Road Tips

The Palace Tavern - East Moline, IL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wildwood Tavern - Niles, IL

A place that has popped up over the past couple years is the Wildwood Tavern at the corner of Touhy and Caldwell Avenues in the northwest Chicago suburb of Niles.  (see map)  I've thought that the place looked pretty nice from the outside with its mountain cabin-type exterior with a nice patio on the side and I always had it in the back of my mind for a place to try out at some point.  During a trip into Chicago earlier this year, I decided to stop in and have something to eat at Wildwood Tavern.

Mark Freedman was only 11 years old in 1971 when his father Myron, and his uncle, Phil, opened a steakhouse - the eponymously named Myron and Phil's - along Devon Ave. in Lincolnwood.  Mark Freedman started out bussing tables shortly after the steakhouse opened up and he eventually worked his way up in nearly every capacity from kitchen work, to waiter, to manager, finally taking over ownership of the restaurant in 1998.  Mark's wife, Ellie, became a defacto partner as Ellie's background in business and the food service industry made it a match in heaven for the both of them.

In May of 2013, a devastating electrical fire destroyed Myron and Phil's. It was a double shot of grief for Freedman as his father passed away the same day at the age of 95. But the Freedman's held their head up and vowed they'd rebuild and reopen.  However, negotiations with the insurance company dragged on long enough that Freedman decided to not rebuild Myron and Phil's, but to have a new place that catered to a more casual crowd rather than a steakhouse clientele.   

Pictured right - Ellie and Mark Freedman.  Photo courtesy Chicago Tribune.

The Freedman's found a place in Niles that had recently been a steakhouse/barbecue spot that closed in 2013.  They gutted the building and gave it a northwoods motif.  Since the restaurant before them had a smoker, the Freedman's incorporated smoked meats into a mix of food items that included burgers, sandwiches, pizza, and some entrees.  With everything in place, the Wildwood Tavern opened in late August 2015.  

It was around 1:30 when I went into Wildwood Tavern in between appointments in the area.  There's a good-sized dining area off to the right when you come into the restaurant.  It has a high ceiling with a number of tables and booths interspersed throughout the area.  An outdoor patio is just off the main dining room.  

I took a seat at the large rectangular bar that had metal high-back chairs around it.  There was an island in the middle with glass refrigerators below and a line of flat panel televisions that were perched above for viewing on all sides of the bar.  The bartender that day, Marissa, was also going to be my server.  She got me a food menu and showed me a beer list that had a number of domestics and a smattering of craft brews.  Wildwood Tavern also had a pretty good wine menu, as well.  I ended up getting a Lagunitas IPA while I looked through the menu.   

It was a wide and varied menu at Wildwood Tavern.  They had a handful of sharable appetizers, as well as soups and salads.  Since they do have a smoker from the restaurant they took over, they have ribs, brisket, pulled pork and smoked chicken on the menu.  They have a number of burgers and sandwiches, as well as signature entrees such as the original Myron and Phil's skirt steak, pork chops, fish and chips, a charbroiled New York strip, and another Myron and Phil's specialty, braised brisket.   Wildwood Tavern also had thin-crust pizza that looked pretty good, as well.  They had a lot of things to choose from, but I just wasn't certain what I wanted.   

For starters, I got a cup of their chicken/andouille sausage and rice soup.  It was similar to gumbo, only not as thick of a consistency as good gumbo.  Still, this was very good soup.  It had a bit of a spicy bite from the andouille sausage, and the chicken was cut into big chunks.  If I had just gotten a bowl of the soup, I would have been happy.  

For my lunch that day, I went with one of their specials - Gramma's meatloaf.  It came with mashed potatoes and a hearty mushroom gravy.  It was two slabs of their house-made meatloaf with the mushroom gravy slathered over the top.  Getting meatloaf in a restaurant can be an iffy proposition, but this was actually very good.  While it wasn't as moist as I may like my meatloaf, it had a good consistency and taste quality.  I enjoyed the mushroom gravy with the meatloaf, but the pieces were pretty big.  I had a couple bites of the adequate mashed potatoes with the gravy and was able to finish off one of the meatloaf pieces and had the other one about halfway gone before I threw in the towel.  It was such a filling and well-rounded meal that I was full the rest of the day and didn't even bother getting dinner that evening.   

For my first time into Wildwood Tavern, I would have to say that I was more than happy with the meatloaf special they had that day.  The cup of chicken/andouille rice soup was also a warm and hearty opener to the meal.  While I sat at the bar, the service was prompt and attentive.  And it was a nice wholesome atmosphere at Wildwood Tavern.  Since it's not too far from where I stay when I go to Chicago, I'm sure I'll be back at some point to try their pizza.  The ghost of Myron and Phil's has come back in the form of the Wildwood Tavern.  (Photo courtesy Tripadvisor.) 

Missipi Brewing Company - Muscatine, IA

On our visits to Muscatine over the years, we've gone past a place a few times that has sort of intrigued us, a place called Missipi Brewing Company (the mis-spelling of Mississippi is intentional, in this case).  We actually thought it was a brewpub, but it turns out that it's a longtime bar/restaurant/music venue that the locals refer to as Missipi Brew, or just "The Brew".  I had my car in for service at the local Toyota dealership and my wife and I ended up heading down to Missipi Brewing Company for lunch after I got my car back.  

The concept for the Missipi Brewing Company actually got its start up river in Rock Island, IL nearly 40 years ago.  Oak Brook, IL native Dan Carmody was a 24-year-old guy who took a look at the closed down and boarded up storefronts in financially strapped downtown Rock Island as an opportunity to start his own urban renewal project.  Along with his father, John, his brother, Gerry, and a close friend, Jerry Ludden, Carmody started the Rock Island Brewing Company in 1979.  At first, it was just a bar and pub grub kind of place, but it wasn't until Dan Carmody did an outdoor music show in the summer of 1979 on the plaza out in front of Rock Island Brewing Company - also affectionately known as RIBCO to the locals - where the Carmody's saw the light that having a music venue would be a good thing.  

Sensing a sure-fire good thing ready for expansion, the Carmody family and Ludden looked for other places to open similar music/food/bar venues in the area.  In 1980, the group found a spot in Muscatine along River Drive in the old Fitzgerald Building in downtown Muscatine.  They took over a long narrow building and built an adjacent outdoor beer garden with a stage for live music.  They called the place the Missipi Brewing Company, the quick way some people pronounce Mississippi.

The Carmody's and Ludden eventually opened two more Missipi Brewing Company locations - one in Galesburg, IL and the other one in Moline, IL - within the next year.  However, like most rapidly expanding businesses, their expenses exceeded their revenues.  Eventually, the group was forced to either sell off or close down their bars.  

(Aside No. 1 - A number of years later, Dan Carmody became the general manager of the historic Eastern Market in Detroit, Gerry Carmody became a farm manager in Indiana before succumbing to a heart attack while on vacation in Florida in 2010, and Jerry Ludden became the owner of O'Meara's Pub in Bettendorf, IA, another at-one-time iconic music destination in the Quad Cities that shut down in 2002.)

(Aside No. 2 - over the years since I've lived in the Quad Cities, I've seen a number of national, regional and local musical artists both on the inside stage at RIBCO, as well as on the outdoor stage the City of Rock Island built in the middle of the plaza near the front of RIBCO.  Today, the District of Rock Island is a thriving entertainment destination with bars and restaurants.  And the impetus for the District began with the Rock Island Brewing Company.)

The group sold the Muscatine Missipi Brewing Company to local Muscatine residents Ron McGowan and Dan Vegter who ran the business for around 11 years.  It was in 1994 that McGowan and Vegter sold the bar to local realtor Dave Armstrong and his sister, Mary Kisner.  Armstrong and Kisner immediately made their sister, LeAnn Weinke, the general manager of the place.  Other family members have chipped in over the years with Armstrong's son, Skippy, eventually become the co-manager of the place.  

Pictured right - Dave Armstrong and Mary Kisner.  Photo courtesy Muscatine Journal.  

From the original bar/restaurant/outdoor patio, Armstrong and Kisner eventually bought the building to the west of them to expand the dining area of the Missipi Brewing Company.  Then when a spot on the other side of that building became available, Armstrong and Kisner bought that spot for an indoor music venue and secondary bar.  Annually, Missipi Brewing Company hosts over 100 nights of live music indoors and out.  

It was right about noon when we pulled up to the front of Missipi Brewing Company just up from River Drive on Iowa Ave. (see map)  Parking is at a premium in downtown Muscatine until River Drive is fully open from a major renovation it has been undergoing for the past couple of years, so we parked across 2nd Street on Iowa and walked back to the Brew for lunch.  

Inside the front door, we found a long, narrow space with large booths up front, a bar area toward the back and a handful of hightop tables along the wall opposite the bar.  The bar/restaurant had an antique tin ceiling, a large beer can collection along shelving high on the walls, and a number of beer signs.

The bar wasn't very big, but they had a number of craft brews on tap.  There were a number of flat panel televisions on the wall above and behind the bar.  It was a Saturday with a lot of men's college basketball games on that day, but they only had one television turned to basketball - and it was a women's basketball game, at that.  I'm sure that if I would have asked they would have changed the channel to some basketball on one of the TV's, but it wasn't that important.   In the background, contemporary country music was playing on the bar's sound system.  

The next room over is the overflow dining room complete with beer signs and pictures hanging on an exposed brick wall.  More booths and regular tables were in that room.  And just beyond that room was the indoor music venue with the second bar for Missipi Brewing Company.   All told, it was a surprisingly large space that was cut into thirds.  

It was a cold late winter day when we were there and the outdoor patio was closed down.  It also featured a stage and a bar area with the patio overlooking the Mississippi River beyond River Drive and the Canadian Pacific rail line that parallels River Drive in downtown Muscatine.   

We took a seat at one of the high top tables opposite the bar and our server, a lady with the interesting name of Aarin, came over to greet us.  Menus were on the table, but I was having trouble reading the beer taps from the glare of the window behind them.  She pulled up a tap menu from an iPad she was using and showed me a list of beers they had on tap.  She suggested a couple of local beers - an Arms Race pale ale from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA, and the Iowa pale ale from Millstream Brewing Company in the Amana Colonies.  My wife took the Arms Race pale ale while I thought I'd do the Iowa pale ale.  I've had it before and while Millstream isn't my favorite beer, their pale ale is fine.  The Arms Race pale ale, however, was very bold and hoppy.  My wife really enjoyed the flavor.  

Missipi Brewing Company has what I would call typical bar fare - burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, and wraps.  After 5 p.m. their menu expands to include nightly specials and pizza.  I was hungry when we got there so a lot of things sounded pretty good to me.  And we were pleasantly surprised at the reasonable pricing of some of their offerings on the menu. 

My wife ended up getting the Southwestern grilled chicken wrap - large chunks of grilled chicken along with chopped lettuce, red onions and tomatoes with a corn and black bean salsa along with slices of pepperjack cheese rolled into a spinach tortilla.  It was a large wrap and she ended up having to pull the second half apart and eat the filling without the tortilla.  She thought it was very good.  

I went with a "build-your-own" burger - a flame-grilled burger that I had topped with pepperjack cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon along with dill pickles and chopped fresh onions.  When our server - another one of the ladies working there (they were tag-teaming serving us) - asked if I wanted a side to go along with the burger, I sort of turned up my nose at the fries.  She said, "We have waffle fries," and I sort of thought about that for a moment.  I asked about onion rings and she sort of hesitated making it appear that maybe she wasn't a fan of their onion rings. 

My wife said, "Too bad they don't have tater tots."  The young lady lit up and said, "We DO have tater tots!"   So, of course, I got the tater tots.

When Aarin brought the burger out to the table, I sort of looked at the bun and was not happy to see that it wasn't toasted.  It looked sort of thick and dry.  The burger patty was pretty thin, but it looked like it was misshapen from being hand-pattied.  But it was topped with an oozing chunk of pepperjack cheese, copious amounts of sautéed mushrooms and a couple three strips of crispy bacon.  A generous portion of tater tots accompanied the burger.  

My misgivings about the bun quickly vanished when I took my first bite.  The bun was light and airy.  With the thick cheese on the burger, it was a bit of a mess - a multi-napkin burger, for sure.  The flavors all complemented each other, but the fresh onions were especially forward in their taste.  I love a good fresh onion on a burger.  The bun held everything together very well.  While it wasn't an outstanding burger, it was still very good for what it was. 

The tater tots were a bit of a disappointment.  They had a freezer-burned taste to them, even drips of Tabasco didn't help the taste of them.  But my wife didn't seem to mind - she ended up eating a good portion of them.  I don't want to say that I'm a tater tot connoisseur, but I know a good tater tot and these were far from it.  

But overall, we enjoyed our first visit to the Missipi Brewing Company.  After driving by it so many times on prior visits to Muscatine, we're happy we finally made the decision to stop in for lunch.  The food was good - not great, but good enough.  The service that we experienced was friendly, prompt and efficient.  Missipi Brewing Company isn't a fancy place, but it's far from a dive.  And don't think that you're going to be able to try any of their beer because it's not a brewpub.  But they do have a pretty good selection of craft beers.  We were very comfortable in the place and I'd like to go back at some point when the weather is nice to enjoy some drinks on the large outdoor deck.  It's another place that is worthy of checking out for lunch when you're in Muscatine.   

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. 

Paul's Tavern - Dubuque, IA

Years ago, I used to do a "Top Ten" list for the best burgers I'd encountered.  After awhile, I found these types of lists to be boring, repetitive and completely subjective.  I know what I like in a burger and everyone has their own opinions.  I'm just sharing mine with you.  A person replied to one of my "Top Ten" lists saying that I really needed to try the burger at Paul's Tavern in Dubuque.  My wife has a co-worker from Dubuque and he was telling her recently that we really needed to go to Paul's for a burger.  On a recent Sunday, we took a road trip up to Dubuque to give Paul's a try.  

The Paul behind Paul's Tavern is Paul Schollmeyer, just one of three owners of the place that has been in business for 68 years.  He bought tavern just a year after it opened in 1947 and ran it for 45 years.  One thing that Paul liked to do on his vacations in the 50's and 60's was hunt for big game.  He'd bag his trophies and have them mounted to put on display at his little tavern.  Many of the locals refer to the place as "Paul's Big Game Tavern".  

When Tom Koch took over Paul's in 1993, regulars asked him to keep the place just the way it was with the deer heads and the bear skins and the stuffed waterfowl on display.  And Koch did.  Koch had been managing a McDonald's for nearly 15 years before he decided that he wanted to be his own boss.  He was already working at Paul's Tavern a couple nights a week as a bartender, so it was easy for him to slip into the ownership role when Paul sold the business to him.  Paul retired and would stop back into the tavern from time to time when he would get back to Dubuque from wintering in south Texas.  

The bar is a throwback, a little neighborhood tavern that seats just 36 people in five booths and 16 stools at the bar.  There's a large parking lot on the south side of Paul's building and we were able to park in that with no problem on a Sunday afternoon.  Going into Paul's, we ended up seated at the end of the bar with Tommy the bartender holding court over a handful of regulars that day.  Tommy came down to greet us and took our beer order.  They had Old Style on tap and I eagerly ordered one of those.  Cindy saw a Good ol' Potosi bottle in the cooler from the Potosi Brewery just up the road in Wisconsin and she took that.  Tommy also got us a basket of pretty good popcorn to munch on.  

One big thing that Tom Koch didn't change when he took over is the vintage Norge Broilerator that they use to cook burgers with.   The Broilerator dates back to the early 30's and was touted as an economical way to cook a burger - 35% more efficiently than cooking a burger on a grill.  The one that is used at Paul's is the original unit that was installed when the place originally opened in 1947.  Norge went out of business in 1969 when its assets were acquired by Magic Chef - which, in turn, was acquired by Maytag in 1976 - which, in turn, was acquired by Whirlpool in 2006.  So, it's a good guess that parts aren't available for a mid-40's manufactured Norge Broilerator.  But the one at Paul's has cooked countless burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches and is still going strong.  

OK, so we had to have the burger.  There's no fryer at Paul's, so no fries or cheese balls are available, just chips if you want potatoes to go along with the burger.   They source the beef locally and it's pretty lean - probably to help keep the grease from building up too much in the Broilerator.  The burger is served with pickles and sliced onions on a basic bun.  With cheese on top of the burger patty and served on a paper plate, it looks like the classic American cheeseburger.  

And it tasted like one.  It wasn't all that large, but one each was enough for my wife and me.  The burger was juicy, the bun held together well, the onions were fresh, the overall taste of the burger was a B+ in my book - not the best I've ever had, but for $3.15 it tasted pretty good.  

I love places like Paul's Tavern.  It's a great little dive bar that has good burgers, cold beer and a little bit of history behind the place.  Don't expect anything fancy if you go there.  Language from the regulars can be a little salty.  Tommy was fun to talk with and  had a great sense of humor.  (He even gave us complementary Paul's Tavern coozies!) And if you're offended by big game trophies looking at you while you have a burger, well, then just don't go.  But you'll be missing out on an experience that is pretty enjoyable all the way around.  

The White Horse - St. Cloud, MN

While in St. Cloud recently to see my dealer there, I suggested going out for a bite to eat before I headed back to the Twin Cities.  One place one of the guys suggested turned out to be a place that I had on my "restaurants to visit" list, but primarily for their burgers.  We went to downtown St. Cloud to have dinner at The White Horse.  

Brian Lee looked around the restaurant landscape in the St. Cloud area and saw too many corporate places with cookie-cutter menus, not allowing chefs to spread their wings.  He proposed opening a restaurant that would feature talented chefs serving interesting foods to the public.  And the restaurant would be in St. Cloud's historic downtown district.  

He already had his chef in mind, his son, Tommy.  Tommy Lee was a 16 year old exchange student in Germany who made his first German dish - jagerschnitzel - under the watchful eye of his exchange mother.  With that, he was hooked on cooking.  But not just any one style of cooking, the younger Lee explored different culinary stylings from around the world.  

The Lee's found a downtown location that had first been built as a bar in 1907.  (see map)  Over the years, the name of the place changed - the one most notable to St. Cloud residents and students at St. Cloud State was the Sportsman, a popular college hangout for years.  Brian Lee did some digging into the historical past of the building and was told by some older St. Cloud residents that the original name of the place in the early 20th century was the White Horse.  He thought it would be a great way to pay historical homage to the spot that first served beer over 100 years before.  It was after Lee opened The White Horse in March of 2008 that he found out that the original name was actually The White Bear.  He sort of shrugged his shoulders and thought that The White Horse was a better name for his restaurant/bar.

I was told by my dealer that in order to be a successful restaurant in downtown St. Cloud it has to be a bar first and a restaurant second.  From the outside, it looked like just a regular small town tavern.  Walking into the place, I immediately loved the joint.  The long narrow building looked like an old time tavern with a great old bar along the east wall with tables and booths throughout the rest of the place.  The place was also packed (it was around 6:30 p.m. when we walked in) and we had a little bit of a wait to get a table.  We ordered up some beers at the bar while we waited - The White Horse had a great variety of beers.  I got a Surly Fest beer, their interpretation of an Oktoberfest beer.  

We finally were seated at a large table toward the back of the restaurant and given menus to look over.  To say the menu is diverse is an understatement.  I've read good things about The White Horse's burgers, but a number of things caught my eye on the menu.  It was a veritable international smorgasbord of food.  The jagerschnitzel that a young Tommy Lee first made in Germany years ago is on the menu.  There's Vietnamese food, a Korean entree, Italian food, Thai food, Lee's take on Japanese cuisine with a misoyaki salmon dish, and - most interestingly to me - Indian food.  The menu also featured steaks, fresh seafood, a pan-roasted duck breast, a New Zealand lamb entree, a number of interesting appetizers, as well as a handful of salads.  The White Horse also has daily specials in addition to the food on the menu.

My dealer took the initiative to order up some appetizers while we were looking through the menu.  He ordered up some fried calamari that was served with a great sweet Thai chile sauce, as well as an order of fried green beans that I thought were just all right, and edamane which I've really only seen in Japanese restaurants.  It was all an interesting - and tasty - start to the meal.  

For food, we all got something a little different.  One of the guys went the burger route and ordered one of The White Horse's signature burgers - the PBJ and bacon burger.  The burger is topped with habenero jam made by a local Minnesota company by the name of Jim and Hazzy's, with a housemade peanut butter spread applied before they put the bacon and a spread of cream cheese to finish out the burger.  A side of waffle fries came with the burger.  Now, it didn't sound all that pleasant to me - I don't like the smell or taste of warm peanut butter - but the guy just devoured the burger because he thought it was so good.  

If you remember on my last visit to St. Cloud and our visit to the Boulder Tap House (click here to see that entry), I was impressed with one of the guys - Mike - who could really put away the food.  He was with us again this particular evening, but he went lighter than he did before by ordering up the fish and chips.  But it was a large panko-encrusted fried fish filet that extended over the sides of the large oval plate and was served with waffle fries.  It looked pretty good and I'm not that big on fried fish.  (Not to worry about Mike - after he polished off the fish and chips, he pretty much finished everything else that was on the table that was leftover from everyone else's meals.)  

One of the other guys got the almond/corn flake encrusted wild Canadian walleye filet.  He told me that it was as good as it looked.  

My dealer went with the garlic steak - a strip steak served with sauteed red onions, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and chopped garlic.  A side of red potatoes came with the steak.  It was a pretty looking entree sitting in front of him.  

The Indian food on the menu was the thing that caught my eye.  They had a spicy madras curry entree with your choice of tofu, chicken, shrimp or mussels.  There was a chicken korma dish on the menu, as well as a palek paneer vegetarian dish.  But with a bit of trepidation - thinking that they have so many diverse entrees on the menu that they can't do all of them very well - I ended up getting the rogan josh.  It featured thick chunks of lamb meat in a somewhat spicy housemade masala sauce.  Basmati rice came on the side.  From the first bite I was hooked.  It was as good of rogan josh that I've had in traditional Indian restaurants.  While the masala sauce had a nice spicy bite, it wasn't overpowering to me.  I've never gotten Indian food outside of an Indian restaurant, but the rogan josh at The White Horse was just outstanding.  

However, the most intriguing thing to me on the whole menu was a side of the bacon mac and cheese.  I asked our server if there was a way that I could get a side of it and she brought out what looked like a half-entree order of the stuff.  It was in a small baking dish with crumbled bacon and bread crumbs on top with a creamy cheese sauce baked in with the penne pasta.  I really only wanted a couple bites of the stuff, but it was very good.  Oh, and very rich!  Each of us took a couple three bites of the bacon mac and cheese with Mike finishing off the rest of what we didn't eat.  

And don't ask me why - because I was so stuffed from the very good rogan josh - by our server somehow talked me into trying a piece of their pumpkin cheesecake that they had as a dessert that evening.   It had a cream cheese frosting on top and the taste was very good.  I only took a couple bites before I passed it around the table.  I just love the taste of pumpkin for desserts and this one didn't disappoint.  

On my next visit to The White Horse I'll have to try one of their burgers that I've read good things about.  But for this visit, I couldn't believe at how good their rogan josh was.  Don't let the diverse menu scare you off - it appeared that everyone liked their food at The White Horse very much. It's tough for a chef to pull off doing so many things so very well.  But chef Tommy Lee did it very nicely.  Don't let them fool you - The White Horse is a restaurant first and a bar second.  

Plaza Tavern - Madison, WI

Earlier this year, I was up in Minneapolis and had lunch at the Convention Grill.  (Click here to see my entry on the Convention Grill.)  On their menu, the Convention Grill had a burger called the Plazaburger that pays homage to the original Plazaburger at the Plaza Tavern in Madison, WI.  After a morning meeting with a dealer in Madison, I ventured to the downtown area near the University of Wisconsin campus to hit the Plaza Tavern for the original Plazaburger.

What makes a Plazaburger unique is the housemade sauce that they put on the burger.  It's something that the wife of former owner Harold Huss came up after they bought the Plaza Tavern in the early 60's.  Actually, the Plaza Tavern dates back to the days of Prohibition when it was a speakeasy run by a former University of Wisconsin football player by the name of "Moon" Molinaro.  In the late 20's, Al Grebe bought the place and put in a bowling alley.  It was at the Plaza bowling alley that a lady by the name of Jennie Hoverson Kelleher bowled the first ever 300 game by a woman in a sanctioned tournament on Feb. 12, 1930.     

Harold Huss came to work for Al Grebe in 1945 and worked there for 18 years before he eventually bought the business in 1963.  Huss' wife, Mary, came up with the sour cream and mayonnaise-based sauce that is a deep secret recipe (and one that has been dissected for years by patrons) for the Plazaburger.  It's said that there have been over 2 million Plazaburgers sold over the past 50 years.  

Harold Huss passed away in 1983 and Mary a year later.  Their children took over ownership the Plaza Tavern and installed bar employee Dean Hetue as the manager.  In 2003, Hetue ended up buying the Plaza Tavern and the secret sauce recipe from the Huss family.  

The Plaza Tavern is on N. Henry Street, off of State Street and between Johnson and Gorham streets, west of the Wisconsin State Capitol.  (see map)  Henry is a one way street and I was able to find a parking spot just down the street.  

It was early, before noon, when I walked into the place.  I suddenly remembered that I had been in the place before.  We had gone up for an Iowa/Wisconsin football game a number of years ago and bar-hopped after the game.  With all the arcade-style video games in the place, I remembered that we'd had a couple beers there, but no burgers.  

I took a seat at the bar and a lady came over to greet me.  She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I asked if she had an Capital Brewery products.  She named four different varieties including the Wisconsin Amber.  I took one of those.  "They're in bottles," she said.  "Is that all right?"  Sure!

She asked if I needed a menu and I took one from her.  I pretty much knew that I was going to get a Plazaburger, but I wondered what else they had to offer at the Plaza Tavern.  And there's not much - it's a pretty short menu with burgers, grilled ham, tuna or turkey and cheese sandwiches, fried or grilled chicken sandwiches and a reuben.  When she brought me my beer, I ordered the Plazaburger.  I asked her if I should get it with cheese.  "If you want cheese on your Plazaburger, you should get cheese," she said playfully.  All right - cheese on the Plazaburger, then!  She asked if I wanted a side - fries, onion rings, cole slaw, potato salad, etc. - and I said that the Plazaburger should be enough for me.  

The Plazaburger was cooked on a flat grill that undoubtedly has years of seasoning burned into it.  It was served to me on a small plate with a side of pickles.  It came on a whole wheat bun - something I can't say that I've ever had with a burger.  And they cut the burger in half before serving it.   I had pretty much finished my first bottle of Capital Wisconsin Amber and she asked if I wanted another one.  Sure! 

 
The Plazaburger patty wasn't very thick.  They say they're 1/4 pound burger patties, but it didn't look much larger than a basic McDonald's burger.  The sauce was slathered - Wait! I'm starting to hate that term - the sauce was thickly smeared (better?) on the bottom of the bun with the cheese-topped burger resting on the sauce.  I wasn't certain what to do with the pickles, so I just kept them on the side.  

Now, I'm a condiment kind of guy with my burgers.  Ketchup and mustard is usually what I put on a burger along with sliced onions and dill pickles.  I'm not much of sauce guy on my burgers.  But with the Plazaburger, I thought I'd give it a legitimate shot.  I did squirt some ketchup on the plate just in case.

From the first bite of the Plazaburger, well, I couldn't really tell you much about the burger because the sauce was about all I could taste.  But the sauce was well, good.  Actually, pretty damn good.  I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of the sauce on the Plazaburger.  I could get hints of dill, possibly some chives, as well.  I dipped a bit of the burger in the ketchup, but decided that it didn't go well with the sauce.  The Plazaburger was excellent with the sauce.  Without the sauce, I'm not certain it would be all that great.  The bun was a bit dried out, but you're gonna get that with a whole wheat bun.  

When I was presented with the bill, I got a bad taste in my mouth.  The Plazaburger with cheese was $5.25 - not a bad price.  But the price of one bottle of the Capital Wisconsin Amber was $5.00.  And I got TWO!  A six-pack of Wisconsin Amber in any liquor store in Madison isn't much more than $6 or $7 bucks.  It was $10 bucks for two beers - I wanted two beers, not a 12-pack!  The bill came to $15.25 - no tax included.  I just couldn't believe that they'd charge that much for a beer that was brewed less than 10 miles away.  I figured they must deliver the Capital beers to the Plaza Tavern in a stretch limousine. 

And, guess what?  They don't take credit cards at the Plaza Tavern.  I laid down a $20, got change, and left a two buck tip.  Ouch.  

So, other than the high price of the bottled Capital beer, the Plazaburger was worth the stop.  For not being big on burgers with sauces on them, I'll have to give my wholehearted approval for the Plazaburger.  I was a little disappointed in the overall cost of the meal, but I worked through it.  For 50 years, people have been enjoying the Plazaburger at The Plaza Tavern.  They have another convert.  Just don't do it with ketchup.

Jack's LST (Locust Street Tap) - Davenport, IA

I got a new phone recently - a Samsung Galaxy S5.  I had a Galaxy S3 and while the camera on the phone was good, it wasn't as good as the one on the S5.  With double the pixels, the S5 can take better pictures in lower light.  Considering that I use my phone a lot to take pictures of the food that I eat on the road - and that most places have reduced lighting - I was eager to try out my new camera phone.  I met a buddy for lunch at one of my favorite burger places and a place that I needed to do a more in-depth look for Road Tips - Jack's Locust Street Tap in Davenport, IA.  

When I first started Road Tips eight and a half years ago, one of the first places I wrote about was Jack's LST (as it's known to the locals).  But it was along the lines of "Great burger, only if Karen makes it, though.  My wife hates the place.  Worth the trip if you're like me."  Not a Pulitzer Prize-winning post by a long shot.  

The Jack behind Jack's LST is the late Jack Nelson.  Jack was an entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and sales before he started the Locust Street Tap in 1978.  He also owned two other popular bars/taverns in Davenport - The Gallery and Mound Street Landing.  His wife, Carolyn, ran The Gallery and his daughter, Gina, ran Mound Street Landing.  His son, Jason, helped him out at Jack's LST.  Tragically, Jack died after suffering a stroke in December of 2008.  (Click here to see my tribute to Jack.)  Carolyn Nelson and Jason Nelson own and run Jack's LST today.  Every time I have a Checker's chili dog (which isn't all that often), I think of Jack because he loved them so much. 

The aforementioned Karen is Karen Ryan, the daytime manager/bartender/cook at Jack's LST.  Karen has worked at Jack's for as long as I can remember going INTO Jack's - and that's been for over 20 years.  She works Tuesday thru Friday in the daytime up until around 3 or 4 p.m.  Karen's husband, whose not so worthy nickname of  "Pud" sort of sticks out, owns his own construction/carpentry business in Davenport.  He's a great guy and I've shared a beer or two with him.  (Although I've never come to ask him how he got the nickname of Pud.)

Jack's attracts both blue collar and white collar workers for lunch time burgers, pork tenderloins and chicken sandwiches.  At night, the place turns into a 20-something bar with loud music and lots of beer.  Jack's features a couple pool tables, a foosball table, some video and pinball machines, and a regulation shuffleboard table along the west wall of the place.  

My standard lunch at Jack's is a cheeseburger and fries with one or two beers to help wash it all down. Normally, I'm not big on chargrilled burgers in a restaurant, but Karen has the secret down with the old time gas grill she uses at Jack's.  She knows exactly how long to cook the burgers so they turn out juicy and flavorful with the right amount of melted American cheese on top of the burger patty.

The fries at Jack's are fresh cut, skin on potatoes that Karen slices with a cut press.  They're deep fried in vegetable oil to a deep golden color.  

There's no secret to the burgers at Jack's - they get their burger patties frozen from a local food wholesaler and Karen puts the patties on the grill frozen when the order comes up.  It's hard to believe that the burgers that they have at Jack's are as good as they are.  But, once again, Karen has the touch when it comes to cooking the burger patties.

My usual lunch of a cheeseburger and fries came to me about one and a half beers after my buddy and I ordered up.  (In fact, it's gotten to the point that when I come into Jack's for lunch Karen will place a beer in front of me and ask, "Having lunch today?"  After I give her the affirmative, she turns around and gets a burger and fries going for me.) 

 
The bun is basic, nothing fancy, but holds well together with the juiciness of the Jack's burger.  An onion slice - of which I use only the outside three or four rings - and a half dozen dill pickle slices comes with the burger.  After adding the toppings including ketchup and yellow mustard, the Jack's cheeseburger is ready to go.   (The photos were taken in a relatively low light - the Samsung Galaxy S5 takes a pretty good picture!)

Now, my wife doesn't care for the burgers at Jack's.  I think it has something to do with the fact that she'd never been there through the week with me when Karen's cooking.  The girls on the weekends and the part-timer on Monday's just don't have it down as good as Karen does.  While I may go into Jack's during a weekend I'll very rarely order food, unless they're having some sort of brat or hot dog special that coincides with a sporting event they're showing on one of the numerous flat panels they have hanging in the place.

As I said in my initial post on Jack's Locust Street Tap - don't let the "Warm Beer" and "Lousy Food" neon signs in the front windows deter you from stopping in.  It's a great little neighborhood bar that I've been going to now for over 20 years.  I don't even think of it as slumming when I go into Jack's LST, but it's more of a shot and a beer place with very good burgers.  Once again, I only go Tuesday thru Friday during the day and make sure Karen is cooking.  It's worth the stop. 

The Village Green - Middleton, WI

Traveling to the Madison, WI area one Monday evening, I stayed at a hotel in Middleton on Madison's west side.  I found an Indian restaurant on-line and went there for dinner.  Unfortunately, I found out when I pulled up in front of the place that they're closed on Monday's.  I drove toward the old downtown area of Middleton looking for some place to eat.  Now, a place that I've eaten at in the past - but not for a long time - is the venerable Village Green, a tavern/eatery that I first went to back in the 80's.  The only problem is that the Village Green didn't take credit cards and a meal with two or three beers adds up fast and I usually don't take a lot of cash with me on the road.  I just happened to go by the Village Green this one particular evening and glanced at their front windows.  There were the familiar "Visa" and "MasterCard" stickers in the window.  I whipped into a parking spot on Hubbard St. and went into the Village Green for the first time in about 10 years.  (see map) 

The Village Green first opened in 1976 when Ron and Cricket Boyer bought an old four-lane bowling alley with a bar that had come up for sale.  Ron Boyer had extensive restaurant experience in the Middleton area having first managed, then owned a Kelly's Hamburgers franchise since 1961.  But Ron Boyer has a side story that I found rather fascinating.

In addition to having a day job as the manager of the small fast food burger joint in the early 60's, Ron Boyer was also a drummer who met a young guitarist from Milwaukee who was going to school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison - a guy by the name of Steve Miller.  Along with a couple of other guys, they started a band called The Ardells and played a number of campus and Madison-area gigs.  

The Ardells line-up changed with the addition of Miller's boyhood friend Boz Scaggs, and then later on keyboardist Ben Sidran joined the group.  Of course, Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs went on to have big careers in rock and pop music, and Ben Sidran - who is the brother of Quad City-area musician Dr. Ezra Sidran (Ezra sits in with my friends Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls from time to time) - became somewhat of a legendary rock and jazz studio musician playing with the likes of Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and Rickie Lee Jones.  

Miller eventually moved to Chicago to immerse himself in the blues and Scaggs ran off to London to get into the music scene over there.  Sidran got his English literature degree from the U of Wisconsin before going off to study in the United Kingdom where he eventually became a studio musician.  Ron Boyer went back to slinging burgers at Kelly's Hamburgers.      

Boyer eventually turned his restaurant into a Pickle Pete fast food restaurant, but sensed that the days of a non-major chain/cheap burger joint were numbered in the mid-70's.  When they found out that the former bowling alley in downtown Middleton was for sale, the Boyers bought the place.  Ron ended up putting a floor over the bowling lanes, taking the pool tables out and putting in a grill behind the bar area.  

The Boyer's four children were all involved in the business as they grew up.  Two of their sons, Craig and Chad, who began to work in the place busing tables when they were in middle school, continue to work in the place today running the day to day operation.  (Ron Boyer is semi-retired, but Cricket will come in and wait tables four or five times a week for a few hours.) 

There's two distinct areas at the Village Green - the main dining area where the bowling lanes is on the left as you come in the front door.  The dining room is well lit and a number of signs and chalk boards with food specials are on the wall.  While it's far from fancy, it's got a nice neighborhood tavern-like feel to the place.  The bar area is partitioned off to the right as you come in the front door.  

 
I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by a young lady who asked me what I wanted to drink.  They had a list of their draft beers on the wall and I saw that they had Esser's Best on tap, a good local beer brewed in nearby Cross Plains.  She gave me a menu to look over. 

The Village Green is locally known for their very good, flat-grilled burgers.  But, quite honestly, I've never had a burger in the place each of the times that I've eaten there.  I've had their reubens there, including a rather interesting and good Summer sausage reuben.  They also have a number of appetizers, salads and soups including Ron Boyer's homemade chili that I've had before, as well.  It's got a nice spicy kick to it.  

Since it had been so long from the last time I was in, I couldn't order anything but the Village Green reuben sandwich - one of the best I've ever had.  The girl asked me if I wanted a side with it and for some reason I said I'd take French fries.  But the reuben is probably all I'd eat that evening. 

They grill the corned beef and sauerkraut at the Village Green, placing the Swiss cheese on top of the corned beef before putting everything on thick sliced pumpernickel bread.  Dill pickle slices come on the side.  In fact, Chad Boyer was running the grill this particular evening.

The corned beef is thin sliced, but piled high on the sandwich.  They use a lot of sauerkraut on the sandwich and the thing I like is that they serve the 1000 Island dressing on the side.  Sometimes, I'll run into a reuben where the dressing is so overpowering that it kills the taste of the corned beef.  I was able to dip parts of the sandwich into the small tub of 1000 Island dressing, using what I wanted to get that dressing taste on the sandwich.

And the sandwich was just as good as I remembered.  The slightly salty taste of the corned beef was offset by the somewhat sour taste of the sauerkraut.  The bread was fresh and a great part of the sandwich.  On the menu, they call their reuben "the best around".  I may have to agree with that.  It's still very good.

While the Village Green isn't fine dining, it's a great place to get a sandwich.  One of these days I'll have to go in and try their flat-grilled burgers.  There's a lot of great watering holes in the greater Madison area and the Village Green remains one of my all-time favorite places to go get a beer and a reuben.  Now that I've found that they take credit cards, I'm sure I'll be back for a burger at some point.   

Rick's Bar - Fargo

On my trip to Fargo earlier this summer, I stopped in to the Fargo (Happy Harry's) Rib Festival.  (Click here to see my entry on the Fargo Rib Fest.)  Since the lines were so long, there was no way that I was going to be able to get any barbecue.  As I was leaving the festival, I called up my dealer, Rod, at Arctic Audio to give the city of Fargo my compliments on what I thought was an impressive rib festival.  

He asked, "So, you didn't get anything to eat out there?"  After I told him that I hadn't, he said, "Well, if you have the time, come on over to the shop.  There's a great bar with good lunch specials just down the street from me.  I think you'd like the place."  As I drove over to his place on Main Ave., I passed the place he was talking about - Rick's Bar.  Picking him up at the shop, we headed back down the street to Rick's. (see map)

The "Rick" behind Rick's Bar is North Dakota native Rick Carik.  Carik got a degree in business administration from the University of North Dakota in the early 70's, then went on to study hotel and restaurant management from the University of Minnesota - Crookston. Rick Carik ended up working for the Radisson hotel chain based out of the Twin Cities before getting into banking, then back into hotel management.  Carik eventually got into owning his own bars and a small chain of liquor stores.  In addition to Rick's Bar, Carik is the owner of Speck's Bar, and Woody's Bar and Grill in Fargo.  He also owns Crown Liquor and Royal Liquor locations around Fargo.

It was just before 1 p.m. when we pulled into the Rick's Bar parking lot.  As we pulled in, Rod exclaimed, "Great!  Oh man!  They have chicken fried steak today!"  A cryptic message on the marquee along Main Ave. - "Ctry Fry Stk Din" - told him so.  Rod said, "Oh, boy.  I hope they haven't run out.  Sometimes they run out of their lunch specials.  They only make so many of them."  Rick's Bar runs a changing series of daily lunch specials each week day.

Coming into Rick's, there was a brightly lit area with pool tables and dart boards.  Toward the back of Rick's Bar is an off-sale liquor store.  I believe there were also some gambling machines in Rick's, but I wasn't sure about that.   

 
There's a dining area that also doubles as a room where live music is played.  (Rick's Bar charges no cover for live music.)  It had sort of an old-style saloon feeling to it.  I mean, it would be classified as a dive bar by many, but it was clean and comfortable.  I felt at home - it was my type of place.

We took a seat at the bar and Rod introduced me to the bartender Mike, who happened to be Rick Carik's son.  Rod asked him if they still had the chicken fried steak special.  "No," Mike replied.  "We ran out about 20 minutes ago."  Rod's anguished cries told me that the chicken fried steak must be pretty damn good.  Mike told us that when they start serving around 11 a.m. that's when a lot of workers come in for lunch.  "And they're usually hungry."  

 
From there, it was a quick look at the menu board over the kitchen window.  The flat grill was prominent in the window and it looked well used.  It was the kind of flat grill that probably had enough seasoning on it to make a good burger.   It was typical bar food.  Other than the daily specials they had burgers, fried or grilled chicken sandwiches, and a series of appetizers.  

Rod was going to get the Rick's Special - for $6.75 you get a cheeseburger, fries and a choice of a domestic bottle of beer, a short draft or a bottle of pop.  I thought that sounded good for me, too.  I asked Mike if they had Grain Belt.  He said, "We have the Premium on tap."  I told him that I'd take one of those.  He came back and said, "For a buck more you can get a tall draft."  For a buck more, it was a no-brainer for me.

Rod, who had ordered an iced tea, said, "You know, Mike, on second thought, I'll take a tall Grain Belt, too."  Grain Belt Premium and burgers in Fargo, ND.  I was in my element.   

Because the lunch rush had settled down, it wasn't long before one of the other ladies serving that day brought out our burgers to us.  They were served in a basket with copious amounts of French fries and wrapped in wax paper.  The burger was pretty basic - the thin patty told me that I could have probably gotten a double cheeseburger and held the fries.  I knew I wasn't going to make much of a dent into the pile of fries sitting in front of me.  

The taste of the cheeseburger at Rick's Bar was, well, it was fine.  It wasn't the most exquisite burger I've had, nor was it bad at all.  It was a nice, good tasting flat grilled burger.  I liked it much more than the burger I had gotten over at the Hi-Ho South a couple days before.  (Click here to see my entry on Hi-Ho South.)  While the burger at Rick's Bar was good, it was still not a stellar burger. 

Rod said, "Yeah, the burger is good, but the chicken fried steak would have been so much better.  Too bad they ran out.  You would have liked it."  Rod knows his food and I'm sure that he was probably spot on about the chicken fried steak at Rick's Bar. 

Rick's Bar is nothing fancy.  But it isn't a trashy bar, either.  At least not during the day.  Rick Carik is a motorcycle enthusiast and they can get a number of bikers in the place.  Rod told me that the place just to the east is much more of a biker bar and that Rick's gets some spillover to their place from time to time.  Rick's also doesn't take credit cards - I paid cash for our lunch because everyone else was, too.  And I didn't see any credit card signs around the place.  

I like going to Fargo and I've experience great places of fine dining and now I'm exploring the dive bar element of the area.  Rick's Bar would be the kind of place that I'd hang out for lunch and a few beers. 

Mayslack's Bar - Minneapolis

On a tip from my dealer in Fargo (who used to live in the Twin Cities for a number of years), I was told that I had to seek out Mayslack's Bar in Minneapolis.  His description of the sandwiches they have at Mayslack's almost had him in a frenzy.  "Oh man," he exclaimed.  "They do their own beef at Mayslack's.  It's goooood!"  With a recommendation like that, I had to look for Mayslack's on my next trip to the Twin Cities.

The history of Mayslack's starts with former pro wrestler, Stan Myslajek.  The handsome Stan was a crowd favorite in pro wrestling circles around the upper Midwest in the 1930's and 40's.  Along the way, he American-ized the spelling of his Polish surname so it was easily pronounceable for wrestling fans.  When Stan's ring career ended in the late 40's, he became a wrestling and boxing promoter.

Pictured right - Stan Mayslack   

In 1955, Stan bought an old tavern in Minneapolis' Nordeast neighborhood that had been built in the 1890's.  He renamed the tavern "Mayslack's" and began to make huge garlic-roast beef sandwiches.  Stan served the sandwiches on paper plates and he would implore people to use "two hands!" when eating the sandwich.  

With Stan making sandwiches in the kitchen, Stan's wife ran the till using a cigar box as their cash register.  A juke box played nothing but polka music.  Mayslack's was the epitome of a neighborhood bar.  

Stan Mayslack died in 1994 (or 1995, I've seen both years listed doing research on Mayslack's wrestling career) and in 2006 bar veteran Dean Jacklitch bought Mayslack's.  Determined to continue the Mayslack's experience that Stan began 50 years prior, Jacklitch dedicated himself to making sure the food was of the highest quality.  On weekends, Mayslack's brings in local bands to play in the place.  But there's still a number of polka songs on the jukebox.

I had an appointment with a dealer on the north side of downtown Minneapolis one morning and when I finished, I remembered about Mayslack's.  I put the address in my GPS and it guided me to a brick building at the corner of NE 4th St. and NE 15th Ave. (see map)   Mayslack's is on the southwest corner of the intersection and there's a large parking lot on the south side of the building.  Four guys were having lunch on the patio connected to the south side of Mayslack's building.  

For those expecting an elegant setting, well, Mayslack's ain't the place.  While the place is clean, it is somewhat aged.  But that helps with the charm of the place.  It is simply a dive bar.  And I immediately loved the place.

The main room when you walk in is where the bar is. There's another large room off to the side behind the bar.  I bellied up to the bar and was greeted by a young lady who asked me what I'd like to drink.  I took a quick look at the beer spigots and decided upon a Summit Summer Ale.  She got me my beer and pulled out a menu for me to look at.  

Mayslack's signature sandwich - the Original - consists of sliced beef that is slow roasted (at least 8 hours) in a concoction of garlic and natural juices.  The beef is piled onto a dark rye bun and topped with sliced onions and banana peppers, and served with a side of au jus and cole slaw.  

In addition to the "Original", Mayslack's also has variations of other roast beef sandwiches including a Chicago-style Italian beef that is topped with giardiniera, a "special" club sandwich that is consists of roast beef, ham, bacon, Swiss and American cheeses, with lettuce, tomato and mayo, and Mayslack's Dip sandwich that features roast beef, sauteed mushrooms, onions and provolone cheese.  

If you're not looking for roast beef sandwiches, Mayslack's also features over a dozen different types of sandwiches including a Cuban sandwich, a roasted pulled pork sandwich, and "The Chicken Royale" - a grilled chicken breast served on a egg bun and topped with pepperjack cheese and a bourbon barbecue sauce.  

Along with the sandwiches, Mayslack's has a number of burgers on their menu, as well as pizza.  Of course, there are appetizers, soups and salads.  And Mayslack's also serves breakfast with pancakes, biscuits and gravy, French toast and build-your-own omelets.  

On your first visit to Mayslack's, you've got to try the Original sandwich.  And once the young lady came back to take my order, that's exactly what I asked for.  It wasn't long when she brought me a plate - with two hands - that bore the Original Mayslack sandwich.

She set it in front of me and I took one look and said, "Holy shit!"

She said, "Yeah, it's somethin', isn't it?"  It was somethin' and more, that's for sure.  

Piles of thinly sliced beef spilled from the sandwich onto the blue plate.  There was no way that even two hands would be able to handle the sandwich.  

My first bite produced a somewhat bitter surprise.  A rather tough piece of meat was my first experience of a Mayslack's Original sandwich.  So tough that I had to pull it out of my mouth.  I don't know if it was an end piece, a piece of gristle or what.  But it wasn't a pleasant start to my sandwich.  

I took a fork and began to eat some of the beef slices that were on the plate.  My first real bite of Mayslack's beef yielded a tender piece of beef, almost silky and easy to bite into.  However, it also made me realize that it was permeated with garlic.  

Now, I love garlic - I use garlic in many of my dishes that I make at home.  My wife and I are both garlic fiends and we say that with us, you can never use too much garlic.  Well, with the Mayslack's Original sandwich, yes, you can use too much garlic.  The sandwich was - by far - the most garlic that I had ever tasted on a food item.  It was overpowering, so much to the point that I almost couldn't taste the beef because of the garlic.  

I dismissed my first bad bite as an anomaly until about halfway through the sandwich I hit another chunk of tough beef that I had to pull out of my mouth.  That kind of got me skittish and I started to use my fork to eat the sandwich out of that.  I didn't want any more surprises getting hung up in my mouth.  

But other than those two bites, the rest of the beef that I had was tender, but it had WAY too much garlic.  Thankfully, I wasn't going to be calling on any more dealers that day.  And when I finally made it home later that night, my wife kissed me and said, "Oh, my God!  Did you eat garlic today?"  And that was after having about a dozen Altoids on the way home.  Even brushing my teeth didn't mask the garlic smell I had.  It was literally coming out of my pores.  There was no way vampires would be harming me that evening.    

But overall, I really liked Mayslack's.  It was a great dive bar and I wouldn't have any problem going back at some point to try a burger or even one of their pizzas.  The service was fine, but I found that while they do take credit cards, it has to be at least a $20 charge.  My sandwich and beer with tax came to about $17.50 and I just laid a $20 bill on the bar when I left.  You've been warned - there's a ton of garlic cooked into the beef on a Mayslack Original sandwich.  I would probably get another Original at some point (or maybe even the Chicago-style beef), and this time the amount of garlic they use wouldn't gob-smack me in the face.  And it could be that I would enjoy it more.      

Sandy's Tavern - Richfield, MN

I can't quite remember how I found out about Sandy's Tavern, an old time neighborhood tavern in the south Twin Cities suburb of Richfield.  But I've had it on my list of "Restaurants to Visit" that I have bookmarked on my computer for quite sometime.  I had to go to the Twin Cities for a trade show and some dealer visits.  It turned out that Sandy's was about a five minute drive from the hotel I was staying at in nearby Bloomington.  I decided to head there as soon as I pulled into the Twin Cities that particular evening.

Sandy's has been around since 1933.  There was a guy by the name of Sandy who did run it (I couldn't find Sandy's last name), and he opened the business in a self-built farm house outside of Minneapolis.  Actually, during Prohibition, Sandy had planned to open a speakeasy disguised as an old farm house.  But Prohibition was repealed not long after he opened and he turned the former illegal watering hole into a legitimate business.  As the Twin Cities grew, more of the rural land surrounding Sandy's was gobbled up and it is now located just south of the intersection of W. 66th St. and Penn Ave in Richfield (see map).  

In 1980, Eric and Deb Ericson bought Sandy's, installed a flat grill and a fryer and began to make burgers, appetizers and other sandwiches.  Sandy's signature burger is their Olive Burger - a burger topped with green olives and sour cream.  They also have the "Sizzler" with jalapeno slices, chipotle mayo and pepper jack cheese.  But their regular burger is what they're known for.  Sandy's has won numerous "Best of" awards over the years for their basic burger.  

I pulled into the parking lot on the south side of Sandy's just after 8 p.m.  It's a small building that does look like it probably was an old farm house that had been added on to at some point.  They had a large Grain Belt Premium sign over the back door to the restaurant.  I immediately liked the place.  

I went in and first sat in one of the booths along the south wall of the place which looked like it hadn't been renovated since the 60's.  Then I discovered that they had a flat screen television on a wall near the bar that had a ball game on.  As Kevin, the long-time bartender at Sandy's, came over to check on me, I got up and asked if I could move over to the bar.  "Sure," he exclaimed.  "It will save me from walking all the way over here to take care of you."  Kevin turned out to be quite a character.

After I got situated at the bar, Kevin asked me what I wanted to drink.  I asked if he had any Summit or Surly products available.  "Nope," he said curtly.  "Nothin' like that."  Sandy's is truly a tavern - Blue Moon and Killian's are about as exotic as they get when it comes to beer selection.  But since both are owned and brewed by Coors, they aren't all that exotic.   I looked over at the tapper and saw that they did, indeed, have Grain Belt Premium available.  I had one of those.  I used to drink a lot of Grain Belt Premium years and years ago.  It's not bad beer, but there are many others that I've grown to like more over the years.  

I took a look through the menu after I sat at the bar.  In addition to their Olive Burger and the Sizzler, Sandy's Tavern also has an Egg and Bacon burger, but they scramble the egg rather than fry it (I guess I could have asked if they could fry the egg instead of scramble it).  They also have a Mushroom Swiss burger.  For those with a hearty appetite, you can order any burger as a double.  

I decided on getting the Mushroom Swiss cheese burger and asked Kevin if I could get bacon with that.  He asked if I wanted any fries with the burger - Sandy's is evidently known for their French fries - but I passed and said that the burger alone would do me fine.  He put the order in with Cassie who was cooking that evening.  Cassie could be described as being nerd/chic with a tall body and thick-rimmed glasses.  Since it wasn't busy in there that evening, it was about 15 minutes between the time I ordered and when Cassie brought out the burger in a basket.

Sandy's Tavern gets their ground beef from Swanson Meats, the largest beef family-owned beef processor in Minnesota.  They use a good mixture of beef and fat to give their burgers a signature juicy taste.  They used canned mushrooms instead of fresh ones - a minor quibble in my book, but certainly not a deal breaker.  Two pieces of bacon were criss-crossed on top of the burger which had a thick slice of melted Swiss cheese covering it.  A couple three hamburger dill pickle slices were beside the burger in the basket when it was presented to me.  

The burger did have a good taste to it.  I'm not certain it was award winning in my book, but very good, nonetheless.  The bun was very good on its own and helped with the overall taste of the burger.  Sandy's has no food utensils - you use your fingers for everything - so napkins are readily available within an arms reach anywhere in the bar.  Between the gooey cheese, the mushrooms falling off the burger, and the juicy nature of the burger, it was easily a five napkin burger for me.  

I soon found out that Sandy's doesn't take credit cards, but that was fine with me.  The beers were cheap and the burger with the bacon added came to $6.50.  I handed Kevin a $20 and asked for a receipt.  He sort of laughed and said, "I can give you a receipt on a napkin!"  I told him not to worry.  He was a good guy.  

Sandy's Tavern is one of those old time places that isn't pretentious, they're pretty straight-forward for what they are, and have good bar food at a good price.  The burger was good, not great, but good.  Definitely above average, that's for sure.  But the atmosphere of Sandy's is a nod to a simpler time when people gathered for beer and burgers, things that people continue to do today.  Sandy's is close to where I like to stay in the Twin Cities and I know I'll be back at some point to get another burger and to relax with a glass or two (or three!) of Grain Belt Premium.