seen.  I just sort of shrugged my shoulders and let the pizza cool down while I got another Cardinal Pale Ale.  

Quite actually, the pizza at Dudley's wasn't all that bad.  In fact, it was surprisingly good for what it was.  While the crust wasn't all that thin, it was crispy enough that it had the consistency of a thinner crust pizza.  The toppings were all fresh and very good.  I especially liked the sauce - it wasn't too sweet, nor was it too tangy.  It was a good mix of tomato sauce and paste - something I have trouble with in making sauce at home from time to time.  Yeah, I wish it were a little larger, but I was fine with what I had when I finished the pizza, which wasn't all that hard to do.  

The pizza I had at Dudley's Pizza and Tavern was good - not exactly what I was expecting in a "tavern-style" pizza - but good enough that I enjoyed the taste of it.  They had a good selection of craft and domestic beers to choose from, and other than a minor hiccup when I needed a couple more napkins and no one was behind the bar for five minutes, the service was pretty good, as well.  And Christopher Raven's music was a nice relaxing touch at the end of the day.   Over all the years I've been traveling to Omaha, I've only found maybe one or two pizza places that I thought were really good.  I wouldn't put Dudley's into that category of "really good", but it was serviceable pizza that didn't suck.  

(Update - April 2020 - I understand that Bill Barstow bought out his partners in the Dudley's venture and closed the place down.  He replaced it with the Backlot Taphouse, a craft beer/Detroit-style pizza place.)

Urban India - San Diego

I was back out in San Diego earlier this year for a trade show and I went out with a colleague to have dinner one evening.  I had mentioned seeing an Indian restaurant a few blocks north of our Gaslamp Quarter hotel when I was out for a walk earlier in the day and my colleague said that he would be up for some Indian food that evening.  He was actually one of the first people to introduce me to Indian food a number of years ago, so I knew he'd want to go with me if I suggested Indian food that evening.  We made about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the front door of Urban India.  

Surinder Singh moved to San Diego at the age of 12.  He got his start working in restaurants as a teenager bussing tables and running food.  When he was in high school, his parents bought a small neighborhood Indian restaurant by the name of The Indian Tandoor.  Surinder started working for his parents part time moving into a full time position when he graduated from high school.  He learned to make many of the traditional Indian foods served at The Indian Tandoor.

The Indian Tandoor was a success and the Singh family opened other locations around the greater San Diego area.  But Surinder was looking to do something on his own - sort of a combination modern Indian restaurant and sports bar.  Partnering with a friend, Surinder Singh looked to open his spot in downtown San Diego and they found a spot on 4th Street that used to house Joey's Smokin' BBQ.  Urban India opened in April of 2012.  

We walked up to Urban India around 7:30 on a nice, but somewhat humid evening in San Diego.  (see map)  Folding front windows were open to the street.  It was a long and somewhat open space with brick pillars in the middle of the room.  With the exception of a family of eight having dinner at a long table and two couples seated up front by the open windows, we pretty much had the pick of where we wanted to sit that evening.  

The bar had a couple of flat panel televisions on the back wall showing the replay of an exhibition football game that was played earlier in the week.  It was a full bar with a large selection of liquor, wine and beer.  There were other flat screen televisions mounted throughout the place.  I thought it was kind of unique to have a sports bar disguised as an Indian restaurant - and vice-versa.  

We found a seat at a table opposite the bar and we were greeted by - who I figured out later on - was Surinder Singh, the owner/chef at Urban India.  He gave us a couple of menus and we ordered up a couple of tall Kingfisher beers to start out with.  

My colleague is still much more worldly and adventurous when it comes to Indian food.  He just started to order a couple appetizers - things I was not familiar with.  The first one was completely confusing to me.  I thought he had ordered papadum - the Indian-style chips made from lentil and chickpea that come with mint or tamarind chutney.  But this was something completely different from what I thought my colleague ordered.  It had the papadum chips in it, but it had some sort of a vegetable sauce on it along with fresh cilantro.  We shared half of the plate each and I'd have to say it was pretty good.

The second appetizer was much easier - onion bhaji, or basically Indian onion rings.  The batter was light and flaky, and had a wonderful taste quality.  The onions were sweet and fresh.  I liked the onion bhaji immensely.

There were so many things on the menu that jumped out at me for my main entree that evening that I was having some difficulty as to what to have.  My colleague had turned me onto Butter Chicken when I was at his favorite Indian restaurant in Montreal with him about three years ago.  (He said that it was supposed to be mild, but it ended up being pretty spicy.  I didn't mind the spiciness, but it did sort of detract from the overall taste of the butter chicken.)  I thought about getting the butter chicken with a bit of spiciness at Urban India, but I saw that they had Lamb Tikka Masala on the menu, too.   And they had Chicken Curry, as well as a spicy lamb vindaloo.  So, you can see that my mind was in a tussle with my stomach as what to order.  

I ended up getting the Rogan Josh, tender lamb chunks in a garlic, ginger and multiple spice gravy.  Surinder asked me how I wanted it, spice-wise.  I ordered it medium - and I'm glad I did.  The sauce was had a distinct spicy bite to it, but it wasn't overpowering.  

We got some garlic naan to go along with our meal and it had a great and forward garlic taste to it.  I haven't been eating much rice lately and I used the garlic naan to dip into the sauce and to put some of the tender and flavorful lamb chunks onto the bread.  I had been suffering from allergies while I was in San Diego and this turned out to be exactly what I needed in terms of a good comfort-style meal. 

My colleague went with the lamb kabobs.  Once again, I was sort of confused with the presentation as I was expecting chunks of grilled lamb with veggies on a skewer.  But it was brought out on a sizzling iron platter similar to how you would get fajitas in a Mexican restaurant.  The lamb chunks were seasoned with a chili sauce before grilling and served with onions, peppers and fresh cilantro.  While it was something that I would have never thought about ordering, he thought it was outstanding.  

My colleague and I were both very happy with our choices at Urban India.  We had passed a couple three other Indian restaurants on our walk between the hotel and Urban India, but I'm not certain if they could have been any better than what we had that evening.  My colleague and I talked up Urban India so much so the next day that another colleague took a couple guests there for dinner that evening.  Urban India was a pretty unique place - an Indian sports bar.  While it wouldn't be the first place I would think of to watch sports, it would certainly be uncommon for me to be eating Indian food while watching a football game.  But the Rogan Josh with the garlic naan, as well as the onion bhaji with a cold Kingfisher beer would be a great meal while watching sports. 

Brick House Tavern + Tap - Chesterfield, MO

I had a morning appointment in the Chesterfield Valley west of St. Louis and the night before I stayed at a hotel along Chesterfield Valley Road.  Food options in the immediate area went from fast food to chain restaurants to places that I'd already eaten at and didn't really want to go back to.  I seriously thought about heading over to Annie Gunn's, an upscale steakhouse on the east end of the Chesterfield Valley.  But it was late and I really didn't want a high-priced dinner that evening.  Just walking distance from the hotel was a Brick House Tavern + Tap restaurant.  Now, I sort of figured that Brick House Tavern was a chain because I had seen a couple in the Chicago area over the past few years.  But they had always intrigued me enough that I decided to take a short walk and give the place a try.  (See map)

The Brick House Tavern + Tap is housed in what was formerly a Joe's Crab Shack location.  Now, I detest Joe's Crab Shack with a passion and when I found out that their parent company was going through bankruptcy last year, I was innerly chuckling to myself that enough people finally wised up to how horrible their food really was.  But it turned out that the same parent company of Joe's Crab Shack also owns the Brick House Tavern locations, as well.  That's why this former Joe's Crab Shack location ended up becoming a Brick House Tavern. 

(A side story about the old Joe's Crab Shack in Chesterfield.  Years ago, my wife and I ate at a Joe's Crab Shack in St. Peters, MO and it was so bad we thought it had to be an anomaly.  However, we tried another Joe's location someplace else - can't remember where it was - but it largely sucked, too.  We pretty much wrote Joe's Crab Shack off the way we long ago had written off even thinking about going to Red Lobster.

About 12 years ago, I happened to be checking into the same hotel that I was staying in on this particular trip. I ran into a rep friend of mine and a guy from a manufacturer who I'd known for a number of years.  They invited me out to dinner - at Joe's Crab Shack.  I immediately said that I don't do Joe's Crab Shack, but my friend who worked for the manufacturer - and who lived in Southern California - was adamant that the Joe's location near his home had the best seafood he's ever had.  I said, "Well, yeah.  Where you live, the ocean is right there.  In the Midwest, it's a haul from here to the ocean."  

Undeterred, he still insisted on taking me out to dinner at the Joe's next door.  He was a nice guy and it had been awhile since I'd seen him.  I thought, "What the hell?  He's going to pay for dinner and a bunch of alcohol.  Sure, I'll go and find something that I can stomach."

Long story short - I had peel and eat shrimp that were so overcooked and rubbery that it was embarrassing that the kitchen would even let the things be served.  But my friend who was paying for dinner was more than happy with his meal.)

The first Joe's Crab Shack started in Houston in 1991.  Three years later, it was bought by the Fertitta family who owned the Landry's Seafood restaurants based out of Houston.  Initially, they were going to turn the Joe's Crab Shack into a Landry's, but decided to go with the laid-back, shrimp shack concept of the restaurant.   They grew both the Landry's and Joe's Crab Shack restaurants eventually selling off the Joe's Crab Shack to another Houston-based equity group - JCS Holdings - in 2006.  

JCS Holdings eventually changed their name to Ignite Restaurant Group in April of 2009 and had begun to turn some of the Joe's locations into Brick House Tavern + Tap restaurants that were more of an upscale sports bar with steaks, seafood and craft beers.  By 2014, there were about 140 Joe's Crab Shack locations and 26 Brick House Tavern + Tap locations across the country.  However, that number had dropped to 112 Joe's Crab House locations by early 2017 and by the spring of last year Ignite Restaurant Group was forced into bankruptcy proceedings.  Coming full circle, Landry's, Inc. bought back both Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern at a bankruptcy auction last summer.   They have since franchised out many of the Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern locations.

The Chesterfield Brick House Tavern is franchised by the Kelly Companies, an investment firm with offices in Pittsburgh and San Diego.  In addition to owning 11 Brick House locations, the company also owns franchise rights to restaurants such as Joe's Crab Shack, McCormick and Schmick's, Fox & Hound, Champps, and Mitchell's Fish Market.   

It was a very short walk from my hotel over to Brick House Tavern on what was a warm early Spring evening.  It was around 7:30 and I found a place that was half-full with people seated in large booths in the center of the restaurants, along with tables in the area toward the sides.  The walls were, of course, brick with a large brick hearth fireplace in the center.  Most of the lighting was accented on the walls with muted lighting coming from the ceiling.  It appeared to be a cozy and somewhat laid back atmosphere.  There was a glass enclosed patio off to the side of the bar that had a few people sitting in there that evening.  

I wanted to sit at the bar, but it was full.  I took a booth off to the side and was greeted by my server, Darcy, who dropped off a menu for me.  I saw that they had the Ballast Point Sculpin on tap, so I ordered a pint of that to enjoy while I looked over the menu.  

Most of the items on the menu are upscale bar food - appetizers such as Buffalo chicken meatballs, zucchini curls, duck wings, and hand-cut panko/parmesan encrusted mozzarella sticks.  They also had steaks and pork chops, seafood, sandwiches and burgers.  

I was looking at a couple of things that sort of sounded good and homey to me - the prosciutto-wrapped meatloaf made with ground chuck, veal and Italian sausage topped with a sweet chili ketchup and mushroom gravy.  I had a side option for that and I wanted mashed potatoes.  It was either the meatloaf or the sirloin tips - they marinate the sirloin tips for 24 hours before they grill them and are served with a mushrooms & onion gravy.

When it came time to order, I took the meat loaf.  But a couple minutes later, Darcy came back with a menu and announced that they were out of the meat loaf for the evening.  I winced when she said they were out of the meat loaf.  Thankfully, I had the sirloin tips as a Plan B.  "Uh, yeah," Darcy sort of hesitated.  "We're out of the sirloin tips, too."  

"You're kidding me," I exclaimed.  As she handed me the menu to look over again, I sort of snarkily said, "Why don't you give me the menu of WHAT you have this evening."  I immediately felt bad after I said that.  But I was mildly pissed that they didn't have the two things I really wanted.

Darcy explained that a large group had come in from one of the surrounding office buildings earlier in the evening.  "It was pretty busy in here up to about 30 minutes ago," she said.  "The meat loaf and the sirloin tips are always a favorite."

Opening back up the menu, I so didn't want a burger that evening.  My stomach was set for the meat loaf, and the sirloin tips were going to be a nearly even consolation prize.  I just about cut my losses and was going to head out when I decided to have the "Steak & Shrooms" - two sirloin filets with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions, topped with smoked provolone.  Fried mushroom caps and a somewhat spicy piquant sauce came on the side.  Thyme potatoes were supposed to come on the side, but I was able to get Darcy to substitute tater tots instead.  

The sirloin filets were, well, all right.  They were tender enough, but I'm sure the marinated sirloin tips would have been more flavorful and tender.  With the provolone cheese and sautéed mushrooms, there was some flavor to the meal.  The piquant sauce was nice to dip the tater tots into.  It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't bad.  When I needed another beer, Darcy brought me a Sculpin in a 25 ounce glass.  "This one is on me, since we were out of the two things you originally ordered," she said.  I was grateful for the gesture, considering my mild pissy-ness earlier on.  

The Brick House Tavern was just OK, in my book.  Given that they were out of two things that I originally ordered and my third choice was just all right, I can't say that I was all that enamored with the place.   But my server Darcy was pleasant and accommodating.  For a small national chain that is in a high traffic area like Chesterfield, I can see where Brick House Tavern can be successful.  I'd rather go to a place that isn't quite so corporate in nature, but for what the Brick House Tavern was, it was fine.  

Stonewood Ale House - Schaumburg, IL

There is a high-end audio trade show - AXPONA - that takes place each April in Chicago at which my company participates.  The trade show was at the Westin in Rosemont near O'Hare International Airport for the past few years, but it will be moving out to the Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg for the upcoming show in April.  Being that Chicago is "my town" (an old joke in our company to signify that any city in our given territories are "my town") I'm usually called upon to provide the eating arrangements for our ever growing group of colleagues who attend the show.  When it was held in Rosemont, that was no problem for me because I usually stay around there when I go into Chicago.  However, with it now 13 miles to the west in Schaumburg, I wasn't really familiar with restaurants in the area.  I knew that I needed to check out some spots to see if they would be up to snuff for us to dine in when we all got together in Chicago in April.  After calling on an account in Hoffman Estates one day, I drove back toward Schaumburg to look around at the various restaurants and to give one a try.  One that stuck out to me was a place called the Stonewood Ale House.  I pulled into the parking lot to see what the place was all about and to have some lunch.  

Louis Gatziolis grew up in a family that had restaurants in their blood.  His father, John, ran Finley's Grill Room on Finley Road in Downers Grove for a number of years, and along with his brothers Alex, John Jr., and Tom, they ran a number of dance clubs in the western suburbs of Chicago for years.  Louis decided to open his own place where he wanted to strike a balance between having a great classic restaurant and a great bar.  He opened Stonewood Ale House in early 2005, featuring a good beer list and food that is wood-fire cooked.  

It was around 2 p.m. when I got into the Stonewood Ale House, located on the corner of Mall and Kimberly Drives, just south of Woodfield Mall.  (see map)  There was plenty of parking available on the south and east sides of the 

The front door of Stonewood Ale House took me right into the large bar area.  There was a long, rectangular bar with an island of flat screen televisions hanging in the center.  The bar area was bright, open and roomy.  Along the wall near the ceilings were reproductions of old-time beer signs from breweries such as Genesee, Grain Belt and Adler Brau.

The restaurant was segmented into smaller rooms or areas.  There was a large room toward the back of the place that could be used for receptions, parties or gatherings, and possibly for overflow dining.  Other areas featured tables with banquette seating and tons of televisions throughout the place.

There was a nice room the featured a large stone hearth fireplace as the centerpiece in the room.  The room had a number of tables and booths, and was well lit in the daytime from natural light coming in through skylights in the ceiling.  

It wasn't very busy at 2 p.m., so I ended up taking a seat at the bar.  The bartender that day was a nice young lady named Margaret who handed me a food menu to check out.  They have a number of beers on tap at the Stonewood Ale House and I ordered up a Bells Two Hearted pale ale while I looked through the menu.  

Stonewood Ale House has a wide and varied menu that sort of told me that they probably did a lot of things all right, but nothing really well.  There was a full slate of appetizers to choose from - your standard sports bar variety of wings, nachos, mozzarella sticks, and fried pickles.  They had a large number of salads on the menu, as well as pasta and seafood dishes, a number of sandwiches and burgers, and a number of wood-fired entrees including pork chops, steaks, ribs, and chicken.    

Two things that really caught my attention were the pot roast sandwich and the meatloaf.  The pot roast is slow roasted for six hours, then simmered in a demi-glace.  It's served with mashed potatoes and gravy along with a medley of vegetables.  The meatloaf sounded almost as the pot roast as it featured a blend of ground chuck, brisket and short rib beef topped with a sweet-tomato demi-glace.  It was also served with mashed potatoes, gravy and an assortment of vegetables.  

But I'd had a pretty big breakfast and I didn't think that either the pot roast or the meatloaf would sit too well on me for the rest of the afternoon, so I ended up going the safe route and got a burger.  They have over a dozen assorted burgers to choose from at the Stonewood Ale House and I went with my old standby burger - the Swiss/mushroom burger.  I asked Margaret to have the cook throw a couple slices of bacon on the burger, as well.  A side of fresh cut fries came with the burger.  

The burger featured a blend of chuck, brisket and short rib - like the meatloaf - and hand-formed into 1/2 pound patties.  It was grilled over a wood fire and came on a sesame seed bun with sliced red onions and tomatoes, pickles and shredded lettuce.

For a wood-fired burger, it wasn't overcooked or dried out like most burgers cooked over wood can be.  It was actually a very juicy and flavorful burger.  The only complaint I had was that there was too much bun for the burger.  The crown of the sesame seed bun was too thick and I ended up pulling away chunks of the bun as I made my way through the burger.  But other than that, the burger was pleasantly surprisingly good.  

Even the fries were good.  I'm normally not big into fries all that much these days, but these fries had a nice crispy outer shell and a nice puffy inside.  I could easily tell these were the fresh cut variety and not out of a freezer bag.  

My colleagues and I usually have lunch together the day we get into a city for a trade show and I'll be able to put the Stonewood Ale House at the top of the list for a lunch opportunity this coming spring.   The burger I had was very good - a little too much bun came with it, but it was still a good burger.  The place was clean, comfortable and had a lot of space.  The service I received that day was fast, efficient and friendly.  Along with a good beer selection, there wasn't much to not like about the Stonewood Ale House.  

Town Tavern - Blowing Rock, NC

During our trip to North Carolina for a wedding earlier this year, we were told by my sister that we needed to visit Blowing Rock, a small arts town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwestern part of the state.  While the small boutiques and studios were somewhat interesting to us, we found it to be very similar to Galena, IL.  Once we figured that out, we really didn't want to spend much more time there.  But we did take the time out to have lunch at an establishment in the heart of Blowing Rock, an interesting looking little place called the Town Tavern.  

The original Town Tavern opened in 2009 in the nearby town of Boone.  Chris Spillman - a general contractor and part-time realtor - teamed with Justin Davis to open that restaurant and the two opened the Blowing Rock location in 2013.  The building that houses the Town Tavern in Blowing Rock had once been a Mexican restaurant and had been a Southern cuisine cafe up to closing in 2013.  Spillman and Davis had been lightly thinking about putting a second location in Blowing Rock, but when the space became available they jumped at the chance to take over the location.

A year after opening the Blowing Rock location, Spillman sold his shares in Town Tavern to Davis and to Suzannah Higby, a local resident and a regular at the Blowing Rock location.  Higby's family was no stranger to the restaurant business - her uncle once owned the famous Esso Club, a popular restaurant and watering hole near the campus of Clemson University.   Davis owns the Boone location while Higby is the sole proprietor of the Blowing Rock location.  Both co-own the Town Tavern brand name.  

It was just before noon when we made it into Town Tavern located along Main Street in the heart of Blowing Rock's business district.  (see map)  The outside patio area already had a 15 to 20 minute wait, but the cozy inside dining area had a couple tables open for immediate seating.  It was a nice place inside, but it wasn't very big.  A number of flat panel televisions were located on the walls around the bar and dining area.

We were seated near the corner of the inside dining area and given menus to look over.  Our server for the visit, a pleasant young lady by the name of Allie, came over to greet us.  I ordered up a seasonal Kolsch beer and my wife ordered a pale ale that they had on tap from a local brewer.  Allie hesitated and said, "Uh, you guys must not be from here."  She explained that in North Carolina you couldn't get an alcoholic beverage served to you until 12 noon.  "We have a few moments before we can serve."  I told her that it was a standing order and to bring the beers to us at 12:01.  We were well behind in the queue of drink orders and it was nearly 12:05 when our beers finally got to us.    

The food served at Town Tavern is really nothing more than glorified bar food with a number of sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and salads.  They're famous for their wings at Town Tavern and they had a number of appetizers including fried pickles, spinach/artichoke dip, potato skins and something they called "Hillbilly Nachos" - fries topped with either barbecued pork or thin-sliced beef smothered in melted cheddar cheese and finished with barbecue sauce.  

I decided to go with the mushroom/garlic/Swiss cheese burger and I asked Allie to have the kitchen throw some bacon on that, as well.  It came on a brioche bun that was light and spongy.  For my side, I got tater tots.  There's just something that I dig about tater tots.  It's about the only type of potato that excites me any more.  For some reason, the tater tots came with a side of ranch dressing.  However, I like tater tots with Cholula hot sauce, but they only thing they had to offer for hot sauce was Texas Pete which is made, not in Texas, but over in Winston-Salem, NC.  

The burger was thick with a melted chunk of Swiss cheese over top the burger patty with sliced sautéed mushrooms and chopped garlic in between.  Lettuce, tomato slices, pickles and a sliced red onion came with the burger with the bacon lying underneath the patty.  The burger was juicy and tasty, a messy burger where multiple napkins were needed.  We had asked Allie for more napkins when she dropped our food off for us, but she never returned.  I had to go forage for more napkins because the one napkin I had was trashed after a quarter of the burger was finished. 

My wife got a side salad and two of the Town Tavern sliders that were part of the appetizer menu.  For about a $2 buck upcharge, she got some battered steak fries with the sliders.  And she stole the ranch dressing that I wasn't using for her battered fries.   After having the salad and one of the sliders, she determined that she didn't really need the fries.  "This is really a lot of food," she exclaimed as she picked up the second slider to take a bite out of it.  She seemed to be pretty happy with her meal, as was I.  She offered me a couple of the battered fries.  While I thought they were very good, I liked my tater tots better.  

But we weren't too happy with our server.  Even though it was busy in the place, Allie never once checked back with us to see if we needed anything - like more napkins that I had to go scavenge, or a second beer, like I wanted.  My wife was having trouble finishing her beer, so I helped her out by drinking about a third of the pint she had ordered.  When Allie finally returned with the check, she asked if we needed anything else as she put the bill down on the table.  She was obviously trying to get us to move on so the table would open up for patrons waiting outside for the first available seats.  

Other than some puzzling deficiencies in our server's ability to take care of us - and the fact that we felt we were getting the "bum's rush" at the end - I think my wife and I both liked our experience at the Town Tavern.  My burger was very good and I like places that offer tater tots in addition to the other choices of sides.  My wife was happy with her sliders, but she was getting full pretty quickly after a salad and one of the sliders leaving half of the other slider and well over half of her battered fries in her basket at the end.  We just wish the overall experience we had with our server would have stayed as positive as it started out.  Town Tavern would have probably gotten a better rating from us had that been the case.  

Morrison Roadhouse - Niles, IL

I've driven by the Morrison Roadhouse countless times over the past 15 years that I've been traveling to Chicago for work.  It's always sort of intrigued me as it's been in business for 85 years and was probably a true country "road house" when it opened in 1932.  One night on my way back to my hotel, I decided to stop in to have something to eat and to check the place out.  

Morrison Roadhouse is located along Harlem Ave. in Niles, not far from where Harlem intersects with Milwaukee and Howard Avenues, and just north of the intersection of Harlem and Touhy.  (see map)  I was able to find a parking spot - the last one that was open in the lot next to the building and went in.  I would have to characterize Morrison Roadhouse as a sports bar more than anything, but it did have sort of a neighborhood tavern feeling to the place.  

Morrison Roadhouse features a large rectangular bar in the middle with a number of tables and booths around the bar area.  There was a game room toward the back of the place, as well.  

I ended up taking a seat at the bar and was greeted by Brittany, one of two young ladies working behind the bar that night.  (It turned out that both Brittany and the other bartender were also the servers for tables - more on that later on.)  I ordered up a Revolution Anti-Hero IPA to enjoy while I looked at the menu.  

There seemed to be a lot of regulars in the place, especially around the bar area.  Brittany and the other bartender were having conversations with a number of people on all sides of the bar.  The clientele was mostly male at the bar - many of them middle-aged to older men.  I fit in pretty well with that demographic.

Now, I couldn't find much historical information about the place other than its present day owner is a guy by the name of Robert Castle.  I asked the other bartender working at the bar if Morrison was the name of the small town that Niles possibly engulfed at some point.  "Hmmm...  I don't think so," she said.  "I think it's named after the guy who started it."  

A guy seated next to me said, "I remember my parents used to come into this place and it was sort of a fancy dress-up place that was more of a mixed-drink crowd than a beer bar.  But that was in the 60's."  

The menu at Morrison Roadhouse was extensive with a number of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers and steak sandwiches.  They had a number of deep-fried appetizers on the menu, and there were nearly a dozen different types of salads to choose from, as well as a like number of burgers on the menu.  There was about 10 different chicken sandwiches and a number of wraps to choose from.  Sandwiches ranged from a Cuban sandwich, a beef sandwich that is slow roasted in Guinness beer, a classic reuben, and something called the St. Jarvis Beef sandwich that featured Italian-style beef served on ciabatta bread and topped with mozzarella cheese, giardiniera, and pepperoncini's.  I looked long and hard at that sandwich, but I ordered something else.

The burgers sounded good, but I was sort of burnt out on burgers for the time being.  I ended up ordering the toasted Italian sandwich with a side of tater tots.  Well, it took me a long time to be able to order it.  Remember, there were only two people behind the bar and they were also table servers, as well.  I was done with my first beer and no one was coming back to check on me.  I just couldn't believe for as busy a place that Morrison Roadhouse was that evening that they didn't have more wait staff.  I had to get Brittany's attention to order up the sandwich - a good 10 minutes after I was done with my first beer and ready to order something to eat.  

The sandwich was all right - it featured French bread with sliced ham, pepperoni and salami with mozzarella cheese over the top of it that was put under a broiler to melt the cheese.  Then it was topped with chopped lettuce, red onions and tomatoes and finished off with an Italian dressing.  It was nothing fancy, but I liked it.  I've always been partial to these type of Italian sandwiches since I first used to have the "hoagies" at Pizza Hut when I was a teenager.  I couldn't even begin to eat a Pizza Hut pizza these days, but if they ever brought back the hoagie on their menu I'd stop in to try one.  But I have to believe that the toasted Italian sandwich at Morrison Roadhouse would be even better than a Pizza Hut hoagie.  

The tater tots were good, too.  They had some hot sauce in a caddy on the bar and I was able to drizzle some Frank's Hot Sauce on the tater tots to give them a little zip in taste.  Tater tots are getting to be about the only potato I will eat at places like this.  That is, when they have them on the menu.  

Service continued to be slow as the two bartenders were obviously overwhelmed by having to work the bar and be the wait staff for tables the whole time I was there.  I was sort of peeved that they wouldn't have more people in there working as the place was more than half full.  And I'm sure other people were just as frustrated as I was.  But other than that, the toasted Italian sandwich was good, as were the tater tots I got on the side.  OK, so I was able to finally stop into Morrison Roadhouse.  And it was all right.  I think that if you're a regular there, you'd probably feel more comfortable in the place.  I'm just not certain that I'll be going back anytime soon. 

Tinner's Bar and Grill - Sioux Falls, SD

I had an early morning meeting in Sioux Falls recently and I got in the night before on a brutally cold Upper Midwest evening.  After getting settled into the hotel that night, I started to look around for place to have dinner that night.  I found a place on the southeast side of the city not too far from my hotel that sounded pretty good.  Unfortunately, when I walked into the place it was packed to the hilt and there didn't seem to be anyone getting up anytime soon.  Somewhat crestfallen, I went back out to the car to see if the GPS would turn anything up for dining options in the area.  Other than some national chains that I don't like to go to, I didn't really find anything.  Thinking that I was going to have to head over across the road to a Beef O'Brady's, I finally found a place that sounded promising and wasn't too far away - Tinner's Bar and Grill.  

Darwin and Maria Cade opened Tinner's Bar and Grill a number of years ago.  It was a family affair with Maria running the front, Darwin running the kitchen and Maria's brother Tom Trimble helping out in the kitchen.  Last fall, the Cade's retired and the place assumed new management.  It was evident that changes were taking place as there was some renovations going on in the place the night I was there.

Tinner's Bar and Grill is located in a strip mall at the corner of S. Minnesota and W. 69th St. in Sioux Falls in what is called Waterfall Plaza - so called because of a working waterfall located in the corner of the strip mall. The waterfall was obviously not working that evening as the temperature hovered just above 0 (F).  (see map)

The main entrance to Tinner's goes into a vestibule that offers doors to a Deuces Casino to the left and the restaurant on the right.  Going into the restaurant I was greeted by a young lady who said that I could sit just about anywhere.  I looked for a place at the bar, but there were no seats.  I ended up taking a high-top table near the bar and was given a menu to look through.  I got an Odell IPA in a tall glass to enjoy while I decided what to get for dinner that night.

The place had a number of flat screen televisions and would be probably categorized as an upscale sports bar.  Even with the renovations going on, I could see that it was a nice enough place - a place where women would be comfortable in going to for lunch or dinner.  (Tinner's Bar and Grill also serves breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.)  

Tinner's serves hand-cut Creekstone Farms steaks, as well as pasta, fish and seafood dishes.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, they serve ribs after 4 p.m.  They also feature a number of your standard pub fare such as sandwiches, wraps, burgers and salads.  Wings, quesadillas, beer-battered onion rings and flat-bread pizzas round out the appetizer part of the menu.

It was just one of those evenings where I really didn't know what I wanted.  Actually, I wanted to relax and have a beer more than anything else.  It had been a long day on the road in some brutal wind and extremely low temperatures.  A good beer was exactly what I needed at that point.  

My server had come by a couple three times to see if I was ready to order anything.  Nothing was really jumping out at me.  They had a Cuban sandwich on a pita flatbread that I guessed would taste like every other Cuban sandwich I've had in the Midwest.  The prime rib French-dip sandwich sounded good, as did their reuben.  I wasn't certain I really wanted a burger - until I saw something that tripped my trigger.  

I ended up ordering the Tinner's Pub Burger - a Creekstone Farms black angus beef patty served on top of a piece of Texas toast, topped with Swiss cheese, mushrooms and beef gravy.  My server asked me what side I wanted with it and I said, "Well, mashed potatoes, of course!"  She told me it was a wise choice.  

While it didn't look like much in the picture, this was the quintessential "spot-hitter".   The thick brown gravy was slathered over everything and tied in nicely with the burger, mushrooms and cheese it laid on top of.  The mashed potatoes were made from real potatoes and they tasted very fresh.  The was a good meal for a cold night when nothing else really sounded all that good to me.

I was happy enough with my meal at Tinner's Bar and Grill.  The Tinner's Pub Burger was a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal with the burger patty topped with Swiss cheese and mushrooms with a side of mashed potatoes all covered with a thick and tasty brown gravy.  The service was very good as my server made me feel comfortable and didn't rush me at all during my visit.  Tinner's Bar and Grill isn't anything fancy, but it's fine enough for a sports bar/grill when you're just looking for more than just your basic pub food.

Tap House Grill - Des Plaines, IL

One evening, a buddy of mine from Chicago was on social media and he was at a place in suburban Des Plaines called the Tap House Grill.  I saw him a couple weeks later and I asked him about the place.  He told me, "They have a great beer selection and some good food."  The Tap House Grill is not far from the hotel I like to stay at near O'Hare Airport, so one evening I decided to find the place for dinner. 

It turns out that there are seven Tap House Grill locations around the Chicagoland area.  I was sort of stunned to find that out because the first one opened in far western suburban St. Charles nearly 10 years ago.  I had not been familiar with the restaurants before this visit.  The concept of Tap House Grill restaurants was hatched in 2005 by two members of Chicago-area management for the Bar Louie chain of bistro/restaurants. 

Scott Ward and Mark Zych both had significant backgrounds in the restaurant business - Ward had started out in the fast food business after graduating from Prairie State College eventually going to work for Ala Carte Entertainment, a Chicago-area restaurant group that oversaw the operations of the famous Snuggery restaurants, as well as Moretti's (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Moretti's). 

Zych had started out his restaurant career at Lone Star Steakhouse before moving on to a number of positions at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. eventually becoming the overall General Manager for all Bubba Gump locations.  Zych and Ward got to know each other at Bar Louie when Ward was the Chief Operating Officer and Ward was a district manager for the Chicago area Bar Louie locations. 

Pictured left - Mark Zych and Scott Ward.  Photo courtesy Daily Herald.

Ward saw that the craft beer revolution had taken hold at Bar Louie when they began to put in multiple taps in many of their locations.  Fresh, made-from-scratch foods were also gaining a foothold in many restaurants concepts.  Ward and Zych envisioned a "gastro-pub" style of restaurant that had a focus on fresh, made-from scratch foods served along side interesting local craft beers.  The first Tap House Grill location opened in far western suburban St. Charles in November of 2006.  Ward and Zych have begun to franchise the Tap House Grill concept and last year they were joined by Tim Heavey - a former co-worker of Ward's a number of years ago - to become the Director of Operations with the responsibility of opening franchisee Tap House Grill locations.  

The Tap House Grill in Des Plaines is located on Market Street, part of the Metropolitan Square entertainment/shopping and professional office complex.  (see map)  This location opened in late 2013 in a space that was formerly a Cheeseburger in Paradise that had closed a couple of years earlier.  One of the problems that has plagued Metropolitan Square since it opened about nine years ago is visibility.  The Tap House Grill is not visible from S. River Road as I had passed by it numerous times over the past couple of years, but had no idea that it was there.

The Des Plaines Tap House Grill is spacious with a large bar that curves around the center of the place.  A number of high top tables were in the center with booths off to the side.  You could call the Tap House Grill an upscale sports bar as they had a number of flat screen televisions hung throughout the place.  It just so happened that it was Trivia Night at Tap House Grill and there were a number of people playing along that evening.

I took an open seat at the bar next to a group of people - three guys and two women - playing trivia.  They have a number of beers on tap and in bottles at Tap House Grill.  I saw that they had one of my favorite beers on tap - the Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point in San Diego.  I ordered one from the bartender Chris who had a heavy Chicago accent when he asked me what I wanted to drink when he dropped off a menu.   

At first glance, the food served at the Tap House Grill is your usual bar food - burgers, appetizers, shareable plates, salads, sandwiches and tacos.  But looking a little more deeply into what they had told me that this was a different place.  Appetizers included a double-decked Southwestern chicken quesadilla, chicken fingers that are battered in a Samuel Adams beer-base, and something called drunken shrimp in a concoction of jerk seasoning, thyme, and pale ale beer, then broiled. 

They called their sandwiches "two-handed" for as big as they were.  They had pressed ciabatta sandwiches, chicken wraps, a one-pound BLT sandwich, and a signature root beer-braised beef and gouda sandwich.  Burgers included a Kobe beef burger, a blue cheese/bacon/mushroom burger, and a stout-glazed burger patty topped with Merkt's cheddar cheese.  Entrees included a barbecue platter with pulled pork, a barbecued pork shank and barbecued chicken; a braised-beef ravioli dish; and a linguine shrimp dish with grilled shrimp in linguine tossed with chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and oil, and topped with a red pomodoro sauce and Parmesan cheese. 

But the tacos part of the menu caught my eye right off the bat.  Even though I looked around the menu, I kept coming back to the tacos.  I ordered the blackened tilapia tacos.  The three soft-shelled tacos were filled with grilled, blackened tilapia, and topped with lime-marinated cabbage.  A chipotle-infused ranch dressing came on the side, as well as black beans, rice and avocado slices.  With everything mixed in the tacos, the taste was very good.  I'm a sucker for good fish tacos and these were excellent, indeed.  They were just exactly what I needed that particular evening - nothing heavy, but still filling enough. 

While I was enjoying the tacos, the group at the bar to my left were stuck on a trivia question - I can't remember what it was - and I casually leaned to the guy to my immediate left and gave him the answer I thought it was.  He told the group, "Hey, this guy thinks it's this!"  And they turned that answer in and it was correct.   Moments later they were stuck on another question and I gave him another answer that I believed was the right one.  And that was correct, as well!  Suddenly, others in the group were saying, "Hey, man!  You want to join us?" 

I thanked them, but said no.  I had finished my tacos by that time, was almost done with my second Sculpin IPA and was ready to get to the hotel.  But right before I left, another question came up - "Which government agency oversees the United States Secret Service?"  They were immediately discussing whether it was the Department of Justice or the Treasury Department.  I said to the guy, "I think it's the Department of Homeland Security, but I may be wrong on that."  I think they went with the Treasury Department. 

As I was getting up to leave, the trivia night M.C. said, "The answer is the Department of Homeland Security!"  The guy next to me yelled, "Hey, that's what this guy said!"  As I was leaving the group was trying to get me to stay and play.  "You're our best player," one of the ladies said. "You can't leave now!"  I laughed over that.  My visit to the Tap House Grill was fun.  Interacting with friendly people seated at and standing behind the bar was a nice diversion that particular evening.  The blackened tilapia tacos with everything added on to them were very good, and I was very impressed with the beer selection they offered.  It appears the menu at Tap House Grill has a little bit of everything for everyone, but it's definitely a step - or two - above you're regular bar-type of food.  I enjoyed every aspect of my first visit to a Tap House Grill. 

 

Barrel House - Davenport, IA

A place that has suddenly turned into a favorite of mine for a good burger in the Quad Cities is the Barrel House.  For a long time I was sort of ambivalent toward the restaurant with locations in downtown Davenport, downtown Moline, and on Utica Ridge on the far Northeast side of Davenport.   But I've sort of grown fond of their flat grilled burgers, their great beer selections and their good service.   This is an entry on our recent visit to the Utica Ridge location.  (see map)

Michael DeWitte grew up in Cedar Rapids, the son of Ron DeWitte - a well-known guitarist in the Eastern Iowa area and who is also a member of the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame.  The young DeWitte had a lifelong dream of owning his own restaurant and after working in various places over the years, he became the general manager of Granite City in Davenport. 

A space in the old Knostman Building in downtown Davenport - the building was built in 1908 - opened up in late 2010 and Michael DeWitte saw his lifelong plan come to fruition.  He teamed with the owner of a local landscaping company, Jimmy Holt, to come up with the Barrel House concept.  They decided to call it Barrel House as a homage to the old breweries - or "barrel houses" - that dotted the downtown Davenport area before Prohibition.  They opened the first Barrel House location in late July 2011 calling it Barrel House 211 because its address is 211 E. 2nd St. in downtown Davenport.  (see map)  They seem to just go by plain ol' Barrel House these days. 

Pictured right - Michael DeWitte and Jimmy Holt.  Photo courtesy Quad City Times. 

DeWitte (who is also involved with Brix, a pizza place in downtown Moline) and Holt opened their second Barrel House location in downtown Moline in 2013.  In early 2015, they took over the spot of the former 100 Montaditos, a Spanish-based restaurant that serves tapas-sized sandwiches that didn't last much more than a year in Davenport.  Prior to 100 Montaditos, the space had been a wine and cheese store for a few years. 

Along with the opening of a third Barrel House on the northeast side of Davenport, DeWitte and Holt looked at opening a fourth location in LeClaire, IA along the Mississippi river just north of the Quad Cities.  I understand, however, that they weren't able to get the building they wanted to house the restaurant built to their specifications, so that location appears to be dead.  However, they announced late last year that they would be opening a fourth location in Silvis, IL on the far southeast side of the Quad Cities.  That location should be open by May of this year.

Like the other two Barrel House locations we've been to over the past couple three years, the one on Utica Ridge is sports-centric.  There are a number of flat panel televisions interspersed throughout the restaurant.  The "L"-shaped restaurant features a bar up front with a number of high-top tables near the bar and shorter tables toward the back.  And as we've experienced a couple of timse, this Barrel House location can get very loud when there's a lot of people in the place. 

Michela was our server on this particular visit.  She dropped off a couple menus and asked what we would like to drink.  I ordered a bloody Mary and she said, "Uh, well, we're out of bloody Mary mix at the moment."  I was sort of incredulous that a place like this could be out of bloody Mary mix.  She said that their manager was out getting some from the HyVee store that is just down the street.  Crestfallen - just a bit - I ended up ordering an Exile Ruthie, a gold lager from the Exile Brewing Company in Des Moines, that's part of the extensive beer selections they have at the Barrel House. 

They have much more than burgers at the Barrel House.  I also like their tacos - especially their Surf City Tacos that feature grilled haddock that is seasoned with Cajun blackening spices, and topped with a cabbage and onion slaw along with a mixture of black beans, sweet corn kernels and cilantro.  They have a number of good sandwiches, too, including the Beef, Bacon and Mushroom melt topped with Swiss cheese and served on a ciabatta bun.  They also have a number of salads, wraps and flat bread pizzas.  

They have specialty burgers on the menu at the Barrel House.  I like their Burgundy Mushroom and Swiss cheese burger - two 1/4 lb. beef patties topped with Swiss cheese and mushrooms that are sauteed in a burgundy wine sauce.  I like to have them thrown some bacon on top for extra flavor.  And that's what I got that particular day.  I always get their burgers with the onion bun option.  And I also like to get a side of their excellent onion straws - they aren't on the menu, but they've always been able to accommodate me on my requests. 

Cindy went with the "burger bar" option on this visit.  You choose either 1 (Firkin), 2 (Hogshead), or 3 (Big Butt) 1/4 pound patties, then you pick out the type of bun which includes a brioche bun, the aforementioned onion bun, a pretzel bun, or a ciabatta bun.  They also have a gluten free bun on the menu.  From there, you get a choice of six different types of cheese, then you finish out you build-your-own burger with a number of choices of toppings for 50 cents each - toppings such as fried jalapenos, an onion ring, Sriracha slaw, avocado, stout beer and mustard sauteed onions, and pico de gallo.  She got the Firken cheddar cheese burger on a brioche bun.  She got the cole slaw to go along with it. 

Now, I just can't quite put a finger on what makes me so enamored with the Mushroom, Swiss, Bacon burger that I like to get at the Barrel House. I don't know if it's the burgundy wine sauteed mushrooms, the soft and tasty onion bun, the flavorful Swiss cheese that is slathered over the top of the double burgers, or the crispy bacon that seems to tie everything together.  There's a lot of taste sensations that are going on with this particular burger.  I can't call it the best burger I've ever had, but I still find myself getting a hankering for a good Barrel House burger more often than not.  

My wife enjoys the burgers at Barrel House, as well.  She doesn't get them as often as I do, but she said that the cheddar Firkin burger was a spot-hitter for her that particular day.  She's usually picky about her sides and she seems to like the cole slaw that they serve at the Barrel House. 

I don't think you can really go wrong with any of the Barrel House locations in the Quad Cities.  I've warmed up to their food over the past two or three years and I'm enamored with their burgers.  Their beer selection is top notch and we've always had good service on our visits to any of the three (and soon to be four) locations.  It's a great place to catch a game and they have a diverse menu that is definitely a notch above most sports bar-type places I've been to.  Geez, I'm hungry for one of their burgers right now! 

Reza's Pitch - Bismarck, ND

I had come across an article earlier this year on the top burgers in the state of North Dakota.  I kept a couple in the back of my mind including a place in Bismarck by the interesting name of Reza's Pitch.  I was traveling across the state on Interstate 94 earlier this year and I decided to stop into Reza's Pitch to check out the place.  

From the logo, you can probably figure out that the "pitch" that is part of the name refers to the field on which soccer is played, usually called a "pitch" outside of the United States.  The Reza behind Reza's Pitch is Reza Kamranian, an Iranian immigrant who opened his eponymous restaurant in 2010.  Prior to opening his own restaurant, Kamranian worked in a number of restaurants starting out as a dishwasher and working his way up in a number of various positions.  

He eventually ended up in Bismarck and became a partial owner in three restaurants before becoming the A&W/Long John Silver's franchisee in the area.  However, after the parent company overseeing the franchises was sold to a group of investors, Kamranian didn't feel that he was getting the support he needed to continue with his franchise.  That's when he decided to strike out on his own.  He closed his remaining A&W/Long John Silver's in 2009 and renovated the building into a sports bar with a soccer theme.  In March of 2010 he opened Reza's Pitch with an emphasis on both burgers and craft beers.  

Reza's Pitch is located at the corner of Front St. and S. 3rd St. in downtown Bismarck. (see map)  The interior of the place kind of had a contemporary industrial look to it with exposed metal beams in the ceiling, large windows letting in a lot of natural light, a series of tables and booths in the dining area and a good sized bar with the order window into the kitchen behind the bar.  Numerous flat screen televisions were hung through out the place all tuned to sports channels.  Ironically, none of the televisions was showing any soccer. 

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by a young lady by the name of Jessica dressed in a Reza's Pitch soccer jersey, similar to the other servers in the place.  She asked what I wanted to drink and I wondered what they had in beers.  She gave me a beer menu and I picked out a local IPA - Feast Like a Sultan from the Laughing Sun brewery in Bismarck.  

Jessica asked me if I had dined at Reza's Pitch before and I told her that I hadn't.  She pulled out a sheet that was basically their menu where you check off what you want, then hand it in to your server once you've made your selection.  At the top of the sheet, Step 1 is "Choose Your Striker", basically choosing between a 1/3 lb. single or a 2/3 lb. double burger.   Step 2 is "Let's Kickoff" - premium toppings such as various types of cheese, bacon and/or a fried egg.  Step 3 is "Select Your Midfielders" which allows one to select various veggies to put onto the burger.  Step 4 - "Get Onside" - is where you pick various spreads, sauces and condiments including horseradish, barbecue sauce, a spicy blue cheese dressing, a spicy cajun ranch and something called "Sudden Death Ketchup".  From there, you get to select your "Sidekicks" - sides that include fries, onion rings, stuffed jalapeños and housemade potato chips. 

I got the double burger with Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms (raw mushrooms were also available), and bacon - I know, it's my standard burger.  The burger patties were flat grilled and juicy.  This was definitely a multi-napkin burger with the cheese oozing out from under the lightly toasted bun.  I could have easily gotten by with a single burger patty and I'm glad I didn't get any sides to go along with the burger.  The bun - always a key to a good burger - was light and spongy, and it held together very well.  It was a very good burger with a great taste.

Compared to other burgers I've had in North Dakota, the burger at Reza's Pitch was one of the best I've had.  The service was efficient and reasonably quick for a lunch-time crowd, the beer selection was numerous and interesting, and it was a nice little sports bar with good burgers and an adequate amount of sides and appetizers to choose from.  Reza's Pitch was a good find in my travels.

(Update October 2016 - On a recent trip to Bismarck, I passed by Reza's Pitch and found that it was closed.  It turns out that owner Reza Kamranian decided to retire after 40 years in the restaurant business.  He closed the restaurant at the end of June of this year.  That's too bad because they had a very good burger at Reza's Pitch.) 

Lester's Restaurant and Sports Bar - Ladue, MO

During our annual baseball trip to St. Louis earlier this summer, our group (my wife, our friends Scott and Marcia, and myself) met up for lunch with my friend who works for the St. Louis Rams.  We decided to try a place that I learned about after writing the entry on Dave and Tony's Premium Burger Joint in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, MO (click here to see that entry).  One of the owners of Dave and Tony's is the grandson of St. Louis entrepreneur/restaurateur Lester Miller, the man who owns Lester's Restaurant and Sports Bar in the Ladue area of St. Louis.  I was sort of intrigued reading about Lester's that I suggested we all go there for lunch.  

Lester Miller's back story is pretty amazing.  He rose from the dirty streets of New York where he sold papers for a 2 cents, to becoming a caterer at the age of 14, at the age of 17 he landed a job as a sales rep for a company selling cleaning and sanitation products.  

Miller's company sent him to St. Louis on sales calls in his early 20's and he immediately fell in love with the city.  He fell in love with a St. Louis girl and was married when he was 23.  He and his first wife had seven kids - a boy, then six girls - and Miller started a business - supplying condoms in gas station restroom vending machines.  He eventually started a company that made the condoms, but he also had a restroom cleaning service on the side.

His big break in business came when a friend introduced him to someone from a plastics company that was in the process of developing a thin-walled plastic bottle. Miller found that the new bottle design could hold toilet-bowl cleaner without shattering and splashing cleaning acid everywhere.  He and his friend partnered to make cleaning products contained in the new plastic bottles. 

Recognizing the low cost of production in Japan, Miller had the products made overseas.  The company eventually became Contico Plastics and developed the first trigger sprayer for household cleaners.  He imported cleaning bottles from Japan, then Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan changing factories whenever he could get a better deal.  

Miller found out that Union Carbide was wanting to sell its plastics division.  He made a cursory offer of $800,000 and they countered with $1,000,000.  Miller didn't have a million dollars, let alone $800,000.  But he scraped up enough money from banks and investors and bought the plastics division.  For years, Contico was undercapitalized, but they eventually began to make money.  Miller eventually sold Contico and related companies in 1999 and 2000 for $350,000,000.

In 2000, Miller was approached by four men looking to buy land that Miller owned in Springfield, MO to build a plant to make high-industrial batteries for cellphone towers.  Miller took a look at the deal and instead of selling the property, he invested $35,000,000 in the company.  In 2007, Miller and the minor partners sold NorthStar Batteries to an equity firm for an estimated $250,000,000.

Miller was also a land developer and owned tracts of lands in Florida and Georgia, as well as in and around the St. Louis area.  He got into the restaurant business in 2005 when one of his favorite restaurants - Busch's Grove - had closed, fallen into disrepair and was scheduled to be demolished for a boutique shopping center.  He bought the building, spent millions of dollars on the renovations and reopened in December of 2005.  (Miller sold Busch's Grove and it is now closed.) 

In 2007, Lester Miller opened his eponymous restaurant - an upscale sports bar that featured New York-style deli sandwiches and barbecue - on Clayton Road in Ladue.  He outfitted the place with memorabilia and commissioned a six and a half foot statue of his good friend and former St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial in front of the place.  

Pictured right - Lester Miller in front of the original Lester's Restaurant and Sports Bar in Ladue with the statue of Stan Musial over his left shoulder.

Miller opened a second location in west suburban Chesterfield in 2008 and a third Lester's location opened in the Central West End in 2011.  However, he closed the Chesterfield location in the fall of 2014 and the Central West End location closed just a few weeks after.  But the Ladue location is still going strong.    

We met up with my friend around 1:00 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon at Lester's on Clayton Road in a small shopping mall that abutted up to I-64/40 Highway.  (see map)  I'd been by the place, well, dozens of times over the past few years and never knew it was there.  We found our friend in the bar area just inside the front door of Lester's waiting on us.  The bar area was rather large and featured a number of flat panel televisions.  The place sort of looked classy for a sports bar.  

The hostess took us into the main dining area that featured a number of tables in the middle with booths along the outer walls.  An open kitchen was situated in the back of the dining area.  Sports memorabilia hung on the walls along with flat screen televisions hanging high throughout the room.  We were given menus to check out and ordered up some drinks.  

Lester Miller wanted authenticity when it came to his meats at his restaurant.  His head chef was sent to New York City to learn the art of smoking and preparing meats from the person who once ran the famous Carnegie Deli.   The meat is brined and smoked in-house daily over applewood chips.  They make everything from scratch at Lester's from the bread used in their sandwiches, to the salad dressings, to the sides, and to the baby back ribs that are smoked nearly 5 hours daily.  It was no wonder I was having a lot of trouble figuring out what to get.  

I really wanted to try a deli sandwich, but the barbecue offerings on the menu were calling my name, as well.  It's not that I didn't think that I'd ever be back to Lester's.  It's just that everything sounded pretty damned good and I wanted to try a couple of things.  

We let everyone order up before I ordered a pastrami on rye with Swiss cheese.  They have two sizes of sandwiches - a regular and a colossal.  I went with the regular sized and by looking at the picture below left one can almost imagine what a colossal sized sandwich would look like.  I also asked the server if I could try some of the beef brisket that they had as part of their barbecue menu.  He said that he could come up with a 3 ounce plate of brisket.  That would be perfect!  I just wanted a taste of the brisket, not a whole meal.  

Cindy was as much in a quandary about what to get.  She wasn't overly hungry, but she knew she needed to get something.  She saw something on the appetizer menu - the deli slider combo - that was a sampling of the corned beef and pastrami sandwiches.  When the server set the plate down in front of her, she realized that may have been a mistake.  They were four small sandwiches - two each of the pastrami and corned beef.  We could have easily gotten this for ourselves.  She was a tad embarrassed when she realized what it really was that she ordered and I told her that we could get what she didn't get to go and take it back to put in the fridge in our hotel room.  

I have to say that my sandwich was very good.  I'm a sucker for good pastrami and this was some of the finest pastrami that I've ever had.  It was tender and had a great beef taste with a hint of pepper and not a lot of salt.  The beef had some good marbling, but it was overly fatty or greasy.  The rye bread was equally impressive with the laste of fresh caraway seeds throughout.  

The brisket was equally as good as the pastrami.  It was lean and tender with a small smoke ring around the edge.  The spices they use as a rub on the brisket helped enhance the overall taste of the beef.  This was some excellent brisket.  

The other thing that was pretty good on my plate was the cole slaw.  It had a good creamy and vinegary taste and the cabbage was crunchy and fresh.  It was some of the better cole slaw that I've ever had.  

We spent a good portion of the afternoon at Lester's catching up with what had been going on with my friend.  The staff was very accommodating, allowing us to sit there for nearly two and a half hours before we realized how much time had passed and we needed to get going to the ball game.  The pastrami sandwich and the brisket at Lester's was surprisingly very good to excellent.  I'm worried about restaurants that have an extensive menu, but what I had at Lester's was all good.  I can't believe that I haven't tried Lester's before this visit and it certainly won't be the last time I go there.  

Moretti's Ristorante and Pizzeria - Chicago

Staying on the northwest side of Chicago on a recent trip there, I was looking for a new place to go in the Edison Park neighborhood.  I found a place that looked sort of interesting - Moretti's Ristorante and Pizzeria.  I didn't know much about it, but it looked inviting enough to give it a try.  

It turns out that Moretti's is a local chain consisting of seven locations primarily in the far north and west suburbs of Chicago.  The Edison Park location is the only one that is actually in the city limits of Chicago.  But they are part of an empire called the Ala Carte Entertainment group headed by entrepreneur Fred Hoffman.

Hoffman was a self-made man who made up his mind when he was 17 years old that he would either make it or break it in the business world by the time he was 25.  In his early 20's, Hoffman opened The Snuggery - quite possibly the first sports pub and eatery in Chicago.  By the time he was 27, he was a millionaire and working on other projects.  He started up Ala Carte Entertainment to oversee Snuggery locations as well as a number of night clubs that he owned.  

Hoffman eventually closed his original Snuggery in downtown Chicago and converted the Snuggery in Edison Park to a Moretti's specializing in thin crust and deep dish pizza, as well as Italian entrees.  Today, Hoffman still heads Ala Carte Entertainment with help from his son, Mark.  (There are still three Snuggery locations mainly in the western and far northern suburbs of Chicago.)  

The Moretti's in Edison Park is located on Olmsted Ave. next to the Metra rail station, a block off of Northwest Highway.  (see map)   I found a parking spot in the parking lot across the street and went inside.  Just inside the door is the main bar area - a large rectangular bar with an old world design.  Tables and booths are in the main area, as well. 

Moretti's is a rather large place with another bar in the room off to the side.  There were a couple other dining areas off the main bar area and there was an outdoor patio for summertime eating.  Although I didn't see the second floor, I'm guessing that there's ample space up there for banquets and private parties.  

I ended up sitting at the main bar simultaneously watching baseball and a Stanley Cup play-off hockey match they had on the large number of flat panel televisions throughout the place.  One of the bartenders, Madison, came over to greet me and to drop off a menu.  She asked me what I wanted to drink and I saw that they had Sam Adams on tap so I got one of those.  

In the mood for pizza, I took a quick gander to see what else Moretti's had to offer.  In addition to their thin crust and deep dish pizzas, they had a number of Italian appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches, wraps, and burgers, as well as a number of  pasta entrees and Italian specialties such as chicken marsala, baked ziti, eggplant parmesan, and gnocchi bolognese.  They also had ribs, steaks, seafood and gluten-free items on the menu.  There was a little bit of everything once again raising my fears that while they probably do everything well, they don't do everything great.  

Getting back to the pizza, I ended up ordering my standard Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom with the thin crust.  Their smallest thin crust pizza size is 12" so I knew that I'd be taking some back to the hotel with me for snacks or breakfast at some point.  

The pizza featured large slices of pepperoni on top of the mozzarella cheese that hid the chunky Italian sausage and fresh mushroom slices they use at Moretti's.  The sauce had a nice tangy and sweet taste that went well with the spicy and salty pepperoni and the somewhat spicy Italian sausage.  It was cut into party squares and I was able to eat all but about four or five slices of the pizza.  I took the rest with me.  Quite actually, I thought it tasted better heated up the next evening when I got back to the hotel and had a couple pieces as a snack.  

While it wasn't the best thin crust pizza I've had in the Chicago area, the pizza I had at Moretti's was good enough that I wouldn't have any problem going back - or to any of the other Moretti's locations, for that matter.  I was happy enough with the pizza, Madison did a fine job making sure that I was taken care of, and there were enough televisions that I could watch a couple baseball games and a hockey match all at the same times.  They've got a good formula at Moretti's and if you don't know what you are hungry for, you could probably figure out something to get when you go there.  

Omaha Tap House - Omaha

I was out in Omaha earlier this spring and decided to stay downtown at the new-ish Hampton Inn and Suites just across from TD Ameritrade Park, home to the NCAA College World Series.  Not far from the hotel was a place that I'd been wanting to try for a couple years now - the Omaha Tap House.  It was a short drive from the hotel to the Omaha Tap House located at the corner of Farnam and S. 14th St. on the edge of Omaha's Old Market area.  (see map)

It turns out that I'm somewhat familiar with the restaurant group that owns the Omaha Tap House.  The Letnes brothers - Matt and Kent - also own the Boulder Tap House restaurants in Minnesota.  (Click here to see my entry on the Boulder Tap House in St. Cloud, MN.)  The brothers also run the Milwaukee Burger Co. locations in Wisconsin. After the Crane Coffee Cafe had closed their downtown Omaha location in early 2012, the Letnes Restaurant Group came in to take over the location and opened the Omaha Tap House in August of 2012.    

I found a parking spot on Farnum just down the street from the Omaha Tap House and went in to check the place out.  It was a lively place with a number of flat screen televisions with baseball games playing on them.  The bar area - although pretty small - featured a number of local and regional craft brews on tap.  

I found a seat in a booth in the L-shaped dining area and it wasn't long before my server, Cody, came over with a menu.  They had the Lagunitas IPA on tap and I ordered up a pint of that.  

Omaha Tap House calls itself a gastropub, but it's just a fancy term for what is really a sports bar menu with a few twists.  Burgers rule the menu - they have 16 Tap House burgers on the menu that include the Popper burger that is topped with sautéed jalapeños, cream cheese and jalapeño jam, finished off with brown sugar bacon slices. There's also the Fiesta burger topped with pepper-jack cheese, guacamole, tortilla strips and a chipotle ranch dressing, and for the strong of heart the Defibrillator features two burger patties topped with a choice of cheese, bacon, fried onions, garlic sautéed mushrooms, a house-made sauce and finished off with cheese curds.  Wow!

There were also sandwiches on the menu including the Southwest Spicy Chicken sandwich that featured a chicken breast topped with pepper-jack cheese with green peppers and onions, a chipotle ranch dressing, tortilla strips and tomatoes. (For $1 more you can get a slice of avocado on the sandwich.)  There was also the Steak-Cheese-Mushroom sandwich which featured grilled chunks of sirloin steak and topped with both mozzarella and cheddar cheese and finished with sautéed mushrooms and served on a soft hoagy bun.

The tacos on the menu got my attention - especially the blackened tilapia tacos topped with mozzarella cheese, lettuce, cabbage, pico de gallo and finished with a jalapeño tartar sauce.  They also had the Shrimp IPA tacos - two flour tortillas filled with grilled shrimp that had been marinated in an India Pale Ale beer, topped with lettuce, cabbage, and a house-made lime cilantro sauce.  

But I figured on getting a burger.  In addition to the select burgers on the menu, you can also build your own burger.  They start out with an always fresh, never frozen Black Angus beef patty and from there you get your choice of seven different types of cheese (they also had a smoked cheddar cheese - yum!), then a choice of toppings that included a fried egg, green olives, the aforementioned garlic sautéed mushrooms, and either thick-cut or brown sugar coated bacon.  I ended up ordering a Swiss cheese, sautéed mushroom and thick-cut bacon burger from Cody.  Fries came with the burger, but Cody said that I could substitute sides such as jalapeño fries, hot bleu cheese potato salad, onion rings or sweet potato fries on the side.  I went with the Cajun fries sprinkled with a Cajun seasoning.  

There's free wi-fi at the Omaha Tap House, but I was having trouble getting on with my cellphone.  When Cody came back with my second beer, I told him that I was having trouble getting on their network.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  Our network sucks.  But we've got permission from Cox Cable to be able to use their system.  I just have to go get the password."  Moments later he came back with a password and just like that I was on checking messages and my Twitter feed.   Cody was a good guy.  

And moments after that, Cody came back with my burger.  It was served on a small baking sheet with wax paper in the bottom.  The side of fries came in a small metal basket on the side.  At first glance, the burger looked very promising.  The crown of the bun rose high over the patty, but it was soft and spongy.  

The burger patty was topped wit the Swiss cheese with the thick-cut bacon criss-crossed across the top of the burger patty.  The garlic sautéed mushrooms looked to be fresh sliced and there were a lot of them on top of the burger.  But the first bite told me that the burger was overcooked.  It was cooked to the well side of medium well with no pink in the middle.  It was dry and not very flavorful.  The Swiss cheese and bacon helped the overall taste, but I didn't get much of a garlic taste in the sautéed mushrooms.  Quite frankly, the only thing that saved the burger was the bun.  It was a very good bun, one that stayed together very well with all the other stuff that was on the burger.  Light and flavorful, the bun was the best thing about an otherwise disappointing burger.

The Cajun fries were fine.  They were thin-cut and had ample amounts of Cajun seasonings on them.  They certainly didn't scrimp on the amount of fries they gave me and I was only able to eat about a quarter of what I was served.  

OK, so I was a little disappointed with the burger at the Omaha Tap House.  Overcooked and somewhat lifeless, I thought the saving grace was the wonderful bun it was served on.  I was impressed with the beer selections they had at the Omaha Tap House and Cody's service was very friendly and efficient.  The only other quibble I had was that I noticed a 35 cent "service charge" on my bill with no explanation as to what that could be.  Upcharge for the Cajun fries?  A nominal fee for using Cox Cable's internet?  I never asked.  But other than that - and an overcooked burger - the Omaha Tap House was a nice place to visit.  I only wish I had gotten the blackened tilapia tacos instead.   

Graystone Ale House - De Pere, WI

Up in Green Bay during an early spring day where winter was still trying to hang on, I set my sights on a place that came up on my GPS when I was pulling into town.  The name - Graystone Ale House - was intriguing enough for me to give it a try.  

The Graystone Ale House is part of a consortium of sports bars around the Green Bay/Appleton area owned by Jess Miller, Ryan Chernick and other partners.  These places include The Bar with locations in both Green Bay and Appleton, as well as the Hagemeister Park sports bar in downtown Green Bay that is named after the first field the Green Bay Packers played on when they became a football team in the late 1910's.  The modern day Hagemeister Park features a Packer motif and a large outdoor patio deck with a heated canopy.  It's a popular place for Packer game days, both when the Packers play at Lambeau Field or on the road.  

Graystone Ale House opened in late 2010 and is situated in a newer area of Green Bay in what is actually De Pere, WI just past the roundabout where Monroe and Dickinson Roads meet.  (see map)  There's ample parking beside and behind the building.  

Walking into Graystone Ale House you'll find a large square bar with a larger dining area off to the right and a smaller one in the bar area.  The place was very nice and very welcoming.  There were dozens of flatscreen televisions scattered throughout the building.  As I entered, one of the servers told me that I could sit anywhere I liked and I asked if I could just sit at the bar and get food.  She said it was no problem.  

My server, Jessie, came over to great me and dropped off a menu.  I got a Lagunitas IPA that they had on draft from one of the about two dozen spigots behind the bar.  It was served to me in a Mason jar.  

The food selection on the menu was extensive but it included some upscale items in addition to the normal burgers, salads, soups and appetizers you find at similar sports bars.  They had steaks and seafood on the menu including a 12 ounce New York strip steak and grilled Mahi Mahi.  Graystone Ale House also featured fettuccine Alfredo and a pot roast entree, as well.  

I looked over their pizza page for a moment before settling on either sandwich or a burger.   About the only sandwich that remotely appealed to me that day was their Black Forest sandwich - sliced turkey and ham topped with Swiss and cheddar cheese and served on marble rye bread.  I decided to concentrate on the burgers.

All the burgers at Graystone Ale House feature 1/2 lb. Black Angus beef patties.  There are some signature burgers such as the Graystone that is topped with Swiss, mozzarella and cheddar cheese; or the Bacon and Rings that is topped with, of course, bacon and onion rings.  You can also build your own burgers at Graystone Ale House starting with your choice of a white or wheat bun (or a pretzel or ciabatta bun for an upcharge), six different types of cheese, twelve different sauces or dressings, and toppings that include blue cheese crumbles, sautéed mushrooms, sliced pickles and Canadian bacon.  

I went with building my own burger topped with the sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and slices of bacon.  I went with the basic white bun - I'd been having bad experiences with pretzel buns lately.  It was lightly toasted and big enough to hold the large burger patty.  

And the burger was pretty good.  Actually, better than I thought it would be.  The Swiss cheese slathered over the top of the burger with a bed of sliced sautéed mushrooms under the cheese.  The thick cut bacon was criss-crossed on top of the burger and had a great complementary flavor along with everything else.   The bun held together well and was a great companion with the thick burger.  

The fries were average, but I didn't really care about that.  The big burger was filling and I didn't eat many of the fries.  In fact, I don't think I had dinner that evening because I was still full from the burger I had for lunch.  

Graystone Ale House - nice place, above average burger, great beer selection, tons of televisions and a good menu for a sports bar.  I couldn't complain about much during my visit there.  The service was good and I was in and out in less than 30 minutes.  It was one of the better sports bars I've visited in the upper Midwest.  

Rack House Kitchen and Tavern - Arlington Heights, IL

I was calling on an account in the far northwestern suburbs of Chicago on a recent visit there and it was past 7 p.m. when I left the dealer.  I was making my way back toward my hotel when I passed a place on Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights (see map) that piqued my interest.  I took a turn and headed back to try a place by the name of the Rack House.  

With a name like the Rack House, I figured that it was probably a barbecue joint.  I was partially correct - they do feature smoked meats in the restaurant.  But the focus of the sports bar/restaurant centers upon the number of food items they serve that are flavored with bourbon.  A "rackhouse" (also known as a "rickhouse") is a building where aging barrels are stored in whiskey making operations.  The Rack House has a long drink list that features "moonshine" drinks, bourbons, Irish whiskey, and single malt Scotch.  

But they also have an in-house Southern Pride smoker that allows them to smoke ribs, brisket, pork butt, chicken and sausage.  They also smoke chicken wings and salmon in the larger smoker.  The Rack House uses hard woods to smoke the meats allowing for a "low and slow" cooking technique.  

The Rack House opened in March of 2013 in what was a former Boston Blackie's location.  When the father-son owners of Boston Blackie's were indicted on a nearly $2 million bank fraud scheme in 2010, all of their Chicago-area restaurants closed up.  Partners Luke Johnson - who owned the LM Bistro in the trendy River North area of Chicago - and Matt Lewandowski - who owned the Trademark Tavern in Lombard - bought the building and renovated it into the Rack House.  They closed their respective eateries and concentrated on their new venture in Arlington Heights.  

It was around 7:30 when I got into the restaurant.  I was greeted by a hostess who asked if I wanted to eat in the bar area - filled with a lot of flat screen televisions and a lot of people - or in the dining room which was a little more laid back and rather quiet.  I went with the dining room.  And I'm glad I did.  I was escorted to a dining area that featured a gas fire place with a large flat screen television above the hearth that was tuned to a basketball game.  The hostess dropped off a menu and soon thereafter my server for the evening, Rachel, came to take my drink order.  I got a Lagunitas IPA, one of nearly two dozen beers they feature on tap  It was served to me in a pint-sized Mason jar.  

In addition to the barbecue items on the menu, the Rack House also features the normal sports bar/restaurant appetizers, a number of burgers, salads and wraps, and a number of sandwiches.  They also had a handful of entrees that included a ginger/soy-marinated skirt steak, apple cider-glazed pork chops, and a smoked beer-can chicken (available on a limited basis).  

I was leaning toward getting the "Over Easy" burger which consists of a burger patty topped with Swiss and cheddar cheese, strips of bacon, caramelized onions, a fried egg and finished with a whiskey BBQ sauce.  But I had been getting burnt out on burgers up to that point and I thought I needed something else.

That's when I saw that they had grilled fish tacos.  I'm a sucker for good grilled fish tacos (you know that if you're a regular reader of Road Tips) and the ones at the Rack House seemed promising.   The fish was seasoned with a blackening spice, then topped with shredded pepper jack cheese, garlic aioli sauce, and shredded cabbage and served in three soft flour taco shells.  A medley of tortilla chips came on the side, but those were mainly throw-aways - the fish tacos were actually pretty damned good.  The blackened seasoning gave the tacos a bit of a bite, but the garlic aioli was a great touch.  I usually make my fish tacos at home with a chipotle/mayo sauce that really gives it a bite.  But the garlic aioli may have turned my head in a different direction.  It was far from a heavy meal - something that I didn't need that evening.  It was simply a spot hitter. 

For taking a chance on a place that I just happened to spy as I was driving by, I can't say that I was disappointed in the Rack House.  Far from it - I liked the laid-back and welcoming atmosphere, Rachel's service was professional and efficient, and the blackened grilled fish tacos were very good.  I wasn't full, nor was I hungry after I finished my meal.  I would like to get back to try some of their barbecue at some point.  But for what I had this particular evening, I was very happy with what I got.  (Picture courtesy The Daily Herald)

Between the Buns - South Bend, IN

I found myself in South Bend, IN a few weeks back staying near the campus of Notre Dame.  I was trying to figure out where to go for dinner and nothing was sounding good to me.  I went to the front desk to inquire with the young lady what options where in the area.  She gave me a sheet on some restaurants and I saw a place called Between the Buns that was a sports bar.  I wanted to watch some basketball that evening, so I decided to head over there for some basketball, beer and food.  

The Between the Buns in South Bend is located on S. Bend Ave. east of the Notre Dame campus.  (See map)  This was the second location of what were five total locations for Between the Buns at one point in Northern Indiana.  (There are three Between the Buns locations in the South Bend/Elkhart area.)  

The first Between the Buns was established in 1985 when the sports bar concept was still in its infancy.  Partners Tom Wilson, Sr. and Phil Schreiber opened the sports bar in Osceola, a suburb of South Bend and it was the first sports bar in the area.  It wasn't big compared to some sports bars today - it only seated 85 people.  Schreiber ran the day-to-day operations at Between the Buns.

In 2000, Tom Wilson's son, Tommy, joined the company and the group opened the South Bend location.  In 2006, Between the Buns merged with an Elkhart restaurant/ banquet facility The Matterhorn to open the Elkhart location of the sports bar.  The Matterhorn's ownership team of Bruce Tassell and Kurt Janowsky had been approached years earlier by Tom Wilson, Sr. (who was a business partner of Tassell's in the 70's) and Schreiber to put in a Between the Buns location in what was then The Matterhorn's under utilized dining area.  The group initially determined that the kitchen would be too small to have both Between the Buns and The Matterhorn sharing the facility.  But an expansion of the kitchen allowed for Between the Buns to take over the restaurant part of The Matterhorn while the other part of the building continued to hosts banquets and receptions.  (Between the Buns locations in Mishawaka and in Granger opened and closed over the past few years.)  

In 2012, Phil Schreiber gave up the management of day-to-day operations of Between the Buns and bought the Chicory Cafe in South Bend, a small New Orleans-style coffee shop.  Schreiber - who is a co-owner of the Chicory Cafe with his wife, Julie, and Jeff Morauski - is still a partner in Between the Buns with Tom and Tommy Wilson.  

The South Bend location of Between the Buns is located in a strip mall.  As I waked in, I noticed a sign where ESPN designated Between the Buns as one of the Top 8 sports bars in North America.  (I found out later on that it was designated by a voting process - I'm sure the bar got their patrons to "stuff" the ballot box.  But still, it had to be a pretty good marketing effort for the bar to pull it off.)

(Update - I got a very nice e-mail from Dave from Between the Buns thanking me for the honest review of the place and explaining the run-up to getting named as one of ESPN's Top 8 Sports Bars in North America.

"Just wanted to clue you in on the ESPN thing.  We were nominated with a description of our place, ESPN selected us as one of the Top 8, then after that, it became a voting thing amongst the top 8 finalists (of which we were one) for the #1 spot.  The contest started as "in the US", but then they changed it to "in North America" so that they could name a Canadian bar as #1.  They would not tell us, even after many requests, the ranking of the remaining 7.  The Canadian bar just happens to be in the same city as Canada's ESPN sister company.  But enough about rigging and conspiracies.")

So, there you go!

(And it was also at this point that I realized that all the pictures that I had taken during my visit to Between the Buns had mysteriously vanished from my computer.  I ended up lifting some pictures from Between the Buns' Facebook page.)  

There are two parts of Between the Buns - there's a dining room to the left as you come in, and a bar area with booths and tables to the right.  I was greeted by a young girl who asked me if I wanted to sit in the bar or in the dining room.  I opted for a booth in the bar area.

Between the Buns was similar to a number of sports bars I've been to in the past.  Both parts of the place had a number of flat screen televisions, sports memorabilia including jerseys and pictures, and a very lively atmosphere.  I was looking through the menu when my server for the evening, Holly, came over to greet me.  They had a pretty good beer menu at Between the Buns, but that evening they had a $2.00 special on Budweiser products.  I couldn't pass that up even though they had Kona, Bell's and 3 Floyd's products available.  

Most of the items on the menu are your typical sports bar fare - a number of appetizers, soups and salads, burgers, and sandwiches on the menu.  Many of the sandwiches and burgers were named for sports stars or sports teams.  

I wasn't really fired up for a burger, but I didn't really see anything on the sandwich menu that really tripped my trigger.  I looked through the burgers and while they had some interesting selections - The Angry Knight (named after former Indiana University head basketball coach Bob Knight) starts out with Cajun seasoning on the burger, topped with Ken's Boom-Boom Sauce, bacon, frizzled onions, jalapeno peppers and pepperjack cheese - I ended up just getting the Razorback burger that had bacon and Swiss cheese.  I asked Holly if I could get some sauteed mushrooms with the burger and she said it was no problem.  

She asked me what kind of bun that I wanted with the burger.  Holly said, "We have plain, whole wheat, onion..."  I stopped her there and told her onion was fine.  "....or pretzel."  I immediately changed my mind.  She sort of laughed and said, "See?  You jumped the gun!" 

For a side, I had a choice of steak fries, onion chips, baked beans, cole slaw and a couple three other sides.  For a $1.00 upcharge I could choose a 1/2 order of onion rings, steamed veggies, a bowl of chili or sweet potato fries.  I took the onion rings.  "Our onion rings are good," Holly said as she grabbed my menu from me.  

Now, I'm really upset that I lost the pictures of the burger and the onion rings that I had.  This burger is pulled from their Facebook page, but it is nowhere close to how good my burger looked - both in thickness and it presentation.  Between the Buns features a 6 ounce, fresh ground, hand-pattied chargrilled burger.  

And I had to take a step back when she brought the 1/2 basket of onion rings.  The rings were big, thick and heavily battered.  There were seven or eight of them in the basket and they were all huge.  I incredulously said to Holly, "This is a half order?"  She confirmed that it was.  I took one out of the basket, placed it on a plate and put a fork next to it to establish the size as I took a picture.  I'm upset that I lost the pictures.  Crap...

Holly was off getting me another $2.00 bottle of beer and I started to look around at the cheese and bacon on my burger.  I realized that they forgot to put sauteed mushrooms on my burger.  When she came back, I told her that I didn't have any mushrooms on my burger.  "Really," she asked with a hint of exasperation in her voice.  "I'll go get some for you."  A moment later, she reappeared with a small 4 ounce cup filled to the brim with sauteed mushrooms.  "I got you a few more just because they forgot," she told me.  Holly was doing a great job.  

The pretzel bun was sort of dry.  No, it was really dry.  And there was too much of it.  I was taking bites of the burger and having to pull pieces of the crown of the pretzel bun away from the burger.  It was not a good bun, probably one of the worst pretzel buns I've ever had.

The burger, on its own, was fine.  It was juicy and had a pretty good flavor to it for a chargrilled burger.  The Swiss cheese, bacon and mushroom were a splendid taste combination with the burger.  I ended up just taking the pretzel bun off the top and  finished up by eating it with a fork.  I thought through the meal that I wish I would have gone with the onion bun.  

The onion rings were very greasy.  They were fine - not the best I've had - but the onions inside the batter were sweet and tasty.  The batter was thick and greasy and had a somewhat oily taste.  They were good, but not great.  I could only eat three of the behemoth onion rings.  

While the burger patty was good, the overall taste of the burger at Between the Buns was dampened by the pretzel bun.  It was dry and not fresh at all.  The huge onion rings - a half order is enough for two people - were all right.  I couldn't beat the price on the beer special and Holly's service was impeccable.  They had a great selection of games to watch - if a game is on, Between the Buns has it.  My experience was fine, but nothing special.  It was a typical sports bar with typical sports bar food. 

(UPDATE - After over 30 years in business, Between the Buns closed their doors at the end of 2015.  It appears the same owners are going to be taking the restaurant in a different direction with a more upscale restaurant tentatively called Taphouse on the Edge. Reportedly the new restaurant will be featuring micro brews, craft cocktails, and a new menu featuring organic, locally grown ingredients, grass-fed beef and non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) food items on the menu.  Sounds like a place I may have to try at some point. Thanks to Dave formerly of Between the Buns for contacting me to let me know.)

Riverside Grille - Bettendorf, IA

Earlier this year, a new bar and grille opened in Bettendorf and we've been wanting to give it a try.  On a Monday night date night not long ago, my wife and I decided to give Riverside Grille a try for dinner. 

Riverside Grille is owned by Jim Mohr and Rich Sampson who also own the popular Parkside Grille over across the river in Moline.  Riverside Grille could be classified as a sports bar/grille as they feature 18 flat screen televisions mounted throughout the place.  It had a slick, contemporary feel to the place.  

It was around 6:30 when we went inside Riverside Grille.  The "riverside" name is a misnomer - it's not on the river.  In fact, you can't even see the Mississippi River from the place.  The Isle of Capri Casino sits between the restaurant and the river.  It's situated in a strip mall on the south side of State Street in Bettendorf.  (see map)

We were greeted by a young lady who escorted us to a table in the middle of the restaurant.  She dropped off a couple menus and our server, Jenessa, came over to greet us shortly after that.  

The first thing that impressed me was the admirable selection of locally brewed beers that Riverside Grille had to offer.  The Quad Cities has a handful of local breweries that made some pretty good beers.  

The food at Riverside Grille is mainly the usual pub fare - appetizers, sandwiches and burgers along with salads and wraps.  They also have daily specials that are off the menu.  The special that evening was a barbecued pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw on top of the pulled pork.  Sounded interesting, but I was looking for something else.

They had a pork tenderloin sandwich on the menu that sort of grabbed my attention.  But I finally decided to get the Angus beef burger with Swiss cheese, bacon and mushrooms.  I got two sides with it and chose the onion tanglers - basically onion straws - but was at a loss as to what to choose for my other side.  Jenessa said, "Our cole slaw is very good.  And I really like our baked beans."  I went with the baked beans.

Surprisingly - at least to me - Cindy chose the reuben sandwich.  I can't tell you the last time I was with Cindy when she ordered a reuben.  She got fries and she asked Jenessa if the cole slaw was made in-house.  Jenessa said that it was and Cindy took her word on it and ordered the cole slaw.  

The Angus burger was really nothing more than a processed burger that Riverside Grille got from a local food purveyor.  It was a tad overcooked and somewhat lifeless in taste.  The Swiss cheese, bacon and mushrooms helped with the overall taste, but it was a pretty basic burger patty.  The onion tanglers were overcooked and too crispy for my taste.  And the baked beans - they tasted like they were basically beans out of a can warmed up.  Overall, my meal was pretty underwhelming.

Cindy's reuben came on marbled rye bread.  The fries appeared to be handcut and the cole slaw was served in the same small tub that my beans came in.  Cindy tried the cole slaw first and she said, "Oh, there is NO way this cole slaw was made back in their kitchen."  She could tell it was the garden variety bland cole slaw that was bought from a food distributor.  

And the corned beef they used in the reuben was ultra-salty.  I don't salt anything, but Cindy will put salt on some of her foods.  For her to declare the corned beef as very salty, well, it HAD to be very salty  In fact, later on that evening her lips became puffy.  She said it was from all the salt in the corned beef.  She wasn't impressed with the sandwich.  

Another interesting point about Riverside Grille.  I went to use the restroom and I walked into what was one of the smallest men's restroom I've ever encountered in a sports bar.  It was basically a toilet and that was it.  I could almost imagine a Monday night with football on and a good crowd on hand with a long line outside the men's as only one guy can use the facilities at a time.  For a place that had a marked emphasis on sports - especially with 18 televisions throughout the place - it didn't seem like the restroom was planned out very well.   

We've since been back to Riverside Grille on a couple other occasions - once to have drinks with some of our neighbors and another time to give it a second try on the food. The service during all of our visits has been very good, but the food didn't improve much - if at all - from our first visit.  I mean, it's all right for bar food.  But as nice as the place appears to be on the inside and out, the food doesn't live up to the promise.  It's a good place to visit and to watch some sports while you're sipping a beer or a mixed drink.  But the food is a little under par compared to what we thought it could - or should - be.  

Boulder Tap House - St. Cloud, MN

In St. Cloud on a recent visit, I did some training for one of my dealers in the area and I offered to take them out for some food and beer.  The owner suggested we go to a place in which they put in the sound and video system - Boulder Tap House.  I'd gone past Boulder Tap House a few times on my previous visits to St. Cloud and always wondered about the place.  I was more than happy to take them there to try the place out.  

The Boulder Tap House is under the corporate umbrella of the Letnes Restaurant Group located in St. Cloud.  Brothers Steve and Curt Letnes opened the first Grizzly's restaurant in St. Cloud in 1995 and expanded their restaurants to a total of 14 locations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.  The Letnes Brothers, along with Rich Proctor, also own Poncho and Lefty's Tex-Mex Grill in Baxter, MN.  In 2007, Kent Letnes - a son of Curt Letnes - opened his own restaurant venture under the Letnex Restaurant Group banner, Milwaukee Burger Company.  They now operate three locations of that restaurant in Wisconsin.  

Most of the Grizzly's locations were in strip malls around the upper Midwest, but the group decided to abandon those locations for free standing buildings.  The Grizzly's at Crossroads Center shopping mall in St. Cloud was shut down and the liquor license was transferred to their new venture, the Boulder Tap House that had taken over a what was the old Timber Lodge Steakhouse location on the south side of St. Cloud.  (see map)  The Boulder Tap House opened in 2011 and a second location opened in Mankato later that year.  A third Boulder Tap House opened in the Brainerd/Baxter area in 2012 and I was told by my dealer that they were working on a fourth Boulder Tap House location in Superior, WI that is scheduled to open sometime later this year.   

Managing partner Ray Herrington had a table ready for us when we walked into the Boulder Tap House around 7:30 p.m.  The place was sort of packed because they were debuting a new beer from a local Twin Cities brewery that I wasn't familiar with, Fulton.  It's a small brewery that was started five years ago by four college buddies in a one-car garage.  I had their IPA and it was pretty good.

 
The Boulder Tap House is primarily a sports bar.  A number of flat screen televisions as well as large projection television were throughout the place.  My dealer was telling me that they did the audio and video switching system, taking me into a back area by the kitchen to show me the myriad of satellite receivers, switching devices and video boxes that controlled the video at Boulder Tap House.  It was a pretty impressive system, I have to say.  

The Boulder Tap House concept closely follows the Milwaukee Burger House concept - over 40 beers on tap (including Kona Longboard Lager and Capital Supper Club, two of my favorite beers), over-the-top burgers, and a number of higher end appetizers.  Looking through the menu, I saw that they had 15 specialty burgers including the aptly named Defibrillator - it was a double cheeseburger topped with cheese curds and smokehouse bacon, then topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, relish, jalapeño peppers, banana peppers, sautéed mushrooms, fried onions, and something they call Burger Co. sauce, which I think is sort of a spicy ranch-style dressing.  You could also make your own Tap House burgers that consisted of a choice nine different cheeses (including house-made cheese curds), four different types of bacon (including a pepper bacon and jalapeño bacon), eight toppings as diverse as Pabst Blue Ribbon-sautéed onions, fried egg, onion straws, banana peppers and fresh avocado, and a half-dozen different sauces.    

My dealer decided to start out with a number of appetizers which included spicy chicken quesadillas, spicy chicken lettuce wraps and two different types of wings - one batch with a habanero and mango sauce, and the other that were blackened.  He really likes the lettuce wraps and I tried one and it was good.  It had enough of a zippy spice on the chicken to get your attention.  I did try a couple of the habanero and mango chicken wings, as well as a couple of the blackened chicken wings.  I thought the sweet and spicy taste of the habanero/mango wings was a nice combination.  While the habanero sauce didn't burn your face off, the fruity mango taste on the backside made sure of that.  Actually, I thought the blackened chicken wings were more hot in terms of spiciness than the habanero/mango wings. 

The guys decided that they wanted to get some burgers after the appetizers were finished.  I had no problem with that.  I went with one of the specialty burgers - a muenster cheese, bacon and mushroom burger.  One of the guys went with a stuffed jalapeno burger with jalapeno fries.  My dealer went with the Swiss/mushroom burger with Burger Co. sauce.  And one of the guys - a hulking kid by the name of Mike - went with something he called the "Big Assed Burger".  It was basically two different specialty burgers put together - the Defibrillator (which I described earlier) and a stuffed jalapeno and peanut butter burger.  This one I had to see to believe. 

Our food came out and here is what the Big Assed Burger looked like.  It was three burger patties - half pound each topped with melted cheese and peanut butter.  Warm peanut butter is pretty disgusting to me, but this was an interesting burger.  I was more intrigued if he could eat the whole thing.  "Don't worry," my dealer told me.  "He'll kill it."  

 
Here's the stuffed jalapeno burger one of the guys had.  It came with onion straws on top of the burger patty and a mess of sliced jalapenos with the burger.  I like a good jalapeno burger from time to time, but that may have been a little too much for me to handle.  

One of the guys got a burger with both Swiss and cheddar cheese on top of it.  I asked him how if one cheese overpowered the other.  "Beats me," he said.  "I just like the taste of the combination on these burgers."

 
And my burger was topped with sliced sauteed mushrooms, then topped with a thick slab of muenster cheese, then topped with pepper bacon.  The burger was very good.  Cooked to the way I like it - medium with a hint of pink in the middle.  The bun was good, too.  It held together well as I got through the burger.  It was a very good burger.

I couldn't decide on getting fries or onion rings on the side, but I ended up getting the onion rings on the advice of my dealer.  And they were just all right.  I don't think they were made in house, but I wish I would have seen that I could have gotten onion straws instead.  

Let's check back with Mike on the Big-Assed Burger.  Here he is making a significant dent in the burger.  He is a big kid, but not fat in any way.  

 
And he ate the whole thing - along with the sweet potato fries he had AND some of the extra onion rings that we had ordered for the table.  Oh my GOD!!!  I was impressed.  The kid could definitely eat.  I asked him why he didn't use any of the Burger Co. sauce and he said, "It just gets in the way of the taste of the peanut butter and jalapenos."  I had to laugh at that.  

After dinner, one of the guys wanted to get one of the milkshakes they feature at the Boulder Tap House.  They use premium ice cream and feature vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, caramel and banana shakes or malts.  And you can have any combination of those flavors in one.  They also have other shakes that feature additives such as Oreo cookies, Butterfinger, caramel mocha and peanut butter.  They also feature adult milkshakes with choices of Kahlua, creme de cacao, creme de menthe and vanilla vodka as part of the shakes.  He just got the basic vanilla shake with a large cherry on top.  And they brought out the remaining shake in the metal mixing can.  He finished the shake in the tall malt glass and then finished what was left in the mixing can - which was about a third full.  There was some impressive eating going on that evening.  

I have to say that my first visit to the Boulder Tap House was enjoyable enough that I'd have no problem going back if my dealer's guys wanted to go back there at some time in the future.  My burger was very good, the beer selection was top notch, if there was a sporting event on at the time they had it on one of their televisions.  And the service was very good, as well.  I was very impressed with the Boulder Tap House.  And very impressed with the eating display that went on there, as well.

West Towne Pub - Ames, IA

Staying in Ames recently, very near the hotel I was staying at was a place that I'd seen before on visits to the area but had never been to - West Towne Pub.  I decided to have a closer look at the place before I left the area that particular day.  

West Towne Pub is a sports bar that also features a number of eclectic beers on tap and in bottles.  It's owned by Bryan Kinneer - a former sales rep in the medical industry who decided that he wanted to get out of the sales racket about 8 years ago and open up his own sports bar - and his wife, Shelley.  Along with Kinneer's brother, Kevin, they also own the nearby Perfect Games family fun center that features bowling, laser tag, video games and a pizzeria, Kingpin Pizza.  Both businesses are located in the West Towne development on the southwest side of Ames.  (see map)

Walking into West Towne Pub, you immediately see a ton of flat screen televisions throughout the place.  The decor is decidedly industrial with exposed support beams and duct work on the ceiling.  A cold slab concrete floor is on the main dining level while a step up bar area overlooks the dining room.  It was early and they had only been open for about 30 minutes when I stopped in.

I was greeted by a young lady who led me to a booth along the glass-walled south side of the sports bar.  She gave me a menu and told me that my server would be with me in a moment.  Not long after, a young lady by the name of Emily showed up.  They had a pretty impressive line-up of beers at West Towne Pub and I ended up ordering a Boulevard Pale Ale as I looked through the menu.  

The food at West Towne Pub is typical of any sports bar - the usual deep fried appetizers and chicken wings, a number of sandwiches, a few entrees including a pasta dish, pork chops and ribs, and a handful of hand-pattied burgers that West Towne Pub claims are 25% bigger than most places.  Even though I was thinking of getting Thy Reuben - their take on a reuben sandwich - or the Cuban sandwich (but I've yet to find a good Cuban sandwich outside of Miami), I ended up getting the Towne Bacon cheeseburger - called their signature burger on the menu.  It said that they spent a lot of money with consultants coming up with the burger's name, but I think that borders on hyperbole.  I had my choice of cheese - American, Cheddar, Swiss or Provolone.  I got the Swiss cheese to go along with the apple-smoked bacon.  A side of West Towne Pub's "Brew City" French fries came with the meal.  

The burger came with lettuce, onions and tomato slices.  The Swiss cheese was melted over the bacon and the burger patty.  It looked damned good.  

 
The burger was, indeed, huge.  The bun was thick and I was worried that it would be a little too much bun for the burger.  But the bun was airy and collapsed easily when you put your fingers into it.  

From the first bite I knew this was a winning burger.  It made me go, "Mmmmmm...." as I savored my first bite.  Juicy and flavorsome, the burger patty was cooked with a little pink in the middle - exactly how I like it.  The Swiss cheese had a wonderfully complementary taste to the burger without being overpowering.  And the applewood-smoked bacon was a great companion taste.  And the bun stayed together with all that was on the burger.  The key to a good burger is a good bun.  The bun on the Towne Pub cheeseburger was very good.   

The "Brew City" fries were crispy on the outside and moist inside.  They were good, but it was going to be all I could do to finish the large Towne Pub cheeseburger.  And as good as the burger was, I knew I wouldn't be eating many of the fries.

Many sports bars that I've come across in my travels usually have just OK bar food.  They just figure that if someone is going to come in and watch sports, they'll probably eat just about anything that the place puts on the menu.  But I could tell that they cared about the food at West Towne Pub.  The burger was excellent - one of the best I've ever had at a sports bar.  The fries, too, were very good - even though I didn't pay much attention to them.  The beer selection was good and I thought Emily's service was top notch.  I would have no problem returning to West Towne Pub for another burger at some point.

Hall of Fame Pizza and Wings - Bettendorf, IA

When I first moved to the Quad Cities over 20 years ago, one of the more popular places to get a pizza was a place called Beaver's East in Bettendorf.  Beaver's East had a style of pizza that was more Chicago-style than the horrid Quad City-style of pizza that is found in the vast majority of pizza places in the area.  Beaver's East decided to move to a new building near the corner of 53rd Ave. and 18th St. in Bettendorf over a dozen years ago.  Since then, there have been no less than three restaurants/bars that have opened - and failed - at the old Beaver's East location.  Many of the locals viewed the location as a culinary "black hole" that was bad luck for the people who put an eatery in the building.  (Ironically, the "new" Beaver's East didn't last long and that building, too, has seen its share of restaurant comings and goings ever since.)  However, last summer a new place opened in the old Beaver's East - Hall of Fame Pizza and Wings.  We gave it a couple tries over a two week period not long ago.  

Jason Harper comes from a restaurant background and opened the first Hall of Fame Pizza about six years ago in DeWitt, IA - about a half hour drive north of the Quad Cities.  Along with his wife, LaShell, the two started out slow in the business.  Jason kept his day job of owning a landscaping business, and LaShell continued to work at the Rock Island Arsenal.  But the two built up quite a following in the DeWitt area before opening a small take-out place in Park View, about a 15 minute drive north of Davenport.  A couple years ago Jason sold his landscaping business and focused on running the restaurants full time.  He closed up the Park View location and moved into the Bettendorf location along State Street in 2013.  (see map)

We had new neighbors move in across the street from us in early 2013.  It turned out that the wife, Shontel, is the sister of LaShell Harper and worked for her sister and brother-in-law on a part-time basis at the Hall of Fame Pizza in DeWitt.  When they opened the Bettendorf location, she moved down there.  Our neighbors told us that the pizza at Hall of Fame was not the Quad City-style that we detest, but more of a traditional style with varying thicknesses of crust.  

On a Friday evening, we went down to Hall of Fame in Bettendorf to give their pizza a try.  We got a medium (14") thin crust sausage, pepperoni and mushroom on our first visit.  It was very good - much better than the Quad City-style pizza.  We couldn't wait to tell our friends about the place.  (I didn't take my phone in on that visit, but we knew we'd be back at some point.)  

One couple we told about Hall of Fame went there for their lunch buffet earlier this year and my friend called me from the place and said, "This pizza is awesome!  This buffet is awesome!  Pizza, salad bar and pop all for $8.95!  I can't stop eating the pizza!"   

It was a Saturday night and we were out with our friends, Scott and Marcia, having a few drinks at a local watering hole.  Around 7:30, the women decided that we needed to go get something to eat.  Cindy said, "Hey, maybe we should go out to Hall of Fame in Bettendorf!"  Our friends were very enthusiastic with the prospect of giving the place a try.  

After being open a few months, it turns out that Hall of Fame is a very popular place.  We got in around 8 p.m. and the place was packed.  There were a few people hanging around the small bar waiting for a place to be seated.  But seated at one of the long tables in the dining room was my neighbor, Dave, his father-in-law (Shontel and LaShell's father) and his two young kids.  There were four seats open next to them and Dave said, "Hey, neighbor!  You guys can have the seats next to us here!"  Sometimes it pays to know the right people.  

Hall of Fame Pizza and Wings in Bettendorf is not all that large, but it has a lot going on.  Flat screen televisions hang from the walls and booths in the back have their own small flat screen televisions.  A number of games are found in the backroom, popular with people of all ages.  

They feature a number of beers on tap and in bottles.  Even though they do have a bar, they don't have mixed drinks - much to the consternation of my wife who rarely drinks beer.  (That's all right - I more than make up for her!)  We also noted that they have a nice patio off to the side that is open in the summer months.  

In addition to pizza and, of course, wings (with over 20 different types of sauces), Hall of Fame also has calzones and pasta dishes, burgers and sandwiches, and a number of appetizers and salads.  The menu also features ribs and shrimp tacos.  

My wife and I like our pizza crust to be as thin as possible without it being cracker-thin, while Scott and Marcia like their crust to be a little more thick and chewy.  Hall of Fame Pizza gives you a choice of thin, hand-tossed or their original (thicker) crust pizza - sort of the thickness of a Quad City-style pizza.  We both ordered pizzas - ours was a thin crust sausage and pepperoni, while Scott and Marcia went with the 14" original crust sausage and mushroom.  

My wife and I decided to get a salad to tide us over before our pizza showed up.  The salad bar at Hall of Fame isn't large, but sufficient enough for a small salad before dinner.  The lettuce - even at that time of night -was very fresh and they had an adequate amount of toppings to liven up the salad.  

 
Our pizzas came out and they smelled wonderful.  Our pizza looked similar to the one we had before, the sausage was not the big chucks as we normally like, but it wasn't finely ground like you find with with most Quad City-style pizza.  The sauce is tangy, not too sweet, and it heightens the taste sensation of the pizza.  Hall of Fame covers their pizza with a lot of mozzarella and the oven gives the cheese a nice caramelization on top.  The crust is thin enough to not make the pizza overly doughy, but holds up well when you're biting into it.

Scott and Marcia were also very impressed with the pizza they got at Hall of Fame.  They liked the thickness of the crust and the fresh flavor of the toppings.  "This is really good pizza," Marcia said.  

After our first visit, my neighbor, Dave, had heard we were down there to give the pizza a try.  (Shontel was working there the first night we came in.)  He asked me what I thought and I told him that it was very good.  When we were finishing up on our second visit, Dave - still seated at the table with his father-in-law and Jason Harper - asked me if the pizza was still good.  Even if Jason wasn't seated there, I would have said the same thing I'm telling you now, "The pizza is awesome, Dave.  It may be our new 'go-to' place for pizza in the Quad Cities."   The pizza is very good to excellent, in my opinion.  And the service, even though it was sort of chaotic in there that evening, was very good, as well.  Our biggest fear is that Hall of Fame Pizza and Wings will get so popular that it will be tough to get in there on a whim.  But that's a problem that Jason and LaShell would gladly love to have.

(Update - September 2017  One of our friends came over to see us recently and during the course of conversation he mentioned that Hall of Fame had closed down.  My wife and I were both floored.  We had no idea that they had closed since we hadn't been there for over a month.  My friend told us that the Harper's had evidently leased the building and the person who owned the building sold it.  Hall of Fame in Bettendorf closed at the end of August, but their DeWitt location is still open.  That's a shame because that had sort of become our "go-to" for pizza in the Quad Cities with our friends and family.  We understand that a new pizza place - Quad City Pizza Company - will open in the former Hall of Fame location later this fall.  It may be worth checking out, that is, if it doesn't have Quad City Style pizza.)

The Post - St. Louis

A few weeks ago, I was in St. Louis on a weeknight.  The hotel I was staying in didn't have the network that was showing an Iowa basketball game that evening, so I looked around for a sports bar that was close by.  I found a place on Manchester called The Post.  It looked like a good spot to catch a game on TV.  

Now, the Post isn't like a lot of other sports bars - well, hang on.  Yes, it kind of is.  But what makes it unique is that it caters to fantasy sports participants.  In fact, it has been named by many media outlets as being the nation's first fantasy sports bar.  The Post has a number of fantasy leagues for the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, even NHL hockey.  They encourage people to sign up for the various leagues and follow the players they have drafted at The Post.  Prizes and even trips are available to league champions.  They also have a "superdraft" concept that encompasses all four major league sports where a minimum buy-in of $200 is required.  I used to do fantasy baseball years ago, but fell out of favor because it was too time consuming.  I just haven't gotten back into it now that fantasy leagues are all computerized and easy to follow.  

The brain behind The Post is their 30-something co-owner Adrian Glass.  Glass graduated from Saint Louis University in 2004 with a degree in marketing and accounting.  He passed his CPA exam and became an auditor for Deloitte, the largest professional network in the world.  Glass soon found that he didn't like the buttoned-down corporate world and decided that he wanted to channel his interest into fantasy sports - something he'd been doing since 1991 - into a concept sports bar that catered to fantasy sports participants.

While in college, Glass had worked for awhile at a restaurant in Breckenridge, CO and met a co-worker by the name of Bill Cipriani.  Determined to see his fantasy sports bar concept through, Glass contacted Cipriani in 2006 and gave him a rough outline on his idea.  It took three years before the pair opened the first Post in what was formerly the second Schottzie's location on Manchester, just east of Big Bend.  (see map).  In 2013, they opened the second Post location in Creve Coeur.  (see map)  (Pictured right - Bill Cipriani and Adrian Glass.  Photo courtesy Riverfront Times.)

But Glass knew that he couldn't just bank on the fantasy sports crowd to keep The Post in business.  Going to other sports bars in the area, he found that the quality of the food and good service is what kept people coming in.  Glass and Cipriani made sure that The Post didn't falter in either category and for their efforts they were named The Best New Bar in St. Louis in 2010 by Metromix St. Louis.  

I was able to find a parking spot in front of The Post on Manchester.  Walking into the place, I was sort of shocked at how small the place was.  Most sports bars are cavernous spaces with two or three bar areas.  While they did have a number of flat screen televisions on the walls throughout the place, there was really only two dining areas and one bar.  But it was cozy without people sitting on top of one another.  

I took a seat at the bar which had a number of draft beers and a number of other beers in a glass refrigerator behind the bar.  The bartender, Ami, came over to greet me.  She was an outgoing-type, calling me "Hon" when she walked over.  She apologized for her appearance, she said she was called into work at the last moment and she said she just threw some things on.  I thought she looked all right to me.

Their beer selection wasn't bad.  I initially ordered a Boulevard Pale Ale in a bottle until I noticed that they had Schlafly American Pale Ale on tap.  "Comin' right up, hon," Ami cheerfully replied.      

I soon found out that I would probably be the only one in the place interested in the Iowa basketball game that evening.  The University of Missouri basketball team was also on one of the ESPN channels, but more importantly to the vast majority of patrons that evening, the St. Louis Blues were getting ready to play hockey.  Ami was good enough to have one of the managers tune in the Iowa game on the flat screen directly in front of me at the bar.  

I had Ami slide me a menu after a bit.  Most of it consisted of your typical sports bar food - appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches and pizza.  Three young women were seated next to me to my left and they ordered a small pizza to munch on.  It was a thin crust and looked pretty good.  Interestingly - to me - the Post also features some vegetarian and gluten free options.  

The guy to my right had ordered up a turkey reuben sandwich and he also ordered tater tots as a side.  That sort of got my attention when Ami brought it out to him - the tater tots more so than the turkey reuben.  I was looking at getting one of The Post's burgers that featured half-pound all-beef ground patties.  They also had a Bison burger on the menu and that was sort of tempting.  But I ended up getting the Farmer burger topped with grilled ham, bacon, cheddar cheese and a farm fresh egg.  I asked Ami if I could get my egg over hard (I don't like the yolk dripping all over the place when I'm eating a burger).  She said it would be "no problem, hon."  And I took my neighbors lead and ordered some tater tots for a side.

After a bit, Ami brought my burger out to me.  The cheddar cheese was oozing off the top of the burger patty and the grilled ham, bacon and hard fried egg were sitting on top of the patty.  The bun crown was held in place by a toothpick because, well, it would have fallen off trying to balance on all the stuff on the burger.  

I'll have to say the burger was very good.  There were a lot of taste sensations going on all at once with the cheese and all the toppings.  But the burger patty was juicy and had a nice flavor to it.  The bun stayed together very well keep all the toppings from flying off with each bite.  It was light and somewhat spongy.  

The tater tots were a nice diversion.  I usually will order fries when offered as a side, but I hardly eat any.  The tater tots were piping hot and had a crunchy outer shell and the chewy potato taste inside.  It was way too many tater tots, however.  Especially after finishing the rather large burger.  

For a sports bar, I was very impressed with the food and service at The Post.  They were accommodating to me for putting on the Iowa game, and the burger was very good - one of the better ones that I've had at a sports bar.   The beer selection was all right, but there wasn't a place in the bar where you couldn't see a television.  There are a number of sports bars in the St. Louis area, but I think The Post just became my favorite.

Legends Corner - Rock Island, IL

On a Monday night "date night" a few weeks ago, Cindy and I decided to drive over to the venerable Belgian Village Inn in Moline to get a Vandereuben sandwich.  (Click here to see my entry on the Belgian Village Inn.)  A severe thunderstorm had come through the area earlier in the day and as we got over to the Olde Towne neighborhood in Moline, we saw that a lot of places didn't have power.  When we pulled up to the Belgian Village, it was dark inside.  Not knowing what to do at that point, we started to drive around thinking of alternatives.  Finally, Cindy suggested a newer place that I'd driven by a couple times over by Augustana College in Rock Island - Legends Corner.  She said that a co-worker had been there with her husband and they thought it was pretty good.  "And they have Cajun food," Cindy said.  We pointed the car in the direction of Rock Island and took off for Legends Corner.

Legends Corner opened in November of 2012 in a building that previously housed Mexican and Chinese restaurants, but was originally a Henry's Hamburgers location.  Henry's Hamburgers was based out of Chicago and was a precursor to McDonalds in terms of fast food restaurants in the Midwest.  Once McDonalds became the rage, Henry's would open in locations where McDonalds deemed the market too small.  Rapid growth in the 60's for Henry's gave way to massive closings in the 70's.  Today, there is only one Henry's Hamburgers still in business in Benton Harbor, MI.  

Greg Hiner is a school teacher by day and a bar and grill owner by night.  Along with his wife, Deni, the two ran Legends bar and grill in Aledo, IL.  Hiner is a native of Rock Island and he grew up near the corner where Legends is today.  When the opportunity to buy the building and start a second Legends restaurant near where Greg grew up, the Hiner's jumped at the chance.  When Legends Corner opened last fall, the Hiner's daughter, Cara, was the manager of the restaurant.  

We pulled into the decrepit parking lot at Legends Corner at the corner of 30th Street and 7th Ave (see map) around 6:30 p.m.  (Note to Legend's Corner ownership - FIX YOUR PARKING LOT!)  We found a seat in the adults only bar area up front in what looks to be the original part of the building.   There's also a dining area for all ages off to the side that appears to be an addition to the building at some point.  Flat screen televisions and sports memorabilia dot the walls at Legends Corner. 

 
Our server came over and dropped off a couple menus.  She asked what we we wanted to drink and Cindy looked up at a sign on the window and she said, "Hey, look!  They have (Kona) Big Wave Golden Ale on tap!"  My favorite beer!  I immediately liked the place and from then on out, I figured they could do no wrong in my book.  

Well, not so fast...

Cindy was correct in saying that Legends Corner had Cajun food.  Only the menu called it their "Kajun Korner".  They also had the prerequisite appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches and wraps on the menu.  One thing that caught my attention was a special they had that evening on boneless chicken wings.  You got 8 boneless chicken wings for $5.99.  I've been on kind of a chicken wing kick as of late and I thought that would be a good appetizer.  The only problem was that Cindy didn't want any.  So I thought I'd get the boneless chicken wings and some of Legends Corner's gumbo.  I saw that it came with something called "Legends Sauce".  I asked our server what that was and she said, "Oh, it's a combination of ranch, blue cheese and Buffalo sauce."  All right, I'll give it a try.

Cindy also went the Cajun route and ordered their jambalaya.  She also got a side of collard greens to go with her jambalaya keeping her pledge of eating something green in color to go with her dinner.  

More people began to filter into Legends Corner while we were waiting for our food to show up.  Some of them were people whose power was out and looking for a place to eat and get out of the muggy air for a bit. 

There was a bit of a communication error with my order.  I thought we were getting the boneless chicken wings as an appetizer.  But they didn't come out until the rest of our meal showed up.  It was no problem, however.  The boneless chicken wings looked more like large pieces of chicken nuggets doused in the Legends sauce.  The chicken was meaty and tender.  And I liked the combination of the Buffalo wing sauce with the ranch and blue cheese dressing that made up the Legends sauce.  I munched on the boneless chicken wings in between bites of my gumbo.

 
The gumbo was served on a flat plate over a bed of steamed rice.  The broth was thick like gravy.  The basic taste of the gumbo was all right.  It had chunks of chicken and shrimp in it and while it was good, I've had better.  Four half slices of garlic toast came with the gumbo and I'll have to say they were very good.  Probably the best tasting thing on the plate.  

Cindy's jambalaya looked promising with large chunks of chicken and andouille sausage.  However, Cindy has some problem with chicken that has been cooked and then microwaved to heat up.  She determined that's what they must have done with the chicken in her jambalaya.  She complained that the chicken wasn't that warm and that it had a rubbery taste.  She offered me a bite and I had to concur with her.  The chicken was sort of overdone, sort of lukewarm and sort of tough to chew.  But after having a bite of the andouille sausage, it was, quite frankly, outstanding.  I wanted to find out where they source their andoullie sausage at Legends Corner because it had a wonderful spicy flavor.  But the great andouille sausage couldn't make up for the disappointment Cindy had with the jambalaya.    

 
She offered me a bite of her collard greens.  The warm greens had a vinegar taste to them that helped with the taste.  I'm not big on collard greens, but Cindy's been eating a lot of kale as of late and she knew that collard greens and kale were of the same cultivar group.  She seemed to like them.  

I ate all of the boneless chicken wings (well, Cindy did try one - she liked it) and a good portion of my gumbo.  Cindy ate a good portion of her collard greens and about half of the jambalya, leaving most of the chicken and a few bites of andouille sausage that she let me have.  The andouille sausage was outstanding. 

A couple three weeks later, we went back over to Legends one more time.  This time, the restaurant was a little more busy and there was only one server working both the bar and the dining area.  Service was slow that evening and we had to wait a little longer for service than the first time we were in.  

After contemplating getting the muffaletta sandwich - then talking myself out of it knowing that I'm forever spoiled with the muffaletta sandwich I got years ago at the famous Central Grocery in New Orleans - I got the mushroom/Swiss cheese burger basket with fries.  I asked our server, Jaymie, if I could get some bacon on that, as well, and she said it would be no problem.  Cindy ordered the Cusabi salmon sandwich on flat bread.  It was a grilled salmon filet topped with a cucumber/wasabi sauce.  

It took well over 30 minutes from the time we ordered to the time we got our food.  A younger couple sitting at the table next to us was experiencing the same problem and they were getting overly annoyed at the wait.  It was a little too long to wait for food, no matter what kind of place you were eating at.   

My burger looked promising with crispy bacon, sliced fresh mushrooms and a good amount of Swiss cheese on top.  But looking at the burger, I could tell that it was overcooked and appeared to be sitting under a heat lamp for more than awhile. I'm guessing that happened due to only one server in the place and they probably finished my burger long before they finished my wife's salmon sandwich.  The fries were basically a throwaway - I should get cottage cheese instead of fries when I order burgers like this.  

Actually, the burger did have some flavor to it, even though it was slightly overcooked.  The Swiss cheese gave it good flavor and the sauteed mushrooms were tasty, as well.  The bacon was a nice complement to the burger.  And the bun was very good, too.  It was light, tasteful and chewy.  It held together with all that was going on with the burger.  Still, as I said, the burger was overcooked and a little dry.  I'd give it a B- if I were grading it. 

 
Cindy's Cusabi salmon sandwich came on what was nothing more than a pita.  It looked like 4 to 6 ounces of grilled salmon topped with the cucumber/wasabi drizzle.  Two large tomato slices and some greens completed the Cusabi salmon sandwich.  At first, Cindy thought she needed a lemon wedge, but after eating a couple bites with the Cusabi drizzle, she decided that it was fine.  I asked her if it was fishy - I could kind of smell that fishy smell in the air - and she said, "A little, but it's not bad."  After she finished, she said, "Ah!  It was all right.  I don't think I'd get that again."

Legends Corner was all right.  I think they're trying hard, but they just don't pull it off in terms of culinary excellence.  If you go into the place thinking that it's nothing more than a sports bar with an interesting menu, you'll be fine.  Just don't expect those interesting menu items to be anything exquisite.   

Syberg's - Maryland Heights, MO

On our annual baseball trip to St. Louis earlier this summer to see the Cardinals play, we met up with my friend, Mike, who works for the St. Louis Rams.  Mike has a friend who works for the Cardinals who helps us out with tickets.  When we go to St. Louis - and if he's in town - we like to go out to lunch with Mike and catch up.  We decided upon a place that Mike and I have eaten at a couple times - Syberg's on Old Dorsett Road in Maryland Heights. (see map)  We were staying out in Westport and the restaurant is about a five minute drive from Mike's office at the Russell Athletic Training Center in Earth City. 

Syberg's has its beginning as a family catering company that began 41 years ago.  And it wasn't intentional.  Richard and Sally Syberg catered a family member's wedding in 1972 and everyone raved about the food.  One thing led to another and they started Syberg's Family Style Catering, using a kitchen in a church basement as their base of operations.  As their business and reputation for good food grew, the Syberg's opened their first restaurant on Gravois in the St. Louis suburb of Affton.     

As they continued their catering business, the Syberg's children - four boys and two girls - became involved in the business.  With that, Syberg's has expanded to now five locations with the newest location opening earlier this year in far western suburban O'Fallon, MO.  They continue to run their catering business, and they also own Helen Fitzgerald's, an Irish pub located on the southwest side of St. Louis. 

The shark in Syberg's logo also sort of came about by accident.  Wanting an interesting look to the exterior for their newly opened restaurant, the Syberg's turned to a neighbor who moonlighted as an artist.   The movie, "Jaws" was out and the artist was taken by the movie.  He developed what turned out to be an underwater mural with a three-dimensional shark swimming at the top of the building.  Then someone within the family then said, "Hey, if we have a shark on our building, maybe we ought to sell shark!"  They began to sell grilled shark chunks and now go through about 500 lbs. of shark meat a week at their restaurants.  (Photo at right courtesy Examiner.com) 

We had agreed to meet Mike at the Syberg's next to the Quality Inn at the corner of Dorsett Road and I-270 around noon.  (I've stayed at the Hampton Inn next door on a couple of occasions and Syberg's is familiar to me.  I've also eaten at the downtown location on Market Street that was also attached to a hotel I used to stay at when it was also a Hampton Inn, as well as the location in the Chesterfield Valley.)

As you walk into the restaurant, you walk down a long hallway that has a number of pictures that pays tribute to a number of American icons of the 50's and 60's.  Large dining rooms for private functions are on the right as you walk down the hall toward the host stand.  

We were greeted by a guy who asked how many we had.  I said that we were meeting someone and at that point, Mike popped up from behind the half wall where he was already seated at a table.  We got some menus, ordered some drinks and caught up on what's been going on with Mike and the Rams.

The food at Syberg's is probably classified as "family friendly".  They have the pre-requisite burgers, appetizers, salads, and sandwiches, but they also serve pizza, steaks, chops and pasta.   They also have a kids menu at Syberg's with all meals priced out at $4.95.

The atmosphere at the Old Dorsett Syberg's is similar to the other Syberg locations I've been to - it's mainly a sports bar with a ton of televisions hanging all over the place.  It doesn't matter where you're seated at Syberg's in the bar area - there's a good chance that you'll be able to see at least six televisions in any direction.  It's a sports fan's heaven.  

 
Syberg's are famous for their chicken wings - they have eight different types of sauces that you can choose to go on to their wings.  I'll have to admit, they are pretty good.  They also have very good onion rings.  We ordered up a plate of the onion rings to get us started.

The onion rings are beer-battered and deep fried.  The outer crust is flaky and flavorful, and the onions are sliced thick.  Oh, man.  I love the onion rings at Syberg's.  (My stomach is doing jumping jacks screaming for Syberg's onion rings, as I write.)

One thing that I've always wanted to try at Syberg's are their shark tacos.  You get three softshell tacos filled with grilled shark bites, topped with a slaw mix and then drizzled with a homemade spicy sauce.  I didn't even look at anything else on the menu once I decided that was what I was going to get.

Cindy went the light route and got a patty melt.  Our friends, Scott and Marcia, went with the mushroom Swiss cheeseburger, and the cobb salad, respectively.  Mike went with Syberg's signature chicken strip salad - hand-breaded chicken strips, deep fried then put on a bed of greens, drizzled with their homemade sauce and topped with shredded provel cheese and homemade croutons.   

It took a bit of time for our orders to come out, given that it was at the height of the noon rush in the restaurant.  But that was all right as we were caught up in conversations.  Our server dropped off the shark tacos in front of me and they were not small.  Large chunks of grilled shark sitting on the slaw mix were doused in some of the Syberg's sauce.  I realized it was going to be a lot of food for lunch. 

But the first bite told me that the fish would not go to waste.  The shark bites had a wonderful grilled flavor, they weren't fishy in the least, and the shark meat was tender, yet firm.  There were at least four or five large shark bites on each taco.  I was able to eat two of the tacos (thanks to the onion rings we'd ordered), then I picked the shark meat out of the final taco, eschewing the taco shell and slaw mix.

The salads at Syberg's are not small, either.   I took a picture of Marcia's cobb salad, but it didn't come out.  Both Mike and Marcia's salad bowls were good sized and heaped in greens and veggies, with Mike's chicken strips on his salad big and meaty.  In fact, Mike got what he couldn't eat of his salad boxed up.  

Scott and Cindy both liked their burger choices, as well.  Scott said, "My burger is very good."  I think he was sort of surprised, but it did look good.  The mushroom Swiss cheeseburger (I would have added bacon) would have been my second choice past the shark bite tacos.  

Frankly, I'm sort of surprised I hadn't written about Syberg's before.  While the food is far from gourmet quality, it's well above average for a sports bar.  The menu is extensive and they seem to do everything well.  I've never had a bad meal in all my visits to any of the Syberg's locations.  One caveat - the prices on the menu can be a little high compared to similar sports bars, but they have much more to offer at Syberg's than your typical sports bar.  Our server at the Westport location that day did a good job, well, as well as she could waiting on multiple tables during the lunch hour.  Syberg's is a fine place for casual dining if you're looking for lunch, dinner or for appetizers when you're watching a sporting event.   

Players - Dickinson, ND

During my annual trip out to Dickinson, ND, I like to take my dealer and his guys out to dinner after we finish our meetings and trainings.  The only problem is that there are only a couple of nicer places - Applebee's and Sanford's (click here to see my entry on Sanford's) - that are open later than 9 p.m. in Dickinson.  However, on this trip they were telling me that there was a new sports bar called Players Sports Bar and Grill that had opened earlier this year.  Reviews amongst the guys were decidedly mixed - it appears that even a few months after opening the cooking staff was still working out some kinks and the food was inconsistent.  I said, "Well, hell, let's give it a try.  Maybe we'll get them on a good night."

The money behind Players comes from the Fisher family, owners of Fisher Industries in Dickinson.  The company is involved with road construction, heavy equipment, and sand and gravel pits with offices in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico in addition to their home office in North Dakota. The football field for Dickinson State University - Fisher Field - is named for the patriarch of the Fisher family who donated the money for the stadium.  The family hired Wayne Rau, who used to formerly manage Applebee's and Pizza Ranch in Dickinson, to run the restaurant for them.  The business opened toward the end of January of this year.  

Players is on the far north side of Dickinson, east of the main north-south route into town, North Dakota State Highway 22.  (see map)  We got into the place around 9 p.m. The restaurant is split into two areas - the sports bar (below left) and the dining area (below right).  We decided to eat in the dining room as most of the tables in the sports bar are high tables and we wanted to sit down and enjoy our dinner.   

 
There were flat-screen televisions throughout the building.  There wasn't a place anywhere in the dining room or the bar area where you couldn't see a television.  And, of course, they were all tuned to sports channels. 

We were given menus and one of the servers came to take our drink orders.  I saw that they had Alaskan Amber on their list of draft beers and I ordered up one of those.  The server came back a few moments later and said, "I'm sorry.  I guess we're out of Alaskan Amber on tap."  I looked through the beer list again and nothing else caught my eye.  I ended up getting a Bud Light instead, bummed that they didn't have the Alaskan Amber.  I was hoping that would be my only disappointment of the evening.

Most of the food on the menu at Players is your typical sports pub grub - sandwiches, burgers, appetizers, etc.  But they also had a handful of entrees including steaks, pork chops and pasta dishes.  For burgers, they had elk burgers as well as their own Twin Cities-style stuffed cheeseburgers, the Juicy Lucy.  I thought about getting a burger, then I got to looking at one of their pasta dishes - a spicy Cajun pasta dish that was tossed with a spicy churrasco-style sauce with sauteed shrimp.  Everyone else was getting the burgers or chicken wings, I went for the pasta dish.  I didn't know if I'd be sorry or not, but I was determined to find out how it would be.

Our meals came out and I was pleasantly surprised by the presentation.  The square deep dish was filled with linguine noodles, tossed with a creamy spicy sauce and about 8 sauteed shrimp.  A melted parmesan chip rested on top of the pasta.  I was impressed with how the Cajun pasta and shrimp looked.  If it tasted as good as it looked, I'd be very happy.  

 
A couple of the guys ordered the elk burgers - lean ground elk meat topped with cheese and sitting on a basic bun.  I've never tried elk burgers, but I've been told that they're very similar to bison burgers.  The two guys that got them said they were pretty good that night.  "I've had them cooked good like tonight," one of the guys told me.  "But then I've had them when they're overcooked and taste like shoe leather."  

One of the guys got the Juicy Lucy - two ground beef patties with cheddar cheese in the middle.  I warned him about biting into the molten lava of the cheese in between the two patties and he said, "Oh, I know.  It's squirted out on me once before.  I thought it was going to burn my arm."  I proceeded to tell the story of the time I was at Adrian's Tavern in Minneapolis and how the first bite into one of their Juicy Lucy's literally exploded all over me.  (Click here to see that entry.)  It's not a pleasant experience.  

Getting to my pasta dish, I was extremely pleased with the taste from the first bite.  The Cajun sauce was spicy, but didn't overwhelm the taste of the perfectly cooked linguine.  The sauteed shrimp were plump and meaty, and had a wonderful taste with the sauce.  I was happy with what I got.

As were the other guys I was with.  Each of them said that this was one night when the kitchen got it right.  "Maybe they've got it together with their food," one of the guys told me.  "This is much better than the time I was here a couple months ago."  I told them of my 90 day rule on visiting new restaurants - my wife and I will wait 3 months after a new restaurant opens to give them time to work out the kinks for food preparation and service.  But as one restaurateur told me, "If everyone had that philosophy, most restaurants would be out of business in 90 days."  

We finished our meals, then sat around talking shop and throwing back and forth marketing ideas until they kicked us out of the place just before they closed at midnight.  The servers were very nice to us and they got a nice tip from our table.   

I wasn't expecting much from my meal at Players Sports Bar and Grill.  I mean, it is Dickinson, ND and there isn't a lot of choices for upscale dining in the area.  But I have to say that the Cajun pasta with shrimp was very good.  Even if I'd had the meal in a much larger city, I still would have thought it was pretty damned good.  A lot of people in and around Dickinson think Players is a little overpriced - it was $22 for the pasta and shrimp.  And it probably is expensive compared to other places in the area.  But I thought every thing about Players was good.  You could pick the place up and drop it in any mid-major Midwestern city and they'd do fine there, too.  After all these years of traveling to Dickinson - probably eight years now - I'm happy to see some other casual dining place in town.  (Players exterior photo courtesy Foursquare.)

Timeout Sports Bar and Grill - Manitowoc, WI

I put on a new dealer in Manitowoc, WI last fall and I had owed them a product training session since then.  The winter weather got in the way of our plans a couple times along the way, postponing or cancelling planned sessions.  When the weather finally got a little nicer, we were able to get the training session in one evening.  As I do with dealers after a night time training, I ask if they want to go out for dinner.  The group of five guys were all up for that and I said, "OK, where's a good place to eat?  Where do the locals go for a good dinner?"

They all sort of looked at one another and one of them said, "Like what?"  

I mentioned steaks or something like that.  Once again, they all looked a little dumbfounded.  

One of the guys said, "Well, yeah, there's an Applebee's."

"No, no, no, no, no," I replied. "Isn't there like a supper club or a fine dining place that has steak, seafood, stuff like that?"  

Another guy said, "Well, there's places like that in Green Bay (30 miles away to the north) or in Sheboygan (25 miles away to the south)."  

I said to one of the owners, "OK, when your wife and you go out for dinner - like an anniversary dinner.  Where do you guys go in town?"

He sort of hesitated and said, "Applebee's, I guess.  I'm tellin' you, man.  There's not a lot of choices of places to eat in this town." 

Figuring out that this was going to be a losing proposition all the way around, I then switched gears and said, "OK, then.  Where's a fun place to eat in town?  Like a bar with a good burger or something like that?"

They all sort of looked at one another and one of them said, "Well, there's Timeout, a sports bar that has pretty good burgers and sandwiches.  But their kitchen closes at 9.  (It was 8:20 pm)  So, if we're gonna go, we better go now."  Within minutes, I was part of a six car convoy that drove toward Timeout Sports Bar and Grill at the corner of N. Rapids and Waldo Blvd. on the city's northwest side.  (see map)

Timeout Sports Bar and Grill has been in business since 2005 and is owned by Tom Peterson.  Cassandra Mrozinsky is the general manager of the bar/restaurant that has a spacious bar and dining area that has the requisite memorabilia on the walls.  They also have some interesting collages of equipment of sports activities that are found in the Manitowoc area - everything from hockey and baseball to soccer and skateboarding.  

The large rectangular bar was the centerpiece of the place.  I was told that they'll have bands in the place from time to time and that it's one of the more popular places for all ages in the Manitowoc area.  The have a large gaming area off to the side of the main entrance with pool and foosball tables, dart machines and other games for all ages.    

We walked in around 8:40 and immediately asked if A) the kitchen still open; and B) if we would be pissing off the kitchen staff by ordering so close to the kitchen closing.  The lady who met us at the hostess stand said, "Oh, sure the kitchen is still open.  And, no, they won't be upset you're coming in right now."  We promised we'd order fast.  

The menu at Timeout is your typical sports bar fare - appetizers, burgers and sandwiches.  They also have a number of fresh lake fish entrees and pizza at the bar and grill.  

They had a number of panini sandwiches at Timeout, but none of them sounded very appealing to me.  Actually, none of the sandwiches - save for the reuben - caught my fancy.  I took a look at the burger menu and a couple of them caught my attention.  The Brat burger was basically a burger with a sliced bratwurst on top of the patty.  Hey, we WERE in Wisconsin!  And, of course, they had a number of cheese options for burgers - the Olive burger was topped with cheddar cheese with sliced green and black olives; and the California burger was topped with mozzarella and pepperjack cheese, then finished with tomato, lettuce, guacamole and bacon and served on Texas Toast.  Actually, that sounded pretty good to me.

When it came time to order, however, I went with the mushroom/Swiss burger.  I asked if I could get some bacon put on top of it, as well.  One of the guys next to me went with the beef nacho plate, another went with the Rodeo Burger - a burger patty topped with cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, bacon and onion straws.  Another got the chicken wrap, and two others went with the Chicken Jack sandwich - grilled chicken tenders topped with pepperjack cheese and bacon and served on a grilled sourdough bun.  

Since we were the only ones ordering food at that hour, our food came out quickly.  My burger was piled high with crisp bacon, copious amounts of mushrooms and a slab of Swiss cheese that had melted down the sides of the patty. 

 
The bun was lightly toasted and had a nice spongy feel to it.  From the first bite, I found the burger to be very good.  It was juicy and not overcooked.  The bacon had a great crispy taste and the mushrooms were noticeable, but not over powering.  For a sports bar, it was a pretty damn good burger.

Seated across from me, the guy who ordered the Rodeo burger paused for a moment while I got a picture of his burger (below left).  It was piled high with crispy onion rings - the kind I like - and slathered with barbecue sauce and topped with the same crisp bacon that I had on mine.  He got the sweet potato fries to go along with his burger.  He told me, "I've had some of the other burgers here, but this one is my favorite."  It did look good. 

 
Above right is a snapshot of the massive nacho plate the guy next to me ordered.   It featured seasoned ground beef topped with shredded colby/jack cheese on a bed of red corn tortilla chips.  Sour cream and salsa came on the side.  I said, "Man, that looks like an appetizer that you'd share with four people.  How can you eat all that?"

He said, "Watch me."  And he proceeded to dig in and through the whole pile of nachos in front of him.  I remember when I was young and could eat like that.  

Because there is no fine dining place in Manitowoc, it's the only reason why I ended up at Timeout Sports Bar and Grill.  My burger was very good, the service was very good and the people were friendly.  Even though we got in late, we didn't feel rushed in any sense.  I was happy with my burger and would put it up against any of the ones I've had at any one of the numerous sports bars I've visited in the past.  I probably wouldn't drive across Manitowoc or stop in off the interstate from Green Bay just to eat there on my own.  But if my dealer says, "Hey, let's go over to Timeout for a burger and a beer," I'd do it.  

JJ's Clubhouse - Golden Valley, MN

I had to break my rule about going north of the Iowa/Minnesota border before April 1st on a recent trip up to the Twin Cities.  One of the reasons for the trip was to meet with a potential new dealer I came in contact with at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year.  He suggested we meet for lunch at a sports bar not far from his office - JJ's Clubhouse in suburban Golden Valley.  It turned out I'd been past JJ's Clubhouse many times in the past, but had never been into the place.  

JJ's Clubhouse has been around since 1992 serving up a menu that consists of your typical sports bar food - burgers, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, soups, and pizza.  JJ's also serves breakfast on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  

Getting to JJ's Clubhouse is actually pretty tough if you don't know the area.  Even though it has a Wayzata Blvd. address, it's actually on the north frontage road from Interstate 394 that used to be Wayzata Blvd. years ago.  Coming from the east, you get off at Xenia Ave. and circle your way back through some office complexes to get to JJ's that fronts I-394.  Coming from the west on 394, you take the Louisiana Ave. exit, head across 394 and take the first right.  The road curves around to JJ's Clubhouse.  (see map)   I knew the area from calling on a pro sound account just down the road off Louisiana Ave.; and when Ultimate Electronics was in business, their training facility and warehouse was just a block away.

I was a little early for our meeting, so I took a seat at the bar just as you come in the door.  JJ's Clubhouse immediately reminded me of another Twin Cities area sports bar that I've frequented many times over the past couple three years, Bunny's (click here to see my entry on Bunny's).  The bar area was large with a square bar, and tables and booths lined up on either side of bar area.  A number of flat panel televisions were interspersed throughout the dining and bar areas.

My guest for lunch finally showed up and he stood and talked with the hostess for a moment.  It turned out that this was his "hangout".  He knew everyone in the place.  In fact, when the waitress came by to greet us, she gave him a little playful hard time and wanted to know if he wanted "the usual".  You know you've been coming to a place a lot when they pretty much know what you want when you come in the door.  I guess I don't eat at any one place enough for people to know what I want to eat before I sit down.  He told the waitress, "I probably will, but I'm going to let him look through the menu." 

He told me that his office wasn't far from JJ's and that he was in the place, "conservative estimate, probably 75 to 80 times a year."    

We sort of started our business meeting at that time and I didn't get a real good chance to take a close look at the menu.  They had a couple lunch specials that I wasn't interested in and I didn't really want to fill up too much on a burger or something heavy.  They had a French dip, but I thought that might be too messy.  I could just see spilling au jus on my sweater.  A Cuban sandwich always piques my interest until I tell myself that I'm not in Miami.  Tuna melt?  Naw...  Club sandwich?  Maybe...  They had something called the Gumby chicken sandwich that was touted as one of their clienteles favorite - a grilled chicken breast sandwich topped with Canadian bacon and Swiss cheese, finished with a smattering of shredded lettuce and pico de gallo.  

I finally decided upon the Italian grinder - sliced turkey and pepperoni topped with melted Swiss cheese and Italian dressing served on a ciabatta bun.  I got a choice of chips, fries, cole slaw or a cup of their homemade soup of the day.  That day it was chicken tortilla soup.  I signed up for that.

My guest's "usual" was a bowl of chili with a glass of iced tea.  He told me, "The chili here is outstanding.  Some of the best in the Twin Cities."   I almost changed my mind for a cup of the chili instead.

But I was glad I didn't because I thought their chicken tortilla soup was just as outstanding.  It had large chunks of tender chicken in a light tomato broth with crunchy taco strips on the top.  It had a very good flavor and I wished I would have gotten a bowl of it rather than just a cup.  

My sandwich was also pretty good.  It featured a large amount of sliced turkey and spicy pepperoni on the grilled ciabatta bread.  The Italian dressing helped zip up the taste of the sandwich and I honestly couldn't complain about anything concerning my meal.  It as a very good lunch.  

We talked business almost all the way through lunch - my guest was a talker, that's for sure.  I didn't get a chance to take any pictures because - well, it would have been rude to take my phone out, interrupt my lunch guest while he was talking, and take pictures of my sandwich.  Take my word - it was a good sandwich.   

I don't know if I'm going to be doing much - if any - business with this guy.  But one thing I do know is that JJ's Clubhouse has come into the mix of sports bars that I enjoy in the Twin Cities.  It may not be as intense as Joe Senser's, but it had a homey, neighborhood feeling to the place - sort of like Bunny's.  The serving staff was all friendly - at least the ones that came around to give my guest a hard time.  I liked JJ's Clubhouse a lot and can see myself spending more time there in the future.  (Photo courtesy Tripadvisor) 

Matty's Bar and Grille - New Berlin, WI

I was in Milwaukee recently and had some time to kill between appointments on the west side of town. It was getting close to lunch time and I was getting a little hungry.  I had read about a place called Matty's Bar and Grille and how they're supposed to have a killer burger.  The only problem is that Matty's is out in New Berlin (pronounced BER-lin, not ber-LIN like in Germany) and it was a little bit of a drive from where I was.  I put their address into my GPS and about 20 minutes later I pulled up in front of the bar on W. College Ave. (see map)

Matty's has been around since 1997 and is owned by Matt Anderson.  Anderson transformed a sleepy little bar into one of the top destinations to watch sports in the greater Milwaukee area.  While it's not as big as Major Goolsby's in downtown Milwaukee, nor does it come close to the number of televisions that Goolsby's has, it's more like a friendly little neighborhood bar that has better than average sports bar food.  Their signature burger, the Smokehouse burger - part smoked beef brisket and certified black angus - was concocted by Chef Bob Nicholson who has run the kitchen at Matty's for the past seven years.  In addition to their burgers, Matty's also has a number of delectable sandwiches and their own in-house thin-crust pizza.   

 
Matty's is situated in a building with a stone front around the entrance and it looks like the place has been added on to two or three times.  It definitely had been added on to in the back of the place with their four seasons room which, in contrast to the main part of the place, features a high ceiling, large windows and an exit to an outside beer garden off to the side of the building.  The main part of the bar area is more cozy than the open and airy four seasons room in the back.

I was greeted by a young lady who asked me if I wanted a table or to sit at the bar.  I opted for the bar and sat down just as the noon news started on the television in front of me.  On the back bar of Matty's, there was a somewhat sophisticated computer than controlled the multiple satellite receivers they had for receiving sports on their 18 televisions.  Matty's subscribes to DirecTV so they have access to every professional sports television package, as well as all the regional networks that feature college sports in the fall and winter.   

A young lady who was working behind the bar - Gabby - offered me a menu and told me that it was "chili day" at Matty's.  For $9.99 you got a sample of three different types of chili that Chef Bob Nicholson came up with for that particular day.  Chili did sound good on a day that had come on the heels of a cold front that plowed through the area overnight, but I was still in the mood for a burger.  

After getting a Capital Wisconsin Amber that they had on tap, I looked through the menu to see if anything else jumped out at me other than getting one of their burgers.  One of the interesting items was the Mama's Meatloaf sandwich, a secret meatloaf recipe that is topped with a sauce and served on ciabatta bread.  They also had a pastrami sandwich - "Matty's Style" - that featured thin slices of warm pastrami, topped with a brown mustard and served on marble rye bread.  I'm a sucker for a good pastrami sandwich and the description of the one on Matty's menu almost made me forget about a hamburger.

But, no, the Smokehouse burger was the draw for me on this visit.  (I figured that I could come back to Matty's at some point for the pastrami.)  At Matty's, you build your own burger - first choosing from one of over a dozen different cheeses that range from American to smoked cheddar to provolone to crumbled blue cheese to exotic cheeses such as black peppercorn and white cheddar, and dolcina cheese that is part cow and goat milk cheese with a sweet creamy gorgonzola taste.  Being that you're in Wisconsin, you wouldn't expect anything less for a good burger with cheese. 

After choosing your cheese, you have the option of ten different toppings including green peppers, jalapenos, fried egg, sauerkraut and sun-dried tomatoes.  Then you could get your choice of over a dozen spices or sauces such as cajun or Caribbean jerk seasonings, blue cheese butter, black bean corn relish (probably more for the grilled chicken sandwiches) and garlic aioli.  The combinations were endless and I was in a little bit of a fog trying to figure out what I wanted.

When Gabby came back to take my order, I ended up getting the Smokehouse burger topped with pepperjack cheese, bacon that is smoked in house, and mushrooms.  I had my choice of a side with the burger - sides that included homemade potato chips, cottage cheese, fruit, pasta salad and cole slaw.  I decided upon French fries to go with the burger.  

 
With the lunch rush kicking in while I was there, my burger came out less than 20 minutes after I ordered - long enough for me to down a pint of the Wisconsin Amber and time to order another.  The burger came out wrapped in a paper half-wrap that could be used to hold the burger without getting any juice or condiments on your hands.  I quickly tore it off so I could inspect the burger with the bun open.  It featured copious amounts of chopped mushrooms, two thick slices of smoked bacon and a gooey amount of pepperjack cheese.  The fries were nothing special to me, but there was a nice little treat sitting on top of the fries - a homemade chocolate chip cookie.  I'd never had a cookie as part of the overall meal before.  

The first bite of the burger elicited an "Mmmmmmmm..." from yours truly.  The 1/2 lb. Smokehouse burger was lean, but juicy.  The combination of the cheese, bacon and mushrooms only heightened the taste sensation I was having.  The bun was light and chewy, yet firm, holding together wonderfully with everything that was on the burger.  It was cooked to what I would call a perfect medium with a slight hint of pink the very middle of the burger patty.  It was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had.  

So far this year, I've had a handful of burgers that would either make my Top Ten Burger List or would be high honorable mentions.  And the Smokehouse burger at Matty's Bar and Grille was one of the best I've had this year.   While I may think about getting a pastrami sandwich or to try their pizza when I make it back down the road, it's going to be tough to pass up having another Smokehouse burger with some other combination of toppings.  I immediately liked Matty's and was jealous of the people who were regulars of the place.  It was one of those places that I could see going to time and time again to watch sports and grab a bite to eat if I lived nearby. 

Lagasse's Stadium - Las Vegas

I wish I could remember who told me that I had to go to Lagasse's Stadium at The Palazzo when I was out in Las Vegas for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (I think it was my late friend, Craig Evert, if I'm not mistaken), but I decided to find the place for a lunch during my time out there.  I had a meeting with one of my dealers in the middle part of the day during the show and he wanted to go get something to eat for lunch.  I said, "Let's go try this one place I've heard about."  

Lagasse's Stadium is one of the many restaurants under the umbrella of famed chef Emeril Lagasse.  It is the only sports-themed restaurant of the 14 Emeril-run restaurants.  Given the amount of sports restaurants or sports books in Las Vegas, Lagasse's Stadium had to make a big splash when it opened in the fall of 2009. Its main room features stadium seating with leather couches with betting windows up front. A large screen television flanked by 16 small large screen televisions are the main visual attractions in the room.    

After a winding journey through The Palazzo, going down a level and then back up some steps, we were able to find the inside entrance to Lagasse's Stadium.  We were met by a hostess who inquired if we were there for lunch.  She offered to have us sit in the dining area up front, but I took a quick look past the bar in the front dining area and saw the room with the stadium seating.  It was in that room that my dealer, one of his salesguys and myself set up for lunch just after 1 p.m.    Understandably, with no major sporting events going on at that time, the room was pretty much to ourselves.  We took a seat on one of the leather couches with sort of a small coffee table in front of us and our server came over with some menus. 

Most of the food on the menu is your typical sports bar fare - sandwiches, appetizers, burgers, wings, etc.  They also have entrees available such as fried chicken, ribs, steaks, and grilled salmon.  Pizza is also available at Emeril's.  There was a guy seated not far from us who was noshing on a pizza when we sat down.  It didn't look too bad.  

Because eating at the low coffee tables was going to be rather awkward, I decided on getting a sandwich.  They had a pastrami sandwich on the menu that looked appealing to me, as did the reuben.  I thought about the French dip for a moment, as well as the andouille sausage and peppers sandwich.  But I figured that they both would be pretty messy and I didn't want to get anything on my clothes as I still had a half day to go with the show.  

When our server came back, I inquired about the pastrami sandwich.  She said that it was cold pastrami and I sort of winced.  She said, "Yeah, I seem to get that quite a bit.  I like a warm pastrami sandwich better than a cold one, too."  She pointed out the reuben and said that the corned beef was hot with that.  I asked if I could get a pastrami reuben with the pastrami warmed up.  She sort of halted for a second and said, "Hmmm...  You know, I don't know.  I'll have to check with the chef."  I told her that if she could get the reuben with warm pastrami, then I'd go for that.  If not, I'd take the regular reuben.

My dealer got the Stadium Burger - plain.  And I mean plain.  He didn't want pickles or mustard, or any of the veggies.  He said, "I can't stand pickles or mustard."  I told him he probably didn't like the vinegar taste.  He said, "I don't know, man.  I've never been able to handle pickles or mustard."  He did get Swiss cheese on the burger, however.  

His salesguy ordered up the barbecue pork sandwich - slow-roasted pork, shredded and put on a bun and topped with a Creole mustard slaw, fried pickles and a tangy barbecue sauce.   Fries came with all of our sandwiches.

Not long after we ordered, our food showed up.  My reuben was made with corned beef, not pastrami.  It wasn't a problem with me, but I just thought it was a little weird that they didn't have a hot pastrami sandwich.  Other than New York, more hot pastrami sandwiches have to be eaten in Las Vegas than any other place.  But the reuben was all right, nothing special.  It was a basic bar reuben that was neither extremely appealing or overly unappealing.   

My dealer's burger was a big thick patty drenched in melted Swiss cheese between two toasted bun halves.  He said it was pretty good.  But once again, it was nothing special.  His salesguy said his barbecue pork sandwich was pretty good, as well.  All our sandwiches/burgers were just that - pretty good.  Definitely not bad, but not something where I'd crave to go back and have.  Like I said, it was bar food that was above average.  

After we finished our lunch and paid the tab, we ended up walking around Lagasse's Stadium to take a look at the place.  My dealer, who also does some sports promoting with mixed martial arts fighting, was completely amazed at the place.  "Man, I'm glad you brought me here," he said as he snapped pictures of the place with his cellphone.  "This place is amazing."  

There's a little nicer dining area toward the back and on a lower level from where we were seated in the stadium part of the place.  It appeared to be a little nicer than the dining area that was up front near the entrance where we came in.  (There's also an entrance from Las Vegas Blvd. into Lagasse's Stadium.)  This area was shut down for lunch, but they still had the big screen televisions on showing some soccer match from Europe.   

There's also a couple three private rooms at Lagasse's Stadium that feature dining areas, pool tables and leather couches similar to the ones we sat on for lunch.  All throughout the place was sports memorabilia that may or may not have been authentic.  Interestingly, there were hybrid jerseys on display - 1/2 Peyton Manning's jersey and the other half his brother, Eli's, jersey.  Things like that.  I just sort of shrugged my shoulders when I saw stuff like that.  I was interested in some of the old pictures that were on display, however.  

In a city that never sleeps, Lagasse's Stadium only serves food up to 10 p.m. each day.  I suppose once the sporting events are over, the place usually clears out. But they do open at 7:30 a.m. on Saturdays for college sports that begin at 8 a.m. Las Vegas time, and at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays for pro sports that begin at 10 a.m. in Vegas.   The food is all right, but it's not necessarily the reason one goes to Lagasse's Stadium.  It's definitely an upscale sports bar, one of the nicer ones that I've ever been in.  But compared to other sports bars I've been to, the food is about on par with most of them.  And that's all right - Lagasse's Stadium is a sports bar, for God's sake!  And an interesting one, at that. 

Double Dogs - Bowling Green, KY

Finishing up in Bowling Green one morning when I was there late last year, I thought I'd grab some lunch before a long trip up to Indianapolis.  Wanting to just grab a burger, I had seen a place not far from the hotel called Rafferty's.  But I found out that Rafferty's is a regional chain of 19 restaurants in five states that was actually based out of Bowling Green.  There was another place closer to my hotel, literally around the corner, a sports bar called Double Dogs.  It appeared to be getting a good rating on Urbanspoon, so I stopped in there for lunch.

When I walked in, a small sign on the wall said that it was part of the same corporate structure that runs Rafferty's and Montana Grille - a mountain-themed steak house across the road from Double Dogs.  I almost turned to walk out, but then I decided to give it a try.  

The man behind Rafferty's, Double Dogs and Montana Grille is Bowling Green resident Dan Davis.  Davis started the first Rafferty's in Bowling Green in 1981 and grew the chain to over 20 locations in six states before closing a handful due to the economic downturn.  In 2008, Davis opened the first of two Double Dogs (the other location is in Knoxville, TN where Davis went to school at the University of Tennessee) in a building that housed the former Tumbleweed restaurant, a Louisville-based chain of Tex-Mex restaurants.  Davis turned the restaurant into a somewhat upscale sports bar with flat-screen televisions and a number of eclectic beers to choose from.

Of course, there's also a dog-theme to the restaurant.  Paintings and pictures of dogs are on the walls at Double Dogs inside and out.  They have a "Fetch and Go" window where you can drive up to pick up call ahead orders.  Their web site also has a pretty insipid story of Bo and Chancey, the two dogs that supposedly helped start Double Dogs.  I like dogs, but it seemed a little far-fetched for me.  (I made a joke!  Did you catch it?)

The inside of Double Dogs is sort of L-shaped with a large dining area to the left as you come in the door in the Southeast corner.  The bar area is to the right.  The bar has well over a dozen beers on tap and also had small built-in coolers holding bottles of other beers.  Tons of television sets adorned the walls including a cluster of six just above the open kitchen area.  

It was at the bar where I decided to sit.  My server/bartender for the day came over to greet me and I asked her for a menu.   From the very start, she was about as neutral and as limp of a personality that I've encountered in a person working in a restaurant.  She wasn't friendly, nor was she mean.  She wasn't happy or sad.  My server was, well, sort of void of any temperament or charisma. 

I looked through the menu and it is pretty extensive at Double Dogs.  Even thought I was looking for a burger, they also had a number of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and even pizza.  You could also order up to 100 pieces of either chicken wings or chicken tenders and the type of sauces they would put on them went from Bow Wow Hot, to Smokin' Hot, to Double Dog Hot, to Double Dog Dare You Hot.  And, of course, they had hot dogs and chili dogs, made with Hebrew National all-beef wieners.  

The burger part of the menu was also pretty extensive.  They had about ten different burgers to choose from including the California Buffalo Burger - a patty of ground buffalo meat topped with fresh spinach, tomatoes, red onion, dijon mustard, a homemade lime sour cream and provolone cheese.  They also had the Betty Burger - a Black Angus beef patty topped with a homemade special sauce, grilled onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and American cheese.  Compared to some of the others, the Betty Burger was pretty low key.

I had my eyes on the Jalapeno Burger - jalapenos with pepperjack cheese; or the Bleu Cheese Burger topped with bleu cheese crumbles; or the Breakfast Burger that was topped with a fried egg, American cheese, and bacon and served on an egg bun; or the Mushroom Swiss Burger.  They also had something called the "Big John" that featured two beef patties and two split hot dogs, then topped with chili, two different types of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo and mustard.  Uh, no.  I'm not going to get that.

Actually, it got down to the Breakfast Burger and the Mushroom Swiss Burger.  I decided upon the Mushroom Swiss Burger with a side of fries and I asked my server/bartender if I could get some bacon on that, as well.  "Well, yeah, sure," she shrugged.  "I guess so."  Maybe people are a little more laid back in Bowling Green than what I'm used to. 

About 15 minutes later, another young lady brought my burger out to me.  It was served open faced with copious amounts of dijon mustard on the bun.  Two slices of bacon were cris-crossed on top of the burger that was covered in a generous amount of Swiss cheese.  The burger also had some grilled onions.  I like grilled onions, but they generally don't like me after I've eaten them.  

The first bite of the burger was a wonderful taste sensation.  The bun was soft and chewy, the burger patty was juicy and full of flavor.  The bacon and Swiss cheese were a nice complement to the burger, and even the dijon mustard didn't detract from the overall taste of the burger.  As I continued, I was struck by how good the burger really was.  I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the burger.

The fries, on the other had, were - well - awful.  First of all, they had too much of a salty seasoning on them.  They were sort of lukewarm like they'd been sitting in a pan for awhile.  But the seasoning - way too much of it - made them nearly inedible.  That's OK, I was more interested in the burger.  And the burger more than made up for the craptastic fries at Double Dogs.   

So, other than the overseasoned and lukewarm fries and the lack of personality my server/bartender displayed, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the burger I got at Double Dogs.  I quickly got over the fact that it was part of a larger corporation overseeing other restaurants.  The burger was damned good.  I liked the sports-themed atmosphere at Double Dogs and thought to myself that I wish something like that would be available back home in the Quad Cities.  If I lived in Bowling Green and wanted to catch multiple games on television, Double Dogs would be my first choice.  Granted, I don't know many - if any - other sports bars in the area, but Double Dogs was pleasant enough for me.       

Mulligan's Brick Oven Grill and Pub - Cedar Falls, IA

Starting off on our journey to Northwest Iowa and Lake Okoboji for our summer vacation this year, we worked our way up the Avenue of the Saints and stopped for lunch at a spot I had once eaten at a few years ago, Mulligan's Brick Oven Grill and Pub in Cedar Falls, IA.  Located near the University of Northern Iowa, Mulligan's has become one of the more popular places to grab a casual lunch or dinner in the area.  It's also one of the more popular sports bars in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, as well.  We got there just after 2 p.m. after the bulk of the lunch time rush.  

Mulligan's is owned and managed by Cindy Bramblett and her partner, Nick Zubak.  Zubak also runs a construction company in Cedar Falls, while Bramblett was also the General Manager at My Verona, an upscale restaurant in downtown Cedar Falls.  My Verona was forced to close in July when owner Russ Wasendorf, Sr. tried to commit suicide after losing nearly $200 million of investor money from the collapse of his Peregrine Financial Group.  Wasendorf had opened My Verona after moving his company's headquarters from Chicago to Cedar Falls about three years ago.  It's apparent that there is no tie between Wasendorf and Mulligan's as the place was still open and serving lunch when we were there.  

Mulligan's is located just off the 18th St. exit of the Iowa Highways 27/58 expressway (see map).  It is also right next to one of the many miles of bike trails that criss-cross the Cedar River Valley in the area, making Mulligan's a popular stop for bikers.  A couple bikes were locked up on the bike rack in front of the restaurant when we pulled up.  

Since it was well past the lunch time rush, we had our choice of sitting in the bar area to right as you come in, or in the dining room to the left, or outside on the patio.  It was a little breezy and very warm, so we decided to sit inside in the dining room.  The dining room was double tiered with high-back booths on the upper level, and a lower level with tables and chairs. The room had huge floor to ceiling windows - actually they were more like doors - that looked out onto the bike path.  With a lot of sun that day, the room was well lit and we opted to sit in the comfortable high-back booths on the upper level.  

Our server for our visit, C.J., was a pleasant girl in her 20's and she dropped off a couple menus for us to take a look at.  Mulligan's is famous for their brick oven pizza.  They have well over a dozen specialty pizzas to choose from (two sizes only), or you can build your own pizza with the choice of honey wheat or traditional white dough, sauces that include a basil pesto, olive oil or traditional tomato, over 15 different types of herbs, veggies or fruit toppings, 8 different types of meat toppings, and 8 different choices of cheeses including fresh mozzarella.  We were seated near the pizza oven and the fragrant smell of a pizza cooking inside the oven almost made me pull the trigger on getting one.  But I really just wanted a sandwich more than anything else.  

Mulligan's lower dining area above left - Mulligan's stone oven above right.

I was looking at a couple sandwiches that they had under their "Brick Oven Subs" header on the menu.  The Meatball and Marinara sub featured homemade meatballs topped with smoked provolone and romano cheeses and then finished off with their homemade red sauce.  The other one that caught my eye was the Sicilian sandwich that consisted of ground Italian sausage, pepperoni slices, sliced prosciutto, then topped with mozzarella, romano and parmesan cheeses.  The toppings are finished off with fresh oregano and basil after it's baked in the brick oven.  

Another thing that caught my eye was their roasted garlic and blue cheese Cajun burger - a blackened hamburger patty topped with a melted roasted garlic butter and blue cheese.  That made my stomach do jumping jacks, but the wonderful smell of the pizzas and sandwiches from the brick oven was overwhelming.

Cindy was having trouble figuring out what she wanted from the expansive menu at Mulligan's.  She wasn't certain she wanted anything heavy, nor did many of the sandwiches sound appealing to her.  She began to look over Mulligan's appetizer menu and decided upon getting the Santa Fe spring rolls - crispy, deep fried wraps filled with cilantro-lime chicken along with black beans, shredded lettuce, corn, roasted red peppers and what was described as a "hint" of jalapenos.  Pepperjack cheese also were in the Santa Fe spring rolls.  She also got a side salad with oil and vinegar dressing with a side of creamy blue cheese dressing.  

The Sicilian sandwich was calling my name and I ordered that.  I got my choice of sides including fries, cole slaw, potato salad or cottage cheese.  I ordered fries.  The waitress asked me what kind of bread I wanted on my sandwich and I had my choices between white, multi-grain wheat or ciabatta.  I took the white hoagie bun.  

Cindy got her salad first and it was a good sized bowl of greens with some veggies mixed in.  She said she thought the blue cheese dressing was homemade as it was very good. 

The spring rolls and the Sicilian sandwich came to the table not long after Cindy finished her salad.  Quite actually, the spring rolls were enough for two people with three spring rolls sliced in half.  They were filled with the chunks of grilled chicken and a medley of veggies.  Cindy took a bite of one and said they were very good. She said, "I can't tell if these are homemade or if they're from a food distributor.  Either way, they're good."  She offered me a bite later on and while I thought they were good, it wasn't anything that I'd crave in the future.

My sandwich had an ample amount of ground Italian sausage, pepperoni and cheese on top.  I couldn't really see much of the prosciutto on the sandwich, but with all the things on the Sicilian sandwich, it was pretty busy to begin with.  The first bite yielded a wonderful taste sensation of spicy sausage and pepperoni with a nice cheesy taste.  The bread was crunch on the outside, but chewy under the crown of the outer crust.  It was a very good sandwich.  The fries, however, were a little pedestrian and very salty.  I didn't concentrate as much on those as I did on my sandwich.  

Before we left, I needed to use the restroom to wash the excess cheese and sauce off my hands.  I walked through the bar area at Mulligan's and it featured a square bar with a number of tables and booths around the room.  A large number of flat panel televisions were interspersed throughout the bar area making it look like Mulligan's was THE place to go to in the area to watch a sporting event.  A number of articles on UNI athletic teams were hanging on the walls of the bar area, as well.  

We were both very happy with our meal at Mulligan's.  Our server, C.J., was attentive and friendly.  The dining area was bright and inviting.  And I was impressed with the bar area with the sports motif and multiple televisions.  I would like to get back to Mulligan's to try one of their pizzas.  It's not far from my dealer in Cedar Falls so maybe I'll have to go back there at some point. 

Lucky's 13 Pub - Bloomington, MN

After I'd written about J.L. Beers in Fargo earlier this year, I'd heard from a couple people from the Fargo area who thought that the burger at Lucky's 13 Pub was the best in Fargo.  I looked up Lucky's 13 on the Internet and found out that they were actually based in the Twin Cities with the original location in suburban Mendota, and a location in Bloomington, not far from the Hampton Inn that I like to stay at when I'm in the area.  I'd had a couple morning meetings and was headed back out to the hotel to prepare for a meeting later in the day and decided to run by Lucky's 13 and see if their burgers were as good as advertised.  

The people behind Lucky's 13 are Charlie Burrows and Linda Young, longtime partners who were behind the Axel's restaurants in the greater Twin Cities area.  (Click here to see my entry on the Axel's Bonfire location in Savage, MN.)  Burrows and Young sold their interest in the Axel's restaurants a couple three years ago and now run the Rudy's Redeye Grill in Rosemount with three other locations around Minnesota.  They also run the Me and Julio Mexican restaurant in suburban Hastings.    

Before selling their interests in the Axel's restaurants, Young and Burrows opened the first Lucky 13's Pub in what was the old Mendota Saloon in suburban Mendota in the fall of 2007, just a block away from the original Axel's restaurant on Minnesota Highway 13 (hence, the "13" in the name).  They opened their second Lucky's 13 location out in Spearfish, SD in late 2009.  The third location in Bloomington opened not long after that in a former Bennigan's restaurant near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Interstate 35W, just across the freeway from the corporate headquarters of Best Buy.  They expanded to Fargo, ND in the fall of 2011.  

It was after the noon rush when I got into the Lucky's 13 location in Bloomington.  The address - 1800 American Boulevard West - is a little confusing.  Actually, Lucky's 13 is located north of the intersection of American Blvd. West and Knox Ave. on Southtown Circle, just to the east of Southtown Shopping Center (see map).  I went in and sort of stood at the front door waiting for a hostess or, at the least, a waitress to greet me and direct me to a seat.  When no one showed up, I walked to the large rectangular bar and took a seat.  The bartender greeted me and she asked me if I wanted something to drink. I said, "I'd take a menu, first."  

I then asked her if they had any Surly Brewery products available.  She said, "No, I'm sorry."  I started to look at what they had on tap and I noticed an Alaskan Brewery beer tap.  When I asked her what Alaskan beer she had on tap, she said, "That's the Amber."  Sold!  I love Alaskan beer.  

The interior of the Bloomington Lucky's 13 Pub location is open and bright in the daytime.  It featured brick walls and matching brick pillars with ornate tin ceiling tiles.  A number of flat screens were throughout the place with good viewing angles from just about every seat in the bar.  Old time pictures hung on the brick walls.  I especially liked some of the old Minnesota Twins team pictures they had in the men's room.  It was smaller than Joe Senser's, but I sort of liked the layout a little better.  While I like Joe Senser's as a sports bar, I'm always looking for alternatives since I don't want to get burned out on going to one place over and over.  Even without trying the food, Lucky's 13 immediately became an alternative.  

The lunch menu is primarily burgers and sandwiches with a number of appetizers, salads and entrees including bacon-wrapped meat loaf, pan-fried or deep-fried walleye, shepards pie, and fried chicken.  Actually, the dinner menu isn't much different, only without some of the lunch specials they offer.  

The one thing that stood out were the prices.  They were certainly proud of the food at Lucky's 13.  A basic 1/3 lb. burger is $9.99, while most of the specialty burgers were $10.99 to $11.49.  The sandwiches were also a little pricey - they ranged from $9.49 for a basic B.L.T. or a grilled four cheese sandwich to $13.99 for a walleye B.L.T.  Most of the sandwiches were in the $10.99 to $11.99 range.  But you also get your choice of sides with the sandwiches or burgers, so that takes a little bit of the sting out of the price.  

Even though some of the sandwiches sounded good - like the Chivito that featured sliced beef, egg, bacon, ham, olives and mozzarella cheese; or the meatloaf melt - I was looking more favorably at the extensive burger list they had.  Even seeing cajun walleye fish tacos on the menu didn't steer me away from the burgers. 

Lucky's 13 Pub has just under 20 burgers to choose from on their menu.  In addition to their basic burger (add cheese for $1.00), they also have a number of interesting and eclectic burgers to choose from.  The Sunrise burger is topped with a fried egg, ham, cheddar cheese and a cake of hash browns; the Sweet Heat has grilled, candied jalapenos along with onions and cheddar cheese on top; and the French Onion burger is topped with onions, au jus sauce and provolone cheese.  They have two different variations of the Twin Cities stuffed burger known as the Juicy Lucy (or Jucy Lucy, depending upon your preferred spelling) - the Juicy Lulu stuffed with American cheese, and the Stuffed Bleu - stuffed with bleu cheese and bacon bits.  

Quite actually, my choice that day was between the Stuffed Bleu, the Mushroom/Swiss burger that I was going to have them put some bacon on top for an extra buck, or the signature Lucky 13 burger that is topped with sweet onions, cheddar cheese, bacon and sweet peppadew peppers.  At the last second, I switched my choice from the mushroom/Swiss/bacon burger to the Lucky 13 burger.  I love sweet peppadew peppers and wondered how they'd take on a burger.  I got a choice of side that included fries, onion rings, kettle chips, fruit or cole slaw.  For an extra buck you could get some of Lucky 13's loaded tater tots (which sounded interesting) or sweet potato fries.  I asked the bartender if the onion rings were homemade and she said, "Absolutely.  They're very good."  I took the onion rings.  

After awhile, a young man brought my burger out for me and grabbed some ketchup and mustard for me.  The burger was placed between a lightly toasted sesame seed bun.  Two strips of bacon were criss-crossed over the patty, which was layered with the peppadew peppers, sweet onions and cheddar cheese.  I wasn't sure what to expect for the onion ring sides as far as how much I'd get or what they'd be like, but they gave me four somewhat large rings.  I decided that was perfect because I didn't really need more of that.  

The burger was ordered medium, but it was much more medium-well than that.  The bun was light and fluffy and tasted pretty well.  The burger, itself, was just OK.  It was a little over-cooked to my liking, but the sweet onions and sweet peppadew peppers were a nice combination of taste on the burger.  The bacon wasn't limp, but definitely not overcooked and brittle.  While I couldn't say it was an outstanding burger, it was far from bad. I could name a couple three places in the Twin Cities off the top of my head that head better burgers than the one at Lucky's 13 Pub.

But the highlight was definitely the onion rings.  They had a nice little spicy bite to the taste.  After a bit I wish I would have gotten more than just the four large rings they gave me as a side.  The batter was flaky and the onions were sweet.  The only problem is that they gave me indigestion later in the day.  I like the taste of fried onions, but they don't like me afterward.   

The burger at Lucky's 13 Pub was good, but definitely not great.   That's not to say that I won't go back, because I will.  The menu is long and diverse enough that I know I can try something else on my next visit.  Given the amount of televisions they have, if I want to catch a sporting event on TV when I'm in the Twin Cities I can easily do that at Lucky's 13.  I'll give them another chance on their burger - probably getting the mushroom/Swiss/bacon burger next time.  Or I may try one of their interesting sandwiches.  The atmosphere was nice, the service was adequate, and the food and beer selection was above average.  Lucky's 13 was a nice place for a good lunch.

Major Goolsby's - Milwaukee, WI

I have recently been going through the bulk of my past posts, cleaning them up a bit, fixing font problems from when I used Internet Explorer as my primary Internet portal, and posting a number of blog entries on Urbanspoon. I was very surprised when I found that even though I had Major Goolsby's in Milwaukee as an honorable mention on my Best Burger List, I had never really done an in-depth look at the place. During a recent visit to Milwaukee, I decided to stop in for a burger at Major Goolsby's.

Major Goolsby's is one of the original sports bars in America. It opened in 1970 under the ownership of Jerry Cohen.  Cohen also owned a local watering hole called Someplace Else.  He hired Tom Shepard to first manage Someplace Else, then took Shepard over to Goolsby's to be the first manager there.  Shepard went on to own a number of restaurants including his namesake Tom Shepard's Saloon, Dos Banditos, Jordy's Fox Point Inn, the Brown Bottle and Brew City Barbecue.  

When Major Goolsby's opened, it really had no name.  I understand that the first year they were opened, the local phone book had them listed as "The Bar With No Name."  After trying to figure out a number of names (including "East of Mecca" - U.S. Cellular Arena just across the street to the west of Major Goolsby's used to be known as the MECCA - Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena), he settled on Major Goolsby's Pub and Grill.  

Another key person in the history of Major Goolsby's was an old college buddy of Cohen's, Leo Damge.  Although he didn't have a stake in the business, Cohen thought of Leo Damge as a partner as Damge kept the books for Cohen's businesses.  There's a comic poster of "Leo the Cop" on the door that enters the basement at Major Goolsby's and the character is based on Leo Damage.  Leo passed away in 2003 but his spirit still lives with "Leo the Cop".

As a sports fan, I dig the memorabilia that Major Goolsby's has collected over the years.  They have pictures, jerseys, even bunting from World Series games on display.  There's old programs from games and news articles that you can take a glimpse of.  More than once, I've grabbed a beer at Goolsby's and just wandered around looking at all the stuff they have on display.

Our first introduction to Major Goolsby's happened years ago during a visit to Summerfest in Milwaukee. Summerfest started 45 years ago and Major Goolsby's has been one of the vendors for all the festivals held at the Henry Maier Festival Park for about 40 of those years. My cousin lived in Milwaukee for a time a few years ago and would have us come up for Summerfest.  It became a ritual for us to have a late night Major Goolsby's charbroiled burger before we left to go back to his place for the evening. The burger patties weren't all that thick, so getting a double cheese burger to sop up all the beer in my stomach was the usual order I had at Major Goolsby's. 

(Picture right - patrons lining up at the Major Goolsby's window at Summerfest. Photo courtesy of OnMilwaukee.com)

Major Goolsby's is located at the corner of West 4th and Kilbourn in the heart of the Old World 3rd Street area of downtown Milwaukee (see map).  As I said earlier, it is right across the street from U.S. Cellular Arena and across and down the street from the Bradley Center. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball teams play at U.S. Cellular Arena, while the Milwaukee Bucks of the N.B.A., the Milwaukee Admirals minor league hockey team, and the Marquette Golden Eagles play at the Bradley Center. Because it can seat nearly 500 people, Major Goolsby's is the epicenter for fans before, during and after hockey and basketball games in Milwaukee.

In 2005, Sports Illustrated listed their top 25 sports bars in the nation and Major Goolsby's was listed at 4. Now, I don't know if Sports Illustrated listed them in order or in just in fashion of a random 25, but Major Goolsby's makes a big deal about being ranked as the 4th best sports bar in the nation per S.I. With a number of televisions and three areas to sit and view games, it is pretty impressive for a sports bar. And earlier this year, Fox News named Major Goolsby's as one of the top sports bars in America.

It was just before noon when I got into Major Goolsby's. The downtown lunch crowd was beginning to filter in and I took a seat at one of the high tables in Goolsby's main bar area. The menus are located on the table held between a bottle of ketchup and the salt and pepper shakers. My waitress came over to greet me and asked me what I wanted to drink. I thought it was a little too early for a beer, so I just went with water.

The menu at Major Goolsby's isn't all that extensive. Besides their burgers, they have a number of bar-type appetizers, a couple variations of a grilled chicken sandwich, brats, hot dogs, and a barbecue pork rib sandwich. On Friday's Major Goolsby's features a fish fry dinner for $11.25.

But I was there for a burger. The Major cheeseburger and the Major bacon cheeseburger are the big draws at Goolsby's. Both feature double patties of beef, topped with cheese. The bacon they have on the Major bacon cheeseburger is smoky and crisp. I didn't feel like having a double that particular day so I ordered up a single bacon cheeseburger. Fries are extra ($2.45) and I passed on them or any other side.

It's hard to categorize the burger at Major Goolsby's. Honestly, there's not much to it. It's a large, yet thin and somewhat overcooked patty placed on a toasted bun that's average at best. The bacon is sort of crumbled on top and it's so crispy it's sort of tough to chew. While it's not the best burger I've ever had, and it's far from the worst. 

That charbroiled taste of a Major Goolsby's burger is the key.  I don't know what it is about the taste of their burgers, but I really like it.  It's so hard to figure out because if you take a look at the burger, it's really nothing special. And the cooking technique is just throwing it on a flame grill.  I don't know if the grill is seasoned with years and years of cooking thousands and thousands of burgers on it.  I'm guessing it almost has to be.  But the charbroiling of the burgers gives them that signature taste that I crave from time to time.

 

The food at Major Goolsby's should almost be secondary to the draw of dozens of televisions on which to watch any sporting event.  The minimal menu pretty much tells you that is the case.  If you want to take a look at years of Milwaukee and Wisconsin sports memorabilia, Major Goolsby's is the place to go.  The burgers may not be for everyone and maybe it's because of my fondness for Summerfest, but Major Goolsby's bacon cheeseburgers bring back a lot of great memories of fun times we had years ago.  But you don't have to wait for any of the number of festivals they have in Milwaukee to get a Goolsby's burger.  Just go to the corner of West 4th and Kilbourn and get a burger.  But don't pass up the chance to look at an extensive collection of sports memorabilia.

Bunny's (Sherm's) - Minneapolis

I was up in the Twin Cities recently and set up a morning meeting with the guys from the Needle Doctor. Jerry, the owner, suggested we get together for breakfast at a place just down the street from his store in St. Louis Park - Bunny's Bar and Grill. Along with his right hand man, Kenny, we met there for breakfast one morning.

Bunny's has been around since just after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Henry Aretz was getting ready to open his bar along Excelsior Blvd. and he needed a sign for the front of his building. Fully expecting to call his new tavern "Aretz's Place", he asked a sign painter to come up with a sign for him. The sign painter had screwed up a sign that said "Bunnys" instead of "Bunnies" and he didn't want to scrap it. The sign painter asked Henry if he wanted a deal on the sign - a GOOD deal. Coming out of the Great Depression, Henry was watching his money, so he bought the sign for pennies on the dollar. Thus, "Aretz's Place" became "Bunny's".

Original Bunny's sign - the apostrophe was missing.

Aretz and his wife, Lottie, ran Bunny's along with their nine children. One of the big draws during the first few years the tavern was open was a slot machine they had on the premises. Slots were legal in Minnesota until then Governor Luther Youngdahl (who was obviously a fun-hater) shut them down just after he was elected to office in 1947.

In addition to running Bunny's, Aretz was also a home developer. He built homes in five subdivisions in north Minneapolis in the 50's. About this time, the Aretz's added a liquor store to their St. Louis Park bar. The liquor store was run by Henry and Lottie's oldest son, Harold. They operated the liquor store at the Bunny's location for less than a year before moving it to the Miracle Mile shopping area just down the road. The Aretz's were one of nine applicants for a liquor license to sell at Miracle Mile. They opened the Miracle Mile liquor store in August of 1958. Harold Aretz ran it for 18 years before closing it in 1976 to run Bunny's full time after the death of his father three years before.

Harold Aretz and his family ran Bunny's up until 1988 when Sherman Rackner and his son, Gary, bought the bar. The Rackner's immediately added a kitchen to the tavern and began to serve food.

Sherman Rackner passed away in 1997 and about that time, St. Louis Park officials were looking at a plot of land to develop for a condominium complex called Park Commons. It happened that Bunny's was smack dab in the middle of those development plans and they had to be out of there by the end of 1998. Gary Rackner brought in a new business partner, Steve Koch, and the two moved Bunny's to the present day location just down Excelsior Blvd. in 1999 (see map).

Bunny's is actually two places - the main part which is known as Bunny's, and the back bar which is known as "Sherm's" after Sherman Rackner. It's in Sherm's, I found out, that breakfast is served 6 days a week - except Sunday - starting at 8 a.m. I believe Jerry from The Needle Doctor told me Sherm's and Bunny's do a brunch on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m.

Sherm's (lower left) is a smaller place than Bunny's. It has a bar with a number of high top tables. A handful of flat screen televisions hang from the ceiling and are turned on to either MSNBC or ESPN.

Bunny's (above right), on the other hand, is much larger, features a number of televisions, a bigger bar and a broad menu of food. There's a game room toward the back and is a family destination. Bunny's features pizza, pastas, steaks, burgers, salads, sandwiches and appetizers of all types. Through the week, Bunny's has their daily Blue Line specials that consist of comfort food such as meat loaf, hot beef sandwiches and roast pork.

I was a bit early and grabbed a table at Sherm's (after going to Bunny's front door and seeing a sign that said breakfast was served in Sherm's with an arrow pointing north). The bartender was also the waiter and he came over to see if I was by myself or if others were coming. He set up a couple more place settings while I looked through the breakfast menu.

Most of the signature items at Bunny's/Sherm's are their skillet breakfasts - scrambled eggs, potatoes and cheese with ingredients such as gyro meat, other breakfast meats, veggies and other items. With the skillets they also offered a free orange juice OR you could get a free bloody mary or a free screwdriver. They also had pancakes, french toast and eggs benedict. Or you could get eggs any style.

Kenny came in about five minutes after I got there, followed by Jerry soon thereafter. Jerry apologized for being late, "I started to drive over to the old location. (They moved to St. Louis Park in 2010 after being in the Dinkytown area over by the U. of Minnesota since the 70's.) I just spaced out thinking about things and the next thing I know I'm near downtown and thinking, 'Where the hell am I going?' "

The bartender, Sam, came over to greet Jerry and to take our orders. I ordered up the egg sandwich - a hard fried egg topped with your choice of bacon, Canadian bacon or a sausge patty, along with cheese on an English muffin. I had a lunch meeting scheduled for later in the day and I didn't want to load up on a big breakfast skillet.

Kenny ordered the eggs benedict. That sounded good, too, if I wasn't going to have lunch later on. Then it was Jerry's turn to order.

Here's the conversation between Jerry and Sam, about 98% verbatim -

Sam: What would you like, Jerry?"

Jerry: I'll take a vegetarian omelet.

Sam: We don't have omelets.

Jerry: Oh, you don't? Well, how about some scrambled eggs. Like five scrambled eggs with some vegetables.

Sam: We don't have any thing like that.

(At this point, I interjected that Jerry should get the Greek skillet and have them hold the gyro meat. By this time, poor Sam was completely flummoxed. If it wasn't on the menu, he had no idea how to improvise.)

Jerry: Well, I just need protein. Just get me scrambled eggs. Make 'em with five eggs.

Sam: Our eggs are pretty big. Three eggs should do you fine.

Jerry: OK, yeah, that's fine.

Sam: Would you like some mushrooms mixed in with them?

Jerry looked over at me and gave me this incredulous look of "What the hell?" Jerry said, "Yeah, sure."

Sam: Want some onions?

Jerry (now with a knowing smile on his face): Sure!

Sam: How about some green peppers?

Jerry (now with a nearly laughing smile on his face): You bet!

Sam: Tomatoes?

Jerry: Not a tomato guy.

Sam: Want some cheese melted on top?

Jerry: No cheese. Just the eggs and veggies.

Sam: OK, I'll get that right out!

By the time he left, Kenny and I were just about ready to burst, stifling laughs as Jerry and Sam went back and forth. Jerry said, "What the hell was that? I ask for a vegetarian omelet and he said he didn't have omelets. So I asked for scrambled eggs with veggies and he said he didn't have that either. Then he starts asking if I wanted all these vegetables with my eggs and I couldn't believe he was going through the list. That was extremely weird."

A good sized breakfast crowd - especially for mid-week - was in Sherm's so it took about 20 minutes for Sam to bring out breakfasts out. That was OK as we were talking business during the time we were waiting. My egg sandwich was pretty non-descript - it was basically an upgraded Egg McMuffin with sausage. Jerry's scrambled eggs with vegetables were just that - scrambled eggs with veggies. But Kenny hit the breakfast jackpot that morning. The eggs benedict featured two large poached eggs on English muffins drenched in a bearnaise sauce. A large side of hash browns came with his eggs benedict. Kenny's reaction when Sam set the plate down in front of him was a simple, "Wow!"

Actually, my egg sandwich was very good - a lot better than going to McDonald's or any other fast food joint for a similar breakfast sandwich. Kenny thoroughly enjoyed his eggs benedict and Jerry said that his scrambled eggs and veggies - and Sam was right, three eggs were more than enough - were also very good.

I've driven by Bunny's a handful of times since The Needle Doctor moved to their new location last year. I never knew what it was until now. I'm always looking for a sports bar alternative in the Twin Cities since I'm getting kind of burnt out on Joe Senser's, and Bunny's is now on my radar. The portions were huge and the cost was a very good value ($26 bucks for all three plus a nice tip for Sam who was obviously having a bad day). The history of Bunny's is reason enough to stop in and have a drink and some food. But if the rest of their food is as good as their breakfasts - and as good a value - I'm definitely going back at some point to get a meal while I'm watching a game some time down the road when I'm in the Twin Cities.

(Update - I've been back to Bunny's a couple of times since my initial visit and I tried their tuna melt sandwich with a cup of homemade chicken noodle soup on one visit and one of their 1/2 lb. burgers topped with sauteed mushrooms and pepper jack cheese.  It's tough to screw up a tuna melt and I'd say it was above average.  The burger was pretty good, as well.  Not the best, but it hit the spot that particular evening.  But the best of all three was the homemade chicken noodle soup.  Large chunks of chicken, a nice amount of noodles, and a good chicken broth.  I was very impressed with the soup.) 

Tilted Kilt - Peoria, IL

I had to do an early morning training in Peoria earlier this spring, so I ended up spending the night at the Hampton Inn at Grand Prairie, a new hotel next to the Shoppes of Grand Prairie shopping and entertainment complex on the northwest side of town. I noticed a sushi restaurant on the east side of the mall and decided to eat there that evening. However, after I checked in at the hotel and went back over to the restaurant I found it wasn't open yet as there was construction equipment inside. From the outside, it looked open. It was time to go to Plan B. Right next to the hotel was a place called the Tilted Kilt. It looked sort of like an Irish pub and I thought I'd just cut my losses early and go there for a bite to eat.

I'll have to say that the Tilted Kilt is quite interesting. I would categorize it as a three-sided combination of a Buffalo Wild Wings, an Irish/Scottish/English pub and a Hooter's with waitresses running around in short tartan skirts, matching tops that lift and compress their boobs until they look like they're ready to pop out, and white knee socks. It was easily a ratio of 19-1 men vs. women in the place, and I'm not too certain about the sexual preference of the women that I saw dining in the Tilted Kilt that evening.

I also wasn't certain if I'd ever heard of the Tilted Kilt before my visit there. The first Tilted Kilt opened in 2003 as part of the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and was founded by Mark DiMartino, the owner of the Tillerman in Las Vegas (for my visit to the Tillerman, click here). DiMartino, along with business partners John Reynaud and Shannon Reilly, conceived the Titled Kilt to be a "contemporary, Celtic-themed restaurant staffed with beautiful servers."

Not long after the Las Vegas Tilted Kilt opened, an Arizona businessman by the name of Ron Lynch visited the Rio and fell in love with the restaurant's concept. He approached DiMartino and his partners about the possibility of franchising the Tilted Kilt theme. Lynch bought the franchise rights to Tilted Kilt in 2005 and opened his first franchise location in Arizona the next year. The restaurant began to grow as DiMartino and his partners began to sell franchises. Many Tilted Kilt's have gone into what were old Bennigan's location that closed when that chain of Irish-themed restaurants declared bankruptcy in 2008 and closed 150 of their corporate-owned locations. Tilted Kilt is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the nation with 53 locations in 18 states. And more are in development.  They hope to have 300 Tilted Kilt locations across America and Canada within five years.  

However, one city didn't think that Tilted Kilt reflected the core values of their residents. Evanston, IL recently rejected an application for a liquor license for a proposed Tilted Kilt location in that city. City leaders had been presented with a petition of over 2000 names of people who opposed the opening of a Tilted Kilt in Evanston based primarily upon the suggestively clad young ladies who worked in the restaurant. Given that Evanston was a dry city up until the early 70's, there is still a large temperance movement in the city. Adding a bar that appears to glorify sexy women while selling booze was too much for some. The owner of the Tilted Kilt franchise is now looking to open a location in nearby Morton Grove.  In fact, Tilted Kilt looks to have 10 locations in the greater Chicago area by the end of this year.   

The menu at the Tilted Kilt locations are virtually the same with a combination of Scottish, Irish and English dishes such as Irish Stew, Fish and Chips and Shepherd's Pie. But the majority of the menu features your normal American-style bar food items and American-ized British Isle food. Actually, the menu is better than what you'd find at a Hooters.

 But the girls are the clear draw at the Tilted Kilt. I'm not trying to be disparaging, but most of the girls at the one in Peoria looked like they had been recruited from local gentlemen clubs as they all seemed to have over-sized breasts, helped in part by the push up tops that revealed a canyon of cleavage. (The picture at right is a stock photo I found on the Internet and are not of girls from the Peoria location.) But, they were all cute, yes, including the female bartender who waited on me that particular evening.

One of the "company policies" that Tilted Kilt employs is that the girls must be "personable" and be able to chat up the customers.  If time allows, Tilted Kilt even encourages their female servers to sit with their customers and carry on conversation.  I suppose this is to help garner more of a tip for the girls.

Not all of the servers at Tilted Kilt restaurants are female, however.  They do employ a number of men servers who wear man kilts.  They aren't as suggestively dressed as the female servers, but I suppose by having the waiters wear kilts, the restaurant somehow thinks that it will quell any outrage by feminist groups over the waitress' skimpy outfits. 

Pro basketball was prominently played on the number of flat screen televisions that hung from the walls all through the Tilted Kilt location in Peoria, which opened in late summer of 2010. I sat at the large wooden bar and the bartender dropped off a menu and I ordered up a Smithwick's, one of what looked like a couple dozen different types of beers they had to offer at the Tilted Kilt.

I could see right off the bat that the selection, while broad at the Tilted Kilt, was somewhat limited as to what I would call haute cuisine. They had burgers and your normal appetizers on the menu. About a half dozen different types of salads were available, as were a number of sandwiches including something called Fat Bastard's Meatloaf Sandwich. They also featured flat bread pizzas and entrees that included battered fish tacos, fried chicken and an Italian-herb seasoned chicken breast dish. I didn't necessarily see anything that really tripped my trigger and I was having a hard time trying to figure out what would be good to have that evening.

I finally decided upon the pastrami sandwich - you had your choice of traditional pastrami sandwich with Swiss cheese and spicy mustard, or reuben style with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing. I've been on a reuben kick for the past few months and I got the reuben style pastrami sandwich. As a side, you got your choice of sweet potato fries, garlic fries, onion rings, cottage cheese or a side salad. I decided to try their garlic fries.

The bartender, in addition that she wasn't bad to look at (below left - I know, I need a new phone with a better camera, and I recently got one), was very attentive to my beer levels and was also very accommodating when I forgot to ask for an extra side of Thousand Island dressing when I initially ordered my sandwich. She was cheery and friendly, chatting up the middle-aged businessmen who were not looking directly in her eyes. There seemed to be a number of local regulars at the bar, but there were also a number of guys from the two hotels that were walking distance from the Tilted Kilt.

Another waitress brought out my sandwich and it as your standard reuben sandwith on toasted swirl-marble rye bread (above right). The pastrami was thick, yet tender and pretty flavorful. It was a pretty good sandwich, actually. The garlic fries weren't all that garlicky, at least not as much garlic as I'm used to. They were pretty average, overall. But that was fine with me as I concentrated on the sandwich and not so much on the fries.

My first visit to a Tilted Kilt location was average, at best. The eye-candy is definitely the draw to the restaurant/pub, the food is your average bar food and they do have an abundance of televisions to watch any type of sporting event that is on at that time. The beer selection was sort of impressive, but typical of what you'd find at other places that have that similar sports bar/Irish pub theme that Titled Kilt had. I don't think my wife would like going into the place, but I know a number of friends who would and who would probably think the food was outstanding. But quite actually they'd be blinded from culinary reality by those short tartan skirts and those tight tops.

(Update - This Tilted Kilt didn't make it past May of 2014 and closed their doors.  I see other Tilted Kilt locations around the Midwest that are still open, but based upon this visit I generally pass them by like I do a Hooters.)

 

Ozzie's Restaurant and Sports Bar - St. Louis

Being a big baseball nut, I was sorry to hear about the closing of the original Ozzie's Restaurant and Sports Bar out in Westport Plaza about a year and a half ago.  (See that post here.)  But almost as soon as I wrote that entry on Road Tips, I was informed by a number of people that Ozzie's would soon be reopening in downtown St. Louis in an area of rehabbed and gentrified buildings along Washington Ave. (see map)  It so happened that I had an appointment with a prospective dealer just down the street one day on a recent trip to St. Louis and I made it a point to have lunch at Ozzie's new location. 

The original Ozzie's out in the Westport Plaza featured a plethora of baseball memorabilia courtesy of Ozzie Smith, the former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop and Baseball Hall of Fame member.  It was the ultimate sports bar with televisions throughout the place and a menu that was above average for a typical sports bar.  Over the final couple three years of its existence out at Westport, the food had seemingly gone downhill and Ozzie's was getting a lot of pressure from another sports themed restaurant in the area, Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols' own Pujols 5.   

 

Ozzie Smith was associated by name only in the restaurant, and owner Ray Gallardo - who was the founder of the Casa Gallardo Mexican food restaurants based out of St. Louis - was the owner of the establishment.  Gallardo had a contract with Golub and Co., the Chicago-based owners and developers of Westport Plaza, which said his establishment would be the only sports-theme bar in the complex.  In 2006, Westport allowed Puhols to open a restaurant and told Gallardo that it would be an upscale restaurant with a sports theme.  It turned out that Puhols 5 was closer in theme, style and menu to Ozzie's than it was to an upscale sports restaurant such as Mike Shannon's.

After three years of losses that totaled nearly $500,000, Gallardo filed suit against Golub and Co. for allowing Puhols 5 to open.  He dropped the suit against the developers before he ultimately closed down the original Ozzie's after 20 years of business.  I believe, however, that Gallardo was counter-sued by the owners of Westport, but I never heard of what happened with that particular suit.

In the meantime, Gallardo's son, Roberto, spearheaded the move of the original Ozzie's to what was once an old garment manufacturing building in the Washington Ave. Lofts District in downtown St. Louis.  Ozzie's occupies the first two floors in the building with the main floor being the restaurant and the upper floor being a large party/reception/over-flow room that features a number of autographed jerseys from former Cardinal players on the wall, along with Smith's 13 Gold Glove awards in a large display cabinet along the front wall of the room.  

It was around 1:30 when I made it into Ozzie's.  Parking was available just up the street from the restaurant and I went in the front door.  Just behind the hostess stand was sort of an artsy display of baseballs suspended with wires.  It was actually kind of cool.  A hostess asked me if I wanted a table or if I wanted to sit at the bar.  I decided to sit at the bar and she handed me a menu and I made my way toward the left side of the large rectangular bar. 

 
As I sat down, I looked over to my immediate left and noticed that they had a television literally implanted into the bar (above right).  It had a plexiglas top over the screen which was angled down for better viewing as you sat there.  I thought it was a neat little touch to the place.  I took a quick look behind me at the wall of booths in the place and noticed that each of them had their own personal flat screen television.  A number of larger flat screens were distributed throughout the main floor at Ozzie's. 

It appeared the items on the menu weren't much different from what the original Ozzie's offered before.  Actually, it might be a little smaller than before, but Ozzie's still featured some burgers, sandwiches, the typical bar-type appetizers, salads, and a number of specialty entrees such as steaks, a marsala pork chop and a garlic and herb grilled chicken breast.  One thing that I don't quite remember from the original Ozzie's was breakfast served on the weekends.  The new Ozzie's location features breakfast on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. - something worth thinking about during an upcoming baseball weekend this summer. 

I just wanted to get something simple and I ordered up the marsala mushroom burger - a 1/2 pound burger topped with provelone cheese and a mushroom marsala sauce.  Lettuce, tomato and onion slices came with the burger and I got a side of Ozzie's seasoned fries.  I also ordered up a cold Budweiser to go with my burger for lunch. 

 

It was well past the lunch rush and there were only a few people in the place when I was there so my burger came up relatively quick.  I remember the burgers at the original Ozzie's to be pretty good and this one was just as good as I remember.  I was a little worried that the sweet marsala mushroom sauce would be a little overpowering, but it was a nice fit with the burger and the provolone cheese.  The burger was thick and juicy, full of flavor on its own.  The lightly toasted bun didn't disintegrate from the juicy nature of the burger and the somewhat sloppy marsala mushroom sauce.  It was a multiple napkin burger to say the least.

The burger, itself, was more than enough for lunch, but I tried a few of the fries.  They were OK, but the burger was much better.

Before I left, I went upstairs to the second floor room to look around. It was exceptionally bright up there due to two huge south-facing windowns letting in abundant sunshine into the room. I couldn't get a good enough shot of all the Gold Glove awards that Smith garnered during his illustrious career, but I was able to get a close-up shot of one. And it took my time looking around the room at the jerseys and other memorbilia that Ozzie's had up on the wall. Sitting in front of the display case with the Gold Glove awards, Ozzie's had three double sets of seats from the old Busch Stadium that Smith played in during his career.

I'm certainly glad that Ozzie's is back in business.  Not so much because I think the food is great (it's not - but it's good bar food) or the ambiance is all that inviting and cozy (it's not as nice as the old Ozzie's).  But it's Ozzie's - one of my all-time favorite sports bars.  While the new location appears to be a little smaller than the original, the upper floor offers more space for Cardinal fans to enjoy a few beers and some food before, during and after a Cardinals game.  It's a little bit of a walk from the new Busch Stadium - about 15 or 16 blocks in all - but it's not far from the Scottrade Center, home of the St. Louis Blues, major concerts and other sporting events.  Ozzie's was always a "must visit" when we came to Cardinals games in the past.  I'm sure we'll be back to Ozzie's at some point in the near future. 

(Update - This Ozzie's location has been closed and it reopened at the Lumiere Place Casino.) 

Chasers Sports Bar and Grill - Niles, IL

Chasers Sports Bar and Grill in the Northwest Chicago suburb of Niles (see map) is one of those surprising places that I've found out about within the past few months.  Surprising in that the food is actually pretty good for a sports bar, including their pizza which is some of the best in a city that has world class pizza all over.  I was first turned on to Chasers by the guys from Abt Electronics last fall and I have now been there about five or six times over the past few months.

Chasers originally opened about 20 years ago and quickly became THE destintation to watch sports on TV soon thereafter.  Chasers has over two dozen flat panel televisions and two large projections televisions - one in the main dining room as you walk in and the other in the little dance club toward the back.  If there's a game on, they have it.  

Their menu is typical sports bar food - sandwiches, appetizers, burgers, and salads.  They also feature a number of sub sandwiches - or "authentic East Coast grinders" - and Greek specialties such as gyros, saganaki and spinach pie.  And, as I said, the food is surprisingly good.  Especially their chicken wings and pizza. 

I'm not a huge chicken wings fan, but I have to say that the wings at Chasers are some of the best I've ever had.  The wings are big and meaty, juicy and not overcooked.  They are offered plain, or with a mild or hot sauce.  They also feature barbecue sauce chicken wings and an over-the-top hot sauce they call "Ay Carumba!"  You can order the wings either in lots of 10 or 18, or for a couple bucks more per order you can get small chicken drumsticks instead of wings.  I've had both the mild and hot sauce chicken wings.  While I wouldn't call the hot sauce all that hot, it has more of a peppery taste to it.   

We stopped into Chasers after the Iowa/Northwestern football game last fall to get a little something to eat and to watch some football.  I got an order of chicken wings - mild - thinking that someone would help me eat them.  No one else did and I think I had about seven before I got to a point where I was full.  You don't get cheated on the chicken wings at Chasers.  They're a meal in themselves. 

But the biggest surprise at Chasers is the pizza.  It's a thin crust pizza, loaded with mozzarella and plentiful toppings.  They use the big chunks of Italian sausage on their pizza at Chasers, and the vegetable toppings are all fresh.  It's a very good pizza.

I first had their pizza last fall when I met up with a bunch of guys from Abt Electronics after an in-store event they were having.  One of the veterans from Abt, Brian, was telling me about Chasers and how good the pizza was.  I had a piece of just a basic pepperoni pizza when I got there and I was absolutely floored by the taste.  The tomato sauce was tangy and sweet.  The cheese was perfectly caramelized on top and the crust was thin, but not too thin where the slice would droop under the weight of the toppings and cheese.  I've been back two more times since then and had the pizza and I have to say that I'm overly impressed with Chasers pizza.  Sure, there are a number of sports bars that feature pizza, but I've not found a similar place that has as good of a pizza as Chasers.  Chasers pizza is better than some pizza joints I've visited in the Chicago area.  And that says a lot about their pizza!

The only caveat about the pizza at Chaser's is that they use canned chopped mushrooms instead of fresh chopped mushrooms.  They have sort of an earthy taste to them and can almost overwhelm the taste of the fennel sausage and pepperoni.  But it's definitely not a deal breaker by a long shot. 

I also want to point out that the service at Chasers is pretty damn good.  The young waitresses are on top of things, friendly and overly attentive to your needs.  And they're pretty quick at bringing a cold beer to the table after you order one. 

After nine p.m. on some weekends, the back room turns into a dance room and the age skews well under 30 in the place.  It can get pretty loud in the place - as well as pretty crowded.   Dance clubs that play urban music aren't quite my scene and I prefer to be out of there soon after the music starts.  I've never cared for places that play loud music when you're trying to carry on a conversation with friends without having to scream above the music level.  However, on nights when there are UFC fights being telecast, Chasers shuts down the dance floor and cranks up the big screens to show the fights. 

Chasers is also one of the few places in the NW suburbs that is open to 4 a.m. and their kitchen is open until 3 a.m.  Maybe a few years ago that may have been a good selling point for me, but I'm long past my urges for late night carousing.  Plus, as I've heard many times, not a lot of good happens after 2 a.m.  But Chasers has an ample staff of bouncers to help keep the peace from any alchohol-fueled incidents that may arise.

But, to me, sports and the pizza is the draw for Chasers.  The wings are excellent, the pizza is outstanding and if you can't find a game to watch at Chasers, well, then it just ain't on.  Throw in some excellent service and cold beer and you've got a good sports bar to hang at in Northwest Chicago.   

Cubby Bear North - Lincolnshire, IL

The Cubby Bear North is the far north suburb's sister location to the original Cubby Bear bar/restaurant/music venue located directly caddy-corner from Wrigley Field in Chicago.  The original Cubby Bear was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 25 Sports Bars in America back in 2005.  It's a place I've visited many times before going across the street to a Chicago Cubs game and it's a pretty fun place to visit.  They also make one of the best bloody mary's I've ever had.  Like the original, the Cubby Bear North is a place I've been to many times in the past, but only recently went back to for a late dinner on a cold winter's evening. 

The original Cubby Bear at the corner of Addison and Clark (see map) started in 1953 when Greek immigrant Gus Loukas and his wife, Sophia, opened the Cubs Tap.  The Cubs Tap evolved into the Cubs Pub, then it became the Cubs Grill.  In 1978, Loukas' sons, George and Angelo, bought the place and turned it into the Cubby Bear Lounge.  Both the Loukas brothers have a background in football - Angelo Loukas is a former professional football player who played a couple years with the Buffalo Bills, while George Loukas is a former Southern Illinois football player who was one of the best running backs in school history.  George Loukas is a member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. 

George Loukas and his wife, Patty, also have a somewhat famous daughter.  Christina Loukas represented the USA in diving at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, placing ninth in the 3 meter springboard competition, and is a former collegiate and national amateur women's diving champion.  The Loukas' son, Nick, helps with the day-to-day operations of the original Cubby Bear.

When Angelo and George Loukas took over the Cubby Bear Lounge, the Wrigleyville area was in a state of quick deterioration .  The Cubs weren't drawing well, the neighborhood was falling into decay and the area became a series of dilapidated buildings and seedy joints.  George Loukas helped spearhead a movement to clean up the area, and almost as a coincidence, the Cubs began to draw larger crowds to their games.  In the late 80's, Loukas began to book nationally known musical acts into the Cubby Bear.  The family also opened Vines on Wrigley next door and the Sports Corner at the southeast corner across from Wrigley Field.  They also own one of the rooftop buildings just beyond the outfield wall of Wrigley Field on Waveland Ave. 

Over 10 years ago, the Loukas family expanded to north suburban Lincolnshire and opened the Cubby Bear North fashioned as a roadhouse style restaurant/bar/music venue on Milwaukee Ave. (see map)  It was one of the first of what is now many restaurants in the immediate area across the road at the Lincolnshire Commons shopping and entertainment district.  

As I said, I've eaten at the Cubby Bear North many times over the years enjoying their Italian beef sandwiches, burgers, and ribs.  The menu at the Cubby Bear North also features steaks, seafood, pasta entrees and your normal bar appetizers.  Cubby Bear North also features a late night bar menu that features burgers, tacos, cheese pizzas and their famous (and yummy) Garlic French fries.   The beer menu at Cubby Bear North features a number of your normal domestic beers, along with a nice mix of eclectic beers from microbreweries around the Midwest including Three Floyds, Great Lakes, and Metropolitan.

 
The Cubby Bear North seems to be a little bigger than the Cubby Bear in the city.  At least it's more spread out and open compared to the original Cubby Bear.  There's a main bar area to the right as you walk in, a large dining/dance hall in the middle, and another bar area on the far south side of the establishment.   A large stage sits on the long far wall of the building and a couple large projection screens drop down for sports viewing when bands aren't playing.  Flat screen televisions proliferate the walls, nooks and crannies of the Cubby Bear North.

It was close to 8:30 p.m. when I arrived at the Cubby Bear North and took a seat at the main bar.  A few basketball games were going on and I was pretty content to watch some of those as well as to read my Chicago Tribune.  The bartender came by with a menu and asked what I wanted to drink.  I looked into the large glass cooler in front of me and saw that they had Old Style.  I immediately ordered one of those. 

I wasn't overly certain what to get that particular evening.  I didn't want barbecue because it was so late and I knew it would sit in my stomach like a rock all night.  A burger or sandwich didn't sound all that pleasing at that point in the evening.  The special that evening was 2 for 1 pizza - buy one pizza and get a second one of equal or lesser value for free - and there were a number of people in the Cubby Bear North enjoying a pizza.  But I definitely didn't want a pizza. 

I pared my choices down to Cubby Bear North's Chicken Vesuvio (and I knew it wouldn't be as good as what I've had at a couple Italian restaurants in the past), seared fish tacos (another thing that I was sort of skeptical about, given that the Cubby Bear North isn't really known as a seafood restaurant), or their rigatoni, served with chunks of sweet Italian sausage, topped with mozzarella and baked.  I thought that would be pretty good and I decided to try that. 

About 20 minutes after I ordered, a waitress brought the steaming bowl of baked rigatoni over to me.  I got some parmesan cheese and crushed red peppers to throw on top.  It looked pretty similar to the "Wigatoni" that I love so much at the Wig and Pen in the Iowa City/Coralville area.  The mozzarella was caramelized on top, the rigatoni noodles were thick and large and there seemed to be ample amounts of Italian sausage throughout the dish. 

A couple three guys came in before I ordered my baked rigatoni and ordered some food for themselves.  The guy seated next to me commented when the waitress brought my pasta to me that it didn't look bad at all.  After a few bites, he sort of leaned over and said, "How is it?  It looks good."

 

I said, "It looks better than it really is." 

Quite honestly, it wasn't as good as the Wig and Pen's "Wigatoni".  Most of the sausage was located on top and it wasn't all that plentiful.  The pasta was all right, but the marinara sauce wasn't all that zippy in taste.  Overall, it was very far from inedible, but it was more of a pretty bland taste experience.  But I guess I couldn't expect that much out of a place where most of the food is geared toward bar patronage.  It's definitely not fine dining at Cubby Bear North.

While the Cubby Bear North does a lot of things "OK" at their place, nothing they have on the menu is really what I would call outstanding.  But if you're there with a group of friends after work, or stopping in to catch a game, sip a few brews and eat some standard bar food, the Cubby Bear North is a good place to hang out.  The sandwiches and burgers are good.  The ribs are actually surprisingly above average and the garlic fries I've had in the past are pretty damn good on their own.  The Cubby Bear North is about as good a place for the rich suburban North Shore people to "slum" as any around.  

(Update - Thanx to Road Tips reader Bill who informed me that the Cubby Bear North is now closed.  They closed in early January 2014 with seemingly no explanation why.  The original Cubby Bear across from Wrigley Field is still open.)

 

The Varsity Club - Columbus, OH

I wanted to talk a bit about our visit to one of the more famous watering holes in the Big Ten Conference, The Varsity Club in Columbus, OH.  It's one of my more favorite places I've found during our trips to different schools when Iowa plays football.  It was our first stop the weekend we went out to see the Hawks play Ohio State in November.

I had been to the Varsity Club - officially called "The Original Varsity Club" - during our previous visits to Columbus.  The hotel we stayed in was literally down the alley from The Varsity Club, so it was easy access to that bar, along with a number of other ones along Lane Ave. near the Ohio State University campus (see map). 

The Varsity Club celebrated their 50th year of existence in 2009, and boasts one of the largest tailgate parties before and after Ohio State home games.  Located just over a quarter mile from Ohio Stadium, the streets and alleys around The Varsity Club are packed with people of all ages on game day.  It's truly a spectacle to see.  Here's a picture of a pre-game crowd in the alley way on the East side of The Varsity Club complements of my friend, Jay Christensen and his great college football web site, The Wiz of Odds.

My friends, Scott Schroeder and Dave Heusmann are big on finding "the" bar when we go on the road for our football trips, so going to The Varsity Club was a no-brainer.  The original building has a bar area and a dining area with a number of tables and booths.  The bathroom is a little dinky and they put port-a-potties outside along the alley for the huge crowds they get on game day.  They have a patio out back that has a roof and some heaters when it gets sort of chilly out.  The patio also has a stage and they'll feature live music out there from time to time. 

There's memorabilia and pictures all over the walls of The Varsity Club.  Scott is a huge history nut when it comes to sports and I know he had a great time just wandering around and looking at all the old pictures of great Ohio State athletes from over the years.  Dave and I were up by the bar looking at a picture of a huge crowd and a lady walked up to us and said, "That taken was right back here in the alley at a game about 10 years ago."  It turns out the lady was a day manager at The Varsity Club. 

She told us some of the history of The Varsity Club, beginning in 1959 when the bar opened, the expansion and the subsequent tail-gate parties they put on since the 70's.  She said, "We get tons of alumni back each weekend there's a game and the crowd here skews a little more older than younger.  We get our share of college kids, but it's the alumni that pack it in on game days." 

One thing that's always struck me about The Varsity Club is the friendliness of the people there - both the workers and Ohio State fans.  We talked with a number of Ohio State fans the night before the game and it was interesting to get their perspective of how their team may do against Iowa.  Frankly, I think a lot of Ohio State fans feared the worst for Saturday's game.  But they also seem to have a kindred emotional dislike with Iowa fans regarding Michigan football.  I think that's what draws the two fans together. 

Dave, Scott and I were standing out at the outside patio bar having some beers and watching some sports on some of the flat panel televisions they had above the bar while the women enjoyed the relative warmth of the inside.  It was actually a very nice mid-November evening in Columbus with temps in the 50's.  It was getting later in the evening and we were trying to figure out where to go for dinner.  I had picked up a menu inside The Varsity Club to see what they all had.  It features some typical sports bar food - appetizers, salads, burgers and sandwiches, primarily.  I did see some people getting pizza and it looked pretty good.  But pizza was voted out by the group.  We were thinking of going to get ribs, but the same day manager that Dave and I had talked to earlier inside was the one who gave us the tip on going to El Vaquero.  We're glad she did. 

Both before and after the game on Saturday, we tried to get close to The Varsity Club.  We sort of walked over by there on our way to the stadium, but with the huge crowds down Lane Ave. and all around the bar, we decided it would be too much of a hassle to get in.  After the game, we'd driven over there, but we were having a tough time finding a parking spot that wouldn't get our rented SUV towed away.  Plus, we saw that the place was still overly packed long after the game was over.  We decided to cut our losses and go get dinner. 

I've always enjoyed The Varsity Club on my visits to Columbus.  It's sort of "ground zero" for football fans, but it has a great sports bar atmosphere, too.  But it's truly a monument to thousands of Ohio State alumni and fans.  And one that appears will endure for years and years.   

Westwood Tavern - Schaumburg, IL

One of my favorite places to go have a beer and something to eat when I would be out in the Schaumburg area in the Western suburbs of Chicago was the Prairie Rock Brewing Company, even though it had a been a few years since I'd last been there.  Two years ago, Prairie Rock Rock Brewing Co. went out of business and it was replaced by a upscale steak house/restaurant based out of Evanston called Pete Miller's.  I never went into Pete Miller's and, obviously, not a lot of other people did either as they eventually closed that location earlier this year.  However, this summer a new place went into the old Prairie Rock/Pete Miller's location - Westwood Tavern.  I took a couple guys who work for a dealer I call on in nearby Hoffman Estates there for some drinks and snacks recently.

Westwood Tavern, located on N. Meacham St. near Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg (see map), is what I would call an upscale sports bar.  It's actually takes up about half the space of what the old Prairie Rock Brewing Company had.  (A place called Wildberry Cafe - a restaurant that bills itself as a gourmet breakfast cafe - is located in the other part of the building.)  The interior is very classy, there's a large, three-sided bar as you walk in and there are a flat panel televisions throughout the main floor.  Upstairs is a large dining area that features big tables with linen table cloths.  It's definitely not your typical sports bar. 

But the most unique feature of Westwood Tavern are six booths on the main floor that have four beer taps that come up through the middle of the table.  People who sit at the booths have their choice of four different beers they can pour (as long as one of the four is either Miller Lite or Bud Light) and can choose from four other upscale beers from their beer list.  Westwood Tavern employs a computerized system for the six booths that measure the pours of the given beers that are sent to the taps at the table.  I'm still not quite sure how all that happens or how the changeover occurs if someone wants different beers from the previous patrons.  All I know is that I've never seen anything like it in my travels.  

Westwood Tavern was packed when we got into the restaurant.  The booths with the taps one of the guys was telling me about were all full.  In fact, it was going to be a 30 minute wait just to get a table.  We found a couple seats at the bar and my guests sat there while I stood until a seat opened up next to one of the guys.  

We were having drinks and the waitress asked if we wanted to take a look at the menu for some appetizers.  The top of the menu featured a number of sushi items including California and Spicy Tuna Rolls.  While there wasn't an extensive list of either sushi or even appetizers, for that matter, all of it sounded pretty good.

The entree list was pretty shallow with just four items - pot roast, ribs, a ribeye steak and a miso-glazed salmon.  One thing that caught my eye on the menu were mahi-mahi grilled fish tacos.  I'm a sucker for grilled fish tacos.  But the guys were talking about the flat bread pizza Westwood Tavern has.  In fact, as they were talking about it, one was brought out to a lady sitting next to one of my guests.  It did look good - it was very thin and rolled out in a somewhat oval/rectangle.  The one the lady had was the pepperoni flat bread pizza.  It was brought out on a flat wood board, topped with ample amounts of pepperoni and sprinkled with fresh herbs.  It looked pretty good.

The guys were more interested in drinking than eating food, so we ended up ordering a couple flat bread pizzas - one just pepperoni, the other with sausage and pepperoni.  Oh, well.  Fish tacos can wait until my next visit.   

When the flat bread pizzas were brought out, they were somewhat lukewarm like they'd been sitting for a while before they brought them out.  And while the dough was very moist and chewy, unlike most thin crust pizzas that are usually a little more crispy, especially around the edges, it had a somewhat disagreeable taste of wood to the dough.  It was like the dough had sucked up the wood flavor from the flat board it was served on.  I don't mind the taste of cedar in a salmon filet that's been cooked on top of a plank, but for some reason this was like they had gone down to Menards, got some boards off the shelf and that what's they served the pizza upon. 

Other than that, the toppings were fresh and tasty.  I had a few pieces and called it quits.  I just couldn't get past the woody taste of the dough.  It highly detracted from the overall taste of the pizza. 

Still, Westwood Tavern would be a place I'd go back to if I was in the area and wanted to catch a sporting event.  I saw their burger brought out to a guy near us and it looked interesting.  I still want to try the fish tacos at some point.  And it's a rather unique place with the beer spigots in the booths.  I'll go back, but I won't have the flat bread pizza. 

Chappell's Sports Bar - North Kansas City

A little over 4 years ago when I started Road Tips, I was still trying to find my direction and voice as to what I was trying to accomplish with this blog.  One of the very first entries I had was on Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Bars and the ones that I'd visited out of that list.  (You can read that entry here.)  One place that I'd been into a number of years ago, but hadn't visited for a long time was Chappel's Sports Bar in North Kansas City (see map).  I was in the area not long ago and decided to go have lunch there.

Jim Chappell (right) settled in North Kansas City, MO in the early 70's and ran an insurance agency while dabbling in politics.  Chappell was a budding collector of sports memorabilia during that time and he entertained thoughts of opening a restaurant/bar that would house some of his collection, plus be a neighborhood gathering place to discuss local, state and national politics.  In the mid-80's, a building directly across the street from Chappell's insurance agency became available.  In 1986, Chappell opened his sports bar, hoping to run it on a part-time basis.  However, it soon became a full-time job for Chappell, who subsequently sold his insurance agency. 

Chappell has entertained sports figures, politicians and common people at his restaurant which he has literally turned into a sports museum that happens to serve food and drink.  The amount of memorabilia that he has in the place is staggering.   They have over 1000 football helmets from college and professional teams, including some vintage helmets from the 50's and 60's.  He has a large collection of historical Kansas City professional team memorabilia, including old Kansas City Monarchs jerseys and pictures, old Kansas City Athletics memorabilia and a few things from the old Kansas City Kings professional basketball team.  Of course, he has a a ton of items featuring the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The bar features a number of jersey's from professional and collegiate football, basketball and baseball teams.  Chappel has signed baseballs from Babe Ruth, Dizzy Dean and Ty Cobb.  He has the 1974 World Series trophy that was won by the Oakland A's.  It turns out that former A's owner Charlie Finley and Chappell were good friends.  There are tons of old sports trophies, sports pennants, newspaper clippings, and autographed pictures.  Here are the jerseys from two of my all-time favorite baseball players - Stan Musial and Warren Spahn.  It had been over 15 years since I was last in Chappell's and the amount of memorabilia that he has picked up since has grown exponentially.

In addition to a lot of Kansas University, Kansas State University and University of Missouri sports items on display, I was surprised by the amount of Iowa Hawkeye memorabilia in the place.  I certainly didn't remember seeing much Hawkeye stuff in there before, or I possibly didn't notice.  I didn't know until I did some research on Chappell's that he grew up in Keokuk, IA before heading off to Drury College (now Drury University) in Springfield, MO in the mid-60's.  Turns out that Chappell was a huge Hawkeye fan growing up and still is to this day.

It was just after 1 p.m. when I took a seat at the bar at Chappell's.  There was just one seat open as I walked in.  But it was obvious that it was occupied by someone as there was a half-filled glass of pop and some paperwork.  However, an older gentleman next to the empty seat said, "You need a seat?  I'm getting ready to leave."  I took his seat and ordered up a beer and a menu.  I was looking through the menu and the guy occupying the seat next to me came back to sit down.  Turned out it was Jim Chappell himself.  He was holding court at the corner of the bar talking with a couple older guys in having coffee or early afternoon drinks.  A guy and his teen-aged son came up to Chappell before they left and the guy introduced himself and his son to Jim.  Jim said, "Is this your first trip to our place?  Well, c'mon, let me show you around."  And just like that he was up and shepherding them around the place.  I would have liked to have a guided tour, as well, but I certainly didn't have the time.

Chappell's menu is long and diverse.  Of course, they have the usual sports bar fare of appetizers, burgers and sandwiches.  But they also feature steaks, a large amount of salads and some low carb items, as well.  I was torn between the reuben, which was one of Chappell's featured sandwiches, the blackened chicken sandwich, or the mushroom/provelone cheeseburger.  I decided to go with the cheeseburger and I got a side of cole slaw to go along with it.

Jim Chappell came back to his seat after showing the father and son around for about five minutes, finished his pop and said to his friends, "Well, I'm going to work out, fellas.  I'll see you a little later."   Chappell is in his early 60's, is tall and lean and looks to be in great shape for his age.  I could tell from the short time he was near me that he really dug being Jim Chappell.  And I mean that in a good way.  This was his place, it was his stuff and he was damn proud of everything.

Chappell's burgers are 1/2 pound USDA ground beef, cooked to your liking.  My burger came out and it was thick and juicy with a good bun to go along with it.  While I can't call it one of the best burgers I've ever had, or maybe even put it in the honorable mention category, it was still good.  Definitely a very good burger compared to other sports bars that I've visited.  The couple of bites of the cole slaw I had were average, at best.  It's obvious the draw to Chappell's is the memorabilia, but the food is not that bad.

While there were a lot of televisions throughout Chappell's, I'm not certain this would be a place that I'd want to go to just to see a game.  The decor and memorabilia overpowers Chappell's televisions.  There's just a lot of very busy stuff on the wall that detracts from watching a game.  But if you're into sports history and memorabilia, and you're looking for a pretty good meal to go along with it, it's tough to beat Chappell's.  But plan on spending at least a couple of hours if you really want to look more closely at the things Jim Chappell has in his place.  It's truly a sports museum that happens to have a restaurant in it.

Good Bye to Ozzie's

The recent demise of Ozzie's sports bar in the Westport Plaza area of St. Louis was a personal blow to me.  It was one of my all-time favorite sports bars, anywhere.  I'd been going to Ozzie's since the mid-90's and for a long time it was a good place to get a pretty good meal, drink cold beer and to watch sporting events on one of the 50+ televisions they had throughout the bar.  But things had changed for the worse over the past few years for the place.  I thought the food began to suffer.  A couple of recent times I'd been in, the beer was nowhere close to being ice cold like I once remember.  Then the economy and competition in the Westport area caught up with Ozzie's and they were forced to shut their doors in late October. 

(To read my original post on Ozzie's, click here.) 

I was in St. Louis the week after Ozzie's shut down.  In fact, I was thinking about going there for lunch one day to grab a burger, but it turned out it would have been quite a trek in some heavy rain to get over there.  I ended up just getting a burger at a Fuddrucker's in South County.  I would have been devastated walking up to Ozzie's and finding the doors locked. 

For those of you not in the know, Ozzie's was named after the former St. Louis Cardinals and Hall of Fame shortstop, Ozzie Smith.   St. Louis restaurateur Ray Gallardo (who founded and owned the Casa Gallardo restaurants) opened the restaurant in 1988.  Smith decorated the restaurant with some of his numerous awards, along with other memorabilia from the Cardinals, St. Louis Rams and St. Louis Blues.  The place was an immediate hit with the people of St. Louis and a "must see" for Cardinals fans who would come from all over to see the Cards play in the summertime.  While the food wasn't all that great, it was more of the atmosphere that kept people coming back year after year. 

When I worked for a company in suburban St. Louis a number of years ago, Ozzie's was always one of the more favorite places for me to go to grab a quick sandwich or to catch a game that I wanted to see.  When we'd have sales managers from vendors come into St. Louis for meetings, invariably at some point we'd end up at Ozzie's.  I still run into guys at trade shows that I knew from years ago who bring up their visit to Ozzie's.  Ozzie's had a couple of private rooms that we'd take over from time to time and that, along with all the memorabilia throughout the place, made a lasting impression on some of the people we'd take there. 

Ozzie's menu was wide and varied, very typical of a high-profile sports bar.  They had a little bit of everything - appetizers, sandwiches, steaks, ribs, Mexican food, pasta.  While they didn't do anything great, it was adequate enough for what it was.  I did like their burgers and they had a dynamite blackened chicken sandwich.  And I did like their brisket sandwich, as well.  But most of the main entree choices were pedestrian, at best.   But the surroundings and memorabilia trumped the average food, in my book. 

The economic climate in St. Louis over the past few years has been deteriorating and that, undoubtedly, cut into Ozzie's bottom line.  But many people point to the establishment of Pujols 5 in Westport Plaza as the beginning of the end for Ozzie's.  Pujols 5 is named after the Cardinals great first baseman, Albert Pujols (left).  Before Pujols 5 opened up, Ozzie's management was told that it was going to be more of an upscale restaurant on the level of Mike Shannon's than a sports bar like Ozzie's.  Based on that information, Gallardo's management company signed a lease extension through 2015 and borrowed $150,000 to upgrade Ozzie's restaurant.   

It turned out that Pujols 5 (which I've not been to yet) was more like Ozzie's in terms of a sports bar and grill than an upscale restaurant.  At least, that's what Ozzie's alleges in a lawsuit that was filed last spring against the owners of Westport Plaza.  Ozzie's claims that with over 40 hi-def televisions, a menu that is more similar to Ozzie's than to Mike Shannon's, and the fact that they advertise themselves as the "newest and hottest of America's sports restaurants," Pujols 5 was, indeed, a sports bar and it violated the lease agreement.   

Westport Plaza's owners countersued Ozzie's for non-payment of rent.  As Ozzie's closed up, the lawsuit against Westport Plaza was dropped, but the countersuit against Ozzie's goes on.  Ozzie's held an auction after they closed to sell off some of the memorabilia, fixtures and equipment.  The owners of Westport Plaza now claim the auction was not authorized due to their lawsuit against Ozzie's management.  I'm sure it's going to get more messy as time goes on.  Stay tuned. 

With revenues falling and Pujols popularity helping drive people to the restaurant named after him, Ozzie's began to slip.  The food was noticeably more weak than I remember during the first few times I'd gone to the restaurant.  On our annual trip to St. Louis to see the Cardinals a couple years ago, we stopped into Ozzie's for a cold beer before the game.  But we were served slightly below room temperature beer.  I'd noticed the previous few times that I had been in, the beer coolers weren't very cold.  It just didn't seem to be the same place I'd once remembered. 

Sports bars come and go.  Some last longer than others.  Ozzie's lasted longer than most.  It had a good thing going for a number of years.   Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by a bigger name in St. Louis sports these days and that, undoubtedly, led to their demise.  However, the name Ozzie Smith will continue to live in the hearts and minds of St. Louis fans for years and years, even if his namesake restaurant will not. 

(Update - Ozzie's has reopened at a new location in downtown St. Louis (see map).  I've yet to make it into the new Ozzie's, but plan to during an upcoming trip to St. Louis.)

The Highlander Pub and Grille - St. Louis

One thing I've noticed over my years of going to the St. Louis area is the volatile nature of many of the Krieger's Sports Grille locations.  Volatile, in that they seem to go out of business quickly after they've opened up a location.  During a recent quick trip to St. Louis, I was looking forward to getting into the Hampton Inn-Forest Park and grabbing a quick meal at the Krieger's next to the hotel.  Upon my arrival, I was surprised to see the Krieger's was now The Highlander Pub and Grille.  Well, let's say I was surprised and not surprised, given the history of Krieger locations. 

The Highlander Pub and Grille bills itself as an authentic Celtic experience.  Although it's very similar in layout and design to the old Krieger's, they're doing their best to make it look like an Irish bar.  They still have the large projection screens behind the bar, and there's still televisions all around the place like Krieger's had.  But the walls are all a nice dark forest green and they also now have some Irish decorations throughout the place.  It still wasn't all that convincing to me.  

I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by a 40-something bartender by the name of Karen.  I asked her when the Highlander changed from a Krieger's and she said,  "It wasn't all that long ago.  Krieger's shut down earlier this year (2008) and we soft-opened in the summer." 

She gave me a menu and I started to look through it.  She asked me if I wanted a wine menu and I said I wasn't going to have wine that evening.  I ordered up a Smithwick's on tap for the meantime. 

Then for shits and grins, I asked for the wine list anyhow, just to see what they had to offer.  Actually, I was pretty impressed with what they had.  They had a pretty good selection of wines, primarily from California, that ran from about $15 bucks a bottle up to $90 a bottle.  I thought to myself, "Well, this is certainly NOT Krieger's any longer."  I'm not certain Krieger's had any wine other than a couple three different house wines for people who didn't want beer or mixed drinks. 

Actually, the menu looked even better than what Krieger's had to offer.  OK, so this wasn't Krieger's.  I had to get that out of my head.  It's a new restaurant.  No longer Krieger's.  Oh, they still had the same St. Louis-style pizza on the menu that Krieger's had.  But as Karen told me, "We still have pizza only because we have these big pizza ovens and pizza making equipment in the kitchen." 

She said they have a late-night menu at The Highlander which features their pizza.  She said, "We were beginning to get a lot of people coming in after a Cardinals game to get something to eat.  The pizzas are big with the late-night crowd."

Not only does The Highlander have the usual Irish bar food - sandwiches, burgers, appetizers and salads - they also have some pretty interesting main entrees.  And the prices didn't seem to be all that bad.  They had steaks, pasta, seafood, pork chops, ribs and chicken dishes.  One thing that they continued to have from the old Krieger's menu is a Cajun-seafood fettuccine.  I remember getting that at the old Krieger's and I remember that it wasn't all that bad. 

After a few minutes, I decided to try something they called Chicken Flamingo - a full chicken breast rolled in Italian breading and grilled.  It's topped with a white wine, lemon and butter sauce and served with broccoli and provel cheese.  Not only did it sound interesting, it sounded absolutely yummy.  I had a choice of potato or rice and she told me the twice baked potatoes were very good that evening.  I couldn't pass that up.  I also got a small house salad with provel cheese, pepperocini, tomato and pimento, then topped with The Highlander's sweet Italian dressing.  It was very similar to what you would find at any restaurant on The Hill. 

After eating the very good salad and getting another Smithwick's, Karen brought out the Chicken Flamingo to me.  It looked just awesome swimming in the creamy white wine, lemon and butter sauce.  And one bite into the chicken told me that this was so much better than what Krieger's ever had to offer.  It was very, very good.  The chicken was tender, but not dried out like you can get from direct grilled chicken.  There was a hint of a burnt taste to the bread crumbs, but it didn't detract from the overall taste of the chicken and sauce combination.  And the twice-baked potato was as good as advertised.

Karen stopped by about halfway through my meal and asked how things were.  I said, "This is a spot-hitter."

She laughed.  "Spot-hitter!  I like that," she exclaimed. 

When I finished my meal, Karen asked me if I wanted to finish off the meal with some dessert.  She was tempting me with Key Lime Pie or a Turtle Cheesecake, but I'd had enough.  I didn't want to have to go to bed completely stuffed.  I was satiated and ready to wind down for the evening. 

With tip, my bill for my meal and three beers came to a little over $35 bucks.  Karen took good care of me and she was rewarded handsomely.  I was very surprised about the food and service at The Highlander Pub and Grille.  It was much better in both aspects than Krieger's ever was.  It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.