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Burger Joints

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 ofCitywide 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starting to travel for work on a regular basis again, I found myself looking for a good burger and a craft beer after a day of calling on accounts in the Des Moines area.  I had a list of a handful of places that I had gathered over the past couple years that reportedly had good burgers in the city.  One of those place was the Angry Goldfish on the south side of Des Moines.

The building that houses the Angry Goldfish at the corner of SW 9th and Davis Ave. kitty-cornered from MacRae Park (see map) has been many things over the years - a bar/restaurant, a vacuum repair shop, a hardware store to name a few businesses.  It was in the fall of 2016 when Dan White and his wife, Stephanie, along with Stephanie's brother Clark Way and his wife, Renee bought the building and started an intensive restoration inside and out.  Clark Way wanted to have a place like some of the neighborhood bars that he visited with his father as a young boy - a place that would allow children inside (up to 9 p.m.) and be family friendly.

No one is quite certain how the name "Angry Goldfish" came about.  It was during one of their alcohol-fueled skull-sessions that someone in the group came up with the Angry Goldfish name.  And the name just sort of stuck. With the completion of the renovations, the Whites and Ways opened the Angry Goldfish Pub & Eatery in December 2016 with Clark and Renee Way as the managing partners of the restaurant.

(In the fall of 2019, Clark and Renee Way took over the old Reed's Hollow in the Beaverdale area of northwest Des Moines and renamed the place the Dam Pub.  The bar is heavy in 1980's and 90's kitsch and features a number of vintage video games and a menu that somewhat mirrors the Angry Goldfish.)

I pulled into the parking lot behind the Angry Goldfish and went in the side door just off the patio on the north side of the building.  Inside, I found a small bar area and a dining area with a number of booths and tables.  The lighting fixtures on the walls next to the booths were old whiskey bottles with light bulbs inside.  A couple old chandeliers hung from the ceiling near the back entry way.

The walls featured a number of bright and natural colored pallets that made a sort of interesting color pattern.  Vintage beer signs hung from the walls.  The restrooms in the back (marked "sausage" and "eggs") featured a number of old Iowa vehicle license plates that Clark Way's grandfather had collected over the years.

I found a seat at a table up toward the front door of the Angry Goldfish.  A guy working behind the bar came out with a menu.  (Click here and scroll down to see the menu.)  I took a quick look at their beer menu and ordered up an Easy Eddy Hazy IPA from the Big Grove Brewery in Solon and Iowa City.

I was sort of surprised with Angry Goldfish's menu.  It had some interesting appetizers such as poutine, fried pickles and their signature Sriracha-seasoned "angry"Goldfish crackers.  Sandwiches included a pulled-pork and a brisket sandwich, as well as a club sandwich on garlic focaccia bread.  Entrees included two pork medallions with a whiskey/honey glaze, meatloaf made with black angus beef and Graziano Brothers Italian sausage, and their beer-battered cod filets served with fries.  On Monday nights, the Angry Goldfish features lasagna or a vegetarian manicotti, and on Wednesday's they have a hot beef sandwich special with mashed potatoes and gravy.

That all sounded great to me, but I had my heart set on getting a burger on my first trip to the Angry Goldfish. After almost getting the garlic and herb Boursin cheese burger.  I settled on the Merlot/Mushroom burger topped with Swiss cheese.  For my side, I had a number of choices including truffle parmesan fries, cole slaw and pasta salad.  But then when I saw that one of my side options was tots, I went with those.  (For a small upcharge, I could have gotten a small side of Angry Goldfish's poutine.  Next time...)

The two burger patties were flat-grilled and both topped with Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms.  The top bun was festooned with an "AG" from the merlot aioli sauce they put on the burger.  I was eager to dig into this one.

And it certainly didn't disappoint.  The burger was full of flavors - the earthiness of the sautéed mushrooms, the pungent and creamy Swiss cheese, and the tanginess of the merlot aioli all added to the wonderful taste of the flat-grilled beef patties.  The bun was spongy and held together very well with the juicy nature of the burger meat.  This was a great burger.

I also have to say that the tots were also very good.  These didn't seem to be your run-of-the-mill food purveyor tots.  I was almost like they had a panko outer shell with a very fluffy potato inner core.  Along with some Cholula hot sauce, the tots were top-notch.

After my first experience at the Angry Goldfish, I decided that I would definitely be back to try something else in the future.  It was a great little place with friendly service, great food and a cozy and inviting atmosphere.  The owners definitely achieved their goal of making the Angry Goldfish a quintessential neighborhood bar, one that I wish I had near me at my home.  The Mushroom/Merlot burger I had was spectacular and it certainly hit the spot.  My next visit to the Angry Goldfish will be for the Boursin burger.  Or it could be for their meatloaf.  Or it could be for their hot beef sandwich special.  Or it could be for their Sriracha goldfish encrusted pork tenderloin sandwich.  There's just too many interesting things to choose from at the Angry Goldfish.

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

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

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

Pictured right - Jonathon Kastner.  Photo courtesy AL.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Picture at right courtesy Double D Diner Facebook page.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For some time, I've had philosophical issues with food trucks.  When the food truck craze first hit four or five years ago, there just seemed to be this aimless attitude that food truck owners - and even municipalities - had in regard to where they could do business.  When owners of established brick-and-mortar restaurants complained - and rightly so - to local municipalities about the seemingly arbitrary regulations governing food trucks, local governments and health departments knew they had to reign in what was turning into a quickly growing - and a very unorganized - kitchen economy.  Some food trucks eventually fell by the wayside when rules, regulations, and permits came into play helping to level out the playing field.  But others began to prosper when they discovered a whole new venue where they could set up - the fast growing microbrewery sector.  While I have had a somewhat cynical approach to food trucks over the years, when they team up with local breweries to provide food while you can enjoy a craft beer - well, I'm all for that.  And one of the food trucks that we've discovered at one of our local breweries is Floyd's Burgers & Sliders.  And we went to have a burger at Floyd's one recent evening over at Wake Brewing in Rock Island.

Austin Mills was one of those who saw an opportunity in the growing business of food trucks and started renovating his parents' 1978 Winnebago in the spring of 2016.  His main job was working at a Jimmy John's and he wasn't in any hurry to turn the camper into a burger joint on wheels.  However, in the summer of that year, the city of Davenport announced that they would sponsor a trial program for food trucks to congregate on evenings once a week for the month of September in public lots in the downtown area.  (A lot of downtown restaurants were, understandably, upset with this - and, at the time, I sided with the restaurants on this issue.)  But the trial was more of an experiment by the city to find out what they needed to do to regulate and weed out the ones that wouldn't comply with rules and regulations.

When Austin Mills found out the city was going to do this pilot program for food trucks, he quickly dove into the complete renovation of the camper into a food truck.  He missed the first week of the program, but was open for the second week.  Mills served his first burger as Floyd's Burgers and Sliders on September 13, 2016.  Over the years, Mills has expanded his menu to include vegan burgers and some interesting sandwich options.  Floyd's Burgers & Sliders has built up a loyal following in the community and Mills regularly posts his schedule and specials on their Facebook page.

My wife had been to one of the local breweries with a friend when Floyd's was serving burgers.  She told me about it and pointed out to me that Floyd's would be at Wake Brewing that Friday evening between 5 and 8 p.m. - they're normally at Wake on Friday evenings through the spring, summer and fall.  We decided to head over to Wake - a place that we have been to many times to have a beer.

Wake Brewing has been around since November of 2017 and is owned by the brother team of Jason and Justen Parris.  Jason had been working at Rock Island Brewing Company (RIBCO) as the events and booking coordinator, while Justen was an engineer at the Exelon nuclear power plant near Cordova, IL.   I know of both brothers through mutual friends, and Justen used to come to pool parties at our neighbor's house in the past.

The brothers were musicians who started playing together in various bands about 25 years ago.  They toured with a couple bands, playing mainly on the East Coast, and also backed various hip-hop artists long before groups like The Roots were doing that type of thing.  While on tour one time, the brothers walked into a bar/pizza place in Athens, GA and innocently asked for a pitcher of Guinness for them to share.  The girl behind the bar looked at them funny and said that they didn't have Guinness, that the bar only specialized in craft beers.  The young lady suggested a beer they should try - a Grant's Perfect Porter from the new defunct Yakima Brewing Company in Yakima, WA.  The brothers immediately loved the beer and started to find more craft brews on their tour up and down the East Coast.

After getting off the road and getting back to the Quad Cities, Justen Parris started to fiddle around with making his own beer at home.  About a year later, Jason got involved with his brother's hobby and the two networked with other home-brewers in the area.  They decided that the Quad Cities needed another craft brewery - there were only 3 at the time - and opened Wake in the fall of 2017.   Today, there is something like 15 craft breweries within a 30-mile radius of the Quad Cities.  And for a beer aficionado like myself, that's a good thing.

Wake Brewing is located where Illinois 92 splits just east of downtown Rock Island, across from the Quad City Botanical Center and the QCCA Expo Center.  (see map)  Parking is available on the side of the building that houses Wake, but that night with Floyd's make-shift camper/kitchen in the lot, the only parking available was behind Wake.

My wife and I went in to get a beer and they always have a lively selection of music playing at Wake.  A diverse selection of artists such as Ben Howard and Hippo Campus were playing that evening on the microbrewery's modest sound system that also pipes music outside to their beer garden in front of the building.  My wife and I got a double dry-hopped pale ale that they had on tap, one of the many rotating styles of craft beer Wake features.

The tap room at Wake is pretty small - it doesn't seat many more than probably 30 people, and now less than that with COVID-19 restrictions in place - so we ended up seated at one of the all-weather picnic tables outside.  There had been a threat of rain earlier in the day, but by the time the line of storms came to the Quad Cities it had pretty much squeezed out all the rain, save for a few sprinkles that fell on us at Wake.  The cool air behind the front that came through was a welcome relief from the hot and humid weather we had been having.

The Floyd's food truck has a colorful mural on the back side, but has a minimalist logo on the side where the order window is.  The logo is similar to the artwork Gerald Scarfe did for Pink Floyd's epic album "The Wall" over 40 years ago.  I immediately caught the "Floyd's Burgers & Sliders" and the "Pink Floyd" connection with the logo.

The menu is located on blackboards on the ground next to the food truck.   Austin Mills has come a long way over the past four years as his initial menu only featured two items.  He has six different variations of burgers on the menu - including a veggie burger - as well as five different types of sliders (four per order).  The "Rhythm and Bleu" burger features bleu cheese, bacon and a chili garlic sauce; the "I'm Yer Huckleberry" is topped with cheese, crispy onions, jalapeños, bacon and a barbecue sauce; and the "Dyin' for Hawaiian" sliders consist of ham, cheese, bacon, pineapple, and Thousand Island dressing on four slider buns.  Floyd's also has grilled sandwiches including the "Foghorn" consisting of a roasted chicken breast, cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce; the "Basket Case" that features ham, cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and their garlic/chili sauce; as well as a classic grilled reuben sandwich.

On this particular visit, they also had a special that evening - the Birria burger.  It consisted of slow roasted birria beef - a staple in authentic Mexico cuisine - on top of two burger patties finished with chihuahua cheese, a honey/hibiscus sauce, and came with a side of chipotle sauce.  I paused for a moment as I looked that over and thought that sounded really good.

As I was waiting in line to order, I heard a voice call my name from inside the Floyd's food truck.  It was an old acquaintance who I used to work with at outdoor concert events in downtown Davenport a number of years ago.  Actually, we had come across one another just a week before when my wife, her sister and I went out to Crust to have some pizza one evening.  We hadn't seen each other for a long time and here he was back in my life working for both Crust and helping out Austin Mills from time to time in the Floyd's food truck.

I almost got the Birria burger, but for the first time eating at Floyd's I wanted to go with the regular ol' cheeseburger - the "Royale with Cheese".  My wife said she wanted the same thing.  I also got a small order of Floyd's hand-cut fries for us to share.  About 15 minutes later, I went over to the food truck and picked up our order from my long-lost friend.

The burgers and fries were served in small paper food boats and condiments (mustard, ketchup, mayo) were available in packets next to the napkins.  The American cheese was oozing out from under a soft egg bun on top of the two flat-grilled burger patties.  The taste of the burger was fantastic.  The beef had the crispy edge that you get from mashing down the meat and having it cook in its own juices.  My wife had already experienced a burger from Floyd's and she said, "I knew you'd like their burgers."  I did - a lot.  They were juicy, flavorful and had a great flat-grilled beef taste.  And the fries were also very good.  They had a bit of a seasoning on them that didn't overpower the taste.  They were crunchy on the outside, but had that great flaky potato consistency on the inside.

We had a recent experience with Floyd's again.  My wife and I had taken a few days off to travel for vacation and we got home on a Sunday afternoon.  Not really wanting to go to the store and find food to make at home that night, my wife suggested we look up where Floyd's Burgers & Sliders would be that evening.  It turned out that they were at one of our other favorite breweries in the Quad Cities, Crawford Brew Works over in Bettendorf.  (see map)  Crawford has been around since May of 2018 and features a number of very good beers that we like including their "Kinda-Kolsch" German-style summer beer, and their "Get Off My Lawn" IPA.

Floyd's had set up their food truck there and we went out to have some food and a couple beers.  This time, their special was a cherry-smoked beef brisket topped with Boetje's mustard, pickled cucumbers and onions, and fresh dill.  I really wanted to get a burger from Floyd's, but I had to pull the trigger on this sandwich.

The sandwich was served on grilled rye bread and featured thick chunks of brisket that had a hint of a smoky flavor to it.  The Boetje's mustard gave the sandwich a nice kick, but the pickled onions and cucumbers helped balance out the spiciness of the stone ground mustard.  The fresh dill was hardly noticeable with all the other taste sensations that were going on.

My wife got the "Royale with Cheese" burger again and it smelled so good as it came off the grill.  We just got the sandwich and burger this time - no fries.  So, after I finished my sandwich, I determined that the smell of burger was too overpowering for me.  I had to go get one.  I got it to go, but it turned out that my wife wasn't quite ready to leave Crawford Brew Works.  So I ate the burger while having another beer.  It was a great ending to what had been a great vacation for us.

I'm starting to come over to the side of the food trucks - especially when they camp out at any one of the microbreweries we have in the Quad Cities.  But I'll put Floyd's "Royale with Cheese" up against any cheeseburger I've had in the area.  It was a great burger and I'm sure that we'll be looking up on their Facebook page to see where they're parked some future evening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Down in Kansas City for my last trip of 2019, I got back to the hotel near the Power & Light District after a long day of meetings in and around the city.  I thought about heading back over across the street to the Streetcar Grille & Tavern (click here to see the recent entry on the Streetcar Grille), but I found out that there was a BRGR Kitchen & Bar just a couple blocks from the hotel.  I had eaten at the original BRGR Kitchen + Bar in suburban Prairie Village about 7 years ago.  (Click here to see that entry on Road Tips.)  I remember that the place was nice, they had a good selection of craft beers, and the burger was good, but overcooked to my liking.  I thought I'd give them another try, so I walked up the street to have dinner at the downtown Kansas City location for BRGR Kitchen.

The original group behind the concept and direction of BRGR was Bread and Butter Concepts, a restaurant holding company run by partners Alan Gaylin and Glynn Roberts along with Roberts' wife, Jean.  Alan Gaylin came from a long lineage of restaurant management, formerly as the Senior Vice-President for Business Development of the group that oversaw Bennigan's and the former Steak and Ale restaurants.  He then moved over to Houlihan's as the operations director before taking the same position at T.G.I. Friday's.

Glynn Roberts didn't have much of a background, if any, in the restaurant business.  Roberts was the President and co-founder of Northstar Offshore - a Houston-based oil and gas exploration company now part of the Sanare Partners group.  But Gaylin and Roberts were middle school friends from Houston who partnered up to develop restaurant concepts in the greater Kansas City area where Gaylin had taken up residence.  It took them a little over two years from the time they started their Bread and Butter Concepts partnership to open their first restaurant - BRGR Kitchen + Tap - in March of 2010.  A little over a year later, they opened their second restaurant - Urban Table - that offers an eclectic mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner in a neighborhood-style corner cafe/market.

In November of 2011, Bread and Butter Concepts opened what they called Kansas City's first "gastropub" - Gram and Dun.  The gastropub craze has hit most major markets combining an English-style public house with a restaurant that also focuses on food.  Gram and Dun goes a step further by offering gourmet-style offerings in a fun, casual and relaxing atmosphere.

By 2012, a number of restaurants that initially opened when the Power & Light District came into being closed due to lack of business and high rents in the district.  One of those was a place called Fran's Diner, a Canadian-based upscale comfort food place that had opened in 2009 as the first American outpost of the restaurant.  Bread and Butter Concepts took over the space and opened their second BRGR location in July of 2013.  Three years later, the third BRGR Kitchen + Bar opened in the former Barley's Brewhaus location in suburban Leawood, KS.

However, by the end of 2018, high debt forced Bread and Butter Concepts into bankruptcy and they were forced to sell off many of their assets.  The three BRGR Kitchen + Tap locations were bought by Whitney VinZant, the owner of the Kansas City-based Louie's Wine Dive, a rustic-themed wine and liquor bar/restaurant with 7 locations in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee and Indiana.  One of the reasons why VinZant bought the BRGR locations is because it was one of his family's favorite place to eat.

The downtown Kansas City BRGR Kitchen + Tap is located at the corner of 14th and Main in the heart of the Power & Light District.  (see map)  It was a brisk walk against the wind up the street to BRGR from my hotel.  And upon heading into BRGR, I found it to be nearly deserted - similar to many other places I've been to in the Power & Light District when there's nothing going on during the week at the nearby Sprint Center or Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  Wood and brick accents were found throughout the place with subdued overhead lighting giving the place a cozy feeling.

I ended up taking a seat at the large rectangular bar just inside the front door.  Basketball games were on the flat screen televisions that hung from the ceiling above the bar island.  One of the bartenders on duty that evening came by with a food menu and a beer list.  I remembered from my first visit to BRGR over 7 years ago that in addition to a nice variety of craft beers, they also had some down-home old-fashioned beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Hamm's, and Budweiser available in cans.  They also had cans of the Cigar City Jai Alai IPA that I've grown sort of fond of.  However, the bartender told me that they had their draft beers on special that evening.  I got a pint of the Hardway IPA from the Martin City Brewing Company located on the far south side of Kansas City.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Martin City Brewing Company.)

Of course, burgers are the main attraction at BRGR Kitchen + Tap.  They have a handful of specialty burgers on the menu including the Fast Cow which is a coffee-encrusted burger topped with blue cheese and chopped bacon and served on a muffin; the Road Hoss that is topped with onion rings, cheddar cheese, bacon and a barbecue sauce; the Jalapeño popper burger topped with pickled jalapeños, bacon, jalapeño jam and a combination of boursin and cream cheese; and BRGR's take on the Twin Cities classic "Jucy Lucy" burger stuffed with American cheese.  Beef alternatives for burgers such as ground turkey and a "Beyond Meat" burger are also available.  Grilled chicken sandwiches and a grilled salmon sandwich were also available.

On this visit, I got something that was new on the menu at BRGR - a portobello mushroom and Swiss cheese burger.  I asked the bartender if the kitchen could put bacon on it, too.  It was a quarter-pound burger patty with marinated portobello mushrooms on top with the cheese.  Bacon was criss-crossed on top of that and the toasted egg bun was brushed with a zesty piquant sauce.

On my visit to the original BRGR Kitchen + Tap, the burger was pretty good, but it was overcooked to my tastes.  I ordered this one cooked medium and it came out as a perfect medium with a hint of pink in the middle of the patty.  It was oozing with juices with each bite and I had to get more napkins from the bartender.  This burger was much better than the first time I went to BRGR.

Also on my first visit, the person serving me was telling me about their truffle tater tots.  I didn't get them on that visit, but I had to try them this time.  The tots were served in a baking dish and sprinkled with truffle oil and some parmesan cheese.  They were absolutely fabulous.  I asked the bartender if he had any Cholula to put on the tots, but the only hot sauce he had close to that was Tabasco.  I would rather put Cholula on my tots, but the Tabasco worked fine enough.  They were rich tasting and filling - I was only able to eat about half the portion that was served to me.

It had been sometime since I had been to a BRGR Kitchen + Tap location in Kansas City.  My first visit to one, the burger tasted good, but it was overcooked.  On this visit, however, the portobello mushroom/Swiss Cheese/bacon burger was cooked perfectly to my liking.  And the truffle tots were outstanding in taste.  The BRGR location in downtown Kansas City also had a good selection of craft beers on tap, in bottles and in cans.  It was also a nice spot inside.  It was comfortable for a single diner and the service I received from the bartender was friendly and efficient.  It also helped that there were probably only a dozen people in the place when I was there.  But, still, it was a good meal and visit to BRGR Kitchen + Tap.

Up in the Twin Cities late last year, I was searching out a place to eat one late afternoon.  I usually stay in the Bloomington area on the south side of the Twin Cities, so finding new places to try can be sort of tough at times.  However, there was one place that I found that I hadn't been to before and it wasn't far from my hotel.  I drove over the Northstar Tavern to give the place a try.

Jon Norine grew up on the southside of Bloomington before moving away to work in the food service industry.  His wife, Ashley, also grew up nearby and she, too, had worked in restaurants.  The Norine's had always talked about owning their own restaurant and they decided to move back to their home base in the Twin Cities to scout out locations for their dream restaurant.

The two scouted locations in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis before they finally came across a building in a shopping plaza that Jon Norine used to ride his bike to as a young boy.  The building formally housed a Famous Dave's barbecue joint and the Norine's signed the lease to the place in May of 2018.

The next five months saw a complete build-out of a new restaurant space guided by one of their partners, Nate Hunt, who kept only the sinks and the refrigeration/freezers in the place during the renovation.  The Norine's brought in another partner to run their kitchen as the executive chef, Ryan Pasiuk, who previously was the executive chef at The Fremont, an upscale sports bar/dance club in Minneapolis's uptown neighborhood.  With everything in place, Northstar Tavern opened their doors for business in October of 2018.

Pictured right - Ashley and Jon Norine.  Photo courtesy Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers - Minnesota.

It was a bit after 5 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot at the Normandale Village shopping complex at the corner of Normandale and 98th Street in Bloomington.  (see map)  I went inside and sort of stood by the hostess stand for a moment before a server showed up and told me that I could sit pretty much about anywhere.  Well, I soon find out that "pretty much anywhere" didn't include one of the open high-top tables near the bar.  He came up to me and said, "This area is going to be reserved in less than an hour.  Are you going to be done by then?"  I figured that I probably wouldn't be - or didn't know if I would be - and I didn't really want to be rushed if I wanted to linger a bit longer to have another beer after dinner.  He moved me to a regular height four-seater in the dining area of the restaurant just past the bar.

I had done a little on-line scouting of the place earlier on and I expected to find a nice little upscale sports bar/restaurant.  While it was comfortable and cozy, I sort of expected it to be a little more classy than it was.  There was a stone hearth fireplace in the dining room, but there was a corrugated tin awning with the Maker's Mark logo that was above a number of booths along the wall.  It was a popular place with the bar completely full and many of the tables and booths filled with people in for an early dinner - like me.

My server for my visit was a young guy by the name of Aarin.  He dropped off a food menu and I asked what kind of beers they had to offer.  He produced a beer list that had their current selection of two dozen beers on tap.  Quite honestly, I was sort of surprised that they didn't offer more local beers on their beer menu as they had beers from Deschutes in Oregon, Goose Island in Chicago, and Boulevard out of Kansas City.  They even had Coors on tap.  I think out of the 24 beers they had on tap, only 9 or 10 were from Minnesota or Wisconsin.  I just ordered up a Lagunitas IPA and took a look through the food menu.

The Northstar Tavern offered a variety of appetizers on their menu.  They had the normal fare - chicken wings, pretzels, and nachos - but they also had fried walleye fingers, a barbecued pork quesadilla, egg rolls that were stuffed with shrimp and candied cayenne-seasoned bacon, loaded sweet potato tots with ground turkey, jalapeños and an avocado cream sauce, and wontons stuffed with roasted jalapeños and an avocado cream cheese.

They have a unique system of being able to order sandwiches or burgers at the Northstar Tavern.  You have a choice of a protein - grilled chicken, burger patty, grilled salmon, beer-battered walleye, etc. (vegan options were also available).  Then you have your choice of the "set up" which are the toppings on whatever you pick.  They had some suggestions like "The Teriyaki" that consisted of a teriyaki glaze, grilled pineapple, red onions, and a charred scallion aioli; "The Cream Cheese" which had an herbed cream cheese, red onion, cucumbers and mixed greens; "The Buffalo" which had a spicy buffalo wing sauce with a creamy blue cheese dressing, shredded lettuce and tomato slices; and "The Tangy California" which featured goat cheese and avocado slices, with lettuce, tomato, and red onion slices.  Then you had your choice of the "holder" which was a choice of a ciabatta bun, lettuce wrap, tortilla wrap, honey wheat bun, or a pita bread among some of the choices.

Regular sandwiches such as a reuben, a Philly cheesesteak, and a slow-roasted barbecued pork sandwich were also available at the Northstar Tavern.  And they also had pizza available - both as a build-your-own or featured pizzas such as a meat only pizza with Italian sausage, pepperoni and a candied cayenne bacon spread; or a traditional margherita pizza, or the Vietnamese-style Banh Mi pizza with chopped pork carnitas, pickled onions, cucumbers, and carrots, along with jalapeños, cilantro, and finished with a teriyaki barbecue sauce, and an aioli drizzle that is mixed with Cry Baby sauce, a pickled jalapeño and garlic hot sauce that is made in Minneapolis.

I have to say the menu was definitely interesting and a couple three things caught my eye.  They had some entrees that included a Cajun chicken and shrimp pasta, and a meatloaf platter with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I seriously contemplated getting the meat loaf almost breaking my rule of not ordering meat loaf away from home as I really could have used a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal that evening.  But in the long run, I ended up getting what amounted to the house burger.

The house burger consisted of a half-pound beef patty topped with a thick slice of smoked cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and red onion slices, and dill pickles on a toasted brioche bun.  It came with a side of fries in a metal cup and it was all served  on a small metal cookie sheet.   I asked Aarin if I could get some bacon on the burger and he said it was no problem.

Quite actually, the burger was very good.   It was thick with juices oozing out of the beef patty as it rested on the bun.  The bun held together very well for what turned out to be a multi-napkin burger.  The veggie toppings were all fresh and didn't over power the great beef taste in the burger.  The smoked cheddar and bacon helped give it another gear in flavor.  I had asked it to be cooked medium and it was the perfect temperature when served to me with a hint of pink in the middle of the burger.

The fries were actually pretty good, as well.  I normally don't eat many fries when they're served to me, but the ones at the Northstar Tavern had that great crispy outer shell with a nice warm flaky potato inside.  It was pretty tough to stop eating the fries when I finished with my burger.

Maybe I was expecting a little more in terms of atmosphere at the Northstar Tavern, but I have to admit that the surroundings didn't detract from the delicious house burger that I had while I was there.  The menu was very interesting, and even though I was a little underwhelmed with the selection of beers they had on tap, I was still able to find one that I enjoyed.  The service that I had at Northstar Tavern was quick, efficient and friendly.   The Northstar Tavern is a nice little place and it's easy to see how it's become a local favorite in their just under 18 month existence.  I'd say give it a shot the next time you're in the area.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

During a visit to the Iowa State Fair this past August, I wanted to try what was voted as the People's Choice winner for best new food at the fair, a beef and cheddar jack wrap from the G. Mig's stand located near the Varied Industries Building.  (Click here to read about that experience from earlier this year.)  In doing some research on G. Mig's, I found out that they had a restaurant in the Valley Junction area in West Des Moines.  A couple weeks after going to the state fair, my wife and I were traveling through Des Moines.  My wife texted a friend of ours and asked if she would like to meet us for lunch.  I suggested going to G. Mig's and our friend texted back, "Oh, yeah! I like that place!"  On a cloudy and cool Sunday afternoon, we ended up at G. Mig's 5th Street Pub.  (see map)

George Migliero was the longtime chef at the Wakonda Club, an exclusive private golf club on Des Moines' south side.  After heading the kitchen there for 17 years, Migliero resigned his position to take over the 5th Street Pub in Valley Junction in 2012.  He renamed it G. Mig's 5th Street Pub and completely changed the menu into more upscale pub fare.  His food quickly gained the attention of a number of patrons and critics, alike.  In 2014, Migliero was named the Iowa Restaurateur of the Year.  Two years later, Migliero decided to put a stand out at the Iowa State Fair.  Each year since, G. Mig's was a finalist for "best new food" at the fair before winning earlier this year.  And just last year, G. Mig's won a state fair contest for salads featuring tofu.  (Seriously.)  And because of all that, I wanted to get to G. Mig's at some point to check the place out and see what else it had to offer.

The place was packed just after noon when we walked into G. Mig's.  It turns out that they serve breakfast on Saturday's and Sunday's starting at 8 a.m. and guessing from the crowd in there, it's pretty popular.  Our friend hadn't shown up yet, but we were able to cram into a table on an upper level opposite the bar.  It wasn't long before a waitress came over with some menus.  I ordered a bloody mary that had sort of a barbecue sauce taste to it.  It was thick and different from bloody mary's I normally have, but in the end I think I liked it.

Our friend showed up and we had to steal a chair from an adjoining table.  She mentioned that it seemed like the place was packed every time she had been in there in the past.  "But it's a fun place," she said as we caught up in conversation with her.

G. Mig's menu features a number of appetizers, soups and salads,burgers, sandwiches and wraps.  G. Mig's also features both lunch and dinner specials through the week.  Appetizers include flat breads, quesadillas, mini seafood tacos, and chicken wings.  Sandwiches such as a classic East Coast pastrami and a grilled-chicken strip and provolone sandwich with sweet peppers, onions and mushrooms were featured on the menu.  And, of course, they had the winning beef and cheddar wrap available on the menu.

I tried to talk my wife into the beef cheddar jack wrap (they also had a pork carnitas and cheddar jack wrap), but she decided she wanted to go with the cranberry chicken salad croissant.  Diced celery, and dried cranberries were mixed in with the grilled chicken that was served on a bed of shredded lettuce on a soft and warm croissant.  For her side, she got the cole slaw that was unceremoniously served in a small styrofoam container.  The presentation wasn't what I would call elegant, but it was functional.

Our friend got the turkey reuben with a side of the pasta salad.  Sliced turkey with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese were placed on a swirl-rye bread and grilled.  The pasta salad was pretty unique - it had chunks of green onion, celery, and tomatoes on top of pasta.  Both my wife and our friend were happy with their choices.

I damned near got the pork carnitas wrap, but I ended up getting what was called George's Prime Rib burger.  Migliero uses ground prime rib for his burgers and then tops the grilled patty with Swiss cheese, a wild mushroom spread, and caramelized onions.  I asked our waitress to leave the onions off the burger - I love the taste of caramelized onions, but my stomach doesn't.  It came on a ciabatta bun with a creamy horseradish sauce on the side.  I also got the interesting pasta salad.  And for a couple extra bucks, I got bacon on the burger.  Only it was crumbled bacon bits (I didn't read the fine print on the menu) instead of bacon slices.  The burger was thick and juicy - a definite multi-napkin burger - and the bun held together very well.  About the only quibble I had with the burger was that the chef placed the cheese on the burger and didn't allow it to melt over the patty on the grill.  But other than that, it was a very good burger.

After trying their award winning beef and cheddar jack wrap at the Iowa State Fair, I made it a point to go to G. Mig's 5th Street Pub to see what the place was all about and to try their food.  I was impressed with the prime rib burger with Swiss cheese, bacon bits and a wild mushroom spread.  My wife enjoyed her chicken cranberry croissant and our friend thought her turkey reuben was very good.  It was a very popular place, but I felt we were a bit cramped at a smallish table opposite the bar area.  All in all, I thought G. Mig's was a great little neighborhood bar with some good food.  But I do want to get back there to try their carnitas and cheddar jack wrap at some point.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earlier this year, one of the restaurants that we would go to from time to time - Governor's in Bettendorf - closed their doors and moved to a new location with a new concept and a new name called The Tangled Wood.  We were eager to try the place a couple months after they opened, but each time we would go there the place was packed.  My wife had a Monday off recently and I suggested that we go out for lunch somewhere.  Then I remembered that we hadn't been to The Tangled Wood as of yet, so we ventured out there.

Governor's in Bettendorf had been a main-stay for over 40 years before they closed their location late last year at the corner of Middle Road and Devil's Glen to make way for a Hy-Vee Fast and Fresh convenience store.  The ownership group - headed by Craig Wagner who also owns Steventon's and Blue Iguana out in LeClaire, IA - had announced nearly 2 years ago that they had outgrown the purpose for Governor's and were looking to put a new re-branded restaurant somewhere in Bettendorf.  They had already closed the Governor's over in Moline in 2016 (personal note - that was the place my wife and I had our first official lunch date in 1993), and were focusing their efforts on the new Bettendorf location.  They built a building just up the road from the old Governor's location at Devil's Glen and Tanglewood Road in Bettendorf (see map) and opened in January of this year.

It was around 1:30 p.m. when we made it into The Tangled Wood.  We immediately were impressed with the dining area which featured a mixture of contemporary industrial fixtures and frames with some beautiful wood and brick accents.  It was definitely a step-up from the decor at Governor's which had grown tired over the years.  The atmosphere at The Tangled Wood was much more bright and lively compared to the dark wood accents and low lighting that people experienced at Governor's.

We should have realized something was amiss from the start when two young ladies were standing at the hostess stand for a couple minutes before they even acknowledged our presence.  We had been sort of wandering around looking into the dining area and in the bar area before my wife went up to them and said, "Can we get seated for lunch?"  One of the young ladies said, "Oh!  I'm sorry.  I thought you were looking for someone."  No - we just wanted to check the place out since it was our first visit.

We had our choice of the bar or the dining room and we opted for a booth in the bar.  The brick walls featured a number of flat screen televisions hanging from them, a number of high-top tables in the middle, booths on one wall and low-top tables along the other wall.  A large outdoor patio/bar area - which was still under construction when we were there (but is open now) - was just beyond the large windows past the bar.  Even if the patio was open, we wouldn't have sat out there as we were having an extremely cold late spring in the Midwest.  And this day was no exception.

The bar, itself, featured three sides of seating with a large island of liquor shelves and taps in the middle.  Their beer menu featured 44 beers on tap, as well as another 30 cans and bottles to choose from.  Governor's always had a good beer selection, but nothing like the selection The Tangled Wood has.

After we were seated in the booth in the bar area, we were given food menus to look over.  A couple young ladies who were servers came over to greet us.  One explained that the other one was new and was in shadow training.  (Turned out the "new" waitress was a seasoned veteran server from other restaurants whose first day at The Tangled Wood was that day and probably could have shown the other one a thing or two about waitressing.)  I noticed that they had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale on tap and I ordered a pint of that.  My wife just went with water for the time being.  It was great they had the Big Wave on tap, but I was disappointed as it tasted sort of flat.

It's basically a whole new menu from the one they had at Governor's - well, sort of.  They still have a number of sandwiches, appetizers, burgers and salads on the menu - many that were available at Governor's only with a new name.  The Tangled Wood also features barbecued entrees such as ribs and brisket, they have 12" pizzas with a hand-tossed or tavern-thin crust, and they have some of Governor's old favorites like fish and chips, and their classic nachos on the menu.

My wife went with the grilled chicken sandwich.  She asked for it without the brioche bun, but they put the house spread in a bowl on the side.  (Don't exactly know what the house spread was, sort of like a mayo/dijon mustard, I guess.)  She got the tomato-braised kale for her side.

I ordered the mushroom-Swiss burger with bacon on it.  I also saw that they had onion straws for some of their sandwiches and I asked our waitress if I could get a side of those.  The onion straws turned out to be nothing like I would classify as onion straws but more like thin cut food purveyor-style frozen onion rings.

On the menu, the grilled chicken sandwich was called "Tastes Like Chicken".  My wife said it did not.  It was overcooked, rubbery and void of flavor.  She surmised the reason they had the house-made sauce with it was to at least give it some flavor.  She was highly disappointed in the grilled chicken.  But she did say that she very much liked the tomato-braised kale.

I had asked for some "pink" in my burger when the waitress asked how I wanted my burger cooked.  Pink went out the window long before this burger was served to me.  It was over-cooked and well-done.  It didn't help that the bun that came with it was also dry - and there was too much of it.  The grilled mushrooms were all right, and they slathered a lot of Swiss cheese on top of the burger to help give it some flavor.  But the bacon was too crispy and crumbled apart like bacon bits.  The onion rings were as I feared they would be - pretty dull.  We were not happy with the quality of our meal.

And our waitresses literally left us.  I like to be checked on, but not hovered over, during our meal and I really wanted another pint of Big Wave to help wash the dry food down.  But they never came back.  Finally, I was able to flag down the "new" waitress and she came over.  She thought the other waitress had been back to check on us, but we hadn't seen her.  She got me another flat tasting Big Wave, mainly because I didn't have their beer list and I wasn't going to go up to the bar to check out their tap handles.

We had hoped that our first visit to The Tangled Wood was an anomaly and that we would like to go back again at some point to try one of their tavern-style pizzas.  But we've heard from a handful of friends who have gone out there since that they, too, were sort of disappointed in the food and service.  It's a nice place, don't get me wrong.  And I understand the outdoor patio/bar area is always packed during these summer months.  But the chicken breast and the burger patty we had were both woefully overcooked.  I really hoped The Tangled Wood would become part of our rotation of restaurants to visit when we'd go out on weekends with friends, but we're going to have to give it more time to figure things out before we'll go there again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

During a previous trip to Green Bay some time ago, I happened to be reading in a local publication about a quirky little bar/cafe in the Broadway District of the city - White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I had put that on my list of places to go to and on a trip to Green Bay last fall before the snow began to fall, I headed over to check out what the place with a double dichotomy as a name was all about.

White Dog Black Cat's Cafe owners - Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel - were both social workers in the area for a number of years.  About 20 years ago, Holly decided that she needed a change of scenery from the rigors of social work, so she moved out to Egg Harbor in Door County to work in a restaurant with some friends of hers.  It turns out that she enjoyed the restaurant work more than social work.  From her friends restaurant, she moved on to the popular White Gull Inn working as a cook for about a dozen years and learning the restaurant business.  (Click here to see an over 10 year old Road Tips post on the White Gull Inn.)

Around 2003, Anne Fiorello and Holly Hebel (pictured at right - photo courtesy Glidden Drive Association ) decided to open their own restaurant in Green Bay.  Now, this is just a guess, but I believe they may have named their restaurant after the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia which was owned by entrepreneur/author/urban activist Judy Wicks whose restaurant was one of the first in the nation to feature locally grown and sustainable foods cooking and to promote responsible business practices including offering a living wage to its employees.  Wicks also ran the Black Cat gift boutique located next door to the White Dog Cafe which featured locally made goods and fair trade gift items.  (Well prior to her life as a restaurant/boutique owner/author/activist, Wicks co-founded the Free People store with her then-husband Richard Hayne as part of an entrepreneurial class at the University of Pennsylvania.  Hayne and Wicks divorced in 1971 and the store eventually evolved into Urban Outfitters of which Wicks has no involvement with today.)

White Dog Black Cat Cafe featured artwork from local artists and garnered a following the Green Bay community offering craft beers, good burgers and a great place to hang out.  The success with their little bar/cafe in Green Bay prompted Fiorello and Hebel to buy a long time Door County establishment called The Hitching Post in 2015.  The two transformed the bar and grill into The Tin Plate that somewhat mirrored the vibe and menu found at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  Unfortunately, having a second location proved to be somewhat too much for Fiorello and Hebel and they closed The Tin Plate last July.  But they continue to run White Dog Black Cat Cafe today.

I found White Dog Black Cat Cafe at the corner of S. Broadway and N. Howard near the Fox River.  (see map)  Much of that stretch of Broadway is made up of small shops, coffee houses, and restaurants.  I was able to find a parking spot on Broadway just past of Howard and walked back over to the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.

From the outside, you wouldn't think much about the place.  It's a nondescript block style building with a brick facade and pastel colors on the side.  But walking inside the building, it comes alive.  The restaurant is segmented into two parts.  The bar area along with high-top tables along the wall is to the left as you come into the restaurant.  The "L"-shaped bar featured high-backed chairs with a barn board facade.

The burnt orange wall opposite the bar gave the room some vibrancy.  The sound system was playing an interesting mix of artists such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Police, and Jade Bird.  I immediately liked the funky vibe to the place.

Off to the right side as you come in to White Dog Black Cat Cafe was a more common style dining area.  There was a certain funkiness to the space with the walls and curtains in pastel colors.  As with the bar area, some interesting art work - all of which, I understand, was available for purchase - was on the wall.  Chairs were mismatched, as were the lamps hanging from the ceiling.  An antique stove stood at one end of the dining area, while on the opposite end there was a lime green couch under the window with an antique coffee maker on one side and a small wood burning stove on the other side.

I ended up seated at the bar and was greeted by my server/bartender James who had a soft-spoken, amiable and laid-back demeanor.  He gave me a food menu to look over and I ordered up a Fantasy Victory IPA from the Karben4 Brewing Company, a small brewery from Madison, WI that I wasn't familiar with.  I liked the beer immensely and had to pick up a couple six packs when I got to Madison later that evening.

Burgers and sandwiches are the main items on the menu at White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  On Fridays, they have a number of fish and seafood items that are added to the menu.  And on Saturdays and Sundays, the cafe has a popular brunch menu available.  Soups, salads and appetizers are also available.

In the article I read about the place previously, it talked about how good their burgers were at White Dog Black Cat.  I had a burger the day before and I wasn't certain that I was going that direction two days in a row.  I considered the fish tacos or the muffuletta sandwich for a moment, but the White Dog burger is what I ended up with.

The burgers at White Dog Black Cat Cafe all come with potato chips, but I asked James if I could get a cup of the chili they had listed on the menu.  This was a thick chili, but not nearly-concrete thick, with beef and beans, then topped with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped onions.  It had a very noticeable and forward chili powder taste.  The chili was very good - a spot-hitter, if you will, considering there was a noticeable chill in the air in Green Bay that day.

The White Dog burger consists of a 1/2 pound of premium ground beef and served with lettuce, tomato and onions.  For an uncharge, you can get cheese, bacon and sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  I got all three - Swiss cheese, of course.  The burger was piled high with the toppings and it looked pretty impressive.  The Swiss cheese just oozed off the top and onto the sides of the burger.

The burger, itself, was very juicy and very good.  Even with the load of toppings on the burger, I could still get the good grilled beef taste with every bite.  The only quibble was that there was too much bun.  The base was very thick and the crown - although light and spongy - was a little chewy.  I pulled away much of the bun using parts of it to hold as I ate the burger and the toppings.  Overall, it was a very good burger.

If you're looking for a fun, laid-back and quirky place to eat in Green Bay, I would recommend seeking out the White Dog Black Cat Cafe.  I liked everything about my visit - the interesting artwork, the decor, the choice of music and I thoroughly enjoyed both the White Dog burger and the cup of chili that I had.  James, the bartender/server, was a nice guy, friendly and not pushy.  While there's not a lot to choose from on the menu, even if you want to go there to get a beer they have a good selection of local and regional craft brews.  This is the kind of place I wish I had in my neighborhood to go hang out at.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been somewhat dubious of the past winners of the Best Burger in Iowa contest which has been held since 2010 by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  Some of the ones I've tried were, well, not all that good.  But others have been great.  So, when this year's winner was announced back in May, I was even more skeptical that the Best Burger in Iowa was at a small Brazilian cafe in Ames by the name of Cafe Beaudelaire.  On a trip down from the Twin Cities to Des Moines awhile back, I decided to stop in to Ames and give the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire a try.

About 30 years ago, Claudio Gianello came to Ames to visit his brother who was studying for his doctorate in agronomy at Iowa State University.  Claudio decided to stick around Ames for awhile and soon he met Kellie Jacobs, an ISU student from the west central Iowa town of Carroll.  The two fell in love, and while Claudio waited for Kellie to finish school he decided to open a restaurant in the Campustown area across from the Iowa State campus and featured Brazilian cuisine, but with an American flair.  Gianello got the name of the restaurant from a derivative of the name of the French poet Baudelaire as it somewhat translates to "Beauty of the Air".

Even though it was a Brazilian restaurant, Gianello was welcoming of cultures from all over the world.  His little cafe soon became a gathering place for students from other countries.  And when the World Cup was held in 1994, Claudio put in televisions for foreign students to come in and watch the soccer matches at what locals and students referred to as "Cafe B".

Pictured at right - Claudio Gianello.Photo courtesy Iowa Beef Producers Council.

Of course, burgers were a big item with students at ISU and Claudio knew that the Iowa-raised black angus beef was some of the best in the world.  He had burgers on the menu since they first opened, but he was always playing around with ingredients to add to the beef that was ground fresh in house.  A few years ago, he ended up coming up with a simple combination of salt, pepper, and ground oregano as a seasoning for his signature burgers.

For three years, Gianello had employed a young Iowa State student by the name of Lexi Romitti as a waitress.  Romitti was a student in Iowa State's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and she was looking to do a public relations campaign as a special project.  Working with a small group of other students, Romitti began a campaign to create more awareness among students about Cafe B.  When the Iowa Beef Industry Council announced their Best Burger contest in February, Romitti spearheaded efforts to bring students into Cafe Beaudelaire with "Burger Bashes" where they could vote for the burger as one of the best in Iowa.

The efforts of Romitti and her team paid off as Cafe Beaudelaire was one of the top 10 vote getters in the Best Burger in Iowa contest.  Judges from the Iowa Beef Industry Council secretly came in to Cafe B to try the burger and they determined it was the Best Burger in Iowa for 2018.  Gianello's restaurant joined 2014 winner Brick City Grill to make Ames the only city in Iowa to have two Best Burger winners.

I was able to find a parking space along Lincoln Way in front of Cafe Beaudelaire, and after some jostling between a tight space and heavy traffic I finally got settled in.  (see map)  Entering the small restaurant, I was greeted by a young lady by the name of Kayli who said I could sit anywhere.  I took a table in the middle of the dining area.  A small bar was along one wall with some flat screen televisions on the wall.  It was a colorful, funky kind of restaurant that made me feel right at home.

Kayli had dropped off a menu for me to look over.  I knew already that I was going to get the burger, but I wanted to see what else they had to offer.  Actually, it wasn't that large of a menu.  They had variations of American and South American choices - many of the appetizers had a Brazilian flair such as empanadas, yucca fries, and something called Pac de Queijo - fresh bite-sized bread with parmesan and gouda cheese baked into them and served with a marinara sauce.  In addition to some burgers, they had a Cuban sandwich, a pita sandwich with a choice of either roast beef or chicken, and a popular Brazilian sandwich called the Bauru - it featured a beef patty and ham slices on fresh baked wheat bread topped with mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, corn, peas, mozzarella cheese and a fried egg.  You could also get one with a grilled chicken breast or a spicy black bean patty.  Cafe B also had vegetarian options along with soups and salads.  They also feature a brunch menu on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I got the classic burger with cheddar cheese.  A fried egg and bacon strips were also available for toppings, but I didn't want a bunch of stuff on there to mask the taste of the burger.  They also had a half-chorizo/half-angus beef burger, a burger topped with Muenster cheese and grilled red and green peppers, as well as a Mexican-style burger topped with guacamole and gouda cheese.  A side of Brazilian potatoes came with the burger.

The burger was flat-grilled and smash-pressed with a crispy outer shell.  The patty was misshapen from the grilling technique.  It was served on what I believe was a potato bun and came with a sliced onion, lettuce and a pickle.  The burger was actually too salty for my taste.  I don't put a lot of salt on my food and I immediately picked up on the abundance of salt in the patty.  There was too much bun, as well.  I found myself tearing away chunks of the bun because there was just too much of it.

But other than that - and the burger being too salty - I thought the burger was very good.  It had a great beef flavor and it was very juicy.  I really wish they hadn't loaded it with so much salt.

The Brazilian potatoes were basically seasoned wedge potatoes.  They were good with a crispy outer shell and a nice flaky inner core.  Once again, I wasn't all that interested in the potatoes, but for someone who does like steak-style wedge fries they would like these.

I'm now 9 for 9 in trying the Best Burger in Iowa contest winner and I'd have to put the burger at Cafe Beaudelaire somewhere in the middle.  While the fresh ground beef was juicy and flavorful, they seasoned it with too much salt.  The bun was airy and spongy, but there was too much bun for the size of the burger.  The Brazilian fries were basically seasoned potato wedges, but they were perfectly cooked with a good crispiness to the outer shell and a warm flakiness on the inside.  I couldn't quibble about the friendly service I received while at Cafe Beaudelaire.  While they seemed to have a good beer selection, I ended up just having water with my burger.  I'm happy that a place like Cafe B is the winner of the Best Burger in Iowa, but I have to think there were other burgers in the contest that may have been better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My M.O. for Road Tips is that I'll visit a restaurant and then write about it a few weeks later.  Every once in awhile, I've been burned to find out that the restaurant closed down from the time I visited to the time I was getting ready to write about the place.  (And, more often than not, I wasn't going to give that now-closed restaurant a great review.)  So, in late May of this year, I had to go out to see clients in Indianapolis and stayed the night in the northeast suburb of Fishers.  Near where one of my accounts had their store was a burger place that had always intrigued me - Flamme Burger.  I went there that one evening, but in doing research for this place, I found that they had closed the Fishers location and had moved into the Keystone Commons complex on the north side of Indianapolis in June of this year.  I thought, "Well, they're still open, but at a couple of other locations, and they still have the same burgers."  What the heck?  I'll still tell you about my visit to Flamme Burger.

Henri Najem has the restaurant business in his blood.  He was born into a family where his parents owned a number of restaurants and bars around the Indianapolis area.  When he was 12 years old, Henri was helping out in the kitchen at his uncle's Italian restaurant on the west side of Indianapolis.  So, it was no surprise that Henri opened his first restaurant - Bella Vita, a lakeside restaurant on the Geist Reservoir north and east of Indianapolis - in his early 20's.  Henri, along with his wife, Shelley, ran the restaurant for 17 years before selling it in 2014.

The Najem's saw the boom in quality burger places, not only in Indianapolis, but around the rest of the country.  They designed a place that would have wood-fired 100% natural blended Angus beef burgers, and pair the burgers with fresh, high-quality, locally grown produce and other ingredients.  They wanted to have an open kitchen and make the place a fast-casual restaurant with a good selection of local craft beers.  In 2015, the couple opened their first Flamme Burger in downtown Fishers.

Pictured at right - Henri and Shelley Najem.  Photo courtesy Carmel Current.

The success of the Fishers location led to a second Flamme Burger in the small - but rapidly growing - town of Whitestown on the far northwest side of Indianapolis in 2017.  However, with the growth in restaurants and other entertainment venues in the downtown Fishers area over the past couple of years, the Najem's customers found that parking was getting tough to find on some evenings.  Less than a month after I was there, they decided to shut down their original Flamme Burger in Fishers and they relocated to the their new spot along 86th Street across from The Fashion Mall at Keystone on Indianapolis' north side.  (see map)

My account in Fishers is literally just down the street from the original Flamme Burger and I parked in a parking garage behind my account and walked through a walkway that took me to E. 116th Street, the main east-west street through the downtown area of Fishers.  I walked into Flamme Burger and found a contemporary-looking restaurant with sort of an orange hue throughout.  Murals of flames danced along one wall of the place with large windows up front letting in a lot of natural light into the place.

I ended up seated at the bar that featured loops coming out from the open kitchen area.  I was greeted by one of the bartenders, given a food menu, and I ordered up a Railsplitter IPA from the Triton Brewing Company in Indianapolis.  It was somewhat hoppy, but had a smooth finish.

The burgers at Flamme Burger start out as a ground blend of beef brisket, short rib and sirloin, then they're cooked over an open flame from Indiana oak and apple wood on a grill designed by Henri Najem.  They feature a dozen signature burgers on the menu at Flamme Burger including a cheddar cheese and applewood -smoked bacon burger with a chipotle mayo, a Maytag Blue cheese and peppered bacon burger that is finished with a blue cheese spread, and a burger topped with bourbon sautéed mushrooms and onions and jalapeño jack cheese.  Flamme Burger makes over 20 different types of sauces that they use on not only many of their burgers, but on grilled chicken sandwiches and seafood they have on the menu.

They also have a "make-your-own" burger on the menu and that's what I did that evening.  For toppings on the burger, I got onion straws (that I pulled off when I got the burger), sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and applewood-smoked bacon on a brioche bun.  It was served on a small wooden butcher board with fries on the side.  Housemade ketchup also came with the burger.

The burger at Flamme Burger was very good.  The beef was juicy with a great rich flavor.  The Swiss cheese was slathered over the top of the beef patty with the mushrooms and bacon on top of that.  The beef was so good that I could get the flavor of the meat with each bite and it wasn't masked by the cheese, mushrooms and bacon that complemented the burger more than hindered the taste.  The brioche bun was light and spongy, but held together very well.  This was a top notch burger.

The onion straws that I pulled off were very good, as well.  I probably could have gotten the onion straws on the side instead of the fries, but the amount that they put on top of the burger were just enough for me to try and enjoy.

I decided to try some of the fries and they were surprisingly very good.  They had a crunchy shell on the outside and a great flaky potato texture inside.  Along with the housemade ketchup, the fries were a great compliment to the excellent burger.

The Flamme Burger location in Fishers may be gone, but there are two other locations around the Indianapolis area that serve their great burgers.  I was very happy with the burger I had, as well as the onion straws and the fries.  They have a good selection of craft brews at Flamme Burger and the atmosphere was casual and laid back.  I'm sure there are people around the Fishers area who are upset that Flamme Burger moved, but at least they didn't go out of business.

Late last year, we had read about a new place over in the Illinois Quad Cities that was going to focus on gourmet burgers, pizza and craft beers.  We're always up for checking out places like this and on a warm Saturday afternoon we decided to make the trek over to Tap 22 in Silvis, IL.

26-year-old Mitch Kadriu grew up working in his family's restaurant business, first in Anchorage, Alaska, then at the Welcome Inn in Milan, IL that his father, Denny, bought in 2009.  Mitch Kadriu was the general manager and bartender at the Welcome Inn for a number of years.

When the former Red Bull restaurant went out of business a couple of years ago, Mitch Kadriu saw an opportunity to turn the restaurant - which had also housed PK Dugan's and the Olympic Flame over the previous years - into something that featured high quality food, a number of craft beers, and a laid-back atmosphere that families could enjoy.  After months of renovating the building, Kadriu opened Tap 22 in February of this year.

It was a little less than our standard "3-month-break in" period that we give new restaurants to work the kinks out of their system when we pulled up to Tap 22 in Silvis.  (see map)  We found a parking lot that was full and we were lucky when a car happened to be pulling out of a spot near the building.  Upon entering Tap 22, we were greeted by a hostess who took us into a dining area off to the side.  I had been to this place when it was called PK Dugan's and this room was always shut off.  But this room was lively with flat panel televisions, some exquisite custom artwork done for Tap 22, and a number of people having lunch.  Our server for our visit, Chrissy, came over with menus and asked what we'd like to start out to drink.

The first thing I needed to have was on of Tap 22's delicious looking Bloody Mary's.  I'd had a bit of a rough night of partying the evening before, so a Bloody Mary with a beer was calling my name.  The Bloody Mary mix was a house mix that Tap 22 had - zesty and a bit spicy, but it seemed a little sweet for me, as well.  I got a Bell's Two Hearted India pale ale to go along with my Bloody Mary.  My wife got a Revolution Anti-Hero IPA for her beer choice.

As I said, Tap 22 features a number of gourmet burgers, pizza and nightly food specials including prime rib on the weekend, along with fried chicken, fish and chips and other nightly chef specials through the week.  Tap 22 also had a number of appetizers to choose from on the menu.

We were there for the burgers and we both ended up getting something different.  I went with the gruyere cheese burger with grilled ham.  For a side, I got fries.  The burger was presented on a wooden cutting board that looked like it had some miles on it.  The top of the bun was branded with a "Tap 22" logo.  The toppings - including lettuce, sliced onions, pickles and tomato -  were off to the side.  The fries were served in a stainless steel container.  It was a nice presentation.

My wife got the 22 burger - a basic burger featuring American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles.  She cut it in half so I could get a picture of the perfectly cooked medium burgers that we both had.

My burger was juicy and delicious.  The gruyere cheese wasn't too forward in taste masking the taste of the burger, and the grilled ham gave it a bit of a salty taste.  My wife was equally impressed with her 22 burger.  We both felt the bun - which is the key to any good burger - was light and spongy, and held together very well with the juiciness of our burgers.

The fries were good - crispy on the outside with a warm, flaky inner core.  But my wife got the cole slaw that she wasn't too happy with.  She felt the cole slaw was too dry and not very flavorful.  But, overall, we certainly enjoyed the burgers at Tap 22.

After we finished up in the dining room, my wife wanted to look around the place.  The bar area was somewhat similar to what I remembered from the PK Dugan's days.  It featured a long bar that curved and meandered the length of the room.  There was a turnout on one end with a large liquor island.  Large flat panel televisions were on the wall behind the bar.

Off to the side of the bar was another dining area.  The chairs were a little more comfortable than the ones in the other dining area.  It was a well-lit room with a wooden slat floor.

For some reason, my wife was in the mood to continue to party like we did the previous evening and she said she wanted to have another beer at the bar.  There were two seats open on the corner and we sat down.  One of the bartenders came over and we both ordered a pint of the Pseudo Sue IPA from the Toppling Goliath brewery in Decorah, IA.

As we were watching a baseball game on one of the many flat panel televisions behind the bar, the couple next to us had a pizza brought to them.  It looked very good with a thick outer crust, but a thin crust underneath the toppings.  As the couple was eating, they remarked how good the pizza was.  My wife said, "It certainly does look good!"  And it wasn't too much later when a SECOND pizza was brought out and sat down between the man and my wife.  I asked if I could take a picture of the pizza and he had no problem with me doing that.

We would have to say that Tap 22 is a nice place for a casual meal of burgers or pizza with an ever-changing menu of craft beers.  My wife and I were both impressed with our burger selections, while the couple seated next to us at the bar seemed to really like their pizza.  The service we received in both the dining room and in the bar area was friendly and efficient, and the atmosphere was lively, yet laid-back.  We'd probably frequent Tap 22 more if it were closer to our house, but we've found it to be a worthy stop on a road trip to the southeast side of the Quad Cities.

Down in Springfield, MO recently, I was looking for someplace close to my hotel that had sandwiches and beer - nothing fancy and something quick.  I had looked up a couple three places online to see if there was anything in the immediate area that tripped my trigger.  I found a place that sounded good and decided to head over there for dinner.  This is my little story about my visit to Galloway Grill on S. Lone Oak Rd. on the southeast side of Springfield.

For a number of years, the building that Galloway Grill now inhabits was the home of Galloway Station, a popular local eatery that had opened in 2003 and was named after Galloway Creek, a babbling brook that ran behind the place.  When the owners of Galloway Station and the landlord of the building could not agree on a new lease about six years ago, they were forced to move to a new building.  Today, Galloway Station is located on E. Republic Ave. on Springfield's far south side.

The building on S. Lone Oak sat vacant for a number of months before Dan and Ann Carter bought the building with the intent of reviving the place as a restaurant.  They renovated the whole building putting in a new kitchen, new flooring and an outdoor beer garden.  The Carters opened Galloway Grill in November of 2013.

Galloway Grill is located along the Galloway Creek Greenway, a multi-purpose trail that runs parallel to Galloway Creek (see map).  The paved trail is part of the Ozark Greenways trail system around Springfield that is used daily by walkers, hikers, runners and bicyclists.  The Galloway Creek trail was designated a National Recreation Trail in 2003 by the National Park Service, the first in Missouri to be named.  Because of its proximity to the trail, Galloway Grill attracts dozens of bicyclists, joggers, and people out on walks in the warmer months.

All the head-in parking in front of the Galloway Grill was filled up, but there was a gravel lot just across the street.  That lot, too was full, but a car was pulling out as I was looking for a parking spot.   The barn-board facade of the building was illuminated by festive hanging lights.  It definitely appeared to be a pretty popular place.

The party was definitely going on inside the restaurant.  Groups of all ages were seated throughout the place. Old time beer signs were hanging from the walls helping to illuminate the area along with hanging white incandescent lighting.

They close off the beer garden in the winter time allowing for diners to use the area as an overflow seating area.  They had gas heaters in the beer garden making sure diners were warm enough on cold winter's nights.  It wasn't all that cold out when I was there, but there was still enough of a chill in the air where they had to use the heaters that evening.

I wanted to sit at the bar, but it was very small - only about six seats.  And they were all occupied.  I found a table toward the back corner of the place and took a seat there.  Not long after I did that, a pleasant young lady by the name of Lindsey came by with a menu.  She asked what I wanted to drink and I took a look through the beer menu.  It turned out that many of the old time beers that they had signs on display - Hamm's, Schlitz, and Pabst Blue Ribbon - they served at Galloway Grill.  It turned out that they even had Stag - I didn't know they even MADE Stag any longer.  I ended up getting a Boulevard Irish Ale, one of my more favorite seasonal beers.  Curiously, it was served in a plastic Galloway Grill 16 ounce cup.

The menu is pretty basic at Galloway Grill - burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, and salads are the main items.  They may have had a special that evening, but I don't remember if they actually had one.  They also had a limited kid's menu, as well.

Because they didn't have a lot on the menu, I ended up just getting the cheeseburger.  But you could really customize the burger with a choice of 8 different types of cheese, or a dozen toppings such as jalapeños, ham slices, chili or a housemade blue cheese sauce.  The burger patties were made with 100% certified Hereford beef, seasoned and char-grilled.  I got Swiss cheese and bacon on my burger.

The burger plate was garnished with raw red onion rings, lettuce, and a dill pickle slice.  And they seemed to be making a big deal out of the beer-battered fries at Galloway Grill that I decided to give them a try.  ("They're our most popular side," Lindsey told me as she was selling me on the beer-battered fries.  "People really love them!")

The burger patty was thick and juicy - I definitely needed more napkins than the single napkin they provided on the table.  The bun was fresh, lightly toasted, and helped with the overall taste of the burger.  (I've always said the mark of a good burger is a good bun.)  The Swiss cheese was thick cut and oozing over the top of the burger.  The bacon was crispy and also helped enhance the overall taste of the burger.

The fries were, well, all right.  I didn't see why they made such a big deal about them at Galloway Grill.  They had a crispy outer shell and a somewhat flaky inner core.  I guess I could see how some people may think they were great, but I just didn't get that big of a kick out of them.

Galloway Grill was a good find, a nice and homey little tavern that had a somewhat limited menu of burgers, sandwiches and appetizers that would appeal to most people of all ages.  They had a good beer menu - including some vintage "bottom-shelf" beers you don't find everywhere these days - and the service I received during my visit was friendly, prompt and efficient.  I can see why Galloway Grill is such a popular place - not only during the warmer months when bikers are using the nearby trail - but also in the winter months when they make it warm and cozy inside.

I was staying on the north side of Indianapolis on a recent trip out there and I was looking for places to eat in the area.  Sometimes, I'll find a place on a map or GPS and when I pull up in front of it, I realize that I've already eaten there.  That happened to me this time, as well.  I was sort of resigned to go back and eat there until I looked across the parking lot at another place called Drake's that looked like it was interesting.

Bruce Drake was a restaurateur in Lexington, KY running a seafood restaurant - Drake's Regatta.  One of his regular customers was Brian McCarty who had an opportunity to buy a restaurant.  McCarty called upon Drake for advice, both in purchasing the restaurant and then running the place.  In 1997, McCarty bought A.P. Suggins restaurant in Lexington.

Two men who were regular customers at McCarty's restaurant were also developers of the Landsdowne Shoppes upscale shopping and entertainment area in Lexington.  An upscale steakhouse in the immediate area had moved to a new location and the developers asked McCarty if he would be interested in putting a similar restaurant in the development.   Once again, McCarty called upon Drake - only this time it would be more than just advice.  He asked Drake to become a partner in the new restaurant.

McCarty and Drake worked on a concept and traveled to other markets to try restaurants for ideas.  It was at a restaurant in Atlanta where the owner there told the two that they needed to go to Chicago to try a couple of the "prime beef" restaurants there.  Following a couple meals at the Chicago steak houses, Drake and McCarty came up with the concept for Malone's, the first prime beef restaurant in Lexington.  They opened Malone's nearly 20 years ago and it continues to be the top destination for prime beef steaks in Lexington.

Using Malone's as a cornerstone, McCarty and Drake set up a restaurant group called Bluegrass Hospitality Group.  Early on, the corporation was a Damon's Ribs franchisee, but they also developed restaurants in and around Lexington such as Sal's Chophouse, Meats BBQ,Harry's, Aqua Sushi and OBC Kitchen.

One of the first restaurants that McCarty and Drake came up with was an upscale casual eatery/piano bar by the name of Oscar's.  Oscar's opened in 2000 in Lexington and was open for nearly 9 years until the piano bar craze sort of ended.  Bluegrass Entertainment rebranded Oscar's as Drake's - a casual eatery/sushi bar (Aqua Sushi), and a dance hall with the tag line "Come Play".  The concept went over so well that they soon opened two more Drake's in Louisville and one in Huntsville, AL.  The Indianapolis Drake's was opened in 2012 by a franchisee, and there's also company-owned and franchisee locations in Florence, KY, Franklin, TN, and Knoxville, TN, with two more locations opening (if they haven't opened already) in a suburb of Lexington, and one in Bristol, TN.

The Drake's in Indianapolis is located near the Keystone Crossing area along E. 82nd St.  (see map)  I got into Drake's around 8 p.m. on an unseasonably warm early spring evening.  Record high temperatures had been broken in Indianapolis that day and the staff had opened the large patio windows that looked out from the bar.  Because of that, the bar area was pretty full, but I was able to find a spot at the bar.

The back part of Drake's featured what appeared to be a shamrock shaped bar, and had a number of tables throughout the area.  This was also the area where their Aqua Sushi sushi bar was located.  I had a hard time reconciling the fact that a sports bar had a sushi place located in it.  But, there seemed to be some people having sushi in this area.

After I was seated, I was greeted by Krystal, one of the bartender/servers that evening.  She offered up a food menu and asked me what I'd like to drink.  They had 20-some beers on tap and I noticed that they had the Three Floyd's Alpha King pale ale on tap.  I like to drink the Alpha King and when I have it I think of my buddy Craig who died of cancer unexpectedly five or six years ago.  He was the one who turned me on to Alpha King a number of years ago.

For supposedly being an upscale sports bar, the menu didn't really reflect that.  It featured foods that were your standard sports pub fare - burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, salads, and a few entrees such as seared salmon, tacos with beer-battered fish, pan-seared chicken breasts, and a Korean BBQ chicken flatbread.  I also could have ordered sushi at the bar, if I wanted.

I almost ordered the chicken tenders, but I ended up getting the Mushroom/Swiss cheese burger instead.  I asked Krystal if they could put bacon on the burger, as well.  I got a choice of a side with the burger and there wasn't much to choose from - seasoned fries, broccoli florets, waffled sweet potato fries, and cole slaw - but they did have tater tots!  I was set.

The burger was presented to me in a metal pan on a bed of wax paper.  The burger patty was sitting on chopped lettuce, shredded red onion, and a slice of tomato.  I could tell pretty easily that the bun was dry, but I decided I'd be able to get around that.

Well, it turned out that it was a good thing the bun was dry because the burger was juicy and messy from the first bite.  The bun did a good job of staying together and sopping up the juiciness from the burger and the messiness from the Swiss cheese and mushrooms.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.  It turned out to be a lot better than I initially thought it would be.

The tater tots were a great side with the meal.  The only problem is that they couldn't find any hot sauce for me to use on the tater tots until someone came from the kitchen with a bottle of Tabasco where they had purposely pulled out the drip hole at the top of the bottle.  I had to gingerly pour some of the Tabasco sauce out onto the wax paper making sure that I didn't pour the whole damned bottle out onto my plate.

Drake's might not have been my first choice that evening, but it turned out to be pretty good one.  The Swiss/mushroom/bacon burger I had was juicy and messy, the tater tots were a nice compliment to the burger, and they had a good beer selection including the Three Floyd's Alpha King of which I enjoyed a couple of those.  While the place was busy - the bartenders were hopping the whole time I was there - they were still able to keep up with any needs that I had.  The only thing that I can't reconcile is having a sushi bar in a sports pub.  But other than sushi, it's pretty much your standard sports grub.  If you're looking for something like that on the north side of Indy, Drake's is a good place to try.

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.)

Another place in downtown Davenport that opened up last fall is a unique pub called Ruby's.  It's a combination beer pub/bike sales/repair/rental shop concept that the owners modeled after similar places in Colorado, South Carolina and Texas.  Early on, the place only served what they called gourmet brats.  Initially, we weren't too whippy on going there just to have a beer and a brat.  But a friend of ours had told us recently that they had expanded their menu to include appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and wraps - including vegetarian items.   On a very nice Saturday afternoon, we made our way down there to have lunch.

Ruben Garcia is a native of Southern California who has worked as an artisan woodworker/cabinet maker most of his adult life.  His vocation took him all over the United States working on everything from high-end homes to hospitals to hotels.  When a chance to settle down in the Quad Cities to work at Elliott Aviation at the Quad City International Airport refurbishing private jets, he took the job in 2012.

On his trips to different places around the United States before he landed in the Quad Cities, Garcia ran across combination pubs and bike shops that also rented bikes such as Denver Bicycle Cafe in Denver, CO, Piney Mountain Bike Lounge in Greenville, SC, and The Wheel in Austin, TX.  Wanting to do something similar in the Quad Cities became a significant dream for Garcia.

Garcia eventually met Sidney Rognoni, a Davenport restaurateur who owned RAW, an upscale cocktail lounge with esoteric appetizers in downtown Davenport; and who is also a co-owner in Bowls Urban Eats, a noodle/pasta place with Asian and Italian specialties in downtown Davenport.  Garcia sold Rognoni on the concept and the two looked for a place to house their restaurant.

Pictured right - Ruben Garcia and Sidney Rognoni.  Photo courtesy Quad City Times.

There was a building along E. 3rd Street in downtown Davenport that used to house Jaguar Alley, a used foreign car sales and repair shop.  The group who owned the building bought the property planning to tear down the building and use the space as parking for a loft building they were constructing a block to the north.  But when it turned out that the owners didn't need the property for parking, they sought out people to lease the building.  It turned out to be a perfect place for the pub/bike rental  and sales shop as it was near the main bike path along the Mississippi River in Davenport.  After a full restoration of the building, Garcia and Rognoni opened Ruby's - which is Ruben Garcia's nickname - on September 1st of last year.

The building also houses Panini and Friends, a panini/sandwich shop that is located on the north side of the building.  But much of the building at the corner of E. 3rd St. and LeClaire Ave. is occupied by Ruby's.  (see map)  Parking is available in a lot off 3rd St., but there's also on street parking by the restaurant on both sides of LeClaire Ave.

Ruby's is housed in a long narrow space with an exposed ceiling and ductwork.  High-top tables line the barn board wall opposite the bar.

The bar featured a long metal top with barn board front.  The lighting above the bar featured a hanging row of spoked bicycle wheels with Edison lamps coming through the axle.  It was a nifty lighting fixture, to say the least.

And Ruby's is also a working bicycle shop with sales, service and rentals.  They had a number of road and trail bikes on display.

When we were in there, Ruben Garcia was working with a guy who was looking at purchasing a trail bike.  He allowed the guy to take the bike for a spin around the outside area where there will eventually be a volleyball court and a dog area.  My wife has been on me to buy a new road bike for her for awhile now, so coming into Ruby's probably wasn't a smart thing on my part.

There is also a large outdoor patio area with picnic tables and metal tables and chairs for people to enjoy during the warmer months.  There's a garage door that opens to allow people to walk freely from the patio into the bar area with a side door access when the garage door is closed.

We took a seat toward the back corner of the restaurant and took a look at a menu that was on our table.  The place was about half full with a large party at a table toward the center of space.  We thought we saw a waitress working the table, but it turned out it was someone from the party being helpful in removing empty beer glasses and putting them on the bar.  It turned out that there was only one person working as a bartender and server when we were there.  And it took her a long time to get over to greet us.  We thought that was kind of ridiculous for a place to only have one person trying to take care of bar patrons and wait tables at the same time.

When she finally got over to us, she said her name was Renee and she apologized for not getting over sooner.  She said that she recognized us from her previous job as a barista at a little drive-thru coffee shop that we frequent on weekends.  My wife immediately said, "Oh, yeah!  Sure!  I remember you!"  She asked us what we wanted to drink and I ordered an Avalanche amber ale from the Breckinridge Brewing Company in Colorado along with a Bloody Mary.  My wife ordered something we both weren't familiar with - a Wolf Pup Session IPA from the Golden Road Brewing Company out in Los Angeles.  She let me have a taste of it after Renee brought our drinks to our table and it had a nice hoppy flavor with a bit of a citrus taste on the back end.  When I ordered a second beer, I got the Wolf Pup instead of the Avalanche amber.  But I passed on a second bloody Mary - I wasn't too enamored with the mix they used.  It was sort of sweet in taste and not as spicy as I would have liked.

Ruby's new and expanded menu features a number of appetizers, wraps, chicken sandwiches, burgers and brats to choose from.  They also had tacos made with either chicken or seasoned sausage, and they had a number of vegetarian options for the more health conscious bikers they hope to pull in, as well.

My wife was looking for a more healthy option for lunch that day and she ended up going with a vegetarian wrap called the Sante Fe Black Bean wrap.  It featured black beans and chopped red peppers with chopped fresh romaine lettuce, pico de gallo, sliced avocado with a chipotle cream sauce all wrapped in a spinach tortilla shell. She got a side of their regular slaw to go with the wrap.  (I was hoping she would get a side of Ruby's blueberry slaw so I could see what that tasted like.)   My wife really enjoyed the overstuffed black bean wrap and ended up opening the second wrap to concentrate on the veggies inside.

I was up for a burger and they had one that was topped with a peppercorn sauce, blue cheese crumbles, chopped green onions and crispy fried red onions on a pretzel bun.  For my side, I got the salt and pepper seasoned fries.

I always have a bit of trepidation when I get a burger with blue cheese on it.  Sometimes the blue cheese overpowers the other flavors on the burger that you can't really enjoy the overall taste of the burger.  But the blue cheese they used on this burger was mild enough that I was able to pick up the flavor of the beef even with the peppercorn sauce, chopped fresh green onions, and the fried red onion straws.  It was a multi-napkin affair where the bun held together very well with the messy nature of the burger.

The seasoned fries were also surprisingly good.  Each French fry was coated with a mixture of salt and pepper and the outer shell was crispy with a nice pillowy potato texture inside.

While we were eating, we noticed that another server had shown up to help Renee out and Ruben Garcia was going around bussing tables after he finished with his bike customer.  Renee came out to check on us and to give us our bill.  "How was everything," she asked.

My wife said, "It was great.  How are you holding up?"

Renee said that she was overwhelmed for awhile, but things had settled down for her since more help came in.  We told her we really liked Ruby's and we would definitely be back again when the weather got warmer, if not sooner.  She said, "This is really a great place.  We're going to continue to improve on the menu and change some things around.  Do come back and see what we're doing."

So, really other than the lack of a wait staff on our first visit, we couldn't really come up with anything that we thought was that bad at Ruby's.  I really enjoyed my peppercorn/blue cheese burger and my wife was more than happy with her vegetarian black bean and pepper wrap.  While they had an interesting array of craft beers to choose from, my only quibble would be with the bloody Mary where I felt their mixture was a little too sweet for my tastes.  Still, we would have no problem recommending a trip down to Ruby's for a nice casual meal and some good beer.  And if you can do it on your bicycle, it makes the trip even better.

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.

Since I've been staying out near the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport the past few times I've been to the Twin Cities, I've been on the look out for places to eat that aren't too far from the hotel.  Unfortunately, many of those restaurants near the hotel are national chains or are in the Mall of America - or both.  I've had some places scoped out and marked on my "Restaurants to Visit" list and one of those places is a burger and beer place over in Eagan by the name of Burgers and Bottles.  I was coming back to Minneapolis from Eau Claire one afternoon and I decided to stop in there for lunch.

Tony Donatell had started to work in the convenience store sector after he graduated from college.  He worked up to become the manager at a handful of Super America locations before he decided to open his own convenience store in 2008, Lone Oak Market on Lone Oak Road in Eagan.  In 2014, Donatell renovated the space and added a restaurant which evolved into a deli/bodega/smokehouse called Farmer's Grandson Eatery, named in honor of Donatell's grandfather who started what turned out to be a major dairy and potato farm in northwest Wisconsin.

Lone Oak Market was attached to a small strip mall at the corner of Lone Oak and Eagandale Place in Eagan.  (see map)  In 2015, a spot just behind Lone Oak Market opened up in the strip mall and Donatell came up with a concept burger and beer place that he wanted to put in there.  Using the same kitchen that Farmer's Grandson Eatery had, Burgers and Bottles opened in the space in December of 2015.  Donatell also opened another restaurant late last year in Farmington, just south of Eagan, called Bourbon Butcher.  It features a smokehouse, gourmet burgers, a large selection of bourbons, and a number of local craft beers.

It was around 1:30 when I finally made it to Burgers and Bottles.  I found a place that had hardwood paneling on the walls and ceiling with a number of booths and a small bar area.  On one of the walls was a large shelf displaying hundreds of colorful soda pop bottles.  In fact, the place - along with some interested electrical conduit piping and pop bottle lights on the wall - seemed to be more about showcasing soda pop than beer.

Now, in the back of Burgers and Bottles is a second bar that is a "secret" bar called the Volstead House.  It's  behind a black curtain by the restrooms, but it doesn't open until 4 p.m. through the week.   Named after the Volstead Act, the informal name for the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution that outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages, the Volstead House is a modern day speakeasy and whiskey bar that has its own drink and food menu available.  It also has a weekend brunch that starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday.  Had I known the place was in the back behind a curtain, I would have gone in there to look around.

I sat at the bar and was greeted by one of the bartenders, a pleasant and friendly young lady by the name of Taylor.  She gave me a food menu that also included a drink menu of beers, cocktails, milkshakes, and glass-bottled soda pop.  I ordered up a Traitor India pale ale from the Badger Hill Brewing Company in nearby Shakopee.  I hadn't had this beer before and I found it to be very flavorful with a hoppy, but smooth taste.

Since the place is called Burgers and Bottles, it's a given they have a number of burgers to choose from.  They have about a dozen burgers on the menu that included a Brunch Burger with a fried egg, bacon and cheese; a white cheddar cheese curd and bacon burger, and the Fired Up burger with pepperjack cheese and fresh jalapeños.  They also have their own version of the Twin Cities burger staple, the Juicy Lucy, a two pattied burger stuffed with both Swiss and American cheese.

They also have a number of sandwiches and wraps for those not looking for burgers, they have chicken tenders and a fish and chips basket, and they have a handful of appetizers including chicken wings, fried cauliflower in a Buffalo sauce, and even a poutine that has smoked brisket in with the cheese curds and fries all topped with gravy.  God, I love good poutine and that sure sounded good.

I got the Mushroom/Swiss burger for lunch that day.  I asked Taylor if she could have them put bacon on the burger, and she said it would be a slight upcharge.  No problem with that, I said.  Nothing comes on the side with the burgers, but for an upcharge you can get fries, sweet potato waffle fries, battered fried green beans or cheese curds.  They also had beer-battered onion rings as an option and I went with those.

The burgers at Burgers and Bottles are flame grilled and served two patties to a burger.  Instead of putting the toppings on the top patty, the make a "topping sandwich" with the bacon, cheese, and sautéed mushrooms between the two patties.  In fact, I thought they had forgotten the bacon, but I found it in with the cheese and mushrooms between the patties.  Lettuce and a tomato slice topped out the burger.

The burger, itself, was very good.  The bun was fresh, lightly grilled and held together very well with the messiness of the burger.  It was juicy, had a great burger taste and I was very impressed with what I was eating.

The onion rings were equally as good.  The onion rings are tossed in a beer batter made with the lager beer from the F-Town Brewery in Faribault, MN.  The batter wasn't heavy, but had a great batter taste that went well with the warm and pungent fresh-cut onions.  They were some of the better onion rings I've had in my travels.

I thought the burger I had at Burgers and Bottles was very good.  Just as good were the wonderful beer-battered onion rings.  The flame-grilled double burger was juicy and had a great flavor to it.  The Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon helped enhance the overall flavor of the burger.  With a good beer selection and the "secret" whiskey bar in the back, Burgers and Bottles would be a great place just to go for a drink.  This is a good little burger bar that I'm glad I found on this trip to the Twin Cities.

I was at one of my favorite little pizza joints on the northwest side of Chicago last summer - Dino's Pizza (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Dino's) - having a pizza at the bar.  Some people seated down from me were talking about places in the area that they thought had a pretty good burger.  One of the guys mentioned a place that I had heard about, but had never been to - The Garage on Milwaukee Ave.  In fact, he was raving about how good the burger was.  One evening last fall, I decided to head over to The Garage to find out if the burger was as good as this guy was saying it was.

Jesse Roman wanted to put a bar with good sandwiches in a spot along Milwaukee Ave. in the Gladstone Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Along with his wife, Lisa Kennedy, they partnered up with Tim Camastro whose family had a long history of running restaurants in the Chicagoland area.  At the time The Garage opened, Camastro was also running his highly successful made-to-order Italian sandwich shop in Evanston, Rollin' to Go.  Camastro came up with food items that initially included burgers, Italian beef sandwiches and chicken parmesan sandwiches.

Camastro left The Garage to go back to running his sandwich shop full time (it eventually closed in 2013), and Roman and Kennedy carried on with tweaking the food at the bar.  In addition to owning The Garage, Roman and Kennedy also own Old 41 Saloon, a beer bar on the far west side of Chicago that opened last May.

I was able to find a parking spot in front of The Garage on Milwaukee Ave. (see map) and went inside around 7 p.m.  The Garage appears to have been - at one time - well, a garage.  It was long and narrow with brick walls, a large garage door up front, a bar area toward the back and a number of flat panel televisions on the walls that seemed to be providing much of the lighting in the place.  I understand there is an upstairs deck that is open in the warmer months.

I ended up sitting at the bar and was greeted by Matt who gave me a food menu to check out.  They also had a large number of beers to choose from and he scrambled to find a beer list for me to look over.  They had about a dozen beers on tap and well over 100 different beers in cans and bottles.   I finally decided upon getting a bottle of the Stone Delicious IPA.

While I was told the burger at The Garage was very good, I saw a few other items on the menu that caught my interest.  Even though they were listed as appetizers, the beef tenderloin sliders on small pretzel buns sounded pretty good.  They had a similar sandwich called The Uptown that had three beef tenderloin medallions and they were topped with crispy onion straws and it is served on an asiago ciabatta bun.  They had pork belly tacos, a New England lobster roll, a pot roast and Swiss cheese sandwich, and a sandwich called "The Dolly" - buttermilk-battered chicken breast topped with Merks aged cheddar cheese, spicy mayo and Sriracha pickles.  Actually, THAT sounded pretty good to me.

They have a couple of specialty burgers on the menu, but you can also build your own and that's the route I took.  All the burgers at The Garage are 1/2 pound Black Angus patties and are served on a toasted butter bun.  I had it topped with Swiss cheese and bacon - I would have also gotten sautéed mushrooms had they had them available.  But the pleasant surprise was that they had tater tots as a side for a $3 dollar upcharge.

The burger was thick and juicy, but I don't know if it was as good as what the people at Dino's were raving about.  I mean, it was good - definitely above average.  But it just didn't knock me off my stool like I thought - or even hoped - it would.  The tater tots were a nice little addition to the meal and they were cooked perfectly with that crisp golden brown outer shell and lots of flaky potato consistency inside.

I really hoped for more when I was told they had great burgers at The Garage.  Don't get me wrong - it was a very good burger.  But the person who was telling me about their burgers had me so hyped up and convinced that it would be one of the better ones that I've ever had really made me overshoot my expectations.  Still, they had a lot of interesting things on the menu at The Garage.  And with a large number of beers to choose from, it's still one of the more interesting places I've found on my recent travels.  It's a nice little neighborhood bar and eatery, exactly what I like to find when I'm on the road.

I've had the Groveland Tap on my "Restaurants to Visit" list for awhile now, mainly because I was somewhat of a fan of the restaurant group that owned that restaurant/bar and many others around the Twin Cities.  Having some time one afternoon on a recent visit up to the Twin Cities, I decided to head over to St. Paul and have lunch at the Groveland Tap.

In the early 1990's, David Burley and Stephanie Shimp worked together as servers in the restaurant the Nicollet Island Inn, an upscale hotel in downtown Minneapolis.  After their shifts were over, the two would have drinks and talk about their shared dream of running their own restaurants some day.   Both agreed that the Twin Cities didn't have enough places that served good, hearty breakfasts.  Burley and Shimp decided that they should join forces and came up with a business plan to open their own place.  The two couldn't get a loan from a bank, so they scrimped and saved - Shimp sold her car to help fund the start-up of a restaurant.  They found a building that had previously been an ice cream parlor on S. Cleveland Ave. in St. Paul, and in 1993 they opened the Highland Grill, a trendy breakfast cafe that served made-from-scratch foods in their kitchen.

With friends and relatives helping out - sometimes working for free - it wasn't long before Highland Grill was a success and Burley and Shimp set their sites on buying another long time St. Paul institution - the Groveland Tap.  The two then formed their own restaurant group - Blue Plate Restaurant Company - and expanded into a number of other restaurant concepts including The Lowry, the Longfellow Grill, the Edina Grill,Bottle Rocket, and The Freehouse all located around the Twin Cities.

Pictured right - David Burley and Stephanie Shimp.  Photo by Shari Fleming.

I first became familiar with the Blue Plate Restaurant Company when I dined at the Red Cow, an upscale burger place in Edina in the summer of 2013.  (Click here to read about Road Tips' visit to Red Cow.)  Stephanie Shimp's younger brother, Luke, was a minor investor in the Blue Plate restaurants and he opened Red Cow in early 2013. (Luke Shimp now heads three Red Cow restaurants in both Edina and Minneapolis.)  Later that summer, I dined at The Lowry in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.  (Click here to see the Road Tips review on The Lowry.)  I've had some of the other Blue Plate restaurants on my radar since then, but the Groveland Tap is the first one I've been to since my visit (and subsequent visits) to The Lowry 4 1/2 years ago.

The Groveland Tap is located near the corner of St. Clair Ave. and S. Fairview Ave. in St. Paul.  (see map)  The Bottle Rocket is located across Fairview to the east of the Groveland Tap and the two share a parking lot on the southwest corner of Fairview and St. Clair.  It was an unseasonably warm day for mid-fall in the Twin Cities and there were a small group of ladies that were seated out front at one of the tables they have for sidewalk dining at the Groveland Tap.

Stepping inside the Groveland Tap, I found a small dining area up front with some wooden tables and chairs along with small number of high-backed wooden booths along the wall.  Beer signs and a number of beer spigot handles hung from the walls in the dining area.

There was a back room to the Groveland Tap that also featured high-backed wooden booths, more beer signs and even more beer spigot handles hanging on the wall.  It was a pretty impressive collection of handles at the place.  If I had time, I would have lingered a bit longer to take a look to see all the different ones they had.

I ended up seated at the small bar that's in the center of the place tying the front and back dining areas together.  I was greeted by Andy who was in charge behind the bar that day.  He gave me a menu and I ordered up a Summit Oktoberfest that they had on tap.  They had about 3 dozen different types of craft brews available on tap.

The menu - while extensive - is actually pretty basic with a number of appetizers, sandwiches, and burgers.  They had their own versions of the Twin Cities staple "Juicy Lucy" cheese-stuffed burger.  And that's what I went with - the Cajun Lucy that was stuffed with pepperjack cheese and jalapeños.  Fries or cole slaw came with the burger, but I told Andy that I wasn't really interested in either.  He said that for a slight upcharge I could get an order of their onion rings.  "They're very good," he said to me.  I went that route.

Some Juicy Lucy burgers I've had around the Twin Cities have gone from "meh!" to "very good".  And this one at the Groveland Tap was in that very good category.  The cheese oozed out from inside the burger, but didn't explode when I initially bit into it.  (I learned a long time ago to let a Juicy Lucy burger cool down a bit after it's placed in front of me.)  The burger patties were nice and juicy, not overcooked, and it had a bit of a spicy bite with the pepperjack cheese and the jalapeños stuffed in.  Andy also didn't steer me wrong when I picked the onion rings.  They were beer-battered, thick cut and delicious.  I didn't even bother tasting the cole slaw because the burger and the onion rings were a great tasting combination.

The Groveland Tap is a nice cozy little neighborhood place that has good burgers and a good selection of craft beers.  The bartender was friendly and did a good job of taking care of me that day.  And there's some interesting decor on the walls in terms of their beer spigot handle collection.  The Groveland Tap is nothing fancy, nor is the menu all that exciting.  But it more than makes up for it in terms of the interesting burgers they have and the comfortable surroundings in the place.

Burgers are big in Denver.  My all-time favorite burger joint in the world is the Cherry Cricket in Denver.  (Click here, here and here to read about previous visits to the Cherry Cricket.)A devastating kitchen fire shut down the Cherry Cricket for a portion of last year and I wasn't certain it would be open when I went out there last fall for a trade show.  (It was - and it was very good.)  But some people in Denver are partial to some of the other very good burger joints in the city and I have received e-mails (roadtips@gmail.com) from various people over the past few years that I really needed to try the burger at CityGrille.  After I arrived in Denver one sunny fall afternoon and found one of my colleagues at the hotel who had gotten in earlier, it didn't take much to convince him to accompany me to CityGrille for lunch.

Actually, a former owner of the Cherry Cricket was the one who started CityGrille in 1998.  Dick Salturelli was a marketing executive for the Ford Motor Co. and he'd had enough of the corporate world.  Along with his brother, Salturelli bought the Cherry Cricket in 1976 and ran it until 1991.  In 1998, Salturelli started CityGrille, a smaller version of the Cherry Cricket, and almost immediately it was a hit with the burger loving population in Denver.  For the next few years, if the Cherry Cricket wasn't getting voted as having the Best Burger in Denver in local polls, CityGrille got the nod.

From the CityGrille, Salturelli opened other burger joints and watering holes around Denver including CityPub and Burger, Blake Street Tavern, and Benders Bar and Grill.  In 2013, Salturelli sold CityGrille to sisters Helen Patterson and Nancy Brady who happened to own the Fork & Spoon restaurant next to CityGrille.  Knowing that they had a great thing going in both spots, the sisters kept the Fork & Spoon focused on their breakfasts that were famous for the large portions, and the wonderful burgers and other food that kept the lunch and evening crowd hopping next door at CityGrille.

CityGrille is located on East Colfax street, the main east-west drag through Denver, not far from the Colorado State Capitol building.  (see map)  It was pretty much tough to miss the building on the north side of Colfax with a huge "The Best Burger in Denver" banner across the facade of the building.  We found a parking lot behind the building - my colleague was observant enough to see a sign that showed some of the parking spots were reserved for CityGrille behind their building.

In back of the restaurant was a small outdoor seating area that featured a small number of mismatched tables in a narrow space.  It wasn't the most inviting outdoor space that I've seen, even with the brightly painted countryside murals on the walls.

Going into the back door, we were in a small dining area with a number of booths along the wall and small tables in the middle.  Cozy would have been almost an overstatement for the description of this room.

We made our way up to the hostess stand and an outgoing and effervescent young lady from behind the bar told us that we could sit anywhere.  We ended up going into the bar area and taking a seat in a booth along the wall.  The bar, itself, wasn't all that big.  It was three-sides and featured about a dozen high-backed metal chairs.

It turns out that they lady behind the bar who greeted us was the same one that was going to take care of us.  I never did get her name, but let me just say this - she was a great waitress.  She was funny, accommodating, gave great recommendations, and was quick as a hiccup in getting our beers out to us.  I got a Dale's Pale Ale to start off the festivities at CityGrille.

Burgers are definitely the main item on the menu at CityGrille.  All their burgers are made from ground steak and they feature about a dozen different types of burgers on the menu.  They also have turkey, salmon, and veggie burgers, as well as a number of soups, salads, and sandwiches to choose from.  They also had a number of appetizers to choose from including wings, onion rings, bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers, and mac and cheese bacon bites.

Like most places in Denver, CitiGrille had the wonderful green pork chili - and, of course, I had to try some.  I got a cup of it and it was very good and very thick.  After I finished that up, our burgers came to the table.  My colleague got the Western burger - a 1/2 pound patty topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce and onion straws.  I went with the CityGrille Burger - a Swiss cheese and bacon burger with a Caesars dressing.  I asked our server if I could get the dressing on the side and if she could put some sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  She didn't disappoint me as the mushrooms were swimming in the melted Swiss cheese.  And for my side, I got the tater tots.  (When I ordered the tots for my side, our server said, "Yeaaaahhh... tater tots!  Woo!")

Now, this burger was very good.  Was it as good as my gold standard over at the Cherry Cricket?  It's tough to say.  The burger was juicy, flavorful and the taste combination of the fresh ground steak burger with the mushrooms, bacon and Swiss cheese was fabulous.  The lightly toasted bun held together very well with all the stuff going on with the burger.  It was definitely a multi-napkin burger at CityGrille.  And after the cup of the thick and rich green pork chili, then the burger and about half of the tater tots on top of that, my colleague almost had to roll me out of the place.

I went out front to take a picture of the front of CityGrille and their audacious signage proclaiming them to have the best burger in town.  A guy walking by when I was taking the picture asked, "Is it the best burger in Denver?"  While I couldn't really tell him yes or no, I felt the burger at CityGrille was very good.  I may still like the burger at Cherry Cricket just a bit more, but I'm not certain I've had one or two burgers in Denver better than the one at CityGrille.  It was a fun little place with great service and a nice craft beer list.  If you're in downtown Denver and don't want to venture out to the Cherry Cricket for a burger, CityGrille is a worthy back-up plan - or even one that some in Denver says is even better than the Cricket burger.

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.

My old neighbor was telling me a couple three years ago about a place in Eau Claire, Wisconsin that he felt had a terrific burger.  "Do you get up to Eau Claire," he asked me over the phone when we were talking football one Saturday afternoon.  I told him that I really didn't, but he told me that if I ever did make it to Eau Claire, I had to stop in and have a burger at Mogie's Pub.  Well, it turned out that I had an inquiry from a dealer in Eau Claire in the fall of last year and I had to go to Eau Claire to interview them.  And I made a point to stop at Mogie's for a burger.

Husband and wife John Mogensen and Lisa Aspenson were both Eau Claire natives who were real estate agents in their hometown.  They both wanted to do something a little different with their lives and they ended up buying a building on Water Street that had been sitting empty for three years.  In 1994, they opened Mona Lisa, an upscale restaurant with an eclectic Italian-inspired menu and featured one of the first craft beer menus from breweries around the state of Wisconsin.  Many of the city leaders felt that Mogensen and Aspenson were going to fail - most of the establishments along Water Street catered to the college students at nearby University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire - and they didn't think they would be able to get adults to come to their restaurant, especially since it was the first non-smoking establishment in the city.  At first, they wouldn't even issue them a liquor license because the pair were going to renovate the building.  But the couple persevered and Mona Lisa turned out to be a very popular restaurant and continues in business today.

Mogensen and Aspenson continued to work in real estate, but after they got a taste of the restaurant business they looked for new opportunities to buy property to put restaurants into.  Just down the street from Mona Lisa was a building that became available in 1996 where John Mogensen wanted to put a little burger and beer joint.  His vision of the burger place he had in mind was that it would be more than a shot and a beer joint.  He wanted the burgers to be the best in the city and to also have other items to sell for lunch.  He named the spot after his father's nickname - Mogie's Pub - and it opened later that year.

Pictured right - John Mogensen and Lisa Aspenson.  Photo courtesy Chippewa Herald.

Success of their two restaurants allowed them to procure other buildings around Eau Claire and turn them from blighted properties into restaurants.  The pair also runStella Blues and the attached Red Room tavern, as well asThe Livery (also known as the Cowtown Saloon) in downtown Eau Claire where they own a number of other properties that house offices, living quarters and storefronts. Over the years, Mogensen and Aspenson have renovated over 100 buildings in Eau Claire and have owned over 300 parcels of property in and around the city.  Lisa Aspenson oversees the couple's restaurant operations while John Mogensen looks after the couple's interests in developments and properties.

My GPS took me right to Mogie's and I was able to find a parking spot just down Water Street from the place in front of a tattoo parlor.  (see map)   Mogie's Pub is located in a long narrow space that features wooden booths along the wall that is lined with local pictures and whimsical signage.  There's a smaller dining area - complete with a moose head hanging on the brick wall - in the back of Mogie's.  There's a pool/game room down a flight of stairs in the back room, and there is also an outdoor garden off to the side of the back dining area.

I ended up sitting at the long wooden bar and was given a menu by the bartender.  I noticed that they had the Surly Overrated West Coast IPA on tap and I ordered up one of those.  Just as he began to pour, the keg blew effectively ending my chance to have the beer.  But Mogie's also honors the age-old bar rule that you get a free beer on a blown keg.  I ordered up a pint of the Summit Extra Pale Ale.  I like the Summit EPA and it was a nice - and free - consolation prize since I couldn't the the Surly Overrated.

Even though I was there for a burger, I noticed that there were other items other than burgers on the menu at Mogie's.  Of course there were the normal bar-type appetizers (the jalapeño cheese curds were an interesting item), and they also had salads, wraps and grilled sandwiches such as a hickory-smoked ham and cheese, a grilled portabella mushroom sandwich, and four different types of grilled chicken sandwiches.

They had nine different burgers to choose from at Mogie's.  They had a Swiss cheese/mushroom burger, but I've been getting kind of burnt out on that combination (topped with bacon, if available).  And I didn't know if I just wanted to get a regular Mogie's Pub Burger that is served with lettuce, tomato and onions with six different types of cheese available to top the patty.  The Garcia burger that came with guacamole, salsa, sour cream and sliced tomatoes just sounded too busy for the taste buds.

But one burger that completely caught my eye was the Pepper Jack cheese burger.   It featured a 1/2 pound burger patty coated in Southwestern spices and a spicy aioli sauce, then finished with sliced red onions, leaf lettuce and roasted sweet red peppers.  It came on a sesame seed bun.  For $1.50 more, I could have gotten a side of fries ($2.50 for onion rings), but I knew that I wouldn't be eating many - if any - of the fries.

The burger patty was juicy and flavorful with the Southwestern spices giving it just a bit of spicy bite.  The spicy aioli was also a bit spicy, but not overpowering to the overall taste of the burger.  The bun was spongy, airy and light, and it held together well with the juiciness of the burger.

For over 20 years, Mogie's has been serving some of the best burgers found in the Eau Claire area - some may even say they are the best.  I thought the burger I had at Mogie's Pub was very good - not the best I've ever had - but I could see why my old neighbor was singing the praises of their burger.  Mogie's also featured a wide and varied craft beer list with many beers from around the Upper Midwest.  It was a nice, clean, well-lit and comfortable.  I could tell very easily why it's a favorite place for UW-Eau Claire students and locals, alike.  It seems to be a nice little neighborhood place to hang out for food and cold beer.

While I've been to Sugarfire Smokehouse a couple of times since they first opened five years ago, I've just not thought much about their barbecue like I do other barbecue places around St. Louis.  But other people must really like Sugarfire because they now have five locations in the greater St. Louis area and a sixth location out in Washington, MO.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the original Olivette location for Sugarfire.)  Since my initial visit to Sugarfire, I've heard from people both via e-mail (roadtips@gmail.com) and in passing conversation that the burgers they sell at Sugarfire are worth the wait (instead of the cafeteria-style ordering that is done for barbecue).  However, earlier this year, I heard that the owners of Sugarfire had opened up a place to showcase their burgers with no barbecue.   While we were down spending some down time in St. Louis this past summer, we stopped in to have lunch at the Hi-Pointe Drive In.

I'm just gonna be really lazy here and basically cut-and-paste the background on the owners of Sugarfire Smokehouse and Hi-Pointe Drive In from my original Sugarfire entry -

Chef Mike Johnson started out his career studying at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont.  After graduating from there, he went to Europe to try his hand at cuisines served at restaurants in France, then he moved out to Napa Valley, then down to Los Angeles before settling in at the highly-regarded (and now closed) Charlie Trotter's in Chicago.  Johnson then went to work for another celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse at Emeril's in New Orleans.

Johnson settled in St. Louis and worked at a handful of restaurants before he ended up at Boogalooas chef/owner serving Caribbean and Creole food.  Johnson then sold his share in Boogaloo and went on to Cyrano's in Webster Grove working with Charlie and Carolyn Downs.  Johnson eventually became a part-owner in Cyrano's, but he had other ideas for another restaurant.

Johnson decided that he wanted to get into barbecue and he began to travel to New York to learn more about that city's exploding barbecue scene. Eventually, Johnson went down to Georgia to study under legendary pit master Myron Mixon who heads Jack's Old South Barbecue cooking school that takes place once a month over a long weekend at Mixon's home.

With barbecue in his blood, Johnson then found a location in the Olivette area of St. Louis that used to house a former Dickey's Barbecue franchise that had gone out of business.  He went out and bought a smoker - the same smoker that Pappy's Smokehouse uses (click here to see my entry on Pappy's).  And along with Carolyn Downs who was in charge of making pies, cookies and pastries for the new endeavor, Sugarfire Smokehouse opened in the fall of 2012.

As I said, Johnson and Downs now have six Sugarfire locations (as well as Sugarfire Pie which is right next to the original location on Olivette), but it was the clamoring for their burgers that made them look into opening a burger joint with no barbecue.  Their burgers are flat-grilled, and are a blend of grass-fed brisket, chuck and boneless short rib.  For sometime, Johnson had his eye on a building that used to be a former Del Taco just off I-64 (or 40 Highway, to the locals) in the Hi-Pointe neighborhood just south and west of Forest Park.  (Previous to that, the building had been a drive-in restaurant.)  At first, he wanted to put a hot chicken place there, but when a couple hot chicken places opened in St. Louis, he decided to put in an off-shoot of Sugarfire's award winning burgers.  Hi-Pointe Drive In opened in early January of this year.

The outside of the building is rather unique and visually striking.Architect Tom Cohen did sort of a reverse contemporary industrial look to the building by using recycled shipping containers on the facade of the building.

We pulled into the parking lot at Hi-Pointe Drive In around 1:30 in the afternoon and promptly found that it was full.  We ended up parking on a side street behind the restaurant located at the corner of McCausland and Ethel, very near where Clayton, McCausland, Skinker and Oakland all meet up, and in the shadow of the largest Amoco sign in the world.  (see map)  There was a nice little patio out front with an arched awning covering it.  Up a couple steps next to the patio was a small dining area that was made out of a shipping container.

Inside the restaurant, we found a sort of contemporary industrial decor with wooden high-backed booths and a series of wooden tables and chairs.  It wasn't a large place, but it wasn't like people were on top of one another either.

The drill for ordering at Hi Pointe starts at the front counter with the menu on boards above the prep area.  The burgers are flat grilled and feature hormone and antibiotic free grass fed-raised and grain-finished beef from Creekstone Farms in Kansas.   There's really only one burger on the menu and you can get different toppings on it, but they do have a signature taco burger that was created in conjunction with the Mission Taco Joint in St Louis.  For the health conscious, they have a turkey burger and a veggie burger for vegans.

They also have a number of sandwiches to choose from on the menu including a turkey club, a roast beef sandwich, and a hot salami sandwich that featured Genoa salami and soppressata and topped with a spicy giardiniera and an Italian dressing.  They also had a handful of salads such as a chef salad, a grilled salmon salad and a Caesar salad.  A kids menu is also available at Hi Pointe.

I got a double Swiss cheese and bacon burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles.  I got a side of fries to try out with the burger.  I knew I wouldn't eat many, but my wife wanted some, too.  The burger was served on a grilled potato bun that Hi Pointe gets from Fazio's Bakery located just across Interstate 44 from The Hill in St. Louis.  The toppings were all very fresh, the bun was spongy and the burger patties were juicy and delicious.  This was, indeed, a very good burger.  And it went very well with the City Wide American Pale Ale from the local 4 Hands Brewing Co. they had available from the list of craft beers served at Hi Pointe.

My wife got the single burger with provolone cheese on it.  For her side she got the roasted Brussels sprouts, a staple in her diet as of late.  She, too, thought the burger at Hi Pointe was very good.  She especially liked that they provolone slice was thick and gooey, melted precisely on top of the burger.

The people at Sugarfire Smokehouse saw the potential to focus on their very good burgers and that's how Hi Pointe Drive-In came to be.  With a burger/sandwich centric menu and a good selection of craft beers, Hi Pointe has quickly become one of the more popular new spots in St. Louis.  We were both very impressed with the burgers we had and my wife was happy that they had roasted Brussels sprouts as a side.  About the only negative thing that popped out at us was the somewhat cold and surly attitude we received from the guy we ordered our burgers from.  But other than that...  There's a lot of good burger places in St. Louis and Hi Pointe is definitely one of the better ones in the area.

Another burger joint that has enjoyed a nearly perennial status as a finalist for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" over the past few years is the Ankeny Diner located in Ankeny just north of Des Moines.  After a morning meeting in Des Moines and just before I drove back home, I decided to head up the short trip to Ankeny to try the burger at the Ankeny Diner.

The Ankeny Diner is the restaurant that is part of the Ramada Inn in Ankeny just off of Interstate 35 at the corner of E. 1st St. and SE Delaware Ave. (see map) Menadue Development, a commercial property management and investment company headed by Ankeny physician/lawyer Dr. Mark Menadue, owns the property that houses both the hotel and restaurant.  Menadue Development bought the hotel 30 years ago, but updated the restaurant into the present day Ankeny Diner in 2003.

The restaurant has a muted-50's style decor with art deco accents.  The spacious dining room was well-lit and made to look even bigger and brighter with mirrors along the walls above the booths.

I was escorted to a table in the dining room and given a menu to look over.  They have a full bar with a limited beer selection at the Ankeny Diner and I thought a cold beer would taste pretty good with my lunch on what was a hot summer day.

There is also a soda fountain at Ankeny Diner that offers milkshakes, malts, root beer floats, and ice cream treats.  There was a lot of mirrors and neon in the soda fountain area giving the small area a well-lit illusion that it was larger than it was.

Looking through the menu, it's definitely a full menu at the Ankeny Diner.  They serve breakfast all day starting at 6 a.m. (closing at 9 p.m. Sunday thru Thursday, 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights).  In addition to their burgers they have typical diner foods - sandwiches, salads, soups and a number of appetizers.  They also offer a couple three pasta dishes, as well as a ribeye or a sirloin steak platter.  And like any diner worth their weight, the Ankeny Diner serves up a hot roast beef or a hot turkey blue plate special complete with skin-on mashed potatoes and gravy.  (I'll have to remember that if I'm passing by Ankeny in the colder months around lunch time.)

But I was there to try the burger.  They have about a dozen featured burgers on the menu at the Ankeny Diner and I ended up getting the bacon/Swiss cheese burger.  I asked my server if they could put some mushrooms on the burger.  She said it was no problem.  A side of crinkle cut fries came on the side.  I knew I wouldn't eat many - if any - of the fries.

The burger was big and juicy.  It was on a spongy toasted bun, but the cheese was sort of just laid on top of the bacon and mushrooms rather than allowed to melt on top of the patty.  Nonetheless, I took a bite of the burger.

And it was good.  Not outstanding, but it was good.  The mushrooms were canned with a sort of bland taste, but the bacon had a positive flavor on the burger.  The Swiss cheese, however, was also sort of bland.  I really wished they would have allowed the cheese to melt onto the patty to mix in all the flavors.  Melted cheese always tastes better, anyhow.  As I said, the burger was juicy and it was definitely a multi-napkin burger.

I did end up trying some of the crinkle cut fries and I thought they were undercooked.  They were sort of cool like they had been sitting for awhile, but they were sort of mushy like they had been taken out of the fryer too soon.  That's all right - I wasn't really going to eat them anyway.

I've tried a number of burger joints across Iowa that have either won or have been finalists for the Best Burger in Iowa contest sponsored by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.  Being that the Ankeny Diner had been named a finalist a number of times, I guess I was expecting more out of the burger I had during my visit.   While the beef patty was juicy and flavorful, the mushrooms they used on it were sort of "meh", and the Swiss cheese wasn't allowed to melt into the patty before the mushrooms and bacon were put on top.  Sometimes I wonder what the judges who go around to these places to see who may have the best burger in Iowa are really thinking.  I've had some bad burgers in places that were declared winners, and had some great burgers in places that didn't win.  I'd have to put the burger at the Ankeny Diner as somewhere in between.  It wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst of the places I've tried.

For the past couple of years, one of the finalists for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" contest was a bar up in Maquoketa, about 30 miles north of Davenport.  I had always been wanting to go there to try the burger and one evening when my wife was next door at our neighbors house for some "women's night out" thing, I decided to drive up to Maquoketa to try the burger at PerXactly's Bar and Grill.

PerXactly's Bar and Grill is like many small town taverns - it's a neighborhood hangout located just off the two main drags in downtown Maquoketa.  (see map)  It's the kind of place that has domestic beers on tap and a handful of craft beers in the case.  The building for PerXactly's looks like it could have been a garage at some point in time as two corrugated metal coverings flank the front door.

The inside of the place isn't all that large and features a three-sided bar with the kitchen on the backside.  A number of high top tables were in a small dining area.  Flat-screen televisions, beer signs and sports paraphernalia were hanging on the walls.  The were doing a pretty brisk business when I stopped in just after 7 p.m. and took a seat at the bar.

The first thing I noticed about the place was the overpowering smell of the oil from the deep fryer.  They really needed to change the oil out, I thought to myself.  And it was sort of smoky from the grill cooking any number of burgers.  Their fan system wasn't able to keep up with clearing the smoke from the kitchen.

They had a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger on the menu that I ordered up.  I asked the bartender if he could have the cook throw some bacon on top of the burger, as well.  I had a choice between home fries or potato wedges and I took the home fries.

The burger came out of the kitchen with a knife stuck in the  top of it - a serious no-no in my book.  The home fries were really nothing more than French fries that I figured I wouldn't be eating many of them because of the smell from the fryers.

It was a good sized burger on a larger than normal toasted bun.  The Swiss cheese was slathered over the top of the burger patty and oozed down along the sides.  The mushrooms were the canned variety and the two strips of bacon were average in thickness.

The burger, itself, was, well...  It was all right.  I mean, it wasn't bad, but I didn't think that it was what I would call a multi-finalist for the Best Burger in Iowa contest.  It was juicy enough, but the taste wasn't anything special to me.  I've had a few burgers over time and while it was good, there were other Best Burger finalists that I thought had a much better tasting burger.

A minor surprise at the end of the meal came when I pulled out my credit card to pay for the burger and a couple of beers.  The bartender said, "Uh, we don't take credit cards.  But we got an ATM over there," pointing to a machine along the wall near the restrooms.  Fortunately, I had enough cash on me to take care of the bill and a tip for the bartender.

Talking with a friend of mine on the phone as I was driving home from Maquoketa that evening, and he asked me what I thought of PerXactly's.  I told him that I liked the bar - it was the kind of place where I felt comfortable in, even though I didn't know anyone in there.  But I felt that while the burger was good, I didn't think that it was worthy of a couple finalist nods for the Best Burger in Iowa.  At least compared to other finalists and winners that I've had over time.  But, all in all, for a small town tavern having a big burger, PerXactly's Bar and Grill was a good place to visit.

Earlier this year when the Iowa Beef Industry Council named their Best Burger in Iowa winner for 2017, one of the places on the 10 finalists list caught my eye.  It was a place in the Iowa City suburb of North Liberty that I wasn't familiar with.  That's because it had just opened in November of 2016 and I hadn't heard of the place before that.  On a trip that took me past North Liberty earlier this summer, I decided to stop in and try BeerBurger.

In December of 2015, local businessman/developer/investor John Burchert announced that he was going to build a nearly 40,000 square foot family entertainment center on the northwest side of North Liberty.  Burchert was the founder of the Iowa City call center TMONE (now called Mass Media), and was an investor in the Eden nightclub and the Iowa Chop House in Iowa City.  Burchert's company, MAiNGREDIENT also dabbled in social media, wearables and catering in addition to working on new developments.

On part of the land that Burchert was going to put his large entertainment center, he put up a building that would eventually house BeerBurger.  Along with co-owner Bobby Thompson, the two were able to convince Craig Vorba, the chef who helped start the Iowa Chop House, but went on to become the executive chef at Exile Brewing Company in Des Moines, to come back to the Iowa City area to head up the culinary team at BeerBurger.  The restaurant opened just a little bit less than a year ago.

It was around 1:30 when I walked into BeerBurger located just off the North Liberty exit on I-380.  (see map)  The decor was of a contemporary industrial with some service station signage and some pretty interesting light fixtures.  There was a rather interesting round fluorescent light hanging in the middle of the dining area.  Metal framed chairs with heavy duty tables were in place in the dining area of the restaurant.

There is a very nice outdoor patio area in front of the restaurant.  It was a nice day and a handful of people were eating outside under the large trellis.

There is a lot of artwork in BeerBurger.  The graffiti-style mural below right features Abraham Lincoln drinking a beer and wearing a large foam "No. 1" hand.  The mural is part of the artwork done by local artist Keaton Rogers for BeerBurger.

The keg storage room is also part functional, part art museum.  The room will hold over 70 kegs of beer, but some of the kegs had artwork painted on them.  Rather than hide the kegs, Burchert wanted to showcase the beer selection BeerBurger has, as well as make it sort of interesting to look inside.

I ended up sitting at the L-shaped copper-topped bar that features open windows looking into the kitchen. I was greeted by my server and bartender that day, Tasheanna, who dropped off a food menu and asked me what I would like to drink.  They have over 40 beers on tap at BeerBurger and I immediately saw the distinctive handle of my favorite beer Kona Big Wave Golden Ale.  I don't see Big Wave on tap in a lot of places, but I like the ones that do.

There are much more than just burgers on the menu at BeerBurger.  In fact, I was sort of surprised they only had 8 feature burgers on the menu - 9, if you count the ground turkey burger they have.  They also had a number of sandwiches including a grilled chicken sandwich, a beer-battered pork tenderloin, a grilled three-cheese and bacon sandwich, and a dry-rubbed smoked pulled pork sandwich.   They also had entrees such as a bone-in porterhouse pork chop, beer-battered cod and fries, a 16 ounce sirloin steak, and chicken & waffles.  Appetizers included the standard chicken wings, burger sliders, beer-battered cheese curds, and a plate of applewood-smoked bacon with a maple/black pepper glaze.  Salads are also available, as is a kid's menu.

I was definitely going to get a burger, but Tasheanna was really pushing me to get the Caesar's salad with salmon they had featured that day.  "It's really delicious," she said more than once to me.  I thought it was sort of weird that she was trying to get me to order the Caesar's salmon salad.  Maybe she was concerned that I needed to drop a few pounds, but it was probably more along the lines of the chef needing to move some of the salmon before it wasn't sellable any longer.

For my burger that day, I ordered the #5 - a 6-ounce Iowa beef patty topped with carmelized onions that were sautéed in Iowa beer, sautéed mushrooms, roasted red peppers, gruyére cheese, and finished with a Worcestershire aioli.  I asked Tasheanna to throw some applewood-smoked bacon on the burger, as well.  A leaf of lettuce, a sliced tomato, sliced red onions and hamburger dill pickles came on the side.  I also got a side of fries, but I was certain that I wouldn't eat many - if any - of them.

The burgers are flat-grilled and served on a pretzel bun.  The burger was very juicy and very flavorful.  It was one of those "Mmmmm....." moments when I took the first bite.  The gruyére cheese, the roasted peppers, the smoked bacon, and the sautéed mushrooms were all prevalent in the taste, but they didn't overpower the rich taste of the beef patty.   The pretzel bun held together very well with all the juice and toppings going on.  The only quibble I had was this was a multiple napkin burger, but they use linen napkins at BeerBurger.  Yeah, I liked the classy touch, but the burger had so much going on with its juiciness and all the toppings including the gooey gruyére cheese that it wasn't long before I made a good sized mess out of the napkin that I had.  It just didn't make sense to me that they had linen napkins at BeerBurger.  I had to ask Tasheanna for another napkin to get me through the meal.

And it also turned out that the fries were very good.  Crispy on the outside with a great flaky potato taste inside, the fries appeared to be hand-cut and flash-fried.  I actually ended up eating more than half of the fries because they tasted so good.

Getting a finalist nod for the Best Burger in Iowa was a great public relations boost for BeerBurger in their first year of business.  And I can attest that the taste of the burger was excellent and worthy of the honor.  They have an impressive list of beers to choose from, and the service I received was prompt and friendly.  I still don't know why my server was trying to push the salmon Caesar's salad when the place is clearly a burger joint.  And a very good burger joint, at that.

Thanks to Brian F. who e-mailed me earlier this year to tell me about a place in Omaha that he thought had a very good burger - Smitty's Garage.  I was in Omaha earlier this summer and had some time to get lunch, so I sought out Smitty's Garage to see how good the burger really was.

First of all, I didn't realize that Smitty's Garage was a chain. The birth of Smitty's Garage started in Norman, OK about five years ago when Hal Smith was brainstorming with a couple friends about a concept restaurant that featured great burgers with a great craft beer list in a laid-back, but interesting setting.  It wasn't Smith's first rodeo in the restaurant business.  In fact, you could possibly call Smith a "serial restaurateur".

While going to school at the University of Oklahoma as a pre-law major, Hal Smith found work at a restaurant called Across the Street.  It was similar to the old King's Food Host restaurants where patrons called in their orders via phone.  When the restaurant was sold in the late 60's, the new owner of Across the Street was in the final stages of opening a steakhouse on the outskirts of Norman called Crosstimbers.  Impressed with his  work ethic, the new owner tapped the young Smith to open and manage the new steakhouse.  Hal Smith suddenly found himself in the restaurant industry instead of studying law.

However, it was one evening in 1970 not long after the new restaurant opened when Smith's life changed again.  A gentleman - who had just enjoyed one of the marinated steaks Crosstimbers was becoming famous for - handed Smith his card.  This gentleman was Norman Brinker, the founder and owner of the Steak and Ale.  Brinker told the young Smith that if he was ever looking to do something different to look him up.

Pictured right - Hal Smith.  Photo courtesy Mark Hancock/405 Magazine

After five years at Crosstimbers, Smith decided that he wanted to do something else with his life.  He had stayed in touch with Brinker over the years and contacted him to say that it was time for them to talk.  Since he was in the process of selling Steak and Ale to the Pillsbury corporation, Brinker didn't promise Smith anything.  However, Smith said that he and his family would go anywhere that Steak & Ale wanted to send him.  Brinker hired Smith and his first stop with his new company was in Columbus, OH as a management trainee.

Smith worked hard in his first couple of years at Steak and Ale and his hard work and dedication didn't go unnoticed by Brinker who was still the president of the chain of restaurants.  Smith's skills at starting and running restaurants took him and his family to 8 cities in 4 states during the first four years of his time with Steak and Ale.  By 1979, Hal Smith was in the Washington D.C. area overseeing 50 Steak and Ale locations as a regional manager.

One of the other restaurants under the Pillsbury umbrella at the time - Bennigan's - was just starting out.  When Brinker was told he would be moved over to run Bennigan's, he called Smith in to see who should replace him as president of Steak and Ale.  Brinker named six or seven colleagues who he thought should be worthy candidates of taking over for Brinker.  But Brinker had his mind made up already - he put Hal Smith into his vacated chair as the head of Steak and Ale.  The restaurant chain was doing about $400 million in annual sales when Smith took over at the age of 33.  With an aggressive business plan and expansion, annual sales at Steak and Ale rose to around $700 million within the first three years Smith was in charge.

In 1983, Pillsbury was looking at the possibility of buying a small chain of restaurants based out of Texas.  When they passed on buying the restaurants, Norman Brinker immediately resigned from his position with Bennigan's and bought the chain - Chili's.  The first thing he did was recruit Hal Smith from Steak and Ale and made Smith the president of Chili's.  Under Smith's leadership, Chili's became one of the more popular casual restaurants in the nation.  But in 1986, a restaurant chain that was bloated with bureaucracy and poor management came calling for Smith's help.  After just two years with Chili's, Hal Smith became the president and CEO of Chi Chi's.

With a complete corporate restructuring and a new marketing campaign, Smith was able to double Chi Chi's profits within the first two years of him at the helm.  When Jack in the Box bought Chi Chi's in 1992, Hal Smith made a small fortune on the sale of his company stock.  He was independently wealthy and for the first time he had the means of doing something else with his life.

Smith moved back to Norman in 1992 and started a company called Hal Smith Restaurant Group.  An old friend from his days at Steak and Ale - Chris Sullivan - was starting up a steakhouse with an Australian theme in the Tampa Bay area and wanted Smith to invest $250,000 into the business.  Smith passed on investing with the company - Outback Steakhouse - but soon became a franchisee for the 19 locations in Midwest.  Had Smith invested in Outback Steakhouse in its infancy, his investment would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars when the company was sold in 2012.

Smith went on to become the exclusive Krispy Kreme franchisee in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  He invested in, franchised, or started a number of restaurants around the state of Oklahoma and the Midwest including Charleston's, Mahogany Prime Steakhouse, Pub W, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, and Hefner Grill.  When a bar went out of business in Norman about four years ago, Hal Smith took it over for his newest concept which, at first, was simply known as The Garage.  There are now 17 Smitty's Garage locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Nebraska with a new location getting ready to open in Kansas City at any time.

There are two Smitty's Garage locations in Omaha.  The first Smitty's Garage in Omaha opened near Oak View Mall on Omaha's southwest side in September of last year.  The second location along Dodge Street opened in March of this year.  That was the one that I went to, located at the end of a strip mall on the north side of Dodge Street at N. 76th Street.  (see map)  It's set back a bit from Dodge and I didn't see it when I first went by.  I did see a small sign that said "Burgers and Beers" on a marquee in front of the strip mall along Dodge, but didn't see the Smitty's Garage logo with it.  I finally turned on 76th Street and just before the intersection with Cass Ave., I saw Smitty's Garage on my left.

Entering the restaurant, there's a front counter with a menu on the wall behind it.  The menu was all on flat-screen monitors and even though I saw a bar in the back of the restaurant, there wasn't any place to order beer up front.  One of the ladies who took my burger order told me that I could order beer back at the bar.  License plates were affixed to the front of the counter, and various signs were hung on the wall around the front counter.

The dining room was spacious and open - sort of like a garage.  It was sort of a contemporary industrial decor with exposed duct work, walls adorned with flat-screen television and signs, and a concrete floor.  The place was about a quarter full when I got in there around 1:30 and I could only imagine that it would be pretty damn loud in that place if it filled up.

I sat at the bar and set down my little number sign that they gave me at the front counter so they could get my burger to me.  The bartender came up to me and said, "Oh, honey.  Did you already order your food?  You know you can just order from me back here at the bar in the future."  I thought that was sort of confusing that you had to order your food from up front and go back and get the beer separately.  I'm glad she told me because I didn't know the drill.

The bar was a three-sided high-top with metal chairs around it.  Larger flat-screen televisions were on the wall behind the bar and they had a very good selection of craft beers to choose from.  I ended up ordering a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA.  "Good choice," she said as she took my order.  "I love that beer."  It turned out that she knew her beers very well.  We spent a good portion of time talking about various beers that we both liked and disliked.

Now, it turned out that they had more on the menu than just burgers at Smitty's Garage.  They also had tacos, as well as sandwiches, and foot-long hot dogs that were smothered in either chili and cheese, or in a Mexican salsa/cheese combination.  But, of course, I got the mushroom/bacon/Swiss cheese burger with a side of fries.  I don't know why I got the fries - I usually don't eat them or if I do it's only a handful that I will eat.  But these fries were surprisingly very good.  I had more than a handful of the fries on this visit.

The burger was flat-grilled and came with a fresh tomato slice and fresh lettuce greens.  From the first bite, I knew this was a good burger.  It was sort of charred on the outside, but juicy inside.  The bun was light and held together very well with the juiciness of the burger.  The Swiss cheese was melting over the top of the burger patty, and the mushrooms and bacon gave the overall taste of the burger an exquisite flavor.  For as juicy as the burger was, and as much Swiss cheese that was on it, it was definitely a multi-napkin burger.

One again, my thanks to Brian F. who turned me on to Smitty Garage.  The drill of ordering food was a little confusing to me - if you don't want beer or an alcoholic drink, you can order from the front counter.  But you can go back to the bar and order your food and drinks from the bartender if you like.  I'll have to say the burger was exceptional at Smitty's Garage, as was their list of craft beers they had available.   And I even liked the fries at Smitty's Garage, too.  My server/bartender was pleasant and helpful giving me the lay of the land on how to order at Smitty's Garage.  And she also knew her craft beers very well.  There's a lot of good places to get a burger in Omaha and Smitty's Garage has jumped into my top five places to go for a burger when I'm in the city.

A friend of mine had mentioned earlier this summer that he had eaten at a new burger place over in Moline and he thought it was pretty good.  I had heard that a new place had opened in September of last year in what used to be the old Governor's space in Moline, but we had not been there to give the place to try.  On a lazy Sunday afternoon, my wife and I made the trip over to 53rd St. just north of Avenue of the Cities to give Steel Plow Burger Company a try. (see map)

The Steel Plow Burger Company is a collaborative effort between four men - Dan Whitaker, Mike Harper, Larry Anderson and John Barrett - off of an idea Harper had for a restaurant concept of classic gourmet burgers and monster-sized ice cream drinks for adults and kids.  Whitaker had restaurant experience - he runs the River House in Moline (a place that we like to go to from time to time, but curiously I've never done a Road Tips write-up on the River House) - and when the old Governor's space along 53rd St. became available, the group jumped on the chance to open their burger joint there.

Now, the old Governor's location in Moline held a special place for my wife and me.  It was the spot where we had our first legitimate date 24 years ago.  We both got taco salads and I drank a lot of water because I was severely hungover from a previous long day of heavy drinking - it turned out to be my last as an unattached man.  So, we got a minor kick out of going back to the place where we had our first meal together so many years ago.

And the place had changed dramatically.  While Governor's was a little cozy and dim with dark wood booths, the atmosphere at Steel Plow Burger Company was much more lighter and lively.  The main feature was a large fireplace in the middle of the dining room - the placement was sort of curious to me, but I figured that it also acted as a support for the roof.  There was a nice bar toward the back of the dining area and a number of booths along the other walls of the room.

There was an indoor/outdoor space on the back of the building that looked like it could also seat people in the winter.  We had a chance to sit out there, but I asked to be put into a booth in the dining room.

After being seated and given menus to look over, our server - Chelle (Shelley) stopped by to greet us.  I was looking over the beer selection they had to offer - it wasn't extensive, but it was good enough.  I ended up getting a Revolution Fist City pale ale.  My wife was marveling at the huge ice cream milk shakes that were being delivered to tables near us.  I tried to talk her into getting one with a shot of liquor mixed in, but she said that if she had one of the "above-the-rim" milk shakes she would go into a coma just from the sugar alone.

The burgers at Steel Plow are a mixture of prime rib steak trimmings that are ground together and flat grilled.  They also feature hormone and antibiotic-free grass fed beef for burgers, as well as lean ground bison.  My wife is a big fan of bison, but I find that it can get dried out pretty quickly during the cooking process if it isn't handled properly.  For the health conscious, turkey and black bean burgers are also available.

They have a number of specialty burgers on the menu including a French onion burger, a Firehouse burger that is topped with jalapeños, chorizo, pepper jack cheese and a hot sauce, a truffle sauce Swiss cheese and mushroom burger, and the "Double Dare Ya" burger that features a 1 pound ground prime burger stuffed with jalapeños, red onions and bacon, then mixed with an onion mix with American and Swiss cheese.  Steel Plow also as a number of non-burger sandwiches including a grilled or breaded pork tenderloin, a New Orleans-style muffuletta, a grilled chicken sandwich, and something that caught my eye - mahi mahi grilled tacos.  They also had a smoked gouda/American/cheddar/Swiss grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes and bacon added.  For a dollar more, you could get avocado slices added.  My wife perked up when she saw that.

Appetizers at Steel Plow featured large chicken wings - they looked more like legs for the ones I saw, a poutine appetizer, nachos, housemade deviled eggs, and a large 12" pretzel that they called family size.  One other interesting thing I found on their menu was a number of variations of macaroni and cheese, all named for one of the Three Stooges.  The "Moe" was just basic mac and cheese with aged cheddar, the "Larry" had chorizo mixed in with the mac and cheese, the "Curly" had sliced hot dogs mixed in (something I'd never seen in a mac and cheese before), and the "Shemp" had bacon mixed in.  They had a little bit of everything on the menu at Steel Plow.

They have a "build-your-own" burger on the menu at Steel Plow and that's the way my wife and I ordered up our burgers.  The first step is choosing your type of burger (she ordered bison, of course), then the type of bun (or you can go "topless" as my wife ordered), then a choice of cheese (six different cheeses to choose from) and then if you want lettuce, tomato, pickles or onions.  For a $1 upcharge, you can get jalapeños, bacon, avocado slices, sautéed mushrooms or onions, and a fried egg.  My wife got cheddar cheese on her burger.  For her side, she got the cole slaw after Chelle told her that it was a vinegar-based cole slaw.  Only it wasn't - it was cream-based and she thought it tasted pretty bland.  But she enjoyed the burger very much.  She said that the bison burger wasn't dried out and had a wonderful flavor.  I don't know how she could taste the bison as there was a big slab of melted cheddar cheese on top of it.

I went with the regular prime rib burger on an onion bun with smoked gouda cheese.  I also had them put sautéed mushrooms, a slice of red onion and pickles on the burger.  I also asked her to put bacon on the burger, but they forgot to put the bacon on.  (I pointed that out to Chelle about halfway through finishing the burger.  She offered to bring some bacon out, but I just had her take it off the bill.)  For my side, I got what they called a medley of fries - French fries, waffle cut fries, sweet potato fries, steak fries and curly fries.  My wife ate more of the fries than I did considering she didn't care for her cole slaw all that much.

The burger was juicy and flavorful.  The slice of smoked gouda was pretty thin and I didn't get much of a taste sensation from the cheese.  But the onion bun was light, fluffy and held together very well with what turned out to be a multi-napkin burger.  The red onion was very forward in taste and went well with the other things on the burger.  Yes, this was a very good burger.

My wife and I pretty much liked everything about our first visit to Steel Plow Burger Company.  Oh, I had a couple quibbles along the way - they forgot the bacon on my burger and the craft beer list was just OK, in my opinion.  And my wife didn't care much for her cole slaw that she got as a side.  But the burgers we both had - she had the bison burger with no bun, and I had the regular prime beef burger with an onion bun - were very good.  We like to go out and get a good burger from time to time, and Steel Plow has now entered into the rotation of places that we'll head to for a burger and a beer.  I just don't know if we'll ever try one of those huge ice cream drinks that they have.

Hy Vee Sante Fe Stuffed Chicken Breast Nutrition Facts

Source: https://roadtips.typepad.com/a_salesguys_guide_to_the_/burger_joints/

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