Category Archives: DINING

June 29, 2014 · 2:40 pm

Restaurant to try in Eastern Iowa – Salt Fork Kitchen in Solon (poached eggs!)

  Interesting story in the Register today about this place although I didn’t really get a feel for what food the restaurant serves. But I do love a good poached egg and this place does them with ground lamb and farm fresh eggs. Looks amazing. Lets go to the video.

Salt Fork Kitchen

  And this may also be a place to order a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving.

112 E. Main St.
Solon, IA
319-624-2081
saltforkkitchen@gmail.com
Hours: 7 AM – 2 PM Tuesday – Sunday

Salt Fork Kitchen is a made-from-scratch, locally sourced restaurant that works with area farmers to provide exceptional, in-season food. We believe in quality first at a fair price. We offer:

  1. Daily breakfast and lunch service with an emphasis on fresh and local.
  2. Farm-to-table dinners: prix-fixe four course meals paired with selected wines, held periodically. Dates will be advertised here (see below.)
  3. A market with fresh farm products (Saturdays 9AM-noon).
  4. A catering service for both on-site and off-site events. We can accommodate most any size or type of event. Please contact us for a consultation about your event.

Breakfast is Salt Fork Kitchen’s foundation. Providing delicious and healthy food choices to the Solon community at every meal of the day throughout the year is our goal.

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June 25, 2014 · 2:42 am

Al’s Deli, Burrito place next door – Evanston dining

A picnic with the Noyes Boys after Northwestern’s commencement and convocation last weekend was a being your own affair in the park behind our graduate’s apartment on Ridge, near the Piven (as in actor Jeremy Piven of Entourage fame and a NU grad) Theater. Fortunately there is a strip of food places along Noyes. Al’s Deli had good sandwiches on excelLent baguettes (next time I will get the pate or smoked salmon rather than the roast beef) but Al (presumably) and his one assistant were a bit overwhelmed by the post convocation crowd and it took ages to get our food.  The burrito place next door was much after and just as good. decent coffee place nearby too.

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June 24, 2014 · 2:41 am

Lady Gregory’s in Andersonville; Andy’s Thai Kitchen (again); Santorini in greektown: Chicago

we were not really hungry when we went to lady Gregory’s Pub and grille in Chicago’s Andersonville on Friday night but that is part of the reason I made a reservation there? We would be coming from a college reception At Northwestern where I wasn’t sure whether we would be fed. Turns out we were  – open bar, tons of appetizers and desserts. Lady Gregory’s had a the kind of menu where you could eat a lot or a little for not much. So I split a salad with rotisserie chicken with another diner; others had serviceable burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches and what looked like good tomato soup. we had an excellent very peppy waitress who took our shared dessert off our tab when she learned we were celebrating my sons college graduation.

The next night we went to an old favorite in Greektown, Santorini. food is fine but mostly drawn there because there were 20 of us and I knew they could handle that. A rather assertive veteran waiter did indeed! And everyone was happy with thei meals… Greek chicken, taramasalata, Greek salad, lamb kebabs et. Al. Also another trip to Andy’s Thai Kitchen which has become a tradition. Food still great. JUst wish they took credit cards.

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June 19, 2014 · 2:40 am

Much better burnt ends: Oklahoma Joes in Kansas City

We thought at 2 pm on. Monday there might NOT be a line at this super popular (for good reason) BBQ joint in one half of a gas station in an out of the way corner of Metro Kansas City . Think again. But at least the line wasn’t as long as last Friday’s 1 1/2 hour wait. After a half hour of standing in line, ogling other diners’ plates, we had our very own slab of ribs (meaty, juicy AND crispy) and burnt ends (succulent chunks of BBQ beef – still not the chewy shards I remember fondly, but from where? Bryant’s?)  Also good spicy slaw, fries sprinkled with some magic spices, rich tangy beans. Worth the wait!

 

 

 

 

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June 14, 2014 · 3:11 am

Bummer Burnt Ends at gates BBQ in KC

Not sure what happened to the crispy shards of BBQ beef that used to be served as burnt ends at Gates on Main Street in downtown Kansas City but tonight it looked more like hash or ground beef with the odd bit of fat. Blech. But pleased to report that the ribs remain fabulous.

bring back the real burnt ends!

 

 

 

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June 9, 2014 · 1:53 pm

British breakfast (what else? Scottish breakfast?) at The Royal Mile in Des Moines

 

 

On a bike ride Sunday through Des Moines we were looking for a place to stop for brunch downtown after finding Mullet’s  oversubscribed (perhaps it’s because there was a Cubs game happening soon at the stadium across the river from Mullets’s.) We chanced upon The Royal Mile and glad we did – the brunch menu had a wide selection (“American” and “British” breakfast) and the cozy pub interior was busy but not packed so we got a table for five easily. My poached eggs with Guinness roasted potatos and banger sausage was hearty, tasty. The Bloody Mary, a muddy brownish-red was spicey and good – it came with a little chaser of beer (never seen that before) that I gave to my coffee-drinking husband. The corned beef hash came with cubes of corn beef – I prefer shredded bits (aka “hash). The breakfast pastie – sort of cross between a Cornish pastie and an omelet – was heavy but good flavor. So we’ll be back if we’re in need of brunch. We rode an extra 5 miles or so (we’re not exactly sure since our speedometer is broken) on the Great Western Trail south of Cumming (Iowa) to work off, we hope, some of our brunch.

 

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May 21, 2014 · 2:48 pm

Dining options during evening bike rides in Des Moines

magnolia kitchen & grocery.jpg

Above is a rendering of what the Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery food truck will look like.(Photo: Special to th

In preparation for Ragbrai, we are trying to ride our bikes at least one weekday evening a week – often Tuesdays so we can eat at Tacopocalypse stand outside the Cumming Tap (in the small town of Cumming, Iowa.) But sometimes we ride on Wednesday or Thursday on the Great Western Trail south from Des Moines when tacos aren’t an option at Cumming Tap (Wednesday, we discovered last week, is steak night there, which is a bit heavy for us.)

So I was pleased to see other options available in Jennifer Miller’s latest excellent food column for the Des Moines Register. See below! They’re not in Cumming but they are along our bike route, which includes Gray’s Lake (where Confluence Brewing is located) and the trail at 63rd and Grand (where Pal Joey’s Lounge is).

Here’s the options:

TUESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Pal Joey’s Lounge; Tacopacalypse at Cumming Tap

WEDNESDAY Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at Confluence Brewing 

THURSDAY  Magnolia Kitchen & Grocery at 515 Brewing on Friday evenings or The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

FRIDAY  The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday.

SATURDAY   The Levee, patio on the east end of Court Avenue. Woody’s Smoke Shack food, and Confluence  beers.  open 9 p.m. to midnight

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May 14, 2014 · 12:57 am

Eatery A – Malo – Des Moines!

seedcornphoto (57)Eatery A was as busy and noisy on a Saturday night as expected last weekend – also fun and good food so that helped. Located in a former Blockbuster video store on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines, the restaurant is a mashup of middle eastern and Italian from what I can tell. Lots of lamb, pizza, harissa, figs, dates, feta. We ordered a few too many things with figs – including a pizza with figs and proscuitto and greens and a green salad with figs. But the lamb sliders were excellent as was the “cucumber salad” – although it was more delicate fresh greens, including a free mint leaves, with some cucumber slices, feta, pomegrate seeds and a tangy lemon dressing. The desserts were interesting – we had “donuts” served with lemon curd, which were a bit like beignets, light fried dough dusted with sugar and a cake made with cornmeal or polenta that had an odd but interesting crunchy texture, served with a dollop of very good dark chocolate ice cream. The decor is lots of distressed wood that looks like it’s from an old barn and fun chandeliers. It was a bit too dark to be able to read the menu – especially the red section of the menu. We had to use our cellphone flashlights. We’ll be back.

We also peaked in at Malo, the new Latin restaurant opening this week in the way cool new former 1930’s firehouse location of the Des Moines Social Club – how great to have all these new options in Des Moines. We also wandered over to nearby West End Architectural Salvage, which had some great albeit pricey crafts including some terrific bags made out of old seed corn bags.socialclubphoto (56)

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April 28, 2014 · 7:12 pm

Tacopocalypse, The Cheese Shop, Creme, Trellis – expanding dining scene in Des Moines!

It really struck me last weekend when I celebrated my birthday on several occasions that Des Moines has so many more interesting dining options than it used to have, just a few years ago. Here’s a few:

Tacopocalypse – This hipster taco place in the East Village serves some creative tacos – including Korean versions like bulgogi – in a funky old building just east of the restaurant Alba. It was a little too quiet on a Saturday afternoon – but nice to be able to sail in and out quickly mid-bike ride. (We originally tried Zombie Burger but it was way too packed and the wait way too long.) Our favorite was the lemongrass pork taco but also want to try the sesame pork and one of the bahn mi sandwiches next time.

– The Cheese Shop – I’ve been here for lunch before but not for a pre-theater snack, which it turned out to be perfect for. On a Saturday at 5:30 the little place in the Roosevelt Shopping Center was packed but we still found a table and had a lovely cheese board and some hard cider for me (hazy dazy…good!) and beer for D. Just enough to last through a performance of the fantastic musical “Once” at the Des Moines Civic Center.

– Creme – And then after the theater we went for dessert and a drink (tea for me, wine for D) at this cute little place off of Ingersoll Avenue. I had an over-the-top flourless chocolate torte. Dirck was very happy with his pineapple upside down carrot cake. Cute place and glad to see it busy too at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night.

– Trellis – On Sunday at 11 we met two friends who also have April birthdays for our traditional joint b’day celebration, this time at this lovely  new restaurant (-top photo) at the Des Moine Botanical Center, which is getting a major overhaul and already looks much better. The chef is a friend, the talented Lisa LaValle, who used to work magic at the Des Moines Art Center restaurant and is doing it again at the Botanical Center. I particularly liked my red curry chicken soup – and my bloody Mary – and a superb piece of strawberry rhubarb pie (a b’day treat from Lisa.) There’s a cool exhibit of hanging plants (for lack of a better description) at the Botanical Center right now and I was impressed with the high-quality crafts and toys and garden-related stuff in the gift shop. We’ll be back!

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March 29, 2014 · 5:24 pm

Good food irritating service at the “new” Proof in Des Moines

We finally got around to trying the “new” Proof restaurant in Des Moines which has been under new ownership for some time.  The food was pretty good – especially the meat (pork, steak) which was well-seasoned and presented – but the server was way overbearing, which was irritating.

If you’re truly a sophisticated restaurant, you don’t need to point this out repeatedly to your diners. Nor do you need to repeatedly ask for feedback (i.e. compliments because really, what else will a polite diner say to the server’s question “How was it?” – although after hearing this several times, I was ready to growl.) To make matters worse, the actual serving of the dishes was slow and mismanaged – so the bread came long after the salad (which to my mind didn’t have enough dressing or dressing with flavor, although the greens were good) and the coffee was going to come so long after the excellent desserts that we cancelled it. The menu – which came in three pieces also needed streamlining. We were dining to catch up with old friends, not to do some light or not-so-light reading.

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